| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Saturday, August 10, 2019 |
| | | Hidden mysteries lie in wait inside Kenya's fossil treasury | |
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Job Kibii, head of the National Museums of Kenya's paleontology department, shows different crocodile fossils at the Nairobi National Museum, in Nairobi on May 23, 2019. Between 7,000 and 10,000 new fossils arrive at the Nairobi National Museum's lab every year, Kibii says, overwhelming his 15 staff who must painstakingly clean and log each specimen into the system. By law, fossils uncovered in Kenya must go to the museum for "accessioning" -- the process of labeling, recording and storing for future generations. SIMON MAINA / AFP.
by Nick Perry
NAIROBI (AFP).- The only hint that something extraordinary lay inside the plain wooden drawer in an unassuming office behind Nairobi National Museum was a handwritten note stuck to the front: "Pull Carefully". Inside, a monstrous jawbone with colossal fangs grinned from a bed of tattered foam -- the only known remains of a prehistoric mega-carnivore, larger than a polar bear, that researchers only this year declared a new species. "This is one-of-a-kind," said Kenyan paleontologist Job Kibii, holding up the 23-million-year-old bones of the newly-discovered giant, Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, whose unveiling made headlines around the world. But the remarkable fossils were not unearthed this year, or even this decade. They weren't even found this century. For nearly 40 years, the specimens -- proof of the existence of Africa's largest-ever predator, a 1,500 kilogram (3,300-pound) meat eater that dwarfed later hunters like lions -- lived in a nondescript drawer in downtown Nairobi. Museum staff knew the bone ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day This aerial picture taken on August 4, 2019 shows the Carnac standing stones, a collection of Neolithic stones at a site in the city of Carnac, western France. The site has more than 10,000 Neolithic standing stones known as menhirs hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. Damien MEYER / AFP
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| | | Spellbinding Monet work worth £28 million at risk of export | | L.A. Louver announces the passing of the artist Nancy Reddin Kienholz | | Renowned Greek sculptor Takis dies at 93 |
Claude Monet's Le Palais Ducal sold for £27.5 Million / $36.2 Million at Sotheby's. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Arts Minister Rebecca Pow has placed a temporary export bar on Claude Monets Le Palais Ducal in the hope that a UK buyer can be found to keep the work in the country. Valued at £27,534,000 plus VAT of £706,800, the painting was completed following Monets 1908 visit to Italy with his second wife Alice. The work shows a sun-lit Doges Palace in Venice and its reflection in the water. Monet visited Venice as a respite from working on his famous water lily series and during the holiday he began to paint. The artist had anticipated a return to the city, however Alices failing health hindered the couple from returning to Venice in 1909. This meant that the Venetian series has a smaller number of completed canvasses and the images have a wider range of motifs compared to Monets other series of works. The artist worked on this particular canvas in situ during the 1908 visit but it is thought that the work was completed at his home ... More | |
Nancy Reddin Kienholz. Photo by Marsha Burns. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.
VENICE, CA.- L.A. Louver announced the passing of the artist Nancy Reddin Kienholz. She was 75 years of age, and died of complications from a recent illness in Houston, Texas. Nancy Reddin Kienholz was the collaborator, creative partner and fifth wife of American artist Edward Kienholz (1927-1994). Nearly inseparable since they met in 1972, Nancys independence, forthrightness and acerbic wit complemented Eds impassioned sense of moral justice and mischief. Friend and collector Monte Factor characterized their relationship as a loving, fighting, art-creating love affair that exceeded in intensity, fusion and consistency. Preceded by a reputation for being tough-minded, fiery and outspoken, Nancy was intensely loyal, loving and generous to friends and family. Red-haired, aloof, and equally quick to fire up a cigarette or a pithy retort, she could easily break into a pointed scowl, joyful laugh or a moment ... More | |
A file photo dated January 29, 2001 of Greek sculptor Takis posing in front of his artwork installed at Athens' metro station. Startos HAVALEZIS / AFP / Eurokinissi.
ATHENS (AFP).- World-renowned Greek sculptor Takis has died aged 93, his foundation said Friday, just as London's Tate Modern museum holds a major show of his work. The poised stalks, coloured lights and moving balls of Takis's creations made him a noted figure of the 20th-century "kinetic" art movement along with the US artist Alexander Calder. The Takis Foundation that promotes his work announced his death in a tribute to him on Facebook, without giving any details. It called him "a true pioneer, innovator and legend... A prolific and visionary mind, whose ingenuity, passion and imagination was endless". "Takis explored many artistic and scientific horizons, as well as music and theatre, and redefined the boundaries in art," it said. Takis was born Panagiotis Vassilakis in a suburb of Athens in 1925. In the 1940s he served in the Greek resistance to the Nazi occupation ... More |
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| | | Six female artists explore the complexities of life within and outside of Iran | | Guild Hall opens 'Ugo Rondinone: Sunny Days' | | Medieval bridge faces troubled waters in Belgium |
Malekeh Nayiny, Red Cloth, from the series Sketches of a Fractured Song, 2010. Chromogenic print. PurchaseJahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar En.
WASHINGTON, DC.- My Iran: Six Women Photographers will be on view at the Smithsonians Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Aug. 10 through Feb. 9, 2020. It is the latest in the museums ongoing exhibition series of contemporary Asian photography. Drawn from the museums growing collections, the works of these six female photographers, Hengameh Golestan, Newsha Tavakolian, Malekeh Nayiny, Shadi Ghadirian, Mitra Tabrizian and Gohar Dashti, present multiple visions of Iran that are largely unknown to American audiences. The works span a period of some 40 years, from the early days of the Iranian Revolution to the present, and offer a female perspective from inside and outside Iran. Sharing a visually poetic sensibility but diverse in scale and formatsome images are documentary, others are staged or manipulatedthe photographs acknowledge the past and confront the present and capture the photographers ... More | |
neunundzwanzigstermärzzweitausendund zwölf, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, plexiglass plaque with caption, 220 cm
EAST HAMPTON, NY.- Guild Hall presents works by the renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone in the exhibition, ugo rondinone: sunny days, featuring sun-themed sculpture and paintings, as well as a collaboration with area school children. The exhibition, which explores the sun as a motif and metaphor, is divided into three parts: paintings, sculptures, and a community art project. In a series of eight sun paintings, Rondinone references the radiance and universal symbolism of the sun. He incorporated this imagery in his work from 1991 to 2010, and uses canvas spray-painted with soft concentric yellow rings as a representation of the sun and the impossibility of seeing its form with the naked eye. The last never before assembled group of eight sun paintings will be installed in Guild Halls Woodhouse Gallery. A selection of large sun sculptures will be placed at alternating angles in Guild Halls Moran Gallery. ... More | |
Workers destroy with an engine the thirteen century bridge "Pont des Trous de Tournai" in Tournai. NICOLAS MAETERLINCK / BELGA / AFP.
TOURNAI.- The demolition of a historic bridge across a Belgian river is triggering fears among residents of Tournai that the city symbol will be disfigured permanently when a new span replaces it. The authorities insist they chose the most cost-effective option to build a new crossing that will allow larger barges to sail underneath while preserving the character of the medieval monument, known locally as the "bridge of holes". Workers pressed ahead on Friday with demolishing the arches which were rebuilt after World War II when British troops blew up the original span, along with Tournai's other bridges, to slow the Nazi invasion of Belgium in May 1940. Charles Deligne, curator of the city's military museum, confessed he felt "some anger" after the authorities rejected plans for a bypass canal and began demolishing the bridge a week ago. "I am also enormously disappointed because we missed a great opportunity," Deligne said, ... More |
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| | | Romania's 'Roma palaces', a status symbol for poor minority | | 2019 STOP Act: Flawed Indian art law would harm museums, businesses, and Native artists | | Restart of Notre-Dame restoration pushed back to August 19 |
This file photo taken on July 11, 2019 shows palaces belonging to Romanian Roma people in Buzescu village, southern Romania, on July 11, 2019. Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP.
BUZESCU (AFP).- With their soaring marble columns, turrets and pagoda-style roofs, elaborate mansions built by affluent Roma dot Romania's countryside in their thousands. Amid modest surroundings of fields or small towns, the so-called Roma palaces seem improbable, even outlandish, but reveal a quest for status within a marginalised and mostly poor minority. They began springing up in the early 1990s after the collapse of communism, when some in the Roma community came into money, they say, mostly by collecting and selling scrap iron or by doing petty trading. Now spread across one of the EU's poorest members, the imposing buildings, estimated to number several thousand, often stand several storeys high, as neighbours add floors to outdo one another. Decorative flourishes such as a US dollar sign or a German car brand logo ... More | |
National Museum of the American Indian, Washington.
SANTA FE, NM.- A third version of the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony (STOP) Act, (H.R. 3846 in the House) was introduced on July 18, 2019. Sponsor Senator Martin Heinrich, who introduced a parallel Senate bill (S.2165), says the STOP Act will prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural patrimony. Others vehemently disagree. ATADA, an art dealer, collector and museum organization, has advocated strongly for protecting sacred items and established a grass-roots, community-based program to return sacred objects to tribes. ATADA says that the bill will be disastrous for all businesses selling Native art across the country, for tourism in the Southwest, and for Native American artisans. We all want to halt illegal trafficking and bring sacred items back to tribes. Building ethical relationships with the tribes is an important part of ATADAs job. Its the foundation ... More | |
This file photo taken on July 25, 2019 shows the river Seine banks and the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris as a heat wave hits the French capital. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- Renovation work at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris could resume on August 19, a government official said Friday, after the clean-up was halted last month over fears that workers could be exposed to lead poisoning. Testing revealed dangerously high levels of lead contamination at the site as well as at nearby schools and other buildings, prompting fears that workers and residents risked exposure to the toxic metal. Hundreds of tonnes of lead in the roof and steeple melted during the April 15 blaze that nearly destroyed the gothic masterpiece, with winds spreading the particles well beyond the church's grounds. But after weeks of denying any poisoning risks, authorities admitted in late July that anti-contamination measures were insufficient, and two schools near the church were closed after hazardous lead levels were ... More |
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| | | Iraqi transforms Kalashnikov into musical instrument | | Iran cartoonists depict queen as 'pirate' after British ship seizure | | Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery opens an exhibition of works by painter Gareth Sansom |
Iraqi musician Majed Abdennour plays a custom-built lute made from a Kalashnikov assault rifle and an ammunition box. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP.
BAGHDAD.- It may sound as if Baghdad resident Majed Abdennour is playing the lute, but on closer inspection the Iraqi musician is clutching a repurposed Kalashnikov. Wearing a blue blazer and dark tie, Abdennour strummed the strings of his unusual instrument which has an ammunition case as a sound box. The Iraqi teacher in his fifties had the assault rifle at home to "protect" himself and his family during the worst years of sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital. From 2006 to 2008 militants and extremist Islamists ruled Baghdad, while Sunnis and Shiites hid behind closed doors in their respective communities. "All of a sudden, it was as if all the ties that had connected us didn't matter anymore, Iraq became a huge battleground, war was everywhere," said Abdennour. According to the Iraq Body Count database, more than 100,000 civilians were killed in the country between the 2003 US-led invasion and the withdrawal of ... More | |
People view caricatures at the "Pirates of the Queen" cartoon exhibition. ATTA KENARE / AFP.
TEHRAN (AFP).- An exhibition of cartoons has opened in Tehran portraying Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as a pirate, seen wielding a cutlass and sporting the skull-and-crossbones, after the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker. Historically strained ties between Tehran and London have worsened since British Royal Marines took part in the seizure of Iran's "Grace 1" oil tanker off the British overseas territory of Gibraltar on July 4. That was followed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seizing a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19 -- in what London called a "tit-for-tat" move. Forty cartoons have now gone on display in the "Pirates of the Queen" exhibition at the Osveh Art and Cultural Center in Tehran to throw the spotlight on the seizure of "Grace 1", which was denounced by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "piracy" by the "vicious British". One cartoon shows the queen dressed as a burglar in a black beanie and mask about to be caught in a net ... More | |
Gareth Sansom, THE, 2018. Oil and enamel on linen, 152 x 122 cm. Photo: Luis Power. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
SYDNEY.- Nearing 80 has done zero to impact on the sheer, almost terrifying, energy of painter Gareth Sansom. Like Oscar Wildes Dorian Gray, every year seems to rejuvenate this artist. Where many painters by his age have resorted to tropes and clichés, Sansom is lobbing painterly grenades at mortality, religion, sexuality, abstraction, figuration, cubism, vorticism and cultural history with an energy that throws hazardous sparks from the surface of the canvas, setting alight the immediate surroundings and sending viewers, collectors and critics alike into spinning reactions of delight, revolt, confusion and sheer admiration. Art Critic for The Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Sebastian Smee recently stated that If you dont know the work of Australias Gareth Sansom you are missing out on a painter working at full throttle one of the most exciting painters anywhere in the world at present. Its Now or Never captures ... More |
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Why Plague Doctors Wore Strange Masks
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Exhibition brings together for the first time works produced between 1966 and 1971 by Sérgio Sister
SAO PAULO.- Galeria Nara Roesler | São Paulo presents Sérgio Sister, Images of a Pop Youth Political Paintings and Prison Drawings, his fourth solo show at the gallery. With a presentation text by Camila Bechelany, the exhibition brings together for the first time a large number of works produced between 1966 and 1971, mostly unknown to the public, including drawings made during the 19 months the artist spent incarcerated at Tiradentes Prison in São Paulo, during the Brazilian military regime (19641985). The exhibition features 35 drawings, most of them using watercolor, pastel and pen on paper in varying dimensions and formats. Highly colorful, with caricature-like and psychedelic gestures, the drawings are a sort of documentation of the artists day-to-day life in prison. According to Sister, they were a kind of chronicle recording what was going on amongst ... More
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU presents an exhibition of artists' books
MIAMI, FLA.- The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, part of Florida International University, is presenting an original new exhibition. Spheres of Meaning: An Exhibition of Artists Books presents more than 30 works ranging from manipulated texts to new narrative forms. Spheres of Meaning, celebrates artists books by creatives who are either living in Miami or have called Miami home, including Purvis Young, Margarita Cano, Lydia Rubio, Diego Gutierrez, Carlos Macia, Jeannette Stargala, and Rosemarie Chiarlone. Spheres of Meaning celebrates the rich and varied talent of artists living in Miami, alongside other artists who once called the city home, but whose books remain tied to the cultural fabric here. Seven of the artists in Spheres of Meaning will be creating entirely new work, thanks to support from Oolite Arts. These spheres present philosophical ... More
French actor Alain Delon recovers in Switzerland after stroke: family
PARIS (AFP).- Legendary French actor Alain Delon, 83, suffered a stroke a few weeks ago and is currently "resting" in Switzerland, his eldest son Anthony Delon told AFP on Thursday. In a text, his son said the actor's vital functions were "perfect and his condition stabilised, according to doctors". The actor known for his roles in films such as "The Swimming Pool" and "Purple Noon", received an honorary Palme d'Or award at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in May. His son said Delon was operated on at a hospital in Paris, where he stayed three weeks in intensive care. "The whole family took turns at his bedside, my brother, my sister and my mother Nathalie," Anthony Delon said. He added that his father "went back to Switzerland and is resting quietly in a clinic". "My sister who now resides in Switzerland, is following his recovery closely and keeps ... More
Japan man held over fax threat to 'comfort woman' exhibit
TOKYO (AFP).- A Japanese man has been arrested for allegedly sending a threatening fax to an exhibition that featured a controversial depiction of South Korean wartime sex slaves, police said Friday. The exhibition in Aichi prefecture was dedicated to showing works censored elsewhere but was shut down last week after just three days following safety fears. It featured a statue of a girl in traditional Korean clothes symbolising "comfort women", who were forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels during World War II. The suspect allegedly sent a fax to organisers that read: "Remove the statue immediately. Otherwise, we internet citizens will visit the museum carrying a gasoline container." His threat evoked an arson attack on an animation studio in Kyoto that killed 35 last month. The 59-year-old was arrested for "obstructing the event by force", a police spokesman told AFP. ... More
UK museums loan nearly 450,000 objects across the globe
LONDON.- Almost 450,000 items from 17 national museums in the UK were on loan to a global network of museums, galleries and institutions last year, a new report has revealed. The National Museums Partnership Report shows that in total, the items loaned were seen by more than 33 million visitors, and informed more than 1300 research projects with partner institutions. The national museums in the UK hold world-class collections, amounting to around 275 million objects, and are some of the most generous lending institutions in the world. In the UK alone, over 750 regional museums and galleries benefited from the national museums lending of more than 60,000 items, a critical part of the two way partnerships that exist across the sector. In turn these were seen by more than 18.5 million visitors, delivering a welcome boost to local economies. The loans ... More
designjunction and Rado announce the shortlist for this year's Rado Star Prize UK
LONDON.- For the third edition of the Rado Star Prize UK, a new generation of young designers from across the UK submitted a range of forward-thinking projects from the interior, industrial and technology design industries. The judging was presided over by a panel of high profile industry voices including: top British designer Steuart Padwick; Editor at Elle Decoration, Ben Spriggs; Editor-in-Chief at Clippings, Rose Etherington; Vice President of Product at Rado, Hakim El Kadiri and designjunction Event Director, Mark Gordon. Responding to this years theme Re:Imagine, designers submitted innovative, cutting-edge design pieces in projects that ranged from asthma inhalers to re-purposed bicycles, hearing devices to educational toys. The theme was realised through the different ways in which design can improve life: by evolving existing product forms through ... More
Birmingham Museum of Art opens immersive Barbie exhibition
BIRMINGHAM, AL.- The Birmingham Museum of Art announces its exhibition, Barbie: Dreaming of a Female Future, an immersive experience where visitors can explore their relationship with Barbie through a reimagined, modern dream house. The exhibition will be open free of charge to the public on August 10th and will run through January 26, 2020. Barbie: Dreaming of a Female Future takes a critical look at Barbie on the occasion of her 60th anniversary. In the past six decades, Barbies many careers and enduring independence have influenced the dreams and imaginations of young people around the world. At the same time, her impossible appearance and physique promoted narrow and unattainable body ideals. This exhibition is intended to celebrate imagination and ambition while acknowledging Barbies role in perpetuating unrealistic ... More
Joslyn Art Museum announces new Associate Curator of Native American Art
OMAHA, NE.- Joslyn Art Museum announces the appointment of Annika K. Johnson, Ph.D., as the Museum's new associate curator of Native American art. She specializes in nineteenth-century Native American art and exchange with Euro-Americans, with a focus on the Upper Midwest. Dr. Johnson grew up in the Twin Cities Dakota homelands called Mni Sota Makoce and received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pittsburgh. Building relationships with Native communities and employing decolonizing strategies have been critical to her research and curatorial practice. In spring 2018, Joslyn received a significant grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish this new position, charged with expanding the visual narrative and didactic program for Joslyns historic and contemporary Indigenous collections. The foundation funding supports ... More
Weedmaps Museum of Weed opens in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Building on its long-standing commitment to combat the stigma associated with cannabis, and to help shed light on the important social justice issues surrounding marijuana, Weedmaps opened the Weedmaps Museum of Weed in Hollywood, California. Today in the United States, someone is arrested for non-violent possession of cannabis every 48 seconds, said Chris Beals, CEO of Weedmaps. Thats over 650,000 arrests annually, consuming hundreds of millions of dollars and resources from law enforcement efforts. There has been too little discussion of the role that the prohibition played in a number of historical and ongoing social injustices. The 30,000 square-foot Weedmaps Museum of Weed is meticulously curated with interactive exhibits, art installations, historical artifacts and more, aiming to shed light ... More
Los Angeles Nomadic Division announces new Executive Director
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Los Angeles-based public art non-profit organization LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) announced the appointment of Laura Hyatt as its new Executive Director. After an extended search, Hyatt, who was a founding staff member of LAND in 2010, and later Associate Director, was ultimately chosen for the Executive Director post. She returns to LAND in this new role after 3 successful and innovative years at the Hammer Museum where she oversaw the museums membership program as well as other fundraising initiatives including the Hammer Circle, the patron group which provides funding for the Made in L.A. biennial. She additionally conceived of and launched the Hammer Collective, a young patrons group which supports the Hammer Project exhibition series and organized the museums annual family fundraiser K.A.M.P. ... More
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Flashback On a day like today, The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the U.S. Congress August 10, 1846. The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, and licensing activities. In this image: "The Castle," the building on the National Mall that is home to the Smithsonian's administration, is seen. Photo: Smithsonian Institution
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