| | Iconic 19th Century Orientalist Painting by Jean Léon Gérôme Creates Pre-Auction Buzz
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Artist Jean Leon Gerome's (1824-1904) "Master of the Hounds" is seen during the media preview of the Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors art at Christie's in New York January 20, 2011. Christie's will present a two-part sale of European Art on January 26. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton.
By: Kristina Cooke
NEW YORK (REUTERS).- An iconic 19th Century painting depicting an Ottoman Empire reserve soldier and his hunting dogs is generating buzz ahead of an auction next week, due to a rise in popularity of Orientalist art. The artwork, "Master of the Hounds" by Jean Leon Gerome is expected to fetch $700,000 to $1 million on January 26, during Christie's auction of Old Master & 19th Century paintings, drawings and watercolors that could total as much as $56 million. Gerome's paintings and the Orientalist genre overall -- which often depict Arab and North African subjects -- are experiencing a revival, according to Diana Branham, a specialist in 19th Century art at Christie's. Museums in Paris, Los Angeles and Madrid have recently featured Gerome's work. "Part of the reason Orientalist paintings fell out of favor is that they were seen as colonialist art," Branham explained. "Now there is a real effort to rethink these artists and se ... More |
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New Dinosaur Hall to Create Landmark Experience at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Luis M. Chiappe, director of the Dinosaur Institute, in white shirt, talks with a journalist. AP Photo/Reed Saxon.
LOS ANGELES, CA.-This summer, the much-anticipated new Dinosaur Hall opens to the public at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The large-scale permanent exhibition will be presented in two light-filled galleries – twice the size of the Museum’s old dinosaur galleries. The Dinosaur Hall will rival the world’s leading dinosaur halls — for the sheer volume of individual fossils displayed; the size and extraordinariness of the major mounts, including the world’s only T. rex growth series; and the transparent treatment of the science that surrounds these creatures — not as static, definitive knowledge but as a vibrant, ongoing investigation of mysteries solved and still unsolved. The exhibition features over 300 fossils, 20 full body specimens, manual and digital interactives, and large-format video. The T. rex series features an adult, juvenile, and baby. The adult, nicknamed Thomas, is on ... More | | Gagosian Gallery Presents a Mise-en-Scène of New Paintings by Piotr Uklański
Piotr Uklański, Discharge! January 21-February 19, 2011. © Piotr Uklański. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by Robert McKeever.
NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian Gallery presents Discharge! (on display until February 19, 2011), a mise-en-scène of new paintings by Piotr Uklański. If painting is traditionally defined as an accretive practice whereby pigments are applied to blank canvas to produce marks, Uklański’s new work moves in the opposite direction. The process reveals a skepticism towards the act of painting that at the same time allows him to produce seductive pictorial results. Color is strategically removed — or discharged — from cotton bedsheets that have been saturated with vibrantly-hued fiber-reactive dyes. Bleach is the primary agent in this process that allows the creation of “paintings” without paint. The nature of this discharge method aligns this work with a legacy of anti-painting. Sharing affinities with Sigmar Polke’s fabric paintings and Blinky Palermo’s sewn cloth pictures (Stoffbilder) — ... More | | VIP Art Fair: World's First Online Art Fair Launches Its Inaugural Edition on Saturday
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Early Moses, 1983. Acrylic and oil crayon on canvas, 198 x 141 cm. Courtesy Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich, St. Moritz.
NEW YORK, NY.- VIP Art Fair launches its inaugural edition on Saturday featuring 138 leading contemporary art galleries from 30 countries, with more than 2,000 artists and 7,500 works of art in inventory. Works on view at the Fair range from more than 50 pieces priced above $1 million USD to more than 100 artworks valued at less than $5,000 USD. To date, visitors from 126 countries around the globe have signed up to participate including Russia, China, Ghana, Afghanistan, Uruguay, New Zealand, and Lebanon. The Fair runs live, exclusively online at www.vipartfair.com for one-week only, from January 22 to January 30, 2011. Co-founded by New York-based dealers James and Jane Cohan and Internet entrepreneurs Jonas and Alessandra Almgren, VIP Art Fair re-configures the traditional art fair model for the Internet. Similar to traditional art fairs, VIP Art Fair is a platform for the leading contemporary art galleries to offer wor ... More |
 | The Famous Thames Whale Goes on Display at the Natural History Museum at Tring
Hyperoodon ampullatus, northern bottlenose whale. © The Natural History Museum, London.
HERTFORDSHIRE.- The latest temporary exhibition at the Natural History Museum at Tring, The Thames Whale Story, opens on the 22 January. The exhibition marks the five-year anniversary of the now-famous northern bottlenose whale that found its way into the River Thames. Following the dramatic three days in which the whale swam up the Thames, explore how it got there from its home miles away in the North Atlantic, what happened to the skeleton after the failed rescue attempt and how important it is to science today. From the moment it was spotted in the Thames on 19 January 2006, the whale captured the public’s imagination. At six metres long, it was unmissable, and the female whale’s every move was followed by the public and the media. Despite rescue efforts, the whale died on 21 January as it was being taken back out to sea on a barge. This northern bottlenose whale was the first of its species to be ... More | | Seattle Art Museum's Picasso Exhibition Surpasses 400,000 Visitors, Breaks Record
People look on at "Acrobat" during a media preview at the Seattle Art Museum. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson.
SEATTLE, WA.- Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris has broken SAM’s record for the most popular exhibition in the history of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) downtown, attracting more than 400,000 visitors and boosting its membership to an all time high during its showing in Seattle, October 8, 2010 through January 17, 2011. More than 400,00 visitors, including students with school groups from throughout Washington state and beyond, toured the exhibition of more than 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs from virtually every phase of Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) legendary career. The exhibition’s attendance surpassed the museum’s previous record-breaker, Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums, which attracted 316,000 attendees between June 12 and August 29, 1999. Drawn from the collection of the Musée National Picasso in Paris, the largest a ... More | | The World's Greatest Toy and Train Collection Now on View for the First Time at Sotheby's
“Imagine a vast space filled with the rarest toys in the most perfect condition. Photo: Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Throughout January and February, Sotheby’s will exhibit selections from the Jerni Collection, the largest and most comprehensive collection of magnificent quality European and American toys and trains ever assembled. The exhibition takes up an entire floor of Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters, yet remarkably, what is on view represents a mere 20% of the tens of thousands of objects included in the collection. The entire collection is available for private sale through Sotheby’s as a single lot. “Imagine a vast space filled with the rarest toys in the most perfect condition,” said David Redden, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman. “The Jerni Collection is a passionate homage to the Golden Age of toy making, but on a scale that is breathtaking. Tens of thousands of miniature works of art—trains, stations, villages, carousels, Ferris wheels—conjure up a privileged childhood world ... More |
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Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough Defends Decision to Remove Controversial Video
File photo of Protesters holding masks in support of artist David Wojnarowicz. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.
By: Brett Zongker, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP).- Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough on Tuesday defended his decision to remove an artist's video that depicted ants crawling on a crucifix from an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, saying a controversy over the short clip threatened to overshadow its first major exhibition on gay themes in art history. Critics had blasted Clough's decision as verging on artistic censorship while members of Congress and a Catholic group had complained that the video was sacrilegious. In his first public response to questions on the issue, Clough said the controversy overshadowed the exhibition and threatened to spiral beyond control into a debate on religious desecration. He said he acted to preserve the overall exhibit, "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture." "I still believe it was a right decision and I'm still proud that that exhibit is still up and ... More | | Nailya Alexander Gallery Presents The Extra/Ordinary World of Pentti Sammallahti
Pentti Sammallahti, Solovki, White Sea, Russia, 1992. Photo: Courtesy Nailya Alexander Gallery.
NEW YORK, NY.- Nailya Alexander Gallery presents The Extra/Ordinary World of Pentti Sammallahti, one of Finland’s most internationally prominent photographers. The exhibition will run through March 10, 2011. This show is in conjunction with Pentti Sammallahti’s retrospective at The Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki (September 2010- February 2011). From early childhood Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950) was drawn to photography. Growing up, he was surrounded by the works of his grandmother, Hildur Larsson (1882-1952), a Swedish-born photographer, who worked for the Helsinki newspaper Kaiku in the early 1900s. After visiting The Family of Man exhibition at Helsinki Art Hall (1961) Sammallahti made his first prints at age eleven. Pentti joined the Helsinki Camera Club in 1964. His first solo exhibition was in 1971. Sammallahti is a poet of his native Helsinki; a philosopher, who cherishes the nature an ... More | | John Beech: The State of Things on Display at Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea
John Beech, Rolling Platform, 2010, plywood, enamel, casters, screws, 66 x 60 x 60 inches. Photo: Courtesy Peter Blum Gallery, NY.
NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Blum Gallery Chelsea presents the exhibition John Beech- The State of Things now on display at Peter Blum Chelsea, New York. The exhibition focuses on new sculpture and works on paper, which examine the fabrication and manipulation of objects to create abstract works. Building sculptures out of a variety of components, Beech edits out the objects’ original intention and requires the viewer to engage with its formal properties of shape, form and scale. For example, in Waterbury, 2010 an abandoned Formica kitchen countertop has been repaired with glue and black industrial tape and is leaned against the wall. The original intention of the countertop becomes secondary, as the elements that identify it as a functional object have been removed. Kimmeridge, 2010 is made from printing plates that have been used in the artist’s printmaking practice. The black slabs of plexi-glass are coated ... More |
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Exhibition of Photographs by Dorothea Lange at Brigham Young University Museum of Art
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Leaving Church, Toquerville, Utah, 1953 (detail), Gelatin silver print, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California. ©Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California, City of Oakland. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.
PROVO, UTAH.- In August 1953, renown American photographer Dorothea Lange traveled to southern Utah where she met up with her long-time friend Ansel Adams. The two photographers spent three weeks photographing the landscape and people of Toquerville, Gunlock and St. George with the intention of publishing the work in LIFE magazine. Lange’s enthusiasm for her subject yielded hundreds of photographs from which she composed an extended essay of 135 photographs, including images by Ansel Adams. Thirty-five of those photographs with text by Daniel Dixon appeared under the title “Three Mormon Towns” in the September 6, 1954 issue of LIFE. “Dorothea Lange’s Three Mormon Towns,” a new exhibition at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, will feature 21 of Lange’s photographs from this series acquired by the museum. The exhibition will ... More | | Rosenbach Museum & Library to Deaccession Paintings by Walter Greaves
Walter Greaves, James Abbott McNeill Whistler on the widow's walk at his house in Lindsey Row, Chelsea. Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2011.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- At its quarterly meeting on October 26, 2010, the Board of Trustees of the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia voted unanimously to deaccession thirteen paintings by the British artist Walter Greaves (1846-1930). Deaccessioning is the term museums use to describe the permanent removal, by sale or by gift, of items from their collections. There are two essential parts of deaccessioning: making the decision in the first place, and then allocating the proceeds. The following text – prepared by Derick Dreher, Director, Rosenbach Museum & Library – will address the best standards and practices for both issues, and explain in detail the entire process the Rosenbach followed. When a museum’s governing body engages in a thoughtful process, making the decision based on curatorial arguments, deaccessioning can be an important tool for proactive ... More | | Cain Schulte Starts the New Year with Exhibitions by Matthew Barney and Sandra Munzel
Matthew Barney: Nisshin Maru, 2007 (detail). Edition of 25, 8 black and white photogravures. Special box produced and designed by the artist, 25,4cm x 25,4 cm, copyright Matthew Barney.
BERLIN.- Cain Schulte Contemporary Art Berlin starts the new Year showing photoengravings and etchings by Matthew Barney as well as sculptures and drawings by Sandra Munzel. Barney and Munzel both deal with the afflictions of the human body – Barney in a visually staged vehemence and Munzel by cautiously sketching our fantasies. An opening reception will be held on January, 21st, 2011 at 7 pm, Sandra Munzel will be present. These are not fairy tale characters with shiny surfaces, the created forms are too irritating and too eccentric. More likely, they rise out the mythological shere: with horns, fur on their legs, multiple breats, creatures devoured by themselves... It is exacly this going beyond into the grotesque that clears the way for unchecked permissiveness and love of life – both totally embodied in Munzel’s figurines... -Udo Kittelmann Horror vacui or: From the Beginnings (Exhibition catalog: Sandr ... More |
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Check Mate: Chess Sets from Around the World Exceed Estimates at Bonhams
LONDON.- An 18th century Russian mammoth ivory chess set was the top lot of the Chess, Playing Cards and Games auction that took place on 17th January at The Bonhams, Knightsbridge. The intricately carved set was highly sought after and eventually sold for £19,000, against a pre-sale estimate of £2000-3000. The village of Kholmogory in Russia is famous for the local craft of carving in bone, which as existed there for over four hundred years. From Europe a very rare, 300 year old south German, ivory and ebony figural chess set sold for £16,500. Made around 1700, the King and Queen were dressed in 17th -18th century interpretations of mediaeval dress and the pawns were dressed in baggy breeches and flared bottomed coats. A Chinese, jade mah jong set made around 1920 that belonged to HM Queen Elisabeth of Greece sold for £9,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £1,200- 1,600. The silk-lined wooden case that held forty jade tiles wi ... More
Nicolas Krupp Contemporary Art Presents the Documentary Allegory of Peter Friedl
BASEL.- Images can tell stories in different ways. But what images does history leave behind, and how much history do they contain? Peter Friedl’s recent works deal with the political historicity of images, exploring and conjuring up their narrative potential in a paradoxical form that takes the shape of a documentary allegory. The exhibition is on display until February 26, 2011 at Nicolas Krupp Contemporary Art gallery. Bilbao Song (2010) was filmed on the empty stage of the Serantes Theatre in Santurtzi, near Bilbao. In static tableaux vivants staged specially for the camera, Friedl’s film captures the process of a phantasmagorical picture production, in this case inspired by Basque history. Those involved in these tableaux included professional actors and special guests, like Julen Madariaga (lawyer, politician, former co-founder of ETA) or the popular clown duo Pirritx and Porrotx. The starting point wa ... More
Museum Recovers $50K Civil War Gun Stolen in 1975
RICHMOND, VA (AP).- A Civil War revolver that was stolen more than 30 years ago from the Museum of the Confederacy has turned up again. Collections Manager Catherine Wright tells WTVR-TV that the .36-caliber Spiller & Burr revolver was stolen in 1975 when the museum collection was moved to a new building. A woman in Knoxville, Tenn., discovered the gun in December in her late father's belongings. She tried to sell it to an Ohio antique dealer who traced the gun to the museum. WTVR reports that the woman's father collected Civil War items. It's not known how he came into possession of the gun. The woman will not face charges. Wright says the Spiller & Burr revolver was one of the first Confederate-manufactured handguns. This one has an estimated value of $50,000. ... More
Pilar Luna, Pioneer of Mexican Underwater Archaeology, Given J.C. Harrington Award
MEXICO CITY.- As an acknowledgement to her 30-year trajectory, devoted to research and preservation of the submerged cultural heritage, archaeologist Pilar Luna Erreguerena, pioneer of Underwater Archaeology in Mexico, was awarded with the J.C. Harrington Award by the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA), becoming the first Latin American researcher -and the 4th woman- to receive this prize. The award given every year by the American society that gathers the greatest number of academics in the subject recognizes as well the labor conducted in Mexico regarding research and safeguarding of cultural and historical goods that lay in the depths, headed since 1980 by the expert from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The award named after the father of American historical archaeology, J.C. Harrington, is the most important honor conceded to those who had contributed to research and preservation of the wo ... More
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