| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, July 31, 2020 |
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| | How a historian stuffed Hagia Sophia's sound into a studio | |
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Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine cathedral in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 26, 2011. Hagia Sophias rededication as a Muslim place of worship, after decades as a museum, threatens to cloak its extravagantly reverberant acoustics. Piotr Redlinski/The New York Times.
by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Turquoise carpets covered the marble floor, with its geometric designs. White drapes concealed the mosaic of the Virgin and Christ. Scaffolding obscured crosses and other Christian symbols. Footage broadcast around the world last week captured some of these striking changes to Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine cathedral in Istanbul, which served as a mosque under Ottoman rule before becoming a museum in 1934. On the orders of Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it is now once again used as a mosque. But for a group of scholars, scientists and musicians, Hagia Sophias rededication as a Muslim place of worship threatens to cloak a less tangible treasure: its sound. Bissera Pentcheva, an art historian at Stanford University and an expert in the burgeoning field of acoustic archaeology, has spent the past decade studying the buildings extravagantly reverberant acoustics to reconstruct the sonic world of Byzantine cathedral music. Pentcheva argues that Hagia Sophias m ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day 303 Gallery reopened with a new thematic group exhibition, entitled Alien Landscape. The exhibition is on view in the gallery's physical space and simultaneously presented as an online Viewing Room, with an extended selection of works. Alien Landscape brings together a variety of contemporary approaches to depicting the natural world and beyond.
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 | | Martha Nierenberg, entrepreneur who sought art's return, dies at 96 | | Hauser & Wirth announce representation of the Gustav Metzger | | Renaissance Painting looted by Nazis found by Castello di Rivoli Museum in Italy, who traced and compensated heirs in US | 
Martha Nierenberg at her home in Armonk, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2008. Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times.
by Tom Mashberg
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Martha Nierenberg had barely turned 20 when she was bundled off a train in central Hungary and hidden by nuns in a Roman Catholic hospital. It was March 1944, and a Nazi occupying force that included Adolf Eichmann was marching into her home city, Budapest. Eichmann, a principal engineer of the Holocaust, would immediately embark on the annihilation of 500,000 Hungarian Jews. Nierenberg, who was born into one of Hungarys wealthiest families, evaded capture for two months before friends assured her that she could venture home. There she learned that she would be among 42 family members and close associates who were to be driven by the Germans to the Austrian border and, several weeks later, allowed to escape to Switzerland or Portugal. The cost of life was high. The Nazis strong-armed ... More | | 
Gustav Metzger, Table, c.19578. Oil paint on canvas, 47.7 à 38 cm. Tate Collection © The Estate of Gustav Metzger and The Gustav Metzger Foundation.
NEW YORK, NY.- Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Marc Payot, co-presidents of Hauser & Wirth, today announced the gallerys representation of the Estate and Foundation of Gustav Metzger. The first project will be an exhibition of work by the visionary artist at Hauser & Wirth in 2021. The support of Hauser & Wirth will help to activate The Gustav Metzger Foundation, a charity which was founded upon Metzgers death at the age of 90 in 2017. During his lifetime, Metzger defined the organizations mission by envisioning not only exhibitions of his work and furtherance of the political and philosophical ideas he espoused, but also through support for individuals working in the fields of the arts and environmental studies, and for initiatives to combat the risk of global extinction arising from the activities of humans. At the heart of Metzgers prescient and enduringly influential 65-year practice was a passionate ... More | | 
Jacopo di Arcangelo, known as del Sellaio, Madonna and Child with the Young St John and Two Angels, 1480-1485. Tempera on panel, 89 x 59.8 cm. Collection Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti per lArte. Long-term loan Castello di Rivoli Museo dArte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin. Photo © Alessandro Fiamingo. Courtesy Castello di Rivoli Museo dArte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin.
TURIN.- The Castello di Rivoli Museo dArte Contemporanea and the Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti per lArte, together with the Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) in New York State, announced the resolution of the Holocaust restitution case regarding the ownership of the Madonna and Child with the Young St John and Two Angels, 1480-1485 by Jacopo di Arcangelo, known as del Sellaio. The painting, one of the most valuable pieces of devotional art created by Jacopo del Sellaio (Florence, 1443-1493), owes its fame not only to its art historical value as an important example of Italian High Renaissance painting, but also in memory of the dramatic events of the twentieth ... More |
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| | Thomsen Gallery opens an exhibition of paintings by Minol Araki | | Christie's Latin American Art achieves $13.9M | | Racist incident from Bronx Zoo's past draws apology | 
Minol Araki was born in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in 1928 to Japanese parents.
NEW YORK, NY.- Thomsen Gallery is presenting its second online viewing room, dedicated to paintings by Minol Araki (1928-2010), whose works the gallery exhibited in its New York gallery in 2012 and 2015.
Minol Araki: Nature in Ink presents mature paintings by an artist who was devoted to creating art for its own sake. Araki, by profession an industrial designer, rarely exhibited during his lifetime and was an unusual twentieth-century adherent to the Chinese and Japanese literati tradition which regarded artists as intellectuals. The exhibition presents 25 paintings of elements of nature, showing Arakis masterful use of ink and his influences from China, Japan and the West.
Minol Araki was born in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in 1928 to Japanese parents. As a child in China, he trained in traditional Chinese painting, but he turned his attention to graphic and industrial design after he was repatriated to Ja ... More | | 
Wifredo Lam, Femme Cheval. Oil on canvas, 50 13/16 x 38 7/16 in. Price Realized: $2,415,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies New York July 30th live auction of Latin American Art totaled $13,987,125 with global participation with clients registered from 5 continents. The sale was led by Wifredo Lam, Femme Cheval, which achieved $2,415,000. Additional top lots of the sale include: Rufino Tamayo, Dos amantes contemplanado la luna, which realized $2,295,000; Alfredo Ramos Martinez, La India, which sold for $939,000; and Fernando Botero, Horse, which achieved $591,000. The selection of Spanish colonial works also performed well with bidding from several institutional and private clients. A painting by Luis de Riaño, Saint Michael Archangel, achieved $495,000, over 12 times the low estimate of $40,000; Anonymous (Peruvian School, early 18th century), Nuestra Señora de Copacabana, sold for $250,000, over eight times the low estimate of $30,000; and Anonymous ... More | | 
A family visits the Bronx Zoo in New York on the first day it reopened after closing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, July 20, 2020. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Bronx Zoo, three other zoos and an aquarium in New York, apologized Wednesday for two aspects of its history that the societys chief executive described as demonstrating unconscionable racial intolerance. In a statement, the society apologized for an incident that took place in 1906 when the Bronx Zoo put a young Central African man of the Mbuti ethnic group on display in the Monkey House for several days. Objections from local Black ministers ultimately put a stop to the exploitative exhibition. The conservation society, which was established as the New York Zoological Society in 1895, had never before issued a formal public apology ... More |
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| | Yale Center for British Art Deputy Director Constance Clement retires after four decades | | The 1964 Olympics certified a new Japan, in steel and on the screen | | Surviving selfies: Japan's purikura photo booths cling on | 
Constance (Cecie) Clement, Yale Center for British Art, photo by Beatrix Roeller.
NEW HAVEN, CONN.- Constance (Cecie) Clement, the Centers longtime deputy director, will be retiring at the end of this month. Clement started her distinguished career at Yale when she joined the American Arts department at the Yale University Art Gallery as a curatorial assistant in 1971. Following a three-year assignment in the Museums and Historical Organizations Program at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Clement began her tenure at the Yale Center for British Art in 1979. She was hired by Director Edmund P. Pillsbury and has worked for every director of the Center since it opened to the public. She has also served as interim director on three occasions. We congratulate Cecie and wish her the best in retirement. I am indebted to her for her guidance and good counsel, as well as her steadfast devotion to the Center. Cecies expertise was especially crucial during the recent conservation of the Kahn building, a project she hel ... More | | 
An image provided by Yusaku Kamekura, via The Museum of Modern Art, New York shows a lithograph by Yusaku Kamekura, Tokyo 1964. 1962. Yusaku Kamekura, via The Museum of Modern Art, New York via The New York Times.
by Jason Farago
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- This weekend ought to have been the midway point of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which would have gathered the worlds leading runners, jumpers, throwers, lifters and for the first time skateboarders in the worlds most populous city. May the Simone Biles fan club forgive me, but the event I was most excited about was handball. Not for the sport, but for the stadium: Handball matches were to take place in the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, a landmark of Japanese modern architecture designed by Kenzo Tange. The stadium is defined by its massive, plunging roof, formed from two catenaries steel cables stretched between concrete pillars, like a suspension bridge and the perpendicular ... More | | 
This photo taken on July 21, 2020 shows teenagers posing at a Japanese style photo booth known locally as "purikura", or print club, in Tokyo. Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP.
by Mathias Cena
TOKYO (AFP).- A pair of Japanese schoolgirls primp their hair before a long mirror, preparing for the perfect shot. But they are not taking a smartphone selfie, they are using a "purikura" photo booth. Old-style photo booths have staged something of a comeback in parts of the world in recent years, for their nostalgic value in the smartphone era. But the purikura -- an abbreviation of the Japanese pronunciation of "print club" -- offers much more than a simple strip of passport photos. Featuring a dizzying array of retouches, enhancements and adornments, they remain hugely popular 25 years after they debuted in Japan, particularly with teenage girls and young women enamoured of their "kawaii" or cute output. And despite the competition from smartphones and increasingly ... More |
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| | Hollis Taggart to close secondary space in Chelsea; Open pop-up in Southport | | Artcurial's Italian Design sales will be dedicated to the Italian way of life and Rationalism | | Air Jordan sneakers expected to set new record for sports shoe | 
Matt Phillips (b. 1979), Correspondence, 2020. Pigment and silica on linen, 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cm). Courtesy the artist and Hollis Taggart, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Hollis Taggart announced today that it will close its secondary location at 514 W. 25th Street on August 10, 2020. The space, which the gallery has operated for about a year, served predominantly as a platform to showcase the work of contemporary artists. The most recent presentation at W. 25th, titled Perceived Realities, featured the work of painters Matt Magnanelli, Margaux Ogden, and Alexandros Vasmoulakis and was available for viewing online and by appointment throughout July. The gallerys contemporary presentations will now be shown at its flagship location at 521 W. 26th Street, along with its well-recognized exhibitions of historic works. The fall program includes solo shows of work by UK-based artist Chloë Lamb (September) and Vienna-based artist André Hemer (October) as well as a survey presentation of Post-War American artists (November). The gallery is currently welcoming ... More | | 
Alessandro Mendini, «Proust» armchair  1978. Structure in wood and fabric painted in acrylic. Limited edition Studio Alchimia. Estimate: 15 000 - 20 000 €.
PARIS.- On 28 September 2020, Artcurial will present an evening sale, the third in the series dedicated to Italian Design. This auction sale will include a hundred lots featuring pieces by designers from Gio Ponti to Gino Sarfatti, and Alessandro Mendini to Gastone Rinaldi. The first two sales dedicated to Italian Design in 2019 were a great success, greatly exceeding their estimates. There is a star lot in this years sale that stands out : the floor lamp Mod.1049 by Vittoriano Viganò, created in 1951 and produced by Arteluce. The son of painter Vico Viganò, Vittoriano graduated from Politecnico, learning alongside the Brutalist architects of the Studio B.B.P.R. He was responsible for the phrase « From the spoon to the city » and according to him, the architecture of the interior shared the same methodology as architecture and urbanism. He went on to assist Gio Ponti for many years. During the 1950s Vittoriano Viganò became the artis ... More | | 
The Air Ship, MJ Player Exclusive, Game-Worn Sneaker Nike, 1984, Left Shoe: Size 13.5, Right Shoe: Size 13, High-Top on display during a press preview July 24, 2020 at Christie's New York. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Eleven pairs of Nike sneakers worn by NBA legend Michael Jordan are up for auction from Thursday, including a set that could smash the record for a sports shoe. The highlight of the online sale is the Air Jordan 1 High that the NBA megastar wore during a 1985 exhibition match in Italy when he dunked the ball so hard it smashed the glass backboard into thousands of pieces. A piece of glass is still lodged in the sole of the left shoe. "It was an iconic moment in the history of sport," said Caitlin Donovan, head of handbag and sneaker sales at Christie's -- which is organizing the auction with Stadium Goods. The red, white and black sneakers, which are signed by Jordan, are estimated to sell for between $650,000 and $850,000. If they match their lowest pre-sale estimate then they will break the all-time record price ... More |
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ONE: Making Auction History | Behind the Scenes
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 New exhibition explores the connection between British paintings and the Virginia ColonyWILLIAMSBURG, VA.- Long after America declared its independence, Virginia maintained close ties to Britain through its shared history, socio-economic bonds and a common culture. This relationship is explored in a new exhibition, The Virginia-British Connection: British Paintings with Virginia Ties, at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, one of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. Through 14 portraits depicting a range of British rulers, lesser British subjects and Virginia-born citizens, all painted prior to the Revolutionary War, the relationships between these paintings and the Virginia colony are examined. These ties may reflect a painting having been owned in Virginia, the sitter had traveled there or the subject having held authority over the colony. The Virginia-British Connection is one of the exhibitions currently on view at the newly ... More Poster House announces reopening dateNEW YORK, NY.- Poster House will welcome back visitors with new, reduced hours, from 11 am7 pm, Thursday through Sunday. (They're reserving 11 am12 pm for visitors in higher-risk groups.) Their staff has been trained on PPE usage and state health guidelines and is preparing the museum accordingly. Members will be welcomed back from August 20-23, with the museum opening up to the general public in the days following. Timed tickets are available to purchase in advance via the museum's new online ticket portal. Another exciting notePoster House will offer suggested donation admissions for their first month back! Two stellar exhibitions that opened right before the shutdown will remain on view through February 14, 2021: The Sleeping Giant: Posters & The Chinese Economy and The Swiss Grid. True to the spirit of the young museum, ... More Chopin, Haydn, Schubert, Strauss, Dvorak, and Brahms among fine autographs & artifacts up for auctionBOSTON, MASS.- RR Auction's August Fine Autographs & Artifacts sale features over 1,300 items, led by outstanding classical music pieces: autographs of Chopin, Haydn, Schubert, Strauss, Dvorak, and Brahms are among the items offered. Highlights from the classical music section include; a scarce, beautifully signed Frédéric Chopin copyright document for a Scherzo, Piano Concerto, Grand Polonaise, and Mazurkas. The extremely rare one page manuscript in French signed "F. F. Chopin," August 7, 1835. Significant document recording the sale of the French copyright to the Parisian publisher Maurice Schlesinger for some of his most celebrated works. Chopin signed this agreement just as he prepared to leave Paris to visit his parents in Karlsbad for the first time since leaving Poland, a departure that marked the end of a prolific phase in his musical ... More In the Hudson Valley: Live dancers, real sweat, natural beautyTIVOLI, NY (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- This summer, as stages around the country lie empty and unused, Kaatsbaan will be something precious and rare: one of the few places in America where dancers will be performing live, in person, in front of a living and breathing, if well-distanced and masked audience. From Saturday through Sept. 27, Kaatsbaan is planning an outdoor dance festival the first festival in its 30-year history. Performances will take place on weekends on an outdoor stage in the middle of a field, built from scratch over the past few weeks. Kaatsbaans bucolic expanse of forests and fields along the Hudson River it was originally a farm belonging to Eleanor Roosevelts grandparents has been a haven for dance since 1990. It has airy studios surrounded by trees and a small theater devoted to training, workshops and creative ... More Antique gun authority Dan Mackel joins Morphy Auctions' firearms team full-timeDENVER, PA.- Dan Morphy, founder and president of Morphy Auctions, has announced the appointment of Dan Mackel to the full-time position of Firearms Specialist. Formerly a consultant to Morphys, Mackel joins the formidable team of experts that produces the companys Firearms, Edged Weapons, Armor and Militaria sales year round. A native of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, Mackel comes from a long line of firearms aficionados. Ive been around guns all my life, he said. My adopted grandparents owned a very fine Kentucky rifle collection, and my grandmother, Edith G Cooper Wagner, wrote a book about it in 1977 titled The Kentucky Rifle and Me. When I was a boy, my dad, Arlen Mackel, would take me to gun shows and to visit friends collections. I always paid attention. A self-described extreme history buff, Mackel ... More Black plays are knocking on Broadway's door. Will it open?NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The slate of shows scheduled to be staged on Broadway next spring or whenever large-scale indoor theater is allowed to resume in New York includes just three with Black writers. All of them are jukebox musicals. But what if theater owners and operators, mindful of this years roiling reconsideration of racial injustice, wanted to present more work by Black artists? Interviews with artists and producers suggest that there are more than a dozen plays and musicals with Black writers circling Broadway meaning, in most cases, that the shows have been written, have had promising productions elsewhere, and have support from commercial producers or nonprofit presenters. But bringing these shows to Broadway would mean making room for producers and artists who often have less ... More College mourns passing of Marcuse "Cusie" Pfeifer, NYC gallerist and supporter of the Dorsky MuseumNEW PALTZ, NY.- It is with sadness that State University of New York - New Paltz shares the news of the death of Marcuse Cusie Pfeifer, a key figure in the recognition of photography as a fine art, founding member and art exhibition director of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston, New York, and a generous supporter and friend of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Marcuse Pfeifer was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1936, and resided in Kingston, New York, for many years before her death on July 17, 2020. She was an instrumental figure in the promotion of photography as an art form in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a founding member and president of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, and one of the first gallery dealers in New York City to exclusively show photographs. Pfeifer helped launch the careers of ... More Rare Duncan Grant bust enters Charleston's collection and gives fundraising boostFIRLE.- A rare bust of artist Duncan Grant (1885 1978) by sculptor Stephen Tomlin (1901 1937) has entered Charlestons collection, with an edition of 15 bronzes cast from the original to support the charitys emergency appeal. Tomlin's circle of friends, and sitters for portraits, included many members of the Bloomsbury group. The 1924 bronze head joins Tomlins busts of writers Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and David Garnett on display at Charleston; the Sussex home Grant shared with artist Vanessa Bell and the country meeting place where the Bloomsbury groups artists, writers and thinkers gathered to imagine life differently. The bust of Duncan Grant illustrates the complicated personal relationships within the Bloomsbury group. It was commissioned by David Garnett who was Grants lover at Charleston during World War One, and paid ... More 'Gilbert & George: Works from a Private Collection' opens in Ben Brown Fine Arts' Online Viewing RoomLONDON.- Ben Brown Fine Arts is presenting an extraordinary group of works by famed British duo Gilbert & George. After meeting at Saint Martins School of Art in London in 1967, Gilbert & George have been creating art together ever since, fully integrating all aspects of their lives into their art, dubbing themselves living sculptures. They reflect upon their revelation to work together over 50 years ago, Art and life became one, and we were the messengers of a new vision. At that moment that we decided we are art and life, every conversation with people became art, and still is. Gilbert & Georges early work centred around performances and evolved into video, photography, drawing, and collage, typically inserting themselves into their work. The duo take an anti-elitist stance to art and embrace the credo Art for All, as their works ... More Yale commissions artist Barbara Earl Thomas for new pictorial window seriesNEW HAVEN, CONN.- Artist Barbara Earl Thomas has accepted a commission to design a new set of windows for the dining hall of Yales Grace Hopper College that will confront and contextualize the history of the residential colleges name, which originally honored 19th-century statesman and notorious slavery advocate John C. Calhoun. My goal with this project is to depict the history of the colleges name in a way that is real, honorable, and in the spirit of our time, said Thomas, a Seattle-based artist who was selected for the project by a university committee in the spring. I want the images to tell the story of the renaming, addressing John C. Calhouns disturbing legacy while honoring the life of Grace Murray Hopper. Thomas, a widely exhibited artist whose work in various media, including glass, often emphasizes storytelling, will design five pictorial ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet was born July 31, 1901. Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 - 12 May 1985) was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. In this image: A young lady looks at "Paysage charbonneux" by French artist Jean Dubuffet dated 1946, and valued at 3.5 million Marks (1.5 million Dollars) at the 34th International fair for modern art "Art Cologne" in Cologne, Germany, Friday, November 3, 2000.
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