Tag: News

NEW YORK (REUTERS).- The spotlight at this week’s post-war and contemporary art auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s is trained on star offerings such as Jasper Johns’ “Flag” and Andy Warhol’s “Self Portrait.” But the most unusual work could be Yves Klein’s monumental “ANT 93, Le Buffle (The Buffalo),” which is hitting the block for the first in its 50-year life on Tuesday. The rare work from the French artist’s signature “Anthropometrie” series is big, bright blue, and highly conceptual. Long before Jeff Koons floated basketballs in distilled water and Damien Hirst sliced up a cow and suspended it in formaldehyde, Klein donned a tuxedo and presided over a scene featuring an orchestra’s one-chord musical performance as a bevy of naked beauties strode before a Parisian gathering, smeared blue paint on themselves and proceeded to writhe on a large

NEW YORK, NY.- On May 26 and 27, Christie’s Latin American sale will offer an exceptional selection of works by modern and contemporary masters hailing from Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and many other regions throughout the Americas. Rich in works from private collections, the two-day auction presents nearly 300 works by leading Latin American artists such as Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, Joaquín Torres-García, José María Velasco, Gunther Gerzso, and Rufino Tamayo, among others. Christie’s will offer Survivor, 1938 by Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) (estimate: $100,000-150,000) as one of the outstanding highlights of the Latin American Evening Sale. This will mark the first time that this rare and extraordinary work has come to market since it was initially exhibited in 1938 at the Julien Levy Gallery, in Kahlo’s very first solo

LONDON.- On June 22, 2010, in its evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London, Sotheby’s will offer a masterpiece by the father and a key figure of Impressionism, Edouard Manet: Self-Portrait with a Palette, estimated at £20–30 million*. Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s Executive Vice President and co-curator of the 1983 landmark Manet exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, describes the painting as “not only the greatest Manet portrait in private hands, but also one of the very greatest self-portraits in the entire canon of art history”. Painted circa 1878, at a point when Manet was enjoying unprecedented critical acclaim, this extraordinary work brings together all the qualities – subtle reference to the Old Masters combined with an audacious, “modern” handling of paint and immediacy – that mark him out as one of the greatest, a

SOUTH KENSINGTON.- The Vintage Posters sale at Christie’s South Kensington on 13 May 2010 will offer approximately 200 lots, embracing the best of illustrative and graphic poster design. With a particular emphasis on football and the World Cup as the 2010 South African tournament prepares to commence in June, estimates range from £600 to £15,000, offering the chance to indulge in original vintage artwork from a variety of years and countries. An exceptional example offered for sale is an extremely rare original poster produced in order to promote the first ever edition of the world championship for international association football teams – the FIFA World Cup – which was held over seventeen days in Uruquay in July 1930 (estimate: £15,000-20,000). Uruguay was selected as the host nation to further celebrate the centenary of its independence, and the Uruguay national football team had successfully retained their

METZ, FRANCE (AP).- It’s France’s newest architectural wonder, and it looks something like an enormous white floppy sun hat. Or a giant swimming manta ray, or maybe an alien spacecraft. The new Pompidou Center art museum in the eastern French city of Metz has generated a big buzz in the architecture world, largely for its complex free-form roof. When it opens to the public this week, the strange and arresting building will likely overshadow the Picassos, Dalis and Warhols it is exhibiting. The building is all the more surreal for its setting amid the stern gray clocktowers and church steeples of Metz, chosen for its strategic location near France’s borders with Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. Reporters got a preview of the museum, an outpost of Paris’ Pompidou Center for modern and contemporary art, on Monday, two days before the opening. Even many of those who find the exterior absurd will appreciate the galleries and how they interact with the art. On the ground floor, a hang

NASHVILLE, TN.- There are few contemporary artists whose name is as synonymous with the medium in which he works as Dale Chihuly, who is widely regarded as the most innovative glass artist working today. Active since the 1960s, Chihuly is credited with almost single handedly elevating the postwar American studio glass movement to the international prominence it now enjoys. During an eight-month exhibition in the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ Upper-Level Galleries, the unsurpassed mastery of the artist and his Seattle glass-studio collaborators will be on view in nine installations drawn from some of Chihuly’s most acclaimed series. Chihuly at the Frist will open to the public yesterday, and remain on view through Jan. 2, 2011. “We are delighted to present the work of Dale Chihuly, whose international stature and acclaim stem from the boldness with which he honors ancient glassmaking traditions wh

NEW YORK, NY.- Opened on April 27, 2010, a special exhibition of 300 works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection by Pablo Picasso includes 238 paintings, drawings, and prints framed with Optium® Acrylic Glazing from Tru Vue. Among these, Picasso’s large Rose-period oil painting The Actor (1904–05) returns for viewing. The painting, now protected with Optium Acrylic Glazing, underwent conservation and restoration after being damaged in the galleries in January. In February, Tru Vue began talking with the Museum about glazing all of Picasso’s works on paper, and perhaps, some paintings with Optium. “We are very grateful for Tru Vue’s contribution toward the glazing of the works of art with Optium; the result is marvelous,” says Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Chairman, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art. As curator

NEW YORK, NY.- Haunch of Venison presents an exhibition by Carla Accardi, one of the key figures of abstract art in Italy during the second half of the twentieth century. The exhibition, organized by art historian and critic Adachiara Zevi, includes works from the mid-1950s to the present, including several new works made specifically for this exhibition. In a 2005 article in the New York Times esteemed art critic Roberta Smith described Carla Accardi as “art star on the order of Agnes Martin in Italy.” Struggling against Italy’s patriarchal hegemony throughout her career, it is notable that in the early 1950s Accardi was the only female artist being exhibited alongside Burri, Fontana and Moreni. Although her recognition came primarily from Europe, American audiences have, in recent years, begun to grasp the range of Accardi’s influence. Artforum’s Brian Sholis recently encouraged his readers to begin payin

BERLIN.- From May 8 until June 26, 2010, Camera Work exhibits works of photographer Robert Polidori in its gallery showrooms. The exhibition entirely focuses on the powerful beauty of the Palace of Versailles. Polidori’s extensive documentation of the restoration process of the 1980s is supplemented by current works which have never been exhibited before. The exhibited photographs present an exclusive selection of the three-volume illustrated book “Parcours Muséologique Revisité” which was recently released by STEIDL publishing house. The work comprehensively documents Polidori’s monumental photographic work, which has in the meantime been concluded, at the Palace of Versailles over a period of 25 years. The work, awarded with the Liliane Bettencourt Prix de la Photographie, has was the highlight of a number of excellent publications such as, for example, “Havanna,” “Sperrzonen – Pripjat und Tschernobyl,” “Metropolis,” or “A