| | After More than 20 Years, Michelangelo's Most Precious Drawings at Albertina in Vienna
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Visitors walk by a Michelangelo painting, entitled The Rape of Ganymede, during a press preview of an exhibition, entitled Michelangelo. The Drawings of a Genius, at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria, 06 October 2010. The exhibition opens to the public on 08 October. EPA/GEORG HOCHMUTH.
VIENNA.- Between 8 October 2010 and 9 January 2011, the Albertina presents the first major Michelangelo exhibition in more than twenty years. This display of 120 out of the artist’s most precious drawings offers a comprehensive insight into the work of this great genius. The sheets come from the Albertina’s own holdings, as well as from important European and American museums – the Uffizi and the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, the Royal Library in Windsor Castle (property of the British monarch) and the British Museum in London – and private collections. The exhibition spans from Michelangelo’s earliest surviving drawings, his designs for the Battle of Cascina, and his studies for the vault frescoes and The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel to the refined drawings the artist presented to Tommaso de’Ca ... More |
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Preserved Feathers and Scales of a Giant Penguin Fossil Gives Evolutionary Clues
Palaeontologist Rodolfo Salas shows the feet of a giant fossilized penguin at Peru's Natural History Museum in Lima. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo.
By: Emily Schmall
LIMA (REUTERS).- The preserved feathers and scales of a giant fossilized penguin discovered on Peru's central coast provide a glimpse of Peru's Eocene period, and how the species evolved to its modern state, paleontologists say. The ancient version of the marine bird was about 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall and weighed almost 60 kg (132 lb), dwarfing today's Emperor Penguin, the largest of the modern-day species. "By looking at this fossil, we were prompted to ask new questions about living penguins and the world we live in today," said Julia Clarke, an expert in avian anatomy at the University of Texas at Austin. The paleontologists date the remains to 36 million years ago. They dubbed the ancient penguin "Inkayacu paracasensis," which means "emperor of the water" in the indigenous language of Quechua. "Without doubt this is the most complete specimen of ancient penguins that exists," said ... More | | Damien Hirst Fills the Paul Stolper Gallery with 120 Framed, Foilblock Butterfly Prints
Damien Hirst, The Souls I ‐ Westminster Blue/Oriental Gold/Topaz, 3 colour foil block on 300gsm Arches 88, archival paper. 72 x 51cm. Edition of 15. Signed and numbered, 2010, £ 3,000 + vat unframed. Photo: Other Criteria and Paul Stolper.
By: Michael Bracewell
LONDON.- Paul Stolper and Other Criteria present the launch of ‘The Souls’ by Damien Hirst. For this landmark project, Hirst has intensified his career‐long fascination with the beauty, fragility and symbolism of butterflies to create a spectacular and multi‐allusive evocation of mortality. More than that of any contemporary artist, and in a modern lineage that includes the work of Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, the art of Damien Hirst confronts the balances between life and death, vanity and transience, value and worth, faith and existential alienation with a visceral and terrifying immediacy. Hirst’s choices of media, his innovations within them and the sheer scale on which he works, are integral to the philosophical depth and empathetic charge of his art; and to this end, Hirst has ... More | | Christie's to Offer 69 Important Works of Art from the Collection of Robert Shapazian
Andy Warhol, Small Campbell’s soup Cam (Tomato). Signed ‘Andy Warhol’ (top of canvas, on reverse), Casein and pencil on linen, 20 x 16 in. executed in 1962. Estimate: $6,000,000 – 8,000,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2010.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced the sale of The Collection of Robert Shapazian. Shapazian’s passion for the arts was reflected in his life-long dedication to the field, his friendships with those in it and his personal, yet masterful collection which Christie’s will offer in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales and other various auctions, beginning this fall. The Collection of Robert Shapazian includes 69 works of art including standout examples by Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp and Roy Lichtenstein. The collection is expected to realize $22-$31 million. Robert Shapazian’s affinity for art and collecting was deep and down to the core. Robert was raised in Fresno, California, where his family was involved in the agricultural business. He began collecting at age 13, and sold works to major museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, while in ... More |
 | Tiny Footprints from Poland Show that First Dinosaurs Walked on Little Cat Feet
Reconstruction of cat-sized stem dinosaur "Prorotodactylus" isp. found in Stryczowice, Poland. Credit: Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki.
WASHINGTON (REUTERS).- Tiny footprints from Poland show that the first dinosaurs were extremely small animals that walked on four legs -- and probably only came to rule the world after a mass extinction knocked out many big reptiles, scientists said on Tuesday. The 250-million-year-old footprints are the oldest evidence of dinosaurs, Stephen Brusatte of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and colleagues said. The animal was about the size of a small domestic cat, they reported, and would have lived near rivers where larger crocodilians thrived. "We describe the indisputably oldest fossils of the dinosaur lineage: footprints from the Early Triassic (around 250 million years old) from Poland," Brusatte's team wrote in Britain's Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal ... More | | Record Number of Visitors this Summer for the United Kingdom's National Museums
In total the UK’s national museums welcomed over 42 million visitors in 2009/10.
LONDON.- This summer saw a record number of visitors to the UK’s national museums. Over 5.7 million people visited UK national museums in August 2010. This represents an increase of 11% from August 2009. Highlights include: • A total of 809,443 people visited the four branches of Tate in August, a 15% increase on last year. • The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Wallace Collection both saw a 24% increase in visitors compared to August 2009. • The Natural History Museum had 592,534 visitors, a 17% increase on August 2009, and the National Gallery had 568,375 visitors, an 18% increase. In total the UK’s national museums welcomed over 42 million visitors in 2009/10. The latest Taking Part National Survey of Participation in Culture and Sport results also show an increase in museum visits. The survey showed that in 2009-10: ... More | | National Archives in Washington Puts Nazi Papers, The Nuremberg Laws, on Public View
A section of the original Nuremberg Laws, on display at the National Archives. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.
By: Brett Zongker, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP).- The laws signed by Adolf Hitler taking away the citizenship of German Jews before the Holocaust were placed on rare public display Wednesday at the National Archives. The Nuremberg Laws were turned over to the archives in August by The Huntington, a museum complex near Los Angeles where they were quietly deposited by Gen. George Patton at the end of World War II. The papers will be on display in a separate gallery from the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence through Oct. 18. Tony Platt, a historian who has studied the laws and is currently researching in Berlin, said the laws offer lessons from what happened in Germany and from how the documents were hidden away in the United States for ... More |
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France 1500: Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance at the Galeries nationales Grand Palais
Jean Hey, L’Annonciation, vers 1490-1495, huile sur bois, 72 x 50 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Matin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933.
PARIS.- This exhibition explores a time of unprecedented artistic contact and creative effervescence in France, which many people know little about. It is the first major exhibition devoted to a turning point in French history, in the reigns of Charles VIII (1483-1498) and Louis XII (1498-1515), which was dominated by the personality of Anne de Bretagne, successively the wife of both kings. A period of economic recovery, demographic growth, and territorial ambitions with the famous Italian wars, as well as cultural development in the humanist spirit. It was also a time of exceptional flowering and sharp contrasts in art. Nonetheless, these movements are often skimmed over to the extent that most books on Europe European art in the period barely mention France at all. The exhibition draws on recent research and presents 200 masterly works which give a clearer view of France at a crucial intersection in history, while questioning the ideas ... More | | Robert F. Kennedy-Owned Emancipation Proclamation Up for Auction
A printed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln. AP Photo/Sotheby's.
By: Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP).- A copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln and bought by Robert F. Kennedy, who drew inspiration from the document as he enforced civil rights legislation in the 1960s, is going up for auction and could fetch as much as $1.5 million. Kennedy bought the printed copy of the 1863 document declaring all slaves "forever free" shortly after its centennial celebration at the White House. His widow, Ethel, is offering it for sale Dec. 10 at Sotheby's, the auction house told The Associated Press. It's one of 48 printed copies signed by President Abraham Lincoln. About half are known to survive; 14 are in public institutions and another eight to 10 are privately owned, said Selby Kiffer, Sotheby's senior specialist for historic American manuscripts. The original, handwritten Emancipation Proclamation is in the National Archives. Kennedy was ... More | | Nazi Praise Sparks Switzerland's Rethink of Modernist Architect Le Corbusier
Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier shows a model of a building. AP Photo.
By: Bradley S. Klapper, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA (AP).- He's one of the titans of 20th Century architecture, but Le Corbusier is suddenly feeling the weight of history working against him. The modernist master's legacy is coming under pressure after Switzerland's largest bank dropped an ad campaign featuring the architect and artist last week. Now, Zurich authorities are debating whether to dump plans to name a square after him. Letters made public in recent years and a 2008 biography suggest that the visionary known for his cool, spare designs and revolutionary urban planning ideas was a Nazi sympathizer whose Fascist tendencies went far beyond what was previously known. One letter shows Le Corbusier expressing clear enthusiasm for Hitler, even if at other times he calls the German leader a "monster." "If he is serious in his declarations, Hitler can crown his life with a magnificent work: ... More |
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Judd Foundation Announces It will Now Be Represented Exclusively by David Zwirner
Donald Judd at Wateri Gallery, Tokyo, 1977. Judd Art © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Courtesy Judd Foundation Archive and David Zwirner.
NEW YORK, NY.- David Zwirner announced its exclusive representation of Judd Foundation. Judd Foundation was created by the artist Donald Judd to maintain and preserve his permanently installed living and working spaces in New York and Marfa, Texas. The Foundation promotes a wider understanding of and appreciation for Judd’s artistic legacy by facilitating public access to his spaces, archives, libraries, and works. David Zwirner will be Judd Foundation’s exclusive commercial gallery. In this role, David Zwirner will promote and further the legacy of Donald Judd through curated exhibitions at its gallery spaces; the development of new scholarship on the artist’s work through publications and international exhibitions; and through the sale of artworks consigned to the gallery by the Foundation. The gallery is preparing a historical survey exhibition of Donald Judd’s work, planned for 2011. Judd Fo ... More | | Teotihuacan's Emblematic Monument, The Sun Pyramid, Still an Enigma for Archaeologists
The sun pyramid is the most important building of Teotihuacan. Photo: INAH/M. Marat.
MEXICO CITY.- Although research conducted at Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone has allowed determining several of its urban features, the construction of its most emblematic monument, the Sun Pyramid, still presents enigmas, like the real significance it had for dwellers, since no historical sources exist. M.A. Ruben Cabrera Castro, researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), tried to elucidate the sense this 65-meter building had for ancient Teotihuacan dwellers. Although information has been provided by material rests found, it is difficult to be certain about Prehispanic thought. At the conference series at the Center of Teotihuacan Studies, part of commemorations of the centennial of the opening of the archaeological site, Cabrera recalled that recently archaeologist Jaime Delgado conducted a survey among dwellers of the Valley of Teotihuacan and urban communities near Mexico City, workers and ... More | | Sotheby's Islamic Art Sales Series Achieves Record Sum of £25.3 ($40.3) Million
Twenty four preparatory paintings depicting the Battle of Pollilur, Seringapatam, Mysore, India after 1780. Pre-sale estimate: 650,000—800,000 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Sotheby’s Islamic Art Sales Series concluded this afternoon, realising an outstanding – above high estimate – total of £25,349,000 ($40,264,239) and a combined sell-through rate by lot of 64%. The total achieved represents a record sum for any Auction Series of Islamic Art ever staged. The exceptionally strong sum of £18,297,200 ($29,118,164) realised for today’s ‘Arts of the Islamic World Sale’, which was over £1 million above the high estimate for the sale, established the highest-ever total for a single sale staged in this collecting field. Today’s results follow the success of last night’s first-ever Evening Auction in the category – ‘A Princely Collection: Treasures from the Islamic World’ – which brought £7,051,800 ($11,146,075). Discussing the results of Sotheby’s Islamic Art Sales Series, Edward Gibbs, Senior Director and ... More |
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Completely Renewed, the National Museum of Cultures to Be Reopened
MEXICO CITY.- After almost 4 years of architectural restoration, museographic renovation and actualization of all the systems at the Former Mint House, the National Museum of Cultures (MNC) will open again its doors in October 6th 2010, with state-of-the-art technology, renewed spaces and halls equipped with modern humidity and temperature control as well as lighting systems. In the space where in 1865 the first museum in Mexico was founded, MNC will be reopened with the exhibition First Peoples of Canada. Masterworks from the Canadian Museum of Civilization at the International Exhibitions Hall. 150 ethnographic and archaeological pieces of great symbolic and historical value integrate the display. New spaces at the National Museum of Cultures include the Pacific Cultures Hall in the former Monoliths Hall; the Mediateca (media library); an auditorium, and a new warehouse with controlled conditions of temperature and safety. The first actualization of the National Museum of C ... More
Cornerstone Laid for John Paul II Museum in Poland
WARSAW (AP).- Officials say a cornerstone has been laid for a museum honoring the late Pope John Paul II at his family home in southern Poland. The website of the town of Wadowice says the cornerstone was laid at a wall of the pope's childhood home on Tuesday by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's longtime personal secretary, and by Mayor Ewa Filipiak. A museum depicting the family's two-room apartment as it was in the 1920s, when the future pope lived there with his parents and older brother, is to open in 2012. Neighboring apartments will be redone to house exhibits documenting John Paul's entire life. The future pope was born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice in May 1920. He died at the Vatican in April 2005. ... More
Magnificent and Rare Collection of Mezzotints Acquired by the Art Fund for the British Museum
LONDON.- The Art Fund has helped the British Museum acquire a magnificent and rare collection of prints dating from the 1680s to the 19th century that give valuable insight into scarcely recorded aspects of British life. Comprising 7,250 prints that chart social history up until the First World War, the collection includes rare 17th century mezzotints called ‘drolls’ which recorded semi-popular British culture and visual iconography. It also includes 18th and 19th century portrait and subject prints along with the Northumberland album – an intact album of satires on fashion and other topical subjects assembled by the Duchess of Northumberland in the 1770s. In the late 18th century, British printmaking became one of the UK’s greatest exports and an essential element of Continental Anglomania. Mezzotint is a copperplate ... More
First Exhibition in 45 Years Devoted to Renaissance Master Jan Gossart on View at Metropolitan Museum
NEW YORK, NY.- The first major exhibition in 45 years devoted to Jan Gossart (ca. 1478-1532)— one of the most innovative artists of the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands—will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning October 6, 2010. Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance will bring together the majority of Gossart's paintings, drawings, and prints, and place them in the context of the influences on his transformation from Late Gothic Mannerism to the new Renaissance mode. Gossart was among the first northern artists to travel to Rome to make copies after antique sculpture and monuments and to introduce biblical and mythological subjects with erotic nude figures into the mainstream of northern painting. Most often credited with successfully assimilating Italian Renaissance style into northern European art of the early 16th century, he is the pivotal Old Master who redirected the cour ... More
Sotheby's First-Ever Evening Sale of Islamic Art Realises £7 Million - Well Above Pre-Sale Expectations
LONDON.- Sotheby’s first-ever Evening Sale of Islamic Art, A Princely Collection: Treasures from the Islamic World, tonight realised the remarkable total of £7,070,550, against a pre-sale estimate of £3.4-4.8 million, and established strong sell-through rates by lot and value of 96% and 88% respectively. Of the lots sold, 75% achieved sums in excess of their pre-sale high estimates. Commenting on the results, Edward Gibbs, Senior Director and Head of Sotheby’s Middle East Department, said: “Tonight’s auction of Islamic Art – the first Evening Sale in this collecting category ever to be staged – represents a landmark moment for the field. These extraordinary results are confirmation of the discerning eye of the collector who assembled this collection of rare and high quality works of art, and also ... More
Biennale of Sydney Announces Joint Artistic Directors for 2012: Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster
SYDNEY.- The Biennale of Sydney has today announced the appointment of Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster as Joint Artistic Directors of the 18th Biennale of Sydney, which will be held from Wednesday, 27 June – Sunday, 16 September 2012. ‘We are delighted that Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster have accepted our invitation to become Joint Artistic Directors of the 18th Biennale of Sydney,’ says Marah Braye, Chief Executive Officer. ‘For the first time, the Biennale has appointed a curatorial duo to direct the exhibition and program. Both de Zegher and McMaster are dynamic and respected figures in their fields and have previously worked together to great acclaim. This promises to be an innovative collaboration and we look forward to building on the success of previous biennales to present an exciting and multi-faceted 18th Biennale of Sydney in 2012.’ Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster have recently collaborated at the Art Gallery of Ontar ... More
DeCordova Announces the Rappaport Endowment Fund and the Winner of the 11th Rappaport Prize
LINCOLN, MA.- At its Fall Meeting, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum announced both a major gift from the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation to endow the Rappaport Prize in perpetuity, as well as the 2010 winner of the Rappaport Prize. The prestigious Rappaport Prize, which annually awards $25,000 to a contemporary artist with a relationship to New England, is both the longest-standing New England art prize as well as one of the largest awards of its kind in the region. "Creative artists enrich our lives in New England and are part of the magnet that attract and keep our creative workforce in this region," Jerry Rappaport said. "Phyllis and I are pleased in endowing the Rappaport Prize to permanently provide annual recognition and support for these outstanding and creative artists." Foundation Chair Phyllis Rappaport added, "Since deCordova has from its inception had a unique focus on art in New England we believe that they will continue to maintain the standards of ... More
Smithsonian Announces Archives of American Art Medal Recipients
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian's Archives of American Art will salute the distinguished careers of artists Mark di Suvero and Sheila Hicks and collectors Don and Mera Rubell Thursday, Oct. 28. These honorees will receive the Archives of American Art Medal at the organization's annual benefit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. On the same evening, the Archives' Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History will be presented to William H. Gerdts. Each year, the Archives of American Art Medalhonors leaders in the field of American art. Past award recipients include John Baldessari, Eli Broad, Chuck Close, Paula Cooper, André Emmerich, Agnes Gund, Ellsworth Kelly, Ellen Phelan and Joel Shapiro. The Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History was established in 1998 as a tribute to Archives co-founder Lawrence A. Fleischman. ... More
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