| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Thursday, December 22, 2022 |
| | | How Germany changed its mind, and gave the Benin Bronzes back | |
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Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, at his office in Berlin, July 8, 2020. Parzinger said he changed his mind over the bronzes because they became so symbolic for colonial-era cultural theft. (Gordon Welters/The New York Times)
by Thomas Rogers, Rahila Lassa and Alex Marshall
ABUJA, NIGERIA.- When the airplane of Germanys foreign minister touched down in Abuja, Nigeria, this past weekend, it carried precious cargo: 20 Benin Bronzes, priceless artifacts that were looted in a violent raid more than a century ago, and which were finally coming home. At a ceremony in Abuja on Tuesday, the German official, Annalena Baerbock, handed the stolen items back to Nigerian officials. It was wrong to take the bronzes, and it was wrong to keep them for 120 years, she said. In a legal sense, the 20 artifacts Baerbock brought with her belonged to Nigeria even before she took off from Berlin; more than 1,100 bronzes in German museums have become Nigerian property since the countries signed an agreement in July. But Tuesdays handover was an important symbolic gesture, and many more of the artifacts are expected to come back to Nigeria next year. Others will remain in Germany on long-term loan. The foreign ministers trip is the culmination of a yearslong process t ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse is the first major Australian exhibition to explore the work of this boundary-pushing fashion designer.
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| A secret society tied to the Underground Railroad fights to save its home | | West Harlem Art Fund to present a panel discussion for Master Drawings New York | | Pope Francis to return 3 Parthenon marble fragments to Greece |
The mansion that has been the headquarters for the United Order of Tents, Eastern District No. 3, since 1945, on MacDonough Street in Brooklyn, Dec. 16, 2022. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn/The New York Times)
by Dodai Stewart
NEW YORK, NY.- On a brisk morning in November, bright yellow leaves from a huge ginkgo tree scattered onto the front yard of 87 MacDonough St. Under peeling paint and missing cornices, Essie Gregory stood on the steps of the huge, ramshackle mansion in the heart of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn with a small group of visitors. As a passerby craned his neck to see what was going on, Gregory, 74, opened the front door, giving her guests a rare glimpse inside the New York headquarters of the United Order of Tents Eastern District No. 3. And despite the water damage, boarded up windows and crumbling plaster, it was just possible to imagine the mysterious building as it once was. For generations, the Tents members of a secret society of Black women ... More | |
West Harlem Art Fund (WHAF) is a twenty-five year-old, public art and new media organization.
NEW YORK, N.Y..- On Sunday, January 22, 2023, Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director of the West Harlem Art Fund and her organization will present a panel discussion for Master Drawings New York at the Academy of Arts and Letters. According to Bailey-McClain, This is our 4th year participating with Master Drawings New York. We have broadened the definition of what masterful art looks like and the artists who create such works. I am delighted to keep these conversations going so we can gain new collectors. A museum's life is renewed through the exchange of fresh perspectives from cultures and traditions around the world. Diversity can be achieved through museum staff who are capable of communicating these stories to a broad audience. Currently, there is a movement to purchase these artworks and show them all over the country. Who is driving this effort? In contrast to museums, art dealers are often able to take risks ... More | |
The pope will donate the 2,500-year-old pieces held by the Vatican Museums to the archbishop of Athens, a gesture that increases pressure on the British Museum to act over similar items on show in London. (Ian Willms/The New York Times)
by Elisabetta Povoledo and Alex Marshall
ROME.- Pope Francis will return to Greek hands three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for two centuries, the Vatican said in a statement Friday. The fragments a head of a horse, a head of a boy and a bearded male head will become the property of Archbishop Ieronymos II, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, the statement added. Most surviving fragments of the Acropolis temple are owned by the Greek state and displayed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Although the Vatican fragments will belong to the church rather than the state, a museum spokesperson said they would be reunited in their positions, ... More |
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| Tel Aviv Museum of Art opens a comprehensive retrospective of the artist Maryan S. Maryan | | 'The Collaboration' Review: A Basquiat-Warhol bromance in bloom | | Further growth: Dorotheum on record course |
Maryan, Personnage (Soldat), 1974. Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody. Photo: Elad Sarig.
TEL AVIV.- The exhibition, which presents Israeli viewers with an astounding body of work, follows the life of the artist Pinkas Bursztyn, who reinvented himself in the 1950s as Maryan S. Maryan. In the four decades he moved through Auschwitz, Jerusalem, Paris and New York, Maryan created an abundance of paintings, drawings, photographs, films and archival materials, many of which are now on display for the first time. Pinkas Bursztyn was born into a family of bakers in Nowy Sącz, Poland. The Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, when he was 12 years old, was the beginning of his torment in the Nazi concentration camps, until in 1944 he was sent to Auschwitz. At the end of the war, during a death march, he was shot in his leg, which was later amputated in a Displaced Persons camp. The only member of his family to survive, Bursztyn arrived in Eretz Israel in 1947, and deemed handicapped, he was sent to a convalescent home ... More | |
Jeremy Pope, left, as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol in The Collaboration at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York on Oct. 29, 2022. (Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- On the cover of the press script of The Collaboration, Anthony McCartens new bioplay about pop art superstar Andy Warhol and neo-expressionist phenom Jean-Michel Basquiat, the pair pose in Everlast boxing gloves and shorts, as if preparing to go 12 rounds with each other. Its one of a series of promotional shots for a 1985 exhibit of 16 paintings that they made together, and surely one element of the photos endurance as a crystallizing image is that neither artist lived much longer. Warhol died at 58 in 1987 after gallbladder surgery, and Basquiat at 27 in 1988, after a heroin overdose. Dont judge a play by its cover and all that, but in this case, you wouldnt be far off. The Collaboration, which opened Tuesday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater starring Paul Bettany as Warhol and a radiant Jeremy ... More | |
Giovanni Bellini and Assistant (Venice or Padua c. 1430-1516 Venice), Madonna and Child, oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 79.5 x 59.5 cm, realized price 1,402,500.
VIENNA.- 2022 has been another hugely successful year for Dorotheum: the auction house has maintained the momentum of recent years and report a record auction turnover in excess of 200 million Euros. The continued expansion of the online facilities has proven to be an area of increasing strength for Dorotheum which is the leading auction house in the German-speaking world. The option of Live bidding, bidding via screen, is being increasingly adopted internationally and has come to stay - even in times without lockdowns. The further development of Dorotheums digital presence and premium customer service is a key corporate objective for 2023. In reflection of this growth, Dorotheum has strengthened its presence in Germany this year, complementing its branches in Düsseldorf and Munich, by opening a new representative ... More |
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| Six major acquisitions enhance the Birmingham Museum of Art's holdings | | Drawing Now Art Fair 16th edition to be at Le Carreau du Temple, Paris in March | | Tim Van Laere presents the group show "Let's Go!" |
Hale Woodruff, (1900 -1980), Torso, about 1970.
BIRMINGHAM, AL.- The Birmingham Museum of Art announces the acquisition of six major works of art made in and about the American South, thereby advancing one of the Museums main collection development priorities. The artists represented in this acquisition series are Dawoud Bey, Thornton Dial, Richard Dial, Howard Oubre, Debra Riffe, and Hale Woodruff. The Birmingham Museum of Art is committed to strengthening its collection by offering our visitors more complete and expansive stories of the human experience, especially as they relate to ways of life within the American South, especially Alabama, says Dr. Graham C. Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. These works offer greater perspectives of the American South, and enrich specific collection areas with work that carry deep connections to Alabama. Included in these acquisitions are works by both artists with whom we have enjoyed ... More | |
Atelier avec l'artiste Frédéric Malette à l'Hôtel de la Marine à Paris. © Printemps du dessin, 2022
PARIS.- Drawing Now Art Fair - the first contemporary art fair dedicated to contemporary drawing in Europe founded by Christine Phal and directed by Carine Tissot - announces its 70 participating galleries for its 16th edition which will take place from Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 March 2023 at the Carreau du Temple in the 3rd arrondissement in Paris. For the second year in a row, we are contributing to the influence of the drawing all We are offering visitors and VIPs a combined ticket for the Old Master Drawing Fair (22-27 March 2023) and the Contemporary Drawing Fair. In order to enhance the discovery and experience of contemporary drawing, Drawing Now Art Fair is increasing the number of events and is offering a combined programme of an ex- hibition and talks. Since its first edition in 2007, the selection of exhibitors at Drawing Now Art Fair has been carried out by an independent committee made up of professionals from the world ... More | |
Installation View from "Let's Go!" which will run until 28 January 2023 at Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp.
ANTWERP.- Tim Van Laere Gallery is now presenting Let's Go!, a group exhibition presenting works by Bram Demunter, Jean Dubuffet, Kati Heck, Leiko Ikemura, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Friedrich Kunath, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, Tobias Pils, Tal R, Ben Sledsens, Ettore Spaletti, Dennis Tyfus, Rinus Van de Velde, Inès Van den Kieboom, Henk Visch, and Franz West. While solo exhibitions allow you to fully enter the world of one artist and give you a glimpse of what the world looks like according to that artist, a group show offers different windows and pathways to various points of view and ways of seeing. It's for this reason group shows are a vital part of the gallery's program. By combining works from different artists in all kinds of media, the inner dialogue between the artist and his/her work is brought to a larger table, where its meaning gets challenged and debated by the surrounding works. It makes for an open dialogue where ... More |
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| The portrait hung in Joan Didion's home. But who painted it? | | Peter Blum presents an exhibition of works by Paul Fägerskilöd | | Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens receives $1 million grant from the prestigious Mellon Foundation |
Photographs of Les Johnson and Judy Liber in Los Angeles on Dec. 19, 2022. The two joined the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965. (Brad Torchia/The New York Times)
by Kate Dwyer
NEW YORK, NY.- The portraits power was unquestionable: In shades of rose, beige and taupe, it captured a young Joan Didion, angst furrowing her brow. As Didion fans made the pilgrimage to Hudson, New York, where an auction house displayed her belongings for sale in November, many went straight to the painting, which hung behind Didions white slipcovered sofas, among her Celine sunglasses, notebooks and family photos. It catches your attention the moment you walk into the exhibition, said Lisa Thomas, the director of fine arts at Stair Galleries, the auction house that handled the sale. The portrait had gripped her, too, Thomas said, when she saw it. My first question, she said, was, Who painted that? ... More | |
Paul Fägerskiöld, Impression, July, 2020. Oil on linen, 41 x 24 3/8 inches (104 x 62 cm).
NEW YORK, NY.- For millennia, the nights sky with its celestial phenomena has evoked notions of time, place, and being for those gazing up at the endless expanse. The stars as fixed points in the sky viewed from specific locations and days offer a point of departure for artist Paul Fägerskiöld in his series Starry Night. At first shadowy and enigmatic, the paintings upon closer viewing are comprised of numerous coats of thick oil paint creating subtly shimmering and textured monochromatic surfaces in a concave shape. Strewn across the heavily applied and wavy impasto are small, circular unpainted points that flicker the underlying brilliant layers of aquamarine, violet, or crimson. These small points are stars as viewed 78 years in the future, or on January 1, 2100, and from specific geographical locations scattered across the United States and its territories of today ... More | |
Mimi Ọnụọha, The Cloth in the Cable 2022, detail, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA.- The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens announced today that it has received a $1 million capacity-building and strategic planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This is the first time that the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens has received an award from this prestigious foundation, which is the nations largest supporter of the arts and humanities. The Mellon Foundation, which does not accept unsolicited grant proposals, invited the Museum to apply for a grant through its Arts and Culture program in March 2022. The grant is categorized by the foundation as a Visionary Leaders award within their Arts and Culture program, described online as supporting visionary artists and practitioners and the participatory roles they play across institutions and communities. ... More |
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Sothebyâs Spotlight: The History of Science & Technology
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What do two fires have in common? It comes down to guts.
NEW YORK, NY.- Yve Laris Cohen is no stranger to a disaster. When a flood caused by Hurricane Sandy damaged and destroyed sets and costumes at the Martha Graham Dance Company, he set about replicating the Noguchi décor for Grahams Embattled Garden (1958). That turned into an exhibition. In 2020, when there was a fire at Jacobs Pillow, the venerable dance festival in Becket, Massachusetts, Laris Cohen was intrigued. Though he had never been to the Pillow and was immunocompromised he was diagnosed with Crohns disease before the pandemic he traveled to see the site that November. He was curious to see what was left of the Doris Duke Theater, formerly called the Studio/Theater. Not much, it turned out. But among the rubble was a wall and a pipe grid that had melted into a sinuous, twisting form. ... More
Eddie Izzard plays which part in "Great Expectations'? All of them.
NEW YORK, NY.- On a December evening in a rehearsal studio on the western edge of Manhattans garment district, Eddie Izzard was chatting about audience assumptions that her solo performance of Charles Dickens Great Expectations would be a comic take on the classic Victorian coming-of-age tale. Theres about four jokes in it, she said. Still, even the way Izzard uttered that sentence was funny: dryly dismissive, with the briefest pause as she calculated the paltry figure. Izzard has, after all, made her name in comedy. And however firmly she might draw a line between Eddie Izzard the stand-up and Eddie Izzard the actor the British Broadway veteran who was a Tony Award nominee in 2003, for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg they are of course one and the same, operating in different yet overlapping modes ... More
Stanley Drucker, Ageless Clarinetist of the N.Y. Philharmonic, Dies at 93
NEW YORK, NY.- Stanley Drucker, who was known as the dean of American orchestral clarinetists during a 60-year career with the New York Philharmonic, putting his mark on countless performances and recordings under a legion of celebrated conductors, died Monday in Vista, California, outside San Diego. He was 93. His death, at the home of his daughter, Rosanne Drucker, was confirmed by his son, Lee. Drucker, who retired in 2009, was only the fourth principal clarinetist of the Philharmonic since 1920 when he took up the post. Few wind players at any of the great American orchestras served as long. He played for Philharmonic music directors Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel, presenting a style and sound that typified the Philharmonics character soloistic, technically and sonically brilliant, flamboyant and on the verge of brash ... More
Grand Rapids Art Museum announces curatorial staff appointments
GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) has announced two key appointments to its curatorial teamJennifer Wcisel has been promoted to Associate Curator, and Terra Warren has been appointed Assistant Curator. Jennifer and Terra have assumed the responsibilities of their new roles and collectively bring a depth of curatorial experience in the arts and nonprofit sectors to the Museum. The appointments follow a recent organizational realignment focused on providing exceptional art experiences and deepening community engagement. The positions play strategic roles in managing and implementing the Museums diverse artistic program of rotating exhibitions, in addition to the permanent collection plan and acquisitions. Together with a cross-departmental team, Jennifer and Terra are responsible for implementing key strategic initiatives ... More
Finest known 1851 Double Eagle soars to $408,000, leads Heritage US Coins Auction past $12 million
DALLAS, TX.- The finest known 1851 Double Eagle sold for $408,000 to lead Heritage Auctions US Coins Signature® Auction to $12,076,000 Dec. 15-18. The event drew more than 3,700 global participants, and generated near-perfect sell-through rates of better than 99% by value and by lots sold. The events top lot is the top graded example of the 1851 version of the coin in its second year of production. It is believed that the Mint struck nearly 2.1 million of these 1851 Double Eagles, says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President of Heritage Auctions. Of those, somewhere around 3,000 remain in all grades remain today, and only 200-300 in Mint state. Only two or three near-Gem examples were known until this Gem was discovered. It is a magnificent coin that will be a central part of its new collection. Also reaching six figures was a 1851 Humbert Fifty Dollar ... More
'Kingdom of Hounds' by Tony O'Shea to be published in late January
NEW YORK, NY.- For 25 years, Tony OShea made an annual pilgrimage to his home county to photograph the Kerry Beagle drag hunt. The resulting pictures, are publishedmany for the first timein Kingdom of Hounds. Kerry Beagles, one of the oldest native Irish dog breeds, are bred as hunters and trained by the local huntsmen. Many of the huntsmen come from families who have been breeding and training hounds for generations and the rivalries between neighbouring hunts have been around for just as long. The huntsmen photographed are OSheas old neighbours and friends, giving him a unique perspective on the community that an outsider would never achieve. In a drag hunt, an artificial scentin this instance aniseed is laid by a human rather than the pursuit of a live animal. The route is pre-determined to take advantage of the best jumping opportunities ... More
'Hail the Dark Lioness' by Zanele Muholi: A deeply personal exploration of the Black queer experience
GENK.- In Somnyama Ngonyama, which translates from isiZulu to Hail The Dark Lioness, Muholi playfully employs the conventions of classical painting, fashion photography, and the familiar tropes of ethnographic imagery to rearticulate contemporary identity politics. Each black and white self-portrait asks critical questions about social (in)justice, human rights, and contested representations of the Black body. Taken in cities across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa, Muholi's socially engaged, radical brand of self-portraiture transforms found objects and quotidian materials into dramatic and historically loaded props, merging the political with the personal, aesthetics with history - often commenting on specific events in South Africas past, as well as urgent global concerns pertinent to our present times: scouring pads and latex gloves address ... More
Gabrielle Peacock appointed Executive Director & CEO of the Gardiner Museum
TORONTO.- Gabrielle Peacock has been appointed Executive Director & CEO of the Gardiner Museum. Currently Director of Partnerships and Development at Soulpepper Theatre and previously CEO of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ms. Peacock will join the Gardiner in February 2023. She succeeds Kelvin Browne, following his retirement in January after 9 years of bold leadership and transformational change at the Museum. Chief Curator & Deputy Director, Sequoia Miller, will fill the role of Interim Executive Director prior to Ms. Peacocks arrival at the Museum. I am delighted to welcome Gabrielle Peacock to the Gardiner Museum, says James Appleyard, Board Chair. Gabrielle joins the Museum with over 30 years of experience as an arts administrator, fundraiser, community builder, and Canadian art specialist ... More
"Julien's Auctions & TCM Present: Icons and Idols: Hollywood" auction results announced
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.- Julien's Auctions and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) held "ICONS AND IDOLS: HOLLYWOOD," on Saturday, December 17th and Sunday, December 18th, their two day year-end blockbuster featuring over 1,300 artifacts from the greatest films of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the biggest and most popular present day contemporary films spanning Sci-Fi, Action and Fantasy classics and beyond, as well as iconic pieces from the collections of Marilyn Monroe, Richard Chamberlain and Jack Lemmon, in front of a live audience at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills and online with thousands of bidders and collectors from around the world participating on Julien's Live. The auction's most highly anticipated moment of the event was the sale of the headlining item, the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Hero "#1" Mechatronic filming model "actor" ... More
Heritage's Hollywood Auction filled with golden tickets, holy grails and a century's worth of movie magic realizes $7.9M
DALLAS, TX.- Heritage Auctions Hollywood & Entertainment Signature® Auction, held Saturday, was a thrilling, rollicking affair defined by its numerous bidding wars over some of filmdoms most recognizable props, costumes and vehicles. And by the time end credits rolled on the blockbuster event, it had realized more than $7.9 million. More than 1,700 bidders followed the yellow brick road to the century-spanning auction, whose top lot was among its most fabled offerings: The Wicked Witch of the Wests hourglass from The Wizard of Oz, which sold for $495,000. The auctions final item was the meticulously constructed piece made of wood, papier-mâché and handblown glass filled with red glitter and decorated with gargoyles ... More
Karen LaMonte on view at Gerald Peters Contemporary, New York
NEW YORK, N.Y..- Over the past two decades, Karen LaMonte has created various representations of the absent human form, working through different lenses to examine how collective values effect particular views of the body. LaMonte's "Floating World" series, concieved during a six-month period in Kyoto and developed in Ukiyo-e prints. Her Nocturnes portray the female figure as a metaphor for night, conveying how nighttime changes miens and deportments. Both series ask us to consider how women's bodies communicate societal priorities, expectations, and models. Like many of the sculptors who defined the Neoclassical, Beaux Arts and Modernist periods in American art, Karen LaMonte focuses on the figure. Her works reveal a classical approach, often depicting the female form in contrapposto or as an odalisque with sweeping drapery ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk
Freedom of Movement
Gabriella Boyd @ GRIMM
Fondazione Elpis
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was born December 22, 1960. Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988) was an American artist. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, punk, and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992. In this image: Basquiat: Boom For Real. Installation view Barbican Art Gallery 21 September 2017 â 28 January 2018 © Tristan Fewings / Getty Images Artwork: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1982 Courtesy Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York.
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