| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, March 19, 2021 |
 |
| | Alexander Calder, MoMA's household god, still holds sway | |
|
|
Installation view of Alexander Calder: Modern From the Start at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From left, White Panel, Gibraltar and Apple Monster. The Museum of Modern Art; Robert Gerhardt via The New York Times.
by Roberta Smith
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Where the Museum of Modern Art is concerned, sculptor Alexander Calder was something like its American Picasso. Both were the precocious children of academically trained artists. Both were shaped by their own life-changing encounter, three decades apart, with the Parisian avant-garde. The Modern exhibited both of them early and often and acquired their work in some abundance although of course, at MoMA, no other artist comes close to Picassos numbers. Much of each artists success was entwined with the museums; to some degree both were part of the MoMA brand, if in very different ways. For one thing, Calder has been MIA for a while. The outstanding exhibition Alexander Calder: Modern From the Start is his first big solo at MoMA since 1969. It is an in-house job that delves primarily into the museums Calder holdings and archives to tell the story of its relationship with this early favorite. Several unfamiliar loans from the Calder Foundation fi ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Cubism in Color-The Still Lifes of Juan Gris. Courtesy of Dallas Museum of Art_17.
|
|
|
|
|
| Toomey & Co. Auctioneers sees intense bidding and elevated prices in first two sales of 2021 | | Up to my eyeballs in art at Superblue | | Global art market shrank 22% in pandemic year, study says | 
Gaetano Pesce for B&B Italia, UP5 lounge chair and UP6 ottoman. Sold for $11,050.
OAK PARK, IL.- Toomey & Co. Auctioneers has started 2021 with two high performing sales. Modern Design + Post-War & Contemporary Art on February 25 and Fine Art + Furniture & Decorative Arts on March 14 combined for a 98% sell-through rate and $1.72 million in total prices realized. With people spending considerable time at home and unable to travel freely to art and design conferences, shows, and exhibits during the pandemic, participation in the auction industry has surged and increasingly gone virtual, continuing a trend that had already been underway. Although Toomey & Co. Auctioneers has been based in Oak Park since 1982 and holding auctions since 1987, the current level of bidder interest and robust prices have not been seen in some time. Our loyal base of consignors and buyers has allowed us to conduct successful auctions for well over three decades, said President John Toomey, but the strong results that we have ... More | | 
Toshiyuki Inoko, a co-founder of teamLab, at the interactive digital installation Superblue, in Miami, March 14, 2021. Alfonso Duran/The New York Times.
by Arthur Lubow
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland as gigantic digital images of red, white and cream-colored dahlias budded, bloomed and shattered on the wall in front of me, I dithered over what I was witnessing. Is this a forward step in the march of modernism or a debasement of art into theme park entertainment? The dazzling floral extravaganza by teamLab, a digital-art collective based in Tokyo, is the dynamic centerpiece of an inaugural exhibition at Superblue Miami, an experiential art center (or an EAC to initiates) that begins invitational previews next week before opening to the public April 22. Backed by the juggernaut Pace Gallery and Laurene Powell Jobs Emerson Collective, Superblue is the blue-chip contestant in the rapidly growing ... More | | 
Art Basel and UBS 2021 Global Art Market Report. Courtesy Art Basel.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Global sales of art and antiques in 2020 were estimated to have declined by 22% from the previous year, according to the latest annual Art Basel and UBS Art Market report, published Tuesday. The 359-page report, the most comprehensive analysis of the coronavirus pandemics effect on the international art trade to date, found that combined dealer and auction house sales totaled $50.1 billion, their lowest level since the financial crisis of 2009. With art fairs postponed and galleries shuttered, dealer sales declined an aggregate 20%, to $29.3 billion, in 2020, while public auctions, many of which were conducted in online-only formats, were down 30%, to $17.6 billion. One brighter spot was in private transactions at auction houses, which were up 36%, to $3.2 billion, according to the report. It could have been a lot worse than it was, said economist Clare McAndrew, the author of the report, which was compiled ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Christie's to launch 20th and 21st Century Art Evening sales in May | | Exhibition gathers works made by artists at the beginning of 2020 in response to the pandemic | | Getty Museum collaborates with international partners in Bulgaria and Jordan | 
Martin Kippenbergers Martin, ab in die Ecke und schäm Dich (Martin, Into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself) from 1989 is one of the most influential sculptural works of the last 35 years (estimate: $10-15 million). © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
NEW YORK, NY.- Beginning in New York this May, Christies will shift its approach to presenting the art of the 20th and 21st Century in anticipation of a new era for the art world. Christies will now offer major auctions of 20th Century Art and 21st Century Art, replacing Impressionist and Modern and Post-War and Contemporary nomenclatures. The new format will underscore the radical nature of the Modern Masters and their lasting impact on the art being created today, it will emphasize the electricity and relevance of the art created over the past 40 years, and make plenty room for the new both physical and digital. Alexander Rotter, chairman of 20th & 21st Century Art remarked: At Christies, we are embracing the spirit of evolution and revolution, and shifting the way we present the art of ... More | | 
Installation view of Signs, 12/F, H Queen's 80 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong, March 4 April 24, 2021. Photography courtesy of Pace Gallery.
HONG KONG.- Pace Gallery is presenting the group exhibition, Signs, at its Hong Kong space in H Queens. Marking the first exhibition of 2021 and the Year of the Ox, Signs reflects on the past yearand on the single gravest global crisis presented to mankind in the 21st centuryby gathering a selection of work made by artists at the beginning of 2020 in response to the pandemic. The show features paintings and drawings by China based artists from Paces roster, including Li Songsong, Mao Yan, Qiu Xiaofei, Sui Jianguo, Yue Minjun, and Zhang Xiaogang, including several pieces that have never been exhibited publicly. The exhibition s on view through April 24, 2021. The exhibition examines the creative response of these artists in the earliest days of the pandemic, and acts as a means of reflecting on our social mechanisms and the value systems of our civilization that came to light during this year of unrest. As Zhang Xiaoga ... More | | 
The Lion Box from Pella. Courtesy of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and Jordan Museum.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today that it has signed bilateral agreements for cultural collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. These two new cultural agreements with Bulgaria and Jordan establish a general framework for cooperation on conservation projects, exhibitions, long-term loans, conferences, publications, and other kinds of exchanges. Among their provisions, the two agreements encourage the exchange of scientists and scholars in fields of archaeology, art history, conservation, cultural information technology, and other areas of common interest in research and training. The first major exhibitions resulting from these new relationships will begin in 2023 with Thrace and the Classical World, drawn mostly from museums in Bulgaria, along with other international lenders, and in 2025 with Phoenicians, Philistines, and Cana ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Dallas Museum of Art opens first solo U.S. exhibition of Cubist Juan Gris in over three decades | | Christine Nofchissey McHorse, Navajo ceramist, dies at 72 | | In a palace of colonialism, a 'quiet revolutionary' takes charge | 
Juan Gris, Still Life before an Open Window, Place Ravignan, 1915, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950.
DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Museum of Art openedthe first U.S. exhibition in over 35 years dedicated to the Spanish artist Juan Gris. Cubism in Color: The Still Lifes of Juan Gris highlights the artists pioneering and revolutionary contributions to the Cubist movement by focusing on his fascination with subjects drawn from everyday life. Through nearly 40 paintings and collages that span all major periods of the artists evolving practice, the exhibition reveals the transformation of Griss innovative style and principal motifs from 1911 until 1926, one year before his tragically early death at age 40. His exquisite compositions explore the boundary between abstraction and representation, tension and stasis, color and form. As a thorough examination of Griss still lifes, Cubism in Color provides an opportunity to reconsider the legacy of this important yet underappreciated modernist master. Cubism in Color: The Still Lifes of Juan G ... More | | 
Christine Nofchissey McHorse, Cirque, 2016, micaceous clay, 17 ½ x 10 ¼ inches. © Estate of Christine Nofchissey McHorse, courtesy of Clark + Del Vecchio and Gerald Peters Contemporary.
by Penelope Green
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Christine Nofchissey McHorse was 50, and a celebrated Native American potter, when she stopped producing the traditional painted vessels collectors loved. She instead began making rich, black unadorned sculptural forms, mysterious and sensual pieces that owed more to Constantin Brancusi than any Native American vernacular. Inspired by the photographs of Edward Weston and the buildings of Antoni GaudÃ, along with her own internal vision, she tacked away from the artisanal toward fine art (though the line between the two can be unclear), dropping the ethnic for the universal, her gallerist, Garth Clark, said, confounding her existing collectors and drawing in new ones. She had more than mastered the traditional work, and chafed at its restrictions. She used micaceous ... More | | 
Pap Ndiaye outside the Palais de la Porte Dorée, which he was appointed to lead in February, in Paris, March 10, 2021. Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times.
PARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It was a monument to the power and glory of colonial France. When the Palais de la Porte Dorée opened in Paris in 1931, every corner of it was designed to extol the colonizing mission: from the bas-reliefs of laborers in faraway lands, to the frescoes of imperial magnificence, to the aquariums swarming with tropical fish. That institution is now led by a man whose family members were among the colonized peoples of sub-Saharan Africa. Last month Pap Ndiaye, a historian and academic of Senegalese and French descent, was appointed to revitalize the Palais de la Porte Dorée an institution that was born as the Museum of the Colonies in 1931 and that now houses the Tropical Aquarium and the National Museum of the History of Immigration. Ndiaye knows the issues well. A graduate of the prestigious Ãcole Normale Supérieure, he studied ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Thomsen Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Yoshio Okada | | Phillips announces highlights from the London Spring Sales of 20th Century & Contemporary Art | | Irma Stern's Arabian portrait triumphs at Bonhams African art sale | 
Yoshio Okada (b. 1977), Shining Moon, Hazy Clouds Kanshitsu Box with Sprinkled Design of Celestial Phenomena, 2020. H 1½ x L 5¾ x W 4¼ in. (4 x 14.5 x 11 cm).
NEW YORK, NY.- In celebration of Asia Week New York 2021, Thomsen Gallery (9 East 63rd Street) opened the exhibition Lacquer Works by Yoshio Okada, on view until March 27. Yoshio Okada is recognized worldwide for his brilliance in harnessing the traditional Japanese craft of lacquer to contemporary modes of visual expression. Lacquer Works by Yoshio Okada is centered around two of his most innovative series: Celestial Phenomena and Jellyfish, each of them comprising boxes rarely more than five inches in length. The Celestial Phenomena series is devoted to depictions of heavenly bodies seen through fleeting clouds. Okada uses the ancient kanshitsu technique for some of the boxes, fashioning them from hemp cloth combined with lacquer sap. Their profiles match the skys curve, creating a setting for gold, ... More | | 
Alberto Giacometti, Nu debout II, 1953. Bronze, 50 x 12 x 16.5 cm. Estimate £800,000 1,200,000. Image courtesy of Phillips. Image courtesy of Phillips.
LONDON.- On 15 and 16 April, Phillips London Spring auctions of 20th Century & Contemporary Art will include works by Modern, Post-War, Contemporary, and American masters. The Evening Sale will be held on 15 April at 5pm, with the Day Sale following on 16 April at 2:30pm. The catalogues for the Evening and Day sales will go live on 1 April with virtual viewing following from 7 to 11 April. The public viewing will be open at Phillips Berkeley Square from 12 to 15 April. Olivia Thornton, Head of the 20th Century & Contemporary Department in London, said, We are delighted to present our first London 20th Century & Contemporary Art auction of 2021 which includes a fantastic cross section of key periods of Modern and Contemporary art. The Evening Sale features not only a remarkable work by Jean Dubuffet but also important pieces from leading ... More | | 
Arab with Dagger by Irma Stern. Sold for: £922,750. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- One of Irma Sterns major Zanzibar paintings Arab with Dagger sold for £922,750 at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary African Art sale in London today, Wednesday 17 March. It had been estimated at £700,000-1,000,000. The 79-lot sale made a total of £3,735,310. The Arab community of Zanzibar was a powerful inspiration for Irma Stern during her two extended stays on the island in 1939 and 1945. It was on her second trip that she painted Arab with Dagger. Stern was particularly fascinated by the older men in whose faces she saw, in her own words, depths of suffering, profound wisdom and full understanding of all the pleasures of life faces alive with life's experiences. Bonhams Director of African Art, Giles Peppiatt said: The two visits to Zanzibar were among the most productive periods of Irma Sterns career and Arab with Dagger is one of the finest works from this time. It is a remarkably spiritu ... More |
|
Diane von Furstenberg - 'Art is an emotion' | Christie's
|
|
|
| More News |
 'No pistachios': Worn-down Iran's gloomy New Year festivalTEHRAN (AFP).- Battered by punishing US sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic, Iranians are readying for a gloomy Nowruz, the traditional Persian New Year festival that is at the heart of national culture. A depressed economy, fast rising prices and some travel restrictions have left most Iranians in no mood to celebrate what is usually a time for families to get together and enjoy lavish feasts. Iran's springtime festival begins Saturday at precisely 1:07 and 28 seconds pm, which marks the start of the year 1400 of the calendar the Islamic republic inherited from ancient Persia. Nowruz symbolises rebirth and is when people wish one another "Nowruz Mobarak" (Happy New Year) across Iran and elsewhere, including the Kurdish regions of several nearby countries and parts of Afghanistan. In Iran, the run-up to the festival has seen the usual traffic jams and people ... More  Satoko Fujii, a pianist who finds music hidden in the details of lifeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Whether shes playing solo piano or leading one of her various large ensembles, pianist and composer Satoko Fujii will tug you toward the details. The leader of a dizzying array of ensembles both large and small, Fujii is arguably the most prolific pianist in jazz if also among the most underrecognized. Since the 1990s, she has released close to 100 albums, mostly through her own Libra Records label. Two years ago, celebrating her 60th birthday, a milestone known as kanreki in Japanese culture, she put out a new album each month, including both solo piano and big-band works. Fujii says that she seems to hear music everywhere, and she feels challenged to channel the sensations of the world as directly as she can. This probably sounds strange, but when I compose, I feel like the music is already there we ... More  Georgia Taylor-Berry and Jesse Taylor announced as reciepients of Sculpture by the Sea Artist Award PERTH.- Perth-raised cousins Georgia Taylor-Berry and Jesse Taylor were announced today as the inaugural recipients of the new Sculpture by the Sea Artist Award of $30,000, supported by Minderoo Foundation, for their artwork Interacting Fences. The architects, currently residing in Amsterdam and Los Angeles respectively, developed Interacting Fences across three countries during the global pandemic as they reflected on our new world of social distancing, which has simultaneously made our worlds smaller, while also expanding them. The two 14m-long curved aluminium fences transfigure the familiar and divisive corrugated Australian fence into a mechanism of unification and shared experience. "We are thrilled and humbled to accept the inaugural Sculpture by the Sea Artist Award, supported by Minderoo Foundation. This ... More  New TextielLab weaving machine brings excitement to artists and designersTILBURG.- Since recently, the TextielLab in Tilburg has a brand-new computer-controlled Dornier weaving machine with a width of no less than 3.5 metres. TextielLab made this long-cherished dream come true thanks to a contribution by the national government, being awarded the Dutch Basic Cultural Infrastructure. With its unprecedented width, the machine opens up a world of new technical possibilities for (textile) artists and designers. The internationally renowned Nigerian-Belgian artist Otobong Nkanga has the honour of inaugurating the new acquisition. The new weaving machine was on the wishlist of the TextielLab, the professional workshop of the TextielMuseum, for quite some time already. The lab has three computer-controlled weaving machines, for which the waiting list was getting longer and longer. A fourth machine not only allows us to welcome ... More  A stunning diamond necklace fetches £23,560 in Dix Noonan Webb's spring auctionLONDON.- A stunning late Victorian diamond fringe necklace, circa 1890, sold for £23,560 almost double its pre-sale high estimate - at Mayfair auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb in an auction of Jewellery, Watches, Antiquities and Objects of Vertu on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Proud of the fact that they had not cancelled or postponed a single auction during the coronavirus pandemic, DNWs first jewellery sale of the year showed the auction market to be strong and resilient. The top lot of the day, estimated at £8,000-12,000, was the highly desirable Victorian diamond necklace, which although not presented with its original frame, could also be converted into a tiara. It was bought by a member of the London trade via the telephone following strong bidding from both private and trade buyers [lot 217]. A beautiful 19th century ... More  Nationalmuseum and the Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum open to visitors from 6 AprilSTOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum and Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum will be opening their doors to visitors once again having been closed since November. Both museums have been adapted to the recommendations issued by the Public Health Agency of Sweden, including additional restrictions on the number of visitors, with capacity now calculated at 10 m2 per person. Nationalmuseum will be opening from 6 April and Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum from 9 April. Nationalmuseum will begin by opening the exhibition Zorn A Swedish Superstar to pre-booked ticket holders, with admission regulated according to time slots. The Nationalmuseum Restaurant and Shop will also be open to casual visitors. It is planned to open the collections, the exhibition Snowcrash and other areas of the museum later in the spring. Gustavsberg Porcelain ... More  SITE Santa Fe appoints Louis Grachos as Executive DirectorSANTA FE, NM.- SITE Santa Fe announced today that it has appointed Louis Grachos as its new Phillips Executive Director. Grachos currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and JoAnn McGrath Executive Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum, a position he has held since 2019. Over the course of his 30-year career, Grachos has come to be recognized for his forward-looking vision, experience in fundraising, and extensive work with artists and community collaborators. His appointment marks a return for the seasoned leader, who previously served as SITEs Director from 1996 to 2003. Grachos will take up his new role in summer 2021. Grachos joins SITE at an exciting moment, with the organization celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020 and looking to further enhance its commitment to contemporary artists from the region and across ... More  Taking stock of James Levine's tarnished legacyNEW YORK, NY (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- I was a freelance critic, but not on duty, when I attended a Saturday matinee performance of Wagners sprawling comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Metropolitan Opera in December 1995. The cast was close to ideal. The elegant Bernd Weikl as the wise cobbler Hans Sachs. A luminous Karita Mattila as young Eva. The heroic Ben Heppner as Walther, who falls for her. And Hermann Prey, a distinguished veteran, as Beckmesser, the town busybody. Yet the star was James Levine. It was often like that when he was conducting during his decadeslong reign at the Met, which ended in ignominy a few years ago amid disturbing allegations of sexual abuse and harassment and then conclusively with his death, on March 9, at 77. If the Met Orchestra sounded resplendent, and played with alertness ... More  Met musicians accept deal to receive first paycheck since AprilNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The musicians of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra have voted to accept a deal that will provide them with paychecks for the first time in nearly a year in exchange for returning to the bargaining table, where the company is seeking lasting pay cuts that it says are needed to survive the pandemic. The musicians, and most of the Mets workers, were furloughed in April, shortly after the pandemic forced the opera house to close. Months later, the Met offered the musicians partial pay in exchange for significant long-term cuts, but their union objected. Then the Met softened its position: Since the end of December, it has been offering to pay the musicians up to $1,543 a week on a temporary basis if they agreed to start negotiations. While the union representing the chorus agreed to the deal more than a month ago, the ... More  Liverpool Biennial 2021 unveils new outdoor, sonic and digital commissionsLIVERPOOL.- Liverpool Biennial unveiled today the first outside chapter of the 11th edition The Stomach and the Port, ahead of the public opening on 20 March, along with announcing an extension to the Biennials duration at most venues to 27 June 2021 and others to August and September. To celebrate Liverpools iconic architecture and public spaces, a new series of outdoor sculptures and installations is now waiting be discovered at strategic sites across the citys centre. Commissions include Rashid Johnsons Stacked Heads (2020) at Canning Dock Quayside; Teresa Solars Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark) (2021) at Exchange Flags; Linders Bower of Bliss (2021) at Liverpool ONE and Jorgge Menna Barretos mural Mauvais Alphabet (2021) on the side of Bluecoat. Presiding over the city, Larry ... More  Galerie Karsten Greve opens an exhibition focusing on the late work of Swiss artist Louis SoutterCOLOGNE.- After the success of the show on display in the gallery's Paris location through the summer of 2020, Galerie Karsten Greve now presents an exhibition focusing on the late work of Swiss artist Louis Soutter (18711942) in Cologne. To complement the presentation of Karsten Greve's remarkable collection, new loans made available by private collectors are being shown in Cologne. Galerie Karsten Greve first presented Louis Soutter's finger paintings in a 1998 Cologne exhibition that was to contribute to the artist's welldeserved renown in Europe and across the world. After more than ten years of preparation, Karsten Greve is particularly pleased to be giving Louis Soutter's finger paintings special weight in the accompanying publication, Louis Soutter. Un Présage, published to mark Louis Soutter's 150th birthday. With texts by Michel ... More  Solo exhibition of recent paintings and watercolors by Ann Craven opens at KarmaNEW YORK, NY.- Karma is presenting Animals Birds Flowers Moons, a solo exhibition of recent paintings and watercolors by Ann Craven. Cravens new subjects, including bear cubs, peacocks, woodpeckers, and horses, are a foray into childhood imagery and nostalgiaa provocative new Romanticism. Cravens canvases reveal bold brushstrokes; their expressive painterly treatment signals the vitality and bravura of a new chapter in the artists oeuvre. The exhibition is populated by an assorted cast of characters, animals, birds, flowers, and moons are repeated in varied scale and media throughout Karmas three spaces. In moving from one space to the next, the viewer enters into the artists process of revisitation. Craven refers to her repetitions not as seriesthe term is too clinicalbut as revisitations, expressing her tender desire to capture images ... More |
|
PhotoGalleries 
Mental Escapology, St. Moritz 
TIM VAN LAERE GALLERY 
Madelynn Green 
Patrick Angus
Flashback On a day like today, German-American painter Josef Albers was born March 19, 1888. Josef Albers (March 19, 1888 - March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of modern art education programs of the twentieth century. In this image: Color Study. Gouache on paper, 7 1/16 x 10 3/16 inches (18 x 25.8 cm) © 2016 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
|
|
|
|
© 1996 - 2021