| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, July 16, 2020 |
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| | Thornton Dial and Anthony Bourdain lead Summer Fine Art Sale on iGavel | |
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Thornton Dial, (American, 1928-2016) Hiding From the Coon Dog, Mixed Media (Est: $15,000-20,000).
NEW YORK, NY.- Two Assemblage Paintings by Thornton Dial and A Rare Drawing by Anthony Bourdain Lead the Summer Fine Art Sale Now Open for Bidding on iGavelauctions New York: Lark Mason Associates is pleased to announce that their Summer Fine Art Sale is now open for bidding on www.igavelauctions.com, now through July 21st. Leading the sale are two large scale assemblage paintings by the legendary self-taught artist Thornton Dial and Stay Calm, a rare comic drawing by Anthony Bourdain, the late iconic celebrity chef. The two Dial works in the sale are Hiding From the Coon Dog: The First African in America, and Patches of Gold (Cornfields). As one of the important African American and Outsider artists, Thornton Dial created thought provoking works that not only blurred the boundary between painting and sculpture, but also addressed historical and sociopolitical issues such as war, natural disasters, slavery and racism. Also offered are work ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Visitors wearing face masks to protect against the coronavirus look at an exhibition from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow on July 15, 2020. Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP
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 | | Smithsonian chief says he will look into staff complaint of racism | | Van Gogh Museum launches redesigned website | | The Museum of Modern Art announces transformative gift of photographs from the Gayle Greenhill Collection | 
Lonnie Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, at his home in Washington, June 23, 2020. Jared Soares/The New York Times.
by Robin Pogrebin
WASHINGTON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Lonnie G. Bunch III, who last year became the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, said in an interview Wednesday that he is reviewing complaints in a letter sent by former employees and board members of its National Museum of African Art that described it as a bad place for Black employees. This is professional and personal this is really important to me, said Bunch, who was the founding director of the Smithsonians acclaimed National Museum of African American History and Culture, which recognizes the achievements of Black Americans and the struggle for civil rights as well as the horrors of slavery. What I will do is evaluate this, look into this, put my own fingerprints on it, understand exactly whats gone on and try to get to the bottom of it, Bunch continued. There is no room for racism at the Smithsonian. ... More | | 
With more than 200 paintings, nearly 500 drawings and nearly all of his letters, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is home to the worlds largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh.
AMSTERDAM.- The Van Gogh Museum has dramatically redesigned its website. The website, receiving more than 8,5 million visits every year, now features more ways of inspiring people with Van Goghs life and work. Not only are all paintings, drawings and letters in the collection now online, visitors can even zoom in as far as the brushstrokes on the artworks, and also see which works are on display at the museum. The new Vincent for scale functionality allows visitors to quickly see the size of a work compared to Van Goghs height. Improved filters now make it easier to search the collection of paintings, drawings and letters, and more information about each item is now available. For example, visitors can see which paintings in the collection are currently on display at the museum. The new Vincent for scale functionality shows the size of a painting compared to the height of Vincent van Gogh, who was 1.64 metres ( ... More | | 
Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954). Untitled. 1995. Silver dye bleach print, 57 1/2 x 39 (146.1 x 99.1 cm). The Gayle Greenhill Collection. Gift of Robert F. Greenhill © 2020 Cindy Sherman, courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art has received a monumental gift of photographs from the Gayle Greenhill Collection, made in her memory by her husband Robert F. Greenhill. Gayle Greenhill (19362017) was deeply involved with the Department of Photography at MoMA from 1989 to 2013, serving as a member of the Committee on Photography for more than two decades. This transformative gift comprises more than 300 works by 103 photographers; it is Mr. Greenhills intention that a group of these will form the Gayle Greenhill Collection of photographs at the Museum, while the remainder of the works will be sold to establish the Gayle Greenhill Endowment Fund to support future MoMA photography exhibitions and acquisitions. The many rare and important works in this gift include iconic images by Edward Steichen, Diane Arbus, ... More |
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| | The State Hermitage Museum reopens to the public | | Walt Kuhn, Milton Avery, and John Singer Sargent highlight Bonhams American Art sale | | Met Museum announces plans for reopening | 
July 15, 2020 the first visitors to the Hermitage Museum after four months of isolation © Alexey Bronnikov / The State Hermitage museum.
ST PETERSBURG.- The State Hermitage Museum announced its reopening from the 15 July 2020. This follows a period of almost four months during which time the museum has worked in a state of «intelligent isolation», maintaining close contact with its visitors through social media and the museums website. During the period, the Hermitage has welcomed more than 45 million virtual visitors. The State Hermitage is introducing temporary rules for visitors. Tickets to visit the museum can be purchased online only for a particular time slot and a particular fixed route. To conform with health and safety requirements, visits to the Main Museum Complex and the General Staff building will be limited to a period of two hours. Additionally, movement around the museum displays will be strictly in one direction. In the intervals between time slots, the halls will undergo sanitary treatments and airing. Wearing of personal protection (masks and gloves) ... More | | 
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), Lady in Vest (detail). Oil on canvas. Painted in 1939. Estimate: $100,000-150,000. Photo: Bonhams.
NEW YORK, NY.- Bonhams American Art sale on July 29 will feature an exciting selection of fresh to the market works spanning the 19th and 20th Century genres of the category, including Modern works by Walt Kuhn, Milton Avery, and an exceedingly rare and impressive bronze by Bessie Potter Vonnoh. The sale is led by a grand portrait by John Singer Sargent, Mrs. John C. Tomlinson, from the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Foundation, which is also offering two significant works by John Koch. Appearing at auction for the first time, Walt Kuhns Lady in Vest (estimate: $100,000-150,000) is a fantastically bold and modern portrait of a performer, which was the most noteworthy subject in the artists oeuvre. Kuhn was an aficionado of theatrical, vaudeville, and circus performances, and he would often study his subjects backstage. He often composed the sitters with a direct and engaging gaze with the viewer that imbues his works with a psychologica ... More | | 
Pedestrians walk past the closed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, March 22, 2020. Victor J. Blue/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that it will reopen to visitors on Saturday, August 29, with Members preview days on August 27 and 28. The Museum has been closed since March 13, 2020, and had previously not been closed for more than three days in over a century. Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Met, commented, "The safety of our staff and visitors remains our greatest concern. We are eager to reopen and expect this will be possible next month. Perhaps now more than ever the Museum can serve as a reminder of the power of the human spirit and the capacity of art to bring comfort, inspire resilience, and help us better understand each other and the world around us." The Met's Fifth Avenue buildingwhich is over two million square feetwill be open five days a week, Thursday through Monday. On Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Museum will offer later hours on T ... More |
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| | Famous paintings go on show, without a canvas in sight | | This year will end eventually. Document it while you can. | | Phillips announces sale of Editions & Works on Paper, auction livestreamed worldwide | 
The show, called Bassins de Lumières, or Basins of Light, opened June 10 after a delay caused by Frances coronavirus lockdown. © Culturespaces Anaka Photographie.
by Valeriya Safronova
BORDEAUX (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- On the walls inside of a former World War II submarine base, a huge Gustav Klimt tree expands its branches and a gold Paul Klee fish floats by. The bright, changing colors of these projections are reflected by four saltwater pools. Visitors walk along gangways, watching the floor-to-ceiling digital animations based on famous works by Klimt, Klee and Egon Schiele. The show, called Bassins de Lumières, or Basins of Light, opened June 10 after a delay caused by Frances coronavirus lockdown. It is the fourth immersive art space created by Culturespaces, a Paris-based company that manages cultural sites and produces digital exhibitions. Its second, LAtelier des Lumières, has been a huge hit in Paris, drawing 1.2 million visitors in 2018 and nearly 1.4 million the next year. At the end of 2018, Culturespaces opened the third of these immersive shows in a bunker on Jeju Island in South Korea. The company plans to create more ... More | | 
In a photo provided by New-York Historical Society, a cowbell that was rung at the Samaritans Purse field hospital in Central Park each time a COVID-19 patient was discharged is now in the archives of the New-York Historical Society. New-York Historical Society via The New York Times.
by Lesley M.M. Blume
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A few weeks ago, a nerdy joke went viral on Twitter: Future historians will be asked which quarter of 2020 they specialize in. As museum curators and archivists stare down one of the most daunting challenges of their careers telling the story of the pandemic, followed by severe economic collapse and a nationwide social justice movement they are imploring individuals across the country to preserve personal materials for posterity and for possible inclusion in museum archives. Its an all-hands-on-deck effort, they say. Our cultural seismology is being revealed, said Anthea M. Hartig, director of the Smithsonians National Museum of American History of the events. Of these three earthshaking events, she said, The confluence is unlike most anything weve seen. Museums, she said, are grappling with the need to comprehend multiple ... More | | 
Pablo Picasso, Portrait de jeune fille, daprès Cranach le jeune (Portrait of a Young Woman, After Cranach the Younger), 1958. Linocut from five blocks in colors, on Arches paper, with full margins. I. 25 1/2 x 21 in. Estimate: $300,000 - 500,000. Image courtesy of Phillips.
NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips sale of Editions & Works on Paper, New York will livestream from New York and London to bidders worldwide across two sessions July 23-24. The sale features superlative works on paper and prints and multiples spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, including a dynamic selection of modern works by Escher, DalÃ, Dubuffet, Marcoussis, Matisse and Miró, along with contemporary editions by Baldessari, Dine, Diebenkorn, Haring, Hockney, KAWS, Longo, Rauschenberg, Ruscha and Twombly. The day session of the sale also features a remarkable group of works never offered at auction before from the Museum of Modern Art benefitting the museums acquisition fund. This sale follows on a series of unprecedented online Editions sales that achieved record prices for prints by Genieve Figgis, Leon Polk Smith, Alexander Calder, Sonia Delaunay, Zao Wou-Ki, Peter Saul and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, amongst others. Kelly Troester and Cary Leib ... More |
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| | Regen Projects opens an exhibition of new and existing work by Andrea Zittel | | Mary-Dailey Desmarais appointed Director of the Curatorial Division at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts | | The Black photographer making history at Vanity Fair | 
Installation view of Andrea Zittel Works 2005 - 2020 at Regen Projects, Los Angeles July 13 - August 21, 2020. Photo: Evan Bedford, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Regen Projects is presenting an exhibition of new and existing work by Andrea Zittel. This marks her seventh solo show at the gallery. For 30 years Zittel's art practice has considered the ways in which spaces, objects, and acts of living all intertwine as a single evolving investigation. How to live? and What gives life meaning? are some of the core issues in Zittel's life and art practice. Answering these questions has entailed the examination of social norms, values, hierarchies, and categories. There are complex relationships between our needs for freedom, security, autonomy, authority, and control for instance, sometimes living within a set of constraints actually makes us feel freer than having open-ended options, and sometimes total freedom can actually become quite stressful and resource ... More | | 
Mary-Dailey Desmarais. Photo Stephanie Badini.
MONTREAL.- The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts announced the appointment of Mary-Dailey Desmarais as Director of the Curatorial Division. She will lead the curatorial team as well as the departments of Exhibition Administration, Archives, Conservation, Exhibitions Production and Publishing while remaining Curator of International Modern and Contemporary Art. This new key position was created to support the teams as they develop the Museums numerous projects, which have grown exponentially in recent years. "The members of the Board of Trustees and I are delighted with the appointment of Mary-Dailey Desmarais as Director of the Curatorial Division at the MMFA. Through a rigorous local and international hiring process, we unanimously approved her candidacy following the consensus recommendations of the human resources committee. Im convinced that Mary-Dailey will successfully fulfill this new role and that the Museum's teams will bene ... More | | 
In an undated image provided by Teron Beal, Dario Calmese, the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair. Teron Beal via The New York Times.
by Jessica Testa
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Until about two weeks ago, Dario Calmese didnt know he was the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of Vanity Fair. But he had a suspicion, so he asked the editors, who went digging. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first Vanity Fair cover made by a Black photographer, Radhika Jones wrote in her July-August editors letter. The subject of the cover is Viola Davis, who, in the same issue, told her interviewer, Sonia Saraiya, that Black women havent traditionally been photographed for the cover of Vanity Fair, either. In her letter, Jones runs the numbers: In the 35 years before she was named editor, Vanity Fair published 17 solo covers featuring Black people. As of Tuesday, Jones has published eight since she took over 2 1/2 years ago, ... More |
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Record-Breaking Bidding in SothebyÂs Auction of the Future
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 Perrotin opens the first solo exhibition of French photographer and cinematographer Guillaume ZiccarelliNEW YORK, NY.- Perrotin New York is presenting The Holy Third Gender: Kinnar Sadhu, the first solo exhibition of New York- based, French photographer and cinematographer Guillaume Ziccarelli. Central to this exhibition is a short, new documentary film that explores the sacred Kumbh Mela festival. The Hindu festival takes place every twelve years across four sites, and the 2019 iteration marked the first year transgender Sadhus, holy, religious ascetics in Hindu and Jain tradition, were admitted to participate as a formal group. Knowing the celebration marked a historic moment for Indias transgender individuals, called Kinnars, Ziccarelli traveled to Allahabad, India to document their controversial initiation into the Kumbh Mela as equal, spiritual leaders, or Sadhus, who are viewed much like saints. During the Kumbh Mela ... More UK slave trader statue replaced by protester sculpture (AFP).- A statue of a slave trader toppled by anti-racism protesters in Britain last month was replaced Wednesday -- without permission -- with a sculpture of a black woman who helped pull it down. The new statue, showing Black Lives Matter (BLM) protester Jen Reid with her fist raised, occupies the plinth where the Edward Colston likeness stood before crowds threw it into Bristol harbour in southwest England. Entitled "A Surge of Power" by artist Marc Quinn, the new statue was erected without the knowledge of Bristol City Council. Reid attended the unveiling and told The Guardian newspaper that it was "just incredible". "This is going to continue the conversation. I can't see it coming down in a hurry," she said. The local authority had said previously that any decision to replace the Colston statue would be taken locally, a view reinforced by Bristol ... More Blaine Kern, architect of lavish Mardi Gras floats, dies at 93NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Blaine Kern, who helped turn Mardi Gras in New Orleans into a huge event known around the world, most notably through the innovative and spectacular parade floats he designed and built, died June 25 at his home in the city. He was 93. His son Barry, who confirmed the death, said he had developed an infection after falling from an exercise bike. Like Walt Disney, to whom he was often compared, Kern was an artist, a businessman and a showman all in one. He was also a visionary designer: His parade floats had double decks, multipart structures, lights, animation and many other features that later became common in the various parades in the city. Two of Kerns more famous floats include the Bacchasaurus, a nearly life-size dinosaur, and the Bacchagator, a 105-foot-long alligator, both built ... More Christie's announces highlights included in the Magnificent Jewels sale in New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- Christies New York announces the July 29th auction of Magnificent Jewels and the concurrent Jewels Online sale from July 22 to August 6/7. The auction includes a significant selection of colorless diamonds, colored diamonds, and gemstones, along with signed pieces by Belperron, Bulgari, Cartier, Graff, Harry Winston, JAR, Lacloche, Tiffany & Co., and Van Cleef & Arpels. The sale will offer over 260 lots, with estimates ranging from $10,000 to $5,000,000. The July 29th auction is led by impressive white diamonds, featuring a sensational diamond necklace suspending a pear-shaped diamond of 115.83 carats, F color, VVS1 clarity ($5,000,000-7,000,000). Colored diamonds also lead the sale, with a fancy intense blue diamond ring of 7.16 carats, Internally Flawless ($3,500,000 - 5,000,000); and a fancy intense yellow ... More PEER, London reopens with Alex Urie paintingsLONDON.- PEER reopens tomorrow, 16 July with an exhibition of work by British painter Alex Urie (b. 1985). Alex Urie: Silo runs until 29 August and admission is free. Uries large scale paintings are the result of brushing, pouring, dumping and flooding tinted household paint on to an untreated surface of canvas, linen or jute. Working on the reverse side of the artwork means that when it is flipped over, a residual, sometimes completely unforeseen image is revealed. Urie then works on both sides while the paint is still wet, building up layers of colour and texture and adding more graphic elements, to compose a complex picture plane. Urie uses personal photographs and random found online imagery (such as from Trip Advisor or YouTube) in the production of these compositions. With a restricted palette of largely muted colours, he cites as his influences ... More Monterey Museum of Art announces major acquisition of David Ligare's Magna FideMONTEREY, CA.- The Monterey Museum of Art announced the acquisition of David Ligares Magna Fide in honor of the artists 75th birthday. The Museum is grateful to the generous donors who made this acquisition possible: Judy and Tom Archibald, Elizabeth Barlow and Stephen McClellan, Linda and David Keaton, Sally Lucas, Judith and Frank Marshall, and Lila and James Thorsen. Prior to acquiring Magna Fide, the Museum held 16 works by Ligare in various media, but this would be the first large-scale painting in the collection that is a major example of his classically-inspired work. The artist has also donated a preparatory drawing and etching to the Museum so that viewers can experience the full artistic process. Ligare commented, If I can say, this is a favorite painting of mine. In 2014 we were in Italy staying with friends who have ... More A new exhibition by John Newling opens at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft DITCHLING.- Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft will present an exhibition of John Newling (b. 1952, Birmingham, UK) spanning the past 40 years of the artists career and featuring new works created during the coronavirus lockdown, as well as three new commissions a site-specific sculpture for Ditchlings village green, a community project, and a musical performance. Newlings socially engaged practice explores the relationship between nature and culture, and the transformative power of incorporating the natural world into everyday life. His oeuvre intends to elicit an emotional response that prompts viewers into action against climate change and Newling will present new worksinspired by the history of Ditchling village and its craftspeople, the surrounding landscape and societys need to evolve in the face of the climate emergency ... More 'Top Gun' helmet and 'Alien' spaceship in Hollywood props auctionLOS ANGELES (AFP).- Maverick's fighter jet helmet, Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber, Rocky's boxing gloves and an 11-foot "Alien" spaceship tipped to fetch half a million dollars will go up for auction in Los Angeles next month. The sale of hundreds of legendary Hollywood movie props will be live-streamed on August 26-27, including items wielded by Indiana Jones and Clint Eastwood's Western outlaw Josey Wales. A giant model of "Nostromo," the interstellar tug-ship on which Ridley Scott's classic "Alien" takes place, tops the pre-sale estimates at $300,000-500,000. Constructed mainly of wood and steel, it was personally filmed for the movie's exterior shots by Scott, who had it "repainted dark gray and weathered extensively to imply decades of deep-space travel," said event organizers Prop Store. Like many of the Entertainment Memorabilia ... More Winnipeg Art Gallery Director & CEO Stephen Borys receives Order of ManitobaWINNIPEG.- The Winnipeg Art Gallery announced that Director & CEO Dr. Stephen Borys has been selected to receive the Order of Manitoba in 2020, the provinces 150th year. The official announcement was made this morning by The Honourable Janice C. Filmon, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, at Government House. Borys has been director of the WAG since 2008, where he is overseeing the development of a national Inuit Art Centre, the first of its kind in the world. Under his leadership, the WAG has strengthened its financial operations and foundation, and expanded its role and profile in the community, as well as in the cultural and museum landscape in Canada with particular attention to Indigenous art and artmaking. At the core of his directorship is the goal of advancing a meaningful and sustained dialogue with the public, and creating in ... More Recovered Warhol piece finds a homeSTOCKHOLM.- Spritmuseum and the Absolut Art Collection recently recovered the lost companion piece of the original Andy Warhol artwork for Absolut Vodka. It is entitled Absolut Warhol Blue. The painting was one of two Warhol pieces commissioned in 1985, when Vin & Sprit AB created what was to become one of the worlds best-known advertising campaigns for its brand, Absolut Vodka. Between 1985 and 2004, 550 artists from around the world were commissioned to create portraits based on the inimitable vodka bottle outline. Andy Warhol was the first artist brought on board. His piece Absolut Warhol quickly became an iconic symbol of the Swedish state-owned companys US advertising campaign. Vin & Sprit AB commissioned two paintings from Warhol, but only one was reproduced as an advert. The other was forgotten, and when the Swedish ... More Three stunning pieces of jewelry created by Anna Hu totalled US$338,781HONG KONG.- An online auction of three stunning pieces of jewelry, created by Chinese haute joaillerie artist Anna Hu, took place from July 3 -13, totalling HK$2,612,500/US$338,781 and attracting over 5,000 online visitors. All of the proceeds will benefit families of healthcare workers who lose their lives in the battle against COVID-19. Ms. Hu donated the original sketches outlining her inspiration behind these three pieces to the buyers. Diamonds That Care, the social responsibility initiative of ALROSA, the worlds largest diamond miner by volume, initiated this charity auction and invited Anna Hu to create the set, with the aim of inspiring beautiful creations which help people in need. The company provided more than 500 colorless and fancy colored brown-toned polished diamonds, including a fancy brown-yellow 27-carat stone, to give life to Hus ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, English painter Joshua Reynolds was born July 16, 1723. Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 - 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th Century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. In this image: Portrait of Dr John Ash' by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1788) Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
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