Art Outlook: 24 April

Some of the stories, debates and discussions we’ve spotted this week

Richard Wilson’s Slipstream is unveiled at Heathrow

On Wednesday, artist Richard Wilson’s 78 metre, 77 tonne sculpture Slipstream was unveiled in Heathrow’s Terminal 2. Made of aluminium, its shape is based on the tumbling movements of a Zivok Edge 540 stunt plane.

Artist in multi-million dollar forgery scandal flees to China

A 75-year-old artist Pei-Shen Qain has moved to China to avoid prosecution in the US for a $33million art fraud scheme. The artist is accused of forging works by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.

Steve McQueen returns to art

After turning down the opportunity to appear in the $100,000 Hugo Boss Art Prize, director-cum-artist Steve McQueen has returned to art making. His installation Ashes will be unveiled at Espace Louis Vuitton in Tokyo before travelling to Thomas Dane Gallery in London.

Jerry Saltz on MoMA’s frustrating Sigmar Polke retrospective

Jerry Saltz is unconvinced by the Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010’. Writing on Vulture, he described it as ‘that bitter thing: a show of a great artist with great work that fails to be great.’

Turkish artist Ali Kazma speaks out against government

Video artist Ali Kazma, who represented Turkey at the Venice Biennale in 2013, has published an online protest against Turkey’s government called ‘Something Rotten in the Republic of Turkey’. He is the latest in a string of Turkish arts professionals to speak out.

Richard Serra awarded Architectural League prize

Sculptor Richard Serra has been awarded the President’s medal from the Architectural League in New York. It is the first time the award, which recognises a body of work in architecture, urbanism, art or design, has been given to an artist.

Jonathan Jones on why sex is central to art

The Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones has hit back at ‘prudish’ critics who accused him of viewing the Renaissance as a ‘pornotopia’. In a blog post, he argued ‘Sex is a bomb that can free great art from the prism of the museum’.