| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, May 3, 2018 |
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| | United States officials return 3,800 smuggled ancient artifacts to Iraq | |
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Ancient artifacts, smuggled into the U.S. in violation of federal law and shipped to Hobby Lobby stores, are shown at an event returning the artifacts to Iraq May 2, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Thomas Homan and Iraqi Ambassador to the United States Fareed Yasseen signed an agreement returning the artifacts to Iraq that were seized. The artifacts include many tablets from the ancient city of Irisagrig, primarily from the Ur III and Old Babylonian period, are mostly legal and administrative documents, but also include a collection of Early Dynastic incantations and a bilingual religious text from the Neo-Babylonian period. Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP.
WASHINGTON (AFP).- US officials on Wednesday returned to Iraq 3,800 ancient artifacts that had been smuggled into the United States and shipped to a nationwide arts and crafts retailer. The items include cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, and clay bullae. Many of the tablets come from the ancient city of Irisagrig and date back to 2100-1600 BCE, officials said. Packages of cuneiform tablets were initially intercepted by customs agents and falsely labeled as tile samples for retailer Hobby Lobby. The company last year agreed to forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi artifacts and pay $3 million to settle a civil suit brought by the US government, attributing its purchase of the illegally imported items to naivete. The Department of Justice says thousands of cuneiform tablets and clay bullae were smuggled into the United States via the United Arab Emirates and Israel in packages shipped to the Oklahoma-based company. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Gagosian, For Your Infotainment, Frieze New York 2018. Photo by Mark Blower. Courtesy of Mark Blower/Frieze.
| Cyprus hands Egypt ancient artefacts stolen in 1980s | | Yigal Ozeri's latest series 'A New York Story' on view at Louis K. Meisel Gallery | | Frieze announces major acquisition for the Brooklyn Museum through the LIFEWTR Fund | 
The artefacts include an alabaster base "decorated with the name of King Ramses II in addition to 13 ushabti figurines and amulets of different shapes".
CAIRO (AFP).- Cyprus has handed back to Egypt 14 ancient artefacts stolen and smuggled abroad in the late 1980s after authorities on the Mediterranean island seized them, Egypt's government said Tuesday. The artefacts include an alabaster base "decorated with the name of King Ramses II in addition to 13 ushabti figurines and amulets of different shapes," the antiquities ministry said, citing an official. Interpol had informed Egypt of the objects' seizure in 2017, the ministry said. The ministry said that it ultimately succeeded "through diplomatic and legal efforts" to prove its ownership of these artefacts. The items arrived in Cyprus in 1986 and were recovered in the capital Nicosia, it added. It did not say when the artefacts were returned exactly, but that it took place at an event in Egypt attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Greek and Cypriot counterparts. ... More | | 
Yigal Ozeri, Untitled; Zuzanna, 2018 (detail). Oil on canvas, 36 x 54 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.- Louis K. Meisel Gallery announced the solo exhibition for Yigal Ozeris latest seriesA New York Story. Curated by Shear Ozeri, this exhibition unveils Ozeris new creative direction. For the first time in his Photorealist career, the artist uses urban environments as the backdrop for his paintings of female subjects, thus expanding upon his oeuvre which has previously featured Pre-Raphaelesque women in nature. A New Yorker himself, Ozeri has developed an eye for the unconventional moments of beauty that city dwellers have long embraced. His newest series features the grittier aspects of New Yorkthe meat markets of Chinatown, the dilapidated subway, and the vacant lots of Red Hookas well as the more traditionally beloved localesWashington Square Park and Dumbo. It is in these offbeat settings that Ozeris work begins to capture a more 21st century sensibility. Inspired by Philip- ... More | | 
Ed Clark, Untitled, 1978-80 (detail). Acrylic on canvas, 168 x 195 cm., 66 x 77 in. Courtesy of Weiss Berlin and the artist. Photo: Studio Lepkowski.
NEW YORK, NY.- Today at Frieze New York, the Brooklyn Museum (New York) acquired Untitled (1978-80), a large-scale abstract painting by the American artist Ed Clark, which will join the museum's permanent collection through The LIFEWTR Fund. LIFEWTR, a premium water brand committed to advancing and showcasing sources of creativity, contributed $100,000 to support the Brooklyn Museum's acquisition purchased at Frieze New York. The LIFEWTR Fund, which launched at Frieze New York 2017, follows a tradition of museum acquisition funds at Frieze Fairs, with the 2003 establishment of the Tate Fund at Frieze London, which has supported the acquisition of more than 100 works for the national collection. The Brooklyn Museum acquired the painting, Untitled by Ed Clark from Weiss Berlin Gallery which is currently presenting a solo show of the ... More |
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| Galerie Lelong opens a solo exhibition of new and recent work by Ursula von Rydingsvard | | Pavel Zoubok Gallery opens a memorial exhibition celebrating the art and life of gallery artist Charles McGill | | DC Moore Gallery opens exhibition of works by Robert Kushner | 
Ursula von Rydingsvard, Elegantka II, 2013-14 / 2016. Urethane resin, 126 x 46 x 46 inches (320 x 116.8 x 116.8 cm). Edition of 3 + 1 AP. Photo by Michael Bodycomb.
NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Lelong & Co. presents TORN, a solo exhibition of new and recent work by Ursula von Rydingsvard, opening on May 3. Two concurrent museum exhibitions The Contour of Feeling, at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia and Now, She at the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened on April 27, 2018. Celebrated for her large-scale sculptures in public spaces and museums in the United States and abroad, von Rydingsvards exhibition will contain works built from experimentation in cedar, paper, bronze, and resin. On this body of work, von Rydingsvard remarked: The work is becoming more vulnerable: its not as anchored
I want to be able to take greater risks from my own psychological arena. The risk and vulnerability von Rydingsvard describes are evident in all the works on view. Movement, ... More | | 
Charles McGill, Summertime, 2015, reconfigured golf bag parts on panel, 72 inches in diameter x 7 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.- Pavel Zoubok Gallery opened Playing Through, a memorial exhibition celebrating the art and life of gallery artist Charles McGill (1964-2017) who passed away last summer at the age of 53. Trained as a figurative painter, McGill was best known as a sculptor, creating powerful assemblages of vinyl, leather, plastic and hardware culled from cast-off golf bags. By repurposing this loaded cultural symbol, his works not only evoke an intense visceral response through the process of ripping, cutting and manipulating the materials, but a social one by addressing class inequality and racial injustice. McGills abstractions obliquely but emphatically demand that we take a closer look at structural racism in America. In the essay This Isnt a Game for the Boca Raton Museum of Arts retrospective catalogue Front Line, Back Nine, LeRonn P. Brooks writes: History is what we carry but culture is what we perform. McGill ... More | | 
Robert Kushner, A Visit to Delft- Blue and White, 2018 (detail). Oil, acrylic, gold leaf, silk, embroidery, sequins, rhinestones, and glitter on canvas, 72 x 72 inches. Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Robert Kushners new paintings are a radical departure from his recent work, while harking back to some of his earliest paintings on fabric from the 1970s and 80s. This body of work taps into the issues of embellishment and beauty in art that is ever-present in his paintings. For the first time, Kushner is collaging fabric to canvas before adding paint and gilding. The fabrics, mostly silk, come from India, Japan, and Uzbekistan. The flamboyance, sparkle, elegance and technical mastery of all of these materials, particularly the Indian embroideries known as dupattas, are endlessly fascinating to Kushner. The textiles are adhered to the canvas or panel, allowing hints of hidden embroidered portions to show through the layers of paint, gilding and collage. This results in a complex surface that could not be created ... More |
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| J. Paul Getty Trust announces appointment of Lisa Lapin as vice president of communications | | Mississippi Museum of Art announces new acquisitions | | Man versus nature at Bonhams Russian Art sale | 
Lisa Lapin. Courtesy of Stanford University.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Trust has appointed Lisa Lapin as Vice President of Communications. Lapin is currently the Vice President for University Communications at Stanford University. Ms. Lapin has served as the chief communications officer for Stanford since 2008, as vice president, associate vice president and assistant vice president. She oversees all central communications for the major research university, including strategic initiatives, digital media, media relations, brand management and crisis communications. Reporting to Getty President and CEO James Cuno, Ms. Lapin will be responsible for working collaboratively with the Gettys four programs to develop Trust-wide communications strategies and communicate the Gettys institutional vision across digital, social media, and traditional platforms. Im delighted to welcome Lisa to the Getty. She brings vast experience in communicating the work of a ... More | | 
Titus Kaphar (b. 1976), Darker Than Cotton, 2017. oil on canvas. 63 x 36 in. Collection of Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson. Gift of the Gallery Guild. 2018.008. © 2018 Titus Kaphar; Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
JACKSON, MS.- The Mississippi Museum of Art today announced a slate of important new acquisitions of contemporary artworks recently added to the collection. These acquisitions support the Museums mission of engaging Mississippians with visual art and further its commitment to stimulating arts-based community dialogue to investigate issues of local and national significance. The new acquisitions augment the work of the Center for Art & Public Exchange (CAPE), a new initiative at the Museum with a mandate to use original artworks, exhibitions, programs, and engagements with artists to increase understanding and inspire new narratives in and about contemporary Mississippi. The acquisitions include: Benny Andrews (1930‒2006), Mississippi River ... More | | 
Siberian Sleigh Riders by Leon Gaspard. Estimated at £250,000-450,000. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- Siberian Sleigh Riders, by Leon Gaspard, leads Bonhams Russian sale in London on Wednesday 6 June. It is estimated at £250,000-450,000. In the course of a long career, the insatiably curious and restless Gaspard (1882-1964) travelled widely. As a boy, he accompanied his fur-trader father on journeys through the Russian country; in later life, he made expeditions to Siberia, Mongolia, Asia, the Himalayas and Tibet, China and Morocco, eventually settling permanently in Taos, New Mexico. Siberian Sleigh Riders was painted there in 1921. The subject was inspired by memories of his boyhood travels in Russia, and the dramatic, but harmonious, scene contrasts the fragility of the ceremonial procession of riders, horses and sleighs with the monumental and desolate landscape. Bonhams Head of Russian Art, Daria Khristova, said: Siberian Sleigh Riders is a true masterpiece. Drawing on his artistic ... More |
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| Paddle8 and The Native announce launch of P8Pass, a blockchain art authentication service | | Cheffins Fine Art Auctioneers employ Asian Art specialist | | World auction record achieved for Keith Haring's 'Growing #2' at Bonhams Los Angeles | 
John Chamberlain, detail of Flashback III, III, IV, VI, VIII (Five Works), 1981, Screenprint in colors, estimate: $4,000 - $6,000.
NEW YORK, NY.- Paddle8 and its strategic investor The Native SA (The Native), the integrated e-commerce services firm, announce the launch of P8Pass the first blockchain authentication service in the art marketplace. Paddle8 will now offer a digital certificate, a P8Pass, for each of the thousands of artworks transacted online and encode this information into the Bitcoin blockchain. A product of Paddle8 Lab, the innovation incubator launched by Paddle8 and The Native in January, P8Pass has been developed in partnership with the UK technology company Verisart, one of The Natives portfolio companies. P8Pass will debut with its curated auction, The Edit: Technicolor celebrating the color spectrum with a range of artworks by artists including Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei amongst others. P8Pass will be offered to buyers, consignors, and partners in all auctions run by Paddle8. We are delighted to partner with ... More | | 
Philippe Smolarski joins the Cambridge-based team after 25 years in the Oriental art market, having previously worked as the Director at the Foundation Richard Liu, the European Institute of Chinese Studies, based in Paris.
CAMBRIDGE .- Cheffins is making waves in the regional market for Asian art with the appointment of world-renowned specialist, Philippe Smolarski. Philippe Smolarski joins the Cambridge-based team after 25 years in the Oriental art market, having previously worked as the Director at the Foundation Richard Liu, the European Institute of Chinese Studies, based in Paris. Taking on the role of Head of Asian Art, Mr Smolarski is French and speaks several languages including Chinese and Russian and has spent many years in China, Hong Kong and Japan. Led by Jonathan Law, the Cheffins Fine Art department is placing greater emphasis on the Asian Art market and will be hosting specific sales throughout the year, offering art and artefacts from a wide range of dynasties. Luke Macdonald, Director of Cheffins Fine Art Department comments: We are thrilled to welcome ... More | | 
Keith Haring (1958-1990), Growing #2, from Growing Suite (L. p. 90), 1988 (detail). Estimate: $20,000-30,000. Price realized: $102,500. Photo: Bonhams.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The May 1 sale of Prints and Multiples achieved US$1,567,938 and the top lot of the sale was Keith Harings Growing #2, from Growing Suite, which realized $102,500, a world auction record for a proof from the Growing Suite. The work had been estimated at $20,000- 30,000. Morisa Rosenberg, Director Prints & Multiples, Los Angeles, commented: The results of the auction were strong, sold 94% by value and 87% by lot, demonstrating the continuing demand for prints. The sale drew international interest and we saw competitive bidding for works ranging from Old Master to Contemporary Art. The iconic and rare Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Durer realized an impressive $95,000, which came from a private collection in Los Angeles bought in the 1970s and Keith Harings unique color trial proof achieved $102,500, a world auction record for a print from ... More |
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Collecting art in a connected world | Eugenio Re Rebaudengo
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 For Frieze, Jason Jacques Gallery presents ceramic sculpture with Pop and Op Art paintingsNEW YORK, NY.- Jason Jacques Gallery announces a stellar line-up of contemporary ceramic art juxtaposed with Pop and Op Art paintings for its exhibition at Frieze New York, a monumental gathering of the worlds leading modern and contemporary galleries. The gallery will present the sculpture of Aneta Regel, a London-based Polish visual artist working in clay and stone, alongside the 20th-century paintings by the Belgian artist Pol Mara and American Op Art painter Richard Anuszkiewicz. Taking on the moods and aspects of living forms as they stand, lean, and recline, Aneta Regels works are positioned within the provocative rift between abstraction and figuration. Much of her inspiration is drawn from the landscapes of her native Poland the shapes, energies, and rhythms of natural phenomena shine through her ... More Jordan woos back nervous tourists after years of regional turbulencePETRA (AFP).- With its rock-hewn ancient city of Petra, lunar-like landscape of Wadi Rum and a medical tourism drive, Jordan is luring back foreign visitors scared off by regional upheaval and jihadist attacks. Abundant natural wonders and ancient treasures have long attracted tourists to the kingdom, traditionally seen as a haven of peace in a war-ravaged region. But after the Arab Spring uprisings convulsed the Middle East in 2011 and the Islamic State group (IS) later rampaged across neighbouring Syria and Iraq, visitor numbers slumped. Jordan welcomed seven million tourists in 2010, but arrivals plunged to around three million in each of the following two years, according to tourism board head Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat. Efforts to reverse the slide suffered a major setback in 2016 with a string of attacks in the kingdom, a member of the US-led alliance against ... More Codex and LiveAuctioneers partner in groundbreaking May 12 auction of crypto-theme artworkNEW YORK, NY.- Codex, a cryptocurrency and decentralized title registry for the $2 trillion dollar arts & collectibles (A&C) asset class, has unveiled a distinguished catalog of crypto-themed artwork that will be made available at the live Codex Charity Art Auction at Ethereal Summit on May 12, 2018. For those not in New York City for the event, Codex Consortium member and leading online marketplace for collectibles, antiques and fine art, LiveAuctioneers, will enable bidders to participate from anywhere in the world through its online platform. The auction will feature donated pieces from top-tier organizations in the space, including an exclusive CryptoKitty from blockchain-based gaming phenomenon CryptoKitties, the world's most successful blockchain game that accounts for 25 percent of the traffic on the Ethereum network at peak times. Proceeds will ... More Antonio Cataldo appointed new Artistic Director at FotogallerietOSLO.- The board at Fotogalleriet announced Antonio Cataldo as the new Artistic Director. Cataldo comes to Fotogalleriet from the position of curator at OCA Office for Contemporary Art Norway, where he has been employed in various positions since 2010. Cataldo will take over artistic direction from Stephanie von Spreter on 1 August 2018. After a thorough recruitment process with strong applicants, we are proud to announce that a unanimous board welcomes Antonio Cataldo as Fotogalleriets next Artistic Director. Fotogalleriet has been through a period of growth and development over recent years and we are convinced that the gallery will evolve in new and interesting directions with Antonio Cataldo as artistic director. Cataldo is an ambitious, innovative and academically strong curator and we look forward to working with him in the further development ... More Photography collection of advertising legend Paul Arden to be offered at Augustus Brandt GalleryPETWORTH.- Augustus Brandt Gallery of Petworth, West Sussex, is holding its first photographic exhibition opening on May 25th featuring some of Britains leading photographers, selected by Paul Arden, the creative force behind Saatchi and Saatchi. Paul Arden (1940 2008), was the Creative Director of Saatchi and Saatchi and the genius behind some of the firms best-known campaigns. Arden was a legend in the largely anonymous world of advertising and was the chief creative in Saatchi & Saatchi through the firm's most glamorous and best-known period in the 1980s. He was the guiding hand and mind behind the creative outpouring for British Airways (faces of people from all over the world forming a large face), the Conservative Party, The Independent newspaper (It is. Are you?) and the slashed purple silk material for Silk Cut ... More The Saatchi Gallery opens an exhibition of new works by the emerging artist Jean-Philippe DordoloLONDON.- On 3 May the Saatchi Gallery will open Fliegen onhe Flügel, an exhibition of new works by the emerging artist Jean-Philippe Dordolo, in the Prints & Originals Gallery. Jean-Philippe Dordolos work plays with the idea of representation, figuration and gesture. His approach is as humorous as it is complex and layered. His works range from made objects and drawings; and extend further into performance. His influences and processes cross-reference each other and borrow a variety of ideas - from art history to culture at large. The exhibition Fliegen ohne Flügel ('Flying without Wings) features a series of wall works exploring the reverse process of mark-making. The works refer to certain traditions in painting such as portraiture, still life and landscape. The artist has created trompe-loeil cast objects made of a single block of polymer compound. With their ... More Throckmorton Fine Art opens its first exhibition of works by contemporary French photo-artist William RoppNEW YORK, NY.- Throckmorton Fine Art hosts its first exhibition by the widely acclaimed contemporary French photo-artist, William Ropp, (b. 1960 Ghent - ) at its New York gallery from May 3 through June 23, 2018. Spencer Throckmorton says, TAFARI: He Who Inspires Awe is a collection of images resulting from William Ropps recent work in Ethiopia. There Ropp used a technique he first developed in the early 1990s -- to shine a bright beam of light from a 50-year old Czech flashlight to illuminate his subjects, who are placed in total darkness and asked to stare directly into the camera lens in a pose of their own choosing. Ropp relies on an extended exposure time, as long as ten minutes, to capture the dark scene which makes the image a little blurry but sharply defines the subjects eyes. Its truly a unique photographic technique that makes Ropps work seem ... More The Royal Ontario Museum draws highest attendance numbers in its historyTORONTO.- The Royal Ontario Museum today announced a record- breaking 1.44 million visitors for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018 the highest attendance numbers achieved in the Museums 104-year history and the highest museum attendance in Canada. Led by an expansive slate of ROM-original exhibitions and programs, this marks the third consecutive year that the institution has exceeded more than 1 million visitors, placing the ROM among the top 10 museums in North America. We are delighted that the Museum continues to attract more and more people both from here and around the world, said Josh Basseches, ROM Director & CEO. The record attendance numbers speak to the relevance of our original exhibitions, collections and research in peoples lives, and the importance of the Museum not only as a steward of one of the most ... More A pioneer of colour photography in Europe: Museum Folkwang presents Italian photographer Luigi GhirriESSEN.- The exhibition The Map and the Territory at the Museum Folkwang is the first more comprehensive museum survey of Luigi Ghirris photographs presented outside his native Italy. Focusing on the 1970s, the exhibition charts a decade in which Ghirri (19431992) created a body of colour photographs without parallel in the Europe in that time. Trained as a surveyor, Ghirri began to photograph at weekends in the early 1970s, roaming the streets, squares and suburbs of Modena, imagining projects and themes. Im interested in ephemeral architecture, the world of the provinces, objects that are considered bad taste that for me never have been so, objects charged with desires, dreams, collective memories
windows, mirrors, stars, palm trees, atlases, globes, books, museums and people through images, Ghirri stated. He looked attentively ... More atelier lachaert dhanis' first solo exhibition with Gallery FUMI opens in LondonLONDON.- Gallery FUMI presents Trompe l'il, atelier lachaert dhanis first solo exhibition with the Gallery. Unveiling works that move effortlessly from art to design, the show draws on the artists uniquely recognisable aesthetics, praised for their ability to deconstruct existing assumptions and challenge our perceptions and expectations, ultimately redefining the relationship between viewer and object. Masterfully appropriating the language of trompe loeil , atelier lachaert dhanis engage in the vernacular of discarded and trash material, joining leftover wood sections and semiprecious stone segments, debris of todays consumer culture, into enigmatic functional assemblages. The wood pieces disguise their humble nature through a bronze cast, cleverly patinated to deceive the viewer, while the roughly hewn surface texture of the stone works betrays the intrinsically ... More Watching the detectives: the movie sleuths saving silent cinemaLOS ANGELES (AFP).- In the Spanish colonial-style environs of Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel, around 100 film buffs chew pencils, polish spectacles and furrow brows in the flickering glow of long-forgotten silent movies. These cinema sleuths are being shown a selection of snippets from thousands of old films stored lovingly by the US Library of Congress -- despite no one having the foggiest idea what most of them are. The library hosts annual "Mostly Lost" workshops at its Packard Campus in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where scholars and plain old enthusiasts gather to find out as much as possible about the unknown, or little-known, films. "The Library of Congress is intensely committed to investigating, identifying, preserving and making accessible our silent film heritage, so much of which is still unknown," said Greg Lukow, head of the national audiovisual ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Dutch painter Karel Appel died May 03, 2018. Christiaan Karel Appel (25 April 1921 - 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement Cobra in 1948. He was also an avid sculptor and has had works featured in the museum of Great Samo and MoMA. In this image: Karel Appel, "Portrait of Rudi Fuchs". Photo: Bram Saeys.
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