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Toomey & Co. Auctioneers to hold 'Fine Art + Furniture & Decorative Arts' on June 9

Thomas Francis Dicksee, Lily Langtry as Viola in 12th Night, 1866. Estimate $10,000-20,000

OAK PARK, IL.- On Wednesday, June 9, Toomey & Co. Auctioneers will offer close to 400 lots in Fine Art + Furniture & Decorative Arts. With material drawn from distinguished artists and makers who worked primarily during the early 20th century, the auction includes paintings, prints, sculpture, furniture, lighting, metalwork, silver, jewelry, and textiles. Logistical details and bidding instructions are provided below the sale highlights. The auction on June 9 boasts an oil on canvas portrait with a Shakespearean theme of Lily Langtry as Viola in 12th Night (estimate $10,000-20,000) by British artist Thomas Francis Dicksee. Italian sculptor Giuseppe Gambogi’s carved alabaster Cleopatra with polychrome additions ($4,000-6,000) presents another famous historic likeness. Dog lovers will appreciate French painter Louise Lalande’s Recumbent Belgian Tervuren with a coastal backdrop ($2,500-3,500). Landscapes in the sale include: two dreamlike n ... More



The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
A visitor poses for a 'selfie' with 'The Nightwatch' painting by Rembrandt on display at The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on June 5, 2021. which along with other museums in the country has re-opened after a relaxation of coronavirus (Covid-19) rules after almost six months of closure. Olaf KRAAK / ANP / AFP.






Lost painting by Sir Winston Churchill from the Onassis Family Collection to be offered at Phillips   Major presentation of new works by Yayoi Kusama opens at Victoria Miro   Collectors of digital NFTs see a 'Wild West' market worth the risk


Sir Winston L.S. Churchill, The Moat, Breccles, Painted circa August 1921. Estimate: $1,500,000-2,000,000. Image courtesy of Phillips.

NEW YORK, NY.- An extraordinary emblem of the celebrated friendship between British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, The Moat, Breccles will be offered in Phillips’ 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 23 June 2021, estimated at $1.5-2 million. Painted in August 1921, the painting by Churchill was gifted to Aristotle Onassis in 1961, and hung in the saloon of the Onassis yacht, the Christina. Jean-Paul Engelen, Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, said, “Two of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Churchill and Onassis formed a remarkable friendship, which Churchill sought to honor by gifting a work that he treasured in his own private collection for forty years. Long thought to have been lost, The Moat, Breccles was in fact aboard the Christina and is now being sold by the Onassis Family a century ... More
 

Yayoi Kusama, On Hearing the Sunset Afterglow's Message of Love, My Heart Shed Tears, 2021 (detail). Acrylic on canvas, 130.3 x 130.3 cm © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro.

LONDON.- Victoria Miro is presenting Yayoi Kusama’s thirteenth solo exhibition with the gallery. This major presentation of new works features a dynamic installation of paintings from Kusama’s iconic My Eternal Soul series, bronze pumpkins and painted soft sculptures. Throughout her career, Yayoi Kusama has developed a unique and diverse body of work that, highly personal in nature, connects profoundly with global audiences. Continuing to address the twin themes of cosmic infinity and personal obsession, the works in this exhibition are testament to an artist at the height of her powers. The My Eternal Soul paintings on view in this exhibition introduce new and recent examples drawn from the artist’s highly celebrated, ongoing series, which she commenced in 2009. These works, at once bold and intensely detailed, and conveying extraordinary vitality, are joyfully ... More
 

An NFT titled 'CryptoPunk 7523' by Larva Labs is on display during a press preview of the Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale at Sotheby's on June 04, 2021 in New York City. Cindy Ord/Getty Images/AFP.

NEW YORK (AFP).- They are technology enthusiasts on the hunt for opportunities in the Wild West market surrounding NFTs: the popular certified digital objects that have spawned a new generation of collectors convinced of their huge potential. Brandon Kang, a 25-year-old videographer from California, started buying NFTs in December, and already owns more than 500. In February he spent $50,000 for "Reflection," a digital work by electronic music artist Feed Me. His collection includes digital images of simian heads (Bored Ape), a beverage can and a cube, as well as an animation of a car driving down a road, all of them created by artists little-known by the general public. He displays them on screens in his house and -- with few exceptions -- has no plans to sell them. Kang has made believers of some of his friends and family members. "One thing that ... More


Clarence Williams III, a star of 'Mod Squad,' is dead at 81   David Zwirner opens an exhibition of paintings by Bridget Riley   Now Open: Diane Arbus curated by Carrie Mae Weems


“The Mod Squad,” which ran from 1968 to 1973, was one of the first of its kind — a prime-time network series that focused on members of the hippie generation at the same time that it exploited them.

by Anita Gates


NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Clarence Williams III, the reflectively intense actor who starred as Linc Hayes, the young, hip undercover police officer with the perfect Afro and a way with the word “solid” on ABC’s “The Mod Squad,” died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 81. The cause was colon cancer, his manager, Allan Mindel, said. “The Mod Squad,” which ran from 1968 to 1973, was one of the first of its kind — a prime-time network series that focused on members of the hippie generation at the same time that it exploited them. The show had two ad taglines. One was “First they got busted; then they got badges,” which summarized the show’s backstory: three hippies in trouble with the law who then joined the police force as plainclothes ... More
 

Bridget Riley, Intervals, 2020 © Bridget Riley. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.


LONDON.- David Zwirner is presenting Past into Present, paintings by Bridget Riley (b. 1931), in the gallery’s Grafton Street location in London. The exhibition principally features work by Riley from the last two years, with reference to the work of the past, both in her own practice and in the art of painting itself. Over the course of her more than six-decade career, Riley has frequently returned to earlier ideas and even to specific works in order to identify alternative directions that a form could take. As she has noted, ‘I am sometimes asked “What is your objective” and this I cannot truthfully answer. I work “from” something rather than “towards” something. It is a process of discovery.’1 The exhibition includes an extension of the Measure for Measure series of paintings, advanced first through the addition of a fourth colour—turquoise—and then through a deepening of tone in ... More
 

Diane Arbus, Kenneth Hall, the new Mr. New York City, at a physique contest, N.Y.C. 1959. Gelatin silver print © The Estate of Diane Arbus.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Fraenkel Gallery is presenting an exhibition of 45 photographs by Diane Arbus, curated by acclaimed contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems. A long-time admirer of Arbus's work, Weems has selected images spanning Arbus's fifteen-year career, from 1956 until her death in 1971. The exhibition is on view at 49 Geary Street from June 3 to August 13, 2021, and will be followed by an exhibition devoted to Weems’s own work in September. Weems has cited Arbus, along with David Hammons, as artists of paramount importance to her. To inaugurate Fraenkel Gallery’s recently announced representation of Weems, the artist was invited to curate an exhibition of Arbus’s photographs, the sole directive being to focus on works that speak powerfully and directly to her. Weems’s selection begins with a single preliminary image from 1945, in which Arbus stands ... More


Calder's Untitled and Kirchner's Pantomime Reimann: Die Rache der Tänzerin will highlight Christie's sale   The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches "Your Met Art Box" in collaboration with Citymeals on Wheels   The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents one of the largest crochet works to date by Ernesto Neto


Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pantomime Reimann: Die Rache der Tänzerin, 1912. Estimate: £6,000,000-9,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.


LONDON.- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Pantomime Reimann: Die Rache der Tänzerin (1912, estimate: £6,000,000-9,000,000) and Alexander Calder’s Untitled (circa 1944, estimate: £3,500,000-5,500,000) will be highlights of Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale, part of a series of sales taking place on 30 June, which are anchored around the culturally dynamic cities of London and Paris. Following the successful relay format at Christie’s in October, ‘London to Paris’ will present iconic works by artists who defined the diverse and influential movements that shaped the 20th century, situating them alongside those working throughout the last 20 years who have continued to radicalise artistic practice in the 21st century. Kirchner’s Pantomime Reimann: Die Rache der Tänzerin is being offered at auction for the first time and has remained in the same collection since the 1980s. The narrative in the painting s ... More
 

The monthly “Your Met Art Box” features four art cards with full-color images of works from the Museum’s permanent collection, along with questions and activities to encourage seniors and Citymeals volunteers to explore art and art making together during weekly conversations. © Metropolitan Museum of Art 2021. Photo: Eileen Travell.

NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art has partnered with Citymeals on Wheels on a new initiative to bring creative and art-focused activities, inspired by The Met collection, to older adults throughout New York City. The monthly “Your Met Art Box” features four art cards with full-color images of works from the Museum’s permanent collection, along with questions and activities to encourage seniors and Citymeals volunteers to explore art and art making together during weekly conversations. Citymeals volunteers received training from The Met’s Education Department on techniques and approaches to facilitate engaging conversations about art. The box, whose contents will be tied to a monthly theme, will also include materials and other items that engage the senses; a booklet ... More
 

Installation view, Ernesto Neto, SunForceOceanLife, 2020, crocheted textile and plastic balls, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © 2020 Ernesto Neto. Photo: Albert Sanchez & Tom Dubrock.

HOUSTON, TX.- This summer, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Ernesto Neto: SunForceOceanLife, a major commission and one of the largest crochet works to date by the renowned Brazilian artist. Suspended from the soaring ceiling of Cullinan Hall of the Caroline Weiss Law Building, SunForceOceanLife forms a monumental labyrinth of brightly colored pathways defined by intricately crocheted netting. Reaching a height of 12 feet in the air, the pathways spiral outwards from the center of the gallery to create an interactive, multi-sensory sculptural intervention for visitors to explore. The seventh installment of the Museum’s summer immersive art series, SunForceOceanLife will be on view through Sunday, September 26, 2021. “Ernesto Neto has captivated audiences around the world with his multi-sensory, structural ... More


Yoshi Wada, inventive creator of sound worlds, dies at 77   Friedman Benda opens a group exhibition curated by Glenn Adamson   Four Scottish artists' work acquired by Government Art Collection


Yoshi Wada performed at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Los Angeles in 2015. He created dense fields of sound with inventive techniques. Felix Salazar, via SASSAS via The New York Times.

by William Robin


NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Yoshi Wada, a Japanese-born composer and artist who drew a following creating cacophonous, minimalist performances on homemade instruments and was a member of the Fluxus performance-art movement that took root in New York in the 1960s, died May 18 at his home in Manhattan. He was 77. His son and musical collaborator, Tashi, confirmed the death but said the cause was not known. Wada’s music was characterized by dense, sustained sounds that could create mind-bending acoustic effects. He borrowed widely from different musical traditions — Indian ragas, Macedonian folk singing and Scottish bagpipes — all while supporting his musical life by working in construction. In one early musical technique, in the 1970s, he attached mouthpieces to plumbing pipes that could extend more than 20 feet. In ... More
 

Tanya Aguiñiga, Within/without, 2021. Dyed cotton rope, spaghetti straps, steel, synthetic hair, 101 x 64 x 18 inches, 256.5 x 162.6 x 45.7 cm. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Tanya Aguiñiga. Photography by Gina Clyne


NEW YORK, NY.- Friedman Benda is presenting A New Realism, curated by Glenn Adamson. It’s time to get real. A New Realism presents eight practitioners whose work meets the present head-on, direct and immediate. They are “realists” in at least two senses: first, in a diverse art historical context; and second, as individualistic pragmatists. We are interested in the range of historic resonances that the concept of ‘realism’ has for contemporary practice. In some cases, it is a form of social engagement – a position that can be traced all the way back to the “realism” of mid-19th century French painting (artists like Courbet), but has important connections to the polyphonic voices of contemporary activism. Realism can also be expressed in a less politicized way, through material indexicality that recalls the work of Rauschenberg; or by exploring the overlaps and ... More
 

Jamie Crewe, A slab - The wild heart of Ireland, 2020. Courtesy of Jamie Crewe and Grand Union, Birmingham. Photograph by Patrick Dandy.

LONDON.- Award-winning artist Alberta Whittle and Glasgow-based painter Rabiya Choudhry are among four Scottish artists whose work has been bought by the prestigious UK Government Art Collection. Organised in response to the impact of the pandemic on the visual arts sector, the £230,000 X-UK acquisition project celebrates the diversity of creativity across the UK, with 45 contemporary visual artists from all parts of the country represented. Working in collaboration with the Scottish Contemporary Art Network, as well as national networks in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the project has resulted in over 90 works becoming part of the Government Art Collection. The newly-acquired pieces will join the 14,500 other works in the Government Art Collection which are displayed in Government buildings across the UK, including in No.10 and No.11 Downing Street, and internationally in British Embassies and Residences in a total of 130 countries around the world. Culture Minister Caroline ... More




Gallery Tour with Karena Lam | 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design | Hong Kong | June 2021



More News

Christie's Paris Design sales achieved a total of €9,384,875
PARIS.- Christie’s Design sales in Paris totaled €9,384,875 over two live sales including De la fonction à la collection : Stéphane Danant, une passion pour le design et l’art français des années 1955-1975. With remarkable results and several world records, collectors from all around the world were presented with very rare and iconic pieces. Agathe de Bazin, Head of Sales : “In line with the prestigious collections offered by Christie’s Paris this season, we are delighted to have presented Stéphane Danant's private collection. His stunning selection of pieces by French designers from the second half of the 20th century attracted considerable interest from international collectors and achieved an incredible number of 11 world auction records for some of the most emblematic French designers represented in the sale. Likewise, the strong results ... More

Original Air takes flight: The largest sneaker auction ever held at Christie's
NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's and Stadium Goods announced their second partnered online auction: Original Air Takes Flight: The Evolution and Influence of Air Jordan Sneakers. Early highlights are available to browse in the dedicated online viewing room beginning June 2 with full sale live on Christies.com beginning June 4. The full selection will be exhibited at Christie’s New York from June 4-9 followed by an additional viewing of select highlights from June 9-30. The sale is open for bidding from June 22-30. Arguably the most influential athlete of all time, Michael Jordan carries a legacy that still resonates both on and off the court. With 90 pairs of sneakers, "Original Air Part II" features a comprehensive look at Jordan's impact through footwear, featuring game-worn sneakers, samples and prototypes from the Air Jordan brand's beginnings, rare exclusives, ... More

Eva Birkenstock appointed new Director of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen
AACHEN.- Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen announced that the city council has appointed Eva Birkenstock as the museum’s new director. The 43-year-old curator, trained as an art historian and cultural anthropologist, is presently the director of the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. She emerged as the most suitable candidate after an exhaustive selection process and will take up her new position in October 2021. “Together with Eva Birkenstock as its new director, the Ludwig Forum Aachen can get ready for a new start after the pandemic,” commented mayor Sibylle Keupen, before adding: “I’m eagerly looking forward to Eva Birkenstock injecting new impetus into the Ludwig Forum and its surroundings.” The councillor in charge of cultural affairs, Susanne Schwier, noted: “Eva Birkenstock’s extensive international ... More

How 'Hamilton' saved a bookstore from dying
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A sculptural representation of a bookworm — 140 feet of scripts and songbooks, twisted along a steel skeleton — corkscrews across the Drama Book Shop in Manhattan. It starts with ancient Greek texts and, 2,400 volumes later, spills into in a pile that includes “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.” This 3,500-pound tribute to theatrical history is the centerpiece of the century-old bookstore’s new location, opening Thursday on West 39th Street. The shop — like so many bookstores around the country — had brushes with death, caused not only by e-commerce but also by fire and flood, before encountering a rent hike it could not withstand in 2018. The beloved institution, where students, artists, scholars and fans could browse memoirs and bone up for auditions, was in danger of closing. Then came ... More

A beloved London concert hall grows bold as it turns 120
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- “Welcome!” said John Gilhooly, general director of Wigmore Hall, standing in front of the auditorium’s small circular stage. The audience applauded wildly — for a crowd of chamber music fans. It was May 23, and the first Sunday morning concert since the pandemic had closed down the hall last March. “I like to choose something special for each performance,” Gilhooly, 47, said. “The Elgar Quintet you will hear today was premiered in this hall on the 21st of May, 1919, when the country was coming out of another major crisis.” The Wigmore is emerging from its most recent crisis with aplomb. As an early adopter of livestreamed concerts at the beginning of the pandemic, it won large dividends of goodwill and public donations. Whereas many small performing venues in Britain are reopening nervously after ... More

Kerlin Gallery opens solo exhibitions of works by Elizabeth Magill and Kathy Prendergast
DUBLIN.- In these new paintings, Elizabeth Magill has developed a novel practice, combining painting, drawing, stencilling and large-scale printmaking to create sensual and engrossing landscapes rich in minute visual detail and expansive atmosphere and allusion. Over her 30 year career, Magill has been celebrated for conjuring from memory, mysterious suburban roadsides, dark woodlands and evocative windswept coastlines. In this new body of work, such landscapes continue to take form but the visual and sensory experience is all the more intense. While these paintings acknowledge environmental change, even catastrophe, there is an optimism, a light and a celebration forcing its way through. Magill's landscapes are both political and poetic. They form as the product of her acute attention to the detail and complexity of our surroundings and her ... More

Almine Rech London opens an exhibition of work by Larry Poons
LONDON.- When the preeminent curator Henry Geldzahler featured Larry Poons’ work in the landmark exhibition New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened in late 1969, he devoted the show’s culminating gallery to the artist — at 32, Poons was the youngest included. The room glowed with Poons’ early “Dots and Lozenge” paintings, as well as several then-recent expansive, colorful abstractions, later regarded as iconic works in the Color Field movement. Geldzahaler thereby positioned Poons as heir to the heroic era of American painting, following in the footsteps of Pollock, de Kooning, and Rothko, whose seminal works preceded Poons in the exhibition plan. Poons was regarded as the promising, guiding and rising star who could lead the way toward exciting ... More

With 'In the Heights,' Anthony Ramos finds stardom on his own terms
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” that classic dance-floor ode to doing whatever it takes to keep your head above water, was playing in a coffee shop in Brooklyn when Anthony Ramos sidled in one chilly April morning. Ramos may not be a celebrity to you yet, but he was easily made by the barista in Park Slope, who turned out to be a courteous fan. Along with his latte, Ramos was given a few stickers promoting the drag queen persona of his admiring server and some kind words of congratulation on his recent success. Ramos received his tributes with humility. He respected a fellow hustler when he saw one. This just might be the summer of Anthony Ramos, when this Brooklyn-bred actor — who has already parlayed his freckled face, built-for-Calvin Klein physique and founding role in the Broadway cast of “Hamilton” ... More

Want more diverse conductors? Orchestras should look to assistants.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It is one of the indelible star-is-born moments in music history: Leonard Bernstein, the 25-year-old assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, fills in at short notice for an ailing maestro and leads the orchestra in a concert broadcast live over the radio, causing a sensation. “It’s a good American success story,” The New York Times wrote in an editorial, following a front-page review of the 1943 coup. “The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread over the airwaves.” Fifteen years later, Bernstein was the Philharmonic’s music director. And the dream of ascending from the assistantship of a major American orchestra to its leadership — like rising up a corporate ladder — was cemented in the popular imagination. There are still assistant conductors, bright, talented 20- and 30-somethings hired ... More

$19 million in endowment gifts given to Minneapolis Institute of Art
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Minneapolis Institute of Art announced today that it has secured five major gifts for its operations and endowment, totaling more than $19 million: · A gift of $6 million from long-time supporter and former trustee Curt Dunnavan will create the C. Curtis Dunnavan Fund for the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer—one of the few positions of this type in the museum field nationally to be endowed. · A series of commitments from long-time museum supporters Ken and Linda Cutler will fund Mia’s creation of a new curatorial position focused on Latin American Art. Their gift includes both an annual commitment towards this position during their lifetimes, and a bequest to permanently endow the position, expected to be valued at more than $6 million. · $5 million in support from two donors will jumpstart the museum’s creation ... More

Hemingway-inscribed For Whom the Bell Tolls headed to Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, TX.- Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls stands among select company in literary circles, prized by scholars and collectors alike. Both will have a chance to acquire an extraordinary advance copy of a first edition of one of the author’s most popular and important books when it is sold in Heritage Auctions’ Rare Books Auction June 9-10. For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of a young American volunteer working with a guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The advance copy (estimate: $40,000) offered in this two-day event is doubly appealing because it not only is viewed as a pillar of American literature, but also bears an inscription by Hemingway, who is universally regarded among the most popular and influential of American authors. First editions are, by definition, in high demand. But advance copies, typically ... More

Christie's achieves €8,2 million for the Post-War and Contemporary art day sale
PARIS.- The Post-War and Contemporary Art sale held at Christie’s on 3 June achieved a total of €8,179,625/£7,057,485/$9,979,278 selling 85% by lot and 91% by value. The top lot of the sale was a painting by Chu The-Chun, Le 14.8.1978 which sold for an impressive €620,000, more than doubling its presale estimate. Joséphine Wanecq, Head of the sale: “We saw strong results achieved today, far above their presale estimates such as for Asian contemporary artists like Chu The-Chun with a remarkable result, but also for Zao Wou-Ki which painting from 1962 realised €212,500. French artists also performed very well as seen with the result obtained by Pierre Soulages' Brou de noix, 65 x 50 cm, 1958 sold €500,000, Jean Dubuffet, as well as Christo for whom international collectors paid tribute today. We are pleased to see that a healthy ... More

Ground-breaking male form sale at Bonhams
LONDON.- Bonhams is to hold the first-ever sale by an international auction house dedicated exclusively to a celebration of the male form in art. It will span centuries and genres, from Antiquities and Old Master Painting to Sculpture and Decorative Arts, from Contemporary Art to Photography. The sale will take place at Bonhams New Bond Street saleroom in London on Wednesday 16 June. The sale is being curated by Bonhams Greek Art Specialist Anastasia Orfanidou and Bonhams Head of Books and Manuscripts, Matthew Haley, who said: “This exciting new concept challenges a market that has traditionally been centered around the western concept of the male gaze. It will explore how women look at men and how men look at other men, introducing a fresh context and platform that will spark new discussions on an historically unspoken market.” ... More


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Flashback
On a day like today, French painter and sculptor Paul Gauguin was born
June 07, 1848. Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 - 8 May 1903) was a French post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinctly different from Impressionism. In this image: Paul Gauguin. Figure Tahitienne circa 1892-3. Height 10 5/8 in. Wood. Inscribed with the monogram PGO (at the bottom).

  
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