| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, June 25, 2020 |
 |
| | Upheaval over race reaches Met Museum after curator's Instagram post | |
|
|
Keith Christiansen, the chairman of the European paintings department at the Met Museum in New York, March 20, 2018. The curator made an instagram post saying monuments should be protected from zealots, which prompted staff charges that the museum fosters a culture of systemic racism. Vincent Tullo/The New York Times.
by Robin Pogrebin
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The turmoil coursing through cultural institutions around the country on the subject of race has made its way to the biggest museum of them all: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A top curators Instagram post that seemed critical of the Black Lives Matters movement and protests over monuments shared on Juneteenth has ignited objections by staff members, and a larger internal critique. On Tuesday, 15 Met staff members sent a letter urging the museums leadership to acknowledge what we see as the expression of a deeply rooted logic of white supremacy and culture of systemic racism at our institution. The episode is the latest example of how arts institutions are grappling with issues of equity and diversity amid protests over the killing of George Floyd and an intensification of activity by the Black Lives Matter movement. On Sunday, the American Museum of Natural History in New York announced that its equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt would be re ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A woman prepares an exhibition dedicated to cookie producer LU, on June 23, 2020 at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne in Nantes, western France. The exhibition will open to the public on June 27, 2020. Loic VENANCE / AFP
|
|
|
| 
|
 | | A botched restoration of a painting in Spain draws outrage | | Louvre museum plans four-year 'transformation' | | France detains five over alleged Mideast antique trafficking | 
A private art collector in Valencia, Spain, paid for the painted copy of The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial by Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo to be cleaned by a furniture restorer, according to the Spanish news outlet Europa Press.
by Johnny Diaz
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Art restoration experts in Spain called Tuesday for tighter regulation of their work and condemned reports of a botched restoration of a copy of a Baroque-era painting of the Virgin Mary. A private art collector in Valencia, Spain, paid for the painted copy of The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial by Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo to be cleaned by a furniture restorer, according to the Spanish news outlet Europa Press. The news agency said that the collector was surprised when he saw that the face in the painting was completely disfigured. The collector, it said, has asked another specialist to fix the painting. In a statement Tuesday, the Association of Conservators and Restorers in Spain, which is known as ACRE, said it did not have information about the restorer ... More | | 
A picture taken on June 23, 2020 shows a woman in front of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" at the Louvre in Paris, during a press visit of the museum. THOMAS SAMSON / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- The Louvre museum hopes to transform itself and shake off its intimidating image before the Paris Olympics in four years' time, its director said Wednesday. The world's most visited museum is working on a major overhaul of how its vast collections are presented and explained, Jean-Luc Martinez told reporters. "We need to be ready in 2023/2024 for the Olympic Games, with longer hours and more rooms open," he said. To counter its elitist image, the museum will strive for a "cultural democratisation" to make its treasures more accessible with improved presentation, labelling and curating. Martinez, who comes from a working-class background, said he wanted to build on the outreach success of the Louvre's outpost museum in Lens, a poor former mining town in northern France. He said sometimes the former royal palace in the heart of Paris can "intimidate" certain demographics and the museum needs to reassure people that its ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on February 24, 2009 A Christie's auctioneer proceeds at the Grand Palais in Paris with the auctions of hundreds of art treasures amassed by late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his companion Pierre Berge. PIERRE VERDY / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- Five people suspected of participating in an antiques smuggling ring exploiting conflict and unrest in Middle Eastern countries to spirit out works for sale in France have been detained for questioning in Paris, a judicial source said Tuesday. A preliminary inquiry was opened by French anti-trafficking and fraud agents in July 2018 into an alleged network involving art dealers, antique experts and museum curators, the source said, confirming a report by RTL radio. Antiques worth tens of millions of euros are thought to have been taken from countries including Libya, Syria, Egypt and Yemen, often through the renowned Pierre Berge auction house based in Paris, a source close to the inquiry told AFP. The initial findings were transferred to investigating magistrates in Paris last February. A Pierre Berge director and in-house expert, as well as a former curator at the ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | Hindman's inaugural Antiquities and Islamic Art auction brings nearly 1 million | | Basketball and Barkley Hendricks: The lesser known work of an influential artist | | Met Museum plans to open in late August | 
An Attic Black-Figured Hydria with Herakles Mounting His Quadriga. Circa Late 6th Century B.C. the lionskin-cloaked Herakles attended by Athena, Apollo, Dionysos and Hermes. Height 13 inches. Estimate: $15,000 - $20,000. Price Realized: $57,500.
CHICAGO, IL.- Hindman announced the phenomenal success of its inaugural Antiquities & Islamic Art auction. Enthusiastic bidding from buyers around the globe participating by phone, absentee bid and four online bidding platforms, sent the June 16 auction well past its low estimate of $601,800 to a $991,325 total. Hindman is not new to the antiquities category, but this sale marked its first auction focused exclusively on ancient art. The auction featured artifacts from ancient Mediterranean Greek, Egyptian, Roman and Near Eastern cultures, as well as selections from the Islamic world and Pre-Columbian Central and South America. We have been encouraged by some leading players in the ancient art market to boost our presence in the category, says Hindman Specialist Corbin Horn. There is a significant portion of material in the middle of the market that is overlooked by New York and London firms, who focus all their effort on th ... More | | 
Barkley Hendricks, Still Life #5, 1968 oil on canvas 51 7/8 x 53 x 1 5/8 inches. © Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy of the artists estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
by Sopan Deb
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Breaking the rules always came easy to Barkley L. Hendricks. One of the most influential artists and photographers of the 20th century, he was best known for his portrayal of everyday black life in the United States. He often eschewed convention and experimented with shapes and space in his works unlike anyone had before him. But his most significant departure from the norm was in the subjects he chose to paint. They were his neighbors, friends and strangers set against bold backdrops in works that might not have seemed out of place among centuries-old European portraits. Hendricks was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the 1960s and took a trip to Europe to study European masters, like Paul Cézanne and Rembrandt, and was dismayed to find a dearth of black subjects, so he painted ... More | | 
Pedestrians walk past the closed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, March 22, 2020. Victor J. Blue/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Metropolitan Museum of Art plans to open its doors Aug. 29, after more than five months of pandemic shutdown, a museum spokesman said. If everything goes smoothly with New Yorks phased reopening, museums would be allowed to open July 20 in the fourth and final phase of the plan. The Met has set its date for about a month after that, with some staff members returning to work a few weeks earlier to prepare, the spokesman said. The safety of our staff and visitors remains our greatest concern, said Daniel Weiss, the museum president, in a statement. We are eagerly awaiting our reopening as, 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, he said. The Met Cloisters in Washington ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | One conflict, two museums: how the Korean War still divides the peninsula | | Baltimore Museum of Art acquires works by women artists and extends 2020 vision | | Anthony Kiendl named CEO and Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery | 
A missile and tank are displayed outside a military museum next to a rest area in the 'Punchbowl', near the Demilitarized Zone separating north and south Korea. Ed JONES / AFP.
by Sebastien Berger
SEOUL (AFP).- In the capitals of the two Koreas, flagship museums offer radically different accounts of the same conflict -- the war launched to unify the peninsula but that now defines its division. In Pyongyang, a giant statue of a North Korean soldier holding aloft a flag stands in front of the museum to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, as the conflict is known in the country. An enormous stone tablet stands nearby, engraved with the handwriting of the North's founder Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, proclaiming that his forces' "heroic achievements shall shine for ten thousand generations". In Seoul, metal plaques lining the wall of the War Memorial of Korea list more than 190,000 South Koreans and members of the US-led United Nations coalition ... More | | 
Oletha DeVane. Saint for My City (Detail). 2007-2010. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Purchase with exchange funds from the Pearlstone Family Fund and partial gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
BALTIMORE, MD.- The Baltimore Museum of Art announced today new acquisitions made as part of its 2020 Vision initiative, which includes a commitment to only purchase works by female-identifying artists this calendar year. Among the highlights entering the collection are mixed-media sculpture and paintings by Barbara Chase-Riboud, Oletha DeVane, Janiva Ellis, Bessie Harvey, Suzanne Jackson, Mary Lovelace ONeal, and Mary T. Smith; video and animation by Nathalie Djurberg, Laura Ortman, and Martine Syms; works on paper by Vivian Browne, Barbara Regina Dietzsch, Wendy Red Star, Nellie Mae Rowe, Shinique Smith, and Gerda Wegener; photographs by Delphine Diallo and Mariette Pathy Allen; and design objects and textiles by Barbara Brown, Greta Grossman, Zandra Rhodes, and the women of Gees Bend. The BMA has committed a budget of approximately $2.5 million ... More | | 
Anthony Kiendl assumes leadership of the Vancouver Art Gallery following successful tenures at several Canadian visual art institutions.
VANCOUVER.- The Vancouver Art Gallerys Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Anthony Kiendl as its new CEO and Director. Kiendl brings to the position a depth and breadth of knowledge gained over 25 years of experience in the arts at a provincial, national and international level. As an accomplished arts administrator, award-winning curator, writer, educator and community builder, Kiendl is a proven leader at inspiring transformative change, diversifying audiences, building collections, broadening institutional relevance and fundraising. Kiendl will begin his tenure at the Gallery in mid-August 2020. After an extensive international search, the Board is unanimous in its support of Anthony Kiendl as the new CEO and Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, said David Calabrigo, Chair of the Board of Trustees. Anthonys ability to work collaboratively, to be an agent of change and to build organizations s ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | Trump warns against attacking monuments as Guard troops mobilized | | Tintin's Hitler skit cover goes under hammer | | Christie's announces Wyeth's World: An online private selling exhibition | 
The statue of John C. Calhoun atop the monument in his honor is prepared for relocation from Marion Square on June 24, 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina. Work crews began dismantling the monument in Tuesday evening. Sean Rayford/Getty Images/AFP.
WASHINGTON (AFP).- President Donald Trump warned protestors Wednesday against attacking statues of prominent figures as the Pentagon mobilized 400 National Guard troops to protect monuments in the US capital. "Now they are looking at Jesus Christ, they are looking at George Washington, they are looking at Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson," Trump alleged, saying people damaging monuments could face 10 years in prison. It's "not going to happen, not going to happen as long as I am here," he said. Protestors have tried to destroy several statues in Washington in recent nights during Black Lives Matter-related demonstrations. On Monday night they tried without success to topple a statue of former president Andrew Jackson -- a slave owner who ... More | | 
The drawing is part of a major sale of classic cartoon images at Artcurial auction house in the French capital, which was postponed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
PARIS (AFP).- The cover of a Tintin story that satirised Hitler's German expansionism could go for more than a 350,000 euros ($395,000) when it comes up for auction in Paris Saturday. In "King Ottakar's Sceptre", the boy detective's Belgian creator Herge was taking a dig at the Nazi leader after his annexation of Austria in 1938. Tintin and his faithful hound Snowy find themselves trying to foil a plot by spies to overthrow the king of the fictional Balkan land of Syldavia. The story was first published in the children's supplement of the conservative Brussels newspaper Le Petit Vingtieme. The cover shows Tintin tripping as he gets out of the plane in Prague and having to grab his new friend Professor Alembick's beard to right himself. The drawing is part of a major sale of classic cartoon images at Artcurial auction house in the French capital, which was postponed in March because ... More | | 
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Sparks (detail). Tempera on gessoed panel, 44 x 47 ¾ in. Painted in 2001. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announces Wyeths World, an online private selling exhibition featuring a selection of pictures by Andrew Wyeth (19172009). An icon of American art, Wyeth famously remained true to his realist approach in an era when abstract art reigned. From works on paper under $100,000 to multi-million dollar temperas, the works featured within this exhibition provide a glimpse into the intriguing world that inspired Wyeths art. The virtual gallery experience will run from June 19 July 17. Works in this exhibition span Wyeths career and his experience in small-town communities in Maine and Pennsylvania. Transforming visions of these neighborhoods via unique perspectives and poignant atmosphere, Wyeths world embodied a distinct timelessness and quiet dignity that was uniquely his own. Tylee Abbott, Vice President, Specialist of American Art, comments: Christies is thrilled to host t ... More |
|
Blood, Sensation and Francis Bacon's Search for Drama
|
|
| |
| | More News |
 New-York Historical Society announces reopening plansNEW YORK, NY.- The New-York Historical Society, the citys oldest museum, announced that it plans to reopen in stages starting August 14, 2020, pending approval from local and state officials. The Museum will first open a special free outdoor exhibition, Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine, which documents the experiences of New Yorkers across the five boroughs during the height of the pandemic. Then on September 11, 2020, the Museum will reopen indoors, with safety protocols in place for visitors and staff. We are eager to welcome visitors back to the New-York Historical Society, said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. While so much has changed over the past several months, our mission of Making History Matter remains vital, now more than ever before. Curated by writer and humanitarian Kevin ... More Moderna Museet acquires Arthur Jafa's "The White Album"STOCKHOLM.- Moderna Museet has acquired The White Album by Arthur Jafa, through a donation from The American Friends of Moderna Museet. This 40-minute video work was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. In summer 2019, Moderna Museet showed the exhibition Arthur Jafa: A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions (featuring Ming Smith, Frida Orupabo and Missylanyus). In May 2019, Arthur Jafa was awarded the Golden Lion in Venice for The White Album, a video work that the Biennale jury described as in equal measure ... an essay, a poem and portraiture. Thanks to a donation from The American Friends of Moderna Museet, an edition of The White Album has now been added to the Museums collection. In The White Album, Arthur Jafa examines white violence against black citizens. Jafa ... More Sealed and seldom-seen '80s video game classics fighting for most valuable statusDALLAS, TX.- Sealed, high-grade copies of Super Mario Bros., Mike Tysons Punch-Out!!, and Super Mario Bros. 3 are expected to duke it out for top-lot honors among an exceptional selection of vintage video game lots in Heritage Auctions Comics & Comic Art Auction July 9-12 in Dallas, Texas. Each of these lots appeals to collectors due to its relevance to pop culture, exceptional grade, packaging variant rarity, or all of the above, Heritage Auctions Video Games Director Valarie McLeckie said. It will certainly be interesting to see which lots really resonate with our clients. This collectible field is still in its nascent stage, so we are still learning what aspects of the hobby collectors put the largest premium on. Super Mario Bros. - Wata 9.4 A+ Sealed [Hangtab, 3 Code, Mid-Production], NES Nintendo 1985 USA is the highest-selling game on the console, ... More Christie's announces a sale of approximately 230 lots spanning English and European furnitureLONDON.- Christies presents Wilton Crescent: A Robert Kime Interior, a striking private collection sale of approximately 230 lots spanning English and European furniture, tapestries, bold Eastern textiles, Chinese works of art and export furniture, Old Master paintings and drawings, prints and decorative furnishings. These fascinating objects, owned by a private family, formed a stunning mise en scène in an early 19th century townhouse on Wilton Crescent in Londons Belgravia. The crescent has been home to many prominent British and foreign politicians and retains a coveted reputation as being one of the best examples of a late Georgian London terrace. The interiors of the home were styled by the influential British interior designer, Robert Kime. Robert has an unparalleled international reputation and this collection is testament to his eponymous ... More Louvre Abu Dhabi reopens after 100-day closureABU DHABI (AFP).- Visitors in masks and gloves returned to the Louvre Abu Dhabi on Wednesday as it reopened its doors after a 100-day closure under coronavirus restrictions. The usual paper maps were replaced with a phone app, thermal scanners were in operation and valet parking, a common service in the United Arab Emirates, was suspended for now. Entrance is by timed ticket and visits last a maximum of three hours. With travel into and out of Abu Dhabi still restricted, residents of neighbouring Dubai, just a 90-minute drive away, cannot yet enter. "Of course, it has been a challenging time," said the museum's director Manuel Rabate, acknowledging that restrictions would limit visitor numbers. "Our purpose is really to make sure that all the visitors have the best experience on the safest experience," he told AFP, adding that in difficult times, art ... More Steve Bing, Hollywood producer and financier, is dead at 55NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Steve Bing, a real estate heir who became a Hollywood producer and film financier, died Monday in Los Angeles after jumping from the balcony of his 27th-floor apartment. He was 55. The Los Angeles County coroner confirmed his death. The Los Angeles police said officers arrived at the scene, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Century City, at 1 p.m. and pronounced a man in his 50s there dead. It did not release his name or details of the death. But a police official who was not authorized to comment publicly said a man who had jumped from the condominium building balcony was identified as Bing. An heir to a New York real estate fortune, Bing started a production company and was involved in producing and financing a number of popular films, including Get Carter, a 2000 action thriller with Sylvester Stallone. ... More Paul Fortune, LA designer to the stars, dies at 69NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- While the terms that tended to attach themselves to Paul Fortune style guru, epitome of taste, acme of chic, arbiter elegantiarum had about them a whiff of P.T. Barnum, his tax returns said interior designer, a job description that failed to capture his larger calling as a self-appointed ringmaster in the social circus of Los Angeles. Fortune died June 15 in Ojai, California, at 69. His death, of cardiac arrest, was first announced on the website of Architectural Digest, where he was regularly listed among the top 100 professionals in his field, and confirmed by his husband, ceramist Chris Brock. Both professionally and personally, Fortune attracted a wide array of types, including the boldface clients (Sofia Coppola, Marc Jacobs, David Fincher, Brian Grazer, Aileen Getty) on whom he staked his reputation; billionaires ... More After ballet, moving in a new directionNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It was March 1, and Silas Farley was coming off the best season yet at New York City Ballet. A member of the corps de ballet since 2013, he had leading roles that winter that included a poetic, vivid rendering of Prince Ivan in George Balanchines Firebird, opposite Sara Mearns. His potential, it seemed, was finally being realized. And he relished it: Farley, 26, whose expansive dancing and devotion to the art of ballet was palpable each time he stepped onstage, loved experiencing the weight and responsibility of being a featured dancer. So what did he do next? In his follow-my-own-path kind of way, he retired. I was talking to my wife, Cassia, and I just started to express feeling a real sense of fulfillment in that performance aspect of my life, and a greater and greater hunger to cultivate other aspects of my ... More Virginie Despentes makes France angry, but things are changingPARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Nearly three decades into her career, feminist French author and filmmaker Virginie Despentes still has a way of riling people up right across the political spectrum. While her views have long been unpalatable to social conservatives, her support for prostitution and pornography have gone a step too far for many on the left, too. In early June, an open letter addressed to her white friends, in support of anti-racism protests in France, prompted some activists of color to accuse her of divisiveness. Some critics said that in adopting the language of structural racism and white privilege, Despentes was importing American ideas unsuited to describing Frances situation. But Despentes doesnt mind the pushback. Ive been comparing it to the #MeToo movement. At the time, I wished more men would have ... More Top French historian slams Macron's hardline stance on statuesPARIS (AFP).- A leading historian attacked French President Emmanuel Macron's stance on disputed statues linked to the country's colonial past Wednesday, saying he had "hugely confused" history and memory. Macron all but ignored the wave of Black Lives Matter protests in a major television address last week except to warn that France would not take down statues of controversial historical figures. "The Republic will not wipe away any trace or any name from its history... but lucidly look at our history and our memory together," the president said. But historian Nicolas Offenstadt pulled him up sharply, telling French radio that Macron had a made a "hugely damaging confusion between history and memory that will not help public debate in France." His intervention comes after Oscar-nominated black filmmaker Raoul Peck accused France ... More Amoako Boafo portraits achieve over six times estimate at BonhamsLONDON.- Two works by rising star Amoako Boafo, Portrait of a Young Lady, and Portrait of a Young Man, sold for more than six times their estimates yesterday (23 June) at Bonhams Modern & Contemporary Art sale in London achieving an impressive £68,812 and £65,062 respectively. The works had been estimated at £6,000-9,000 each. The sale itself saw 76% sold by lot and 91% sold by value. Specialist in Post-war & Contemporary Art and Head of the Sale, Cassi Young, commented: Amoako Boafo is quite simply one of the most exciting and important artists around right now, and these works were both powerful and exceptional examples of his practice and his desire to celebrate Black identity. Im thrilled they gained the attention they deserved and achieved such impressive results. Born in Accra, Ghana in 1984 and based in Vienna, Austria, ... More |
|
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Sam Francis was born June 25, 1923. Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 - November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Francis was initially influenced by the work of abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky and Clyfford Still. He later became loosely associated with a second generation of abstract expressionists, including Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, who were increasingly interested in the expressive use of color. In this image: Sam Francis, Untitled [Berkeley], 1948. Watercolor on paper, 19 x 25 3/4 inches. SFF4.61. © 2018 Sam Francis Foundation, California/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
|
|
| |
|
© 1996 - 2020