The PragueBiennial2 (26 May-15 September) is designed as an alternative to the Venice Biennale and it runs concurrently

May 27th, 2005

The PragueBiennial2 in the Karlin Hall (26 May-15 September) has been organised by Giancarlo Politi, the Italian publisher and editor of the contemporary art magazine Flash Art, and his wife, Helena Kontova, an editor at the publication. The exhibition was first held in 2001 in Tirana, Albania, and organised on a shoestring budget, but was moved to Prague in 2003. “We wanted to invite people to a place where they wouldn’t normally consider going, to a country that needed to improve its self-confidence...Prague was a continuation of that idea,” says Czech-born Ms Kontova. The show is designed as an alternative to the Venice Biennale, with which it runs concurrently. The organisers say its purpose is to highlight artists of eastern Europe and the developing world which are marginalised by the art world, but this year the focus is on new painting in Europe, particularly the very fashionable, highly sellable and now widely seen Leipzig School; and political action art in Latin America. Eigen+Art, the German gallery based in Berlin and Leipzig, is sending work by Matthias Weischer, whose work will also be on show in the Italian pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. There will also be sections on Czech and Slovak art; Polish art; Chinese painting (another increasingly popular area of the market); a show organised as a “tribute” to the Italian painter Marco Montesano; and a central exhibition of 100 contemporary paintings by artists who included Damien Hirst and Maurizio Cattelan, as well as Stella Vine, the artist who garnered tabloid fame last year when Charles Saatchi included her painting of a bleeding Princess Diana in his “New Blood” exhibition. Above: Martin Eder’s Burn the bridges, 2003, from his series Images du corps humain, on show at the biennial’s exhibition of paintings by the Leipzig School.

Источник: The Art Newspaper

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Six records were set at Christie's Latin American Art sale in New York

May 27th, 2005

Virgilio Garza, Head of the Latin American Art department: “Tonight’s sale realized very solid prices for works by traditional and internationally appreciated artists such as Botero and Tamayo. The great collector’s eye of Ruth and Harvey Kaplan, which already sent prices soaring in the past evening sales of Impressionist and Modern and Post-War and Contemporary Art, also triumphed tonight with their fabulous Tamayo, Discusiуn acalorada, fetching $867,200. It was interesting to see the interest wave for sculpture also washing over Latin American shores with Botero’s Sitting Woman achieving a new world auction record for a sculpture by the artist and Zuсiga’s powerful Madre con niсo en la cadera fetching $216,000. World auction records were established for Botero, Coronel, Iommi, Amorales, Rodriguez and Anguiano. We look forward to our day sale tomorrow, starting at 10 a.m.”

Источник: ArtDaily

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For the first time in 200 years, the Royal Academy of Art has expelled a member

May 27th, 2005

The Royal Academy of Arts has voted to expel former head of schools Professor Brendan Neiland, the first member to be expelled in more than 200 years.

Professor Neiland resigned as Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools last July amid allegations regarding missing funds from academy accounts.

The professor is the first artist to be stripped of his membership since James Barry was ejected in 1799.

Mr Neiland, who denies dishonesty, said he was "disappointed but unsurprised".

Mr Neiland, 63, was one of 80 Royal Academicians, all practising artists, who govern the Academy and are responsible for its direction.

On Thursday the General Assembly voted to expel the professor, with 39 Academicians voting in favour of the expulsion.

Источник: BBC

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Christie's captures the field in American paintings sale

May 20th, 2005

Yesterday’s Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture sale at Christie’s in New York was a resounding success. Realizing an exceptional $40,669,200, the sale produced the highest total for any various-owner American Paintings sale in Christie’s history. The final auction result soared over $6 million above the high pre-sale estimate, and marked the highest sale total for any auction house during American Paintings week in New York. Six paintings exceeded $1 million and the sale was 95% sold by value, 84% by lot.

Источник: ArtDaily

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A group of Russian collectors is claiming to own two Faberge Easter eggs made for the Tsar

May 20th, 2005

A group of Russian collectors thought to include some of Russia’s richest oil barons is claiming to own two Fabergй Easter eggs made for the Tsar. The eggs in question are currently on display in Moscow at the Museum of the History and Reconstruction of Moscow near Red Square. Fabergй experts are not convinced by the objects’ supposed imperial provenance.

The exhibition, held under the patronage of President Putin, includes works from Gokhran, the State depository of precious metals and gemstones, the Russian State Archives, and the Russian State Historical Museum. The eggs, however, are on loan from a Moscow association of private art and antique collectors calling themselves the Russian National Museum (RNM).

Scholars currently recognise 50 imperial Fabergй eggs. The two eggs belonging to the RNM are a Wooden Egg and a Constellation Egg. If authentic, they would be numbers 51 and 52. Both are said to date to 1917 which would make them the last two eggs created for the Imperial family. The Wooden Egg is made of Karelian birch, a material much prized by Maria Fedorovna, mother of Nicholas II, for whom the RNM says the egg was intended.

It is not known exactly who owns the two eggs because the identity of the RNM’s members and even their precise numbers are closely guarded secrets. RNM director, Alexander Ivanov, will only say that the group is motivated by “patriotism”, and seeks to repatriate Russian works of art to Russia.

Источник: The Art Newspaper

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American artist Spencer Tunick is searching for volunteers to pose naked in a series of outdoor installations on Tyneside

May 20th, 2005

Controversial American artist Spencer Tunick wants people from across the UK to participate in his new work.

The work will be created along the banks of the River Tyne in Newcastle and Gateshead on 17 July and later displayed in an arts centre.

Tunick set up the world's largest nude photoshoot in 2003 when 7,000 bared all in Barcelona.

Photographs of the work will be displayed at the Baltic contemporary art centre in Gateshead next year and the installations will be broadcast on BBC3.

He also photographed 4,000 naked people in the centre of Melbourne and more than 500 in Selfridges, central London.

Источник: BBC

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The International Fine Art Fair 2005 opened in New York

May 13th, 2005

Eleven years on from its launch in 1994 The International Fine Art Fair remains one of the premier events in the international fairs calendar, with an impressive line-up of many of the world’s leading fine art dealers and a superlative display of paintings, drawings and sculpture spanning 700 years of European art from Old Masters to Modern Masters and including fine examples from the American Schools. All works are for sale under the strictest vetting conditions.

The fair, now in its 11th year, has been re-designed to accommodate a demand from many dealers for larger stands, lending even more glamour to an already glamorous event.

The 54 exhibitors from Europe, the Far East and the United States bring not only a balance of paintings, sculpture and drawings, but also a wide range of periods and styles from Old to Modern Masters.

Источник: ArtDaily

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The spring auctions at Christie's took in $133.7 million at the biggest-ever sale of post-war and contemporary art

May 13th, 2005

The spring auctions ended with a bang at Christie's on Wednesday as the auction house took in $133.7 million at the biggest-ever sale of post-war and contemporary art, Reuters reports. With top works by Edward Hopper and Willem de Kooning leading the way, fetching $14 million and $13.1 million, respectively, including commission, the monumental sale provided ample evidence of a strong art market even in the face of a continuously unsteady economy.

Christie's officials said afterward that the total take easily eclipsed the previous record for any contemporary auction of $102.1 million, which it set only a year ago.

Christie's Chairman Marc Porter noted that the strong results of the past two weeks (with the exception of Sotheby's Impressionist auction) had paid testament to the strength of the current market.

"It absolutely speaks to the material well-being of a significant portion of the population," Porter said. "Many people see art as a strong and prudent store of capital, with enormous psychic benefits as well."

Источник: REUTERS

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The British government has dropped plans for a database of stolen art and antiquities

May 13th, 2005

The British government has quietly dropped plans for a database of stolen art and antiquities, although this was a key element in helping to enforce a new law. The Dealing in Cultural Objects Act came into force at the beginning of 2004, and the government then advised dealers that consulting the projected database should be part of the “due diligence” process, to help establish that they were not knowingly handling tainted objects.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) warned the trade last year that in cases of suspected breaches of the new law, “a failure to consult the database [once established] would be a further evidential factor in determining whether the accused knew or believed that an object was tainted.”

The pilot “Database of stolen and unlawfully removed cultural objects” was to have been available in April 2004.

Following inquiries from The Art Newspaper, DCMS has admitted that it and the Home Office has decided “not to progress” the database. It said an independent appraisal had reached three conclusions: a database would not have a significant effect on reducing crime, the long-term sustainability of the database could not be assured, and there were question marks over how much demand there would be for such a database.

The U-turn is surprising, given DCMS’s commitment to the scheme in the build-up to the Dealing in Cultural Objects Act. The database had originally been a major recommendation in the 2000 report of the Illicit Trade Advisory Panel, chaired by Professor Norman Palmer. However, the scheme needed support from the Home Office, which does not regard the recovery of art and antiquities as a priority. The database would have been expensive—and the question was whether it should be primarily funded by the government or the trade.

Источник: The Art Newspaper

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Big banners with the emblem of Angel Orensanz's exhibition festoon the compound that makes the Pushkin Museum in the Arbat

May 4th, 2005

Thousands of visitors stop to have a glimpse at the banners and read the basics of what promises to be a major show in town. This is the first show in a Moscow museum of the work of leading contemporary artist, Spanish born Angel Orensanz "Earth: Death-Birth".

The show fills the three rooms of the exhibition hall of the Museum. It consists of a host of strongly poetic sculpture pieces that fly over the three spaces, while huge projections give context to those sculptures and arresting drawings in which Orensanz captures the drama of the art as grave and cradle of life while the sculpture and drawings static the video projections insert the visitor in location such as the banks of the River Omono in Northern Japan, the lakes of Central Park and the canals of Venice. This is a show worth of the imagination of the theatrical strategies of Mayakovsky or Meyerhold, the images of Kandinsky and Chagall and the power of Lissitzky.

Источник: ArtDaily

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A fourth man has been arrested in Norway over the theft of Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream"

May 4th, 2005

An unidentified man in his 30s was arrested at his workplace south of Oslo on Wednesday morning.

The 1893 masterpiece and another Munch painting, The Madonna, were stolen from Oslo's Munch Museum by two armed and masked thieves in August 2004.

Norwegian police spokesman Morten Hojem Ervik said they remained "optimistic" that the paintings would be returned.

"Whether they'll be in the same condition they were at the museum is hard to say," he added.

The Scream and the Madonna are together worth about Ј10.4m. Experts say the two paintings are too recognisable for the thieves to sell.

Mr Hojem Ervik denied recent Norwegian media reports that the masterpieces may have been burned by the robbers.

Источник: BBC

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