Oscar Niemeyer, Architect of Brasilia, Dead at 104

Oscar Niemeyer, the arch-modernist Brazilian architect, died of a respiratory infection on Wednesday, just days shy of his 105^th birthday. He had been hospitalized with several minor ailments in the year leading up to his death, but had continued work on numerous projects. The architect was influential in the development of Brazilian modernist architecture in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, which featured graceful, flowing forms in contrast to the more angular style of the time. Niemeyer began practicing architecture in Brazil in the late 1930s and spent most of his life there, except for a period of exile from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, during the country's rule by military dictatorship.

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Artes Mundi 5 Prize Goes to Teresa Margolles

Artes Mundi, an international art organization based in Cardiff, Wales, has awarded the Artes Mundi 5 International Art prize to Mexican artist Teresa Margolles. The panel of judges, made up of seven respected international curators and chaired by Tim Marlow (director of exhibitions at White Cube, London), chose Margolles from a short list of seven international artists to receive the $64,000 prize—the largest cash prize in the United Kingdom.
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Dallas Museum of Art Reattributes a Canvas to Inness

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has reattributed a painting, originally believed to be the work of Hudson Valley School artist Asher B. Durand and called In the Woods, to another 19th-century American landscape painter, George Inness. The museum has also renamed the painting Stream in the Mountain to better reflect Inness's titles for other works.
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Albright-Knox Plots Expansion

The Albright-Knox Gallery, in Buffalo, N.Y., has contracted Manhattan- and Oslo-based architecture, landscape and interior design collaborative Snøhetta to develop a long-term plan for growth.

The gallery was last expanded in 1962 and needs space for its large and ever-expanding modern and contemporary art collections. "We urgently need to examine how our existing space is used to display, store, and conserve the collection, and to optimize our facilities to provide an enhanced experience for our visitors," said board of directors president Leslie Zemsky, implying that the gallery will not build an extension in the near future. However, the Albright-Knox will consider an expansion as part of its long-term plan.
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