| | Paul Gauguin's "Nature Morte a 'L'Esperance," Fails to Sell at Christie's Auction in London
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A Christie's employee poses with Paul Gauguin's "Nature morte a 'L'esperence'" at Christie's auction house in London. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor.
LONDON (REUTERS).- A painting by Paul Gauguin, billed as the top lot at Christie's auction of modern and impressionist works in London, failed to find a buyer on Wednesday. The tribute to the artist's friend Vincent Van Gogh, in the form of a still life with sunflowers called "Nature morte a 'L'Esperance," had been expected to fetch up to 10 million pounds ($16 million). Overall, the auction raised 61.9 million pounds ($99.6 million) including buyer's premium, according to the company's website, toward the lower end of the expected range of up to 81 million pounds ($130.4 million). Top lot on the night was Pierre Bonnard's "Terrasse a Vernon" which sold for 7.2 million pounds ($11.6 million), well above expectations of up to 4 million pounds ($6.4 million). In a separate sale of surreal art also held on Wednesday, the world's largest auction house sold works worth 23.4 million pounds ($37.7 million), roughly in line with pre ... More |
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Christian Lacroix Selects Traditional Costumes from the Near East for Exhibition
French fashion designer Christian Lacroix (R) and France's Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand look at a 13th century child's dress as they visit the exhibition. REUTERS/Charles Platiau.
PARIS.- The exhibition reveals another aspect of femininity, from the North of Syria to the Sinaï peninsula, introducing an exceptional collection of 150 traditional costumes and accessories from the Near East, selected by designer Christian Lacroix, in close co-operation with Hana Chidiac, Head of the North African and Near East collections at the musée du quai Branly. From this common work has emerged a poetic journey punctuated by sumptuous garments, the majority of which are exhibited in France for the first time: festive dresses, coats, veils and head-dresses which comprised the bride's trousseau illustrate, in a unique way, the continuity of the traditions and knowledge developed and transmitted from mother to daughter. Homage to the millennary art of embroidery, the exhibition shows the work of these women who have sought, over ... More | | Exhibition at Fundació Suñol of 27 Works, Dating from 1924-1998, Reflect the Visions of 18 Artists
The sculpture 'Cantir i bota' (literally, in Catalonian, 'Pitcher and boot') by Spanish artist Antoni Tapies is pictured at an exhibition entitled '27 works of art, 18 authors' at the Sunol Foundation. EPA/MARTA PEREZ.
BARCELONA.- The Fundació Suñol has put together an exhibition of 27 pieces from the Josep Suñol Collection to help expand visitors’ knowledge of 20th-century art. It comprises work by 18 artists who played a key role in the field of visual arts in recent years, marked by a shift away from previous conventions of representation. The 27 pieces – which date from 1924 to 1998 – reflect the visions of 18 artists who use different interpretations, intensities and media to reveal their inner thoughts and forms of expression and give us an insight into the collector’s vision and decision to include them in his collection. This exhibition does not follow a chronological or thematic approach, but aims to capture the emotion of emblematic pieces by artists whose work answers not to reason, but is driven by a passion to create art and reveal the construction of a world of shapes with ... More | | Sexual Nature Exhibition at London's Natural History Museum has Celebrity Attraction
A museum employee poses with taxidermied mating rabbits at the "Sexual Nature" exhibition. Photo: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.
LONDON.- Celebrities, including Gavin and Stacey’s Mathew Horne, attended the preview event last night of Sexual Nature, the Natural History Museum’s new exhibition opening this Friday. Jameela Jamil, Tony Robinson and Martin Clunes explored amazing photography, film footage and intriguing specimens in the exhibition that examines the science behind sex. Sexual Nature takes a provocative look at the birds and the bees, from the eye-watering to the thought-provoking. Did you know that the barnacle’s penis measures up to 30 times its body length? Or that female choice has driven the development of male seduction technique? Ronnie Wood, Emily Maitlis and Charlie Boorman saw highlights of the exhibition including more than 100 specimens from the Museum’s vast scientific collections, many of which are on display for the first time. ‘The huge variety of specimens show the diversity of wonderful adaptations ani ... More |
 | Guitar Heroes Exhibition Features Instruments Created by Three Legendary Master Craftsmen
A Mandolira (L) designed by luthier Nicola Turturro (1872-1953) is seen at 'Guitar Heroes Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York' at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton.
NEW YORK, NY.- Three New York master luthiers, renowned for their hand-carved stringed instruments—particularly their archtop guitars, which have been sought after by many of the most important guitarists of the last century—will be the subject of Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from February 9 through July 4, 2011. Featuring the extraordinary guitars of John D'Angelico, James D'Aquisto, and John Monteleone, this unprecedented exhibition of approximately 80 musical instruments will focus on the work of these modern-day master craftsmen and their roots in a long tradition of stringed instrument-making that has thrived for more than 400 years and that was first brought to New York from Italy around the turn of the 20th century. The work of Italian luthiers, or makers of stringed instruments, has been highly desired ... More | | Paris to Be Sotheby's European Centre for Decorative Art and Photographs Sales
Hajek-Halke, Die Prinzessin der Hinterhofe. Photo: Sotheby's.
PARIS.- Sotheby’s announced that Paris will become the company’s European centre for sales of 20th Century Decorative Art & Design and Photographs. Biannual sales in each category will be held at the Galerie Charpentier in May and November. From 2011, 20th Century Decorative Art & Design sales will be held exclusively in Paris. Cécile Verdier, European director of the 20th Century Decorative Art & Design department, will head sales and manage a European team of specialists. In order to build on the outstanding success of the company’s sales of Photographs in Paris since 2008, Paris will become the European centre for sales in this field. The European department, led by Simone Klein, will be based in Paris, and sales in London will cease. Cécile Verdier, European director of 20th Century Decorative Art and Design. After graduating in History of Art and Marketing from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris, ... More | | Sotheby's to Auction 106 Monumental Early Works by Contemporary Chinese Artists
Zhang Xiaogang, Forever Lasting Love (detail). Photo: Sotheby's.
HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong announces the sale of an important private collection of contemporary Chinese Art on 3 April: The Ullens Collection – The Nascence of Avant Garde China, offering 106 masterpieces from the legendary Collection, which are expected to bring a total of HK$100 million to HK$130 million / US$12.7 million to 16.7 million*. One of the most important and comprehensive assemblages of contemporary Chinese art created to date, this encyclopaedic Collection signifies not only the birth and evolution of the Chinese avant-garde, but also the vision and passion of Baron Guy Ullens, a renowned art collector from Belgium. Bringing together this group of monumental museum-quality early works rarely seen publicly since their acquisition and created over the late 1980s and the early 1990s by the most prominent contemporary Chinese artists, this unprecedented offering will be sold in an exclusive an Evenin ... More |
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The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Opens at Brown University
The Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, a 39,000-square-foot concrete and steel building located on the Brown University campus. AP Photo/Stew Milne.
PROVIDENCE, RI.- Brown University will officially open the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Feb. 10, 2011. The interdisciplinary arts center will foster innovation, research, collaboration, creativity, and education among the arts, humanities, and sciences and will be a focal point of the University’s College Hill campus. The 38,815-square-foot, three-story building is designed by the New York-based architecture firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The $40-million Granoff Center is a revolutionary new building dedicated to encouraging faculty and students to create bold new directions for research, teaching, and production across the boundaries of individual arts disciplines and among artists, scientists, and scholars.“The Granoff Center reaffirms the University’s belief that the arts are integral to a liberal education,” said Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons. “The Center builds on academic excellence at Brown and promotes multi ... More | | Extremely Rare and Important William Blake Letter on "The Last Judgement" for Sale at Bonhams
Letters in Blake’s own hand are very scarce - only 90 are believed to exist. Estimate: between £50,000 and £60,000. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- An extraordinary letter from William Blake to the painter Ozias Humphry describing in great and powerful detail his famous water-colour, The Last Judgement, is for sale as part of the Roy Davids Collection of Papers and Portraits at Bonhams on Tuesday 29 March 2011. Among the longest and most important of Blake’s known letters it is effectively a literary essay on his painting and is estimated at between £50,000 and £60,000. Letters in Blake’s own hand are very scarce - only 90 are believed to exist. The originals of many are hard to trace and, of the known letters, most belong to institutions. In the past 35 years only two documents by Blake – a one page letter about his health and a receipt – have appeared at auction. The Last Judgement was commissioned through Humphry for the Countess of Egremont to hang at Petworth House where it remains to this day. Blake’s letter explains the ... More | | Thousands of Historical Mexican Photographs Now Part of an Electronic Catalogue
Cathedral in Mexico by Guillermo Kahlo. Photo: Archivo SINAFO-Fototeca Nacional/INAH.
MEXICO CITY.- More than half of the 900,000 historical images safeguarded by the INAH National Photographic Library are available to general public worldwide thanks to a new electronic catalogue available on the Internet. Images from the most important Mexican photographic collections can be consulted and acquired without having to travel to the facilities at Pachuca, Hidalgo. After several months of hard work creating the catalogue cards, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) integrated the virtual catalogue available at http://fototeca.inah.gob.mx where images captured by more than 2,000 authors can be admired. This project strengthens the divulgation task conducted by INAH regarding documentary heritage, testifying for social, political and artistic episodes as well as the daily life, evolution of landscape, urban development and the gradual transformation of the identity of inhabitants. The aim ... More |
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A New Antony Gormley Sculpture "Transport" Unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral
Antony Gormley's Transport in Canterbury Cathedral's twelfth century crypt.
KENT.- TRANSPORT a new sculpture created by the artist Antony Gormley was unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral. Antony Gormley is credited with a radical re-investigation of the body as a zone of memory and transformation. The two metre long work uses hand made antique iron nails from the Cathedral’s repaired south east transept roof to construct a delicate filter-like membrane outlining the space of a floating body. The membrane is pierced with nails passing through it from inside to outside and vice versa. The work is suspended above the site of Thomas Becket’s vestry place in the Eastern Crypt of the Cathedral. Speaking about TRANSPORT Antony Gormley said, “The body is less a thing than a place; a location where things happen. Thought, feeling, memory and anticipation filter through it sometimes staying but mostly passing on, like us in this great cathedral with its centuries of building, adaptation, ... More | | Henrik Olesen Presents New Works at MoMA for His First U.S. Solo Museum Exhibition
Henrik Olesen. Portrait d’un imbécile. 2008. felt pen on wood. 385 x 9.5 x 5. 5 cm. Courtesy Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin.
NEW YORK, NY.- For Projects 94: Henrik Olesen, on view February 9 through May 23, 2011, The Museum of Modern Art presents new works by Berlin-based artist Henrik Olesen (Danish, b. 1967) made specifically for this presentation. Olesen’s past projects have addressed a range of subjects, including legal codes, the natural sciences, distribution of capital, and art history. For his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, the artist has gathered disassembled electronic devices mounted on large Plexiglas panels, found-object sculptures, and text-based collages, which together exemplify the range of his practice. Linking this group of works is the relationship of the body and the machine, undergoing what he calls "production, reproduction, and self-production." Olesen has a longstanding interest in the obsession of early modern artists, ... More | | Louise Nevelson Work of Art Cleaned in Nelson-Atkins Gallery While Visitors Watch
Louise Nevelson American (born Russia), 1899–1988 End of Day—Nightscape IV, 1973 Wood with paint 95 × 167 inches (241.3 × 424.2 cm) Gift of the Friends of Art, F74-30
KANSAS CITY, MO.- It’s not often that museum visitors actually see a pair of hands working on a work of art, but that’s what will be on view at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art beginning Feb. 9 through Feb. 25. Louise Nevelson’s End of Day Nightscape IV will receive a thorough cleaning, paint consolidation and replacement of lost paint in the gallery in the Bloch Building, and visitors can watch the careful process. “This work is always done behind the scenes,” said Rose Daly, conservation intern. “But the size of this piece necessitated it being done in the gallery. This is an exciting learning experience, since conservation is so seldom seen by the public.” End of Day Nightscape IV is a large, rectangular wooden grid of smaller boxes subdivided into compartments containing scraps of wood, geometric shapes, door knobs and ... More |
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Bonhams to Sell Ex-Debenhams Chairman Sir Frederick Richmond's Extensive Needlework Collection
LONDON.- A remarkable collection of early English needlework, which was owned by the former Chairman of Debenhams and Harvey Nichols, Sir Frederick Richmond (1873-1953), is to be sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as part of its Fine English Furniture Sale on 2 March 2011. The collection comprises 63 pieces with estimates totalling £210,000 – 315,000, Sir Frederick, who, in his role as Chairman, established Debenhams as the largest textile distribution empire worldwide, started collecting needlework in 1907. The Edwardian and inter-war period was a great time for the dispersal of family collections, and, from these and fellow collectors, he accumulated an astounding selection of items. His purchases were displayed in his country home, Westoning Manor in Bedfordshire, which he bought in 1936, and his house in ‘Millionaire’s Row’, 10 Kensington Park Gardens, London. On his death in 1953, the collection, which ... More
Clifton Childree Creates a Gigantic Installation Comprised of Films and Found Objects at Kunsthalle Wien
VIENNA.- Clifton Childree is an analog artist in the digital era, a curator of transient and anachronistic things – a contemporary counterpart to Harry Smith, the avant-garde filmmaker and editor of the Anthology of American Folk Music, as it were. He prefers a hand crank and the herky-jerky motion and flickering of an old black-and-white slapstick movie to the smooth aesthetic of today’s high-definition resolution. He is fascinated with the tawdry glitter and honky-tonk of cheap illusory worlds from which he borrows formal concepts, ideas, and materials and turns them into 16-mm films and room-spanning installations; circuses, side shows, midnight movie theaters, and vaudevilles are the worlds he draws his inspiration from. He transforms discarded and worn-out things into venues of a theater of the grotesque, of cheap horror, and unlimited eccentricity where he revives attractions and spectacles that saw its heyday in the United States between 1880 and 1930. With his ... More
Maryhill Museum of Art Board of Trustees Unanimous in Decision to Begin Construction on New Wing
GOLDENDALE, WA.- With 95 percent of the funds in hand, the Board of Trustees of Maryhill Museum of Art has unanimously agreed to begin construction on the 25,500 square foot Mary and Bruce Stevenson Wing. An official groundbreaking ceremony for the first expansion in the museum’s history will be held Friday, February 18 at 3:30 p.m. The event is open to the public and media. At the Board’s January 22, 2011 meeting, Trustee Laura Cheney, capital campaign co-chair and daughter of museum benefactors Mary and Bruce Stevenson, urged the group to move forward with construction. Cheney’s motion was unanimously approved. While $450,000 remains to be raised to meet the project's $9.3 million construction costs, the Board and staff are confident that enough donor support and momentum exists to carry the project to completion by the target date of March 2012; the overall capital campaign goal is $10 million ... More
Chinese: Pennsylvania Museum Never OK'd for Mummies Exhibit
PHILADELPHIA (AP).- A diplomatic official says two mummies and other ancient artifacts from China were never approved for display at the Philadelphia museum now embroiled in a dispute over the items. A Chinese embassy spokesman in Washington says the "Secrets of the Silk Road" exhibit was approved only for museums in California and Texas. Chinese officials are not allowing the artifacts to be displayed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Instead, the long-planned exhibit opened Saturday with fake mummies and life-size photos of the artifacts. Spokesman Wang Baodong tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that the city "was not a planned stop." He says officials in Beijing are discussing the issue. Museum director Richard Hodges declined comment. ... More
Paul Ruddock Elected a Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Ruddock has been elected to the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the January 11 meeting of the Board of Trustees. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art is pleased to welcome Paul Ruddock to its Board of Trustees," commented Mr. Houghton. "His vast and multi-faceted international museum experience along with his background in global financial markets will strengthen our institution in many ways. He has been actively involved with the Metropolitan for more than a decade—especially in the area of medieval art—and we look forward to working with him in his new role. " At the Metropolitan Museum, Mr. Ruddock has been a member of the Chairman's Council since 2010 and of the Visiting Committee for the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters since 2007. He currently serves as chairman of the boards of the V ... More
New National Immigration Museum Urged for DC
By: Brett Zongker, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP).- A group that wants to build a National Museum of the American People in Washington to tell the history of immigration is calling on Congress to jump-start the effort. The group is announcing Wednesday that it has support from 130 ethnic and minority organizations. It's asking Congress to support a bipartisan federal commission to study establishing such a museum. Organizer Sam Eskenazi says the Smithsonian museums hold many cultural artifacts. But he says those museums don't tell the story of how immigration and migration formed the nation. Eskenazi isn't deterred by Congress' focus on cutting spending. He says the museum could be built with private funds. The New York-based group already is proposing five sites near the National Mall. ... More
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