| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Friday, September 14, 2018 |
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| | Prehistoric 'hashtag' may be world's oldest drawing: study | |
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A handout photo released on Setepmerb 12, 2018 by Nature Publishing Group shows the Blombos Cave drawing with ochre pencil on silcrete stone. The earliest known drawing in history a red, cross-hatched pattern has been unearthed in South Africa, reports a study published online this week in Nature. NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP/AFP/Craig Foster.
PARIS (AFP).- It may be a symbol of the internet age but scientists in South Africa have found an ancient hashtag scrawled on a piece of rock that they believe is the world's oldest "pencil" drawing. The design, which archaeologists say was created around 73,000 years ago, pre-dates previously identified abstract drawings from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia by at least 30,000 years. It was found by researchers inside the Blombos Cave, around 300 kilometres (185 miles) east of Cape Town, a site that contains evidence of some of the earliest instances of what humans today would call culture. Previous expeditions to the cave found shell beads, engraved pieces of ochre and even tools manufactured from a rudimentary cement-like substance. Among the artefacts was a small flake of silicate rock, onto which a three-by-six line cross-hatched pattern had ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The Cour Royale of the Chateau de Versailles is pictured on September 12, 2018. Ludovic MARIN / AFP
| Juan Gris's The Musician's Table acquired through new gift from Leonard A. Lauder- Now on view | | Exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD focuses on Ogawa Machiko's minerology and torn sculpture series | | Christie's to offer David Hockney's masterpiece 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' | 
Juan Gris (Spanish, 18871927). The Musician's Table, 1914. Charcoal, wax crayon, gouache, cut-and-pasted printed wallpaper, blue and white laid papers, transparentized paper, newsprint, and brown wrapping paper; selectively varnished on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Purchase, Leonard A. Lauder Gift, 2018.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the addition of Juan Gris's remarkable The Musician's Table (MayJune 1914) to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection. Acquired with funds given by Leonard A. Lauder, this major example of Gris's exploration in papier collé joins the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection now totaling 83 works by Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso. "Since the landmark gift in 2013, Leonard A. Lauder has augmented the collection with five additional masterworks of modern art. His continued commitment and outstanding generosity to the Museum is exemplary, and it continues a nearly 150-year tradition of support from donors ... More | | 
Koike Shōko (b. 1943), White Form, 2017. Glazed stoneware, 19 7/8 x 14 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.- Joan B Mirviss LTD opened the exhibition, Into the Earth: The Clay Art of Ogawa Machiko, the gallery's third solo show of this female master, a force in the Japanese art world. Featuring two main bodies of work, the show focuses on her minerology and torn sculpture series. A longtime collector of rocks and minerals as a result of her extensive international travels, OGAWA MACHIKO (b. 1946) equates the joy she feels from her creative process to that of a miner, who after years of excavating, at long last discovers a vein of ore. Her mineralogy series pays tribute to such discoveries with each fragmented rocklike sculpture seemingly hewn from the depths of the earth and embedded with crystals in its matrix. In fact, they are created through patient sculpting and multiple firings using different clays, varied forms of glass, and added minerals. Contrasting with these solid rocks, the Torn Sculpture series suggest broken primitive rec ... More | | 
David Hockney (B. 1937), Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) detail. Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 119 3/4 in., Painted in 1972. © Christies Images Limited 2018.
LONDON.- In its November Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christies will offer one of the most quintessential canvases of the 20th Century, David Hockneys Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972 (estimate in the region of $80 million). Representing a culminating apex of the artists two most celebrated motifs the glistening water of a swimming pool and a double portrait Portrait of an Artist is an immediately recognizable and iconic image in Hockneys diverse oeuvre. Having graced the covers of numerous artist monographs, starred in various exhibitions including his traveling retrospective organized by the Tate Britain, the Centre Pompidou, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017-2018 as well as the 1974 cult Hockney film, A Bigger Splash, the present canvas firmly stands its ground among Hockneys most celebrated works. Alex Rotter, Co-Chairman Post-War and ... More |
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| Belgian art star Jan Fabre accused of sexual harassment | | Dealers bristle as calls grow for restitution of colonial-era art | | Bonhams announces Bruno Vinciguerra as Executive Chairman | 
This file photo taken on March 29, 2016 shows renowned Belgian stage director and choreographer Jan Fabre. LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP.
BRUSSELS (AFP).- Twenty dancers for Belgian choreographer Jan Fabre alleged they had suffered years of humiliation and sexual harassment Thursday, as the #Metoo movement arrived in the highest spheres of the avant-garde. Fabre is one of Europe's most celebrated and controversial artists, a marquee name at arts festivals worldwide who has called his dancers "warriors of beauty" due the physical challenge of performing his work. But, in a letter to Dutch-language art magazine rekto:verso, the former employees described a toxic work environment where "humilation was our daily bread." The letter alleges several acts of humiliation and sexual intimidation, including "semi-secret" photographic sessions in which dancers were singled out with offers of money and urged to take drugs to "feel more free". "After the photo shoot and after having rejected his approaches, I felt horrible and I ... More | | 
People look and take picture of an African sculpture during a press presentation of the Parcours des Mondes tribal art faire, in Paris, on September 11, 2018. FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP
PARIS (AFP).- Among the specialists in indigenous art gathering for their annual trade show in Paris this week, resistance is growing to demands that works taken from native peoples be returned decades or even centuries after the fact. President Emmanuel Macron gave the restitution push new momentum last year when he pledged to look into returning cultural treasures to African nations, raising the prospect that museums across Europe will be pressured to do the same. "Africa's heritage cannot just be in European private collections and museums," Macron said in Burkina Faso. But dealers and experts attending the Parcours du Monde showings at galleries in the chic Saint-Germain neighbourhood this week accuse him of opening a "Pandora's box" with a promise that will prove difficult to keep. ... More | | 
Bruno Vinciguerra, Bonhams new Executive Chairman. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- Bonhams, the international auction house, announces the appointment of Bruno Vinciguerra as Executive Chairman with immediate effect. Vinciguerra will be based in the companys New York headquarters on Madison Avenue, and will lead operations globally. Bruno Vinciguerra said: I am delighted to be joining Bonhams. I am passionate about this fascinating business, and couldnt resist the opportunity to lead one of the original Georgian London auction houses which now has global reach across a wide-range of collecting categories. With the arrival of Epiris, an ambitious shareholder that is committed to growth, we have the chance to build on the success of the past, and to secure Bonhams unique place in the auction world. Bonhams Global Chief Executive Matthew Girling added, It is a great pleasure and privilege to welcome Bruno to Bonhams. He has operated at the highest level ... More |
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| Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art unveils the vision for the Momentary and announces a gift from Walmart | | Turkey court rejects plea to open Hagia Sophia for Islamic prayer | | Anthea Hamilton develops an immersive site-specific installation for Vienna's Secession | 
Exterior South Courtyard (nighttime, full projection).
BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art held a press event today to provide an update on the timeline and vision for the Momentary, a new contemporary arts venue slated to open in early 2020. Additionally, Walmart announced that it will provide a $2 million gift toward access and innovation at the multi-disciplinary visual and performing arts space. Since Crystal Bridges opened in 2011, nearly four million visitors to the museum have experienced the power of art to transform lives. The Momentary will add new and complementary offerings, and extend the story of contemporary art right up to the moment, said Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridges executive director and chief diversity & inclusion officer. We are grateful to Walmart for their support to help bring artists, innovators, and the community together and to further position Northwest Arkansas as a unique arts and cultural destination ... More | | 
A file photo taken on November 25, 2014 shows the roof of the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul. AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILIC.
ISTANBUL (AFP).- Turkey's top court on Thursday turned down a plea to open the Hagia Sofia, an Istanbul landmark that is now a museum after serving as both a church and a mosque over its long history, for Muslim worshipping. The Constitutional Court rejected an association's demand that the Hagia Sophia be opened for Muslim prayers on "non-competence" grounds, indicating it was not the proper instance to allow any change, the official Anadolu news agency reported. In its plea, the association had claimed that barring prayers at Hagia Sophia was breaching the right to freedom of expression and conscience. The Haberturk website said that the demand had come from an independent Turkish heritage association. The Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum accessible to all by the secular founders of modern Turkey in ... More | | 
Anthea Hamilton, The New Life, exhibition view Secession 2018, photo: Sophie Thun.
VIENNA.- Anthea Hamiltons interdisciplinary interest in performance is evident in her sculptural assemblages and installations whose tableau-like quality makes them reminiscent of stage sceneries or film sets, and which she has referred to as performative spaces. Her sculptures, idiosyncratic constructions precariously balanced between emergence and collapse, function like props for stories that remain to be told. Hamiltons work is rooted in wide-ranging research, on the one hand, whether she explores strands in cultural history such as the roots of 1970s disco, art-historical references like Art Nouveau, radical Italian design or Japanese kabuki theatre, documentary photography or lichen. Each subject is studied closely and used as a lens through which to understand the world. She is equally interested in the qualities of a space, which she responds to with site- r ... More |
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| Brazil orders museums to boost fire protection | | Hollis Taggart inaugurate new space with recent acquisitions show | | The Mesdag Collection exhibits contemporary art revealing the majesty and tempestuousness of the sea | 
This file picture taken on September 3, 2018 shows an aerial view of Rio de Janeiro's National Museum, one of Brazil's oldest, a day after a massive fire ripped through the building. Mauro PIMENTEL / AFP.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP).- Brazil has issued a 30-day deadline to improve fire protection at six federal museums, a week after a blaze gutted Rio de Janeiro's treasured National Museum. Federal Judge Geraldine Pinto Vital ordered that steps be taken immediately at the museums of the Republic, Villa-Lobos, De la Chacara do Ceu, Do Acude, National Fine Arts and the National Historical Museum. The Public Prosecutor's Office ordered the six closed temporarily because they did not have the authorization of the firefighters to operate. On the night of September 2, a fire destroyed the three floors of the National Museum, which had a collection of some 20 million pieces. It was the country's oldest. The causes of the incident continue to be investigated. The historical institution, linked to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), had suffered cuts in funding, which forced it to close several of its spaces to the public ... More | | 
Ron Gorchov (b. 1930) Capital, 1978 Titled, dated, and signed verso:"'CAPITAL' 1978 / © Ron Gorchov1978" Oil on canvas 31 x 31 inches. Courtesy of Hollis Taggart, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Hollis Taggart inaugurated its new street-level gallery at 521 W. 26th Street, with an exhibition of significant recent acquisitions, including works by Alexander Calder, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, and Theodoros Stamos. The gallery concurrently opened a private viewing and storage annex across the street, with visits available by appointment. This consolidates the gallerys operations in Chelsea, where it first moved in 2015. Together, the spaces provide Hollis Taggart with nearly 4,000-square-feet to host exhibitions and engage clients with select works of art in its inventory. The inaugural exhibition, which opened to the public on September 6, will be followed by an exhibition of mid-career and emerging artists, organized by independent curator Paul Efstathiou, in October, and a solo exhibition of works by acclaimed Pop artist Idelle Weber in November. The new gallery space opened following a complete ... More | | 
Sigalit Landau, 'Standing on a Watermelon in the Dead Sea', 2005, video, © Sigalit Landau. Collection of the artist.
THE HAGUE.- From 14 September 2018 to 6 January 2019, The Mesdag Collection in The Hague presents The Sensation of the Sea: In honour of Bas Jan Ader. In this new exhibition, guest curator Joanna De Vos invites international artists to engage with The Mesdag Collection. The majesty and tempestuousness of the sea plays the lead role in this dialogue, with the sea providing an inexhaustible source of inspiration to all of the participating contemporary artists. The exhibition features works by numerous international artists, including Bill Viola, Nan Goldin and Jan Dibbets. The artworks represent an enormous range of disciplines, and some works were even created especially for the exhibition. Odes to In Search of the Miraculous, the 1975 performance by Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader, are a significant theme running through The Sensation of the Sea. Hendrik Willem Mesdag was a pre-eminent seascape painter. The artist moved to The Hague in 1869 ... More |
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Anthea Hamilton | Turner Prize Nominee 2016 | TateShots
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 The Big Friendly Giant: kaufmann repetto opens a group exhibition in New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- kaufmann repetto is presenting The BFG, a group exhibition comprised of works by Robert Breer, Franco Mazzucchelli, Shimabuku, and Franz Erhard Walther. The exhibition is titled after Roald Dahls 1982 novel of the same name, an acronym for The Big Friendly Giant. The artists within the exhibition work in ways that distort and contradict conventions of the monumental, be it through sheer physicality or by evoking a sense of wonder through shifts in everyday perspectives and phenomena. Rather than imposing a static, monolithic presence, the works on view deny durability and identification with a concrete form and position. Instead, these works relate to the environment as they adapt to it, instilling a sense of familiarity that transforms the viewers relationship with the site itself. The works on view within The BFG subvert authoritarian ... More Sabrina Amrani opens the exhibition KIN by Mohau ModisakengMADRID.- One of the oldest extant works of literature, the Bible, narrates the interaction between Cain and his brother Abel and establishes an unpromising precedent for future kinship relations. Since that first murder, the first documented lie, and the sarcastic profession of ignorance which followed, violence and cruelty have frequently gone hand in hand with notions of kinship. The first words uttered by the protagonist of perhaps the worlds most celebrated play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, exposes the perennial human hypocrisy of the appeal to kinship that is a mere screen for vice. Cain kills Abel and Hamlet refers to the new king Claudiuswho has secretly poisoned his brother, Hamlet's fatheras "more than kin" because he is now both his uncle and stepfather. In describing the usurper as "less than kind", Hamlet infuses the last word with distinct levels ... More Exhibition deconstructs and manipulates the function and image of Mi'kmaw basketryHAMILTON, ON.- Ursula Johnsons practice ranges from fine craft and traditional Indigenous art forms through performance and installation. Mikwitetmn (Do You Remember) examines ideas of ancestry, identity and cultural practice. Johnson deconstructs and manipulates the function and image of Mikmaw basketry, using traditional techniques to build non-functional forms. In Mikwitetmn, Johnson creates three distinct spaces. A Museological Grand Hall displays empty plexi vitrines bearing sand-blasted diagrams of traditional Mikmaw baskets. An Archive Room is crowded with mutant basket-type objects from the series Opltek (It is Not Right). In the Performative Space, the artist presents an endurance performance of shaving, pounding and splitting an ash-wood log to produce a mountain of splints, as traditionally employed ... More Beehave: Exhibition concept arrives in Switzerland BASEL.- The idea for Beehave emerged and travelled like an agile bee colony going in search of a new place to nest. The exhibition at the Kunsthaus Baselland began to develop around two years ago, thanks to the initiative of Martina Millà , Head of Programmes at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. As the subject rapidly gathered momentum it soon became clear that the project had to have a site-specific bent in each of its locations. The point of departure in Barcelona is quite different to that in Basel: for some time, urban bee life has been significantly curtailed in Spain and, as a result, beekeeping has been limited or even forbidden. This has not changed to this day. The exhibition in Barcelona, which ran from February to May 2018, thus took on the important task of changing perceptions of a complex subject through contemporary works within ... More A new exhibition of paintings by the Irish-born, London-based artist Conor Harrington opens at HENI GalleryLONDON.- HENI Gallery is presenting The Story of Us and Them, a new exhibition of paintings by the Irish-born, London-based artist Conor Harrington. Set against the backdrop of a fictional nation state, Harrington explores the idea of patriotism, and the divisions that arise from it, in his signature style that encompasses abstract, baroque and graffiti-style painting. At a time when walls are being built, borders are closing and countries move towards isolation, a postglobalization society is emerging. For Harrington, the mentality of us and them is rising. Harrington drenches historical portraits of forgotten generals in vivid hues of red and blue, exaggerating this idea of us and them through various political and cultural tropes. He stages photoshoots on which he bases the scenes in his paintings and utilises fire extinguishers, brushes, squeegees, hand painting and more ... More New book and exhibition offer a rare insight into the people and landmarks of the real Las VegasLONDON.- Photographer Hunter Barnes has an extraordinary ability to document aspects of culture and communities ignored by the mainstream and often misrepresented in the modern American narrative. In his latest work Barnes explores the Las Vegas that was. Off The Strip, the new hardback book and accompanying exhibition, sees Barnes document old Vegas and the people who shaped the town in its heyday. Known for developing strong relationships with his subjects and forging bonds with the people he photographs, Hunter Barnes spent January 2017 meeting the original characters of old Vegas. Their lives a vivid reminder of the past, Hunters subjects in Off The Strip are a living embodiment of the now-demolished landmarks they frequented and defined. Remaining sites like the old Cigar Lounge, where the real Las Vegas characters of the late 60s and early 70s still hang out, are as much ... More Pussy Riot says activist hospitalised, 'poisoned'MOSCOW (AFP).- An activist from Russian protest group Pussy Riot who staged a pitch invasion during the 2018 football World Cup final in Moscow has been hospitalised with suspected poisoning, members of the punk collective said Thursday. Pyotr Verzilov -- whom Ottawa says is a Canadian national -- was admitted to hospital following a court hearing on Tuesday, his girlfriend Veronika Nikulshina, also a Pussy Riot member, told local media. "His eyesight was going... First we dismissed it as fatigue but then it got worse and he lost the power of speech," Nikulshina told Ekho Moskvy radio. "He didn't recognise me anymore, he didn't react to requests. She added, pending the results of medical tests, "I am not ruling out the possibility that it could be connected to outside interference." In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, alluding to an alleged attempt by Kremlin ... More Wave Crest pieces and American Brilliant Cut Glass countertop bells perform well at Woody AuctionDOUGLASS, KAN.- A gorgeous Wave Crest Native American-themed pipe holder plaque soared to $13,000, a Wave Crest panel marked C.F. Monroe changed hands for $8,500 and three exceedingly rare American Brilliant Cut Glass countertop bells sold for a combined $9,750 at an auction held September 7th and 8th by Woody Auction, online and in the firms auction hall at 130 East Third Street in Douglass. It was the sale of the lifetime collection of Don and the late Carrol Lyle dedicated collectors of Wave Crest, Nakara, Kelva and American Brilliant Cut Glass whose items have been featured in books, trade publications and museum exhibits. Their main focus was on items produced by the C.F. Monroe Company (Conn., 1882-1916). The collection was sold without reserve. The auction was a big success. It was a well-attended sale, with bidders present ... More Cortesi Gallery opens exhibition of the work of dutch artist herman de vriesMILAN.- After the artists solo show inaugurated in London in 2017, Cortesi Gallery presents in Milan the work of dutch artist herman de vries (Alkmaar, Netherlands, 1931): a leading figure in twentieth-century European art whose importance is gradually garnering international attention. The exhibition, curated by Francesca Pola and realized in collaboration with the artist and his studio, brings together a series of highly significant examples of his work, to retrace the key stages in his creative career. Thanks to the chronological variety and the different types of the work included, the exhibition represents the first authentic retrospective of the artist in Italy: this is an opportunity to admire not only his monumental works in the Gallery, but also other particularly meaningful pieces which marked his creative path. From the time of his early involvement in the international ... More French court frees Russian artist who set Paris bank ablazePARIS (AFP).- A Paris court on Thursday freed a radical Russian artist imprisoned since last October after he torched the facade of a French central bank building to protest the outsize role of bankers. Pyotr Pavlensky fled to France and was granted asylum last year after a series of protest performances got him into hot water back home, including a forced stint in a psychiatric hospital. He made global headlines in 2013 after nailing his scrotum to Red Square in Moscow, and two years later doused the doors of the FSB secret police headquarters with petrol and set them on fire. In October, Pavlensky and his partner Oksana Shalygina set the front door of the Bastille branch of France's central bank on fire, with pictures of the two in front of the flames quickly circulating on social media. "The Bank of France has taken the Place de la Bastille," he said, referring to the square where ... More Ronald T. Labaco appointed Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator at the Morris MuseumMORRISTOWN, NJ.- The Morris Museum has announced the appointment of Ronald T. Labaco as the institutions new Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator. Mr. Labaco will assume his post on October 1, 2018. Mr. Labaco comes to the Morris Museum most recently from the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City, where he was Senior Curator. He has also held curatorial positions with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He holds an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center in New York and a BA in Studio Art from the University of California at Berkeley. "The Morris Museum is on the cusp of a multi-year pivot, with an increasing emphasis on exhibits of contemporary themes and content, especially in areas of design, sound, and kinetic art ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Cuban photographer Alberto Korda was born September 14, 1928. Alberto DÃaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda or simply Korda (September 14, 1928 - May 25, 2001), was a Cuban photographer, remembered for his famous image Guerrillero Heroico of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. In this image: Korda (Alberto, 1928-2001). Che Guevara fishing, 1960?. Gelatin silver print on fibre paper printed by Korda in 1978, numbered (0001/50), signed and dated by the photographer to lower margin with his embossed stamp centred below, 18.5 x 28 cm, matt mount.
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