The New York Times reports that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is getting a $1 million award for its coming exhibition “The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities is the gift-giver and will fund the exhibition, which will display loaned objects from European and Japanese museums, as well as other American museums and private collections. Artists inlcuding Georgia O'Keeffe, Ezra Pound, Jack Kerouac and Yoko Ono will be featured. You can check out the 270 works starting Jan. 30 through April 19.

Parisian-born sculptor Louise Bourgeois’ life and career have been remarkable. Born in 1911, four years after Picasso painted Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, Bourgeois came of age during a time when “avant-garde” had yet to become the empty boast of PR men. Influenced by the murkier tangents of Surrealism, Ms. Bourgeois, who studied at the École du Louvre and was Fernand Léger’s assistant before coming to the United States in 1938, pursues a fetishistic form of sculpture that touches upon childhood fantasy and bodily decrepitude. A couple of Ms.  read more »

The recent Louis Vuitton party celebrating the final day of Richard Prince’s exhibition at the Guggenheim was, by all accounts, well-attended. Arguably, one of the main draws was the opportunity to pre-order those spring collection bags Mr. Prince designed with the French impedimenta-maker. Denise Rich, Helen Schifter and Lizzie Tisch were reportedly among the guests lining up to nab ones of their own.

Some guests apparently did find the whole thing a little odd, according to Fashion Week Daily. Artist Todd Eberle, for one, said: “A Louis Vuitton promotion at the Guggenheim? It's the end of the world!”  read more »

To celebrate the closing of artist Richard Prince’s “Spiritual America” exhibit at the Guggenheim next Tuesday, Louis Vuitton will host a farewell fete that night. According to WWD, models bedecked in nurses’ outfits designed by the French fashion label will wander around the party space.

But it’s not the lovely ladies’ medical-minded fantasy costumes that will attract the most attention. Instead of mini crab cakes and blinis, the models will be toting the new, limited-edition handbags Mr. Prince designed—in collaboration with Louis Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs—for the haute impedimenta maker. (Mr. Prince reportedly also came up with the concept for L.V.’s Spring-Summer 2008 campaign.) The purses, which are expected to be the most sought-after handbags since “consumers ever uttered the name Murakami," officially go on sale February 1. Guests at the party, however, will have the chance to preorder at the event.

Restitution strikes again! The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation are currently in court battling a German scholar who claims their Picasso paintings were rightfully owned by his Jewish great uncle, who was persecuted in Nazi Germany.

The Associated Press reports:  read more »

The government of Abu Dhabi will oversee acquisitions and commissions for the new Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum in the United Arab Emirates, according to The New York Times. New York professionals will make recommendations.