| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, May 20, 2021 |
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| | Exhibition of works by Julie Umerle explores the parameters of geometry, light, and space | |
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Installation view.
LONDON.- In March 2021, six lockdown paintings by east-London-based artist Julie Umerle were emblazoned upon thirty-six huge screens on the facade of the Flannels flagship store in Oxford Street. The work was selected by W1 Curates for a project to support NHS workers during the pandemic crisis. These visually arresting abstract paintings form part of an exhibition of Umerles recent work at Bermondsey Project Space this May. Julie Umerles career includes a solo show at the Barbican Centre, museum exhibitions as far afield as Poland, the USA and China, and prestigious collaborations including Deutsche Bank at Frieze London curated by Tracey Emin, and an artist residency with Marriott Hotels. Her memoir, Art, Life and Everything, was published in 2019 to critical acclaim, described as perfect lockdown reading by the strategic consultant Meike Brunkhorst, and "a thoroughly enjoyable read, showing the im ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day King Willem-Alexander looks on during the opening of the Slavery exhibition in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on May 18, 2021. Evert Elzinga / ANP / AFP.
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| Hindman Auctions to highlight sports legends in June 8 sale | | Dutch slavery exhibition confronts brutal past | | Six stolen frescoes returned to Pompeii | 
A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Rookie Baseball Card No. 311, PSA Authentic. Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000.
CHICAGO, IL.- On June 8, Hindman Auctions will present its Sports Memorabilia auction, which will offer objects that reflect legendary athletes across multiple sports. Items will showcase athletes such as Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, and Tiger Woods. The auction features property from the collection of acclaimed journalist and author Allen Abel. Spanning Abels career of over four decades, the collection includes on-site ephemera from some of the most celebrated moments in sporting history. Standout lots spotlight baseball greats, such as a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Rookie baseball card No. 311 that is PSA Authentic (lot 17; estimate: $20,000-30,000), which is considered by collectors to be among the most important cards ever printed. A 1930s Spalding Babe Ruth Special baseball signed by Ruth and fellow Yankee legend Lou Gehrig (lot 137; estimate: $10,000 - $15,000 ... More | | 
This picture taken on may 12, 2021 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam during the exhibition "Slavery" shows sugar cane machetes. Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP.
by Danny Kemp
AMSTERDAM (AFP).- A set of leg irons that once chained slaves by the ankles for punishment. A pair of Rembrandt portraits of a rich Dutch couple dressed in slavery-funded finery. Dozens of objects like these went on show on Tuesday at the Dutch national Rijksmuseum as it opens a landmark exhibition on slavery highlighting the Netherlands' dark colonial past. Focusing on the stories of 10 people ranging from enslaved people to slave owners, the show covers 250 years of Dutch involvement in slavery in Suriname, Brazil, the Caribbean, Asia and South Africa. Curators at the museum in Amsterdam say they want to start a "better conversation" in a country still reckoning with its role in colonialism, and with questions raised by the Black Lives Matter movement last year. ... More | | 
The art squad unit of the Carabinieri police intercepted and confiscated them last year as part of "a wider investigation on the international trafficking of archaeological goods", a statement said. Photo: Caesar Abbate.
ROME (AFP).- Six frescoes hacked off from the ruins of ancient Roman villas years ago have been returned to the Pompeii archaeological park, Italian police said Tuesday. Three of them -- one depicting a cherub, another a female dancer and the third the head of a woman -- came from two ancient Roman houses in Stabia, a site a few kilometres from the main Pompeii excavations. They are believed to have been stolen as far back as the 1970s, smuggled out of Italy and sold to collectors in the United States, Switzerland and Britain. The art squad unit of the Carabinieri police intercepted and confiscated them last year as part of "a wider investigation on the international trafficking of archaeological goods", a statement said. The other three frescoes were found by police in 2012 in an illegal dig in Civita ... More |
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| World's first robot artist exhibits at London's Design Museum | | Christie's to offer works of fine and decorative art from across seven English country houses | | Children of the Holocaust who are anonymous no more | 
Ai-Da is the worlds first ultra-realistic robot artist. Photo: © David Parry / PA Wire.
LONDON.- The worlds first ultra-realistic robot artist, Ai-Da, is the subject of a new exhibition at the Design Museum in London, from 18 May 31 August 2021. Ai-Da is a life-size humanoid robot named after Ada Lovelace, the pioneering female scientist and mathematician. Completed in 2019, Ai-Da is designed with the capability to create art and uses AI algorithms to produce works that comment on the current and future uses of artificial intelligence. The exhibition Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot turns the subject of self-portraiture on its head and questions the nature of human identity and creativity. Ai-Das work breaks new ground creating selfies of a someone who doesnt have a self. The exhibition has two world-first innovations: it presents three large scale self-portraits, the first ever made by an ultra-realistic robot. It also has the world's first AI font devised by an artist robot, to signify languag ... More | | 
A pair of Queen Anne gilt-gesso pier glasses, circa 1702. Estimate £80,000 120,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.
LONDON.- Christies announces Julians Park and Six Private Collections, comprising a wide variety of works of fine and decorative art from across seven English country houses, to be offered in a two-part sale. Julians Park and Six Private Collections: Live comprising 277 lots, will take place on 8 June at Christies King Street, and Julians Park and Six Private Collections: Online comprising 185 lots, will be live online from 25 May to 15 June. Estimates across the two sales range from £150 to £250,000. The sales comprise works of art from Julians Park, Hertfordshire; the Desmond Heyward Collection, from Haseley Court, Oxfordshire; Property from an East Anglian Country House; Works of Art from the Collection of Hugh and Marion Sassoon; Property from Meonstoke House, Hampshire; Works of art from the Collection of Mr and Mrs David Wheeler; and items ... More | | 
A Nazi transport prepares to leave a Dutch transit camp in 1944. Collection of NIOD/Sound and Vision the Netherlands via The New York Times.
AMSTERDAM (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- They appear for less than three seconds in the film footage, faces distorted through the window glass. Small cherubs, staring out confusedly at a chaotic scene on the railway platform. In a few moments, the train will roll out, and they will be on their way to a Nazi death camp. For decades, these nameless children have been among the anonymous victims of hate captured in rare footage that showed the Nazis shipping off people in cattle cars to be murdered. The footage is part of a compilation known as the Westerbork Film, named after the Nazi transit camp from which Dutch Jews were deported to death camps in occupied Poland and Germany. Shot in 1944, the footage has been used in countless war documentaries, the unknown passengers serving as the public faces of the millions sent to the East. Now two Dutch researchers, authors of a new ... More |
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| Whitechapel Gallery opens major Eileen Agar survey | | Visitors encouraged to touch artworks by Henry Moore in new exhibition curated by Edmund de Waal | | France savours new freedoms as cafes, museums reopen | 
Eileen Agar, Erotic Landscape, 1942 (detail), Collage on paper, 255 x 305mm. Private collection ©Estate of Eileen Agar/Bridgeman Images Photograph courtesy Pallant House Gallery, Chichester © Doug Atfield.
LONDON.- Whitechapel Gallery is presenting Eileen Agar: Angel of Anarchy, a major retrospective of the work of Eileen Agar (1899-1991). The exhibition is the largest of Agars work to date and coincides with a wider re-evaluation of womens contribution to the story of modern art. It features over 100 paintings, collages, photographs, assemblages and archive material, much of which has been rarely exhibited. Throughout her nearly 70-year career, Agar synthesised elements of two of the twentieth centurys most significant artistic tendencies: Cubism and Surrealism. The exhibition explores how these early inspirations rapidly developed into her very personal style that offered a moving commentary on society over a period of tremendous social change. Fascinated by classical art, ancient mythologies, the natural world and sexual pleasure, Agar mined these subjects and her own biography for the forms and ... More | | 
This Living Hand: Edmund de Waal presents Henry Moore, 2021. Installation view with Edmund de Waal, stone for two hands and water, 2021. Reproduced by permission of Edmund de Waal and New Art Centre, Wiltshire.
PERRY GREEN.- Visitors are being encouraged to touch the sculptures on show at the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, as part of a new exhibition curated by acclaimed artist and author Edmund de Waal exploring the role of touch and iconography of the hand in Moores work. Edmund de Waal said: This exhibition was supposed to open in March 2020. In the past year, our hands and our experience of touch have taken on a whole new meaning. To be able to invite people to encounter Moores sculptures through touch is now even more extraordinary. Moore believed in the importance of tactile experience in enjoying sculpture, and I hope visitors will enjoy this unique opportunity. In this exhibition we see a life of reflection on how hands become sculpture. And returned to what knowledge our own hands hold. To enable visitors to touch the sculptures safely, a special ... More | | 
Visitors walk past the painting "La Joconde" The Mona Lisa by Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci on display in the "Salle des Etats" at The Louvre Museum in Paris. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP.
by Clare Byrne and Stuart Williams
PARIS (AFP).- The French on Wednesday joyfully made their way back to cafes, cinemas and museums as the country loosened restrictions in a return to semi-normality after more than six months of Covid-19 curbs. Cafes and restaurants with terraces or rooftop gardens can now offer outdoor dining, under the second phase of a lockdown-lifting plan that should culminate in a full reopening of the economy on June 30. Museums, cinemas and some theatres are also reopening after being closed for 203 days. Bad weather across much of the country failed to dampen the spirits of customers who beat a path back to their favourite cafes and cultural haunts from the early morning. "It's a form of liberation," Didier Semah, a music producer, told AFP jovially as he sipped an espresso with a friend on the terrace of Felix Cafe in eastern ... More |
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| First solo exhibition in the UK of South African artist Igshaan Adams on view at the Hayward Gallery | | Gasworks reopens with a solo exhibition by Amsterdam-based artist Mercedes Azpilicueta | | Absurdist Paul McCarthy artwork added to Boijmans collection | 
Installation view of Igshaan Adams, Kicking Dust at Hayward Gallery, 2021 © Igshaan Adams, 2021. Photo: Mark Blower.
LONDON.- The Hayward Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in the UK of South African artist Igshaan Adams (b. 1982). The 2018 winner of the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award, Igshaan Adams lives and works in Cape Town. The artists cross-disciplinary practice combines aspects of weaving, sculpture and installation whilst exploring concerns related to race, religion and sexuality. His intricate textile works are made with an array of both natural and synthetic materials including rope, twine, copper wire, silk, wood, bone, glass and plastic beading. Adams is influenced by the teachings of Sufism, namely the idea of looking inwards to define oneself. Through his artistic practice, he is able to navigate the complex relationship between his faith and his sexuality by drawing on the material and formal iconographies of Islam, as well as the socio-political histories of creole communities i ... More | | 
Mercedes Azpilicueta, On the Dignity of Codpieces, detail, 2021. Series of sculptures made from leftover fabrics (wool felt, Merino wool, cotton, viscose, metallic yarn, holographic vinyl, cord), various dimensions.
LONDON.- Gasworks presents the first UK solo exhibition by Amsterdam-based artist Mercedes Azpilicueta. Her work brings together marginal historical figures, fictional characters and gendered mythologies from South Americas colonial past. Fuelled by collaborations with dancers, writers, researchers and craftspeople, her installations often take the form of intricate set designs, theatrical props, soundtracks and scores for a live performance that doesnt yet exist, therefore inviting the viewer to take centre stage. Calling herself a dishonest researcher, Azpilicueta navigates across multiple geographies, chronologies and fields of knowledge, ranging from literature and art history to popular music and street culture, in a loving pursuit of subversive and contested historical figures queer, feminist, exiled and unheard voices ... More | | 
Paul McCarthy, 'Bunkhouse' (1996), detail, Boijmans Ahoy drive thru museum, 2020. Photo: Ernst Moritz.
ROTTERDAM.- Bunkhouse, Paul McCarthys cutting caricature of the American Dream, has been added to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningens collection. Rotterdam now boasts a second McCarthy showpiece, alongside his controversial Santa Claus. Paul McCarthys Bunkhouse (1996) has been added to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningens collection thanks to the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund, BankGiro Loterij and the Fonds Van Rede. Covering 168 square metres, this installation was already a crown jewel in the museums successful drive-thru exhibition that was staged at the Rotterdam Ahoy in the summer of 2020. With Bunkhouse Boijmans can claim a scoop: it is the first time that such a monumental installation by McCarthy has been added to a Dutch museum collection. Over the course of 2022 Bunkhouse will be documented and preserved in Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in full public view, then prepared for storage or to loan it out for pres ... More |
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Celebrating 400 Years of Fabulous Female Artists
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 Sale of museum paintings helps conclude strong auction seasonNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Fifteen objects from cultural institutions passed through Sothebys at auction on Wednesday, showing that the debate among museum and industry leaders over deaccessioning hasnt stopped these sales from occurring. One work, Thomas Coles The Arch of Nero (1846) from the Newark Museum of Art, was a highlight, going for $988,000 with fees to a private foundation operated by Florida-based collectors Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen, in a sale of American art totaling $15 million. Last week, Sothebys made a combined $703.4 million from its contemporary, impressionist and modern art auctions. Its competitor, Christies, had similar successes, reaching more than $775.2 million for the week. Talk of deaccessioning, the sale by museums of artworks to cover some operating costs, had been divisive earlier this year. The Newark Museum ... More  Christie's American Art auctions total $17.1M │ Auction records set for Wolf Kahn and Emily MasonNEW YORK, NY.- Christies Fields of Vision: The Private Collection of Artists Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason totaled $8,122,375 and was 96% sold by lot and 152% hammer sold above low estimate. The auction saw bidding from America, Europe and Asia and 56% of lots sold exceeded their high estimates. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Wolf Kahn | Emily Mason Foundation and the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation. The top lot of the sale was Georgia O'Keeffes Autumn Leaf with White Flower, which sold for $4,950,000. New world auction records were achieved for Wolf Kahn with Down East Sunset I, which sold for $206,250, above its estimate of $50,000-70,000, as well as for Emily Mason with Aquifer, which realized $93,750, selling for more than six times its estimate of $10,000-15,000. Additional notable lots include Richard Diebenkorns Cups II, 1957, which sold ... More  Princess Margaret's longest serving Rolls-Royce to be auctioned by H&H ClassicsLONDON.- This 1980 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II was formerly the property of HRH Princess Margaret for twenty-two years the longest serving Rolls-Royce with the Princess. It is estimated to sell for £45,000 - £55,000 with H&H Classics at IWM Duxford on May 26th. The car was supplied new to HRH Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and tailored to her personal specification. It has a warranted 48,000 miles from new with the vast majority being covered during HRH Princess Margaret's 22-year custodianship It is understood that the car carried many distinguished passengers including Paul Getty, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Lady Diana Spencer (before she married Prince Charles), HM The Queen and Queen Mary, The Queen Mother. Handbuilt to special order, the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II had a four-inch longer wheelbase than its humbler Silver Shadow II sibling. Beloved of the ... More  Charles Grodin, star of 'Midnight Run' and 'Beethoven,' dies at 86LOS ANGELES (AFP).- US actor, talk-show host and writer Charles Grodin, best known for his comic deadpan performances in films such as "Midnight Run" and "Beethoven," has died aged 86 from bone marrow cancer, his son told AFP Tuesday. Grodin starred alongside Robert De Niro in action-comedy "Midnight Run," as well as in the 1976 remake of "King Kong" and a Golden Globe-nominated lead role in rom-com "The Heartbreak Kid." Early in his career he had a minor role as a doctor in Roman Polanski's horror classic "Rosemary's Baby," and he later played a suburban dad in the popular canine family comedy "Beethoven." Grodin died Tuesday at his home in Wilton, Connecticut, his son Nicholas confirmed. "So said (sic) to hear. One of the funniest people I ever met," tweeted US comedy legend Steve Martin. Grodin also won an Emmy as a co-writer on a 1977 Paul Simon ... More  Sculpture, woodcuts and ceramics by Nicholas Pope on view at The New Art CentreSALISBURY.- The New Art Centre is presenting an exhibition of work by Nicholas Pope. Including sculpture, woodcuts and ceramics representing his experimental, process-driven and materially-focused approach, the show exemplifies the breadth of his work from the late 1970s to the present day. Brought together for the first time, these works communicate Popes comic yet deeply contemplative take on the fundamental aspects of what it means to be human. Nicholas Popes 50-year career is characterised by an ongoing exploration of the limits of materials, in which a sincere sense of the pleasure of making is made manifest. In the New Art Centres glass-fronted Gallery, imposing, large-scale sculptures made from materials ranging from terracotta, wood and aluminium are presented. The titles of the works, such as The Vicar (1997) and Heavenly Space (1991), allude to Popes interest in ... More  Rembrandt & Picasso lead sale of Old Master through Modern Prints at SwannNEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries sale of Old Master Through Modern Prints on Thursday, May 6 delivered $1.8 million in sales, and saw seven print records set. There was robust and consistent interest in Old Master prints, with several new artist records set for prints by Rembrandt, Goya and Piranesi, and Modern prints were tenaciously contested as usual, noted Todd Weyman, the houses director of prints and drawings. The top two lots in the auction were Pablo Picasso's Fumeur à la Cigarette Rouge, color aquatint, 1964, at a near-record price of $42,500, and Rembrandt van Rijn Joseph Telling his Dreams, etching, 1638, at a record setting $32,500, setting a precedent for the sale as a whole with household names leading throughout. Rembrandt proved to be the favorite among the Old Masters on offer with eight of the Dutch artists etchings making their way into the top 20 lots sold, ... More  BOZAR opens an exhibition of works by Belgian architect and sculptor Jacques MoeschalBRUSSELS.- His name is not well known, yet his works are an integral part of Belgiums urban landscape. Jacques Moeschal (1913-2004) is the artist who designed the monumental concrete signals that mark the Belgian motorway network. But there is far more to his work, too little known to the general public. This is why BOZAR, together with curators Angelique Campens and Architecture Curating Practice, have decided to honour this Belgian sculptor and architect in an exhibition entirely devoted to him. Its the ideal opportunity to discover the creative world of this artist, who was able to break down the boundaries between sculpture, architecture and landscape. Belgian architect and sculptor Jacques Moeschal was an international pioneer in the development and installation of monumental concrete sculptures on the side of motorways. Initially trained as an architect, then as a sculptor ... More  Chihuly Workshop and Abrams Books announce the launch of Chihuly and ArchitectureSEATTLE, WA.- Chihuly Workshop and Abrams Books announce the release of their latest collaboration, Chihuly and Architecture. The large-format publication is available now online, at select bookstores, distributors, museum shops, boutiques, galleries, and Chihuly.com In commemoration of the artist's milestone 80th birthday later this year, Chihuly and Architecture celebrates 4 decades of Dale Chihulys spectacular sitespecific glass installations are captured in this book examining architectural commissions, temporary art installations, and museum exhibitions. An exploration of entire rooms and galleries, glasshouses and castles, and travels from the canals of Venice to the Citadel in the Old City of Jerusalem, the book provides rare insight into Chihulys inspiration and global footprint. The essayist, Eleanor Heartney, is a New Yorkbased art critic and author of ... More  Asheville Art Museum opens 'Public Domain: Photography and the Preservation of Public Lands'ASHEVILLE, NC.- Public Domain: Photography and the Preservation of Public Lands presents works drawn from the Asheville Art Museums Collection by artists looking both regionally and nationally at lands that are either state or federally managed or have become so. This exhibition is on view in the Asheville Art Museums Van Winkle Law Firm Gallery May 19 through August 30, 2021. The Asheville Art Museums growing collection of photography features a variety of artworks that consider humankinds impact on our environment and world, said Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator. The imagery featured in Public Domain reminds us of the critical role that artists play in environmental activism and preservation, affecting change at a range of levels. Through images capturing the beauty, changes, and even devastation to the American landscape, photographers have played a vital role i ... More  Belfast Photo Festival returns from 3 - 30 June 2021BELFAST.- Belfast Photo Festival, Northern Irelands premier visual arts festival, will take over art galleries and public spaces throughout Belfast this June with a host of timely exhibitions exploring the role of photography in imagining new visions of the future. Presenting a vibrant online and offline programme of immersive exhibitions, large scale outdoor art works, talks and events, the festival runs from 3 30 June 2021. Taking Future(s) as its theme, this years festival tackles issues as diverse as climate change, migration, the advancement of technology, government surveillance and the power of protest, to explore how the future is shaped by our actions in the present. Rather than presenting a singular vision of what this future might be or look like, the festival instead offers up a speculative, imaginative glimpse into the myriad possibilities of what might lie ahead. Many of the exhibitio ... More  Modern art opens an exhibition of works by Sanya KantarovskyLONDON.- This group of representational paintings was made between the months of December 2019 and March of 2021. It involves a range of subjects and motifs, rendered primarily in oil and watercolour. In many of the paintings, subjects are positioned in monochrome colour fields which function as stages, while in others, interactions unfold against florid representations of nature. Most of the images suggest a preceding and succeeding frame, offering a parable-like narrative without a discernible moral resolution. This ethical ambiguity threads throughout the paintings, staging an aesthetic enchantment alongside cruelty and chaos. Such fractures become material - binder separates from pigment in unsightly, evaporated puddles, which coexist with indulgently virtuosic passages and complex occasions of colour. Many of the represented bodies are near human scale, forcing a direct ... More |
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Sophie Taeuber-Arp & Hans Arp: Cooperations â Collaborations 
Future Retrieval
Flashback On a day like today, English sculptor Barbara Hepworth died May 20, 1975. Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 - 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was one of the few female artists of her generation to achieve international prominence. In this image:Barbara Hepworth, Photo-collage with Two Segments at Richard Neutra's Silver Lake house in Los Angeles 1938 © The Hepworth Estate.
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