| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, December 2, 2020 |
| | | All of the Van Goghs in the Van Gogh Museum almost ended up in the Kröller-Müller Museum | |
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A recent discovery indicates that it was not a given that the collection was preserved in its present form in the Van Gogh Museum and ended up in the purpose-built museum. Photo: Jan Kees Steenman
AMSTERDAM.- Roelie Zwikker, Senior Researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, discovered that at the beginning of the twentieth century Anton Kröller (the husband of Helene Kröller-Müller) made an offer to buy all of the works by Van Gogh then managed by Jo van Gogh-Bonger. However, the widow of art dealer Theo van Gogh and the artist's sister-in-law had no interest in selling the estate. It was thanks to her son Vincent Willem van Gogh that the collection found its way to the Van Gogh Museum, which opened its doors in 1973. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo hold the largest Van Gogh collections in the world. Helene Kröller-Müller greatly admired Van Gogh's work: during her lifetime she acquired 90 paintings and about 170 drawings by the artist. In 1911 she decided to further expand her art collection with the aim of accommodating it in her own museum. Her husband, the wealthy businessman Anton Kröller, ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Artemis Gallery will hold a Fine Antiquities, Ethnographic & Fine Art sale on Thu, Dec 03, 2020 9:00 AM CST. The sale features classical antiquities, ancient and ethnographic art from cultures encompassing the globe. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Near Eastern, Asian, Pre-Columbian, Native American, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Spanish Colonial, Russian, Fine Art, so much more. In this image: Ancient Greek Gold Necklace w/ Stoetzer Report. Estimate $30,000 - $45,000.
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| Legendary director of Pushkin Museum dies of coronavirus | | He was a stick, she was a leaf; Together they made history | | Buffalo Bill Center of the West is awarded Eli Wilner & Company's 2020 fully-funded Replica Frame Grant |
In this file photo taken on May 28, 2013 the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts director Irina Antonova speaks during an interview with AFP in Moscow. ANDREY SMIRNOV / AFP.
MOSCOW (AFP).- Irina Antonova -- the veteran curator of Moscow's Pushkin Museum who strove to promote modern art in Russia -- has died at the age of 98 with the coronavirus, the museum's press service said Tuesday. The longtime director of one of the country's biggest fine arts galleries helped Russians discover Picasso and Chagall, and battled to display the works of impressionists that were hidden away under Soviet leadership. "This is sad and unexpected," said Viktoria Makarova, director of research at the Pushkin Museum. She told AFP that Antonova was recently discharged from hospital after spending a few days there. A statement from the Pushkin Museum on Tuesday confirmed that Antonova, who suffered from cardiovascular disease, died on November 30 after being infected with the coronavirus. "Her whole life had been nothing other than serving the arts ... More | |
Stephane Le Tirant of the Montreal Insectarium. A surprise clutch of eggs has solved a century-old leaf insect mystery. Jean-Francois Hamelin via The New York Times.
by Sabrina Imbler
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In the spring of 2018 at the Montreal Insectarium, Stéphane Le Tirant received a clutch of 13 eggs that he hoped would hatch into leaves. The eggs were not ovals but prisms, brown paper lanterns scarcely bigger than chia seeds. They were laid by a wild-caught female Phyllium asekiense, a leaf insect from Papua New Guinea belonging to a group called frondosum, which was known only from female specimens. Phyllium asekiense is a stunning leaf insect, occurring both in summery greens and autumnal browns. As Royce Cumming, a graduate student at the City University of New York, puts it, Dead leaf, live leaf, semi-dried leaf. Le Tirant, the collections manager of the insectarium since 1989, specializes in scarab beetles; he estimates that he has ... More | |
Corner and profile detail of digital rendering of an American circa 1850s frame, gilded with applied ornament and a rock pattern cove, proposed for replication by Eli Wilner & Company for Alfred Jacob Miller's "Our Camp" in the collection of the Whitney Western Art Museum, at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Wilner & Company announced that their 2020 fully-funded replica frame grant will be awarded to the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, to reframe their Alfred Jacob Miller painting: Our Camp, c. 1846-1860. The project was submitted to the grant opportunity by Karen B. McWhorter, the Scarlett Curator of Western American Art. It was unanimously selected, from a very strong group of submissions, by an independent panel of jurors: Annette Blaugrund, former Director of the National Academy of Design Museum and board president of ArtTable. Doreen Bolger, former Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. James F. Dicke II, private collector, Chairman Emeritus ... More |
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| Mystery over metal monolith found on Romanian hilltop | | Pace Gallery opens an exhibition of works by California-based artist James Turrell | | Earthlings, it seems, not aliens, removed the Utah monolith |
Images of the four-metre tall metal object were first published last week by local news outlets in the Neamt region.
BUCHAREST (AFP).- A metal monolith which mysteriously appeared on a hilltop in northern Romania has sparked curiosity -- and mockery -- online, coming just days after a similar object was found in the Utah desert. Images of the four-metre tall metal object were first published last week by local news outlets in the Neamt region. The Jurnal FM radio station went to investigate the monolith after an email about it arrived on Thursday. "We were surprised to say the least when we found a... metallic structure which had spirals engraved on its sides", the station said in a story posted on its website. Local news outlet ziarpiatraneamt.ro also published a video taken by a man who went to the hilltop to see the object for himself. In a video posted to Facebook, the man says the object is "just some old scrap metal that somebody placed here". Fellow Facebook user Alexandru was similarly scathing, ... More | |
James Turrell, MORS-SOMNUS (07), Medium Diamond Glass, 2017. L.E.D. light, etched glass and shallow space, 54" à 54" (137.2 cm à 137.2 cm) © James Turrell, courtesy Pace Gallery.
PALM BEACH, FLA.- Pace Gallery inaugurated its new seasonal exhibition space in Palm Beach with an exhibition of works by California-based artist James Turrell, on view from November 23 December 13, 2020. James Turrell features two unique aperture wall installations by the artist, which draw attention to the presence of light and its transformation of viewers perception of space. This is the first exhibition at the gallerys location within The Royal Poinciana Plaza, which will be programmed through spring 2021. James Turrell will be on view during Palm Beachs New Wave Art Wknd, a non-commercial event celebrating the flourishing contemporary art scene in South Florida. The works in this presentation vary in scale, shape, and color, and exemplify Turrells ongoing investigation into the materiality of light and ... More | |
A monolith embedded in the rock in southeastern Utah, Nov. 18, 2020. Utah Department of Public Safety via The New York Times.
by Serge F. Kovaleski, Deborah Solomon and Zoe Rosenberg
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It was, by most standards, a short stay. The pop-up metal monolith that became the focus of international attention after it was spotted in a remote section of the Utah desert on Nov. 18 was dismantled just 10 days later. Government officials continued to insist Monday that they had no information about either the installation or removal and possible theft of the piece, which had been placed on public land. The office of the San Juan County Sheriff at first announced that it was declining to investigate the case in the absence of complaints about missing property. To underscore that point, it uploaded a Most Wanted poster on its website, or rather a jokey version of one in which the faces ... More |
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| 'Sabre-toothed tiger' skeleton up for auction | | Cultural figures reflect on Frick holdings in new anthology | | Museums Victoria acquires the world's most complete and most finely preserved Triceratops |
A rare sabre-toothed cat's skeleton is displayed at "Piguet Hotel des Ventes" auction house during a sale preview in Geneva, on December 1, 2020. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP.
by Agnès Pedrero
GENEVA (AFP).- A nearly 40-million-year-old skeleton belonging to what is popularly called a sabre-toothed tiger is going under the hammer next week in Geneva, a year after its discovery on a US ranch. The skeleton, some 120 centimetres (nearly four feet) long, is expected to fetch between 60,000 and 80,000 Swiss francs ($66,560 to $88,750; 55,300 to 73,750 euros) at auction on December 8 in the Swiss city. "This fossil is exceptional, above all for its conservation: it's 37 million years old, and it's 90-percent complete," Bernard Piguet, director of the Piguet auction house, told AFP on Tuesday. "The few missing bones were remade with a 3D printer," he added, with the skeleton reconstructed around a black metal frame. Piguet said he was fascinated by the merger of "the extremely old with modern ... More | |
Unique anthology presents museums holdings through the perspectives of sixty-one cultural figures in fields of art, dance, literature, music, film, and more.
NEW YORK, NY.- Celebrating its eighty-fifth anniversary this winter as a New York museum, The Frick Collection announces the January publication of a fresh take on its remarkable holdings. Co-published with DelMonico Books・D.A.P., The Sleeve Should Be Illegal & Other Reflections on Art at the Frick features sixty-one illustrated reflections on the institutions preeminent collection, with each contributor writing about an artwork that has personal significance, that has moved, challenged, puzzled, or inspired them. Authors from the worlds of art, music, dance, literature, film, and more share the deep impact visual arts have for them. Writer Jonathan Lethem shares how he started going to the Frick as a teenager, to gaze at Hans Holbeins portraits of Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More. Dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones writes about Chardins Still Life with Plums, seeing gestures between objects, considering ... More | |
Danielle Measday and Dr Erich Fitzgerald inspecting the shin bone of the dinosaur. Photo: John Broomfield. Source: Museums Victoria.
MELBOURNE.- Museums Victoria today confirmed it has acquired a near-complete fossil of a 67 million-year-old adult Triceratops horridus. At 87% complete, the specimen is the most complete and most finely preserved Triceratops ever found, including skin impressions and tendons, and the complete skull and spine. This is among the most globally significant dinosaur discoveries ever made, and the most complete dinosaur fossil ever acquired by an Australasian museum. It will make its home here in Victoria at Melbourne Museum from 2021, said Lynley Crosswell, CEO and director of Museums Victoria. Museums Victorias senior curator of palaeontology Dr Erich Fitzgerald said the exceptional quality of this Triceratops makes it one of the most informative dinosaur fossils in the history of palaeontology. This is the Rosetta Stone for understanding Triceratops. Despite its popularity, there are ... More |
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| Wake Up, America! Iconic Rockwell Kent painting debuts at Freeman's | | Infinity Field, a new interactive installation by SOFTlab opens at ICONSIAM in Bangkok | | American Ballet Theatre cancels season at Metropolitan Opera House |
The canvas debuts at auction with a $200,000 - $300,000 pre-sale estimate.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freeman's will offer a rare socio-political painting by Rockwell Kent, Wake Up, America!, as part of its December 6th American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists sale. The canvas debuts at auction with a $200,000 - $300,000 pre-sale estimate, the first socio-political canvas of that caliber to ever come up at auction. Witnessing the rise of fascist leaders across Europe, Kent temporarily put aside his anti-war beliefs in the early 1940s, creating a series of works to motivate his country to mount a resistance. Wake Up, America! spent decades in private hands and has never been offered at auction until now. All comparable Kent pieces are now held in museum collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art and Columbus Museum of Art. In Wake Up, America!, Kent's dramatic iconography stresses the urgency of the situation. The Amazon-like figure representing the Spirit of War stands among flaming ruins, urging a sleeping America ... More | |
For Infinity Field, SOFTlab used standard programmable LEDs which were programmed in New York, while the mirrored chambers themselves were fabricated in Bangkok. Photo: Courtesy ICONSIAM.
BANGKOK.- SOFTlab, an NYC-based studio led by Mike Szivos, has created Infinity Field, a new installation of mirrored chambers on the seventh-floor terrace of ICONSIAM, a mixed-use development on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in downtown Bangkok. The project is SOFTlabs first permanent interactive installation, whose reflective columns respond to visitors as they pass through it. Infinity Field consists of fifty vertical chambers clad in one-way mirrored glass and embedded with sound responsive LED lights. Each measures 6-feet tall, 2-feet wide, and 1-foot deep. Arranged in a pattern that allows visitors to weave through and around them, the columns collectively evoke trees scattered through a forest. During the day, when natural light is brighter than the columns internal LEDs, the glass acts as a mirror. Visitors and the surrounding environment, including the highrise ... More | |
Hee Seo and Aran Bell perform with members of American Ballet Theater in the premiere of Alexei Ratmanskys The Seasons, at the 2019 spring gala at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, May 20, 2019. Andrea Mohin/The New York Times.
by Peter Libbey
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- American Ballet Theatre will not perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2021. The company announced the cancellation of its coming season at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, citing the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on its ability to prepare for resuming live performances. A decision has not yet been reached about the companys shorter fall season at the David H. Koch Theater, another Lincoln Center stage. Many other performing arts groups in New York, including the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet, canceled their spring engagements earlier this fall. The Ballet Theatre season was scheduled to begin late in the season, in June, which gave its leaders hope that they might ... More |
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Gallery Tour: 20th Century & Contemporary Art | New York | December 2020
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Exhibition brings debut loan from London to United States, reunites celebrated series
BOSTON, MASS.- Thanks to an unprecedented loan from the Wallace Collection, Titians Rape of Europa (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) will be reunited with its pendant Perseus and Andromeda for the first time in the United States. The London-based Wallace Collection, one of the UKs premier national museums, has never before lent a work of art to an American institution. The inaugural transatlantic loan forms part of the international travelling exhibition Titian: Women, Myth & Power (Aug. 12, 2021 to Jan. 2, 2022), bringing together the epic series of mythological paintings known as the poesie, or painted poems, for the first time in five centuries. The Gardner is the sole American venue, following stops in London and Madrid. I am delighted to help the Gardner Museum make this historic event possible with our inaugural loan ... More
Egypt releases photographer, model detained after pyramid photo shoot
CAIRO (AFP).- Egyptian authorities Tuesday released on bail a photographer and a model after they were detained following a photo shoot deemed inappropriate at the Pyramid of Djoser outside Cairo, a judicial source said. Photographer Houssam Mohammed and Salma al-Shimi were arrested Monday and referred to the prosecution after the shoot at the Saqqara necropolis, 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Cairo, in which Shimi appeared in ancient Egyptian costume. Shimi, who boasts thousands of followers on Instagram, had posted photographs last week at the foot of the 4,700-year-old Step Pyramid of Djoser. Rumours quickly spread that she had been detained for wearing outfits that betrayed Egypt's ancient heritage and had broken the rules set by the antiquities ministry for photo shoots. The judicial source said the pair were ... More
France's major literary juries award prizes in a year of scandal
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In its first award since a pedophilia scandal revealed deep-rooted collusion within its ranks, one of Frances top literary juries avoided the appearance of any potential conflicts of interest Monday by crowning the novel of a little-known female author from a small publishing house. Judges of the Renaudot gave the prize for best novel to Marie-Hélène Lafon, an outsider of Frances clubby literary circles. Her book, Histoire du fils, was published by Buchet-Chastel, a company with an annual catalog of about 50 works and the first-time winner of a major award. The jury of the Renaudot has been under intense scrutiny since members acknowledged rewarding pedophile writer Gabriel Matzneff in the essay category in 2013 to help revive his career and cheer him up. Its fierce resistance to change has come to embody ... More
Sotheby's announces auction of one-of-a-kind sneaker created by adidas and Meissen
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys announce that they will auction a singular, one-of-a-kind sneaker created in collaboration with adidas and trailblazing porcelain maker Meissen two pioneers of German design, bringing generations of expertise to one of the worlds most iconic silhouettes. Celebrating a shared history of meticulous craftsmanship, heritage and timeless design, the ZX8000 Porcelain features premium adidas leather hand-painted by Meissen, and marvelously hand-made Meissen porcelain overlays. Weighing exactly 950 grams, this inimitable pair of sneakers has been assembled over a six-month period, moving between adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, and Meissen, Germany home to the brands porcelain manufactory throughout the process of its creation. The ZX8000 Porcelain will be offered in a single-lot, online-only ... More
Bray Studios production sale sees Hero Craft sell for thousands and Captain Scarlet series head top £19,000
WOKING.- A huge hidden archive of models, props, scenery and scripts linked to Thunderbirds genius Gerry Anderson has more than doubled estimate to take over £200,000 at auction. Cleared from Bray Studios after Andersons production company wrapped up its final series of Terrahawks in the mid 1980s, the archive came to light after more than 30 years when consigned to Ewbanks Auctions in Surrey earlier this year. The top price was £19,000 hammer for a mechanical puppet head used in the original 1960s series of Captain Scarlet. It had been expected to fetch £5000-8000. It was amazing, said specialist Alastair McCrea. The bids shot up to £17,000 in under ten seconds it was like watching Usain Bolt. Production puppets, models of aircraft and other machinery, sets, Gerry Andersons personally annotated scripts and even storyboards ... More
Living and performing 'femme queen joy'
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Rosa Isabel Rayos, 28, is an Afro-Latina transgender rapper whose goal is to make music that uplifts, supports and encourages Black transgender women including, at times, herself. Everybody who raps only raps about what they know, said Rayos, who goes by Ms. Boogie when she performs. Her motive just happens to be very clear: to connect to other trans people who need a reminder that they deserve to feel safety, love and joy. Its imperative for me to center my work around spreading that femme queen joy, Rayos said. It seems like the right thing to do, to create on an emotional level, to make the things I needed and continue to need to hear. I am gifting myself, too. Black transgender women live under such constant threat of violence that the American Medical Association declared the wave ... More
Large-scale outdoor public artwork on Miami Beach celebrates the resilience of the human spirit
MIAMI, FLA.- Faena Art unveiled a monumental site-specific artwork on Miami Beach as part of Miami Art Week 2020. The monumental site-specific installation entitled Dreaming with Lions by Miami-based Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea is located on the beach directly in front of Faena Hotel and is free and open to view until Sunday, 6 December 2020. This new work within the Faena District provides a safe environment for the local community to explore and interact with public art. The installation, one of the largest public art works displayed during Miami Art Week 2020, is a symbol of Faenas commitment to keeping Miamis progressive art scene alive in an otherwise challenging year. From the first moment we arrived in Miami Beach, we have supported artists and talent from around the world, bringing their work to the community, ... More
The Brooklyn Museum awards second annual UOVO Prize to Baseera Khan
BROOKLYN, NY.- The Brooklyn Museum awarded Baseera Khan the second annual UOVO Prize, which recognizes the work of emerging Brooklyn-based artists. Khans work concentrates on performance, Islamic cultural and religious ephemera, sculpture, collage, and video, and addresses issues of surveillance, otherness, and the body. As the awardee, Khan will receive a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, a commission for a 50x50-foot public art installation on the façade of UOVO: BROOKLYN, located in Bushwick, and a $25,000 unrestricted cash grant. Their public installation and Museum exhibition will debut in fall of 2021. Khan was selected by a team of curators from the Brooklyn Museum, and the exhibition, the artists first solo museum show, will be curated by Carmen Hermo, Associate Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center ... More
Machu Picchu to ease Covid-19 visitor limit
LIMA (AFP).- The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, the crown jewel of Peru's tourist sites, will increase its daily visitor limit to more than 1,000, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday. Machu Picchu reopened on November 1 after a nearly eight-month lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, but for safety reasons, only 675 tourists were allowed to access the site per day, just 30 percent of the number of visitors pre-pandemic. From Wednesday, the capacity will increase by 40 percent to 1,116 daily visitors, the ministry said. The ministry said it decided to increase daily capacity after the rate of Covid-19 infections in Peru began to decline. Before the pandemic, between 2,000 and 3,000 people per day entered the citadel, and as many as 5,000 during high season. In March, on the last day of visits before shutting down, 2,500 people visited Machu Picchu. The ... More
Ray Davies on 50 years of 'Lola'
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 1970, homosexual acts were still outlawed in parts of Britain and would remain so for more than a decade. Yet two years before that nation even had its first official Gay Pride rally, quintessentially British songwriter Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote Lola, a song that embraced a full spectrum of gender nonconformity. Girls will be boys/and boys will be girls, he sang, before emphasizing its a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world/except for Lola. The song shot to No. 2 on the British singles chart, hit the Top 10 in the United States and went all the way to No. 1 in five other countries. The response even took its author by surprise. I didnt think the song would be so ahead of its time, Davies said. But time has proven it so. To emphasize the singles pivotal role, and to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Davies ... More
The music of more: A young pianist plays a modern master
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Political-protest traditions have shaped the career of composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski over the last half-century. This streak in his art is clear in works like his 1975 classic, The People United Will Never Be Defeated, an hourlong set of variations on that Chilean workers anthem. But another aspect of Rzewskis activist spirit is more, well, administrative. He has long allowed his scores to be distributed freely, including online. (While they are free to download and learn, the composer-granted license does restrict public performance rights.) This progressive approach to intellectual property has, along with his simultaneously brainy and passionate music, endeared Rzewski to a younger generation of pianists. That includes Thomas Kotcheff, 32, who released the first commercial recording ... More
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Anne Truitt Sound
Islamic Metalwork
Klaas Rommelaere
Helen Muspratt
Flashback On a day like today, French painter Georges Seurat was born December 02, 1859. Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 - 29 March 1891) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his innovative use of drawing media and for devising a technique of painting known as pointillism. His large-scale work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884 - 1886), Seurat's most famous painting, altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of 19th century painting. In this image: A staff member holds the artwork titled 'La Tour Eiffel' (The Eiffel Tower) by French painter Georges Seurat at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, 01 February 2010.
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