| | Archaeologists Find Two Pre-Hispanic Sculptures that Offer Insight into Maya Civilzation
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Dr. Juan Yadeun points at a sculpture made out of limestone that represents a war captive. The discovery confirms the alliance between Lordships of Copan, in Honduras, and Palenque, in Mexico at the war that Palenque fought against Tonina for 26 years (688 to 714 AD) to control the Usumacinta River. Photo: DMC INAH H. Montaño.
OCOSINGO, MEXICO.- Two Prehispanic sculptures made out of limestone that represent war captives and a pair of tableaux that marked the Ballgame, were found by Mexican specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) at Tonina Archaeological Zone, in Ocosingo Municipality, Chiapas. The discovery confirms the alliance between Lordships of Copan, in Honduras, and Palenque, in Mexico at the war that Palenque fought against Tonina for 26 years (688 to 714 AD) to control the Usumacinta River. Sculptures of the prisoners of Copan and both tableaux, of an approximate age of 1300 years, were found buried in late May 2011, to the south of the Ballgame Court. “All the pieces were found broken: the tableaux in more than 30 fragments, one sculpture in 20 pieces and the other was found complete but presents 3 fractures”, informed Dr. Juan Yadeun, responsible of the Archaeological ... More |
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Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in London
Marlon Brando for Streetcar Named Desire, 1950 by John Engstead. © John Kobal Foundation, 2011
LONDON.- This new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery examines the importance of photography in creating the stars of Hollywood from 1920 to 1960. Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation includes portraits of Marlene Dietrich, James Dean, Joan Collins, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe by nearly 40 photographers including George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Laszlo Willinger, Bob Coburn and Ruth Harriet Louise. This exhibition is on view from July 7 until October 23, 2011. Nearly all of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints drawn from the archive of the John Kobal Foundation. This is a rare opportunity to view these important artifacts of a now extinct Hollywood studio system. The exhibition shows both iconic and ... More | | New Jersey Man Arrested in Stolen Picasso Drawing Worth a Quarter of a Million Dollars
San Francisco police officer Ray Padmore stands behind a Picasso drawing in San Francisco. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (AP).- The case of a stolen Picasso has been cracked — and police say it was a New Jersey man who walked into the gallery in downtown San Francisco, snatched the drawing and fled in a taxi. Police arrested Mark Lugo, 31, of Hoboken, N.J., on Wednesday at an apartment in Napa, and found the artwork stripped from its frame. The 1965 pencil-on-paper drawing — titled "Tete de Femme" — was purchased at a spring auction in New York. It's worth about a quarter of a million dollars. "I've had some sleepless nights," said Rowland Weinstein, who owns the Weinstein Gallery. "I feel very, very lucky and very relieved that the Picasso wasn't harmed and will be returned back safely." Weinstein said he planned to upgrade the street-level art gallery's surveillance system. The drawing was displayed under guard at a news conference at the police station ... More | | Sotheby's to Offer Spectacular Works by Leading International Designers at Sudeley Castle
Omer Arbel, 19, copper, £42,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Sotheby’s announces an exciting line‐up for MATERIAL WORLDS, its second outdoor selling exhibition at Sudeley Castle, from 28th July to 30th September 2011. The exhibition brings together cutting‐edge, one‐off and limited edition works in strikingly different materials by 11 artists and designers, including Ingo Maurer, Tord Boontje, Paul Fryer, Laura Ellen Bacon and leading architects David Adjaye and Amanda Levete. Set amidst medieval Sudeley and its romantic ruins and award‐winning gardens in Gloucestershire, the works will challenge the boundaries of Design, Art and Craft. Prices range from £2,200 to £216,000. The exhibition’s curator, Janice Blackburn, said: “Sotheby’s commitment to supporting new works and bringing together both established and upcoming designers is the leading driver in this very special ex ... More |
The Procuress: Fake or Mistake? Painting Featured in BBC One's Fake or Fortune
Han van Meegeren (1889-1947), Procuress (after Dirck van Baburen), Circa 1940. Oil on canvas, height: 98.7 cm; width: 103.9 cm. Acquisition Webb, Geoffrey; gift; 1960 P.1960.XX.269. Copyright: The Samuel Courtauld Trust\unknown.
LONDON.- The Procuress, the painting featured in the third episode of BBC One's Fake or Fortune, went on view to the public at The Courtauld Gallery, London, on Monday 4 July 2011, the day after the television programme was broadcast. In the late 1940s Geoffrey Webb, an officer responsible for the restitution of art seized by the Nazis in Germany and The Netherlands, was given a version of the 17th-century painter Dirck van Baburen’s The Procuress (the original painting, dated 1622, is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The painting was assumed to be a fake. It had been found in France, in the house of the notorious forger Han van Meegeren (1889-1947). Van Meegeren specialised in forging paintings by Vermeer. He deceived many members of the art establishment and collectors, including the Nazi leader Herman Goering, before being unmasked in a sensational trial in ... More | | Peru Celebrates Machu Picchu's 100th Rediscovery Anniversary Amid Tourism Worries
File photo of llamas grazing during the reopening of the citadel of Machu Picchu. AP Photo/Karel Navarro.
By: Carla Salazar, Associated Press
LIMA, PERU (AP).- Tourists love the enigmatic Inca citadel of Machu Picchu high in Peru's Andes. They may love it too much. As the country prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of the "Lost City of the Incas" on Thursday, archaeologists are warning that a heavy flow of visitors and poor administration are threatening one of the wonders of the world. The Incas built Machu Picchu atop an Andean peak 7,970 feet (2,430 meters) high, with a breathtaking view across the inhospitable abysses that surround it. Some experts believe it was a refuge for one or more Inca rulers, others that it was a religious sanctuary. The site receives an average of 1,800 visitors a day and the maximum allowed by authorities is 2,500. Already, the former farming village of Aguas Calientes that is used as a jumping-off point for tourists has grown into a town of 4,000 inhabitants with five-star hotels and restaurants. In some places, authorities have noticed soil erosion and damage ... More | | Norman Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With" to Be Exhibited at The White House
Norman Rockwell, "The Problem We All Live With", 1963 (detail). Oil on canvas, 36” x 58”. Illustration for "Look," January 14, 1964. Norman Rockwell Museum Collections. ©NRELC, Niles, IL.
STOCKBRIDGE, MA.- Norman Rockwell Museum announces the loan of Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting “The Problem We All Live With,” part of its permanent collection, to The White House, where it will be exhibited through October 31. The loan was requested this year by President Barack Obama, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges’ history-changing walk integrating the William Frantz Public School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960, that later inspired Rockwell’s bold illustration for the January 14, 1964 issue of “Look” magazine. “The Problem We All Live With” was the first painting purchased by Norman Rockwell Museum in 1975. The White House loan was made possible through the support of the Henry Luce Foundation. “Norman Rockwell Museum is deeply honored that the White House has requested the loan of one of Rockwell’s most important paintings,” says Museu ... More |
Pinakothek der Moderne Presents Curvatureromance by the American Artist John Chamberlain
John Chamberlain © John Chamberlain / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011.
MUNICH.- CURVATUREROMANCE is the first museum presentation of the large-format metal sculptures completed during the last four years by the American artist John Chamberlain (*1927). The show also marks the start of the AMERICAN SUMMER program in the Pinakothek der Moderne, on view from July 7 through October 23, 2011. As early as the late-1950s Chamberlain created a sculpture for the first time that made use of colored steel parts from a car that was in the backyard of his friend Larry Rivers. He thereby found his Carrara - a working material that was to become as natural for Chamberlain, as marble was for sculptors of the Renaissance. Hammer and chisel were replaced by a scrap metal press which the artist uses - still, to this day - to compress and stretch, fold and bend his material, assembling the individual parts piece by piece, in a process of adding-on and taking-away again, until “it fits” (JC). Chamberlain ... More | | Whitechapel Gallery's Summer Exhibition Presents Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010
Thomas Struth, Mailänder Dom, Milan, 1998 (detail). Chromogenic colour print, 183.4 x 229.6 cm © Thomas Struth.
LONDON.- The Whitechapel Gallery‘s major summer exhibition presents Thomas Struth’s first solo show in Britain for almost 20 years. Struth’s large-scale photographs bring his intense and precise vision to subjects as diverse as visitors looking at famous works of art in the world’s great museums, family portraits and the dense undergrowth of the Asian jungle. The exhibition is on view from July 6 through September 16, 2011 in Galleries 1, 8 & 9. Thomas Struth is an artist who travels widely and captures cities from New York to Tokyo, while his latest vast colour photographs show sites of cutting edge technology such as the Kennedy Space Station on Cape Canaveral and Korean shipyards. The exhibition includes his iconic museum series of life-size photographs showing tourists admiring Michelangelo’s David statue in Florence, Italy, and pupils chatting in front of ... More | | Kunst Haus Wien Devotes Four Month Exhibition to Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Hundertwasser 487. Little Palace of Illnes in Beauty, 1961. Private property, Japan © KUNST HAUS WIEN, 2011.
WIEN.- With this exhibition KUNST HAUS WIEN honours the artist on whose philosophy and artistic principles this institution is largely based. The 20th anniversary of KUNST HAUS WIEN, a museum which unites, under one roof, international temporary exhibitions and the permanent Museum Hundertwasser, offers an occasion for this special exhibition project. For a period of four months, all of KUNST HAUS WIEN is thus devoted to Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The exhibition is on view from July 7 until November 6 2011. The time is ripe for a renaissance of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, for a comprehensive tribute to this innovative artist and ecological visionary. This biographic and thematic exhibition spotlights significant junctures in his life and work which, taken together, convey an overall impression of Hundertwasser as a person and as ... More |
Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" at the Ransom Center
Since 1990 the painting has been on almost continuous loan, featured in exhibitions in more than 25 museums in the United States and around the world, in countries such as Australia, Canada, France and Spain.
AUSTIN, TX.- The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, celebrates the homecoming of one of its most famous and peripatetic art works, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's "Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" (1940). The painting is on display from July 6, which is Kahlo's 104th birthday, through Jan. 8, 2012. Since 1990 the painting has been on almost continuous loan, featured in exhibitions in more than 25 museums in the United States and around the world, in countries such as Australia, Canada, France and Spain. The painting was most recently on view in exhibitions in Berlin, Germany; Vienna, Austria; and Madrid, Spain. It will next be on view in the three-venue exhibition "In Wonder- ... More | | London Street Photography Festival Launches Celebrating the Time-Honoured Genre
© Walter Joseph, Courtesy of British Library.
LONDON.- World-class photography takes over London’s most celebrated venues, large and small, for the festival’s inaugural year. The London Street Photography Festival launched this summer to celebrate the time-honoured genre. An exciting new addition to London’s cultural calendar, the festival, 1st-31st July 2011, features curated exhibitions alongside a diverse events programme bringing together leading international artists past and present. Highlights include the first UK exhibition of the incredible archives of mysterious Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier at the German Gymnasium, as well as a newly discovered body of work by previously unknown British photographer Walter Joseph - a gritty portrait of post-war London at the British Library. Photofusion presents rare perspectives by leading female street photographers from around the world, whilst the voyeuristic Seen/Unseen sho ... More | | An Artist's Sense of Place: The World of Atta Kwami at Nicolas Krupp Gallery in Basel
Atta Kwami, Dome, 2011. Acrylic on linen, 40 x 30 cm. Photo: Courtesy Nicolas Krupp Gallery.
BASEL.- Nicolas Krupp Gallery presents An Artist's Sense of Place: The World of Atta Kwami, on view from July 8th through August 27th, 2011. Some of Africa’s most familiar visual imagery originates in Ghana—akua’ba figurines, kente strip woven cloth, and the stamped patterns of adinkra cloth. Much less familiar are the paintings of artists associated with the art schools and commercial workshops of Ghana’s cities. Over the last fifty years, these artists have been responding to the realities and shaping the futures of the communities, the nation, the continent and the world in which they live and work. Atta Kwami is such an artist who has recently appeared on the global stage as not only a remarkable artist but also as a scholar of modern and contemporary art in Africa. Atta Kwami grew up immersed in the arts— ... More |
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 George V Gold Freedom Casket Comes Home to NewportLONDON.- A gift presented to a remarkable Newport-born trade unionist and politician has found a home in the city thanks to the generous support of the Art Fund and the V&A Purchase Grant Fund. The George V Gold Freedom Casket was given to James Henry Thomas in 1924 by friends when he was made a freeman of Newport. It was purchased for £26,000 and was successfully acquired by Newport City Council. The casket, with enamel panels showing St Paul’s National School, Commercial Street, Newport Harbour, St Paul’s Church and the GWR Chepstow Castle steam locomotive, will now be on display in Newport Museum. Councillor Mike Hamilton, cabinet member for leisure and culture, said: “It is most fitting that this piece of history will now be on display in Newport, the birthplace of the man who received it. “His life was not without its controversy but he served his country and was known for his humour, courage ... More Vancouver Art Gallery's Fourth Offsite Installation Features Artist Elspeth PrattVANCOUVER.- For the fourth installation at Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite, artist Elspeth Pratt draws on architectural forms as inspiration for her investigation of how the built environment circumscribes public space. Opened on June 29th, Pratt’s work, titled Second Date, proposes an architecture that is variable and unpredictable, presenting new possibilities for imagining space within the urban fabric of Vancouver . Offsite, the Gallery’s outdoor exhibition space near Georgia and Thurlow in downtown Vancouver, is dedicated to newly commissioned, innovative public art projects. Featuring work by acclaimed contemporary artists, the first three exhibitions were: the photo-based work of O Zhang in July 2009, a sculptural installation by Ken Lum in January 2010, and a large-scale sculptural pavilion by artists Heather and Ivan Morison in October 2010. In this latest installation, Pratt transforms Offsite throug ... More A Rodin Marble Sold for €724,000 at Drouot-Montaigne, ParisPARIS.- Yesterday, Wednesday July 6th, at Drouot-Montaigne in Paris, the Kneeling Fauness by Rodin, a 21 5/8 in. high marble statue, signed and dedicated on the base « au Maître Puvis de Chavannes », was auctioned by Arnaud Cornette de Saint Cyr and sold for €724,000. An emblematic figure in Rodin’s oeuvre, the Kneeling Fauness expresses well the ambivalence of the sculptor’s feelings towards women, both muses and temptresses. Beyond the appearance of a nude woman stretching out and offering up her delicate body lurks a predatory creature. Signed and dedicated on its base « Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes », this 21 5/8 in. high statue, created in 1887, was executed in marble circa 1890. Conceived for The Gates of Hell, a major work on which Rodin worked until the end of his life, this extraordinary piece fully reveals the sculptor’s genius, through the brilliant modelling of the body and delicacy of b ... More Photographer Richard Misrach Donates Photographs to OMCA and BAM/PFAOAKLAND, CA.- The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) and the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) announce the gift of 33 photographic prints by celebrated Bay Area photographer Richard Misrach (American, b. 1949) to each institution respectively. The photographs were taken immediately following the catastrophic firestorm that struck the Oakland and Berkeley hills in 1991. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of this devastating event, Misrach has donated these photographs to the prominent cultural institutions of the affected East Bay. Exhibitions of his work documenting the fire aftermath will take place at both institutions this fall. "These prints are a tremendous gift to both the Oakland Museum of California and the community that lived through the firestorm," says OMCA's Curator of Photography Drew Johnson. "Misrac ... More Daniel Blau Ltd. Presents Neal Fox's Latest Project 'Beware of the God' LONDON.- Daniel Blau Ltd. presents Neal Fox’s latest project ‘Beware of the God'. Fox’s drawings depict a phantasmagoric journey through the detritus and mythology of pop culture. From a life-long obsession with the tales of his dead grandfather, a World War II bomber pilot, writer and hell raiser, his large- scale drawings have developed into increasingly layered celebrations of the debauched and iconoclastic characters whose ideas have helped shape our collective consciousness. The exhibition is on display from July 8 through August 13 2011. Fox’s latest project takes many of the recurring subjects of his drawings and portrays them through the medium of the stained glass window. As traditional church windows show the iconography of saints, through representations of events in their lives, instruments of martyrdom and iconic motifs, Fox plays with the symbolism of each character’s cult of personali ... More Wordsworth Museum Presents Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary FamilyCUMBRIA.- Shelley’s Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family, a special exhibition at the Wordsworth Museum, is on view from July 7th through October 30th, 2011. Percy Bysshe Shelley was famous for his poetry and revolutionary political thought, but infamous for his convoluted private life and his relationships with women. Disowned by his Father, Shelley had a lifelong struggle with authority. His political ideas were extreme for the time and his ideas on social convention would border on the radical even today. He campaigned for social equality and democratic reform while pursuing his inheritance as the son of a landed gentleman. He abhorred the institution of marriage and endorsed free love, although he was married twice. At the age of 19, Shelley eloped with the 16 year-old daughter of a family friend. They were joined by her sister and later, by a schoolmistress from Sussex. This ménage lived a nomadic ex ... More Best of New Photography at the Photographers' Gallery's Annual Exhibition of Graduate PhotographyLONDON.- 2011 marks the fourth year of FreshFacedandWildEyed, The Photographers’ Gallery’s annual showcase of graduate and postgraduate photography. Building on the Gallery’s commitment to supporting new talent, and in recognition of the remarkable quality of photographic courses across the UK, FreshFacedandWildEyed2011 provides a platform for those photographers and artists who are producing particularly strong and innovative work. Twenty-one artists, who completed their studies in the past year, have been selected by a panel of photography experts. The judges for 2011 are: Edmund Clark, photographer; Tim Clark, editor-in-chief of 1000 Words Photography Magazine; Louise Clements, Artistic Director at QUAD and FORMAT International Photography Festival; and Brett Rogers, Director, The Photographers’ Gallery. The featured artists have g ... More |
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