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American Impressionism brings strong results at Shannon's
MILFORD, CONN.- American Impressionism led strong results at Shannon’s Spring Auction on May 2nd. The 205-lot sale grossed $2.5 million and was over 80 percent sold. Notable prices were achieved for women artists, works on paper, Contemporary art and American Impressionism. All prices quoted include the buyer’s premium. The top lot in the auction was a Portrait of Caroline Allport from 1897 by William Merritt Chase. The work depicted an adorable young girl with a pink bow. Inscribed on the reverse was a sweet poem about Jumbo the elephant described as “Our favorite song, Caroline and Mr. Chase.” The lot was accompanied by a letter from the artist describing details pertaining to the commission. The portrait sold for $118,750 to a private collection. Following the success of the cover lot from Shannon’s Fall sale, a $450,000 Frieseke titled Lady ... More

MCA Chicago announces the appointment of Dr. Joey Orr as Deputy Director and Chief of Curatorial Affairs
CHICAGO, IL.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago today announced the appointment of Dr. Joey Orr as Deputy Director and Chief of Curatorial Affairs (CCA). Previously a Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the MCA, Dr. Orr will be returning as a new member of the leadership team and will oversee the MCA’s Artistic Division, which includes exhibitions. “We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Joey Orr back to the MCA as Deputy Director and Chief of Curatorial Affairs,” Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn said. “With his deep background in both curatorial activities and academics—including a PhD on performance and socially engaged works of art—the gifted Dr. Orr is perfectly matched to the MCA where he will work closely with our brilliant teams in the Curatorial, Collections & Exhibitions, Performance, and Learning departments.” ... More

Oscar Howe and Don Oelze lead the highlights of Moran's Art of the American West sale
LOS ANGELES, CA.- John Moran Auctioneers will kick off their summer lineup with an Art of the American West sale, happening Tuesday, June 4th, 2024, at 12:00pm PDT. Comprised of over 300 lots, this auction will feature an exciting and robust offering of fine art for a wide range of collecting aesthetics from historic to contemporary. Heading this sale are two works from Oscar Howe, whose world auction record was achieved at Moran’s last summer at $325,000. Other fine art will feature Don Oelze, Curt Walters, Eyvind Earle, Hernando Villa, Paul Pletka, Ira Yeager, Veloy Vigil, and multiple works by Marjorie Reed. Western bronzes from artists such as James Regimbal, Gary Ernest Smith, Cynthia Rigden, Steve Kestrel, and Asa Lynn “Ace” Powell will be offered. Incredible examples of Navajo and Pueblo jewelry including pieces by Gail Bird, Yazzie ... More

Dan Stevens and the allure of kooky characters
NEW YORK, NY.- The kookiest characters on screen this season may be the ones played by Dan Stevens. This batch of charismatic weirdos joins the collection of peculiar roles he has amassed since the 2014 thriller “The Guest,” his post-“Downton Abbey” breakthrough. Stevens, 41, lands somewhere between leading man and character actor, and he revels in the mischievous tone required for these offbeat parts, some of which he describes as “funcomfortable.” Right now in theaters he can be seen as a winning monster veterinarian in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” and as a corrupt cop-turned-bloodsucker in the horror comedy “Abigail.” This summer, he will appear in “Cuckoo,” a sci-fi horror mashup set in the Alps, in which he plays a German scientist whose welcoming facade hides a fascination with a bizarre endangered species. Stevens, who is British, recently spoke ... More

Is it time to stop wasting waste?
NEW YORK, NY.- In the science fiction epic “Dune” (books and movies alike), the people who inhabit the brutally harsh desert planet Arrakis wear garments called stillsuits that allow them to drink their own recycled bodily waters. These full-body survival suits, which look a bit like a techy version of an insect’s hard upper shell, absorb moisture from sweating and urination and filter out impurities to make potable water. This water is stored in pockets and sucked through a tube. If this sounds like magical sci-fi thinking, the principle is similar to wastewater-recycling systems already used in some water-stressed regions of the world. And in space. Last year, NASA announced that 98% of wastewater on the International Space Station was being recovered by a new system that distills sweat, urine and other moisture in the cabin into clean drinking water. ... More

Alex Hassilev, the last of the original Limeliters, dies at 91
NEW YORK, NY.- Alex Hassilev, a multilingual, multitalented troubadour and the last original member of the Limeliters, one of the biggest acts of the folk revival of the early 1960s, died on April 21 in Burbank, California. He was 91. His wife, Gladys Hassilev, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was cancer. Before Beatlemania gripped America’s youth in 1964, the country fell in love with the tight harmonies and traditional arrangements of folk music — and few acts drew more adoration than the Limeliters, a trio made up of Hassilev, Glenn Yarbrough and Lou Gottlieb. Hassilev played banjo and guitar and sang baritone, not only in English but in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian, all of which he spoke fluently. His bandmates were equally brainy: Gottlieb had a doctorate in musicology and Yarbrough once worked as a bouncer to pay for Greek lessons. ... More

A night to remember at the opera, complete with a phantom
ROME.- In the pitch-dark auditorium of Rome’s Teatro Costanzi, a high-pitched lament floated from the top galleries. Dozens of flashlights snapped on, their beams crisscrossing crazily, seeking the source of the sound. The shafts of light homed in on a spectral figure — a slim, dark-haired woman dressed in white, moving at a funereal pace and plaintively singing. In the audience, 130-odd children, ages 8 to 10, let loose squeals, some gasps, and one “it’s not real.” Several called out “Emma, Emma.” The children had just been told that the Costanzi, the capital’s opera house, had a resident phantom. No, not that one. This was said to be the spirit of Emma Carelli, an Italian soprano who managed the theater a century ago, and loved it so much that she was loath to leave it, even in death. “The theater is a place where strange ... More

From ancient charcoal, hints of wildfires to come
NEW YORK, NY.- The oldest evidence of wildfire in the world can be found in a laboratory on the fourth floor of a brick building in Waterville, Maine. To the untrained eye, it looks like a speck of black lint, not much larger than the tip of a pin. To Ian Glasspool, a paleobotanist at Colby College, it is a 430-million-year-old piece of charcoal. The specimen, which Glasspool discovered in a mudstone from southern Wales, is one of many pieces of ancient charcoal that have been studied in recent years to explore how fires burned in the past. Together, these remnants are helping scientists understand how fires have shaped and been shaped by environmental change through geologic time. “They are tedious-looking things,” Glasspool said, lifting a sample embedded in a small resin disc. “But there’s a whole heap you can get out of them.” ... More

Melinda French Gates to resign from Gates Foundation
NEW YORK, NY.- Melinda French Gates is leaving the behemoth foundation she and her former husband Bill Gates founded nearly a quarter-century ago to devote herself fully to her work on behalf of women and girls, which has been the focus of much of her recent philanthropy. Her move, announced Monday, marks the end of an era for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — henceforth known as the Gates Foundation — which she and her former husband founded in 2000 and transformed into a juggernaut that shook up the world of philanthropy and reshaped the fields of global public health and development. “After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” French Gate ... More