| The First Art Newspaper on the Net | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, December 7, 2011 |
| | Städel Museum purchases portrait of Pope Julius II, one of Raphael's most famous works
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Employees of the Staedel Museum transport the portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael to its display location in Frankfurt Main,Germany, 06 December 2011. Stephan Knobloch (L), director of the restoration workshop at the Staedel accompanies them. According to museum director Hollein, the museum is extraordinarily happy to have this high Rennaissance work in their collection of old masters. There are a few versions of the painting in existance; one hangs in London, one in Florence. EPA/ANDREAS ARNOLD.
FRANKFURT.- The portrait of Pope Julius II is one of Raphael’s most famous works. It was in Rome between June 1511 and March 1512 that the artist executed his likeness of this highly art-minded – but also extremely strong-willed and irascible – pope. It shows the bearded pope in a three-quarter view, life-size, sitting in an armchair. The portrait has come down to us in several versions, of which the most well-known is in the holdings of the National Gallery in London, and another is in those of the Uffizi in Florence. The Städel Museum quite recently succeeded in acquiring a hitherto unknown version of the portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael and his workshop. Measuring 106 by 78.4 cm and painted on a poplar panel, the work has been comprehensively examined and analyzed by art-historical as well as technological methods, and old retouchings and layers of varnish have been removed. The likeness is cap ... More |
| Rediscovered Velazquez among old masters for sale at Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams | | Tutankhamun Exhibition international tour finishes with 8 million visitors; sets Australian visitor record | | Getty Museum acquires rare sculpture by the accomplished Master of the Harburger Altar | 
A Christie's auction house staff holds a painting 'Portrait of Don Juan Lopez de Robredo' by Spanish painter Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes in London. EPA/ANDY RAIN.
By: Mike Collett-White
LONDON (REUTERS).- Booming art prices have produced plenty of "treasures in the attic" of late, and this week could see another when a painting first valued at 300 pounds is set to fetch up to three million after Bonhams discovered it was by Velazquez. The portrait of an unknown gentleman goes under the hammer on Wednesday, as London hosts a series of old master and British art auctions featuring works worth tens of millions of pounds. While the newly discovered Velazquez is not the most valuable lot on offer at Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams, its story is arguably the most arresting. The painting of a balding man in black tunic and white "golilla" collar was part of a small collection of works attributed to 19th century British painter Matthew Shepperson which was con- ... More | | 
Canopic coffinette of Tutankhamun. Photo: Mike Stone.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The touring exhibition of King Tut’s treasures Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs has closed its doors after an 8-month showing at the Melbourne Museum in Australia, shattering records as the most successful touring exhibition in Australian history with 796,277 visitors. This brings the exhibition’s 6.5-year international tour to a close with more than 8 million visitors in total. Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs debuted at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in June 2005, swiftly becoming a blockbuster by attracting nearly 1 million visitors, second in the institution’s history only to the 1970s Tutankhamun exhibition tour. The exhibition continued to set attendance records throughout its tour, which included: Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale; The Field Museum (Chicago); The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia); The O2 (London); Dallas Museum of Art; de Young Museum (San Francisco); Discovery Times Square (New York ... More | | 
A sculpture of Saint John the Baptist, carved in limewood by the accomplished Master of the Harburger Altar in about 1515. AP Photo/Getty Museum.
LONDON.- The Getty Museum announced that it made a successful bid at auction for an extraordinary rare sculpture of St. John the Baptist carved in limewood by the accomplished Master of the Harburger Altar in about 1515. The piece was purchased at Sotheby’s in London on December 6, 2011. The sculpture, nearly 60 inches tall, depicts St. John the Baptist standing on a small mound, painted to suggest a grassy hillock, cradling the Holy Lamb who turns toward the saint. St John wears a voluminous cloak over a roughly sewn shift made of a camel’s skin; the camel’s head can be seen resting between his feet. The limewood figure, which still retains considerable areas of original paint, very likely formed part of a carved winged altarpiece, perhaps flanking other saint figures, originally from the church at Schloss Harburg, a castle belonging to the House of Oettingen- ... More |
| World Chess Hall of Fame presents highlights from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection | | Work by Eva Rothschild is first contemporary art acquisition for the Hepworth Wakefield | | Charles Dickens' 200th birthday celebrated with coin made up of portrait with author's titles | 
The Deans purchased their first chess set in the Middle East and thereafter acquired a set in each country they visited. ©Dean Collection 2010, Richard Beenen Photography.
ST. LOUIS, MO.- The World Chess Hall of Fame presents Chess Masterpieces: Highlights from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection as one of its inaugural exhibitions. This magnificent show celebrates the Deans’ 50th year of collecting together and uses outstanding selected works to trace the development of the game of chess and the design of fine chess sets from the tenth to the early twentieth century. Sets come from Austria, Cambodia, China, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kashmir, Morocco, Persia, Russia, Syria, and Turkey. Among the works on display are ones owned or commissioned by Catherine the Great, Napoleon, Czar Nicolas II, and the British royal family. And most importantly, this is the first time that the only two Fabergé sets in existence have been exhibited together in public. The Deans purchased their first chess set in the ... More | | 
Installation view of Eva Rothschild, Wandering Palm, The Hepworth Wakefield, © The artist.
WAKEFIELD.- The Hepworth Wakefield announces its first art contemporary art acquisition. Purchased through the Contemporary Art Society’s Acquisitions Scheme and with the support of the Art Fund, Wandering Palm, 2011 by Eva Rothschild, is the first work to be acquired for the Wakefield Council’s permanent art collection since it opened in May 2011. Wandering Palm was one of a number of new works created by the artist for the inaugural exhibition, Hot Touch, at The Hepworth Wakefield. The explicit use of casting processes behind Eva Rothschild’s Wandering Palm, which assembles cast component parts of familiar everyday objects, has a resonance with the existing permanent collection and in particular Barbara Hepworth's own hand-worked plasters from the Hepworth Family Gift. Simon Wallis, Director said: “This is a really exciting moment for The Hepworth Wakefield. Thanks to the support of Contempora ... More | | 
The reverse of the new 2 pound sterling coin with the image of Charles Dickens. AP Photo/David Parry.
LONDON (AP).- The Royal Mint has come up with a novel way to wish Charles Dickens a happy 200th birthday — a new coin with a portrait of the author made up of the titles of some of his most famous fictional works. The two-pound ($3.20) uncirculated collectible coin will be available via the Royal Mint's website for a price of 8.50 pounds ($13) starting this week, officials said. Coins designed for circulation will be available early next year to mark Dickens' birthday. The celebrated Victorian novelist was born two centuries ago on Feb. 7, 1812. The design released Tuesday shows a portrait by artist Matthew Dent that uses titles like "David Copperfield" and "A Christmas Carol" to form a silhouette of Dickens' face. "I wanted the design of the coin to reference both the immense contribution Dickens has made to British literature and his iconic portrait," Dent said. The portrait is based on a bust of the author on displa ... More |
| 9th annual New Art Dealers Alliance Miami Beach reports most successful year to date | | 18th annual SOFA Chicago 2011 and Intuit show of Folk & Outsider art wraps with successful edition | | The Three Stooges in Three Little Beers movie poster brings $59,750 to lead movie poster auction | 
The record high attendance consisted of high caliber collectors. Photo: Courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh.
MIAMI BEACH, FL.- The New Art Dealers Alliance presented its 9th annual NADA Miami Beach at the Deauville Beach Resort (6701 Collins Ave). The fair was widely praised by critics and exhibitors who have unanimously agreed that it was the fair’s most successful year to date. The record high attendance consisted of high caliber collectors including Susan and Michael Hort, Martin Z. Marguiles, Vito Schnabel, Mera Rubell, Adam Lindemann and a high volume of museum curators including Connie Butler, Scott Rothkopf, Paul Schimmel, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Klaus Biesenbach, Donna De Salvo, Jill Dawsey, Christopher Yew and Beatrix Ruf. This was NADA’s third year at the Deauville Beach Resort and the fair expanded its footprint to 45,000 sq ft with the addition of Le Jardin Ballroom. This expansion allowed NADA to offer exhibitors an option of three booth sizes, giving them more scope in designing their presentations. NADA Dire ... More | | 
Richard Meitner, From a Different Zoo. Borosilicate glass, painted and fired, 27 x 10 x 10. Meitner Wax Mueller Special Exhibit at SOFA CHICAGO 2011.
CHICAGO, IL.- The 18th annual Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair: SOFA CHICAGO 2011 and its companion fair, The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, enjoyed a very successful run Nov. 4 - 6 at Navy Pier. Produced by The Art Fair Company, more than 80 international SOFA and Intuit dealers from 13 countries wowed an estimated 30,000 fairgoers over the weekend. Over 2,600 persons attended Thursday's Opening Night during the course of the evening, and SOFA sponsor Chubb Personal Insurance feted 350 guests at a private reception in the Chubb VIP Lounge. Decorated by noted architect/designer Suzanne Lovell, the Chubb Lounge was a welcome retreat from the busy show floor for over 500 VIP cardholders. 9 Special Exhibits greeted fairgoers and 1,500 persons attended 30 Lecture Series presentations featuring world-renowned curators, collectors, critics, artists, and dealers. SOFA Show Director Donna Davies said the fair was a res ... More | | 
The Three Stooges in Three Little Beers (Columbia, 1935) brought $59,750 to lead the auction, which realized $1.6 million total.
DALLAS, TX.- Comedy was definitely king in Heritage Auctions' Nov. 18-19 Vintage Movie Posters Signature(r) Auction, as a one sheet movie poster for The Three Stooges in Three Little Beers (Columbia, 1935) brought $59,750 to lead the auction, which realized $1.6 million total. "The Stooges are as popular as ever," said Grey Smith, Director of Movie Posters at Heritage. "This is a very good result on a simply superb poster. I have to think that Moe, Larry and Curly would all be thrilled to see how beloved they are almost 80 years after they made this movie." More than 1,300 bidders competed for the 1,472 lots in the auction, translating into a 91.8% sell-through rate by total value. "We saw solid bidding across the board," said Smith. "All genres performed well and many posters went for several times their pre-auction estimates, which is always a pleasant surprise." Chief among those pleasant surprises was a one sheet fo ... More |
| Art that tells the story of 900 years of Monarchy: A new eight-part series from BBC Radio 4 | | Collection of thirty seven Doctor Who costumes for sale at Bonhams' Entertainment Memorabilia auction | | Subject in Kertész photograph discovers herself in image at Academy Art Museum exhibition | 
Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Queen Victoria, 1843 (detail). Photo: The Royal Collection © 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
LONDON.- A collaboration between BBC Radio 4 and the Royal Collection to mark Her Majesty The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, BBC Radio 4 illuminates the long history of the Monarchy in a new eight-part series, The Art of Monarchy (broadcast from February 2012). Presented by BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz, the programmes explore the monarchs who have ruled these islands through the works of art they have acquired. Travelling from Balmoral Castle in Scotland to the Royal Library at Windsor and from the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, Will speaks to historians, academics and Royal Collection curators, all of whom share their expertise and explain how the chosen objects illustrate the subjects examined in the programmes, including faith, progress, war and legacy. Among the objects featured in the series are: * Henry VIII’s defence of Roman Catholicism, which ... More | | 
Costume worn by Matt Smith in The Big Bang. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- A collection of thirty seven costumes from recent episodes of Doctor Who are being offered by Angels The Costumiers in the Entertainment Memorabilia auction on Thursday 15th December 2011 at Bonhams, Knightsbridge, London. Angels The Costumiers is the world’s longest-established supplier of costumes to the film, theatre, and television industries. Angels Chairman, Tim Angel, who, as a young costumier, first suggested incorporating the iconic, thick scarf into Tom Baker’s Dr Who outfit, explains why his company loves the show: “Dr Who is a perennial TV favourite, and the Angels team always looks forward to working on the show because of the extraordinary diversity of costumes that are required to bring-to-life the timelord’s journeys. The costumes in the Bonhams auction offer the chance for fans to connect with their favourite episodes, and take home a beautiful piece of TV history.” The cos ... More | | 
Kem Sawyer of Washington, DC, visiting the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD, where she discovered a 1962 photograph by André Kertész of her at age nine.
EASTON, MD.- When children’s author, Kem Sawyer, of Washington , DC , learned that there was an exhibition of Hungarian photographer, André Kertész at the Academy Art Museum in Easton , MD , she was thrilled. Sawyer had been told by a friend some ten years earlier that a photograph of her, taken at age nine in her mother’s children’s dress shop in New York City was in the book, “On Reading André Kertész” (W.W. Norton, 1971), however, she had never seen the photograph herself. The photo was taken by Kertész in 1962. The Museum of Contemporary Photography , at Columbia College , Chicago , was unaware of the identity of the sitter. On the day of the opening at the Museum, Anke Van Wagenberg, curator at the Academy Art Museum, received a phone call from Sawyer, who had learned from the “Washington Post” that the exhibition, André Kertész: On Reading, a series of ... More |
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 Carnegie Mellon creates computerized method for matching images in photos, paintings, sketches PITTSBURGH, PA.- Computers can mimic the human ability to find visually similar images, such as photographs of a fountain in summer and in winter, or a photograph and a painting of the same cathedral, by using a technique that analyzes the uniqueness of images, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. The research team, led by Alexei Efros, associate professor of computer science and robotics, and Abhinav Gupta, assistant research professor of robotics, found that their surprisingly simple technique performed well on a number of visual tasks that normally stump computers, including matching sketches of automobiles with photographs of cars. The team from the Robotics Institute and Computer Science Department will present its findings on "data-driven uniqueness" on Dec. 14 at SIGGRAPH Asia, a computer graphics and interactive techniques conference ... More Leslie Hindman Auctioneers' Fine Jewelry and Timepieces auction realizes $4.4 million CHICAGO, IL.- The continued strength and international appeal of investment grade diamonds was evident in the fantastic prices realized for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ December Fine Jewelry and Timepieces auction. An impressive 10.56 carat emerald cut diamond drew interest from a diverse group of important collectors and exceeded all expectations by realizing $632,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $300,000-350,000. Other large diamonds in the sale also outperformed their estimates including a 5.69 carat pear shape diamond which sold for $115,900 and a 6.93 carat marquise cut stone that brought $59,780. Combining fine Colombian emeralds and diamonds with exquisite Art Deco aesthetics, a platinum, emerald and diamond bracelet achieved an impressive $436,000. The bracelet attracted over 20 serious collectors, both foreign and domestic, in the most heavily contested lot of the sale. Vintage signed jewelry ... More Ruben Ochoa's exhibition, Cores and Cutouts, at Locust Projects in Miami MIAMI, FL.- James Cohan Gallery iannounces Ruben Ochoa's exhibition, CORES and CUTOUTS, at Locust Projects in Miami, Florida. Known for using gritty, vernacular building materials such as concrete, dirt, and steel, the artist has created a new site-specific installation using the building's substructure as source material. Ochoa cut through the concrete floor to expose subterranean cross-sections of the gallery's foundation, revealing the space where earth and architecture intersect. Cored segments of the poured concrete floor totter on metal columns above their normal resting place. Ochoa's installations address an architectural disjuncture, conflating the gallery and the art object. With a nod to both archeology and earthworks, his work at Locust Projects further explores the materials and politics of infrastructure in the social fabric. Contemplating the materiality of the built environment, Ochoa's work encourages ... More Michener Art Museum looking ahead to expansion of education wing DOYLESTOWN, PA.- In April 2012, the James A. Michener Art Museum will open an all new children's gallery and three classrooms in the Ann and Herman Silverman Pavilion. "Having a permanent education space will mean we can expand programming for children ages 3 to 15 and be able to work more with adult groups and senior citizens in studio art classes," says Director of Youth and Family Programs Ruth Anderson. "We also hope to expand our Learning to Look and Listen preschool art education program and host outreach programming on a more regular basis." Permanent classroom space will make it possible to expand current course offerings; enable greater flexibility for youth and family programs and school tour programs; broaden the range of art materials students can use; and inspire ongoing collaboration between age groups. "The beauty of art studio classes and summer camp at the Michener ... More David Zimmerman's "Last Refuge" opens at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery NEW YORK, N.Y.- Sous Les Etoiles Gallery presents "Last Refuge" a new series of photographs from David Zimmerman. The interaction between space and identity is a strong concern of the photographer David Zimmerman. With acuteness and talent, he explores the territories made by contiguity, infinity and exclusion where the human being is vulnerable. With Last Refuge, his new series, David Zimmerman brings us to New Mexico’s vast desert, where a community of people, who by choice or by circumstance, live in a place with no electricity or water. These people are not outcasts or drifters however - on the contrary; they are quite happy to live on the fringe, as far as possible from the mainstream. Their homes are primitive shelters fashioned from good intentions, scraps, and eventually clothing. As the weight of the roofs eventually collapsed on homes, people moved on. “There is a hidden beauty in many things, ... More 3 charged for murder plot against Swedish artist STOCKHOLM (AP).- Three men were charged Tuesday with plotting to stab to death a Swedish artist who has faced numerous threats from Muslim extremists for depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog. The men, ages 24 to 26 and of Somali and Iraqi origin, were arrested in the city of Goteborg on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. According to the charges, the suspects were planning to use knives to kill Lars Vilks, whose 2007 drawing of Muhammad offended many Muslims and rekindled a debate over free speech and Islam that raged a year earlier when a Danish newspaper printed 12 caricatures of the prophet. Images of Muhammad, even favorable ones, are considered blasphemous by many Muslims. The evidence included wiretapped phone conversations between the suspects and a note pad belonging to one of them, prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstrom said. ... More Exhibition of recent paintings by Serge Strosberg at Ludwig Trossaert Gallery in Antwerp ANTWERP.- Serge Strosberg, “The Expressionist of Fashion” an exhibition of recent paintings and his second solo show in Belgium, is currently on view at the Galerie Ludwig Trossaert. In a vibrant expressionist style, Strosberg deconstructs couture on a canvas. He is captivated by the culture of rabid consumerism surrounding tightly packed retail businesses in his neighborhood, SoHo. The show is a profound exploration of materialism, juxtaposing the provocative imagery of high fashion with the gritty, griny streets of Manhattan at night. In his view, the influence of coveted brands like Chanel, La Perla, Louis Vuitton, Dior is so great they are practically revered as idols. ‘These brands” reflect the change in our society” Strosberg says “especially the new generation which feels a lot of entitlement. It feels like it is beautiful and it deserves certain things. Entitlement and an overpowe ... More |
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