From L to R: Guillaume Levy-Lambert, Olivier Varenne, Laurent Le Bon, Xavier Rey. Photo: Victor d’Allant.
PARIS.- "Out Of My Body” is a major work by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, born in 1972. Thanks to a joint donation by Olivier Varenne and Guillaume Levy-Lambert, it has entered the collection of the Centre Pompidou - Musée National d’Art Moderne. This striking installation, composed of intricately woven red leather, was specially created by Chiharu for a unique exhibition organised by Olivier Varenne in November 2023 in Geneva, at the Splendid—a former pornographic cinema transformed into a temporary contemporary art space. This donation is part of the spontaneous collaboration between two distant cousins, united by a shared passion for art and museums. Partners since 2019, they have facilitated the sale of ... More
Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner date wristwatch in 18k yellow gold, with blue dial, white markers, date window, synthetic sapphire crystal with cyclops window (est. $26,000-$29,000).
ATLANTA, GA.- Fans of Rolex watches, Fabergé eggs and Louis Vuitton will have much to consider in Ahlers & Ogletree’s upcoming Jewelry, Watches & Luxury Accessories auction slated for Thursday, December 5th, online and live in the gallery located at 1788 Ellsworth Industrial Boulevard NW in Atlanta, beginning promptly at 10am Eastern time. In all, 373 lots will be sold to the highest bidder. The sale features an exquisite selection of fine jewelry, including diamond and gemstone pieces, plus luxury timepieces by Rolex, Cartier and Patek Philippe, and designer accessories from brands such as Hermès and Louis Vuitton. A Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner date wristwatch in 18k yellow gold, with blue dial, white markers, date window, ... More
Stage-used Memphis Stratocaster-replica guitar Kurt Cobain played then smashed onstage at Nirvana’s Jan. 18, 1991 gig at The Evergreen State College Library. With an open estimate and starting bid of $20,000, it attracted 21 bids and reached a final price of $157,773.
YORK, PA.- A stage-used Memphis Stratocaster-replica guitar that a relatively unknown Kurt Cobain smashed onstage at a 1991 gig led prices realized at Hake’s $2.5 million online pop culture auction held November 19-20, 2024. The guitar had been played, then destroyed, by Cobain at a small Nirvana benefit concert in Olympia, Washington, four months before the band recorded their game-changing LP Nevermind. In the melee following the guitar’s destruction, it was recovered by a local musician who later gifted it to the owner of a record store in Portland, Oregon. The destroyed instrument was displayed at the shop and ... More
Ralph Steadman, “Leonardo the Cape Vulture”, 1983, pen and ink on paper, 50.5 x 64 cm.
WASHINGTON, DC.- On Dec. 8, “Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing” will close its successful premiere at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C. The unprecedented exhibition spans more than 60 years and showcases Steadman’s ongoing evolution. It features a selection of 149 original artworks as well as ephemera, including Steadman’s sketchbooks, children’s books, magazines, personal photographs and handwritten notes that tell a fuller story of how the artworks were born. “Ralph Steadman is well known for his direct and visceral drawing style and for changing and amplifying the face of satire through his illustrations,” said Andrea Lee Harris, the exhibition co-curator. “His art challenges us, teaches us and alters how we see the world. Showcasing Steadma ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s will present the holiday edition of Handbags Online: The New York Edit, an online auction open for bidding from 26 November to 11 December. This sale features over 200 lots from renowned brands, including Hermès, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and more. Leading the sale is An Impressive Private Collection featuring nearly 100 handbags, curated by a collector with a deep passion for fashion. The collection showcases vibrant classics and exquisite embroidered designs. Highlights include an Exceptional Shiny Rose Scheherazade Porosus Crocodile Mini Constance featuring 18k white gold and diamond hardware (estimate: $80,000–120,000) and an Exceptional Shiny Black Porosus Crocodile Birkin 35 with 18k white gold and diamond hardware (estimate: $80,000–120,000). Max Brownawell, Head of Department, Handbags & Accessories, Christie’s, comments, “We ... More
GENEVA.- Pace is presenting Widows of the Wind, an exhibition conceived by Paulina Olowska for its Geneva gallery, featuring new paintings in dialogue with photographs by Deborah Turbeville. On view from November 21, 2024, to February 22, 2025, Widows of the Wind marks Olowska’s first solo show in Geneva and furthers her exploration of evocative artistic and curatorial practices. For this exhibition, Olowska stages a tableau vivant that weaves together reflections on fashion, commerce, painting, photography, and the atmospheric forces that shape these realms. Olowska’s multilayered practice—spanning painting, collage, sculpture, video, installation, and performance—is underscored by a curatorial methodology that treats the past, particularly the histories of female experience and perception, as her primary material. This critical, always female, gaze is shaped by the intricate connections between the locations tied to her muses, the settings of her ... More
Portrait of María Berrío in front of her work ‘The Crossing’ (2023), 2023 Photograph by Kyle Dorosz.
NEW YORK, NY.- Hauser & Wirth announced its representation of Colombia-born, Brooklyn- based artist María Berrío in collaboration with Victoria Miro. Drawing on childhood memories, dreams, mythological themes and issues at the forefront of contemporary culture, Berrío’s intricate large-scale collages push the limits of conventional portraiture and landscape painting. Her imaginative, dreamlike works are often populated by women set in ethereal spaces that seem to exist outside of conventional time and space. Inspired in part by South American folklore, her art places humans and nature in a harmonious coexistence, suggestive of a delicate ecology in which the personal and collective seek balance. Berrío’s work explores the ways history shapes individuals and communities; in her amalgamation of memory, fact and fiction, she blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy to address the many struggles and contradictions of our present day. Berrío’s technical ... More
OSLO.- This is one of the themes explored by research fellow Trine Nordkvelle. The painter Thomas Fearnley is the focus of the second research fellowship funded by the Fredriksen Family Art Company (FFAC). ‘The Grindelwald Glacier, from 1838, is a highlight in landscape painting by Norwegian artists’, says research fellow Trine Nordkvelle. Thomas Fearnley’s magnificent depiction of the Swiss alpine landscape is included in the National Museum’s permanent exhibition. But the subject itself, Grindelwald Glacier, barely exists today. 200 years ago the glacier was massive and stretched its arms all the way down to the village of Grindelwald. Now it has melted almost entirely. ‘The aim of my PhD project is to see Fearnley’s painting of Grindelwald Glacier from an eco-critical perspective. I will use Fearnley’s work as a witness to the Little Ice Age, in dialogue with the discourse on climate challenges in the period in which we now live’, says Trine Nordkvel ... More
LONDON.- Christie’s announced the sale of three impressive dinosaur fossils, circa 157-145 million years old, in the Jurassic Icons: Allosaurus & Stegosaurus live auction on 12 December at Christie’s headquarters in London. The sale will showcase a pair of Allosaurus dinosaur fossils comprising the skeleton of a juvenile and an adult Allosaurus (estimate: £5,000,000-8,000,000) in addition to a skeleton of a Stegosaurus, offered with no reserve (estimate: £3,000,000-5,000,000). The Allosaurus was the top predator of the Late Jurassic, living around 155 to 145 million years ago. Recognized in popular culture as a precursor to the Tyrannosaurus rex, it predates it both in age and discovery. The pair of Allosaurus fossils, comprising ... More
Kathleen Ryan in her studio, 2024. Photo: Jeff Henrikson. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.
NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian announced the global representation of Kathleen Ryan. Her debut exhibition with the gallery will be held in 2026. A California-born sculptor, Ryan produces meticulously crafted interpretations of everyday objects that prompt meditation on themes of seduction and repulsion, refinement and excess. Profoundly influenced by her West Coast roots, the artist often focuses on pop-cultural artifacts associated with Los Angeles, such as muscle cars and bowling balls, alongside biological forms like fruit, flowers, and spiderwebs. By applying traditional craftsmanship to natural and industrial materials in a wide range of scales and formats, Ryan unites the organic and the artificial, transforming her subjects into tongue-in-cheek allegories for the entropic cycle of life and death. While offering a critique of contemporary life and society, Ryan is also fascinated by the wider ... More
EINDHOVEN.- The Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, announced that Zippora Elders joined the artistic team as senior curator on October 1, 2024. With her international experience, both within artistic and leadership roles, she is a great addition to the existing team. Elders: ‘For decades, the Van Abbemuseum has been pioneering content, a frontrunner within the arts that I very much admire. It is an honour to be able to contribute to that now.’ Elders was until recently Head of Curatorial Department & Outreach at the renown art institute Gropius Bau in Berlin, where she worked with former director Stephanie Rosenthal on an inclusive programme and led the artistic team. Before that, she was general director of Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen for six years with a focus on science fiction and ecology. Previously, she worked as a curator at Foam and Foam Magazine. She was also co-curator of Sonsbeek 20-24 on Bonaventure Ndikung’s team and at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam ... More
Installation view. Courtesy of OSL contemporary.
OSLO.- Light is fundamental to us as humans, and naturally, we have been concerned with how the phenomenon can be explained physically and scientifically. But despite countless explanatory models, from the earliest scientific theories to the revolutionary principles of quantum mechanics, it seems that the physical nature of light still cannot be fully captured by the laws of physics. In the 17th century, a fundamental debate arose among physicists about the nature of light. In his Traité de la Lumière (1690), the Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) formulated one of the first theories describing the movement of light as waves. Later, Isaac Newton (1643-1727) claimed to disprove the wave theory through the so-called corpuscular theory, in which light is described as consisting of particles (Latin Corpusculae). Newton's theory was published in his groundbreaking work Opticks: or, a Treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflexions and colours ... More
William H. Johnson, Danish Seaman, ca. 1935 – 38. Oil on burlap. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
NEW YORK, NY.- An exhibition exploring the undertold stories of African American artists who sought new possibilities, inspiration and environments in the Nordic countries in the 20th century opened at Scandinavia House on November 26, 2024. Nordic Utopia? African Americans in the 20th Century looks at the significance of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden as destinations for cultural figures including Ronald Burns, Doug Crutchfield, Herb Gentry, Dexter Gordon, William Henry Johnson, Howard Smith and Walter Williams through a range of artifacts, artworks (music, paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles), and documentary evidence (photography, film, and journalistic writing). Organized by the National Nordic Museum in Seattle by co curators and ASF Fellows Ethelene Whitmire and Leslie Anne Anderson, where it debuted in March 2024, the exhibition is now on view at Scandinavia House through ... More
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New book explores one of Bulgaria's richest collections of ancient painted pottery SOFIA.- On November 27, 2024, at 4:00 PM, the National Historical Museum will host the official presentation of the highly anticipated monograph Red-Figure Pottery from the Necropolis of Apollonia Pontica (Sozopol) in the Collection of the National Historical Museum. The publication, authored by Dr. Lyubava Konova, explores one of Bulgaria's richest collections of ancient painted pottery, featuring over 100 red-figure vessels from the 5th–4th centuries BCE. The artifacts in focus were excavated from Apollonia Pontica (modern-day Sozopol) during the National Historical Museum's archaeological campaigns in the 1990s. While some of these items have been displayed in the museum’s permanent exhibition or temporary shows since 1994, they have never before been comprehensively published in a single volume. Dr. Konova’s monograph ... More
Christie's announces Mica: The Collection of Mica Ertegun December sale series NEW YORK, NY.- Groundbreaking auction series Mica: The Collection of Mica Ertegun continues this December with four sales showcasing Jewelry, Design and Decorative Arts from Mrs. Ertegun’s personal collections in Manhattan, Southampton and Paris. The series includes two live New York sales – Magnificent Jewels and Mica: The Collection of Mica Ertegun Part III taking place on December 10th and 13th respectively, and online New York and Paris sales open for bidding from December 4th through December 17th and 18th. All offerings reflect Mica’s eye for style and eye for design. Sale exhibitions will be on view at Christie’s New York beginning December 6th and Christie’s Paris beginning December 13th. The historic series began on November 19th and November 20th with two Single-Owner Sales of the finest examples of Surrealism ... More
Winter 2024-25 exhibitions at Aspen Art Museum ASPEN, COLO.- Heji Shin’s America: Part One presents newly commissioned photographs by Heji Shin (b. 1976, Seoul, Korea), an artist based between New York City and the Catskill Mountains. Over the past decade, Shin has generated indelible images that refract and consequently shape visual culture. Previous series include images of crowning babies, screeching roosters, infamous popstars and jocular pigs. Vitality assumes unexpected forms within this exhibition, which features photographs of rockets in mid-air and waves crashing on rocky shoreline. In the summer of 2024, Shin embedded herself within a community of photographers of rocket launches in and around Cape Canaveral, Florida, and gained access to launches and test sites as a member of NASA’s press corps. Within an adjacent gallery are photographs of waves taken ... More
Texas art, including works by David Bates, Julian Onderdonk and Luis Jiménez, makes for a merry holiday at Heritage DALLAS, TX.- In a good way, “Texas art” has always been hard to define, and this is true of Texas-based artists as well. Texas artists from the past and present don't fit into tidy categories, nor have they wanted to, and the kinds of art made in Texas — landscape, abstract, figurative, conceptual, self-taught — puts it in conversation with both the history of art and the current moment. This season is a time for both gift-giving and collection-building, in its December 14 Texas Art Signature® Auction Heritage will showcase historical, Modern and Contemporary Texas-made artworks in a range of price points from some of the Lone Star state’s most celebrated artists, many of whose names resonate well beyond the Red ... More
The Cleveland Museum of Art's refurbished North Lobby reopens today CLEVELAND, OH.- The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) announces the reopening of the Horace Kelley Art Foundation Lobby and the Susan M. Kaesgen Education Gallery and Lobby, the museum’s main entrance on East Boulevard and the lobby area on the museum’s lower level. The newly renovated spaces represent the final elements of the museum’s renovation and expansion project begun in 2005 and optimize both entrances. “We are delighted to welcome visitors in our newly renovated lobby spaces,” said William Griswold, director and president of the CMA. “By enhancing the visitor experience, we are making the museum more accessible and wayfinding more informative, and we are ensuring that more space is available for students to learn through a wide range of enriching experiences with art.” The museum inaugurates the new renovations ... More
Miles McEnery Gallery now representing Karin Davie NEW YORK, NY.- Miles McEnery Gallery announced representation of Karin Davie. Canadian-born artist Karin Davie’s abstract paintings are not static or non-referential; they are loaded with references and charged with a somatic record of the artist’s movement.Overlapping accumulations of lush brush strokes dominate in Davie’s work, creating an optical illusion of space, tricking the eye into perceiving a three-dimensional image that appears to pulsate or undulate on a flat surface—but Davie goes further, introducing a temporal dimension. In using the iconic Op art “wave” motif and gesture on shaped or divided formats, Davie explores the phenomenological and temporal aspects of color and form, allowing the viewer to mimetically trace the action of her body as it makes its way across the canvas. Her paintings are optical, physical, ... More
New digital media project celebrates Alvin Ailey's legacy NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art is celebrating the enduring legacy and influence of iconic dancer, choreographer, and artist Alvin Ailey with the powerful new project “Alvin Ailey and Me.” The project — officially launching today at whitney.org/AlvinAileyandMe — invites members of the public to share personal stories of how Alvin Ailey’s life and work has impacted, inspired, or changed them. When taken together, the stories showcase the lasting, far-reaching impact that this influential artist continues to have: a key theme of the Whitney’s renowned exhibition Edges of Ailey, the first museum exhibition to explore the life and legacy of one of the most important artists in American history. The show is on view until February 9 as part of a season of Ailey in New York City that includes the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s ... More
Christie's and Christie's International Real Estate to join forces at prime new address in Madrid MADRID.- Christie’s Spain and Christie’s International Real Estate Madrid announce their new address at Calle Núñez de Balboa 12 in Madrid. As of the new year the two companies will be residing together, creating a more dynamic and all-inclusive service. Clients on both sides will be able to leverage the unique synergies between high-end real estate, art, and luxury. Over the last two years, similar partnerships elsewhere have resulted in an increase of more than 600% in referrals of luxury items and art from real estate buyers and sellers to Christie’s. María García Yelo, Managing Director Christie’s Spain, comments: “Christie’s Spain is delighted to follow Christie’s London and Brussels to enter an even closer relationship with Christie’s International Real Estate, not only by sharing the same wonderful new office space but also to amplify ... More
1856 Flying Eagle cent soars to record $312,000, leading Heritage's US Coins Auction to $14.1 million DALLAS, TX.- The highest-graded example of an important coin from the 100 Greatest U.S. Coins book sold for a record $312,000 to lead Heritage’s US Coins Signature® Auction to $14,144,452 November 20-24. The result for the 1856 Flying Eagle Cent, PR67+ PCGS CAC smashed the previous record of $240,000, set in 2020 at Heritage Auctions, and led an outstanding event teeming with early dollars, Seated dollars and Trade dollars, Shield and Liberty nickel patterns and proofs, an impressive selection of early copper and U.S. gold from all series. “The record result is appropriate for a coin of this magnitude, and further strengthens Heritage’s status as the world’s premier destination for numismatic collectibles,” says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “When the U.S. Mint responded to economic factors ... More
The unique collection of His Excellency Ardeshir Zahedi: A diplomatic and personal estate for sale in Geneva GENEVA.- Piguet announced its next auction, which will take place from 9 to 12 December. More than 3,500 lots will be on show the week before, from Wednesday 4 to Sunday 8 December, with items ranging from modern and contemporary art to designer furniture and precious objects, fine jewellery, fine watches, luxury leather goods and fine wines. The total estimate is CHF 5-7 million. One of the highlights of the week will be the auction of the previously unseen personal collection of His Excellency Ardeshir Zahedi, the eminent Iranian ambassador, statesman and key figure of the 20th century. The son of General Fazlollah Zahedi, Iran's prime minister under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ardeshir Zahedi was ... More
On a day like today, Italian sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino died
December 27, 1570. Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino (July 2, 1486 - November 27, 1570) was an Italian sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity. Giorgio Vasari uniquely printed his Vita of Sansovino separately. In this image: Two restorers work on Jacopo Sansovino's Madonna and Child, which was presented after its restoration at the Lab Opificio Pietre Dure, Florence, 10 November 2010.
