| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, November 8, 2017 |
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| | More than a decade in the making, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opens | |
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Women look at statues on display in a gallery at the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum during a media tour on November 6, 2017 prior to the official opening of the museum on Saadiyat island in the Emirati capital on November 8. More than a decade in the making, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opens its doors this week, bringing the famed name to the Arab world for the first time. The museum currently has some 300 pieces on loan, including an 1887 self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci's "La Belle Ferronniere". GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP.
ABU DHABI (AFP).- Nested under a dome with geometric arabesque patterns and appearing to float on water, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is now home to Matisse, Mondrian -- and George Washington. The abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko hangs a few steps away from Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and a portrait of George Washington in 12 "chapters", or galleries, in the Emirati capital. Other galleries are dedicated to artifacts from China, Iraq and DR Congo, among others, aimed at telling the story of the civilisations and religions of the world. The museum expects to welcome around 5,000 visitors in its first days which start with the public opening on November 11, according to Mohammed al-Mubarak, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Culture and Tourism Authority. "Because this is an international museum, we're expecting visitors from around the world," Mubarak said during a media tour ahead of the inauguration ceremony to be held on Wednesday. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Children have breakfast with Dutch singer Sanne Hans (C) under the famous painting De Nachtwacht (The Nightwatch) by Rembrandt van Rijn in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, during the National School Breakfast, on November 6, 2017. Koen van Weel / ANP / AFP
| French court returns WWII looted Pissarro painting to owner's family | | Roaming male mammoths often fell into death traps | | Automatism: The concept integrating all movement in works by William Pineda | 
Camille Pissarro, La Cueillette des pois, 1887 (detail). Gouache, 53,3 x 64,4 cm. Bruce et Robbi Toll Archives du musée Camille-Pissarro, Pontoise / droits réservés.
PARIS (AFP).- A French court on Tuesday ordered the return of a painting by Impressionist master Camille Pissarro to the family of a Jewish art collector from whom it was snatched during World War II. The court ruled in favour of the descendants of Simon Bauer, a wealthy businessman whose assets were seized in 1943 by the anti-Semitic wartime French government which collaborated with the Nazis. "La Cueillette des Pois" (Pea Harvest) had been at the centre of a dispute with its current owners, American couple Bruce and Robbi Toll, who said they bought it in good faith. "My clients will be very disappointed not to be able to retrieve this painting. They were very attached to it. They will certainly appeal," the couple's lawyer Ron Soffer said. "They do not consider that it is up to them ... More | | 
E Palkopoulou in the ancient DNA lab.
MIAMI (AFP).- Scientists have solved the mystery of why the overwhelming majority of mammoth fossils are male, according to a report published Thursday in the journal Current Biology. Much like wild elephants today, young male Ice Age mammoths likely roamed alone and more often got themselves into risky situations where they were swept into rivers, fell through ice or into bogs or sinkholes that preserved their bones for thousands of years, scientists say. Females, on the other hand, traveled in a group led by an older matriarch who knew the terrain and steered her counterparts away from danger. "Without the benefit of living in a herd led by an experienced female, male mammoths may have had a higher risk of dying in natural traps such as bogs, crevices, and lakes," said co-author Love Dalen of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. The study used genomic data to determine the sex of 98 woolly ... More | | 
William Pineda, Don Quijote, 2011. Oil on canvas.
MONTERREY.- Under the theme name My Hurt Planet the artist William Pineda presents to us his most recent collection that since November 4th is being carried out at Plaza Fiesta San Agustin in San Pedro Garza Garcia, NL, Mexico. It will remain there until the 18th of this same month to later move on to Washington. In the exhibition there are numerous pieces that have never been seen before where the Colombian artist seeks to create a consciousness among the spectators highlighting the importance of the conservation of our mother nature. William Pineda is internationally known for his use of expressionism and abstract surrealism, and for the manner in which he uses automatism in its purest form. His unique and particular style generates great movement through the strokes of a spatula void of any thought of control or reason, and exempt of any aesthetic or moral preoccupations. Du ... More |
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| Israel-Russia deal gives ancient books new life online | | Schantz Galleries opens new Chihuly exhibition | | Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister to restore Johannes Vermeer's 'Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window' | 
Passover Hagada, Frankfurt am Main (Germany) 1725.
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israeli and Russian libraries will sign an agreement Tuesday to digitise and publish a treasured collection of ancient Hebrew manuscripts and books, effectively putting to rest a 100-year ownership dispute. The Guenzburg collection contains nearly 2,000 manuscripts and some 14,000 books, some of them hundreds of years old, on a wide range of religious, artistic and scientific topics. Among them are works on the Bible, Jewish law, mathematics and philosophy, including by Aristotle and Jewish philosopher Maimonides. When Russian Jewish owner Baron David Guenzburg died over a century ago, it was considered "one of the largest and most important private collections in the world", according to Aviad Stollman, head of Israel's National Library collections. Zionist Jews bought the collection from Guenzburg's widow in 1917 with the aim of shipping it to the Holy Land library that would evolve into the National Library, Stollman said, but World War I was raging and prevented that possibility. ... More | | 
Dale Chihuly, The Boathouse hotshop Seattle, 1993 Copyright © Chihuly Studio.
STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.- Dale Chihuly is considered one of the most innovative and iconic figures in contemporary art. This November, Schantz Galleries has worked with Chihuly Studio to realize an exhibition, CHIHULY Baskets: Celebrating Forty Years. These forty years of Baskets are not a linear progression, where one builds upon the next until superiority is achieved; rather they are a collection of transcendent moments through time. In addition to the exhibition of Baskets, a new, beautiful Chandelier and a Persian Wall by the artist was installed in October. Dale Chihuly first encountered traditional Northwest Indian basketry in 1977, during a visit to the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. He was a young vanguard in the field of glass (he had become the head of the glass program at Rhode Island School of Design and cofounded the Pilchuck School of Glass in Washington by age 30). Chihuly was enthralled by how time had transformed the wove ... More | | 
Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, 1657-1659, Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, © SKD.
DRESDEN.- Johannes Vermeers painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, circa 165759, is among the central works held at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. After the successful restoration of Vermeers early work The Procuress (1656) in 20022004 the second painting in Dresden by the artist the idea arose of restoring Girl Reading a Letter as well. To better understand the artistic process behind Girl Reading a Letter and its state of preservation, numerous examinations were performed over the past years. Considering its age, the painting is stable in terms of its conservation condition. Its surface, however, is characterized by severely darkened layers of varnish and old retouching, and this above all gave rise to the decision to restore the painting. The extraordinary conservation project, which got underway in the spring of 2017, is made possible through the generous support of the Hata Foundation ... More |
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| Major works by Bacon and Freud on display in first 'School of London' exhibition in New York | | Mammals gave up night life only after dino doom: study | | Thief steals Botero statue from France's most guarded street | 
Francis Bacon, Fury, circa 1944. Oil and pastel on board, 37 x 29 in.
NEW YORK, NY.- London Painters brings together works by a small group of artists who have commonly been identified as the main proponents of the so-called School of London: Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj and Leon Kossoff. Through a selection of self-portraits, depictions of their loyal, sometimes shared sitters and London scenes, the show explores the artists dedication to the figure and cityscape, at a time when abstraction prevailed. This is the first exhibition dedicated to this group in New York. The story of the supposed School of London is a story of friendships, an intimate tale. With that in mind, London Painters unites pictures that highlight these relationships and the circles of shared acquaintance, as well as London itself, the city that provided such a thrilling backdrop to so much of their development, says Pilar Ordovas, ... More | | 
Dinosaurs and mammals together. © Mark Witton (www.markwitton.com).
PARIS (AFP).- The earliest mammals were night creatures which only emerged from the cover of darkness after the demise of the daytime-dominating dinosaurs, researchers said Monday. This would explain why relatively few mammals follow a daytime-active or "diurnal" lifestyle today, and why most that do still have eyes and ears more suitable for living by night. "Most mammals today are nocturnal and possess adaptations to survive in dark environments," study co-author Roi Maor of the Tel Aviv University told AFP. "Monkeys and apes (including humans) are the only diurnal mammals that have evolved eyes that are similar to the other diurnal animals like birds or reptiles. Other diurnal mammals have not developed such profound adaptations." Maor and a team provide evidence for a long-standing theory that tens of millions of years of evading dinosaurs caused a nocturnal "bottleneck" in the evolution ... More | | 
File photo of Colombian artist Fernando Botero posing in front of a self portrait at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
PARIS (AFP).- French police are hunting a daring art thief who stole a bronze statue worth nearly half a million euros from a gallery within yards of the presidential palace in Paris. The thief simply walked into the gallery and helped himself to the statue of a mother and child by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero. He then coolly walked unchallenged down one of the most closely guarded streets in France, home to the British and Japanese embassies as well as French President Emmanuel Macron's official residence, the Elysee palace. Security around the Elysee has been heightened as a part of France's state of emergency after the country was hit by a series of terror attacks over last two years. The gallery is also almost opposite the interior ministry, which is in charge of security and the police. According security camera footage, the bearded thief caressed the 10-kilo (22-pound) statue of typically fleshy Botero figures, then looked around ... More |
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| Artcurial announces Paris#Marrakech auction | | Twelve exceptional gray paintings by Albert Oehlen on view at Nahmad Contemporary | | 'We envy you, comrades': Russians open time capsules to mark Revolution | 
Omar Victor Diop (born in 1980), Omar Ibn Said, 2015 (detail). Pigment inkjet printing on Harman paper by Hahnemulhe, 120 x 180 cm. Estimate: 5,000 - 7,000 / $6,800 - 9,000. © Artcurial.
PARIS.- After the success of the first edition of the Paris#Marrakech auction which totalled almost 2,3 million euros in December 2016, Artcurial continues its development in Morocco with this second edition carried out in Paris in duplex with Marrakech on 30th December next. This year, Artcurial invited Cécilia Attias to share her favourites among the 70 works proposed and divided into two chapters: The first dedicated to the fourth edition of « Majorelle et ses contemporains », the second, « African spirit », devoted to African contemporary art. Artcurial was a pioneer in the organisation of cultural events in Morocco. One can remember notably, the exhibition « Moroccan spirit » in the Villa des Arts in Casablanca in 2014, or the tremendous success of the sale of the Pierre Bergé/Yves Saint Laurent Islamic art collection in the Palace Es Saadi in Marrakech, ... More | | 
Albert Oehlen, Portrait Von 1850, 2004. Oil on canvas, 230 x 180 cm, 90.5 x 70 7/8 in. Private Collection.
NEW YORK, NY.- Albert Oehlen: Grau brings together a selection of twelve exceptional gray paintings by the influential German artist, Albert Oehlen. The exhibition is the first ever to offer an intimate examination of this important series by a provocateur known for challenging the boundaries of painting and embracing a remarkably wide range of styles. Created between 1997 and 2008, in the wake of the artists original black-and-white computer paintings and concurrently with the brilliantly colorful switch paintingstwo series that utilized digital tools in their creationthe gray paintings hone in on painterly gesture and material essence. Oscillating between figuration and abstraction and made strictly by hand without the distraction of color, these large grisaille works on canvas embrace paintings conventional tools in order to expose the inadequacies of the medium itself. Through their subversive interlacing of abstract and representational motifs, the ... More | | 
Demonstrators with red flags and a portrait of the Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin participate in a rally marking the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in downtown Moscow on November 7, 2017. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP.
MOSCOW (AFP).- Time capsules designed to be opened on the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution made for poignant reading when they were unsealed across Russia on Tuesday. The messages, most written in 1967 to mark the 50th anniversary of the revolution, expressed envy for comrades of the future and confidently predicted triumphs such as landing on Mars. "How are we celebrating the country's anniversary?" asked one letter dug up in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported. Those writing the messages did not know that by 2017, the Communist Party's rule would have ended nearly three decades earlier in 1991. At a school in the far-eastern Blagoveshchensk region, children and elderly residents opened a rocket-shaped capsule, a local news site ... More |
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Turn of the Sea: Art from the Eastern Trade Routes
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 Erdogan hails opera house project as 'symbol' of IstanbulISTANBUL (AFP).- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday launched a controversial project to build a new opera house in Istanbul, lashing out at critics of the plan and saying the building would be a symbol for the city. The 2,500-seat opera house, due to open in early 2019, will be built on the site of the Ataturk Cultural Centre (AKM) which has been unused for over a decade and whose impending demolition has worried some architects. Erdogan said the cutting-edge building would give new life to Taksim Square in central Istanbul, which was the hub for mass protests against his rule in 2013 sparked by an urban development project in the nearby Gezi park. Backers of the project want the opera house to be as much as symbol of Istanbul as the Bolshoi Theatre is in Moscow or the Sydney Opera House in Australia. "God willing it will become an honour ... More Great service: Rare early Soviet porcelain offered at Bonhams Russian Art SaleLONDON.- An early Soviet porcelain tea service decorated with industrial motifs in the Constructivist style, and made at the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in Leningrad in 1931 features in Bonhams Russian Art sale in London on Wednesday 29 November. It is estimated at £40,000-60,000. The service was a collaboration between the leading ceramicist Sergei Chekhonin also the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory director during the 1920s and the illustrator L. V. Protopopova, who was responsible for the ornamentation. Bonhams Russian Art specialist, Daria Chernenko, said, This rare service is an excellent example of the pervasive influence of Constructivist design in Russia during the 1920s and early 1930s. It was a gift from the Soviet Government to a group of German Trade Union officials during a visit to the USSR. The Lomonsov Porcelain Factory ... More Erskine, Hall & Coe opens new exhibition of works by Yasuhisa Kohyama and William WilkinsLONDON.- Erskine, Hall & Coe is presenting Yasuhisa Kohyama & William Wilkins, a new exhibition comprising 23 ceramics by Kohyama and four paintings by Wilkins, and running from the 8th through the 30th of November. Acclaimed Japanese artist, Kohyama has played a very unique and significant role in reviving the use of the traditional Japanese anagama' wood firing kiln, as he was the first potter in Shigaraki to build such a kiln since the Middle Ages. He is also a contemporary master of the ancient practice of Sueki, a method that originated in southern China and which accounts for his unglazed yet glassy surface textures. His works are inspired by ancient Japanese Shigaraki, Jomon and Yayoi ceramics, and are collected internationally and exhibited widely in Japan and overseas. They are included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Art ... More One year on, artists show breadth of Leonard Cohen lifeMONTREAL (AFP).- Leonard Cohen's songs strived for the universal and his voice was often solemn, yet the courtly songwriter had plentiful moments of joy and deadpan humor. One year after Cohen died at age 82, an array of artists testified to his far-reaching impact with a concert Monday evening whose somber yet graceful tone befitted the celebrated singer and poet. Before more than 21,000 people at the Bell Centre arena in Cohen's native Montreal, the tribute built around short videos of his well-traveled life which included years of artistic retreat on the Greek island of Hydra and a late-age stint as a Buddhist monk in California. Cohen gazed down on the audience in the form of an illuminated portrait atop an image of a tower. Mist billowed over his picture which shrunk and disappeared at the end as the choir from his Shaar Hashomayim synagogue ... More The guitar maker of Kinshasa: Father of a unique soundKINSHASA (AFP).- In 2010, a group of Kinshasa street musicians, several of them left paraplegic by childhood polio, caused a sensation in Europe. Calling themselves Staff Benda Bilili, the penurious band wowed audiences with Congolese rumba, combining pounding rhythms with scintillating melodies and solos. As unique as the group's tale of their rise from the streets was their gritty guitar sound -- all the work of a modest, self-taught Congolese luthier, Jean-Luther Misoko Nzalayala, who goes by the trade name of Socklo. Benda Bilili wielded instruments in eccentric shapes and exuberant colours, their frets, bridges and nuts made from scrap metal that had been cut and bent by Socklo's rudimentary tools, producing an exceptional timbre. "It was powerful, bright, full-bodied and yet as raw as an uncooked onion, fizzing with the kind of raunch that many rock guitarists ... More Gem of a car owned by Jean Paul Boucheron for sale with H&H ClassicsLONDON.- Supplied new in 1933 to Jean Paul Boucheron of the jewellery dynasty and retained by his family until 2001 when it entered the current ownership it comes to sale at H&H Classics auction on November 15 at Duxford, the Imperial War Museum. It is estimated to sell for £60,000 to £80,000. This lovely car boasts very rare and elegant Vanvooren pillarless sports saloon coachwork. It was built to right hand drive specification for use 'in France and on the Continent' hence high ratio back axle, ski rack, 'Projecteur' centre spotlight, lightweight seats and Marchal headlights. The four-seater has only recently been granted the UK registration number 'YWG 928'. Never fully restored, it has been sparingly used over the past sixteen years and is still running on an oil-filled coil! It is only being offered for sale due to the vendor's poor health, the 'Boucheron ... More Video art looks at U.S.-Mexico border, addresses significance in current global climateSARASOTA, FLA.- In Approaching the Border, five video works by five international artists challenge us to examine our thinking about the U.S.-Mexico border, and the significance of borders in an era when migration and the reemergence of nationalism are key global issues. Some of these artists situate their work in the physical space of the borderlands of México or the U.S. Other projects consider the power of borders to divide and construct national identity. Organized by The Ringling, the exhibition is on view there from Nov. 5, 2017, through Jan. 21, 2018. Each of the works in the exhibition explore challenging new ways we might approach conceptualizing the border, said Christopher Jones, associate curator of photography and new media at The Ringling. Some of these artists are quite direct while others may be more oblique, but each confronts the power ... More Steady sales and a good crowd at the 27th Winter Art & Antiques FairLONDON.- The 27th Winter Art & Antiques Fair opened on a buzzing Halloween night in the Olympia National Hall to a ready-to-buy crowd. Sales started early. Three oil paintings by Paul Treasure sold in the first 10 minutes through new exhibitor, Signet Contemporary, to a Saudi Arabian buyer for her beach house. Next door stand, Decorative Arts@Doune, was barely visible for enthusiasts crowding around their silver until closing. They sold 26 pieces on opening night and around 10 every day following. First time exhibitor at any fair, Tom Rooth, was very pleased with his opening night, selling three pictures and generating much interest in the towering, 7ft high Lord of the Isles painting by Margaret Collier. Exhibiting for the first time at the Winter Fair, Jeremy Afleck from The Old Corkscrew in South Africa, said They came, they stayed, they shopped. ... More Rare pieces from prominent collections headline Bonhams Hong Kong saleHONG KONG.- Bonhams Hong Kongs upcoming sale for Fine Chinese Paintings and Southeast Asian Art brings together 160 Chinese paintings and calligraphy works as well as Southeast Asian art, many of which sourced from prestigious collections and released for the very first time into the market. The auction will take place on 27 November at Bonhams Hong Kong Gallery. The strong line-up of Chinese paintings and calligraphy is dominated by a selection of rare pieces including a magnificent Qi Baishi Peony from an important private Romanian collection, Qi Baishi paintings from The Feng Wen Tang Collection and a selection of fine paintings and calligraphy from the celebrated Chinese master Pu Ru. Lot 219 Qi Baishi Peony from a private Romanian collection is estimated at HK$3,500,000 - 5,000,000. This masterpiece is one of the artists very ... More Rare Imperial work attributed to Mughal Emperor's great court artist comes to auctionSTANSTED MOUNTFITCHET .- A painting attributed to one of the greatest court artists of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan will go to auction after being discovered in a private collection in Suffolk. Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers of Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, who will offer the c.1630-40 work in their December 5 Country House Sale with an estimate of £10,000-15,000, say there is a strong chance that the extremely fine watercolour, highlighted in gold, is actually Shah Jahan himself, along with his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, for whom he built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum following her tragically early death in 1631. The painting has been in the same collection since 1846, when a handwritten document by an expert in Arabic and Persian manuscripts was pasted to the back. Dated 18th July 1846, the document by R. E. Lofft describes the painting and interprets its ... More Should graffiti be protected by US federal law?NEW YORK (AFP).- Should graffiti be protected by federal law? That is the question a New York jury is deciding after an extraordinary three-week trial. And if so, should a property owner pay damages? The case pits 21 artists against a wealthy developer. Its focus is 5Pointz, once one of the city's most arresting sights -- a huge building plastered in brilliantly colored, skillfully executed graffiti that won international acclaim. For 20 years developer Jerry Wolkoff invited taggers to showcase their art on the industrial complex he owned, turning it -- in the words of the artists' lawyer into the "world's largest outdoor open aerosol museum." But in 2014 Wolkoff demolished the site, after whitewashing the art, making way for a multi-million-dollar luxury residential towers. The artists are now suing him for damages, arguing that they should have been given more opportunity ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, American illustrator Norman Rockwell died November 08, 1978. Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 - November 8, 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace (1951), The Problem We All Live With, and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA); producing covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations. In this image: Laurie Norton Moffatt, director and CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum, discusses the painting "Girl at Mirror", Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007, in Akron, Ohio.
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