Rick Moody. (Courtesy Patrick McMullan Company)

During Frieze New York, VIPs given access to the fair's courtesy BMWs had a chance to hear a sound piece by Rick Moody called The Undependable Global Positioning System inside the fair which is pretty much what its title suggests: a robotic voice—similar to one that would provide directions on a GPS system—reciting the text of Mr. Moody’s story of the same name, which features rather unreliable navigational aids.

The work imagines what would happen if a GPS system had human flaws: the UGPS is not only spatially lost but existentially lost as well. Moreover, Mr. Moody’s humorous work bemoans the condition of our “rushed digital life” in which the experience of being lost is, well, being lost. The project is still in development, but right now it has its own website, which features a preview of an application that might become a more elaborate UGPS.

As part of Frieze's discussion series, Mr. Moody led a mock investor meeting during which he read part of the story—referred to as a prospectus—and asked the audience for funding. We caught up with him after the event.

Gallerist: As a writer, to what extent do you feel that writing a piece that doesn’t exclusively exist on the page is a different experience?

RM: Well, I’ve done a lot of stuff in the past few years where I try to find alternative distributions mechanisms. For example, I had a story that existed only on Twitter in its first incarnation. And I’m trying—in fact, I’m making a story right now that exists only as status updates by a fictional character on Facebook, although nobody knows he’s fictional. So this presented itself as a new way to think about distribution. As far as the audio part goes, I’ve dabbled in radio, so there’s often been an audio component to what I do. And the idea that it would be best expressed not in my voice but in this robot voice doesn’t seem that far from radio plays and things like that, so I was already thinking on that axis. But I was just trying to find another way to contextualize the whole thing, meaning here at the fair, and with this sort of mock digital interface of the whole thing.

Gallerist: Is this passion of yours, for finding new mediums for projecting your work, something that you feel is in response to, perhaps, a decline in interest in literature as such?

RM: I don’t really think there’s a decline in literature. There’s competition for literature among other media, but the people who still read, still read passionately and I’m one of them, so I feel like, if they decided that we were somehow an outlaw form and there was no purpose for us we would bubble back up through the intense devotion of those of us who give a shit.

Gallerist: Amen.

RM: So I’m not worried about that part, it’s more that what I’ve done is in part a description of what I see happening around me in the kind of rushed digital life, and also an attempt to push the form of literature out of the rigid binding of book covers, if only as an experiment. I mean, I love books first and foremost—that’s what I love—but fiction has always been a total magpie form, it’s always borrowing other things and incorporating those other forms into its ambition, that’s why Ulysses has excerpts from the newspaper in it, and that’s why William Gaddis’s novels have plays in them and all that kind of stuff. So borrowing from digital culture is just another way of trying to force fiction to see if it can function in a different shape. Like maybe it’s postmodern, maybe it’s modern but—

Gallerist: What’s the difference?

RM: Yeah—I still believe that we can do new things with the form and that it’s worth trying to do.

Gallerist: So then the thorny question would be: if form is content, when you were conceiving of this piece, which came first, the words or the—

RM: The idea—this was totally concept outward. ... You can occasionally have the concept first and then build the language around it. For me there always has to be a narrative element or I’m not interested exactly, so it’s one thing to sit in the car as we did one day and say, “What would happen if there were an undependable global positioning system?” And then another thing entirely to try and create a kind of narrative framework for it—it didn’t exist to me until the text existed.

Gallerist: A place like Frieze: art fairs are generally considered to be industry events where huge sums of money are exchanged for art objects. I was covering the Pulse fair and I saw work by this artist Sharka Hyland made of excerpts of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary printed on pieces of paper, and they were selling for about $1,200 a pop. How do you feel about art as commerce and this place of commerce, and your place in it as an artist?

RM: I cannot in good conscious say that the feeling of it is entirely comfortable; however, at the end of the day if it means that more people are interested in art that doesn’t strike me as horrible, in the same way that the Twilight books drive Hachette Book Group right now, which also publishes me: I don’t care if people love those books—they’re reading and maybe if they begin reading and develop the habit of reading, they’ll read something more challenging. And in the same way—yes, it’s true capitalism is horrible, we’re all slaves to it, it’s rapacious, and the same is true in the art world as in every other American business or international business, but at the same time it’s that very capitalism that makes possible the Frieze Projects. So occasionally capitalism also has that paradoxical ability to make something that’s not totally loathsome.

Gallerist: Can you give us some sort of idea what that computer program might look like when it’s finished?

RM: I can’t really because we’re sort of making it up as we go along, and the tongue-in-cheek part is absolutely essential to the whole thing for me, so I could conceivably tear the whole thing down tomorrow, and we’d do none of it. Or maybe some brilliant idea will come to Greg [Cole] and me who’ve been working on it, and it will persist. But it’s precisely its ramshackle, improvised-as-we’re-going-along quality that makes it the antithesis of a well-made corporate object, and that is its purpose.

Gallerist: How have you found working in a group creating the project? How does it compare to sitting at a desk and writing?

RM: Part of the attraction of this was the collaborative aspect of it. That’s the reason to do it. As I’m sure you know, the writing part can often be lonely, so that’s why I play music too: it gets me out of the house.

(Courtesy Friezenewyork.com)

In a letter that was sent to Deutsche Bank and several members of the press Thursday afternoon, the New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters, announced a labor dispute with Frieze Art Fair, the London fair that is preparing to open its inaugural year in New York on Randall's Island. Deutsche Bank is the fair's main sponsor.

The letter claims that Frieze Art Fair "and others like them... do not meet labor standards," using contractors who "do not pay the area standard wages to all their employees including providing or fully paying for health benefits and pension."

The letter to Deutsche Bank continues:

[W]e are asking that you use your managerial discretion to not allow these non area standard contractors to perform any work on any of your projects unless and until they generally meet area labor standards for all their carpentry craft work.

We want you to be aware that our new and aggressive public information campaign against FRIEZE ART INC.  will unfortunately impact all parties associated with projects where they are employed.  That campaign will include highly visible lawful banner displays and distribution of handbills at the jobsite and premises of property owners, developers, general contractors, and other firms involved with projects involving a non area standard contractor.  We certainly prefer to work cooperatively with all involved parties rather than to have an adversarial relationship with them but cannot sit idly by while these entities condone and/or support the non-area standards contractor.

Frieze Art Fair runs May 4-7. A phone call to the New York City District Council of Carpenters and an e-mail to Frieze have not yet been returned. We will update once we have heard anything.

[UPDATE 4/13/12 10:24am] A spokesperson for Frieze reached us by e-mail Friday morning with the following statement:

Frieze is aware of the letter sent by the New York City District Council of Carpenters and would like to reassure everyone that we are not in a labor dispute with them or any other collective bargaining organization. Frieze has a track record of producing high-quality art fairs and has contracted reputable local vendors with the appropriate skills and experience to prepare the Randall’s Island site for the upcoming art fair. In our inaugural edition of Frieze New York, we aim to make a positive cultural and economic contribution to the City by creating the best art fair experience for our participating galleries and the public.

More calls to the New York City District Council of Carpenters were not returned as of this writing, but the organization did send out photos of a picket line at the American headquarters of Deutsche Bank at 60 Wall Street.

Randall's Island from above. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Last week, we reported that the Frieze Art Fair had selected Tom Eccles, director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, to curate a sculpture park at its inaugural New York edition, on Randall’s Island, in May. Mr. Eccles has shared some details. The park will “represent a wide range of sculptural methodologies used today,” he said, adding that a number of works are being made specifically for it. He revealed that among the pieces will be an interactive installation from Tomas Saraceno, a new work by Cerith Wyn Evans that will involve fireworks and a sound piece by Susan Philipsz, as well as new works by Ryan Gander and Martin Creed and an existing hanging artwork by the late Louise Bourgeois.

A screenshot of the Carnegie International's blog. (Courtesy CI)

"I probably can't persuade you to drop everything, including 300 or so bucks on transportation, and spend an afternoon in Pittsburgh, but maybe I can make you feel bad about not doing so," critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote back in 1988, reviewing the Carnegie International, the grand survey of contemporary art founded back in 1896 by Andrew Carnegie that used to run every three years and now comes about every five.

Sadly, the next edition is still more than a year away, but its curators (Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers and Tina Kukielski) and curatorial assistants (Amanda Donnan and Jen Lue) have been maintaining a blog for the past few months, and it provides a rather wonderful look at the show and their goings-on—and there's no $300 outlay required to view it. (Thank you to Frieze's Twitter for pointing to the site this morning.)

The contributors started back in September with a brief history of the exhibition that includes a choice selection of pictures from previous exhibitions, including the members of the 1955 jury hard at work discussing the art and writing their scores on a blackboard. Since then, the blog has reported from a symposium on building art institutions in Africa from Dakar, covered pizza parties/art talks in Steel City and discussed a recently discovered box of letters from artist James Lee Byars to the Carnegie's director back in the mid 1960s.

Exciting stuff. Take a look here.

Scene from the Armory. (Courtesy Artfacts.net)

Ah, art fairs. Otherwise known as "hell." The Armory Show exhibitor list is a little smaller than last year, though still massive, and a reminder of just how littered with art fairs New York will be this spring. The big names are Armory Contemporary and Modern, the ADAA Art Show and Frieze New York. Let's crunch the numbers a bit, shall we?

The big question that arose when it was announced that London's Frieze would come to New York was what that would mean for New York's larger, older Armory Show, which takes up the massive piers 92 and 94 on the West Side Highway. There's some overlap between the two, with New York galleries like Andrew Kreps and Marianne Boesky buying booths at both. The Armory, however, lost some smaller names (with great programs) to Frieze, like James Fuentes and Canada, who both showed in the contemporary portion at Armory in 2011.

The smaller ADAA Art Show, which coincides with the Armory every March, features a lot of galleries doing either Frieze or the Armory, and in the case of David Zwirner, all three. It was already noted when we broke the news of the Armory's exhibitor list this morning that Mr. Zwirner opted out of the fair in 2011; he's returning this year. Marianne Goodman is doing Frieze and ADAA, Peter Blum is doing Armory and ADAA, Marlborough Gallery is doing both Armory Contemporary and Modern and Elizabeth Dee is just doing Frieze. But don't forget Ms. Dee's Independent Art Fair held at the old Dia building in Chelsea! It's happening in March and features some great galleries, like Jack Hanley (also doing Frieze), Andrew Kreps (who we already mentioned is doing Armory and Frieze) and David Kordansky (a Frieze man, as it were).

Phew. Did you get all that? Frankly, our head hurts.

Also there's NADA, who will be holding their own fair in May, likely coinciding with Frieze. The exhibitor list hasn't been released yet so we won't speculate--but we know for sure that if you want to reach us between March and May, we'll probably be too busy running around to art fairs to pay attention to you. Sorry!

The piers. (Armory Show)

Yesterday, the Armory Show, New York's 14-year-old annual contemporary art fair, held every March on two piers on the West Side, announced that, as in years past, it would do its annual fundraiser with the Museum of Modern Art. But, as many art world observers noted, there was something missing: the fair had not yet released an exhibitor list. Last year, the list was released on Jan. 11.

The exhibitor list was released to The Observer this morning; it will be made public midday today.

The list, which can be seen in full below, and which covers both Pier 94 (the contemporary art section) and Pier 92 (for modern art) has been reduced by 25 percent, to around 220 from last year's 274 and that, said fair director Noah Horowitz in a telephone interview this morning, was a conscious choice. He said the aim, with the new design by Brooklyn-based architects Bade Stageberg Cox, was to give the event the feel of "a boutique fair." (In fact, the Armory has been facing competition in recent years from the Art Show, the annual fair put on concurrently with the Armory by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) and a fair that has a boutique environment by virtue of its space limitations in the Seventh Regiment Armory building on the Upper East Side.)

As can be seen from the list below, the Armory has, predictably, lost some exhibitors to London's 10-year-old Frieze fair, which makes its New York debut on Randall's Island in May. Mr. Horowitz attributed this to loyalty that galleries  have shown to the that fair over the years.

But the Armory has at least one big name back on its roster: New York dealer David Zwirner. Last year, critics of the fair pointed out that it had lost two heavy hitters in Zwirner and the Pace Gallery. Mr. Zwirner, who is also exhibiting in the ADAA's Art Show and Frieze, came back on board, Mr. Horowitz said, after multiple discussions with him. (In this regard, Mr. Horowitz's former position as director of the online VIP Art Fair seems to have helped him break the ice with dealers.) "We've improved outreach to exhibitors who dropped out," said Mr. Horowitz, who added that he made the argument to Mr. Zwirner that his presence at the Armory, where he will exhibit a new site-specific installation by artist Michael Riedel,  would be "complementary" to his display uptown at the Art Show. "It will be a knockout place to show primary work," Mr. Horowitz said he told Mr. Zwirner, referring to the segment of the art market that encompasses fresh-from-the-studio work by artists, as opposed to "secondary market," meaning resale or historical pieces.

Mr. Horowitz has also brought back on board Sprüth Magers, the London-  and Berlin-based gallery that dropped out of the fair over five years ago, and that has since participated in the Independent fair.

Generally, change is afoot at the Armory Show. Booths are bigger, Mr. Horowitz said. Also, there is a clearer floor plan, more social space, better VIP services (including a VIP lounge twice the size as previous years), a proper sit-down restaurant as well as two coffee bar cafes (food services on the piers have been a major source of complaint) and a dedicated space for panel discussions. At the first meeting with the Armory Show, the architects, Mr. Horowitz said, "brought with them the floor plans of every major art fair in the world. They did their homework." If it is competition from other fairs that has brought about major improvements at New York's hometown event—competition not just from Frieze and ADAA's Art Show, but also from the Independent, which runs concurrently with the Armory and has absorbed some of its younger dealers—all the better for the beneficiaries of those improvements: collectors, dealers and the art-interested public.

"Come April, people will reflect and say that the Armory Show is back on track," Mr. Horowitz said. "I'm optimistic that it will be a success."

The Armory Show runs March 8-11, 2012.

Pier 94 -- Contemporary

AMBACH & RICE, Los Angeles

Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm

Angles Gallery, Los Angeles

Baró Galeria, São Paulo

Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin

BISCHOFF/WEISS, London

BLAIN|SOUTHERN, London

Peter Blum, New York

Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo

Cardi Black Box, Milan

Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Le Moulin

Corkin Gallery, Toronto

Pilar Corrias Gallery, London

Corvi-Mora, London

CRG Gallery, New York

Galerie Crone, Berlin

Massimo De Carlo, Milan

Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris

Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris

Dirimart, Istanbul

Durham Press, Durham

Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin

Eleven Rivington, New York

Derek Eller Gallery, New York

Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Zach Feuer Gallery, New York

Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki

Fredericks & Freiser, New York

Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris

González y González, Santiago

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York

Greene Naftali, New York

Kavi Gupta, Chicago

Haines Gallery, San Francisco

Hales Gallery, London

Hamish Morrison Galerie, Berlin

Leila Heller Gallery/JAMM, New York, London, Kuwait

Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica

Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

Galerie Hussenot, Paris

Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh

Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin

JGM. Galerie, Paris

Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo

Kalfayan Galleries, Athens

Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna

mike karstens, Münster

Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

Kerlin Gallery, Dublin

Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt

Klosterfelde, Berlin

Leo Koenig Inc., New York

Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles

Ai Kowada Gallery x hiromiyoshii, Tokyo

Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna

Kukje Gallery/Tina Kim Gallery, Seoul, New York

Josh Lilley, London

Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires

Lisson Gallery, London

Loevenbruck, Paris

Loock Galerie, Berlin

Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam

Marlborough Chelsea, New York

Mendes Wood, São Paulo

Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

Victoria Miro, London

Mixografia, Los Angeles

moniquemeloche, Chicago

MONITOR, Rome

Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna

Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, New York

Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles

Carolina Nitsch, New York

Nyehaus / Loretta Howard Gallery, New York

Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris

ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul

Galleria Lorcan O'Neill, Rome

Other Criteria, London

Parkett Publishers, New York

Pi Artworks, Istanbul

Pierogi, Brooklyn

P K M Gallery, Seoul

Poligrafa, Barcelona

Praz-Delavallade, Paris

RAMPA, Istanbul

Ratio 3, San Francisco

Regina Gallery, Moscow

Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo

Rokeby, London

Mary Ryan Gallery, New York

Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin

Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

Galeria SENDA, Barcelona

Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf

Bruce Silverstein, New York

Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami

Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon

Sprüth Magers, Berlin

Starkwhite, Auckland

Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing

Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris

Two Palms, New York

Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore

Universal Limited Art Editions, Bay Shore

Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam

Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zurich

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City

Max Wigram Gallery, London

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, New York

Workplace Gallery, Gateshead

David Zwirner, New York

Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries

Galerie Anhava, Helsinki

Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen

Beaver Projects, Copenhagen

Gallery Niklas Belenius, Stockholm

Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen

Crystal, Stockholm

D.O.R., Oslo

Dortmund Bodega, Oslo

ELASTIC, Malmö

Fruit & Flower Deli, Stockholm

i8, Reykjavik

IMO, Copenhagen

Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm

Christian Larsen, Stockholm

NOPlace, Oslo

Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen

David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen

Galleri Christian Torp, Oslo

V1 Gallery, Copenhagen

Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries is sponsored by the ACE HOTEL NEW YORK.

Solo Projects

Galeria Lucia de la Puente, Lima: Sandra Gamarra

Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles / Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York: Patrick Jackson

Horton Gallery, New York: Wallace Whitney

KS Art, New York: Jocelyn Hobbie

Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto: Mike Bayne

On Stellar Rays, New York: Clifford Owens

SEVENTEEN, London: Kate Owens

TEAPOT, Cologne: Christian Eisenberger

Van Horn, Düsseldorf: Jan Albers / Wendy White

Winkleman Gallery, New York: Jennifer Dalton

Not-For-Profit Section

Art Dealers Association of Canada, Toronto

Art in General, New York

The Living Arts Museum, Reykjavik / Overgaden., Copenhagen

New Museum, New York

Whitechapel Gallery, London

Pier 92 -- Modern

Galerie A.L.F.A., Paris

Babcock Galleries, New York

James Barron Art, South Kent

Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York

Galerie Hervé Bize, Nancy

Jonathan Boos, Bloomfield Village

Browse & Darby, London

Simon Capstick-Dale Fine Art, New York

Chowaiki & Co., New York

Crane Kalman Gallery, London

Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto

Danese, New York

DC Moore Gallery, New York

DIE GALERIE, Frankfurt

Peter Findlay Gallery, New York

Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia

Forum Gallery, New York

Galleria d'Arte Maggiore G.A.M., Bologna

James Goodman Gallery, New York

HackelBury Fine Art, London

Hackett | Mill, San Francisco

Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago

Hill Gallery, Birmingham

Hirschl & Adler, New York

Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York

Vivian Horan Fine Art, New York

Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London

David Janis Gallery, New York

James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe

Robert Klein Gallery, Boston

David Klein Gallery, Birmingham

Alan Koppel Gallery, Chicago

LEVY Galerie, Hamburg

Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf

Marlborough Gallery, New York

McCormick Gallery/Vallarino Fine Art, Chicago, New York

Mireille Mosler, New York

Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte

Richard Norton Gallery, Chicago

O'Hara Gallery, Inc., New York

Oriol Galeria d'Art, Barcelona

Pace Prints, New York

Gerald Peters Gallery, New York

Galleria Repetto, Acqui Terme

Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York

Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin

Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles

Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York

Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York

Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo

Sicardi Gallery, Houston

Sims Reed, London

Spanierman Modern, New York

Springer & Winckler Galerie, Berlin

Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York

John Szoke Editions, New York

Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York

Tasende Gallery, La Jolla

Galerie Thomas, Munich

Leon Tovar Gallery, New York

Meredith Ward Fine Art, New York

Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm

Whitestone Gallery, Philadelphia

D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York

Amy Wolf Fine Art and Elrick-Manley Fine Art, New York

Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York

The Frieze Ice Cream Factory in Miami Beach. (Andrew Russeth)

"Have you been to Frieze?" a colleague asked us last week in the aisles of the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair.

Gallerist paused, confused. We knew about Art Basel Miami Beach, NADA, Seven, Art Miami, Pulse, Scope and about a dozen other art fairs. But we had no idea that London's Frieze Art Fair, which will open a New York edition in May, had set down roots in the city.

"The ice cream place," the woman said, snapping us out of our daze. It was, she explained, just a few blocks from the fair. Gallerist investigated. The ice cream was delicious: classic, crisp flavors like vanilla and sweet cream were on offer, alongside a bounty of edgier fare, like Jamaican Blue Mountain Chip and Almond Joy--"a coconut-lover's dream."

The next time you are at Art Basel Miami Beach, do not miss Frieze.

Patti Smith. (Photo courtesy Patrick McMullan Company)

Museum of Modern Art director Glenn Lowry explains the deal he struck with the High Museum, which will send six MoMA-sourced exhibitions down to Atlanta over the course of four years. He declined to discuss the financial arrangement, but said, "There is of course a considerable fee that the High is providing us." [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

60 Minutes investigates a new theory about the death of Vincent Van Gogh. [60 Minutes]

Reporting on Frieze, The Financial Times confirms that German painter Albert Oehlen just opened his last show with London dealer Thomas Dane, since he is moving over to Gagosian. [FT]

Here's Linda Yoblonsky's Scene & Herd recap of the activity at and surrounding the Frieze Art Fair. A sample: "Aitken greeted guests as if he were on fire, taking them around his two-story exhibition at Miro with an infectious enthusiasm...": [Artforum]

Louis Lang's Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. From the Seat of War, er, returns to the New York Historical Society after being restored and reframed. [NYT]

Carol Kino profiles Japanese artist Tabaimo, whose "danDAN" exhibition is on view at the James Cohan Gallery through October 29. [NYT]

Times film critic A.O. Scott spoke with Patti Smith, who has a show opening at the Wadsworth Atheneum on October 21. Said Ms. Smith, of her relation to some of her artistic heroes: "It’s not that I have low self-esteem. I feel magnified by these people. I had a very good conversation with Allen Ginsberg about this very thing. He was like me, in his own way. He felt that he walked with Blake and Whitman.” [T Magazine].

Sotheby's London will sell a drawing by Nat Tate, an artist that Abigail R. Esman notes never existed. [Forbes]

Tomas Saraceno's new exhibition in Berlin involves giant bubbles, exotic plants. [Reuters]

"Girl with Ice Cream Cone" (1963) by Wayne Thiebaud.

The Guggenheim plans a massive, black-and-white-themed Picasso show for next year, and Acquavella Galleries (whose Braque show we profiled in the paper this week) now represents Wayne Thiebaud. [Inside Art]

Protestors flew to London to protest at Sotheby's during yesterday's contemporary art auctions. The sale made $63 million, with a few paintings, including a £2 million Peter Doig, going unsold. [Bloomberg]

The Art Newspaper helpfully points out the dirtiest things at Frieze. New York's Ramiken Crucible gallery brought a semen-covered sculpture by Andra Ursuta. [The Art Newspaper]

Here's a video of The Guardian perusing Frieze. [Art Market Monitor]

Beatrice Gersh, a Los Angeles collector who helped to found the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art, has died at 87. [The Los Angeles Times]

The French government is investigating art dealer Guy Wildenstein on new charges that he may have hidden billions of euros around the world. Some experts believe that his fortune may stand at $5.5 billion. [Artfix Daily]

Roberta Smith on George Braque, "The Other Father of Cubism." [The New York Times]

Gary Nader, a Miami-based art dealer, is planning to open an auction house during Art Basel Miami Beach. Called Nader's, the house will hold four to five sales a year. Starting things out, on December 1, is a 112-lot art auction estimated to make $40 million.

That goofy artist who always makes the Post by painting nude women is now allowed to do so, but only at night. [Reuters]

The Times previews the Museum of Modern Art's annual film preservation festival. [The New York Times]