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Rain Room: MoMA presents US Premiere of large-scale environment of falling water
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Visitors gather in the new 'Rain Room' installation at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Manhattan on May 15, 2013 in New York City. The 5,000 square-foot installation creates a field of falling water that stops in the area where people walk through, allowing them to remain dry. The piece, created by Random International, releases a 260-gallon per minute shower around visitors. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP.
NEW YORK, NY.- MoMA PS1 announces a major component of EXPO 1: New York, entitled Rain Room (2012), which is being presented at The Museum of Modern Art, from May 12 through July 28, 2013. A large-scale environment by Random International, Rain Room is a field of falling water that pauses wherever a human body is detected—offering visitors the experience of controlling the rain. The presentation of Rain Room at The Museum of Modern Art is part of EXPO 1: New York, a large-scale festival exploring ecological challenges. Rain Room is on view at The Museum of Modern Art, courtesy of RH, Restoration Hardware. Known for their distinctive approach to digital-based contemporary practice, Random International’s experimental projects come alive through audience interaction and Rain Room is their largest and most ambitious to-date. The work invites visitors to explore the roles that science, technology, and human ingenuity can play in stabilizing our environment. Using digital technology, Rain Room ... More |
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Swatch's Harry Winston buys $26.7mn diamond at Christie's auction in Geneva
A pear-shaped perfect D color, Type IIA Flawless clarity diamond weighing 101.73 carats is on display after Christie's sales. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI.
GENEVA (AFP).- Prestigious jeweller Harry Winston, which was acquired earlier this year by Swatch Group, bought a new colourless, flawless 101.73-carat diamond for a record $26.7 million at an auction in Geneva on Wednesday, auction house Christie's said. Christie's representative Raul Kadakia told reporters after the sale that Harry Winston was the buyer of the diamond that Wednesday evening smashed the previous auction-price record for a diamond in its category by more than $10 million. "Twenty-three million (Swiss) francs! Your last chance! Twenty-three million, sold!" shouted Francois Curiel, the head of Christie's jewellery division shouted, referring to the $23.5 million price before tax and commission, and clinching the deal in front of some 150 people gathered for the auction at a luxury Geneva hotel. As the first ever buyer of the new diamond, Harry Winston had the priviledge of naming it and had decided to call it "Harry Legacy," Kadakia said, pointing out that this was the diamond dealer's ... More |
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Jackson Pollock work "Number 19, 1948" sells for record $58.4 million at Christie's
Jackson Pollock, Number 19, 1948. Oil and enamel on paper laid down on canvas, 30 7/8 x 22 7/8 in. (78.4 x 58.1 cm.). Painted in 1948. Estimate: $ 25,000,000-35,000,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.
NEW YORK (AFP).- A Jackson Pollock drip painting sold Wednesday at Christie's in New York for a record $58.4 million and a work by one-time graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat set another record at $48.8 million. "Number 19, 1948" features Pollock's iconic drip-paint style, creating a shimmering mixture of silver, black, white, red and green. It had been expected to sell for between $25 million and $35 million, but shot up to set a new auction high for the artist. The previous top auction price for a Pollock had been $40.4 million last year, although his paintings are said to have sold for far more in unconfirmed private deals. "Number 19" was painted in 1948, the point when the famous and often imitated Pollock drip technique really took off. Christie's called it the fruit of "a legendary three-year burst of creativity between 1947 and 1950 that completely revolutionized American painting and reshaped the history of twentieth century art." The exuberant sale at Christie's in Manhattan came a day afte ... More |
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Fourteen unseen Salvador Dali paintings surface at Bonhams Impressionist and Modern Art sale
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Prunier hâtif (Hasty Plum), gouache over a 19th century botanical lithograph, 48 x 34.3cm (18 7/8 x 13 1/2in). Executed in 1969. Estimate: £40,000-60,000. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- Fourteen original Salvador Dali watercolour fruit studies, unseen until now, will be sold at Bonhams’ Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London on 18th June. Commissioned in 1969, the paintings have been in private hands since their creation. Each painting is valued at £40,000 - £70,000 and the series is expected to make close to £1million. Dali was surrealism’s most exotic and relentlessly popular figure. His eccentric, attention grabbing behaviour was arguably the product of an abnormal childhood. The artist had an older brother, also named Salvador, who had died almost exactly 9 months before Dali’s birth. Aged five, he was taken to the grave and told that he was a reincarnation. “We resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections.” Dali said of his deceased brother. “He was probably a first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute”. In his own eye ... More |
Hong Kong cries fowl as giant rubber duck by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman deflates
A workman (R) stands on the remains of a 16.5-metre-tall inflatable rubber duck art installation as it lies deflated in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour on May 15, 2013. AFP PHOTO / ANTHONY WALLACE.
HONG KONG (AFP).- The giant inflatable rubber duck which has attracted tens of thousands of visitors since it sailed into Hong Kong two weeks ago was reduced to a sad deflated disc Wednesday in the city's harbour. Duck mania has gripped Hong Kong since its arrival, with locals and tourists flocking to catch a glimpse of the 16.5-metre-tall (54-feet) artwork, conceived by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. But those who made the trip to Victoria Harbour to see it on Wednesday morning were left disappointed as the wind had firmly been taken out of the duck's sails leaving it looking like a floating fried egg. Organisers said that the duck had been deflated on Tuesday evening as part of scheduled maintenance work and that it would be towed to a shipyard on Wednesday for thorough checking. "We scheduled a body check for these two ... More |
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Greatest single owner book collection assembled by Stanley J. Seeger to be sold at Sotheby's in London
Typhoon, (manuscript), Est. £300,000 - £500,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- The late Stanley J. Seeger (1930-2011) was one of the 20th century’s greatest collectors - a perfectionist, who assembled world class collections of art, books, pottery and manuscripts. He also amassed, with a single-minded passion over the course of 50 years, the greatest private collection of first editions, inscribed works, manuscripts, letters and annotated proofs by the celebrated author Joseph Conrad. Sotheby’s London will offer these rare and important works from Stanley J. Seeger’s celebrated Library in two sales – the first of which will take place on July 10th 2013. The centrepiece of the collection is the autograph working manuscript of Typhoon, one of Conrad’s greatest stories of the sea and the most important Conrad manuscript remaining in private hands, which is estimated to realise £300,000-500,000*. Other highlights include the complete 1919 corrected typescript of Falk, one of Conrad’s ... More |
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Slave cabin donated to National Museum of African American History and Culture
The 19th century slave cabin currently located on Edisto Island, S.C. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has acquired a slave cabin from the first half of the 19th century, currently located at Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto Island, S.C. The Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society donated it to the museum after receiving it originally from the Burnet Maybank family, the current owners of the plantation. The one-story, rectangular, weatherboard-clad cabin is being dismantled piece by piece at its current location, removed from the Point of Pines Plantation and transferred to the NMAAHC collection. Smithsonian representatives will be present during the deconstruction to conduct additional research on the structure and those who lived there. “Slavery is one of the most important episodes in American history, but it is ... More |
Affinities: Jacques Jarrige of Valerie Goodman paired with selects from Sebastian+Barquet
The exhibition is on view at Sebastian + Barquet gallery. Photo: Karin Kohlberg.
NEW YORK, NY.- Curators and gallerists Valerie Goodman and Helena Barquet present Affinities, an exhibition that opened May 14 and runs through May 22, 2013 corresponding to Frieze, Design Week and ICFF. The Affinities exhibit brings together the furniture of French designer Jacques Jarrige with signature pieces by Gio Ponti, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Royere, George Nakashima, Donald Judd and Johnny Swing — all of whom have served as touchstones for the Paris-based artist and furniture maker. Each Jarrige piece that curator Valerie Goodman has selected for this show connects in one way or other with the illustrious design objects by these modern masters Jarrige himself has chosen from the Sebastian + Barquet gallery collection. These are the ancestors and soul mates of Jarrige's own creations. Not all connections are obvious at first sight. The towering Secretaire that the Milanese designer Gio Ponti built in 1930 from walnut, sati ... More |
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Dominic Molon named RISD Museum's Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art
Dominic Molon, newly named Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art. Photo: Walead Beshty.
PROVIDENCE, RI.- John W. Smith, Director of the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, announces today the appointment of Dominic Molon as Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art, concluding a nationwide search. In his new role, Molon is responsible for the interpretation, development and care of the RISD Museum's significant collection of contemporary art ---- including paintings, sculpture, and new media ---- with an emphasis on exhibitions, publications, community engagement, and acquisitions. "I am thrilled to welcome Dominic Molon as the newest member of the RISD Museum's exceptional curatorial team," says Smith. "Over the course of his career, Dominic has earned a highly respected and admired reputation for his rigorous, wide-ranging curatorial point of view. I'm confident that his commitment to contemporary artists, collaboration, scholarship, and community engagement will build upon the Museum's strengths and help move us forward i ... More |
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Valencian Institute for Modern Art opens the exhibition 'Croatia' by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi
Bosco Sodi (Mexico D. F., 1970) began his artistic career in Barcelona, from where he moved to Berlin, and although he has studios in both cities and in Mexico City, he spends most of his time in New York.
VALENCIA.- The exhibition of Bosco Sodi presents the series Croacia comprising large-format works that confront the spectator with the gestuality of the act of painting by using chromatic and matteric devices. Each of the pieces that form the series, although it maintains its own individuality, fits into the whole to configure a single "abstract image". It establishes a play of light that emphasises the orange and red shades that fill the canvas in a relief that runs between two and three dimensions. In creating this series, the artist worked on the different parts simultaneously, with the same preparation of pigments and organic ingredients in order to produce an effect of continuity between the works. It is a group of pictures articulated around ordinary physical characteristics: large-format dimensions, a strong matteric presence (achieved by means of a mixed tech- ... More |
Poland's culture minister Bogdan Zdrojewski seeks return of art seized by Soviet Russia in 1945
File photo of Josef Brandt’s ‘The Watch’ was returned to the Minister of Culture, Bodgan Zdrojewski. Photo courtesy of Justine Jablonska, Embassy of Poland.
WARSAW (AFP).- Poland's culture minister said Wednesday that Russia has yet to return several paintings seized by the Soviet Red Army at the end of World War II, including one by Flemish artist Brueghel. "Of 31 official restitution requests by Poland, 18 concern works located in Russia," Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski told reporters. Most are paintings, including some several centuries old, such as works by the Baroque-era Jan Brueghel the Elder and German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder. The landscape by Brueghel, Cranach's "Madonna and Child", and a painting of a merchant by German painter Hans Holbein the Younger are currently at Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the minister said. Other requested items include coins of the Order of the Teutonic Knights, warrior-monks who wielded power along the Baltic coast from the 13th ... More |
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Bonhams in London to sell pocket watch made for Coco Chanel's French lover
The fine and rare 18ct gold open face automatic Breguet with power reserve (Lot 160) was sold to the Frenchman in 1933 for 10,800 francs. It is estimated to realise between £15,000 and £20,000 (€17,700 - €23,700) at auction. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- A pocket watch made for the illustrator and designer Paul Iribe – one-time lover of the legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel – will be among the lots in the Bonhams Fine Watches and Wristwatches Sale in New Bond Street, London, UK, on Tuesday 11th June. The fine and rare 18ct gold open face automatic Breguet with power reserve (Lot 160) was sold to the Frenchman in 1933 for 10,800 francs. It is estimated to realise between £15,000 and £20,000 (€17,700 - €23,700) at auction. Paul Iribe (1883-1935) is acknowledged as having been a leading influence on Art Deco style. First known for his political caricatures in Parisian journals and satirical newspapers, Iribe then spent a number of years in Hollywood working on film sets before returning to Paris in the ... More |
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Sotheby's unveils the contents of Sale of Duplicate Stamps from The British Postal Museum & Archive in London
Seahorse Issues, 1923 Registration sheet of 40, front. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Further to Sotheby’s announcement last month of a sale of stamps from The British Postal Museum & Archive in London on 11 July 2013, it is now possible to unveil the contents of the sale. The auction will comprise material duplicate to the archive collection, with proceeds to benefit the new home of The British Postal Museum & Archive, which will be situated at Calthorpe House on London’s Mount Pleasant site and is scheduled to open in early 2016. In the July sale, collectors will have a choice of selected issues from the reigns of King George V (Seahorse issues), King Edward VIII and King George VI (definitive issues). The auction comprises 191 lots and is estimated to bring in excess of £5 million*. Commenting on the collection of stamps to be offered, Richard Ashton, Sotheby’s Worldwide Philatelic Consultant, said: “This selection of material from The British Postal Museum & Archive includes numerous items th ... More |
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 Iranian born, Berlin-based artist Nairy Baghramian exhibits at MIT List Visual Arts CenterCAMBRIDGE, MASS.- The MIT List Visual Arts Center presents Nairy Baghramian: Fluffing the Pillows (Moorings, Gurneys, Silos, Mops News Rack, Railing) an exhibition by Iranian born, Berlin-based artist Nairy Baghramian. Baghramian uses disparate tropes and motifs drawn from a variety of sources—from interior design to physiology—in her investigation of sculptural form. With a keen sense of traditional sculptural concerns such as material and volume, her work plays on the supposed distinctions between decoration and function, industrial and handmade, commodity and art object. Her work has also centered on the political and social relations implied by objects and the site of display, in particular on the exhibition space as a type of interior, where affect and experience increasingly conflict with luxury and leisure. For this commissioned installation, Baghramian abstracts ... More Egan Frantz focuses his attention on artist multiples in exhibition at Tilton GalleryNEW YORK, NY.- Tilton Gallery is presenting Egan Frantz: Multiples, from May 10 - June 22, 2013. For this exhibition Egan Frantz has focused his attention on artist multiples. He is interested in multiples, in part, because they are united by their lack of uniqueness, a characteristic usually regarded as a prerequisite in a work of art. However we know, at least since Duchamp's readymade, that a work of art as multiple does not preclude a unique historical event from taking place. As a student Frantz was mentored by the late poet, Robert Seydel, with whom he developed a love for artists, poets, writers, and philosophers sharing a tendency towards seeing communication as a construction in and of language itself. These formative interests in the affective power of words would lead Frantz towards the appreciation of psychoanalysis, of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and the ... More HCB Award Winner 2011 Vanessa Winship exhibits at the Fondation Henri Cartier-BressonPARIS.- For me photography is a process of literacy, a journey whereby I understand that life doesn’t come to us in perfectly formed narratives. This quote from Vanessa Winship, British photographer born in 1960, may give the keys of her very intimate approach. Vanessa Winship is interested in the concepts of borders, land, desire, identity, history, memory, and about how those histories and identities are told and expressed. According to the photographer, there is something exquisitely beautiful and yet profoundly disturbing about America…that deep and almost inevitable loneliness and melancholy created by the struggle in search of the American dream. Photographing America, the persistence of the American dream is a challenge the author decides to begin in fall 2011, after receiving the HCB Award. Hence, she has to find the vocabulary. She has to open eyes and ears, become ... More New Zealand's biggest contemporary visual arts festival opens across AucklandAUCKLAND.- Auckland’s art scene bursts to life with the 5th Auckland Triennial, New Zealand’s largest contemporary visual art festival. The 5th Auckland Triennial features over 30 artists, artist collectives and architects from 15 countries and is led by internationally acclaimed curator, Hou Hanru. This year’s theme If you were to live here… has seen contemporary artists reimagine Auckland, and the world, through artworks that surprise, challenge and inspire. There’s something for everyone with activities for people of all ages including family days, live performance, talks and more. For the first time, entry is free and visitors can explore nine venues across Auckland including new venues Fresh Gallery Otara and Silo 6, Silo Park, alongside Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Museum, Artspace, George Fraser Gallery, Gus Fisher Gallery, ST PAUL St and The Film Archive. ... More Classification Bouillabaisse: Razvan Boar, George Little, James Viscardi exhibit at Ana Cristea GalleryNEW YORK, NY.- Ana Cristea Gallery is pleased to present "Classification Bouillabaisse," a group exhibition that brings together the diverse and accomplished work of three artists: Razvan Boar, George Little and James Viscardi. Collectively the works on view question the need for a rigidly defined aesthetic classification within the post-historical present. For instance, what necessitates the firm distinction between abstract and figurative works? Our ability to perceive, interpret and categorize depends upon the context of the work itself, as well as the circumstances of its presentation. Here, much of the obvious (or expected) context has been blurred or reconfigured. The viewer must sift through the layers to discern wherein lays the meaning, and what is merely ornamental or suggestive. We are forced to reconsider and approach from a new vantage point. As the distinction between ... More Paris police boost efforts to protect touristsPARIS (AFP).- Paris police said Wednesday they would deploy more officers to protect tourists against pickpockets and launch an awareness campaign to fight fake charity organisations targeting visitors. The efforts come in the wake of several incidents that have tarnished the image of Paris -- the world's most visited city -- including the brief closing of the Louvre museum in April by workers protesting increasingly aggressive pickpockets. The Paris police prefecture said it was increasing the number of officers deployed at key sites including the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, the Champs Elysees shopping strip and the Montmartre district. It will also begin distributing leaflets in heavily touristed areas, in English and French, warning against a trend that involves young criminals asking visitors to make donations to false charities or to sign false petitions, distracting them from ... More Blood splatter and mud: all in a day's work for Vienna costumiersVIENNA (AFP).- In a few bright rooms near the Vienna Opera, an army of workers wield needle and thread, transform black felt almost magically into golden armour, and gleefully create blood splatter on fresh white shirts. Every season, the Art for Art costume workshop churns out hundreds of garments for Vienna's leading opera, ballet and theatre companies. And its reputation has stretched farther afield too, with fashion designer Valentino, the New York Metropolitan Opera, and even the football World Cup making use of its services. From hats to shoes and everything in between, the company creates almost every piece from scratch. "People always say 'so what, you just need to sew it.' But until we get to the sewing, a lot of work needs to be done," says Art for Art director Annette Beaufays. Using craftsmanship that is largely disappearing today -- including dressmaking, shoemaking ... More "Out of Tradition: Contemporary Decorative and Applied Art" on view at The Ukrainian MuseumNEW YORK, NY.- Organized by The Ukrainian Museum, the exhibition Out of Tradition: Contemporary Decorative and Applied Art features the work of 35 contemporary decorative artists of Ukrainian background from Ukraine, the United States, and Canada. The aim of the exhibition is to showcase works from the innovative realm of contemporary art and design that are rooted in the tradition and aesthetic of Ukrainian folk art. Ceramics, jewelry, textiles, high-fashion clothing and accessories, and decorative items crafted from wood, glass, and silver are among the more than 150 objects in this major exhibition. Out of Tradition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an introduction by Jaroslaw Leshko, Professor Emeritus of Art, Smith College, and an essay written by Tamila Pecheniuk and Halyna Kusko, art historians and docents in the Art Textiles Department at the Lviv National ... More |
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 at the Prado Museum in Madrid on May 14, 2013. AFP PHOTO/ POOL/ ANGEL DIAZ.');)
 stands on the remains of a 16.5-metre-tall inflatable rubber duck art installation as it lies deflated in Hong Kongs Victoria Harbour on May 15, 2013. The giant inflatable rubber duck which has attracted tens of thousands of visitors since it sailed into Hong Kong two weeks ago was reduced to a sad deflated disc on May 15 in the citys harbour. AFP PHOTO / ANTHONY WALLACE.');)
, on May 14, 2013 at the Liebighaus sculpture collection in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. Until May 26, 2013, the museum is running the exhibition Back to Classic - Ancient Greece Reconsidererd, featuring some eighty outstanding works – bronze sculptures, vases, paintings, terracottas and painted figural vessels. The large-scale exhibition and research project aims to provide a new means of access to the history of the art and culture of Greek Classicism in the fifth and fourth century BC. AFP PHOTO / NICOLAS ARMER.');)
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 in Berlin on May 15, 2013. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the Syrian opposition to support Moscow and Washington in their efforts to work towards convening a peace conference to end the bloodshed in Syria. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL.');)
 and employees of the museum look at 160 relics from Nasriyah, located 250 kilometres south of Baghdad, belonging to ancient historical periods including the Sumerian era, after they arrived at the national museum in the capital on May 14, 2013. AFP PHOTO / SABAH ARAR.');)
 at a Christies auction. The price, which does not include tax or commission, is the highest ever paid for a flawless colourless diamond, according to the auction house, which had hoped the gem would go for $30 million. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI.');)
 Horst Wrobel poses next to a model of Noah s Ark in a exhibition room in the palace in Gifhorn, northern Germany on May 11, 2013. The Bells palace has been completed after 16 years of construction combining various Russian timber building styles. Its founderstone was layed by former Russian president Mikhail Gorbatchev in 1996. AFP PHOTO / RONNY HARTMANN.');)
 visits an exhibition related with the peace process in the northeastern commune of Medellin, Colombia, on May 11, 2013. Gauck is in Colombia in a four-day official visit, part of a Latin American tour. AFP PHOTO / Fredy Amariles.');)
