| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Sunday, March 22, 2020 |
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| | From victims to superwomen: Honoring female strength in Afghanistan | |
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The photographer and artist Rada Akbar, the artist behind the exhibit Abarzanan, which explores female trailblazers during a fearful time for Afghan women, at her exhibit at the Chehilsoton Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 13, 2020. ÂWeÂre not victims  weÂre champions, said Akbar. Kiana Hayeri/The New York Times.
by David Zucchino
KABUL (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Inside an art exhibit called ÂAbarzanan  Superwomen  stones the size of pomegranates hover above a mannequin wearing a dress fashioned from a white burial shroud. The display commemorates a young Afghan woman, Rukhshana, 19, who was stoned to death by village men in 2015. She had fled an arranged marriage to a much older man and eloped with a young lover in a Taliban-controlled district in western Afghanistan. The Superwomen exhibit, created by photographer and artist Rada Akbar, honors eight trailblazing women in Afghanistan and the region  among them an ancient queen and a 10th-century poet  at a fearful time for Afghan women. After 19 years of halting gains after the collapse of Taliban rule, a Feb. 29 agreement between the United States and insurgents has filled many Afghan women with dread. The agreement does not mention womenÂs rights but does envision a return of the Taliban to a future Afghan government after U.S. troops withdraw. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Street lights illuminate a deserted Champs Elysees leading to the Arc de Triumph monument in central Paris on March 21, 2020, as a strict lockdown is in effect across France to stop the spread of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus. A strict lockdown requiring most people in France to remain at home came into effect at midday on March 17, 2020, prohibiting all but essential outings in a bid to curb the coronavirus spread. The government has said tens of thousands of police will be patrolling streets and issuing fines of 135 euros ($150) for people without a written declaration justifying their reasons for being out. JOEL SAGET / AFP
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 | | Kenny Rogers, who brought country music to a pop audience, dies at 81 | | Boris Yaro, whose ohoto of an assassination endures, dies at 81 | | Record-breaking Japanese whisky leads Sotheby's 'Finest & Rarest' auctions in London | 
Kenny Rogers performs with the rock band Phish at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., June 10, 2012. Chad Batka/The New York Times.
by Bill Friskics-Warren
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Kenny Rogers, a prolific singer who played a major role in expanding the audience for country music in the 1970s and 80s, died Friday at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He was 81. His death was announced by his publicist, Keith Hagan. Hagan did not specify the cause but said that Rogers had been in hospice care. Rogers retired from performing for health reasons in 2018. Singing in a husky voice that exuded sincerity and warmth, Rogers sold well over 100 million records in a career that spanned seven decades. He had 21 No. 1 country hits, including two Lady, written and produced by Lionel Richie, and Islands in the Stream, composed by the Bee Gees and performed with Dolly Parton that reached No. 1 on the pop chart as well. ... More | | 
Boris Yaro, The Shooting of Robert F. Kennedy 1968. Gelatin silver print. 11 1/4 à 9" (28.5 à 22.9 cm) Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr. Fund. 424.1992 © 2020 Boris Yaro.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Boris Yaro, a photographer for The Los Angeles Times, wasnt on assignment June 5, 1968. But he decided to stop by the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he heard that Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was about to give his victory speech in the hotels ballroom after winning the California Democratic presidential primary. As Kennedy finished speaking, Yaro retreated to a pantry area, expecting Kennedy to exit through it. He hoped he could snap a photograph or two for his wall at home. Then he heard gunfire firecrackerlike explosions, he remembered. I stood frozen as the assailant emptied his weapon, he recalled in an account published with a photojournalism exhibition at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles in 2018. When he stopped, I heard a voice say, Get him, and several men grabbed him and pushed him down on a metal countertop ... More | | 
A bottle of Karuizawa 52 Year Old Cask #5627 Zodiac Rat 1960 achieves £363,000 / $435,273. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Wednesday's sales of Finest & Rarest Wines and Spirits at Sothebys in London brought a combined total of £3.7 million / $4.4 million (est. £2.8 3.8 million / $3.3 4.5 million). A substantial proportion of lots achieved prices above their high estimates, and in a category where online bidding is traditionally strong, over 50% of the buyers placed their winning bids online. A new auction record was achieved for a bottle of Japanese whisky, with a bottle of Karuizawa 52 Year Old Zodiac Rat Cask #5627 1960, sold for £363,000 / $435,273 to an Asian private collector, and far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of £160,000-220,000. The oldest Karuizawa to have been released, this iconic bottle is one of only 41 that were produced, each uniquely identified by an individual netsuke carved from the oak cask head of cask #5627. Finest & Rarest Spirits totalled £1,401,122 / $1,680,085 (est. £1 1 ... More |
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| | Cardi Gallery hosts the most comprehensive exhibition of Mimmo Rotella's practice ever seen in the UK | | Exhibition presents a series of animated political collages and landscape photographs by Catherine Opie | | Phillips takes next steps in announcing sale dates for New York in June | 
Mimmo Rotella, La qué, 1973. Signed on the lower left on recto: "Rotella". Artypo-plastique, 140.6 x 98.5 cm. 55 3/8 x 38 3/4 in.
LONDON.- Cardi Gallery | London is presenting Mimmo Rotella. Beyond Décollage: Photo Emulsions and Artypos, 1963-1980. Perhaps best known for his Décollages made of distressed street posters ripped from the walls of Rome, Beyond Décollage establishes Mimmo Rotella (1918 2006) as a major pioneer of the Pop Art movement, who worked simultaneously with Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. The exhibition clearly shows how the visionary Italian artist was amongst the first to use a photographic process to print a kaleidoscope of iconic images onto traditional materials associated with conventional art, such as canvas and paper. The exhibition is open by appointment only. Rotella created an art form that would chronicle his time and marry the power of iconic film and popular imagery to the history of painting. He did so by inventing new techniques to transform the traditional canvas into a photographic ... More | | 
Catherine Opie, Untitled #1 (Swamps), 2019. Pigment print, 40 x 60 inches (101.6 x 152.4 cm) © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Regen Projects debuted a new body of work by Los Angeles-based artist Catherine Opie. Titled Rhetorical Landscapes, the exhibition presents a series of animated political collages and landscape photographs. This marks the artists tenth solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition is on view by appointment only. For over thirty years, Catherine Opie has captured often overlooked aspects of contemporary American life and culture. One of the most important photographers of her generation, her photographic subjects have included early seminal portraits of the LGBTQ+ community, the architecture of Los Angeles' freeway system, mansions in Beverly Hills, Midwestern icehouses, high school football players, California surfers, and abstract landscapes of National Parks, among others. Rhetorical Landscapes continues Opies examination of the current American political ... More | | 
The New York auctions will take place on the heels of Phillips spring season in Hong Kong, which will be hosted, as originally planned, on 31 May-2 June. Image courtesy of Phillips.
NEW YORK, NY.- Following the recent restructuring of the Spring auction calendar, Phillips announced that its upcoming 20th Century & Contemporary Art sales in New York will be held the week of 22 June 2020, consolidating the New York and London sales into one week of auctions. These sales will be followed by the New York auctions of Jewels, Design, Editions, and Photographs, the dates of which are forthcoming. The New York auctions will take place on the heels of Phillips spring season in Hong Kong, which will be hosted, as originally planned, on 31 May-2 June. Also preceding the New York sales are a series of auctions in London in early June, the exact dates for which will be communicated in due course. Edward Dolman, CEO, and Cheyenne Westphal, Global Chairwoman, jointly said, As we navigate through these difficult times together, we ... More |
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| | Book gathers all of Albertus Seba's extraordinary illustrations | | Florida International University museums engage arts and culture lovers working and learning at home | | James Hatch, archivist of black theater, dies at 91 | 
Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities is one of the 18th centurys greatest natural history achievements and remains one of the most prized natural history books of all time. Though scientists of his era often collected natural specimens for research purposes, Amsterdam-based pharmacist Albertus Seba (16651736) was unrivaled in his passion. His amazing collection of animals, plants, and insects from all around the world earned him international fame. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned careful and often scenic illustrations of every specimen. With these meticulous drawings, he arranged for the publication of a four-volume catalog, covering the entire collection from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, birds, and butterflies, as well as creatures that are now extinct. Taken from a rare hand-colored original, the best-selling collection features an introduction that contextualizes the fascinating tradition of natural coll ... More | | 
Seated Buddha in Abhayamudra, 18th centuryJapan, Edo Period, 1615-1868, bronze, 29 x 25 x 12 inches, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. Ruxton Love, Metropolitan Museum and Art Center Collection, 71.1.27.
MIAMI, FLA.- As FIUs three museums join museums around the world in temporarily closing their doors in response to the coronavirus pandemic, they continue to offer inspiring, compelling and educational content to the community via virtual tours, digital content and social media outreach. At Frost Art FIU, curatorial, educational and content teams are working together virtually to bring their members, supporters and art fans, entertainment, refuge and education. The museum has highlighted the following virtual tours: Deconstruction: A Reordering of Life, Politics, and Art presents the work of twelve Miami-based artists who interrogate varying notions of deconstruction in their work. Spheres of Meaning: An Exhibition of Artists' Books presents a range of artists' books from manipulated texts to new narrative forms and books presented as sculptures. ... More | | 
The Roots of African American Drama: An Anthology of Early Plays, 1858-1938.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- James V. Hatch, a historian of black theater who, with his wife, artist and filmmaker Camille Billops, created a vast archive of interviews with black actors, singers, writers and artists, died Feb. 14 in Manhattan. He was 91. His son, Dion Hatch, said the cause was Alzheimers disease. James Hatch, who taught English and theater at City College for three decades, was the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including The Roots of African American Drama: An Anthology of Early Plays, 1858-1938 (1990), which he edited with Leo Hamalian, and Sorrow Is the Only Faithful One: The Life of Owen Dodson (1993), about the black poet and playwright. His area of scholarship sometimes raised eyebrows because Hatch was white. I was born in Iowa, and the only thing I knew about black people was what I read in books Mark ... More |
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| | New book offers photographic insights into China's rapid changes within the time frame of the last 20 years | | Now on view (online): Site-specific installation exploring the precariousness of living by Shaqayeq Arabi | | Freelance musicians fear for future amid uncertainty | 
Rosemarie Zens: Moon Rabbit: The Chinese Journey. © Rosemarie Zens.
NEW YORK, NY.- At the beginning of her travels to China, Rosemarie Zens found a predominantly agrarian multi-ethnic state and initially photographed mainly landscapes and everyday scenes in urban and rural situations that reminded her of pre-modern times in our Western world. Within a time-frame of twenty years, a rapid structural change within Chinese society took place. The memorable photographs show how China increasingly orients itself towards Western culture and how homogenizing forces such as science, technology and the global market influence individual life. On various levels, however, the images also bear witness to how the precarious developments reflect our own approach to the world, while traces of the spirituality of ancient Chinese culture can still be found in the style of the images. The calligraphies opening the chapters, were specially designed ... More | | 
Untitled 1 (from On Stilts).
NEW YORK, NY.- signs and symbols is presenting Dancing on Stilts, a solo exhibition by artist Shaqayeq Arabi. The exhibition features a site-specific installation composed of found objects and natural, symbolic material, combining sculpture with painterly elements to allude to shifting relationships between representation and abstraction, memory and materiality, structure and sensation. With Dancing on Stilts, Arabi continues an ongoing series of works entitled On Stilts, a series of precariously balanced structures that examine the tension between the discomfort of disequilibrium and the motivation to stand erect and independent, in circumstance otherwise wrought with uncertainty, precarity, and peril. To be in the world is to live immersed in a milieu of opposing forces within and around oneself; To accept these forces implies an acceptance of indeterminacy that both stems from and is a place of strength. Through her acts of t ... More | | 
Clare Hoskins, a freelance oboist, poses for a photograph in central London on March 20, 2020. Tolga AKMEN / AFP.
LONDON (AFP).- UK freelance musicians, among the vulnerable self-employed groups during the coronavirus crisis, fear they have been "thrown under a bus" by the government after being excluded from a state wage guarantee. They are among the many freelancers who are not covered by the UK government's coronavirus economic proposals, announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Friday. To add to their concerns, many of them will be renters not helped by a potential three-month mortgage holiday for homeowners either, also announced by the government. "We're bitterly disappointed to be honest with you," Horace Trubridge, Secretary General of the Musicians' Union, told AFP. "I think the government's thrown self-employed workers under a bus. "I don't understand how they could offer on the one hand ... More |
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Art in Public Places, 1973 | From the Vaults
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| | More News |
 Lessons from my grandma on art, sex and lifeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- My father once asked his mother, artist Annette Nancarrow, what she thought of Leon Trotsky. It wasnt a political question. He just wanted her impression of the exiled Bolshevik, whom she had first met in Mexico City in the late 1930s, in the studio of her close friend (and, my father suspected, future lover) Diego Rivera. Well, I was surprised to see the leader of the proletariat so elegantly dressed, she recalled, many decades after Trotskys murder by a Soviet agent in 1940. His attire was impeccable, and I was particularly struck by the Parisian calfskin gloves he took off of his beautifully manicured hands. The answer was vintage Nancarrow. As a painter, she saw the part of the surface that revealed the inner man the bourgeois fop within the fiery revolutionary. As a judge of character, she sensed why ... More How coronavirus-weary Americans are seeking joyFORT LAUDERDALE (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Americans were sunning themselves on beaches just days ago. They were sipping cocktails at bars. They were cheering on sports teams and working out at the gym. They were chasing culture at museums and cutting a rug at clubs. They were trying to get lucky in Vegas, and romping through Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth. No more. Closed, canceled, quiet. Americans have shut themselves off from each other in a dramatic fashion in hopes of curbing the global coronavirus outbreak. The days of cutting loose are gone. Unless its 6 feet apart. No ice cream parties. No yoga classes. No cocktail mixers. No bingo. No nothing. But some are redefining what it means to have fun, savoring simple pleasures in the midst of so much gloom. ... More Freight+Volume opens Pungent Dystopia: A group exhibitionNEW YORK, NY.- Freight+Volume is presenting Pungent Dystopia, a group exhibition of works by David Baskin, Bradley Biancardi, Tony Bluestone, Sam Bornstein, Becky Brown, Nicholas Cueva, Nicholas Dileo, Bel Fullana, Peter Gallo, Alex Gingrow, Rebecca Goyette, Nora Griffin, Anthony Haden-Guest, Karen Finley, Marcel Hüppauff, Dylan Hurwitz, Samuel Jablon, JJ Manford, Emilia Olsen, Michael Scoggins, Dan Schein, Alex Sewell, Emilie Stark-Menneg, Chris Toepfer and Eric Wiley. The exhibition will run from March 19th through April 19th, 2020. The exhibition is on view by appointment only. Confronting the anxiety, dysfunction, and hysteria of modern society, the works on display embody aspects of escapism and fantasy across alternatingly text-based, figurative, and narrative pieces. Paralleling our post-truth political climate, marked ... More Object & Thing shifts 2nd edition dates to Nov 13-15NEW YORK, NY.- Object & Thing announced today that its second edition, previously scheduled to take place May 7-10, 2020 will be postponed until November 13-15, 2020 to prioritize the health and well-being of our communities and in response to the CDCs recommendation to cancel or postpone large in-person events throughout the United States over the next eight weeks as a means of slowing the spread of COVID-19. Returning to the light-filled industrial space of 99 Scott in Brooklyn this November, Founder Abby Banger and Artistic Director Rafael de Cárdenas will debut a new concept for Object & Thing, expanding The Shop as the central focus in order to provide greater access to art and design objects and an expanded sales platform for a larger number of small independent businesses from around the world during the holiday shopping ... More Home with your kids? Writers want to helpNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- School closings are a drastic change for kids at this challenging time, and childrens authors whose normal routines are also disrupted are finding ways to reach their readers in different ways. Dozens of book festivals, tours and events have been canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and some writers are turning to social media to engage with their fans, offering readings of their books, art classes and other activities to keep them entertained. Heres what theyre doing. When Gene Luen Yangs tour for his new graphic novel, Dragon Hoops, was canceled as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, I felt disheartened and helpless, he said. In lieu of an in-person tour, he held a Facebook Live session to discuss the book. Hes also touring as a cartoon on his Instagram page, where ... More Broadway, shuttered by pandemic, reaches short-term pay dealNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Broadway producers have agreed to pay hundreds of actors, musicians, stagehands and others for the first few weeks of the industry shutdown and to cover their health insurance for at least a month. The emergency relief agreement, announced Friday evening, was negotiated by the Broadway League, a trade organization, with 14 labor unions representing a range of workers, from ushers to makeup artists to publicists. The Broadway shutdown, prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, has cost thousands of people their jobs and is causing trickle-down damage to many Times Square businesses that depend on theater patrons. The industry, which was idled March 12, had initially said it hoped to resume performances April 13 but now expects a reopening is more likely to be in May or June. Under the agreement, ... More She had 3 jobs to support her music. Now all are gone.NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Jenna Camille Henderson, a singer-songwriter in Washington, D.C., didnt have just one job. Instead, like many other musicians and creative workers in the United States, she pieced together a living from multiple sources. This delicate process, known dryly as the freelance hustle, can be exasperating, but it can also provide a special kind of freedom and independence. It can even be reassuring to know that your economic fortunes arent tied to a single company or field. Until a global pandemic hits, and all the places where you work are affected. At the beginning of March, she was making steady money thanks to three jobs: working security at the 9:30 Club, a beloved music venue; providing paraprofessional support at a charter school; and playing a weekly gig at a local club. In less than a week, each one of those ... More Before Bach, he was Germany's greatest composerNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The professor who taught a course I took on Baroque music in graduate school certainly fit the stereotype of a stuffy old musicologist, with his baggy suits and befuddled manner, yet strict adherence to scholarship. But Ill be forever grateful to him, because he essentially introduced me to the music of Heinrich Schütz. I knew of Schützs historical importance. Born in 1585, exactly 100 years before Bach, he is considered the greatest German composer of the 17th century. I hardly knew his music, however, and neither does much of the concert-going public today. One day, that professor put on a recording of Schützs Die Sieben Worte Jesu am Kreuz, a setting of Jesus final words from the cross, framed by two stanzas of a hymn text. From the start of the poignant Introitus to this austerely beautiful ... More Kahlil Joseph wins the 6th Eye Art & Film PrizeAMSTERDAM.- Eye Filmmuseum announced Kahlil Joseph as the winner of the Eye & Art Prize 2020 In collaboration between Eye Filmmuseum and the Paddy & Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund since 2015, the Eye Art & Film Prize aims to support an artist or filmmaker whose work has contributed in an extraordinary way to new developments at the interface between visual art and film. With the Eye Art & Film Prize of £25,000, Kahlil Joseph can create new work. Jury chair Sandra den Hamer, director of Eye Filmmuseum: Artist Kahlil Joseph makes overwhelming work about the experience that blurs the boundaries between cinema, visual arts and music. His work focuses on the experience of African Americans in the United States. He presents his political commentary in an elegant, almost alluring way, in beautiful, carefully arranged installations with ... More What happens when we lose the art that brings us together?NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- What do we do now? Its a big question as a matter of policy, national purpose and social cohesion its the big question made up of a knot of local, individual, practical decisions. What actions can each of us take to stay healthy, connected and sane, to fight the dangerous secondary infections of boredom, selfishness and panic? How are we going to stay busy? How are we going to keep ourselves entertained? That last one may seem like a trivial problem with an easy solution. Lives and livelihoods are at stake, and theres still plenty to watch on television. Maybe the lamentations about the closing of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, theaters and museums represent the displacement of deeper fears about the wholesale collapse of civilization. But its also true that the suspension of those amusements of every ... More Wilding Cran Gallery opens an online exhibition of works by Fran Siegel and Paul ScottLOS ANGELES, CA.- Wilding Cran Gallery is presenting Seam & Transfer, an online exhibition of works by Los Angeles based artist Fran Siegel and British artist Paul Scott. In Seam & Transfer, Fran Siegel and Paul Scott tell stories of translation and migration with the use of pattern and motif, expanding techniques of collage and reassembly within the traditionally conventional mediums of ceramics, drawing and tapestry to communicate a subverted, contemporary message. Informed by place, Siegels work in Seam & Transfer traces the migratory history of early European porcelain found in collections from The Huntington Library, the Getty, and during a fellowship at La Napoule Foundation in France. Translated through multiple layers, materials, and processes of mark-making and drawing, cyanotype, image transfer and embroidery on fabric and ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Flemish-English painter Anthony van Dyck was born March 22, 1599. Sir Anthony van Dyck (22 March 1599 - 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England, after enjoying great success in Italy and the Southern Netherlands. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. In this image: The self-portrait was commissioned by the English King Charles I
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