Significant support secures Sickert for Wales

CARDIFF.- National Museum Wales has acquired one of Walter Richard Sickert’s (1860-1942) paintings, entitled The Rialto Bridge and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, c.1902-04, thanks to a significant funding grant from the Art Fund and a contribution from the Derek Williams Trust. The purchase was made possible through the support of the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art, who awarded £35,000, as well as the Derek Williams Trust and generosity on the part of the vendors. This oil on [...]

Exceptional masterpiece by Boris Kustodiev for sale at MacDougall’s Russian Art Auctions

LONDON.- MacDougall’s announces that its forthcoming Russian Art Auctions will be headlined by Merchant’s Wife, an exceptional masterpiece by Boris Kustodiev. The painting is estimated at £1,200,000‐1,800,000, and will be among the top lots of London’s fall 2011 Russian week. Merchants’ wives, or Kupchikhas as they are known in Russian, are among the artist’s most recognisable subjects. In these works, Kustodiev was looking for a distinctly Russian style using a wealth of rich and vibrant colours. He found inspiration in the merchant [...]

Shortlist announced for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011

LONDON.- For the first time ever, five photographers have been shortlisted for the £12,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, the major international photography award. Firmly established as the leading showcase for new talent in portrait photography, the prize is sponsored by international law firm Taylor Wessing. The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 will showcase the work of some of the most talented emerging young photographers, alongside that of established professionals, photography students and gifted amateurs. Selected anonymously from an open competition, [...]

After 80+ years in same family, Taos school artwork appraised for $200K-$400K; to be auctioned

BINGHAMTON, N.Y.- An exciting fine-art discovery – a fresh-to-the-market late-1920s oil-on-canvas painting by Taos Art Colony luminary Victor Higgins (1884-1949) – will headline Mapes Auctioneers’ Sept. 30 auction. An old family piece, the 27- by 30-inch artwork depicts a Native American woman in front of an adobe building with a vine-covered column in the foreground. It was purchased directly from the artist approximately 80 years ago and passed through descent to the consignor, who is the original owner’s great-nephew. The painting has [...]

Bortolami Gallery presents Richard Aldrich’s second solo show with the gallery

NEW YORK, N.Y.- Bortolami presents Richard Aldrich’s second solo show at the gallery. 1. In the studio they were made individually, with their own logic and circumstances, but here as they are presented they become more of a symbolic gesture. This manner of presenting an importance or objective, but in the same swoop tearing it apart in a way that questions the motivation of that initial importance (deterritorialization), which becomes almost a red herring in its surface-ness. Richard Aldrich, Homage to Daan [...]

New site-specific installation by David Byrne “Tight Spot” exhibited by The Pace Gallery

NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Pace Gallery presents a new site-specific installation by David Byrne on view for two weeks under the High Line at 508 West 25th Street, inaugurating a space recently acquired by the gallery. Tight Spot, a 48-by-20-foot inflatable terrestrial globe will be on view from September 16 through October 1, 2011. The globe, based on the type used in primary schools, is enlarged and wedged within the confines of the space, becoming deliberately distorted in the process. Byrne imagined [...]

Ludwig Museum exhibition expands the scope of earlier shows on Photorealism

BUDAPEST.- Photorealism came into its own at the end of the 1960s, arising from the challenge posed by photographic depiction to realist painting, and is mostly associated with well-known American and Western European artists and their works. The Budapest Ludwig Museum exhibition expands the scope of earlier shows in Vienna (MUMOK, 2010) and Aachen (Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, 2011), both of which included materials from the Ludwig’s collection. Our exhibition offers new approaches to similar Central- and Eastern European tendencies by virtue [...]

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen announces new findings on Van Meegeren’s forgeries

ROTTERDAM.- New facts have emerged about the greatest forgery of the twentieth century: the ‘Vermeers’ of master forger Han van Meegeren. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen owns possibly the most famous forgery in the Netherlands: The Supper at Emmaus. The latest in the series of publications, Boijmans Studies, deals with the history of this sensational forgery and reveals how Van Meegeren was able to mislead the entire art world. Until now it was believed that Han van Meegeren (1889-1947) used pigments that were common [...]

Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive unveils plans for new facility designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

BERKELEY, CA.- The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive held a community open house to present the schematic design for its new facility to the public. The project, designed by the renowned New York City-based firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), will unite a repurposed former UC Berkeley printing plant at 2120 Oxford Street with a new structure. Located in Berkeley’s arts district, the new building will be bounded by Center, Oxford, and Addison Streets, and will count [...]

Unseen works alongside rare, vintage dye-transfer prints by Ernst Haas at Atlas Gallery

LONDON.- Atlas Gallery presents an exhibition of the celebrated, late Austrian photographer Ernst Haas (1921 – 1986), to coincide with the long awaited Steidl publication ‘Color Correction’. The exhibition includes many unseen works alongside rare, vintage dye-transfer prints from the 1950s and ‘60s. Theses photographs reveal a side of Haas’ work that was almost entirely hidden from view during his lifetime. In the introduction to the book, William Ewing who searched through over 200,000 of Haas’ pictures held in the Getty Archive [...]

Masterpieces by the giants of the Antwerp School on view at the Hermitage Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM.- From 17 September 2011 to 16 March 2012, the Hermitage Amsterdam will present a stunning selection from the Flemish art collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. With 75 paintings and about 20 drawings, this definitive survey will include numerous masterpieces by the three giants of the Antwerp School – Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens – accompanied by the work of well-known contemporaries. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) will be a special focus of the exhibition, represented by 17 [...]

Detroit Institute of Arts presents gift of a lifetime: The James Pearson Duffy Collection

DETROIT, MI.- The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) recently received a generous bequest and rich art collection from James Pearson Duffy, one of Detroit’s most unorthodox collectors. Gift of a Lifetime: The James Pearson Duffy Collection, on view Sept. 14, 2011–March 18, 2012, showcases this varied collection of drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures and photographs. The exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts and is free with museum admission. For 40 years, Duffy was one of the great characters of the Detroit [...]

Chinese porcelain stars at Kaminski Auctions’ August Fine Asian Art and Antiques sale

BEVERLY, MA.- Chinese porcelain starred at Kaminski Auctions’ August Fine Asian Art and Antiques sale, with a circa 1925, 20” x 9 ½” high vase painted in the traditional style of artist Wang Shigu of finely painted mountains selling for $152,100 as the top lot in the three day sale. The audience was filled with familiar faces of Asian collectors and dealers who brought great drama and excitement to the sale. In addition, telephone and Internet bidding from China was fast and [...]

Witte de With in Rotterdam announces Istanbul native Defne Ayas as new Director

ROTTERDAM.- The board of Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, announces the appointment of Defne Ayas as its new director, effective from 1st January 2012. Defne Ayas will succeed Nicolaus Schafhausen, who has been director since early 2006. At the end of this year, he will leave his post, having led the institute very successfully for six years, the maximum number of years a director can stay at Witte de With according to the institution’s policy. Istanbul native Defne [...]

Sotheby’s New York Classical Chinese Paintings auction more than doubles pre-sale expectations

NEW YORK, N.Y.- This morning’s auction at Sotheby’s New York of Classical Chinese Paintings, the company’s first dedicated sale in this field for more than a decade, realized the superb total of $6,467,000 (est. $2.6/3.7 million). The auction, which saw more than 87% of the sold lots achieve sums in excess of their pre-sale estimates, established a strong sell-through rate of 88% by lot. The sale was led by Running Script Transcription of an Epitaph, written for Minister Chen Xinyi by Dong Qichang [...]