| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Saturday, March 21, 2020 |
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| | America's big museums on the hot seat | |
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"Welcoming the Newcomers," left, a 2019 acrylic on canvas by Kent Monkman, is displayed in the Great Hall at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Dec. 17, 2019. As the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston commemorate their 150th birthdays in a state of heightened scrutiny, our critic offers a five-point plan to save the souls of our venerable institutions. Aaron Wynia/The New York Times.
by Holland Cotter
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Two of this countrys largest and oldest encyclopedic museums the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York turn 150 this year. With both now shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, this is an opportune moment for them and other big, traditionalist museums in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere to take stock of themselves, and for us to acknowledge their virtues but also to consider the reasons behind the present turbulent state of the art institutional soul. I spent stretches of my childhood in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and have clocked up an inordinate amount of adult time in the Met. I treasure these places and their equivalents across the globe. From their vast collections of art and artifacts, Ive learned a lot of what I know about art, which means a lot of what I know about history, and a lot of what I know about myself. Im someone, it seems, who responds to certain kinds of ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A view of the temporarily closed Guggenheim Museum as the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States on March 20, 2020 in New York City. The World Health Organization declared coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic on March 11th. Cindy Ord/Getty Images/AFP
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 | | The British Museum sees surge in online visitors as museums across the world close their doors | | Romare Bearden's rarely seen abstract side | | Postponed galas imperil more than boldface names | 
Collections Online allows visitors to search over four million object records online.
LONDON.- The number of visitors to the British Museum website has doubled in the past two and a half weeks, when the coronavirus crises began to accelerate and museums across the globe were forced to close. For the period 1 March to 18 March 2020 978,548 users visited britishmuseum.org, up from 472,890 in the same period last year. The majority of this increase has occurred in the past 7 days. The top country in terms of online visitors in March is Italy, up from fourth in January and fifth in February 2020. Visits from this country have increased more than 10-fold: from 16,672 in the whole of February, to 203,250 so far in March. This period coincides with Italys stricter measures to stay at home to tackle the pandemic. As museums have shut across Europe over the past week, there has also been a big spike in interest in the Museums online content and virtual tours. Virtual tours is this month ... More | | 
Romare Bearden, Firefly, 1962. Oil, casein, and colored pencil on canvas, cut and mounted on painted board, 46 x 39 11/16 inches. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.
by Roberta Smith
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- An unfamiliar side of the work of the great American modernist Romare Bearden is the subject of an exceptional exhibition on view (by appointment) and online at DC Moore Gallery: the improvisational abstract paintings he made from 1958 to around 1962. Bearden (1911-88) is best known for his indelible figurative collage depictions of African American life in all its quotidian richness, strength and struggle. These efforts, arguably his greatest, even took some artistic revenge. Made of fragments of cutup magazine images, their angular figures and faces in particular pushed cubism back toward its primary source, African sculpture. Bearden developed his new collages in the early 1960s and unveiled them ... More | | 
Allison Eden and Gary Goldenstein sport disco-ball face masks at the opening reception party for "Studio 54: Night Magic" at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, March 11, 2020. Rebecca Smeyne/The New York Times.
by Ruth La Ferla
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Amy Gross had been looking forward to a party that would rival the luster of the Save Venice ball last year. A lavishly costumed affair that lit up the Plaza hotel in New York, it was seeded with social royalty and party fixtures including Lauren Santo Domingo, Princess Maria Olympia of Greece and Nicky Hilton Rothschild, each descending the grand staircase in cascades of organza and lace. What Ill miss is the food, the exquisite gowns and headpieces, and the beautiful people that bring so much energy and creativity to this city, said Gross, executive director of Save Venice, which supports the restoration of Venetian art treasures. She was lamenting the ... More |
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| | Boca Raton Museum of Art launches new online community initiatives | | Sotheby's shifts select March & April sales to online auctions | | France closes esplanades, lawns, river banks in virus lockdown | 
This series will provide art-oriented ways for people to creatively utilize their new free-time at home.
BOCA RATON, FLA.- Keep Kids Smart with ART and other online community art initiatives began Friday, March 20th. This free online series for parents at home with their kids, and family members of all ages, is from the Boca Raton Museum of Art. The Museum has always provided the community the added benefit of an Art School campus with an innovative art faculty, since its very beginnings in 1950. These art educators are using their expertise to develop online resources using the power of art. Also for seniors who are keeping social distance and who might feel isolated. This series will provide art-oriented ways for people to creatively utilize their new free-time at home. Online art lessons, tips for parents to use art-making and creativity with their kids at home, and activities for all ages. The resources on this landing page will evolve as time passes, as the art teachers receive feedback and reactions from families ... More | | 
Works from the Collection of Marc Jacobs: Jean Prouvé Pair of "Direction" Armchairs, Model No. 352, circa 1951, est. $20/30,000 from Design. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys today announced a selection of upcoming spring sales that will now be conducted as online auctions. Representing a mix of collecting categories, these sales spanning Design, Photographs, Prints & Multiples and Contemporary Art demonstrate the strength of Sothebys online auction program across the auction house's business. These changes reflect Sothebys commitment to providing their staff and clients with a safe environment, the requirements and goals of consignors and buyers, and Sotheby's responsibility to the international art market. Since launching in 2016, online sales have been a growing segment of Sothebys sales program. Sotheby's successfully held 129 dedicated online sales in 2019, spanning all manner of fine art and luxury objects. Those ... More | | 
Nice's famous Promenade des Anglais along the southern Mediterranean coast is pictured deserted. VALERY HACHE / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- French authorities on Friday closed esplanades, public lawns and the banks of the River Seine to amblers and sunseekers for the weekend as people continued flouting a nationwide lockdown seeking to halt coronavirus spread. The city of Nice closed its famous Promenade des Anglais along the southern Mediterranean coast, while Paris declared off limits the large lawns of the Champ-de-Mars and the Invalides museum as well as the banks of the River Seine, popular with casual strollers and bikers. The measures came as the government mulled expanding the two-week home confinement imposed on all residents in a bid to brake the epidemic that has seen more than 9,000 infected with the virus in France, and 372 deaths. French society has been in lockdown since midday Tuesday, with excursions from the home limited to buying food, visiting the doctor, ... More |
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| | Doriot Anthony Dwyer, flutist and orchestral pathbreaker, dies at 98 | | Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers to host a spring comic book & toy auction | | Lyle Waggoner, a tv star as actor and announcer, dies at 84 | 
Dwyer, a renowned flutist who broke down gender barriers with her appointment as principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1952, a post she held for nearly four decades, died. Boston Symphony Orchestra via The New York Times.
by Anthony Tommasini
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Doriot Anthony Dwyer, a renowned flutist who broke down gender barriers with her appointment as principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1952, a post she held for nearly four decades, died Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas, where she lived near her daughter. She was 98. Her death was announced by the Boston Symphony. Dwyer was only the second woman to win a principal chair with a major American orchestra, after Helen Kotas, the principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1941 until 1948. Dwyer was 30 when the vacancy in Boston was announced. After thorough training, she had accumulated extensive experience ranging from freelancing in an orchestra that went on tour with Frank Sinatra to playing ... More | | 
Bullmark Mirrorman Ultraman tin lithograph toy in the box, made in Japan circa 1978, graded C8.5+ for box and toy, a wonderfully preserved toy for the serious collector (est. 700-$1,000).
CRANSTON, RI.- Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, in concert with Altered Reality Entertainment and Travis Landry, Bruneau & Co.s Director or Pop Culture, will present a Spring Comic Book & Toy Auction on Saturday, April 4th, at 11 am Eastern time, online and in the Bruneau & Co. gallery at 63 Fourth Avenue in Cranston. More than 400 Pop Culture collectibles will be offered. The auction is loaded with hundreds of graded rare comic books, generous key book lots, many Marvel and D.C. comics and a great collection of tin key wind, friction and battery-op Japanese robots and tin toys. Some nice original comic art will also come up for bid. The very first lot is a 1999 Nintendo Game Boy Pokémon yellow sealed video game graded CAS 90 (est. $500-$800). Our first comic and toy auction of the year is always an exciting one, and this catalog is certainly going to drive collectors wild, Travis Landry said. First ... More | | 
Lyle Waggoner. Photo: ABC Studios.
by Daniel E. Slotnik
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Lyle Waggoner, the sable-haired heartthrob best remembered as the announcer and a comic performer in the early years of The Carol Burnett Show and for playing opposite Lynda Carter on the 1970s television versions of Wonder Woman, died Tuesday at his home in Westlake Village, California. He was 84. The cause was complications of cancer, his agent, Robert Malcolm, said. Waggoners dulcet voice, square jaw and muscular physique made him seem cut out to be a leading man. But his most recognizable parts were in support of others Burnett on her hit comedy-variety show, and Carter, who played Wonder Woman on ABC and then CBS in the 1970s. Waggoner started on The Carol Burnett Show when it began in 1967 and stayed with the program for seven seasons, going from eye-candy announcer to important player in an ensemble cast that also included Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, in addition to Burnett. ... More |
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| | Early coastal scene by landmark Australian painter goes five times over estimate at Ewbank's | | Russian theatre's solution to virus: an audience of one | | New, free 'Sculpting Lives' podcast series exploring British women sculptor | 
Haughton Forrest (Australian, 1826-1925). Cowes, Schooner and other ships in a Bay against a mountainous landscape. Signed H. Forrest, Cowes, 18??. 44cm x 75cm. Estimate £1,000-1,500 at Ewbanks Auctions on March 19. Sold for £7,800. Image courtesy of Ewbanks Auctions.
WOKING.- An early coastal scene of Tasmania has sold more than five times its top estimate at a UK auction. Haughton Forrests (1826-1925). Cowes, Schooner and other ships in a Bay against a mountainous landscape, sold to a bidder from New South Wales for £7,800 against an estimate of £1,000-1,500 at Ewbanks Auctions of Surrey. Forrest (1826-1925) was a significant figure in the history of Australia. When the six colonies of pre-Federation Australia chose the images for their first ever set of pictorial stamps, the authorities in Tasmania turned to Forrest, one of the first Western artists to capture the majesty of the countrys landscape on canvas. His painting Russell Falls, depicting a celebrated tiered cascade at the centre of Tasmania, was selected as ... More | | 
The Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre. Photo: D V S.
MOSCOW (AFP).- One of Russia's most distinguished opera and ballet companies has an innovative solution to prohibitions on public gatherings over the coronavirus: playing to an audience of one. The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, a Urals city company famed for its cutting-edge projects, said it would be launching the "One on One" performances from the end of March. "A full-fledged performance cannot happen without the participation of an audience," the company said in a statement. Each audience member will be chosen by lottery and will have to undergo a medical check before attending a performance, which will also be broadcast online. Principal stage director Marat Gatsalov called the project "without precedent in the history of theatre" and said the company felt it was important to continue to play to an audience, even if consists of only one person. "In the grand scheme of things, one spectator is the same as a full house," he said in the statement. ... More | | 
Barbara Hepworth in the carving yard in 1960. © Bowness.
LONDON.- Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow and Rana Begum - some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors. Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the 20th century (and before) to be very much a mans world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists. Now, a brand new, free to download (via iTunes) podcast series explores the lives and careers of these six women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in ground-breaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art. Each 45-minute episode takes a woman sculptor as its subject, exploring the art works, networks, connections and relationships of these artists. Every programme is recorded in places that are significant for these women their studios, as well as galleries ... More |
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Asian art at Clarke Auctioneers and Appraisers
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| | More News |
 Netflix commits $100 mn to help actors, crews thrown out of workStreaming television giant Netflix on Friday launched a $100 million fund to help actors and production crews endure the hit to paychecks caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The fund is meant to help offset hardship in the "creative community," with most of the money going to financially troubled workers on Netflix productions around the world, according to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. "This community has supported Netflix through the good times, and we want to help them through these hard times, especially while governments are still figuring out what economic support they will provide," Sarandos said in an online post. Netflix is in the process of figuring out details of how money from the fund will be distributed. The Silicon Valley-based company had already committed ... More Congolese music star Mabele dies of coronavirus PARIS (AFP).- Congolese music legend Aurlus Mabele has died in Paris of the coronavirus, his family and friends said Friday. "My father died this morning from the coronavirus, please honour his memory," his daughter rapper Liza Monet, said on Twitter. Claudy Siar, the presenter of Radio France International's "Couleurs Tropicales" Afro music programme, also paid tribute to the 67-year-old singer known as the "King of Soukous", a high-tempo modern variant of Congolese rumba. His former bandmate Mav Cacharel also mourned his loss on Facebook, paying tribute to a man who sold more than 10 million records and had a huge following across Africa. It is understood the singer died on Thursday shortly after being admitted to hospital. Born Aurelien Miatsonama, Mabele grew up in the Poto-Poto neighbourhood of Brazzaville, and broke through in the 1980s ... More Cirque du Soleil lays off most of its workforce over pandemicMONTREAL (AFP).- Cirque du Soleil announced Thursday it was temporarily laying off 4,679 employees -- 95 percent of its workforce -- as the coronavirus pandemic forced the circus to close all 44 of its shows worldwide. The layoffs were effective immediately, the Montreal-based company said in a statement. "As a result of the health crisis, cities and countries where the group performs have unanimously legislated the closure of public gatherings of more than 250 people," it said. "Consequently, the company was left with no other option but to call for an unprecedented halt in activity until the pandemic is controlled and its performers, employees and audience members are no longer at risk." The Cirque, however, will continue tour planning and ticket sales for shows later this year and in 2021. ... More Molly Brodak, poet and memoirist of her father's crimes, dies at 39NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Molly Brodak, a poet who chronicled the trauma she experienced as the child of a compulsive liar and bank robber in a critically acclaimed memoir, died March 8 near her home in Atlanta. She was 39. Her husband, Blake Butler, said the cause was suicide and that Brodak had a history of depression dating back to childhood. Before Brodak published Bandit: A Daughters Memoir in 2016, her poems appeared in publications like Granta, Guernica and Poetry and in a book, A Little Middle of the Night (2010), which won the Iowa Poetry Prize. Many of her poems were spare and mysterious. One of them, In the Morning, Before Anything Bad Happens, reads in part: I know there is a river somewhere, lit, fragrant, golden mist, all that, whose irrepressible birds cant believe their luck this morning and every morning. ... More Almine Rech presents an exhibition of works by Alexandre LenoirPARIS.- Alexandre Lenoir expresses himself exclusively through the medium of painting, which he uses to oscillate between realism and texture effects. He explores the visual relationship with his canvas head-on, but also views it as a conceptual tool, often questioning the legitimacy of his endeavour. Do I have the right to be a painter? Am I entitled to use and reuse this technique? How can a canvas exist? Must I create a balanced work? The answers have never appeared to him very clearly not that he really needs them, though, as his constant production has gradually allowed him to develop an intimate relationship with painting and his vision of what it means. Lenoirs canvases can take several months to come into existence, as he is always keen to fine-tune the effect, although some sections of the work may only have taken him a couple ... More Flamenco dancers who 'move between genders'NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A dancer in a long red dress stands alone in the darkness, facing away from the audience. A keening voice rings out and the dancers arms flutter slightly, as if awakened by its mournful sound. Eres una rosa, you are a rose, the singer intones. The dancers body sways slightly, as if gathering energy, before turning around in one swift motion. What the audience sees is both expected and unexpected: a flamenco dancer coifed and dressed in traditional style, fierce eyed, focused. But theres a twist: This dancer is a man Manuel Liñán, the creator and star of the show Viva! Flamenco being what it is a centuries-old music and dance that developed out of the collision of cultures in southern Spain what follows is as surprising as it is refreshing. A performance executed entirely in drag, by Liñán ... More Dancing with myself: Ballet stars stay on their toes in virus lockdownPARIS (AFP).- Ballet stars are determined they will not be bowed into playing the dying swan to the coronavirus. From using their sofas as a barre, keeping up their classes by video conference, or posting stretching tutorials on Instagram, dancers from some of the world's top companies are not letting the lay up caused by the virus erode the iron discipline they need to keep in peak physical form. The stars of the American Ballet Theatre Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside -- known for their jokey relationship -- have posted a video of them using a kitchen worktop as a stand-in barre, while Russian Vadim Muntagirov, a principal dancer of the Royal Ballet in London, has thrilled fans with a video of himself pirouetting in his living room. Others are giving still more humorous insights into their changed daily stay-at-home routines, with Iana Salenko, star of the ... More Jaynelle Hazard appointed Executive Director & Curator of the Greater Reston Arts CenterRESTON, VA.- The Board of Directors for the Greater Reston Arts Center today announced the appointment of Jaynelle Hazard as the Center's Executive Director & Curator. She will start on April 13. The appointment comes at an important time in the Centers nearly five decades, as it carves an identity as a compelling cultural destination along Metros Silver Line and grows its voice in the DC metropolitan regions cultural conversation and beyond. I intend to expand GRACE's already critically engaged practice by introducing new methods to advance scholarship; extend its reach in interdisciplinary experimentation of contemporary art and ideas; and engage audiences of all backgrounds and identities, Hazard said. With a curatorial foundation and leadership style rooted in care, I am excited to lead GRACE as a catalyst and generator by being ... More For this pianist, every album is an essayNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Pianist Vikingur Olafssons recording career could be described as a constant refusal to be pinned down. His debut on the Deutsche Grammophon label, in 2017, featured Philip Glass études, and he was encouraged to follow it with more minimalism. But Olafsson insisted on something else entirely: a winding album of Bach. Again, he was asked to record more of the same. And again, Olafsson, now 36, didnt. His third Deutsche Grammophon album Debussy Rameau, out March 27 is similar to his Bach in its sprawling ambition. But its new in its juxtapositional structure. The albums 28 tracks, which include a tender transcription by Olafsson from Rameaus opera Les Boréades, are a dual portrait and an experimental colloquy, exploring what these two composers share across centuries: pathbreaking individualism, ... More An opera singer goes from tenor to soprano, and her career takes offMAR DEL PLATA (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It had become unbearably dissonant. MarÃa Castillo de Lima, a singer at Argentinas premier opera house, had turned what began as a drag persona into a permanent identity in 2014. But onstage at the Colón Theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she holds a coveted role in the permanent choir, Castillo was expected to belt out notes in the tenor range she had auditioned for in 2010. I was still a tenor, which generated a certain amount of distress, having to rehearse alongside men, Castillo said. Considering I was a woman, on paper and in reality, it created a contradiction. For years, no one at the theater seemed inclined to address that incongruity. While transgender people in Argentina have enjoyed broad legal protections from discrimination since 2012, there was no precedent at the Colón Theater ... More Digital programme: 'Dispatches' from Hauser & Wirth, launches this weekendNEW YORK, NY.- As museums, galleries and cultural institutions close around the world, Hauser & Wirth is launching a new digital programme Dispatches a homespun series of original video and online features and events that connects audiences with artists and creates opportunities for learning and engagement online. Experimenting with new formats, the programme is designed to help us all connect in creative ways and share experiences and artistic viewpoints from around the world. Here are some highlights from the programme: · Live events: Join Turner-Prize winning artist Martin Creed for an Instagram gig this Saturday evening; 21 March broadcast live on @hauserwirth · 'From A Distance': Hauser & Wirth artists share filmed messages and studio visits, launching with Avery Singers artist studio challenge inviting artists to show ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, German-American painter Hans Hofmann was born March 21, 1880. Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 - February 17, 1966) was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter. Hofmann's art work is distinguished by a rigorous concern with pictorial structure, spatial illusion, and color relationships. He was also heavily influenced in his later years by Henri Matisse's ideas about color and form. In this image: Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings.
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