| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Sunday, December 6, 2020 |
| | | Mystery couple found in a roll of film from nearly 70 years ago | |
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In an undated photo, a woman and a dachshund appear in a photo from a roll of film from the 1950s that was recently developed. Her identity and that of a man in other photos remain a mystery. Internet sleuths have been captivated by the photos, which were recently developed and document a couples trip to the Swiss-Italian border with a dachshund. Collection of William Fagan via The New York Times.
by Marie Fazio
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- For nearly 70 years, an unfinished roll of film that documented a couples escapades in Switzerland and Italy was hidden away in a brass container, forgotten as it changed hands. The roll fell into the possession of William Fagan, a film collector from Dublin, in 2015 when it arrived in a box with a vintage Leica camera from 1935. In August, curiosity got the best of him, he said, and Fagan delicately began to develop the film with the guidance of Mella Travers, a photographer and owner of a Dublin darkroom. They soaked the film for an hour in a diluted developer, agitating it every 15 minutes while Fagan ate a blueberry muffin to pass the time. The first things he noticed in the photos were old people, in old cars, wearing old clothes, Fagan said in a phone interview. Intrigued, he took them home to digitize them for a better view. The result was a revelation, Fagan wrote in a blog post in September. An unknown family, a clear location and a feeling ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day In this file photo taken on October 07, 2020 a statue of John Lennon and members of the Beatles stands in central Liverpool, northwest England on October 7, 2020. John Lennon's career was cut short 40 years ago, on December 8, 1980, when he was shot dead in New York. Paul ELLIS / AFP
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| Sotheby's re-opens doors onto New Bond Street galleries | | Jennifer Packer's work presents a tireless exploration of the power and potential of painting | | Divers find Nazis' Enigma code machine in Baltic Sea |
Lawrence Portrait of General Sir Herbert Taylor. Estimate: £150,000 - 200,000. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON.- With Sothebys re-opening the doors once more onto its galleries in New Bond Street in London, this winter seasons series of Old Master and Treasures sales will showcase works by some of historys most famous artists, including Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt. From paintings to prints, to sculpture and drawings, these artworks have gone on view alongside unique and extraordinary objects encapsulating the history of patronage and collecting over the centuries. Alongside these 700 artworks spanning 800 years, two paintings from the sale of Old Masters in New York in late January 2021 were unveiled in the London galleries as part of the pre-sale exhibition. Sandro Botticellis Young Man Holding a Roundel the ultimate Renaissance portrait and a true beauty of the ages, and one of the greatest Renaissance paintings remaining in private hands is estimated to sell in excess of $80 million. It has been joined ... More | |
Jennifer Packer, Tia, 2017, oil on canvas, 99 x 63.5 cm, 39 x 25 inches. Collection of Joel Wachs. © Jennifer Packer. Photo: Matt Grubb. Courtesy the Artist, Corvi-Mora, London and Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York.
LONDON.- New York-based painter Jennifer Packer recalibrates art historical approaches to portraiture and still life, casting these enduring genres in a fresh political and contemporary light, while keeping them rooted in a deeply personal context. Combining observation, improvisation and memory, Packers intimate portraits of friends and family members and flower still paintings insist on the emotional and physical essence of their contemporary Black lives. While the casual repose of her portraits is the result of her love and care for the sitters, Packer acknowledges the choice to paint figures is a political one: Representation and particularly, observation from life, are ways of bearing witness and sharing testimony. Care is of particular concern in Packers portraits; what it means to represent an individual in a way that privileges their presence in the ... More | |
The Enigma machine was used by Nazi forces during World War II to transmit coded messages.
BERLIN (AFP).- German divers who recently fished an Enigma encryption machine out of the Baltic Sea, used by the Nazis to send coded messages during World War II, handed their rare find over to a museum for restoration on Friday. The legendary code machine was discovered last month during a search for abandoned fishing nets in the Bay of Gelting in northeast Germany, by divers on assignment for environmental group WWF. "A colleague swam up and said: there's a net there with an old typewriter in it," Florian Huber, the lead diver, told the DPA news agency. The team quickly realised they had stumbled across a historic artefact and alerted the authorities. Ulf Ickerodt, head of the state archaeological office in Germany's Schleswig-Holstein region, said the machine would be restored by experts at the state's archaeology museum. The delicate process, including a thorough desalination process after seven decades ... More |
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| Armour from the Art Institute of Chicago fetches three times its estimate | | The man guiding Italy's oldest opera house through the pandemic | | Nigeria gets back 'priceless' smuggled antique from Netherlands |
This late 16th/ early 17th Century North German field armour sold for £57,500.
LONDON.- A late 16th/ early 17th Century North German field armour that had been deaccessioned by the Art Institute of Chicago sold for £57,500 - more than three times its top estimate in the auction of Fine Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria by Thomas Del Mar at Olympia Auctions on Wednesday, December 2, 2020 in London. Known as a Black-and-White cap-a pie suit of armour, it was one of 23 lots that had been deaccessioned by the Institute. They were from the George F. Harding Collection which was being sold to benefit the Harding Collection of Arms and Armour. It had been estimated at £12,000-18,000 and was bought by a Private Collector [lot 89]. Following the sale which was 94% sold and fetched £615,100 (£768,875 with buyers premium), Thomas Del Mar commented: The sale result shows the continued strength of in this market. The top lot was subject to hot competition between a number of telephone ... More | |
Stephane Lissner, the superintendent of the San Carlo Opera Theater in Naples, Italy in 2019. After warring with powerful unions in Paris, Lissner has moved to Naples to run the Teatro di San Carlo. Francesco Squeglia via The New York Times.
by Elisabetta Povoledo
NAPLES (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Six years ago, Stéphane Lissner left Milan after a decade managing Italys most famous opera house, the Teatro alla Scala, to run the Paris Opera. After a turbulent term, he left his Parisian post in March, nine months early, frustrated by widespread social unrest in France, strikes over an unpopular national pension reform plan and unproductive talks with the theaters powerful unions. The pandemic was the proverbial last straw. Now German impresario Alexander Neef has taken over in Paris, and Lissner is back in Italy, leading the Teatro di San Carlo, opened in 1737 and the countrys oldest opera house and one of its most beautiful. ... More | |
Image of the terracotta head believed to be at least 600 years old.
LAGOS (AFP).- Nigeria has received a "priceless" terracotta head believed to be at least 600 years old which was smuggled to the Netherlands, the information minister said. It was taken from southwestern city of Ile-Ife and smuggled through Ghana. Dutch ambassador to Nigeria Harry Van Dijk on Thursday returned it to Information Minister Lai Mohammed in a ceremony in the Nigerian capital Abuja. "The smuggler had obtained forged documents" to take it out of the country, Mohammed was quoted as saying in a statement. Dutch customs intercepted it at Amsterdam airport and "alerted the.. Information and Heritage Inspectorate of the Netherlands to give an opinion," the statement said. Dutch officials then contacted their Nigerian counterparts, leading to the return of the "priceless and timeless" artefact, Mohammed said. Hundreds of Nigerian artefacts, including Benin bronzes stolen during pre-colonial and ... More |
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| Tapestry by Koen Taselaar celebrates relations between the Netherlands and Russia | | What does history smell like? | | +Home and Connector Housing are joint winners of Home of 2030 Design Competition |
Koen Taselaar working on the tapestry. Photo: Josefina Eikenaar.
SAINT PETERSBURG.- The almost eight-metre-long tapestry titled The cat, the herring, and more tall tales from the Neva by Dutch artist Koen Taselaar was unveiled yesterday in the Hermitage museums restoration and storage centre in Saint Petersburg. The work was produced in the TextielLab in Tilburg. Colourful and humorous, it tells the story of Tsar Peter the Great and celebrates more than three centuries of cultural relations between the Netherlands and Russia. For this international commission by the Hermitage Foundation, the TextielMuseum acted as an intermediary and asked Taselaar (Rotterdam, 1986) to create a new work. His contemporary jacquard-woven tapestry recounts several important moments in Saint Petersburgs history, from the citys founding up to modern times. The Dutch artists visual story is a contemporary addition to the Hermitages world-famous collection, for which Peter the Great once bought the first Rembrandt. The ... More | |
A candle by Janie Korn depicts the embalming of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, after his assassination in 1584, which would have smelled fresh, sweet and slightly medicinal, in New York, Oct. 21 2020. Erik Tanner/The New York Times.
by Sophie Haigney
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Anxiety sweat. Horsehair. Wet grass and soil after a rain. Sulfuric compounds from gunpowder. Eau de cologne containing rosemary, bergamot and bitter orange. A touch of leather. This might have been what Napoleons retreat from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 smelled like. At least, these are some of the elements that Caro Verbeek, an art historian and olfactory researcher, tried to incorporate when she was reconstructing the smell, in partnership with perfumer Birgit Sijbrands, scent designer Bernardo Fleming of International Flavors & Fragrances and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Wars are extremely smelly, Verbeek said. Soldiers dont write about their injuries as much ... More | |
+Home designed by igloo Regeneration with Useful Projects, Expedition Engineers and Mawson Kerr.
LONDON.- Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP, Minister of State for Housing, has announced the joint winners of the Home of 2030 competition. Launched in March 2020, and managed by the RIBA, the competition encouraged the design of environmentally friendly homes that support people in leading independent, fulfilling lives as our society ages. +Home designed by igloo Regeneration with Useful Projects, Expedition Engineers and Mawson Kerr and Connector Housing designed by Openstudio with Hoare Lea, LDA Design and Gardiner & Theobald are the joint winners of the competition. The +Home scheme proposes community-led self-build homes that people can design themselves. Simple to build with affordable frames and components, the homes would be climate friendly and recyclable at the end of their use. Connector Housing is a flexible and adaptable system for age-friendly, multi-generational housing and neighbourhoods. It ... More |
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| Exhibition of recent paintings by California artist Bruce Cohen opens at Berggruen Gallery | | Venice gold brightens Christmas spirit | | Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong exhibits iconic and evocative works by Vik Muniz |
Bruce Cohen, Five Tulips in Front of Window, 2020. Oil on canvas, 24 x 16 inches (61 x 40.6 cm).
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Berggruen Gallery is presenting Bruce Cohen 2020, an exhibition of recent paintings by California artist Bruce Cohen. This show marks Cohens tenth solo exhibition with the gallery and is on view December 3, 2020 through January 9, 2021. Bruce Cohens most recent body of work presents a series of captivating interiors. Each composition contains an element of ethereal intrigue, whether it be a floral bouquet perched beside a seemingly boundless window view or a Piet Mondrian painting cast in the geometric shadow of another object. Fastidiously organized yet whimsically conceived, the scenes do not exist in reality but are instead invented from the artists own imagination. Cohen produced many of his most recent paintings while in quarantinethis period of global isolation leading the artist to explore the passage of time in a domestic setting more acutely than ever before. ... More | |
A view shows Christmas decorations installed under a shopping arcade by St. Mark's Square. ANDREA PATTARO / AFP.
VENICE (AFP).- Venice lacks the tourists who normally give it a festive air at Christmas, but the Italian city has nonetheless highlighted its landmarks to celebrate the holidays this year. Saint Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge across the Grand Canal in particular benefit from special lighting and projections that give inhabitants some comfort in this time of coronavirus. Italian artist Fabrizio Plessi created a Christmas tree on the square with huge rectangular screens that project a golden light. They flood the area with warm light at night, reflecting off wet paving stones. "My purpose is to light up this town, which needs light, which needs culture, which needs new emotions," Plessi told AFPTV. Owing to the pandemic, "this Christmas is different from the others," said Plessi, who with his white beard could himself pass for Santa Claus. "We have this problem like other people ... More | |
Vik Muniz, Self Portrait (Fall no. 2), 2005, C-print, 144.8 x 121.9 cm; (57 x 48 in.).
HONG KONG.- Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong is presenting Vik Muniz: Grand Tour, from 5 December 2020 16 January 2021. This is the artists fourth solo exhibition at the Hong Kong gallery, and first exhibition in the new and larger space in Wong Chuk Hang. Vik Muniz: Grand Tour brings together a selection of the artists most iconic and evocative works, from his most celebrated series over the last two decades, taking the viewer on a fantasy grand tour through time, art history, international cities and the artistic practices of one of the most ingenious and imaginative artists working today. Muniz is renowned for his unique employment of a wide range of materials, including dust, sugar, chocolate, diamonds, caviar, toys, junk, scrap metal, dry pigment, vintage postcards and magazine shreds, to reconstruct images that tap into the viewers subconscious visual repository and ask us to reconsider the famili ... More |
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Making The Met: Grappling with Modernism Circa 1929 | Insider Insights
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A cinematic love letter to Denmark's drinking culture
COPENHAGEN (AFP).- In the opening scene of Danish director Thomas Vinterbergs new film, Another Round, a group of teenagers plays an unusual drinking game. Racing giddily in pairs around a city lake, they stop at every bench to down a beer from the case they haul between them; the first pair to circle the lake and empty their bottles wins. If this were an American film, the scene might lead to tragedy or a hard-won lesson. But in Vinterbergs hands, neither catastrophe nor moralizing materializes. Except for a bit of synchronized vomiting, no one gets hurt; the adults watch the youths antics indulgently; and even the police seem in on the joke. Another Round may be about drinking, but its vision of alcohol, although nuanced, is largely jubilant. In Denmark, where movie theaters have been open since June, the film has been ... More
Michael Smith presents three recent bodies of work at Hales Gallery
LONDON.- Hales, in collaboration with Dan Gunn Gallery, is presenting Yet another show of drawings and videos reflecting on youth, ageing and a future of retirement by Michael Smith. In his fourth solo exhibition with Hales, Smith presents three recent bodies of work exploring these themes, which he and his performance persona will undoubtedly struggle with for years to come. For forty years Smith (b.1951 Chicago, IL, USA) has been producing performances, video works, large scale installations, commercial television, puppet shows, photos and drawings that have been shown in a variety of venues and contexts, including museums, galleries, cable television, nightclubs, childrens birthday parties and on the streets. Smith has been at the forefront of a generation of artists interested in crossing over and merging an art world context with popular ... More
Contemporary artists examine nature and climate change in online exhibition at Runway Gallery
LONDON.- Curator Lee Sharrock and Daniel Syrett, curator of Blacks Club, Century Club and director of Runway Gallery, teamed up to launch ReWild, a virtual environmental exhibition online at Runway Gallery from 3 to 10 December. A percentage of proceeds will be donated to Friends of the Earth, one of the original environmental NGOs formed back in 1969 in San Francisco and now present in over 70 countries. The exhibition features artists who are responding to the climate crisis in their art, or capturing the beauty of a planet that we are gradually destroying. Sir David Attenborough recently released his documentary and book - A Life on our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future - which documents his extraordinary career as our foremost natural historian and laments the tragic destruction of our planets biodiversity. Climate change ... More
Charles I coin from the Worcester mint sells for £13,640 at Dix Noonan Webb
LONDON.- An extremely rare and exceptional Charles I shilling from the Worcester mint sold for £13,640 in a live/online auction of Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals on Tuesday & Wednesday, December 1 & 2, 2020 at International coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists Dix Noonan Webb. The coin which was from the 20th and final part of the late Dr John Hulett Collection of English Coins was expected to fetch £4,000-5,000 and after three UK private collectors competed for it, one was eventually successful. The final part of the Hulett Collection comprised 88 lots and fetched £55,050 [lot 82]. An extremely fine and rare silver medal depicting the Defeat of the Spanish Armada by G. van Bijlaer dating from 1588 and showing Philip II and other Catholic heads of Church and State sold for £11,160 against an estimate of £4,000-5,000. ... More
Renaissance meets '80s rock chicks at Chanel
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The 1980s were the renaissance years of Chanel: the decade Karl Lagerfeld took the helm of the house and began knocking the camellias and pearls and bouclé off their pedestals, dosing the classic with the healthy sense of amused disregard that became a new signature for the brand. Their signifiers the shoulder pads, red ties, gold chains and buttons have been weirdly present again, in fashion, pop culture and politics alike, ever since that avatar from the decade, Donald Trump, started taking up all the air in the room. So it is little wonder, really, that when Virginie Viard, Chanels current creative director, decided to have her Métiers dArt show in the Château de Chenonceau, the Loire Valley castle that was once home to Catherine de Medici, the renaissance patron, both periods got spliced ... More
An artist's view of hazing rituals, haunted by tragedy
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As drums and cymbals of Taoist funeral music filled Queenslab, an 8,000-square-foot art space in Ridgewood, Queens, four performers chanted, marched and body-slammed one another. They were dressed in identical, modified hooded tracksuits and tennis shoes, their faces hidden behind white masks. Height became their only distinguishing feature. Tragedy haunts Kenneth Tams live performance-art piece, The Crossing, inspired by his research into the hazing rituals of Asian American fraternities and fraternities of color more broadly. Lumi Tan, a curator at the Kitchen, invited Tam, 38, to develop and perform the piece in partnership with Queenslab, a former carpet warehouse just a block from the sprawling belt of cemeteries that separates Brooklyn and Queens. I witnessed its final rehearsal before the work ... More
Naomi Long Madgett, champion of Black poets, is dead at 97
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Naomi Long Madgett was 17 when her first book of poetry was published, and just 26 when her work appeared in an anthology co-edited by Langston Hughes, an early mentor, that covered 200 years of Black poetry a new name among the greats. Yet she was almost as well known as a publisher and editor of poetry, an accidental career that began in her Detroit basement when she couldnt find the right press for her fourth book and decided to put it out herself. Lotus Press, her imprint, would go on to present, often for the first time, the work of Black writers like Herbert Woodward Martin, Dolores Kendrick, James A. Emmanuel and Toi Derricotte. Despite its literary prestige, Lotus Press stayed in Madgetts basement, and for decades she ran it mostly by herself. (In its first years, she invented an editorial assistant ... More
2020 Paul Guest Prize winner announced
BENDIGO.- Richard Lewers charcoal drawing 2020, created in response to the human impact of the Black Summer bushfires and all that followed, has won the Paul Guest Prize for Drawing. Guest judge Leslie Harding, Artistic Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art, said Lewers work serves both as a snapshot and a summary of the years redirection. The masked figures are silenced, motionless and yet simmering with a palpable anxiety that is intensified by the field of thousands of lines that give the picture its dissident energy. This is a powerful drawing loaded with portent and very much of its times; part observation and large part pithy and incisive social commentary, she said. Richard Lewer is a New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist who works with video and animation, painting, drawing and performance. He was the 63rd ... More
The Columbia Museum of Art's Glenna Barlow named 2020 SCAEA Museum Educator of the Year
COLUMBIA, SC.- The Columbia Museum of Art announced that the South Carolina Art Education Association has bestowed its 2020 Museum Educator of the Year Award upon Glenna Barlow, CMA curator of education. Barlow was recognized at the 2020 SCAEA Virtual Conference on November 21 alongside other honorees. We all know the great work Glenna does at the CMA, but we are so proud her colleagues from across the state recognize her commitment to advancing museum education in South Carolina and beyond, says Jackie Adams, CMA director of art and learning. I am continually impressed by her unwavering dedication, excellence, and passion for growing museums as valuable learning spaces for all. An experienced museum educator as well as a trained teacher, Barlow earned her M.S. in elementary education with a ... More
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art opens 'Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions'
MELBOURNE.- Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions is the second edition of a biennial series of exhibitions presenting ambitious projects by contemporary Australian and international artists. Encompassing living organisms, kinetic installations and immersive assemblages, Overlapping Magisteria pays attention to multiple ways of knowing, sensing, feeling and interacting with the world. Newly commissioned works by Robert Andrew, Mimosa Echard, Sidney McMahon, Sam Petersen and Isadora Vaughan draw on various social, cultural, technical and material forms, unsettling the lingering divide between nature and culture towards more complex realms of knowledge and experience. The exhibition title Overlapping Magisteria suggests a position against historical desires to separate science and religion (or metaphysics) ... More
Hsu Che-Yu wins the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2020
BARCELONA.- Taiwanese video artist Hsu Che-Yu (b.1985) is the winner of the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award 2020, in collaboration with the Fundació Joan Miró. Established by the Han Nefkens Foundation in collaboration with Loop Barcelona and the Fundació Joan Miró in 2018, the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Award aims to increase contemporary artistic production in the video art field by supporting artists of Asian origin or nationality. The jury remarks that Hsu Che-Yu ingeniously amalgamates true tragedies of our world with technologies including animation and film to create compelling humanistic works. We wish to highlight his complex and sophisticated narrative structures as well as his subversive poetic commentary on the subject matter and we are looking ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Anne Truitt Sound
Islamic Metalwork
Klaas Rommelaere
Helen Muspratt
Flashback On a day like today, photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt was born December 06, 1898. Alfred Eisenstaedt (December 6, 1898 - August 24, 1995) was a German-American photographer and photojournalist. He is renowned for his candid photographs, frequently made using various models of a 35mm Leica rangefinder camera. He is best known for his photograph capturing the celebration of V-J Day. In this image: 86 year-old Edith Shain and 78 year-0ld Carl Muscarello recreate the Famous 'Kiss Picture', Sunday 14 August 2005. The original couple in the iconic image, Edith Shain the nurse and Carl Muscarello the sailor was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt 60 years ago do the day in Times Square on Victory Japan Day in 1945 to signify the end of World War Two. The Artist Seward Johnson created a life-sized sculpture of the kiss Unconditional Surrender for the event.
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