| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, December 10, 2020 |
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| | Lucy Lacoste Gallery opens "Danish Women in Contemporary Ceramics" | |
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Bente Skjottgaard, (right to left) Metamorphosis: Purple #1703, Metamorphosis: Yellow #1654, Metamorphosis: Green #1779, Metamorphosis: Purple #1649, Metamorphosis: Green #1786.
CONCORD, MASS.- Lucy Lacoste Gallery will close the 2020 season with an all-female exhibition: Danish Women in Contemporary Ceramics, December 12th January 5th, highlighting the leading role women have played in the development of ceramics there. This exhibition features the work of Beate Andersen, Anne Floche, Mette Maya Gregersen, Bente Skjøttgaard, Charlotte Thorup, Barbro Ã
berg, and Gunhild Aaberg, artists in varying stages of their careers, aa of whom have received international recognition through exhibition. Why have women taken such a leading role in Danish Ceramics, in contrast to other societies? Denmark, a country with an abundance of clay, has a long history of ceramics going back to the Vikings. Ceramic creativity has been fostered by the manufactories such as Royal Copenhagen which hired female artists as designers and gave them studio space to freely create their own work. The countrys affinity for the Arts and Crafts ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Installation Photography of "Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving" at the de Young museum in San Francisco. Photography by Gary Sexton Photography courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The de Young and Legion of Honor are temporarily closed.
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| Lockdown gardening in Britain leads to archaeological discoveries | | The Met to receive major gift of European arms and armor from Ronald S. Lauder | | Sentence for Tate Modern attack teen justified: judges | 
South African Krugerrand gold coins minted in the 1970s during apartheid and found in Milton Keynes, England, this year. British Museums Portable Antiquities Scheme via The New York Times.
by Jenny Gross
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Gardeners in Hampshire, a county in southeast England, were weeding their yard in April when they found 63 gold coins and one silver coin from King Henry VIIIs reign in the 16th century, with four of the coins inscribed with the initials of the kings wives Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. The archaeological find was one of more than 47,000 in England and Wales that were reported this year, amid an increase in backyard gardening during coronavirus lockdowns, the British Museum said Wednesday. In another discovery, in Milton Keynes, a town northwest of London, gardeners found 50 solid gold South African Krugerrand coins that were minted in the 1970s during apartheid. The news of ... More | | 
Pair of gauntlets of Maximilian I, attributed to Lorenz Helmschmid, circa 1490, on display in The Last Knight exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Oct. 18, 2019. George Etheredge/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today a landmark gift from Ronald S. Lauder of 91 objects from his collection of arms and armor. Mr. Lauder's gift is the most significant grouping of European arms and armor given to the Museum since 1942. Regarded as one of the world's finest privately owned collections of European arms and armor, Mr. Lauder's gift includes exquisite medieval and Renaissance armors for man and horse and rare examples of weapons. The promised gift will dramatically expand the breadth of the Department of Arms and Armor's European holdings as well as its ability to showcase the distinctive styles of schools of armorers and their superb art and craftsmanship for visitors. Mr. Lauder's gift also provides the department with ... More | | 
A general view shows the Tate Modern gallery on the southern bank of the River Thames in London. Daniel SORABJI / AFP.
LONDON (AFP).- A British teenager who threw a young French boy from the viewing platform of London's Tate Modern gallery failed in a legal bid on Wednesday to reduce the length of his jail term. Lawyers for Jonty Bravery had argued in the Court of Appeal in central London that the 15-year minimum of a life sentence for attempted murder was too high. But three judges disagreed, ruling that it was not "manifestly excessive or wrong in principle". Bravery, 19, was jailed in June for throwing the young boy head first from the 10th-floor balcony of the London gallery onto a fifth-floor roof 30 metres (100 feet) below. The boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, broke his spine, leg and arms and suffered a head injury. The trial judge said he had suffered "permanent and life-changing injuries". She told Bravery he was a "grave danger to the public" and may ... More |
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| The most important moments in art in 2020 | | Walter Storms Galerie opens an exhibition of works by Nathan Randall Green | | Carnegie Hall stands by its chairman, despite tax violations | 
Noah Davis, Single Mother with Father Out of the Picture, 2007-2008 © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The year was a 12-month stress test. When I asked friends, How are you? the repeat answers came: Anxious, depressed, bored. The first two I could relate to, but bored is something I rarely am. As a journalist, Im addicted to art-specific information, to taking it in, parsing it, sorting it, trying to make sense of it. And theres been a ton of it this year, all pretty intense. So as long as Ive had a laptop, a home library, and at least some access to live art, Ive been OK in lockdown mode. Here are some things that have kept me focused. Art, fundamentally, is information. Its as much about issues as about objects, about how we live and think, ethically, politically, emotionally. This has been clear in exhibitions that have expanded our knowledge of whats in the world, near and far. Among those I revisit in my mind are Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara at the Metr ... More | | 
Nathan Randall Green, E.C.U.M.2, 2020, Acrylic paint, gesso on canvas, wrapped around a wooden panel, 91 cm x 122 cm. Photo: Adam Reich.
MUNICH.- Texas-born Nathan Randall Green is showing his typical "paper-pulp" paintings for the first time in Europe in a major solo exhibition called "Through Triple Darkness". Nathan Randall Greens distinctive geometric hard-edge style is based on his keen cosmological interest and research, e.g. at the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas. At first glance, his paintings seem like angular abstractions full of triangles in vivid colors. On closer inspection, the composite elements begin to form a space of varying depth. The many materials used, such as acrylic, scraps of canvas, cardboard, synthetics with paper pulp on organically shaped wooden panels and their layers create a complicatedly structured surface that indicates the intense process of their creation. His paintings achieve a visual depth and aim to convey time and space simultaneously. "Many of my works deal with cosmological ideas," says New York ... More | | 
Robert F. Smith at Carnegie Halls Opening Night Gala Dinner in New York, Oct. 3, 2019. Krista Schlueter/The New York Times.
by Robin Pogrebin
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When Robert F. Smith, the billionaire philanthropist, became the new chairman of Carnegie Hall in 2016, he seemed almost too good to be true. He promised to be a stabilizing presence at Carnegie after the brief, tumultuous reign of his predecessor. Smith was a benefactor with deep pockets and a strong interest in the halls education efforts. He was the rare board leader of color in a field where diversity lags. And he was cheered as a national hero last year when, during his commencement address at Morehouse College, he pledged to pay off the student debt of the entire graduating class. So it came as a shock this fall when Smith, 58, admitted to having played a supporting role in what federal prosecutors called the largest tax evasion case in U.S. history acknowledging ... More |
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| French doctor leaves legacy to Russia's Hermitage cats | | What made Leonardo such a great artist? Science, says a new book | | 'Sabre-toothed tiger' skeleton sells for more than $84,000 | 
This file photo taken on October 14, 2015 shows a cat in front of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. OLGA MALTSEVA / AFP.
ST. PETERSBURG (AFP).- A French doctor has bequeathed 3,000 euros to celebrated cats that live in the basement of the Hermitage museum, a world-renowned art gallery in Russia's second city Saint Petersburg "We received information (about the inheritance) this summer. At the moment the process of completing all the legal formalities is in the final stage," the museum press service told AFP on Tuesday. The money was left by French doctor Christophe Batard, who died at the age of 51. "Our French friend has done a remarkable thing... it is such a beautiful gesture," Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky said on Monday. He proposed the amount left to the cats be put towards improving the basement where they live. The history of the Hermitage cats dates back to the 18th century when the museum, then called the Winter Palace, was an imperial residence in Russia's former capital. Empress Elizabeth I -- daughter of Saint Petersburg founder Emperor Peter the Great -- in 1745 ordered cats to be ... More | | 
"The Shadow Drawing: How Science Taught Leonardo How to Paint" by Francesca Fiorani. Illustrated. 374 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $35.
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- When testing a new pen, Leonardo da Vinci was in the habit of scrawling the phrase dimmi tell me. The doodles appear in the margins of his notebooks, those records of his ravenous, almost carnal curiosity about the natural world. Dimmi was his animating question. Dimmi, he wrote between scribbled shopping lists (eels, velvet, wine) and sketches of inventions, instructing himself: Describe what sneezing is, what yawning is, the falling sickness, spasm. Dimmi tell me your secrets he implored in his studies of the movement of water and the working of the woodpeckers tongue. Painter, engineer, anatomist, the designer of torture devices as well as machines to break men out of prison, Leonardo is heralded as the real Renaissance man. Never mind that this notion is reductive and plain wrong or so argues art historian Francesca Fiorani in her new book, The Shadow Drawing. Leonardos interests were not as dizzyingly disp ... More | | 
This file photo taken on December 1, 2020 shows a rare sabre-toothed cat's skeleton displayed at "Piguet Hotel des Ventes" auction house during a sale preview in Geneva. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP.
GENEVA (AFP).- A nearly 40-million-year-old skeleton belonging to what is popularly called a sabre-toothed tiger has sold for $84,350, a year after its discovery on a US ranch. The skeleton, about 120 centimetres (nearly four feet) long, was snapped up by a private collector in just one minute at an auction in Geneva on Tuesday. The original bones are those of a Hoplophoneus -- not technically cats, they are an extinct genus of the Nimravidae family and once stalked the plains of North America. Such extinct predatory mammals are commonly known as sabre-toothed tigers. Also on sale was a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth which fetched just over $6,000, while a 85-cm long fin from a mosasaur -- a marine reptile that in the Cretaceous period was at the top of the submarine food chain -- was bought for almost $8,000. A 75-million-year-old ammolite -- an opal-like organic gemstone in shades of red and orange -- measuring 40 cm ... More |
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| Fantastic beasts take over London's Natural History Museum | | James Hyman Gallery launches charity fundraising sale for the Trussell Trust network of food banks | | Victoria Miro announces representation of Kudzanai-Violet Hwami | 
A member of staff poses with a prop of a Hungarian Horntail dragon made for the Fantastic Beasts film series at the press view of Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature exhibition at Natural History Exhibition in London on December 7, 2020. Tolga Akmen / AFP.
by Charlotte Durand
LONDON (AFP).- Fans of J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts" will already be familiar with nifflers, occamy and demiguise while unicorns, dragons and mermaids have been the stuff of legends for centuries. Now London's Natural History Museum has scoured its vast collection for an exhibition to celebrate strange beasts in all their forms, including those created by the Harry Potter author. "Fantastic Beasts. The Wonder of Nature" is a collaboration between the museum, the BBC and Warner Bros, and comes as the venue reopens after months of coronavirus-enforced closure. The show promises to plunge visitors straight into a world well known to Harry Potter fans, ... More | | 
Sam Levin, Brigitte Bardot (Photoshoot with lace), 1963 £1,200. Image courtesy of James Hyman Gallery.
LONDON.- In the run up to Christmas James Hyman Gallery is hosting an online fundraising sale of 54 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and prints, from the 20th-century to today, with 50% of the profits being donated to the Trussell Trust. The Trussell Trust supports a nationwide network of food banks to provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaigns for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. The impressive roster of artists whose work is up for sale include Shirley Baker, Tacita Dean, Walker Evans, William Gear, Tony Ray-Jones, Edouardo Paolozzi, Zanele Muholi, Jo Spence, Athi-Patra Ruga, Wolgang Tillmans, among others, and are available to buy at discounted prices, ranging from £150 for a limited edition book of photographs by Linda McCartney to £35,000 for a large-scale copper sculpture by Zhang Huan. James Hyman, Gallery Director said: This year we have ... More | | 
Portrait of Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, 2019. Photo © Jo Metson Scott.
LONDON.- Victoria Miro announced the representation of Kudzanai-Violet Hwami. A new work by the painter will feature in Victoria Miros online exhibition as part of the Reprieve Collective on Vortic Collect, which launches 10 December to mark Human Rights Day. The artists first exhibition with the gallery will be held in summer 2021. Now living in the UK, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami was born in Gutu, Zimbabwe in 1993 and lived in South Africa from the ages of nine to seventeen. Her work reveals a deeply personal vision of Southern African life. Drawing on her experiences of geographical dislocation and displacement, her paintings combine visual fragments from a myriad of sources such as online images and personal photographs, which collapse past and present. Many of her paintings feature self-portraits and images of her immediate and extended family. Powerful nudes are another point of departure, boldly raising ... More |
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Eric Zetterquist talks with Lark Mason - Asia Week NY
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 Paul Holberton to publish 'The Human Touch: Making Art, Leaving Traces'LONDON.- Touch is our first sense. Through touch we make art, stake a claim to what we own and those we love, express our faith, our belief, our anger. Touch is how we leave our mark and find our place in the world; touch is how we connect. Drawing on works of art spanning 4,000 years and from across the globe, The Human Touch is a journey through the anatomical workings of touch, its creative force, and its emotional power. Taking as its starting point the idea that touch is our first and deepest sense, The Human Touch unearths the symbolism of touch in faith traditions from around the world, and reveals the marks of touch, both reverential and violent, on art and material culture from four millennia of human history. Peopled with images of the human hand denoting creativity, resistance, and empowerment, it invites us to stop taking touch ... More The art of politics: Democracy protests inspire Thai creativesBANGKOK (AFP).- With virtual reality goggles strapped on and controllers clasped in his hands, Thai artist Chalermpol Junrayab looks more like he's doing a robot dance than creating political art. Since July, rolling youth-led protests calling for democratic reforms have been a boon for the kingdom's art scene, and 35-year-old Chalermpol is among a crop of creatives taking inspiration from the nation's political mood. Wearing his VR headset, he etches out a student hanging from a tree -- an infamous image from the 1976 student massacre at Bangkok's Thammasat University that claimed at least 46 lives. The phrase "Amazing Thailand", drawn in block letters, looms over the gruesome scene -- Chalermpol's macabre twist on the kingdom's tourism slogan. "My goal is to be able to make people feel amused through art and laugh along with it," he tells ... More Camilla Wicks, dazzling violinist from a young age, dies at 92NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Howard Taubman, reviewing violinist Camilla Wicks New York debut at Town Hall in The New York Times in 1942, had to admit that she had a certain flair for the fiddle. He was especially impressed by her handling of difficult passages in the Paganini D major Concerto, a work requiring an abundance of technical skill. By the way, Wicks at the time was, as the reviews opening sentence noted, a pretty, flaxen-haired lass of thirteen and a half. She had already been impressing West Coast audiences for years, having made her debut with an orchestra at age 7 in Long Beach, California. But she was no flash-in-the-pan prodigy whose abilities dont develop with age. Eleven years after that New York debut, now in her mid-20s, she played Beethovens Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie ... More Regen Projects presents Kader Attia's Los Angeles debut exhibitionLOS ANGELES, CA.- Regen Projects is presenting Kader Attias Los Angeles debut, The Valley of Dreams. The exhibition presents a selection of new and preexisting works in various media including a lightbox photograph, ceramics, sculptures, and a large-scale installation that continue his material and philosophical investigation of the notion of repair as a global, cultural phenomenon in response to historic, collective trauma. This marks Attias first show at the gallery. Join us for a virtual conversation with Kader Attia on Saturday, December 12 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 7 pm CET. Click here to register. Born in Paris and raised between France and Algeria, Attias practice is informed by his experience of living within two cultures. His rigorous, research-based works examine the lasting and wide-ranging effects of Western colonial hegemony ... More GRIMM announces the representation of Dirk Braeckman in New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- GRIMM announced the representation of Dirk Braeckman in New York. Since the mid-1980s, Dirk Braeckman (Belgium, 1958) has developed an impressive oeuvre consisting of photography and more recently video. Encountering images from his daily surroundings by chance, Braeckmans large works suggest rather than explain. They offer a window into an unidentified reality: distant seascapes, deserted ballrooms, billowing curtains, antique wallpaper, or a blurred image of a nude. Atmosphere, cropping, light and texture are given central place in Braeckmans poetic work. Braeckmans darkroom functions like a painters studio; an area for experimentation where the artist allows freedom, spontaneity and time to influence his creative process. Using tools and techniques to manipulate the negatives, the resulting works ... More Syrian archives images of Damascus homes to preserve themDAMASCUS (AFP).- Strolling through the alleyways of war-torn Syria's capital, Rania Kataf snaps photos of the city's famed houses, capturing their nooks and crannies for posterity. After seeing how vulnerable they had become during the country's devastating civil war, the 35-year-old began creating a digital archive of the buildings of Old Damascus. "I was inspired by European photographers who tried to document buildings in their cities during the Second World War so architects could later rebuild part of them," she said. The old city of the Syrian capital is famed for its elegant century-old houses, usually two storeys built around a leafy rectangular courtyard with a carved stone fountain at its centre. Their many rooms usually include both a summer and a winter guestroom, both looking onto the courtyard. While the capital has been largely ... More Review: Chagall comes to life in enchanting 'Flying Lovers'LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- They make quite a picture, the two of them: he tall and tousle-haired, she tiny and acrobatic. When he stretches out on the floor, she somersaults up the length of him, and it is the most romantic thing this besotted pair of newlyweds, the delight of their private world. Youre beautiful, she told him on their wedding day. I want to waste the rest of my life with you. She is Bella Rosenfeld Chagall, he is artist Marc Chagall, and in Emma Rices enchanting revival of Daniel Jamiesons The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, the story of their decades-long marriage feels like one of Chagalls vivid paintings conjured in 3D, given the power to talk and sing and dance. This chamber plays exquisite Bella (Audrey Brisson) and Marc (Marc Antolin) dont actually fly, not the way they do on Chagalls canvases floating ... More Hermès Birkins and Kellys lead Heritage Holiday Luxury Accessories Auction above $1.4 millionDALLAS, TX.- A Shiny Black Niloticus Crocodile Hermès Birkin drew 14 bids before closing at $50,000 to lead Heritage Auctions' Holiday Luxury Accessories Auction to $1,444,593.25 in total sales. "This Holiday Auction had an exceptional selection, especially of Hermès Birkins and Kellys, which produced nine of the top 10 and 19 of the top 20 results, Heritage Auctions Luxury Accessories Director Diane D'Amato said. "But bidding was competitive throughout the sale, including for items from other designers like Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci. The Hermès 25cm Shiny Black Niloticus Crocodile Birkin Bag with Palladium Hardware climbed past its pre-auction estimate to claim top-lot honors. Done in Shiny Black Niloticus Crocodile and Palladium hardware, it features two rolled handles and a flap top with a turnlock closure. The Black Chevre Leather interior ... More Hindman's Fine & Important Jewelry Auction once again surpasses expectationsCHICAGO, IL.- Hindmans December 7th Fine and Important Jewelry Auction realized over $2.1 million in 193 lots with international bidder engagement. Property from the Estate of Louise Hart led the sale, and pieces from other private collections across the country also performed strongly. We were thrilled to see another successful Fine & Important Jewelry auction to conclude a fantastic year for the Jewelry Department at Hindman, said Kimberly Burt, Hindmans Senior Vice President of Marketing & Luxury Goods. Buyers are continuing to demonstrate high engagement as the jewelry auctions continue to thrive. Pieces from a wide variety of time periods and styles were featured in the sale, including contemporary jewelry and signed pieces from renowned houses such as Cartier, David Webb, Tiffany & Co., Buccellati, Van ... More Museum of Jazz and Art announces executive leadership appointmentsNEW YORK, NY.- As momentum grows in the creation of the Museum of Jazz and Art, the institutions Founder and Chief Executive Officer, David Allen, announced today that the organization has appointed Terry Stewart as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Tony Calzaretta as Chief Experience Officer (CXO). The Oakland-based nonprofit organization, which was recently given site control to Lake Merritt waterfront property on which to build its cultural center, will be dedicated to disrupting the way jazz music and its history have traditionally been presented by situating the art form within the broader American narrative to teach national history from a cultural perspective. Through this new lens, MoJA will reveal jazzs influence on other artistic disciplines that have both built upon and drawn from Americas original art form and underscore the influence ... More Doc Savage and Spicy Stories set world records for pulp magazines at Heritage AuctionsDALLAS, TX.- Numerous world records among pulp magazines were set in Heritage Auctions' Amazing Pulps and Collectibles Comics Auction Featuring the Joe Rainone Collection, Dec. 2, on HA.com. This is the second such auction devoted to magazines (pulps and otherwise) held by Heritage in as many years, but this sale stands out for its $427,264 total auction price realized. "Several records were broken and we saw intense bidder interest across the board," said Rick Akers, Consignment Director and architect of the auction. "The sale total doubled pre-auction estimates and was a rousing success." Key books set world auction records: · Collectors sought high-grade copies of Doc Savage and tales of his daring-do. The first three copies of the 1933 pulp title set world auction records as a winning bidder paid a record $22,800 for a March ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Scottish architect and painter Charles Rennie Mackintosh died December 10, 1928. Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 - 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdonald, was influential on European design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism. He was born in Glasgow and died in London. In this image: Design for a house for an art lover, 1901 © RIBA Library.
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