| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, June 28, 2021 |
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| | For the Medici, the last great picture show | |
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A visitor studies Titians portrait, Benedetto Varchi, left, and Bronzinos Allegorical portrait of Dante, at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570, exhibit in New York, June 21, 2021. The sweep of Italian history and art history in dazzling portraits from the dynastys final hurrah, on view in a sumptuous exhibition at the Met. Diana Markosian/The New York Times.
by Roberta Smith
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Its hard to imagine Florence, cradle of the High Renaissance of early modern Europe, without its avaricious, venal, culture-conscious first family, the Medicis. Crowned and uncrowned, during periods of supposedly republican government and not, they largely ruled the city-state, or connived to, from the mid-14th to the mid-18th centuries, using art to cement their power. They excelled at banking and prospered especially when their Rome branch quietly became banker to the popes. They also populated the Catholic Churchs hierarchy with relatives, popes included, most importantly Leo X born Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici who became Bishop of Rome in 1513, followed shortly by his cousin, Clement VII (born Giulio de Medici). Both worked assiduously on the familys behalf. The Medicis persevered through exile, popular uprisings, war with neighboring city states, chronic street fighting, a spasm of violent religious fundamentalism, bouts of the plague a ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Artemis Gallery will hold its June Timed Marketplace Auction on Tue, Jun 29, 2021 11:00 AM GMT-5. The sale features fabulously priced clearance items and newly listed items at pricing perfect for dealers or collectors. In this image: Sican Ceramic Face - Elite and Lively Personage. Estimate $2,800 - $4,200.
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| 'New type of early human' found in Israel | | Egypt arrests former MP for smuggling antiquities | | Colosseum's underground labyrinth restored to eerie splendour | 
Archaeologist Yossi Zaidner from the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology shows a fossil fragment of a skull at a Tel Aviv University lab in the eponymous Israeli coastal city, on June 27, 2021. GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP.
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Bones belonging to a "new type of early human" previously unknown to science have been found in Israel, researchers said Thursday, claiming to have shed new light on human evolution. Excavations in the quarry of a cement plant near the central city of Ramla uncovered prehistoric remains that could not be matched to any known species from the Homo genus. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem dubbed the "extraordinary discovery" the "Nesher Ramla Homo type" after the site, in a study published in the journal Science. The fossils date to between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago, and the team believes the Nesher Ramla type would have overlapped with Homo sapiens, the lineage of modern humans. "We had never imagined that alongside Homo sapiens, archaic Homo roamed the area so late in human history," lead archaeologist Yossi ... More | | 
In this file photo a man rides a horse in front of the pyramids of Khufu (Cheops) (L), Khafre (Chephren), at the Giza pyramids necropolis on the southwestern outskirts of the Egyptian capital Cairo, on January 26, 2021. Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP.
CAIRO (AFP).- Egyptian police arrested Thursday a former lawmaker and others on charges of illegal excavation and smuggling of 201 Pharaonic, Greek and Roman artefacts, an interior ministry statement said. Security agencies "arrested a criminal gang headed by a person, who was previously charged in four cases, for illegally excavating sites nationwide... with the aim of smuggling and selling antiquities," it said. A 5-minute video accompanying the statement listed the looted relics found in the men's possession including "two wooden tablets engraved with hieroglyphics, 36 different statues of various lengths... 52 copper coins believed to be from the Greek and Roman periods... three black basalt plates". The flamboyant ex-MP, who was a member of former autocrat Hosni Mubarak's now dissolved party, had appeared in local media claiming to have dabbled in black magic and exorcisms. Smuggling antiquities ... More | | 
A passer-by walks next to the Colosseum, which restoration of arena's underground labyrinth has been sponsored by fashion group Tod's, in Rome on June 25, 2021. Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.
ROME (AFP).- The din of caged animals, the smell of gladiators' fear and the thunder of tens of thousands of cheering spectators above have all evaporated with the passage of time. But walking through the bowels of the Colosseum, the subterranean ruins of ancient Rome's most famous amphitheatre, the extent to which technical expertise was harnessed to such bloody ends becomes painfully clear. The reopening to the public was announced Friday after meticulous restoration of the "hypogeum", or below ground area, with a new pathway offering intimate views and an app explaining the grisly details of the behind-the-scenes area. "It was dark, smelly. There were terrible conditions for the slaves and animals," said guide "Cristina", showing journalists through the underground. Once covered by a wooden floor, the maze of dark corridors and chambers served as the amphitheatre's backstage -- and the last holding space for men and beasts who were released above to meet their ... More |
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| "Red tourism' flourishes in China ahead of party centennial | | Major show featuring more than 100 works by Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso opens at the High Museum of Art | | Dutch to check artwork stolen by Nazis for restitution | 
Visitors watch actors dressed as Red Army revolutionaries as they walk through a historical dramatization at a Communist Party themed park recently unveiled by Dalian Wanda, a property developer, in Yanan, China, June 19, 2021. Gilles Sabrié/The New York Times.
by Sui-Lee Wee and Elsie Chen
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The group of tourists, dressed in replica Red Army costumes, stood in front of a red hammer-and-sickle billboard. With their right fists raised, they pledged their allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. Be ready at all times to sacrifice my all for the party and the people, and never betray the party, they recited, standing proudly next to a giant statue of Mao Zedong in the northern city of Yanan, the base of the revolution until 1948. Then, they shuffled off before another group came to do the same. Mass swearing-in ceremonies arent typical group tour activities, but this is red tourism in China, where thousands of people flock to places like Yanan to absorb the official version of the partys history. At these sites, schoolchildren ... More | | 
Pablo Picasso, Woman in an Armchair (Françoise Gilot), 1947, oil on canvas, Musée Picasso, Antibes, France. © 2021 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
ATLANTA, GA.- Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso are two of the foremost figures in the history of 20th-century art. The touring exhibition Calder-Picasso, which debuted at the Musée national Picasso-Paris and is on view at the High Museum of Art this summer (June 26-Sept. 19), reveals the radical innovations and enduring influence of these two artists through more than 100 paintings, sculptures and works on paper spanning their careers. Conceived by the artists grandsons, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso and Alexander S. C. Rower, and organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition focuses on the two artists exploration of the void, or the absence of space, which both artists defined from the figure through to abstraction. Calder and Picasso wanted to present or represent non-space, whether by giving definition to a subtraction of mass, as in Calders sculptures, or by expressing contortions of time, as in Picasso ... More | | 
"We have to keep up our efforts to restitute to the right people the cultural assets which were unintentionally lost or obtained illegally during World War II," Culture Minister Inge Van Engelshoven said in a statement. Photo: Arenda Oomen.
THE HAGUE (AFP).- The Netherlands is to verify the origin of works of art stolen by the Nazis and hand over to the Jewish community objects that cannot be traced, the government said Friday. A total of 3,040 objects from the collection of cultural works returned to the country after the war will be examined. No proper research into the origin of the works has been carried out since 2007. "We have to keep up our efforts to restitute to the right people the cultural assets which were unintentionally lost or obtained illegally during World War II," Culture Minister Inge Van Engelshoven said in a statement. "We will succeed through systematic research and better communication," she added. The work will start next year seeking new information on the origins and original owners of the art. If no new light can be shed, the authorities will decide with the Central Jewish Council what to do with the works that are ... More |
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| Galerie Barbara Thumm opens an exhibition of works by Sarah Entwistle | | Rhona Hoffman Gallery opens its first solo exhibition of Egyptian artist Wassef Boutros-Ghali | | Menstrual cups in museums? It's time. | 
Sarah Entwistle, When I decide that you are lying. 2021. 4 ceramics,1 steel sheet stenciled and bent, 1 steel object with lightbulb,1 chair, metal object glas. Dimension variable.
BERLIN.- Sarah Entwistle (b. 1979) works across multiple forms and often with found ready-mades to develop sculptural arrangements that recall interior still-lives. These assemblages take their visual and conceptual cues from the informal archive of her late grandfather, architect Clive Entwistle (1916-1976) a manipulative figure whose numerous female lovers were drawn into often masochistic dynamics. In her first solo exhibition in Berlin Entwistle continues with the practice of spoliation in its expanded form, of borrowing and adaptive re-use of material from earlier constructs. Her extended practice, a form of inter-generational processing both literal and metaphysical, is presented here through the accumulation and assembly of sculptural elements, video, figurative sketches, and woven tapestries. A collection ... More | | 
Wassef Boutros-Ghali, Untitled, 2016. Acrylic on canvas, 33 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches.
CHICAGO, IL.- Rhona Hoffman Gallery is presenting its first solo exhibition of Egyptian artist Wassef Boutros-Ghali (b. 1924, Cairo, Egypt). Situated as both constructivist compositions and Levantine landscapes, the collection of bold canvases hover between formal geometric abstractions and distilled figural representations of channels, canals, buildings struck by sunlight, and the limitlessness of the desert and the sea. Two primary facts surrounding the artists storied biography are often asserted in relation to his paintings. The first is that he was born into a long lineage of statesmen and politicians; his brother (Boutros Boutros-Ghali) orchestrated the Camp David Accords in 1978, his grandfather (Boutros Ghali Pasha) was Egypts prime minister for over one year prior to his assassination in 1910. The second is that, though studying in the Beaux-Arts tradition, Boutros-Ghalis affinity toward ... More | | 
Birth control pills in Los Angeles, May 12, 2021. Objects designed for birth, fertility and parenthood have long been neglected by institutions. A new book and exhibition series aims to change that. Natalia Mantini/The New York Times.
by Melena Ryzik
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Consider the menstrual cup. A repository for bodily fluid, it was first patented in 1867, a half-century before the commercial tampon arrived, and even a decade before the pad. A rubber model appeared in the 1930s, but its prevalence was curtailed by World War II, when rubber was in short supply. Enter the disposable tampon, which has dominated since. Now a team of design curators, health care practitioners and advocates want you to reconsider the menstrual cup, remove it from the still pink-hued feminine hygiene aisle, and look at it as an object, not of private utility, but of beauty. It sure beats a wad of cotton. Designs vary, but in its most common ... More |
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| MAGNUM 2020: A book by Magnum photographers | | Fonts as puzzles: Can you solve them? | | Jeanne Lamon, who led an early-music ensemble, dies at 71 | 
Peter van Agtmael, 6/20/20, Tulsa, Oklahoma (detail). © Peter van Agtmael / Magnum Photos.
NEW YORK, NY.- Magnum Photos presents Magnum 2020, a book which brings together a turbulent year of world events through the eyes of this collective. A yearbook of sorts, Magnum 2020 was born out of a year like no other; one which challenged the collective to find new ways of documenting experiences as counties locked down and everyone stayed home to contain the spread of the novel Coronavirus. It was also a year of reckoning for the agency, reflecting on the structures of power and privilege that have existed in the world for generations and understanding how they can be challenged and ultimately undone. Was [2020] the end of something? The start of something else? Or merely a blip in an increasingly chaotic and fast-changing world? asks Magnum President, Olivia Arthur, in the foreword. The jury is still out. But this book commits the year to paper and offers a means for us to try ... More | | 
A font created by Erik and Martin Demaine. Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine and Katie Steckles via The New York Times.
by Siobhan Roberts
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The verb puzzle to perplex or confuse, bewilder or bemuse is of unknown origin. That kind of fits, said Martin Demaine, an artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its a puzzle where the word puzzle comes from. His son, Erik Demaine, an MIT computer scientist, agreed. Its a self-describing etymology, he said. The father-son duo is most famous for mathematical investigations into paper folding, with curved-crease sculptures swirling loops of pleated paper that resemble intergalactic interchanges. Curved origami dates to late 1920s Bauhaus; a classic specimen starts as a circular piece of paper, which, when folded along concentric circles, automatically twists into a saddle curve. The Demaines ... More | | 
Lamon, an accomplished violinist who was music director of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir for 33 years, helping to build it into one of the worlds most acclaimed baroque ensembles, died on June 20 in Victoria, British Columbia. She was 71. Sian Richards via Tafelmusik via The New York Times.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Jeanne Lamon, an accomplished violinist who was music director of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir for 33 years, helping to build it into one of the worlds most acclaimed baroque ensembles, died June 20 in Victoria, British Columbia. She was 71. A spokeswoman for the ensemble said the cause was cancer. Lamon, who lived in Victoria, took the helm of Tafelmusik in 1981, just two years after the group, based in Toronto, was founded by Kenneth Solway and Susan Graves. Under her guidance and with her often leading from the first-violin ... More |
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Treasures | From Musical Clocks to Miniature Marvels
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 Library furniture & an important private collection coming up at DreweattsLONDON.- Dreweatts furniture specialists report a surge in demand for antique furniture as more people work from home or have been inspired to improve their home environment during lockdown. Dreweatts upcoming Fine Furniture, Sculpture, Carpets and Works of Art on June 30, 2021 offers lots of affordable options. Ben Brown, Head of Dreweatts Furniture department, says: While its always been of ecological benefit to pass antique furniture down through the generations, many clients are now choosing antique pieces for their aesthetic quality, as well as the fact it will last many years. The old adage it was built to last, comes to the fore with antique furniture and the fact that you can obtain one of a very limited number made, rather than something mass-produced that you see everywhere, makes it feel unique. Even younger generations are seeing the benefit. The fact that ... More  A graceful place where Bhangra and Bollywood meetNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Growing up in California, Manpreet Toor remembers being exposed to bhangra a lively Punjabi dance genre that is performed widely in the Indian diaspora in her parents garage. In Punjabi households, back in the day, we used to have parties in the garage all the time, Toor said. She heard the sounds of music like the folk and pop artist Sardool Sikander, one of Indias most beloved singers, who died of COVID-19 in February. In March, Toor, a leading figure in the Bay Areas vibrant South Asian dance scene, and her fellow choreographer Preet Chahal paid tribute to Sikander. In a YouTube video with the look of a retro home movie, Chahal leads a group of men freestyling bhangra moves to a mashup of Sikanders music in a garage turned dance floor. Toor twirls into the scene wearing a festive lehenga (a dressy floor-length skirt), and ... More  Pandemic changed how musicians and investors see royaltiesNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Steve Jordan, a drummer, began working as a studio musician while he was still in high school in the 1970s. By age 19, he was performing with the Saturday Night Live band and touring with the Blues Brothers. But he said he had quickly realized that if he wanted to be financially successful, hed have to do more than make music. Hed have to have control over that music. I knew early on that I couldnt have all my eggs in one basket and be a successful musician, said Jordan, now 64. You have all these musicians out there who are not paid what they should be. If theyre just hired to play on a song, they dont get royalties. Theyre not the composers, and they dont get royalties even though what they played are the hallmarks of the song. He struck a copublishing agreement in 1989 with Warner Chappell Music, a music publishing company. That ... More  At Ailey's spring gala, different kinds of hopeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Uplift is what people expect from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. And so it is no surprise that for its spring gala this spring of all springs the company focused explicitly on themes of hope, promise and the future. Whats pledged is delivered, with much of the roteness that comes with reliability. But the Ailey companys official hope doesnt entirely eclipse a more troubled and therefore trustworthy kind, supplied mostly by the troupes increasingly important resident choreographer, Jamar Roberts. The one-hour gala, available free on the companys website until Saturday night, is a typical Ailey product. Like other troupes, Ailey needs to ask for donations and make a case for its importance, but here the asking and endorsing are done by Alicia Keys and Michelle Obama. Attractive dancers and adorable students plug themselves. ... More  New-York Historical Society creates a new division with a focus on New York City's marginalized communitiesNEW YORK, NY.- The New-York Historical Society, the oldest museum in New York City (1804), has announced plans to create the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Institute for New York City History, Politics, and Community Activisma new division within New-York Historical initiated and funded by the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation. The Institute will create a new historical archive, including a focus on New York Citys marginalized communities and inclusive voices that reflects important political, social, and cultural moments from the mid-1900s to the present; it will also offer scholarly programs, a resident fellowship, and short-term fellowships. Among the first archives to be added to the Institute are Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogels papers and the High ... More  Artist jetsonorama creates new installation at Fort Garland Museum and Cultural CenterFORT GARLAND, COLO.- A new installation by artist jetsonorama is now on view at History Colorado's Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center in the San Luis Valley. Unsilenced: Indigenous Enslavement in Southern Colorado incorporates historic photos of Indigenous captives and images from an 1865 census of enslaved Indigenous people in present-day Conejos and Costilla Counties. On display in one of the forts original adobe buildings constructed in 1858, Unsilenced is organized by jetsonorama and Eric Carpio, Director of Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center and Chief Community Museum Officer for History Colorado. Opening Unsilenced is an important step in telling the stories of the individuals and descendants whove endured the consequences of this tragic history, said Carpio. Our hope is that we can build on this project to deepen our ... More  Heather Gaudio Fine Art opens Matthew Shlian's first solo exhibition at the galleryNEW CANAAN, CONN.- Heather Gaudio Fine Art is presenting Matthew Shlian: Light Years, his first solo exhibition at the gallery. The show opened on June 26th and will run through August 7th. Shlians work straddles the world of paper engineering and the fine arts, a place where two-dimensional paper becomes intricately sculpted into precise and stunning three-dimensional forms. His work is rooted in printed media, book arts and commercial design, where paper gets folded, tessellated, compressed and arranged in unexpected ways. Modular aggregation and the way in which shapes repeat, morph and reconnect with each other have been the artists preoccupation for the past several years. Adopting an intuitive approach, Shlian begins with hand-drawn patterns in a notebook and then uses digital mapping on an industrial plotter to work out his ideas. His curiosity with the ... More  Gilcrease Museum reveals concept design for new buildingTULSA, OKLA.- Gilcrease Museum unveiled its concept design for an entirely new facility, reimagining the museum from the ground up. The 83,500-square-foot building will create new opportunities for Gilcrease to explore broad, complex stories of American history, art, and culture. The re-envisioned museum will present a much-improved visitor experience and state-of-the-art exhibition space meeting todays standards for care of the collection and touring exhibitions. The current Gilcrease Museum facility will close to the public on July 5, 2021 for de-installation of the collection in preparation for groundbreaking of the new building in winter 2022. Gilcrease Museum houses more than 350 years of American paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, including the worlds largest public holding of art of the American West, a comprehensive collection of Indigenous works from 12,000 ... More  World Trade Center hosts art exhibit featuring 28 emerging and established artistsNEW YORK, NY.- Resurgence, an art exhibit featuring work by 28 established and emerging artists, opened in the World Trade Centers Oculus on Thursday, June 24, and runs through July 25, 2021. The show is open to the public, and many of the artists will be present to talk about their work and experience. The exhibit is on the C1 level, directly under 4 World Trade Center. Resurgence was curated by New York City native Clayton Calvert. The featured artists address the theme of resurgence with unique voices and perspectives. They come from different backgrounds and locales, but all have works that speak to each other visually and thematically. Resurgence is an example of a group of artists coming together to make a distinct and impactful visual statement with the goal of positively impacting visitors. I have spent the past two years working at the World Trade Center with many of ... More  Alex Vardaxoglou opens an exhibition of works by contemporary British artist Mimi Hope LONDON.- Alex Vardaxoglou is presenting the exhibition Stars and Skies comprising work by contemporary British artist Mimi Hope (b. 1994), at our space in Holland Park, London. The show debuts the artists Stars series, displayed alongside new works from her acclaimed Clouds series, which were presented online in a sell-out exhibition earlier this year. In bringing both sets of works together, the artist leverages the opportunity for semantic cross-pollination, allowing each work to imbue the other with yet greater depth of meaning and providing an alternate vantage point. Stars and Skies creates a unique platform to view these works simultaneously which together speak to a shared theme: the canopy of our existence. The exhibition sees the young artist at a pivotal moment in her career, building on momentum generated by a number of successful solo shows and international ... More  FOMU Fotomuseum of Antwerp exhibits work by ten promising phototographersANTWERP.- Every year FOMU selects ten promising phototographers, all living or working in Belgium. In addition to a variety of networking opportunities, FOMU will accompany them on a development journey to create the portfolio magazine .tiff, culminating in a group exhibition. .tiff 2021 presents the work of: Aurélie Bayad, Sébastien Cuvelier, Michiel De Cleene, Youqine Lefèvre, Lucas Leffler, Kamel Moussa, Joud Toamah, Josephina van de Water, Erien Withouck & Ugo Woatzi. Like Belgian photography, .tiff has many angles. It gives a flavour of the diversity and energy in Belgiums photography landscape. Using .tiff, FOMU offers emerging talent a platform to reach a wider audience and network. 'With a raw imagery, a bit of leg hair and a strong taste for the strange and disturbing, Aurélie Bayad (FR, °1994) models and shapes bodies in front of the camera. Hers, or those of other people. ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Italian architect Domenico Fontana died June 28, 1607. Domenico Fontana (1543 - 28 June 1607) was an Italian architect of the late Renaissance, born in today's Ticino. He worked primarily in Italy, at Rome and Naples. In 1586 he erected the 327 ton obelisk in the Square of St. Peter's. This feat of engineering took the concerted effort of 900 men, 75 horses and countless pulleys and meters of rope. In this image: Domenico Fontana by Federico Zuccari.
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