| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, February 4, 2021 |
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| | Supreme Court rules for Germany in case on Nazi-era art | |
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Items from the Guelph Treasure, a trove of medieval religious art, displayed at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, July 8, 2020. The Supreme Court on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, unanimously ruled against the heirs of Jewish art dealers in Nazi-era Frankfurt who sought to sue Germany in American courts over artifacts they say the dealers were forced to sell for a third of their value. Gordon Welters/The New York Times.
by Adam Liptak
WASHINGTON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled against the heirs of Jewish art dealers in Nazi-era Frankfurt who sought to sue Germany in U.S. courts over artifacts they say the dealers were forced to sell for a third of their value. The case, Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, No. 19-351, concerned the Guelph Treasure, a trove of medieval religious art that is now estimated to be worth $250 million. A consortium of three firms owned by Jews bought the collection in the waning days of the Weimar Republic and went on to sell about half of it to individual buyers and museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art. As the Nazi government took power, the collection caught the interest of Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitlers second in command and the prime minister of Prussia. According to the heirs, he threatened the dealers with political persecution and physical harm to coerce them to sell the remaining artifacts in 1935 for much less than they were worth. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A man walks down the Bramante Staircase as he visits the Vatican museum on its reopening day, on February 1, 2021 in Vatican City, as the city-state eases its closure aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the new coronavirus. Andreas SOLARO / AFP.
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| Mexico urges halt to artefact auction in France | | Masterpiece of Impressionism by Mary Cassatt joins collection of Princeton University Art Museum | | For Britain's art dealers, post-Brexit trade isn't so free | 
The disputed items include a stone mask said to be from the Teotihuacan culture. It has an estimated value of up to 550,000 euros ($662,000), according to Christie's. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
MEXICO CITY (AFP).- Mexico on Tuesday called on auction house Christie's to cancel the planned sale of around 30 pre-Hispanic artefacts in France next week, challenging the authenticity of several items. "The archaeological assets of our country are the property of the nation," said Diego Prieto, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, which has asked Mexico's foreign ministry to recover the objects. "They are beyond any act of commerce," he told a news conference. Of the 33 items being offered for auction on February 9 in Paris, Mexico has determined that three are "false," and while they may be handicrafts they are not archaeological pieces, he said. The disputed items include a stone mask said to be from the Teotihuacan culture. It has an estimated value of up to 550,000 euros ($662,000), according to Christie's. In recent years Mexico has sought to recover artefacts found in ... More | | 
Mary Cassatt, American, 1844-1926, Little Girl in a Large Red Hat, ca. 1881. Oil on canvas, 43.8 x 38.7 cm. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund.
PRINCETON, NJ.- The Princeton University Art Museum has acquired Mary Cassatts Little Girl in a Large Red Hat (ca. 1881), an exceptionally insightful portrayal of young girlhood and a masterpiece of Impressionist painting. Dating from the early peak of Cassatts career, as she fully assimilated the Impressionist style that informed her strongest work, the canvas is distinguished by its painterly characterization, depicting the artists signature subject of a young girl with both compellingly revealed technique and psychological complexity. A work such as this one, which comes from the final years when the artist was exhibiting with the Impressionists in Paris, not only tells us so much about process and technique but also allows us to engage with important questions about how a woman artist made her way in the patriarchal art world of the time, said James Steward, Nancy A. NasherDavid J. Haemisegger, Class ... More | | 
Johann König wearing a European Union flag hoodie created and sold by his Berlin gallery to protest Britains decision to leave the European Union. Malte Metag via The New York Times.
by Scott Reyburn
LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- You could just jump in a van, drive to Europe and cross all the borders to buy decorative antiques. Youd drive straight back through French customs. It was seamless, said Andrew Hirst, a British dealer specializing in old textiles, who in 2018 moved with his family to Ireland, after Britains vote to leave the European Union. Hirsts business is still based in London, and he said he was concerned that the combination of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic would put an end to his specialist trade. Britain left the European Union in January 2020, but it followed EU rules until a new trade agreement negotiated with the bloc came into effect Jan. 1. But British businesses across a range of sectors, including art and antiques, are now discovering trade is not quite as free as they had hoped. Value- ... More |
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| Going for gold: Eiffel Tower gets Olympic facelift | | Galerie Templon opens an exhibition of works by Iván Navarro | | Nationalmuseum acquires photographs by Henry B. Goodwin | 
A picture taken on February 1, 2021 in Paris shows seagulls as the river Seine overflows with the Eiffel tower in background. Martin BUREAU / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The Eiffel Tower has embarked on the most extensive revamp of its 130-year history to look its best for the 2024 Paris Olympics, including with a paint job giving it a distinctly golden hue. Not only will layers from the 19 previous coats of paint be removed, but the Paris icon will also lose the signature "Eiffel Tower brown" it has sported since 1968. It will be replaced with a yellow-brown composition that Gustave Eiffel himself wanted for his monument. "It's going to give the Eiffel Tower a bit more of a gold hue than the colour that we're used to seeing, in time for the Olympic Games," said Patrick Branco Ruivo, the CEO of the company operating the tower. The renovation job for the 324-metre (1,063-foot) tower, with its 18,000 metal pieces held together by 2.5 million rivets, is monumental, coming to an estimated 50 million euros ($60 million). The stripping of the ... More | | 
Iván Navarro, Cluster II, 2020. LED, aluminum, paint, regular mirror, one way mirror, and electric energy, 51 à ø 4 cm 48 à ø 48 in.
PARIS.- The City of Lights is being saturated with the radiant works of conceptual artist Iván Navarro as it hosts two new exhibitions, at Centquatre and Galerie Templon. The arts centre is offering a retrospective look at over 20 years of his work while the gallery is unveiling ten radically new pieces, born of pandemic-era isolation; bursting with inspiration and inventiveness, the works are entirely handmade by the artist. Born in 1972 in Santiago, Chile, Iván Navarro grew up under the regime of Pinochet before moving to New York in 1997. Fascinated by the codes of minimalism and American design, he builds electric sculptures whose raw material is light itself. Haunted by his experience of the dictatorship, his work subtly intertwines artistic references and political engagement. He uses lighting, optical illusions and wordplay as tools to transform space, shift ... More | | 
Henry B. Goodwin, Jenny Hasselqvist, balet dancer, actress, balet pedagogue, 1920. NMGrh 5241.
STOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum has acquired six photographs by Henry B. Goodwin. They are portraits of significant cultural figures from the 1910s and 1920s actors, dancers and tightrope walkers. The photographs clearly show how Goodwin reflected the spirit of the times in the way he portrayed his subjects. Henry B. Goodwin (18781931) was born Heinrich Bürgel in Munich. He was the son of a landscape painter, but it was not the artists path that called to him first. Instead, the young Heinrich studied languages. In 1904 he came to Sweden, where he was initially active as a lecturer in German at Uppsala University and as a lexicographer at a publishing house in Stockholm. After some time in this country, Heinrich Bürgel changed his name to the English-sounding Henry B. Goodwin. Photography was initially a hobby for Goodwin. Aside from his work at the university, he studied with photographer Nicola ... More |
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| Vettriano and other Scottish figurative painters flex saleroom muscles | | Ricky Powell, 59, dies; chronicled early hip-hop and downtown New York | | In the Ozarks, the pandemic threatens a fragile musical tradition | 
Leading the pack at a cool £100,000 was Fish Teas by Jack Vettriano (b.1951). Measuring 60 x 50cm, it depicts a smartly dressed man lounging against a railing on a promenade smoking a cigarette, while a woman in a 1950s style dress looks into the distance on a seafront.
EDINBURGH.- Several auction records were set for works by some of Scotlands best-known 20th and 21st century painters at international auctioneers Lyon & Turnbulls recent Contemporary & Post-War Art sale held live online on January 27. The auction totalled £630,000 against a top estimate of £510,000, with at least three auction records set. Some 1167 international bidders competed of which 1076 were online leading to a selling rate of 86%. Leading the pack at a cool £100,000 was Fish Teas by Jack Vettriano (b.1951). Measuring 60 x 50cm, it depicts a smartly dressed man lounging against a railing on a promenade smoking a cigarette, while a woman in a 1950s style dress looks into the distance on a seafront. A saltire flag flies in the background and the words 'Fish Teas' can be seen painted on a wooden shack. Specialist Charlotte Riordan, Head of Contemporary Art, described it as "one of the nicest examples we've seen of Vettri ... More | | 
The photographer Ricky Powell in New York circa 2012. Janette Beckman via The New York Times.
by Jon Caramanica
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Ricky Powell, the downtown New York Zelig who with his point-and-shoot camera documented the early years of hip-hops ascendance as well as a host of other subcultural scenes and the celebrities and fringe characters who populated the city, was found dead Monday in his West Village apartment. He was 59. The death was confirmed by his manager and archivist, Tono Radvany, who said a cause had not yet been determined. Powell learned he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last year and had ongoing heart trouble. Powell often referred to, lovingly, as the Lazy Hustler oozed vintage New York City charm and pluck. An inveterate walker, he pounded the pavement with his camera and snapped photos of whatever caught his fancy: superstars, well-dressed passersby, animals. Crucially, he was proximate to the emergence of the Beastie Boys, which catapulted him into an unanticipated career as tour photographer and key entourage member, giving him a front-row seat t ... More | | 
Alvie Dooms, 90, a legend of the old-time Ozark mountain music often hailed as a precursor to bluegrass, shows a rare fiddle at his home in rural Ava, Mo., Jan. 22, 2021. Terra Fondriest/The New York Times.
by Jennifer Moore
MCCLURG, MO (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In an abandoned general store along a nearly deserted country road, Alvie Dooms, 90, and Gordon McCann, 89, played rhythm guitar. Nearly a dozen more musicians, many of them also older adults, joined in on fiddle, mandolin, banjo and upright bass. Their tunes had names like Last Train Home, Pig Ankle Rag and Arkansas Traveler. The old-time dance music merry and sweet, or slower and wistful evoked the lively jigs and reels of the Scots Irish pioneers who settled in these rugged hills generations ago. A precursor to bluegrass, their sound was unique to this particular corner of Missouri. The McClurg jam, as the Monday night music and potluck fest was known, endured for decades, the last gathering of its kind in the rural Ozarks. But the coronavirus pandemic has silenced the instruments, at least temporarily. And the suspension has led to worry: What will become of this ... More |
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| Saturday Evening Post covers pop in Swann Illustration Sale | | Galleriesnow.net adds bookshop and library of rare collectors' items to ArtPassport, its virtual exhibitions app | | Extensive Florida art collection gifted to the University of Florida | 
Joseph F. Kernan, College Football, cover of The Saturday Evening Post, oil on canvas, 1932. Sold for $75,000, a record for the artist.
NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries opened the winter/spring 2021 season with a robust sale of Illustration Art. The auction saw record prices for several works, as well as auction debuts from artists. Original artwork from the collection of Richard Dick McDonough brought excitement from buyers, and covers for The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker, Sunday comics, and story illustrations sparked widespread interest. The Dick McDonough Collection of Golf Illustration, featured a selection of 63 golf and sports-themed works of art, including original illustrations and rare printed posters and graphics. Most notable was College Football by Joseph F. Kernan, which led the sale at $75,000, a record for Kernan. The 1932 oil-on-canvas served as a cover The Saturday Evening Post, and was likely the inspiration for the iconic Heisman trophy ... More | | 
ArtPassport is available here.
LONDON.- Galleriesnow.net has added its bookshop containing rare collectors items to its award-winning virtual exhibitions app ArtPassport. The bookshop contains rare items usually only available in-person at galleries, and a number of other new features. Until now these carefully curated collections were only available via the website but now can be bought with one push of a button. Although Virtual Reality has existed in many forms for years, ArtPassport have been the pioneers of VR exhibitions since 2017, connecting thousands of artists and galleries to a wider key audiences. Along with the bookshop, users will now be able to read international art news covering everything from gallery updates, artist signings and interviews, new exhibition spaces, events and initiatives. The new app has enhanced Virtual Reality (VR) for a realistic viewing experience and now there is a detailed history and explanation of each piece of artwork with the option to share ... More | | 
Herman Herzog (German, 1832-1932), Sunset Near Low Creek, Florida, c. 1900, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in., The Florida Art Collection, Gift of Samuel H. and Roberta T. Vickers, Photography by Randy Batista.
GAINESVILLE, FL.- A private collection of Florida works of art, some created by the foremost artists of their time, has a new home at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida. The oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and printsthe largest single art collection ever donated to the universityas well as an extensive art library is a gift from native Floridians Sam and Robbie Vickers. One of the worlds most extensive Florida-themed collections, the estimated 1,200 works of art capture the states landscape and wildlife, historical moments and people, and diverse scenes of daily life. Among the gifts are works by celebrated artists such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Martin Johnson Heade and Thomas Moran. The Jacksonville couple began meticulously and devotedly assembling their collection ... More |
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A Private Tour of the Hester Diamond Collection Exhibition
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| More News |
 Tony Coke's new commission on Piccadilly Lights screen spotlights struggle for civil rights in 2021LONDON.- American visual artist Tony Cokes is broadcasting four powerful new films confronting police violence and the questions we face in the post-pandemic era, exploiting the Piccadilly Lights screen to put on the largest public display of Cokes distinctive colour and text compositions. 4 Voices / 4 Weeks presents Cokes translation of words by John Lydon, Judith Butler, US civil rights hero John Lewis and Elijah McClain, a 23-year old African American man who died after being put in a chokehold by police in 2019. The works move from punk provocation to peaceful self-sacrifice, recalling McClains final words and expounding our deep responsibilities in the wake of violence against the vulnerable. Across four parts, Cokes 4 Voices emerge from contraposed positions but describe an arc and array of crucial realities we face today: mourning ... More  The Phillips Collection announces $2 million endowment for Chief Diversity OfficerWASHINGTON, DC.- The Phillips Collection announces the endowment of its Chief Diversity Officer position with a historic $2 million gift from Lynne and Joe Horning in 2021. This transformative gift dramatically enhances the Phillipss commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI). After a year where our country and the world faced a reckoning with racial justice and systemic inequalities, this generous gift comes at a time when the museum is intentionally moving towards building a more equitable workforce, which requires a long-term and sustained commitment; this endowment makes this work possible. This generous gift affirms a significant and strategic commitment to DEAI as a fundamental part of the Phillipss future, especially as the museum starts its next century says Vradenburg Director & CEO Dorothy Kosinski. Lynne and ... More  New grant-making program accelerates climate change action in visual artsNEW YORK, NY.- The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation launched the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, an unprecedented $5-million, multi-year commitment to support and accelerate energy efficiency and clean energy use at visual arts museums and organizations. Developed in association with the Rocky Mountain Institute , a leading expert and advocate of clean energy, and Sustainable Museums , the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is the first nation-wide program of its kind for the visual arts and the largest private national grant-making program to address climate change through cultural institutions. The initial cycle of grants will provide critical support to visual art museums in the United States seeking to assess their impact on the environment and to lower ongoing energy costs. The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative builds on the ... More  Columbus Museum to acquire piece by prominent glass artist Therman StatomCOLUMBUS, GA.- The Alma Thomas Society, a category of membership that supports The Columbus Museum's Fund for African American Art, recently voted overwhelmingly to acquire an untitled piece by glass artist Therman Statom, who studied with glass artist Dale Chihuly. The dues-paying members have an annual purchase party to vote on objects presented for consideration by Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of American Art Jonathan Frederick Walz, Ph.D. Therman Statoms handsome Untitled (Ladder), 2020, will join other studio glass pieces in the collection, all of which contextualize the Museums iconic monumental boat sculpture by Dale Chihuly, Walz said. Statom studied with Chihuly, making this assemblage sculpture by the countrys leading African American glass artist an appropriate way to build on collection strengths ... More  Ski lovers get their 'hit' by bidding at auctionEDINBURGH.- Posters featuring the two most famous peaks of the Alps - The Matterhorn and Mont Blanc - topped The Ski Sale held live online by international auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull in partnership with poster specialists Tomkinson Churcher on January 27. Testament to the enduring appeal of alpine imagery and two great early 20th century designers, striking 1920s designs of Zermatt, The Matterhorn by Emil Cardinaux (1877-1936) and Le Tour du Mont Blanc by Roger Broders (1883-1953) both achieved £11,250. Cardinaux, who grew up in Bern, designed over 130 lithographed posters as well as the iconic Matterhorn logo for the Swiss chocolatier, Toblerone. Artist Roger Broders specialised in travel posters, working for the railway company Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) that connected Paris to the south-east of France. For the ... More  Jonathan Meese inaugurates a new space at Tim Van Laere Gallery with a new series of ceramic masksANTWERP.- This space - intended for more experimental, small-scale presentations and adjacent to the main exhibition space - will be inaugurated by a solo exhibition of Jonathan Meese who will present a new series of ceramic masks. Although all of Meeses work flows from a philosophical position he has defined for his artistic pursuit, sculpture is the way he gives permanence to his ideas. His bronze and ceramic figures are essentially surrogates for Meese and the various guises he assumes as well as for the forces of good and evil that he channels when he performs. These ceramic masks combine elements of painting with sculpture and are made with gestures that suggests the artists sense of play as an essential part of the work. They stem from a personal mythologie that combines forces of good and evil drawn from ancient times, history, ... More  Studio Voltaire to reopen in October 2021 following completion of a £2.8 million capital projectLONDON.- Leading notforprofit arts organisation Studio Voltaire has today announced that its permanent home in Clapham, south London, will reopen to the public in October 2021, following completion of a transformative £2.8 million capital project designed by architects Matheson Whiteley. Studio Voltaire opens with the first solo exhibition of William Scott (b.1964, San Francisco) outside of the USA the first significant survey of his 30year practice. While deeply rooted in personal history, Scotts paintings address wider questions of citizenship, community and cultural memory. His portraits, predominantly of black figures, encompass African American political leaders, celebrities and pop icons, but also document members of his church, family, and residents of his native San Francisco. Scotts practice at large reimagines the ... More  Rising Spain designer takes haute couture to village home LANTEJUELA (AFP).- Trained in Milan, up-and-coming Spanish designer Nicolas Montenegro has dressed Beyonce and Kylie Minogue, but with the pandemic, he's gone back home to his village to launch his own brand. Thanks to the internet and air links "there is no need to live in a big city," the lean 31-year-old told AFP at his atelier in Lantejuela, a village of some 3,800 residents about an hour's drive from the southern city of Seville. Sketches and fabric samples cover one table while wedding dresses are piled high on another in a room decorated with family photos. His three employees, all local residents, are busy cutting fabric. Going back to his village, which is surrounded by asparagus farms, is part of a global trend. A combination of the pandemic, shifting attitudes and technological advances that make it easier than ever to work remotely, ... More  Deaf drama 'CODA' and Questlove documentary win at SundanceLOS ANGELES (AFP).- "CODA," the heartwarming indie drama about a teenage girl struggling to support her deaf family, scooped the Sundance film festival's top prize Tuesday, while musician Questlove won documentary honors with his debut. Taking its title from an acronym for child of deaf adult, "CODA" follows a high-school student (Emilia Jones) who is torn between pursuing her passion for music, and staying home to help her deaf parents and brother. Apple purchased the film early in the US festival after a rapturous online response and an intense bidding war between distributors -- reportedly shelling out a Sundance record of $25 million. "I'm so excited, I'm so moved -- I want to try to sign and talk at the same time but it's hard," said director Sian Heder, accepting the award remotely. "CODA" is based on French 2014 comedy "La Famille ... More  Hollywood explores Panther betrayal in 'Judas and the Black Messiah' LOS ANGELES (AFP).- "Judas and the Black Messiah," Hollywood's latest Oscar contender based on the 1960s US civil rights movement, turns a tragic historical story of treachery into a modern and urgent call-to-action, its cast and director said Tuesday. The Warner Bros biopic starring Daniel Kaluuya, out in theaters and on HBO Max streaming February 12, re-examines the life of young Black Panther leader Fred Hampton alongside the FBI informant who betrayed him. Produced by Ryan Coogler -- director of Marvel superhero film "Black Panther" -- the film follows Hampton's attempts to galvanize Chicago activists against police violence, and an establishment that viewed the real-life Panthers as "the single greatest threat to our national security." "Our goal was to really make a movie that captured 1968. But so little has changed between ... More  Allan Burns, a creator of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show,' dies at 85NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Allan Burns, a leading television writer in the 1970s and 80s who helped create the groundbreaking hit sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its dramatic spinoff, Lou Grant, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85. His son Matthew said the causes were Parkinsons disease and Lewy body dementia. Allans range was like nobodys, James L. Brooks, his partner in creating Moores series, said in a phone interview. I dont think you ever get an absurdist, a legitimate humorist and a feeling person in one package. In 1969, Burns and Brooks were working on Room 222, a comedy-drama series set in a Los Angeles high school, when Grant Tinker, Moores husband, asked them to create a series for her. Their first concept was that she play a divorced woman who worked as a reporter ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Mental Escapology, St. Moritz 
TIM VAN LAERE GALLERY 
Madelynn Green 
Patrick Angus
Flashback On a day like today, French painter and sculptor Fernand Léger was born February 04, 1881. Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (February 4, 1881 - August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art. In this image: Fernand Leger, Deux femmes tenant des fleurs, 1954. Oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches.
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