| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, July 12, 2023 |
| | Artifacts stolen from Kenya decades ago are returned | |
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An undated photo provided by the Illinois State Museum shows sacred wooden memorial statues known as vigango that the museum returned to Kenya. As part of a continuing effort to repatriate these looted cultural artifacts, officials from the Illinois State Museum and other museums and universities will visit Nairobi this week for a ceremony to recognize the return of the vigango to the National Museums of Kenya. (Dannyl Dolder/Illinois State Museum via The New York Times)
by Rebecca Carballo
NEW YORK, NY.- Throughout the 1980s, vigango sacred wooden memorial statues were stolen from Kenya, sold to art dealers, and eventually arrived at tourist shops and museums. Now, as part of a continuing effort to repatriate these looted cultural artifacts, officials from the Illinois State Museum and other museums and universities will visit Nairobi this week for a ceremony to recognize the return of the vigango to the National Museums of Kenya. Sometimes as tall as 7 feet, the vigango were often erected in front of a homestead in memory of a male elder in the Mijikenda community who had died. The memorials were not meant to be moved. These items are sacred and inalienable from the people who created them, Brooke Morgan, a curator of anthropology at the museum, said in a statement. Separating vigango from their rightful owners harms the spiritual well-being of the whole community. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Meşher, Istanbul’s leading multidisciplinary art space, celebrates the life and work of the painter and designer John Craxton (1922-2009). Final chance to enjoy a visit to the late British artist’s first solo exhibition in Türkiye is on 23 July Sunday, 2023.
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| Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art acquires important Rosalba Carriera portrait | | The White House has been a recipient of the Eli Wilner Frame Funding Program | | Color Theory auction at Hindman to celebrate legacy of Josef Albers | 
Portrait of a Gentleman, created around 1730, is a major work by one of the most important artists of the 18th century, and the most famous female artist of her time.
HARTFORD, CONN.- The Wadsworth Atheneum has acquired an outstanding work by Rosalba Carriera (also known as Rosalba) the most famous woman artist working in the eighteenth century and admired as a pioneering and brilliant pastellist. Portrait of a Gentleman (c. 1730), was created when she reached the height of her career, portraying the upper echelons of society with a deft hand and observational sensitivity. It is the first example of the artists work in the Wadsworth Atheneums collection. Rosalba started her career as a miniaturist, but she became best known for her skill with pastelsher technical and artistic innovations elevating the uniquely powdery medium to great popularity among artists and collectors. Royalty, cardinals, ... More | | 
Childe Hassams "Avenue in the Rain," framed with a replica of an original Hassam frame by Eli Wilner & Company, in the collection of The White House.
NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Wilner is once again offering funding to cover part of the cost of selected reframing and frame restoration projects for museums. Museum representatives are invited to contact Wilner with details of their current reframing or frame restoration needs. Like so many other museums and historic sites, The White House has been a recipient of the Eli Wilner Frame Funding Program. To date, a total of 28 framing projects have been completed through the Funding Program for The White House, including reframing or frame restoration for works by John Singer Sargent, Frederic Church, Thomas Eakins, Norman Rockwell, William Merritt Chase, Albert Bierstadt, Martin Johnson Heade, and others. To see images of these framing projects, ... More | | 
Robert Rauschenberg, Carnegie Hall 1891-1991, 1990. Estimate: $7,000 - 9,000.
CHICAGO, IL.- Timed with the 60th anniversary of the publication of Josef Albers' seminal writing The Interaction of Color, Hindman will present Color Theory, an auction curated around artists who investigated the transformative power of color. With nearly 100 lots, the July 28th auction is a celebration of color in modern and contemporary printmaking, including works by Albers, Gene Davis, Ellsworth Kelly, Victor Vasarely, Robert Motherwell, Andy Warhol, Helen Frankenthaler, Anish Kapoor, and Damien Hirst. A group of Patrick Heron prints sold to benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields will also be offered. The current art landscape without Albers' foundational theory of color is difficult to imagine. Albers spent his career committed ... More |
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| Chrysler Museum repatriates cultural artifact to Nigeria | | The ultimate Batman collection, spanning decades and continents, leaps into auction at Heritage in August | | Harn Museum of Art opens 'Under the Spell of the Palm Tree: The Rice Collection of Cuban Art' | 
Ekoi people (Nigerian), Akwanshi Head, ca. 1600; Stone, 16 1/2 x 7 x 11 in. (41.9 x 17.8 x 27.9 cm); On loan from the village of Njemitop, Nigeria, D2012.8.10
NORFOLK, VA.- The Chrysler Museum of Art and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments Nigeria (NCMM) have collaborated on the restitution of an original Bakor monolith from the village of Njemetop in Cross River State to Nigeria. In late winter, the Chrysler Museum was made aware of the history of the Bakor monolith through a visit from an outside expert in African Art. Guided by the institutions professional and ethical standards, the Chrysler Museum further investigated the provenance of the piece and contacted the NCMM. The piece was deaccessioned by the Chrysler Museums Board of Trustees, at which time the Museum staff began arrangements for the return of the Bakor monolith to the Nigerian government. It is the duty of all art institutions to preserve and care for works of art for the benefit of the public, part of which includes thoughtful deaccessioning and restitution, said Erik ... More | | 
Wind-up Batman Tin Robot with Original Box (Tada, 1960's).
DALLAS, TX.- "There's no escape. It's all over the place. Madness! Supermadness! The entertainment world offers it on all sides, and the public gobble it up. Batman conquers TV. Kids swing Batman capes in the backyard, and Bat products are everywhere. In the theater, craziness is the new craze. The whole country is deliberately, and profitably, going nuts." That was written in March 1966, when a giddy, grinning Adam West, dressed as ABC's Pop-Goes-the-Batman, appeared on the cover of Life alongside the headline, "Batman makes a mighty leap into national popularity." Plus ça change! Because 57 years on, the Caped Crusader has never been more prevalent in popular culture in theaters and comic shops, of course, or the shelves of toy stores and big-box chains adorned with every iteration of the Dark Knight dating back to West's Bright Knight. Batmania lives no, Batman thrives in every corner of almost every country. ... More | | 
Mario Carreño, "La Finca (The Farm)," 1945 (detail), Collection of Susie and Mitchell Rice.
GAINESVILLE, FL.- The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, in collaboration with The Cuban Arts Group, is presenting a new exhibition offering a glimpse into the complex culture and history that has inspired Cuban art throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. Under the Spell of the Palm Tree: The Rice Collection of Cuban Art is on view from July 11, 2023 to Jan. 7, 2024. Under the Spell of the Palm Tree presents the narrative of a crossinga virtual crossing of the seas as well as a crossing of generations, of artists living or having lived both in Cuba and in the Diaspora. Guest Curators Gabriela Azcuy and David Horta, working with Harn Chief Curator and Curator of Modern Art Dulce Román, selected 79 paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, mixed media, art books and sculptures to provide a comprehensive view of Cuban Art organized along six themes: The Language of Forms and the Fo ... More |
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| Four pages found in a couch are ruled Aretha Franklin's true will | | The Fralin Museum of Art at The University of Virginia highlights 70 years of Abstract painting in new exhibition | | 'Intimate Strangers' at Yancey Richardson to feature the photographs and videos of 16 artists | 
Aretha Franklin performs at a benefit gala at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Nov. 7, 2017. (Nina Westervelt/The New York Times)
by Ben Sisario and Ryan Patrick Hooper
NEW YORK, NY.- More than four years of family conflict over the estate of Aretha Franklin ended Tuesday when a Michigan jury decided what her family could not which of two hand-scrawled wills represented the famed singers true wishes for how to divide her estate. After a two-day trial in a probate court in Pontiac, Michigan, a six-person jury decided after less than an hour of deliberation that a four-page document written by Franklin in 2014 and discovered under a couch cushion at her home, months after Franklins 2018 death should serve as her will. The verdict resolved the biggest problem that had been hanging over Franklins estate, and sets in motion a plan for how income and assets from her estate should be divided. We just want to exhale right now, Kecalf Franklin, one of ... More | | 
Sheila Isham, American, b. 1927. Huan Dispersion Wind with Water, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 87 1/4 x 128 inches. Collection of The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Jager, 1976.28. © 2022 Sheila Isham / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.- The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia explores abstract artists experimental use of paint in Processing Abstraction, on view through Dec. 31. The exhibition demonstrates the expansive utilization of the medium through vigorous brushstrokes, saturated canvases and atmospheric surfaces. The featured artists employ several painting techniques, including pouring, dripping, splashing, staining, spraying, soaking and splattering. For more than 100 years, abstraction has reigned as a major expressive form in painting with continuously changing techniques and styles. Abstract paintings are frequently interpreted according to their visual components, but their socio-political contexts are also vital for ... More | | 
Zora J Murff, American Mother, 2019. Archival pigment print 20 x 16 inches. Edition of 3 + 1 AP.
NEW YORK, NY.- Intimate Strangers, an exhibition of powerful and highly personal photographs and video made by visual artists who have positioned a parent or parents as central subjects in a body of work, is now opening at Yancey Richardson through August 18, 2023. An opening will be held on from 6 to 8 p.m. The 16 artists featured in the exhibition include Deanna Dikeman, Jess T. Dugan, Mitch Epstein, LaToya Ruby Frazier, David Hilliard, Lisa Kereszi, Tommy Kha, Justine Kurland, Jarod Lew, Marilyn Minter, Zora J Murff, Sage Sohier, Leonard Suryajaya, Mickalene Thomas, DAngelo Lovell Williams, and Larry Sultan. Intentionallyand sometimes unintentionallythe images in Intimate Strangers reflect on diverse and relevant social issues, ranging from the pursuit of the American dream and stigmas around aging to LGBTQ+ concerns, as well as topics related to immigration, black masculinity, and substance addiction. ... More |
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| The group exhibition 'Bellyache' to open at CHART starting today | | Kunstmuseum Den Haag announces "Breaking Boundaries - Art of the 1960s" | | "Colossal: Painting on a Grand Scale" on view at The Belvedere | 
Claudia Bitrán, Britney Twirling, 2022, video animation, 27 seconds, Edition 1 of 5 (+ 2 AP). Courtesy the Artist, Cristin Tierney Gallery/CHART.
NEW YORK, NY.- CHART is opening Bellyache, a group exhibition curated by Shona McAndrew, featuring work by twenty artists who were either peers or professors of McAndrews at the Rhode Island School of Design. The opening reception today will be from 68 pm, and the exhibition will remain on view through August 18, 2023. Everybody has had a bellyache. The trick is figuring out why. Is it an overindulgence in sweets or too much coffee? Ones own body revolting against oneself? A bout of anxiety from an important and long-awaited phone call? One of the greatest sources of bellyaches for artists can undoubtedly be traced back to an anxiety of influence. Painters cannot help but sneak their heroes into each color choice and brushstroke, sculptors into every material choice or conceptual strategy. As such, I am interested in drawing upon a group of artists who I have learned with and artists who I have lea ... More | | 
Over the years the museum has built a rich collection of art from this period.
THE HAGUE.- If there is one thing that the 1960s is known for, it is the breaking of boundaries. As unprecedented economic growth in the west brought prosperity to the masses, the dreams of the 1950s could finally become a reality. But this sense of optimism was overshadowed by the threat of the Cold War. People began to realise that there was also a downside to things like industrial growth and the impact of the media. Artists sought to develop a new art that reflected the rapidly changing times. An art that would continually seek, push and break boundaries. It was an age in which the world was rapidly becoming a smaller place. The unprecedented growth in western economies allowed the dreams of the 1950s to become a reality, bringing prosperity to the masses. At the same time, the downside of progress was becoming apparent, and the gap between rich and poor was growing around the world. Artists sought to develop a new art that reflected these rapidly changing ... More | | 
Carl Moll, The Roman Ruins at Schönbrunn, 1892. Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna.
VIENNA.- At what point is a picture considered big, and what effect do large pictures have on us? What challenges do oversized canvases pose for artists? What questions and stories are tackled in colossal works? It requires confidence, skill, imagination, and courage for an artist to tackle a huge canvas. The results are mostly major works of art: impressive, spectacular but rarely on display due to lack of space. General Director and curator Stella Rollig: Paintings such as these need to be seen on location. They are a challenge for the artists themselves, but also for their audience. The sheer scale showcases all that painting is capable of achieving: opening up fictional cosmoses, exerting a visual pull, invigorating both eye and mind. Whether classical or contemporary, representational or abstractone can hardly resist their impact. Featuring pictures of up to ten meters in length, the exhibition Colossal explores painting on a grand scale through works from the ... More |
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Joel Shapiro on His Hong Kong Exhibition
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| More News |
 'Sarah Cunningham: The Crystal Forest' now opening at Lisson GalleryLONDON.- Lisson Gallery presents its first solo exhibition by British painter Sarah Cunningham exploring psychological spaces and multifaceted landscapes that the artist composes within her layered and generative canvases. This new body of paintings including a major triptych and large-scale works, alongside smaller panels focusses on Cunninghams abstract forays into kaleidoscopic environments and imagined forest clearings, which she constructs over time through layer after layer of gesture and radiating bursts of light, line and colour. Cunningham (b.1993) pulls from a multitude of literary, art historical and personal references, adopting and dissolving these situations through vivid, expressionistic mark making. The exhibition takes its title from one such influence, JG Ballard's 1966 science-fiction novel, The Crystal World, although her own ... More  Online auction features over 315 antique, vintage & contemporary lots SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Turner Auctions + Appraisals is presenting Fine Art, Asian Art, and Jewelry on Saturday, July 22, 2023. Offering over 315 antique, vintage, and contemporary lots, the online auction features an eclectic array of artworks, decorative arts, jewelry, coins, and more from various collectors and estates. Paintings, lithographs, and prints come from diverse artists, including Gustave Baumann, Clayton Sumner Price, Olaf Carl Seltzer, Ira Yeager, Paul Lauritz, Pablo Picasso, George Rowlett, Serge Poliakoff, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Paul Rene Gauguin, Emory Ladanyi, Graciela Rodo Boulanger, John Coughlin, Barbara Johnson, and others. Highlights among the artworks are signed photographs by Ansel Adams. Several sculptures are offered, including by Dino Rosin and Grant Speed. From Asia are diverse ... More  No.1 Royal Crescent and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy first museums in Bath to offer digital Bloomberg Connect guidesBATH.- Today, No.1 Royal Crescent and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath each launched a new digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and cultural app created by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The museums are currently the only ones in Bath to offer guides on the app. The Bloomberg Connects app, available for download from Google Play or the App Store, makes No.1 Royal Crescent and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy accessible for onsite visits through photo, audio and video features. The museums also have devices that visitors can borrow to access these new guides. At No. 1 Royal Crescent visitors can explore the history of the house and find out more about the rooms, interiors and ... More  Green Art Gallery now representing artist Dorsa AsadiDUBAI.- Green Art Gallery has announced the representation of Tehran-based artist Dorsa Asadi. Her solo exhibition, Strange Fruit, is currently on view at the Gallery until 29 July. Dorsa Asadis ceramic sculptures combine local references, such as the aesthetics of colorful Iranian paintings and tiles, with contemporary subject matter such as gender, identity, environmental issues, and narratives that have shaped paradigms throughout history. She fabricates myths based on frequent motives in mythology across the world, for instance, the duality and superpowers of twins, fertility, sacrifice, and death, in order to make her narrative installations. Born in 1992 in Tehran, Iran, Asadi obtained her MA in Painting (2018) and BA in Handicrafts (with a concentration on Ceramics) (2014) from the University of Tehran. She had her Residency at Helikon Art Center, Turkey ... More  Yuan Fang, Yirui Jia, Liu Yin, Homer Shew to open exhibition at Kiang Malingue HONG KONG.- Kiang Malingue is presenting at its Sik On street gallery space an exhibition of recent paintings and works on paper by Yuan Fang, Yirui Jia, Liu Yin and Homer Shew. Yuan Fang's Galloping belongs to a recent series of large-scale paintings, dealing with the increasing intimacy between the canvas and the space in which the artist creates. Evident of a gestural process that involves speedy choreographic movements, the inky artwork depicts abstract forms that resemble curling whirlwinds; red, green and white slashes ominously gather and shatter, confusing the subject and the ground of the painting. Just as many of Fang's multilayered abstract paintings, the intense, tumultuous surface of Galloping builds upon erasures and paint- overs, leaving faint traces of previous compositions that had become unwieldy. However, unlike many of Fang's other paintings that are concerned with a sense ... More  Yale Center for British Art welcomes two new collection curatorsNEW HAVEN, CT.- The Yale Center for British Art announced the recent appointments of Lucinda Lax as Curator of Paintings and Sculpture and Timothy Young as Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. Both curators were appointed following extensive international searches. Lax has taken on her role as Curator of Paintings and Sculpture and Young joins the YCBA in July. Lucinda and Tim stood out among the field of international candidates. They are out- standing curators and scholars, and it is a pleasure to welcome them to the museum, said Courtney J. Martin, Paul Mellon Director. Their new voices and perspectives will be invaluable as we reshape our galleries and continue to steward Paul Mellons collection. I am thrilled to bring two such accomplished curators on board during this time of transformation at the museum, shared Martina ... More  80WSE opens an exhibition of works by A.L. SteinerNEW YORK, NY.- A.L. Steiner's exhibition Irthebound, now on view at 80WSE, frames the central tenet of life on Earth as a multifaceted engagement with the terms and politics of ecofeminism, first coined in writing by French author and activist Françoise d'Eaubonne in her 1974 book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death)*. The manifesto outlines the revolutionary potential of environmentalism and feminism to liberate nature and suppressed peoples. Featuring video, photography, sculpture and archival material, the exhibition draws on d'Eaubonnes description of a political apparatus that fuses racial crapitalism, sexual orientation and ecological crisis to produce a dire futurity and history defined by patriarchal ignorance, domination, violence and unfettered greed. The exhibition also debuts Steiners film To Change Everything (2023), which ... More  One of Kyiv's oldest gardens brings peace to the war-wearyKYIV.- Just steps away from rush-hour traffic on Kyivs busy Taras Shevchenko boulevard, a handful of retirees pruned bushes in a quiet, green oasis. They started coming when the war broke out, said Natalia Belemets, the curator of this small botanical garden. They wanted to help. The A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden is one of Ukraines oldest. It has stood in the center of the capital, Kyiv, for nearly two centuries. Members of the gardens staff were encouraged to leave Kyiv or work remotely when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. But soon afterward, the need arose for seasonal work and garden maintenance, so volunteers organized on social media and came to help. This botanical garden is a pearl of Kyiv, a green jewel in the city center, Belemets said on a recent morning. It is important to keep it beautiful, she added, not only for us, but for the city and the country. ... More  With art colleges closing, a Chicago museum has an alternativeCHICAGO, IL.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and educator Romi Crawford have become partners in a new program that focuses on pairing instruction by artists of color with hands-on learning by students working alongside them. This intensive, semester-long course, which its founders announced on Monday, is called the New Art School Modality and will start in September at the museum. Traditional models of art education have become increasingly endangered as trusted schools from the San Francisco Art Institute to the Watkins College of Art in Nashville, Tennessee have fallen into bankruptcy or merged with larger institutions. These developments have been a wake-up call for some leaders in the art world, who are now financing alternative modes of instruction that sidestep degree-granting programs altogether. The ... More  Review: Ted Hearne's Sweet, Sad American ElegyKATONAH, NY.- Google search results broke my heart this weekend. Which was strange, because they didnt include anything overtly emotional. They were lines like: Yes, we are open. Call our consultants today. And: Reliable, seasonal work force. The kind of thing you get when you look up H-2A visa program, which grants temporary admission to the United States for agricultural workers. But set to soulful, almost retro, doo-wop-honeyed music by Ted Hearne in Farming, these bland fragments seemed to touch the very core of our country: its rapacious economy, its broken immigration system, its corroded politics. Performed at Caramoor in Westchester on Sunday by the 24 vocalists of the Crossing, the precise and luminous new-music choir led by Donald Nally, it was the sweetest, saddest song. A suggestive, chaotically ... More  Pokémon card draws $175,000 to lead Heritage's $1.8 million Trading Card Games AuctionDALLAS, TX.- More than two dozen bidders drove a Pokémon Family Event Kangaskhan Trophy Card Promo 115 Parent/Child Mega Battle PSA Trading Card Game GEM MT 10 (The Pokémon Company, 1998) to $175,000 a public auction record for the card to lead Heritage Auctions' Trading Card Games Signature® Auction to $1,794,314 July 7-8. More than 1,200 global visitors swarmed to the event, resulting in sell-through rates of 100% by value and 99.6% by lots sold. "This card is one of the rarest cards in the history of the Pokémon game, awarded during a 1998 tournament to teams on which parents partnered with their children and then won a certain number of battles," says Jesus Garcia, Trading Card Games Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions. "To find any example of this card is exceptionally difficult, but to find a GEM ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Gabriele Münter 
TARWUK 
Awol Erizku 
Leo Villareal
Flashback On a day like today, Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani was born July 12, 1884. Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (12 July 1884 - 24 January 1920) was an Italian-Jewish painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces, necks, and figures that were not received well during his lifetime but later found acceptance. In this image: Amedeo Modigliani, Reclining Nude (Céline Howard), 1918, Private collection, Geneva.
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