| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Saturday, June 19, 2021 |
| | | Why did the cave art vanish? Erased by this furry creature and its feces. | |
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A photo provided by Serge Caillault shows a nearly complete skeleton of a cave bear on the floor inside the Azé caves in eastern France. Bats roosting in caves produce ample guano, which may explain why prehistoric marks left by humans cannot be found in some places where they are expected. Serge Caillault via The New York Times.
by Michael Price
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Hunting scenes, geometric patterns, hand stencils and other works of prehistoric art can endure for tens of thousands of years on the walls of well-protected caves but only if bats do not hang out in the galleries. These flying mammals are simply looking for a safe place to roost, but they also become furry philistines that erase ancient paintings and other cave wall markings within a few decades because of the corrosive property of their feces, or guano, according to research by a team of geologists and archaeologists published in May in the journal Geomorphology. In Jamaicas Green Grotto caves in the early 2000s, two scientists, Joyce Lundberg and Don McFarlane, showed that roosting colonies of bats create their own microclimates that can gradually erode a tropical caves limestone. Over the following decades, more research pinned down the destructive details. Studies have shown how large masses of bats generate heat and humidity within a caves closed confines ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The inaugural Helsinki Biennial opened to the public on 12 June, the cityâs annual celebratory âHelsinki Dayâ. Running over the summer until 26 September 2021, the biennial brings contemporary art to the former military island of Vallisaari in the Helsinki archipelago, as well as further artworks on the cityâs mainland. Titled The Same Sea, the biennial presents 41 artists and artist groups from Finland and across the globe, showcasing 75% new commissions and site-specific installations which engage with the cultural history, geopolitical location, and diverse environment of Vallisaari.
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| David Bowie painting from donation bin up for auction | | A small Brazilian photo club that reached for the skyline | | Moderna Museet opens an exhibition featuring art and photography from around 1900 |
The 24 by 20 centimeter painting of a pale figure dressed in teal clothes, with teal and red hair on a crimson background, was originally sold through a website around 2001. Photo: Courtesy Cowley Abbott.
MONTREAL (AFP).- A painting by British pop icon David Bowie recently discovered at a Canadian store that resells donated goods had frantic bidders lining up Tuesday for a chance to own it. The computer and acrylic collage on canvas is part of the so-called D Head series of portraits of the Ziggy Stardust rocker himself, his friends and others that he painted between 1995 and 1997. It is signed on the back with his initials. Opening bids of more than Can$15,000 (US$14,000) blew past Toronto auction house Cowley Abbot's estimated Can$9,000 to Can$12,000 valuation of the diminutive artwork. The online auction closes on June 24. "We were very excited to discover that the artwork was original and authentic," auctioneer Rob Cowley told AFP. "We are fans of David Bowie's work and it is very exciting to bring an artwork by him to the market." ... More | |
Thomaz Farkas. Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação) [Rio de Janeiro]. c. 1945. Gelatin silver print, 12 13/16 à 11 3/4 in. (32.6 à 29.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Europe was exhausted after World War II, and Brazil was ready to pick up the slack. Dozens of artists had left Europe fleeing fascism, and Brazils government was ready to support ambitious cultural undertakings, reflected in museums devoted to modern art and the inauguration of the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1951. This enthusiasm for modern art and new technological forms such as photography can be felt even in amateur clubs such as Foto-Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB), founded in 1939 in Sao Paulo. A trailblazer in the avant-garde art scene but little known outside the country, the group takes center stage in the show Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography, 1946-1964 at the Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition of more than 60 photographs, paintings and ... More | |
Henry B. Goodwin, Lady Barclay, 1921.
STOCKHOLM.- Moderna Museet highlights pictorialism a movement in photography that arose around 1900. The exhibition In Lady Barclays Salon Art and Photography Around 1900 also includes paintings from the same period, treating visitors to a selection of nearly 300 works from the collections of Moderna Museet and Nationalmuseum. Lady Sarita Enriqueta Barclay (18911985) became a prominent figure on the Stockholm arts scene after her husband, a British diplomat, had been posted to Stockholm. Lady Barclay frequently hosted cultural gatherings and events in the five years following the end of the First World War when she lived here. The photographer Henry B. Goodwin (18781931) portrayed Lady Barclay on several occasions, and his pictures show her as a stylish woman with a cosmopolitan air an emblem of Swedens flourishing arts scene at the time. In the years around 1900, a number of colourful ... More |
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| Exhibition celebrates Chicago's pivotal role as a national and innovative center for comics and cartooning | | The 'divas' who serenaded and seduced the Arab World | | Moderne Gallery celebrates Paul Hammer-Hultberg enamel works in summer exhibition |
Nick Drnaso, Painting for Sabrina Cover, 2017. Image courtesy of the artist.
CHICAGO, IL.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago opened the highly anticipated summer exhibition Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now, a celebration of Chicagos pivotal role as a national and innovative center for comics and cartooning. With a focus on rediscovering the work of women and BIPOC comic artists, this major exhibition presents the last 60 years of the citys artful cartooning history, showing how comic art is a democratic medium that allows artists to speak directly to people in relatable ways. Over 40 cartoonists, among them Lynda Barry, Lilli Carré, Daniel Clowes, Nick Drnaso, Edie Fake, Emil Ferris, Nicole Hollander, Charles Johnson, Kerry James Marshall, and Chris Ware, among many others are represented by comics, graphic novels, zines, original drawings, dioramas, commissioned films, installations, rare ephemera, and books. On view from June 19 to October 3, 2021, Chicago ... More | |
A provided image shows costumes worn by the singer Sabah in the 1970s, on display at the Arab World Institute in Paris, April 5, 2021. Alice Sidoli via The New York Times.
by Farah Nayeri
PARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The diva sings of love and unmitigated lust. Dressed in a scarlet evening gown with her hair pulled high, she cries out to her beloved, longs for a night of undying passion and yearns for the sun not to rise. The vocalist in the 1969 concert video is Umm Kulthum: the Arab worlds greatest 20th-century performer, possibly the best-known Egyptian woman since Cleopatra and star of the exhibition Divas at the Institut du Monde Arabe, or Arab World Institute, in Paris. The show, which runs through Sept. 26, is a richly illustrated flashback to the period between the 1920s and the 1970s. It portrays unveiled and openly voluptuous women performing on stage and screen without fear of censorship or religious condemnation, ... More | |
Paul Hammer-Hultberg, Untitled 35, 1960s.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Philadelphias Moderne Gallery has opened an exhibition that celebrates the legacy of Paul Hultberg, the first large-scale exhibition of work by this multi-disciplinary artist since his death in 2019. While he may be a lesser-known figure of The Studio Craft movement, in recent years Hultberg has been attracting acclaim as one of the most progressive artists working in enamel in the mid-twentieth century. While he originally trained as a painter, Hultberg began experimenting with enamels in the 1950s, eventually developing his own abstract style that paralleled what many of his peers were doing with paint and canvas in this period. Over the following decades, Hultberg mastered his techniques and became renowned for his large-scale architectural and public works. Rediscovering Paul Hultberg (1926-2019): Abstract Expressionism in Enamel showcases the full breadth of the artists storied legacy showing both his pionee ... More |
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| Colby Museum of Art presents unique collection of Cassatt prints | | Christie's to offer the collection of Annie Bernheim-Dalsace and Jean Dalsace | | Marilyn Monroe and celebrities signed JFK birthday program sold for $29,232 at auction |
Mary Cassatt, Peasant Mother and Child, c. 1894. Drypoint and aquatint on paper. Tenth (final) state. 171/4 x 111/4 in. (43.8 x 28.6 cm). The Lunder Collection, 2017.468.
WATERVILLE, ME.- The Colby College Museum of Art, one of the nations leading college museums, announced that it is presenting Inside Out: The Prints of Mary Cassatt. On view through November 1, 2021, the exhibit highlights Cassatts creative process and her fearless experimentation. In 2012, Peter and Paula Lunder made an exceptional gift to the Colby Museum with the acquisition of forty-four prints by Cassatt. This extraordinary group of works included a selection of rare trial proofs that document her first forays into printmaking. Cassatts trial proofs and early-state impressions reveal her step-by-step process. As viewers look at them theyll see her learning and taking risks, fearlessly innovating and experimenting, and in doing so creating some of her most intimate and captivating works of art. The experimental ... More | |
Annie and Jean Dalsace © Dalsace-Vellay Archives.
PARIS.- On October 7th, Christie's Paris will be presenting the extraordinary collection of Annie Bernheim-Dalsace and Jean Dalsace at auction. In 1918, Annie and Jean Dalsace commissioned Pierre Chareau to design his first major project, thus marking the beginning of his career: the furnishings for their flat on Boulevard Saint-Germain, including the office of the young doctor who was then Jean Dalsace. Their collection was to grow steadily over the years and was completed by numerous other creations for the various properties of the Bernheim-Dalsace family. It is a close friendship, a true intellectual and emotional affinity, an unwavering trust that links the Bernheim-Dalsace family and Dollie and Pierre Chareau. The two couples frequented the same artistic, literary, musical and intellectual avant-garde milieu. They supported their artist friends with enthusiasm and loyalty, remaining engaged in all avant-garde enterprises. They lived ... More | |
Marilyn Monroe and Celebrities Signed JFK Birthday Program.
BOSTON, MASS.- An original program for President John F. Kennedy's famous birthday celebration held at Madison Square Garden sold for $29,232, according to Boston-based RR Auction. The two-page program for the event on May 19, 1962, titled 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President,' was signed on the cover by Marilyn Monroe along with a dozen other autograph's from celebrities in attendance. The signatures on this program were obtained by Frank Lauer, who went to the event as the 'camera bag-carrier' for a friend who freelanced for the New Brunswick newspaper The Home News. Issued a press pass, Lauer had free rein of Madison Square Garden and its backstage/basement. He was struck by the lack of securitythe president walked right past him, the celebrity guests were milling about, and he was able to stand there in the hallway, with program in hand, and have all these attendees to sign it. He is also ... More |
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| For a composer, the final minutes are critical | | Prices soar at Doyle's Important Jewelry Auction as sale total doubles expectations | | Christie's announces 'The B.J. Eastwood Collection: Important Sporting and Irish Pictures ' |
The composer Christopher Cerrone at his apartment in Brooklyn, June 13, 2021. Flowering into lushly affecting patterns, Cerrones new album is part of a burst of activity over the past year. Lila Barth/The New York Times.
by Seth Colter Walls
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Christopher Cerrones career got a huge boost right at its beginning: His opera Invisible Cities, inspired by Italo Calvinos novel, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2014, when he was barely in his 30s. But despite its lucid grace and a compelling production it was performed in a bustling train station for a wandering audience listening over headphones I found myself wanting to love its unhurried nimbuses of melody more than I did. The operas drifting quality ended up feeling too shapeless. In a recent interview, Cerrone, 37, agreed that Invisible Cities suffered a bit from an overreliance on what he called this lyrical, sort-of-melancholy thing. Honestly, ... More | |
Kashmir Royal Blue Sapphire, 5.12 carats, set in a Belle Ãpoque diamond brooch. Sold for $409,500.
NEW YORK, NY.- Prices soared at Doyle's June 17 auction of Important Jewelry reflecting the current robust market and Doyle's ability to achieve exceptional prices. Bidders from around the globe vied for luxurious jewelry from prominent collections and distinguished estates across the country. Among the dazzling offerings were jewels by the worlds most prestigious makers, including Graff, Cartier, Harry Winston, David Webb, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co. With a pre-sale estimate of $2,063,600-3,083,400, the stunning sale total of $4,848,165 surpassed the low estimate by 135% with an exceptional 93% sold by lot and 100% sold by value. Highlighting the sale was a rare and important Classic Burma Ruby of approx. 3.90 carats graded in the rarest and most desirable Pigeon Blood color. The stone was set in a circa 1920 ring next to a diamond of approx. 2.65 carats, F color, VS1 clarity. Determined bidders sent the ruby s ... More | |
Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A. (1871-1957), Among Horses (detail), painted in 1947. Estimate £400,000-600,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
LONDON.- Christies announced the sale of The B.J. Eastwood Collection: Important Sporting and Irish Pictures, taking place live on 9 July 2021 at Christies London, during the marquee series of sales comprising Classic Week (18 June15 July). The B.J. Eastwood Collection sale, which comprises 30 lots, represents B.J. Eastwoods deep interest in equestrian painting and Irish Art. Works range from 19th century sporting pictures through to defining representations of Munnings oeuvre, to an extraordinary group of Yeats illustrating key periods of his work. Other leading examples of Irish Art are included in the sale, with works by Walter Frederick Osborne, Sir William Orpen, Roderic OConor, Paul Henry, Sir John Lavery, and Gerard Dillon. Barney Eastwood, known to his friends and family as BJ, was born in Northern Ireland in 1932, and his dedication to sport began ... More |
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Damien Hirst's Seminal Spot & Spin Paintings
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Unlikely heroes set world records during $5.9 million kick-off of Heritage Auctions' Comics & Comic Art event
DALLAS, TX.- Superman and Batman might have overpowered the first session of Heritage Auctions' three-day Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, with their respective debuts realizing a combined $1.653 million. But the duo known as the World's Finest weren't the only heroes flying high during Thursday's spectacular kick-off, which realized a total of $5.89 million in just one hour. In fact, two world records were set Thursday by some unlikely names. One of the breakout stars of the auction was "the most supernatural superhero of all," the soul-swapping, motorcycle-riding, skull-blazing Ghost Rider. His debut in 1972's Marvel Spotlight No. 5 became by far the most expensive comic book of the 1970s when it sold for ... More
Hit hard by pandemic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center to merge
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The pandemic forced many American arts organizations to resort to mass layoffs and deep pay cuts as ticket sales vanished for more than a year. Now one of the nations most prominent ensembles, the Philadelphia Orchestra, is trying another tack as it seeks to recover from the crisis: It announced plans Thursday to merge with its landlord, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. We knew we needed a big move, said MatÃas Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the orchestra, who is set to lead the new organization, which will be called the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Center Inc. The only way forward is collaboration. Facing severe shortfalls, cultural groups across the country are looking for ways to streamline operations and establish new sources of revenue. American orchestras, including ... More
Five pioneering Black ballerinas: 'We have to have a voice'
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Last May, adrift in a suddenly untethered world, five former ballerinas came together to form the 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy. Every Tuesday afternoon, they logged onto Zoom from around the country to remember their time together performing with Dance Theater of Harlem, feeling that magical turn in early audiences from skepticism to awe. Life as a pioneer, life in a pandemic: They have been friends for over half a century, and have held each other up through far harder times than this last disorienting year. When people reached for all manners of comfort, something to give purpose or a shape to the days, these five women turned to their shared past. In their cozy, rambling weekly Zoom meetings, punctuated by peals of laughter and occasional tears, they revisited the fabulousness of their former ... More
Hudson River Museum opens summer 2021 exhibitions
YONKERS, NY.- Hudson River Museum announces four summer exhibitions that share the impact of quiltmaking, painting, and drawing. With a nod to the power of craftsmanship, visitors are welcomed to explore a selection of fine quilts from the American Folk Art Museum, along with notable textiles with significant community history from the HRMs collection. The Museum will debut a compelling new series of celestial works by artist Richard Haas, as well as imaginative and colorful landscape paintings by California-based, Yonkers-born artist Jack Stuppin, which will transport visitors through mountains and vibrant vistas of our Hudson Valley this summer. All of these exhibitions are about experimentation; our visitors will experience the impact of compositions in color, pattern, geometry, and intersections. The artists are connecting with something ... More
Janet Malcolm, provocative journalist with a piercing eye, dies at 86
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Janet Malcolm, a longtime writer for The New Yorker who was known for her piercing judgments, her novel-like nonfiction and a provocative moral certainty that cast a cold eye on journalism and its practitioners, died Wednesday in a hospital in Manhattan. She was 86. The cause was lung cancer, said her daughter, Anne. Over a 55-year career, Malcolm produced an avalanche of deeply reported, exquisitely crafted articles, essays and books, most of which were devoted to her special interests in literature, biography, photography, psychoanalysis and true crime. Her writing was precise and analytical; her unflinching gaze missed nothing. Dont ever eat in front of Janet Malcolm; or show her your apartment; or cut tomatoes while she watches, critic Robert Boynton warned in 1992. In fact, it probably isnt a good ... More
London's Notting Hill Carnival scrapped again due to Covid
LONDON (AFP).- One of the world's largest street festivals, the Notting Hill Carnival in west London, has been cancelled for the second year running because of the coronavirus pandemic, organisers said on Friday. The three-day celebration of British-Caribbean culture traces its roots back the 1950s and had been due to take place again in late August after being shelved last year. But Notting Hill Carnival Ltd said this year's event "will not be on the streets due to the ongoing uncertainty and risk Covid-19 poses". "This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make," it added in a statement. "Everyone involved in the event desperately wants a return to the road where Carnival belongs but safety has to come first and with the latest cautious announcement on the government's 'roadmap', this is the only way to ensure that." ... More
Tasmanian artist Sally Rees opens exhibition at Mona Museum of Old and New Art
HOBART.- Unruly, wise, fearsome: Mona presents CRONE, by Tasmanian artist Sally Rees. This new exhibition challenges the perceived invisibility of older women in society, through the folkloric character of the crone. CRONE features a series of videos that have been transformed using hand-painted animation. This includes 17 video portraits of the artists crones placed throughout the gallery, whose bird-like calls create a fearless chorus, and a large, double-sided projection showing video portraits of the artist in full crone attireone alone and one with her mother. Another work documents her transformation to the crone on the sunrise of her fiftieth birthday. Visitors enter the exhibition by passing through dual works which act as gateways. Sally Rees says: As I have found myself hurtling towards my fifties, and entering a demographic that is increasingly encountering social ... More
Sapar Contemporary opens an exhibition of new works on canvas by Jorge Otero-Pailos
NEW YORK, NY.- Sapar Contemporary is presenting Distributed Monuments by Jorge Otero-Pailos, the new works on canvas presenting dust extracted from two historic sites: the Old U.S. Mint in San Francisco and the Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York. Like two sides of a coin, they show distinctive yet interconnected remains of America's Gilded Age. The casts from the Old U.S. Mint capture a century and a half of soot accumulated on the chimneys used to mint coins from the California Gold Rush, the pollution from which has remained an otherwise invisible material. The casts from the Lyndhurst Mansion present a century of water damage that turned the pool building of the estate, once a playground for one of Americas richest families, into a ruin. Otero-Pailos draws from his formal training in architecture and preservation to create artworks ... More
Great Marsh offers inspiration for special exhibition of works by Brad Story and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly
GLOUCESTER, MASS.- Drawing inspiration from the vast Great Marsh, Essex sculptor Brad Story and Ipswich photographer Dorothy Kerper Monnelly showcases works in a special exhibition at the Janet & William Ellery James Center at Cape Ann Museum Green from June 18 to July 30. Each artist has been inspired by the natural beauty of the surroundings on the North Shore and in particular The Great Marsh which extends from Cape Ann up to the New Hampshire border. The sculptures and photographs by each artist are particularly striking as they reflect the genuine beauty of our local landscape, said Cape Ann Museum Director Oliver Barker. As we celebrate the opening of our new CAM Green campus, they are well suited as our featured artists in this setting, melding historic buildings, contemporary art, and bucolic pastures. Both ... More
Janet Scudder and Emily Mason headline Shannon's Summer Online Auction
MILFORD, CONN.- Online bidding for Shannons summer online auction is open now through Thursday, June 24th at 2 pm Eastern time for 212 lots of fine art from the 19th century through the present. Leading the sale are two bronzes by Janet Scudder (American, 1873-1940), titled Cupid and Tortoise Fountain and Victory, each estimated at $15,000-$25,000. Scudder succeeded during her lifetime as a sculptor in a field that was dominated by men. She was a feminist and a suffragette, often marching in parades and demonstrations to support womens issues. Headlining the contemporary offerings are two paintings by Emily Mason (American, 1932-2019). Mason worked in the Abstract Expressionist and Color Field traditions to develop her own lyrical, luminous abstraction (emilymasonstudio.com). A New York City native, Mason taught painting ... More
Washington society steps back out
WASHINGTON (AFP).- Something surreal was happening on the Potomac one recent night. A big white tent erected outside the Kennedy Center seemed to be a portal back in time. Underneath it, young men clamored to have their picture taken with Paul Ryan. White House aides worked a tuxedoed crowd. Ballerinas twirled before a Supreme Court justice and a glut of foreign dignitaries. No one talked about tweets, FBI investigations or impeachments. There was hardly a mask in sight. It was as if this last year of COVID-19, barbed wire and insurrection had simply been one bad trip. Had Proud Boys really marched in the streets? Had St. Johns Church been torched? Had the seat of government actually been set upon by a horned rabble? Yes, it had, and now the nations capital would like to spit out the taste of tear gas and pick up a Champagne ... More
Major exhibition about influential teacher-painter Frank Vincent Dumond opens at Lyman Allyn Art Museum
NEW LONDON, CONN.- The Lyman Allyn Art Museum announced the opening of a major new exhibition on June 19 highlighting the art and teaching legacy of Frank Vincent DuMond (1865-1951). The first exhibition in twenty years to focus on DuMond, The Prismatic Palette: Frank Vincent DuMond and His Students explores the artists career in depth, with nearly 60 works of art drawn from private and public collections. The exhibition will be on view through Oct. 3. A key figure in American art and art education, DuMond is known for his lush green landscapes and for the important role he played in the Lyme Art Colony in the early 20th century. He taught at the Art Students League of New York for 59 years, instructing multiple generations of artists, including such notable figures as John Marin, Georgia OKeeffe, and Norman Rockwell. The ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Richard Estes
JR: Chronicles
WOOD WORKS: Raw, Cut, Carved, Covered
Stop Painting
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Lee Krasner died June 19, 1984. Lenore "Lee" Krasner (October 27, 1908 - June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter in the second half of the 20th century. She is one of the few female artists to have had a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art. In this image: Installation view. Photo by: Diego Flores / Paul Kasmin Gallery. 169; 2017 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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