| | Exhibit by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum focuses on his absence
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A visitor stands at an instillation entitled "Forever Bicycles" by the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei at the “Ai Weiwei is Absent” exhibition in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. The exhibition opens Oct. 29 and will run for three months. AP Photo/Wally Santana.
TAIPEI (AP).- Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, currently confined to Beijing, is opening an art exhibit in Taiwan that focuses on the political significance of his inability to attend. The exhibit titled "Ai Weiwei, Absent" debuts at Taipei's Fine Arts Museum on Saturday. In a pamphlet for the show, Ai writes that his absence "is a part of my art, my portfolio and my cultural state." Ai was detained in April during a sweeping Chinese crackdown on activists. His detention sparked an international outcry over the country's deteriorating human rights situation. He was released in June but he is prohibited from leaving Beijing. China's government says Ai was detained on tax evasion charges. The Taiwanese exhibit of 21 works includes photographs and 12 outsize bronze heads representing the Chinese zodiac. A new piece created by Ai consists of 1,000 bicycles piled in layers, reflecting his perception of the rapid pace ... More |
| Museum collections at serious risk, a new survey by ICCROM and UNESCO shows | | Surrealist masterwork by Ed Ruscha, Strange Catch for a Fresh Water Fish, to be offered at Christie's | | Established figures of the 20th century to young new discoveries at Art.Fair 2011 in Cologne | 
Overcrowded units.
ROME.- Precious artifacts and national treasures hidden away in the underbelly of museums are not as safe as we think. A recent international survey on museum storage by ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) confirms that all over the world, museum collections in storage suffer from poor management, lack of maintenance, adequate space and equipment. This is particularly disturbing because on average 90% of museum objects are in storage, and despite poor conditions, collections continue to grow exponentially. Of the 1490 responses received from 136 countries, 1 in 4 museums report that their storage areas are so overcrowded that it has become difficult or impossible to get from one end to the other. For 2 in 3 museums, the overall lack of space is a problem identified as “major” ... More | | 
Ed Ruscha, Strange Catch for a Fresh Water Fish, oil on canvas, 59 x 55 in. (149.9 x 139.7 cm.) Painted in 1965. Est: $3,000,000-4,000,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2011.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- An important Surrealist-inspired painting by Ed Ruscha is among the many highlights to be offered in Christie’s sale of Post War and Contemporary Art at Rockefeller Center on November 8. Strange Catch for a Fresh Water Fish, painted in 1965, is estimated to fetch $3 to $4 million. Strange Catch for a Fresh Water Fish is a key work in a series of paintings Ruscha executed in the mid-1960s, in which his imagery calls to mind film noir or the often uncanny visions of another California artist, David Lynch. While Ruscha’s best-known compositions often evoke the vast skies, distant horizon lines and looming roadside billboards of the American West, the subject of this painting is a trophy fish, depicted at the top edge of a vast monochromatic backg- ... More | | 
Employees of a gallery hang the painting 'Parsival - Men without Women' by Markus Lueppertz on the stand of the Munich gallery Terminus in Cologne. EPA/OLIVERBERG.
COLOGNE.- From October 29 to November 1, 2011, the ninth annual ART.FAIR will celebrate its opening at the Staatenhaus am Rheinpark, Cologne. After the successful opening in the new halls in 2010, with approximately 32,000 visitors, organizers expect even more art enthusiasts this year – because there is plenty to see: the trade fair is expanding into an additional hall. A total of 16,000 m² provide a generous amount of space for even more art. The repertoire ranges from the established figures of the 20th century to young new discoveries, and it mirrors the diversity of the international art scene. It includes familiar greats from past years, including KUNSTRAUM 21 (Cologne), Nine Gallery (Gwangju), Galerie Michael Schultz (Berlin | Seoul | Beijing), Strychnin Gallery ... More |
| The main autumn event on Russian antique market opens at the Central House of Artists | | The Pace Gallery presents Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Surface of the Third Order" | | Liz Taylor's nuptial bed in Scottish Victoriana sale at Lyon and Turnbull auction house | 
Visitors are reflected in an old mirror as they examine antiques during the Russian Antique Salon in Central House of Artists in Moscow. EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY.
MOSCOW.- Through October 30, 2011, Central House of Artists hosts XXXI Russian Antique Salon – the main autumn event on Russian antique market. 8600 meters accommodate 250 participants. This wide representation demonstrates the stability of the old art market, the investment attractiveness of which increases substantially during the crisis and post-crisis stagnation. While most other industries experiencing decline and instability, art-works confirm the reputation of the eternal values, rise in price and act as a reliable and promising sector for investment. At the Central zone of the Salon, which houses the stands of the most prominent Russian antique galleries, visitors can see about 20 thematic exhibitions. Paintings by old masters and artists of the Russian avant-garde, classics of the national school of painting and the art of Japan, the Russian glass and decorative art deco - this is not a compl ... More | | 
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Five Elements: Bay of Sagami, Atami, 2011. Optical glass, black and white film, 6" x 3" x 3" (15.2 cm x 7.6 cm x 7.6 cm)© Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy The Pace Gallery. Photo courtesy the artist and The Pace Gallery.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Pace Gallery presents an exhibition of new objects and sculptures by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Surface of the Third Order on view at 510 West 25th Street from October 28 through December 23, 2011. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Surface of the Third Order features two bodies of conceptual three-dimensional work: intimately-sized crystal pagodas inlaid with photographs and large-scale aluminum sculptures based on mathematical functions. Both series explore the concepts of zero and infinity, ideas that have long informed Sugimoto's photographic work. Made from optical-quality glass, each Five-Element Pagoda is based on the form of a thirteenth-century Japanese Buddhist stupa, a traditional reliquary used to hold the ashes of Buddha. The geometric forms of the pagoda's layers represent the elements of nature: ... More | | 
Kate Bain from Lyon and Turnbull auctioneers poses for photographers with a framed pair of silk bloomers that once belonged to Queen Victoria. REUTERS/David Moir.
By: Ian MacKenzie
EDINBURGH (REUTERS).- One of the world's finest private collections of 19th century Victoriana goes under the hammer at auction in Edinburgh next week, including a four-poster bed in which Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor celebrated the last of her many honeymoons. The collection -- amassed by the Forbes family in the United States -- includes furnishings, including paintings, furniture, household wares - and framed items of Queen Victoria's underwear - from Old Battersea House on the south bank of London's Thames river opposite Chelsea. There is also a painting of Victoria on horseback with her Scottish servant John Brown holding the reins. She commissioned the painting from a photographer to present to Brown on his 50th birthday, and it remained in the family until it was sold and added to the Forbes collection in the 1980s. Other works ... More |
| Stunning Ferrari 250 GT LWB 'Tour de France' Berlinetta top RM's 13.3 million London auction | | Top horror film actor Bela Lugosi's "Dracula" cape up for auction at Profiles in History | | Russia's Bolshoi reopens after reconstruction that restored it to its original imperial splendor | 
This 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB 'Tour de France' Berlinetta sold for $3,606,400. Photo Credit: Tom Wood ©2011 Courtesy of RM Auctions.
LONDON.- RM Auctions, the world’s largest collector car auction house for investment-quality automobiles, concluded its 2011 sales calendar on a high note in London on Wednesday (26th October), posting over £13.3 million* ($21,413,000) in total sales with a solid 79% of all lots sold. Attracting an international clientele – bidders represented 22 countries from around the world - the single-day auction catered to collectors of both automobiles and motorcycles, presenting an exceptional roster of some 100 motor cars and 25 classic two-wheelers. The star performer at this year’s sale was a rare, matching-numbers 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Tour de France Berlinetta, chassis number 1039 GT (pictured), one of the most desirable competition-bred Ferraris in existence. Glistening under the auction lights, the beautiful red and white 250 GT LWB Tour de France garnered spirited bidding in the room and on the phones, ach ... More | | 
Lugosi was buried in his "Dracula" costume after his death in 1956, except for the original cape. Photo: ©Universal Studios 1931
BEVERLY HILLS, CA (REUTERS).- It may be the perfect addition to a Halloween costume, but "Dracula" fans will have to wait until next year to wear it. The iconic cape worn by Bela Lugosi in "Dracula," one of Hollywood's earliest horror films based on the world's most famous mythical vampire, will go under the hammer in December and could fetch between $1.5 million and $2 million, auctioneer Profiles in History said on Thursday. The "Icons of Hollywood" sale will feature many items from various Hollywood films, but the black cape worn by Lugosi in the classic 1931 horror flick is expected to be one of the biggest selling items. Lugosi, who was among the top horror film actors in the early days of Hollywood in movies such as "Son of Frankenstein" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue," was buried in his "Dracula" costume after his death in 1956, except for the original cape, which he wanted his son to have, the auctioneer said. The actor's family is selling the cape ... More | | 
Honor guards stand in front of the Bolshoi Theater illuminated for a gala opening in Moscow. AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko.
By: Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP).- Russia's Bolshoi Theater reopened Friday after a massive reconstruction effort that restored it to its original imperial splendor. The $700 million, six-year effort meticulously recreated the opulent 19th-century decor, many elements of which had been simplified or removed during communist rule. The renovation also added state-of-the art stage gear and created an additional underground hall. Russian and international celebrities, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya, ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and Italian actress Monica Bellucci, filled the grand gold-and-red, 1,743-seat hall in Moscow for Friday's gala opening led by Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev. The most challenging part of the reconstruction effort was reinforcing the building's foundation and the walls weakened by erosion. The historic ... More |
| Art Toronto 2011: Canada's only Modern and Contemporary international art fair | | Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery hosts The Black List: Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders | | United States celebrates Statue of Liberty's 125th birthday, interior will be closed for renovations | 
“Art Toronto is more than a place to buy and sell art, it’s also about opportunity.
TORONTO, ON.- Collectors, curators and art enthusiasts converged on Toronto to experience the twelfth edition of Art Toronto - a four-day fair which showcases exhibits by 109 leading and emerging international galleries from 13 countries. Art Toronto 2011 runs from October 28 to 31, and features alternative spaces curated by The Drake Hotel, Canadian Art magazine, the Art Gallery of York University and the Art Dealers Association of Canada. Other highlights of the fair include solo exhibitions, installations and curated projects by renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Kent Monkman, Edward Burtynsky, Chuck Close and many more. “Art Toronto is more than a place to buy and sell art, it’s also ab ... More | | 
Serena Williams now has a place in the National Portrait Gallery in a new show featuring leading black figures. AP Photo/Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, National Gallery of Art.
By: Brett Zongker, Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C (AP).- Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, Sean Combs and Serena Williams now have a place in the National Portrait Gallery in a show opening Friday, along with other leading black figures who may be lesser known. "The Black List" features 50 large-scale photographs from Timothy Greenfield-Sanders in a project that also included a 2008 HBO film. After a conversation with his friend, the writer Toni Morrison, Greenfield-Sanders began thinking of all the successful black figures he knows — and how so many were unknown. He and collaborator Elvis Mitchell scribbled down 200 names on napkins over lunch. "I've done the art world, I've done the music world, I've done the porn world, I've done politics — ... More | | 
The moon is seen as it rises near the Statue of Liberty as seen from Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, N.J. AP Photo/Julio Cortez.
By: Karen Matthews, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP).- Scores of people waved tiny flags after taking the oath of U.S. citizenship at the foot of the Statue of Liberty on Friday, 125 years after the iconic American symbol welcoming visitors and immigrants was dedicated. "We are a nation of diverse people," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said during the naturalization ceremony on Liberty Island. "And that diversity strengthens our nation." The new Americans, 125 immigrants from 46 countries, pledged to renounce foreign power, then posed for photos with their citizenship certificates. The birthday party was to conclude later Friday with a 12-minute fireworks display choreographed to patriotic music. "I feel like if you live in a place, you should have a say in the politics," said Paul Currie, who ... More |
| More News |
 William McKeown, who had a highly refined use of colour, died in Edinburgh DUBLIN.- It is with a profound sense of sadness and loss that we report the death of William McKeown. Born in Tyrone, 1962 William died at home in Edinburgh on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. "There are two types of art - open and closed. All closed art is negative and anti life. Art which is open accepts without judgement, is expanding, positive, and life enhancing." - (William McKeown, 2002) In the 16 years since he first exhibited work at the Kerlin Gallery, William McKeown developed a body of work that has had a radical and fundamental effect on our understanding of the age-old relationship of art to nature. The foundation of McKeown's work and life was his belief in the primacy of feeling. His paintings took on the guise of objective minimalism and the monochrome but presented us with so much more; nature as something real, tangible, all around us, to be touched and felt. Through very subtle gradation ... More Museum Folkwang shows overview of Aernout Mik's work from the past ten years ESSEN.- In close cooperation with the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum Folkwang is organizing a major retrospective of the Dutch artist Aernout Mik. The exhibition initially took place in Paris at the end of March, 2011, in October in Essen and at the beginning of 2012 in Amsterdam. The exhibition shows an overview of his works from the last ten years with a special focus on his more recent film and video productions and those works not yet exhibited in Germany. These include the video installation Communitas, recently made at the Culture Palace in Warsaw at the invitation of the Teatr Dramatyczny and which premiered at the Sao Paulo Biennale in September 2010. For each work and station, the artist developed a specific exhibition structure. A high point of the retrospective in the Museum Folkwang is the new video installation Shifting Sitting, specially made for this p ... More Locus Solus: Impressions of Raymond Roussel at the Museo Reina Sofia MADRID.- Museo Reina Sofia presents Locus Solus the first exhibition to be held in Spain on the figure and influence of Raymond Roussel (Paris, 1877 - Palermo, 1933), the author of poetic, novelistic and theatrical works without precedent in the history of literature. Roussel is known for both the singularity and exuberance of his narrative and visual universe and also for the complex methodology he developed and then perfected over time. This methodology was based on the exploration of the inventive potential of homonymy and word play, all from the conviction that an artistic/literary work does not need to contain anything real, that it can be exclusively a combination of imaginary objects. In a text published posthumously, How I wrote certain of my books, Roussel explains the process he used. The author, who always kept his distance from the avant-garde and from the literary movements of his times (because ... More 5th anniversary edition of the Shift Festival of Electronic Arts opens in Basel BASEL.- British maverick musician Tim Exile explores the instrumental potential of everyday voices in his fascinating live acts while LA line-up Nite Jewel melds musical tapestries with the haunting vocals of Ramona Gonzales to create somnambulistic sound trips; Canadian artist Alexis O'Hara lures the public into an igloo made of 100 loudspeakers for experimental play with the power of voice and Jürg Lehni sets two computers talking via voice recognition and other language software to create a medley of misunderstanding: this is only a sample of the entertainment rolled out from 27–30th October 2011 on the Dreispitz site in Basel/Münchenstein, when the 5th Anniversary Edition of the Shift Festival of Electronic Arts turns the spotlight on musical and artistic experiments with electrified voices, in concerts, exhibitions, performances, film and video screenings, workshops and panel discussions. 2011 is a ... More KUB Arena presents its most recent production "HATE RADIO" at Kunsthaus Bregenz BREGENZ.- With HATE RADIO, the most recent production of the International Institute of Political Murder, for the first time a theatre project has been invited to the KUB Arena for an extensive presentation. Even before its official premiere at the Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), in Bregenz preview performances of the play will take place in the original stage design. In addition, by means of the research material displayed and in the context of discussions, lectures, and film-screenings, the institute’s work in general will be introduced. The IIPM was founded in 2007 by Milo Rau with the aim of intensifying and theoretically reflecting on the interchange among theater, fine arts, film, and research in the area of re-enacting (disquieting) historical events. The basis for these attempts at staging incomprehensible moments in history that, properly speaking, cannot be staged, is provided by extensive research in arch ... More New CEO joining VIP Art Fair from $500M e-commerce company NEW YORK, N.Y.- VIP Art Fair, the world’s first contemporary art fair held exclusively online, announces the appointment of Lisa Kennedy as Chief Executive Officer. With an impeccable record of more than 15 years of leadership and innovation in Internet Commerce and Media, Kennedy was most recently Executive Vice President at Quidsi Inc, one of the fastest growing Internet retailers of consumer products in the U.S. as parent company of Soap.com and Diapers.com. There, she was responsible for growing revenues nearly tenfold from $30M, culminating in an acquisition by Amazon for $540M. “VIP Art Fair is poised for growth and I am excited to be part of it,” Kennedy says. “Already, as first mover, VIP Art Fair is a proven platform for galleries to interact with their clients in the digital space. I look forward to combining my passion for innovation with my experience building consumer-driven companies to ... More Kevorkian suicide machine withdrawn from New York City sale NEW YORK (AP).- A suicide machine belonging to assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian has been withdrawn from a New York City auction of his possessions after failing to draw a high enough bid. Seventeen paintings also failed to sell at the New York Institute of Technology on Friday. One was made in Kevorkian's blood. The paintings are tied up in a legal dispute between his estate and a suburban Boston museum. The Armenian Library and Museum of America says Kevorkian donated the paintings and they'll stay put until the dispute is resolved. The estate estimates their value at up to $3.5 million. Both sides have filed lawsuits. Kevorkian died in June at age 83. He left his property to a niece in Troy, Mich. ... More |
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