This work by Donato de’ Bardi, of Saint Jerome, on panel, is also being deaccessioned and will be part of the old masters sale. Christie's Images Ltd.
NEW YORK(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It is the kind of sale that once would have engendered criticism, perhaps even sanctions: The Brooklyn Museum is putting 12 works up for auction at Christie’s next month — including paintings by Cranach, Courbet and Corot — to raise funds for the care of its collection. But it is now completely within the parameters of loosened regulations, which are themselves a measure of just how financially damaging the coronavirus pandemic has been for cultural institutions. “This is something that is hard for us to do,” said Anne Pasternak, the museum’s director. “But it’s the best thing for the institution and the longevity and care of the collections.” Selling off work from a museum — known as de-accessioning — to pay for operating costs has long been taboo. The Association of Art Museum Directors has dictated that proceeds from such sales can only be used to acquire more work. And institutions take seriously the mandate to protect art an ... More
MADRID(AFP).- British street artist Banksy has lost a two-year trademark battle with a greetings card company over his 'Flower Thrower' graffiti work after EU officials said his anonymity meant he couldn't be identified as the owner. The ruling by the EU's intellectual property office (EUIPO), which is based in Spain, concerns one of Banksy's most famous efforts showing a masked protester hurling a bunch of flowers, which first appeared on a wall in Jerusalem in 2005. The mysterious artist, whose iconic graffiti paintings have appeared overnight on buildings around the world, successfully obtained a European Union trademark for the image in 2014. But two years ago, Full Colour Black, which makes greetings cards and wanted to use the image, issued a legal challenge, claiming the trademark was taken out in bad faith as he never intended to use it for goods or services -- in a challenge accepted by the EU's intellectual property czars. "It is clear that when [Banksy] filed the EUTM, he did not have a ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- On October 6, Christie’s will offer Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme sur fond jaune, 18 July 1934 ($8-12 million), as a highlight of its 20th Century Evening Sale. Picasso kept the present example in his personal collection for the duration of his life – a testament to the importance that it held for him – and it remained in his family’s possession following his death, until 2013. The sale on October 6 marks Tête de femme sur fond jaune’s first appearance at auction. Giovanna Bertazzoni, Vice-Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, Christie’s, remarked: “It is a privilege to be able to offer this colourful, intimate portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, painted in the golden years of their love, alongside the enigmatic and magisterial depiction of Dora Maar in the 1941 Femme dans un fauteuil. Seen side by side, these portraits offer a fascinating window ... More
The exterior of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, July 15, 2019. Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Just weeks away from reopening to the public Oct. 3, the Guggenheim Museum has announced an 11% reduction of its staff. On Wednesday, the museum laid off two dozen employees with another eight workers taking voluntary separation agreements. “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Guggenheim has been devastating to our finances,” the museum’s director, Richard Armstrong, said in a letter to employees. “I am deeply saddened to say that the museum will not have the ability to support our previous number of staff members.” The Guggenheim, closed since March because of the pandemic, has seen losses of $1.4 million every month that it has remained shuttered. In April, the museum furloughed 92 employees, although nearly half of those workers were recalled ... More
Derrick Adams (American, b. 1970), Floater 19, 2016, Acrylic paint and collage on paper, Pizzuti Collection.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.- A Black man in a red, white, and blue swimsuit drifts on a neon yellow pool float. He stares off into the calm, azure water that surrounds him. He’s on his stomach, one leg fully submerged in the water, the other half way in. The pool is his world in this moment. He’s content and at peace, relaxing. Contemporary artist Derrick Adams has observed that in art and in reality, images of Black people at play, being joyful, and simply enjoying life are not the norm. To fill this void, Adams created a painting series titled Floaters between 2016–2019, where Black men, women and children lounged in or rested on novelty floaties in the pool. He wanted to share these images with the world, and for Blacks to see themselves through a lens of freedom, fun, and leisure. In the exhibition, Derrick Adams: Buoyant, 12 of these mixed-media works come together in a dynamic, vibrant presentation at the Museum of Fine Arts, ... More
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.-Gagosian is presenting an exhibition of paintings, photographs, and works on paper from the 1970s by Jay DeFeo (1929–1989), organized in association with the Jay DeFeo Foundation. DeFeo produced a diverse body of innovative work that continues to inspire artists today. The fusion of painting and sculpture found in her masterpiece The Rose (1958–66) has led to international acclaim. First exhibited in 1969, this gigantic impasto canvas spent decades behind a false wall awaiting conservation before being acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1995. The present exhibition focuses on the artist’s output in the decade following the completion of that pivotal work, when she was based in Larkspur, Marin County. In 1951, DeFeo ... More
LONDON.-Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 22 October 2020 will be highlighted by Peter Doig’s iconic Boiler House (1993, estimate in the region of £13 million), a masterwork from his seminal series of Concrete Cabins. During the 1990s, the artist painted nine large-scale depictions of Le Corbusier’s abandoned Unité d’Habitation at Briey-en-Forêt in Northern France, giving rise to his largest and most distinctive thematic cycle. Boiler House stands alone within the series, capturing the building that Le Corbusier designed to house the Unité’s coal boiler. Included in Doig’s landmark 2008 retrospective at Tate Britain, it is a triumph of painterly bravura and psychological tension. The building’s angular geometries loom large within the thicket, yet Doig’s kaleidoscopic surface causes it to shift in and out of focus, approximating the abstract sensation of looking back through ... More
A picture shows British musician Zoot Money’s Wandre ‘Blue Jean’ model guitar, the first guitar Jimi Hendrix played in Britain. DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP.
by Sylvain Peuchmaurd
LONDON(AFP).- Jimi Hendrix made his name in London, exploding onto the 1960s music scene with his mesmeric guitar playing, before his untimely death 50 years ago at the age of 27. His flat at 23 Brook Street, in the Mayfair area of central London, is now a museum -- and besides his musical legacy is one of the few tangible reminders of his life in the city. The legendary guitarist, famous for tracks including "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze" and his cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", lived at the address between 1968 and 1969. He considered it his first "real home", explained Hendrix specialist Christian Lloyd, from Canada's Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Even now, it's considered the Seattle-born singer-songwriter's only recognised residence. More than two centuries earlier, another musical genius lived at number 25: Handel. But at the time, a ... More
The 'Stradbroke' George III Axminster Carpet Possibly After a Design by James Wyatt, England, circa1790. Estimate: $100,000-150,000. Price realized: $375,000.
NEW YORK, NY.-Christie’s online sales from The Collection of A. Jerrold Perenchio achieved a combined total of $6,555,375 and attracted bidders from 33 countries. All net proceeds will benefit the Perenchio Foundation, whose principal mission is to support visual and performing arts programs and institutions located in Los Angeles County. The first online sale Chartwell: An Henri Samuel Commission (1‑16 September) totalled $4,551,875, and was 95% sold by lot. The second sale in the collection, A CALIFORNIA LIFE (1‑17 September) totalled $2,003,500 and was 99% sold by lot. The top lot of the collection was the Stradbroke' George III Axminster Carpet, possibly after a design by James Wyatt, England, circa 1790, which achieved $375,000, surpassing its estimate of $100,000-150,000 and realizing the highest price in 20 years for its type. A world auction record was also set for Henri Samuel’s work with an upholstered three-seat ... More
The Gainsborough Studios, from 1908, by Charles W. Buckham, on Central Park South in New York, Sept. 7, 2020. A lot of Midtown Manhattan is packed into the beloved stretch between Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Zack DeZon/The New York Times.
by Michael Kimmelman
NEW YORK(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A reward for the city’s having flattened the curve, lines of culture-starved New Yorkers now snake out the doors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the Morgan Library & Museum. But the city still won’t be its old self until audiences start filing (safely) back into places like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. To stroll the few blocks between the two performing arts stomping grounds only takes around 15 minutes, skirting the southwest corner of Central Park — Merchants’ Gate, as Olmsted and Vaux, the park’s designers, called it. But a lot of midtown Manhattan is packed into that ordinarily trafficked, touristed stretch. Along with century-old architectural landmarks, a crop of supertall, anorexic apartment towers for the ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- This fall, Christie’s Photographs department in New York will offer an extensive auction series featuring three online sales spaced over six weeks. The various owners Photographs (21 – 30 September) sale begins on 21 September, with iconic works by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Adams to Peter Beard and Nick Brandt. In October, collectors are invited to explore the distinguished W.M. Hunt Collection (5 - 14 October) with works ranging from Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans to Robert Mapplethorpe and Annie Leibovitz. The third sale will offer property sold to benefit the Aperture Foundation (19 - 28 October)— a beloved non-profit arts institution based in New York dedicated to advancing photography in all of its myriad forms. The Photographs sale will incorporate iconic property by significant 20th century photographers such ... More
Claude Lalanne (French, b. 1924), Petite Fille à la Poule, 1984. Patinated bronze, 32 inches (81.3 cm) on a 31-1/4 inch (79.4 cm) base. Ed. 1/8. Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000.
DALLAS, TX.- Claude Lalanne’s Petit Fille à la Poule could bring $150,000 or more in Heritage Auctions’ Design Auction Oct. 13. “The work of Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne is beloved and this sculpture (estimate: $100,000-150,000), in particular, remained the focal point of our client’s homes, first in Paris and then in Los Angeles, for more than three decades,” Heritage Auctions Design Director Brent Lewis said. “It was acquired directly from the artists during a visit to their studio outside Paris and is an extraordinary example of Les Lalanne’s unique artistic vision.” Heritage also is offering a collection of nearly 100 rare pieces of Comme des Garcons, the legendary Japanese fashion company, each designed by founder Rei Kawakubo or Junya Watanabe. CDG is among the most innovative of fashion houses to ... More
Portrait of Doug Aitken. Photo: Ami Sioux.
HELSINKI.- American artist Doug Aitken explores the impacts of technology on individuals and society. I Only Have Eyes for You is the acclaimed artist’s first solo exhibition in Finland. On view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki, the exhibition presents several works, including the iconic installation Song 1. ”What does it mean to be an individual now? And where are we going? I’m very interested in those kinds of core issues,” says artist Doug Aitken. He says "We are living in a new era, one of complete connectivity, where screen space has become seemingly equal to the physical landscape. This surreal shift in evolution brings us into uncharted waters, a new frontier, one for which we are not fully prepared. These artworks question how we navigate a world of increasing speed and transition, the direction of where we can go and how we can confront the future." The exhibition I Only Have Eyes For You presents a selectio ... More
Quote The art of drawing is the art of omission. Max Liebermann
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Dr. Joshua Tauber appointed Antique Lamps & Lighting Consultant at Morphy Auctions DENVER, PA.- Dan Morphy, president and founder of Morphy Auctions, has announced the appointment of Dr. Joshua Tauber as Antique Lamps & Lighting Consultant. Tauber joined the company’s Fine & Decorative Arts Division and assumed his new post on August 18. A native of Morristown, New Jersey, Tauber is a physician who works in the field of addiction medicine. He is also a lifelong antiques aficionado who was introduced to collecting as a child by his father, Marc Tauber, a prominent dealer of vintage European sports cars. Josh, as he known to his many friends in the antiques trade, spent his formative years attending shows and auctions with his family, where he says he gained “a priceless education about antiques.” Tauber graduated from medical school in Phoenix, Arizona, the city where he currently resides. Although he forged a successful ... More
Prada and Sotheby's unveil one-of-a-kind items from the 'Tools of Memory' auction MILAN.- Prada and Sotheby’s today unveiled a selection of highlights from ‘Tools of Memory’, an online auction to raise funds for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and its efforts to safeguard learning for students around the world in the face of the unprecedented disruption caused by COVID-19. At the peak of the pandemic, school closures to contain its spread interrupted the education of more than 1.5 billion children and youth – 90% of the world’s students – disproportionately impacting girls and women, for whom education is often a lifeline. Prada will donate its proceeds raised in this auction to specifically benefit UNESCO’s new campaign entitled Keeping girls in the picture and their Global Education Coalition’s Gender Flagship, which has been leading collaborative efforts to promote the continuity ... More
All-women band in Iran struggles to break through BANDAR ABBAS(AFP).- The men in the audience clapped and the women ululated as the band finished singing: it would have been commonplace except the venue was in Iran and the group on stage were all women. The catchy rhythmic music they played that balmy night is known as "bandari". Its lyrics are from ancient folkloric songs, passed down the generations and familiar to many at the concert in an amphitheatre in the southern port of Bandar Abbas. Only this time, it was being performed by women in front of a mixed crowd. "It feels as if you have been seen at last" by "a new part of society," said band member Noushin Yousefzadeh, who plays the oud, the Middle Eastern lute. "All that training has paid off at last." Dressed in traditional clothing, the band was taking part in a state-organised festival to showcase "Persian Gulf music" and, as well as ... More
Taymour Grahne Projects opens a solo exhibition by London-based artist Cara Nahaul LONDON.-Taymour Grahne Projects is presenting its inaugural show: Impossible Garden, a solo exhibition by London - based artist Cara Nahaul. Cara Nahaul’s vibrant paintings explore the character of spaces, from quiet domestic interiors to idyllic public gardens. Her work examines our relationship with our environment, and the shifts in perception around the value of objects within and outside of her paintings. Nahaul draws upon visual cues picked up during periods of research and travel as well as memories from her familial archive. Taking inspiration from her childhood visits to Malaysia and Mauritius, her work invites viewers to imagine how they might mine, reconstruct and reflect upon their own personal histories. The paintings presented in Impossible Garden are spaces to dismantle fixed boundaries, and ... More
Now open: Sam Moyer's monumental sculptural installation at Central Park NEW YORK, NY.-Public Art Fund is presenting Doors for Doris, Sam Moyer’s new commission that brings a massive three-part sculpture to the entrance of Central Park at Doris C. Freedman Plaza. Creating a gateway that poetically bridges the architecture of the city and the natural landscape of the park, Moyer investigates the origin and utility of different stones and how they manifest throughout New York City's built environment. For her largest public commission to date, Moyer has constructed three oversized doors that stand ajar, inviting the public to pass through upon entering or exiting the park. Each panel consists of a double-sided composition made of marble remnants that Moyer collected from around the city and inlaid into poured concrete. The stones carry a multilayered history; imported from around the world and then discarded from ... More
Gallery FUMI's interior reconfigured as a contemplative domestic space for new exhibition LONDON.- Much has changed in 2020, not least our relationships with our homes. Since March, we’ve got to know them very well indeed. For months, we no longer locked the door behind us, and departed for hours, days or longer. In 2020 our homes became both sanctuary and prison; the spaces and objects within them ever more familiar, fond and important. Gallery FUMI’s new exhibition gently reflects this new position, with its interior reconfigured as a contemplative domestic space. “We’ve all been through significant changes this year,” say FUMI’s cofounders Sam Pratt and Valerio Capo, “and we’re taking many things a lot less for granted – including beautiful works of design which are here to enrich our worlds. The designer Gemma Holt is transforming the gallery’s two floors with thick carpeting and floor-to-ceiling curtains. “I want to make a cocoon-like space – soft, quiet and neut ... More
Foam presents more than 50 vintage portraits and contact prints by Remsen Wolff AMSTERDAM.- The exhibition Amsterdam Girls presents more than 50 vintage portraits and contact prints from the analogue archive of the American photographer Remsen Wolff (1940-1998). From 1990 to 1992, Wolff spent one month each year at the American Hotel in Amsterdam to work on the project Special Girls - A Celebration. For this project, Wolff made a series of portraits of transgender people in New York and in Amsterdam, the city known at the time as ‘the gay capital of Europe’. These unique portraits range from the exuberant and glamorous to the subdued and vulnerable. Together, the photographs show the degree of gender fluidity in 1990s Amsterdam, beyond the spotlight of notorious nightclubs such as Club RoXY and iT. The individuals posing for Wolff’s camera vary from celebrated figures such as Jet Brandsteder (a.k.a. Francine), ... More
Monuments that celebrate communal struggles, not flawed men NEW YORK(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A striking billboard looms over the gates at the main entrance of Socrates Sculpture Park. It’s not an advertisement but an artwork by Nona Faustine that speaks to the reckoning that — fueled by a summer of protests — has led to the toppling of monuments across the country. Titled “In Praise of Famous Men No More,” its soft-focus images show the Lincoln Memorial in Washington side by side with the equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (which has long been considered a symbol of colonialism and racism and is in the process of being removed). A hazy horizontal line runs across the middle of each photographic rendering, as if the sculptures were being crossed out or viewed from behind bars. The negation seems less individual than categorical. Both ... More
Dawn Cerny wins the 2020 Betty Bowen Award SEATTLE, WA.-The Seattle Art Museum and the Betty Bowen Committee, chaired by Gary Glant, announced that Dawn Cerny is the winner of the 2020 Betty Bowen Award. The juried award comes with an unrestricted cash award of $15,000 and a solo exhibition at SAM. Founded in 1977 to continue the legacy of local arts advocate and supporter Betty Bowen, the annual award honors a Northwest artist for their original, exceptional, and compelling work. Cerny’s sculptures, made of inexpensive and readily available materials such as wood, wire, and cardboard, explore what she refers to as “the theater of Home.” Recent solo shows include Oxbow, Seattle (2020), the Portland Art Museum (2017), and the Henry Art Gallery (2017). In 2016, she was the recipient of a Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award and in 2019 was an Artist in Residence ... More
Savannah's Everard Auctions presents Art from Southern Estates in online event closing Oct. 8 SAVANNAH, GA.- Steeped in traditional values but competitively armed with the latest technology and marketing techniques, Everard Auctions is the preferred choice of many private and institutional collectors who choose to deaccession fine art. Five times a year, the company’s trusted reputation is validated with an exciting Fine & Decorative Arts online auction featuring high-quality estate paintings and objets d’art. Preparations have just been finalized for Everard’s next auction, featuring art from Southern estates and private owners. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers from September 22 through October 8. The top-estimated lot at $30,000-$50,000 is Stephen Scott Young’s (FL/SC/Bahamas, b. 1957-) charming watercolor titled Tenth Son. It is a 21- by 29¼-inch (sight) depiction of an African- ... More
Italy announces international search for new Pompeii head ROME(AFP).- The world-famous archaeological site of Pompeii could choose a non-Italian as its next general director for the first time, after an international search open to all candidates, Italy's culture minister said on Thursday. The ruined city that was submerged in ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD is the country's second-most visited tourist attraction after Rome's Colosseum, receiving nearly 4 million visits last year. "We think this contest... will be watched with a lot of interest by the world," Italian Culture Minister Dario Francheschini told journalists during an online press conference. Pompeii, along with the majority of Italy's cultural sites, has always been led by an Italian. In 2015 for the first time, seven international directors were named to some of the countries' most prestigious museums -- such as Germany's Eike Schmidt ... More
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On a day like today, Dutch realist painter Anton Mauve was born
September 18, 1838. Anthonij (Anton) Rudolf Mauve (18 September 1838, Zaandam, North Holland - 5 February 1888, Arnhem) was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. A master colorist, he was a very significant early influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh. In this image: Morning Ride on the Beach (1876), oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum.
