| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, May 7, 2020 |
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| | Jan David Winitz Examines Antique Rugs from the Caucasus Mountains | |
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Fachralo Triple Medallion Kazak, Southern Central Caucasian, 4' 5" x 5' 10" Circa 1850.
By Jan David Winitz
OAKLAND, CA.- Last month, Art Daily and Jan David Winitz, founder/president of Claremont Rug Company, began a series of first person narratives and interviews that will discuss a wide range of topics related to the selecting, evaluating and collecting of antique Oriental rugs from the Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving, ca. 1800 to ca. 1910. In this installment, I will provide personal reminiscences and insights into the culturally rich world of Caucasian rugs, produced by 85 distinct weaving groups in an area that is characterized by tribespeople who spoke over 100 languages. Ill look closely at the history and traditions of the society that produced the weavers and other crafts people who created these timeless works of art. Having bought my first Oriental rug while still a teenager and starting my company more than four decades ago at age 25, I have studied antique rugs as a collector, an art dealer and a lover of beauty. Over ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A video projection featuring an interview of German-American philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt (L), along with a "Model of Crematorium II, Auschwitz - Birkenau" by Polish artist Mieczyslaw Stobierski are on display during a press preview of the exhibition "Hannah Arendt and the Twentieth Century" at the German Historical Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum - DHM) in Berlin on May 6, 2020. The exhibition, which opens on May 11, 2020, aims to trace ArendtÂs observations on contemporary history about, among other themes, totalitarianism, anti-Semitism, the situation of refugees, and the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. John MACDOUGALL / AFP
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 | | After racism claims, Boston museum creates diversity fund | | Florian Schneider, co-founder of Germany's iconic Kraftwerk, dead at 73 | | Over 100 arrests in global crackdown on artefacts trade | 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's Art of the Americas Wing exterior view. Photo: © Chuck-Choi.
by Jenny Gross
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston said Tuesday that it would establish a $500,000 fund devoted to diversity initiatives, a move that comes a year after a group of black middle school students said they had been subjected to racist comments while on a field trip there. The museum also said that as part of an agreement with the state, it would do more to engage with and support local communities, artists and young people of color, according to Maura Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general. Our cultural institutions play an important role in fostering and providing an inclusive environment for communities and people of all backgrounds, Healey said. Todays agreement affirms the experiences of students and teachers from the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy and lifts up their voices and the voices of local communities ... More | | 
The Members of Kraftwerk at the fifth annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., Saturday, May 1, 2004. Rahav Segev/The New York Times.
BERLIN (AFP).- Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider, co-founder of the pioneering electronic music group that re-wired the future of pop, has died, the group's management said Wednesday. He was 73 years old. Schneider died following a short battle with cancer, according to a statement citing his fellow co-founder Ralf Huetter, obtained by AFP from Kraftwerk's publicist in Los Angeles. Schneider and Huetter began their artistic collaboration in 1968 as part of the so-called "krautrock" movement -- a broad experimental genre blending psychedelic rock with electronic rhythms and early synthesizers, seen as a rebellion against the Anglo-Saxon pop brought in by British and American troops. But Kraftwerk, launched in 1970, hatched a far more singular vision from their "Kling Klang" studio in the western German city of Duesseldorf. Their influence on par with The Beatles, the duo crafted the ... More | | 
Seizure by Chilean customs.
LYON (AFP).- Police have arrested 101 people and recovered 19,000 stolen artefacts in an international crackdown on gangs trafficking art stolen from war-stricken countries, museums and archaeological sites, Interpol said Wednesday. The massive operation, carried out in 103 countries, led to seizures of coins from different periods, archaeological objects, ceramics, historical weapons, paintings and fossils, the global police agency said in a statement. Among others, Afghan customs officials seized 971 cultural objects at Kabul airport as they were about to depart for Istanbul. Spanish police, working with their Colombian counterparts, recovered a number of rare pre-Columbian objects acquired through looting, including a unique Tumaco gold mask, gold figurines and ancient jewellery. "Three traffickers were arrested in Spain, and the Colombian authorities carried out house searches in Bogota, resulting in the seizure of a further 242 pre-Columbian objects, the largest ... More |
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| | Artcurial announces highlights included in its prestigious sale devoted to Old Master & 19th Century Art | | The Artist's Room, an ode to seclusion and creativity now online at Ordovas | | Mónica RamÃrez-Montagut appointed Director of Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University | 
Aimé-Jules Dalou, Paysanne française allaitant son enfant, Terracotta, height: 41.50 cm.
Estimate: 100,000 - 150,000.
PARIS.- On Tuesday 16 June, Artcurial will, as every year, be holding its grand sale of Old and 19th-Century Masters. This auction will be presenting over 200 works, including paintings by 17th-century Dutch Masters, drawings by Raphaels gifted pupil Polidoro da Caravaggio, and a rare sculpture by French artist Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi that foreshadows the design for the Statue of Liberty. The House will be presenting the collection of Baron François Empain, great-uncle of Edouard-Jean Empain, known as Wado. This important collection assembled by Baron Empain is entitled Eloge de la folie (In Praise of Folly). The Dutch Masters will be particularly prominent, with Rue dun village animée de figures, a magnificent oil on copperplate by Jan Brueghel lAncien, a key figure of the Flemish School and more notably of the Antwerp School. It is estimated at 200,000 - 300,000. One of ... More | | 
Frank Auerbach, b. 1931, Head of William Feaver, graphite and chalk on paper, 77.5 x 56.2 cm. Executed in 2013-2014.
LONDON.- The Artists Room is intended as an ode to seclusion and escapism. Launched online on 4 May 2020 (and as a physical exhibition on Savile Row as soon as circumstances allow), this exhibition invites you into the confines of an imagined artists personal space. Filled with drawings, etchings, photographs, furniture, plants and ceramic objects, The Artists Room conjures up an atmosphere of contemplation and creativity and brings together a large selection of works by ten modern and contemporary artists, all of whom have been widely celebrated. As we find ourselves, the world over, working from our home studies and kitchen tables, it feels more inspiring than ever to turn to artists and think about the spaces they inhabit, and the art that they make there. From a 1924 charcoal drawing by Henri Matisse to a 2019 series of etchings by Colombian artist José ... More | | 
RamÃrez-Montagut currently serves as the director of the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University.
EAST LANSING, MI.- Michigan State University today announced the appointment of Mónica RamÃrez-Montagut as director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (MSU Broad). RamÃrez-Montagut currently serves as the director of the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University in New Orleans and will assume new her role at the MSU Broad on July 1, 2020. RamÃrez-Montagut brings nearly 20 years of arts and culture experience to the MSU Broad, in addition to her background as a trained architect. Throughout her extensive career, her approach to art is known for being both publicly engaged and socially conscious. I am elated to welcome Mónica to our Spartan community. Her wealth of experience in arts and culture will be a driving force in furthering the mission of the museum to be both a teaching institution and cultural hub for our community, said MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. I am confident she will bring a fresh ... More |
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| | Hauser & Wirth presents online exhibition Nicolas Party. Canopy | | Cathie Pilkington RA elected new Keeper of the Royal Academy | | Sperone Westwater opens an online-only exhibition of works by Kim Dingle | 
Nicolas Party, Trees, 2020. Watercolor on paper, 40.6 x 30.5 cm / 16 x 12 in. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
LONDON.- Nicolas Party, a New York-based Swiss artist known for his familiar yet unsettling landscapes, portraits, and still lifes rendered in soft pastel, will introduce a new body of work in watercolor in Hauser & Wirths latest online exhibition, opening Thursday 7 May. This exhibition follows Partys recent, acclaimed Sottobosco, which opened at the gallerys Los Angeles space this past February. In contrast to the lush paintings and sculptures that created an atmosphere of a dense, richly alive forest floor, the works in Canopy find Party looking upward to an alternative natural space to the canopy of treetops where light and air expand. His new series of 11 atmospheric landscapes, all created by the artist while quarantined in upstate New York, embrace watercolors intimacy, fluidity, and animate qualities. Here, Party resynthesizes the genre of landscape painting, expressly ... More | | 
Cathie Pilkington RA, Keeper of the Royal Academy © Robin Smart.
LONDON.- The Royal Academy of Arts announced today that Cathie Pilkington RA has been elected as the new Keeper of the Royal Academy. Pilkington was elected as a Royal Academician in 2014 and served as Professor of Sculpture from 2015-19. The Keeper is responsible for guiding the Royal Academy Schools, the longest established postgraduate art school in the UK and the only free three-year programme in Europe. Alongside the President, Secretary and Treasurer, the Keeper is one of the four Officers of the Royal Academy and is elected from amongst the membership. Due to current circumstances, Pilkington was elected by her fellow Royal Academicians via a remote ballot. She succeeds Rebecca Salter PRA, who recently became President of the Royal Academy. Cathie Pilkington RA, Keeper of the Royal Academy, said: As a passionate practitioner and an established Professor in the RA Schools I have witnessed first- ... More | | 
Kim Dingle, Floater #30, 2009. Oil on canvas on aluminum stretchers, 66 x 60 x 1 1/2 inches (167,6 x 152,4 x 3,8 cm).
NEW YORK, NY.- Sperone Westwater is presenting "Kim Dingle: Floaters," an online viewing room featuring new works from 2009. Inspired by a trip inside a sensory deprivation tank, the Floaters series was made during a time of intense stress and anxiety for the artist. Reflecting on this period in her life, Dingle recalls: "One day in Hollywood, a long time ago, a friend and I visited some place in a strip mall where we paid a fee for each of us to be put into a coffin-sized blackened box full of water and no light. The lid was closed and there was utter silence. It was called a samadhi tank. Im not sure if there was oxygen in there but for a half an hour I waited for something to happen. Nothing happened.... not for me, anyway. Altering my consciousness, seeking serenity and meditative escape from stress came to me while imagining that I was floating on clouds, weightless and extremely comfortable. These 'Floaters' as I call them were ... More |
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| | Russian arts minister tests positive for coronavirus | | Kohn Gallery presents Frieze New York Online Viewing Room 2020 | | Metropolitan Opera, facing sharp losses, furloughs dozens | 
In this file photo taken on January 21, 2020 Russia's Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova attends a meeting of the new cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow. Dmitry ASTAKHOV / SPUTNIK / AFP.
MOSCOW (AFP).- Russia's culture minister has tested positive for coronavirus, her spokeswoman said Wednesday, as the country's total number of cases surpassed 165,000. The announcement of the minister Olga Lyubimova's illness came after Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Construction Minister Vladimir Yakushev had both been hospitalised with the virus. Lyubimova is working remotely from home after receiving a positive test result, her spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said in a statement. "The illness is in a mild form and there is no question of her being hospitalised." Lyubimova, a former journalist and documentary filmmaker, was appointed in January and is one of the youngest in the cabinet at 39. She replaced a controversial figure, Vladimir Medinsky, who pushed hard for publicly-funded ... More | | 
Sharon Ellis, Rose Garden, 2020. Alkyd on panel, 20 x 16 in.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Kohn Gallery announces its participation in Frieze Viewing Room. The gallery present works of emerging and mid-career artists. The all female presentation will be highlighted by the powerful works of Caroline Kent, Kate Barbee, Heidi Hahn, Rosa Loy, Lita Albuquerque and Sharon Ellis. Based in Chicago, Caroline Kent explores the relationship between language, translation and abstraction through her enigmatic paintings and drawings. Kents work offers a deep investigation into the space of painting as a site of creation and mediation of meaning. Beginning with all-black surfaces, Kents rich mark-making recalls pre-linguistic symbols, whose fleeting shapes and shifting perspectives suggest both the power and the limitations of language, and ultimately questions the modernist canon of abstraction. Through geometry, color, and pattern as a method of communication, Kent constructs a visual manifestation of linguistic ... More | | 
A dress rehearsal of Puccini's "Turandot" at the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan, Sept. 30, 2019. With the prospects of live audiences in serious question, the Metropolitan Opera company said on May 5, 2020, that it would furlough 41 members of its administrative staff. Hiroyuki Ito/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Metropolitan Operas nightly streams of archival performances have attracted robust audiences since the company closed its doors in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Met has 15,000 new paid subscribers to its on-demand video service. And its four-hour At-Home Gala on April 25 was a technically impeccable, warmly received endeavor by the struggling company, which has already lost around $60 million because of the virus and stopped paying its orchestra, chorus and stagehands at the end of March. Yet despite some positive news emergency fundraising in the tens of millions; 10,000 new donors; its sizable virtual audience its financial outlook remains grim. The prospect of large gatherings in New York is still far off and the ... More |
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Nicolas Poussin's Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun, 1658
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| | More News |
 'Smuggled' poems by jailed Chinese-Swedish bookseller publishedSTOCKHOLM (AFP).- A Swedish publisher has released a collection of poetry written by Chinese-Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai and "smuggled" out of China where he is currently incarcerated. The 11 poems, written in Chinese and translated to Swedish, focus on the author's vision of Sweden, covering Norse myths, Swedish people and traditions as well as his reflections on life in prison. "Some of the poems have been published in both Swedish and international newspapers a year ago or so. But this is the first time the complete collection of prison poems is made available," Martin Kaunitz of Stockholm-based publisher Kaunitz-Olsson told AFP on Wednesday. Entitled "I draw a door on the wall with my finger," the collection was published on Gui's 56th birthday, May 5, and is prefaced by his daughter Angela Gui, who has actively campaigned for her father's release. ... More National Football Museum to create first ever fan memory bank during lockdownMANCHESTER.- The National Football Museum is launching a nationwide search to unearth the best football stories and memories from fans throughout the country. Designed to celebrate those individual stories that might otherwise be lost, the Game of Our Lives campaign offers fans and clubs at all levels the opportunity to get involved in a fan-led collection to feature in a future exhibition at the museum. It is the first time in the museums history that so many in the football community are being asked to directly contribute to the museum. Fans will be encouraged to share their stories, including photos and video, on social media tagging @footballmuseum and using the hashtag #gameofourlives. Those without social media can send their stories via email to [email protected]. Footballers, celebrity fans and clubs ... More Frank Frazetta's painting, Bernie Wrightson original art boost Heritage auction above $9 millionDALLAS, TX.- The Frank Frazetta The Serpent (aka "Aros") Paperback Novel Cover Painting Original Art (Paperback Library, 1967) and Bernie Wrightson Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein Front Endpapers Illustration Original Art (late 1970s) sparked furious bidding to lead Heritage Auctions Comics & Comics Art Auction to $9,099,710 in total sales April 30-May 3. So strong was the demand that the Dallas-based auction raced past its pre-auction estimate of just over $7.3 million and boasted sell-through rates of 100% by lots and value. The Serpent drew bids from 32 collectors before it sold for $300,000. Normally, a standing, semi-nude human figure would be the dominant element of any image, but in this case, the womans skin almost blends into the color around her, while the black and green serpent creates the strongest visual contrast. ... More Where dance fans can escape from our 'sci-fi horror' momentNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Reid Bartelme loves podcasts. Jack Ferver doesnt even listen to the one they host together. Yes, theyre different, but their ability to dish out one-liners and eloquent descriptions of just about anything from a George Balanchine ballet to the Netflix series Cheer comes out of a long friendship. (Theirs goes back to their teenage years at Interlochen Center for the Arts, in Michigan.) Listening to Whats Going on With Dance and Stuff, their chatty and illuminating podcast, feels like being with good friends and thats a rare lifeline in these days of social isolation. Ferver is a writer, choreographer and director whose psychological works explore the fine line between darkness and humor. Bartelme is a dancer who has performed with ballet and contemporary companies and also is a sought-after ... More Ewbank's to offer unique 3.2m square Game of Thrones piece commissioned by HBO to promote TV seriesWOKING.- Its 3.2m square and took more than 30,000 hours to stitch together. Now this unique embroidery created to publicise the launch of Game of Thrones fifth season DVD is up for auction at Ewbanks in Surrey. Titled the Hardhome Embroidery, the scene chosen by HBO depicts the battle between the White Walker army and the people of the Wildling town of Hardhome. The Night King, with his eyes illuminated by LED lights, is the central figure. Michele Carragher, the principal embroiderer for Game of Thrones costumes, created the four insects: a moth and three dragonflies. The border includes the crests of the houses of Stark, Arryn, Targaryen, Martell, Tully, Baratheon, Greyjoy, Tyrell and Lannister all familiar motifs to fans of the show. Dating to 2016, the huge piece of memorabilia is unique and was created by more than 140 people, using ... More Pulitzer and Sam Fox School announces ASAP Fund to support creative workers impacted by COVID-19ST. LOUIS, MO.- The Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis today announced a new effort to support creative workers in the St. Louis area who are facing significant financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A Sustaining Arts Practice Fund (ASAP Fund) will award a total of $100,000, drawn from an endowment established at Washington University in St. Louis by Emily Rauh Pulitzer in 2004 to enhance the creative life of St. Louis through joint collaborative projects between the Pulitzer and the Sam Fox School. Through this initiative, the ASAP Fund will distribute fifty $2,000 grants to artists, architects, and designers in an effort to help replace lost income from cancelled exhibitions, performances, commissions, teaching opportunities, talks, contracts, or other work as a ... More Important early film by "the mother of all feminist artists" Mary Kelly donated to Brighton Art GalleryLONDON.- An important early film by Mary Kelly, Antepartum, 1973, has been acquired for the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hoves Fine Art Collection through the Valeria Napoleone XX Contemporary Art Society initiative. The museum is receiving the work through this scheme after making a strong case for addressing the representation of women artists within their existing collections. To allow viewing during the lockdown, the Contemporary Art Society will be screening Antepartum on their website as part of its #CASatHome series for 72 hours from midday on 6 May 2020 to midday on 9 May. The film will be accompanied by the pre-recorded In-Conversation with the artist. Mary Kelly was renowned early in her career for introducing feminist concerns into the male-dominated conceptual art world in the 1970s and Antepartum ... More Moving image art platform makes your screen a destination for artLONDON.- As the covid-19 pandemic affects billions of people in lockdown, Niio has announced a unique complimentary collection of Zoom video background artworks to inspire people across the world to #TurnArtOn. Established to empower media artists and inspire people everywhere through moving image art, Niios mission is to create an Art on Demand model that provides access to premium digital artworks from a community of 4,000+ leading established and emerging artists from around the world. Niios state-of-the-art technology and curated distribution platform enables users to seamlessly experience video and media artworks from a collection of more than 12,000 works, on any type of screen or digital canvas. The release of downloadable moving art backgrounds for Zoom users is a direct response to the global pandemic to inject inspiration, ... More Vienna Secession streaming online Sophie Thun's StolberggasseVIENNA.- From April 30 until June 21, 2020, the Secession presents Stolberggasse, an exhibition by the Vienna-based artist Sophie Thun. Conceived specifically for digital dissemination, the show can be seen as a live transmission on the Secessions website. The dialectical interrelations between the scene of production and the works presentation, between the setting of the artists labor and the physical presence of the body, are recurrent themes in Sophie Thuns photographic oeuvre. The places where she exhibits her work often serve her as points of departure for photographs that show how her body imprints its presence on them. For her exhibition at the Secession, Thun further developed this approach and adapted it to the necessity of digital dissemination. The artist sets up her darkroom in the exhibition space, where, working in isolation, ... More The Gropius Bau will reopen to visitors on Monday, 11 May 2020BERLIN.- The exhibition Akinbode Akinbiyi: Six Songs, Swirling Gracefully in the Taut Air has been extended until 19 July; Lee Mingweis solo exhibition 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals will be on view for the first time on 11 May and presented until 12 July 2020. There will be extended opening hours until 31 July 2020: the Gropius Bau will be open from Saturday to Wednesday from 10am to 7pm and Thursday and Friday until 9pm; the building is closed on Tuesdays. Lee Mingwei: 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals, until 12 July 2020. Lee Mingweis artistic practice focuses on rituals of giving and receiving gifts. The Gropius Bau solo exhibition presents Lee's performances and installations from the past three decades and examines art's potential to be a transformative gift. In Lee Mingweis works immaterial gifts such as songs, conversations and space for contemplation ... More The 1918 pandemic's impact on music? Surprisingly littleNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Music Nets Millions for Liberty Loan Drive, proclaimed a front-page headline in October 1918. A major gala at the Metropolitan Opera had just raised more than $20 million for that World War I bond campaign. The New York Philharmonic had raised another $1 million in its own patriotic concert, with George M. Cohan leading his hit Over There. But further down the page in Musical Courier magazine were bleaker notices: National tours of the Chicago Opera Association and the Paris Conservatorys orchestra had been put on hold because of quarantines in East Coast and Midwestern cities, a response to the influenza outbreak then sweeping the world. One thing can be said for the influenza, Musical America magazine noted a few months later. It has taken away the certainty from symphony concerts, with the result ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, German painter Caspar David Friedrich died May 07, 1840. Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 - 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic or megalithic ruins. In this image: Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), Giant Mountains, not dated, Oil on canvas, 73,5 x 102,5.
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