The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, December 26, 2023




 
The Prado exhibits its magnificent 'David and Goliath' by Caravaggio following restoration

Image of the restoration process of the David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio.

MADRID.- Presented today by the Museo del Prado in Room 7A of the Villanueva Building is the painting David and Goliath by Caravaggio, following its extensive restoration within the context of the programme sponsored by Fundación Iberdrola España. The principal aim of this restoration has been to reinstate the original image devised by Michelangelo Merisi, “il Caravaggio”, which had been disappearing over time beneath layers of dirt and oxidised varnish. The opaque nature of these old layers of varnish eliminated the space and depth in the composition. This made it more difficult to perceive the dimensions of the place in which David and Goliath are located, given that within the scene as a whole it was only possible to distinguish the parts of the figures brightly illuminated by the focused light source. This issue was also partly the result of previous selective cleanings, which had essentially concentrated on the foregr ... More


The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
MAK Exhibition View, 2023. HARD/SOFT: Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art MAK Exhibition Hall, Ground Floor © MAK/Georg Mayer.






Norman Rockwell Museum announces senior leadership hires   Norton Museum of Art to host solo museum exhibition of artist Nora Maité Nieves   Rodin bronzes return long-term to the Polk Museum of Art


Hilary Dunne Ferrone.

STOCKBRIDGE, MASS..- Norman Rockwell Museum announced three appointments to refreshed Museum leadership positions. Hilary Dunne Ferrone has assumed the role of Chief Philanthropy Officer to lead Norman Rockwell Museum’s annual fundraising campaign and to align its fundraising programs with the Museum’s strategic initiatives and overall strategic growth plan. Kathryn Potts has been named Chief Learning and Engagement Officer, responsible for developing engaging learning content and programming to inspire the Museum’s visitors, community members, and digital audiences. Potts will oversee the Museum Guides and build on the Museum’s long tradition of excellent public education and interpretive work. Tiffani Silverman joins the Museum as its new Director of People and Culture to develop strategic human resources initiatives and programs and foster and deepen a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. “We are deli ... More
 

Nora Maité Nieves, Ciclo Lunar, 2021. Acrylic, Flashe, coarse pumice modeling paste, fiber paste, gold & silver leaf, resin, and pigments on MDF, 74 x 17 x 1 in. Collection of Maria C. Mostajo.© 2023 Nora Maité Nieves, Photo by Daniel Terna.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL.- The Norton Museum of Art is hosting mixed media artist Nora Maité Nieves’ (b. 1980, Puerto Rico) first solo museum exhibition, Clouds in the Expanded Field, on view December 23, 2023 – April 28, 2024. The exhibition features her first exploration of video in Eyes of the Sea, a stop-motion animation that transforms the symbols, materials, patterns, and textures present in her painting and sculptural practice. In addition to the video work, this exhibition also features nearly 20 two-dimensional works, including 9 works produced specifically for presentation at the Norton. Nieves, an interdisciplinary artist, creates richly textured abstracted visual motifs of architectural elements through painting, sculpture, and now, video. The exhibition runs concurrently with her Mary ... More
 

Auguste Rodin, “Claude Lorrain,” modeled 1889, Musée Rodin cast 5 of 8, 1992, bronze, Coubertin Foundry, lent by Iris Cantor.

LAKELAND, FL.- In the lead up to its major expansion opening in Fall 2024, the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College is excited to announce a multi-year partnership with the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to display a suite of 14 bronzes by French master sculptor Auguste Rodin. The Museum first brought Rodin’s work to Central Florida in late 2022 with “Rodin: Contemplation and Dreams/Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections.” The exhibition was one of the Museum’s most popular and highest attended to date. “It’s like we are welcoming an old friend — and his sculptures — back to the Museum, but this time we and our visitors will get to enjoy Rodin’s company for years,” said Dr. H. Alexander Rich, executive director and chief curator. “We are honored to partner with the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, especially in this time of exponential ... More


Group show 'HARD/SOFT; Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art' on view at Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna   JFK & RFK signed Presidential Pardon -- dated eight days before JFK's assassination sold   Exhibition marks the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso's passing


Franz Erhard Walther, Drei Räume [Three Rooms] (detail), 1981. Photo: Ladislav Zajac © Franz Erhard Walther and KOW, Berlin.

VIENNA.- Despite appearing vastly different at first glance, textiles and ceramics have much in common. They share the same haptic aesthetic language that shifts between hard, unwieldy, soft, and flowing. We associate sculpturally layered textiles with warmth and flexibility, offering a stark contrast to the cool fragility of ceramics formed from soft clay or loam. This fascinating interplay is at the heart of the MAK exhibition HARD/SOFT: Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art, which showcases work from around 40 international artists, many being exhibited in Vienna for the first time. The materials, shapes, and meanings of the selected works reveal a broad spectrum of ambiguity, vagueness, and concurrence that even blur connotations of gender. Present in every culture, textiles and ceramics are closely connected to applied art and symbolize community: Works are often produced collaboratively in ateliers, workshops, and collectives. The m ... More
 

This document grants clemency to Ted E. Barto of Minneapolis who had been convicted of violating U.S. Code Title 18, Section 287, related to "false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Nate D. Sanders Auctions sold on November 30th an exceptionally rare presidential pardon signed by President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy for $12,500. Dated November 14, 1963, a mere eight days before the tragic assassination of President Kennedy, this extraordinary document is a testament to its historical significance and scarcity. Presidential pardons signed by John F. Kennedy are notoriously rare, as pardons are mostly issued at the conclusion of a President's term. Since JFK did not serve his full term, the number of pardons he issued were few. In the last half-century, only six others have come to auction. This particular document holds additional significance as it represents one of the final official acts of President Kennedy, making it a poignant piece of American history. The pardon is prominently adorned with the bold signatures of both ... More
 

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Françoise, 1946 - Pablo Picasso Acceptance in Lieu, 1979 © musée national Picasso-Paris (MP1351), © Succession Picasso 2023.

PARIS.- To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso's passing, the Centre Pompidou is organising "Picasso. Dessiner à l'infini" (Picasso. Endlessly Drawing) in collaboration with the musée national Picasso-Paris. The exhibition highlights the most prolific part of his creation by bringing together nearly a thousand works: notebooks, drawings and engravings, most of which come from the collection of the musée national Picasso-Paris. From his youthful studies to his final works, for Picasso, drawing was a constantly renewed place of invention around the power of the stroke, ranging from serpentine lines to hatched drawings and proliferating compositions, from the delicate nuances of pastels to the deep blacks of ink. This journey through the graphic work, a sort of compulsively kept private diary, the notebooks being the most precious examples, immerses us in the heart of the artist’s work. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary collection ... More



An abandoned cemetery highlights a painful colonial episode for France   Xavier Huffkens presents 'Lesley Vance, Ken Price: Fired and painted'   'Chagall at Work: Drawings, Ceramics and Sculptures 1945-1970' on view at Centre Pompidou


Hacène Arfi organize documents about the Algerian Harkis at the Algerian Harkis institution in St.-Laurent-des-Arbres, France, Oct. 14, 2023. (Mauricio Lima/The New York Times)

by Juliette Guéron-Gabrielle


RIVESALTES.- Nestled amid the vineyards in a picturesque region of southwestern France known for its sweet wines and goat cheeses is a fenced-off parcel of thorny, empty land, mostly avoided by nearby villagers other than the few who walk their dogs there. The nondescript patch has become part of a national effort to address a painful episode in France’s colonial history: the treatment of the predominantly Muslim Algerians known as Harkis who fought for the French during Algeria’s war of independence. After the war ended in 1962, some of the Harkis and their families were placed in several internment and transit camps across France. They stayed for years in those camps, treated more as unwanted refugees in France than former soldiers, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, while the ... More
 

Lesley Vance, Untitled, 2023.

BRUSSELS.- Fired and painted brings together a recent series of paintings by Lesley Vance (b. 1977) and a group of ceramic sculptures by Ken Price (1935-2012). Two American artists of different generations and disciplines but whose abstract works share a number of affinities. Taking scale as a departure point, Vance has pushed her practice in new directions for this exhibition, her fifth with the gallery. The presentation not only includes her largest canvas to date but also some of her smallest, together with an ensemble of medium-format paintings. Through the interplay of scales and volumes, Fired and painted suggests resonances between the different art forms and opens up a dialogue on the themes of colour, surface, form and spatiality. Lesley Vance has long been fascinated by the relationship between ceramics and painting, both of which involve the application of fluid mediums onto neutral supports. Moreover, she also cites Ken Price as a key source of inspiration. A relentless innovator in t ... More
 

Marc Chagall, Couple à la chèvre rouge, v. 1970 Gift of Mme Meret Meyer, 2022. Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Janeth Rodriguez-Garcia/ Dist. RMN-GP © Adagp, Paris.

PARIS.- The exhibition brings together an ensemble of works that joined the collection in 2022 thanks to the generosity of Bella and Meret Meyer. One hundred and twenty-seven drawings, five ceramics and seven sculptures by Marc Chagall have enriched the Centre Pompidou collection, one of the most representative and extensive collections of the artist's work, in particular of his pre-war creative output. These donations have been organised around three themes: preparatory drawings for the costumes and stage curtains of Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" ballet, reprised by the New York Ballet Theater in 1945, sketches and models for the ceiling decoration commissioned from the artist in 1962, and an ensemble of ceramics, collages and sculptures made between the 1950s and the early 1970s. Music plays a fundamental role in Chagall's oeuvre: closely linked to his vocation as an artist ... More


Exhibition delves into the continuities and transformations of subjective visual languages in artistic photography   Walker Art Center exhibits Allan Sekula's major project: 'Fish Story'   Spectrum Miami and Red Dot Miami reign over Miami Art Week 2023


Rebekka Bauer, from: Die Aufstellung, 2020-present/2023.

GRAZ.- The exhibition Double Exposure is a continuation of the investigation into the continuities and transformations of subjective visual languages in artistic photography that began in the previous group exhibition Exposure (September 16–November 12, 2023). By combining works by different generations of artists and referring to the ambiguity of the term “exposure,” which describes not only the photographic exposure process but also the act of exposing bodies or life circumstances, artistic approaches were presented that reflect on references to reality through the indexical medium of photography, and that make one’s own embeddedness in (human and nonhuman) relational structures visible. In Double Exposure, on the other hand, the focus is on works that have been developed from found image archives or collections, and that through visually (re)writing unavailable or repressed experience react to the dispositives of the respective media and the aesthetics of the image. In ... More
 

Allan Sekula, Chapter Three: "Middle Passage" from Fish Story (#28) 1988-1995 (detail). Walker Art Center. Courtesy the artist.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center is presenting Allan Sekula: Fish Story, Sekula’s groundbreaking nine-chapter image-based research project exploring the profound impact of the globalized shipping trade and its relationship to romantic notions of the sea. Regarded as one of the most influential photographers and thinkers of his generation, Allan Sekula (1951–2013) is known for blending documentary-style photography with essays to create poignant narratives that speak to and critique global social, economic, and political structures. Conceived as both an exhibition and a book, Fish Story is considered one of the most important conceptual photography projects of the 20th century and features 105 photographs, slide projections, and accompanying texts developed over the course of many years. The Walker’s presentation of Fish Story marks the first time that the work is being presented in the U.S. in its entirety since its institution ... More
 

The only two fairs under one roof during Miami Art Week resonated with industry insiders, high-end collectors and the world’s media.

MIAMI, FLA.- Spectrum Miami and Red Dot Miami celebrated an international showcase in classic, contemporary and fine art during Miami Art Week at Mana Wynwood Convention Center, December 6--10, with a five-day global presentation that was the talk of the town throughout the art world and international press core. The annual Opening Night Preview took place on Wednesday, December 6, presented by Pommery Champagne and Empress 1908 Gin. Thousands of the world’s most affluent art dealers, collectors, artists, gallery owners, curators and art enthusiasts attended the preview for a first look at the inspirational works by the more than 1,000 artists showcased by over 280 exhibitors from 27 countries around the world. In addition to visiting two of the longest running fairs during Miami Art Week, avid art enthusiasts and industry leaders returned to enjoy [SOLO], highlighting established and independent emerging artists. This year's fairs also welcomed ... More




Chicago Works: Maryam Taghavi



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Fondazione Giuliani presents the first solo exhibition in Rome of artist Liz Magor
ROME.- Fondazione Giuliani is presenting the first solo exhibition in Rome of renowned Canadian artist, Liz Magor. For over four decades Magor’s practice has primarily concentrated on sculpture, exploring our persistent and complicated relationship with things. Working with common, everyday objects that often go unnoticed, she uses various sculptural techniques to transform them into new forms, somewhere between still life and the uncanny. Things such as blankets, weathered clothing and discarded toys are found in relationships that generate a sense of meaning and care beyond their original use or need. The exhibition at Fondazione Giuliani presents a selection of works produced in the last five years that considers Magor’s understanding of the presence of ‘agency’ within inanimate, material objects and her enquiry as to the source ... More

Latvian National Museum of Art presents an exhibition of works by Artūrs Virtmanis
RIGA.- Artūrs Virtmanis’ solo exhibition Psychopomp: A Beginner’s Guide to the Afterworld is presented in the Cupola Hall of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art. The ecological crisis, war, pandemic and inequality have become part of normality. Dystopian end-of-the-world scenarios increasingly turn into our reality. Left on its own, each system over time tends towards chaos: heat energy dissipates, biological organisms die, societies collapse. Is there anyone who could lead us into this new reality – a guide that could prepare us for change? The exhibition Psychopomp: A Beginner’s Guide to the Afterworld lets the visitor experience catastrophe as a spectacle where the gloomy and the melancholy merges with the dreamlike and the ecstatic. Space and environment as the artistic object and a performative occasion, ... More

AALTO – Aino, Alvar, Elissa exhibition in MAXXI Museum in Rome
The AALTO – Aino, Alvar, Elissa exhibition opened at MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome on December 14, 2023, and tells the story of the design work done by architect Alvar Aalto and his architect wives, Aino and Elissa, which was typified by architecture and design in harmony with people and the surrounding world. The experimental layout and the exhibition’s auxiliary programme give visitors a variety of new ways to explore these world-famous works. The exhibition is curated by the Italian architecture and research studio Space Caviar. “This is the most important Aalto exhibition in Italy for many decades. It is a splendid culmination of Aalto's 125th anniversary year,” says Alvar Aalto Foundation CEO Tommi Lindh. The exhibition is part of the Alvar Aalto 125 anniversary programme and is open until 26 May 2024. ... More

Shortlisted finalists announced for the Australian Furniture Design Award 2024
MELBOURNE.- The National Gallery of Victoria and Stylecraft announced the finalists shortlisted for the Australian Furniture Design Award – one of the nation’s richest furniture and lighting design accolades with a $20,000 cash prize. Presented by the NGV and Stylecraft, the biennial Award celebrates the most interesting and innovative furniture and lighting design being created in Australia today. Now in its fifth iteration, the Award seeks to recognise outstanding new design ideas; critical and creative thinking; sustainability; material development; and research that explores innovative production processes. The shortlisted finalists will be invited to present their realised designs for exhibition and judging at the Stylecraft showroom during Melbourne Design Week 2024. The winning designer will receive a cash prize of AUD $20,000 and an invitation to develop a commercial range or product w ... More

Mildred Miller, stalwart of the Metropolitan Opera, dies at 98
NEW YORK, NY.- Mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller Posvar sang opera’s so-called trouser roles so many times that one of her daughters once told a friend, “My mommy is a boy.” Posvar, known in her professional life as Mildred Miller, was Cherubino in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” a record-breaking 61 times at the Metropolitan Opera House. Her warm, even tone and clear diction became associated indelibly with the composer’s amorous page in the way that Kirsten Flagstad was with Isolde and Feodor Chaliapin with Boris Godunov. She “defined that role for a generation of opera lovers,” Opera News said about her. And there were many other roles as well. Posvar died Nov. 29 at her home in Pittsburgh. She was 98. Her death was confirmed by her daughter Lisa Posvar Rossi and by the Metropolitan Opera, where she ... More

'Brandon Lattu: Empirical, Textual, Contextual' on view at California Museum of Photography
RIVERSIDE, CALIF.- UCR ARTS is presenting the first U.S. career survey of work by Brandon Lattu. Empirical, Textual, Contextual, curated by Charlotte Cotton, on view through February 6, 2022, at UCR ARTS’ California Museum of Photography in downtown Riverside, California. Situated within the broad and mercurial image environment in which we create and consume, this sensorial and cerebral exhibition examines Lattu’s twenty-five-year artistic practice working in photography, sculpture, and video. Including both his pioneering work as an early adopter of digital imaging processes alongside recent and new projects that employ technologies like computer-aided design and light sensors, the exhibition offers insights into the through lines of his substantial creative life. Speaking to the concept and title of his exhibition, Brandon Lattu says, “this exhibition ... More

"Revolutionary Romances? Global Art Histories in the GDR"
DRESDEN.- This exhibition focuses on the ›revolutionary romances‹ – the friendly revolutionary relations – that were carried on by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with countries of the Global South. It thus takes a closer look at the little-studied subject of East German art in the context of global, transcultural art histories. In the 1960s, following on the heels of the Cuban revolution, decolonization in Africa and erupting communist liberation movements, socialism seemed to be on the rise worldwide: the utopian vision of a socialist world community mobilised the Eastern Bloc. Turning to the Global South gave the GDR the international recognition it had long hoped for and had been denied in the West, and enabled it to demonstrate state sovereignty and openness to the world. ›International friendship‹ and ›international solidarity‹ were ... More

Michelangelo Pistoletto and Pascale Marthine Tayou open at both Patricia Low Contemporary and Galleria Continua
GSTAAD.- Patricia Low Contemporary Gallery, a leading name in contemporary art in Switzerland since 2005, and Galleria Continuaare opening today Alternative Centers, a joint exhibition by Michelangelo Pistoletto and Pascale Marthine Tayou. Alternative Centers offers a unique creative dialogue between two contemporary visions of art represented by the works of Michelangelo Pistoletto and Pascale Marthine Tayou. As the title refers to an idea of collective identity, the exhibition creates a social dimension of encounter and discovery, bringing together the two artists’ centres of interest. The creation of art that is open to dialogue and exchange is undoubtedly the strongest link uniting these two ... More

World's biggest annual festival of light and art, Noor Riyadh, concludes with 6 Guinness World Records
RIYADH.- Noor Riyadh, the critically acclaimed light art festival, celebrated as the world's largest annual event of its kind, has successfully concluded its 2023 edition. The public light art showcase, which ran from November 30 to December 17, transformed Saudi Arabia's capital into a dazzling 'gallery without walls', engaging more than 3 million visitors with over 120 innovative artworks by more than 100 artists from 35 countries, more than 30 of which are from Saudi Arabia. Adding six new Guinness World Records to the previous years’ achievements, Christopher Bauder's DIALOGUE on Faisaliyah Tower set a record for the most lights in a light show on a single building as well as the record for the most lights used in a temporary light and sound show, illuminating both the Faisaliyah Tower and Kingdom Tower. Studio Drift's Desert Swarm created ... More

Noonans to sell important 'secret' medal given to only Welshman who participated in Operation Jaywick
LONDON.- A Secret medal awarded following ‘Operation Jaywick’ in 1943 – one of the greatest raids of WW2 – when the Australian Commandos performed a raid on Japanese-occupied Singapore Harbour in a vessel disguised as an Asian fishing boat will be offered by Noonans Mayfair in their auction of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria (Wednesday, January 17, 2024). Only two British men participated in the historic mission and the medals belonging to Welshman Acting Sergeant, later Major Ronald George ‘Taffy’ Morris of the Royal Army Medical Corps who was attached to the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E) are expected to fetch £60,000-80,000. The collection is being sold by the recipient’s son who has recently written a book about his father’s exploits. Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans ... More


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Gabriele Münter

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Flashback
On a day like today, French painter Maurice Utrillo was born
December 26, 1883. Maurice Utrillo (26 December 1883 - 5 November 1955), was a French painter who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre who was born there. In this image: Maurice Utrillo, Ruelle des Gobelins à Paris, 1921, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right Maurice, Utrillo, V, Mars 1921, signed, dated and titled on the reverse Maurice Utrillo, V, Mars 1921, 65 x 92 cm.

  
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