| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, May 3, 2019 |
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| | Newly identified Leonardo portrait on show in London | |
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Martin Clayton, Head of Prints and Drawings, Royal Collection Trust, studying A sketch of Leonardo in the Print Room, Windsor Castle. Photo: Royal Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019.
LONDON (AFP).- A 500-year-old sketch of a bearded man was on Thursday revealed to be one of only two surviving portraits of Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci made during his lifetime. The drawing, believed to have been made by an assistant, is part of the Royal Collection and will be displayed in an exhibition at Buckingham Palace marking 500 years since Leonardo's death. It was a quick sketch on a double-sided sheet of studies, most of them made by the Florentine master himself of a horse's leg, in anticipation of a monument that was never completed. Martin Clayton, Head of Prints and Drawings at the Royal Collection Trust, compared it with the only other contemporary image of Leonardo by his pupil, Francesco Melzi.
Both were produced shortly before the artist's death in 1519, and reveal his well-kept and "luxuriant" beard that was ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A lock of what Italian experts believe is Leonardo' da Vinci's hair (Top R) are being displayed at the "Leonardo Lives" exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, on May 2, 2019 in Vinci, Tuscany. A lock of what Italian experts believe is Leonardo' da Vinci's hair will go on public display for the first time on May 2 in Vinci. The lock of hair, which has remained a secret up until now in an American collection, will be exhibited in a world first along with the documents which attest to its ancient French origins. Vincenzo PINTO / AFP
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 | | France, Italy mark 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death | | 'Screaming Pope' by Bacon to lead Sotheby's Sales of Works from the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection | | Experts comb through DNA from possible Da Vinci hair | 
French President Emmanuel Macron, his wife Brigitte Macron, Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura Mattarella walk in the gardens of Chambord Castle. ludovic MARIN / AFP.
AMBOISE (AFP).- French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella on Thursday kicked off commemorations to mark 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci died in France, paying their respects to the Renaissance genius in a show of unity after months of diplomatic tensions. "The bond between our countries and our citizens is indestructible," Macron said after the two men lunched at the Clos Luce, the sumptuous manor house where Leonardo spent the last three years of his life. Mattarella and Macron, who was accompanied by his wife Brigitte, began their visit at the royal chateau in Amboise, where the heads of state laid wreaths at Leonardo's grave. The Italian leader had started his day with a visit to the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The joint celebrations come after months of mounting diplomatic tensions between Paris and Rome over the hardline policies of Italy's ... More | | 
An iconic Screaming Pope by Francis Bacon, one of the most important works by the artist remaining in a private collection. Estimate $20/30 Million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys announced the sale of select works from the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection across the May 2019 auctions of Contemporary and Impressionist & Modern Art. Assembled in the 1970s and 80s, the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection now belongs to the Friday Foundation, a private charitable organization committed to working with its cultural partners to ensure that the great works remaining in the collection will be enjoyed by the public, while also supporting key arts initiatives that were important to the Langs with proceeds from the sales. Sothebys offering of works from the Lang Collection will be led by one of the most important paintings by Francis Bacon remaining in private hands: Study for a Head from 1952. An outstanding example of Bacons most celebrated and recognizable iconography, the work powerfully captures the silent scream of his iconic Popes. ... More | | 
Visitors view and take photos of a lock of what Italian experts believe is Leonardo' da Vinci's hair. Vincenzo PINTO / AFP.
VINCI (AFP).- A lock of what some historians think is Leonardo da Vinci's hair went on display Thursday at a museum in his Tuscan birthplace as they seek to prove it contains his DNA 500 years after the genius died. Presenting what he called a "relic" at the Leonardo library in Vinci devoted to the painter and Renaissance giant, art historian Alessandro Vezzosi told AFP how the whitish-blond hairs emerged from the shadows. "This lock remained secret for a long time before we discovered it three years ago in the United States," he said. "It will allow us to do DNA research on Leonardo," Vezzosi added. "After studying Da Vinci's genaeology for 40 years, in 2016 we presented 35 living descendants of the master, and a short time later I was contacted by the collector who owns it and who agreed to show it." Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452, in Vinci, northwest of Florence, the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner and a teenaged peasant. ... More |
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| | | Footprint found in Chile is 'oldest' in Americas: Scientists | | The Michael Scharf Family Collection leads Christie's American Art Sale | | Lévy Gorvy to represent Jutta Koether in the U.S. | 
Illustration by: Mauricio Alvarez A.
SANTIAGO (AFP).- Scientists in Chile say they have found a footprint dating from at least 15,600 years ago, making it the earliest such sign of man's presence in the Americas. The footprint was found at the Pilauco excavation in the city of Osorno (820 kilometers, or 500 miles, south of Santiago), where scientists have been digging since 2007. Archeologists from the Austral University of Chile said the footprint was first spotted in 2011 next to a house. It took years for paleontologist Karen Moreno and geologist Mario Pino to reliably confirm that the print was human. "There are other human footprints in the Americas," Pino told the Osorno newspaper El Austral, "but none has been dated as far back." He said scientists were able to do so by applying radiocarbon dating techniques to organic plant material where the print was found. Pino said the footprint appears to be that of a barefoot man weighing about 70 kilograms (155 pounds) and of the species Hominipes Modernus, a relative of Homo Sapiens. Th ... More | | 
Georgia OKeeffe, Inside Red Canna, 1919. Estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced The Michael Scharf Family Collection will lead the American Art sale on May 22. Considered one of the finest collections of American Modernism, this impressive group of twenty-eight paintings offers a strong representation from the Stieglitz Circle with works by Georgia OKeeffe, Marsden Hartley, and Arthur Dove, as well as exceptional early explorations into abstraction by artists including Max Weber and Charles Green Shaw. Michael Scharf began his collection of American Modernism in 1972 when he purchased Arthur Doves Parabola and began to study the artist and his contemporaries. His collecting habits, however, were founded during his childhood with serial collections of stamps, porcelain pugs, early editions of Elizabethan plays and British literature, and early sixteenth-century Hebrew books printed in Constantinople. Michael Scharf comments, The more I studied, the more I came to beli ... More | | 
Jutta Koether, Mède, 1992. Oil on canvas, 250 x 200 cm. Private Collection.
NEW YORK, NY.- Lévy Gorvy announced the gallerys representation of German artist Jutta Koether in the United States. Since the early 1980s, Koether has forged a painting practice that reckons with the mediums histories, contradictions, and pleasures. Departing from the question of what it means to paint, and to continue painting, in the present moment, Koether adopts a destabilized authorial position, welcoming collaborations with peers and involving viewers as active participants in the construction of her works meaning. The twinned processes of making and reception, she posits, are never complete but rather contingentcontinuously negotiated as a work moves across different places and times. Mining the discourses of appropriation that shaped Cologne culture in the 80s, as well as those that she encountered when she moved to New York in 1991, Koether made them her own, clearing a space for painting that embraced aff ... More |
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| | | Woody Allen finding it hard to sell his memoir: report | | Phillips announces highlights from the Hong Kong Spring Sales of 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design | | The Snite Museum of Art announces the gift of photographs from the Brett Weston Archive | 
In this file photo taken on May 11, 2016 US director Woody Allen poses during a photocall for the film "Cafe Society". Valery HACHE / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Oscar-winning US director Woody Allen -- who has faced widespread industry scorn over lingering accusations that he molested his adopted daughter -- is having trouble finding a book deal for his memoir, The New York Times reported Thursday. Executives at four major publishing house, all speaking on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper that they had been offered the project by an agent for Allen over the past year. None of them made an offer, and some even said they had declined to read the material offered to them, they told the Times. The five major US publishing houses -- HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House -- did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment about the report. Allen's agent also did not reply. Since the eruption of the #MeToo movement against sexual ... More | | 
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Brushstroke Sculpture, 1981. Painted bronze. Estimate: HKD 2,500,000 3,500,000. Image courtesy of Phillips.
HONG KONG.- Phillips announced highlights from the upcoming Hong Kong spring sales of 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design. The Evening Sale will encompass modern and contemporary works by an array of the world's most sought-after artists, with leading highlights by Zao Wou-Ki, Zhang Xiaogang, Yoshitomo Nara and Roy Lichtenstein. The Day Sale will comprise works by blue chip names George Condo, Yayoi Kusama, alongside celebrated and exciting contemporary artists KAWS, Banksy and Tomoo Gokita. Design highlights include works from the most prominent Danish and Italian designers such as Finn Juhl, Ole Wanscher, Paolo Buffa and Max Ingrand. In addition to offering tightly curated works, Phillips will also introduce a unique project Pantone 561 by Alfred Lam this season. Jonathan Crockett, Deputy Chairman and Head of 20th Century & Contemporary ... More | | 
Rock Wall, 1975 (detail). Vintage gelatin silver print.
NOTRE DAME, IND.- The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame announced the gift of 50 photographs by Brett Weston (American, 1911-1993). This generous donation comes from the Oklahoma City philanthropist Christian Keesee, who founded the Brett Weston Archive after acquiring works from the artists estate in 1996. Aside from organizing the photographers work, and publishing a catalogue raisonne, the Brett Weston Archive makes this gift to the University to broaden appreciation of Weston, to preserve his work, and to contribute to study of the history of photography. Brett Weston was the second of four sons of the photographer Edward Weston and Flora Chandler. He left school at age thirteen, move to Mexico with his father, who was already a distinguished photographer. He observed his fathers dedication to craft when the elder Weston shifted from a Pictorialist style to a sharp, incisive manner that emphasized bold ... More |
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| | | Solo show of New York School artist Knox Martin opens at Hollis Taggart | | Superb vintage Patek Philippe to highlight Sotheby's sale of Important Watches in Geneva | | Actor Peter Mayhew, who portrayed Chewbacca in 'Star War' dies | 
Knox Martin (b. 1923), Carmen Seated, circa 1975. Acrylic and graphite on paper mounted on linen, 15 x 13 inches. All Artwork © 2019 Knox Martin/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
NEW YORK, NY.- This May, Hollis Taggart presents an in-depth exploration of the work of acclaimed artist Knox Martin, with a solo presentation at Frieze New York and a concurrent solo exhibition at its primary location in Chelsea. Martins practice, which spans nearly seven decades, has engaged with the conceptual and aesthetic underpinnings of a wide range of artistic movements, from Cubism to Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. His use of bright swaths of color, precise, architectural lines, and organic forms that reference the female body have resulted in energetic and vibrant compositions that speak to a visual vocabulary that is entirely his own. For this year's edition of Frieze New York, Hollis Taggart presents a focused selection of paintings, from the 1950s through the 1970s, providing an introduction to the artists early works. To foster a broader understanding of Martins practice, the gallery also opened Knox Marti ... More | | 
A superb example of the highly sought-after Patek Philippe reference 2497 from the first series, featuring a rare case made by Emile Vichet. Estimate: CHF 500,000 1,000,000 (USD 500,000 1,000,000). Courtesy Sotheby's.
GENEVA.- Following the success of spring watch sales in Hong Kong and London, Sothebys will present its selection of fine timepieces to be offered in Geneva on 12 May. The auction of Important Watches will be led by a group of very fine vintage Patek Philippe and Rolex wristwatches, following a series of exceptional results for this category at auction. The sale will also offer the opportunity for discerning collectors to acquire unique and important Swiss pocket watches from the 18th and 19th centuries. The group of extraordinary Patek Philippe wristwatches is led by a superb example of the highly sought-after reference 2497 from the first series, featuring a rare case made by Emile Vichet. Seekers of exceptional Patek Philippe will also no doubt be drawn to rare limited-production and beautiful double-signature wristwatches on offer. Highlights for collectors of rare Rolex include ... More | | 
Chewbacca "Chewie" stands on the field before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers during "Star Wars Night" at Fenway Park on April 25, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox won 7-3. Rich Gagnon/Getty Images/AFP.
LOS ANGELES (AFP).- Actor Peter Mayhew, who won over fans worldwide as the Wookiee warrior Chewbacca in the blockbuster "Star Wars" movies, has died at the age of 74, his family announced on Thursday. Mayhew died on Tuesday at his home in Texas, surrounded by loved ones, the family said in a statement released on the actor's Twitter account. "He put his heart and soul into the role of Chewbacca and it showed in every frame of the films from his knock-kneed running, firing his bowcaster from the hip, his bright blue eyes, down to each subtle movement of his head and mouth," the statement said. "But, to him, the Star Wars family meant so much more than a role in a film. The relationships that began then grew into the friends and family that he would love for decades to come." The towering British-born actor, the son of a policeman who measured seven feet three ... More |
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First Look: Time Traveling with Daniel ArshamÂs Rimowa Attaché
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 Christie's Classic Week totals $79.5 million, Old Masters sales set 5 new world auction recordsNEW YORK, NY.- The top lot Classic Week was Jan Sander van Hemessens Double portrait of a husband and wife, half-length, seated at a table, playing tables, which sold for $10,036,000, earning a new world auction record for the artist and a new record for an early Netherlandish painting. Other top lots included Annibale Carraccis The Madonna and Child with Saint Lucy and the Young Saint John the Baptist which sold for $6,063,500, earning a new world auction record for the arist. Additionally, Lorenzo Monacos The Prophet Isaiah realized $3,615,000, which earned a new world auction record for the artist. The top lot of from the Estate of Lila and Herman Shickman was Juan van der Hamen y Leóns Peaches, pears, plums, peas and cherries in wicker baskets, figs, plums and cherries on pewter plates, a boquet of tulips, blue and yellow irises, roses and other ... More Memorial Day fun to start early at Bertoia's May 23-24 Annual Spring Toy AuctionVINELAND, NJ.- Winter has finally moved on, and its once again time for collectors to gather, socialize and compete for great toys of all types at Bertoias Annual Spring Toy Sale. The companys renowned Signature Sales focus on a select few collections with prestigious name value, and its Basics series presents excellent toys at affordable price points, but Bertoias diverse Spring Sale is an open door to fine pieces from literally dozens of collections. This years edition, slated for May 23-24, boasts more than 1,000 toys, banks and trains, and has been timed so it doesnt interfere with the cookouts or other family events traditionally held over Memorial Day weekend. The opening session will feature more than 300 still banks from the estate collection of Ohioan Ned Bauer, a past host of the Still Bank Collectors Association convention. The lineup includes ... More Frieze New York: Jenkins Johnson awarded Stand Prize & Company win Frame PrizeNEW YORK, NY.- Yesterday, on the opening day of this years Frieze New York which features leading galleries from 26 countries, a jury of leading international curators awarded the Frieze Stand Prize for an outstanding presentation in any section of the fair. The Frieze Stand Prize was awarded to Jenkins Johnson Gallery for its outstanding solo presentation of Ming Smith in the JAM (Just Above Midtown) section of the fair. Curated by Franklin Sirmans (Director, Pérez Art Museum Miami), JAM pays homage to the pioneering non-profit New York arts organization Just Above Midtown (JAM) and its founder Linda Goode Bryant. San Francisco and New York based gallery Jenkins Johnsons booth was selected by this years Stand Prize jury of leading international curators and directors: Thelma Golden (Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem), ... More Christie's announces highlights included in the Art of Africa Masterworks saleNEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced the Art of Africa Masterworks sale, which will take place on May 14, 2019 in New York. The auction is an exceptional sale featuring nine masterworks of African Art and will coincide with Christies 20th Century Week sales. A celebration of female strength, fertility, and beauty, this sale offers works of art that showcase the powerful influence of women in 19th century African culture. The works once performed important functions surrounding universal themes of social unity, protection, fertility of the land and by natural extension the people. A unique and diverse compilation of figures and masks featuring rare artistry from West and Central Africa. The nine masterworks on offer carry old and distinguished provenances, which is further enhanced by their exhibition histories and published literature. The Walschot-Schoffel Kifwebe ... More Cooke Latham Gallery opens an exhibition of works by William Cobbing Cobbings sculpture and film play directly with and into each other. Moving and static each time, this work is as descriptive as it is symbolic. The work exemplifies the relationship between sight, touch, and sometimes sound. However awkward and ultimately frustrating, a stumbling attempt at communication is present. From the blank slate on the head, to the book cover in relief, Cobbings work is made up of a cycle in which sense and feeling is perpetually reduced and then replenished. Blinded by clay, immersed, suffocated almost, and yet, however challenged, he, she, or they, are still able to breath. The two people with an angular build-up of mass, are packed into the same rationale and fiction. The distinct feeling is that the further they may go, the more impossible it will be to retain power and character. And yet the film work is not really ... More Perth artist Tessa MacKay awarded 2019 Archibald Packing Room Prize for her portrait of David WenhamSYDNEY.- Art Gallery of New South Wales head packer Brett Cuthbertson and his packing room team have awarded the 2019 Archibald Packing Room Prize to West Australian hyperreal artist Tessa MacKay. MacKays hyperreal portrait is of renowned actor and producer David Wenham titled Through the looking glass. Cuthbertson, with 52 per cent of the vote for the Archibald Packing Room Prize said he loved the work from the moment his packing room colleague Stu, brought it to his attention. Tessas is a really interesting portrait - theres a lot happening in it. Ive been looking at it every day since it came into the Gallery. I love that your eyes are drawn to the pairing of the salt and sugar, and the glass vase in the foreground. That Davids in it is a bonus! Maybe that makes it Still life with David? Cuthbertson said. I love the reflection of the glass and that David ... More Exhibition focuses on the visionary nature of art commonly known as outsider artNEW YORK, NY.- The Outsider Art Fair announced The Doors Of Perception, a unique project in collaboration with Frieze NY curated by the artist Javier Téllez. The exhibition features over forty visionary artists from around the world, including works by Noviadi Angkasapura (b. 1979, Indonesia), Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (19232014, Ivory Coast), Henry Darger (1892-1973, USA), Janko Domsic (1915-1983, Croatia/France), Minnie Evans (1892-1987, USA), Guo Fengyi (19422010, China), MartÃn RamÃrez (1895-1963, Mexico/USA), Judith Scott (1943-2005, USA), Melvin Way (b. 1954, USA), George Widener (b. 1962, USA), Adolf Wölfli (18641930, Switzerland), and Anna Zemánkova (19081986, Czech Republic), among many others. Works have been sourced through OAF participating galleries including Henry Boxer, CavinMorris, Creative Growth ... More Christie's to highlight several private collections in Jewellery sale PARIS.- On 13 June, Christies will offer a Jewellery sale that will highlight several private collections, including 280 lots with a global estimate around 3,500,000. The Jewellery department will present a collection gathering jewels exclusively coming from the Place Vendôme, representing the icons of the collections of the 1980s. The masterpiece is a Cartier plastron necklace, estimated at 200,000-300,000. This collection includes also a whole group of jewels many of which refer to the bestiarys imagination. Violaine dAstorg, Head of the Jewellery department chose to highlight this theme within jewellery, the opportunity to show the know-how of the great creators in this field and real technical prowess, such as this beautiful brooch representing a rooster, set with sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds, executed by Van Cleef & Arpels. Violaine dAstorg, Head ... More Tales of Leonardo, enigmatic geniusAMBOISE (AFP).- Leonardo da Vinci, who died 500 years ago on Thursday, lives in the collective memory as an enigmatic genius who embodied the Italian Renaissance. Here are some anecdotes about his extraordinary life and work. An 1818 painting by French artist Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres shows Leonardo da Vinci breathing his last with his patron, France's King Francis I, at his bedside. The scene was inspired by an account in "Lives of the Artists" by Giorgio Vasari, first published in 1550. Vasari, seen as the father of art history, wrote that Leonardo "died in the arms of the monarch". The problem is that it could not be true. According to historical records, the king was a two-day ride away in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, for the baptism of his second son on May 3, the day after the Renaissance master died. While the Ingres painting, which hangs ... More Times Square Alliance announces Jean Cooney as Director of Times Square ArtsNEW YORK, NY.- The Times Square Alliance announced today the appointment of Jean Cooney, the current Deputy Director of Creative Time, as the Director of Times Square Arts. Cooney will be responsible for overseeing the Alliances public art program, following 7 years at Creative Time, where she played a lead role in the organizations major artist commissions, public programming, engagement initiatives, and cultural partnerships. Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places using the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant lots, commercial venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape. Times Square Arts has collaborated with over 150 artists since 2010, producing ... More Opera Gallery, New York announces Andy Denzler exhibition, IntrospectionNEW YORK, NY.- Opera Gallery announced an exhibition by contemporary Swiss artist Andy Denzler, Introspection. The exhibition is on view across two floors of the gallerys Madison Avenue flagship May 3 19, 2019. Introspection marks the first solo exhibition by Andy Denzler in New York since 2016. It is with pleasure that we present these new works by Andy, who we have championed for nearly 5 years, states Opera Gallery founder Gilles Dyan. His paintings are emotive and intimate while straddling the worlds of abstraction and figuration, his unique vision is haunting and sensual all at once. Bridging the figurative and abstract, Andy Denzlers large-scale paintings belie a unique process of construction and deconstruction. Reminiscent of Old Master paintings, the works consider classical aesthetics through a fragmented contemporary lens that at once offers a unique t ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Dutch painter Karel Appel died May 03, 2006. Christiaan Karel Appel (25 April 1921 - 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement Cobra in 1948. He was also an avid sculptor and has had works featured in the museum of Great Samo and MoMA. In this image: Karel Appel, "Portrait of Rudi Fuchs". Photo: Bram Saeys.
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