| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, December 21, 2022 |
| | Archaeologists devise a better clock for biblical times | |
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An undated photo provided by Shai Halevi shows Yoav Vaknin, a doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University at Jerusalem, taking measurements of a floor that collapsed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Archaeologists devise a better clock for biblical times; a new approach to studying the history of Old Testament conflicts courtesy of Earths geomagnetic record. (Shai Halevi/Israel Antiquities Authority via The New York Times)
by Franz Lidz
NEW YORK, NY.- When it comes to assigning dates to military campaigns described in the Bible, the parameters of the debate take on almost biblical proportions. When did the Amalekites wage war against the Hebrews in the wilderness? Did Joshua fight the Battle of Jericho in 1500 B.C., in 1400 B.C. or at all? Such uncertainty exists, in part, because the radiocarbon analysis that scientists use to date organic remains is less accurate for certain epochs. And, in part, because archaeologists often disagree over what the timelines for different narratives should be. But a new technique, which makes use of consistently reliable geomagnetic data, allows scientists to study the history of the Levant with greater confidence. Many materials, including rocks and soils, record the reversals and variations over time in Earths invisible geomagnetic field. When ancient ceramics or mud bricks that contain ferromagnetic, or certain iron-bearing, minerals are heated to sufficiently high temperatures, the magnet ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Artemis Gallery will hold its Naughty & Nice: Ancient, Ethno, Fine Art sale on Dec 22, 2022 9:00 AM GMT-6. Tis the season when many wonder whether they?ve been Naughty or Nice. This week, Artemis Gallery presents a rich array of artworks that capture the spirit of being either Naughty or Nice as well as the happy co-existence of being both Naughty AND Nice! Large Costa Rican Diquis Stone Jaguar Effigy. Estimate $5,000 - $7,500
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| Grants of £1.8M for bold and experimental projects awarded to 45 museums and galleries | | Ball from Judge's 62nd home run sells for $1.5 million | | Miró Universe - a selection of Miró's works - on view at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico | 
V&A Dundee - Reimagine 2022. © Hufton Crow.
LONDON.- Art Fund, the national charity for art, announced today that it is has awarded a total of £1.8m for bold, brave and experimental projects which will help museums reimagine engagement with audiences. Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said: We are delighted that Art Fund can provide millions of pounds to support museums directly engaging audiences in exciting and innovative ways. Its an enormously challenging time for museums with a real risk that the current economic climate will stifle creativity. Museums are facing huge energy bills for their buildings and cost of living wage measures to help retain their expert staff just as they endeavour to recover their pre-pandemic visitor numbers and income. 45 museums, galleries, historic houses, trusts, and professional networks have been awarded grants through the latest round of Art Funds Reimagine scheme. Recipients are located in all four nations, from Focal Poin ... More | | 
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge hits his 62nd home run of the 2022 season in Arlington, Texas, on Oct. 4, 2022. (Nathan Hunsinger/The New York Times)
by Benjamin Hoffman
NEW YORK, NY.- Aaron Judges 62-homer season for the New York Yankees helped him secure the largest contract awarded to a player in this offseason, but the baseball from that last home run was somewhat of a disappointment at auction. Caught by a spectator at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Oct. 4, the ball was predicted by Goldin Auctions to set a record by selling for more than $3 million. Instead, it sold for $1.5 million to an anonymous bidder who was described in a statement by the auction house Sunday as a prominent Midwestern businessman and collector. In a statement released by Goldin, Cory Youmans, the seller of the ball, repeatedly referred to the buyer as Joe. As a result of the sale price coming in lower than expected ... More | | 
Joan Miró. Femme dans la nuit, 1978 Acrylic and oil on canvas. Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona © Successió Miró 2022.
SAN JUAN.- Joan Miró saw art as an intrinsic part of life, with magical attributes that had to be reclaimed. To achieve this objective, he did not hesitate to tear up the academic conventions of painting. Like other artists linked to the surrealist world, he sought inspiration in primitive artistic manifestations, which were formally simple yet full of sacred connotations. With the art of prehistory, mediaeval masters and popular culture as his points of reference, Miró wanted to go beyond the mimetic representation of reality and gradually simplified forms until he was left only with what was essential. This practice gave rise to a unique language of signs, which had begun to develop in the 1920s in Mont-roig del Camp (a village in the Province of Tarragona) and became crystallised in the early 1940s. And it was a language he would never give up. In Mirós work ... More |
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| The austere beauty of Egypt's long-distance hiking trails | | Internationally recognized collection of Japanese Netsuke achieves $1.9 nillion at Bonhams | | King Charles III Is the new face of U.K. money | 
A hermit cell in the Red Sea Mountains near Wadi Nagaata in Egypt, along the Red Sea Mountain Trail, Nov. 20, 2019. Two new long-distance hiking trails, managed by Bedouins, will help preserve the austere beauty of the South Sinai and a vanishing way of life. (Sima Diab/The New York Times)
NEW YORK, NY.- Ben Hoffler has heard one sound more than any other during the past dozen years: that of footsteps crunch, crunch, crunch pressing into the sandy gravel that carpets the desert valleys of South Sinai, a seemingly endless landscape of granite mountains, colorful canyons and verdant oases. While on a 2008 climb to the summit of Mount Sinai, Hoffler, an Oxford-educated Englishman, was so moved by the power of Egypts mountains believed to be where Moses received the Ten Commandments that he went on to traverse some 7,000 miles of this high desert wilderness with its Bedouin inhabitants. He wrote a trekking guide to South Sinai in 2013, and shortly after began working with the areas Bedouin tribes to create one of Egypts most extraordinary tourism projects: the Sinai Trail, the countrys ... More | | 
A wood netsuke of a rat by Masanao of Kyoto, sold for $94,900. Photo: Bonhams.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Joseph and Elena Kurstin Collection presented an unrivalled offering of Japanese netsuke at Bonhams New York on December 16, delivering impressive results with many lots selling well-above estimate. The miniature sculptural masterpieces are sought after by enthusiasts worldwide and this was evident throughout the sale, bringing in international bidders and feverish competition on highly sought-after lots from this remarkable collection. The top lot of the sale, a kirin on a cloud, measures just under four inches tall. Despite the diminutive stature, it achieved a world record price for a netsuke, soaring 23 times its estimate at $441,300. The Kurstin Collection is considered by many to be one of the finest groups of netsuke in the world. Dr. Joseph Kurstin was known to countless enthusiasts in the field, was recognized for his depth of knowledge in netsuke and inrō, and regularly spoke at netsuke conventions worldwide. The Kurstins also generously exhibited their collection ... More | | 
An image provided by the Bank of England shows the new bank notes showing King Charles III. The Bank of England unveiled new pound notes with King Charles IIIs portrait that are expected to enter in circulation in mid-2024, bank notes with the images of the late queen and the current king will circulate at the same time. (The Bank of England via The New York Times)
LONDON.- In recent months, as Britain has healed from mourning its queen, the beginning of a new reign has started to show in the countrys daily life. Englands World Cup team sang God Save the King. For the first time in decades, a king welcomed a new prime minister. Now, as Britons prepare for the first Christmas without Queen Elizabeth IIs traditional message, the Bank of England has announced another major change. On Monday, it unveiled new pound notes with King Charles IIIs portrait that are expected to enter in circulation in mid-2024. The new 5-, 10-, 20- and 50-pound notes will be printed only to replace worn-out currency or to meet any increase in demand, so bank notes with the images of the late queen and the current king will circulate at the same time ... More |
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| 25 years after 'Titanic,' Quebec's love for Celine Dion will go on | | The Philadelphia Museum of Art announces new curatorial leadership | | Family loosens grip on New York Irish group and its Gilded Age mansion | 
Mario Bennett, a Celine Dion superfan, has an enormous collection of memorabilia at his home in Montreal, Canada on Thursday Dec. 2, 2022. (Guillaume Simoneau/The New York Times)
by Dan Bilefsky
MONTREAL.- It was a Friday night in Montreal, and hundreds of euphoric revelers were dancing and singing Its All Coming Back to Me Now at a sold-out Celine Dion tribute party. One young man vogued in a homemade version of the gold-tinted headpiece of singed peacock feathers that Dion wore at the Met Gala a few years ago. Another gawked at a minishrine of Dion-inspired wigs, showcasing her hairstyles through the decades. In an era of arrogant stars, she is always authentic, Simon Venne, the voguer, a 38-year-old stylist, gushed. She is everything to us, a source of pride, our queen. If there was ever a sense that Quebec, the French-speaking province of Dions birth, was conflicted about Dions rise to global superstardom with pop hits that she often sang in English, it has been dispelled. She now occupies an exalted space here ... More | | 
Carlos Basualdo, the Marion Boulton Kippy Stroud Chief Curator Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Matteo De Fina © Palazzo Grassi.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Sasha Suda, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, announced today the appointment of Carlos Basualdo as the museums Marion Boulton Kippy Stroud Deputy Director and Chief Curator and of Jessica Todd Smith as Director of Curatorial Initiatives and the Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art, effective immediately. Each is a seasoned curator and experienced administrator promoted from within the ranks of a talented curatorial staff. Basualdo has served as the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art since 2005 and becomes the first-ever Chief Curator of the museum. Smith has served as the Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art since 2016. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is at a critical moment as it considers the growth of its collections and its future programs, stated Sasha Suda. Carlos Basualdo has a significant global profil ... More | | 
The Irish American Historical Society on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, on March 11, 2021. (Sarah Blesener/The New York Times)
by Dan Barry
NEW YORK, NY.- The board of directors for the troubled American Irish Historical Society has resigned and an interim board has taken over, under a plan by the New York attorney generals office to preserve the nonprofit organization and save the Gilded Age town house on 5th Avenue that has been its headquarters for more than 80 years. The announcement Monday signaled the end to one Irish American familys half-century control of the society, which ultimately led to managerial dysfunction and charges that the patriarch, Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, had turned it into his private club. Cahill, 86, a physician and political adviser, died in September. After a protracted immersion into the societys books and practices, the attorney generals Charities Bureau secured the resignation of the Cahill-controlled board, which had been seeking to sell the societys $44 million mansion to settle ... More |
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| Six emerging Asian designers to know present new creations inspired by iconic pieces from the V&A's collections | | Quentin Blake at 90: WHite glove sale at Bonhams | | Ugo Rondinone opens an exhibition at Petit Palais | 
Installation view: The Love of Couture Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time, K11 MUSEA. © Courtesy K11.
HONG KONG.- Following its smash debut in 2021, K11s annual celebration of legendary craft is making a triumphant return to Victoria Dockside since December 8th, 2022. Curated under the theme The Love of Couture: Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time, the exhibition opened with K11 NIGHT, presenting a magnificent collection of historical fashion gems from Londons Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A), while also spotlighting six of East Asias most promising young fashion designers. Industry Heavyweights Bring Expert Curation Masterminded by internationally renowned and award-winning Hong Kong Production Designer William Chang Suk Ping and experts from the V&A, the exhibition sets out to bridge Western ... More | | 
Sir Quentin Blake (British, born 1932) Acrobatics on a Scooter (unframed) (Executed in 2022).
LONDON.- Quentin Blake at 90: A Birthday Auction in Support of the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration at Bonhams raised £390,023. Each of the 139 lots found a buyer, making it a white glove sale. The online auction ran on bonhams.com from Friday 2 December - Friday 16 December, the day the illustrator turned 90. Highlights included: Amazing Performing Dogs No 3. Sold for £10,838 (estimate: £800-1,200) Amazing Performing Dogs No 1. Sold for £10,200 (estimate: £700-1,000) Measuring a Dragon No 1. Sold for £8,288 (estimate: £1,000-1,500) Jumping for Joy. Sold for £8,288 (estimate: £500-700) Janet Hardie, Bonhams Senior Specialist in Modern British and Irish Art and head of the sale, said: I am delighted at the result. Estimates ... More | | 
©Installation views, Ugo Rondinone, the water is a poem unwritten by the air no. the earth is a poem unwritten by the fire, Petit Palais, Paris, 2022. Photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography, Zürich.
ZURICH.- Galerie Eva Presenhuber is presenting Ugo Rondinones exhibition "the water is a poem unwritten by the air no. the earth is a poem unwritten by the fire" at Paris Petit Palais, including the world premiere of the six-channel video installation burn to shine installed in the museums North Pavilion. In the late spring of 2020, I started to work on the six-screen video installation 'burn to shine.' Its the third time that I am collaborating with the art producer Corinne Castel. It has been inspiring working with Corinne and I continue to learn a lot from her. The captivating choreography for burn to shine was developed by Fouad Boussouf, a Franco-Moroccan ... More |
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Dayton Art Institute End of Year Video
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 'The Shipping Forecast' by Mark Poser to be published January 2023NEW YORK, N.Y..- Thirty years ago, Mark Power embarked on a journey to photograph the thirty-one sea areas around the coasts of the British Isles to create a visual representation of the shipping forecast. For nearly 100 years, the forecast has been broadcast four times a day by BBC radio and has seeped into the British public consciousnessit is a constant in an ever-changing world. Powers book, The Shipping Forecast was originally published in 1996 and this newly edited, revised and much-expanded edition includes over 100 previously unpublished photographs. The shipping forecast, of course, exists to save lives. It warns those at sea, or about to put to sea, of approaching storms. But for the majority of us, in Britain at least, its strange, rhythmic language is unashamedly romantic and oddly reassuring, despite forming an image of an island nation ... More  Julien Saudubray "Voir Double" currently on view at Anna Zorina Gallery in Los AngelesLOS ANGELES, CALIF.- Anna Zorina Gallery is currently presenting Julien Saudubrays solo exhibition, VOIR DOUBLE. This marked the artists US solo debut and inaugural show with the gallery. In his latest paintings, Saudubray interrogates the process of image-making and deepens his exploration of gesture, abstraction, and the surrendering of self to the works. Saudubrays decade-long career began with painting, but he soon ventured into other visual disciplines including installation and performance. It was only recently that he returned to his oil and brush, feeling inspired to approach the canvas afresh without preconceptions or his past inclinations. Saudubray explains, I wanted to paint as if I were completely new to it, and at the time this seemed the only genuine way to me. This artistic choice to surrender his learned habits for the wonder of discovering ... More  Review: In 'Between Riverside and Crazy,' real estate gets realNEW YORK, NY.- A retired, recently widowed New York City police officer sits in a wheelchair at his kitchen table with a woman from São Paulo he variously calls Church Lady, Miss Brazil and a purveyor of jungle boogie. She has come to offer him communion, but exactly what kind isnt clear. Their bristling, flirtatious, shape-shifting argument, which touches on cookies, devils, freedom and faith, would be enough to make this among the great scenes in recent American drama, equal parts comedy, philosophy and cat-and-mouse game. Then it goes further. Way further. And thats barely midway through Between Riverside and Crazy, the astonishing Stephen Adly Guirgis play that opened Monday in a Second Stage production at the Helen Hayes Theater. First seen off-Broadway in 2014 and in 2015 after which it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama it is only now receiving its Broadway debut ... More  New exhibition at Rosenfeld Gallery: Alona Rodeh "CITY DUMMIES"TEL AVIV.- Rodehs third solo show at Rosenfeld Gallery Tel Aviv marks a new ambitious chapter in her diverse career. CITY DUMMIES is a series of born-digital motion clips marking an artistic shift from traditional filmmaking to post-cinematic engines, in which she creates fictional hyper-realistic urban sceneries depicting embodied machines at play. The protagonists of CITY DUMMIES are assets of the current Zeitgeist acting out at nighttime. Nocturnal scenes show rental-sharing e-Scooters forming a rhythmic light organ; a faulty ATM spitting out banknotesonly to get violently shut down by a drone; a gas pump splashing fuel and a pneumatic bollard doubles as a public ashtray. Light, movement, sound and visual effects lead the way into this imaginary urban landscape, commenting on today's increasingly commerce-dominated cities. About the artist: Alona Rodeh ... More  Art on the Underground announces 2023 programme including new commissions LONDON.- Art on the Underground has today announced its programme for 2023, comprising ambitious and critically engaged new works. Responding to London Underground as a constantly changing site of multiple histories, communities, actions and reactions, the 2023 programme will present new works that address this daily reality through performance, sound, visual and sculptural interventions. Art on the Underground is committed to working with a diverse range of contemporary artists to reflect on how we move through and have a collective experience of public space. How might an artwork point to, embody and be a part of these conversations? What does it mean to encounter this work in public space? Art on the Underground continue to interrogate these questions, bringing leading international artists to the city to reflect Londons diversity ... More  The Royal Scottish Academy receives the Blackadder Houston BequestEDINBURGH.- The Royal Scottish Academy has received a significant bequest from the estate of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RSA RA (1931-2021). With a value of over £7million, the RSA Blackadder Houston Bequest will initiate a wide series of opportunities including new prizes, bursaries and travel awards for graduates and mid-career artists. The significant monetary value of the bequest will help the Academy to prosper, allowing us to support future generations of artists and architects in Scotland. As an independent, self- financing charity, legacies and bequests are of critical importance for the RSA. Monetary gifts enable us to develop and promote the aims of the Academy and support Scotlands wider artist and architect communities. Based on Elizabeth Blackadders wishes, the bequest will be invested to support a range of new initiatives that will be launched in 2023 ... More  New Broadway labor agreement includes pandemic-prompted changesNEW YORK, NY.- The union representing theater actors and stage managers has ratified a new contract that provides pay increases for those working on Broadway and, in a move prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, allows producers to make short-term hires to cover absent actors. Actors Equity Association announced Monday that its membership had voted in favor of the three-year contract, which by late 2024 would raise the minimum salary for performers working on Broadway to $2,638 per week. That reflects three years of pay increases: 5% this year, 4% next year, and 4% the following year. The Broadway contract, negotiated by Equity and the Broadway League, applies to commercial productions on Broadway, as well as to so-called sit-down productions, which are extended runs of commercial shows elsewhere in the country ... More  Winchester says 'hello' to 'A Farewell to Art: Chagall, Shakespeare and Prospero'WINCHESTER.- On display at The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester until Sunday 12 February, A Farewell to Art: Chagall, Shakespeare and Prospero, a touring show from the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London, and showcasing a rare, limited-edition portfolio by modernist artist, Marc Chagall. The exhibition has been delighting visitors since its opening and features 50 illustrations created to reflect Chagalls interpretation of Shakespeares magical play, The Tempest. This edition of the play was published by Ãditions André Sauret, under the supervision of Charles Sorlier in September 1975. One visitor commented, Love this exhibition. Revealed aspects of The Tempest in a different way. While another said, Amazing exhibition. So pleased I spotted this in passing. A Farewell to Art draws on a number of themes, including the relationship between Shakespeare ... More  Portland Art Museum presents an immersive, site-responsive installation by multimedia artist Jeffrey GibsonPORTLAND, ORE.- An immersive, site-responsive installation by multimedia artist Jeffrey Gibson, They Come From Fire transforms the exterior windows on the facade of the museums main building as well as its two-story interior Schnitzer Sculpture Court. This dynamic work celebrates Portlands Indigenous history, presence and vitality through the use of suspended glass panels, text, and photographic imagery created with Indigenous, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ artists, and other community members on and around the empty monument pedestals in the Park blocks in front of the museum. Coinciding with a survey of Dakota modernist Oscar Howe, the installation serves as a bridge between the museums contemporary and Native American art collections. Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, is forging a multifarious practice ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk 
Freedom of Movement 
Gabriella Boyd @ GRIMM 
Fondazione Elpis
Flashback On a day like today, Italian painter Masaccio was born December 21, 1401. Masaccio (Italian: December 21, 1401 - summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at imitating nature, recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the exact circumstances of his death. In this image: San Giovenale Triptych (1422).
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