| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Friday, August 18, 2023 |
| | Can she revive the largest museum on the African continent? | |
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Koyo Kouoh, the executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, with Lynette Yiadom-Boakyes canvas, 11 p.m. Friday, at the museum in Cape Town, South Africa, Aug. 2, 2023. There was a feeling that we cannot let this fail, Kouoh said of taking the top job at Zeitz MOCAA. (Tsele Nthane/The New York Times)
by Roslyn Sulcas
CAPE TOWN.- Koyo Kouoh wasnt thinking about becoming an art world player when she finished her degree in business administration in Zurich in her early 20s. She had a day job as a social worker attending to migrant women, and she was writing articles about cultural events and hanging out with a group of avant-garde thinkers, artists, musicians and actors. But 30 years on, Kouoh, 55, the visionary curator and executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (known as Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, is an internationally recognized, torch-bearing advocate for African art that is grounded on the continent, but very much part of a global conversation. I want to show the expanse of culture, the vast history of how the continent and its diaspora inhabits the world, Kouoh, who is Cameroonian-born, said in the first of several Zoom calls during her travels between Basel, the United States and Cape Town over the last months. Humanity has always described itself through o ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Martha Rosler: In one way or another, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2023, Photo: Emily Piwowar/Nói Crew
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| Michigan State finds an observatory from 142 years ago buried on campus | | British Museum fires worker accused of stealing gold and gems | | At Holocaust museum in Fortnite, superheroes and atrocities collide | 
A photo provided by Alex Tekip, Michigan State UniversIty of the observatory foundation excavation site at MSU in East Lansing, Mich. (Alex Tekip, Michigan State Univeristy via The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- About two dozen men and one woman all unknown were photographed in front of an old astronomy building circa 1888. The round structure with a tiled roof had been the first observatory on the campus of Michigan State University, though no one knew exactly where it had once stood. In June, construction workers on the universitys campus in East Lansing, Michigan, unexpectedly came across the foundation of the building, constructed in 1881. But not much is known about how long the structure was standing, why it was removed, and what observations it may have yielded, beyond that it was built by a former professor and his students. The site will be turned next summer into an undergraduate field school where Stacey Camp, a professor of anthropology, and her students will continue to excavate in search of answers. The students will receive credit while learning about the practice of archaeology. One of the things were curious about is, if we can find any artifact ... More | | 
The museum said that it had dismissed a worker accused of taking the items, some thousands of years old, from a storeroom. The police are investigating. (Tom Jamieson/The New York Times)
by Alex Marshall
LONDON.- The British Museum has fired a staff member on suspicion of looting jewels from a storeroom and started a review of its security practices, the museum announced Wednesday. The worker, who has not been named, stole or damaged items including gold jewelry and gems of semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century B.C. to the 19th century, the museum said in a news release. Londons police force said in a statement that it was conducting an investigation, but that there had not been any arrests and that its enquiries continue. Because of the police investigation, the museum would not comment on the value of the missing items or give any more details about them, a museum spokesperson said in a telephone interview. The museum said that the majority of the items were small pieces kept in a storeroom. None had recently been on public display, the museum said, adding that they were kept primarily for academic ... More | | 
In an image provided by Epic Games, a Holocaust museum within Fortnite called Voices of the Forgotten, designed by Luc Bernard. By opening its popular servers to player creations, Epic Games has taken on a role of vetting how sensitive topics are displayed. (Epic Games via The New York Times)
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK, NY.- There was a checklist of precautions that Luc Bernard needed to enforce before opening the doors of his virtual Holocaust museum in the video game Fortnite. No shooting. No shouting. No break dancing. Those absences defy the normal rules of one of the worlds most popular games, where players can dress like googly-eyed hamburgers to exchange gunfire with John Wick and Batman. But Epic Games, eager to keep people on its Fortnite servers as much as possible, has opened up real estate in its virtual worlds to almost anyone with an idea. Now the publisher, which was not involved in developing the Holocaust museum but advised Bernard on how to follow its content guidelines, finds itself vetting sensitive topics that can become public relations fiascos with a single misstep. The risk of propagating historical ... More |
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| Banksy's 'Valentine's Day Mascara' goes on sale to the public and artwork to remain on public display in perpetuity | | A view of the Met from behind the information desk | | Jackie Kennedy as you've never seen her | 
Banksy's Valentine's Day Mascara at Dreamland Margate, 2023. Photo credit Jack Masters. (Detail).
LONDON.- Showpiece, the marketplace for some of the worlds rarest collectibles, announces the latest in its portfolio of artworks and artefacts to enter into fractional ownership: a 2023 mural by world-famous, anonymous and notoriously elusive street artist Banksy. Through this, Banksys Valentines Day Mascara mural, valued at £6 million, will be made accessible for ordinary members of the public to own a share of for just £120. Banksys Valentines Day Mascara first appeared on a house in Margate, Kent, on Valentines Day this year, and was swiftly confirmed to be a genuine via the artists Instagram account. The work was removed from the building for preservation earlier this year, however, for many months since, the owner has fought off significant offers from private collectors around the world, resolute that the work should remain in the town it was created, and available to the public to see. No ... More | | 
On and off throughout the 1990s, the poet Robyn Schiff fielded questions many bathroom-related as part of her job working the museums famous octagonal information desk.
NEW YORK, NY.- During a recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robyn Schiff pointed to the mezzanine in the grand entrance. The balcony hovers right over the information desk where Schiff, a noted poet and English professor, worked from 1995 to 2000, greeting and directing museum visitors. My boss would stand up there and look down to make sure we were smiling, Schiff said. On Tuesday, Schiff published her fourth book of poetry, Information Desk: An Epic, about her five years at the museum, off and on. Its a searing yet reverent book-length poem, containing as many jokes as it does social critiques, odes to forgeries and furious passages about goatish colleagues. Schiffs work has often referred to her time at the museum, starting in 2002 with her first book, Worth, and its passages ... More | | 
The artist Hugh Findletar with one of his "Flowerheadz" vases at the Zanetti Murano glassblowing studio near Venice, Italy, on July 25, 2023. (Matteo de Mayda/The New York Times)
by Chantel Tattoli
NEW YORK, NY.- Amore, Hugh Findletar shouted. Amore! The words echoed through Studio Salvadore, a family-run glassblowing workshop on Murano, the Italian island near Venice known for its centuries-old glass industry. It was 3 p.m. on a Friday in late July, and Findletar had been making drinking glasses with a small team since around 6:30 in the morning. The temperature near the studios furnaces had risen to as high as about 120 degrees. At the mouth of a furnace, colorful glass rods lined up on the head of a shovel were melting together. Findletar, 49, flicked water droplets at the glass, which would become a cup, to make bubbles. Then he moved to a table with bowls ... More |
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| Old-school fans celebrate hip-hop's 50th | | Objective Gallery presents "Please Sit for the Alternate Ending" by Jeff Martin and Sam Klemick | | Wide-ranging exhibition traces evolution of 20th-century Modern Art Post-World War I | 
Mary Olivette Bookman outside Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, where the "Hip Hop Live" 50th-anniversary concert was held, on Aug. 12, 2023. (Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet/The New York Times)
by Alex Vadukul
NEW YORK, NY.- The start of hip-hop dates to Aug. 11, 1973, when DJ Kool Herc created continuous breakbeats by working two turntables during a party in a rec room at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx borough of New York City. On Friday night, exactly 50 years later, a concert was held at Yankee Stadium roughly a mile and a half from hip-hops birthplace to honor the occasion, featuring Run-DMC, Slick Rick, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim and Nas. DJ Kool Herc, 68, also appeared onstage to accept an award. Before the show, which was billed as Hip Hop 50 Live, the scene outside the stadium was heavy with fans of the sounds from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Middle-aged couples on ... More | | 
Sam Klemick, XO Coffee Table.
NEW YORK, NY.- Objective Gallery is thrilled to present the first duo exhibition of designers Jeff Martin and Sam Klemick with a captivating show entitled Please Sit for the Alternate Ending. The New York City exhibition will showcase each artist's distinct approach to production while offering alternative ends to materials deemed no longer of value. Drawing inspiration from the concept of an "alternate ending"a resolution considered, produced, or written but ultimately discardedMartin and Klemick showcase functional objects that defy conventional design practices and invite viewers to question the possibilities of what could have been. In contemplation of what is considered "classic," the show offers a three-dimensional examination of industry practices and the utility of creativity. Using deadstock fabrics and discarded driftwood, Klemick breathes new life into materials deemed futile. The designer draws from her ancestral lineag ... More | | 
Marc Chagall (Russian, 1887-1985), Snow Covered Church, between 1927 and 1928. Gouche and graphite pencil on wove paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from The Friends of Modern Art, 31.51. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
DETROIT, MICH.- The Detroit Institute of Arts presents After Cubism: Modern Art in Paris, 1918-1948, a wide-ranging exhibition that explores the changing landscape of modern art in Paris in the years after World War I, as seen through ambitious works from leading figures of the 20th century, using competing styles, including cubism, a revived classicism, surrealism and more. On view August 18, 2023, through January 7, 2024, the exhibition features 120 paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs, all from the DIAs permanent collection. The shows title comes directly from the artistic manifesto Après le cubism (After Cubism), published in 1918 and written by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles- ... More |
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| Sarah Workneh to end 14-year tenure as co-director of Skowhegan | | Zimmerli celebrates innovative printmaking studio this fall: 30 Years of Brodsky Center | | Contemporary artist Joshua Yeldham opens 'In Return' - extraordinary hand-carved photo-media works | 
Sarah Workneh, photographed by Elle Pérez.
NEW YORK, NY & MADISON, ME.- The Board of Trustees and Governors of Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture announced today that long-time Co-Director Sarah Workneh will step down in December 2023 after 14 impactful years in her leadership role. Katie Sonnenborn, Co-Director, will continue in her role and the Boards will form a search committee to hire Worknehs successor. Workneh has co-led Skowhegan during an important era of growth and evolution for the organization beginning with the first strategic plan and including its 75th Anniversary in 2021, a comprehensive campus redevelopment, the opening of its New York office, the most successful capital campaign in its history, revamping the schools admissions process, developing alumni programming, and leading the program through the pandemic. Workneh built on the schools ... More | | 
Marina Gutierrez, Reaching Mut (detail), 1994. Collection Zimmerli Art Museum, gift of the Brodsky Center. © Marina Gutierrez.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.- In the early 1980s, visionary artist and Rutgers University Distinguished Professor Emerita Judith K. Brodsky set out to rectify the gender and racial inequities in the art world by establishing a print- and papermaking studio that provided visiting artists residencies primarily for women artists and artists of color. Pioneers like Brodsky laid the groundwork for the diversity that exists today. This fall, the Zimmerli Art Museum presents the first museum survey of work created by artists such as Faith Ringgold, Melvin Edwards, and Jaune Quick-To-See Smith at this highly influential ateliernow known as the Brodsky Centerfounded in 1986 and remaining active on campus for 30 years. The Brodsky Center at Rutgers University: Three Decades, 19862017 is on ... More | | 
Joshua Yeldham photographed by Jo Yeldham.
RUSHCUTTERS BAY.- Drawing from a deep observation and a reverential love of nature, Joshua Yeldhams art practice forms a complex interplay between narrative and myth, imagination and experience. Fresh from his win as the People's Choice at The Salon des Refusés at S.H. Ervin Gallery for his stunning work Driftwood, Joshua Yeldham's new exhibition 'In Return', now on view at Arthouse Gallery, features hand-carved photography and ceramics. Yeldham's unique photographic work is a testament to his innovative approach and his unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression. Through his intricate mark making, which he masterfully carves into the surface of the photograph, Yeldham brings forth a transformative evolution of the photographic medium that stands as a distinctive and unprecedented contribution to contemporary art. ... More |
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Diana Thater and Rachel Rose | S3, E6 | DIALOGUES
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 Country singer Morgan Wade was looking for the spotlight. It found her.NEW YORK, NY.- The day before Morgan Wade was set to perform at Lollapalooza for the first time, the country singer-songwriter was in a Chicago hotel gym at around 10:30 a.m. It was arm day: regular curls, hammer curls, triceps pushdowns, lateral raises, dumbbell presses, face pulls and shoulder presses. She stopped after around 45 minutes, but only because it was actually her second session of the morning shed been up for hours, and had already done another 90-minute workout, and also ran 3 miles. Its just been something healthy for me to be addicted to, Wade, 28 and slathered in tattoos, said of her fitness routine, sipping a chocolate Muscle Milk shed grabbed from a vending machine for a quick boost of protein. For the past couple of years, Wades music career has been ascendant. Her 2021 album, Reckless, was a critical favorite ... More  A conductor who wants to put you 'inside the sound'AIX-EN-PROVENCE.- Growing up, conductor Maxime Pascal was a self-identified musical dilettante. As a child in the south of France, he had some skill on the violin, and sat in on the piano lessons his mother taught. At night, he watched his father play New Orleans jazz. But he didnt really listen to classical music until he was 18. Now, though, Pascal, 37, is arguably his generations finest conductor of 20th-century music, as well as an essential interpreter of contemporary works. And his schedule reflects both the breadth of his ambition and the respect he has garnered on some of the industrys most prestigious stages. He is a fascinating artist who understands the times we live in and the role music theater can have on injecting new life in opera, said Pierre Audi, artistic director of the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France. Pascal spent July at the festival ... More  Stunning serpent slithers into September jewellery sale at Noonans Mayfair LONDON.- The sale of Jewellery, Watches, and Objects of Vertu at Noonans Mayfair on Tuesday, September 12, 2023 promises to appeal to a broad audience. The Jewellery section includes a range of fine antique pieces. Mid 19th century serpent jewels are ever popular, and this sale includes a stunning example - a serpent bracelet, presented in its original case, the articulated body unusually detailed throughout with blue enamel and with an opal, diamond, and ruby set head. The bracelet was formerly the property of Sir Charles James Napier, (1782-1853), British general and Commander-in-Chief in India, famous for conquering the Sindh province of British India, (now in present-day Pakistan). The vendor of this bracelet is of direct descent, and it is estimated to fetch £3,000-5,000. According to the note of provenance attached to the underside of the case, ... More  Parrish announces new board membersWATER MILL, NY.- The Parrish Art Museum announced that Joey Wölffer and Steven J. Horowitz will join its Board of Directors. With close ties to the region, Wölffer brings to the arts institution unparalleled knowledge of the Hamptons and the local community. Horowitz possesses an understanding of the positive and transformative impact of the arts on individuals and communities, and is committed to making the arts accessible to all. We are thrilled to welcome Joey and Steven to the Parrish Board of Directors, said Monica Ramirez-Montagut, Director of the Parrish Art Museum. Joey is deeply rooted in the local community and region and we know this invaluable knowledge of and commitment to the Hamptons will benefit the Parrish immensely. Stevens commitment to accessibility is very powerful, and I am delighted that he is interested in helping ... More  Five contemporary artists reimagine everyday objects through sculpture and installation at ICAPHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania presents the group exhibition Moveables, which investigates the ways in which the designed environment has the capacity to condition experience, and how artworks can propose new models of functionality. Moveables brings together the sculptural works of five contemporary artists Jes Fan, Nikita Gale, Hannah Levy, Ken Lum, and Oren Pinhassiwho rethink the forms of functional design and its intimate relationship to bodies through their multidisciplinary practices. Movables is a prescient thematic exhibition that platforms new and recent work by five distinct artistic voices who are each grappling with the frameworks of our lived environment across media and scales, said Zoë Ryan, Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director. It is gratifying to be working with two ... More  Exciting environmental artist Deborah Kruger exhibiting at Tennessee Tech UniversityCOOKEVILLE, TN.- AVIANTO, an exhibition of Deborah Krugers environmental artwork is on display in the Joan Derryberry Gallery at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee. AVIANTO focuses on Deborah Krugers recent work, which is motivated by the extinction of bird species, and the loss of indigenous languages around the world. Climate change and relentless consumption contribute to these problems. Saturated colors characterize Krugers work and often mimic bird plumage. She hopes to raise awareness, and inspire action about these impending losses that affect all of us. The feathers in my abstract wall reliefs are made from recycled plastic, which serve to remind us how corporate greed, coupled with our unquenchable consumption, drive the loss of habitat that contributes to these extinctions. The feathers in this ... More  At 89, still making art (and bread) with a messageNEW YORK, NY.- Under an unforgiving sun during a heat wave in July, Peter Schumann, the 89-year-old artistic director of Bread and Puppet Theater, rang a hand bell on a rolling hillside in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Before him a post topped with a giant grasping papier-mâché hand towered high like a maypole. Two dozen performers encircled it. Walk slower, get closer to each other, shouted Schumann, a tawny bearded man. More giant hands on poles rose up, seemingly reaching to the clouds in prayer. Then the group sang a dirge-like song as birds called from a nearby pine forest that is home to handmade memorial huts for friends and family. In two days, this surreal ritual was to be recreated in the debut of The Heart of the Matter Circus and Pageant, part of the 60-year-old companys season of Sunday shows. In July and August, the ... More  How the 'Spider-Verse' movies have changed animation for the betterNEW YORK, NY.- When TMNT, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated film, was released in 2007, critic Jeannette Catsoulis wrote in The New York Times that it offered an impressive lack of visual texture. She was not wrong. The eponymous reptiles are rendered in an inert computer-generated form, as if they were modeled from plastic and then put on a screen. Their green skin is dull and smooth. The same cannot be said for the turtles in the latest incarnation of the ooze-filled tale: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. In this new film, released Wednesday, our heroes Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael appear to spring from a (talented) high school doodlers notebook. Their bodies and faces are rendered with an imperfect sketchy quality that makes their eyes vivid and their smiles vibrant. Their greenness ... More  Renata Scotto, opera diva who inhabited roles, dies at 89NEW YORK, NY.- Renata Scotto, the firebrand Italian soprano and Metropolitan Opera favorite who was acclaimed for her acting and her insights into opera characters as much as for her voice, died Wednesday in Savona, Italy. She was 89. Her son, Filippo Anselmi, confirmed the death. He did not specify a cause. At her best, in roles such as Giacomo Puccinis Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly and Mimì in La Bohème, Giuseppe Verdis Violetta in La Traviata and Vincenzo Bellinis Norma, Scotto achieved a dramatic intensity that electrified audiences and elicited the highest praise from her fellow opera stars. Renata is the closest I have ever worked with to a real singing actress, tenor Plácido Domingo was quoted as saying in The New York Times Magazine in 1978. There is an emphasis, a feeling she puts behind every word ... More  Dorothy Casterline, who codified American sign language, dies at 95NEW YORK, NY.- Dorothy Casterline, who as a young researcher at Gallaudet University in the early 1960s helped write the first comprehensive dictionary of American Sign Language, a book that revolutionized the study of Deaf culture, died on Aug. 8 in Irmo, South Carolina. She was 95. Pamela Decker Wright, a professor at Gallaudet, the only university designed for the deaf or hard of hearing in the United States, said Casterline died, in a hospital, from complications of a fall. As an undergraduate English major at Gallaudet, in Washington, in the late 1950s, Casterline, who had lost her hearing at 13, caught the attention of a professor named William Stokoe. In addition to teaching literature, Stokoe was investigating the grammar and syntax of sign language, which at the time was considered nothing more than a gestural derivative of spoken ... More  Iran sentences director to 6 months after he screened film at CannesNEW YORK, NY.- A prominent Iranian film director and an Iranian producer were sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison for creating the film Leilas Brothers and screening it at the Cannes Film Festival without official approval, according to the countrys news media. Saeed Roustaee, the films director, and Javad Noruzbegi, who produced the film with Roustaee, were both sentenced to six months in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran for participating in the oppositions propaganda against the Islamic regime, according to the conviction announcement made by the court and reported in Etemad, an Iranian reformist newspaper. The defendants aligned with the oppositional media, under the influence of propaganda, in line with the counterrevolutionary (anti-regime) forces, the announcement read. With ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Jean Leon Gerome Ferris was born August 18, 1863. Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (August 18, 1863 - March 18, 1930) was an American painter best known for his series of 78 scenes from American history, entitled The Pageant of a Nation, the largest series of American historical paintings by a single artist. In this image: The First Thanksgiving 1621.
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