| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Saturday, April 25, 2020 |
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| | A short, pointy, 300,000-year-old clue to our ancestors' hunting prowess | |
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The new throwing stick in situ at the time of discovery.
by Nicholas St. Fleur
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Whats so special about a 300,000-year-old stick stuck in the muck? Its a stick, sure, said Jordi Serangeli, an archaeologist from the University of Tübingen in Germany. But to dismiss it as such, he added, would be like calling Neil Armstrongs first step on the moon only dirt with a print. Thats because the short, pointed piece of wood his team found in Schöningen, Germany, in 2016 may be the newest addition to the hunting arsenal used by extinct human ancestors during the Middle Pleistocene. It was probably a throwing stick that was hurled like a nonreturning boomerang, spinning through the air before striking birds, rabbits or other prey. Along with thrusting spears and javelins, it is the third class of wooden weapon discovered at the waterlogged site, occupied by either Neanderthals or their, and supposedly our, heavy-browed ancestors, Homo heidelbergensis. When, in 1995, the Schöningen spears were discovered they pierced the debate o ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The Zeibig family watch the movie "Loving Vincent" projected on the wall of a neighbouring building from their balcony in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020 during the ongoing Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. The German capital is one of the world's most diverse cinema cities but with movie theaters closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, cultural project "Window Flicks" are bringing film evenings to residents stuck at home by projecting movies on urban canvasses and knocking on doors offering popcorn. Odd ANDERSEN / AFP
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 | | George D. Green, a founder of Abstract Illusionism, dies at 76 | | BBC Arts' Culture in Quarantine: Young Rembrandt with Simon Schama | | Online exhibition presents selected works by Ana Mendieta and Carolee Schneemann | 
George Green is widely recognized for his non-objective paintings that incorporated layered geometric elements which appeared to hold three-dimensional space.
NEW YORK, NY.- George D. Green, the Abstract Illusionist artist known for his vividly colored paintings that feature trompe loeil abstractions, died on April 14th in Portland, Oregon. He was 76. His death was announced by the George D. Green Art Institute on April 19th. A founder of the Abstract Illusionist movement that emerged in the 1970s, George Green is widely recognized for his non-objective paintings that incorporated layered geometric elements which appeared to hold three-dimensional space. Created across the span of his fifty-year career, Greens work continually evolved, becoming more vivid and multidimensional over time as he ventured ever deeper into the realm of trompe loeil. Despite having roots in Abstract Expressionism, Greens first body of paintings, although possessing some of the exaggerated ... More | | 
Rembrandt van Rijn (160669), A Man in Oriental Dress (The Noble Slav), 1632. Oil on canvas, 152.7 x 111.1 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
LONDON.- The Ashmoleans Young Rembrandt exhibition will be the subject of a new 30-minute BBC Arts film on BBC Four, written and narrated by Professor Sir Simon Schama CBE. The critically acclaimed exhibition, more than ten years in the making, was open to the public for less than three weeks before the coronavirus shut-down. It will now be available to see at home as part of BBC Arts Culture in Quarantine initiative which is maintaining public access to arts and culture during the lockdown. Young Rembrandt will be broadcast in the Museums in Quarantine series at 19:30 on Tuesday 28 April and available on demand on BBC iPlayer. Made by Swan Films Ltd, the programme was filmed in just one day with minimal crew and equipment to ensure social distancing. The script was written and recorded remotely in New York by world renowned historian and Rembran ... More | | 
Ana Mendieta, Volcán, 1979. Color photograph, 8 x 10 inches, 20.3 x 25.4 cm. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Lelong & Co. and P·P·O·W present Irrigation Veins: Ana Mendieta and Carolee Schneemann, Selected Works 1966 1983, an online exhibition exploring the artists parallel histories, iconographies, and shared affinities for ancient forms and the natural world. Galerie Lelong and P·P·O·W have a history of collaboration and have co-represented Carolee Schneemann since 2017. This will be the first time the two artists are shown together in direct dialogue, an exhibition Schneemann proposed during the last year of her life. In works such as Mendietas Volcán (1979) and Schneemanns Study for Up To and Including Her Limits (1973), both artists harnessed physical action to root themselves into the earth, establishing their ties to the earth and asserting ... More |
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| | Movie theaters, urged to open, want to delay showtime | | Nan Goldin limited edition to benefit Urban Survivors Union | | 3,000 interviews. 50 years. Listen to the history of American music. | 
The Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 8, 2020. Kate Warren/The New York Times.
by Nicole Sperling and Brooks Barnes
LOS ANGELES (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In recent weeks, a tentative timeline for reopening Americas movie theaters began to take shape. It involved pushing to get 75% of the countrys 5,548 cinemas selling tickets again this summer, enough to justify the wide release of two potential blockbusters: Christopher Nolans mind-bending Tenet, scheduled for July 17, and Disneys megabudget Mulan, set for July 24. That one-two punch would be enough to draw moviegoers back into theaters that had been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, multiplex operators believed, allowing Hollywood to salvage part of the blockbuster season and, perhaps, revive a pastime that has taken on symbolic importance for the American economy. But some politicians want their popcorn now. Some Republican ... More | | 
1st days in quarantine, Brooklyn, NY, 2020, 6 x 8 in (15.24 x 20.32 cm). Inkjet print. Edition of 150.
NEW YORK, NY.- Marian Goodman Gallery presents a specially editioned photograph by Nan Goldin. 1st days in quarantine, Brooklyn, NY, 2020 was photographed in Goldins New York apartment, to which she has been confined for more than a month due to the global pandemic. The flowers depicted are the last that Goldin was able to purchase to fill her home. Outside is the world that has changed so dramatically so quickly, and is no longer accessible to her. The image is part of a series of works in which Goldin has photographed her isolation companion Thora Siemson. The series of eight photographs depicts a singular day in Goldins apartment, transiting from morning till night. 100% of the profits* from the sales of this edition will go to an organisation close to the artists heart, Urban Survivors Union (USU). Founded in 2010, USU is a national organisation whose headquarters are located in North Carolina. They are ... More | | 
In an image provided by the school, past recording formats used by Yale Universitys Oral History of American Music, project. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the OHAM has grown to encompass recordings of around 3,000 interviews with major voices in American music. Michael Marsland/Yale via The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 1968, Vivian Perlis, a research librarian at Yale, knew that she needed to talk to Julian Myrick. A man who had spent his life in the insurance business was not the most likely of musicological sources. But Myricks business partner not only had been significant in the field of life insurance but also was one of the most important figures in American music history: composer Charles Ives, who had died 14 years earlier. He was writing music at the time when I first knew him, Myrick recalled to Perlis, in a Southern drawl. He worked very hard at it, but people couldnt understand it. Myrick was only the beginning of what became Perlis landmark resource, celebrating ... More |
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| | 62% artists unemployed, says survey from Artist Relief / Americans for the Arts | | Leilah Babirye joins Stephen Friedman Gallery | | Backyard cinema lights up lockdown for Berliners | 
Artist Relief's Zoom conference call.
NEW YORK, NY.- Artist Reliefs first funding cycle ended last night at midnight. Since launching on April 8, the coalition of seven national arts grantmakers has received over 55,000 applicants for its $5,000 emergency relief grant. It has also received more than 11,000 responses to the new COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, which is being co-presented with Americans for the Arts. The results portray a dire reality for the countrys artists, and underscore the necessity of direct and immediate financial support. Findings include: 62% have become fully unemployed because of COVID-19 95% have experienced income loss from COVID-19 The average decline in estimated total annual income is $27,103 66% can't access supplies/resources/spaces/people necessary for their creative work 80% do not yet have a plan to recover from the crisis ... More | | 
Leilah Babirye, The Kuchu Series (Queer Ugandans), 2019. Acrylic on paper, 78.7 x 60.9cm (31 x 24in). Copyright Leilah Babirye. Courtesy the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photo by Adam Kremer.
LONDON.- Stephen Friedman Gallery announced representation of Ugandan artist Leilah Babirye. Babirye will have a solo exhibition with the gallery in 2021. Leilah Babiryes multidisciplinary practice transforms everyday materials into objects that address issues surrounding identity, sexuality and human rights. The artist fled her native Uganda to New York in 2015 after being publicly outed in a local newspaper. In spring 2017 Babirye was granted asylum with support from the African Services Committee and the NYC Anti-Violence Project. Composed of debris collected from the streets of New York, Babiryes sculptures are woven, whittled, welded, burned and burnished. Babiryes choice ... More | | 
Staff members from Knalle Pop Corn prepare to hand out treats to residents watching the movie "Loving Vincent" on the wall of a neighbouring building in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020 during the ongoing Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. Odd ANDERSEN / AFP.
by Lara Bommers
BERLIN (AFP).- After weeks of coronavirus lockdown in the German capital Berlin with bars, restaurants, shops and cinemas all closed, movies are coming to the people with projections on bare walls in the courtyards of apartment buildings. "We've got this blank wall here, and we've always thought, we should get a film up on there," says Carola Lauter, who successfully applied to the "Windowflicks" organisation behind the backyard sessions. The project backed by the local Yorck cinema group accepted her request to show "Loving Vincent", a fully-painted feature film about the life of artist Vincent Van ... More |
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| | Signed presidential letters lift Heritage Historical Manuscripts Auction above $1.1 million | | Remotely executed auctions continue with Fine Jewelry and Timepieces Auction in May | | Lucky finds from Philadelphia estates draw wave of early bids to Stephenson's May 1 auction | 
This George Washington Letter Signed "Go: Washington" in which Washington explains to Brigadier General Alexander McDougall his displeasure with the apparent loss of clothing earmarked for troops sold for $23,750.
DALLAS, TX.- A collection of John F. Kennedys personal campaign notes and a selection of letters signed by assorted U.S. presidents led the total result for Heritage Auctions Historical Manuscripts Auction to $1,164,278 April 22 in Dallas, Texas. John F. Kennedy Uncensored Campaign Notes Made While Suffering from Laryngitis is a trove of 78 separate pages that sold for $25,000 to lead the sale. On these handwritten pages, the 35th American president addressed a number of topics, including his philosophies, campaign plans and his frustration with asking and answering questions with his staff. He cited specific events, such as his Sept. 12, 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel, a performance that was important to his campaign and is widely considered one of his ... More | | 
Rolex Platinum, REF. 116506 'Cosmograph Daytona' Wristwatch. Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000.
CHICAGO, IL.- The May 13 Fine Timepieces auction and May 14 Fine and Important Jewelry auction will feature selections from top names in watches and notable examples of signed jewelry, antique, art deco and contemporary pieces. Hindmans latest sales have soared above pre-auction estimates, including Hindmans March 31st online Essential Jewelry sale, and the Spring Fashion and Accessories auction. Recent online and remotely executed sales have surpassed 90% sold and Hindman expects to continue to see top results in May. The Fine and Important Jewelry sale includes a selection of pieces from highly desired, iconic jewelry houses such as by Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati and Tiffany & Co. As names that are synonymous with excellence, these brands continue to drive results and have sold well over pre-sale estimates. The collections range in scope from whimsical designs such as a Tiffany & Co. bee brooch to classic ... More | | 
Waterscape by Florida Highwaymen founding member H. (Harold) Newton (American, 1934-1994), signed, oil on canvas board, 29 x 23in (sight). Estimate $2,000-$4,000.
SOUTHAMPTON, PA..- Metro Philadelphias most trusted estate specialist, family-owned Stephensons Auctioneers, will host a Friday, May 1 auction of antiques and decorative arts from several area estates. In compliance with state regulations governing the pandemic, the gallery is closed to the public, but the 360-lot auction is open to absentee, phone and Internet live bidding. The fully illustrated catalog is accessible online, and Stephensons staff is ready and able to answer questions about any item in the sale by phone or email. For this auction weve organized a very nice selection of antiques, jewelry, silver, paintings, decorative arts, and the unexpected, including a Wurlitzer Model 1015 cassette-playing jukebox that replicates the original Model 1015 Wurlitzer made in 1946. Its already attracting inquiries, said Stephensons owner Cindy Stephenson. Perhaps most ... More |
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Arts Awareness, 1972 | From the Vaults
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 Krannert Art Museum spotlights local music scene with Art Remastered from HomeCHAMPAIGN, ILL.- Art Remastered from Home is a new video music series from Krannert Art Museum featuring at-home performances of original songs by local musicians inspired by artworks at KAM. Featured musicians ¬Zzo, Cole Bridges, CJ Run, Mermaid Heaven, and Ausar all have ties to Urbana-Champaign and participated in previous Art Remastered events in 2017, 2018, and 2019 at KAM. In those programs, each performer creates an original song inspired by an artwork of their choice and performs it in front of visitors in the galleries. Now these five musicians are revisiting their original songs and sharing a performance from home in a weekly video performance series sponsored by the museum. To extend the experience further, weve invited each performer to create a Spotify playlist of songs in conversation with the work of art that inspired ... More Museum of the Home launches national collecting project inviting public to document home life in lockdownLONDON.- The Museum of the Home (formerly known as the Geffrye Museum of the Home) has launched a new national collecting project called Stay Home. The participatory project offers the UK public the chance to be part of a historical record of home life during the coronavirus pandemic. The project is the latest development to the Museums Documenting Homes Collection , a national archive of photographs and personal testimonies charting how people in the UK have lived over the past century. Stay Home aims to capture a broad and honest picture of what home life looks like in these current conditions of social distancing and self-isolation: for key workers, flat-sharers, parents, those living in urban and rural areas, living in-between homes or in hostels, and much more. From self-isolating to caring for others, from juggling family and work to living outside of home, ... More Orange County Museum of Art appoints Susan E. Totten as Director of DevelopmentSANTA ANA, CA.- The Orange County Museum of Art announced the appointment of Susan E. Totten as Director of Development. Totten comes to OCMA amidst the Museums capital campaign for a new building that will open at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in 2021. She brings a breadth of fundraising and consulting experience in Orange County as well as nationally and internationally. Most recently, Totten served as Senior Vice President at Arts Consulting Group, Inc., where she oversaw the revenue enhancement practice and worked with organizations to provide capital campaign feasibility studies, campaign management, and earned revenue growth strategies. We are thrilled that Sue is joining us in these next stages of our capital campaign. Her deep knowledge of the fundraising landscape in Orange County ... More Sequested Art Prize competition launchesLONDON.- Today sees the launch of the Sequested Prize, a new self-portrait group award launched during the time of COVID-19, designed to create a platform of recognition and support to those working to establish or continue their artistic practice. Co-founded by artist W. K. Lyhne and art curator / advisor Fru Tholstrup, this open call initiative will culminate in the opportunity for 15 Sequested Prize artists to be part of a London-based gallery selling show, before the close of 2020. To sequester literally means to isolate. To put away or to set aside for a particular purpose. The Sequested Prize, a new short-hand for sequestered, uses an unprecedented word for unprecedented times. The Sequested Prize is recognising the particular purpose of the artist at this time: to make work during a time of isolation and to pause and reflect on our own shifting identity ... More Iris Love, stylish archaeologist and dog breeder, dies at 86NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- She was Indiana Jones in a miniskirt, a celebrity archaeologist hatched out of old New York aristocracy. Iris Love, art historian, champion dog breeder and the longtime romantic partner of gossip columnist Liz Smith, was just as comfortable in the ancient world as in the society pages. Love died of the novel coronavirus on April 17 at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, a friend, Carri Lyon, said. She was 86. Sunburned, leggy and with a mop of cropped blond hair, Love was catnip to the press. When, in 1971, The New York Times wrote about her for the third time, she was 38 and several years into what would become an 11-year dig at Knidos, an ancient Greek city that is now part of Turkey. There she discovered a temple to Aphrodite on the same summer day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong ... More New dates for fifth edition of WopArt - Works on Paper FairLUGANO.- The fifth edition of WopArt Works on Paper Fair, International fair dedicated to works of art on paper has been postponed to 27th -29th November 2020 (preview: Thursday 26th november). The fair will still be held in the pavilions of the Lugano Exhibition Centre. The decision to postpone the fair originally planned for 18th-20th September came about from the need to safeguard the health of visitors, exhibitors, collectors and citizens, in response to the evolving spread of Covid-19. Alberto Rusconi, WopArt president stated: We are doing everything possible to find the best solution to protect the fair and consolidate WopArt which by now has become the most important fair dedicated to works of art on paper in the world. Our priority is to guarantee the health and the best possible conditions to our exhibitors, visitors and collectors ... More Jane Lombard Gallery opens a virtual exhibition in celebration of the natural worldNEW YORK, NY.- During this particularly challenging time, the spread of COVID-19 is redefining the way we occupy and navigate our surrounding environment. It has caused us to re-evaluate our preparative measures for disaster, and in parallel, has sparked greater discussion around how to curb our impact on global warming, a slower pandemic with even higher stakes, to improve our planet for generations to come. Stay-at-home orders have led to the closure of national parks, beaches, waterways and spaces of open-air communion, which unsurprisingly have given environments the opportunity to heal. Global air pollution has fallen and waters are running clear in cities from Beijing to Venice, Los Angeles to Bangalore and in many parts of the world, wild animals are taking back what was once theirs. Looking beyond these positive effects, lockdowns ... More Serpentine Pavilion commission extendedLONDON.- For the first time since the annual architecture programme was founded 20 years ago, the 2020 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace has been extended into a two-year commission. Counterspace, directed by Sumayya Vally, Sarah de Villiers and Amina Kaskar, will collaborate with the Serpentine on a series of off-site and online research projects throughout 2020, which will culminate with the opening of the Pavilion in Summer 2021. Sir David Adjaye OBE, Serpentine Galleries Trustee and Serpentine Pavilion Advisor, said: The global COVID-19 crisis has changed the immediate context. Rather than rush to execute Counterspaces stellar design as soon as it is safe to do so, the Serpentine has chosen to accept the slowness reshaping society today and utilise it to develop a deeper ... More Twin sister medics returning to the same front-line ICU inspire new NHS auctionWOKING.- When Ewbanks Auctioneers decided to stage a charity auction for the NHS they had a particularly personal reason for doing so. Alastair McCrea, who heads the auction houses Entertainment & Sporting Memorabilia department, had just waved goodbye to his wife Caroline, who was returning to work as an Advanced Critical Care Practitioner in Intensive Care at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth after maternity leave, leaving 9-month-old Joshua at home with Alastair. Joining her in ICU was her twin sister, Francesca, a doctor who was also returning from maternity leave having given birth to daughter Willow the day before Joshua was born. Its been an intense experience for Caroline and Francesca, reveals Alastair. After Carolines first shift on April 2, she came home shell shocked at the level of patients coming into the hospital ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Dutch painter and sculptor Karel Appel was born April 25, 1921. Christiaan Karel Appel (25 April 1921 - 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement Cobra in 1948. He was also an avid sculptor and has had works featured in the museum of Great Samo and MoMA. In this image: Karel Appel, Big Bird Flying Over the City, 1951. Oil on canvas, 49 3/16 x 65 3/4 inches (125 x 167 centimeters)© Karel Appel Foundation, c/o ARS New York, 2014. Courtesy of the Karel Appel Foundation and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
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