| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, November 10, 2020 |
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| | 'Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving' premieres to West Coast audiences | |
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Installation Photography of "Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving" at the de Young museum in San Francisco. Photography by Gary Sexton. Photography courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In 1930, Frida Kahlo left Mexico for the first time and traveled to San Francisco. This experience was deeply influential, shaping Kahlos self-fashioned identity and launching her artistic path. In Fall 2020, she has returned to San Francisco with the intimate exhibition Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving at the de Young museum. Offering a perspective on the iconic artist unknown to most, the exhibition reveals the ways in which politics, gender, disability, and national identity informed Kahlos life, art, and multifaceted creativity. Making its West Coast premiere, Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving features a selection of Kahlos possessions from her lifelong home, La Casa Azul, now the Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico City. Locked away following Kahlos passing in 1954, these poignant items were unsealed in 2004, fifty years after her death. The exhibition presents these personal belongingsinclud ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Displaced Syrians are pictured on November 1, 2020 in their makeshift camp amid Roman ruins in the area of Baqirha in northwest Syria not far from the Turkish border. Almost one million Syrians fled their homes last winter during a Russia-backed offensive on Syria's last rebel stronghold of Idlib, and dozens of them have settled in the UNESCO-listed site of Baqirha, near the Turkish border, among centuries-old Roman and Byzantine ruins. Abdulaziz ketaz / AFP
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 | | Christie's to offer The Collection of Morton and Barbara Mandel | | Exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum surveys Frank Stella's use of the star | | Pandemic harms efforts to rein in antiquities theft | 
Ad Reinhardt, Red Painting, 1950. Estimate: $700,000-1,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- This December, Christies will present The Collection of Morton and Barbara Mandel, sold to benefit the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation as a central highlight of its 20th Century marquee week in New York. A dedicated grouping of more than 80 lots will open the specially titled Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale, featuring The Collection of Morton and Barbara Mandel on December 3. This selection includes important examples by artists including Georg Baselitz, George Condo, Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet, Adolph Gottleib, Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, David Smith and Cy Twombly. Leading the Collection is Pablo Picassos Femme debout, 1927, which will be offered in the major 20th Century: Hong Kong to New York auction on December 2. The proceeds from this collection will benefit The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. Morton Mandel& ... More | | 
Frank Stellas Stars, A Survey, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, September 21, 2020 to May 9, 2021, Fat 12 Point Carbon Fiber Star, 2016 (installation view), Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen © 2020 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Jason Mandella.
RIDGEFIELD, CONN.- Spanning more than sixty years, Frank Stellas studio practice has pushed abstraction to the limits, investigating every category from painting and printmaking to sculpture and public art. Among the myriad of forms found in Stellas work, one element continuously reappears, a motif that is simultaneously abstract and figurative: the star. Immediately identifiable, the star stands out amidst the tangle of abstract, invented forms the artist has explored over his long career. Under the spotlight for the first time, this exhibition surveys Stellas use of the star, ranging from two-dimensional works of the 1960s to its most recent incarnation in sculptures, wall reliefs, and painted objects from the 2010s. Frank Stellas Stars, A Survey, the artists first solo exhibition ... More | | 
Vincent van Goghs "The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring", 1884 (detail). The painting was stolen overnight on Monday, March 30, 2020, from a small museum in Laren in the Netherlands, just 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam, on what would have been the artists 167th birthday. Groninger Museum via The New York Times.
PARIS (AFP).- From ancient mosaics to world-famous canvasses -- the trafficking of cultural treasures has gathered pace during the coronavirus pandemic with criminals increasingly conducting the trade online. Lockdowns worldwide have left museums and archaeological sites abandoned, often barely guarded, their artifacts vulnerable to thieves who often use social media platforms to sell on stolen goods. "Two things Covid did -- One: people have more time. Two: People lose their jobs and need to find a way to make money," said Amr Al-Azm, co-director of the Athar Project which researches the digital trafficking of antiquities. In 2019, the Athar Project counted 90 Facebook groups dedicated to trading in cultural treasures, with some 300,000 users. Al-Azm said the number ... More |
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| | Churchill's painting of favourite whisky goes on sale | | Sean Connery's gun in James Bond debut film "Dr. No" headlines Julien's Auctions sale | | Excavators find rare, ancient gold coins in Jerusalem's Old City | 
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), Jug with Bottles. Oil on canvasboard. Unframed: 51 by 35.5cm.; 20 by 14in. Framed: 72 by 57cm.; 28½ by 22½in. Executed in the 1930s. Estimate: 150,000 - 250,000 GBP. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON (AFP).- A painting by Winston Churchill featuring the famously bibulous British World War II leader's favourite brand of whisky is to go on sale at Sotheby's auction house. The oil painting of a bottle of Johnny Walker's Black label whisky and a bottle of brandy with a jug and glasses reflects Churchill's fondness for the blend, which he often drank first thing in the morning with soda water, the auction house said. Painted at Churchill's country house of Chartwell, in southeast England, the still life called "Jug with Bottles" is expected to sell for up to £250,000 ($330,000, 280,000 euros). Bidding opens online on Tuesday. Churchill, who was a keen amateur artist, created the work in the 1930s and later gave it to the American businessman W. Averell Harriman, who acted as US special envoy to Europe in the 1940s. Harriman was photographed sitting between Churchill and Stalin in Moscow in 1942, and the gift of the painting ... More | | 
The top coming attraction is this Walther PP handgun used by Sean Connery as James Bond, 007, in the very first Bond film to come to screen, Dr. No. Estimate: $150,000 to $200,000.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Juliens Auctions has announced Icons & Idols Trilogy: Hollywood, the world-record breaking auction house to the stars Hollywood memorabilia event of the season on Thursday, December 3rd, 2020 live in Beverly Hills and online at www.juliensauctions.com. The top coming attraction on the marquee of over 500 items heading to auction comes from one of cinemas most recognizable characters and 20th century pop culture icon, 007 agent James Band, played by the film franchises legendary actor, Sir Sean Connery. This Walther PP handgun was used by Connery as James Bond, 007, in the very first Bond film to come to screen, Dr. No (EON Productions, 1962). In the cinematic debut of the character of James Bond, Connery uses this hero weapon throughout the film and helped to establish and define the character that has been featured in books, films, and other media for the past nearly six decades. The silhouette of the ... More | | 
Archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority David Gellman shows a small pottery jug with four pure gold coins found inside it, at the archaeological rescue excavation in the Old City of Jerusalem, on November 9, 2020. MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP.
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israeli archeologists have discovered four pure gold coins in Jerusalem's Old City that were minted more than 1,000 years ago, a rare find from an era of political upheaval in the region. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the coins were unearthed during excavation work near the Western Wall, which is the holiest site where Jews can pray. The coins, contained in a small jug, "were in excellent preservation and were immediately identifiable even without cleaning," IAA specialist Robert Kool said in a statement. The coins date from the 940s to the 970s, "a time of radical political change," in Jerusalem and the surrounding region, Kool added. During that period, the ruling Sunni Abbasid caliphate, which was headquartered in Baghdad, lost control of Jerusalem to its rival, the Shiite Fatimid dynasty of North Africa, which fell in the 12th Century. "This is the first time in fifty years that a gold cache ... More |
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| | Uprooted by war, Syrians settle on ruins of Roman temple | | San Antonio Museum's new acquisitions include first works by contemporary Native artists to enter collection | | Cairo's 'City of the Dead' brought back to life | 
Syrian children play amid ruins on November 1, 2020 at the UNESCO-listed site of Baqirha not far from the Turkish border, in a region of northwest Syria filled with abandoned Roman and Byzantine settlements. Abdulaziz ketaz / AFP.
by Abdelaziz Ketaz
BAQIRHA.- Abdelaziz al-Hassan did not want to live in an overcrowded camp after fleeing war in northwestern Syria, so instead his family pitched a tent in the ruins of a Roman temple. He, his wife and three children are among almost one million Syrians who fled their homes last winter during a Russia-backed offensive on Syria's last rebel stronghold of Idlib. In the UNESCO-listed site of Baqirha, near the Turkish border, they are now among dozens of Syrians uprooted by war who have settled among centuries-old Roman and Byzantine ruins. Hassan and his family have set up a tunnel-shaped tent between the three surviving walls of a second-century temple to the Greek god Zeus, on a site strewn with broken columns and a plinth. Behind their tent ... More | | 
Kirk Hayes (American, b. 1958), Crueltys Gate, 2015. Oil on panel, 48 x 40 inches © Kirk Hayes. Courtesy of Sean Horton (Presents), New York.
SAN ANTONIO, TX.- The San Antonio Museum of Art announced today its summer and fall contemporary art acquisitions, which include works by Christina Fernandez, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jeffrey Gibson, Edgar Heap of Birds, Kirk Hayes, Earlie Hudnall Jr., Marcelyn McNeil, and Liz Trosper. The artworks, which are wide-ranging in their formal approach, media, and vision, expand SAMAs growing photography collection and fulfill important mission-driven goals to enhance its holdings of works by women, artists of color, and those living in Texas. The group includes the first two works by contemporary Native American artists to enter SAMAs collection, furthering its vision to more fully represent the spectrum of voices and perspectives within contemporary art practices. These objects join a group of works purchased earlier in the year by contemporary Latin American artists, including Jose Dávila, Sonia Gomes, Pedro Reyes ... More | | 
A glassblower sculpts a vessel at a workshop near the 15th century Sultan Qaitbay mosque complex in the "Desert of the Mamluks" (City of the Dead) area of Egypt's capital Cairo on November 1, 2020. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP.
by Mohamed Abouelenen and Emmanuel Parisse
CAIRO (AFP).- In Egypt's "City of the Dead", centuries-old monuments are being restored and artisanal heritage revived, turning a corner of the vast historical cemetery into a vibrant neighbourhood full of life. Wood, leather and jewellery workshops have joined those of glassblowers and others near the 15th-Century mosque of Sultan Qaitbay, in the east of the capital Cairo. From the Mamluk period, the celebrated structure -- featured on Egypt's one-pound notes -- is surrounded by monumental tombs, dusty alleys and informal housing. Since 2014, a series of projects financed by the European Union has changed the face of this small section of the sprawling necropolis -- home to many people who are unable to afford Cairo's prohibitively ... More |
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| | Pioneer of Bay Area figurative art is celebrated with career retrospective of approximately 125 works | | Stanley Spencer Gallery acquires final self-portrait drawing of the artist | | Rare ancient child burial reveals 8,000-year-old secrets of the dead | 
David Park, Rehearsal, ca. 194950; Oakland Museum of California, gift of the Anonymous Donor Program of the American Federation of Arts; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- At the age of 38, in late 1949 or early 1950, artist David Park (19111960) filled his Ford with as many of his Abstract Expressionist canvases it could fit and abandoned them at the city dump. The work he made next shocked the Bay Area art world. At a moment when serious American painting was dominated by abstraction, Park emphatically reintroduced the figure into his practice and began painting pictures, as he called thema radical decision that led to the development of the Bay Area Figurative Art movement. On view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from October 4, 2020, to January 18, 2021, David Park: A Retrospective is the first major exhibition of Parks work in three decades and the first to examine the full arc of his extraordinary career. Featuring approximately 127 works displayed chronologically and ranging from the artists early ... More | | 
Stanley Spencer, Self-Portrait, red conté on paper, 1959. Courtesy of Stanley Spencer Gallery (Acquired with the assistance of the Art Fund and V&A Purchase Grant Fund) © Estate of Stanley Spencer. All Rights Reserved.
COOKHAM.- The last known self-portrait drawing of Stanley Spencer executed a few months before his death in 1959 has been acquired by the gallery dedicated to his work in his hometown, Cookham, Berkshire. The work, which has been purchased with the support of Art Fund on behalf of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, as well as The Band Trust, The V&A Purchase Grant Fund and The Friends of Stanley Spencer Gallery, was conceived as a work in its own right before he painted a version in oil, now owned by Tate Britain. The drawing is showcased as part of the Stanley Spencer Gallerys current exhibition, LOVE, ART, LOSS: The Wives of Stanley Spencer at the Stanley Spencer Gallery (until Autumn 2021), which explores the relationship between arguably two of the most important figures in the artists life his two wives, Hilda Carline and Patricia Preece. Says a ... More | | 
Detail of the cobble located below the fragmented cranial vault. Three fragmented ribs and the right clavicle west of the axis. Image: Ms Tahlia Stewart, ANU.
CANBERRA.- Archaeologists from The Australian National University have discovered a rare child burial dating back 8,000 years on Alor Island, Indonesia. The one-of-its-kind burial for the region is from the early mid-Holocene and gives important insights into burial practices of the time. Lead researcher Dr Sofia Samper Carro said the child, aged between four and eight, was laid to rest with some kind of ceremony. Ochre pigment was applied to the cheeks and forehead and an ochre-coloured cobble stone was placed under the childs head when they were buried, she said. Child burials are very rare and this complete burial is the only one from this time period, Dr Samper Carro said. From 3,000 years ago to modern times, we start seeing more child burials and these are very well studied. But, with nothing from the early Holocene period, we just dont know how people of this era treated their ... More |
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The Surreal Appeal of the Cartier Crash
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 New startup, Requiren.com, gives artists an amazing way to earn a living through CovidPHOENIX, ARIZ.- Requiren.com announces the launch of its new platform after a successful beta phase, which included several celebrity endorsements. Requiren is an online platform where customers can request & order custom-made paintings from a real artist. Customers can submit a photograph of themselves, a loved one, a pet, or anything else, and select a professional artist to turn it into a painting and ship it to them. In a world of cold, automated, and mass-produced goods, Requiren aims to "revive the human touch" by becoming the place to get a truly unique item made by a real person, for a real person. Throughout the past months, the startup has been preparing for a surge of orders for the upcoming holiday season, where consumers are typically in search for unique & special gifts, and have nearly doubled its database of artists ... More A rap star agonizes about his role in Poland's culture warsLONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Taco Hemingway is a household name in Poland. One of the countrys biggest rappers, he has songs that get millions of views, and before the coronavirus hit, he filled arenas with bouncing fans, extravagant light displays dancing around him onstage. But last month, his demeanor was a far cry from the bravado typical of a hugely successful rapper. Sitting outside a cheap cafe in West London, Hemingway, whose real name is Filip Szczesniak, seemed nervous and avoided eye contact. Ive always been an extremely anxious person, he said, by way of explanation. He rarely posts on social media or gives interviews, afraid his every word will be dissected by the Polish media and fans. This is his first for a printed newspaper or magazine since 2015, and his first in English. He only agreed to it, he said, because his parents ... More Jim Dine unveils new works produced at his Parisian studio during lockdownPARIS.- As he approaches his 85th birthday, Jim Dine, the iconic figure of American contemporary art, unveiled the results of almost three years of work in a new show at Galerie Templon. Partially produced at his Parisian studio during lockdown, the exhibition A Day Longer takes us on a thrillingly immersive journey into a body of work that is bolder and more introspective than ever. Born in 1935, Jim Dine first gained recognition as one of the pioneers of the New York happenings in the 1950s before becoming a key figure in the Pop Art of the 1960s. A profoundly independent, multi-faceted artist and poet, Jim Dine soon began to strike out on his own. Drawing on sculpture, painting, prints and photography, he has developed an original language, partly abstract, partly figurative, haunted by a distinctive iconography formed by figures ... More Artcurial appoints Christophe Person head of the Contemporary African Art departmentPARIS.- Artcurial welcomes Christophe Person, who has been appointed head of the Department of Contemporary African Art, a new speciality of the 20th and 21st Centuries section at Artcurial. With 5 years of experience in this speciality, Christophe Person aims to make a growing number of collectors aware of the richness and diversity of modern and contemporary artistic creation in Africa and the Diaspora. Convinced that African artists bring a contemporary and relevant view of the world, he will be eager to offer an extensive panorama of works by artists of all generations and all origins, whose personal and artistic paths shed new light on the challenges of society. Christophe Person is a graduate of HEC Paris and holds a Masters degree in Art Law and Business from Christies Education in London. He has worked in finance between Paris and ... More Joshua Vides launches limited Converse Chuck 70 as part of collaboration with MCA ChicagoCHICAGO, IL.- The MCA Store at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has joined forces with acclaimed streetwear designer and artist Joshua Vides to release a hand-painted Converse Chuck 70 collection. Vides is set to release the limited Converse Chuck 70 on the Heritage Auctions website on November 6, 2020. The sneaker release is one of a series of drops the artist is unveiling that are inspired by his striking new Forever Hallway installation at the museum, near at the MCA Store. This launch marks the second sneaker collaboration in the MCA Chicago's history following the museum's release of the Nike x Off-White 'MCA' Air Force 1 Low with Virgil Abloh in celebration of his 2019 Figures of Speech exhibition. Vides' second take on the Converse Chuck 70 is constructed from a 4-foot by 40-foot canvas hand-painted by Vides ... More With help from Herb Alpert, letting the light in at the Harlem School of the ArtsNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A typical Saturday at the Harlem School of the Arts would find families chatting with each other as one child runs out of a dance class in tights, or another lugs a viola. A quick bite or check-in with parents, and they would dash to a drawing or singing class. This happy noise occurred in what the schools founder, Dorothy Maynor, called the Gathering Place, a two-story-high room that also hosted performances and exhibitions of student work, and where performers from the worlds of jazz, Broadway and classical music would drop by so that children could see and meet working artists up close. But the Gathering Place, which dates from 1977, was enclosed by concrete-block walls. Children and families came in through a forbidding brick entrance. Today, the school has completed a thorough transformation inspired ... More Nuremberg preserves Nazi past, stone by stoneNUREMBERG (AFP).- When Nazi ruins begin to crumble, is it better for Germany to rip them down or restore them? That is the question now facing Nuremberg, site of the infamous vast marching grounds and torchlit parades immortalised by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. As it prepares to mark the 75th anniversary of the post-war trials of Adolf Hitler's top henchmen, the city has opted to throw itself into a massive conservation effort tied to Germany's vaunted culture of remembrance and atonement for past crimes. "This is where it all began: the destruction, the exclusion and in the end, the Holocaust" in which the Nazis slaughtered six million European Jews, Julia Lehner, the southern city's chief culture official, told AFP. Touring the sweeping Nazi party rally grounds, Lehner pointed out the massive Zeppelin grandstand where Hitler from 1933 to 1938 ... More A golden team, a terrible title and a show that vanishedNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- How do you top West Side Story? If youre Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins, the answer is: You dont. Well, you try. Ten years after the composer, the lyricist and the director-choreographer of that show (along with its book writer, Arthur Laurents) changed the musical theater with their contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet, they rejoined forces to develop another project. The idea was Robbins. He thought that one of Bertolt Brechts Lehrstücke, or teaching plays, could make a good musical, being short and pointed and fablelike. In 1967, he asked Sondheim to read The Measures Taken, the first in a collection of four translations, for possible adaptation. When Sondheim balked, finding the material too inert, Robbins told him to read the next play in the book. That one, The Exception ... More LACMA acquires Yoshitomo Nara's "Miss Forest"LOS ANGELES, CA.- In August, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Art Preparation and Installation (API) team gave a behind-the-scenes look at the installation of Yoshitomo Nara's Miss Forest, a 25 foot 7 inch tall, 4,446 pound bronze sculpture that elegantly stands next to Chris Burden's Urban Light. Today, we're excited to announce that this monumental work is now in LACMA's permanent collection, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor. Miss Forest joins the museum's current outdoor sculpture program, including Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass and Chris Burden's Urban Light, all of which are currently accessible during the museum's temporary closure. Miss Forest (LACMA Version) (2020), is Nara's largest outdoor sculpture to date and the newest iteration in this series. Created for LACMA's exhibition Yoshitomo Nara, the sculpture ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, English artist William Hogarth was born November 10, 1697. William Hogarth (10 November 1697 - 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian." In this image: A visitor looks at a William Hogarth painting 'David Garrick as Richard III', on display at Tate Britain art gallery in London, Monday, Feb. 5, 2007.
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