| The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Friday, March 2, 2018 |
| | | British Museum research reveals tattoos on 5,000 year old mummies from Egypt | |
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Tattoos on the Predynastic male mummy from Gebelein. © the Trustees of the British Museum.
LONDON.- The worlds earliest figural tattoos have been revealed on two natural mummies in the British Museums collection. Dating to between 3351 to 3017 BC (95.4% probability), figural tattoos of a wild bull and a Barbary sheep were identified on the upper arm of a male mummy and linear and S-shaped motifs have been identified on the upper arm and shoulder of a female mummy; the oldest tattoos ever found on a female body. The findings will be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Thursday 1st March 2018. Entitled: Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the worlds earliest figural tattoos. Daniel Antoine, one of the lead authors of the research paper and the British Museums Curator of Physical Anthropology said The use of the latest scientific methods, including CT scanning, radiocarbon dating and infrared imaging, has transformed our understanding of the Gebelein mummies. Only now ar ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day German researchers work in the Andalusian cave of Ardales on March 1, 2018. The cave-paintings found in three caves in Spain, one of them in Ardales, were created between 43,000 and 65,000 years ago, 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe, what could confirm that art was invented by the Neanderthals some 65,000 years ago. JORGE GUERRERO / AFP
| The Brooklyn Museum is the final stop on the world tour of "David Bowie is" | | Very rare Qing Dynasty bowl seen topping $25 mn at auction | | "All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life" opens at Tate Britain |
Quilted two-piece suit, 1972. Designed by Freddie Burretti for the Ziggy Stardust tour. Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum.
BROOKLYN, NY.- The Brooklyn Museum is the final stop on the world tour of the critically acclaimed exhibition David Bowie is, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The exhibition is the first retrospective of the extraordinary fivedecade career of David Bowieone of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times. Curated by Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh from the Department of Theatre and Performance at the V&A, David Bowie is explores the creative process of an artist whose sustained reinventions, innovative collaborations, and bold characterizations revolutionized the way we see music, inspired people to shape their own identities while also challenging social traditions. On view from March 2 to July 15, 2018, David Bowie is will include never-before-seen objects and work exclusive to the Brooklyn Museum presentation. As the official audio partner of the exhibition, ... More | |
Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman for Sotheby's Asia, holds an extremely rare Qing Dynasty bowl. Anthony WALLACE / AFP.
HONG KONG (AFP).- An extremely rare Qing Dynasty bowl -- one of only three known to exist -- is expected to fetch US$25.6 million and could even break the record for Chinese ceramics, auction house Sotheby's said Thursday. Measuring 14.7 cm (just under six inches) in diameter, the dainty pink bowl is decorated with falangcai (painted enamels combining Chinese and Western techniques) and flowers, including daffodils which are not typically depicted on Chinese porcelain. Hong Kong's auction houses have seen frenzied bidding among Asian buyers in recent years, with sales of diamonds, handbags and ancient ceramics shattering world records. Sotheby's Hong Kong expects the Qing Dynasty bowl, used by the Kangxi Emperor in the 1720s, to make history again in an upcoming sale on April 3. "Definitely we will see the most important collectors of Chinese porcelain active," deputy chairman for Sotheby's Asia Nicolas Chow said in a preview ... More | |
Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Portrait, 1962. Oil paint on canvas, 1980 x 1415 mm. Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen. The Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection/Winners of the Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. DACS, London.
LONDON.- A landmark exhibition at Tate Britain celebrates how artists have captured the intense experience of life in paint. All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life showcases around 100 works by some of the most celebrated modern British artists, with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon at its heart. It reveals how their art captures personal and immediate experiences and events, distilling raw sensations through their use of paint, as Freud said: I want the paint to work as flesh does. Bringing together major works by Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer, Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, R.B. Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Paula Rego, Jenny Saville, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and many others, this exhibition makes poignant connections across generations of artists and tell an expanded story of figurative painting in the ... More |
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| Rock art and mystery: Ancient camel sculptures in Saudi desert | | Liu Bolin's first major exhibition in Italy opens at Complesso del Vittoriano | | How young Guillermo became monster-mad director Del Toro |
A picture taken on February 22, 2018 shows Saudi men standing at the site of an archaeological discovery about eight kilomtres north of the city of Sakaka in Saudi Arabia's northwestern Jawf province. Fayez Nureldine / AFP.
AL-JOUF (AFP).- Squinting in the Saudi desert, Hussain al-Khalifah points at his unprecedented archaeological discovery -- camels carved on russet-hued rocky spurs that could shed new light on the evolution of rock art. Around a dozen humped sculptures, some of them damaged from erosion and vandalism, are possibly around 2,000 years old and were recently found in a private property along a desert crossing in the northern province of Al-Jouf. Chiseled on three rocky spurs, the sculptures, which also depict equids, or hoofed mammals, show a level of artistic skill unseen in other rock art forms in the Saudi desert. They could help unravel the mysteries of ancient life in the Arabian peninsula. "They are a work of artistry and creativity," Khalifah said, giving AFP a tour of the desolate area in Al-Jouf, now well known in archeological circles ... More | |
Soft Drinks.
ROME.- The year is 2005: the Beijing authorities order the demolition of Suojia Village, a neighbourhood housing many artists critical of the government. Liu Bolin, who was born in 1973 and is just making his début as an artist, camouflages himself within the ruins of his studio and has himself photographed. The circulation of these photos gives rise to a silent and transparent protest that achieves an unexpected degree of popularity. Thus begins the remarkable career of one of the most talented and interesting contemporary artists, capable of concealing powerful social messages in apparently simple images, creating a synthesis of different artistic languages such as painting, installations, and photography. Liu Bolin's performances are designed to deliver a clear and compelling message concerning present events, at the crossroads between the weight of history and the consequences of progress. With time, Liu Bolin has himself photographed alongside the world's most important ... More | |
This file photo taken on November 15, 2017 shows director Guillermo del Toro attending the premiere of "The Shape of Water," at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science in Beverly Hills, California. Robyn Beck / AFP.
MEXICO CITY (AFP).- Long before he was the celebrated director of fantasy romance "The Shape of Water," this year's top Oscar contender with 13 nominations, Guillermo del Toro was fascinated with monsters and the movies. Teachers in his hometown, Guadalajara, Mexico, remember him coming to class with giant cockroaches, and friends recall helping him shoot his first movie at their school -- an eight-millimeter short film featuring a gelatinous monster. Those who knew him before he was Guillermo del Toro, the award-winning filmmaker, remember him as just Guillermo -- an affable teenager with a love of strange creatures, a soft spot for misfits and explosive creativity. "You could already see his imagination, his fantastical way of interpreting reality, in the short films he was making as a teenager," says Anne Marie Meier, ... More |
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| Attacked theatre named world's best wooden building | | 'Mona Lisa' might soon be smiling at crowds across France | | 'Stolen works' sentence of Picasso's electrician overturned |
This file photo taken on June 24, 2016 shows an interior view of the Elizabethan theatre built next to the Chateau d'Hardelot (Hardelot Castle) in Condette, northern France. PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- A French theatre which was attacked by far-right vandals has been named the world's best wooden building, beating an acclaimed Norman Foster cancer care centre to the prize. The Hardelot Elizabethan Theatre near Boulogne on the English Channel coast had been praised as "a masterpiece... magnetic in the manner of the Bilbao Guggenheim" by the architectural press, with French news weekly L'Obs saying that "if the exterior is astonishing, the interior is an enchantment." The ground-breaking round auditorium -- which can double as baroque opera house -- pipped Lord Foster's Maggie's cancer care centre in his home city of Manchester and buildings in the US, China and Poland to the World Architecture News award late Wednesday. Days before its completion, the theatre was sprayed with graffiti in an attack blamed on far-right activists who ... More | |
People take pictures of the Mona Lisa painting (between 1503 and 1506) by Italian artist Leonard de Vinci as they visit the Louvre museum in Paris. LOIC VENANCE / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The "Mona Lisa", Da Vinci's masterpiece which has spent nearly all of the past 500 years in Paris, could soon embark on a rare tour of France, the country's culture minister said Thursday. Francoise Nyssen told Europe 1 radio she was "seriously considering" the move as part of travelling exhibition of the country's most prestigious artworks. "I am meeting with the president of the Louvre this morning and I'm going to discuss the matter again," Nyssen said, adding that she didn't see why such works should be kept in the one place. "My priority is to work against cultural segregation, and a large-scale plan for moving them around is a main way of doing that." The painting, whose mysterious smile has long captivated artists and admirers, draws millions of people to the Louvre each year. But it has rarely ventured outside the museum's walls, with officials citing concerns for ... More | |
Pierre Le Guennec (R), who is accused of receiving stolen goods after being found in possession of paintings by late Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, arrives with his wife Danielle at the court in Aix-en-Provence. BORIS HORVAT / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- France's highest appeal court has overturned the conviction of Pablo Picasso's former electrician and his wife, who were given suspended sentences for keeping 271 of his works in their garage for four decades. Pierre and Danielle Le Guennec were given two-year suspended jail sentences in 2015 for possession of stolen goods, in a case that made headlines worldwide. A higher court upheld the verdict in 2016 but the Cour de Cassation, in a ruling seen by AFP Thursday, overturned it. Ruling there was insufficient evidence that "the goods held by the suspects had been stolen" the court ordered a retrial. The couple's lawyer Antoine Vey hailed the ruling. "It's a great decision which reinforces the line that Le Guennecs have always upheld -- that there was no theft whatsoever." The retrial will offer them "a ... More |
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| Omer Tiroche Gallery exhibits small- scale pumpkin paintings by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama | | Facebook apologises for censoring prehistoric Venus statue | | World's first hand-painted film vies for an Oscar |
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama Small Pumpkins. Courtesy Omer Tiroche Gallery.
LONDON.- Omer Tiroche Gallery kicked off their 2018 programme with an exhibition dedicated to small- scale pumpkin paintings by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. This is the first time that this small body of work is being displayed together in the UK. Kusama experimented with her first pumpkin works in the 1940s while studying Nihonga a traditional form of Japanese painting at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts. Although she quickly left behind this delicate style in pursuit of the avant-garde, the pumpkin remained with her. She exhibited Mirror Room (Pumpkin) at the 1993 Venice Biennale and, from this point, her obsessive use of this motif intensified the repetition being interpreted as an attempt to control her fears. One of Kusamas best loved and most iconic motifs, the pumpkins are the visual embodiment of her childhood as well as her present psychological state. She describes these paintings as a form of self-por ... More | |
This undated picture released on February 28, 2018 shows the prehistoric "Venus of Willendorf" figurine pictured at the Nature Historical Museum in Vienna. Helmut FOHRINGER / APA / AFP.
VIENNA (AFP).- Facebook apologised on Thursday for censoring the prehistoric "Venus of Willendorf" figurine, considered a masterpiece of the paleolithic era. "Our advertising policies do not allow nudity or implied nudity but we have an exception for statues. Therefore, the ad with this image should have been approved," a spokeswoman for Facebook told AFP. "We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ad, she added. The controversy began in December when Italian arts activist Laura Ghianda posted a picture of the artwork on the social networking site which went viral. After it was censored she said that "this statue is not 'dangerously pornographic'. The war on human culture and modern intellectualism will not be tolerated." Her outrage was echoed by Vienna's ... More | |
This file photo taken on November 29, 2017 shows Polish director Dorota Kobiela posing before the opening ceremony of the fifth edition of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival in Doha. Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP.
GDANSK (AFP).- Vying for an Oscar, "Loving Vincent" is the world's first animated feature film painted by hand -- all 65,000 frames -- in the distinct style of Vincent van Gogh. Centred on a probe into his untimely death, the film was shot on a shoestring budget of $5.5 million (4.5 million euros). That is 30 times less than Disney's "Coco", one of the film's four Oscar rivals. For director Dorota Kobiela, "Loving Vincent" has been a seven-year labour of love combining her twin passions of cinema and painting. "Van Gogh's style was perfect for the project; his paintings show all the details of his life, his day-to-day habits, his house, his room, his friends," Kobiela told AFP ahead of Sunday's Oscar ceremonies in Los Angeles. Kobiela and co-director Hugh Welchman already have one Oscar under their belt; their BreakThru Productions film company ... More |
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McArthur Binion joins Lehmann Maupin
NEW YORK, NY.- Lehmann Maupin announced its representation of McArthur Binion. For more than 40 years, the American artist has combined collage, drawing, and painting to create autobiographical abstractions of painted minimalist patterns, inserting personal references and ephemera into his signature grid format. This complex and laborious method of painting makes his a singular vision from the later half of the 20th century. Binion was born in Macon, Mississippi, and lives and works in Chicago. His first exhibition with Lehmann Maupin will open in Hong Kong in fall 2018, followed by a New York exhibition in winter 2019. We were immediately drawn to McArthurs work when we saw it at the Venice Biennale last year, says Rachel Lehmann. His use of minimalism and abstraction, and the social and political issues he addresses through images of his personal ... More
Blum & Poe opens an exhibition of recent work by Kishio Suga
NEW YORK, NY.- Blum & Poe is presenting an exhibition of recent work by Kishio Suga. His fourth solo presentation with the gallery, this show focuses on recent large-scale, wall-mounted assemblages. In tandem with the iconic site-specific installations he has made since the late 1960s, Suga has constructed assemblages throughout his career. In these works, the artist brings wood, branches, metal, rope, wire, and various other materials into incongruous arrangements in order to reveal the reality of mono (things/materials), and the jōkyō (situation) that binds them. Sugas holistic view of arts existence in the world has been influenced by his broad readings of philosophy ranging from Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, Kitarō Nishida, Keiji Nishitani, and Mahāyāna Buddhism. In his recent large-scale assemblages, Suga continues to explore the act of establishing ... More
Politics becomes art in exhibition of Chinese propaganda posters
NORFOLK, VA.- Examine Chinas political and social realities over time in The Art of Revolution: Chinese Propaganda Posters from the Collection of Shaomin Li. On view at the Chrysler Museum of Art from March 2 June 24, 2018, the exhibition will include more than 20 propaganda posters, as well as sketches and other artifacts from Shaomin Li, an artist, internationally recognized economist and dissident from China. Li, now an Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Business at Old Dominion University, has long been a collector of Communist Party propaganda posters, amassing approximately 250. Li produced propaganda posters as part of his military service during the Cultural Revolution in China. In 1982, he began graduate studies in the United States and became an advocate of democracy and free markets in China. He was imprisoned in China in 2001 ... More
Exhibition of drawings by Louise Bourgeois from the private collection of Karsten Greve opens in Cologne
COLOGNE.- In a unique compilation, Galerie Karsten Greve is presenting drawings by Louise Bourgeois (19112010) produced over a period of six decades. The selection of works, dating from 1947 to 2007, comes from the private collection of Karsten Greve and reflects the long-standing collaboration with Louise Bourgeois, which, in numerous exhibitions, illuminated all the phases of this uvre of a century with its wealth of allusions, until the death of the artist at the age of 98. After she had followed her husband to the United States as early as 1938, it was Karsten Greve who, in 1990, staged the very first exhibition for her in her native France in his Paris gallery, which had opened the year before. In addition, a comprehensive show with works by Louise Bourgeois marked the opening of the gallerys St. Moritz branch in 1999. Louise Bourgeoiss earliest striking charcoal and ... More
Thomas Rehbein Galerie opens exhibition of works by Ulrich Pester
COLOGNE.- Ulrich Pester does not cater to any particular style of painting, rather is his work committed to a profound search of forms of expression, thoroughly questioning the possibilities of painting. With a rather universal approach, the artist allows no distinction between High or Low, analogue or digital, Old Masters or Pop, but rather absorbs iconographic substance in all its diversity, ever intent on exploring new contexts. In this process, day-to day observations, simple objects in his immediate surroundings or even emotional states constitute his rich repertory of pictorial means and subjects, which is further influenced by elements from comic/illustration, typography and fashion. His work as a whole dedicates itself to the investigation of pictorial language. Pester´s most recent paintings openly refer to digital aesthetics or computer generated ... More
Auction of Fine Paintings at Doyle on March 13
NEW YORK, NY.- Doyle's auction of Fine Paintings on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at 11am offers over 150 works by a wide range of by American, European, Latin American and Asian artists with moderate pre-sale estimates. The sale offers a selection of works by Russian and Ukrainian artists encompassing Post-Impressionism, including examples by Elie Anatole Pavil, Jean Miscelslas Peské and Jean Pougny. Theatrical and costume design offers works by Pavel Tchelitchew, Alexandra Exter, Alexandre Nikolaewich Benois, Sergei Yurievich Soudeikine, Eugene Berman and Mihail Chemiakin. French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Modernism are represented by such artists as Henri Le Sidaner, Ãdouard Vuillard, Jean Dufy, Raoul Dufy, Louis Valtat, Achille-Ãmile Othon Friesz, Dora Maar, Jean Cocteau, André Lhote and Jean Lambert-Rucki. An early rare ... More
Concord Museum's historic clothing comes out of the closet
CONCORD, MASS.- On March 2 through July 8, 2018, the Concord Museum will unveil a portion of its extensive historic clothing collection for the first time, along with textiles and decorative arts in a new exhibition: Fresh Goods: Shopping for Clothing in a New England Town, 1750 1900. How do you shop for clothes? Do you go to a department store, buy online or through catalogues, shop locally at specialty shops, or sew your own? How did Concordians in the 18th and 19th centuries acquire their clothes? Who were the style-setters? Fresh Goods examines these questions about the sources and context of small-town New England fashion and documents the answers drawing upon its collection. As the first exhibition in a year-long Mass Fashion collaborative with eight leading cultural institutions, Fresh Goods also draws on account books, advertisements, photographs, ... More
Galeria Nara Roesler opens exhibition of works by Almir Mavignier
NEW YORK, NY.- Galeria Nara Roesler | New York is presenting Almir Mavignier: Privileged Form, featuring posters by Almir da Silva Mavignier (b.1925, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). The exhibition also includes a seminal Kinechromatic Device produced circa 1955 by Abraham Palatnik (b.1928, Natal, Brazil), a sculpture that employs light play to create kaleidoscopic images. Palatniks and Mavigniers trajectories overlap, as both artists, along with critic Mário Pedrosa and artist Ivan Serpa, were united in pursuit of what Pedrosa called a privileged form. Almir Mavignier: Privileged Form is on view from March 2 through April 14, 2018. The aesthetic strategies employed in Mavigniers posters to investigate form and color have long been present in his practice. His work is informed by his early experiences in Rio de Janeiro, his time in the Constructivist Ulm School ... More
Haus der Kunst opens "Blind Faith: Between the Visceral and the Cognitive in Contemporary Art"
MUNICH.- Social media and the internet have caused print media, radio and television to lose part of their former monopoly on news, facts and background information. Although the breadth of information sources has expanded, the mass of information-be it substantiated or fake-has had a destabilizing effect on the individual because of its unmanageable scope. As a result of this development, hard facts have lost in significance; there is now a tendency to mix news and information with emotional elements. In extreme cases, "sound information" is replaced by "blind faith." Overall, there is now more scope for development, but this trend may have "contributed to the corrosion of certain cornerstones of society, such as religious and political institutions," maintains Director of Haus der Kunst Okwui Enwezor. Two years ago, the director invited three curators from ... More
Exhibition at Melbourne Museum highlights six Melbourne fashion figures
MELBOURNE.- Sometimes, hearing you cant do that! can be the perfect provocation to show what youre really made of. A new exhibition opening at Melbourne Museum in March 2018 will highlight six Melbourne fashion figures who heard you cant and showed that they could. The stories of influential models and designers Stella Dare, Prue Acton, Lois Briggs, Jenny Bannister, Christopher Graf and Andreja Pejić demonstrate how they turned oppositioned into opportunity, and in doing so, left their mark on Australian and international fashion. You Can't Do That will open at Melbourne Museum on March 2 as part of Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival's 2018 esteemed Arts Program. From Stella Dares lavish suits that broke away from war austerity in the 1950s, to Andreja Pejić's journey from a Broadmeadows refugee to a transgender supermodel, ... More
Solo exhibition by Thomas Judisch opens at Drawing Room Hamburg
HAMBURG.- Drawing Room are presenting their first solo exhibition by Thomas Judisch (b. 1981), concurrent with the release of his catalogue "A Fly with two Blows", published in cooperation with the Kerber Verlag. In his works, this exceedingly versatile artist uses the mediums of sculpture, drawing, and installation to investigate the bountiful everyday aspects of things and the fleeting situations of daily life, thereby providing us with a key for appreciating the world in its entire incidental beauty. A further aspect of his creative work involves the transformation of art-historical masterpieces, which he scrutinizes, destabilizes, and shifts into the contemporary context of conceptual art through wry interventions. Nothing in Judisch's work is as it appears at first glance. The fly on the wall you were just about to swat cannot fly away because it is drawn, and the fly swatter ... More
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Flashback On a day like today, French painter Berthe Morisot died March 02, 1895. Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (January 14, 1841 - March 2, 1895) was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt. In this image: Berthe Morisot, Grain field, c.1875, Musée d'Orsay.
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