SYDNEY.- This summer the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney presents the first large scale exhibition of works by acclaimed Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson ever to have been seen in Australia. The exhibition, entitled “Take your time: Olafur Eliasson,” runs at the MCA Sydney exclusively in Australia from December 10, 2009 to April 11, 2010. Olafur Eliasson is among the most influential and widely acclaimed artists of his generation. From light filled environments to walk-in kaleidoscopes, his unique participatory works offer alluring spaces that harness optical cognition and meteorological elements, examine the intersection of nature and science, and explore the boundary between the organic and the artificial. Having been raised partly in Iceland, Eliasson’s practice is informed by that country’s primordial landscape and spectacular weather. He recontextualises elements such as light, water, ice, fog, arctic mos
The Carter Gets Modern with Exhibition Schedule for 2010
FORT WORTH, TX.- Amon Carter Museum Director Ron Tyler announced today the museum’s 2010 exhibition schedule. Comprised of three special exhibitions that celebrate modern art, each will focus on different American modern art movements spanning the years 1902 to 1962 in a variety of media including works on paper, paintings, sculpture and photographs. “We have a stellar line-up of special exhibitions in 2010, which complement our own modernist holdings,” Tyler says. “This is a great opportunity for us to further educate our visitors about America’s top artists of the early to mid-1900s. We look forward to a terrific year of modern art.” Exhibition Schedule: American Moderns on Paper: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art-February 27–May 30, 2010 The finest watercolors, pastels and drawings by leading avant-garde American artists of the early 20th century will be on view t
Wadsworth Atheneum to Present Exhibition of its Modern American Works on Paper
HARTFORD, CT.- The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art has organized the first major exhibition of its American works on paper from the years 1910 to 1960. American Moderns on Paper: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art will include more than 100 exceptional works from the museum’s permanent collection—including a recently-acquired Georgia O’Keeffe pastel—providing a groundbreaking new look at the diverse directions pursued by modern artists in America. The exhibition will tell the story of the Wadsworth’s acquisition of works by artists from Edward Hopper and Charles Demuth to Salvador Dali and Ellsworth Kelly, and will reveal how the museum was at the forefront of introducing modern art to America. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded the Wadsworth Atheneum a grant through its American Masterpieces Program to support a national tour for the exhibition. American Moderns on
Arts Survey Finds Drop in Movie, Museum Attendance
NEW YORK, NY (AP).- If you haven’t gone to a movie, jazz concert or an art exhibit in recent years, you are in steadily growing company. A new study from the National Endowment for the Arts finds a notable decline in theater, museum and concert attendance and other “benchmark” cultural activities between 2002 and 2008 for adults 18 and older, and a sharper fall from 25 years ago. The drop was for virtually all art forms and for virtually all age groups and levels of education. The NEA‘s senior deputy chair, Joan Shigekawa, listed a few possible reasons: The rise of the Internet; less free time; and cuts in arts classes. “These numbers definitely represent a challenge,” Shigekawa said. Released Thursday, the NEA’s 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is the sixth such report to come out since 1982, when 39 percent of adults attended a “benchmark arts activity” at least once in the previous year. The percentage peaked at 41
Strong Results for Bonhams & Butterfields’ November Antique Arms Sale
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Antique arms, edged weapons, suits of armor and modern sporting guns brought more than $1.5-million during a day-long auction at Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco on Monday, November 23rd 2009. A global audience of collectors and dealers vied for Colt firearms, edged weapons and militaria, with strong prices realized throughout the sale. A rare ornate lime squeezer made in San Francisco in the mid-1800s brought nearly $30,000 – six times its pre-sale expectation. Desirable lots in the November antique arms sale comprised Colt firearms. A factory engraved Colt single action Army revolver attributed to Cuno E. Helfricht brought $38,025, more than doubling the estimate. Colt factory records indicate the pistol was shipped in 1888. It retains its blued finish and scrollwork, its elephant ivory grip carved with a Mexican eagle grasping a snake. An historic Gustave Young-engraved Colt Model 1860 Ar
Marble Sarcophagus Relief Sells for $1.5 Million at Sotheby’s
NEW YORK, NY.- An ancient Roman marble relief panel with Dionysiac decoration that was recently discovered to once have been in the collection of French writer Émile Zola sold for $1,538,500 at Sotheby’s Antiquities auction today in New York. Six bidders competed for the piece which eventually sold to an anonymous telephone bidder. It was the highlight of the sale which totaled $5.8 million – well in excess of the $2.3/3.5 million estimate. Discussing the sale Richard Keresey and Florent Heintz of Sotheby’s Antiquities Department said: “We are thrilled with the $1.5 million achieved today
Exhibition Focuses on Three of the Most Original Painters of the Late 19th and Early 20th-Centuries
CAMBRIDGE.- An exhibition at The Fitzwilliam Museum focuses on three of the most original painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and Stanley Spencer. Drawn from The Fitzwilliam Museum’s holdings of paintings, watercolours and drawings by these three artists, which are amongst the finest in the UK, this exhibition offers the chance to explore the ‘hidden depths’ of the Museum’s world-class collections. At first glance, the lives and careers of these artists appear disparate. Sargent (1856-1925), an American based in Europe, was one of the leading portraitists of his day, whose suave society paintings appeared in sharp contrast to the darker social realism of his contemporary, the German-born ‘London Impressionist’ Sickert (1860-1942) – and even further from the naïve visions of Spencer’s (1891-1959) native Berkshire. Yet, as this exh
Rijksmuseum Purchases Most Expensive Furniture Ever
AMSTERDAM.- The Rijksmuseum has acquired two spectacular marriage coffers on stands made by the famous cabinet-maker André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732). They are decorated with so-called ‘Boulle’ Marquetry of tortoise shell and brass. These coffers were not made as useful items of furniture, but as works of art proclaiming the style of the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Boulle probably supplied them in 1688 to a cousin of the Sun King, the Prince de Condé, who gave them as a wedding present to his daughter, Marie-Thérèse. The marriage coffers are the most expensive pieces of furniture ever bought by the Rijksmuseum. The marriage coffers are typical
Benjamin Vargas, FAIA, Selected as 2010 Recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award
WASHINGTON, DC.- The American Institute of Architects (AIA) have selected Benjamin Vargas, FAIA, as the 2010 recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, given to an architect or architecturally oriented organization exemplifying the profession’s responsibility toward current social issues. Vargas, whose efforts to instill the value of diversity and inclusiveness into the AIA at a national, Institute-wide level, will be presented with the award at the 2010 AIA national convention in Miami. The award honors civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr., proponent of social change and head of the Urban League from 1961 until his death in 1971. At the 1968 AIA Annual Convention, Young challenged architects to more actively increase participation in the profession by minorities and women. A native of Puerto Rico, Vargas established a presence within the AIA as a tireless advocate for institutional change to survey and remedy the lack o
Nobel Bust Acquired by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm
STOCKHOLM.- Most people recognize the portrait from the annual Nobel Prize Ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall. The bronze bust of Alfred Nobel is in focus of the TV camera, surrounded by prize winners, royalties and members of the Swedish Academy. Yesterday, the day before this years Nobel Ceremony, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm managed to acquire an example of the well known bronze bust from the auction house Thomas Del Mar in London. The acquisition will now be included in the National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholms Castle, among with other famous