| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, December 19, 2019 |
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| | Ghent's refreshed 'Mystic Lamb' artwork inspires new adoration | |
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Time took its toll -- salt, soot, sweat, varnish and dust all added to the patina. But now the lower half of the altarpiece including the central panel has been renewed. Saint-Bavos Cathedral Ghent © Lukasweb.be-Art in Flanders vzw, photo KIK-IRPA.
by Françoise Michel
GHENT (AFP).- The grass is greener, the sky is cleaner and dozens of tiny details have been exposed to delight art historians and inspire the devotion of the faithful. The central tableau of the 15th century Ghent Altarpiece -- a panel known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb -- has emerged refreshed from a three-year refurbishment. It has been an object of veneration for the Catholic faithful of Flanders since 1432, and is a landmark of world art history visited by tens of thousands every year. Installed in St Bavo's Cathedral in the Belgian port city of Ghent, over the centuries it has survived outbreaks of iconoclasm and international intrigue. During World War II it was initially sent to France for safekeeping, only to be seized on the orders of Adolf Hitler and stored for safety in a German salt mine. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day British architect Lord Norman Foster presents a new project to restore the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum in the Spanish Basque city of Bilbao on December 16, 2019. ANDER GILLENEA / AFP
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 | | Rare find: Human teeth used as jewellery in Turkey 8,500 years ago | | Did it keep its flavour? Stone-age 'chewing-gum' yields human DNA | | A Christmas present for the nation - Orazio saved | 
Beads made from animal bone and stone. Photo: University of Copenhagen.
COPENHAGEN.- At a prehistoric archaeological site in Turkey, researchers have discovered two 8,500-year-old human teeth, which had been used as pendants in a necklace or bracelet. Researchers have never documented this practice before in the prehistoric Near East, and the rarity of the find suggests that the human teeth were imbued with profound symbolic meaning for the people who wore them. During excavations at the Neolithic site of Ãatalhöyük in Turkey between 2013 and 2015, researchers found three 8,500-year-old-teeth that appeared to have been intentionally drilled to be worn as beads in a necklace or bracelet. Subsequent macroscopic, microscopic and radiographic analyses confirmed that two of the teeth had indeed been used as beads or pendants, researchers conclude in a newly published article in Journal of Archaeological ... More | | 
The birch pitch found at Syltholm on Lolland. Photo: Theis Jensen.
PARIS (AFP).- Danish scientists have managed to extract a complete human DNA sample from a piece of birch pitch more than 5,000 years old, used as a kind of chewing gum, a study revealed Tuesday. The Stone-Age sample yielded enough information to determine the source's sex, what she had last eaten and the germs in her mouth. It also told them she probably had dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes. And genetically, she was more closely related to hunter-gatherers from the mainland Europe than to those living in central Scandinavia at the time, they concluded. "It is the first time that an entire ancient human genome has been extracted from anything other than human bones," Hannes Schroeder of the University of Copenhagen, told AFP. Schroeder is co-author of the study, which was published in the review Nature Communications. They found ... More | | 
Orazio Gentileschi, The Finding of Moses, early 1630s (detail). © Private Collection.
LONDON.- The National Gallery is today (18 December 2019) saying a huge thank you to the hundreds of members of the public who have donated to help it raise the last £2 million it needed to buy a painting of outstanding importance for the national heritage - The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi (early 1630s). This means the painting will now stay on free public display in Trafalgar Square for the enjoyment and inspiration of future generations. The Finding of Moses has a remarkable place in British history. It is one of just a handful of works painted during Orazio Gentileschis 12-year residence in London at the court of King Charles I; commissioned to celebrate the birth of the future Charles II and intended to hang in the Queens House at Greenwich. The Finding of Moses plays an important role in the National Gallery, being intrinsically linked to our recently ... More |
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| | Exhibition explores the varied and complex courses nonrepresentational art followed in the 1960s and into the 1970s | | The Royal Academy of Arts announces the 252nd Summer Exhibition Committee | | Nancy Sinatra Sr. and Frank Sinatra's grand piano and Guy Wiggins painting each sold for over $100,000 at Julien's | 
Helen Frankenthaler, Canal, 1963 (detail). Acrylic on canvas, 208.3 x 146.1 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York © 2019 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- From December 18, 2019, through August 2020, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents The Fullness of Color: 1960s Painting. Featuring a selection of paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Alma Thomas, and others, this exhibition draws primarily from the Guggenheims collection and explores the varied and complex courses nonrepresentational art followed in the 1960s and into the 1970s, including those characterized as Color Field, geometric abstraction, or hard-edge painting. The Fullness of Color is organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator, Modern Art and Provenance, with support from Indira Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant, Collections. By the 1960s many American and international artists were pushing abstraction ... More | | 
Installation view of the Summer Exhibition 2019 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photo © Royal Academy of Arts David Parry.
LONDON.- Jane and Louise Wilson RA will co-ordinate the 252nd Summer Exhibition in 2020, the first time it will be curated by an artistic duo. The Summer Exhibition Committee members are Royal Academicians Sonia Boyce, Eileen Cooper, Richard Deacon, Stephen Farthing and Isaac Julien. David Adjaye will curate the Architecture Gallery. The committee will be chaired by the new President of the Royal Academy, Rebecca Salter. Jane and Louise Wilson said: Were very excited to be co-ordinating this years Summer Exhibition alongside fellow RAs. The Summer Exhibition is one of the very rare occasions where exhibition entry is open to the entire public and we want to encourage all kinds of practitioners working in all media to submit alongside art students, art teachers, self-employed artists and Academicians. A group exhibition on this scale can represent an untold multiple; it invites us to think about ratios and relations ... More | | 
A grand piano with an ebony satin finish, serial number B 328083, dating to 1949. Together with an ebonized wood piano bench with needlework upholstered seat cushion. Estimate: $30,000-50,000.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Juliens Auctions, the world-record breaking auction house to the stars, held its year-end auction event Property From The Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 in Beverly Hills, CA in front of a spirited audience of collectors, fans and bidders live on the floor, online and on the phone. Nearly 600 lots featuring a collection of fine art, furniture & decorative art, silver, jewelry and more owned by the legendary Hollywood couple, Frank and Nancy Sinatra Sr., during their marriage as well as items collected by Mrs. Sinatra over her long life were offered for the first time at auction. The top selling item was a Steinway & Sons Model B grand piano purchased by the Sinatras in 1949 that sold for $106,250, well over its original estimate of $40,000. Over the years, the piano has been played on or sung next to by Nat King Cole, Sammy ... More |
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| | Four new red coral sculptures created by Jan Fabre unveiled in Naples | | Asian art expert & specialist Jean Gauchet reaches new heights after record sale | | World Monuments Fund and ALIPH announce $1.1m partnership to preserve conflict-affected heritage | 
The Resurrection of Life, 2019. Deep precious coral, pigment, polyamide, 124,5 x 101,5 x 40,5 cm., with Belgian granite and steel base.
NAPLES.- Saturday December 21 sees the inauguration of four new red coral sculptures created by Jan Fabre for the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, to be exhibited permanently in the institutions chapel. The set-up of the space has always valued the use of contemporary art: the artworks by Caravaggio, Battistello and Luca Giordano were, in fact, contemporary art works when the Pio Monte was established. Jan Fabres sculptures, hence, complete the arrangement of the chapel in an organic and consistent way. From April to September 2019, Pio Monte chapel has already temporarily exhibited Jan Fabres The Man who Bears the Cross sculpture in its own chapel, as part of the artists personal exhibition Red Gold, curated in partnership with the Capodimonte Museum. The initiative, curated by Melania Rossi, was ... More | | 
Chinese imperial porcelain bowl, sold for a record breaking 3,250,000 Euros.
PARIS.- Millon auction house was full of energy and excited whispers reverberated across the room as auctioneer Alexandre Millon slammed his hammer down, declaring the final hammer price and auction record sale at 3,250,000 Euros for a Chinese imperial porcelain bowl. Millons Asian art auction took place on December 11, 2019 in Paris. The sale set a new precedent for Asian art sales in France as the larger conglomerate auction houses like Christie's and Sothebys were humbled by the results. The record breaking sale featured other notable results; a pair of Chinese Manchu Tibetain mounted conchs with a Qinglong mark fetched 55,000 Euros. A Chinese 19th century carved Hongmu table sold for 65,000 Euros. The sale was led and initiated by Asian art expert, Jean Gauchet. Mr. Gauchets authority and prowess as an expert for Asian fine art has been ... More | | 
IRQ Mam Rashan Shrine 2, before destruction.
NEW YORK, NY.- World Monuments Fund (WMF) and the International Alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) today announced a $1.1M partnership, establishing a new joint effort between the two organizations to restore crisis-affected heritage sites around the world. Beginning next year, ALIPH will provide financial support to WMF for two conflict-focused conservation projects: the reconstruction of Mam Rashan Shrine in Mount Sinjar, Iraq, a 2020 World Monuments Watch site destroyed by ISIS in late 2014; and the rehabilitation of Al-Badr Palace in the Old City of Taizz, Yemen, a 2018 World Monuments Watch site, which is part of the Taizz National Museum complex that was destroyed in Yemens Civil War. ALIPH and WMF will also partner to respond to crisis by selecting projects at conflict-affected sites to receive support for early recovery actions. Additionally, the two organizations will jointly ... More |
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| | Museum of Craft and Design opens new exhibitions exploring issues of climate change | | Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival announces highlights of its 2020 edition | | Archival donations generate new connections at the Canadian Centre for Architecture | 
Vincent Callebaut, Asian Cairns, Sustainable Megalith for Rural Urbanity, Shenzhen, China, 2015. Image courtesy of the artist and Artworks for Change.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- This winter, the Museum of Craft and Design will present two new, dynamic exhibitions exploring the ways that creative individuals are addressing issues of climate change. Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience is a timely exhibition showcasing visionary architects and artists who have created artistically interpretive solutions and prototypes for emergency shelters in a climate-constrained world. Concurrently, the exhibition Linda Gass: and then this happened
will examine the human-made and natural water infrastructure affecting the greater Bay Area, considering present and future challenges with respect to climate change. Guest curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg of Art Works for Change (AWFC) this exhibition follows the idea that addressing climate change must include ensuring durable, long-term housing solutions for ... More | | 
Fatma Bucak, Undetermined Remains, from the series A Study of Eight Landscapes, 2014. Courtesy the artist.
TORONTO.- Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival today announced that the 24th edition of the city-wide event spanning the month of May 2020 will feature a selection of North American and international lens-based artists presenting a diversity of projects in museums, galleries, and public spaces across Toronto. The preliminary list of artists includes Laia Abril, Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács, Fatma Bucak, Wendy Coburn, Alberto Giuliani, Aaron Jones, Christina Leslie, Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, Carol Sawyer, Greg Staats, Krista Belle Stewart, Stephen Waddell, Miao Ying, and Tereza Zelenkova. CONTACT Gallery will present the North American premiere of Spanish artist Laia Abrils powerful new series On Rape, the second chapter in her project A History of Misogyny. At the Campbell House Museum, in the first showing of her work in Canada, Czech artist Tereza Zelenkova will create a new project for CONTACT ... More | | 
Gianni Pettena, Ice House II, ca. 1972. Gianni Pettena fonds, CCA. Gift of Gianni Pettena. © Gianni Pettena.
MONTREAL.- The Canadian Centre for Architecture Collection is a repository of ideas and provocations that have, for forty years, formed the basis of a rich international research program. With over 200 archives of work by practicing architects, the CCA Collection has continued to grow over the past year with the donation of works by architects, historians, and critics that document the history, culture, and production of architecture. These additions to the Collection uphold the institutions focus on research while offering the possibility to draw new connections with related archival holdings. We seek archives that can generate new lines of inquiry: we already house the archives of architects ranging from Cedric Price to Aldo Rossi, from Ãlvaro Siza to Gordon Matta-Clark, and they will now be complemented by other experimental approaches to architecture thanks to the archives of Jean-Louis Cohen, ... More |
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British Aristocrats and American Plutocrats in the Age of Sargent
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 Daylight Books publishes 'Once Upon a Time in Shanghai' by Mark ParascandolaWASHINGTON, DC.- Mark Parascandola, a documentary fine-art photographer based in Washington, D.C., is interested in how photography and the movies shape our perceptions of history and truth, reality and make-believe. In his critically acclaimed photo book, Once Upon a Time in AlmerÃa: The Legacy of Hollywood in Spain (Daylight, 2017), Parascandola documented a bygone era of Hollywood glamour amid the geopolitics of the Cold War. Once Upon a Time in Shanghai in contrast, looks towards the future. Here, Parascandola turns his lens on the film industry in present day mainland China which already produces more films than Hollywood and is poised to take over as the world's largest movie viewing market. This beautifully designed volume presents seventy color photographs taken by Parascandola over a five-year period at over a dozen ... More 2020 public art concept unveiled for Alexandria's Waterfront Park this springALEXANDRIA, VA.- The City of Alexandria has unveiled the concept designs for the next temporary art installation coming to Alexandrias Waterfront Park in 2020. Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies by Olalekan Jeyifous is the second in the Site See: New Views in Old Town annual public art series, which will be on display from March to November 2020. Jeyifous concept frames Alexandrias African American history through the lens of the citys industrial and merchant history from the 17th to 20th centuries. Once a prosperous port city that was home to one of the largest domestic slave trading firms in the country, Alexandria was a major center for shipping and manufacturing with an economy inextricably tied to the work of enslaved and free African Americans. Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies seeks to stitch Alexandrias story together, featuring ... More Andrew Durbin appointed as Editor in Chief of FriezeNEW YORK.- Andrew Durbin has been appointed as the next Editor in Chief of frieze, the leading destination for news and opinion on international contemporary art and culture. Durbin will work between London, New York and Berlin to lead friezes editorial team in print and digital. Durbin currently serves as Senior Editor of frieze, based in New York. He will begin his new position in early January and the first issue of the magazine under his leadership will be the May edition, published 29 April. Since joining frieze in 2017, Durbin has brought new voices to the magazine, including Lucy Ives, Shiv Kotecha and Audrey Wollen. He organized an influential roundtable on free speech, featuring Hannah Black and Jamillah James, and with New York-based editor Evan Moffitt, edited the recent Food Issue. He has profiled artists including Janiva Ellis, Fran ... More Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte opens an exhibition of works by Santiago CalatravaNAPLES.- The exhibition on Santiago Calatravaarchitect, engineer, painter, sculptor draughtsman, all-around artistarrived to Naples at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte with four-hundred works, including sculptures, drawings, and models. Calatrava is a restless spirit always in search of a balance between volume and light, the two essential elements of his concept of architecture. It was Auguste Rodin, in his 1914 book The Cathedrals of France, who defined architecture as the harmonious game of balancing volumes in the light. The exhibition at Capodimonte, split between the Museums second floor and the Cellaio building of the Real Bosco, reinforces the exhibitions titleSantiago Calatrava: In the Light of Naplesbut also the artists love for the city, a city that can be probably called a cradle and an entrance to the Mediterranean, a crossroads ... More VÃctor Lope Arte Contemporáneo opens an exhibition of works by six artists BARCELONA.- VÃctor Lope Arte Contemporáneo announced the opening of its new exhibition this Thursday 19th of December at 7 pm: Six stories for a color where six different artists will participate, all with works made with different formats and techniques, but all inside the same chromatic field. The color black has been used throughout history of art with multiple purposes, from technical intentions to give depth to parts of the compositions to emotional ones to represent the darkest thoughts of the human beings. Rubens and Rembrandt provided it of importance through their works and Velazquez and Goya mastered the technique and extended its use. The black color, nowadays totally emancipated, spreads as a protagonist to give strength and complexity to the compositions, relinquishing of color the works of the artists, providing like this, much ... More Remembering fashion's greatest love story at Isabel Toledo's memorialNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Late Monday afternoon, New Yorks creative communities met in Hells Kitchen at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. There were writers and dancers, actors and musicians, from uptown and downtown, all drawn together by the memory of one woman: designer Isabel Toledo, who died in August of breast cancer. She was as close to an artist as fashion had even if she was best known for designing Michelle Obamas first inaugural parade dress and coat. On a darkened stage illuminated by a white glow from a sewing machine and hanging ivory gown in one corner there came not only speeches (from journalist Wendy Goodman; Kim Hastreiter, the Paper magazine co-founder and curator; and writer Michaela Angela Davis, among others), but also performances. The dancer Jillian Davis, of Complexions Contemporary ... More Larry Heinemann, novelist of the Vietnam War, dies at 75NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Larry Heinemann, a Vietnam veteran who drew on his war experiences in two well-received novels one of which, Pacos Story, startled the literary world when it won the National Book Award for fiction in 1987 died Dec. 11 in Bryan, Texas. He was 75. His daughter, Sarah Heinemann, said the cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Pacos Story, published in 1986, was an unexpected winner not only because Heinemann was not well known he had published only one previous novel but also because of the daunting competition it beat out. Other nominees that year included Beloved, by Toni Morrison (which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction a few months later), and The Counterlife, by Philip Roth (which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction). It had been widely expected that ... More Works by Guy Carleton Wiggins, Shakir Ali and Gustave Baumann outperform at Clars auctionOAKLAND, CA.- Several of the exceptional fine art works presented at Clars December 15th sale solidly outperformed expectations as did a number of the Asian and fine jewelry lots that were offered. The investment level property to be presented came from prominent California estates as well as museums, private institutions and special collections. An important work by Shakir Ali (Pakistan, 1916-1975) took the lead at this sale. Shakir is regarded as the pioneer of modern art in Pakistan and one of the great artists of the 20thcentury. His oil on board titled Still Life with a Yellow Mug, 1958, earned an impressive $61,500, surpassing its presale estimate. Celebrating the winter holiday season, a beautiful snowy New York scene by Guy Carleton Wiggins, (American, 1883-1962) soared well past its high estimate. His ... More Silverlens presents an exhibition of works by Yee ILannMANILA.- Silverlens announces one of its three concluding exhibitions of the year, ZIGAZIG ah! by Sabahan artist Yee ILann. This is Yees first solo exhibition in Manila since her 2016 landmark exhibition, Yee I-Lann: 2005-2016, in Ayala Museum. This is also her second solo exhibition with Silverlens, but her first in the Manila gallery space. Previous exhibition was Tabled (2014) at Silverlens, Gillman Barracks, Singapore. In 2018, Yee started working with weavers from Keningau in the Borneo interior and Pulau Omadal, Semporna, in the Sulu Sea. ZIGAZIG ah! is her first solo exhibition of new works emerging from these collaborations across her homeland, or tanahair (literally earth water). For Yee, the mat is an object with many names: tikar in Malay, tikam in Kadazan, tepo in Sama DiLaut/Bajau Laut or banig in Tagalog. It is a shared everyday object, nearly ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner died December 19, 1851. Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April 1775 - 19 December 1851), known as J. M. W. Turner and contemporarily as William Turner,[a] was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist, known for his expressive colourisation, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. In this image: Joseph Mallord William Turner, "The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834," 1834 - 1835. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art. The John Howard McFadden Collection.
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