Los Angeles County Museum of Art Announces Partnership to Preserve Historic Watts Towers

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) today announced a collaboration with the City of Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs, toward the day-to-day preservation of the Watts Towers in a one-year agreement. LACMA will provide staff-time and expertise to identify repairs to the Towers, preserving the unique outdoor public landmark, and the City will provide $150,000 in funds towards this effort. LACMA will reach out to other local institutions including the Getty, the California African [...]

Exhibition of Impressionist Gardens at the National Galleries of Scotland Delights 100,000 Visitors

EDINBURGH.- The National Galleries of Scotland announced that the blockbuster exhibition Impressionist Gardens has ended its hugely successful run on a high note, with total visitor figures of nearly 100,000. Extended opening hours allowed almost 17,000 people to see the exhibition in its final week at the National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh, and the show attracted an average daily attendance of 1,250 over its 78-day run, from 31 July to 17 October. In total, there were 99,509 ticketed visitors to [...]

Hugh Tracey’s African Music Recordings Now on Display in Johannesburg

JOHANNESBURG (AP).- Hugh Tracey came to southern Africa in the 1920s to become a tobacco farmer but ended up compiling the largest known archive of traditional African music, recording performers from Congo to Zimbabwe over nearly five decades. Now hundreds of CDs featuring Tracey’s recordings are on exhibition in South Africa along with traditional instruments he collected from across the continent, from Malawian gourd resonators to ingalaba drums played in Uganda. The Hugh Tracey archives are a valuable resource that [...]

FIAC 2010 Brings Together 195 Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries from 24 Countries

PARIS.- The 37th edition of FIAC takes place from October 21st through October 24th at the Grand Palais, the Cour Carrée du Louvre and the Tuileries Garden. Located in Paris’ most prestigious and emblematic sites, infused with its history and cultural life, FIAC’s continuous commitment to the highest standards of quality and the synergies it has developed with Paris’ prestigious art institutions, have made it one of the art world’s premier international events of the autumn calendar. In a spirit [...]

Art student damages Guggenheim painting in knife attack

Bilbao, Spain – A 25-year-old art student Friday attacked a painting by 17th Century Dutch artist Jan Victor with a knife before a guard managed to subdue him, police said in Bilbao. The attack at the Guggenheim museum in the northern Spanish city was on the painting titled ‘Boas Assumes the Legacy of Elimelech,’ one of 130 works by Dutch and Flemish artists in the museum’s collection. Jan Victors (before 1619, Amsterdam-after 1676, East Indies) Boas Assumes the Legacy of [...]

Hirshhorn Museum in Washington Presents Major Guillermo Kuitca Retrospective

WASHINGTON, DC.- For more than 30 years Guillermo Kuitca (Argentinean, b. Buenos Aires, 1961) has forged a distinctive path as an artist, creating visually compelling works that reflect his intense and often ambivalent relationship to his primary medium: painting. “Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008,” on view Oct. 21–Jan. 16, 2011, presents over 45 canvases and 25 works on paper, spanning the artist’s career. The exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work in the [...]

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale to Be Led by a Major Mark Rothko Painting

NEW YORK, NY.- On 9 November 2010 Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale will be led by a major 1955 Untitled painting by Mark Rothko which has been off the market for over 40 years (est. $20/30 million). The auction also includes major works by many of the leading artists of the 20th and 21st centuries including Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg among others. All the works will be on view from 5 November with [...]

Sotheby’s Presents Inaugural Selling Exhibition of Impressionist and Modern Art in Hong Kong

HONG KONG.- In response to the increasing interest throughout Asia and especially within China in the field of Impressionist and Modern art, Sotheby’s announced a major selling exhibition to be held this autumn. Modern Masters: Impressionism and Early 20th Century Art will comprise approximately 20 works representing many of the most important artists active in Europe from the late 19th and early 20th century and who left an indelible impression on art history, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marc Chagall, [...]

Spanish Minister of Culture Confirms Acquisition of Painting by Bruegel the Elder for the Prado

MADRID.- The Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, today presided over a plenary session of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado in which it was unanimously decided to exercise the option to purchase The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day, an autograph work by Peter Bruegel the Elder. The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day will join the Museum’s collections once the purchase option has been formalised for the sum of 7 million Euros at which it has been [...]

Frieze Art Fair 2010: High-Quality Gallery Presentations Attract Strong Sales

LONDON.- At the close of the eighth edition of Frieze Art Fair, sponsored by Deutsche Bank, several galleries reported their strongest sales since the fair’s inception in 2003. Fair directors, Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover were delighted with reports of significant sales from both established galleries and from the newer galleries in the Frame section and beyond. 173 galleries exhibited over 1,000 artists at Frieze Art Fair 2010 – the largest in the fair’s history. 29 different countries were represented. [...]

Rare and Exceptional Works Lead Christie’s Classical and Modern Chinese Paintings Sale

HONG KONG.- Christie’s Hong Kong will hold its Fall sales of Fine Chinese Modern Paintings and Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy on 30 November at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. These sales will showcase over 350 rare and exceptional works from the Chinese masters, valued in excess of HK$260 million (US$34 million). Chinese calligraphy and paintings are among the most culturally rich and meaningful art forms and encapsulate the history of Chinese culture. The Fine Chinese Classical [...]

Sotheby’s Presents Highlights from Its Inaugural Important Russian Art Sale in Moscow

MOSCOW.- Sotheby’s presents the inaugural sale of Important Russian Art in New York on 4 November 2010, alongside the major autumn auctions of Impressionist & Modern Art. The sale includes select works by many of the greatest names in 20th-century Russian art. Highlights from the sale will be on view in Moscow 21-23 October before returning to New York for the sale and exhibition, opening 28 October. The Important Russian Art sale is led by Aleksey Kravchenko’s Indian Fairytale, the [...]

Exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery Focuses on Cézanne’s Paintings of Card Players and Pipe Smokers

LONDON.- Paul Cézanne’s famous paintings of peasant card players and pipe smokers have long been considered to be among his most iconic and powerful works. This landmark exhibition, organised by The Courtauld Gallery in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is the first to focus on this group of masterpieces. Described by Cézanne’s early biographer, Gustav Coquiot, as being “equal to the most beautiful works of art in the world”, this is a unique opportunity to [...]

Unseen Portrait of Wellington Set to Be a Major Draw at Thomas Lawrence Exhibition

LONDON.- A rarely-seen portrait of the Duke of Wellington from a private collection and commissioned by one of his closest female friends is set to be a big draw at the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition devoted to the Regency artist Sir Thomas Lawrence, which opens on Thursday 21 October. Apart from a two-month exhibition in Bristol in 1951, the portrait has never been seen in public. The portrait – which shows Wellington in civilian clothes rather than military attire – [...]

Five New Paintings by Cy Twombly to Inaugurate Gagosian’s New Paris Gallery

PARIS.- To inaugurate the new Paris gallery, Gagosian Gallery presents “Camino Real,” a group of five new paintings by Cy Twombly. Each displays the inimitable and exuberant painterly gestures and highly keyed palette typical of his recent paintings. Camino Real is a reference to the play by Tennessee Williams, first performed in New York in 1953. The cast of characters, which includes Don Quixote, Lord Byron, Casanova, Baron de Charlus, and Marguerite Gautier, represents a romantic attitude to life, “old [...]