| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Sunday, January 14, 2024 |
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Multiple Realities, includes works by feminist artists, such as Ewa Partum, a performance artist and photographer in 1970s Poland. The Walker Art Center stages a rare survey of the courageous work that bloomed in the Eastern bloc, as artists struggled against state repression..(Eric Mueller/Walker Art Center via The New York Times)
by Jason Farago
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- To say what you want, to act how you want, to live and fear no reprisals: There are some rights you can start to take for granted. Liberal democracy has been having a rough ride this century, and maybe it was inevitable, as elite institutions sputtered and populist reaction mounted, that some American artists and writers would forget just why free expression matters. Why has the recent reaction to free-speech hypocrisy and misinformation, at least in some cultural sectors, been to denigrate free speech itself? From Turkey to China and India to Zimbabwe, artists still face censorship, lawsuits, imprisonment or worse for the crime of creativity; perhaps some of us are too comfortable to take it seriously. Here at the Walker Art Center, a weighty and ambitious exhibition reorients American audiences toward a generation of artists, writers and musicians for whom free expression was no plaything and no luxury. The show is called Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Silverlens New York kicked off 2024 with a solo exhibition by Filipina artist Wawi Navarroza. Known for her large format photographic tableaus and self-portraits, the exhibition marks the artistâs first solo show in the United States.
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| A pirate stole the band's music. The duo - both lawyers - couldn't get it back. | | Field Museum covers some Native displays as new rules take effect | | A frugal opera superfan's surprise gift: $1.7 million for the arts |
Craig Blackwell, left, and David Post of the band Bad Dog at the Songbyrd Music House in Washington, D.C., Dec. 26, 2023. (Greg Kahn/The New York Times)
by David Segal
NEW YORK, NY.- The guys in Bad Dog, a folkie duo from Washington, D.C., werent hoping to get rich off the album they recorded last summer. David Post and Craig Blackwell have been devoted amateurs for decades, and theyre long past dreams of tours and limos. Mostly they wanted a CD to give away at a house party in December. But not long after The Jukebox of Regret was finished in July and posted on SoundCloud, nearly every song on it somehow turned up on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and at least a dozen other streaming platforms. This might have counted as a pleasant surprise, except for a bizarre twist: Each song had a new title, attached to the name of a different artist. This mysterious switcheroo might have gone unnoticed. But by happenstance, it was discovered when the guy who produced the album posted one of the songs on his studios Instagram account. To his astonishment, Instagram ... More | |
The Chicago institutions move is in response to updated federal regulations that require museums to consult with tribes before exhibiting Native American cultural items. Field Museum General Photos 2019 © Field Museum, Lucy Hewett.
by Julia Jacobs and Zachary Small
NEW YORK, NY.- The Field Museum in Chicago has covered up several display cases that feature Native American cultural items in response to new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before exhibiting objects connected to their heritage. Museums across the country have been preparing for the new regulations, which go into effect on Friday, with officials consulting lawyers as curators scramble to read through rules that will influence staffing and budgets for years to come. The federal government overhauled rules that were established in the 1990s, hoping to accelerate the repatriation of Native American remains and cultural patrimony a process that tribal officials and repatriation advocates have long criticized for moving too slowly. The Field Museums decision relates to a provision ... More | |
Lois Kirschenbaum at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in June 2012. (Julie Glassberg/The New York Times)
by Javier C. Hernández
NEW YORK, NY.- When Lois Kirschenbaum, a cultural aficionado who was a fixture in the standing room section of the Metropolitan Opera for more than half a century, died in 2021 at 88, star singers gave tributes, and fellow fans offered remembrances. But that was not the end of Kirschenbaums relationship with the arts. Though even her closest friends didnt know, Kirschenbaum, a former switchboard operator who lived in a rent-controlled apartment in the East Village, had made plans to give away a large share of her life savings some $1.7 million to cultural groups upon her death. After years of legal proceedings, donations of $215,000 apiece have started to arrive, surprising groups like New York City Opera, American Ballet Theatre, Carnegie Hall and the Public Theater. I was just astonished, said John Hauser, president of the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers, one of the recipients. I ... More |
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| Did this couple inspire Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'? | | The Fahey/Klein Gallery opens a retrospective of Douglas Kirkland's photographs | | Robert Andrew Parker, 96, dies; Prolific magazine and book illustrator |
Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966. USA. Directed by Mike Nichols. Courtesy Warner Bros./Photofest.
by Ben Kenigsberg
NEW YORK, NY.- Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton put their marital demons on film in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). But neither they nor their director, Mike Nichols, can take credit for being the first to try to bring Edward Albees 1962 play to the screen, or even for being the first movie couple to draw on their own real-life discord in that context. In April 1965, Andy Warhol shot what writer Sheldon Renan described as a remake of Albees drama, according to the Whitney Museums catalog of Warhols early film work. The stars were married artists underground filmmakers Marie Menken and Willard Maas and the concept was consistent with some Warhol films of the period: Set the camera in a fixed position; shoot two reels of 16 mm stock as the personalities in the frame engage in a mix of self-dramatizing and simply being; then let those two reels, totaling ... More | |
Brigitte Bardot, (playing cards), 1965 © Douglas Kirkland, courtesy of FaheyKlein Gallery, Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Fahey/Klein Gallery is presenting Douglas Kirkland: A Life In Pictures. This retrospective exhibition of photographs is a tribute to Kirkland's prolific career and celebrates his ability to capture the essence of iconic personalities through his unique lens. This exhibition includes a diverse selection of works, spanning from his early career to his most renowned portraits. Throughout his six-decade career, Kirkland photographed some of the most legendary personalities in Hollywood, including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin, and more, often revealing the human side behind the celebrity facade. His ability to establish a genuine connection with his subjects has defined his portraiture, resulting in images that resonate with depth and authenticity. Whether portraying Marilyn Monroe wrapped in bedsheets or Brigitte Bardot playing cards on the floor, his portraits position legends in fun, intimate settings ... More | |
The artist and illustrator Robert Andrew Parker in 2017. (Leo Sorel via The New York Times)
by Richard Sandomir
NEW YORK, NY.- Robert Andrew Parker, a prolific watercolorist whose impressionistic paintings illustrated books, album covers and magazines for nearly 70 years, and who continued to work into his 90s even though his vision was diminished by macular degeneration, died on Dec. 27 at his home in West Cornwall, Connecticut. He was 96. His daughter-in-law Shantal Riley Parker confirmed the death. Parkers watercolors have a loose, fluid style that Print magazine said in 2013 achieved maximum effects with minimal amounts of detail. He painted monkeys and landscapes, imaginary battle scenes and spectators under umbrellas at the Masters golf tournament, circus elephants dancing a ballet and Duke Ellington conducting his orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival. His work appeared in books, many of them for children, and in magazines like Fortune, ... More |
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| 36 hours in Zurich | | Steve Genter's Munich '72 medals shine at Olympic-themed auction | | Swann Galleries timed sale: 'The Artists of the WPA' closing Jan 25 |
Bluemlihalle, which translates as flower hall, in the entrance of a police station in Zurich, Dec. 20, 2023. (Clara Tuma/The New York Times)
by Noele Illien
NEW YORK, NY.- Despite being Switzerlands largest city, Zurich is often overlooked as a stopover between the airport and the winter playgrounds in the mountains, but this picturesque banking hub bordering Lake Zurich has much to offer visitors who choose to stay awhile. Its strong cultural scene includes world-class museums and a much-lauded orchestra, the Tonhalle. A converted brewery harbors contemporary art galleries, and surprisingly beautiful frescoes hide in a most unexpected place. While there is something happening year-round in Zurich such as photography exhibitions, festivals like ZüriCarneval and architectural open houses theres plenty of seasonal fun to be had in the colder months, whether its eating fondue on a vintage tram or hiking to a winter wonderland atop a local mountain ... More | |
Munich 72 gold, silver, and bronze Olympic medals take center atage at Olympic-themed Auction.
BOSTON, MASS.- As the world eagerly anticipates the return of the Summer Olympics to Paris this summer, RR Auction kicks off 2024 with its most extensive Olympic sale yet. Featuring over 400 exceptional items, the auction is set to be a thrilling celebration of sporting history, with a focus on prestigious winner's medals, relay torches, pins, badges, participation medals, and rare ephemera. The highlight of this spectacular auction is an extraordinary set of three medals awarded to American swimmer Steve Genter at the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics. This rare collection includes Genter's gold, silver, and bronze medals from the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter freestyle, and 400-meter freestyle events. Steve Genter, a 6-foot 4-inch undergraduate from UCLA, faced incredible challenges during the Munich Olympics. Battling a nagging cough and a collapsed lung, Genter's determination and resilience shone through. Refusing pain ... More | |
USA WPA Work Program, rare original signage that was displayed to designate New Deal Works Project Administration site. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.
NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries is presenting the fourth iteration of The Artists of the WPA auction. Many artists honed their craft while employed in New Deal programs, resulting in this auctions wide range of objects, including photographs, prints, posters, paintings, mural studies, dioramas, and work program signage. The sale is a timed online auction and will begin closing on Thursday, January 25 at 12 pm Eastern. Photography includes Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, and Walker Evans, among others. Langes connection to her subject is inherent, but her mastery of capturing moving and thought-provoking compositions was developed through practice. A variant on her Migrant Mother, 1936, printed 1990s, gives an alternative look at one of the most recognizable images from the Great Depression ($2,000-3,000). Also by Lange is Son of a cotton sharecropper. Twelve years old. Near Cleveland, ... More |
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| Phillips presents 'New Terrains' in January 2024, the company's first major exhibition of Native American art | | Stevens Auction Company announces annual New Year's Multi-Estate Auction | | Sotheby's to oligarch at art fraud trial: The buck stopped with you |
Nicholas Galanin, Ascension, 2022, 72.5 x 52 7.8 x 53 in. Courtesy the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips is presenting New Terrains, a watershed exhibition of important works of contemporary Native American art. Exploring the influences of modernism, post-war and pop influences, the exhibit provides context for the evolution of contemporary Native art in the mid-to-late 20th and early 21st centuries. These artists evoke the rich diaspora of Native American tribal representation, including Canadian first nations people. Featuring over 50 artists, spanning seven decades, the works reflect the socio-political and artistic climates in which they were conceived. Native American art is continually expanding to embrace new ideas, expressions, and artistic mediums. Established, emerging, and under-recognized artists share their unique visions and stories of what it is to be an indigenous artist. The exhibition opened 5 January 2024 at Phillips, ... More | |
Lovely signed Royal Bonn caped urn in a tapestry pattern, 18 inches tall (est. $1,500 - $2,500).
ABERDEEN, MISS.- Stevens Auction Companys first big sale of the New Year, on Saturday, January 20th, will feature the contents of the circa 1838, 5,000-square-foot estate home in Columbus, Mississippi known as Magnolia Hill. The auction will be held in Stevens Auctions new gallery facility at 129 East Commerce Street in downtown Aberdeen, as well as online. Mr. and Mrs. Sapp sold their magnificent home and moved back to the family home in Lincoln, Nebraska, so they are selling everything from Magnolia Hill, said Dwight Stevens of Stevens Auction Company. We will also be selling the contents of an 1899 Victorian home located in the historic district of Decatur, Alabama, as well as several other prominent Southern estates. Each of these estates contains beautiful antiques and pieces of Southern finery that include handmade Persian rugs, premier artwork from the 19th century until the present ... More | |
The Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev looks out from his penthouse in Monte Carlo, Monaco, Sept. 18, 2018. (Benjamin Bechet/The New York Times)
by Graham Bowley
NEW YORK, NY.- Dmitry Rybolovlev survived the turmoil of the collapse of the Soviet Union, founded a bank in Russia in the 1990s and built a fortune of roughly $7 billion from the sale of a potash fertilizer company. He managed to get that wealth out of Russia, acquired a share in a bank in Cyprus, a Monaco soccer team, a Greek island, and homes for his family in Switzerland, Monaco, New York and Hawaii. But under cross-examination in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday, Rybolovlev acknowledged that the diligence he had applied in building his business empire was not always present when he and his staff bought $2 billion in fine art through a Swiss dealer. Asked by a lawyer for Sothebys whether he thought the aide he had trusted to handle those ... More |
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Guest Curator Thom Browne Talks American Design with Sothebyâs | Visions of America | Sotheby's
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On 'OrquÃdeas,' Kali Uchis gets all she wants
NEW YORK, NY.- Kali Uchis basks in pleasure on her fourth studio album, OrquÃdeas. Make that pleasures: carnal, material, romantic, sonic, competitive and, if necessary, vengeful, all with a girlish nonchalance. The album begins with loops of laughter and ethereal oohs and ahs; it ends with Uchis thanking listeners with a mwah kiss. Its an album of breezy confidence and sly ingenuity, easily moving among futuristic electronics, 1990s nostalgia and Latin roots. OrquÃdeas are orchids: the national flower of Colombia, where Uchis parents were born. Uchis Karly-Marina Loaiza was born and grew up in Virginia, but she made long visits to Colombia while growing up. Orchids are colorful, alluring, fleshy, delicate, demanding and coveted, just as Uchis has presented herself throughout her recording career. In her new songs, ... More
Review: Hilary Hahn gives, and gets, at the Philharmonic
NEW YORK, NY.- After the concerto, after the encore, there was still more business to take care of when Hilary Hahn appeared with the New York Philharmonic on Thursday. She returned to the stage of David Geffen Hall, joined by Deborah Borda, the orchestras former leader, and Gary Ginstling, its current one. They had an announcement to make: Hahn at 44 a star violinist for four decades had been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, a $100,000 honor that rewards the good citizens of classical music who have complemented artistic excellence with lasting contributions to the field. Those contributions are varied but often affirm the vitality of the art form. Midori, the violinist who won in 2001, tours like a roving artist in residence, working with young musicians in small towns far from music capitals like Boston and New York; flutist Claire ... More
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art names Philippe Halbert, PhD Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts
HARTFORD, CONN.- The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art has named Philippe Halbert, PhD as Richard Koopman Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts. A graduate of the College of William and Mary and the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, Halbert is an art historian and earned his PhD in the history of art from Yale University, where he studied the intersections of art, empire, race, and self-fashioning in the Atlantic world. His academic work centers American decorative arts and material culture broadly, from its Indigenous roots to interconnected phenomena of diaspora, creolization, and settler-colonialism. Halbert has served as Interim Curator of American Decorative ... More
Tellus Science Museum announces new expansion plan
CARTERSVILLE, GA.- Tellus Science Museum announced an expansion project for two new exhibit spaces beginning in early 2024. The expansion will consist of a detached nearly 20,000 square foot building near the front of the museum campus which will house a new permanent exhibit featuring the technology of smartphones and an expanded space for special, temporary exhibits. Weve been talking for years about the need to have these important spaces at Tellus, said Executive Director Emeritus, Jose Santamaria. It is exciting that they will soon become a reality. The new permanent exhibit space will comprise about 3,200 square feet. The gallery will give guests the chance to explore the evolution of technology, including things now considered antiquated because of the development of smartphones. Artifacts like calculators, ... More
Jay Clayton, vocal innovator in jazz and beyond, dies at 82
NEW YORK, NY.- Jay Clayton, a singer whose six-decade career encompassed freewheeling improvisation, lyrical songs and poetry, and the prescient use of electronics, died Dec. 31 at her home in New Paltz, New York. She was 82. Her daughter, Dejha Colantuono, said the cause was small-cell lung cancer. Clayton established herself as an innovator in the 1970s and 80s, sparring with instrumentalists in avant-garde settings and using electronics to alter and extend her vocal palette well before the practice became common. She worked frequently with other singers she formed an especially close bond with Sheila Jordan, an early mentor and she sang in playfully aerobatic vocal groups with peers including Jeanne Lee, Ursula Dudziak, Norma Winstone and Bobby McFerrin. She works in the familiar avant-garde terrain of wordless, ... More
Alina Cojocaru: A freelance ballerina, forging her own path
NEW YORK, NY.- Is it possible for a great ballerina to take control of her destiny outside a company and find fulfilling creative expression? Alina Cojocaru, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet, and an adored guest star at major companies worldwide, is trying. Cojocaru, 42, who has been freelance since 2020, has produced programs in London, New York and Japan and danced as a principal guest artist with the Hamburg Ballet. But her latest venture is her most ambitious to date: She has commissioned and produced a full-length ballet, La Strada, based on Federico Fellinis 1954 film, which will open Jan. 25 at Sadlers Wells in London. The ballet, with choreography by Natalia Horecna, is set to music by Nino Rota, who composed for many of Fellinis films. La Strada tells the tale of the simple ... More
When Mean Girls grow up
NEW YORK, NY.- Rosalind Wiseman regularly receives emails from women who think they are going to surprise her with the following divulgence: You are never going to believe this: My work is like middle school. Wiseman, however, is unfazed. Of course I can believe it, she said. Her response is a pep talk that goes something like this: I remind them that they arent weak because they are affected by these dynamics. And that even if we have left our teen years behind us, we are driven to feel valued by the groups we are connected to, and most of us will do anything to avoid embarrassment and shame. Its not an opportunity to lash out at people in retribution, no matter how horrible the other person is. Women decades past high school seek out Wiseman because they know her as the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping ... More
An actor channeling the folklore of his ancestors
NEW YORK, NY.- Two of Eric Berrymans favorite things are drinking tea and telling stories, both of which were on the agenda on a recent rainy afternoon in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo. This first infusion Im going to do is just to awaken the leaves and open things up, he said, beginning with the tea. You could drink it, but it wouldnt be very flavorful. Serving an audience of one, in a ramshackle office space and storage room above the Performing Garage theater, Berryman poured hot water from a portable kettle over a pile of loose, Chinese black tea leaves in a small vessel. The water turned a deep amber as the leaves softened and unfurled. After a moment, he poured the liquid away, refilled the vessel and served the tea in two gleaming white cups. On the stage below, a small crew of sound and lighting technicians was preparing ... More
With 'Echo,' Alaqua Cox smashes boundaries and bad guys' faces
NEW YORK, NY.- I thought in the back of my head, Theres no way Im going to get this. Alaqua Cox was in her home office in the Green Bay area of Wisconsin, recalling the moment in early 2020 when some friends forwarded her an online link to a casting call for a deaf Indigenous woman in her 20s. At the time, Cox, now 26, had been hopping from job to job at a nursing home, at Amazon and FedEx warehouses and had never acted outside a couple of plays in high school. She could scarcely envision clinching any regular TV gig, let alone the role of a Marvel superhero: Maya Lopez, better known as Echo, a Marvel comic book character. But Cox did get it, and soon she found herself flipping and punching her way through the 2021 Disney+ series Hawkeye alongside stars Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. Now, just over ... More
Red Paden, juke joint 'King' who kept the blues alive, dies at 67
NEW YORK, NY.- Red Paden, who as the self-proclaimed king of the juke joint runners spent four decades as the owner of Reds, an unassuming music spot in downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi, and one of the last places in the United States to offer authentic Delta blues in its natural setting, died Dec. 30. He was 67. His son, Orlando, said the death, in a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, was from complications of heart surgery. Juke joints, once commonplace across the Deep South, were the loam out of which blues music grew, a vast network of shacks, old shops and converted homes where traveling musicians would play a night for a share of the cover charge, then move on to the next gig. Reds is the quintessential example: low-ceilinged and the size of a large garage, decorated with old music posters and lighted with neon signs ... More
Wang Tuo wins the Sigg Prize 2023 with his multi-channel cinematic installation The Northeast Tetralogy
HONG KONG.- M+, Asias first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, announced Wang Tuo (b. 1984, lives and works in Beijing) as the winner of the Sigg Prize 2023. The jury was impressed with Wangs sophisticated cinematic practice and the quality of the films production that create elaborate imagery with multi-layered references to cultural and historical contexts. His winning work, The Northeast Tetralogy (20182021) is an immersive, multi-channel installation of four videos and is currently on view in the Sigg Prize 2023 exhibition alongside works by five shortlisted artists at the Main Hall Gallery until 14 January 2024. The Sigg Prize recognises important artistic practices in the Greater China region and aims to highlight and promote diverse works on an international scale, awarding ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Gabriele Münter
TARWUK
Awol Erizku
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, French painter and lithographer Henri Fantin-Latour was born January 14, 1836. Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 - 25 August 1904) was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers. His first major UK gallery exhibition in 40 years took place at the Bowes Museum in April 2011.[3] Musée du Luxembourg presented a retrospective exhibition of his work in 2016-7 entitled "à fleur de peau". In this image: Henri Fantin-Latour, La leçon de dessin ou Portraits. Oil on canvas, 145 x 170 cm Musées Royaux des Beaux-arts de Belgique, Brussels.
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