Franci Cronjé
Vandat ek voorgestel is aan die beginsel van kritiese denke in mediastudies was my kop nooit weer dieselfde nie.

Maar laat ek by die begin begin: Getoë in ’n soliede Calvinistiese huishouding deur twee onderwyser-ouers, het ek my grootmenslewe blinkoog begin met grootse idees van onderdanigheid en verdienstelikheid.  [more...]

THE 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, Michael MacGarry, is a graphic designer, writer and visual artist based in Johannesburg.
Endgame, the exhibition he staged at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, opened last night at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum and runs till September 5. MacGarry returned to South Africa after starting his design career in London and Dublin.  [more...]

Hotel group funds controversial 'Candle of Hope'
By Rowan Philip
A massive monument to Nelson Mandela has been mysteriously erected in Sandton, in what some say is a gesture of new business confidence in South Africa's future.   [more...]

Aurora Fine Art Fund claims it has conclusive evidence that £1.69m work is not by Boris Kustodiev
By John Varoli
MOSCOW. Aurora Fine Art Fund, one of the largest private collections of Russian art owned by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, has launched a lawsuit against Christie’s, claiming that the auction house sold it a fake £1.69m painting in November 2005 in London.  [more...]

The heirs of a Jewish art collector are suing the Hungarian government for the return of paintings worth more than $100m (£64.1m) seized in World War II.
The case, filed in Washington by Baron Mor Lipot Herzog's family, follows a failed battle in Hungarian courts.
The family, who are also suing state-owned museums, say Hungary has about 40 works, including paintings by El Greco.
Herzog left the collection to his children when he died in 1934 before it was plundered by the Nazis.  [more...]

Another good way to spend your lovely oil money.
IN A suburb of Lagos, Nigeria’s business capital, Yemisi Shyllon lives in a house full of bronze statues of African tribal rulers and brightly coloured beadwork landscapes. He may be Nigeria’s biggest art collector, with some 6,000 pieces by his count. “I don’t go out much,” he says, “I have enough to look at here.”  [more...]

Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh on making art about sex and politics in the Middle East.
RAMIN and Rokni Haerizadeh, two Iranian artists exiled in Dubai, fled their homeland in spring 2009. Iranian officials became aware of their work when it was included in Charles Saatchi's exhibition, “Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East”.   [more...]

TURNING POINT, at the Lower Gallery EPSAC, until July 31. Reviewed by Cornelia le Roux
THIS wonderfully versatile exhibition is professional wood turner and artist Nico Swart’s fifth since starting to uncover the beauty of wood on his lathe in 1994. As evidence of the widespread popularity of his work, he exhibited On the Count of Twelve in the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley and in 2007 one of his turned vases was awarded the Dave MacGregor Trophy at Epsac’s annual exhibition.  [more...]

This Year Hout Street Gallery celebrates its 35th birthday and presents its annual "Winter Gala" from 29th July-30th September 2010.  [more...]

The Asian art market has rebounded from recession more quickly than any other, according to figures on Sotheby’s website that are likely to feature in the company’s six-month review to be announced next week.
By Colin Gleadell   [more...]

Curated by Catherine Ocholla : Mavericks, provocateurs and household names in the contemporary South African artscape will take over one of Cape Town’s most historical watering holes, the Kimberley Hotel, on Wednesday the 11th of August, in a madcap art exhibition, party and cultural response to the local of many of Cape Town’s most creative individuals.
‘The Big Hole’ provides an opportunity for artists to investigate the sometimes murky legends circulating around the Kimberley, as well as some of the various South African histories ingrained in the site.  [more...]

Hazel Friedman

If sport is the opiate of the masses then culture is their social currency. And if there are any lessons to be learnt from football, it is that the team which cannot adapt, falls; and that one must always keep an eye on the ball. So what does this Fifa-esque homily have to do with the successful operation of an art gallery? On a prima facie basis, not much, apart from the fact that at the Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town the polite tones so typical of the sanctified art spaces are being violated by the collective trumpet of the vuvuzela brigade outside.   [more...]

Johan Myburg
AVigil of Departure is die titel van die oorsig­uitstalling van die werk van Louis Maqhubela wat volgende week in die Standard Bank-galery in Johannesburg begin.
Marilyn Martin is die kurator van dié uitstalling wat Maqhubela se rol in en bydrae tot Suid-Afrikaanse kuns ondersoek.
Die werke op die uitstalling is gemaak tussen 1960 en 2010.
Maqhubela het sedert sy vertrek na die buiteland in 1973 nie die erkenning in sy vaderland gekry wat hom toekom nie.   [more...]

Die tweede Rooftop-uitstalling van die kurator Gordon Froud begin Saterdag in en om die galery van die Universiteit van Johannesburg.

Die eerste Rooftop-uitstalling was verlede jaar in Pretoria en daarna in die UJ-galery te sien.  [more...]

Bettie Lambrecht
Die medium maak die kunswerk... of nie? Gelukkig is daar gereeld uitdagende pro jekte wat hier die heersende houding in die plaaslike (Suid-Afrikaanse) kunsmark op die kop keer.

Die manier van sien, die konsep en vorm ge wing wat saam ’n gevoel of insig by die waarnemer wek – dít is wat tot die be naming kuns lei.  [more...]

By Ella Ide
Art-lovers around the world who were keeping their fingers crossed that a newly discovered canvas was possibly a lost painting by the Baroque master Caravaggio were disappointed on Tuesday.

The Italian art world was in a buzz last week when the Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano ran an article that a painting in Rome's main Jesuit church could be a Caravaggio.  [more...]

South Africa’s young artists have once again proved their mettle in a sterling display of homegrown
creativity in the prestigious Absa L’Atelier Art Awards competition, which this year celebrates its
historic 25th year anniversary as the longest-running competition of its kind on the continent.
Unlike the previous years, this year’s pool of submissions was undoubtedly about identity and how
they experience the country we are living in.
Much of the selected work seems to have subversive strategies, not in loud and shocking ways, but
rather in strangely guarded tones.  [more...]

What are young photographers up to in the twenty-first century? How do they see the world? How much do they respect, build on or reject tradition? As the digital revolution continues its relentless advance, demolishing longstanding practices in every domain of our field, curiosity builds as to how the new generation of photographers will react. Will some remain in the darkroom, or will they all migrate to the digital lab? The reGeneration project—the broadest and most enterprising survey of its kind—set out in 2005 to discover answers to these intriguing questions, previewing the work of young photographers who may well emerge as some of the finest artists of their generation.   [more...]

By Scott Reyburn
A U.S. collector paid a record $2 million for a Edvard Munch print of a doomed femme fatale, and a Russian gave $65,000 for a crocodile handbag in auctions this month as top works attracted wealthy buyers.

Asian collectors also set the pace at auctions of wine and English silver in London that followed sales of Impressionist and contemporary art where billionaires remained selective.

Choosy collectors are looking for signs of a market recovery. Buyers are only willing to pay the largest sums for the best works as sellers push up estimates again and test demand, dealers said.  [more...]

By Martin Fackler
Inakadate, Japan — Nearly two decades ago, Koichi Hanada, a clerk in the village hall, received an unusual request from his superior: find a way to bring tourists to this small community in rural northern Japan, which has rice paddies and apple orchards, but not much else.  [more...]

Disgraced art dealer Larry Salander committed what prosecutors called one of the biggest art frauds in New York State history.
By Colin Gleadell  [more...]

by Kin Bentley
HOW have colonialism, globalisation and the exploitation of natural resources impacted on South Africa and the rest of Africa?
This issue is explored in a “multimedia art experience” by Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Visual Art 2010 Michael McGarry in his exhibition, EndGame, which runs at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum from Wednesday until September 5.
The exhibition comes directly from the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Art Museum spokesman Pam Fogarty said artist Stephen Hobbs will visit Port Elizabeth to open the exhibition at 6pm on July 28.  [more...]

Steve Kretzmann: If there was any doubt that contemporary South African sculpture could hold its own in the international art market, it was blown out of the water by the spectacular prices Dylan Lewis’s works fetched at Christies three years ago.
A 2007 auction of 75 bronze sculptures of wild cats and animals by the Stellenbosch-based artist sold out, fetching an astonishing R28 million in 90 minutes, an achievement that made the art world sit up and take new notice of a sculptor who might have been derided by critics as little more than a wildlife artist with an interesting technique.
But whatever purists might have had to say, the public pockets applauded the way his rough, masculine, raw application of clay translated in bronze and complemented the way he seems to sometimes defy the laws of physics to freeze the kinetic energy contained in the movement of his beasts.
Though he is among the most sought-after sculptors in South Africa and abroad, he is rather modest about it. “I’ve been fortunate to have ‘some’ success,” he says.  [more...]

By Michael Coulson:
In another auction with no major works by Irma Stern on offer, it’s Pierneef that’ll be the focus of attention in the upcoming sale by Stephan Welz & Co (Swelco) in Johannesburg on August 17 and 18. He provides the top two estimates: the only seven-digit lot (R1.2m-R1.6m) for a landscape, largely in shades of blue, and the only other R500 000 lot, an unusual cloudscape (R500 000-R800 000).  [more...]

The AVA in partnership with Spier invites you to the opening of three solo exhibitions:
"Material Matters" by Erica Elk (Opening address by Virginia MacKenny)
"The Sum of the Parts" by Nike Romano
"Worker Interrupted" by David Rossouw
Opening at the AVA Gallery @ 6pm Monday, 26 July. Exhibition Closes Friday, 20 August 2010 at 1pm.  [more...]

Gerhard Marx is dié week aan die beurt in Kunskyk, die rubriek waarin Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars die geleentheid kry om die werk van ’n ander kunstenaar te bespreek. Marx het die werk van die Italiaanse kunstenaar Giuseppe Penone gekies.  [more...]

Johan Myburg
Angus Taylor is vanjaar die Aardklop-feeskunstenaar. Dié kunstefees word van 28 September tot 2 Oktober in Potchefstroom aangebied.

Taylor se uitstalling, Klont – ’n dialoog met grond, is te sien in die hoofgalery op die kampus van die Noordwes-Universiteit (NWU).  [more...]

An art installation, described as the "world's biggest photo booth", has opened at Nottingham Contemporary.
Designer Brendan Oliver explained that visitors "become part of the art" when they have their picture taken in it.
Images are uploaded to the internet and then projected back onto a big screen in the art centre exhibition hall.
Nottingham Contemporary director Alex Farquharson said: "It's an opportunity to have your photo exhibited 25 feet high in this amazing space."  [more...]

By Simon Schama
Is there anyone alive on the face of the earth who doesn’t like Matisse? But then what’s not to like? Of all the modern masters, Matisse was the one least embarrassed by the pleasure principle. Time after time he delivers great bolts of eye-popping colour that are not just at the service of form but construct it. Liberated from the planes and objects they ostensibly represent, Matisse’s colour fields gorge on the headlong energy of visual appetite. Vibrating reds, luxuriant purples and depthless blues meet his bounding, sinuous line and off they go to the races.  [more...]

Bettie Lambrecht
Die medium maak die kunswerk... of nie? Gelukkig is daar gereeld uitdagende projekte wat hierdie heersende houding in die Suid-Afrikaanse kunsmark op die kop keer.

Die manier van sien, die konsep en vormgewing wat saam ’n gevoel of insig by die waarnemer wek – dís wat lei tot die benaming, kuns.  [more...]

ART auctioneer Stephan Welz made a stunning announcement at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery yesterday when he valued a painting brought in by a private collector at R1.3million.“He (Welz) was joking with me, and asked me how much it was worth,” Terry Flynn, of the East London gallery, said yesterday.“Off the top of my head I said it was worth R70000.Welz then revealed the value of the piece, surprising the socks off Flynn.  [more...]

"You wouldn't believe what lies in basements at the University of Witwatersrand," says Fiona Garson, who with Nina Cohen and William Martinson, won an architectural competition to design an art museum for the university. Rooms that few people ever see house one of the largest and most fascinating collections of art in the world. We were completely blown away with what we saw - particularly the African art - lying hidden away from public view," says Garson.  [more...]

By Carol Vogel
The jury selecting the 20 videos for YouTube Play, the video biennial in October that is the brainchild of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and YouTube, has been finally been chosen. And it includes recognizable names in the fields of art, music, film and video.
  [more...]

National Gallery to stage major Leonardo da Vinci exhibition.
An "unprecedented" Leonardo da Vinci exhibition bringing together artworks never before seen in Britain will be staged next year by the National Gallery.
By Stephen Adams  [more...]

Mark Hipper - End of an Era, two day art event opens today at Erdmann Contemporary, CT.  [more...]

Working with the body, from the mouth and using breath to 'speak', Belinda Blignaut's new installation 'Stealing the Words' slowly inhabits the YoungBlackman space during the days leading up to the opening. The performative process leaves behind messy, oddly fetishistic forms which may seem to be familiar yet not, beings that could be alive yet aren't.  [more...]

Johan Myburg
Die wenners van die 2010 Absa L’Atelier-kunsprys is gisteraand in Johannesburg aangekondig.

Dis vanjaar die 25ste keer dat dié prys toegeken word.

Ilka van Schalkwyk is as wenner aangewys uit die meer as 100 inskrywings wat die kortlys gehaal het.

Bongumenzi Ngobese is die wenner van vanjaar se Gerard Sekoto-prys.  [more...]

Johan Myburg
Oor die einders van die bladsy – Kunstenaarsboeke
Fada-galery, Universiteit van Johannesburg


Ná die sukses van die kuns-en-navorsingsprojek Op die spoor van kreatiewe kreature in 2007 het Franci Greyling, Ian Marley en Louisemarie Combrink, drie dosente aan die Noordwes-Universiteit (NWU) in Potchefstroom, vorendag gekom met ’n opvolgprojek – ’n versameling kunstenaarsboeke.  [more...]

Willem Pretorius
Die inhoud van die huis in Kerkstraat, Tulbagh, word op die oomblik fyn gedokumenteer sodat dit presies op dieselfde manier in ’n monument op die kampus van die Universiteit van Pretoria permanent uitgestal kan word. Dit behels die skuif van 3 800 voorwerpe wat wissel van die waterpistool langs die kunstenaar Christo Coetzee se bed tot van sy enorme skilderye.  [more...]

Mary Jo Laforest
Two Edmonton artists who created a world-renowned art installation that features a five-tonne cube of small firearms, ammunition and land mines say they are “gobsmacked” that part of their exhibit has been removed because of one complaint from China.

The Art of Peacemaking: The Gun Sculpture is on exhibit at the United Nations Vienna International Centre.  [more...]

Museum to show large-scale drawings for works in the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, on public display for the first time.
By Francesca Romana Morelli and Gareth Harris   [more...]

Romanian artist Stefan Constantinescu has invited a roster of European artists to create a collective work about the Cold War.
By Richard Unwin  [more...]

When it comes to enforcing its policy on artistic nudity, YouTube has been behaving lately like a helicopter parent with too many problem children on its hands.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, officially forbids users from posting videos to its site that feature sexually explicit content. It also forbids "most" nudity -- that is to say, "if a video is intended to be sexually provocative, it is less likely to be acceptable for YouTube," according to the company's rules. "There are exceptions for some educational, documentary and scientific content, but only if that is the sole purpose of the video and it is not gratuitously graphic."  [more...]

Work on artist’s last major work carried out by original foundry.
By Martin Bailey
LONDON. Henry Moore’s heaviest bronze sculpture, Large Divided Oval: Butterfly, has been restored in Berlin. Weighing nearly nine tons, it was his final major work, completed just before he died in 1986. Butterfly stands in the middle of a circular basin, outside the entrance to Berlin’s House of World Cultures, a centre for non-European arts.   [more...]

Acclaimed artist William Kentridge is doing his bit to keep the arts - across all mediums - alive in South Africa.  [more...]

Six proposals will be considered to become the next artwork on the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square.

Two ideas come from duos - Jennifer Allora of the US and Cuba's Guillermo Calzadilla, plus Denmark's Michael Elmgreen and Norwegian Ingar Dragset.

The other artists are Germans Katharina Fritsch and Mariele Neudecker, as well as Brian Griffiths from London and Edinburgh-born Hew Locke.  [more...]

An insightful critic as well as a visionary curator, Szarkowski filled New York's Museum of Modern Art with the colour photography of William Eggleston, and championed the transgressive work of Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander. Everyone who cares about photography is in his debt. By Sean O'Hagan  [more...]

The Leopold Museum in Austria has agreed to pay an Austrian Jewish woman's estate $19 million for a painting that a Nazi stole from her in World War Two, U.S. officials announced on Tuesday.

The move ends a decade-long legal battle, which began after it was discovered that the oil painting, "Portrait of Wally" by Egon Schiele, was loaned to New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1997.  [more...]

A Book launch and an exhibition of some recent paintings by Frederike Stokhuyzen at Ron Belling Gallery opens Tonight @ 5:30pm for 6pm.
The book and the exhibition will be opened by the acclaimed sculptor-Maureen Quin.  [more...]

Melvyn Minnar
IIn Februarie 1968 skryf Andy Warhol in sy katalogus vir ’n tentoonstelling by die Moderna Museet in Stockholm (een wat nou legendaries is): “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”  [more...]

VALENCIA.- The old Church of San Esteban, on Colón de Valencia Street, had been its hiding place for centuries. The piece, which was completely blackened, had gone unnoticed for many years. The weather had harmed the painting, in fact, 40% of the paint was gone. For seven months, three conservators from the Fundación La Luz de las Imágenes fixed their eyes and hands on the work. After the cleaning, stucco and chromatic reintegration, technicians found a work of "high quality" according to the conservator responsible for the restoration, José Luis Navarro.  [more...]

The work of Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos is to take pride of place at London’s Haunch of Venison Gallery. By Colin Gleadell  [more...]

Contenders given a month to produce models as they vie to occupy high-profile Trafalgar Square spot in 2012. By Maev Kennedy  [more...]

Die Suid-Afrikaanse visuele kunstenaar Nicholas Hlobo is gekies vir die gesogte kunsmentorskapprogram die Rolex Mentor and Protegé, wat vanuit Genève bestuur word.

Hlobo, wie se werk tans in die Nasionale Kunsmuseum in Kaapstad te sien is, se mentor is die gevierde Britse kunstenaar Anish Kapoor. Kapoor het hom gekies.  [more...]

Norman O’Flynn
Die dag toe ek my disnis hardloop teen ’n rugbypaal, het ek ’n openbaring gehad: Sport is nie vir my nie …” vertel O’Flynn.

“My naam is Norman O’Flynn en ek is ’n kunstenaar. Waarom, vra mense. Jy kon ’n dokter, ’n prokureur, ’n mariene bioloog geword het.   [more...]

By SIMPIWE PILISO
A South African banking group has offered R7-million for a 2010 World Cup painting with Nelson Mandela's signature.  [more...]

PORTIA MALATJIE
Many Hands, an artwork on the eastern side of Johannesburg, is a step towards correcting the dearth of land art in South Africa. The artwork, funded by the Gauteng provincial government, is twofold in nature.   [more...]

JEREMY KUPER
The World Cup has come and gone and Fifa's officially endorsed exhibition, the 2010 Legacy collection, is on display at Melrose Arch until the end of the month when bidding for the art pieces closes.   [more...]

Dreamsweepers, a solo exhibition by Nomusa Makhubu, opens at Artspace Gallery in Rosebank, Johannesburg Today 17 July 2010 at 11am.  [more...]

Stuart Trent invites you to a group exhibition by Lien Botha, Rossouw van der Walt and Berco Wilsenach curated by Basie Botha at Trent Gallery (Cameo Framers).  [more...]

Johan Myburg
Verlede jaar tydens die Konfederasiebeker-sokkertoernooi het ’n groep kunstenaars op papier “sokker gespeel”.

Vanjaar het Marcus Neustetter en die Oostenrykse kunstenaar Walter Stach dié gedagte tydens WB 2010 verder geneem en die projek Dialogue Tower het gestalte gekry.  [more...]

Artworks from the estate of the late actor Dennis Hopper, a self-described “gallery bum,” will be auctioned by Christie’s on Nov. 10 and 11 in New York.

The collection is studded with works by Warhol and Basquiat. The specific pieces are still being determined by the auction house, yet the group is expected to sell for more than $10 million. Hopper died of prostate cancer in May at the age of 74.

“It’s an artist’s collection, it’s not the collection of a banker or mogul. It’s the collection of a creative artist,” said Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas.  [more...]

Revised dating places Garima Gospels before 650—none from Ethiopia previously dated before 12th century

By Martin Bailey  [more...]

Artist Mark Hipper will have a two day exhibition/event at ERDMANNCONTEMPORARY on 23 & 24 July. After 12 years with another gallery in Cape Town, Hipper is transferring his career to ERDMANNCONTEMPORARY.  [more...]

Ampersand' - A Dialogue of Contemporary Art from South Africa & the Daimler Art Collection
Athi Patra-Ruga, Dineo Bopape, Lerato Shadi, Willem Boshoff, Zander Blom and Michael MacGarry at Daimler Contemporary.  [more...]

JEREMY KUPER
A few weeks ago, the German artist and filmmaker Harun Farocki was on hand at the Johannesburg Art Gallery to discuss his installation Deep Play, the latest offering in the art meets culture programme from the Goethe Institut.   [more...]

ANTHEA BUYS
Every year the king of the Ashanti people in Ghana commissions 10 new Kente cloths from the traditional Akan weavers of the country. Five of these are taken into the royal collection and the others are sold. They are quickly snapped up by collectors and connoisseurs.   [more...]

Trilogy | Conradie De Freitas Delmotte, an exhibition by three painters, Christiaan Conradie, Jesse de Freitas, Anthea Delmotte, large format oil on canvas exploring figures, the body and landscapes, both physical and of the mind.   [more...]

Johan Myburg
Een van die jongste toevoegings tot Johannesburg se openbare kunswerke is Gerhard Marx en William Kentridge se tamaai Fire Walker (sowat 11 m hoog) aan die onderpunt van die Koningin Elizabeth-brug in die middestad.

Benewens ’n paar monumente en enkele beelde van Edoardo Villa het die stad vir jare nie ’n noemenswaardige versameling beeldhouwerke gehad nie.   [more...]

Three 17th century ceramic bowls have been unearthed in an ancient quarter of London frequented by William Shakespeare and their workmanship ranks with high art of the period, experts who found them said on Monday.

The richly decorated hand-painted Delftware bowls were excavated by archaeologists from a rubbish pit in a yard close to Southwark Cathedral and the site of old London Bridge on the south bank of the River Thames.  [more...]

BY Sean Alfano
Of all the places Mickey Mouse's face has appeared, attached to a nude woman's body beneath a giant swastika on a poster in Poland has to be a new one.

An Italian artist's shocking outdoor exhibit in the city of Poznan aptly titled "NaziSexyMouse," has caused an uproar throughout the country, which was ravaged by the Nazis during World War II.   [more...]

HARLEM, NY.- The first New York museum exhibition of South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa (b. 1960, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) brings together three compelling series: “Interiors” and “Empty Beds” document the domestic lives of migrant workers in and near Johannesburg, South Africa, while photographs in “Common Ground” focus on shared experiences of natural disaster in urban areas, featuring houses in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana and on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, after wildfires.   [more...]

You are invited to participate in MINI ME, a collection of artist-created miniatures

On Monday the 23 of August 2010 the AVA will open its annual ArtReach fundraiser.

This is the AVA’s annual call to artists to help raise funds for our ArtReach Fund.

We always like to challenge contemporary artist to work in different ways. This year's theme is Mini Me.

We are asking artists to donate miniature works. The tradition of miniatures is that they are exquisitely worked and often could fit in the palm of the hand. Miniature art has been made for thousands of years and is often prized by collectors.  [more...]

Just what credibility auction results can have that take almost two months to publish is moot. And while we were told that one reason for the delay in releasing Graham Britz’s May 18 sale results was that they were being audited, no audit details have, in the event, been provided.

Gossip in the trade was that sales were so poor that the house was trying to boost the total by moving unsold lots by private treaty. While a couple of reported prices are suspiciously round numbers (buyer’s premium and other add-ons to the hammer price usually preclude this), if this was indeed the ploy it had little success.  [more...]

The group exhibition Transgressions and boundaries of the page, forms part of a creative project and transdisciplinary investigation into the artist’s book and practice-based research.

The project entails the involvement of approximately 40 artists (visual arts, creative writing, as well as related fields of architecture and language technology) in creating artist’s books.   [more...]

Charlene Truter
Om 23:30 flits ’n haas, oënskynlik so groot soos ’n Springbok, verby ou Nazi-barakke oor die veld. Dit is onaangenaam stil, al is die ligte aan. Die besoek aan die Noordsee-eiland Sylt is vir ’n gesprek met die kunstenaar Lien Botha in die Kunst:Raum Sylt Quelle. Dié kunssentrum, met sy susterprojek JOZI Art:Lab in Johannesburg, ­fasiliteer die besoeke van kunstenaars van oor die wêreld aan die eiland. In Junie was dit Botha.  [more...]

LONDON.- An impression of Edvard Munch’s controversial work Madonna has sold for an amazing £1,252,000 at Bonhams – twice its lower estimate of £500,000. This makes it the most expensive print ever sold in the UK and the second most expensive print in the world. Another Munch image, Vampire II, sold in Oslo in 2007 at the height of the market for around £1,256,000.   [more...]

By Ben Judah
Two leading Russian art curators found guilty of extremism for an exhibition that angered Orthodox Christians said on Tuesday they would take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.  [more...]

Jeanne Calitz
Jy is ’n bekende visuele kunstenaar, maar fokus deesdae mees tal op animasiekuns. Hoe pak jy die proses aan? Wat kom eerste?

Moeilike vraag. Ek het nog altyd gepeuter in ’n verskeidenheid dissiplines, en die hoender-en eier-vraag is altyd ’n turksvy. Dit is nie so ’n doelbewuste proses nie, en gebeur nogal organies. Ek sal byvoorbeeld ’n idee kry en die aard van die idee en die narratief wat daaruit ontwikkel, bepaal min of meer vir my wat daarmee moet gebeur.  [more...]

Two men who organised a controversial art exhibition in Moscow in 2007 have been found guilty by a Russian court of inciting hatred.

Andrei Yerofeyev and Yuri Samodurov had set up the Forbidden Art exhibition at the Sakharov Museum in Moscow.  [more...]

Madiba painting distasteful but its meaning matters.
By Phumla Matjila
Phumla Matjila: Art is no stranger to controversy. I would even go as far as to suggest that some art would not be so called if it did not shock us out of our complacency, forcing us to confront issues and themes that we are only too happy to gloss over.  [more...]

KRIPTIESE LEIDRAAD Die Italiaanse landkunstenaar Dario Gambarin het naby Castagnaro, in die noorde van Italië, dié tamaai portret van oudpres. Nelson Mandela met ’n trekker en ploeg gemaak. Die portret is in ’n veld van sowat 27 000 m2 en is gemaak om saam te val met die laaste been van die Wêreldbeker-sokkertoernooi in Suid-Afrika. Foto: Dario Gambarin, AP  [more...]

A painting that depicts the body of Nelson Mandela undergoing an autopsy has been condemned by South Africa's ruling party.

The African National Congress (ANC) said the artwork, which is being completed at a Johannesburg shopping centre, violated Mr Mandela's dignity.  [more...]

RLES.- The presence of a Léon Ferrari retrospective in a church is a paradox verging on the miraculous: here we have a famous, ninety-year-old artist who has devoted a large part of his working life to studying and implacably criticising the Catholic Church from its origins up to the present day.

Ferrari’s œuvre foregrounds the contradictions of the human condition: the abuses of power and the intolerance, sexual repression, racism, violence and authoritarianism that characterise different kinds of organisations in contemporary society. Mixing humour and sarcasm in ongoing reinterpretations of history, Ferrari confronts us with all the ambiguity, cruelty and stupidity human beings are capable of, citing as examples the horrors of the Inquisition, the Nazi concentration camps, America’s impositions of military hegemony, the dictatorship in Argentina, and the multiple forms in which such abominations can resurface.   [more...]

By Jorg von Uthmann
Parisians fail to grasp that their city is no longer the arts capital of the world and that the new stars of the market are American, British or German.  [more...]

Johan Myburg
The Eleven Football and Art – South Africa 2010 X Brazil 2014
Kommerzbank-gebou, Johannesburg.  [more...]

Shaun de Waal
The title of the exhibition Taking a Risk for Safer Sex outlines both the content and the process of the show. It comprises more than 50 photographs of men in a state of undress, nearly naked or completely so, penises concealed or displayed. It is now on show at Café Manhattan in Cape Town's "gay village", De Waterkant, and will culminate in a fund-raising auction of the images on July 14 from 8pm.   [more...]

Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev face five years in jail in case that has prompted fears of rise in Russian censorship.
A judge in Moscow could send two prominent art curators to jail tomorrow as a 14-month trial that has provoked fears of rising intolerance and attempts at censorship in Russia comes to an end.  [more...]

The Bin was a legendary Cape Town gallery and lifestyle store. This show pays homeage to this pioneer of Cape Town urban and low-brow movement. Celebrating established artists and introducing emerging artists. Curated by Blaise Janichon ,Pierre Coetzee and Ricky Lee Gordon.  [more...]

By Jeremy Kuper
Belgian-based Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou's installation, LOOOOBHY n.50, opened at Goethe on Main last Friday.

Arriving early, I found Tayou -- a star of the African art world who has shown at the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim, on the Africa Remix exhibition and at the National Gallery in Berlin -- sitting in darkness outside the open gallery door.  [more...]

By Jerome Taylor
A campaign has been launched to save the earliest known painting of a freed African slave from being taken out of the country.

William Hoare’s early eighteenth century portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, a Gambian prince who was sold into slavery and later freed, was seen in public for the first time in more than a century when it came up for auction in December.  [more...]

LONDON.- On Thursday, 13th July, in Sotheby’s London sale of Victorian and Edwardian Art, a newly discovered drawing by John William Waterhouse (1849‐1917) will spearhead the selection of works on paper.   [more...]

By Sophia Kishkovsky
MOSCOW — Two prominent intellectuals, facing a verdict of up to three years’ imprisonment over a museum exhibition in 2007, issued dire warnings on Thursday that Russia was starting to resemble Nazi Germany, contemporary Iran and the Soviet Union in the harshness of its growing nationalism, dominance of the Russian Orthodox church and fear of modern art.  [more...]

Ever had the strange feeling that you're being watched? It's not exactly a hidden eye.

Visitors in Chicago pass a 30ft-high eyeball sculpture by Tony Tasset that has been unveiled at Pritzker Park. Tasset has previously worked on a smaller version of the sculpture, which was only 12ft high.

He worked with half a dozen fibreglass specialists to complete the project – which he named simply Eye.

The piece will be on display in the park until the end of October.  [more...]

  [more...]

By Simon Marcus
Michket Krifa and Laura Serani, who curated the Borders photography exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, certainly chose a metaphorically rich theme.   [more...]

By Jeremy Kuper
Halakasha! is the celebratory cheer that goes up when a goal is scored during a South African football match. Halakasha is also the title of the African soccer art exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery. It brings together photographs, paintings, film and carvings of the beautiful game.   [more...]

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today that it made a successful bid at auction on J.M.W Turner's masterpiece painting Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino. The auction took place at Sotheby's in London on Wednesday, July 7.

One of the greatest paintings by Turner to come on the market, Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino has had only two owners in its 171-year history and was most recently on view at the National Gallery of Scotland where it was on long-term loan. It is in excellent condition, virtually untouched since Turner finished it, and still in the original frame.  [more...]

MURCIA.- For the fourth phase of Cannibal Domino, the South-African artist Kendell Geers is creating an in situ production-action at Sala Verónicas in Murcia . In one single gesture, it will address and invoke the elements, remnants and spirits of the three preceding projects by Jimmie Durham, Cristina Lucas and The Bruce High Quality Foundation, while at once activating the double colonial representation of the “other”: the good native who contributes to the process of acculturation by absorbing the prevailing culture, and the cannibal as an embodiment of the savage pagan to blame for all social and historical ills. The artist attempts to graft a savage perspective into the issue of cannibalism, alluding to the devouring of the cultural enemy as an image of terror and, at the same time, as poetic stance.  [more...]

By Adrian Searle
Alice Neel was a painter of uneasy and diffident men, confident fathers and protective mothers, awkward pre-adolescent girls, of a critic in his underpants. I wish I had been painted by Neel, been the object of her eye. For a start, I have the same long-fingered hands as most of her subjects. But there's a wonderful inconsistency to her work: sometimes she painted hands emphatic and plain, sometimes as spindly cartoon appendages. She painted hands that grapple with the air. She is great at feet, too – at clunky shoes, elegant brogues, baby feet and the abjectness of men in socks.  [more...]

Canesso Gallery in Paris will unveil a series of 17th-century Italian works this September that deal in all things denim. The gallery says that curator Gerlinde Gruber of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, has discovered the painter whose subjects wear a fetching denim-like material, hence the catchy exhibition title: The Master of the Blue Jeans.  [more...]

By Jeanne Wright

Art at the Grahamstown festival is always a mixed bag ranging from high art to street art. It’s finding it… which proves to be the most onerous part of seeing the exhibitions. There are the spaces up at the 1820 Settler’s Monument which vary from the windowless claustrophobic Young Artists gallery where Michael MacGarry’s ‘Endgame’ hangs this year, to the Atherstone Room which was originally designed as a conference venue (complete with translation booths) which showcased the Keiskamma Trust’s homegrown version of Picasso’s “Guernica” – one of the highpoints of the festival art.  [more...]

Die sewende Black Like Us-uitstalling in die Manor-galery in Fourways word op 1 Augustus geopen.

In hierdie uitstalling is die werk van die gaskunstenaars Sam Maduna, Makiwa Mutomba en Daniel Novela te sien saam met dié van gereelde Black Like Us-kunstenaars soos Abe Mathabe, Chenjerai Kadzinga, Edward Selematsela, Mind Shana en Stanley Mawelela.  [more...]

"Double Entry" is Dan Halter’s second solo show in South Africa after his 2006 exhibition entitled Take me to your leader at João Ferreira Gallery.   [more...]

Re-emergence of work, first attributed by Roberto Longhi, leaves no doubt as to its authorship.
By Ada Masoero  [more...]

A painting by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, put up for auction by the aristocratic family of the late Princess Diana as part of a clearout sale, sold on Tuesday for 9 million pounds ($13.68 million).

The picture "A Commander being armed for Battle," was painted in 1613 or 1614, and Christie's, which sold the work as part of its Old Masters auction in London, described it as one of the most important Rubens still in private British hands.  [more...]

Dear Editor

I need to run something by your newspaper in the hope that there are other artists out there feeling the same kind of rejection that my dear friend feels!

Chatting with Lola Dunston, internationally acclaimed artist, composer, poet and author, I was really startled to hear her story. Whilst it does go back a couple of years, I feel it is still relevant as this must be happening to other artists on a regular basis.

Spier Contemporary advertised their annual exhibition. Lola was very excited to enter as she felt her works were very pertinent to the subject matter.  [more...]

The Heath family of artists from Kwazulu Natal have been exhibited frequently in the past yet it is rare to find their works appear on the open market. In Ebony’s current Exhibition at their Franschhoek Gallery there is an opportunity to see a unique selection of works previously shown at the Heath combined retrospective at the Tatham in 2009.  [more...]

Johan Myburg
Die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Paul Emmanuel het met sy kortrolprent 3SAI: A Rite of Passage nóg ’n prys in die buiteland verower – dié keer in die kategorie beste eksperimentele rolprent op die vyfde internasionale rolprentfees in Sardinië.

Die beoordelaars het die prys aan Emmanuel toegeken vir sy “roerende portret van die wêreld van rekrute deur middel van ’n montage van treffende beelde”.
  [more...]

LONDON.- Trojan Horse III by Willie Bester is on show at Robert Bowman Modern from 1st July 2010. The title of the work refers to the Trojan Horse Massacre. In October 1985, heightened tensions between anti-apartheid demonstrators and police came to a head in the Cape Town suburb of Athlone. Eleven days after the Government declared a state of emergency in other parts of the country, police hidden in the back of a South African Railways truck fired directly into a hundred-strong crowd at an intersection on Thornton Road. Michael Miranda, 11, Shaun Magmoed, 16, and Jonathan Claasen, 21, were killed. Thirteen others were injured. Because it was an ambush, the incident became known as the “Trojan Horse Massacre.” 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedy.  [more...]

The oil company might give generously to arts organisations, but Tate and other museums must live up to their ethical commitments. It's time to ditch this tainted sponsor.
By John Sauven  [more...]

Christie’s more adventurous sale encourages bidding but market remains vulnerable

By Melanie Gerlis  [more...]

By Scott Reyburn
The recovery in the global art market slowed at the latest bellwether auctions of Impressionist and contemporary works where overpriced lots struggled to attract bidding, dealers said.
Expectations for two weeks of London sales had been raised by recent auction records for works by Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani and reports of brisk business at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. Sellers pushed up estimates at a time when choosy buyers are now only willing to pay the largest sums for the best trophy works, dealers said.
  [more...]

According to a Jeanetta Blignaut Art Consultancy Newsletter who act for the Spier Collection: the Alexander show forms part of a series of small exhibitions at Spier that pay tribute to works occupying pride of place in the collection. The Race works sculpture is accompanied by an edition of photomontages entitled Adventure Centre (2000), kindly made available to Spier for the duration of the exhibition by the gordonschachatcollection, South Africa.

The Raceworks work is also financially noteworthy as it is one of the few contemporary South African artworks, especially for sculpture, that has come up for auction market that has fetched over a 1M.   [more...]

Gallery AOP in Johannesburg bied in samewerking met die Artist Proof Studio (APS) ’n uitstalling aan van linodrukke.

Die kunstenaars wat werk op die uitstalling het, is Elza Botha (Miles), Phillemon Hlungwani, Sandile Goje, Colbert Mashile, Dikgwele Paul Molete, Joël Mpah Dooh, Walter Oltmann, Motsamai Thabane en Diane Victor.  [more...]

British auction houses fear that an EU levy on works of art by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, due to be introduced in 2012, could undermine their position as world leaders in the field.

The British government has a temporary exemption from the EU's "droit de suite" levy on the re-sale price of works of art payable to the artist or the artist's inheritors for 70 years after his or her death.  [more...]

British art collector Charles Saatchi, who championed the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, will donate his central London gallery and more than 200 works valued at $37 million to the nation, he announced on Thursday.  [more...]

PHOENIX, AZ.- French master Paul Cézanne, one of the most recognizable names in art, is celebrated worldwide for his Post-Impressionist masterpieces. However, Cezanne’s greatest legacy may be the transformative effect his work had on 20th century artists. Cézanne and American Modernism is the first exhibition to examine Cezanne’s influence on American artists working between 1900 and 1930 by bringing together 16 of the French master’s paintings and works on papers with more than 80 works by 33 American artists, including Marsden Hartley, Maurice Prendergast, Arshile Gorky, Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray. The exhibition showcases outstanding works from public and private collections throughout the U.S. , including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts , Boston , and works from Phoenix Art Museum ’s permanent collection. The exhibition opens on July 1, 2010.   [more...]

"X Homes", one of the most original formats in documentary theatre, is coming to Joburg. It transfers dramatic action from the darkness in the black boxes of the theatre space and locates it where people spend most time of their lives: in the sphere of private spaces, carefully protected from the public’s gaze.

The principle is as refined as it is simple: spectators buy a ticket in advance and are asked to meet at a specific place at a certain time. From this starting point, every ten minutes two spectators are sent off on a tour, leading them to seven private homes over the course of a three-hour walk. In each of these locations they experience a performance with a maximum duration of ten minutes. The gap between documentary and fiction, the boundaries of what we see as reality, is thus playfully suspended.  [more...]

Alex Hamilton invites you to ROADTRIP, an exhibition about memory, adventure, landscape
and the car that always broke down on the side of the road.  [more...]

Johan Myburg
Pas nadat Borders, die fotouitstalling met ’n keur van werk van die agtste Bamako-biënnale in Mali, in die Johannesburgse kunsmuseum (JAG) geopen het, het die Johannesburgse fotograaf Jodi Bieber na Brussel vertrek vir die opening van A Useful Dream, ’n uitstalling waarmee 50 jaar van fotografie in Afrika gevier word.

Bieber het werk in albei dié groepuitstallings.  [more...]

David Hockney's contribution to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition this year is a feat of technological endurance. But the artist is hoping that making his future works will be much easier - with the help of an iPad.   [more...]

LONDON.- The Post-War and Contemporary Evening Auction took place this evening at Christie’s and realised £45,640,200 /$68,642,861/ €56,091,806, selling 84% by lot and 85% by value.

“We curated this sale very carefully, offering a diverse range of works that were exciting and fresh, had great energy, and were of excellent quality. As a result, the market responded with real enthusiasm” said Francis Outred, Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe. “The signature work in the sale was arguably Mappa by Boetti; it acted as a symbol as a global audience competed for international artists and achieved £1.8 million, double its low estimate. Younger artists shone alongside the established names and the results demonstrate a continued desire to acquire Post-War and Contemporary Art.”   [more...]

The great names were there, but not many of their great works

By Claudia Barbieri
Paris. Sotheby’s Paris sale of works from the bank vault of the celebrated early 20th-century Paris art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard on 29 June showed the bumpiness of the post-recession market.  [more...]

The Ulster Museum in Belfast has been announced as the winner of this year's £100,000 Art Fund Prize.

It beat three other shortlisted institutions, including the UK's oldest public museum, Oxford's Ashmolean.

Chair of the judges, Kirsty Young, said the panel were "moved and invigorated" when they visited the establishment.  [more...]

The Tate is under fire for taking BP sponsorship money. Does corporate cash damage the arts — or is it a necessary compromise? We asked leading cultural figures their view.
Interviews by Emine Saner and Homa Khaleeli   [more...]

Akademie Schloss Solitude Residency Program
Will accept applications for the residency period 2011–2013
Starting on: Thursday, July 1, 2010
Application deadline (postmark): Sunday, October 31, 2010  [more...]

The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) will be hosting a forum in Cape Town at the Fugard Theatre on 15 July 2010 at 14:00.  [more...]

Official opening: 16h00. Speakers: Gerhard Marx and William Kentridge.  [more...]

DOUBLE ENTRY is Dan Halter’s second solo show in South Africa after his critically acclaimed 2006 exhibition entitled Take me to your leader at João Ferreira Gallery.
As a relatively fortunate Zimbabwean living in South Africa, Halter investigates and draws attention to the plight of less fortunate fellow Zimbabweans now displaced in South Africa. Dubbed the pejorative ʻkwerekwereʼ these foreigners are often confronted with xenophobic violence by their South African counterparts. Halter is also concerned with the relations between the two neighbouring countries.  [more...]

Opening Speaker: Ingrid Wolfaardt (Author of Heartfruit)
Participating Artists: Beezy Bailey, Ben Botma, Paul Boulitreau, Keith Dietrich, Nel Erasmus, Pauline Gutter, Lara Kruger, MJ Lourens, Nicolaas Maritz, Luan Nel, Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi, Sarel Petrus, Annette Pretorius, Jeannette Unite, Louis van Heerden, Gina Waldman, Emma Willemse
Guest artist: Anton Uys  [more...]

A collection of impressionist and modern art that hadn't been seen since before the Second World War raised $4.5 million at auction in Paris Tuesday evening.

The collection of works by Renoir, Degas, Cézanne and Picasso was owned by Paris art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who turned many previously unknown artists into stars.  [more...]

A Harrier jump jet has been hung from the roof of Tate Britain like a "trussed up bird", and a Jaguar parked upside-down on the floor in the central London gallery's latest exhibition.
By Stephen Adams  [more...]

By Katya Kazakina
Amir Shariat, chief executive officer of financing and advisory firm Auctor Capital Partners Ltd. in London, prowls for art much as he does for stock.

In 2005, the collector noticed a colorful stripe painting by little-known artist Anselm Reyle at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. He liked the painter’s new take on pop art and bought the work for 10,000 euros ($12,170). In the following two years, the artist’s career took off, with another of his stripe paintings fetching $634,956 at Christie’s in London in 2007.   [more...]

Johan Myburg
Die Kaapstadse kunstenaar Angeline-Ann le Roux is die wenner in vanjaar se Thami Mnyele-kunskompetisie.

Dis vanjaar die 22ste keer dat dié kompetisie deur die Ekurhuleni-metroraad aangebied word.

Le Roux het met haar koerantpapier-installasie Open Plan dié R30 000-prys gewen.
Haar werk bestaan uit ’n bed, ’n kussing , ’n gordyn en ’n venster in ’n “oop plan”- huis.

Die Ekurhuleni-prys van R20 000 is toegeken aan Carmen van der Merwe vir haar foto-werk Annihilation.
  [more...]

Miles Keylock
Symposium, held in Cape Town earlier this year, was the cat fight between die-hard feminist Nina Romm and Kendell Geers, the South African-born, Belgium-based artist and provocateur. Romm was apparently offended by the imbalance of representation of cocks and cunts in a special "fuck" issue of Be Contemporary magazine, guest edited by Geers. The argument quickly descended into a cock-and-cunt-spotting contest, with Romm accusing Geers of phallocentrism and Geers vainly thrusting back with almost heartfelt pleas and protests.   [more...]

By Scott Reyburn
Works by Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana and Gerhard Richter sold at an auction in London as buyers chose classic 1960s works and declined to pay high asking prices.

The three top lots sold within estimates at a Sotheby’s sale last night that raised a total of 41.1 million pounds ($62 million). Dealers said the market recovery for contemporary art was taking a breath after the biggest slump since 1990.

“The estimates were not so tempting,” said the Dusseldorf-based art adviser Jorg-Michael Bertz. “They’ve been adjusted to the new level too quickly. Sotheby’s did sell things, though, and they will react at the next series of auctions.”   [more...]

By Tom Lavell

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- German federal police said they recovered a painting attributed to Caravaggio and stolen in Odessa, Ukraine, two years ago during an attempt to sell the artwork in Berlin.  [more...]

A group of artists have thrown oil and feathers on the entrance to Tate Britain in London in protest at its acceptance of BP sponsorship.

The group, calling itself The Good Crude Britannia, is calling for the gallery to sever ties with BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  [more...]

Elza Botha (ook bekend as die kunskritikus en -kenner Elza Miles) is dié week aan die beurt in Kunskyk, die rubriek waarin Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars die geleentheid kry om die werk van ’n ander kunstenaar te bespreek. Botha het die werk gekies van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Tshidiso Andrew Motjuoadi.  [more...]

By Joyce Hor-Chung Lau
HONG KONG — Wu Guanzhong, a master of modern Chinese painting, died Friday in Beijing. He was 90.
The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong said in an obituary that Mr. Wu was “one of the most important figures of 20th-century Chinese art.” In his last years, he gave generously to public museums.  [more...]

By Randy Kennedy
“IF you want to disappear ... come around for private lessons,” the artist Brion Gysin once offered in a prose poem. And during a period in Paris in the late 1950s, when he and the novelist William S. Burroughs were experimenting with crystal balls, mirrors and other contraptions of the occult, a mutual friend swore that he saw Gysin exercise the powers of dematerialization, perhaps with help from the various narcotics that always seemed to be lying around for the taking.  [more...]

A painting of an artist's mother on her deathbed has been named the winner of the prestigious BP Portrait Award.

Last Portrait of Mother by Daphne Todd was among three portraits in the running for the £25,000 prize.

It was painted shortly after Annie Mary Todd's 100th birthday, and is described as a devotional study by the artist.

David Eichenberg and Michael Gaskell were also shortlisted for the award, which is now in its 31st year at the National Portrait Gallery in London.   [more...]

Artists like Monet, Picasso and Warhol were considered revolutionary in their day, but their works were not much appreciated by the leaders of Iran's Islamic revolution and many were kept out of view for decades.  [more...]

An art auction of impressionist and modern works including a "blue period" Picasso has raised more than £152.5 million, the highest ever total for a British art auction.  [more...]

By Germaine Greer
A monarch who has never bought a work by a living artist has deigned to inflict on Paula Rego the patently ridiculous title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Since it was invented in 1917, the title has been bestowed on more than 700 actors, novelists, divas, dancers and well-connected dogsbodies. Only four painters have been so honoured.  [more...]

By John Vidal.
Good Crude Britannia will picket Tate Britain's summer party on Monday, as the gallery celebrates 20 years of BP's sponsorship.  [more...]

Cobus Claassen

’n Groot flop of ’n hedendaagse Picasso?

Die nuwe struktuur by die Fonteine-sirkel in Pretoria het gister op ’n vergadering van die Tshwane-metroraad skerp kritiek én groot lof ontlok.

Die struktuur, wat mure van gekapte klip, vlagpale, ’n groot bal en verskeie soorte inheemse plante insluit, is kort voor die begin van
WB 2010 swierig ingewy.  [more...]

Internationally acclaimed artist, Kehinde Wiley, has partnered with PUMA to create four original works of art inspired by three of football’s most decorated players, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Emmanuel Eboué of Ivory Coast. Wiley painted three individual portraits of each player wearing the Africa Unity Kit, and then a fourth ‘Unity’ Portrait was painted with all three players together, symbolizing the united countries of Africa.  [more...]