| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Saturday, April 16, 2022 |
| | | Simone Leigh, in the world | |
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Simone Leighs works Cupboard (2022), of raffia, steel and glazed stoneware; and Sphinx (2022), a stoneware work, inside the U.S. Pavilion at the 59th International Venice Biennale, April 10, 2022. The acclaimed sculptor holds court at the pavilion, where she explores the burden of colonial histories and the promise of Black feminism. Gus Powell/The New York Times.
by Siddhartha Mitter
NEW YORK, NY.- Simone Leigh was on the phone from Venice, Italy. Its not all here yet, she said. She had been installing her exhibition of bronzes and ceramics in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale one of the most prestigious commissions in the art world, and the first time it has been awarded to a Black female artist. This edition of the Biennale had been delayed a year by COVID-19, and, Leigh reported, it has not been spared disruptions: Satellite, a 24-foot bronze female form with a concave disc for a head, destined for the forecourt of the pavilion, was in transit, not certain to arrive in time for next weeks opening. But Leigh was unperturbed. The piece de resistance exceeded her hopes. She was giving the building a makeover: A neo-Palladian structure with white columns that waves to Jeffersonian architecture, it has gone African, with a thatched roof that drapes partway down the facade, supported by a discreet metal armature and wooden poles. Seeing the work ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Installation image from Surabhi Saraf's exhibition, "Awoke & Awokened: Alaap" at Honor Fraser. Photo: Jeff McLane.
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| Paola Pivi's American moment | | Wayne Thiebaud's 'City Views' highlights Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale | | Exhibition retraces the history of emotions and their pictorial expression |
Paola Pivis sculpture You know who I am, a replica of the Statue of Liberty with an emoji-like mask of a childs face, on the High Line in Manhattan, April 11, 2022. Sinna Nasseri/The New York Times.
by Joseph Giovannini
NEW YORK, NY.- Folks out for a stroll on the High Line this week are pulling out their iPhones to photograph a quizzical new sculpture, You know who I am, at the end of a rail spur in a valley of buildings at West 16th Street. Measured to the torch, the 16-foot-tall bronze copy of the Statue of Liberty her classical face and straight Greek nose fitted with an emoji-like mask of an Asian boy stands like a question mark asking visitors to connect two incongruous dots: the draped, classical figure that everyone knows, and a cartoon face with a button nose and startled eyes. Italian-born artist Paola Pivi took one of Americas most familiar symbols and made it new and strange. First she meticulously copied the figure down to her fingernails from a plaster cast taken from an original bronze by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. With the mask, she gave the statue commissioned by the High ... More | |
Wayne Thiebaud, City Views (detail), triptychoil on canvas, left panel: 71.3/4 x 48 in. (182.2 x 121.9 cm.) center panel: 71.7/8 x 53.7/8 in. (182.6 x 136.8 cm.) right panel: 71.3/4 x 48 in. (182.2 x 121.9 cm.) Painted in 2004. Estimate: $10 million 15 million. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced Wayne Thiebauds City Views (estimate $10 million 15 million) will highlight the Spring Marquee Week 20th Century Evening Sale at Rockefeller Plaza on Thursday, 12 May 2022. City Views is a striking triptych, standing as one of the largest landscapes ever painted by Thiebaud. The work is being sold by the nonprofit biomedical research organization Gladstone Institutes, with proceeds going to a dedicated fund that supports its scientific training and mentoring programs. Gladstone has disrupted the traditional research model to accelerate discovery and cure development. Their vision is to overcome unsolved diseases through transformative biomedical research, particularly in the areas of cardiovascular, viral, and immunological diseases as well as neurodegenerative disorders. Gladstone also seeks to mentor and train future generations of scientific innovators. Created ... More | |
Joseph Ducreux, Portrait de lâartiste sous les traits dâun moqueur, Circa 1793. Oil on canvas, 91,5 x 72,5 cm Paris, musée du Louvre, Department of Paintings, gift from Frederic Anthony White, 1920. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi.
PARIS.- From 13 April to 21 August 2022, the Musée Marmottan Monet presents an exhibition entitled The Theatre of Emotions. Bringing together almost eighty works dating from the Middle Ages to the present day, coming from both private collections and prestigious French and international museums, the exhibition retraces the history of emotions and their pictorial expression from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. The fruit of a collaboration between Georges Vigarello, historian and philosophy professor, and Dominique Lobstein, art historian, the exhibition provides a new perspective on these works by contextualizing their creation. Emotion, with its often intense reactions, is systematically present in the visual arts, where it is explored, sought out, and translated in a multitude of ways. Emotion is frequently the meaning behind many of these works, and is used to suggest the flesh and stimulate curiosity. All its ex ... More |
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| Honor Fraser opens a solo exhibition of experimental music, video, and sculpture by Surabhi Saraf | | Heralded Bob R. Simpson Collection returns for Heritage Auctions' Central States US Coins event | | Returning to Florence with 'the World's most opinionated guide' |
Installation image from Surabhi Sarafs exhibition, Awoke & Awokened: Alaap at Honor Fraser. Photo: Jeff McLane.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Honor Fraser is presenting Awoke & Awokened: Alaap, a solo exhibition of experimental music, video, and sculpture by Surabhi Saraf. Weaving together the alchemical materials of modern-day tech alongside the ancient technologies of earth, atmosphere, heat, and pressure, Saraf has developed a speculative mythology of AI. The work unfolds as a series of encounters with Awoke a mythical artificial emotional intelligence and its believers. Examining current developments in AI through an allegorical lens, Saraf embarks on an exercise of collective-myth making and leverages the lessons of Eastern philosophy and its spiritual practices to call for a reimagining of AI from a holistic and multitudinous point of view. The exhibitions subtitle, Alaap, references the introductory invocation in classical North Indian performance. Saraf draws upon her training as a Hindustani vocalist ... More | |
1930-S $20 MS65 PCGS.
DALLAS, TX.- For some collectors, the more fertile the mine, the greater the treasure within. Such is the case with Heritage Auctions' Central States US Coins Signature® Auction, one of the premier annual events for the most serious collectors of numismatics. This year's May 4-8 event is loaded with nearly 3,000 lots, many of which come directly from significant collections.
Long before he became part owner of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers, Bob R. Simpson owned XTO, previously Cross Timbers Oil Co. Simpson's collection has been ranked by Professional Coin Grading Service as one of the best ever amassed. "The Bob R. Simpson collection is as impressive in its quality as it is in its quantity of extraordinary rarities, which has allowed us to get to this, the eighth installment" said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. "What he has put together over the years is an assemblage of some of the best coins anywhere, many of which will become ... More | |
Donatello's David at the Museo del Bargello in Florence, Italy, in April 2022. Susan Wright/The New York Times.
by Perri Klass, M.D.
NEW YORK, NY.- Almost nobody comes to see Donatellos David in the Bargello, the first nude statue of the Renaissance, lamented Mary McCarthy in 1959 in The Stones of Florence, a masterpiece of American travel writing. A famously contrarian critic, she believed that Michelangelos David was overvalued, and, writing for a postwar generation of American travelers, wanted them to appreciate an earlier sculptural tradition. Certainly, few saw Donatellos David during these last two pandemic years, but he is having his moment now, just as travel restarts Florence, Italy, has opened a spectacular exhibition, which stars his creator. Donatello, The Renaissance will be in the Palazzo Strozzi and the Bargello Museum until July 31, and it is the kind of exhibition you might cross an ocean to see. The other once-in-a-lifetime moment in Florence ... More |
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| This is American history': The Hall of Fame reconsiders race | | Reyes │ Finn opens an exhibition of work by artist Maya Stovall | | Kohn Gallery announces representation of artist Jinbin Chen |
The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., April 30, 2021. The Hall has grappled with how to acknowledge the efforts by some of its inductees to uphold the color line. Shane Lavalette/The New York Times.
by Tyler Kepner
NEW YORK, NY.- Jackie Robinson lived only a decade as a Hall of Famer. He suffered from diabetes and died of a heart attack at age 53, in 1972. Robinson had integrated the major leagues a quarter-century before, and he never stopped striving for social justice. I marvel at how much this man did in such a short period of time, said Doug Glanville, a former major league outfielder and an ESPN analyst, who gave his son the middle name Robinson. He lived, like, five lifetimes. He was in his 50s when he passed away, and you sit there and go, How in the world did he do all this? How did he take all this on? Glanville teaches a class on sports and society at the University of Connecticut and ... More | |
Installation view of Maya Stovall: Reason/Razón, on view February 5 - March 13, 2022 at the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston. Photo: Francisco Ramos. Courtesy: the artist; Blaffer Art Museum, Houston; and Reyes | Finn, Detroit.
DETROIT, MICH.- Reyes | Finn is presenting Sail, the gallerys third solo presentation of work by artist Maya Stovall, on view from April 16May 28, 2022. On the heels of Stovalls solo presentation with Reyes | Finn at Art Basel Miami Beach 2021both the artists and the gallerys debut at the leading international art fairStovall will present five new, large-scale works from her ongoing neon sculpture series, A____that defies gravity (2019), continuing her investigation into space, time, cognition, and materiality, through the distillation of these formidable categories into the sleek minimal tubes of neon lights. A____that defies gravity reveals abstraction as urgent within the artists analytically dense practice. The varied colorways of glowing neon ... More | |
Jinbin Chen. Courtesy of Chai Saeidi.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Kohn Gallery announced the representation of Oslo-based, Chinese artist Jinbin Chen. This fall, Chen will hold his inaugural U.S. solo exhibition with Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. As an extension of himself, Jinbin Chens work narrates the encounter of bodies and asserts a permeability between the borders of life and art; the personal and impersonal. Chens focus lies in his own perceptions of the world, those which he sees as an instant source of inspiration, while simultaneously remaining open to the new, undiscovered perceptions that exist independent from ones own experiences. Chen depicts male subjecthood in various states of ecstasy, fragility, and vulnerability. Through his subjects, Chen uncovers a language of intimacy that excludes the sexually explicit, and rather, paints his own vocabulary of desire: a vernacular that absorbs a viewers gaze. In his portraiture, the masculine traverses a terrain o ... More |
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| Space Shuttle computer among Space Exploration items up for auction | | August Wilson African American Cultural Center renames 1839 Gallery to honor exhibition designer Victoria Renée Edwards | | Woody Auction announces highlights included in Antique Auction live and online, April 23 |
A Space Shuttle computer flown for twenty missions on four Orbiters.
BOSTON, MASS.- RR Auction's Spring Space and Aviation sale closes on April 21. This significant auction features over 700 items, ranging from the dawn of aviation to the commercial spaceflight of today. A large quantity of flown items featured in the sale includes; a Space Shuttle computer flown for twenty missions on four Orbiters. Built by IBM, the computer is comprised of two units: the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the Input/Output Processor (IOP). Between 1981 and 1991, these units flew on a combined twenty Space Shuttle missions aboard the Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis, beginning with STS-2 and ending with STS-40. They also flew together on four missions: STS-6, STS-7, STS-8, and STS-35. The decade-long use of these units, from the second Shuttle mission to the forty-first, effectively spans the entire time that this GPC configuration was standard. A major computer upgrade in 1991 consolidated the two boxes into a singl ... More | |
Victoria Renée Edwards. Photo: Emmai Alaquiva.
PITTSBURGH, PA.- The August Wilson African American Cultural Center announced today that it will rename the 1839 Gallery The Victoria Gallery in honor of Victoria Renée Edwards, who was instrumental in developing August Wilson: The Writers Landscape, the first-ever permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and works of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. As part of her work with Eisterhold Associates Inc., Ms. Edwards designed the exhibition and managed the project in concert with AWAACC and Constanza Romero-Wilson, Executive Director of the August Wilson Legacy LLC, and Chief Curator to the exhibit. Ms. Edwards passed away due to complications from Covid-19 while in the final stages of the exhibition design and installation. The gallery will be dedicated in her memory on Thursday, April 14, prior to the opening of August Wilson: The Writers Landscape on Saturday, April 16. "We were deeply saddened by the loss of our colleagu ... More | |
Plated amberina water pitcher by New England glass, 6 ½ inches tall by 6 ½ inches wide, flawless, boasting excellent color and in excellent condition, with twelve well-defined ribs.
DOUGLASS, KAN.- An Antique Auction brimming with more than 450 quality lots is planned for Saturday, April 23rd, at 9:30 am Central time by Woody Auction, online and live at the auction hall. An in-person gallery preview will be held on Friday, April 22nd, from 1 pm to 5 pm Central time. Woody Auctions modern, 5,000-square-foot auction hall is located at 130 East 3rd Street in Douglass, Kansas. This exciting auction has developed into a great selection of fantastic antiques from a multitude of small collections all over the country, said Jason Woody of Woody Auction. Tiffany, Daum, Stevens and Williams and Peachblow all have impressive highlights, along with Pickard Vellum and Rookwood pottery. The variety and quality are a real treat for any who have interest in these and so much more. Several items could conceivably end up being the top lot of the auction. Here are a few contenders: A ... More |
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Chu Teh-Chun's Splendid Diptych: Facing the Wind
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Celebrated artist-activist Roberto Lugo joins R & Company
NEW YORK, NY.- R & Company announced its representation of Roberto Lugo, an acclaimed Philadelphia-based artist, activist, and educator. Lugo is an innovative and visionary creator, who seamlessly bridges the realms of fine art and collectible design and brings a singularly contemporary perspective to centuries-old ceramic traditions. His practice, which spans ceramics, spoken-word poetry, and community-based projects, embraces the multitude of references that have shaped his life, from his Afro-Latino roots and upbringing in North Philadelphia to his engagement with Hip Hop culture and critical issues surrounding racial injustice. Over the past several years, Lugos intricate hand-made objects, which reimagine ceramics through the lens of 21st century street sensibility, have come to prominence through presentations ... More
War brings new iron curtain down on Russia's storied ballet stages
AMSTERDAM.- Just days after the invasion of Ukraine, Olga Smirnova, one of Russias most important ballerinas, posted an emotional statement on Telegram, the messaging app. I am against war with all the fibers of my soul, she wrote. I never thought I would be ashamed of Russia, she added, but now I feel that a line has been drawn that separates the before and the after. Thats certainly been true for Smirnova, 30. As the war got worse, and dissent in Russia was ruthlessly quashed, Smirnova, who had gone to Dubai to recover from a knee injury, realized that she could no longer return home. If I were to go back to Russia, I would have to completely change my opinion, the way I felt about the war, Smirnova said in a recent interview in Amsterdam, adding that returning would be, quite frankly, dangerous. So ... More
Marvin Chomsky, director of historical TV dramas, dies at 92
NEW YORK, NY.- Marvin Chomsky, an Emmy Award-winning director renowned for his work on historical dramas, including the blockbuster miniseries Roots and Holocaust, died March 28 in Santa Monica, California. He was 92. His son Eric confirmed the death, in hospice care in a retirement community. Chomsky had been directing episodic television for many years when he was hired as one of the four directors of Roots, the groundbreaking 12-hour series based on Alex Haleys book tracing his familys origins from an African village to enslavement in the United States. Shown on eight consecutive nights in January 1977, it drew spectacular ratings and won nine Emmys. Roots cinematographer Joseph Wilcots said in a Television Academy interview in 2007 that Chomsky was a brilliant director who always thought ... More
Extraordinary Louis Vuitton Virgil Abloh Steamer Trunk arrives at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, TX.- Louis Vuitton's traditional monogram coated canvas steamer trunk received a bold reimagining when Virgil Abloh created a version of the classic design for the luxury giant's Spring/Summer 2021 collection. Splashed with color and inspired by graffiti, the limited edition trunk stands as one of the trailblazing fashion designer's most recognizable pieces. And, with only a handful in existence, the trunk is also one of Abloh's most sought-after creations. On May 1, during its Spring Luxury Accessories Signature event, Heritage Auctions will offer bidders the rare opportunity to own a Louis Vuitton SS21 Virgil Abloh Malle Courrier Lozine 110 Steamer Trunk (estimate: $80,000-$100,000) a first for the auction house. "This extremely limited edition trunk is the perfect embodiment of Abloh's visionary creativity and seamlessly ... More
Bringing consent to ballet, one intimacy workshop at a time
GLASGOW.- The intensity of the choreography left visible marks on Bethany Kingsley-Garners body. On a recent afternoon in the Glasgow studios of Scottish Ballet, she was running through an upsetting scene in Kenneth MacMillans 1978 ballet Mayerling. Her character, Stephanie, is violently assaulted on her wedding night by her husband, Crown Prince Rudolf. As she was grabbed, thrown and lifted, Kingsley-Garners back, visible through a cutout in her leotard, grew increasingly red from the rough sometimes audibly so skin-to-skin contact. Just five weeks before that rehearsal, Kingsley-Garner, a principal dancer with Scottish Ballet, was still apprehensive about tackling the role her first since having a baby last summer. I felt that anxiety of being touched again, she said. I didnt feel like I was ready for the extreme ... More
Franz Mohr, piano tuner to the stars, is dead at 94
NEW YORK, NY.- Franz Mohr, who in his 24 years as chief concert technician for Steinway & Sons brought a musicians mindset to the mechanics of important pianos and the care of those who played them, died March 28 at his home in Lynbrook, New York, on Long Island, where he lived. He was 94. His son Michael, director of restoration and customer services at Steinway, confirmed the death. I play more in Carnegie Hall than anybody else, Mohr said in 1990, but I have no audience. Sometimes a string would snap or a pedal would need adjusting during a concert, and he would step into the spotlight for a moment. But he did much of his work alone, on that famous stage and others around the world. He might have been mistaken for a pianist trying out a 9-foot grand for a recital until he reached for his tools ... More
Alexander Skarsgard's Viking dream
LONDON.- In Alexander Skarsgards telling, the idea for what eventually became his latest film, The Northman, has its roots on a long, slender island off the coast of Sweden called Oland, where his great-great grandfather built a wooden house 100 years ago. Some of my earliest memories are from walking around with my grandfather on Oland and him showing me these massive rune stones and the inscriptions, he said on a recent rainy Monday over lunch at a hotel tucked away in central London. Telling tales of Vikings that sailed down the rivers, down to Constantinople. So, in a way, he continued, you could say that the dream of one day making or being part of a Viking movie was born in that moment. Wearing a gray crew-neck sweater and dark jeans, he was centuries away from the bloody, muddy berserker he plays in The ... More
'It's not only margaritas': The story of Cinco de Mayo in dance
NEW YORK, NY.- When Alberto López Herrera was growing up in the Mexican city of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo was celebrated on a small, ceremonial scale. There were school events, a military parade and historical reenactments on the holiday, which commemorates a battle fought in Puebla May 5, 1862. So when López moved to the United States in 1990, he was surprised at how Cinco de Mayo is celebrated here: the parties, the margaritas, the misconception that it is Mexican Independence Day. When Juan Castaño was growing up in Texas, his Mexican American family didnt celebrate Cinco de Mayo at all. It was only during and after college, when he started dancing with Mexican folkloric troupes, that he became interested in the holiday. We would get tons of performances around that date, he said recently. López ... More
Anna Netrebko, shunned in much of the West, to sing in Monte Carlo
NEW YORK, NY.- Anna Netrebko, the superstar soprano whose international career crumbled after the invasion of Ukraine because of her past support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, has been invited to sing in Monaco this month at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Netrebko was initially scheduled to sing the title role of Puccinis Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera in New York at the end of April, but the company, like many in the West, parted ways with her over concerns that she had failed to sufficiently distance herself from Putin after he began the war in Ukraine. Instead, Netrebko will now appear in Monaco, singing the title role in another Puccini opera, Manon Lescaut, in four performances at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the company announced on Thursday. They will be her first engagements since the invasion began ... More
David Cronenberg and Claire Denis will compete at Cannes Film Festival
LONDON.- Movies by David Cronenberg, Claire Denis and Park Chan-wook will compete for the Palme dOr at this years Cannes Film Festival, the events organizers announced Thursday. Films by previous winners Ruben Ostlund, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Cristian Mungiu will also be among the 18 titles in the running for the festivals top award, as will a movie by high-profile Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov. An initial lineup of nearly 50 movies that will play in this years festival was announced Thursday by Thierry Frémaux, Cannes artistic director, in an online news conference. The event will open its 75th edition May 17 with a comedy called Z (Comme Z) by Michel Hazanavicius, a French director best known for The Artist. The festival runs through May 28. Cronenbergs competition entry, Crimes of the Future, is his ... More
Christopher Moore, who rescued New York history, dies at 70
NEW YORK, NY.- In June 1991, Christopher Moores mother phoned him from North Carolina with bad news: An ancient family cemetery was being excavated in lower Manhattan by the federal government for an office building. The cemetery had been started long ago by Moores Native American ancestors and later became known as the Negroes Burying Ground. Will you find out for me if we have people in this burial ground? his mother asked him, as Moore, whose mother was Native American and father was Black, recalled in an essay in The New York Times in 2007. By training a journalist (he had worked in radio news), by avocation a historian and by nature a man of limitless curiosity, Moore promptly visited the site. When I was a child, my mother would tell me: Read if you want to learn a subject. But listen if you really want ... More
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PhotoGalleries
WHO ARE YOU: Australian Portraiture
Miró. His Most Intimate Legacy
The Wild Game
Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son
Flashback On a day like today, Mexican architect Pedro RamÃrez Vázquez was born April 16, 1919. Pedro RamÃrez Vázquez (April 16, 1919 - April 16, 2013) was a late twentieth century Mexican architect. He was born in Mexico City. He was persuaded to study architecture by writer and poet Carlos Pellicer. In this image: National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
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