German artist Georg Baselitz poses next to his installation Untitled (2013) in the John Madejski Garden of the Victoria and Albert Museum in central London on June 18, 2013. The three-figure sculpture stands over 3.5 metres high, and is a contemporary twist on Canova's The Three Graces. AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT.
LONDON.- This summer a monumental three-figure sculpture by Georg Baselitz, one of Germany’s most celebrated living artists, was installed in the John Madejski Garden. It has been created in response to Antonio Canova’s neoclassical sculpture The Three Graces (1814-1817) recently redisplayed at the V&A. Baselitz’s Untitled (2013), standing over 3.5 meters high, is a contemporary twist on Canova’s carved marble figure group. Based on a childhood memory of three promenading village beauties, the maidens in Baselitz’s latest sculptural work introduce the traditional themes of The Three Graces; beauty, charm and joy, but are depicted linking arms and wearing high heels. The surface of Baselitz’s bronze figure group contrasts with that of Canova’s smooth marble forms by purposefully retaining the rough texture of his initial wood model from which the final artwork has been cast. ... More
LONDON.-Blain|Di Donna present an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux. Curated in close collaboration with the Paul Delvaux Foundation, it brings together over twenty oil paintings and works on paper that date from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and is the first ever solo show of the artist’s work in the United Kingdom. The exhibition opened today and will be on view until 17 July at 6 Hill Street, London, W1J 5NF. This exhibition is comprised of loans from the Paul Delvaux Foundation, European museums and important private collections and it will be coming to London from Blain|Di Donna in New York, where it was on view until June 1, 2013. It is the fourth major monographic exhibition staged by Blain|Di Donna dedicated to revisiting the oeuvre of Surrealist masters, being preceded by presentations of René ... More
Paul McCarthy, WS, 2013. Image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Joshua White
NEW YORK, NY.-Park Avenue Armory unveils a new large-scale installation and video project by artist Paul McCarthy, considered among the most provocative and influential voices in the international art world today. Drawing inspiration from the 19th-century German fairytale Snow White and McCarthy’s ongoing exploration of American myths and icons, WS takes over the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall from June 19 through August 4, 2013, and marks the Armory’s seventh major visual art installation to date. The monumental installation weaves together a fantastical forest and a three-quarter-scale house modeled after McCarthy’s own childhood home with multi-channel video projections to immerse visitors in a world of fantasy and depravity. WS is the first visual art project presented under the Armory’s new Artistic Director Alex Poots and curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist in association with Tom ... More
LONDON.- Tonight the winner of the BP Portrait Award 2013 was announced at the National Portrait Gallery. The prestigious first prize was won by 57-year-old artist Susanne du Toit, for Pieter, a powerful painting of her eldest son. Susanne du Toit wins £30,000 and a commission, at the National Portrait Gallery Trustees’ discretion, worth £5,000. The portrait can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery from Thursday 20 June 2013 when the BP Portrait Award 2013 exhibition opens to the public. The second prize of £10,000 went to Coventry-based artist and teacher John Devane, 58, for The Uncertain Time, a striking group portrait depicting his children Lucy, Laura and Louis. The BP Young Artist Award of £7,000 for the work of a selected entrant aged between 18 and 30 has been won by Owen Normand for Das Berliner Zimmer (The Berlin Room). Educated at the University of Pretoria and the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Susanne du Toit is ... More
Strong sell through rates driven by bidding at every price level from new & existing collectors in traditional and growth markets. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.
LONDON.- The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale took place on the evening of 18 June at Christie’s London, realising £64,076,575/ $100,407,993/ €75,225,899 and selling 84% by lot and 87% by value. The auction had a pre-sale estimate of £52,830,000 to £75,800,000. The top price was paid for Wassily Kandinsky’s rare Expressionist masterpiece Studie zu Improvisation 3, 1909, which sold for £13,501,875/ $21,157,438 /€15,851,201 (estimate: £12-16 million, pictured above). In total, 18 works of art sold for over £1 million / 22 for over $1 million, and two artist records were set: for a work by Eugène Boudin and a record for a painting by Constantin Brancusi. Jay Vincze, International Director and Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s London: “This evening‟s auction saw solid results and the continuing strength of selling rates in the category at Christie‟s in 2013. There was great depth ... More
Mr. Kinder, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Kinder Morgan, is a Life Trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
HOUSTON, TX.- After six extraordinary years of leadership as Chairman of the Museum’s Board of Trustees, Cornelia Cullen Long today announced the Board’s unanimous selection of Richard D. Kinder as her successor. The vote took place at the Annual Meeting of the Board. Mrs. Long will continue in her capacity as a Life Trustee, and will move into a new role as head of the future capital and endowment campaign for the Museum’s planned campus redevelopment. Cornelia Long commented, “Rich has been deeply engaged with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and in particular its educational and civic mission, for 25 years. I cannot imagine a stronger leader for the Museum as the institution begins this next chapter of its growth and its commitment to the city and people of Houston.” “Cornelia has inspired us all with her leadership, and it is a great privilege for me to follow as her successor,” said Richard Kinder. “I loo ... More
VIENNA.- In the 1980s, Gunter Damisch (born in Steyr/Upper Austria in 1958) became known in the wake of the »Neue Wilde« or »New Wild Ones«, a loose group of young artists responding to the internationally proclaimed downfall of painting with expressive, colourful pictures. Within his extensive oeuvre, Damisch has conceived a highly individual iconography and mythology that oscillates between figuration and abstraction and by which he fathoms his pictorial worlds. Since 1992 the artist has held a professorship in printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Within the framework of this exhibition, his recent production of monumental woodcuts, monotypes, and printed collages will be on public view for the first time. Gunter Damisch came to intensely face the challenge of large-format plates in 2009. He has created more than one hundred woodcuts, unique color prints, and collages to date, sixty of which are displayed in the present exhibition ... More
Rare Himalayan Perak with coral. Estimate: $8,000 - $10,000. Photo: Courtesy of Wovensouls.
SINGAPORE.- On June 30, Artfact.com will host the online-only auction of the private collection of Jaina Mishra an award-winning photographer, cultural writer and cultural speaker. An MBA by training, Mishra has spent the past 10 years reverently experiencing what she describes as “vanishing cultures.” While immersing herself in the odyssey that took her to Tibet, remote parts of India, the Golden Triangle of S.E. Asia and Borneo, Mishra also collected traditional and cultural art pieces such as handmade weavings, ethnic jewelry and folk art pieces that were remarkable on account of their unique character or their age. A part of her exceptional finds will be shared with the rest of the world in an online-only auction conducted through Artfact.com. on June 30, 2013 at 8 am Pacific Time / 4 pm GMT. Among the most impressive items in the sale are the bejeweled headdresses that are n ... More
Ken Price, Frog Cups, 1967. Acrylic, graphite, and colored pencil on paper mounted on board, 14 x 10 ¾ inches (36 x 28 cm). Estate of Ken Price, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.
NEW YORK, NY.-The Drawing Center presents Ken Price: Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Works on Paper, 1962–2010, the first comprehensive survey of drawings by the sculptor Ken Price (1935–2012). A selection of 65 works on paper tracks Price’s dedication to drawing for more than 50 years and demonstrates his ongoing exploration of the medium. This exhibition opened concurrently on June 18 with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s presentation of the traveling retrospective of Price’s sculpture that originated at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Douglas Dreishpoon, Chief Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, organized Slow and Steady Wins the Race, which will be hosted at the Albright-Knox from September 27, 2013 to January 19, 2014, and at the ... More
The wreck of the German World War II Dornier Do-17 plane being raised to the surface of a ship. AFP PHOTO/HO/IAN DUNCAN/TRUSTEES OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM.
LONDON(AFP).- British experts began on Tuesday an 18-month task of cleaning the barnacles, silt and seaweed from a rare World War II German bomber plane rescued after more than 70 years on the sea bed. The wreck of the Dornier Do-17 plane was slowly raised to the surface at Goodwin Sands, off the southeast coast of England, on June 10. The twin-engine aircraft is believed to be the only Dornier Do-17 left from the war. Conservation staff at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum's site in Cosford, central England, are spraying a diluted citric acid onto the wreck to clean away the debris and reveal the airframe underneath. Darren Priday, the museum's deputy manager of conservation, said the process could take between 18 months and two years. "The idea is that it (citric acid) will remove the ... More
Philippe Parreno, Jean-Luc Godard, 1993. Artificial tree, Christmas decorations, folding chairs, tape recorder. Dimensions variable. Courtesy Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
LONDON.-The Whitechapel Gallery presents Have you seen me before?, the fourth and final display of rarely seen works from the Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Bringing together major international artists including Katharina Fritsch, Fischli & Weiss, Anish Kapoor, Philippe Parreno and Paola Pivi, the display includes photography, sculpture and film which play on the idea of the absurd. Have you seen me before? (2008) by Paola Pivi, a sculpture of a large polar bear covered in yellow chicken feathers, is at the centre of the display. Pivi’s work often combines familiar objects and images with unusual and surprising contexts. Prompting a childlike sense of wonder, the work plays on our expectations, blurring the boundary between reality and fiction. An uncanny ambiguity is also present in Katharina Fritsch’s sculpture Table with Cheese (1981). ... More
Michael Van Valkenburgh. Photo: Courtesy Michael Van Valkenburgh Aassociates.
HOUSTON, TX.- Josef Helfenstein, director of the Menil Collection, today announced the appointment of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) to enhance and expand the landscape design of the institution’s 30-acre campus in the heart of Houston. The appointment signals the beginning of implementation of the Menil’s master plan for its urban “neighborhood of art,” as the enclave of museum buildings, green spaces, and bungalows has been called. The Menil expects to begin site preparation for the first phase of the MVVA design in Fall 2013. The Menil’s project, undertaken on the basis of a master site plan by David Chipperfield Architects, calls for the creation of additional green space and walkways, new visitor amenities such as a cafe, and the addition of new buildings for art. Existing facilities include the main museum building by Renzo Piano (recently recognized with the AIA 25 Year Award); the Cy ... More
96 Heads, 2007, by Ivan Brunetti.
NEW HAVEN, CONN.- Ivan Brunetti, critically acclaimed and award-winning cartoonist, author, New Yorker cover artist, and university professor, reveals his personal aesthetics in a new book, Aesthetics: A Memoir, published by Yale University Press. The eye popping illustrated retrospective opens a window into the mind and artistic process of a fascinating contemporary artist, containing plenty of surprises for readers both familiar and unfamiliar with the author’s highly praised work. Born to working class parents in a small town in Italy, and reared in Chicago, Ivan Brunetti (b. 1967) was drawn to cartoons and comic strips from an early age. Finding inspiration in Spider Man and Peanuts, he began crafting his own stories and gradually developed a unique style that he applied to imaginative, sometimes shocking subjects. The dark, scathing humor of his early graphic novels—notably the series Schizo—earned him a cult following, yet his i ... More
Quote Artists in England are paid too much. Prince Albert
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National Museum of African Art presents "Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen" WASHINGTON, DC.- Roger Ballen (b. 1950), one of the more recognized photographic artists working today, is the focus of an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. On view from June 19 through Feb. 9, 2014, “Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen” considers the artist’s 40-plus years as a professional photographer through a new approach: an examination of line and drawing in his photographs. The exhibition features 55 works and one video and traces Ballen’s use of drawing in his photographs over the past four decades. Ballen’s early vintage silver-gelatin photographs show a minimal approach to line. Selected works from Ballen’s most recent series, “Asylum of the Birds” (2008–2014), show how the artist more directly integrates drawing into theatrical settings dominated by birds. Developed by guest curator and artist Craig Allen ... More
Pair of original Peanuts Sunday comics realizes a combined $78,200 at Philip Weiss Auctions LYNBROOK, NY.- A pair of original Peanuts Sunday pages by the legendary comic illustrator Charles Schulz sold for a combined $78,200 at a multi-estate sale held Thursday, June 6, by Philip Weiss Auctions, in the firm’s new post-Hurricane Sandy gallery in Lynbrook. The firm was forced to move from their longtime home in Oceanside after the storm’s devastation. One of the Peanuts Sunday comics, dated March 1, 1964, was personalized by Schulz, “To Susie and George with friendship.” It was a wonderful page, with eleven characters in a movie theater line, including Charlie, Lucy, Patty, Violet, Linus, Shermie, Schroeder and others. Some light staining in several panels didn’t keep it from becoming the sale’s top lot, at $41,400. The other original Peanuts Sunday, dated Feb. 12, 1961, featured Violet giving grooming advice to Pig Pen and Charlie Brown. It realized $36,800, against a pre-sale ... More
Contemporary "Canopic Jar" sells for $290,000 at Bonhams New York NEW YORK, NY.-Bonhams has sold William Morris’ 1995 “Sable Antelope Canopic Jar” for $290,500, an outstanding price which more than tripled its pre-auction estimate and set a world record price for a work of art by the artist at auction. A highlight of Dr Anthony Terrana’s heralded collection of Contemporary Studio Glass, Bonhams offered the masterwork on June 14 in the 20th Century Decorative Arts auction. Awash in glowing orange/red hues and made of hand-blown glass, the extraordinary four-foot high jar features a superbly rendered antelope head and horns atop an elongated vase form decorated with frolicking antelopes. A private American buyer acquired the piece after a fierce bidding war. “Dr Terrana acquired the Canopic Jar directly from William Morris after an intensive search,” explained Frank Maraschiello, Bonhams Vice President and Director of 20th Century Decorative ... More
Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne exhibit at Ben Brown Fine Arts LONDON.- In recent years the work of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne has achieved iconic status, garnering a cult-like following among private collectors and luminaries such as Yves Saint Laurent, Peter Marino, Marc Jacobs, Valentino and Tom Ford. This summer Ben Brown Fine Arts will mount a major retrospective of the duo’s fantastical output, exhibiting their famous bronze sculptures together with specially commissioned new works by Claude. Drawing inspiration from flora and fauna, the Lalannes’ sculptures embody an eclectic style that references classical antiquity, surrealism and the Baroque. Among the most famous on show are François-Xavier’s playful animal sculptures, which all feature hidden compartments: a life-size rhinoceros doubles as a writing desk, and the bared chest of a gorilla guards a concealed safe (Rhinocrétaire, 2002, and Gorille de Sûreté II, 1984). ... More
New work by Harry Cory Wright on view at Eleven in London LONDON.-Eleven presents new work by Harry Cory Wright. Hey Charlie is a celebration of over fifty years of Cory Wright's involvement with a particular bend in a river and the field beside it. These joyful images are the culmination of a lifetime of experience of the place in which he grew up and to which he has stayed connected throughout his life. The sense of the impulsive, and indeed mischief, is reflected in the title. Cory Wright calls his brother’s name - a child's shout, an adult's beckoning - to coax him into causing a stir in a place they know so well. They are allowed once again to be little gods. They create interruptions in the otherwise placid landscape; set off rockets into an evening sky; peer inquisitively into a haze of smoke creeping around a river bend. These striking and transient impulses, and the photographs in which they are captured, were intended to shake off the burden of the ... More
Jamie Wyeth, Rockwell Kent, and Monhegan on view at the Brandywine River Museum CHADDS FORD, PA.- A small island off the coast of Maine, Monhegan has long lured artists to its remote shores, promising dramatic ocean vistas, rugged landscapes and inspiring scenes of men struggling against the forces of nature. This exhibition examines the fascination that the island of Monhegan and its people held for both Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) and Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946). Although the two artists never met, their paintings, when viewed together, depict over a century's worth of Monhegan life and landmarks from vantage points many other artist never beheld. The exhibition includes examples of some of Wyeth's most recent paintings and a number of Kent's from major museum collections. Wyeth's paintings are often created with his "back to the sea," as he describes it, focusing on the people who inhabit the island, while Kent gravitates to coastal views of the Monhegan ... More
Monster book sells for monster price on first day of the London International Antiquarian Book Fair LONDON.- Over 1,000 people visited the London International Antiquarian Book Fair on the first day, with a record-breaking queue when the Fair opened its doors at 3pm on Thursday June 13, 2013 at the National Exhibition Hall at Olympia, West London. This resulted in an 18% increase in visitor numbers on the first day compared to the 2012 Fair and this trend continued with visitor numbers up on both of the following two days. Organised by the ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association), the three-day fair, which is now in its 56th year, is the third largest English-speaking Antiquarian Book Fair in the world, and attracted a record 186* exhibitors from 22 countries. Sales were steady throughout the fair, and exhibitors across the board were happy with their sales figures achieved, which were only slightly down from last year's record numbers with £3.35 million of total sales this year. ... More
On a day like today, Swiss engraver Matthäus Merian,
died
June 19, 1650.- Matthäus Merian der Ältere
(or "Matthew", "the Elder", or "Sr.")
was a notable Swiss engraver. After his death his sons Matthäus
and Caspar took over the publishing house and continued publishing
the Topographia Germaniae and the Theatrum Europaeum under the name
Merian Erben (i.e. Merian Heirs). In this image: Frankfurt ca. 1612;
engraving by Matthäus Merian.
