| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, December 25, 2019 |
 |
| | Exhibition at Kunstmuseum Basel focuses on the reign of the last Ottonian ruler | |
|
|
Gold & Glory Gifts for Eternity is a co-production with the Musée de Cluny musée national du Moyen Ãge in Paris, where the Golden Altar Frontal that one belonged to the Basel Cathedral Treasury is now housed.
BASEL.- This major new exhibition unfurls a panoramic cultural history of the reign of the last Ottonian ruler, viewed from multiple perspectives. Exquisite works on loan from private and public collections in both Europe and the United States provide vivid proof of the crucial role played by Emperor Henry II and his «golden gifts» both for Basel itself and for the region. A magnificent array of medieval objects from the Ottonian Empires centres of cultural production and archaeological finds from the Basel region supply the larger context for the consecration of the cathedral as a watershed moment in Basels history. The exhibition also sheds light on how people lived a thousand years ago, Basels relations with the Kingdom of Burgundy, interactions between the imperial throne and the Church and the cult of Emperor Henry and Empress Kunigunde, both of whom were later canonized. The highlight of the show is the Basel Antependium, which for the first time in decades left Paris a ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Join Artemis Gallery today for a very special fundraising auction to benefit Community Food Share, a Feeding America Food Bank that serves Boulder and Broomfield Counties in Colorado. 100% of the hammer price - of all lots sold - will be donated to Community Food Share, which means every dollar of every lot's hammer price will feed hungry families. Even a winning bid of just $25 provides 75 meals to families in need! In this image: Egyptian Bronze Ring w/ Stone Scaraboid. Estimate $600 - $900.
|
|
|
| 
|
 | | Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung restores The Rimini Altarpiece | | Should Walt Whitman's house be landmarked? It's complicated | | Belgium's Africa museum drops tour guide after race row | 
Rimini Altarpiece (detail).
FRANKFURT.- The Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung has launched a large-scale conservation project that will focus on one of the collections most important works over the next few years. The Rimini Altarpiece, one of the most comprehensive and best-preserved late medieval figural groups in alabaster, will undergo a range of conservation and restoration treatments, including state-of-the-art laser technology. An in-depth technical analysis of the artwork will also be carried out. The Liebieghaus has acquired a special laser to ensure that the highly sensitive material can be cleaned as gently and effectively as possible, and has also been able to gain the support of the research laboratory of the Louvre in Paris which will assist in the precise analysis of the stones material composition. A special conservation studio has been set up for the project at the museum that is on view to visitors and will be complemented ... More | | 
A passerby stops on Dec. 18, 2019, to look at a new art installation at 375 Pearl Street in Manhattan that celebrates Walt Whitman. Jackie Molloy/The New York Times.
by Jane Margolies
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Only a smattering of people showed up on a recent rainy evening for the dedication of a Walt Whitman-themed art installation at 375 Pearl St., better known as the Verizon building, in Lower Manhattan. Huddled under umbrellas, they watched as lights came on behind 15-foot panels of stainless steel incised with text from Leaves of Grass. To the three members of the Walt Whitman Initiative who attended the dedication, it was yet another welcome tribute to the father of free verse this year, the bicentennial of his birth. But it fell far short of their major goal: the landmarking of Whitmans former home in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. A lot happened this year, but not the ... More | | 
A view of the exhibition From the collection: Unrivalled art © RMCA, Tervuren, photo Jo Van de Vijver.
BRUSSELS (AFP).- Belgium's Africa Museum has stopped using a white guide accused of making racist comments during a tour with students and painting the country's colonial past in a positive light, its director told AFP on Tuesday. "He is no longer a guide at our museum," Guido Gryseels said after meeting the freelancer to confront him with the allegations. "We have distanced ourselves from his statements." The guide, who has not been named, made remarks giving a rosy view of Belgium's colonialism in Africa during a recent tour of the museum given to a group of history students from the University of Antwerp, one of their number, Hanane Llouh, alleged on Twitter and to AFP. Gryseels said the guide, whom he sat down with on Monday, confirmed a "lack of judgement" in his comments portraying colonial history positively, but denied making outright racist statements. "We have stopped ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | Freeman's to auction private collections of Art Nouveau in January | | 'Marvellous and Mischievous: Literature's Young Rebels' on view at the British Library | | Glittering symbol of press, Newseum set to close its doors | 
A La Coupe Fleurie night light, made in France circa 1923 by Gabriel Argy-Rousseau will be offered (Lot 28; $3,000-5,000).
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- On January 22, Freemans will hold its inaugural sale at our new location at 1600 West Girard, showcasing a unique auction of Decorative Arts & Design @1600. With over 150 lots, the sale will primarily feature French furniture and glass from two prominent, private United States collections, including numerous pieces by Louis Majorelle and Emile Galle. Featured as well will be works by Tiffany, including pottery, glass, and lighting. Highlights will include a Majorelle dining table once owned by Barbara Streisand (Lot 43; $6,000-9,000), and a Majorelle Five-Piece Salon Suite (circa 1900) comprising a settee, pair of armchairs, and pair of side chairs (Lot 39; $8,000-12,000). In addition, a La Coupe Fleurie night light, made in France circa 1923 by Gabriel Argy-Rousseau will be offered (Lot 28; $3,000-5,000). Moreover, an early set of engraved and enameled glass goblets by Emile Galle (Lot 6; ... More | | 
Original artwork for When the Bell Rings, drawn by Leo Baxendale, published in Beano 20 July 1957 © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.
LONDON.- Marvellous and Mischievous: Literatures Young Rebels (8 November 2019 1 March 2020) is a free British Library exhibition spotlighting famous rebels in childrens literature. Featuring such perennial favourites as Tracy Beaker, Pippi Longstocking, Jane Eyre and Matilda, as well as new characters including Omar from Planet Omar, Billy from Billy and the Beast and Dirty Bertie, this exhibition shines a light on the Librarys vast collection of childrens literature and explore an array of vibrant characters who break the rules and defy conventions. Books and manuscripts from the Librarys collections, in addition to original artwork, tell the history of rebels in childrens literature, from the 17th century to items published as recently as this year. In addition, there are also loan items from Axel Scheffler, Beano Studios and DC Thomson & Co. Ltd., David Roberts, Lauren Child, Marie-Alice Harel, Sir Que ... More | | 
Newspaper front pages are on display at the Newseum in Washington, DC, on December 19, 2019, after US President Donald Trump's historic impeachment by the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019. Olivier Douliery / AFP.
by Rob Lever
WASHINGTON (AFP).- Just steps from the US Capitol, the Newseum's gleaming glass-and-steel structure has for over a decade been a shining symbol for the press and free expression. But in a reflection of the woes facing the US media industry -- which is itself struggling financially while also facing repeated attacks from political leaders -- the Newseum will be closing its doors on December 31. The museum, with exhibits covering the September 11 attacks and the Berlin Wall as well as a daily display of front pages from around the world, announced earlier this year it would sell its building designed by architect James Polshek to Johns Hopkins University for $372.5 million. The Freedom Forum, a nonprofit group created by USA Today founder ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | Tutu revolt - French ballet dancers mount artful protest | | Upper Belvedere exhibits Walter Pichler's Alte Figur (Old Figure) | | Dorotheum continues outstanding performance: Review of the year 2019 | 
Paris Opera dancers perform in front of the Palais Garnier against the French government's plan to overhaul the country's retirement system, in Paris, on December 24, 2019. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- Dancers in white tutus performed Swan Lake on the steps of a Paris opera house on Tuesday in a show of support for the French strike against the government's pension reforms. Under a grey sky on Christmas Eve, around 40 dancers twirled on point in Act 4 of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet against a backdrop of huge banners saying "Paris Opera on strike" and "Culture is in danger". The dancers, on strike alongside public sector workers, oppose the government's plan to do away with more than 40 separate pension schemes and replace them with a single points-based system. The special retirement plan for the Paris Opera, which allows dancers to bow out at age 42, was introduced in 1698 by king Louis XIV -- making it among the oldest in France. "Even though we are on strike, we wanted to offer on December 24 a moment of grace," said ... More | | 
Walter Pichler, Alte Figur (Old Figure). Courtesy Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Innsbruck / Wien. Photo: Elfi Tripamer-Pichler
VIENNA.- Walter Pichlers Alte Figur (Old Figure), created between 1960 and 1963, was acquired in 2018 by the Belvedere with the support of the Friends of the Belvedere, and is now part of the permanent collection. It is being presented at the Upper Belvedere in the series CARLONE CONTEMPORARY. This sculpture manifests Pichlers fundamental concept of art and the parameters of his work he consistently pursued. Alte Figur s stoicism, technical precision, and presentation call to mind archaic artefacts. Its lucid geometry and axial orientation has been placed in juxtaposition with the Baroque frescoes by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone. Standing, seated or lying, Pichler has provided a bed for his figure in the form of a mattress that is a base, dwelling, and throne rolled into one. The immediate connection between life and work is central to the artists oeuvre he originally positioned the installation beside his own bed i ... More | | 
Associate of Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael (14831520) Madonna and Child, oil on panel, 56.5 x 41.5 cm, price realised 1,657,190 Auction 22 October 2019 Old Master Paintings.
VIENNA.- Dorotheum, the leading auction house in the German-speaking region, announced another highly successful year in 2019. Items achieving hammer prices in excess of a 1m this season included a work painted by the most celebrated artist of the Ottoman Empire, Osman Hamdi Bey. His Dame Turque de Constantinople, dated 1881, reached an outstanding 1,770,300. In the Old Masters Department, a painting of the Madonna and Child, attributed to an Associate of Raphael captured the interest of the market and greatly surpassed its estimate, realizing a price of 1.66m. Elsewhere in Dorotheum, a highly desirable classic car, the 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL, known as the "Gullwing", also topped the million mark, reaching 1,067,000. There was great demand this year for 19th century paintings, modern and contemporary art. Among the top prizes were pieces ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | She quickened the pulse of 17th-century music | | Gerald Peters Contemporary opens exhibition of new ceramic works by Venezuelan artist Jose Sierra | | Zagreb's 'hangover museum' makes light of blurry nights | 
The composer Barbara Strozzi, who turns 400 this year, is still celebrated for vocal music of desire and passion. Katrin Funcke/The New York Times.
by Bonnie Gordon
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Like many celebrated musicians, Barbara Strozzi has a Facebook page with thousands of followers. Although in this, her 400th birthday year, shes hardly a household name like Beethoven or Mozart, the page is active with announcements of concerts, album releases and articles. Named la virtuosissima cantatrice the most dazzling singer by a contemporary, Strozzi published eight volumes of music between 1644 and 1677, more than any composer of any gender in 17th-century Venice. Her adoptive father, the powerful poet Giulio Strozzi, nourished her career as a singer, composer, thinker and producer a career that was wildly successful by any standard. In fact, shes more famous today than celebrated male contemporaries like Luigi Rossi, Giacomo Carissimi and Antonio Cesti. ... More | | 
Jose Sierra, Untitled 020 - 1, 2019. Stoneware, 11 x 13.5 x 12.
SANTA FE, NM.- Gerald Peters Contemporary is presenting an exhibition of new ceramic works by Venezuelan artist Jose Sierra. José Sierra was born in Mérida, Venezuela in 1975. While a self-taught artist, he was introduced to ceramics at the University of the Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, where he learned the basic skills of mixing clay, glazes, and wheel throwing. In 1996, Sierra began working professionally as an artist; by 2000, he was able to build his first American studio in Iowa. A decade later Sierra moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he maintains his studio today. My inspirations include pre-Hispanic art and architecture, and contemporary architecture and design. I also feel a connection with Japanese and Korean potters such as Wada Morihiro, who was also inspired by Pre-Colombian art. I also am drawn to the work of Tatsusuke Kuriki, Jun Kaneko, Robert Turner and Ken Price. I am also influenced by modern Venezuelan artist ... More | | 
Roberta Mikelic, co-owner of the Museum of Hangovers, poses at the museum in Zagreb, on December 3, 2019. Denis LOVROVIC / AFP.
by Lajla Veselica
ZAGREB (AFP).- For those struggling to piece together the black holes of a boozy night, a one-of-a-kind museum in Zagreb is offering up some inspiration. The "Museum of Hangovers", which opened in the Croatian capital this month, is showcasing objects and amusing stories from drunken escapades around the globe. "We wanted to collect objects that people woke up with without knowing where they picked them up," explained 24-year-old Roberta Mikelic, who opened the museum with her boyfriend Rino Dubokovic. The museum, which the duo says is the first of its kind, currently focuses solely on the "fun" side of these forgotten nights. But they plan to also delve into the dangers of binge drinking and blacking out in the future. The stories and paired objects, such as stop sign and a plastic potted plant, are laid out in a series ... More |
|
Incredible, Eccentric, Accidental: The Life of Art Collector Herbert Lust
|
|
| |
| | More News |
 Jack Hanley Gallery opens an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Alicia McCarthyNEW YORK, NY.- Jack Hanley Gallery is presenting Alicia McCarthys eighth solo exhibition with the gallery, showing new paintings and works on paper. McCarthys abstract compositions combine complex details and patterns with raw painterly gestures. In her signature elements of weaves, twisted knots and intertwined arcs, rainbows and bands of color, her drawings and paintings lure the eye into a dense maze of lines in which it is easy to get lost the closer you look. Remnants of paint drips and splashes, smears, pencil tests and traces of spray paint reveal the surfaces pasts, often accompanying McCarthy in her studio for long periods of time. This immediacy bares an intimacy between artist and object and carries the artists own physicality into each work. In tracing the lines, her distinct handmade quality is palpable throughout a variety of media ... More Karl E. Meyer, 91, reporter, editorialist and author, diesNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- Karl E. Meyer, a third-generation journalist who fortified his reporting as a foreign correspondent and editorial writer for The Washington Post and The New York Times with a scholars grasp of historical context, died Sunday in Manhattan. He was 91. The cause was prostate cancer, his wife, Shareen Blair Brysac, said. As one of the most adventurous reporters of his generation, Meyer covered Fidel Castros revolution in Cuba, the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion there, the Soviet Unions invasion of Czechoslovakia, the plundering of the worlds cultural patrimony and much more. As a columnist and editorialist with a doctorate in politics, he shaped and supported his opinions through firsthand reporting, defying what he once called the patron of his unruly calling, St. Simeon Stylites, who pontificated ... More Zambian musician, activist 'Pilato' freed on bailLUSAKA (AFP).- Zambian musician and activist Chama "Pilato" Fumba Tuesday said his spirit was unbroken despite his arrest for addressing an unauthorised rally where he spoke about government corruption. Pilato was detained on Saturday in the southern city of Livingstone and released after paying a bond on Monday night. "My spirit is not shaken
I am not intimidated.. I am committed to seeing a better Zambia, Pilato told AFP on Tuesday. Pilato was arrested while speaking about government corruption at a centre run by the Catholic church, according to witnesses. His first court appearance is scheduled for January 13. If convicted for "unlawful assembly", he faces up to five years in jail. The outspoken hip-hop artist has had multiple brushes with the law. In 2017, he was detained with several others as they picketed parliament over the handling ... More Fort Gansevoort opens first exhibition in Los AngelesLOS ANGELES, CA.- Fort Gansevoort is presenting Drapetomania, the gallerys first exhibition in Los Angeles, presenting new works by critically admired author and playwright, Christopher Myers (b. New York City, 1974). Comprising monumental textile works and sculptures, the exhibition explores ways in which cherished narratives of freedom are constituted by converse notions of bondage. The exhibition takes its title from a debunked pseudoscientific theory of mental illness promulgated by American physician Samuel Cartwright in 1851, describing a form of mania an irrational desire to flee that caused enslaved Africans to attempt escape. In a recent visit to a juvenile detention facility in Texas, Myers asked an incarcerated 13-year-old girl what she wanted after she was released. She replied, Same as everyone wants, just yknow, to live my life and ... More High Line Art commissions Jordan Casteel to paint a large-scale mural NEW YORK, NY.- High Line Art announces The Baayfalls, a new High Line Commission by artist Jordan Casteel. For the High Line, a large-scale mural recreating Casteel's 2017 oil painting of the same name has been hand-painted on a wall overlooking the park near 22nd Street. The mural, on view December 2019 through December 2020, is the largest presentation of Casteel's work to date and her first public artwork. Previously, the location featured works by Dorothy Iannone, Henry Taylor, Barbara Kruger, and other well-known artists. Jordan Casteel is best known for her portraiture. Her vibrant, larger-than-life canvases portray the gazes, gestures, and lives of the individuals who surround her, including family, friends, her students, fellow subway riders, and people she meets on the sidewalk. Casteel works from hundreds of photographs, which allow her to spend ... More Adelaide Festival Board announces new Executive DirectorADELAIDE.- The Adelaide Festival Board has announced respected arts leader Elaine Chia will join the senior leadership team of the Festival as Executive Director in April 2020. Elaine Chia will work alongside Joint Artistic Directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy. Rob Brookman AM will retire from his current role as Executive Director following delivery of the 2020 Adelaide Festival and hand-over with Ms Chia. Elaine Chia, who has held the role of Chief Executive Officer of the City Recital Hall in Sydney since 2016, has over twenty years in senior positions in arts management encompassing music, theatre and visual arts. Prior to her current role as CEO of City Recital Hall, she held the position of Director, International Signature Projects at the Australia Council for the Arts, delivering as public-private partnership projects, the Australian representation at three ... More Art Museum Riga Bourse opens an exhibition of works by Frančeska KirkeRIGA.- From 14 December 2019 to 16 February 2020, the permanent display of the Art Museum Riga Bourse has been supplemented by Frančeska Kirkes exhibition trauslums / fragile. The trauslums / fragile project is a dialogue between the artefacts in the exposition of Art Museum RIGA BOURSE and artist Frančeska Kirkes creations. The exhibition is about reverence in relation to the spirit of a museum as an unchanging, constant and eternal unit. Frančeska Kirke describes it as follows: I have always been interested in works of art before restoration, with their damaged surfaces and layers, everything that can be linked to the concept of TIME. Recent events only confirm how I feel, the lost Palmyra temples and the burning of Paris Notre Dame Cathedral nothing is eternal. This feeling of LOSS is a keyword for the entire exposition, where we walk through ... More Edie Nadelhaft's second solo show with Lyons Wier Gallery on view in New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- Evening in America is Edie Nadelhaft's second solo show with the gallery. This new group of road-trip paintings picks up where her last series, Big Country (2017) left off. Evening in America focuses on the visual nuances and psychological ambiguity of twilight. Nadelhaft states, "There is a dreamy, magical and off-times haunted quality to this work that showcases otherwise unremarkable, pedestrian and distinctly American settings." Nadelhaft draws inspiration from artists, writers and filmmakers whose work explores the subtler (and often stranger) corners of the American experience, including David Lynch, Diane Arbus, Donna Tartt, and Walker Evans, whose 1974 comment about his own process sums it up nicely: "I lean toward the enchantment, the visual power of the aesthetically rejected subject." An avid motorcyclist, ... More Intermediæ Matadero presents a site-specific installation by Spanish artist Leonor Serrano RivasMADRID.- What spaces can artists imagine for girls and boys to play? How can a cultural institution experiment and offer new experiences for children? Endless Theatre, by Spanish artist Leonor Serrano Rivas, is a site-specific installation that alters physical space and perception by means of a labyrinth of reflective surfaces, elastic screens and sound. It is a playground in which the reflected images of the visitors are displayed within a labyrinthine space of soft, light and tactile architectures. Almost in the open air, among sheets hanging in the dark, sensations punctuate the narrative: walking without a horizon, an upstairs without a downstairs, echoes and footprints that last as long as a ride on a merry-go-round, pushing and running, looking for oneself in the background and being a figure, a column, an actor. In this field, the spectator deforms each ... More That's entertainment: Ewbank's run up £1.25m sales total for film posters and memorabilia in 2019WOKING.- Ewbanks in Surrey have revealed that they took just over £1.25 million for posters and entertainment memorabilia alone in 2019. Its been a phenomenon, says auctioneer Chris Ewbank, who confirmed that his firms growing reputation in this sector has led to these sales overtaking jewellery as their most successful auctions. To a degree there has been a bit of a snowball effect, he says. From our new Bond and Beyond auction in early February and a variety of movie props sales, things really heated up with the Anthony Duggan collection of movie posters in August and culminated in the Andy Johnson collection in December. Duggan is credited with being Londons ultimate film fan. When he died two years ago at the age of 63, the Everyman cinema chain placed a replica Oscar in every one of its foyers with his name on it to celebrate his life. He had built a collection of mov ... More |
|
Flashback On a day like today, sculptor and painter Louise Bourgeois was born December 25, 1911. Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (25 December 1911 - 31 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the subconscious. In this image: Louise Bourgeois, The Found Child, 2001. Black fabric, 30.5 x 68.6 x 40.6 cm. Collection The Easton Foundation. Photo: Christopher Burke, (c) The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY.
|
|
| |
|
© 1996 - 2019