| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net | | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, March 23, 2021 |
| | | THE QASHQAI WEAVERS, SPIRITED NOMADS (PART 2) | |
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An exemplary, High Collectible 19th century Qashqai antique Persian rug available at Claremont Rug Company.
By Jan David Winitz, President & founder
Claremont Rug Company
OAKLAND, CA.- In Part 1, I told of National Geographic photographers, Jean and Franc Shor who while visiting with the Qashqai in the early 1950s, witnessed a situation that captured the tribes strong sense of community. They spoke of an unfortunate young shepherd who lost his entire flock of over 100 sheep in a freak snowstorm. At a meeting of the 100-family tribal unit to which he belonged, each family brought a ram or ewe to help. The Qashqais told the Shors, This is our way of life. We all share good and bad fortune. No Qashqai household is ever left destitute. This supportive interrelatedness is reflected in the Qashqai rug-weaving process. Sitting closely together at their long horizontal looms, a half dozen women often worked simultaneously. As their fingers tied an endless array of tiny knots, they talked, laughed, and sang together. A woman would work on her own rug for a while, move over to the loom of her neighbor, and then to that of yet another friend, before returning ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Venus Over Manhattan is presenting the first United States solo exhibition of Shinichi Sawada's ceramic sculptures.
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| Uprooting colonialism from the fossil-finding field | | How the world's oldest wooden sculpture is reshaping prehistory | | Major retrospective of Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp's work opens at Kunstmuseum Basel |
A cretaceous bivalves at the Selja Gorge site in southern Tunisia. Younger paleontologists are working to overcome some historical legacies of their discipline and change how people learn about natural history. Mariem Hbaieb via The New York Times.
by Asher Elbein
(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 2019, Mohamad Bazzi, a doctoral student at Uppsala University in Sweden, launched an expedition to Tunisia in search of fossils. He and his colleagues traveled to the phosphate mines around the city of Gafsa, where 56-million-year-old rocks record a time of rapidly warming oceans and mass extinctions, particularly of apex predators like sharks. Bazzi made some distinctive choices for this paleontological expedition. For starters, his team hired Tunisians to help dig, rather than bringing students from his university. Bazzi and his colleagues also chose to reach out to the residents of Gafsa wherever possible, holding impromptu lectures on the areas fossil history to interested ... More | |
Four views of the head of the Shigir Idol, a nine-foot-tall totem pole made of larch and discovered in a Russian peat bog in 1890. At 12,500 years old, the Shigir Idol is by far the earliest known work of ritual art. Only decay has kept others from being found. Sverdlovsk Regional Museum via The New York Times.
by Franz Lidz
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The worlds oldest known wooden sculpture a 9-foot-tall totem pole thousands of years old looms over a hushed chamber of an obscure Russian museum in the Ural Mountains, not far from the Siberian border. As mysterious as the huge stone figures of Easter Island, the Shigir Idol, as it is called, is a landscape of uneasy spirits that baffles the modern onlooker. Dug out of a peat bog by gold miners in 1890, the relic, or whats left of it, is carved from a great slab of freshly cut larch. Scattered among the geometric patterns (zigzags, chevrons, herringbones) are eight human faces, each with slashes for eyes that peer ... More | |
Installation view. Photo: Julian Salinas.
BASEL.- The Kunstmuseum Basel dedicates a major retrospective to the Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp (18891943), whose face will be familiar to many of her present-day compatriots thanks to her decades-long presence on the 50 Swiss Franc note. Showcasing over 250 works, the exhibition Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Living Abstraction, which is produced in cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate Modern, London, introduces broad international audiences to the interdisciplinary and exceptionally multifaceted oeuvre of this long-neglected pioneer of abstraction and establish her as one of the great avant-gardists of classic modernism. At the time of Taeuber-Arps death in a tragic accident in 1943, her oeuvre spanned an extraordinarily wide range of techniques and materials: textiles, beadwork, a puppet theater, dance performances, costumes, murals, furniture, architecture, graphic designs, paintings, sculptures, r ... More |
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| Clyfford Still Archives team digitally releases to public Clyfford Still's diary notes from 1944-1951 | | Historic documents saved from bonfire for just £25 come to auction with a £4,000 price tag at Ewbank's | | Signed or estate-stamped, museum-quality prints by Magnum Photos photographers for $100, available for one week |
Diary note, August 12, 1951. Manuscript by Clyfford Still. Courtesy the Clyfford Still Archives.
DENVER, CO.- The Clyfford Still Museum digitally released the first segment of Clyfford Stills diary notes to the public through the Museums online research catalog, Luna earlier this month. The processing of the diary notes included the surveying, arranging, describing, preserving, scanning, digital processing, creation of metadata, and uploading of the notes of all 484 diary notes by Rachel Hancock, CSM associate archivist and Milo Carpenter, CSM associate digital archivist. The first segment of materials consists of 105 pieces of writing and correspondence by Still from 1944-1951 and focuses on his time painting while living in San Francisco and his changing opinions about the New York art scene in the 1950s. The notes also touch on Stills relationships with other abstract expressionist painters, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell. Additionally, the notes contain details about Stills relations ... More | |
Part of the plan showing the swimming pool and other intricate detail. Image courtesy of Ewbanks Auctions.
LONDON.- A car boot sale find 25 years ago has turned out to be detailed original plans for one of the most important luxury cruise liners from the golden age of steam. Costing just £25 in 1996, they are now expected to fetch up to £4,000 when they come up for auction at Ewbanks in Surrey on March 26. More important, says the owner, is that he bought them after learning that the car boot vendor intended to put them on a bonfire when he got home if they didnt sell. The full set of plans for the RMS Queen Mary one of the three grandest liners of the period comprise 14 individual sheets, each measuring 11ft long by 2ft wide, packed with intricate details of the ship prior to it being stripped for conversion to a troop ship in WWII, capable of carrying nearly 17,000 men including the crew. The conversion is said to have involved removing six miles of carpet, 220 cases of china, crystal and silver services, tapestries, and paintings for storage for the duration of the war. ... More | |
Eve Arnold/Magnum Photos, Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses by James Joyce. Long Island, New York, USA. 1955.
NEW YORK, NY.- Celebrating the unpredictability of life, the curation of the Magnums Square Print Sale explores the happy accidents and unusual turns of events that lead to memorable images. From its earliest days, photography has been associated with the unexpected: documentation of under-explored issues, reporting of events unfurling in far-flung locations, or single frames capturing split seconds of levity. Over more than seven decades, Magnum photographers have reported on and witnessed events around the world which changed societies, nations, and peoples in unpredictable ways. Stuart Franklins image of an unarmed man stepping in front of a tank during the 1989 government crackdown on student protesters in Beijings Tiananmen Square was an unexpected act of defiance. Paul Fuscos series of images taken from the moving train that bore RFKs body across the United States ... More |
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| The Museum of Cycladic Art presents works from the Thanassis and Marina Martinos Collection | | David Bowie's suit takes the spotlight at auction | | Alexandra Deutsch named Director of Collections at Winterthur |
Installation view.
ATHENS.- On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution of 1821, the Museum of Cycladic Art presents the exhibition Antiquarianism and Philhellenism: The Thanassis and Marina Martinos Collection in the Stathatos Mansion. Rare and original in its concept, the exhibition includes important nineteenth-century European and Greek Neoclassical works, in dialogue with ancient masterpieces, and is curated by art historian Dr Fani-Maria Tsigakou and Professor Nikolaos Chr. Stampolidis. Organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, co-organised with and sponsored by the AEGEAS Non-Profit Civil Company for Culture and Social Welfare, the exhibition will open to the public as soon as museums open their doors to the public. In the meantime, a free virtual guided tour of the exhibition is available on the new microsite, https://1821.cycladic.gr. The overwhelming majority of pieces ... More | |
An Issey Miyake two piece suit.
HELE.- A suit once owned by celebrated singer David Bowie is one of the more star-studded items on offer in a sale of Fine Art, Antiques and Collectables at Auction Antiques on 25th March 2021. The suit is being sold by Jayce Lewis, a musician and lifelong friend of Steve Strange, of 1980's Visage' fame, from whom he inherited it, along with other items from the Steve Strange estate. How did it come to be among items in the Steve Strange estate? A curious backstory reveals how and the suit bears witness to it! Steve Strange acquired the suit in 1982 at the Blitz club in London, a fashionable club that he owned and ran in the 1980s. Jayce Lewis fills us in: Steve (Strange) told me that he found out that Bowie was going to attend his club one particular night, so they put the regular procedure in place of getting him into the club via a discreet entrance. From there Steve would take Bowie and his entourage into his office ... More | |
Deutsch had served as director of museum engagement at Winterthur since 2019.
WINTERTHUR, DE.- Alexandra Deutsch has been appointed the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, marking a new chapter and step forward inspired by a strategic direction for Winterthur that places American art, design, gardens, landscapes, and material culture at the forefront through compelling new stories and experiences. Deutsch had served as director of museum engagement at Winterthur since 2019. The new appointment consolidates Winterthurs collections, their conservation, and exhibitions under her leadership. Alexandra brings more than 20 years of solid museum experience to this position. She has distinguished herself throughout her career as an innovative curator as well as a scholar who has brought new perspectives and dynamic interpretation to the collections she has overseen, ... More |
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| Auction features two monumental oil on canvases by V S Gaitonde from the early 1970's | | British Museum reveals exciting rare finds to be acquired by museums across the UK | | Andrea Festa opens the very first solo show in Italy of Danilo Stojanović's work |
The second work to be offered (lot 17) truly showcases Gaitondes control over the medium and his mastery on the canvas to achieve a vivacious creation of earthy overtones with bright patches of orange that seek to break through its surface. The work carries an estimate of INR 13 16 crores (US$ 1,805,556 - 2,222,222).
MUMBAI.- AstaGuru will present its Modern Indian Art online auction on 30 31 March 2021 including some of the finest selection of artworks by leading modernists. The auction catalogue features a carefully curated set of 30 eminent works in the Modern Indian Art space from masterpieces by stalwarts such as V S Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, Manjit Bawa, Jogen Chowdhury, and Jagdish Swaminathan, to never before auctioned creations by K H Ara, M F Husain, Krishen Khanna, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Anjolie Ela Menon, and many more artists. The catalogue offers a unique opportunity for serious collectors to acquire works that are making an appearance in the to the auction ... More | |
Iron Age Tweezers.
LONDON.- The latest Treasure Annual Report, covering finds made in 2018, was released today, announced by Caroline Dinenage MP, Minister of State for Digital and Culture and the British Museum. This report showcases that 1,094 cases were reported Treasure in 2018, consisting of over 20,906 individual artefacts. 347 of these cases were acquired by 108 different museums. An overwhelming majority of these (93%) were acquired by museums local to the findspot, meaning that most finds retain their local context by staying in the area close to where they were found. 22% of these acquiring cases have seen one or more interested party generously waive their reward, making it much easier for local museums to acquire these finds for public benefit without the need for fundraising. More than 96% of Treasure finds in 2018 were found by metal-detectorists. Preliminary Treasure figures ... More | |
Small mouthed devil, 30 x 24 cm.
ROME.- Andrea Festa is presenting the very first solo show in Italy of Danilo Stojanović (b.1989 Croatia) titled Mourning the Red Cactus curated by Domenico de Chirico. Danilo Stojanović's artistic research finds a crucial point in the liminal experience of the double status, permeating existence and above all consciousness in its most hidden aspects. This centrality, however, transversely encounters other characteristics, real despicable disturbances that whisper to the unknown longing, the ancestral desire, the fluctuating ambiguity of metaphysics, so that they all participate in the dialectical dance of the impulse of life and death. Thus, following such a rhythm, a complex relationship is clearly evident in his works, between the fluidity of the painting and reality as seen by consciousness. This can be considered, in the author's experiential process, as a transition phase preceding the formatio ... More |
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Relax into Monk Painter Hongrenâs Meditative Masterpiece
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National Galleries of Scotland announce first Virtual Exhibition Experience, with Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema
EDINBURGH.- The National Galleries of Scotland and The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation announced the launch of the Galleries first ever paid-for digital exhibition package, with a special virtual experience of the critically acclaimed show Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema, available today via this link. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions and closures have affected peoples ability to travel to and enjoy the Galleries exhibition on the late legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013), whose exhilarating movies shaped the face of modern cinema. However, The National Galleries of Scotland announced this new digital package which allows viewers to enjoy from their computer, phone or tablet, anywhere across the world, at any time ... More
Exhibition at Ayyam Gallery features Thaier Helal's most recent body of work
DUBAI.- Ayyam Gallery is presenting Abyss, a solo exhibition featuring Thaier Helals most recent body of work. Taking his creative observation further, Thaier continues to pose radical questions. He addresses many subjects concerning our existence, meaning, and current state of bitterness that drains the mind and soul. While furthering his previous body of work in ideology, Thaiers new work differs in texture, stepping away from his structural and sculptural approach, the artist expresses himself through flatness. While developing a trial and error process, focusing on layers of light and darkness, Helal threads a thin line between figurative and abstract. Thaier succeeds in doing so through non-conformist perspectives, the artists technique plays with composition and vantage point. The artists fascination with nature is pushed backwards. The artists connection manifests itself ... More
Review: At the Guggenheim, they heart New York and indoor dance
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Rocketing up through 2 1/2 octaves, the glissando that starts Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue is a siren cry, an announcement of joy and chutzpah that has also come to mean I love New York City. On Saturday night, when pianist Conrad Tao played it in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum, dancer Caleb Teicher ran in and gave Nathan Bugh, a fellow dancer, a big fat hug. This was funny and sweet perfect, really, as an expression of the moments emotion. For there we were, a live audience, masked and carefully spaced on the rotundas spiral walkway, experiencing live performance indoors. Spring is here! The pandemic is over! Everybody embrace! Thats what it felt like for a moment, at least. The pandemic isnt over, of course. And while this performance of Caleb Teicher & Co. inaugurated the in-person return of the Works & Process ... More
A Paris Opera Ballet etoile on being young, gifted and successful
PARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Hugo Marchand, probably the starriest of the Paris Opera Ballets stars, or etoiles, stares out, bare-chested and muscled, from the cover of his new memoir, Danser (Arthaud), published in France last month. Marchand, 27, seems a little young to have written an autobiography. Although he has made a quick climb to the top by 23 he was an etoile, the companys highest rank he still has a whole career still ahead of him. And from the outside, his life looks like a untroubled series of achievements, validated by critics and audiences, who love his lyricism, virtuosity, acting abilities and leading-man looks. Why, then, a book now? Marchand asked the same question when an editor approached him three years ago. I had a lot of doubts, but the editor told me she wanted to hear the voice of a young person talking about following their passion, and what the ... More
Two single-owner collections of British coins are 100% sold at Dix Noonan Webb
LONDON.- Two important Single-owner collections of British Coins were 100% sold in a sale of Coins on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at International coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists Dix Noonan Webb. The sale saw strong prices throughout, with the highest price being paid for a Proof Gothic Crown from the reign of Queen Victoria, that dated from 1847 and sold for £11,160. Estimated to fetch £3,000-4,000, it was bought by a Japanese collector who was bidding against another Far East competitor [lot 295]. This was being sold as part of the Fleet Collection of British Milled Silver Coins which comprised 324 lots and fetched £165,763. Two other interesting items from the Fleet Collection were two extremely rare halfcrowns, also from the reign of Queen Victoria one dating from 1841, the other 1839 - which fetched £7,440 and £5,704 respectively [lots 330 ... More
Eric Motley joins National Gallery of Art as Deputy Director
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery of Art announced today the appointment of Eric L. Motley as deputy director. In this role, Motley will be responsible for developing and deploying a national strategy for the museum through civic, cultural, and philanthropic partnerships, and advancing the National Gallery's renewed mission in tandem with its operational and revenue-generation plans. Since 2007, Motley has worked for the Aspen Institute, a global, non-partisan public policy organization based in Washington, DC, serving most recently as an executive vice president and the corporate secretary. He begins his National Gallery tenure on August 30, 2021. Elisa B. Glazer, currently the National Gallery's external affairs and audience engagement officer, will become chief development officer, working with Motley to expand the Gallery's donor base. The two appointments ... More
Seven works by five contemporary artists donated to the National Gallery
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery of Art has been given seven superb works by five contemporary artists, two of whom are not currently represented in the collection. Donated by Heather Podesta, who has given numerous works over the years, this outstanding gift includes a work by Liza Lou (b. 1969), two works on paper by Amy Cutler (b. 1974), and four chromogenic prints: two by Sharon Core (b. 1965) from the Thiebaud series, one by Thomas Demand (b. 1964), and one by Frank Thiel (b. 1966). Best known for her iconic beaded sculptures and paintings, Liza Lou centers her artistic practice on issues of materiality and social consciousness. In 2005, she set up a studio in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where she works alongside local Zulu women who are skilled in the craft of traditional beadwork. Woven in collaboration with her studio assistants, Blue (2016) is a ... More
Artist LUAP brings good vibrations to Notting Hill as latest high street window is unveiled in Kensington + Chelsea
LONDON.- The latest in the series of vibrant public art installations overtaking Kensington + Chelseas empty retail spaces has been unveiled today. The next of the High Street Windows is presented by London-based artist LUAP, who takes over the All Saints storefront in Notting Hill. Commissioned by Kensington and Chelsea Council and presented by the organisers of Kensington + Chelsea Art Week, the High Street Windows project is a set of visual art interventions taking place in empty storefronts throughout the borough. The aim is to engage passers-by in a celebration of culture and creativity with empty stores transformed into public artworks dealing with important current issues. The commission titled Good Vibrations is from ... More
California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks announces reopening, new exhibitions
THOUSAND OAKS, CA.- Two exhibitions opening April 9 at the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks will give visitors the opportunity to reflect on the concept of beauty in contemporary art and view the debut museum exhibition of the emerging visual artist and photographer, Jonathan Michael Castillo. Defining Beauty, CMATOs third annual international juried exhibition, features painting, mixed-media and video works by Zara Monet Feeney, Francene Levinson and Sungjae Lee. The artists were selected from nearly 1,000 submissions in all visual media as part of the museums open call. Jonathan Michael Castillo: Car Culture, is the first solo museum exhibition of the artists work and features his arresting, candid photographs that capture Los Angeless driving culture. The exhibitions present a variety of experiences for the museums visitors following an extended closure due to ... More
In the Latin Quarter, Paris' intellectual heartbeat grows fainter
PARIS (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- With their bright yellow awnings and sagging iron shelves, the Gibert Jeune bookstores, which sell cheap secondhand books, have been a fixture of the Latin Quarter in Paris for over a century, a mainstay of the neighborhoods shabby-chic intellectual life and beloved by tourists, too. So old and unchangeable, said Anny Louchart, 74, a longtime customer who was recently rummaging through boxes of paperbacks at one of the stores, her voice filled with nostalgia. But a sales assistant told Louchart that four of the stores seven outposts in the area, including the one she stood in, would soon close, hard hit by a drop in sales because of the pandemic. It closes down, she said, and with it a part of the neighborhood collapses. The fate of the Gibert Jeune bookstores, some of which date to the late 19th century, is just the latest in a series of emblematic closings ... More
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PhotoGalleries
Mental Escapology, St. Moritz
TIM VAN LAERE GALLERY
Madelynn Green
Patrick Angus
Flashback On a day like today, Italian painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was baptized March 23, 1609. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized 23 March 1609 - 5 May 1664) was an Italian Baroque painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his etchings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le Benédette. In this image: Presumed Self-Portrait, ca. 1648, etching, British Museum.
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