| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, December 24, 2019 |
| | | British Museum acquires rare 1,000-year-old seal on third attempt | |
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The seal matrix was used to seal documents to ensure authenticity and privacy, and is also thought to have been worn around the neck as a mark of status or as a way of identifying the wearer. Photo: The Trustees of the British Museum.
LONDON.- The British Museum announced it has acquired a very rare, walrus ivory seal matrix, which was made in England shortly before the invasion of William the Conqueror. Around 1,000 years old, it is one of only five examples known to survive, and this was the last one to have been in private hands. This exquisite piece of craftmanship now belongs to the nation where it can be studied and enjoyed for generations to come. The seal matrix was used to seal documents to ensure authenticity and privacy, and is also thought to have been worn around the neck as a mark of status or as a way of identifying the wearer. The seal demonstrates how widespread documentary culture was at the time, with seals used for letters, land exchanges, grants from the king, and between monastic houses. The seal bears the text SIGILLVM WULFRICI. Beyond this seal Wulfric leaves no trace. His seal is all that is known about him but the fact that he owned a seal i ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Visitors tour the interior of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue which will be closing down on New Year's Eve after 12 years in Washington, DC, on December 19, 2019. The Newseum was, for over a decade, a shining symbol for the press and free expression, a gleaming glass-and-steel structure steps from the US Capitol.
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| | Arts Minister leads call to save outstanding Gainsborough landscape painting | | Georgia Museum of Art features Italian Renaissance drawings | | Obama portrait artist Kehinde Wiley's work joins collection at MFA, St. Petersburg |
Detail of Going to Market, Early Morning by Thomas Gainsborough.
LONDON.- Arts Minister Helen Whately has placed an export bar on Thomas Gainsboroughs Going to Market, Early Morning in the hope that a UK gallery or museum can acquire the work for the nation. Valued at £8 million, Going to Market, Early Morning was painted in 1773 and has been hailed as an example of the artists finest work. Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter. Born in Sudbury, Suffolk, he trained in London and was a founder member of the Royal Academy, later becoming a favourite painter of King George III and his family. Along with Richard Wilson, Gainsborough is credited as the originator of the British landscape school of the 18th century. The painting depicts a group of figures on horseback traveling through an idyllic English landscape. The group are pictured passing a destitute mother with a baby. The scene is bathed in the silvery light of dawn; Gainsboroughs expert treatment ... More | |
Circle of the Gandolfi, standing academic male nude, seen from the rear, ca. 1775. Charcoal on white paper with some foxing and repairs, 17 Ã 12 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Extended loan from the collection of Giuliano Ceseri. GMOA 1995.184E.
ATHENS, GA.- When we think of Renaissance art, we usually think of paintings, but from the 16th century on Italian artists focused on drawing just as much if not more so. Giorgio Vasari, an influential Italian painter, architect and historian, regarded disegno (which means drawing or design) as the foundation of visual art. Disegno was considered the basis of an artists training and an essential tool for capturing nature and the beauty of life. Drawing was at the core of all workshop practices and teaching academies, used to develop an artists skill through the diligent copying of antiquities and masters works. Drawing and printmaking also became the most inventive forms of expression and experimentation. The exhibition Master, Pupil, Follower: 16th- to 18th-Century ... More | |
Kehinde Wiley, Leviathan Zodiac (The World Stage: Israel) , 2011, Oil and gold enamel on canvas, Acquired from the Collection of Blake Byrne, Los Angeles. Museum purchase with funds donated by the Collectors Circle for its 25th Anniversary with additional funds from James G. Sweeny.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.- A large-scale painting rich in color and regal in design from Kehinde Wileys acclaimed portrait series, The World Stage: Israel is now a part of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburgs permanent collection. This fall, the 2011 portrait, Leviathan Zodiac (The World Stage: Israel) , was purchased with funds donated by the MFA support group, Collectors Circle, and arts supporter Jim Sweeny as part of the groups 25th anniversary in 2020. Wiley is best known for painting the official portrait of President Barack Obama. The MFA, St. Petersburg joins other top art institutions with works by Wiley in their collections: Brooklyn Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Milwaukee ... More |
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| | Freeman's concludes successful final sale at 1808 Chestnut Street | | Marciano Foundation worker files suit claiming mass layoffs were illegal | | Ken Heyman, 89, dies; Collaborative photographer with a singular eye |
Lot 138 | By the River by Daniel Garber sells for $250,000.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans announced yet another successful American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists auction, with an overall result of over $2.4 Million. Local bidders filled the room, while both domestic and international clients engaged in spirited bidding over the internet and by telephone. The sale was the last fine art auction to be held at the houses historic 1808 Chestnut Street location, where Freemans has been headquartered since 1924. Featuring over 150 lots of fine art, the sale included noteworthy paintings, drawings, watercolors, and prints. Particularly strong results were seen in the Pennsylvania Impressionists category, with Daniel Garbers By the River (Lot 138) selling for $250,000 the top lot of the sale. The painting depicted an idyllic view of the Delaware River in Bucks County in 1929 and presented bidders with an exemplary work showcasing Garbers most celebrated subject matter, and ... More | |
The Marciano Art Foundation, a private museum in Los Angeles, May 10, 2017. Lawyers representing one of 70 workers laid off in November filed suit on Monday, Dec. 23, 2019, accusing the foundation of breaking a state law that requires notice before mass layoffs and seeking class-action status in pursuit of back pay and other damages for former employees. Emily Berl/The New York Times.
LOS ANGELES (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- A dispute over the dismissal of dozens of workers from the Marciano Art Foundation widened Monday as lawyers representing a former employee accused the organization of breaking a state law that requires notice before mass layoffs. About 70 people working at the foundation, a private, nonprofit museum in Los Angeles, were laid off in November, days after taking steps to form a union. At the same time, the foundation, which was created by two brothers who co-founded the Guess clothing empire, told those employees in an email that it would close its current exhibition early, citing low attendance the past few weeks. ... More | |
Andy Warhol © Ken Heyman.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Ken Heyman, a leading photographer who worked with Margaret Mead, shot scores of assignments for Life magazine, collaborated with President Lyndon B. Johnson and endlessly sought new, revelatory ways of seeing the world, died on Dec. 10 at his home in Manhattan. He was 89. His daughter Jennifer McCarthy confirmed his death. Heyman first accompanied Mead, the noted cultural anthropologist, on a trip to Bali in 1957, and he took the photographs for Family, an acclaimed 1965 collaboration in which the two examined families around the world in images and text. The combination, Jacob Deschin wrote in a review in The New York Times, more integrated than is usual in word and picture associations, should make anthropology palatable for many who might never be inclined to pick up a book on the subject. The next year he collaborated with Johnson on This America: A Portrait of a Nation, ... More |
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| | Words to live by: Artists we lost in 2019 | | Andres Segovia's guitar goes up for auction | | Galerie Catherine Issert presents an exhibition imagined by Anna-Patricia Kahn and Catherine Issert |
The literary critic Harold Bloom at his home in New York on March 12, 2011. Mark Mahaney/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- At their best, the artists who died this year could make us see the world in new ways even as they made us laugh and cry. Here is a tribute to some of them, in their own words. A writers life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity. Toni Morrison Author, born 1931 Architecture is the very mirror of life. You only have to cast your eyes on buildings to feel the presence of the past, the spirit of a place; they are the reflection of society. I.M. Pei Architect, born 1917 -In my films I always wanted to make people see deeply. I dont want to show things, but to give people the desire to see. Agnes Varda Filmmaker, born 1928 - I felt like I belonged on a screen. I dont know why. I guess because I related to the people up on that screen much more than the people around me. Luke Perry Actor, born 1966 Pigeonholes are f ... More | |
Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) was a Spanish musician who is still regarded by many as one of the foremost guitarists of his time.
AMSTERDAM.- Catawiki, the most-visited curated marketplace in Europe will offer this excellently maintained Manuel Ramirez guitar. It was commissioned by a young Andrés Segovia in 1914 and given by Andrés Segovia to the sellers grandfather and friend of Segovia: Enrique Anaya Padilla. Segovia and Padilla both lived in the town of Linares, where Padilla was an amateur classical guitarist and Professor of Mathematics. The guitar was originally signed, but the signature was erased during a restoration by José Ramirez in 1995. Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) was a Spanish musician who is still regarded by many as one of the foremost guitarists of his time. He is credited with being responsible for establishing the acoustic guitar as a concert instrument in the 20th century and was known for his expressive and technically sophisticated style. Alex Becker, guitar expert at Catawiki: ... More | |
Alvin Langdon Coburn, Vortograph (arrow) 1917 Tirage Platinum/palladium. Imprimé par le Studio 31 en collaboration avec George Eastman House/ °CLAIR by Kahn COBURN Alvin Langdon. 17 x 22,3 cm Encadrement : 52 x 42 x 3 cm © Alvin Langdon Coburn / George Eastman House / Courtesy °CLAIR by Kahn Estampillé et numéroté / Blind stamped on verso.
SAINT-PAUL-DE-VENCE.- In an image by Jacques Henri Lartigue, the nanny Dudu raises her eyes to the sky to follow the flight of a ball before it falls back to earth; weightlessness made visible by the photographic act. Meanwhile, in the work of the painter John M. Armleder, the representation of circular forms on canvas resulted in a minimalist and conceptual movement. In each case, rotundity and weightlessness manifest themselves. This resonance between the photograph and the painting is central to the Déclics Analogiques exhibition that has been conceived by Anna-Patricia Kahn and Catherine Issert. Ms. Kahn is a renowned gallerist and curator who is devoted to photography in all of its ... More |
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| | The Cleveland Museum of Art announces new acquisitions | | Martin Green CBE asked by government to develop plans to curate a UK-wide festival in 2022 | | Notre Dame will not host Christmas mass, a first in more than 200 years |
The Fourth King of Hell, late 1300s. Korea, Goryeo period (9181392). Hanging scroll; colors on silk; 24 x 17 3/4 in.
CLEVELAND, OH.- Recent acquisitions by the Cleveland Museum of Art include a rare 14th-century Korean Buddhist painting from the Goryeo period, drawings by Henri Fantin-Latour (French, 18361904) and Maarten de Vos (Flemish, 15321603) and five photographs by well-known Ohio artist Ann Hamilton (American, b. 1956). Exquisitely painted silk scrolls with Buddhist subjects reached the pinnacle of achievement in Korea during the Goryeo period (9181392). Today, only about 160 paintings from that era survive, and very few have come on the market in the United States and Europe in the past 25 years. The rarity of such works makes The Fourth King of Hell an exceptionally important acquisition, and significantly raises the level of the museums collection of Korean paintings. The Fourth King of Hell is from a series of paintings depicting the ten ... More | |
Martin Green is Birmingham 2022s chief creative officer.
LONDON.- Martin Green CBE, the mastermind behind the hugely successful Hull UK City of Culture 2017, and the former Head of Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has been asked by government to develop plans to curate, manage, and promote a UK-wide festival in 2022. The major nationwide festival, backed by £120 million funding from government, was first announced in 2018. As a UK-wide celebration of our creativity and innovation, the Festival will be designed in collaboration with the devolved administrations to showcase the best of our art, culture, heritage, design and technology sectors. From early January, Martin and his team will begin working with these sectors across the UK. Over the coming months, he will develop a vision which engages communities across the United Kingdom and ensures the delivery of a world class festival of creativity. The project will be delivered ... More | |
The steeple and spire of the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral collapses as the cathedral is engulfed in flames in central Paris on April 15, 2019. Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP.
PARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris will not hold Christmas services this week for the first time in over two centuries, as workers continue to shore up the fragile building after a devastating fire. The 850-year-old cathedral has been closed to the public since a blaze tore through the structure in April, destroying a latticework of ancient timbers in its roof, sending the spire crashing down and spreading tons of toxic dust around Paris. Records show that Christmas Masses have been celebrated at Notre Dame every year since at least 1803, after the cathedral was handed back to the Roman Catholic Church after the French Revolution, according to André Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral. Finot said that the cathedrals rector would instead hold this years Christmas service at the Ãglise St.-Germain lAuxerrois, ... More |
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Robert Crumb Interview: A Compulsion to Reveal
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Marc Jancou opens an exhibition of works by Alighiero Boetti and Marie Hazard
ROSSINIÃRE.- Alighiero Boettis (Italian, 1940-1994) embroidered Arazzi are among the most intensely eye-catching of all Conceptual art. They were created from 1971 to 1994 by Afghan craftswomen. Boetti arrived in Afghanistan, to where he travelled extensively, in 1971 and loved to spend time in Kabul, where he also opened the One Hotel with his friend Gholam Dastaghir. After the Soviet invasion in 1979, Boetti was no longer able to enter the country but continued his work with Afghan women who lived as refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan. The craftswomen worked according to the artists designs, but used their traditional technique and were free to decide the chromatic combination according to their sophisticated sense of colour. Marie Hazard (French, b. 1994) weaves to create her personal canvas and tell a story her own and that of her time. The ... More
Sotheby's Wine reaches record heights In 2019
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys Wines annual worldwide sales significantly exceeded $100 million for the second consecutive year, led by a 20% increase in auction sales to a total of $118 million. Jamie Ritchie, Chairman, Sothebys Wine, commented: 2019 has been another record-setting year for Sothebys Wine. We achieved our highest-ever annual total for both auction and retail, and continued to innovate, demonstrated by: the presentation of our auction catalogues as well as online-only sales; the launch of both our spirits business and the Sothebys Own Label Collection. There were several historic moments: in the spring, we had a monumental, $35 million, record-breaking weekend in Hong Kong, with the world auction record for any series of wine sales. This was followed in the autumn by our first-ever single-owner spirits auction, which saw the ... More
Top cars at H&H Classics 2019: Overview & highlights of the year & some predictions for 2020
LONDON.- The H&H headline vehicle of the year was the 1936 Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer. This was an enormously special car. One of just six such cars made, it was remarkably original and had just two owners from new. That said the 1930 Brough Superior SS100 which established an outright world record at £425,500 was equally memorable. Ridden by F.P. Gentleman Dickson (a personal friend of George Brough) in the International Six Days Trial, it oozed history and attracted global interest. The biggest and most remarkable H&H Classic auctions this year in terms of turnover were held at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. H&H went there three times in 2019 selling the catalogue cover car on each occasion: a 1936 Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer (£454,250), a 1957 AC Ace Bristol (£225,000) and a 1974 Ferrari Dino 246GT (£310,500). ... More
The Tel-Aviv Performing Arts Center opens a solo exhibition of works by Yochi Shrem
TEL AVIV.- The technology of artificial intelligence is advancing fast. It creates robots and computers that can hold a conversation, write books, films, and musical pieces. Drive cars, design clothes, and paint paintings. The artificial intelligence produces Apps that can know everything about us, run our lives, allow us to feel that we are not almost alone in the world, create for us imagined worlds, and allow us to wander inside them. But regarding emotions and touch, well, no real success has been made. Yet. Yochi Shrem's work is about the place of the 'person' in the digital revolution, and the inability of the algorithmic language to communicate expressions and emotions. It is composed of a series of four objects made of an iron net and knitting. The work began with scans of the artist's face to 3D software while making different expressions fear, laughter, surprise. ... More
Little Sun reaches a milestone by successfully delivering one million solar lamps worldwide
BERLIN.- Social business Little Sun, founded by world-renowned artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen, just announced the delivery of its one millionth solar lamp, reaching a major milestone in their pursuit of clean energy access for all. The one million solar lamps have created a substantial social and health impact, accounting for 920,284,517 hours of light. As a result, 2,629,384 people now use clean solar energy instead of harmful fossil fuelbased lighting sources. We started the Little Sun project to raise awareness about the unequal distribution of energy today and to deliver a healthy, safe and affordable light to the people who needed it the most. What we have achieved today is a major milestone, not only for communities living without electricity, but for everyone fighting for the end of the fossil fuel era, global climate justice ... More
New exhibition tells the story of a pioneering photography gallery
TUCSON, AZ.- The most comprehensive exhibition to pay homage to New Yorks legendary LIGHT Gallery is on view at the Center for Creative Photography through May 9, 2020. The Qualities of LIGHT: The Story of a Pioneering New York City Photography Gallery showcases the work of more than 20 photographers whose work rose to prominence during the gallerys run from 1971 to 1987, including Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Linda Connor, Emmet Gowin, Betty Hahn, Eikoh Hosoe, Ray Metzker, Duane Michals, Stephen Shore, Aaron Siskind, and Garry Winogrand. The exhibition is accompanied by a documentary film, symposium, and dedicated app. LIGHT Gallery grew to become an epicenter for art photography back when photography was only beginning to be considered an art, offering exclusive representation for contemporary ... More
Using his camera as a witness and weapon
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Like Woody Guthrie, who called his guitar an anti-fascist weapon, Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam has used his camera for 35 years as a tool to advance social justice. He began by documenting street protests in Dhaka, the capital, in the mid-1980s, making pictures in the tradition of the Magnum photographers, especially Henri Cartier-Bresson. But over time, he pushed against the natural constraints of a medium that registers what is seen, so that he might illuminate what is suppressed or has vanished. There is a wall in our flat with pictures of friends of ours who have disappeared or been killed, said Alam, 64, who was visiting New York from Dhaka recently for the opening of Truth to Power, his first retrospective in the United States, at the Rubin Museum of Art, through May 4. Every so often we add ... More
David Hall T206 Baseball Card Collection Part III opens for bidding at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, TX.- The worlds largest sports collectibles auctioneer will present its third installment of hobby pioneer David Halls world-famous T206 collection in a 570-lot auction now open for bidding at HA.com/50021. The sale features a near-set of trading cards from the iconic T206 Tobacco Card set, each example bearing scarce Sovereign advertising on its back. The auction will close Jan. 16 in extended bidding format. Its an enormous honor to have been selected by Mr. Hall to present this extraordinary assembly to the collecting community, said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage. His role as founder and first CEO of Collectors Universe makes him arguably the most influential living figure in the hobby. Halls personal collection represents decades of careful curatorship. This challenging assembly of Sovereign-backed T206 cards ... More
Former Romanian dictator Ceausescu's 4x4 sold at auction
BUCHAREST (AFP).- A 4x4 vehicle which belonged to Romania's former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was sold at auction Friday by tax authorities, just days before the 30th anniversary of his removal. The grey-blue vehicle was the same one that Ceausescu and Mikhail Gorbachev travelled in during the Soviet leader's visit to Romania in 1987. They waved through the sunroof to crowds thronging the streets of Bucharest. The vehicle was made in 1977 by Romanian carmaker ARO and had 72,453 kilometres (45,000 miles) on the clock. It sold for almost 40,000 euros ($44,000), almost double the asking price. The buyer's name was not made public. According to local media, the car is one of only four its kind ever made by ARO for Ceausescu and his security detail. ... More
New artwork by Catherine Yass commemorating 100 years of women in law unveiled at The Supreme Court
LONDON.- A major new artwork by internationally recognised artist Catherine Yass has been unveiled today at the Supreme Court, commemorating 100 years of women in the legal profession. Commissioned by Spark21, the charity managing the The First 100 Years campaign, and forming the centrepiece of courtroom 2, it features portraits of three female legal pioneers, including the first woman President of the Supreme Court Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE. A fourth image represents the future of women in law. The artist has worked with archival photographic images as well as her own photography to create the work that documents both the progression of women in the law over 100 years and the development of photography in the same period. The four portraits, entitled Legacy, 2019, form part of a larger group composition, reflecting the nature of womens ... More
West gives Lincoln Center an opera for Christmas
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- David Geffen Hall was nearly full Sunday evening for Kanye Wests Mary, the hip-hop stars second venture into what he calls opera. But no one there seemed more enthralled with the performance than West himself. Sitting downstage, bathed in golden light, he bopped his head and swayed in his seat as his Sunday Service choir sang his hits and a handful of Christmas classics, all given the full gospel treatment for this 50-minute rendition of the Nativity story. But between the most stirring numbers, it was easy to get confused, caught in the chasm between a classical performance at Lincoln Center and an arena show. Was this a Kanye concert? A traditional opera? Was screaming We love you, Kanye in the darkness appropriate? (Yes, according to the tiny voice that hollered back from Kim Kardashian Wests box in the ... More
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PhotoGalleries
State of Extremes
Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat:
Nashashibi/Skaer
Lina Bo Bardi
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Ad Reinhardt was born December 24, 1913. Adolph Frederick "Ad" Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 - August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered on the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as abstract expressionism. In this image: View of the exhibition Hard to Picture: A Tribute to Ad Reinhardt, 17.06.2017 - 21.01.2018, Mudam Luxembourg © Estate of Ad Reinhardt; courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/London. Photo: Rémi Villaggi/ Mudam Luxembourg.
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