Liz Bejarano, foreground, and her mother, Beatriz Cautillo, view Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies,” (1914-26) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Oct. 20, 2019. The museum reopened to the public after having been closed for four months to complete a $450 million expansion and reorganization. Karsten Moran/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Tania Thomas, one of the first visitors to see the renovated and expanded Museum of Modern Art, had the new floor map in hand and an audio guide. It wasn’t enough. “We’re walking in the wrong direction,” Thomas, of Larchmont, New York, said to her daughter Eliana, 11, as they wandered the fifth floor. “Should we go to the beginning and start over?” Jeff Madrick, a longtime museum member, said he was surprised by some of the artworks he hadn’t seen before. “I don’t remember the small Légers or the Stuart Davis,” he said, referring to work by French painter Fernand Léger and the American modernist painter. His wife, Kim Baker, was pleased to see a roomful ... More
A police property clerk puts the recovered Star of India, now evidence and in a sealed container, inside a safe, which was inside a wire-enclosed vault, in New York, Jan. 1, 1965. For its 150th anniversary, the Museum of Natural History is celebrating many historic moments, but one milestone not on the the list: the “heist of the century,” when three sharply dressed “beach boys” broke into the museum in late 1964 and made off with the Star of India, a 563-carat sapphire, and other precious gems. Patrick Burns/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- For its 150th anniversary, the American Museum of Natural History is celebrating its many historic moments, from its 1869 founding, to the 1902 discovery of the first T. rex skeleton, to the creation of the Teddy Roosevelt statue erected out front in 1940. One milestone not on that list: the biggest jewel heist in New York history, when the Star of India, a 563-carat sapphire the size of a golf ball, was snatched from its display case, along with the rare Eagle Diamond, the DeLong Star Ruby and some 20 other precious gems from a collection donated to the museum by J.P. Morgan. For several months beginning in October 1964, the city was transfixed by the brazen robbery that the tabloids immediately labeled the heist of the century. The culprits were not ... More
David Tudor’s “Rainforest V (variation 1)” at the Studio at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, Sept. 27, 2019. The Studio will serve as a dedicated space for performances, screenings, residencies and more — starting with Tudor's piece, made with everyday objects and electronics. Jeenah Moon/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It’s an ambiguous name, open to interpretation and possibility: the Studio. Perhaps that’s the point. As part of the Museum of Modern Art’s expansion and curatorial reboot — designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, and opening to the public Oct. 21 — the Studio will serve as a dedicated space for performances, screenings, residencies and more. Sleekly modular, the room — seamlessly integrated with its neighboring fourth-floor galleries, yet set off with black end-grain wood flooring and the dark walls of a black-box theater — can be adapted for an expansive variety of uses. In the future, it will host a commission by choreographer Adam Linder and artist Shahryar Nashat; Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver’s film-based installation “Cinematic Illumination”; and a residency with multidisciplinary MacArthur fellow Okwui Okpokwasili. For now, the Studio is where visitors can seek or stumble upon ... More
The architect Frank Lloyd Wright inspects the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum under construction in New York on Sept. 6, 1957. The building, one of modern architecture's transcendent achievements, turns 60 this month. Sam Falk/The New York Times.
NEW YORK, NY(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is still a shock on Fifth Avenue. The architecture declines to fade into the background or get old, never mind the building turns 60 this month. Happy birthday to one of modern architecture’s transcendent achievements! Its spiral ramp has defeated generations of curators trying to figure out how to install exhibitions on it. The building has gone through ham-fisted additions, hostile restorations, lousy paint jobs and too many bad imitations to count. But it endures everything, a testament to what critic Ada Louise Huxtable once called its “unified space and structure.” Neither Wright nor the man who commissioned him to design the building, Solomon R. Guggenheim, saw it finished. Guggenheim had died a decade earlier, Wright shortly before the building opened. He was 91. The two of them cooked up a plan for the museum back in the mid-1940s; it was to be a purpose-built container for Guggenheim’s private ... More
Father & Kid NYC. Unidentified filmmaker. USA. c. 1940s. Digital preservation of 16mm film. Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.
NEW YORK, NY(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The reopening of the Museum of Modern Art on Monday will bring new film retrospectives and the return of regular moviegoers to their favorite seats. But good luck entering the theaters without stopping short. “Private Lives Public Spaces,” the new video exhibition at the galleries outside the two main movie auditoriums, boasts around 47 hours of footage running on loops on 102 screens. The installations constitute a season of programming on their own. Drawn from MoMA’s archives, the loops are of home and amateur movies — “the largest body of unseen and underappreciated moving-image work on film,” in the museum’s formulation. These movies were for the most part not intended for viewing by the public, let alone alongside other works, and taken together they run the gamut from amateurism to outsider art, from arcana to valuable additions to the oeuvres ... More
LOS ANGELES, CA.- This fall, The Broad launched a new survey—the largest held to date—of internationally acclaimed artist Shirin Neshat’s work. The exhibition, Shirin Neshat: I Will Greet the Sun Again, is on view from October 19, 2019, through February 16, 2020, and is the renowned multidisciplinary artist’s first major exhibition to take place in the western United States. The artist has been in the Broad collection for 20 years, beginning with the 1999 acquisition of Rapture (1999)—the first multiscreen video installation to enter the collection. Originated by The Broad, this exhibition surveys approximately 30 years of Neshat’s dynamic video works and photography, investigating the artist’s passionate engagement with ancient and recent Iranian history, the experience of living in exile and the human impact of political revolution. Taking its title from a poem by Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad ... More
Cuban National Ballet Director Alicia Alonso (C) receives a homage from members of the UK Royal Ballet on July 15, 2009 at Garcia Lorca Theater in Havana. Alonso passed away on October 17, 2019 at 98. YAMIL LAGE / AFP.
HAVANA(AFP).- Cuban ballet legend Alicia Alonso, who developed a new Latin-influenced style and taught well into her 90s despite being practically blind for most of her dancing career, died on Thursday. She was 98. Known for her strong character and strict discipline, and revered in Cuba as one of its most important personalities, Alonso impressed audiences with her dramatic leaps and sensual style. Even at 40, she was still able to perform the 32 fouettes of "Swan Lake." She was the only Latin-American ever to have been recognized as a "prima ballerina assoluta" -- a rare honor awarded to the most exceptional female ballerinas of their generation "Alicia Alonso is gone and leaves a huge void, but also an insurmountable legacy," President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Twitter. "She placed Cuba on the altar of the world's best dancing. ... More
NEW YORK, NY(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 1969, Betye Saar made an artwork that would prove pivotal in her career. Taking an old window frame, she filled its 10 sections with a constellation of images. Across the top three panels, she placed colorful printed moons and stars, evoking the night sky. In each of the six squares that follow she set symbolic figures, including an eagle bearing a shield with the word “love,” a map of a human head according to the pseudoscience phrenology, and a pair of skeletons, one white and one black. Below these, in the bottom half of the window, Saar painted the silhouette of a black girl, her eyes made from lenticular lenses and her hands — marked with astrological signs ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- Offered as part of Christie’s marquee 20th Century Week in November, Christie’s announced La Ménagerie, which will take place on Tuesday, 12 November 2019. The curated auction includes 31 works of sculpture and design based on artists’ interpretations of animals and wildlife from the powerful and elegant to the playful and irreverent. This exceptional cross-category sale follows on last year’s incredibly successful Alberto and Diego Giacometti: Masters of Design. Featuring a dynamic breadth of artists spanning the 20th century to present day, La Ménagerie includes works by 12 artists including Diego Giacometti, Alexander Calder, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, Rembrandt Bugatti, François Pompon, Fernando Botero, and David Wiseman. Auction highlights include the exceptional brass Unique 'Hippopotame I' Bathtub, 1969 by François-Xavier Lalanne ($1,000,000 – 1,500,000). Measuring more than nine feet long a ... More
Hubert Robert (French, 1733–1808), Landscape with a Temple, ca. 1765–1800. Oil on canvas. Chrysler Museum of Art, gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 81.1.
NORFOLK, VA.- This fall, the Chrysler Museum of Art examines the many facets of the most important architectural thinker of the young American republic. Thomas Jefferson, Architect: Palladian Models, Democratic Principles and the Conflict of Ideals on view Oct. 19, 2019-Jan. 19, 2020. The Chrysler-curated exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Palladio Museum in Vicenza, Italy. In addition to authoring the Declaration of Independence and serving as Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State and President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) created groundbreaking architectural designs that conveyed ideals of liberty and democracy. In contrast to his architectural values, he also enslaved people. This exhibition focuses on the ideas, formation and key monuments of the Founding Father who dramatically influenced the architectural profile of America. It also confronts ... More
$5 million endowment dedicated to support sustainable leadership; Largest gift ever made to institution’s foundation.
TAMPA, FLA.-The Tampa Museum of Art today announced that the Vinik Family Foundation will make a $5 million gift to the Museum’s endowment. The landmark gift will name and endow the position of Executive Director, whose title will be known as the Penny and Jeff Vinik Executive Director of the Tampa Museum of Art. This, the largest gift made to the Museum’s endowment fund in the institution’s history, is made possible by the Vinik Family Foundation (VFF), founded by Penny and Jeff Vinik, long-time patrons and donors of the Tampa Museum of Art. Penny, who has held various board positions throughout the years, has also co-chaired the Museum’s strategic planning committee and led the executive search committee during the hiring of Executive Director, Dr. Michael Tomor. Currently, Penny serves as ... More
Two Boys with a Bladder by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 - 1797), oil paint on canvas, 927 x 730 mm, probably 1768-70.
LONDON.- Arts Minister Helen Whately has placed an export bar on Joseph Wright of Derby’s ‘Two Boys with a Bladder’. The work, completed between 1768 and 1770, is valued at £3,500,000 plus VAT and is at risk of being lost abroad unless a UK buyer can be found. Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 - 1797) was an English painter and one of the most important artists of the 18th century. He is best known for his paintings of candle-lit subjects and scientific and industrial subjects and was a frequent contributor to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists and the Royal Academy. His works are reflective of a period when the nature of childhood and education were being debated. Wright’s paintings demonstrate his masterful treatment of light effects and the work at risk of export features two boys blowing a bladder by candlelight - bladders were a ... More
“Edgy. Pretty shocking. You wonder what the heck is going to happen!”- NPR
NEW YORK, NY.- Acclaimed playwright/author Frank Strausser, who gained much praise during the very successful three month run of his stage comedy Physcho Therapy at The Cherry Lane Theater in New York City, has now broken into Amazon’s “Top 5” sellers in multiple categories this week with his debut novel “Plastic”, which brings together various high-level players in the art world with the high-profile Beverly Hills plastic surgery culture in this edgy tale of psychological suspense that explores the ephemeral and diabolical world inside Hollywood as "the Capital of Good Looks”. Strausser officially became an Amazon best-selling author this month , with “Plastic” quickly climbing up to the #3 position in the “Best Selling in Satires” category and the “Best Selling in Medical Thrillers” category just this past week; a very impressive accomplishment for a ... More
Quote Michelangelo Buonarroti was the Homer of painting. Sir Joshua Reynolds
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High Museum opens major Sally Mann photography exhibition ATLANTA, GA.- For more than 40 years, Sally Mann (American, b. 1951) has made experimental, elegiac and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family and nature’s indifference to human endeavor. This fall, the High Museum of Art presents the first major survey of her work to travel internationally, “Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings” (Oct. 19, 2019–Feb. 2, 2020). Organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, the exhibition presents figure studies, landscapes and architectural views that are united by their common origin and inspiration in the American South. Using her deep love of her homeland and her knowledge of its historically fraught heritage, Mann asks powerful, provocative ... More
Museum der Moderne Salzburg examines the interpenetration of the city and the human body SALZBURG.- Cities have always been a stage and engine for art and social change, and as such have also emerged as a subject of artistic enquiry. Our cities are the product of human imagination and endeavor as well as the setting in which our bodies exist. Their urban architecture, ideologies and economies, the encounter between different cultures, identities, and social environments all form a terrain that influences the meaning and role of our bodies. In the exhibition Bodies–Cities. Collections and Excursions, which opened on October 19, 2019, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg looks at how artists have been exploring the interpenetration of the city and the human body since the 1960s. The social and political upheavals of this decade have changed our perception of the public realm and reverberate in art to this day. The twenty-five artists ... More
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam exhibits works by Prix de Rome Visual Arts 2019 finalists AMSTERDAM.- On 19 October, Prix de Rome Visual Arts 2019 opened to the public at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The nominated artists, Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen, Esiri Erheriene-Essi, Femke Herregraven and Rory Pilgrim, have developed new work especially for the Prix de Rome. Two weeks after the opening, on Thursday 31 October, Ingrid van Engelshoven, Minister of Education, Culture and Science, will announce the winner. Since May, the artists have been working on the development of new work that the international jury will assess. The winning artist will receive 40,000 euros and a residency at the American Academy in Rome. The Prix de Rome has been developed in cooperation with the Stedelijk and will be exhibited at the museum until 22 March 2020. At the Stedelijk Museum, Claire van Els (junior curator) is responsible for the ... More
Most substantial survey of George Stubbs in UK for 35 years showing at MK Gallery this autumn MILTON KEYNES.- George Stubbs: ‘all done from Nature’ at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes brings together more than 40 paintings and 40 prints and drawings including the rare loan of the National Gallery’s masterpiece Whistlejacket, as well as lesser known works, some of which have not been seen in the UK for decades. George Stubbs (1724-1806) is one of the UK’s greatest artists. A self-taught draughtsman, painter and printmaker, Stubbs was also a genuine artist-scientist, who made a lasting impact on the study of anatomy and the natural world. It was only in the mid-20th century that his position as a modest animal painter was reassessed and he became recognised as one of the great Enlightenment figures, who charted the discovery of new animal species across the world and depicted them, as well as his trademark horses, with a sense of curiosity and empathy ... More
MoMA announces publication on the history of MoMA PS1 NEW YORK, NY.- This fall, The Museum of Modern Art will release the first publication on the history of MoMA PS1, which traces the institution’s evolution from the 1970s to today through interviews, ephemera, never-before-seen images, and an extensive exhibition history. Since 1976, MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, has been a crucible for radical experimentation, engaging artists from a range of disciplines. Structured around interviews with Alanna Heiss, PS1’s founder and director of more than three decades, MoMA PS1: A History offers a vivid chronicle of the extraordinary history of New York’s premier venue for contemporary art. The publication also features contributions by artists and curators who have been closely associated with PS1—including James Turrell, R. H. Quaytman, Kevin Beasley, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Martha ... More
A major UK retrospective of mid-century British painter Victor Willing opens at Hastings Contemporary HASTINGS.-Hastings Contemporary opened the first major UK retrospective of work by British artist Victor Willing (1928-1988) since his death, charting each decade of his tumultuous life and career from his time at the Slade, his life in Portugal, and back to London and his untimely death from multiple sclerosis. As part of Hastings Contemporary’s ambitious and expanded programme, the exhibition features key loans from Tate, Pallant House Gallery, Arts Council Collection, Gracefield Arts Centre and private collections, bringing the best of Victor Willing’s works to the South Coast. The exhibition offers visitors a chance to encounter the work of this ground-breaking artist, whose determined, large-scale paintings illustrate phases of domestic life with his wife and fellow artist, Paula Rego (b.1935) and their family, as well as darker periods of emotional ... More
Christie's Collector Week including the Collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill totals $6,578,125 NEW YORK, NY.-Christie’s Collector week, a three-day series of sales taking place from October 15-17, collectively totaled $6,578,125. The week of sales concluded with The Collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill, which totaled $1,266,000, and was 94% sold by lot and 96% sold by value. There was global participation with bidders from 27 countries spanning five continents. Commenting on the Collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill, Jonathan Rendell, Deputy Chairman, states, “‘The sale was a tribute to the transcendent taste and exquisite eye of the late Lee Bouvier Radziwill and her fascinating position at the center of American society, both political and artistic over the last century.” Bliss Summers, Head of Collector Sales, remarks, “This season’s sales were distinguished by a strong offering of fresh to the market works from several private collections; each notable ... More
Rembrandt etchings feature in Old Master through Modern Prints at Swann NEW YORK, NY.- Old Master Through Modern Prints at Swann Galleries on Tuesday, October 29 will offer an important selection of prints by Rembrandt van Rijn. Also on offer are works from European and American virtuosos. Rembrandt etchings from the John Villarino Collection form the cornerstone of the Old Master offering. In 1995 Villarino turned his collecting tastes toward Rembrandt as he recognized the profound influence the Dutch artist had on the works of later artists. Villarino was captivated by a small etching saying, “I saw his eyes, and the look was, ‘I’m going to conquer the world.’” Highlights from the collection include A Beggar Seated on a Bank, 1630, likely an early self-portrait in the guise of a beggar ($20,000-30,000); Sheet of Studies, with a Woman Lying Ill in Bed, etc., circa 1641-42 ($25,000-35,000); ... More
Over generations, Inuit draw inspiration from an unforgiving land CAPE DORSET(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Hours before flying off to her debut show in Toronto, Ooloosie Saila, a rising star in the Canadian art world, was hiding in her grandmother’s room on the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean, cowering in fear. Between her and the future stood the man in the next room, a relative who was drunk and raging — again. She perched on the bed, terrified he would burst in. Then, she packed in a frenzy. She threw the hand-sewn outfit she had chosen for the opening into a plastic garbage bag, pulled her two young sons out of bed, grabbed her art supplies and fled into the frigid night. Four days and 1,425 miles found Saila at the Feheley Fine Arts gallery in Toronto, where the crowd sipped wine and gushed over her “bold use” of color and negative space. “It’s an incredible way of depicting the landscape,” said Stefan Hancherow, ... More
Landmark watch auction series continues at Sotheby's with a tribute to A. Lange & Söhne GENEVA.- In the wake of the swathe of records set in London this summer by the first of the offerings from the legendary “Masterworks of Time” Collection, Sotheby’s will now present a further selection of timepieces from this extraordinary collection in Geneva on 11 November 2019. While the scope of Masterworks of Time is vast, chronicling the history of watchmaking from Renaissance to the 20th century, this autumn’s offering will focus on the legacy of A. Lange & Söhne, featuring one of the most impressive collections of timepieces by the German manufacture ever to appear at auction. Together, over 30 pieces chart the history of the pioneering family firm which changed the face of watchmaking in Germany and beyond. While the core of the sale will consist of watches made by A. Lange & Söhne themselves, these will be complemented ... More
Christie's Geneva announces highlights of the Magnificent Jewels auction GENEVA.- On 12 November 2019, Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels auction will present the finest and most sought-after gemstones, including D flawless diamonds, coloured diamonds, pearls, Kashmir sapphires, Burmese rubies and Colombian emeralds, alongside important signed jewels and historic pieces. The jewels will be on view at Christie’s London from 22 to 23 October and at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, Geneva from 7 to 12 November during Christie’s Luxury Sales. Transformable jewels will star in the sale with innovative Art Deco designs from Cartier, including three exceptional brooches, formerly in the collection of Countess Béatrice of Granard OBE (1883-1972) (estimate: CHF 180,000-220,000). Born Beatrice Mills, daughter of the great American financier and banker Ogden Mills, Beatrice became known as a famous ... More
