| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Sunday, January 3, 2021 |
 |
| | Congress poised to apply banking regulations to antiquities market | |
|
|
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 26, 2020. The antiquities trade, which regulators have long feared provided fertile ground for money laundering and other illicit activities, will be subject to greater oversight under legislation passed by Congress on Friday, Jan. 1, 2021, when it overrode President Donald Trumps veto. Samuel Corum/The New York Times.
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The antiquities trade, which regulators have long feared provided fertile ground for money laundering and other illicit activities, will be subject to greater oversight under legislation passed by Congress on Friday when it overrode President Donald Trumps veto. The provisions tightening scrutiny of the antiquities market were contained within the sprawling National Defense Authorization Act, which Trump vetoed last week. The House and Senate voted to override the veto on Monday and on Friday. Regulators have long worried that the opacity of the antiquities trade, where buyers and sellers are seldom identified, made it easy to shroud illicit transfers of money. The new legislation empowers federal regulators to design measures that would remove secrecy from transactions. With the new legislation, Congress moved to broaden the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which increased federal scrutiny of financial transactions, to include the trade of ancient artifacts. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Chess Game: Carl Andre, Alighiero Boetti. Massimo De Carlo, Milan/Lombardia From 7 November 2020 to 16 January 2021 Installation Views: Roberto Marossi Courtesy Massimo De Carlo, Milan/London/Hong Kong.
|
|
|
| 
|
| From a 1550s pandemic, a choral work still casts its spell | | Now Open: William Monk at Pace Gallery in Hong Kong | | Pierre Cardin, fashion's savvy futurist | 
The manuscript of Media vita has not survived, only a copy made in the 1570s. Photo: Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Media vita starts low, rising as if from catacombs. The tenors begin, sounding the slow, steady chant that will occupy them for more than 20 minutes. Countertenors come in above them, also rising step by step. Then the highest line enters, then another, another, still another, until all six parts take flight rich yet somehow fragile, even lonely, and full of fear. Media vita in morte sumus, they sing: In the midst of life we are in death. We dont know much about John Sheppard, the composer of this polyphonic edifice. We dont know when he was born, or where. We dont know what he did for much of his life, and we are missing much of the music we can assume he wrote. We do know when he died. A member of the Chapel Royal, the household choir of the English monarchs, he was buried in Westminster on Dec. 21, 1558. This was at the fateful hinge point of the English Reformation, between the death of Mary I, a Catholic, ... More | | 
William Monk, Point Datum II, 2020, oil on canvas, 45 cm à 35 cm à 6 cm (17-11/16" à 13-3/4" à 2-3/8") © William Monk.
HONG KONG.- William Monks latest series of paintings titled Point Datum plot a course across some vast and unknowable fictive landscape. What Monk eloquently describes as a bounded arrangement, are a set of parameters for connection; a series of fixed points made physical through applied paint. A series of determinants within a range of painterly options, from scale and tone to the meeting of colors that produce a line and a boundary. A datum point,Monks inversion for the title suggests a geographyrefers to origin and destination, or rather in order to define a course or path one needs two points. For the artist this recognizes not only the fictive space of the image but the space between images, between paintings and keenly between us the viewer and painting. As he explains The imagined painterly space is both abstract and figurative, and the literal space is equally so. Both are physical and metaphysical. As, with music, its the s ... More | | 
This file photo taken on March 14, 2016 shows French fashion designer Pierre Cardin posing in the theatre of the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris. French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, hailed for his visionary creations but also for bringing stylish clothes to the masses, died on December 29, 2020 aged 98, his family told AFP. Cardin who was born in Italy in 1922 but emigrated to France as a small child, died in a hospital in Neuilly in the west of Paris, his family said. JOEL SAGET / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- Pierre Cardin, who died Tuesday aged 98, was a man of many paradoxes -- a designer who sought flamboyant yet simple styles, an aesthete with a head for business, and a futurist now associated with retro. He rose to the pantheon of France's post-war fashion giants only to shake it all up by leading what was in the 1950s a revolutionary concept -- designing "ready-to-wear" collections for the high street. A savvy businessman, he expanded his empire globally, moving into once closed markets and selling hundreds of licences to make himself the undisputed king of designer merchandising -- and being slammed by the ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Andy Warhol's book of desire: A rare and intimate addition to the Warhol canon | | GEM to become KM21: New name underlines link with Kunstmuseum Den Haag | | Chess Game: Massimo De Carlo presents an exhibition dedicated to Carl Andre and Alighiero Boetti | 
Andy Warhol. Love, Sex, and Desire. Drawings 19501962. First printing of 7,500 numbered copies. US$ 100. Availability: December 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Well before Andy Warhols rise to the pinnacle of Pop Art, he created and exhibited seductive drawings celebrating male beauty. Andy Warhol Love, Sex, & Desire: Drawings 1950-1962 features over three hundred drawings rendered primarily in ink on paper portraying young men, many of them nude, some sexually charged, and occasionally adorned with whimsical black hearts and delightful embellishments. They lounge or preen, proud of or even bored by their beauty, while the artist sketches them, rapt. They rarely engage with their keen observer, and likewise Warhols focus is on their form, their erotic qualities, and unbridled sexuality. If his subjects are content to revel in their attractiveness, so too is Warhol. His confident hand illustrates a multitude of colorful characters, yet also reveals much about this enigmatic artist. Warhol was already a booming commercial illustrator when he exhibited studies from this body of wor ... More | | 
The introduction of the new name will be accompanied by the launch of a new logo and website (www.km21.nl).
THE HAGUE.- From 2021 GEM museum of contemporary art in The Hague will be known as KM21. KM refers to Kunstmuseum Den Haag, and 21 to the art of the twenty-first century. The new name will make the museum more clearly recognisable as a partner to Kunstmuseum Den Haag (and its collection), which also encompasses Fotomuseum Den Haag. Since it opened in 2002 GEM museum of contemporary art has been part of the same organisation and under the same management, but few make the link between the two museums, and even less so since the mother museum changed its name from Gemeentemuseum Den Haag to Kunstmuseum Den Haag in October 2019, explains director Benno Tempel. Thats a shame, because the link between an institute for contemporary art and an international art museum and its collection is the only one of its kind in the Netherlands. There is no other contemporary art exhibition space with its ... More | | 
Chess Game: Carl Andre and Alighiero Boetti at Massimo De Carlo, Milan/Lombardia. From 7 November 2020 to 16 January 2021. Installation View: Roberto Marossi. Courtesy Massimo De Carlo, Milan / London / Hong Kong.
MILAN.- Massimo De Carlo is presenting Chess Game, an exhibition dedicated to Carl Andre (1935) and Alighiero Boetti (1940‐1994), two artists who played a pivotal role in the international art scene of the XX Century. The exhibition focuses on affinities and contrasts in Carl Andre and Alighiero Boettis practice during the renewal of the artistic language which arose in America and Europe between the 1960s and 1970s, and presents a selection of the most significant artworks in each artists first twenty years of production. The show is curated by Bettina Della Casa and takes place until 16th of January 2021. Both Carl Andre and Alighiero Boetti have participated in some key exhibitions of the season, such as When Attitudes Become Form, Kunsthalle Bern, curated by Harald Szeemann; Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, Land Art, Galleria Civica dArte Moderna, Torino, 1970 curated by G ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Joan Micklin Silver, director of 'Crossing Delancey,' dies at 85 | | Three years strong: Louvre Abu Dhabi marks anniversary with a film premiere, new loans and acquisitions | | Three new commissions for Kiasma's collection: Maija Luutonen, Alma Heikkiä and Emma Jääskeläinen | 
Crossing Delancey (1988) was a romantic comedy about a sophisticated, single New York bookstore employee (Amy Irving) who is constantly looking over her shoulder to be sure that shes made a clean getaway from her Lower East Side roots.
by Anita Gates
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Joan Micklin Silver, the filmmaker whose first feature, Hester Street, expanded the marketplace for American independent film and broke barriers for women in directing, died Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 85. Her daughter Claudia Silver said the cause was vascular dementia. Silver wrote and directed Hester Street (1975), the story of a young Jewish immigrant couple from Russia on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1890s. It was a personal effort, a low-budget 34-day location shoot, that became a family project. Studios said the story was too narrowly and historically ethnic. For one thing, much of the film, in black and white, was in Yiddish with English subtitles. Nobody ... More | | 
10,000 Years of Luxury © Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi. Photo: Ismail Noor.
ABU DHABI.- Louvre Abu Dhabi celebrated its third-year anniversary, reflecting on its most innovative year to date and looking ahead to the future of the institution. In the face of 2020s unprecedented adversity, the museum met the challenges borne of the global pandemic with agility and heightened creativity, commissioning its first short film, The Pulse of Time, and launching more than 20 new digital initiatives, drawing millions of visitors to its growing online community. Louvre Abu Dhabis fourth year promises to be equally dynamic, with the museum implementing fresh programmes and unveiling exciting new acquisitions and loans in its galleries. HE Mohamed Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi said: "The achievements of Louvre Abu Dhabi in three short years have made a remarkable impact on the emirates cultural scene. What began as an agreement between the governments of Abu ... More | | 
Artist Emma Jääskeläinen. Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen.
HELSINKI.- Emma Jääskeläinen's exhibition Proper Omelette ends the three-year Kiasma Commission by Kordelin project on January 10, 2021. In a new initiative launched in 2017 as a collaboration between the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, three magnificent, extensive commissioned works by three artists were created for Kiasma. The artists were Maija Luutonen, Alma Heikkiä and Emma Jääskeläinen. The aim was to raise emerging local artists to international recognition and at the same time increase the international visibility of Finnish contemporary art. Each project consisted of the production of works and publishing an exhibition catalogue, a solo exhibition at Kiasma, and support for the exhibition tour and international relations for each artist. All the commissioned artworks are included in the collection of the Finnish National Gallery. Patch by Maija Luutonen is the first artwork in the Kiasma ... More |
|
|
|
|
| Basque antinuclear painting donated to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum | | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announces $17.5M gift from Windgate Foundation to champion American craft | | First museum devoted to the entire history of the United States Army opens in Washington | 
Lemoiz gelditu (Lemoiz Stoppage), 1980. Acrylic and synthetic paint on Tablex. 488 x 732 cm. 12 panels. 244 x 122 cm [each]. Donation from the Basque antinuclear movement in 2020.
BILBAO.- The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum presented an important set of donations received from artists, or their heirs, and from private collectors. The works are by Lucas Vorsterman I (15951675), Vicente Larrea (1934), Thomas Struth (1954), Juan Carlos Eguillor (19472011), Juncal BallestÃn (19532015) and Dora Salazar (1963), among others, and their entry into the collection via donations reflects one of the Bilbao museums hallmarks: expanding its collection through its close ties to artists and the patronage mission of private collections. The impressive mural Lemoiz gelditu (Lemoiz Stoppage) was also added at that time, and it is now being unveiled to the public in gallery 32 of the museum. It is largely a testimony of a particularly important episode in our recent history, while revealing many artists commitment to our environment today. On 8 and 9 November 1980, the Herrikoi Topaketak (Popular Encounters) we ... More | | 
Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2009. Fabric with appliquéd crochet and buttons, knitted yarn, and metal armature, 97 x 26 x 20 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photography: James Prinz. Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.
BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced that Windgate Foundation has provided a $17.5 million gift to advance the field of craft through a dedicated position, research, programmatic support, as well as an acquisitions fund to bring craft objects into the museums permanent collection. This gift builds upon the Crystal Bridges-organized exhibition, Crafting America. Today, as we reflect on the nine years Crystal Bridges has been open to the public, we are grateful to the visionaries at Windgate Foundation, who have been champions of craft and fervent supporters of arts education at the museum, said Rod Bigelow, executive director and chief diversity & inclusion officer, Crystal Bridges. The Foundations significant contribution will further the work and impact of the Crafting America exhibition and expand conversations about American ... More | | 
The 185,000-square-foot museum walks visitors through every generation of the United States Army and celebrates the story of the individual soldier. Photo © Dave Burk | SOM.
WASHINGTON, DC.- SOM and the Army Historical Foundation recently celebrated the completion and opening of the National Museum of the United States Army, a cultural institution of national significance that is the first to tell the story of the oldest branch of the United States military. The building which is located just 20 miles outside of Washington, D.C. is designed to serve as a center of education, and the Armys symbolic front door. By walking visitors through every generation of the Army, the museum focuses not on battles or wars, but on the individual soldier a centuries-long narrative of honor, sacrifice, and valor. Our partners at SOM did a magnificent job helping us envision a museum that would reflect the Armys storied history, its values, and the service of the 30 million men and women who have worn its uniform, said LTG Roger Schultz, USA (Ret.), President of the Army Historical Foundation, the ... More |
|
2020 Reflections | #DMAatHome
|
|
|
| More News |
 Cranbrook receives Decorative Arts Trust curatorial internship grantMEDIA, PA.- The Decorative Arts Trust announced that the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is the 20212023 Curatorial Internship Grant partner. The Decorative Arts Trust is a nonprofit organization that underwrites curatorial internships for recent Masters or PhD graduates in collaboration with museums and historical societies. These internships allow host organizations to hire a deserving professional who will learn about the responsibilities and duties common to the curatorial field while working alongside a talented mentor. The Trusts internship program seeks to provide mutually beneficial opportunities that will nurture the next generation of museum curators while providing essential staffing for the host. Cranbrook Educational Community (CEC) is a world-renowned center of art, design, education, and science located in Bloomfield ... More  A new collection of limited edition prints and posters supports the Fund for Global Human RightsLONDON.- The Fund for Global Human Rights launched a new collection of limited edition prints and posters for sale, from emerging and international artists featured in the critically-acclaimed photography exhibition, Face to Face. Eight artists, including Alejandro Cartagena, Margaret Courtney-Clarke, Medina Dugger, Mahtab Hussain, Dhruv Malhotra, Sabelo Mlangeni, George Osodi and Kyle Weeks, are supporting the work of the Fund by creating an affordable limited edition print or poster, priced from £50 to £150. Proceeds from sales will directly support the work of the Fund, helping to equip local activists and organisations with the resources they need to respond to crises and create change in their communities around the world. Each artist has selected an image, or selection of work, from one of the striking series featured in Face ... More  New book features striking portraits by Oliver JordanNEW YORK.- What significance does portrait painting have today? What does it say? What presence does it have? What appreciation does it experience and what sense does it now make? This publications endeavours to explore these questions.The inclined viewer and reader will have the opportunity to familiarise him or herself with the artist Oliver Jordan and his models, both via the painterly process,the accompanying texts, and via his dialogue with Ralf-P. Seippel. The painter, the people portrayed and the viewer encounter each other in a conversation that spans different times and historical periods. In a time of inflated, narcissistically sugar-coated selfpresentations, portrait painting is proving its outstanding position once again. A further highlight of this publication is its choice selection of authors. Each personality portrayed is accompanied ... More  Opera to return to Sydney after virus hiatusSYDNEY (AFP).- The finishing touches were being put on a glitzy show at the Sydney Opera House Saturday, as the venue prepared to host an opera crowd for the first time since March. "The Merry Widow" will open on Tuesday to masked audiences up to 75 percent capacity, in a sign of hope for a performing arts industry crippled by the pandemic, artistic director Lyndon Terracini told AFP. "Walking back into the theatre was a very emotional time for everyone involved," he said. "I think throughout this year, other opera houses will be opening very soon and people will be coming back to the theatre with a sense of hope." Thanks to Australia's success in suppressing the virus, crowds inside venues -- including the Sydney Opera House -- have been permitted in the country's most populous city for months. But even as the performers readied ... More  Oliver Jeffers commissioned for holiday public art presentation at Rockefeller CenterNEW YORK, NY.- Brooklyn-based artist Oliver Jeffers has been selected as the commissioned artist for the 2020 holiday public art installation at Rockefeller Center. Jeffers large-scale printed vinyl murals are being displayed throughout the Rockefeller Center campus indoor and outdoor public areas. A free Rockefeller Center holiday map featuring Jeffers celebrated illustrations is available to all who work at and visit the Center. This presentation is the latest iteration of the Art in Focus public art program presented in partnership with the non-profit Art Production Fund. The public mural installation and free holiday map will be on view until January 11, 2021. Finding inspiration in the iconic holiday season at Rockefeller Center, Jeffers has created a series of illustrations depicting various cheerful winter scenes. Jeffers has found ... More  Art Basel shifts Hong Kong fair from March to May 2021HONG KONG.- Art Basel postponed its Hong Kong fair, which was scheduled to take place in March 2021, to May 2021 in response to the ongoing impact of the global pandemic including travel restrictions. The 2021 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from May 21 to May 23, 2021, with preview days on May 19 and May 20, 2021. This decision was taken in close consultation with gallerists, collectors, partners, and external experts, with the goal of ensuring that the fair will be attended by the largest possible number of collectors, curators, and arts professionals from Art Basel's global network, while protecting the health and safety of everyone concerned. Adeline Ooi, Director Asia, Art Basel said: We believe shifting the fair to May is the right decision given the current ... More  Power Station of Art announces the opening of the 13th Shanghai BiennaleSHANGHAI.- The Power Station of Art announced the opening of the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Bodies of Water. For the first time, the biennale will unfold as an in crescendo project. Challenging the usual art biennale format, it is the first stage of an eight-month extended program that will allow the artists, thinkers and curators contributing to the Biennale to develop their work in close collaboration with the City of Shanghai, its people, networks of activism, organizations, and institutions. Bodies of Water will culminate with the opening of PHASE 03: AN EXHIBITION on April 10, 2021. The Biennales Chief Curator, architect and writer Andrés Jaque, and its curatorial team composed of YOU Mi, Marina Otero Verzier, Lucia Pietroiusti, and Filipa Ramos, are collaborating with the School of Philosophy of Fudan University, the Shanghai ... More  Black Cube publishes 'A Nomadic Art Museum: Black Cube 2015 - 2020'NEW YORK, NY.- Black Cube announced the release of A Nomadic Art Museum: Black Cube 2015 2020, an expansive hardcover monograph that celebrates five years of groundbreaking, site-specific artworks. Operating nomadically as a traveling contemporary art museum, the book highlights the nonprofit organizations five-year journey across the United States and Europe producing situational art projects in unusual spaces (abandoned bus terminals, historic mining towns, iconic modernist chapels, and even cars). The monograph comprises 320-pages of photo documentation, behind-the-scenes images, and in-depth text, in addition to contributions by the institutions Founder, Laura Merage, Chief Curator, Cortney Lane Stell, and accomplished writers Angella d'Avignon and Paddy Johnson. Elegantly designed, this visual ... More  Waddesdon Manor unveils its 2021 programme WADDESDON.- Emerging from the gloom of 2020, this year looks rosier. Not least because Waddesdons 2021 season includes the second instalment of Nick Knights Roses from my Garden, a series of superb large-scale still life images with echoes of artists like Brueghel and van Huysum, yet wholly contemporary, extended from 2020. Also, from February, the history and secrets of the Manors kitchen and the people who worked in it will be revealed in a fascinating new display, while an exhibition of Gustave Moreaus watercolours that have not been seen in public for 115 years is sure to be a highlight of summer. As a summer retreat from London and a magnificent setting for weekend house parties, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschilds Waddesdon was the last word in luxury and refinement, not least through what was served from its cellars ... More  Schilt Publishing releases 'A Place of Our Own Samar. Aya. Saja. Majdoleen' by Iris HassidAMSTERDAM.- For six years (2014-2020) Tel Aviv-based photographer and artist Iris Hassid followed the day to day life of four young Palestinian women, citizens of Israel, who are part of a recent surge of the young generation of Arab female students attending Tel Aviv University. There is a growing group of young adults of Arabic descent demanding their rightful place in Israels society. Coming to Tel Aviv mostly from conservative families and patriarchal communities, they are forced to deal with the issues of identity and nationality definitions. They are faithful to their Palestinian heritage, but struggling to be true to themselves when merely speaking Arabic in public, rather than Hebrew, brings stares. I couldnt rent an apartment in Ramat Aviv for a long time. When I sent a copy of my ID card, the landlords would suddenly find a reason ... More  Crystal Bridges acquires an early Sam Gilliam drape paintingBENTONVILLE, ARK.- Crystal Bridges announced the acquisition of Mazda (1970), an early drape painting by the renowned artist Sam Gilliam. For more than 60 years, Gilliam has pushed the limits of traditional painting. In the 1960s, he received international acclaim for his drape paintings as he continued to explore abstraction through works that jumped off the wall, an exploration that would continue throughout his career. His mixed media work, Black and Golden Door (1996), was a gift to the Crystal Bridges collection in 2016, and Gilliam was featured in Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which was on view at Crystal Bridges in 2018. Mazda reveals the power of Gilliams experimentation in this massive abstract work that cuts a striking profile on the gallery wall. At more than 11 feet tall and 7.5 feet wide, it envelops ... More |
|
PhotoGalleries 
Anne Truitt Sound 
Islamic Metalwork 
Klaas Rommelaere 
Helen Muspratt
Flashback On a day like today, German-French painter August Macke was born January 03, 1887. August Macke (3 January 1887 - 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly innovative time for German art: he saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe. In this image: August Macke, Landschaft mit hellem Baum, 1914. Aquarell uber Bleistift, 22.2 x 30.9 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett. Photo: bpk, Jorg P. Anders.
|
|
|
|
© 1996 - 2020