| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, July 21, 2017 |
 |
| | Spanish painter Salvador Dali exhumed to test if fortune teller is his daughter | |
|
|
"The biological specimens have been taken from Salvador Dalis remains," Catalonias High Court of Justice said in a statement around 11:50 pm (2150 GMT).
by Benjamin Bouly Rames and Mario Magaro
FIGUERES (AFP).- Forensics experts exhumed Salvador Dali's remains from a tomb in his Spanish hometown on Thursday, nearly three decades after his death, in order to test a fortune teller's claims that she is the only daughter of the surrealist. Working behind closed doors, they removed a slab weighing more than a tonne which covers the tomb of the artist at the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueras in northeastern Spain where he was born. "The biological specimens have been taken from Salvador Dalis remains," Catalonias High Court of Justice said in a statement around 11:50 pm (2150 GMT). It said Dali's coffin had been opened at 10:20 pm so that work could begin. The DNA samples in the form of bone or tooth fragments will be sent to Madrid to undergo the necessary tests. A crowd of onlookers gathered outside the elaborate museum ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Kermit the Frog appears on display during the Jim Henson Exhibition ribbon cutting at Museum of the Moving Image on July 20, 2017 in the Queens borough of New York City. Donna Ward/Getty Images/AFP
| Claim that Israeli student stole from Auschwitz stirs controversy | | Spanish police recover 3 stolen Francis Bacon paintings | | Neil Armstrong moon bag sells for $1.8mn in New York | 
People visit both parts of the former camp: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Controversy has erupted after an Israeli art student reportedly claimed to have stolen items from the Auschwitz death camp for an exhibit, but her school said Thursday the claim was false. The school said the student, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, had in fact taken items from outside the site in Poland, not the camp itself, which is now a memorial and museum. "We found out that she did not steal anything from Auschwitz," an official with Beit Berl College near Tel Aviv told AFP. Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, quoting 27-year-old student Rotem Bides, reported that she took items including shards of glass, bowls and a sign warning visitors not to steal from the camp. They were to be included in her final graduating exhibit. "I felt it was something I had to do," the paper ... More | | 
The five paintings are estimated to be worth more than 25 million euros ($29 million).
MADRID (AFP).- Spanish police have recovered three of five paintings by British artist Francis Bacon that were stolen from a Madrid apartment in 2015, they said Thursday. "I can confirm that three paintings have been recovered," a police spokeswoman said. She said she could not give more details because of the ongoing investigation to find the remaining two artworks. The five paintings are estimated to be worth more than 25 million euros ($29 million). They were stolen from the home of a friend of Bacon in central Madrid in July 2015 while he was away in London. The thieves also made off with a safe that contained a collection of coins and jewels. Spanish police have so far arrested 10 suspects linked to the theft. In May 2016, with the help of a British firm that searches for stolen art, ... More | | 
This file photo taken on July 13, 2017 shows Sothebys Cassandra Hatton as she adjusts the Apollo 11 Contingency Lunar Sample Return Bag, used by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. Jewel SAMAD / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- A bag Neil Armstrong used to collect the first ever samples of the moon -- which was once nearly thrown out with the trash -- sold at auction Thursday for $1.8 million, Sotheby's said. The outer decontamination bag, which was flown to the moon on Apollo 11 and still carries traces of moon dust and small rock, was sold on the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969. Auctioneer Joe Dunning introduced the lot as "an exceptionally rare artifact from mankind's greatest achievement." It sold to an anonymous buyer on the telephone following a sluggish five-minute bidding war. Its previous owner was an Illinois lawyer, who bought it in 2015 for $995. But even with the buyer's ... More |
|
| Linkin Park singer Bennington dead in apparent suicide | | Getty announces acquisition of a group of 16 master drawings and a painting by Watteau | | Nationalmuseum acquires two Italian scenes by Martinus Rørbye and Constantin Hansen | 
This file photo taken on May 26, 2012 shows Linkin Park's American lead singer Chester Bennington during the Rock in Rio Lisboa music festival at Bela Vista Park in Lisbon. Chester Bennington, the singer of the chart-topping hard rock band Linkin Park, has died in an apparent suicide, the coroner's office said on July 30, 2017. He was 41. PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, who overcame a troubled childhood to top the charts with an angry but melodic brand of metal, was found dead Thursday in an apparent suicide. He was 41. "Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true," Linkin Park's guitarist and main songwriter Mike Shinoda wrote on Twitter. The Los Angeles County coroner's office said it received a call just after 9 am (1600 GMT) that Bennington had been found hanging at his home in the luxurious Palos Verdes Estate area. "It is being handled as a possible suicide," said Brian Elias, chief of operations at the coroner's office. Just hours before his death, Linkin Park had released a video for its latest ... More | | 
Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 1684 1721), La Surprise, ca. 1718. Oil on panel, 36.3 x 28.2 cm.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today the most important acquisition in the history of the Museums Department of Drawings. Acquired as a group from a British private collection, the 16 drawings are by many of the greatest artists of western art history, including Michelangelo, Lorenzo di Credi, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Rubens, Barocci, Goya, Degas, and others. From the same collection, the Museum has acquired a celebrated painting by the great eighteenth-century French artist Jean Antoine Watteau. This acquisition is truly a transformative event in the history of the Getty Museum, said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. It brings into our collection many of the finest drawings of the Renaissance through 19th century that have come to market over the past 30 years, including a number of masterpieces that are among the most famous works on paper by these artists: Michelangelos St ... More | | 
Constantin Hansen, The Temple of Minerva at the Forum Nervae, circa 1840. Photo: Anna Danielsson/Nationalmuseum.
STOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum has acquired two Italian scenes by Danish golden age artists: Loggia on Procida by Martinus Rørbye (1835) and The Temple of Minerva at the Forum Nervae by Constantin Hansen (circa 1840). Each piece in its way represents some of the finest work produced by north European artists on their travels to the south. What is more, the two paintings are unusually effective in expressing the strong emotions experienced by the artists on a personal level as a result of their encounters with the atmosphere and architecture of the south. Rørbye and Hansen were two of the most prominent artists in early 19th-century Denmark, during the golden age that began around 1810 and continued into the 1860s. This half-century saw the creation of great artworks and a widespread flourishing of creativity in the realm of culture and science, in spite of the worst conditions imaginable. The economy was in a miserable state, ... More |
|
| Hake's Americana scores world-record prices in $1.1M July auction | | Artist Peter Smeeth awarded 2017 Packing Room Prize for his portrait of Lisa Wilkinson | | 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist announced for the UK's best new building | 
All Star Comics #8, Dec. 1941/Jan. 1942, first appearance of Wonder Woman, $31,925. Image courtesy of Hakes Americana.
YORK, PA.- Now in its 50th-anniversary year, Hakes Americana cemented its reputation as the home of million-dollar pop culture sales, and then some, in achieving a $1.1 million total on July 11 and 13. In its second auction outing of 2017, Hakes two-session online-only event blazed to new record highs in several categories, with political memorabilia and comic art putting in especially strong performances. All prices quoted include 18% buyers premium. Unlike campaign promises that fade into thin air, predicted selling prices for the top five political items offered by Hakes were not only met but also surpassed, by healthy margins. A spectacular 1860 glazed cotton parade flag emblazoned For President, Abraham Lincoln and For Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin sold for $40,124, a world auction record for an 1860 Lincoln name flag. Early political textiles have always been coveted by co ... More | | 
Peter Smeeth Lisa Wilkinson AM (detail). Oil on linen, 100 x 150 cm © the artist. Photo: Felicity Jenkins, AGNSW.
SYDNEY.- For 35 years Art Gallery of New South Wales head packer, Steve Peters, with 51% of the vote, has maintained that the Packing Room Prize should be awarded to a portrait, thats good and looks just like the sitter. In 2017, his final year judging the prize, Peters announced a portrait of journalist and television personality Lisa Wilkinson AM, by Central Coast artist Peter Smeeth, as the winner of the Packing Room Prize. I looked at the painting and thought, thats a great likeness. Its how Lisa looks every morning on the telly. She looks like shes laughing at something Karl said! Peters said. Mind you, Lisas been in the wars recently, so I reckon the safest place for her to stay for a while is right on that couch - just like me in my comfy chair in my portrait by Lucy Culliton. Thats where I intend to spend lots of time too in the coming weeks, Peters add ... More | | 
Command of the Oceans by Baynes and Mitchell Architects for Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent.
LONDON.- The shortlist for the prestigious 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UKs best new building has been announced today (Thursday 20 July). The six shortlisted buildings will now go head-to-head for architectures highest accolade, to be awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) on Tuesday 31 October 2017. Now in its 22nd year, the 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize is sponsored by Almacantar. The 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist comprises a slender brick-clad and wicker-balconied development of six apartments in east London (Barretts Grove); the skilful subterranean extension of a much-loved British institution (British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre); the striking redevelopment of Chatham Historic Dockyard (Command of the Oceans); an immense new college campus in the heart of Glasgow (City of Glasgow College City Campus); a vibrant community-led restored pier on the south coast (H ... More |
|
| Qatar Museums exhibits Jessica Fulford-Dobson's acclaimed series of portraits Skate Girls of Kabul | | Richard Saltoun Gallery opens solo exhibition of Polish artist Franciszka Themerson | | Exhibition showcases artworks from two museums that address notions of identity and social inequality | 
Skate Girls of Kabul tells the extraordinary story of Afghan girls who took up skateboarding. © Jessica Fulford-Dobson.
DOHA.- Qatar Museums presents award-winning photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobsons acclaimed series of portraits Skate Girls of Kabul at QM Gallery Katara in Doha from 20 July to 21 October 2017, their first showing in the Middle East. Skate Girls of Kabul tells the extraordinary story of Afghan girls who took up skateboarding, thanks to Skateistan, an Afghan charity that provides skate parks as a hook to get children from disadvantaged families back into the educational system. The series brings to life the colourful, free-flowing and full-of-life spirit of these young girls, offering a new perspective and dimension to skateboarding culture. Jessica Fulford-Dobson is a London-based portrait photographer. After leaving university, she worked as assistant to award-winning filmmaker Nicholas Claxton on the documentary Linda McCartney: Behind the Lens. She worked with photographer Alison Jackson on her TV ... More | | 
Franciszka Themerson, Whole Russian Army, 1951. Paint on Papier Mâché, 82 x 51.5 x 18.5 cm. Copyright the Artist. Courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery, London.
LONDON.- Richard Saltoun Gallery presents Franciszka Themerson UBU, an extraordinary solo exhibition of Polish artist Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988), and her first with the gallery. On 10th December 1896 the Theatre de lOeuvre in Paris staged the debut performance of a play that stunned and outraged the audience but kicked down the door to Modernism, the movement that transformed 20th Century culture. Ubu Roi by playwright Alfred Jarry was banned immediately after that first performance. The language was foul, the costumes ridiculous, the gestures violent, and its story, a farcical parody of Shakespeares Macbeth. Actors, dressed like clumsy versions of old wooden folklore marionettes, belched Merdre! (Shit! with an additional r) and growled in strange unplaceable accents, behind masks. Props were cut from cardboard, and even Ubus (the King) sceptre was a toilet brush. ... More | | 
Barbara Chase-Riboud, The Cape (Le Manteau), 1973. Bronze, hemp rope, copper, The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of the Lannan Foundation, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY, Photo: Adam Reich.
PITTSBURGH, PA.- Carnegie Museum of Art announces 20/20: The Studio Museum in Harlem and Carnegie Museum of Art, a major contemporary group exhibition opening July 22, 2017, in the museums Heinz Galleries. Featuring a diverse array of makers and media, 20/20 showcases artworks from two museums that address notions of identity and social inequality in art and life across the 20th century and into the 21st. In a unique institutional collaboration, curators Eric Crosby and Amanda Hunt present a group exhibition with works by 40 artists, 20 each from the collections of CMOA and the Studio Museum. Responding to a tumultuous and deeply divided moment in our nations history, the curators have mined these collections to offer a metaphoric picture of America today. Spanning nearly 100 yearsfrom 1920s ... More |
|
href=' href='
Katja Novitskova: Earth Potential
| More News |
 The Contemporary Jewish Museum exhibits works by Allison SmithSAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Dialogue has always been an integral part of learning in traditional Jewish contexts. The Talmud states, Just as in the case of iron, when one implement sharpens another, so too do two scholars sharpen each other. The Contemporary Jewish Museum repurposes the centuries-old practice of havrutathe study of religious texts by people in pairsfor the contemporary art community. An ongoing exhibition series, In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art, brings individual Bay Area artists together with a scholar, scientist, writer, or other professional of his or her choice for a ten-week fellowship in creativity. The resulting collaborations are presented in The Museums Sala Webb Education Center. The current installation features the work of artist Allison Smith in collaboration with Christina Zetterlund, a craft and design historian and theoretician ... More Exhibition explores the representation of modern conflict in photography and digital media NEW HAVEN, CONN.- The Yale University Art Gallery announces the opening of Before the Event/After the Fact: Contemporary Perspectives on War, an exhibition that brings together a range of contemporary approaches to the visual representation of conflict. The works depict not only combat zones but also training sites, forensic reconstructions, and popular entertainment. Encompassing conceptual, documentary, and architectural imaging techniques, the exhibition investigates the visual relationships between staged images and real events, and between factual data and their digital representations. The works on view include photographs by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, An-My Lê, and Peter van Agtmael; a video installation by the filmmaker Harun Farocki; and a video and digital reconstruction created by the interdisciplinary design studio SITU Research. Lê ... More Group show at Parafin explores different approaches to urban space in the work of six artistsLONDON.- In The Painter of Modern Life (1863) Charles Baudelaire called upon artists to attempt to capture the fast-changing landscape of modern life by creating images of the transient, the fleeting, the contingent
For Baudelaire modernity was located firmly in the city and just over 150 years later, for many, this remains the case. Urban space remains a key subject of enquiry for many artists. Transient Space is a group show exploring different approaches to urban space in the work of six leading contemporary artists. The works included adopt a varied series of positions in relation to urbanism: critical, observational, participatory, performative. Taken together, they form a series of open-ended propositions about the contemporary urban environment, the way it is experienced and how it affects us. Indebted to Baudelaires beloved flâneur, the observant urban ... More 303 Gallery opens fourth exhibition of paintings by Karel FunkNEW YORK, NY.- 303 Gallery is presenting their fourth exhibition of paintings by Karel Funk. The exhibition showcases Funk's unique ability to utilize a hyper-real painting style in creating visual and psychological abstractions. In a conscious inversion of portraiture's traditional function, Funk's subjects are all seen from the back, swathed in hooded coats made of synthetic and technologically engineered materials. The subjects' identities become anonymous, enveloped and displaced by their garments' contours and colors. The paintings become purely formal, floating abstractions of light, shadow, and rippling fabrics which recall Renaissance and Flemish 17th century portraiture. With an almost trompe l'oeil flourish, the human origin of the subject disappears into its stark white backdrop, with an emerging dimensionality that is tactile and engulfing. Painted ... More PIASA to offer unique pieces and prototypes by Dutch architect/designer duo Studio Makkink & BeyPARIS.- On Thursday 19 October 2017, PIASA whill host Contemporary Design for a landmark sale of creations by the Dutch architect/designer duo Studio Makkink & Bey. The sale features around sixty prototypes, artists proofs and one-offs, chosen from among the Studio's most innovative and museum works. Since 2002 the architect/designer duo formed by Rianne Makkink (born 1964) and Jurgen Bey (born 1965) have been striving to reinterpret space and lifestyle. The Studio based in Rotterdam and Noordoostpolder covers Design, architecture, landscape design and exhibition concepts. Supported by a various design team, its research highlights the links between objects and their users. In more than 400 projects, commissioned by museums, galleries, art or government organizations, companies and private commissioners, as well as in many lectures ... More Exhibition at V&A Museum of Childhood looks at Michael Morpurgo's life and writing processLONDON.- The life and exceptional writing power of one of Britains best-loved storytellers, Michael Morpurgo, will be celebrated in a new, free exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood this summer. Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime in Stories will look at Morpurgos life and writing process as well as the lives he has created for some of his remarkable characters. The Museum is delighted to announce that Joey, the original life-size West End horse puppet from the National Theatres award-winning stage adaptation of War Horse , will be on display at the exhibition. This unique exhibition will showcase the notebooks and manuscripts that have become the classics we know today, including War Horse (1982, Egmont), Private Peaceful (2003, Harper Collins), Kensuke's Kingdom (1999, Egmont) and The Butterfly Lion (1996, Harper Collins). The exhibition is devised by Seven Stories, ... More Gates of Paradise installed at Nelson-AtkinsKANSAS CITY, MO.- A massive pair of monumental bronze doors considered to be the defining moment of the Italian Renaissance is a promised gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, an acquisition made possible by museum Trustee Paul DeBruce and his wife, Linda Woodsmall-DeBruce. The 17-foot-tall gilded doors, weighing 4 1/2 tons, are casts of the original doors created in the 15th-century workshop of sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti for the east facade of the Baptistery of the Duomo (cathedral) in Florence, Italy. Ghibertis original doors can be found inside the Museo dellOpera del Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore. Casts of those doors were made in 1990, and a set was installed on the outside of the Baptistery in Florence. The doors installed at the Nelson-Atkins are a sister set to those at the Baptistery. The installation in the ... More The Warhol appoints Karen Lautanen Director of Strategic InitiativesPITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum announces Karen Lautanen has been appointed to the new position, director of strategic initiatives, effective Monday, July 3. Lautanen joined The Warhol in 2014 and previously worked as the director of development, where she created a fundraising and development strategy and assisted in the creation of new business models for the museum. Before her work at The Warhol, Lautanen was the director of stewardship and donor relations at Chatham University and the assistant director for external affairs, EUCE/ESC at the University of Pittsburgh. In her new role as director of strategic initiatives, Lautanen will prepare, plan, and manage a wide variety of revenue generating initiatives for The Warhol. "I am thrilled and grateful to be given the opportunity as the new director of strategic initiatives to build upon the ... More Freud Museum London opens a new exhibition about play and playingLONDON.- This summer the Freud Museum London hosts a new exhibition about play and playing. We all play. We all need play. But how do we define play? Play is at the core of development, of creativity, of mental health. It is a source of fun, a way of dealing with anxieties, of creating something new, of building relationships. It helps to define who we are and what we can do. Exploring play and its many meanings in psychoanalysis, this exhibition looks at play in the work of Sigmund and Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Donald W. Winnicott, and how approaches to play, within and outside of the clinic, have developed since Sigmund Freuds lifetime. Was play controversial and why? How was it used in clinical sessions? Why do we all need to play? The exhibition includes works made by children in workshops at childrens charity UP: Unlocking Potential, a centre for vulnerable ... More CHOI&LAGER Gallery opens exhibition of works by Matthew StoneCOLOGNE.- There are three obvious layers to Matthew Stones work in Back into the Body: what we see, how its made, and where it comes from. What do we see? Figures surround the gallery at an imposing, more-than-life-sized, scale. The evident fact that they are partly composed from conjoined strokes of paint, together with the apparent gaps in the bodies and the way neighboring figures intertwine with each other ambiguate their reception. Is there a photographic source? Do they derive from live models? Is any of the paint real? Are they fighting, dancing or loving? How many are there? Whose limb is that? We are drawn into questions. How are they made? The production process is complex. Stone starts by defining computer-generated figures which he adapts extensively by carefully posing and sculpting their individual appearance with a degree of control ... More China's banned books fade from Hong KongHONG KONG (AFP).- The annual Hong Kong book fair has always been a source of politically sensitive titles banned in China, but this year fewer were on display as the city faces growing pressure under an increasingly assertive Beijing. Several publishing houses were still displaying controversial books at the harbourfront convention centre as part of a fair that attracts more than a million visitors over six days. But the number has shrunk since the disappearance of five city booksellers who worked for a publisher specialising in salacious titles about Chinese political leaders. They vanished almost two years ago and resurfaced on the mainland, where one still remains in custody. Since then, mainstream bookstores in Hong Kong have removed titles likely to offend Chinese authorities and smaller producers have shied away from rocking the boat. It comes as many fear that ... More |
|
href='
Flashback On a day like today, Armenian-born American artist Arshile Gorky died July 21, 1948. Arshile Gorky ( April 15, 1904 - July 21, 1948) was an American painter of Armenian descent who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide. In this image: Arshile Gorky, "Agony", 1947. Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 1/2 in., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, A. Conger Goodyear Fund. ©2010 Estate of Arshile Gorky/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
|
|
|
