| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Sunday, July 19, 2020 |
| | | Complaint faults museum director for hanging his in-law's El Greco | |
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An El Greco painting lent to the Detroit Institute of Arts, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, which belongs to the museum directors father-in-law, at a gallery in the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Mich., July 15, 2020. A whistle-blower accusation argues that conflict-of-interest rules to prevent self-dealing have been skirted at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Brittany Greeson for The New York Times.
by Graham Bowley
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It was a chance to borrow a rarely seen El Greco for a museum that had only a single painting by the old master. So the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts courted a wealthy Dallas collector to arrange for a loan of the painting, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, and it now hangs in the reopened museums medieval and Renaissance galleries. That coup, however, has set off a whistleblower complaint, filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the Michigan attorney general, asserting that conflict-of-interest rules to prevent self-dealing have been skirted. The wealthy Dallas collector, it turns out, was the directors father-in-law. The director, Salvador Salort-Pons, said that his familys interest in the painting was properly disclosed and that he followed a procedure approved by the institutes board of directors for borrowing works. Its a common practice for American museums to engage collectors and patrons asking them to loan paint ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Bharti Kher, An Indian queue of sorts, 2019 Clay, cement, wax, copper/brass 160 x 24.5 x 24.5 cm | 63 x 9 5/8 x 9 5/8 in Photographer: Alex Austin. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
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| | It wasn't the sex: bloodletting fatal for Raphael, study claims | | Exhibition explores the modernist approach and formal experimentation of Harry Callahan and Alexander Calder | | Cuomo says NYC museums won't reopen next week |
Self-portrait of Raphael, aged approximately 23.
by Ella Ide
ROME (AFP).- A feverish Raphael suffering from "a coronavirus-like disease" died after failing to tell his doctors he had been secretly visiting lovers on freezing cold nights, leading them to wrongly prescribe bloodletting, a new study claims. Popular myth has the Renaissance painter succumb to syphilis in 1520 after wooing one too many ladies, though experts widely agree that he died of an infection. Laid low by a raging fever, the prolific painter, designer and architect, was tended to by "the best doctors in Rome, sent to him by the pope" who feared losing the invaluable artist, medical historian Michele Augusto Riva told AFP. But according to Italian painter Giorgio Vasari and his 1550 masterpiece on the lives of painters, Raphael failed to tell the physicians of his "frequent night outings in the cold" to visit lovers. "It was much, much colder in March in that period, and it's very likely he caught pneumonia," Riva said. The doctors diagnosed a fever caused by an ... More | |
Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1969. Sheet metal, wire, and paint, 79" x 61" (200.7 cm x 154.9 cm) © 2020 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Christine Ann Jones, courtesy Pace Gallery.
LONDON.- Pace is presenting Calder, Callahan, and the Intensified Image, an online exhibition that explores the modernist approach and formal experimentation of American artists Harry Callahan and Alexander Calder. Illuminated by Calders axiomatic observations and organized into three thematic subsections with titles drawn from Callahans musings, the presentation features nineteen works across different media, including sculpture, oil painting, photography, and works on paper. Together, these works demonstrate both artists virtuosic ability to create what Callahan dubbed an intensified imagea depurated yet impactful work of art capable of pushing modern art towards new horizons. The first exhibition to draw parallels between the two artists, Calder, Callahan, and the Intensified Image is curated by Michaëla Mohrmann, Associate Curatorial Director in ... More | |
The Museum of the City of New York, June 26, 2020. After layoffs, furloughs and salary cuts, the museum prepares to reopen with a reduced budget and will present an exhibition about the pandemic. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times.
by Sarah Bahr
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Whitney Donhauser, the director of the Museum of the City of New York, had hoped that, come next Thursday, the museums halls would play host to its first masked, socially distanced visitors. Not so fast, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday. Cuomo said that when New York City enters phase four of its reopening plan Monday, indoor cultural attractions, malls and indoor dining will not reopen yet. Were not going to have any indoor activity in malls or cultural institutions, Cuomo said on a conference call. Well continue to monitor that situation, and when the facts change, we will let you know. He added that he was looking at the potential of a second wave a man-made wave with the potential to arrive by plane, car and train from the West and the ... More |
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| | As galleries reopen, two critics find rewards eclipse the angst | | Perrotin New York opens a solo exhibition by New Delhi based artist Bharti Kher. | | Fire damages French cathedral, arson probe launched |
Land Swipe, 2019. Acrylic on deer hide, 36 x 60 inches (91.4 x 152.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In the New York art world, normal is still a long hike down the pike, but some of the citys galleries are tiptoeing in that direction with socially distanced reopenings. Walk in, and you instantly feel what months of virtual visits couldnt give: the immediate experience of texture, scale and color; the sensual incidents and accidents of light, sound, scent, air; and opportunities for conversation with gallery personnel. What a relief to have all this back. And at what price? A healthy dose of pandemic angst. On the COVID-19 caution spectrum, I land about midway, being neither foolhardy nor phobic. I mask up and by now instinctively measure space, as is required by the galleries I visited earlier this week on the Lower East Side and in SoHo. It helped that at each, I happened to be the only drop-in. (My colleague, Jillian Steinhauer, wrote below of her own, different experiences in Chelsea.) For most stops, Id made an appointment. (Email ... More | |
Bharti Kher, Housewoman and Mousewoman, 2019. Clay, cement, wax, copper/brass, 156 à 16.5 x 16.5 cm | 61 7/16 à 6 ½ x 6 1/2 in. Photo: Alex Austin. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
NEW YORK, NY.- Perrotin New York is presenting The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos, a solo exhibition by New Delhi based artist Bharti Kher. Kher brings a fresh display of a widely heterogenous practice to New York after a gap of 8 years. In this latest encounter between artist and the city, the animal is still displaced but now morphed into an intentional absurdity. The bindi remains, in its rigorous ubiquity, but its surface no longer ensconced, comes to us instead as something broken, and fittingly then, as viewers will see in fluxes of time such as these as something powerful. It comes as an unexpected freedom of chaos. Upon entering the exhibition is Khers Virus, the very first one she made in an ongoing and politically pulsating series spanning 30 years (2010 2039). Placed aptly at the entrance of the gallery corridor, her elegant white spiral now exactly a decade old ushers viewers in, so quietly, that one coul ... More | |
Firefighters are seen working to put out a fire at the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral in Nantes, western France, on July 18, 2020. Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP.
by Fanny Andre and Benjamin Massot
NANTES (AFP).- A fire broke out in three places at the gothic cathedral of Nantes in western France Saturday, destroying stained glass windows and the grand organ and sparking an arson investigation. Catholic officials mourned the loss of priceless artefacts and paintings as well as the 17th century organ -- a star attraction of the cathedral. Regional fire chief Laurent Ferlay however said the damage was not comparable to last year's devastating blaze at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Passers-by saw flames behind the rosette of the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul and alerted emergency services a little before 08:00 am (0600 GMT). Roughly 100 firefighters rushed to the scene and managed to save the structure, built between the 15th and 19th centuries, Ferlay said. Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennes said the fire had ... More |
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| | Greek National Opera finds post-lockdown voice | | Attempted sale of fake $300,000 antique gold coin | | Kunsthaus Zürich presents masterpieces of landscape painting |
Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili performs during a concert organised by the Greek National Opera at the ancient Roman Agora in Athens on July 18, 2020. Aris MESSINIS / AFP.
by Chantal Valery
ATHENS (AFP).- The rich mezzo-soprano voice of Anita Rachvelishvili is scheduled to ring out on Saturday evening across the ancient ruins at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. Following long months of coronavirus lockdown that has left music venues, opera houses and concert halls silent across the globe, the Greek National Opera has invited the Georgian opera star to perform a recital to a small selected audience at the Roman Agora, a unique archeological site dating back to 19 BC. It will also be livestreamed on the opera house's website to music lovers around the world. "After all these months of a pause, it's the first time that I'm singing", said Rachvelishvili, who has performed the title role of Bizet's Carmen in some of the world's leading opera houses, such as La Scala in Milan and the Bastille Opera in Paris. Speaking to AFP before a rehearsal on Friday, ... More | |
The counterfeit $300,000 coin is a replica of an 1879-dated U.S. $4 denomination Coiled Hair design gold coin known as a Stella, of which only about a dozen genuine examples are known. Image courtesy of Ryan Moretti.
TEMECULA, CA.- Acting on a tip from the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation, federal and local California law enforcement agents now are investigating the attempted sale of $400,000 of counterfeit antique coins including a fake example a rare gold coin that brought $300,000 at auction last year. The seller also is a suspect in an earlier case in Minnesota involving fakes, according to Doug Davis, Director of the ACEF Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (ACTF). Davis, a former Texas Police Chief, has alerted the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) and is assisting investigators in this case. The seller of these counterfeits is on our radar and were after him no matter how long it takes. In the meantime, these latest fakes are off the market. They were turned over as evidence and are now in the custody of detectives at the Irvine, California Police Department, Davis stated. The counterfeit $300,000 coin i ... More | |
Margareta de Heer, A Red Cabbage, a Anail, a Butterfly, a Dragonfly, a Bee, and a Wood Louse, in a Landscape, undated. Oil on wood, 39.4 x 29 cm. Kunsthaus Zürich, Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, 2013.
ZURICH.- The exhibition brings together some outstanding works dating from between 1450 and 1800 to create a panorama of landscape painting. They include canvases from the Kunsthauss holdings painted in Germany, present-day Switzerland, Flanders, Holland and Italy by artists such as Joachim Patinir, Hendrick Avercamp, Jan van Goyen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Claude Lorrain, Domenichino and Bernardo Bellotto. The presentation opens with a number of late medieval paintings in which the primary purpose of the landscape is to animate the depiction of a Biblical scene such as the birth of Christ and present it in the best light. They are followed by Netherlandish and Italian landscapes from the 16th century, including works by Adriaen Isenbrant and Joachim Patinir as well as a painting attributed to Titian. Especially fine works by the Flemish Jan Brueghel (15681625) herald ... More |
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| | 11th Berlin Biennale announces participants | | Exhibition of works from the MarÃa Josefa Huarte Collection on view in Bilbao | | Jane Walentas, who planted a carousel in Dumbo, dies at 76 |
Exp. 3: Affect Archives. Sinthujan Varatharajah OsÃas Yanov, 11th Berlin Biennale c/o ExRotaprint, 22.2.2.5.2020, extended until 25.7.2020. Installation view. Photo: Mathias Völzke.
BERLIN.- The last stage of the 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art will take place from September 5 to November 1, 2020, at four exhibition venues: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, daadgalerie, Gropius Bau, and 11th Berlin Biennale c/o ExRotaprint. Since September 2019, the 11th Berlin Biennale has been unfolding as a process through a series of lived experiences with exp. 1, exp. 2, and exp. 3. In fall 2020, in a fourth step conceived as an epilogue, the 11th Berlin Biennale will bring these experiences together with artistic participation from around the world. In their diverse modes of articulating solidarity, vulnerability, and resistance, the contributions rise up to materialize the complicated beauty of life amidst the turbulent times we inhabit. Pacita Abad; Noor Abuarafeh; Marwa Arsanios; Shuvinai Ashoona; Paula Baeza Pailamilla; Aline Baiana; Virginia Borges, Gil DuOdé and Virginia de Medeiros (and ... More | |
Eduardo Chillida (Donostia/ San Sebastián, 1924-2002), Música de las esferas II, 1963 Hierro. Museo Universidad de Navarra.
BILBAO.- This summer, thanks to the generosity of the University of Navarra Museum and the support of Petronor, museum patrons may enjoy one of the most eloquent examples of private collecting in our cultural scene, the MarÃa Josefa Huarte Collection. Comprised of 47 works40 of which are now being exhibited in the Bilbao museumit features important series of works by Jorge Oteiza, Pablo Palazuelo and Antoni TÃ pies in terms of both the quality of the pieces and the way they reveal the evolution of each of these three creators. Along with them, the collection also includes 19 other prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Wassily Kandinsky, Eduardo Chillida, Eusebio Sempere and Manuel Millares. The collection was donated to the University of Navarra in 2008, the initial impetus to creating the museum affiliated with this institution; it was designed by the architect Rafael Moneo (Tudela, Navarra, 1937) and open ... More | |
Jane Walentas with pieces of the carousel she helped build in New York, Nov. 18, 1986. Walentas, an artist who spent more than 20 years restoring a century-old carousel as a gift to the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood that she helped her husband, David Walentas, develop, died on July 5 at her home in Southampton, N.Y. She was 76. Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Jane Walentas, an artist who spent more than 20 years restoring a century-old carousel as a gift to the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood that she helped her husband, David Walentas, develop, died July 5 at her home in Southampton, New York. She was 76. The cause was lung cancer, her son, Jed Walentas, said. In the late 1970s, David Walentas bought 2 million square feet for $12 million in what used to be Fultons Landing, a rough industrial wasteland between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges that had been colonized by homesteading artists. It took decades to transform the area into the now-prosperous neighborhood of Dumbo, as Walentas battled the city, which had stalled on ... More |
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Summer Talks | Artist Kehinde Wiley and The Duke of Devonshire
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Benefit Shop Foundation announces focused auction of Estelle Goodman's art
MOUNT KISCO, NY.- The Benefit Shop Foundation, Inc. will present its first-ever single-estate auction on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 10 am, featuring the estate of the late artist Estelle Goodman (1930-2007), who lived in an iconic building in Manhattans Central Park West for decades. The apartment containing her own art and artwork she collected has been locked and unoccupied until now. Walking into her grand apartment in The Majestic was a bit like stepping into a time capsule, said Pam Stone, owner and founder of the auction house. The apartment was just as she left it and there were many examples of her bronze sculptures as well as fine paintings by several of her artist contemporaries, which she collected. Known for her figural sculptures accentuating the human form, Goodman was a leading abstract sculptor and painter in her day. Born in ... More
Brandis Kemp, character actress and 'Fridays' original, dies at 76
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- If you were looking for insight into the future in the 1980s, you probably wouldnt want to pay $75 for a Creative Palm Reading. In that recurring sketch on the late-night show Fridays, a chain-smoking, sometimes deranged psychic played by Brandis Kemp was sure to take one look at your palm and announce: Things dont look good, man. Not at all. Man, am I bummed! Kemp was the fashionably frizzy redhead in the sketch-comedy ensemble of Fridays (1980-82), ABCs answer to Saturday Night Live, which also included Larry David, Michael Richards, Melanie Chartoff and Kemps husband, Mark Blankfield. One season later, viewers of AfterMASH (1983-85), CBS M*A*S*H sequel, loved to hate her as Alma Cox, the bossy secretary at Colonel Potter and Corporal Klingers new hospital. Kemp, known ... More
Sweden seizes book by Jewish comedian criticising war-time collaboration
STOCKHOLM (AFP).- A book by a Jewish comedian over Sweden's collaboration with the Nazis during World War II is at the centre of a legal tussle in which Swedish prosecutors are calling for it to be destroyed, but which the author sees as nothing short of an attack against democracy. Ostensibly, prosecutors are taking issue with the book's cover, arguing that the image -- a tiger sporting Sweden's national colours of blue and yellow -- infringes on the copyright of a war-time propaganda campaign, now owned by a museum. But the author, comedian Aron Flam, who is known for his penchant for controversial and even taboo subjects, insists that his use of the image is satirical and therefore protected by freedom of speech. "There is a lot at stake and it's not actually about me, but our democracy," Flam told AFP. At the centre of the legal battle ... More
Black artists on how to change classical music
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- With their major institutions founded on white European models and obstinately focused on the distant past, classical music and opera have been even slower than American society at large to confront racial inequity. Black players make up less than 2% of the nations orchestras; the Metropolitan Opera still has yet to put on a work by a Black composer. The protests against police brutality and racial exclusion that have engulfed the country since the end of May have encouraged individuals and organizations toward new awareness of long-held biases and provided new motivation to change. Nine Black performers spoke with The New York Times about steps that could be taken to begin transforming a white-dominated field. These are edited excerpts from the conversations. The first step is admitting that these ... More
Tang Teaching Museum announces online book launch of 'Liz Collins: Energy Field'
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY.- The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College invites the public to a special online book launch for Liz Collins Energy Field on Friday, July 24, at 4:00 PM. The event will be conducted on Zoom. Collins is an artist known for exploring the boundaries between performance, textiles, and installation, creating vibrating fields bursting with color, shape, and texture. Liz Collins Energy Field documents the artists two-year exhibition of the same name at the Tang Teaching Museum, in which she incorporated these elements and transformed the Tang mezzanine into a lounge and space for social gatherings. For the online book launch, Collins will be the guest of honor and the event will include a performance by Mike Albo, discussion with book designer Beverly Joel, appearances by other ... More
2020 Art Quadriennale to propose a new image of Italian contemporary art
ROME.- The next edition of the Art Quadriennale, titled FUORI, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol and organised by Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, will be open to the public from 29 October 2020 to 17 January 2021 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. The Art Quadrienniale is the main exhibition dedicated to contemporary Italian art. It takes place every four years and is a highly anticipated event for art professionals and the public. For this reason, it also receives major support from the Italian government. The 2020 Art Quadriennale, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, will propose a new image of Italian contemporary art at an international level; the title, FUORI (meaning out) is emblematic of the perspective proposed by the curators. FUORI is an invitation ... More
New artworks by Jenny Holzer, Mel Chin and Xaviera Simmons join ongoing citywide campaign
NEW YORK, NY.- As New York City has reached a promising new milestone the first 24-hour period in four months with zero new COVID-19 deaths digital messages of gratitude, pride, and solidarity continue to radiate throughout Times Square and New York City to commemorate the efforts of the citys essential workers over the past few months. The public art campaign, which began back in April, is the result of a partnership between Times Square Arts, Poster House, and For Freedoms featuring artworks by contemporary artists and graphic designers such as G.O.N.G. with Mel Chin, Jenny Holzer, Maira Kalman, Pedro Reyes, Edel Rodriguez, Carrie Mae Weems, and Christine Wong Yap. The project serves as an ongoing gesture that honors the essential workers doctors and nurses, public transportation personnel, Times Squares and ... More
Hamptons Virtual Art Fair announces 2020 VIP exhibitors list and programming
SOUTHAMPTON. NY.- ShowHamptons announced the exhibitors for the VIP Preview of the inaugural Hamptons Virtual Art Fair. Launching Thursday, July 23 at Noon through Sunday, July 26 at 8pm and accessible 24-hours a day, the VIP event offers visitors a first-look of the fair and a chance to preview a range of Post-War and Contemporary works presented by 60 select exhibitors with 70 booths from around the world. To attend the VIP Preview, please visit: https://www.hamptonsvirtualartfair.com. HVAFs exciting lineup of galleries will present over 300 respected artists, from Mark Bradford to Donald Sultan, Picasso, Rockwell and Monet. Exhibitors were invited to curate solo booths in addition to their main presentations; these will include a Will Ronis booth curated by Peter Fetterman Gallery, as well as a booth dedicated to Ben Millers stunning Fly ... More
Nick Gentry creates new series of portraits of the frontline NHS staff with vintage computer punch cards
LONDON.- Nick Gentry one of the UKs most popular contemporary artists has created a brand-new series of portraits of the frontline NHS healthcare staff during the lockdown. Nick wanted to find a way to express the nations gratitude for these wonderfully caring, inspiring people and to help mark a moment in time that will be remembered forever. Itd be great if youd be interested in running this story and hearing more about the different stories that these portraits represent? So much of what we do today relies on technology and this is the first time that data has been placed right at the heart of the story. The portraits are made from used vintage computer punch cards from the 1960s and 70s, one of the very first methods of programming and talking with computers. These cards are sourced from all over the world and show the markings of data ... More
FOTOHOF opens an exhibition of the photographic work of Wolfgang Suschitzky
SALZBURG.- With the photographic work of Wolfgang Suschitzky, FOTOHOF has chosen to take a look at the historically significant artistic position of an Austrian-born personality whose life was, however, marked by flight and exile. Wolf Suschitzky died in London in 2016 at the age of 104 and, in 2018, his estate was handed over to FOTOHOF archiv as a permanent loan, to be scientifically processed and made accessible to the public. The exhibition project Wolf Suschitzky − No Resting Place is not intended, however, as a retrospective of the photographer and cameraman's entire oeuvre, which stretches from the 1930s to the early 21st century. Rather, through its 'Work' theme, it chooses to address a subject matter omnipresent in the work of the Viennese-born photographer and examine the continuity of content in a biography ... More
111-year-old Renault with echoes of Downton Abbey for sale with H&H Classics
LONDON.- Based in Somerset this wonderful 111 year old 1909 Renault Type AZ 12/16HP Laundaulette with coachwork by Lucas of London shows all the flair that the French are famous for combined here with British coachwork. It comes to the H&H Classics sale from a deceased estate and will be sold on July 22nd in a live auction online. The car has echoes of the TV series Downton Abbey as Lord Grantham was struggling to maintain the Downton estate so a more expensive car like a Rolls-Royce would have been beyond his reach and instead had to settle for a 1911 Renault 12/16 Landaulette. An elegant town carriage which was chosen as transport by a descendant of the Duke of Wellington to celebrate her familys association with Number One, London (a.k.a. Apsley House and the Wellington Museum) a few years ago, this original bodied Renault ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Turner Bursaries
Ren Hang
Peter Lindbergh: Untold Stories
Canova | Thorvaldsen
Flashback On a day like today, French painter Edgar Degas was born July 19, 1834. Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 - 27 September 1917), was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist. A superb draftsman, he is especially identified with the subject of the dance, and over half of his works depict dancers. In this image: An auction house worker poses for the photographers behind a sculpture by Edgar Degas, ahead of an auction sale in central London, Friday, June 15, 2012.
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