| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Friday, February 2, 2024 |
| | Rubin Museum, haven for Asian art, to close after 20 years | |
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The Rubin Museum of Art, on West 17th Street, in New York on Jan. 31, 2024. It is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory. The museum had financial challenges and has faced accusations of displaying looted art. (Jeenah Moon/The New York Times)
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK, NY.- The Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan will shutter after two decades of championing its prized collection of art from Himalayan Asia, with leaders saying Wednesday that they wanted to envision a modern museum without walls. But the museum, which will sell its building, was also facing financial challenges and had become a focal point in recent discussions about the history of religious objects being looted from Asian countries. Doors to the Rubin Museum will close Oct. 6, when its last exhibition ends, before the institution transitions to a skeleton crew that will process long-term loans and research inquiries and help with fundraising. Nearly 40% of its employees will lose their jobs, another set of cutbacks after the museums leader, Jorrit Britschgi, eliminated nearly two dozen positions in 2019 because of dwindling funds. The definition of what a museum is has evolved dramatically in recent years, Noah Dorsky, the museums board president, said in a statement. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day 'Present Tense' at Hauser & Wirth spotlights the next generation of artists living and working in the UK, from emerging to mid-career, celebrating a breadth of creative talent and socially engaged practices.
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| The power of Cute: Sweet, cuddly and taking over the world | | 5 takeaways from the Sotheby's art fraud trial | | 394 hot dog ice sculptures later, he quit his day job | 
In an undated image provided by David Parry/Press Association for Somerset House, A Hello Kitty installation at Somerset House, part of the London gallerys Cute exhibition. (David Parry/Press Association for Somerset House via The New York Times)
by Rosa Lyster
LONDON.- Try this: Ask someone you know to define cute. They are not allowed to simply give an example of a cute thing, so no babies or sweet little rabbits singing a song about being brave; they must try to give a definition for the adjective itself. See how long it takes before words give way to gestures (hands making clutching motions, arms squeezing tightly around invisible teddy-bear-size objects) or inarticulate noises (cries of anguished delight, high-pitched vowel sounds). See how long it takes before they are scrunching up their faces in what looks a lot like pain. Its not just that the term is difficult to define, its that there is often a confounding gap between the smallness, or seeming irrelevance, of the cute object, and the strength and range of the feelings it invokes. Words alone dont seem to cover it. Cuteness its properties, its uses and its increasingly dominant position in ... More | | 
Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi, one of the four works whose sales were a focus of a civil trial, in New York, Nov. 14, 2017. (Andrew White/The New York Times)
by Graham Bowley and Colin Moynihan
NEW YORK, NY.- Over the course of three weeks, the art world watched as a Russian oligarch pursued a lawsuit in an American court in which he accused Sothebys of abetting a fraud. The oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, testified in federal court in New York that a Swiss art dealer had cheated him by pretending to be his agent when instead he was buying artworks and flipping them to Rybolovlevs company at hefty markups. Sothebys, he said, was in on it. But after only a few hours of deliberation Tuesday, the jury found differently, voting unanimously that Sothebys had not played a role in any fraud. The dealer, Yves Bouvier, who was not a defendant in the case, said he felt vindicated too. Bouvier has long insisted that he did nothing wrong and that he was always clearly acting as a dealer, free to charge Rybolovlev whatever price the Russian would pay. The New York court proceedings, Bouvier said in a statement, were a surreal charade in which people argued over ... More | | 
The artist Sunday Nobody at his studio in Seattle, Jan. 25, 2024. The artist has found millions of viewers with his elaborate, absurdist projects they are not, he insists, a waste of a human life. (Meron Tekie Menghistab/The New York Times)
by Callie Holtermann
NEW YORK, NY.- One day this summer, a man in Seattle gathered ingredients to make hot dogs: sausages, buns, a 50-pound block of aluminum. He outlined his recipe in a breezy, three-minute video he posted on social media. First, boil hot dogs in water. Then use industrial milling equipment to create a frankfurter-shaped aluminum mold. (A drill may be required to carve out the squiggle of ketchup.) Next and try not to overthink this part freeze the leftover water into nearly 400 glistening hot dog ice sculptures. The man behind the dogs is a 29-year-old artist who calls himself Sunday Nobody. For the past two years he has been carrying out immensely effortful gags that heap time, attention and technical skill on a series of unlikely muses. These are unusually disciplined exercises in pointlessness. Once his ice sculptures were good and frozen, he shipped them to buyers in unrefrigerated ... More |
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| Jef Geys exposes "the hidden, what one thinks one sees," in exhibition opening at WIELS | | Exhibition explores the gray area between object and concept, 'If a tree falls in the forest, is it a chair?' | | Who will have the biggest Grammy night? | 
Jef Geys, Hallo Andy! (Hello Andy!), 1969. Jef Geys Estate. © Jef Geys Estate Sabam 2023.
BRUSSELS.- Opening today through to 19 May 2024, WIELS presents an ambitious large-scale survey exhibition of the work of Jef Geys, titled You dont see what you think you see' in Brussels. With this presentation of over 200 objects and documents, accompanied by the first survey publication of the artists work, WIELS wants to contribute to art historical research on Jef Geys, as well as to the understanding and appreciation of the artist and his multifaceted practice for local and international audiences. Art critics commonly describe Jef Geys work as unruly, and impossible to categorize in conventional art-historical categories. Despite Geys subversive and critical attitude towards the art world, the exhibition at WIELS shows that his work is not only deeply engaged and socially critical, but also funny and sensory. As Geys writes in 1991, Is what one sees really what one thinks one sees? And what c ... More | | 
Sarah Watlington, Heron Chair, 2019, Claro Walnut. Photo credit: Todd Sorenson.
CLAREMONT, CA.- The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art exhibition 'This is not a chair.' presents a broad range of artists and approaches to the icon of human creative production that is the chair. Drawing inspiration from Rene Magrittes painting The Treachery of Images which placed the statement Ceci nest pas une pipe. (This is not a pipe.) under a painted representation of a pipe, This is not a chair. similarly explores the gray area between object and concept, language and meaning. This liminal space has provided fertile ground for artists to explore and challenge the framework for concept development. Through their experimentations, languages illusion of stability starts to look like a two-legged stool. The exhibition begs the question: What is a chair? The exhibition, curated by CLMAs Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections Seth Pringle, includes a wide range of interpretations, from the 1960s ... More | | 
Taylor Swift performs on the opening night of The Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., March 17, 2023. Taylor Swift and SZA could make history at the 66th annual Grammy Awards, where young women dominate the nominations, and revered older artists will take the stage. (Cassidy Araiza/The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- The 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday are poised to be a celebration of a dominant year for women in pop music, with female stars such as SZA, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish facing off in the major categories. SZA, whose SOS was a critical and chart smash, leads with nine nominations; pop and R&B singer and songwriter Victoria Monét has seven; and Swift, Rodrigo, Eilish, Miley Cyrus and indie-rock trio boygenius have six apiece. Swift and SZA each have the potential for landmark wins. For an award show that in the past has been criticized for its treatment of female stars, its lineup alone is being interpreted as a sign of progress. But the show this year is taking place in the shadow of lawsuits against two ... More |
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| Mike Stasny's artistic tribute unveiled at Underground Atlanta | | 'Painting the Persianate World: Portable Images on Paper, Cloth and Clay' opens at SCMA | | The secret of Thomas Mann's translator | 
Mike Stasnys Milliennial Pink Opens at Underground Atlanta. Photo Credit: Lyle Baldes.
ATLANTA, GA.- Prepare to be swept away in a surreal celebration of love and nostalgia as Underground Atlanta welcomes their creative director and resident artist, Mike Stasny's monumental art installation, "Millennial Pink." This giant inflatable, standing at thirty-feet-tall, is a whimsical tribute to the millennial generation and is set to debut just in time for the month of love, February 2024. Stasny's creation promises a ludicrously captivating experience, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in a surreal embrace of art and emotion. "Millennial Pink" captures the essence of an entire generation, blending the bold with the muted, reflecting the complex journey of millennials through an ever-evolving world. I could never say with complete confidence what truly makes generational identities. Having been born in 1981, I apparently represent the first year of Millennials. As the most senior breed of Millennials, what better way to ... More | | 
Wall Hanging with Cypress Trees, Peacocks, and Animals in Combat, 1866. Cotton, block-printed and painted (kalamkari). 68 x 45 in. (172.7 x 114.3 cm). Yale University Art Gallery, Hobart and Edward Small Moore Memorial Collection, Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore, 1937.5202
NORTHAMPTON, MA.- Smith College Museum of Art is now presenting the exhibition Painting the Persianate World: Portable Images on Paper, Cloth and Clay from February 2July 7, 2024. Painting the Persianate World showcases the fluidity and transmission of language and culture through images on manuscripts, textiles and ceramics created between the 1300s and 1800s. This exhibition is supported by the Nolen Endowed Fund for Asian Art Initiatives. Painting the Persianate World introduces a view of cultures in flux through migration and contact. The movement of people from regions that comprise todays Iran and Afghanistan to present-day Pakistan, India and Bangladeshand with them the Persian language formed ... More | | 
An undated photo of Helen Lowe-Porter with her daughters, in New Paltz, N.Y., Jan. 3, 2024. A new novel about Thomas Manns longstanding American translator portrays a woman ahead of her time and, despite her shortcomings, important to leading Mann to a Nobel Prize. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)
by Celia McGee
NEW YORK, NY.- Before she could sign on to translate the entirety of Thomas Mann, the giant of German letters, into English, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter had to translate herself. An American married to a rising paleography scholar at Oxford, Lowe-Porter was raising three daughters and helping make ends meet with occasional translation work when, in 1922, Alfred A. Knopf sent Buddenbrooks, Manns first novel, her way. Lowe-Porter judged the chances of a warm reception for a woman translator to be slim, and became H.T. Lowe-Porter on the title pages of the two-volume Knopf edition, for which she was paid $750. She would go by that name on Manns works from then on, including, in ... More |
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| RR Auction's February auction showcases presidential treasures and historical memorabilia | | BAM exhibition 'Washi Transformed' presents the artistic alchemy of Japanese paper in contemporary expression | | Salon Art + Design announces Nicky Dessources as Executive Director | 
Abraham Lincoln Massive Hesler-Ayres portrait printed from an original negative.
BOSTON, MA.- RR Auction, a globally recognized and trusted auction house specializing in historical autographs and artifacts, will feature an extraordinary collection of 600 unique items in its upcoming February Fine Autographs and Artifacts auction. The event pays homage to Presidents' Day with a special section featuring remarkable presidential autographs, artifacts, and memorabilia. One of the highlights of this auction includes rare original timbers and wood relics from the White House. Noteworthy items feature well-documented White House doorway moldings with multi-layered paint, providing a glimpse into the Executive Mansion's decades of decoration. Additionally, a doorway corner rosette molding from the White House interior, removed during Truman's renovation by Knipp & Co. Among the standout pieces is a bloodstained head bandage from Abraham Lincoln's assassination. This swatch from President Lincoln's head bandage was obtained by Henry ... More | | 
Kakuko Ishii, Musubu W1, 2007, Washi paper (Mizuhiki); Image: © Kakuko Ishii.
BELLEVUE, WA.- Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, WA is now showing Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper, on view from February 2 through April 26, 2024. Washi Transformed presents over thirty highly textured two-dimensional works, expressive sculptures, and dramatic installations that explore the astonishing potential of this traditional medium. In this exhibition, nine Japanese artists embrace the seemingly infinite possibilities of washi, underscoring the unique stature this ancient art form has earned in the realm of international contemporary art. The breathtaking creativity of these artistic visionaries deepens our understanding of how the past informs the present, and how it can build lasting cultural bridges out of something a seemingly simple and ephemeral as paper. Unique for its strong natural fibers and its painstaking production techniques, washi stands out as a nexus of tradition and innovation. Its continuing, and ... More | | 
Nicky Dessources, New Director at Salon Art + Design. Dessources will succeed Jill Bokor, who positioned Salon as one of the worlds pre-eminent stages for global design during her decade-long tenure.
NEW YORK, NY.- Salon Art + Design, the leading collectible design and art fair produced by Sanford L. Smith + Associates, is pleased to announce Nicky Dessources as its new Executive Director. Dessources succeeds Jill Bokor, who for more than a decade positioned Salon Art + Design as one of the worlds preeminent platforms for international design. After nearly ten years experience at Sanford L. Smith, Dessources comes from within the organization, bringing her extensive experience to the role and ushering in a new era of innovation and creativity. Bokor will remain with Salon Art + Design as Chairwoman Emeritus, working closely in collaboration with Dessources on future editions of the fair. Stepping into the role of Executive Director for the 2024 edition of Salon, Dessources will oversee all aspects of the New York event, which takes place at the Park Avenue Armory each ... More |
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How to Set and Dress a Table | Olympia Irving and Ariadne Irving | Sotheby's
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 'Helen Glazer: Walking in Antarctica' opens in the Fairfield University Art MuseumFAIRFIELD, CONN..- Fairfield University Art Museum is opening Helen Glazer: Walking in Antarctica, on view in the Museums Bellarmine Hall Galleries through March 16, 2024. In 2015, artist Helen Glazer traveled to Antarctica as a grantee of the National Science Foundations Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, to photograph ice and geological formations for eventual production as photographic prints and sculpture. She worked out of remote Antarctic scientific field camps and had access to protected areas that can only be entered with government permits or in the company of a skilled mountaineer. Inspired and informed by her experiences, Walking in Antarctica is an immersive, interdisciplinary exhibition bringing together photography, sculpture, and audio narrative to take the viewer on a journey through an extraordinary environment of remote ... More  Solo exhibit of work of Ken Schiano now on view at Carla Massoni GalleryCHESTERTOWN, MD.- A solo exhibit of the work of Ken Schiano, 'An Accumulation of Difficult Things', will be on view starting today at the Carla Massoni Gallery, 203 High Street Chestertown, MD through to March 10th. Introduction: "I have always been curious as to how a poet might perceive and translate my paintings, one who treats spoken language in ways similar to my relationship with the visual language, and when it was first suggested that we find someone to review the work of this exhibit, I knew immediately who that should be. I met Heather McHugh many years ago in Eastport Maine and grew to appreciate her poetry, her fierce voice and her compassion. What follows are her impressions of a few pieces in the exhibit. I hope you find them entertaining and informing. ON SCHIANO'S WORK: A POETS VIEW: 'The relation ... More  Can a piano capture the grandeur of Rachmaninoff's symphonic music?NEW YORK, NY.- Sergei Rachmaninoff composed two versions of Symphonic Dances, his last major work. One was the grand, orchestral score most often performed today; the other, a piano duet. But could it also work on one piano? Solo transcriptions have popped up in the decades since the 1941 premiere of Symphonic Dances a colorful, harmonically adventurous journey through nostalgic melodies and grotesque waltzes, culminating in a cosmic showdown between life and death. And there exists a poor but precious recording of Rachmaninoff playing through the piece at the piano, vocalizing with his music as he ran through it for conductor Eugene Ormandy in 1940. Now, pianist Inon Barnatan has made a fresh case for the scores viability as a solo transcription, through a new version of his own that he recorded for the Pentatone ... More  Review: Music From the Sole brings a party to the Joyce TheaterNEW YORK, NY.- The Joyce Theater has rarely felt as electric as it did Tuesday, when 14 musicians burst through a door at the back of the house, singing and drumming as they paraded through the audience toward the stage. Within seconds, the crowd was clapping and cheering, some people on their feet. That party spirit persists throughout I Didnt Come to Stay, the latest evening-length work by Music From the Sole, a talent-packed tap and live music ensemble led by Brazilian choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and American composer Gregory Richardson. Tap, in any context, is at once a form of dance and music, and the company leans into that oneness, setting up porous relationships between the five-piece band and the nine dancers, all of whom consider themselves musicians. Early on, the band members leave their instruments to gamely ... More  Leather and lace for the Queen of PopNEW YORK, NY.- Madonna performed at Madison Square Garden on Monday night as part of her Celebration Tour, a lavish stage spectacle devoted to her catalog of hits as the Queen of Pop. During Like a Prayer, she sang from a spinning carousel filled with jumbo crucifixes and shirtless men. When she performed Vogue, she invited Kelly Ripa onto the stage to join her in judging the ballroom moves of her dancers with scorecards. I dont know when Im going to be back here playing again, but Im doing this show like its my last show, Madonna, 65, told the crowd. And Im doing this show like its my first show. Before the concert, the scene outside the arena resembled a fashion runway as Madonna fans arrived to serve up style tributes to her. Men emerged from the subway wearing black biker boots and leather jackets. Some women ... More  Anne Edwards, bestselling 'Queen of Biography,' dies at 96NEW YORK, NY.- Anne Edwards, a prodigious and peripatetic author who published bestselling books about actresses Vivien Leigh and Katharine Hepburn as well as 14 other celebrity biographies, eight novels, three childrens books, two memoirs and one autobiography, died Jan. 20 in Beverly Hills, California. She was 96. Her daughter, Catherine Edwards Sadler, said she died of lung cancer at a senior living facility. A child performer on radio and the stage, Edwards sold her first screenplay in 1949, when she was 22 (the movie Quantez, a Western starring Fred MacMurray, was released in 1957); her first novel (the mystery The Survivors) in 1968; and her first biography (of Judy Garland) in 1975. Her Vivien Leigh: A Biography (1977) spent 19 weeks on The New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Reviewing that book for the Times, ... More  Tributes pour in to Chita Rivera on Broadway, where she reignedNEW YORK, NY.- Chita Rivera created several memorable Broadway characters that are now considered part of the canon, including the role of Velma Kelly in the original production of Chicago. So when the cast of the long-running Broadway revival took to the stage of the Ambassador Theater in New York on Tuesday night just a few hours after her death was announced, it was only natural that they would pay tribute to her. After the performance, the cast assembled onstage as Amra-Faye Wright, who plays Kelly now, recalled Rivera as a Broadway giant, who championed other dancers. I feel still an impostor in the role because it belonged to Chita Rivera, Wright said, as cast members dabbed their eyes. She created it. She starred in the original production of Chicago and she lives on constantly in our hearts, on this stage, in every performance. ... More  Minute-long soap operas are here. Is America ready?LOS ANGELES, CA.- When Albee Zhang received an offer to produce cheesy short-form features made for phones in the spring, she was skeptical, and so, she declined. But the offers kept coming. Finally, Zhang, who has been a producer for 12 years, realized it could be a profitable new way of storytelling and said yes. Since summer, she has produced two short-form features and is working on four more for several apps that are creating cookie-cutter content aimed at women. Think: Lifetime movie cut up into TikTok videos. Think: soap opera, but for the short attention span of the internet age. The biggest player in this new genre is ReelShort, an app that offers melodramatic content in minute-long, vertically shot episodes and is hoping to bring a successful formula established abroad to the United States by hooking millions of people on its short-form content. ... More  Universal Music Group threatens to remove music from TikTokNEW YORK, NY.- Universal Music Group, the worlds largest music company, said it would revoke the licenses for its vast catalog of songs from TikTok after its current contract expires Wednesday if the two companies could not reach a new deal addressing Universals concerns over artist compensation, artificial intelligence and other issues. In an open letter posted late Tuesday, Universal accused TikTok of responding to its requests with indifference, and then with intimidation, creating a public squabble in the remaining hours of the two companies existing contract. If the talks fail, TikTok users would be unable to use music by Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, U2, Bad Bunny and thousands of other artists in their videos. TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the worlds most popular and fastest-growing social media platforms, ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada was born February 02, 1853. José Guadalupe Posada (February 2, 1853 - January 20, 1913[1]) was a Mexican political printmaker and engraver whose work has influenced many Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and social engagement. He used skulls, calaveras, and bones to make political and cultural critiques. Among his famous works was La Catrina. In this image: José Guadalupe Posada, Calavera de la Catrina (Skull of the Female Dandy), from the portfolio 36 Grabados: José Guadalupe Posada, published by Arsacio Vanegas, Mexico City, Mexico, c. 1910, printed 1943, photo-relief etching with engraving, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the friends of Freda Radoff.
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