| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Thursday, July 29, 2021 |
| | | They pooled their art to create a nest egg. They say it was a mistake. | |
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Artists who joined the Artist Pension Trust, from left, Ruby Osorio, Amitis Motevalli, York Chang, Elana Mann, Carolyn Castano, Sandeep Mukherjee, Amanda Ross-Ho and Danny Jauregui in Los Angeles, June 21, 2021. Many artists who joined the company say they worry about the works the entrusted to it. Rozette Rago/The New York Times.
by Robin Pogrebin and Siddhartha Mitter
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It began as a worthy experiment: a fund to create some rare financial security for artists by having them pool their paintings and sculptures and sell the work years later when it had appreciated in value. Everyone would share in the proceeds. A for-profit company, the Artist Pension Trust, hatched the idea in 2004 and promised to store, insure and market the works in exchange for a cut of the revenue. The venture got off to a promising start, fueled by the involvement of art world luminaries like the former Whitney Museum director David Ross and well-regarded curators who recruited emerging artists from around the world. Over time, the company gathered more than 13,000 artworks from 2,000 artists in 75 countries, with an insured value of at least $70 million as of 2013, according to company records. But dozens of the artists now say they have deep concerns about the company. It sold very little of their art, they say, made only two rounds of small payouts several years ago and sought ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day In this file photo taken on July 22, 2021, aerial view of the Chankillo Solar Observatory near Casma, Peru. Chankillo, the oldest solar observatory in America from between 500 and 200 BC, was placed in the 2021 list of world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Heritage Committee during its 44th session, taking place in Fuzhou, China from July 16 to 31, 2021. Janine Costa / AFP.
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| ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill dies at age 72 | | Clark Art Institute introduces Nikolai Astrup to audiences in first-ever U.S. museum exhibition | | US takes steps to return 3,500-year-old 'Gilgamesh' tablet to Iraq |
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, left, and guitarist Billy Gibbons perform at the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix, Nov. 4, 2005. Jeff Topping/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Dusty Hill -- the long-serving bassist of American rock-blues band ZZ Top -- has died at the age of 72, his fellow band members announced on Facebook Wednesday. No cause of death was cited for Hill, who played bass for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers from Texas for more than 50 years. "We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston," said lead singer Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard. "We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the 'Top'. "You will be missed greatly, amigo," they added. Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1949. He joined ZZ Top in 1970 a year after they released their first single. The three-musician lineup remained the same for more than half a century as ZZ Top progressed from heavy blues to its experime ... More | |
Nikolai Astrup, Bird on a Stone, woodblock, c. 190514; print, by 1914, color woodcut with hand coloring on paper. Private collection.
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.- As part of its summer 2021 exhibition season, the Clark Art Institute presents the first North American museum exhibition focused on the Norwegian painter Nikolai Astrup (18801928), who deftly wove tradition and innovation into his artistic production. Astrup is considered one of Norways most important artists, yet he is largely unknown outside of his homeland. Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway, on view June 19 through September 19, 2021, features more than eighty-five works and celebrates this brilliant painter, printmaker, and horticulturalist. We are so eager to present the works of Nikolai Astrup here this summer his paintings and woodcuts are a revelation and we look forward to introducing them to our visitors, said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. Few artists have created such a singular style, so heavily influenced by a very specific sense of place, as did Astrup. His love of ... More | |
In this file photo different versions of Bible are on display at Museum of the Bible November 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP.
WASHINGTON (AFP).- A 3,500-year-old tablet recounting the epic of Gilgamesh that once sat in Washington's Museum of the Bible could be returned to Iraq after a judge verified its seizure Tuesday. The rare fragment, which recounts a dream sequence from the epic in Akkadian cuneiform script, is one of many ancient artifacts from Iraq and the Middle East collected by David Green, the billionaire owner of the Hobby Lobby chain. It was seized by the US Justice Department in 2019, two years after Green opened the museum dedicated to ancient Christian history in downtown Washington. According to the Justice Department, Hobby Lobby bought the six-inch-by-five-inch (15.2 centimeters by 12.7 centimeters) tablet, known as the "Gilgamesh Dream Tablet," from a prominent auction house in 2014 for $1.67 million. It had originally been brought illegally to the United States in 2003 by a dealer who purchased it in London from a well-known ... More |
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| Poles tussle over an icon of their past, with an eye on the future | | Masterworks by Albrecht Dürer on view at the IU Eskenazi Museum of Art | | Review: Marina Abramovic summons Maria Callas in '7 Deaths' |
A part of the permanent exhibition on Solidarity, the independent Polish trade union that four decades ago started an avalanche of dissent that swept away Communism, at the European Solidarity Center in Gdansk, Poland, on July 1, 2021. Maciek Nabrdalik/The New York Times.
by Andrew Higgins
GDANSK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Solidarity, the independent Polish trade union that four decades ago started an avalanche of dissent that swept away communism, has more modest ambitions these days. For a start, it wants its plywood boards back. The boards, scrawled with demands for freedom and hoisted on a wall at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in 1980, have been on display since 2014 at a museum built amid the ruins of a facility that laid off most of its workers years ago. The museum, an oasis of shimmering modernity constructed with European Union funds, is dedicated to the ideals that drove Solidarity in 1980 when it was a diverse, Western-looking opposition movement with 10 million members. Today, that movement ... More | |
Albrecht Dürer (Germany, 14711528). The Four Horsemen, Plate 4 from the Apocalypse, published 1498. Woodcut on paper, image: 15 5/8 x 11 3/16 in., sheet: 16 7/8 x 11 ¾ in. Collection of George Amos Poole, Jr., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
BLOOMINGTON, IN.- The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art announced the summer opening of Albrecht Dürer: Apocalypse and Other Masterworks from Indiana University Collections, the first-ever exhibition to survey the universitys impressive holdings by this important and perennially popular Old Master. Soon after assuming his post in 1896 as Indiana Universitys first art instructor, Alfred Mansfield Brooks acquired a small selection of prints by the Albrecht Dürer (Germany, 14711528) for study and exhibition in his classroom. Today, these works are among more than fifty by the pioneering Renaissance printmaker in IU collections. Drawing on the collections of both the Eskenazi Museum of Art and the Lilly Library, the exhibition features engravings, etchings, and woodcuts spanning the length of Dürers career, in addition to early printed books illustrated and, in one ... More | |
Leah Hawkins is onstage at left, with Marina Abramovic in bed during Abramovics 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, in Munich. Wilfried Hösl via The New York Times.
by Joshua Barone
MUNICH (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In Leos Caraxs new film, Annette, the husband and wife played by Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard are described in inverse terms. As a comedian, he kills every night; as an opera star, she dies. Thats of course a reductive view of opera. But the alignment of the art form and demise persists in the popular imagination and guides 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. A dramaturgically misguided séance of a project by performance artist Marina Abramovic, it played to its largest in-person audience yet Tuesday at the Bavarian State Opera after a heavily restricted run and livestream last year. It is bound for Paris and Athens, Greece, in September, then Berlin and Naples, Italy, and who knows where else, with Abramovics celebrity behind it. 7 Deaths is a meeting of divas in which Callas is invoked through a series of the arias for which she was ... More |
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| Nov 4-7: Top art galleries come together for The Art Show | | Exhibition of original works by Gigi Garner opens at ACCA gallery | | Robert Ellison, ceramics collector with a giving streak, dies at 89 |
2021 edition in November marks new annual moment on the art fair calendar. Photo: Scott Rudd.
NEW YORK, NY.- Members of The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), the nation's foremost nonprofit organization of leading art dealers, return together this fall for The Art Show to showcase their dynamic programs-- featuring more than 40 solo presentations, as well as an array of dual, thematic, and group exhibitions. Inaugurating a new moment on the international fair calendar and enlivening the fall arts season in New York, the 2021 edition takes place at the Park Avenue Armory with new fall dates, November 4 through November 7, with the annual Benefit Preview on Wednesday, November 3. This year's fair sees the launch of an accompanying online hub, TheArtShow.org, for collectors and the public to engage with The Art Show from anywhere in the world. Beginning this fall, the site will offer virtual access to works from the fair, experts from ADAA member galleries, and the fair's on-site programming. All proceeds from fair admissions to the ... More | |
Gigi Garner rarely ever uses paint brushes, preferring to use unusual objects to create her pieces.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- ACCA gallery presents an exhibition of original works by Gigi Garner in Beverly Hills during Art Week LA of 2021. Opening, July 30 - August 1, 2021 with Artist reception July 31, starts at 1:00PM. 468 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills. Although a new artist, Garner gives extraordinary form to emotion with her vivid imagery that manifests into an impressive show of artistic maturity. Her stunning use of color and recognizable-like patterns explore deeply personal realms and her unusual and mysterious painting techniques make her work unique. To honor her fathers legacy, the purchase of these artworks support the James Garner Animal Rescue Fund 100%, which helps support animal rescues all over the world. Each purchase may be used as a tax deduction. When the 2020 pandemic hit, Gigi Garner, daughter of Hollywood icon James Garner, found herself desperately searching for a creative outlet. Having previously ... More | |
Robert Ellison, an art collector, with a collection of pottery, in New York, Jan. 14, 2009. Todd Heisler/The New York Times.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It started, Robert A. Ellison Jr. said, with a white ceramic plate with a border of blue rabbits. He saw it some 60 years ago in a shop in Greenwich Village on one of his walkabouts of Manhattan, where at the time he was trying to establish himself as an abstract painter. My hand just seemed to reach out for it it wasnt a conscious process, he recalled decades later. So I thought, Maybe Ill be a Dedham collector thats what was on the bottom of the plate even though I didnt know anything about Dedham. He did indeed become a collector of Dedham tableware, as well as countless other ceramics, educating himself along the way until he was an authority on ceramic art. Ellison amassed an enviable collection, and in 2009 he pledged a gift of more than 300 American ceramic works ... More |
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| Lily Parr - one of football's first female football superstars - gets a new permanent museum display | | Seattle Art Fair returning after 2 year hiatus | | Ancient Peruvian Sun calendar declared UN heritage site |
The display features never-seen-before photographs of Lily and her teammates - which were found in an old suitcase hidden in a loft for four decades.
MANCHESTER.- Emerging in the 1920s as part of Prestons Dick Kerr Ladies, Parr scored nearly 1000 goals in a three-decade career. She played in some of the worlds first womens international matches and was a trailblazer for women footballers the world over. The National Football Museum unveiled a statue of Parr in 2019. Among the new objects on display original photographs from the 1930s which belonged to Lizzy Ashcroft a friend and teammate of Lily. These images depict footballs first female superstars in the inter-war years. They were at the height of their game and fame playing in front of huge crowds around the globe. The girls are portrayed hanging around in parks, going for cycle rides and hanging out with other top footballers from Europe. Among them was Carmen Pomies. Born in Paris in 1900 she became a multi-talented athlete ... More | |
The Seattle Art Fair will be held July 21 - 24, 2022.
SEATTLE, WA.- After a two-year hiatus, AMP Events announced that the 2022 Seattle Art Fair will be held July 21 - 24, 2022, returning to Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink) Field Event Center. Since its inception in 2015, the Seattle Art Fair has earned its reputation as a one-of-a-kind destination for the best in modern and contemporary art. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seattle Art Fair was suspended in 2020 and 2021. The Seattle Art Fair had grown to include over 100 local, national and international galleries with steadily increasing attendance and expansive programming. A co-producer of Seattle Art Fair since its beginning, AMP Events will move forward as the sole owner and producer following the sunset of Vulcan Arts + Entertainment. "Truly a celebration of international, national and regional arts, we are thrilled that the Seattle Art Fair will be returning in 2022, said Jeffrey Wainhause, CEO of AMP Events. We ... More | |
View of the Chankillo Solar Observatory near Casma, Peru. Janine Costa / AFP.
by Carlos Mandujano
CASMA (AFP).- A 2,300-year-old solar observatory in Peru, a structure of 13 stone towers built atop a hill and used as a calendar, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site on Tuesday. The Chankillo observatory, built by an ancient civilization about two millennia before the ascent of another well-known Sun cult -- the Inca empire -- allowed for remarkably accurate astronomical observations, according to recent studies. The walled, hilltop ruins some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Lima had long puzzled scientists. Then in 2007, a study in the journal Science proposed the sequence of towers erected between 200 and 300 BC "marked the summer and winter solstices" and that Chankillo "was in part a solar observatory." Peruvian archaeologist Ivan Ghezzi, who co-authored that study with British colleague Clive Ruggles, ... More |
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The unfashionable artist who inspired Van Gogh
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City Ballet dancer caught in texting scandal will retire
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A star dancer at New York City Ballet who came under fire for sharing vulgar texts and sexually explicit photos plans to leave the company next year. Amar Ramasar will retire in May after a 20-year career with City Ballet, according to a 2021-22 season announcement released by the company this month. Ramasar has been under intense scrutiny since 2018, when he and two other male dancers were accused of sending inappropriate texts and photos of other City Ballet dancers. The scandal roiled the ballet company and became a high-profile test of the #MeToo movement. One female dancer accused the company of condoning a fraternity-like atmosphere. In 2018, City Ballet fired Ramasar. Months later, he was reinstated after an arbitrator ruled that the company had overstepped. City Ballet confirmed Ramasars retirement but did ... More
U.S. sells one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang album to cover Martin Shkreli's debt
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A one-of-a-kind album recorded by the Wu-Tang Clan and sold at auction to the disgraced pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli has been purchased by an anonymous buyer for an undisclosed sum of money, the federal prosecutors who seized the album three years ago said. Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the sale of the one known copy of the album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, in a news release Tuesday. The terms of the sale required the government to keep the purchase price and the buyer secret, but the sale satisfied the balance that Shkreli had owed the government, according to the news release. The buyer was a group of people or a company, rather than an individual, according to a person with knowledge of the sale. The unique ... More
'Can I actually sing?': Meet New York City Ballet's songbird
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Before the pandemic, Clara Miller had a secret that she kept from her dancing world at New York City Ballet. Well, the janitors knew. After dance performances, she would seek out empty studios to rehearse. But she wasnt dancing. Armed with her voice and a piano, she wrote and sang songs sometimes, she recalled, she did not raise her voice above a whisper. Covers were part of her repertory, too. Once, she took advantage of a rehearsal piano left onstage at the David H. Koch Theater and sang Dancing in the Dark to an empty house. It felt like I was playing for an audience of ghosts, she said in a recent Zoom interview. She would often take videos of herself performing; she didnt know how to write down her compositions. But a question persisted: Id listen back and be like, Is my brain just hearing my voice as good? she said. ... More
Little Island unveils free monthlong festival
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Little Island was dreamed up as a haven for the performing arts on the Hudson River, and in its first months, it is also being put forward as a playground for artists who have been kept from the stage for far too long. The operators of the island announced Tuesday that it would host a free monthlong arts festival starting in mid-August that would feature more than 450 artists in more than 160 performances. There will be dance, including works curated by Misty Copeland, Robert Garland and Georgina Pazcoguin. There will be music, including pianists Jenny Lin and Adam Tendler, composer Tyshawn Sorey and saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and her band. And there will be live comedy, with television stars like Ziwe and Bowen Yang in the lineup. The festival which is being produced by Mikki Shepard, formerly the executive producer of the ... More
Slipknot co-founder Joey Jordison dead at 46: family
WASHINGTON (AFP).- Joey Jordison, the co-founder of Slipknot and one of the most influential metal drummers of his generation, has died at the age of 46, his family announced. "We are heartbroken to share the news that Joey Jordison, prolific drummer, musician and artist passed away peacefully in his sleep," his family said Tuesday in a statement carried by Rolling Stone and multiple US media outlets. Iowa-born Jordison was one of Slipknot's three original members and helped power the US nine-piece to global stardom in the early 2000s during an era when rock and metal acts routinely jostled with popstars at the top of the commercial charts. Renowned for their horror-themed facemasks and boiler suits, they burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s with a louder, bleaker and more aggressive incarnation of metal that became both a commercial success and a major influence ... More
Chile's ancient mummies added to UN heritage list
ARICA (AFP).- Chile's Chinchorro mummies, the oldest in the world to have been purposefully preserved by humans, were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List on Tuesday. The mummies, which were found in the north of Chile at the start of the 20th century, are more than 7,000 years old, meaning they pre-date the Egyptian mummies by two millennia. The United Nations' cultural organization announced on Twitter that it had added the "settlement and artificial mummification of the Chinchorro culture" to its prestigious list during a virtual meeting chaired by China. "UNESCO is validating on an international level, through different experts, that the settlements and artificial mummification of the Chinchorro culture has exceptional value, that it has a global importance," Chilean anthropologist Bernardo Arriaza told AFP. The Chinchorro were fishers and hunter gatherers more than 7,000 ... More
Art meets nature in new outdoor sculpture made of natural materials at The Brandywine
CHADDS FORD, PA.- A whimsical outdoor sculpture has sprung up on the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art's campus grounds for the summer. Now on view through November 7, the Queen Anne's Lace Pod is a temporary, site-specific installation by Virginia-based artist Ian Stabler. Made entirely of natural materials gathered and found onsite, the towering sculptural pod is located in Potts Meadow along the Brandywine's Harvey Run Trail in Chadds Ford, PA. Stabler was commissioned by the Brandywine River Museum of Art as part of its ongoing sculptural program inviting artists to explore their responses to the local landscape. This is the fifth commissioned project in a series that has included Matthew Jensens Alongside Tall Grasses (2014), James Wellings Gradients (2015), Dylan Gauthiers highwatermarks (2017), and Kathleen Vances Brandywine River (2018). Tying together the ... More
Francesco Vezzoli installs eight of his works in the archaeological spaces of the Fondazione Brescia Musei
BRESCIA.- The Fondazione Brescia Musei is presenting Palcoscenici Archeologici. Interventi curatorali di Francesco Vezzoli [Archaeological Stages. Curatorial Interventions by Francesco Vezzoli], an original site-specific exhibition project that follows the project thread of exhibitions conceived by the Fondazione Brescia Musei, chaired by Francesca Bazoli and directed by Stefano Karadjov, combining its own major historical and archaeological heritage with the most interesting voices of contemporary art. Palcoscenici Archeologici sees Francesco Vezzoli (Brescia, 1971), one of the Italian authors who is best known and most appreciated on the international panorama, as protagonist in the double guise of artist and curator of an exhibition itinerary in which eight of his works are installed in the evocative archaeological spaces of the Fondazione Brescia Musei. The initiative is ... More
Volte Art Projects will expand its activities with a new 8000 square ft gallery at Dubai's Alserkal Avenue
DUBAI.- Coinciding with its 12th anniversary, Volte Art Projects will expand with a new gallery space in Dubai, opening alongside Alserkal Avenues autumn season and Expo 2020 Dubai. The UAE will become the gallerys headquarters, adding to its roots in Mumbai and projects internationally. Opening in an 8000 square foot warehouse in Dubais renowned cultural district Alserkal Avenue, Volte Art Projects aims to foster and evoke an experiential and creative milieu within the contemporary art scene. The curatorial programme will help introduce and realise large-scale and monumental projects by artists celebrated for their pioneering spirit of innovation, pushing boundaries, and harnessing latest technologies, reflecting and expanding on the innovative projects that have cemented the gallerys reputation to date. Founder and Director Tushar Jiwarajka says: Ive seen the regions ... More
Asian composers reflect on careers in western classical music
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Asian composers who write in Western classical musical forms, like symphonies and operas, tend to have a few things in common. Many learned European styles from an early age, and finished their studies at conservatories there or in the United States. And many later found themselves relegated to programming ghettos like Lunar New Year concerts. (One recent study found that works by Asian composers make up only about 2% of American orchestral performances planned for the coming season.) At times, the music of Asian composers has been misunderstood or exoticized; they have been subjected to simple errors such as, in the case of Huang Ruo, who was born in China, repeated misspellings of his name. For all their shared experiences, each of these artists has a unique story. Here, five of them provide a small ... More
Claudia Wieser to debut five large-scale sculptures at the iconic vista of the Manhattan bridge in Dumbo
NEW YORK, NY.- July 28, 2021, NEW YORK, NY Public Art Fund unveils Rehearsal, Berlin-based artist Claudia Wiesers public art debut. Featuring five distinct large-scale geometric sculptures clad with hand-painted glazed tiles, panels featuring photographs of New York City and Roman and Greek antiquities, and mirror polished stainless steel, Rehearsal will create an immersive experience for park goers to explore. The cluster of sculptures is located at the iconic terminus of Washington Street, where the Manhattan Bridge frames the Empire State Building. Juxtaposed with the surrounding architecture and natural landscape of Brooklyn Bridge Park, Rehearsal highlights the dynamism of the city and its people. The installation can be seen as both a meeting place and a theatrical set that hearkens back to ancient Roman forumspublic spaces where people could ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Yukinori Yanagi
The Interior
Music of the â80s
Modern Gothic: The Inventive Furniture of Kimbel and Cabus, 1863â82
Flashback On a day like today, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh died July 29, 1890. Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 - 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died at the age of 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. In this image: Jussi Pylkkanen views Van Gogh's "A Pair of Shoes," as it went on display in the Christie's auction rooms in London, Friday, September 10, 1999. The rarely exhibited and little known painting is the missing link in an important series of five closely related pictures by Van Gogh between 1886 and 1887.
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