The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Sunday, October 16, 2022

 
At Frieze London, a web of art circling the world

In an image from Tavish Gunasena, Sri Lankan artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara. The Sri Lankan civil war from 1983 to 2009 defines much of Mr. Thenuwara’s work, and Frieze London will be no exception. Tavish Gunasena via The New York Times.

LONDON.- In Buddhism and Hinduism, Indra’s net floats over the globe, protectively, revealing interconnectedness of life. It’s an image that seemed ideal for curator Sandhini Poddar, who was invited to create a special section at Frieze London (Wednesday through Sunday) for lesser-known galleries from around the world. The image of an earthly net is about inclusion, Poddar said, but also could be seen as the fragility of connectedness in a world divided by environmental issues and the reality of wars past and present. “If you think about this idea of the earth as a witness over a long arch of time, you can talk about history, ancestry, language and the whole matrix of ideas,” Poddar said in a phone interview. “Everything is caught in this cause-and-effect relationship.” “Indra’s Net,” which will feature 18 artists from galleries from Asia to Latin America, is a chance for smaller galleries to get a bit of the spotlight at a major art fair. Poddar, a ... More



The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
Installation view of Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from October 9, 2022 – February 18, 2023. Photo: Emile Askey.






Climate protesters throw soup over van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'   Design Museum brings the story of Surrealism in design up-to-date for first time in a major new exhibition   A vault holding long-hidden French treasures swings open its doors


Two activists attacked the famous painting at the National Gallery, in London. Filmed by Rich Felgate @Finitedoc.

by Alex Marshall


LONDON.- Climate protesters across Europe have for months been gluing themselves to the frames of famous paintings in a series of attention-grabbing stunts. In Britain, activists have attached themselves to about half-a-dozen masterpieces including John Constable’s “The Hay Wain.” In Germany, protesters have stuck themselves to works including Rubens’ “Massacre of the Innocents,” which hangs in the Alte Pinakothek, in Munich. In Italy, works in the Uffizi, in Florence, and at the Vatican Museums have been targeted. Now, protesters in London have found a new way to focus attention on their cause: throwing cans of tomato soup at a masterpiece. Just after 11 a.m. Friday, two members of Just Stop Oil, a group that seeks to stop oil and gas extraction in Britain, entered room 43 of the National Gallery in London, opened ... More
 

Salvador Dalí, Lobster Telephone, 1938. Photo: West Dean College of Arts and Conservation. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS 2022.

LONDON.- The Design Museum unveiled its landmark autumn exhibition exploring Surrealism’s impact on the world of design this past Friday. For the first time in a major UK exhibition, Surrealism’s relationship to the design world is told up to the present day. Artworks and objects from Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp and Leonora Carrington can be seen alongside pieces by Sarah Lucas, Björk, Tim Walker and Dior. On October 14th Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 opened to the public at the Design Museum in London. It surveys the ground-breaking Surrealism movement and how it not only revolutionised art, but also design: from decorative arts and furniture to interiors, fashion, photography and film. This is the first time the Design Museum has explored the relationship of fine art to design on this scale in a major exhibition. The exhibition covers nearly 100 years, and close to 350 ... More
 

The National Library of France has undergone an extensive renovation, and relics from Charlemagne to Voltaire are now on display.

by Elaine Sciolino


PARIS.- King Dagobert’s bronze throne. Charlemagne’s ivory chess pieces. Mozart’s handwritten score of “Don Giovanni.” A 16th-century globe — the first to use the word “America.” In a library? Yes, but not just any library. These works belong to the National Library of France. After 12 years and 261 million euros (more than $256 million) of renovations, the country’s national library in the heart of Paris has reopened and is showing off more than 900 of its treasures. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne officially inaugurated the site at a Champagne-filled cocktail party in September attended by much of Paris’ intellectual ruling class. “Vive the Bibliothèque Nationale de France! Vive la république! Vive la France!” she exclaimed in a speech to the ministers, museum directors, writers, artists and others. The cultural elite here ... More


Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music opens at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts   A Smithsonian Museum sharpens focus on the history of slavery   Dr. Vincent DiMaio, pathologist in notorious murder cases, dies at 81


Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Anybody Speaking Words, 1982 (Poster, detail). Private collection, Switzerland. © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York. Photo Fotoearte.

MONTREAL.- The Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal, in collaboration with the Musée de la musique – Philharmonie de Paris, invited visitors to immerse themselves in the visual and musical landscape of the phenomenal artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960- 1988). Now on view since October 15, 2022, and continuing to February 19, 2023, Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music offers an in-depth look at the powerful connections between music and the artist’s life and work. The first exhibition ever to focus on the role of music in Basquiat’s artistic practice, the show explores his art in relation to the New York music scene of the 1970s and 80s. It introduces visitors to the sounds he incorporated into his painting – from opera to jazz to hip-hop – and to the musicians who inspired him. A feast for the eyes as well as the ears, the exhibition brings together over a hundred works in addition to many audio clips, videos exhibited for the ... More
 

Lonnie Bunch, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington on June 23, 2020. Bunch is the first African American to head the institution, and insisted that the museum find the remnants of a slave ship. Jared Soares/The New York Times.

by Ginanne Brownell


WASHINGTON, DC.- On a Sunday stroll up 16th Street in Washington, D.C., years ago, Lonnie Bunch got a hug and a gentle talking-to from an African American woman. Bunch — who at the time was the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, which was still under construction, and now heads the entire Smithsonian Institution — had been very visible in the media discussing the newest of the Smithsonian museums. “She came up to me and said, ‘I know who you are,’ and she hugged me,” Bunch said with a chuckle. “And she basically said, ‘I am so proud of what you are doing, but please don’t talk about slavery. You have an opportunity not to have a generation tarred by slavery.’ I thought that was very powerful.” What struck Bunch ... More
 

A gunshot expert, he testified in the Trayvon Martin case, examined Lee Harvey Oswald’s remains and concluded that Vincent van Gogh’s death was a homicide, not a suicide.

by Sam Roberts


NEW YORK, NY.- Dr. Vincent DiMaio, who as a Texas medical examiner and gunshot expert was called on to investigate high-profile deaths both past and present — confirming that Lee Harvey Oswald and not a Soviet assassin killed President John F. Kennedy, for example, and concluding that Vincent van Gogh did not kill himself but was murdered — died on Sept. 18 at his home in San Antonio. He was 81. The cause was complications of COVID, his son, Dr. Dominick J. DiMaio, said. The son of a chief New York City medical examiner, DiMaio (pronounced dih-MY-oh) was an anatomic, clinical and forensic pathologist who served both in public office and as a private consultant. He investigated some 25,000 deaths and performed about 900 autopsies over his career. Among them was the murder trial of George Zimmerman, ... More



Vaughan Williams: Complicated, but not quite conservative   Philadelphia Museum of Art reaches tentative deal to end strike   JD Malat Gallery opens solo exhibition by Tega Tafadzwa


In an undated photo via Royal College of Music, a page from Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony on which he referred to “Pilgrim’s Progress” with the inscription “Upon this place stood a cross, and a little below a sepulchre.” The English composer deserves a fresh assessment as the world does (and doesn’t) observe the 150th anniversary of his birth. Via Royal College of Music via The New York Times.

by David Allen


NEW YORK, NY.- Ralph Vaughan Williams understood what his fate was likely to be. “Every composer cannot expect to have a worldwide message, but he may reasonably expect to have a special message for his own people,” Vaughan Williams, an Englishman, said in a series of lectures on folk music and nationalism at Bryn Mawr College in 1932. “Many young composers,” he went on, “make the mistake of imagining they can be universal without at first having been local.” There was a time when it seemed plausible that Vaughan Williams might become, if not exactly a universal composer, then a ... More
 

Workers picket outside the entrances of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Michelle Gustafson/The New York Times.

by Matt Stevens


PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art and its union said on Friday that they had reached a tentative labor agreement that would end a 19-day strike. Union members are expected to ratify the agreement over the weekend. The local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 190 museum workers, had been seeking its first contract since forming in the summer of 2020. Adam Rizzo, the president of the union’s Local 397, said the deal would increase salaries by 14% over the life of the three-year contract; establish a minimum salary of $42,000; increase the minimum wage for hourly employees to $16.75, from $15; add four weeks of parental leave; and reduce the cost of the high-deductible health care ... More
 

Tega Tafadzwa, Mufundisi, 2022, mixed media on canvas, 51 1/8 x 27 1/2 in, 130 x 70 cm.

LONDON.- JD Malat Gallery opened the debut solo exhibition by Tega Tafadzwa RWENDO - WHICH MEANS JOURNEY, curated in collaboration with Africa First and on view at JD Malat Gallery, on 12 October and it will continue until 7 November 2022. Coinciding with Frieze London, Tafadzwa’s highly anticipated exhibition offers a celebratory take on the African diasporic population in South Africa and London during the UK’s busiest art week. RWENDO - WHICH MEANS JOURNEY consists of fifteen new paintings which reflect on the journeys of people who have experienced difficulties of relocation. Originally from Zimbabwe, Tafadzwa pursued his artistic career in 2008 when he moved to Cape Town, South Africa. As a foreigner who fell subject to marginalisation during his search for a more prosperous career outside of his home country, Tafadzwa dedicates his art to the stories of fellow migrants who similarly faced the unsettling ... More


Robert Bordo presents "now still" then Foreland Catskill   Julien's Auctions announces Fleetwood Mac: Property of Christine and John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood on sale   From the depths of space to the walls of a gallery


Robert Bordo, Yarn #1, 2021-22 (detail), Oil on linen, 24 x 30 in (61 x 76.2 cm).

CATSKILL, NY.- Robert Bordo’s solo exhibition at Foreland, now still then, presents two bodies of work; a series of new paintings entitled Les Lucioles(French for fireflies) alongside a survey of postcard paintings (2000-2022). Bordo has lived and worked in upstate New York since the early 2000s, where the bucolic environs, artistic community, and weekly commute from the city has provided fodder for his painting. Les Lucioles revisit a motif from Bordo’s earlier works Les Mouches and Denim paintings from 1989-91. As a young painter, he was drawn to conceptual and land artists like Robert Smithson and Richard Long, whose work was landscape-driven, ambulatory and often ephemeral. The early paintings are blue, monochromatic canvases embedded with Timberland boot prints and emerged when the lives of many, and especially gay, communities, were dominated by AIDS. Darkly humorous, quirky, and meandering, ... More
 

Mick Fleetwood: "Bare Trees" RIAA "Gold" Record Award RIAA. "Gold" Certified Sales Award for the sale of over 500,000 copies of the Fleetwood Mac album Bare Trees (Reprise Records, 1972), presented to Mick Fleetwood.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.- Julien’s Auctions, the world record-breaking auction house to the stars, proudly presents “Fleetwood Mac: Property from the Lives and Careers of Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood,” an exclusive presentation honoring three legendary GRAMMY® Award-winning band members of Fleetwood Mac, taking place live in a two-day auction event from Saturday, December 3rd - Sunday, December 4th, 2022 at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills and online on julienslive.com. It was also announced that a portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares, the leading music industry charity, which provides the music community a support system of health and human services across a spectrum of needs including physical and mental health, addiction recovery, ... More
 

Working closely with various NASA scientists over the past seven years, Zelinskie, a self-described “science nerd,” has produced a range of art — among them several pieces taken directly from the Webb’s groundbreaking first images.

NEW YORK, NY.- In Carl Sagan’s classic sci-fi novel “Contact,” the first signals from alien life were famously heard at Hat Creek Radio Observatory at the SETI Institute in Northern California. For an artist with a lifelong interest in science, there may not be a more ideal scenario than hobnobbing with NASA scientists at a picnic at SETI, which is where Brooklyn-based artist Ashley Zelinskie made “first contact” with her friends at NASA — many of whom have become close collaborators. The picnic at SETI, which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, garnered Zelinskie invitations to tour NASA’s nearby Ames Research Center and to a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2016, which led her to the James Webb Space Telescope team ... More




Mark Rothko's 'Untitled' (1969) | Christie's Inc



More News

On 'ForeverAndEverNoMore,' Brian Eno sings for the end of the world
NEW YORK, NY.- When you’re expecting extinction, it makes sense to record the threnody in advance. That’s what Brian Eno has done on “ForeverAndEverNoMore,” a mournful, contemplative album that stares down humanity’s self-immolation in what he calls “the climate emergency.” “These billion years will end / They end in me,” he intones in “Garden of Stars,” as electronic tones go whizzing by and distortion flickers and crests around him like a cosmic radiation storm. It’s a song that marvels at the mathematical improbability of human life — “How then could it be that we appear at all? / In all this rock and fire, in all this gas and dust,” he sings — while envisioning its cessation. Although much of Eno’s solo catalog is instrumental — soundtracks, ambient albums, video and multimedia projects — he is no stranger to songs. He embraced ... More

What is the power of unity Phelan's dancing? 'I'm clay.'
NEW YORK, NY.- “OK” is a word that comes up frequently in a conversation with Unity Phelan. It’s a calming, centering word, useful in many of the sticky situations that arise at New York City Ballet, where she is a principal dancer. During her debut in the Der Rosenkavalier section of “Vienna Waltzes” this season, it suddenly struck her that she was the only person onstage. “Oh,” she said, remembering the moment in a hushed voice. “OK. It’s just me.” When she found out 2 1/2 hours before the curtain that she would be making a debut in an excerpt from “Symphony in C” at the fall fashion gala, panic crept in. But then she righted herself: “I’m going to sew a pair of shoes,” she said. “I’m going to do this rehearsal, and we’re going to hope for the best. And if it’s not great, that’s OK.” Phelan knew that she had three more shots at the ballet this season. “I always try to keep it light even whe ... More

A pioneering Black ballerina's life story comes to the stage
HOUSTON, TX.- When Lauren Anderson was promoted to principal dancer at Houston Ballet in 1990, she made history as one of the first Black women to be a principal at a major American ballet company. “My goal was just to get in the company,” Anderson, 57, said in a recent interview. “My dream was to be a soloist. I didn’t expect to go past soloist.” But she did, dancing the lead in ballets such as “Cleopatra” and collecting accolades. Reviewing “Cleopatra” in 2000, critic Clive Barnes called her “the superb, stunning Lauren Anderson” and “an authentic star.” (The snake headband she wore is in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.) Now, Anderson has another kind of starring role: as the subject of a new show, “Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson,” which opened Thursday night at the Stages theater here ... More

Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid in the 'Harry Potter' films, dies at 72
NEW YORK, NY.- Robbie Coltrane, the veteran Scottish actor who played the beloved half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” films and starred in the cult British crime series “Cracker,” died Friday in Larbert, Scotland. He was 72. His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by Belinda Wright, his British agent. Wright said that Coltrane’s family had not disclosed a cause but that he had been “unwell for some time.” Coltrane veered from the comic to the gritty in a 40-year career in film and television, with turns as an antihero detective in “Cracker” (1993-96), a KGB agent turned ally to James Bond and a gangster who disguises himself as a nun after betraying his fellow criminals in “Nuns on the Run” (1990). But those roles did little to prepare Coltrane to play Hagrid, a fan favorite from the “Harry Potter” books whose transition to the big screen ... More

Onstage this fall, the enduring friendship of Baldwin and Hansberry
NEW YORK, NY.- James Baldwin recalled first meeting Lorraine Hansberry in 1958 at the Actors Studio in Manhattan after a workshop production of “Giovanni’s Room,” a play based on his novel of the same name. The “biggest names in American theater” were there, he noted, and gave their critiques of the play. But then he locked eyes with a woman yet unknown to the theater establishment who articulated a full appreciation of him and his work. Of that encounter, Baldwin wrote: “She talked to me with a gentleness and generosity never to be forgotten.” For the next seven years, Hansberry and Baldwin would continue to find moments of deep understanding, forging a relationship even though they often did not live in the same place. But their storied friendship was cut short by Hansberry’s untimely death at the age of 34 in 1965. This fall, ... More

Now open: Outside Edge, Ade Adesina, William Wilson at the Royal Scottish Academy
EDINBURGH.- The Royal Scottish Academy began this past October 8th three new exhibitions to explore in the gallery and online - Outside Edge; Ade Adesina: Parallel; and William Wilson: Paint / Print / Glass. The exhibitions will continue through November 13th. Outside Edge is a collaboration developed through a residency in Scotland between four artists with different backgrounds who first met in China. They each live, work, facilitate, teach and make art on opposite sides of the world: Xu Yun and Ju Hongshen between Kunming and Beijing, China, Kate Downie in Fife, Scotland, and Helen Goodwin in Brighton, England. The connection began with Helen living in Kunming and Beijing for over eight years until 2007, meeting Xu Yun and then Ju Hongshen in Kunming. A residency in Scotland in 2009 introduced Kate and Helen, and Kate undertook ... More

Review: In 'Everything's Fine,' the discomfort of adolescence
NEW YORK, NY.- What’s unnerving about “Everything’s Fine” is how breezy the tone is: The story at the center of Douglas McGrath’s solo autobiographical show, set during his youth in Texas, is one of emotional and psychological distress, after all. McGrath is not exactly making fun of what happened, but he’s not not making fun of it, either. It is hard to tell whether this is a deliberate choice abetted by John Lithgow’s direction or if McGrath is not a crafty enough performer to shake off a naturally avuncular demeanor. But the droll tone is effective, if sometimes startling. And while McGrath may not be a superlative actor, he is a good storyteller — he is best known as the screenwriter and director of “Emma” (1996), and he wrote the Tony-nominated book for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” His account of something that happened ... More

'Crowd' review: A slow-motion rave, with glints of violence
NEW YORK, NY.- If you know that Gisèle Vienne’s “Crowd” is about a rave, you might expect to see a crowd moving to techno music, searching for euphoria. You might not expect most of the 90-minute work to transpire in slow motion. But this French Austrian choreographer’s aim in “Crowd,” which had its United States premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday as part of the Crossing the Line Festival, is not just to open a window onto an all-night party and the people there. She wants to open the doors of perception and let us inside a different experience of time. The show manages both parts — the sociological and the perceptual — with skill. The stage is covered in a layer of dirt and detritus: water bottles, clothing. Patrick Riou lights this scene coldly, like a moonscape or a stadium after the game. Music fades in, and people arrive ... More


PhotoGalleries

The Global Life of Design

Nancy Ford Cones

Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia

Virgil Abloh


Flashback
On a day like today, American photographer Paul Strand was born
October 16, 1890. Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 - March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. His diverse body of work, spanning six decades, covers numerous genres and subjects throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. In this image: Wall Street, 1915.

  
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