| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, March 16, 2020 |
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| | Palaeontologists present a 10,000-year-old "South American yeti" | |
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The skulls that allowed the identification of this extinct beast were found scattered in various mountainous areas between central and northern Ecuador.
BUENOS AIRES (CTYS-UNLAM ).- Researchers described a giant sloth that lived in the mountains and inter-Andean valleys of Ecuador more than 2,500 meters above sea level. This "South American Yeti" weighed about a ton, had large claws, and its muzzle was adapted to withstand altitude and low temperatures. The skulls that allowed the identification of this extinct beast were found scattered in various mountainous areas between central and northern Ecuador. In addition, there is enough material to rebuild the almost complete body of this giant animal that lived between 40,000 and 10,000 years before the present. Dr. Luciano Brambilla, a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Rosario (CEI-UNR) and CONICET, confirmed CTyS-UNLaM Disclosure Agency that "this new species has previously unknown characteristics, especially in its wide snout, adapted so that this animal can withstand the low temperatures and the mountain climate Â. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day In their exhibition during Asia Week New York 2020 "Privilege", Kaikodo LLC, presents Qiao Sisters Reading Books, one of two paintings, by Seigai Hazama, mounted as hanging scrolls on ink and color on silk, dated 1866. Each: 32.2 x 24.0 cm. (12 ¾ x 8 ½) 74 East 79th Street
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 | | Six decades after the Banana Boat, Harry Belafonte's archive sails home | | Andrew Jones Auctions will hold important back-to-back sales March 21-22 | | Is that a Dalà among the tchotchkes? | 
Album covers that are part of the vast archive of Harry Belafonte, which have been acquired by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in New York. James Estrin/The New York Times.
by Jennifer Schuessler
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When Harry Belafonte turned 93 on March 1, he celebrated with a tribute at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, which ended with a thunderous audience singalong to a riff on his star-making 1956 hit, The Banana Boat Song, complete with rapper Doug E. Fresh beatboxing over its famous Day-O! refrain. It was a fitting salute at a building that Belafonte, in his 2011 memoir, called a cathedral of spirituality. But, just a few blocks uptown, he is receiving a quieter but no less momentous celebration. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library, has acquired Belafontes personal archive a vast maze of photographs, recordings, films, letters, artwork, clipping albums and other materials. ... More | | 
Kashmiri gilt bronze figure of seated Buddha with inlaid silver eyes, possibly 12th century AD, 4 ¼ inches tall (est. $10,000-$12,000).
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Andrew Jones Auctions DTLA Collections & Estates auction on Sunday, March 22nd, will feature a vast selection of market fresh furnishings, decorations and accessories, all enticingly priced. The sale will be held online and in the gallery at 2221 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, starting promptly at 10:30 am Pacific time. The auction will feature over 500 lots of important antiques and fine art. Andrew Jones Auctions will be the place to find unique, fun, quirky and out-of-the-ordinary accessories and furnishings, as well as luxe décor and statement pieces for the home, loft, gallery and retail space. Interior designers will be able to re-design a room or an entire home in an affordable, sustainable way. The day before, on Saturday, March 21st, at 1 pm Pacific time, an UnReserved on Main St. auction will be held, with hundreds of lots to be sold without estimate or reserve. Starting ... More | | 
A wood block print based on a piece painted by the artist Salvador Dalà was discovered at a thrift shop in Kitty Hawk, N.C. Photo: Seaside Art Gallery.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The frame and images looked old, but there was something about the artwork in the thrift store that struck Wendy Hawkins as remarkable. So Hawkins, a volunteer at the Hotline Pink Thrift Shop in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, acted on her hunch. She removed the piece from the pile of donations waiting to be sorted and priced, and took it to Melanie Smith, a local art dealer and appraiser. After a week of scrutiny, Smith had made up her mind: The piece was a wood block print based on the Divine Comedy watercolors of Salvador DalÃ, the Spanish surrealist. We have no idea who donated it or exactly when, Smith, the owner of the Seaside Art Gallery in Nags Head, North Carolina, said in an interview. Luckily, it was saved, instead of going by the by, she said. The shelves of thrift stores can be places of unexpected discoveries, jammed with everyday trinkets and, rarely, with unexpected treasures. ... More |
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| | Explore the arts of the Islamic world & Asia with over 300 lots on view at Sotheby's London | | Italian architect of Barcelona stadium dies of virus at 92 | | Hauser & Wirth Zurich opens an exhibition of works by Luchita Hurtado | 
A Diwan of Hafiz dated 1462 AD, copied by Shaykh Mahmud Pir Budaqi, dedicated to the library of Prince Pir Budaq, Iraq. Est. £80,000-120,000.
LONDON.- The sale will offer thirty-five beautiful pieces from the collection of the late H. Peter Stern, an avid traveller who co-founded the Storm King Art Center the worlds most important modern sculpture garden and served as Vice Chair of the World Monuments Fund. His pursuit of a global idyll is reflected in his collection, with Ottoman mounted panels of silk and velvet brocade and Mughal velvet tent hangings, adorned with floral motifs, sitting alongside delicate architectural Company School watercolours. Stern lived with these treasures in his home, Cedar House, in the lower Hudson Valley eclectically decorated, as he mixed East and West, ancient and modern, intellectual, spiritual and cultural. A further tranche of five pieces will be sold in New York on 22 June, as part of the India, Himalayan, Southeast Asian Works of Art sale. Qanat panels provided an important element for the interior decoration of the Mughal court, moved around ... More | | 
Italian architect and designer Vittorio Gregotti. Photo: Adriano Alecchi / Mondadori Publishers.
ROME (AFP).- Vittorio Gregotti, an Italian architect who helped design the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics stadium, died Sunday at the age of 92 after catching the novel coronavirus, Italian media said. Gregotti died of pneumonia after being hospitalised in Milan having contracted COVID-19, the the Corriere della Sera newspaper and AGI news agency reported. He also designed the Merassi stadium in Genoa for the 1990s World Cup in Italy, and the Arcimboldi Opera Theatre in Milan, a futuristic structure built to allow the season to continue while the La Scala underwent renovation in 2002-2004. Other highlights of a career that also saw him build a housing district in Shanghai include the Belem cultural centre in Portugal and the Grand Theatre de Provence in France. Paying tribute, fellow Italian architect Stefano Boeri called Gregotti a "master of international architecture" who "created the story of our culture". "What a great sadness," he wrote on Facebook. Gregotti's wife Mariana Mazza ... More | | 
Luchita Hurtado, Portrait, 1965/1968. Oil on paper, 61 x 48.3 cm / 24 x 19 in © Luchita Hurtado. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Jeff McLane.
ZURICH.- In an extensive eighty-year career spanning various artistic movements and styles, Venezuelan-born, Los Angeles-based artist Luchita Hurtado has dedicated her practice to investigating the interconnectedness of the natural world, the cosmos and the environment. For her inaugural presentation at Hauser & Wirth Zürich entitled Just Down the Street, an intimate selection of Hurtados early works from the 1960s are on display a dynamic series of drawings and paintings on paper that reflect a moment of flux between abstraction and figuration. By merging visceral and abstract sensibilities, the works on view express a universality and transcendence that have continued to define the artists practice for decades. Hurtado, still working at 99, has an innate dedication and capacity for creation which has formed her artistic vocabulary, speaking to the multicultural and experiential contexts that have shaped th ... More |
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| | 500 years of pregnant women in art | | Andreas Brown, longtime owner of Gotham Book Mart, dies at 86 | | Alfredo Jaar is the recipient of the 2020 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography | 
Marcus Gheeraerts II Portrait of a Woman in Red, 1620 © Tate.
by Roslyn Sulcas
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Actress Demi Moore stands sideways to the camera, one hand splayed around a breast, another cupping her 7-months-pregnant stomach. The 1991 Annie Leibowitz photograph on the cover of Vanity Fair was a culture-changing moment; an unashamed representation of the pregnant body that shocked the world. It was a watershed moment in the representation of pregnancy, the point at which visual images of pregnancy began to be more common, said Karen Hearn, the curator of Portraying Pregnancy, an exhibition running through April 26 at the Foundling Museum in London. But even 20 years ago, women were still wearing dresses like tents. The problem with pregnancy is that it defines a sexually active woman, and ... More | | 
Andreas Brown, right, Gotham Book Mart's owner, with Frances Steloff, the former owner, in New York on April 23, 1975. Larry C. Morris/The New York Times.
by Sam Roberts
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Andreas Brown, a bibliophile since childhood who bought the revered Gotham Book Mart in Midtown Manhattan from its idiosyncratic founder, Frances Steloff, and kept it alive as a frowzy literary shrine for four more decades, died on March 6 in Manhattan. He was 86. His lawyer, Eric Sherman, said the cause was pneumonia. Brown was a book and manuscript appraiser in his 30s and a regular visitor to the Gotham from California when, in 1967, Steloff invited him out to lunch. About to turn 80, she offered to sell him the overstuffed repository of avant-garde publications that she had opened in 1920. Brown had never dreamed of moving to New York or becoming a retailer. But here was an offer he couldnt refuse ... More | | 
Alfredo Jaar, Six Seconds, 2000.
GOTHENBURG.- The Hasselblad Foundation announced that Alfredo Jaar is the recipient of the 2020 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography for the sum of SEK 1,000,000 (approx. USD 100,000). Alfredo Jaar is the 40th winner of the Hasselblad Award. The award ceremony will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, on October 19, 2020. The following day, October 20, an exhibition of Alfredo Jaars work will open at the Hasselblad Center. A book about the artist will be published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, with an essay by Jacques Rancière. The Foundations citation regarding the Hasselblad Award Laureate 2020, Alfredo Jaar: "Alfredo Jaar explores complex socio-political issues, bringing to the fore the ethics of representation. Through quiet and meditative works, Jaar confronts issues of great magnitude, bearing witness to humanitarian disasters and attesting to the ... More |
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| | Gladstone Gallery exhibits new soft sculptures and bronzes by Sarah Lucas | | Pace Gallery presents two bodies of work by Paul Graham | | Charles Wuorinen, uncompromising modernist composer, dies at 81 | 
Installation view, Sarah Lucas: HONEY PIE, at Gladstone 64, New York, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.
NEW YORK, NY.- Gladstone Gallery is presenting an exhibition of new soft sculptures and bronzes by Sarah Lucas from her ongoing body of Bunnies, which she began making in 1997. Expanding her unique visual language of pantyhose, stuffing, and chairs, to include concrete, bronze, and steel, that Lucas has employed since her rise to international prominence in the mid-nineties, the works in this show demonstrate the artists powerful ability to transform utilitarian materials into conceptually complex objects that pose urgent questions about gender, sexuality, and identity. A concurrent exhibition of new works from this seminal series are on view at Sadie Coles HQ, London from March 16 through May 10, 2020. The gallery is accessible by appointment only until further notice as it continues to monitor the guidelines released by the World Health Organization and local government this week. Throughout her career, ... More | | 
Installation view of Paul Graham: The Seasons, 510 West 25th Street. February 28 April 11, 2020. Photography courtesy Pace Gallery.
NEW YORK, NY.- Pace Gallery is presenting an exhibition of two bodies of work by Paul Graham: one recent and one vintage, never before exhibited. Marking the first photography presentation since Pace/MacGill merged with Pace Gallery, this large exhibition is the third solo show of Grahams photography at the gallery since joining in 2011. The Seasons is on view from February 28 through April 11, 2020 at 510 West 25th Street. Pace Gallery's New York spaces are open by appointment subject to safety and travel restrictions. The main gallery space features The Seasonssix large format photographs made in homage to Pieter Bruegels iconic works after which the series is titled. Commissioned in 1565 and depicting rural life in Northern Europe, Bruegels series consisted of a suite of six paintings spread across the year. At that time the seasons were divided into paired months, thus having six. Bruegels works, ... More | | 
Composer Charles Wuorinen in his home in New York, May 15, 2018. Karsten Moran/The New York Times.
by William Robin
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Charles Wuorinen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and formidable advocate for modernist music, high culture and the composers worth, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 81. His publicist, Aleba Gartner, said the cause was complications of a fall suffered in September. Wuorinen, who won the Pulitzer in Music in 1970 at age 32, composed works for major orchestras including the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies while maintaining a prickly yet charming public persona. He received a surge of attention in 2004 when the New York City Opera premiered his opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories, based on a novel by Salman Rushdie. That was followed by a commission to compose an opera based on Annie Proulxs short story Brokeback Mountain, which ... More |
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Sunday, March 22nd, 11:00 AM #249 Auction Preview" from Ron Clarke
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| | More News |
 In a pandemic, musicians play in empty halls for audiences onlineNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- I was watching on my computer at home on Thursday afternoon as the Berlin Philharmonic finished a streamed performance of Luciano Berios Sinfonia. The cameras panned over rows of seats. No one was there. The musicians, dressed in their black-tie best, seemed not to know quite what to do. Finally, they began greeting each other cheerily, then stood and faced the empty hall. It was one of the most disorienting yet profound views of a performance Ive ever had. Since the Metropolitan Opera began broadcasting performances over the radio in the 1930s, the ways in which music can be disseminated have grown far more sophisticated. But the goal has remained the same: to bring you the listener, and more recently the viewer into the opera house or concert hall, to make you feel youre almost ... More Stephen Sondheim, the man who felt too muchNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- How do you feel? Thats a simple question, right? And unless youre talking to a doctor, you probably have a simple answer. And if thats the case, the odds are that youre lying. Such, anyway, is always my view of the human race after listening to a cast recording of a Stephen Sondheim musical, or even to just one of his ballads. And when it comes to emotions, Sondheim more than any other composer from the Broadway songbook is the one I trust to tell me the truth. Thats because in the world of Sondheim, feelings never come singly but in battalions. Even his simplest, most assertive melodies usually sound as if theyre being pulled in contradictory directions. Of course, his ever-nimble lyrics which have made his name a byword for verbal cosmopolitanism abound in paradoxes, puns and declarations ... More As virus strikes festivals, red carpets happen in living roomsLOS ANGELES (AFP).- Hollywood directors who had their glitzy premieres canceled due to coronavirus are finding inventive ways to build buzz for their films -- including bringing the red carpet into their living rooms. Movie festivals such as SXSW in Texas and Tribeca in New York have been scrapped in recent days as the deadly pandemic spreads. This has shorn major titles of the publicity generated by opening night reviews and galas, and left hundreds of unsold indie films without distributors. The makers of "The Carnivores," a quirky thriller-meets-love story set to debut at SXSW, took matters into their own hands by shifting the "premiere" to the cinematographer's Austin home. "We have full catering, we have a red carpet, we have a photographer coming, we have local news," said director Caleb Michael Johnson. The red carpet will ... More Ticket holders seek refunds as coronavirus prompts mass cancellationsNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- With governments and health officials trying to limit the spread of the coronavirus by discouraging or banning large gatherings, the highly contagious virus has had a palpable impact on the plans of would-be vacationers, theatergoers, sports fans and others. The Boston Marathon is postponed, Broadway shows are canceled, Coachella is on hold. And the abrupt cancellation of, well, just about everything has forced people to engage in an activity undesired even in the best of times: the scramble for refunds. In light of the situation, many agencies and companies have updated refund practices or introduced new policies, such as eliminating change fees and offering coupons. But customer service departments around the nation are currently slammed as they handle the fallout of the epidemic. Some refund requesters ... More Ireland's Connemara Mountains transformes in largest ever outdoor light artworkGALWAY.- Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture presents Savage Beauty, now as an online art experience created by Finnish light artist Kari Kola. The artwork transforms Irelands Connemara mountains with colour and light in the largest site-specific light artwork ever created. Initially planned as a public event from 14-17 March, in light of the restrictions in place in response to Covid-19, Galway 2020 are now making the Savage Beauty artwork available as a special digital edition from today, ahead of the international celebration of Saint Patricks Day, Tuesday 17 March. Described as a savage beauty by Oscar Wilde, Connemara is rural Ireland at its most dramatic. Kari Kolas installation of 1,000 lights spread over a distance of 5 kilometres, transforming the mountains in a wash of vibrant pulsating colours. Artist Kari Kola said; Since I ... More Largest sculpture exhibition by a single artist at Canary Wharf opens MondayLONDON.- Canary Wharf Group presents the largest solo exhibition to date of the work of Helaine Blumenfeld OBE, opening on 16 March 2020. Her lyrical and dynamic sculptures will be shown in the Lobby of One Canada Square until 26 June and in outdoor locations across the Estate, including Jubilee Park, throughout the summer. Following successful shows at Ely Cathedral and Huygens Hofwijck Museum (The Netherlands) in 2019, LOOKING UP: Helaine Blumenfeld at Canary Wharf meets the challenge of transforming Londons contemporary commercial hub into an urban sculpture park. Blumenfeld says: The opportunity to exhibit my sculpture in Canary Wharf is, in many ways, the culmination of efforts Ive made throughout my career to bring sculpture into public spaces where it can affect people in their daily lives. I hope my sculptures will ... More Exhibition of works executed between 1974-1989 by Tatsuo Kawaguchi on view at Kayne Griffin CorcoranLOS ANGELES, CA.- Kayne Griffin Corcoran is presenting a solo exhibition of work by Japanese artist Tatsuo Kawaguchi. This marks Kawaguchis second exhibition with the gallery and is comprised of works executed between 1974 1989. The gallery is open by appointment only until further notice. In the 1970s, Kawaguchi created the first work branded with the prefix that would come to define his practice for the next four decades and beyond: relation. Used in the title of most pieces he has created in the time since, relation became the means by which Kawaguchi began illuminating ideas too abstract or poetic for us to recognize in our everyday lives. Whether communicating the individuals connection to society or the present moments place vis-Ã -vis the vastness of history, these overlooked relationships have motivated Kawaguchi to continue evolving creatively ... More The Ringling welcomes 'Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy'SARASOTA, FLA.- The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is presenting Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy (2017) in its United States debut. The exhibition opened March 15, 2020, in the museums Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Gallery for Contemporary Art. Retainers of Anarchy is a monumental 25 meter-long projection with sound created from the digitization and animation of hundreds of ink drawings. The work draws from literary and artistic genres of the Song dynasty (960 1279 CE), but undermines its idealized portraiture of social cohesion by setting the narrative in Kowloons notorious Walled Cityan ungoverned tenement of disenfranchised refugees in Hong Kong, which was demolished in 1994. The animation pictorially references major works of Chinese art, scenes from historic stories and modern life within parallel universes. ... More Galerie Templon opens an exhibition of works by German painter Norbert BiskyPARIS.- On his first return to Paris since 2014, German painter Norbert Bisky plunges us into the heart of his native capital city: the wild Desmadre Berlin of the inter-war period, a world of hedonism and anarchy whose traces are still to be found on the capital's walls today. In this new series, Bisky has chosen to swap the pastel blue of his skies for darker hues and the luminous smiles of his models for more serious expressions. His baroque scenes feature bronzed models who bring to mind the communist propaganda which marked the artist's youth in GDR. Alongside them are the night birds, hipsters and outsiders who populate the streets of Berlin Friedrichshain every evening, drifting among the post-industrial facades that characterise the district, a favourite haunt of the city's denizens of the night. Channelling the artist's traumas and obsessive questioning ... More 'From Alfredo Biagini to Toti Scialoja: A tale of 20th century Italian Art' on view at Ottocento Art GalleryROME.- Ottocento Art Gallery has the privilege of offering important masterpieces coming from several private collections gathered in the usual monthly exhibition aimed to the sale. The selection starts from the masterpiece by Toti Scialoja, Dark window. The artists research continues, leading him to superimpose two of his pictorial passions: the aseptic rigorism of Morandis painting, with which Scialoja also has an interesting correspondence, and the deconstruction of the form of the works of the analytical cubism of Picasso and Braque. In the painting of this period (late 1940s-early 1950s) Scialoja, in fact, tends more and more to conceal form, shatter objects and visible data for that abstract composition, as the artist then specifies and which he will define, at starting from the mid-fifties, his new, original artistic language. Just this new artistic research characterized by an abstract composition ... More 3rd edition of COLLECTIBLE end of fair reportBRUSSELS.- The 3rd edition of COLLECTIBLE closed on Sunday 8 March, with participants across all sections reporting healthy sales, brand new commissions, strong networking opportunities and invaluable encounters. Running from 5-8 March at the Vanderborght building in Brussels, the fair attracted 115 international exhibitors and over 18,000 visitors across the week. COLLECTIBLE is the only fair worldwide to focus on 21st century collectible design, with galleries, designers, design studios and institutions joining forces to celebrate todays best talents. As dealer Todd Merrill from New York puts it the fair provides 21st century collectible design a much-needed fresh point of view where gallerists and artists cohabit harmoniously, an opinion shared by Portuguese designer Mircea Anghel, confirming that the fair offers a very strong ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Romanian-French artist Constantin Brâncusi died March 16, 1957. Constantin Brâncusi (February 19, 1876 - March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered a pioneer of modernism, one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century, Brâncusi is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. In this image: The 1911 gilded bronze sculpture "Prometheus" by Constantin Brancusi is displayed during a preview of "Brancusi Serra" at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
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