| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Saturday, December 4, 2021 |
| | 'Call Me Dog Tag Man': Pacific Island Is Full of War Relics and Human Remains | |
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A safety razor in a collection of war relics found on the Indonesian island of Biak is displayed on June 10, 2021. More than 75 years after the Battle of Biak ended, collectors are still finding remnants of the fight, and U.S. authorities are hoping to bring closure to families of soldiers still missing. Ulet Ifansasti/The New York Times.
by Dera Menra Sijabat and Richard C. Paddock
BIAK.- On a remote coral island in Indonesia, a history lover who keeps a collection of old bombs in his living room scours the jungle for war relics and sometimes finds human bones, too. People call me Dog Tag Man, said Alberth Wakum, who hopes one day to open a museum showcasing his discoveries. I preserve the evidence of history and keep it from perishing. The island of Biak, where Wakum, 58, has spent nearly his entire life, was the scene of a fierce World War II battle as Gen. Douglas MacArthur campaigned to take back the western Pacific from Japanese forces. There were thousands of casualties on both sides. The remains of about 150 American soldiers who died in the fighting on Biak have never been recovered. They are among about 1,900 U.S. service members believed killed in Indonesia over the course of the war and whose remains are still missing. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Installation view of Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto from 4 December 2021 to 25 April 2022 at NGV International, Melbourne. Photo: Tom Ross.
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| Epic exhibition of light and space illuminates Denmark | | Toomey & Co. Auctioneers sells Alphonse Mucha painting for $965,000 in 'Art & Design' on December 2 | | Christie's to auction physical and digital objects from the creation of Wikipedia | 
James Turrell, Aftershock (2021). Courtesy the artist and Häusler Contemporary Zurich. Light & Space at Copenhagen Contemporary, 2021. Photo: Florian Holzherr.
COPENHAGEN.- Copenhagen Contemporary is opening the exhibition Light & Space, featuring both historical and brand new works from the American light and installation art movement that emerged in Los Angeles in the 1960s. At the time, a number of young artists now most of them world-renowned were experimenting with making art out of light and new materials. Collectively known as the Light and Space movement, they include international superstars like James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Mary Corse, Doug Wheeler, Larry Bell, Helen Pashgian and many others. As an art institution, CC focuses on presenting art that is innovative, large-scale and often technically demanding to display. In the former factory halls of the B&W shipyard, art lovers can look forward to exploring a variety of monumental works pushing the boundaries of the artwork and the viewer's ... More | | 
Alphonse Mucha, Young Couple from Rusadla, 1920. Estimate $100,000-200,000. Sold for $965,000.
OAK PARK, IL.- In Toomey & Co. Auctioneers Art & Design auction on Thursday, December 2, 2021, a newly discovered Alphonse Mucha oil on canvas was offered as the first lot in the auction with a $100,000-200,000 estimate. Given very significant bidder interest both domestically and internationally, the painting ultimately realized $965,000 including buyers premium, nearly 10 times the estimated value. This price is an auction record for a study by Alphonse Mucha. The rediscovered Mucha work, Young Couple from Rusadla, 1920, is a fully realized study depicting an embracing young couple who were part of a larger composition. The larger composition, titled Rusadla, illustrates a procession scene from a Slavic Midsummer Feast. The two figures in Young Couple from Rusadla appear in the upper-right-hand corner of Rusadla, which is now lost but was reproduced in the magazine Zlatá Praha on July 30, 1919 (issue 45/46, p. ... More | | 
A Strawberry iMac. Apple Computer Inc., 2000. Jimmy Waless personal iMac used in the creation of Wikipedia.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies will auction two objects pertaining to the history of Wikipedia directly from Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia. The online sale titled The Birth of Wikipedia takes place from December 3-15, and consists of two lots: a Strawberry iMac used by Wales at the time and an NFT of Wikipedias first edit. A portion of the sale proceeds will help support Waless alternative social media network pilot project WT.Social, an attempt to find a healthier and nontoxic alternative with existing social media platforms with a donation-only advertising-free model, as well as to help support a variety of charities working in the free culture world. The Strawberry iMac was Wales personal computer, which he used for development and research at the time of the websites launch on January 15, 2001, monitoring the sites early development, guarding against vandals, and marveling at i ... More |
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| English teenager finds Bronze Age ax using a metal detector | | Painter of Elijah Cummings portrait finds it's a career-changer | | The National Gallery of Victoria opens the first exhibition in Australia to focus on Gabrielle Chanel | 
A photo provided by Oxford Archaeology East shows items from one of two Bronze Age hoards, totaling around 200 artifacts, that were found near Royston, England. Oxford Archaeology East via The New York Times.
by Jenny Gross
LONDON.- In the United States, when metal detectors hit it big, it is usually by finding familiar riches: lost engagement rings, expensive jewelry or coins of untold value. In Britain, the biggest successes often involve discoveries of treasures from ancient eras like the 3,000-year-old ax that a teenager unearthed in eastern England in September. The 13-year-old, Milly Hardwick, said that she, her father and her grandfather had been out in a field with metal detectors for several hours on a Sunday in Royston, England, and had not found a single item. Then, just after a lunch of sandwiches and cookies, they tried a different part of the field, where an organized dig was taking place. After about 20 minutes of searching, Milly said she heard the high-pitched beeping noise a ... More | | 
The artist Jerrell Gibbs at his studio in Baltimore, Nov. 24, 2021. Gibbs was commissioned to paint Marylands late Rep. Elijah Cummings. The official portrait will be installed at the U.S. Capitol. Jared Soares/The New York Times.
by Hilarie M. Sheets
BALTIMORE, MD.- One Baltimore son has painted another. When Rep. Elijah Cummings died in October 2019 at age 68, he became the first African American elected official to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol, where he served for more than two decades in the House of Representatives from Marylands 7th District. In January, the congressmans official portrait, painted posthumously by artist Jerrell Gibbs, will be enshrined for posterity in the Capitol, where fewer than 20 of the hundreds of portraits there are of Black leaders. For Gibbs, 33, who only started painting six years ago and received his Master of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art last year, the commission has changed the way that I look at what Im doing, he said. It gave me courage that people want to support what ... More | | 
Installation view of Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto from 4 December, 2021 to 25 April 2022 at NGV International, Melbourne. Photo: Sean Fennessy.
MELBOURNE.- Opening to the public on Saturday 4 December 2021, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto is the first exhibition in Australia to exclusively focus on the significant contribution to twentieth-century fashion culture by the renowned French couturière Gabrielle Chanel (18831971). Presented by the National Gallery of Victoria in partnership with the Palais Galliera, the preeminent fashion museum of the City of Paris, the exhibition will be launched with an opening weekend of programs and events, as well as an audio guide narrated by house ambassador Tilda Swinton exclusively for the NGV. With more than 230 garments, accessories and jewellery pieces drawn from the rich holdings of the Palais Galliera and the Patrimoine de CHANEL in Paris, complemented by important loans from major public museums and private collections, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto showcases the impressive breadth of Gabrielle Chanels output and her ... More |
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| Museum-wide survey lays bare the biographical underpinnings of Andy Warhol's achievements | | Exhibition of works from 2000 until today by Ann Böttcher on view at Malmö Konsthall this winter | | Sustainable design showcase unveiled today at V&A Dundee | 
Andy Warhol, Boy with Flowers, 1955-7. Ink on paper, 425 x 351 mm © 2021 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo ©Tate.
ASPEN, CO.- The Aspen Art Museum is the sole U.S. venue for Andy Warhol: Lifetimes, bringing this major international retrospective to a city that maintained close, long-standing connections with the artist and his work. Organized by Tate Modern and Museum Ludwig, Cologne in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario and AAM, the exhibition focuses on the biographical underpinnings of Warhols practice, expanding on lesser-known aspects of his work and persona. On view through March 27, 2022, the exhibition breaks new ground by casting a queer eye on the artist as an outsider and disruptor, who remade Americas image to resonate with his sensibility. Informed by the vernacular of celebrity, driven by consumerism, and bound together by new forms of media, Warhols four decades of work tapped into a culture fundamentally affixed to images and aspiration. Organized ... More | | 
Ann Böttcher, Resan och hamnen (Ã
terbrukerskan) detalj, 2012. Väggtextil i 14 delar, vävning och virkning, mattrasor av återvunna textilier, 360 à 800 cm. Courtesy Lunds konsthall/Gymnasieskolan Vipan, Lund. Installationsbild Malmö Konsthall 2021. Photo: Helene Toresdotter.
MALMO.- Malmö Konsthall presents this winter's exhibition Ann Böttcher Works 2000-2021 which will be shown between 4.12 - 27.2 2022. Ann Böttcher (b. 1973) works in Malmö, and has mainly received recognition for her meticulously executed pencil drawings. Other techniques she works with include collage, weaving, and installations. For many years, Böttcher has taken an interest in how identities are formedculturally, nationally, and historically. Her works often point to connections from the past to the present, between our common, shared history and our individual, personal ones. This retrospective exhibition, Verk 20002021 [Works 200021], presents the full range of her oeuvre, from her intimate pencil drawings to her sculptural works, which she often executes in a far ... More | | 
A pendant light, by Studio Andrew Miller, made of glass vases found in charity shops. Photo: Michael McGurk.
DUNDEE.- Seven innovative material design solutions went on show for a new free display, Design for Our Times, which opened today at V&A Dundee. Design for Our Times is a showcase of material innovation that offers inspiring, practical, and desirable solutions to issues of re-sourcing, repurposing and reuse. The selected design initiatives represent distinct practices working today in Scotland in the fields of product design, interior design, environmental design and construction. From established designers to recent graduates, these ingenious projects demonstrate the enormous creativity on our doorstep. The featured materials range from repurposed waste, such as K-Briq, a building brick made from over 90% construction and demolition waste; and Draff, a material made of spent grain from local distilleries and breweries; to less familiar substances such as mycelium, derived from fungus; and Mirrl, a hardwearing surface material inspired by ... More |
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| Big success for Dorotheum's Contemporary Week | | Tiwani Contemporary now representing Alicia Henry | | Danysz Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Robert Montgomery | 
Arnulf Rainer (born in Baden near Vienna in 1929), Schwarze Ãbermalung, 1953/54, oil on canvas, 92 x 75 cm, realized price 215,500.
VIENNA.- Despite the lockdown in Austria, Dorotheums Modern Art sale on 30 November 2021 was one of the best in the history of the auction house to date, with an excellent sale rate of 85 percent and numerous international participants. And this despite the fact that the exhibition was accessible only virtually, and participation in the auction was only possible by telephone and live bidding. Together with the June auction, 2021 has proved to be the most successful year ever for the Modern Art department at Dorotheum. After reaching the world record price of 965,300 euros for a painting by Alfons Walde at the June 2021 sale, Dorotheum has achieved another top price for this artist. The Tyrolean motif Wilder Kaiser with Farmhouse in Winter far exceeded expectations when it went to a telephone bidder for 790,500 euros, after a bidding battle lasting several minutes. The painting ... More | | 
Installation view of Alicia Henry's To Whom It May Concern at Tiwani Contemporary (26 May - 3 July 2021). Courtesy of the artist and Tiwani Contemporary.
LONDON.- During the past twenty years, the Nashville-based artist has created work that departs from Western ideas of portraiture denoting a likeness or a construction of a subject. Her figurative, mixed-media sculptural work foregrounds the human figure in isolation and interaction and in turn is conceived of by the artist as belonging to both a single and communal body. Her evocative, spectral work explores metaphorical and formal connections between visibility and identity. Alicia Henrys compositions show representations of unidentifiable individuals and groups of people based on a range of composite references including but not limited by her own memories, African masks, paper-dolls, European clowning traditions, American minstrelsy and everyday life and events. As her enigmatic, graceful figures assert their gaze, Henrys tragicomical work negotiates a space between ... More | | 
Robert Montgomery, Salvage Paradise Barming Place, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Danysz gallery.
PARIS.- No one has blended language, form and light in such a direct way as Robert Montgomery. From December 4 to January 15, the Scottish-born, London-based artist who stands out by bringing a poetic voice to the discourse of text art, presents the vitality and richness of his work at Danysz Gallery - Paris. Verse after verse of translucent and intuitive poetry, Montgomery invites us to reflect on ways to salvage paradise, rebuilding it from wreckage and going back to a natural sense of peace through an awe-inspiring melancholic yet hopeful lyricism. As he explains, I think melancholy is really interesting, because it is the creation of beauty from sadness
It's only when we begin to destroy the planet that we realize we were living in paradise. For Salvage Paradise, his first solo show within the walls of Danysz Gallery, the artist who works in a conceptual post-Situationist tradition, recreates the wealth and complexit ... More |
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Royal Provenance & The New York City Skyline: A rare pair of Patek Philippe Wristwatches
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 De Pont Museum presents an exhibition of works by Dutch artist Isabelle Andriessen TILBURG.- Matter may be living, nonliving, or dead you might expect the distinctions to be explained in an elementary biology lesson. But are those distinctions really as clearcut as they may seem? Dutch artist Isabelle Andriessen (1986) explores in her sculptures the gray area between them. Her sculptures contain elements that react to each other and their surroundings, so that her works are constantly in motion. Using electricity, cooling systems and chemical processes she causes her sculptures to 'sweat', leak, and crystallize, as though they were actors performing from a script. The surfaces may melt; they may sprout bilious green or sulphur-yellow crystals; sometimes dripping stones resembling stalactites appear over time, changing the shape in the course of the exhibition. This enables the sculptures to display autonomous behavior, over which ... More  The George Eastman Museum opens a major new exhibition of works by Joshua Rashaad McFaddenROCHESTER, NY.- The George Eastman Museum opened the major new exhibition Joshua Rashaad McFadden: I Believe Ill Run On in its main galleries on Friday, November 5, 2021. The exhibition is an early-career survey of the Rochester-based artists work, in which McFadden critically examines the racism and anti-Black violence that Black Americans have experienced from slavery to the present. To this end, McFadden explores how racism, masculinity, sexuality, and gender impact Black Americans, while at the same time he envisions Black life liberated from these strictures. The exhibition will be on view through June 19, 2022. In his practice, McFadden works across genres, encompassing social documentary, reportage, portraiture, book arts, and fine arts, to explore being-ness. Joshua Rashaad McFadden: I Believe Ill Run On will focus ... More  MW Editions publishes 'Potential Space: A Serious Look at Child's Play' by Nancy Richards FareseNEW YORK, NY.- In 2017, author and photographer Nancy Richards Farese visited Bangladesh to photograph the Rohingya refugee crisis, which forced over one million people into temporary camps as they fled the genocide in Myanmar. As she documented the toll of extreme trauma and the most violent tendencies of humankind, she was drawn to the irrepressible laughter of children as they fashioned sticks and rocks into toy cars and turned plastic bags into kites. Captivated by the joy, resilience, and creativity she witnessed, she turned her camera on children at play capturing their natural instincts to adapt, heal, and thrive despite the darker forces surrounding them. Potential Space: A Serious Look at Child's Play (MW Editions, ... More  Ursinus College appoints executive director for Berman Museum of ArtCOLLEGEVILLE, PA.- Lauren McCardel, an accomplished arts professional who most recently led development and stewardship initiatives at Temple Universitys Tyler School of Art and Architecture and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has been appointed executive director of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art on the Ursinus College campus. As director of development at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, where she is currently pursuing her doctoral degree, McCardel developed, managed, and executed strategy for increasing philanthropic investment. Notably at Tyler, she secured a grant this year to develop and launch the Creative Scholars Program, a full scholarship pre-college program for students from Philadelphia public and charter schools who face financial challenges. Long known for contemporary, innovative exhibitions and programs ... More  Christie's London Finest & Rarest Wines & Spirits Auction achieves £7,629,753LONDON.- Christies Finest and Rarest Wines & Spirits auction (2 and 3 December) in London realised a total of £7,629,753 / $ 10,139,942 / 8,949,700, the highest ever for the category at Christies. The auction achieved sell-through rates of 95% by lot and 98% by value and witnessed global participation from 27 countries, across 4 continents, with spirited bidding in the room, on the telephone and online over the course of the two day sale. The auction was highlighted by the evening session - Treasures from a Rediscovered Chalk Cellar. This remarkable collection, which comes with superb provenance, was mostly purchased by the owner between 1969-1988 and had remained untouched for nearly two decades in a chalk cellar in the Surrey Downs. The top lot of the auction, and highlighting this collection was Lot 544, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, ... More  How 'West Side Story' could make (even more) Oscar historyNEW YORK, NY.- Few films have won more Oscars than the 1961 musical West Side Story, which claimed 10 trophies including best picture and a supporting-actress award for Rita Moreno. Now, six decades later, might West Side Story and Moreno manage to pull off those same feats once again? On paper, it seems preposterous to imagine that Steven Spielbergs new big-screen take on the material, in theaters Dec. 10, could win the top Oscar. Only one remake has ever been awarded best picture: Martin Scorseses The Departed (2006), adapted from the Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs and no remake of a previous best-picture winner has even so much as been nominated in that Oscar category. (Cast members have said this isnt a remake but simply a new adaptation of the stage musical; moviegoers will still consider it a ... More  Cartier Pasha minute repeater men's watch climbs to CA$64,900 in Miller & Miller saleNEW HAMBURG.- A Cartier Pasha minute repeater mens watch slipped onto a new wrist for $64,900 in Miller & Miller Auctions bi-annual Watches & Jewels sale held November 20th. Offered were luxury watches and fine jewelry, with rare, desirable vintage and collectible watches from names like Rolex, Tudor, Omega, Patek Philippe, Corum and Panerai. The Cartier Pasha watch (Ref. W30012) was easily the top achiever in an auction that grossed $512,179 (all prices quoted are in Canadian dollars). It featured the calibre 179 18 kt gold movement with 26 jewels designed by Gerald Genta. The minute repeater, perpetual calendar with day-date-month, moon phase and leap year indicator all worked in perfect harmony. Right behind the Pasha was another Cartier beauty: a Diabolo Tourbillon wristwatch, a rarity produced in limited numbers through the mid- ... More  Bruneau & Co. will ring in the New Year with a premier comic auctionCRANSTON, RI.- Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers will ring in 2022 with a 20-lot New Years Day Premier Comic Auction on Saturday, January 1st. Its a modest group of comics, but dont let the size fool you. These books are from a single-owner Midwest collection (Bruneau & Co. sold the bulk of them this past year); what remains are his last, final comics, to be sold without reserves. All 20 lots are rare, highly desirable Marvel comics from the Silver and Bronze Age, to include Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 5.5, Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 7.5, Fantastic Four #1 CGC 8.0, Strange Tales #110 CGC 9.2, Incredible Hulk #1 CGC 6.5, and Werewolf By Night #1 CGC 9.8. Comics of this caliber rarely come up at auction. Serious collectors need to mark their calendars. This is an incredible opportunity and honor to handle a collection of books of this caliber, ... More  Tilda Swinton's "Orlando" inaugurates Princeton University Art Museum's new photo-focused galleryPRINCETON, NJ.- Orlando, an exhibition of contemporary photography guest-curated by award-winning actor Tilda Swinton, will open Saturday, Dec. 4, and launch Art on Hulfish, a new gallery space from the Princeton University Art Museum. Art on Hulfish showcases a roster of exhibitions led by photography that will consider issues of profound impact on 21st-century life. Located in downtown Princeton, it encompasses some 3,000 square feet of exhibition space and another 2,000 square feet for public programming, ranging from drop-in activities to scheduled work with artists. Admission is free. The gallery will present four exhibitions each year until late 2024, when the Museums new building designed by Sir David Adjaye is projected to open. The exhibition Orlando is inspired by the themes of Virginia Woolfs revolutionary 1928 novel ... More  Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces its Multicultural Action PlanNEW LONDON, CONN.- The Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces its Multicultural Action Plan, reports Museum Director Sam Quigley. Created to address the Museums historic lack of racial inclusiveness, the plan, referred to as the MAP, outlines a comprehensive series of action steps to strengthen to Museums commitment to all audiences. The Lyman Allyn will celebrate its 90th birthday in 2022, said Sam Quigley, and this initiative, which is integral to achieving our mission, represents the strongly held belief of all the members of our Board and Staff. We must take intentional and measurable steps to advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility on every level of the Museum. To that end, the Lyman Allyns Board approved an eight-point plan that includes improving the Museums exhibition mix, its collecting efforts, recruitment ... More  Prince Paul dives deep into music historyNEW YORK, NY.- When music producer Prince Paul received a call inquiring if hed be game to host a podcast for Spotify, his immediate reaction was shock. Why, he wondered, would the company want him to host The 33 1/3 Podcast, its new show exploring individual works of classic albums, based on the Bloomsbury book series? Never mind that Prince Paul is considered a music nerds music nerd, best known for his influential studio wizardry with the hip-hop trio De La Soul. His eclectic, seemingly haphazard, career trajectory may not have made him an obvious choice for the show. Though hes produced albums for Vernon Reid and MC Paul Barman, assembled the horrorcore group Gravediggaz and released albums of his own like A Prince Among Thieves, his music credits over the past decade and a half had slowed to a trickle. ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Hughie O'Donoghue 
Elijah Burgher 
Stebbins 
Pera Müzesi
Flashback On a day like today, Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko died December 04, 1956. Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova. In this image: A Tate Modern staff looks over the works of Aleksander Rodchenko's (1891-1956), 'Composition no.50, 1918, (L) and Liubov Popova's' (1889-1924), ' Painterly Architectonic' (R) at the Rodchenko and Popova - Defining Constructivism exhibit at the Tate Modern in London, Britain, 10 February 2009. Arguably two of Russia's most influential and important artists, Aleksander Rodchenko (1891-1956) and Liubov Popova (1889-1924), Defining Constructivism explored the work of these two great artists from 1917 to 1925.
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