| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Saturday, July 16, 2022 |
| | Barbara Kruger: A way with words | |
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A view of Barbara Krugers vertiginous, loquacious new installation that engulfs the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, July 12, 2022. The activist-artist is back with two immersive shows, at MoMA and David Zwirner Gallery. Charlie Rubin/The New York Times.
by Roberta Smith
NEW YORK, NY.- Barbara Kruger has changed the way the world looks its visual language, including art, advertising and graphic design. She has been less successful in changing the way the world works, especially regarding gender injustices the oppression of women in its infinite variety, the dominance of men (ditto) and such plagues as war, consumerism and poverty. But that is surely not for lack of trying. Since the late 1980s, Kruger has parlayed her skills as an artist, feminist, writer and graphic designer into some of the most memorable, and resonant, public artworks of her era. Right now, the intensity of her efforts can be seen in two immersive displays in Manhattan: a large installation piece titled Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. that wraps the Museum of Modern Arts vast Marron Family Atrium floor and walls in language, and a battalion of individual pieces filling the spacious 19th Street galleries of David Zwirner, who started repr ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The National Maritime Museum Cornwall opened its new temporary exhibition: British Tattoo Art: Reclaiming the Narrative, which will run in Falmouth until 16th April, 2023. Featuring 14 pieces of newly commissioned work created by 14 Black and POC tattoo artists, all working in the UK today, these new artworks represent a celebration of contemporary tattoo art on Black and brown skin.
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| Bonhams Skinner announces major Americana auctions | | Exhibition looks at the future we now occupy through the bold, sharp and humorous lens of major contemporary artists | | Gagosian Gstaad opens a group exhibition of painting, drawing, and sculpture | 
A. Elmer Crowell, Carved and Painted Miniature Golden Pheasant, East Harwich, Massachusetts. Estimate: $4,000-6,000.
MARLBOROUGH, MASS.- Bonhams Skinnerannounced two upcoming auctions of Americana this August. An eclectic range of historical American antiques will feature across both sales, including museum-worthy items from early and influential collectors associated with several New England institutions and The Rushlight Club. An online auction, taking place August 6 to 16 will be accompanied by a live sale on August 13 in Bonhams Skinners Marlborough galleries. A selection of exceptional items from pioneer collectors and preservationists Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Littles son, Warren and his wife Jeans collection, will be included in the auction. Highlights from the collection include A relief-carved double-sided portrait of Gen. George Washington by architect and craftsman Samuel Macintire (est. $60,000-80,000). This remarkable plaque offers ... More | | 
Kenny Schachter, Corona Nurse, 2021.
BOURNEMOUTH.- GIANT presents FOREVER: CHANGED, an exhibition that looks at the future we now occupy through the bold, sharp and sometimes humorous lens of major contemporary artists working across a variety of disciplines. FOREVER: CHANGED runs at GIANT Gallery 16 July 16 October 2022. The exhibition questions a future that we currently inhabit, and it contrasts this with the utopian projections made by early post-war artists. Rather than celebrating or critiquing the current moment, today's artists find themselves within mass culture itself. In a moment of ultra-hybridity, we see artists re-purposing existing materials, images, words, and technologies. Authorship is eroded and challenged, artists themselves are the celebrity, and through new technologies, everyone is an artist. This future is a collage of ideas, failings and contrasting perspectives, which we observe here in the works of: Fabio Lattanzi Antinori; Ron Arad; Sarah Hardacre ... More | | 
Louise Bonnet, Untitled, 2022. Colored pencil on paper, 17 x 14 in. 43.2 x 35.6 cm © Louise Bonnet. Photo: Ed Mumford. Courtesy Gagosian.
NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian Gstaad announces Swiss Made: From Ferdinand Hodler to Urs Fischer, a group exhibition of painting, drawing, and sculpture by modern and contemporary Swiss artists, and figures associated with art brut. Swiss Made was inspired in part by Visionary Switzerland, a traveling exhibition curated by Harald Szeemann in 1992 for Kunsthaus Zürich. Szeemann framed his selection of work by iconoclastic artists in conscious opposition to the reductive notion of a Swiss national aesthetic, contradicting the widespread perception of Switzerland as a country without a history. The exhibition underscored the continuing influence of Constructivism and explored the legacy of the art brut tendency first identified and promoted by Jean Dubuffet in 1947. Similarly, Swiss Made integrates the modern and the contemporary, ... More |
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| Phillips auction house expands West Coast presence with new gallery space in Los Angeles | | Jerome M. Eisenberg, expert on antiquities both real and fake, dies at 92 | | Computers and painting's identity crisis | 
Rendering of Phillips Los Angeles, Located at 9041 Nemo Street. Courtesy Formation Association.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Following a record-breaking season, Phillips auction house is proud to announce the opening of its first Los Angeles gallery space as part of the companys continued global expansion and commitment to the West Coast region. Phillips Los Angeles, the new West Hollywood outpost, will be located at 9041 Nemo Street, in the heart of Los Angeles art and culture scene, reaffirming the importance of the West Coast in the global marketplace. Set to open in October 2022, Phillips Los Angeles will host exhibitions devoted to traveling highlights from auctions in New York, London, Hong Kong and Geneva, as well as private selling exhibitions specifically curated for the space, panel discussions, and events. Over the past six years, Phillips has invested significantly in the area, having assembled the most experienced team of specialists in LA across the auction industry, including Blake Koh, Regional Director, Los Angeles; Rebekah Bo ... More | | 
He saw himself as a leader in promoting the ethical acquisition of ancient art by museums and collectors, although he also called himself both an idealist and a hypocrite.
by Sam Roberts
NEW YORK, NY.- Jerome M. Eisenberg, a leading New York antiquities dealer who in the murky world of tomb raiders and smugglers held himself up as a guardian against the illegal importation and sale of ancient art, died July 6, his 92nd birthday, in Manhattan. His son, Alan, said his death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of pneumonia. Eisenberg started a mail-order ancient coin business with his father when he was 12, and over the years he sold an estimated 40,000 ancient artifacts he insisted that he never knowingly sold any that were of suspect provenance and appraised countless others for prospective buyers and insurance adjusters. He testified as an expert witness in numerous lawsuits on the value and source of antiquities. As the founding ... More | | 
Jessica Wilsons Perfectly Clear, 2022, UV pigment on Dibond. Wilson, in a 3-D rendering of a squeegee at Nahmad Contemporary in Manhattan, shows a way forward for painting beyond the brush. Jessica Wilson and Kai Matsumiya Gallery, New York; Tom Powel Imaging via The New York Times.
by Travis Diehl
NEW YORK, NY.- Every new generation of artists, curators, and critics seems to feel the need to defend painting. It makes sense: paint on canvas, good for little else, is basically synonymous with big-A Art. Painting stands for arts angels and demons, its optimism and attention, its arrogance and solipsism. The Painters New Tools at Nahmad Contemporary in Manhattan showcases just how far contemporary artists have pushed new media without leaving the safety of whats legible as art. Gathering 57 works by 31 creators, its curators Eleanor Cayre and Dean Kissick assert that new technologies have irrevocably redefined what it means to paint, while maintaining that painting remains ... More |
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| Auberge du Soleil resort unveils latest art, "L'Esprit du Soleil" by Gordon Huether | | Kunsthaus Bregenz opens an exhibition of works by Jordan Wolfson | | A photographer follows Paul Revere Williams into the west | 
LEsprit du Soleil artwork by Gordon Huether at Auberge du Soleil resort. Photographer: Mariana Calderon.
RUTHERFORD, CALIF.- Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valleys quintessential adult getaway, and renowned local artist, Gordon Huether, today unveiled LEsprit du Soleil (The Spirit of the Sun), a commissioned multi-panel art piece designed especially for the newly remodeled entrance to the award-winning hotel and its Michelin Star Restaurant. The work features 12 individually crafted abstract suns, installed in two contiguous five panel rows, with each panel crafted in a distinctly different color. The vibrant colors convey life, vitality and the abundant natural beauty that can be found in the Napa Valley. LEsprit du Soleil becomes the most prominent permanent piece added to the propertys extensive collection on display in public areas and throughout the private outdoor sculpture garden featuring over 100 works by 60 California artists. Creating a statement piece of art made specifically for the entrance of the property is something weve wanted to do for y ... More | | 
Jordan Wolfson, Untitled, 2022. Installation view, second floor Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2022. Photo: Markus Tretter. Courtesy Jordan Wolfson Studio and The George Economou Collection © Jordan Wolfson, Kunsthaus Bregenz.
BREGENZ.- Jordan Wolfson is known for powerful and unsettling works in a range of media and formats that interrogate the conditions of art, technology, and mass media in contemporary life. Wolfson commandeers his motifs from the gaming industry, internet clips, comic strips, and facial recognition software. His works are anything but accommodating, his questions discomforting. How are imagery and information processed? How do technologies infiltrate our thoughts and perceptions? What is our approach to such issues as sexism, racism, and homophobia? What are our fears doing to us? In one of his works visitors find themselves in a virtual world, where skyscrapers soar beside them, as cars and yellow taxis pass along one of New Yorks grand avenues. Street noise reverberates; it is everyday life in the big city. The 3D video is compelling alone in its uncanny proximity to reality. But a ... More | | 
The architects achievements transformed the landscape of Nevada but were obscured by racism. Janna Irelands exhibition changes that.
NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Revere Williams came by his nickname architect to the stars over a career that saw his designs dot the wealthiest enclaves of Southern California, leaving a silver-screen-size impact during the decades coinciding with Hollywoods golden era. He created homes for Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, among others, and helped erect elegant municipal, federal and commercial developments as far afield as Washington, D.C. In two bestselling books, he championed affordable housing for a new generation of homeowners. But in those same decades racial discrimination and prejudice were still so unrelenting that many enamored of Williams achievements were unaware that he was Black, and his life and legacy, consigned to segregated professional and social worlds, were long obscured. That is no longer the case, as Hollywoods elite from Hancock Park to Beverly Hills scramble for ... More |
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| Exhibition presents perspectives from BIPOC photographers in Portland from the Black Lives Matter protests | | Zeit Contemporary Art presents works by Andy Warhol & Keith Haring at Hamptons Fine Art Fair | | Heidi Bucher Metamorphoses II opens at Muzeum Susch | 
Emery Barnes, Jive, 2020, pigment print, courtesy of the artist, ©Emery Barnes.
PORTLAND, ORE.- This summer, the Portland Art Museum presents a special exhibition of more than 60 works by local BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) photographers made during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Perspectives features work by artists Emery Barnes, Joseph Blake, Linneas Boland-Godbey, David (Daveed) Jacobo, Mariah Harris, and Byron Merritt. Coordinated by Julia Dolan, Ph.D., the Portland Art Museums Minor White Curator of Photography, the exhibition opens July 16, 2022, and will be on view through November 13. During the summer of 2020, Portland Art Museum staff received requests from community members seeking to preserve the plywood window coverings from downtown businesses that had been painted with memorials to Black people killed by police. A similar appeal arrived via email on June 27, 2020could the Museum recognize the important work of six Black and Indigenous Portlanders who were photographing th ... More | | 
Andy Warhol, Candy Box, 1980. Synthetic polymer paint, silkscreen ink and diamond dust on canvas, 14 x 11 in (35.6 x 27.9 cm) Titled, dated, dedicated, and signed by the artist in black felt-tip marker on the overlap.
SOUTHAMPTON, NY.- Through July 17th, visit Zeit Contemporary Art's curated booth focusing on Andy Warhol and Keith Haring at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair in Southampton, NY. A preview of the presentation is available online. The presentation includes paintings, screenprints and photographs. Amongst the work on display is the complete portfolio Icons created by Keith Haring in 1990, his final masterpiece in printmaking just before his untimely passing. Harings Icons is a series of five screenprints with embossing depicting seemingly unrelated characters reflecting on issues related to life, death, greed, and innocence. While the images each tell their own story individually, together they reflect on the entirety of the human experience, reading as a reflective farewell from Haring himself. Pop Shop IV (1989) is another one of Harings complete suites on display by ... More | | 
Heidi Bucher in her Zurich studio, Borg, with the soft objects Anna Mannheimer with Target, 1975, and The Fish Sleeps, 1975, on the walls and clothes spread out on the floor to be embalmed, circa 1975.
SUSCH.- Running from 16 July to 4 December, Metamorphoses II at Muzeum Susch mixes newly rediscovered and restored filmic material of Swiss artist Heidi Buchers (1926, Winterthur 1993, Brunnen) practice together with sculptural installations and works on paper. Dedicated to revising a matrilineal art historical canon, Muzeum Susch opens a dialogue to consider Buchers practice through the lens of performance for the first time in her native country. The exhibition presents over 70 key works across the artists practice from her early wearable and danceable Bodyshells created in the early 1970s in the United States to her characteristic works with latex from her time in Switzerland and late works made on Lanzerote. Bucher is best known for her skinnings, sculptural works created by layering latex and gauze onto largescale surfaces which were then arduously pulled off. Her performative use of the material culminated i ... More |
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An assemblage of familiar objects | Alfonso Ossorio | UNIQLO ARTSPEAKS
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| More News |
 Sarah Meyohas at Rockefeller CenterNEW YORK, NY.- Rockefeller Center presents artist Sarah Meyohass Dawn Chorus and Speculations at Top of the Rock Observation Deck. Top of the Rock ticket holders will have access to two presentations by Meyohas, both on display beginning July 15 through September 12. Dawn Chorus is an immersive and interactive, multi-sensory, augmented-reality experience that delights viewers with holographic birds fluttering around a physical Yamaha Disklavier player piano. These birds land on the piano initiating a chain reaction of audible phenomena. Birds are intrinsically related to music, so much so that we have come to call their communication bird song, and their seemingly choral singing at dawn the dawn chorus. By virtue of the way their feathers reflect light, some birds also manifest structural color, which refers to the most vivid colors ... More  Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art announces a gift from Nancy Chang LeeWASHINGTON, DC.- The National Museum of Asian Art has established the position of the Nancy Chang Lee Curator of Chinese Art, thanks to a gift from Nancy Lee, a member of the museums board of trustees. The gift will fully fund a range of costs associated with the curatorial position, including research. This generous gift from Nancy Lee comes at a pivotal moment for our institution as we prepare for our centennial in 2023, said Chase F. Robinson, the museums Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art. One of our major goals is to welcome new and diverse audiences from around the world, both onsite and online. This position will generate additional opportunities to connect with audiences in China and across Asiaof key importance during this moment of unprecedented global interdependence. ... More  Marria Pratts pushes against the limits of her pictorial practice with an installationBARCELONA.- In her work, the artist Marria Pratts (Barcelona, 1988) takes apart the stereotypes of urban life, opening a path amidst the decadence of a decaying world to salvage its beauty. Her creative impulse is drawn from immediate content and developed through action. In her projects, discourses that are critical, irreverent and clamorous come into contact, with a hopeful gaze that is expressed through the use of colour and her spontaneous style. Pratts has an uninhibited way of overcoming creative rigidity, while safeguarding her own unique way of doing things. According to Pere Llobera, the exhibition curator, in her projects Pratts refers us to the exalted atmosphere that predominated in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in what proved to be a trying time that likewise brought with it new means of culture practice. Just like the youth of that ... More  Bidding farewell to his theatrical flockNEW YORK, NY.- The Tony Awards ceremony had just wrapped up at Radio City Music Hall, and it was time for the parties. But for one honoree, James C. Nicola, the longtime artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop, there would be no stop-off for toasts at the Plaza Hotel or after-midnight carousing at Tavern on the Green. Instead, he headed to a nearby parking garage and settled behind the wheel of a rental van for the 40-minute ride back to the dorms at Adelphi University on Long Island, where hed be sleeping that night. As far as he was concerned, there was no other choice: He had pickup duty at 10 a.m. for a group of young artists arriving by train for one of the summer workshops that have been a hallmark of his 34-year tenure at one of off-Broadways most beloved theaters. Its not those gatherings that led the Tony committee ... More  Exhibition to commemorate 200th anniversary of William Herschel's death opens in his former Bath homeBATH.- To commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Bath-based astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822), Bath Preservation Trust is hosting a major exhibition to highlight the hugely-important achievements and contributions he made to our understanding of space. The exhibition at the Herschel Museum of Astronomy - will take place in the very same building in central Bath, where William and his sister Caroline lived, worked and made several important discoveries during the late 1700s. Indeed, it was in the garden of 19 New King Street in 1781 that William Herschel became the first person ever to identify Uranus as a planet. The exhibition, organised in partnership with the Royal Astronomical Society and the Herschel family, will also bring collections to Bath for the first time and reveal the familys remarkable story through original artefacts. ... More  Ewbank's Designer Vintage Fashion auction pays tribute to Versace 25 years after his deathLONDON.- July 15 was the 25th anniversary of the tragic death Gianni Versace, the inspired fashion and interiors designer to the stars. The Italian-born icon, who was friends with Princess Diana, Elton John, Madonna and the leading supermodels of the day, remains a leading light in the pantheon of 20th century designers. His clothes are also highly sought-after among collectors of vintage fashion and textiles and the new head of this department at Ewbanks will pay tribute to Versace by offering a micro collection of his designs at her inaugural Vintage Fashion & Textiles auction on July 27. Elena Jackson is well known herself; a celebrated vintage fashion historian, writer, and costume designer with nearly forty years experience in the vintage clothing industry, she specialises in 1920s-80s pieces. As well as consulting with Ewbanks, ... More  Daata launches its first-ever membership NFTNEW YORK, NY.- Daata, the groundbreaking digital art incubator that curates, commissions, and sells all forms of digital art, announced today its latest initiative within the digital art and NFT space. On the heels of Daata's recently launched NFT marketplace, the company now offers a membership NFT, a limited edition of 500 by artist collective Keiken, known as the Daataverse Membership NFT. Were thrilled to debut the Daataverse Membership NFT, the next step in the evolution of our NFT platform, states David Gryn, Founder and Director of Daata. Its been terrific to be a part of the Web3 revolution and the explosion of the NFT market over the past year has brought attention to digital art, which weve championed since 2015. Were excited to continue to innovate and engage with our dedicated community of artists, collectors, ... More  Soprano withdraws from opera, citing 'blackface' in Netrebko's 'Aida'NEW YORK, NY.- A leading American soprano, Angel Blue, announced this week that she was withdrawing from her planned debut at the Arena di Verona in Italy to protest its use of blackface makeup in a production of Verdis Aida that starred Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. The use of blackface under any circumstances, artistic or otherwise, is a deeply misguided practice based on archaic theatrical traditions which have no place in modern society, Blue, a Black soprano with a growing international career, said in a statement on social media, adding that she would withdraw from her upcoming performances in La Traviata, another Verdi opera. It is offensive, humiliating and outright racist. Full stop. Many leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, have only recently stopped the practice of having white singers darken ... More  After 350 years of tradition, a boys' choir now admits girlsCAMBRIDGE.- At 8 a.m. one recent Thursday, the boys of the Choir of St. Johns College, Cambridge, stifled yawns as they began their first rehearsal of the day with some vocal exercises. Soon, the room was filled with a host of Ooo and Zah sounds. Once the choir was warmed up, Andrew Nethsingha, its music director, called upon boy after boy to sing a couple of lines of a psalm solo. Then, Nethsingha did something none of his predecessors had, in the choirs 350-year history: He called upon a girl to sing. Amelia Crichton-Stuart, 10, quickly pushed her glasses up her nose and sang, high and pure, two lines about how Gods right hand is full of righteousness. Very good, Nethsingha said, with a smile. After one of the other choristers pointed out that Amelia had sung one word incorrectly, not lengthening it as in the notation, Nethsingha said ... More  In 'Sex, Grift and Death,' one-acts that test perceptionsNEW YORK, NY.- Two strangers on a park bench by the beach, partnering in a vicious dance of seduction. A woman from a family of swindlers, lying her way through dates with a wealthy new beau. Mourners at a funeral, and the deceased man himself, facing the frightening notion of the future and the afterlife. These scenarios, explored in three short, wily plays Lunch (1983), by Steven Berkoff, and Hot Fudge (1989) and Here We Go (2015), by Caryl Churchill create a triptych about the ways we love, lie or steal, and how we may act when the realities of the world dont suit our expectations. Produced by PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), the one-acts are being staged together at Atlantic Stage 2, where they recently opened under the title Sex, Grift and Death. In the first play, Lunch, directed by Richard Romagnoli for this ... More  Nikola Tesla letter sold for $51,651 at auctionBOSTON, MASS.- A Nikola Tesla letter signed by the celebrated innovator sold for $51,651 according to Boston-based RR Auction. In the four-page letter on personal monogram letterhead, dated July 14, 1899. Handwritten letter to Rear Admiral Francis J. Higginson by Nikola Tesla, penned from his "Colorado Springs Experimental Station." Tesla insists his wireless technology is superior to Marconi's: "I am now looking with full confidence to the establishment of a communication with the European continent." Tesla alludes to his rivalry with Marconi in this significant letter, asserting that he has now perfected novel methods superior to those previously promulgated by himself and others. Marconi was his chief competitor in this area at the time. Further, his inquiry about the ship's power supply, whether "direct or alternating," is noteworthy as a question ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Brandywine Workshop @ Harvard Museums 
Set It Off 
Frank Brangwyn: 
Marley Freeman
Flashback On a day like today, English painter Joshua Reynolds was born July 16, 1723. Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 - 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th Century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. In this image: Portrait of Dr John Ash' by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1788) Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
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