| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, July 6, 2016 |
 |
| | Gerrit Dou's musical paintings reunited at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London | |
|
|
Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a Clavichord (detail).
LONDON.- For the first time in over 350 years, two of Gerrit Dous (1613-1675) finest paintings Woman playing a Clavichord and Lady Playing a Virginal, both created in c.1665, are being displayed together at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Dou in Harmony (5 July 6 November), the latest instalment in the Making Discoveries series, highlights how the Dutch Master interpreted the same subject but with varying changes to its mood and meaning. The two works were first shown together in Leiden in 1665, in an exhibition organised by Dous patron Johan de Bye; possibly the first ever monographic exhibition of a living artist. While Dulwichs own Woman Playing a Clavichord presents a soft and quiet scene, Young Lady Playing the Virginal depicts a much more hedonistic one, focusing on the pleasures of life. Both, however, communicate Dous meticulous working style and ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day French President Francois Hollande looks at a model of the Abu Dhabi Louvre museum within the inauguration of the Louvre museum's new site of "Pyramide" and "Sully", on 5 July, 2016 in Paris. The Louvre Abu Dhabi museum will open at the end of 2016, and many of France's grand museums, including the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay and the Palace of Versailles, will loan art to Abu Dhabi as part of a 30-year collaboration with the emirate worth one billion euros. Christophe Petit Tesson / POOL / AFP
| Blain/Southern now representing Bernar Venet | | Saint-Exupery's Spanish civil war press pass found | | Liz Claiborne Collection of Tribal Art debuts at Heritage Auctions | 
Bernar Venet, studio portrait with 83.5° Arc, 2006. All images courtesy Archives Bernar Venet, New York, NY.
LONDON.- The French conceptual artist rose to prominence in the late Sixties through the Minimalist art scene in New York. He moved to the city in 1967 and was instrumental in developing the radical new aesthetic alongside American artists Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt. It is Venets insatiable curiosity and desire to push both his own limits and the frontiers of art, that have led to him making a significant impact on the development of contemporary art. For example, his installation, Tas de Charbon, (Pile of Coal), 1963, is widely recognised as one of the first sculptures without structural form and also as the first recorded instance of an unmanipulated natural material presented as a work of art. Even whilst in military service in France, during his twenties, Venet created opportunities to experiment with painting and even produced sound performance pieces in the parade ground of his barracks. The impact this young Frenchman subsequently made ... More | | 
French writer, poet, and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Toulouse, France, 1933.
MADRID (AFP).- An amateur historian has found the press pass issued to French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery when he covered Spain's 1936-39 civil war for several French newspapers, officials said Tuesday. The pass was lost because it was not stored with others given other reporters such as German photojournalist Gerda Taro, the partner of war photographer Robert Capa, Maria Jose Turrion, the assistant head of Spain's Salamanca-based civil war archives told AFP. Dated April 16, 1937 the media accreditation for the author of "The Little Prince" was issued by the bureau in charge of propaganda for the losing Republican side in Spain's civil war. All journalists who worked in Republican territory were required to register with the department. Saint-Exupery was aged 36 at the time and he listed himself in the pass he filled out as being an aviator and "clerk" in what appears to be a mistaken translation into Spanish of "ecrivain", the French world for writer. ... More | | 
A Life-size Teotihuacan Stone Mask in Dense Stone, c. 450 - 650 AD. Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000.
DALLAS, TX.- The Liz Claiborne and Arthur Ortenberg Collection of Tribal Art and rarities from the American/Canadian Northwest headline Heritage Auction's summer Ethnographic Art: American Indian, Pre-Columbian & Tribal auction July 8 in Dallas. Single-owner collections across multiple collecting categories offer fresh-to-market discoveries for collectors, said Delia Sullivan, Director of Ethnographic Art at Heritage. It was a career highlight to work on the Liz Claiborne and Arthur Ortenberg collection because it spanned so many cultures and artistic styles," Sullivan said. Plainly stated, this collection has it all." The auction begins with American Indian Art offering examples of jewelry, paintings, period, original polychrome baskets and clothing. From the Pacific Northwest comes a Rare and Unusual Northwest Coast Feast Bowl, probably from the Nootka Indians, circa 1800 (est. $50,000-$70,000) and an Eskimo Carved Walrus Ivory Tusk from ... More |
|
| Top Chinese art collector to hand over museum, sell works | | Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions to offer autographs and memorabilia | | National Building Museum opens new installation: Icebergs | 
This file photo taken on June 19, 2007 shows the construction site of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing. FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP.
BEIJING (AFP).- One of the world's leading collectors of Chinese art, Belgian billionaire Guy Ullens, is to give up his eponymous Beijing museum -- among the capital's top art centres -- and sell his private collection, the organisation said. Ullens, a baron, is a foodstuffs magnate and longstanding Chinese art collector whose companies have included Weight Watchers. His father and uncle were both diplomats at Belgium's embassy in the country, and he is a friend of dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. His non-profit Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), a mainstay of Beijing's trendy 798 art district, exhibits both Chinese and international artists and has had more than four million visitors since it was founded in 2007, according to its website. In a joint statement by the museum and the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Ullens said he will hand over UCCA to a new benefactor ... More | | 
A group of touching letters from Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon during WWI.
LONDON.- An impressive collection of autographs and memorabilia will be offered at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions on 11 August 2016 at 1pm. The auction will take place at Bloomsbury House, 24 Maddox St, London W1S 1PP and estimates range from £100 to £7000 with a total sale value of £117,980. Of particular note is a collection of six autograph letters signed by Elizabeth the Queen Mother, penned in her late teens ('Elizabeth Lyon') and addressed to Private James Harding during the First World War. These letters give a beautiful insight into the warm and generous character of the teenage Queen Mother and her involvement in the war effort. Elizabeth met and nursed the wounded Private Harding at Glamis Castle, her familys Scottish home, that had been turned into a hospital at the outbreak of the war in 1914 and continued a warm correspondence with him for many years. These personal letters are touching, recalling games they used to pla ... More | | 
Installation view. Photo: Timothy Schenck.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Building Museum created a new, one-of-a-kind destination this summer when it unveiled ICEBERGS, designed by James Corner Field Operations. Representing a beautiful, underwater world of glacial ice fields spanning the Museums enormous Great Hall, the immersive installation emphasizes current themes of landscape representation, geometry, and construction. ICEBERGS opened to the public July 2September 5, 2016, part of the Museums imaginative Summer Block Party series. ICEBERGS features installation elements in a variety of sizes and built of re-usable construction materials such as scaffolding and polycarbonate paneling, a material commonly used in building greenhouses. A water line suspended 20 feet high bisects the vertical space, allowing panoramic views from high above the ocean surface and down below among the towering bergs. The tallest bergy bit, at 56 feet, reaches above the wat ... More |
|
| Wichita Art Museum opens Jesse Alexander photography exhibition on iconic Grand Prix races | | Exhibition of new works by Graham Durward, Irina Rozovsky, and Roger White on view at Peter Blum | | Summer Trees Casting Shade: Chinese Painting at Berkeley - The First Fifty Years | 
Jesse Alexander, Fangio, Maserati, Reims, 1958. Pigment-based archival print, 11 x 18 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
WICHITA, KS.- For more than 50 years, photographer Jesse Alexander traveled the world documenting motorsports most iconic races, legendary drivers, and memorable moments. This summer, the Wichita Art Museum presents an exhibition of Alexanders most famous images from classic races of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. As the European correspondent for Car and Driver magazine in the 1960s, Alexander documented races in France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. Taken as a group, his photographs create a visual history of racing, capturing the most famous races, drivers, and technical advancements in the field. Alexanders photographs capture the alluring cars as well as the entire range of emotions in the world of racingthe adrenaline of the speedway, the enthralled crowds, the laser-focus of the racing teams. After attending his first Grand Prix and standing ... More | | 
Installation view. All images courtesy the artists and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Blum is presenting a three-person exhibition of new works by Graham Durward, Irina Rozovsky, and Roger White. Exalted Position is on view at Peter Blum Gallery, 20 West 57th Street, New York from June 30 through September 2, 2016. The paintings and photographs in this exhibition depict objects and scenes from everyday life: an arrangement of silk flowers, a reflection of a wall in a hallway mirror, incense smoke in the corner of a room, a tree stump, a motorcyclist standing on a desolate road. Exalted Position suggests that something can be made or designated as importantthat an object or place can rise above its material status into the realm of the spiritual or the symbolic. Through their works, the artists in this exhibition offer entry points into the possibility of gleaning transcendent meaning out of mundane and ordinary moments. Graham Durward presents a group of paintings from several ... More | | 
Chen Hongshou, Scholar Instructing Girl Pupils in the Arts, early 17th century; ink and color on silk; 35 3/4 x 18 in.; BAMPFA, gift of Elizabeth Hay Bechtel, Class of 1925.
BERKELEY, CA.- Summer Trees Casting Shade celebrates BAMPFAs acclaimed Chinese painting collection with over fifty works dating from the twelfth to nineteenth centuries. The diverse subject matterfrom monumental landscapes to intimate views of quiet gardens, and from figures of lofty gentlemen to seldom-depicted street charactershighlights the richness of the collection. BAMPFA has long been known as home to a robust collection of Chinese paintings, thanks in large part to the late scholar, collector, and UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus James Cahill. Cahills personal collection forms the central core of our holdings, which he used to great effect in his nearly thirty years teaching at the University. The exhibition also includes other important gifts and purchases made over the last fifty years. The first Chinese ... More |
|
| Self-propelled: Exhibition on bicycle design and culture on view Dresden's Museum of Decorative Arts | | Impact of European Modernism on early 20th-century architecture in Palestine explored in major exhibition | | Grand Rapids Art Museum's Michigan Artist Series presents "Maureen Nollette: Honorable Ordinaries" | 
Hochrad, Design: Eugene Meyer, Hersteller: Eugene Meyer et Cie. Paris, circa 1875. Deutsches Fahrradmuseum Bad Bruckenau. Photo: Sarah Seefried.
DRESDEN.- To strike up the season the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Dresden is showing an exhibition in Schloss Pillnitz (Pillnitz Palace) on bicycle design and culture, titled Self-propelled or how the bicycle moves us. Two hundred years have passed since the invention of the hobby horse or running machine, yet the idea of being self-propelled by bicycle still has an enormously magnetic appeal, as curator Petra Schmidt demonstrates in her exhibition in the River Palace. She has picked out milestones in the history of bicycle development, including the historical velocipede, folding bikes, mountain bikes and racing bikes, also the required components and accessories lights, seats, helmets, etc. and highlights how technical innovations and aesthetic standards have influenced and shaped bicycle ... More | | 
Zina Dizengoff Circle, Tel Aviv - View from inside a balcony, overlooking the circle. Architect: Genia Averbouch, 1937. Courtesy of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM.- This summer, the Israel Museum opens a major exhibition tracing the influence of international modernism on the architectural vernacular that developed in Palestine during the British Mandate period (1917-1948). On view July 6 December 31, 2016, Social Construction: Modern Architecture in British Mandate Palestine explores not only the beauty and functionality of the new architecture that developed in the early 20th century in cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, but also the social values of the new land that were reflected in this style. Focusing on projects realized between 1930 and 1940, Social Construction features more than 60 archival photographs of the architectural icons of the time, together with roughly 40 interpretive drawings of these buildings, executed over 20 years. This exhibition extends the ... More | | 
Maureen Nollette, box pleats, 2016.
GRAAND RAPIDS, MICH.- Artist Maureen Nollette draws from personal experience to create her multi-media art, while also examining the underlying meanings attached to her materials, methods, and motifs. Working with paper, thread, mesh, plaster, and adhesive vinyl, her art references craft techniquessuch as quilting and sewingthat have traditionally been considered womens work. Like many contemporary artists, she is drawn to time-consuming, repetitive processes that can also serve as a meditative practice. With these materials and methods, Nollette explores the appealing regularity and simplicity of grid systems and their place within both modern art and traditional textile crafts. Quilts and other textile-based crafts have traditionally been considered of lesser value than the fine arts of painting and sculpture; as utilitarian practices lacking the intellectual content and uniqueness of the fine art object. Over the past fifty years increasing numbers of artists have ... More |
|
href='
| More News |
 Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions announces Beatrix Potter: Books and Works on Paper SaleLONDON.- Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions will hold an auction dedicated to Beatrix Potter and in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of her birth. The auction will take place on her birthday, 28 July 2016. The John Cawood Collection of Beatrix Potter forms a large share of the lots on offer and comprises nearly 100 pieces including First Editions and Works on Paper amassed by the collector since 1972. John Cawood is a resident of The Lake District and prominent member of the Beatrix Potter Society who developed a passion for Beatrix Potters tales as a child. Estimates for the collection range from £250 to £35,000. It was through a childhood friendship formed at his school tennis club with David Steedman (who grew up to become a third generation antiquarian bookseller) that John Cawood developed his passion for collecting which started by chance in 1972. John, ... More Mike Dargas' new series of portraits on view at Opera Gallery in LondonLONDON.- This summer, Opera Gallery introduces Mike Dargas to the London contemporary art scene. Mike Dargas new series of portraits is a challenge to oil painting as we know it and a confirmation of his mastery of the photorealistic techniques. The German artists love for precision, in an almost obsessive manner, brings models to life under the brush stroke and draws one into a dreamlike world where time has suspended. His breath-taking large-scale portraits all striking with their liveliness and expressionism will transport the public into a world of intimacy and sensuality; and the lingering images of his paintings will stay with them well after they have viewed the exhibition. Mike Dargas is rigorous in his commitment to produce excellence and demonstrates a level of skills that falls outside ones understanding of what is possible. Opera Gallery ... More Ikon tells the fascinating story of Jesse Bruton's artistic developmentBIRMINGHAM.- Jesse Bruton is one of the founding artists of Ikon. This exhibition (6 July 11 September 2016) tells the fascinating story of his artistic development, starting in the 1950s and ending in 1972 when Bruton abandoned painting for painting conservation. Having studied at the College of Art in Birmingham, Bruton was a lecturer there during the early 1960s, following a scholarship year in Spain and a stint of National Service. He went on to teach at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, 1966-69. He exhibited in a number of group shows in Birmingham, especially at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and had a solo exhibition at Ikon shortly after the gallery opened to the public in 1965, and again in 1967. Like many of his contemporaries, Bruton developed an artistic proposition inspired by landscape. Many of his early paintings were of the Welsh mountains ... More British artist Peter Liversidge's first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. on view in RidgefieldRIDGEFIELD, CONN.- For his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, currently on view at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, British artist Peter Liversidge wrote sixty proposals, including performances and physical artworks across a variety of mediums. Of these, twenty-four have been selected for realization andwith some help from local residentswill be presented at the Museum and in the surrounding neighborhood as part of Site Lines: Four Solo Exhibitions Engaging Place, which will be on view until February 5, 2017. For the past decade, Liversidges (born 1973, Lincoln, UK) practice has begun with the creation of conceptually based proposals. Typed on an old manual typewriter, these proposalscomplete with typographical errors and hand annotationsdescribe ideas from the practical to the far-fetched. The chosen proposals, guided by the concept ... More Exhibition dedicated to photographers who make African cities their subjects on view in PhiladelphiaPHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting an exhibition dedicated to several important photographers, little-known in the United States, who make African cities their subjects. Three Photographers/Six Cities takes an in-depth look at the work of artists Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigerian, born in England), Seydou Camara (Malian), and Ananias Léki Dago (Ivorian). Each has produced powerful series of images that portray African places in the midst of change or on the cusp of it. While their approaches vary, they are united by their concern for documentation and an intense layering of the past and present within their works. Peter Barberie, the Museums Brodsky Curator of Photographs, said: I brought the work of these three together because as a group they compel us to think about African cities in intriguing ways, juxtaposing one period of time against another, ... More Pasadena Museum of California Art announces the appointment of Jay Belloli as Interim Executive DirectorPASADENA, CA.- The Board of Directors of the Pasadena Museum of California Art announced today the appointment of Jay Belloli as Interim Executive Director of the Museum. Mr. Belloli will start in this position immediately, assisted by Erin Aitali, PMCA Director of Exhibitions, who will assume the role of Interim Associate Director, in addition to her current duties. Mr. Belloli is an independent contemporary art curator and writer who has organized numerous exhibitions at the PMCA. He is the curator of the Museums current exhibition Claire Falkenstein: Beyond Sculpture and co-curated the 2014 exhibition June Wayne: Paintings, Prints, and Tapestries with Dr. Betty Ann Brown. After working at the Crocker Art Museum for four years, Mrs. Aitali, who holds a BA and an MA in Art History, both from University of California, Davis, has risen through the ranks of the PMCA ... More Giving Time to Time: Manon de Boer presents six film pieces at the SecessionVIENNA.- Manon de Boer primarily works with film, and her art often subjects the medium itself to critical scrutiny; for example, she insistently probes the interplay between image and sound and questions the power of pictures as well as their claim to truth. Personal narrative and musical interpretation figure as both subjects and methodological registers of de Boers filmic portraits, which she composes as slow-paced fluid sequences of images. Most of the protagonists of her films are actors and actresses, musicians, dancers, and intellectuals. The characters gradually assume definite shape as their recollections unfold, emerging into view like photographic prints in the darkroom, and even the fully formed picture conceals at least as much as it reveals. In de Boers work, what one might describe as the fragmentary or inconsistent quality of narrative not only draws attention ... More Smokey Robinson honored by US Library of CongressWASHINGTON (AFP).- The US Library of Congress on Tuesday named Motown legend Smokey Robinson the latest winner of its Gershwin Prize, which honors living composers for their contributions to music. The 76-year-old R&B singer has been the force behind dozens of hits over his career, including "The Tracks of My Tears," "I Second That Emotion" and "Being with You." "His rich melodies are works of art -- enduring, meaningful and powerful. And he is a master at crafting lyrics that speak to the heart and soul, expressing ordinary themes in an extraordinary way," acting Librarian of Congress David Mao said in a statement. "It is that quality in his music that makes him one of the greatest poetic songwriters of our time," he said. Robinson, who began as the frontman of the Detroit band The Miracles, remains active and performed Monday in Washington for Independence ... More Turner Contemporary announces appointment of Clive Stevens as new Chair MARGATE.- Turner Contemporary has become one of the leading galleries in the UK. In April 2016, the gallery marked its fifth anniversary and on 7 June celebrated two million visits. With this new chapter in the gallerys history, Turner Contemporary is very proud to announce the appointment of Clive Stevens as our new Chair. Clive Stevens, is a founding trustee and has been Vice Chair of the gallery since 2008. Clive qualified as a Chartered Accountant and became a partner in Kreston Reeves in 1989. He was subsequently promoted to Managing Director of the firm in 1995 and held that post until the end of 2013. He currently serves as the firms Chairman. Under his leadership, the firm has grown to become one of the Top 25 accounting firms in the UK employing 500 people with a turnover in excess of £30 million. Clives appointment was agreed at a recent Board meeting ... More Mellon grant puts African art at center of research and conservation projectRICHMOND, VA.- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts a $1.5 million grant that will support in-depth technical examination, conservation, and art historical studies focused on the museums stellar African art collection. This significant award will help launch VMFAs newly conceived center for advanced study in art conservation, designed to bring conservators and curators together with scientists, art scholars, and global experts for focused collaborative research. We are thrilled to have received this recognition from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Chief Conservator and Senior Deputy Director for Collections Stephen Bonadies said. This generous gift enables us to initiate an ambitious research program that will enhance scholarship and understanding of our world-class African Art collection and be the pilot for the new conservation ... More New mosaics discovered in synagogue excavations in GalileeCHAPEL HILL, NC.- Excavations this summer in the Late Roman (fifth century) synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village in Israels Lower Galilee, have revealed stunning new mosaics that decorated the floor. The excavations are directed by Jodi Magness, a professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill College of Arts and Sciences, along with Assistant Director Shua Kisilevitz of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The mosaic panels decorating the floor of the synagogues nave (center of the hall) portray two biblical stories: Noahs Ark and the parting of the Red Sea. The panel with Noahs Ark depicts an ark and pairs of animals, including elephants, leopards, donkeys, snakes, bears, lions, ostriches, camels, sheep and goats. The scene of the parting of the Red Sea shows Pharaohs soldiers being swallowed by large fish, surrounded by overturned ... More |
|
href='
Flashback On a day like today, German painter George Grosz died July 06, 1959. George Grosz (July 26, 1893 - July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic before he emigrated to the United States in 1933. In this image: Artist George Grosz poses in New York City on Oct. 7, 1946.
|
|
|
