| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, October 27, 2020 |
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| | How long can NYC museums survive at 25% capacity? | |
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Temperature checks are placed at the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Aug. 27, 2020. Over a month after most of New Yorks most prestigious museums reopened to the public, they are experiencing an existential crisis, fueled by the state-mandated reduced capacity of 25 percent. Amy Lombard/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs and Zachary Small
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- On a weekday afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum, Carolyn and Joel Jacobson ambled through the American art galleries, alone with George Bellows smirking Newsboy and a bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln. The couple hadnt left their Long Island home aside from going to the grocery store since the pandemic bore down on New York in March. This was a big day for me, said Joel Jacobson, 84, his voice echoing through the empty gallery. A similar scene played out that day in the winding galleries of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, where roughly 40 mask-wearing visitors meandered through the museum. An attendant said it was the busiest he had seen since the space opened on Oct. 3. And at the American Museum of Natural History, a visitor from Florida, Cheyenne Grant, 21, observed the emptiness: Its just us and the dinosaurs. Over a month after most of New Yorks most prestigious museums reopened to the public, they ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day View of the skull of the remains of a 600-year old body, which allegedly belongs to an indigenous person, in Ciudad Bolivar neighbourhood, southern Bogota on October 20, 2020. Juan BARRETO / AFP
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 | | Arts bailout in U.K. buys time, but no peace of mind | | Most important Hockney landscape to ever appear at auction leads Phillips' sale | | Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales acquires rare early sketches by important Welsh artist | 
Binty Blair, one of the owners of the Hot Water Comedy Club, at the club in Liverpool, England, Oct. 20, 2020. I did this for 10 years without making money, said Blair. I do it as I love watching people laugh. Mary Turner/The New York Times.
by Alex Marshall
LIVERPOOL (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- One recent afternoon, Liam Naughton was standing in the main room of the Invisible Wind Factory, a vast music venue and arts space he runs in a formerly industrial area of Liverpool, which has been largely shuttered since March. We could put a roller rink in here, he said, excitedly. The idea is people will be skating around while hot bands are playing. Marshals could enforce social distancing, he added. Naughtons head was full of such wild ideas because of a sudden change in fortune. At the start of October, he assumed he would have to close down the business entirely and lay off its 60 staff members, he said. Then, on Oct. 12, Britains government gave him $300,000 from a $2 billion bailout fund for arts organizations in England to stave off closure. It ... More | | 
Nichols Canyon, Hockneys first mature landscape, expected to sell in the region of $35 million. Image courtesy of Phillips.
NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips announced David Hockneys Nichols Canyon, executed in 1980, as the star lot of New Yorks 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, slated for 7 December. With an estimate in the region of $35 million, Nichols Canyon is one of Hockneys greatest masterpiecesand unequivocally the most important landscape by the artist in private hands. Marking the beginning of his decades-long panoramic landscapes series, it was one of only two monumental works Hockney executed following his return to painting from a brief hiatus spent exploring photography in the 1970s; the other, Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio, is held in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As one of the greatest modern depictions of the Los Angeles environment, Nichols Canyon has been included as his first mature landscape in the most important exhibitions of his careersuch as the landmark group show ... More | | 
Thomas Jones (1742-1803), View on the Wye, early 1770s (detail). Oil on paper, laid on thick 19th century artists board. Purchased 2020 © Miles Wynn Cato Gallery Welsh Art.
CARDIFF.- Two recently discovered, rare oil sketches by Welsh artist Thomas Jones (1742-1803) have entered Amgueddfa Cymrus collection. Welsh Landscape with Lead Mines, painted around 1775-6, is an important early representation of Welsh industry a unique subject among Jones surviving paintings. The painting hints at the impact of the dawning industrial age on the mid-Wales landscape. View on the Wye features a boating scene on the beautiful River Wye, once voted the nations favourite river, and a site of special scientific interest. For centuries the river has attracted attention from artists, writers and tourists, particularly as a focal point of the fashionable picturesque tours. This may be one of Jones earliest known studies of the river. Thomas Jones is today known as a Welsh artist of international importance, but for over a century after his death he was a forgotten figure. His rediscovery as a ... More |
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| | Christie's announces highlights included in The Collector Online and Live sales | | KGB Espionage Museum collection, NASA and Cuban Revolutionaries Cold War artifacts head to auction | | The ballet photo-sharing scandal enters a new phase in court | 
Gianluca Longo has presented his personal selection of lots from the sale in a pre-auction shoot at Syon House. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
LONDON.- Christies announces The Collector: Online, open for browsing and bidding from 27 October until the 17 November, and The Collector: Live, taking place at Christies King Street, on 12 November. Both auctions represent the finest European and English furniture, works of art, silver, ceramics and gold boxes. Christies has collaborated this season with Gianluca Longo, Style Editor of British Vogue and Cabana, who has presented his personal selection of lots from the sale in a pre-auction shoot at Syon House. Gianluca Longo, has built his reputation through decades of working and consulting in the luxury sector across fashion, travel and interiors, primarily in the creation and production of many high profile international fashion campaigns and magazine location shoots for pre-eminent brands and publications. Gianluca has imagined five rooms within the magnificent surroundings of The Grand ... More | | 
A gun designed to look like a tube of lipstick. Estimate: $800-$1,200.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- Juliens Auctions has announced The Cold War Relics Auction Featuring the KGB Espionage Museum Collection, the worlds first and most comprehensive auction event offering some of the rarest and most important artifacts from the U.S, Soviet Union and Cuba during the Cold War era ever to be assembled and offered at auction. The history memorabilia event of the season will take place on Saturday, February 13th, 2021 at Juliens Auctions in Beverly Hills and live online at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills and live online at juliensauctions.com. At the centerpiece of this special event is the entire collection from the KGB Espionage Museum in New York City. The auction will feature the world's largest collection of KGB-specific spy equipment and authentic KGB artifacts from the Cold War. Over 400 lots will be on offer such as clandestine operative cameras, counter-intelligence detectors, morse code machines, airp ... More | | 
Protesters outside the Broadway Theater in New York hand out fliers to passerby asking them to support Alexandra Waterbury, who called for Amar Ramasar to be removed from the West Side Story cast, Jan. 31, 2020.Nina Westervelt/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A womans lawsuit that once challenged the culture of the New York City Ballet withered last month when a judge dismissed the company and several other defendants from the case. The plaintiff, Alexandra Waterbury, 23, had discovered in May 2018 that her boyfriend, a principal dancer with City Ballet, had shared explicit photos and videos of her with others affiliated with the company. Her 2018 suit contended that City Ballet played a role in condoning a culture that enabled such fraternity-like behavior. The suit led to scrutiny of the company as well as disciplinary action against two dancers who had shared intimate images of women, though not of Waterbury. Those disciplinary ... More |
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| | Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz presents 'Seeing Touch' curated by Giorgia von Albertini | | Artsy expands its E-Commerce Click-to-Buy functionality in Asia | | Rare set of Tiffany windows make their auction debut with Freeman's | 
Phyllida Barlow, untitled: standup, 5, 2016. Bonding, cardboard, fabric, PVA, paint, paper, plaster, plywood, polycotton, polyurethane board, spray paint, 54 x 29 x 29 cm / 21 1/4 x 11 3/8 x 11 3/8 in © Phyllida Barlow. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Alex Delfanne.
ST. MORITZ.- Seeing Touch, an exhibition curated by Giorgia von Albertini, sheds light on a group of intergenerational artists from the gallerys programme and beyond whose work can be understood through a wide range of bodily approaches that often supersede the visual. The presentation takes inspiration from Helen Molesworths seminal essay Duchamp: By Hand, Even (2005), which explores the haptic qualities of Duchamps hand-made works versus his ready-mades. The artists in the presentation span different generations and practices and offer a variety of artistic modes that bring about tactile engagement and embodied responses. Participating artists include Phyllida Barlow, Louise Bourgeois, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Eva Hesse, Simone Fattal, Sylvie Fleury, Anna ... More | | 
Buy Now and Make Offer will be rolled out to Artsys Gallery Network in Hong Kong first, followed by Japan and Singapore by the end of 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Artsy has announced the expansion of its e-commerce channels Buy Now and Make Offer in Asia. Launching first to its gallery partners in Hong Kong, the fast and secure click-to-buy functionality will vastly reduce the time it takes Asia-based galleries to close a sale, from a 2-to-3-week exchange with the collector via the inquiry system to just a few hours. The e-commerce functionality will be introduced to Artsys gallery network in Japan and Singapore by the end of the year. Commenting on Artsys launch of e-commerce in Asia, Artsys Chief Revenue Officer, Dustyn Kim, said: Artsys e-commerce channels will provide our Hong Kongbased galleries with a safe and secure click-to-buy mechanism that will increase sales for them on a global scale at this critical moment. She continued: Several galleries in Italy and France were kept from insolvency in March and April this year as a result of our ac ... More | | 
Commissioned in 1902 for the New Jerusalem Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, Tiffanys Angels Representing Seven Churches is an important surviving testament to the studios artistry.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans will present a set of seven rediscovered glass windows by Tiffany Studios in a dedicated auction on November 10th, 2020. The windows come to auction with a pre-sale estimate of $150,000-250,000. Commissioned in 1902 for the New Jerusalem Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, Tiffanys Angels Representing Seven Churches is an important surviving testament to the studios artistry. Angels Representing Seven Churches was saved before the demolition of the New Jerusalem Church in 1964. The glasswork spent the next four decades in storage. Experts Arthur Femenella and Kathy Jordan began restoration on the windows in the early 2000s. During the project, they discovered the Tiffany Studios signature on the windows. After more than a hundred years, including forty hidden from public view, the name of the windows important ... More |
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| | Swann appoints Nigel Freeman & Rick Stattler as Vice Presidents | | Design icons - Archibald Knox and Charles Rennie Mackintosh - lead November Auction | | Simon Lee Gallery opens an exhibition of new paintings by Australian artist William Mackinnon | 
Nigel Freeman founded the African American Art department at Swann Galleries in 2006.
NEW YORK, NY.- As fall marks the beginning of a new auction season, Swann Galleries, a family-owned firm founded in 1942 and New Yorks preeminent specialized house for books and works of art, appoints Nigel Freeman and Rick Stattler as Vice Presidents, and Alexandra Mann-Nelson as Chief Marketing Officer. The appointments come as Swann has undergone a period of growth in recent months, and follows the news of the expansion of their fine art offerings with the addition of a Modern & Post-War art department, headed by Harold Porcher, and as Devon Eastland and Deborah Rogal step into their roles of senior specialist for early printed books, and director of photographs and photobooks, respectively. Auction houses are in a state of transition amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but Swanns ability to remain agile throughout the past tumultuous year has been heartening, says Alexandra Mann-Nelson who has worked within the Swann comm ... More | | 
Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co., London. 'Tudric' Pewter Clock, circa 1900. 16cm high. Estimate: £4,000 - 6,000 + fees.
EDINBURGH.- Lyon & Turnbulls highly anticipated Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 auction on November 2-3 includes important works by both Archibald Knox (1864-1933) and Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). The Live Online auction will be on view in the companys historic Edinburgh saleroom. Archibald Knoxs designs for Liberty & Co. are very well documented, especially his designs for their Tudric and Cymric ranges. They enjoy a global reputation. Famously Hollywood actor Brad Pitt is a fan (he even called his son Knox). Estimated at £20,000-30,000 is a rare extra-size Tudric pewter and abalone clock, c.1900 - a minimalist form thought to have been inspired by the Celtic standing stones of Knoxs native Isle of Man. At 25cm high this piece is unusually larger than its smaller counterpart, which typically measures around 16cm high. Knox is known to have produced ... More | | 
William Mackinnon, Uprooted, 2020. Acrylic, oil and enamel on linen, 260 x 200 cm (102 3/8 x 78 3/4 in.). Photo: Courtesy William Mackinnon and Simon Lee Gallery. © William Mackinnon.
LONDON.- Simon Lee Gallery is presenting Strive for the light, an exhibition of new paintings by Australian artist William Mackinnon, his first solo show in the UK. In this latest body of work, Mackinnon reflects on memories of trees in and around his family farm in western Victoria, Australia, and on formative experiences living in remote indigenous communities in the Kimberley region. Painted during a period of prolonged isolation as a result of lockdown, the symbol of the tree is imbued with a deep sense of longing for home, family, regrowth and regeneration. Mackinnons psychological landscape paintings, as the artist refers to them, predominately portray Australian landscapes and are vast in manners both terrestrial and emotional. Interweaving personal and cultural histories, his work absorbs the intensity of our present circumstances and ultimately ... More |
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Unboxing History: Ida O'Keeffe's Hidden Treasures
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| | More News |
 Kehrer Verlag publishes Thierry Clech's 'Indian Lights: Travels Across a Mystic Country'NEW YORK, NY.- India is a strange country. You come back without being fully aware of what you really saw. Everything that seems real is not. And everything that appears as imbued with supernatural well and truly exists. This doubtful situation is in fact the uncertainty of street photography: everything goes too fast, constantly appears and disappears in the viewfinder as visions we try to capture, following the impulses of our unconscious. Nothing is more beautiful than the apparent banality, behind which we sometimes discover another world, invisible if we dont take the time to look at it, to open our eyes to detect its mysteries and symbols that move out of the shadows into the limelight for a moment, before vanishing. Thierry Clech is a photographer and writer based in Paris. He uses silver-based photography and his pictures are exclusively ... More 'In Residence' celebrates work by recent resident artistsHOUSTON, TX.- Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is presenting In Residence: 13th Edition, an exhibition celebrating the Artist Residency Program, which has supported artists working in the field of craft for almost two decades. The show features work in clay, metal, and fiber by 2019-2020 resident artists Lauren Eckert, Tim Gonchoroff, Nicolle LaMere, Audrey LeGalley, Maxwell Mustardo, Abi Ogle, Masako Onodera, and Brian Vu. The Artist Residency Program at HCCC gives resident artists a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. HCCC Curatorial Fellow MarÃa-Elisa Heg notes, This edition of In Residence finds HCCCs resident-artist cohort adapting to unprecedented times. The works on view represent a determined continuation of craft practice, affirming its vital ... More 5-km-long artwork pays homage to abused Iraq Kurd womenSULAIMANIYAH (AFP).- Along a five-kilometre (three-mile) stretch of road in Sulaimaniyah, an Iraqi Kurdish artist on Monday unveiled a stitched collage of clothes from women survivors of domestic violence. "Three months ago, I started collecting the clothes of women subjected to violence by their husbands and families throughout the region," Tara Abdallah, who stitched the artwork that has been strung up across the city, told AFP. The visual artist had asked women survivors to donate a scrap of clothing that symbolised their trauma and sewed them together to create a giant, colourful patchwork. "I heard lots of stories about violence that women in our society endured in the course of my research... Every piece in this work has a story behind it," she said. The UN regularly condemns "honour killings" of women in Iraqi Kurdistan, which promotes ... More Monika Lakatos, voice of Hungary's Olah RomaniBUDAPEST (AFP).- Monika Lakatos, a celebrated singer of "Olah Gypsy" music from Hungary, has become the first Romani artist to receive the prestigious World Music Expo (WOMEX) lifetime achievement award. Soft-spoken but with a passionate singing voice, the 42-year-old hails from the tiny Olah Gypsy community, a branch of the Romani ethnic minority, Hungary's largest at around seven percent of its population of 9.8 million. "I am proud to win it as both a Gypsy and a Hungarian," the diminutive dark-haired singer, told AFP Saturday before she received the award at a WOMEX gala concert in Budapest. Previous winners include Senegalese performer Cheikh Lo and Portuguese "fado" legend Mariza. The award was "timely" given the contribution of Romani artists to the world's musical culture, WOMEX jury member Balazs Weyer said. Lakatos ... More Iconic Nesterov heads Bonhams Russian sale in LondonLONDON.- When Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of Alexandra, last Tsarina of Russia, lost her husband Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to assassination in 1905, she renounced her wealth and privilege and turned to good works. In 1907 she founded the Marfo-Mariinsky (Martha-Mary) Convent of Mercy in Moscow, as a recovery home for wounded soldiers, and to provide shelter for the sick and poor. The convents Church of the Intercession of the Virgin is famous for its fine mosaics by the celebrated painter Mikhail Nesterov, who often made smaller versions of his designs, on commission or as gifts to friends. A wonderful icon by Nesterov The Saviour Not Made by Hands, based on designs for a mural on the western façade of the church leads Bonhams Russian sale in London on Wednesday 25th November. It is estimated ... More The music biographer Peter Guralnick's new book covers many subjects - including himselfNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Peter Guralnick is a commanding figure in music biography; his lives of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Sam Phillips are, as the Michelin guides used to say, worth the journey. His new book is a collection made up primarily of decades-old profiles and essays, some rewritten. Its not so commanding. Theres something warmed-over about it. Reading it is like watching Merle Haggard perform in an uptight club with a quiet policy and a two-drink minimum. Actually, that doesnt sound so terrible. Guralnicks biographies work because hes a peerless researcher with an unobtrusive style. He knows everything. He fits puzzle pieces into a seamless whole. Theres nothing like a pile of mostly old journalism, on the other hand, for letting seams show. Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing is a collection ... More Rolls-Royce announces shortlisted artists for inaugural Moving-Image Dream CommissionLONDON.- Muse, the Rolls-Royce Art Programme, revealed the four moving-image artists, shortlisted for its inaugural flagship initiative, the Dream Commission. The Dream Commission is a biennial prize, awarded to inspire greatness and foster creativity in the media of moving-image. Artists Sondra Perry (USA), Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (Puerto Rico), Martine Syms (USA) and Zhou Tao (China) were selected by an international Jury of leading art world individuals, having been nominated by a panel of industry figureheads, over the course of 2020. Each artist has created a short-form moving-image artwork, exploring the notion of Dreams. These works will act as a proof of concept for consideration by the Jury, leading to one artist being awarded the commission of creating a new moving image artwork in 2021. New Jersey-based interdisciplinary ... More Letter by Nobel Prize winning physicist physicist Phillipp Lenard to be offered at auctionLOS ANGELES, CA.- An anti-Semitic letter by Nobel Prize winning physicist physicist Phillipp Lenard regarding Albert Einstein and the Jewish people will be auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Auctions on October 29, 2020. Lenard provided content on both his scientific work, and his rival Albert Einstein, who Lenard often dismissed as the leader of ''Jewish Physics.'' The letter was dated July 22, 1927 from Heidelberg, Germany. Lenard wrote to fellow Nobel Prize winning physicist Wilhelm Wien, who he believed shared his anti-Semitic views. Lenard begins the letter by referring to his upcoming publications on ''Phosphorescence'' and the ''Photoelectric Effect, and suggested ''the so-called Compton Effect'' would need to be covered more extensively in the article. He complained about Albert Einstein's recent acceptance into the prestigious Bavarian Academy ... More New art gallery specializing in Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean art opens in New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary, a new art gallery specializing in Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean art, is presenting its inaugural exhibition Freddy RodrÃguez: Early Paintings 1970-1990. Spanning the first two decades of the sixty-year decade-long artistic career of the New York-based Dominican-born artist, the exhibition will be on view by appointment only in the gallerys new space at 47 East 64th Street from October 22, 2020 to January 8, 2021. There is an online viewing room on the gallerys website. An array of RodrÃguezs paintings from the 1970s and 1980s, including works from his Paradise (1985-1988) and his Cimarrón (1985-1988) series, alongside a selection of his never before exhibited collages revealing RodrÃguezs multifaceted and varied practice are featured in the exhibition. Since the 1970s, the artist has ... More Leif Mannerström is this year's Portrait of HonourSTOCKHOLM.- The model for this years Portrait of Honour is the food profile and restaurateur Leif Mannerström. The portrait was produced by the photographer Bruno Ehrs. He has captured both the models personality and his professional identity. This years Portrait of Honour shows one of Swedens most famous restaurateurs and popular chefs Leif Mannerström, who was born in Stockholm in 1940. He has been instrumental in putting Sweden on the gastronomic world map. That Mannerström would go the kitchen route was more or less obvious considering that his father was a restaurateur and his grandmother a cook who was employed for refined celebrations. At the age of 15, he started out as a stage, a chefs apprentice, but dreamed of becoming a pilot. He didnt succeed in his attempts be admitted to begin a career as a pilot, ... More Heather Couch, Marina Font, Renee Rey and Terre Rybovich exhibit at the Wasmer GalleryFORT MYERS, FLA.- As a theme, the body, fragility and time, when proposed in October of 2019, was inspiringeven novelfor the four artists in this exhibition. One bewildering year later it feels prophetic. Not to mention universal. Too soon to be a response to Covid-19, the show is instead a record of enduring a pandemic by women artists who engage their bodies in their art. In When We See Further, the Wasmer Gallery at Florida Gulf Coast University presents these noted South Florida creatives in conversation. They and curator John Loscuito worked collaboratively to create a physical and virtual exhibition both timely and inspired, complete with dance performance. Heather Couch, of West Palm Beach, is an uncommon ceramicist. The idea of precariousness and fragility underlies a lot of my work, she readily admits. In a ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, American painter Lee Krasner was born October 27, 1908. Lee Krasner (October 27, 1908 - June 19, 1984) was an influential American abstract expressionist painter in the second half of the 20th century. On October 25, 1945, she married artist Jackson Pollock, who was also influential in the abstract expressionism movement. In this 1949 photo provided by the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, artists Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock are shown in their garden at their East Hampton, N.Y., home.
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