| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Sunday, April 26, 2020 |
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| | From afar, a fugitive in the Knoedler art fraud gives his defense | |
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The former Knoedler Gallery in New York, Nov. 30, 2011. The gallery was dependent on profits it made from selling a mysterious collection of artwork that is at the center of a a federal forgery investigation, former clients have charged in court papers. Tina Fineberg/The New York Times.
by Graham Bowley
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- He was accused of having been a central figure in one of the largest art world scandals of recent times, but little has been heard from José Carlos Bergantiños Diaz, who authorities say helped orchestrate the sale of $80 million in phony works. Now in his first in-depth interview, Bergantiños Diaz, a fugitive living in Spain, has acknowledged to a documentary filmmaker that he discovered Pei-Shen Qian, the painter from Queens, New York, whose ability to mimic the work of modernist masters fooled much of the art world. But he denied assigning him that task or of being involved in the scheme to sell dozens of the counterfeit paintings, made by Qian in his Queens garage, as the work of artists like Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. He laid blame instead on his former girlfriend, Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales, who sold many of the phony works through the auspices of Knoedler & Co., then one of the citys oldest sellers of fine art, and a respected one. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Opened to great acclaim on 6th March in the beautifully-preserved West Sussex market town of Petworth, just weeks before Covid-19 led to its temporary closure, Newlands House is launching a digital iteration of its inaugural show, Helmut Newton 100. Curated by the galleryÂs artistic director and leading art world auctioneer, Simon de Pury, and timed with the late photographerÂs birth centenary this year, the exhibition spans portrait, fashion, still life and landscape photography.
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 | | Artists are hunkered down, but still nurturing their inner visions | | National Portrait Gallery announces shortlist for BP Portrait Award 2020 as exhibition moves online | | Los Angeles dealers create their own virtual gallery | 
File photo of Adam Pendleton at his art studio in Brooklyn. Heather Sten/The New York Times.
by Ted Loos
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Under most circumstances, the life of an artist or architect requires a lot of solitary time. But none of the 10 artists and architects I spoke to expected to be sheltering somewhere, hiding out from a deadly pandemic with a small number of family members or close friends. When asked how they were spending their time, they answered that, despite their fears, the pandemic is proving to be fertile ground and they sent along some proof. The anxiety of the coronavirus era has already seeped into the work of Rashid Johnson, who suddenly started making blood-red drawings. Steven Holl depicted a pair of struggling lungs, and mourned a close friend while continuing to design buildings. Adam Pendleton, whose artwork incorporates text, looked out the window and said he saw the ... More | | 
Portrait of Denis: Actor, Juggler and Fashion Model by Sergey Svetlakov, 2019 © Sergey Svetlakov.
LONDON.- Three artists have been shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2020, which will open as a virtual exhibition on Tuesday 5 May while the National Portrait Gallery, London is temporarily closed due to the current Coronavirus pandemic. The three portraits in the running for the £35,000 First Prize are Night Talk by Jiab Prachakul; Portrait of Denis: Actor, Juggler and Fashion Model by Sergey Svetlakov and Labour of Love by Michael Youds. The shortlisted portraits were selected from 1,981 entries from 69 countries. It is the first time any of the artists have been shortlisted for the Award or selected for exhibition. The prize winners will be announced on Tuesday 5 May on the National Portrait Gallerys social media channels. All 48 works selected for the BP Portrait Award 2020 exhibition will be shown in a virtual gallery space that replicates the rooms of the National Portrait Gallery, enabling online ... More | | 
A yet-to-be-titled 2020 painting by Dominique Fung, whose art Nicodim Gallery is planning to showcase on galleryplatform.la. Photo: Dominique Fung and Nicodim Gallery.
by Jori Finkel
LOS ANGELES (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Art fairs have over the last three decades become the great organizers or aggregators of the art market, bringing mom and pop galleries and their bigger counterparts together under one roof or these days, given the coronavirus outbreak, one website with multiple viewing booths. But in Los Angeles, several galleries have independently organized and created their own marketing website, galleryplatform.la. They have also formed a group, Gallery Association Los Angeles (GALA for short), with plans to continue long term as the only citywide art dealers association. The association lists 60 contemporary art spaces across Los Angeles, including branches of giants Gagosian and Hauser ... More |
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| | Gene Deitch, prolific animator, is dead at 95 | | Galerie Karsten Greve exhibits pieces created from the mid-1960s to the early 90s by John Chamberlain | | Hirshhorn announces "Artists in Quarantine" video diary series to serve as living archive by nearly 100 artists | 
Among Mr. Deitchs earliest jobs while working in Prague was making new Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM. He ran into several obstacles. Photo: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Gene Deitch, an Oscar-winning animator who created the early television cartoon Tom Terrific and went on to make countless cartoons and film versions of popular childrens books for more than half a century, died on April 16 in Prague, where he lived. He was 95. His son Kim Deitch confirmed the death. Deitchs vast output included shorts shown before feature films in theaters when that practice was common, cartoons for TVs black-and-white era, and works aimed at the grandchildren of his earliest fans. His films often showed a subtle sophistication beneath a seemingly simple premise and design. There was, for instance, his Nudnik series, made in the mid-1960s and discovered by later generations when it aired on ... More | | 
John Chamberlain saw creating as an act of improvisation.
PARIS.- The Galerie Karsten Greve is presenting Chamberlain in Paris: an exhibition featuring a selection of pieces created from the mid-1960s to the early 90s by American artist John Chamberlain. These multifaceted creations appear to converse with one another through the various media that the artist chose and experimented with on an on-going basis: there are sculptures, which brought him great fame in the early 1960s, but also collage, monotyping, and photography. John Chamberlain saw creating as an act of improvisation. The artist liked to say that he had taken some of his most beautiful photographs as he strolled aimlessly through Paris; yet had never quite grasped how. It was in that same ambling state of mind, and also thanks to luck and happenstance, that he would find various fusions of shape, poetry, and 'hidden gems'. An avant-garde artist, Chamberlain said that it was thanks to poets like Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan ... More | | 
Ragnar Kjartansson. Video still from Artists in Quarantine project, April 2020.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has announced Artists in Quarantine, an ambitious global initiative to capture the responses of contemporary international artists to the COVID-19 pandemic in their own voices. Museum Director Melissa Chiu commissionedthe artist Theaster Gates, a Hirshhorn board member, to spark the ongoing investigation of the monthslong quarantine on almost 100 fellow artists. This growing archive, to be released as a series of short, diary-style videos across the museums social-media channels and website, will become part of the Hirshhornsrecord of the impact of the global pandemic on artists, their art-making practices and their views of the world. The project launches April 23 with five submissions from Gates, Shirin Neshat, Christine Sun Kim, Ragnar Kjartansson and Tony Oursler, with additional contributions from artists including Marilyn Minter, Kent Monkman ... More |
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| | The Centre Pompidou launches its first video game | | Online exhibition features early works and newly available paintings by Robert Zandvliet | | Museum Ludwig presents a new video series in advance of the exhibition 'Mapping the Collection' | 
Prisme7 is a fun yet educational platform game, freely available on mobiles (IOS/Android) and computers (PC/Mac).
PARIS.- The Centre Pompidou launched Prisme7, its first video game, which invites the public to discover some major works from the collection of the Musée national dart moderne, and interact with them. Designed in association with Olivier Mauco of Ga me in Society and Abdel Bounane of Bright, Prisme7 immerses players aged 12 and over in a world of art and poetry. Prisme7 is a fun yet educational platform game, freely available on mobiles (IOS/Android) and computers (PC/Mac), and has been designed for teenagers and adults seeking an insight into modern and contemporary creation. As they make their way between colour and light, players explore an organism that is constructed gradually as they discover the physical and sensory properties of the works of art. As they interact with Le Rhinocéros by Xavier Veilhan, New York City by Piet Mondrian, Andy Warhols ... More | | 
Robert Zandvliet, Untitled, 2019. Egg tempera and oil on paper, 9 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches (24 x 31 cm). Courtesy the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Blum Gallery is presenting Robert Zandvliet - Paintings and Works on Paper: 1999-2020. Surveying the Dutch artist's practice and evolution over the past two decades, the online exhibition features early works and newly available paintings created within the last year. Robert Zandvliet was born in Terband, Netherlands in 1970 and he lives and works in Haarlem, Netherlands. Hovering on the cusp of abstraction and representation, Zandvliet's work primarily uses landscape as a conceptual frame of reference. Recognizable representations have been replaced by gestural plays of line, color, and surface that shift and merge foreground and background, reorienting the viewers perception of depth and surface. Zandvliet has had numerous solo museum exhibitions including at the Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands (2019), De Pont ... More | | 
Claes Oldenburg, Fire Plug Souvenir, 1968. Museum Ludwig © Claes Oldenburg. Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln / Rolf Zimmermann.
COLOGNE.- Instead of the originally planned opening of the exhibition on April 24, a seven-part video series started today. Every Friday the museum will offer a closer look at the exhibition and the various topics it covers. To start the series off, an introductory video on the planned show is available on the Museum Ludwig website, as well as on their Instagram and Facebook accounts. In the following weeks they will introduce individual artists and their works. Further information on the exhibition is also available on the museums blog. The exhibition Mapping the Collection takes a new look at two influential decades in American (art) history: the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition presents a selection of artworks from the Museum Ludwigs collection by female, queer, and indigenous artists as well as artists of color who are not represented in the collection, as an impetus for a broader reception ... More |
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| | How the Met Opera is throwing a gala concert with smartphones | | Twist, bend, reach, step: A Merce Cunningham solo anyone can try | | The Renaissance Society announces Myriam Ben Salah as Executive Director and Chief Curator | 
An image provided by the Metropolitan Opera shows a screen capture of members of the Mets orchestra and chorus, which will perform at the At-Home Gala on Saturday. Closed by the coronavirus, the company is streaming its biggest stars, performing live across nine time zones. Metropolitan Opera via The New York Times.
by Joshua Barone
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Is this enough light? asked baritone Peter Mattei. He was in the living room of his home outside Stockholm, speaking over Skype with a small group of Metropolitan Opera staff members who were giving him directions to prepare for the companys At-Home Gala on Saturday a worldwide relay of live streamed performances that, in contrast to operas usual grandeur, will be filmed using only household devices. In Matteis case, it will mean transmitting a Mozart aria with a smartphone and a cellular data plan, from a house that of course wasnt meant to be a studio. So he needed help from the Met to at least establish his shot. He moved from room to room while his dog, a labradoodle ... More | | 
The photographer Camila Falquez while learning Merce Cunningham's "50 Looks," in New York in April 2020. Camila Falquez/The New York Times.
by Marina Harss
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- These days, thanks to the cornucopia of online dance classes and tutorials, you can almost imagine yourself to be a dancer. Go ahead, take morning class with Sam Black of the Mark Morris Dance Group or follow along with New York City Ballets Megan Fairchild, even if you dont have her marvelous turnout. Ive been doing both. In the real world, it might feel intimidating; online, why not? After all, no one can see you. But learning a solo by modernist master Merce Cunningham? Thats another order of difficulty. Cunningham dances are like physical tongue twisters, full of tricky coordinations of the body, long balances on one foot, seemingly impossible transitions from one tilted position to another. And yet, this is what Patricia Lent, director of licensing at the Cunningham Trust, is proposing. In a new online series, she has been ... More | | 
Ben Salah, a Tunisian curator and writer, is currently co-organizing Made in L.A. 2020 at the Hammer Museum and The Huntington Library.
CHICAGO, IL.- The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago will appoint Myriam Ben Salah as Executive Director and Chief Curator effective September 15, 2020. Ben Salah, a Tunisian curator and writer, is currently co-organizing Made in L.A. 2020 at the Hammer Museum and The Huntington Library. She follows Solveig Ãvstebø, who led the museum from 2013 until 2020, and will be the Rens third leader since 1973. In her role, Ben Salah will continue and expand the Rens critical relationship with the University of Chicago. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Richard Wright, president, says I welcome Myriam to Chicago and look forward to seeing her vision added to the legacy of the Renaissance Society. Thanks to Solveigs leadership, an outstanding staff and board, and a clear-eyed commitment to our mission, the Ren has never been stronger as an institution. We are all excited to see how her curatorial ... More |
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Frank's Files At Home: Tutti Frutti and the House of Cartier
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 Tajan is organising an exceptional online auction supporting French nursing homesPARIS.- From April 21st to 27th 2020, Tajan is organising an exceptional online auction Pièces uniques 2020 for the benefit of SOS EHPAD, an association created by Professor Olivier de Ladoucette, with the aim of supporting French nursing homes which have been severely weakened by the coronavirus epidemic. The young jewellery designer, Begüm Khan has offered some Sharpei Harem bronze earrings plated with 24k gold and set with crystals. Very attached to her Ottoman cultural heritage, Begüm works only with Turkish craftsmen. She uses silver, vermeil, crystals and gemstones for her jewellery inspired by mystical symbolism, real or enchanted flora or fauna. The landscape gardener Fernando Caruncho has donated one of his beautiful copper lanterns, hand-made in his workshop in Madrid. This object of light, called "candil" in Spanish, means little lantern. It i ... More Newlands House presents 'Inside Helmut Newton 100', a digital edition of the gallery's inaugural show PETWORTH.- Opened to great acclaim on 6th March in the beautifully-preserved West Sussex market town of Petworth, just weeks before Covid-19 led to its temporary closure, Newlands House is launching a digital iteration of its inaugural show, Helmut Newton 100. Curated by the gallerys artistic director and leading art world auctioneer, Simon de Pury, and timed with the late photographers birth centenary this year, the exhibition spans portrait, fashion, still life and landscape photography. Designed as an online sister to its physical counterpart, Inside Helmut Newton 100, will launch with a short film, which guides viewers through Newlands Houses 12 rooms while offering glimpses of significant masterpieces and rare prints, such as Big Nude III (Henrietta variant), 1980 which has never before been publicly displayed in the UK, and Elsa ... More Now virtual and in video, museum websites shake off the dustNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In times of adversity, we look to art to give form to chaos. But where do you go when the chaos keeps you from art entirely? It will have to be online. As the coronavirus pandemic stretches into yet another month, keeping arts institutions closed across the globe, museums websites are now posting traffic numbers that were once unimaginable. The Musée du Louvre in Paris has reported a tenfold increase in web traffic, from 40,000 to 400,000 visitors per day. Visits to the websites of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London are also up by huge multiples. Audiences are seeking out arts material for children the Metropolitan Museum of Art reports an elevenfold uptick to #MetKids, its youth education initiative. Remember just a decade ago, when the Met raised hackles, within ... More MOCA North Miami announces three new members to its Board of TrusteesMIAMI, FLA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami welcomes the addition of three new members to its Board of Trustees. Led by William M. Lehman, Jr. as chairman of the Board, the new board members include Christopher Carter, Daniel Salas and Sebastien Scemla. The growth of MOCAs Board reflects the recent excitement that the museum has experienced under Executive Director Chana Sheldons leadership, since she joined the museum in January 2018. In the past year, MOCA has again achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition afforded the nations museums. The museum has presented critically acclaimed exhibitions and expanded educational and public programming that has facilitated cultural engagement and fostered connection with the local community, ... More Sculpture by the Sea to return to Bondi in October 2020SYDNEY.- Sculpture by the Sea announced that the exhibition plans to return to Bondi this spring after an agreement was reached with Waverley Council to retain the exhibition for the next ten years. The worlds largest annual free-to-the-public outdoor sculpture exhibition plans to return to the 2km Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk from 22 October 8 November, pending any public gathering restrictions remaining in place into late October. Exhibition organisers and Waverley Council have begun discussing contingency plans to postpone the event if the exhibition cannot open on 22 October. The announcement of a return to Bondi sees applications open for artists from around Australia and internationally to submit works to exhibit at the popular outdoor art exhibition. Exhibiting artists will be eligible for the $70,000 Aqualand Sculpture Award, the three $30,000 ... More 'Sackcloth and Ashes' by Witold Krassowski to be published by GOST BooksLONDON.- Sackcloth and Ashes is the result of a lifetime of work by Polish photographer Witold Krassowski. Although he has photographed major historic and political events which have helped shape societies across the world, he has always been drawn to photographing ordinary lives - his best-known images are the ones he took during the transformation of his native Poland following the end of communism in 1989. The disparate locations and subjects of Krassowskis work are unified by his choice to focus on the lives of common citizens rather than the elite or political entities. This new book includes nearly 120 photographs, the earliest from the 1980s and many previously unpublished, depicting everyday lives from a diverse range of countries including Bulgaria, Tanzania, Peru, Russia, Afghanistan, Italy and Mongolia. His black and white ... More Michael Cogswell, 66, dies; Sustained Louis Armstrong's legacyNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Michael Cogswell, who turned Louis Armstrongs trove of memorabilia into a scholarly archive and transformed the joyful trumpeters two-bedroom brick house in Queens into a popular museum, died Monday in Manhattan. He was 66. His wife, Dale Van Dyke, said the cause was complications of bladder cancer. When Armstrong died in 1971, he left behind 72 cartons packed with artifacts from his decades as probably the most celebrated figure in jazz. Inside the boxes were 650 reel-to-reel tape recordings of songs, ideas and conversations; at least 5,000 photographs; 86 scrapbooks; 240 acetate disks of live recordings that he made at home; five trumpets; and 14 mouthpieces. Cogswell, a saxophonist whose masters thesis was on four solos played by pioneering free-jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, knew ... More Syrian dancer takes a spookily empty Paris as her canvassPARIS (AFP).- Dancer Yara al-Hasbani is used to causing a stir everywhere she goes. The Syrian choreographer has drawn crowds across France for her performances in public squares and parks. But there wasn't a soul in sight as she performed a series of spectacular ballet moves in front of the deserted grand monuments of Paris for AFP. With the French capital in lockdown for nearly six weeks because of the coronavirus, the 26-year-old had some of the most visited sites in the world to herself. Wearing a white mask, she danced an arabesque in front of the Louvre museum, an "attitude derriere" on the steps of Sacre Coeur and did a "six o'clock" with one leg right up to her head by the Arc du Triomphe. Trained as a ballet and contemporary dancer in Damascus, al-Hasbani left her war-torn homeland six years ago and is now a member of the Atelier ... More Brent 2020 London Borough of Culture launches BRENT 2020 UNLOCKEDLONDON.- Brent 2020, London Borough of Culture announced BRENT 2020 UNLOCKED, a response to the new challenges faced by artists and the wider creative sector including an online artist network, a new podcast and interview series. A new interview series with Brent legends from the worlds of literature, music and sport, a weekly podcast hosted by VICE and young people from Brents Blueprint Collective debunking fake news around Covid-19, and a call-out for people to share their memories of Brents rich reggae history are some of the ways people can enjoy and participate in Brent 2020 online over the coming months. Lois Stonock, Artistic Director of Brent 2020, said: Brent 2020 is more than just a programme of events. It is an investment in the creative life of the borough, now and in the future. Culture has always been an important part of Brent, ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, French painter Eugène Delacroix was born April 26, 1798. Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 - 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school. As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. In this image: A man looks at the painting "Jeune tigre jouant avec sa mere" during a press visit of the exhibition "Delacroix (1798-1863)" at the Louvre Museum in Paris on March 27, 2018. The exhibition on French artist Eugene Delacroix will run from March 29 to July 23. PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP.
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