| The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 |
| | | Waldorf Astoria, legendary New York hotel, closes temporarily for facelift | |
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The front entrance to New York City's Waldorf Astoria, one of the most famous hotels in the world, on February 24, 2017. On March 1, 2017, the Waldorf Astoria will close temporarily for renovations, and reportedly only a small portion of the hotel will remain the rest being turned into condominiums. The Waldorf Hotel opened in March 1893. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP.
by Catherine Triomphe
NEW YORK (AFP).- It's goodbye for now to the grand Art Deco lobby and celebrities crossing paths en route to "The Towers" at the Waldorf Astoria: one of the world's most luxurious hotels is closing for renovation. The legendary establishment opened at its Park Avenue location in midtown Manhattan in 1931 with more than 1,400 rooms, the largest -- and tallest -- anywhere at the time. It has hosted a stream of international political leaders, movie stars, tycoons and power players of all kinds for more than 85 years. From Marilyn Monroe to Grace Kelly, US presidents Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama, as well as global leaders in town for the United Nations General Assembly every year, the Waldorf Astoria has been the place to be. The hotel is massive, occupying a full city block of prime New York real estate. Famous for its upscale services, the Waldorf says it invented the concept of 24-hour room service. The Art Deco style is carried through details down to the door handles in the lobby bathrooms. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Archaelogists work at the excavation site of a sanctuary devoted to the God Mithra on February 24, 2017 in Lucciana, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. It is the first time that a Mithraeum (a sanctuary devoted to Mithra) is discovered in Corsica. The excavated sanctuary present several rooms that are typical of the Mithrae, including a whorship hall and its lobby. PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP
| Victoria Miro announces representation of the Milton Avery Estate | | Exhibition at the National Museum in Norway focuses on documentary and portrait photography | | Global art sales plummet, China biggest market: report |
Milton Avery with Bouquet, 1946. Private collection/Copyright © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
LONDON.- Victoria Miro announces its representation of the Milton Avery Estate. One of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Milton Avery (1885 - 1965) is celebrated for his luminous paintings of landscapes, figures and still lifes, which balance distillation of form with free, vigorous brushwork and lyrical colour. The Milton Avery Estate is devoted to preserving and promoting the art and achievements of Milton Avery worldwide. Crucial to its role is the promotion and encouragement of painting through educational and other non-profit institutions. In its role as European representative of the Milton Avery Estate, Victoria Miro will further promote the artists legacy through curated exhibitions at its London galleries, new publications and international presentations. Victoria Miro will present its first exhibition of Averys work in June 2017, the first exhibition of the artists work in London for ten ... More | |
Jacob Riis, "Bandit's Roost" 59 1/2 Mulberry Street, 1887. Property of Preus museum collections.
OSLO.- The exhibition SNAP: Documentary and Portrait Photography from the Collection showcases photographic art ranging from the genres nineteenth-century infancy until todays neo-conceptual offerings. The exhibition addresses the following questions: What inspired documentary photographers during the 1880s, 1960s, and 1990s? What characterizes subjective and objective portraiture? The questions are being answered by way of 100 works from 30 Norwegian and international photographers. The exhibition guides us through three key periods in documentary photography: the pioneers Jacob Riis (18491914) and Lewis Hine (18741940), on loan from the Preus Museum; the 1960s, with highlights by Christer Strömholm from the National Museums Robert Meyer Collection and from the Norwegian-American photography agency Manité; and the 1990s, with Nan Goldins personal documentaries, Dag Alvengs and Esko Männikkös slice-of-life ... More | |
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Meule (detail). Signed and dated 'Claude Monet 91' (lower left), 28 ⅝ x 36 ¼ in. (72.7 x 92.1 cm.) Painted in 1891. Estimate upon request. © Christies Images Limited 2016.
PARIS (AFP).- Global art sales plunged in 2016 as the number of high-value works sold dropped by half, while China regained its status as the world's top market, Artprice said in an annual report released Monday. Art auctions worldwide totalled $12.5 billion (11.8 billion euros) last year, down 22 percent from $16.1 billion in 2015, it said. The world's biggest database for art prices and sales, working with Chinese partner Artron, attributed the drop to a plunge in the number of works worth more than $10 million each -- from 160 in 2015 to 80 last year. "On all continents sellers are choosing a policy of 'wait-and-see'," Artprice CEO Thierry Ehrmann said. Top-dollar auctions last year included that of an Impressionist painting of a haystack by Claude Monet, "Meule", which went for $81.4 million and a Peter Paul Rubens masterpiece, "Lot and his Daughters", sold for $58.1 million, both at Christie's. ... More |
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| BOZAR presents a major retrospective on the diverse oeuvre of Belgian artist Pol Bury | | Marlborough Chelsea is now Marlborough Contemporary | | Exhibition at Luxembourg & Dayan reviews the medium of collage and its legacies |
Pol Bury at the exhibition Pol Bury. Ponctuations érectiles et molles, Galerie Smith, Brussels, 22 February 18 March 1961.
BRUSSELS.- Pol Bury (La Louvière, 1922 Paris, 2005) is best known for the fountains and sculptures which he designed for public spaces. But he stood for so much more than that: he was a prolific painter, sculptor, jewellery designer, writer and graphic designer. Having experimented with painting in the early years he turned to moving sculpture in the 1950s. In that period he began to create motorised objects, which were completely innovative and bore no relation to known artistic traditions or, for that matter, reality. Hence his place in the art history books as one of the pioneers of kinetic art. Though Bury was one of the most prolific international Belgian artists of his generation - his fountains and moving sculptures were known from New York to Japan! - his work has been sidelined in recent years. His constant drive for innovation, his probing analysis of time and motion ... More | |
Marlborough London External View, 2015, Courtesy Marlborough London.
NEW YORK, NY.- Effective immediately, Marlborough Chelsea will be known as Marlborough Contemporary. This change signals the alignment of Marlboroughs contemporary programs in New York (545 West 25th Street) and London (6 Albemarle St, 2nd Floor) under the leadership of Max Levai and Pascal Spengemann. In New York, Levai and Spengemann have been joined by Director Nichole Caruso, formerly of Wallspace Gallery and Lisa Cooley Gallery, as well as Leo Fitzpatrick, who will continue overseeing the adjacent Viewing Room gallery. Ed Spurr, formerly of Matthew Marks Gallery, will also join Marlborough Contemporary as a Director in London. We look forward to our expansion in London as well as our upcoming programming in New York. We are now an internationally aligned program, and Marlborough Contemporary represents the future of this legendary gallery, says Max Levai, ... More | |
John Stezaker (b. 1949), Arch I, 1980. Collage, 10 x 8 ⅛ in. (25.4 x 20.5 cm).
NEW YORK, NY.- From February through May 2017, Luxembourg & Dayan presents The Ends of Collage, an exhibition that unfolds across three platforms, each offering a different perspective from which to review the medium of collage and its legacies. In New York the exhibition is dedicated to some of the technical preconditions of collage (variety of cuts, masks and windows, image manipulations and the notion of edge). In London, the exhibition shifts the focus towards some of the major themes that characterise the medium (fantasy, the domestic sphere, dismemberment of the social or private body, and the mobility of images).The third platform takes place on the pages of a printed publication, edited by Yuval Etgar, the curator of the exhibition, which brings together various theoretical motivations that precipitated the emergence of collage at the beginning of the twentieth century along with those that expanded the medium bey ... More |
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| Exhibition of crucifixes opens at Westminster Cathedral | | Christie's unveils highlights from 'Betsy Bloomingdale: A Life in Style' sale | | 1000 years of collecting: The Jeffrey M. Kaplan Collection offered at Freeman's |
Reverse of a crucifix from the Holy Land, 19th century. On one side is the Corpus and on the other are Instruments of the Passion.
LONDON.- Could there be a more powerful and enduring expression of devotion than depictions of Christ and the cross? There are certainly no other religious images that have been made in so many locations over so many centuries. Starting on Ash Wednesday, the exhibition Cross the World: Building Bridges in Wood will be at Westminster Cathedral, London. It is a rare attempt to bring together the global diversity of crucifixes and other types of cross in one place, side by side. Also bringing the world together is the raw material of the exhibits. Wood exists in every inhabited part of the world, forming both a gloriously tactile item of home decor and the brutal fabric to facilitate a crucifixion. It is appropriate that this exhibition of wooden crosses should be in the Cathedrals Chapel of St Joseph, whose feast day is in Lent. The foster ... More | |
Odilon Redon, (1840-1916) Orchidée fantastique $20,000-30,000. © Christies Images Limited 2017. © Christies Images Limited 2017.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's announces the release of the sale catalogue for the auction of Betsy Bloomingdale: A Life in Style, featuring the contents of Mrs. Bloomingdales Hollywood Regency villa, one of the final remaining extant and complete commissions by designer William Haines. The collection will be on view at Christies New York April 1-4 with a live auction on April 5 and online sale March 30-April 6. Mrs. Bloomingdale was a figure synonymous with glamor, philanthropy, and Los Angeles society. The collection presented at Christies complements its owner presenting approximately 300 lots of enduring style comprised of William Haines design, antique furniture, works of art, Chinese and European porcelain, fashion, jewelry, and accessories. Among the objects revealed with the catalogues release are iconic ... More | |
A selection of Biedermeier furniture to be offered as part of the Jeffrey M. Kaplan Collection.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans Senior Vice President and Decorative Arts Division Head, Nicholas Nicholson remarks on the upcoming single-owner sale scheduled for April 6, "It has been our great pleasure to work closely with Jeffrey M. Kaplan and his family as he places this extraordinarily diverse collection back into the hands of the market, to enrich the collections of others. This is a rich group of material entirely fresh to the market. Jeffrey M. Kaplan is the definition of a true renaissance man, While many collectors choose to focus only on one area, Jeffrey Kaplan has formed a collection of collections. He acquired the works of artists in depth in a number of fields of interest -- and this passion for collecting has allowed him to assemble an astonishing body of works in many media that spans across 1000 years. 1000 Years of Collecting: The Jeffrey M. Kaplan Collection features significant ... More |
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| I.M. Chait to host annual post-Asia Week Auction Mar. 26 in Beverly HIlls | | Rare teaser one sheet for the Invisible Man may bring $80,000 at Heritage Auctions | | Sean Kelly now represents Shahzia Sikander |
Tall Mughal-style spinach jade covered vase, est. $8,000-$10,000. All images provided by I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- On Sunday, March 26, the management and staff of I.M. Chait Gallery of Beverly Hills will greet international buyers en route home from Asia Week New York with this years edition of what many say is the most rewarding Asian-art buying opportunity of the entire year. The companys Important Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art Auction has become a mandatory last-chance stopover for connoisseurs of fine Asian art, and perennially draws raves from Asia-based dealers and collectors who traverse the United States to attend Asia Week events. After theyve concluded their week of shopping in New York, Asian buyers look forward to the comfortable sanctuary and warm hospitality that awaits them at family-owned Chait gallery. Stopping over and spending time in Beverly Hills before concluding their journey home is a relaxing way to break up what ... More | |
The Invisible Man (Universal, 1933). One Sheet (27" X 41") Style A, Teaser, Karoly Grosz Art.
DALLAS, TX.- Perhaps one of the most impressive of all of the great Universal Studios horror posters, a terrifying, 1933 one sheet teaser poster for The Invisible Man could sell for as much as $80,000 in Heritage Auctions' Vintage Posters Auction March 25-26 in Dallas. "Even the most advanced collectors have never seen this poster in person," said Grey Smith, Director of Vintage Posters at Heritage Auctions. "(Artist) Karoly Grosz does a hauntingly wonderful job capturing the insanity that slowly takes hold of the film's mad scientist. In only a few instances did, the studio produce a teaser for their horror greats but when they did they were often outstanding." Additional posters from Universal Studios' greatest monsters include a title lobby card for The Bride of Frankenstein (est. $30,000) and a lobby card for the 1935 film Werewolf of London (est. $10,000). A rare and ... More | |
Shahzia Sikander, Photo by Matthias Ziegler.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sean Kelly announced that the gallery now represents internationally acclaimed artist Shahzia Sikander. Sikanders pioneering practice takes classical Indo-Persian miniature painting as its point of departure and challenges the strict formal tropes of the genre by experimenting with scale and various forms of new media. Informed by South Asian, American, Feminist and Muslim perspectives, Sikander has developed a unique, critically charged approach to this time-honored mediumemploying its continuous capacity for reinvention to interrogate ideas of language, trade and empire, and migration. Sikander's work will be prominently featured on the gallery's booth at The Armory Show (Booth 501), where on Saturday, March 4, at 5:30 pm, she will be participating in a panel discussion on the history of feminism as it relates to art for Armory Live. Born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1969, Shahzia Sikander received her ... More |
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Gustav Klimt's Luminous Masterpiece
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Fine pens to be offered at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury in April
NEWBURY.- Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions, one of only a few major international auction houses to offer specialist Fine Pen sales, are pleased to announce their Fine Vintage and Limited Edition Modern Pen Sale which will take place at Donnington Priory, Newbury on 12th April. Additional consignments are still being accepted for the sale. The auction includes limited edition fine pens from major collectable brands, such as Montblanc, Montegrappa, Parker, Pelican and Omas, as well as a selection of beautiful, vintage fountain pens. For connoisseurs, a Parker, Duofold, Giant, 125th Anniversary, limited edition 18 carat gold and diamond fountain pen from 2013, number 4 in an edition of only 125 serves as a standout piece, carrying an estimate of £10,000-15,000. A fountain pen highlight from the vintage section of the sale is a Dunhill, Namiki fountain pen circa 1935 ... More
The Fundació Joan Miró presents a genealogy of doit-yourself artistic practices
BARCELONA.- Self-Organization is an exhibition project by Catalan artist and curator Antonio Ortega based on a personal and historical overview of some of the works associated with the DIY practices that started to find their way into art, particularly from the 1960s onwards. The exhibition also addresses recent work by artists, in an effort to try and appreciate the potential of some of their attitudes regarding self-organization. As Ortega explains, by using selforganization strategies, these artists have taken control over the production, diffusion and reception of their works through gestures of empowerment that have resulted in new ways of understanding and experiencing art. The exhibition also shows how DIY attitudes raise broader issues relating to aspects such as the role of the spectator in art, the meaning of art in contemporary practice, and the relationship between ... More
Yad Vashem asks Amazon to remove Holocaust denial books
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israel's Yad Vashem has written to Amazon chief Jeff Bezos urging the internet retail giant to remove books which deny the Holocaust, the Holocaust memorial organisation said Monday. "We strongly urge you to remove books that deny, distort and trivialise the Holocaust from your store," Robert Rozett, director of the Yad Vashem libraries, wrote in a letter to Bezos seen by AFP. More than six million predominantly European Jews were killed during the Nazi genocide in World War II. Yad Vashem said it was concerned that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial was growing across the globe. "Holocaust denial literature is freely available for purchase over Amazon," Rozett wrote. "Many of the items appear with glowing readers' reviews and recommendations for further reading in the same vein." ... More
Opulent Landscapes: De Buck Gallery opens group exhibition
NEW YORK, NY.- De Buck Gallery announces Opulent Landscapes, a group exhibition featuring works by Jeppe Hein, Jeffrey Gibson, Sislej Xhafa, Robert Lazzarini, Gal Weinstein, Juan Garaizabal, Martin Kline, Fabian Marcaccio, Seren Morey, Nir Hod, Li Shurui and Will Ryman, curated by Rachel D. Vancelette. The exhibition is on view from February 27 through May 26, 2017. Opulent Landscapes presents several exceptional artists who examine themes related to dream-like realities and alternative architectural spaces both in real time and in altered computerized creations. Using concepts of optical distortion within their individual artistic practice, the active exercise of hand versus machine is revealed using a variety of materials, transporting the viewers visual experiences. Their creations alter 3D space and time, using lavish patterns of materiality ... More
Garage announces recipients of Triennial Curatorial Travel Grant
MOSCOW.- Garage Museum of Contemporary Art announced the winners of its Travel Grants for international curators. These grants will be used to enable the winning curators to attend the first Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art which runs from March 10 to May 14, 2017. The winners, selected from a diverse international pool of established curators, will spend four days in Moscow, where they will explore the largest survey of contemporary Russian art to date. The winners are: Riksa Afiatry (Indonesia), Celenk Bafra (Turkey), Lizaveta German (Ukraine), Jarret Gregory (United States), Albert Heta (Kosovo), Li Qi (China), Joanna Sokolowska (Poland), Polly Staple (Great Britain), Chen Tamir(Israel), and Diana Ukhina (Kyrgyzstan). Garage received more than 130 applications from 44 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, ... More
Gray's Auctioneers announces highlights from its March auction
CLEVELAND, OH.- Grays auction on March 13th takes us back over 100 years to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. The fair celebrated the centennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The grand scale of the exposition featured advances in science, agriculture and introduced audiences to exotic, far-away lands with travel exhibits. This auctions catalogue features a wide ranging collection of memorabilia and souvenirs. The auction opens with a group of three brilliant blue floral Rowland & Marsellus-Staffordshire porcelain vases. Each one depicting a building from the Worlds Fair, including the Palace of Varied Studies, the Palace of the Arts and the Cascade Gardens. The second lot continues with another trio of vibrant blue vases, all are stamped with the makers mark and inscribed with 'The World's Fair, 1904, St. Louis ... More
Paddle8 announces latest Post-War and Contemporary Auction featuring a focus on women artists
NEW YORK, NY.- Paddle8 announced their latest Post-War and Contemporary Auction Featuring a Focus on Women Artists. Works by artists offered in the sale include Joan Mitchell, Mickalene Thomas, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Jenny Holzer, Shirin Neshat, Elizabeth Murray, Sarah Sze, Pipilotti Rist, Kiki Smith, Helen Pashgian, Ida Ekblad, Cecily Brown, Tauba Auerbach, Dana Schutz, Sarah Charlesworth, and a special commissioned portrait by Catherine Opie amongst many others. The sale presents Paddle8s latest installment of focused Post-War and Contemporary Auctions, which feature curated works around a singular theme. The auction aims to celebrate works by female artists and to challenge the male dominated post-war and contemporary art canon. "We are thrilled that a wider movement in the art market giving female artists prominence is gaining ... More
Hollywood collector's distinctive Art Deco and 20th century art treasures offered at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, TX.- A remarkable collection focused on international art from the Jazz Age through World War II is the foundation of Heritage Auctions Through the Modernist Lens: A Distinctive Hollywood Collection of Art Deco and 20th Century Art which will be offered March 17-19 by the Dallas-based auction house. Standing out in the crowd of dramatic pieces is a statuette of a woman that was featured in the classic film, Ninotchka (est. $8,000-12,000). This rare screen-used prop from the Golden Age of film, starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas, was designed by Adrian Gilbert, a costume and set designer remembered for his work on Wizard of Oz. The owners conviction to assemble art and design from an age that promoted themes of diversity and novel motifs - even daring ones - was matched by his belief that artists and designers of the era were shaping a truly modern ... More
Jamaica Biennial 2017 opens in Kingston
KINGSTON.- Open to the public from Tuesday, February 28 to Sunday, May 28, 2017, the 2017 Jamaica Biennial is organized by the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ), the largest and oldest public art museum in the Anglophone Caribbean. With a focus on Jamaica and Jamaica Diaspora artists with specially invited artists from other Caribbean nations, the Biennial will be housed in three locations including: the National Gallery and Devon House in Kingston and the National Gallery West in Montego Bay. The Biennial is team-curated by the NGJs curatorial department under the direction of its Executive Director, Dr. Veerle Poupeye. Initiated in 1977 as an exhibition for only Jamaican art, the Jamaica Biennial is repositioning itself as a platform for Caribbean art as the regions significance in the global contemporary arts landscape pivots and as contemporary artists ... More
Anna Laudel Contemporary opens exhibition of works by Mehmet Aksoy
ISTANBUL.- Esoteric Illusions in the Wind of the Hammer marks the return of Mehmet Aksoy, following five years of seclusion, with his remarkable, unique aesthetic. This show can be regarded as a programme highlight for Anna Laudel Contemporary, which opened recently in the old finance district of the late Ottoman Empire in Karaköy, within a historic building comprising a vast exhibition space spanning five floors. An artist at the height of his career, Mehmet Aksoy is considered one of the most creative and inventive sculptors working within and beyond Turkeys borders. His unique public realm sculpture projects are displayed in cities across Europe, with a particular prevalence in Berlin, Germany. Mehmet Aksoy is renowned also for the spiritual themes and content of his artworks, reflecting his individual sculptural imagination and metaphorical expressiveness. ... More
Bellevue Arts Museum displays Ann Johnston's Sierra Nevada inspired quilts
BELLEVUE, WA.- Over the last six years, artist Ann Johnston has created a striking series of large-scale quilts inspired by Californias Sierra Nevada range. 32 of these quiltsmade from cloth that the artist has dyed herselfare being displayed in the Bellevue Arts Museum exhibition The Contact: Quilts of the Sierra Nevada by Ann Johnston. Each quilt is created using an array of construction techniques, some remain as a whole cloth, others are pieced or appliquéd. Johnstons broad selection of quilting techniques and creative use of abstract imagery are on full display in the exhibition. Her work has been included in several publications and has been featured in numerous national and international exhibitions, including BAM Biennial 2012: High Fiber Diet. Johnstons family has held a claim near Tioga Pass since the 1800s, which has formed a strong ... More
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Flashback On a day like today, Swiss clockmaker Joost Bürgi was born February 28, 1552. Jost Bürgi, or Joost, or Jobst Bürgi (February 28, 1552, Lichtensteig, Switzerland - January 31, 1632), active primarily at the courts in Kassel and Prague, was a Swiss clockmaker, a maker of astronomical instruments and a mathematician. In this image: Jost Bürgi and Antonius Eisenhoit: Armillary sphere with astronomical clock, made 1585 in Kassel, now at Nordiska Museet in Stockholm.
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