| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Friday, December 29, 2023 |
| | This silly museum about crabs has serious things to say | |
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A crab takes part in a labor dispute in a display at the Crab Musem in Margate, England, Nov. 25, 2023. The museum uses crabs as a way into talking about larger issues like capitalism and climate change. (Sam Bush/The New York Times)
by Alex Marshall
MARGATE.- At the Crab Museum in the seaside town of Margate, England, Tereza Hynkova, 24, stopped in front of a display case and started to giggle. Inside was a diorama featuring models of nine crustaceans, including a coconut crab, usually found on tropical islands; a decorator crab, which covers its body with algae for camouflage; and the knobbly horrid elbow crab. The models were anatomically accurate, but the realism ended there. One of the crabs held a pint of beer between its claws. Another clutched a cricket bat. A third was dressed as a suffragist with a Votes for Women sash draped across its shell. A sign above the diorama explained: The species live in different parts of the world so it would be misleading to depict them in a realistic natural setting. Instead, the museums staff had put the models into a diorama resembling a 1920s English town. At a time when museums around the world are grappling with how to attract new audiences, with visitor numbers sti ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Sineglossa and La Punta della Lingua inaugurated the first Italian exhibition on poetry written by artificial intelligence, with artificial intelligence and on artificial intelligence.
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| Pope.L, provocative performance artist, dies at 68 | | Recent fossil dating techniques change our ideas of the human evolution timeline | | Gladstone Gallery in New York presenting work by Alex Katz until January 6th, last chance to see it | 
Pope.L in 2019. (Peyton Fulford, via Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York via The New York Times)
by Will Heinrich
NEW YORK, NY.- Pope.L, an uncompromising conceptual and performance artist who explored themes of race, class and what he called have-not-ness, and who was best known for crawling the length of Broadway in a Superman costume, died Saturday at his home in Chicago. He was 68. The death was confirmed by his gallery, Mitchell-Innes & Nash. No cause was given. By 2001, when he began The Great White Way: 22 Miles, 9 Years, 1 Street, Broadway, New York, as the performance was ultimately titled, Pope.L was already well known in the art world for a career that comprised every medium from writing to photography, from painting to sculpture, and from performance to straight theater. His abiding themes were the intersecting difficulties and distinctions that he experienced as a Black American and a son of the working class. But the impact of his work came less from the literal sense of its surface contents, which could be difficult to decode, than from its sheer intensity, and from his wil ... More | | 
Homo neanderthalensis cranium from the Cave of Tabun, Israel new dating results indicate that the remains date back to about 170,000 years ago, much older than originally theorised. © Trustees of the Natural History Museum.
LONDON.- The application of modern methods of dating to fossil human remains has catalysed major revisions in our understanding of human evolution. In a new review published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, Rainer Grün of the Australian National University in Canberra and Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum, London, show how the reanalysis of fossils discovered across the world brings into question our current ideas of human evolution, some of which may be incorrect. Paleoanthropological study has traditionally been difficult with a history of contradictory evidence. Traditional methods of dating rely on either the decay of radioactive elements, especially radiocarbon dating which is only effective on fossils younger than 50,000 years, or the analysis of sediment within which fossils were discovered. The limitations of the latter method were shown with the redating of Homo floresiensis which, although originally placed at le ... More | | 
Alex Katz, Split 10, 2022. Oil on linen, 96 x 72 in. © Alex Katz / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery. Photo: David Regen.
NEW YORK, NY.- Katz came of age in bubbling post war New York. Raised in St Albans Queens he landed at the Cooper Union, 40 years after the fact and 4000 miles from modernisms origin story. Cubism and the Paris School had arrived in the American art classroom, but the existentialism of the European experience did not hitch a ride across the Atlantic. So while the fractured image of Picasso and the broken depth of Matisse were his eyes guides, Katzs body belonged to the basketball courts and the dancehalls. This was a singularly American equation. Jump forward 10 years as he skips around the anxiety of Ab-Ex and commits to and creates his own American visual reality - combining the field of color with the CinemaScope framing and scale. THIS equation then might be called the Quintessential Katz, and is indivisible from our idea of the artist himself. But throughout each successive decade he held his first guide tight, and continued the exploration ... More |
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| New frames for Caspar David Friedrich | | Qiu Shihua stands as an enigmatic figure in the world of contemporary art, Galerie Urs Meile | | German Design Award 2024: German Design Council announces winners | 
Caspar David Friedrich, Berglandschaft in Böhmen, um 1830, klassizistischer Hohlkehlrahmen, erstes Drittel 19. Jahrhundert, HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE.
HAMBURG.- For the major anniversary exhibitions marking Caspar David Friedrichs 250th birthday, the HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE has reframed paintings by the Dresden-based Romantic painter. Yet to this day, we dont have a conclusive idea of Friedrichs own thoughts on this matter. All we have so far is theories. Caspar David Friedrichs powerfully symbolic and transcendental paintings retain an unfathomable and mysterious quality. Friedrich's framing concept similarly remains a big question mark. Did he have his own ideas, or did he merely adapt to contemporary taste? This is the question the HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE faced when The Sea of Ice, Friedrichs highly dramatic shipwreck scene, was to be reframed. The ... More | | 
Qiu Shihua, Untitled, 2007 (Qiu Sh54693). Oil on canvas 288 Ã 150 cm. The Artist and Galerie Urs Meile.
BEIJING.- Growing up in dire poverty in southwestern China, it initially seemed unlikely that he would become a contemporary artist. Despite the external circumstances, painting became a refuge for him at a young age, initially without formal academic training. Western oil painting was a relatively new discipline in China at that time, and artistic education was exclusively ideological in nature. However, he did not have much to do with society, the system, nor educational methodology in any case, as he states. 1 In a time when art was fundamentally under state control, he found work as a theater poster artist but soon lost that job. Society had broken with himnot the other way around he says as he looks back. This led to his complete withdrawal from social life. At the ... More | | 
With the German Design Award, the German Design Council honours significant design trends as well as pioneering and innovative design achievements that holistically cover all areas of everyday life and the diversity of design culture.
FRANKFURT .- The internationally renowned jury has chosen: A total of 65 "Gold" awards were presented in the "Excellent Product Design", "Excellent Communications Design" and "Excellent Architecture" disciplines at the German Design Award 2024. All winners will be honoured at the Award Show on 26 January 2024 in Frankfurt am Main. The winner of the "German Design Award Newcomer" award will also be announced at this event. With the German Design Award, the German Design Council honours significant design trends as well as pioneering and innovative design achievements that holistically cover all areas of everyday life and the diversity of design culture. ... More |
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| Revolutionary quantitative photography unveiled for measuring marine plastic pollution | | The year in dressing up | | Images of watermelons signal support for Palestinians | 
Plastic removed from the stomachs of Flesh-footed Shearwater fledglings © Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.
LONDON.- A new study by Dr Joseph (Joby) Razzell Hollis, Marie Curie Fellow on the PLASTISCAN project at the Natural History Museum, London has unveiled a new and innovative method that promises a game-changing approach to measuring and understanding marine plastic pollution. Plastics have inundated our environment for decades and pose a critical challenge for researchers due to the arduous and unreliable nature of assessing their impact. This novel method, described in the paper, provides a cutting-edge solution to these hurdles by introducing a systematic approach to capturing detailed data on plastic pollution. To create a standardised and automated process for assessing the size, shape, and color of individual plastic fragments, the research team developed an automated image analysis system with a remarkable 98% success rate in detecting individual plastic fragments across multiple samples. By employing this new method, ... More | | 
Alexander Hankin at the Save Venice ball in New York, April 21, 2023. (Rebecca Smeyne/The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- The COVID-19 public health emergency officially expired in the United States in May, and it seemed the celebrations were nonstop. Night after night, a cohort of shiny (and often deep-pocketed) city dwellers escaped into lavish, invite-only parties, galas and benefits that gleamed like 2019. These elaborate fever dreams were made all the more feverish and dreamy by looks often spun from the runways: fire-engine reds, overblown silhouettes, yards of tulle and a grab bag of bijoux. Whether at a Fashion Week party at Gracie Mansion or a benefit for Elmhurst Hospital at the American Museum of Natural History, guests swanned around in looks so surreal that they transported us somewhere beyond the pings of the push notifications that typically mark our time. Below are some of the looks and themes that made us smile or smirk or take a second look. They all provided a bit of glimmering levity to the year. ... More | | 
The artist Khaled Houranis work, The Colors of the Palestinian Flag, in 2014. (Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow via The New York Times)
by Callie Holtermann
NEW YORK, NY.- On and off social media, watermelons are being used as a symbol to communicate solidarity with Palestinians in the deadly war between Israel and Hamas. The fruit is painted on semicircles of cardboard at protests in support of Palestinians. The watermelon emoji appears next to the Palestinian flag in display names on TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, and thousands of Instagram users have liked an illustration of a watermelon wedge whose seeds spell ceasefire now. The fruit is grown in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and it is the same four colors red, green, black and white as the Palestinian flag. Palestinians have used it for decades as a symbol of identity and resistance, said Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, 30, the founder of the digital publication Muslim Girl. Its taken on a much more widespread understanding since the ... More |
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| Eiffel Tower closes for labor action on creator's anniversary | | Wysocki, Gibson Les Paul, and the Asian Art Department lead Michaan's Auctions 'Winter Fine Sale' | | Watershed 1993 shows help make sense of 2023 | 
A view across rooftops of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Oct. 18, 2022. (Nathalie Mohadjer /The New York Times)
by Victor Mather
NEW YORK, NY.- History lovers visiting Paris might have made a plan to check out the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday. After all, it was the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, the eponymous civil engineer whose company designed and built it. But the sign they discovered by the landmark bore grim tidings: La Tour Eiffel est actuellement fermée. The tower was closed. The reason will be familiar to anyone who has spent significant time in France: a labor action. Tourists could mill about on the Esplanade, the ground-level area around the base of the tower. But they could not spend the 28.30 euros (about $31.40) it costs to take an elevator to the top, nor pay the discounted rate of 21.50 euros for those hardy souls willing to climb the stairs roughly half of the way. Topping out at ... More | | 
Pair of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain Dishes, Daoguang Mark. Price Realized: $26,000.
ALAMEDA, CA.- Michaans Auctions Winter Fine Auction, held on Thursday, December 14th realized a strong sell-through rate as Michaans Auctions orchestrated another successful sale for its cosigners. The sale was headlined by A Chinese Celadon Glazed Stem Dish, which sold for $39,000, and Charles M. Wysocki, Vermont Springtime, selling for $35,750. A beautiful 1950s Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Guitar reached $29,250. A Pair of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain Dishes, Daoguang Mark inspired intense bidding which brought the items total to $26,000, while A Framed Yellow Ground Gilt and Embroidered Kesi Dragon Panel reached $16,900, and Tiffany Studios Bronze Table Lamp with Favrile Glass Shade achieved $14,300. The jewelry department had another strong showing with a Cartier Enamel, 18k Yellow Gold Repeater ... More | | 
Installation view, The Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum, New York NY, 1993 © Ida Applebroog. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
NEW YORK, NY.- A lot happened in the early 1990s: In about four years, the world saw the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, a bombing of the World Trade Center, the beating of Rodney King and the riots that roiled Los Angeles, a peak in the AIDS crisis, a market crash, and the withdrawal of funding of controversial artists by the National Endowment of the Arts as part of a larger culture war. In the wake of these events just a partial list two exhibitions on opposite coasts seemed to crystallize the tumultuous moment. One was the controversial, even infamous, 1993 Whitney Biennial, curated by Elisabeth Sussman along with Thelma Golden, John G. Hanhardt and Lisa Phillips. Often labeled the multicultural or identity politics biennial, it was excoriated by critics for seeming to privilege diversity ... More |
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Sterling Ruby on "DROWSE MURMURS" | In the Gallery | Xavier Hufkens
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| More News |
 Galerie Eva Presenhuber has exhibition 'Suddenly This Overview' highlighted by Fondazione PradaMILAN.- Galerie Eva Presenhuber is highlighting the installation Suddenly This Overview (1981-2012) by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli David Weiss at Fondazione Prada in Milan. It is permanently on view since November 29, 2023, as part of the foundation's exhibition project Atlas. This works version combines 157 medium- and small-scale raw clay sculptures arranged on plinths of different heights, representing the world through a seemingly arbitrary selection of events, objects, phrases, and historical or invented notions. With a predilection for phenomenological collecting and arraying the wonders of the world, Peter Fischli David Weiss conceived Suddenly This Overview as a subjective encyclopaedia, in which the seemingly rational project of gathering all the worlds knowledge would be undercut by the imperfections of individual ... More  William Kentridge and Center for the Less Good Idea to host collaborative residency PROVIDENCE, RI.- In spring 2024, William Kentridge and The Centre for the Less Good Idea will host a collaborative residency with Brown Arts Institute (BAI), launching the second project of its IGNITE Series, which was inaugurated in fall 2023 with Carrie Mae Weems campus-wide activation, Varying Shades of Brown. The semester-long residency will involve three activations that unfold across campus from February 9 to June 16, 2024. The collaborative residency, hosted by Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace, co-founder of The Centre, will feature performances of a dramatic work, Houseboy; arts education workshops; and post-show conversations in the new Lindemann Performing Arts Center, as well as a video installation in Cohen Gallery, housed in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. Each aspect of the project invites the Brown and Rhode ... More  Watch the 1st episode of "Richard Orlinski: The Art Series" unveiling the creative genius of a renowned French sculptorNEW YORK, NY.- Watch the first episode of Richard Orlinski: The Art Series, unveiling the creative genius of a renowned French sculptor through a cinematic experience. Director David Serero is set to bring the captivating world of acclaimed French sculptor Richard Orlinski to the silver screen with the much-anticipated film series "The Art Series." This cinematic masterpiece promises to take audiences on an extraordinary journey into the life and artistry of Orlinski, exploring the passion, innovation, and groundbreaking vision that have defined his career. Through his dynamic editing, David Serero takes the film at the rhythm of Orlinskis vision: colorful and vibrant. Richard Orlinski, celebrated ... More  CfC St. Moritz announces "Creating Connections", a two-part auction to support GigaST. MORITZ.- CfC St. Moritz has announced a two-part charity art auction hosted in partnership with UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein and Christie's to benefit Giga. The two-part auction will take place in January 2024 with a live auction held on January 11, 2024, during CfC St. Moritz, and an online auction hosted by Christie's 3.0 and curated by Nina Roehrs (Roehrs & Boetsch) from January 24 31, 2024. The two auctions will be united under the theme "Creating Connections Digital Art for Connectivity" and will be held to jointly support Giga, a UNICEF and International Telecom Union (ITU) initiative to connect every school and student to the Internet and information. The first auction takes place live on January 11, 2024, on the second day of the CfC St. Moritz conference at the Suvretta House St. Moritz. It features three. ... More  Lee Sun-kyun, 'Parasite' actor, dies at 48SEOUL.- Lee Sun-kyun, the award-winning South Korean actor who rose to international fame after starring in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, was found dead in Seoul on Wednesday. He was 48. Lee had recently been under police investigation on suspicion of illegal drug use, and he denied the accusations. Police said they were investigating the death as a suicide. Police found Lees body in a parked vehicle in central Seoul just before 11 a.m., said Jeon Yu-deung, chief detective at Seongbuk police station, which is investigating Lees death. After Lees manager reported him missing earlier in the day, police found his body using the location signal from his phone. Jeon said that Lee had also left what appeared to be a suicide note. Lee is survived by his wife, two sons and siblings, Jeon added. His talent agency, Hodu&U Entertainment, ... More  Zita Carno, concert pianist, Coltrane scholar and more, dies at 88NEW YORK, NY.- When Bronx-bred pianist Zita Carno auditioned for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1975, she played short excerpts from the orchestras repertoire for the music director, Zubin Mehta. Then Mehta said, Come back tomorrow. I want to hear you play the Boulez, she recalled years later, referring to French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez. Well, I said, I eat that stuff for breakfast, which made him laugh. Carno was hired and spent the next 25 years as the orchestras pianist, capping a career as a widely praised classical keyboardist (she also played the harpsichord and organ) who was also an expert on the music of innovative jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Carno died Dec. 7 in an assisted living facility in Tampa, Florida. She was 88. Her cousin Susanna Briselli said the cause ... More  The Belfast Victorian was in 'a Terrrible State.' Was it worth the risk?BELFAST.- As they awaited the arrival of their third child in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Kerri and Neil Beggs encountered a problem familiar to families everywhere: They needed more space but didnt have the budget for the kind of house they wanted. What we found was that we were in a certain price bracket, and it was quite a large leap in price for the size of house we wanted, said Kerri Beggs, 44, a health care professional. She and Neil Beggs, 47, who runs a plumbing supply company, had been renting a narrow, four-story townhouse that sometimes felt like more of a big staircase than a home, and they wanted more space indoors and outdoors. Fortunately, they had met Craig Hutchinson, founder of London architecture firm Hutch Design, through a mutual friend, and he offered to help them assess various properties. When they visited ... More  The fine art of the paperback makeoverNEW YORK, NY.- You never get a second chance to make a first impression, humorist Will Rogers once said which tells you he wasnt a book publishing executive. In that world, the paperback edition is the second chance, an opportunity to market a book at a lower price and, in many cases, with new cover imagery aimed at new audiences. Goals can include getting big-box stores to display the book, Instagram browsers to pause before swiping, or readers to rethink whats between those covers. The shift in perception can be quite dramatic or quite subtle, but the energies are redirected, said Mitzi Angel, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Here are the stories behind eight intriguing 2023 paperbacks (and a sneak peek at the new look for Eleanor Cattons novel Birnam Wood, coming in 2024), with behind- ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros was born December 29, 1896. David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros, December 29, 1896, in Chihuahua - January 6, 1974, in Cuernavaca, Morelos) was a Mexican social realist painter, better known for his large murals in fresco. Along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he established "Mexican Muralism." In this image: Unfinished 1940s mural painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros, in Escuela de Bellas Artes, a cultural center in San Miguel de Allende, Gto.
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