| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Sunday, February 11, 2024 |
| | | To make blockbuster shows, museums are turning to focus groups | |
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A sculpture of Emperor Hadrian, left, and other artifacts from Legion: Life in the Roman Army, at the British Museum in London on Jan. 26, 2024. To shape its new show about life in the Roman Army, the British Museum put questions to members of the public. Other institutions are also using the same technique. (Andrew Testa/The New York Times)
by Alex Marshall
LONDON.- In January 2023, 14 members of the British public entered a wood-paneled room in the back of the British Museum for a secret presentation. They were there to learn about an exhibition still in development, which the museum wanted kept under wraps. On screen in a prerecorded video, the museums curator of Roman and Iron Age coins, Richard Abdy, outlined his plans for a show about life in the Roman Empires army. The exhibition would take visitors from a soldiers recruitment to his retirement, he said, and would feature hundreds of objects, including the armor that warriors wore on the battlefield and letters they wrote home to their families. When the presentation was finished, a staff member from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, a company that runs focus groups, asked the museumgoers for their thoughts on aspects of Abdys plan, including which types of artifacts the museum should show, how they should be arranged and even how much entry should cost. Most of the partici ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The National Gallery of Victoria and the Victorian Government announced that the third NGV Triennial has welcomed more than 600,000 visitors since it opened on 3 December 2023, putting it on track to become one of the institutionâs most popular exhibitions.
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| Heritage Auctions, Planet Hollywood team up in March to offer more than 1,600 treasures spanning movie history | | 130-year-old California bookstore seeks buyer | | Christie's will offer painting by Monet aat auction for the first time in 45 years |
Jurassic Park (Universal, 1993), Velociraptor Head Maquette.
DALLAS, TX.- Fantasy For the Price of a Burger, read The New York Times headline on Oct. 23, 1991, the morning after Planet Hollywood made its star-studded splash on West 57th Street. Every A-lister in Hollywoods alphabet was there for the restaurants opening night, where Capn Crunch-encrusted chicken tenders were served alongside one of Judy Garlands test costumes from The Wizard of Ozand a life-sized Terminator and countless more props and costumes. Among their illustrious ranks were Planet Hollywoods initial shareholders: Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Years later, a gossip columnist told Esquire the scene that night was a madhouse. More than 30 years after that first grand opening, and with more locations planned in coming months, Heritage Auctions announced a five-day event celebrating film history, 1980s and ... More | |
Joel Sheldon III, the third generation of his family to guide VRomans Bookstore, which was founded in 1894, in Pasadena, Calif., Feb. 6, 2024. (Daniel Dorsa/The New York Times)
by Robin Pogrebin
PASADENA, CALIF.- Dawn Levesque, 77, goes to learn about World War II. Heidi Barnett, 43, a mother of two, comes to buy presents for her children. Justin Beblawi, 25, has visited since he was a kid and now goes to work there as a clerk. For people of all ages in Pasadena, California, Vromans Bookstore, founded in 1894, has been a mainstay, a meeting place, a reliable sanctuary in a world of rapid change. When its founder, Adam Clark Vroman, died in 1916, he left the bookstore to his godson, Alan Sheldon, a Vromans employee. The current chair and majority shareholder, Joel Sheldon III, 79, is the third generation of his family to guide the company and has been at the helm for more than 45 years. Now, ... More | |
Claude Monet, Matinée sur la Seine, temps net (1897, estimate: £12,000,000 - 18,000,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.
LONDON.- Christies will offer Claude Monets Matinée sur la Seine, temps net (1897, estimate: £12,000,000-18,000,000) at auction for the first time in 45 years. A leading highlight of the 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale on 7 March, this magnificent painting captures a tranquil moment on the Seine, the morning light casting an iridescent glow across the scene. Matinée sur la Seine, temps net dates to an important period in Monets practice during which time he began to serialise his motifs, a technique that would ultimately transform his art. Last seen at exhibition in 1990 when it was included in Monet in the 90s: The Series Paintings (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Art Institute of Chicago and Royal Academy of Arts, London), Matinée sur la Seine, temps net will be displayed at Christies in New York from ... More |
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| Christie's to offer the only portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Pauline Boty in private hands | | Perrotin opens the eighth solo exhibition by Johan Creten at the gallery | | Ai Weiwei's 'Zodiac' is a mystical memory tour |
Pauline Boty, Epitaph to Somethings Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.
LONDON.- Christies will offer Pauline Botys celebratory tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Somethings Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000), as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 20 March. The painting was gifted to a close friend of Botys in 1964 and has remained in the same collection since. One of Pop Arts founding members, Pauline Boty died prematurely at the age of 28 in 1966. Epitaph to Somethings Gotta Give is one of only around 25 Pop paintings that Boty created and was included in a rare lifetime exhibition at Arthur Jeffress Gallery in London in 1962. Boty painted two further depictions of Monroe as tributes to the actress following her death, both of which are held in museum collections: Colour Her Gone, 1962 (Wolverhampton Art Gallery) and The Only Blond in the World, 1963 (Tate, London). Epitaph to Somethings Gotta Give will be on view in ... More | |
View of Johan Creten's exhibition 'How to explain the Sculptures to an Influencer?' at Perrotin Matignon, Paris, 2024. Photo: Tanguy Beurdeley ©Johan Creten/ADAGP, Paris, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
PARIS.- Perrotin is presenting How to explain the Sculptures to an Influencer?, the eighth solo exhibition by Johan Creten at the gallery the fourth in Paris. On this occasion, the artist presents new bas- reliefs, sculptures and furniture sculptures in bronze and clay. Johan Creten (born 1963, Sint-Truiden, Belgium, lives and works in Paris) explores the conditions under which a work appears in the real. The artist presents contemporary social mores in different contexts, such as public, domestic, and white cube spaces. Using a title1 that references art history (specifically Joseph Beuys 1965 performance at Schmela Gallery in Düsseldorf during which he explained art to a dead hare2) and the contemporary world, the exhibited pieces form a narrative, plastic, and political whole. The sculptor-ceramist studied painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent and then at the ... More | |
The dissident and artist Ai Weiwei with Water Lilies #2 (2022), a Lego-brick reinterpretation of Monets masterpiece, at his show Know Thyself in Berlin on Feb. 1, 2024. (Maria Sturm/The New York Times)
by Jonathan Landreth
NEW YORK, NY.- As the Year of the Dragon dawns, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has released Zodiac, a graphic memoir of scenes from his career both real (hanging with Allen Ginsberg, the OG of Beat poets, in 1980s Greenwich Village) and imagined (debating Xi Jinping, Chinas paramount leader). Each chapter frames the artists take on traditional beliefs about the characteristics humans share with the 12 animals of the Chinese lunar calendar. Gianluca Costantinis intricate line drawings pair with Elettra Stamboulis comic-bubble text to help expand Ais lifelong campaign for free expression to a new medium for a new generation. Ai spoke about parents and parenting, punk rock and the passage of time, all via video chat last week from Berlin. This conversation has been ... More |
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| The first new Oscar in more than 20 years goes to casting directors | | Manhattan or Pulau Rhun? In 1667, nutmeg made the choice a no-brainer. | | NGV Triennial: More than 600,000 visitors attend gallery-wide exhibition of art and design in first two months |
Oscar statues outside the Dolby Theater during preparations for the 95th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Friday, March 10, 2023. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK, NY.- The Academy Awards is introducing an Oscar for casting, the ceremonys governing organization announced Thursday, making it the first new category in more than 20 years. Casting directors have been pushing for the category for decades, arguing that their work is critical to the success of a film, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which puts on the Oscars, has rejected the idea until now. The new category will be introduced for films released in 2025, meaning that fans wont see a statuette given out until 2026. The academy tends to be conservative when it comes to introducing new awards: The last category to be created was the Oscar for best animated feature film, which was established in 2001. (It went to Shrek.) In 2018, the academy scrapped the introduction of a new category for achievement in popular films after blowback from ... More | |
Nutmeg fruit in Pulau Rhun, which along with tuna is a mainstay of the local economy, in the Banda Sea, Indonesia, Nov. 13, 2023. (Nyimas Laula/The New York Times)
by Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono
NEW YORK, NY.- The isles of Manhattan and Pulau Rhun could hardly be farther apart, not just in geography, but also in culture, economy and global prominence. Rhun, in the Banda Sea in Indonesia, has no cars or roads and only about 20 motorbikes. Most people get around by walking along its paved footpaths or up steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells or sometimes lugging a freshly caught tuna. But in 1667, in what might now seem one of the most lopsided trades in history, the Netherlands believed it got the better part of a bargain with the British when it swapped Manhattan, then known as New Amsterdam, for this tiny speck of land. The delight the Dutch took in the deal can be summed up in one word: nutmeg. With its forest of nutmeg, a spice worth its weight in gold at the time, Rhun used to be one of the worlds most valuable patches of real estate. ... More | |
Installation view of Derek Fordjours Dual Acquisition on display in NGV Triennial from 3 December 2023 to 7 April 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne. Photo: Sean Fennessy.
MELBOURNE.- Today, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Victorian Government announced that the third NGV Triennial has welcomed more than 600,000 visitors since it opened on 3 December 2023, putting it on track to become one of the institutions most popular exhibitions. On display until 7 April 2024 exclusively in Melbourne, the free exhibition is a powerful and moving snapshot of the world today as captured through the work of 120 artists, designers and collectives from more than 30 countries and regions. The attendance figure includes the nearly 40,000 visitors who attended Triennial EXTRA, the free after-hours festival of performance, talks, DJs and more which ran from 19 - 28 January. Across ten days, the Triennial EXTRA festival presented over 90 events featuring more than 160 local Victorian creatives, musicians and performers. A major highlight was Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange, a participatory artwork by leading British ar ... More |
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| 40 years ago, This ad changed the Super Bowl forever | | The friar who became the Vatican's go-to guy on AI | | David Kahn, leading historian of codes and code breaking, dies at 93 |
Ridley Scott, who directed Apples 1984 commercial for Super Bowl XVIII, in Los Angeles, Nov. 10, 2021. Forty years ago, the groundbreaking 1984 spot, inspired by the George Orwell novel, helped to establish the Super Bowl as TVs biggest commercial showcase. (Ryan Pfluger/The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- Four decades ago, the Super Bowl became the Super Bowl. It wasnt because of anything that happened in the game itself: On Jan. 22, 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII, a contest that was mostly over before halftime. But during the CBS broadcast, a 60-second commercial loosely inspired by a famous George Orwell novel shook up the advertising and the technology sectors without ever showing the product it promoted. Conceived by the Chiat/Day ad agency and directed by Ridley Scott, then fresh off making the seminal science-fiction noir Blade Runner, the Apple commercial 1984, which was intended to introduce the new Macintosh computer, would become one of the most acclaimed commercials ever made. It also helped to kick off pun partially intended the Super Bowl tradition of the big game serving as an annual showcase for gilt-edged ads from Fortune 500 companies. It all began with Apple co-founder ... More | |
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and a professor at the Gregorian, the Harvard of Romes pontifical universities, in his office at the university in Rome, Jan. 29, 2024. Benanti advises the Vatican and the Italian government on navigating the tricky questions, moral and otherwise, raised by artificial intelligence. (Alessandro Penso/The New York Times)
ROME.- Before dawn, Father Paolo Benanti climbed to the bell tower of his 16th-century monastery, admired the sunrise over the ruins of the Roman forum and reflected on a world in flux. It was a wonderful meditation on what is going on inside, he said, stepping onto the street in his friar robe. And outside too. There is a lot is going on for Benanti, who, as both the Vaticans and the Italian governments go-to artificial intelligence ethicist, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines. In recent weeks, the ethics professor, ordained priest and self-proclaimed geek has joined Bill Gates at a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, presided over a commission seeking to save Italian media from ChatGPT bylines and general AI oblivion, and met with Vatican officials to further Pope Francis aim of protecting the vulnerable from the coming technological storm. At a conference organized by the ancient Knights of ... More | |
NEW YORK, NY.- David Kahn, whose 1967 book, The Codebreakers, established him as the worlds preeminent authority on cryptology the science of making and breaking secret codes died Jan. 24 in New York. He was 93. His son Michael said the death, at a senior-living facility, was from the long-term effects of a stroke in 2015. Before Kahns book, cryptology itself was something of a secret. Despite an explosion in cryptological technology and techniques during the 20th century and the central role they played during World War II, the subject was typically overlooked by historians, if only because their possible sources were still highly classified. Codebreaking is the most important form of secret intelligence in the world today, Kahn wrote in his books preface. Yet it has never had a chronicler. Over the course of more than 1,000 pages, along with some 150 pages of notes, Kahn laid out cryptologys long history, starting wi ... More |
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How the back of an iconic painting reveals the life it lived
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The best-loved bridges in California
NEW YORK, NY.- I moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles just over a year ago, and one thing that still marks me as a newcomer is how much I delight in crossing bridges in the Bay Area. During my first trip over the Carquinez Bridge on Interstate 80 recently, I was taken with the industrial steel span and what it crossed: the wide expanse of water known as the Carquinez Strait, which separates Contra Costa and Solano counties. That a bridge allows me to depart one county and enter another in midair seems truly magical, as anyone who has recently ridden in a car with me has heard me carry on about. Readers have been sending me emails about their favorite bridges in California, including the most iconic ones, like the Bixby Bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur, the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena and, of course, the Golden Gate. ... More
A war-haunted choreographer steps into a new role at City Ballet
NEW YORK, NY.- For choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, the past two years have brought an uncomfortable intermingling of life and art. Known for ballets that combine wit with an almost surrealistic imagination, he has found his thoughts drawn insistently toward the war in Ukraine, the country where he spent his early years and began his dancing career, where he met his wife and where their families still live. My parents in Kyiv are awoken at night by explosions, he said in an interview at Lincoln Center. It gets harder and harder and heavier because no one sees any light. I cant stop thinking about it. There is one image in particular that he cant get out of his mind a photograph of a father kneeling next to his 13-year-old son, killed at a bus stop in Kharkiv during a Russian airstrike. The man stayed there for hours holding the boys ... More
Two pianists make a life out of an intimate art form
NEW YORK, NY.- It looked like some kind of grand music exam. Pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy sat down at their instruments onstage at Wigmore Hall and began to play for an audience of two. The rest of their listeners were online. It was June 2020, and Kolesnikov and Tsoy were, like virtually every other musician at that time, playing a livestreamed concert. Despite the halls chilly emptiness, there was something heartening: Here were two musical and romantic partners sharing a bit of their domestic lives as they worked through a messy pile of sheet music spread out on a single Steinway piano. Now, things are more or less back to normal. When they sat for an interview at their elegant northwest London home recently, Kolesnikov had just returned from Copenhagen as a replacement soloist in Pyotr Tchaikovskys First ... More
Get ready to dress up again
NEW YORK, NY.- Fashion Month, that four-week extravaganza of shows, celebrities and clothes that has become a perfect vehicle of bite-size entertainment for our attention-fractured time, officially began in New York on Friday before rolling out to London, Milan and Paris. In reality, however, it started a full week earlier, thanks to Marc Jacobs, who like many designers, stepped off the formal schedule during COVID but, unlike many, never looked back. If his amuse-bouche of a collection is any sign of what is to come and part of what makes Jacobs such an effective designer is his ability to hold a finger up to the wind and then capture that in clothes we will be in for a banger of a season. Anchoring one end of Jacobs runway was the Robert Therrien installation No title (folding table and chairs, beige), which features supersize ... More
36 hours in Turin, Italy
NEW YORK, NY.- With the Alps as a background, Turin, Italys fourth-largest city, is elegant, photogenic and rich with history. Grand squares and former royal palaces abound in this northern Italian crossroads, nicknamed Little Paris, which was briefly Italys first capital after the countrys unification in 1861. And despite housing one of Christianitys most solemn relics a shroud believed by some to be the burial cloth of Jesus the city is awash in earthly pleasures. Both gianduja chocolate and vermouth were invented there, and can be sampled among the historic coffeehouses, chocolate shops and aperitivo bars that line the citys arcaded shopping boulevards. And especially important in the winter, an ever-expanding buffet of galleries and museums including one of the worlds largest collections of Egyptian antiquities, ... More
Rolling Stone's top editor steps down
NEW YORK, NY.- Noah Shachtman, the top editor of Rolling Stone, is stepping down at the end of the month after a stint of more than two years at the helm of the pop culture bible. In a brief note to employees that was seen by The New York Times, Shachtman said his last day running the magazine would be March 1, but he did not elaborate on the reasons for his exit. His resignation was prompted by editorial differences with Gus Wenner, Rolling Stones CEO, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. Its the right decision, one Gus Wenner and I made after many discussions about the direction of the brand, Shachtman said in the letter. Wenner told employees in a separate note that Shachtman would be replaced in the interim by Sean Woods, the magazines deputy ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Gabriele Münter
TARWUK
Awol Erizku
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, English photographer Henry Fox Talbot, was born February 11, 1800. William Henry Fox Talbot (11 February 1800 - 17 September 1877) was a British scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. In this image: William Henry Fox Talbot, Rev. Calvert Richard Jones, âThe Fruit Sellers,â before December 13, 1845, salted paper print from a calotype negative, H: 6 11/16 x W: 8 1/4 in. image, Gift of the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.
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