It shouldn’t be the case, but of all the images that lingers it is a snapshot of the entrance of a pedestrian Parisian bar. You can’t see much of the interior; a faux wooden bar counter tapers off into a dark abyss. Gerard Sekoto stepped into that void almost daily, during his last days.“He drank from 12 to 12,” observes Barabara Lindop matter-of-factly as she flashes the photograph in front of me, before flitting across to another glass case where other documents alluding to the complex puzzle that was Sekoto’s life are on display.
It is now under scrutiny again in Song for Sekoto, a centenary – he was born in 1913 . Source

By Theresa Smith. Native Work by Andrew Putter. Nokilunga Memeza and Endinalo Memeza as A Native Mother and Child, 2012.South Africa returns to the contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, with something of a reintroduction this year, with 17 artists, a long-term commitment from government and an actual curatorial vision, writes Theresa Smith OSTRACISED for decades because of apartheid, we made a return to the Venice Biennale in 1993, but our presence has been spotty and fraught with controversy around choices and intent. Minister of . Source

The doyen of British sculpture gives the Guardian an exclusive preview of his major new exhibition in the German capital. Sitting in a Berlin gallery over a cup of tea, Anish Kapoor is clearly at home in a city that is about to stage one of his largest ever shows.
The British-based artist says the exhibition, entitled Kapoor in Berlin, is the best show he has yet put on, which may have much to do with the fact that he feels Germany demonstrates a huge degree of respect for the arts – in stark contrast to Britain.Source

The Vatican is a surprise entrant to this year's festival – but the City of Bridges is not short on great Catholic art. The Vatican is to show religious art this year at its Venice Biennale debut – a surprise entrant that may ruffle a few feathers. Italy is a Catholic country, but should the Biennale reflect Italian belief? Isn't it a worldwide art event where all ideas, traditions and cultures are equal? Surely there is no more reason for the Vatican to show art at the Biennale than for the Church of England to run the British Pavilion.Source

By Lauren Christensen. She is not known for subtlety—in either her work or her personality—but the prominent, often brow-raising British artist Tracey Emin’s latest sculpture, a single bronze bird perched atop a 13-foot pole in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, is just that: unassuming. The Lehmann Maupin gallery, which launched the installation this past Friday in collaboration with the Art Production Fund and White Cube, also opened a contemporaneous exhibition, “Tracey Emin: I Followed You to the Sun,” earlier this month, and her first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. will open at Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art in December. Source