BERLIN.- Dirceu Maués is a photographer whose oeuvre constitutes a far-reaching investigation into the photographic process and the techniques and equipment involved. His works, therefore, are always in-depth examinations of the photographic mechanism as such, and this study presents him with his own opportunity to define a camera’s functional categories. The current omnipresence of digitally generated images is an occasion for Dirceu Maués to reflect on more original forms of photography in his works. Deliberately setting them apart from the predominantly functional parameters to be found in today’s modern cameras, he constructs his
Italian Tax Police Seize Masterpieces Belonging to Founder of Dairy Company Parmalat
ROME (AP).- Italian tax police said Saturday that
they had seized works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and other giants of art in a
crackdown on assets hidden by the disgraced founder of the collapsed dairy
company Parmalat. Parma Prosecutor Gerardo Laguardia said that, based
on wiretapped phone conversations, officials believed at least one of the
paintings hidden by Calisto Tanzi, founder of the dairy company
Parmalat was about to be sold. Authorities estimated the 19
masterpieces stashed away in attics and basements were valued at some euro100
million ($150 million). No arrests, as yet, were announced as part of the
art seizure.
Museo del Prado presents “The Company of Captain Reijnier Reael”
MADRID.- “Just to see that painting would make the
journey to Amsterdam worthwhile,” wrote Vincent van Gogh in 1885, after having
seen this work in the Rijksmuseum. He particularly liked the “orange
banner in the left corner”, he had “seldom seen a more divinely beautiful
figure”. The painting that caused such a sensation was the group
portrait of the crossbowmen’s militia under Captain Reijnier Reael, painted by
Frans Hals and Pieter Codde in 1633 – 1637. From Amsterdam’s
Rijksmuseum. On loan from the city of Amsterdam.
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to show 19th Century Photographs of Rome
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Through 100 photographs taken
between 1850 and 1880, the exhibition Steps off the Beaten Path:
Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome and its Environs encourages a “walking
tour” through Rome with recognizable sites among the out-of-the-way
scenes nineteenth-century Romans and Europeans encountered in their daily lives.
The exhibition opens at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on
Sunday, October 11th through 3 January, 2010,
Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery presents “Falnama:The Book of Omens”
WASHINGTON, DC. A group of unusual, illustrated manuscripts called
the Falnama that were once used by sultans, shahs and commoners to explore the
unknown will be on view October 24 through January 24, 2010, at the
Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. “Falnama: The Book of Omens” is the
first exhibition ever to be devoted to these rare works, which were
created in 16th- and 17th-century Iran and Turkey. The Sackler Gallery will be
the sole venue for this international exhibition featuring works of art from
public and private collections.
Police Seize Stash of Masterpieces Belonging to Founder of Dairy Company Parmalat
ROME (AP).- Italian tax police said Saturday that they had seized works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and other giants of art in a crackdown on assets hidden by the disgraced founder of the collapsed dairy company Parmalat. Authorities estimated the 19 masterpieces stashed away in attics and basements were valued at some euro100 million ($150 million). Parma Prosecutor Gerardo Laguardia said that, based on wiretapped phone conversations, officials believed at least one of the paintings hidden by Calisto Tanzi was about to be sold. “We got lucky. We learned that there were negotiations under way to sell one of the paintings” and raid three apartments in the area of Parma, near Parmalat’s headquarters, Laguardia said in an interview on Italy’s Sky TG24 TV. He didn’t identify the painting.
VMFA Acquires Painting by First African-American Artist to Win Acclaim
RICHMOND, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has acquired a painting by Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901), the first black artist to receive widespread acclaim in the United States. The 1885 painting, “Moonlight Marine” is an oil on canvas. Dr. Sylvia Yount, VMFA’s Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, calls it “an exceptional example of the painter’s bolder, mature style.” Painting and the sea form the twin poles of Bannister’s life, Yount says. In his younger days, he focused on pastoral landscapes, but his later marine subjects – views of the Atlantic and the Rhode Island coastline
Long-Lost Painting by John Sloan now on View at Detroit Institute of Arts
DETROIT, MI.- It’s been an unusual journey from Fourteenth Street in New York to Woodward Avenue in Detroit for a painting created by American artist John Sloan. Sloan painted Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue in 1934 for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), created to employ artists during the Great Depression. The painting, which had been officially missing since 1938, has been located and is now on long-term loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Sloan was known for capturing the energy and essence of neighborhood life in New York City. Fourteenth Street vividly depicts bustling crowds dealing with the commute to work, school and shops after a snowstorm on a busy street. It is on view outside the exhibition “Government Support for the Arts: WPA Prints from the 1930s” through March 21. “John Sloan is an important American painter,” said Kenneth Myers, DIA chief curator and curator of American art. “The
Tate and The British Council are to be the Joint Owners of Steve McQueen’s ‘Giardini’
LONDON.- Tate and The British Council are to be the joint owners of Steve McQueen’s ‘Giardini’, the British showing at the 53rd Venice Biennale, widely praised in the international press for its sensitivity and beauty. The gift arose from the collaboration between The Art Fund with Outset Contemporary Art Fun to finance half the production costs of the film, under which The Art Fund jointly received an edition of the work to give to a public collection at the end of the Biennale, which closed on November 22. The arrangement means the work will be seen at home and abroad; plans are being devised by Tate to show the film in the UK, while the British Council is making arrangements for it to travel to China in Spring 2010.
Grand Rapids Art Museum Director Celeste Adams Resigns
GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- Today Celeste Adams shared with the Grand Rapids Art Museum Board of Trustees her decision to resign her position as Museum Director effective March 17, 2010, her thirteenth anniversary as Director. She stated, “I have completed my work here and the time is right for me to move on to a new challenge and for the Museum to move into a new era of life.” Ms. Adams will assist with the transition, serving as Consulting Director from March 2010 to March 2011 or until a new Director begins. Celeste Adams became Director of the Grand Rapids Art Museum in 1997. During her thirteen years as Director, she has led the Art Museum through an extraordinary era of growth and transformation and achieved major goals for the institution including landmark exhibitions, important acquisitions of art, and a successful $83 million capital campaign that produced a nationally recognized new Art Museum facility with