| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, December 18, 2020 |
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| | Tusks found in shipwreck reveal origins of elephants and impact of the ivory trade | |
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Growth layers in one of the sampled elephant tusks from the 16th century Bom Jesus shipwreck. Photo by Judith Sealy.
OXFORD.- An international team has discovered the origin of the largest cargo of African ivory found from the oldest shipwreck in southern Africa. The discovery of a 16th-century shipwreck has, with the aid of advanced scientific techniques, provided detailed insight into elephant herds living in Africa almost 500 years ago. But the study also highlights the extensive depletion of the West African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) due to the ivory trade, and the need for conservation of this majestic animal. The study, published today, was led by Oxford Universitys Pitt Rivers Museum and School of Archaeology alongside partner institutions in Namibia (the National Museum of Namibia), South Africa (University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria) and the USA (University of Illinois). This unique story that links shipwrecks with elephants came to life off the coast of Namibia in 2008, when workers mining for diamonds discovered the remains of the Portuguese trading vessel Bom Jesus. T ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A photograph taken on December 8, 2020 shows an abandoned car in the ghost town of Pripyat, not far from Chernobyl nuclear power plant. More than three decades after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster forced thousands to evacuate, there is an influx of visitors to the area that has spurred officials to seek official status from UNESCO. Officials hope recognition from the UN's culture agency will boost the site as a tourist attraction and in turn bolster efforts to preserve ageing buildings nearby. GENYA SAVILOV / AFP
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| Alligator that survived Berlin WWII bombing on display in Moscow | | With an impressive roster of galleries and auction houses, Asia Week New York powers ahead in 2021 | | Janet Borden, Inc. opens an exhibition of signature photographs by Martin Parr | 
A picture taken on October 2, 2020 shows specialists working on the taxidermied alligator named Saturn at a workshop of the Darwin Museum in Moscow. Handout/The Darwin Museum/AFP.
MOSCOW (AFP).- An alligator believed to have belonged to Adolf Hitler that died aged 84 has been taxidermied and put on display in Moscow. The Darwin Museum said the alligator named Saturn was put on public display several months after the Moscow Zoo donated his remains. "The installation of Saturn in the permanent exhibition is the culmination of six months of work by our taxidermists and the entire museum," it said in a statement. The museum said specialists began work in June, treating Saturn's scales with a special solution. Born in the United States in 1936, Saturn was moved to the Berlin zoo where he escaped on November 23, 1943, after a bombing raid that killed several of his fellow reptiles. In 1946, he was found by British soldiers who handed him over to the Soviet authorities. His whereabouts during the intervening three years are "a mystery", the Moscow Zoo said ... More | | 
Qingbai Vase with Sculpted Dragon, Southern Song Dynasty, 1127-1279 AD China. Height: 21.5cm. Courtesy: Zetterquist Galleries.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Asia Week New York Association announced that 27 international galleries and five auction houses Bonhams, Christies, Heritage, iGavel, and Sothebys will participate in the 2021 edition of Asia Week New York, a blend of by appointment gallery exhibitions and online viewing rooms, as well as auctions which opens March 11 through 20, 2021. Says Asia Week New York chairwoman Katherine Martin: I am delighted that so many galleries have decided to participate in next years Asia Week New York, which will combine by-appointment gallery exhibitions with online viewing rooms on our new revamped website. Ms. Martin adds that the Asia Week New York online platform has undergone significant changes to accommodate the new manner by which collectors view and acquire art. The platform has also expanded its audience engagement through virtual panel discussions that feature internationally ... More | | 
Martin Parr, Sri Lanka.
BROOKLYN, NY.- Cant travel? Cant bear or dare to take a plane trip? Passport currently of dubious value? Travel vicariously via these celebrated images by Martin Parr. Janet Borden, Inc. announces Martin Parr: World Tour, an exhibition of signature photographs by celebrated photographer Martin Parr. The show will run from 19 December 2020 30 January 2021. Parr has compiled images from various locales throughout the world, from Paris to Moscow, from Marrakesh to Sri Lanka. Parr is a formally sophisticated, humorous, and astute documentary photographer. Whether he is photographing the Kentucky Derby or the beaches of Cannes, he treats the subjects as curious oddities. Many of Parrs essential tropes, including vivid colors and a keen appreciation of the absurd, are on view in these photographs. The daylight flash, the dressing up and partying, the coincidental matching of patterns and colors in unlikely places, all commingle in this body of colorful and witty work. Pisa, Italy i ... More |
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| Records for Charles Alston, Wadsworth Jarrell, Augusta Savage and more in African American Art at Swann | | 'Fantasia,' 'Snow White,' Betty Boop, Popeye and the first golden age of animation | | A private collection of important baseball memorabilia totals $6,545,625 | 
Augusta Savage, Gamin, plaster painted gold, circa 1929. Sold for $112,500, a record for the artist.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Thursday, December 10 sale of African American Art at Swann Galleries was met with enthusiasm from collectors. The sale saw nine auction records set, as well as an auction debut from contemporary artist Tyrone Geter. The auction total reached $2.8 million bringing the houses African American Art sale totals for the year to $9.2 million. Leading the December sale was Charles Alstons Black and White #8, oil on canvas, 1961. The largest of the artists works yet to come to auction, the stunning abstraction came from an important series of eight works painted between 1959 and 1961. Black and White #8, earned a record for the artist at $197,000. Additional abstract works included Sir Frank Bowlings Repose for SO, acrylic on canvas, 1976, an example of Bowlings trailblazing mid-1970s series of poured paintings, which brought $93,750. Kenneth Victor Young and Thomas Sills ... More | | 
Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries That Inspired the Golden Age of Animation by Reid Mitenbuler. Illustrated. 411 pages. Atlantic Monthly Press. $28.
by Jennifer Szalai
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- By the time Walt Disneys Fantasia premiered at Manhattans Broadway Theater on Nov. 13, 1940, what had started out as an animated short to revive Mickey Mouses flagging career had become a feature-length extravaganza. Images in the movie channeled evolutionary theory and abstract art, depicting roaring dinosaurs, vibrating shapes and dancing brooms. Everything was set to classical music and blasted over the new Fantasound system, whose volume could apparently reach 165 decibels enough, The New Yorker reported at the time, to kill many elderly members of the audience, knock the others cold and deafen the survivors for life. The magazine continued, Dont worry about it, though. Youre safe with Walt Disney. The combination ... More | | 
Important 1931 Lou Gehrig New York Yankees professional model home jersey. Sold for $1,440,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies and Hunt Auctions historic sale Home Plate: A Private Collection of Important Baseball Memorabilia achieved a total of $6,545,625 with 88% sold by lot, 95% sold by value. The top lot of the sale was the important 1931 Lou Gehrig New York Yankees professional model home jersey, which achieved $1,440,000. Other top results included a scarce and important Babe Ruth Boston Red Sox Era Professional Model Baseball Bat (c. 1916-18) that sold for $600,000 and a highly important Lou Gehrig document archive from Dr. Paul O'Leary of The Mayo Clinic with relation to "ALS: Lou Gehrig Disease" (c.1939-41), which achieved $450,000. The strong selection of vintage baseball cards was led by the 1909-11 T-206 Ty Cobb card which totaled $437,500. A poignant handwritten letter by Marilyn Monroe to Joe DiMaggio written on ... More |
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| Walker Art Center acquires new works from Minnesota-based artists | | Sweeping new Arthur Dove catalogue raisonné sheds light on the early 20th-century Modernist | | BRAFA galleries open for in-person viewings to replace 66th edition of the stalwart Brussels art fair | 
Pao Houa Her (US, b. Laos, 1982), Untitled, 2019. Inkjet print mounted to aluminum. McKnight Acquisition Fund, 2020.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center has acquired 39 new works, deepening its commitment to Minnesota artists. Among the most recent works acquired is a three-part painting, made in the summer of 2020, by St. Paulbased artist Ta-coumba T. Aiken (US, b. 1952). Aiken, whose works of public art often center social justice and the building of community, has a long and distinguished career as an artist, educator, and artistic collaborator. During the pandemic, Aiken had returned to an intensive studio practice, re-engaging more fully with painting, drawing, and collage. Following the murder of George Floyd, he began working on a group of large paintings and drawings informed by the events. A group of three paintings entitled NO WORDS recently entered the Walkers collection and is on display in the collection-based exhibition Five Ways In: Themes from the Collection. The canvases are covered with ... More | | 
Arthur Dove Catalogue Raisonné.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Arthur G. Dove Catalogue Raisonné Project today announced the publication of a complete and authoritative catalogue raisonné of the pioneering modernists work. Edited and written by scholar and curator Debra Bricker Balken, Arthur Dove: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Things sheds expansive new light on the artists work with an illustrated survey of the full corpus of his known paintings and assemblages (or things), along with a wealth of essays that draw on previously unpublished materials. Together, these add important context and texture to our understanding of the artist, his work, and the context in which it was created. The first book on Dove to include color illustrations of all of his extant paintings, Arthur Dove: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Things is published by the Arthur Dove Catalogue Raisonné Project and distributed by Yale University Press. The nearly 400-page book will be of compelling interest to scholars, curators, collecto ... More | | 
The premise of the event is to invite the galleries that had confirmed for BRAFA 2021 to develop exhibitions in their own locations of the works that they had selected for the fair.
BRUSSELS.- There is no denying that the invitation the international art fair BRAFAs Board committee extended at the end of October to participate in BRAFA in the Galleries, its alternative fair, was met with much interest. A total of 126 galleries confirmed their participation in the subsequent weeks. As such, 126 exhibitions will be organized in 13 countries and 37 cities, for the most part in their dedicated gallery spaces. The premise of the event is to invite the galleries that had confirmed for BRAFA 2021 to develop exhibitions in their own locations of the works that they had selected for the fair. They can then invite their customers, in strict compliance with the current Covid-19 measures to visit in person. Our hope is that this will re-establish the pleasure of direct contact between dealers, collectors and works of art, at the end of a long period during ... More |
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| Dorothy Gill Barnes, 93, artist whose raw material came from trees, dies | | Anna Boghiguian's first solo exhibition in a Belgian museum on view at S.M.A.K. | | Joseph Safra, banker who was the richest Brazilian, dies at 82 | 
Dorothy Gil Barnes, a sculptor in bark and wood, who could make tree fiber seem as malleable as clay, died on Nov. 23, 2020 at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She was 93. The cause was complications of COVID-19, her daughter said. Tom Grotta via The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Well into her 80s, wood sculptor and basket maker Dorothy Gill Barnes was always on the hunt for raw material. In her case, that meant trees. If she received a tip about a construction site or landscaping project in the suburb of Columbus, Ohio, where she lived, shed hop on her rusty bike and dart to the scene. If she heard buzzing chain saws as she approached, that was a promising sign, because a newly fallen oak or maple tree might be waiting for her. Soon, shed return with her station wagon. Barnes was especially known for making imaginative sculptures from bark, which in her hands seemed as malleable as clay. From strips of mulberry tree bark, she produced an intricate vase. To make a stout bowl, she folded hunks of poplar bark. She once wove a basket on a loom with lichen. She also created sculptures from wood, like a hollowed-out oak tree she encased with apple suckers and a work featuring branches of cherry ... More | | 
Anna Boghiguian, A Short History: How the Industrial Revolution Changed the Pace of Europe, 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Installation in S.M.A.K. 2020, Image: Dirk Pauwels.
GHENT.- Anna Boghiguian, an Armenian born in Cairo in 1946, has been making art since the beginning of the 70s. She has developed a practice that corresponds with the tradition of the travelling artist, one that has already taken her to the farthest corners of the planet. Being on the move is a source of inspiration and strengthens her commitment. It makes her alert to the changeability of the world and the specific character of different conditions. As an extremely well-read and free-spirited thinker, she links meaning to the passage and connection of things. With the utmost fascination, she investigates how flows of ideas, goods, people and capital are shaped and can move, but also how this leads to inequalities. Anna Boghiguian crystallises her experiences, reading of literature and news reports into drawings, collages, books, cut-out figures and complex installations. She paints in encaustic, an ancient technique using pigment and beeswax, which gives light and transparency. Her works are ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on November 21, 2002 Lebanese-Brazilian Joseph Safra speaks on his mobile phone as he arrives at a courthouse in Monaco for the start of the trial of former US soldier Ted Maher, accused of an arson attack that killed his brother Edmond. Joseph Safra, Brazil's richest man, died at 82 on December 10, 2020 in Sao Paulo. Pascal GUYOT / AFP.
RIO DE JANEIRO (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Joseph Safra, an immigrant from Lebanon who became Brazils richest person and one of the most successful bankers in the world through a lifetime of deal-making, died Dec. 10 in São Paulo, Brazil. He was 82. The death was announced in a statement by Banco Safra, the company he led. In recent years he was treated for Parkinsons disease, according to local press reports. Born in Beirut into a Jewish family whose ancestors included money changers on the Ottoman Empires caravan routes, Safra emigrated to Brazil with his father, Jacob, after World War II and with his family, including his brothers Edmond and Moise, built a private banking empire that reached from São Paulo to Geneva to New York. Forbes magazine this month estimated Safras net worth at $23.2 billion. Banco ... More |
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David Hockney: Drawing from Life
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 A Paces Races 5-cent horse race slot machine is top lot at Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. auctionNEW HAMBURG, ON.- A Paces Races 5-cent horse race slot machine, made in Chicago in 1934, sold for $29,212 and a made-in-Canada Black Cat Cigarettes porcelain sign from the 1940s realized $10,516 in an online-only Advertising, Toys & Historic Objects auction held December 12th by Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd., headquartered in New Hamburg, Ontario. All prices quoted are in Canadian dollars and are inclusive of an 18 percent buyers premium. The Paces Races slot machine blew us away, said Ethan Miller of Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. Theres only a handful known. This one was masterfully restored, both cosmetically and mechanically, and it worked flawlessly. When the game of odds was introduced by Pace Manufacturing in the 1930s, it became the largest money-making machine of its kind. The Black Cat Cigarettes porcelain ... More  The National Gallery of Victoria receives $20 million from The Ian Potter FoundationMELBOURNE.- The National Gallery of Victoria today announced that The Ian Potter Foundation has pledged AUD$20 million the single biggest grant in the foundations history towards the build of Australias largest contemporary art gallery, NGV Contemporary. Located at 77 Southbank Boulevard, NGV Contemporary will be a landmark, purpose-built gallery of architectural significance dedicated to displaying important local, national and international contemporary art and design in the heart of the re-imagined Melbourne Arts Precinct. Once completed, the gallery will span more than 30,000 square metres, making it the largest facility of its kind in Australia. Building on the growth in audiences attending ground-breaking exhibitions of contemporary art and design, NGV Contemporary will elevate Melbournes reputation as a thriving ... More  Galerie Cecile Fakhoury opens an exhibition of works by Kassou SeydouABIDJAN.- From Dakar to Abidjan, Kassou Seydou takes us on a plastic and poetic odyssey around the journey. On 26 September 2002, the ship Joola, which links the port of Ziguinchor in Casamance, Senegal, Kassou Seydous homeland, with the port of Dakar, is wrecked. Of the human drama that still marks the consciences of several generations of Senegalese, one question remains: what still drives us to travel? From the joyfully chosen journey to the journey that we impose on ourselves or that is imposed on us, Kassou Seydou depicts in impressive frescoes the meanders of spiritual and physical journeys, whether fortunate or tragic. Always sensitive to the social issues that affect his country and the world as a whole, Kassou Seydou invites us to question our prism of perception and to embrace in a generous and human gesture the complex ... More  The posada must go on: Mexico celebrates Christmas against backdrop of CovidXOCHIMILCO (AFP).- In Yuridia Torres' workshop, the sale of pinatas is nonstop. Despite the Mexican government's warning against traditional posadas -- celebrations which began Wednesday and play a huge role in the country's Christmas season -- people in the capital's Xochimilco neighborhood continued to buy the festive party item. Posadas traditionally bring people into the streets and into the homes of neighbors across Mexico and in other parts of Latin America over the course of nine nights. The holiday custom involves going door-to-door singing Christmas carols, sometimes dressed as characters from the biblical Christmas story. Even with a spike in coronavirus infections and hospital occupancy at 82 percent in Mexico City, orders for pinatas are still coming in. "The posadas have been postponed, but there are people who will ... More  Saving orchestras with online showsNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As recently as March, Brandon Cardleys work as the Boston Symphony Orchestras video engineer was largely limited to small projects, like cutting clips of concerts for social media and marketing materials. But once the coronavirus pandemics spread started to cancel performances through summer and fall, then winter and spring, his job suddenly looked a lot different. We went from being a nice addition to the concert to being the concert, Cardley said in an interview. We became a television studio overnight. Its an increasingly common story among American orchestras. Crowds of listeners gathering in front of crowds of musicians has been all but impossible, so ensembles have rushed to replace in-person performances with online programs often well produced and sometimes more daring ... More  In Miami, sugarplum dreams under the palm treesMIAMI (AFP).- Lourdes Lopez, the artistic director of Miami City Ballet, is facing a new unknown. Its a fear shes never had. And it stresses her out. I just hope that at the last minute that they dont close us down, she said. Its no surprise that she has been wondering what it was like to run a ballet company in London during the Blitz. Against the odds during a pandemic, the company will present its reimagined production of George Balanchines The Nutcracker this month. Normally, Lopez said, her worries would fall more along the lines of, are the costumes going to be ready? Will an injured dancer recover in time to perform? Now she is thinking about the backstage choreography of the crew and the dancers, since masks will not be worn during performances. We have to make sure that when youre exiting, no one is in that wing, she said. We ... More  Harold Budd, composer of spaciousness and calm, dies at 84NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Harold Budd, a composer and pianist known for the preternatural spaciousness and melancholy calm of his music, and for his collaborations with art-pop artists like Brian Eno and Cocteau Twins, died on Dec. 8 in Arcadia, California. He was 84. The cause was complications of COVID-19, which he contracted at a short-term rehabilitation facility while undergoing therapy after suffering a stroke on Nov. 11, his manager, Steve Takaki, said in an email. Born in Los Angeles, Budd grew up close to the Mojave Desert, a likely inspiration for the sparsity and vastness his music could evoke. Engaged initially by free jazz, John Cages avant-garde innovations and early minimalism, he broke with all of those styles to create a signature sound that centered on the piano, soft-pedaled, sustained and suspended in a corona ... More  Venice hails UN listing for virus-hit glass bead makersROME (AFP).- Venice hailed Thursday a UN decision to put the art of glass beads on its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and expressed hope it would help artisans hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The delicate and intricate beads are a speciality of the island of Murano, in the Italian city's lagoon, where skilled workers have been making glass for centuries. "It is a source of great pride to be able to see such a prestigious and significant recognition for one of the excellences of our tradition," said Luigi Brugnaro, mayor of Venice, itself is a UN world heritage site. Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region, said it was "excellent news, which comes at a particularly difficult time for Venetian craftsmanship and its activities". "The activities of glass furnaces and artisans have been hard hit by the effects of the health crisis, many are on the brink ... More  UNESCO puts Finnish sauna culture on heritage listHELSINKI (AFP).- Finns' penchant for relaxing in blazing hot steam-filled rooms was on Thursday put on the UN's list of the world's intangible heritage. With an estimated three million saunas for 5.5 million people, the steam bath is a traditional Finnish institution which goes back hundreds of years. "Sauna culture in Finland is an integral part of the lives of the majority of the Finnish population," the UN body said. The culture "involves much more than simply washing oneself. In a sauna, people cleanse their bodies and minds and embrace a sense of inner peace", UNESCO said. Saunas are ubiquitous in Finnish homes, blocks of flats and at swimming pools, where bathers gather often in the nude in temperatures of around 85 degrees Celsius (185F). Over the years, Finnish leaders have regularly invited their counterparts and foreign dignitaries ... More  Even when the music returns, pandemic pay cuts will lingerNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When the coronavirus outbreak brought performances across the United States to a screeching halt, many of the nations leading orchestras, dance companies and opera houses temporarily cut the pay of their workers, and some stopped paying them at all. Now, hopes that vaccines will allow performances to resume next fall are being tempered by fears that it could take years for hibernating box offices to rebound, and many battered institutions are turning to their unions to negotiate longer-term cuts that they say are necessary to survive. The crisis is posing a major challenge to performing arts unions, which in recent decades have been among the strongest in the nation. While musicians at some major ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony ... More  A 1958 Corvette translated into modern ChineseNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- On the floor of the international auto show this fall in Beijing, among the gleaming boldface names and futuristic concepts, was a car that, from a distance, looked like a 1958 Corvette. Up close, however, it was clear this was no classic Chevrolet. It was a sporty coupe called the SS Dolphin. How can they get away with that? was one of the more common questions asked at its Route 66-themed, Old West-style (yes, both) unveiling. On Corvette Blogger, a site for enthusiasts, Keith Cornett wrote: They say that imitation is flattery, so well consider these to be tributes to the Corvette as opposed to copycats, even as we find the side view and front end to be absolutely awful when compared to an actual 58 Corvette. Admittedly, the proportions are significantly off as if the Dolphins designer had looked at ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Anne Truitt Sound 
Islamic Metalwork 
Klaas Rommelaere 
Helen Muspratt
Flashback On a day like today, Italian sculptor and painter Mimmo Paladino was born December 18, 1948. Paladino was born in Paduli, Campania, on December 18, 1948, but grew up and trained in Benevento. He now lives in Rome and Milan, but still has a studio in the little town near Benevento. In this image: Mimmo Paladino, Mattinate (Puglia Suite) No. 7, 2011. Watercolour with collage. Paper and image 58.0 x 77.0 cm.
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