| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, July 29, 2020 |
 |
| | A clue to Van Gogh's final days is found in his last painting | |
|
|
Post card rue Daubigny, Auvers-sur-Oise covered with the painting Tree Roots (1890) by Van Gogh, ©arthénon.
by Nina Siegal
AMSTERDAM (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- One hundred and thirty years ago, Vincent van Gogh awoke in his room at an inn in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and went out, as he usually did, with a canvas to paint. That night, he returned to the inn with a fatal gunshot wound. He died two days later, on July 29, 1890. Scholars have long speculated about the sequence of events on the day of the shooting, and now Wouter van der Veen, a researcher in France, says he has discovered a large piece of the puzzle: the precise location where van Gogh created his final painting, Tree Roots. The finding could help to better understand how the artist spent his final day of work. We now know what he was doing during his last day before he was shot, said van der Veen, the scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute, a nonprofit established to preserve the artists tiny room at the Auberge Ravoux, the inn in Auvers-sur-Oise. We know that he spent all day painting this painting, van der Veen noted. Tree ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Artemis Gallery will hold its Ancient / Ethnographic From Around the World sale on Thu, Jul 30, 2020 9:00 AM CDT. The sale features ancient art from Egypt, Greece, Italy and the Near East, as well as Asian, Pre-Columbian, Native American, African / Tribal / Oceanic, Spanish Colonial, Russian Icons, Fine art, much more. In this image: Anatolian Bronze Bull w/ Gold Leaf Face Mask. Estimate $7,000 - $10,000.
|
|
|
| 
|
 | | New auction record for a self-portrait by Dutch Master Rembrandt Van Rijn | | Painting by Nicolai Fechin fetches $262,500 at Andrew Jones Auctions | | Banksy triptych raises $3 million for Palestinian hospital | 
Rembrandt Van Rijn, Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat, 1632, est £12-16 million ($15-20 million). Photo: Antony Jones. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Today in Sothebys London saleroom, a self-portrait by the great Dutch master, Rembrandt van Rijn realised £14,549,400/ $18,722,168, setting a new auction record for a self-portrait by the artist at auction. Chased by six determined bidders, Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat soared above its pre-sale estimate of £12-16 million in Sothebys pioneering cross-category evening sale, eclipsing the previous record of £6.9 million set for a self-portrait by the artist in 2003. An artist captivated with his own image, Rembrandt recorded his own physiognomy in no fewer than 80 paintings, etchings and drawings, throughout almost the entire span of his career. Dated to 1632, this self-portrait of the artist aged 26-years, was created at a pivotal moment in his life, when he was just establishing himself in Amsterdam and enjoying new-found commercial success. ... More | | 
Oil on canvas painting by Nicolai Fechin (Russian, 1881-1955), titled Still life with flowers and fruit (circa 1925), signed lower right, 20 inches by 24 inches ($262,500).
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Andrew Jones Auctions achieved phenomenal results across multiple categories in its Design for the Home & Garden auction held online, July 26th. The auction was 95 percent sold and grossed $1.6 million. The top lot was a spectacular still life oil on canvas painting by Nicolai Fechin (Russian, 1881-1955). It changed hands for $262,500. Bidding for the circa 1925 painting, titled Still life with flowers and fruit, opened above the high estimate figure of $100,000 and quickly climbed to its final selling price. Fechin was a master of color and composition. The painting was from the collection of Mary and Lou Silver from Indian Wells, California. Most lots in the 261-lot auction were from the Silvers outstanding collection. The Silver collection included important fine art, sculpture, micro mosaics, antiques, art glass, ... More | | 
Rembrandt to Richter Live Auction. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON (AFP).- A triptych of a Mediterranean shipwreck donated by British street artist Banksy raised nearly $3 million on Tuesday at a Sotheby's auction held to raise funds for a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank. The trio of highly stylised paintings by the mysterious artist shows orange life vests and an oar washed up on a rocky shore. They first appeared in the Walled Off Hotel that Banksy helped set up in the Israeli-occupied city of Bethlehem in 2017. The "Mediterranean Sea View 2017" was seen as Bansky's stern judgement on Europe's hesitant response to the migrant crisis that peaked some five years ago. Tens of thousands are thought to have died as European countries on the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas turned away people fleeing violent conflicts across North Africa and the Middle East. "This work juxtaposes an historic fine art genre with grim contemporaneity," Sotheby's said in its sales listing for the work. ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | The Càtedra Miró presents Painting, Poetry, the fourth volume of the "Miró Documents" collection | | The Met acquires commissioned works by Wangechi Mutu | | House votes to create a National Museum of the American Latino | 
The publication delves into the important contribution the painter has made to contemporary art with his signature fusion of painting and poetry. Photo: Pep Herrero.
BARCELONA.- Joan Miró drew no distinction between a literary poem and a visual poem and considered himself a painter-poet. In a perpetual process of synaesthesia and hybridization, Miró claimed to apply colours like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. Over the course of his life, poetry (and also music) was a source of inspiration and a form of experimenting to take poetry beyond its conventional framework. An enthusiastic reader, especially of poetry, Miró befriended and collaborated creatively with many of the best poets of the 20th century, from Paul Eluard and René Char to Robert Desnos and Tristan Tzara, as well as J.V. Foix, Salvador Espriu, Joan Brossa and Salvat-Papasseit. In his words, I spent a lot of time with poets because I felt it necessary to transcend the plastic to arrive at poetry. Edited by Rémi Labrusse and Robert Lubar Messeri, Painting, Poetry / Peinture, ... More | | 
Artist Wangechi Mutu with one of her creations, "Flying Root I," in her studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 26, 2019. Sunny Shokrae/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the acquisition of new works by Wangechi Mutu. Two sculptures, The Seated I (2019) and The Seated III (2019) have been acquired from Mutu's series of four bronze sculptures collectively titled The NewOnes will free Us, originally created for the Museum's inaugural commission for The Met Fifth Avenue facade. Mutu's sculpture series for the facade was unveiled in September 2019, and the sculptures have continued to preside over the Museum's plaza throughout the pandemic-induced shutdown. They will remain on view until early November 2020. The Seated I (2019) has been acquired thanks to the generosity of Museum Trustee Cynthia Hazen Polsky and the Hazen Polsky Foundation Fund; the acquisition of The Seated III (2019) was supported by the Women and the Critical Eye Gifts and Janet Lee Kadesky Ruttenberg Fund, in memory of William S. Lieberman. Max Hollein, Director of The Met, said: ... More | | 
Visitors walk around the National Mall in Washington, March 19, 2020. Alyssa Schukar/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Supporters of a National Museum of the American Latino are the closest they have ever been to gaining a spot on the National Mall. On Monday, the House passed a bill to establish such a museum within the Smithsonian, delivering a significant victory to a yearslong effort to build an institution devoted to the history and contributions of Latino Americans. Legislation establishing such a museum was first introduced in 2011, but this was the first time it secured House approval, and it did so by voice vote with bipartisan support. Prospects for a Senate version of the bill are unclear, but its Republican lead sponsor, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, said that he hopes that the chamber will be able to make the museum a reality. In the past, the proposal has met with opposition from legislators concerned about budget pressures who said the Smithsonian should focus on improving the museums that it ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | Adam Budak to become new Director of the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover | | The George Eastman Museum offers a glimpse into its film collection | | Sotheby's to present 'Thomas Molesworth: Designing the American West' | 
Until recently, Budak was artistic director of the National Gallery in Prague.
HANOVER.- The Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover has a new director: Adam Budak will take on this role starting on 1 November 2020. Until recently, Budak (54) was artistic director of the National Gallery in Prague. The decision to select the Polish-born art historian and curator was unanimously made by an eight-member jury of specialists. With Adam Budak, the Kestner Gesellschaft is gaining an outstanding, internationally active expert on contemporary art. His many years of experience as a director and his visionary ideas are the ideal qualifications for this position. We are confident that Adam Budak will provide new impetuses for the future and further enhance the profile of the institution, said Hinrich Holm, chairman of the Kestner Gesellschaft and head of the jury of specialists, which also included Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior (director of the Museum Ludwig) and Nicolas Schafhausen (curator). Adam Budak added: The Kestner Gese ... More | | 
Motion Picture Industry Red Cross War Fund Week Trailer (US 1945), directed by Jacques Tourneur.
ROCHESTER, NY.- The George Eastman Museum recently launched an online project that provides access to a selection of digitized films from its moving image collection. To date, the museum has released 23 digitized films, including groundbreaking documentaries by Leo Hurwitz, a group of 13 rare screen tests from the David O. Selznick Collection (among them a screen test of the recently deceased Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland for her signature role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind), and a Rochester-based film about Eastman Kodak Company. Most of the digitized films are accompanied by an introduction. Free access is available here. As a museum our goal is not only to provide access to our collections, but also to exhibit works of art in their original formats. Yet, as a result of pervasive isolation, online resources have become particularly valuable and appreciated, said Peter Bagrov, PhD, curator ... More | | 
The sale offers 55 of his rarest & most important forms, all emerging from a private collection in Jackson, Wyoming. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys will present Thomas Molesworth: Designing the American West as a highlight of our summer sales of 20th Century Design in New York. The 30 July auction offers 55 works of iconic Molesworth furniture, together emerging from a private collection held in a ranch in Jackson, Wyoming. Celebrated for establishing an unabashed Western interior design aesthetic in the early 1930s, Thomas Molesworths genius was rooted in his remarkable ability to create an idiosyncratic style that inspired an entire generation of Western vernacular furniture design. Molesworths style is rustic yet highly refined. The sophistication and superb craftsmanship of Molesworths designs make his furniture timeless and versatile to a wide range of contexts. Exhibiting Molesworths characteristic burled wood, colorful rich leathers and dynamic Chimayo ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | Malta's contemporary art museums reaches new milestone | | Exquisite gilt copper alloy figure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara achieves top lot at Bonhams sales | | The Invisible Man, Horror of Dracula help scare up $2.3 million during Heritage Auctions' Movie Posters event | 
This new dynamic art space is being constructed on the site of the Old Ospizio fortifications in the Floriana district, which is undergoing major restoration to accommodate the new building.
FLORIANA.- Construction is currently underway for MICAS, Maltas first museum for international contemporary art, scheduled to open in Floriana in 2022. With its launch, Malta is about to take a great step forward and become a proactive player in the contemporary art world. This new dynamic art space is being constructed on the site of the Old Ospizio fortifications in the Floriana district, which is undergoing major restoration to accommodate the new building. MICAS will bring major international exhibitions and collections to Malta for the first time as well as showcasing the work of contemporary Maltese artists. The project is an important legacy of Valletta European Capital of Culture 2018. During its development, MICAS has launched important site-specific installations by internationally acclaimed artist including Ugo Rondinone and Pierre Huyghe. With its wide- ... More | | 
A Gilt Copper Alloy Figure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara. Khasa Malla, circa 1300-1350. Price realized: $956,075. Photo: Bonhams.
NEW YORK, NY.- From July 21 to 26, Bonhams New York and Los Angeles held four auctions of Asian Art Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Fine Japanese and Korean Art including property from the Collection of Drs Edmund and Julie Lewis, Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art, and Refined Pursuits: Fine and Decorative Chinese Art. The top lot of the four sales was a Gilt Copper Alloy Figure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara, Khasa Malla, circa 1300-1350, which realized $956,075 from the sale of Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art. It was estimated at $200,000-300,000. Edward Wilkinson, Global Head of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, commented: The result achieved by the Shadakshari demonstrates that the markets uninterrupted appetite for quality and rarity continues despite the challenges of travel restrictions. In addition, the second highest lot, a Late Chola, South Indian ... More | | 
The Invisible Man (Universal, 1933). Fine/Very Fine on Linen. One Sheet (27" X41") Style A Teaser, Gene Schwalm Artwork. Sold for: $228,000.
DALLAS, TX.- The Invisible Man made his presence known during Heritage Auctions Movie Posters event held July 25-26, with a scarcely seen teaser for the 1933 horror classic scaring up $228,000 to help lead the weekends sale past the $2.3 million mark. The weekends auction was a blockbuster event, with more than 1,700 bidders on HA.com vying for the chance to own some of cinemas most elusive and cherished advertisements for itself. The sale was very active, said Grey Smith, Heritage Auctions Director of Vintage Posters. A large number of bidders participated, there were strong results overall and some records set. Most of the weekends offerings exceeded pre-auction estimates among them the Swedish one sheet for Casablanca, which nearly tripled its pre-event estimate when it sold for $55,000. Indeed, Casablancas enduring appeal resulted, too, in the sale of two chairs from R ... More |
|
Studio Visit with Artist Hugo Wilson | Christie's
|
|
| |
| | More News |
 Surprising results in H&H Classics saleLONDON.- The charming 1937 Fiat 500 Topolino or Little Mouse consigned by David Mitchell, a 92-year-old classic car enthusiast from Lewes, East Sussex sold for £19,550, three times its estimate, at the latest H&H Classics sale on July 22. The little car is just like the one which featured strongly in that superb 1953 film Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. It was estimated to sell for £5,000 to £7,000 but after some fierce bidding made £19,550. The sight of a six foot plus Gregory Peck endeavouring to get into the back of a Topolino was a great sequence, says John Markey of H&H Classics. In the film, Audrey Hepburn is a bored and sheltered princess who escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman, Gregory Peck in Rome. The little Fiat adds greatly to the charm of this story. The Topolino was one ... More Museum releases recorded soundscapes of London alongside new recordings of London in lockdownLONDON.- The first ever recorded soundscape of London was captured in September 1928 as part of a campaign led by the Daily Mail calling for noise restrictions on London's increasingly loud streets. Now, almost 100 years later, as part of the Museum of Londons ongoing collecting COVID project, the same five locations were re-captured in collaboration with String and Tins to record, in contrast, the rare sound of an extraordinarily silent London in lockdown. Both the historic and modern recordings are available to listen to on the Museum of Londons website here. The 1928 recordings, now digitised, are available to listen to in entirety for the very first time. The five central London locations recorded in both September 1928 and May 2020 were Whitechapel East, St George's Hospital (Hyde Park ... More House of Illustration announces ambitious £8m New River Head projectLONDON.- House of Illustration, the UKs only gallery and education space dedicated to illustration and graphics, has announced an £8m project to redevelop New River Head in Islington, London into the worlds largest public arts space dedicated to illustration. The renamed Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration will be a new cultural landmark for London and the UK that will establish illustration as an art form to be reckoned with. It will also become a permanent home for the archive of the organisations founder, Sir Quentin Blake, with selections from his archive of more than 40,000 works on permanent display. Work is scheduled to begin in June 2021, with the organisation repurposing four 18th and 19th century industrial buildings and half an acre of surrounding land into exhibition galleries, an education centre, event spaces, plus retail and catering ... More Hyper-linked: An exhibition in the digital realm by seven contemporary Australian artistsSYDNEY.- The Art Gallery of New South Wales is presenting Hyper-linked, an online exhibition of Together In Art New Work by seven contemporary Australian artists. Created specifically for the digital space, the exhibition confronts the realities and tensions between our private selves and our online personas. Social media and the internet have shaped societal patterns since their inception and today, in an age of physical distancing, they increasingly serve as a platform for connection. The works showcased in Hyper-linked consider the seemingly contradictory experience of physical remoteness within a context of digital hyper-connectivity. Artists Heath Franco, Brian Fuata, Matthew Griffin, Amrita Hepi, Kate Mitchell, JD Reforma and Justene Williams were supported by Together In Art New Work, an initiative of the Gallerys social project Together In Art, to ... More National Portrait Gallery calls for entries to Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020LONDON.- Entry is now open for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020, the international photographic portrait competition, which celebrates and promotes the very best in contemporary portrait photography. The National Portrait Gallery, London is inviting submissions from Tuesday 28 July until 17.00 on Tuesday 22 September 2020. This years prize will be displayed as a virtual exhibition on the National Portrait Gallerys website, in order to reach a wide international audience and ensure that the competition is able to continue as planned during the current Coronavirus pandemic. The photographs will be displayed in a virtual gallery space that replicates the rooms of the National Portrait Gallery, enabling online visitors to view the portraits collectively, as well as exploring each individual work in more detail. The popular Peoples Pick ... More Venice Film Festival 'saved' with focus on Italian fareROME (AFP).- The Venice Film Festival will put the accent on homegrown Italian cinema in September among its eclectic offering of international films, as the prestigious festival in its 77th year faces unprecedented challenges in the time of coronavirus. In a chaotic year that has seen the cancellation of rival competitions, shuttered film production and closed movie theatres across the globe, the festival in Italy's beloved canal city will proceed from September 2 to 12 with 18 films vying for the top award, the Golden Lion. Auteurs with films in the main competition hail from Mexico, Azerbaijan, Israel, Russia, Iran, Japan, and India, among other countries, organisers said on Tuesday. "Cinema has not been overwhelmed by the tsunami of the pandemic but retains an enviable vitality," said festival director Alberto Barbera. At the same time, he warned that ... More Swiss Alps alive with sound of music at drive-in festivalCHARMEY (AFP).- Honking horns and flashing headlights made for an original form of applause Sunday at a Swiss classical music festival staged before a drive-in audience in the heart of the Alps. The Festival du Lied, which for nearly two decades has brought symphonies and concertos to the region, hit on the drive-in format as a way to allow concertgoers to attend safely during the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, the second day of the week-long festival, dozens of cars filled a large lot in the idyllic village of Charmey in western Switzerland with the Alps providing a dramatic backdrop. With their windows rolled down, some occupants closed their eyes while others were brought to tears by renowned tenor Ilker Arcayurek's moving rendition of Schubert's Fruhlingsglaube. "This is an extraordinary concept," retiree Willy Boder said through ... More Drone music, stretched and slicedNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In late 2017, when David First announced a drone-music performance in Brooklyn in New York City, I circled the date on my calendar. The quality of Firsts music in that style was already well known, thanks to his 2010 album Privacy Issues (droneworks 1996-2009). So I thought Id be hearing something like the sneakily morphing pieces on that recording albeit with more live instrumentation on top of his usual electronics, since this performance included his latest ensemble, The Western Enisphere. But I should have known better: First rarely works by simple addition or subtraction. Throughout the more than four decades of his career, he has jumped adroitly between styles and scenes, while reinvigorating those scenes from the inside. If his punk trio The Notekillers was little heard in late-1970s New York, ... More The Hepworth Wakefield reopens 1 AugustWAKEFIELD.- The Hepworth Wakefield will reopen its doors to the public on 1 August 2020 Yorkshire Day. Initially the gallery will be open Weds-Sun, 10am-5pm. On display will be the popular and critically acclaimed Bill Brandt / Henry Moore exhibition, extended until 1 November 2020. Advance booking is available now and is strongly recommended. Six free galleries present works from Wakefields art collection. The displays include a gallery of recent contemporary acquisitions, from sculpture by Helen Marten, winner of both the Turner Prize and Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, and Veronica Ryan to a painting by Lisa Brice. Two galleries are dedicated to Barbara Hepworth and her creative process, including a full-sized plaster cast for her famous Winged Figure, as well as her work bench and tools. Another gallery explores work by Hepworths friends ... More Monumental sculpture takes root in Chatsworth's ArcadiaBAKEWELL.- Designed to appear as if seeping from the ground and flowing down a woodland slope, Natural Course has emerged as the new, monumental sculptural centrepiece of Chatsworths biggest garden transformation for nearly 200 years. Created from more than 100 tonnes of local stone, Natural Course is made up of tens of thousands of individual, hand placed pieces using a traditional dry-stone walling method. The artist Laura Ellen Bacon designed the sculpture and worked with a small team of local dry stone wallers to build it in a previously undeveloped, 15-acre area called Arcadia. Pushing the boundaries of dry stone walling technique, Natural Course was assembled by coordination of hand and eye to give the great mass of stone a sense of slow, gradual movement over the land, suggesting an innate life force to the hard ... More John Saxon, a star of 'Enter the Dragon,' is dead at 83NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- John Saxon, who skipped school one day as a teenager and stumbled into a long film and television career that included recurring roles on Falcon Crest and other series and a featured role opposite Bruce Lee in the martial-arts classic Enter the Dragon in 1973, died on Saturday in Brentwood, Tennessee. He was 83. His son, Antonio, confirmed his death but did not specify a cause. In a career that began in the 1950s, when he often played teenage-heartthrob types, Saxon accumulated almost 200 film and TV credits, including Enter the Dragon, in which he played a gambler competing in a martial arts tournament. That film gave him a chance to employ the martial arts skills he had been honing for years, but the work, he told Black Belt magazine, was harder than he expected. We might do a fight sequence 10 ... More |
|
Flashback On a day like today, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh died July 29, 1890. Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 - 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died at the age of 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. In this image: Jussi Pylkkanen views Van Gogh's "A Pair of Shoes," as it went on display in the Christie's auction rooms in London, Friday, September 10, 1999. The rarely exhibited and little known painting is the missing link in an important series of five closely related pictures by Van Gogh between 1886 and 1887.
|
|
| |
|
© 1996 - 2020