Tag: Art News

PARIS (AP).- Israeli

draftsman and printmaker, went on to become one of Israel’s most
important
contemporary artists, imbuing his portraits and scenes of daily life — a
red
umbrella against a wall, an overflowing bookshelf, a jumble of bottles
in a
cabinet — with enigmatic, disconcerting beauty. The artist, who

abandoned abstract art for figurative work in the 1960s, was well-known
for
portraits of subjects including Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother,
actress
Catherine Deneuve and his close friend, writer Samuel Beckett. He also
produced
many probing portraits of himself and his wife, poet Anne Atik.

HONG KONG.- Christie’s announces its Spring sale of
Southeast Asian
Modern and Contemporary Art will take place on 30 May at the Hong Kong
Convention & Exhibition Centre. Featuring over 130 quality works
spanning
the history and geography in the Southeast Asian region, the sale brings

together modern masterpieces of undisputed provenance and some of the
most
sought-after contemporary artworks. The category’s modern masters and
contemporary stars continue to be represented by works of the highest
quality in
the sale which is valued in excess of HK$22 million (US$2.8 million).

MODENA,

ITALY -SPEED_M is a series of
exhibitions dedicated to Italian photographers, following one another in
rapid
succession within the spaces of METRONOM. In solo
shows Bruno
Cattani, Michele Buda and Enrico Moretti will be presenting a thematic
selection
of works. The exhibitions aim to be contemporary proposals for looking
at
photography through themes, techniques and subjectivity.The
first show, Eros, features Bruno
Cattani with a series of photographic works from a research project,
which he
has been pursuing for several years, dealing with exhibition places and
the
circus.

LONDON.- Fascinating photographs of London
Women’s
Pub Outings in Battersea and Clapham taken by Scottish photographer
Grace
Robertson in the 1950s are being sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as
part of
its sale of Photographs on 20 May 2010. The four images follow a group
of women
on a series of pub outings laughing, dancing, forming a conga line and
going on
a theme park ride. Robertson commented on the experience of
photographing these women: “I can’t recall ever having been present at a
more
high-spirited gathering of like-minded people who, for a few hours, gave

themselves utterly to the enjoyment of the moment.”

SHANGHAI, China — To
celebrate its emergence as a global power, China is throwing a party –
the
largest-ever world expo, a six-month extravaganza that kicked off
Saturday with
hundreds of thousands visitors. While many in the West view world fairs
as
overblown trade shows, China sees the Shanghai World Expo as a way to
burnish
its image by mobilizing its masses and vast resources to create another
jaw-dropping spectacle on the heels of the Beijing Olympics two years
ago. President Hu
Jintao
presided at an opening ceremony Friday night at the Expo’s saucer-like
cultural
center that featured stars like Jackie Chan. Hours later on Saturday
morning,
the gates opened to hundreds of thousands of Chinese eager to celebrate
the
country’s new global prominence.

FORT WORTH, TX.- The Kimbell Art Museum of
Fort
Worth, Texas, has acquired the painting Christ and the Woman of Samaria,
dated
to 1619–20, by the Italian artist Guercino, one of the foremost painters
of his
time. The purchase was announced today by the Museum’s director, Eric M.
Lee.
The painting dates from Guercino’s early, rarest, and most desirable
period,
when the artist achieved acclaim for the emotional power of his
compositions. Also on exhibition is
Michelangelo’s first known painting, The Torment of Saint Anthony,
is
now on view among the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art
Museum.