| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, April 24, 2020 |
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| | The Met announces dozens of layoffs as potential losses swell to $150 million | |
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Visitors outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, March 12, 2020. Facing a potential shortfall for the next fiscal year that might swell to $150 million 50% larger than what was forecast in March the museum announced layoffs for more than 80 employees and executive pay cuts upwards of 20% in a letter to staff on Wednesday, April 22. Karsten Moran/The New York Times.
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Executives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan are preparing for an economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic that could be worse than initially projected. Facing a potential shortfall for the next fiscal year that might swell to $150 million 50% larger than what was forecast in March the museum announced layoffs for more than 80 employees and executive pay cuts upward of 20% in a letter to staff Wednesday. While we are not immune from the impact of this pandemic, the Met is a strong and enduring institution and will remain one, Daniel Weiss, president and chief executive of the museum, said in a statement. Our two primary objectives continue to be doing all that we can to support the health and safety of our community and to protect the long-term financial health of the Museum. A museum spokesperson said that the layoffs would amount to a 26% reduction in staff across the Mets visitor services and retail departments, because ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A view of the deserted Red Square, the State Historical Museum and the GUM department store in downtown Moscow on April 22, 2020, during a strict lockdown in Russia to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP
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 | | Annual MassArt Signature Benefit Art Auction on Bidsquare continues to attract the most discerning collectors | | Christie's announces highlights included in its Prints and Multiples sale | | Lark Mason Associates Asian art online auction surpasses expectations | 
Lavaughan Jenkins, Not for Resale, 2019, Estimate $6,000-10,000.
NEW YORK, NY.- Bidsquare partnered with Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) for its signature annual benefit art auction. The event features an extraordinary array of artwork that continues to attract the most discerning collectors. A departure from previous sales, MassArt has moved its entire event online this year. The annual event will comprise of two events, a silent online auction and a live auction. Both events will be conducted through the Bidsquare platform and will allow bidders to bid live in real-time online. Participants may go to bidsquare.com to register for the silent and live auctions, which will offer over 350 contemporary works by both emerging and established artists including internationally renowned visual artist Julian Opie and Foster Prize recipient Lavaughan Jenkins. The live auction will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET, and will be conducted by auctioneer Karen Keane, CEO of Skinner, and MassArt ... More | | 
Roy Lichtenstein, Roommates, from Nude Series. Relief print in colors, on Rives BFK paper, 1994. Image: 573⁄4 x 451⁄8 in. (1467 x 1146 mm.) Sheet: 641⁄8 x 51 in. (1629 x 1295 mm.) Estimate: $150,000-200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced the online sale Working from Home: Prints and Multiples (April 30-May 14). The sale includes over 70 lots spanning from 19th century to the present day, and features modern works by Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and Pablo Picasso alongside Post-War and Contemporary editions by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Damien Hirst among others. The sale features a broad selection of Post-War and Contemporary prints led by Andy Warhols $ (9) ($150,000-200,000), the complete set of two unique screenprints, Roy Lichtensteins Roommates, from Nude Series ($150,000-200,000) and works by David Hockney including Amaryllis in Vase, from Moving Focus ($60,000-80,000) and Godetia ($8,000-12,000). Other Contemporary highlights include a selection of ... More | | 
A Chinese Revolving Vase, Qianlong Mark and Period that depicted a series of Dutch figures contained within a stationary outer vase in a latticework pattern.
NEW BRAUNFELS, TX.- At the height of the coronavirus pandemic Lark Mason rolled the dice and moved forward with his spring Asian art sale of Chinese Export Porcelain and Works of Art from an American Collector, which closed on April 21st to stunning results-$800,270 including buyer's premium. According to Mason, the sale contained 142 lots and, of those, 132 sold, and the overall high lot estimate of $225,000 was more than tripled. "The auction's success validated our decision not to postpone the schedule until the fall," says Lark Mason, eponymous founder of Lark Mason Associates and the iGavel auction platform. "Even through these dire circumstances, the auctions provided a safe haven and diversion for both Asian, American and European collectors, and offers a valuable indicator to the current state of the market." According to Mason, bidders from America, Europe, and Asia responded ... More |
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| | Clyfford Still Museum announces departure of director Dean Sobel | | 2020 Curatorial Awards For Excellence announced | | Electroshock therapists for classic cars | 
Sobel has accepted the position of Professor of the Practice of Art History and Museum Studies with the University of Denver beginning with the fall 2020 quarter. Photo: Chris Schneider.
DENVER, CO.- The Clyfford Still Museum announced today that Dean Sobel will be stepping down as the Museums director in September 2020. Sobel has accepted the position of Professor of the Practice of Art History and Museum Studies with the University of Denver beginning with the fall 2020 quarter. Sobel joined the Museum in 2005 and spearheaded the efforts to create a new, permanent collections-centered institution for the over 3,400 artworks comprising the Clyfford Still collections. He led the process of selecting Brad Cloepfil and Allied Works Architecture as the architect for the new Museum, successfully raised approximately $35 million for the early years operations and the Museum building, and he managed the construction of the now nationally-acclaimed Museum, which opened to the public in November 2011. Sobel established the vision for the Museums exhibitions and public programming and oversaw nine y ... More | | 
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time_ Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa at The Block Museum, Northwestern University, published by The Block Museum and Princeton University Press.
NEW YORK, NY.- The 2020 Awards for Excellence were released today within the 2020 Art Curators Conference catalog. Nearly 175 nominations were submitted and vetted by groups of curator jurors from around the world, with importance placed upon how each entry reflected core ideals of inclusion, access, dialogue and engagement. Twenty projects were honored: exhibition and installation awards were presented to Afterlives of the Black Atlantic; Sean M. Healey Gallery for Asian Export Art; Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983; and Transamerica/n: Gender, Identity, Appearance Today. Catalog, digital publication and essay awards were given to The American Indian and Warhol's Fantasy of an Indigenous Presence; Art after Stonewall: 1969--1989; Betye Saar: Call and Response; Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa; and Jacob ... More | | 
An undated photo provided by the Moment Motor Company shows a Datsun 280Z converted to electric. The company specializes in converting front-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles. Moment Motor Company via The New York Times.
by Roy Furchgott
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When Prince Harry married Meghan Markle, it wasnt the romance or the pageantry that set automotive hearts aflutter. It was the couples Jaguar E-Type Zero, a classic E-type body fitted with a modern electric drive, that caused a swoon. Best of all, mere commoners could buy one, Jaguar said, for an estimated $380,000. Until they couldnt. In late 2019, more than a year after the wedding, Jaguar broke the news: Jaguar Classic has taken the difficult decision to pause development of the all-electric E-Type Zero for the foreseeable future. But fret not. You can still get an electric E-Type, possibly for less than Jaguar would have charged. If you supply the Jag, I think we could do it for $100,000, said Michael Bream, owner of EV West, a San Marcos, ... More |
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| | Freeman's to offer single-owner collection of works by P.G. Wodehouse | | Exhibition presents Australian Aboriginal art From the SmithDavidson Collection | | Sotheby's unveils a new season of jewellery auctions | 
On offer is a first issue of Wodehouses 1910 novel The Intrusion of Jimmy, charmingly inscribed to Wodehouses mother and signed by the author with his nickname, Plum (Lot 60, Est. $1,000-$1,500).
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- On May 7, Freemans will present an online auction of The P.G. Wodehouse Collection of William Toplis (1924-2019). The present collection encompasses an array of material that spans Wodehouses entire career, from his earliest forays into publishing in the 1890s, to the 1970s when he published his last works. William Toplis was a Philadelphia native, veteran of the US Navy, dedicated teacher, andin true Bertie Wooster fashiona fervent collector of bespoke suits. His high standards and love for the authors work allowed him to build a collection without peer. Diligently researched and covering both his literary work as well as his work for the stage, the collection encompasses first editions, manuscripts, original art, sheet music, libretti, scripts, and much more. In its breadth, it charts the authors trajectory from aspiring writer to world-renowned author. Featured ... More | | 
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yam Multi Color, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm 47.2 x 35.4 inch, courtesy SmithDavidson Gallery.
AMSTERDAM.- Origins brings the 'crème de la crème of Australian Aboriginal Art to Amsterdam. With major shows in New York, Miami, Austin and Los Angeles, Australian Aboriginal Art has seen a massive surge in interest over the past year alone. The quality and scope of this exhibition, which includes a selection from the SmithDavidson Collection, is unique for any Australian Aboriginal Art show and has rarely been seen in any previous exhibition in Europe. Starting as collectors in Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art in 2006/2007, in the past decade David Smith & Gabriëlle Davidson have become prominent experts in Australian Aboriginal Art and have also established SmithDavidson Gallery internationally as one of the major dealers in this unique art movement. They have brought the works to the public via curated gallery exhibitions, museum exhibitions, including Signs & Traces in Poland in 2015, and pre-eminent art fairs, such as TEFA ... More | | 
An Impressive Fancy Intense Blue Diamond and Diamond Ring. Set with a cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamond weighing 3.67 carats, flanked by two emerald-cut diamonds, further accented by round diamonds, size 7. Estimate $2.5 3.5 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys unveiled today a new season of jewellery auctions, including dates for the companys flagship spring jewellery sales. Postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, these highly-anticipated sales - often considered as a bellwether for the market follow a series of successful online sales and digital breakthroughs. The strong results achieved in the past five weeks were facilitated by Sothebys long-term omnichannel strategy and digital innovations which enabled the business to quickly adapt to the new market parameters. These successes are also testament to the resilience of the jewellery market and confirm jewellery as one of the most popular and sought-after collectibles online. David Bennett, Worldwide Chairman of Sothebys Jewellery Division, said: Unprecedented times are often ... More |
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| | Olafur Eliasson creates new work as part of Serpentine's Back to Earth initiative | | The '2 Lizards' of Instagram are coronavirus art stars | | Designer Yuri Suzuki creates crowdsourced sound work in collaboration with the Dallas Museum of Art | 
Olafur Eliasson, Earth perspectives, 2020. The Earth viewed over the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
LONDON.- The commission is a response to the Serpentines 50th anniversary Back to Earth programme, inviting leading artists, musicians, architects, poets, filmmakers, scientists, thinkers and designers to propose artworks and projects that are also a call to action in response to the climate emergency. Back to Earth runs throughout the Serpentines programmes onsite, offsite and online in 2020 and beyond. Olafur Eliasson has created a series of nine images of the Earth, each of which has been abstracted by turning the planet on a different axis. Each image also denotes a particular spot on Earth with a dot. If a viewer stares at the dot for about ten seconds and then trains their focus onto a blank surface, an afterimage appears in the complementary colours of Eliassons visual - the viewer literally projects a new world view. The first image was unveiled on Instagram with eight further images posted subsequently every hour, each one a different ... More | | 
A portrait of 2 Lizards, characters from a series of videos created by Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki for Instagram. Photo: Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki.
by Jon Caramanica
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Quarantine has soft edges: Hours pass without notice, days are a construct. Here we are, trapped in a suspension, barely in control of our time and action no matter how hard we try. (Although honestly, whos trying that hard?) The 2 Lizards series of videos by Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki, which has been rolling out on Instagram over the past few weeks, pinpoints this particular blend of helplessness, lethargy and anxiety. Deploying a blend of documentary structure and animation surrealism, the clips are both poignantly grounded in actual events and also soothingly fantastical art on the fly thats as ensnared in the past-present-future mud as the rest of us. The four episodes to date they appear on Bennanis Instagram page trail a pair of talking, large-scale, ... More | | 
Digital version of Suzukis installation in speechless: different by design will incorporate sounds from around the world as living record of pandemic. Photo: Chad Redmon, Dallas Museum of Art.
DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Museum of Art is collaborating with London-based experience and sound designer Yuri Suzuki to create a new work of arta crowdsourced archive of sounds captured around the world during this global pandemic. The collected sounds from audio and video of life in this new era will be integrated into Sound of the Earth: The Pandemic Chapter, a digital version of Sound of the Earth: Chapter 2, the work that Suzuki created for speechless: different by design. This major multisensory exhibition co-organized by the DMA and the High Museum of Art closed early due to COVID-19. In this moment of tremendous change and uncertainty, we wanted to create an open platform for people to express themselves and to capture our shared experience of the fleeting moments around us during this period. Through our collective observations and the simple ... More |
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Watches Weekly with Charlie Foxhall: F.P Journe, Piaget & The Atmos Clock
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 Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts announces $400,000 in grants to nine organizationsLOS ANGELES, CA.- The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts announced today the 2020 recipients of its Artist Project Grants, marking the fifth year of an initiative that furthers Mike Kelleys philanthropic work and legacy by supporting projects that reflect and honor his multifaceted artistic practice. The Foundation awards the grants to Los Angeles artists and nonprofit institutions and organizations that undertake compelling, inventive, and risk-taking work in any medium, particularly projects that have proven difficult to develop or fund. This years grantees are the Armory Center for the Arts; California Institute of the Arts/REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater); Fulcrum Arts/homeLA; Human Resources LA; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); Los Angeles Filmforum; Pieter; Vincent Price Art Museum; and Visual Communications ... More Deirdre Bair, Beckett and Beauvoir biographer, dies at 84NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Deirdre Bair, who as an unknown writer half a century ago scored a coup by getting the reclusive Samuel Beckett to agree to let her write his biography, then secured the same permission from another towering literary figure, Simone de Beauvoir, died Friday at her home in New Haven, Connecticut. She was 84. Her daughter, Katney Bair, said the cause was heart failure. Bair called herself an accidental biographer, one who had never read a biography before she decided that Samuel Beckett needed one and she was the person to write it. She came to that decision somewhat serendipitously. Having received a fellowship to do graduate study at Columbia University, she needed a research subject. After making too-slow progress on a medieval-studies topic, she decided to turn to a 20th-century author instead. She ... More Ann Sullivan, animator of Disney hits, dies at 91NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Ann Sullivan, who applied her refined brush and palette as an animator to latter-day Disney classics like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Lilo & Stitch, died April 13 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills, California. She was 91. Her daughter Shannon Jay said the cause was COVID-19. Sullivan was the third of four people at the home who have died from the coronavirus, according to a fund representative. More than 7,000 people have died of the disease in care facilities around the United States. Sullivan began bringing cartoons to life at Walt Disneys animation studios in the 1950s, working on films like Peter Pan (1953) before giving up her job to care for her children. She returned to animation in 1973, first working for Hanna-Barbera, and later rejoined ... More South African hit 'Pata Pata' re-launched to fight coronavirusJOHANNESBURG (AFP).- South African anti-apartheid music legend Miriam Makeba's classic "Pata Pata" has been re-released with new lyrics aimed at helping beat the spread of coronavirus, UNICEF said Thursday. The words of the 1967 song which became synonymous with South Africa's liberation struggle have been re-written to encourage safe distancing and hand washing. "Once called the 'world's most defiantly joyful song'", it has been re-recorded, said UNICEF, "to spread information and hope in a time of coronavirus." Benin-born Angelique Kidjo, who was mentored by Makeba, sings the re-recorded version, the UN children's fund said in a statement. "Pata Pata" means "touch touch" in one of South Africa's vernaculars of Xhosa. Some of the lines in the altered version go: "In this time of coronavirus it's not touch time. "Everybody can help fight Covid-19. Stay at home and wait it out. ... More Dreaming of returning home, Egypt's Nubians revive language ASWAN (AFP).- Fatma Addar grew up in a Nubian family, connected to her ethnic minority's rich history through its tales of a bygone life on the Nile, though regaled less and less in their original language. She lives in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan and was schooled mostly in Arabic -- her only occasional brushes with her mother tongue are when she hears it spoken by the family elders. "I usually get asked how can I be Nubian when I can't speak my own language," the 23-year-old told AFP. "It was always a problem for me." The language, she says, is "unpractised by many in her generation", born decades after the mass eviction of Egypt's Nubians from their ancestral lands to make way for the construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s. Built under late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, the colossal projectaimed to harness the Nile's annual floods and provide ... More Joseph Feingold, Holocaust survivor and documentary star, dies at 97NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Joseph Feingold, a Holocaust survivor who found unexpected fame late in life as the co-star of Joes Violin, an Oscar-nominated short documentary, died April 15 at Mt. Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan. He was 97. His stepdaughter Ame Gilbert said the cause was complications of COVID-19. In 2014, Feingold was listening to his favorite classical music station, WQXR, when he heard about a program that gives used instruments to New York City schoolchildren. He took the bus from his home on Manhattans Upper West Side to Lincoln Center and donated a cherished violin he no longer played because his fingers had grown stiff. Mention of his donation was made over the radio. The violin and Feingold had quite a story, as Kahane Cooperman, a filmmaker who was listening, soon discovered. Born ... More From euphoria to tears: the story behind award-winning Sudan photoKHARTOUM (AFP).- It was one of the iconic images of Sudan's revolution: demonstrator Mohamed Youssef, just 15 at the time, holds his hand to his heart as he roars a nighttime poem of protest amid a sea of lights. Agence France-Presse photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba took the award-winning picture just two weeks after armed men had stormed a Khartoum sit-in, killing and wounding scores of anti-government demonstrators at the height of last year's uprising. "I was chanting with excitement but I felt immense sadness for those who were killed or disappeared after the dispersal of the sit-in," Youssef told AFP in an interview at his home this week. "After reciting the poem I went somewhere away from the protest gathering and cried." Demonstrations sparked by a hike in bread prices had rocked Sudan from late 2018 onwards, quickly escalating ... More Baltimore Museum of Art appoints Dr. Johnnetta Cole as Special Counsel on Strategic InitiativesBALTIMORE, MD.- The Baltimore Museum of Art announced today that renowned scholar and arts administrator Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole will serve as the museums Special Counsel on Strategic Initiatives. In her role, Dr. Cole will provide guidance to the BMAs board, director, and senior leadership team as they continue to implement the museums long-term strategic vision, which positions social equity and civic engagement as essential aspects of its scholarly and public program and within its internal structures. Dr. Cole will offer her expertise on a pro bono basis for a period of three years. Over the last several years, we have made important investments in enhancing the ways in which we represent and serve different individuals and communities. This has included a commitment to sharing the essential contributions of underrepresented ... More Ten galleries from India and Dubai get together to create a digital exhibhitions platformMUMBAI.- In Touch is a digital exhibitions platform created in partnership between galleries to present online exhibitions. Its collaborative nature makes this a unique platform bringing together a diverse range of programs and artists. In its first edition, In Touch presents ten galleries from India and Dubai. Participating galleries are Chemould Prescott Road, Bombay; Experimenter, Kolkata; Gallery Espace, New Delhi; Green Art Gallery, Dubai; Grey Noise, Dubai; Nature Morte, New Delhi; PHOTOINK, New Delhi; GALLERYSKE, Bangalore/New Delhi; The Third Line, Dubai; and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. The platform enables the art community to connect with each other through organized and synergistic exhibition-making that challenges traditional formats of engaging with art and brings together a diverse range of online programs and ... More Shirley Knight, Tony- and Emmy-winning actress, dies at 83NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Shirley Knight, who in a long film, television and stage career earned two Oscar nominations while still in her 20s, won a Tony Award in 1975 and later garnered three Emmy Awards, died Wednesday in San Marcos, Texas. She was 83. She was at the home of her daughter Kaitlin Hopkins when she died, Hopkins confirmed. She did not specify a cause. Knights first Emmy came in 1988 for a guest appearance on Thirtysomething. She won two more in 1995, one for a guest role on NYPD Blue and one for Indictment: The McMartin Trial, an HBO docudrama in which she played the administrator of a preschool where abuse was alleged to have taken place. She had scores of television credits, in 1960s shows like The Outer Limits, The Fugitive and The Virginian, and in later series like Murder, ... More Renovation of France's Notre-Dame to resume MondayPARIS (AFP).- Work on restoring the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris will gradually resume Monday after the coronavirus lockdown forced a halt to repairing the gothic landmark nearly destroyed by a fire one year ago, the general heading the project said Thursday. Reconstruction was halted in mid-March as France imposed strict stay-at-home orders and business closures to halt the spread of the new coronavirus. "I have made sure that the necessary measures and procedures to guarantee that social distancing and protective measures will be in place" for workers at the site, General Jean-Louis Georgelin said in a statement. The 13th-century monument was the victim of a devastating blaze on April 15, 2019, that caused its roof and steeple to collapse, and despite the intense cleanup and stabilisation efforts the fragile structure remains at risk. Before ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Dutch-American painter Willem de Kooning was born April 24, 1904. Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 - March 19, 1997) was a Dutch abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He moved to the United States in 1926, and became an American citizen in 1962. On December 9, 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried. In this image: Installation view.of exhibition of Willem de KooningÂs late paintings at Skarstedt. © The Willem de Kooning Foundation Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2017.
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