Visitors look at paintings during the opening of the exposition "A Russian Love for French Art" dedicated to the works of French painters Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, and Maurice Denis, at the Hermitage in Amsterdam, on September 12, 2013. The exposition will be open to the public until February 28, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ANP / ROBIN UTRECHT.
AMSTERDAM.- Starting on 14 September 2013, the Hermitage Amsterdam will turn its attention to three great French artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Gauguin, Bonnard and Denis. In the years following the breakthrough of Impressionism, they went in search of new artistic paths. The elusive Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was a shining example for the introverted Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) and the theoretician Maurice Denis (1870–1943). Bonnard and Denis were briefly united with a few other artists (such as Valloton and Vuillars) under the name of Les Nabis, after the Hebrew word for ‘prophet’. These young artists explored fascinating new artistic paths. Unlike the Impressionists, who aimed primarily to capture the fleeting qualities of natural light, the Nabis emphasised colour, feeling, symbolism and imagination. Their work was quickly embraced in Paris, and ... More
Anselm Kiefer (German, born 1945). der Morgenthau Plan, 2012 (detail). Emulsion and acrylic on photograph on canvas, overall: 110 x 224 inches (279.4 x 568.96 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Pending Acquisition Funds, 2013. Image courtesy of the Gagosian Gallery.
BUFFALO, NY.- Anselm Kiefer: Forget-Me-Not, an exhibition that explores the interplay of history, identity, and landscape in the work of one of the most important artists of our time, opens at the Albright-Knox on November 17, 2013. With this exhibition, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery celebrates and contextualizes a major new acquisition, Kiefer’s der Morgenthau Plan (The Morgenthau Plan), 2012, as it enters the museum’s world-renowned Collection. Forget-Me-Not builds upon the Albright-Knox’s history with the artist, whose monumental painting die Milchstrasse (The Milky Way), 1985–87, was added to its Collection more than two decades ago in celebration of the museum’s 125th anniversary. Several major works by Kiefer (German, born 1945) form the core of the exhibition. These include the Albright-Knox’s newly acquired der Morgenthau Plan, 2012, a monumental panorama inundated with wildflowers that proliferate in the ... More
A rare Xuande blue and white double-gourd moonflask, Ming Dynasty, Xuande mark and period (1426-1435). Estimate: HK$22,000,000-30,000,000 / US$2,750,000- 3,750,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.
HONG KONG.-Christie’s will offer a group of 24 works from The R.F.A. Riesco Collection of Important Chinese Ceramics in Hong Kong on 27 November 2013. These very fine works - which are predominantly Ming dynasty (1368–1644), as well as Qing dynasty (1644-1911) examples and monochromes from the Early period (11th - 13th century) - come fresh to the market with strong provenance. They were collected and personally catalogued over almost three decades by the businessman and passionate collector of Chinese ceramics Mr Raymond F.A. Riesco (1877-1964). The collection came into the ownership of the London Borough of Croydon when the council purchased Mr Riesco’s home, Heathfield House, and surrounding land in Addington, South London, in 1964. From the total 230 works in The Riesco Collection 24 pieces are now being offered for sale with proceeds to be invested in Croydon’s cultural infrastructure. These works will tour to Hong Ko ... More
Piero della Francesca, Senigallia Madonna, 1470s (detail). Oil and tempera on panel. Galleria Nazionale delle Marche / Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici delle Marche. Courtesy of Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit Culturali/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
BOSTON, MASS.-The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has opened a single-work exhibition on September 13 which showcases the rare Renaissance painting, the Senigallia Madonna (1470s), and recounts the fascinating story of its theft and recovery in the 1970s. On loan from Italy, the work was created by Italian master Piero della Francesca (1411/13–1492) and will be on view in the United States for the first time. Stolen in 1975, the tempera and oil on panel painting was recovered the following year by the Carabinieri Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (known as the Carabinieri Art Squad)—a branch of the Italian military police charged with combating theft, looting and illicit trade in works of art. Part of the MFA’s Visiting Masterpieces series, Piero della Francesca’s Senigallia Madonna: An Italian Treasure, Stolen and Recovered will be on view through January 6, 2014 in the Museum’s Lee Gallery, along with a compani ... More
Papa Bravo, 2013. Sebastiaan Bremer/Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.-Edwynn Houk Gallery announces an exhibition of new works by Sebastiaan Bremer (Dutch, b. 1970). The show begins on Thursday, 12 September and runs through Saturday, 2 November 2013. The artist will be present at the opening reception on Thursday, 12 September 2013, from 6-8pm. Utilizing the artists signature style of obsessively applied dots of paint to a photographic surface, and adding etching to his working method, Bremer renders the subjects of this series in a dream-like haze of abstraction. Drawing from Surrealism, Modernism, and Cubism, the artist collages photographs and paintings together to create a seductive labyrinth of entangled bodies and art. In the work illustrated above, Don't Harp on Carpet, 2013, Bremer co-mingles works by Brassai and Picasso in a twisted form of time travel that inserts his own style and inhabits the studios and canvases of artists working ... More
Morgan Fisher, C4 (Cloud, Moleskin, Rose), 2013. Acrylic house paint on three panels, 24.875 x 30 x 1.25 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.-Bortolami Gallery presents “Interior Color Beauty,” an exhibition of new paintings by Morgan Fisher and his second one-person exhibition at the gallery. The 25 paintings are enlarged facsimiles of paint chips showing color combinations for interiors in the booklet Exterior and Interior Color Beauty, produced in about 1935 by General Houses, Inc., a manufacturer of prefabricated houses founded by the artist’s father, Howard T. Fisher. The exhibition realizes what Morgan Fisher understood when he found the booklet in his father’s files many years ago, that the groups of chips were paintings ready-made. The colors were chosen by a color consultant to make pleasing combinations, each suited to one of four kinds of rooms: living room, dining room and entrance hall, bedrooms, and kitchen. Each combination for one kind of room was suited to a specific combination in each of ... More
Dan Graham, Body Press, 1970–72, film still Generali Foundation.
VIENNA.- To celebrate the Generali Foundation’s twenty-fifth anniversary, three international curators—Guillaume Dsanges, Helmut Draxler, and Gertrud Sandqvist—each composed a show using a unique presentation format to reflect on the Generali Foundation’s collection and exhibition politics, and thereby examining its contribution to historiography on the basis of institutional work. Guillaume Dsanges focused on the “pioneer days” of Conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s; Helmut Draxler highlighted the complex interrelations between the principles of collecting and exhibition making. And the yearlong anniversary program concludes with Gertrud Sandqvist’s exhibition Against Method. The title of the show refers to Paul Feyerabend’s widely read book Against Method: Outline of an Anarchist Theory of Knowledge (1975), in which the author casts doubt on the scientific ambition to attain knowledge throu ... More
'"A Gusty Nor' Wester" - Valkyrie III Racing Britannia and Ailsa for the Muir Memorial Challenge Cup on the Clyde - July 3rd 1895'. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- A painting by the greatest living marine artist, Steven Dews, which was given in exchange for a beautiful old sailing yacht is for sale at Bonhams Marine Sale at Knightsbridge, London on 2 October. The painting, '"A Gusty Nor' Wester" - Valkyrie III Racing Britannia and Ailsa for the Muir Memorial Challenge Cup on the Clyde - July 3rd 1895' which is estimated at 50,000-70,000 was the result of an approach by Dews to the owners of a yacht moored in Sydney harbour. He had a novel proposition to make: a painting on a subject of their choice in exchange for the yacht. The family agreed and chose Valkyrie III as the subject because their son had named his own vessel after that very yacht. The New York Times describes Valkyrie III in an article, 1895, entitled 'A Marvel In Light Airs'. The article covered the yacht’s victory against the cutters Britannia and Ailsa on the fifty-mile course of the Royal Yacht Club at Hunter's Quay, ... More
In The Afronauts, De Middel combines set-up photography with copies of typed letters and reproductions of vintage photos.
AMSTERDAM.- Photographer Cristina De Middel (1975, Spain) chose as the starting point for her project The Afronauts a little-known episode from Zambia's history. This was a space programme started by an educator which suddenly entered Zambia in the space race with the United States and Russia. Its aim was to put the first African on the moon. Due to a lack of financial resources, however, the ambitious initiative was doomed to failure. Fifty years later, De Middel reconstructs this story, using her own imagination. From 13 September, Foam is showing the outcome of this project in an exhibition that makes no reference to disappointment or defeat: instead we view fantasy-rich and colourful images full of humour, with wonderful self-created props, unexpected twists and unusual visitors. In The Afronauts, De Middel combines set-up photography with copies of typed letters and reproductions of vintage photos. Although The ... More
Portrait of Mariko Mori. Photo: Christophe Kutner. Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.-Sean Kelly announced that the gallery now represents Mariko Mori. Mariko Mori is widely regarded as one of the most important artists to emerge from Japan in the past fifty years. Her practice, which is founded in the belief of the interconnectedness of all things, explores universal questions at the intersection of the cosmos, life, death, reality, spirituality and technology. Her early work found its roots in Manga and cyber culture, often depicting Mori herself as a cyborg heroine seemingly from an alternate, pop-futuristic reality, navigating contemporary Tokyo. Her work has since expanded beyond that densely-layered, colorful hyper-reality to include a recent fascination with ancient cultures. Among cultures newly explored in Mori's work are the prehistoric Jomon culture in Japan and Celtic traditions in Europe, investigating a more abstract minimalism and celebrating the enlightening and expansive qualities of technological inn ... More
19th-century American folk art painting of young boy seated in a classical chair, holding a piece of fruit. Oil on canvas, 29in by 24in sight. Descent through Virginia family. Est. $2,000-$4,000. Quinn & Farmer image.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.- The selection that awaits bidders at Quinn & Farmer’s Sept. 21 Gallery Auction has the look of a carefully curated residential interior – furniture by revered American craftsmen, tasteful paintings and bronzes; Mucha lithographs and wonderful collector pieces, including Picasso pottery. The 477-lot auction opens with American and European furniture, with options to suit any dcor from rustic to formal. The incomparable designs of architect and woodworker George Nakashima (Japanese/American, 1905-1990) will feature prominently. Two of Nakashima’s Conoid Cushion Chairs of black walnut with hickory spindles and original upholstery will be offered as a pair with an $8,000-$15,000 estimate. A 1976 custom-designed American black walnut blanket chest or clothes hamper is estimated at $12,000-$15,000, while a 1976 Nakashima piano bench is entered ... More
Veruschka, dress by Bill Blass, New York, January 1967. Photograph by Richard Avedon The Richard Avedon Foundation.
LONDON.-Gagosian London is presenting “Avedon: Women,” a selection of photographs from The Richard Avedon Foundation. “Avedon: Women” will culminate in a second, career-spanning exhibition at Gagosian Beverly Hills in November 2013. Avedon’s fashion images never conformed to the prevailing standard of models posed without emotion, aloof from the camera, and seemingly devoid of personality. Instead, he set models in action, provoking them to appear questioning, authoritative, unruly, vivacious, extroverted, and confidently alive. Keenly aware of the melancholy inherent in the fleeting nature of great beauty, his photographs crystallized transient moments of grace. This exhibition presents a selection of photographs from the 1960s and 1970s, specifically focusing on images of women in motion, a leitmotif of Avedon’s fashion photography. Jean Shrimpton lunges across the neutral picture plane, modeling an ... More
Ken Grant, Untitled (Burning up, Bidston, Birkenhead). Gelatin silver print, 100 x 100 cms., c.1994. Copyright Ken Grant. Courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London.
LONDON.-James Hyman presents an exhibition of black and white photographs from the 1940s to the present that reflect a range of responses to English society. The exhibition explores constructions of Englishness, from eccentric to conformist, aristocrat to working class, northern and southern, black and white, old and young, work and leisure, rural and urban. Covering a spectrum from playful and quirky to dark and serious, from compassionate and empathic to detached and even satirical, these photographs not only help to define a country but also to forge a national photographic culture. The exhibition takes as its starting point vintage prints from Bert Hardy’s photographic assignments for Picture Post Magazine in the 1940s that address the unchanging patterns of life in the much-changed landscape Elephant and Castle area of London after the war. This is followed by vintage prints from the 1950s by Roger Mayne, that present the ... More
Quote Bernini's design for the Louvre I would have given my skin for. Sir Cristopher Wren
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Adelaide Biennial artists announced ADELAIDE.- 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art Curator, Nick Mitzevich has announced the names of over 25 of Australia’s leading contemporary artists for next years’ Adelaide Biennial, Dark Heart. Delivering their brave new visions in mediums including photography, painting, sculpture, installation and the moving image will be artists Brook Andrew, Del Kathryn Barton, Martin Bell, Ian Burns, eX de Medici, Julia deVille, Dale Frank, Tony Garifalakis, Fiona Hall, Bill Henson, Brendan Huntley, Kulata Project – Tjala Arts, Richard Lewer, Dani Marti, Trent Parke, Ben Quilty, Caroline Rothwell, Alexander Seton, Sally Smart, Ian Strange, Warwick Thornton, Lynette Wallworth and Martumili artists and Ah Xian. Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale also will make an appearance in Adelaide over the opening weekend and the work of Adelaide based sculptor and installation artist Julia Robinson will reshape The Studio ... More
Smithsonian Books releases book of poetry and photographs about the Civil War WASHINGTON, DC.- Lines in Long Array: A Civil War Commemoration: Poems and Photographs, Past and Present, coming from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian Books Oct. 1, is a thought-provoking collection of poems and photographs exploring the Civil War and its enduring impact on American culture. The book features both modern and period poems and photographs to create a powerful conversation between past and present. Lines in Long Array features works from Pulitzer Prize-winners Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paul Muldoon and Tracy K. Smith, as well as other acclaimed contemporary poets: Eavan Boland, Geoffrey Brock, Nikki Giovanni, John Koethe, Steve Scafidi Jr., Michael Schmidt, Dave Smith and C.D. Wright. These modern voices interact with the 19th-century literary voices who witnessed the Civil War, notably Ethel Lynn Beers, ... More
Delaware Art Museum awarded federal grant for online collection WILMINGTON, DE.-The Delaware Art Museum announcd that it received a $130,000 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The grant will support a two-year Collections Stewardship project, allowing the Museum to make over 5,000 works on paper from its collection available to the public through a new searchable online collection database. The Museum's project was one of 244 selected nationally by IMLS this year, with support totaling nearly $30 million. "This is an incredible opportunity for the Museum," explains Margaretta Frederick, Chief Curator and Curator of the Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art at the Delaware Art Museum. "Putting the collection online allows us to serve our diverse audiences more effectively through expanded access to collections-related information, images, and scholarship." In June 2013, the ... More
19th Century autograph book and German ivory sculptures highlight September 18 auction VANCOUVER.- A diverse range of international fine art, period furniture, estate jewelry and Asian pieces make up the 569 lots daytime auction at Maynards next Wednesday, September 18. Starting at 11:00 a.m., the auction is expected to attract a wide range of collectors as lots vary in estimated price points from $400 to $150,000. Perhaps the most intriguing and noteworthy item up for grabs is a 19th century autograph book that belonged to Major Charles D.A. Loeffler (Major Loeffler), a German immigrant, who was the head doorkeeper to the President’s office at The Executive Mansion of Washington, from 1869 to 1909, for Presidents Ulysses S. Grant through Theodore Roosevelt. Major Loeffler collected nearly 300 signatures from various Presidents, vice-presidents, senators, celebrities, foreign dignitaries, and Chief Justices of the period. Persons of interest include: Winston Churchill, who ... More
Fight to save Orwell's Burmese inspiration KATHA(AFP).- Cobwebs cover its furniture and its rooms are long deserted, but a crumbling house in northern Myanmar is at the centre of a conservation battle by locals who say it was once home to George Orwell. The remote trading post of Katha on the banks of the Irrawaddy -- and the house lived in by Orwell in the 1920s -- were immortalised in the acclaimed British author's first novel, "Burmese Days". Decades later, as the country emerges from nearly half a century of harsh military rule, a group of artists has launched a campaign to protect the legacy of one of literature's most scathing critics of dictatorship. "I am trying to do what I can to restore all the buildings in the book and to attract attention to the country and to the town," said artist and Orwell fan Nyo Ko Naing. The two-storey house stands abandoned in an overgrown tropical garden in the remote town which lies about 250 ... More
Breese Little opens exhibition with works by Tom Hackney, announces new gallery space LONDON.- Tremors brings together a selection of new works set across a range of different media. Tom Hackney has sourced these from specific historical materials encountered in the process of making, researching and reflecting. The exhibition title is prompted by Bertolt Brecht’s recollection of a summer playing chess with Walter Benjamin in 1934 in Svendborg, Denmark. As Brecht wrote in 1936 when inviting Benjamin back to stay, ‘the chessboard lies orphaned, and every half hour a tremor of remembrance runs through it: that was when you made your moves’. This body of work addresses the tremors of historical material, considering the staging of different contexts as a reverberating point of exchange. Tom Hackney regards Tremors as a work in progress. Despite having primarily worked and exhibited with paint, the artist locates his practise outside a conventional understanding ... More
First solo exhibition in New York by London-based artist Robert Montgomery opens at C24 Gallery NEW YORK, NY.-C24 Gallery announces the first solo exhibition in New York by London-based artist Robert Montgomery. The exhibition presents the largest collection of his poetic, text-based installation works gathered to date, which are most often found within the public landscape. Montgomery’s exhibition is on view September 10 – October 19, 2013. The work of Robert Montgomery follows a tradition of conceptual text art that includes artists such as Jenny Holzer and Lawrence Weiner. Although linked with his London predecessors of the YBA generation, Montgomery stands out by drawing from examples of public interventionist strategies and brings a poetic voice to the discourse of text art. Essential to Montgomery’s work is the tradition of modernist Concrete Poetry, where the visual elements of words are as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements ... More
Kae Tempest on Writing, Forgiveness and the Wounds We Carry
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Flashback
On a day like today, Dutch-English painter Peter Lely was born
October 14, 1618. Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 - 30 November 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. He became a naturalised English subject and was knighted in 1680 by King Charles II. In his lifetime, Lely was known as a skillful connoisseur of art.[4] His collection of Old Masters, including Veronese, Titian, Claude Lorrain and Rubens, and a fabulous collection of drawings, was broken up and sold after his death, raising the immense sum of 26,000. In this image: Susanna and the Elders, 16505.
