| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, August 14, 2020 |
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| | Berlin's art scene: Are reports of its death exaggerated? | |
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Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin, building (outside). Photo: Robert Hamacher, Berlin.
by Kimberly Bradley
BERLIN (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Its not looking good for Berlins art scene, if you believe the newspaper headlines. This spring, Die Welt, a German daily, called the city an art metropolis in decline. The Financial Times said the art world had said goodbye. These dire proclamations stemmed from the announcement that three prominent art collectors with art on public view here Julia Stoschek, Thomas Olbricht and Friedrich Christian Flick were departing, taking their collections with them. It was just the latest bad news: In December, the Art Berlin fair folded; in February international megagallery Blain Southern, which had a space in Berlin, announced it would be closing. Yet art in Berlin goes on perhaps in a more-established, less-hyped way than during the German capitals cheap, come-one, come-all halcyon days. From the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until the early 2010s, when rents began rising sharply, Berlin was a hotbed for unregulated experimentat ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Haitem el-Nour, new director of the national corporation of antiquities and museums looks at a collection of antiquities at the Sudan National Museum in the capital Khartoum on August 12, 2020. The Sudan Museum, which houses thousands of priceless antiquities dating back millennia, is to be closed for lengthy renovations after years of neglect, its director told AFP. The museum, which was opened in 1970, is home to more than 2,700 objects some as old as the Paleolithic period, as well as important pieces from the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic dynasties and from Nubian culture. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP.
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 | | UNESCO to protect Lebanon as 60 historic buildings 'risk collapse' | | Making sense of 'one of the most baffling animals that ever lived' | | Yemen's heritage battered first by bombs, then floods | 
Workers at the Sursock Museum in the neighbourhood of Ashrafiyeh in Lebanon's capital Beirut. ANWAR AMRO / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The UN's cultural agency UNESCO vowed Thursday to lead efforts to protect vulnerable heritage in Lebanon after last week's gigantic Beirut port blast, warning that 60 historic buildings were at risk of collapse. The effects of the blast were felt all over the Lebanese capital but some of the worst damage was in the Gemmayzeh and Mar-Mikhael neighbourhoods a short distance from the port. Both are home to a large concentration of historic buildings. "The international community has sent a strong signal of support to Lebanon following this tragedy," said Ernesto Ottone, assistant UNESCO Director-General for Culture. "UNESCO is committed to leading the response in the field of culture, which must form a key part of wider reconstruction and recovery efforts." Sarkis Khoury, head of antiquities at the ministry of culture in Lebanon, reported at an online meeting this week to coordinate the response that at least 8,000 buildings were affected, said the Paris-based organisation. "Among them a ... More | | 
An image provided by Stephan Spiekman et al. shows a digitally-reconstructed skull of the Triassic Era aquatic reptile Tanystropheus, made from CT scans of crushed skull pieces. Stephan Spiekman et al. via The New York Times.
by Asher Elbein
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Nearly 250 million years ago, a very odd reptile patrolled the shorelines and coves of the Triassic Alps. Called Tanystropheus, it had a toothy head and a body echoing that of modern monitor lizards. But between them stretched a horizontal, giraffelike neck. The question of how this 20-foot creature used that 9-foot neck has bedeviled paleontologists for more than 100 years, and it is seen as one of the most baffling animals that ever lived, said Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland. How could this animal even breathe or swallow? And then there is the evolutionary question: Why on earth did this animal evolve this ridiculously long neck? But research published last week in Current Biology, including a new reconstruction of its skull, shows evidence that its body was primed for an aquatic ... More | | 
Yemeni labourers remove the rubble ahead of restoration works on the site of a collapsed UNESCO-listed building following heavy rains, in the old city of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, on August 12, 2020. Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP.
by Abdelkarim al-Marani, with Hadbaa al-Yazidi in Shibam
SANAA (AFP).- Muddy waters lap overfoot in Sanaa's Old City, inhabited without interruption for more than 2,500 years but now facing disaster after floods that threaten the collapse of irreplaceable houses. The deluge risks finishing off the destruction of its distinctive buildings with their ochre brick facades and white latticework windows, experts say. The foundations were already weakened by bombings in Yemen's long war. "Since dawn we have been trying to clean the mud off the roofs and drain the water -- but it's no use," said Ali al-Ward, a long-time resident. "We sleep with fear in the pits of our stomachs. We are between life and death," said the frail man with a greying beard as he surveyed the damage in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site. Flooding is common in Yemen at this time of year, blighting the poorest country ... More |
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| | Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation acquires major print archive by Judy Chicago | | Matt Herron, whose camera chronicled a movement, dies at 89 | | Tales of hope and resilience as a museum reopens | 
Combined with major holdings of other important women artists, the acquisition of the Chicagos print archive is a testament to the major impact socially conscious art collectors can have in shaping the future of art history.
SANTA FE, NM.- Oregon-based philanthropist and owner of one of the worlds most important post-war and contemporary print collections, Jordan D. Schnitzer, the President of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, has acquired the significant print archive of world-renowned artist Judy Chicago, whose art has pushed the boundaries of technology and subject matter for her entire six-decade career. Chicagos print archive and the associated studies and process works represent her journey as a woman artist in an art world long dominated by male artists, curators, and critics. When Judy Chicago and Tonya Turner Carroll discussed the placement of Chicagos print archive, Turner Carroll instantly knew that the person who should shepherd the archive through history was Jordan Schnitzer with whom she and her husband Michael Carroll have worked for the past decade. Schnitzer, whose collection includes almost 20,000 artworks, has made a bold commitment to women in the arts through his acquisition ... More | | 
Herron, a photojournalist who vividly memorialized the most portentous and promising moments from the front lines of the 1960s civil rights movement in the Deep South, died on Aug. 7, 2020, when a glider he was piloting crashed in Northern California. Jeannine Herron via The New York Times.
by Sam Roberts
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Matt Herron, a photojournalist who vividly memorialized the most portentous and promising moments from the front lines of the 1960s civil rights movement in the Deep South, died Aug. 7 when a glider he was piloting crashed in Northern California. He was 89. His wife, Jeannine Hull Herron, said Herron was flying his new self-launching glider (he had learned to fly at 70) when it crashed about 125 miles northwest of Sacramento after taking off from Lampson Field in Lakeport, on Clear Lake. He died at the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash was under investigation. A child of the Depression and a protégé of the Dust Bowl documentarian Dorothea Lange, Herron assembled a team of photographers to capture the clashes between white Southerners and Black protesters, aided by their white Freedom Rider allies, as they sought to claim the rights they ... More | | 
Kay Hickman, who photographed subjects for the New-York Historical Societys Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine," outdoor exhibition, Aug. 10, 2020. Vincent Tullo/The New York Times.
by Tess Thackara
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- What will it take for New Yorkers to process the events of the past few months the emotional toll of thousands of deaths, social unrest, economic insecurity and the abrupt cessation of life as we knew it? The New-York Historical Society is hoping a new exhibition, humble but moving, can offer a space for some of our feelings to catch up with us. Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine is an exhibition of oral histories and photography of New Yorkers from across the five boroughs that opens in the museums West 76th Street courtyard Aug. 14. It will be one of the first new exhibitions in the city to open since the lockdown began in March, albeit in a garden, with images printed on weatherproof panels and audio content accessible via cellphones. (Across Central Park, the Museum of the City of New York has an outdoor installation of crowdsourced photographs from coronavirus times on its facade and terrace.) Among the stories featured is that of Leticia ... More |
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| | Yayoi Kusama's Narcissus Garden makes a new home at the Momentary | | Only known Sandy Koufax jersey worn at Ebbets Field could bring $1 million+ | | Virus-hit Mexico City reopens museums, cinemas | 
Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden, 1966. Stainless steel spheres. Collection of OZ Art. Courtesy of Ota Fine Art and Victoria Miro. © Yayoi Kusama. Image courtesy of the Momentary, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: Ironside Photography.
BENTONVILLE, ARK.- The Momentary is the newest site of a Yayoi Kusama installation called Narcissus Garden. This expansive and immersive installation comprises nearly 900 mirrored spheres (yes, thats a lot!) displayed en masse to create a dynamic reflective field. For Kusama, this work symbolizes a fantastical and interconnected universe, where no single dot can stand alone. Thus, each orb relies on the presence of the others, allowing us to visualize an ideal human society in which each dot helps and supports the others. The mirror, meanwhile, offers a sense of infinite existence, an expanding world reaching out to the edges of the universe, one in which the viewer is able to locate and perhaps lose themselves and the world around them in a myriad of convex reflections. Kusama has described this experience of encountering ... More | | 
1956 Sandy Koufax Game Worn & Signed Brooklyn Dodgers Jersey, MEARS A9.
DALLAS, TX.- The only known home white jersey that Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax is known to have worn at famed Ebbets Field could bring $1 million or more in Heritage Auctions' Summer Platinum Night Sports Collectibles Catalog Auction Aug. 29-30. A few home Koufax jerseys from the years after the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and a couple of grey road jerseys from before the move have reached the auction block before. But this 1956 Sandy Koufax Game Worn & Signed Brooklyn Dodgers Jersey, MEARS A9 (estimate: $1,000,000+) is the only jersey known to exist that Koufax wore while pitching at Ebbets Field. Getting a jersey from Koufax is not just another garment from generations past. More than half a century after he threw his last Major League pitch in 1955, many still consider him the greatest left-handed pitcher who ever lived. Said former Dodgers scout Al Campanis, "There are two times in my life the hair on ... More | | 
A security guard wears a face mask and protective shield at the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City on August 12, 2020 as museums, cinemas and pools are reopening in Mexico as part of the easing of restrictions amid the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. Alfredo ESTRELLA / AFP.
MEXICO CITY (AFP).- Mexico is reopening museums and cinemas in the capital after months of lockdown, but face masks and social distancing are the new normal for culture vultures in a city still battling the coronavirus. At the iconic Soumaya Museum, security guards wearing face shields and gloves watch over mask-wearing visitors snapping selfies with artworks and wandering the near-empty hallways. The museum, with a curving facade inspired by Auguste Rodin's sculptures, houses more than 60,000 pieces of art including works by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. Visitors to the attraction, founded by Mexican magnate Carlos Slim, must wear a mask and have their temperature checked before entering. Fewer than 200 people entered its doors on the first ... More |
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| | Rundown Sudan National Museum to get face-lift | | Terry Cannon, creator of an alternative to Cooperstown, dies at 66 | | Fay Chew Matsuda, steward of Chinese immigrant legacy, dies at 71 | 
This picture shows a detail from an ancient fresco inside the Sudan National Museum in the capital Khartoum on August 12, 2020. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP.
KHARTOUM (AFP).- Sudan National Museum, which houses thousands of priceless antiquities dating back millennia, is to be closed for lengthy renovations after years of neglect, its director told AFP. The museum, which opened in the 1970s, is home to more than 2,700 objects including some dating back to the Paleolithic period and important pieces from the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic dynasties and from Nubian culture. "All these pieces are originals, apart from a few statues which are copies because the originals are in the Kerma museum" in the country's Northern state, said Haitem el-Nour, new director of the national corporation of antiquities and museums. A grant of a $1 million has been put up by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to fund the works, which will be carried out under the supervision of UNESCO. "This is coming at the right time as the building really needs to be renovated as well as the display cases," said Nour. The museum will close on September 1, with the renovations to be f ... More | | 
Terry Cannon with a life-size cardboard cutout of the former Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson, which he kept by his bed, in Alhambra, Calif., Feb. 26, 2007. Cannon, who created a waggish alternative to the Baseball Hall of Fame with artifacts like a cigar partly smoked by Babe Ruth and inductees like Dock Ellis, who claimed to have pitched a no-hitter on LSD, died on Aug. 1, 2020, at his home in Pasadena, Calif. He was 66. Ann Johansson/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Terry Cannon, who created a waggish alternative to the Baseball Hall of Fame with artifacts like a cigar partly smoked by Babe Ruth and inductees like Dock Ellis, who claimed to have pitched a no-hitter on LSD, died Aug. 1 at his home in Pasadena, California. He was 66. His wife, Mary (McKenzie) Cannon, said the cause was bile duct cancer. In the mid-1990s, Cannon turned his love of baseball into the Baseball Reliquary, a nonprofit organization that comprises a disarming collection of unusual objects and includes the Shrine of the Eternals individuals elected annually more for their unique characters and achievements than for their statistics or their official place in baseballs history. Terry guided ... More | | 
A photo provided by Barnard College shows Fay Chew Matsuda at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York in 2013. Barnard College via The New York Times.
by Sam Roberts
NEW YORK, NY (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Fay Chew Matsuda, a first-generation Chinese American who devoted her career as an amateur museum curator to preserving the heritage of overlooked generations of immigrants from China, died on July 24 at her home in Sound Beach, New York, on Long Islands North Shore. She was 71. The cause was endometrial cancer, her daughter, Amy Matsuda, said. Fay Matsuda was instrumental in transforming the New York Chinatown History Project, a grassroots campaign to save vanishing artifacts and record eyewitness reminiscences, into a permanent legacy of Chinese immigration. By 1991, the History Project had morphed into the Museum of Chinese in America, or MoCA. Matsuda served as the executive director of MoCA on Manhattans Lower East Side from 1997 to 2006. She described the incubation of both the History Project and the museum ... More |
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| | More News |
 London Transport Museum in Covent Garden reopening 7 September 2020LONDON.- Next stop Covent Garden as London Transport Museum reopens its doors to visitors on 7 September after closing temporarily for an unprecedented 173 days due to the coronavirus pandemic. Families, culture lovers and transport fans will once again be able to enjoy the Museums stunning exhibits, historic vehicles and world-famous posters, which together reveal how public transport has shaped life in London over the last 220 years. The Museums popular five-star Hidden London exhibition in the Global Gallery will also be back open for people to discover the mysteries of Londons abandoned Underground stations, from the secret wartime uses of Down Street and Clapham South to the creative ways forgotten subterranean spaces are being adapted for todays world. The Museum, including its much-loved shop and café Canteen, will reopen daily ... More Geneva Viralam joins i8 Gallery as New York-based DirectorREYKJAVÃK.- i8 Gallery announced that Geneva Viralam has joined the gallery as director. Geneva, who is based in New York, brings twelve years of experience in the contemporary art world. Prior to this role, Geneva was senior director of Luhring Augustine and associate director of Yvon Lambert, working closely with an international roster of artists in both galleries. She has a masters degree in art history with a focus in critical and curatorial studies from Columbia University and a bachelors degree in art history and French from Emory University. Geneva says, I am incredibly excited to begin the next chapter of my career at i8 Gallery. Over the past nine years, I have been a close colleague of Börkur and the staff at i8 through my work with Ragnar Kjartansson. It feels particularly fortunate to join the gallery given our long history, and I have always greatly ... More America's inaugural Federal Reserve note Proof Archive fetches $504,000DALLAS, TX.- Earlier this summer, the American Numismatic Association 2020 World's Fair of Money was canceled for only the third time in more than a century because of the global pandemic. But with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions' Platinum Night Auctions moved online, that cancelation did little to stop thousands of bidders from spending more than $33.1 million August 3-9 on U.S. coins and currency and World and Ancient coins. "Circumstances and setting might change, but the passion remains as high as ever for highly collectible coins and currency," said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. "Of course we would have loved to have been in the same room, and we all eagerly await the day when we can be again. But the number of clients and collectors only grows, and we couldn't be more pleased with the results we saw over the last week. ... More MOSTYN reopens with exhibition of Kiki Kogelnik's ceramic worksLLANDUDNO.- Riot of Objects is the first institutional presentation in the UK to focus solely on Kiki Kogelniks ceramic works. Considered one of the key figures of the post-war avant garde, Kogelniks multidisciplinary oeuvre spans five decades. Her multifaceted artistic style evolved from painterly abstraction to Pop Art and the representation of the (female) body. Consumer culture, technology and feminism were recurring themes throughout her work. Her unique aesthetic is marked with playfulness and humour yet imbued with a stark sense of criticality. In resisting and contesting the lure of post-war capitalist culture in her work, she demarcated herself from her contemporary peers. Her first ceramics were made in 1974, and soon became a key activity in her artistic practice. Her ceramic works were hand-built and cut from slabs using stencils ... More Dawn Mellor to create a permanent artwork celebrating the life of George MichaelLONDON.- British artist Dawn Mellor has been commissioned to create their first permanent public artwork: a large-scale mural in Kingsbury, Brent, celebrating the life of local hero George Michael, who lived and went to school in the area. Mellors artwork is part of Studio Voltaire elsewhere, a series of ambitious offsite commissions taking place throughout London. Co-commissioned by Studio Voltaire, Brent Borough of Culture 2020 and Create London, Mellor will create a nine-metre high artwork depicting singer-songwriter George Michael, which will be unveiled in September in Kingsbury as part of the Brent Biennial - a series of projects for Brent Borough of Culture 2020. A programme of free activities and learning programmes will take place with local schools that George Michael attended, as well as talks, walks and workshops. For the past ... More Casula Powerhouse explores deep Pacific roots in BittersweetSYDNEY.- Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre has unveiled its brand-new exhibition Bittersweet (8 August 27 September), curated by Western Sydney artist, Shivanjani Lal. Comprised of iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) and Indo-Fijian artists, the exhibition speaks to their experiences as artists and their connection to home. Bittersweet is a poignant showcase of contemporary Fijian art and storytelling, focusing on the ways in which ideas around food, language, and art are interpreted by those living in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In Bittersweet, the artists explore their relationship to Fiji and how their connection to the Island colours their art. This exhibition is an outcome of my searching for artist peers within the Pacific arts community, said Shivanjani Lal. Bittersweet is an attempt to share our knowledge with our community in ... More Freeman's announces return of the Pennsylvania SalePHILADELPHIA, PA.- On Wednesday, October 28th, Freemans will hold its renowned Pennsylvania Sale. This returning event showcases the development of craftsmanship in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Wharton Esherick furniture from the Hedgerow Theatre Collection will highlight the sale, along with works by George Nakashima and a collection of folk portraits by Joseph Maentel. Launched in 2005 to coincide with Freemans bicentennial, the sale is a tribute to Pennsylvania's long-standing legacy as a major and influential artistic region. From the portraits of Thomas Sully to the woodwork of George Nakashima, this years sale is once again poised to represent the states prolific artists across generations. Building on Freemans long-term success selling items from its native state, The Pennsylvania Sale is a tribute to the entire regionits history, ... More Museums look to the future with innovative projects supported by Respond and Reimagine grantsLONDON.- The UKs museums are responding with innovation and imagination to the challenges posed by Covid-19: from taking a pop-up museum to a shopping centre to working with actors to engage audiences, installing outdoor exhibitions, and creating compelling learning resources for home-schooling. Today Art Fund announces £630,729 of funding for 18 projects supported through its new Respond and Reimagine grants, designed to meet immediate needs connected to Covid-19 and reimagine future ways of working. Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said: We were inundated with applications to Respond and Reimagine, evidence of the vast need amongst museums and galleries whose funding models have been shattered by this crisis. But it is hugely encouraging to see ambitious and creative proposals from museums all ... More UCCA Beijing opens the first solo exhibition in China by Elizabeth PeytonBEIJING.- From August 15 to November 29, 2020, UCCA presents Elizabeth Peyton: Practice, the artists first solo exhibition in China. Since the 1990s, Peyton (b. 1965, Danbury, Connecticut) has been a major force in the resurgence of painting and the revitalization of portraiture. The exhibition features drawings, paintings, and prints from throughout her thirty-year career, with a particular focus on work from the past decade. Peytons repertoire of subjects ranges from fellow artists and friends to cultural and historical figures, including Klara Lidén; Tyler, The Creator; Queen Elizabeth II; Angela Merkel; Dan Kjær Nielsen; Jonas Kaufmann; David Bowie; and Yuzuru Hanyu. Her powerful brushwork, colorful palette, and elegantly austere compositions all serve to bring the viewer into the psychic terrain of both the figure portrayed and the artist observing ... More Amid fraying China ties, US targets Confucius InstitutesWASHINGTON (AFP).- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stepped up the pressure on China on Thursday by ordering the center which runs Confucius Institutes in the United States to register as a foreign mission. "The PRC (People's Republic of China) has taken advantage of America's openness to undertake large scale and well-funded propaganda efforts and influence operations in this country," Pompeo said in a statement. "Today, the Department of State designated the Confucius Institute US Center as a foreign mission of the PRC, recognizing CIUS for what it is: an entity advancing Beijing's global propaganda and malign influence campaign on US campuses," he said. "Confucius Institutes are funded by the PRC and part of the Chinese Communist Party's global influence and propaganda apparatus." China has opened a total of 75 ... More Rebel poet's death leaves 40 years of epic Afghan work unfinishedNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As Afghan poet and former leftist revolutionary Sulaiman Layeq was suffering from blast wounds that never healed, his verses dried up. In the final months before his death, his children would bring Layeq the incomplete draft of his magnum opus that had occupied him for four decades. In 800-pages of rhyming verse, the poet wrestles with the thoughts of the epics main subject: a young member of the Islamist insurgency that would eventually topple the communist government in which Layeq served as a minister into the early 1990s. In verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the poem examines the life and thoughts of the insurgent, friends who had heard accounts from Layeq said. But the epic is also a treatise on why Afghanistans tribal and feudal injustices were never solved either by Marxist ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, French photographer Willy Ronis was born August 14, 1910. Willy Ronis (August 14, 1910 - September 12, 2009) was a French photographer. His best-known work shows life in post-war Paris and Provence. Ronis' nudes and fashion work (for Vogue and Le Jardin des modes) show his appreciation for natural beauty; meanwhile, he remained a principled news photographer, resigning from Rapho for a 25-year period when he objected to the hostile captioning by The New York Times to his photograph of a strike. In this image: Willy Ronis, Île Saint-Denis, nord de Paris, 1956. Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication / Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine / Dist RMN-GP © Donation Willy Ronis.
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