| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Sunday, December 12, 2021 |
| | | As Metro Pictures closes, its founders look back | |
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Janelle Reiring, left, and Helene Winer at Metro Pictures in New York, Nov. 24, 2021. The art gallery will close Saturday, after 41 years in business. Tonje Thilesen/The New York Times.
by Roberta Smith and David Colman
NEW YORK, NY.- On Saturday, at 6 p.m., the pioneering Manhattan art gallery Metro Pictures closed its doors, after 41 years. Like New York City itself, the New York art world in December 1980 was clawing its way out of the brutal 1970s recession and starving for new ideas when Janelle Reiring (an assistant to art dealer Leo Castelli), and Helene Winer (a curator and director of the alternative-art venue Artists Space) opened in SoHo, where their singularly forged vision helped define a movement ultimately known as the Pictures Generation. They gave its champions Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Richard Prince, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine and Jack Goldstein, who were photography-based and appropriation-minded, their first or early shows in New York. Sherman, Winers former assistant, created a body of work called the Untitled Film Stills in which the artist photographed herself as eerily familiar movie stereotypes. It would rocket her to art stardom. Reiring and Winer advocated a ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day i8 Gallery is presenting an exhibition of works by Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth (1930-1998). The show opened on December 9 and will be on view until January 29, 2022, and includes works on paper, sculptures, and mixed-media works by the artist, many of which were made by Roth while he lived in Iceland.
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| Art Institute of Chicago opens an exhibition featuring its recent acquisition of rare magazines | | James Van Der Zee's photographs of Harlem explored in exhibition | | Rare painting from 17th century at risk of leaving UK |
Cover of The Face magazine, March 1985 (no. 59). The Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries Special Collections. Photography © Jamie Morgan.
CHICAGO, IL.- Emerging on the heels of late 60s political movements, a new form of alternative magazine amplified marginalized voices, redefining entrenched mainstream representations and forever changing the magazine industry. From the 70s through the mid-90s, American and British photo-driven publications such as The Face, i-D, Think Ink, and Out/Look became spaces for artistic experimentation that would in time reshape popular culture. Over 130 issues of those magazines, along with photographs and time-based media works by artists featured in their pages, are on view in Subscribe: Artists and Alternative Magazines, 1970-1995 from December 11, 2021 to May 2, 2022. The exhibition coincides with the Art Institutes acquisition of rare issues of Blitz, i-D, The Face, Thing/Think Ink, and View (later Vue) that will be accessible to the public through the Ryerson Library Special Collections. ... More | |
James Van Der Zee, Portrait of a Couple, 1924. Gelatin silver print, image/sheet: 25.2 Ã 20.2 cm (9 15/16 Ã 7 15/16 in.), mat: 50.8 Ã 40.6 cm (20 Ã 16 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert B. Menschel Fund, 2000.83.1.
WASHINGTON, DC.- Photographer James Van Der Zee (18861983) created an extraordinary chronicle of Black life in New York Citys Harlem neighborhood during the first half of the 20th century. On view from November 28, 2021, through May 30, 2022, James Van Der Zees Photographs: A Portrait of Harlem presents some 40 works from the National Gallerys collection, providing a window into life in the historic neighborhood during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Harlem residents flocked to Van Der Zees studio to mark milestones in their lives, posing for portraits against elaborate backdrops. The exhibition highlights these portraits, as well as photographs of the community, revealing how Van Der Zees pictures, and the photographer himself, played a formative role in the community life of Harlem. The exhibition includes several recently acquired ... More | |
British School, Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies wearing Beauty Patches 1650s (detail). Oil on canvas, 640 x 750 mm.
LONDON.- Valued at £272,800, Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies, English School, dating to around 1650, is at risk of leaving the country unless a UK buyer can be found. This extremely rare painting shows two women, one black and one white, side by side, presented as companions and equals with similar dress, hair and jewellery. The depiction of a black female sitter in a 1650s painting was highly unusual, particularly a work showing an adult, rather than a child in a position of subservience, inviting important debate about race and gender during the period. Another remarkable aspect of the painting is the depiction of beauty patches on both the women. Although in vogue at the time, the painting appears to condemn wearing these spots via an inscription above the two women which claims wearing beauty patches is a sin of pride, a widespread opinion in the 17th century. This style of work gives the painting an affinity with popular woodcut prints at the time, making it clear the work i ... More |
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| Michael Nesmith, the 'Quiet Monkee,' is dead at 78 | | i8 Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Dieter Roth | | Notre-Dame renovation plans outrage some preservationists |
He shot to fame as a member of a made-for-TV rock group, but he denied that he was the groups only real musician. He went on to create some of the first music videos.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK, NY.- Michael Nesmith, who rocketed to fame as the contemplative, wool-cap-wearing member of the Monkees in 1966, then went on to a diverse career that included making one of the rock eras earliest music videos and winning the first Grammy Award for video, died Friday at his home in Carmel Valley, California. He was 78. Jason Elzy, head of public relations for Rhino Records, the label that represents the Monkees, said the cause was heart failure. Nesmith was a struggling 23-year-old singer and songwriter when he saw an advertisement in Variety seeking four insane boys for acting roles in new TV series. Two aspiring television producers, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, inspired by the Beatles movies, were hoping to make a TV series about the zany ... More | |
Dieter Roth, Kleiner Sonnenuntergang, 1970. Signed on front down in the middle D.R. 70. Salami with fat transfer on carton and plasticfolia, 50 x 39 x 2.5 cm.
REYKJAVÃK.- i8 Gallery is presenting an exhibition of works by Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth (1930-1998). The show opened on December 9 and will be on view until January 29, 2022, and includes works on paper, sculptures, and mixed-media works by the artist, many of which were made by Roth while he lived in Iceland. Throughout his career, Roth produced an extensive collection of artists books, drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations, and video works, while also writing and publishing books, poetry, and music. The diversity of materials and mediums within his practice exemplifies a signature fluidity in Roths artmaking. Well known for his work with nontraditional materials, particularly those that decay, such as chocolate, fruit, and excrement, Roth continually explored the boundaries of traditional art forms and artistic expression. The exhibition at i8 includes sculpture and multiples, with a focus ... More | |
In this file photo a worker is seen inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris on May 3, 2019. Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times.
by Constant Méheut
PARIS.- The latest in a series of controversies that have surrounded the renovation of Notre-Dame unfolded Thursday, when a commission of heritage experts gave the green light to a revamp of the interior of the fire-stricken cathedral. Frances National Heritage and Architecture Commission approved proposals by the diocese of Paris to bring a more modern look to Notre-Dame before its planned reopening in 2024, including the installation of contemporary artworks and new lighting effects. Opponents say the changes will debase the 850-year-old cathedral and disturb the harmony of its Gothic design. The heritage commission also authorized cathedral administrators to rearrange the tabernacle and other items to create more room for visitors. Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, Notre-Dames rector, ... More |
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| Recognizing artistry: The homecoming of artist Lou Stovall | | Ben Brown Fine Arts opens an exhibition of selected works by German artist Candida Höfer | | Firstsite opens "Life with Art: Benton End and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing" |
Lou Stovall in his Cleveland Park home studio, 1974.
ATHENS, GA.- Since 1962, Lou Stovall has lived and worked in Washington, D.C., but his artistic journey will come full circle next year, with a return to his birthplace of Athens, Georgia, to receive the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award from the Georgia Museum of Art. The museum presents this award annually to a living African American artist who has a strong connection to Georgia and has made significant but often lesser-known contributions to the visual arts tradition of the state. It is named for the couple who donated 100 works by African American artists from their collection to the museum and endowed a curatorial position there. Stovall will receive the award at the museum in April. Stovall first encountered silkscreen printmaking at the age of 15, working at a grocery store. He was captivated by the practice and spent hours making prints, which eventually earned him a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design ... More | |
Candida Höfer (b. 1944), Marsh's Library Dublin I 2004. C-print, 177 x 152 cm; (69 5/8 x 59 7/8 in.) Edition of 6.
LONDON.- Ben Brown Fine Arts is presenting Libraries, Museums and A Theatre, an exhibition of selected works by legendary German artist Candida Höfer. This is the artist's eleventh solo exhibition with Ben Brown Fine Arts, and eighth solo exhibition at the London gallery. The retrospective presents a selection of quintessential, spectacular photographs of libraries, museums and a theatre, variously located in Austria, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Russia. These works illustrate her unique ability to capture public spaces that have been deprived of their status as public due to the devoid of human presence. Consequently, there is a sense of looking into an illicit moment or space, whose architectural splendor can only be entirely recognized when in solitude. Amongst the photographs in the exhibition is Villa Borghese Roma ... More | |
Visitors looking at Cedric Morris in His Garden, by Glyn Morgan in 'Life With Art's at Firstsite © Firstsite.
COLCHESTER.- Lucian Freud, Maggi Hambling, John Nash just a few of the artists associated with the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing established in 1940 by Cedric Morris and his partner Arthur Lett-Haines in their home, Benton End. Through the 1940s and 1950s Benton End, a Grade II listed 16th-century house located on the outskirts of Hadleigh in Suffolk, became the centre of a diverse community of 20th-century artists, writers, and horticulturalists. An exhibition at Art Fund Museum of the Year winner, Firstsite, showcases for the first time the network of artists and cultural figures with links to the art school Morris and Lett-Haines created, its influence in the formation of the Colchester Art Society, and the inspirational way of life and approach to teaching and gardening encouraged by Morris and Lett-Haines. This wide-ranging presentation, made ... More |
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| Best art exhibitions of 2021 | | William Turner Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Greg Miller | | Elizabeth Dellert joins Cromwell Place from Affordable Art Fairs |
Maya Lins Ghost Forest, an installation in New Yorks Madison Square Park, June 23, 2021. The year 2021 was about recovery slow, partial, tentative, ongoing from lockdown. Over the summer, museums and galleries rebooted, but with masking and distancing in place. Madeline Cass/The New York Times.
by Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith
NEW YORK, NY.- The year 2021 was about recovery slow, partial, tentative, ongoing from lockdown. Over the summer, museums and galleries rebooted, but with masking and distancing in place. After a year of social isolation, a market trend in easy-to-like figure painting had natural appeal, with portrait shows everywhere. (New York had Medicis and Alice Neel; Hans Holbein and the Obamas currently hold court in Los Angeles) But for me, many of the most memorable events were either outside bicoastal centers or in unusual locations and forms within them. Several of the years most ambitious museums were in cities below the Mason-Dixon Line. The Dirty South: ... More | |
Greg Miller, American, Acrylic and collage on canvas, 60x48".
SANTA MONICA, CA.- On the occasion of William Turner Gallerys thirtieth anniversary, the gallery concludes the observance with the inaugural artist, Greg Miller by presenting FLASHBACKS. Contextually within the framework of postmodern Neo-pop and Post-pop, Miller utilizes a semiotic process of mining familiar pictorial codes from the popular culture of his youth for his visual vocabulary. Through his examination of sign systems, the modality of their transmission, as well as methods of production, Miller constructs paradoxes of the collective appointments awarded to the conventional iconography of post-war America. Informed by a uniquely California lens, his gaze assembles a complex of interwoven images and text, high and low culture, with allegorical references to labor, leisure and Capitalism in medium and process. With FLASHBACKS, Miller binarily indexes the polemics of universal literacy ... More | |
Dellert joins Cromwell Place with a wealth of experience.
LONDON.- Elizabeth Dellert, previously UK Fair Director of the Affordable Art Fairs, has joined Cromwell Place as a Director. She will start her position on 4 January 2022 and will focus on the development of Membership services, strategic partnerships and long-term business goals. Dellert joins Cromwell Place with a wealth of experience. She was at Affordable Art Fairs since 2019, building on 15 years of experience running a gallery in Mayfair; launching the art, antiques and design fair Masterpiece London; setting up her own art PR consultancy and piloting Frieze Masters. In her new position, Dellert will work alongside the leadership team composed of Preston Benson (Managing Director), May Calil (Membership Director) and Kathryn Waring (Operations Director) to advance the Cromwell Place mission as an international arts space where galleries, collectors, dealers, curators and arts professionals collaborate and flourish. ... More |
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NFTs | The Power of Avatars
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Finding the musical spirit of Notre Dame
NEW YORK, NY.- The singers were unseen, filling the grand darkened space of Paris Saint-Eustache Church with song, like disembodied angels. They moved slowly in procession, up the aisles to a makeshift stage, where they revealed themselves: the men, women and children of the Notre Dame Cathedral choir. It has been more than 2 1/2 years since fire tore through Notre Dame, the most visited church in the world and Frances most visited monument. The herculean task of restoring the medieval masterpiece was then delayed by the pandemic, but the French president has promised that the cathedral will reopen in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The musical tradition at Notre Dame is as old as the cathedral itself, with origins dating back to the 12th century. But since the fire, the cathedrals ancient music school and its choirs, called the Maîtrise of Notre Dame, has struggled financially: ... More
'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' first edition sells for $471,000 to set world record
DALLAS, TX.- A rare first edition of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sold Thursday at Heritage Auctions for $471,000, the highest price ever paid for the boy wizard's debut in any form. "And not only is the most expensive Harry Potter book ever sold, it's the most expensive commercially published 20th-century work of fiction ever sold," says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was brought to life on the big screen two decades ago, and this result shows the power of that combination of literature and cinema. These books are being rewarded for the results of their films." After Rowling's debut was rejected by a dozen publishers, Bloomsbury printed just 500 hardback copies of Philosopher's Stone, with most bound for public libraries. The few copies that have surfaced at auction have become ... More
Actar publishes Vacant Spaces NY by MOS Architects
NEW YORK, NY.- Vacant Spaces NY (Actar, 2021) researches the pervasive effects of urban vacancy in New York City, reconsidering them as critical spaces for social engagement and health, intersecting with neighborhood needs and broader urgent concerns such as housing and education. The authors call attention to these underutilized, available spaces by bringing publicly available data, statistics, and observations to the realm of architecture. According to MOSs research from 2019, there were 5,313 reported ground-level vacancies in Manhattan. 31.2 million square feet, which has only increased since. This space is an opportunity to design a more healthy, vibrant, and equitable city. An opportunity to imagine something other than underutilized ground-floor retail. To resist homogeneity through individual local interventions, creating more flexible, diverse, and ... More
Exhibition celebrates the artistic production of eighteen Mexican artists
WASHINGTON, DC.- The AMA | Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States and the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the OAS presents Women in All Their Diversity. Curated by Marco Polo Juárez Cruz, this exhibition celebrates the artistic production of eighteen Mexican artists who, by presenting varied reflections on womens identities, have contributed to the construction of the national art scene in the 20th and 21st centuries. Increased integration of women artists into visible discourse has further verified their crucial roles in cultural transformations of Mexico, while expanding their participation in the arts beyond private study. The social movements of the sixties nurtured the protagonic characteristics of Mexican artists in the conformation of various artistic movements, through the lenses of galleries and museums, art critics and dealers, and activities that ... More
Chennai Photo Biennale Edition III commences in a new hybrid format
CHENNAI.- The third edition of Chennai Photo Biennale titled Maps of Disquiet, officially launched on 9th December 2021. The Biennale is open to viewers and the public until 6 February 2022 with exhibitions in both physical and virtual forms showcasing works by artists from across the world. Alongside the virtual exhibitions, physical exhibitions are showcased at public spaces across the city of Chennai which include Forum Art Gallery, Ashvita's Gallery, Roja Muthiah Research Library and Madras Literary Society along with hybrid screenings of video works at Goethe-Institut, Chennai. The biennales third edition is curated by Arko Datto, Bhooma Padmanabhan, Boaz Levin and Kerstin Meincke who explore the theme Maps of Disquiet through the sub themes of labour, urban imaginaries, the commons, economic and migratory flows, archaeology and mining. The virtual and ... More
Largest gold nugget found in Alaska rushes to $750,000 to lead Heritage Nature & Science Auction
DALLAS, TX.- The Alaska Centennial Gold Nugget, the largest Gold nugget ever discovered in Alaska, sold for $750,000 to lead Heritage Auctions Nature & Science Signature® Auction to $2,356,714 in total sales December 8. The beauty and scale of the nugget is hard to quantify. Consider the fact that the majority of the worlds mined Gold is refined, and that even a one-ounce nugget is exceptionally rare and the Centennial Nugget weighs in at more than 20 pounds over 322 ounces. It is difficult to come up with the superlatives to fully explain the significance of this nugget, Heritage Auctions Nature & Science Director Craig Kissick said. The winning bidder got a prize that can be the centerpiece of any collection, the focus in any room. It is not only the largest ever found in the 49th state, but also one of the largest ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere. The ... More
Exhibition at Gallery EXIT features more than thirty new works by three artists
HONG KONG.- Gallery EXIT is presenting 'Lets Try Catching Steam with Bare Hand', an exhibition curated by Jims LAM with the new series of artworks by CHAN Wai Lap, NGAI Wing Lam, YAU Kwok Keung. Lets Try Catching Steam with Bare Hands features more than thirty new works by three artists. Through the use of non-human subjects such as fictional characters, mythical creations and architectural designs, NGAI Wing Lam, YAU Kwok Keung and CHAN Wai Lap, with different artistic practices, backgrounds and modes of thinking, have come together in this exhibition to demonstrate contemporary life as a nexus composed of various situations and systems. As suggested by the title of this exhibition, the attempt to get hold of something as intangible as steam does not yield much success. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines steam as an odourless and transparent gas. It only ... More
Kehinde Wiley at the National Gallery: The Prelude
LONDON.- This winter, in his first collaboration with a major UK gallery, American artist Kehinde Wiley explores the artistic conventions and canons of the Western landscape tradition mountainous, coastal, sublime, Romantic and transcendental through the mediums of film and painting. Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, Los Angeles) is an American artist best known for his portraits that feature people of colour in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings. Most famously, in 2017 he was commissioned to paint Barack Obama, becoming the first Black artist to paint an official portrait of a President of the United States. His work references European portraiture by positioning contemporary Black sitters, from a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, often wearing casual or hip-hop clothing, in the poses of the original historical, religious or mythological figures, conferring ... More
Ailey's new secret weapon: The heroically unmannered James Gilmer
NEW YORK, NY.- December is never a breeze for an Alvin Ailey dancer, but recently amid rehearsals and with a performance looming that evening James Gilmer found himself in an empty closet on the studio side of New York City Center. Armed with a late lunch, he was using his only break of the day for an interview. But as he sees it, its better not to waste time. Omicron is not just looming. Its here. Even Gilmers plans to attend a dance performance just after Thanksgiving were thwarted: Complexions canceled the second half of its season at the Joyce Theater after breakthrough cases of COVID-19 were detected among the dancers. So when it comes to his position at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Gilmer has perspective. Im continuing to be very cautious, and Im not letting any day pass without remembering that its such a gift, he said. As much as its an opportunity and ... More
For once, singing of complete and utter clarity
NEW YORK, NY.- It can be hard to understand people when they sing. Melodies are often complex; accompaniments are dense; vocalists favor the musical line over crisp diction. Millions, after all, have thought the Beatles wrote the lyric The girl with colitis goes by. Proponents of performing opera in English translation in English-speaking countries, of course say that intelligibility is their goal. But the results are often no clearer to the audience than German or Italian would have been. So it was no small feat that the text in Voices of the Immaculate a simmering new cantata by Kati Agocs, given a resolute premiere performance by Lucy Dhegrae at the Miller Theater at Columbia University on Thursday was entirely, word for word, lucid. What a relief not to be reaching for the program every other sentence to find out what was being sung. Indeed, Voices, scored for singer and ... More
Amid virus surge, Salzburg Festival announces next summer
SALZBURG.- Austria went into lockdown recently to counter a record number of coronavirus cases. But in Salzburg, where the surge has been sharp, there are plans for a brighter future. On Friday the Salzburg Festival, classical music and operas most storied annual event, announced its 2022 summer season back to pre-pandemic scale, with more than 200 events over six weeks beginning July 18. A double bill of Bartoks Bluebeards Castle and Orffs rarely performed De Temporum Fine Comoedia will be staged by Romeo Castellucci and conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Soprano Asmik Grigorian will star in all three one-acts of Puccinis Il Trittico. Director Barrie Kosky and conductor Jakub Hrusa will collaborate on Janaceks Kata Kabanova. Cecilia Bartoli will take the main role in Rossinis Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Shirin Neshats 2017 production of Verdis Aida ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Antonis Pittas
Liz West
Andrea Marie Breiling
Gabrielle Chanel
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Helen Frankenthaler was born December 12, 1928. Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 - December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s until 2011), she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work.
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