| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Thursday, August 1, 2019 |
| | | The Enduring Allure of Antique Caucasian Rugs | |
|
|
A collectors sitting room with two different and rare examples of Caucasian Karachov Kazaks. Photo: Claremont Rug Company.
OAKLAND, CA.- While connoisseurs for decades have recognized the importance of antique tribal rugs woven in the Caucasus Mountains, these carpets are increasingly being added to private collections as the art world in general has come to appreciate their unique portrayal of nature and the cosmos. Bordering Iran to the North, the Caucasus Mountains are among the most formidable landscapes in the world. Stretching 400 miles, they contain a dozen peaks higher than the highest in the Alps. Inhabited by approximately 350 tribes, linguists suggest that there may have been as many as over 150 distinct languages spoken in the region. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Firemen try to extinguish a fire that broke out in the area of the roof of the Museum of Modern Art (Museum fuer Moderne Kunst) on July 29, 2019 in Frankfurt. More than 5000 works spanning from the sixties to the present days are presented in the Museum which is currently under renovation until August 15, 2019. Andreas Arnold / dpa / AFP
|
|
|
|
|
| | | Beyond ABCs: Ancient Philippine script revival spells debate | | Princeton University Art Museum acquires one of Rembrandt's most iconic works | | Centre Pompidou opens the first major retrospective in France of Takesada Matsutani |
This photo taken on June 22, 2019 shows artist Taipan Lucero doing calligraphy using the indigenous script known as Baybayin, used before Spanish colonisation in 1521, at an event in Manila. Noel CELIS / AFP.
MANILA (AFP).- With deliberate golden strokes, artist Taipan Lucero proudly brings an ancient script back to life, in the hope of promoting an endangered but contentious part of the Philippines' heritage. Once confined to history classes, Baybayin, a 17-character indigenous script used before Spanish colonisation, is making a comeback among the nation's millennials, young professionals and diaspora. Even as technology renders writing by hand outdated, online clips of calligraphy and digital fonts for the script have gripped the smartphone generation and now Baybayin -- last used hundreds of years ago -- is appearing on everything from tattoos and t-shirts to mobile apps. Proponents hail the curvilinear text as a crucial part of Philippine identity, but in a country with 131 government-recognised languages -- critics say investing in the promotion of one ancient text over others is controversial and impractical. ... More | |
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 16061669), Landscape with Three Trees, 1643 (detail). Etching with drypoint and engraving. Princeton University Art Museum, Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund and Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund in memory of the Museums dear friend and benefactor David A. Tierno.
PRINCETON, NJ.- An evocative and technically complex etching by Dutch Baroque master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69), "Landscape with Three Trees" (1643), was recently acquired by the Princeton University Art Museum. The Princeton University Art Museum holds 70 of the 300 prints produced by Rembrandt over his long career, providing a cross-section of the artists graphic output, ranging from several of his earliest self-portraits and genre studies to some of his greatest late religious compositions. The new acquisition joins the only other landscape etching in the Museums collection, "Landscape with a Thatched Cottage" (1641), which was acquired in 1960. This exceptional impression of one of Rembrandts most iconic works in any medium represents the artists ... More | |
Takesada Matsutani, Resistance (Pressure), 1958. Pigments minéraux sur papier japonais collé sur panneau de contreplaqué, 115,2 x 89,4 cm. Photo © Kaoru Minamino © Takesada Matsutani. Courtesy de l'artiste et Hauser & Wirth.
PARIS.- Covering sixty years of the career of Takesada Matsutani (1937, Osaka, Japan), this exhibition at the Centre Pompidou is the first major retrospective in France of this Japanese artist who has been living and working in Paris since 1966. The exhibition is built around an exceptional donation of 22 works made by Matsutani to the National Museum of Modern Art, which range from the late 1950s to the present. The exhibition, thus, also retraces Matsutanis career all the way back to its origins; mixing the late 1950s work of traditional nihonga style and surrealistic pieces inspired by informal abstraction, which evolved into his Gutai artworks of the early 1960s. This richly original artists fascination with organic material and propagation, begun in his Gutai period, and the artists ties with time and space marked by a Buddhist culture, moved in the 1970s to an experimentation with hard ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | | Post-mortem: Fan mail piles up at grave of French poet Rimbaud | | Troubled Woodstock 50 celebration officially canceled | | Broadway icon Harold Prince dead at 91 |
Bernard Colin, caretaker at the cemetery for 37 years, keeps the letters sent to Rimbaud / © AFP.
CHARLEVILLE-MÃZIÃRES (AFP).- Two or three times a week the postman shows up at a cemetery in the eastern French town of Charleville-Mezieres with a letter for a poet who continues to stir passions 127 years after his death. Some of the missives addressed to Arthur Rimbaud contain declarations of undying love for the prodigious enfant terrible of French letters, who passed away at 37 after a rollercoaster life that included an opium-fuelled affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine as well as a stint as an arms dealer. "Rimbaud, even if you are no longer there, know that I will love you forever," reads one of the letters deposited in the yellow postbox inscribed with the poet's name at the entrance to the graveyard. Another promises him "the sun, moon and stars". Some of those trying to commune with the dead poet seem to find solace in writing to another tortured soul, who stunned the Paris literary scene as a precocious teen attempting to chart the unconscious mind in poems striking for their modernism. Rummaging thro ... More | |
In this file photo taken on August 13, 2009, Woodstock Music Festival co-producer Micael Lang attends a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock at the at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC in New York City. Michael Loccisano / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- A festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock with a star-studded blow-out has officially been canceled, organizers said Wednesday, nailing shut the coffin on an event long plagued by permit and financial woes. After it could not secure a site in upstate New York, where the original Woodstock took place, organizers had vowed the show would go on at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland northeast of the US capitol. But that move saw artists including Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus, along with veterans of the 1969 festival like Santana, begin backing out of the August 16-18 weekend. "We are saddened that a series of unforeseen setbacks has made it impossible to put on the Festival we imagined with the great line-up we had booked and the social engagement we were anticipating," said Michael Lang, ... More | |
In this file photo taken on January 25, 2013 Harold Prince attends "The Phantom Of The Opera" Broadway 25th Anniversary at Majestic Theatre on January 26, 2013 in New York, New York. Laura Cavanaugh / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- Broadway director and producer Harold Prince -- who brought some of the most successful musicals ever to the stage including "The Phantom of the Opera" and won a record 21 Tony awards -- died Wednesday after a short illness. He was 91. Tributes poured in for Prince, whose glittering career lasted more than 60 years and featured several hit collaborations with fellow musical theater royalty Stephen Sondheim ("Company" and "Sweeney Todd") and Andrew Lloyd Webber ("Phantom" and "Evita"). Lloyd Webber described him as "the prince of musicals." "This wonderful man taught me so much and his mastery of musical theater was without equal," the British composer wrote on Twitter. Prince -- called "Hal" by those close to him -- passed away in Reykjavik, Iceland, his publicist said in a statement emailed to AFP. He leaves behind his wife of 56 years, Judy; a son ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | | Darn it! The US artist stitching together Trump quotes | | Exhibition deals with the dramatic worldwide threat of the idea of humanity | | George W. Bush paintings to go on display at Kennedy Center |
Textile artist Diana Weymar shows the first piece of her "Tiny Pricks" project at Lingua Franca store during a interview with AFP, on July 25, 2019 in New York City. EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- "Drain the swamp." "Such a nasty woman." "Crooked Hillary." An American artist has found a novel way to record President Donald Trump's most outlandish comments for posterity: through embroidery. Diana Weymar is inspiring hundreds of women from around the world to channel their feelings toward Trump by sewing quotes of his into old textiles, including doilies, baby bibs and even underwear. The result is the "Tiny Pricks Project," a 900-strong collection of colorful needlework pieces featuring Trumpisms, many of which are currently on display at an exhibition in New York. "This is a creative way of dealing with the madness, which I think is hard to find," Weymar, 50, tells AFP. "I think a lot about this project as pricking your conscience," she says, explaining the title. "And of course there's a reference to other kinds of pricks, umm other ... More | |
Ferit Kuyas, Shenyang, China, 2016 (from the series everywhere anywhere, 2004-2019).
BELGRADE.- The exhibition Where Do We Go, and How Long Will it Take is the second part of an exchange between the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus / Art Collections and Museums of Augsburg, Germany. In autumn 2018, the Salon of MoCAB presented the exhibition Behind the Image curated by Una Popović in Augsburg, an exhibition of contemporary Serbian artists dealing with video and film in their practice. In this dialogue, the Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus responds showing a selection of artists related to the Gallerys program in Belgrade. The exhibition Where Do We Go, and How Long Will it Take deals with the dramatic worldwide threat of the idea of humanity. Cultural identities and their historical memory are increasingly marginalized. Anonymity prevails in the global system. Politics, economics, advertising mechanisms - consumption as an overpowering force is marking the actual attribut ... More | |
In this file photo taken on February 28, 2017 former US President George W. Bush holds up a print copy of his "Portraits of Courage" painting exhibit at a press preview at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, Texas. Laura BUCKMAN / AFP.
WASHINGTON (AFP).- Paintings of wounded US military veterans by former president George W. Bush are to go on display this year at a Kennedy Center gallery, the Washington-based national cultural center said Wednesday. "The Kennedy Center is proud to share these works -- painted by a living president -- that honor the men and women who defend our freedom," its president Deborah Rutter said in a statement. The Kennedy Center said 66 of Bush's paintings would go on display from October 7 until November 15 as part of an exhibit entitled "Profiles in Courage." The paintings have been displayed previously at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas and featured in a book, "Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors." "Exploring the injuries -- visible ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | | Dracula, Casablanca Paper lead Heritage Auctions' Movie Posters Auction above $1.9 million | | "Post-War Ceramics from Autio to Woodman" at Rago in collaboration with Wright | | High Museum announces new Board Chair and members |
Bidders drove the final prices for Casablanca (Warner Brothers, 1944) Australian One Sheet to $72,000.
DALLAS, TX.- Two lots from the most famous vampire movie ever made emerged as the two most expensive lobby cards ever sold and claimed the top two results in Heritage Auctions Movie Posters Auction July 27-28 in Dallas, Texas. The sale totaled $1,975,550 and boasted stellar sell-through rates of 98.7% by value and 96.7% by lots sold. Dracula (Universal, 1931) Title Lobby Card drew bids from 17 collectors before closing at $114,000, the highest price ever paid for a lobby card, against a pre-auction estimate of $40,000-80,000. Capturing a dramatic image from the film widely considered the definitive vampire film, it spotlights Bram Stokers timeless classic that overcame studio financial troubles to secure its status as the best vampire film ever made and establishing star Bela Lugosi as the unquestioned personification of Dracula. Dracula was made despite some significant financial limitations during the Depression, Heritage Auc ... More | |
Richard DeVore, Vessel #790. Estimate: $7,500 - 9,500.
LAMBERTVILLE, NJ.- Join Rago and Wright Auctions on September 22, 2019 for Post-War Ceramics from Autio to Woodman". This stand-alone session of ceramics features significant works from masters of the post-war era including Rudy Autio, Richard DeVore, Waylande Gregory, Shoji Hamada, Bernard and David Leach, Cliff Lee, Glen Lukens, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Lucie Rie, Harrison McIntosh, Edwin and Mary Scheier, Toshiko Takaezu, Robert Turner, Peter Voulkos, Beatrice Wood and Betty Woodman, among others. The sale, with over 150 lots, is principally drawn from three substantial private collections, two from New York City and one from North Carolina, each assembled for nearly half a century. Says David Rago, "In no small part because of our merger with Wright Auctions, represented here is one of the best assemblages of post-war ceramics brought to public auction." Among the many highlights: a massive leopard spot decorated stoneware vase by Harrison ... More | |
Robin Howell is an Atlanta native and longtime supporter of the High.
ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art today announced the appointment of Robin Howell as the new chair of its board of directors. Howell will serve for the next two years and succeeds Charles Abney III, who began his tenure in 2015. The High also welcomes four new board members to serve two-year terms: Farideh Azadi, Watt Boone, Will Powell and Mark Preisinger. Robin Howell is an Atlanta native and longtime supporter of the High, having served on the Museums board for many years, most recently on the nominating committee. She is a previous co-chair of the Highs Directors Circle and has supported key acquisitions for the collection and the annual Wine Auction fundraiser. Howell has held management positions in various businesses in which her family maintains an interest and currently serves on the boards of Gray Television and Atlantic American Corporation. Her previous roles include serving as chairman of the board of Farmers & Merch ... More |
|
In the Studio with Vera Lutter
|
|
| |
| | More News |
Oklahoma City Museum of Art receives grant from Samuel H. Kress Foundation
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA.- OKCMOA has been awarded a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to support a one-year provenance research fellowship, becoming the first institution in Oklahoma to receive this grant. Beginning Sept. 9, 2019, OKCMOA will welcome Dr. Bryn Critz Schockmel, a 2019 Ph.D. graduate of Boston Universitys History of Art & Architecture program as a new fellow. Schockmel will research a series of objects from the Museums permanent collection to establish a more complete record of their provenance. The museum will celebrate our 75th anniversary in 2020, said Dr. Michael Anderson, OKCMOA interim president and CEO. For this major anniversary, the Museum is undertaking a yearlong focus on our permanent collection, our institutional history and our vision for future. We are thrilled to be selected for this competitive fellowship ... More
Fuzzy playground takes over Arnolfini's front room with a landscape of plush fur
BRISTOL.- For Summer 2019, Arnolfini is coming to life with Fluffy Library, an installation by visiting Greek artist Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou her giant furry monster, Fluffy, is taking up residence, spreading itself out across the gallery, and eating all the books. Imagined as a mysterious snow white beast with no age or gender, Fluffy lives in libraries, eats books, and digests them into knowledge through its strange fuzzy mouths. Taking over the entire space of Arnolfinis ground floor gallery, visitors are encouraged to crawl onto Fluffy, grab a book, and meet Fluffys friends the Dragon Princess, the Hairy Fairy, the Bearded Horse, and a greater cast of monstrous friends. Fluffy Library is the creation of Tsagkaropoulou, a twenty-five year old Greek artist making her UK debut. The installation was first developed in Athens with curator Vassilis Zidianakis ... More
Whitney announces two curatorial promotions
NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art announced today that two of the Museums curators are receiving promotions and taking on new roles, effective mid-October. David Breslin will become the Museums first Director of Curatorial Initiatives and Jane Panetta will succeed him as Director of the Collection. Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, remarked, David and Jane truly exemplify the best of the Whitney's spirit in their generous dedication to artists and our community. Since arriving at the Museum, David has been instrumental in shaping the Whitneys program through the development and display of its collection. As the inaugural Director of Curatorial Initiatives, he will bring his broad talents and interdisciplinary thinking to help advance and innovate our artistic mission. ... More
Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts appoints artist Gary Simmons to its Board of Directors
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts announced today the appointment of artist Gary Simmons to its Board of Directors. He joins Chair John C. Welchman and members Stephanie Barron, Catherine Opie, Claire Peeps, Edward Rada, and Joan Weinstein. We are very excited to welcome Gary to the board of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, said Welchman. His creatively critical work and thinking and engagement with art communities on both coasts will greatly benefit the mission of the Foundation to support bold, adventurous and risk-taking work and to bring these values into innovative programs and other outcomes as we build on Kelleys remarkable legacy. Simmons uses icons and stereotypes of American popular culture to create works that address personal and collective experiences of race and class. He ... More
Homegrown fashion emerges in troubled Somalia
MOGADISHU (AFP).- Every time young fashion designer Hawa Adan Hassan makes a new gown for a paying customer, she also makes her dreams come true. "My whole life, fashion design was a dream," says the 23-year-old university student, who last year began running a cottage business out of her family's home in Hamarweyne, the historic heart of Somalia's coastal capital Mogadishu. For Hassan, it began with art, when she found herself drawn to sketching clothes rather than the animals and landscapes preferred by her peers. Then she set to work on tailoring to turn her images into reality. "I realised this could be my field of expertise," she says. For decades, war and upheaval left ordinary Somalis focussed on the daily matters of life, death and survival. Bombings by Al-Shabaab jihadists still dog Mogadishu today. But a creeping ... More
Sultans of spin: the Japanese breakdancers busting Olympic moves
TOKYO (AFP).- For Japanese breakdancer Shigeyuki Nakarai, the prospect of winning a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics has become something of an obsession. The proposal by Paris organisers in February to include the street dance lit a fire under the 17-year-old, aka Shigekix, who took bronze at last year's Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. "I still have a lot of regrets at failing to win gold," he told AFP after showing off some crazy-legs breaking moves in the shadow of Tokyo Bay's Rainbow Bridge. "I've thought about that night every day since," added the snake-hipped b-boy from Osaka, dressed in blue jeans and a baggy white T-shirt. "But my time will come -- at the 2024 Olympics I'll be trying to turn this frustration into positive energy." The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has voted to approve the addition of breakdancing, which grew ... More
Bonhams reveals highlights ahead of new Australia Jewels Auction
SYDNEY.- Leading international auction house Bonhams has revealed highlights included in their upcoming Australia Jewels Auction that will be held in Sydney, 14 August 2019. Bonhams is at the forefront of the international jewellery world, selling more jewellery than any other auction house with 30 auctions taking place globally throughout the year. Continuing Bonhams success in the Asia Pacific Jewellery market, Bonhams Australia now joins the companys international network of auctions held in the key jewellery locations: London, New York, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles. Director Bonhams Australia, Merryn Schriever said: Bonhams has a clear vision for Australia as an integral part of its future growth in the Asian Pacific region. We are delighted to expand our calendar to include an Australia Jewels auction in Sydney this August and the incredibly positive ... More
Confederate general's Colt gun leads Milestone's Premier Firearms Auction
WILLOUGHBY, OH.- Milestone Auctions in suburban Cleveland has announced details of its August 10 Summer Premier Firearms Auction featuring nearly 600 lots of antique and modern guns, rifles and shotguns, with a special section dedicated to Civil War arms. All forms of bidding will be available, including absentee and live online. Highlights include an important documented Colt SA Army 7th Cavalry Scout Little Big Horn revolver, a cased General Sterling Price CSA Model 1849 Colt pocket revolver, a Col. Van Wyck presentation Civil War London navy gun, two cased 19th-century Remington cane guns, a Nazi SS Walther pistol in its original box; a gold-plated sterling 9mm, one-off display, three shotguns belonging to comedian Jerry Lewis, and an MGM Gatling gun prop. Early firearms are led by a pair of 18th-century silver-mounted flintlock pistols, as well ... More
ODETTA opens an exhibition featuring works by Paula Overbay, Andra Samelson, and Daniel Hill
NEW YORK, NY.- A harbinger of good luck, the bluebird signals to us that joy is forthcoming. For the artists of Bluebird of Happiness, each coming to blue in their own way, our joy is actualized in their paintings through saturated hues, an impossibly light touch, and a flair for the psychedelic. Their meditative fields invite us to move slowly, loosen the reins, and let our eyes dance. Daniel Hills work is an exploration between vision and sound and the power of this connection to generate compelling visual environments. The inquiry of this integration has also satisfied a strong interest in the ideas and methodology of science as a basis for the conceptual underpinning of the work. As such, the method of creating his work is scientifically inspired with a well thought out and tested process oriented to have optimal pragmatic results both for the quality of the work ... More
Exhibition featuring the Workplace on Television opens at the Jewish Museum
NEW YORK, NY.- The Jewish Museum is presenting Television and Beyond: Workplace Encounters from July 12, 2019 to March 20, 2020, featuring a selection of television clips exploring interactions in the workplace from classics such as The West Wing and contemporary programs like Atlanta and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. One of seven sections that make up the Jewish Museums third floor collection exhibition, Scenes from the Collection, Television and Beyond draws inspiration from the Museums National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting. Workplace sitcoms and dramas have long been an important staple of television programming, creating situations where diverse people, including colleagues of different religions, races, and beliefs, can interact. These interactions can bring out discomfort such as when, for example, people are insensitive to others identities, or ... More
The Library of Congress celebrates the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birthday with exhibit
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Library of Congress is celebrating the 200th anniversary of American poet and changemaker Walt Whitmans birthday with a series of exhibits, public programs and a digital crowdsourcing campaign to showcase the Librarys unparalleled collections of Whitmans writings and artifacts. The Librarys Whitman Bicentennial series is part of the citywide Walt Whitman 200 Festival and other commemorations in the Mid-Atlantic where Whitman spent most of his life. Whitman was born May 31, 1819, and died March 26, 1892. He spent about 10 years living and writing in Washington. During the Civil War, he volunteered in military hospitals in the city to provide emotional support to wounded soldiers. Whitman worked as a schoolteacher, printer, newspaper editor, journalist, carpenter, freelance writer and civil servant, but he is best known ... More
|
|
Flashback On a day like today, American installation artist Jason Rhoades died August 01, 2006. Jason Rhoades (July 9, 1965 - August 1, 2006) was an installation artist who enjoyed critical acclaim, if not widespread public recognition, at the time of his death, and who was eulogized by some critics as one of the most significant artists of his generation. Better known in Europe, where he exhibited regularly for the last twelve years of his life, Rhoades was recently celebrated for his combination dinner party/exhibitions that feature violet neon signs with African, Caribbean, Creole and hip-hop slang for the female genitalia. His work remains part of the permanent collection in the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, where he was a part of exhibit "Beg Borrow and Steal" at the time of his death. In this image: Jason Rhoades, Installation view, 'Perfect World', Deichtorhallen , Hamburg, Germany , 1999. © The Estate of Jason Rhoades. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth and David Zwirner, New York. Photo: Jens Rathmann.
|
| |
|
|
