Discovered a couple of weeks ago, it is believed that the city was the reigning center of a vast region about 1,400 years ago, between 600 and 900 AD. Photo: Mauricio Marat/ INAH.
MEXICO CITY.- A team of national and international experts, led by archaeologist Ivan Šprajc, have baptized an ancient Mayan city, that hadn’t been previously reported, as Chactun “Red Stone” or “Big Stone”. This city is located southeast of the state of Campeche, and it’s one of the biggest sites attributed to this civilization that has been registered in the Low Central Lands. Discovered a couple of weeks ago, it is believed that the city was the reigning center of a vast region about 1,400 years ago, between 600 and 900 AD., informed the archaeologist Ivan Šprajc, who leads the expedition supported by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), indicating that these facts are inferred given the sites dimensions and the quantity of monuments. The ancient Mayan metropolis is one of the 80 sites that have been located thanks to the Project of Archaeological ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- The Cyrus Cylinder—a 2,600-year-old inscribed clay document from Babylon in ancient Iraq and one of the most famous surviving icons from the ancient world—is the centerpiece of the traveling exhibition The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: Charting a New Empire, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning June 20. The Cylinder is relevant to millions of people across the world. It marks the establishment of Persian rule in 539 B.C. by Cyrus the Great, with the defeat of Babylon, the restoration of shrines, and the return of deported peoples and their gods. Cyrus’ legacy is celebrated in the biblical tradition, where he is seen as a liberator, enabling the return to Jerusalem. The Cylinder and 16 related works on view, all on loan from the British Museum, reflect the innovations initiated by Persian rule in the ancient Near East (550–331 B.C.) and chart a new path for this empire, the largest the wor ... More
LONDON.-David Zwirner presents an exhibition of works by Donald Judd (1928-1994). This is the first gallery presentation of this seminal artist in London in nearly fifteen years and the first significant exhibition of Judd’s work in the U.K. since his 2004 retrospective at Tate Modern, London. From the early 1960s up until the time of his death, Judd developed a rigorous visual vocabulary that sought clear and definite objects as its primary mode of articulation. Together, the works in this exhibition present an overview of many of Judd’s signature forms and offer insight into his singular commitment to material, colour, and proportion. One of the most significant American artists of the postwar period, Judd’s oeuvre has come to define what has been referred to as Minimalist art—a label to which the artist strongly objected on the grounds of its generality. In 1965, Judd published his now-canonical treatise “Specific Objects,” in which ... More
a pristine example of a quintessential work by Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue (1927) - was fiercely contested by five bidders. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Tonight, Sotheby’s London Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art totalled £105,939,000, exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of £74-104 million. Driven largely by the strength of the diverse offerings – fresh-to-the-market estate property, sculpture, and classic Impressionist works – the sale attracted global competition. Monet’s 1908 view of Venice, Le Palais Contarini, provided the highpoint of the evening, becoming the top selling work of the London summer season, when it sold in a tense three-way bidding battle for £19,682,500 / $30,828,700/€22,998,940. Moments earlier in the sale, a pristine example of a quintessential work by Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue (1927) - his most favoured combination - was fiercely contested by five bidders. The winning bid was cast by a telephone bidder and the work fetched a final sum of £9,266,500/ $14,514,119 (est. £4.5-6.5) – a price refle ... More
A man poses with a watercolour painting by late Spanish artist Salvador Dali at Bonham auction house in central London. AFP PHOTO/LEON NEAL.
LONDON.- Fourteen original Salvador Dalí watercolour fruit studies, previously unseen by collectors made their auction debut at Bonhams’ Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London today, 18th June. All fourteen lots in the series sold for the total of £726,700. The collection attracted interest from around the world culminating in battles between buyers on the telephone, internet and bidders in the saleroom. Hasty plum, Prunier hâtif, rushed to first place selling to a bidder on the telephone for £91,250. Other top lots in the series were vibrant images featuring typical Dalinian imagery such as the head of Cerises Pierrot (Pierrot Cherries), Mûres sauvages (Wild Blackberries) and the jewelled eye in Pêcher pénitent (Penitent Peach). The works were commissioned in 1969 directly from Salvador Dali by the German publisher Jean Schneider. Aside from a brief appearance at exhibition in Germany in 2001, these original hand painted works ma ... More
LONDON.-Pace London presents an exhibition of new work by the American artist Robert Irwin at 6 Burlington Gardens from 21 June to 17 August 2013. This is the first exhibition by the artist at Pace London. In the early 1960s, while much of America and Europe was fascinated with the new wave of Pop Artists, Southern California quietly gave rise to a very different aesthetic revolution known as the Light and Space movement. Spearheading this movement, Robert Irwin began to take ideas from philosophical inquiries into the nature of human experience and radical advances in perceptual psychology and combine them with the immersive abstraction that had been pioneered by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. The result was an original approach to art that replaced the object with a phenomenon. Finding traditional painting and sculpture too restrictive and self-contained, Irwin was the first to make objects and instal ... More
OXFORD.- The Ashmolean has announced that Professor Brown will retire from his post as Director of the Ashmolean on 30 September 2014 after serving in that position for sixteen years. Following a sabbatical year, he will take up a position as a Research Professor in the University for three years until 2018. His work will be on Van Dyck and Rembrandt with the latter to be the focus of an exhibition in the Ashmolean in 2016. He took up the post of Director of the Ashmolean Museum in 1998 and the years of his Directorship have transformed the Museum. Visitor figures have risen from 100,000 to over a million during these years. The Museum will launch a campaign to create The Professor Christopher Brown Fund which will be used to establish curatorial fellowships at the Ashmolean. The process of finding Professor Brown’s successor will now begin so that his successor will be available to take up the position when he steps down. Bernard ... More
Pablo Picasso, Oiseaux et Poissons, partially glazed terracotta vase. Height: 19 in. (48 cm.). Conceived in 1955 and executed in an edition of 25. Estimate: £30,000–40,000. Price realised: £109,875. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.
LONDON.-Christie’s Picasso Ceramics auction on 18 June 2013 realised £2,845,750 / $4,459,290 / €3,340,911, selling 100 percent of the 171 lots on offer. This Picasso Ceramics sale was the first annual sale in the category, which follows the success of the Madoura Collection of Picasso Ceramics in 2012. This sale featured a strong selection of unique pieces and some of the artist’s most beautiful works in editions, representing a particular moment in Picasso’s oeuvre. Estimates ranged from £100 to £150,000, providing an exceptional opportunity for new collectors as well as seasoned buyers to acquire sought-after pieces by the greatest artist of the 20th century. The sale attracted buyers from all over the world, with many European bidders travelling to London to attend the sale in person. The top lot in the sale was an exquisite solid gold platter, which sold for £193,875/ $303,802 / €227,609, against a pre-sale es ... More
A stuntman jumps from a tower set by French artist Loris Greaud as part of a show entitled "I" like electrical intensity and like the English pronoun "I", according to the artist, at the Centre Pompidou, contemporary art center, aka Beaubourg, in Paris. AFP PHOTO / JOEL SAGET.
PARIS.- From June 19 to July 15, the Centre Pompidou presents one part of Loris Gréaud’s two-venue project, [I]. The artist has specially designed this monumental, performance-related sculpture for the Forum of the Centre Pompidou, where it is on show, free of charge, for four weeks. “I’ve always wanted to move away from the classical format of exhibitions, (…). That may have been what aroused my interest in a poetical wave of proposals and experiences spreading like noise, or like a murmur, from one city to another. To displayworks all round the world is a way of covering one’s tracks and blurring any reference to time and space (…) the idea of exhibiting two works simultaneously in these two highly prestigious institutions held a very special appeal to me: visitors are invited to go from one exhibition to the other and dwell on what it is that brings them together.” The name of the exhibition, [I], ... More
Visitors try out the interactive installation titled "in orbit" by Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno at the K21 Staendehaus museum. AFP PHOTO / FEDERICO GAMBARINI.
DUSSELDORF.- A gigantic installation work by Tomás Saraceno, entitled “in orbit,” has been assembled in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. At a height of more than 20 meters above the piazza of the K21 Ständehaus, Saraceno has suspended a net construction within which visitors can move, apparently weightlessly. This highly contemporary safety net, which covers altogether 2500 m², spreads itself out across three levels below the massive glass cupola of the K21. The levels are held apart from one another by a series of “spheres,” airfilled PVC balls measuring up to 8.5 meters in diameter. “To describe the work means to describe the people who use it – and their emotions,” explains Tomás Saraceno concerning his largest installation to date, planned over the past three years in collaboration with engineers, architects, and arachnologists – experts on spiders and spider webs. Saraceno’s net constru ... More
BALTIMORE, MD.-The Baltimore Museum of Art announced a series of reopenings that will revitalize the visitor experience of the museum and its outstanding collections. The next milestone of the multi-year renovation is the reopening of the historic Merrick Entrance, Dorothy McIlvain Scott American Wing, and East Wing Entrance & Lobby in fall 2014 to celebrate the museum’s 100th anniversary. The BMA also announced the expansion of its renovation plans for the first floor of the building to include new galleries for its Asian art collection and an exciting new learning and creativity center that will offer visitors of all ages unique ways to engage with works of art from the museum’s collection. The galleries for the African and Asian art collections and the learning and creativity center are expected to be completed by late spring 2015. “Nearly a century ago, the BMA was founded by civic-minded leaders who were passionate about building ... More
George Brecht, Sink, 1963. Lavabo blanco con pastilla de jabon y cinco cepillos de diferentes colores en un vaso, 80 x 68 x 56 cm. Museo Vostell Malpartida. Gobierno de Extremadura. Photo: Joaquin Cortes/Roman Lores. Museo Nacional Centreo de Arte Reina Sofia.
MADRID.- The 1960s may be the 20th century decade that wrote the code for our contemporary moment. Introducing text/information-based strategies, real-time, and the rupture of specific media boundaries into artistic practice, it defined creative criteria, models of authorship mediation, and new distribution networks that are still very much with us. The exhibition ± I96I posits a deliberately unfamiliar and anonymous temporal marker to spark debate about how and when the first new theoretical and artistic ground was broken, positing the point at which the “expanded arts” of the Sixties could first be glimpsed. Choosing a field of radical invention before the leading names and terms of the decade were critically and historically defined – considering precursors such as Anna Halprin and John Cage, and breakthrough 1961 work by figures such as La Monte Young, Robert Morris, George Brecht, Henry Flynt, Simone Forti, Jackson Mac Low, Walter De Maria, George Maciunas, Ray Johnson, Emme ... More
Nicholas Biniaz-Harris, 17, the 2013 winner of the National Symphony Orchestra young soloist's competition, speaks with reporters. AFP PHOTO / Robert MacPherson.
WASHINGTON(AFP).- Nicholas Biniaz-Harris is a young American classical pianist who is more at home performing Bach, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff than the obscure works of Nazi concentration camp inmates. But as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, the 17-year-old Washingtonian felt a special attachment to the variations on a Polish patriotic theme that Leon Kaczmarek put together in Dachau during World War II. On Tuesday, after just two weeks of rehersal, he sat down at a baby grand piano in an auditorium at the US State Department in Washington and played Kaczmarek's composition to American ears for the first time. "As a classically-trained pianist, you're always playing pieces that the audience or judges or teachers have heard a thousand times before," said the winner of this year's National Symphony Orchestra young soloists competition. "But in this case, it's truly an original work, composed 70 years ago, that nobody has heard." The pianist's grandmother was among the 1,200 Jews shielded from certain ... More
Quote What impassions me most is the portrait, the modern portrait. Vincent van Gogh
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Keep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper) opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts LONDON.- Keep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper) explores how artists since the 1940s to the present day have used drawing to address ideas critical and current to their time, ranging from the politics of gender and sexuality to feminist issues, war, censorship and race. Stretching from fashion to erotica, the works can all be viewed as being in some way transgressive, employing traditional and commercial drawing techniques to challenge specific social, political or stylistic conventions. Keep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper) runs from 19 June - 8 September 2013. The exhibition brings together the work of eight artists: Judith Bernstein, Tom of Finland, George Grosz, Margaret Harrison, Mike Kuchar, Cary Kwok, Antonio Lopez and Marlene McCarty. Curated by Sarah McCrory, the exhibition draws on the way artists turned to the commercial realms of comics, fashion and illustration to revitalise drawing within the visual arts - many of the works in Keep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper) were ori ... More
World's largest all-solar-powered boat shines in NYC NEW YORK(AFP).- The world's largest fully solar-powered boat, "Turanor PlanetSolar," docked in New York on Tuesday during a mission to study the effects of climate change on the Gulf Stream current. Sponsored in part by the Swiss government, the 35-meter (115-foot) catamaran is crowned with solar panels that retract in port but open like a bird's wings to take best advantage of the sun's rays when at sea. In May 2012, the vessel became the first solar-powered vehicle to travel all the way around the globe. It was an epic adventure that took 584 days and spanned more than 60,000 kilometers (37,282 miles). Weighing in at 90 tonnes, it travels at an average five knots. "Instead of being a museum somewhere in some harbor, the boat is now engaged in this second life," said Gerard d'Aboville, the boat's French captain, referring to the boat's latest mission. The ship set sail from La Ciotat in France just over two months ago. And since it has made stops including the southeastern US city of Miami on its inf ... More
Morrison Gallery launches Steve Tobin's "Roots on 7" as first in annual public art series KENT, CONN.- William Morrison, owner and founder of the eponymous Morrison Gallery, has been known for exhibiting large scale sculpture in and around the village since founding the gallery in 1998, but this summer he has taken this vision for utilizing strategic green spaces in the beautiful enclave of Kent to a more comprehensive level with the debut of “Roots on 7.” The installation of nearly a dozen monumental sculptures from renowned Bucks County, Pennsylvania artist Steve Tobinʼs Steelroots and Earth Bronzes series, one soaring 40ʼ high, commenced on Wednesday, June 19th. Amidst a cacaphony of cranes, forklifts, 18 wheeler flatbed trucks and a team of gallery and studio assistants, the various works will be sited and placed through Thursday along the Route 7 corridor as well as other locations in the village of Kent. “Roots on 7” is the first of what Morrison envisions as an annual sculpture event featuring a cohesive solo show of the worldʼs most dynamic scu ... More
Florida International University announces transformative gift from Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. to The Wolfsonian-FIU MIAMI BEACH, FL.- Florida International University has announced another magnanimous gift from Wolfsonian founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr., which significantly strengthens the museum’s singular collection and expands the museum’s physical presence to downtown Miami. The gift includes three floors of exhibitions space in a building on Flagler Street, in the heart of downtown, along with an irrevocable promised gift of approximately 25,000 objects, rare books, works-on-paper, and archives that complement and enhance the museum’s collection of modern visual and material culture. The gift coincides with a period of growth for The Wolfsonian and is aligned with the five-year plan the institution adopted in January 2013, which triggered a major grant of five million dollars from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in support of greater public access to the collection. The three floors in the new Wolfsonian downtown Miami space comprise ... More
Art Gallery of Ontario unveils monumental bronze sculpture series by artist Ai Weiwei in Toronto TORONTO.-The Art Gallery of Ontario unveiled Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s monumental sculpture series Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze in the reflecting pool of Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square today. The installation precedes the AGO’s summer exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What?, opening on Aug. 17, 2013. Toronto is the only Canadian stop on the exhibition’s North American tour. Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is a collection of 12 spectacular bronze animal heads representing the traditional figures of the Chinese Zodiac. The installation, made possible in part by the City of Toronto which generously allowed the use of the popular reflecting pool outside City Hall, is on display until Sept. 22, 2013. Ai, who is under constant surveillance and has been unable to leave China since the government confiscated his passport in 2011, is supportive of the AGO’s initiative to share his works publicly. As a p ... More
Silver tureen owned by Marie Antoinette's sister dominates Bonhams £1.4m Silver Sale LONDON.- A spectacular and rare silver soup tureen - a survivor of the fabled Taschen-Saschen silver service given as a wedding present to Marie Antoinette’s estranged sister Maria - ’Mimi’ - Christina, exceeded all expectations when it sold for £433,250 at Bonhams this morning after a lengthy bidding war. The silver tureen doubled its pre-sale estimate, which was £200,000. A fine collection of the 7th Duke of Wellington’s boxes also performed well, fetching a total of £250,000. The sale overall secured in excess of £1.4m. The striking soup tureen was a wedding gift from Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mother of Maria Christina and Marie Antoinette, to Archduchess Maria Christina and her husband, Prince Albert Casimir. Weighing 27 pounds, the tureen is supported by entwined dolphins and the finial (cover) is topped by a crab nestling on a bed of seaweed, coral and shells. From its huge depths, steaming fish stews an ... More
Death mask of Napoleon makes £170,000 at Bonhams LONDON.- An extraordinary cast of the death mask of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, made shortly after his death on the island of St Helena on 5 May 1821, was sold for £169,250 at Bonhams Book, Map and Manuscript sale in Knightsbridge, London today (19 June). It had been estimated at £40,000-60,000. The cast – known as the ‘Boys cast’ - was made for the Rev Richard Boys, Senior Chaplain of St Helena and is one of only a tiny handful with a provenance linking it directly to the island. It was the most significant example remaining in private hands and bears an autograph note of authentication written by Boys. All but one of the other examples are in national collections, either in France or in Corsica. It was being sold by Andrew Boys, a direct descendent of the original owner’s brother. After Napoleon’s death, there was a protracted wrangle over whether his physician, Francesco Antommarchi, or the British d ... More
On a day like today, Swiss engraver Matthäus Merian,
died
June 19, 1650.- Matthäus Merian der Ältere
(or "Matthew", "the Elder", or "Sr.")
was a notable Swiss engraver. After his death his sons Matthäus
and Caspar took over the publishing house and continued publishing
the Topographia Germaniae and the Theatrum Europaeum under the name
Merian Erben (i.e. Merian Heirs). In this image: Frankfurt ca. 1612;
engraving by Matthäus Merian.
