A worker installs artworks by Pablo Picasso at the Heritage Museum in Hong Kong ahead of the May 19 to July 22 most comprehensive exhibition of Picasso's works ever held in the city. Meanwhile, top artists, wealthy collectors and heavy-hitting dealers from around the world are descending on Hong Kong this for the 17-20 May Hong Kong International Art Fair, Asia's premier art market. AFP PHOTO / Philippe Lopez.
HONG KONG.- The Hong Kong Heritage Museum of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will stage the "PICASSO - Masterpieces from Musée National Picasso, Paris" exhibition as one of the highlight cultural events to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The exhibition is jointly presented by the LCSD and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, and jointly organised by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Musée National Picasso, Paris. It will be held from May 19 to July 22 at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. ... More
The Best Photos of the Day
HAVANA.- Untitled, painting by Cuban artist Jorge Isidro Sagues is on display in the Center for the Development of Visual Arts, as part of the 11th Havana Biennial group exhibition, The Hunt for Success, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. AP Photo/Franklin Reyes.
The auction was led by Edward Hopper’s Bridle Path (detail). Photo: Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- This morning’s auction of American Art at Sotheby’s New York totaled a strong $34,787,625, exceeding its high estimate of $28.4 million* and selling an exceptional 88.1% by lot. This marks the highest total for an American Art auction at Sotheby’s since May 2008, and the highest sell-through rate in this category since December 2004. Six of the 59 lots on offer brought prices over $1 million, and nearly 60% of all sold lots achieved results over their high estimates. The auction was led by Edward Hopper’s Bridle Path, which was on offer from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and sold to benefit the acquisitions program. Four bidders in the room competed for the canvas – the first oil painting by Hopper to come to auction since Sotheby’s record sale of Hotel Window in 2006 – and drove the final price to a remarkable $10,386,500 (est. $5/7 million). This marks the third-hig ... More
Paul Signac, Place des Lices, St. Tropez, 1893 (detail). Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 32 3/16 in. Acquired through the generosity of the Sarah Mellon Scaife Family, 66.24.2
PITTSBURGH, PA.- Impressionism in a New Light: From Monet to Stieglitz, on view at Carnegie Museum of Art May 12–August 26, 2012, presents a robust picture of what Impressionism means in art, displaying paintings, drawings, prints, and pastels by major artists alongside works by many of the most famous Pictorialist photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Championed by Alfred Stieglitz, Pictorialists emphasized photography as an act of “creating,” rather than recording an image, and were among the first to insist that photography join the ranks of the fine arts. In the complex artistic milieu of the period, across media, artists engaged in a visual dialogue with one another, finding similar optical expressions and manipulating light, composition, and subject matter on the canvas and in the darkroom. Impressionism in a New Light recaptures the radical nature of ... More
LONDON.- A portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence that has never been on public display since it was painted over two hundred years ago is now available for visitors to enjoy at the National Gallery in Room 34. Portrait of the Hon. Emily Mary Lamb (1787–1869), 1803, has been allocated to the National Gallery by Arts Council England under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which allows donors to leave major works of art to the nation in lieu of inheritance tax. Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) is generally regarded as one of the finest European portraitists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, portraying some of the most important personalities of his day. This work is an important addition to the National Gallery’s British collection. The Gallery currently holds examples of formal and full-length works by Lawrence – John Julius Angerstein, aged about ... More
Fernando Botero, The Arnolfini (after Van Eyck), 1997. Oil on canvas, 52¾ x 42 in. Estimate: $500,000-700,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012.
NEW YORK, NY.- Considered one of the most complex paintings in the history of western art, The Arnolfini Portrait executed in 1434 by the Flemish master Jan Van Eyck continues to intrigue art historians and art lovers alike. The painting is extraordinary for its intense realism and pictorial illusionism coupled with a plethora of symbolic elements that continue to conflate our reading of this enigmatic work centuries after it was completed. Fernando Botero--a perennial and devoted student of the history of art and of visual culture is known for his many citations of old master and modern paintings. His particular love affair with Van Eyck's wedding portrait appears to have begun in the 1960s and has continued throughout much of his career during which time he has re-visited the Flemish master's creation on numerous occasions offering up multiple versions of the iconic double portrait whilst bringing his own unmistakable vision and penchant ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- Raising profound issues about identity, sexuality, and gender, Christer Strömholm: Les Amies de Place Blanche, on view at the International Center of Photography May 18—September 2, 2012, presents 40 photographs, historical publications, and ephemera documenting young transgender males in the heart of Paris’ red-light district in the 1960s. Arriving in Paris in the late 1950s, Christer Strömholm (Stockholm, 1918–2002) settled in Place Blanche, home of the famous Moulin Rouge. There, he befriended and photographed young transsexuals—“ladies of the night”’—struggling to live as women and to raise money for sex-change operations. In General Charles de Gaulle’s ultra-conservative France, transvestites were outlaws, regularly abused and arrested by the police for being “men dressed as women outside the period of carnival.” Some of these women had tragic fates. Oth ... More
Anonymous Italian Artist, Portrait of a Woman with Hairnet. Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on paper. The Morgan Library & Museum , New York. Gift of H.P. Kraus. Photo: Graham S. Haber, 2012.
NEW YORK, NY.- Beginning May 18, The Morgan Library & Museum will unveil an extraordinary exhibition of drawings and related material that brings to life the dynamic artistic and cultural milieu of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Venice. The first exhibition to focus on the Morgan’s outstanding collection of drawings created during this important era in the history of the great port city, Renaissance Venice: Drawings from the Morgan features work by masters such as Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Carpaccio, as well as many other less known but highly gifted artists. On view through September 23, 2012, the show also includes books and maps that reveal Venice’s role at the forefront of luxury book production and innovative printing. In the early sixteenth century Venice established itself as a powerful maritime republic and center of international ... More
Marlène Mocquet, Le barrissement de la peinture, 2012. Photo: Courtesy Haunch of Venison.
NEW YORK, NY.-Haunch of Venison presents a Project Room by Marlène Mocquet, featuring new work by the artist, including four paintings and two ceramic works. The exhibition runs through June 16th. Mocquet’s paintings depict a fantastical world of animated and anthropomorphic creatures inhabiting a universe filled with hallucinogenic splashes of color. At first glance the works appear to portray a vision of whimsical fantasy, but upon further observation reveals a much darker more sinister existence. The beautiful realms Mocquet introduces are filled with menacing characters and macabre undertones set in a most beautifully tactile and opulent universe. Mocquet’s paintings are an overflowing lush world inhabited by otherworldly beasts, manga and cartoon characters, and prehistoric imagery. However, it is not the characters that dictate Mocquet’s paintings but her instinctive and passionate use of material. As stated ... More
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, White and Pink (The Palace) (detail). Chalk and pastel on gray paper, 7 3/4 x 11 7/8 inches. Sold for $650,500.
NEW YORK, NY.- On May 9, Doyle New York held a series of three successful sales – American Art, European Art, and Modern & Contemporary Art. The day’s total surpassed $5 million amid strong international bidding. Highlighting the American Art was an important pastel by James Abbott McNeill Whistler that set a new world auction record for a work on paper by Whistler. Estimated at $100,000-150,000, the pastel sold to a bidder in the salesroom for a staggering $650,500. The work had descended in in the family of American Gilded Age collectors Louisine and Henry O. Havemeyer. Whistler first visited Venice in September 1879 and fell in love with the city. He created one hundred pastels, which he described as being "totally new and of a brilliancy very different from the customary watercolor." In 1881, the prominent American collector Louisine Havemeyer (Mrs. ... More
Grand Staircase at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
NEW YORK, NY.- Over 120 art museums across North America will offer free or reduced admission, special programs, and other initiatives as part of their celebrations of Art Museum Day on May 18, 2012. These museums are all members of the Association of Art Museum Directors—located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Building on public response to past Art Museum Days, this year AAMD is encouraging visitors to share their experiences during Art Museum Day on a special printed form available at participating museums and via social media with the hashtag #ArtMuseumDay and through special events on Facebook and Foursquare in a collective public response. “Art museums create opportunities for the public to engage directly with works of art in new and meaningful ways—from transformative educational initiatives to innovative public partnerships.” said Chris Anagnos, Executive Director of AAMD. “AAMD ... More
BALTIMORE, MD.-The Baltimore Museum of Art announced today that it has recently acquired 21 works by Baltimore-born artist Morris Louis, including the landmark paintings Silver III, 1953, and Untitled 5-76, 1956, and 19 ink drawings. The works are a gift of the estate of the artist’s widow, Marcella Louis Brenner. The Louis works are among 2,185 gifts of art that have been added to the BMA’s collection as part of the ongoing In New Light Campaign, the largest philanthropic effort in the Museum’s history. The Museum will debut one of the newly gifted paintings when it reopens its renovated and reinstalled Contemporary Wing. The BMA’s complete collection of Morris Louis works will be presented in an exhibition at the museum in Fall 2013, thanks to a grant from the Morris Louis Art Trust. The grant will also support new scholarship on Louis’ work by Antonia Pocock, Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Fine ... More
Lena Yarinkura, Rembarrnga/Kune people, Yawkyawk 2010. Natural earth pigments, feathers and PVA fixative on Pandanus fibre. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2010.
CANBERRA.-The National Gallery of Australia opened unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial a showcase of contemporary Indigenous art practice. unDisclosed features the work of 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from regional, remote and urban communities and is curated by Carly Lane, a Kalkadoon woman from North West Queensland with a background in curatorship, anthropology and art. The artists featured in the exhibition include: Tony Albert, Vernon Ah Kee, Bob Burruwal, Michael Cook, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Nici Cumpston, Fiona Foley, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Gunybi Ganambarr, Julie Gough, Lindsay Harris, Jonathan Jones, Danie Mellor, Naata Nungurrayi, Maria Josette Orsto, Daniel Walbidi, Christian Thompson, Alick Tipoti, Lena Yarinkura and Nyapanyapa ... More
NEW YORK, NY.-Phillips de Pury & Company announced highlights from its upcoming New York Latin America auction. The spring sale is a multi-sensory aesthetic journey through Latin America’s contemporary social and philosophical evolution and includes the work of some of the region’s most significant modern and contemporary artists. The auction has a presale combined low estimate of $4,524,500 and a pre-sale high estimate of $6,325,500. Henry Allsopp, International Head of Latin America Department says “Phillips is again delighted to present works from the most interesting post-war and contemporary artists from the whole of Latin America. Our goal is to highlight the enormous depth and sophistication of the art produced across this vast continent.” ADRIANA VAREJÃO, Açougue Song [Butcher’s Song], 2000, $500,000 ... More
Quote If I want to give my mind diversion, then it is not honour I seek, but freedom. Rembrandt van Rijn
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Artists create an embassy for a fictional pan-Asian empire at the National Gallery of Victoria MELBOURNE.- Today, the National Gallery of Victoria opened the latest installation at NGV Studio, The Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a collaboration between Perth-based artists Abdul Abdullah, Casey Ayres and Nathan Beard. Drawing on their Asian-Australian heritages, the artists have created an embassy for a fictional pan-Asian empire, located within NGV Studio, as part of the Next Wave Festival 2012. This faux embassy is an exotic and stylised installation, embellished with kitsch objects and original artworks – the setting for a cultural program of live events where various Eastern and Western influences are brought together and confused. The artists, in extravagant costumes and makeup, act as ambassadors for this fictional embassy, while investigating how multiculturalism operates in contemporary Australian society with humour and personal reflections ... More
Major new commission by Richard Rigg, "A Clearing" opens at BALTIC GATESHEAD.- Nominated for the prestigious Northern Art Prize in 2011, Richard Rigg is one of the most exciting artists based in the North East. Playful and often humorous, his works reproduce and manipulate everyday objects, asking us to view their physicality and function in a new light. For his exhibition Lacuna at BALTIC, Rigg has produced his most ambitious work to date – the major new commission A Clearing. The ambiguous title of the work could refer to that moment where you finally find yourself out of the trees in an open space of a forest, an instance of apparent clarity or, conversely, it could signify something being erased. In the exhibition space visitors will find a mountain cabin. Invited inside, they will discover its interior to be a mountain landscape alive with plants. The project began with Rigg’s observation of fog over a mountain and his meditation on how the ... More
Qianlong Emperor's seal heads home after selling for 3.4 million at Bonhams LONDON.- An important Imperial spinach green jade double-gourd ‘San Xi Tang’ seal, of the revered Qianlong period (1736-1795), one of the outstanding items in Bonhams Fine Chinese Art sale in London today, sold for £3.4m. It had been estimated to sell for £1m to £1.5m but after stiff bidding in the packed saleroom it was knocked down to a telephone buyer from mainland China. So this stunningly beautiful Imperial seal will be going home. Asaph Hyman, Director of Chinese Art at Bonhams, comments: “We are delighted to have brought to light this important and long lost Imperial seal. Until this moment only the impression of the seal was recorded in the Imperial archives, but now academics and distinguished collectors can study and cherish the actual work of art. It was almost certainly commissioned and personally handled by the Qianlong Emperor himself, and provides a ... More
Newly discovered Tom Thomson fetches $126,500 at Maynards' Contemporary and Canadian Art Auction VANCOUVER, BC.-Maynards Fine Art and Antiques announced that the newly discovered Tom Thomson oil on board sold for $126,500, at its Contemporary and Canadian Art Auction on Wednesday May 16, 2012. The Group of Seven Frederick Varley watercolour also found at the same yard sale sold for $7,475 (all sale prices include Buyer’s Premium). Purchased together at an East Vancouver yard sale for less than one hundred dollars, both paintings were brought into Maynards Fine Art and Antiques for appraisal in early 2012. The newly discovered Thomson sketch of a lake in Algonquin Park is believed to be painted in Spring/Summer of 1915, two years before his untimely death. The winning bid was 2,530 times the original purchase price. The Varley watercolour brought 150 times its purchase price. It depicts a view of Sheffield, England, and it is believed Varley ... More
California museum gets big gift to build shuttle exhibit LOS ANGELES (AP).- The California Science Center said it has raised nearly half of the $200 million needed to build a permanent exhibit for the space shuttle Endeavour. The museum recently received a donation from the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation that will allow it to start the design phase of the project. The museum didn't disclose the amount of the gift, citing an agreement it made with the foundation. "This is a huge boost. It gives a vote of confidence for the project" museum president Jeffrey Rudolph said Wednesday. Rudolph spent the past year fundraising and still has halfway to go to fulfill the museum's goal. The museum has received gifts from private foundations, corporations and individuals, but Rudolph said the latest donation was "very significant and truly transformative." The museum introduced the foundation at an event Thursday ... More
Huge Marilyn Monroe statue arrives in Palm Springs PALM SPRINGS, FL (AP).- A massive statue of Marilyn Monroe has arrived in the desert resort city of Palm Springs. The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/Kntz4Z ) says the 26-foot-tall, 34,000-pound statue arrived Monday morning. Chamber of Commerce CEO Nona Watson says the statue of the "Some Like it Hot" star is still being assembled. The sculpture depicts Monroe trying to push down her skirts as they're billowing in the wind from her memorable scene in the "Seven Year Itch." The statue was created by 80-year-old artist Seward Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. The artwork was previously in Chicago, and it took about a week and $40,000 to transport the statue. The official ribbon cutting will be held May 24. ... More
Art Fairs
Flash
mob in the Copenhagen Metro.
Copenhagen Phil playing Peer Gynt.
In April 2012 Copenhagen Phil (Sjællands Symfoniorkester) surprised
the passengers in the Copenhagen Metro by playing Griegs Peer Gynt. The
flash mob was created in collaboration with Radio Klassisk http://radioklassisk.dk/.
All music was performed and recorded in the metro.
The sound: The Copenhagen Metro is very quiet and the recording you
hear is where the train is standing still. That's why the recording
you hear is so clean and crisp - and the sound is actually surprisingly
good in the Copenhagen metro. We did this deliberately because we feel
that a good sound experience is vital when trying to portray the actual
experience that day. Further to the main recording, when the train was
standing still, the recordings from the cameras was, as far as possible,
mixed into the sound.
Quote from the sound technician: I recorded the sound with XY Oktava
MK-012 supercardioid microphones close to the soloists and a set of
DPA 4060 omnidirectional microphones as overhead for the rest of the
orchestra. For some of the closeupshots, the cameramikes (Sennheiser
ME 66) was added.
On a day like today, German architect Walter Gropius was
born
BERLIN.- May 18, 1883.- Walter Adolph
Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School
who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely
regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture.
Gropius died in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 86. Today, he
is remembered not only by his various buildings but also by the district
of Gropiusstadt in Berlin. Fagus Works built some 100 years ago by
famous German architect Walter Gropius in Alfeld Leine, Germany.
EPA/Fagus-Grecon.
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 northwest of the capital Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Madain Saleh, also known as Al-Hijr, which was added on July 6, 2008 to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Madain Saleh, the largest conserved site of the civilization of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan, Madain Saleh is the first World Heritage site in Saudi Arabia. AP Photo/Hassan Ammar.');)
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