| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Sunday, March 26, 2023 |
| | Ann Philbin has transformed LA's Hammer Museum inside and out | |
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Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum, in its new lobby, where a staircase begins that is enveloped in a red wool yarn temporary sculpture, The Network, by artist Chiharu Shiota, in Los Angeles, March 22, 2023. A $90 million renovation project that is drawing to an end is just one of the ways Philbin has rethought the museum during her 24 years as its director. (Ye Rin Mok/The New York Times)
LOS ANGELES, CA.- When Ann Philbin was asked by a Los Angeles artist if she would consider leaving the Drawing Center in New York in the late 1990s to run the Hammer Museum here, she demurred. She had never even heard of the Hammer Museum. And when, at the urging of the artist, Lari Pittman, she agreed to at least visit the museum while on a West Coast trip in 1998, her heart sank at the sight of the pink marble lobby in the Occidental Petroleum Building that led to the adjoining museum that Occidentals founder, Armand Hammer, had built eight years earlier to display his collection of old masters and other paintings. Im a contemporary art person, and I love architecture and design, so the place kind of hurt my eyes, Philbin recalled. But now, 24 years after Philbin agreed to sign on as the museums director for what she had once thought would be a five-year stint in Los Angeles, the Hammer is finally concluding a $90 million stop-and-start renovation project with the opening ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Ettore Sottsass, Installation view of Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth, © Chatsworth House Trust.
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| Wright to Auction First-Generation Apple iPhone | | Chiswick to auction single-owner collection of contemporary art glass, Mar. 29 | | The exquisite darkness of Depeche Mode | 
Unopened Apple iPhone - Willy Wonka, 24 karat' Golden Ticket." Photo courtesy of Wright.
CHICAGO, IL.- Wright presents a First-generation Apple iPhone, model A1203 as a leading lot of the March 30th Design auction. Released in 2007 as the first smartphone to be offered by Apple, the iPhone 1 is an unparalleled object born from the intersection of design, technology, and communication, and it is hard to overstate the impact that its arrival has had on the world. This rare, factory-sealed iPhone 1 comes to Wright via Donald Gajadhar of Fox-White Art & Antique Appraisals. "[It] slowly dawned on me when I held [this] boxed Apple cellphone," says Gajadhar, "my client not only had an unopened cellphone, but a truly unique version. A Willy Wonka, 24 karat' Golden Ticket." Indeed, the present lot features an upside-down Apple logo sticker bearing the words "lucky you." The iPhone was officially announced by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Its release was ... More | | 
Vasa Mihich, acrylic column, 2012, commissioned by the consignor, Ben Essex. Estimate £600-£1,000
LONDON.- On March 29, Chiswick Auctions will host a Design & Modern Contemporary sale that includes a single-owner collection of beautiful contemporary glass. The 40 pieces, all created by renowned UK and international artists, were assembled by art glass enthusiast Ben Essex between 1978 and 2010. Some were specially commissioned. Many of the vessels were created by the Czech-British artist Peter Layton (b. 1937-) at his London Glassblowing Workshop. Offered in 30 lots, they follow the evolution and full range of his style across several decades. The individual pieces range from a scent bottle pulled-feather decoration in ochre, blue and clear glass (estimate £70-£100) to a vase of tapered form, with yellow and blue spotted band to a red ground (estimate £150-£250). Other significant pieces by widely exhibited British makers include a unique 15cm vase by Jonathan Harris of Isle of Wight Glass that ... More | | 
Dave Gahan, left, and Martin Gore, of Depeche Mode, in New York, Feb. 6, 2023. Gahan and Gore are back with the groups 15th album, but after losing the bandmate Andy Fletcher last year, their return was anything but certain. (OK McCausland/The New York Times)
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.- Martin Gore, who is now 50% of Depeche Mode, works in a studio on a low hill near Santa Barbara, hidden behind jungle-green foliage and fragrant flowering shrubs. On a Tuesday morning in January, he sat at a console in the center of the control room, which was spacious and orderly and full of California winter sunshine a clean, well-lighted place to make songs about power, desire, faith and a world spinning ever further off its axis. Gore wore black clothes and spotless black boots. He looked like an Englishman whos spent decades in California vibrant tan, straight white teeth. He had the haircut youd get if you asked a knowledgeable barber to give you the Martin Gore: high and tight, with several inches of unruly ... More |
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| Rare 120+ year-old coin collection sells for $1.6 million | | Modern British & Irish Art to be auctioned by Chiswick Auctions on March 29th | | The April auctions at Michaan's offers two new specialty auctions | 
1865 Liberty Seated Silver Dollar. OC-P2. Top 30 Variety. Rarity-3. Doubled Die Obverse, Doubled Die Reverse. Proof-66+ (PCGS). CAC.
BALTIMORE, MD.- Stacks Bowers Galleries just sold for the first time the very rare coin collection of James Allaire Millholland (1842-1911), which has been locked away for more than 120 years, for $1.6 Million. The Millholland Collection brings us back in time for a rare glimpse at old-school collecting, when coins were acquired one per date and beautifully laid out in custom-built wood trays and cabinets. Stacks Bowers Galleries and buyers in attendance experienced great excitement when the approximately 550 coins in the collection crossed the auction block in their Official Auction of the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Spring Expo in Baltimore on March 21 and 22. James Allaire Millholland, born in 1842, was an active participant in the industrial explosion of the 19th century in western Maryland. His father was an early American railway master mechanic, ... More | | 
The Steps, Ardglass, signed 'Colin M' (lower right); further signed and titled 'The Steps, Ardglass/by/Colin Middleton' (on a label attached to the frame). Oil on canvas, 66 x 76.3 cm. (26 x 30 in.). Painted in 1949.
LONDON.- An important Ardglass painting by Irish artist Colin Middleton comes for sale at Chiswick Auctions in west London this month. The Steps, Ardglass, that was painted by Middleton in 1949 and exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in Dublin the following year, it has a pre-sale auction estimate of £12,000-18,000. Colin Middleton moved to Ardglass from Belfast in the summer of 1949. The previous December he had been taken on as a gallery artist by the Dublin dealer Victor Waddington and the £40 per month he received as an advance against sales had allowed Middleton to make a decisive break from his previous career as a damask designer. Although he only remained in Ardglass until late in 1952 it was a period of immense significance for Middleton. Having achieved early recognition in Belfast, culminating ... More | | 
In April, Michaans will conduct four auctions.
ALAMEDA, CA.- In April, Michaans will conduct four auctions. Starting the month off with the Annex Auction from April 10th through April 13th. Followed by the monthly Gallery Auction on Friday the 14th. Monday, April 17th will be a flagship day with two new specialty Auctions. The first is the Collectibles Auction starting at 10:00 a.m., followed by the Prints and Multiples Auction at 1:00 p.m. The Gallery Auction will open with a wide variety of furniture and decorative arts, including a Napoleaon III Style Eboninzed Buffet ($2,000/2,500). A Newcomb Pottery Vase is also a shining star in the section as well as a highly sought after Navajo Third Phase Marked Sterling Concha Belt anointed with turquoise insets ($3,500/5,000). The Fine Art section runs heavy on big name American Artists like James Weeks. An oil on panel, Landscape with Figures and Trees, signed lower right is expected to fetch $7,000/8,000. Among some of the other Amer ... More |
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| Summers Place Auctions to celebrate Shaka Zulu | | Renée Fleming adds a new role to her repertoire: Pat Nixon | | Anne Collier at Lismore Castle Arts | 
19th century Zulu culture and the Zulu art from the Shaka Zulu restaurant at Camden market, London.
LONDON.- Shaka Zulu, the upmarket restaurant that opened at Camden Market, London in 2010, has closed and all its elaborate decorations are coming up for sale at Summers Place Auctions on Tuesday, 28th March 2023 and in the sealed bid auction on Wednesday, 29th March 2023 with estimates ranging from £100 up to £10,000. The restaurant was themed around the famous Zulu king Shaka and had been designed and furnished for £5.5 million. The interior décor showcased 19th century Zulu culture and the Zulu art which adorned the walls were made possible with the help of South African museums, allowing copies of their artefacts to be made specifically for the 2,400 square metre restaurant. The hand-made furniture, the wooden murals and indeed the bronzes, all made in South Africa & Asia had to be transported to the UK in 40 lorries. The smaller items like the chairs and tables were carried into the building by hand. ... More | | 
A photo provided by Opéra National de Paris shows Renée Fleming as Pat Nixon in a new staging of John Adams Nixon in China, in Paris. (Elisa Haberer/Opéra national de Paris via The New York Times)
by Ben Miller
NEW YORK, NY.- In May 2017, star soprano Renée Fleming sang the role of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier for the last time and with that, said goodbye to one the roles that had defined her career. Since then, Fleming, 64, has appeared in concerts and on Broadway, and premiered a new opera, The Hours, which was written for her. Now, for the first time in a decade, she is preparing a role debut in the established repertoire: Pat Nixon in John Adams 1987 opera Nixon in China, which opens at the Paris Opera on Saturday in a new production by Valentina Carrasco. Some sopranos in their 50s and 60s have voices that darken and thicken, making them perfect for character roles, often vengeful older women such as Klytaemnestra in Strauss Elektra or the Kostelnicka ... More | | 
Over the past two decades Anne Collier has developed a complex body of work that considers our social and cultural relationships with images and with the medium and history of photography itself.
LISMORE.- Lismore Castle Arts iopened Eye, the first exhibition in Ireland by the New York-based artist Anne Collier. The exhibition is a focused survey of Colliers works produced between 2007 and 2022 that feature images of eyes, including the artists own and those sourced from photography manuals, advertisements, comic books, film stills, and album sleeves. The exhibition considers Colliers long-standing interest in what curator Michael Darling identified as a self-perpetuating ocular system, where the act of looking - or being looked at - is inherent to the photographic process itself. Over the past two decades Anne Collier has developed a complex body of work that considers our social and cultural relationships with images and with the medium and history of photography itself. At Lismore Castle Arts Collier presents works including her iconic self-portraits Developing Tray #2 (Grey) ... More |
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| Howard Brandston, who made his mark with light, dies at 87 | | 'Merchant of landscapes': The lasting footprint of a Japanese gardener in Mexico | | Jeremy O. Harris' writers residency under the Tuscan sun | 
An undated family photo shows the lighting designer Marvyn Brandston, who illuminated landmarks in New York and around the world. Brandston, who used light to inspirit people depressed by waning winter daylight, to prevent infections, and even to keep penguins in a zoo from looking seedy, died on Feb. 24, 2023, in Lenox, Mass. He was 87. (The Brandston Family via The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- Howard Brandston, a prominent lighting designer who illuminated landmarks in New York and around the world, and who used light to inspirit people depressed by waning winter daylight, to prevent infections, and even to keep penguins in a zoo from looking seedy, died Feb. 24 in Lenox, Massachusetts. He was 87. The cause was complications of Alzheimers disease, his wife, Melanie Brandston, said. Among the more visible lighting projects attributed to Brandston and his collaborators at what is now Brandston Partnership Inc., a global firm with offices in New York City and Asia, are the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in 1986; the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; exhibition halls at the American Museum ... More | | 
Abril Angulo, a student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) sits under a Jacaranda tree on the univeristys campus, in Mexico City on March 16, 2023. Every spring, Jacarandas bloom in Mexicos capital city, the colorful purple flowers a living legacy of a Japanese gardener. (Marian Carrasquero/The New York Times)
MEXICO CITY.- The Mexican president wanted cherry trees. It was 1930, and President Pascual Ortiz Rubio had seen them lining the streets of Washington and desired the same beautiful spectacle for his countrys capital. To try to fulfill the leaders request, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs tapped Tatsugoro Matsumoto, a Japanese immigrant who tended the gardens of Chapultepec, then the presidential residence in Mexico City. But winters in the capital were not cold enough for the cherries to fully blossom, the expert gardener said. The president wouldnt get his hanami, the flower contemplation ritual the Japanese celebrate every spring. At least not a pink one. If cherries were not suitable for the Mexican capital, another tree with colorful flowers might do the trick: jacarandas. ... More | | 
The playwright Jeremy O. Harris in Castiglioncello del Trinoro, Italy on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Harris says he considers Italy the perfect place for writers to get the type of inspiration that can really shift an artists brain. (Guido Gazzilli/The New York Times)
CASTIGLIONCELLO DEL TRINORO.- Just two weeks ago, the lives of four promising playwrights were upended: Not only did they receive an email announcing that their work had been shortlisted for the 2023 Yale Drama Series Prize, but they were also invited to participate in a monthlong residency in Tuscany, led by American playwright Jeremy O. Harris. Which is how those playwrights found themselves eating gourmet meals this week in a medieval village turned boutique hotel with breathtaking views of the postcard-perfect Val dOrcia countryside. With access to a sauna and spa, as well as pasta-making classes and truffle hunting, they are very much in a pinch-me-I-cant-believe-its-true state. The first two or three days I was like, How am I here? This is insane, Rianna Simons, 21, said of working alongside very lovely, very talented people in a crazy, beautiful environment. ... More |
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The National Gallery's After Impressionism exhibition | A walkthrough with Curator MaryAnne Stevens
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| More News |
 GRIMM presents Los Ovnis, a solo exhibition of new works by artist Arturo KameyaNEW YORK, NY.- GRIMM is presenting Los Ovnis, a solo exhibition of new works by Peruvian-born, Amsterdam-based artist Arturo Kameya opening at 54 White Street on March 24, 2023. This is the artists second solo exhibition at GRIMMs New York gallery. Los Ovnis translates to The UFOs, a reference to communal feelings of alienation and otherness explored in Kameyas newest body of work. The exhibition title also refers to the dramatic increase in UFO sightings since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a nod to how perceptions during tumultuous times can affect representations of memory and truth, a prevalent and recurrent theme in the artists work. Kameya captures Perus sociopolitical complexity through an image mining of parallel cultures and events from his adolescence in the 1990s through today. In his new ... More  Review: Looking for happily ever after, in 'Bad Cinderella'NEW YORK, NY.- First: Bring earplugs. Not just because the songs in Bad Cinderella, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that opened Thursday at the Imperial Theatre, are so crushingly loud. The dialogue, too, would benefit from inaudibility. For that matter, bring eye plugs: The sets and costumes are as loud as the songs. If there were such a thing as soul plugs, Id recommend them as well. Thats because Bad Cinderella is not the clever, high-spirited revamp you might have expected, casting contemporary fairy dust on the classic story of love and slippers. It has none of the grit of the Grimm tale, the sweetness of the Disney movie or the grace (let alone the melodic delight) of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Instead, its surprisingly vulgar, sexed-up and dumbed-down: a parade of hustling women in bustiers and shirtless pec- ... More  John Moran Auctioneers: California Living highlighted by Kusama art and a Mäori wind instrument LOS ANGELES, CA.- On Tuesday, April 11th, 2023, at 10 am PST, John Moran Auctioneers & Appraisers will present California Livingan auction encompassing the California aesthetic through a bevy of important art, furniture, and decorative items. Highlighting the California Living auction is the estate of Oscar and Barbara Leidenfrost. Decades of traveling worldwide collecting art created a medley of museum-worthy treasures. Over time, their sophisticated and diverse collection showcased California art and design, highlighted by works from Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Richard Wyatt Jr., Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Longo, Adolph Gottlieb, and Edward Kienholz. Alongside up and coming and blue-chip artists are a bevy of design items like a series of wood-turned vessels, African baskets, masks, and fertility dolls, ... More  Putney Pies to celebrate the Boat Race with special art exhibitionLONDON.- This year, the Boat Race will finally be back to normal with Putney expecting lots of visitors to watch the famous, annual race on the Thames between the university rowing teams from Oxford and Cambridge. It will take place on Sunday, 26th March and to coincide with it, Paul Mowatt, who runs Putney Pies Art, is curating an exhibition to celebrate the rowing heritage of Putney and the UK's most famous river - Catch 23. He has chosen works by well-known illustrator Rachel Hunt, rowing portraits by painter Martin Ireland and some works by Martin's mother Anne Hickmott, who was one of the first women to design a boat race poster in the late 1950s. The exhibition, at Putney Pies upstairs, opened Wednesday, 22nd March and will continue until 23rd April. There will be original oil paintings and limited edition prints for sale with prices ranging from £100 to £800. ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, French illustrator and painter Honoré Daumier was born March 26, 1808. Honoré-Victorin Daumier (February 26, 1808 - February 10, 1879) was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century. In this image: Honore Daumier, Lunch in the Country, c. 1867-1868. Oil on panel, 26 x 34 cm. National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Photo © National Museum of Wales.
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