The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Sunday, December 19, 2021


 
Jennifer Steinkamp combines art and technology in exhibition at Georgia Museum of Art

Jennifer Steinkamp (American, b. 1958), “Mike Kelley, 14” 2007. Video, dimensions variable; duration: 8-minute loop. Image courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and London.

ATHENS, GA.- Artist Jennifer Steinkamp brings art into the age of technology through her use of digital animation. The exhibition “Jennifer Steinkamp: The Technologies of Nature” is on view at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia December 18, 2021, to August 21, 2022. This exhibition features Steinkamp’s video “Mike Kelley, 14,” which represents a tree going through its seasonal phases. Played on an eight-minute loop, the video shows Steinkamp’s animation of a tree swaying in the wind as it slowly changes from vibrant green leaves and pink blossoms to bare branches. Steinkamp made “Mike Kelley” in honor of one of her favorite teachers, who taught her in art school in California in the late 1980s. A critic, curator, teacher and multidisciplinary artist, Kelley is considered one of the most influential members of the conceptual art ... More


The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
FBI and law enforcement stand with reps from the York County History Center. Credit MoAR.






Prinseps to host the Gobardhan Ash auction, the first NFT auction in India   Ann Van Hoey's geometric and sculptural vessels on view at Lucy Lacoste Gallery   Richard Rogers, architect behind landmark Pompidou Center, dies at 88


Gobardhan Ash, Irani, 1950. Image courtesy of Prinseps.

MUMBAI.- Prinseps are set to host the Gobardhan Ash Live Auction, offering 35 rare works on paper from the family estate alongside 35 accompanying NFTs. The auction will open for live bidding on 14th January 2022 at 7 pm, representing the first time an Indian auction house has entered the NFT space. The Gobardhan Ash Auction re-creates the 2nd exhibition of the Progressive Artists’ Group and Calcutta Group, 1950, in which Gobardhan Ash presented a series of gouache works alongside FN Souza, MF Husain and S.H. Raza amongst others. The bright and eclectic modern images painted by Ash for the exhibition, and now offered for auction, perfectly captured the milieu of the time presenting modernist interpretations of everyday people or animals. Ash’s art from the 1950s showcases his individuality alongside his characteristic technique and presents impeccable character studies such as ... More
 

Black-Red Object 2, 2021. Earthenware and car paint, 6.30h x 13.78w x 9.84d in.

CONCORD, MASS.- Lucy Lacoste Gallery is presenting Ann Van Hoey, December 4 – 31, 2021 in her first US solo exhibition. This exhibition highlights her geometric and sculptural vessels in bold colors such as red, black, and white plus earthier greens and blues. The Belgian artist, a former economist, applies her knowledge of mathematics and love of geometry in her ceramics. “Van Hoey has what is known as a geometric spirit. She takes basic spatial forms, mostly a hemisphere, as her starting point. Enchanted by the geometrical design of Japanese zen gardens of stones and inspired by the Japanese art of origami, she developed the technique of folding thin sheets of clay. In fact, she cuts to recompose. The result is a deliberately minimalistic demonstration of purity, form, simplicity, sobriety, efficiency and clarity of line, a paragon of geometric and mathematical relentlessness, from which the power ... More
 

Richard Rogers, 175 Greenwich Street - view of World Trade Centre Site. Photo: 7-t Ltd.

by Penelope Green


NEW YORK, NY.- Richard Rogers, a Pritzker Prize-winning British architect whose inviting, colorful modernism forever altered the cityscapes of Paris and London, died Saturday at his home in London. He was 88. His son, Roo Rogers, confirmed the death. No cause was given. With his striking designs for the tubular Pompidou Center in Paris; the vast Millennium Dome in London, which seemed to hover like an alien spaceship; and the brash Lloyd’s of London building, with its soaring atrium, Rogers turned architecture not just inside out but also on its head. When he was awarded the Pritzker, architecture’s highest honor, in 2007, the jury cited his “unique interpretation of the modern movement’s fascination with the building as machine” and said he had “revolutionized museums, transforming what had once ... More


Expanding the scope of 'Latin American Art'   Naples, a city of contradictions, is once again a home for cinema   Afghanistan's National Museum begins life under the Taliban


Davo Cruz, [No title given], 1974-1975. Serigraph. Image: 19-1/2 x 14-1/2 in. (49.53 x 36.83 cm) | Sheet: 22-5/8 x 17-1/8 in. (57.47 x 43.5 cm). Taller Boricua Puerto Rican. Workshop Inc. Wall 12 25 x19-1/2 in. Photo: Martin Seck.

by Holland Cotter


NEW YORK, NY.- You don’t need to know anything about art to be stopped in your tracks by what’s on the walls of El Museo del Barrio these days: fantastic ballpoint pen drawings by Consuelo (Chelo) González Amézcua (1903-1975), a Mexican immigrant to Texas; stupefyingly intricate collages by Felipe Jesus Consalvos, who was born in Havana and died in Philadelphia, where in 1983 his life’s work was found in a garage sale; and pictographic paintings by Puerto Rican-born Eloy Blanco (1933-1984), who came to New York City to study art and learned from fellow Latinos about the Indigenous Taino culture of his homeland — a culture he ended up making the wellspring of his work. This season has brought a bounty of historical shows of Latin American and Latino art, two cultural categories that are closely related without being inter- ... More
 

An alley in Naples, Italy, Dec. 17, 2021. Giovanni Cipriano/The New York Times.

by Elisabetta Povoledo


NAPLES.- Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film, “The Hand of God,” begins with a bird’s-eye view of Naples, his hometown, at dawn, with a lone vintage car traveling along a seafront road while the rest of the city uncharacteristically sleeps. As a backdrop to this autobiographical coming-of-age story, Naples is at turns fantastical and decadent, sunny and unpredictable, comfortably familiar and ultimately confining. Off camera, it is even more. In the 20 years since Sorrentino last made a film here — his directorial debut, “One Man Up” — the city has also matured as a center of moviemaking in Italy. These days, film and television crews are a common sight on Neapolitan streets, both downtown and in its rougher hinterlands. These productions have nurtured the formation of a local industry, including actors, specialized technicians and cinematographers. “There’s been enormous growth,” said Maurizio Gemma, director of the local Film Commission of the ... More
 

Installation view. Photo: National Museum of Afghanistan.

by Anna P. Kambhampaty


KABUL.- Under the watchful eyes of Islamic Emirate soldiers, the galleries of the newly reopened National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul are often quiet these days, the antiquities and other treasures inside safe from the sort of looting that overwhelmed the museum the last time the Taliban seized power there. But visitors, the lifeblood of any museum, have dwindled. Many of the educated people who were regular patrons of the museum have fled the country, some schools have shut down and there are not many tourists sightseeing in Kabul. The museum, which closed in August, when the Taliban seized control, reopened in late November, a positive sign to some who hope restrictions will be looser this time and that rampant destruction won’t recur. When the Taliban were last in power, from 1996 to 2001, an estimated 70% of the Kabul museum’s collection of 100,000 pieces was ransacked or looted. The Taliban also notoriously blew up the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan, ... More



Bronx Museum of the Arts announces $21 million capital project and renovation   A classic car giant with a lofty mission: Save driving   150+ works join ICA Miami collection in 2021


View of The Bronx Museum of the Arts from Grand Concourse. Photo courtesy of Marvel.

BRONX, NY.- The Bronx Museum of the Arts, one of the city’s only major museums with free admission, is pleased to announce a $21 million capital project to mark its 50th anniversary and support the renovation of a new multi-story entrance and lobby on the corner of Grand Concourse and 165th Street by Marvel, an award-winning architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and planning practice. The renovation, supported by city funds––with additional support from the state––will be overseen by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) on behalf of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and The Bronx Museum, and is slated for completion in 2025. Since 2012, The Bronx Museum has offered free admission to the public, and over the past decade has experienced unprecedented growth, increasing its annual attendance from 25,000 to a height of over 100,000. The Bronx Museum last expanded in 2006 ... More
 

McKeel Hagerty, the eponymous chief executive of the classic car insurer, at a brunch in the boardroom at the New York Stock Exchange held to celebrate the first day of trading for his newly public company on Dec. 6, 2021. Sinna Nasseri/The New York Times.

by Brett Berk


NEW YORK, NY.- For one Monday in early December, the New York Stock Exchange played the role of vintage car museum. At one end of Broad Street, outside the exchange, sat a high-roofed and stately 1921 Duesenberg coupe. At the other, a fearsome 1966 Ford GT40 race car. Between them, encased in a glass vitrine, was an imperturbably cheery 1967 Porsche 911S. Shaking hands by the coffee stand was McKeel Hagerty. The CEO of the classic car insurance company that bears his name, Hagerty was there to ring the opening bell, and celebrate the first day of trading for his newly public company (HGTY). Later, at a brunch in the Big Board’s boardroom, Hagerty wielded a ceremonial gavel and said, “This is only just ... More
 

Alvaro Barrington, They have They Cant, 2021. Hessian on aluminum frame, yarn, spray paint, concrete on cardboard, bandanas. Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Gift of John and Kate Holland Carrafiell.

MIAMI, FLA.- Over 150 works of contemporary and post-war art joined the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami collection in 2021, affirming the museum's commitment to global and local artists and inclusiveness of backgrounds, identities, and perspectives. A thematic presentation of major works from the collection is on view beginning May 12, 2022, bringing together more than 100 works across a range of media and highlighting themes of activism and representation explored across the museum's holdings. "One of the most active collections of contemporary art, ICA Miami has acquired over 500 works since 2017, demonstrating the dynamism and scope of the museum's program," said ICA Miami Artistic Director Alex Gartenfeld. "Together with many visionary supporters, we are creating one of the most significant collections of contemporary and emerging art in the world ... More


FBI returns stolen artifacts to six local museums   'Jaws' is fiction. This show presents sharks as embattled heroes.   $50 million gift to Juilliard targets racial disparities in music


Exhibit preparator Ryan Will handles pistols repatriated to the Museum of the American Revolution. Photo: MoAR.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Stolen artifacts were returned to their rightful owners—six museums from the Philadelphia region—today in a repatriation ceremony held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team - Philadelphia Division at the Museum of the American Revolution. The artifacts were recovered through the efforts of the FBI Art Crime Team - Philadelphia Division, the United States Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Upper Merion Township Police Department. “It is incredibly significant and exciting for us to be joined by all of these local institutions today and to see them reunited with objects that have been missing for half a century,” said Dr. R. Scott Stephenson, President and CEO of the Museum of the American Revolution. “Our collections are used as tools to engage our audiences in an appreciation of history and to reinvigorate their civic commitment ... More
 

A life-size model of the head of a megalodon, a prehistoric predator referred to as the Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas, in the “Sharks” exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Dec. 10, 2021. An Rong Xu/The New York Times.

by Laurel Graeber


NEW YORK, NY.- You could call it an unfortunate misunderstanding. Its impact, however, is as vast as the oceans. I refer to the terror that sharks inspire, which, according to the American Museum of Natural History, stems largely from ignorance, as well as “a hundred years of hype.” (“Jaws” notwithstanding, shark attacks are rare and often occur when the fish mistake a person for something far more delectable, like a seal.) As this Manhattan museum’s new exhibition about these extraordinary creatures playfully puts it, “They’re just not that into you.” But the 8,500-square-foot show “Sharks,” which opened Wednesday with life-size models, hands-free interactives, astonishing footage and sobering warnings about extinction, offers ... More
 

The Juilliard School, in New York, Oct. 4, 2016. Sam Hodgson/The New York Times.

by Javier C. Hernández


NEW YORK, NY.- For three decades, The Juilliard School has sought to bring more diversity to classical music by offering a weekend training program aimed largely at Black and Latino schoolchildren. Now the renowned conservatory is planning a major expansion of the initiative, known as the Music Advancement Program. Juilliard announced Thursday that it had received a $50 million gift that it would use to increase enrollment in the program by 40% and to provide full scholarships to all participants. “This will be transformational,” Damian Woetzel, Juilliard’s president, said in an interview. “It will broaden the pathway to the highest level of classical music education in such a significant way.” The gift is from Crankstart, a foundation in California backed by venture capitalist Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, a writer, who are longtime supporters ... More




Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden



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Exhibition brings all of Frankfurt's museums together for the first time
FRANKFURT.- In 1991, John Cage notated his project Museumcircle as follows: “To make an exhibition in the museum (of a specific town) of articles from other museums (of the same town), hung or placed in chance-determined positions. To bring this about, each museum may offer to loan, say, a dozen objects. From this potential source, chance operations will be used to select the actual ones to be used.” This simple but precise concept aims towards the complete dehierarchization of objects from a wide range of collections. The exhibition shows the loans non-chronologically, ahistorically, and decontextualized. The composer and artist thus withdrew the objects from the interpretive authority of museums, which is otherwise manifest in the arrangement, reconstruction, and valuation of historical artifacts and contexts. In the late 1970s, taking ... More

Exhibition features fashion and editorial photographs by contemporary Black artists
DETROIT, MICH.- The Detroit Institute of Arts presents works by 15 emerging Black photographers in the exhibition The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion. On view December 17, 2021 through April 17, 2022, The New Black Vanguard features color portraits, conceptual images and fashion editorial photographs curated by New York writer and critic Antwaun Sargent. This exhibition is free with museum admission, which is always free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. This exhibition includes more than 100 photographs by “The New Black Vanguard” photographers, a global movement of emerging artists working throughout the African diaspora, in Africa, Europe, and the U.S. The exhibition features work by Campbell Addy, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Micaiah Carter, Awol Erizku, Nadine Ijewere, Quil Lemons, ... More

Henry Orenstein, 98, dies; Force behind Transformers and Poker on TV
NEW YORK, NY.- Henry Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor who built a major American toy company, later persuaded Hasbro to start its line of Transformers action figures and who in his 70s patented an ingenious way to better televise poker tournaments, died Tuesday at a hospital in Livingston, New Jersey. He was 98. The cause was COVID-19, his wife, Susie Orenstein, said. A Polish Jew, Orenstein survived a hellish journey through five concentration camps — and the shock of his parents’ murders in a cemetery in Poland — to become a merchant of fun. The Topper Corp. which he started in the 1950s, made the Suzy Homemaker line of miniature appliances, the Johnny Seven One Man Army toy gun, the Betty the Beautiful Bride and Dawn dolls, Zoomer Boomer trucks, Ding-A-Ling robots and Sesame Street educational toys. Topper, originally known ... More

Art of Anime and Everything Cool Volume II auction tops $2.6 million to shatter anime animation art record
DALLAS, TX.- It was the rare sequel that outperformed the original. Heritage Auctions' four-day Art of Anime and Everything Cool II Animation Art Signature® Auction, which wrapped Monday, realized $2,635,985 to outperform its June predecessor — itself, a multiple record-setter as the world's first auction highlighting anime. Numerous lots far exceeded their initial estimates in this complete sell-out, which saw nearly 3,800 bidders worldwide compete for historic lots in person, on the phone and at HA.com in the largest Anime Art auction ever held. "We were thrilled with the success of our June Animation Art auction, which brought $2.1 million, and this sale went well above and beyond that," said Heritage Auctions Vice President and Director of Animation & Anime Art Jim Lentz. "Animation art is growing rapidly among serious, reverent collectors, ... More

V&A wins £50,000 award to expand its national schools challenge, V&A Innovate
LONDON.- The V&A’s flagship national schools challenge, V&A Innovate, has won an Art Explora – Académie des beaux-arts European Award. The Awards were established in 2020 to give vital funding to arts organisations that develop innovative ways to reach new and wider audiences – particularly those who might be less familiar with cultural institutions. Inspired by the V&A’s founding mission to be a ‘schoolroom for everyone’ and collection spanning 5,000 years of human creativity, the museum launched V&A Innovate in 2019 to champion Design and Technology as an essential curriculum subject and career pathway for young people. Free and available for 11-14 year olds at every state-funded school in England, it is a digital-first initiative, co-created by the V&A with teachers and professional designers. The annual schools’ competition ... More

Radio City Music Hall cancels its remaining Rockettes Christmas shows
NEW YORK, NY.- After canceling all four of Friday’s performances of Radio City Music Hall’s enduring Christmas show starring the Rockettes after there were breakthrough coronavirus cases in the company, the show’s producers announced late Friday that they would end its run entirely because of “increasing challenges from the pandemic.” The show, “Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes,” had been scheduled to run through Jan. 2 with multiple performances each day. But it did not make it to Christmas, or even to the vacation many city schoolchildren will begin next week. It became the latest show to be upended by a rash of coronavirus cases among cast and crew members, as the virus has surged in recent days in New York. Earlier Friday, producers had canceled the four performances scheduled for the day because of what the company ... More

ARCOmadrid returns for 2022 edition
MADRID.- ARCOmadrid, Spain's international contemporary art fair organised by IFEMA MADRID, returns in February 2022 to celebrate its 40 (+1) Anniversary. Aiming to bring the past and present together through the participating galleries and their long-standing relationship with both artists and collectors. Following the celebration in 2021 of an edition that sought to re-activate the art market, ARCOmadrid 2022 will return to celebrate the coming together of a selection of the key names in the global art world along with top tier international galleries. Additionally, galleries that have a well-established relationship with ARCOmadrid throughout its long history, have been invited to participate in the fair’s commemorative section, ARCO 40 (+1) Anniversary. A programme made up of around 20 galleries selected by María Inés Rodríguez, ... More

Alvin Baltrop's first solo show in the UK on view at Modern Art
LONDON.- Modern Art is presenting a solo exhibition of work by Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004) at its Bury Street gallery. This is Baltrop’s first exhibition with Modern Art as well as his first solo show in the UK. Alvin Baltrop was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1948, and he lived and worked in New York City for almost all of his life. He began shooting photographs as a teenager on the city’s streets, including scenes from the now famous gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, during the 1960s. In 1969 Baltrop enlisted in the US Navy, spending several years on board an Atlantic patroller as a medic. During his spare time he advanced his photography practice, making his own developing trays out of medic equipment, and capturing his fellow naval officers in leisurely and erotic nuances that carry forward into his later work. Upon returning to the Bronx, he enrolled in the School ... More

The Prince of Wales becomes Museum of London Patron
LONDON.- The Museum of London has today announced that The Prince of Wales has become its Patron. The Patronage follows His Royal Highness’s visit to the museum’s future home in West Smithfield earlier this year. The Museum of London’s mission is to enhance the understanding and appreciation of London and all its people – past, present, future – at its current home in London Wall, its future home in Smithfield and at the Museum of London Docklands in West India Quay. At the visit earlier this year His Royal Highness was given a tour of the Victorian General Market designed by Sir Horace Jones, which has lain empty for almost 30 years, and is due to become the Museum’s main show stopping public space. The Prince heard how wider plans are progressing for the largest cultural infrastructure project happening anywhere in Europe and the museum’s ... More

PAN Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli opens exhibition of "Garage Stills" by Jacquie Maria Wessels
NAPLES.- The poetic and meticulous photo series "Garage Stills" by Jacquie Maria Wessels (Amsterdam - NL) take us on a journey through raw but painterly still lifes made in various interiors of different traditional auto repair garages around the world. We are welcomed into a reality that is slowly disappearing, as computer technology is taking over the work previously done by men. The more than 30 works in this series shown at the PAN have been made with an analogue camera. For her project "Garage Stills", Wessels is looking for old garages from all over the world, fascinated and intrigued by the shapes and colours of the mysterious objects she discovers along the way. From Cambodia to Naples to Sri Lanka, she moves and removes these objects to create a poetic still life. At first glance, the pictures contain the same elements, but at second glance ... More

Cincinnati Art Museum opens reimagined Ancient Middle East gallery
CINC.- Significant physical changes to the Cincinnati Art Museum’s existing 2,800-square-foot ancient Middle East gallery opened to the public. The new space showcases works from across the ancient Middle East, including the most significant collection of Nabataean art in the United States. The new galleries have been arranged thematically and incorporate contemporary reflections on ancient pasts, encouraging visitors to rethink the way a twenty-first century museum interprets ancient Middle Eastern art. The reinstallation includes objects displayed for the first time alongside much lauded strengths of the permanent collection to celebrate the art, innovation, and human endeavor from this vast region. This approach presents political, religious, economic, and cultural connections between the network of empires and city-states of the ancient Middle East. ... More


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Flashback
On a day like today, English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner died
December 19, 1851. Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April 1775 - 19 December 1851), known as J. M. W. Turner and contemporarily as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist, known for his expressive colourisation, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. In this image: Joseph Mallord William Turner, "The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834," 1834 - 1835. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art. The John Howard McFadden Collection.

  
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