| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Saturday, June 12, 2021 |
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| | Racist mural puts Tate Galleries in a bind | |
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Tate Britain, a British national art museum in London, May 25, 2021. Problematic sections of a work painted on Tate Britains walls have caught museum officials between the demands of activists and the policies of the British government. Jeremie Souteyrat/The New York Times.
by Alex Marshall
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Since Tate Britain reopened last month after a five-month pandemic shutdown, the museum has been bustling. Visitors in masks have roamed its galleries, halls and atrium again, enjoying the huge collection of British art, from 16th-century portraits to contemporary installations. Yet one room remains out of bounds, and not because of coronavirus restrictions. The doors to the museums basement restaurant are shut, and a sign outside says it will remain closed until further notice. The restaurants walls are decorated with a 55-foot-long mural called The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats, painted by British artist Rex Whistler. The epic work, commissioned in the 1920s to entice diners, depicts a hunting party riding through a landscape of soaring mountains, ornamental gardens, castles and Chinese pagodas on a quest for unicorns, leopards and other exotic quarry. Mr. Whistlers funny fresco will make the Tate Gallerys crumpets and Londo ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A historical poster (R) for the animated film "Bambi" produced by Walt Disney is on view at the Wien Museum in Vienna on March 23, 2021. While the 1942 Disney film "Bambi" is world famous as a classic of animated cinema, the man behind the story -- an eminent writer in pre-war Vienna who had to flee the Nazis -- is little known. JOE KLAMAR / AFP
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| Met Museum announces return of two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria | | 120 works from Modigliani to Monet vanish from Italian broadcaster | | Important painting by Maria Lassnig offered at Dorotheum's Contemporary Art Sale | 
The 16th-century Queen Mother Pendant Mask from Benin City, on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, on Dec. 9, 2019. Andrea Mohin/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Wednesday that it planned to return two brass plaques from its collection, part of the group of West African artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes, to Nigeria, making it the latest institution to pursue repatriation of the looted works. It has also brokered the return of a third object a brass head produced in the city of Ife around the 14th century that had been offered to the museum for sale. The Met is pleased to have initiated the return of these works and is committed to transparency and the responsible collecting of cultural property, the museum said in a statement. The two 16th-century brass plaques, Warrior Chief and Junior Court Official, were created at the Court of Benin. They are part of a collection of artifacts that the British army looted in an 1897 raid on Benin City, in what is now ... More | | 
The works, according to news reports, were acquired with proceeds from the television licence fee paid for by Italian households.
ROME (AFP).- The story of the missing artworks at Italy's public broadcaster Rai would make a riveting televised mystery. But the disappearance of no fewer than 120 paintings, sculptures, lithographs and tapestries from the walls of the broadcaster is fact, not fiction, say authorities. The art heritage squad within Italy's Carabinieri police has been investigating the missing artwork since March, when Rome prosecutors opened a probe after being alerted by Rai management, according to Italian media. Some of the works appear to have disappeared into thin air, while others were removed from walls and replaced by fakes, according to Il Messaggero and La Repubblica dailies. Police did not immediately respond to a request for information from AFP. Among the missing pieces are valuable works by Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, and Giorgio De Chirico -- all part of the Rai's collection of about ... More | | 
Maria Lassnig, "Wilde Tiere sind gefährdet" (Wild Animals Are Endangered), 1980, oil on canvas, 306 x 200 cm, estimate 600,000 - 800,000.
VIENNA.- The star lot at Dorotheums Contemporary Art sale on 23 June 2021 is one of Austrian artist, Maria Lassnigs, most important and prophetic paintings. At the turning point of her artistic career, Lassnig gave her attention to the exploitation of nature and produced this monumental 6m2, portrait-format painting in oil, entitled Wilde Tiere sind gefährdet (Wild Animals Are Endangered), estimated between 600,000 and 800,000 euros. This exceptional painting occupies an important position in Maria Lassnigs oeuvre. It was created in 1980, the year in which she returned to Vienna to take on a professorship at the University of Applied Arts after having spent two decades in Paris and New York. In the same year, Lassnig and Valie Export became the first female artists to represent Austria at the Venice Biennale (commissioner Hans Hollein) and Lassnig finally received the broad public recognition she ... More |
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| Long-lost Old Master drawing by Bartholomeus Spranger on view at Christopher Bishop Fine Art | | Phillips to offer the complete set of Warhol Campbell's Soup | | David Nolan Gallery opens "13 Artists: A Tribute to Klaus Kertess' Bykert Gallery 1966-75" | 
Bartholomeus Spranger, Saint Ursula, c. 1583, Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk with pink and teal watercolor washes in a Venetian ca. 1590 aedicule frame.
NEW YORK, NY.- Three years ago, when art dealer Christopher Bishop saw a drawing from a private collection, he knew it was something special. The young saint featured in the drawing, protecting a group of female followers with her cloak, had all the presence and power of Michelangelos marble Madonnas coupled with the elegance of a Parmigianino drawing. The triumphant martyred Saint Ursula is depicted with her cult of virgin followers, part commanding queen, part welcoming mother, part saintly intercessor. Who could have created this masterpiece, a unique combination of Renaissance Italian elegance and Northern Mannerist eccentricity? To Bishops expert eye, there was only one plausible answer: Bartholomeus Spranger (Antwerp 1546 - Prague 1611), the quintessential artist of Rudolphine Prague, the only truly international Mannerist artist. His fame, which captured the imagination of both Pope Pius ... More | | 
Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup I (F. & S. 44-53), 1968. Estimate: £600,000 900,000. Image courtesy of Phillips.
LONDON.- Phillips announced highlights ahead of the London Evening & Day Editions auctions in London on 14 and 15 June, which will be held in conjunction with the Beuys 100 auction on 14 June. Covering key periods in 20th century and contemporary art history in detail, the Evening & Day Editions auctions will include a breadth of material for every category of contemporary art collector. The Evening sale, led by Andy Warhols iconic Campbells Soup, features exceptional examples of American Pop, British Pop, Modern, and Contemporary. Further highlights of the Evening sale include Michael Craig-Martins Art & Design as well as works by David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, William Kentridge, Jonas Wood, Lucian Freud, Grayson Perry, and Banksy. Day sale highlights include works by Allen Jones, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Henri Matisse, Allen Jones, and David Shrigley. The Evening sale on 14 June at 6pm will be followed by the Day sale ... More | | 
Dorothea Rockburne, Robe Series: Noli Me Tangere, 1976, oil paint, gesso, and pigment on linen, 55 x 34 in (139.7 x 86.4 cm).
NEW YORK, NY.- David Nolan Gallery is presenting 13 Artists: A Tribute to Klaus Kertess Bykert Gallery 1966-75. The exhibition includes work by Lynda Benglis, Chuck Close, Robert Duran, Ralph Humphrey, Barry Le Va, Brice Marden, Paul Mogensen, David Novros, Deborah Remington, Dorothea Rockburne, Alan Saret, Richard Van Buren and Joe Zucker. David Nolan Gallery currently occupies the same building as the indelible Bykert Gallery once did, where the spirit of an artist-centric, exhibition-forward space continues to guide the program. Klaus Kertess was born in New York City in 1940 and grew up in Westchester some 20 miles from the city with his parents and siblings. As a child to a German father, Kertess travelled widely in Europe during his youth and was exposed to 15th century Florentine painting as well as Bachs music played in a festival in Bavaria, which encouraged his creative pursuits, though Kertess never wanted to be an ... More |
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| Illusion institution: A Croatian museum goes global | | Horace D. Ballard appointed new Curator of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums | | Neglected creator of 'Bambi' celebrated in Vienna show | 
Museum creator Roko Zivkovic poses in Zagreb's Museum of Illusions on May 19, 2021, a museum inspired by a US science TV show called "Brain Games" that creators wanted as a place where visitors could be entertained while stimulating their grey cells, and now they have licensed franchises from New York to Kuala Lumpur. Denis LOVROVIC / AFP.
by Lajla Veselica
ZAGREB (AFP).- Seeing your own head on a platter or posing for a photo while walking on the ceiling -- absurd images served up by a Croatian museum that has gone global. "It's something different, it makes you use your brain but it's also fun," says Roko Zivkovic, who set up the original Museum of Illusions with one of his friends in Zagreb in 2015. Inspired by a US science TV show called "Brain Games", they wanted to create a place where visitors could be entertained while stimulating their grey cells -- and now they have licensed franchises from New York to Kuala Lumpur. The museum displays dozens of optical illusions, including the visitor favourites "Head on a Platter", the "Ames room", which ... More | | 
Ballard is currently curator of American art at the Williams College Museum of Art. Photo: Jeneene Chatowsky.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.- Martha Tedeschi, the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums, announced today the appointment of Horace D. Ballard as the new Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. Associate Curator of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums, effective September 1, 2021. Ballard is currently curator of American art at the Williams College Museum of Art, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was previously assistant curator from 2017 to 2019. He is also affiliate faculty of the joint graduate program in the history of art at Williams College and the nearby Clark Art Institute. Ballard is known to the Williamstown community as an innovative curator and dedicated mentor. He specializes in the art and visual cultures of the United States as well as 17th- and 18th-century art of the British, Portuguese, and Spanish colonies in the Americas. His research interests include 18th- and 19th-century portraiture of the Atlantic World, the ... More | | 
Ursula Storch, curator of the exhibition 'Beyond Bambi - Felix Salten and the Discovery of Viennese Modernism' at the Wien Museum is pictured in Vienna on March 23, 2021. JOE KLAMAR / AFP.
by Anne Beade
VIENNA (AFP).- While the 1942 Disney film "Bambi" is world famous as a classic of animated cinema, the man behind the story -- an eminent writer in pre-war Vienna who had to flee the Nazis -- is little known. Felix Salten was a product of the cultural blossoming in the capital of the then Austro-Hungarian empire around the turn of the 20th Century. As a Vienna exhibition which shines a spotlight on the neglected creator shows, he was a prolific writer who moved in the same circles as the likes of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Salten wrote the iconic and poignant tale of the fawn bereaved of his mother by hunters in 1922 under the title "Bambi: A Life In The Woods". On its publication the following year, it did not enjoy immediate success among the reading public. However, in the 1930s, Salten ... More |
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| Keith Haring's 'Untitled' to be offered with option of paying final purchase price in cryptocurrency | | Stuart Silver, designer of museum blockbusters, dies at 84 | | Tanya Bonakdar Gallery presents a series of wall-based works by Lisa Williamson | 
Keith Haring (1958-1990), Untitled (detail). Acrylic on canvas, in four parts. Overall: 120 x 120in. (304.8 x 304.8cm.) Executed in April 1984. Estimate: £3,900,000-4,500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
LONDON.- Christies will be the first major auction house in Europe to offer a work with the option for the buyer to pay the final purchase price, including Buyers Premium, in cryptocurrency. The sale of Keith Harings Untitled (1984, estimate: £3,900,000-4,500,000) will also mark the first time that a tangible work of art is being offered in Europe by an auction house with the option to pay in cryptocurrency. Originally owned by the celebrated German gallerist Paul Maenz, who unveiled the work in Cologne shortly after its creation, Untitled prophesises the dawn of a new era. Dating from 1984, the year that the first Apple Macintosh was released, it stands among the earliest painterly depictions of a computer, heralding the birth of the digital age. Katharine Arnold, Co-Head, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christies Europe: Christies has been pioneering the sale of digital artworks and use of cryptocurrenci ... More | | 
Stuart Silver, in New York, Jan. 16, 1983, as he prepared for "The Art of the Popes," a sprawling exhibition of Vatican art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Angel Franco/The New York Times.
by Alex Traub
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Stuart Silver, who as the inventive design director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1960s and 70s turned the presentation of art into a gasp-inducing genre of theater, giving the staid institution mass appeal and inspiring widespread changes in the style and spirit of museum exhibitions, died May 6 in Manhattan. He was 84. The cause was complications of bone marrow cancer, his daughter Leslie Silver said. Silvers self-described theatrical techniques and the philosophy they suggested that a museum was a place of pleasure, that a spectacle could also be enrichment, as he put it were characteristic of a whole era at the Met. The driving force and chief evangelist behind the new approach was Thomas Hoving, who in 1967 became the seventh director of the museum ... More | | 
Lisa Williamson, Primo, 2021. Flashe and microbeads on primed aluminum, 38 x 20 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is presenting Lisa Williamson, Amplifier, on view at the Los Angeles gallery from June 5 through July 17, 2021. This is the artists first solo exhibition with the gallery. For the last decade, Lisa Williamson has investigated the formal considerations of sculpture to create works that are visually precise, physically resonant, and attuned to the spaces in which they are exhibited. The artists practice follows a logic that is associative by nature; compressing internal experience into forms that are at once tangible and resistant. Regarding precision as an expressive gesture and calibration as a mode of production, the artists expansive approach to color and meticulous attention to surface softens the line between abstraction and figuration, painting and sculpture, language and object. For this exhibition, Williamson brings together a series of wall-based works that compress ... More |
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Cy Twombly's Heroic Masterpiece
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 Artsy sells Julie Mehretu work for US$6.5M - new auction recordNEW YORK, NY.- Artsy today announced that Julie Mehretus recently completed monumental painting titled Dissident Score (201921) sold for US$6.5 million*far in excess of its pre-sale high estimate of US$4 million (estimate: US$34 million)setting a new record for the artist at auction. All proceeds from the sale will benefit the Art for Justice Fund and directly support artists, advocates, and organizations working to end mass incarceration. Dissident Score saw competition from six active bidders hailing from Asia, Europe, and North America, and finally sold to a private collector for $6.5 millionfar exceeding the artists prior auction record. The price achieved also represents the highest-value artwork ever sold on Artsy and achieved a new record total for an auction staged on the marketplace. Commenting on this extraordinary sale, Dustyn ... More  Signed, sealed, delivered, they're yours: An X-Men auction for the ages storms Heritage AuctionsDALLAS, TX.- This just might be the best X-Men auction ever, bub.On June 26, Heritage Auctions will hold the CGC Registry Signature X-Men Collection Showcase event, which features among its offerings the most complete run of high-grade X-Men comics ever made available. These are the uncanny books from the AnastasiasCollect CGC Registry Set, which sits at No. 2 on CGCs list of complete X-Men runs spanning 1963s landmark debut through No. 544, the final issue published 48 years later. Befitting a book about the worlds most famous mutants, that also includes all the variants published during that historic run. At the very top of that tall pile is no less than an X-Men No. 1 graded CGC 9.0 and signed by Stan Lee himself the highest-graded Signature Series copy of this historic book ever offered for public sale. Here, too, is the highest-graded ... More  Exhibition expands understanding of Impressionism's development in United StatesSAN ANTONIO, TX.- The San Antonio Museum of Art opened Americas Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, an exhibition that explores the development of Impressionism in the United States. While Impressionism made its public debut in Paris with a shocking exhibition in 1874, the style did not fully take hold in America until more than a decade later, after a major exhibition of French works in New York in 1886. With this belated arrival, American Impressionism might be understood merely as the adaptation of techniques and visual vocabularies honed by French masters. Through more than 60 works assembled from public and private collections, Americas Impressionism redefines our understanding of the movement to show how American artists drew upon transatlantic exchange to create an independent movement, uniquely shaped ... More  Chester Beatty explores how woodblock prints shaped fashion, fame and identity in TokyoDUBLIN.- Edo in Colour explores how woodblock prints shaped fashion, fame and identity in the city now known as Tokyo. From pictures of actors and beauties to masterpieces by Hokusai and Hiroshige, these prints were once as affordable as they are aesthetically refineda driving force within the popular culture of this vibrant metropolis. Featuring more than one hundred prints and printed books from Japans Edo period (c. 16031868), the exhibition is being shown in two parts with more to explore online and in the accompanying catalogue. By the mid-18th century, the population of Edo (modern Tokyo) had grown to over one million. It was, it is thought, the most populous city in the world. Compared to its peers domestically and internationally, it was also a very young city, having been created as powerbase of the Tokugawa shōguns, Japans ... More  Submerged in Van Gogh: Would absinthe make the art grow fonder?NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Babies dont develop stereoscopic vision for the first few months of their life; they have a hard time perceiving depth and dimensions, and therefore gravitate to swirling shapes and bright colors. They and others with similar taste will find great pleasure in our cultures latest virally transmitted spectacles, which distill fin-de-siècle French painting into an amusement as captivating as a nursery mobile. Vincent van Gogh, his corpse moldering in Auvers-sur-Oise and his paintings out of copyright, has these past few years been dragooned into a new sort of immersive exhibition that reproduces his churning paintings of Provence as wall-filling animated projections you may have seen them on Instagram, or on a Netflix indignity called Emily in Paris. The Franco-Dutch artist has always been a huge box-office draw (the ... More  Greek 'neo-muralist' draws on mythology to depict pandemicNICOSIA (AFP).- An Athenian "neo-muralist" is blending Greek mythology and Byzantine iconography with graffiti and street art to depict how the coronavirus has forced people the world over to put down roots. From Bangkok to Rabat and Zurich, Fikos has painted the walls of many cities, but he's now adding a splash of colour to the sun-beaten facades of the Cypriot capital Nicosia. "Here in Cyprus there are not many murals yet," he says. "It's the beginning phase of the street art scene in Cyprus, so... they are impressed and kind of awed when they see this happening." The 33-year-old spends time wandering the narrow back alleys of Nicosia's Old City in search of walls to use as a canvas. The one he chose for his latest project is the cracked veneer of a crumbling mud-brick house in an abandoned, dusty lot near the UN-patrolled buffer zone that ... More  La Râverie: The Collection of Sydell Miller totals $46,593,000 at Christie's New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- The June 10 sale of Design and 18th Century furniture from La Rêverie: The Collection of Sydell Miller totaled $17,956,500 and was 91% sold by lot and 98% sold by value, with 220% hammer sold above total low estimate. Bidders participated from 28 countries and 56% of lots sold above their high estimates. During Christies May marquee sales, fine art from Sydell Millers collection totaled $28,636,500, led by works from Barbara Hepworth, which set a new auction record for the artist, and Joan Mitchell, bringing the collection total to $46,593,000. Leading the June 10 sale was François-Xavier Lalannes Troupeau d'Ãléphants dans les Arbres Table, 2001, depicting an elephant herd gathering under the branching shelter of an octagonal center table, which sold for $6,630,000 above the estimate of $1,000,000-1,500,000, after a prolonged ... More  Rayyane Tabet's first US museum commission opens at the WalkerMINNEAPOLIS, MN.- Trained as both an architect and a sculptor, artist Rayyane Tabet (b. 1983, Ashqout, Lebanon; lives and works in Beirut and San Francisco) investigates peculiarities of the built environment through multifaceted installations that play with the perception of physical and temporal distance. Weaving together personal stories with official accounts, Tabets works often provide another lens with which to view the past as well as its unexpected connections to the present. For his first commission at a US museum, Tabet has created a new installation focused on the intersections of architecture, design, and technology. His research began with a site visit to the former IBM facility in Rochester, Minnesota. Designed in the 1950s by architect Eero Saarinen, the building was emblematic at the time of the midcentury shift from industrial to ... More  Lily D. Snyder appointed as Colnaghi's Managing Director of Modern and Contemporary Art in North AmericaNEW YORK, NY.- Colnaghi announced today that Lily D. Snyder has been appointed Managing Director of Modern and Contemporary Art in North America. In this newly created position, Snyder will advance the gallerys commitment to endorsing and supporting connoisseurship across all categories of collecting, from Antiquities to Old Masters to Contemporary Art. Snyder comes to Colnaghi after 12 years at Sotheby s, where she served most recently as Vice President for Business Development, Global Fine Arts, advising an international portfolio of private clients on appraisals, consignments, purchases through auction and private sale, and long-term collection planning. Her appointment, effective immediately, concludes ... More  1884 Winchester cartridge display board rings up $100,300 in Miller & Miller auctionNEW HAMBURG.- Three 19th century American cartridge display boards two from Winchester (1887 and 1884) and one from Union Metallic Cartridge (1880s) sold for a combined $241,900 in an online-only Canadiana & Sporting auction held June 5th by Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. The sale grossed $496,219, including the buyers premium. All prices quoted in this report are in Canadian dollars. The abovementioned cartridge display boards were the top lots of the auction. All three were lithographed cardboard, with an applied representation of Winchesters line of ammunition. Few survived intact due to their monumental size and the fact they were often displayed in store windows and areas exposed to light. They are highly prized by collectors. The Winchester 1884 cartridge display board was the top lot of the auction overall, breezing ... More  RYAN LEE announces representation of Camille Billops and "Friends and Agitators" exhibitionNEW YORK, NY.- RYAN LEE announced Friends and Agitators: Emma Amos, Camille Billops, Vivian Browne and May Stevens, 1965 - 1993, an exhibition that traces the personal and professional intersections of four celebrated New York artists and activists: Emma Amos (1937-2020), Camille Billops (1933-2019), Vivian Browne (1929-1993), and May Stevens (1924-2019). The show includes work produced between 1965when the artists began to establish a Soho sceneand Brownes death in 1993. Several works have never before been exhibited in New York. Though the artistsall of whom are represented by RYAN LEEworked across a range of styles and media, they shared a staunch activist spirit that shaped their careers and their legacies. In 1965 Emma Amos was the youngest and only female member of the influential Black artist ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
JR: Chronicles 
WOOD WORKS: Raw, Cut, Carved, Covered 
Stop Painting 
Agostino Bonalumi
Flashback On a day like today, Austrian painter Egon Schiele was born June 12, 1890. Egon Schiele (12 June 1890 - 31 October 1918) was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and the many self-portraits the artist produced, including naked self-portraits. In this image: Egon Schiele, Häuser mit bunter Wäsche,"Vorstadt" II, 1914. Estimate: £22-30 million/ $36-50 million. Photo: Sotheby's.
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