| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Friday, November 26, 2021 |
| | Art Basel Miami Beach returns, smaller but ready to party | |
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Carlos Betancourt at his home with his works Landscapes Re-Imagined, back, and Milagro! below, in Miami, Nov. 22, 2021. What youll find at this years tropical circus: hundreds of galleries, institutions proudly exhibiting homegrown work and an array of NFT-themed gatherings. Ysa Pérez/The New York Times.
by Brett Sokol
MIAMI BEACH, FLA.- Its back. Canceled last year because of COVID-19, the annual Art Basel Miami Beach fair returns next week, unfolding throughout the area. Beginning Tuesday with invitation-only hours, and open to the public Thursday through Saturday, it will feature 253 galleries exhibiting work inside the citys Convention Center, as well as a dizzying number of accompanying satellite art fairs, pop-up shows and celebrity-studded private dinners. Its a sprawling cultural circus that has come to be called Miami Art Week, complete with corporate branding exercises, from a sculptural forest by stage designer Es Devlin (commissioned by a Chanel fragrance) to a Yacht the Basel fete hosted by the snack food Cheetos, with dynamic original art pieces created from Cheetos iconic orange dust. The return of Basels Miami fair couldnt have come soon enough for the gallerists about to converge on Florida from around the globe. While contemporary ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Conservation workers' stand along the scaffolding at the Arch of Ctesiphon, also known as Taq Kisra (Khosrow's Arch), at the ancient site of Ctesiphon near moden al-Madain in central Iraq, on November 24, 2021. The archaeological site, which houses the remnants of the former capital of the Persian Sassanid Empire until the Muslim Arab conquest in the 7th century AD, is currently undergoing restoration works to conserve the 1400-year-old arch. The structure is "the largest single-span vault of unreinforced brickwork in the world". Sabah ARAR / AFP.
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| Egypt unveils Pharaonic 'Rams Road' at Karnak Temple | | One of the world's largest private collections of Nepalese, Bhutanese and Tibetan Art to be offered at auction | | New restoration works shore-up Iraq's historic Arch of Ctesiphon | 
Fireworks light the sky during the official ceremony opening the "Rams Road" outside the pylon and remaining obelisk at the entrance of the Temple of Luxor (built around 1400 BC) in Egypt's southern city of the same name on November 25, 2021. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP.
LUXOR.- Egypt unveiled on Thursday a road lined with hundreds of ram-headed sphinx statues dating back more than 3,000 years, in a grandiose night-time ceremony at Karnak Temple in archaeologically-rich Luxor. Dubbed the "Rams Road", the sandstone-paved path connecting the temples of Karnak and Luxor in the centre of the southern Nile city was officially opened by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a host of senior officials in a spectacular night-time ceremony. The road is nearly three kilometres (two miles) long and named "The Path of God" in ancient Egyptian mythology. It is flanked on both sides by statues that were buried for centuries under desert sands before they were revived and restored for display by the country's Egyptologists in recent years. The ram is an embodiment of the ancient Egyptian deity Amun. Karnak Temple ... More | | 
One of the highlights of the collection is a pair of rare and important carved wooden masks of Krodha from Southern Tibet, which are carbon dated AD1430 AD1620, and have estimates of £25,000 - £35,00 apiece.
CAMBRIDGE.- Over 220 lots of Nepalese, Bhutanese and Tibetan art owned by Cotswolds-based philanthropist, Alain Rouveure, will be offered as part of the Cheffins Fine Sale on 8th and 9th December. Mr Rouveures impressive collection is believed to be one of the largest remaining in private hands and includes dancers masks, antique textiles, rugs, shawls, ancient lama and shamen dresses, furniture and associated ritual artefacts, many of which have been regularly exhibited across the world, including in Paris, Venice, Milan and Switzerland. One of the highlights of the collection is a pair of rare and important carved wooden masks of Krodha from Southern Tibet, which are carbon dated AD1430 AD1620, and have estimates of £25,000 - £35,00 apiece. Alain Rouveure first visited Nepal in 1979 and it was from this date onwards that he began to acquire ... More | | 
This picture shows a lateral view of the Arch of Ctesiphon, also known as Taq Kisra (Khosrow's Arch). Sabah ARAR / AFP.
MADAIN.- Iraq's 1,400-year-old Arch of Ctesiphon, the world's largest brick-built arch, is undergoing restoration work as part of efforts to return it to its former splendour, authorities said Wednesday. The famed sixth-century monument, located around 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, is the last structure still standing from the ancient Persian imperial capital Ctesiphon. Restoration work on the arch, also known as Taq-i Kisra from its Persian name, was carried out in 2013 after a massive slab fell off due to damp caused by heavy rain. But the new bricks too have begun to fall following downpours last year. A first phase of "emergency" works that began in March are due to end next month, said David Michelmore, a conservation expert working with a team of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania. "What is falling down at the minute is not the original Sassanian construction, it's the modern repairs," he told AFP. "There was quite a lot of ... More |
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| Her art reads the land in deep time | | The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of architectural photographs by Hélène Binet | | From crypto to Covid: Why auction prices are rocketing | 
The artist Athena LaTocha in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York, Oct. 15, 2021. Sabrina Santiago/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY.- On a bright morning recently in downtown Brooklyn, artist Athena LaTocha stood by a construction site where pile drivers and earth-moving machines were excavating the foundation for a new skyscraper, and examined the scene with a kind of creative recognition. This equipment is an extension of us, right? Its an extension of the operators arm, she said. Reaching out and clawing back, making marks and movements, laying down materials and sweeping them back up it resonates for me as an artist, too. LaTocha had some familiarity with this site. She had retrieved rubble and debris from the excavations edge to use in making her large-scale installation on view at BRIC House, a nonprofit arts space right across the street. Once mainly a painter, LaTocha, 52, now operates in a vein all her own, somewhere between painting and environmental art. Her works are made on sturdy, resin-coated photographic paper that she lays out on the floor, often at su ... More | | 
Hélène Binet, Le Corbusier, Canons de lumière, Couvent Sainte-Marie de la Tourette, Eveux, France, 2007. Digital C-type print. 102 x 80 cm. Courtesy ammann // projects. © Hélène Binet.
LONDON.- The Royal Academy of Arts presents Light Lines: The Architectural Photographs of Hélène Binet, an intimate unveiling of architecture through the lens of the renowned Swiss-French photographer Hélène Binet. Over the past 30 years, Binet has travelled the world to photograph works by architects including Le Corbusier, Zaha Hadid RA, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Daniel Libeskind, Jørn Utzon and Peter Zumthor Hon RA. The exhibition spans Binets career, showcasing around 90 images of more than 20 projects by 12 architects. Through her relationships with architects, who trust her thoughtful interpretation of their vision, Binets career has followed a parallel path to figures such as Libeskind and Hadid. She approaches both self-initiated projects and commissions with a spirit of enquiry, seeking to understand the underlying conditions of the site and the intention of the architect. Often her photographs focus on a fragment of a ... More | | 
A picture taken on November 22, 2021 shows pages of one of the preparatory manuscript to the theory of general relativity of Albert Einstein, during their presention a day before being auctionned at Christie's auction house in Paris. Alain JOCARD / AFP.
by Hugues Honore and Eric Randolph
PARIS.- From Albert Einstein's notes to a record-breaking Frida Kahlo to a 6.6-million-euro triceratops -- auction houses have lately seen a string of record-breaking items going under the hammer and through the roof. Valuations are becoming hard to judge. On Wednesday, the Einstein manuscript went for 11.3 million euros ($13 million) in Paris, five times its expected price. That came just days after a storyboard for the failed 1970s film version of "Dune" sparked a bidding war that pushed the price 100 times above the valuation to 2.7 million euros. Market watcher Artprice credits a transition to online sales for sparking new levels of interest, particularly in the US and Asia. "The auction houses were very behind the times. But Covid forced them to modernise and the result is that online sales have been spectacular and have attracted ... More |
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| National Geographic 'Afghan girl' evacuated to Italy | | First major survey in Germany of Zanele Muholi opens at Gropius Bau | | Early 17th century picture revealed as portrait of important historian's family linked to Berkeley Castle | 
In this file photo taken on November 09, 2016 Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula, 45, looks on as she meets with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Presidential Palace in Kabul. SHAH MARAI / AFP.
ROME.- Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed Afghan woman immortalised decades ago on a National Geographic cover, has been evacuated to Italy, the Italian government said on Thursday. "Afghan citizen Sharbat Gula has arrived in Rome," it said in a statement, without giving a specific date. Rome said it had responded to pleas from non-profit organisations working in Afghanistan to help her leave the Taliban-controlled country, "organising for her to travel to Italy as part of the wider evacuation programme in place for Afghan citizens and the government's plan for their reception and integration". Gula became arguably Afghanistan's most famous refugee after US photographer Steve McCurry captured her portrait in a Pakistan camp in the 1980s and it was published on the front cover of the National Geographic magazine. Gula said she first arrived in Pakistan an orphan, some four or five years after the Soviet invasion ... More | | 
Zanele Muholi, Zol, 2002. 800 x 610 mm, photograph, gelatin silver print on paper. Courtesy of the Artist and Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York.
BERLIN.- This November, Gropius Bau opens the first major survey in Germany of South African visual activist Zanele Muholi. Muholi came to prominence in the early 2000s with photographs that tell stories of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex lives in South Africa and beyond. Presenting the full breadth of Muholis career, the Gropius Bau survey brings together over 200 photographs: from their very first body of work, Only Half the Picture, to their on-going series Somnyama Ngonyama. Muholis work addresses sexual politics, racial violence, communal resistance and self-assertion and is a gesture of visibility, empowerment and social activism. It challenges dominant stereotypes and the heteronormative gaze while speaking to various forms of social, communal and artistic self-empowerment. During the 1990s, South Africa underwent major social and political change. The countrys 1996 post-aparthei ... More | | 
The 1612 portrait of Mary Smyth, then aged 35, and her son John Smyth, aged one, the son of John Smyth the Elder, Land Steward and archivist to the Berkeley family of Berkeley Castle. Father and son were both important historians of the first half of the 17th century. The estimate for the portrait at Ewbanks on December 2 is £1,000-2,000.
LONDON.- An early 17th century double portrait for sale at Ewbanks on December 2 pictures the family of the author of the Berkeley Manuscripts. It is one of the most important documents on Contemporary English life in the period leading up to the English Civil War. Research by the auction house showed that the portrait almost certainly depicts the wife and son of John Smyth (1567-1641), an historian and Land Steward for the Berkeley family, who still retain their seat at Berkeley Castle in an unbroken line of more than 850 years. Inscriptions on the portrait, which is dated to 1612, together with an annotated scrap from a 19th century auction catalogue on the back, show that the woman in the portrait was Smyths second wife, Mary Browning, whom he had married two years ... More |
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| Watts Contemporary Gallery exhibits new work by 14 contemporary British printmakers | | Essence Harden joins California African American Museum as visual arts curator | | Art Rotterdam 2022: 23rd edition will be held from 10 to 13 February | 
Ronnie Scotts - John Duffin, Etching
COMPTON.- This winter, Watts Contemporary Gallery presents Into the Night, an exhibition of new work by 14 contemporary British printmakers about the wonder and beauty of nighttime. Featuring a variety of printmaking mediums, from linocut and monoprinting to etching, woodcuts and printed glass, the exhibition brings together artists at all stages of their careers to explore what happens after dark, with images of sleeping and dreaming and nocturnal creatures, to dazzling skies, the vibrancy of cities after hours, and the magical transformation of the world from dusk to dawn. Exhibiting artists are: Mychael Barratt, whose whimsical prints often refer to art history; Kit Boyd, whose neo-Romantic linocuts explore our relationship with landscape and our place in nature; Ed Boxall, who describes his practice as mixing up everyday things with magical things and Angela Brookes, whose work is influenced by the countryside of her ... More | | 
Harden graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in History and received her M.A. from the Department of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Currently Harden is a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. Photo: Joyce Kim.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The California African American Museum announced that curator a arts writer Essence Harden will join the Museums staff as visual arts curator, effective December 13, 2021. Essence Harden has been a collaborator and friend to CAAM for years, so we ar delighted to now welcome them to the CAAM staff, said Executive Director Cameron Shaw. Essence is deeply enmeshed in contemporary art communities throughout California, and we look forward to them bringing those experiences, relationships, and passions to the work at CAAM. Im excited to join the CAAM team as a visual arts curator. CAAM has been an incredible point of access for Los Angeles, and I look forward to ... More | | 
Art Rotterdam, the fair renowned for its focus on emerging art, will launch its 23rd edition and offer visitors an opportunity to follow the latest developments and make unexpected purchases. Photo: Almicheal Fraay.
ROTTERDAM.- As with previous editions, Art Rotterdam 2022 will take place in the Van Nelle Fabriek in Rotterdam. After year off, the event is back at its usual time in early February. Art lovers and professionals from home and abroad are welcome, from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 February. Art Rotterdam, the fair renowned for its focus on emerging art, will launch its 23rd edition and offer visitors an opportunity to follow the latest developments and make unexpected purchases. Across a floor space of 10,000 m2, more than 100 leading galleries will present the work of up-and-coming and established talent. The 23rd edition introduces two important innovations: the Projections video section will be given a completely new format and a ... More |
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Gallery Tour: 20th Century & Contemporary Art | Hong Kong | November 2021
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 Cartier aquamarine line bracelet sells for £52,080 at Dix Noonan WebbLONDON.- A stunning aquamarine line bracelet by Cartier sold for £52,080 at Dix Noonan Webb in their auction of Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu on Tuesday November 23, 2021 at their Mayfair saleroom (16 Bolton Street, London W1J 8BQ). Dating from the 1940s, the bracelet had been expected to fetch between £12,000-15,000 but after intense bidding between two telephone bidders, the bracelet was sold to an overseas buyer. The stylish bracelet, mounted in platinum, was signed Cartier, and set with approximately 45 carats of beautifully matched step-cut aquamarines [lot 258]. As Frances Noble, Head of the Jewellery Department and Associate Director at Dix Noonan Webb, commented: From 1932 onwards, much of Cartier's aquamarine jewellery was produced by the companys London branch. During the economic depression ... More  "Tim Silver, In-between Days" opens at Sullivan+Strumpf SydneySYDNEY.- The intimacy of stolen moments and lost time, of states in-between, which might otherwise feel unimportant amidst major social, political and environmental upheaval, prove essential at Sullivan+Stumpfs final exhibition of the year, Inbetween Days, by acclaimed sculptor and multidisciplinary artist Tim Silver. In Untitled (Inbetween Days) and Untitled (Close to me), interlaced feet and clasped hands respectively find urgent repose in one another. An approximation of life, a gesture of existence, their luminous oxidisation is a fixed in-between state of the casting process. To be held here by these works is to be embraced in a way that we have only yearned to be in recent times. Inbetween Days is cathartic intimacy, loss, and vulnerability expressed in the stead of yearning for what could have been, or perhaps for what might be still to come. Created during the 2020 and 2021 lock ... More  If you liked the book better than the movie, here's a historic auction for you: Firsts Into FilmDALLAS, TX.- A first edition of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark signed by Steven Spielberg, who turned it into a seven-time Oscar-winning motion picture. Copies of Tarzan novels inscribed by Edgar Rice Burroughs to his son Hulbert, for whom he drew adorable illustrations. A Shoeless Joe autographed by both its author W.P. Kinsella and the man who played Ray Kinsella in the beloved Field of Dreams film adaptation, Kevin Costner. A stunning assemblage of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. One of the best copies of Casino Royale ever to hit the auction block. And, on the 20th anniversary of the young wizard's big-screen bow, a coveted Bloomsbury first edition of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. What you see above is but a teaser for Heritage Auctions' Firsts Into Film event, to be held during the auction house's Dec. 9-10 Rare ... More  Heritage Auctions to spend a year offering comicdom's longest-running seriesDALLAS, TX.- To our knowledge only one person has ever had the time, coffers and energy to collect the entire run of a 1,300-issue vintage comic book series and not only that, but the very best copies available. The series is Dell Comics' Four Color, which ran from 1942-1962 and encompassed myriad genres: movie and TV tie-ins, beloved cartoon characters, Westerns and much, much more. And the man who collected its entire run is Denver's Glenn Malloy, who warns that "collecting the Four Color series is a marathon, not a sprint. It is not for the impatient or faint of heart." Malloy did the hard part. The rest is up to collectors willing to take advantage of that patience and perseverance: Heritage Auctions will spend the next year offering his staggering collection in its Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auctions, beginning Nov. 28 ... More  Jacqueline Poncelet and MIMA Middlesbrough win £100k Freelands AwardLONDON.- Freelands Foundation today announced that artist Jacqueline Poncelet (b. 1947, Liege, Belgium) and MIMA Middlesbrough have won the sixth annual Freelands Award, alongside the unveiling of a new partnership with the Art Fund aimed at increasing public access to works by women artists in the UK. Founded in 2015, the Freelands Award is an annual £100,000 prize enabling an organisation outside of London to present a solo exhibition, including new work, by a mid-career woman artist whose work may not have received the recognition it deserves. MIMA will present a survey of Poncelets 50-year practice, including ceramics, sculpture, painting, textiles and aspects of her large-scale architectural work, that will take place 7 March 7 July 2024. New commissions by the artist will engage with the manufacturing traditions ... More  Haruki Murakami unpacks his T-shirt collectionNEW YORK, NY.- Haruki Murakami has a lot of T-shirts so many, in fact, that he no longer has space for them in his dresser and has resorted to keeping them in cardboard boxes. His growing collection is the subject of a new book, Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love, which was published Tuesday by Knopf. Through a series of essays, written in Japanese and translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Murakami takes readers through a sartorial journey, sharing memories and musings through the lens of the clothes he has accumulated over the years. Some of the shirts in the book serve as mementos of his travels and turning points in his life. Others are mysteries, like a yellow one with the name Tony Takitani on it, which he found in a thrift store in Maui, Hawaii. (An imagined Tony Takitani appears as the protagonist in one of Murakamis short ... More  Why Africa is dominating literary prizes in 2021PARIS.- Some of the world's biggest literary awards, including the Nobel, Booker and Goncourt, have gone to Africans this year in a sign of the continent's emergence as a major force in publishing and a region with a direct line to the pressing questions of our time. "We are witnessing a reawakening of interest in Africa among the European literary world," said Xavier Garnier, who teaches African literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. He described the string of awards for Africans as "striking". They include Tanzania's Abdulrazak Gurnah becoming a Nobel laureate, South Africa's Damon Galgut winning Britain's Booker Prize and 31-year-old Senegalese Mohamed Mbougar Sarr becoming the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to win France's top literary award, the Prix Goncourt. That's not all: Senegalese writers won this year's International Booker ... More  Nationalistic war film smashes Chinese box office recordsBEIJING.- A nationalistic blockbuster set during the Korean War has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales and become the highest-grossing film ever in China, according to box office data. "The Battle at Changjin Lake", a chest-thumping war epic, is the latest entry in a new era of Chinese action films with explicitly patriotic themes that reflect rising levels of domestic nationalism. Criticism of the film's message -- which depicts the titular battle as a total victory for Chinese forces -- has been met with a heavy-handed response from the authorities, including the arrest of a high-profile former journalist. But the film, released on the eve of China's annual October public holiday, proved popular with audiences, smashing the previous box office record of 5.6 billion yuan ($891 million) in ticket sales, ticketing platform Maoyan said ... More  Taiwan's Golden Horse a holdout for uncensored Chinese cinemaTAIPEI.- With no mainstream Chinese films showing for the third year running, Taiwan's top film festival may have lost some lustre, but directors and critics say it remains a crucial bulwark against Beijing's censors. Long dubbed the Chinese-language "Oscars", the Golden Horse Film Awards will kick off in Taipei on Saturday -- again without the legion of Chinese filmmakers and stars who once used to walk the red carpet. It ran afoul of Beijing when a Taiwanese director called for the island's independence in an acceptance speech at the 2018 ceremony, triggering an official boycott the following year. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary. There were no mainland films in the 2019 nomination list after China's national film board ordered directors and actors to boycott the event. Several Hong ... More  Bolsonaro against Brazil resuming carnivalBRASILIA.- President Jair Bolsonaro said Thursday he was against Brazil resuming carnival celebrations in February, a rare nod to Covid-19 social distancing measures from the far-right leader. "As far as I'm concerned, we shouldn't have carnival," Bolsonaro, 66, said in an interview, as Brazil debates whether to go ahead with the festivities held from February 25 to March 1. Carnival was canceled in Brazil this year because of the pandemic. But authorities are considering allowing it to go ahead in 2022, given a sharp drop in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in Brazil. Bolsonaro said he believed it was too soon, but that the decision was up to state and local authorities. "I don't want to get involved, because it could just cause another controversy," he told radio network Sociedade. "Last February, the pandemic was just arriving, we didn't know much about it. I declared an emergen ... More  Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood on Canada stampOTTAWA.- Canada's postal service on Thursday celebrated the 60-year writing career of "The Handmaid's Tale" author Margaret Atwood by featuring her image on a stamp. At a ceremony at a Toronto library, Ottawa-born Atwood reacted with humor to the "unexpected honor," welcoming friends and family, and "those who intend to make fun of me for being on a stamp." "On a stamp, really, the nerve," she quipped dryly. "How ever will I live it down... How cringe. How eye-rolling." "Be prepared for a bunch of jokes about licking and sticking, not to mention cancelation and especially not to mention philately," she said, recalling her childhood collection of stamps ripped off envelopes pulled from trash bins. The new stamp features a picture of Atwood -- eyes closed and one hand on her cheek -- with the lines "A word after a word after a word is power," from ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Pera Müsezi 
Matisse 
NATHALIE DJURBERG AND HANS BERG 
Alex Katz
Flashback On a day like today, American cartoonist Charles M. Schulz was born November 26, 1922. Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (November 26, 1922 - February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis. In this image: Ma Leshan, 76, holds a series of models of Peanut characters in his exhibition room in Shiqi of Zhongshan city, south China's Guangdong Province, 29 May 2003. Charles Schulz, the US cartoonist, appointed Ma as the only manual model sculptor for his Peanut series in 1978. Ma has made over 10,000 Snoopy models in the past 25 years. Manual models are the first models made according to the drawings before the mass production.
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