| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Saturday, May 30, 2020 |
| | | Roman villa's mosaics are unearthed, again, a century after last dig | |
|
|
A perfectly preserved ancient Roman mosaic floor that has been discovered near the northern Italian city of Verona, almost a century after the remains of a villa, believed to date to the 3rd century AD, were unearthed in a hilly area above the town of Negrar di Valpolicella. Nearly 100 years after the last excavation, a state-funded effort began last year to try to find the long-lost mosaics. Superintendence of Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona, Rovigo and Vicenza via The New York Times.
by Elisabetta Povoledo
ROME (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Italian archaeologists have again unearthed the well-preserved, colorfully patterned mosaic floors of an ancient Roman villa in a vineyard that was last excavated nearly a century ago and then lost to public memory. The site, near Verona in northern Italy, was known to scholars through photographs taken during an earlier archaeological campaign, in 1922. But the villa was reburied at the time and effectively forgotten. But not to archaeologists. Nearly 100 years after the last excavation, a state-funded effort began last year to try to find the long-lost mosaics. At first, it was a bit hit or miss, because the archaeologists who worked a century ago had not fixed the precise coordinates of the villas location, according to Gianni de Zuccato, ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A woman wearing the face mask look at a piece as part of the exhibition of British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner 'Turner - Paintings and watercolours from the Tate' at the Jacquemart-Andre Museum, on the first day of the reopening in Paris on May 26, 2020, as France eases lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
|
|
|
|
|
| | Paris Louvre museum to reopen July 6 after virus closure | | Hauser & Wirth announces worldwide representation of the Estate of Sophie Taeuber-Arp | | No touch, no hands-on learning, for fow, as museums try to reopen |
In this file photo taken on April 2, 2020 a security man guards the main entrance of the Louvre Museum in Paris. THOMAS COEX / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The Louvre museum in Paris, home to the Mona Lisa, is to reopen on July 6 after the government allowed French museums and historic sites to reopen their doors following the coronavirus shutdown, it said Friday. France is to further ease restrictions imposed to combat the virus from Tuesday but it will only be in July that many top museums and attractions reopen, although some plan to do so in June. Culture Minister Franck Riester confirmed Friday that wearing a mask would be obligatory for visiting a museum in France while some will have to impose prior reservation systems to avoid a heavy influx of visitors. "The implementation of a reservation system as well as new signs will allow us to offer maximum safety to our visitors, in addition to wearing a mask and respecting social distancing," the Louvre said in a statement. It added that online reservations for visiting the Louvre when it reopens on July 6 would open ... More | |
Sophie Taeuber-Arp with Dada-Head, Zurich, Switzerland, 1920. Photo: Nic Aluf. © Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth. Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth.
NEW YORK, NY.- Iwan Wirth, President of Hauser & Wirth, today announced worldwide representation of the Estate of Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Hauser & Wirths first exhibition devoted to Taeuber-Arp launches online on 11 June, followed by an exhibition in New York in 2021. This online exhibition presents 30 works dating from 1916 to 1942, alongside photography and material from the Arp Foundation (Stiftung Arp e.V.) archives, which shows the scope of Taeuber-Arps vision. Taeuber-Arp will be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition which opens in March 2021 at Kunstmuseum Basel in Taeuber-Arps native Switzerland. Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction will tour to Tate Modern in London, where it will be the first-ever survey of the artists work in the United Kingdom, and to MoMA in New York, the artists first major US exhibition in nearly 40 years. Sophie ... More | |
An exhibit on cyber intelligence at the new building for the International Spy Museum in Washington, on May 5, 2019. Touch screens like these pose a problem for museums during the coronavirus pandemic. Justin T. Gellerson/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- On a normal day at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum, giddy children line up to get a chance to be enclosed in a compact capsule capable of blasting off into space or to feel the stomach-turning lurch of operating a fighter jet. Nowadays, just the idea of their children in such touchy-feely spaces is enough to evoke a good deal of cringing by parents: the joysticks, the virtual reality goggles, the seat belts all shared by dozens of tourists who have passed through. So in the second week of March, one day before the museum itself closed because of the coronavirus, its leaders shut down one of the institutions most popular and germ-covered attractions: flight simulators and virtual-reality ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | 'Genius' or 'amoral'? Artist's latest angers Indigenous Canadians | | Robert Mapplethorpe's 'Lisa Lyon' leads Fine Photographs sale at Swann Galleries | | Hindman's Spring Fine Art Sales exceed estimates and break records |
The artist Kent Monkman in his Toronto studio in December 2019. The Canadian Cree artist is celebrated for paintings that reflect the lives of Indigenous people, but some feel his new work goes too far. Aaron Wynia/The New York Times.
by Catherine Porter
TORONTO (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Many First Nations, Metis and Inuit Canadians consider Justin Trudeau, after more than four years as prime minister, as little better than the other white colonial leaders who have oppressed them for the past 150 years. His only indigenous Cabinet minister quit and his government approved pipelines across indigenous territory, despite dissent and protests. But still, that sentiment had not prepared even some of Trudeaus sharpest critics for a painting by the celebrated Canadian Cree artist, Kent Monkman. Titled Hanky Panky, Monkmans painting depicts the prime minister on his hands and knees with his pants down as a crowd of indigenous women looks on, laughing. Behind him is the artists alter ego, wearing knee-high ... More | |
Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon, oversize silver print, one of an edition of one, 1980 (detail). Estimate $30,000 to $40,000.
NEW YORK, NY.- On Thursday, June 11, Swann Galleries will hold a sale of Fine Photographs that features twentieth-century masterworks, landscapes, feminist and Latin American photographers, as well as pop photographica. Leading the sale is Robert Mapplethorpes oversize study Lisa Lyon, silver print, 1980. The work is one from an edition of one and is a key image from the series on which Mapplethorpe and Lyon collaborated. The image is expected to bring $30,000 to $45,000. Also by Mapplethorpe is Self-Portrait with Whip, from the X Portfolio, silver print, 1978, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. Additional twentieth-century masterworks include Michael Halsbands iconic 1985 silver print, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, a portrait of the two artists in boxing attire ($20,000-30,000). Malick Sidibés, A suite of 7 chemisesmade at various Bamako, Mali celebrations, clubs, and happenings, 1969-70, shows a range of intimate p ... More | |
The top lot of the auction was Bob Thompsons 1961 ambiguously allegorical painting The Sack (The Snook) which saw fiercely competitive bidding from all sectors and ultimately sold on the telephone for $212,500, more than ten times the strategically conservative $20,000 to 30,000 estimate.
CHICAGO, IL.- Hindman Auctions hosted a series of Fine Art sales last week, realizing $3.4 million overall, beating presale estimates and setting two new global auction records. Incredibly high interest and participation, as well as extremely competitive bidding, drove top results with bidders on the telephones and on four online bidding platforms. We were delighted to, yet again, offer record breaking works of art in our Post War and Contemporary Art auction at Hindman, said Joe Stanfield, Hindmans Senior Specialist and Director of Fine Art. This week of Fine Art sales was a great success, and we were thrilled to see such high engagement and top results across the board. Works by the Chicago Imagists and the Hairy Who continue to bring strong prices on the secondary market. Post War and Contemporary Art, May 21st, ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | 'More Blue': An artwork shows the sea changing during lockdown | | 'Dark days' for Venice gondola makers | | National Geographic plan to dismantle granite sculpture hits snag |
Territorial AgencyOceans in Transformation commissioned by TBA21-Academy. The rapid depletion of the coastal ecosystems of the Mississippi Delta, combined with sea level rise scenarios. © Territorial Agency.
by Nina Siegal
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- What impact does human behavior have on Earths waters? Two London-based architects, working with scientists and environmentalists, attempted to create a visual answer to that question for an art exhibition in Italy. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the 30-screen multichannel media installation was scheduled to open in March at the Ocean Space art center in the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice. The installation, Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation, created by John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Ronnskog, would have featured works bringing together many streams of data on activity in the worlds oceans animal migration patterns, deep-sea mining, shipping routes, fishing to create what the two architects call dynamic ... More | |
Venetian gondola manufacturer, Roberto Dei Rossi poses by gondolas under construction at his boatyard in Venice. MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP.
by Francesco Gilioli with Franck Iovene in Rome
VENICE (AFP).- Already under threat, Venice's traditional gondola shipyards now lie silent apart from the gentle sound of canal water lapping at their doorsteps. When Italian master Canaletto was painting his panoramas of the floating city in the 18th century, the "squeri", as they are known, were ten a penny. Now only four of the small shipyards remain. All of them have been at a near or complete standstill since a blanket ban on sailing gondolas was imposed during the coronavirus pandemic. "Venice without gondolas is dark and meaningless," said Roberto Dei Rossi, one of the few remaining traditional carpenters who build the long black boats. The 58-year-old crafts between four and five gondolas a year by hand, each one taking some 400 hours to make. "Every time I put a new one into the water, it's like witnessing a birth. It's my creation," he told AFP. ... More | |
A photo provided by Elyn Zimmerman Studio shows "Marabar" by Elyn Zimmerman outside the headquarters of the National Georgraphic Society in Washington. Elyn Zimmerman Studio via The New York Times.
by Rebecca J. Ritzel
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A District of Columbia preservation panel told the National Geographic Society on Thursday to suspend its current campus redesign plan pending further review of the proposed removal of an acclaimed sculptural installation on the site. Under the ruling by the Historic Preservation Review Board, the society must return and answer questions about its plan to dismantle Marabar, a water-and-stone installation by Elyn Zimmerman, which was added to its Washington campus in 1984. The board chairwoman, Marnique Heath, told the society to present its plan again and to strongly consider retaining the sculpture in some form, possibly relocating it somewhere on the site as part of a new concept, or if not, why that is not at all possible. The ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | A composer and her (very) long string instrument | | John Nicholson's to offer de Vlaminck's personal tribute to founder of Surrealism | | Marc Straus now represents Xi Zhang |
Sound artist Ellen Fullman plays her creation, The Long Instrument, in her studio in Berkeley, Calif., May 22, 2020. Erin Brethauer/The New York Times.
by Kerry OBrien
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Like most people these days, sound artist Ellen Fullman is sheltering in place. But she has an unusual roommate: a massive installation she calls the Long String Instrument. Filling the ground floor of her home in Berkeley, California, the instrument forms a corridor of tautly suspended horizontal wires, 45 1/2 feet long. Flanked by 20 strings on each side, her fingers coated in rosin, Fullman, 62, walks a central aisle while rubbing the strings lengthwise, conjuring thrumming minimalist drones and quickly shifting overtones. The Long String Instrument is an installation that I really have been working on my entire adult life, Fullman said by phone recently. Starting from something that was very raw: just one string, and more of a noisy thing. But I saw potential for it in musical tone. ... More | |
Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958), Figure walking on a tree-lined country road, signed, in a hand carved frame. Inscribed to the reverse: A André Breton, Amicalement, Vlaminck. 50 x 61cm. Estimate: £10,000-15,000.
HASLEMERE.- John Nicholsons will offer this landscape by Maurice de Vlaminck dedicated by the artist to the poet and writer André Breton, founder of Surrealism in their June 12 fine art sale in Fernhurst. Alongside Henri Matisse and André Derain, de Vlaminck is considered a leader of the Fauve movement, and the dedication is inscribed in his own hand to the back of the canvas. It comes to auction as a family heirloom inherited by the consignor in 1981 and has an estimate of £10,000-15,000. The highlight also marks a new era at the auctioneers as they welcome Philip Maggs as the new head of their fine art department. He has spent over 20 years as the buyer and agent for two successful international art galleries specialising in British and European paintings from the 18th century to the mid-20th century, and ... More | |
Xi Zhang, The White Collars, 2020 (detail). Acrylic on canvas, 60 s 72 inches (152.4 x 182.9 cm).
NEW YORK, NY.- Marc Straus is proud to announce the representation of Xi Zhang. Xi Zhangs vibrant paintings manifest the psychological weight experienced in moments of turmoil and tribulations. In his oneiric narratives, melancholia is a familiar companion overbearing landscapes and foreboding atmospheres suppress his lonely protagonists, obscuring the delineation of fantasy and reality. His most recent body of work focuses on scenes depicting working class people in dreamlike static. In The White Collars commuters stand side-by-side, made anonymous and cut off from one another by white cone collars like those put on a dog after surgery. In The Blue Collars commuters ride a bus together, depicted as anonymous ghostly white figures tethered by bright blue leashes. The scene is surreal and dystopian but lively and saturated with color. Zhang says this comes from the dissonance between the notion of the American Dream he ... More |
|
Exhibition Tour---Photography's Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection
|
|
| |
| | More News |
Netflix acquires Hollywood's historic Egyptian Theatre
LOS ANGELES, CA (AFP).- Netflix completed its purchase of Hollywood's historic Egyptian Theatre on Friday, helping to confirm the streaming giant's newfound central position in the movie industry. The Los Angeles theater built in 1922 claims to have hosted Hollywood's first ever movie premiere -- "Robin Hood" -- and will be used by Netflix for movie premieres as well as screenings and special events. "The Egyptian Theatre is an incredible part of Hollywood history and has been treasured by the Los Angeles film community for nearly a century," said Netflix film head Scott Stuber in a statement confirming the deal. Netflix, which did not reveal the size of its investment, will run the venue jointly with the nonprofit American Cinematheque, which bought the dilapidated theater from city officials in 1996 and renovated it two years later. The Egyptian Theatre's ... More
Compton Verney reopens its grounds from 2 June
COMPTON VERNEY.- Following the latest Government advice on coronavirus Compton Verney announced that it will reopen its 120 acres of Grade II-listed Lancelot 'Capability' Brown parkland from Tuesday 2 June. The top priority is health and safety of visitors and staff and so they will be doing everything possible to ensure all Government social distancing measures are followed. The park is only open for Members, local pass holders and the one-off grounds pass holders, at this stage People are welcome to visit in groups of no larger than 6 people and must maintain social distancing at all times in the grounds Some areas of the park will be closed in accordance with the Government and Public Health England guidelines this includes the play area, sand pits, bird hide etc (full details on the website) Safe visiting guidelines will be in place and ... More
Crescent City Auction Gallery to hold two-day Important Summer Estates Catalog auction
NEW ORLEANS, LA.- Beautiful oil on canvas paintings by French artists Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927) and Theodule Augustin Ribot (1823-1891), and a stunning platinum engagement ring with a 3.83-carat emerald-cut diamond, are just a few of the expected top lots in Crescent City Auction Gallerys auction, scheduled for June 13th and 14th. The Important Summer Estates Catalog Auction features more than 700 quality lots in a variety of collecting categories. Start times both days are 10 am Central. The gallery, at 1330 St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, will be open for exhibition beginning Thursday, June 4th, from 10-5, by appointment only (excluding Sunday). A live Saturday preview will be held on June 4th, from 9am to 1pm, also by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, you may call 504- ... More
Lincoln Center's artistic leader to leave after three decades
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Jane Moss, who has guided Lincoln Centers artistic programming for nearly 30 years, will step down in August, she announced on Friday. Moss, 67, said in an interview that the coronavirus pandemic presented the opportunity to make a decision she had been considering even before the outbreak, which has wiped out the cultural calendar for months and threatens to curtail the centers budget and ambitions for years to come. What this pause created was the space, she said. And now is the obvious time. The center, Americas largest performing arts complex, is best known for its constituent organizations, like the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet. But it also presents over 200 of its own events each year, through festivals and series that include Great Performers, the summertime Mostly ... More
Coveted collections featured at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates June Premier Americana Auction
MT. CRAWFORD, VA.- Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates will present its 38th Semi-Annual Premier Americana Auction to be held June 26 & 27, 2020. The two-day event features historic property from estates and collections in California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Texas, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ohio, plus museum deaccessions. With nearly 1,200 lots of high-quality material, the sale is sure to generate excitement in the collecting community, providing a gauge for the current market across multiple categories. Day One, beginning at 9:30 am EST on Friday, June 26, 2020 will kick the weekend off with a special single-owner session of a fine upstate New York private collection. The diverse offerings, assembled over the past 50 years, include a wide range of American furniture, fraktur, folk and fine art, Shaker material, ... More
Kerlin Gallery, Alexander and Bonin, and Galerie Peter Kilchmann present a new film by Willie Doherty
DUBLIN.- ENDLESS features the actor Christopher Eccleston in the role of a solitary, unnamed man, dressed in the plainest of plain clothes, encountered in the most basic of architectural environments, an empty building with bare brick walls and bare board floors. Dohertys script, delivered with such precisely measured anguish by Eccleston, reveals the private thoughts of a single, tormented mind. The script is the testimony of a spectre: an impossible, post-mortem statement, a ghost story. These are recollections from beyond reality from beyond lifes definitive end but they have, at the same time, a real-life dimension, echoing contemporary and historical events. Over the past decade Dohertys scenes and stories have often involved characters tethered to the past, whose thoughts and actions endlessly return them to the sadness, ... More
Uzbekistan auctions off landmark Soviet-era hotel
TASHKENT (AFP).- Uzbekistan has sold a controlling stake in its most famous hotel to a firm based in Singapore as Tashkent tries to breathe new life into the Soviet-era Brutalist landmark. The sale of Hotel Uzbekistan, which once featured regularly on postcards of the capital, comes as the central Asian country seeks to draw foreign investment and tourists. Singapore-based Bashan Investment Group has acquired 80 percent of the huge hotel for $23.2 million in a competitive auction, Uzbekistan's state assets management agency said this week. The state will retain a minority stake. The company plans to invest nearly $40 million in modernising the 17-floor hotel over the next year and a half, it said. Terms of the tender require that the building's facade remain unchanged for the next 10 years however. Many ordinary Uzbeks welcomed the sale. ... More
Nationalmuseum Sweden to reopen June 16
STOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum will reopen to visitors under controlled conditions starting on June 16. To make this possible, the premises have been inspected measures taken to ensure compliance with the Public Health Agency of Sweden's social distancing recommendations. The restaurant and the shop will open at the same time as the museum. All lectures, public tours, workshop activities and booked group tours are cancelled until further notice and some changes to the summer and autumn exhibition programmes have been necessary. The exhibition Zorn A Swedish Superstar is postponed until February 18, and Snowcrash until March 18 of next year. The Migrants exhibition at Gripsholm Castle is postponed until next summer. The exhibition Pär Engsheden and Sara Daniuss Nobel Gowns, already in place waiting for the museum to reopen ... More
Apollo 11 flight plan signed by Neil Armstrong to take off in Heritage Space Exploration Auction
DALLAS, TX.- For years, countless people wondered whether humans could reach and land on the moon. Now a copy of the flight plan for the mission that answered that question once and for all a copy signed by the first man to set foot on the moon will be featured in Heritage Auctions Space Exploration Auction June 5 in Dallas, Texas. Apollo 11: NASA "Final Apollo 11 Flight Plan AS-506 / CSM-107 / LM-5" July 1, 1969-dated Book Signed by Neil Armstrong to Los Angeles Times Aerospace Editor Marvin Miles, with Crew-Signed Lunar Surface Color Photo, in Framed Display (estimate: $40,000+) is an absolute rarity that Armstrong signed and gave to Miles, who as one of the countrys top space journalists was something of a celebrity in his own right. Miles, who died in 1994, was described in his obituary in the Times as someone who ...flew with Howard ... More
Natural History Museum launches 3D virtual tour technology
LONDON.- The Natural History Museum is one of London's most iconic venues. Its magnificent architecture and awe-inspiring collections create the perfect backdrop for any event. From informal and intimate to creative and spectacular, the Museum's variety of spaces suits any corporate event private party or wedding. The online tool not only allows clients to see the inside of the Museums iconic building, which is otherwise currently inaccessible, but also view spaces from 360o angles. During the tour, clients can gain inspiration with images of the spaces exquisitely transformed at previous events, from fashion shows to weddings, including details such as bar or dining set ups. Robert Wetherell, Head of Events and Catering at the Natural History Museum, said: Tools like this can help transform the venue hire industry at this difficult time when ... More
|
|
PhotoGalleries
Susan Rothenberg (1945 Â 2020)
Southern Light
Art After Stonewall
Helmut Newton
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Robert Ryman was born May 30, 1930. Robert Ryman (born May 30, 1930 - February 8, 2019) was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. He lived and worked in New York City. In this image: Robert Ryman, Untitled, signed and dated 61; signed four times and dated 61 three times on the overturned left edge, oil on canvas, 48 3/4 x 48 3/4 in. 123.7 x 123.7 cm. Est. $15/20 million. Photo: Sotheby's.
|
|
| |
|
