HELVOIRT.- A change in luxury spending habits caused by the recession has helped the international art and antiques market weather the global economic storm, reveals a new report commissioned by The European Fine Art Foundation which organises The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) to be held in the Dutch city of Maastricht in the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) from 12-21 March 2010. The report The International Art Market 2007-2009, Trends in the Art Trade during Global Recession has been prepared by Dr Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist specialising in the fine and decorative art market and founder of Arts Economics. The price of the report is €15 and can be ordered at www.tefaf.com (click on shop). Wealthy buyers have been switching away from expensive cars, yachts and jets in favour of assets with long-term tangible value such as art and
Galleries for Musical Instruments Reopen at Metropolitan Museum
NEW YORK, NY.- After an eight-month hiatus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art reopens its André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments on March 2, featuring a refreshed and reinstalled presentation of its renowned collection of Western musical instruments. Showcasing more than 230 works of art drawn primarily from the Museum’s extensive holdings, which are among the most important in the world, the new installation of Western musical instruments will focus attention on individual masterworks by exploring each within its musical and cultural context, by offering exciting comparisons of how individual makers realized the same concept, and by introducing examples of the various instruments’ developments. Among the wide range of objects on view—keyboard, string, percussion, woodwind, and brass instruments—a highlight will be
Important Collection of Work by George Segal at L&M Arts
NEW YORK, NY.- L&M Arts presents an important collection of work by George Segal, on view through April 3, 2010. Recognized as a great American sculptor of the twentieth century, George Segal used plaster and found objects to create innovative works depicting his immediate surroundings while invoking scenes which resonate universally. Working out of an old chicken coop as his studio on the family farm in New Jersey, Segal produced scenes witnessed throughout his life in his native New York City and later in suburban New Jersey, capturing the lives of ordinary people in daily activities. Feeling trapped stylistically in the medium of paint, Segal transitioned into creating three-dimensional figures and objects. He developed his ideas mentally, never through sketches. After experimenting with roughly assembled proto-plaster figures and accumulating objects used as props for his pieces, he developed his technique in
Massive Head of Famous Pharaoh Amenhotep III Unearthed in Egypt
CAIRO (AP).- Archaeologists have unearthed a massive red granite head of one Egypt’s most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced Sunday. The head of Amenhotep III, which alone is about the height of a person, was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor. The leader of the expedition that discovered the head described it as the best preserved sculpture of Amenhotep III’s face found to date. “Other statues have always had something broken: the tip of the nose, the face is eroded,” said Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, who has led the led the Egyptian-European expedition at the site since 1999. “But here, from the tip of the crown to the chin, it is so beautifully carved and polished, nothing is broken.” The head is part of a larger
Sotheby’s Announces 2009 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results
NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) today announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009. Despite a 7% decrease in net auction sales, Sotheby’s reported a substantial improvement in fourth quarter 2009 earnings over the prior year fourth quarter. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 is the second highest in Company history at $73.6 million, or $1.09 per share, compared to a net loss of ($9.3) million, or ($0.14) per share, for the prior period. This significant improvement in profitability is especially attributable to a $52.1 million, or 31%, increase in operating revenues from the prior period. This increase is largely due to a 440 basis point, or 28%, improvement in auction commission margin, from 16.0% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 20.4% in the fourth quarter of 2009, resulting from management’s revenue enhancement strategies. Also positively impacting revenues is
Getting Naked for Art with Spencer Tunick at the Sydney Opera House
SYDNEY (REUTERS).- Some 5,200 Australians posed naked in front of the Sydney Opera House on Monday for a photo shoot by New York-based artist Spencer Tunick for another signature installation of nudes against urban backdrops. On a chilly, overcast, first day of autumn, the mass nude photo shoot was titled “Mardi Gras: The Base” and meant to celebrate Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras last weekend. As the sun rose, Tunick instructed participants to do a number of poses, from standing up, lying down, and even embracing cheek to cheek, for over an hour. “I want all couples to embrace and kiss, all friends to kiss and all strangers to do whatever they want,” Tunick said as he directed the crowd. Some participants were surprised at how asexual, and leveling, the event was. “I thought it could be a bit awkward, but it’s funny because when you’re naked and everybody else is naked, you feel like you’re dressed, because everybody looks the same,” said Steven Anglier,
New Museum on Life of Frederic Chopin Opens in Warsaw on the Composer’s 200th Birthday
WARSAW (AP).- The last piano that Frederic Chopin composed on. A death mask made after he succumbed to what was probably tuberculosis. A lock of his brown hair. Those are among objects on display at a new museum dedicated to the life of the Romantic-era composer that opened on his 200th birthday Monday in his native Poland. The interactive multimedia museum is located in the center of Warsaw, where Chopin moved in infancy from a nearby country estate, and where he spent the first 20 years of his life before moving to Paris. Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski hailed it as “the most modern biographical museum in Europe and even the world” at a ceremonial opening that comes amid a year of celebrations of the much-revered musician.
Seminal Image of Mick Jagger’s Arrest Helps Bonhams to Go ‘Pop’
LONDON.- Bonhams announced that it is embracing the 1960s on 7th March when viewing opens at its New Bond Street galleries for both a specialist auction of “Pop and Op Art” and the selling exhibition of “Pure Sixties: Pure Bailey” – a collection of David Bailey’s iconic photographs from the 60s. An outstanding selection of works inspired by popular culture, and dating from the 1960s onwards will go on sale in the Pop and Op Art auction to be held at 2pm on Wednesday 10th March in New Bond Street. The sale features works by Richard Hamilton, a key figure in English Pop Art and co-founder of the Independent Group at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London – an organisation which was key to the movement’s development. From the 1960s Hamilton was represented by Robert Fraser and produced a series of prints entitled “Swingeing London” based on Fraser’s arrest, along with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, for
Thomas Wrede to Show Works from Manhattan Series at Henn Gallery
MUNICH.- To start off a cooperation between Henn Gallery, Munich and Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf, the German photographer Thomas Wrede (*1963) will show works from his series Manhattan Picture Worlds. The Vernissage will be on Thursday, 4th March, 7 p.m. at Henn Gallery, Augustenstrasse 54 in Munich, with introductory words by Dr. Inka Graeve Ingelmann, Head of Department Photography and New Media, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Wrede has photographed oversized advertisements in the centre of New York City between the years 2003 and 2008, which he treats as incorporated elements of architecture in his pictures. As in earlier works by Wrede e.g. the Real Landscapes- or Small Worlds series, the artist plays with dimensions as well as different layers of perception and reality. Manhattan Picture Worlds does not use the conquering drive that the huge poster
Keith Haring Anniversary Show at Tony Shafrazi Gallery
NEW YORK, NY.- Tony Shafrazi Gallery is holding an exhibition of works by Keith Haring which celebrate the 20th anniversary of the passing of the artist born in Reading, Pennsylvania. Haring died in 1990 of AIDS-related complications. Haring achieved his first public attention with chalk drawings in the subways of New York. The exhibitions were filmed by the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. Around this time, “The Radiant Baby” became his symbol. His bold lines, vivid colors, and active figures carry strong messages of life and unity. Starting in 1980, he organized exhibitions in Club 57. He participated in the “Times Square Exhibition” and drew, for the first time, animals and human faces. In 1981 he sketched his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic, metal and found objects. Haring contributed to the New York New Wave display in 1981, and had his first exclusive