Artforum’s annual “Year in Review” issue began arriving to subscribers a week later than usual.
by Zachary Small
NEW YORK, NY.- A skeleton crew of editors needed to take a hacksaw through the December issue of Artforum magazine. There were only a few weeks between the sudden firing of its editor-in-chief and a print deadline for the glossy’s annual “Year in Review” issue. The fallout had been swift when Artforum’s owner fired the editor, David Velasco, after the magazine published an open letter about the Israel-Hamas war that supported Palestinian liberation and initially omitted mention of the victims of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. At least six members of the editorial team resigned and nearly 600 writers signed letters boycotting the magazine and its sister publications, including ARTnews and Art in America. Regular contributors such as critic Jennifer Krasinski and art historian Claire Bishop requested to have their articles pulled from the December issue. Others such as filmmaker John Waters, curator Meg Onli and artist ... More
Songtsam Linka Retreat Lake Basong Tso on the holy Lake Basong Tso. (Courtesy, Songtsam Group).
NEW YORK, NY.- For the fifth year in a row, Asia Week New York Association has announced that Songtsam Group, the award-winning luxury boutique hotel collection, and Destination Management Company, located in the Chinese provinces of Tibet and Yunnan, will continue its sponsorship of of Asia Week New York, which runs from March 14th-22nd in 2024. “We are delighted that Songtsam continues on as our Presenting Sponsor,” says Asia Week New York chairman Brendan Lynch. “We value their dedication to Asian art and culture and deeply appreciate their ongoing support.” "Songtsam is pleased to announce its fifth year of sponsoring Asia Week New York," says Florence Li, Songtsam's Director of International Sales & Marketing. "As a passionate collector of Chinese, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian art, Baima Duoji, the Founder and Chairman of Songtsam Group, remains dedicated to fostering the synergy between our luxury brand ... More
An Emerald, Diamond and 14k Gold Ring. Centering a rectangular-cut emerald weighing approximately 3.90 carats, good color, lightly included, flanked by 10 round brilliant-cut diamonds; estimated total diamond weight: 0.50 carat; weighing approximately 5.1 grams; size: 6 1/2 +. Estimate $1,500-$2,000.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.-Turner Auctions + Appraisals presented Estate Jewelry & Gold Coins on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at 10:30 am PST. Featuring over 105 lots from several estates, these items are ideal for holiday jewelry gift-giving to others (or to treat oneself!) or perhaps for long-term investment, in the case of gold coins. Jewelry offerings include necklaces, rings, bracelets, pendants, brooches, and earrings. Most are 14k, 18k or white gold, blackened silver, or platinum; most are set with gemstones such as diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire, amethyst, pearl, tourmaline, garnet, opal, turquoise, moonstone, and/or lapis lazuli. Some pieces are antique or vintage. Among the other jewelry items are micro-mosaic brooch-pendants; lava cameos and earrings; unstrung ... More
Tricia Miller, right, receiving the SEMC Museum Leadership Award from Zinnia Willits, SEMC executive director.
ATHENS, GA.-The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia received eight different awards from the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) for its outstanding work. The awards were announced at SEMC’s annual meeting, held Nov. 13 – 15, 2023, in Louisville, Kentucky. Tricia Miller, the museum’s deputy director of collections and exhibitions and head registrar, received SEMC’s Museum Leadership Award in recognition of her many years of service and generosity to the field. Initiated in 1994, this award recognizes mid-career museum professionals who have shown significant advancement within the profession by leadership in museum activities at his or her institution, within the museum profession as a whole, and especially in the southeast region. Award eligibility requires 10 years of experience as a museum staff member and a minimum of five years ... More
Frederick H. Varley’s Sun and Wind, Georgian Bay, 1916 or 1920 drew heated and unprecedented bidding, driving the price to a record-breaking $984,000, the highest amount ever paid for any artwork by the artist, and more than 10 times the high-end, pre-auction estimate of $90,000.
TORONTO.- One of Canada’s preeminent, most-well known and extensively-exhibited private collections of historical Canadian art has become the highest-grossing single private collection of Canadian art to ever sell at auction, achieving $36.6 million and setting 29 artist records. The collection, sold in a series of three landmark sales with Cowley Abbott beginning in the fall of 2022, had its final sale Wednesday night in Toronto at the Globe and Mail Centre and online at cowleyabbott.ca. Across the three sales, nine artworks sold in excess of $1 million with 115 of the 150 works of art sold exceeding ̶ and often doubling, tripling and more ̶ the high-end, presale auction estimate (all results are inclusive of the buyer’s premium). Expertly curated over 60 years, the collection was rich in rare, prime example and museum-quality paintings, drawings and sculptures ... More
John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Mrs. Daniel Rogers (Elizabeth Gorham Rogers), 1762, Wake Forest University, Hanes Collection, Gift of Philip and Charlotte Hanes.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC.- “Good Impressions: Portraits Across Three Centuries from Reynolda and Wake Forest” is on view at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in the Northwest Bedroom Gallery of the historic house. The exhibition will be on display through October 27, 2024. Portraits are often taken at face value—as accurate representations of a person’s appearance, sometimes removed by decades or centuries. But portraits are often the products of delicate negotiations between artist and subject. Sometimes they flatter, exaggerating the sitter’s beauty or rich attire. Sometimes they capture the subject engaged in his or her occupation, whether pausing during study or painting in his or her studio. Sometimes they celebrate an auspicious occasion, such as a recent engagement or the imminent birth of a child. This exhibition features three centuries of portraits of men and women, Black and White, solitary and companionate, classic and m ... More
Exterior view of the Museum Folkwang, designed by British architect David Chipperfield (2010).
by Alex Marshall
NEW YORK, NY.- Museum shows were canceled. A book prize was suspended. And some artists were banned from applying for a major commission. This all happened recently in Germany because of concerns that the artists involved support a boycott of Israel, a position that the German Parliament has designated as antisemitic and which can be punished by the withdrawal of public funding. Yet in the heightened atmosphere since the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, arts administrators are also increasingly concerned over artists whose public comments about Israel have nothing to do with a boycott, including accusing the country of war crimes or describing it as an “apartheid” state. Officials have been combing through social media posts and open letters, some going back more than a decade. And they have been calling off projects as a result. Billions of dollars flow annually through museums, theaters and cultural exchange programs in ... More
Dominique White, Can We Be Known Without Being Hunted, 2022. Cinders of the Wreck Installationsansichten im Triangle - Astérides, Marseille, Frankreich, 2022. Courtesy the artits, Triangle - Astérides and Veda. Photo: Auréliane Mole.
MUNSTER.- With When Disaster Strikes, Kunsthalle Münster is staging Dominique White’s first solo show in a German art institution and, consequently, is presenting her work in Germany for the very first time. White's sculptures are a play on memory and metamorphosis. In her unpredictable forms, the disappeared makes its entrance into the space in the Kunsthalle. Her sculptures function as materialisations of Blackness beyond its subjective boundaries, as beacons or containers of an ignored civilization. Dominique White addresses Blackness in terms of both its conceptual and material implications. Her works function as abstract commemorative sculptures that appear as if they have ... More
AUCKLAND.- A highly anticipated international exhibition profiling the work of couture designer Guo Pei openes today at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy 郭培：时装之幻梦 opens Saturday 9 December with a weekend of special events. Be transported from the fashion runway into the Gallery to encounter more than 60 of Guo Pei’s creations up close. The exhibition, which is exclusive to Auckland Art Gallery, presents the designer’s most innovative and captivating pieces created between 2005 to 2020. Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, Director of Auckland Art Gallery Kirsten Lacy is thrilled to bring the extraordinary work of Guo Pei to New Zealand audiences for the first time. ‘This exhibition celebrates one of the ... More
Portrait of Marie-Agnès Diene.
NEW YORK, NY.-Phillips and Black Rock Sénégal are partnering in releasing original signed editions of Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Marie-Agnès Diene through Dropshop. Since 5 December at a complete set of 30 prints was released, benefiting the renowned residency program launched by the artist. Portrait of Marie-Agnès Diene marks a significant addition to Wiley’s oeuvre, as it represents his first female portrait to be featured in a charitable print edition. Founded in 2019 by Wiley, Black Rock is a dynamic multidisciplinary artist-in-residence program dedicated to fostering creative exchange and dialogue through the African diaspora. All net proceeds from the Drop will benefit the celebrated program, which has hosted over 60 international artists in Dakar, Sénégal. Black Rock Sénégal’s mission is to support new artistic creation through collaborative exchange and to incit ... More
An Important Kashmir Unheated Sapphire and Diamond Ring. Containing one cushion shaped sapphire measuring approximately 12.66 x 10.43 x 7.24 mm and weighing approximately 8.90 carats with two straight baguette diamonds weighing approximately 0.80 carat total. Mounted in platinum. Ring size 5 1/2. Stamp: SPAULDING & CO. Gross weight: 3.60 dwt.
CHICAGO, IL.- An important Kashmir unheated sapphire and diamond ring (lot 275) more than quadrupled its presale estimate selling for $1.29 million, headlining Hindman’s Important Jewelry auction. The ring was the crown jewel of the exceptional collection of Marguerite Hark, of Chicago and Surfside, Florida and the top lot of the December 6 auction, which achieved a total sale price of $4.4 million. The sapphire ring managed to vault past already lofty expectations buoyed by substantial interest from all manner of bidder. Eleven phone bidders battled absentee, floor, and online bidders for the better part of five minutes. Bidding rose ... More
1937 All-Star Multi-Signed Baseball featuring the signatures of New York Yankee all-time greats Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and 19 other players.
ALAMEDA, CA.-Michaan’s Auctions December Gallery on Friday, December 15th, features numerous exciting historical items from our sports memorabilia department in addition to fine examples from jewelry and fine art. The auction is led by two autographed baseballs, a 1937 All-Star Multi-Signed Baseball featuring Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, as well as a Michael Jordan signed Bulls Jersey. Also included is a Juvenia yellow gold wristwatch, Reed and Barton Marlborough silver flatware set, and an untitled work by experimental ceramicist John Mason. The auction is led by a 1937 All-Star Multi-Signed Baseball ($8/12,000) featuring the signatures of New York Yankee all-time greats Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and 19 other players. Also on offer, is a 1956 Cleveland Indians Autographed Team Ball ($1/1,500), featuring numerous Cleveland Guardian Hall of Fame ... More
Søren Solkær: Sort Sol #75, Aiguamolls de l’Empordá, Catalonia, Spain. Image courtesy of the artist.
SEATTLE, WA.- The National Nordic Museum will be presenting Søren Solkær: Søren Solkær: Sort Sol, showcasing the exquisite works of internationally celebrated Danish photographer Søren Solkær. Søren Solkær: Sort Sol features recent work by Søren Solkær (b. 1969), who rose to prominence in the early 2000s with his penetrating portraits of legendary performers such as Björk, Metallica, Paul McCartney, the White Stripes, and Amy Winehouse, among others. The subjects of the photographer’s present work are music makers of another sort. In his photographic series Sort Sol, Solkær studies the murmuration of starlings. The term “murmuration” derives from “murmur,” or the soft sound of the starlings’ flight calls and fluttering wings as they move together midair. Starling murmurations take myriad forms—from abstract to representational and may function as an open call to join the evening roost and provide protection ... More
Quote I am unable to make a servile copy of nature. Henri Matisse
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Simone Leigh's bronze sculpture satellite is installed at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston HOUSTON, TX.- Simone Leigh’s towering, 24-foot-high bronze Satellite (2022) has been installed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, near the entry plaza of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for modern and contemporary art. The MFAH is the first US museum to acquire and install this monumental bronze in a permanent display. The first edition of Satellite was the centerpiece of Simone Leigh’s project for the American Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale last year; Houston’s example is the second edition of this seminal work. Satellite reflects forms found in the traditional D’mba (or nimba) headdresses created by the Baga peoples of Guinea, the ceremonial ladles of the Dan peoples, and vernacular traditions across the African Diaspora. With its evocations of maternity and dignity, the sculpture expresses the artist’s intent ... More
Dolby Chadwick Gallery opening retrospective of sculptures by Jack Zajac SAN FRANCISCO, CA.-Dolby Chadwick Gallery is opening a retrospective exhibition of sculptures by Jack Zajac. Over more than fifty years, Jack Zajac has created a diverse body of sculptural work. His subjects have ranged from animal skulls to flowing water — disparate images united by a desire to capture natural forms and forces and to grapple with themes of purification, sacrifice, and rebirth. Zajac began his career as a painter, earning recognition for his abstracted seaside imagery; but the bulk of his life has been dedicated to sculpture. After receiving the Rome Prize for painting in 1954, Zajac moved to Rome. Upon arriving at his first studio space there, he was met with a room filled with sculpting supplies belonging to the previous inhabitant. Immediately Zajac became inspired, enthralled by the city’s rich history of classical ... More
Exhibition marking 100th anniversary of National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning at Nieuwe Instituut ROTTERDAM.- Starting today, the exhibition Designing the Netherlands: 100 Years of Past and Present Futures can be seen at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The exhibition is curated in collaboration with the Board of Government Advisors - the independent advisory board on spatial quality for the Dutch central government - and celebrates the rich history and potential futures of architecture, spatial planning and design in shaping the Netherlands. At a time when housing, ecological and social challenges are at the forefront of national debate, the exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of the National Collection of Dutch architecture and urban planning, which is held by the Nieuwe Instituut, presenting important ... More
'Bijoy Jain: The Breath of an Architect' now on view at Fondation Cartier LONDON.- As of today until April 21, 2024, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is inviting Indian architect Bijoy Jain, founder of Studio Mumbai, to create a significant exhibition offering a space of quiet contemplation and reverie, in dialogue with Jean Nouvel’s building. Exploring the boundaries between art, architecture, and matter, Bijoy Jain’s creative response to the building and the Fondation Cartier will reflect a way of thinking that considers time and movement as an essential construct in the making of space. Jain is committed to the creation of an architecture, embodied in water, air, and light, synthesised to the rhythm of human breath. Humankind in Nature- Nature in Humankind. The works reflect an intuitive haptic exchange that connects people. ... More
Katrien De Blauwer, Ken Graves, and Kensuke Koike featured in 'Fragmented Lucidity: The Art of Collage and Photomontage' SANTA MONICA, CALIF.-ROSEGALLERY is opening Fragmented Lucidity: The Art of Collage and Photomontage, a presentation of works by Katrien De Blauwer, Ken Graves, and Kensuke Koike. The opening of Fragmented Lucidity will also be hosted in collaboration w/Luhz Press which is debuting with The Meaning of Gravity, the first monograph of collage works by Ken Grave. Originating in the early 20th century, modern collage and photomontage revolutionized art by reimagining traditional forms of expression. Collage, pioneered by artists like Picasso and Braque, combined diverse materials to create abstract compositions. Photomontage, an offshoot of collage popularized by Dadaists ... More
'Our Life in Art' review: Stanislavski's work and times PARIS.- What do you know about Russian theater director Konstantin Stanislavski? If your answer doesn’t go much further than “He designed a method for training actors,” you are much like the audience members who were recently mystified by parts of “Our Life in Art,” a highly anticipated collaboration between American playwright and director Richard Nelson and Théâtre du Soleil, in Paris. Its title is a nod to “My Life in Art,” an autobiography by Stanislavski that first came out in English in the 1920s. The “Our” refers to the renowned company he co-founded, the Moscow Art Theater, which, in 1923, embarked on a lengthy tour of the United States. In this new play, presented in collaboration with the multidisciplinary Festival d’Automne, Nelson imagines a day the company spent between performances in Chicago. Onstage, Stanislavski ... More
Review: Philharmonic debuts back flashiness with substance NEW YORK, NY.- There’s often a bias against the idea of flashiness, especially in classical music circles, as if it must always be preceded by the word “empty.” But not Wednesday at David Geffen Hall, where conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada and cellist Edgar Moreau were making their New York Philharmonic debuts. If anything, the word that accompanied their kind of flashiness was “fun.” By offering plenty of buoyancy — and largely skirting grave weight — the programming communicated this conductor’s zealous pursuit of entertainment. It ran from a rousing take on Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy to a graceful (and yes, occasionally flashy) Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1, then, after intermission, a truly aggressive reading of Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin” Suite and a boisterous finale in Enescu’s Romanian ... More
Colette Maze, pianist who started recording in her 80s, dies at 109 NEW YORK, NY.- When French composer Claude Debussy died at his home in Paris in 1918, he probably had no idea that one of his youngest fans lived just a few blocks away. Colette Saulnier, not yet 4, was already learning the rudiments of music, and even at that age she was drawn to the work of her famous neighbor. “I love these climates where you have to create an atmosphere, a daydream,” Colette Maze, as she later became known, said in a 2021 interview with the website Pianote. “I’m connected with Debussy because he corresponds to my deepest sensibility.” Maze would go on to become an accomplished pianist and teacher. But it was only in the late 1990s, when she was over 80, that her son persuaded her to begin recording commercially. What followed was one of the most surprising second acts in classical music history: ... More
Southern Vermont Arts Center announces change in leadership MANCHESTER, NH.-Southern Vermont Arts Center announces that Anne Corso, Executive Director, will be stepping down from her position as of January 5, 2024. Anne has served in her current role since January 2019. Under her leadership, SVAC built a talented team to move from a seasonal local arts center to the thriving year-round arts organization that sees close to 35,000 visitors and participants annually. During Anne's tenure, SVAC oversaw the creation of nationally and internationally relevant exhibitions such as The Red Dress and Ashley Bryan: The Spirit of Joy; exponential growth in educational classes, camps, and school partnerships; creation an annual Holiday Craft Market; the launch of SVAC’s signature restaurant curATE café; development of a grants program that secured funding from national foundations, ... More
Jane Wodening, experimental film star and intrepid writer, dies at 87 NEW YORK, NY.- Jane Wodening, the longtime collaborator and wife of Stan Brakhage, the avant-garde filmmaker, who flourished as an author after their divorce, writing stories about her years living on the road and then alone in a mountain shack, died Nov. 17 at her home in Denver. She was 87. The cause was cardiac arrest, said her daughter, Crystal Brakhage. Stan Brakhage, who died in 2003, was among the most influential experimental filmmakers of the 20th century, though his work could be considered an acquired taste. He made hundreds of movies, most of them silent, that were deeply personal, sometimes elegiac and very beautiful, though they dispensed with any recognizable narrative, often veering into complete abstraction. For three decades, starting in the 1960s, he and Wodening lived a spartan life in a century ... More
Best dance performances of 2023 NEW YORK, NY.- The fall season has felt like a year — New York City Ballet kicked off its 75th anniversary celebrations and Dance Reflections, a festival sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels, landed in New York. Fall also saw the opening of Intima, a new arts space in Ridgewood, Queens. When I couldn’t fit shows into my schedule, I settled for dress rehearsals, including “No Furniture: Suite for a Loft Apartment,” by Lavinia Eloise Bruce. Formal and ferocious and held in a secret location — a South Street Seaport loft — “No Furniture” deserves another run. But, really, all of 2023 has been overflowing with dance and with great dancers, who can be found anywhere. This year they included the extraordinary cast of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’” and Ja’Bowen, a tap dancer from Chicago who performs with rhythmic dexterity and detail on a subway ... More
Inside Hubert Guerrand-Hermès' Elegant Collection | Great Collectors | Sotheby's
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On a day like today, the Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum opened
December 09, 2011. NEW YORK, NY.- U.S. actress Claire Danes and Italian fashion designer Valentino arrive at a party to celebrate the opening of a virtual museum dedicated to him, in New York, December 7, 2011.
