| | Art Historian Silvano Vinceti Claims Male Model Behind Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
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Art historian Silvano Vinceti, silhouetted, gestures as a photo showing a detail of the eyes of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" painting is projected in background, during a press conference, in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011. Vinceti says the main influence and model for the "Mona Lisa" was a male apprentice of Leonardo da Vinci, Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salai, who worked with Leonardo for years starting in 1490. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini.
By: Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press
ROME (AP).- A male apprentice, longtime companion and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was the main influence and a model for the "Mona Lisa" painting, an Italian researcher said Wednesday. But the researcher, Silvano Vinceti, said the portrait represents a synthesis of Leonardo's scientific, artistic and philosophical beliefs. Because the artist worked at it at various intervals for many years, he was subjected to different influences and sources of inspiration, and the canvas is full of hidden symbolic meanings. "The 'Mona Lisa' must be read at various levels, not just as a portrait," Vinceti said. This is one of many theories that have circulated over the decades about the identity of "Mona Lisa" and the meaning for her famously enigmatic smile. Others have said the painting was a self-portrait in disguise, or the depiction of a Florentine merchant's wife — the latter drawing a consensus among scholars. The apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salai, worked with ... More |
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National Gallery Presents Historical and Scientific Studies on Degas Sculpture Collection
Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-1881, radiograph, overall frontal view. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Image © 2011 National Gallery of Art, Washington.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery of Art's holdings of works by Edgar Degas (1834–1917) include the world's greatest collection of the artist's lifetime sculptures, which is the focus of a new publication: Edgar Degas Sculpture. The 19th volume in the Gallery's Systematic Catalogue of the permanent collections, this lavishly illustrated book presents the Gallery's unique collection. In 1956, the American collector Paul Mellon purchased the entire group of original Degas sculptures and gave the lion's share to the National Gallery of Art between 1985 and 1999. Thanks to Mellon's generosity, the Gallery now houses 52 original Degas works in wax, clay, and plaster, including the famous Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1878–1881), as well as a dozen cast bronzes and one posthumously produced plaster. These casts include two bronze horses, given to the Gallery by Mrs. Lessing J. (Edith G.) Rosenwald. Little Dancer Aged Fourteen remains one of ... More | | Israeli Archaeologists Find a 1,500-Year-Old Byzantine Church Southwest of Jerusalem
A view of a mosaic in the archaeological site where an ancient church was found in Hirbet Madras, central Israel. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit.
By: Matti Friedman, Associated Press
HIRBET MADRAS (AP).- Israeli archaeologists presented a newly uncovered 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills on Wednesday, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks. The Byzantine church located southwest of Jerusalem, excavated over the last two months, will be visible only for another week before archaeologists cover it again with soil for its own protection. The small basilica with an exquisitely decorated floor was active between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., said the dig's leader, Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He said the floor was "one of the most beautiful mosaics to be uncovered in Israel in recent years." "It is unique in its craftsmanship and level of preservation," he said. Archaeologists began digging at the site, known as Hirbet Madras, in December. The ... More | | INAH Researchers Find 8 Camps Occupied by Nomadic Groups, Some of Them, 8,000 Years Ago
“Findings will bring in relevant information to solve the riddle of Baja California history. Photo: Archaeologist Antonio Porcayo/INAH.
MEXICO CITY.- Eight archaeological sites, some of them occupied 8,000 years ago by nomadic groups, were discovered by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in the municipality of Ensenada, Baja California. Lithic tools were found at the settlements mainly made out of obsidian, similar to those discovered in Riverside County, California. The last would verify obsidian exportation conducted by ancient dwellers of Baja California with exchange purposes, informed archaeologist Antonio Porcayo, coordinator of the excavation project at Ensenada, mentioning that several of these sites are located inside caves and were discovered during the recent archaeological salvage work conducted due to the remodeling of San Felipe-Laguna Chapala highway. Camps are distributed throughout 9 kilometers to the east of Santa Isabel Mountain Range, to the northeast of the Mexican state, and correspond to 3 diff ... More |
 | Hungarian Revolutionary Posters and Plywood Featured in New Exhibitions at MoMA
Mihály Biró (Hungarian, 1886-1949). 1919 Május 1 (May 1, 1919). 1919. Lithograph, 49 5/8 x 37 3/8" (126 x 95 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Joseph H. Heil, by exchange, 2010.
NEW YORK, NY.- In the wake of the First World War many artists and writers were seized by a new sense of political purpose. It is widely recognized that the events of 1917 and after galvanized revolutionary aspirations among European avant-gardes and the intelligentsia. Seeing Red: Hungarian Revolutionary Posters, 1919, an installation in MoMA’s Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries, featuresposters by three of Hungary’s foremost graphic artists, Mihály Biró, Sándor Bortnyik and Bertalan Pór, all of whom had been actively involved in the Socialist revolutionary movement that culminated in the short-lived Hungarian Republic of Councils in 1919. The Hungarian publishing, news, and film media were all centered in Budapest, and these posters, composed with dynamic, expressive figuration, became another potent medium for influencing popular opinion. In particular, Biró’s red-hammer-wielding man became one of ... More | | International Museums on High Alert for Looted Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Due to Crisis
File photo of an alabaster bust and a head of soapstone of the god serapis. EPA/KHALED EL FIQI.
By: Mohammed Abbas
LONDON (REUTERS).- International museums are on high alert for looted Egyptian artifacts and some archaeologists have even offered to fly to the country to help safeguard its ancient treasures, museums said Wednesday. Egypt has been rocked by an unprecedented nine days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule, and fears are high for the country's priceless heritage after looters broke into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last week. The specter of the fall of Baghdad in 2003 looms large in the minds of Egyptologists, when thousands millennia-old artifacts were stolen or smashed by looters in the chaos following the fall of Saddam Hussein. "The situation during the fall of Baghdad is the worst case scenario, but we think that's not going to happen because there is such a movement to protect the antiquities," said Karen Exell, chairwoman of Britain's Egypt Exploration Society and curator of the Egypt ... More | | University of Pennsylvania Museum Removes Mummies After China Objects
The Beauty of Xiaohe, a 3,800-year-old mummy discovered in the Tarim Basin in far western China, is shown at the "Secrets of the Silk Road: Mystery Mummies from China". AP Photo/Jae C. Hong.
By: Kathy Matheson, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP).- A museum just days away from opening a long-awaited exhibit including two mummies and other historical artifacts from China is gutting the display of all objects at the request of Chinese officials, the museum announced Wednesday. The artifacts were part of "Secrets of the Silk Road," which is scheduled to open Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. The exhibit has already traveled to museums in California and Texas without issue. Penn museum spokeswoman Pam Kosty said she could not offer any more information beyond a statement saying Chinese officials had requested the items not be shown. She declined to identify the officials. Attempts to reach the Chinese consulate for comment were unsuccessful because of the Chinese New Year ... More |
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Ryan O'Neal Donates Farrah Fawcett's Red Swimsuit to Museum of American History
The famous red swimsuit that Farrah Fawcett wore during the photo shoot. REUTERS/Courtesy of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- In a special ceremony today, actress Farrah Fawcett’s nephew, Greg Walls, and actor Ryan O’Neal donated objects from the private collection of her estate to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The donation includes the red swimsuit from her iconic 1976 poster, an original copy of the swimsuit poster, her personal Charlie’s Angels script book, a Farrah Fawcett swimsuit jigsaw puzzle, a “Farrah Phenomenon” 1976 edition of TV Guide, a Charlie’s Angels 1976 edition of Time magazine, an original 1977 Farrah Fawcett doll and a “Farrah’s Glamour Center” hairstyling doll; the objects will be a part of the museum’s Division of Culture and the Arts and will go on display this summer. The poster featuring Fawcett in a red bathing suit was shot before her debut on Charlie’s Angels in September 1976. The photo was shot by freelance photographer Bruce McBroom with Fawcett working without a stylis ... More | | Ten Museums in Running for £100,000 "Museum of the Year" Art Fund Prize 2011
Sutton Hoo Helmet, 7th century AD, Suffolk, England. This iconic object from the origins of English history reveals the story of how the first English kings were always part of a larger European community. Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum.
LONDON.- The long list of ten museums that are in the running for the UK’s largest arts prize – the Art Fund Prize 2011 – will be revealed on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. The long list of museums competing for the ‘Museum of the Year’ accolade has been selected by an independent panel of judges, chaired this year by broadcaster and former cabinet minister Michael Portillo. The Art Fund Prize 2011 rewards excellence and innovation in museums and galleries in the UK for a project completed or undertaken in 2010. Following a short list of four museums to be announced on 19 May, the £100,000 cash prize will be awarded to the ‘Museum of the Year’ at a ceremony on 15 June. This is the fourth year that the Prize has been sponsored by the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art that plays a major part in enriching the ... More | | Dual Exhibitions Present Changes in Urban Life and Photography Over the Last 60 Years
Leo Rubinfien, “A Wedding Car in the Flower Market, Calcutta” 1986. C-print, from the series “A Map of the East”, 19-1/2 x 23-3/4 inches. Gift of an anonymous donor, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
STANFORD, CA.- The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University announces two concurrent exhibitions of photography. “In a New York Minute: Photographs by Helen Levitt” and “Paths through the Global City: Photographs by Leo Rubinfien” open February 2, and both continue through May 1, 2011. Admission is free. “These images by Levitt are icons of the spontaneity and eccentricity of the New York City streets. Rubinfien’s work reveals the poetry of urban life, especially the street,” said Hilarie Faberman, Ph.D., the Cantor Arts Center’s curator of modern and contemporary art. “Although the two exhibitions are separate and distinct, commonality resides in the photographers’ attraction to the urban scene and in the spontaneity of their work. Rubinfien’s and Levitt’s works, presented in tandem, underscore changes in urban life and documentary photography over the last 60 ... More |
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Generali Foundation Presents "unExhibit", an Exhibition by International Artists
Richard Hamilton, 1957.
VIENNA.- With the title “unExhibit,” the Generali Foundation gestures toward the legendary 1957 exhibition an Exhibit as it takes up the question of the “display as exhibition.” The show, which features works by the international artists Maria Eichhorn, Richard Hamilton, Ann Veronica Janssens, Willem Oorebeek, Karthik Pandian and Mathias Poledna, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, and Heimo Zobernig, not only examines the “display” as a material surface and resonating body for visual and spatial experience, but most importantly also studies artistic methods of not-showing and withdrawing, of “un-exhibiting.” Exhibition on view until July 17, 2011. The point of departure for the exhibition at the Generali Foundation leads back to the year 1957, to a loose association of artists, designers, architects, and theorists called the Independent Group; some of its members were Richard Hamilton, Victor Pa ... More | | First U.S. Solo Museum Show of Gabriel Kuri at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston
Gabriel Kuri, Trinity (Voucher in triplicate), 2006, Three hand-woven wool tapestries, Each 131 ½ x 46 ½ in. (334 x 118 cm), overall dimensions variable, Collection of Gordon Watson, London
BOSTON, MA.- On Feb. 2, 2011, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston opens Gabriel Kuri: Nobody needs to know the price of your Saab, the first solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work in the U.S. Using familiar materials such as receipts, newspaper or plastic bags, Kuri focuses our attention on contemporary consumer culture and the way money mediates almost all our human relationships and daily transactions. Approximately 25 sculptures and 10 collages will be on view, including Untitled (Superama), one of three towering tapestries ranging from 8 to over 12 feet in height, each intricately hand-woven in Mexico to replicate Wal-mart receipts. Accompanied by a fully- illustrated catalogue, the exhibition is on ... More | | Collection of Contemporary Bengali Scrolls Leave Liverpool to Tell Tales from India
Traditionally 19th century patuas or picture makers of West Bengal would to go from town to town to spread news of local heroes and of epic battles between good and evil using song and picture scrolls.
LIVERPOOL.- From 15 February 2011 a collection of contemporary Bengali scrolls from National Museums Liverpool will tour across the region. 'Telling Tales: Story Scrolls' from India features six never seen before, beautiful and vibrant scrolls, created by leading contemporary Indian artists. The tour starts at Prescot Museum from 15 February 2011. The scrolls then travel across the North West over the next year as part of a partnership programme lead by National Museums Liverpool to share its ethnology collection with a wider audience. Traditionally 19th century patuas or picture makers of West Bengal would to go from town to town to spread news of local heroes and of epic battles between good and evil using song and picture ... More |
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John Miller Awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize
COLOGNE.- John Miller has been named the 2011 recipient of the Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. He will have a one-person exhibition at the museum in April, and it will acquire work for its collection. Previous winners of the prestigious annual prize, named in honor of Cologne art conservator and collector Wolfgang Hahn, include Cindy Sherman, Mike Kelley, Pipilotti Rist, Richard Artschwager, Rosemarie Trockel, and Peter Doig. Miller's work has recently been included in the 2010 Gwangju Biennial, 10,000 Lives, and PortugalArte 10 in Lisbon. He has had one-person exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Zürich (2009), the Kunstverein Hamburg (1999), and the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York (1998). His pieces are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New ... More
Posing Beauty: African-American Images from the 1890s to the Present at Newark Museum
NEWARK, NY.- Posing Beauty: African-American Images from the 1890s to the Present, a photography exhibition that explores the ways in which African and African-American beauty has been represented in the media historically and in contemporary times, at the Newark Museum through April 28, 2011. Curated by Deborah Willis, Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University , Tisch School of the Arts, the exhibition explores contemporary notions of beauty, by framing them within the contexts of art, history, popular culture and the political. Posing Beauty considers the idealization of beauty in Western art and image-making, through photography, video, fashion and advertising. This exhibition challenges the relationship between beauty and art by examining the representation of beauty as a racialized ... More
Homage to Yosl Bergner: Illustrations to Franz Kafka's Oeuvre at Tal Aviv Museum of Art
TEL AVIV.- This exhibition, held to mark Yosl Bergner's 90th birthday, includes drawings lent by the artist, which were made during the 1950s and document the first phase of his Kafka work. They depict scenes from the novels The Trial and The Castle and from the stories "The Judgement," "The Metamorphosis," "A Country Doctor" and "The New Advocate." They are careful sketches, with a frenetic, vigorous line, expressing emotional turmoil. The exhibition is on display at the Tal Aviv Museum of Art. Despite the frugal depiction of facial features, resulting in a sense that these are "Everyman" representations, the images facing us in the exhibition are disquieting. Some are standing by a window, but it is unclear whether they are gazing out from inside, or gazing in from outside. There is a strong sense of wavering between inside and out, without wholly belonging. Many of the images are devoid of balance, tilted as if ab ... More
Studio Museum Launches Two New Initiatives: Studio (un)framed and Studio Lab
HARLEM, NY.- The Studio Museum in Harlem announces two new innovations that expand upon the Museum’s founding mission to support artists of African descent, bring art to diverse audiences, and facilitate meaningful dialogue about contemporary art and culture: Studio (un)framed and Studio Lab. Studio (un)framed is a new commissioning project inviting artists to use the Museum’s magazine, Studio, as a jumping-off point for the creation of an accessible and affordable artist’s multiple. The first incarnation of Studio (un)framed, available exclusively at the Museum Store, is an intervention by 2003-04 artist in residence Dave McKenzie. McKenzie’s work Fences (2010) is both a physical addendum to the magazine and an investigation into language: the project documents McKenzie’s attempt to learn Chinese, the native language of his neighbor. Fences intersperses six photo postcards throughout fall/winter ... More
Leading Contemporary Figurative Painter John Wonnacott Exhibits at Agnew's
LONDON.- Agnew’s presents its fifth solo exhibition of the work of leading contemporary figurative painter John Wonnacott, A Tale of Two Houses. The show will comprise an entirely new body of the artist’s work and demonstrate his recent focus on fresh themes. A Tale of Two Houses sees Wonnacott stepping away from his more familiar subject matter of family, local friends and the Essex coastal landscape, and firmly establishes his interest in the formal and lyrical aspects of dance, choreography and the filmmaking process. The exhibition will also include recent drawings, including three made during his spell in hospital in 2010 following major heart surgery, as well as several small still life paintings from the previous year. The artist’s carefully-arranged depictions of meats, cheeses and wine seem wittily prescient given his subsequent “brush with mortality”, which may have resulted from a s ... More
First "Bat-man" Comic Proof Pages, Saved from the Trash in Queens, Highlight Comics Event at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS; TX.- The original 1939 production proofs for pages 2-6 of Detective Comics #27, otherwise known as the first appearance of "The Bat-Man," perhaps the closest the world will ever get to the original art for this monumental comic book – long lost, as far as anyone has ever known – will be part of Heritage Auctions Signature® Vintage Comics & Comic Art Auction, Feb. 24. The pages are estimated at $1,000+ each. The saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" comes to mind here, as these pop culture relics were literally heading for the dust bin of history: they were rescued in 1975 from an old steamer trunk sitting on a curb awaiting trash pick-up in Rego Park, Queens. Mario J. Sacripante spied the trunk outside of the building where he lived, and where – he soon learned – Bob Kane, Batman's creator, had also lived for many years. "I actually knew what it was that I had found, having been around antiques and collectibl ... More
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