| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, March 30, 2020 |
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| | These auction items are out of this world. No, really. | |
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James Hyslop, head of the science and natural history department at Christies, with a piece of the Gibeon meteorite in New York on March 6, 2020. Collectors know that meteorites, proof of where art and science intersect, arent just for museums anymore. Karsten Moran/The New York Times.
by Kevin Coyne
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- After an immeasurable journey through time and space, a craggy gray rock fell to Earth, landing in the Sahara. No one saw it fall and no one knows how long it lay in the sand before it was found three years ago by a nomad. It could have been 500 years ago, it could have been 5,000, said James Hyslop, head of the science and natural history department at Christies, which plans to offer the rock for sale at its next online meteorite auction, tentatively scheduled for late summer. It is a piece of the moon and its recent journey here on Earth from Northwest Africa to Christies in New York, where it and more than 40 other meteorites are expected to be part of the sale charts the changes in the market for a rare and exotic class of collectibles: rocks that came from outer space. The number of collectors is definitely growing, Hyslop said, but the number of meteorites is not. Meteorites were once the domain of cosmochemists ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Jenness Cortez, Spellbound. Acrylic on mahogany panel, 18 by 18 inches. Homage to Sandro Bottichelli (1445-May 17, 1510), "The Birth of Venus" Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. "Spellbound" is my commentary on a phenomenon observed everywhere today: beautiful young people on cell phones, oblivious to the wonders that surround them, oblivious to each other and even to the wonders that they, themselves, embody right now. The museum gallery seems the perfect setting for this commentary and, for me, BotticelliÂs "Birth of Venus" is the perfect and lasting tribute to the magic, majesty, poetry and power these spellbound girls unwittingly already possess. --- Jenness Cortez
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 | | Country folk icon John Prine in 'critical' condition with coronavirus | | Stephenson's to host April 3 boutique auction of fine gold & silver coins, ingots, sets | | Exhibition shows how light always serves artists to create interaction with their viewers | 
Grammy-winning American singer John Prine has been hospitalized for coronavirus and is in "critical" condition, his family said March 29, 2020. Timothy A. CLARY / AFP.
WASHINGTON (AFP).- Grammy-winning American singer John Prine has been hospitalized for coronavirus and is in "critical" condition, his family said Sunday. "After a sudden onset of Covid-19 symptoms, John was hospitalized on Thursday," his family said in a statement posted to the country and folk singer's Twitter account. "He was intubated Saturday evening, and continues to receive care, but his situation is critical," the statement said. A prolific songwriter and often whimsical performer, Prine, 73, was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in January. He has had past surgeries for cancer in his neck and lung, and last July he rescheduled upcoming tour dates after doctors advised him he faced a stroke risk and needed surgery. "This is hard for us to share. But so many of ... More | | 
1987 American Eagle proof gold bullion coin, 1 oz. Estimate $1,300-$1,700.
SOUTHAMPTON, PA..- Coins may very well be the ultimate collectible. Theyre small and portable, they have both intrinsic and face value, and they have a long history of positive growth as an investment, says Cindy Stephenson, owner of Stephensons Auctions in suburban Philadelphia. Any time we are called upon to visit a residence and evaluate an estates contents, we ask if there might be any jewelry or coins. Invariably, there are coins that have been hidden away sometimes in a safe, but sometimes in less likely places, like a box in a closet or a jar in a kitchen cupboard and often these items end up being among the estates most valuable holdings, said Stephenson, who will conduct an auction of gold and silver coins on Friday, April 3. There will be no gallery bidding, but absentee and live online bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers. All of the coins ... More | | 
Brigitte Kowanz | Michael Venezia «Dialogue II: Light». Installation view Häusler Contemporary Zürich, 2020. Photo: Peter Baracchi.
ZURICH.- Häusler Contemporary opened the second exhibition in their new «Dialogue» series. With Brigitte Kowanz's objects and Michael Venezia's paintings, the gallery unites two very different positions that both reveal the attraction of the medium of light and its ways of interaction in their own way. The double exhibition by Brigitte Kowanz and Michael Venezia is the second of the new format, in which the gallery puts two or more artists in «dialogue» on a specific artistic topic. It may come as a surprise that the exhibition combines two very different positions under the theme of «light». On closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that the early paintings by Michael Venezia, in particular, live strongly from the interaction with their ambient light, and that some light objects by Kowanz contain painterly moments. Brigitte Kowanz is one ... More |
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| | Overlooked no more: Kate Worley, a pioneer writer of erotic comics | | Vortic - an XR platform for the art world announces launch | | Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki dies at 86 | 
An Omaha cover from the 1980s. The series revolves around Susie Jensen, a tall, curvy anthropomorphic feline stripper. Denis Kitchen Art Agency Archives.
by George Gene Gustines
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In the comic book series Omaha the Cat Dancer, Susie Jensen is a tall, curvy anthropomorphic feline stripper with a large bosom and the stage name Omaha. She has an on-again, off-again relationship with the equally feline Chuck, a freelance commercial artist whose father is opening an underground strip club. Theres sex, theres nudity and theres fur lots of it. Omaha was unusual for an erotic comic book in the 1980s. Most adult comics, as they were called, were exploitative and emphasized violence, sex or a combination of the two. Omaha was more of a soap opera that included sex. At the heart of the series was writer Kate Worley, who gave the comic its distinctive voice and helped cultivate its wide-ranging fan base. The character Omaha, created by writer and artist Reed Waller, made her debut in 1978 as part of a fanzine. She eventually ... More | | 
A mockup of the Vortic Curate App showing a VR representation or Grayson Perry's exhibition Super Rich Interior Decoration at Victoria Miro. All works © Grayson Perry, courtesy Victoria Miro.
LONDON.- It was announced today that Vortic a new extended reality (XR) platform for the art world will launch in April 2020. The platform provides a sustainable and engaging way for galleries to reach collectors from any location in the world by offering customisable virtual gallery spaces, supported by two seamlessly integrated virtual and augmented reality apps. Vortic will launch with a co-presentation of works by artists represented by David Zwirner and Victoria Miro galleries. Vortic offers customised solutions for galleries to exhibit works of art using the most advanced augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies. Developed over a three-year period by artworld insiders, Vortic was created to respond to the current needs of the art world, and to address the unique demands of todays market which increasingly requires galleries to seek creative ways to engage digitally. Using ground-breaking ... More | | 
The Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, who blazed a trail in classical music with innovative religious and symphonic works, died aged 86 on Sunday, March 29, 2020 in his home city of Krakow, Polish media reported. JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP.
by Stanislaw Waszak
WARSAW (AFP).- Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, who blazed a trail in classical music with innovative religious and symphonic works, died aged 86 on Sunday in his home city of Krakow after a long illness, his family told local media. Venerated as one of the 20th Century's most influential composers, Penderecki worked with symphony orchestras across the world and won fans among top film directors including Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch who commissioned film scores. His music appears in Kubrick's The Shining, Scorcese's Shutter Island, Lynch's Twin Peaks and, more recently, in an episode of TV show Black Mirror. A key figure of the 1960s avant-garde, Penderecki remained respectful of great religious ... More |
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| | Steidl publishes 'Martin Schoeller: 1999-2019' | | Casey Kaplan presents a new film documenting the exhibition 'Liam Gillick: Redaction' | | How philanthropists are helping during the crisis | 
Martin Schoeller: Works 1999 - 2019. Foreword by Martin Schoeller. Book Design: Bernard Fischer/Steidl Design 136 pages 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 24 x 30 cm Color Hardback US$ 40.00 / 28.00 ISBN 978-3-95829-707-4
NEW YORK, NY.- Martin Schoeller's portraiture is renowned for its indelible, ultra-close-ups, with a tone, mood and compositional consistency that have energized the pages of many of Americas and Europes most respected publications over the last 20 years. But these revelatory photographs are just the most recognizable slice of his astonishingly searching, restless oeuvre. Schoeller has now amassed a body of work that defies classification, as he has ventured into all but invisible subcultures, the most current events, breakdowns in social justice, celebrity and several other sub-categories of public interest. As seen collectively in Martin Schoeller 19992019, these images comprise a veritable museum of recent historya varied, imaginative, buoyant, disciplined ... More | | 
Installation View: Liam Gillick, Redaction, Casey Kaplan, New York, March 3 - April 18, 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Casey Kaplan is presenting a new film documenting the exhibition Liam Gillick: Redaction, now live on the gallery website. Liam Gillick: Redaction brings together a selection of key texts, abstract structures and installations, spanning the early 90s to the late 2000s, and marks the artists ninth solo exhibition with the gallery over a two-decade collaboration. Since the late 1980s, Gillick has employed a variety of methodologies to explore the semiotics of the built world. Writing has maintained a crucial role in his practice, culminating in a collection of fictional texts that resist linear narrative in favor of fragmented dialogue, stream of consciousness, and abrupt slips in time. In addition to these narrative devices, Gillick often uses historical revisioning as an exercise through which to imagine alternative parallel futures. Continually referenced, decontextualized, and reworked, ... More | | 
Michael Bloomberg in New York on Jan. 4, 2020. Bloomberg says he backs the New York Community Trust fund because of its support for social services. Calla Kessler/The New York Times.
by Paul Sullivan
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The coronavirus pandemic is a test of how philanthropists can use their wealth to fill an enormous gap in revenue for nonprofit groups. There is an immediate need to fund nonprofit organizations that support people in health or economic distress because of the outbreak. But these groups are asking for money from the same people who have seen their investments yo-yo up and down over the past few weeks. Few of these nonprofit groups have reserve funds to sustain them through a long period of uncertainty. To spur giving, the stimulus bill that President Donald Trump signed Friday increases the deductibility of cash gifts to 100% of someones income. In this difficult time, I asked more than a dozen ... More |
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| | Fort Gansevoort announces a series of weekly online exhibitions | | Most comprehensive exhibition of Qiu Shihua's works in China to date opens at Galerie Urs Meile | | Sous Les Etoiles Gallery opens an online exhibition of works by Richard Caldicott | 
Jeni Spota C., Oranges, 2018. Oil on canvas, 18 x 16 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.- Fort Gansevoort announced Seeing Through You, a series of weekly online exhibitions organized for the gallery by invited curators and scholars. Launched Thursday, March 26, 2020, this initiative highlights artists from around the globe and aims to initiate lively discourse among larger and more diverse audiences for whom the web and social media are an even more vital salon space in a time of crisis. The series takes its title from a 2004 piece by Barbara Kruger, who has said, I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are, what we want to be, and what we become. In a moment that is calling upon communities worldwide to redefine daily life, seek new ways to connect, and locate sources of mutual support, art has a critical role to play. The first exhibition of Seeing Through You, is named for the 2016 Pet Shop Boys song, A cloud ... More | | 
Qiu Shihua, Untitled, 2009 (detail), oil on canvas, 70 Ã 110 cm.
BEIJING.- Galerie Urs Meile is presenting Empty / Not Empty, Qiu Shihuas fourth appearance in the gallerys Beijing branch. The most comprehensive exhibition of his works in China to date displays oil on canvas as well as paper works spanning 25 years of his oeuvre with earlier pieces he painted in Beijing and Shenzhen until very recent ones he just finished in Sacramento. In the 1980s Qiu Shihua visited France and studied the works of the Impressionists. Qiu underwent an incredible development in the course of the 1990s, moving from traditional landscape painting to find a very personal style. An un-trained eye might find in his work little more than an almost unmodulated white, but his minimalist style of painting has nothing in common with the forms of expression from Western art history. The paintings seem Impressionist, but the Impressionists ideals - the view from out-side, the pure appearance of the outside wor ... More | | 
Signals #5, 2019. C-Print. Ed. of 5. 24 x 20 in.
NEW YORK, NY.- In these new colour works which share a confluence of natural light and saturated depth of colour, geometric shapes are choreographed with undulating colour backgrounds.An uncanny gravity makes these images difficult to completely fathom. Sometimes colours are in-sync or out of sync, shifted on the horizontal or vertical and with varied shades of intensity. There are discrepancies between shadows and the synergies of physical colour split in two offer up a possible immediate visual seduction. This architecture of saturated colour and space with its geometric punctuations and crispness of technicolour highlights the subtleties of a simple yet rigorous play with shadow, light and colour. Richard Caldicotts new colour work, Signals, aims in part, to pay tribute to Signals Gallery, London. Founded in the mid 1960s it was characterized by creative innovation and exploration toward new ideas of modernity. Signals Gallery was an ... More |
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In Conversation: Alexander S. C. Rower and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso
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| | More News |
 Mike Longo, jazz pianist, composer and educator, dies at 83NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Mike Longo, a jazz pianist, composer and educator best known for his long association with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, died March 22 in Manhattan. He was 83. The cause was from the coronavirus, Dorothy Longo, his wife of 32 years, said. As a musician and a composer, said Matthew Snyder, who had studied composition with Longo and played baritone saxophone with the big band he led, the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, Longo was simultaneously very earthy and also had the highest possible level of harmony and melodicism and complexity in his musical conception. As an educator, Longo wrote 10 books and produced four DVDs, espousing concepts he had refined while working with Gillespie. He also advocated tirelessly for other artists, engaging them for concerts and releasing their recordings ... More London's last remaining dandy Viktor Wynd on his wondrous museum of curiositiesLONDON.- From mermaids to shrunken heads, dandies to mass murderers, and Papua New Guinean penis gourds, the artist and collector Viktor Wynds menagerie of bizarre objects knows no bounds. Owner of one of Londons most intriguing tourist destinations Viktor Wynds Museum of Curiosities and the chancellor of the pataphysical society and cocktail bar The Last Tuesday Society in East London, Viktor Wynd announced his whimsical new book The Unnatural History Museum published by Prestel. The new volume will take its readers on a warped tour around Wynds collectibles, delving deeper into his philosophy of collecting through a series of outlandish personal anecdotes about the collection like meeting Andy Warhol at the Factory in New York as a young boy and asking Tracey Emin to blow her nose in his limited edition Jeff Koons handkerchief ... More Atlantic Center for the Arts annual Horsin' Around Auction goes virtualNEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL.- Horsin Around's innovative beginning came 37 years ago on a horse farm in Edgewater (hence the name), where barbeque was served up and artwork was wired to the side of a truck and auctioned off. From there the popular event was staged under a tent as big as a football field, complete with gourmet food, wines and a vintage car show; and most recently it travelled to the Brannon Civic Center with its panoramic views of the Intracoastal Waterway. No matter where the venue has been, the community champions Atlantic Center for the Arts annual Horsin Around auction, raising a paddle in support of its mission and programming. This year, Atlantic Center for the Arts is asking supporters to show up, but due to COVID-19, stay at home. The auction will move from an in-person event to a virtual event by utilizing ... More Museum of Nebraska Art changes format of 'Spirit: A Celebration of Art in the Heartland' auctionKEARNEY, NE.- The Museum of Nebraska Art announced that its art auction for Spirit: A Celebration of Art in the Heartland will be moved to an online format on Qtego, a mobile bidding site. The social events associated with Spirit are being cancelled out of concern and care for everyones well-being, said Gina Garden, Marketing and Spirit Coordinator for MONA. The MONA Board Executive Committee made the decision to move to an online auction while suspending Spirit social activities in accordance with the guidelines recommended by health authorities locally and nationally in response to the COVID-19 virus. Since Spirit has a statewide draw of artists and guests, she continued, we feel it is important to change our format from an in-person event to an online event to do our part in slowing the spread of illness in our community and all ... More NHM Los Angeles announces highlights in its digital portal for nature and cultureLOS ANGELES, CA.- With the mission to inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds, the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County - including the Natural History Museum (NHM), La Brea Tar Pits and William S. Hart Museum - are innovating to open new doors to natural history virtually while physical doors are closed. Think social distancing with dinosaurs and mammoths, and connecting with nature and community science right outside your own door. NHMLAC Connects visitors can learn about recent paleontological discoveries by NHM scientists including the worlds tiniest dinosaur, explore Los Angeles biodiversity from bugs to bats to birds to LAs favorite mountain lion P-22, find guides to make their own discoveries and participate in community science projects by observing swifts and snails. There ... More Ray Mantilla, percussionist who transcended genres, dies at 85NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Ray Mantilla, a percussionist and bandleader whose career spanned six decades and an array of styles in jazz, Latin music and beyond, died March 21 in the New York borough of Manhattan. He was 85. His brother Kermit said the cause was complications of lymphoma. Mantilla never quite became a star in his own right. But he was one of the most respected percussionists in American music, adept at a range of instruments particularly the congas and timbales and able to make himself at home in almost any ensemble. He tended to use a full suite of congas, sometimes four at once, each differently tuned, together forming a drum kit of its own. He was 44 and almost a quarter-century into his professional career when he released his first album as a leader, Mantilla, in 1978. By that point, he had reached at least the third ... More Michael Sorkin, 71, dies; Saw architecture as a vehicle for changeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Michael Sorkin, an influential architecture critic, author, designer and urban visionary, died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71. His wife and only immediate survivor, Joan Copjec, said the cause was the coronavirus. Sorkin was architectures most outspoken public intellectual, a polymath whose prodigious output of essays, lectures and designs, all promoting social justice, established him as the political conscience in the field. In lectures and in years of teaching, he inspired audiences and students to use architecture to change lives, resist the status quo and help achieve social equity. His motivational writings and projects helped reset the fields moral compass. With degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia University, and a masters in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ... More Sun Museum releases two new books and opens cartoon exhibition by Yeung Chun TongHONG KONG.- Sun Museum announced the launch of two books by Yeung Chun Tong, Evolving Monolith and A Life Story of Mixed Emotions, and Auspicious Drawings, an exhibition on the cartoon drawings of A Life Story of Mixed Emotions which opens on 31st March and runs through 30 May 2020. Yeung Chun Tong is currently the Director of Sun Museum. Having worked in the museum industry for over 45 years, Yeung has an impressive resume which includes the near-300 exhibitions curated, their accompanying catalogues published, and the over 200 public lectures on traditional culture delivered. As a noted museum professional, Yeung has also served as Honorary Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts of The University of Hong Kong, Visiting Fellow at Canberra School of Art of The Australian National University, and advisor ... More Lenbachhaus Munich announces the digital exhibition opening of Sheela Gowda: It.. MattersMUNICH.- The Lenbachhaus presents Sheela Gowda's first solo exhibition at a museum in Germany. For her sprawling installations, Gowda uses distinctive materials from her country whose nature, colors, and scents endow her works with a narrative as well as metaphorical force. The creative use of cow dung, kumkum powder, coconut fiber, hair, needles, threads, stones, tar barrels, or tarpaulins blends connotations of manual craftsmanship and practical application with poetic intensity for a meditation on both urban and rural life in India. Working conditions, production cycles, urban infrastructure, traditional and modern life are recurrent concerns in Sheela Gowdas art. She seeks out the materials that are best suited to represent these themes and translates them into works with rich narrative and associative subtexts. Her materials ... More Casula Powerhouse extends deadline for 66th Blake Prize entriesSYDNEY.- In the difficult times of COVID-19 Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre has extended the submission deadline for both the 66th Blake Art and the Blake Poetry Prizes to 31 May 2020. With over $46,000 in prizes, the new deadline is intended to give artists more time to complete and submit their works for the opportunity to compete for the prizes. The Blake Prize is one of Australias longest-standing and most prestigious prizes. Artists exploring the wider experience of spirituality, religion and belief are encouraged to submit their works now via the CPAC website. Since 1951, the Blake Prize has engaged artists, nationally and internationally, with ideas of spirituality and religion. The 2018 prize received 769 entries from across Australia and the world, a massive 30% increase from 2016. The exhibition of finalists and presentation of awards ... More Pi Artworks Istanbul presents an exhibition of new works by Ipek DubenISTANBUL.- Ipek Dubens new work Angels and Clowns at Pi Artworks Istanbul looks at excesses, paradoxes, fantasies and divine myths in contemporary life in the post-truth era. I watch with tears and smiles the condition of humanity in the post-truth, post-fact, post-faith era. I am part of it and yet taking it in from a distance. I continue living with my old habits and stand wondering what I can do about it. My thoughts lead me to the forever present angels and clowns who look both like and unlike us, stand by us and observe us from afar. They can warn us, alert us about the good and the bad, right and wrong, and always demand our critical awareness. I feel akin to their marginality and dared to travel the world with them. - Ipek Duben İpek Dubens solo show Angels and Clowns at Pi Artworks İstanbul will be running between 12 March and 25 April 2020. ... More Country music star Joe Diffie dies of coronavirusWASHINGTON (AFP).- Joe Diffie, a Grammy award-winning country music singer who had several chart-topping hits in the 1990s, has died of coronavirus. He was 61. Diffie's death was announced on his Facebook page, which said he died on Sunday "from complications of coronavirus." His death came just two days after he had announced that he had tested positive for the virus and was receiving medical care. "My family and I are asking for privacy at this time," he said. "We want to remind the public and all my fans to be vigilant, cautious and careful during this pandemic." Diffie, who was from Oklahoma, had several hit songs during the 1990s including "Pickup Man," "Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)" and "John Deere Green." His first album, "A Thousand Winding Roads," was released in 1990 and including his hit song "Home." Nearly 137,000 ... More A poet's anguish vibrates through timeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In October 1820, typhus raged in Naples, Italy. With his artist friend Joseph Severn, British poet John Keats rocked in the citys harbor for 10 days, not nearly the quaranta giorni 40 days that give us our word quarantine. Before this journey, Keats always felt intense melancholy. In On Seeing the Elgin Marbles for the First Time, he wrote
mortality / Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep. (And in the smooth pentameter of Ode to a Nightingale: I have been half in love with easeful death.) Not a holiday, this voyage out of England was a desperate trip to the sunny climate of Italy. His cough had grown steadily worse. Since the morning that he had seen a splotch of blood on his pillow, he knew he had little chance of surviving the consumption that had invaded his lungs. His last ditch: Go to Rome. ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Spanish-French painter Francisco Goya was born March 30, 1746. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (30 March 1746 - 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries and throughout his long career was a commentator and chronicler of his era. Immensely successful in his lifetime, Goya is often referred to as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. In this image: Francisco de Goya, The victorious Hannibal, 1771.
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