Aaron De Groft, then-director and chief executive of the Orlando Museum of Art, points to one of the now disputed paintings during the 2022 exhibition of works that authorities say were not painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat. De Groft, who was fired, has countersued the museum. (Melanie Metz /The New York Times)
by Matt Stevens and Brett Sokol
NEW YORK, NY.- The former director of the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida has countersued the institution that fired him, insisting in court documents filed this week that the roughly two dozen works shown by the museum under his care were as advertised: newly discovered works by celebrated artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The museum fired Aaron De Groft last year after the FBI seized the 25 works that had been attributed to Basquiat. It later sued him for fraud, conspiracy and various breaches after a Los Angeles auctioneer told authorities that he had helped create the artworks and that they were fake. De Groft has not been implicated in wrongdoing by law enforcement. And he has rejected the museum’s assertion in its suit that he had sought to profit from a scheme, with the paintings’ owners, to exhibit the fake works at the museum in an effort to inflate their value before an eventual sale. “Absolutely absurd,” De Groft said in a telepho ... More
Visitors at the opening night of the Tolkien exhibition, a major retrospective staged by Italy’s culture ministry dedicated to the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien, at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, a museum usually dedicated to modernist masters, Oct. 10, 2023. (Jason Horowitz/The New York Times)
by Jason Horowitz
ROME.- On the opening night of Rome’s most talked-about new exhibition this week, top government ministers in sharp suits hobnobbed with Roman socialites in fur coats, and eccentric art lovers rubbed shoulders with hard-right youth group members. They all contemplated a drawing of a glam-rock Gandalf in a form-fitting wizard’s cloak, acrylic armies of orcs and other works of fan art displayed in gilded frames. On one wall, they studied a family tree of elves, men and dwarves; on another, a glossary explaining the protagonists of Middle-earth (“Hobbits are a unique and distinct people known as Halflings.”) They stepped over an interactive map on the floor featuring Frodo and his companions coasting on a floating green saucer. Some were enthusiastic, others bewildered. ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- A dip, or a trough, or just a blip? Traders and collectors were left asking this question after two weeks of sales in New York stress-tested the top end of the auction market for modern and contemporary art. Headlined by Sotheby’s sale of the collection of art patron Emily Fisher Landau, which grossed $424.7 million with fees, this latest bellwether November series — with 14 live auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips — took place against an unpromising backdrop of high interest rates, slowing economic growth in China and war raging in the Middle East. “We were expecting a very difficult couple of weeks,” said Philip Hoffman, CEO of the Fine Art Group, an international art advisory company. “Apart from a very few lots, there weren’t many second bidders,” Hoffman said, commentating on a first week dominated by the Fisher Landau sale. “There were no sparks. But Sotheby’s and Christie’s are still managing to sell pai ... More
A visitor at the art exhibition Documenta in Kassel, Germany, on June 20, 2022. The future of the prestigious art event — held every five years — is now in question. (Felix Schmitt/The New York Times)
by Alex Marshall and Jason Farago
NEW YORK, NY.- Documenta, the German contemporary art exhibition considered one of the most prestigious in the world, fell into crisis this week after the entire team tasked with finding its next artistic director resigned after a series of disputes with administrators related to the Israel-Hamas war. The breakup of the committee meant the start date for Documenta’s next edition may have to be pushed back later than 2027, when it was scheduled to open in Kassel, Germany, a Documenta spokesperson said in an email. The last four members of the search committee stepped down Thursday, just days after its other two members had resigned, all for reasons related to the ongoing war in Israel and the Gaza Strip and the debate surrounding it in Germany. The four who resigned Thursday night — Simon Njami, Gong Yan, Kathrin Rhomberg and María Inés Rodríguez, who are museum directors and ... More
MILAN.-Christie’s 20th / 21st Century: Milan Online Sale, taking place from 23 November to 5 December, will present around 100 works by Italian and international artists including Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Giorgio de Chirico, Jannis Kounellis, Fausto Pirandello, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Salvo and Mario Schifano. Prices range from €100 to €350,000, offering collectors at every stage an opportunity to acquire pieces by pioneering artists across the 20th and 21st century, with 70% of works coming to auction for the first time. As the leading house for prestigious private collections, Christie’s will showcase two exceptional collections from actor Roberto Bisacco and Roman art critic Alberto Boatto. Additional works from Centuries of Beauty - A Refined Private Collection include sculptures by Marino Marini and ... More
Roger Kastel’s painting for the paperback edition was used in the poster for the 1975 Steven Spielberg film.
by Sopan Deb
NEW YORK, NY.- Roger Kastel, an artist whose painting for the “Jaws” poster — of a menacing shark with bared teeth looming below an insouciant skinny dipper — became one of the most enduring images in modern pop culture, died Nov. 8 in Worcester County, Massachusetts. He was 92. His death was confirmed in a statement on his website, which did not give a cause. Kastel painted the image for the cover of the paperback edition of the 1974 Peter Benchley novel on which the 1975 blockbuster film, directed by Steven Spielberg, was based. The painting shows a scene from the book in which a tourist, Chrissie Watkins, becomes prey for the great white shark while skinny dipping. The cover of the hardback edition of the novel featured a stark black cover designed by the influential book jacket designer Paul Bacon. It shows a stylized shark, its teeth barely visible, rising from ... More
LONDON.- A captivating portrait full of elegance, grace and glamour, Mrs Philip Astley, née Madeleine Carroll by Philip Alexius de László, 1935, depicts the first Alfred Hitchcock blonde in the same year that she starred in The 39 Steps. A highlight in Christie’s British & European Art sale on 14 December during Classic Week in London, it was originally in the collection of the sitter herself, before passing to her assistant and by descent until 2022, when it was acquired by the present owner in Spain. This painting exemplifies de László’s sumptuous and painterly signature style, which made him one of the most famous portraitists of the time, favoured by royalty, politicians, artists, writers and famous beauties. It is currently on public view at Christie’s headquarters in London until 28 November, alongside a selection of early Classic Week highlights, ahead of the full pre-sale view from 1 to 13 December. Peter Brown, Senio ... More
File photo of Julia Bullock performing in "Upload" at Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, on March 21, 2022. (Jeenah Moon/The New York Times)
by Christopher Kuo
NEW YORK, NY.- The Park Avenue Armory announced its 2024 season on Thursday, including the New York City arrival of “Illinoise,” a dance-theater work based on a Sufjan Stevens album and staged by Justin Peck, and the North American premiere of “Indra’s Net,” an immersive installation performance inspired by a Buddhist story and created by interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk. Rebecca Robertson, the founding president and executive producer of Park Avenue Armory, said the season of performances would provide audiences with opportunities to explore themes of interdependence and spirituality. “It’s a special journey about joy, contemplation and spiritual exploration,” Robertson said. “Illinoise,” which will run for several weeks starting March 2, is an adaptation of Stevens ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- Today, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, joins Brookfield Properties and WatermanCLARK, LLC in celebrating the completion of the newly renovated and restored Lever House, an icon since it was completed in 1952. At the time of its completion, Reyner Banham said of the building “it gave architectural expression to an age just as the age was being born.” Since then, the landmark has been under the care of SOM for over 70 years, a level of stewardship that is unprecedented in the architectural profession. The first major renovation happened in 2001 when SOM restored its facade and today, just over two decades later, the project revitalizes and preserves the landmark structure with a restored and reimagined lobby, ground-level public plaza, and entirely new modernized building systems. The tower’s third floor and 15,000 square feet of terraces have been restored and transformed into The Lever Club, an indoor-outdoor hospitality suit ... More
The sculptor and installation artist Karon Davis at Studio 94 in New York on Nov. 15, 2023. (Caitlin Ochs/The New York Times)
by Aruna D’Souza
NEW YORK, NY.- “I come from show people,” sculptor and installation artist Karon Davis said in an interview Wednesday. “The minute I was born, I was handed tap shoes, ballet shoes.” She’s only half-joking: Her mother, Nancy Bruner, was a ballerina; her sister, Naja, who died at 16, was an aspiring ballerina; and her father is Tony- and Emmy-winning actor, dancer and singer Ben Vereen. That immersion inspired her exhibition “Beauty Must Suffer,” which opened Oct. 12 at Salon 94 in Manhattan. The show consists of life-size figures, cast from live models in gauze and plaster of Paris, arranged in installations on two floors of the gallery’s town house. On the second floor, plaster children practice at the barre, and dancers rest, bow and stretch alongside floor-to-ceiling ... More
Plexus by Elena Helfrecht, November 2023. 24 x 30 cm. 104 pages. Hardcover w/ French folds. Text by Camilla Grudova.
LONDON.- Following the death of her grandmother, artist Elena Helfrecht embarked on a photographic journey through her family’s estate in Bavaria. Employing the interiors, objects and archives, she began to explore the ideas of inherited trauma and postmemory—the relationship following generations have to the traumas of those who came before. In her black and white photographs, Helfrecht uses the house and its contents to stage an allegorical play. The interiors and still lifes, which at first glance appear to show mundane objects and scenes, become increasingly unsettling: stalactite-like deposits drip sideways from walls, dark chasms open up beneath the floor boards, a snake coils around a dolls’ house and chairs hang from the beams. As the narrative progresses, motifs of eggs, birds and fleshy growths (a nod to the title, Plexus—a network of nerves or vessels) are interwoven with archival family photographs, hinting at links and connections ... More
Cartier coral, pearl and 18kt gold quadruple-strand necklace from 1976 with two strands of spherical orange red coral beads flanked by two strands of white bodied cultured pearls (est. $10,000-$15,000).
ATLANTA, GA.- A dazzling 5.64-carat pear-cut diamond and platinum ring; a beautiful Cartier coral, pearl and 18k gold necklace; and a 26 total carat weight diamond and platinum Riviera necklace are just a few of the expected top lots in Ahlers & Ogletree's two-day Jewelry & Gifting auction scheduled for December 1st and 2nd, online and live in the Atlanta gallery, starting at 10 am Eastern time both days. The two sessions combined will present over 600 lots of fine jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier and others; collectible watches by Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and others; designer accessories and costume jewelry by Chanel, Hermes, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Rebecca Collins and Masha Archer, and more. These would make for perfect holiday gifts. Included in the sale are more than 200 lots of studio couture jewelry and vintage designer fashion accessories from the estate of Vectra Orkin Barnette ... More
A photo provided by Hodinkee shows the limited edition G-Shock watch by Online Ceramics. The watch’s display includes a backlight that, when activated, illuminates the phrase “Love Grows in the Sunshine” on its face. (Hodinkee via The New York Times)
by Max Berlinger
NEW YORK, NY.- It’s not uncommon to see clocks or hourglasses alongside the snails, skeletons, scarecrows and other imagery on Online Ceramics T-shirts. The label’s founders, Elijah Funk and Alix Ross, said the passage of time has been a theme they’ve explored since they started designing clothing several years ago in Los Angeles. “We talk a lot about time,” Funk said. “Like past and present, rebirth, the quickness of life.” That interest didn’t stretch much to watches, until recently. Funk, 34, recalling one worn by his uncle, said he had seen watches as a marker of elegance. Ross, 33, said the only watch he has ever really used was a Timex he wore while working for the Maine Conservation Corps after college. The men said they were pulled ... More
Quote All painting is an accident. Francis Bacon
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George Tscherny, whose graphic designs defined an era, is dead at 99 NEW YORK, NY.- George Tscherny, a leading figure in postwar graphic design whose work unified the crisp, clean lines of European modern art with an American commercial pop sensibility, died Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 99. His daughter Carla Tscherny confirmed the death. Tscherny (pronounced CHAIR-nee) started his career in the early 1950s, near the beginning of an extended golden era of U.S. consumerism and corporate growth — a period that demanded new types of advertising. Many of the designers who crafted the signature images of the era were European immigrants, often refugees like Tscherny, who brought a familiarity with the latest in modern art and design. Their work graced advertising campaigns, produced on Madison Avenue, that pushed cigarettes and toothpaste and jet travel into American homes. ... More
A.S. Byatt, scholar who foundl literary fame with fiction, dies at 87 NEW YORK, NY.- A.S. Byatt, one of the most ambitious writers of her generation, whose dazzling 1990 novel, “Possession,” won the Booker Prize and brought her international fame as a novelist and unapologetic intellectual, died Thursday at her home in London. She was 87. Her longtime publisher, Chatto & Windus, announced the death in a statement Friday. It did not cite a cause of death. Byatt was a brilliant critic and scholar who broke the academic mold by publishing 11 novels and six collections of short stories. “I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel,” she bristled in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 1991. “I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically.” Byatt’s intellectual passion was evident in “Possession.” Subtitled “A Romance,” it is a scholarly detective story nesting ... More
Qui Nguyen was done writing plays. His family pulled him back in. NEW YORK, NY.- Eight years ago, Qui Nguyen was at a low point. “I decided that my writing life had not amounted to much, and I felt I needed to concentrate on my family and my kids,” he said during a recent video conversation. “I was going to hang it up.” The new play he was working on, he added, was “a sort of swan song.” That play, “Vietgone,” was indeed a turning point for Nguyen. Because — plot twist! — it was a hit. Inspired by Nguyen’s parents, Quang and Tong, and their burgeoning relationship as Vietnamese immigrants in Arkansas in the mid-1970s, the play premiered at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, in October 2015 and ran at Manhattan Theater Club the next fall. Since then, “Vietgone” has been produced all over North America. Around the time of the show’s e ... More
Peter and Merle Mullin receive Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Historic Motoring Awards OXNARD, CALIF.- Peter and Merle Mullin, founders of the Mullin Automotive Museum, were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Historic Motoring Awards ceremony at The Dorchester in London on Wednesday, Nov. 15. This marks the third overall recognition of the Mullins, the museum and its collection by the Historic Motoring Awards. The Mullin Automotive Museum received the Museum/Collection of the Year in 2021, and the late Peter Mullin, who passed away in September 2023, received the Personal Achievement Award in 2016. “It is an incredible honor to be recognized by the Historic Motoring Awards, and it means so much that they recognized Peter’s legacy and contributions to the classic car community,” said Merle Mullin. “We are the caretakers for these beautiful cars and their place in history. It is our privilege to help ... More
Review: 'Florencia' brings Spanish back to the Met Opera NEW YORK, NY.- Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Metropolitan Opera’s music director, had stepped onto the podium Thursday evening to begin the performance. The theater was hushed before his downbeat when a voice rang out from a balcony. “Viva la ópera en español!” someone shouted, and the audience erupted in applause. This is what is most notable about the company premiere of Daniel Catán’s heavily perfumed “Florencia en el Amazonas,” starring Ailyn Pérez: It brings a language spoken at home by about a quarter of New York City back to the Met. Just the third work in Spanish to be presented by the company, “Florencia” is the first in nearly a century, the first full-length and the first to have been written by a composer from Latin America. Born in Mexico in 1949, Catán studied with serialist master Milton Babbitt, then ... More
'How to Dance in Ohio': A story about autism and connection COLUMBUS, OH.- To get to Amigo Family Counseling, I walked down beige hallways on the first floor of a building in a ho-hum Columbus, Ohio, office park a short walk from a Bob Evans restaurant. The center’s clinical director, Dr. Emilio Amigo, waved at me once I got inside. Behind a closed door I heard the voices of his clients — autistic young adults from mostly working- and middle-class central Ohio families — boisterously chatting about their Friday night plans. I was there to talk about “How to Dance in Ohio,” a new Broadway musical that features Amigo and seven of his autistic clients as characters. The show — pop in score and sensibility — is based on Alexandra Shiva’s 2015 documentary, which follows Amigo and many more of his clients as they navigate life and eagerly, but anxiously, prepare for a spring formal. (The musical is in ... More
Justin Torres, author of 'Blackouts,' wins National Book Award for Fiction NEW YORK, NY.- The National Book Award ceremony took a political turn Wednesday night, as the event concluded with a joint statement from a group of writers who called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. For the final award of the night, Justin Torres received the fiction prize for “Blackouts,” his widely acclaimed, genre-defying novel about erasure and queer history. As Torres gave his speech, more than a dozen other nominees from different categories joined him on the stage. They stood behind Aaliyah Bilal, a finalist in the fiction category for her short story collection “Temple Folk,” as she read the statement. “On behalf of the finalists, we oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and call for a humanitarian cease-fire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, particularly children,” Bilal said. “We oppose ... More
On a day like today, American clothing designer Calvin Klein was born
October 19, 1942. Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer of Hungarian origin who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry. In this image: Fashion designer Calvin Klein is seen in New York, June 28, 1983.
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