Art and Design: Whats the Buzz from The New York Times

Museum & Gallery Listings for May 13-19

‘Gods and Mortals at Olympus,’ Right There on Fifth Avenue
In basement galleries of the Onassis Cultural Center, visitors can see ancient artifacts from the lower slopes of Mount Olympus.

Inside Art: Warhol Museum Is Adding Long-Sought ‘Do It Yourself (Sailboats)’
The Andy Warhol Museum has a wish list of pieces that it has always wanted for the collection. “Do It Yourself (Sailboats)” was one of them.

Art Review: Philip Guston’s About-Face, in a Bracing Show at Hauser & Wirth
This exhibition underlines how Guston’s move to abstraction set off a restless quest to find his way back to figural imagery.

At New York Botanical Garden, Time to Smell the Impressionists’ Roses
Visitors to “Impressionism: American Gardens on Canvas” can admire paintings of peonies, roses and zinnias alongside the real, fragrant, living things.

Art Review: Revisiting the Constructed Edens of Roberto Burle Marx
A survey of the Brazilian landscape architect, whose designs include the promenade along the Rio de Janeiro beachfront, is at the Jewish Museum.

One Artist’s Surprising, Powerful New Subject: 1,000 Dishcloths
For the pieces in her new show, “The Waves,” the artist Liza Lou was looking for imperfections.

Antiques: In Maritime Logbooks, a Trove of ‘Extraordinary’ Imagery
Dying whales and sailors’ burials at sea evoke “the age of sail” in 19th-century illustrations at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.

A Verona Museum’s Stolen Paintings Are Found in Ukraine
The paintings had been taken from the Castelvecchio Museum in November; in March, Italian officials announced that 12 people had been arrested.

Art Review: Richard Serra’s Steel Behemoths Get Into Your Head
The Gagosian Gallery’s two Chelsea display spaces host Mr. Serra’s new works: four large-scale steel sculptures and a drawing installation.

4 Turner Prize Nominees Are Announced
Michael Dean, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde are shortlisted for the prize, given to an artist under 50 who is either British or living in Britain.

Robust Bidding at Contemporary Art Auction Bolsters Sotheby’s
The sale raised $242.2 million with fees and sold 95 percent of the offerings, Sotheby’s highest rate since 2009.

Spotlight: Samya Arif, a Pakistani Artist Aiming to Go Beyond Ornamentation
A conversation with the Karachi-based artist Samya Arif, who finds inspiration in traditional Pakistani motifs and psychedelic art from the 1960s and 70s.

Building an Artist’s ‘Magic Mountains’ to Draw Visitors to the Desert
Ugo Rondinone’s new sculpture is like a high-art billboard for the Nevada Museum of Art’s particular ambitions.

Monterchi Journal: Italians Agree Fresco Is a Masterpiece, but All Else Is Up for Debate
For decades, there has been a dispute over how and where Piero della Francesca’s Madonna del Parto should be displayed, and even who owns it.

Building Blocks: An Imposing Building That Hums With Life-Saving Capacity
From its extraterrestrial presence to its security-state name, PSAC II, New York’s new emergency answering center, is not neighborly. But you’ll be glad it’s there.

Christie’s Finds Relief in Stable Prices, and a Basquiat Sale
The auction house’s postwar and contemporary art sale surpassed its low estimate, helped by a $57.3 million canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

A Rebellious Artist’s Psychedelic Rugs
Faig Ahmed is making waves with his unconventional take on traditional carpets.

Artist Behind Donald Trump Gravestone in Central Park Steps Forward
Brian Andrew Whiteley, a Brooklyn artist who received a visit this week from the police and the Secret Service, says his project was “100 percent worth it.”

New Museum Plans Expansion After Raising $43 Million
One of the smallest contemporary art museums in New York City will double its space as it prepares for its 40th anniversary.

Your New Home: Ready to See Now, via Virtual Reality
New interior design tools help clients visualize how their redecorated homes will look.

Creative Capital Chooses Susan Delvalle as President and Executive Director
Ms. Delvalle will succeed Ruby Lerner in leading the group, known for applying the principles of venture capital to financing artists’ projects.

Sotheby’s Sales Weaken Amid Thinning Market
The auction house’s Impressionist and modern art sale finishes far below its low estimate after a night of patchy bidding.

Zaha Hadid Show in Venice Will Celebrate Architect’s Career
The exhibition, to coincide with the city’s Architecture Biennale, will be the first retrospective of the Iraqi-born Briton’s work since her death in March at 65.

Sotheby’s Posts First-Quarter Loss Amid Tumult
The loss comes while risks and reorganization taken by the company’s new executive are being watched closely.

Christie’s Sale Opens Spring Auction Season Amid Predictions of a Softening
After several years of blockbuster sales, the art world saw the Christie’s sale as a bellwether for what some are calling a more muted season.

Review: In ‘Fly by Night,’ Pigeons Light Up the Brooklyn Navy Yard
The weather cooperated as 2,000 birds trained by the artist Duke Riley captivated onlookers during this performance.

Harold Cohen, a Pioneer of Computer-Generated Art, Dies at 87
Mr. Cohen, an abstract painter, developed Aaron, a software program that learned to create art in a manner similar to freehand drawing.

Miniacs Live in a Small, Small World
A new generation of artisans and collectors is focused on tiny items — wee Chanel purses and itty-bitty cereal boxes — that may adorn modern-day dollhouses.

ArtsBeat: Huang Yong Ping Brings ‘Empires’ of Globalization to Paris
The Chinese-French conceptual artist will bring a series of works to the Paris Monumenta art show, which begins on Sunday and runs through June 18.

Anne Frank’s Copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales Bought by American Museum
The Museum of World War II will add this inscribed Frank book to its Holocaust collection.

A Conversation With Nicole Eisenman and Grace Dunham
One of the leading figurative painters of her generation, Ms. Eisenman has introduced the pictorial equivalent of an “ugh” into contemporary art.

A Crush of Headline Auctions in New York
But the hype that always accompanies these sales of contemporary, modern and Impressionist works comes as the top end of the market is contracting.

Museum & Gallery Listings for May 6-12

City of Science, Bending Minds and Matter in Its Debut at Lehman College
This event will feature around two dozen exhibits that illustrate the laws of physics and other scientific constructs in entertaining ways.

Art Review: NADA Art Fair Offers the Wacky and the Political, Plus Basketball
This art fair’s takeover of Basketball City includes three-on-three action.

Art Review: 4 Non-Frieze Art Fairs to Explore This Weekend
There is plenty of art to see at fairs across New York City.

Art Review: Frieze New York, a Visual Circus Under the Big Top
This art fair’s main value is shining light on unfamiliar galleries and art we might not otherwise see.

Informed by Travel, Sigmar Polke Painted Playful Journeys
A show at David Zwirner focuses on the works he made after he spent 1980 wandering the world.

Friday File: When Castro Put Out the Welcome Mat for Americans in 1959
The Times quoted Fidel Castro that January as inviting tourists and businessmen to a society where “freedom and democracy are a reality.”

Antiques: Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins
From wine fermentation residue to plant tissue, scholars are delving into the materials used to fashion the ink for ancient manuscripts.

Touring the East Village’s Incubator of Experimentation
Performance Space 122, a center of arts innovation, is offering a mobile tour of sites related to creative performance in the neighborhood.

Julian Schnabel Moves to Pace Gallery From Gagosian
The artist has returned to Pace, where he spent 20 years before leaving for Gagosian in 2002.

National Design Awards Announced
Winners were chosen in categories including architecture and product and landscape design.

Art Review: Review: At the Costume Institute, Couture Meets Technology
“Manus x Machina” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art looks at how fashion and tech-savvy design go hand in hand.

The Art of Collecting: In Amsterdam, Interior Design Gets a Centennial Splash
An exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum focuses on a little-known aspect of the Amsterdam School of design.

A Design Fair to Remember
Sight Unseen Offsite is making its mark as the destination for undiscovered designers.

Fernando Mastrangelo: Getting Granular
The Brooklyn artist makes furniture from grainy materials — even when they’re edible.

A Pop-Up Design Storefront
For his first installation in New York, Lee Broom is opening a monthlong show called “Broom off Broome,” where every piece is for sale.

More Is More
During the cross-disciplinary festival known as NYCxDesign, new furnishings and products will be on display all over New York City. Here is a sampling.

A Gallery Show That Questions Art Fairs, Just in Time for Frieze Week
Eric Fischl’s “Rift Raft,” on view at Skarstedt, holds a mirror up to the self-absorptive properties of showing and selling art under the tent.

Local Designs, Served Fresh
A demand for artisanal products is boosting the career of your neighborhood designer.

Housewares: The Birds and the Bugs
For Anabela Chan, the London-based jewelry designer, collecting exotic butterflies, beetles and taxidermy birds has been an obsession since she was a teenager.

The Story of a Thing: One Frieze Artist’s Special Relationship With His Retainers
For this year’s Frieze art fair, David Horvitz has hired a professional pickpocket to work in reverse, depositing sculptures into fairgoers’ pockets.