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Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 13, 2022 August 13, 2022. © 2022 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Robert Gerhardt.
NEW YORK, NY.- African art has had a place at the Museum of Modern Art from its earliest days though not the African art you might think. In 1935, back when the museum nestled into a town house on West 53rd Street, curator James Johnson Sweeney organized African Negro Art, with 600 specimens including Dogon painted masks, Baoulé ivories and bangles and Congolese seats and spoons. One of the most popular exhibitions of MoMAs first decade, it toured the United States. Why were they at MoMA, and not a museum of ethnography or anthropology (or, worst of all, natural history)? Because, Sweeney maintained, these ritual objects were in fact modern art the best modern art of the age, in fact. As a sculptural tradition in the last century, Sweeney proclaimed, it has had no rival. Yet if MoMA could turn these objects notably pillaged Benin bronze plaques, which the curators borrowed from German ethnographic museums into modern sc ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Andrew Kreps Gallery is presenting the gallery's first exhibition with Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935, St. Louis, Missouri), on view at the gallery's 22 Cortlandt Alley Location.
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| Rembrandt rediscovery in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie | | Christie's presents The Collection of Anne H. Bass | | A rediscovered Titian will be offered at Dorotheum 11 May | 
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Landschaft mit Bogenbrücke, um 1638, Holz, © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Christoph Schmidt.
BERLIN.- For over 30 years, the painting Landscape with Arched Bridge was considered to be the work of Rembrandt's student Govert Flinck. According to the latest research, the work is by the master himself and now completes the important Rembrandt holdings of Berlins Gemäldegalerie. The painting is currently on display from April 8, 2022 in the special exhibition David Hockney Landscapes in Dialogue. The "Four Seasons" of the Würth Collection in Berlin in the Gemäldegalerie. When Landscape with Arched Bridge (Cat. No. 1932) entered the collection of the Gemäldegalerie in 1924, it was still considered to be a work by Rembrandt. For Wilhelm von Bode, the then Director General of the Royal Museums and an internationally renowned Rembrandt specialist, this was the fulfillment of a wish he had harboured for several decades. With this landscape, he was able to close an important gap in the collection and complete Berlin's outstandi ... More | | 
Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Danseuse attachant son chausson pastel and crayon on paper, 17 x 16 in. Drawn in 1887. Estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000. Photo: Christies Images Ltd. 2022.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies will present The Collection of Anne H. Bass featuring a selection of 12 magnificent artworks by leading 19th and 20th century artists including Degas, Monet, and Rothko. The most important American collection to arrive on the market this season comes to Christies directly from the interior of Mrs. Basss impeccably designed New York City home. These 12 works form a singularly compelling narrative that speaks to both the power of connoisseurship and the enduring relevance and radicality that characterize the greatest works of art. Presented as a dedicated single-owner evening sale, The Collection of Anne H. Bass will take place during Christies Marquee Week of 20th and 21st Century Art sales at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The collection is expected to exceed $250 million. In Mrs. Basss landmark New York City home on Fifth Avenue, she assembled a collection of masterpieces that was profo ... More | | 
Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian (Pieve di Cadore, circa 1485/901576 Venice) The Penitent Magdalen, oil on canvas, 115 x 96.7 cm, framed, Auction 11 May 2022, estimate 1 - 1.5 million euros.
VIENNA.- A missing painting by Titian, which has recently been rediscovered, is a highlight of Dorotheum´s sale of Old Master Paintings on 11th May 2022. It was once part of the celebrated collections of Christina, Queen of Sweden (1629-1689), Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1674-1723), and most probably Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II. It will be offered for sale at auction for the first time in over 150 years. The Penitent Magdalen was Titians most successful and frequently requested subject. Demand for paintings of the saint continued for more than forty years during which time the artist subtly altered and revised the composition. Much academic research has been devoted to the study of Titians Penitent Magdalens and this painting, for sale at Dorotheum, was considered lost. Its rediscovery has revealed a work of extraordinary quality and it is a significant addition to Titians oeuvre. The Dorotheum version, which is a highlig ... More |
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| Nancy Lane, spirit behind Studio Museum in Harlem, dies at 88 | | Researchers find another clue in the Dyatlov Pass mystery | | Patrick Demarchelier, fashion photographer, dies at 78 | 
Nancy Lane at her home in New York on July 10, 2018. Daniel Dorsa/The New York Times.
by Sam Roberts
NEW YORK, NY.- Nancy Lane, a trailblazing corporate executive who promoted the works of Black artists as a champion of the Studio Museum in Harlem for a half-century, died Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 88. Her death was announced by the museums director and chief curator, Thelma Golden. Lane was recruited to the board of the Studio Museum in 1973, five years after it was founded. She was the chairwoman from 1987 to 1989 and remained on the board as its longest-serving member until her death. As the founder of the trustees acquisitions committee and a leader of the building committee, she spurred the museums emergence from humble beginnings in a rented loft on upper Fifth Avenue to become what ARTnews in 2020 called a touchstone for todays Black artists, and a ... More | | 
A handout photo shows members of the hiking trip to Dyatlov Pass in the Ural Mountains in Russia in February 1959. Via The New York Times.
by Alan Yuhas
NEW YORK, NY.- A small avalanche on a desolate Russian mountain, harming no one and quickly erased by the relentless wind, does not usually make news. Unless it happens close to where nine Russian hikers died in the Urals more than 60 years ago, in a mystery that has confounded investigators and inspired conspiracy theories about corruption and spies, rocket programs and forest monsters, romantic rivalries and UFOs. Those theories have filled books, documentaries and TV shows, drawing on the uncanny details of archival documents, photos and research about what happened to Igor Dyatlov and his friends in 1959, their bodies scattered, injured and in states of undress. A recent Russian government investigation, opened in 2019 and aimed at ... More | | 
Pirelli, Calendar 2005.
NEW YORK, NY.- Patrick Demarchelier, a photographer whose work helped define fashion and celebrity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, died Thursday. He was 78. His death was announced on his Instagram page. It did not say where he died. The personal portraitist of Princess Diana and the first non-Briton to become an official royal photographer, Demarchelier was most famous for his work with Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, and he was the subject of a major bidding war between the glossies. Indeed, he became so synonymous with Vogue that his name made a cameo in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. Get me Patrick was a much-quoted line from it. Patrick takes simple photographs perfectly, which is of course immensely difficult, Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, wrote in a 2015 essay for a Christies auction of his work. He makes attractive women look beautiful and beautiful women seem real. An ability to combine both ease and ... More |
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| Museo Jumex presents the first major exhibition in Mexico and Latin America of the artist Urs Fischer | | Christie's presents The Kairos Collection: Exceptional Contemporary Timepieces by Patek Philippe | | Exceptional Chinese vase forms and furniture lead Freeman's April 13 Asian Arts Auction | 
Installation view Urs Fischer: Lovers. Museo Jumex, 2022 Photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography Zurich © Urs Fischer.
MEXICO CITY.- From April 2 through September 18, Museo Jumex will present Urs Fischer: Lovers, a 20-year survey of one of the most internationally celebrated artists working today and the artists first solo show in Latin America. Organized by Museo Jumex with guest curator Francesco Bonami, Urs Fischer: Lovers brings together new pieces made for the museum with works from international public and private collections as well as the artists own archive. Together, the works exhibit the wide-ranging creativity, humor, and depth of the artists practice. Created specifically for Museo Jumex, The Lovers #2 is a 10-meter-high monumental sculpture made of cast aluminum, stainless steel, and gold leaf, showing two forms meeting, one balanced on top of the other. Installed on the museums plaza, the sculpture s ... More | | 
The finest collection of Patek Philippe contemporary timepieces ever to appear at auction. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announces The Kairos Collection: Exceptional Contemporary Timepieces by Patek Philippe. This extraordinary collection of 128 contemporary Patek Philippe timepieces will be offered by Christie's in three parts during the spring 2022 live auction calendar. On May 9th, 30 pieces will be presented in Geneva as Part I, with highlights including fabled grand complications such as a Ref. 5959R-001 Split-Seconds Chronograph in rose gold with black dial and a Ref. 5074R-001 Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar in the same livery. On May 24th, Christies Hong Kong will present a further 30 lots as Part II, with similarly sought-after standouts, including a platinum Ref. 5951P-012 Perpetual Calendar Split-Seconds Chronograph and a Minute Repeater Ref. 5078R-001 in rose gold. On ... More | | 
Cloisonne Vase.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans April 13 Asian Arts auction presents collectors of Chinese craftsmanship opportunities to add remarkable 17th - and 18th -century furniture and design objects to their collections. The sale is led by a pair of Chinese huanghuali, or fragrant rosewood, armchairs (Lot 28), elegant works crafted in the late Ming to Qing dynasty and offered at an estimate of $80,000-120,000. This particular Sichitou Guanmaoyi design form (officials-hat chair with four protruding ends) would have been reserved for the most important and most honored member of a household in 17th -century China. The chairs handsome, streamlined forms and unusual bowed splats will appeal to discerning collectors of Chinese furniture. Asian Arts also features the sale of two design highlights, richly decorated 18th -century Chinese vases. The first, a large and impressive Chinese gilt-repoussé-embellished cloisonné v ... More |
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| FOMU opens exhibitions of works by Diana Markosian, Bertien van Manen, Alexey Shlyk & Ben Van den Berghe | | Neue Auctions announces highlights included in the English & Chinese Export Art & Antiques Auction | | Dix Noonan Webb to hold special banknote auction featuring 500 portraits of The Queen | 
Diana Markosian, Call to America, 2019 from the series Santa Barbara © Diana Markosian, Courtesy Galerie Les filles du calvaire, Paris.
ANTWERP.- FOMU presents the European premiere of the exhibition Santa Barbara by Diana Markosian (Moscow, 1989). In an innovative and deeply moving approach, Markosian tells the story of her family, and how they immigrated to America. Using film, still and archival images, Markosian explores the profound sacrifice made by her mother in pursuit of the American dream. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Markosian's Family is reduced to poverty overnight. At the same time, the American soap opera Santa Barbara is the first foreign show to be broadcast, offering a window to another world. Markosian's mother makes a decision to abandon her country and moves to the United States, in search of a better life for herself and her two children. This exhibition is Diana Markosians attempt to understand her mothers decision. Markosian ... More | | 
19th century English Regency giltwood convex mirror in a circular mirror frame with gilt sphere pendants and ebonized reeded border, 28 inches tall by 18 inches wide ($2,706).
BEACHWOOD, OH.- Two bronze figural statues by American sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies (1863-1937) sold for a combined $39,360, a monumental landscape painting by George Hetzel (French/American, 1826-1899) rose to $22,140, and a massive baluster form vase cast with the face of a woman by Paul Francois Berthoud (French, 1870-1939) brought $13,530 in Neue Auctions English & Chinese Export Art & Antiques auction held March 26th. The online-only affair contained nearly 300 lots, with an emphasis on English antiques, fine art and Chinese Export, consigned from private estates and collections. Featured were items from many periods, including English Regency, George III, William & Mary, William IV and Louis XV. Consignments came in from various upscale towns and with provenances ranging ... More | | 
LONDON.- Mayfair-based Auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb, who specialise in coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery will be holding a 500-lot auction of Banknotes - all featuring portraits of H.M. The Queen on Tuesday, May 31, 2022 titled The Platinum Jubilee Collection. As expert-in-charge Thomasina Smith said: We are delighted to be holding this sale to coincide with the celebrations for The Queens Platinum Jubilee. No other monarch has featured on such a wide range of notes from such a huge range of countries. Not only do they depict her through all 70 years of her reign, but stylistically they are a wonderful works of art showing the progression and history of the banknote. Ms. Smith carries on to say: The sale will feature banknotes from all corners of the Commonwealth and there will be examples from every country on which the portrait of The Queen has appeared. This includes New Zealand, Cyprus, Fiji, and ... More |
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Avant-garde masterpieces of the 20th and 21st Centuries
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| More News |
 Storyboard P: Where is the place for a genius of street dance?NEW YORK, NY.- For a long time, people trying to describe dancer Storyboard P have reached for grand comparisons and superlatives. Hes the Basquiat of street dancing or a more virtuosic extension of Michael Jackson. Hes the best street dancer in the world or simply the best dancer. To back up these judgments, there is plentiful evidence online: cameos in videos for Jay-Z and high-art films by Arthur Jafa and Kahlil Joseph, appearances in commercials and loads of homemade footage in which he is the star, mind-blowing and one-of-a-kind. Storyboard is exceptional, extraordinary. This is beyond doubt. The question that all of the praise and video proof raises but cant answer is: Where does he fit? This was already the question 10 years ago, when his fame began to spread from the Brooklyn dance battle scene into mainstream ... More  Ukraine's most famous living composer is now a refugeeNEW YORK, NY.- His Prayer for Ukraine was a centerpiece of a Metropolitan Opera benefit concert this month. His Fourth Symphony was played in recent weeks by the London Philharmonic Orchestra; his Eighth, by the Lithuanian National Opera; his Silent Music, on Sunday, in a concert for peace organized by the Berlin Philharmonic. His publisher lists dozens of coming performances of his works. As Russias war against Ukraine enters its second month, Valentin Silvestrov, Ukraines best-known living composer, has become a musical spokesperson for his country. And like millions of Ukrainians, he has been turned into a refugee by the conflict: Over three days in early March, he and his family made their way by bus from their home in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to Lviv, and from there across Poland to Berlin, where ... More  How Stephen Sondheim's work did (and didn't) translate to the screenNEW YORK, NY.- Stephen Sondheim, the unparalleled composer-lyricist who died in November, may have changed musical theater forever, but as a new program at the Museum of the Moving Image argues, he left his mark on film as well. Whether its Elaine Stritchs screen-shattering performance of The Ladies Who Lunch in D.A. Pennebakers documentary Original Cast Album: Company or Madonnas slinking around and cooing Sooner or Later in Dick Tracy, Sondheims work has given film audiences memorable moments. The museum program, See It Big: Sondheim, assembled by guest programmer Michael Koresky, film curator Eric Hynes and assistant curator Edo Choi offers a survey of adaptations of Sondheims work and other examples of his contributions to film, including a murder-mystery screenplay and ... More  Andrew Kreps Gallery opens the gallery's first exhibition with Oliver Lee JacksonNEW YORK, NY.- Andrew Kreps Gallery is presenting the gallery's first exhibition with Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935, St. Louis, Missouri), on view at the gallery's 22 Cortlandt Alley Location. Spanning five decades of Jackson's work, the exhibition includes paintings made between the 1970s and the present. Jackson has developed a singular body of work over the course of his career, creating complex and layered images in which suggestions of the figure emerge from abstract fields of vivid color. Heavily influenced by American Jazz, Jackson's paintings are improvisational in approach, as gestural marks become intertwined with vivid swaths of paint and color. Building over time, each work becomes a synthesis of disparate references, spanning from Rennaissance painting to Modernism, as well as Jackson's own studies ... More  Auction results: African American Art at SwannNEW YORK, NY.- The spring offering of African American Art closed out the March auctions at Swann Galleries with an exceptional marathon sale bringing $3.6M and saw an 89% sell-through rate with 214 of the 241 lots on offer finding buyers. "The continued success of our African American Art auctions, now in our fifteenth year, proves the breadth of this market. I am especially pleased that we set a new auction record for Hughie Lee-Smith finally eclipsing our own record with the sale of Slum Song, set in 2007. We also are thrilled to achieve the highest price for a work on paper by Ed Clark, said Nigel Freeman, the houses director of African American art. Hughie Lee-Smith was the standout artist of the sale, with four works by the artist earning spots among the top 20 results of the auction, including the top lot with Aftermath ... More  RUR Architecture's exhibition Lyrical Urbanism: The Taipei Music Center opens at Cooper Union in NYNEW YORK, NY.- Lyrical Urbanism: The Taipei Music Center, an exhibition marking the recent completion of Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architectures Taipei Music Center (TMC), a new musical district within Taipei, will be on view at Cooper Unions Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture April 6-29, 2022. Designed by the projects architects from the New-York based firm, it will feature mural-sized photographs, architectural models, drawings, and audiovisual media that explore the decade-long design process, Taiwans music industry, and the nations cosmopolitan ambitions. The opening reception in Cooper Unions Great Hall on April 6 will include a lecture, panel discussion, and a musical performance composed for the occasion. This exhibition was arranged at the invitation of Dean Nader Tehrani, who competed ... More  Hollywood star gives Broadway a much-needed boost. sound familiar?NEW YORK, NY.- It was as dark a time as Broadway had ever seen. Multiple stages were shuttered, uncertainty abounded, and a beleaguered theatrical season was limping along, desperate for a hit. But then a Hollywood movie star who was also a uniquely magnetic performer on the musical stage rode into town, bestriding a vehicle perfectly suited to his outsize talents. He had retreated to a film career for nearly a decade, and frequently hinted at a Broadway return, but then, in his 50s, he finally did so and it didnt hurt that a beloved musical comedy ingénue was at his side. Consumers tossed money over the box-office transom by the sackful, creating one of the biggest box-office advances in memory. It was a triumph that prompted one critic to conclude: Broadway is beginning to look like Broadway again. While this may ... More  Ted Mooney, author of inventive novels, is dead at 70NEW YORK, NY.- Ted Mooney, who opened his first book, in 1981, with a scene of dolphin-human sex and who proceeded to write three other offbeat, inventive novels at roughly 10-year intervals, died March 25 at his home in New York City. He was 70. His sister, Joan Mooney, who confirmed the death, said he had been having heart problems for some time. Mooney was an editor at Art in America magazine from 1977 to 2008, and he was known for his steady hand whether working with established art critics or first-time writers. His novels, though, showed a different side, one partial to outlandish yarns that were also literate examinations of a disjointed age. The first was Easy Travel to Other Planets. Its difficult-to-describe plot involves the relationship between a marine biologist named Melissa and a dolphin ... More  A producer seeks a Broadway comeback, mired in offstage dramaNEW YORK, NY.- Ten days before opening night of his Broadway show, Paradise Square, Garth Drabinsky was sitting at a breakfast table at the Peninsula Hotel in midtown Manhattan, fending off a stream of cellphone calls from members of his production team. That mornings crisis: Chilina Kennedy, one of the shows lead actors, had called in sick (and would be out for nine days after testing positive for the coronavirus). Drabinsky decided which of the two understudies should take her place. A few minutes later, he spoke with director Moisés Kaufman. Youre happy with the choice? Drabinsky asked. He listened. Yeah, right, but make sure that she can really deliver Someone to Love, one of the musicals big ballads. And the comedy. The days before an opening are always stressful for a Broadway producer. But few have ... More  When the master of the erotic thriller fails to thrillNEW YORK, NY.- Recently I rented a house upstate for the weekend with a group of friends, all new parents with children under 2. After putting the children to bed, we decided to stage a group viewing of Deep Water on Hulu then spent the next 15 minutes in a state of escalating madness, frantically tossing baby books and upending couch cushions in search of the houses lost remote control. This was how desperate we were to feel like adults, and to experience a now-rare form of grown-up entertainment: an erotic thriller directed by the master of the genre, Adrian Lyne. Deep Water, alas, proved neither erotic nor thrilling. (Its difficult to explain how stupid the plot is without spoiling it, so fair warning.) Ben Affleck plays Vic, a guy who got rich making the chip for killer drones and now occupies himself with several ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
The Wild Game 
Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son 
The 8 X Jeff Koons 
Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo
Flashback On a day like today, botanist and illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian was born April 02, 1647. Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 1647 - 13 January 1717) was a German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator, a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family. Merian was one of the first naturalists to observe insects directly. In this image: Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647 - 1717), Dwarf Caiman and False Coral Snake from The Insects of Suriname, 1719. Hand-colored etching. 87.5 x 53 cm EX.2008.2.14. Universiteitsbibliotheek, Groningen, Netherlands, 699Z. Photo: Dirk Fennema, Haren (Netherlands).
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