A painting by a graffiti artist was among the official gifts to Barack Obama from David Cameron on his first trip to Washington as prime minister, reports the BBC. The work, Twenty First Century City, is by Ben Eine, said to be one of the PM's wife Samantha's favourite artists. The 39-year-old artist recently sprayed the entire alphabet on shop shutters in a London street.

Louise Bourgeois, the French-born American artist who gained fame only late in a long career, when her psychologically charged abstract sculptures, drawings and prints had a galvanizing effect on the work of younger artists, particularly women, died on Monday in Manhattan, where she lived. She was 98. Holland Cotter from the New York Times reports.

The 4th Artes Mundi Prize for contemporary art of £40,000 was awarded to Yael Bartana from Israel at National Museum Cardiff on Wednesday 19 May. Bartana was awarded the Prize for her work of the last five to eight years which has consistently stimulated thinking about the human condition and adds to our understanding of humanity.

Paul McCarthy shows for the first time a major new work, 'Pig Island', which fills over 100 square meters with a surreal anthology of the themes that have cropped up throughout his career. A treasure island in reverse, 'Pig Island' is a sculptural shipwreck in which pirates and their heroines throw themselves with abandon into wild revels. The exhibition at Palazzo Citterio, which is reopening after 25 years, also presents a wide selection of works from 1970 to 2010.

Already gathering ecstatic reviews, Sophie Fiennes' film about German artist Anselm Kiefer's alchemical creative processes and his hill studio estate at Barjac in the south of France, premiered this week out of competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

The next commission for the Fourth Plinth, 'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle', by leading Anglo-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare will be unveiled in Trafalgar Square on the morning of Monday 24 May 2010. The artwork will be the first commission on the Fourth Plinth to reflect specifically on the historical symbolism of Trafalgar Square, which commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, and will link directly with Nelson's column.

The Board of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, has announced the appointment of Bice Curiger as the curator of the 54th International Art Exhibition to be held in 2011. Since 1993, she has been curator at the Zurich Kunsthaus. She is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of "Parkett" magazine, and since 2004, she has been publishing director of "Tate etc", the magazine produced by the Tate Gallery.

The LA Times reports that Jeffrey Deitch has scheduled his first exhibition as the incoming director of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Deitch confirmed that it will be a survey of works by actor and artist Dennis Hopper, curated by larger-than-life painter and director Julian Schnabel. The show is slated to open at MOCA on July 11.

Carol Vogel in the New York Times reports that Michael Asher, the 66-year-old Los Angeles Conceptual artist, has won the Whitney's Bucksbaum Award. The prize, given to an artist whose work is in the Whitney Biennial, includes a $100,000 stipend and a solo exhibition.

Mike Nelson has been selected to represent Britain at the 54th Venice Biennale. Born in Loughborough in 1967, Nelson is internationally acclaimed for his meticulous sculptural installations. He was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award in 2001 and has twice been shortlisted for the Turner Prize.

The Art Newspaper's 15th annual survey of attendance figures confirms that the Saatchi Gallery has won the top spot for 'most visited exhibition in the UK' in 2009. "The Revolution Continues: New Art from China" and "Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East" attracted 4,139 and 3,828 people a day respectively, tallied by automatic counter. This made them the first and third most visited shows in the UK. Only the "Banksy effect" stopped the Saatchi Gallery securing a top one and two in the UK. The street artist/local boy made good drew almost 4,000 people a day to see his interventions, or "remix", of Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery.

Award winning London-based artist Anish Kapoor has been given the commission of a lifetime
to design the spectacular new public attraction in the Olympic Park. The stunning artwork, to be
entitled 'The ArcelorMittal Orbit', will ensure the Park remains an unrivalled visitor destination
following the 2012 Games, providing the key Olympic legacy Mayor of London Boris Johnson
envisaged for the East End.

The winner of the 2010 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize is Sophie Ristelhueber. The £30,000 award was presented by the film director Terry Gilliam at a special evening ceremony on Wednesday 17 March 2010 at the Photographers' Gallery in London. Born in France in 1949, Ristelhueber was nominated for her retrospective at the Jeu de Paume, Paris.

Ai Weiwei (below) sues the Chinese government; Christophe Buechler creates a swingers' club in a Viennese museum; Ernst Beyeler dies aged 88; and Anish Kapoor takes on next Monumenta commission.

Chinese artists in Beijing protest against eviction; identical twins needed for Damien Hirst performance; the Rubells announce plans for a new museum in Washington DC; David Salle and Richard Phillips curate show of New York art from the 80s; and Wangechi Mutu (below) is named as DeutscheBank's artist of the year.

This year's Sovereign European Art Prize received over 350 entries nominated by art experts from a over 30 European countries. Whilst the majority of entries showed a strong return to painting, the shortlist reveals the extraordinary diversity of contemporary 2D art practice in Europe. Here are our top 10 artists from the shortlist of 30, whose work will be on display at the Barbican in London in June, including four Saatchi Online artists, David Birkin, Oliver Clegg, Mirko Smerdel and Nicolas Ruston.

The art market bounces back at the contemporary art auctions in London; Alexander McQueen dies aged 40; a major Polaroid collection goes on sale; Lehman Brothers sell off more art; Francesco Bonami gets the Legion d'honneur; and Christian Boltanski has been chosen to represent France at the 2010 Venice Biennale.

A Giacometti sculpture breaks the world record for a work of art sold at auction; Gursky's photograph of Madonna is expected to make $2 million at Sotheby's London next week; and Jeff Koons will make the next BMW art car.

Christie's reports a 24% drop in sales for 2009; Bob Dylan debuts his paintings in London; a Freud self-portrait is expected to fetch £4 milion at Sotheby's; London's ICA could close in May; and Michael Landy consigns work by fellow artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin to his Art Bin.

Charlotte Higgins reports in The Guardian that the ICA has warned staff it could be the first major British cultural organisation to fall victim to the recession. Staff members have been told that a financial deficit currently at around £600,000 might rise to £1.2m and if radical steps are not taken the ICA could be closed by May.

Fiona Banner has been invited to create the next installation for the Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2010, supported by Sotheby's. Her new work, created especially for the neoclassical Duveen galleries at the heart of Tate Britain, will be unveiled on 28 June 2010 and will be on display until 3 January 2011. She comments, "I'm looking forward to the prospect of working within the phallic pillars of this extraordinary grandiose space."

The LA Times has confirmed the appointment of New York art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as the new director of LA's Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum calls the decision to go with the New York gallery owner a bold move. An advisor to heavyweight art collectors, an active collector himself and a gallery owner who helped shape the careers of groundbreaking late-20th century artists, he now takes on the leadership of an institution many regard as the world's leading museum dedicated to post-World War II art, one that nearly foundered financially less than two years ago.