| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Saturday, December 23, 2023 |
| | Rirkrit Tiravanija: Can pad Thai diplomacy change the world? | |
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In an updated image provided by Cameron Kelly McLeod, the artist Rirkrit Tiravanijas 1990 performance-based conceptual work, untitled 1990 (pad Thai), in which he made and served the noodle dish to a gallerys visitors, is restaged as a play in a current exhibition at MoMA PS1. The artists midcareer survey at MoMA PS1 demonstrates the impotence of contemporary art to heal social ills. (Cameron Kelly McLeod via The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- Having been labeled as the cook of the art world, Rirkrit Tiravanija said, I think people come to see my work expecting to interact. Indeed, they expect to eat. The 62-year-old artist is easily the most influential of the loose cadre that rose to prominence in the early 1990s under the banner of relational aesthetics a kind of installation- and performance-based conceptual work that makes spectators feel like participants. Tiravanijas untitled 1990 (pad thai), in which he cooked and served noodles in the back room of Paula Allen Gallery, is quintessential. Tiravanijas early relational pieces offering curry and tom kha soup, sodas and beers, grass mats and pillows for weary visitors appeared as museums increasingly promoted the politics of multiculturalism. The relative unfamiliarity of Thai cuisine in the ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Revisiting the earliest meetings of Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys in 1979, this exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac London brings together a selection of Warholâs celebrated portraits of Beuys.
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| Mapping the lesser-known territories of American modern dance | | A circa 16th-century mask of Bhairava is returned to Nepal | | BMA updates contemporary and European galleries with works by Baltimore region artists and major loans | 
Katherine Dunham in Florence, Italy, around 1949. (Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts via The New York Times)
by Brian Seibert
NEW YORK, NY.- The creation of American modern dance, in the first half of the 20th century, was akin to the development of jazz or the Broadway musical, all potent new forms of expression for a country on the rise. Its history has often been framed as a simple genealogy of mavericks and rebels almost all white big personalities who commanded a lot of attention: Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn begat Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, who begat Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham and José Limón. Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance 1900-1955, an exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts through March 16, tells quite a different story. It begins with Matachines, a dance-drama that has been performed by both Pueblo ... More | | 
Bhairava; Nepal; ca. 16th century; gilt copper alloy; 28 x 27 ¼ x 19 in. Image courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Rubin Museum of Art has returned a circa 16th-century mask of the deity Bhairava to Nepal after receiving new evidence concerning its provenance. The return ceremony took place at the Manhattan District Attorneys office on December 4, 2023, and included three additional works from other collections. Acting Consul General Mr. Bishnu Prasad Gautam received the object on behalf of the Government of Nepal. In September 2022, social media posts and news coverage suggested the mask was stolen from a site in Dolakha in the 1990s. Per the Museums process, the Rubin immediately placed the work under review with its Collections team as well as independent researchers. Public signage was also placed in the galleries acknowledging this process. Additionally, the Rubin reached out to the Consulate General of Nepal in New York to request support from the Government of Nepal in locating additional information ... More | | 
Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Portrait of a Singer. c. 1769. Private Collection.
BALTIMORE, MD.- The Baltimore Museum of Art announced some important changes and additions to several of its collection galleries. The BMAs contemporary wing has been updated with a new selection of works by contemporary artists with ties to Baltimore and Washington, DC, continuing the museums commitment to featuring the work of local and regional artists as an essential part of its mission. The European art galleries have also been newly enlivened with extraordinary historic French and Dutch paintings on loan from acclaimed private collections, including two masterpieces by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. These changes reflect the BMAs vision to continuously enhance and reimagine presentations of its collection to capture a depth of artistic expression and excellence, across time and into the present moment. Since fall 2021, the BMA has presented rotations of the contemporary collection under the umbrella title How Do We Know the World?, with ... More |
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| Now, Black figures have a name, a frame and a show | | Flint Institute of Arts introduces new logo and mission statement | | 'Freud's Last Session' review: Film adaptation and its discontents | 
A vital American Folk Art Museum show reckons with centuries of erasure by uncovering historical records of the unnamed Black people depicted in artwork.
by Karen Rosenberg
NEW YORK, NY.- Even as New Yorks museums deliver a season of exhibitions in which the Black figure is emphatically, profoundly present, these institutions are reckoning with legacies of absence, invisibility and anonymity. Along with the bold, triumphant portraiture of Henry Taylor at the Whitney and Barkley L. Hendricks at the Frick, we have the more reticent figuration of the Guggenheims group show Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, in which absent bodies may be pointed critiques or forms of resistance. And at the Met, new research and conservation efforts are drawing attention to central, yet long-neglected, Black subjects in historical paintings from the woman named Laure who modeled for the servant figure in Ãdouard Manets Olympia to Bélizaire, an enslaved young man ... More | | 
The three simple squares of the FIA Museum + Art School logo represent the FIAs three primary functions.
FLINT, MI.- The Flint Institute of Arts has introduced a new mission statement and logo. The new mission statement: The Flint Institute of Arts Museum + Art School connects diverse communities through fun, creative, and inspiring visual art experiences. The addition of Museum + Art School emphasizes the FIAs desire to showcase one of its greatest assets and attractions, the Art School, in both the mission statement and new logo. The three simple squares of the FIA Museum + Art School logo represent the FIAs three primary functions, which are 1) A Museum focused on collecting and presenting art from around the globe, dating from ancient times to present day, 2) An Art School, featuring studio experiences for individuals of all ages, in the nations 3rd largest museum-affiliated school, 3) A unique venue to present transformative experiential and educational programming, as well as host fun special events ... More | | 
Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis probably never met. What the stage-based film presupposes is: Maybe they did?
by Ben Kenigsberg
NEW YORK, NY.- In Freuds Last Session, when Oxford academic C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) arrives late to the London home of Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins), Freuds chow chow, Jofi, brushes him off. The dog, Freud explains, values punctuality. The mens encounter concocted for Mark St. Germains 2009 play of the same title is imaginary, but the timing is not. The setting is September 1939, and Hitler has invaded Poland. The atheist Freud has sought out Lewis, whom he has never met, to learn how such a sterling intellect could believe in God. Given the historical backdrop (we hear radio of Neville Chamberlain announcing Britains entry into the war), that hardly seems like the most pressing topic. Thats true even if Freud, who has oral cancer, would be dead before the end of that month. But the war context ... More |
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| Bertoia's consecutive sales of toys and holiday antiques draw enthusiastic crowds | | Mennour opens an exhibition of works by Bertrand Lavier | | Gavin Turk's exhibition 'Still Life' opening in Knokke | 
Shepard Hardware Co., Mason (bricklayer) cast-iron mechanical bank. Pristine condition. Provenance: Heath Hurlbert collection. Sold for $18,000 against an estimate of $8,000-$12,000.
VINELAND, NJ.- In the bustling days leading up to their final sale of the year, Bertoia Auctions faced an unusual problem if you can call it a problem at all. More than 1,000 outstanding consignments of American and European toys and banks were in the process of being evaluated and photographed, while many hundreds of dazzling Christmas, Halloween and other holiday antiques waited in the wings to receive their own star treatment. After a studious assessment, it occurred to Bertoias president, Michael Bertoia, that the best way to proceed might be to host two separate events, each with its own distinct focus, and with a two-week break in between. It was decided that the November 17-18 Annual Fall Auction would showcase magnificent toys and banks, while the ... More | | 
Bertrand Lavier.
PARIS.- Bertrand Lavier likes to confront us with unqualifiable situations. His artworks often seem to hover between different possible identities as well as different temporalities.
This is again the case with his two new worksites, as he likes to call these bodies of work that hes never entirely finished with, returning to them over the decades whenever he feels like it. One of these worksites consists of paintings encased in blocks of clear resin, the other a car carcass covered in a thoroughly contemporary coat of gleaming paint. The encased paintings present us with a paradox. To begin with, there is the iconoclastic, almost sacrilegious gesture of making the paintings permanently inaccessible. Then, the nature of the object is changed: exhibited in this way, the paintings lose their two-dimensionality and almost appear like sculptures. And yet, a consequence of this new way of showing the paintings is that they can ... More | | 
Gavin Turk. Photo by Morandi
KNOKKE.- Maruani Mercier is now presenting Still Life, an exhibition of a new series of paintings by Gavin Turk, on view at the Knokke Zeedijk gallery. In Still Life, Turk carefully paints images of product packaging arranged in a way that recalls the work of the artist Giorgio Morandi. Each work is uniquely framed, creating an impression that each work has had its own journey and has been brought back together for this exhibition. Conflating the slow and layered painterly process of classical still life with images of disposable objects, the works highlight the ever-accelerating pace of consumption in the present-day economy. Its a kind of proto-realistic method that includes images of not only what we throw away but a genre of painting. - Gavin Turk. The paintings are executed in a restricted tonal palette against a monochrome ground, some of the objects are highlighted in accents of colour, inviting a close study o ... More |
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| Rare and iconic artworks by Baroque masters unveiled together in world premiere exhibition | | Annual episode-based exhibition "Spirit of Play" now open at Craft in America Center | | Bethan Laura Wood 'Kaleidoscope-o-rama: 2023 MECCA x NGV Women' in Design Commission | 
Lavinia Fontana, Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine 1574-77. Oil on copper. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 2021.
VICTORIA.- Hamilton Gallery recently unveiled the world premiere exhibition Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque, presenting over 70 important works by world-renowned baroque masters, including several never-before-seen in Australia. Drawn from the partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), as well as loans from the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and private lenders from across the country, Emerging from Darkness will showcase rare and iconic works by the world's most significant baroque artists including Artemisia Gentileschi, Peter Paul Rubens, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Guercino, Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola and Valentin de Boulogne. This collection of historical pieces, displayed together for the first time, will be exhibited alongside works ... More | | 
Roberto Benavidez, Gynandromorph Piñata No. 4 (Summer Tanager). Photos courtesy of the artists.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- For artists, play can mean serious work. Play allows the mind to roam and encounter unusual solutions, whether it be in process or concept. The processes of making and imagining work in tandem for these artists, where grand, exquisite, whimsical and magical forms emerge from diligent exploration. This exhibition now open at Craft in America Center celebrates the power of imagination, big ideas, craft ingenuity, and the child in all of us. It spotlights the work of several artists who are profiled in the 2023 episodes in Craft in Americas PBS documentary series, PLAY and MINIATURES. It includes fantastical animals made of re-used plastic, tiny reproductions of historical furniture, intricate piñatas and celebratory assemblage work. For artists, play can mean serious work. Play allows the mind to roam and encounter unusual solutions, whether it be in process or concept. The processes of making and imagining work in tandem ... More | | 
Bethan Laura Wood with Kaleidoscope-o-rama, 2023, the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission, on display from 3 December 2023 7 April 2024 in NGV Triennial at NGV International, Melbourne. Photo: Amelia Dowd.
MELBOURNE.- Presented as part of NGV Triennial 2023, the Commission includes two new major works Kaleidoscope-o-rama, carpet and Kaleidoscope-o-rama, bookcase, each conceived in dialogue with Regency era (c. 181120) works from the NGV Collection and presented among an immersive audio-visual display. For the commission, Wood reinterprets the colours, textures, materials and forms found in British Regency salons, to foreground the social phenomena of the period and draw out the continuing social values of equality and open access to education that were spearheaded by women at the time. As part of her research into the commission, Wood references the Bluestocking literary society, Regency era design, and ... More |
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An Intimate Look at One of the Most Celebrated Venetian Palazzos | First Look | Sotheby's
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 Jill Newhouse Gallery takes a closer look at painting by Pierre Bonnard, 'The Little Street'NEW YORK, NY.- Inspired by the show Bonnard's Worlds at the Kimbell Art Museum, Jill Newhouse Gallery has taken a closer look at our painting by Bonnard, The Little Street (Boulevard des Batignolles) done in 1903. This small complex work and others by Pierre Bonnard are on view at the gallery by appointment in December. By studying the composition of the large Place Clichy (The Green Tram) in the Kimbell show, we can see so much more in our smaller painting. Bonnard often returned to the same subject again and again. Our work is not a study for the larger painting, but rather an earlier version of what would become a familiar subject. In 1899 Bonnard had rented a new studio at 65 Rue de Douai near the Place de Clichy in northwest Paris. In 1905, he found an apartment in an old convent building right across ... More  deCordova welcomes Hugh Hayden's 'Huff and a Puff' to its Sculpture ParkLINCOLN, MA.- deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum has announced that a new permanent commission by artist Hugh Hayden has been installed on the Front Lawn. Huff and a Puff is a slanted replica of the one-room home where Henry David Thoreau lived in relative isolation at nearby Walden Pond and wrote Walden Or A Life in the Woods from 1845 to 1847. Huff and a Puff reimagines Thoreaus wood and brick cabin, which has become an iconic symbol of American self-reliance, activism, and ecological consciousness. Hayden designed the entire structure every shingle, windowpane and brick to slant forward and sideways by 20 degrees, conveying a surreal, pressurized force upon this one-room home. The individually cut shingles of the cabin are of cedar, which Thoreau used for his original cabin. ... More  Pop-punk has long been funny, but who gets to make the jokes?NEW YORK, NY.- Turn This Off! is a pummeling, 23-second novelty song on One More Time, the most recent album from pop-punk juggernaut Blink-182, and the first in 12 years to feature singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge. If youre too offended by these words, DeLonge shouts in his vowely, oft-imitated Southern California drawl, then please [expletive] off. His rapid-fire verse concludes in a crude joke, perhaps the only word of which I can quote in this publication is proctologists. When One More Time came out in October, listening to this song prompted me to feel a specific kind of discomfort as familiar as the wallpaper on my teenage bedroom: knowing youre supposed to laugh at a joke you dont find funny. Blink-182 was my favorite band for a decent chunk of my adolescence, and I felt for them a fervent, unconditional ... More  Wembley Park and Emergency Exit Arts present: The Luminaze, an immersive neon winter walkthrough experienceLONDON.- This winter, culture lovers in Wembley Park Londons most exciting new neighbourhood and beyond will be treated to an immersive, interactive new art experience. Delivered in partnership with Emergency Exit Arts (EEA), The Luminaze is an innovative, site-specific walkthrough art installation located just off the iconic Olympic Way, in front of Wembley Stadium. The maze-like experience integrates cutting-edge neon light technology, a specially curated soundscape, tactile elements that visitors can touch or sit on, and a stunning centrepiece in the form of the four-metre-tall Hourglass. Part of Wembley Parks winter offering, The Luminaze will be open to visitors until Tuesday 2nd January ... More  Exhibition showcases new work from 12 visionary Houston-based Black artistsHOUSTON, TX.- Contemporary Arts Museum Houston announced its newest exhibition, THIS WAY: A Houston Group Show. The exhibition showcases new work from 12 visionary Houston-based Black artists including Imhotep Blot by way of Amaechina Blot and Studio KER led by Michael Bennett, Colby Deal, Nahtan (Nate) Edwards, Dom Elam, Amarie Gipson, Priscilla T. Graham, Gem Hale, Charonda Johnson, Berlin Nicholas, Jaylen Pigford, Irene Antonia Diane Reece, and Jason Woods (Flash Gordon Parks), who were invited to examine innovative ways of participating in the storytelling of Black legacy and heritage in Houston Freedmens Town. Located in Fourth Ward, Freedmens Town is the first settlement of freed Black People in the city of Houston. At one time the boundaries of Freedmens Town extended from the banks of Buffalo ... More  Orlando Museum of Art to exhibit Bill Viola's Moving Stillness (Mount Rainier), 1979ORLANDO, FL.- Bill Violas Moving Stillness (Mount Rainier), 1979, on loan from Art Bridges, creates an immersive experience. In a darkened room, sounds from nature envelop the viewer as a placid pool of water reflects a projected image of Mount Rainier onto a screen. The Orlando Museum of Art is once again partnering with Art Bridges to bring this work, for the first time, to the state of Florida. The two organizations worked together in 2019, along with the Mennello Museum of American Art, to present the exhibition Edward Steichen: In Exaltation of Flowers. Art Bridges creates and supports programs that expand access to American art across the nation. Moving Stillness (Mount Rainier), 1979 is just one of the works in Art Bridges extensive collections which it loans to its partners. As part of the program, funding is provided to cover direct costs ... More  Ogden Museum of Southern Art announces $20 million bequest from Roger OgdenNEW ORLEANS, LA.- Yesterday, the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Ogden Museum of Southern Art announced an estimated $20 million bequest from real estate developer, civic leader and philanthropist Mr. Roger H. Ogden to establish The Ogden Fund. By choosing to endow The Ogden Fund, Mr. Ogden ensures an annual charitable gift to the Museum in perpetuity while the Fund grows over time in the Foundations expertly managed investment portfolio. We deeply appreciate Rogers vision and generosity in making New Orleans the leading city for Southern art in our nation, and for his commitment to ensuring that Ogden Museum of Southern Art has the resources it needs for generations to come, said Andy Kopplin, President & CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. By endowing The Ogden Fund ... More  Group exhibition DOKA at M Leuven features contemporary artworks LEUVEN.- For this new collection presentation, photographer and guest curator Geert Goiris found inspiration in the darkroom: the magical place where analogue photos are developed and images are created. He curated the exhibition with artworks from the contemporary section of Ms collection, which are awakened from their dormant existence in the depot and brought back into the light. The title of the exhibition, DOKA, is the Dutch word for darkroom. As a transhistorical museum, M shows an exceptional mix of historic and contemporary art, says Bert Cornillie, Alderman for Culture and Chairman of Ms board of directors. With DOKA, and together with our guest curator Geert Goiris, we are showcasing the exceptional range of contemporary art that the museum courtesy of Cera, the Flemish Community and the City of Leuven has ... More  Stephenson's welcomes New Year with Jan. 1 auction of high-quality antiques, art & jewelry from Philadelphia-area estateSOUTHAMPTON, PA.- Lovers of fine art, antiques and collectibles always look forward to January 1st because it brings with it a time-honored Philadelphia tradition: Stephensons New Years Day Auction. Family-owned and operated for 60+ years, Stephensons is known far and wide for its first-of-the-year event, which never disappoints with its selection of art, antiques and other treasures from Mid-Atlantic estates and collections. Throughout the year, many items are set aside specifically to delight bidders who join the fun on New Years Day either at the gallery, over the phone or live online through LiveAuctioneers. In the Jan. 1, 2024 lineup, the fine art category is led by a striking watercolor ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh was born December 23, 1908. Yousuf Karsh, CC (December 23, 1908 - July 13, 2002) was an Armenian-Canadian photographer best known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. In this image: Yousuf Karsh, Ford of Canada (surgeons), 1951.
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