| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, May 20, 2020 |
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| | Researchers find ancient rooms under Jerusalem's Western Wall | |
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Tehila Sadiel, an archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority, shows a mug made of stone dating to the Jewish Second Temple period (6th century BCE-1st century CE), discovered at a subterranean system hewn in the bedrock beneath a 1400-year-old building near the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, on May 19, 2020. MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP.
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israeli researchers on Tuesday unveiled mysterious underground rooms with an unknown function, carved out of the bedrock near where the Second Jewish Temple is believed to have stood two millennia ago. The discovery was made when Israeli students from a pre-military college were excavating a large, lavish Byzantine-era structure from some 1,400 years ago, below the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem's Old City. Like other sites inhabited for millenia, parts of Jerusalem contain deep layers of archaeology, the result of societies building on top of earlier structures rather that expending resources to clear ruins. Below the Byzantine structure's mosaic floor, the student diggers hit rock bottom. "At first we were very disappointed because we found we hit the bedrock, meaning that the material culture, the human activity here in Jerusalem ended," said Barak Monnickendam-Givon, co-director of the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority. But upon further examination, the researcher ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Artemis Gallery will hold an Antiquities | Asian | Ethnographic Art sale on Thu, May 21, 2020 9:00 AM CDT. Featuring classical antiquities, ancient and ethnographic art from cultures encompassing the globe. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Near Eastern, Asian, Pre-Columbian, Native American, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Spanish Colonial, Russian, Fossils, Fine Art, more! In this image: Byzantine 18K Gold Pendant, Glass Inlays, Pearls, Bird. Est: $5,500 - $8,250
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 | | $1.6 million still life by Giorgio Morandi marks new record price for any work offered in an online sale at Sotheby's | | U.S. art galleries project 73% loss in Q2 revenue due to COVID-19 developments | | Auschwitz renovation uncovers objects hidden by prisoners | 
Giorgio Morandi, Natura morta (Still Life), 1951 (detail). Estimate $1/1.5 million. Sold for $1.6 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys first-ever Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale Online concluded yesterday afternoon, achieving $9.9 million. Attracting an average of 3.5 bidders for every lot sold, the auction saw competition from more than 30 countries, with 29% of all buyers new to Sothebys. The sale was led by Giorgio Morandis Natura morta (Still Life) from 1951, which realized $1.6 million the highest price for any lot sold in an online sale at Sothebys. The previous record was held by Friedrich von Hayeks Nobel Prize for Economic Science, which sold for $1.51 million in 2019. In the last week, Sothebys Online Day Sales of Contemporary Art (closed 14 May) and Impressionist & Modern Art together achieved $23.6 million, during what would traditionally be a major moment in the international art market calendar. Their results represent ... More | | 
Respondents by Geographic Location.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Art Dealers Association of America reports that art galleries across the U.S. project an overall gross revenue loss of 73% in the second quarter of 2020 and have already seen an overall 31% loss in revenue for quarter one, as a result of developments from COVID-19. While 85% of full-time gallery staff have retained their positions, 74% of the contractors that galleries had regularly engaged prior to March 13, 2020 are no longer employed. The data is drawn from a survey of leading galleries across the United States, conducted by the ADAA between April 15 and May 4, 2020, to assess the impact of COVID-19 on art galleriesthe art worlds core group of small businesseswhich play a critical role in the cultural vitality and economic health of the arts and culture ecology in the U.S. and globally. 168 galleries across the country participated in the survey, spanning members of the industrys leading ... More | | 
This file photo taken on December 5, 2019 shows the main gate with the inscription "Arbeit macht frei" (literally in English: "work makes (one) free") at the entrance to the former Auschwitz German Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland. JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP.
VIENNA (AFP).- Renovation works at Auschwitz have turned up spoons, forks, cobbler's tools and other objects hidden beneath a chimney flue -- some that might have been used to plan escapes, a national fund said Tuesday. The objects, which also include knives, hooks, scissors, pieces of leather and parts of shoes, were found last month in block 17 of the main camp, Austria's National Fund for Victims of National Socialism said. The fund commissioned the renovation and restoration works in the block at the former concentration camp in Poland in preparation for an exhibition. "These utensils, kept out of sight of the SS guards, were perhaps used by shoemakers, or to prepare an escape ... More |
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| | Beate Wheeler: 1970s transition from mark making to color painting featured at David Richard Gallery | | Powerful portrait of Ursula von Rydingsvard to have NYC premiere in Film Forum's Virtual Cinema | | Iconic Warhols & fresh-to-market works by blue chip artists achieve over 1 million at Freeman's | 
Beate Wheeler, Untitled (BW-5229), 1972. Oil on canvas, 48 x 42 © Beate Wheeler Estate, Courtesy David Richard Gallery.
NEW YORK, NY.- David Richard Gallery is presenting its first solo exhibition of paintings by Beate Wheeler (1932 2017). The presentation includes 13 paintings that focus on her studio work leading up to and through the 1970s, an important and transitional decade in her career. The presentation chronicles a shift in her formal approach that had been brewing back in the 1960s, as well as a change in her color palettes and compositions that became more evocative of nature and gardens. During the 70s, Wheeler transitioned from her Abstract Expressionist mark making to more vibrant color painting, which defined the remainder of her studio practice. The exhibition is on view by appointment only from May 18 through June 19, 2020 at David Richard Gallery. Throughout nearly all six decades of Wheelers career, her paintings were about color and form, the influences of nature, and her ... More | | 
Von Rydingsvard in her Williamsburg studio on South 5th Street, surrounded by the cedar cast of Katul Katul, 2002.
NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum will present the exclusive New York City premiere of Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own in its Virtual Cinema, via Icarus Films, on Friday, May 29. The Virtual Cinema, in partnership with theatrical distributors, offers new and repertory titles for home viewing during the theaters temporary closure. All rental fees support Film Forum. In Into Her Own, filmmaker Daniel Traub nimbly illuminates the fascinating journey of Ursula von Rydingsvard (b. 1942) her difficult early life in a family of nine emigrating to the US after five years in post-WWII German Displaced Persons camps, a traumatic first marriage, her arrival in 1970s New York to establish herself as an artist, and the staggering, triumphant body of work she subsequently produced. The sculptures are massive, yet strangely intimate. Some feel imbued with an almost primal energy: a series of early installations reminiscent of wings in what became New ... More | | 
Alex Katz (American, born 1927), Yellow Road. Sold for $46,875
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freemans announced the results of its highly successful Modern & Contemporary Art auctiontheir first online fine art sale of 2020. With an impressive sell-through rate of 95%, the 58-lot sale achieved over $1 million, just shy of its pre-sale high estimate. Strong prices were achieved for Latin American, English, and iconic American Pop artists. With many consignments from private New York collectors, the auction included notable works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, and Andy Warhol. We were delighted to see that the market remains competitive for top works by blue chip artists, and to achieve an enviable sell-through rate in our first online fine art sale, said Dunham Townend, Head of Freemans Modern & Contemporary Art Department. With this most recent success, Freemans raises its average sell-through rate for its 2020 fine auctions to 93.5%. The sale was led by ... More |
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| | Swann ushers in a new era of live online sales with Printed & Manuscript African Americana | | Auction dedicated to solo collection attracts record audiences | | Walker Art Center commissions new artwork in the form of an urban farm | 
Sun Ra in Space is the Place, movie poster, circa 1874. Sold for $6,500, a record for the poster.
NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries Thursday, May 7 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana was held live online and was conducted remotely. This was a strong auction regardless of the circumstances. The sale concluded with 90% of lots finding buyers, a record in this category at Swann, and a total of $744,112, well above high estimate. Institutions generally make a good showing in these African Americana auctions, but they did exceptionally well in this sale, picking up the top four lots, and a total of 11 of the top 20, noted Rick Stattler, the houses Americana specialist. Leading the sale was an annotated 1848 letterpress broadside advertising for a reward for three young women who had escaped from slavery. The announcement was won by an institution for $37,500, a record for a broadside of the same nature. Also from the slavery and abolition era came the only pamphlet edition of The Proclamation of Emancipation, ... More | | 
John Ward (British, b. 2003), Oval Pot with Dipped Rim, circa 2003. Sold for: £13,200.
LONDON.- On Thursday 14 May, Maaks auction dedicated to the collection of Dayabandhu attracted the highest rate of new registrations and some exceptionally strong results. With 93% sold by lot and 153% by value, the overwhelming pattern showed pieces that resonated most closely to Dayabandhus unifying eye and understanding for texture and form exceeding their estimates. Studio ceramics are proving to be a welcome distraction from the current challenges we face due to COVID-19. On Thursday 14th May, there seemed to be a momentary sense of normality indicated by strong results from this sale. We are delighted the sale was able to celebrate the remarkable and dedicated passion of Dayabandhu - Marijke Varrall-Jones, Founder Director, Maak Exceptional interest and strong prices were witnessed once again for John Ward whose Oval Pot with Dipped Rim (Lot 83) sold for ... More | | 
Jordan Weber, 4 Malcolm X Greenhouse, 2018. Photo courtesy the artist.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center will break ground on a new public art commission by Des Moines-based artist Jordan Weber on May 30, 2020. The project entitled Prototype for poetry vs rhetoric (deep roots) was developed in partnership with youth-development organization Youth Farm over the course of a year. It will feature a rain garden, fruit trees, raised vegetable beds, and sculptures designed by the artist, located in a former vacant lot at Lyndale Avenue North between 23rd and 24th Streets in Minneapolis. Due to COVID-19, the installation will be staggered throughout 2020 and 2021, launching officially in the summer of 2021. Weber and Youth Farm designed this multipurpose urban space to look like a verdant basketball court. Two metal hoop sculptures at each end of the garden will collect and distribute rainwater to the plants. The garden will feature fresh pollution-mitigating ... More |
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| | Manifesta 13 Marseille due to start at the end of August 2020 | | Robert Berry Gallery announces Impressionable, new show from Chicago artist John Ruby | | David Gill Gallery presents a new body of work by Mattia Bonetti | 
View of Le Panier, oldest neighbourhood in Marseille, France © VOST / Manifesta.
MARSEILLE.- Manifesta 13 Marseille will welcome audiences and participants to its three programmes: the central exhibition Traits dunion.s; its education and mediation programme Le Tiers Programme and the parallel programme Les Parallèles du Sud, between the 28th of August and the 29th of November 2020. Manifesta 13 Marseille will be evolving throughout its entire duration. From the 28th of August the plots of Traits dunion.s will start to unfold, gradually moving from plot to plot with different intensities at different speeds, different underlying thoughts and dreams. The story of Manifesta 13 Marseille is that of passages, or as the title of the exhibition suggests, that of hyphens, between one world and the next: Traits dunion.s Manifesta 13 Marseille speaks first and foremost to the specific situation of Marseille, especially its histories and contemporary condition in this moment of transition. Manifesta ... More | | 
John Ruby, David, 2020. Digital print and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in | 102 x 76 cm.
NEW YORK, NY.- Robert Berry Gallery, a premier New York City-based art gallery dedicated to world-changing art, announced its new show Impressionable, featuring new works by Chicago-based artist John Ruby. We are proud to offer John Rubys inspirational new works blending photography, illustration, and technology influences with legendary rock icons like Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and Amy Winehouse, stated Robert Berry, founder and CEO of Robert Berry Gallery. Impressionable will give viewers and participants the opportunity to experience a new perspective on these familiar yet otherworldly faces, and a shift in perspective on time. As a result of todays global health and economic crisis, people are turning to art to understand their past, present, and future, and their place in the world now that so much of their old life has changed. John Rubys show highlights the clarity in distance and the murkines ... More | | 
Mattia Bonetti, Table Lamp 'Grate', 2020. Murano glass, polished brass, wood structure, H61.5 x L28 x D28 cm / H24.2 x L11 x D11 in. David Gill Gallery, each unique, limited to 50 + 2P + 2AP.
LONDON.- David Gill Gallery is presenting a new body of work by Paris-based artist Mattia Bonetti. The pieces were handmade in Murano with the artist and acknowledge the historical glass-blowing techniques of the island while pushing the possibilities of the material to their limits. While Bonetti has worked with glass once before, at CIRVA (Centre Internatioanal de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastique), in Marseilles, under the tutelage of maestro Lino Tagliapietra, this collection is a departure for him, requiring an unprecedented level of research. Bonettis fascination with the centuries-old process of free-blowing and the magic of turning a piece of glass into a molten mass before its transformation into a nuanced object, lead him to Murano. Here, he was able to translate his detailed sketches, working closely with the islands renowned ... More |
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The Pottery Maker, 1926 | From the Vaults
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| | More News |
 National Museum of Women in the Arts wins Webby Award WASHINGTON, DC.- Today, the National Museum of Women in the Arts won the Webby Peoples Voice Award for Best Social Media Account in the Art and Culture category in the 24th Annual Webby Awards. This is the museums first nomination and win at The Webby Awards. NMWA won for its overall presence on Instagram. With its account @WomenInTheArts, the museum addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today. "I'm delighted that the Webbys chose to recognize the excellence of our Instagram account, said NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling. Now, more than ever, social media is a vital tool for us to connect with the public by sharing important stories of women artists and building a community of support and curiosity. ... More Independent Curators International announces board expansion at critical time in the art worldNEW YORK, NY.- Independent Curators International announced the appointment of seven new board members: Adam Abdalla, Neil Barclay, Lauren Kelly, Cindy Livingston, Angel Otero, Carol Salmanson, and Christopher Wise. ICIs board expansion adds a broad range of expertise to the organizations leadership, and will strengthen its commitment to supporting the needs of a diverse network of curators and art workers at a time when the art world is facing unprecedented challenges. During quarantine, ICI has mobilized to launch various philanthropic and content-related initiatives based on conversations with ICIs network of curators, artists, and art spaces in 70 countries. ICI has commissioned reports and oral history projects from independent curators to bear witness and gain critical perspectives on the impact of the crisis on creative communities ... More Daylight Books publishes 'Silent Stages' by Ken DreyfackNEW YORK, NY.- A New Yorker by birth and a Frenchman by naturalization, Ken Dreyfack's life has been divided between two countries, languages and cultures. He began his career as a journalist and writer, working in the broadcast and print media in New York, Paris and Chicago. When he moved back to America in 2008 to settle in Kingston, New York, he became seriously engaged in his second career as a fine art photographer and began work on the photo book Silent Stages that will be published by Daylight next month. The striking black and white photographs in Silent Stages, mostly taken at night, were made by Dreyfack over a period of five years (2014-2019) in his new home in upstate New York, in New York City where he was born and raised, and during return visits to his former home in Paris. The photographs in Silent ... More Pollock-Krasner Foundation announces nearly $3 million in grants & awardsNEW YORK, NY.- The Pollock-Krasner Foundation announced today it has awarded $2,811,000 to 121 artists and not-for-profit organizations during its 2019-2020 grant cycle, providing important resources to artists internationally. This years grantee and award recipients include artists from 17 states, Puerto Rico, and 17 countries. Since its inception in 1985, the Foundation has awarded nearly 5,000 grants totaling nearly $79 million in 78 countries. These grants, especially during the current unprecedented health crisis, provide critical professional support to artists around the globe, enabling them to create new work, acquire supplies, rent studio space, prepare for exhibitions, attend a residency, and offset living expenses. From the beginning of Lee Krasners career to the planning of her legacy, she understood the importance of supporting ... More Magazzino to adopt new social distancing technology upon reopeningCOLD SPRING, NY.- Magazzino Italian Art will be the first museum in the United States to adopt new social distancing technology to protect future visitors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed by Italian and American companies, this new technological device takes the guesswork out of social distancing by using radio waves to measure and maintain safe distances between visitors. Pending guidance from the New York State government and the CDC on reopening cultural institutions in the Mid-Hudson region, Magazzino Italian Art unveiled plans for welcoming future audiences into the museum building safely whenever it is next possible to open the doors. As the COVID-19 pandemic reshapes how public spaces function, Magazzino Italian Art is working closely with officials at a county, village, and regional level to inform procedural ... More Street art confronts the pandemicNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Street art is the ultimate visual source of social commentary and the pandemic has lit a fire under the feet of muralists around the world. Some works are humorous, even playful, like those done by the San Francisco-based artist Fnnch, whose paste-up images include his signature honey bears wearing face masks, and bright blue soap-dispenser bears, encouraging people to wash their hands. They can be found all over the city, in neighborhoods like Inner Richmond and Cow Hollow, on sidewalks and mailboxes. Other artists works are more serious, highlighting, for example, the importance of health care workers. From Norway to Colorado, here are some places where COVID-19-inspired street art has cropped up. In March, the artist Pobel returned to his home in Norway after traveling in the Peruvian jungle and found ... More Vienna Philharmonic says no increased virus risk for orchestrasVIENNA (AFP).- Vienna's prestigious Philharmonic Orchestra said Monday that a study into how far musicians' breath travels when playing instruments showed they faced no added risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus when performing. The orchestra's musicians took part in an experiment involving devices being inserted into their noses which made a fine mist visible when they breathed. The experiment established that "we should not expect air exhaled by an artist to reach more than 80 centimetres' distance," according to a statement from the orchestra sent to AFP on Monday. This maximum distance of breath droplets was emitted by flute players while for the string section there was no observable change in how far the breath travelled between playing or being at rest. The study concluded that there was no increased risk for musicians ... More Museum of Graffiti re-opens with new offeringsMIAMI, FLA.- On Wednesday, May 20th, the Museum of Graffiti will re-open to the public with safety-first procedures such as a new admission system that only allows for 6 people to enter the premises every 15 minutes. Guests must purchase tickets in advance online or from their mobile devices as they approach the Museum in order to avoid onsite transactions. Additionally, the Museum is implementing exciting outdoor programming that corresponds to the changing times, including the grand opening of their Airbrush Tent. Adjacent to the entrance of the Museum, visitors can work with a local artist to design a face mask they love. Also, the Museum encourages folks who have been sheltered at home to enjoy a free self-guided tour of the Museums outdoor exhibition that includes 15 murals created by 22 artists from 6 different countries. A map with ... More In virus-hit eastern France, masked dancers get back to workMULHOUSE (AFP).- In Mulhouse in eastern France, particularly hard hit by the coronavirus, professional dancers are getting back to work, practising pirouettes in their long-abandoned studio -- but no pas-de-deux. With an easing of France's strict coronavirus lockdown last week after two months of home confinement, the ballet performers of the Opera National du Rhin must observe strict infection-busting measures, which include no contact or dancing in pairs. They have their temperatures taken upon arrival, leave their shoes outside and must enter in full ballet attire -- plus face mask -- as the dressing rooms are off limits. Once inside, black tape on the ground delineates a spot for each dancer, allowing them to keep a safe distance of 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) as they gracefully go through their paces to piano accompaniment. Every time the dancers ... More Yu Lihua, 90, dies; writer spoke to 'rootless' Chinese émigrésNEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Yu Lihua, a writer whose nuanced portraits of overseas Chinese students and intellectuals in the U.S. captured the cultural displacement and identity crisis felt by many in the Chinese diaspora, died April 30 at her home in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She was 90. The cause was respiratory failure brought on by COVID-19, said her daughter Lena Sun, a reporter for The Washington Post who has been covering the coronavirus pandemic since January. Yu produced more than two dozen novels and short story collections over five decades, drawing on her experience as a Chinese émigré in postwar America. She was celebrated in the diaspora for giving voice to what she called the rootless generation émigrés who had left for a better life but remained nostalgic for their homeland. Her 1967 breakout novel, ... More Photographic artist Hans Withoos exhibits in Holland AMSTERDAM.- Gallery Persoon in the Netherlands and the event decorators of Oogenlust present a retrospective exhibition of Dutch photographic artist Hans Withoos. The gallery shows sixty colorful photographs, with also his latest creations. The exhibition 'Photographic Paintings' runs from 19 May until 11 July 2020 at Domain Oogenlust in Eersel. Hans Withoos is a romanticist and storyteller, fascinated by beauty in all its aspects. His work is multi-layered, with carefully staged images and an idiosyncratic aesthetics. The exhibition focusses on his 'Withoos meets Withoos' series. The photographer combines still lifes and landscapes of the Dutch 17th century painter Matthias Withoos with his own contemporary and surrealistic images. Matthias Withoos (16271703), born in Amersfoort and also known as 'Calzetta Bianca', is a distant relative of Hans ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, English sculptor Barbara Hepworth died May 20, 1975. Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 - 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was one of the few female artists of her generation to achieve international prominence. In this image:Barbara Hepworth, Photo-collage with Two Segments at Richard NeutraÂs Silver Lake house in Los Angeles 1938 © The Hepworth Estate.
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