| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, May 31, 2022 |
| | FBI investigates Basquiat paintings shown at Orlando Museum of Art | |
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Set-up in process for the exhibit Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, at the Orlando Museum of Art, Feb. 2, 2022. The FBIs Art Crime Team is investigating the authenticity of 25 paintings that the Orlando Museum of Art says were created by Basquiat and are on exhibit there, according to a federal subpoena and several people with knowledge about the situation. Melanie Metz/The New York Times.
by Brett Sokol
NEW YORK, NY.- The ongoing cultural fascination with the life and work of Jean-Michel Basquiat shows little signs of dimming, whether its in the form of brisk sales for $29.99 Basquiat-themed T-shirts at The Gap, large crowds for Basquiats latest art exhibitions or an actual canvas by the painter auctioned last week for $85 million. To the ranks of those focused intently on all things Basquiat, you can now add the FBI. The FBIs Art Crime Team is investigating the authenticity of 25 paintings that the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida says were created by Basquiat and are on exhibit there, according to a federal subpoena and several people with knowledge about the situation. The paintings in the Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition were said by the museum and their owners to have been recovered from a Los Angeles storage unit in 2012. The works were largely unseen before the shows February opening. An article in The New York Times raised questions about ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opened the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of works by M.C. Escher ever held, from the collection of Michael S. Sachs, who gathered works over 50 years and acquired ninety percent of the Escher estate in 1980.
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| Christopher Wool on what brought a 'sunday painter' back to life | | Christie's to offer Monet's atmospheric London series masterpiece 'Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume' | | National Gallery of Art acquires works by William Christenberry and Hendrick Cornelis Vroom | 
Christopher Wool, an artist, in Brooklyn, April 14, 2022. Erik Tanner/The New York Times.
by Randy Kennedy
NEW YORK, NY.- When the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum organized a retrospective of the paintings and photographs of Christopher Wool in 2013, the artist was to be found some months beforehand not making new work or poring over exhibition models. Instead, he had decamped from New York entirely to live near a small printer in Verona, Italy, spending 12 hours a day on press for two weeks to ensure that the book for the show achieved the precise feel that he wanted. No other artist Ive worked with has done something like that for a museum catalog, said Katherine Brinson, the shows curator. In fact, Ive never heard of another artist doing something like that. The other day at Wools rambling studio, in the East Village of Manhattan, half filled with new paintings and other pieces bound for a major exhibition opening June 2 at Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels, Wool was ... More | | 
Detail of Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume (1904, estimate: in the region of £24 million). © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.
LONDON.- Claude Monets Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume will be a highlight of Christies 20/21 London to Paris sale series, offered in the 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale on 28 June. Depicting the Thames under an effervescent sunlit haze, Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume (1904, estimate: in the region of £24 million) comes from Monets monumental, landmark series entitled Vues du Londres (Views of London), which celebrates Londons unique character, architecture and ever-changing atmosphere. The artist focused on the play of light across the Thames through three principal subjects Charing Cross Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, and Waterloo Bridge. In contrast to the bustling modernity of the Charing Cross paintings and the solemn grandeur of the Houses of Parliament compositions, Monets views of Waterloo Bridge stand as pure meditations on colour, light, and atmosphere, evocatively capturing the sh ... More | | 
William Christenberry, Memory Form II, 19971998. Archival board, wood, encaustic, black paint, overall: 34.29 x 65.41 x 29.85 cm (13 1/2 x 25 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift of Stephen Bennett Phillips in honor of Sandra Deane Christenberry.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery of Art has acquired A Fleet at Sea (c. 1614), a major painting by the Haarlem artist Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom (d. 1640). The first Dutch painter to specialize in seascapes and detailed portraits of specific ships, Vroom paved the way for later 17th-century marine painters with his lively, colorful, and harmonious compositions. A Fleet at Sea was featured in the 2018 exhibition Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. The National Gallery is grateful to Albert Beveridge and his late wife, Madzy, for their generous gift that has brought this important painting into the nations collection. A Fleet at Sea portrays a historic event that took place many years before Vroom painted its likeness. A stiff breeze propels the billowing sails of a Dutch fluyt ... More |
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| Christie's Exceptional Sale presents an Egyptian statue for Mehernefer and his son | | Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Spring Live auctions achieved a combined total of US$31,432,23 | | Christie's to offer The Isabel Goldsmith Collection, Selected Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist Art | 
An Egyptian Limestone Group Statue for Mehernefer and his Son, Old Kingdom, Mid-Late 5th Dynasty, circa 2400-2300 B.C., 25⅜ in. (64.5 cm.) high. Estimate on request. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.
LONDON.- Christies Classic Week Exceptional Sale on 7 July 2022 will present an Egyptian Limestone Group Statue for Mehernefer and his Son, dated to the Old Kingdom, mid-late 5th Dynasty, circa 2400-2300 B.C (estimate on request). The provenance of this remarkable statue dates back to the 18th century, when it was first presented to King George III as a gift from the Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir James Porter, during his appointment which lasted from 1746 to 1761. King George III subsequently donated the statue to Thomas Worsley (1797-1885) at Hovingham Hall, where it has remained ever since. The work has been extensively documented in the Hovingham Hall archives since 1778. The statue will be on view at Christies King Street from 2 to 7 July 2022. Claudio Corsi, Specialist, Head of Sale Antiquities: Christies is honoured to present this extraordinary Egyptian limestone ... More | | 
Top lot of the sales was a Magnificent and Extremely Rare Large Doucai Vase, Qianlong Six-Character Seal Mark in Underglaze Blue and of the Period (1736-1795) which sold for HK$34,050,000/ US$4,357,961. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.
HONG KONG.- This spring, Christies Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art live auctions achieved a total of HK$245,570,700/ US$31,432,235, with 60% of lots sold above their pre-sale high estimates. Top lot of the sales was lot 2863 A MAGNIFICENT AND EXTREMELY RARE LARGE DOUCAI VASE, QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795) (shown above), from the Collection of The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, which sold for HK$34,050,000/ US$4,357,961, with sale proceeds to benefit The Helen Munson Williams Acquisition Fund. Marco Almeida, Head of Department, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, commented,We are pleased today to witness solid prices established across our diverse selection of objects spanning ceramics, Buddhist bronzes and sculptures, furniture, jade carvings, and many more, despite market ... More | | 
Evelyn De Morgans The Field of the Slain. Estimate £30,000-50,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.
LONDON.- Representing over 40 years of collecting, The Isabel Goldsmith Collection: Selected Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist Art will be offered online between 30 June and 14 July, as part of the Summer edition of Classic Week in London. Comprising 87 lots, the collection explores the themes of sleep, dreams, the soul and the afterlife, spiritualism, beauty, literary and classical subjects. The selection of works by the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers include the star lot of the sale, The return of Orpheus by Sidney Harold Meteyard (estimate: £200,000-300,000) and examples by Edward Burne-Jones, John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope, Simeon Solomon, Evelyn De Morgan and Henry Ryland. The Symbolist Art offered includes works by Levy-Dhurmer, Fernand Khnopff and George Frederic Watts; the sale also features a group of Scandinavian landscapes. With estimates ranging from £600 to £300,000, the collection is expected to realise in excess of £1 million. The pre-sale view will be open to the public from 9 to ... More |
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| Perrotin opens a solo exhibition of works by artist Josh Sperling | | 'Virtual Realities: The Art of M.C. Escher from the Michael S. Sachs Collection' opens at the MFAH | | Getty Center puts mural art in focus with two new exhibitions | 
Josh Sperling. Untitled, 2022. Acrylic on canvas. 245 x 240 cm | 97 x 95 in. Photographer: Guillaume Ziccarelli. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
NEW YORK, NY.- Perrotin is presenting Daydream, a solo exhibition by artist Josh Sperling, organized across three floors of the gallerys New York space, and on view April 28th through June 11th. The exhibition, Sperlings largest, marks a return to key motifs in the artists practice, developed over the course of the last decade and re-articulated by Sperling in this new body of work. Additionally, in Daydream, the Ithaca-based painter debuts a new series, continuing his investigation into the material possibilities of color and form. The following essay was authored by writer and critic Max Lakin after visiting Sperlings studio in Ithaca, New York. Taped to a small refrigerator in the back of Josh Sperlings studio in Ithaca, New York is a curling piece of office paper printed with seven bulleted lines of plain type that detail, in the flattest possible terms, how to understand color: Hue is color Chroma i ... More | | 
M.C. Escher, Hand with Reflecting Sphere, January 1935, lithograph. Courtesy of Michael S. Sachs. All M.C. Escher works © The M.C. Escher Company, The Netherlands. All rights reserved.
HOUSTON, TX.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opened the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of works by M.C. Escher ever held, from the collection of Michael S. Sachs, who gathered works over 50 years and acquired ninety percent of the Escher estate in 1980. The exhibition includes more than 400 prints, drawings, watercolors, printed fabrics, constructed objects (such as the Angels and Devils sphere), wood and linoleum blocks, lithographic stones, sketchbooks, and the artists working tools. Organized by the MFAH, the exhibition is on view through September 5, 2022. Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972), popularly referred to as M.C. Escher, is known internationally for his self-described mental images, which connect to mathematics and various branches of science. Considered a one-man art movement, he ... More | | 
Taddeo Decorating the Façade of the Palazzo Mattei, about 1595 (detail), Federico Zuccaro (Italian, about 1541-1609), Pen and brown ink and brush with brown wash over black chalk and touches of red chalk, 25 à 42.2 cm (9 13/16 à 16 5/8 in.), Getty Museum.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum presents two new exhibitions, The Lost Murals of Renaissance Rome and Judy Baca: Hitting the Wall. On view May 31 through September 4, 2022, the complementary exhibitions highlight the long history of mural art across the globe, from Renaissance Rome to downtown Los Angeles. Murals often start on paper, with the artist exploring concepts and ideas in compositional drawings, says Julian Brooks, senior curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. While very few preparatory drawings for Renaissance facade murals survive, we can see clearly the intensive process Judy Baca used to create her iconic 1984 Olympic mural in downtown Los Angeles. In Renaissance Rome, facades of many prominent buildings ... More |
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| For Russian-speaking Ukrainians, language clubs offer way to defy invaders | | The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza exhibits artists' letters from the Anne-Marie Springer Collection | | Robert Adams explores 50 years of the American landscape in retrospective exhibition | 
Anna Kachalova, a native Russian speaker who attends a Ukrainian language class run by the group Yamova, at a bookshop in Lviv, Ukraine, May 21, 2022. Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times.
by Erika Solomon
LVIV.- The teacher sounded her words slowly, careful to show which syllable to stress: eyebrow. Cheekbones. Hair. The students, arranged in a semicircle around her, parroted them back. But they were not there to learn a foreign tongue: Aged 11 to 70, they were Ukrainians, in Ukraine, trying to master the official language of their own country. Since Russias invasion, a number of language clubs have opened in cities in western Ukraine. Teachers and volunteers are reaching out to millions of displaced people who have fled to the relative safety of western cities like Lviv from the Russian-speaking east encouraging them to practice and embrace Ukrainian as the language of their daily lives. An estimated 1 in every 3 Ukrainians speaks Russian at home, according ... More | | 
Egon Schiele, Letter to Edith Schiele, June 1915. Anne-Marie Springer Collection.
MADRID.- The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is presenting the first selection to be seen in Spain of letters and postcards by artists such as Delacroix, Manet, Degas, Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Juan Gris, Frida Kahlo and Lucian Freud from the collection of Anne-Marie Springer. They are shown in dialogue with works by these and other artists from the permanent collection in an original exhibition that brings visitors close to the writers of the letters and their works from an intimate viewpoint. The selection of letters and postcards reflects the original one that provided the basis for this collection, namely love letters. However, these writings also include the expression of other ideas, sometimes illustrated with sketches by their artist-authors, such as anxieties, the defence of their art, celebration of success, details of progress made in the creation of a work, references to historical events ... More | | 
Robert Adams, Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, 1969 (detail). Gelatin silver print. Image: 14 x 14.9 cm (5 1/2 x 5 7/8 in.) Private collection, San Francisco © Robert Adams, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
WASHINGTON, DC.- For 50 years, Robert Adams (b. 1937) has made compelling, provocative, and highly influential photographs that show the wonder and fragility of the American landscape, its inherent beauty, and the inadequacy of our response to it. American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams celebrates the art of this seminal American photographer and explores the reverential way he looks at the world around him and the almost palpable silence of his work. Organized in cooperation with the artist, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog. American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams is on view from May 29 through October 2, 2022, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. Capturing the sense of peace and harmony created through what Adams calls "the silence of light" that can be ... More |
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Sotheby's Talk | Battle of the Queens: Queen Elizabeth I vs Queen Victoria
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 Largest ever climate-positive living artwork blooming for first time at EdenBODELVA.- A 55-metre-long living artwork by acclaimed artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is now flowering at the Eden Project in Cornwall for the first time since being planted last autumn. Exploring the vital role of pollinators, Pollinator Pathmaker comprises 7,000 plants from 64 different species and seeks to challenge what a garden is and who it is for. The captivating artwork is located in the Wild Edge zone of the outdoor gardens and is visible from across the site of the world-famous Biomes. It is now welcoming its first human visitors and, crucially, its first pollinators - including bees, moths, beetles and wasps. This is the first in a series of global public Pollinator Pathmaker gardens. Further editions will be planted soon in other locations, with the Serpentine in London this spring - an Edition Garden Commissioner - and ... More  Exhibition explores art's ability to disrupt established historical and cultural narratives in a post-1989 worldISTANBUL.- The thematic group exhibition Into the Unknown, organized by Salt in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, shines a spotlight on a body of work from the 2000s to the present central to the Museums moving image collection. Following the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, the exhibition tackles what lies beyond the known in a post-1989 world. Spreading across Salt Beyoğlu and Galata, the exhibition features works by Diane Severin Nguyen, Nathalie Djurberg, Agnieszka Polska, Józef Robakowski, Duncan Campbell, Deimantas Narkevičius, Shana Moulton, Jananne Al-Ani, Oleksiy Radinsky, Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska. Borrowing ... More  Art starts here: Edinburgh Art Festival returns for its 18th editionEDINBURGH.- Edinburgh Art Festival announced the programme for its 18th edition - including three major commissions, the Associate Artist programme, Platform: 2022, the festivals annual showcase of early career visual artists, and thirty-five exhibitions across its partner galleries. A city-wide celebration of the very best in visual art, the festival brings together the capitals leading galleries, museums and established spaces. From photography documenting Frida Kahlos wardrobe to carnival-inspired performance art, the programme features international artists alongside exciting new voices from Scotland, the rest of the UK and beyond. The festivals Commissions programme including their Associate Artist programme supports renowned artists to create ambitious new work. Marking ... More  Heddy Honigmann, whose films told of loss and love, dies at 70NEW YORK, NY.- Heddy Honigmann, the Peruvian-born Dutch filmmaker whose humane and gently paced documentaries of Parisian subway buskers, Peruvian taxi drivers, disabled people and their service dogs, Dutch peacekeepers and the widows of men who had been murdered in a tiny village near Sarajevo, were stories of loss, trauma and exile and the sustaining forces of art and love died May 21 at her home in Amsterdam. She was 70. Jannet Honigmann, her sister, confirmed the death. She said Honigmann had been ill with cancer and multiple sclerosis. In the economic chaos of Peru in the 1990s, when the government nearly bankrupted the country and inflation soared, many middle-class people began moonlighting as taxi drivers, slapping a Taxi sticker on their Volkswagen Beetles or battered Nissans to signal ... More  The Getty Research Institute announces two new Associate DirectorsLOS ANGELES, CA.- The Getty Research Institute has appointed Dr. Kara Olidge to Associate Director for Collections and Discovery and Dr. Khristaan Villela to Associate Director for Dissemination and External Affairs. I am so happy to welcome our new Associate Directors to the Getty Research Institute, says Mary Miller, director of the Getty Research Institute. The GRI aspires to support and develop new knowledge based in the visual record and in the rich library collections of the Gettyand Im convinced that this knowledge can transform our understanding of both the modern and pre-modern world. With Kara and Khristaan coming on board, I am confident that we will keep moving forward, embracing the history of the worlds art and visual culture in the broadest sense. In her new role Dr. Olidge will guide Getty Research ... More  Thames & Hudson to publish a new illustrated history of Ukraine's heritage in support of PEN UkraineLONDON.- Thames & Hudson has partnered with renowned art historians, critics and curators to create a compelling account of Ukraines history told through its most important works of art and architectural landmarks, with all proceeds donated to PEN Ukraine to help local authors in need. Following reports of continuing looting and destruction of Ukraines artworks and monuments, Treasures of Ukraine: A Nations Cultural History shines a light on the countrys rich cultural heritage. With a foreword by Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin and President of PEN Ukraine, this generously illustrated volume explores key periods of Ukraines history, from the ancient cultures of Trypillia and Scythia to the early states of Kyivan Rus and the Cossack Hetmanate, through to the Orange Revolution of 2004 and its aftermath. ... More  Why the biggest ovation at the Tonys luncheon was for a waiterNEW YORK, NY.- Klay Young, a 63-year-old Harlem resident who immigrated to New York as a teenager from Belize, has worked as a server at the landmark Rainbow Room for 30 years, taking orders, ferrying food, clearing dishes for any number of rich and famous people. He has pictures with Mikhail Gorbachev, Liza Minnelli, John Travolta, and former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Last week, he served a newly minted dignitary: his daughter, a stage actress who in November made her Broadway debut in a new Lynn Nottage play called Clydes and this month scored a Tony nomination for her quick-witted performance as a formerly incarcerated sandwich maker. Something about that confluence a breakout performer reaching the literal heights (the Rainbow Room is on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center) where ... More  Why the Tonys need an award for best ensembleNEW YORK, NY.- Playwright Paul Rudnick scripted a delicious red-carpet moment into In & Out, his 1997 movie whose comic plot is set in motion by an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. Before the ceremony, an entertainment reporter played by Tom Selleck snags an interview with a nominated film star, played by Matt Dillon. Basically, to me, awards are meaningless, the star says, with a slouching self-righteousness. Im an artist, its about the work, all the nominees are artists, and we shouldnt be forced to compete with each other like dogs. Well, I hear ya, the reporter says. Good point. So then why are you here? Case I win! the star says, and flashes a smile. Showbiz awards are inherently fraught. Theyre also inherently tantalizing. Thats why we artists and audience members alike get ... More  Against all odds, Broadway rose to the occasion. Mostly.NEW YORK, NY.- The Broadway season that will be celebrated by the Tony Awards presentation June 12 began well, we dont recall when. It was at least two years and three COVID-19 waves ago. But that doesnt mean there was nothing worth seeing, loving and arguing about. Far from it, as Jesse Green (chief theater critic for The New York Times) and Maya Phillips (a critic-at-large) found in recapping the 34 productions that braved the pandemic to open under the most onerous conditions imaginable. Here are excerpts from their conversation. JESSE GREEN: Do you believe in irony? A season mired in doubt, difficulty and the nearly existential threat of constant cancellation nevertheless proved surprising, vivid, affecting. Or at least thats how I experienced it. What about you, Maya? MAYA PHILLIPS: Yes, ... More  H&H Classics to offer 1965 Excalibur SS Series I Built for actor Tony CurtisLONDON.- The sixth Excalibur Series I SS to be made, it was built in 1965 for and purchased by Hollywood legend Tony Curtis with photographs included. Subsequently it was exhibited at The Gilmore Classic Car Museum, USA until 2006. It has just 6,500 miles recorded and is powered by a Chevrolet 327cui 5358cc V8 engine, reputed to do 0-60 MPH in 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 150 MPH. Hot? Well, its lightweight aluminium and glass fibre body married to that V8 meant it was somewhat of a performance car in this, its early Series I guise. The Excalibur SS was an example of what has been referred as a Neo Classic, examples of which include the Stutz Blackhawk, Zimmer Golden Spirit and Mitsuoka Le Seyde. They recaptured the values of the 1930s, but with performance, reliability and luxury. ... More  Anna Laudel Düsseldorf presents Lennart Brede's solo exhibition: "Because You Want To Be Loved" DUSSELDORF.- Anna Laudel Düsseldorf presents Berlin and London based photographer Lennart Bredes solo exhibition titled Because You Want To Be Loved until 16 July 2022. Based on the idea of surviving on earth, finding spontaneous community through affinity and friendship as a way of life, the exhibition shows a selective vision of the world through the eyes of the artist. The exhibition centers around photographs titled The Washing and Lola. The Washing captures an athlete and model Lenny Müller on a rarely seen hot summer day in Berlin. In the image, the muscular Lenny Müller stares from in front of the sheets into Brede's camera while iconising the seduction. Despite how in control and competent Brede is at harnessing the mirage of hipness, punkness, and sweat that defined nightlife in the 90s, at his works ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Robert Rauschenberg 
Kevin Beasley 
Les Lalanne 
Kati Heck
Flashback On a day like today, American artist Ellsworth Kelly was born May 31, 1923. Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 - December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York. In this image: A woman walks past the work 'White Relief with Black III' by the artist Ellsworth Kelly during a press conference at the Haus der Kunst (House of Arts) in Munich.
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