| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, August 24, 2020 |
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| | Claremont Rug Company Clients Turn to Antique Oriental Rugs With Renewed Interest during Troubled Times | |
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An example of 19th century Caucasian rugs which are in high demand.
By Jan David Winitz, president/founder Claremont Rug Company
OAKLAND, CA.- In recent months, I have been writing articles on a variety of topics related to collecting antique Oriental rugs from the Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving (ca. 1800 to ca. 1910), and emailing a new piece to our international clientele each Friday, which you may have seen. But here I wanted to deviate a bit to describe some of the more positive aspects of our experience and that of our clients in these unsettling times. Despite having to shutter our physical Claremont Rug Company gallery for most of the past five months, I am tremendously proud to report that our global client community has responded with a deeper sense of connection, telling us that their antique Oriental rugs provide solace and emotional support as they deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A visitor walks through a gallery of paintings by Jewish artists from the 19th and 20th centuries during a press preview of the Jewish Museum Berlin's new core exhibition "Jewish Life in Germany: Past and Present", on August 18, 2020. The Jewish Museum Berlin is opening its new core exhibition in the Libeskind building after more than two and a half years of reconstruction. On 3,500 square meter (almost 38,000 square feet) of floor space, the museum will present the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses and new scenography. The previous core exhibition had opened, with the museum, in 2001. John MACDOUGALL / AFP
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 | | In the virtual (and actual) footsteps of Raphael | | Dan Budnik, who photographed history, is dead at 87 | | Jewish Museum Berlin opens new core exhibition | 
The tomb of Raphael in the Pantheon in Rome, Aug. 3, 2020. Susan Wright/The New York Times.
by David Laskin
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- This was supposed to be the year of Raphael. Five hundred years after his death at 37, the Renaissance master was due to receive the exalted rollout reserved for artistic superstars: blockbuster museum shows in Rome and London; conferences and lectures at universities and cultural centers around the world; flag-waving and wreath-laying in his Italian hometown, Urbino. There was even the tang of controversy when the advisory committee of Florences Uffizi Gallery resigned en masse to protest the inclusion of a precious papal portrait in the big exhibition at Romes Scuderie del Quirinale. Then the coronavirus hit and Raphaels annus mirabilis turned into the worlds annus horribilis. When news of the handsome young artists death broke in Rome on April 6, 1520, Pope Leo X wept and church bells tolled all over the city. Half a millennium later, Rome was in lockdown along with the rest of Italy as deaths from the virus spiraled. The Scuderie show, a once-in-a-life ... More | | 
Dan Budnik, March On Washington. Martin Luther King Jr. moments after delivering his 'I HAVE A DREAM' speech, Lincoln Memorial, 1963 (Aug. 28)© Dan Budnik 1999. The Menil Collection, Houston, gift of Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil. Photo: Hester + Hardaway Photographers Fayetteville Texas.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Dan Budnik, who in a long career as a photographer captured abiding images of 1950s artists at work, key events of the civil rights movement, the Hudson River restoration effort, Native Americans in the Southwest and more, died Aug. 14 at an assisted living residence in Tucson, Arizona. He was 87. His nephew, Kim Newton, said the causes were metabolic encephalopathy and dementia. Budnik shot assignments for Life, Look and numerous other leading magazines, and his work was collected in several books, including Marching to the Freedom Dream (2014), which featured his pictures from three significant civil rights moments: the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools, the 1963 March on Washington and the protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, ... More | | 
Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin Hetty Berg gives an interview as she inaugurated the museum's new core exhibition "Jewish Life in Germany: Past and Present", on August 18, 2020. John MACDOUGALL / AFP.
BERLIN.- On Sunday, August 23, 2020, the Jewish Museum Berlin opened its new core exhibition in the Libeskind building after more than two and a half years of reconstruction. On 3,500 square meter (almost 38,000 square feet) of floor space, the museum presents the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses and new scenography. The exhibition Jewish Life in Germany: Past and Present has been developed by a 20-person team at the Jewish Museum Berlin and designed and built by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft chezweitz GmbH/Hella Rolfes Architekten BDA. The previous core exhibition was on display from when the museum opened in 2001 until it closed in December 2017. It had more than 11 million visitors. The history of the Jews has not changed, but our perspectives on it have. The new exhibition is our response to changing viewing conventions and visitor expectations, as well as a new state of research, ... More |
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| | El Museo del Barrio reopens on September 12 with 'Taller Boricua: A Political Printshop in New York' | | Eerie Belgrade exhibit turns Ratko Mladic diary into art | | Black artists find ways to make their voices heard in Portland | 
Davo Cruz, [No title given], 1974-1975. Serigraph. Image: 19-1/2 x 14-1/2 in. (49.53 x 36.83 cm) | Sheet: 22-5/8 x 17-1/8 in. (57.47 x 43.5 cm). Taller Boricua Puerto Rican. Workshop Inc. Wall 12 25 x19-1/2 in. Photo: Martin Seck.
NEW YORK, NY.- El Museo del Barrio will reopen its doors on Saturday, September 12, 2020 with limited hours until further notice: Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm - 5pm. All visitors to the museum will be required to adhere to new visitor guidelines, including: wearing a face covering at all times; practicing social distancing of at least 6 feet (2 meters); following directional signage and instructions from Museum staff. Visitors are also encouraged to sanitize (available on-site) and/or wash their hands frequently. The Museum's physical reopening will be celebrated with Taller Boricua: A Political Print Shop in New York, the first monograph exhibition in three decades about the East Harlem-based Nuyorican collective workshop and alternative space. Curated by Rodrigo Moura, Chief Curator of El Museo del Barrio, the exhibition had been postponed due to the temporary closure, and is now on view as of September 12, 2020 through January ... More | | 
In this photograph taken on August 11, 2020, Serbian artist Vladimir Miladinovic poses at his exhibition in Belgrade. Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP.
by Sally Mairs
BELGRADE (AFP).- For nearly four years Serbian artist Vladimir Miladinovic started his day with a morning coffee and the diary of one of the Balkans' most notorious war criminals, Ratko Mladic. Word for word, he painstakingly copied the notebook's 400 pages by hand onto fresh white sheets, which now cover the walls of a Belgrade exhibit raising questions about how to confront one of the region's darkest chapters. For the 39-year-old artist, the task was in part a "performative act of trying to deal with this very harsh material which we are still forced to deal with today, 25 years after the war", he told AFP from the austere gallery on the banks of the Danube. His subject, the 77-year-old former Bosnian Serb commander whose troops committed genocide in Srebrenica among other war crimes during Yugoslavia's collapse, was sentenced to life in prison by an international tribunal in The Hague in 2017. His appeal trial is due to start on August 25. Yet while the legal ... More | | 
The artists Sharita Towne, left, and Intisar Abioto at the the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Ore., Aug. 12, 2020. Mason Trinca/The New York Times.
by Zachary Small
PORTLAND, ORE (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Over the years, Bobby Fouther has watched the historic center of African American life in Portland, Oregon, bloom, shrink and expand again. The 69-year-old artist was born into a creative family from the neighborhood of Albina, which he remembers filled with jazz music and beauty. Black artists were thriving here in the 1950s, he recalled. My parents had turned our grandfathers garage into a miniature theater, where my stepfather and his friends would perform late into the night. Then came a 1962 study by the Portland Development Commission, which declared the area home to nearly 80% of the citys Black population lost to advanced blight. Over the next decade, many Albina residents found themselves forcefully relocated as the city carved through their neighborhood with an expanded highway system and hospital project. Even today, Black residents are fighting to preserve the areas historic ... More |
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| | The treasure hunters of Block Island | | Kasmin announces the release of 'William N. Copley: Selected Writings' | | New book features ongoing portrait series of Swedes wearing bathrobes after their morning swim in the sea | 
Eben Horton snips through molten glass, creating one of his floats, at his studio in Wakefield, R.I., Aug. 17, 2020. Jillian Freyer/The New York Times.
BLOCK ISLAND, RI (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In a forest here, Katie Hall and members of her extended family were dangling her mothers bra into a hollowed-out tree trunk with the laser focus of open-heart surgeons. When that failed, Hall, her mother, brother, aunt and cousin untied their shoes, using the laces to form a makeshift net in the hopes of picking up something just out of arms reach. Two hours of MacGyver-ing and one downpour later, success arrived, with the help of a spaghetti spoon taped to a branch. On another part of the island, Dawn Holmes walked back up a dirt path after completing her mission. A group of women approached, still reeling from getting lost at Rodmans Hollow without cellphone signal. Holmes lingered casually, adjusting her now empty backpack. When the women discovered what shed hidden, screams of glee pierced the air. Hundreds of beautiful handblown glass fishing floats ... More | | 
Sections include: Writings About Art and Artists; Interviews, Texts, and Letters; and Early Writings; as well as a new Chronology by the editor.
NEW YORK, NY.- Kasmin announced the release of William N. Copley: Selected Writings. Edited by Anthony Atlas, in cooperation with the William N. Copley Estate, and published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Selected Writings is now widely available in the U.S. via Artbook D.A.P. and associated booksellers, including at Kasmins 509 West 27th Street location. Though best known for his radical work as a painter, which he pursued under the name CPLY, William N. Copley (19191996) was also a talented writer. The texts gathered in Selected Writings present an essential companion for readers interested in the extraordinary life, work, and milieu of this singular artist. Among Copleys reflections on art and artists (from Man Ray to Joseph Cornell) is Portrait of the Artist as Young Dealer, a vividly humorous account of his brief tenure as a dealer in Surrealist art in 1940s Los Angeles. Included are ... More | | 
Peggy Anderson, The Morning Dip. Cloth hardcover. 19 x 24 cm. 232 pages. 108 color illustrations. English ISBN 978-3-86828-976-3. Euro 39,90 / GBP 35.00 / US$ 48.00.
BERLIN.- The small coastal village of Torekov, Sweden, is known for both its local pier, »Morgonbryggan,« and for the associated daily ritual of a morning dip in the sea. Locals and summer guests are avid disciples of this sacred ritual which can be both solitary and social. There are unwritten codes of behavior related with this activity, including the most visually obvious, the selection of ones bathrobe. Through the slow and repetitive process of working with a large format film camera, the photographer Peggy Anderson has gained insight into this community, her native country and her own place within it. From the text by Lyle Rexer: »The characteristic regalia of the morning dip appeared at once modest and distinctive, a kind of low-level signifier that seemed to say something about the social class, personality, and aesthetics of the bather. The bathrobe represented social ... More |
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| | Museum für Moderne Kunst opens an exhibition of work by Precious Okoyomon | | Two site-specific murals at Industry City destroyed | | Salon Art + Design announces production of print magazine Salon, The Intersection of Art & Design | 
Precious Okoyomon, Angel of the earth; Resistance is an atmospheric condition, 2020. Photo: Axel Schneider.
FRANKFURT.- In 1876, the United States government introduced the Japanese vine kudzu to Mississippi. The state was in danger of being lost entirely to widespread soil erosion brought about by the extensive cultivation of cotton by chattel slaves, and the vine already notorious for the speed at which it grewwas deployed as a weapon intended to fortify the ground soil. Instead, kudzunow thousands of miles away from its home in Japanbecame monstrous, consuming every- thing in its vicinity and earning the epithet the vine that ate the south. The word kudzu has meanwhile become a metonymy for the threat of invasive species everywhere. Its specific history as a failed remedy for the monumental toll slavery took on the ecological system of the American South has been largely forgotten. The story of kudzu is written in the same language that objectifies both human beings and ... More | | 
The 24 feet high murals by Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor, Fred Bendheim, were in the artist's lyrical abstract style, and were much admired by the public, the tenants of IC, and by art professionals.
BROOKLYN, NY.- 440 Gallery announced the destruction of two masterpieces of contemporary art. Two large exceptionally beautiful site-specific murals, "Creationism" and "Evolution", created by artist Fred Bendheim, were destroyed by Industry City, the real estate developers in Brooklyn, NY. The 24 feet high murals by Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor, Fred Bendheim, were in the artist's lyrical abstract style, and were much admired by the public, the tenants of IC, and by art professionals. The murals, created in 2019, had loving references to animals, the natural world, modern art, with depictions of the biological, celestial and spiritual motifs. The site-specific murals took the artist nine months to design and complete. This process of creation led to the titles: ... More | | 
Installation view of Friedman Benda at Salon Art + Design.
NEW YORK, NY.- Salon Art + Design, produced by Sanford L. Smith + Associates, announces that it will not take place this November. Over these past months, the fair has worked diligently with New York City, State, and Park Avenue Armory with the aim of producing a safe, healthy, and stunning event; but in the end concluded that conditions are not appropriate for an event of this scale to take place in New York this year. In lieu of a live, in-person fair, Salon Art + Design announced the production of a luxurious print magazine: Salon, The Intersection of Art & Design. Salon will be sent to over 30,000 of the VIPs and Collectors from the fairs very influential list, and all top designers, architects, and collectors will receive a copy. Produced in conjunction with Cultureshock Media, known for their outstanding publications by such entities as Sothebys, The Tate, and ... More |
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Wayne Thiebaud's 100th Birthday at Crocker Art Museum | Christie's
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| | More News |
 Hyde Park Art Center re-opens Sept. 1 with 'Artists Run Chicago 2.0' showcasing 50 independent art spacesCHICAGO, IL.- Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicagos vibrant South Side, will re-open its doors for limited exhibition hours starting Tuesday, September 1, 2020, with the long awaited launch of the Artists Run Chicago 2.0 exhibition, celebrating the work of 50 artist-run spaces and organizations that fuel Chicagos independent art scene. Artists Run Chicago 2.0 highlights the incredible work artists around the city are doing in their apartments, storefronts, on the streets of Chicago, and even a barn, challenging the conventional expectations of exhibition, discourse, and community. Works from each of the spaces will be represented in this exhibition encompassing six galleries, the entire Hyde Park Art Center footprint. Following the COVID-19-related closure of the Art Center in mid-March, we are delighted ... More A new look: Brussels Gallery Weekend returns stronger than everBRUSSELS.- Brussels Gallery Weekend returns in September with a completely new approach, stronger than ever, and with a real eye to the future. This new edition has so much on offer, with 38 galleries participating, a blossoming off-program, projects initiated with different associations, a brand new website, and the must-see exhibition Generation Brussels introducing 12 rising stars showcased along a shop-window city trail. From 3-6 September 2020, art lovers and collectors can visit Brussels and indulge their creativity and passion, enjoying works by artists including Lionel Estève, Lynda Benglis and Richard Aldrich, amongst others. The 13th edition of Brussels Gallery Weekend is set to be a very special edition, full of surprises and innovations. Long-time ambassador of the Brussels art scene, Brussels Gallery Weekend is now approaching ... More Ryan Lee opens an online exhibition by Andrew RafteryNEW YORK, NY.- RYAN LEE has just opened Handmade Wallpapers, an online exhibition by Andrew Raftery. The exhibition revisits the artists 2016 solo show of the same title, which was the culmination of an eight-year project creating ceramics, paintings, and installation based on his annual garden in Providence, Rhode Island. This project continues Rafterys exploration of his elaborate garden, which he designs, plants, and tends each year. This past year Raftery moved to a new house and planted a garden that is the inspiration for this exhibition. The online format for the show provides an ideal platform for showcasing Rafterys final works, preparatory sketches, and images of the garden itself all in one space. This marks the first time that Rafterys preparatory sketches some of which have been acquired by museums are on ... More Mercedes Barcha, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez's wife and muse, dies at 87NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Mercedes Barcha, the widow, muse and gatekeeper of Nobel laureate Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, who played a crucial role in the publication of his breakthrough novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, died Aug. 15 at her home in Mexico City. She was 87. Her death was confirmed by her son Rodrigo GarcÃa, who said she had suffered from respiratory problems for many years. Mercedes and Gabo, as the couple were known, were living in Mexico City in 1965 when GarcÃa Márquez began work on One Hundred Years of Solitude, the hypnotic, time-bending tale of the mythical village of Macondo, based on the area of Colombia where both had grown up. For more than a decade, GarcÃa Márquez had been eking out a living as a journalist a passionate leftist, he spent a year at the New York office of ... More Mona's DarkLab announces new Doug Aitken commission for Tasmania AUHOBART.- DarkLaba creative subsidiary of the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, Australiatoday announced a major new permanent artwork as part of a series of public artworks called Project X, situated in the south of the island state. Transformer, a new site-specific commission by American artist Doug Aitken, is a pavilion with a reflective interior, creating a lens consisting of angles and facets, a kaleidoscope that interacts with the landscape over the changing seasons. Focusing on the sky and the surrounding landscape, the pavilions exterior physicality falls away once entered, reflecting the surrounding environment and drawing the viewer into a never-ending kaleidoscope of light and reflection. DarkLab Creative Director Leigh Carmichael said: We are delighted that we are finally able to release details of plans for Project X in the ... More Russian-American artist Gosha Levochkin's first show in Hong Kong opens at Over The InfluenceHONG KONG.- Over the Influence is presenting (synthetic reality), the first exhibition of Russian-American artist Gosha Levochkin in Hong Kong. Best known for his larger-scale acrylic works in the tradition of ligne claire, the show presents a new body of work by Levochkin inspired by his childhood memory with cars. The exhibition is open from 21 August to 26 September 2020 at the Lower Gallery of Over the Influence. The difference between folklore and reality is only a manner of storytelling. Todays world is different from before. Information is dispersed and digested in a multitude of ways, and what once was discerned by knowledge and experience is now told to us as a story. A story that for some is very real - a story that can easily be turned into reality with only the right intention. In Gosha Levochkins new paintings, the story reigns king. The top and ... More The Fralin Museum of Art student docents adapt to teaching virtuallyCHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.- As University of Virginia (UVA) students were sent home due to COVID-19 in March, the staff at the Fralin Museum of Art had to get creative Âto finish a semester-long docent training course preparing students to lead tours in the museum. The Fralin scheduled students to lead practice tours for each other via Zoom. As the docents gained confidence, they were eager to try their skills with real students, so the Fralin team lined up 30-minute tours with elementary students for the docents to teach. These sessions yielded rich conversation; the elementary students were enthusiastic and talkative, and their teachers immediately requested additional programs. Building on the success of these pilot sessions, the Fralin began offering Zoom into Art in May to serve families throughout the region as well as elementary classes by teacher ... More Lang Lang, piano thunderer, greets Bach's austere 'Goldbergs'NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Habits are hard to break. Thats one reason people are still asking Hows it going? during a world-upending pandemic. A similarly reflexive Fine often follows, which is why it was so jarring when, during a recent interview, pianist Lang Lang responded with a wince and shouted: Its horrible! This is a difficult time for everyone in classical music, as in-person performances have all but come to a halt worldwide. Lang, one of the industrys biggest stars and moneymakers, is relatively safe from financial devastation. But being sidelined by forces beyond his control is painfully familiar to him. He injured his left arm in 2017, and the recovery put him out of commission for more than a year. Ive had a break already, Lang, 38, said over Zoom from his home in Shanghai. This time, Im so ready, but I cannot ... More Geoffrey Nunberg, expert on how language works, dies at 75NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist whose elegant essays and books explained to a general audience how English has adapted to changes in politics, popular culture and technology, died Aug. 11 at his home in San Francisco. He was 75. Kathleen Miller, his wife, said the cause was glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. Nunbergs fascination with the way people communicate found expression in acclaimed books like Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times (2001); in scholarly work in areas like the relationship between written and spoken language; and in lexicography he was chair of the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. He was one of a small group of linguists, among them Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, renowned beyond their academic universes. ... More Biodiversity paves sustainable future for Penang IslandNEW YORK, NY.- BIG, Hijjas and Ramboll propose a vision for a new sustainable destination where cultural, ecological and economic growth is secured and where people and nature co-exist in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet at the southern shore of Penang Island: BiodiverCity. Penang State Government initiated an international design competition in January 2020 to transform Penang South Islands into a sustainable, global destination, providing Penangites with approximately 4.6km of public beaches, 600 acres of parks and a 25km waterfront. BIG, Hijjas and Rambolls masterplan proposal BiodiverCity supports the Penang2030 vision with a clear focus on livability, on stimulating a socially and economically inclusive development, and on environmentally sustainability for future generations. The State Government hereby announces ... More Magnificent Napoleonic Eagle fetches almost £50,000 at Dix Noonan WebbLONDON.- A magnificent Napoleonic Eagle fetched £49,600 in the sale of Medals and Militaria from the Collection of the late Jack Webb (1923-2019) on Thursday, August 20, 2020 at Dix Noonan Webb. The single owner collection, comprising 922 lots, was a great success with all lots selling - and made £939,554 far exceeding the pre-sale estimate. John Vernon Jack Webb was always destined to be a collector of medals and militaria. On 5 June 1944 he was on a troop ship preparing to take part in the D-Day landings. As the soldiers around him were ordered to remove their regimental badges Jack hurried around picking up one of each regiment. Even on the eve of the greatest military invasion of Europe, Jack was not going to miss a chance to add to his collection. After the Second War Jack followed his dream of becoming an antiques ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, German-born photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt died August 24, 1995. Alfred Eisenstaedt (December 6, 1898 - August 24, 1995) was a German-born American photographer and photojournalist. He is best known for his photograph of the V-J Day celebration and for his candid photographs, frequently made using a 35mm Leica camera. In this image: Harold Gray, chairman of the board of United Technologies Corp., points to a print as he discusses the photo with photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt at Manhattan's International Center for Photography in New York on Jan. 22, 1981. The display of photographs titled "Eisenstaedt Germany" was organized by the Smithsonian Institution of Washington and made possible by United Technologies.
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