BARCELONA (EFE).- Cuban and Spanish architects in Barcelona expressed the need to save both the colonial and modern architecture of Havana and not focus entirely on the old colonial district. Under the title “Arquitecturas de Ida y Vuelta” (Architectures on a Round Trip), the Catalonia College of Architects organized between Dec. 10-13 the 33rd edition of its International Architectural Heritage Days. During the event, Spanish architect Rafael Moneo was to unveil the remodeling
Tata Nano-The People’s Car-to be Featured at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
NEW YORK, NY.- The Tata Nano, designed to be the world’s most affordable car, will be on view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum from Feb. 18 through April 25, 2010. Unveiled last year in India by Tata Motors, India’s largest automobile manufacturer, the Tata Nano is targeted to families who had not previously been able to afford a car. Billed as “the people’s car,” the base model starts at $2,200 in India and can accommodate up to five adults. A bright, sunshine yellow Nano will be on display in Cooper-Hewitt’s Great Hall, along with diagrams and a short film describing its concept, development and production.
Exhibition of Early Drawings & Etchings by Jake and Dinos Chapman to Open
HASTINGS.- This comprehensive retrospective exhibition provides a rare glimpse into the early talent and wit of the Chapman brothers. This exhibition, their first at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery will feature a complete portfolio of etchings from the ‘Gigantic Fun’ series, drawings and some early animal sculptures. Jake and Dinos Chapman were brought up in Cheltenham and Hastings and both studied at the Royal College of Art before deciding to work together. Emerging under the label of Young British Artists in the 1990s, the Chapmans’ art examines with searing wit and energy, contemporary politics, religion
DNA Tests Could Solve Mystery of Baroque Master Caravaggio’s Death
ROME
(REUTERS).- The mystery surrounding the death of Baroque master
Caravaggio may soon be resolved thanks to new DNA tests — as long as the right
body can be found. What caused the death of the painter in 1610 and the
whereabouts of his corpse have always been unclear. But a team of
Italian anthropologists believe that what is left of Caravaggio’s body may be
hidden among dozens of bodies buried in a crypt in Tuscany, thanks to recent
historical clues. The team — armed with a CAT scan and kits for carbon dating
— plan to study the painter’s exhumed remains to discover how he died.
Brooklyn Museum to Display Site-Specific Installation by Artist Kiki Smith
BROOKLYN, NY.- Kiki Smith: Sojourn, a major
site-specific installation that explores the ideas of creative inspiration and
the cycle of life in relation to women artists, will be on view February 5
through September 12, 2010, in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist
Art. The exhibition will draw from a variety of work by Kiki Smith in a
range of media including cast objects, unique sculpture, and works on paper. The
artist will also incorporate her work into two of the Brooklyn Museum’s
eighteenth-century period rooms in the nearby Decorative Arts galleries.
Saatchi Gallery to present “The Empire Strikes Back ~ Indian Art Today”
LONDON.- In October 2008, the Saatchi Gallery
re-opened in the 70,000 sq. ft Duke of York’s HQ building on King’s Road in the
heart of London. With free admission to all shows, the Saatchi Gallery
aims to bring contemporary art to the widest audience possible. Its first three
shows, “The Revolution Continues: New Art from China”, “Unveiled: New Art from
the Middle East” and “Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture”, have
attracted over one million visitors to date. On 29 January the Saatchi
Gallery will open with The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, an exhibition
of 26 artists from the world’s largest democracy.
Caravaggio Painting Loaned to Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Advance of Berlusconi Visit
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – The Government of Italy has
agreed to the loan of Caravaggio’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1597 from
the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art for one
fortnight. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), better known
as “Caravaggio”, is one of the greatest painters of all times, and may be termed
“the founder of Baroque” due to his innovative style, combining extreme
chiaroscuro, figures flickering in the dark, stark realism and dramatic diagonal
compositions.
“Paris Mon Amour” Evocative Pieces of Paris to be Auctioned at French House Drouot
PARIS (AP).- Pieces of old Paris from a lamp post to a
park bench go on the auction block next week, with the piece de resistance 40
iron steps from the Eiffel Tower, all 7.8 meters (25.6 feet) of them. Among the
301 items to be auctioned is a section of glass broken during the construction
in 1987 of the glass pyramid now standing at the entrance to the Louvre Museum.
Estimated at €500 to €1,000 ($735-$1,470), it is accompanied by a photograph
taken at the time. “Paris Mon Amour,” the title given to the auction
Monday, December 14th at the famed French house Drouot, brings together an
eclectic batch of memories that evoke a bygone era as well as the present.
Old Master Paintings Auction Sales Soar Despite Global Woes
NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- Sotheby’s hopes that the
fervent mood at an auction this week in London of important Old Master paintings
will travel overseas when several rare art works will be auctioned next
month. The fragile state of the world economy didn’t influence the few
deep-pocketed art collectors who vied for rare 17th century masterpieces in the
British capital on Wednesday. Sotheby’s sale of Old Master & British
Paintings in London saw a new auction record set for Anthony van Dyck when his
last self portrait soared above expectations and sold for$13,521,704. The
portrait, hotly pursued by nine bidders, was the top-selling lot in a sale which
raised $24,510,499, within pre-sale expectations.
UGA’s Georgia Museum of Art to Host Decorative Arts Symposium
ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art will host
the fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, “Neighboring Voices:
The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins,” January 29-30, 2010, at the
University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and
Hotel. The symposium will bring together representatives from
neighboring states to discuss their own research, collections and
decorative-arts history. Topics to be discussed at the symposium include the
discovery of Georgia’s early decorative arts, the paint-decorated furniture of
Piedmont North Carolina, the influence of Georgia potters on Alabama pottery,
the profile of a southern antebellum silversmith, German toys in American
childhood, French porcelain in the antebellum South and early Georgians’
migration to Alabama. Featured speakers at this year’s symposium are Mary Audrey
Apple, Joey J. Brackner, Daniel Brooks, Charlotte Crabtree, Robert Doares,
Robert A. Leath, and June Lucas.