| | On the 150th Birthday of Its Discovery, Famed Fossil Isn't a Bird After All, Analysis Says
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This artist's rendition released by Nature shows what scientists at Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing are dubbing "Xiaotingia zhengi." The discovery of its fossilized remains helped scientists propose an evolutionary tree that suggests archaeopteryx is not a bird. AP Photo/Nature, Xing Lida and Liu Yi.
By: Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer
NEW YORK (AP).- One of the world's most famous fossil creatures, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis suggests it isn't a bird at all. Chinese scientists are proposing a change to the evolutionary family tree that boots Archaeopteryx off the "bird" branch and onto a closely related branch of birdlike dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx (ahr-kee-AHP'-teh-rihx) was a crow-sized creature that lived about 150 million years ago. It had wings and feathers, but also quite un-birdlike traits like teeth and a bony tail. Discovered in 1861 in Germany, two years after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," it quickly became an icon for evolution and has remained popular since. The Chinese scientists acknowledge they have only weak evidence to support their proposal, which hinges on including a newly recognized dinosaur. Other experts say the change could easily be reversed by further discoveries. And ... More |
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Sotheby's Announces September Sale of The Philatelic Collection of Lord Steinberg
The unique mint block of the 1927 De Pinedo Air Mail 60c. black, Estimate £120,000-150,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Sotheby's London is to offer The Philatelic Collection of Lord Steinberg, in a series of two sales on 6-8 September and 21 September 2011. The first three-day sale comprises British Empire Mint Multiples, and the second sale on the 21st will feature Great Britain Mint Multiples exclusively. The unique characteristic of the collection is that it contains only mint blocks of four or larger multiples. The significance of blocks is of paramount importance to collectors, since many stamps which are comparatively common are transformed into major rarities when in blocks of four or larger. Sotheby's two auctions will be an unrivalled opportunity for collectors to acquire gems from an exceptional collection, and this is the first sale of its kind in almost a century**. Together, the sales will feature 2,068 lots and the collection is estimated in the region of £4 million. Lord Steinberg’s family have decided to ... More | | Art for the Nation: Acquisitions Made by Sir Charles Eastlake on View at the National Gallery
Bono da Ferrara, Saint Jerome in a Landscape, about 1440. Egg tempera on poplar, 52 x 38 cm. The National Gallery, London. Bought, 1867.
LONDON.- This summer, the history of the National Gallery comes alive in Room 1. Art for the Nation introduces the first Director of the Gallery: Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793–1865), a man described by one contemporary as the ‘Alpha and Omega’ of the Victorian art world. The exhibition shows a handful of Eastlake’s purchases of Italian Renaissance art and also demonstrates, using little-known items from the Gallery’s archive and library, the extent to which Eastlake laboured behind the scenes for the National Gallery. Eastlake was trained as painter and spent his formative years in Rome. He was in touch with many influential European thinkers and writers on the practice and theory of art, and was diligent in touring Europe to see the Old Masters at first hand. He made copies of some of them, including a painting by Titian that was later destroyed in a fire – the Death of St Peter Mart ... More | | Line and Space: American Drawing and Sculptures Since 1960 at the Pinakothek der Moderne
Dan Flavin, from August 5, 1964, 1966, Crayon on black paper, Private collection. Photo: Arne Schultz, © Estate of Dan Flavin / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011.
MUNICH.- The exhibition, part of the AMERICAN SUMMER project, features the predominantly American holdings of drawings and sculptures from a private collection, with most of the works going on public display for the first time. What comes to the fore in this exemplary selection of largely American artists from the sixties and seventies and their impressive groups of works is the relationship between the media of sculpture and drawing. At the heart of the show lies the subtle dialogue between the conceptual ideas of ‘disegno’ and their sensual transfer to the materiality of sculpture. One of the private collection’s particular strengths is its focus on groups of works by individual artists. As a result, entire rooms have been dedicated to the artists Fred Sandback and Barry Le Va, while in addition larger groups of works by other artists, including Donald Judd or Gordon Matta-Clark, can be studied in detail. The selection of exhibits ... More |
At the Birthplace of Modernism, A Rebirth; Cranbrook Art Museum to Reopen in November
The new Collections Wing will house and make accessible the Museum’s celebrated permanent collection of nearly 6,000 works of art. Photo: Justin Maconchie. All rights reserved.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH.- On November 11, 2011, Cranbrook Art Museum will reopen after a two-year construction project that encompassed both a complete renovation of its landmark 1942 Eliel Saarinen-designed building and a new 20,000-square-foot Collections Wing. While the restored galleries (including a new state-of-the-art climate control system and other sophisticated museum technologies) will continue to provide the Art Museum with a venue for innovative and thought-provoking exhibitions, the new Collections Wing will house and make accessible the Museum’s celebrated permanent collection of nearly 6,000 works of art, architecture, and design from the Arts and Crafts Movement to the present. Cranbrook Educational Community’s extensive Archives and Cultural Properties collections will also move to the facility, creating a dynamic new center for exhibition, research, and ... More | | Sigmund Freud Museum in London Celebrates 25th Anniversary on Thursday
An exterior view of Freud Museum London at 20 Maresfield Gardens. REUTERS/Freud Museum London.
By: Julie Mollins
LONDON.- What was life like for the father of psychoanalysis who made a profession of analyzing the lives of others? Insights into how Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis whose work on human sexual repression led to terms as "Freudian slip" and "Oedipus complex," lived can be found at the Freud Museum London which celebrates its 25th anniversary on Thursday. The large brick, early 20th-century house in north London is where Freud spent his final year after fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938 before dying on September 23, 1939, at age 83. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children who was also a psychoanalyst, had arranged before her death in 1982 to have the house transformed into a museum in 1986. The museum now receives 20,000 visitors a year, according to director Carol Seigel. "His work has permeated many aspects of our ... More | | Gilbert 'Magu' Lujan, Colorful and Expressive Chicano Movement Artist, Dies at 70
Cheech Marin poses with "Heart-Flamed Blue Carrito, 1987" by Gilbert "Magu" Lujan. AP Photo/Reed Saxon.
By John Rogers, Associated Press
ARCADIA, CA (AP).- His colorful expressive works, reflecting everything from cartoonish-looking characters to Aztec warriors, would come to cover everything from the walls of subways to those of major museums during a long career that put Gilbert "Magu" Lujan at the forefront of the Chicano Art Movement. Lujan died Sunday at Methodist Hospital of Southern California. He was 70 and had suffered from cancer, said his son Naiche Starhawk Lujan. "Los Angeles has, sadly, lost a cultural icon," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday. Lujan's style — colorful, often humorous and just as often political — sprung from the sidewalks, freeway overpasses and low-rider cars of largely Hispanic East Los Angeles in the 1970s. Like the work of such contemporaries as Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero and Beto de la Rocha, his murals and other creations have come to ... More |
New Site-Specific Project by William Powhida Opens at Marlborough's Chelsea Gallery
POWHIDA, Portrait of Genius (detail), 2011. Oil on canvas, 83 x 59 inches. © POWHIDA, courtesy Marlborough Chelsea.
NEW YORK, NY.- Marlborough Chelsea presents POWHIDA, a site-specific project by the eponymous artist which opens, July 27th. The exhibition will be on view through August 12th. Utilizing the entire ground floor gallery, POWHIDA is the artist’s most ambitious installation to date. In keeping with his oeuvre, Powhida has taken his relationship with the art world as the very subject of the exhibition, employing numerous historical departure points and creating a vast conceptual spectrum reflected in the diversity of the artist’s approaches to making art. These references span from the 19th-century French Romantic painters Delacroix and Gericault to participatory performance that de-materializes the object. Like the artist himself, POWHIDA explores an array of contemporary socio-political and cultural issues germane to the artist’s role ... More | | Key Works Completed Over the Course of Manny Farber's Painting Career at Quint Contemporary Art
Manny Farber, Stephanie's Limes, 1995 (detail). Oil on board, 52 x 52 in. Photo: Courtesy Quint Contemporary Art.
LA JOLLA, CA.- Quint Contemporary Art presents an exhibition of artwork from the estate of Manny Farber, opened July 23 and running through September 10, 2011. Manny Farber began showing at Quint Contemporary Art in 1985, and this is the seventeenth solo exhibition for the artist at the gallery. The exhibition, comprised of approximately 20 selected drawings and paintings, features key works completed over the course of Farber’s painting career. The works highlight Farber’s passion for painting, film and the visual world in general. His cultivation of a tabletop working process can be traced from his earliest paintings of the everyday objects on his desk, like cigarettes and candy, to his later paintings with images including everything from art books, rebar and flowers from the garden of his wife, Patricia. He once described his art by saying: “…what ... More | | New Display Explores Influential, but Somewhat Forgotten Socialist Herbert Morrison
Herbert Morrison, 1954 by Yousuf Karsh. ©Karsh/ Camera Press.
LONDON.- A new display at the National Portrait Gallery explores the imagery associated with the influential, but somewhat forgotten socialist Herbert Morrison, grandfather of Peter Mandelson. Perceived by his peers as an archetypal cockney, Morrison played a leading part in the rise of the Labour Party, one of the most significant changes in the political order of the early twentieth century. Chronologically charting Morrison’s career, the display illustrates his progression from a young politician at the London County Council in the 1920s and 30s, to his staunch role as Home Secretary during the Blitz, his modernising influence as a post-war minister and his keen supervision of the Festival of Britain in 1951. This large case display includes a recently acquired caricature of Morrison by Ronald Searle, and a never before exhibited portrait drawing by Henryk Gotlib. These are shown alongside photographs by Yousuf Karsh, H ... More |
The Textile Museum Joins the George Washington University; New Museum to Open in Mid-2014
The new museum will include dedicated galleries for The Textile Museum, with increased exhibition space compared to its present facilities.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Textile Museum and the George Washington University announced an affiliation whereby The Textile Museum will move to the George Washington University’s Foggy Bottom campus to become a cornerstone of a new museum scheduled to open in mid-2014. Exhibitions and programs will be presented to the public in a custom-built, approximately 35,000 square foot museum building located at G and 21st Streets, bearing the names of both The Textile Museum and the George Washington University Museum. The new museum will include dedicated galleries for The Textile Museum, with increased exhibition space compared to its present facilities. Until the new museum opens, The Textile Museum will continue operating at its current location. In addition to the new museum, the university also announced that it will construct a 20,000 square foot conservation and resource center on its Virginia Science and ... More | | LeConte Stewart: One Artist, Two Exhibitions, Over 200 Works at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
LeConte Stewart (1891-1990), Private Car, courtesy the Church History Museum.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT.- The Utah Museum of Fine Arts and LDS Church History Museum present the largest joint exhibitions ever presented of work by beloved Utah artist LeConte Stewart (1891-1990). On view through January 15, 2012, the exhibitions collectively feature more than 200 paintings and works on paper, providing insight into the life and work of one of the state’s most accomplished artists. Best known for realistic portrayals of Utah’s rural and urban landscapes, Stewart’s contributions to art of the West spanned 75 years and resulted in the creation of thousands of artworks. Wallace Stegner compared Stewart’s work to that of Edward Hopper, but he is most often compared to American Scene and Regionalist artists of the 1920s and 1930s. Stewart took classes at the University of Utah before conducting his serious art study in New York and Pennsylvania. After returning to northern Utah he frequently took tri ... More | | New Publication Explores History Behind Monet's Water Lilies Triptych: Agapanthus
With Claude Monet's water lilies painting behind him, Dean Yoder, conservator of paintings for the Cleveland Museum of Art, looks over x-rays of the painting. AP Photo/Amy Sancetta.
SAINT LOUIS, MO.- The Saint Louis Art Museum announced the publication of Monet’s Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych to accompany the featured exhibition, Monet’s Water Lilies, which opens October 2, 2011. The fascinating and little-known history behind the triptych, recognized as one of Monet’s most impressive accomplishments, is explored in this catalogue. French artist Claude Monet is one of the most significant and best-known Impressionists, and his Water Lily paintings— approximately 250 in the entire series —represent the culminating achievement of his career. The exhibition Monet’s Water Lilies reunites the Agapanthus triptych for the first time in more than 30 years. From new research and technical analysis, this publication investigates the relationship between the 42-foot-long Agapanthus and other related works, ... More |
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 Indiana's Rag Tops Auto Museum Collection to Be Offered at Auctions America by RM's Auburn Fall SaleAUBURN.- Auctions America by RM will lift the gavel on 68 vehicles and a selection of vintage motorcycles from Indiana’s well-known Rag Tops Auto Museum Collection when its second annual Auburn Fall Collector Car Weekend gets underway, September 1 – 4, 2011. Located in Michigan City, Indiana, the Rag Tops Auto Museum - in operation from 2003 until 2011 - was regarded as Northwest Indiana’s largest antique auto and memorabilia museum, well-known by automotive enthusiasts. Following the museum’s closure earlier this year, 68 vehicles from the collection along with a selection of vintage motorcycles will be offered ‘without reserve’ at Auction America by RM’s upcoming Auburn Fall sale. “Auctions America by RM is thrilled to present the Rag Tops Auto Museum Collection at our second annual Auburn Fall Collector Car Auction in September,” says Donnie Gould, President, Auctions A ... More Art History UK Offers More in-Depth and Intimate Alternative to the Mass-Market Tourist ToursLONDON.- Art History UK is a specialist art historical tour company set up in the capital to provide a more in-depth and intimate alternative to the mass-market tourist tours. Art History UK offers a uniquely intimate and tailor made tour service that will leave each individual with an inspiring depth of understanding about London’s art and architecture, and the heroic, humble, strange, sad, and often hilarious stories that this extraordinary city tells. Founded by London cultural expert Rose Balston, Art History UK combines fresh enthusiasm with unrivaled knowledge and the desire to share it, priding itself on combining this scholarship with extensive tour guiding experience, attention to detail, intriguing tales, conversation, challenging ideas and a fascinating exploration of the hidden corners of London’s past. Rose began as an art history tutor in Italy and spent over five years teaching in Florence and Venice before ... More Atheist Group Sues Over Cross at Sept. 11 MuseumBy: Colleen Long, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP).- A group representing atheists says the installation of a cross-shaped beam at the Sept. 11 museum is unconstitutional. The American Atheists filed the suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Wednesday. The group says the museum is a public institution and should not reflect a specific religion. It asks for a judge to either order the cross removed or order that other religions be represented equally. Memorial President Joe Daniels says the museum's mission is to tell the history of Sept. 11 through artifacts like the cross. The cross days has been blessed by a Catholic priest and brought from a temporary home to a spot north of the memorial where it will become part of the museum's permanent collection. ... More Philly Historic Warship Gets Damaged Hull PatchedPHILADELPHIA, PA (AP).- A historic warship on the Philadelphia waterfront has gotten a little shoring up while it waits for a new owner. The USS Olympia is a one-of-a-kind steel cruiser from the Spanish-American War. The ship needs at least $10 million in repairs and the nonprofit Independence Seaport Museum can't afford it. At low tide Tuesday, museum workers bolted a 16-foot long metal patch along the waterline where the ship's hull is badly deteriorated. The work was done from floats in the water, as well as from a small motor boat. The patch should keep the hull stable until the Olympia can be taken to dry dock. The museum is looking for a state, city or charitable organization that will assume ownership of the Olympia by the end of next year. ... MoreHit UFO Image was Polystyrene, Says ForgerBRUSSELS (REUTERS).- A Belgian UFO photograph that became a worldwide hit was faked with a piece of polystyrene, one of the people behind the picture has revealed more than 20 years later in a TV interview. "You can do a lot with a little, we managed to trick everyone with a piece of polystyrene," said one of the forgers, identified only as Patrick, who says he pulled it off at the age of 18 with some colleagues. "We made the model with polystyrene, we painted it and then we started sticking things to it, then we suspended it in the air ... then we took the photo," he said in an interview with French-language broadcaster RTL, which was transmitted late on Tuesday. The photograph, taken in 1990, became a sensation after it was circulated around the world. It became known as Petit-Rechain picture, after the Belgian town where it was purported to have been taken. It was closely associated with a period known as the "Belgian UFO wave," which involved a series of reports of UFO sight ... More Call-To-Arms for Support of the Artist's Resale Right's Full Implementation LONDON.- Artists and supporters of art are being rallied to support the final implementation of an important Right for artists, their families and beneficiaries. The Artist’s Resale Right will be fully established on 1 January 2012 aligning it with all other EU member states. DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) are asking people to sign a petition welcoming the final implementation and calling on the UK Government and European Commission to recognise the importance of the Right in supporting artists, their families and beneficiaries. The Right currently allows visual artists an ongoing stake in the value of their work by paying artists a modest royalty when their works are resold through auction houses, galleries, and art dealers. The full implementation of the Right will extend this royalty to deceased artists’ families and beneficiaries, providing desperately needed funding for managing an artist’s e ... More |
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