Research on ‘Figures in a Courtyard behind a House’ by Pieter de Hooch in the paintings conservation studio. Photo Rijksmuseum.
AMSTERDAM.- For the first time, extensive research will be conducted into the painting technique of the 17th-century Delft master Pieter de Hooch (1629- after 1684). The research work will be carried out in the Rijksmuseum’s Atelier Building in collaboration with Museum Prinsenhof Delft, and will culminate in the monographic exhibition at Museum Prinsenhof Delft entitled ‘Pieter de Hooch in Delft: From the Shadow of Vermeer’, which will run from 11 October 2019 to 16 February 2020. The technical research conducted by the Rijksmuseum’s conservators and researchers is focusing on the six Pieter de Hooch paintings in the museum’s collection, which date from around 1650 to 1670. To create a broader research context, additional paintings by De Hooch have been added to this multidisciplinary programme. These include works from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and a private collection. This research is expected to yield new ins ... More
PARIS.- On 27th April, Artcurial will host a Furniture and Artefact auction, gathering together more than 300 lots from private French and European collections dating from the High Period to the Empire. Amongst the many objects, a Baron Robert von Hirsh collection, a Vierge ŕ l’Enfant, attributed to Lupo di Francesco, an Augsbourg cabinet from the latter part of the 16th century, 17th century German silver, an Osmond spherical kinetic clock from the Transition period and a set of John Cary floor globes. The Empire will also be featured with some fine examples of Jacob seats including an antic style seat (lot 273), an exceptional furniture set and an Etruscan style chest. A delicately speckled mahogany and bronze-rimmed Louis XVI desk signed by Ferdinand Bury (lot 220) represents one of the pretty classical pieces, highly represented throughout this auction. « Variety, ... More
In this file photo taken on April 12, 2017 the "Fearless Girl" (front) statue stands facing the "Charging Bull". Jewel SAMAD / AFP
NEW YORK, NY.- The popular "Fearless Girl" statue, which has been staring down Wall Street's "Charging Bull" since last year, will soon move to face the New York Stock Exchange, the city's mayor said Thursday. The bronze statue by artist Kristen Visbal -- seen by many as a defiant symbol of women's rights under President Donald Trump's administration -- appeared on the eve of International Women's Day in March 2017. The statue was installed by State Street Global Advisors asset managers and marked the start of the firm's campaign to encourage companies it invests in to increase the number of women on their boards of directors. The "Fearless Girl" statue was supposed to be up for only a week, but became a tourist magnet and the temporary permit was extended to one month, and eventually one year. Moving the statue to the pedestrian-friendly area outside ... More
Fondazione Prada – opening of Torre. Photo: Ugo Dalla Porta, 19 April 2018. Fondazione Prada, Milano. Courtesy Fondazione Prada.
MILAN.- Torre, the building marking the completion of Fondazione Prada’s Milan venue – first unveiled in May 2015 and designed by Rem Koolhaas with Chris van Duijn and Federico Pompignoli from architecture firm OMA – is now open to the public. The 60-meters high Torre is realized in exposed white concrete. The new building further develops the repertoire of different exhibition conditions that together define the architectural vision of the foundation, characterized by a variety of oppositions and fragments. Each of the nine floors of Torre offers an original perception of the internal environments thanks to a specific combination of three spatial parameters: plan dimension, clear height and orientation. Half of the levels is in fact developed on a rectangular floor plan, while the other half displays a trapezoid one. The clear height of the ceilings increases from bottom to top, ... More
Early 20th-century manuscript of a treatise on physiognomy and chiromancy (Or. 12669, ff. 2v-3r).
LONDON.-The British Library, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and the Qatar National Library are extending their partnership to digitise a vast range of important historical collections relating to the Gulf region. The partnership began in 2012 and the extension, which takes the project into a third phase, will now last until December 2021 and will significantly expand a bilingual website of Gulf history and Arabic scientific manuscripts. 900,000 more images of historical material related to the Gulf will be digitised in addition to the 1.5 million images already made available online by the partnership. The Gulf-related material includes music, maps, ships’ logs, reports, letters, private papers (including the Curzon Papers), and historical publications. It also draws upon the British Library’s exceptionally rich collections of Arabic scientific manuscripts. Researchers, academics, historians and the ... More
A Rare Fancy Intense Blue Diamond Ring Weighing 3.47 carats, I1 clarity Sold for $6,663,300 ($1,920,259 price per carat) Estimate $2/2.5 million. Courtesy Sotheby’s.
NEW YORK, NY.- Driven by top prices for important diamonds and superb gemstones, Sotheby’s spring jewelry auctions concluded today in New York with a combined total of $34 million and a strong 83.3% of all lots sold. The three auctions were led by an incredibly rare 3.47-carat Fancy Intense Blue Diamond Ring, which sold in yesterday’s Magnificent Jewels auction for $6.7 million – marking a new world auction record price-per-carat for any Fancy Intense Blue diamond ($1,920,259 per-carat). Gary Schuler, Chairman of Sotheby’s Jewelry Division, Americas commented: “Our results affirm that the auction market continues to flex its strength in top-quality diamonds, important gemstones and jewels with distinguished provenance. We are proud to continue the long line of exceptional blue diamonds at Sotheby’s, with the sale of the Fancy Intense Blue diamond, that soared to $6.7 ... More
The more than 20,000-square-foot expansion is expected to draw artists and visitors from around the region and across the globe.
FLINT, MI.-The Flint Institute of Arts welcomes the mid-Michigan community to the museum's new Contemporary Craft Wing and state-of-the-art, multi-purpose glass arena, opening on April 21, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. The more than 20,000-square-foot expansion is expected to draw artists and visitors from around the region and across the globe to the FIA, which is located on the Flint Cultural Center campus. As a hub for the performing and visual arts, the Cultural Center welcomes more than 610,000 people each year. The new facilities also enhance the museum's STEM2STEAM programming, which engages students from kindergarten through 12th grade in science, technology, engineering, and math in the context of the arts. "These new facilities are so in keeping with the character of Flint," said William S. White, chairman and CEO of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. "This is a community of makers, and the FIA ... More
International Signal Code Alphabet Corita Kent. Courtesy of Corita Art Center / Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles.
NEW YORK, NY.-Atelier Éditions announces International Signal Code Alphabet by Corita Kent, a forthcoming monograph produced in collaboration with the Corita Art Center, releasing June 1st 2018. Radical American artist, educator and once-devout Catholic nun, Sister Mary Corita Kent’s provocative serigraphy has entranced audiences for over four decades. Originally completed in 1968, Kent’s Signal Code Alphabet, encompasses a series of 26 kaleidoscopic serigraphs integrating scripture, typography, image, icon, and the maritime flags of the International Code of Signals. As 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of both the series’ completion, and the centennial of Kent’s birth, this celebratory publication reproduces Kent’s International Signal Code Alphabet for the very first time in fine art monograph format. An introduction is authored by Corita Art Center Director, Dr. Ray Smith, accompanied by a foreword ... More
Textile fragment with Hercules. Egypt, 4th–5th century CE. Wool on undyed linen, 5.3 x 5 in. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Tellalian Collection.
BOSTON, MASS.-The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College has acquired a rich trove of Coptic textiles, and an extensive library of accompanying volumes, from collectors Donald and Barbara Tellalian of Newton, Massachusetts. The Tellalians—who have a long history with the McMullen as both exhibition lenders and visitors—chose the museum to house these important works to ensure that they are accessible to future generations of students, scholars, and the public. The Tellalian Collection—which comprises thirty-four Late Antique/Coptic textiles from the fourth to eighth century—is significant due to the quality, importance, and conservation of the textiles, as well as the related comprehensive library of 129 books and folios, many of which are rare volumes. Such textiles are thought to have been produced by Copts (Christian Egyptians) and other weavers throughout the ... More
Ottoman shield of gilt-Copper (tombak). Early 17th century. Image provided by Peter Finer Ltd.
LONDON.- The inaugural Antique Arms Fair at Olympia London of September 2017, a showcase for fine antique arms, armour and militaria from an array of UK based and international specialist dealers, received very positive feedback from dealers and collectors alike regarding the high standard of the fair, excellent sales, and good attendance. The organisers hope to emulate and build on this positive start in their next fair on the 21st April 2018, and are delighted to welcome back high-profile dealers such as Peter Finer, Hatford Antiques, Magazin Royal, and Runjeet Singh among many others. This year the fair organisers have chosen to sponsor the highly regarded Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, an organisation which works, “to make a difference to the lives and careers of crafts people whilst maintaining the very highest standards in craftsmanship.” The Trust provides numerous scholarships, and has supported over 130 diffe ... More
A woman holds up keepsake MetroCards available for purchase inside the Broadway-Lafayette station on April 19, 2018 in New York City. ANGELA WEISS / AFP.
NEW YORK(AFP).- David Bowie has taken over a subway station in his adopted home of New York, with images of the rock legend plastered throughout and commemorative fare cards issued in his honor. Concert photos figure on the walls and his giant black-and-white likeness appears at the track entrance of the Broadway-Lafayette station, a short walk from where the London-born rocker lived his final years. The art installation is sponsored by streaming company Spotify and will be in place until May 13 as a tie-in to the exhibition "David Bowie is" at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition, which opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, has traveled across a dozen cities with New York scheduled to be its final stop. Bowie's death in 2016 from an undisclosed battle with cancer stunned the music world. He lived more than 20 years in New York which he first visited ... More
BRUNSWICK, ME.- On view April 19 through September 16, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art presents Richard Pousette-Dart: Painting/ Light/ Space, an exhibition that offers new considerations of Pousette-Dart’s large, non-representational paintings from the 1960s and early 1970s. During this highly-prolific period in the artist’s career his work was widely exhibited, championed by critics, and influenced younger generations of artists. Painting/Light/Space draws together nine large-scale atmospheric paintings, several drawings, and archival materials into a timely reconsideration of Pousette-Dart’s contribution to American art and history. While Richard Pousette-Dart (1916–1992) is best known as one of the youngest members of the New York School, his later work marked ... More
Miller became the first woman to be dean of Yale College in December 2008 and served until June 2014.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Trust announced today the appointment of art historian Mary Miller as the new director of the Getty Research Institute. Dr. Miller is currently Sterling Professor of the History of Art at Yale University and Senior Director of Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Miller became the first woman to be dean of Yale College in December 2008 and served until June 2014. Before assuming the deanship, she served as master of Saybrook College for 10 years. “Dr. Miller is a distinguished art historian, a renowned lecturer, and proven administrator. She is a leader in her field and someone I know to be deeply invested in the preservation of the world’s artistic knowledge, at all levels, as is in keeping with our mission at the Getty,” said James Cuno, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. “As one of the world’s preeminent centers for cultural research, the Get ... More
Quote Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. Camille Pissarro
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Lichtenstein's Nude with Blue Hair tops $2.4 million sale of Modern & Contemporary Prints & Multiples DALLAS, TX.- Nude with Blue Hair — a monumental work combining the talent of artist Roy Lichtenstein and the printmaking expertise of John Hutcheson — sold for $540,400 in Heritage Auctions' Modern & Contemporary Art – Prints & Multiples Auction April 17 in Dallas. The sale was 97 percent sold by value and achieved $2,406,000, well above the overall presale estimate. “The Lichtenstein was a printer’s proof from the collection of John Hutcheson, a Master Printer who worked with hundreds of well-known artists such as Frank Stella, David Hockney, and Helen Frankethaler,” Holly Sherratt, Heritage Auctions' Director of Modern & Contemporary Art, San Francisco, said. “The sale price is one of the highest prices ever for the work.” The 154 lots on offer featured a group of 11 artworks by Andy Warhol, which claimed four of the auction's top 10 lots. ... More
The New-York Historical Society explores fashion, feathers and the rise of animal rights activism NEW YORK, NY.-The New-York Historical Society is presenting a special exhibition that melds fashion, activism, and the history of the groundbreaking Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Feathers: Fashion and the Fight for Wildlife, on view April 6–July 15, 2018, examines the circumstances that inspired early environmental activists—many of them women and New Yorkers—to champion the protection of endangered birds. The exhibition showcases bird- and plumage-embellished clothing and accessories. It also features original watercolors by John James Audubon of birds endangered before the passage of the statute, models for The Birds of America, from the Museum’s renowned collection. Recordings of bird songs from The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology—together with objects on loan from other institutions, books, ephemera, and ... More
Yve Laris Cohen opens first solo museum presentation on the West Coast SAN DIEGO, CA.-The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is presenting Yve Laris Cohen: Meeting Ground from April 19 through September 2, 2018 at its downtown location. The work of San Diego-born, New York-based artist Yve Laris Cohen often considers the architecture and latent histories of theatrical spaces, through installations and performances that highlight states of transition--in bodies and buildings alike. For Laris Cohen's exhibition--his first solo museum presentation on the West Coast--the artist takes as his starting point MCASD La Jolla's current expansion, a construction endeavor involving the conversion of Sherwood Auditorium into gallery space. On the occasion of Sherwood's disappearance, Laris Cohen has engaged in an excavation of the history of the auditorium and, in turn, of the Museum itself. His installation transposes ... More
The Phillips Collection announces first Chief Diversity Officer WASHINGTON, DC.-The Phillips Collection announced the appointment of Makeba Clay as Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) to lead its institutional inclusion strategy. The new role at the museum marks another major progression in the Phillips’s move to institutionally operationalize its commitment to diversifying its staff and board, exhibitions, programs, and partnerships. The creation of this executive role is championed by museum leadership and the museum’s Board of Trustees. Clay will report directly to the museum’s Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Dorothy Kosinski. In 2013, an official Diversity Statement was adopted as part of the museum’s strategic plan. Staff has worked intensively since 2016 in an Inclusion and Diversity Task Force to instrumentalize changes in the museum’s programs and facilities, and to engage experts and coaches in exploring ... More
Raqs Media Collective's continual fascination with time explored in new exhibition at K21 DUSSELDORF.- The investigation of time, language, and history is central to the artistic activities of the Raqs Media Collective. Founded in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi (b. 1966), Monica Narula (b. 1969) and Shuddhabrata Sengupta (b. 1968), Raqs practices at the intersection of contemporary art, historical enquiry, philosophical speculation, and theory, while taking into account social and political conditions in a global context. The point of departure for this exhibition is Raqs’s continual fascination with time, a topic that has preoccupied the members of the group intensively ever since they began working together. In works such as "Escapement" (2009) and "Re-Run" (2013), they pose such questions as: What is time? What does it mean to measure time? And: How does time relate to space and history? Visitors will find themselves confronted with a range of time-related ... More
Exhibition at Martin Gropius Bau features 23 of Ana Mendieta's multi-layered film works BERLIN.- From 20 April to 22 July 2018 the exhibition Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta at the Gropius Bau features 23 of Ana Mendieta's multi-layered film works, which have been restored and digitised after several years of research. Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) is one of the outstanding artists of the 1970s and 1980s. Her work moves freely between the disciplines of body art, land art and performance art, without being bound to a particular medium or single movement. The connecting element across her practice is the recurring use of the abstracted shape of the female form, often in dialogue with the natural world, in order to question the supposed separation between the body and nature. Film and photography play a central role for Ana Mendieta. Beginning in 1973, her practice emerges twofold: She creates works within landscapes that ... More
San Jose Museum of Art explores the house in contemporary art in "The House Imaginary" SAN JOSE.- In a new exhibition at the San José Museum of Art, artists use the idea of the single-family house to explore memory, identity, and belonging. The House Imaginary, on view April 20, 2018, through August 19, 2018, comprises 45 international works in a variety of media from the 1970s to the present. It explores the house as an architectural and psychological space resonant in discussions around immigration, urban planning, and other social issues. The exhibition includes favorites from the Museum’s permanent collection by Mildred Howard, Bill Owens, and Clare Rojas; new acquisitions by Tabaimo and Won Ju Lim making their SJMA debuts; and works on loan by such artists as Do Ho Suh, Mike Kelley, Rachel Whiteread, and Zarina. “At this time of increasing housing costs in the Bay Area and new awareness of historic racial housing policies, ... More
Iván Navarro transforms Gallery Hyundai into a synesthetic experience SEOUL.- This April, Iván Navarro transforms Gallery Hyundai into a synesthetic experience with his exhibition The Moon in The Water . The Chilean-born artist’s second solo show with the gallery provides the viewers with three distinct environments, triggering the sensory system through sound, sight, and movement. This survey exhibition spans three floors in the gallery. The basement level showcases his Drums series (2009-2018) including ‘Bomb, Bomb, Bomb’ (2014) and ‘Revolution IV’ (2017). The works visually represent sound, marking a language play between sound and spelling. ‘Die Again (Monument for Tony Smith)’ (2006) is also on show, an immersive work which considers the transcendence of nationality, alienation and a state of limbo. New pieces on display include a ladder work in red neon, ‘Emergency Ladder’ (2017), and Vanity series (2018). The ... More
The Merchant House opens exhibition of works by Boris Chouvellon & Mengzhi Zheng AMSTERDAM.- In this third dialogue of the cycle of Making Things Happen, the artworks surprise as they stand forth in their literalness and as they deftly disrupt our sense of the privileged historical backdrop at The Merchant House. In attesting to sculpture's generative vocabulary, Chouvellon and Zheng flesh out the theme of the TMH program: how do young artists inscribe themselves in the history of an art medium? The work of both artists is unquestionably sculptural yet blurs the distinction between image and construct. They draw attention to a play on objectivity, to the cognitive tension between a sculptor's art and the socially engaged image making that we attribute to photography. Their individual sense of the precarious is affirmed and contrasted by the addition of actual photography by Chouvellon and technical drawings and etchings by Zheng. ... More
Exhibition offers a contemporary insight into the Gold Rush that captured the U.S. in the mid-19th century AMSTERDAM.- Gold & Silver offers a contemporary insight into the Gold Rush that captured the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. Two great myths or crazy dreams became reality: filling your pockets with the most precious metal and fixing your image in metal. At the time gold and silver were used in the photographic process. The Foam exhibition Gold and Silver emphasizes this relationship between the gold rush and the early photography. Halfway through the nineteenth century, many adventurers dreamt of a better life in luxury. Thousands of hopeful men left their families and homes behind to seek for gold. In vivid images ranging from the rivers of California to the snowy peaks of the Yukon, Gold and Silver recounts the hopes, dreams, and illusions of the pioneers of the gold rush who flooded into the north and west of North America in ... More
Mophradat announces artists selected for the inaugural Consortium Commissions BRUSSELS.-Mophradat, an international nonprofit contemporary arts association that creates opportunities for contemporary artists from the Arab world, today announces the artists selected for the inaugural Consortium Commissions. A new model for co-commissioning art projects, the initiative creates an avenue for production outside of commercial interests and state patronage, while strengthening collaboration between existing non-profit arts organizations. Mophradat has created a network of collaborating partner museums, art centers, theaters, and festivals around the world, in order to collectively select, produce, and exhibit ambitious new artworks by emerging contemporary Arab artists. Mophradat is providing each invited artist with a grant of up to US$22,000, to cover the production of their new project, which will be presented at two of the prestigious ... More
Liu Bolin: The invisible man
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Flashback
On a day like today, French painter Odilon Redon was born
April 20, 1840. Odilon Redon (born Bertrand-Jean Redon (April 20, 1840 - July 6, 1916) was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist.In this image: Odilon Redon, The beasts of the sea, round like leather bottles, (detail). Plate 22 of The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1896. Lithograph. The Kirk Edward Long Collection, 2010.60.22. Plate size: 8-3/4" x 7-1/2".
