| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, December 21, 2017 |
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| | Oldest fossils ever found show life on Earth began before 3.5 billion years ago | |
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Geoscience Professor John Valley is pictured in the Wisconsin Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer Lab (WiscSIMS) in Weeks Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Dec. 15, 2017. Researchers J. William Schopf, professor of paleobiology at UCLA, and John W. Valley, professor of geoscience at the UW-Madison, have confirmed that microscopic fossils discovered in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old piece of rock in Western Australia are the oldest fossils ever found and indeed the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth. (Photo by Jeff Miller / UW-Madison).
by Kerry Sheridan
MIAMI (AFP).- It took more than 10 years of painstaking work, grinding an Australian rock containing fossils smaller than the eye could see, to confirm the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth, scientists said Monday. The 3.5-billion-year-old fossils -- many narrower than a human hair -- are described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal. Other teams of scientists have reported even earlier signs of fossil life, going back 3.95 billion years. But those studies are based on either an apparent shape of a microfossil, or a chemical trace -- not both. "None of these studies are regarded as proof of life," lead author John Valley, professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told AFP. "This is the first, oldest place where we have both morphology and the chemical fingerprint of life." ... More |
| The Kimbell Art Museum acquires significant German Expressionist painting | | Vandals take hammer to ancient Australia dinosaur footprint | | Avedon Foundation calls on Spiegel & Grau to cease publication of Avedon: Something Personal | 
Lovis Corinth, Portrait of the Art Dealer Heinrich Thannhauser, 1918. Oil on canvas, 40 x 27 ½ in. (101.5 x 70 cm). Collection of the Kimbell Art Museum.
FORT WORTH, TX.- The Kimbell Art Museum announced today the acquisition of Portrait of the Art Dealer Heinrich Thannhauser, 1918, a remarkable work by one of the most important modern German painters, Lovis Corinth. A leading figure painter whose career spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, Corinth is famous for his masterful draftsmanship and vigorous brushwork. Portrait of the Art Dealer Heinrich Thannhauser is currently on display in the Kimbell's Louis I. Kahn Building. Admission is free. "The portrait of Thannhauser commands attention in the galleries among seminal works of modernism," commented Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. "The Kimbell owns very few works by German artists, and this painting by Corinth represents a significant addition, bringing representation, through one of its major proponents, to a culture that ... More | | 
The footprint of the medium-sized theropod was found by palaeontologists in 2006 at Flat Rocks in Victoria state.
SYDNEY (AFP).- Vandals have taken a hammer to a 115 million year-old dinosaur footprint at a world renowned site in Australia, with officials Wednesday slamming the "sad and callous" act. The footprint of the medium-sized theropod was found by palaeontologists in 2006 at Flat Rocks in Victoria state -- one of only a handful of polar, or ice-age, dinosaur sites in the world. Last week officials discovered it had been deliberately damaged as they took a school group to see it. "It is sad to think a person or persons who knew the location of the footprint would deliberately damage an important local icon that is recognised as being of international scientific significance," said Parks Victoria ranger Brian Martin. Soon after its 2006 discovery palaeontologists made a silicon rubber mould of the find. But rather than remove and store it at a museum, they decided to ... More | | 
Richard Avedon at his studio 2004. Photo: blaze6t9/wikipedia.org.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Richard Avedon Foundation today called on Spiegel and Grau, an imprint of Random House, to cease publication, distribution or any derivative or collateral use of Avedon: Something Personal, by Norma Stevens and Steven M.L. Aronson, which it is billing as an intimate biography of the late photographer. After careful review, the The Richard Avedon Foundation has identified significant issues with the book. First, it has been written under false pretenses - Avedon: Something Personal contains substantial sections that are taken, with only light editing and rewriting, from an unfinished work of fiction that Richard Avedon had been writing prior to his death in collaboration with author Doon Arbus. Second, the book is filled with countless inaccuracies. James Martin, the Executive Director of the Foundation, states Spiegel & Grau should suspend marketing the book pending a review of its contents ... More |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires a magnificent illuminated Hebrew Bible ahead of Sotheby's auction | | American Gothic to travel to New York for the Whitney's Grant Wood retrospective | | The Collection of Eleanor Post Close and her son Antal Post de Bekessy soars to $8.5 million at Sotheby's Paris | 
A Magnificent Illuminated Hebrew Bible with Profuse Micrographic Ornamentation, [Castile: first half of the 14th century]. Estimate $3.5/5 million. Courtesy Sothebys.
NEW YORK, NY.- This morning at Sothebys New York, the auctioneer for todays Important Judaica sale announced that The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York has acquired privately for an undisclosed amount a Magnificent Illuminated Hebrew Bible from Spain, which had previously been scheduled for the auction. Hailing from the renowned collection of Jaqui E. Safra, the illuminated Bible was produced in Castile during the first half of the 14th century and stands as a remarkable testament to the cross-cultural influences in the Golden Age of medieval Spain. Jaqui E. Safra commented: The Bible could not have found a better home than at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I am absolutely thrilled. Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art said: We are thrilled to add this treasure of Jewish artistic heritage ... More | | 
Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930. Oil on composition board, 30 3⁄4 x 25 3⁄4 in. Art Institute of Chicago; Friends of American Art Collection 1930.934. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photograph courtesy Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY.
NEW YORK, NY.- The upcoming Grant Wood retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art will reassess the career of an artist whose most famous work, American Gothicone of the most indelible emblems of Americana and perhaps the best-known work of twentieth-century American artwill be making a rare voyage from the Art Institute of Chicago for the occasion. Organized by Whitney curator Barbara Haskell, with senior curatorial assistant Sarah Humphreville, this exhibition is Woods first museum retrospective in New York since 1983 and only the third survey of his work outside the Midwest since 1935. It will be on view in the Whitneys fifth-floor Neil Bluhm Family Galleries ... More | | 
Pierre Mothes, Deputy Chairman, Sothebys France taking the sale in Paris. Courtesy Sothebys.
PARIS.- The sale of the collection of Eleanor Post Close (1909-2006) and her son Antal Post de Bekessy (1943-2015) concluded tonight with an outstanding total of 7,139,047 ($8,466,553), well above pre-sale expectations (est. 3.9 5.9 million). Over the course of two days, over 1,000 collectors, dealers and art institutions from across the globe participated in a sale which reflected the great eye and exquisite taste of this dynasty of collectors. Together, the participants drove the percentage of lots sold to 94%, with 60 % of them achieving prices well in excess of their pre-sale estimates. Prior to the sale, 1,500 people had visited the four-day exhibition, captivated both by the story of this formidable American dynasty and the breath and quality of the collection. The 700 lots were highlighted by an impressive ensemble of 18th century furniture and paintings, decorative arts as well as modern, impressionist and contemporary ... More |
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| Exhibition recalls the anti-bourgeois impetus inherent in many works of expressionist art | | Exhibition examines influence of ice skating on New York's social, cultural, and sporting life | | New book reveals East London's thriving kaleidoscope of visual geography | 
Christian Rohlfs, Tänzerinnen, 1920. Aquarell und Gouache, 67 x 50 cm. Bielefelder Privatbesitz. Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer.
BIELEFELD.- With the exhibition «Expressionism Trauma and Taboo. A New Art for a New Society» the Kunsthalle Bielefeld recalls the anti-bourgeois impetus inherent in many works of expressionist art. Once scandalous outsiders, the Expressionists today are socially acceptable, their paintings worth millions. It is belittling to consider them merely examples of picturesque bohemianism, colorful idylls, and prospects of the good old days, or sought-after decorative, reliable investments. Their controversial elements are in danger of disappearing into complacency. «We dont want to entertain the bourgeoisie. Treacherously, we want to demolish their comfortable, solemn, lofty worldview», Herwarth Waldens Sturm claimed in 1910; the magazine was one of the most prominent publications for Expressionism. This is a new eras declaration ... More | | 
Photographer unknown, [Water pipes at Rockefeller Center skating rink.], 1936. Gelatin silver print. Museum of the City of New York, gift of Rockefeller Center, X2010.11.3975.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of the City of New York opened New York on Ice: Skating in the City, an exhibition that traces the history of one the citys favorite winter pastimes since the 1800s. The exhibition invites visitors to explore how ice skating evolved in the city from its Colonial Dutch and British origins to become a 19th-century craze, and later an opportunity for elaborate spectacle, commercialized leisure, and competitive sport. From frozen ponds to Madison Square Garden, New York on Ice explores how ice skating has become a quintessentially New York pastime, woven into the citys urban fabric in ways large and small. New York on Ice looks at a beloved form of public recreation, mass entertainment, and competitive sport, said Whitney Donhauser, Ronay Menschel Director of ... More | | 
Philip Colbert, Artist.
LONDON.- East Londons vibrant persona has been published this autumn in Voices: East London, a new book from photographer Maryam Eisler, co-published by TransGlobe Publishing and Thames & Hudson, which reveals the areas thriving kaleidoscope of visual geography by means of dynamic interviews and striking new photography. East London is at the forefront of Greater Londons evolving character, a lynchpin reinforcing the citys international reputation for creativity and diversity. Having spearheaded the UKs biggest population rise over the past decade, the area has well and truly moved beyond its old Dickensian aura. Covering Shoreditch to Bethnal Green, Hackney Central to Clapton, Hoxton to Haggerston, Stoke Newington to Dalston, Whitechapel to Aldgate, Mile End to Limehouse, and Hackney Wick to Bow, the book features eighty creative personalities across genders, cultures and ... More |
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| David Fleming to retire from National Museums Liverpool | | Lucy Bell Gallery exhibits rare and unseen images of the Beatles | | Martos Gallery's first solo exhibition with The Estate of Kathleen White on view in New York | 
He will be taking up a new professorial role with Liverpool Hope University.
LIVERPOOL.- Dr David Fleming OBE, who has been Director of National Museums Liverpool since 2001, has announced that he will retire from his post at the end of March 2018, coinciding with the end of his second term as President of the UK Museums Association. He will be taking up a new professorial role with Liverpool Hope University. Dr Fleming said: National Museums Liverpool is one of the worlds greatest museum services. I have enjoyed my time here hugely, and together our team has created a world-class museum setup, with huge audiences; and one with a strong sense of social purpose. "There have been numerous successes, but I am especially proud of having overseen the foundation of the International Slavery Museum and the Museum of Liverpool, both of which have added immeasurably to ... More | | 
This fascinating collection, on tour from Getty Images Gallery, gives a rare insight into the lives of The Beatles.
ST LEONARDS ON SEA.- Lucy Bell Gallery is presenting an exhibition of rare and unseen images of the Fab Four from The Getty Images Archives. The exhibition, includes images of The Beatles that span from 1963 to 1970 featuring shots from famous photographers including David Redfern, Chris Ware, Jim Grey and Stan Maegher, as well as from Popperfoto, one of the UK's oldest and image libraries founded in 1934, specialising in creative UK-based retro imagery. The Beatles were formed in Liverpool in 1960 and with member John Lennon, Paul McCartney George Harrison and Ringo Starr became regarded as the foremost and most influential band of the era and were, also perceived as the embodiment of the ideals shared by the counterculture of the 1960s. ... More | | 
A Year of Firsts.
NEW YORK, NY.- Martos Gallery is presenting A Year of Firsts, the gallerys first solo exhibition with The Estate of Kathleen White. Whites practice was in many ways about the story of a gift. Before passing away in 2014, much of her work was in response to her love for the family of friends she surrounded herself with; a kind of aesthetics of care. These intimate narratives take the form of drawing, painting, sculpture, and performance. Never simply an outside observer, White used her love for others as well as her own reality happiness, grief, love, sadnessto expose other people to something beautiful. Tragedy and loss became ever-present in Whites life. The title work of this exhibition, A Year of Firsts, 2001, is an installation of 40 works on paper that circles the entire gallery. It can be read like a book, or more accurately a diary and unique system of language, as it takes ... More |
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 Jewelry designer Marla Aaron installs a "vending machine" at the Brooklyn MuseumNEW YORK, NY.- A vending machine is a perfect place for fine jewelry, said nobody until today. Jewelry designer Marla Aaron, has created and installed a vending machine at the Brooklyn Museum, which will carry a selection of her products, highly regarded from the likes of The New York Times, Vogue and InStyle for their unique design and utility. Analysts and news outlets alike have extensively covered the retail apocalypse and have called for brands to change the way they approach the consumer in particular by using unique events and experiences. We created this vending machine as a new way to deliver an unlikely experience for our customers--to find our jewelry in a place where they would not normally find it, said Aaron. Whether that encounter is in exceptional stores (like the ones we are sold in currently), via our ecommerce channels or something ... More Corning Museum of Glass receives grants to launch mobile glassblowing studioCORNING, NY.- The Corning Museum of Glass announced the receipt of $469,625 in grants through Empire State Developments I LOVE NEW YORK program, the New York State Canal Corporation, and New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), under Governor Andrew Cuomos Regional Economic Development Council initiative. This generous funding will support to the launch of GlassBarge in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the canal journey to bring glassmaking to Corning, New York, and will further CMoGs participation in the statewide celebration of the Erie Canal Bicentennial. In 1868, the Brooklyn Flint Glass Company relocated to Corning, via the New York Waterways, and evolved into the company that is today known as Corning Incorporated. In celebration of this pivotal journey, CMoG will launch GlassBargea canal barge ... More Galerie Emanuel Layr exhibits works by Gaylen GerberROME.- An American artist once asserted The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.¹ In this exhibition Gerber presents a number of artworks that press the relationship between the loss of traditional orientations and the oscillating sense of joie de vivre that often remains and in doing so he addresses the ways in which we perceive expression and understand established records. Gerbers work relies on other artworks or artifacts and our sense of the history associated with them for much of its meaning. His work has long focused on the normative aspects of visual language: the way that we, as part of a shared culture, accept certain forms, colors and situations as institutional, or we take them for granted as impartial common ground. ... More A Larger World at Moderna MuseetSTOCKHOLM.- A Larger World is Moderna Museets project to make the museum's activities and collection more relevant through works that create links to cultural contexts other than those that have formerly prevailed at the museum. Daniel Birnbaum, director, and Ann-Sofi Noring, co-director, report on previous exhibitions and acquisitions and those planned for 2018. In recent years, Moderna Museet has increasingly been looking beyond the Western metropolises, with regard to exhibitions, lectures and other activities. The artists who participated in group exhibitions such as After Babel (2015) and Manipulate the World (2017) come from six continents. A number of solo shows lately have featured prominent artists from Argentina, Benin, Colombia, Cyprus, Iran, Lebanon, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey. Next season, our exhibitions will clearly reflect the ambition ... More V&A unveils new staff uniforms designed by Christopher RaeburnLONDON.- New uniforms for V&A staff by award-winning British fashion designer Christopher Raeburn have been unveiled today. Consisting of garments and bespoke accessories that can be mixed, matched and layered, and featuring a print inspired by the V&As collection, the new uniforms will be introduced at the V&A in South Kensington and Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green this week. Christopher Raeburns fashion collection was featured in the V&As Fashion in Motion series in 2016 and has resulted in this collaboration to reimagine the staff uniform. Connecting directly to the V&As collection, the new print featured on many of the uniform pieces is formed from the silhouettes of 20 iconic objects. They include a 19th Japanese netsuke in the shape of a rabbit; a Spacehopper from 1970s Britain, Gian Lorenzo Berninis sculpture Neptune and Triton (1622-3), and ... More Lefebvre & Fils opens first exhibition of work by the artist Jasmine LitttlePARIS.- Lefebvre & Fils is presenting Fountain, the first exhibition of work by the artist Jasmine Litttle from 14 December 2017 to 20 January 2018. Jasmine Little, a young US artist currently living in the wide-open, colour-saturated spaces of Colorado, didnt come to ceramics, as with many artists, by first intention. Her favorite means of artistic expression were first painting; with oils, with ink and with watercolor. However, after experimenting with ceramic sculpture in Los Angeles, she decided to refine her technique with a six-week residency with Louis Lefebvre. The Chateau de Versailles was an absolute revelation for her she instantly fell in love with the palace grounds and fountains and was held spellbound by its secret groves and labyrinths of greenery that seemed to hold a mirror up to her innermost thoughts and feelings. In the fountains and palace grounds of Versailles, ... More Moscow Museum of Modern Art opens a solo exhibition of works by Taus Makhacheva MOSCOW.- The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents a solo exhibition by Taus Makhacheva titled Cloud Caught on a Mountain. Cloud Caught on a Mountain consists of stories related to contemporary Dagestan. Stories are a starting point for all of Taus Makhacheva's works and they are told in local vernacular: ordinary people, everyday objects, works of applied decorative arts, landscape, traditions, family lore and institutional archives. Gradually being fleshed out with details and new findings they come out like clouds that at once assume a distinct object-like form. At some point, as Makhacheva puts it, you simply cannot remain indifferent to them. This acquaintance with a story engenders the artists emotional response, inciting her to conduct further research and observations, eventually developing it into an artwork. By addressing local context ... More More than $2 million in world banknotes, currency offered Jan. 4-8 by Heritage AuctionsDALLAS, TX.- More than 1,600 lots of World Paper Money from around the globe are expected to be among the most coveted lots presented by Heritage Auctions, the world's largest numismatics auction house, at the FUN World Currency Auction Jan. 4-8 in Tampa, Fla. "This event has been extremely successful for us in recent years, and we anticipate similarly strong results this year," Heritage Auctions Currency Consignment Director Dustin Johnston said. "We have compiled an extensive collection of currency from around the world, enough to appeal to collectors of many different kinds of currency." A rare set of four German New Guinea Australian Occupation WWI notes (est. $200,000-240,000) very well could end up claiming top-lot honors at the event. The set includes four of the five known denominations issued, all in incredible condition compared to other ... More Exhibition illustrates the honored place birds hold within numerous African cultures BALTIMORE, MD.- The Baltimore Museum of Art presents approximately 20 works from sub-Saharan artists who drew inspiration from the birds that occupied their world in Beyond Flight: Birds in African Art. On view December 20, 2017 through June 17, 2018, this exhibition explores the varied roles of birds across 19thand 20th-century African states, societies, and cultures. From the largest ostrich to the smallest warbler, the works on view highlight the symbolic meaning and aesthetic appreciation of birds in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote dIvoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Uganda. "Birds make up less than one percent of all living things. Yet, they play a role in numerous artistic works, both in and out of Africa, said Kevin Tervala, Associate Curator of African Art. There is something about birds that speak to who we are as humans. By representing ... More Second edition of the Europalia Curator's Award opens at BOZAR in BrusselsBRUSSELS.- For the second edition of the Europalia Curator's Award in the framework of Europalia Indonesia, curators Charlotte Dumoncel d'Argence and Laura Herman developed the project Natural Capital (Modal Alam), including five participating artists: Martin Belou, Adrien Missika, Rachel Monosov, Offshore Studio and Adrien Vermont. Both curators and two artists (Martin Belou and Adrien Vermont) went on a one-month residency in Indonesia in order to reflect on issues of biodiversity in the archipelago. The result is being presented in the exhibition Natural Capital (Modal Alam) opening the 21st of December in BOZAR, accompanied by an online catalogue (naturalcapital.online). Comprising an exhibition and online publication, Natural Capital (Modal Alam) aims to confront economic and scientific accounts of biodiversity in the Indonesian archipelago one ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Italian painter Masaccio was born December 21, 1401. Masaccio (Italian: December 21, 1401 - summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at imitating nature, recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the exact circumstances of his death. In this image: San Giovenale Triptych (1422).
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