| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, May 28, 2018 |
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| | Peruvian scientists use DNA to trace origins of Inca emperors | |
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Peruvian genetics specialist Ricardo Fujita works at his lab in the San Martin de Porres University in Lima on May 11, 2018. Upon the many programs he foresees, Fujita and his team have been working since 2000 on ADN evidence attempting to determine the origins of the Inca Empire. Cris BOURONCLE / AFP.
by Roberto Cortijo
LIMA (AFP).- Researchers in Peru believe they have traced the origins of the Incas -- the largest pre-Hispanic civilization in the Americas -- through the DNA of the modern-day descendants of their emperors. From their ancient capital Cusco, the Incas controlled a vast empire called Tahuantinsuyo, which extended from the west of present-day Argentina to the south of Colombia. They ruled for more than two hundred years before being conquered by the invading Spanish in the 16th century. The empire included the mountain-top citadel of Machu Picchu in modern-day Peru -- now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist attraction. After becoming fascinated by the Inca culture, their organizational skills and their mastery of engineering, researchers Ricardo Fujita and Jose Sandoval of Lima's University of San Martin de Porresit became interested in the genetic profile of their descendants. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Specialists assemble the bones of a skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus dinosaur on May 24, 2018 at the Jardin des Plantes Museum in Paris, ahead of the exhibition "A T Rex in Paris". The 67-million-year-old skeleton, discovered in 2013 in the USA is one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons in the world. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
| France weighs how to return Africa's plundered art | | Dino-killing asteroid shaped tree of life, modern birds | | Troubled exhibits: five disputed museum treasures | 
Big royal statues of the Kingdom of Dahomey dating back to 1890-1892 are pictured on May 18, 2018 at the Quai Branly Museum-Jacques Chirac in Paris. GERARD JULIEN / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- Half-man, half-beast, the tall African statues dominate a busy gallery in Paris' Quai Branly museum. But few of the visitors are aware they are looking at what might be considered stolen goods. The three imposing wooden carvings were plundered by French troops in 1892 from the kingdom of Dahomey -- modern-day Benin. "I came here to learn about how these objects were intended to be used, more than how they were brought here," said Michael Fanning, a student from New Orleans, peering up at the statues. "But it does make me think we should give them back to whoever made them." From London to Berlin, Europe's museums are packed with hundreds of thousands of colonial-era items. Increasingly, they are facing the awkward question of whether they should be there at all. The "Scramble for Africa", as Europe's 19th-century land grab came to be ... More | | 
Ground-dwelling birds survived while their close, tree-dwelling relatives went extinct after asteroid impact 66 million years ago.
DENVER, COLO.- Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck the earth and wiped out non-avian dinosaurs. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on May 24 have pieced together what that asteroid impact meant for birds. From multiple lines of evidence, including the plant fossil record and the ecology of ancient and modern birds, they show that the only birds to survive the Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) mass extinction event lived on the ground. Birds that lived and nested in trees went extinct because the asteroids impact destroyed forests worldwide, which took hundreds or even thousands of years to recover. This study provides a large-picture, ecosystem-wide explanation for why certain groups did well after the extinction and set the stage for modern birds, said Tyler Lyson, Denver Museum of Nature & Science paleontologist and co-author said. It is fascinating to me that an event ... More | | 
Royal Seat of the Kingdom of Dahomey from the early 19th century is pictured, on May 18, 2018 at the Quai Branly Museum-Jacques Chirac in Paris. GERARD JULIEN / AFP
PARIS (AFP).- Europe's museums are full of items taken from Africa during colonisation, but many other objects on their shelves also carry an uncomfortable history. Here are five examples of historic artefacts which have caused bitter ownership spats between nations: So intricate that some Europeans of the day did not believe they could have been made by supposedly "primitive" Africans, thousands of these plaques were plundered from the Kingdom of Benin by British troops in 1897. The British ransacked what is now Benin City in Nigeria, torching it and stripping it of its artwork in revenge for a massacre of their troops. Showing scenes of court life, the "bronzes" date back to the 16th and 17th centuries and are in fact mostly made of brass. Brisk trade scattered them around Europe, and today the biggest collections are in London's British Museum and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. ... More |
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| Artcurial announces highlights from its Post-War & Contemporary Art sale | | Collections from Neolithic to Modern provide depth and choice in Gianguan Auctions' June 9 sale | | Flashback to Roman Catholic times and iconoclasm in a red church | 
Zao Wou- Ki, 1.6.88, 1988. Oil on canvas. Estimate: 1 800 000-2 800 000 / 2 160 000-3 360 000 $.
PARIS.- Artcurial will host a Pre-War and Contemporary Art auction during a week devoted to 20th century art. Three major pieces by artists Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh Chun will open the auction cycle. Abstract masters will also be represented. A majestic 1952 piece by Georges Mathieu will be offered beside two important works from Simon Hantaï, and an oil painting by Joan Mitchell, combining impressionism and abstract. Pierre Soulages, with an oil on canvas, 130 x 92, 29 MARS 88, will represent the multiplicity of states in painting, depending on how the light impacts the work. St. Louis IV, a monumental and radically powerful piece by Richard Serra will be revealed carrying an estimate of 500,000 700,000 / $600,000 840,000 and the delicacy of Sol Lewitts « serial project » created between 1966 and 1967 will ... More | | 
Warring States Ding, a bronze food vessel with cover.
NEW YORK, NY.- In an auction that features a collection of both elaborate Buddhist statues and an excellent array of paintings by traditional and contemporary Chinese masters, a selection of archetypal ceramics and early bronzes add unusual depth. The properties go off on June 9 at Gianguan Auctions. The auction will be conducted live, beginning at 6:00 p.m. to accommodate both buyers in China as well as local and European bidders. The remarkable staying power of blue and white ceramics is evidenced by a tall Qing Dynasty Yuhuchunping with trumpet mouth and body decorated with a continuous frieze of bamboo, plantain trees and rock work in a fenced garden. Bearing the Qianlong Six Character, and of the period, the vase is similar to one illustrated in the Beijing Palace Museum collection. It is Lot 51, valued at more than $60,000. Cloisonné collectors ... More | | 
With the red light Calò brings the Roman Catholic visual idiom back into the building and reflects on the Iconoclastic Fury of 1566 and the revolution in religious thinking.
AMSTERDAM.- The Oude Kerk is presenting the most recent monumental work by Giorgio Andreotta Calò (b. Venice, 1979). Calò has devised a site-specific work that effects a drastic alteration to the churchs interior. By placing red film and plexiglass in front of the towering windows, he radically alters the lighting and thus the atmosphere in the church. During the summer months, visitors to the church will be bathed in an ocean of red light, an inimitable experience. Late in the evening the red light is emitted from the church, coalescing with the red lamplight of the plentiful brothels and prostitution windows surrounding the church. Throughout the summer the church shares in this light and shade: interior and exterior circulate around each ... More |
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| Sikkema Jenkins & Co. opens a solo exhibition of new work by Sheila Hicks | | A swarm of muslin and steel locusts fills the Crocker Art Museum's third floor galleries | | LOVE, CECIL: A documentary film by Lisa Immordino Vreeland to premiere in Los Angeles in July | 
Sheila Hicks, Predestined Color Wave I, 2015 (detail). Linen, 71 x 71 inches, 180 x 180 cm. Not signed.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is presenting Down Side Up, a solo exhibition of new work by Sheila Hicks on view at the gallery from May 24 through July 6, 2018. Down Side Up features a new series of large panels wrapped in strands of linen and acrylic yarns created over the past two years by the artist in her Paris studio. A number of these works were included in her recent survey show at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2018), where they leaned against windows and were viewable from front and back, suggesting both painterly and sculptural forms. Sheila Hicks (b.1934, Hastings, Nebraska) received BFA (1957) and MFA (1959) degrees from the Yale School of Art. Awarded a Fulbright scholarship to paint in Chile, she photographed indigenous weavers and archeological sites in the Andes beginning an investigation into fiber as an ... More | | 
Installation view.
SACRAMENTO, CA.- A swarm of muslin and steel locusts is inhabiting one of the Crocker Art Museums third floor galleries as part of The Cycle by Cyrus Tilton. Based on the life cycle of the locust an insect best known for its voracious appetite the exhibition serves as a cautionary metaphor for the worlds bourgeoning population and its insatiable consumer habits. The artist, the late Cyrus Tilton, was born in Palmer, Alaska, in 1977 and grew up near the Matanuska River in northeast Anchorage. There, his parents instilled in him the environmental consciousness of the 1960s, developing their sons appreciation for nature, which he carried into his artistic practice. Tilton was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to the Art Institute of Seattle and after graduating, settled in Oakland, California. In 1999, he became the lead sculptor and later, art director at Scientific Art Studio in Richmond ... More | | 
Dynamic and lyrical, LOVE, CECIL is an examination of Beaton's singular sense of the visual, which dictated a style that set standards of creativity that continue to resonate and inspire today.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber will present the Los Angeles theatrical release of LOVE, CECIL, a documentary film by Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict). Winner of the Audience Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival, the film premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival and went on to screen at a number of festivals including DOC NYC and Palm Springs International Film Festival. LOVE, CECIL will open at the Elinor Bunin/Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York on June 29, and at the Nuart in Los Angeles on July 20th. Many other cities will follow. Set and costume designer, photographer, writer and painter ... More |
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| Art, humour, politics and history: How the pictorial map has helped shape our view of the world | | Original Hamilton-Burr dueling pistols on rare public display | | Malmö Konsthall opens the largest solo exhibition so far for the Norwegian sculptor Siri Aurdal | 
A 1924 pictorial map by the artist Edward Bawden, titled British Empire Exhibition To Wembley by London Underground. £6,500 from The Map House at the London Map Fair.
LONDON.- Al Capone, tourism in early Soviet Moscow, the Berlin Airlift and the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley; what do they all have in common? The answer is that they have all been the subjects of pictorial maps, colourful charts depicting not just the geography, but also the history and demographics of historical events. Whats more, all of them will be available from exhibitors at the London Map Fair the largest event of its kind in the world on June 9 and 10. Al Capone? The 1931 satirical map being offered by Daniel Crouch Rare Books is titled A Map of Chicagos Gangland from authentic sources and sets out the grid of streets across the city complete with the territories controlled by Al Capone, Cicero and others. This form of satire is a direct descendant of the late 18th and early 19th century caricatures and political ... More | | 
Hamilton Burr Original Dueling Pistols. Courtesy JPMorgan Chase Corporate History Program.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The original pistols used in the infamous 1804 duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are on display at the Smithsonians National Postal Museum through June 24. They are featured in the exhibition Alexander Hamilton: Soldier, Secretary, Icon, along with mail, portraits, and postage and revenue stamps reflective of Hamiltons life and career as the first U.S. treasury secretary. The rare public showing represents the first time the pistols have been on public display in the Washington area. The full exhibition remains on view through next March. Its opening coincides with the June opening of the hit Broadway play, Hamilton: An American Musical, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The original dueling pistols used by Hamilton, former secretary of the treasury and retired two-star general, and Vice President Aaron Burr in the duel that resulted in Hamiltons death are on loan to ... More | | 
Installation view. Siri Aurdal. Continuum, Malmö Konsthall 2018. Photo: Helene Toresdotter.
MALMO.- Continuum is the largest solo exhibition so far for the Norwegian sculptor Siri Aurdal (b. 1937, living in Oslo). It is also the artists first solo exhibition since 1980. Siri Aurdal attracted a lot of attention with her sculpture Onda Volante in the Nordic Pavilion at the 57th Venice Bienniale. The curator of the group exhibition Mirrored was Mats Stjernstedt, director of Malmö Konsthall. This summer the sculpture from the Nordic Pavilion is being shown in Malmö Konsthall along with a set of newly produced sculptures. These works constitute the first additions in over 30 years to a sculpture series that Siri Aurdal introduced in 1969, in her breakthrough exhibition Surroundings at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo. In this series of sculptures, Siri Aurdal staged a radical idea of modular use, of a sculpture system that is undergoing reconstruction. She combined this with radical notions concerning the relationships of art to ... More |
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How the Colourists Shocked the British Art World
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 Exhibition at The Approach combines the works of Patrick Procktor with drawings by Neil Haas LONDON.- The Approach is presenting an exhibition combining the watercolours of the late British artist Patrick Procktor (b. 1936, d. 2003) with drawings by London-based artist Neil Haas (b.1971). The show centres on the artists shared interest in portraiture, particularly their focus on the male figure. Patrick Procktor quickly rose to fame following an acclaimed sell-out show at Londons Redfern Gallery in 1963. A tall, dandy and flamboyant socialite, Procktor immersed himself into the creative London scene of the time, possessing close friendships with David Hockney, Derek Jarman, Bryan Robertson and the designer Ossie Clark. Drawing others into his increasing social circle, many of whom later became subjects in his works, Procktor soon became a prominent figure that effortlessly bridged the hedonistic worlds of art, music and fashion. Initially working with both ... More Waddesdon Manor opens exhibition of works by Michael EdenWADDESTON.- Michael Edens work sits at the intersection of craft, design and art. For this solo exhibition at Waddesdon, Eden, formerly a potter, explores contemporary themes through the reinterpretation of historical objects using digital manufacturing. In his most ambitious exhibition to date, Eden has created a collection of new pieces responding to objects from Waddesdons collections, bringing their stories into the 21st century and displaying them in a theatrical setting. The pieces are unique works of decorative art, the result of technical innovation combined with extraordinary levels of skill using techniques he explored during his MPhil at the Royal College of Art (2006-2008). Eden has pushed the revolutionary tools and materials of digital technology to their extremes. He has produced complex and thought-provoking works while staying true to his artistic intention that ... More Exhibition of new work by British figurative painter Claerwen James on view at Flowers GalleryLONDON.- Flowers Gallery is presenting new work by British figurative painter Claerwen James. Quietly enigmatic, James paintings of youthful female subjects are not portraits in the usual sense of the word. Painting from photographs, she frequently works with anonymous images, scouring car boot sales and junk shops for magazines and film stills, alongside her own photographed images and family pictures. With the identity of each subject considered unimportant, she denies the instinct to try to make sense of the captured photographic moment in concrete narrative terms. As Ruth Scurr writes in the catalogue essay, three of the four figures in the present exhibition are revisited and modified from past works. Their faces are presented again in her latest paintings, according to Scurr, to [challenge] herself and her public to look again at the unknowing ... More Finn Juhl furniture skyrockets past expectations setting new US auction record at Clars May 2018 SaleOAKLAND, CA.- Clars Auction Gallery hosted their Important Fine Art, Decorative Art, Furniture, Jewelry and Asian Art Auction on May 20th, 2018. While strong prices were seen across the board, Decorative Arts & Furnishings led the sale with several lots going for well over estimate and numerous Fine Art offerings surpassing high estimates as well. Furniture designs by Finn Juhl (Denmark, 1912-1989) stole the show on Sunday, May 20th at Clars with both pieces offered setting a new US auction record. Juhl, the renowned famous Danish architect, interior and industrial designer, is credited for introducing Danish Modern to America. Presented at the sale was his Judas rosewood dining table, circa 1950. Estimated to achieve $10,000 15,000, bidding drove the final sale price on this lot to over twice high estimate commanding $34,650. Next, a lot of 8 Finn ... More Ketterer Kunst's Auction of 19th Century Art totals almost €800,000MUNICH.- The successful kick-off of the spring auction season at Ketterer Kunst in Munich on May 18 was marked by the 19th Century Art Auction yielding total proceeds of almost 800,000. The attractiveness of this section is underlined by 36% first time buyers, a sales quota of around 75% by lots and an average price increase per of around 60% per sold lot. The star of the auction was Hermann Pleuers atmospheric train station scene Stuttgarter Westbahnhof, which was reopened in 1896 after just three years of reconstruction. We have been facing a situation in which it was extremely difficult to acquire interesting high-quality artworks to be offered at appealing prices, says Robert Ketterer with regards to 19th Century Art. The auctioneer and company owner continues to explain: While sellers were very reserved this spring, buyers were acting ever ... More A solo exhibition by the painter Bobbie Russon opens at bo.lee galleryLONDON.- bo.lee gallery announces DELUGE - a solo exhibition by the painter Bobbie Russon. Bobbie Russons paintings speak to the turbulent yet contemplative and solitary place in all of us. Just as gravity compels the tides, so the works exhibited in Deluge capture the outer forces provoking inner turmoils. Overwhelmed, figures stand subjected to the storm, desperately trying to keep their heads above water. The comforts that the inhabitants of Russons paintings had been clinging onto have now been discarded, revealing a conflict between a sense of insecurity and independence. There is an allusion to the simultaneous desires for both parental presence and absence often experienced in the years approaching adulthood, and we wonder how momentary or deeply rooted the glares cast might be. Painted during the winter months, Russons surroundings become ... More Aspire Art Auctions to offer two 'fresh to the market' Irma Stern paintingsJOHANNESBURG.- Aspire Art Auctions, the South African auction house, is offering two fresh to the market Irma Stern paintings which beautifully capture her vision of Africa as the home and melting pot of cultures African, European, Arab and Chinese and which pay tribute to all these influences. The paintings are part of a sale of Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art on June 17th at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, in Johannesburg. Emma Bedford, a director of Aspire Art Auctions, says: Given the international interest in Irma Stern we are delighted to bring these two beautiful works to the market. They both embody her style and her philosophy which was such a rich mélange of the cultures we are heir to here at the southern tip of Africa. What is particularly interesting in the one painting is the presence of a Chinese pot and an Arab influenced ... More Foam Talent: Exhibition at Frankfurter Kunstverein offers a unique look at current artistic trendsFRANKFURT.- For the first time in Germany, the Frankfurter Kunstverein presents the internationally renowned, showcase exhibition Foam Talent in collaboration with Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. The exhibition is considered one of the most innovative formats for discovering emerging trends in photography. It presents twenty young artists in comprehensive ensembles of works. These ensembles sketch out the image of a generation characterized by questioning everything from individual to collective identities, the effects of territorial conflict, subcultural phenomena, and the realm of possibilities within photographic production. A number of artists make use of anthropological methods and undergo intensive, long-term research for their projects. Others start with found materials from historical archives, private collections, and the Internet, which they use ... More Luce Meunier's third solo exhibition at Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran on view in MontrealMONTREAL.- Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran is presenting Luce Meuniers third solo exhibition at the gallery entitled 4. The artist crafts her works from voluntarily preestablished constraints and codes to bring material and pictorial strategies into play. Luce Meunier pursues her practice of developing new rigorous passive methods and techniques to be applied to the traditional mediums of painting and engraving. Rather than directly manipulating the materialacid, resin, pigments, inks, waterthe artist allows them to randomly occupy the surface guided by movement, breath, gravity and flow. The exhibition title refers to the quadripartite division of surfaces, which correspond to an equal number of space-time captures and act as an archive of a fluctuating creation. The image symbolizes the fourth dimension, but also the four elements ... More Australian Pavilion in Venice transformed into a field of vegetationVENICE.- The Royal Australian Institute of Architects is presenting Repair at the Australian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, which runs from May 26 to November 25, 2018. Creative Directors Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright of Baracco+Wright Architects, in collaboration with artist Linda Tegg, have curated a multi-sensory living installation for the Pavilion, designed to disrupt the viewing conditions through which architecture is usually understood. The curators installed ten thousand plants inside and outside of the Pavilion, including 65 species of Western Plains Grasslands. This component of the exhibition, entitled Grasslands Repair, serves as a reminder of what is at stake when we occupy land just one per cent of these threatened species are left in their native ecosystem. The Pavilion has been ... More National Pavilion UAE's exhibition explores the interplay of architecture and social life VENICE.- Lifescapes Beyond Bigness, the National Pavilion UAEs exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale, reveals hidden scenes of everyday life in the UAE across four human-scale urban landscapes. The exhibition highlights the interplay between the built environment and the dynamism of informal social life through images, technical drawings, maps and three-dimensional models. The exhibition and accompanying publication examine four urban typologies, including: residential neighborhoods (Al Satwa and Al Shorta in Dubai and Baniyas in Abu Dhabi); networks of streets and sikkak (Deira and Bur Dubai in Dubai and Downtown Abu Dhabi); urban blocks (Al Zahya, Al Danah, Al Dhafrah, and Al Zaab in Abu Dhabi); and natural landscapes (Al Mutaredh Oasis and Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain). The exhibitions curator, Dr. Khaled Alawadi, is an Emirati architect and urban planner, ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, German painter Jörg Immendorff died May 28, 2007. Jörg Immendorff (June 14, 1945 - May 28, 2007) was a contemporary German painter, sculptor, stage designer and art professor.[1] He was a member of the art movement Neue Wilde. In this image: Jorg Immendorff, Untitled, 2007.
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