| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, January 18, 2022 |
| | The Kunga was a status symbol long before the thoroughbred | |
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A burial site in Umm el-Marra, Syria, where the skeletons of 44 kungas, hybrids of female donkeys and Syrian wild asses, were uncovered. A new study finds the first known instance of a human-engineered hybrid, bred from a donkey and a Syrian wild ass 4,500 years ago. Glenn Schwartz/John Hopkins University via The New York Times.
by James Gorman
NEW YORK, NY.- In ancient Mesopotamia 4,500 years ago, long before horses arrived in the region, another spirited member of the equine family, the kunga, took a starring role in pulling four-wheeled wagons into battle. Archaeologists had suspected that these animals depicted in art, their sales recorded in cuneiform writing, their bodies sometimes laid to rest in rich burial sites were the result of some kind of crossbreeding. But proof was lacking. On Friday, a team of researchers reported on more than a decade of research in the journal Science Advances, concluding that studies of ancient DNA showed the kunga was a cross between a female donkey (Equus Africanus asinus) and a male Syrian wild ass (Equus hemionus hemippus). The kunga is the first known instance of a human-engineered hybrid of two species, a production far beyond the traditional processes of the domestication of animals, researchers found. Eva-Maria Geigl, a specialist in ancient genomes at the University of Paris, and o ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Ettore Spalletti at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. January 11 - March 5, 2022. Courtesy: Studio Ettore Spalletti and Marian Goodman © Studio Ettore Spalletti. Photo: Alex Yudzon.
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| Photographer Steve Schapiro has died at age 87 | | David Zwirner opens the first solo presentation of Josef Albers's work in Greater China | | 555.55 carat black diamond to make auction debut | 
Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965 © Steve Schapiro/Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography.
SANTA FE, NM.- Steve Schapiro died peacefully on January 15 surrounded by his wife, Maura Smith, and son, Theophilus Donoghue in Chicago, Illinois after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 87. Steve Schapiro discovered photography at the age of nine at summer camp. Excited by the cameras potential, Schapiro spent the next decades prowling the streets of his native New York City trying to emulate the work of French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson, whom he greatly admired. His first formal education in photography came when he studied under the photojournalist W. Eugene Smith. Smiths influence on Schapiro was far-reaching. He taught him the technical skills he needed to succeed as a photographer but also informed his personal outlook and worldview. Schapiros lifelong interest in social documentary and his consistently empathetic portrayal of his subjects ... More | | 
Josef Albers, Study for Graphic Tectonic (Ascension), 1941. Ink and graphite on paper, 56.2 x 43.5 cm © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and David Zwirner.
HONG KONG.- David Zwirner is presenting Primary Colors, an exhibition of work by Josef Albers (18881976). On view at the gallerys Hong Kong location, this will be the first solo presentation of Alberss work in Greater China. Curated by Brenda Danilowitz, chief curator of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the show is a focused examination of how the primary colors red, yellow, and blue, along with black, encompassed an infinite range of chromatic possibilities for Albers, which he explored throughout his career in stunning combinations presented in his signature visual formats. The exhibition coincides with a major retrospective exhibition of Alberss and his wife and fellow artist Anni Alberss art at the Institut Valencià dArt Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain, which debuted at the Musée dArt Moderne de Paris in 2021. Josef Albers is considered one of ... More | | 
The largest faceted diamond to come to auction. Unveiled at Sotheby's Dubai. Courtesy Sotheby's.
DUBAI.- A treasure from interstellar space, The Enigma, weighing 555.55 carats, is an exquisite and extremely rare black diamond. The largest Fancy Black Natural Colour diamond in the world, reported by Gubelin and the GIA as of 2004, it was listed as the largest cut diamond in the world in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records. To have a natural faceted black diamond of this size is an extremely rare occurrence and its origins are shrouded in mystery thought to have been created either from a meteoric impact or having emerged from a diamond-bearing asteroid that collided with Earth. The design of the diamond is imbued with significance, its shape inspired by the Middle Eastern palm-shaped symbol, the Hamsa a sign of protection, power and strength. The Hamsa is associated with the number five, which is imbued with symbolic meaning, and the diamond is not only 555.55 carats in size, but it also contains exactly 55 facets - a technical feat for one of the toughest dia ... More |
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| A strong new lead in 'The Betrayal of Anne Frank' | | Custom 1951 Mercury sells at auction for $1.95 million | | The Eighth Henry: A new gold penny at Spink | 
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation By Rosemary Sullivan. 383 pages. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $29.99.
NEW YORK, NY.- The title of Rosemary Sullivans important new book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank, resounds far beyond its primary meaning. Sullivan is chronicling the investigation of a cold case, the unsolved mystery of who alerted authorities in the summer of 1944 to the hiding place of Frank, her family and four other Jewish people, above a pectin and spice warehouse in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, resulting in their arrest and deportation to concentration camps. Two official investigations, begun in 1947 and 1963, failed to reveal the identity of the informant; the matter has preoccupied multiple biographers since. Sullivan writes with absolute dedication and precision, bringing a previously obscure suspect to the fore. But Frank, who died at 15 of typhus at Bergen-Belsen days after the death of her sister, Margot, has been betrayed in so many ways. Some would say by having her diaries published at all: ... More | | 
The interior of the Hirohata Merc, a Mercury custom built nearly 70 years ago. Mecum Auctions via The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY.- A customized 1951 Mercury coupe astonished aficionados over the weekend, selling for $1.95 million at the Mecum collector car auction in Kissimmee, Florida, outpacing the vehicles presale estimate of up to $1.25 million. The two-tone green coupe known as the Hirohata Merc for the 21-year-old Japanese American Navy veteran, Masato Hirohata, who commissioned it in 1952 is a prime example of the custom car scene that blossomed in Southern California at that time. This sale is a record for a 1951 Mercury, and the highest-selling custom car that wasnt a movie or TV show car, John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics at the classic car insurer Hagerty, said Sunday. The continuing relevance of the Hirohata Merc thrills us. A car that was customized almost 70 years ago, within the context of an emerging American art form, is still revered today. Few cars share the Mercs pedigree. It was built by ... More | | 
This newly discovered Henry III Gold Penny adds but one example to an extremely limited corpus of just eight coins.
LONDON.- Rarely can a single find provoke excitement in English numismatics, fewer still be designated of national significance. However, once-in-a-blue-moon exceptions must be made, especially when recounting the discoveries of Coenwulfs Gold Mancus in 2001, and the Edward III Double-Leopard in 2006. Spink has had the highest honour of bringing to auction both of these coins, and prides itself in 'world firsts' what a better way to celebrate than with this latest find! Gregory Edmund, Senior Numismatist and Auctioneer at Spink comments we have the immense privilege of celebrating that long-held trust and reputation by auctioning this latest spectacular find en par with those previous magnificent discoveries in a special evening sale on Sunday, 23 January 2022. This newly discovered Henry III Gold Penny adds but one example to an extremely limited corpus of just eight coins, and the first additio ... More |
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| Phillips announces launch of fiduciary services branch | | A library the internet can't get enough of | | Chinese artist Wang Gongxin's first solo exhibition in London opens at White Cube | 
New bespoke advisory service to offer support for lawyers, trustees and fiduciaries as they help their clients navigate the art market. Image courtesy of Phillips.
NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips announced the launch of Phillips Fiduciary Services. This new international team will engage with lawyers, trustees and fiduciaries managing high value artworks and collections for their clients by putting at their disposal the combined legal, financial, and art market expertise of the Phillips Legal and Trust and Estates departments. Fiduciaries needing to have a detailed understanding of both the law and practice relating to complex financial arrangements, authenticity and title issues, will be able to look to the Phillips Fiduciary Services Team in handling any questions they may have. Martin Wilson, Chief Legal Counsel and Head of Fiduciary Services, said, Even for those well-versed in the art market, this landscape can sometimes feel complicated and unfamiliar. Our team includes some of the most experienced art attorneys and estates and appraisals specialists ... More | | 
An undated photo by Will Kirk/Johns Hopkins University of the home library of Prof. Richard Macksey an image of biblio abundance that regularly makes the rounds in book-loving corners of social media and the internet, drawing comments of awe and delight. Macksey, who passed away in 2019, was a book collector, polyglot and scholar of comparative literature, and the collection, which no longer exists, clocked in at 51,000 titles, according to his son. Will Kirk/Johns Hopkins University via The New York Times.
by Kate Dwyer
NEW YORK, NY.- On the first Tuesday of the year, author and political activist Don Winslow tweeted a photograph of an avid readers dream library. Bathed in the buttery glow of three table lamps, almost every surface of the room is covered with books. There are books on the tables, books stacked on mahogany ladders, and books atop still more books lining the shelves of the room. I hope you see the beauty in this that I do, Winslow wrote in the tweet, which has been acknowledged with 32,800 hearts. If you spend enough time in the literary corners of Twitter, this image may look familiar. It rises again ... More | | 
Wang Gongxin, Shadow of Light, 2020. Wooden chairs, marble, 3D-printed light bulb, LED light and LED controller, 106 x 106 x 223 cm | 41 3/4 x 41 3/4 x 87 13/16 in. © the artist. Photo © White Cube (Theo Christelis).
LONDON.- White Cube presents In-Between, the first solo exhibition in London by Chinese artist Wang Gongxin in which the artist expands on the central thesis of Japanese writer Tanizaki Junichiros 1933 essay In Praise of Shadows. In this influential text, the author argued that light is used differently in the East and West: Western cultures looking for illumination and clarity; East Asian cultures embracing shadow and subtlety. Exploring cultural connections between light and mindsets, Wang also interrogates Japanese post-war architect Kurokawa Kishos concept of grey space, where distinctions between inside and outside, artificial and natural, and individual and collective are blurred. Born in 1960 in Beijing, Wang is a pioneering video and media artist, one of the first in China to use digital special effects who, in 1999, founded Loft, the earliest media ... More |
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| 'Holy Grail' of Disney animation, starring Mickey Mouse, comes to Heritage Auctions | | Israeli artist turns plastic pollution into 'Earth Poetica' | | Ann Newmarch remembered for her ground-breaking work as a feminist artist, 1945 - 2022 | 
Black-and-white Shanghaied nitrate production cel setup casts spotlight on Disneys most iconic character.
DALLAS, TX.- Call it the Holy Grail for Disney Animation collectors. Mickey Mouse is, of course, the most iconic Disney character of all time, and the most popular ever created. For more than seven decades, he has appeared in films and in cartoon shorts, in comic books and on a seemingly endless range of merchandise, from clothing to coffee mugs. An extraordinarily rare Shanghaied Mickey Mouse black and white hand inked nitrate Production Cel Setup on its hand-painted Key Master Background will land in a new collection when it is sold in Heritage Auctions February 4-7 Animation Art Signature® Auction. This is an incredible piece that rarely becomes available to the public, Heritage Auctions Vice President and Animation & Anime Art Director Jim Lentz said. Mickey Mouse is the most iconic cartoon character of all time, and has been for years. Black-and-white Mickey Mouse production cels with their key master backgroun ... More | | 
In Beverly Barkats quest to connect people with nature, she found that environmental waste could be a powerful medium.
by Isabel Kershner
by Isabel Kershner
JERUSALEM.- When Jerusalem artist Beverly Barkat began to create an artwork for the lobby of a building in the new World Trade Center complex overlooking ground zero in lower Manhattan in New York City, she aimed to come up with something architecturally site specific and impactful, large enough to connect with the space but not so enormous as to disconnect from the observer. Barkat had a stark message to convey. Years earlier, she said, she had been struck by an image of children scavenging on a once-beautiful beach awash in plastic waste. It stayed with me, she said. We are suffocating Earth. Barkat, 55, came back to her studio in Jerusalem and began experimenting, stuffing plastic waste in various ... More | | 
Ann Newmarch, Maralinga: poisoned rations, 1988, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 168.0 x 182.8 cm, Gift of the artist through Art Gallery of the South Australia Contemporary Collectors, 2021, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © Ann Newmarch.
The Art Gallery of South Australia honours the life and career of esteemed South Australian artist Ann Newmarch (born 9 June 1945), who passed away peacefully on Thursday 13 January 2022. Newmarch is celebrated for her significant national and international reputation as an innovative printmaker, painter and sculptor and for her service to community cultural development through art. Embracing feminism and feminist issues since the 1970s, Newmarch was a founding member of the Progressive Art Movement and the Womens Art Movement and is recognised for her trailblazing work as a feminist and social activist. Newmarch is particularly renowned for her experimental printmaking practice, which she often employed to raise awareness of political issues, gender inequality, environmental ... More |
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The William K. du Pont Collection: A Holy Grail of Americana
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| More News |
 Russell Tovey named as Art UK's 2022 Patron LONDON.- Russell Tovey - actor, writer and the co-founder and host of acclaimed podcast Talk Art - is today announced as the 2022 Patron of Art UK, the cultural education charity. The actor succeeds the classicist Dame Mary Beard in supporting Art UK in its mission to democratise access to the nations art collection. In addition to providing digital access to the UKs public art via artuk.org, the charity supports learning with an exciting schools resource programme and its online Curations tool, which allows anyone to curate a digital exhibition. Later this year it will launch a major new education programme, The Superpower of Looking. Andrew Ellis, Director of Art UK, says: All of us at Art UK are so thrilled that Russell Tovey will be our Patron in 2022, following in the footsteps of Mary Beard last year. We have watched the success of his Talk Art podcast series over the past three ... More  Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and The Color Network receive $35,000 NEA grantNEWCASTLE, ME.- Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and The Color Network are partnering for a second year to offer an artist residency focused on mentor-mentee relationship building among artists of color who work in clay. This summer, sixteen artists who are part of TCNs mentorship program will gather in person for a two-week residency on Watersheds 54-acre campus in Edgecomb, Maine. The session will be funded in part by a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. TCN supports artists of color by providing resources, visibility, and professional development opportunities. A significant facet of their work focuses on building mentorship networks among experienced and emerging ceramists. With TCNs mentors and mentees scattered across the country, most of their connections take place online. As TCN considered ways to bring mentorship program participants ... More  Dallas Frazier, who wrote hits for country stars, dies at 82NEW YORK, NY.- Dallas Frazier, a songwriter of great emotional range who wrote No. 1 country hits for Charley Pride, Tanya Tucker and the Oak Ridge Boys, died Friday at a rehabilitation facility in Gallatin, Tennessee, near Nashville. He was 82. His death was confirmed by his daughter Melody Morris, who said he had suffered two strokes since August. Although his most enduring success came in country music, Frazier also wrote pop and R&B hits for artists such as country-soul singer Charlie Rich and Louisiana bluesman Slim Harpo. Both released versions of Fraziers Mohair Sam, a swamp-pop homage to a larger-than-life hipster that, in Richs 1965 Top 40 pop version, became one of Elvis Presleys favorite songs. Fraziers big break, though, came five years earlier with Alley Oop, a novelty song that reached No. 1 on the pop chart (No. 3 on the R&B chart) for the ... More  Now is the winter of Broadway's discontentNEW YORK, NY.- The reopening of Broadway last summer, after the longest shutdown in history, provided a jolt of energy to a city ready for a rebound: Bruce Springsteen and block parties, eager audiences and enthusiastic actors. But the omicron variant of the coronavirus that has barreled into the city, sending case counts soaring, is now battering Broadway, leaving the industry facing an unexpected and enormous setback on its road back from the pandemic. In December, so many theater workers tested positive for the coronavirus that, on some nights, half of all shows were canceled in a few troublesome instances after audiences were already in their seats. Now, producers have figured out how to keep shows running, thanks mainly to a small army of replacement workers filling in for infected colleagues. Heroic stories abound: When the two girls who alternate as the young lioness ... More  Steve Jenkins, 69, dies; His children's books brought science to lifeNEW YORK, NY.- Steve Jenkins, an award-winning childrens book author and illustrator whose passion for science, as well as his meticulous and vibrant cut-paper collages, brought the natural world to life, died Dec. 26 in Boulder, Colorado. He was 69. His wife, Robin Page, said the cause was a splenic artery aneurysm. How many ways can you catch a fly? And who eats flies, anyway? Why do turtles clean hippopotamuses, and how? What do you do if you work at the zoo? What do baby animals do the day theyre born? How do animals talk to each other? How do birds make a nest? His books, often written with Page, answered the sort of questions, posed by children (as well as still-curious grown-ups) about animals and the world around them. Insatiably curious himself, Jenkins combined the rigor of scientific inquiry with exquisite illustrations and clear language to explore subjects ... More  A ban on 19 singers in Egypt tests the old guard's powerCAIRO.- The song starts out like standard fare for Egyptian pop music: a secret infatuation between two young neighbors who, unable to marry, sneak flirtatious glances at each other and commit their hearts in a bittersweet dance of longing and waiting. But then the lyrics take a radical turn. If you leave me, blasts the singer, Hassan Shakosh, Ill be lost and gone, drinking alcohol and smoking hash. The song, The Neighbors Daughter, has become a giant hit, garnering more than a half-billion views of its video on YouTube alone and catapulting Shakosh to stardom. But the explicit reference to drugs and booze, culturally prohibited substances in Egypt, has made the song, released in 2019, a lightning rod in a culture war over what is an acceptable face and subject matter for popular music and who gets to decide. The battle, which pits Egypts cultural establishment against a ... More  New book offers a fascinating account of the story of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in MarrakechPARIS.- Phaidon presents Yves Saint Laurent Museum Marrakech, the remarkable story of the landmark museum in Marrakech dedicated to the legendary French fashion designers creative work. The book chronicles the unique collaboration between Saint Laurents partner, Pierre Bergé, and architecture firm Studio KO, taking readers behind the scenes on a creative journey at the intersection of architecture, design, and fashion. Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) the last of the grand couturiers famously found inspiration and refuge in Marrakech, Moroccos pink city, where he and Bergé owned a six-acre compound including a residence, Villa Oasis, and accompanying Majorelle Garden. Marrakech taught me colour, Saint Laurent once said. ... More  Quentin Blake touring exhibition opens at Kirkby GalleryLIVERPOOL.- The first ever exhibition dedicated to Quentin Blakes illustrations for poetry, with works selected by the artist himself, opened at Kirkby Gallery in Knowsley. Sir Quentin Blake has been illustrating poetry throughout his 60-year career, creating illustrations for such varied poets as Roald Dahl and William Shakespeare. Quentin Blake: Illustrating Verse brings together a selection of more than 120 of Blakes illustrations for poetry of all kinds, from comic nonsense poems to poignant ballads. The exhibition celebrates Blakes illustrations for popular nursery rhymes like The Owl and the Pussycat and famous poems like The Jabberwocky, while also shining a light on less well-known works for the likes of Sylvia Plath and T. S. Eliot. The show includes roughs, preliminary sketches and finished artworks for both modern and classical writers, from Edward Lear and Lewis ... More  Antonio SantÃn's ornamental rug paintings on view at Marc StrausNEW YORK, NY.- This exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of Antonio SantÃns first solo show at Marc Straus. Building on his well-known work of traditional ornamental rug paintings, the Madrid based painter Antonio SantÃn continues to expand his artistic vocabulary. His masterful use of art historical painting techniques such as chiaroscuro and trompe loeil are combined with his signature three-dimensional application of minuscule oil paint marks. The entire canvas becomes dense with colors capturing the rich ornamentation of luxurious carpets. But unlike the actual carpet, which has a flat surface, SantÃn now layers the oil. Flower buds open up in 3-dimension, and the knots tying the white fringe on the periphery are raised and shaped as real knots are. Vertical cords of paint appear woven. The application of paint is as detailed as threads are. His unique paint application not only ... More  A grand Miami Beach hotel, and its history, might be torn downMIAMI BEACH, FLA.- The baby-faced Beatles spent nine sun-kissed days here in 1964, basking in the warm winter as thousands of young fans thronged to catch a glimpse of the four Liverpool lads enjoying a bit of freedom on the ocean shore. They stayed at the grand Deauville Beach Resort on Collins Avenue, and it was their live Ed Sullivan Show broadcast to 70 million people from the hotels Napoleon Ballroom after their debut show in New York City that helped cement the Beatles extraordinary popularity in the United States, and the Deauvilles status as a South Florida cultural landmark. In its heyday, the hotel hosted the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., President John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. The Deauville was unmistakable, greeting visitors with a dramatic porte-cochere fashioned of parabolic curves over the driveway entrance, a feature of its postwar ... More  Baryshnikov Arts Center to return to live performance in springNEW YORK, NY.- The Baryshnikov Arts Center will return to in-person performances this spring after two years of online programming. The season features eight dance and music performances, with three presented virtually. The streamed performances are a part of the centers commissioning program, which began in fall 2020 as a way of sustaining the organization and encouraging artists to continue creating during the pandemic. Cora Cahan, the centers president and chief executive, said the delay in the return to live performances was because of the postponement during the pandemic of a long-planned replacement of its buildings heating, ventilation and cooling systems. Were going very slowly and carefully here because were moving back to having audiences on site for the first time in so long, Cahan said. Were thrilled to be planning for live performances ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
The Last Judgment 
Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer 
Imants Tillers 
Le Design Pour Tous
Flashback On a day like today, English fashion designer and photographer Cecil Beaton died January 18, 1980. Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton CBE (14 January 1904 - 18 January 1980) was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Awardâwinning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. In this image: Marylin Monroe. © Sotheby's Cecil Beaton Archive.
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