 | | For the first (and maybe the last) time, all the Walking Men are gathered in the same exhibition | | Turner Prize was canceled, but organizers still gave out the cash | | National Gallery's Room 32 reopens to the public after a 21-month refurbishment | 
Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II, 1960.
PARIS.- Walking Man, more than a masterpiece, is an icon of 20th Century art. With that emblematic work, Giacometti succeeded in concentrating the suggestive energy of his oeuvre to epitomise the most powerful aspiration of his time: to humanise the world, history and art. For the first time, several life-size models of Walking Man created by the artist are gathered together with most of the variations on that theme, sculpted and drawn. The very first life-size sculpture of Walking Man dating from 1947 is exceptionally presented to the public as well as Walking Man I, II and III from the collection of Fondation Giacometti. This major exhibition retraces the genealogy of the motif, from the Walking Woman of the Surrealist period to the icons created in 1959-60. Supported by many documents and drawings never shown before, the exhibition recounts the history of Giacometti most celebrated work. From the first model in 1932 to the famous figures created ... More | | 
Shawanda Corbett, Neighbourhood Garden. Courtesy: The Artistand Corvi-Mora, London. Photo: Marcus Leith.
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A photographer who captures Black British life, an artist who works with industrial air conditioners and a mixed-media practitioner who made his mother the star of a show are among 10 artists being given grants of 10,000 pounds each (about $12,500) as a replacement for this years Turner Prize. The prize, perhaps Britains most prestigious art accolade, is usually awarded each December after an exhibition displaying the work of four shortlisted artists. This years edition was canceled in May because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Tate Britain, its organizers, asked the jury to select artists to receive grants instead. Gallery closures and social distancing measures are vitally important, but they are also causing huge disruption to the lives and livelihoods of artists, Alex Farquharson, the director of Tate Britain, said in a statement at the time. He said that J.M.W. ... More | | 
Gallery 32 After Refurbishment © The National Gallery, London.
LONDON.- Room 32 the largest and one of the most visited rooms of the National Gallery displaying 17th-century Italian paintings by artists including Caravaggio, Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi, Guido Reni and Guercino will reopen with an enriched re-hang in July 2020 after a 21-month refurbishment project as The Julia and Hans Rausing Room. The purpose of this major renovation programme, made possible through the generous support of Julia and Hans Rausing, was to reinstate the original decorative scheme of its architect, Edward M Barry (18301880), as seen in Giuseppe Gabrielli's painting of 1886 (on loan from the Government Art Collection). The dark red wall cloth, ornate painted frieze and lunettes, whose designs alternate winged lions with dolphins, have all been reinstated according to the original colour scheme. Completely new air conditioning and lighting systems have also been installed. I ... More |
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| | Saroj Khan, choreographer of over 2,000 Bollywood songs, dies at 71 | | Outstanding Roman figures of Celtic Hounds at risk of export | | Can a new arts center revitalize Provincetown? | 
In this file photo taken on April 21, 2019 Indian Bollywood dance choreographer Saroj Khan attends the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Awards 2019 in Mumbai. Sujit JAISWAL / AFP.
by Udita Jhunjhunwala
MUMBAI (AFP).- Bollywood's first female choreographer Saroj Khan, whose sizzling dance routines breathed life into hundreds of films, died Friday, triggering further heartbreak in an industry already reeling from a string of recent deaths. Khan choreographed more than 2,000 numbers during a 40-year career that saw her work with superstars like Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor to create dazzling song-and-dance routines that are a distinctive feature of Hindi films. A spokeswoman for Guru Nanak hospital in Mumbai told AFP that Khan, 71, was admitted to the facility on Thursday evening after complaining of respiratory problems. She "was declared dead at approximately 2:30 am" after suffering cardiac arrest, the spokeswoman said. Born Nirmala Nagpal, she joined the industry as a child actor ... More | | 
Figures are valued at £2 million and thought to be more than 1,800 years old
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LONDON.- Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage has placed a temporary export bar on two marble figures of Celtic Hounds carved during the Roman period. The figures, thought to have been completed in the 2nd century AD, are one of two surviving sets from the period and have been valued at £2,000,000 plus VAT. They are at risk of being lost abroad unless a UK buyer can be found. The figures depict a male and female celtic hound and are made of white marble, possibly north Italian or Greek. The male hound is seated upright with his head tilted upwards, tail between his legs and wearing a studded collar. The female is seated and wearing a wide studded collar with her right foreleg raised. Parts of both figures bear signs of historic restoration in the 18th century. The figures are outstanding examples of ancient sculpture. The Committee noted the exceptional craftsmanship and remarkable, fine carving on the female figure. The inclusion of collars on both sculptures implies ... More | | 
The artist Erika Wastrom, a 13th-generation Cape Codder, in her studio in Barnstable, Mass., on June 24, 2020. Tony Luong/The New York Times.
by Brett Sokol
PROVINCETOWN (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- There was only one destination of choice for the literary set looking to leave New York City during the sweltering summer of 1916: Provincetown, at the outermost tip of Cape Cod. Once there, writers like John Reed and Louise Bryant, playwright Eugene ONeill, and an assorted cast of Greenwich Village radicals all converged on the sprawling 18th-century, eight-bedroom home of Mary Heaton Vorse, a celebrated labor reporter and the grande dame of the avant-garde. The goal of those heady salons? Free love and communism! quipped Ken Fulk, the new owner of the Vorse house. Yet rather than flipping the home after his $1.17 million purchase or dividing it into condos the fate of so many other antique buildings in this town where nearly 75% of the homes are ... More |
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| | Christie's to offer Nicolas de Staël's Place à Agrigente | | Seeing paradise from behind a dashboard | | Denmark's Little Mermaid vandalised | 
Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) Plage à Agrigente (detail). Painted in 1953. Estimate : 3,600,000-5,500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
PARIS.- Christies France will present Plage à Agrigente by Nicolas de Staël which will highlight the Parisian section of ONE: a Global Sale of the 20th Century. An exquisite work from one of Nicolas de Staëls most celebrated and important series, executed in the South of France in 1953 and unveiled at Paul Rosenberg's New York gallery in 1954, one of America's leading dealers in modern American art. Etienne Sallon, Specialist in charge of the sale: We are pleased to present this vibrant painting which highlight the Paris leg of the sale. After the new world auction record established last October for Parc des Princes, we are glad to present such a powerful painting paying a beautiful tribute to Nicolas de Staël once again. This seminal painting from one of the most iconic series for the artist is truly fantastic. It was one of the rare paintings selected by the artist to be part ... More | | 
A car enters the Bayshore-Sunrise Drive-In in Bay Shore, N.Y., May 28, 1955. Sam Falk/The New York Times.
by Peter Ramsey
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- I was probably 4 years old when we first went to the drive-in; this would have been in the late 1960s and my brother Eric was a year and a month younger than me. I vaguely remember being told earlier that day that we were going to the movies that night and spending that whole day antsy and excited, waiting for evening to fall, not really knowing what to expect. Drive-ins are relatively rare now, their numbers nothing like their peak at just over 4,000 across the country in the late 1950s. They flourished until the 80s, before being undone by the rise of indoor shopping malls and multiplex theaters, and have declined steadily until today, where there are about 300 left. But the closures are less frequent, and there are even new ones opening. Maybe its not a ... More | | 
A picture taken on July 3, 2020 shows a view of the "Little Mermaid" sculpture after it has been vandalised with stickers and racist graffiti in Copenhagen. Niels Christian Vilmann / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP.
COPENHAGEN (AFP).- The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, the city's most famous monument, was vandalised Friday but police and commentators were puzzled as to who might have done it and what their message really is. "We can confirm that The Little Mermaid has been vandalised some time before 9:00 am this morning," Copenhagen police said in a statement to AFP. "An unknown person has written the words 'Racist Fish' on it. We are investigating the case." The Little Mermaid, inspired by a character in Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairytale of the same name, is a 175-kilogram (385-pound) statue by sculptor Edvard Eriksen. The statue has been vandalised numerous times over the years, including when the mermaid's head was stolen in 1964 and 1998, as well as when ... More |
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| | Meem Gallery's summer exhibition looks at the last century of Egyptian sculpture | | Sir John Soane's Museum to reopen in Autumn 2020 | | The battle for Bollywood: virus, streaming apps spark fears for cinemas | 
Mahmoud Mokhtar (Egypt, 18911934). Au Bord Du Nil, between 1923 and 1932, bronze, 119 cm height.
DUBAI.- Sculpture has always featured prominently in the rich history of Egyptian material culture. Stylised human, animal and hybrid forms decorated the tombs of the Pharaonic elite, and monumental structures paid homage to their many gods and kings. Considering this remarkable heritage, much of it still extant, it is little wonder that a stylistic continuum exists in modern and contemporary Egyptian sculpture. This aesthetic legacy can be seen in the work of the Father of modern Egyptian sculpture, Mahmoud Mokhtar (b.1891 d.1934) whose revolutionary work seamlessly combined aspects of formalised pharaonic statuary with a modern European artistic sensibility. Forming a brand-new national aesthetic, Mokhtar is best known for his statuesque figures which are simultaneously robust and elegant. Embodying the noble peasant woman (fellaha) which was adopted as the symbol of Egypts 20th century revolutionary movement, the poised bronze figure of Au Bord Du Nil (At the Edge of the Nile) perform ... More | | 
Sir John Soanes Museum, the extraordinary house and museum of Regency architect Sir John Soane, is planning to reopen on 1 October 2020, with all necessary safeguards in place. Photo: Gareth Gardner.
LONDON.- Sir John Soanes Museum is looking forward to welcoming visitors through its doors once again from 1 October 2020, and is committed to ensuring their safety and wellbeing, as well as that of staff and volunteers. Due to the nature and layout of the Museum, a number of changes will be implemented upon opening. These include a one-way route around the collection, an initial reduction in opening hours to three days a week, and free timed ticketed entry bookable in advance only, with staff on hand to give information and guidance. Please see below for further details of the procedures that will be in place, in line with the latest Government guidelines. These measures will mean that visitors to the Soane Museum are able to enjoy exploring the house and museum of one of the foremost architects of the Regency era, and the collection of eccentrically-displayed paintings, sculpture, architectural ... More | | 
In this picture taken on June 18, 2020, a security guard sits at the entrance of a closed movie theatre complex due to a COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown in Mumbai. INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP.
by Udita Jhunjhunwala / Vishal Manve
MUMBAI (AFP).- A Bollywood actor's face tattooed on his arm, Sandeep Bacche's devotion shocks few in India where stars enjoy semi-divine status. But even here the hallowed silver screen may be losing its shine to streaming services and pandemic fears. "Whenever things get better and theatres begin operations, I will watch three movies a day for sure just as a way to celebrate," said the Mumbai rickshaw driver, who is recovering from the virus himself. But others may not join the party. With cinemas shut for months due to a coronavirus lockdown, and little prospect they will reopen soon, frustrated Bollywood producers have turned to the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar to release films online. "Gulabo Sitabo", starring Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, premiered on Amazon Prime last month. Other Hindi movies have followed a similar route, as ... More |
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An Avant-Garde Treasure-Trove from a Private Family Collection
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 The Momentary announces new visual arts projects and updates for 2020 exhibitionsBENTONVILLE, ARK.- The Momentary announces new visual arts projects by Iván Navarro and Christopher Myers, as well as an updated schedule for the upcoming exhibition Nick Cave: Until, all free for the public to experience. The Momentary, a satellite contemporary art space to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, reopened to the public on June 10 after its temporary closure to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Momentary embraces stories of today with exhibitions and visual arts projects that examine the history of migration through water towers, explore place and identity with our ongoing Flag Project series, and question race relations and gun violence in America with the immersive exhibition Until, said Lauren Haynes, director of art initiatives and curator, contemporary art at Crystal Bridges and the Momentary. Until ... More Michael Lapthorn announced as new Chief of Design at National Gallery of ArtWASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery of Art announced today the appointment of Michael Lapthorn as chief of design. Lapthorn is currently the exhibition designer at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), where he has been creating innovative installations and exhibition design since 2014. Prior to Mia, Lapthorn was an exhibition designer and manager at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for nine years. When Lapthorn begins his tenure on July 20, he will become the Gallery's third chief of design since the museum opened in 1941 and will succeed Mark Leithauser, who retired on July 1. "Through his critically acclaimed work at The Met and Mia, Michael has enlivened the experience of art for millions of museum visitors. I am thrilled that he is bringing his talents to the Gallery. His experience with a wide range of artfrom ancient to contemporary and ... More Thomas Del Mar to offer important arms & armour from prestigious collectionsLONDON.- Thomas Del Mar Ltds auction of Fine Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at Olympia Auctions, 25 Blythe Road, London W14 will include a fascinating selection of items from several important collections including a number of elements from the Spanish armoury of the Duke of Infantado. Among 13 lots from an Important Private Collection will be a Mid-16th Century 54 bore South German breech-loading self-spanning wheel-lock holster pistol, made in Augsburg and later part of the Collection of Lord Astor of Hever. As stated in the Hever catalogue of 1983, this pistol displays exceptional technical innovation for the period. It can be loaded at the breech with a removable cartridge that is complete with a pan, thus allowing the user to insert a preloaded and primed cartridge into the chamber. Furthermore it can be used as a self- ... More Turkey's Erdogan rejects criticism over Hagia Sophia landmarkISTANBUL (AFP).- Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday rejected criticism over his willingness to convert Istanbul's famed Hagia Sophia landmark into a mosque despite international and domestic concern. "Charges against our country over Hagia Sophia are a direct attack on our right to sovereignty," Erdogan said. Turkey's highest administrative court is considering whether the emblematic site and former cathedral can be redesignated as a mosque, prompting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday to urge Turkey to keep the site in its current status as a museum. The Council of State convened on Thursday to evaluate the case brought by an association to change the museum's status. The court, known as Danistay in Turkish, must announce its decision within 15 days. Hagia Sophia was first constructed as a cathedral ... More The NYUAD Art Gallery announces next exhibition archive event, Permanent TemporarinessABU DHABI.- The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery will launch its fourth digital archive, Permanent Temporariness, as part of its TRACE: Archives and Reunions, on Tuesday, July 7. First shown in February 2018 at The NYUAD Art Gallery, Permanent Temporariness was curated by Arab art historian and NYUAD faculty Salwa Mikdadi and The NYUAD Art Gallerys former curator Bana Kattan. This marked the first institutional retrospective of the pathbreaking conceptual artists/architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti. For this special TRACE event, artists Hilal and Petti will reunite with Mikdadi, Kattan, and Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery Maya Allison, to trace the exhibition from the origins of the various installations, to their re-staging at The NYUAD Art Gallery in 2018, to the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 2019. Taking place ... More Rental Gallery opens "Friend of Ours"EAST HAMPTON, NY.- Rental Gallery presents Friend of Ours, a group exhibition organized by Benjamin Godsill and Joel Mesler, on view by appointment only from July 4th - July 30th, 2020. Friend of Ours presents leading contemporary artists who bend reality in such a way as to make the viewer question their own lying eyes. Who even knows what is real anymore? Beyond any pedestrian sense of fake news, we drift in an epoch wherein no one seems to agree on any basic premise. Everything we look at is presumed to have always already been face-tuned and photoshopped, and when our brains attempt to decode art objects they are filtered through our presumption that they have been fixed in post. Using a variety of strategies, all of the artists included in Friend of Ours complicate the reading of reality. Many of the artists in the exhibition ... More Heritage Auctions sells J.C. Leyendecker's New Year's Baby Hitching to War for $275,000DALLAS, TX.- It was meant to be Joseph Christian Leyendeckers final cover for The Saturday Evening Post the illustrators iconic New Years Baby, dressed only in a diaper and a soldiers garrison cap, thumbing his way to the front as World War II raged on. But the 1943 painting never made its way to the magazine or to the publics view. Not until Heritage Auctions American Art event on Wednesday. The entirety of the sale realized more than $6 million. And the fact that New Year's Baby Hitching to War sold for $275,000 or more than 4.5 times its pre-auction estimate should not surprise; nor that it merited a spirited round of bidding from clients online and over the phone; nor that this was the fifth-highest price paid for a J.C. Leyendecker work. After all, it was done by the hand of the man whose red, rotund Santa Claus became one of the 20th ... More SmithDavidson Gallery in Amsterdam exhibits with Zhuang Hong YiAMSTERDAM.- After Miami and Mexico City, SmithDavidson Gallery in Amsterdam presents a new solo exhibition of Zhuang Hong Yi from July 3rd until September 5th, 2020. The gallery celebrates 10 years of collaboration with the Chinese artist. The exhibition 'In Bloom' shows a colorful selection of floral landscapes and collage paintings with prominent use of origami rice paper. Zhuang Hong Yi is currently one of the most celebrated international Chinese artists. He experiments with medium, technique, scale and above all with color. His work is sometimes bold and expressive, at other times delicate and impressionistic. The artist mostly works three dimensional and always layered with color and meaning. The optical illusions in his illuminating use of paint make the canvas shimmer like a rising sun, while the changing colors in the 'Flowerbed' series are ... More The music industry is wrestling with race. Here's what it has promised.NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Whats the fastest way to put music industry money into the hands of its Black creators? A small Swedish synthesizer manufacturer has a plan. Teenage Engineering, which makes sleekly designed, retro-sounding machines adored by dance-music producers, will soon begin sharing sales revenue with a set of Black musicians and other artists of color in the United States in recognition of their role in popularizing the companys products. This is not charity, Emmy Parker, the companys chief brand officer, said in an interview. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is also good for our business. The nationwide soul-searching in the wake of George Floyds death has been felt with particular acuteness in the music industry, which owes much of its wealth to the work of Black artists but has just a handful of Black ... More Marianne Boesky Gallery exhibits Donald Moffett's 'Aluminum / White House Unmoored, 2004'ASPEN, CO.- Marianne Boesky Gallery, in conjunction with artist Donald Moffett, is showing Aluminum / White House Unmoored, 2004. The work is on view in the second floor gallery space from July 2 through September 13, 2020, at Marianne Boeskys location in Aspen, Colorado. Additionally, Aluminum / White House Unmoored has been included in an online viewing room to supplement the exhibition, available to view on the gallerys website. Aluminum / White House Unmoored is the central work from Moffetts D.C. series, in which the artist projected handheld video of the capitals landmarks and symbols onto silver extruded oil painting in this case, a flickering disembodied seat of ultimate power. Here, the White Houses familiar image takes on a haunting presence and surveillance-like appearance as it comes in and out of focus on the ... More Grayson Perry, Aida Muluneh and Russell Tovey invite artists to join WaterAid's Covid-19 campaignLONDON.- Artists Grayson Perry and Jean Jullien, photographer Aida Muluneh, and actor Russell Tovey are rallying support for WaterAids new campaign, Art of Change, which calls for clean water and hygiene for everyone everywhere. Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of diseases like coronavirus, yet three billion people worldwide have nowhere to wash their hands with soap and clean water at home, and one in four health centres lack these basic facilities on site, putting lives at risk. WaterAid is inviting artists to help address this injustice by using their creative skills as a force for good, producing inspiring and thought-provoking work linked to the theme of water and health to drive change and help transform lives. Amateur and professional artists can ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, photographer Erwin Blumenfeld died July 04, 1969. Erwin Blumenfeld (26 January 1897 - 4 July 1969) was an American photographer of German origin. He was born in Berlin, and in 1941 emigrated to the United States, where he soon became a successful and well-paid fashion photographer, working as a free-lancer for Harper's Bazaar, Life and American Vogue. His personal photographic work showed the influence of Dadaism and Surrealism; his two main areas of interest were death and women. He was expert in laboratory work, and experimented with photographic techniques such as distortion, multiple exposure, photo-montage and solarisation. In this image: Self Portrait c. 1930. © 2020 Yvette Blumenfeld Georges Deeton.
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