Blog Archives
Art History in the News-Impressionist and Modern Auctions: Bringing Home The Bacon (The Economist)
“CHRISTIE’S and Sotheby’s sold just under £248m ($399.3m) worth of Impressionist and Modern art in three days of auctions in London earlier this week. The total is one of the highest ever achieved for the February Impressionist sales in London, and seemed to prove that the recession that hit the art market in 2009 is well and truly over.”
//www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/02/impressionist_and_modern_auctions.
In other words: Yay, no more recession! Furthermore, you can learn the about Picasso’s torrid love life.
Art History in the News: Deforestation (The Economist)
“I originally wanted to display the trees upright, but when I saw their exposed roots at Tilbury Docks [in London]—having been cleaned by the Takoradi Fire Brigade back at the port in Ghana—I thought they looked like the nerve endings of the planet and really wished others to see them. I don’t imagine anyone in the West has ever seen rainforest roots. Also the trees were found lying on their sides in the forest so in effect they were simply transplanted, almost untouched, from wild African virgin forest to the intense metropolis of the West.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/01/deforestation.
Art History in the News: El Genio Dittborn (The Economist)
“Some of Mr Dittborn’s imagery is commissioned rather than found. He asked the director of a Chilean psychiatric hospital to invite patients to draw faces and received about 500 in return—all done by a schizophrenic who signed his pictures “Allan 26A”. On another occasion, the artist commissioned heroin addicts at a rehab centre in Rotterdam to draw their childhood home as well as a home they would like to have. Mr Dittborn even got his daughter, Margarita, working for him when she was seven years old, making drawings in exchange for pesos. (She is now 28 and an artist in her own right.) By these means, the artist has integrated “outsider art” into his oeuvre. Guessing the sources of the images, particularly in works that catalogue social types such as “The History of the Face” series, can be part of the fun in viewing a Dittborn.”
Art History in the News: Donald Ellis and the Eskimos (The Economist)
“DONALD ELLIS, a leading dealer in Native American objects, is so excited about what he is exhibiting at New York’s Winter Antiques Show he looks as if he might break into a ceremonial dance himself. He gestures to what he describes as “among the most extraordinary objects I’ve owned in my 34-year career.” You needn’t be an expert to understand the power of these pieces, which include two 19th-century ritual masks made by Yup’ik-speaking Eskimos. One features a shaman astride a big wide-eyed seal; the other a large smiling face with a protruding open mouth. Both have arms stretched wide to welcome the spirits, and both are decorated with feathers. (Yes, American law forbids the sale of feathers from eagles and migratory birds; these masks recreate the effect with the plumage of domestic fowl, like swans and geese.) The third of Mr Ellis’s treasured objects is a carved caribou antler club from Northern British Columbia. The sculptor would seem to be influenced by the soaring abstract works of Brancusi, except that this piece was made in the 18th century.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/01/winter_antiques_show.
Art History in the News: Gabriel Orozco (The Economist)
“GABRIEL OROZCO, Mexico’s foremost living artist, has a secret. Though he is celebrated for his “post-studio practice”, associated with sculptures made from found objects and photos taken in the street, it turns out he has a space that many artists would call a studio. Mr Orozco used to lead a nomadic life, but now that his six-year-old son has started school, he’s settled into working on the lower ground floor of his New York home, a red brick Greenwich Village townhouse built in 1845. Mr Orozco prefers to see the space as a modest “operating centre”. With contemporary art, mind invariably wins over matter. “For me, it has always been important not to have a studio, not to have a permanent assistant, not to have secretaries,” he explains as he leans back, relaxing into his chair. “The way the work is produced affects the final result—not just the politics, but also the aesthetics. I don’t want the responsibility and inertia of a production machine.” “
Art History in the News: The Influence of Cezanne (The Economist)
‘PAUL CEZANNE, who died in 1906, cast a long shadow across 20th-century art. Pablo Picasso, who, with Georges Braque, invented cubism, called him “my one and only master”. Henri Matisse, Picasso’s rival for supreme artist of the modern period, described him as “a sort of god of painting”.’
Art History in the News: Pots of Fame (The Economist)
“DISAGREEMENTS about art history in Europe can be just as heated as political squabbles. Three tiny glazed pots, decorated with cherubs, provide new evidence that European hard-paste porcelain was invented not in Germany, as has been thought for three centuries, but in England. German experts vehemently disagree.”
Art History in the News: Arts in Bushwick (The Economist)
“A WORD that inspires dread in most Brooklyn residents is gentrification. Gentrifiers hate the connotation; others worry about eviction. Therein lies the challenge of Arts in Bushwick, a Brooklyn-based organisation that aims to bridge the gap between neighbourhood residents and the artists who have set up shop there. The group’s mission is to create “an integrated and sustainable neighbourhood” that brings everyone together “to counter development-driven displacement.” With an all-volunteer staff of artists and community organisers, Arts in Bushwick has been putting on neighbourhood arts festivals and facilitating local projects and talks since 2007.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2010/12/art_bushwick.
Art History in the News: How A Young Revolutionary Fooled The City Elders
“THEN, as now, the economy was depressed and America was deporting Mexicans in droves. The year was 1932 and David Alfaro Siqueiros, a Mexican artist who now ranks with Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco as one of the three great Mexican muralists of the last century, arrived in Los Angeles. His visit was to prove unexpectedly short (seven months), but consequential. The tale is documented in an exhibition that has just opened at the Autry in Griffith Park in the city.”
Art History in the News: Emporium of Wonders
“GIUSEPPE ESKENAZI takes the long view. Ten years ago he decided that he would celebrate the 50th anniversary of his London gallery in 2010 with a landmark exhibition. He carefully began putting aside the best examples of what he buys and sells, including porcelain, bronzes and sculpture. Mr Eskenazi is regarded as one of the most important dealers in oriental art in the world. Each of the 12 Chinese objects he has selected is a rarity among rarities. This is a dazzling show.”
