| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Saturday, May 7, 2022 |
| | The Chrysler Museum of Art presents the work of M.C. Escher in spring exhibition | |
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Installation view. Photograph by Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer.
NORFOLK, VA.- The Chrysler Museum of Art brings the mesmerizing work of the renowned M.C. Escher to Norfolk. M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations, on view April 15Aug. 28, spans the Dutch artists entire career with more than 150 works from the collection of Paul and Belinda Firos of Athens, Greece. Although Escher was the modern periods most well-known graphic artist, he once puzzled an interviewer by referring to himself as a mathematician rather than an artist. Eschers fascination with mathematical theory motivated him to produce imagery that constantly challenged notions of reality and its underlying structures. The Chryslers comprehensive exhibition will chronicle his journey as one of the worlds most recognized artists by presenting the full range of media in which he worked. Visitors will see woodcuts, lithographs, etchings and even a lithography stone. Among the objects are some of his most iconic pieces, i ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Modern Art is presenting a solo exhibition of new work by Ricky Swallow at its Bury Street gallery. This is Swallowâs fifth solo exhibition with Modern Art. Ricky Swallowâs sculptures begin with ordinary, domestic materials that are then cast in bronze to create carefully honed final objects.
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| At the Tefaf Fair, modern masters and the self-taught variety | | Statue of star Native American ballerina is stolen and sold for scrap | | She put the Met on the map for contemporary art. Now she's moving on. | 
Carmen Herrera, Kyoto (Green), 1996/2016. Acrylic and aluminum, 106.7 x 101.6 x 12.7 cm. Photo: Lisson Gallery.
by Martha Schwendener
NEW YORK, NY.- Tefaf New York returns to the Park Avenue Armory this year for the first time since the fall of 2019. The august art fair started in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and is often billed as 7,000 years of art. This is the place where you can pick up deaccessioned museum pieces or add one to your own museum. The current fair doesnt focus on European old masters, which is one of Tefafs specialties. However, there is plenty of blue-chip modern and contemporary painting, sculpture and design. Unlike most fairs, this one also has vetters: expert curators and conservators who analyze the works, authenticating them, but also assessing the quality. In other words, when a dealer tells you something is rare or one of the only examples of a particular type, they have backup. The current fair includes 91 galleries from 14 countries, with 13 new galleries participating in this edition. Here are a few standouts. Some booths are set up as mini-exhibit ... More | | 
The Tulsa, Okla., police are looking for whoever cut down and sold parts of a statue of Marjorie Tallchief, a celebrated performer who died last year. Photo: Tulsa Police Department.
by Alyssa Lukpat
NEW YORK, NY.- At the end of a row of statues in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Marjorie Tallchief, a celebrated Native American ballerina, had stood ensconced in bronze, en pointe in a tutu, since 2007. But on Friday, her statue, on the grounds of the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum, was cut down from its base, hacked apart and sold for cash, said Michelle Place, executive director of the museum. Its just a gut punch, Place said. On Monday, Place said, employees at a local recycling center found pieces of Tallchiefs statue, including parts of the torso, tutu and legs. They called police. The Tulsa Police Department said in a statement that it was investigating the theft but did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls Monday. Place said that when five sculptures, including Tallchiefs, were installed in 2007, they were valued at $120,000 combined. Someone sold parts of Tallchiefs statue at a recycling center for $266, which paid for the bronze pieces by ... More | | 
Sheena Wagstaff, who spent nearly a decade as the Metropolitan Museum of Arts chair of modern and contemporary art. Daniel Dorsa via The New York Times.
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK, NY.- Sheena Wagstaff would often visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1980s when she was an arts student, seeking refuge among the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Asian art department. Her appointment in 2012 as the museums top curator of modern and contemporary art brought the most overshadowed department in Americas leading museum an acclaimed international exhibition program that included Kerry James Marshall, Gerhard Richter, David Hockney, Lygia Pape, Jack Whitten and Siah Armajani. Earlier this week, nearing her 10th year as chair of the department, Wagstaff announced to friends and employees by email that she would leave her position this summer after a difficult recovery from a coronavirus infection prompted her to take stock of her priorities beyond the museum. I had always wanted to work in an encyclopedic museum," Wagstaff, 65, said, adding, Its a bittersweet moment. Describing her mission ... More |
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| In Senegal's former capital, a colonial statue in hiding is no longer welcome | | Cate Blanchett and Cindy Sherman: Secrets of the camera chameleons | | In Lviv, a hidden work by a master is discovered | 
Louis Camara, a writer and researcher, in an abandoned room in his house in the deteriorating colonial district in Saint-Louis, Senegal, March 18, 2022. Carmen Abd Ali/The New York Times.
by Elian Peltier
SAINT-LOUIS.- For more than a century, the French general who shaped Senegals former capital was hailed as a hero and a father figure, his bronze statue triumphantly standing on a square that bore his name. Under his feet, carved into the stone of a massive pedestal, a message read: To its governor Faidherbe, Senegal is grateful. But as more Senegalese become aware of Louis Faidherbes ambivalent legacy, many are no longer so grateful. A general and an engineer, he was also a colonizer who in the 19th century led military expeditions that killed tens of thousands of people, burned villages and forced local leaders to surrender. Faidherbes statue was removed from Saint-Louis, a coastal city in Senegals north, in 2020 officially a temporary move after being toppled and sprayed with paint. While local officials dither over its fate, its whereabouts has remained ... More | | 
Cindy Sherman, left, and Cate Blanchett in New York, April 26, 2022. Camila Falquez/The New York Times.
by Melena Ryzik
NEW YORK, NY.- Cindy Sherman and Cate Blanchett had only met in passing, a few times. And yet there is an identifiable thread connecting the work of Sherman, the artist who (dis)appears, disguised in character, in her own photographs, and Blanchett, the protean and Oscar-winning Australian actress. On a gray morning in late April, the women, mutual admirers, convened at Hauser & Wirth gallery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where a collection of Shermans critically acclaimed early work opened Wednesday, and where they quickly forged a connection. Im a massive fan, said Blanchett, proving her adulation with detailed questions, both technical (does Sherman use a timer?) and philosophical (where does rhythm sit in photography?). Blanchett had whisked into town to receive an award from Film at Lincoln Center, before heading back to London, where she is filming Disclaimer, an Apple TV+ series directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Sherman was busy overseeing the e ... More | | 
A mural painted in the 1920s or 30s by Jan Henryk de Rosen at the former Church of St. Mary Magdalene, which is now a cultural center in Lviv, Ukraine, May 2, 2022. Finbarr O'Reilly/The New York Times.
by Jane Arraf
LVIV, UKRAINE.- For years, no one paid attention to the side wall of the former St. Mary Magdalene Catholic church in Lviv. It was, after all, the location of the toilets, where stained tiles covered layers of mold-encrusted plaster and paint from a Soviet renovation in the 1960s. But four years ago, the new management of a cultural center in what had been the church went looking in the midst of their own renovations for a rumored hidden artwork. After dismantling the restrooms and painstakingly removing layers of paint and plaster, a scarred, century-old masterpiece began to emerge a dramatic mural by Polish artist Jan Henryk de Rosen. This beautiful masterpiece was hidden for many, many decades, said Teras Demko, co-director of the Organ Hall, which has a concert hall for organ, chamber and symphonic music along with an art gallery. During the Soviet regime, they tried to hide all ... More |
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| At NADA, a glorious collision of paintings and ceramics | | An elegant return to form at Independent Art Fair | | In a nod to changing norms, Smithsonian adopts policy on ethical returns | 
Artwork on display at the Fierman+ Situations gallery at NADA New York. Jeenah Moon/The New York Times.
by Martha Schwendener
NEW YORK, NY.- Two things can be found everywhere at NADA New York in lower Manhattan: painting and ceramics. This makes sense, since the younger generation of digital natives (people who grew up with the internet and social media) that NADA generally features tend to favor art that is pointedly nondigital and handcrafted. But Im getting ahead of myself. First, NADA. The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) is a group of new and mostly young art dealers. This is the eighth edition of NADA New York (the last New York fair was in 2018, although they appeared in Miami last December). Eighty-one members are represented in this fair, with a total of 120 galleries and nonprofits from the U.S. and around the world. Younger dealers presumably take greater risks, and you see plenty of that here in tone and attitude, mostly. The work ranges from scruffy, comic and irreverent to smartly polished albeit with an edge. The last thing ... More | | 
Independent Art Fair is back and in fine form Will Heinrich writes in his review "and I found it more difficult than usual to make this standout list of only 10 picks".
NEW YORK, NY.- Independent Art Fair is back and in fine form. Returning to Tribecas stylish Spring Studios after a brief dalliance farther downtown, this years edition of the modestly scaled but elegantly curated art fair features 17 new exhibitors, out of 67 in total, spread over four floors. Though its overall vibe is still more reassuring than revolutionary, an exciting, unsettled energy runs through its exhibits, and I found it more difficult than usual to make this standout list of only 10 picks. Its a cliche to call small paintings jewel-like, but its hard to resist with four little delights created by painter Altoon Sultan, who debuted at Marlborough Gallery in the 1970s and now lives in Groton, Vermont. Painted with egg tempera on calfskin parchment, they show close-ups of agricultural machinery in near primary colors. Precise but not fussy, geometric but anchored in figuration, they appear drenched with sunlight even with no sightline to a window. It ... More | | 
Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, June 23, 2020. Jared Soares/The New York Times.
by Matt Stevens
NEW YORK, NY.- The Smithsonian Institution announced Tuesday that is has adopted a policy that will formally authorize its constituent museums to return items from their collections that were looted or were otherwise once acquired unethically. The institutions leaders said the policy, which took effect Friday, represents a shift away from the stance long taken by it and other museums, who had held the view that the legal right to own an item was sufficient justification to keep it. My goal was very simple: Smithsonian will be the place people point to, to say This is how we should share our collections and think about ethical returns, Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, said. The Smithsonian is this amazing wonder this gift not just to the country but to the world. Its really important that we provide leadership. In recent years, as conversations ... More |
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| Galerie Miranda opens an exhibition of works by Ellen Carey | | Marcus Leatherdale, portraitist of downtown Manhattan, dies at 69 | | Solo exhibition of new painting, prints and works on paper by Susie Hamilton opens at Paul Stolper | 
Ellen Carey, Crush & Pull (Yellow) 2019. Polaroid 20 X 24 Color Positive (1) and Negative (1) Prints, 60H x 22W (each) or 60H x 66W (suite). Unique
PARIS.- Let There Be Light: The Black Swans of Ellen Carey opens as a visual vade mecum at Galerie Miranda in spring 2022. A première for her new bodies of work, and the artist's second personal exhibition at Galerie Miranda, Ellen Careys handbook guides us through photographys nearly two centuries arc of light, photogram, colour and Polaroid as seen in her constantly intersecting practices Photography Degree Zero (Polaroid) and Struck by Light (darkroom). For the 21st century, for Paris, the City of Light, Ellen Carey brings her arc into the future with Crush & Pull with Rollbacks & Penlights, a completely new 21st century photo-object from Polaroids monumental negative, which allows Carey, its camera operator, to reposition 'light drawing' anew. It highlights Polaroid and its huge 20 X 24 camera as one of the mediums 20th century ... More | | 
Marcus Leatherdale, Unknown.
by Penelope Green
NEW YORK, NY.- Marcus Leatherdale, who made classical portraits of New Yorks demimonde in the 1980s Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Sydney Biddle Barrows, otherwise known as the Mayflower Madam, all made their way to his Lower East Side studio died April 22 at his home in the state of Jharkhand, India. He was 69. The cause was suicide, said Claudia Summers, his former wife. His partner of two decades, Jorge Serio, died in July, and Leatherdale suffered a stroke soon after, Summers said, adding that he had also been mourning the death of the couples dog and his mother in the past year. Leatherdale was the Cecil Beaton of downtown Manhattan. He photographed a not-yet-famous club kid named Madonna in her ripped jeans and his denim vest. Performance artist Leigh Bowery was majestic ... More | | 
Gawain 2, 100x100cm, acrylic, 2021.
LONDON.- Paul Stolper announces 'Unbound' by Susie Hamilton, a solo exhibition of new painting, prints and works on paper. Literature is a constant influence on Susies work and the new paintings, drawings and prints all have poems or plays as a source. They are also connected by the image of The Rider. Susie has painted The Rider as either an ecstatic or combative figure or as a solitary wanderer journeying through wilderness. And it is this last image that inspired her Gawain series where Sir Gawain, King Arthurs nephew and a Knight of the Round Table, embarks on a desolate winter journey and fights with fantastical creatures on his way to his appointed meeting with the Green Knight. The figure in this sequence is dwarfed, alone and surrounded by cellular forms which represent some of the uncanny aspects of his expedition. In a second group of works the artist has fused images of samurai with those of horsemen from Marlowe& ... More |
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Restoration of J. Pierpont Morgan's Library: Orazio Porto
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 Three Burchfield paintings combine for more than $1 million at Shannon'sMILFORD, CONN.- Shannons achieved jaw-dropping results in their Spring Fine Art Auction held April 28th. The sale focused on quality over quantity and the results proved the excellence of the offerings. Over 82 percent of the 129 lots offered were sold, for a total of $3.5 million. Prices reported below include a 25 percent buyers premium. Shannons once again achieved remarkable results for a collection of works by Charles Burchfield. Nighthawks and the Moon led the collection, and the sale, bringing $587,500 to a private family collection. Fires of Spring in Big Woods sold for $275,000, while Raindrops, May 1917, went for $156,250 to a private collector and first-time auction buyer. There were numerous six-figure prices realized during the exciting and lively auction. The audience was not missed, as the bank of 20 telephone ... More  How the king of rock 'n' roll still makes Australia singPARKES.- The Elvis Presley from Japan bowed with quiet respect. Then he tore into a rendition of Burning Love that sounded straight out of Memphis, Tennessee, and that definitely stretched the crotch of his blue jumpsuit to the limit. Backstage, a few more Elvi the plural of Elvis, at least at the largest Elvis festival in the Southern Hemisphere were going over final song choices, sweating their options for a crowd that blurred the line between fans and impersonators. Thousands of Elvi were out there in the middle of Australia, ages 5 to 85, with more pompadours and leisure suits than anyone could count. God, its so many people, said Charles Stone, Elvis tour manager from 1971 until his death in 1977, surveying the scene with a gold chain peeking outside his T-shirt. Look at this. Parkes, a small town a five hours drive ... More  Judy Henske, a distinctive voice on the folk scene, dies at 85NEW YORK, NY.- Judy Henske, who made a splash on the folk scene of the early 1960s with a versatile voice that could conjure Billie Holiday or foreshadow Janis Joplin, and performances full of offbeat stage patter, died April 27 in hospice care in Los Angeles. She was 85. The death was announced by her husband, keyboardist Craig Doerge. Henske played in clubs and coffee houses on the West Coast in the late 1950s and early 60s she opened for Lenny Bruce at the Los Angeles club the Unicorn before heading east to be part of the vibrant Greenwich Village scene. By 1963, when Robert Shelton of The New York Times sampled the up-and-coming talent in those clubs, she had made a strong impression. Standing head and shoulders above the new contenders, Shelton wrote, is Judy Henske, a six-foot hollyhock ... More  Neal Adams, who gave Batman a darker look, dies at 80NEW YORK, NY.- Neal Adams, a leading comic book artist who brought a visceral realism to his depictions of superheroes, notably helping to revitalize Batman by giving him a darker image and new adversaries, while also championing the rights of comic book creators, died Thursday in the New York City borough of Manhattan. He was 80. His daughter Kristine Stone Adams said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was complications of sepsis. Characters drawn by Adams were more grounded in reality than his predecessors. The anguish of Deadman, the ghost of a trapeze artist trying to solve his own murder, was evident in his facial expressions. Adams Superman could burst the chains binding him simply by expanding his chest. And Batman, as drawn by Adams, was lithe and menacing, a return to the heros shadowy roots ... More  Gagosian announces global representation of Anna WeyantNEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian announced the gallerys global representation of painter Anna Weyant. The artist will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the gallery in New York this fall. Weyants precisely rendered paintings depict figures embroiled in tragicomic narratives, and still-life compositions in which everyday objects adopt an uncanny, portentous air. Far from presenting these individuals and items as generalized types, however, she employs a keen ironic wit to evoke their myriad idiosyncrasies and contradictions. Among the first works that Weyant exhibited is a sequence of darkly cinematic vignettes depicting a dollhouse and the strange, cloistered lives of its inhabitants. A more recent series deconstructs the representation of American suburbia in made-for-TV movies, casting it as a surreal realm in which violence ... More  Lehmann Maupin now representing Tammy NguyenNEW YORK, NY.- Lehmann Maupin announced representation of Tammy Nguyen, an American artist known for her multidisciplinary practice that encompasses paintings, drawings, artist books, prints, and zines. Across disciplines, Nguyens work explores the intersections between geopolitics, ecology, and lesser-known histories. Nguyen will be featured in the gallery's upcoming presentation at Art Basel in June and is releasing a new book titled O with Ugly Duckling Presse in September. Anchored in storytelling, Nguyens multidisciplinary practice takes two formsher more traditional fine arts practice, which encompasses her lush, dense paintings, as well as her prints, drawings, and unique artist booksand her publishing practice, embodied by her imprint, Passenger Pigeon Press, which creates and distributes ... More  'How do you do?' On being a gentleman in 21st-century balletNEW YORK, NY.- In one of my first performances of George Balanchines Agon, I stood onstage, uncomfortable, while my partner, Teresa Reichlen, danced her short solo. Id just cranked her foot to her head a few times and we were about to reunite for a kind of rubber-banding push-and-pull section. I thought: I shouldnt be out here. It was winter 2019, and conversations happening offstage and in the press about toxicity in the ballet world, particularly toxic masculinity, had altered my experience of ballets I love. I understood Agon to require a machismo that I didnt think I possessed and that I knew I didnt want. My dancing lacked conviction. I didnt know how to make sense of dance at a moment when audiences seemed to see misconduct in all aspects of our art form. Ballet has governed my life and shaped my body for 27 ... More  In New York, every borough is a comic book destinationNEW YORK, NY.- You never forget your first comic book store, and 40 years ago I found mine. Its name was Funny Business, and it was on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was there where I began to buy new and back issues of The New Teen Titans, the comic book series that solidified my fandom. The stores customers were predominantly male but a melting pot of ages, shapes and ethnicities. We were a tribe: fellow readers and collectors who understood. Since then, with so many comics having been mined by television and film and podcasts and animation, there are multitudes more who understand. There are also more stories than ever and a significant female readership too. Funny Business no longer exists, but New York City has plenty of other stores. And with Free Comic Book Day coming up on Saturday, it seemed ... More  After the Met Gala, the beauty world has its own celebrationNEW YORK, NY.- On the evening of the Met Gala, at a corner table at Mr. Chow on the Upper East Side, Fiona Stiles, the makeup artist who did Gabrielle Unions makeup for the gala, sat with Hung Vanngo, who did the makeup for Julianne Moore and Laura Harrier, and Elle Gerstein, Blake Livelys nail artist. They were compiling credit lists of products they used on their celebrity clients to be sent to the media, and posting detailed shots of their red carpet work on Instagram. At another table, over chicken satay, green prawns and vegetarian potstickers, glam teams new and old gossiped about the looks theyd created for the evening. There was Emma Stones hair stylist and makeup artist, Mara Roszak and Rachel Goodwin; Gemma Chans makeup artist, Daniel Martin; and Jessica Chastains, Mary Greenwell. Benjamin ... More  Americana at Freeman's led by $1.9M John Hancock letter and $163,800 Chippendale tablePHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans May 3 American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts and May 4 Books and Manuscripts auctions brought collectors a fine array of significant early Americana, from letters and political documents to furniture, silver, and artwork. The market demand for such items across categories is confirmed by strong results across the board, notably a 1776 letter signed by John Hancock announcing Americas independence, to the state of Georgia, that achieved $1,896,000, and a Chippendale mahogany sideboard table with impressive provenance that sold for $163,800. In American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts, demand for Chippendale furniture crafted in Philadelphia resulted in sale prices that well exceeded their estimates, led by the Pemberton-Morris-Lloyd Chippendale carved and figured ... More  Modern and Contemporary art at Freeman's opens season with impressive worksPHILADELPHIA, PA.- Henry Moores evocative, energetic bronze Architectural Project (Lot 39) leads Freemans May 11 Modern and Contemporary Art auction. Offered at an estimate of $200,000-300,000, the elegant work highlights the maturity and life force of the eminent British artists later work, an unmissable addition to serious contemporary art collections. Building on notable 2021 sale successes, Modern and Contemporary Art presents buyers with opportunities to collect Moutons de Pierre, playful sheep sculptures by the French designer and artist François-Xavier Lalanne (Lots 30 and 31; $100,000-150,000 each). From Alexander Calder and David Hockney to Romare Bearden and Christo, Freemans May 11 auction offers a fine selection of some of the most important figures in twentieth- and twenty-first-century painting ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Plastic: Remaking Our World 
Jonathan Meese 
Useless Bodies 
WHO ARE YOU: Australian Portraiture
Flashback On a day like today, German painter Caspar David Friedrich died May 07, 1840. Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 - 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic or megalithic ruins. In this image: Caspar David Friedrich (1774 - 1840), Giant Mountains, not dated, Oil on canvas, 73,5 x 102,5.
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