The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, November 10, 2022

 
Setting a Kahlo drawing aflame in search of an NFT spark

In an undated image provided by J.R. Hutter, the businessman Martin Mobarak destroys what he heralded as a Frida Kahlo. Mobarak created 10,000 nonfungible tokens of the artwork. (J.R. Hutter via The New York Times)

First came the mariachi band, a flame-juggling dancer and the models in bathing suits and ballgowns sauntering beside the pool of a Miami mansion. Then the spectacle began. A businessperson who built his wealth on waves of speculation — riding the dot-com surge in the 1990s and then the rapid growth of bitcoin in recent years — popped a drawing out of its frame that he heralded as a page from Frida Kahlo’s personal diary. Wearing a sequined blazer with the artist’s portrait on his back, he pinned the picture to a martini glass filled with blue rubbing alcohol. It was set aflame, and the artwork was reduced to ashes. Attendees at the opulent July gathering, which was captured in a promotional video, had been notified that the drawing was being “transformed to live eternally in the digital realm” through the creation of non-fungible tokens that represented the “rebirth & immortality of a timeless piece.” Those who chose to buy an NFT with the ether ... More



The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
Cristina BanBan is exhibiting at Skarstedt. The show opened November 3 and closes December 17. Installation - Skarstedt NY - Cristina BanBan - Mujeres - November 2022 - Courtesy of Skarstedt. Photo by John Berens.






Ronald Davis: Optical, shaped and color abstractions, paintings 1963 to 1965 in solo exhibit at David Richard Gallery   Pechstein masterpiece comes to auction at Bonhams New York this December   Gagosian to exhibit new works by Theaster Gates in New York


Ronald Davis, Wave, 1964. Acrylic on canvas, 95.25 x 69.75 x 1.25 inches © Ronald Davis, Courtesy David Richard Gallery. Photographs by Yao Zu Lu.

NEW YORK, NY.- David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Optical, Shaped and Color Abstractions: Paintings 1963 – 1965 by Ronald Davis in his first solo exhibition with the Galley and first solo exhibition in New York since the presentation of his 1960s Monochrome Paintings at Franklin Parrasch Gallery in 2010. This presentation includes 7 geometric, hard-edge, and color-based abstract paintings from 1963 to 1965, all acrylic on canvas and created in California, and 4 drawings from 1966, 1975 and 1977. Together, these paintings and drawings map Davis’s early explorations of illusory space and optical effects in the two-dimensional picture plane: starting from the early 1960s paintings in this exhibition and minimalist monochrome paintings from 1965; to his very well-known large scale shaped dodecagons, cubes and slab cast resin paintings (1966-1972); then to the ... More
 

"Sonnenflecken", Max Pechstein. Estimated at $1,200,000 – 1,800,000. Photo Bonhams.

NEW YORK, NY.- On December 6 in New York, Sonnenflecken (1922), a masterpiece by Max Pechstein (1881-1955), renowned painter and member of the Die Brücke group, will highlight Bonhams’ Impressionist & Modern Art auction. Offered at an estimate of $1,200,000 – 1,800,000, the work is one of a series of boldly colored Expressionist landscapes and waterscapes Pechstein painted during the early 1920s and is emblematic of a period of great productivity and creativity in his life, a rebirth as he called it, during which he was completely devoted to his art. Sonnenflecken likely belongs to the series of Colorist landscapes which Pechstein executed in and around Leba – a small village on the Baltic coast of what is now Poland – from July to September 1922, with the central subject being the reflection of the sun on water, the study of which would recur in his later works. Pechstein’s enthusiasm for the rustic environs of Leba is imb ... More
 

Theaster Gates, "Chief Vestment in Red and Yellow", 2022, detail, industrial oil-based enamel, rubber torch down, bitumen, wood and copper, 84 x 84 inches, 213.4 x 213.4 cm. © Theaster Gates. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.

NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian is pleased to announce Vestment, an exhibition of new works by Theaster Gates at 976 Madison Avenue, New York. Vestment, a new series of tar paintings or “torch works” by Gates, continues the artist’s ongoing engagement with formalism and mark making at the scale of the roof. In this suite of paintings and a sculpture, Gates diverges from earlier monochromatic torch works and experiments with color as a formal device for exploring spiritual and stylistic hierarchies, religious garments and aggrandizement, and the symbolism and universalism of nationhood. The new tar paintings serve as a distillate of some of the key intellectual musings with which Gates has grappled over the past year and throughout his practice. Invoking his recent ... More


CAC Cincinnati announces new director   Outstanding clocks from the Elliot Collection lead Bonhams Fine English Clocks sale   Churchill's aura, and bright colors, draw new fans to his art


Christina Vassallo is the institution’s new Alice & Harris Weston Director. Photo: Jessi Melcer.

CINCINNATI, OH.- The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati has announced the appointment of Christina Vassallo as the institution’s new Alice & Harris Weston Director. An accomplished and effective arts administrator and curator, Vassallo brings more than ten years of executive-level experience at forward-thinking contemporary arts institutions, currently serving as Executive Director of The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. She comes to the CAC with a history of successful leadership in fundraising, education and outreach initiatives, and artistic collaborations of varying scope and size, as well as a deep understanding of the cultural ecosystems of Ohio and the Midwest, having previously served as Executive + Artistic Director of SPACES in Cleveland from 2014 to 2019. Vassallo begins in her new role at the CAC in March 2023. “It was important to the Board that we select someone with an understanding of not just ... More
 

Fine and rare late 17th century ebony cased quarter repeating striking table clock Thomas Tompion, no. 198. Estimate: £200,000-300,000. Photo: Bonhams.

LONDON.- Two exquisite timepieces by the Father of English Clockmaking, Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) from the Elliot Collection of Fine English Clocks feature in Bonhams Fine Clocks Sale in London on Wednesday 30 November 2022. The collection also includes an important late 17th century ebony veneered longcase clock of three-month duration by another great clockmaker of the Golden Age, Joseph Knibb (1640-1711). In addition to these masterpieces of timekeeping, Old Master pictures, 19th century paintings and classic English decorative arts from Alan and Tara Elliot’s historic country home are to be offered in separate sale –The Old Rectory Chilton Foliat – at Bonhams on Tuesday 6 December. Tompion’s ebony table clock numbered 198, was made in around 1692, and embodies all that Tompion owners cherish. The tall rectangular dial with its twin subsidiaries allows the crucial functions (time, ... More
 

In an image provided by the auction house Christie’s, “The Canal at St-Georges-Motel” (ca. 1930), painted by Winston Churchill. It sold at Christie’s for $376,000 in October 2022, evidence of expanding interest in the British leader’s work as an artist. (Christie's via The New York Times)

NEW YORK, NY.- Winston Churchill, whose fiery resolve and puckish impudence led many to embrace him as an inspiring, authentic, if imperfect, leader, never set out to become an accomplished artist. He only began painting as a respite from depression when, at age 40 in 1915, he resigned as the civilian head of Britain’s Royal Navy during World War I. He had advocated that the Allied navies open what turned out to be a disastrous front in the Dardanelles strait. “Painting came to my rescue in a most trying time,” he later wrote. But perseverance, which served Churchill well in other settings, also led him to become a reliable, productive performer with a brush who created more than 500 works. They are prized today, perhaps more for their authorship than their aesthetics, but they are ... More



Sperone Westwater exhibits watercolors and works on paper by David Lynch   Lee Bontecou, acclaimed creator of wall-mounted art, dies at 91   Possibly unique Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 to be offered in the New York Watch Auction


Third Floor Gallery Installation View. Photo: Sperone Westwater, New York.

NEW YORK, NY.- Sperone Westwater is presenting an exhibition of moody, contemplative watercolors and works on paper by artist and filmmaker David Lynch. I Like to See My Sheep marks his second show with the gallery, featuring nine new works on paper from 2021, as well as 22 monochromatic watercolors made between 2010 and 2017. A concurrent exhibition, Big Bongo Night, at Pace Gallery in Chelsea features Lynch’s paintings and sculptures. The collection of watercolors were made at Idem printing press in Paris, which was the subject of a 2013 documentary, Idem Paris, directed by Lynch. “Hervé Chandès from the Fondation Cartier first introduced me to Patrice Forest [the studio’s director],” Lynch explains. “I see this incredible place, and I get the opportunity to work there. And this was like a dream! It just opened up this brand-new world.” In this atmosphere “so conducive to creating,” he was inspire ... More
 

An untitled 1961 work of welded steel, canvas, wire and rope at Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, on Feb 22, 2010. (Chad Batka/The New York Times)

by Jennifer Szalai


NEW YORK, NY.- Lee Bontecou, whose enormous, enigmatic wall-mounted sculptures garnered the kind of public acclaim and institutional backing in the 1960s typically reserved for male art stars at the time, died Tuesday at her home in Florida. She was 91. Her representative, Bill Maynes, confirmed the death but declined to specify where in Florida she lived. Bontecou was one of the first — and, for a time, one of the only — women shown at the influential Leo Castelli Gallery, whose roster of artists included Cy Twombly, Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg. In the mid-1960s, artist and critic Donald Judd praised her pioneering use of “a three-dimensional form that was neither painting nor sculpture” and deemed her “one of the best artists ... More
 

Live Auction on 10-11 December to Feature Important Timepieces by George Daniels, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Omega, and Urwerk. Image courtesy of Phillips.

NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips will present the full catalogue for The New York Watch Auction: SEVEN, showcasing nearly 180 rare and important timepieces, including the previously announced Cartier London Crash and the early F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain numbered 038/99T. Featuring the only known Patek Philippe ref. 2499 retailed by Howes, the auction offers an exceptional selection of watches from time-tested brands alongside independent makers. Following the success of the world tour, the watches will be unveiled in New York at 432 Park Avenue in the public exhibition opening on 3 December. The auction will then take place over the course of two days on 10-11 December. Paul Boutros, Head of Watches, Americas, and Isabella Proia, Head of Sale, said, “Following Phillips’ ‘White Glove’ sale in Geneva just days ago, which ... More


The Parrish Art Museum opens the first major survey of Mel Kendrick   Sargent's Daughters opens Shary Boyle's New York solo presentation   Tilton Gallery presents "Tomashi Jackson: The Great Society" today - through January 21st, 2023


Big Daddy Fun/Second Version, 1995. Cast rubber, wood, and pipe. 82 ½ x 77 x 49 in.


WATER MILL, NY.- The Parrish Art Museum presents Mel Kendrick: Seeing Things in Things—the first major survey of Kendrick’s (American, b. 1949) work highlighting his four-decade career. On view November 6, 2022 through February 19, 2023, the exhibition explores how Kendrick, one of America’s renowned contemporary sculptors, pushes the limits of his materials—wood, rubber, and concrete—to create sculpture that lays bare the process by which it was made, manipulating the language of abstraction with wit and rigor. Through his creative inquiry, Kendrick invites viewers to think about the relationships between representation and abstraction, sculpture and the body, organic and synthetic, and natural and made by hand. Focusing on the development of specific bodies of work, the comprehensive, multi-gallery ... More
 

Shary Boyle, Rage, 2022, Porcelain, underglaze, china paint, glazes, gold lustre, gold chain, 13 x 20.5 x 12 inches.

NEW YORK, NY.- Sargent’s Daughters is presenting The Forgetting, the first New York solo presentation of Toronto-based artist Shary Boyle. Boyle’s practice bridges diverse forms of artmaking, including sculpture, drawing, installation and performance. In 2013, Boyle represented Canada at the 55th Venice Biennale, and her work has appeared in major international venues, including the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, South Korea; The Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada; and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA. In this exhibition, the artist combines a range of materials, as well as specific social and political histories, to produce a new body of work which explores the formation of personal identity in the midst of cultural crisis. Concurrent with The Forgetting, Boyle’s traveling solo exhibition, Outside the Palace of Me, is on view ... More
 

Tomashi Jackson, detail view.

NEW YORK, NY.- Tilton Gallery will present today "Tomashi Jackson: The Great Society", November 10th through January 21st. This will be Jackson's third solo show at the gallery. A reception for the artist will take place on Thursday, November 10th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. In The Great Society, Tomashi Jackson continues to explore past legislation and key moments of history that are emblematic of times of important change and that are relevant to the present. She selects images that embody the spirit as well as facts of those moments to examine these historical events for their impact, heedful of how they resonate in our current time. For this exhibition, images taken from the public domain focus on three events where the possibility and promise of a great society was presented to audiences public and private in 1963, 1965, and 1969. Jackson looks at President Lyndon Baines Johnson's first formal speech about his intentions for the ... More




Glass from the Tomb of Tutankhamun



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Review: Making an epic visual impact with minimal means
NEW YORK, NY.- A naked man mounts a bull. A bull gives birth to a naked woman. A woman, ensconced in a sort of translucent vulva costume, gives birth to a silicone baby. These are just a few of the surreal and primal images that populate Dimitris Papaioannou’s “Transverse Orientation,” a nearly two-hour wordless spectacle — somewhere between dance, theater, circus arts and visual installation — that had its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Monday. Papaioannou, who began his career as a painter and comics artist, knows how to work on a large scale, having choreographed opening ceremonies for the 2004 Olympic Games in his home city, Athens, and for the 2015 European Games. The most intriguing aspects of “Transverse Orientation,” his second Brooklyn Academy presentation (after “The Great Tamer” in 2019), arise from a tension between ... More

The Warhol discovers Rare Velvet Underground master tapes
PITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum announces the discovery and digitization of the rare master tapes of the Velvet Underground’s debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967, Verve Records). Recently identified while processing Andy Warhol’s archive at The Warhol, the nine initial tracks recorded by the band were the bedrock of the album that became one of my most jarring and influential albums in rock music. The monophonic reel-to-reel ¼” tapes feature alternate versions and mixes of songs later issued on the 1967 release. “You’re hearing the album as the band originally intended,” said Matt Gray, manager of archives at The Warhol. “The track listing alone is a retelling of the album; the quality of sound is remarkable; it gives you a new perspective.” The Velvet Underground’s relationship with Andy Warhol began ... More

Fair And just solution for Nazi looted art At Ketterer Kunst
MUNICH.- It is a precious gem with a great provenance and an eventful history: Now Carl Spitzweg’s painting “Lagernde Karrner (Rast der Streuner)“ will be called up in the autumn auctions at Ketterer Kunst in Munich on December 9/10 in an amicable agreement with the heirs after Olga Mengers. Up until 1916, Carl Spitzweg’s painting was part of the renowned collection of Carl Hugo Schmeil, which was dissolved in an auction that year. The catalog of Helbing/Cassirer caught the attention of the recognized Berlin commercial judge Dr. Alfred Mengers, who acquired the subtle masterpiece for the grand price of 7,000 Mark. Mengers, who was also the director of his family’s “Velvetfabrik M. Mengers & Söhne“ in Berlin, lived in a large villa with his wife Olga Henriette. Olga was the daughter of the important businessman and art lover Sigmund ... More

Joe Tarsia, an architect of the sound of Philadelphia, dies at 88
NEW YORK, NY.- Joe Tarsia, the recording engineer and studio operator who was among the architects of the lush, fervent blend of soul, disco and funk known as the Sound of Philadelphia, died on Nov. 1 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was 88. His death, at a retirement community, was confirmed by a friend, video producer Steve Garrin, who did not cite a cause. At Sigma Sound Studios, the recording hub he established in 1968, Tarsia worked with the producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell on blockbuster hits by Philadelphia soul luminaries like the O’Jays and the Delfonics. Known for his precision at the mixing board and his imaginative use of echo and other ambient effects, Tarsia was the engineer on scores of gold and platinum recordings. “We were lucky to be recording at Sigma Sound with Joe Tarsia,” Gamble said in a 2008 ... More

Nantucket Historical Association receives serendipitous gift relating to naval officer with island ties
NANTUCKET, MASS.- The Nantucket Historical Association announced it has been gifted additional items relating to the life of U.S. Navy Commander John Franklin Walling, who was lost at sea in 1945 while commanding the submarine USS Snook during World War II. This past August, the NHA announced it would receive Commander Walling’s commissioning sword from Raymond F. DuBois, who received it from his mother and Walling’s widow, Annabella Walling DuBois. Following this announcement, the NHA was contacted by Susan Carpenter, whose grandparents and mother had been dear friends of Annabella Walling and who, remarkably, was in possession of Walling’s diaries from 1933–40. After years of trying to find someone to return the diaries to, she was delighted to place them in the NHA’s care to accompany Commander Walling’s sword. They record Walling’s time at the U.S. ... More

Yuan Yuan's solo exhibition "Understory" opens today at Kiang Malingue gallery
HONG KONG.- Kiang Malingue and Qiao Space present Yuan Yuan’s exhibition "Understory", showcasing seven recent paintings created by the artist in the last two years, and a series of paintings created between 2012 and 2017. This is the Berlin-based artist’s first exhibition in Asia after Irregular Pearl at Kiang Malingue's Hong Kong gallery space in 2020. By juxtaposing a number of artworks from different periods and inspired by different realities, the exhibition presents the artist’s ever-deepening painting practice since 2008, revealing Yuan's keen insight as he navigates through the complexities of the representational realm. Yuan Yuan's recent large-scale paintings include Private Submarine made in 2022. Faithful to an absurd reality, the artist's signature meticulous approach avoids direct depiction of objects, focusing instead on "the patterns of shadows, the light and ... More

Museum of the Moving Image to honor Sarah Polley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Laura Poitras at 2022 Moving Image Awards Gala
ASTORIA, NY.- The Board of Trustees of Museum of the Moving Image today announced that acclaimed filmmaker Sarah Polley (Women Talking), renowned storyteller Kazuo Ishiguro (Living), and Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed) will be honored at their annual 2022 Moving Image Awards on Thursday, December 1, in Astoria, Queens. The esteemed honorees will be celebrated by friends and collaborators with a special program in the grand Sumner M. Redstone Theater, preceded by a cocktail reception and followed by dessert in the Hearst Lobby. Additional special guests to be announced. “It is a great honor to recognize Sarah Polley, Sir Kazuo ... More

"Passing The Hour: Mhlekazi Samson Mnisi, A Contemporary Of No Peer" at Keyes Art Mile in Johannesburg
JOHANNESBURG.- Mhlekazi is an African honorary badge bestowed to distinguished personalities of meritorious capability, abbreviated as Mhl. “I am here with a little child in me, everyone seem to be older, wiser and more knowledgeable, through the years I have not past three, still all towers and fascinate in all degrees, when will I be the man in the mirror, to me he is always a mirage, every time I reach him I find an Illusion, so I am back at three with all my confusion, how I pray for growth and understanding, that all possess but fools and three year old, I believe only a foolish old man feels like three year old child, I do mind the fact that I cant seem to develop my mind. I pray to the spirit of Old to move me to the man I see in my reflection, all my emotions and thoughts have not matured past the child I feel, I am a man defeated by a child within, I am resigned to ignorance and wonder ... More

PHOTOFAIRS New York to launch September 2023
NEW YORK, NY.- Creo announced the launch of PHOTOFAIRS New York, a new contemporary art fair dedicated to photo-based and digital artworks. The Fair’s inaugural edition will take place on September 8-10, 2023 at the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side and will feature 80-100 galleries from around the world, presenting a state-of-the-art view of visual culture. The Fair’s strong curatorial approach will create a new platform where photography and new technologies intersect. It will provide a dedicated space for galleries and audiences to explore new trends in the contemporary art market centered around digital practices and innovative installations. From fine art photo-based works to experimental filmmaking, VR and NFTs, PHOTOFAIRS New York will connect collectors and visitors with international galleries and boundary-pushing artists inviting discourse and interaction. ... More

An auction that will let fans disguise themselves as John Hamm's Fletch
DALLAS, TEXAS.- On Nov. 20, Heritage offers authenticated props, costumes from the Miramax film Confess, Fletch and the HBO Original The Time Traveler’s Wife. Greg Mottola has a confession: Until he signed on to write and direct the newly released Confess, Fletch, he had never read any of Gregory Mcdonald's nine novels starring investigative reporter Irwin Maurice Fletcher. Of course, Mottola — the filmmaker responsible for The Daytrippers, Adventureland and Superbad — had seen the 1985 Chevy Chase film based on Fletch, published in 1974. Many men of a certain age — say, in their mid- to late 50s — have introduced themselves as Dr. Rosenpenis, attempted to charge something to the Underhills or insisted it's all ball bearings nowadays. But those were all gags written for a movie that bore little relation to Mcdonald's novel save for some of its plot and a few of its ... More


PhotoGalleries

Barbara Hepworth

Nan Goldin

Bharti Kher

Amon Carter acquisitions 2022


Flashback
On a day like today, English painter William Hogarth was born
November 10, 1697. William Hogarth FRSA (10 November 1697 - 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects", perhaps best known being his moral series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. In this image: William Hogarth, The Beggar’s Opera II, 1728. Oil on canvas, signed, 47 x 54.6 cm, courtesy of The Fine Art Society.

  
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