| The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, March 23, 2016 |
| | | Lan Zhenghui's new installation "Ink Monument" debuts at Art Central Hong Kong | |
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Lan Zhenghui, Ink Monument installation at Art Central for Hong Kong Art Week, Presented by Ethan Cohen New York, 2016, 5 meters x 1 meter, Four-sided column of large-scale ink paintings on rice paper (Courtesy of the Artist).
hong kong.- Lan Zhenghui, one of Chinas leading contemporary artists, debuts his majestic new installation Ink Monument at Art Central Hong Kong presented by Ethan Cohen New York, on view through March 26 at the iconic Central Harbourfront. Commissioned by Art Centrals selection committee, Lan Zhenghuis installation towers more than five meters high, with colossal four-sided column of large-scale ink paintings on rice paper. The artist created his new master-work to express the power of sadness and an epic awareness of tragedy. After Hong Kong Art Week, the artist will next embark on a U.S. tour that includes a second residency at Mana Contemporary co-sponsored by Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, and university lectures in multiple cities. This is the second year that the Art Central selection committee has invited Lan Zhenghui for a major installation. At 2015s Hong Kong Art Week, Ethan Cohen curated Lan ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day SAINT LOUIS.- More than 20,000 people attended the Saint Louis Art Museum's three-day Art in Bloom, the highest attendance in the flower festival's history, on March 11-13. Visitors voted for their favorite floral arrangements interpreting works in the collection, and the winner was designer Emily Lockhart Bitting's interpretation of Max Beckmann's Carnival Mask, Green, Violet, and Pink (Columbine). The museum is home to the world's largest public collection of paintings by the German artist.
| Looted artefacts stashed by British art thief recovered by Italian and Swiss police | | Asia Week New York, with 45 international galleries particpating, rings up $130 million in total sales | | Premier selection of galleries to participate in Art Basel's 2016 edition in Hong Kong |
A carabiniere stands next to recovered archaeological artifacts in Rome. ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP.
ROME (AFP).- Italian and Swiss police have recovered priceless archaeological artefacts stolen from Italy and stored by a notorious British antiquities dealer, the culture ministry said Tuesday. The haul, worth nine million euros ($10 million), was discovered in 2014 in a storage unit at the Geneva Freeport rented by Britain's disgraced Robin Symes, a giant in the illegal antiquities trade with ties to Italian tomb raiders. "Forty-five crates containing tens of thousands of archaeological relics of extraordinary quality" were returned to Rome in January, said Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, as they were unveiled to the press for the first time. The booty included Etruscan painted sarcophaguses representing human figures, a Roman sarcophagus, marble statues of animals and pieces of the floor and walls of a temple, all dating to between the 7th century BC and 2nd century AD. "They were stolen from digs in Sicily, Puglia, ... More | |
A Neolithic jade openwork hooked cloud form pendant. Hongshan Culture, circa 3500 2000 B.C. Length 4 3/4 inches (12.1 cm). Photo: Courtesy of J.J. Lally & Co.
NEW YORK, NY.- Asia Week New Yorkthe ten-day Asian art extravaganzawhich concluded on March 19, 2016 achieved $130 million in total sales. From the minute the 45 international galleries of Asia Week New York opened their doors on March 10, a whirlwind of activities swept the city. The annual event was celebrated with a magnificent reception co-hosted with the Asian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 14 when Thomas P. Campbell, the director of The Metropolitan Museum, Mike Hearn, Chair of the Asian Art Department and Lark Mason, chairman of Asia Week New York welcomed more than 650 collectors, curators and Asian art specialists. The event ignited excitement that burned for the entire week, and the Asian art world buzzed with exhibitions and auctions that were thronged with international ... More | |
Sprüth Magers © Art Basel.
HONG KONG (AFP).- Giant gold cubes designed to be defaced and a large-scale tribute to Hong Kong's lowly cardboard sellers took centre stage as Art Basel opened its doors in the city Tuesday. VIP guests flooded into the sprawling two-floor exhibition at the harbourfront convention centre, with more than 200 galleries from around the world hoping collectors will bite, despite China's economic downturn. Tuesday's opening kicks off two days of private views before the public are given access Thursday, in a week when Hong Kong becomes a frenzy of art events. British artist Tracey Emin launched her first ever solo show in greater China in Hong Kong Monday, and Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima has his latest light creation beaming out of the city's highest tower each night. But in a refreshing antidote to the champagne and glitterati, one of the most prominent exhibits at this year's edition is Tintin Wulia's grand-scale "Five tonnes of Homes and other Understories". Huge compacted ... More |
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| "Contemporary Artists vs. The Masters: Homage, Battle, Reclamation" on view in Vermont | | 'Holy Grail' Beatles record sold by Omega Auctions, based in Warrington to British collector | | People share images on social media of Belgium's most famous creation in tears |
Kate O'Donovan Cook, Nude Descending the Staircase. Archival pigment print, 30 x 24 inches.
BRATTLEBORO, VT.- The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center is presenting Contemporary Artists vs the Masters: Homage, Battle, Reclamation running through June 13th. The exhibition explores the way 13 artists engage with art history while breaking new ground. Brattleboro's Chief Curator Mara Williams describes the exhibition in this way: whenever I make a studio visit, I always glance around searching for a wall of postcards, pages torn from magazines, and posters of masterpieces mixed in with other visual information. Its always therea wall of inspiration. Most artists do not directly represent artworks that serve as their touchstones, but an astonishing array of visual artists quote from or reinterpret seminal works by their artistic forebears. Exploring the ways in which contemporary artists and, by extension, viewers engage with art history is enriching both aesthetically and culturally. ... More | |
An original 10-inch 78RPM acetate recording of 'Till There Was You' and 'Hello Little Girl' by The Beatles. PAUL ELLIS / AFP.
LONDON.- The demo vinyl record that persuaded late music producer George Martin to sign up The Beatles -- a "unique" piece of music history -- was sold on Tuesday to an unnamed British collector. The record sold for £77,500 (98,000 euros, $110,000), a spokeswoman for the Omega Auctions, based in Warrington in northern England, told AFP. The price tag was well above the £10,000 initial estimate, showing the object's "historical importance", the spokeswoman said, adding that bids had come in also from China and the United States. The ten-inch 78 RPM acetate record featuring the single 'Hello Little Girl' on one side and 'Till There Was You' on the other was pressed at the historic HMV record store on Oxford Street in London. It was pressed by the group's manager Brian Epstein to present to Martin at record label EMI -- a meeting that led to a breakthrough for the Beatles. ... More | |
Tens of thousands of people were sharing images on social media of the country's most famous creation in tears.
PARIS (AFP).- Within hours of the attacks on Brussels Tuesday, tens of thousands of people were sharing images on social media of the country's most famous creation in tears. With many invoking Herge's cub reporter -- who always got the better of the baddies in the end -- one Twitter user put words into the boy hero's mouth: "Let's be strong, together and humane faced with these crazies. "We are all Belgians," said a user called Ulysse, as Paris and Berlin announced they would light up the Eiffel Tower and the Brandenburg Gate in the colours of the Belgian flag. But the most shared image of all was one showing a figure dressed in French colours putting an arm around a crying Belgian flag. The drawing by the acclaimed cartoonist Plantu of France's Le Monde daily was captioned with the dates March 22 and November 13, the day 130 people died at the hands of jihadist ... More |
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| A seal commissioned by Robert the Bruce is at risk of being exported from the UK | | Cincinnati Art Museum launches new website with access to online artworks and teacher resources | | Local donors strengthen Virginia Museum of Fine Art's contemporary collection |
Authorised in 1322 by Robert the Bruce, it was used to seal customs documents by Dunfermline Abbey as proof of their authority and endorsement by the King.
LONDON.- To provide a chance to keep it in the UK, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on a two-part bronze seal commissioned by Robert I, King of Scotland. Authorised in 1322 by Robert the Bruce, it was used to seal customs documents by Dunfermline Abbey as proof of their authority and endorsement by the King. The upper part of the seal is engraved with St Margaret, Dunfermline Abbeys founding saint, and the lower part bears the royal arms of Scotland. The inscription on the side translates as Robert, by the Grace of God, King of the Scots. The seal is extremely rare, and is of outstanding significance for the study of medieval Scotland, and medieval goldsmiths work. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said: This amazing artefact represents one of the few objects directly associated with Robert the Bruces reign. Its departure would ... More | |
The new mobile- and tablet-friendly site, a collaboration with Cincinnati-based design partner Sanger & Eby, reflects an effort to vastly improve visitor experience online.
CINCINNATI, OH.- The Cincinnati Art Museums newly redesigned website, makes nearly 60,000 objects from its collection, accompanied by more than 4,000 high-quality images, accessible online for the first time. The new mobile- and tablet-friendly site, a collaboration with Cincinnati-based design partner Sanger & Eby, reflects an effort to vastly improve visitor experience online. The museum integrated new tools to the site and added more than 300 cross-curricular classroom resources for educators, which are available through a new searchable database. The new website highlights the museums focus on scholarship through the expanded access to the collection. The museums upcoming contribution to the Artstor Digital Library will increase access to the collection for universities and educational partners. ... More | |
Shepard Fairey, Risky Business, 2011.
RICHMOND, VA.- Recent acquisitions place the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at the forefront of museums and research institutions collecting African American art. These collecting areas are directly related to the museums strategic plan goal of significantly increasing VMFAs holdings of African and African American art. This strategic plan initiative also has inspired Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr., the president of VMFAs Board of Trustees, to donate 18 works of art, half of which are by major contemporary African American artists. VMFA now has its first two works by the late Alabama-based artist Thornton Dial: Old Uncle Buck (The Negro Got to Find Out What's Going On in the United States), of 2002, and Freedom Cloth, of 2005. Dial, who passed away on January 25, 2016, was a self-taught artist whose paintings and assemblages of found objects were deeply rooted in the folk traditions, belief systems, and history of the South. O ... More |
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| Yinka Shonibare MBE creates a major new work for Turner Contemporary in Margate | | Cleveland Museum of Art announces new acquisitions by Raoul Dufy, Yves Tanguy and Ben Shahn | | Exhibition presents rarely seen photographs relating to the early stages of the band Public Image Ltd |
Yinka Shonibare MBEs new work End of Empire, 2016, co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Turner Contemporary, on show at Turner Contemporary until 30 October 2016 Credit: John Phillips/Getty Images for 14-18 NOW.
MARGATE.- As part of the 14-18 NOW programme of arts commissions commemorating the centenary of the First World War, a major new work, End of Empire, by leading contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare MBE has gone on show at Turner Contemporary. The commission marks the fifth anniversary of the gallery. The new work explores how alliances forged in the First World War changed British society forever, and continue to affect us today. It features two figures dressed in the artists signature bright and patterned fabrics, their globe-heads highlighting the countries involved in the First World War. Seated on a Victorian seesaw, the entire work slowly pivots in the gallery space, offering a metaphor for dialogue, balance and conflict, while symbolising the possibility of compromise and resolution between two opposing forces. Yinka Shonibare ... More | |
Rhabdomancie, 1947. Yves Tanguy (French, 19001955). Color etching; image: 29.7 x 22.4 cm, sheet: 40.7 x 33 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund.
CLEVELAND, OH.- Recent acquisitions by the Cleveland Museum of Art include two color woodcuts by American Modernist printmaker Arthur Wesley Dow, one a purchase and the other a gift of the artists estate; four woodcuts by Raoul Dufy; the largest color etching by Surrealist painter and printmaker Yves Tanguy; an oil painting by Los Angeles-based, contemporary artist Jon Pestoni; a watercolor by Robert J. Pattison; and a gift of forty-one photographs by Ben Shahn. Jon Pestoni, an artist based in Los Angeles, has been painting for the past two decades. In recent years he has emerged as a unique voice within the world of contemporary abstract painting. Replica is one of the artists most vivid and iconic artworks. The painting features many intriguing dualities: abstraction and figuration seem entwined in the work, and precise brushwork emerges from under seemingly haphazard brushstrokes. Replica has a pristinely ... More | |
PiL's first ever UK gigs on Christmas Day and Boxing Day at The London Rainbow Theatre, 1978. © Dennis Morris. All rights reserved.
LONDON.- The ICA presents rarely seen photographs and ephemera relating to the early stages of the band Public Image Ltds (PiL) design from 1978-79 with a focus on the design of the album Metal Box. Original band members included John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten - vocals), Keith Levene (lead guitar), Jah Wobble (bass) and Jim Walker (drums). Working closely with photographer and designer Dennis Morris, the display explores the evolution of the bands identity, from their influential journey to Jamaica in 1978 to the design of the iconic Metal Box. Set against a backdrop of political and social upheaval in the UK, the years 1978-79 marked a period that hailed the end of the Sex Pistols and the subsequent shift from Punk to New Wave. Morris sought to capture this era by creating a strong visual identity for the band. His subsequent designs further aligned PiL with a style and attitude that announced a new chapter in music history. For ... More |
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Tracey Emin I Cried Because I Love You
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Abraham Lincoln letter to promote members of the Irish Brigade sold for $23,874
BOSTON, MASS.- A rare Abraham Lincoln letter recommending the promotion of members of the Irish Brigade sold for $23,874 according to Boston-based RR Auction. The one-page letter signed by Lincoln, dated February 12, 1863. Letter to General Henry W. Halleck. In full: Gen. Meagher, now with me, says the Irish Brigade has had no promotion; and that Col. Robert Nugent & Col. Patrick Kelly, both of that Brigade have fairly earned promotion. They both hold commissions as Captains in the regular Army. Please examine these records with reference to the question of promoting one or both of them. Lincoln, writing on his third-to-last birthday, discusses three soldiers of note in the famed Irish Brigade. Irish immigrant Thomas Francis Meagher began raising troops as soon as the war began, and soon found himself in charge of the Irish Brigade that saw action at Bull Run, ... More
£2.6m grants bring first Scottish Creation Centre a giant step closer
GLASGOW.- Three quarters of the funds have been secured for Scotlands first Creation Centre a project that could radically change the cultural landscape. The last month has brought pledges of £2.6m including a £1.006m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £1m from Creative Scotland and £622,000 from the Scottish Governments Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. Glasgow City Council had already promised £1m. The £4.9m Briggait Creation Centre will be an entirely new cultural offering, providing a dedicated base for dance and a home for the rapidly expanding physical performance sector including circus, street theatre, flying trapeze and other aerial skills. The project, led by Wasps Artists Studios, will also complete the regeneration of the Briggait, a beautiful and historic Grade A-listed Victorian and Edwardian market complex in the citys medieval Merchant ... More
Dreweatts and Bloomsbury to sell the Contents of Finchcocks Musical Museum
NEWBURY.- Dreweatts and Bloomsbury announced the sale of The Contents of Finchcocks Musical Museum which will take place on 11 May 2016 at Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE. This unique and exciting sale will coincide with The Richard Burnett Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments which will be sold in aid of the Finchcocks Charity for Musical Education on the same day. Pre-auction viewing will take place initially from 29th April 2nd May at Finchcocks, the beautiful Georgian Manor House in Goudhurst, Kent, that has been home to this stunning collection for the past 45 years, and then at Dreweatts scenic showroom at Donnington Priory from 7th 11th May. The Contents of Finchcocks auction include a diverse selection of music-related ephemera including musical prints, books, furniture from 17th century and later, along with paintings by Thomas Rowlandson, ... More
Itching to graffiti? Do it digitally on Florence treasures
FLORENCE (AFP).- The days of scribbling "I woz here" on Florence's historic monuments are gone: from now on would-be vandals will be able to graffiti via app instead, with their messages kept for posterity. "Welcome to Giotto's Campanile!" reads a message on a digital tablet for visitors scaling the Gothic white, green and pink marble tower by the famed Italian architect, which stands at one corner of the Cathedral in the Tuscan city. "We have been protecting masterpieces for centuries: starting from today we are going to remove graffiti from the Campanile's walls. But if you -- virtually -- leave us a message, we will preserve it: just like a masterpiece," it says. The walls of the 14th-century bell tower, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have been defiled down the ages by millions of messages left by people climbing the 400 steps to enjoy spectacular views of red- ... More
Artists from Greater China commissioned to create new works for Guggenheim
NEW YORK, NY.- Today, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum announced the artists who have been commissioned to create works that will enter its collection as part of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. Hailing from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chia-En Jao, Kan Xuan, Sun Xun, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Tsang Kin-Wah, Yangjiang Group, and Zhou Tao will produce works for a group exhibition opening on November 4, 2016 at the Guggenheim Museum. Working in a range of mediums, including video, sculpture, installation, mixed media on paper, and participatory intervention, these artists are unified by their distinctive and independent practices that poetically balance politics and aesthetics. Featuring the new commissioned works, the Guggenheim presentation will offer a heterogeneous view of contemporary art from China and explore tensions ... More
Thorsten Brinkmann's "The Great Cape Rinderhorn" on view at Rice University Art Gallery
HOUSTON, TX.- German artist Thorsten Brinkmann describes his Rice Gallery installation, The Great Cape Rinderhorn as a decaying palace. Overwhelming at first glance, this palace is full of idiosyncratic and eccentric opulence. The walls are painted in angled swatches of pea green, teal, brown, and deep purple interrupting densely patterned pink wallpaper. Lining these walls are portraits of figures in the kind of regal poses traditionally reserved for richly attired knights and monarchs. Here, however, their bodies and faces are adorned and disguised by common objects (trashcans, lampshades, tattered blankets, and ski gloves) and not the precious materials that normally signify royalty. At the center of the gallery sits a plywood crate with a huge animal horn inexplicably perched atop it. A small opening in the side of the crate allows visitors entry to a hidden cinema, ... More
Andy Warhol: Shadows on view at Honor Fraser Gallery
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Honor Fraser Gallery is presenting Andy Warhol: Shadows. The exhibition is on view from March 18 through April 23, 2016. Known for his appropriations of popular culture and advertising vernacular, Andy Warhol is synonymous with Pop Art. In the second half of the 1970s, however, Warhol became increasingly preoccupied with the darker side of mass culture. With precedents in works like his Electric Chair series, Warhol's aesthetics of repetition shifted from a critical celebration of Madison Avenue marketing to moody studies of existential concepts like absence and mortality. His Still Life, Hammer and Sickle and Skulls series from the 1970s use shadows to accentuate contrast. As a result, the subjects of these series - and many of his self-portraits from the same period - are thrown ever deeper into abstraction. In 1978, Heiner Friedrich, co-founder of what is ... More
2016 edition of Dubai Photo Exhibition welcomes thousands of visitors over four days
DUBAI.- Dubai Photo Exhibitions presentation of over 850 museum-quality artworks ran from 16-19 March in Dubai Design District (d3) under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai. A private ladies tour also took place on Thursday and was attended by Her Highness Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), alongside a number of high-profile visitors. Dubai Photo Exhibition was organised by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA), supported by the World Photography Organisation. Artworks by 129 photographers from 23 countries were selected by 18 renowned curators, led by Head Curator Zelda Cheatle, and were presented in a purpose-built temporary museum ... More
Art Fund helps leading regional museums collect major artists' films
LONDON.- Isaac Juliens Ten Thousand Waves (2010), a film inspired by the cockle-pickers tragedy in Morecambe Bay in 2004, is one of the first works acquired through the Art Funds Moving Image Fund for Museums. The work has been jointly acquired by Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne, and the Whitworth in Manchester. It is the first time that a film by Isaac Julien has been acquired for a public collection in the UK outside London. Isaac Julien, artist, said: "I am deeply honoured that Ten Thousand Waves is the first work to be acquired by this important initiative of the Moving Image Art Fund. Ten Thousand Waves is a piece that began its life in the North of England and its homecoming is incredibly meaningful to me. The work has been collected by museums and collections world over and its acquisition in England, and even more significantly outside of London, shows ... More
Remarkable film by acclaimed young artist acquired by Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
EDINBURGH.- A remarkable film work by one of most exciting young artists to emerge in Scotland over the last few years has been acquired by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, it was announced today (Tday 23 March). Rachel Macleans critically acclaimed film Feed Me (2015) is one of the major hits of British Art Show 8, an extensive survey of recent contemporary art in the UK currently on show at the SNGMA, and other venues in Edinburgh. Commissioned for British Art Show 8 by Film and Video Umbrella (FVU) and Hayward Touring, and supported by Arts Council England and Creative Scotland, Feed Me is the Rachel Macleans most ambitious work to date. It is the first work by the artist to enter the SNGMA collection. Glasgow-based Maclean (b.1987) graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009, and has since become known for her fantastical films, ... More
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Flashback On a day like today, Spanish artist Juan Gris, was born March 23, 1887. José Victoriano (Carmelo Carlos) González-Pérez (March 23, 1887 - May 11, 1927), better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life. His works, which are closely connected to an innovative artistic genre-Cubism-are among the movement's most distinctive.[ In this image: Two paintings by Juan Gris: "Houses in Paris", left, and "Newspaper and Fruit Dish", part of the "From Picasso to Pollock: Classics of Modern Art" exhibit that opened July 4, 2003, are on display during a preview at New York's Guggenheim Museum, Tuesday, July 1, 2003.
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