Two workers of a museum move the artwork 'Doppelbildnis eines jungen Paares' by Dutch painter artist Pieter de Grebber accross the Wiesbaden museum, Germany, 10 August 2010. The museum gives back the painting, previously stolen by Nazis, to the heirs of the former jewish owners. The painting belonged to the Berliner art dealer Oppenheimer. EPA/FREDRIKVONERICHSEN.
WIESBADEN.- On Tuesday, the 10th August 2010, the Museum Wiesbaden restituted the painting attributed to Dutch Baroque painter Pieter de Grebber (1600-1653) titled "Double Portrait of a young couple" to the heirs of Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer. The Museum Wiesbaden follows this restitution to the principles of the Washington Declaration of 3 December 1998 and to the declaration of the Federal Government, state and community associations to locate and return of Nazi confiscated art, especially from Jewish property, in December 1999. The art and antiques dealer James Oppenheimer, was the owner of an art trading company. Jacob Oppenheimer (1879-1941) and his wife Rosa Oppenheimer (1877-1943), due to their Jewish origins, had to escape an impending arrest, leaving Berlin in late March 1933 and emigrated to France. Jacob Oppenheimer was interned after the invasion of the German army in France. He died in 1941. Rosa Oppenheim ... More
CLEVELAND, OH.-The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will unveil its latest exhibit devoted to the King of Rock and Roll as a part of the Museum’s 15th anniversary celebration this September. ELVIS 1956: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer will open to the public on Monday, September 13, in the Circular Gallery of the Main Exhibit Hall. Taken during the year Elvis turned 21, Alfred Wertheimer’s photographs are a remarkable visual record of a defining time for rock and roll’s most enduring figure. 1956 was the year Elvis first appeared in the national consciousness. His RCA records and national broadcast helped make him a star. Alfred Wertheimer, then a young freelance photojournalist, was there to document the extraordinary transition. ELVIS 1956 is the first and last unguarded look at Elvis, featuring images of him in every aspect of his life—from performance and with the fans, to the recording studio and at ... More
The cover of the August issue of Vogue Italia featuring Kristen McMenamy. AP Photo/Vogue Italia, Steven Meisel.
By: Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP).- The model is in black, prone and dirty on jagged rocks, netting draped around her legs like a dead sea creature. There she is again, lying on her back in a feathered dress, and in close up, her hair and face sleek with oil. A stirring photo spread in the August issue of Vogue Italia was inspired by the Gulf oil spill, leaving readers wondering if the magazine crossed from evocative to insensitive. Editor-in-Chief Franca Sozzani understands the debate stretching from blogosphere to beaches and said the motivation is straightforward. "The message is to be careful about nature," she said by telephone from Milan, Italy. "Just to take care more about nature. ... I understand that it could be shocking to see and to look in this way these images." The spread, featuring ... More
Vivien Leigh, as Scarlett O'Hara, wearing a burgundy ball gown, and co-star Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind. AP Photo/The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin.
By: Jim Vertuno, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, TX (AP).- It's time to find out if fans of "Gone With the Wind" frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the multiple Oscar-winning Civil War drama. The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O'Hara's now tattered gowns from the 1939 film. The Ransom Center is planning an exhibit to mark the movie's 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of them are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, the center's collection assistant for costumes and personal effects. "There are areas where the fabric has been worn through, fragile seams and other problems," Morena said. ... More
Sean O'Harrow was the executive director of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.
IOWA CITY, IA.- Sean O'Harrow, executive director of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, was named the new director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA). His selection follows a nationwide search process. When he begins his new duties Nov. 15, O'Harrow will oversee the management and care of UIMA collections as well as its curatorial, educational and administrative activities. In addition, he will play a leading role in planning and fundraising for a new museum building. "As President Mason has declared, the University is committed to building a new campus art museum to house its extraordinary art collection. Dr. O'Harrow will provide the vision, energy, and leadership to enable us to realize that goal," said Wallace Loh, UI executive vice president and provost, who announced the appointment. "Just as important, his vision commits the ... More
Yu Youhan (b. 1943), The Waving Mao. Oil on canvas, 1995, 178 x 152 cm Est: HK$700,000 – 900,000 /US$90,000 – 115,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong Autumn Sales 2010 will be held at Hall 3, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 2 to 8 October 2010. The sale series will offer over 3,200 lots of Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, traditional Chinese paintings, fine Chinese ceramics and works of art as well as jewellery, watches and wine with a total estimate in excess of HK$1.6 billion / US$205 million. Selected highlights will be showcased in travelling exhibitions in Jakarta (27–29/8), Shanghai (2–3/9), Beijing (5–6/9), Singapore (10–11/9), Bangkok (13–14/9) and Taipei (25–26/9), concluding in a public exhibition of all the lots on offer at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 2 to 7 October. For the first time this season, Sotheby’s Asia will introduce online bidding service, ... More
Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), Yellow Abstract Composition, 1942. Pen and ink and watercolor on paper.
TEL AVIV.-The publication of the Surrealist VVV Portfolio in 1943 is considered to be one of the highlights of Surrealist activity in New York in the early 1940s. This album features works by 11 artists – including both European artists in "exile" and American artists living in New York and its environs. It includes etchings by Alexander Calder, Leonora Carrington, Marc Chagall, André Masson, Yves Tanguy and Kurt Seligmann (in whose workshop the etchings were printed). In addition, the album contains hand- duplicated drawings by Roberto Matta and by the young American artist Robert Motherwell; an experimental, altered photograph by David Hare that was printed from a burnt negative; and a frottage by Max Ernst. Also featured in the album is a poem-object by André Breton – a collage composed of a postcard to which the artist added ... More
Jonathan Kaiser has exhibited his work in Alberta as well as internationally.
EDMONTON, AB.-The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is proud to premiere Jonathan Kaiser: Celestial Bodies on August 14, 2010 in the RBC New Works Gallery. Since graduating with a BFA from the University of Alberta in 2005, Jonathan Kaiser has exhibited his work in Alberta as well as internationally. In 2007, he participated in the Glenfiddich Artist in Residence program in Duftown , Scotland . Inside the AGA’s RBC New Works Gallery, Kaiser has constructed an installation based on the memories of his childhood bedroom. The installation comprises found and hand-crafted objects as well as drawings that attempt to tell stories about the room’s past inhabitant. Jonathan Kaiser: Celestial Bodies is on display until October 11, 2010. The public is invited to attend Art for Lunch featuring Jonathan Kaiser in conversation with the AGA’s Deputy Director/Chief Curator, Catherine Crowston. This free talk takes place on September ... More
Construction continues on the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan.
By Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP).- The Sept. 11 museum is taking shape 70 feet below ground, a cavernous space that provides an emotionally raw journey and ends at bedrock where huge surviving remnants and spacial voids reveal the scale of the devastation of what once was the World Trade Center. The museum's architects, director and two victims' family members led members of the news media Tuesday on a tour of the subterranean space, which commemorates nearly 3,000 people who died in the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks. There are no display cabinets yet, no exhibits. It is still a construction site. But it was easy to visualize the intent of the spaces, clearly articulated by the acute voids created by the fallen towers. Authentic structural elements that survived the terrorist attacks are there: the slurry wall that kept the Hudson ... More
Spin by Japanese artist Ritsue Mishima. Photo: Mark Crick.
ABERDEEN.- A beautiful glass object created by one of the world's leading makers went on display at Aberdeen Art Gallery on Tuesday, 10 August, after it was acquired through our Art Fund Collect scheme in May. Spin by Japanese artist Ritsue Mishima is an outstanding example of contemporary glassware. It was won for Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums by curator Kate Gillespie. This is the second time Kate has won a piece on behalf of the Gallery through Art Fund Collect. The hand-blown, spiralling glass piece is characteristic of Mishima’s creations, which are often concerned with movement and light. Mishima formed the vibrant sculpture by spiralling solid canes of hot glass around a blown glass base. This technique creates movement, as if the piece is literally spinning in space. Mishima describes her work as: “originally being conceived as a celestial body, as part of a cosmos, where everything is dynamic, eternally rot ... More
Agnolo di Cosimo called Bronzino (Florence 1503-72), Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo with her Son Giovanni, c. 1545, oil on panel, 115 x 96 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Inv. 1890 n. 748.
FLORENCE.- Agnolo di Cosimo Tori, known as Bronzino (1503-1572), was one of the greatest artists in the history of Italian painting. Court artist to Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574), his work embodied the sophistication of the Mannerist style. Bronzino. Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici, on view at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence from 24 September 2010 to 23 January 2011, will be the very first exhibition devoted to his painted work. Bronzino conveyed the elegance of the Medici court in his work with “naturalness” and, at the same time, austere beauty. Florence is the perfect setting for a monographic exhibition on Bronzino. The son of a butcher, not only was he born and died here, the city houses some of his greatest masterpieces, particularly in the Uffizi but also in other museums and churches. This landmark exhibition, with loans from the world’s most important museums, presents 54 of the 70 paintings that the ... More
Gaston Lachaise (1882 – 1935), Man Walking (Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein), cast in 1934. Bronze with brown patina, 21 in. (53.3 cm.) high. Bruce Museum Collection 2010.01
GREENWICH, CT.-The Bruce Museum announces that it has acquired a major sculpture by the French/American artist Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), one of the pioneers of modern art in the early decades of the last century. The work depicts Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), one of the most dynamic and influential cultural figures of his day, an impresario and author, as well as a great patron of the arts. The sculpture, titled Man Walking (Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein), is one of only two casts in existence (the other was acquired by the Whitney Museum of Art directly from a show held there in 1933-34) and was delivered to Kirstein in July 1934. Lachaise earlier had executed a bust- length portrait of his friend and patron Kirstein, who is credited with having helped inspire the foundation of the Museum of Modern Art and personally organized the retrospective there of Lachaise’s works that appeared in 1935 - the first monographic ... More
The Centre is housed in a striking, minimalist building of glass and white marble designed by the French firm Architecture-Studio. Photo: Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens.
ATHENS.- On the occasion of opening its first public facility in Athens, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation will join with eight of the world’s leading academic institutions to present The Athens Dialogues, a major international conference that will bring together 60 eminent scholars in the physical sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities for four days of discussions ranging across the borders of academic disciplines and historical periods. Held November 24-27, 2010, as the first major program in the new 194,000-square-foot Onassis Cultural Centre–Athens, The Athens Dialogues will explore the role of the Hellenic cultural legacy, broadly defined, in understanding and addressing contemporary global challenges. Six thematic sessions will offer discussion, debate and insight on the subjects of Identity and Difference, Stories and Histories, Word and Art, Democracy and Governance, Science and Ethics, and Quality of Life. Collaborating with the Found ... More
Quote Looking at the stars always makes me dream. Vincent van Gogh
More News
White House Backdrop is Fine Art WASHINGTON (AP).- When President Barack Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office for the first time, Americans knew in an instant the Gulf oil spill had become a full-blown crisis. His prime-time speech, in a setting that bespeaks the power of the presidency, telegraphed a vital message: The spill is huge, but I'm on it. The president's house is filled with iconic backdrops — the gilt-trimmed East Room, the verdant Rose Garden, the stately Grand Foyer, to name just a few — and Obama has carefully employed them all to communicate with a public that's still making up its mind on how he's doing his job. Choosing among these is an art, as much as a science. Each venue has its aesthetic — and political — pros and cons. To those who manage the optics of presidential appearances, the White House is a mansion with a message. "Every room within the White House tells a story," said Daniella Gibbs Leger, who directs the choice for Obama. "We've used pretty much e ... More
Antiques Dealers Fair Limited to Launch New Boutique Fine Art and Antiques Fair in Leicestershire LEICESTERSHIRE.- A new addition to The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited’s calendar is the Luxury Antiques Weekend at Stapleford Park, which takes place in the delightful surroundings of Stapleford Park Country House Hotel, Stapleford, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire from Friday 17 until Sunday 19 September 2010. The look of the fair is stylish and welcoming with a clever mix of antiques spanning the Georgian and Regency periods alongside the more contemporary art. Combine the informal luxury of Stapleford Park Country House Hotel – a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World - with the high standard of elegance and sophistication of the boutique-style fair and the event becomes a truly memorable experience. Visitors can either indulge in a weekend or overnight stay and enjoy the comfort of one of their individually designed bedrooms and visit the fair at their leisure or just come for the day. Twenty professional antiques dealers from around the UK, predominant ... More
Fire at Majdanek Destroys Shoes of Nazi Victims WARSAW (AP).- Officials say a fire broke out overnight in one of barracks of the former Nazi death camp of Majdanek, destroying more than half of the building and about 10,000 shoes of Holocaust survivors. The Majdanek museum said the fire broke out shortly before midnight on Monday. The cause of the fire is not yet known and the experts are investigating. In Israel, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said "the damage to these irreplaceable items is a loss to a site that has such historical value to Europe, Poland and the Jewish people." An estimated 80,000 people, including some 60,000 Jews, were killed at the SS-run camp near Lublin in occupied Poland between October 1941 and its liberation by Soviet troops in July 1944. ... More
Mississippi Museum of Art Presents Art by Choice Exhibition, Sale and Auction JACKSON, MS.- Back by popular demand, Art by Choice opens at the Mississippi Museum of Art Saturday, August 14, and runs through Sunday, September 12, 2010. Presented in collaboration with the Museum's New Collectors Club, Art by Choice is an exhibition of artworks available for purchase through sale and auction to benefit the Museum. Members of the Museum staff and the New Collectors Club have gathered a variety of works by artists associated with Mississippi as well as works from galleries in New York, Boston, New Orleans, and Memphis for inclusion in the exhibition. Participating galleries include Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, La.; Childs Gallery, Boston, Mass.; David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tenn.; Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, N. Y.; Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, La.; and Spanierman Gallery, New York, N. Y. Items for sale include works by national, regional, and local artists. The list include ... More
Royal Scottish Academy Awards £21,000 to Scottish Artists EDINBURGH.-The Royal Scottish Academy has recently administered four awards totaling £21,000 to artists in Scotland. These awards are given by the RSA on behalf of the individual benefactors and trusts in keeping with the primary aim of the RSA: to encourage and support artists. The awards form part of the RSA’s annual awards programme and each award is presented annually. The RSA announced the winners of the following four awards: · The Alastair Salvesen Art Scholarship (£12,000) awarded to Heather Ross. · The Morton Award for lens based media (£5000) awarded to Christine Borland. · The Barns-Graham Travel Award (£2000) awarded to Geri Loup Nolan. · The William Littlejohn Watercolour Award (£2000) awarded to Jean Duncan. Heather Ross (b. Glasgow 1983) studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before becoming artist in residence at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen. Her award-winning proposal pr ... More
Falmouth Acquires Gotch Masterpiece at Record Price CORNWALL.-Falmouth Art Gallery has acquired a masterpiece by Thomas Cooper Gotch, an artist with strong connections to the town. Innocence is an imaginative watercolour depicting the artist’s only child, Phylis, with a dragon. The Art Fund has given £20,000 towards the £32,000 acquisition. Thomas Cooper Gotch had strong connections with Falmouth and is central to the study of Cornish art. He is known for having spent time at the acclaimed Newlyn artists’ colony in Cornwall. This small but beautifully executed painting shows off Gotch’s watercolour skills. Brian Stewart, Director of Falmouth Art Gallery, said: "This important painting shows Gotch at his very best. Thanks to the generosity of the Art Fund, we have been able to return it to Cornwall and prevent it from being lost again to a private collector, perhaps forever." This is the second time we have supported the Gallery in a record breaking sale ... More
3D Digital Collections: National Museum of African American History and Culture
PhotoGalleries
Flashback
On a day like today, The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the U.S. Congress
September 10, 1846. The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, and licensing activities. In this image: "The Castle," the building on the National Mall that is home to the Smithsonian's administration, is seen. Photo: Smithsonian Institution.
