| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Monday, October 9, 2023 |
| | A Giacometti for a Cezanne: Jeffrey Epstein's role in a pricey art deal | |
|
|
Leon Black at a benefit gala for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Dec. 8, 2016. (Rebecca Smeyne/The New York Times)
by Matthew Goldstein
NEW YORK, NY.- In late 2016, when private equity mogul Leon Black was trying to sell one expensive piece of art to buy another without incurring a hefty tax bill, he turned to the one man he knew who could help pull it off: his friend Jeffrey Epstein. On Nov. 23 that year, Black sold an Alberto Giacometti sculpture from his massive private art collection for $25 million to a trust controlled by Epstein, by then a registered sex offender, according to documents viewed by The New York Times. That same day, a company linked to Black used the proceeds from that sale to buy a watercolor painting by Paul Cezanne for $30 million. Black, a co-founder of Apollo Global Management, took advantage of an incentive that allows an investor to defer paying capital gains taxes on the sale of an asset if the proceeds are quickly rolled over into the purchase of a like kind asset of equal or greater value. Although the incentive was intended mainly to encourage new construction by ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Curated by Jay Ezra Nayssan, Nonmemory at Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles brings together seminal works by Mike Kelley and a group of seven contemporary artists Kelly Akashi, Meriem Bennani, Beatriz Cortez, Raúl de Nieves, Olivia Erlanger, Lauren Halsey and Max Hooper Schneider whose works all play with the role of memory as it posits our perceptions of space and place. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
|
|
|
|
|
| Harriet Pattison, 94, dies; Landscape architect with a tie to Louis Kahn | | For two artists in Shanghai, reality is ripe for manipulation | | Plagiarist or master? The tortured legacy of Yambo Ouologuem | 
Harriet Pattison at the University of Pennsylvania Archives, 2015. Photo ©Charles A. Birnbaum courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
by Fred A. Bernstein
NEW YORK, NY.- Harriet Pattison, a noted landscape architect whose projects included the grounds of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt on Roosevelt Island in New York City, both of them collaborations with architect Louis Kahn, with whom she had a son, died on Monday at her home in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. She was 94. The death was announced by the son, filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, her sole survivor. Pattisons biggest contribution to landscape architecture may be her work on the Kimbell site. In a 2015 oral history interview with Charles Birnbaum, the president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, she said it had been her idea to add a slope to the site so that the building looked like it really belonged there, and it wasnt sitting on a plinth, which had been Lous approach. She also adjusted ... More | | 
Shi Jiayun, Green #5, 2019. Oil and pencil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.4 cm. 12 x 10 in. Photo: Courtesy Gallery Vacancy.
NEW YORK, NY.- The two painters who will be represented at Frieze London by Gallery Vacancy in Shanghai share a need to depict the extraordinary in the ordinary, one through everyday industrial items and the other through the simplest images from nature. That juxtaposition is what captivated Lucien Tso, the founder and director of the gallery, located in the upscale Huangpu district of Shanghai. The artists, Ni Hao, who is Taiwanese, and Shi Jiayun, who is from Chongqing, China, but lives in Shanghai, are integral parts of the contemporary Asian art scene with their individual senses of urgency, he said. Both of them create a sort of parallel universe with how they interpret reality, Tso said in a recent phone interview. At some level, they manage to alienate themselves from the existing reality and they try to rearrange that reality. They perceive and filter and recalibrate to whatever is happening around them. I see that in both of their works. Ni, 34, grew ... More | | 
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, a Senegal-born writer, in Paris, on July 1, 2022. (Andrea Mantovani/The New York Times)
by Elian Peltier
DAKAR.- In 1968, a young Malian author living in Paris published his first book to the highest praise: Critics called it a great African novel and awarded it one of Frances most prestigious literary prizes. But soon, his rise gave way to a devastating fall from grace. Yambo Ouologuem was accused of plagiarism, but he denied any wrongdoing and refused to explain himself. His publishers in France and the United States withdrew the novel, Le Devoir de Violence, or Bound to Violence. After a crushing decade, Ouologuem returned to Mali, where he remained resolutely silent on the matter, responding to questions about his aborted literary career with digressions or outbursts of anger, refusing even to speak French. He died in 2017, forgotten by most, his novel read by few until recently, when another award-winning novel by a West African author helped bring new ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Steve McQueen's call to arms: The making of '12 Years a Slave' | | A pair of Venetian masterpieces by Canaletto leads Christie's Old Masters Part I Sale in London, December 2023 | | Hauser & Wirth brings together seminal works by Mike Kelley and a group of seven contemporary artists | 
Director Steve McQueen in London, Oct. 22, 2020. 12 Years a Slave, McQueens version of a call to arms, was released 10 years ago this month. (Ana Cuba/The New York Times)
by Reggie Ugwu
NEW YORK, NY.- So, what do you want to do next? The question shadowed director Steve McQueens first tour of Hollywood, in late summer 2008. His debut film, Hunger, a mesmerizing and unsettling character study of Irish revolutionary Bobby Sands, had electrified audiences in Cannes that May and won the prize for best first feature. In rounds of meetings in Los Angeles McQueens first time in the city executives and producers on studio lots and in restaurants cast themselves as allies-in-waiting, eager to help a visionary new talent mount his second picture. McQueen had thought his follow-up would tackle another formidable historical figure, perhaps African American singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson or Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer and political dissident Fela Kuti. But, after the Hollywood meetings, he told his agent that he wanted to make a film ... More | | 
Giovanni Antonio Canal, Canaletto (1697-1768), Venice: The Mouth of the Grand Canal from the East circa 1734 (detail). Oil on canvas, 18.1/2 by 30.7/8 in. (47 x 78.4 cm.). Estimate: £8,000,000-12,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.
LONDON.- A pair of unpublished Venetian masterpieces by the world-renowned titan of vedute painting, Giovanni Antonio Canal, Canaletto will lead Christies Old Masters Part I sale on 7 December in London during Classic Week, 2023. Venice: The Mouth of the Grand Canal from the East; and The Molo, with the Piazzetta and the Doges Palace, from the Bacino are in excellent condition and estimated to realise between £8,000,000 and £12,000,000. Depicting two of his most evocative subjects, this exceptional pair of views was painted in about 1734 when Canaletto was at the height of his powers. Like most of his finest work of the period, the two canvases were almost certainly painted for an English patron for whom Joseph Smith, the merchant, collector and later consul in Venice, acted as agent. Their calibre is comparable to the great sequence of views on the Grand Canal now in the Royal ... More | | 
Mike Kelley, Kandor 16, 2011. Mixed media 196.2 x 126.4 x 102.6 cm / 77 1/4 x 49 3/4 x 40 3/8 in © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved / VAGA at ARS, NY. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Curated by Jay Ezra Nayssan, Nonmemory brings together seminal works by Mike Kelley and a group of seven contemporary artists Kelly Akashi, Meriem Bennani, Beatriz Cortez, Raúl de Nieves, Olivia Erlanger, Lauren Halsey and Max Hooper Schneider whose works all play with the role of memory as it posits our perceptions of space and place. Through a variety of media and material, the artists in this exhibition use space as the repository for dreams, fantasies, traumas and anxieties, while offering opportunities to re-imagine and recreate reality. The title of the exhibition Nonmemory, takes direct inspiration from Kelleys use of the term, a way of treating, reordering and representing the complex and unstable relationship between memory, space and identity. Beginning with Educational Complex (1995) and ending with Mobile Homestead (2005 13), the second half of Mike Kelleys career was largely devoted to explori ... More |
|
|
|
|
| From Vienna, two artists set their sights on Frieze London | | A Guatemalan art gallery reaches out to the world | | 'I Am Part of the Story of Art' | 
Laurence Sturla, work-in-progress, shot from his studio.
by Rebecca Schmid
VIENNA.- Emerging artists provide an art fair with some of its most exciting booths. Since 2012, Frieze has showcased new talent through its Focus series, which puts a spotlight on galleries that have been in operation for 12 years or less. Among the 34 galleries chosen for Focus at this years Frieze London (through Oct. 15) are a handful from Vienna, which is home to an increasingly dynamic and international contemporary arts scene. Sophie Thun, 37, has photographically documented her latest solo show, Leaking Times, created for a converted sugar refinery in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The German Polish artist, who is represented by the gallery Sophie Tappeiner, revisits techniques in analog photography and photograms with at times life-size images exploring the interface of production, performance and exhibition. Laurence Sturla, 31, will be exhibited in his native England for the first time and unveil his largest-scale work to date. Part of a series that has b ... More | | 
Akira Ikezoes installation at the booth of Proyectos Ultravioleta of Guatemala City at Frieze New York on Randalls Island in New York, May 3, 2017. (Philip Greenberg/The New York Times)
by Ray Mark Rinaldi
GUATEMALA CITY.- Ask Stefan Benchoam about the mission of his gallery, Proyectos Ultravioleta, and he starts on a long story of Guatemalan politics, full of dates and details, and more than a little despair. Barely stopping for a breath, he starts with the end of the Spanish colonial period and the beginning of independence, through the exploitation of both land and people by the United Fruit Co., a U.S. corporation that once controlled vast sections of the countrys soil, and how threats against it served as an excuse for a CIA-backed coup in 1954. He soars through the violent dictatorships and civil war that followed before a U.N.-brokered peace process in 1996. The tale ends in 2023, with Guatemalas recent presidential election, which was marked with political maneuvering, and death threats, meant to undermine the winning candidate. It is important to know all of that, ... More | | 
Claudette Johnson, Presence at The Courtauld Gallery. Installation View. Photo; Fergus Carmichael.
by Farah Nayeri
LONDON.- Nevermore is one of Paul Gauguins most celebrated paintings and a pride of the Courtauld Gallery in London. A naked young Tahitian woman reclines across the canvas as strange figures lurk in the background. From now until mid-January, that Gauguin has a new next-door neighbor: artist Claudette Johnson, who is the guest of the art museum in the grand Somerset House with her show Presence. A pioneer of the Black Arts Movement in Britain, Johnson creates large, delicately drawn works on paper with pastels and gouache and acrylic paint that have the scale and potency of paintings. The first works of the 15 in her show are actually a riposte to Gauguin and that other giant of the turn of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso: portraits and self-portraits that show Black women as they are and that reject the sexualized and exoticized images made by white male artists who appropriated Polynesian or African imagery in the process. Johnson grew up i ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Complete set of Constitution signers headlines RR Auction's Fine Autograph and Artifacts Auction | | Smithsonian's National Postal Museum launches new virtual exhibition | | Leonard Baskin, The Great Birdman features more than 70 works by the prolific multimedia artist | 
Constitution of the United States Complete Set of Signers (40) with Founding Fathers George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Now At: $24,200 (4 bids). Estimate: $100,000+.
BOSTON, MASS.- RR Auction announced its October Fine Autographs and Artifacts sale, featuring over 900 extraordinary lots. The highlight of this exceptional event is an unparalleled collection: a complete set of autographs from all 40 signers of the American Constitution, including prominent founding fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. This remarkable gathering of signatures represents a seminal document in American history that continues to be a touchstone for discussions on governance, rights, and bureaucracy. The United States' Constitution has been the lifeblood of the American government, shaping the nation's foundation, and serving as a global model for democratic governance. The collection includes manuscript material from all 40 signers, encompassing a variety of formats, from letters to documents and even paper currency. A standout piece ... More | | 
The holdup of Train 13 on October 11, 1923, took place in the Siskiyou Mountains just beneath treacherous Siskiyou Pass, where Tunnel 13 served as an integral connector on the Southern Pacific rail line for over 100 years. (Southern Oregon Historical Society 1977.117.14, #034468)
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Postal Museums new virtual exhibition, Tragedy at Tunnel 13: The Crime, the Victims, and the Legacy is now available for viewing on the museums website. The exhibition was curated through the collaboration of the National Postal Museum, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Southern Oregon Historical Society. Train 13 of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company regularly carried mail between Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. Both mail and freight cars frequently carried rich cargo, including payrolls, cash, gold, negotiable bonds and other valuables. On Oct. 11, 1923, four workers lost their lives during a holdup of Southern Pacific Train 13 at Tunnel 13 in the Siskiyou Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. The attempted robbery ended with the murders of railway personnel Sidney ... More | | 
William Blakes combined commitment to words and images spurred Baskin to found the Gehenna Press, one of the first fine art presses in the United States.
PORTLAND, OR.- Leonard Baskins Orthodox Jewish upbringing and his deep knowledge of Jewish texts and history are evident throughout his oeuvre. Other important influences include monumental Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture and Greek mythology and literature. Always a representational artist, Baskins images in every media confirm his deep engagement with the natural world of birds, animals, insects, and plants. However, it is commitment to the human figure and its fate in a world of turmoil and suffering that is preeminent in his work. Leonard Baskin, The Great Birdman features more than 70 works from the collection of Judith Baskin and Warren Ginsberg and is guest curated by Kenneth Helphand, Philip H. Knight, Professor of Landscape Architecture Emeritus, University of Oregon and Judith Baskin, Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities Emerita at the University of Oregon. "Being Jewish confounds things. The people of the book are intelligently defined as a religion. I, a believing athei ... More |
|
Henry Taylor: âFrom sugar to shitâ
|
|
|
| More News |
 Russell Batiste Jr., the drumming heartbeat of New Orleans, dies at 57NEW YORK, NY.- Russell Batiste Jr., a pyrotechnic drummer and scion of one of New Orleans most celebrated musical dynasties, whose furious style and genre-busting approach provided the rhythmic pulse for bands such as The Meters and Vida Blue and musical artists such as Harry Connick Jr., died Sept. 30 at his home in LaPlace, Louisiana, outside New Orleans. He was 57. The cause was a heart attack, said his brother Damon Batiste, a former percussionist with the Batiste Brothers Band and a former producer for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. As a member of a family that has put its stamp on New Orleans music for generations, Russell Batiste was a mainstay of the citys funk and R&B scene, performing with a long string of prominent local bands such as George Porter Jr. & Runnin Pardners, the Wild Magnolias ... More  Francis Bacon's masterpiece 'Figure in Movement' to highlight 20th century evening saleNEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced Figure in Movement, a masterwork by Francis Bacon, will be a leading highlight in the 20th Century Evening Sale taking place on November 9, 2023 at Rockefeller Center. Standing among the great icons of Francis Bacons oeuvre, Figure in Movement is an extraordinary meditation on love, loss and the transience of the human condition. Painted in 1976, it takes its place within the canon of masterworks that followed the tragic death of his beloved George Dyer in 1971. In Figure in Movement Bacon bids farewell to his lover. It is a powerful image of the traces life leaves behind, and of the forces that animate them in memory. Never before seen at auction, the painting has remained in the collection of a single private family for nearly half a century. It is estimated in the region of $50 ... More  Philip Guston's first major UK retrospective in 20 years on view at Tate ModernLONDON.- Tate Modern presents a landmark exhibition of one of the most remarkable artists of the twentieth century: Philip Guston (1913-1980). The artists first major UK retrospective in 20 years, the exhibition spans more than 100 paintings and drawings from across Gustons momentous 50-year career. It offers new insight into the artists formative early years and activism, his celebrated period of abstraction, and his thought-provoking late works. With an outlook strongly shaped by his experiences of personal tragedy and by social injustice in the US, the exhibition charts the restlessness of an artist who defied categorisation, and never stopped pushing the boundaries of painting. Presented chronologically, the exhibition begins with Gustons early years as the child of Jewish immigrants who had escaped persecution in present- ... More  Art collection of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman will highlight Christie's Marquee WeekNEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced Ivan & Genevieve Reitman: A Life in Pictures, a vibrant and joyful art collection that will be offered during the Marquee Week of Sales this November, led by Picassos portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, Femme endormie. The collection comes to Christies New York from the California home of Ivan Reitman, the legendary filmmaker behind iconic movies from the 20th century that enraptured audiences across the globe including Ghostbusters, Dave, Kindergarten Cop, Animal House, Space Jam, Old School, and dozens more. A director, producer, and storyteller to his core, Ivan Reitman spent his life celebrating the magic of creativity in all its forms. Insightful and inventive, Reitman seamlessly coalesced his love for filmmaking and visual art, creating a comprehensive and cohesive collection that evoked ... More  Füsun Onur: Retrospective on view at The Museum LudwigCOLOGNE.- Füsun Onur, who was born in Istanbul in 1938 and currently based there, is one of the most outstanding artists working in Türkiye today. Although her impressive and varied oeuvre has been readily accessible to an international audience in group exhibitions on a regular basis, it has not been sufficiently appreciated. The first survey exhibition of her work was held at Arter in Istanbul, ten years ago. The Museum Ludwig is now presenting her work to a larger audience in a major retrospective. Over the past few years, the Museum Ludwig has mounted major surveys on significant artists whose work had previously only been cursorily acknowledged, including Joan Mitchell (2015), Nil Yalter (2019), and Isamu Noguchi (2022). This exhibition with Füsun Onur represents another focus on a body of work whose significance has ... More  The Met's 'Dead Man Walking' goes to Sing SingOSSINING, NY.- One by one, the inmates filed into a chapel at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining past a line of security officers, past a sign reading Open wide the door to Christ. Under stained-glass windows, they formed a circle, introducing themselves to a crowd of visitors as composers, rappers, painters and poets. Then they began to sing. The inmates had gathered for a rehearsal of Dead Man Walking, the death row tale that opened the Metropolitan Opera season last week. Together, they formed a 14-member chorus that would accompany a group of Met singers for a one-night-only performance before an audience of about 150 of their fellow inmates. I feel like Im at home, said a chorus member, Joseph Striplin, 47, who is serving a life sentence for murder, as the men warmed up with scales and stretches. I ... More  Phillips to host dedicated evening sale of works from The Triton Collection FoundationNEW YORK, NY.- This Fall, Phillips will offer thirty works of art from the esteemed Triton Collection Foundation in a dedicated Evening Sale on 14 November. The works span the century and feature movement-defining examples of Impressionist, Modern, and Post-War Art, including Pablo Picassos Femme en corset lisant un livre, 1914-1917; Georges Braques La bouteille de Bass, c. 1911-1912; and Joan Mitchells Untitled, 1954. Phillips is proud to announce that Fernand Légers Le 14 juillet, 1912-1913 will also be showcased in the sale, which features a recently-discovered fully completed artwork on the verso, from the series Fumées sur les toits, 1911-1912. The Triton Collection Foundation has a stellar reputation for their discerning judgment in acquiring works of art. This group of works being offered for sale reflects the quality, importance, ... More  Monumental Mark Rothko canvas to highlight Christie's 20th Century Evening saleNEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced Mark Rothkos Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange), 1955 will be a leading highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale taking place live at Rockefeller Center on November 9, 2023 during the Marquee Week of sales. The near seven-foot tall canvas envelops the viewer in a dramatic golden glow. Filled with rich, dynamic fields of color, Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) exemplifies the boldness and complexity of Rothkos most successful work. The painting was in the artists personal collection until he passed away. It subsequently belonged to legendary 20th century collectors and art patrons, Paul and Bunny Mellon and remained in their possession for half a century. The work is estimated to achieve in the region of $45 million. Alex Rotter, Chairman of 20th and 21st ... More  Phillips Dropshop announces first bronze sculpture by Emily Mae Smith, GazerNEW YORK, NY.- Phillips October Drop features Emily Mae Smiths first bronze sculpture, Gazer. The Drop will take place on 10 October on dropshop.phillips.com at 10am. Known for her virtuosic paintings featuring surreal images, art historical references, and wry commentary, Gazer takes inspiration from many of the same subjects as her paintings, ranging in influence from the Arts and Crafts movement to surrealism. Gazer is a sculpture representing a traditionally useful, yet humble tool a broom, relieved of their labor duties, and elevated to a moment of leisure and self-reflection having emerged in this new setting. Emily Mae Smith said, I have always painted about the potential of objects. This is why I often say my work is most related to still life. It was only a matter of time until one of my subjects emerged in three dimensions. Gazer revisits ... More  Gibbes Museum of Art announces winner of 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern ArtCHARLESTON, SC.- The Gibbes Museum of Art announced Sherrill Roland as the 2023 winner of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. Characterizing his artistic concerns, Rolands 2022 public art installation Due Innocence, patterned after a vintage optical exam, asks the question what does your innocence look like to a local judge. After spending ten months in prison for a crime that he was later exonerated of, Roland returned to his artistic practice using only materials he had access to, or saw, while incarcerated. He will be awarded a $10,000 cash prize and recognized at the Society 1858 Amy P. Coy Forum scheduled for Feb. 9, 2024. Honorable mentions go to Carlie Trosclair and Hiromi Moneyhun. Were proud to honor Sherrill and his work for imparting a first-hand understanding of the ramifications of the criminal ... More  James Jorden, creator of an essential opera blog, dies at 69NEW YORK, NY.- James Jorden, a feisty, influential writer and editor who brought together high culture, punk aesthetics and gleeful camp in his opera zine-turned-website Parterre Box, was found dead Monday at his home in Queens. He was 69. Police, asked by a friend in a 911 call to check on Jorden, discovered his body, but it was unclear when he died, according to the New York Police Department. The medical examiner was to determine the cause of death. In the early 1990s, Jorden was struggling to find work as a stage director in New York when he got the advice to try writing about opera rather than producing it. The East Village at the time was a little past the peak of punk music zines, fanzines, he recalled in a 2009 interview. And I really liked the aesthetic, even though I had no idea what it was they were talking about. ... More  Dancers and video game characters merge in the uncanny valleyNEW YORK, NY.- Watch a TikTok video by @dem_bruddaz, and you might feel a queasy mixture of recognition and disorientation. Youll see, say, a person running down a street. But wait is it a person? Why does he turn at such precise 45-degree angles? Why are his gestures so oddly exaggerated? And is that a Grand Theft Auto theme song playing in the background? Maybe this is a clip from a video game. Or is it some AI-generated approximation of a video game? Though select commenters refuse to believe it, @dem_bruddaz actually are people, the real-life brothers Orlando Murayire, Fernando Shami, Freddy Sheja and Aristide Shema. Based in western France, theyve built a global following by imitating, with disquieting accuracy, the ambiguously human movements of characters from the video ... More |
|
PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, British artist Simeon Solomon was born October 09, 1840. Simeon Solomon (9 October 1840 No. 3 Sandys Street, Bishopsgate, London, England - 14 August 1905 in St. Giles's Workhouse, Endell Street) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter. Examples of his work are on permanent display at the Victoria and Albert Museum and at Leighton House. In December 2005/January 2006, there was an important retrospective of his work, held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and in London at the Ben Uri Gallery in October / November 2006. In this image: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 1863.
|
|
|
|
© 1996 - 2021