| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, July 30, 2018 |
 |
| | 'Heaven-guided' underground maze proves Armenian tourist draw | |
|
|
A picture taken on June 27, 2018 shows Tosya Arakelyan walking down stairs, part of a network of subterranean caves and tunnels known as "Master Levon's divine underground" in the village of Arinj outside the capital Yerevan. When Tosya Arakelyan asked her husband to dig a basement under their house to store potatoes, she had little idea the underground labyrinth he would eventually produce would prove to be one of Armenia's major tourist draws. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP.
by Mariam Harutyunyan
ARINJ (AFP).- When Tosya Gharibyan asked her husband to dig a basement under their house to store potatoes, she had little idea the underground labyrinth he would eventually produce would prove to be one of Armenia's major tourist draws. Their one-storey house in the village of Arinj outside the capital Yerevan may not look like much but today it brings in visitors from all over the globe after a 23-year labour of love by Tosya's late husband, Levon Arakelyan. They come to see a twisting network of subterranean caves and tunnels known as "Levon's divine underground." In the cold and quiet, Tosya leads tourists through corridors that connect seven chambers adorned with Romanesque columns and ornaments like those on the facades of mediaeval Armenian churches. "Once he started digging, it was impossible to stop him," she said of the project that began in 1995. "I wrangled with him a lot, but he became obsessed with his plan." A builder by training, Levon wou ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Creator of the the Naporama museum Frederic Pierrot poses with playmobils depicting Napoleon Bonaparte's life on July 25, 2018 at the Naporama museum in Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP
| Blenheim Palace opens a solo exhibition by the visionary French artist Yves Klein | | Volunteers find 560,000-year-old milk tooth in France | | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is presenting an exhibition of Gilbert & George's newest body of work | 
Yves Klein surrounded by his « Sponge Sculptures » during the opening of the exhibition "Monochrome und Feuer" Haus Lange Museum, Krefeld, Germany, January 1961 © Yves Klein Estate, ADAGP, Paris / DACS, London, 2018 © Photo : Pierre Boulat.
BLENHEIM.- Blenheim Art Foundation is presenting Yves Klein at Blenheim Palace, a solo exhibition by the visionary French artist, running 18 July 7 October 2018. The exhibition, which is presented in collaboration with the Yves Klein Estate, coincides with what would have been the artists ninetieth birthday year. It explores concepts of beauty, sensibility and the sublime, offering visitors a unique opportunity to view Kleins seminal artworks in the landmark setting of the World Heritage listed eighteenth-century palace. The exhibition also marks the fifth anniversary of Blenheim Art Foundation, which was founded by Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill in 2014 to challenge, excite and inspire visitors to Blenheim Palace by providing access to world-class modern and contemporary art within its historic setting. Featuring over 50 artworks, this is the most comprehensive exhibition ... More | | 
The fossil was discovered on Monday evening in the Arago Cave.
TOULOUSE (AFP).- French and Spanish volunteer archeologists have discovered a child's milk tooth dating back 560,000 years in the mountains of southern France -- an "exceptional fossil", researchers said Tuesday. The fossil was discovered on Monday evening in the Arago Cave, a vast prehistoric grotto at Tautavel on the French side of the Pyrenees mountains bordering Spain. The site's laboratory confirmed the tooth belonged to a human sub-species, likely homo heidelbergensis, which shares features with both modern humans and our homo erectus ancestors. "The tooth likely belonged to a child aged five or six, who still had their milk teeth but had used them a fair amount," said Tony Chevalier, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Perpignan and the research centre in Tautavel. The tooth is estimated to date back 560,000 years -- give or take 5,000 years -- which would make it 100,000 years older than the famous Tautavel Man whose skull was found at the same site ... More | | 
Gilbert & George, BEARDESY, 2016. Mixed media, 151 x 127 cm. © Gilbert & George. Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg.
SALZBURG.- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is presenting an exhibition of Gilbert & Georges newest body of work THE BEARD PICTURES. Created over the past two years, the artists have made a selection of THE BEARD PICTURES for Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg which is on view from 28 July onwards. Speaking about this exhibition, British novelist and cultural critic Michael Bracewell, who has collaborated with Gilbert & George, comments: THE BEARD PICTURES are violent, eerie, grotesque, lurid and crazed. They show a dream-like world of paranoia and destruction and madness. Their strange sickly colours and creeping, smashed up, absurd landscapes confront the viewer with relentless aggression. They depict a world bereft of reason, in which negotiation no longer exists. Gilbert & George take their places within the BEARD PICTURES as intense, red, staring, empty-headed and sinister versions of themselves. Their eyes are shadowed and bizarrely pre ... More |
|
| New evidence of ancient child sacrifice found in Turkey | | What the Dickens? Author's study table at risk of export | | Bangladesh photographer sacked over viral kiss photo | 
Several people had also been buried outside of the tomb and lay surrounded by elaborate ornaments and grave goods, suggesting this was a retainer, or grave attendant, burial. Image: Başur Höyük Research Project.
LONDON.- Remains of young people who were ritually sacrificed have been found from Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Led by Natural History Museum scientific associate Dr Brenna Hassett, a team examined burial practices at Başur Höyük, a Bronze Age cemetery in Turkey. It contains a series of individuals who were buried between 3100 and 2800 BCE. The site dates to 500 years before the famous Royal Cemetery of Ur, a luxurious series of tombs that form the resting place of Mesopotamian rulers. An excavation of Başur Höyük uncovered a large, coffin-like stone tomb that contained multiple burials, with an unprecedented number of high-status grave goods for the period and region. In three graves were found the remains of at least 11 people, male and female, ranging from age 11 to young adults. Several people were buried outside the tomb with elaborate ornaments and grave goods. ... More | | 
William IV mahogany table, previously owned by Charles Dickens. Retailed or made by M. Wilson (the name impressed on one drawer). Estimated to have been built in around 1835, London. Measured at 74cm high and 107.5cm diameter.
LONDON.- A study table used by Charles Dickens, one of Britains most famous novelists, is at risk of being exported from the UK unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of £67,600. Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism Michael Ellis has placed a temporary export bar on the William IV mahogany table to provide an opportunity to keep it in the country. Estimated to have been made in around 1835, the round table has a revolving drum top above eight drawers and is covered in green leather. It was used by Dickens during most of his career first in his London home at Devonshire Terrace; then his offices on Wellington Street where he published Household Words and All the Year Round; and finally in his library at Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent where he died in 1870. It is also known to have contained the keys to his wine cellar, and appears to be one of the very first objects to have been formally labelled with Dickens name; ... More | | 
The Purboposhchimbd news portal said Jibon Ahmed was "not fit" to work for the company because of doubts about whether the kiss image was staged. Photo: Jibon Ahmed.
DHAKA (AFP).- A renowned Bangladesh photographer said Sunday he has been the victim of "unwanted cruelty" after being sacked over an image of a couple kissing that raised a social media storm in the conservative Muslim-majority country. The Purboposhchimbd news portal said Jibon Ahmed was "not fit" to work for the company because of doubts about whether the kiss image was staged. Ahmed protested his innocence, insisted he has proof the image was spontaneous and said he has been roughed up by other photographers because of the image. In a Facebook post, Ahmed said he had been "exposed to unwanted cruelty" due to the "powerful" photo. "I never ever believed that one click would create so many stories. Today due to this photo the social and mainstream media media are flooded with false and true stories about me," he said of the divisions. The couple were snapped kissing in monsoon rain on the steps of the Dhaka University campus. He posted it -- with the caption ... More |
|
| Royal Family portraits chosen by HRH The Prince of Wales on display at Buckingham Palace this summer | | 'Nico, 1988': movie for muse who couldn't shake her fame | | Tactile prototypes enable visually impaired visitors to perceive colours in a painting at museum in Montreal | 
Nicky Philipps (b. 1964), Preparatory sketch of Prince Harry, 2009; oil on canvas © Nicky Philipps.
LONDON.- Family portraits from The Prince of Wales's personal art collection are on display in the special exhibition Prince & Patron at this year's Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace. Marking the 70th birthday of The Prince of Wales this year, the exhibition brings together over 100 works of art selected by His Royal Highness from both the Royal Collection and his own collection and created by artists supported by three of His Royal Highness's charities the Royal Drawing School, The Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts and Turquoise Mountain. An oil sketch by Michael Noakes (19332018) of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, 1973, was produced as a study for a painting marking the Silver Wedding Anniversary of Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh in 1972. The Queen Mother is pictured wearing Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Brooch. In a specially ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on February 20, 2016 Danish actress Trine Dyrholm poses upon arrival to attend the awards ceremony of the 66th Berlinale. TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
LOS ANGELES (AFP).- At her 1960s peak, the German vocalist Nico was "Lou Reed's femme fatale," a glamorous superstar whose name was plastered across one of the most influential records of all time. But her days mixing with Andy Warhol and alternative US rockers The Velvet Underground are far behind the drug-addled forty-something we meet in Susanna Nicchiarelli's upcoming feature "Nico, 1988." The singer, embodied in a pitch-perfect performance by the Danish actress and one-time Eurovision contestant Trine Dyrholm, is addicted to heroin and washed up, yet stubbornly content that she has remained true to herself. It is a movie not so much about Nico's fleeting brush with global celebrity as it is about the panache with which she dealt with the frustration at not being able to leave it behind. "The Velvet Underground ... More | | 
Activities for visually handicapped people at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Photo Michel Dubreuil.
MONTREAL.- With the aim of making art accessible to everyone, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is making available two prototypes to visually impaired visitors that will enable them, by means of touch, to appreciate the colours in a painting by Alfred Pellan in the MMFAs collection. Developed by Patricia Bérubé, a masters student in art history at the Université de Montréal, this novel tool on display in the level S1 in the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion gives people with a visual disability a new way to connect with art. This innovative initiative, which involves Alfred Pellans 1948 work Banner of the exposition Prisme dYeux opens up new avenues for enriching the museum experience of visitors dealing with barriers, including difficulties with perceiving colour and two-dimensional images such as those in painting. Available to the public, the tactile prototypes enhance the guided tours the Museum has offer ... More |
|
| Design studio BLESS bring their own contemporary design ethos to Neutra VDL Studio and Residences | | Soaring production: Kabul kite makers prepare for the flying season | | Rankin presents Graham Fink: Duets at Annroy Gallery | 
BLESS Nr. 63 Neutra Dasein (BLESS Nr. 53 Slitcushion).
LOS ANGELES, CA.- This summer the historic Neutra VDL Studio and Residences in Silver Lake have become the home of the Paris and Berlin-based design studio BLESS (Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag) in a project curated by Douglas Fogle and Hanneke Skerath. Responding to the unique architectural environment of Richard Neutras Los Angeles home and work space, BLESS bring their own contemporary design ethos to this icon of Californian mid-century modernism. Living and working separately in Paris and Berlin, this project brings the two designers and their families together in the same place for the first time for an extended residency. In a project that is equal parts installation, artist residency and model home for alternative ways of living, BLESS transformed the Neutra VDL House into a design laboratory and a site of conviviality. Originally known as designers of wearable fashion, BLESS has spent many years exploring unusual design solutions ... More | | 
In this photo taken on April 16, 2018, an Afghan kite vendor cuts tissue paper as he makes a kite in a shop in Shor Bazaar in Kabul. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP.
KABUL (AFP).- Surrounded by bright-coloured tissue paper and bamboo sticks, Afghan kite maker Halim Muhammadi and his children sit in their modest living room in Kabul assembling kites in preparation for the city's flying season. After selling hundreds of thousands of kites during the cooler months, particularly in spring when flying conditions are ideal, kite makers spend the rest of the year replenishing their stocks. A single kite takes only minutes to make. Muhammadi, 50, expertly cuts a piece of delicate tissue paper into a diamond shape and glues it to a thin bamboo frame -- skills he has honed since he was a child. He then passes the fragile object to his children -- daughters Madina, 18, and Nigina, 15, and his 14-year-old son Shohaib -- who adorn it with simple decorations and leave it to dry in their home. While the main kite flying season starts in the winter and finishes at the end of spring, a breeze at any time ... More | | 
Both Chen and Fink live and work in Shanghai and are constantly inspired by the beguiling duality and changing nature of the city.
LONDON.- Artist and creative Graham Fink has collaborated with Shanghai fashion designer Ziggy Chen on the new collections visual identity that references dualities within people and place. Celebrating the nuances of individuality and community, the project is on display at Rankins Annroy Gallery. Fink reconfigured his imagery to create an immediate duality that occurs in any given situation evoking our tendency for interchangeability based on external conditions and environments. Multiple exposure in the images creates a complex layering effect that builds on a collective interest of fusing history, memory and time into one single aesthetic vision. Both Chen and Fink live and work in Shanghai and are constantly inspired by the beguiling duality and changing nature of the city - east and west, tradition and modernity, past and present. Chen creates unisex designs that are sartorially engineered fo ... More |
|
href=' href='
50 fabulous lots from 50 years of Christie's in Switzerland
| More News |
 Pointed Leaf Press published a lavish new book of photographs by Susan WoodNEW YORK, NY.- Women: Portraits 1960-2000, a lavish new book of photographs by Susan Wood, features fresh looks at some of the most prominent and influential women in the latter part of the 20th century. Long-unseen photographs of icons including Helen Gurley Brown, Julia Child, Nora Ephron, Diane von Furstenberg, Jane Fonda, Betsey Johnson, Jayne Mansfield, Yoko Ono, Susan Sontag, Gloria Steinem, Martha Stewart, Cheryl Tiegs, Alice Waters, Gloria Vanderbilt, and many others are featured. A lively essay by Wood, entitled Women Was My Beat introduces the book. Woods photographs were made during years of great social change, and her own career followed a similar trajectory. A born and bred New Yorker, she was involved with the original Mad Men of Madison Avenue and later won a Clio, the most sought-after award in advertising. In 1954 her ... More Palazzo Reale hosts an exhibition of works by Alik CavaliereMILAN.- Palazzo Reale hosts an important anthological from 27 June to 9 September, on the twentieth anniversary of the death of Alik Cavaliere (Rome 1926 - Milan 1998), an artist among the most important ones of Italian sculpture in the second half of the Twentieth Century. With its free of charge admission, the exhibition breaks down the career of the artist focusing on the theme of nature. Promoted and produced by the Council of Milan - Culture Department and Palazzo Reale, in collaboration with the Alik Cavaliere Archive, the exhibition is curated by Elena Pontiggia. Its centre is located in the prestigious Sala delle Cariatidi (Room of the Caryatids) at Palazzo Reale, then spreading out to another five locations in a wide and well-structured layout that involves the city of Milan: the Museum of Novecento, Palazzo Litta, Gallerie d'Italia, Bocconi University and the Alik ... More 2018 Young Archie winners announcedSYDNEY.- The Art Gallery of New South Wales announced the winners of the sixth annual Young Archie competition, which celebrates the talent of budding young artists from around Australia. In the spirit of the iconic Archibald Prize, the Young Archie competition invites children and teenagers aged five to 18 to unleash their creativity and submit a portrait of someone who is special to them and plays a significant role in their life. The 2018 Young Archie competition winners for each age category are: 5-8 years category: Harvey Heazlewood, 8, for his portrait of her sister 9-12 years category: Nauen Lee, 9, for her portrait of her mother 13-15 years category: Jessica Thompson, 15, for her portrait of her mother 16-18 years category: Charlotte Coady, 17, for her portrait of her father Entries were judged by guest judge Abdul Abdullah, a leading Australian artist ... More Poland's visionary jazz trumpeter Stanko dies: public radioWARSAW (AFP).- Polish trumpet virtuoso Tomasz Stanko died on Sunday at the age of 76, Polish public radio announced citing the artist's daughter. A seminal figure in European jazz, the veteran trumpeter was one of the stalwarts of prestigious German jazz disc house ECM and regularly toured the world. Born in Rzeszow in southeast Poland, Stanko filled concert halls to capacity across the US and Europe. He belonged to a generation of Polish jazzmen who embraced the music form in the 1960s, thanks notably to broadcasts on Voice of America radio. "To my mind, everything began with modern jazz: Miles Davis, John Coltrane Chet Baker," Stanko told AFP in 2005. After hearing his idols, he traded in his piano and violin for a trumpet. "At the time, I was steeped in existentialism, French new wave cinema and Italian neo-realism, art, books by Faulkner and Joyce, ... More Israel arrests Italians who painted mural of Palestinian teenJEUSALEM (AFP).- Israeli forces have arrested two Italians for drawing a giant mural of a Palestinian teenager seen as a symbol of resistance on the separation wall in the occupied West Bank, police said. The roughly four-metre (13 foot) image near Bethlehem in the West Bank depicts Ahed Tamimi, 17, who was released from prison Sunday after an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video. On Saturday, Israeli border police arrested two Italians and a Palestinian "on suspicion of damaging and vandalising the security fence in the Bethlehem area," a statement said. The three, whose faces were masked, "illegally drew on the wall, and when border policemen took action to arrest them, they tried to escape in their car, which was stopped by the forces," the statement said. On Wednesday, a man drawing the mural had ... More The New Museum opens the first New York survey of Thomas BayrleNEW YORK, NY.- The New Museum is presenting a major retrospective exhibition of the works of Thomas Bayrle (b. 1937, Berlin, Germany). This solo exhibitionBayrles first major New York museum survey brings together works from the last fifty years, highlighting Bayrles experiments across media and their prescient commentary on the relationship between consumerism, technology, propaganda, and desire. One of the most important artists to have emerged during the 1960s West German economic boom, Bayrle has received belated recognition for his influential works and processes. Long before the advent of current visual technologies, he foresaw our digital reality, employing photocopy machines and other midcentury tools in his early works to create analog visualizations of what are now fundamental traits of our digital culture. Bayrles thematic ... More Comprehensive overview of the geology and paleontology of the "Messel Pit" can be found in new bookFRANKFURT.- Turtles that died while mating, more than seventy prehistoric horses, colorful iridescent insects, over 100 different plant genera, or Ida, the juvenile primate: The fossil specimens found at the World Heritage Site Messel Pit are globally unique. In the new Senckenberg book Messel - An Ancient Greenhouse Ecosystem that was published today, 28 international scientists offer insights into this outstanding fossil site on more than 350 pages. The Messel Pit almost ended up as a landfill and Dr. Stephan Schaal, head of the Department for Messel Research at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Nature Museum was among those who fought for the preservation of this unique fossil depository. It is unimaginable what treasures we would have lost if the plans for a landfill had been pushed through 30 years ago! We pay a heartfelt tribute to all our ... More 'Space of Friendship': Melbourne Art Fair joins forces with the University of MelbourneMELBOURNE.- This years Melbourne Art Fair is being held at the University of Melbourne Southbank campus, home of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music and Melbournes growing arts precinct. As the learning partner of Melbourne Art Week, the University of Melbourne has also curated and is co-presenting Talks 2018: Space of Friendship with the Melbourne Art Foundation. University of Melbourne Pro Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) and Director for the Centre of Visual Art (COVA) Su Baker said Talks will examine the global art market through a free program of interviews, talks and panel discussions with a range of speakers including artists, curators, collectors and critics. We are very excited to be involved in this years Fair and to make an important contribution to promoting discussion, education and interest in contemporary art practice in Australia and the ... More Meliksetian & Briggs presents an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles based artist Todd GrayLOS ANGELES, CA.- Anna Meliksetian and Michael Briggs are presenting Portraits, an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles based artist Todd Gray and his third solo show at the gallery. In this new body of work, Gray continues to re-contextualize photos from his own archive, structuring images to both conceal and reveal simultaneously. Influenced by the writings of cultural theorist Stuart Hall (1932 2014), Grays latest works contains a plurality of critical narratives exploring diaspora and contemporary/historical examinations of power while engaging the viewer to be an active participant in the construction of meaning. For this exhibition, Gray extends the visual language of his ongoing Exquisite Terribleness series, characterized by images Gray made while working for Michael Jackson as his exclusive photographer in the 1980s, offering complex ... More Frick curator Xavier F. Salomon named Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia NEW YORK, NY.- Xavier F. Salomon, Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator of The Frick Collection has been named Cavaliere dellOrdine della Stella dItalia for his contribution to the artistic heritage of Italy, his native country. In a private ceremony at the museum in late May, the honor was bestowed by the President of the Republic of Italy, and Salomon was invested by Armando Varricchio, Ambassador of Italy to the United States. The Ordine della Stella dItalia was established in 2011, to reward individuals who have collaborated and solidified friendly relationships and cooperation between Italy and foreign countries. This award was reformed from the Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana, established after World War II to recognize individuals who were contributing to the reconstruction of Italy. Salomon, an internationally renowned scholar of Paolo ... More PLR data reveals the most borrowed authors and books in UK public libraries LONDON.- The latest annual data released today by the Public Lending Right office shows which books and authors proved most popular with library borrowers during 2016-17. For the eleventh consecutive year prolific US thriller writer James Patterson was the most borrowed author from UK libraries. He has held this title since 2006/07 and during that time his books have been borrowed over 22 million times. James Patterson commented: Im delighted to be the most borrowed author in UK libraries for the eleventh year running and its great to know my stories are still so popular with the UK audience! I firmly believe that better readers become better thinkers and I think libraries are an integral part of any community as they are essential in helping to share and spread the joy of reading. During 2016-17 his books were loaned over 2 million times and his most popular ... More |
|
href='
Flashback On a day like today, English sculptor and illustrator Henry Moore was born July 30, 1898. Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (30 July 1898 - 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. In this image: Henry Moore, Two Seated Women and a Child, 83.5 x 107 inches, tapestry (wool, cotton and silk), Reproduced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation and the Henry Moore family
|
|
|
