STOCKHOLM.- At Bukowski’s autumn auction last year, Nationalmuseum acquired one of Johan Tobias Sergel’s few remaining clay models from a series of royal portraits, a bust that has been in private ownership until now. The portrait of the 21 year-old Duchess Hedvig Elisabet Charlotta has a freshness and immediacy, with clear traces of the sculptor at work. When Johan Tobias Sergel was recalled to Sweden from Rome by King Gustav III, the sculptor hoped to be able to continue working on major themes from the ancient myths of gods and heroes. However, it perhaps came as no surprise to him that his future output in Sweden would take on a very different character. After all, the King had commissioned a portrait of himself just before Sergel left Rome on Midsummer’s Eve 1778. As soon as the sculptor arrived home, he had to quickly get started on his depiction of Gustav III, which was intended as a Christmas pres
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NEW YORK, NY.- Tilton Gallery presents David Lynch’s first solo exhibition in New York since 1989. The show will run March 6th – April 14th, 2012, and the reception with artist in attendance will take place Friday, March 16th, 6 – 8 pm. An icon among American filmmakers, David Lynch is equally committed as a visual artist. He began his career as a painter and started making short films while a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia to find a way to make his paintings move. Lynch works across many different media to create paintings, sculpture, works on paper and photographs. Recent paintings combine primitively drawn figures and text with thick textured areas of paint and, often, inserted lit colored light bulbs. Framed in thick gold frames under glass (inspired by Francis Bacon’s frames), they become box-like, objects in their own right. Narrative subjects exhibit Lynch&
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LONDON.- Christie’s announces the sale of The Pieter & Olga Dreesmann Collection of Dutch Old Master Paintings which will be offered in the Old Master & British Paintings Evening Auction on Tuesday 3 July. The Dreesmann family name is synonymous with connoisseurship, passion and generous philanthropy in the arts. Crowned by Rembrandt’s masterpiece A Bust of a Man in a Gorget and Cap (estimate: £8 million -12 million), offered at auction for the first time in almost 40 years, the outstanding collection, formed by Pieter and Olga Dreesmann, comprises a group of 15 exceptional works by 17th Century Dutch Masters of the ‘Golden Age.’ The group constitutes the most important single-owner collection of Dutch paintings of this period to come to the market in recent years and is expected to realise in excess of £19 million. Richard Knight, International Co-Chairman of Old Masters and 19th Century Art at Christie&
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GENEVA.- Sotheby's Geneva announced that it will offer – in its sale of Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels on 14 May 2012 – the jewellery collection of one of the most important jewellery designers of the 20th century: Suzanne Belperron (1900‐1983). Comprising over 60 lots, this unprecedented sale features the most significant collection of jewels by Suzanne Belperron in private hands. The jeweller’s personal collection includes some of her most celebrated designs and very intimate items which illustrate her unique style and creative virtuosity, while also shedding light on her life. Speaking of the sale, David Bennett, Chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery Department in Europe and the Middle East and Co‐Chairman of Sotheby’s Switzerland, said: “Suzanne Belperron is arguably the most talented and influential female jeweller of the 20th century and it is a huge honour to conduct this hi
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BOSTON, MA.- The search for the utopian realm of Shambhala, also sometimes known as “Shangri-la,” has captured the imagination of people for thousands of years. Be it a state of mind or an actual place somewhere in Central Asia, this legendary kingdom is said to be ruled by a lineage of 32 mythological kings who are protectors of Tibetan Buddhist texts. A set of newly conserved 17th-century paintings representing 22 of these Shambhala kings provides the focal point of the MFA’s exhibition Seeking Shambhala, on view from March 6 to October 21 on the second floor of the Museum. Through these centuries-old scroll paintings and decorative objects, as well as contemporary works, the exhibition examines the spiritual journey to find “The Pure Land” where peace reigns,
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NEW YORK, NY.- Arte Primitivo, a gallery specializing in Pre-Columbian Art, Classical and Egyptian Antiquities, Asian Antiquities and Antiques and Ethnographic Art in New York City, NY, is proud to announce its latest online absentee auction - Fine Pre-Columbian and Tribal Art, Classical and Asian Antiquities – featuring more than 600 lots of authentic examples from around the world. Arte Primitivo’s absentee bidding format allows bidders to register and then place bids at their own pace right up until each auction’s unique closing time. Everything in the auction is an authentic, quality item. All art has been legally acquired and is legal to sell. All auction lots can be viewed online or by visiting the gallery now through March 13, 2012. The first part of Arte Primitivo’s March 13 auction features a fine selection of Pre-Columbian Art from West Mexico, the Mayan territories and most of the major cultures of ancient Peru, Costa
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LONDON (AP).- Britain's Tate gallery has bought a work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made up of 8 million porcelain sunflower seeds — a portion of the 100 million he brought to London in 2010. Tate said Monday that it had purchased "Sunflower Seeds 2010" — 10 cubic meters (13 cubic yards) of seeds, hand-crafted by Chinese artisans, which can be displayed either as a conical pile or as a square or rectangular bed. The gallery did not disclose the price. Last year Sotheby's auction house sold a 100 kilogram (220 pound) bag of the seeds for 350,000 pounds ($550,000). In 2010, Ai covered the floor of a 1,000 sq. meter (10,000 sq. foot) hall at London's Tate Modern with almost 100 million of the seeds. Visitors were initially invited to walk or lie on them, but after a few days the ceramic dust was judged a health hazard and the exhibit was cordoned off. It still proved a hugely popular show. The gallery said the seeds, a common Chinese street snack, represented
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LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum today announced a generous donation of 25 photographs by acclaimed 20th century photographer Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984). A gift of Carol Vernon and her husband Robert Turbin in memory of Marjorie and Leonard Vernon, “The Museum Set” was purchased from Adams by Vernon’s parents, with the understanding that they would one day be donated to a museum. Having been in the same hands since their initial purchase, the photographs are in pristine condition, and greatly enhance the Getty’s existing collection of 40 photographs by Adams. In 1979, near the end of his seven decade career, Adams began to produce what he called “The Museum Set,” a project initiated with the help of Maggi Weston of Weston Gallery in Carmel, California. From over 2,500 of his negatives, Adams selected 75 images, which
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MALAGA.- The interest that Pablo Picasso aroused among the photographers of his time led to a large number of pictures that have now become part of our collective imagery. This endless quantity of photographs shows us an artist who was devoted to his work and, at the same time, a man with an outstanding talent for self-dramatization. The exhibition MemyselfandI. Photographic Portraits of Picasso, reflects on Picasso’s own role in the construction of his public image and, more specifically, the way he used photography to enhance the cult of his own personality. Jointly organized by Museo Picasso Málaga and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the exhibition brings together 166 shots by 34 photographers, including some of the greatest names in world photography, such as Man Ray, Brassaï, Robert Doisneau, Dora Maar, Irving Penn, Edward Quinn, Robert Capa,
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BELLEVUE, WA.- Winner of the John and Joyce Price Award of Excellence of the BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown!, ceramic sculptor Dirk Staschke returns to BAM with his first museum solo exhibition, Falling Feels a Lot Like Flying. Desire and consumption are at the heart of this lush and ultra‐realistic installation. Inspired by the bountiful Vanitas still‐life paintings of 16th‐century Northern Europe and the excessive ornamentation of the Baroque period, Staschke seduces the viewer with his voluptuous organic forms while exploring themes of excess and its effects. A master ceramicist whose work has been shown internationally, Staschke is best know for his banquet style displays of flora, fauna and food. In Falling Feels a Lot Like Flying, an exhibition specifically created for Bellevue Arts Museum, the artist takes his work to a new scale. Comprised of more
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