ANTWERP.- For the first time, Peter Lemmens (Mechelen 1975) shows his work in Galerie van der Mieden. Earlier, he already exhibited in Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer in Antwerp, MAC’s Museum in Grand Hornu, Verbeke Foundation in Kemzeke, at Liste Basel and Frieze in London. This exhibition shows 3 video installations, photo work and an installation mounted on the wall. However, it’s not about multimedia art, photography or video. Peter Lemmens looks at these art forms purely as instruments, as if you would look at a normal hammer. It’s a simple, practical and useful object, but you can’t ‘understand’ a hammer. You can only understand what its purpose is, which becomes clear when someone knocks a nail into a wall. With his work, Peter Lemmens knocks nails into walls. It doesn’t matter whether you understand the work itself, because it wants us to have an insight into a
Storm King Announces Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration
MOUNTAINVILLE, NY.- Storm King Art Center, widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest sculpture parks, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a diversity of offerings throughout its 2010 and 2011 seasons. Highlights include 5+5: New Perspectives, a special exhibition comprising twelve new and recent works, which will be loaned and sited in Storm King’s expansive landscape by ten artists. Six of the sculptures were specially created for the occasion. Inside the museum building, Storm King presents The View from Here: Storm King at Fifty, an exhibition that explores many aspects of Storm King’s rich and varied history. Among other anniversary events are a gala dinner and auction at Sotheby’s in New York City, and a variety of programs. Located in Mountainville, New York, approximately one hour north of New York City, Storm King encompasses 500 pristine acres of rolling hills, woodlands, and f
Herbert G. Ponting: The Conquest of the South Pole at Flo Peters Gallery
HAMBURG.- With the exhibition Herbert G. Ponting: The Conquest of the South Pole the Flo Peters Gallery presents photographs of historic significance and incomparable suspense. In 1910 Captain Robert Falcon Scott set sail under the British Flag aboard the research ship Terra Nova aiming to be the first man to conquest the South Pole. Also part of the crew was a photographer and cameraman by the name of Herbert G. Ponting. With his photographs of the expedition and its participants he not only left a unique document about the beginnings of polar exploration but also lets the posterity be part of one of the last great adventures of human discovery. In 1913 the British expedition of the Terra Nova to the South Pole ended in tragedy. Robert Falcon Scott just missed the glory to be the first man on the South Pole. He lost the race to the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who rammed the Norwegian flag into the snow just
Masterpieces by the Scottish Colourists to Lead Sotheby’s London Sale
LONDON.- On Thursday, 22 April 2010, the first of Sotheby’s biannual London sales of Scottish Pictures in 2010 will include a group of important works by the Scottish Colourists that unequivocally demonstrates the pivotal position occupied by these artists in the formative years of British modernism during the early decades of the twentieth century. The group comprises Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935), Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937), George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931) and John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), and following extended sojourns in Paris and the South of France, they took the groundbreaking innovations in pictorial space and colour by artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh and Matisse to forge their own path, continuing to respond to French developments in a way unrivaled by English artists of the period. All of the sale’s offerings will be exhibited at Edinburgh’s Mansfield Traquair
Leang Seckon’s First European Solo Exhibition Opens at Rossi & Rossi
LONDON.- Rossi & Rossi present Leang Seckon in the artist’s first European solo exhibition. Among the foremost members of the emerging Cambodian contemporary art scene he was born at the onset of the American bombings of Indochina and grew up during the rise of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. As a result of these tumultuous years he was left without a birth certificate and unable to verify his exact age. In this exhibition the artist will present some twenty paintings and collages centered around a sculptural installation, all based on the theme of the skirt his mother wore during pregnancy and his infancy. Each work contains an allegory wrapped in the memories and personal narratives of Seckon’s childhood and chronicles an undocumented Cambodia. Within the omnipresent spectre of warfare and violence Seckon depicts, there is an irrepressible fire of the spirit and culture of the Cambodian people. The painting
Hirshhorn to Present First Yves Klein Retrospective in 30 Years
WASHINGTON, DC.- One of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Yves Klein (French, b. Nice, 1928; d. Paris, 1962), took the European art scene by storm in a prolific but brief career that lasted only from 1954 to 1962. “Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers,” on view at the Hirshhorn May 20 through Sept. 12, is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States since 1982. Co-curated by the Hirshhorn’s deputy director and chief curator Kerry Brougher and Dia Art Foundation director Philippe Vergne, former chief curator and deputy director at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the exhibition is co-organized by the Hirshhorn and the Walker and developed in full collaboration with the Yves Klein Archives in Paris. Presenting approximately 200 works, “Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers” explores the full range of the artist’s body of work and offers an essen
Door to Afterlife from Ancient Egyptian Tomb Found by Archaeologists
CAIRO (AP).- Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the afterlife from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiquities authority said Monday. These recessed niches found in nearly all ancient Egyptian tombs were meant to take the spirits of the dead to and from the afterworld. The nearly six-foot- tall (1.75 meters) slab of pink granite was covered with religious texts. The door came from the tomb of User, the chief minister of Queen Hatshepsut, a powerful, long ruling 15th century B.C. queen from the New Kingdom with a famous mortuary temple near Luxor in southern Egypt. User held the position of vizier for 20 years, also acquiring the titles of prince and mayor of the city, according to the inscriptions. He may have inherited his position from his father. Viziers in ancient Egypt were powerful officials tasked with the day
Superman Comic Sells for $1.5 Million, Setting New Record
NEW YORK (AP).- The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again. A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman’s debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books. The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn’t in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday. That number was bested just days later when a 1939 comic book featuring Batman’s debut sold for $75,000 more at an auction in Dallas. There are about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful in good condition. The issue that sold Monday was rated slightly higher than
Princess Diana’s Family Offers Painting by Peter Paul Rubens in $30 million Sale at Christie’s
LONDON (REUTERS).- The family of Princess Diana will auction a painting by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens as part of a clearout sale valued at $30 million designed to ensure the financial future of the Althorp estate. Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, is head of the estate, and plans to marry for a third time later this year, according to newspaper reports. Diana, who was married to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The highlights of a collection including paintings, furniture, porcelain and horse-drawn carriages are works by Rubens and 17th century Italian master Il Guercino. The Rubens, “A Commander being armed for Battle,” was painted in 1613 or 1614 and is expected to fetch 8-12 million pounds ($12-18 million). The bearded man gazing toward the viewer has been named by some experts as Emperor Charles V. The painting has been at the late princess’s family home Althorp for more than 200 years, and was originally described as the “
Firmament Watched at Huasteca Archaeological Site
MEXICO CITY.- Interest in deciphering the sky, practiced during Prehispanic ages, is been retaken in 21st century at the Noche de Observacion Astronomica en Sitios Arqueologicos (Night of Astronomical Observation at Archaeological Sites), which first event took place in Tamtoc, San Luis Potosi in March 20th 2010. Considered the capital city of Huasteca Prehispanic culture, Tamtoc was an important sky observation point, being Huasteca world view closely linked to star movements. Centuries after, the interest of watching the sky and the path followed by stars is still present. At the night of astronomical observation organized by the Archaeology Coordination of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), hundreds of persons were able to do as their ancestors and watch the firmament. From 19:00 hours, visitors were allowed into the archaeological zone main square to take part in the activity guided by archaeologists Guillermo Cordova Tello and Estela Martinez Mora