| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Sunday, May 2, 2021 |
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| | Germany sets out plans to return Benin bronzes | |
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The 16th-century Queen Mother Pendant Mask from Benin City, on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, on Dec. 9, 2019. Germany will begin returning a substantial number of the priceless artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes from its museums to Nigeria next year, its culture ministry said on Thursday night, April 29, 2021. Andrea Mohin/The New York Times.
by Alex Marshall
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Germany will begin returning a substantial number of the priceless artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes from its museums to Nigeria next year, its culture ministry said Thursday night. The artifacts, which the British army looted in an 1897 raid on Benin City in what is now Nigeria, are scattered through museums and private collections around the world. Germanys announcement, the first by a national government with a timetable attached, comes as momentum is growing on both sides of the Atlantic to return the stolen objects. An online meeting of government officials, regional legislators and museum administrators reached an agreement that German institutions which own hundreds of the bronzes would step up talks with Nigerian partners and strive to make the first returns next year. We are facing the historical and moral responsibility to bring Germanys colonial past to light and to come to terms with it, Monika Grütters, Germanys cu ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day An auctioneer holds a plate which belonged to French Emperor Napoleon I ahead of its auction, at Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, south of Paris on April 30, 2021. An auction of hundreds of items belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte is scheduled on May 5, 2021, on the day marking the 200th anniversary of his death. Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
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| Eli Broad, who helped reshape Los Angeles, dies at 87 | | Swedish orienteering enthusiast finds Bronze Age treasure trove | | After 500 years, an ancient bronze hand is rejoined to a finger | 
Eli Broad, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist, in the offices of The Broad Foundation in Los Angeles on Aug. 21, 2007. Damon Winter/The New York Times.
by William Grimes
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Eli Broad, a businessman and philanthropist whose vast fortune, extensive art collection and zeal for civic improvement helped reshape the cultural landscape of Los Angeles, died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 87. Suzi Emmerling, a spokesperson for the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, confirmed his death, which she said came after a long illness. Broad (pronounced Brode) made billions in the homebuilding and insurance businesses and spent a significant part of his wealth trying to make Los Angeles one of the worlds preeminent cultural capitals. Few people in the modern history of Los Angeles were as instrumental in molding the regions cultural and civic life as Broad. He loved the city and put his stamp sometimes quite aggressively on its museums, music halls, schools and politics. He was, ... More | | 
Conservator Madelene Skogbert shows a bone ring from a find from the Bronze Age on April 29, 2021 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Adam IHSE / TT News Agency / AFP.
STOCKHOLM (AFP).- A Swedish orienteering enthusiast working on a map earlier in April stumbled across a stash of some 50 Bronze Age relics dating back over 2,500 years, authorities said Thursday. Mainly consisting of ancient jewelry, the find outside the small town of Alingsas in western Sweden represents one of "the most spectacular and largest cache finds" from the Bronze Age ever in the Nordic country, the County Administrative Board said in a statement. Among the relics, believed to be from the period between 750 and 500 BC, are some "very well preserved necklaces, chains and needles" made out of bronze. The objects were lying out in the open in front of some boulders out in the forest. "Presumably animals have dug them out of a crevice between the boulders, where you can assume that they had been lying before," the government agency said. Tomas Karlsson, the cartographer who made the discovery when he was out updating a map, at first ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on October 14, 2020 visitors wearing face masks look at statues in The Louvre Museum, deserted by tourists due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in Paris. Ludovic MARIN / AFP.
by Elisabetta Povoledo
ROME (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Louvre Museum in Paris had a gigantic ancient bronze finger that had, at some point in time, been detached from its hand. And the Capitoline Museums in Rome had a gigantic ancient bronze hand belonging to a fourth-century colossal statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine that was missing parts of some digits. This week, some five centuries after it was detached, the long-lost finger from France was rejoined to the hand (the left) in Rome and exhibited at the main municipal museum in the Italian capital. Mayor Virginia Raggi of Rome called the reunion an example of collaboration and synergy between the two cities, celebrating it in a video posted to Twitter on Thursday that showed the finger being removed from a bright blue crate marked Fragile and Keep Dry. The return, the mayor noted, coincided with the ... More |
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| Olympia Dukakis, Oscar winner for 'Moonstruck,' dies at 89 | | MoMA blocks protesters who planned to demonstrate inside | | Mummy-to-be: Pregnant embalmed body identified in Poland | 
The actress Olympia Dukakis in her apartment in Manhattan circa 2004. Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times.
by Anita Gates
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Olympia Dukakis, the self-assured, raspy-voiced actress who often played world-weary and worldly wise characters, and who won an Academy Award for her role as just such a woman in Moonstruck, died Saturday at her home in New York City. She was 89. Her death was announced by her brother, actor Apollo Dukakis, who said she had been in hospice care. Dukakis was 56 and an East Coast stage veteran of three decades when she starred in John Patrick Shanleys Moonstruck (1987), a romantic comedy about a young Italian American widow, Loretta (played by Cher), whose life is turned upside down when she falls in love with her fiances brother (Nicolas Cage). Dukakis stole scene after scene as Rose, Lorettas sardonic mother, who saw the world clearly and advised accordingly. Do you love him, Loretta? she asks her daughter, referring to the dull fiancé. When Loretta says no, Rose replies: Good. When you love ... More | | 
NYPD officers posted outside the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, April 30, 2021. James Keivom/The New York Times.
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Museum of Modern Art blocked protesters from entering the museum Friday afternoon at the conclusion of a march designed to focus attention on what the demonstrators say is the undue influence of wealthy patrons on the cultural institutions values and programming. The museum said it was forced to shut the doors when the protesters attempted to force their way into the museum. In response, Museum security personnel closed the entrance in accordance with established safety protocols, the museum said in a statement. The museum statement said two guards were injured by protesters in the fracas. One of the protesters said she was punched by a guard. Last week, organizers of the protest had addressed a letter to MoMAs director, Glenn Lowry, calling the museum a system of power and wealth that harms people while criticizing several board members for their financial investments. Chief among ... More | | 
Experts say the woman had been "carefully mummified", which suggested she had "high social standing". Image courtesy: WARSAW MUMMY PROJECT.
WARSAW (AFP).- Polish scientists said Thursday they have discovered the world's first pregnant Egyptian mummy while carrying out scans on the 2,000-year-old remains kept at the National Museum in Warsaw. "My husband Stanislaw, an Egyptian archaeologist, and I looked at the X-ray images and noticed a familiar sight for parents of three children in the belly of the dead woman -- a little foot!" Marzena Ozarek-Szilke, an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Warsaw, told journalists. Further analysis revealed the whole foetus and scientists working on the Warsaw Mummy Project believe the woman was between 20 and 30 years old and was 26-30 weeks pregnant. "We do not know why the foetus was not taken out of the belly of the deceased during mummification," said Wojciech Ejsmond from the Polish Academy of Sciences, another project participant. "That is why this mummy is truly unique. We have not been able to find any similar cases. This means that 'our' mummy is the only recognised in the wo ... More |
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| Bill Graham, Family Dog, Grateful Dead posters & more go up for bid at Turner Auctions + Appraisals | | The vanished glamour of midcentury print media | | The New York Philharmonic is coming. In a shipping container. | 
Grateful Dead Concert Poster. Venue: Santa Fe Downs. Date: 10/17/1982. Poster #: Santa Fe 19821017. Condition: Very good. Estimate $200-$300.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Turner Auctions + Appraisals will present the sale of vintage posters from Bill Graham, Family Dog, Grateful Dead, and more at 10:30 am PST on Saturday, May 15, 2021. Offering over 125 lots, the auction features over 100 vintage rock posters from the 1960s to 2015, most from the 1960s, from one Northern California collector, who acquired them over 40+ years. Rounding out the sale, several additional lots include signed album covers, collectibles, and signed guitars from other sources. The one-owner poster collection includes a wide variety of the eras best-known musicians and poster artists. Many are from the legendary impresario and rock concert promoter, Bill Graham of Bill Graham Presents (BGP), who produced many San Francisco Bay Area concerts at numerous venues, including the Fillmores, Winterland, Shoreline, and the Oakland Coliseum. The sale features an extensive selection of posters from the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Phil Lesh & Friends. Other ar ... More | | 
Erwin Blumenfeld, Kathleen Blumenfeld (a test shot), New York, c. 1956. Gelatin silver print. Private collection © Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld; image provided by Galerie Sophie Scheidecker, Paris.
by Jason Farago
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In a city whose news kiosks have become glorified chewing gum emporiums, where the Grand Central newsstand shelves are overtaken by chips and phone chargers, one of my few remaining happy places is Casa Magazines. Its a hole of a shop on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 12th Street, and every wall and every inch of floor heaves with obscure, international fashion and design publications, for a dwindling class of print lovers. (I still remember, when I founded a magazine in 2015, the relief I felt when I saw my first issue piled on the floor of Casa; then it was real.) Once upon a time, before New York was swallowed into the smartphone screen, the city had dozens of shops like this. Now, if you care about fashion photography and print design, you probably belong in a museum. Fellow print media nostalgics ought to seek out ... More | | 
Socially-distanced audience members listen as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the New York Philharmonic at the Shed in New York on April 14, 2021. Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.
by Zachary Woolfe
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Late last summer, the august New York Philharmonic took a swerve toward scrappiness. With its theater closed by the pandemic, the orchestra rented a Ford F-250 pickup truck, wrapped it in red, white and black, and drove around the city over eight weekends for short, impromptu chamber events. The Philharmonic announced Friday that it would be bringing the NY Phil Bandwagon concept back this spring, but for a shorter period and in more stable surroundings reflecting the glimmers of a transition back to concert-hall trappings. Bandwagon 2 will trade in the pickup truck for a 20-foot shipping container atop a semi truck, which will visit four parks around New York City for weekend-long residencies through May. (The full schedule will be available at nyphil.org/bandwagon.) Tricked out with a foldout stage, video wall and integrated sound and lighting, the ... More |
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| David Zwirner opens an exhibition of new works by British artist Rose Wylie | | Virtual platform created in honor of Okwui Enwezor | | Dallas Museum of Art opens first US solo museum exhibition for Julian Charrière | 
Rose Wylie, Green Man, homage to Retablos painting, 2021 © Rose Wylie. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.
NEW YORK, NY.- David Zwirner is presenting an exhibition of new works by British artist Rose Wylie (b. 1934) at the gallerys 533 West 19th Street location in New York. Following her acclaimed 2020 solo presentation at the Aspen Art Museum, this is the artists fourth exhibition with the gallery, and her first with David Zwirner in New York. Wylie paints uniquely recognizable, colorful, and exuberant compositions that at first glance appear aesthetically simplistic, not seeming to align with any discernible style or movement, but on closer inspection are revealed to be wittily observed and subtly sophisticated meditations on the nature of visual representation itself. As curator Clarrie Wallis notes, [Wylies] large pictures are painted in a kind of visual shorthand that is direct and legible. The ability to elicit a range of responses is made possible ... More | | 
Okwui Enwezor (b. October 3, 1963 in Calabar, Nigeria; d. March 15, 2019 in Munich, Germany) was the Artistic Director of Documenta11, a curator, author, art critic, and lecturer. Photo: © Maximilian Geuter.
KASSEL.- On April 29, documenta archiv launched Platform6, a virtual platform created in honor of Okwui Enwezor. This dynamic and evolving online project is intended as a place for animated discussion about Documenta11 and the current relevance of its discourses. As an open, growing project, the platform will explore the Documenta11 exhibition curated by Okwui Enwezor in 2002 and the continuing relevance of questions raised at the time. The focus is on discourses about truth, globalization, forms of collectivity and solidarity. Platform6 sees itself as a tribute to Okwui Enwezor, who died in Munich on March 15, 2019, and to his theoretical approaches and curatorial legacy. The virtual platform brings together historical material from the documenta archiv, including catalog essays, texts, videos, and photos. In addition, there are new contributions by curators, ... More | | 
Julian Charrière, And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019. Copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany.
DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Museum of Art presents Concentrations 63: Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole, the first US solo museum exhibition for the multidisciplinary French-Swiss artist. Julian Charrière creates work that bridges the realms of environmental science and cultural history. Based on scientific research and expeditions to remote regions of Earth, his sculptures, photographs, and films investigate the irreversible transformation of the natural world by human activity. Charrière references pre-human origins, global explorers of the past, present-day climate change, and the uncertain future of the planet. While his works address environmental exploitation, they also emphasize natures magnificence and resilience. Concentrations 63: Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole opens to the public on May 2, 2021, and is on view through August 8. The exhibition is included in free general admission. Julian Charrière ... More |
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In Diebenkornâs Ocean Park No. 40, Blue is the Protagonist
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 form & concept presents an exciting new body of work by interdisciplinary artist Nikesha BreezeSANTA FE, NM.- As I mature as an artist, and as a human being on this planet, I realize that everything I do is actually just one thing, says Nikesha Breeze. In my art, which is my life, I want to touch the world, as I am touched. Wound touching wound. This transcendent notion informs every aspect of the Taos artists sweeping exhibition Four Sites of Return: Ritual | Remembrance | Reparation | Reclamation. Breezes multifaceted magnum opus distills decades of their creative output, and crystallizes deep truths of the Black experience through visual art and ritual performance. Its appearance at form & concept initiates an exhibition series that will sweep the state and the nation. For Breeze, Four Sites of Return also represents a mantle passed from their own ancestors in Blackdom, New Mexico, a turn of the century freedom colony with a ... More  Casey Kaplan opens an exhibition of works by Igshaan AdamsNEW YORK, NY.- Casey Kaplan is presenting Igshaan Adams first solo exhibition Veld Wen, a phrase in Afrikaans which means to gain ground. At the center of Adams practice is the enduring challenge to communicate presence both of the self and within a collective setting through absence. Adams activates this charged space in an articulated practice that combines weaving, installation, and performance. Anchored by his exploration of hybrid identity within the constraints of post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa, Adams work explores notions of race, religion, sexuality, and generational trauma as embodied by the community from which he sprung. Born Muslim yet raised by Christian grandparents in the former Cape Coloured township of Bonteheuwel, Adams learned to navigate complex histories, embracing both South African culture ... More  Rossini at the drive-in, as San Francisco Opera returnsSAN FRANCISCO (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It feels almost too good to be true after a pandemic closure of Wagnerian scale: an audience watching a cast of singers enter the War Memorial Opera House here to rehearse and perform Rossinis classic comedy The Barber of Seville. And, indeed, were not quite there yet. After 16 months, San Francisco Opera did return last week to live performance with The Barber of Seville, but not indoors at the War Memorial, its usual home. Rather, it is presenting the work through May 15 some 20 miles north, in a Marin County park. The cast for this abridged version is pared down to six main characters, who appear as singers coming back to work at the opera house to embody their Rossinian counterparts. Much of the plot has been reconfigured as a day of rehearsals, culminating in a performance ... More  'Romeo and Juliet' meets the hot vax summerNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- What will be the idiom, in my modest estimation, to best define our relationship to sex during the COVID-19 pandemic? Stay home if you sick, come over if you thicc so say the boys of Tinder. Its not quite Shakespeare or is it? Im willing to bet that if they lived in 2021, Romeo and Juliet would quickly become fluent in our contemporary language of lust and seduction. After all, sex has always been an element of Shakespeares play, although portrayals of it have changed in productions over the past 400 years, depending on trends and cultural attitudes. So it would make sense, after the pandemic year weve had, that were in for a spate of sexy Shakespeare frilly ruff and all. And Romeo and Juliet including the lusty new filmed production that premiered last week on PBS ... More  Review: Trisha Brown's dances find a home at Judson ChurchNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The first movement is of a hand drawing a square with the thick tip of a blue marker. As that same singular hand it belongs to choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown turns the square into a three-dimensional structure, she says, I imagined a cubicle form to begin with. Taken from a 1980 television program, Frames of Reference: Dancing on the Edge, this brief yet poignant introduction to Locus Trio, the first work on a new digital program by the Trisha Brown Dance Company, transports us instantly into Browns mind, which was a witty and wonderful place. It is not exactly a cube, she continues. Its height is elongated to accommodate a standing person. And it wasnt exactly real it was invisible. Within this imaginary structure, a grid of layers, a dancer in Locus (1975) negotiates ... More  Renée Fleming was back onstage. Here's what happened first.NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Soprano Renée Fleming sauntered onstage in a shimmering long-sleeve gown, perched on a chair and started to sing. For a renowned performer decades into her career, it might have been an uneventful Wednesday evening at the Shed, the expansive performance space in Hudson Yards. But after 13 months in a pandemic, a sea of faces was a novel sight for the opera star and the trio accompanying her. Wow, applause! she remarked after finishing the meditative opening number. Very exciting. Exciting, indeed and no mean feat to pull off. After the Shed and other flexible New York performance spaces lobbied to let audiences in, it got the go-ahead to open its doors for a live event April 2, after 386 days of shutdown. Flemings April 21 show there, before a limited audience, was the fourth performance ... More  Guggenheim presents 'Christian Nyampeta: Sometimes It Was Beautiful'NEW YORK, NY.- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is presenting the exhibition Christian Nyampeta: Sometimes It Was Beautiful. Inspired by Senegalese writer and film director Ousmane Sembènes idea of cinema as a collective learning environment, artist, filmmaker, and writer Christian Nyampeta transforms the Guggenheims rotunda into a venue for collective feeling and cooperative thinking. With his 2018 film Sometimes It Was Beautiful as the centerpiece, the immersive installation comprises film, audio, videos and drawings. This project explores proposals for reimagining the earth as a whole and a shelter for all who inhabit it. Christian Nyampeta: Sometimes It Was Beautiful is organized by Xiaoyu Weng, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator. Visitors are welcomed into a museum infused with warm, red light. ... More  Rewild: A solo exhibition by Orlanda Broom opens at Grove Square GalleriesLONDON.- Grove Square Galleries is presenting Rewild (29 April - 11 June 2021), a solo exhibition by British artist Orlanda Broom. Featuring a new series of paintings created over the course of the last lockdown year, these buoyant works provide a colourful escape from our current state of being. Through her signature lush and saturated style, the artist depicts worlds both fantastical and surreal, absent of human or animal but abundant with sprawling nature. Brooms worlds may be seen as timeless and placeless, often treading a fine line between intrigue and dystopia, light and dark. In these new works, however, the undertones are lighter as she contemplates an optimistic, post-pandemic future. A celebration of new beginnings, growth and restoration, Rewild sees nature dominate once again and pays homage to mystical, mythologised ... More  Newlands House presents an intimate retrospective of Joan Miró's workPETWORTH.- Reopening to the public following the national lockdown, Newlands House announced its third exhibition, Joan Miró: La Gran Belleza (1 May to 4 July 2021): a survey of significant works by the pioneering modern master. Joan Miró: La Gran Belleza features artworks spanning Mirós artistic career from the 1930s to 1980s. Presented in the historic market town of Petworth, in Newlands Houses Georgian building, Joan Miró: La Gran Belleza offers an opportunity to intimately engage with Mirós practice in a remarkable space in the heart of the South Downs. The exhibition is guest-curated by Dr Javier Molins, a specialist in Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and contemporary art. The exhibitions title, Joan Miró: La Gran Belleza (translating to The Great Beauty), draws inspiration from Mirós desire to explore beauty and joy in life - a commitment ... More  Roberto Torres Mata is the Chazen Museum of Art's 2021 Panczenko MFA Prize winnerMADISON, WIS.- MFA candidate Roberto Torres Matas exhibition Untethered: Our Journey Beyond Borders takes the 2021 Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize. The exhibition is on view in the Garfield Galleries April 6-May 14, 2021. Visitors will be led on a journey through the exhibition, guided by a path of migrating birds. Archaic symbols impressed into handmade paper evoke indigenous cultures of the Americas, while the words of migrants themselves are recorded on linen sheets suspended from the gallery ceilinga work made in collaboration with Dani Zelko. In my practice, I examine both human and animal migration as metaphors for one another, said Mata. It is my hope that my work raises awareness of the dire need to protect both migrants and the animal species that depend on migratory routes for survival. While specializing ... More  Solo show by Hattie Malcomson on view at New Art ProjectsLONDON.- New Art Projects are presenting the first solo show by Hattie Malcomson. Hattie Malcomson graduated from her painting degree at the University of Brighton in 2020, this is her first gallery exhibition since leaving University. The central subject of her practice is the process of women empowerment explored within the context of contemporary society. Her interest extends traditional feminism into the here-and-and now by exploring themes of womens sexuality, beauty standards, sex working, and loneliness. Her paintings present powerful female protagonists who also question the traditional ideals of beauty. Her female figures appear defiant and are striking confident poses. Conversely their faces deny traditional forms of female beauty. She refers to these women as ugly however they are also confrontational and taunting and the gaze ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Sophie Taeuber-Arp & Hans Arp: Cooperations â Collaborations 
Future Retrieval 
Clarice Beckett 
Kim Tschang-Yeul
Flashback On a day like today, Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci died May 02, 1519. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519), more commonly Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardo, was an Italian Renaissance polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. In this image: Codex Forster 1, 6v-7r, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), pen and ink, Italy (Florence), about 1505, V&A: Forster MS.141/1, Forster Bequest. © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum.
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