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| | The V&A opens the largest exhibition ever staged in the UK on the House of Dior | |
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A gallery assistant poses by costumes on show at 'Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams' exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London on January 30, 2019. Tolga Akmen / AFP.
LONDON.- The V&A opened the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever staged in the UK on the House of Dior the museums biggest fashion exhibition since Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in 2015. From 1947 to the present day, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams traces the history and impact of one of the 20th centurys most influential couturiers, and the six artistic directors who have succeeded him, to explore the enduring influence of the fashion house. Based on the major exhibition Christian Dior: Couturier du Rêve, organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, the exhibition is reimagined for the V&A. A brand-new section explores, for the first time, the designers fascination with British culture. Dior admired the grandeur of the great houses and gardens of Britain, as well as British-designed ocean liners, including the Queen Mary. He also had a preference for Savile Row suits. His first UK fashion show to ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day An archaeologist brushes a newly-discovered mummy laid inside a sarcophagus, part of a collection found in burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic era (323-30 BC) at the necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel in Egypt's southern Minya province, about 340 kilometres south of the capital Cairo, on February 2, 2019. Egypt's Antiquities Minister said on February 2 that a joint mission from the ministry and Minya University's Archaeological Studies Research Centre found upon a collection of Ptolemaic burial chambers engraved in rock and filled with a large number of mummies of different sizes and genders. The minister added that the newly discovered tombs may be a familial grave for a family from the elite middle class. MOHAMED EL-SHAHED / AFP
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 | | Rare and important Dutch Romantic painting by Bakhuyzen wows dealer | | Fondation Beyeler opens an exhibition that explores Picasso's Blue and Rose periods | | The Fondation de l'Hermitage opens a major exhibition on English painting of the Victorian period | 
Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen (1795 - 1860), Skaters on a Frozen River (detail).
NEW YORK, NY.- Rehs Galleries Inc., the New York gallery specializing in 19th and 20th-century works of art, discovers Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzens (1795 - 1860) Skaters on a Frozen River, a rare and important 19th century Dutch Romantic painting. Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen, who was born and lived in The Hague, obtained his early training with Jan Willem Pieneman and then went on to study at the Hague Academy with Simon Andreas Krausz. His artistic talents were recognized early on, and in 1818 the Rijksmuseum (founded in 1800) acquired his painting Gelder Landscape. During the 1820s and 30s, he won numerous awards and traveled through Belgium and Germany in search of additional subject matter. Hendrik became an influential artist of the period and several of his students went on to help establish the Hague School a group of artists, including Willem Roelofs, Hubertus van Hove, Francois Pieter ter Meulen and Julius van de Sande Bak ... More | | 
The comprehensive exhibition includes around seventy-five paintings and sculptures rarely loaned by renowned museums.
BASEL.- This exhibition, the most ambitious ever staged by the Fondation Beyeler, is devoted to the paintings and sculptures of the young Pablo Picasso from the so-called Blue and Rose periods, between 1901 and 1906. For the first time in Europe, the masterpieces of these crucial years, most of them a milestone on Picassos path to preeminence as the twentieth centurys most famous artist, are presented together, in a concentration and quality that are unparalleled. Picassos pictures from this phase of creative ferment are some of the finest and most emotionally compelling examples of modern painting, and are counted among the most valuable and sought-after works in the entire history of art. It is unlikely that they will be seen again in such a selection in a single place. At the age of just twenty, the rising genius Picasso (18811973) embarked on a quest for new themes and forms of expression, which he i ... More | | 
Frederick Sandys, Vivien, 1863. Huile sur toile, 64 x 52,5 cm. Manchester Art Gallery © Manchester Art Gallery / Bridgeman Images.
LAUSANNE.- The Fondation de lHermitage is presenting a major exhibition on English painting of the Victorian period (1837-1901). A selection of nearly 60 works, most on show for the first time in Switzerland, illustrate the diversity and fascinating originality of 19th-century English art. The great upheavals of the Industrial Revolution are reflected in striking genre scenes depicting different facets of modern life in the Golden Age of the British Empire, from the expansion of cities and public transport to the emergence of the middle classes and homeworking. Other artists choose to focus on landscape or portray their ideals of beauty in subjects taken from history and literature. The exhibition foregrounds three generations of painters active in the Victorian era, starting with J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), one of the most celebrated British landscape artists of his day, whose magisterial oeuvre was a forerunner of Impressio ... More |
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| | | Freeman's announces highlights from the European Art & Old Masters: 500 Years sale | | Exhibition showcases over 60 examples of visually dynamic Central Asian ikat robes | | Exhibition at Chaussee 36 addresses the eroticisation of the female body in advertising photography | 
Master of the Embroidered Foliage (Netherlandish, Active Brussels, Late 15th Century), Nursing Madonna. Estimate: $150,000-250,000.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- On Wednesday, February 27, Freemans will hold European Art & Old Masters: 500 Years, a finely curated auction of fine art dating from the late 15th century through the early part of the 20th. With 44 lots in all, the auction offers a refined selection of portraits, Venetian vedute, horse pictures, allegorical and religious scenes by prominent artist such as Fréderic Soulacroix, Federico del Campo, Sir Alfred Munnings, Cornelis Saftleven, among others. A rare depiction of Madonna and Child by the Master of the Embroidered Foliage is among the sales highlights. Nursing Madonna (Lot 5, estimate: $150,000-200,000), depicts the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the Infant Jesus, and is one of 10 works attributed to the Master; most are held in important museum collections such as the Louvre, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Minneapolis Institute of Art. The name Master of the Embroidered Foliage was coin ... More | | 
Mans Ensemble, Central Asia, second half of the 19th century, Promised Gift of David and Elizabeth Reisbord, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents Power of Pattern: Central Asian Ikats from the David and Elizabeth Reisbord Collection. On view February 3July 28, 2019, the exhibition showcases over 60 examples of visually dynamic Central Asian ikat robes and wall hangings. Organized by motif, Power of Pattern examines how the regions textile designers, dyers, and weavers used improvisation and abstraction to create textiles unique to Central Asia. The objects on view are drawn solely from the collection of Dr. David and Elizabeth Reisbord. On the occasion of the exhibition, LACMA announced the acquisition of all the ikats on display, a generous gift from the Reisbords, strengthening the museums encyclopedic costume and textiles collection. Power of Pattern is curated by Clarissa M. Esguerra, associate curator, Costume and Textiles. Central Asian ikat textiles are a testament to the power of pattern ... More | | 
Christophe Gilbert, Campaign for Levis, 2004. Courtesy the artist.
BERLIN.- The depiction of the nude and its ideal human figure holds a long tradition in Western art. The rise of Modernity liberated nudity from religious or allegorical contexts and showed it openly, naturally and often in connection with Eros. Today, images of the naked body, overwhelmingly female, have proven so omnipresent that the advertising landscape would be unrecognisable without them. Since the dawn of advertising, the female body has been used to heighten the marketing appeal of products, while male nudity was barely utilised until the late 20th century. Accordingly, models shown in publicity embody the ideal image of feminine beauty as synonymous with specific Western standards. Yet the constant renewal of these standards demonstrates the absence of a static or uniform canon of beauty in their depiction over the different decades. In fashion and advertising photography in particular, there has been a noticeable paradigm shift from selling products to selling lifestyles. ... More |
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| | | Clowns tramp to east London on annual pilgrimage | | Palmer Museum of Art highlights new contemporary collection additions in 'Amazing Stories' | | Cuaron on path to Oscar victory after Directors Guild win | 
A clown puts on make-up as preparations take place for the annual Grimaldi Memorial Service at the All Saints church in east London on February 3, 2019. Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP.
LONDON (AFP).- The streets of east London erupted with slapstick humour on Sunday as clowns from all over gathered for the annual memorial of the legendary Joseph Grimaldi. "King of clowns" Grimaldi was a 19th-century English stage performer, credited with inventing the white-faced, curly haired, red-nosed look that came to define the role of a clown. Scores of devotees travelled by plane, by car and on foot -- wearing oversized shoes -- to the All Saints Church in Haggerston for the service, which has been held annually since 1947. "We have people flying in from Canada, Ireland, from France, people coming down from Scotland" for the "funny reverential service remembering the legend," said organiser Bibbledy Bob. Balloons and bunting hung above the normally sombre pews, which were taken over by wags wearing tiny hats, huge bowties and novelty flowers in honour of the English actor and comedian, ... More | | 
Roger Shimomura, Kansas Samurai, 2004, lithograph, 44 ¾ x 31 inches. Purchased with funds provided by the Sidney and Helen S. Friedman Endowment, 2018.12.
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA.- The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State opened its second exhibition for the season, Amazing Stories: Recent Acquisitions, on January 12. The show features a diverse range of contemporary works recently acquired by the museum. Amazing Stories highlights eighteen prints by late twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists whose work relies heavily on representation and visual storytelling. The complex prints are by an array of artists eager to share intensely personal tales, or to communicate ideas about mixed identities and ethnic stereotypes, as well as multicultural and shared histories. The narrative modes vary widely, from penetrating political caricature, starkly conveyed in graphic black and white, to vibrant Pop-inflected allegories that draw in equal part on appropriation and invention. The impulse to tell stories can be witnessed throughout history and across ... More | | 
DGA Feature Film Award winner for 'Roma' Alfonso Cuaron poses in the press room during the 71st Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/AFP.
LOS ANGELES (AFP).- Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron on Saturday scooped the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for "Roma" -- a strong indicator he will be named best director at the Oscars in three weeks' time. "Roma," a highly personal ode to Cuaron's own childhood in 1970s Mexico City, is nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best director. Cuaron, who won the same accolade for "Gravity" in 2014, thanked stars Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tariva, along with the rest of the cast for bringing a memory to life. "Thank Libo [the domestic worker who inspired the film], my mother and my country, the real architect of 'Roma'," he added. In a previous speech upon being presented as a nominee, Cuaron highlighted that there are over 70 million domestic workers in the world -- not including children. "Roma was the story of one of them," he said. "When we villainize them, demonize them, calling the ... More |
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| | | Only western Canadian stop of acclaimed Rebecca Belmore retrospective opens at Remai Modern | | Dali Lives: Museum brings artist back to life with AI | | Multimedia installation reveals the complex, and often human, history of Earth's mountain ranges | 
Rebecca Belmore, blood on the snow, 2002, fabric, feathers, acrylic, wood, 106.7 x 609.6 x 609.6 cm. The Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Purchased with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Mendel Art Gallery Foundation, 2004. Installation view, Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2018. Photo: Sean Weaver © 2018 Art Gallery of Ontario.
SASKATOON.- After debuting to critical and visitor acclaim at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in 2018, the ground-breaking retrospective Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental, opened at Remai Modern on February 1. Remai Modern was conceived as a gathering place for conversation, contemplation and debate about the important issues of our time. We invite audiences to engage with the urgent themes in Belmores workincluding Indigenous sovereignty, water and land rights, state violence and womens lives and dignity said Gregory Burke, Remai Moderns Executive Director & CEO. Facing the Monumental is a timely exhibition, and the discussions it will catalyze are of critical importance here and now in ... More | | 
Visitors to the Museum will soon have the opportunity to learn more about Dalis life and work from the person who knew him best: the artist himself.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.- Imagine legendary surrealist artist Salvador Dali personally welcoming you to the museum, even sharing observations on current events and the motivations behind his masterpieces. The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida announced today, on the 30th anniversary of the artists death, that it will celebrate Dalis art and legacy with Dali Lives, a groundbreaking experience to be unveiled exclusively at The Dali in April 2019. Visitors to the Museum will soon have the opportunity to learn more about Dalis life and work from the person who knew him best: the artist himself. Using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based cutting edge technique, the new Dali Lives experience employs machine learning to create a version of Dalis likeness, resulting in an uncanny resurrection of the mustached master. When the experience opens, visitors will for the first time be able to interact with an engaging lifelike Salvador Dali on a series of screens througho ... More | | 
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526-1569), The Tower of Babel, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.- Throughout recorded history, mountains have risen from the land and exerted influence on human life. As their physical forms have shifted over time, so too have the narratives defining their cultural significance. Now a source of fascination and wonder, mountains were once considered threats to humanity, sites of catastrophe, and a means of divine punishment. They have always occupied the cultural imagination, but their history has been complex. Mountains and the Rise of Landscape reveals our common understanding of mountains as a human, discursive construction, one that has been shaped and redefined over millennia. The exhibition engages landscape theory to distill the cultural narratives of mountains, putting on view their world-defining history through a variety of media and research. Positioning the perception of mountains as foundational to the perception of landscape more broadly, Mountains and the Rise of Landscape shows how our contemporary understanding ... More |
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Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, The Original Blond Bombshell
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 Lyons Wier Gallery presents a series of new works by James Austin Murray and Mark ZimmermannNEW YORK, NY.- Lyons Wier Gallery is presenting In Tandem, a series of new abstract paintings by New York based artists James Austin Murray and Mark Zimmermann. Opposites attract, weve heard that a thousand times. In Tandem wonderfully demonstrates the profundity of opposition and celebrates a friendship of 20+ years. In Tandem attempts to decipher the dynamic dialogue between the fluidity of Austin Murrays brushstroke and the linear explorations of Zimmermanns painting. The artists have a share spirit in practice and principal, and they have head-strong beliefs and personalities to back it. Yet the most dynamic element about Austin Murray and Zimmermanns work is their personal friendship. They have that best buds vibe when together that can only be described as infectious. ... More Designer luggage from the late Sir David Tang's private collection to be offered at auctionLONDON.- Chiswick Auctions is to offer a sale of designer luggage from the private collection of the late Sir David Tang and his wife Lady Tang in its upcoming Designer Handbags & Fashion sale on 13th February, 2019. Sir David Tang, the former entrepreneur, socialite, private collector and fashion tycoon, best known for setting up the fashion empire Shanghai Tang was admired for his impeccable taste and an appreciation of high quality. The items being offered for sale are therefore all by well-known designers and are in excellent condition. Meg Randell, Head of Fashion at Chiswick Auctions, said: Sir David Tang was well known for his eclectic, exuberant style. Splitting his life between Hong Kong and London he was often travelling, so it makes sense that his personal luggage would be as stylish as he was. The Tangs had a large collection ... More Santa Barbara Museum of Art exhibits works gifted/acquired in the past two yearsSANTA BARBARA, CA.- Embracing a broad range of artists, years, techniques, and themes, this exhibition offers viewers a rich and exciting experience of color photographs by emerging and established artists alike that have come into the Santa Barbara Museum of Arts collection within the past two years by gifts of art and acquisition funds and that are on view at the Museum for the very first time. A Brilliant Spectrum presents with its 30 works a select and concise survey of the course of color photography, from its emergence as an accepted artistic tool in the 1960s and 70s, with vivid color photographs by the established artists Evelyn Hofer, Kwame Brathwaite, and William Eggleston, up to todays most conceptually-driven practices as seen in the seemingly-abstract work of Hannah Karsen and Olaf Breuning. Thanks to the generosity of patrons ... More Dippy the Dinosaur wows a record 24,000 visitors in his opening weekend at Kelvingrove MuseumGLASGOW.- Dippy, the Natural History Museum Londons famous diplodocus, stands resplendent at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. The eagerly awaited Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure opened on Tuesday 22 January. On Saturday and Sunday Dippy greeted more than 24,000 people entering the Centre Hall, the largest number visitors to Kelvingrove Museum in a single weekend in more than a decade. The splendid 292 bone structure, now replete as an impressive 21.3 meter long diplodocus cast, is on show until 6 May 2019. Admission is free and you do not require a ticket to visit, although people are being asked to leave a little extra time to see Dippy, especially at weekends and during school holidays. Dippys visit to Glasgow is the only Scottish stop on an eight city UK wide tour. Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure ... More The Latinx experience is expressed through album cover art in new exhibitionEUGENE, ORE.- Visual Clave: The Latino/a Experience through Album Cover Art: 1940-90 opened on February 2, 2019, at the University of Oregons Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. On view through April 21, 2019, the exhibition explores the evolution of Latin album cover art with a focus on the United States market. The exhibition pays critical attention to issues of identity, race, gender, and politics through depictions of Latinx and Chicanx culture, historical context, and the creative range of unsung graphic artists who helped present Latin music to the world, says Cheryl Hartup, JSMA Associate Curator of Academic Programs and Latin American Art. The show weaves a compelling narrative through the display of album jackets for 78 RPM records from the 1930s and 40s to LP covers from the 1960s through the 90s. Throughout the exhibition, individual ... More Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to go free on Saturdays for all SF residentsSAN FRANCISCO, CA.- This April, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will roll out multiple new programs to provide free and reduced admission to their permanent collection galleries and special exhibitions. For San Francisco residents, general admission to the de Young and Legion of Honor will be free every Saturday starting April 6. The collections at the de Young museum were founded with the support of middle-and working-class San Francisco families, says Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums. We were tasked with providing artistic engagement and education for local audiences, which is still a core component of our mission today. In this time of rising costs, we are looking back to our roots and recommitting to our most loyal audience: the residents of San Francisco. We must serve the city that we ... More Top Design experts feature in 2019 Sydney Design FestivalSYDNEY.- Leading design experts from Australia and around the world have been announced for the Sydney Design Festival, running from 1 10 March 2019 across Sydney. Curated and produced by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS), this years festival theme Accessing Design challenges designers to broaden the definition of design and collaborate across disciplines and cultural divides. With 138 events presented by over 100 partners, the 2019 Festival offers 10 days of tours, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions, markets, open studios, podcasts, keynote presentations, installations and symposiums. Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) Chief Executive, Lisa Havilah said Sydney Design Festival has been running for over 20 years and has played a key role in the evolution of design practice in Australia and across the world. ... More Klara Lidéns creates a sculptural display designed and made on site especially for Vienna's SecessionVIENNA.- Klara Lidéns favoured tools are the urban matrix the city and its infrastructure and social fabric and her body and physical presence in taking action within this framework. Both for sculptural objects and installations and for spontaneous performative interventions the artist draws on what the city has to offer: the urban inventory of dustbins, ATM machines, signs, site fences, billboards, and a variety of materials. The urban environment and own self are not only immediate and available at all times, they are economic resources, too. She addresses the ubiquity of normative rules and conventions in society. By subtly but decisively presenting ways of diverging from the norm, Lidéns works spark a notion of liberation and of overcoming oppressive restrictions. In her show Auf jeden Fall, Klara Lidén integrates videos of four new and recent ... More Espace Muraille opens Israeli artist Michal Rovner's first solo exhibition in SwitzerlandGENEVA.- Espace Muraille, a singular exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art, was founded by Caroline and Eric Freymond. The couple are both collectors and patrons who wish to share their passion for contemporary art and for artists with the widest possible audience. The venue, situated at the heart of Genevas Old Town, is loaded with history, and the space was entirely reimagined and remodeled by Caroline Freymond, its artistic director, in order to host ambitious exhibitionsnotably solo shows dedicated to international artists. After large-scale exhibitions spotlighting the French artist Monique Frydman (2015), Argentinian artist Tomà s Saraceno (2015), Iranian artist Shirazeh Houshiary (2016), American artist Sheila Hicks (2016), and British artist Edmund de Waal (2017), Espace Muraille gave carte blanche to Icelandic-Danish artist ... More Delaware College of Art and Design showing 'forged fashion' of sculptor, blacksmith Ellen DurkanWILMINGTON, DEL.- Delicate yet dangerous and evoking both strength and vulnerability, the wearable metalwork of two-time state arts fellowship recipient Ellen Durkan is creating a striking presence in Delaware College of Art and Designs Toni & Stuart B. Young Gallery. Ellen Durkan: Behind Her Iron Gates opened at DCAD on February 1. Complementing the forged fashion pieces are graphite and charcoal drawings in a range of sizes. The drawings influence the metalwork, and the metalwork influences the drawings, notes Durkan, who is the first DCAD graduate and faculty member to present a solo show in the institutions main gallery. I use jewelry, leather and blacksmithing techniques to transform my drawings into my three-dimensional reality. Durkan, a Wilmington native, graduated from DCAD with an associate of fine arts degree in 2004 and went on to earn a bachelor o ... More All Souls Day Part I: Rodeo opens a group exhibition in PiraeusPIRAEUS.- For the first time in Piraeus, Rodeo presents a group exhibition, conceived in two parts. All Souls Day I brings together artists represented by the gallery, with works that deal with absent others, unregistered heroes of the face of history, some less than others. With these works Rodeo questions the understanding of the heroic, history writing and the press, the big-time history maker of today. Through this exhibition the gallery encourages readings between the lines, backstage research and silent people of the everyday that have gone unregistered or unseen, their stories yet to be written. All Souls Day I takes as a starting point Banu Cennetoğlus Gurbets Diary, a sculpture that was first exhibited in Athens in 2017 as part of documenta 14, tucked in the gardens of the Gennadius Library for the summer, and now entering the exhibition space for ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, French painter and sculptor Fernand Léger was born February 04, 1881. Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (February 4, 1881 - August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art. In this image: Fernand Leger, Deux femmes tenant des fleurs, 1954. Oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches.
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