British artist artist Anish Kappor poses in front of his intsalation "Symphony for a Beloved Sun" at the opening of his exhibition "Kapoor in Berlin" at the Martin Gropius Bau museum in Berlin on May 17, 2013. AFP PHOTO / ODD ANDERSEN.
BERLIN.- Anish Kapoor is one of the most important of the world’s contemporary artists. Kapoor has developed a multi-faceted oeuvre using materials, such as stone, steel, wax, pigment, PVC and high-tech material. In his objects, sculptures and installations the boundaries between painting and sculpture become blurred. For his first major exhibition in Berlin he uses the whole of the ground floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, including the magnificent atrium. Many of the works have been specially designed for this venue. The show, comprising about 70 works, provides a survey of the abstract poetic work from 1988 to the present. Born in Mumbai in 1954, Kapoor is among the most prominent representatives of British sculpture. He came to London in 1973 to study sculpture at the Hornsey College of Art and has lived and worked there ever since. At that time Hornsey was the most radical of London’s art colleges and the one most open ... More
The Best Photos of the Day
LONDON.- Employees pose with a painting entitled Interior with Stove 1909 by Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershoi expected to realise 800,000 - 1,000,000 GBP as part of the forthcoming Sothebys 19th Century European Paintings auction in London on May 17, 2013. AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL
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Jack R. Slentz, On the Edge, 2002. Red oak, 19 x 10 x 10 in. (48.3 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm). Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Ruth and David Waterbury, b.a. 1958, in honor of Lucinda and Jack Embersits, b.e. 1958.
NEW HAVEN, CT.- The field of wood art, once called wood turning, has changed significantly over the past twenty-five years. Its first practitioners used a lathe to turn the wood while the artist shaped it. Since then, wood artists have created increasingly diverse examples of their craft, often taking a sculptural approach and using off-lathe methods such as carving, burning, piercing, and painting to make unique objects. Minneapolis collectors Ruth and David Waterbury, b.a. 1958, have been enthusiastic proponents of wood art since the mid-1980s. In building one of the best collections in the country, they have given support to many artists, often forging enduring relationships in the process. Conversations with Wood: Selections from the Waterbury Collection shows the breadth of the Waterburys’ collecting activity. These seventy-eight works, by over seventy artists, range from exquisite turned bowls to objects ... More
The drawing "Clearing the Sudeten Barracks" (1943) by Czechoslovakian Jewish graphic designer and artist Bedrich Fritta is on display. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL.
BERLIN(AFP).- Secret drawings and sketches that a Czech artist produced and kept hidden from his Nazi captors inside a World War II concentration camp went on display at the Jewish Museum in Berlin on Friday. Bedrich Fritta was 35 years old when he was imprisoned with his wife and baby son at the Theresienstadt Ghetto near Prague, which the Hitler propaganda machine vaunted as a "model camp" by hiding the true fate of Europe's Jews. Artists, writers and musicians whose talents were exploited by the Nazis were held at the camp in the fortress town of Terezin in today's Czech Republic where Fritta, as head of a team of artists, had access to Indian ink and paper. Clandestinely he built up a body of work including a drawing of a couple embracing by a food shop and perfumery, the facades of which fail to hide a mass grave of skulls and bones. The picture was inspired by an International Red Cross visit in June ... More
Sam Falls, Untitled (House, Red and Yellow, Joshua Tree, CA), 2012 (detail). Courtesy the artist and M + B Gallery.
NEW YORK, NY.- A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial, a global survey of contemporary photography and video, is on view at the International Center of Photography from May 17 to September 8, 2013. Filling ICP’s entire gallery space as well as its exterior windows, the exhibition features 28 emerging and established artists from 14 countries whose works speak to and illuminate the new visual and social territory in which image making operates today. Artists include Nayland Blake, A.K. Burns, Thomas Hirschhorn, Elliott Hundley, Gideon Mendel, Wangechi Mutu, Sohei Nishino, Lisa Oppenheim, and Nica Ross. Starting from the premise that most photography is now produced, processed, and distributed in digital form, A Different Kind of Order explores the sometimes unanticipated consequences of this shift as revealed in the work of a wide range of international artists. For the younger artists in the Triennial, the digital revolution is something tha ... More
A glass and steel building in Manhattan's prime neighbourhood of Tribeca is pictured. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand.
NEW YORK(AFP).- Residents of a New York City apartment building are up in arms over an exhibition of candid photographs one of their neighbors took of them, without their knowledge or permission. A gallery show -- "The Neighbors" -- of the pictures taken surreptitiously by American photographer Arne Svenson opened last week at the Julie Saul Gallery in lower Manhattan. The images were taken by Svenson through the windows of his apartment building in lower Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, as he trained his lens on his on his unsuspecting neighbors. They show Svenson's neighbors, unawares, in various candid poses -- bending, kneeling, carrying children. A press release on the gallery's website said Svenson was intrigued by the idea of capturing "the daily activities of his downtown Manhattan neighbors as seen through his windows into theirs." "He was intrigued not only by the implied stories within the frame of the glass but also by ... More
General view of Julien's Auctions Music Icons Auction Press Preview at Hard Rock Cafe New York on May 13, 2013 in New York City. Robin Marchant/Getty Images/AFP.
NEW YORK, NY.- A rare VOX guitar played by two legendary Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison, has sold at Julien’s Auctions today during the annual Music Icons auction event held at the Hard Rock Café New York. The rare offering of the VOX guitar played by both John Lennon and George Harrison has been the focus of extraordinary major global press as it made its way through several exhibitions prior to the auction. The guitar was displayed at Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons in Ireland and also The Stafford Kempinski Hotel in London before coming to New York where it was on exhibit at the Hard Rock Café New York all this week. The striking custom guitar built by Mike Bennett and Dickey Denney was gifted to “Magic Alex” Mardas by John Lennon in 1967. Harrison played the guitar while practicing “I am the Walrus” during The Magical Mystery Tour and by Lennon while recording a video session for “Hello ... More
File photo of the Hungarian Parliament Building. Photo: Jozefff/Wikipedia.org.
BUDAPEST(AFP).- More than 500 valuable paintings and works of art have been stolen from a Budapest apartment belonging to a deceased collector, Hungarian police said Saturday, in series of robberies that apparently went undetected for years. "The police has opened an investigation into a case of theft concerning works of art of exceptional value," a police statement read, adding that it was in the process of determining how much the missing items -- including an untitled sketch by Gustav Klimt -- were worth. The paintings and artworks were removed from a flat belonging to Dezso Kovacs, a Hungarian art collector who died in 2002. The robberies took place sometime between 2005 and 2013, the statement said, and have apparently only now come to light. The valuables were being stored in the apartment while the collector's heirs worked out their share of the inheritance. Among the stolen paintings were works by Italy's Tintoretto, France's Maurice Utrillo and by Hungarian artists including Laszlo Paal, Gyul ... More
Fitz Henry Lane (1804 – 1865), A Storm, Breaking Away, Vessel Slipping her Cable, 1858. Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36 ¼ inches.
NEW YORK, NY.-Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York’s oldest art gallery, presents Refuge and Remembrance: Landscape Painting in the Civil War Era, an exhibition mounted from the gallery’s holdings of masterwork Hudson River School paintings. As the nation was torn in two, painters of the American landscape questioned how to address the violence and conflict occurring around them. From the early nineteenth century, painters and writers had imbued the American landscape with metaphorical and spiritual qualities, extolling the untamed wilderness for its spiritual virtue and democratic potential, but with the threat and outbreak of war, the metaphors in these works increased and became more and more charged. The vocabulary of the era evoked a colorful and vibrant imagery to describe a nation in crisis- comparing it to an “approaching storm”, a “moral volcano” about to erupt, a ship “plunged headlong upon an a ... More
Matthew Barney, DE LAMA LÂMINA: Orixá de Ferro, 2005. Two drawings: oxidized iron powder, petroleum jelly, and graphite on embossed paper in self-lubricating plastic frame, 12 1/2 x 10 x 1 1/4 inches (31.8 x 25.4 x 3.2 cm) each. Collection of the artist. Copyright Matthew Barney. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.
NEW YORK, NY.- Matthew Barney (b. 1967) is best known for his sculptures and films, but drawing also plays a critical role in his work. Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney, on view at The Morgan Library & Museum from May 10 to September 2, is the first exhibition devoted entirely to this aspect of his art. The show ranges from Barney’s earliest drawings, made while he was a student at Yale in the late 1980s, to works related to his most recent project, RIVER OF FUNDAMENT. They trace his investigation of the discipline as an activity both independent from and linked to his sculptural and performative practice. In addition to Barney’s drawings, the exhibition also includes a number of his storyboards—composed of sketches, photographs, ... More
A very rare blue and white garlic-head joined lotus bottle vase from the Qianlong Imperial period which made £679,650. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- Any concerns about the health of the Chinese art market were put to rest at Bonhams yesterday. (16.5.13). Colin Sheaf, Bonhams Deputy Chairman and Head of Asian Art, commented: “Last year we were concerned that the political transition in China would impact on the art market. This sale comprehensively demonstrates that the Chinese art market is back to form with record prices.” Bonhams Fine Chinese art sale in New Bond Street saw standing room only and brisk bidding which took the sale to £11.5 million with some enthusiastic bidders increasing bids by £100,0000 or more at a time. Besides the huge interest in the saleroom for the 420 works in the sale, there were bids from around the world via the Internet online bidding system, as well as bids from a bank of 15 telephones. An earlier Chinese art sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge saleroom on Monday 13th May made £1.2 million, producing a total of £12.7 ... More
JuJu Boogie-Woogie, 2013 (detail). Oil and wax on canvas, 72.50 x 95.50 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.- An exhibition of recent work by James Little --- including large horizontal abstract canvases with brilliantly colored vertical geometric shapes for which the artist is best known that are interspersed with smaller works in a similar style but a quieter palette -- opened at the June Kelly Gallery on May 16. The exhibition, entitled Never Say Never, will remain on view through June 21. Little mixes his own colors with pure pigment and heated beeswax and puts multiple layers of each color on his canvases. This technique gives his paintings uncanny depth, intensity and resonance. “Color is the crucial element in Little’s work,” writes Karen Wilkin, the art historian and critic in an essay in the exhibition invitation. “Over the years, just as the divisions within his paintings have varied from sharply pointed narrow triangles to parallel bands, his palette has shifted from saturated colors to paler, lumi ... More
Briony Marshall, DNA: Helix of Life. Bronze. Edition of 3. Image courtesy of Pangolin London; Photo: Steve Russell.
LONDON.-Pangolin London announces, Life Forming - the inaugural London solo show of their 2012 Sculptor in Residence, Briony Marshall. Oxford Biochemistry graduate turned sculptor, Briony Marshall’s unique, science-inspired works are a humbling and awe-inspiring look at the fragility, beauty and complexity of human life. The second sculptor to take up Pangolin London’s year long residency, Marshall approaches the realm of art and science in an innovative and fresh way and Life Forming confirms her reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting up-and-coming sculptors. Taking a rather unconventional route on her journey to become a sculptor, Briony Marshall first pursued a science degree before following her passion for art. Making the decision to move from laboratory to artist studio, Marshall’s science background has influenced her artistic practice and ... More
Gabriel Abrantes and Benjamin Crotty, Liberdade, 2011. S16mm transferred to HD, 17 min. Courtesy Mutual Respect Productions.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.-The MIT List Visual Arts Center is presenting an exhibition of three recent films by Lisbon-based artist and filmmaker Gabriel Abrantes as part of its new exhibition series List Projects, which focuses on supporting emerging artists at pivotal points in their career. With a distinct theatricality, cinematographic beauty, and narrative style, along with a historical and politicized focus, Abrantes crafts fictions around the new identities and relations of desire forged through globalization. His films are often centered on countries whose rapid economic development will increasingly shape the political, economic, and cultural landscape of our world; places “where contemporary forms of life are being invented,” as the artist describes. Often produced in collaboration and with local and non-professional actors, Abrantes’ films readily deal with the human impact of ... More
Quote There is something ghostly in all great art. Lafcadio Hearn
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Recent body of photographs by Japanese photographer, Rinko Kawauchi on view at Rosegallery SANTA MONICA, CA.-ROSEGALLERY presents the American debut of Ametsuchi, the most recent body of photographs by world-renowned Japanese photographer, Rinko Kawauchi. Large-scale photographs are on view from 17 May through 22 June, 2013. Rinko Kawauchi doesn’t think of her photography as documentation. Though her subjects are drawn from the tangible world around her, she is driven to take pictures by a belief in mystery, a love for things in motion, and a curiosity about the connectivity of everything she sees. Through the medium of photography she attempts to confront and comprehend what she finds puzzling about existence and to transcend the unavoidable flow of time by concentrating on a particular moment, which is neither past nor future. For her latest body of work, Ametsuchi (Heaven and Earth), the artist has expanded her view of time and memory both ... More
First ever group exhibition of the Bay Area School artists to be staged outside the U.S. opens in London LONDON.-Thomas Williams Fine Art presents an important exhibition of paintings from the Bay Area School, featuring work by a distinct and powerful group of artists working in San Francisco during the 1940’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s. It is the first ever group exhibition of the Bay Area School artists to be staged outside the United States, coinciding with the publication of a major scholarly book on the subject published by Lund Humphries. At the end of World War II San Francisco witnessed an artistic and cultural revolution, as large numbers of the GIs who were discharged in the area found their way to the doors of the California School of Fine Arts, under the progressive leadership of avant-garde museum curator Douglas MacAgy. They were joined by other radical artists from around the US. Among their number were Clyfford Still, Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, David Park, Ansel Adams, John ... More
Antonia Wright's first Los Angeles solo exhibition opens at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles LOS ANGELES, CA.-Luis De Jesus Los Angeles presents Cuban-American artist ANTONIA WRIGHT in her first Los Angeles solo exhibition, titled Be, on view from May 18 — June 29, 2013. The sad, strange, beautiful vulnerability and, at times, painful faces of the human condition are all considerations in the work of Miami-based artist Antonia Wright. Wright explores the various politics and comic facets of human experience through a multifarious, process-oriented practice combining video, performance, photography, poetry, sound and sculpture. Wright acknowledges the layers of societal taboos and barriers between her artistic choices, and pointedly pushes them into the public realm for the viewer to examine. One view in Gallery One, the exhibition presents two videos: the premiere of the eponymously titled Be (2013) and Deep Water Horizon (2009). For Be, Wright covered herself ... More
Stephenson's Antiques & Decorative Arts Auction features jewelry, silver, furniture and clocks SOUTHAMPTON, PA.- Laden with heavy silver, fine timepieces and a regal array of jewelry, Stephenson’s May 31st auction blends a 35-year single-owner collection with additional estate and individual consignments of exceptional quality. The 800-lot Spring Antiques & Decorative Arts Auction also incorporates primitives, art, furniture and clocks. With that much to sell in one day, Stephenson’s usual auction start time has been adjusted to an earlier 10 a.m. All forms of bidding will be available, including live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com. The Friday sale opens with a fine selection of smalls. Several collections are featured, with the contents including many fine porcelain Boehm figurines and birds; Royal Worcester productions and desirable, larger-size Lladros and Swarovskis. The centerpiece of the day is the single-owner jewelry collection, which incorporates designs ... More
Skateboarders fight to save famed London spot LONDON(AFP).- Skateboarders soar out of the concrete bowl beneath London's Southbank Centre, as they have done for the past 40 years, while spectators drink beer and hiphop beats stoke up the party atmosphere. But this is no party -- it's a protest. These knights of the pavement are jousting with authorities to save one of the world's most iconic skateparks from being converted into a stretch of chain stores and cafes. "It's world renowned. People literally come all the way from America or Europe just to see this place," says Henry Edwards-Wood, 25, a professional skateboard cinematographer and spokesman for the "Long Live Southbank" campaign. To support their campaign skateboarders held a three-day "jam" over the May bank holiday weekend and have launched an online petition which has gathered more than 28,000 names from across the globe. And this clash ... More
British artist Layla Curtis presents a solo exhibition of work at Spacex EXETER.- British artist Layla Curtis presents a solo exhibition of work including a new commission entitled Antipodes (working title), 2013 and Tong Tana, 2012. Curtis’ work has a focus on mapping and the ways we represent terrain and locate ourselves and our movements through space. Antipodes (working title) is an ongoing online and photographic project that pairs webcam images from places at the opposite ends of the globe. Although Australia, despite our colloquial name for it, is not directly ‘down under’ from Britain, and the other side of the world from us, like much of the planet, is actually sea, the four per cent of the earth’s surface in which land is antipodal to land offers rich terrain for interesting parallels and correspondences. As far away from each other as it is possible to be, their day-for-night, summer/winter contrasts palpable, often extreme, these distant ‘twins’ (Spain/ ... More
Thames Estuary airport plans prompt new contemporary art exhibition at Museum of London Docklands LONDON.- A new art exhibition which explores the outer limits of the River Thames in painting, film and photography and printmaking opened at the Museum of London Docklands on Friday 17 May. Estuary, which was conceived in light of recent airport proposals in the Thames Estuary, allows visitors to see how the zone has been depicted in contemporary art. The exhibition features the work of twelve artists from the last thirty years including two new commissions. Francis Marshall, curator of Estuary said, “When we decided nearly two years ago to hold an exhibition of contemporary art, the airport proposal was at the front of Londoners’ minds. This renewed focus on the Estuary, combined with a fantastic body of contemporary art which depicts the place, cemented the museum’s plans to stage Estuary.” The free exhibition, supported by Arts Council England and the ... More
Monica Nouwens captures the ambivalent appeal of Los Angeles in new exhibition at Foam AMSTERDAM.- In her project Look At Me And Tell Me If You Have Known Me Before, Dutch photographer Monica Nouwens captures the ambivalent appeal of one of the world's greatest cities: Los Angeles. Nouwens depicts the lively DIY subculture of the city she lives in. Her personages truly belong in hip, young L.A. and live in the context of a city and culture facing a financial and moral crisis. Her work blends roughness, sensuality and emotional moments into a fragile but timeless image of beauty and the human condition. The exhibition is on show at Foam from 17 May, featuring a selection of photos from this special project. The atmospheric images of Monica Nouwens is also being shown in a dazzling multimedia installation. In Look At Me And Tell Me If You Have Known Me Before, Nouwens provides a picture of a group of people who have abandoned the dominant ... More
On a day like today, Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens was
born
ANTWERP.- May 19, 1593.- Jacob
Jordaens was one of three Flemish Baroque painters, along with Peter
Paul
Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, to bring prestige to the Antwerp school
of painting. Unlike those contemporaries he never traveled abroad
to study Italian painting, and his career is marked by an indifference
to their intellectual and courtly aspirations. In fact, except for
a few short trips to locations in the Low Countries, he remained
in Antwerp his entire life. As well as being a successful painter,
he was a prominent designer of tapestries. In this image: Jacob Jordaens.
The King Drinks. c.1640.
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