|
Click
here to recieve
our free breaking art news weekly email updates

Friday 30: Editor's Choice: BBC News: Family of art collector sues Hungary over Nazi loot (30 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 30: Editor's Choice: The Economist: Brothers in exile (30 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 30: Editor's Choice: Weekend Post: Gifted turner magically unlocks beauty of wood (30 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday: Press Release: Art Exhibition / One-Night Event: ‘The Big Hole’ at the Kimberley Hotel (29 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 27: Charles Shields and David Tripp of Cape Town's Everard Read Gallery (28 Jul 10)
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...] |
Wednesday 28: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Kollig op Maqhubela (28 Jul 10)
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...] |
Wednesday 28: 2010 Absa L’Atelier Art Awards’ winners (28 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 27: Opening Today, reGeneration 2- Tomorrow’s Photographers Today. Michaelis Galleries, CT (27 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 27: Editor's Choice: Bloomberg: Femme Fatale Makes $2 Million, Handbag $65,000 as Auctions Buzz (27 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 27: Editor's Choice: The Weekend Post: Multimedia art deals with ‘issues’ (27 Jul 10)
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...] |
SA Art Times exclusive interview with Dylan Lewis (27 Jul 10)
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...] |
Michael Coulson: Business Art: Swelco Johannesburg sale preview (27 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 26: Opening Tonight: Three solo Exhibitions at AVA, CT (26 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 26: Editor's Choice: BBC: 'World's biggest photo booth' opens in Nottingham (26 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 26: Editor's Choice: Financial Times: Matisse and the pleasure principle at MoMA (26 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 23: Editor's Choice: Daily Dispatch: Rare art find in EL worth more than R1m (23 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 23: Editor's Choice: Times Live: Wits and the art of hanging (23 Jul 10)
"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...] |
Thursday 22: Editor's Choice: LA Times-Culture Monster: Nudity ban on YouTube? But what if it's art? (22 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 20: Editor's Choice: Art Daily: Painting by Spanish Baroque Master Francisco Ribalta Restored After Being Hidden in Church (20 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 16: Editor's Choice: Bloomberg: Dennis Hopper Art Sends Warhol, Basquiat to $10 Million Sale (16 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 15: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Broosheid van die wêreld vergestalt (15 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 15: Editor's Choice: Reuters: Rare 17th century bowls found at London dig site (15 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 15: Editor's Choice: Art Daily: Studio Museum in Harlem Summer Exhibition Features Zwelethu Mthethwa (15 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 15: Press Release: You are invited to participate in MINI ME, AVA’s ArtReach Fundraiser (15 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 13: Battiss the redeeming feature of long-delayed Britz auction results by Michael Coulson (14 Jul 10)
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...] |
Wednesday 14: Editor's Choice: Die Burger: Tussenruimtes boei Botha (14 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 13: Editor's Choice: Die Burger: : Aanhou beweeg en kuns maak (13 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 13: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Kriptiese Leidraad (13 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 13: Editor's Choice: Art Daily: Léon Ferrari Retrospective Opens at a Church in Arles (13 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 12: Editor's Choice: Mail & Guardian: Taking it off for a good cause (12 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 09: Editor's Choice: The Independent.co.uk: Sculptor with a good eye for art (09 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 08: Editor's Choice: Art Daily: Kendell Geers Presents an In Situ Production-Action in Murcia, Spain (08 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 08: Editor's Choice: Guardian.co.uk: The weird world of Alice Neel (08 Jul 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 06: Grahamstown Festival (07 Jul 10)
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...] |
Wednesday 07: Editor's Choice: 7de ‘Black Like Us’-uitstalling (07 Jul 10)
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...] |
Wednesday 07: Letter to the Editor, SA Art Times (07 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 05: Editor's Choice: Artdaily: Robert Bowman Modern Shows Willie Bester's Trojan Horse III (05 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 05: Editor's Choice: Bloomberg: Greedy Auction Sellers Endanger Fragile Price Recovery, Art Dealers Warn (05 Jul 10)
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...] |
Monday 05: Jane Alexander's R1 M Raceworks sculpture bought by Spier to be part of small Alexander's show (05 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 02: Editor's Choice: Reuters: British art market warns against EU levy (02 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 02: Editor's Choice: Artdaily: Largest Assembly of Cézanne Works Ever on View in Arizona (02 Jul 10)
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...] |
Friday 02: Press Release: X Homes Exhibition in Johannesburg (02 Jul 10)
"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...] |
Thursday 01 July: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Mense, hul grense in skerpe fokus (01 Jul 10)
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...] |
Thursday 01 July: Editor's Choice: Art Daily: Post-War and Contemporary Evening Auction at Christie's Realises $68.6 Million (01 Jul 10)
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...] |
Recomended Exhibitions: Dan Halter: Double Entry / Solo Exhibition Opens Wed 07 July 18h00* (01 Jul 10)
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...] |
Sunday 01: Opening Today: Where? at Gallery Grande Provence, Franschhoek (01 Jul 10)
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...] |
Wednesday 30: Editor's Choice: Bloomberg: Art Addicts Prowl for Next Koons in Younger New York Galleries (30 Jun 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 29: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Kapenaar wen Mnyele-prys (29 Jun 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 29: Editor's Choice: Mail& Guardian: Lost in frustration (29 Jun 10)
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...] |
Tuesday 29: Editor's Choice: Bloomberg: Fontana Boosts $62 Million Art Sale as Buyers Go Back to 1960s (29 Jun 10)
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...] |
Monday 28: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Dobbelspel word enigma (28 Jun 10)
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...] |
Monday 28: Editor's Choice: The New York Times: The Unknown Loved by the Knowns (28 Jun 10)
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...] |
Monday 28: Editor's Choice: BBC News: Deathbed portrait wins BP award (28 Jun 10)
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...] |
Friday 25: Editor's Choice: Beeld: Fonteine-kuns ‘soos Picasso’ (25 Jun 10)
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...] |
Thursday 24: Opening Today, Kehinde Wiley Exhibition. Studio One, CT. (24 Jun 10)
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...] |
|