 | | McNay Art Museum champions Chicana artists in its newest exhibition, Estampas Chicanas | | The Foundling Museum acquires the first major portrait of a key female supporter of the 18th-century Foundling Hospital | | Under-30s twice as likely to visit museums and galleries to 'de-stress', Art Fund research shows | 
Melanie Cervantes, Canciones de la Tierra, 2010. Screenprint. Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of Harriett and Ricardo Romo. © Melanie Cervantes.
SAN ANTONIO, TX.- A series of striking prints now line the walls of the Butt Paperworks Gallery at the McNay Art Museum, this time focusing solely on Chicana artists, many of whom have had to fight to make their voices heard. The exhibition, Estampas Chicanas, aims to increase the visibility of Chicana artists who have been historically overlooked, especially in important social developments like the Chicano labor movement. The artworks in this exhibition are generous gifts of Harriett and Ricardo Romo, and include works by Judy Baca, Patssi Valdez, Barbara Carrasco, Ester Hernandez, Alma Lopez, and others. Estampas Chicanas is the latest exhibition in a series drawn from donations made to the Museum by the Romos. Since 2008, the philanthropic family has donated more than 450 objects to the collection. Many of the works in this exhibition are recent donations and ... More | | 
Andrea Soldi, Isabella Duchess of Manchester, 1738. Photo: Whitfield Fine Art.
LONDON.- The Foundling Museum has acquired a painting by celebrated 18thcentury artist Andrea Soldi of Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, one of Thomas Corams key female supporters who provided the catalyst for the establishment of the Foundling Hospital. This is a significant acquisition for the Museum, being the only portrait of a female supporter of the Foundling Hospital, prior to its foundation in 1739, to enter the Foundling Museum Collection and one of the first paintings of a woman to hang permanently in the Museums Picture Gallery. The acquisition of the portrait has been made possible with the help of Art Fund, the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Friends of Thomas Coram, and a number of generous individuals donors. The acquisition follows the success of the Museums year-long programme in 2018 that marked the centenary of female suffrage. In particular, its acclaimed exhibition ... More | | 
ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer, Tate Modern, London, 2018, supported by Art Fund © 2018 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo: Janie Airey.
LONDON.- Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for art, has released a new annual art pass to help reduce the cost of visiting museum, galleries and historic sites for under-30s. The Under 30 National Art Pass is available to anyone aged 30 or younger and offers free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic homes across the UK as well as 50% off major exhibitions such as the V&As forthcoming Christian Dior exhibition and Tate Liverpools Keith Haring retrospective. It is a specially discounted £45 version of its popular National Art Pass (from £70). Previously, Art Fund has offered an Under 26 National Art Pass; however, following research carried out at the end of 2018, the charity recognised a need to broaden its offer to the under-30 age group. Art Funds research, recently published in a report titled ... More |
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| | | 'Truly great' plans unveiled for new London concert hall | | Doyle to auction English & Continental Furniture, Old Masters and Russian Works of Art | | Spink sets a new world record for a philatelic item | 
Exterior View. Concept Design - Centre for Music. Courtesy of Diller Scofidio and Renfro.
LONDON (AFP).- Renowned British conductor Simon Rattle on Monday unveiled ambitious designs for a new £288 million ($370 million, 326 million euros) concert hall in the heart of London. The London Symphony Orchestra music director said it was "wonderful" to finally present the plans for a new hall. "The idea that there can be a new cultural centre in London... is very exciting," he said. "A sign of London as a dynamic cultural city, at a time when we are going to need this more and more." The plans will see the current site of the Museum of London, which is relocating nearby, transformed into an ultra-modern concert space encased in glass, reflecting the orchestra's mantra of "transparency and access". The 2,000 seat, in-the-round hall will echo a geological formation, with the lines of steps and seating mimicking rock strata. Huge transparent pods at the top will allow visiting children to watch rehearsals, at the request of Rattle. Elizabeth Diller, founding partner of the Diller Scof ... More | | 
Michele Giovanni Marieschi (Italian, 1710-1743), Venetian Capricci: One of a Pair, oil on canvas, 14 1/2 x 21 7/8 inches. Est. $30,000-40,000.
NEW YORK, NY.- On Wednesday, January 30 at 10am, Doyle will hold an auction of English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts, Old Master Paintings and Russian Works of Art from prominent estates and collections across the country. Spanning the Italian Renaissance through the 19th century, the sale presents a broad selection of elegant furniture, decorations, Georgian silver, porcelain, sculpture, mirrors, clocks, chandeliers, sconces, tapestries and rugs. The selection of Old Master paintings and drawings offers a wide range of landscapes, still lifes, portraits and religious subjects. Showcased among the Russian Works of Art are Fabergé, icons, silver, bronzes and imperial memorabilia. Michele Marieschi (Italian, 1710-1743), like his fellow view-painters Antonio Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini, began his career as a designer of theatrical sets. That training is clearly visible in his early easel paintings, of which two architectural fantasie ... More | | 
The total for this outstanding collection was HK$31,184,880.
HONG KONG.- The auction of Lam Man Yins wonderful collection of the stamps formed by Mr Lam over many years of collecting the Small Dragons, Dowagers and their Surcharges saw an outstanding new world record set for an item from these early issues of China. The 9 candareen stamp with the variety 10c. Surcharge inverted sold for a hammer price HK$6,100,000, a world record for a Dowager stamp. When the new Post Office was established in 1897 the currency was changed from candareens to dollars and cents, so new stamps were required. Delays at the printers meant that the unused candareen stamps were surcharged with values in the new currency. The original sheets of the 9 candareen were formed of twenty five stamps but each sheet was made with one corner stamp printed upside down. Before these sheet were given their new surcharge, the left column of stamps, with the offending invert, were removed. All available stamps were utilised, including any returned from country post offices. Unfortunately ... More |
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| | | Messengers: A large new work by Bridget Riley unveiled at the National Gallery | | Joan Mitchell Foundation announces 2019 awardess for Artist-in-Residence program | | David Zwirner opens an exhibition of new work by Canadian-born artist Marcel Dzama | 
Studio assistants working on Messengers by Bridget Riley, Annenberg Court, The National Gallery. © 2019 Bridget Riley. All rights reserved/Photo: The National Gallery, London.
LONDON.- Messengers, a new large-scale work by Bridget Riley, has been unveiled at the National Gallery. The wall painting by the British abstract artist spans 10 x 20 metres. A combination of coloured discs, Messengers has been painted directly onto the surface of the Gallerys Annenberg Court. The title of the work is inspired by a phrase of the landscape painter, John Constable, referring to clouds in the sky, but might also be seen as an allusion to the numerous angels, harbingers of news, that populate the skies of so many National Gallery pictures. A groundbreaking influence on the development and appreciation of contemporary art, Riley (1931-) is one of the most important artists of her generation and has long associations with the National Gallery. As a teenager she copied Jan van Eycks Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) (1433) as part of her portfolio when applying ... More | | 
Los Valles (detail), oil on panel painting by awardee Ana Fernandez. The Linda Pace Foundation Collection, Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced today the 32 artists to whom it has awarded residencies at its Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans for the coming year. All of the artists will be provided with private studio space at the Center, which sits on a two-acre campus in the historic Faubourg Treme neighborhood, along with a stipend, communal dinners, and opportunities to participate in programs that actively engage both the professional arts community and the public. Additionally, those artists traveling to the Center from outside New Orleans are provided with on-site lodging and financial support to transport necessary materials and works. The Artist-in-Residence program was developed as an extension of the Foundations support of the local arts community in New Orleans following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and has become a vital realization of artist ... More | | 
Marcel Dzama, And who breaks a butterfly on a wheel or A rapture, a butterfly, a dancer and a bowie knife, 2018, © Marcel Dzama, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.
HONG KONG.- David Zwirner presents Crossing the Line, an exhibition of new work by Canadian-born artist Marcel Dzama at the gallerys Hong Kong location. Including drawings, dioramas, and a film, this exhibition marks the artists first solo presentation in Greater China and his ninth with David Zwirner. Since rising to prominence in the late 1990s, Dzama has developed an immediately recognizable visual language that investigates human action and motivation, as well as the blurred relationship between the real and the subconscious. Drawing equally from folk vernacular as from art-historical and contemporary influences, Dzamas work visualizes a universe of childhood fantasies and otherworldly fairy tales. Spanning the two floors of the gallery, the works on view explore imagery inspired by the artists recent trip to Hong Kong, while also reinvigorating ... More |
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| | | First solo exhibition in Europe by the Korean artist Hyon Gyon opens at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art | | Hardeep Pandhal opens exhibition across two sites in Nottingham | | Above the concrete canopy: Hong Kong from the sky | 
Hyon Gyon, I Lived Well, 2016. Mixed media, 86.4 x 86.4 x 114.3 cm (34 x 34 x 45 in) Courtesy the artist. Photo: Marek Gardulski.
LONDON.- Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art presents for the first time in Europe a solo exhibition by the Korean artist Hyon Gyon. Known for her intricate and highly expressive works, often like mid-burst manifestations of explosive raw energy, Hyon Gyon combines traditional Korean textiles, Japanese paper and paint together with various less conventional materials to create her paintings and sculptural installations. She explores themes of sociocultural identity, grief, anger and sexual politics. Her assemblages are powerful fusions of vivid colour and emotion that appear to collide yet somehow live in unity within each work. Inspired by Korean shamanism, and her own feelings, Hyon Gyons experience of its rituals allows her to tap into the depths of her own subconscious, to purge her feelings of sorrow and rage ... More | | 
Too POC by Mum and Me by Hardeep Pandhal, 2017.
NOTTINGHAM.- Paranoid Picnic: The Phantom BAME is a new solo exhibition by artist Hardeep Pandhal which confronts post-colonial traumas with testing humour. The exhibition takes place across two sites in Nottingham: New Art Exchange and Primary. This dual setting creates what the artist describes as parodic parallel worlds into which he projects his frustration of societal structures. Pandhal typically works with non-linear forms of digital video which layer lurid hand drawn cartoons, psychedelic and disorienting narratives with his own deadpan rap music. For Paranoid Picnic, Pandhal has created a new video installation to be presented at Primary. The piece, exploring themes of heritage, acts of remembering and nostalgia, samples scenes from the BBC mini-series Cranford (2007), a Neo-Victorian adaption of Elizabeth Gaskells classic fiction. By representing the past, albeit in often far-fetched or whimsical ... More | | 
This aerial photo taken on October 29, 2018 shows commercial and residential buildings in Hong Kong at night. Dale DE LA REY / AFP.
HONG KONG (AFP).- A giant container ship sailing under a suspension bridge; Chinese cemeteries as densely packed as the housing blocks their occupants once lived in; lush rows of paddy fields -- aerial shots offer a whole new perspective on Hong Kong. Internationally it may be best known as a high-octane finance hub filled with skyscrapers, but there is much more to the city -- from bustling ports and picture perfect beaches to rolling hills and verdant forests. AFP photographer Dale de la Rey spent three months training his drone camera lens down on Hong Kong, in a bid to capture the rarely seen sides to the city. "I wanted to do a package showing the density, uniformity and contrast of the city to give a sense of living in Hong Kong," he explained. Hong Kong, which is made up of more than 260 islands, plus the Kowloon peninsula ... More |
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Hidden Treasures: Monet's Saule pleureur et bassin aux nymphéas
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 Ghana art popularity stokes calls for national galleryACCRA (AFP).- Veteran artist Ablade Glover measures spaces on a canvas with a palette knife, then dabs on vibrant blue paint while the morning light pours into his Accra studio. The 84-year-old artist, educator and founder of the Artists Alliance Gallery in Ghana's capital has won national and international recognition for his work. He set up the gallery 25 years ago and moved it to its current location, a three-storey building on the beachfront 11 years ago. The premises are open to the public, offering local people and tourists the chance to see contemporary art, mostly from Ghana itself. When Glover started out, there was little support for local artists and most needed to hold down day jobs to make a living. But in recent years there has been a huge swing. More artists are making a living from their work as a result of galleries like Glover's, festivals, collectors and art professionals. ... More Pump House Gallery opens the first institutional solo exhibition by visual artist Anneke KampmanLONDON.- Wandsworth Councils Pump House Gallery presents the first institutional solo exhibition by London based visual artist Anneke Kampman. Kampman works with text, music and moving-image to examine the ways the culture industry produces personality for purposes of profit. In Labours Own Sounding Ideal, she presents ongoing research that investigates the social and artistic functions of the music-video form and its modes of production. Across the exhibition, works trace the historical development of the music video, from the birth of MTV in 1981 to its present-day YouTube ubiquity. This now pervasive form is used as a framework to consider broader concerns with standardisation, artistic autonomy and political economy. A web archive documents the music videos development ... More Daylight announces second printing: The American Fraternity - An Illustrated Manual by Andrew MoiseyCOLLEGE DRIVE, OHIO.- For seven years, Andrew Moisey had an all-access pass to photograph Greek life inside a prominent US fraternity house where his brother was a member. One day, Moisey stumbled upon a wax-stained, sixty-year-old ritual manual abandoned on the floor. The idea for an "iIlustrated manual" was born. Moisey scanned the manual pages and then digitally inserted his contemporary pictures in them so that they appeared next to the old imagery and texts. The resulting pages are published in The American Fraternity, the first photo book to expose the dark, two-century-world of fraternities. The first edition of The American Fraternity, which has received critical acclaim worldwide, sold out just two weeks after its release on November 6, 2018. The second printing will hit stores later this month. ... More Galeria Nara Roesler presents Antonio Dias' seminal work Ta Tze Bao (1972)NEW YORK, NY.- Galeria Nara Roesler | New York is presenting for the first time in the United States, Antonio Dias seminal work, Ta Tze Bao (1972). From a series addressing Watergate, the fourteen-part installation takes its title from the big character posters which covered public spaces in China with slogans, denunciations, and satire during the concurrent Cultural Revolution. In Ta Tze Bao , the artist appropriates the form as a lens to examine media and politics in the West. The work was shown in September at Galeria Nara Roesler | São Paulo for the first time in 33 years, as part of what became a memorial exhibition just weeks after Dias untimely death in August. This is the artists fifth solo presentation with the Gallery, and first at its New York location. Antonio Dias was one of the leading figures in 20th century Brazilian art, achieving international recognition ... More Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art presents a video installation by Søren Thilo FunderCOPENHAGEN.- A series of intense political events at a wildlife reserve in Oregon USA are the focus of Søren Thilo Funders deeply serious and equally deeply strange video work The Watchers of Malheur (TWEET TWEET). The work combines reportage with speculative fiction, political events with extended periods of waiting, wild nature with a digital sensory apparatus, and filmic construction with virtual transience. Photo-realistic camouflage, a motion capture studio with a horse and a Berlingo car, vast expanses of the American landscape, fetishized optic tech, and a pitiable animated Twitter bird are just a few of the many layers that comprise the transrealistic story of armed combat between ornithologists and militia members on the borders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The narrative unfolds around an incident that took place on January ... More Off the beaten path, Haiti's jazz festival comes of agePORT-AU-PRINCE.- At a time when most of the world's jazz capitals are buried under snow or suffering through sub-zero temperatures, Haiti is offering fans a week of outdoor concerts showcasing the best talents in the business in a balmy Caribbean clime. Now in its thirteenth year, PaPJazz, as the Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince styles itself, is aiming high. "Our ambition is to be the Caribbean jazz festival, the benchmark in terms of both organization and programming," explains Milena Sandler, director of the Haiti Jazz Foundation, which organizes the festival. Proving that 13 isn't always an unlucky number, the festival this year has secured for the first time the talents of Cecile McLorin Salvant, currently one of the biggest singers in the world of jazz. They had been trying to lure the 29-year-old American to the Haitian capital for ... More Exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien showcases Elia Nurvista's reflections on migrants and refugeesBERLIN.- Elia Nurvista uses different media to focus on issues and discourses around food and eating. Her interdisciplinary and community-based approach is based on the idea that food and eating are intrinsically linked to more abstract levels of politics, society and culture. She founded an interdisciplinary study group called Bakudapan which investigates the meaning of food in socio-political, economic and cultural contexts on a local and global scale. Elia Nurvistas Früchtlinge exhibition project at Künstlerhaus Bethanien showcases her reflections on migrants and refugees. She visited a range of initiatives for refugees in Berlin to learn about how they see our society, which is foreign from their perspective. The works resulting from this experience address our frequently ambiguous attitude to what is foreign to us: whereas exotic luxury items ... More The Gallery at the Institute of Physics: A new commission and a new gallery space for London LONDON.- Time Tries All Things by Irish artist and filmmaker Grace Weir is the inaugural show in the Gallery at the Institute of Physics, a new £30M building in the heart of Londons Kings Cross. Weirs immersive two screen video installation is a poetic and lyrical meditation on different conceptions of time; scientific, philosophical and cinematic. It has been developed from her collaboration with two renowned theoretical physicists, Professor David Berman of Queen Mary University of London and Professor Fay Dowker of Imperial College London. Time Tries All Things runs from 21 January until 29 March 2019 and admission is free. Time Tries All Things invites viewers to reflect on their own lived experience of time and how it can be illuminated by scientific knowledge and theory. The profound and complex question of how we understand time ... More Marcel Azzola, accordionist who played with Brel, dies at 91PARIS (AFP).- French accordionist Marcel Azzola, who played with greats including Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf, has died at the age of 91, his partner said. Azzola, who was born to Italian immigrants in Paris and displayed his musical ability at a young age, was credited with using his rare technical mastery of one of France's most emblematic instruments to adapt it to the world of jazz. Besides playing with Brel, he was known for his contribution to the soundtracks of dozens of films, including Jacques Tati's "Mon Oncle". His partner, Lina Bossati, who also accompanied him on piano, said Azzola had died on Monday morning at his home west of Paris. "His heart gave out," she told AFP. "He was a great musician and no less great a man," I am devastated," jazz guitarist Christian Escoudie, who often played with Azzola, wrote on Facebook. ... More Russian row over 'Siege of Leningrad' black comedy SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP).- A "blasphemous" re-telling of one of the darkest moments in Soviet history or a much-needed comment on modern Russia? A new comedy set during the Siege of Leningrad has divided the country's viewers. "Prazdnik" or "Holiday" tells of the Voskresensky family, whose Communist Party connections allow them to live a life of luxury in a city encircled by Nazis. During a siege in which some 800,000 people starved to death on official rations of 125 grammes of bread a day, they pile their table high with chicken and champagne to celebrate New Year 1942. A slick comedy of manners ensues when the two Voskresensky children bring home unexpected guests, and the family are forced to explain how their table is laid with a festive spread. Award-winning director Alexei Krasovsky told AFP the film was made to draw attention ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, French painter Nicolas Lancret was born January 22, 1690. Nicolas Lancret (22 January 1690 - 14 September 1743), French painter, was born in Paris, and became a brilliant depicter of light comedy which reflected the tastes and manners of French society under the regent Orleans.
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