| The arts are in crisis. Here's how Biden can help. | | Marina Perez Simão joins Pace Gallery | | Masterpieces by Botticelli and Rembrandt anchor Sotheby's Masters Week in NY | 
The coronavirus pandemic has decimated the livelihoods of those who work in the arts. How can the new administration intervene and make sure it doesnt happen again? A critic offers an ambitious plan. Invisible Creature/The New York Times.
by Jason Farago
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- What is arts function? What does art do for a person, a country? Scholars, economists, revolutionaries keep debating, but one very good answer has held now for 2,500 years. The function of art, Aristotle told us, is catharsis. You go to the theater, you listen to a symphony, you look at a painting, you watch a ballet. You laugh, you cry. You feel pity, fear. You see in others lives a reflection of your own. And the catharsis comes: a cleansing, a clarity, a feeling of relief and understanding that you carry with you out of the theater or the concert hall. Art, music, drama here is a point worth recalling in a pandemic are instruments of psychic and ... More | | 
Marina Perez Simão. Photo: Bruno Leão.
NEW YORK, NY.- Pace Gallery announced its representation of São Paulo-based artist Marina Perez Simão ahead of the artists inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery this spring. At the cusp of abstraction and figuration, Simãos oil paintings present fluid forms in subtle chromatic harmonies that conjure the transformational qualities of luminous, open vistas without ever depicting any specific place in explicit detail. Inspired by the natural landscape of her native Brazil, Simãos paintings lead us into territories in which we are confronted with that which is ungraspable, with that elusive and unspeakable instant that poets strive so hard to capture with words. Simão aligns with Paces long history of working with artists at the forefront of abstraction such as Sam Gilliam and Mark Rothko, as well as the gallerys expanding contemporary program which brings together artists pushing the boundaries of painting includ ... More | | 
Sandro Botticelli, Young Man Holding a Roundel, estimate in excess of $80 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- This January, Sothebys will offer works by many of the most celebrated names in European art history during its flagship Masters Week, a series of seven auctions encompassing Old Master paintings, drawings and sculpture spanning more than half a millennium. Focused around two of the highest value Old Master Paintings ever offered at auction, this first major global sales series of 2021 will be headlined by Sandro Botticellis masterpiece Young Man Holding a Roundel, one of the most significant portraits of any period ever to appear at auction, and a defining work of the Florentine Renaissance, and Rembrandts rare biblical scene of Abraham and the Angels. Two of the sales in this Masters Week series will be presented in Sothebys signature global livestream auction format: Master Paintings & Sculpture Part I on 28 January and Fearless: The Collection of Hester Diamond on 29 January. ... More |
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| F. Scott Fitzgerald 100-year-old letter to a NJ fan sold for $37,987 | | Black art matters | | Exhibition of historical works by Patrick Angus opens at Bortolami Gallery | 
The four-page handwritten letter, undated but, circa late 1920, to "Mr. Fitzgerald, in Paterson, NJ, replying to commentary on This Side of Paradise, in which the protagonist 'Amory Blaine' was based upon himself, and the character 'Rosalind Connage' was based on Zelda.
BOSTON, MASS.- A 100-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald handwritten letter sold for $37,987, according to Boston-based RR Auction. The four-page handwritten letter, undated but, circa late 1920, to "Mr. Fitzgerald, in Paterson, NJ, replying to commentary on This Side of Paradise, in which the protagonist 'Amory Blaine' was based upon himself, and the character 'Rosalind Connage' was based on Zelda. The letter is paired with a signed by F. Scott Fitzgerald: a matte-finish photo of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, boldly signed in fountain pen with reference to This Side of Paradise, "This is 'Rosalind,' don't you prefer her to Clara? F. Scott Fitzgerald". Accompanied by a carbon copy of John J. Fitzgerald's two-page letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald that elicited this exceptional response, and an envelope marked "Fitzgerald Correspondence" in an unknown ... More | | 
Louis Draper (American, 1935-2002), Untitled (Santos), 1968. Gelatin silver print, sheet: 8 15/16 à 5 7/8 in. (22.7 à 14.92 cm). Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Endowment for the arts Fund for American Art, 2013.151. © Courtesy of the Louis H. Draper Preservation Trust, Nell D. Winston, Trustee.
by Holland Cotter
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Its only fairly recently that the mainstream art world, which likes to think of itself as progressive, has fully begun to embrace the idea that Black art matters. Even a few decades ago, if you were an African American artist, you could realistically expect to find your work excluded from major i.e. white-run museums. For you, the marketing machinery that makes careers didnt exist. Galleries werent showing you. Collectors werent buying you. Critics werent looking your way. The same art world is now in catch-up mode, discovering Black talent that has always been there and acknowledging rich histories hitherto ignored. High on the list of current retrospective excavations is Working ... More | | 
Patrick Angus, Untitled, 1980s. Crayon on paper. Artwork: 17 x 14 in (43 x 35.6 cm) (PA9706) © Douglas Blair Turnbaugh, Courtesy Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany.
NEW YORK, NY.- Bortolami Gallery is presenting an exhibition of historical works by Patrick Angus (1953-1992), an artist known for his strikingly intimate portraits of men and honest depictions of the gay experience in 1980s New York. The exhibition presents three quintessential paintings and an extensive selection of works on paper spanning from the late 1970s until the artists untimely death in 1992. Angus keenly drew what he saw, and in these early portraits he renders men in graphite, colored pencil, pastel, watercolor and oillounging, sleeping, and posing in figure drawing classes and domestic interiors. Captured in a fluid yet sharply observant style, Angus shepherded in a unique form of expressive social realism. Raised in a sheltered California suburb of Santa Barbara, Angus took an early interest in visual art and began lessons in portraiture and genre subject matter at age thirteen. In college, Angus ... More |
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| Faurschou Foundation announces the opening of Zachary Armstrong's first solo exhibition in China | | Hindman Auctions to present jewelry in February Palm Beach sale | | "Ana Mendieta: Suspended Fire" on view at the Denver Art Museum | 
Installation view of Zachary Armstrong: Bag of Candles, Faurschou Beijing, 2021. Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud, © Faurschou Foundation.
BEIJING.- Faurschou Foundation announces the opening of Bag of Candles, the first solo exhibition in China by Zachary Armstrong, comprising his characteristic wax paintings, pottery, sculpture, and installation work. The exhibition is Armstrongs largest to date and presents the full spectrum of his wide-spanning practice to a new audience. For the exhibition, Armstrong has created a new body of work, transforming Faurschou Beijings space into a personal microcosmos of cross-references to his own life and American culture. These new works include a walk-in model of an encaustic house, a bronze cast of a life-size T-rex skull, an extensive wall-installation, and new paintings. The works allude to Armstrongs own life and childhood, as well as popular culture and art history, creating dialogues with one another while also commenting on contemporary society. With ... More | | 
Nicholas Varney, multigem Bird of Paradise brooch. Estimate: $6,000-8,000.
CHICAGO, IL.- Hindmans Palm Beach Jewelry auction will take place on Tuesday, February 9 at 10am ET. The jewelry auction will feature 116 lots with vibrant statement jewelry from renowned designers such as Tony Duquette, Christopher Walling, Nicholas Varney, de Grisogono, Evelyn Clothier, and more. With a range of classic and distinct pieces, the sale is full of brightly hued jewelry for the bold collector. The sale will be the third annual jewelry auction in the firms Palm Beach saleroom. Jewelry designed by legendary artist and designer Tony Duquette known for his interiors, stage settings, costumes, jewelry, and more will be among the standout pieces offered in the sale. Duquettes trademark extravagant design style will be on full display, such as a magnificent moonstone and opal pendant/brooch (lot 116; estimate is $5,000-7,000). Another lively piece is a multigem and coral brooch ... More | | 
Ana Mendieta, Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece), 1976. Super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent. Running time: 2:23 minutes. Edition of 6 with 3 APs.
NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Lelong & Co. announced that the exhibition Ana Mendieta: Suspended Fire is currently on view at the Denver Art Museum. An immersive installation featuring two films created by the artist, the installment will be the newest addition to the DAMs cross-departmental exhibition The Light Show and showcases remastered versions of Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece), 1976, and Untitled: Silueta Series, 1978. The two films portray the primordial element of fire, connecting thematically to The Light Show exhibitions exploration of physical and symbolic representations of light in art. Organized by the DAM and curated by Laura F. Almeida, curatorial fellow for modern and contemporary art at the DAM. Active as an artist throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Mendieta used her body as a way to explore ideas of identity ... More |
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| Two friends, two continents, very different pandemics | | Behind closed doors, Paris theaters carry on | | PIASA appoints Olivia Anani & Charlotte Lidon as co-directors of the Africa + Modern Contemporary Art Department | 
Baritone singer Jarrett Ott in Stuttgart, Germany, Jan. 5, 2021. Roderick Aichinger/The New York Times.
by Zachary Woolfe
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As two singers rising through the close-knit world of Philadelphias most acclaimed conservatories, Steven LaBrie and Jarrett Ott knew each other in passing. But on one raucous night in 2009, when Ott joined the celebration of LaBries 21st birthday an evening of tequila, dancing and after-hours pizza their friendship was sealed. Both baritones, LaBrie, now 32, and Ott, 33, stayed close as their opera careers began to blossom. They and their partners lived near each other in Astoria, Queens, for a time, and LaBrie and Ott worked out at the same gym. In 2018, with fellow baritone Tobias Greenhalgh, they released Remember, an album of songs by American composers. That year, their paths split. Ott started a full-time job in the ensemble at the respected opera house ... More | | 
Antoine Mathieu in Kolik, directed by Alain Françon, at Théâtre 14 in Paris. Rather than let finished productions go to waste in the locked-down city, exasperated artists are continuing with closed performances for others in the industry. If everyones working, its technically still allowed. Ina Seghezzi via The New York Times.
PARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Call it the French spirit of resistance or contrariness. Officially, theaters here are shut, because of a new wave of coronavirus infections. Unofficially, there are still shows going ahead, behind closed doors. Last weekend, for example, a clandestine performance of Shakespeares King Lear was held at a Paris theater although the cameras of a popular talk show, C Ã vous, were there, too. The socially distanced audience was described as regulars of the venue, and an unmasked man told a journalist from the show that he was attending to protest the gradual erosion of the freedom to live. The unnamed, albeit easily recognizable, director of the ... More | | 
Olivia Anani.
PARIS.- PIASA announced that Olivia Anani and Charlotte Lidon will be co-directors of Africa + Modern and Contemporary Art Department from this January onwards. «This double appointment reinforces PIASAs leading role and strengthens its involvement in the Contemporary African Art market. PIASA was one of the first to highlight this category in its sales programme. » emphasises Frédéric Chambre. The highly complementary skills of these two experts in the sector will thus enable PIASA to redefine the esthetic vision for the department while aligning its choices to global art market trends. The Africa + Modern and Contemporary Art Department at PIASA has achieved a solid foundation over the past five years, introducing and cementing the market for several key artists from Africa and its diasporas. Our ambition for the coming years will be to further define the departments esthetic positioning and amplify its echoes to the art historica ... More |
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How To: Memory Book Inspired by Jennifer Bartlettâs "Four Seasons"
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 Good luck is a curse in this classic film from SenegalNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Neorealism was born in postwar Italy. By the mid-1950s, however, its greatest examples were made abroad. Mandabi (The Money Order), the second feature film by the dean of West African filmmakers, Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007), is one of them. Filmed with a cast of nonprofessionals on the streets of Dakar, Senegal, it is a mordant fable of good fortune gone bad. Newly restored, the 1968 movie can be streamed from Film Forum starting Jan. 15. Stop killing us with hope, exclaims one of the two wives of the movies dignified yet hapless protagonist Ibrahima, a devout Muslim who hasnt worked in four years. The postman just told them that, like a bolt out of the blue, a money order had arrived from Ibrahimas nephew in Paris. News travels fast. Needy neighbors, not to mention the local imam, ... More  Sealed Pokémon Base Set Booster Box sells for record $408,000 at Heritage AuctionsDALLAS, TX.- Demand for elite Pokémon collectibles continues to soar at Heritage Auctions, which sold a Pokémon First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box (Wizards of the Coast, 1999) for a world record-setting $408,000 Thursday afternoon. The box sold during the second session of Heritage's four-day Comics & Comic Art Auction, which runs through Sunday. The afternoon session included 16 Pokémon lots that accounted for more than $1.3 million in sales. The record-setting booster box was one of three that produced six-figure results. "Recent history has shown that the demand for First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Boxes is soaring," said Jesus Garcia, Trading Cards Expert in the Heritage Auctions Comics Department. "Based on the competitive bidding when Heritage Auctions sold a similar set in November, we expected the interest in this ... More  'Batman' No. 1 sells for $2.22 million at Heritage Auctions to shatter Caped Crusader's world recordDALLAS, TX.- The finest known copy of 1940's Batman No. 1 sold Thursday for $2.22 million, far and away the highest price ever realized for a comic book starring Bruce Wayne and his caped-and-cowled alter ego. The issue, the sole copy ever to receive a 9.4 grade from the Certified Guaranty Company, was already a record-setter before the start of Heritage Auctions' four-day Comics and Comic Art event. A week before the Jan. 14-17 auction even began, Batman No. 1 crossed the $1.53-million mark, besting the previous world record set for a Batman title in November when Heritage sold 1939's Detective Comics No. 27 for $1.5 million. The book shattered estimates and expectations long before it was sold during the first session of the four-day event. It has seen more than two dozen bids since Christmas and accrued tens of thousands of pageviews ... More  A playwright's new subject: Her husband, the pandemic expertSAN FRANCISCO (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Confined by the pandemic to her three-story Victorian home, Lauren Gunderson did not have to go far to find inspiration for her latest play. He was one room away, in the home office next to hers on the top floor. Over Rombauer chardonnay (for her) and a vodka tonic (for him) she set her phone down, opened the voice recording app and interviewed Nathan Wolfe, her husband of eight years. The transcripts of those conversations are the basis of The Catastrophist, her new solo play that was filmed on a stage near San Francisco in December and will premiere as cinematic theater this month. With the exception of Shakespeare, Gunderson has been the most produced playwright in the United States in recent years, according to a tally by American Theatre magazine. Wolfe has his own claims ... More  How 8 countries have tried to keep artists afloatNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In December, owners and operators of theaters and music halls across the United States breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed the latest coronavirus aid package, which finally set aside $15 billion to help desperate cultural venues. But that came more than six months after a host of other countries had taken steps to buffer the strain of the pandemic on the arts and artists. Here are the highlights, and missteps, from eight countries efforts. President Emmanuel Macron of France was one of the first world leaders to act to help freelance workers in the arts. The country has long had a special unemployment system for performing artists that recognizes the seasonality of such work and helps even out freelancers pay during fallow stretches. In May, Macron removed a minimum requirement of hours worked ... More  Howard Johnson, 79, dies; Elevated the tuba in jazz and beyondNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Howard Johnson, who set a new standard by expanding the tubas known capacities in jazz, and who moonlighted as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger for some of the most popular acts in rock and pop, died Monday at his home in Harlem. He was 79. His death was announced by his publicist, Jim Eigo. He did not specify a cause but said that Johnson had been ill for a long time. Fluent and graceful across an enormous range on one of the most cumbersome members of the brass family, Johnson found his way into almost every kind of scenario, outside classical music, where you might possibly expect to find the tuba and plenty where you wouldnt. His career spanned hundreds of albums and thousands of gigs. He played on many of the major jazz recordings of the 1960s and 70s, by musicians like Charles ... More  Kristen Lorello opens an exhibition of paintings on paper by Ping ZhengNEW YORK, NY.- Kristen Lorello is presenting Chinese-born, Brooklyn-based artist Ping Zhengs third solo exhibition at the gallery of paintings on paper in oil stick. The exhibition includes fourteen new paintings installed within the two main rooms of the gallery. A full-color catalogue with an essay by Barbara Pollack is forthcoming. Drawing from a vast reserve of personal energy and memories of childhood joy in the wild natural landscape of northern and southern China, Zheng's works feature elements of nature that recur in her minds eye. These motifs include the form of a mountain's peak, suns and moons reflecting in bodies of water, and skies--both day and night--that appear to reverberate and spiral. With a bold use of color and shape, and a compressed sense of spatiality, each painted scene confronts the viewer in a direct, frontal way. This ... More  60s icon Marianne Faithfull reveals 'long Covid' battleLONDON (AFP).- British singer Marianne Faithfull has been left with fatigue and breathing problems months after being treated for Covid-19 in hospital, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. Faithfull, 74, said she had suffered with lingering symptoms after contracting the virus duing the first wave of the pandemic in Britain in April last year. "Three things: the memory, fatigue and my lungs are still not OK -- I have to have oxygen and all that stuff," she told the paper, adding that the side-effects were "strange" and "awful". A high number of Covid-19 patients have experienced lasting effects from the virus after an initial recovery with a lingering disease known as "long Covid". Symptoms range from memory problems, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, post-traumatic stress disorder, and in some cases patients can be left bed-ridden for ... More  "Parasite" director to head Venice film festival juryROME (AFP).- South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, whose "Parasite" movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture last year, was named Friday as jury president of the 2021 Venice Film Festival. "I'm ready to admire and applaud all the great films selected by the festival. I'm filled with genuine hope and excitement," Bong said in a statement issued by festival organisers. Festival director Alberto Barbera said Bong would be the first South Korean jury president, and saluted him as "one of the most authentic and original voices in worldwide cinema." "Parasite," a dark comedy about the gap between rich and poor, made history as the first non-English-language movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture. It also picked up three other statuettes at the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay. The Venice ... More  Spike Lee vows to 'delay Father Time' as Hollywood bestows honorLOS ANGELES (AFP).- Spike Lee voiced hope for the "next wave" of Black filmmakers -- but warned his own trail-blazing career was far from done -- as he was honored by Hollywood at a virtual ceremony Thursday. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lee accepted the prestigious American Cinematheque Award online rather than at the usual star-studded Beverly Hills gala. The prolific 63-year-old director, who has entertained and provoked audiences with frank depictions of Black America for decades, promised he has "got some more joints to make," referring to his films. "If you love what you're doing, you can delay Father Time," he told ceremony host Jodie Foster. The livestreamed event saw Lee heaped with praise by the likes of Foster, Angela Bassett, Rosie Perez and "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler, who dubbed him a "trailblazer." The award was remotely presented b ... More  What happens now to Michael Apted's lifelong project 'Up'?NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Every seven years or so for more than half a century, filmmaker Michael Apted returned to what he referred to as his lifes work: documenting the same ordinary people hed known since they were 7 years old. Throughout nine installments of the Up series which has been called the noblest, most remarkable and profound documentary project in history Apted turned a restrained lens on class, family, work and dreams, both dashed and achieved, in his native England. The programs, beginning with Seven Up! in 1964, went on to inspire international copycats and even an episode of The Simpsons. So when Apted died last week at 79, he left behind not only his enormous artistic undertaking, but a nontraditional family unit that was at once uncomfortable, transactional and as intimate as could be. Its ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
High 
Danny Fox 
albertz benda 
Genesis Tramaine
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Andrew Wyeth died January 16, 2009. Andrew Newell Wyeth (July 12, 1917 - January 16, 2009) was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In this image: Andrew Wyeth, LejanÃa, 1952 (Faraway). Pincel seco sobre papel. 34,92 x 54,61. The Phyllis and Jamie Wyeth Collection.
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