| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Friday, December 16, 2022 |
| | A portrait of Rembrandt goes on show. But did he paint it? | |
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Rembrandt in a Red Beret on display at Escher in Het Paleis, a former royal palace in The Hague, the Netherlands, Dec. 5, 2022. Scholars are divided over whether Rembrandt in a Red Beret is an original self-portrait by the master, a studio piece by one his pupils or a 19th-century copy. (Ilvy Njiokiktjien/The New York Times)
by Nina Siegal
THE HAGUE.- In 1934, a plumber from Dayton, Ohio, took a weekend trip to New York City and got drunk with some German sailors. When he awoke in the morning, his money was gone, but there were three rolled-up old paintings in his hotel room. One of them looked curiously like a Rembrandt. Cloudy about the details of the night before, the plumber, Leo Ernst, returned home to Dayton, hid the paintings, and tried to forget the entire episode. A few years later, however, his new wife, Anna Cunningham, stumbled upon the artworks in a closet, and asked Ernst what they were. Just some old junk he got in a scam, he told her. This is one version of Ernsts story possibly fabricated recounted in a new book by art historian Gary Schwartz, and just one of the twists and turns in the 200-year saga of one of those paintings, Rembrandt in a Red Beret. This month, that work, depicting Rembrandt when he was about 37, is being displayed in public for the first time in ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day âInspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Artsâ installation view. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
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| Congress set to replace Dred Scott author's statue with Thurgood Marshall | | "Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts" comes to The Huntington | | More than 200 Guston works are headed to the Met | 
A bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, Washington, on June 29, 2021. Congress gave final approval to legislation to remove from the Capitol a statue of Roger Brooke Taney, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the racist Dred Scott decision, and replace it with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights icon and the first Black man to serve as a justice on the nations highest court. (Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation to remove from the Capitol a statue of Roger Brooke Taney, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the racist Dred Scott decision, and replace it with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights icon and the first Black man to serve as a justice on the nations highest court. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., passed the House by a voice vote after it passed the Senate last week without a recorded vote, a procedure used for bills to which nobody objects. It now advances to President Joe Bidens desk for his signature ... More | | 
Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts. Installation view of Sèvres Manufactory (French, founded 1740), Sèvres Manufactory (French, founded 1740).
SAN MARINO, CA.- The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is presenting the international traveling exhibition Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts from Dec. 10, 2022, through March 27, 2023. Organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Wallace Collection in London in association with The Huntington, the exhibition explores the early inspirations behind Disney Studios creations, examining Walt Disneys fascination with European art and the use of French motifs in Disney films and theme parks. Approximately 50 works of 18th-century European decorative art and design, many of which are drawn from The Huntingtons significant collection, are being featured alongside hand-drawn production artworks and works on paper from the Walt Disney Animation ... More | | 
Philip Guston (American (born Canada), 19131980), Sleeping, 1977. Oil on canvas, 84 x 69 in (213.4 x 175.3 cm) Photograph by Genevieve Hanson © The Estate of Philip Guston. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift of Musa Guston Mayer.
by Robin Pogrebin
NEW YORK, NY.- More than 200 works by Philip Guston the celebrated artist whose paintings featuring Klan imagery recently created a firestorm are coming to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from the personal collection of the artists daughter, Musa Mayer. It will make the museum the largest repository of works by the American painter. Im about to turn 80 years old, Mayer said in a telephone interview. I started thinking about what was going to happen after my lifetime and after my husbands lifetime to these important works. Mayer had considered leaving them to the Guston Foundation, which she established in 2013 to share the artists work and further his legacy, but she worried ... More |
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| A six-decade tour of Barbie's Dreamhouses | | Hu Qingyan opens an exhibition at Galerie Urs Meile Beijing | | Paintbrush in Hand, a Russian muralist wages his own war | 
In an undated image provided by Evelyn Pustka, the lavender Queen Anne Victorian-style Barbie mansion from 2000. (Evelyn Pustka/The New York Times)
by Julie Lasky
NEW YORK, NY.- In 1962, three years after Barbie was born, Mattel introduced Barbies Dreamhouse: a folding ranch house that was the first of many domiciles that evolved with the times. After beginning modestly in cardboard, the Dreamhouses became plastic, pastel, palatial and electrified, often all at once. They acquired elevators, sun decks, modern European furniture, recycling bins and multiple bedrooms though Barbie remained perennially single and holding the lease (or mortgage). To honor this 60-year milestone, Mattel collaborated with the design magazine PIN-UP on a limited-edition art book, Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey. The 151-page monograph tracks the evolution of Dreamhouses through six examples, shown with their original furnishings ... More | | 
Hu Qingyan, Tower, 2022.
BEIJING.- Galerie Urs Meile Beijing is now presenting the latest solo exhibition of Hu Qingyan (b. 1982, Shandong Province), titled 2023. This exhibition is a concentrated presentation of the artists latest creations, representing the artists sustained and increasingly deep explorations of form, medium, reproduction, and transformation. While continuing the themes of emptiness and substance, the artist presents the reality he perceives around him in a highly interventive and personal manner. With the fluctuations of the economy and the pandemic, the dramatic has become the everyday reality. Hu Qingyan has chosen marble, a cold, neutral and solemn material, as the sole material for all of the artworks in this exhibition. Beyond their discussion of questions internal to sculpture, these creations lead us into multidimensional explorations of society, philosophy, and politics through which to ponder ... More | | 
The artist Vladimir Ovchinnikov at his home in Borovsk, Russia, on Dec. 4, 2022. (Nanna Heitmann/The New York Times)
by Valerie Hopkins
BOROVSK, RUSSIA.- An 84-year-old artist was standing in front of one of the many murals he has painted in his provincial hometown one recent day when a group of young women passed by. They had traveled some 60 miles from Moscow just to see his latest work, and they tittered at the encounter. This is so cool, one said. You are the main attraction of town. The artist, Vladimir A. Ovchinnikov, has long covered the walls of the town with pastoral scenes, portraits of poets and daily life, in the process earning himself a reputation as the Banksy of Borovsk. But it is his political art that is now attracting attention. At a time when dissent is being crushed across Russia, Ovchinnikov has been painting murals protesting the invasion of Ukraine ... More |
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| Artist or artifice: Who is Adam Himebauch? | | Asia Week New York 2023 announces stellar line-up of international gallery exhibitions, auctions and museum shows | | Colored diamonds dazzle in Heritage's Holiday Jewelry Auction | 
Through a digital performance and gallery show, the painter meticulously creates the persona of an older, acclaimed artist. The hoax has kept the art crowd guessing.
by Rachel Sherman
NEW YORK, NY.- On a brisk day back in February, artist Adam Himebauch posted a screenshot of a GoFundMe to his Instagram account: a successful campaign that appeared to have raised $255,336 of a $50,000 goal for a documentary recapping an illustrious career and life from the 1970s to the present. Seven months later, on social media, grainy stills and clips from the documentary announced his new installation at the New York City Museum of Contemporary Arts satellite location. The only hitch? There was no GoFundMe; there is no N.Y.C. MOCA. Throughout the past year, Himebauch, 38, a parodist as well as an artist, has been testing the boundaries of what even his inner circle thinks they know about him in Back to the Future ... More | | 
Maharani Dhal (Shield), Mewar, India, 18th century, 612mm (24 inches). Photo: Courtesy Runjeet Singh.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Asia Week New York Association announced that 26 international galleries and six auction houses Bonhams, Christies, Doyle, Heritage Auctions, iGavel, and Sothebyswill participate in the 2023 edition of Asia Week New York. Now in its 14th year of celebrating Asian art and culture, the exhibitions and auctionsboth in-person and online¬¬commence March 16th through March 24th. Were delighted to announce our distinguished roster of dealers and auction houses and look forward to their exciting and diverse array of Asian art treasures, says Dessa Goddard, chairman of Asia Week New York. This year, Asia Week New York welcomes the Japan-based gallery Shibunkaku, which makes its debut with a joint exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD. Also returning to the fold are Buddhist Art from Germany and Runjeet Singh from England. As always, the Asia Week New York galleries and auction houses ... More | | 
Fancy Vivid Pink Diamond, Diamond, Platinum, Rose Gold Ring. Stones: Pear-shaped fancy vivid pink diamond weighing 1.03 carats; near colorless pear, oval, full-cut diamonds weighing a total of approximately 1.60 carats. Imaged by Heritage Auctions, HA.com.
DALLAS, TEXAS.- Colored diamonds stole the show during Heritage Auctions Holiday Fine Jewelry Signature® Auction on Monday, leading the event to a total of $4,850,511. Shining brightest was a fancy vivid pink diamond ring that sold for $187,500. Set in platinum and 18k rose gold, the ring features a gorgeous 1.03-carat pear-shaped pink diamond surrounded by approximately 1.60 carats of near-colorless diamonds. According to the Gemological Institute of America, only 1 in 10,000 diamonds has a fancy color, and fancy pink diamonds rank among the rarest of the rare. Also catching bidders attention was a fancy yellow diamond ring by Neiman Marcus that realized $175,000. Hailing from the estate of Fort Worth, Texas, philanthropist Mildred Fender, the rings 11.94-carat yellow diamond ... More |
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| Nelson-Atkins hires new Vice President, Development | | Fluent in the language of style | | Bowdoin College Museum of Art exhibition explores use of language in art | 
Nicolle Ratliff Joins Museum on Eve of Capital Campaign.
KANSAS CITY, MO.- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City announced that Nicolle Ratliff has been hired as the museums Vice President, Development. Ratliff is a fundraising and marketing administrator with more than 20 years of experience in non-profit management, major gifts, capital campaigns, master planning, and communications. She comes to the Nelson- Atkins after more than 10 years at the Kansas City Art Institute, and will work closely with Randall Roberts, Associate Vice President, Development, in determining the scope of an upcoming capital campaign. The Nelson-Atkins already has an outstanding Development team in place, and it will only become stronger with Nicolles leadership, said Evelyn Craft Belger, Chair of the Board of Trustees. When I served as Chair of the Development Committee at KCAI, I found Nicolle to be an accomplished professional who thinks strategically ... More | | 
Judith Thurman at her home in New York, Dec. 8, 2022. For over three decades, Thurman has captured the often ineffable pull of fashion and beauty like few others. (Charlie Rubin/The New York Times)
by Rhonda Garelick
NEW YORK, NY.- Judith Thurman notices everything. Meticulous observation has been a hallmark of her 50-year career as a writer whose laser-sharp gaze traverses millenniums, countries and genres. She is as interested in the faintest details of Stone Age cave paintings (which she descended to examine for herself, flashlight in hand) as she is in little-known dying languages (such as Maltese), Emily Dickinsons poetry, Schiaparellis fashions or the life of Helen Gurley Brown. All of these topics figure in A Left-Handed Woman, a collection of essays from the past 15 years, many of which have appeared in The New Yorker, where Thurman has been a writer for 35 years. Judith is drawn to and at home in various worlds, said writer David Rieff, her friend of 40 years ... More | | 
Luis Camnitzer, This is a poetic statement. Identify the elements that construct the poem. From the series The Assignment Books, 2011. Brass plaque with mixed media. Dimensions variable. Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © 2022 Luis Camnitzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
BRUNSWICK, ME.- On December 15, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art opened Turn of Phrase: Language and Translation in Global Contemporary Art, an exhibition examining the critical and creative functions of language in global contemporary art from the 1980s to the present. Featuring more than 20 works in a variety of mediaincluding pieces by Marta MarÃa Pérez Bravo, Song Dong, Barbara Kruger, William Kentridge, Glenn Ligon, Shirin Neshat, Lorna Simpson, and Wang Tiande, along with newly acquired works by Luis Camnitzer, Jeffrey Gibson, and Hung Liuthe exhibition provides vibrant examples of how the use of language is embedded in art, and how its presence affects and challenges ... More |
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Expressing Grief in Ancient Egyptian Portraiture---Conversations around Funerary Portraits
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 Around New York, different ways of hearing Handel's 'Messiah'NEW YORK, NY.- We have arrived at that point in the holiday season when it seems as though you could attend a different performance of Handels Messiah every few days. On Friday and Saturday, the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street returned to their newly restored home, Trinity Church Wall Street, for their first Messiah there since 2018. The fresh stained-glass facade, illuminated from within, shined like a beacon to concertgoers approaching from down the street. Inside, the narrow nave seemed to huddle everyone together for a communal purpose. A few days later, on Tuesday, the New York Philharmonic, joined by the Handel and Haydn Society, began a five-day Messiah run at its own recently remodeled home, David Geffen Hall. The lobby conceived as a gathering space with seating areas ... More  Gibney dances Ohad Naharin, minus the inner driveNEW YORK, NY.- Since its recent windfall and reinvention, the Gibney Company has been busy creating and presenting mixed bills of new work. One critical view on these efforts is that the choreography hasnt served the talent and skill of the young, well-trained dancers. But in Gibneys current program at New York Live Arts, the problem is closer to the reverse. There is only one work on the bill, an older one, Yag, which highly influential choreographer Ohad Naharin created for Batsheva Dance Company in 1996. While not exactly a repertory staple, this 50-minute piece is not obscure either. L.A. Dance Project toured a version of it a few years ago, and Naharin himself created an excellent film of it in 2020. It is classic Naharin: bursts of uninhibited motion and eccentric gestures framed by various theatrical gambits. In the most frequently recurring motif ... More  A cyberattack shuts the Met Opera's box office, but the show goes onNEW YORK, NY.- It had been a full week since a brazen cyberattack had hobbled the Metropolitan Opera, taking its website offline and paralyzing its box office, and hundreds of opera lovers were waiting patiently in line Tuesday evening, fluctuating between anxiety and anticipation. The curtain was set to rise on the Mets grandiose old-school production of Verdis Aida in 45 minutes, and 300 audience members had managed to score the sold-out $50 general admission tickets that the cyberattack had forced the company to offer as a workaround until its computer systems are fully restored. Some had feared a running of the bulls situation, with opera lovers jockeying for prime seats that ordinarily cost as much as $350 apiece. But the human choreography amid the technological mayhem was fairly seamless. The general admission hordes ... More  Thomas Pynchon, famously private, sells his archiveNEW YORK, NY.- For years, archival traces of novelist Thomas Pynchon have been almost as rare as sightings of the man himself. Only a handful of confirmed photos of him are known to exist. While letters by him sporadically pop up for sale, those that have surfaced in publicly accessible archives have tended to disappear from view just as quickly, following protests from the famously private author. But now, the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, has acquired Pynchons literary archive, promising to open a window into the mind and methods of an author whose dense, erudite, playfully postmodern and often extremely long novels like Gravitys Rainbow (760 pages) and Against the Day (1,085) have inspired serious scholarship, cultish devotion and wild-eyed conspiracy theories. The archive includes 48 boxes ... More  The 'Twin Peaks' theme isn't just a song. It's a portal.NEW YORK, NY.- Suffering from a case of middle age, I recently decided to learn the piano as an adult. The lesson I played Monday was the theme from Twin Peaks well, the idiot-proof, one-hand version that my iPad teaching app prepared for me, built around that low, hypnotic pattern. Bum bommm. Bum BOMMM. Later that day, in the sort of coincidence that seems to happen only in dreams and in small, spirit-afflicted logging towns in Washington, came news that the songs composer, Angelo Badalamenti, had died at age 85. Badalamenti was a classically trained composer with a long resume, including the scores for David Lynchs Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. But his memory is secured by those mesmeric notes, which opened the red curtains on Lynch and Mark Frosts eerie mystery, and which stand above and apart from most music ... More  1289 Lexington showcases work of Cynthia Karalla, NYC photographic artistNEW YORK, N.Y..- New York City artist, Cynthia Karalla, is being featured at a luxury condominium project on the Upper East Side, 1289 Lexington. Never represented by an art dealer, Karalla, who is in her 60s and also spends time in Newburgh, created 17 unique shots of Manhattan scenes. Each of the images will be hung on a wall that residents will see as they exit the elevator on each floor. A longstanding celebrated NYC artist, Karallas work has been featured in MOMA, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and the New York Public Library. Her newest work, featured inside 1289 Lexington, focused on reimagining iconic NYC landmarks. The pieces seek to merge Zeckendorf Developments style of classic prewar details with the latest methods of new construction. Karalla started the project by shooting scenes in Central Park using a D850 camera and 135 mm Zeiss lens. Shots include the reservoir ... More  Svigals + Partners debuts University's new Health and Human Services BuildingNEW HAVEN, CONN.- Architecture, art, and advisory firm Svigals + Partners, renowned for inspiring higher education environments, has announced the completion of the Southern Connecticut State Universitys College of Health and Human Services building on its campus in Hamden, Conn. Designed by Svigals + Partners with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, the new four-story, 94,750-square- foot building consolidates the multiple departments of Southern Connecticut State Universitys College of Health and Human Services program from eight campus-wide locations encompassing nearly two-dozen disciplines, uniting their academic centers, clinics, and institutes into one inviting, interdisciplinary experience. As you know, there are critical shortages in many areas of Connecticuts healthcare industry and this new building will allow ... More  Gillian Brett winner of the villa Noailles Prize of the Emerige Revelations 2022TOULON.- As part of the 2022 Emerige Revelations exhibition presented in Toulon, the jury, gathered by the villa Noailles, awarded the villa Noailles Prize for the 2022 Emerige Revelations to Gillian Brett, as well as a special mention to Nefeli Papadimouli. Gillian Brett will benefit from a residency within the territory of the Métropole Toulon Provence Méditerranée and more particularly at the villa Noailles. The fruit of this residency will be presented in a solo show by the artist at the Ancien Ãvêché de Toulon in December 2023, produced by the villa Noailles together with its local partners. Special Mention of the Jury, Nefeli Papadimouli will be invited to present her work in the form of a performance for the 38th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories Hyères. The Toulon Provence Méditerranée Metropolis, which prioritises Culture ... More  White glove triumph for Sir Terence Conran's personal collection at BonhamsLONDON.- Bonhams sale of Sir Terence Conran, The Contents of Barton Court, was 100% sold on Wednesday 14 December in New Bond Street, London. The sale, which included furniture, works of art, and decorative design objects from the design titans personal collection, made a total of £1,179,500, more than three times the pre-sale estimate. The top lot of the sale was Sir Allen Joness sculpture which stood in the reception area at Conrans Mezzo restaurant in Wardour Street, London. The polychrome painted steel sculpture of a waiter with a diner made £21,000. Five murals by Allen Jones from Mezzo were also in the sale, sold as separate lots. The top price of the series achieved £20,400. Sir Terence Conran's desk, designed by Sir Terence Conran and made by Benchmark Furniture sold for £20,400 against an estimate of £3,000-5,000 ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriella Boyd @ GRIMM 
Fondazione Elpis 
Frances Macdonald 
Terms of Belonging
Flashback On a day like today, Spanish-Mexican surrealist painter Remedios Varo was born December 16, 1908. Remedios Varo Uranga (16 December 1908 - 8 October 1963) was a Spanish-Mexican para-surrealist painter and anarchist. Born in Girona, Spain in 1908, she studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. She is known as one of the world famous para-surrealist artists of the 20th Century. During the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris where she was greatly influenced by the surrealist movement. She met her second husband, the French surrealist poet Benjamin Péret, in Barcelona. In this image: Remedios Varo (Spanish/Mexican 1908-1963), Vampiros vegetarianos. Oil on canvas. Painted in 1962. Estimate: $1,500,000 â 2,000,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2015.
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