| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, November 15, 2019 |
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| | Rembrandts targeted again at theft-prone London gallery | |
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Rembrandts Light at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lighting by ERCO. Photography by Gavriil Papadiotis.
LONDON (AFP).- A thief made what police said was an "audacious" attempt to steal two Rembrandt paintings from a London museum but fled without them after being confronted, authorities said Thursday. The suspect broke into Dulwich Picture Gallery at about 11:30 pm (2330 GMT) on Wednesday, police said, targeting "Rembrandt's Light", a new exhibition showing 35 of the Dutch master's paintings, etchings and drawings. A gallery spokeswoman declined to identify the two paintings which were briefly taken. But she told AFP that Rembrandt's portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III -- dubbed the "takeaway Rembrandt" as it has been stolen four times from the gallery -- was not involved. "An intruder appears to have forced entry ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Photographer Meagan Gumpert at the Appleton Museum of Art's media preview for the opening of the exhibition, "Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism Through the French Lens," on view through January 5, 2020. The exhibition features 65 painting and works on paper, culled mostly from the collection of Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania. Photo by The Culture Curators.
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 | | New world record for Ruscha in Christie's $325.2 million evening sale | | Fall art auctions see double-digit declines | | Van Gogh Museum and Drents Museum jointly acquire painting by Van Gogh | 
"You can turn on the radio and the radio becomes the soundtrack for what you see out the window. And somehow I get more from doing this in Los Angeles than I do in another city." Edward Ruscha © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York totalled $325,259,750 / £253,317,562, to take the running total for the 20th Century season to $564.4 million. The auction was 89 per cent sold by lot and 96 per cent by value. Leading the sale was Hurting the Word Radio #2, an important early example of Ruschas text paintings. Painted in 1964, the same year it was first exhibited at Los Angeles Ferus Gallery, the picture was acquired from the artist by Joan and Jack Quinn in the early 1970s. The couple became friends with the gallerys stable of artists and keen collectors of their work. They were the only previous owners of Hurting the Word Radio #2, which sold for $52,485,000 (including buyers premium) a new auction record for a work by Ruscha. This evening was a tribute to the great artist Ed Ruscha and to my beloved husband ... More | | 
Dana Schutzs 2016 canvas, Shooting on the Air, inspired by the on-air murder of two television journalists, sold for $1.1 million against an estimate at $600,000 to $800,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- What a difference a season makes. Back in May, a $91.1 million Jeff Koons sculpture and $110.7 million Monet created the impression that business at top-end art auctions was booming. But this week, against a backdrop of presidential impeachment hearings, Brexit and other geopolitical distractions, numbers at New Yorks marquee fall sales of impressionist, modern and contemporary art were significantly down. The change in mood was clear on Monday and Tuesday evening as sales of impressionist and modern art dipped at both Christies and Sothebys over their equivalent sales last May. By Wednesday, Christies fall auction of contemporary art raised $325.3 million, versus the $539 million it achieved in the spring, when the Koons and other pieces from the S.I. Newhouse collection were included. In the absence of a prestigious estate, and with owners reluctant ... More | | 
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Peasant Burning Weeds, 1883 (detail), oil on panel, 30.5 Ã 39.7 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam / Drents Museum, Assen.
AMSTERDAM.- The Van Gogh Museum and the Drents Museum have jointly acquired an early painting by Vincent van Gogh: Peasant Burning Weeds from 1883. The small yet powerful work shows a solitary figure on a deserted plain at twilight, illuminated by a fire. Van Gogh painted the work in Drenthe, where he stayed in the autumn of 1883 and captured the landscape in paintings and drawings. This is one of the few paintings from the period to have survived. The work will be exhibited alternately at the two museums. In 1883, Van Gogh spent nearly three months in Drenthe, where he was deeply impressed by the landscape with heath- and moorland. In his drawings and paintings, he attempted to capture the mood of the countryside in autumn. He painted numerous landscapes in dark colours, sometimes with figures at work. His letters reveal that he painted at least 18 studies during his stay, but the majority of these have been lost. There ... More |
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| | Art Deco takes it away: Cartier bracelet sells for CHF/$ 6.1 million in Geneva | | Shoji Sadao, quiet hand behind two visionaries, dies at 92 | | Hauser & Wirth announces representation of Nicole Eisenman | 
A 1927 Sapphire and Diamond Bracelet by Cartier soars to CHF / US$ 6.1m. Courtesy Sotheby's.
GENEVA.- In the wake of the many strong results already seen this year for Art Deco jewels, demand remained strong today in Geneva for pieces from the 1920s and 30s, widely recognised as the golden era of jewellery. Six months after the benchmark price of $3.6 million achieved for the Beaumont Necklace at Sothebys in May, a Cartier sapphire and diamond bracelet realised one of the highest prices at auction for an Art Deco bracelet when, pursued by six bidders, it sold to an Asian collector for CHF 6,072,900 / $6,135,451 (Lot 453, est. CHF/$ 2-3m). Created in 1927 and coming from an Asian-American collection, the bracelet is set with a sensational Burmese cabochon sapphire weighing 46.07 carats. It was one of the highlights of a sale totalling CHF 53,382,275 / $53,932,112, characterised by strong global interest in Art Deco, along with a number of healthy results for single diamonds. ... More | | 
A photo provided by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville shows Shoji Sadao, left, and Buckminster Fuller in front of the geodesic dome at the Center for Spirituality & Sustainability located on the university's campus. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville via The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Shoji Sadao, an architect whose behind-the-scenes talent helped bring to life the innovations of two 20th-century visionaries, R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi, died on Nov. 3 in Tokyo. He was 92. His family said the cause was heart and kidney failure. Sadao met Fuller, the noted designer, author and theorist who died in 1983, while studying at Cornell University, and the two were soon collaborating. Fuller was pursuing out-there ideas in design and architecture, and it often fell to Sadao to do the practical work of implementing them. One particularly high-profile Fuller design was the U.S. pavilion at Expo 67, the international exposition held in Montreal in 1967. It was a striking 20-story geodesic dome, ... More | | 
Portrait of Nicole Eisenman. Photo: Nathan Perkel.
NEW YORK, NY.- Hauser & Wirth announced today that the gallery now represents artist Nicole Eisenman. Considered one of the most important painters of her generation, Eisenman (b. 1965, Verdun, France) has developed a powerful and timely new figurative language that combines elements both factual and fictive, mainstream and countercultural. Her oeuvre is distinctive in its emphasis upon the allegorical and its deft mingling of autobiographical elements with historical and fictional narratives that draw attention to contemporary sociopolitical conflicts. Since moving to New York City in 1987, she has emerged as a central figure in the resurgence of painting in America, and a singular voice for identity and culture at the margins. Eisenmans art has attracted critical admiration for its skillful, subversive appropriation of compositional and stylistic elements of the great painterly traditions, including Old Master and Italian ... More |
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| | Stunning Goncharova at MacDougall's | | Whitney announces works acquired from 2019 Whitney Biennial and other recent acquisitions | | Unveiling timeless treasures from the collection and library of Count & Countess de Ribes | 
Natalia Goncharova, Spanish Ladies (detail). Estimate: 800,000 to 1,200,000 pounds.
LONDON.- MacDougalls will present a highly significant example of Natalia Goncharovas Spanish Ladies, one of the most celebrated themes within her entire uvre, as part of the Important Russian Art Auction on 27 November. Impressive in scale, standing life-size, the subject of LEspagnole exhibits some of the most distinctive of Goncharovas painterly skills, including her tendency to monumentality and sophisticated decoration. The depiction of the fabric on the shawl and the exquisitely rendered lace mantilla contrast to elegant effect with the flowering magnolias in the background, another one of Goncharovas most essential motifs. The Spanish theme first occurred to Goncharova in 1916 whilst she was working on designs for the ballets Triana and Spain for Sergei Diaghilevs productions. In company with Diaghilev, Massine and Larionov, Goncharova journeyed around ... More | | 
Iman Issa, detail of Heritage Studies #20, 2016. Bronze, painted box, and vinyl text, 49 1/4 x 9 1/8 x 15 in. (125 x 23 x 38 cm). Image courtesy the artist and Rodeo, London; Piraeus, Greece; and carlier gebauer, Berlin. Photograph by Gunter Lepkowski.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art announced today that it has acquired more than 250 works of art since last April. Among these acquisitions are 88 works by 40 artists who were featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Other recent acquisitions include works by artists who are joining the collection for the first time, including Laura Aguilar, John Ahearn, Maria Berrio, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, ektor garcia, Ajay Kurian, Wendy Red Star, Wallace & Donahue, and others. Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator commented: Through the Biennial and our emerging artist program, the Whitney is committed to adding new voices to our collection, but were also deepening ... More | | 
Marguerite Gérard & Jean-Honore Fragonard, L'élève intéressante. Oil on canvas, 64,6 x 55 cm ; 25½ by 21⅔ in. Estimate: 300,000 - 400,000 . Courtesy Sotheby's.
PARIS.- The name de Ribes resonates internationally with a timeless sense of style the essence of French chic and elegance. On 11 and 12 December, Sothebys Paris will offer for sale a selection of historical pieces from the collection of the Count and Countess de Ribes. Held over two sessions, the auction will present artworks, fine books and manuscripts from the familys ancestral home in Paris covering three centuries of French history. In the exquisite setting of their Hotel Particulier, built in 1865, Edouard de Ribes and his wife Jacqueline, née de Beaumont, were custodians of an exquisite collection of objects that had entered the family in the 18th century. They were also keen collectors, acquiring works of the highest-quality to enhance the sumptuous and sophisticated décor of their ... More |
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| | Croatia's 'Schindler's List' producer dies aged 87 | | Works by the great names of Modern, Contemporary & Swiss Art featured in Koller's December auctions | | Tempers flare over rebuilding of Notre-Dame spire | 
Apart from "Schindler's List", he also won an Oscar with fellow producers David Franzoni and Douglas Wick for Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" in 2000.
ZAGREB (AFP).- Croatian film producer and Holocaust survivor Branko Lustig, who won Oscars for "Schindler's List" and "Gladiator", died Thursday in Zagreb aged 87, state-run HINA news agency reported. Lustig was born into a Croatian Jewish family in the eastern town of Osijek in June 1932. He was held as a child in the notorious Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen death camps with the number A3317 tattooed on his arm, and most members of his family died in Nazi camps throughout Europe. "It is a long way from Auschwitz to this stage," he said as he accepted an Oscar as producer for Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" in 1993. "The dying ones left me the legacy to tell -- if I survive -- how it was." Lusting studied at a Zagreb acting academy in the 1950s before finding work in the movies, first as an organiser and later as a director and producer. He directed and produced more ... More | | 
Pablo Picasso's coloured chalk and felt-tip pen drawing "Trois personnages" is dated twice. CHF 280,000/350,000.
ZURICH.- Works by the most celebrated artists of the Modern era will be offered in the 6 December auction: Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Cézanne and Renoir are among the modern masters represented. "Nymphs" by Henri Matisse is an entrancing charcoal drawing from circa 1945 (lot 3241, CHF 120,000/180,000). Here the artist takes up a theme that permeated his work throughout his career, and his creative process is visible in the partially effaced traces of the underlying charcoal strokes. In "Bol, boîte à lait et bouteille" (lot 3225, CHF 300,000/500,000), Paul Cézanne experiments with the shifts in perspectives that made him a pioneer of modern art for many later artists. Still lifes by Cezanne are rare on the market: in the past ten years, only 13 have come to auction. Pablo Picasso's coloured chalk and felt-tip pen drawing "Trois personnages" is ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on May 29, 2019 French Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin, in charge of Notre-Dame Cathedral's reconstruction, gestures as he leaves the Elysee presidential palace in Paris after attending the weekly cabinet meeting. ludovic MARIN / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The French army general charged with overseeing the rebuilding of Paris' fire-mangled Notre-Dame, has caused astonishment by publicly telling the cathedral's chief architect to "shut his mouth" in a sign of tension over the monument's future look. General Jean-Louis Georgelin and chief architect Philippe Villeneuve are at odds over whether to replace the cathedral's spire -- which was toppled in the April 15 blaze -- with an exact replica, or mix things up with a modern twist. President Emmanuel Macron, who appointed Georgelin to head the massive reconstruction project, has said he is in favour of adding a "contemporary" touch. But Villeneuve insists the tower must be redone exactly as it was before. Tensions ... More |
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The Honest Appraisals of Alice Neel
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 Cheeseburgers, oil and minimum wage: Building a museum of capitalismNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Thirty years ago last week, the Berlin Wall came down, a surprise event that soon brought the rest of Soviet-style communism down with it. But a few days before the anniversary of that epochal moment, a crowd gathered in a Greenwich Village gallery to celebrate the opening of the latest iteration of the Museum of Capitalism, a roving exhibition dedicated to looking back on the system that triumphed in 1989 from some imagined future when it, too, has disappeared. There were edible artifacts of capitalism like cheeseburgers and energy bars, passed on trays bearing museum-like labels. Lines formed around the more interactive pieces, including a hand-cranked minimum-wage machine and a disassembly line where visitors, armed with hammers and pliers, were subjecting discarded shoes and cellphone ... More Simon Lee Gallery opens Since Last We Met: An inter-generational group exhibitionNEW YORK, NY.- Simon Lee Gallery, New York, presents Since Last We Met, an inter-generational group exhibition organized by Debra Singer in collaboration with Simon Lee Gallery. Since Last We Met centers around an imagined set of metaphorical conversations among artists who experiment with notions of materiality. Blurring boundaries between painting and sculpture as well as between craft and fine art forms, artists from three generations are put in discussion with one another, as they transform found and commonplace objects into new works, alternatively reflecting uncanny sensibilities or an embrace of cultural or gendered embodied identities. With works dating from the 1970s to the present, the show reflects eclectic material sensibilities generated from production methods that are alternatively virtuosic and hand- ... More Blum & Poe presents a new series of work by Los Angeles-based artist Matt JohnsonLOS ANGELES, CA.- Blum & Poe presents a new series of work by Los Angeles-based artist Matt Johnson. This is the artists fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. In an ever-expanding practice in search of the peculiar and the sublime, Johnson elevates the mundane to the exceptional. With a new body of work in carved and polychromed wood sculpture, Johnson depicts configurations of raw industrial materials from cinder block, brick, rebar, to traffic conespermutations of information composed according to gravity, balance, and primitive instinct. A crude horse, a procession of block figures, cantilevered props, and fragile towers make reference to the concept of knowledge with small gesturesa lighter, a match book, a lightbulb, an atlas, and a monograph on Matisse. The doweled joints of glue and/or epoxy between bricks, blocks, and bars exist here not to defy ... More Bonhams achieves world auction record for a Keith Haring muralNEW YORK, NY.- Keith Harings Untitled (The Church of the Ascension Grace House Mural) achieved $3,860,075, a world auction record for a Keith Haring mural at Bonhams sale of Post-War & Contemporary Art on November 13. This was the first Haring mural ever to come to auction. The monumental 85ft mural was painted circa 1983/1984 in the stairwell of Grace House, a former convent and home of the Catholic Youth Organization in Upper Manhattan. Bruno Vinciguerra, Bonhams Executive Chairman, commented: Keith Harings mural was one of the stand-out lots of this auction week and we were delighted with the result. The work generated an enormous amount of interest during its exhibition and we welcomed visitors to Bonhams from all around the globe. The success of todays sale as a whole was testament to the quality of the works ... More We Are For Freedoms: The Currier Museum opens first exhibition connected with the presidential primaryMANCHESTER, NH.- Every four years, the entire world pays attention to New Hampshire as it plays host to the first presidential primaries. The drama, catastrophes, and controversies of the campaigns since the 1950s have captured widespread attention. This campaign season, the Currier Museum of Art presents an exhibition in collaboration with the artist group For Freedoms that explores issues of civic engagement. Without taking a stand in party politics, the museum welcomes everyone to reflect and participate in the political process leading up to the presidential primary, anticipated for February 11, 2020. Steve Duprey, president of the museums board says: Politics have become increasingly divisive and polarized. This exhibition forces us all to reflect on some basic values, regardless of our party or our favored candidate. A member of the ... More Science leads Early Printed Books with Newton's OpticksNEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries Thursday, October 24 sale of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books saw a full auction room and active bidding on the internet and phones with particular interest in works by scientists, as well as incunabula, bibles and manuscript publications. Isaac Newtons Opticks, 1704, brought $40,000, followed by a 100% sell-through rate for material relating to the acclaimed scientist. Additional highlights included Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, the third authorized edition and the last edition to appear in the Newtons lifetime, sold for $9,375, as well as the unauthorized third edition which earned $6,500. Further science material included a first edition of Galileos 1649 dialogue on the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems, establishing the validity of heliocentricity, which brought $16,900; and a second ... More Glasgow Museums publish first complete illustrated book of all 676 ship modelsGLASGOW.- Glasgow is renowned throughout the world as a centre for shipbuilding, reflected in the citys internationally significant collection of ship models, cared for by Glasgow Museums. A new book Glasgow Museums: The Ship Models A History and Complete Illustrated Catalogue is the first fully illustrated record of all 676 ship models held in Glasgow Museums collection. This definitive work, which took over a decade to compile, has been launched on the eve of the UK Maritime Heritage Forum, being held at Riverside Museum on 14 and 15 November. Some of the most famous ships launched on the Clyde are represented, such as the RMS Queen Mary and HMS Hood, as well as models of historically significant vessels, including the first European passenger steamer Comet and the worlds first turbine-powered vessel King Edward. They are complemented ... More Literary nonprofit buys Elizabeth Bishop's Key West homeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- The art of losing isnt hard to master, begins Elizabeth Bishops poem One Art, followed by a recounting of her losses, which include three loved houses. Now Key West Literary Seminar, a literature nonprofit that has championed the writers work, is paying $1.2 million for the first of those houses, which she lived in for nearly a decade. It plans to use the Key West house as its headquarters. Arlo Haskell, the nonprofits executive director, called Bishop, who died in 1979, its guiding spirit. The organization devoted its 1993 seminar entirely to her writing, and more recently it has incorporated her letters, poems and photographs into its programming for young people. Bishop bought the house, located at 624 White St., when she moved to Key West in 1938. It has been privately owned since she sold it in 1946, ... More Jane Lombard Gallery opens a solo exhibition of new work from painter Carmen NeelyNEW YORK, NY.- Jane Lombard Gallery is presenting not a tourist, a solo exhibition of new work from painter Carmen Neely. The exhibition takes place November 7 through December 14, 2019. Carmen Neelys work has always been about the intricacies of transformation. The artist translates lived experience into nuanced gestures, and these gestures into myriad formsfrom sculptures to laser-cut Plexiglass and textiles. Exploding over a flat white ground, her newest paintings play witness to an enigmatic inner world, one thats bursting with energy and kinetic movement. Neely imagines her marks as a type of textpainterly letters or wordsand the compositions are themselves sprung from evocative, conversational phrases: You Have to Breath Your Own Mask First, or Heard Quitting and Seen Dancing. These new pieces gently incorporate older work, ... More Monumental Vulcan gets a makeoverEDINBURGH.- Vulcan, the 7.4m high sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) in Edinburgh is undergoing a thorough clean and dusting off. The work is being done whilst the Gallery is temporarily closed to allow the café to be refurbished and a new exhibition installed. Modern Two reopens on 23 November with the start of Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance, the first major retrospective of the artists work to be shown in Scotland and Vulcan will be back on display when the café reopens in December. Specially commissioned for the Gallerys Great Hall, Vulcan is a 7.4m high sculpture, spanning two floors of the Gallery, looming above the diners in the café with its head skimming the ceiling of the second floor. A team of skilled conservationists from National Galleries of Scotland is undertaking this epic cleaning ... More Kunsthaus Zürich presents 'The new Photography. Upheaval and new beginnings 1970-1990'ZURICH.- From 15 November 2019 to 9 February 2020 the Kunsthaus Zürich focuses on an eventful period in the history of photography. Twenty positions from Switzerland and elsewhere reveal how photography moved from being a tool of depiction to a self-reflective artistic medium, as the old concept of craftsmanship came up against new artistic ideas. Photography and its reception changed significantly in the 1970s and 1980s. The classical reportage photography of previous decades had run its course, and artists moved in to inspire the scene. A stylistic pluralism emerged; and as photography was disseminated by newly established publishers and galleries, it soon came to the attention of art museums. Curated by Joachim Sieber and including works from the photo collection of the Kunsthaus Zürich together with a number of items on loan, ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, American painter Georgia O'Keeffe was born November 15, 1887. Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 - March 6, 1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in AmericaÂs colleges and universities. In this image: Jennifer Shapira views three of Georgia O'Keeffe's works, from left, "No. 7 Special, 1915," "Second, Out of My Head, 1915," and "No. 2-Special, 1915" on display at Washington's National Gallery of Art during a press preview of the "O'Keeffe on Paper" exhibit Friday, April 7, 2000.
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