| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, September 27, 2017 |
 |
| | Exhibition offers a vivid and immersive journey through nearly 400 years of opera | |
|
|
A member of staff poses in front of a harpsichord made by Giovanni Baffo, Venice, 1574 during a photocall for a new exhibition 'Opera, Passion, Power and Politics' at the Victoria and Albert Museum in west London on September 26, 2017. Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP.
LONDON.- This autumn the Victoria and Albert Museum, in collaboration with the Royal Opera House, created a vivid and immersive journey through nearly 400 years of opera, exploring its passion, power and politics. The only exhibition ever to explore opera on a grand scale, it immerses visitors in some key moments of the history of European opera from its roots in Renaissance Italy to its present-day form, by focusing on seven operatic premieres in seven cities. It reveals how opera brings together multiple art forms to create a multi-sensory work of art, and show how social, political, artistic and economic factors interact with great moments in the history of opera to tell a story of Europe over hundreds of years. More than 300 extraordinary objects, including important international loans, are being shown alongside digital footage of compelling opera performances. Objects on display include Salvador Dalis costume design for Peter Bro ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day British painter David Hockney speaks as the artist makes a donation of a painting made of an assemblage of various paintings to the Pompidou Centre in Paris on September 26, 2017. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
| Sotheby's London sale of the Vivien Leigh collection soars to £2.2 million | | Sotheby's auction of the collection of great American playwright Edward Albee raises $12.5 Million | | Asian Art Museum unveils $90 million expansion plans | 
The Streetcar Named Desire Jewel Case. Estimate £800-1,200. Sold for £11,250. Courtesy Sothebys.
LONDON.- Incandescent star of stage and screen, Vivien Leighs power to fill theatres and auditoriums with her magnetic performances was indisputable; today at Sothebys in London, a half-century later, her appeal remained undiminished as collectors turned out in their droves to witness and take part in the sale of her personal collection. Over 1,400 participants from 52 countries drove the auction total to £2,243,867 ($3,031,016), over five times the pre-sale estimate. Over the course of four days, some 4,000 people flocked to Sothebys to view first-hand paintings, furnishings, jewellery, couture, silver, books and further items celebrating all aspects of Viviens life. In a saleroom filled to capacity, all of the 321 lots offered found a buyer as lot after lot soared above estimate. Commenting on todays results, Harry Dalmeny, Sothebys UK Chairman, said: On screen, Vivien delivered two of the most ico ... More | | 
Jean Arp, Les Deux soeurs, 1927. Estimate: $2,500,000 - 3,500,000. Sold for: $1,992,500 (£1,475,052). Courtesy Sothebys.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys auction of The Collection of Edward Albee totaled $12.5 million today in New York. Every work on offer was sold, denoting rare white glove auction status, with three-quarters of all lots outstripping their high estimates. The full proceeds of the sale will benefit The Edward F. Albee Foundation, which provides residencies for writers and visual artists in Montauk, Long Island. Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman of Sothebys Fine Art Division, noted: Edward's canny eye and thoughtful understanding of the artistic process translated to a broad collecting audience today. Collectors were voracious for a slice of New York intellectual history, and we were thrilled to achieve such strong results on behalf of the artists namesake foundation. Acquired across decades, the 100+ works on offer surrounded Albee in the Tribeca loft he lived in for over 30 years. Together, they demonstrate ... More | | 
The Akiko Yamazaki & Jerry Yang Pavilion (exterior), concept design by wHY, 2017. Rendering © wHY and Asian Art Museum.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The Asian Art Museum, one of San Franciscos foremost cultural institutions, today unveiled details of a $90 million investment in the museums future, one that will transform public engagement both locally and globally with the world-renowned collection, exhibitions and cultural programs offered by the city-owned museum. In early 2018, construction will begin on the centerpiece of this transformation: a new, 13,000-squarefoot exhibition Pavilion and Art Terrace added to the east, Hyde Street side of the museums Civic Center home (The beaux arts building was originally constructed in 1917 as the citys main library and was repurposed as the museum by Italian architect Gae Aulenti in 2003. It is a contibutory building to the historic Civic Center Landmark District). Designed by architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY, the Pavilion characterized ... More |
|
| World's biggest uncut diamond sells for $53 million | | Exhibition of gouaches on paper by Alexander Calder opens at Saatchi Gallery's new project space | | The Studio Museum in Harlem to break ground in late fall 2018 for its new home | 
This file photo taken on June 14, 2016 shows a model posing with an uncut 1109-carat diamond named 'Lesedi La Rona' at Sotheby's auction house in London. BEN STANSALL / AFP.
LONDON (AFP).- British jeweller Graff said Tuesday it has purchased the world's largest uncut diamond -- roughly the size of a tennis ball -- for $53 million (44.5 million euros). Canadian miner Lucara Diamond sold to Graff the 1,109-carat gem, the Lesedi La Rona, which was found in Botswana's Karowe mine in late 2015. "We are thrilled and honoured to become the new custodians of this incredible diamond," said company chairman, Laurence Graff, in a statement. "The stone will tell us its story, it will dictate how it wants to be cut, and we will take the utmost care to respect its exceptional properties." Lucara confirmed the hefty price tag in a statement issued in Vancouver. "The discovery of the Lesedi La Rona was a company defining event for Lucara," said William Lamb, president ... More | | 
Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1971.
LONDON.- Salon, in collaboration with Omer Tiroche Gallery, announces its third exhibition, Calder on Paper: 1960 1976, a presentation of gouaches on paper by the American artist Alexander Calder, opening 27 September 2017. Despite being most widely celebrated for his mobiles (also known as drawings in space), Calder (1898 1976) began his artistic career as a painter, developing his gouache technique in the 1930s while living in Paris. He preferred working with gouache over oil paint and watercolour because it dries more quickly, and for the mediums opacity of colour. The works exhibited at Salon were made between 1960 and 1976. Alongside this presentation, Omer Tiroche Gallery, Mayfair, London, will show a collection of earlier works on paper by the artist dating from 1939 to 1959 (2 October until 8 December 2017). Exhibiting work from two separate periods of Calders career serves to create a comp ... More | | 
Facade View from 124th Street Courtesy Adjaye Associates.
NEW YORK, NY.- Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Raymond J. McGuire, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, today announced that the historic groundbreaking for the Museums new building, designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, will take place during the 50th anniversary year of 2018. The completion of design development and the success of the quiet phase of the fundraising effort now make it possible to envision a late fall 2018 start for construction of this new home for the Studio Museum, the premier center for contemporary artists of African descent, the principal visual art institution in Harlem, and a magnet for visitors from around the world. With plans for the building having received a warm welcome from the community and enthusiasm and support from New York City officials, the Studio Museum today unveiled ... More |
|
| First comprehensive retrospective of Anton Kolig's work to be held in Vienna opens at the Leopold Museum | | Ansel Adams's "Moonrise" leads Swann Photographs Auction | | Enthusiastic bidding for Old Masters and antiques at Koller | 
Anton Kolig, Marie Gutheil-Schoder as Potiphars Wife, 1923 (detail), KHM.
VIENNA.- This fall of 2017, the Leopold Museum is hosting an extensive exhibition of works by Austrian artist Anton Kolig (18861950). This is the first comprehensive retrospective of Koligs work to be held in Vienna in 50 years. The Leopold Museum houses over 20 paintings of this significant artist. The exhibition, featuring all together 60 paintings and 50 works on paper, is curated by Franz Smola, Collections Curator at the Leopold Museum. Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Artistic Director of the Leopold Museum, in his introduction in the exhibition catalog writes: In the fall of 1948 the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, organized the first comprehensive exhibition of Anton Kolig.
Nearly seventy years after this memorable exhibition at the Vienna Academy, the Leopold Museum is, once more, organizing a comprehensive ... More | | 
Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (detail), silver print, 1941, printed circa 1965. Estimate $80,000 to $120,000.
NEW YORK, NY.- On Thursday, October 19, Swann Galleries will offer Art & Storytelling: Photographs & Photobooks, an auction celebrating the narrative qualities of vernacular and fine art photography. Just over 400 lots range from early experimental works to contemporary objets dart. The top lot of the sale is a scarce 1960s print of Ansel Adams's monumental Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, valued at $80,000 to $100,000. It is extremely rare to find this photograph, originally taken in 1941, printed before the 1970s. Early highlights include an extraordinarily scarce 1862-72 album of 67 photographs depicting South Asia and China credited to John Thomson, with an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. Also available is Volume 10 of Edward S. Curtiss The North ... More | | 
A rare 17th-century portrait of a violin player by a Dutch follower of Caravaggio sold for over half a million Swiss francs.
ZURICH.- Kollers antiques week of auctions in Zurich produced impressive results, with several prices in the mid six figures, and active bidding for both fine and decorative arts from the Renaissance through the 19th century. Cyril Koller, president of Koller Auctions, commented, What was evident during this auction series is that alongside the success of modern & contemporary art, there is still very much interest I would say even a growing interest in the arts of the past centuries. Bidding was particularly strong for good quality works from private collections. A rare 17th-century portrait of a violin player by a Dutch follower of Caravaggio sold for over half a million Swiss francs during Koller Zurichs Old Master & 19th Century Paintings auction on 22 September. The artist, Dirck van ... More |
|
| Sotheby's to offer seminal works by Lucio Fontana, Alighiero Boetti and Michelangelo Pistoletto | | Phillips to offer works by Picasso and Matisse from the collection of Rock & Roll publisher Julian J. Aberbach | | Quinn's auction features deaccessions from Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art | 
Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, Attese, 1968, waterpaint on canvas, 61 by 50 cm £1,500,000-2,000,000 / US$ 1,940,000-2,580,000. Courtesy Sothebys.
LONDON.- This October, Sothebys is broadening the remit of its annual Italian Sale to explore the artistic dialogues between Italian and international artists in the post-war period. Seminal works by Lucio Fontana, Alighiero Boetti and Michelangelo Pistoletto will be joining works by international heavyweights, including: an exceptional nail painting by Günther Uecker, never before offered at auction; Andy Warhols portrait of renowned Italian patron of the arts Graziella Lonardi Buontempo, which has remained in the same family collection since 1974; and Alexander Calders visionary standing mobile, acquired directly from the artist in the 1960s. Highlights also include Marino Marinis monumental Lorchestra and six important works from the esteemed collection of legendary Italian photographer Ugo Mulas. Monumental in scale and vibrant in design, Addizione ... More | | 
Henri Matisse, Jeune fille accoudée. Signed and dated Henri Matisse 38 lower left, charcoal on paper, 25 x 15 1/2 in. Estimate: $900,000 - 1,200,000. Image courtesy of Phillips.
NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips announced the sale of works from the collection of Anne Marie Aberbach and music publisher Julian J. Aberbach this season. Best known as the founder of Hill and Range, the music publishing business that helped propel many stars such as Elvis Presley to international fame, Julian J. Aberbach and his wife Anne Marie formed a remarkable collection of impressionist and modern art. With notable provenance, the four master drawings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse will be offered at auction in Phillips 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on 16 November 2017. Hugues Joffre, Senior Advisor to the CEO, said, Phillips is honored to have been trusted with the sale of these exquisite exhibition drawings from the estate of Anne Marie Aberbach. Her husband Julian J. Aberbach helped to define 20th century culture through his work ... More | | 
Mongolian silver casket with dragon motifs, silver body overlaid with white jade and inlaid coral and turquoise. Est. $1,500-$2,000.
MEMPHIS, TENN.- On Saturday, Oct. 7 in downtown Memphis, Quinns Auction Galleries will conduct the first in a series of sales devoted exclusively to property from the personal collection of Mr. and Mrs. Jack A. Belz, plus select deaccessions from the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art. All forms of bidding will be available for this 445-lot auction, including absentee, phone, and live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable and eBay Live. Start time will be 11 a.m. Central / 12 noon Eastern. Although Quinns is headquartered in northern Virginia, Executive Vice President Matthew Quinn explained why the decision was made to hold the auction in Memphis. Mr. and Mrs. Belz are inextricably tied to Memphis culture. The Belz family name is synonymous with the commercial and residential development of downtown Memphis, including the grand restoration of The Peabody, the citys most famous hotel and a ... More |
|
href=' href='
Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Demonstration
| More News |
 The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibits two series by Ontario photographer Meryl McMasterMONTREAL.- The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents Meryl McMaster In Between Worlds, as part of MOMENTA | Biennale de limage (formerly Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal). This is a first-time presentation in Quebec of In-Between Worlds (2015) and Wanderings (2010-2015), two series by the indigenous Ontario photographer. In her photographs, Meryl McMaster portrays herself in an imaginary world where she explores the challenging feelings that arise from her pluralistic heritage: Cree from the Great Plains, member of the Siksika nation, Canadian and European. Borrowing from sculpture and from performance, she integrates costumes and accessories as talismans. Her fantastical universe evokes childhood, the animal kingdom and myths related to indigenous culture. In the Wanderings and In-Between Worlds series, McMaster employs a plethora ... More Parafin opens Tim Head's second solo show with the galleryLONDON.- Parafin announces a new exhibition with the influential British artist Tim Head (born 1946). It is Heads second solo exhibition with the gallery and will run concurrently with his participation in Pioneers of Pop at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle. Beautiful Weapons juxtaposes new large scale digital prints with a group of paintings from 1989-90, made shortly after Head won the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize. In showing new and older works together the underlying consistency of Heads work in different media is revealed. Both bodies of work are essentially explorations of space and the way it is mediated by technology. Moreover, they represent a continuation of concerns that have preoccupied Head since his earliest installations, an investigation of reality and perception. Heads paintings of the late 1980s are derived from the textures and patterns ... More Anthony Hernandez photography retrospective comes to the Milwaukee Art MuseumMILWAUKEE, WIS.- The Milwaukee Art Museum is hosting the first retrospective of American photographer Anthony Hernandez, featuring over 150 photographsmany never shown beforefrom the artists more than 45-year career. Whether focusing on the human figure, the landscape or abstract details, the Los Angeles native has captured the desolate allure and sprawling expanses of his hometown in both black and white and color pictures. The Milwaukee Art Museum presentation of the exhibition debuts Hernandezs most recent series, Against LA. These photographs synthesize many of the themes present throughout Hernandezs body of work, including the ways in which humans use the built environment, as well as demonstrate the artists longstanding interest in color, form and texture. Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Anthony ... More Group exhibition offers a selective survey of artists exploring media beyond their usual purviewNEW YORK, NY.- Rosenberg & Co. presents A Different Medium, a historical group exhibition offering a selective survey of artists exploring media and methods beyond their usual purview. What drives an artist to explore a different medium? In order to understand that larger question, it is important to realize that we as spectators, critics, and art historians usually confine artists to specific media. An artist is typically defined by the medium they most commonly work in, as well as their style and manner of expression. Stringent categorization can be traced back to the fine art institutions of the late eighteenth century; painters were painters, sculptors were sculptors, and drawing was regarded as an auxiliary to more monumental art forms. With the dawn of the twentieth century, artists began to challenge the hierarchy of medium. ... More Peter Blum opens exhibition of new paintings by John ZurierNEW YORK, NY.- Peter Blum announces an exhibition of new paintings by John Zurier titled Stars Without Distance. This will be the first show in the new downtown location at 176 Grand Street, New York. The exhibition runs through November 11. John Zuriers paintings meld abstraction with a visceral sense of being in the world. Over the past decade, Zuriers time spent in Iceland has become a source and confirmation for the central concerns of his work: color, surface, light, and air. The paintings are both concrete and suggestiverecalling qualities of weather and atmospheric effects, while simultaneously moving inward towards a condition of reverie, contemplation, and calm. The surfaces of the paintings show evidence of their earlier states, with previous marks being revealed or scraped away, embedded in the weave of the canvas like memories of what ... More Just published! The Outsider by Elizabeth HeyertNEW YORK, NY.- Known for her unconventional approach to portrait photography, most notably her classic trilogy The Sleepers, The Travelers, and The Narcissists, American fine art photographer Elizabeth Heyert again assumes her role as observer and voyeur in The Outsider (Damiani), her latest series, made in China in 2014-2016. First visiting China in 2011, Heyert discovered a modern, technology driven country where everywhere she went people were shooting pictures of each other with cameras, smart phones or iPads. The rituals of Chinese amateur photographers fascinated her. They seemed to shoot incessantly, often with family members looking on and directing, and with an intimacy with their environment that bordered on stagecraft. Few Chinese possess family photographs from the past, as so much personal property was destroyed by the Red Guards ... More Exhibition at HENI celebrates the publishing of David Bailey's 'King's X'LONDON.- David Baileys Kings X brings together two books Kings Cross and Street People Kings Cross as one slipcase limited edition, dedicated to the area in which Bailey has lived for over 20 years. Bailey presents a striking yet complementary contrast to the street photography of Kings Cross in Street People Kings Cross, turning his famed portraiture to the people that live on those very streets. Initially commissioned by The Big Issue in 1999, these portraits of homelessness showcase Baileys unsurpassed talent in capturing unexpected aspects of his subjects, challenging preconceptions with a quiet intimacy. Kings Cross meanwhile focuses on the fast-changing landscape of the area. Baileys relatively recent photographs together with an insightful text by Francis Hodgson are an testament to the ever-changing city and ... More Boris Charmatz, the man who wants to make you dancePARIS (AFP).- Boris Charmatz is out to make the world dance. Only weeks after getting 20,000 people to dance over 10 hours on the tarmac of Berlin's old Tempelhof airport, the French dancer and choreographer is about to repeat the trick at the vast 104 arts centre in Paris on Sunday. While the American photographer Spencer Tunick persuades people to take off their clothes for mass nude shots, Charmatz has similarly inspired tens of thousands to shed their hang-ups about dancing. He described his "Crazy for Dance" happening as not just a "mega bash" but a mass initiation into the joys and mysteries of modern dance classics, from Isadora Duncan to Lucinda Childs. "It's about forming a dancing community," he said. When you can attract 20,000 people to an old airport to dance "clearly you are responding to a need", he told AFP. And 44-year-old Charmatz fills ... More John Atzbach Antiques announces sale of the Moore-Grobman collection of works by designer Eva ZeiselREDMOND, WA.- John Atzbach Antiques announces the sale of works by the renowned Hungarian-American designer Eva Zeisel (1906-2011) from the collection of Pat Moore and Dr. Gene Grobman (1929-2016) to be held on Thursday, October 12, 2017. Born into a family of Budapest intellectuals and entrepreneurs, Eva Stricker Zeisel was a prolific designer, historian, and educator who continued to work past her 100th birthday. During her eighty-five year career, she created works that came to exemplify organic abstraction in modern design. Responding to what she viewed as the coldness of modernism, Zeisels friendly formsoften nesting ensembles of related forms suggesting the familiarity and comfort of familial relationshipswere produced by manufacturers around the world. Formed over 25 years, the Moore-Grobman Collection is the largest group of works ... More Waterhouse & Dodd present new works by the Irish artist Michael CanningLONDON.- Waterhouse & Dodd are exhibiting new works by the acclaimed Irish artist Michael Canning in September. This is the gallery's 6th solo exhibition of Michaels work over an 11 year period. Each show has been marked by a subtle development. Jamie Anderson, director at Waterhouse & Dodd, notes: each new exhibition we mount brings a wider audience to Michaels work and his paintings have proved enduringly popular. I think people respond to the timelessness of the imagery and the beauty of the subject matter. The gallery becomes a rather contemplative space in the presence of his work. Each unique work by Michael Canning presents a sprawling landscape overlaid with wild plant species selected from the hedgerows of the artists native Limerick. Although the landscapes themselves are not topographically accurate, the plant specimens are rendered with ... More |
|
href='
Flashback On a day like today, Cambodian photographer and journalist Dith Pran was born September 27, 1942. Dith Pran (27 September 1942 - 30 March 2008) was a Cambodian photojournalist best known as a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian genocide. He was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields (1984). He was portrayed in the film by first-time actor Haing S. Ngor (1940 - 1996), who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
|
|
|
