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Egypt makes 'major discoveries' at Saqqara archaeological site

An archaeologist displays unearthed human skulls ahead of the official announcement of the discovery by an Egyptian archaeological mission of a new trove of treasures at Egypt's Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, on January 17, 2021. The discovery at the necropolis which lies 30kms south of the Egyptian capital, includes the funerary temple of Queen Naert, wife of King Teti, as well as burial shafts, coffins, and mummies dating back to nearly 3000 years ago during the New Kingdom. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP.

by Mohamed Abouelenen


SAQQARA (AFP).- Egypt unveiled Sunday ancient treasures found at the Saqqara archaeological site south of Cairo, including sarcophagi over 3,000 years old, a discovery that "rewrites history", according to famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. Saqqara is a vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to more than a dozen pyramids, ancient monasteries, and animal burial sites. A team headed by Hawass made the finds near the pyramid of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. More than 50 wooden sarcophagi dating to the New Kingdom (16th century BC to 11th century BC) were found in a burial shaft. "This discovery re-writes the history of Saqqara and more specifically the history of the New Kingdom, which began 3,000 years ago," Hawass told AFP on Sunday. He ... More


The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
From Chaos to Order: Greek Geometric Art from the Sol Rabin Collection is currently on view through April 11, 2021 at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. It is the first major museum exhibition in the United States in more than 25 years to focus on Greek art created during the Geometric period (c. 900-700 B.C.). This standing male statuette appears to be singing or speaking while holding a large stringed musical instrument, the phorminx, a relative of the lyre, preferred by singers of epic poetry. Image: Greek, Homeric Aoidos (Singer), Eighth century B.C., Bronze, The Sol Rabin Collection.






The kids of survival are middle-aged - and transforming yet again   David Zwirner opens first solo show of Raoul De Keyser's work in Greater China   Lark Mason Associates announces sale of French Furniture and Chinese Decorative Arts


Tim Rollins & KOS, Amerika, The Hotel Occidental, 2006. Acrylic and graphite on book pages on canvas, 75 x 59 in. Image by KeneK Photography courtesy of Wexler Gallery.

by Ted Loos


HOBOKEN (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As their name suggests, the Kids of Survival have been through plenty before there was ever a pandemic. Surmounting obstacles is what they do. Except now they are not kids anymore. What began in the 1980s as a program for South Bronx teenagers with learning disabilities grew quickly into a successful art collective called Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), whose works are in the collections of major museums. Now it’s composed of four middle-aged men: brothers Angel Abreu and Jorge Abreu, Rick Savinon and Robert Branch. Rollins, the artist and educator who founded the group, died in 2017 at age 62. The current members started with the group between ages 12 and 16, and all had their lives ... More
 

Raoul De Keyser, Breaker, 2011. Oil and gesso on canvas mounted on panel, 12 x 8 3/4 x 3/4 inches (30.5 x 22.2 x 1.9 cm)

HONG KONG.- David Zwirner is presenting Raoul De Keyser, on view at the gallery’s Hong Kong location. The first solo show of the artist’s work in Greater China, the exhibition features paintings from the last twenty-five years of De Keyser’s five-decade career, illustrating his intuitive—yet rigorous—facility with his medium. Complementing the presentation in Hong Kong is an online exhibition, New Visions: After De Keyser, that situates the late Belgian painter in dialogue with contemporary painters whose art continues to relate to or be informed by his pioneering compositions. De Keyser (1930–2012) is known for his sophisticated and tempered paintings that subtly and evocatively explore the relationship between color and form. Made up of simple shapes and painterly marks, his works allude to the natural world and representational imagery, while avoiding suggestions of narrative or ... More
 

Large Chinese Pottery Prancing Horse.

NEW YORK, NY.- Lark Mason Associates sale of French Furniture and Decorative Arts from a prominent New York collector is now live on igavelauctions.com. The sale, which closes on January 26th, consists of just under 50 select lots of French furniture, Chinese tomb pottery, and decorative arts. The collection which was housed in an elegant apartment designed by a well-known Washington DC-based interior designer includes a fine pair of Louis XVI Tulipwood Marquetry corner cabinets, made by Pierre Roussel (Estimate: $15,000-25,000), and a Louis XVI Mahogany and Inlaid Tulipwood Wood Desk (Estimate: $2,000-3,000). Among the superb Chinese tomb pottery wares are a pair of Tang Dynasty Chinese painted pottery Lokapala (Estimate: $7,000-10,000) and a large Chinese pottery prancing horse, Sichuan Provence, Han Dynasty (Estimate: $5,000-8,000). “This sale is an eclectic blend of French furniture and Chinese decorative arts that ... More


Dylan, Young, Fleetwood: Music publishing sector booming with high-profile sales   Germany's Buchenwald camp raps 'disrespectful' tobogganers   Sylvain Sylvain of the proto-punk band New York Dolls dies at 69


Producer Merck Mercuriadis at Abbey Road Studios in London, Feb. 19, 2020. Suzie Howell/The New York Times.

by Maggy Donaldson


NEW YORK (AFP).- The pandemic has left the performance industry reeling but music publishing, a normally under-the-radar side of the business, is roaring thanks to a frenzy of high-profile music catalog sales. The royalty streams of songwriting copyright portfolios can prove lucrative for the long haul, and increasingly are enticing investors even as other industries tank under the pandemic's weight. In many cases, the transactions have come at staggering prices: Bob Dylan sold his full publishing catalog for a reported sum of $300 million to Universal Music Publishing Group, while Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac sold a majority stake in her catalog reportedly for $100 million. Neil Young and the duo behind Blondie inked deals for undisclosed amounts, as did Shakira. Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, both also of Fleetwood Mac, each recently announced sales that include publishing copyrights to hits ... More
 

In this file photo taken on January 27, 2020 visitors walk in front of the entrance to the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany. JENS SCHLUETER / AFP.

BERLIN (AFP).- The German memorial at former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald Thursday demanded an end to visitors playing winter sports at the site, after some were even spotted sledging at its mass graves. Criticising "disrespectful" behaviour, the foundation asked guests to refrain from leisure pastimes at Buchenwald and the former subcamp Mittelbau-Dora in eastern Germany. "Sporting activities are a violation of visitor rules and disturb the peace of the dead," it said in a statement, warning that its security staff would be stepping up patrols and trespassers would be reported to the police. The director of the foundation, Jens-Christian Wagner, told news website Der Spiegel that "masses" of daytrippers had gathered at the site over the weekend and most seemed to have come for fun in the snow. "Some of the sledge tracks ended at the mass graves," he said. Wagner said he could understand that many families with children wanted to ... More
 

The New York Dolls were brash and glam, gender-bending and unapologetic, qualities that were still a few years away from becoming commonplace in clubs like CBGB in the East Village.

by Neil Genzlinger


NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Sylvain Sylvain, a key member of the New York Dolls, the influential though short-lived proto-punk band whose outrageous shows at Max’s Kansas City and other venues paved the way for the era of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, died Wednesday at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 69. His wife, Wanda O’Kelley Mizrahi, said the cause was cancer. Sylvain had been dabbling in the garment business when he joined the fledgling group as a guitarist in late 1971. He had gone to high school in Queens with two of the other members, Johnny Thunders, the lead guitarist, and Billy Murcia, the drummer, a friend since childhood. And it was Sylvain who came up with the group’s name, based on something he saw out the window of Different Drummer, the Lexington Avenue boutique where he worked. “Across the street was the New ... More


Exhibition at PDNB Gallery focuses on photography in the 1970's   Penn Museum exposes objects' exquisite details with Invisible Beauty: The Art of Archaeological Science   Collaborative exhibition by Casey Reas and Jan St. Werner on view at bitforms gallery


Jeffrey Silverthorne, Denise Hustling, outside of Homestead Cafe, Providence, RI, 1972, from the Providence Transvestite series. Courtesy PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX.

DALLAS, TX.- The decade marks a historic turn in art history for photography. No longer was traditional landscape and documentary photography the same. Photography shared the spotlight with painting. The subject of American landscape became not the natural but the altered. Images of our urban, and suburban landscapes by Ed Ruscha, Robert Adams and Bill Owens took hold. Garry Winogrand manically photographed the streets, brilliantly capturing people in moments of joy, oddity, drama, sport and truth. Major artists like John Baldessari, Lucas Samaras, Robert Rauschenberg, incorporated photography in their work. Feminist artists were reacting viscerally to their lack of equality. Ana Medieta used photography to document her powerful performances. Performance art became popular world-wide and necessitated photography to record temporary works and performances by Christo, Dennis ... More
 

Researchers burned rice grains as part of a lab-based experiment to help identify evidence of fermentation at archaeological sites.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Using innovative technology, the Penn Museum peers inside a fascinating, hidden world with a new 1,100 square-foot special exhibition, Invisible Beauty: The Art of Archaeological Science, opening Saturday, January 16, 2021. Through more than 25 stunning images, Invisible Beauty unlocks the wonder of the human story—exposing objects’ concealed information with the use of high powered microscopes and multimodal imaging that employs infrared light. The special exhibition zooms in on the exquisite details that are not visible to the naked eye in a breathtaking series of microscopic photographs, x-rays, and magnetic gradiometry survey results, which allows archaeologists to map what’s underground without digging—alongside some of the artifacts themselves in a thought-provoking display. By meticulously extracting and analyzing information from artifacts, specimens, and landscapes—unseen decorations on ancient sculp ... More
 

Casey Reas and Jan St. Werner, Untitled 3 (I withdraw.), 2020. Video (color, sound, black box environment, projector, speakers, media player. Dimensions variable, landscape orientation, 10 min, loop. Edition of 3, 1 AP. Courtesy bitforms gallery, New York.

NEW YORK, NY.- bitforms gallery introduces Alchemical, a collaborative exhibition by Casey Reas and Jan St. Werner. Alchemical presents the artists’ suite of videos alongside a selection of prints by Casey Reas. The online component of this exhibition is presented in collaboration with New Art City. Untitled Film Stills are a series of prints that trace Reas’ exploration of generative adversarial networks (GAN) as image-making instruments. This empirical procedure more closely resembles alchemy than the artist’s usual practice of software art. Reas and technical lead Hye Min Cho trained GANs with specific films selected for their visual and emotional environments. The artist extracted impressions from consequent material, thereby positioning GANs as an apparatus of his visual language. Untitled Film Stills are selections from the ... More


Rocker David Crosby on songwriting, 'emotional voyages' and Donald Trump   "Christo & Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection' opens at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at FSW   When Raf met Miuccia


In this file photo taken on November 4, 2011 Singer David Crosby from Crosby, Stills and Nash (R) walks among the demonstrators with 'Occupy Wall Street' as they continue their protest at Zuccotti Park in New York. Timothy A. CLARY / AFP.

by Maggy Donaldson


NEW YORK (AFP).- Like all entertainers, David Crosby -- the mustachioed co-founder of both the seminal folk rock band The Byrds and the supergroup Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young) -- had a disappointing 2020 that saw the pandemic ground tours and thwart live performance. But the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, songwriter and prominent Twitter personality has tried to make the most of it, working on a screenplay and new songs, catching up on music from jazz to bluegrass, and dreaming up a European museum tour for when it's safe to travel again. The 79-year-old is an adept social media user, dropping quippy tweets on everything from the music business to blasts of the Donald Trump administration, also praising climate activist Greta Thunberg and regularly critiquing his ... More
 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude first visited the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery and the Florida Southwestern State College campus in 2003.

FORT MYERS, FLA.- Florida Southwestern State College is presenting “Christo & Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection” - a traveling retrospective exhibition on view at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery and running through April 17th. The Tom Golden Collection surveys the extraordinary career of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude through collages, prints, photographs, drawings and objects. Drawn from the permanent collection of the Sonoma County Museum—the most extensive private collection in the United States—the exhibition spans 37 years of the Christos’ career. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were famous for their large-scale environmental projects that temporarily altered urban and rural landscapes in Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan. Each of the artists’ projects, from the earliest to the most recent, existed only briefly, but were anticipated with suspense for months and even years while being plann ... More
 

Miuccia Prada, a co-creative director at the luxury fashion house Prada. Paolo Barbi via The New York Times.

by Vanessa Friedman


NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Imagine Mark Zuckerberg naming Elon Musk his co-chief executive, or Steven Spielberg declaring that from now on he would co-direct all of his films with George Clooney. That’s what it was like for the fashion world when, last February, Miuccia Prada announced that she was naming Raf Simons, the former creative director of Jil Sander, Dior and Calvin Klein, to be her co-creative director at Prada. Two opinionated, style-shaping designers sharing power? Two more than healthy egos compromising on clothes? It was potentially exciting and good for wardrobes everywhere, but also hard to believe. Now, just under a year later, as both designers prepare to unveil their first menswear collection Sunday, it is apparent that the conversation they started that day is still going on — a conversation in both words and cloth. Simons, 53, is splitting ... More




Mulyana's "The Messenger" seen by Jarren Lau



More News

Pixar's 'Soul' has a Black hero. In Denmark, a white actor dubs the voice.
COPENHAGEN (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Like most of their counterparts around the world, Danish film critics initially greeted “Soul,” Pixar’s first animated feature to focus on Black characters and African American culture, with rapture, hailing its sensitive, joyful portrayal of a jazz musician on a quest to live a meaningful life. The film was described as “a miracle,” by one reviewer in Denmark, “beautiful and life-giving” by another. What the Danish press did not initially focus on, by and large, was the characters’ race. But that changed after the movie’s release on Dec. 25, when realization spread that the Danish-language version had been dubbed primarily by white actors. This is also the case in many other European-language versions of “Soul.” While in most countries, the film’s voice-over casting has barely registered with the public, in ... More

3Arts launches Disability Culture Leadership Initiative to advance advocacy and justice efforts in the arts
CHICAGO, IL.- 3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, announced today the launch of the Disability Culture Leadership Initiative (DCLI), featuring a new online platform created to elevate Deaf and disabled artists and encourage the arts and culture sector to prioritize Disability Culture in programming and organizational efforts. DCLI features candid video conversations among eleven Chicago-based Deaf and disabled alumni of the 3Arts Residency Fellowships at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), as well as a report that chronicles the trajectory of the Fellowship and the city’s approach to creating and supporting the Disability Art and Culture movement. The DCLI videos and accompanying publication are now available here. The launch of DCLI stems from work that began six years ago, when 3Arts partnered with ... More

Heritage Auctions holds its first modern sports cards event at just the right moment
DALLAS, TX.- Not so long ago, sports-card collecting to most meant only century-old Honus Wagners and baby-faced Mickey Mantles selling for breathtaking prices to stockpilers of baseball royalty and antiquity. Except to the kids cracking wax and chewing gum, it was a hobby built upon ancient history, relatively speaking, an exclusive chase for the finest versions of the oldest cards bearing the biggest names. Then came 2020. Countless times during an unexpected and decidedly unprecedented year, newer cards featuring present-day icons, active all-stars and even unproven recruits realized fortunes previously unseen in the card-collecting hobby. Gem-mint offerings of Michael Jordan's 1986 Fleer rookie card broke its world record several times in 2020, culminating in a $420,000 sale last summer. A 1997 Jordan realized even ... More

Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery opens an exhibition of works by three artists
NEW YORK, NY.- The microbiome — all the bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that cohabitate our genetic biomass, actually outweigh us by volume, some estimate that there are over 10 times as many microbial cells than human cells in and on each one of us. The microbiome is invisible to the eye but visible to our sense of smell, taste and touch, and visible in human culture as well. From the foods that we eat and the ways we digest, to the ways we process and interpret information and construct identity, and to whom we are attracted, the microbiome is influencing us and participating in our relations to the world. This show seeks to explore ways that several artists have pointed to, cooperated, or worked in tandem with microbial life in the making and context of works of art and culture. The title originally comes from “Song of Myself, 51” by Walt Whitman, and more recently used ... More

Richard Saltoun opens the first exhibition in a 12-month programme dedicated to Hannah Arendt
LONDON.- ‘On Hannah Arendt: The Modern Age’ takes its title from the first chapter of Arendt’s 1968 book Between Past and Future. In the preface, Arendt links thinking together with remembrance and storytelling. Remembrance is understood by Arendt to be one of the most important “modes of thought,” one that requires storytelling in order to preserve those “small hidden islands of freedom.” This kind of thinking, which requires imagination, courage and independence, is present in the work of the artists presented in ‘The Modern Age’: Siah Armajani (b. 1939, Iran; d. 2020, USA), Thomas Baryle (b. 1937, Germany), Véronique Filozof (b. 1904, Switzerland; d. 1977, France), Vivienne Koorland (b. 1957, South Africa) and Jo Spence (b. 1934; d. 1992, UK). The first in a 12-month programme dedicated to the writings of the German-born, American ... More

Marsha Zazula, 'metal matriarch' of Metallica and others, dies at 68
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Marsha Zazula, who with her husband, Jonny, founded Megaforce Records at the front end of a heavy metal wave and gave Metallica, Anthrax and other pivotal bands their start, died Jan. 10 at her home in Clermont, Florida, about 20 miles west of Orlando. She was 68. Maria Ferrero, a longtime friend who was a key figure at Megaforce and its associated management company, Crazed Management, said the cause was cancer. The Zazulas became important players in the early days of the 1980s metal boom, signing and promoting bands through their seat-of-the-pants business, letting musicians crash at their house in Old Bridge, New Jersey, and releasing breakthrough albums, perhaps the most important of which was Metallica’s debut, “Kill ’Em All,” in 1983. “We took ourselves out of a comfortable place, rolled ... More

Six great movies about presidents
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When a president is inaugurated, it’s traditionally an occasion for pageantry and pomp, showcasing the splendor of Washington and reminding the country and the world of the United States’ democratic promise: that power ultimately rests in the will of the people. As we head into these ceremonies in the coming week, it’s a good time to let these movies remind us that the mechanisms of American politics and the institution of the presidency — at their best and worst — have endured for centuries. These six entertaining films are about real and fictional presidents and are set against the backdrop and complicated culture of our nation’s capital. Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner take an unusual approach to telling the story of one of America’s most beloved presidents, focusing mostly ... More

Phil Spector, famed music producer imprisoned in slaying, dies at 81
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Phil Spector, one of the most influential and successful record producers in rock ’n’ roll, who generated a string of hits in the early 1960s defined by the lavish instrumental treatment known as the wall of sound, but who was sentenced to prison for the murder of a woman at his home, died Saturday. He was 81. The cause was complications of COVID-19, his daughter, Nicole Audrey Spector, said. He was taken to San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, California, on Dec. 31 and intubated in January, she said. Phil Spector had been serving a prison sentence since 2009 for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a nightclub hostess whom he had taken to his home after a night of drinking in 2003. Los Angeles police found her slumped in a chair in the foyer, dead from a single bullet wound to the head. Spector ... More

Full programme announced for inaugural chapter of year-long LUX Scotland Artist Moving Image Festival
GLASGOW.- Give Birth To Me Tomorrow, LUX Scotland’s Artists’ Moving Image Festival, has been co-programmed by artists and writers Tako Taal and Adam Benmakhlouf. It begins this month with a series of screenings available to watch online from 21–24 January 2021, via LUX Scotland’s website, delivered in partnership with Tramway. Works by Isabel Barfod, De’Anne Crooks, Sharon Hayes, Kyuri Jeon and Camille Turner, and will be available to watch on the LUX Scotland website across the January festival dates, with captioning provided by Collective Text. The programme lies in between the folds of artists’ moving image, performance documentation, protest documentary and animation, considering their strategies for interruption, to undo the formal and psychological trappings of a neo-colonial, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal ... More

RØDE founder and chairman Peter Freedman AM donates $5 million to Sydney Festival
SYDNEY.- RØDE Founder and Chairman Peter Freedman AM has made an unprecedented $5 million donation to the Sydney Festival as part of a renewed commitment as principal philanthropic partner of the event. Mr Freedman has been the principal philanthropic partner of the Sydney Festival since 2013, contributing a significant amount of funds across the seven years. In 2016, he received the Order of Australia, awarded for his service to business, manufacturing and export, and his philanthropic support for cultural events, including the Sydney Festival. “I am extremely proud to continue my support of Australian arts and culture with this donation to the Sydney Festival,” says Mr Freedman. “Our artistic communities need assistance now more than ever. The creative arts are at the mercy of this pandemic, more so than any other industry, and the ... More

MAK Center for Art and Architecture announces new Director
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA.- After an extended search, the Museum of Applied Arts has named Jia Yi Gu as the new director of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, its Los Angeles-based satellite location, effective January 1, 2021. An advocate for experimental approaches to institution-building and trans-disciplinary curatorial practice, Jia Yi Gu joins the MAK Center from her previous role as Executive Director of Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles-based project space for experimental architecture. During her tenure from 2014–2020, she launched two new project spaces, M&A Storefront in Echo Park and M&A x Craft Courtyard; initiated an emergent leadership and programming board; developed M&A’s annual curatorial topics, including Staging Construction and Ecologies of Care; and launched M&A's terrestrial radio station, KGAP ... More

'Cabello/Carceller │ I Am a Stranger, and I Am Moving' on view at Galeria Joan Prats
BARCELONA.- Every revolution, however great it may be, begins in the body itself (that of oneself), which is flesh but also, as the philosopher Baruch Spinoza pointed out, power and affection. It is true that liberation movements are collective and it is the force of its multitude that changes the course of events by means of revolution. However, it also remains true that throughout history a legion has fought for their freedom and for this they have been (and are) the subject of permanent violence that attacks their very existence. It is the substratum of jotería1 (fags, tomboys, trans*, the queer, in short) that Gloria Anzaldúa claims to find at the base of every social liberation movement. Perhaps because the queer are always in rebellion, disregarding the norm through every gesture. Through their research, the collective Cabello/Carceller challenges ... More


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Flashback
On a day like today, English fashion designer and photographer Cecil Beaton died
January 18, 1980. Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton CBE (14 January 1904 - 18 January 1980) was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. In this image: Marylin Monroe. © Sotheby's Cecil Beaton Archive.

  
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