| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, August 10, 2017 |
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| | Ancient skull hints at African roots for ape-human ancestor: Study | |
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Alesi partially excavated after careful removal of loose sand and rocks with dental picks and brushes. Photo: Isaiah Nengo.
PARIS (AFP).- The skull of an infant ape buried by a volcano 13 million years ago has preserved intriguing clues about the ancestor humans shared with apes -- including a likely African origin, scientists said Wednesday. A previously-unknown creature that shared an extended family with the human forefather, had a flat face like that of our far-flung cousin the gibbon, but did not move like one, its discoverers wrote in the journal Nature. They named it Nyanzapithecus alesi after "ales" -- the word for "ancestor" in the Turkana language of Kenya, where the lemon-sized skull was unearthed. The sole specimen is that of an infant that would have grown to weigh about 11 kilogrammes (24 pounds) in adulthood. It had a brain much larger than monkeys from the same epoch, the researchers said. "If you compare to all living things, it looks most like a gibbon," study co-author Isaiah Nengo of the Stony Brook University in New York told AFP. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day This file photo shows Chinese artist Liu Bolin posing during a photo session in Paris. Three pictures by Liu Bolin which were on display during the festival 'Portraits(s)' in Vichy were stolen according to festival organisers on August 8, 2017. JOEL SAGET / AFP
| Colossal new dinosaur species gets scientific name | | It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a Jurassic mammal! | | Swiss art dealer jailed for 'alien hallucination' murder | 
This file photo taken on January 14, 2016 shows the Titanosaur, the largest dinosaur ever displayed at the American Museum of Natural History, unveiled at a news conference in New York. Don EMMERT / AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP).- A new species of titanosaur, discovered in Patagonia three years ago and perhaps the largest known dinosaur to have existed, was formally bestowed a new name Wednesday: Patagotitan mayorum. The name translates as giant from Patagonia, paleontologist Diego Pol told an unveiling ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where a cast of the colossal creature has been on display since 2016 -- so huge that its head and neck extend into a lobby. Mayorum was selected after the name of the family on whose Argentinian ranch the remains of the giant herbivore -- which would have lived 100 million years ago -- were excavated in 2014. The young adult is thought to have weighed up to 70 tons -- as much as 10 African elephants. Its age suggested even larger animals could have lived on Patagonia at the time, said paleontologist Diego Pol from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio in Trelew, who helped lead the excavation. ... More | | 
Photograph of the fossil of gliding mammaliaform Maiopatagium furculiferum (type specimen from Beijing Museum of Natural History BMNH 2940) (Photo by Zhe-Xi Luo/UChicago).
PARIS (AFP).- Not all prehistoric mammals needed to scurry to avoid dinosaurs with whom they shared the planet in the Jurassic age. Some just glided, according to research published Thursday. Fossils of two extinct mammals that lived in China some 160 million years ago, revealed the outlines of wing-like membranes joining the rodent-like critters' front and hind limbs, scientists wrote in the journal Nature. "With long limbs, long hand and foot fingers, and wing-like membranes for tree-to-tree gliding, Maiopatagium furculiferum and Vilevolodon diplomylos are the oldest known gliders in the long history of early mammals," said a statement form the University of Chicago, whose researchers took part in the study. One of the critters measured about 23 centimetres (nine inches) from head to tail, and the other 8 cm without its tail, which was missing. Their gliding ability would have given them access to food that land-bound competitors could not reach, said ... More | | 
The court did not give the 32-year-old perpetrator's name, but British media have identified him as Bennet von Vertes, the son of a wealthy aristocratic Zurich art gallery owner, who also ran his own contemporary art gallery in the city.
GENEVA (AFP).- A Swiss art dealer who strangled and beat his British friend to death with a candlestick holder after hallucinating he was an alien during a drug-fuelled party has been jailed for 12 and a half years. The court in Meilen, near Zurich, also found the man guilty of raping a former girlfriend two months before the murder, as well as a range of cases of sexual assault, the ATS news agency reported Wednesday. The court did not give the 32-year-old perpetrator's name, but British media have identified him as Bennet von Vertes, the son of a wealthy aristocratic Zurich art gallery owner, who also ran his own contemporary art gallery in the city. He also holds British and German citizenship, according to the Blick daily. On December 30, 2014, his victim, identified by media as 23-year-old British national Alex Morgan, had been visiting von Vertes's family villa in the swanky Kuesnacht municipality, on ... More |
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| Motorhead's 'Lemmy' has dino croc named after him | | Over 400 MoMA photographs up for auction to benefit the acquisitions fund | | Afghan migrant 'Little Picasso' exhibits in Belgrade | 
A palaeoartist's reconstruction of Lemmysuchus (Lemmy's crocodile) obtusidens (blunt toothed). The reconstruction contains details relating to Motörhead, with the pattern on the head based on the band's Snaggletooth logo. © Mark Witton/Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.
PARIS (AFP).- A team of music-mad scientists unveiled an extinct, sea-dwelling crocodile from the Jurassic period Wednesday, which they named in honour of Motorhead lead singer Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister who died in 2015. "Lemmysuchus" -- Latin for Lemmy's crocodile -- was about 5.8 metres (19 feet) long and had a skull of more than a metre -- similar to a modern-day saltwater crocodile to which it is only distantly related. "It would have been one of the largest coastal predators of its time," researchers from the Natural History Museum said in a statement. "The teeth were large and blunt, perfect for crushing prey such as turtles." Lemmy's croc was dug up at Peterborough in England in the early 20th century. But it was recently re-examined and found to have been incorrectly lumped with other sea crocodiles from the area. Given that it belonged to a unique group, the creature ... More | | 
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), Coney Island, New York, 1946. Gelatin silver print, flush-mounted on Masonite. Image/sheet/flush mount: 13¾ x 9¼ in (35 x 23.5 cm). Estimate: $50,000-70,000. © Christies Images Limited 2017.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announces Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art, a selection of over 400 photographs to be sold at Christies New York starting with four highlights in the October 10th Photographs Day Sale. A subsequent series of online auctions will be held in October, concurrently with the live Day Sale, and in December 2017, as well as January and April 2018. The online sales are carefully curated to encompass several important themes and genres of the medium, including Pictorialism into Modernism, Women in Photography, and several sales on individual photographers will be featured. The works offered include iconic photographs by many of the most well-known names from the early 20th century to the post-war period, including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Walker Evans, to name a few. The selection is led by two unique ... More | | 
10-year-old Farhad Noory from Afghanistan poses in front of his drawings during his first exhibition in Belgrade, on August 9, 2017. OLIVER BUNIC / AFP.
BELGRADE (AFP).- A 10-year-old Afghan refugee dubbed "Little Picasso" exhibited his paintings and photographs in Belgrade on Wednesday, hoping to raise money for a Serbian child's post-cancer therapy. Farhad Noory has lived in a refugee camp in the city with his parents and two younger brothers for eight months, during which time his paintings of famous people have made him a local media star. His range of portraits include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, surrealist painter Salvador Dali and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. Noory's family were part of the huge wave of migrants from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa hoping to start new lives in western Europe in recent years, but they got stuck in Serbia after the so-called "Balkan route" was shut down in 2016. The boy's gift for art was spotted during language and painting workshops in Belgrade that were organised by local aid groups for refugees and migrants. "We quickly realised how talented he was and sent him to a painting school as ... More |
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| Big names flock to Cuba's first contemporary art space | | New research shows how ancient pottery reveals insights on Iroquoian population's power in 16th century | | Hebrew University's Center for Jewish Art launches the world's largest Index of Jewish Art | 
Luisa Ausenda, director of Arte Continua gallery observes an artwork in Havana, on May 25, 2017. 'Arte Continua' is the first private gallery of contemporary art based in Cuba. ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP.
HAVANA (AFP).- For decades, Cubans have been used to the revolutionary slogan "La lucha continua," or "the struggle goes on." Now the first ever international contemporary art space on the Communist-ruled island has been dubbed "Arte Continua," or "art goes on," reflecting the changes shaping Havana. The concept, originally from Italy, brings leading contemporary artists to an island that has been under one-party rule for more than half a century. It is an offshoot of a project called "Galleria Continua" which started when Italians Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo had the idea of setting up contemporary art spaces in the most unlikely places, starting in 1990 in the medieval Italian village of San Gimignano. They scored a notable coup when they installed a gallery in China ... More | | 
Seneca man in traditional dress. By Lewis Henry Morgan (Life time: 1818-1881). Original publication: League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee or IroquoisImmediate / wikipedia.org.
ALBANY, NY.- An innovative study published today in the journal Science Advances demonstrates how decorations on ancient pottery can be used to discover new evidence for how groups interacted across large regions. The research, conducted by John P. Hart, Director of Research and Collections at the New York State Museum; Jennifer Birch, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia; and Christian Gates St-Pierre, Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal, sheds new light on the importance of a little-understood Iroquoian population in upstate New York and its impact on relations between two emerging Native American political powers in the 16th century. Iroquoians in northeastern North America are best known for the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) ... More | | 
Avi Biran, "Chicken" Kiddush Cup, 2007.
JERUSALEM.- The Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem launched the worlds largest online database of Jewish art today at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art is a collection of digitized images and information about Jewish artifacts from all over the world. The online collection includes more than 260,000 images of objects and artifacts from 700 museums, synagogues and private collections in 41 different countries, as well as architectural drawings of 1,500 synagogues and Jewish ritual buildings from antiquity to the modern day. The public can access the Bezalel Index of Jewish Art and start exploring the world of Jewish art at http://cja.huji.ac.il/browser.php. Amateur or professional researchers easily access more than a quarter of a million images, with accompanying details and descriptions, either by simple keyword search, or ... More |
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| Wayne McGregor and Random International launch new work at the Roundhouse | | Sotheby's Hong Kong to offer wines from the cellar of Fux Restaurant | | John McKinnon announced as new Executive Director of Elmhurst Art Museum | 
+_- Human at the Roundhouse © Ravi Deepres/Alicia Clarke.
LONDON.- One of the most prolific and important artists working today, the internationally celebrated choreographer and director Wayne McGregor curates a major new series at the Roundhouse. The work, +/- Human will run for 3 weeks from 10 to 28 August, and has been specially commissioned for Bloomberg Summer at the Roundhouse, an annual series dedicated to introducing new audiences to innovative culture. The series is presented in two parts. During the day, audiences can engage with the latest installation by the artist collective Random International, acclaimed for the globally successful Rain Room. Visitors will be surrounded by a mysterious flock of flying spheres in a hypnotic experience created in response to the Roundhouses unique architecture. The spheres are programmed using complex algorithms and motion sensors to react intelligently to their surroundings and to bodies in their environment, exploring the relationship betw ... More | | 
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti: 192 bottles including 30 bottles of Romance-Conti and 64 bottles of La Tâche from 15 vintages between 1990 and 2013. Photo: Sotheby's.
HONG KONG.- Sothebys Hong Kong announced the single-owner sale of Wines from the Cellar of Fux Restaurant to take place on 30 September. More than 500 lots of over 3,000 bottles estimated in excess of HK$13.5 million / US$1.7 million will go under the hammer and mark the opening of Sothebys Hong Kong autumn sale series 2017. An award-winning contemporary restaurant in Lech, Austria, Fux Restaurant, founded in 1998, boasts a wine list of 4,000 different wines with over 55,000 bottles, and was named the best wine list in Austria (2015) by Falstaff magazine. This outstanding wine collection has been assembled by 44-yearold restaurant owner Peter Strolz a discerning connoisseur, whose great knowledge and passion was acquired for wine over the course of the last twenty years, since he founded the restaurant at the age of just 25. Wines from the Cellar of Fux Restaurant is set to captivate ... More | | 
John McKinnon is currently the Program Director of the Society for Contemporary Art of the Art Institute of Chicago.
CHICAGO, IL.- The Board of Directors of the Elmhurst Art Museum announced John McKinnon as the new Executive Director. McKinnon comes to the Elmhurst Art Museum with over ten years of curatorial and administrative experience at major art institutions. Currently the Program Director of the Society for Contemporary Art of the Art Institute of Chicago, McKinnon joins the museum on its 20th anniversary as it prepares to unveil the original façade of Mies van der Rohes McCormick House (1952). McKinnon will succeed Jenny Gibbs, who initiated the restoration of the Mies house and presented block-buster exhibitions such as Playboy Architecture: 1952-1970 and Kings & Queens: Pinball, Imagists and Chicago. Gibbs is leaving Elmhurst to join the Sotheby's Institute of Art-New York as Director of the Master of Arts in Art Business. The Elmhurst Art Museum is building on the momentum of its recent growth and upcoming renovations. John ha ... More |
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New interactive installation ""Life in the Adirondacks" opens
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 Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow opens new display charting history of its buildingGLASGOW.- As Scotlands most popular modern art gallery and one of the countrys top ten visitor attractions, the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow has opened a new display charting significant dates in the development of the site, together with important milestones in the cultural development of Glasgow. Stones Steeped in History tells the story from 1777, when the original building was commissioned as a mansion for tobacco merchant, William Cunninghame, until the present day. The permanent show will inform visitors of the history of the building and is also part of the citys ambition to aid a deeper understanding of the role slavery played in the narrative of Glasgow. Images of beautiful old photographs, watercolours and postcards complement nostalgic images of Glasgow throughout the years, which enhance the detailed timeline on display. Stones Steeped in History ... More Seattle Art Fair closes successful third editionSEATTLE, WA.- The third edition of the Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, culminated with strong sales reports from dealers and positive feedback from collectors, artists, visitors, and the local Seattle community. The third edition of the fair was the largest and best attended to date, with 100 exhibitors and 22,500 guests throughout the weekend. Over 150 national and local press outlets wrote about the fair and its exhibitor highlights, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, ArtInfo, Interview, ArtSpace, and W, as well as many Seattle outlets including The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, The Stranger, KING5, Seattle PI, City Arts Magazine, and Seattle Magazine. Seattle Art Fair solidifies its standing in year three, adding blue-chip galleries and international flavour to attract national as well as regional collectors. wrote Sarah Hanson of The ... More Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art hires new Director of Development BILOXI, MS.- The Ohr-OKeefe Museum of Art has named Brenda Blount as its new Director of Development. Recently, Brenda served as the Community Business Development Manager for Barnes & Noble Booksellers, working with area schools to meet their textbook and technology needs. Blounts primary duties were to maximize sales growth through outreach and community events. Her sales efforts and marketing plans reinforced the bookselling culture through world-class customer service focus and digital and merchandising initiatives. Brenda cultivated existing business accounts, generated new sales opportunities, and helped to make the store a valuable resource in the communities the coast serves. A native of Jacksonville, FL, Brenda has been a Mississippi Gulf Coast resident for more than thirty years. She is a seasoned Retail and Fashion merchandising executive ... More Unique baseball museum exhibition is a summer treat for sports, art and history lovers WATERBURY, CONN.- The Mattatuck Museum surveys Americas Greatest Game: Baseballs Greatest Rivalry Yankees or Red Sox through November 15. Waterbury has long been a dividing line, geographically, between these two longtime fan bases and makes for a natural setting for this exhibition. The exhibition is curated by art dealer and sports enthusiasts Neil Scherer of GoingGoingGoneSports. com, who sought to unite the sports and art worlds in reliving this century-old rivalry. The show includes nearly 20 displays showcasing such moments as Bucky Dents 1978 playoff home run that broke the hearts of the Red Sox Nation. Game ticket, program, even a piece of the famous Green Monster and autographs of all players who played in that classic game are included. Other tributes include celebrating Joe DiMaggios 56-game hitting streak with authenticated ... More Heritage Auctions' near-sellout ANA events surpass $30.8 millionDALLAS, TX.- A Meiji gold Proof 20 Yen Year 3 took top lot honors when it sold for $470,000 in Heritage Auctions' five day numismatic auctions held in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association (ANA) Convention in Denver. The Aug. 2-6 event realized $30,809,780 across U.S. coins, World & Ancient coins and U.S. currency. U.S., World & Ancient coins and currency auctions were nearly completely sold-out," said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. Sell-through rates by value and by lot reached 99 percent and more than $7.1 million in winning bids came from floor bidders at the event." Values for World & Ancient coins far exceeded estimates as the Meiji gold Proof 20 Yen Year 3 which was part of an 1870 and 1871 proof set, realized the highest sale price ever paid for a Japanese coin sold in America when it realized $470,00. The ... More Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens exhibits paintings from the Graham D. Williford CollectionJACKSONVILLE, FLA.- The newest exhibition at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Mediterranea: American Art from the Graham D. Williford Collection, on view August 8, 2017 through February 4, 2017, featuring paintings and works on paper by George Peter Alexander Healy (1813 1894), William Merritt Chase (1894 1916), Frank Duveneck (1894 1919), and Theodore Robinson (1852 1896). This exhibition looks at how American artists of the late 19th and early 20th century captured the diversity and distinctiveness of certain places that make up the Mediterranean region such as Italy, Spain, the Middle East, and North Africa. Artists drew on the richness of the flora, the brilliance of the sea, and the grand architecture to create beautiful landscapes and genre scenes. Nelda Damiano, Associate Curator ... More The Corning Museum of Glass names Dr. Karlyn Sutherland 2017 Rakow Commission ArtistCORNING, NY.- The Corning Museum of Glass has named Dr. Karlyn Sutherland, a Scottish emerging artist, as the recipient of the 32nd Rakow Commission. She is known for evocative sculptures, fused wall pieces and site-specific installations that explore the emotional power of place. Originally trained as an architect, Sutherland describes her work in glass as an extension of the sensibilities and skills she honed as an architectural designer. Her autobiographical work is a reaction to vivid memories and intangible qualities of significant moments, she says. Each piece aims to evoke architectural space and atmosphere, distilling and communicating the essence of an experience. One of the things that drew me to Sutherlands pieces initially was how hard they were to capture in photographic media, says Susie J. Silbert, curator of modern and contemporary ... More Heritage offers variety of Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co. jewelry from actress Lupita TovarDALLAS, TX.- Recognized as Hollywood royalty, Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, who starred in the 1931 Spanish-language version of Dracula, was a woman of beauty and charm, with exquisite taste in jewelry. Her dazzling retro to mid-century jewelry collection featuring Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co. jewelry will be offered to her fans and collectors around the world as part of Heritage Auctions' Jewelry Signature Auction Sept. 25 in Beverly Hills. The star of Santa (1931), Mexico's very first "talkie" (film with sound), was so influential that on the 50th anniversary of the original release of Santa, her likeness appeared on a Mexican postage stamp. Tovar's collection which the acclaimed actress wore to numerous movie premieres and award shows is highlighted by two beautiful Van Cleef & Arpels items, a Ruby, Diamond, Platinum, Gold Brooch, Van Cleef & Arpels (est. ... More Giant collection of canine art moving to New YorkNEW YORK (AFP).- Organizers of the American Kennel Club's Museum of the Dog unveiled their new digs Wednesday ahead of the canine art collection's move to the Big Apple in early 2019. The 35-year-old museum is currently in St. Louis, Missouri, where it holds more than 700 original paintings and porcelain and bronze sculptures. A special "Tenacious Terriers" exhibit now on display features an 1890 oil painting with a bright red Irish Terrier in full glory. AKC officials plan to expand and enhance the museum to keep pace with much better known art collections in New York. But they released few details Wednesday. Joined by a four-legged claque that included a German Shorthaired Pointer, a Bulldog and a Leonberger, AKC officials said the museum would share a 60,000 square foot space with the AKC's headquarters on Park Avenue. "The AKC Museum of the Dog ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the U.S. Congress August 10, 2017. The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, and licensing activities. In this image: "The Castle," the building on the National Mall that is home to the Smithsonian's administration, is seen. Photo: Smithsonian Institution
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