In its September issue, Art+Auction compiled a list of the 25 most collectible midcareer artists working today. This month, ARTINFO will publish one installment from the feature per day. Click here to read Art+Auction editor-in-chief Eric Bryant’s introduction to the list.

McArthur Binion  |  B. 1946  |  United States

Collector Dennis Scholl first encountered collages by the Mississippi-born, Chicago-based abstract conceptualist at Kavi Gupta’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2013. “I was captivated by the overlay of translucent colored wax on pages from his personal phone book from his time in New York in the 1970s, which contained the numbers of Brice Marden and Martin Puryear, among others,” says Scholl. With its blend of autobiography and form, Binion’s multifaceted practice draws on his roots as an African-American growing up in the Deep South; his rigorous training at Cranbrook Academy of Art, from which he received an MFA in 1973; and the solace he found in the gritty New York art scene of four decades ago. While Binion enjoyed a modicum of success in the ’70s and ’80s, with works purchased by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his collector base was largely limited to the Chicago area until an early 2012 exhibition, “Perspectives 177,” at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. There, says curator Valerie Cassel Oliver, his work drew the attention of Chicago gallerist Kavi Gupta and Mary Sabbatino of New York’s Galerie Lelong, which is presenting a show of 20 new collages from Binion’s “DNA” and “Self-portrait” series, running September 10 through October 17. The works sell in the $25,000-to-$80,000 range.  

“Time Out of Mind,” IFC Center, opens September 9

The premise of this film is pretty simple and it’s basically all you really need to know to go and see it: Richard Gere plays a homeless guy on the streets of New York. Based on his comments last year at the New York Film Festival, he actually spent a lot of time “getting into character,” which is confirmed by this tabloid story that came out during the film’s shooting. It’s a different kind of role for Mr. American Gigolo, and he does a decent job stumbling through the blank canvas of the movie. The camera often catches Gere’s character from far away, dwarfing him into the surrounding chaos of New York City, and is a little heavy-handed at times in its penchant for realism. That said, the film, directed by Oren Moverman, is attempting something, even if it doesn’t always succeed, which is better than most. Also, Ben Vereen completely steals the movie as Gere’s homeless friend, and deserves a film of his own.

“The Glass Shield,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 8

This police drama from Charles Burnett (“Killer of Sheep,” “To Sleep With Anger”) is as pertinent today as it was when it was made in 1994. Michael Boatman stars as an African-American detective assigned to an all-white unit in Los Angeles; his only confident is a female detective (Lori Petty), with whom he quickly bonds. Eager to please, he begins his time there allowing the other officers to berate him and turns away when he sees corruption, telling his friends who question his job that he is a “peace officer.” But when’s he involved in the unlawful arrest of a man (Ice Cube) who is then pinned with a murder charge, the young officer begins to fight against the structural racism of the LAPD. Burnett’s film is screening as part of BAM’s “Set It Off: LA Hip-Hop on Film,” a series that runs through September 8.

“Cooley High,” Museum of the Moving Image, September 13

A 40th anniversary screening of “Cooley High” is part of a celebration at the Museum of the Moving of Michael Schultz, an underappreciated director whose status is partly due to his diverse and often low-budget, genre-zig-zagging work. “Cooley High” was made for American International Pictures and mixes coming-of-age teen hijinks — chasing girls, skipping class — with social commentary on the treatment of black youth in Chicago. It’s easy to see how the it set the template for a lot of what followed on film, even if some of the jokes, four decades later, are difficult to relate to. Schultz went on to work with Richard Pryor and many others, but never made a film as beloved as “Cooley High.”

“An Evening with the Safdie Brothers,” Film Society of Lincoln Center, September 9

This is a double-feature, folks, and one that might be a bit of a bummer: the Safdie Brothers will present their awesome bit of magical-hobo-realism “Heaven Knows What,” which I saw last year and loved but disturbed me so much I don’t know if I can ever see it again. The filmmaking bros will also present Jerry Schatzberg’s junkie-drama “The Panic in Needle Park,” starring Al Pacino and written by Joan Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Additionally, the brothers have an exhibition opening at Fort Gansevoort Gallery this week that is worth checking out.

“The State of Things,” IFC Center, September 11-13

I’ve already written about how much I enjoyed this movie, and now, if you live in New York, you can see it. The film is screening as part of the IFC Center’s big Wim Wenders retrospective, and is premiering as a new 4K digital restoration (a few months ago I had to watch a film print like an old fuddy duddy). 

London’s Whitechapel Gallery has launched the first of four chronological displays highlighting works from the Barjeel Art Foundation’s diverse and extensive collection of art from the Arab region. Featuring 100 works of art by more than 60 artists from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and elsewhere, the series of displays tell the story of Arab art from the modern to the contemporary.

The Barjeel Art Foundation was established in 2010 to manage, preserve, and exhibit the personal art collection of Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi. Comprising a wide variety of works dating from the 1900s to the present day, the Barjeel Art Foundation’s collection is one of the world’s most extensive collections of art from the Arab Region.

Curated by Omar Kholeif, Curator, Whitechapel Gallery in conjunction with Candy Stobbs, Assistant Curator, Whitechapel Gallery, the series of exhibitions explore four different themes which “examine ways of defining Arab art from its early modernist beginnings and geographies,” according to the Whitechapel Gallery.  

The first exhibition, on show from September 8, explores the emergence and development of an Arab art aesthetic through paintings and drawings from the early 20th century to 1967. Highlights include Ervand Demirdjian’s “Nubian Girl” (circa 1900-10), Kadhim Hayder’s “Fatigued Ten Horses Converse with Nothing (The Martyrs Epic)” (1965), and Hamed Ewais’s “Le Guardien de la vie (1967-8)”

The second display (December 15, 2015 –April 17, 2016) focuses on figurative works of art produced between 1968 and 1987; the third display (April 26 –August 14, 2016) showcases photography and video works made between 1990 – 98; while the fourth display (August 23, 2016 –January 8, 2017) explores the different ways that artists engage with the cities where they live or work.

Barjeel Art Foundation Collection: Imperfect Chronology – Debating Modernism I is at Whitechapel in London from 8 September–6 December 2015

Click the slideshow to see a selection of works from the series of exhibitions.

The Macmillan Cancer Support and De’Longhi have joined forces to launch a groundbreaking new fundraising initiative that offers collectors the opportunity to acquire an element of a single major artwork by a famous artist that has been broken down into numerous components.

The “Shared” project features contributions by the likes of Richard Wilson, Bouke de Vries, Idris Khan, Richard Wentworth, Liz Rideal, Humphrey Ocean, Annie Morris, Alastair Mackie, and Stephen Chambers who were invited to create works on the basis that they would be broken up and sold in parts.

Proceeds from all sales will help fund Macmillan Cancer Support’s “Not Alone” campaign which is working to support the 2.5 million people in the UK living with cancer to ensure no one faces cancer alone.

The “broken” works will be showcased and available to buy from September 10-13 during a free exhibition at Somerset House which has been produced in collaboration with the independent curator Kathleen Soriano, Director of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Highlights include a site specific installation by Richard Wentworth, a set of prints by Humphrey Ocean, a photographic installation by Bouke de Vrie, and one of Liz Rideal’s photo booths which will enable visitors to be a part of, and also acquire an element of, a collaborative montage.

Kathleen Soriano, curator of the exhibition, says: “This exhibition is timely in its unusual approach to co-ownership in a world where contemporary art regularly breaks new price records at auction, seeming to be only for the few.”

“SHARED has been developed with a view to challenging artists to think outside of their normal practice and to be inventive in considering how their own work might support such a concept, whilst at the same time chiming with Macmillan’s attitude to care and support.”

Richard Wilson says:  “The miracle of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes played out through a contemporary art charity exhibition. Great idea to take one work and distribute it to some, with all the possibility of a future reuniting as a special occasion.

“It’s exciting to be involved with unusual ideas when it comes to charity fundraising initiatives with a twist.”

For more information visit the project website here.

Click the slideshow to see a selection of the works from the exhibition.

— Kapoor Sculpture Vandalized With Anti-Semitism: For the second time, Anish Kapoor’s Versailles sculpture, “Dirty Corner” (the one he characterized as the “vagina of the queen taking power”), has been vandalized — this time, with anti-Semitic slurs, an act France’s culture minister Fleur Pellerin called “ignominious.” Fabrice Bousteau, editor-in-chief of Beaux Arts magazine, commented on the event’s similarities to the vandalism of Daniel Buren’s columns in the 1980s: “There is a minor faction of the French population that is fascist about culture and especially about what it considers to be degenerate art,” he said. “Most French people are respectful of contemporary art, but these people see it as an expression of France’s degeneration.” Kapoor, meanwhile, may well leave the inscriptions in place: “I think I have made the decision to leave, or I am in the middle of making the decision once I can extricate myself sufficiently from it, to leave the graffiti as part of the work,” the artist said in a radio interview. “It is vile, so to turn what I hoped always was an act of affirmation as a work of art into something else, into a kind of lament to a state of intolerance.” [Independent, Guardian, NYT, WP, BBC, TAN]

— Taubman’s DIA Loans Head to Auction: Following the $800 million “Grand Bargain” that saved the Detroit Institute of Arts collection from being dispersed, seven of the museum’s Baroque paintings will head to auction in November and one in January as part of the much-touted collection of A. Alfred Taubman. The works were all loans to the DIA from Taubman, the shopping-mall tycoon who died in April, and was a DIA board member and former chair of Sotheby’s. Estimated at more than $500 million, the Sotheby’s sale proceeds will go to settle the estate taxes and fund his private foundation. “It’s a great loss that Taubman didn’t leave some of his collection to the museum — at least, the pictures he loaned the DIA,” said R. Ward Bissell, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, specializing in Italian Baroque. “It’s certainly unfortunate and unexpected.” [Detroit News, NYT]

— Frank Stella Gets a Whitney Retrospective: A Frank Stella retrospective will inaugurate the Whitney’s new space in Chelsea. “It’s an accident,” Stella said, when asked about his show. “I’m old. I’m not controversial anymore.” Whitney director Adam Weinberg will curate the show, which opens on October 30. The two have known each other since Weinberg’s days directing the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy Andover, the prep school where the artist remains an active alumnus. “We have a very good relationship,” Weinberg said. “He pushes me, and I try to push him back.” [NYT]

— Iranian Cartoonist Faces More Jail Time: Atena Farghadani, the Iranian cartoonist who was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison for drawing a cartoon of parliament members with animal heads, may now have her sentence extended because she shook hands with her lawyer, thereby provoking “charges of an ‘illegitimate sexual relationship short of adultery’ and ‘indecent conduct,’” according to a statement by Amnesty International. [TAN]

— Houellebecq Admits (Probable) Islamophobia:“A provocateur is someone who goes too far just to get on people’s nerves. A good provocateur knows who he’s going to shock. I’m absolutely incapable of predicting that. It’s always a surprise every time,” said Michel Houellebecq in this lengthy interview, in which he also concedes that he is “probably, yes,” Islamophobic. [Guardian]

— The Downside of Hi-tech Museum Displays:“The time and psychic energy I spent coping with today’s glitchy gizmos could have been more rewardingly devoted to quiet contemplation of the objects themselves,” writes Lee Rosenbaum in this piece about museums’ sometimes awkward first forays into gadget-happy presentations meant to foster audience engagement. [WSJ]

— Holland Cotter looks ahead to the fall season, where “moral force trumps market forces.” [NYT]

— Peter Fischer, director of the Paul Klee Center in Bern, Switzerland, will step down in February 2016. The departure coincides with the Center’s partnership with the Kunstmuseum Bern. [Artnet, Artfourm]

— Serpentine Gallery co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist has won the 2015 International Folkwang Prize, which cashes in for around $28,000. [Artforum, Artnet]

Marian Goodman Gallery Paris is showcasing the work of the celebrated American conceptual artist Dan Graham who is best known for creating large-scale architectural pavilions that incorporate mirrors and glass. “I want to show that our bodies are bound to the world whether we like it or not,” Graham explains.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a new pavilion titled “Passage Intime” which comprises two curved screens of stainless steel and two-way mirrors. According to Graham, the work can either be seen as a claustrophobic and uncomfortable spatial experience or an intimate body moment. “’Passage Intime’ can be seen as either a Tunnel of Love or as frightening tight squeeze,” he says.

Visitors enter the work through concave gap between the two partitions, inducing brief physical contact when two or more people enter at the same time. People inside the “passage” see a distorted and radically enlarged reflection of their gaze and body, similar to the effect of a bathroom make-up mirror, while people on the outside see a convex distortion of their gaze and body.

“As they move the distortion changes,” says Graham. “People inside see optically concave mirror distortions and people outside the passage experience each other's intersubjective gazes superimposed on each other. Their bodies, in motion, are super-imposed on each other,” he adds.

The exhibition also includes the first screening in France of Graham’s multimedia puppet-theater rock-opera “Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty.” Based on the 1968 exploitation film “Wild in the Streets,” the work features marionettes by Phillip Huber, a set by Laurent Bergen, videos by artist Tony Oursler, a theme tune composed by Rodney Graham, and live music by Japanther.

“Dan Graham” is at Marian Goodman Gallery Paris until October 8, 2015

Described as being "surrounded by breathtaking peaks and valleys while being nestled in one of the most exclusive Alpine hot spots,” the newly-launched Bentley Lodge Kitzbühel in Austria is now available for private bookings.

The building, originally a forester's lodge built in 1919, is a fully serviced and luxuriously furnished chalet that is sited at the base of the Hahnenkamm, where the world’s most demanding alpine ski race takes place annually. Decor and interior accents are made of the same materials and finishes that characterize the car interiors of Bentley cars, such as traditional Tyrolean stone pine wood and natural stone from the Upper Tauern region.

Meanwhile, luxurious amenities include one of the latest Bentley models at the guests’ disposal at all times, as well as various bespoke activities and experiences, such as fishing, hunting, horseback riding, skiing, tennis, golf and spa treatments.

"The Bentley Lodge Kitzbühel has everything to become a class-of-its-own destination,” says Robert Engstler, regional director Europe at Bentley Motors.

Sotheby’s S2 Gallery in London is presenting an exhibition curated by globally-renowned fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and influential curator Jeffrey Deitch that celebrates the dialogue between fashion, music, and photography.

Titled “Rock Style,” the exhibition showcases iconic images of great 20^th century musicians who are also influential style innovators, including the likes of Little Richard, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Madonna who have been captured in wonderfully evocative images by leading music photographers of their era such as Janette Beckman, Bob Gruen, and Gene Shaw.

According to Sotheby’s, “Rock Style” documents a remarkable period in contemporary culture when fashion designers were primarily inspired by innovative musicians who established their own unique style, rarely working with professional stylists. “Musicians were more influential in the world of fashion than fashion designers,” says Tommy Hilfiger.

The exhibition also includes six specially commissioned paintings by the American artist and activist Shepard Fairey who has captured the style and character of the pioneering music and fashion figures David Bowie, George Harrison, Deborah Harry, Jimi Hendrix, Joey Ramone, and Sid Vicious.

Musicians featured in the exhibition include Little Richard, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, David Bowie, Elton John, Deborah Harry, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Madonna and Lenny Kravitz.

Photographers include Roberta Bayley, Janette Beckman, Bruce Davidson, Terence Donovan, James Fortune, Bob Gruen, David Hurn, Elliott Landy, Gered Mankowitz, Kevin Mazur, Ralph Morse, Terry O’Neill, Neal Preston, Mick Rock, Ethan Russell, Jerry Schatzberg, Gene Shaw, Alfred Wertheimer, and Baron Wolman.

“Rock Style” is at Sotheby’s S2 Gallery in London from 22nd September–30th October 2015