| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Saturday, December 8, 2018 |
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| | Edgy US political climate reflected at Art Basel in Miami Beach | |
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Annely Juda Fine Art © Art Basel.
MIAMI BEACH (AFP).- The volatile political climate in the United States reverberates at Art Basel, the international art fair held in December in Miami Beach, with some artists portraying a country on the "verge of chaos," populated by "phantasmagoric" minorities. Miami Beach, a barrier island facing Miami, is celebrated for its beaches and its unbridled party atmosphere. Young tourists can be seen "twerking" on the roofs of their rented cars, and on long weekends a drunken mass of humanity often spills into the streets, in unruly scenes punctuated by gunfire and police checks. But during "art week," which is held every year during the first week of December, flip-flops are replaced with designer clothes, beer with champagne, and suddenly the slender island is populated by a horde of trend-setting art lovers and dealers from around the world. In this dressed-up version ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A person shows fragments of a prismatic obsidian knife that was found together with human remains at the Joya de Ceren archaeological site in San Juan Opico, 35 km west of San Salvador, El Salvador, on November 29, 2018. Salvadorean archaeologists are launching new excavations at Joya de Ceren archaeological site in search of clues on the life, crops and structures of this legendary Mayan town known as the "Pompey of America", which was buried over 1,400 years ago by volcanic eruptions. MARVIN RECINOS / AFP
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| | | Rediscovered Mantegna joins National Gallery exhibition | | Auction houses play key role in returning war spoils | | Banksy's works on show in Madrid without his approval | 
The Resurrection of Christ being installed above The Descent of Christ into Limbo in Mantegna and Bellini © The National Gallery, London.
LONDON.- Visitors to the critically acclaimed Mantegna and Bellini exhibition at the National Gallery can now see two panels of a single painting by Andrea Mantegna that have just been reunited for the first time in possibly 500 years. The upper section, The Resurrection of Christ (around 1492) has been in the collection of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo since the 19th century, but was only recently re-attributed to Mantegna. The lower half, The Descent of Christ into Limbo (around 1492), has been loaned to the National Gallery by a private collector. The re-evaluation of The Resurrection of Christ came after the discovery of a small cross beneath the stone arch, which suggested it may have been part of a bigger panel. Comparisons were made with several works before the link was established with The Descent of Christ into Limbo. It is believed the panels were painted for the chapel in the castle at Mantua, where Mantegna ... More | | 
The Art Loss Register and the ERR database of art objects plundered by the Nazis, based on archives kept by the far-right political party, are the most exhaustive repositories of information -- but dozens of other resources exist.
NEW YORK (AFP).- World War II ended more than 70 years ago, but works of art confiscated by the Nazis are still regularly unearthed by major auction houses, which contribute actively to their restitution. French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Esquisse de paysage (Deux femmes dans le jardin des Collettes a Cagnes)," which depicts two women in a garden, changed hands no less than seven times since German police seized it in September 1941. Four of those times were at public auction. But it wasn't until 2013, when the painting was being considered for a sale at Christie's in New York and the auction house flagged it as suspicious, that a descendant of the original owner was located and ultimately had the work returned. The auction house traced the work's ownership back to Alfred Weinberger, ... More | | 
"Genius or Vandal?" opened Thursday at the Ifema centre in the Spanish capital and will run until March 10.
MADRID (AFP).- Banksy has been Banksied. The guerilla artist who puts up his work in public spaces without asking authorisation is the subject of a new show in Madrid featuring his works -- without his authorisation. "Genius or Vandal?" opened Thursday at the Ifema centre in the Spanish capital and will run until March 10. It has already pulled in half a million visitors at its previous venues Moscow and Saint Petersburg, according to a statement from the organisers. The show's curator Alexander Nachkebiya, who assembled the works from private collectors, describes Banksy as "a phenomenon and one of the most brilliant and important artist of our epoch". The street artist himself remains something of an enigma. All he has revealed about himself is that he is British and that his home town is Bristol in southeast England. But the dark wit of his art and a certain talent for self-promotion has helped him build up an international ... More |
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| | | Tributes for Pete Shelley from UK punk band Buzzcocks | | MoMA announces 16th Annual International Festival of Film Preservation | | The first director of the Morris Museum of Art, Louise Keith Claussen, dies at age 71 | 
Shelley helped found the Manchester band in 1976, and was responsible the band's catchy sound and best-known song "Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" in 1978.
LONDON (AFP).- Tributes flooded in on Friday for "brilliant talent" Pete Shelley, the lead singer and songwriter with influential British pop punk band the "Buzzcocks", who died in Estonia aged 63. Shelley helped found the Manchester band in 1976, and was responsible the band's catchy sound and best-known song "Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" in 1978. "It's with great sadness that we confirm the death of Pete Shelley, one of the UK's most influential and prolific songwriters and co-founder of the seminal original punk band Buzzcocks," the band wrote on Facebook. "Pete's music has inspired generations of musicians over a career that spanned five decades and with his band and as a solo artist, he was held in the highest regard by the music industry and by his fans around the world." Shelley ... More | | 
El fantasma del convent (The Phantom of the Monastery). 1934. Directed by Fernando de Fuentes. Courtesy UCLA Film and Television Archive.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art announces the 16th annual edition of To Save and Project, a festival dedicated to celebrating newly preserved and restored films from archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers around the world. Running from January 4 to 31, 2019, this years festival includes more than 50 newly preserved features and shorts from Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the United Statesvirtually all of them North American or New York premieresby filmmakers as diverse as Fernando de Fuentes, André de Toth, Safi Faye, Ha Gil-jong, F. W. Murnau, and Doris Wishman. Many of these films are receiving their first American screening since their original release; others will be shown in meticulously restored versions that recapture the long-lost sound and image quality of their initial release; ... More | | 
Claussen received numerous awards and recognition throughout her career.
AUGUSTA, GA.- The board and staff of the Morris Museum of Art mourn the loss of Louise Keith Claussen, first director of the Morris Museum of Art, who died on Thursday, December 6, 2019 in Sarasota, Florida. She was 71. In one way or another, our dear friend Keith Claussen was closely associated with me and my family for more than 45 years, noted William S. Morris III, museum founder and chairman. During that time, her contributions to this city were immeasurable, especially in the arts. When Sissie and I founded the Morris Museum of Art, we felt very fortunate that someone of her caliber and character was here and willing to take on the responsibility of getting a public institution up and running. The museum achieved remarkable things under her leadership, and we will be forever grateful for all that she gave to it and to us personally. Her loss is a painful one, and our hearts are very full. No one was ever more for ... More |
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| | | Anish Kapoor to launch reopening of Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery | | Sotheby's announces highlights included in the sale of the Pierre Bergé Library Part IV | | Paris shops, monuments to close as fears of protest violence mount | 
Pitzhanger Manor, 2018. Photo © Andy Stagg.
LONDON.- Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, the Grade-I listed country home of visionary British architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837), will re-open to the public on 16 March 2019 following a threeyear, £12-million conservation and restoration project. The Regency Manor, built between 1800 and 1804 in then-rural Ealing, will be returned to Soanes original design - it is a rare and spectacular example of a building designed, built and lived in by Soane himself. The adjoining Gallery built in the 1930s, will also be upgraded and will stage three major exhibitions a year, featuring the work of contemporary artists, architects and designers, shining a new light on Soanes legacy. The initiative to revitalise Pitzhanger was conceived by Ealing Council. Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery Trust was established in 2012 to work alongside the Council on the restoration project and to undertake the management and operation of Pitzhanger ... More | | 
Michel de Montaigne. Essais. Bordeaux, 1580. The best preserved and most exquisite copy, among the four known in original vellum binding still in private hands, of the first edition of Montaignes Essayes.
400 000 / 500 000 . Courtesy Sotheby's
PARIS.- The dispersal of the Pierre Bergé Library continues on December 14th, with Part IV of its 6-part auction begun three years ago. The sale is organized jointly by Pierre Bergé & Associés and Sothebys and will be held at the Hotel Drouot in the heart of Paris. Part IV offers a diversified array reflecting the multiple facets and breadth of this unique collectors passion. If the lions share of the offerings is devoted to literature, other specialities confirm the collectors interests in other fields including botany and gardening, philosophy or history. Here, one will find some fine illustrated works a surprising feature for a disciple of Flaubert, who refused any illustration of his books along with works by authors close to his heart throughout his lifetime of which he ... More | | 
In this file photo tourists and visitors queue outside the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. Miguel MEDINA / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre museum and scores of shops on the Champs-Elysees are set to close as authorities warned Thursday of fresh violence this weekend during protests which have ballooned into the biggest crisis of Emmanuel Macron's presidency. The government is scrambling to stave off another Saturday of burned cars and running street battles with police by "yellow vest" protesters furious over rising costs of living they blame on high taxes. An interior ministry official told AFP that authorities were bracing for "significant violence" on Saturday, based on indications that protesters on both the far right and far left are planning to converge on the capital. Officials fear they could be joined by hooligans set on rioting and looting, as is widely thought to have been the case last weekend. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said 8,000 police would be deployed in Paris alongside ... More |
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| | | Exhibition documents passengers on the popular New York subway transit system | | Toys and holiday antiques deliver a $1.5M result at Bertoia's November auction | | "Mannheim is growing. Pictures of an Industrial City" opens at Kunsthalle Mannheim | 
Jamel Shabazz, The Trio, NYC 1980. © Jamel Shabazz, courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen.
BERLIN.- Galerie Bene Taschen is presenting the new exhibition City Metro by New York photographer Jamel Shabazz (*1960 in Brooklyn). Some 30 works, created since the early 1980s, show a different side of the "Big Apple" beyond the prestigious avenues and dazzling Broadway. In the spirit of street photography, Shabazz's works document passengers on the popular New York transit system, capturing their fashion, moods, and travelling companions. As New York's lifeline, the transit system connects all of the city's districts and residents. Nowhere else is there such an immediate meeting of the different nationalities and cultures of the "melting pot" an aspect which has drawn the native New Yorker to the stations and trains of the subway time and again to create key works. Some of them, such as Rush Hour (1988), have long since become iconic images. With the camera as a constant companion and ... More | | 
Extremely rare Halloween vegetable man holding jack-o-lantern, circa 1920s, $10,200.
VINELAND, NJ.- A holiday atmosphere enlivened with the colors and iconic characters of Halloween and Christmas greeted guests to Bertoias festive Nov. 9-11 Annual Fall Auction. The cataloged Friday and Saturday sessions were followed by an uncataloged bonus session brimming with excellent toys at moderate price points. The $1.5 million event, which attracted gallery bidders from as far away as Texas, featured more than 1,400 high-quality lots across dozens of categories. Many people came to bid on day one but ended up staying for all three days. We were very pleased about that because it means they were enjoying our hospitality and the company of other collectors, said Jeanne Bertoia, owner of Bertoia Auctions. Unquestionably, Halloween was the hot ticket of the Nov. 9-11 weekend. New highs were recorded in both the number of bidders and prices paid for Halloween merchandise, which was fresh ... More | | 
Karl Weber, Craftsmanship in the Machine Age, 1928, poster, photo: MARCHIVUM.
MANNHEIM.- The Graphic Collection, with numerous loans from the Marchivum (Mannheim City Archive), presents the exhibition Mannheim is growing. Pictures of an Industrial City. Around 1900, Mannheim rapidly developed into a modern metropolis with a quickly growing population and a booming economy. In drawings and print graphics from the 1920s and 1930s the port, transport, and industry take center stage as the motors of a thriving city. The self-conception of Mannheims citizens was especially reflected in the new medium of the poster with its dynamic industrial and metropolitan aesthetic, as exemplified by the transport association which proudly featured loading cranes and factories in its advertising. The widespread availability of electricity also led to a radical change in the cityscape. The Elektrische (electric tram) now drove where horse-drawn carriages once trotted; streets were lit at night ... More |
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HOW TO SEE | Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980
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 Tim Van Laere Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Armen EloyanANTWERP.- Tim Van Laere Gallery is presenting Natur und Kultur, the third solo exhibition of Armen Eloyan. According to Eloyan a good painting is like a good joke, the pieces have to come together. With his characteristic dark humor, colourful paint and thick black contours, Eloyan reveals a dystopian world where things are thrown out of balance, confronting the viewer with existential questions. Combining influences from street art and animated cartoons with references to great pioneers in painting such as Willem De Kooning and Philip Guston, Armen Eloyan (°1966, Yerevan - lives and works in Zurich and Antwerp) depicts a world where familiar figures, associated with our childhood, are stripped from every ounce of innocence. The painted figures seem to be in the midst of an existential meltdown as Eloyan paints them looking deranged, melancholic and ... More Creative hub offers artists a new home in the HighlandsGLASGOW.- The first major arts hub in the Highlands is now open providing urgently needed studios for everyone from photographers and textile designers to an artist who knits glass. The two-phase Inverness Creative Academy project aims to boost the economy by bringing together artists, makers and creative companies in a high-profile centre with the facilities they need to flourish. Creative hubs are popular across Europe. They have been successfully pioneered in Scotland by Wasps Artists Studios which is behind the Inverness development whose centres include South Block in Glasgow. The project is already showing its worth by providing high-quality, affordable workspace to locally based people who want to live and work in the Highlands but could not find studios. Among them is abstract artist Haywood John, from Inverness, who said:I have ... More Lichtundfire opens an exhibition by eight artists whose work represents iceNEW YORK, NY.- Lichtundfire and curcioprojects are presenting Sense of Ice, featuring eight artists whose practice in painting, digital photography, and sculpture represents ice ranging from realistic depictions to a metaphorical sense to works addressing climate change. Sense of Ice has been collaboratively conceived and curated by Robert Curcio, curcioprojects, and by Priska Juschka, Lichtundfire, following their previous exhibit Luxurious Growth. The non-traditional materials of Ellen Alts mixed media paintings have us swept away by contradictory emotions beauty and devastation, fascination and revulsion for the glacial landscape. The viewer is almost falling into Pamela Caspers oil paintings that capture the mysterious beauty and impending tragedy of melting Arctic ice. Bob Clyatts sculptural reliefs of Americas all-consuming ... More Exhibition of paintings by Douglas Melini on view at Van Doren WaxterNEW YORK, NY.- Van Doren Waxter is presenting paintings by Douglas Melini as the inaugural exhibition in the gallerys new gallery space at 23 East 73rd Street; this newly renovated public exhibition space is an expansion on the buildings 3rd floor, adjacent to the gallerys private viewing room. Douglas Melini: Starry Sky is the artists third show with the gallery and is on view through January 12, 2019. It follows the artists solo institutional exhibition at the Schneider Museum of Art, OR. For this exhibition, Douglas Melini debuts a new series of paintings that merges his densely textured abstractions with the representation of a field of stars. In these chromatically charged works, pattern and saturated color become night skies, strewn and illuminated by stars. Formally rigorous, the canvases emerge from a meticulous collage process made entirely ... More Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art presents two works by Yayoi KusamaLAS VEGAS, NV.- Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is presenting two installations by renowned artist Yayoi Kusama. An immersive experience for visitors, Yayoi Kusama offers a unique wonderland of lights and reflections where guests are invited to experience each artwork from within. Both installations, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity and Narcissus Garden, awaken a sense of wonder and showcase Kusamas exploration of infinite space. Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity is a room of infinite, shimmering lights. Guests step into an enclosed room and are transported into a completely mirrored space, as an array of lights ignite a delicate mirage reflected and repeated on every surface over the span of just under a minute. The space represents Kusamas lifelong obsession with the dissolution of the self into the infinite and was created the year of her 80th ... More Steve Jobs signed Macworld magazine up for auctionBOSTON, MASS.- A rare Steve Jobs signed Macworld magazine will be auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction. The original issue of Macworld #1 from February 1984, signed and inscribed on the front cover in black ink, "to Matt, steven jobs will be auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction. The classic cover depicts Jobs as Apple Computer's chairman of the board, posing with a trio of Macintosh computers. Introduced in February 1984, Macworld magazine became the most popular Macintosh-focused magazine in North America; the premier issue is scarce and desirable in its own right. Steve Jobs signed this copy at the grand opening of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York on May 19, 2006. Accompanied by a photo of Jobs signing this exact magazine, and a video of him signing can be seen ... More An evening of exceptional watches at Christie's totals $10.48 millionNEW YORK, NY.- Christies New York December 6 auction An Evening of Exceptional Watches achieved a total of $10,488,250 with 89% sold by value and 81% sold by lot. The top lot of the sale was An Extremely Fine, Rare and Attractive 18K Gold Automatic Triple Calendar Wristwatch with Star Dial and Moon Phases, Rolex Ref. 6062, circa 1952, which realized $1,572,500, establishing a new record for a yellow gold Rolex Ref. 6062 with a silvered dial. This superlative 6062 Stelline or Star Dial was introduced in 1950 and produced for only 10 years. Nicknamed The Dark Star, this watch has developed a dark patina to its 18K yellow gold case, a unique feature of this important lot. Other notable results included A Rolex 14K Gold Chronograph Wristwatch with Black John Player Special Paul Newman Dial and Bracelet, Ref. 6241, circa 1968, which sold ... More Viggo Mortensen ready to go behind cameraMARRAKESH (AFP).- Danish-American actor Viggo Mortensen, who presented his latest film this week at Morocco's Marrakesh film festival, is ready to make his directorial debut. He sat down with AFP on the sidelines of the festival to speak about "Green Book", which won the Toronto International Film Festival audience prize, in which he leads, and his plans to go behind the camera for the upcoming father-son drama "Falling". Mortensen wrote the screenplay for "Falling" and will take one of the leading roles in the film, an intimate look at a gay man's complicated relationship with his father. Directorial debut? "We are in the pre-production phase, and filming of 'Falling' will start next February in Canada. I will act in the film and Lance Henriksen will play the father. "I was inspired by memories surrounding my father and my mother, but it's not a true story. It's made up." "I don't know if she will continue, but (Belgium-born French film director) Agnes Varda... or (Italian American filmmaker) Martin ... More Portuguese artist's first solo museum show in the U.S. explores political and biological epidemics MIAMI, FLA.- The Pérez Art Museum Miami opened a new solo exhibition by the Portuguese artist, filmmaker, and writer Pedro Neves Marques. The exhibition, Pedro Neves Marques: A Mordida, is on view from December 4, 2018 through July 28, 2019. A Mordida, or The Bite, is Neves Marques first solo museum presentation in the United States. Presented as an audio-visual installation, it features the premiere of new films commissioned by PAMM, digital animations, and a musical piece by London-based musician Fraencis. This exhibition is a fitting introduction for US audiences to Neves Marques work, bringing together explorations that address clashes among politics of nature, technology, and gender. In his practice, science fiction and speculative storytelling are employed as key tools used to examine the history of colonization as well as the possibility ... More Cooke Latham Gallery opens with the first UK solo exhibition of Chilean artist Francisco RodrÃguez LONDON.- Cooke Latham Gallery, a new space for contemporary art, located in a 19th-century warehouse in Londons Battersea, launched on 6 December with the first UK solo exhibition of Chilean artist Francisco RodrÃguez entitled The Burning Plain. Set over twenty-four hours, the sun rises over The Burning Plain to reveal a cast of sinister characters emerging from the shadows. Oscillating between expansive landscapes and smaller portraits and details, the exhibition is unified in its limited colour palette and by the motifs repeated through the paintings. Populated by wild dogs, fir-trees, and figures skulking along the fence line, the compositions are loaded with anticipated action. Each piece is both self-contained and integral to the installation as a whole, a fragment of a storyline that is implied but never realised. In constructing such potent ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Mexican painter Diego Rivera was born December 08, 1886. Diego MarÃa de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y RodrÃguez (December 8, 1886 - November 24, 1957) was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo (1929-1939 and 1940-1954). His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in Mexican art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals among others in Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In this image: A couple look at the painting 'Portrait of Gilda Blanca' (R) by Mexican Diego Rivera during an exhibition to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City, Mexico, 04 July 2011.
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