LONDON.- After 40 years of trading at the top end of the business, legendary English antique dealership, Sampson and Horne, are to sell their entire stock, comprising nearly 800 lots, and attracting a pre-sale estimate of £1,000,000, at Bonhams on 28th April 2010. Widely considered as the leading dealer in British pottery and country furniture, the Mayfair-based company, whose clientele include important private collectors and international museums from the UK and the US, is closing due to the ill health of its founder Jonathan Horne, and has chosen Bonhams, with its record of successful single-owner sales and leading ceramics department, to sell the exceptional collection. The sale will feature 17th and 18th century fine and rare British pottery, country furniture, decorative and unusual period items, needlework and paintings. John Sandon, who directs Bonhams British ceramics department, has known Jonathan Horne, and his late
This MLK Holiday, Work has Begun on Memorial in DC
WASHINGTON, DC (AP).- Construction is finally under way on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall after more than a dozen years of planning, fundraising and legal wrangling. Workers have been clearing the site on the Tidal Basin since Dec. 28. They will move some trees to another part of the mall, including a few of Washington’s famous cherry trees. By February, heavy construction will begin. Monday will mark the first King holiday, though, when organizers can finally see their work in progress. “Everyone in the office is taking a deep breath,” executive architect Ed Jackson Jr. said in an interview Friday. “Although it’s been a labor of love, it’s been a long road, 13 years for me.” It was supposed to be completed by now. President Bill Clinton signed a law authorizing the memorial in 1996, and President George W. Bush appeared at a ceremonial groundbreaking with Oprah Winfrey and others in 2006. Numerous design approvals and a disagreement with the National P
Cuban Artist José Bedia has First Show at Heriard-Cimino Gallery
NEW ORLEANS, LA.- Heriard-Cimino Gallery presents “Fragment of Journeys,” new work by José Bedia. The exhibition will be on view January 15 through March 3rd, 2010. José Bedia is an exceptionally masterful and compelling artist whose visual narratives and iconic language are distilled to their essence. He approaches his subjects with the social awareness of an anthropologist. The universalism of Bedia’s work is derived from his effort at synthesizing, unifying and blending elements from the most diverse ancient, geographical, historical, and cultural horizons. Bedia says of his work – It is an attempt at communication and community between the material and spiritual universe of “modern” man and that of “primitive” man. In Fragment of Journeys, Bedia paints powerful, animistic and metaphorical images, often utilizing Afro-Cuban deities. Throughout
William Eggleston’s First Retrospective Comes to Chicago
CHICAGO, IL.- The unconventional beauty and artistry of works by photographer William Eggleston will be showcased in a major exhibition opening at the Art Institute of Chicago this winter. William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008–on view from February 27 through May 23, 2010, in the Modern Wing’s Abbott Galleries (G182, G184) and Carolyn S. and Matthew Bucksbaum Gallery (G188)–is the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the Memphis-based contemporary photographer. The exhibition brings together more than 150 extraordinary images of familiar, everyday subjects with lesser-known, early black-and-white prints and provocative video recordings, all produced over a five-decade period. Born in 1939 in
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s Photo of the Kremlin Gets $1.7 Million at Auction
ST. PETERSBURG (AP).- President Dmitry Medvedev has outdone his powerful predecessor — as an artist. A photograph Medvedev took of the kremlin, or fortress, in a Siberian town sold for 51 million rubles ($1.7 million) at a charity auction Saturday night, surpassing the 37 million rubles (then $1.1 million) paid last year for a painting by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Medvedev’s black-and-white photo was snapped up by Mikhail Zingarevich, a board member at Ilim Group, the pulp and paper company where Medvedev once worked as a lawyer. Zingarevich said he planned to hang the 69-by-96-centimeter (27-by-38-inch) picture in his office.
Exhibition Surveys the Impact of Picasso and His Circle in Paris
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- One of the most innovative and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) was at his most inventive between 1905 and 1945. The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris (February 24 – April 25, 2010) surveying Picasso’s remarkable output during these years, from the pioneering role he played in the development of Cubism to his dialogue with Surrealism and other important art movements in the 1920s and 1930s. The exhibition also explores the pivotal role that the city of Paris played in the history of modern art, where artists from around the world made
Photographs by Finnish Artist Ilkka Halso at Galerie Wagner + Partner
BERLIN.- Weather has become “climate”, climate has turned into “climate crisis” – an unstoppable threat of our natural environment has been a global discussion topic for years. The internationally renowned Finnish artist Ilkka Halso (*1965 ) has been dealing with healing and rescue of endangered nature in his work for the best part of a decade. His photographic interventions are therefore not just the Finnish sequel of “Landart”, developed in the USA in the 1960s, but also a reaction to our changing planet. The exhibition at Galerie Wagner + Partner aims to trace Halso’s aesthetic approach of rescuing nature. In the works of the series “Restoration” the artist develops and builds pseudo-scientific arrangements such as scaffolding trees with transparent gauze and illuminating them. Nature is given
Spanish Lawmaker’s Photo Used for Bin Laden Poster
MADRID (AP).- A Spanish lawmaker was horrified to find out the FBI used his photograph as part of a digitally enhanced image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today, he said Saturday, calling into question the crime-fighting agency’s credibility in battling terrorism. Gaspar Llamazares of the United Left party said he would no longer feel safe traveling to the United States after his hair and facial wrinkles were taken from the Internet and appeared on a wanted poster updating the U.S. government’s 1998 photo of the al-Qaida leader. “I was surprised and angered because it’s the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist,” Llamazares said at a news conference
Site Specific Installations to be Presented at Bologna Art First 2010
BOLOGNA.- Bologna Art First reaches its fifth edition: for the first time, this exclusive itinerary in the city becomes a project curated by Julia Draganovic. From 29 January to the end of February 2010, the project, a collaboration between the City of Bologna and Arte Fiera Art First, will present a series of site specific installations by artists who work with participating galleries. Some of these works will be specially created in situ, respecting the structure of the historical buildings that host them. This single, large collective exhibition will create a dialogue between contemporary art and unusual locations in the city’s historical centre and its surroundings, and Bologna will once again demonstrate its eclecticism by alternating from ancient to modern, becoming a stage where the public can see and experience contemporary art in environments radically different from the usual white
Photographs of War by David Levinthal at Stellan Holm Gallery
NEW YORK, NY.- Stellan Holm Gallery is presenting I.E.D.: War in Afghanistan and Iraq, an exhibition of photographs by David Levinthal. The exhibition runs through February 13, 2010. This is the first solo exhibition of works by David Levinthal on view at Stellan Holm Gallery. I.E.D.: War in Afghanistan and Iraq features eighteen color photographs by renowned photographer, David Levinthal, which seek to examine the way in which our society looks at war. The idea for this series was conceived when Levinthal recognized a flood of figurines and models available to the American consumer, depicting the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through the use of these miniature soldiers, civilians and armored vehicles, Levinthal constructs extremely realistic dioramas that recreate