| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, May 4, 2021 |
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| | Amid signs of trouble, can MOCA find its footing? | |
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The Museum of Contemporary Art, which is known as MOCA Grand and is to reopen on June 3, in Los Angeles, April 24, 2021. MOCAs current trials have come just as the museum was hoping to emerge from a tumultuous history that has included two short-term directors, a raid on its endowment to pay the bills and a proposed merger with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Alex Welsh/The New York Times.
by Robin Pogrebin
LOS ANGELES (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Klaus Biesenbach, stylish in his signature midnight-blue suit and black ankle boots, recently strutted through the Geffen Contemporary, which is the Museum of Contemporary Arts warehouse exhibition space. Talking about plans to reopen June 3 and about recent building improvements he has made as director, he came across like a guy with his hands on the steering wheel. Yet just days before, MOCA had confirmed two key resignations: a senior curator, who departed citing museum leaders resistance to diversity initiatives, and the director of human resources, who said he left because of a hostile work environment. And just two months earlier, the institution had announced that Biesenbach, hired in 2018 from MoMA PS1 in the New York City borough of Queens, would no longer hold the title of director but would be called artistic director and share power with an executive director for whom a search is underway. To be sure, museums all over the coun ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Fondazione Prada presented today the exhibition "Who the Bær" by Simon Fujiwara, open to the public until 27 September 2021 in Milan. Within his exhibition, Fujiwara introduces the public to a coming-of-age story made of several cheerful and traumatic events. From focus groups to therapy sessions, from plastic surgery to global travels, from sexual fantasies to dystopian dreams, the artist portrays the formative process of a fictitious character as they interpret and appropriate the "real world" of images, distorting everything they see into the absurd logic of their personal universe. Photo: Andrea Rossetti Courtesy: Fondazione Prad.
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| Art by African American artist Bill Traylor donated to VMFA | | Patrick O'Connell, 67, dies; Raised awareness of AIDS with art | | Hindman Auctions to present biannual Modern Design Sale this spring | 
Bill Traylor (American, 1853-1949), Dance, undated. Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, gift of B.K. Fulton and Jackie Stone.
RICHMOND, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts announced today the gift of nine captivating works on paper created with paint, graphite and colored pencils by the iconic African American artist Bill Traylor. This generous donation is from the collection of B.K. Fulton and Jackie Stone. These two groups of artworks are significant additions to VMFAs collection, said Alex Nyerges, VMFAs Director and CEO. We are striving to expand the museums collection of art by African Americans, and Traylors work documents the Black experience in the South. We are appreciative of these invaluable additions. Bill Traylor was born into slavery in Benton, Alabama in 1853 and spent much of his post-emancipation life as a sharecropper on a plantation. He moved to Montgomery, Alabama in 1928 where at the age of 85, he began creating abstract, stylized drawings of people in his community and of recollections ... More | | 
A painting by Gustave Courbet is covered with a cloth as part of the 1996 "Day Without Art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Dec. 3, 1996. Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times.
by Alex Vadukul
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Patrick OConnell, who as the founding director of Visual AIDS, an advocacy group that supports artists living with the disease, helped shatter the stigma surrounding AIDS in the 1990s with awareness campaigns including the ubiquitous red ribbon, died on March 23 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 67. His brother, Barry, confirmed the death, from AIDS-related causes. OConnell lived with AIDS for almost 40 years. In the 1980s, as New York became the epicenter of the AIDS crisis, OConnell was among a group of gay men in the arts community living in anguish and confusion. Seemingly every month, he found himself attending another friends funeral. On his answering machine, he found messages of despair from those who learned ... More | | 
Spring Festival Console Table, detail. Philip and Kelvin LaVerne (American, 1907-1987 | American, b. 1937). LaVerne Collection, USA. Estimate: $8,000-10,000.
CHICAGO, IL.- On May 20, Hindman Auctions will present its biannual Modern Design sale, which will feature iconic designers who played a crucial role in defining 20th century design. The auction will celebrate the work of renowned designers including Finn Juhl, Eileen Gray, Martin Szekely, Mira Nakashima, Warren Platner, and Paul Evans. Scandinavian Design will be showcased with classic and illustrious ceramics and furniture by Wilhelm KÃ¥ge, Berndt Friberg, Gunnar Nylund, Bruno Mathsson, and Arne Jacobsen. Prominent Italian design will include works by Ettore Sottsass, Alfredo Barbini, and Angelo Lelii. The sale will also offer an extraordinary selection of studio ceramics and glass by artists Ruth Duckworth, Clyde Burt, Sonja Blomdahl, Steven Weinberg, and Christopher Ries. The auction will spotlight remarkable French design, including work by multidisciplinary ... More |
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| A 140-year-old hemlock was lost. Now it has new life as art. | | $18 million refit of Colosseum will give visitors a gladiator's view | | Notre Dame breaks ground for new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art | 
The sculptor Jean Shin works on the leather-clad hemlock of her Fallen, 2021, at Olana State Historic Site in Greenport, N.Y., April 19, 2021. Amanda Picotte/The New York Times.
by Meredith Mendelsohn
HUDSON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Earlier this year, an ailing 140-year-old hemlock tree died at the Olana State Historic Site, the idyllic former estate of Frederic Edwin Church, a leading figure of the 19th-century Hudson River School. It was a significant loss, for reasons ecological, aesthetic and sentimental. Having stood sentinel on the lawn right outside Churchs fabled Persian-inspired villa, the hemlock was a living artifact of his artistic ambition, as well as his lesser-known proto-conservationist efforts, and was planted at a time when his attention had turned from painting detailed landscapes to designing them. But as one chapter in the trees distinguished life ended, a vital ... More | | 
A woman visits Rome's landmark Colosseum. Vincenzo PINTO / AFP.
ROME (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It is a view that gladiators would once have experienced as they prepared for mortal combat: staring into the banked crowds of the Colosseum, perhaps under the gaze of the mighty Roman emperor himself. Nearly 2,000 years later, visitors to the Colosseum will again be able to stand in almost the same place and imagine the spectators roar, after the Italian Culture Ministry on Sunday announced the winning project in a competition to build a replacement floor for the landmark in Rome. The chosen design features a lattice of specially treated wooden slats that can be rotated to allow air to circulate and to expose the beehive of subterranean corridors. It was created by a team led by Milan Ingegneria, an engineering consulting company, and is expected to cost about 15 million euros, or $18 million. The surface is expected to be in use by 2023. ... More | | 
Artists rendering of front entrance plaza.
NOTRE DAME, IN.- The University of Notre Dame began construction last week on the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, with a planned completion in fall 2023. Since its founding, Notre Dame has valued the vital role the visual arts play as an expression of human creativity, religious experience and insight into the human condition, University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said. By bringing the collections currently in the Snite Museum of Art to new life in the Raclin Murphy Museum, we will be able to share these treasures in all their richness with our University community, our neighbors in the region and the wider world. With a site in the northwest corner of the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park on the south side of the campus, the Raclin Murphy Museum will be an outward-facing structure, serving both as a gateway to the University and as a welcoming community partner. Carefully situated to work in harmony with ... More |
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| Dorotheum sale offers unique designs and classics | | The Baltimore Museum of Art launches new brand identity | | Almine Rech now represents Alejandro Cardenas | 
Larimeer, an unusual and unique light lotus, designed and manufactured by Peter Kuchler III. 2017 / 2018. Estimate: 45,000 - 60,000. Photo: Peter Kuchler III.
VIENNA.- For about a year now, spending time at home, (Zuhausen, as Jonathan Meese put it) has become a big topic. Many took advantage of the situation to remodel or spruce up their own homes. Dorotheums Design sale on 10 May 2021 is an opportunity to bid for rare sideboards, tables, carpets, sofas or lighting fixtures. All of the approximately 250 lots of this online auction will be presented in an exhibition at Palais Dorotheum. The focus is on Austrian, German and Italian designs from 1900 to the present. Contemporary design primarily offers prototypes, unique pieces, small and very small series. Among the unique pieces is an extraordinary light object by the Austrian glass artist Peter Kuchler III. The estimate for this luminaire with a diameter of 200 centimetres is 45,000 to 60,000 euros. Further impressive lights include a rare Eiffel Tower floor lamp by Jean Royère, c. 1947, a Suora floor lamp by Carlo Mollino, also ... More | | 
New logo to features visitor and collaborator contributions, embracing the museums role within its community. Photo: Bruce Willen.
BALTIMORE, MD.- The Baltimore Museum of Art today unveiled its new brand identity, developed in collaboration with the agency Topos Graphics + Post Typography. The brand componentswhich are being implemented across all of the museums print and digital assetsvisually articulate the BMAs commitment to inclusivity, particularly in the way it signifies how the museums identity comes from its community. To realize this brand vision, the BMA has developed a digital system that allows the public to contribute their own unique marks to the new logo, making it an ever-changing manifestation of its audiences and their engagement with the institution. The last significant change to the BMAs visual identity was in 2005. To launch the branding process, BMA Chief Innovation Officer Melanie Martin and the Marketing and Experience team spent four months in 2019 interviewing colleagues, trustees, docents, volunteers, ... More | | 
Portrait of Alejandro Cardenas, 2021. © Alejandro Cardenas. Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Matthew Kroening.
PARIS.- Almine Rech announced the representation of contemporary artist Alejandro Cardenas in Europe, the United Kingdom, New York, and China. Almine Rech hosted the artist's inaugural solo exhibition in Almine Rech New York in January 2021. His second solo exhibition, featuring new paintings and works on paper will take place at Almine Rech Paris, Matignon from June 30 to July 31, 2021. Cardenas' work is currently featured in a group presentation at Almine Rech New York, Salon de Peinture, on view from April 29 to June 5, 2021. The paintings and sculptures realized by Alejandro Cardenas (b. 1977, Santiago, Chile) provide a vision of a post-human world wherein the relationship between human forms and the environment is one of unity and coexistence. Guided by his own imagination and inspired by a wide variety of influences ranging from Surrealism to Sci-Fi to magical realism, Cardenas immerses himself ... More |
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| Exhibition at Galerie Michael Janssen presents a series of works from Margret Eicher's extensive oeuvre | | MASSIMODECARLO opens its first solo exhibition dedicated to the works of Carla Accardi | | The Armory Show to kick off New York's fall arts season, featuring 194 international exhibitors for its 2021 edition | 
Margret Eicher, The Neo Baroque Furor Show, Installation views, 2021, Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin.
BERLIN.- Galerie Michael Janssen announced the opening of its new space with a solo exhibition by Margret Eicher. This is the first exhibition with Eicher, who is freshly represented by the gallery, which just re-located to a two floor maison in Bleibtreustrasse 1, in the borough of Charlottenburg. The Neo Baroque Furor Show opened its doors during Berlin gallery weekend on Friday April 30th. Six single edition Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are being auctioned under a pseudonym Mae B. on the Open Sea Platform. 5 unique versions are available of Shining Boys, Naked Joker, Then We Take Berlin, Heroes, Masked Girls, and VR Space that exemplify Eichers singular depiction of pop-stars and media icons enmeshed and layered with symbols from art history. These works integrate fully with the most up-to-date digital technology, which presents a new avenue for ... More | | 
Carla Accardi, Rosaverdenero, 1968 - 2008. Varnish on sicofoil, 65 Ã 25 cm / 25 1/2 Ã 10 inches. Photo by Alessandro Zambianchi.
MILAN.- MASSIMODECARLO presents Carla Accardi at Home, the gallerys first solo exhibition dedicated to the works of the Sicilian artist. The non-linear installation of the exhibition evokes a domestic and private atmosphere that criss-crosses the rooms of Casa Corbellini-Wasserman, the gallerys headquarters, and includes objects, photographs and decorative elements that bring together a complex and multifaceted portrait of Carla Accardi. The project is organized with the collaboration of Francesco Impellizzeri (artist and member of the Scientific Committee of the Accardi Sanfilippo Archive). Carla Accardi at Home not only documents the long career of the artist, a central figure of the Italian and international art scene since the mid-twentieth century but also reflects a personal and emotional narrative about the artist. The exhibition unfolds through pivotal works that punctuate Accardis ... More | | 
The fair will take place at its new home, The Javits Center, from September 9-12, 2021. Image courtesy of Javits Center.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Armory Show announced the exhibitor list for its 2021 edition, featuring 194 leading international galleries from 38 countries. The fair will take place from September 9-12, 2021 at the state-of-the-art Javits Center The Armory Shows new, permanent venue, as announced in March 2020 during last years edition. The fair will offer an enhanced in-person experience for exhibitors, collectors, and New Yorks cultural community. For the first time, all exhibitors at The Armory Show will be integrated under one roof. Renowned architects Frederick Fisher and Partners have designed an open floor plan spanning three halls with unobstructed sightlines and spacious lounges. The layout was developed with social distancing and safety for all attendees in mind. In addition to the physical fair, collectors and art enthusiasts will also be able to browse and buy artworks online through a sophisticated, user-friendly ... More |
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The Power and Presence of Diego Rivera's Portrait of Columba DomÃnguez
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 Historic England publishes new book of English seaside photographsLONDON.- A new Historic England book, published today, illustrates Englands rich seaside heritage as few holidaymakers ever see it from the air. Englands Seaside Heritage from the Air, written by Historic Englands tourism history expert Allan Brodie, features over 150 aerial photographs of Englands best-loved seaside resorts. The images were taken between the 1920s and the 1950s, when Englands coastal destinations were nearing the peak of their popularity. The images form part of the Aerofilms Collection, held by the Historic England Archive. The book tells the story of how Englands seaside resorts developed both as places of leisure and as working towns. Initially places where a few wealthy people bathed in the sea to improve their health, increasingly they became a magnet for the whole population. The new book particularly ... More  Christie's to offer The Roger Federer Collection LONDON.- Christie's announced two unique collection sales, The Roger Federer Collection - Sold to Benefit The RF Foundation - The Live Auction taking place on 23 June at Christies London, and The Roger Federer Collection - Sold to Benefit The RF Foundation The Online Auction open for bidding from 23 June to the 13 and 14* July. Both sales comprise Roger Federers personal sporting memorabilia collected over the duration of his professional tennis career to date. The lots offered recognise and celebrate the career and sporting success of Roger Federer, and the auctions are taking place to raise funds specifically for The Roger Federer Foundation. Roger Federer comments, Every piece in these auctions represents a moment in my tennis career and enables me to share a part of my personal archive with my fans around the world. ... More  Gerry Moore Collection to sell during auctions in May at Summers Place Auctions and BellmansBILLINGSHURST .- Dr Gerald Moore was a polymath, who ran a medical empire, a Safari Park and Motor Museum, while also painting, sculpting and writing novels, children's books and poetry. Born in 1926, he spent his life in London, Kent, Sussex and retired to Devon where he died in 2018 at the age of 91. His collection of his own art and sculptures will now be sold at Summers Place Auctions on 18th May 2021 and the remainder of his art collection will have its own timed auction at Bellmans, starting in early May until the 23rd May, with furniture from his estate included in Bellmans' regular furniture auction on 26th May 2021. The sales include over 180 works by Gerry Moore and approximately 80 further lots. Gerry moved to Devon and upon the death of his first wife Irene sold the contents of Heathfield Park and its Motor Museum at Sotheby's ... More  Watercolours capturing Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's love of Scotland go on display in EdinburghEDINBURGH.- An exhibition of 80 watercolours collected by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, an evocative visual record of their public and private lives together, opened on Monday 26 April at The Queens Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse. Victoria & Albert: Our Lives in Watercolour features numerous works by Scottish artists, many of which are on display in Scotland for the first time. Throughout their marriage Victoria and Albert were passionate patrons of watercolour painting and spent happy evenings together organising their thousands of watercolours into albums, as the Queen recalled fondly in journal. These albums recorded moments of both personal and historic significance, foreign travel and diplomacy, scenes from family life, and the homes they created together. The Queen and her consort travelled frequently around the British ... More  Enigma machine among featured highlights of Fine Autographs and Artifacts up for auctionBOSTON, MASS.- RR Auction's May Fine Autographs and Artifacts Auction, boasting nearly 900 items across numerous genres, is highlighted by a rare, functional Enigma machine. The Enigma I electromechanical cipher machine was made for the German military in Berlin in 1935, during the buildup of German forces in violation of the Treaty of Versailles prior to World War II. First patented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius, the Enigma machine was developed for use in the transmission of confidential information: in addition to its obvious military and diplomatic applications, the machine found commercial use for the encryption of sensitive financial data. The German military adopted the Enigma as its primary cipher in 1926, after learning that the British had intercepted and interpreted coded German naval messages during World War I. Amidst the subsequent ... More  Fondazione Prada opens "Who the Bær", an exhibition by Simon FujiwaraMILAN.- Fondazione Prada presented today the exhibition Who the Bær by Simon Fujiwara, open to the public until 27 September 2021 in Milan. Who the Bær, focused on a fictional bear in search for identity, investigates the simultaneous quest for fantasy and authenticity in the culture we consume. Within his exhibition, Fujiwara introduces the public to a coming-of-age story made of several cheerful and traumatic events. From focus groups to therapy sessions, from plastic surgery to global travels, from sexual fantasies to dystopian dreams, the artist portrays the formative process of a fictitious character as they interpret and appropriate the real world of images, distorting everything they see into the absurd logic of their personal universe. Who the Bærs adventures are presented at Fondazione Prada in a giant labyrinth made ... More  A soprano soars one more timeNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The last solo number on All the Girls, the new duo album from sopranos Rebecca Luker and Sally Wilfert, is a piece of specialty material for Luker called Not Funny. Its funny. In the song, by Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, Luker twits her image as a spoonful of saccharine but also punctures it. The gist is that lower-voiced belters get all the laugh lines, possibly because its so hard to land a joke up here in the soprano stratosphere. Playing Laurey in Oklahoma!, Luker complains, Ill sing my ass off, but Ado Annie steals the show. Then she disproves it by ripping a thrilling high C. Luker was 58 when she last performed the number live, during a concert with Wilfert at Merkin Hall in Manhattan. That was in September 2019, 15 months before she died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS ... More  Napoleon in Russia: invader turned iconMOSCOW (AFP).- In the early 19th century, the French-speaking Russian nobility admired French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, seen then as an unparalleled political and military strategist. But when his army invaded Russia in 1812, residents of Moscow preferred to torch their capital and leave it in ruins rather than surrender it to the hated Corsican general. Two hundred years after his death in exile on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena, an anniversary marked on Wednesday, Russians' views have since shifted again. "We admire his rise from rags to riches and his death as a martyr," Viktor Bezotnosny, a historian and specialist of the Napoleonic wars told AFP. During the Soviet period, the Bolsheviks glorified Napoleon as a revolutionary akin to Lenin, and while that image of him changed after the Soviet collapse, his popularity in some circles ... More  The FLAG Art Foundation opens a two-decade survey of Dan Fischer's workNEW YORK, NY.- The FLAG Art Foundation presents a two-decade survey of Dan Fischers grid-based, graphite-on-paper drawings on view May 1-August 13, 2021, on its 10th floor. Consisting of seventy works spanning from 1999 to 2021, the exhibition highlights Fischers iterative exploration of the nature of the photographic medium, mechanical reproduction, and the idea of creating an original copya handmade readymade[1] or retro-appropriation.[2] Modern and contemporary art history are Fischers singular subject matter and his oeuvre includes high contrast, black and white portraits of iconic artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Isamu Noguchi, and Kara Walker; studio images of Piet Mondrian, Bridget Riley, and Frida Kahlo; and images of artworks that have become synonymous with their makers: Duchamps Fountain, ... More  Casey Kaplan opens a show with works by Igshaan Adams, Kevin Beasley, Sarah Crowner, and N. DashNEW YORK, NY.- To coincide with Igshaan Adams inaugural exhibition, Casey Kaplan is presenting a special group exhibition in Gallery II, featuring new artworks by Igshaan Adams, Kevin Beasley, Sarah Crowner, and N. Dash. The four artists use disparate methodologies to trace cultural memory, working with a wide variety of media, including textile, cotton, wire, beads, earth, fiber, acrylic, string, enamel, resin, clothing, and oil. Each material component is imbued with the residue of labor and production, along with stories of lived experience. Resisting medium specificity, each artwork functions as sites for these layered histories, encouraging the viewer to connect through their own narratives. Installed in the center of the space is a large-scale installation by Adams composed of wire fencing and studio detritus hovering above a ... More  Poster for Hank Williams' 1953 New Year's concert sells for world record $150,000DALLAS, TX.- A five-dollar purchase 40 years ago became a world-record setter Saturday afternoon. An advertisement for the 1953 Hank Williams show that never happened sold Saturday for $150,000 at Heritage Auctions, setting a world record for the most expensive concert poster ever sold at auction. That stunning record-setter, a bright yellow slice of cardboard featuring the Hillbilly Shakespeare, was found in 1981 in a Canton, Ohio, barn and is one of only three known existing copies. Williams unseats the Beatles as record-holder for worlds most expensive poster. In April 2020, a poster for the Fab Fours Aug. 23, 1966, show at Shea Stadium realized $137,500 at Heritage Auctions. The Williams poster led the Dallas-based auction houses May 1-2 Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature Auction, which realized more than $1.86 million. Nearly ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Sophie Taeuber-Arp & Hans Arp: Cooperations â Collaborations 
Future Retrieval 
Clarice Beckett 
Kim Tschang-Yeul
Flashback On a day like today, American painter Frederic Edwin Church was born May 04, 1826. Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 - April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. In this image: Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), Winter Twilight from Olana, about 1871-2. Oil on paper, 25.6 x 33 cm© New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation / Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY (OL.1976.4).
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