| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, March 26, 2021 |
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| | UK university to return looted African sculpture | |
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Neil Curtis with the Benin Bronze.
LONDON (AFP).- The University of Aberdeen in Scotland is to return a Benin bronze sculpture to Nigeria, saying it was acquired by British soldiers in 1897 in "reprehensible circumstances". It is the first institution to agree to the full repatriation from a museum of a Benin bronze, raising pressure on other establishments, including the British Museum, to follow suit. The university acquired the bronze sculpture depicting an "Oba" (king) of Benin at auction in 1957, and it is considered a classic example of Benin Late Period Art. It was originally taken in 1897, when a British military expedition attacked and destroyed Benin City, looting thousands of metal and ivory sculptures and carvings, known as the Benin bronzes, from the royal palace. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution of 1821, the Museum of Cycladic Art presents the exhibition Antiquarianism and Philhellenism: The Thanassis and Marina Martinos Collection in the Stathatos Mansion.
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| €30 million new home for Ghent Altarpiece unveiled | | Sotheby's unveils Basquiat's 1982 masterwork Versus Medici as star of Contemporary Art Evening Sale this May | | Proust scholars unearth inspiration for Charles Swann: an American | 
Ghent Altarpiece (open) sideview St. Bavo's Cathedral © www.artinflanders.be, foto Cedric Verhelst
GHENT.- Today, in the presence of the Flemish Prime Minister and the Bishop of Ghent, St.Bavos Cathedral unveils a revolutionary new visitor experience for art as part of one of the most ambitious restoration projects undertaken in Flanders. The world-famous Ghent Altarpiece by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck is moved to a new location inside the cathedral. The Cathedral crypt has been extensively adapted for visitors to experience the artworks remarkable history, via new visual technology. The Ghent Altarpiece is widely recognised as one of historys most influential works of art. Its breath-taking splendour is made up of twelve panels, painted recto verso, with its most iconic panel, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, at its centerpiece. At the time of its completion in 1432, the van Eyck creation, intended for public viewing, provided colour, brilliance and vividness that ... More | | 
Jean-Michel Basquiats 1982 masterwork Versus Medici to star in Sothebys Contemporary Art Evening Sale in May. Estimated to achieve $35/50 Million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- As the hammer fell on the last lot of Sothebys cross-category sale in London today, Sothebys auctioneer Oliver Barker unveiled live Jean-Michel Basquiats Versus Medici, which will take center stage in Sothebys Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on 12 May, where it will be offered with an estimate of $35/50 million. An extraordinary work executed in 1982 when Basquiat was only 22 years old, and soon after his transformative early trip to Italy in 1981, Versus Medici is among Basquiats most forceful visual challenges to the Western art establishment, in which the young artist boldly crowns himself successor to the artistic legacy as established by the masters of the Italian Renaissance. Having remained in the same distinguished private collection since ... More | | 
In this file photograph taken on October 30, 2017, a woman holds a copy of French writer Marcel Proust's manuscript "Du cote de chez Swann" (Swann's way) before its auction sale at Sotheby's action house in Paris. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP.
by Hugues Honore
PARIS (AFP).- Few authors have been as obsessively studied as France's Marcel Proust, but it turns out there are still surprises to uncover, including the real-life inspiration for one of his central characters. The name Willie Heath is well-known to Proustian scholars. It is, indeed, the first to appear in any of his writings in the dedication to his earliest novel, "Pleasures and Days": "To my friend Willie Heath / Died in Paris on 3 October 1893". No one had previously connected that name to Charles Swann, a central character in Proust's masterpiece, "In Search of Lost Time", whose first volume is titled "Swann's Way" and tracks the narrator's fascination with an ... More |
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| Italy celebrates its 'supreme poet' with Dante Day | | The latest artist selling NFTs? It's a robot. | | Hauser & Wirth announces worldwide representation of artist Gary Simmons | 
This file photo taken on February 23, 2021 on Piazza Santa Croce in Florence shows a 1865 sculpture of Italian poet, writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri, by Italian sculptor Enrico Pazzi, by the Basilica di Santa Croce. Vincenzo PINTO / AFP.
by Gaël Branchereau
ROME (AFP).- Dante, the giant of world literature who wrote the "Divine Comedy", was feted across Italy on Thursday with a "Dantedi" (Dante Day), setting off wider celebrations for the 700th anniversary of his death. March 25 was picked last year to celebrate the man known to Italians as the "supreme poet" because most scholars believe his fictional journey through hell, purgatory and heaven -- as told in the "Divine Comedy" -- starts on this day. According to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Dante is still relevant in the modern world because of the "universality" of that masterpiece. "The Comedy still attracts us, fascinates us, makes us wonder today because it talks about us, about the deepest essence of man, made up of weaknesses, ... More | | 
Beeple, Everydays The First 5000 Days, NFT, 21,069 pixels x 21,069 pixels (316,939,910 bytes).
HONG KONG (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Sophia the robot has interviewed Germanys chancellor, appeared at New York Fashion Week and performed on The Tonight Show. Now Sophia has made a splash in the art world by auctioning off a digital work that it produced in collaboration with a real-life Italian artist. It sold Thursday for $688,888. I think this was a big success, Sophia said, speaking during a livestream from a Hong Kong studio. I am so happy that my works are so valued and appreciated. The sale was the latest twist in the frenzied market for ownership rights to digital art, ephemera and media called NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. A company affiliated with the robots manufacturer said the sale which took place on Nifty Gateway, a site for buying and selling NFTs that was founded in 2018 may also have been the first NFT sale of an artwork produced in part by artificial intelligence. NFTs are stamped ... More | | 
Gary Simmons. Photo: Tito Molina, HRDWRKER
NEW YORK, NY.- Hauser & Wirth announced today that the gallery now represents Los Angeles-based artist Gary Simmons. Born in New York City in 1964, Simmons has achieved wide acclaim over the past three decades for a profound and energetic practice that explores notions of race, class, social stereotypes, and politics through painting, sculpture, sound, and architectural environments. Simmons work considers the influence of the past upon the present, grappling specifically with the unfixed nature of memory and the American penchant for revising or even replacing personal and collective experience. Best known for illustrative paintings in which white outlines of figures and words 20th century cartoon characters steeped in the racist traditions of minstrelsy, disappeared architectural sites, vintage film title cards, evaporating clouds of smoke, twinkling stars are painted on chalkboard-like surfaces, then blurred and smeared b ... More |
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| Rare Van Gogh painting sells at auction for over 13 mn euros: Sotheby's | | French director Bertrand Tavernier dies at 79: film institute | | Whitney opens first U.S. solo exhibition of Madeline Hollander | 
Vincent van Gogh, Scène de rue à Montmartre (Impasse des Deux Frères et le Moulin à Poivre) detail. Oil on canvas, 46,1 x 61,3 cm; 18⅛ x 24⅛ in. Estimate: 5,000,000 - 8,000,000 EUR. Lot sold: 13,091,250 EUR. Courtesy Sotheby's.
by Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere
PARIS (AFP).- One of the few paintings by Vincent Van Gogh still in private hands, "Street Scene in Montmartre", was sold for over 13 million euros Thursday at auction after going on public display for the first time this week, Sotheby's said. The painting -- which emerged after a century spent in the same collection and has not been exhibited in public since it was painted in 1887 -- fetched 13.091 million euros ($15.414 million), Sotheby's said. Reaching well above the estimate of 5-8 million euros, Sotheby's said the sale price was a record for the artist in France. The sale of the painting was the highlight of an auction of 33 works from masters including Degas, Magritte, Modigliani, Klee, Rodin and his muse Camille Claudel sold in an auction live-streamed by Sotheby's in Paris. The painting was reoffered at the end of the sale in Paris after the auction ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on December 06, 2001 French director Bertrand Tavernier poses during the Langagieres festival devoted to literature and poetry in Reims. Bertrand Tavernier, 79, died on March 25, 2021, the "Institut Lumiere" announced. ALAIN JULIEN / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- French director Bertrand Tavernier, who has died aged 79, was the conscience of French cinema, unafraid to lose friends when he turned on the political left late in life. The son of a French resistance fighter, Tavernier won fans and international fame with his unique mix of classy period pieces and campaigning contemporary dramas. His themes of injustice, racism and the sapping curse of unemployment brought comparisons with Britain's Ken Loach even if stylistically he had more in common with Hollywood greats like John Ford. Both in front of the camera and behind it Tavernier fought tirelessly against censorship, torture during the Algerian war of independence, for migrants' rights and for the defence of European cinema against Hollywood. But he was equally unapologetic about voting in 2007 for right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who as interior minister had abolished a law ... More | | 
Madeline Hollander (b. 1986), Flatwing, 2019 (detail). Video, color, sound, 16:25 min. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Film and Video Committee 2020.97. © Madeline Hollander.
NEW YORK, NY.- Madeline Hollander: Flatwing, the first U.S. solo museum exhibition of multi-disciplinary artist Madeline Hollander, opened at the Whitney on March 25, 2021 and is on view through August 8, 2021. The exhibition features Flatwing (2019), the artists first video installation, which explores the emergence of silent flat-wing crickets on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Flatwing, recently acquired for the Whitneys collection, is accompanied by a display of diagrams, drawings, and research materials created by the artist in the process of making the film. The exhibition also debuts a new sound installation based on the correlation between temperature and the frequency at which crickets chirp. Hollanders multidisciplinary practice examines concepts of movement, pattern, gesture, environment, and climate change. The artists performance work Ouroboros Gs, featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, ... More |
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| Vienna's Secession opens an exhibition of works by Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel | | Blue chip works on paper soar past pre-sale estimates in Freeman's Art and Design auction | | Clocks dominate top lots in Miller & Miller's Music Machines, Clocks & Canadiana sale | 
Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Oak chest of drawers with giant Flanders rabbit and arms, 2020 Eichenholz | Oak wood, exhibition view Secession 2021, photo: Sophie Thun.
VIENNA.- At first glance, the artist duo Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquels works may seem like anachronisms in this era of the ascent of digital technology: the two have spent years experimenting with a wide range of materials and techniques that they first had to teach themselves and for which they sometimes even needed to make their own equipment such as weaving frames or wood-fired furnaces. They cut stone, carve wood, mold clay and ceramics, and take up artisanal techniques like embroidery and weaving. Both emphasize the importance of executing their works with their own means, using traditional and modern tools and reviving production processes rooted in various crafts that are being superseded by technical automation. They break with tradition by combining their media with incongruous motifs: the entrails, animal parts, ... More | | 
Josef Albers, Gray Instrumentation Ij, color screenprint, sold for $10,710
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans announced the results of its March 23 Art and Design auction, which achieved an impressive 92% sell-through rate, and exceeded its pre-sale high estimate. The strong results are testament to the strength of the prints and multiples market as well as Freemans ability to produce impressive results for works on paper by blue chip artists including Josef Albers, Robert Motherwell and Marc Chagall. The sale also exemplified the houses continued success with the sale of 20th Century Design by masters such as American Craftsman George Nakashima. Said Head of Sale, Tim Andreadis: We saw a strong performance by artists of the New York School including works by Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Robert de Niro Sr., as well as its offspring, the Washington Color SchoolSam Gilliam, Lou Stovall and Willem de Looper. We look forward to offering work from both of these movements in future auctions. In ... More | | 
French Paul ODobey wire tower clock made in 1899, originally from a monastery, featuring an angelus strike striking twelve times on a small bell to signal the monks to prayer (CA$11,800).
NEW HAMBURG.- Bidders literally had time on their hands (and minds) when they registered for Miller & Millers online-only Music Machines, Clocks & Canadiana auction, held March 20th. Four of the top five lots were clocks, and clocks made in Canada, the United States and across Europe all found new owners in an auction that grossed CA$418,065. All prices quoted in this report are in Canadian dollars and are inclusive of the buyers premium. Internet bidding was facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com and the Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. website. Telephone and absentee bids were also accepted. The 646-lot auction featured four outstanding collections: the Cathy and Gerry Koolen collection of Dutch clocks, tower clocks and music machines; the Robert Russell collection of Canadian Pequegnat clocks; ... More |
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Alice Neel: People Come First Virtual Opening | Met Exhibitions
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 Centrale for contemporary art presents BXL UNIVERSEL II: multipli.cityBRUSSELS.- CENTRALE for contemporary art presents BXL UNIVERSEL II: multipli.city, a multidisciplinary forum-exhibition & events project in collaboration with 11 artists and 6 Brussels-based organisations. With: Younes Baba-Ali, Vincen Beeckman, Aleksandra Chaushova, Effi & Amir, Hadassah Emmerich, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Stephan Goldrajch, Sabrina Montiel-Soto, Anna Raimondo, Lázara Rosell Albear, Oussama Tabti; BNA-BBOT & Mia Melvaer, Culture & Démocratie, Globe Aroma, Kunstenpunt, MOUSSEM & Barbara Prada, Zinneke. In 2021, on the occasion of its 15th anniversary, CENTRALE celebrates its city, its artists and its inhabitants with the project BXL UNIVERSEL II: multipli.city. More than an exhibition, this project is a forum-exhibition which takes the form of a patchwork of singularities and paths, through the proposals of artists who chose to live and work in Brussels ... More  DRC, Chateau Mouton Rothschild lift Heritage Wine Auction above $2.3 millionDALLAS, TX.- Two bottles of 1995 Romanee Conti and three bottles of the legendary 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild each sold for $35,670 to help Heritage Auctions' Fine & Rare Wine Auction soar past pre-auction estimates to reach $2,369,211 in total sales March 12 in Beverly Hills. The event, which marked the return of multi-vendor Platinum Session with nearly 650 bidders, boasted spectacular sell-through rates of 99.9% by value and 99.9% by lots sold. "A return to the classics of Bordeaux has been long awaited, and we are finally seeing it," Heritage Auctions Fine & Rare Wine Senior Director Frank Martell said. "Scandals of years past have left the wine community a bit fearful of old and important Bordeaux, but the provenance on offer in this sale spoke for itself and hopefully this is a return to the pursuit and love of mature claret." Sharing ... More  The ICA at NYU Shanghai opens 'ponds among ponds: an exhibition of threshold behaviour & nested life' SHANGHAI.- The Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai presents ponds among ponds: an exhibition of threshold behavior & nested life (on view through 29 May), guest-curated by Anna-Sophie Springer & Etienne Turpin (Reassembling the Natural), with artistic contributions by Agency, John Feldman with Lynn Margulis, Anne Duk Hee Jordan with Pauline Doutreluingne, MAO Chenyu, Maximilian Prüfer, and Monika Lin of Zaanheh Project. ponds among ponds is the final iteration of Springer and Turpins international exhibitionled inquiry Reassembling the Natural (201321), and the fourth and final season of the ICAs inaugural artistic research program, The (Invisible) Garden (201921). In a recent essay addressing the intersectional frictions of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, and recent microbiome research, the ... More  Natural History Museums of Los Angeles announce reopening dates LOS ANGELES, CA.- Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, President and Director of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, today announced the Natural History Museum (NHM) in Exposition Park will reopen to the public on April 1, 2021 and La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park will reopen on April 8, 2021, with new health and safety protocols in place. The William S. Hart Museum in Newhall remains closed at this time. Tickets for members, community partners and the general public are now on sale for NHM and for La Brea Tar Pits on Thursday, April 1. Dr. Bettison-Varga said, The Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pits have brought joy to generations of Angelenos for more than a century. We are thrilled to welcome the community back inside them after a full year of closure and to make them more accessible for all Angelenos. As museums of, for and with L.A., we have been witnessing ... More  For political cartoonists, the irony was that Facebook didn't recognize ironySAN FRANCISCO (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Since 2013, Matt Bors has made a living as a left-leaning cartoonist on the internet. His site, The Nib, runs cartoons from him and other contributors that regularly skewer right-wing movements and conservatives with political commentary steeped in irony. One cartoon in December took aim at the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Bors titled it Boys Will Be Boys and depicted a recruitment where new Proud Boys were trained to be stabby guys and to yell slurs at teenagers while playing video games. Days later, Facebook sent Bors a message saying that it had removed Boys Will Be Boys from his Facebook page for advocating violence and that he was on probation for violating its content policies. It was not the first time that Facebook had ... More  Watching from a distance: What gives a virtual dance life?NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The pandemic has handed dance a particularly rough year. The floor was taken out from where we stand, choreographer Alexei Ratmansky says in a new video unveiled Tuesday night. So we need to find this ground again and find the audience, find ourselves. ABT Live From City Center: A Ratmansky Celebration, which includes a new ballet, is a step toward that: His dances have found solid ground in the form of a stage. And as the respected artist-in-residence at American Ballet Theatre, he knows his way around one. But how does dance live without an audience? And how can dancers, especially those in ballet who are so used to being seen, reclaim their identities? If weve learned anything in a year when most live performance has been shuttered, its that virtual dance especially when its treated ... More  Artpace reopens just in time for Spring 2021 International Artists-in-Residence exhibitionsSAN ANTONIO, TX.- New exhibitions by Spring 2021 International Artists-in-Residence Adrian Aguilera (Austin, TX/Monterrey, Mexico), Nazafarin Lotfi (Tucson, AZ/ Chicago, IL/Mashhad, Iran), and Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere (Brooklyn, NY) opened virtually on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Following the virtual opening, Artpace will be open to the public by appointment. in the co-confluence of the civilizations in the americas, artist Adrian Aguilera investigates the world of invisible laborers and the expanded economies in which they are involved. Aguilera particularly notes how invisible laborers play a large part in the Contemporary Art world, as in one artwork in the exhibition that lists "immigrant skilled labor compensation and floating device" as the medium. Using the Artpace residency as a tool for researching invisible labor in the arts, the exhibition displays Adrains findings through ... More  Leonora Carrington stars at Bonhams The Mind's Eye / Surrealist saleLONDON.- Operation Wednesday by the Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) sold for £682,750 at Bonhams inaugural The Minds Eye / Surrealist Sale in London today (Thursday 25 March). It had been estimated at £300,000-500,000. In total, the 69-lot sale made £2,315,296 with 72% sold by lot and 84% sold by value. Head of Sale, Ruth Woodbridge said: The Minds Eye / Surrealist Sale was a new concept. We were confident that it would capture the imagination of collectors and the strong results demonstrate that our faith was justified. It is particularly encouraging to note that all the works by women Surrealist artists, Alice Rahon amongst them, far exceeded their estimates, with, of course, Leonora Carringtons compelling Operation Wednesday emerging as the top lot. Executed in 1969, Operation Wednesday presents a fusion ... More  Jessica Walter, tart-tongued matriarch of 'Arrested Development,' dies at 80NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Jessica Walter, whose six-decade acting career included roles ranging from an obsessed radio fan in Clint Eastwoods directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, to the cutting, martini-swilling matriarch of the dysfunctional Bluth family on Arrested Development, died at her home in New York City on Wednesday. She was 80. Walters death was confirmed by her publicist, Kelli Jones, who did not specify a cause. Over a long and wide-ranging career, Walter found consistent work as a versatile performer with more than 150 credits that included tart-tongued turns in television comedy series and serious roles in dramatic Hollywood movies and New York stage productions. She was often cast as and relished playing off-center women capable of leveling men with a withering glance, a piercing remark or the sharp point of a knife. Lucky me, because those ... More  American Ballet Theatre's leader to step down after 30 yearsNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Kevin McKenzie, artistic director of American Ballet Theatre, who has steered the company through rocky patches and triumphs since 1992, hired choreographer Alexei Ratmansky and had to reckon with the yearlong pandemic shutdown, will retire next year. The company announced Thursday that McKenzie, 68, will continue to oversee programming and performances through 2022. A search for a successor will begin this summer. The announcement comes two months after San Francisco Ballet announced that Helgi Tomasson would step down in 2022, after 35 years at its helm. Together, these retirements signal a sea change for American ballet. McKenzie said he began to think about stepping down around the 25th anniversary of his directorship. I made a mental note that 2022 would be 30 years, and I wouldnt go much beyond that, he ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Mental Escapology, St. Moritz 
TIM VAN LAERE GALLERY 
Madelynn Green 
Patrick Angus
Flashback On a day like today, Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat was born March 26, 1957. Shirin Neshat (born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininity and masculinity, public life and private life, antiquity and modernity, and bridging the spaces between these subjects. In this image: Shirin Neshat, From "Looking For Oum Kulthum" series (2017) © Shirin Neshat.
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