| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Monday, November 2, 2020 |
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| | Two museums tried to sell art. Only one caught grief about it. | |
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Les Ãles à Port-Villez, by Claude Monet, was sold without incident at Sothebys on Wednesday as part of a deaccessioning of art from the Brooklyn Museums collection. Cindy Ord/Getty Images/AFP.
by Hilarie M. Sheets
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Two museums planned to sell works from their collections at a Sothebys auction Wednesday night. One moved forward seamlessly, with the Brooklyn Museum reaping almost $20 million for seven works by artists including Henri Matisse, Joan Miró and Claude Monet. The other, the Baltimore Museum of Art, decided to pull its paintings by Clyfford Still and Brice Marden two hours before the heavily criticized sale after discussions with the Association of Art Museum Directors, a professional organization advancing best practices in the field. If the disparate reactions to the two sales are a bit bewildering, welcome to the world of deaccessioning, the often byzantine process by which museums get rid of items that no longer serve their long-term interests, whether by sale or donation. Its common practice for museums to sell second-tier or redundant works languishing in storage rooms to generate money for new acquisitions. Museums, though, can run afoul of ethical standar ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A policeman is seen on duty at the archaeological site of Machu Picchu, in Cusco, Peru during its reopening on November 01, 2020, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu reopened on Sunday in the framework of a gradual decrease in COVID-19 contagions in Peru, after remaining empty for almost eight months, affecting the tourism sector severely. ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP.
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 | | Coronavirus shutdown a 'slap' for German cultural world | | Exhibition features Kwong Lum's unrestrained freehand cursive calligraphy | | Lark Mason Associates presents 'Strictly Private: A Collection of Erotic Works by Duncan Grant' on igavelauctions | 
Cafe owner of 'Le Belfort bistro', John Bleys makes final preparations prior its closure due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in Berlin, Germany. Omer MESSINGER / AFP.
by Pauline Curtet
MUNICH (AFP).- As curtains were about to close at the renowned Bavarian State Opera house, baritone Michael Nagy was unable to hide his tears over the imminent coronavirus shutdown ordered by the German government to fight surging infections. Speaking to AFP on Saturday night during the interval mid-way through his performance, the 43-year-old called the tough curbs that will hit the leisure, cultural and food and drink sectors from Monday until the end of November "a slap". The pill was particularly bitter to swallow for the Munich-based opera, which had been holding performances in the cavernous concert hall for 500 spectators over the past month -- and claims no infections have been traced to its concerts. Director Nikolaus ... More | | 
Lum's calligraphy written on excerpts from Mao's poems.
NEW YORK, NY.- One of the most intriguing aspects of Kwong Lums prolific output as an artist is his ability to weave images from the East into the West and to find amazing correlations between the two. He uses calligraphy in a present pictorial space in an innovative new way. For Lum to work this way with such confidence and alacrity, he needed to perfect the traditional way of the brush. His inspiration came from the great Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu who spoke often about being formless and nameless and who advocated against superficiality and artifice. His Taoist philosophy recommended going deeply nature to locate the center of ones being. In doing so, the artist could understand the way of the brush by evoking the spontaneity of nature and thus go beyond the visible world of artifice. His way of making calligraphic writing into free-flowing pictorial signs by relinquishing the conscious structure behind ... More | | 
Duncan Grant, Ballet Dancers (detail).
NEW YORK, NY.- Lark Mason Associates is pleased to presents: Strictly Private: A Collection of Erotic Works by Duncan Grant which are available for bidding on www.iGavelAuctions.com from October 29th through November 19th, 2020. Over 60 works of homoerotic drawings and paintings by Duncan Grant, from the private collection of Douglas Blair Turnbaugh, are now on sale for the first time. These intimate works provide an insight into the artists life and his famed Bloomsbury circle of artists, writers, philosophers and intellectuals including Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Lytton Strachey, and John Maynard Keynes, among others. Douglas Blair Turnbaugh, author of Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group as well a dance impresario, is 91 and lives in New York. He was introduced to Grant by Paul Roche, the critically acclaimed British poet and translator of the Greek classics who was the artists lover and c ... More |
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| | Large public outdoor exhibition in Berlin celebrates Helmut Newton's 100th anniversary | | The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch is "reunited" with visitors at the Museo del Prado | | The British Museum opens the first major exhibition on the history of the Arctic and its Indigenous Peoples | 
Helmut Newton, Claudia Schiffer, Vanity Fair, Menton 1992. © Helmut Newton Estate.
BERLIN.- The Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin is taking Helmut Newton's 100th anniversary as an occasion to celebrate the exceptional photographer for the first time by presenting his legendary, timeless, and innovative work in a large public outdoor exhibition in Berlin. Helmut Newton was born in 1920, the son of a Jewish button manufacturer in Berlin-Schöneberg. From 1936 to 1938 he trained as a photographer under the renowned fashion photographer, Yva; his first self-portraits were created in her studio in Schlüterstrasse. But soon thereafter, Newton had to flee Berlin. One of the last buildings he saw as his train left Zoo Station for Trieste was the military casino on Jebensstrasse. 65 years later, this building became home to his foundation and archives, where the work of Helmut and his wife June (a.k.a. Alice Springs), is presented in regularly changing exhibitions. Despite the tragic circumstances under which Newton left ... More | | 
New display of room 56A. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado.
MADRID.- With the support of Samsung as a Technology Sponsor, the Museo Nacional del Prado has reopened its gallery devoted to Jheronimus Bosch with a new installation that marks a radical rethinking from a technical viewpoint. New supports have been designed and made for three of the triptychs and the gallery now has a table-case, a new lighting system, new graphics and a screen which shows enlarged details of the works. In 2016 the temporary exhibition on Jheronimus Bosch held at the Museum saw more than 600,000 visitors, breaking a new record for the Prado. In 2019 the Bosch gallery had more than 7,000 visitors a day, totally 2.5 million in a year. The audio guide commentary on The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of the five most listened to by visitors, only after Las Meninas, while during the Covid-19 lockdown the most watched video in the online programme #PradoContigo was the live one on the painting, which had 1,344,240 hi ... More | | 
Russian orthodox icon turned into an Evenki patron-spirit mask, 17th century. © MAE RAS ot © Kunstkamera.
LONDON.- The British Museum opened the first major exhibition on the history of the Arctic and its Indigenous Peoples, through the lens of climate change and weather. The Arctic has been home to resilient communities for nearly 30,000 years, cultures that have lived with the opportunities and challenges of one of the most dramatic environments on the planet. Today climate change is transforming the Arctic at the fastest rate in human history. The Citi exhibition Arctic: culture and climate is the first to look at the whole circumpolar region, revealing how Arctic Peoples have adapted to climate variability in the past and meet the challenges of global climate change today. Through the knowledge and stories of Indigenous Arctic Peoples, the exhibition addresses the global issue of changing climates in a transforming world. Bringing together the largest and most diverse circumpolar collection ever ... More |
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| | Exhibition features works by female artists who expanded the orthodox category of Minimal art | | Hauser & Wirth Southampton presents an exhibition of works by Mary Heilmann | | Pandemic-hit Mexico marks somber Day of the Dead | 
Verena Loewensberg, Ohne Titel, 1953. Oil on canvas, 33,46 x 25,59 in. Courtesy Verena Loewensberg Foundation and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg © Verena Loewensberg Foundation. Photo: Charles Duprat.
LONDON.- Female Minimal: Abstraction in the Expanded Field brings together pioneering female artists from Europe and the Americas who each contributed in her own original way to expanding the orthodox category of Minimal art. The artists on display expand on the traditional concept of minimalism to explore possibilities of the minimal as a guiding force in their work whether in their process, use of materials, or as forming the basis of their approach. Featuring 13 artists from ten different countries, the exhibition presents a large selection of paintings, photography, installation and works on paper ranging from the 1920s to the early 1980s. Including some of the earliest examples of animation, algorithmic and kinetic art, alongside pieces from the fields of Neoplasticism, Concretism, (Post)Minimal and Land art, the display shows how these artists occupied a central position amongst period-defining groups such as Zurich Concrete in Switzerland, Abstraction- ... More | | 
Mary Heilmann, Invisible Kachina, 1982. Oil on canvas, 18 1/4 x 12 x 2 3/8 in. Top: 5.62 x 6.12 x 2.12 in. Bottom:12.12 x 12 x 2.12 in. © Mary Heilmann. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth and 303 Gallery, New York.
SOUTHAMPTON, NY.- For over 25 years, preeminent American artist Mary Heilmann has been living and working between New York City and the oceanside hamlet of Bridgehampton on Long Islands storied East End. Hauser & Wirth Southampton is presenting Highway, Oceans, Daydreams, an exhibition that juxtaposes new paintings Heilmann has completed over the months of the pandemic while sequestered in Bridgehampton, with earlier works that find her recalling the landscapes of her life. Highway, Oceans, Daydreams is the first public exhibition at Hauer & Wirths Southampton location, which opened in July 2020 as a private viewing space. From the onset of the global pandemic in March through September of this year, Heilmann remained in Bridgehampton, marking the longest consecutive period she has ever spent at her Long Island studio. During these months she immersed herself in the mutable conditions of light, air, and colors s ... More | | 
A Day of the Dead figure is displayed in the lobby at Madame Tussauds for Halloween on October 31, 2020 in New York City. Cindy Ord/Getty Images/AFP.
by Yussel Gonzalez
MEXICO CITY (AFP).- In Mexico death is usually a cause for celebration during the Day of the Dead festival, but this year parades have been canceled and many cemeteries were closed Sunday due to the pandemic. From November 1-2, people across the country normally deck their homes, streets and relatives' graves with flowers, candles and colorful skulls. The traditional festival, which in 2003 was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, centers around the belief that the living and the dead can commune during the brief period. With its bright colors and cartoonish skeleton costumes, the Day of the Dead has become an internationally recognized symbol of Mexican culture. But this year the authorities have urged people to stay at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus, which has killed more than 90,000 people in Mexico -- one of the world's highest tolls. Traditionally, many families visit their loved ones in cemeteries and bring ... More |
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| | The Macallan Red Collection sells for $975,756 - Ultimate Whisky Collection Part II realises $1.4 million | | Glasgow artist launches plastic bag museum | | American electronic, kinetic, and robotic sculptor Alan Rath dies at age 60 | 
The Macallan Red Collection sells for £756,400 / $975,756. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON.- On Saturday morning in London, a complete set of The Red Collection, a new classic aged collection of single malt from The Macallan, achieved £756,400 / $975,756 in Sothebys first annual sale of Spirits to fall on the day that Halloween is celebrated around the world, The Ultimate Whisky Collection Part II + More. Against a low estimate of £200,000, the hammer came down as determined collectors online and in the room competed to own the only set of its kind to be made available for sale. Acquired by an Asian private collector, the set was gifted by The Macallan to City Harvest London to raise funds for the food charity which redistributes surplus from the food industry to vulnerable people across the capital. Proceeds from the sale will provide almost two and a half million meals for those in need. The complete set of six whiskies in The Red Collection is anchored by The Macallan 40 Years Old, The Macallan 50 ... More | | 
British artist Katrina Cobain, 24, poses for photographs with some of her collection of plastic bags from which she intends to start The Plastic Bag Museum in Glasgow on October 28, 2020. ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP.
by Stuart Graham
GLASGOW (AFP).- Katrina Cobain unwraps a parcel and removes its precious contents, slowly and delicately as if she were handling an ancient scroll of papyrus. But the items she places on the table of a makeshift studio in an old tobacco pipe factory in the east end of Glasgow are rather more mundane -- plastic carrier bags. Yet, to many, they are considered historical items, representing the consumer excesses of the 20th and 21st centuries. For Cobain, 24, every plastic bag tells a story of the modern age and so, two years ago, she became a collector and plans to start a museum. "The original idea started because I felt that landfill sites could be archaeological digs of the future and for our ... More | | 
Raths work has been exhibited extensively internationally.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Hosfelt Gallery announced the death of their friend Alan Rath. The San Francisco artist internationally recognized for his pioneering exploration of electronics as an art form died on October 27th in Oakland, CA. He was 60 and had been battling a rare form of multiple sclerosis for many years. Beginning in 1985, Rath made sculptures with robotics and computer-generated video animations, which he designed, machined, and programmed himself. Formally elegant and meticulously crafted, yet playful and unpredictable, his leitmotif was the relationship between the mechanical and technological, and the human body and behaviors. Rath was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1959 and earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982. While at MIT he took courses within the Architecture Machine Group the precursor to the Media Lab ... More |
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One painting, many voices | The Rokeby Venus | National Gallery
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| | More News |
 Waldo opens an exhibition of work by Carlos ReyesSEARSPORT, ME.- At a storage facility just off the highway in mid-coast Maine, a translucent monolith constructed from 5264 plastic egg cartons stands inside a Quonset hutan industrial enclosure normally used to stockpile mounds of gravel, salt, or sand. But here, Carlos Reyes investigates a different kind of resource. Inside the towering translucent structure, chicken eggs that have been hollowed, painted and chromed are suspended at regular intervals. Reyes has taken the residues of everyday American liferepetition, accumulation, constraintand exposed them to fresh ocean air. Patent not pending, this flimsy architecture shimmers and sways, each cell reflecting and projecting light. The installation continues in a row of self-storage units nearby. Exhausted treadmill belts, having reached the 30,000 mile mark, are now stretched into hollow ... More Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco exhibition showcases Bay Area artistsSAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In celebration of the de Young museums 125th anniversary, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco opened The de Young Open, a juried community art exhibition welcoming submissions by artists from the nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. As the de Young celebrates its distinguished 125-year history in 2020, we are proud to announce The de Young Open, creating a platform for the visionary artists who enrich the Bay Areas cultural landscape, states Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Amid these uncertain times, this new initiative expands the Fine Arts Museums ongoing commitment to the Bay Area community and serves as a celebratory sign of our communitys strength ... More The Museo Reina SofÃa opens an exhibition of works by Anna-Eva BergmanMADRID.- The Museo Reina SofÃa presents From North to South, Rhythms, an exhibition by Anna-Eva Bergman (Stockholm, 1909 - Grasse, France, 1987), whose work stands as one of the most rigorous and relevant abstract art projects in the second half of the twentieth century. Bergmans artistic practice is structured trough rhythm, an element she considers to be essential in the painting process, based on combining shapes, lines and colors. Her work can be seen as a very particular approach to landscape painting, formally connected to American abstract art, especially to Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, and aiming to take the viewer into the experience of infinity, as in the contemplation of nature. At the begging of her career, Bergmans work was very influenced by the German artists of the New Objectivity movement. However, since the 1950s, ... More The lasting legacy of Irma Stern explained by South Africa's leading women in the artsJOHANNESBURG.- Irma Stern is an important figure in the history of South African art. An undeniable innovator, her portrait and still life paintings have been especially admired by generations of collectors. Nearly a half-century after her passing, Sterns legacy endures and she continues to outperform all other South African artists she is Strauss & Cos top selling artist. A selection of her work will be available on auction at the North/South Live Virtual Auction from 8-11 November. And who better to take us through the enduring legacy of Irma Stern and her work on the upcoming November auction than SAs leading women in the arts? We spoke to Susie Goodman, Executive Director of Strauss & Co and Bina Genovese, Joint Managing Director of Strauss & Co. Q: You have a very exciting auction coming up in November, please tell us ... More Phillips to offer Heuer Monaco Worn by Steve McQueen for the 1971 film Le MansNEW YORK, NY.- On Saturday, 12 December, Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo will offer a Heuer Monaco worn by Steve McQueen while filming his iconic racing film, Le Mans. As the last of two known Monaco wristwatches kept and gifted by Steve McQueen to be offered publicly, it presents a spectacular opportunity to own one of the most celebrated wristwatches of the 20th century. The watch was gifted to the films Chief Mechanic and McQueens personal mechanic, Haig Alltounian, by Steve McQueen at the end of filming. Consigned directly by Alltounian, the watchs case back features the engraving TO HAIG Le MANS 1970, dedicated to him by McQueen. The watch will be a highlight of Phillips flagship New York Watch Auction, RACING PULSE. Paul Boutros, Head of Phillips Watches, Americas, said, The Heuer Monaco will always ... More Cut off from the world again, Australia now finds silver liningsSYDNEY (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- They used to call it the tyranny of distance. Australias remoteness was something to escape, and for generations, the country that hates being referred to as Down Under has been rushing toward the world. Trade and immigration made Australians richer than the Swiss, creating a culture where life can be complete only with overseas trips and imported purchases. Until the pandemic. The virus has turned this outgoing nation into a hermit. Australias borders are closed, internationally and between several states. Its economy is smaller, and its population growth has fallen to its lowest rate in more than 100 years. Rather than chafing against isolation, though, Australians these days are more willing to smile in the mirror. Island living looks like a privilege when the world is pestilent. Those gnawing questions ... More Art Institute of Chicago opens Jo Ractliffe's first-ever retrospectiveCHICAGO, IL.- Drives is South African artist Jo Ractliffes first-ever retrospective, featuring more than 100 works of photography, video, book art, and multimedia installation. Playing on the double entendre of the title, the exhibition culls imagery from the open road as visual metaphor for human instincts and desires. From October 17, 2020 through April 26, 2021, Drives traverses 35 years of Ractliffes emotive landscapes, connecting diverse bodies of work made in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and on the cross-country highway that connects them; the South African port city of Durban, and the country's borderlands; and during the artists travels abroad. Jo Ractliffe is one of the most recognizable and accomplished artists in contemporary South African photography. She began her practice at the height of violent state suppression of anti-apartheid ... More Sean Connery: From tentative secret agent to suave BondNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 1965, at the height of James Bond mania, Sean Connery told Playboy magazine that he had no problem with another actor assuming his signature role. Actually, Id find it interesting to see what someone else does with it, he said. Lots of people could play him. Strictly speaking, he was right. But by public reckoning, he couldnt have been more wrong. In the popular imagination, the Scottish-born Thomas Sean Connery, who died Saturday at 90, will always be both the first and the best Bond ... James Bond. Its hard to believe that before Eon Productions perfected its Bond formula, the secret agents creator, Ian Fleming, gushed about perhaps casting Richard Burton or David Niven as 007. The former would have brought the necessary guts, the latter the requisite charm. But for an enduring, vodka ... More Weinberg/Newton Gallery partners with ACLU to present exhibition on voting rightsCHICAGO, IL.- Weinberg/Newton Gallery announced that the exhibition, Anthem (formerly titled If we do not now dare everything), is being presented online and in the gallerys storefront windows. Available for viewing here through Saturday, Dec. 19., the exhibition is presented in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union and examines voting rights in the United States of America through the works of contemporary artists Bethany Collins, Jaclyn Conley, Eve L. Ewing, Mike Gibisser, Naima Green, Ellen Rothenberg and Sanaz Sohrabi. Planned to coincide with the 2020 election cycle and the November presidential election, Anthem looks past partisan divisiveness and focus on the issue of voting as a fundamental right. Curated by Weinberg/Newton Gallery Co-Director Kasia Houlihan, the works on view in the exhibition examine familiar emblems ... More Exhibition at Kunstmuseum Den Haag reflects the current trend for bright colours in fashionTHE HAGUE.- A famous scene from the film The Devil Wears Prada (2006) explains that your blue sweater is not just any old blue. And neither is it your personal choice. Its colour is the result of a chain of decisions made within the fashion industry, from the designer to the finished product. But there is even more to it than that, because a fashion colour is never just a colour: it is a bearer of meaning. The meanings we associate with colours have nothing to do with the colours themselves, but are determined by society. And those meanings shift between cultures and periods. Humans can distinguish many more colours than animals. This makes us unique and connects us, and partly explains our love of art and fashion. There are many stories to be told about the symbolism of colour in fashion: about the here and now, about the past, and about distant lands. ... More Peru's Machu Picchu reopens after Covid lockdownLIMA (AFP).- The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, the crown jewel of Peru's tourist sites, reopens Sunday after a nearly eight-month lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. For safety reasons, however, only 675 tourists will be able to access the site per day, just 30 percent of the number of visitors pre-pandemic. Opening Machu Picchu to the world shows "that we Peruvians are resilient," Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Rocio Barrios told AFP. The number of coronavirus cases has been steadily decreasing in Peru, and tourists will be expected to maintain social distancing. The coronavirus lockdown has been a body blow to the tens of thousands of people who make their living from country's tourism industry, especially those in the mountainous Cusco region where the stone citadel is located. Scores of hotels, restaurants and tourism- ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, American artist Richard Serra was born November 02, 1939. Richard Serra (born November 2, 1939) is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement. He lives and works in Tribeca, New York and on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. In this image: U.S. artist Richard Serra gestures as he talks to journalists during a press preview for his exhibition "Drawings - Work Comes Out of Work" at the Kunsthaus in Bregenz, Austria, Thursday June 12, 2008.
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