| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Thursday, April 15, 2021 |
| | | Sotheby's sees $16.8 million in first NFT sale | |
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Fungible Open Editions is Paks further investigation of our understanding of value. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Sotheby's hosted its first sale of art supported by NFTs, the trendy authentication technology, by artist Pak, with the works bringing in $16.8 million, the auction house said Wednesday. The Sotheby's foray into NFT selling comes just a little more than one month after the sale of the NFT of the work "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" by digital artist Beeple for $69.3 million at rival Christie's. NFT stands for non-fungible token, an authentication certificate meant to ensure that ownership of a digital work -- animations, videos, photos or music, for example -- cannot be forged or otherwise manipulated. Sotheby's first NFT sale featured an entirely different format than the video sale hosted by Christie's. An unlimited number of animated illustration files created by Pak, called "Cube," were listed on the specialized platform Nifty Gateway as part of "The Fungible" collection. Some 23,598 of these animations -- which rotate to appear to show a 360-degree view of a translucent and whit ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Picture taken at the constant 12°C nine-metre underground cellar of Salentein, a winery in the Uco Valley, Tupungato Department, in the Argentine province of Mendoza, on April 1, 2021. The winery was designed by the Mendoza-based Bormida & Yanzon studio, which specializes in wine architecture and has built more than 30 wineries since 1988, many of which have received national and international awards. Andres LARROVERE / AFP
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| Christie's offers two rare studies for Seurat's masterpiece 'Un Dimanche d'été à l'Ile de La Grande Jatte' | | Exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles unveils five works by Amy Sherald | | New hunt for legendary missing Orson Welles reels |
Georges Seurat, Paysage et personnages (La jupe rose) detail, oil on cradled panel, 6 x 9 3/4 in., 1884 | $7,000,000-10,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
NEW YORK, NY.- On May 11, Christies 20th Century Evening Sale will be highlighted by two works by Georges Seurat, Paysage et personnages (La jupe rose), 1884 ($7-10 million) and Le Saint-Cyrien,1884 ($3-5 million) being sold from the Family of Robert Treat Paine II. The two oil panels are among the few examples of Seurats extensive preparatory practice for this masterpiece to remain in private hands today, more than half of the oil studies for La Grande Jatte are in the collections of prestigious museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Musée dOrsay, Paris, and the National Gallery of Art, London, among others. Both Seurat panels remained in the artists possession until his untimely death in 1890, at which point, Paysage et personnages (La jupe rose) was acquired shortly thereafter by a fellow ... More | |
Amy Sherald © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Amy Sherald, one of Americas defining contemporary portraitists, unveiled new paintings in her first West Coast solo exhibition. On view at Hauser & Wirths Downtown Arts District complex in Los Angeles, The Great American Fact presents five works produced in 2020 that extend the artists technical innovations and distinctive visual language. Sherald is acclaimed for paintings of Black Americans at leisure that achieve the authority of landmarks in the grand tradition of social portraiture a tradition that for too long excluded the Black men, women, and families whose lives have been inextricable from the narrative of the American experience. Subverting the genre of portraiture and challenging accepted notions of American identity, Sherald attempts to restore a broader, fuller picture of humanity. She positions her subjects as symbolic tools that shift perceptions of who we are as American ... More | |
Orson Welles, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, March 1, 1937.
PARIS (AFP).- A US documentary team are set to chase down the Holy Grail of Golden Era Hollywood: the missing reels of Orson Welles's 1942 classic "The Magnificent Ambersons". Director Joshua Grossberg has been on the trail for 25 years and plans to travel this autumn to Brazil to look for the missing footage, with his hunt recorded for Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Following disastrous test screenings, Welles was fired from "The Magnificent Ambersons" and the studio RKO cut 43 minutes from his version and reshot multiple scenes including the ending. "The original, excised footage was melted down for its nitrate for use in World War II," the documentary-makers said in a statement. "However, even in its mutilated form, the film is still considered a classic." Welles considered the edited version a travesty and the episode all but ended his involvement with the major studios. Grossberg hopes a cut ... More |
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| In Moscow, urban renewal leaves artists out in the cold | | Wright to offer works from the collection of the pioneering and innovative designer Harvery Probber | | Exhibition explores affinities between the work of artists Chaïm Soutine and Willem de Kooning |
This photo taken on March 26, 2021 shows painter Sergei Alexandrov speaking during an interview with AFP at his workshop. Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP.
by Thibaut Marchand
MOSCOW (AFP).- Sergei Alexandrov has just a few weeks to take down the colourful landscapes and seaside sunsets that have brightened the walls of his Moscow studio ahead of a deadline to demolish it. The Soviet-era residence block near the centre of the Russian capital which houses his workplace is set to be levelled as part of a massive urban renewal drive that will see thousands of apartment buildings replaced with towering skyscrapers. The packing boxes on the floor of the studio that he rents for a pittance are filling up quickly, but Alexandrov has no idea where to take them. "They haven't made me an offer yet, so I'm going to stay until the end," Alexandrov told AFP with a smile, looking out at removal vans hauling off the belongings of the bloc's last remaining residents. The 65-year-old is one of hundreds of artists in ... More | |
Harvey Probber, Prototype stool from the Artisan Collection. Harvey Probber, Inc. USA / Haiti, 1977. Cane over wood 14¼ w à 14¼ d à 20¼ h in 36 à 36 à 51 cm. Estimate: $1,5002,000.
CHICAGO, IL.- Wright will present the first auction dedicated to works from the collection of the pioneering and innovative designer Harvery Probber. Probber sold his first sofa design at sixteen, coined the concept of "modular furniture" and proceeded to compose harmonious interiors incorporating art and design throughout his career. As an accomplished designer, innovator, and entrepreneur, Harvey Probber led a life guided by creative interests. From a young age, he explored the formal qualities of furnishings and their role in interior environments leading him to a successful career in design, manufacturing, and distribution. Probber developed an original, award-winning style that fits seamlessly into interiors across the country. One of his greatest contributions to the canon of design was the concept of modular furniture; an idea he coined ... More | |
Soutine / de Kooning Conversations in Paint, 2021. The Barnes Foundation, installation view. Image © The Barnes Foundation.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Barnes Foundation is presenting the world premiere of Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint, an exhibition organized by the Barnes and Musées dOrsay et de lOrangerie, Paris, exploring the affinities between the work of Lithuanian artist Chaïm Soutine (18931943) and Dutch-American abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning (19041997). On view in the Barness Roberts Gallery from March 7 through August 8, 2021, this presentation considers how Soutines paintings, with their built-up surfaces and energetic brushwork, served the art of de Kooning and helped shape his groundbreaking abstract figurative works in the late 1940s and beyond. Co-curated by Simonetta Fraquelli, consultant curator for the Barnes Foundation, and Claire Bernardi, chief curator of paintings at the Musée dOrsay, Paris, Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint features 42 paintings and ... More |
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| Specialist architects putting Argentine wine on another map | | Turner Auctions + Appraisals offers 260 lots of fine and decorative art | | Italian piano maker sees craft threatened with extinction |
Architect Eliana Bormida sketches an outline at DiamAndes, a winery in the Uco Valley, San Carlos Department, in the Argentine province of Mendoza, on April 1, 2021. Andres LARROVERE / AFP.
by Maria Lorente
MENDOZA (AFP).- The Argentine province of Mendoza is synonymous with Malbec wine, but what's not so well known is that it has become a reference for wine cellar architecture. In the arid climate at the foothills of the Andes mountain range, architects Eliana Bormida and Mario Yanzon have worked on more than 40 projects that conducted a "deep" dialogue with the Andean surroundings. At the end of the 1990s, winegrowers in Mendoza decided "to make wines that could compete on international markets and they called us to decorate their wine cellars," Bormida told AFP. "We never imagined that a decade later it would produce a boom. This group stimulated us to make wine cellars that were not just a place to produce good wine, but also to receive visitors." The fame of the Bormida & Yanzon studio has even extended beyond Argentina to take on projects in Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico, Portugal and Russia. Architects such as Herzog and de Meuron, Frank Ghery, ... More | |
Rookwood Vase, Lorinda Epply. Decorated with a band of flower heads. Incised mark on bottom with date mark XXI and incised mark for Lorinda Epply. Estimate $300 - $500.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Turner Auctions + Appraisals is pleased to present the sale of Fine Art, Silver, Art Pottery & Art Glass at its online auction at 10:30 am PST on Saturday, April 24, 2021. Offering 260 lots from various consignors and estates, the sale features a diverse selection of art and decorative arts from the 16th to 21st centuries from the U.S., Europe and Asia. This auction also presents the personal collection of art pottery of Steven Yvaska, a noted writer, speaker, appraiser and advisor on antiques from the San Francisco Bay Area. Among the art in the sale are a variety of paintings, with works by Ira Yeager, Norton Bush, Charles Wilson Knapp, Mary DeNeale Morgan, and Louis Bassi Siegriest. There are also etchings, mounted pressed plants, and botanical prints and plates, some hand-colored, including one by Giovanni Baptista Ferrari. A selection of photographs from San Franciscos famed Cliff House restaurant, sadly now closed, showcases movie stars, sports figures and other ... More | |
Italian piano craftsman Luigi Borgato works in his workshop in Borgo Veneto, near Padua on April 8, 2021. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP.
by Brigitte Hagemann
BORGO VENETO (AFP).- At the age of 23, Luigi Borgato decided to build his first piano, for himself. In the decades that ensued, the Italian craftsman grew his business into a prestigious brand capable of attracting buyers from all over the world -- until the coronavirus pandemic abruptly put a halt to it all. Now, the 58-year-old fears his ancient trade could disappear entirely in Italy, the country that invented the pianoforte at the end of the 17th century. "Everything stopped, there are no more concerts, no more contacts with musicians. Without government assistance, our profession may not make it to the end of the pandemic," Borgato told AFP. Inside his home in Borgo Veneto, near Padua in northern Italy, everything breathes classical music -- a bust of Verdi and a portrait of Beethoven hold court along with concert posters from such storied opera houses as La Scala in Milan. At the back of the room sits the Doppio Borgato, an imposing assembly of two grand pianos on top of each other, with 37 pedals. ... More |
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| National Endowment for the Humanities announces new grants | | Milestone's May 1 auction loaded with rare robots, space toys, early comic character toys, vintage toy boats & motors | | Five centuries of German and Austrian graphics on view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts |
Yayoi Kusamas Pumpkins Screaming About Love Beyond Infinity, (2017) at the Kusama: Cosmic Nature exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden, April 7, 2021. Heather Sten/The New York Times.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The New York Botanical Garden, the Childrens Museum of Indianapolis and the Judd Foundation in Marfa, Texas, are among 225 beneficiaries of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities that were announced Wednesday. The grants, which total $24 million, will support projects at museums, libraries, universities and historic sites in 45 states, as well as in Washington and Puerto Rico. They will enable the excavation of a newly discovered ancient Egyptian brewery by researchers from New York University, the implementation of a traveling exhibition honoring Emmett Tills legacy at the Childrens Museum of Indianapolis, and research for a biography of congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis by David Greenberg, a professor at Rutgers University. Adam Wolfson, the endowments acting chairman, said in a statement that the new projects ... More | |
Outstanding 1947 Marx hand-painted prototype Goofy the Goofy Driver tin windup toy with Donald Duck passenger figure, 8 inches long. Eccentric action. Estimate $1,500-$2,000.
WILLOUGHBY, OHIO.- They came from the future and landed on Earth in the 1950s and 60s, but now toy robots of that classic production era seem more like prophets whose mission is being fulfilled more than half a century later in the labs of MIT and NASA. For many collectors, the connection to robots is rooted in a childhood memory discovering that Santa had left them a walking, flashing, noisy android under the Christmas tree. Collectors will relive that indelible memory on May 1st at Milestones 766-lot Spring Spectacular Toy Auction, which features a specialty grouping of more than 100 coveted vintage robots and space toys. The robot lineup contains examples of some all-time greats. From Masudayas powerhouse Gang of Five comes an elusive 15-inch-tall Target Robot. All original and complete, its appealing color palette of rich purple with red and yellow accents is further enhanced by ... More | |
Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Portrait of a Man, 1919, woodcut. In process of acquisition. © Estate of Erich Heckel / SOCAN (2021). Photo MMFA, Christine Guest.
MONTREAL.- For the first time, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is focusing an exhibition on the sweep of stylistic and cultural developments articulated in printmaking in Germany and Austria from the early history of the medium in the mid-15th century to modern times. GRAFIK! Five Centuries of German and Austrian Graphics presents about 90 works, including several remarkable works on paper, that embrace over 550 years of Germanic creativity. Several of these works on paper have never previously been exhibited, while others have not been shown for some years. Highly important recent Museum acquisitions from all periods are also included. Curated by Hilliard T. Goldfarb, Senior Curator Collections, and Curator of Old Masters, MMFA, GRAFIK! is exceptional in its chronological range as well as in the breadth, significance and quality of the print impressions and drawings. The exhibition provides an unprecedented opportunity ... More |
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Mark Rothko: Black Blue & Elsewhere | London | Spring 2021
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Exhibition at Oxford Ceramics Gallery featues some 40 works by 10 pioneering female artists
OXFORD.- Oxford Ceramics Gallery is presenting Pioneering Women, an exhibition featuring some 40 works by 10 pioneering female artists. The exhibition celebrates the significant contribution this group of artists has made to the development of contemporary ceramics, with a focus on the ceramic vessel form. From trailblazing figures such as Lucie Rie and Ladi Kwali to Bodil Manz, Magdalene Odundo and Jennifer Lee, the exhibition reflects a broad interpretation of formal ceramic traditions. The vessels on display range from Japanese clay work and the domestic pottery forms of Denmark, Korea and Nigeria, to works influenced by European movements such as Bauhaus and Postmodernism. The exhibitors span three generations, from Viennese-born Lucie Rie (19021995) to Japanese-born Akiko Hirai (b. 1970). Rie, with her refined thrown ... More
Ruins, ghosts and cats: Rome's 'Area Sacra' to welcome visitors
ROME (AFP).- History buffs will be able to roam the ruins of Rome's "Area Sacra", perhaps catching a glimpse of Julius Caesar's ghost, after the site becomes an open-air museum next year. Work to adapt the Largo Argentina archaeological site for tourists begins next month, with upgrades to allow entry into the vast sunken square containing the ruins of four Roman temples, Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi announced on Wednesday. Today, the expanse of excavations in the historic site can only be gazed upon from street level. "With this work we'll begin entering into the area and... walk among the vestiges of our history," she said at a press conference. Julius Caesar is believed to have been stabbed in the Curia Pompei, a Senate building, part of whose limestone foundation is still visible. But visitors are more likely to spot an apparition of the four- ... More
Tracey McCants Lewis appointed Board Chair of August Wilson African American Cultural Center
PITTSBURGH, PA.- The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, the largest non-profit cultural organization in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the arts of the African diaspora, today announced the appointment Tracey McCants Lewis as AWAACCs new Chair of the Board along with the election of four new trustees, Dr. Rahmon Hart, Tony Murphy, Shiv Seth, and Dr. James Taylor. The addition of the new trustees continues to grow the range of community advocates, philanthropists, and business leaders supporting the organization and its mission to offer programs and resources that advance August Wilsons legacy, reflect the universal issues of identity that the playwright tackled, celebrate Black culture, and inspire future innovators in arts and culture. Tracey McCants Lewis has served ... More
Jeffrey Paley, journalist, gallerist and investor, dies at 82
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Jeffrey Paley had been working as a reporter at The New York Herald Tribune when the paper closed in 1966. He was determined to become a columnist in Europe but didnt have a news outlet to write for. So he climbed into his car and drove around the Northeast, stopping in at newspapers to see if they would like to pick up his column. Dozens of them papers in Quincy, Massachusetts, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere did. Based in Paris, he wrote about world affairs and the economy, making typed copies of his column with carbon paper and mailing them off to his client papers, some of which boasted that he was their special correspondent. Journalism was just the first of three careers that Paley pursued, the others being art gallerist and private investor. He died of complications of the coronavirus ... More
Part I of premier Schroeder toy and bank collection rings the register at $3.1M
VINELAND, NJ.- The excitement level leading up to Bertoias $3.1 million sale of the Aaron and Abby Schroeder mechanical bank and toy collection was already starting to build shortly after the Christmas holidays. As early as January, antique toy enthusiasts who knew of the extraordinary collections reputation were calling to make appointments for private previews at Bertoias New Jersey gallery. Some who were especially determined to attend the sale in person staked their claims for a coveted seat at the live event, held March 5 and 6. It was the first time we were able to open the gallery to a live audience since the pandemic began. With proper social distancing, only 17 people were allowed inside, and as we had expected, there was a waitlist for seats. We did everything we could to accommodate all bidders, with two online bidding platforms ... More
Steidl to publish 'Jim Dine: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints, 2001-2020'
NEW YORK, NY.- Within Jim Dine's diverse artistic uvre, ranging from painting and drawing, to sculpture, poetry recital and photography, printmaking plays a consistent and overarching role. For six decades now, the artists enthusiasm for woodcuts, etching and lithography, for drypoint, monotypes and aquatints has not diminishedon the contrary, since 2001 Dine has produced over 750 prints in which he repeatedly discovers new forms of expression for his iconic visual motifs: the hearts and bathrobes, the antique torsos and flowers, the self-portraits and tools, not to mention Pinocchio. I print. Catalogue Raisonné of Prints, 20012020 is the latest in a series of scholarly catalogue raisonnés on Dines printed uvre and comprehensively documents all works produced since 2001, including information on their dimensions, print-runs and ... More
Virtual presentation showcases works by Italian Feminist artist Mariella Bettineschi
LONDON.- Part of Richard Saltouns Women 2.1 online series of exhibitions spotlighting female artists, this virtual presentation showcases works by Italian Feminist artist Mariella Bettineschi. The show, the first solo presentation of Bettineschis work at the gallery features a selection of works from one of her first series: the Piumari (Feather boxes). At the beginning of the 1980s, after a long process of un-learning what I learnt in art school, the Piumari were born. The Piumari was one of the artists first series to give voice to her ongoing interest and research into alternative languages: the ability to transform and create new ways of thinking with our own breath and further illustrating womens capabilities to bring life into the world. The word Piumari translates as feathers, a literal articulation of the media of the works, which Bettineschi plays with. Elegant, ... More
This ain't no disco: Alone in a crowd at the Armory
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Earlier this week, I crouched on my living room floor, laptop open before me, in the small space that for the past year has contained so much of my physical activity: YouTube yoga, Zoom Pilates, Instagram Live dance classes. This time, I was watching an instructional video for dancing in a much larger area the 55,000-square-foot Drill Hall at Park Avenue Armory in New York City alongside other people. As live indoor performance slowly returns to the city, the Armory, with the advantage of all that space, is hosting SOCIAL! the social distance dance club, which began a sold-out run on Tuesday. Billed as an interactive and experiential movement piece and a communal moment of cathartic release, the event is basically an elaborate means of bopping around to music, with strangers, in a big room. ... More
Donald Ryder, architect of Black heritage sites, dies at 94
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Donald P. Ryder, whose firm designed important repositories of Black culture and social history in becoming one of the nations most prominent partnerships of Black architects, died Feb. 17 at his home in New Rochelle, New York. He was 94. His death, which was not widely reported at the time, was confirmed recently by his daughter Lorraine Ryder. Donald Ryder joined with J. Max Bond Jr., widely regarded as the most influential African American architect in New York, to form Bond Ryder & Associates in the late 1960s. With Ryder managing the firm through economic roller coasters, Bond Ryder, based in Manhattan, went on to design the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, which includes Kings crypt; the New York Public Librarys Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; ... More
Christie's Impressionist & Modern Art & Works on Paper sale realised a total of €10.3 million
PARIS.- The Impressionist and Modern Art and Works on paper sale achieved a total of 10,347,375, attracting international bidding from 30 countries through the Internet, the phones and in the saleroom. The top lot of the sale was a rare Nude from her cubist period by Marie Vassilieff which sold for 680,000, the second highest price achieved for the artist at auction. Another highlight of the sale was the second part of the collection De Caillebotte à Calder which achieved a combined total of 938,750 including two emblematic works by Raoul Dufy, Le port du Havre which sold for 325,000 and the colourful work Nu dans latelier de la place Arago à Perpignan which realised 375,000, against a presale estimate of 120,000-180,000. Antoine Lebouteiller, Director of the department, and Valérie Didier, Head of sale : We ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Future Retrieval
Clarice Beckett
Kim Tschang-Yeul
JoaquÃn Orellana
Flashback On a day like today, Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452. 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: Agents speak on their phones with their clients while bidding on at the auction of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" during the Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale at Christie's on November 15, 2017 in New York City. The rediscovered masterpiece by the Renaissance master sells for an historic $450,312,500, obliterating the prevous world record for the most expensive work of art at auction. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFP.
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