| | Sotheby's to Offer Possibly the Most Seductive Image in British Art at Old Masters Sale
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An employee poses in front of "Portrait of a Young Woman and Child, as Venus and Cupid" by Peter Lely dated 1732, at Sotheby's in London July 4, 2011. The painting is estimated to sell for £600,000-£800,000 (US $960,000-$1.3 million) when it is auctioned on July 6. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.
LONDON.- Possibly the most seductive image in British art, this ravishing portrait was recorded as; "Nell Gwin naked leaning on a bed, with her Child by Sr Peter Lilly. This picture was painted at the express command of K. Charles 2d nay he came to Sr Peter Lillys house to see it painted when she was naked on purpose. afterwards this picture was at Court. where the Duke of Buckingham took it from (when K. James went away,) as may others did the like." These words were written by George Vertue in 1723 when he visited Buckingham House to see the collection of the courtier, John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. The presence in the Royal Collection of such a fascinating picture was confirmed by the publication in 1758 of the Catalogue of... Pictures... belonging to King James the Second, where reference is made under no. 305 to such a picture being artfully concealed – "By Danckers and Sir Peter Lely. The sliding piece before Madame Gwynn's picture naked, with a cupid." Followin ... More |
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North Carolina's Great Dismal Swamp Holds Clues about Pre-War Runaway Slaves
Cindy Goode, of Virginia, sorts through artifacts uncovered at a dig site in Great Dismal Swamp, N.C. AP Photo/Steve Helber.
By: Tom Breen, Associated Press
IN THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP (AP).- The oppressive heat, venomous serpents and boot-snatching muck that made the Great Dismal Swamp a barrier to European settlement ever since colonial times also made it a haven for thousands of people escaping slavery before the Civil War. This fall, a permanent exhibition will open to provide some detail about those lives, part of an expanding effort by the National Park Service and other agencies to recast the experience of pre-war slaves. Scholars are using sites like the Great Dismal Swamp, straddling the line between North Carolina and Virginia, to highlight a little-known side of history, ... More | | Egypt's Antiquities Authority Says 5,200 Year-Old Ancient Drawing Unearthed South of Aswan
A 5,200-year-old rock drawing depicting a royal festival during Ancient Egypt's earliest dynasty. AP Photo/ Egypt's Supreme Council Of Antiquities.
CAIRO (AP).- Egypt's Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have unearthed a 5,200-year-old rock drawing depicting a royal festival during Ancient Egypt's earliest dynasty. The ministry says the scenes were part of a series of rock drawings featuring hunting, fighting and celebrations along the banks of the Nile River. Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement Monday the scenes represent the first unearthing of a complete drawing of a royal festival during Dynasty Zero, when the earliest foundations of Ancient Egyptian culture are believed to have been formed. A joint U.S.-Italian expedition team discovered the unique drawings in the southern city of Aswan, a hub of archaeological treasures. ... More | | New York State Museum Biologists Map Strategy to Save Adirondack Spruce Grouse
Jeremy Kirchman, curator for birds at the New York State Museum, poses with spruce grouse specimens dating to 1890 from the Adirondack Mountains, in Albany, N.Y. AP Photo/Mike Groll.
By: Mary Esch, Associated Press
ALBANY, NY (AP).- Genetic analysis at the state museum confirms what biologists squishing through Adirondack bogs already knew: New York's population of the spruce grouse, a chicken-like bird of the boreal forest, is nearing extinction. Avid birders travel great distances to glimpse rare boreal species in the cool, moist forests of the Adirondacks and other Northeastern mountains. While boreal species — including the boreal chickadee, Bicknell's thrush, blackpoll warbler and gray jay — are plentiful further north in Canada, biologists say global climate change and habitat ... More |
Florida Divers Find New Treasure from Famed Nuestra Senora de Atocha Shipwreck
A large emerald ring is pictured in the hand of Sean Fisher. REUTERS/Sharon Wiley/Mel Fisher's Treasures.
By: Michael Haskins
KEY WEST, FLA (REUTERS).- Divers in the Florida Keys have recovered a large emerald ring and two silver spoons believed to come from Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a shipwrecked Spanish galleon that has already yielded one of the greatest treasures ever recovered from the sea. Employees of Mel Fisher's Treasure, the salvage company that has worked the shipwreck site since 1969, believe the latest haul signals they are close to finding the sterncastle, a key missing portion of the ship. "The sterncastle is where the clergy and elite were with their personal items," said Sean Fisher, spokesman for the family business and grandson of its late founder, Mel Fisher. The Atocha was headed back to Spain with a load of gold and silver from the New World when it sank and broke up in a hurricane not far from Key West in ... More | | University of Sydney Exhibition Offers Clues on Mysterious Pre-Roman Civilisation
A dancing man from the painted walls of the tomb of the Augurs at Tarquinia, 525-500BC.
SYDNEY.- A new exhibition at the University of Sydney offers insight into a once dominant but enigmatic ancient Italian civilisation. The Etruscans – based in what is now known as Tuscany – were the most powerful Mediterranean people in the 6th century BC before being conquered by the Romans and incorporated into the Roman Republic. Their empire was built on mineral wealth, enabling the development of elaborate cities and a powerful oligarchy which greatly influenced the Roman Empire. While the Etruscans’ early dominance is undisputed, little is known about who they were and where they came from. There language is like no other spoken then, or since, in Europe. No Etruscan literature or major buildings survive, and much Etruscan art – mostly made from stone, wood and terracotta - was summarily destroyed by the Romans. The Nicholson Museum’s The Etruscans: A Classical Fantasy sheds light on what l ... More | | Exhibition of Photographs from the Legendary Mexican Suitcase at Les Rencontres d'Arles
Gerda Taro, (Crowd at the gate of the morgue after the air raid, Valencia), May 1937. Negative. © International Center of Photography. Collection International Center of Photography.
By: Cynthia Young
ARLES.- The legendary Mexican Suitcase containing Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War negatives, considered lost since 1939, has recently been rediscovered and is exhibited here for the first time. The Suitcase is in fact three small boxes containing nearly 4,500 negatives, not only by Capa but also by his fellow photojournalists Chim (David Seymour) and Gerda Taro. These negatives span the course of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), through Chim’s in-depth coverage in 1936-37, Taro’s intrepid documentation until her death in battle in July 1937, and Capa’s incisive reportage until the last months of the conflict. Additionally, there are several rolls of film by Fred Stein showing mainly portraits of Taro, which after ... More |
A Garden Within a Garden is this Year's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by Peter Zumthor
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011. Designed by Peter Zumthor© Peter Zumthor. Photo: Walter Herfst.
LONDON.- The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 is designed by world renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. This year’s Pavilion is the 11th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It is the architect’s first completed building in the UK and includes a specially created garden by the influential Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. At the heart of Peter Zumthor’s Pavilion is a garden that the architect hopes will inspire visitors to become observers. Zumthor says his design ‘aims to help its audience take the time to relax, to observe and then, perhaps, start to talk again - maybe not.’ The design emphasises the role the senses and emotions play in our experience of architecture. With a refined selection of materials Zumthor creates contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment ... More | | Exhibition by Scotland's Most Accomplished Living Artist Dame Elizabeth Blackadder Opens
Elizabeth Blackadder, Dark Pond, Alhambra, Granada, 1997 (detail). Oil on canvas, 154 x 154. Private collection © the artist.
EDINBURGH.- The major exhibition in 2011 at the Scottish National Gallery highlights the work of one of Scotland’s most accomplished living artists, Dame Elizabeth Blackadder. Celebrating the artist’s 80th birthday, the exhibition presents her work in all its diversity, ranging from the much-loved studies after nature, to lesser-known paintings which will challenge expectations. This landmark exhibition spans six decades of Blackadder’s career, beginning with her work in the 1950s and culminating in her most recent paintings. Since the opening of the exhibition that launched her career in 1959, Elizabeth Blackadder has become renowned for her paintings, prints and drawings. Her work is both cherished by the public whilst being highly respected by the art establishment. She was the first woman artist to be elected to both the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy ... More | | Exhibition Explores the Customs and Traditions Surrounding Life and Death of the Pharaohs
The exhibition has been set out so as to guide visitors on a journey as viewed through the eyes of an embalmer.
COUNTY DURHAM.- There could be a few cries of ‘I Want My Mummy’ at The Bowes Museum this summer, as visitors are taken on an exciting and absorbing trip through Ancient Egypt, in a super new exhibition aimed at families. Amazing Egyptians, which opened at the Barnard Castle treasure house on Saturday 2 July, explores the customs and traditions surrounding life and death in the land of the Pharaohs, through the use of key objects showing the processes involved in preparing a body for the afterlife. The exhibition, curated by Education Officer Amy Longstaff, has been set out so as to guide visitors on a journey as viewed through the eyes of an embalmer named Lukman, who tells about the Egyptians’ belief in more than one God, and the hoops they were convinced they must jump through in an effort to gain a first class ticket to immortality. “One of our aims was to show that even the greatest Pharaohs, ... More |
Exhibition Features Four Chicago-Based Multidisciplinary Art and Design Groups
Vox Arcana. Designed and printed by Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, Chicago, 2009. Commissioned by Tim Daisy.
CHICAGO, IL.- We Are Here: Art & Design Out of Context is a month-long exhibition that features four Chicago-based multidisciplinary art and design groups that utilize the museum gallery as a workspace. The designers include: product design collective Object Design League, artist-run project space Golden Age, designers Tim Parson and Jessica Charlesworth, and screen-printers Sonnenzimmer. Visitors can interact with the artists and participate in the construction of the pieces, and observe the groups as they develop and construct smallscale pieces that are available to take home. Each design group begins their activities on a Tuesday during the month of July at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago. We Are Here is curated by James Goggin, MCA Director of Design, Print, and Digital Media. Designers, artists, and writers Caroline Linder and Lisa Smith co- ... More | | Oakville Galleries Surveys Ontario's Sobey Art Award 2011 Longlisted Artists
Derek Sullivan, #17, Stepanova Test!, 2006, gouache and coloured pencil on paper, 127 x 98 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Toronto.
OAKVILLE, ON.- This summer, Oakville Galleries presents Sobey Art Award: 2011 Ontario Long List, a group exhibition that takes the pulse of contemporary art-making in the province. Surveying recent work by the six Ontario artists long-listed for the prestigious Sobey Art Award, the exhibition will be on view at both Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens and Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square through September 3, 2011. The Sobey Art Award is Canada’s preeminent award for artists under the age of 40 with an annual prize of $50,000. For this year’s award, Oakville Galleries’ Curator of Contemporary Art, Marnie Fleming, had the privilege of selecting the semifinalists for the Ontario region. This exhibition has been assembled to provide a glimpse into the practice of the nominated artists—Aleesa Cohene, Gareth Long, Derek Sullivan, Josh Thorpe, ... More | | KAdE Commissions Design Firm for Three-Dimensional Setting to Show Porcelain
SO – IL has designed 32 modern, geometrically shaped showcases in bright colours and with ‘pointed tops’.
AMERSFOORT.- In the Netherlands, Meissen porcelain is often regarded as ‘high-class kitsch’. Its sumptuous, often narrative style of decoration puts it at odds with the minimalistic and conceptual traditions of Modernism. In this exhibition, KAdE seeks to challenge this prejudice and focus attention on the great sculptural, artistic and technical strengths of Meissen. KAdE commissioned the Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL) architectural office to design an ideal contemporary three-dimensional setting in which to present the porcelain. In response, SO – IL has designed 32 modern, geometrically shaped showcases in bright colours and with ‘pointed tops’. As well as showing off the fifty-plus Meissen objects to best advantage, these vitrines are autonomous works in their own right. As Florian Idenburg of SO – IL explains, “We wanted to come up with a strategy to help visito ... More |
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 Rare Blue Diamond by Bulgari Offered by BonhamsLONDON.- One of the world’s rarest stones, a blue diamond, will be offered in the Fine Jewellery Sale at Bonhams, New Bond Street on September 21st and is estimated to sell for £600,000 – 800,000. The stunning diamond and blue diamond crossover ring made by Bulgari comes from a private European collector and has never been seen at auction before. The collector’s father commissioned the ring from the legendary Italian jewellery house as a gift for his wife in the mid 1960s, when Bulgari was at the height of fashion and innovation. It was a time where the world's rich and famous sought Bulgari’s unique craftsmanship and high quality jewellery designs, including Elizabeth Taylor who bought much of her jewellery there. Typical of Bulgari’s elegant simplicity, the ring offered by Bonhams is set obliquely with a pear-shaped diamond, weighing 3.93 carats, D colour, VS2 clarity, and a pear-shaped fancy vivid, ... More Arts Commission Debuts Podcast Experiencing the "Sights and Sounds of Central Market" SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In an effort to encourage people to explore the Central Market neighborhood, seasoned multimedia producers researched and crafted stories that cut through the negative stereotypes of the neighborhood to feature the beauty and humanity of Central Market people and places. The podcast focuses on two blocks of Central Market that have recently been activated through dynamic arts programming under the auspices of The ARTery Project. These downloadable videos and audio segments bring depth to an underappreciated neighborhood. "We recognize there are many great stories to tell and since we have been involved with the revitalization of this neighborhood through The ARTery Project, we have looked for creative ways to tell these stories," said Director of Cultural Affairs Luis R. Cancel. "In addition to two Culture Wire episodes, which we produce with SFGTV, this podcast will delve deeper ... More London Fields Gallery Launches with Hackney Hoard Exhibition LONDON.- Coinciding with their summer launch, GALERIE8 will be opening their permanent space with the exhibition Hackney Hoard, 22nd July – 28th August, 2011. The exhibition is an inquiry into the value and status placed on contemporary art and the role it plays in society, regardless of its literal monetary value in terms of the materials from which it is made. For this project, GALERIE8 will be working with artists Adam Dant, Gavin Turk, Terry Castle, LE GUN artists, Annabel Tilley, Matthew Killick and the Last Tuesday Society. On the 12th July 2007, whilst re-landscaping their back garden, four residents of Hackney, East London , unearthed eighty mystery gold coins. Further research into the coins confirmed their interesting provenance; American, minted during the late 19th Century and buried by a Jewish man who fled from Nazi Germany in the 1940’s. After several years of investigation into the ownership of ... More Tate Extends Its Focus to African Art through New Partnership with Guaranty Trust BankLONDON.- Tate and Guaranty Trust Bank today announced an important new partnership which will broaden Tate’s international reach to Africa, provide a platform for African artists to be seen by audiences world-wide and heighten awareness of the impact of African art on modern and contemporary practice. The legacy and current influence of art produced in areas outside Europe and North America has been a focus for Tate in recent years and this presents an unprecedented opportunity to examine Africa’s role at the heart of global artistic developments. The partnership will involve the creation of a dedicated curatorial post at Tate Modern to focus on African art, an Acquisition Fund to enable the Gallery to enhance its holdings of work by African artists and an annual project. The Curator International Art, supported by Guaranty Trust Bank, will develop links with artists based in Africa and exchange knowledge and experti ... More Pittsburgh Bike 'Hoarder' Opening MuseumBy: Joe Mandak, Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP).- Craig Morrow has a simple reason for creating Bicycle Heaven, a combination museum and vintage parts shop tucked into the warehouse district along a bicycle trail on the north shore of Pittsburgh's Ohio River: He loves bicycles and wants everyone else to love them, too. But how he came to collect more than 1,500 bikes and some 90,000 parts and accessories, well, that's not so simple. "I've probably moved in, probably, over 100 pickup truck loads of stuff," Morrow, 54, said as he and a handful of close friends scurried to arrange storage areas overflowing with mountains of tires, boxfuls of pedals, and walls filled with bicycle forks and handlebars just days before Saturday's grand opening. "I guess you could say I was a hoarder of bike stuff." Morrow worked in an auto ... More Texas Contemporary Art Fair Announces Preliminary Galleries, Partners, Host Committee and SponsorsHOUSTON, TX.- artMRKT Productions, the Brooklyn-based organizer of artMRKT San Francisco and the upcoming artMRKT Hamptons, announced its inaugural Texas Contemporary art fair to take place in Houston from October 20 - 23, 2011 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, with a theme focused on energy and sustainability. An early preview of the national participating gallery list for Texas Contemporary includes ACME (Los Angeles), Baer Ridgway Exhibitions (San Francisco), Catharine Clark Gallery (San Francisco), Fredric Snitzer (Miami), Inman Gallery (Houston), Lennon Weinberg (New York City), Moody Gallery (Houston), Rena Bransten Gallery (San Francisco), Samuel Freeman (Santa Monica), Sicardi Gallery (Houston), Texas Gallery (Houston) and Wade Wilson Art (Houston), with new galleries coming on board weekly. Currently in the process of accepting applications from galleries and Texas-based artists for exclusive showcase in solo booths, fair directors Max Fishko and Jeffrey Wainhau ... More |
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