| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Saturday, May 18, 2019 |
| | | Germany to return 15th-century seafarer Cross to Namibia | |
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Namibia's Ambassador to Germany, Andreas Guibeb poses next to a Stone Cross, a key 15th-century navigation landmark erected by Portuguese explorers, on May 17, 2019 during a press conference in Berlin during which the History Museum in Berlin announced it would restitute the cross to Namibia. Placed in 1486 on the western coast of what is today Namibia, the Stone Cross was once considered to be such an important navigation marker that it featured on old world maps. In the 1890s, it was removed from its spot on Cape Cross and brought to Europe by the region's then German colonial masters. Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP.
by Hui Min Neo
BERLIN (AFP).- A German museum said Friday it would return to Namibia a 15th-century navigation landmark erected by Portuguese explorers as part of Berlin's efforts to face up to its colonial past. "The restitution of the Stone Cross of Cape Cross is a clear signal that we are committed to coming to terms with our colonial past," said Culture Minister Monika Gruetters. "For too many decades, the colonial time has been a blind spot in our remembrance culture." Placed in 1486 on the western coast of what is today Namibia, the Stone Cross was once considered to be such an important navigation marker that it featured on old world maps. In the 1890s, it was removed from its spot on Cape Cross and brought to Europe by the region's then German colonial masters. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day In this file photo taken on April 9, 2009 people look at "Xenon for Paris" a work by US conceptual artist Jenny Holzer projected on the Louvre museum's pyramid, designed by architect I.M. Pei., as well as the LouvreÂs facade in Paris. I.M. Pei, the preeminent US architect who forged a distinct brand of modern building design with his sharp lines and stark structures, has died, The New York Times said on May 16, 2019. He was 102 years old. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
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| | | Smithsonian's Freer│Sackler explores chapters of James McNeill Whistler's life in two exhibitions | | The Warhol opens Kim Gordon's the first solo, North American museum exhibition | | Hirshhorn opens interactive exhibition by Rirkrit Tiravanija |
James McNeill Whistler (18341903), St. Ives: Cornwall, 188384. Watercolor on paper. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, Freer Gallery of Art, F1905.117
WASHINGTON, DC.- Charles Lang Freer first met James McNeill Whistler when he visited the artists London home in 1890 to inquire about collecting more of Whistlers artwork. This encounter spurred a historic and extraordinary friendship between the two mena friendship that not only inspired Freer to emerge as Whistlers foremost American champion, but also served as the catalyst for the creation of the Freer Gallery of Art. Whistler in Watercolor and The Peacock Room in Blue and White, like our museum today, narrate a story that is at once distinctly American and thoroughly global, said Chase F. Robinson, the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art. Through these exhibitions, visitors will experience a collectors journey. To sustain our commitment to exploring such journeys and to scholarship, conservation and ... More | |
Kim Gordon. Photo by David Black.
PITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum opened Kim Gordon: Lo-Fi Glamour, opening May 17, 2019. Kim Gordon: Lo-Fi Glamour marks the first solo, North American museum exhibition for Kim Gordon. A veteran of the avant-garde music scene and the co-founder of Sonic Youth, Gordon is hailed as a music icon. Her work as a visual artist, which has run parallel to her music career, has yet to be fully explored. This project encompasses two separate but integrated components: a survey exhibition of Gordons paintings, drawings and sculpture, and a commissioned score titled Sound for Andy Warhols Kiss for Warhols 196364 silent film KissWarhols hour-long silent film featuring fourteen couples: Naomi Levine, Pierre Restaney, Gerard Malanga, Jane Holzer, Philip van Rensselaer, Charlotte Gilbertson, John Palmer, Andrew Meyer, Mark Lancaster, Ed Sanders, Rufus Collins, Marisol, Harold Stevenson, Steven Holden and unidentified others ... More | |
Rirkrit Tiravanija in Whos Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Green?, 2010 at 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok. Image courtesy of 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is presenting the museums first-ever exhibition of works by contemporary Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Organized by Mark Beasley, the museums Robert and Arlene Kogod Secretarial Scholar, Curator of Media and Performance Art, the exhibition titled Rirkrit Tiravanija: Whos Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Green, transforms the Hirshhorns galleries into a communal dining space in which visitors are being served curry and invited to share a meal together. The installation includes a large-scale mural, drawn on the walls over the course of the exhibition, which references protests against Thai government policies. Additional historic images speak to protest and the present. The exhibition also includes a series of documentary shorts curated exclusively for the Hirshhorn by Thailands leading ... More |
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| | | More than 100 works from the most influential Spanish masters illustrate the global impact of Spain's Golden Age | | V&A goes 'one step beyond' celebrating 40 years of Madness with acquisition of the band's instruments and costumes | | 'Gone With the Wind' deluxe-bound shooting script presented to Leslie Howard up for auction |
Francisco de Zurbarán (Spain, 15981664), Saint Francis in Meditation, 163539. Oil on canvas, 59 7/8 x 39 in. (152 x 99 cm) National Gallery, London, Bought, 1853, NG230
SAN DIEGO, CA.- The San Diego Museum of Art presents the exhibition Art & Empire: The Golden Age of Spain, featuring more than 100 outstanding works by leading artists from Spain and its global territories during the pivotal years of around 1600 to 1750. On view May 18, 2019 through Sept. 2, 2019, the exhibition showcases a wide variety of exquisite paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts produced throughout the Spanish-speaking world. This exhibition is the first in the U.S. to examine the notion of Golden Age beyond the shores of the Iberian Peninsula by bringing together works from Spains European, American, and Asian realms. Art & Empire: The Golden Age of Spain showcases the broad scope of the Spanish empire and helps bring context to some of the international treasures within the Museums permanent collection, said Roxana Velásquez, Maruja Baldwin Executive ... More | |
A selection of newly-acquired objects celebrating the 40th anniversary of the band Madness in the V&As Theatre and Performance galleries. Eamonn McCormack, Getty Images for The V&A (5)
LONDON.- Today, the V&A announces that it has acquired a selection of objects charting the 40-year history of the band Madness. This includes a newspaper print suit worn in the music video for the 1986 single (Waiting for) The Ghost Train and on the cover for the bands greatest hits album Utter Madness, as well as a saxophone played by Lee Thompson at the London Olympics closing ceremony in 2012. A British band from humble beginnings in Londons Camden Town, the self-proclaimed Nutty Boys have achieved global success with 15 top-ten singles, 12 studio albums, a film and a musical. A British pop institution*, Madnesss diverse influences include ska, two-tone, East-end Music Hall songs and variety shows, resulting in a unique look and sound that gave birth to era-defining hits like Driving in My Car and Our House. Newly acquired objects include Lee Thompsons London ... More | |
The final shooting script for the classic 1939 Selznick International film Gone With the Wind, richly custom-bound in full maroon morocco by producer David O. Selznick and presented to actor Leslie Howard as a Christmas gift following the release of the movie.
BOSTON, MASS.- A deluxe-bound Gone With the Wind shooting script presented to Leslie Howard by David O. Selznick will be auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction. The final shooting script for the classic 1939 Selznick International film Gone With the Wind, richly custom-bound in full maroon morocco by producer David O. Selznick and presented to actor Leslie Howard as a Christmas gift following the release of the movie. The front cover and spine are beautifully gilt-stamped, "Gone With the Wind, Screen Play," with the recipient's name stamped at the bottom right of the front cover, "Leslie Howard." Perfectly signed and inscribed on the first free end page in fountain pen, "For Lesliewith the fond (but probably futile) hope that he'll finally read it! David S., Xmas, 1939." The volume totals 273 pages with gilt top edges, comprising ... More |
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| | | Mother's Aleppo film moves Cannes to tears | | Rare gems, minerals and meteorites offered at Bonhams Los Angeles | | The Chrysler Museum of Art announces three new Deputy Directors |
Syrian director and producer Waad al-Kateab poses during a photocall for the film "For Sama" at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 16, 2019. LOIC VENANCE / AFP.
CANNES (AFP).- With the thud of shells exploding all around them in the dark, a terrified young couple sneak past lines of Syrian troops back into besieged Aleppo, their six-month-old daughter Sama clutched in a sling. It is a key moment in Waad al-Kateab's powerful and intimate documentary "For Sama", a love letter to her infant daughter to explain what they lived through in that city of death and devastation just in case they didn't make it. The film, which charts five years of Kateab's life from student protester to wife and young mother, reduced much of the audience at the Cannes film festival to tears and brought the house to its feet in a minutes-long standing ovation. Kateab was just 20 when the pro-democracy protests began in Syria, prompting a bloody crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad that has killed 370,000 people and displaced millions. The northern ... More | |
Immense Pallasite Meteorite - Complete Specimen. Stony-Iron, Pallasite. Isolo, Kenya. Estimate: $300,000-400,000. Photo: Bonhams.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- From May 20 to 22, Bonhams announces a series of four auctions - The World of Gold, Opals and Other Phenomenal Gems on May 20, Lapidary Works of Art, Gemstones and Minerals on May 21, Natural History on May 22, as well as Designers' Resource: Gems, Beads, Minerals and Décor, an online sale from May 18-29. Bonhams sale of The World of Gold, Opals and Other Phenomenal Gems features 180 lots, which includes a spectacular Rare Double-sided Black Picture Opal-- "Bush Fire Over the Mountain" (estimate: $120,000-150,000); a Set of Cat's Eye Tourmalines (estimate: $90,000-120,000); a fine California Crystallized Gold-in-Quartz (estimate: $80,000-120,000); and a Historic Australian Black Opal--"The Glengarry Orchid", mined in 1972 (estimate: $80,000-120,000). The sale of Lapidary Works of Art, Gemstones and Minerals brings together over 250 lots highlighted by a Classic, Exceptional Large Spinel from Pamir ... More | |
Dana Fuqua, Deputy Director for Operations. Photo by Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer.
NORFOLK, VA.- The Chrysler Museum of Art announced the appointment of three deputy directors: Seth Feman, Ph.D, Deputy Director for Art & Interpretation and Curator of Photography; Colleen Higginbotham, Deputy Director for Visitor Experience; and Dana Fuqua, Deputy Director for Operations. The positions are new to the Chrysler Museum of Art and were filled by current employees as part of an administrative restructuring initiative. At the Chrysler Museum, optimizing the visitor experience is among our top priorities. We hope to achieve a more unified approach to that objective with greater synthesis of exhibition and educational programming, enhanced internal collaboration and more opportunities for strategic planning. The reorganization gives us the chance to accomplish these goals while promoting talented Chrysler Museum team members, said Museum Director Erik Neil. As Deputy Director for Art & Interpretation, Feman manages the cur ... More |
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| | | Herman Wouk, decorated novelist behind 'The Caine Mutiny,' dies at 103 | | A new exhibition explores how children as young as five joined adults in the world of work | | Nora Krug named Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year at the V&A Illustration Awards 2019 |
In this file photo taken on May 7, 2006 writer Herman Wouk attends the Broadway Opening of "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" in New York City. Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images North America / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk, known for his portrayals of Jewish-American life and blockbuster World War II novels, died Friday, his agent said. He was 103 years old. The centenarian "passed away peacefully in his sleep," his agent Amy Rennert told AFP, calling Wouk "a giant among writers" and saying that up until a month ago he was working on his next book. His son Joseph Wouk posted a photo on Facebook of himself and his dad, who died 10 days before his 104th birthday, along with the text: "My beloved father, Herman Wouk." Wouk's acclaimed 1951 work "The Caine Mutiny" -- inspired by his time aboard a high-speed naval warship based in the Pacific during World War II -- won the coveted Pulitzer for fiction. The bestseller was adapted into a ... More | |
The exhibition looks at the Industrial Revolution when more than a quarter of the workforce were thought to be children. © Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry.
KENDAL.- Child Labour: Hidden Stories of Cumbria is an eye-opening insight into the working lives of youngsters in a variety of industries. The exhibition begins in the 1700s when youngsters worked in the home or on family farms. It looks at the Industrial Revolution when more than a quarter of the workforce were thought to be children. Youngsters represented an almost unlimited source of cheap unskilled labour. At one point Cumbria had more than 100 bobbin mills and children were put to task in dangerous conditions for long hours. The exhibition considers other industries such as mining - when very young children were sent down the pit. Children were considered ideal in certain mining jobs - being physically smaller than adults and able to work in confined spaces. But these were environments of extreme danger. ... More | |
Book Illustration, Nora Krug - Heimat.
LONDON.- Nora Krug has been awarded the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year and Book Illustration prize at the V&A Illustration Awards 2019, for Heimat (Particular Books). Her work will be displayed alongside the award winning artworks from each of the four categories and the commended student shortlist from today in Gallery 88a on the third floor of the museum until Sunday 25 August 2019. Krugs book on the lives of her German family members under the Nazi regime explores notions of identity and home. The judges praised her decision to blend almost childlike illustrations alongside photographs of her family and life in Germany during WWII. It was commended by the judges as brave and unique, for offering a new perspective on a sensitive, complex and painful subject. The published categories were judged by Olivia Ahmad, Curator at the House of Illustration and Editor of Varoom Magazine, Nicholas Coleridge CBE, ... More |
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Conserving Gilliéron's Watercolors
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Daughters of Holocaust survivors relive their mother's trauma in new exhibition
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The recent rise of white nationalism, anti-Semitism and hate crimes prompted three Los Angeles artists, whose mothers were Holocaust survivors, to come together in a group show. In Inherited Memories, opening May 18 at Castelli Art Space, Shula Singer Arbel, Dwora Fried and Malka Nedivi confront the viewers with the power of memory and remind us of the generational effects of trauma. "More to the point," says Peter Frank, "the mothers of these three women went through the ordeal, profoundly impacting their daughters and the art they make. The work of Shula Singer Arbel, Dwora Fried, and Malka Nedivi, however, manifests more than a simple acknowledgement of the tribulations their mothers underwent before giving birth to them: it embodies sensations experienced one way by the elder women themselves and another ... More
Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art opens exhibition of works by Squeak Carnwath
MALIBU, CA.- Pepperdine University's Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art will present Squeak Carnwath: How the Mind Works from Saturday, May 18, 2019 until Sunday, July 28, 2019. For over 30 years, Bay Area artist Squeak Carnwath has created bold, colorful paintings that provide a journey into the creative process. Using a personal iconography of texts, images, charts, and symbols, she explores both the philosophical and mundane experiences that fill our everyday lives. Her paintings function as fields of information, mixing words and images into reflections on our everyday lives that run the gamut from the light-hearted and humorous to the somber and serious. Writing is a key element in Carnwaths work. The hand-painted words and phrases that appear in her paintings arise as they do in our consciousnesssometimes through obsessive ... More
Photography on a Postcard opens in London
LONDON.- Photography on a Postcard is a unique opportunity to take home specially created and signed works by some of the worlds most coveted photographers. Bidding for the second annual Photography on a Postcard auction opened on 8 May on Paddle8 and the exhibition is being displayed at Photo London from 16- 19 May 2019. The carefully curated collection features some of the worlds most collectable and interesting contemporary photography on a 10 x 15 cms scale, and as a truly democratic platform the reserve price for all artworks starts at £50. This years impressive line-up includes Steve McCurry, Alvaro Deprit, Larry Clarke, John Myers, Karen Knorr, Felicity McCabe, Roger Ballen, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Michael Wolf, Sandro Miller, Paul Trevor, Larry Fink, Eammon Doyle, Todd Hido, Jen Osbourne and many more. Matching the artist ... More
Foam Talent presents a new generation of young photographers
LONDON.- Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall present the brand new exhibition Foam Talent 2019, with works from a new generation of visual artists. The work of these 20 outstanding young artists selected through the annual Foam Talent Call are featured in Foam Magazine #52, the Talent Issue. The Foam Talent exhibition is on show at Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall in London for the fourth year. This imaginative installation presents a forward-thinking showcase of photography and reflects on the full spectrum of creative approaches that mark todays developments in the photographic medium. The exhibition opened on 15 May 2019, coinciding with Photo London. Together, the 20 emerging artists featured in the exhibition are exceptionally placed to share their insight into the state of contemporary photography. ... More
San José Museum of Art opens the first major retrospective of artist Rina Banerjee
SAN JOSE, CA.- The San José Museum of Art, California is presenting its major spring exhibition, Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World, the first mid-career retrospective on the contemporary practice of Rina Banerjee, co-organized with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Known for her large-scale sculptures and installations made from materials sourced throughout the world, Banerjees works investigate the splintered experiences of identity, tradition, and culture, prevalent in diasporic communities. Make Me a Summary of the World is on view to the public from May 16, 2019 through October 6, 2019 in the galleries at SJMA. It will be accompanied by extensive programming and a full-color, 160-page catalogue co-published by SJMA and PAFA. After the exhibition closes at SJMA it will then embark on a national tour. Banerjee ... More
First black African woman enters Cannes race with migrant ghost story
CANNES (AFP).- A black African woman has entered the race for Cannes's coveted Palme d'Or top prize for the first time in its 72-year history, with a moving ghost story about migrants dying at sea while trying to reach Europe. Mati Diop, 36, grew up in France and belongs to a Senegalese artistic dynasty including her uncle, acclaimed director Djibril Diop Mambety, and her father, musician Wasis Diop. She told AFP after the red-carpet premiere of "Atlantics" that it was while she was making a short film in Senegal a decade ago that she began to wrestle with the tragic push-and-pull factors leading Africans to flee the continent. "I was spending time in Dakar at the time and was struck by the complex and sensitive realities of the phenomenon we called at the time 'illegal emigration'," she said. "Once I had finished my (short) film, I felt I still had a lot of dimensions ... More
Cummer Museum acquires work by locally-born abstract artist Mildred Thompson
JACKSONVILLE, FLA.- The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens announced the acquisition of Magnetic Fields, a new work of art by abstract artist Mildred Thompson (1936-2003), born in Jacksonville, Florida. The acquisition was made possible through the generous support the Rushton William Hays Revocable Trust and the Morton R. Hirschberg Bequest. The acquisition of Thompsons Magnetic Fields adds to the collection of the Cummer Museum in significant ways, states Adam Levine, the Museums George W. and Kathleen I. Gibbs Director & CEO. Not only is the work by a locally-born female artist of color, it is an exceptional example of Abstract Expressionism from an overlooked figure in art history. The acquisition of this work exemplifies the institutions commitment to creating a permanent collection that represents its community through ... More
Heritage Auctions' Spring Fine Jewelry Auction eclipses $3.3 million
DALLAS, TX.- A collection of colorless and fancy colored diamonds, Ceylon sapphires and a stunning array of gem set jewelry boosted the total for Heritage Auctions' Spring Fine Jewelry Auction April 29 in Dallas, Texas to $3,332,366. Three lots shared the top result in the auction when each realized $87,500: A breathtaking Diamond, White Gold Jewelry Suite, Adler boasted a combined total weight of nearly 104.00 carats. Featuring full-cut diamonds in a necklace (62.56 carats), a bracelet (31.55 carats) and a pair of earrings (9.88 carats), the Swiss jewelry house Adler crafted this suite to be worthy of a queen. Also tying for top lot honors, a stunning Emerald, Diamond, Platinum Bracelet, Van Cleef & Arpels included emerald-cut emeralds, enhanced by marquise-shaped diamonds, baguette-cut diamonds and full-cut diamonds. A Fancy Yellow Diamond, Diamond, ... More
BOZAR exhibits photographs of the Tour de France taken fifty years ago by Jef Geys
BRUSSELS.- On Sunday 7 July the 2019 Tour de France sets off from Brussels. Exactly 50 years since it was won for the very first time by the Belgian Eddy Merckx. The Belgian artist Jef Geys (1934-2018) spent two weeks photographing the 1969 Tour de France. The theme of his photographic reportage is not to show the glamour of the race towards triumph, but the merging of the unusual and the everyday in the life of the cyclist. Among the spectators, race bikes, team cars and advertising hoardings, a cyclist pops up here and there, and that cyclist could be Eddy Merckx... The 67 black and white photographs are now being exhibited in Belgium for the very first time, 50 years after they were taken. They are shown with a montage of two pages from Belgian newspapers dated 20 and 21 July 1969, which put the event in perspective. On the day Merckx ... More
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Flashback On a day like today, German-American architect Walter Gropius was born May 18, 1883. Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 - 5 July 1969) was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. In this image: Walter/Ise Gropius, 1928. Blick auf Lower Manhattan von der Brooklyn Bridge, New York. Bildnachweis: Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin/ © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2008.
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