| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Saturday, April 24, 2021 |
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| | St George comes home: World-famous altarpiece resplendent | |
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A man looks at a restored original altarpiece of Saint-George (1493) by Flemish Northern renaissance sculptor Jan Borman at the Art & History Museum in Brussels on April 23, 2021. Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP.
BRUSSELS.- After three years of research and restoration, Jan II Borman's iconic Saint George Altarpiece (1493) resides resplendently once again in the Art & History Museum in Brussels. The interdisciplinary research, in collaboration with the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA, Brussels), led to unexpected discoveries and provided answers to age-old mysteries. Thus, after almost two centuries, the magnificently carved sculpture groups were put back in their correct original positions within the meticulously restored monumental masterpiece. This project has been made possible thanks to the King Baudouin Foundation (Fonds René and Karin Jonckheere). From Saturday 24 April, the Saint George retable can be admired as part of the Gothic-Renaissance-Baroque walking tour of the Art & History Museum. For three weeks, visitors will also be able to discover an original statuette of the late Middle Ages and a message from a 19th-century res ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The Huntington reopened its art galleries on April 17, inviting visitors to see "Made in L.A. 2020: a version", the fifth iteration of the Hammer Museum's biennial exhibition, which debuted simultaneously at both The Huntington and the Hammer. Photo: Joshua White.
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| Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg totals $12,405,625 | | Allon Schoener, 95, dies; Curator caught in furor over 'Harlem' show | | 'Creative' genes gave Homo sapiens edge over Neanderthals: study | 
Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum, Anjou or Le Mans, c.1440s. Price Realized: $3,630,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg totaled $12,405,625 and was 98% sold by lot and 92% sold by value with bidders from 23 countries participating. All proceeds from the sale will benefit The Morgan Library, the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA and the Redwood Athenaeum, a further testament to Elaine and Alexandre Rosenbergs philanthropy and generosity. Leading the collection was a masterpiece of book painting, the illuminated example of the work of the Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus, a Parisian Book of Hours, circa 1440 which achieved $3,630,000, exceeding its estimate of $1,500,000-2,500,000. The second top lot of the collection a complete first edition of the works of Plato which set a world auction record any work by Plato and totaled $1,026,000, above the estimate of $200,000-400,000. This edition ... More | | 
Demonstrators picket outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in response to the exhibition Harlem on My Mind," Jan. 16, 1969. Jack Manning/The New York Times.
by Alex Vadukul
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Allon Schoener, the curator who organized the Metropolitan Museum of Arts infamous Harlem on My Mind show in 1969, which caused protests that stopped traffic on Fifth Avenue because it didnt include any paintings or sculptures by Black artists, died April 8 in Los Angeles. He was 95. His son, Abe Schoener, confirmed the death, at an assisted living facility. The tumultuous legacy of Harlem on My Mind, the Mets first landmark show documenting Black culture in America, has been revisited endlessly by critics and historians, but Schoeners story is less known. The storm over the exhibition fractured his life. Protesters picketed outside his apartment, he endured threats and intimidation, and he left New York with his family to start anew in rural Vermont. He never worked on a show for the Met again. But he harbored no ill will; he said he welcomed the discourse about ... More | | 
Led by Granada University in Spain, the experts identified 267 genes unique to humans, and through genetic markers, genetic expression data and AI-related MRI techniques, found they were related to creativity.
MADRID (AFP).- Researchers have discovered a series of creativity-linked genes that may have given Homo sapiens a significant edge over Neanderthals, enabling them to avoid extinction. The findings suggest that these genes played "a fundamental role in the evolution of creativity, self-awareness and cooperative behaviour," the multinational research team wrote Wednesday in the Nature journal Molecular Psychiatry. Such genes were like "a secret weapon" that gave modern humans "a significant advantage over now-extinct hominids by fostering greater resilience to ageing, injury, and disease, they wrote. Led by Granada University in Spain, the experts identified 267 genes unique to humans, and through genetic markers, genetic expression data and AI-related MRI techniques, found they were related to creativity. "The scientists were able to identify the regions of the brain in which those genes (and those with which they interacted) were ... More |
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| Van Gogh's Landscape Le Pont de Trinquetaille featured in Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale | | Christie's to offer the collection of Francis Gross | | Exhibition presents for the first time Sean Scully's new Mirroring series | 
Vincent van Gogh, Le pont de Trinquetaille (detail). Oil on canvas, 25½ x 31¾ in. (65 x 81 cm.) Painted in Arles circa 17 June 1888. Estimate: $25,000,000-35,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies will present Vincent van Goghs spectacular landscape Le pont de Trinquetaille as a highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale at Christies New York on 13 May ($25,000,000-35,000,000). Painted during Van Goghs pivotal fifteen-month stay in Arles, situated on the Rhône River in the Provence region of Southern France, Le pont de Trinquetaille with its electric color palette and expressive brushwork is emblematic of the artists mature period. Inspired by the intense Provençal light while living amidst the rural French landscape, Van Goghs work underwent a radical transformation as he produced one modern masterpiece after another. Painted in the summer of 1888, Le pont de Trinquetaille dates from this extraordinary period of creativity. Depicting the Rhône ... More | | 
Albert Giacometti, Lotar II. Estimate: 1,200,000 - 1,800,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
PARIS.- On 30 June, Christie's will be offering an exceptional collection of 20th century works assembled over a decade by the successful businessman Francis Gross, unseen since his death in 1992. This discreet collector, who comes from a family of entrepreneurs, brought together works by the most iconic artists of the 20th century including Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Aristide Maillol, René Magritte, Henri Matisse, Henri Moore, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Nicolas de Staël. Preciously preserved by his family for nearly 30 years, the 28 lots that compose this group testifies to Francis Gross's extensive knowledge and passion for Impressionist and modern art. It is estimated at between 14 and 20 million. This sale will be part of a series of auctions, London to Paris 20th & 21st Century Sales, on 30 June across London and Paris, livestreamed globally, commencing at 3pm (Paris time) with a 20th/21st Cent ... More | | 
Sean Scully, Wall Orange, 2020 (detail). Oil on linen, 190 x 215,3 cm (74,8 x 84,8 in). Photo: Christoph Knoch.
PARIS.- Entre ciel et terre is Sean Scullys first exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac, opening in the Paris Marais gallery on April 24th. Created for the most part during the pandemic, the paintings suggest a connection with nature and an inner world of memory in troubled times. The exhibition will present for the first time Sean Scullys new Mirroring series. Painted in oil on aluminium, the large-scale works are divided into two sets of colour stripes that mirror each other with variations. Between each colour field, the artist has left the metal surface apparent. The overall composition with the rhythm of the horizontal bands bring to mind the pages of a book or a musical score. In the Wall of Light works the bands of colour are interlaced. They are painted in a warm or grey palette in different sizes and materials notably on linen but also aluminium and copper. The exhibition will present a ... More |
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| Rachel Kushner on what she takes from art (and artists) | | She's Marianne Faithfull, damn it. And she's (thankfully) still here. | | Zhao 'excited' for Oscars as 'Nomadland' wins at Spirit Awards | 
The author Rachel Kushner at her home in Los Angeles, April 14, 2021. Her books are filled with insights into art world types and their relationships to the wider world. Clifford Prince King/The New York Times.
by Jonathan Griffin
LOS ANGELES (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- At one point in Rachel Kushners recently published novella, The Mayor of Leipzig, the narrator, an American artist, reveals, I personally know the author of this story youre reading. Because she thinks of herself as an art-world type, a hanger-on. This aside is typical of Kushner, both in its self-deprecating humor and its metafictional address. Kushner, however, is scarcely a hanger-on. While she is best known as the author of three widely acclaimed novels Telex from Cuba, The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room she has also written incisively about art and artists for magazines and journals including Artforum and BOMB. She often features the art world in her fiction, too. The Flamethrowers describes, in part, the protagonist Renos entree into the downtown art scene of 1970s New York (Reno sharing certain traits, such as a passion for motorcycles, with Kushner). ... More | | 
The British musician Marianne Faithfull in London, March 16, 2021. Faithfull has had several brushes with death in her 74 years. Danny Kasirye/The New York Times.
by Lindsay Zoladz
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Several times in her 74 years of life, Marianne Faithfull has boomeranged from the brink of death. First there was the summer of 1969, when she overdosed on Tuinal sleeping pills in the Sydney hotel room she was sharing with her then-boyfriend, Mick Jagger; as she slipped under, she had a long conversation with his recently deceased bandmate, Brian Jones, who had drowned in a swimming pool about a week prior. At the end of their spirited talk, Jones beckoned her to hop off a cliff and join him in the beyond. Faithfull declined and woke up from a six-day coma. That was before she became addicted to heroin in the early 1970s: At that point I entered one of the outer levels of hell, she writes in her 1994 autobiography Faithfull. It took more than a decade to finally get clean. Since then shes survived breast cancer, hepatitis C and an infection resulting from a broken hip. But, as Faithfull told me on the phone from her London ... More | | 
This file photo taken on September 5, 2015 shows US-China director Chloe Zhao posing during a photocall to present the movie "Songs My Brothers Taught Me". Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP.
by Andrew Marszal
LOS ANGELES (AFP).- Chloe Zhao voiced her excitement about the looming Oscars as her road movie "Nomadland" topped the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Thursday, winning best feature and showing no signs of slowing down its relentless award season charge. The US feature film -- which has accrued dozens of Hollywood prizes and is tipped to win big at Sunday's Academy Awards -- also won best director, editing and cinematography honors at the ceremony dedicated to films with smaller budgets. The Spirit Awards, taking place online this year due to Covid-19, are the penultimate stop on Hollywood's award circuit before the grand finale of the Oscars, which will be held in-person in Los Angeles in three days' time. "We have a lot of friends nominated this year, and we're really excited to see them... and we have some surprise guests!" said Zhao, who is favorite to become the second-ever female directing winner at the Oscars. ... More |
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| Al Young, poet with a musical bent, is dead at 81 | | Austria aims to reopen restaurants, hotels by mid-May | | Exhibition demonstrates the incredible range and versatility that wood offers | 
Poet Al Young, known for his compelling, resonant voice, reads his work at a radio station in California in the 1990s. Michael Young via The New York Times.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Al Young, an acclaimed poet and jazz aficionado who merged his two areas of interest in books and in poetry readings that often incorporated a musical element, died April 17 at a care center in Concord, California. He was 81. The cause was complications of a stroke he had in 2019, his son, Michael, said. Before the stroke he had been a longtime resident of Berkeley, California, and before that of Palo Alto. Young, who published his first volume of poetry, Dancing, in 1969, was Californias poet laureate from 2005 to 2008, years he spent in that state and beyond advocating for poetry and bringing it to audiences of all sorts. But he also wrote novels (the first, Snakes, came out in 1970) and books he called ... More | | 
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks during a press conference to inform about the future coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions at Weltmuseum in Hofburg Palace in Vienna on April 23, 2021. JOE KLAMAR / AFP.
VIENNA (AFP).- Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Friday that Austria is looking to reopen restaurants and hotels by the middle of next month, six months after they closed due to the coronavirus. A third of the country's almost nine million people will have received at least one shot of vaccine by mid-May, allowing a "careful" reopening of gastronomy, tourism, culture and sports, Kurz said. However, it will be up to each province to take the final decisions what to open based on local coronavirus indicators closer to the date, Kurz said, urging people to remain vigilant to stop the virus from spreading. "We are on the final stretch in our fight against the pandemic," the conservative chancellor told reporters. He said from May 19, restaurants ... More | | 
Installation view. Courtesy of Thomas Joseph Wright - Penguins egg for Gallery FUMI.
LONDON.- Imagine a material that grows naturally from the ground, is strong and non-toxic, highly versatile and gets better with age: a material whose properties include carbon storage and, once used, is easy to recycle. Happily, it exists. It is wood. For Gallery FUMIs first exhibition of 2021, eleven of the gallerys artists have created new pieces, which demonstrate the incredible range and versatility that wood offers, from the purity of a polished plank to a new method of recycling sawdust and shavings into a fully useable material. Frank Lloyd Wright called it the most humanly intimate of all materials says Sam Pratt, of FUMI. And we thought that was a value that has as much relevance now as throughout the history of design adds his co-founder Valerio Capo. I carve wood, a lot of wood. Ive worked it since childhood. Like the Shakers in 19th century America, ... More |
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The sublime Waterloo Bridge by Claude Monet | Christie's
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 Claire Oliver Gallery opens debut exhibition by artist Gio SwabyNEW YORK, NY.- Claire Oliver Gallery announces debut solo exhibition in New York City of Bahamian artist Gio Swaby. Both Sides of the Sun is comprised of more than 20 new works that range from life-scale threaded line works, created entirely from thread without pre-drawn sketches, to small-scale intimate mixed-media textile portraits. Swabys work seeks to underscore joy and resilience while showcasing the beauty in imperfection and individuality as a counterpoint to the often politicized Black body. I consider my work to be love letters to Black women, states Swaby. My work operates within the context of understanding love as liberation, a healing and restorative force. These works celebrate personal style, resilience, strength, beauty, individuality and imperfections. They are a tribute to Black women and residue of the beautiful connections ... More  Ruby Leyi Yang presents "Narcissist Echo" exhibition in Santa MonicaSANTA MONICA, CA.- Ruby Yangs newest exhibition, Narcissist Echo, completely envelopes all of her talents. The show is about some thinking of love, she describes. Something you did you thought was romantic, but maybe it was just a narcissist echo. The name comes from a Greek Myth Metamorphosis by Ovid, and is based on a plethora of real-life experiences. Presented by Yiwei Gallery, located at the Bergamot Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave Suite B2, Santa Monica, CA 90404, the photographic art gallery based in Los Angeles and Shanghai is the perfect location to display these pieces. Written with an artificial intelligence machine, the exhibition statement pairs nicely with the theme of fictional short stories present in Rubys collaborations. I want to let people feel instead of telling them how to feel or in what way they are going ... More  Bath Preservation Trust acquires Beckford's Tower paddocks and grotto BATH.- The historic paddocks surrounding a famous Bath landmark have been saved and will now be restored to enable visitors to experience a glimpse of William Beckfords gardens and grotto as they were presented almost 200 years ago. The purchase is thanks to an incredibly generous donation from Stephen Morant, who owns Beckfords former estate at Fonthill, in Wiltshire. The approximately 2.54-acre site forms a significant part of what was known as Beckfords Ride and features a grotto tunnel and avenue of lime trees, planted by Beckford. In 1848, the Tower garden was consecrated as a cemetery which became the last resting place of Beckford himself, who died in 1844, as well as the Towers designer Henry Goodridge (1797-1864), the Holburne family - who founded the Holburne Museum - and the proto-feminist writer, Sarah Grand ... More  Tiffany Lily Window to shine at Heritage AuctionsDALLAS, TX.- Louis Comfort Tiffany, heir to Tiffany & Co. and founder of Tiffany Studios, revolutionized the manufacture of leaded glass through technical advancement and a new aesthetic sensibility. The Tiffany Studios Leaded Glass Lily Window, among the top attractions offered in Heritage Auctions' Tiffany, Lalique & Art Glass Including Art Deco & Art Nouveau Auction on April 29, demonstrates Tiffany Studios' technical and artistic prowess at the height of its production and influence. Dated circa 1900 and measuring 52-1/2 inches high by 32-1/4 inches wide, the Lily window carries a pre-auction estimate of $100,000-150,000. "Authentic Tiffany Studios windows are coveted pieces. Those without overt religious iconography are exceptionally rare, and don't appear at auction frequently," said Nick Dawes, Senior Vice President of Special ... More  Take it to the Banksy: Art world's revered prankster and provocateur leads Heritage Auctions eventDALLAS, TX.- Heritage Auctions' latest Prints & Multiples Signature Auction, held Thursday, fetched $1.9 million. That nearly doubled the pre-auction estimate for the 81-lot event, due in large part to the overwhelming interest in works by Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, KAWS and David Hockney, among others. More than 500 bidders from around the globe participated in the auction, which was close to a complete sell-out. "This was a blockbuster event filled with a who's-who of blue-chip artists," says Taylor Curry, the New York-based consignment director in Heritage's Modern & Contemporary Art category. "So it's absolutely no surprise that we saw collectors respond accordingly." Five works by Banksy landed in the event's Top 10, including the auction's top lot: a signed and numbered NOLA (White Rain), which realized $162,500, more than ... More  Smithsonian American Art Museum reopens May 14WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, reopen to the public Friday, May 14. This is the second reopening of the museum following closures on March 14, 2020 and on Nov. 23, 2020 as a public health precaution due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The museum has negotiated extensions into the summer for its three major exhibitions that were shuttered last fall. I am overjoyed to welcome visitors back to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and our Renwick Gallery to experience our relevant and impactful exhibitionsfrom powerful and vibrant prints by Chicanx artists and collaborators to a fossilized mastodon skeleton to a new site-specific artwork that transforms an entire gallery at the Renwick into earthly and heavenly realms, said Stephanie Stebich, the Margaret ... More  National Gallery of Denmark exhibits Anne Imhof's first major film-based work to dateCOPENHAGEN.- SMK presents Anne Imhofs first major film-based work to date. Composed of footage created during the first chapter of her performance cycle Sex at Tate Modern in March 2019, it furthers Imhofs exploration of moving images central to her acclaimed performance pieces. While adhering to the overall dramaturgical chronology of the performance and matching its durational quality, this new work follows a logic of its own as sequences are slowed down or scenes shot during different performance days, both with and without an audience in attendance, are fused together. The cast of Sex is made up of a core group of performers Imhof has been working with collaboratively over many years, complemented here by a second group of models and guest-starring musicians. Despite bursts of movement and noise, ... More  Shock G, frontman for hip-hop group Digital Underground, dies at 57NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Gregory Edward Jacobs, known as Shock G, the frontman for the influential hip-hop group Digital Underground, was found dead on Thursday at a hotel in Tampa, Florida. He was 57. His death was confirmed by the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office, which did not provide a cause of death. Digital Underground had a string of hits in the early 1990s and introduced its audience to a little-known rapper named Tupac Shakur. The groups name sounded like a band of outlaws from a cyberpunk novel, with a sound that straddles the line between reality and fantasy, between silliness and social commentary, The New York Times wrote in 1991. Digital Underground is where Parliament left off, Shock G said at the time, referring to the groundbreaking George Clinton band. Shock G had been shuttling ... More  rodolphe janssen opens an exhibition of works by Lisa Vlaemminck BRUSSELS.- Pop, plants, pathogens and petri dishes. These are just some of the visual associations that find their way into the rich complexities of Lisa Vlaemmincks undulating painterly universe. Inclusive of forms often recognizable, although slightly skewed from the familiar, Vlaemmincks paintings provide glimpses into trippy recherché regions from the microscopic to the interstellar, as well as the amorphous spaces in between. In worlds without gravity, vivid shapes hover in metabolic stasis. Contained at the boundary of their distinctly sharp borders, these forms are comprised of complex patterns that offer illusionary depth as well as perceptual flatness. Pulling from conventional visual vocabularies of painting tropes, still life subjects such as potted plants or bowls of fruit offer an armature for images to be built out from, remixed and re-encountered ... More  Bollywood composer Shravan Rathod dies after Covid diagnosisMUMBAI (AFP).- Tributes poured in Friday for popular Bollywood music composer Shravan Rathod, who died in a Mumbai hospital aged 66 after being diagnosed with Covid-19. Rathod worked with fellow composer Nadeem Saifi to create some of Bollywood's most enduring hits of the 1990s, with the duo winning multiple awards for their soundtracks during the decade. He was hospitalised after contracting Covid-19 and died late Thursday, his musician son Sanjeev Rathod told the Press Trust of India. His death comes as India battles a vicious second wave of the pandemic, and on the heels of a particularly tragic period for Indian cinema, with the film industry losing many luminaries over the past year. Much-loved singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam died in September aged 74 following a prolonged battle with Covid, while 42-year-old ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Sophie Taeuber-Arp & Hans Arp: Cooperations â Collaborations 
Future Retrieval 
Clarice Beckett 
Kim Tschang-Yeul
Flashback On a day like today, Dutch-American painter Willem de Kooning was born April 24, 1904. Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 - March 19, 1997) was a Dutch abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He moved to the United States in 1926, and became an American citizen in 1962. On December 9, 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried. In this image: Installation view.of exhibition of Willem de Kooningâs late paintings at Skarstedt. © The Willem de Kooning Foundation Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2017.
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