| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, January 7, 2020 |
| | | The love letters of T.S. Eliot: New clues into his most mysterious relationship | |
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The crate pictured housed the collection for over 60 years and held a post-it note that read, 'Eliot/Hale, sealed until 2020.' Photo by Shelley Szwast, Princeton University Library.
by Maria Cramer
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- T.S. Eliot was one of the most important poets of the 20th century, a giant of modern literature whose haunting verse has fascinated generations of high school students and poetry lovers across the English-speaking world. His collection of whimsical poems Old Possums Book of Practical Cats even inspired a certain musical. But like anyone who has experienced a thwarted love, he was not above lashing out even publicly. After learning that Emily Hale, his purported muse, had given Princeton University a trove of hundreds of passionate letters he had written to her from 1930 to 1957, which the school made available to the public Thursday, Eliot prepared a statement that boiled down to this: I never really liked her that much anyway. I was not in love with Emily Hale, Eliot wrote on Nov. 25, 1960, in a statement that he instructed was to be released as soon as his letters to Hale were made public. I had already observed that she was not ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day An aerial view shows ice sculptures illuminated ahead of the opening of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, in China's northeast Heilongjiang province on January 3, 2020. NOEL CELIS / AFP
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| | US and Iran must protect cultural sites, UNESCO says after Trump threat | | Win a Picasso' charity draw postponed | | British Museum saves Nainsukh of Guler's masterpiece from export |
People visit the historical Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan. ATTA KENARE / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- Both Iran and the United States must observe a convention obliging states to preserve cultural sites, the UN's cultural agency said on Monday, after President Donald Trump threatened to target Iran's cultural heritage. UNESCO director general Audrey Azoulay highlighted that both Tehran and Washington had signed a 1972 convention prohibiting states from taking "any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage" of other states. At a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to the Paris-based organisation, Azoulay said that both countries had signed a 1954 convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, UNESCO said. Azoulay "stressed the universality of cultural and natural heritage as vectors of peace and dialogue between peoples, which the international community has a duty to protect and preserve ... More | |
The winner of the still-life by the Spanish master was meant to be drawn in Paris on Monday, but the organisers said not enough 100-euro tickets had so far been sold.
PARIS (AFP).- A charity raffle for a Picasso painting worth more than one million euros ($1.1 million) has been postponed until March, the organisers said Monday. The winner of the still-life by the Spanish master was meant to be drawn in Paris on Monday, but the organisers said not enough 100-euro tickets had so far been sold. "The goal is to raise the maximum amount of money possible" to finance clean water projects for the charity CARE in Africa, said the organisers in a statement to AFP. "The postponement has been approved by the Paris police and will now take place before the end of March," they added. Anyone buying a ticket in the international draw had a one-in-200,000 chance of winning the canvass of a stylised glass of absinthe and a newspaper Picasso created in 1921. The painting comes from the billionaire Lebanese-born collector ... More | |
Detail of The Trumpeters by Nainsukh of Guler. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
LONDON.- A masterpiece by one of Indias greatest painters has been saved from export after being purchased by the British Museum. The Trumpeters by Nainsukh of Guler described as a work unparalleled in North Indian art - had its licence for export blocked in 2018 by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in order to enable a UK institution to raise the £440,000 required to stop it from being sold overseas. Thanks to the support of Art Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund, it has now joined the collection of the British Museum and will remain in the UK. It has gone on free display in the Museums Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery of China and South Asia. The painting, thought to have been created between 1735-40, depicts a traditional musical performance in Northern India. It shows seven musicians playing Pahari horns with long pipes known ... More |
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| | Christie's announces highlights from the 20th Century auction series in London | | Hirshhorn acquires three major works by Yayoi Kusama, announces 2020 legacy exhibition | | Philadelphia's The Clay Studio to break ground on new Center for Ceramic Arts in South Kensington |
Henry Moore, O.M., C.H. (1898-1986), Square Form. Brown Hornton stone, unique, 21.1/4 in. (54 cm.) wide. Carved in 1936. Estimate: £3,000,000 5,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
LONDON.- Christies Modern British Art Evening Sale on 21 January 2020 launches the 20th Century auction series in London and will be followed by the Modern British Art Day Sale and The Delighted Eye: Works from the Collection of Allen and Beryl Freer on 22 and 23 January respectively. Highlights from the Evening Auction include Henry Moores Square Form, a rare surreal sculpture from 1936 (estimate: £3,000,000-5,000,000) and a recently discovered painting by L.S. Lowry. Bought directly from the artist and remaining in the same collection since then, The Mill, Pendlebury (1943, estimate: £700,000-1,000,000) has never been seen in public. Hero II (estimate: £350,000-450,000) by William Turnbull was created in 1958 and included by David Hockney in his portrait of the collectors Fred and Marcia Weisman, American Collectors (1968). One of three sculptures included in the composition, Hero II is being offered from the Collection of Ric ... More | |
Yayoi Kusama, Flowers Overcoat, 1964. Cloth overcoat, plastic flowers, metallic paint, and wood hanger, 50 3/4 x 28 7/8 x 5 3/4 in. (128.9 x 73.3 x 14.6 cm) Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC. Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest and Purchase Funds, 1998 (98.38). © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo by Lee Stalsworth.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonians Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection, on view April 4 to Sept. 19, 2020. The exhibition debuts the museums new acquisitions by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, including two of her renowned Infinity Mirrored Rooms. Building on the legacy of the museums 2017 blockbuster survey Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, the forthcoming exhibition cements the enduring art-historical connection between the visionary artist and the Smithsonians national museum of modern art on the National Mall. The exhibition illuminates Kusamas seven-decade practice in the context of the museums recent acquisitions to the permanent collection, including two of her transcendent Infinity Mirrored Rooms and sculptures, ... More | |
The Clay Studios new 34,000-square-foot home at 1425 North American Street in the heart of the South Kensington neighborhood. It will be the first of its kind ceramic arts facility built from the ground up in the United States.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Clay Studio will break ground January 15, 2020 at 11:00 am, on a new state-of-the-art ceramic facility, propelling the nonprofit organization forward as a national leader in ceramics as well as a welcoming center for local residents and artists in Philadelphia. Founded in 1974 in Old City, The Clay Studio has grown from a collective of five artists to a thriving, collaborative fellowship of artists, teachers, and professional staff serving 35,000 people a year through a wide array of classes, exhibitions, events, and The Claymobile community engagement program. With the new South Kensington facility, located in one of the citys most vibrant arts corridors, The Clay Studio will expand its services and spaces by 67 percent, paving the way for unlimited new possibilities for studio art, arts education, and community engagement. This is a defining moment, and together we are making a big dream a reality, Exe ... More |
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| | Mass snow wedding and crystal towers at China's ice fest | | The coolest architecture on Earth is in Antarctica | | George Eastman Museum breaks ground on Thomas Tischer Visitor Center and ESL Federal Credit Union Pavilion |
A tourist jumps in front of an ice sculpture during the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, in China's northeast Heilongjiang province on January 5, 2020. Noel CELIS / AFP.
HARBIN (AFP).- China's annual ice festival in Harbin has kicked off with couples lining up for a snow-themed mass wedding, swimmers braving frigid waters and frozen palaces rising from the ground. Fireworks marked the festival's opening on Sunday night as tourists wandered between colourfully illuminated ice towers and monuments in the northeastern city. Earlier in the day, 43 brides in lace wedding gowns and down jackets waited in line with grooms to take part in a "mass ice and snow wedding". A few brave swimmers plunged into a pool carved from the frozen Songhua River on a day when temperatures stayed below minus seven degrees Celsius (19 Fahrenheit) even in the afternoon. This year's Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in the province of Heilongjiang required 170,000 cubic metres (six million cubic feet) of ice harvested from the Songhua River by more than 100 workers. The workers toiled for hours on the ... More | |
Britains Halley VI, designed by Broughton Architects, sits on hydraulic stilts and on skis in Antarctica. Antony Dubber via The New York Times.
by John Gendall
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Representatives from Brazils scientific community and government will head to Antarctica this month to inaugurate its new Comandante Ferraz Research Station, which replaces a facility lost to fire in 2012. The two low-slung buildings, designed by Estudio 41, a Brazilian architecture firm, house laboratories, operational support and living quarters and could be mistaken for an art museum or a boutique hotel. Brazil is a tropical country, so we were not used to these conditions, said Emerson Vidigal, a principal at the firm. These conditions include temperatures that drop below minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 51 Celsius) and winds that reach 100 mph. Throughout the 20th century, architecture in Antarctica was a pragmatic, largely makeshift affair, focused on keeping the elements out and the occupants alive. In 1959, ... More | |
Support from Thomas Tischer, ESL Federal Credit Union, and New York State Council on the Arts made project possible.
ROCHESTER, NY.- The George Eastman Museum broke ground today on the Thomas Tischer Visitor Center, including construction of the ESL Federal Credit Union Pavilion, which will serve as the museums new main entrance, located next to the Dryden Theatre. Through the new entrance, visitors will be served by a new admissions desk, gathering places, a renovated education and meeting hall, a more mission-focused shop, and a relocated café that includes seating in the historic Palm House. The project is expected to be completed by July 2020. Funding from a combination of individual philanthropy, local corporate support, and grants from the State of New York has enabled this transformative project. Thomas Tischer, a retired research chemist at Eastman Kodak Company and longtime museum patron, initiated the project and has advanced it by donating more than $1.5 million. The museum received a $1 million grant award from the New York State Council on the ... More |
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| | Mary Savig joins curatorial staff at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery | | A rare collection of Welsh Suffragette memorabilia has gone on display at St Fagans National Museum of History | | CAFAM Techne Triennial 2020 announces new opening date and participating artists |
Savig comes to the museum from the Smithsonians Archives of American Art, where she has been the curator of manuscripts since 2013. Photo: Libby Weiler.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian American Art Museum has appointed Mary Savig as the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft. Savigs duties will include research into collection objects; acquiring artworks for the museums permanent collection; collection displays at the museums Renwick Gallery, its branch for contemporary craft and decorative art; and organizing exhibitions about craft and maker culture. Savigs research interests include American studio craft, contemporary craft, American art and material culture. Savig begins work at the museum today. We are delighted to welcome Mary Savig to the Renwicks curatorial team. said Stephanie Stebich, the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With her deep knowledge of the field and fresh curatorial voice, she will help ... More | |
Kate Williams Evans portrait. © Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales.
ST FAGANS.- The items which form part of the collection owned by Welsh suffragette Kate Williams Evans were acquired by Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales in 2018. These include a hunger strike medal and book signed by prominent suffragettes including Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding Davison. Born in Llansanffraid in 1866, Kate Williams Evans travelled to Paris as a young woman, where she developed a keen interest in politics. On returning to Wales, she joined the Womens Social and Political Union and became a suffragette. She was arrested in 1912 for malicious damage and her Metropolitan Police summons forms part of the collection. Hunger-striking women were routinely restrained and force-fed by prison authorities. The collection acquired by Amgueddfa Cymru includes a rare Suffragette Hunger Strike Medal, given to Kate as an acknowledgement of the treatment ... More | |
Deng Yuejun, liminal Dreaming NO.1, Installation, 20㎡-50㎡, 2019. Courtesy the artist.
BEIJING.- CAFA Art Museum announced the opening of the inaugural edition of the CAFAM Techne Triennial, which takes place in Beijing from February 20 to March 29, 2020, and is curated by ZHANG Ga, CAFAM Consulting Curator and CAFA Distinguished Professor. With over 120 works by more than 130 artists and collectives from 28 countries, the Triennial is comprised of two parts: a major exhibition titled Topologies of the Real, and Art in Motion: Masterpieces with and through Media, a presentation organized by ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Topologies of the Real is a three-part exhibition consists of Reality Interrupted, Datumsoria: The Return of the Real, and Multiverse: Ecology without Nature. The exhibition examines the trajectories of how artistic imagination has challenged and redefined the notion of reality under the technological construct of spacetime which has rapidly evolved since the ... More |
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Looking Back to Look Forward | Met Stories
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Swann to auction art collection of Ebony and Jet publishers
NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries will open the new decade in style, with a sale of African-American Art from the Johnson Publishing Company on Thursday, January 30. The collectionwhich hung in the publishing houses historic offices on 820 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicagowill feature paintings, sculpture and works on paper from diverse periods over the last century, with 75 artists represented. Hung together in a single exhibition for the first time, the Johnson Publishing Companys art collection makes a powerful statement, demonstrating the companys longstanding recognition and support of visual artists. The earliest work in the sale comes from 1912: Henry Ossawa Tanners beautiful oil-on-canvas Moonrise by Kasbah (Morocco) depicts figures outside the stark, steep exterior walls of a Moroccan Kasbah. The significant midcareer painting ... More
MIT List Visual Arts Center names Natalie Bell as new Curator
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.- The MIT List Visual Arts Center announced today that Natalie Bell will be its next exhibition curator. Most recently, Bell served as associate curator at the New Museum, New York, where she worked since 2013. Bell begins her new appointment at the List Center on January 15, 2020. Natalie brings a strong, fresh, and international curatorial perspective to our programming efforts, said Paul C. Ha, Director of the List Center. We look forward to her leadership role in introducing new and exciting exhibition projects to our diverse audiences. Her vision fits in perfectly with the List Centers mission to expand our reputation as a strong supporter of artists at decisive points in their careers. At the New Museum, New York, Bell co-organized large-scale group exhibitions including: The Warmth of Other Suns (2019), Trigger: ... More
Worcester Art Museum announces hiring of Mark Spuria as CFO
WORCESTER, MASS.- The Worcester Art Museum announced today that it has hired Mark Spuria to fill the newly created position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Spuria comes with more than 20 years of experience in financial management and administration in the arts, having served most recently as the General Manager (2016 present) and CFO (2011 - 2016) for the Maynard, Massachusetts-based company Verne Q. Powell Flutes, where he has worked since 1996. In addition to his financial skills, Spuria brings a love of the arts: he served as the Principal Clarinetist for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for seven years, and has held positions on a number of different non-profit boards, including ARTSWorcester, the Worcester Chamber Music Society, and as a Corporator and member of the Finance Committee for the Worcester ... More
Strike hits Mandela's prison museum in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG (AFP).- Workers at South Africa's Robben Island Museum, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly two decades, started an open-ended strike over low pay on Monday, their union said. South Africa's first black president spent 27 years in jail for fighting white-minority rule before he was freed in 1990. Mandela served most of his sentence on Robben Island, off the coastal city of Cape Town. The prison is now a World Heritage site and a museum visited by more than 300,000 people per year. "The strike is around a deadlock on salary negotiations that commenced (in) early December 2019," said a provincial head of South Africa's National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU), Eric Kweleta. Around 250 out of 500 employees took part in the work stoppage, said Kweleta, with groups picketing in front of the Nelson ... More
France to strip special pension from underage rape probe writer
PARIS (AFP).- France's culture minister said Monday that a writer accused of raping and seducing children should be stripped of a special state pension. Award-winning essayist Gabriel Matzneff is being investigated by French police after the publication of a book detailing his sexual relationship with a girl of 14 over three decades ago. Matzneff, 83, who won the prestigious Renaudot prize in 2013, has never made any secret of his sexual preference for adolescent girls and boys. In the mid-1970s, he published a notorious essay called "Les Moins de Seize Ans" ("Those Less than 16") in which he recounted his "conquests". Culture minister Franck Riester said Matzneff should be deprived of cash from a hardship fund from the National Books Centre (CNL) for elderly writers in financial straits. In a statement, he said the author should not be granted the ... More
Bong Joon-ho: South Korea's biting film satirist
SEOUL (AFP).- South Korea's Bong Joon-ho is an acclaimed filmmaker known for dark and genre-hopping thrillers, and his Golden Globe-winning "Parasite" -- a vicious satire about the widening gap between rich and poor -- features all of his trademarks. With a series of critical and commercial hits behind him, Bong is one of South Korea's best-known faces, claiming multiple prizes at home and making inroads into Hollywood -- a rarity for an Asian auteur filmmaker. The movie's Golden Globe win for best foreign language film is the first award for a Korean in any category at the gala, and comes after the 100th anniversary of Korean cinema in 2019. "Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films," the 50-year-old Bong said through a translator as he accepted the award at the gala in Beverly Hills. ... More
The James Museum welcomes Debbie Sokolov as first Director of Development
ST. PETERSBURG, FL.- Debbie Sokolov is joining the team at The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art as Director of Development. Sokolov will play an integral part in advancing the James Museum by participating in strategic planning, developing long-term sustainability strategies and launching those opportunities. We are delighted to welcome Debbie to the museum, said Laura Hine, executive director of the James Museum. The museum is entering an exciting period of planning for growth and long-term sustainment. Her 20 years of experience in fundraising regionally combined with her extensive background in nonprofit administration, make Debbie just the right person to round out our team. Sokolovs donor-centered and team-building approach have helped small and large nonprofits raise millions of dollars. In her most recent ... More
Bonhams launches dedicated designer handbags and fashion department
LONDON.- Bonhams is accessorising its luxury division with an all-new designer handbag and fashion department at its Knightsbridge saleroom. The department launched today, 6 January 2020, with its first sale scheduled for April. The new departments auctions will offer pre-owned/collectors contemporary and vintage handbags, costume jewellery, luggage and classic fashion pieces, showcasing luxury labels from Chanel, Christian Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada, to name a few. Four sales per year will be held, each offering between 200 and 300 lots appealing to both fashionistas and collectors. Two will be live auctions held at Bonhams Knightsbridge saleroom, taking place on 22 April and 23 September, with a further two online-only sales. The sales will be curated to reflect current market trends and fashions by a new team ... More
London designer Wales Bonner making waves
LONDON (AFP).- At just 29, Grace Wales Bonner is one of London's most promising designers, exploring black male identity through her eponymous menswear brand with looks that have caught the eye of celebrities such as Meghan Markle. Wales Bonner, the daughter of a Jamaican father and English mother, unveiled her 2020 autumn/winter collection on Sunday at "London Fashion Week Men's", with a clear nod to her Caribbean roots. "My grandfather came to London in the fifties so it is about the second generation who grew up in London" in the 1970s, she told AFP. "I was really interested in the youth community and how people embrace British traditions but also how they perform their identities or connections to the Caribbean. "It is also looking to the multiculturalism in Britain at that time." Dubbed Lovers Rock, from the name of a s ... More
Anri Sala creates new cinematic installation for Centro BotÃn
SANTANDER.- Centro BotÃn in Santander, Spain, is presenting Anri Sala: AS YOU GO (Châteaux en Espagne), a new exhibition by Albanian-born artist Anri Sala, running from 14 December 2019 3 May 2020. The exhibition, curated by Benjamin Weil, Artistic Director of Centro BotÃn,consists of three monumental installations occupying the entire second floor gallery, which reflect Salas enduring interest in the interplay between moving images, music, and architectural space. Benjamin Weil, Artistic Director, Centro BotÃn: The first phrase in the title chosen by Anri Sala for this new exhibition, AS YOU GO, implies the idea of movement: that of a time-based work, informed by music and moving images; and that one of the visitors, who Sala implicitly encourages to keep moving and hence partake in the ... More
40 years later, Reggae's heart still beats in the Bronx
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Lloyd Barnes carried a shopping bag full of cleaning supplies up to a humble recording studio tucked above a financial services center and a Caribbean restaurant in the Eastchester neighborhood of the Bronx. A colleague was in a session with a dance hall vocalist, and Barnes pointed out his most recent nonmusical project, a custom-upholstered sofa embroidered with his record labels logo: a dreadlocked Lion of Judah with its tail cocked up aggressively, and a flag displaying a star of David next to the name Wackies. Together, the studio and label make up one of the most respected reggae institutions in the United States, and Barnes, a calm, lanky man with a penchant for crisp clothing, is their founder, chief producer and champion. Wackies began in 1976, but 1979 was the year he and his team locked ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Inventing Acadia
State of Extremes
Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat:
Nashashibi/Skaer
Flashback On a day like today, English painter and educator Thomas Lawrence died January 07, 1830. Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA FRS (13 April 1769 - 7 January 1830) was a leading English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. In this image: Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 - 1830) Portrait of the Hon. Emily Mary Lamb (1787-1869), 1803. ©The National Gallery.
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