The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Wednesday, June 7, 2023


 
Put a bird on it? Ancient Egypt was way ahead of us.

An undated photo provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art shows a bird in the facsimile painting by Nina de Garis Davies of a 3,300-year-old Egyptian mural from the North Palace at Amarna. A 3,300-year-old palace mural offers an exquisitely detailed view of several bird species, and presents an artistic mystery. (Metropolitan Museum of Art via The New York Times)

by Franz Lidz


NEW YORK, NY.- A century ago, archaeologists excavated a 3,300-year-old Egyptian palace in Amarna, which was fleetingly the capital of Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten. Situated far from the crowded areas of Amarna, the North Palace offered a quiet retreat for the royal family. On the west wall of one extravagantly decorated chamber, today known as the Green Room, the excavators discovered a series of painted plaster panels showcased birds in a lush papyrus marsh. The artwork was so detailed and skillfully rendered that it was possible to pinpoint some of the bird species, including the pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) and the rock pigeon (Columba livia). Recently, two British researchers, Chris Stimpson, a zoologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and Barry Kemp, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge, set out to identify the rest of the birds depicted in the panels. An attempt to conserve the paintings ... More



The Best Photos of the Day
Best Photos of the Day
Serge Charchoune: The Early Years at Rosenberg & Co is the first posthumous solo exhibition of the artist’s work in New York. While under-recognized, Charchoune was a key member of the creative community that spurred the Modern Art movement in Paris in the early 20th century. The artist’s role and impact is firmly established in this museum-style exhibition and its accompanying scholarly catalogue.





The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation donates 186 artworks and objects to museums to honor his Centenary   The Paul Jarosz Collection of model trains goes up for bid at Turner Auctions + Appraisals   Hajime Sorayama now being represented by Almine Rech, Paris Matignon


Roy Lichtenstein, Head, 1980, From the Expressionist Woodcut series. Woodcut with embossing on Arches Cover paper. Sheet: 39 7/8 x 33 5/8 in. (101.3 x 85.4 cm). Edition of 50.

NEW YORK, NY.- Inaugurating its celebrations and commemorations to honor artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) on the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation today announced the first round of gifts of 186 artworks and reference materials to museums in the United States and abroad. Receiving prints, drawings, sculpture, paintings, and archival films by Lichtenstein are the Albertina in Vienna, Austria; the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine; the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Observances of the centenary already have begun, with the U.S. Postal Service ceremonially unveiling the first-day issue of a set of Roy Lichtenstein postage stamps on April 24, 2023. The centenary will begin officially on October 27, 2023, which would have been the artist’s 100th birthday.
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Lionel O Gauge BNSF Ice Cold Express Set. AC6000 Locomotive Reefer with Ice Cold "Smoke" Reefer with generator sounds. Reefer with interior load. Extended vision caboose. In original boxes and original set box.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Turner Auctions + Appraisals will be presenting The Paul Jarosz Collection of Model Trains on Sunday, June 11, 2023, at 10:30 am PDT. The auction features over 275 lots – almost all O gauge and mostly Lionel – from a Northern Californian train enthusiast who collected for decades. The sale presents a variety of desirable train offerings from the 1970s and later – several mint stock, many barely used, and most in their original boxes. These include locomotives, switchers, tenders, and cabooses; numerous groupings and sets; and a wide selection of train cars, including passenger, diner, baggage/mail (Madison and Heavyweight among them), box, freight, flat, hopper, tank, ore, rotary gondolas, husky stacks, autocarriers, and more. There are also Christmas and holiday trains and cars, sets and train cars for girls or boys, and Thomas & Friends offerings. Also on offer are many accessories: besides FasTrack and ... More
 

Hajime Sorayama, Untitled, 2021. Acrylic, digital print on canvas, 197 x 139.4 x 4 cm
77 1/2 x 55 x 1 1/2 in. © Hajime Sorayama - Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech.


PARIS.- Almine Rech has announced their representation of Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama in collaboration with Nanzuka. The gallery will present his second solo exhibition at Almine Rech Paris, Matignon opening on June 9, 2023. Sorayama’s extensive oeuvre that centers upon an on-going pursuit for beauty regarding the human body and the machine has continued to receive high international acclaim, and his signature body of work entitled, the “Sexy Robot” series (1978-) had served to established his world-wide reputation. Such depictions that integrate the aesthetic beauty of the female body into the context of the robot had come to present a significant influence on the subsequent formulation of robotic imagery. In 1999, he won the Good Design Award (Ministry of Trade and Industry) and the Media Arts Festival Grand Prize (Agency of Cultural Affairs) for his work with Sony on the concept design for their entertainment robot ‘ ... More


Dr. Stephanie Knappe promoted receives promotion at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art   'Portraits' a compilation of represented and guest artists dating to 1907 now on view at Offer Waterman   Robert W. Lovelace appointed next Chair of The J. Paul Getty Trust


Dr. Stephanie Fox Knappe, newly promoted Sanders Sosland Senior Curator, Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head, American Art.

KANSAS CITY, MO.- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has announced Dr. Stephanie Fox Knappe, formerly the Samuel Sosland Senior Curator, American Art, has been promoted to Sanders Sosland Senior Curator, Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head, American Art. Fox Knappe, who has focused her recent scholarly and curatorial work on Modern and Contemporary Art, will also be responsible for the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park. A curatorial assistant will be hired to support work in American, Modern, and Contemporary Art, and a search will be launched for a new curator of American Art, who will report to Fox Knappe. “Stephanie has done brilliant work during her stellar career at the Nelson-Atkins,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Director & CEO of the Nelson-Atkins. “This is an exciting opportunity for Stephanie ... More
 

Diarmuid Kelley, b.1972, Untitled 2, 2023. Oil on linen. Photo courtesy of Offer Waterman.

LONDON.- The exhibition 'Portraits' on view since June 1st at Offer Waterman, and continuing until the end of the month, brings together modern portraits from the gallery’s inventory, with newer works by represented artists and guest artists who are showing with us for the first time. The portraits date from 1907 to the present and encompass photography, printmaking, drawing, collage, painting and ceramics. While each work has been selected for its individual qualities, when brought together certain emotional themes and conceptual strategies emerge, connecting images made in different times and places. In several pictures the subject is a close relative of the artist. This is unsurprising given that family members are often near at hand and have become tolerant of modelling for their loved ones. We have David Hockney’s affectionate 1972 ink drawing of his father in a bow tie and a more ... More
 

Robert W. Lovelace.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust today announced Robert W. Lovelace as its next chair. As chair, Lovelace will lead the Board of Trustees and work closely with Getty's leadership to further its global mission of advancing the understanding and preservation of the visual arts. "Rob has a deep appreciation for the transformative power of art, and he brings extensive experience in board governance," said Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. "I will be thrilled to have his invaluable partnership and support as Getty continues to thrive as a generous, global force in fostering cultural understanding and preservation." Lovelace is vice chair, president and a director of the Capital Group Companies, as well as CEO of Capital Research and Management Company, a subsidiary of Capital Group. In addition, Rob is a portfolio manager for the American Funds ... More



Quinn's Fine & Decorative Arts auction offers artworks, modernist prints, furniture and sports cars   The Stiftung Arp e.V. gifts over 200 plasters by Sculptor Hans Arp to 10 museums worldwide   Graham Collins: 'Dog Walker's Manifesto' is now presenting at Sean Horton


Jean Leon Gerome (French, 1824-1904), bronze sculpture of Anacreon with the Infants Bacchus and Cupid, inscribed with foundry mark ‘F. BARBEDIENNE Fondeur’ and ‘RÉDUCTION MÉCANIQUE A COLLAS BREVETE. 22½ in high.

FALLS CHURCH, VA.- On Friday, June 9, 2023, Quinn’s Auction Galleries will conduct a beautifully curated Fine & Decorative Arts sale featuring American, European, Asian and modern art. All bidding will be online through a choice of platforms, as well as absentee or by phone; no in-person gallery bidding. The auction selection includes portraiture from the 17th to 19th centuries, an impressive marine painting by Montague Dawson, and a William Watson depiction of Highland cattle. Additionally, there are Modernist fine art prints, including an original lithograph by Elizabeth Catlett, and historical signatures and autographs of prominent figures such as Albert Einstein and Theodore Roosevelt. Other categories showcase antique and ... More
 

Hans Arp, Dance Finery in Motion, 1961/1970, bronze, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Photo: Sabine Walczuch, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023.

BERLIN.- The Estate of the German-French sculptor Hans Arp (1886–1966), The Stiftung Arp e.V., announces an unprecedented donation of 220 plasters to 10 museums worldwide. More than just a donation, it marks the initial step in a growing formation of international museums that will support each other in new models of cooperative research across diverse perspectives and expertise, the first of its kind for an artist’s estate. The gift marks a significant step forward in the international recognition of the artist’s legacy and contribution to the modern arts, with over half of the institutions receiving their first ever Arp work, including those in Wakefield (UK), Oslo (Norway) and The Hague (Netherlands). Initial museums included are Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX, US; Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, The Netherlands; Harvard ... More
 

Graham Collins, MindReader, 2023. 11 x 11 x 3 in.

NEW YORK, NY.- On June 1st Sean Horton (Presents) opened the presentation of the exhibiton Graham Collins — “Dog Walker's Manifesto” which will continue to July 1st, 2023. Graham Collins (b. 1980, Washington, DC) lives and works in Hurleyville, NY. He received a MFA from Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson, NY and a BFA from Corcoran College of Art, Washington, DC. Recent solo exhibitions include Bjørn & Gundorph, Aarhus, DK and Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Derek Eller Gallery, New York, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, and Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, among others. His work has been discussed in The New Yorker, ARTnews, and The New York Times, among others. Q&A with Graham Collins. Let’s first address the Painting in the room. Is this how we shall refer to them…as paintings? ... More


Maison Hannon, Art Nouveau House-Museum, now open to the public   'Catherine Goodman: Do You Remember Me?' opens at The Coach House Gallery at Waddesdon   Peabody Essex Museum appoints Sue Kim as Chief Philanthropy Officer


Maison Hannon - Juin 2023 © Photo Grégory De Leuuw.

BRUSSELS.- Great news for Belgian and foreign Art Nouveau enthusiasts: since June 1, 2023, the legendary Maison Hannon located at the junction of Avenue Brugmann and Avenue Jonction (Saint- Gilles) has been reborn as a "house-museum” under the name Maison Hannon. A place in perpetual motion. This new Art Nouveau architectural and museal centre will strengthen the cultural and tourist offer of this district in the upper part of Brussels, in a duo formula with the Horta Museum. The first phase of restoration is now complete: the ground floor, which faithfully recreates the world of the Hannons, and the first floor, a temporary exhibition space. The façade has also been restored. However, these renovations mark the first phase of a much larger project. Further phases of restoration will follow, and the public will be invited to take part in conferences, tours, meetings with craftsmen ... More
 

Catherine Goodman, Candy Rock, 2022; pastel on paper. © Catherine Goodman.

LONDON.- The Coach House Gallery at Waddesdon is now opening our major summer exhibition of paintings and drawings by the celebrated British artist Catherine Goodman (b.1961). Displayed in the Coach House Gallery and the Drawings Room of the Manor, the exhibition focuses on a new body of work exhibited for the first time at Waddesdon. At the Coach House Gallery, the centrepiece of the exhibition will be a monumental Frieze, of seven canvases, depicting a grove of ancient olive trees framed by the vivid blues of the sea and sky behind. It will be complemented by a triptych of a single tree captured through the day – morning, midday and evening – as well as further paintings and a suite of powerful pastel drawings. The site of these trees is an isolated point on the Greek Island of Corfu, which the artist has been visiting regularly ... More
 

Sue Kim, Chief Philanthropy Officer of Peabody Essex Museum.

SALEM, MASS.- Following an extensive national search, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has announced its appointment of Sue Kim as Chief Philanthropy Officer. With over two decades of experience, Kim has long been a leader in the field of global philanthropy. Known for her dedication to community building and for her ability to forge deep relationships, Kim will serve as chief fundraising strategist and lead a team that increases philanthropic and membership support for PEM's innovative programming, exhibitions and initiatives. "We are delighted to have Sue Kim join PEM at such an exciting and promising point in planning the museum’s future," said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM's Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. "Her values, vision and extensive experience align perfectly with PEM’s, and she will play a ... More




A 5-minute meditation with John Constable's 'Cornfield' | National Gallery



More News

Annet Gelink Gallery has opened the exhibition 'I'M AT 4%' by Ryan Gander
AMSTERDAM.- Annet Gelink Gallery has now opened I’m at 4%, Ryan Gander’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. For this exhibition, Gander filled the space with objects not generally classified as ‘art’. Whilst most objects on view are reminiscent of a gallery or museum space, they are usually overlooked. It is not the first time that supposed ‘non-art’ is displayed in an exhibition space, however, I'm at 4% is more a proposition for a new way of thinking than a comment on the much-discussed distinction between art and non-art. Gander shifts the focus to the parts that make up an exhibition instead of hiding them. As such, he enables an inventive and associative way of interacting with the works that draw on the viewer’s imagination in their quest for meaning. Upon entering the gallery, the visitor ... More

'Purple Prose: Queer Illiteralism & a Flowering Cacophony' now on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery
NEW YORK, NY.- Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present Purple Prose: Queer Illiteralism & a Flowering Cacophony, a summer group featuring works by Felix Beaudry, John Burtle, David Gilbert, Borna Sammak, Marisa Takal, and Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Taking its title from the literary term for an overly embellished writing style, Purple Prose is a queer celebration of the fanciful, the excessive, the transgressive. Organized by Kory Trolio, the exhibition embraces the artist’s rambling plight and the tortuous journey of queer being, foregrounding playful narratives of evolving selves. Beaudry, Burtle, Gilbert, Sammak, Takal, and Yearwood-Dan rely on their idiosyncrasies, sensibilities, and extravagances, all "over-responding" and "intolerably vivid”—to borrow a pair of phrases from “In Defense of Purple Prose,” Paul West’s influential 1985 essay advocating for ... More

Turning 100, the New Jersey Symphony sticks to home
NEWARK, NJ.- When the New Jersey Symphony was planning this season’s centennial celebrations, which come to a close this weekend, a question kept coming up: Would the orchestra be going to Carnegie Hall? After all, appearing at Carnegie — even if that means renting the hall — is a mark of excellence and validation, an exclamation point on a tour or a special occasion. Like a 100th birthday. While the New Jersey Symphony has given many Carnegie performances over the years, most recently in 2012, it decided this was not the right time to return. “Sure, we can go to Carnegie,” Gabriel van Aalst, the orchestra’s CEO, recently recalled thinking. “We could have hired it out; we could have done it. But I strongly felt that this major tentpole celebration should be us in our state. Our supporters are here, our audiences are here.” These were striking words ... More

Penicillin pioneer's Nobel Prize at Bonhams
LONDON.- Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928 was a revolutionary step in the treatment of bacterial infection. Its widespread practical application was not, however, immediately realisable. It took the work of Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in the late 1930s and early 1940s to isolate and concentrate the element in penicillin that kills the bacteria; and make it into an effective and manufacturable drug. All three men were awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Sir Ernst Chain’s Nobel Prize medal is to be sold at Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale in London on Wednesday 21 June 2023. It is estimated at £300,000-500,000. Ernst Chain (1906-1979) was born in Berlin into a prominent Jewish family. He graduated in chemistry from Friedrich Wilhelm University in 1930 but left Germany for the UK three ... More

Sarah Sze transforms Victorian waiting room in Peckham with large-scale installation
LONDON.- Acclaimed New York-based artist Sarah Sze has transformed a disused Victorian waiting room at Peckham Rye train station in south London with a new site-specific sculptural work, Metronome. Co-commissioned by Artangel, the exhibition, titled The Waiting Room, opened on Friday 19 May 2023, taking over a large, vaulted space above the main ticket office that has been boarded up for sixty years. Sze employs painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and video to build immersive works that explore our relationship to images, materiality, time and entropy. In recent years, she has created a new form of sculpture that offers an extraordinary model of our fragile world. These large-scale installations – which she refers to as Timekeepers – integrate everyday materials, torn photographs and a multitude of flickering videos in immersive ... More

Anna Shay, star of Netflix's 'Bling Empire,' dies at 62
NEW YORK, NY.- Anna Shay, an heiress and Los Angeles socialite who became a breakout star of the Netflix reality show “Bling Empire,” has died. She was 62. Her family confirmed her death to The Associated Press in a statement, which said the cause was a stroke. It was not immediately clear when or where she died. “It saddens our hearts to announce that Anna Shay, a loving mother, grandmother, charismatic star, and our brightest ray of sunshine, has passed away,” said the statement provided to the AP. “Anna taught us many life lessons on how not to take life too seriously and to enjoy the finer things. Her impact on our lives will be forever missed but never forgotten.” “Bling Empire,” which ran for three seasons on Netflix starting in 2021, centered on wealthy Asian and Asian American fun seekers in Los Angeles and was billed as the real ... More

Ancient human relatives buried their dead in caves, new theory claims
NEW YORK, NY.- In 2015, scientists reported an astonishing discovery from deep inside a South African cave: more than 1,500 fossils of an ancient hominin species that had never been seen before. The creatures, named Homo naledi, were short, with long arms, curved fingers and a brain about one-third the size of a modern human’s. They lived around the time the first humans were roaming Africa. Now, after years of analyzing the surfaces and sediments of the elaborate underground cave, the same team of scientists is making another splashy announcement: Homo naledi — despite their tiny brains — buried their dead in graves. They lit fires to illuminate their way down the cave, and they marked the graves with engravings on the walls. Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg ... More

Review: In 'The Comeuppance,' a bigger, chillier big chill
NEW YORK, NY.- School reunions, like work and family ones, are fertile ground for dramatists, offering an excuse to gather disparate characters with a catalog of ready-made conflicts. (There’s always someone who got dumped, dissed or disowned x years ago.) Add alcohol or pot to fuel the resurgence of old feelings and loosen the tongue, then let the heavy compression of the timeline, just a weekend or even a night, do the rest. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins juggles all of these elements in “The Comeuppance,” which opened Monday at the Signature Theatre. But if he’d merely updated the formula of “The Big Chill” — now ready for a 40th reunion — this world premiere production, directed by Eric Ting, would have been not much more than sentimental and funny. Instead, invoking the litany of violence and disaster that has punctuated the lives of its characters, ... More

Ama Ata Aidoo, groundbreaking Ghanaian writer, dies at 81
NEW YORK, NY.- Ama Ata Aidoo, a Ghanaian playwright, author and activist who was hailed as one of Africa’s leading literary lights as well as one of its most influential feminists, died Wednesday. She was 81. Her family said in a statement that she died after a brief illness. The statement did not specify the cause or where she died. In a wide-ranging career that included writing plays, novels and short stories, stints on multiple university faculties and, briefly, a position as a Cabinet minister in Ghana, Aidoo established herself as a major voice of post-colonial Africa. Her breakthrough play, “The Dilemma of a Ghost,” published in 1965, explored the cultural dislocations experienced by a Ghanaian student who returns home after studying abroad and by those of his Black American wife, who must confront the legacies of colonialism and slavery. It was one of several ... More

Review: In 'Days of Wine and Roses,' two souls lost in an ocean of booze
NEW YORK, NY.- If not for the unbridled drinking, it might easily have been a screwball comedy. Just look at them: Kirsten, blondly beautiful with a tolerant smile and a quick riposte; Joe, curly-haired cute but too arrogant to grasp that he’ll have to up his game to win this woman. Within moments of their meeting in 1950 in New York City, he bursts suavely into song — some presumptuous romantic blather about the two of them together under “a chapel of stars.” Whereupon she teases him right back down to earth. “Wow,” she says. “Who are you wooing? It can’t be me; you don’t know me.” This is the addiction-canon classic “Days of Wine and Roses,” though, so some of us already know them. In JP Miller’s luridly frank 1958 teleplay, starring Piper Laurie and Cliff Robertson, and in Miller’s somewhat defanged 1962 film adaptation, starring Lee Remick ... More


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Flashback
On a day like today, French painter and sculptor Paul Gauguin was born
June 07, 1848. Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 - 8 May 1903) was a French post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinctly different from Impressionism. In this image: Paul Gauguin. Figure Tahitienne circa 1892-3. Height 10 5/8 in. Wood. Inscribed with the monogram PGO (at the bottom).

  
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