| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, July 23, 2020 |
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| | Humans in America 30,000 years ago, far earlier than thought | |
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"That happens every time that anybody finds sites older than 16,000 years -- the first reaction is denial or hard acceptance," said Ardelean, who first excavated the cave in 2012 but did not discover the oldest items until 2017. Photo: Ciprian Ardelean.
by Marlowe Hood
PARIS (AFP).- Tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday. Artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite Cave over a roughly 20,000 year period, they reported in two studies, published in Nature. "Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas," Ciprian Ardelean, an archeologist at the Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas and lead author of one of the studies, told AFP. "There are only a few artefacts and a couple of dates from that range," he said, referring radiocarbon dating results putting the oldest samples at 33,000 to 31,000 years ago. "However, the presence is there." No traces of human bones or DNA were found at the site. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A picture taken on July 22, 2020, shows clay figurines of women unearthed at an excavation site, dating back to the Kingdom of Judah 2700 years ago, in Jerusalem. A significant administrative storage center from the days of Kings Hezekiah and Menashe has recently been uncovered in Jerusalem. Excavation at the site revealed an unusually large structure built of concentric ashlars walls. Around 120 jar handles dated back 2700 years, many of them bearing seal impressions with ancient Hebrew script implying they were for the Judean king, have been uncovered in a site located in today's Jerusalem, believed to be a governmental centre for collecting and distributing taxes in the form of oil and wine. MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP
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 | | Montreal museum firing turns messy | | Andrew Jones Auctions announces highlights included in the Design for the Home and Garden Auction | | Paul Fusco, photographer on a funeral train, dies at 89 | 
Nathalie Bondil. Photo SGP Le Pigeon.
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Nathalie Bondil, the first female director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, is credited by some to have put the museum on the map internationally. She has worked there for more than two decades, rising to become a high-profile leader in the art world while maintaining close ties with art museums in Europe where she once worked. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that the minister of culture and communications for the province of Quebec would declare earlier this month, when Bondils job security was questioned, that the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is Nathalie Bondil! But it did startle many in the art world when the museum announced three days later that Bondils contract had been terminated, effective immediately. Her departure has unleashed a tempest in the art circles of Canada, where the Montreal museum is viewed as something of a national treasure; the debate over why she was let go has led to such confusion ... More | | 
Fine George III gilt bronze and jasperware mounted inlaid mahogany, kingwood, satinwood and yewwood fall front secretary in the manner of Thomas Sheraton, late 18th century (est. $10,000-$20,000).
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Andrew Jones Auctions upcoming Design for the Home and Garden Auction on Sunday, July 26th, will feature over 250 lots of important fine art, design, antiques and accessories from collections across the country and throughout California. This will be an online-only auction, with no live bidding. Phone and absentee bids will be taken. The sale will be led by property from the collection of Mary and Lou Silver of Indian Wells, California. Highlights include important fine art, sculpture, micro mosaics, antiques, art glass, design and even a Steinway grand piano. Also included is property from a Northern California estate featuring antiques, fine silver and clocks, as well as the Estate of Ruth Harvey of Bel Air. It is exciting to have the opportunity to offer such a varied and well-rounded collection as that of Mary and Lou Silver, said Andrew Jones, the president and CEO of Andrew Jones Auctions. & ... More | | 
Paul Fusco, Untitled, from the series RFK Funeral Train, 1968, printed 2008; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art © Magnum Photos, courtesy Danziger Gallery.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Paul Fusco, a photographer whose eye for the human impact of earthshaking events was perhaps never more evident than in the pictures he took of trackside mourners while riding Sen. Robert F. Kennedys funeral train in 1968, died July 15 at an assisted-living center in San Anselmo, California. He was 89. His son, Anthony, said the cause was complications of dementia. In a long career behind the camera, Paul Fusco worked for Look magazine and the Magnum photo agency and pursued self-financed projects, including a photo series documenting the sobering aftermath of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. His varied body of work included images of hard-luck coal miners in Kentucky in 1959, Cesar Chavez and his farmworkers in 1966, AIDS patients ... More |
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| | Demolition of historic Vietnam cathedral is underway | | Janet Borden, Inc. reopens with a group exhibition: "Open" | | German arts advocate kidnapped in Baghdad | 
In a photo provided by Nguyen Duong, inside the historic Bui Chu Cathedral in Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam in May 2019. Nguyen Duong via The New York Times.
by Richard C. Paddock
BANGKOK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The historic Bui Chu Cathedral in Vietnam, a 135-year-old church considered by many an architectural gem, is being demolished to make room for a bigger cathedral despite last-ditch efforts to save it. By Wednesday, workers had removed tiles from the floor and dismantled much of the roof of the cathedral, which is in Nam Dinh province, about two hours south of Hanoi. A high fence has been erected around the building, and demolition will most likely be completed by early next month. This would amount to an irremediable loss of heritage for Vietnam, for the world and for the Catholic Church itself, said Martin Rama, a top economist with the World Bank ... More | | 
Jim Dows Heavy Bag is from his series Old School.
BROOKLYN, NY.- Janet Borden, Inc. announced that it has reopened to the public. On view is a group exhibition, Open - a collection of new works and favorites from their artists. The show includes the work of Jan Groover, S.B. Walker, David Brandon Geeting, Jim Dow, Martin Parr, Hanno Otten, Robert Cumming, Alfred Leslie, Baron Von Fancy, John Pfahl and Fred Cray. S.B. Walkers Mary engages viewers upon entering the gallery. The photograph is from his 2018 debut title Walden, a photobook inspired by Henry David Thoreaus Walden, deliberating upon the relationship between the humans and the natural world. . Walker observes this tension at the famed New England lake for which the book was written, Walden Pond. His subjects are at once situated in their surroundings, but in some way detached from the landscape itself. Walkers photographs observe the social activities taking place in an area ... More | | 
Dhikra Sarsam speaks during a press conference in Baghdad on July 21, 2020, demanding the release of her German friend Hella Mewis who was kidnapped the previous day. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP.
by Alissa J. Rubin and Falih Hassan
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Kidnappers in two vehicles seized a German arts advocate at dusk on Monday as she was leaving her office near one of Baghdads busiest thoroughfares, Iraqi security officials said. The advocate, Hella Mewis, is a well-known figure in the neighborhood, home to the Beit Tarkib Arts Center, which she had established with Iraqi artists to encourage and showcase their work. Mewis was also active last fall in supporting anti-government protesters, whose ranks included many intellectuals and artists. Scores of anti-government protesters were kidnapped during the demonstrations last fall and winter, which the United Nations human rights division documented in ... More |
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| | House votes to remove Confederate statues From U.S. Capitol | | Over 600 lots of antiques and artworks to go under the hammer at major Cheffins fine sale | | Warning over UK theatre closures due to virus lockdown | 
The statue of John Calhoun of South Carolina, the former vice president who led the pro-slavery faction in the Senate, in the Capitol in Washington. Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times.
by Catie Edmondson
WASHINGTON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The House voted on Wednesday to banish from the Capitol statues of Confederate figures and leaders who pushed white supremacist agendas, part of a broader effort to remove historical symbols of racism and oppression from public spaces. The bipartisan vote, 305-113, came amid a national discussion about racism and justice that has led to the toppling of Confederate statues across the country and left lawmakers scrutinizing how their predecessors are honored in their own halls. Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month ordered that the portraits of four speakers who served the Confederacy be removed from the ornate hall just outside the House chamber. These painful symbols of bigotry and racism they have no place in our society, and certainly should not be enshrined in the United States Capitol, said Rep. Barbara ... More | | 
The sale also includes a wide range of antique furniture, with highlights including a French ormolu kingwood commode, in the Louis XV style, signed Henry Dasson and dated 1884 which is set to sell for between £6,000 - £8,000.
CAMBRIDGE.- Over 600 lots of antiques and artworks will go under the hammer on the 29th and 30th July as part of the Cheffins Fine Sale at the firms salerooms in Cambridge. The sale will also include a comprehensive Asian art section, collectors items, clocks, rugs and porcelain. The highlight of the Asian art section is a Chinese blue and white porcelain dragon dish from the Qianlong period, dating between 1736 and 1795. The piece was bought by the seller on Portobello Road in the 1950s and is estimated to reach between £5,000 - £7,000. Also, within the section is a pair of Chinese Doucai porcelain tea bowls, dating from the Daoguang period which have an estimate of £4,000 - £6,000. Amongst the Asian furniture, a Japanese Meji cabinet with elaborate decoration has an estimate of £2,000 - £3,000 and a gilt 17th century Japanese cabinet is estimated at £1,500 - £2,000. Amongst the 150 paintings available, top lots ... More | | 
The National Theatre in London, Aug. 16, 2016. A state-sponsored complex overlooking the Thames, the theater has hosted performances by such actors as Peter OToole, Helen Mirren and Daniel Day Lewis and is among a plethora of venues in the city where a person can see a fine show at an affordable price. David Azia/The New York Times.
LONDON (AFP).- Britain's world-leading theatre industry faces mass redundancies and venue closures because of the effect of the coronavirus lockdown, lawmakers said on Thursday. Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee said in a new report that more than 15,000 theatrical performances were cancelled in the first 12 weeks of shutdown from March 23. More than £303 million ($386 million, 333 million euros) in box office revenue was lost but when additional income was factored in, losses could be £603 million. "We are witnessing the biggest threat to our cultural landscape in a generation," the committee said. "The failure of the government to act quickly has jeopardised the future of institutions that are part of our national life and the livelihoods of those who work for them." The government earlier this ... More |
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| | Rutgers announces Interim Director for Zimmerli Art Museum | | Donation of three paintings worth $12.1 million transform Ackland Art Museum's permanent collection | | Postmasters Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Serena Stevens | 
Gustafson, whose tenure as interim director began June 26, also continues to serve as the museums curator of American art and Mellon Director for academic programs. Photo: Andrew Mitchell.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.- Donna Gustafson has been appointed interim director of the Zimmerli Art Museum, one of the nations largest and most respected university-based museums. Gustafson, whose tenure as interim director began June 26, also continues to serve as the museums curator of American art and Mellon Director for academic programs. Her most recent exhibition, Angela DavisSeize the Time, co-curated with Gerry Beegan, Associate Professor of Design, at Rutgers-New Brunswicks Mason Gross School of the Arts, will debut at the Zimmerli in September 2021, with a companion book available this September. In recent years, she has collaborated with faculty and students on interdisciplinary exhibitions, research projects, and public events, and was a 2019-2020 fellow at the Institute for Research on Women, part of the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers. Her recent exhibitions at the ... More | | 
Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), Untitled, 1962 (detail). Oil on canvas, 63 ¾ x 38 ⅛ in. (161.925 x 96.838 cm) Private collection © Estate of Joan Mitchell.
CHAPEL HILL, NC.- Jane Roughton Kearns, a longtime supporter of UNC-Chapel Hill and parent of three Carolina graduates, has bequeathed three paintings, valued at $12.1 million, to the Ackland Art Museum. We are grateful to Jane Roughton Kearns and her wonderful commitment to the Ackland, said Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. Her gift underscores the importance of the arts to our campus, to our community and to each of us particularly at a time when our cultural institutions are providing important inspiration and joy through new virtual channels. The Acklands permanent collection currently consists of more than 19,000 works of art, featuring North Carolinas premier collections of Asian art and works on paper, as well as significant collections of European masterworks, 20th-century and contemporary art, and North Carolina pottery. The Ackland is the only public university art museum in the United States to own a coll ... More | | 
Serena Stevens, Red Door, 2020. Oil on canvas, 82 x 60 inches, 208.5 x 152.5 cm. Photo: Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery and the artist.
NEW YORK, NY.- Iowa Dream is a show of large-scale, unrushed, and unpopulated paintings, at once personal and neutral, humane, observant and SLOW. Paintings that are simultaneously empty and loaded, and that are best experienced one-on-one, by viewing in a real (physical) space. Quiet paintings that risk being rendered invisible amidst the digital fog, or suffocated by the frenetic, figurative, pop-infused iconography of art optimized to perform online. "If you slow things down, you notice things you hadn't seen before." - Robert Wilson Stevens paints intimate spaces and nondescript objects of everyday life: her studio, her bedroom, her garden, a shower curtain, a desk, a stack of suitcases, a disheveled bed taken over by a cat. Vacillating between experience and memory, surface and subject, these are slow paintings, made softly and hazily, where the familiar and overlooked trace the contours of a private world. Serena Stevens was born in 1988 in Fort Madison, ... More |
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Andrew Graham-Dixon's 'Rembrandt to Richter' Exhibition Tour
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 They're used to tapping. Now they're talking.NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Ayodele Casel is a top-shelf tap dancer, as generous of spirit as she is precise in technique. But years ago, she discovered that even appreciative audiences didnt always grasp all that she was trying to communicate with her feet. They would come up to me after shows and say things like, That was really good, she recalled in a phone conversation from her apartment in the Bronx. And while she appreciated the praise, she found it a bit one-dimensional. In response, she began explaining herself with words, speaking as part of her tap performances. Tap dancers always talk about how the dance moves us, but I also feel that we move the dance, she explained. Our upbringing and life experience inform how we do what we do and why we do it. I thought that if we gave people more context, ... More Lichtundfire reopens with an exhibition featuring 10 artists from across the U.S. and Brazil NEW YORK, NY.- Lichtundfire welcomes all back with the exhibit When Night Falls featuring 10 artists from across the U.S. and Brazil working in painting, sculpture, digital and mixed media. Curators Robert Curcio, curcioprojects, and Priska Juschka, Lichtundfire, explore what transpires from dusk to dawn of impending awe and wonder of the night that impacts artists forever to seek it out. Gretl Bauers sculpted paper works combined with wash, thread, and wood, explore the possibilities of evoking whatever light might be coaxed from within that darkness. The bold gestural strokes barely contained within Vian Borcherts paintings dramatically seize upon that instant when the days blue skies fall to the coming night. Jane Fires digital print represents a unique dark rose that was grown by NASA in the night of space and sponsored by a perfume ... More Dix Noonan Webb to sell the late Jeffrey Gardiner's collection of British tokensLONDON.- More than 720 local tokens and tickets issued in the 19th and 20th centuries from Co. Durham, Teesside and Northumberland will be offered by International coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists Dix Noonan Webb in a live/online auction of British Tokens, Tickets and Passes on Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 10am on their website. The collection, that was amassed by the late Jeffery Gardiner, has been sold by DNW in four parts over the past four to five years, however this section focuses on the North East of England. Comprising 36 lots including many scarce examples, estimates range from £600 to £30. A comprehensive group of tokens relating to Newcastle is expected to fetch £400-600, while a group devoted to Northumberland carries an estimate of £300-400, and one for Bishop Auckland is estimated at ... More Masters from Southern Africa explained by Strauss & Co art experts, ahead of Virtual Live auctionJOHANNESBURG.- Something very exciting is happening in the art world right now. There is an awakening, indeed a burgeoning of collector and commercial interest in the power of artists from Africa, and from Southern Africa in particular. Inclusive dialogue sees the international art world embracing a global perspective and driving diversity. Art from the continent is now so much more accessible, and the seasoned art experts at Strauss & Co fine art auctioneers are in a strong position to present and discuss the selection of works by local masters on auction at the upcoming 26 to 28 July Virtual Live auction. We caught up with three Strauss & Co senior art specialists, Head of the Art Department in Johannesburg, Dr Alastair Meredith, Wilhelm van Rensburg and Marion Dixon, to gain unique insight into stand-out pieces by artists Alexis Preller, JH Pierneef ... More Two alabaster stone sculptures by Anish Kapoor on view at the Sainsbury CentreNORWICH.- The Sainsbury Centre announced a new East End gallery display of two alabaster stone sculptures by Anish Kapoor: Involute, 2017 and Untitled, 2010. This is presented as part of a major exhibition on show across the grounds and historic interiors of Houghton Hall and would not be possible without the support of the Houghton Arts Foundation. Anish Kapoor is considered one of the most important sculptors working today. Born in 1954, Kapoor started exhibiting his seminal pigment works in the early 80s and rose to prominence as part of the New British Sculpture movement. This generation of sculptors found a renewed interest in traditional materials long associated with sculpture and techniques such as carving in stone. Kapoor has gone on to work in a diverse range of materials, from wax, PVC and silicone to fibreglass, steel and cement, ... More 1950s Frontier Gasoline porcelain sign brings $5,375 at Holabird auctionRENO, NEV.- A late 1950s Frontier Gasoline Rarin-to-Go single-sided porcelain gas station sign, six feet in diameter, sold for $5,375, and an Antique Apparatus reproduction jukebox of a Wurlitzer Model 1015 from the 1940s finished at $2,875 in a massive, seven-day Summer 2020 Extravaganza Auction held June 25-28/July 10-12 by Holabird Western Americana Collections. The two-session sale was packed with important collections of Americana more than 4,800 lots in all. Categories included numismatics, mining, railroadiana, Native Americana and much more. The event was held live in the Reno gallery and online via iCollector.com, LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com, AuctionMobility.com and Auctionzip.com. Phone and left bids were also taken. Day 1, on Thursday, June 25th, contained California ephemera (a continuation of the John ... More National Museum of Women in the Arts reopens August 1WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Museum of Women in the Arts reopens to the public on Saturday, August 1. With guidance from the D.C. government, D.C. Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the museum has developed new cleaning, safety, health and operational protocols. A maximum of 200 visitors per day are allowed, and advance purchase of a timed ticket is strongly encouraged. On most days, the museums hours of operation remain unchanged. Extended hours are planned on select dates. Committed to the well-being of visitors, staff and volunteers, NMWA created an Operations Planning Task Force in April 2020. The group has worked to develop reopening guidelines in accordance with Mayor Muriel Bowsers Phase 2 reopening plan for museums. The task force is also employing recommendations from the National ... More Contemporary Arts Museum Houston launches a participatory public art projectHOUSTON, TX.- As part of its new Beyond CAMH initiative series, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston today announced the launch of the Houston edition of A Counting, a remotely accessible, participatory public art project by Texas-born, New York- and Boston-based artist Ekene Ijeoma, founder of Poetic Justice group at MIT Media Lab. Reflecting on the linguistic and ethnic diversity of the United States by capturing voice portraits of major U.S. cities, the project marks the first Museum collaboration of the artist in his home state. Conceived as an ongoing series, the generative sound and video work will ultimately feature voices of Houstonians counting to 100 in their native languages, with a different voice speaking each number in a unique language and with the number 1 spoken in an indigenous language. The Houston edition of A ... More Constance Curry, 86, Civil Rights ally and author, diesNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As a white Southern woman working to end racial segregation in the 1950s and 60s, Constance Curry at once stood out among Black activists and, at least by appearances, blended in with white Southern society. She could move comfortably anywhere in the South, Andrew Young, a civil rights era leader and former mayor of Atlanta, said in a phone interview. She was one of the few people that could go to an NAACP meeting or a revival and be at home, and at the same time go to the upper-crust Episcopal Church and hold her own. Outgoing and determined, Curry was a bridge between Black activists and white Southerners who wouldnt often talk openly about their feelings about integration. But they would with Connie, said Young, who first met her in 1961 and for whom she worked in his administration. ... More Australia's leading glass artists to shine at Venice Glass Week 2020 and Milan Design WeekCANBERRA.- Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre and acclaimed Italian design consulting studio Mr.Lawrence, together with 1+1 Design Gallery, Milan, will present the collective exhibition GLASS UTOPIA as part of the international Venice Glass Week from 3 until 26 September 2020. A signature exhibition for DESIGN Canberra Festival 2019, the GLASS UTOPIA was curated by Mr.Lawrence co-founders Annalisa Rosso and Francesco Mainardi for Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre and presents a selection of 24 contemporary pieces by 12 leading Italian and Australian designers. As a realized utopia, GLASS UTOPIA tells of the new glass Renaissance that blossoms today both locally and internationally, demonstrating how the power of beauty is stronger than ever, and that creativity has no borders. The exhibition features six Italian designers ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, German painter Philipp Otto Runge was born July 23, 1777. Philipp Otto Runge (23 July 1777 - 2 December 1810) was a Romantic German painter and draughtsman. He made a late start to his career and died young, nonetheless he is considered among the best German Romantic painters.
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