Artdaily.cc - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Ed Bullins, leading playwright of the Black Arts Movement, dies at 86
NEW YORK, NY.- Ed Bullins, who was among the most significant Black playwrights of the 20th century and a leading voice in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, died on Saturday at his home in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was 86. His wife, Marva Sparks, said the cause was complications of dementia. Over a 55-year career in which he produced nearly 100 plays, Bullins sought to reflect the Black urban experience unmitigated by the expectations of traditional theater. Most of his work appeared in Black theaters in Harlem and Oakland, California, and perhaps for that reason he never reached the heights of acclaim that greeted peers like August Wilson, whose plays appeared on Broadway and were adapted for the screen (and who often credited Bullins as an influence). That was fine with Bullins. He often said he wrote not for white or middle- ... More

E-buggies replace horse carts at Jordan's Petra
PETRA.- Horses and mules have long drawn tourist carriages through Jordan's ancient city of Petra, but animal rights concerns are driving a project to start replacing them with electric vehicles. A small fleet of 10 rechargeable e-carts now take visitors through the rose-coloured Siq or gorge leading to the famed capital of the Nabateans, which dates back to the first century BC. "There is no pollution or smoke" and the change has "reduced the cases of animal mistreatment," said Suleiman Farajat, head of the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority. The golf buggy-style vehicles have less impact because "sometimes the carriage wheels hit the sides of the Siq ... the horse dung caused a bad smell in the place, and cleaning it was not easy. "It was an unpleasant experience for the tourists, the horses and us," said Farajat. Animal ... More

Japan experts craft 'super clone' of destroyed Afghan mural
TOKYO.- Japanese researchers have crafted a "super clone" of an Afghan mural destroyed by the Taliban, using a mix of traditional and digital techniques that they hope will salvage the work's "spirit" for future generations. Not a single fragment remains of the seventh-century cave painting demolished in 2001 along with two massive Buddha statues and other artefacts in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, sparking global condemnation. But a precise replica, the result of three years of state-of-the-art reproduction efforts, went on display at a museum in Tokyo in September and October, just weeks after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul. The mural on the ceiling of a cave near the famous statues depicted a blue Bodhisattva -- or someone on the path to becoming a Buddha. At six metres long and three metres high (20 by 10 feet), ... More

Rare Hermès Birkin bags lead holiday luxury accessories event
DALLAS, TX.- This seasons gift-giving just got easier thanks to Heritage Auctions Dec. 5 Holiday Luxury Accessories SignatureÂ® event. From hard-to-get handbags and fabulous jewelry to pieces for travel and home, theres something for everyone in this sensational sale. Leading the event are two HermÃ¨s special-order Horseshoe Birkin bags, one classicly neutral and one oh-so-bright. For the handbag lover who likes to keep things subdued, theres a like-new 30cm Gris Tourterelle & Gris Elephant Porosus Crocodile Birkin (estimate: $40,000-$70,000), and for the one who prefers a little pizzazz, theres a 25cm Shiny Rose Scheherazade & Vert Vertigo Niloticus Crocodile version (estimate: $40,000-$50,000). Also providing a bright spot in the auction is a vibrant, like-new HermÃ¨s 25cm Special Order Horseshoe Rose Poupre & Gris Perle Togo Leather ... More

Retrospective of Philip Tsiaras 'Superdot' series exhibited in London for first time
LONDON.- Varvara Galleries and The Blender Gallery announce a solo exhibition of Dot Pop Portraits by Philip Tsiaras at Gallery 8 in Mayfair. The exhibition showcases portraits of British political and Royal figures such as Winston Churchill, The Queen and Prince Philip, alongside legends from popular culture including opera diva Maria Callas, exotic painters Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dali, musical icons David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince. Tsiaras comes full circle, as a classic black and white photographer in his early career, to realize a new painterly language in realistic hand-dotted personas. His is the world of obsessive Pointillism with a love of portraiture The DOT-- paired with popular iconography is infused with a myriad of painted multicolored coordinates, bordering on what Tsiaras calls the scientific of sensualism, or in arc ... More

The Approach opens an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Bill Lynch
LONDON.- The Approach is presenting I am a Bird from Heavens Garden, an exhibition of paintings and drawings, never shown until now, by the late American artist Bill Lynch (1960-2013). Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lynch immersed himself in making drawings and paintings for over three decades. He studied painting at Cooper Union in New York, and lived for a time in California. After a stint in Brooklyn and New Jersey in the early 90s, Lynch finally settled in Raleigh, North Carolina, to be closer to his family. Lynch passed away in 2013, leaving behind his exceptional and distinguished body of work. Lynch painted onto salvaged plywood (sometimes on both sides), a process that has become distinctive to his work. Verne Dawson, a fellow painter and college friend to Lynch, recalls how: [Lynch] rel[ied] on found materials almost exclusively. Economics ... More

Sapar Contemporary opens the gallery's second solo exhibition of work by Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed
NEW YORK, NY.- Sapar Contemporary opened Faig Ahmed: PIR, the gallerys second solo exhibition of work by Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed. The exhibition features three large scale new textile works as well as a video work by the artist. The three large carpet works in the exhibitions are titled after poets and spiritual masters whose works had a great influence in the cultural history of Azerbaijan: Shams Tabrizi, Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakuvi, and Nizami Ganjavi. His title of this exhibition, Pir, encapsulates the multidimensional nature of his work. The ancient Greek word for fire is pyr (πυρ), whereas the word pir in Persian, Turkish, and Arabic means elder or spiritual guide in Sufism, connecting to the three poet-scholars associated with Faigs artworks. Finally, one of the etymologies of the word Azerbaijan is the Land Protected by Holy Fire, as it ... More

Tiwani Contemporary opens the first solo exhibition of British artist Charmaine Watkiss at the gallery
LONDON.- Tiwani Contemporary is presenting the first solo exhibition of British artist Charmaine Watkiss at the gallery. The Seed Keepers (2021) is a new series of drawings that fuse Watkiss' interests in botany, herbalism, ecology, history, and Afrofuturism. Researching the medicinal and psychical capabilities of plants, Watkiss has personified a matrilineal pantheon of plant warriors safeguarding and facilitating cross-generational knowledge and empowerment. The show consists of a body of entirely new works on paper and explores the use of full colour - a first for Watkiss. The drawings of women in luminal spaces along with her plant warriors have a mystical quality which exist outside our linear time and space. The natural world is at the forefront of most of our imaginations right now; and this show explores narratives around ancient plant knowledge ... More

Marcel Odenbach awarded the 2021 Wolfgang Hahn Prize
COLOGNE.- Marcel Odenbach (*1953 in Cologne) has been awarded the 2021 Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Gesellschaft fÃ¼r Moderne Kunst on November 16, 2021. The award ceremony always also includes an acquisition for the collection of the Museum Ludwig. Thanks to Marcel Odenbachs generosity, the Gesellschaft fÃ¼r Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig will acquire his unique Schnittvorlagen for the 2021 Wolfgang Hahn Prize. The Schnittvorlagen were created over the course of decades. They function as an ongoing image archive, and at the same time the more than 117 works on paper in A3 format represent the current foundation of the artists work. Each work focuses on a specific topic. Odenbach arranges conceptually or visually corresponding motifs that he takes from magazines, brochures, and many other sources. The collages are modified and ... More

RaÃºl Rivero, disenchanted poet of the Cuban revolution, dies at 75
NEW YORK, NY.- RaÃºl Rivero, a revolutionary Cuban journalist and poet who eventually became disillusioned and accused Fidel Castros Communist dictatorship of stifling dissent, emerged as the dean of Cubas independent press and was jailed for subversion, died on Sunday in Kendall, Florida, a suburb of Miami. He was 75. He had been treated for emphysema for years and died after being taken to a hospital emergency room with cardiorespiratory complications, his wife, Blanca Reyes, said. Rivero was the chief correspondent in Moscow for Cubas government-sanctioned news agency from 1973 to 1976. After that he was a culture editor for publications associated with the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. His idiosyncratic and fervidly pro-Castro poetry and prose he hailed the dreams of human redemption sung by the bearded victors ... More

Philip Margo of the Tokens, who sang of a snoozing lion, dies at 79
NEW YORK, NY.- Philip Margo, a member of the close-harmony group the Tokens, which earned enduring pop-music fame with the No. 1 hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight in 1961, died Saturday in a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 79. The cause was a stroke, his family said. Margo had a varied career, performing with the Tokens and its offshoots, producing records and writing for television. But nothing had a bigger impact than the recording he was part of when he was 19: The Lion Sleeps Tonight became one of the most recognizable songs in American music, instantly identifiable from Jay Siegels opening falsetto. Margo sang baritone. The song had its origins in South Africa, where Solomon Linda and the Original Evening Birds recorded a simple tune they called Mbube Zulu for the lion containing the now-familiar melody. In the early 1950s the ... More