Sotheby’s Presents Furniture, Silver & Old Master Paintings Formerly from the Collection of Madame Antenor Patiño

PARIS.- On 22 September 2010 Sotheby’s Paris will have the honour of offering Furniture, Silver and Old Master Paintings formerly from the collection of Madame Antenor Patiño. The collection – divided between La Quinta, her principal residence in Portugal, and her Paris flat – affords Sotheby’s the opportunity to once again pay tribute to the renowned Patiño taste and style, in particular to that of Beatriz Patiño (Madame Antenor Patiño), the guardian of this legacy until her death in 2009. [...]

Liverpool’s Slavery Museum Expansion Plan Approved

LIVERPOOL.- Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum is to grow and get its own entrance – the grand Dock Traffic Office building. Planning permission has been granted for the ambitious expansion plans. Currently the Slavery Museum is in the Merseyside Maritime Museum and entered on the third floor. But the new plans will see the museum have its own entrance at the Dock Traffic Office and a striking glass walkway will connect the two buildings. The Slavery Museum opened in August 2007 [...]

Lowave Releases New DVD on Experimental Film and Video Art from the Middle East and North Africa

PARIS.- To mark the release of RESISTANCE[S] III – the latest volume of a DVD collection of experimental film and video art from the Middle East and North Africa by French label Lowave – the BFI is thrilled to present a programme curated by Silke Schmickl and Christine Sehnaoui. It will be introduced by the curators and some of the artists and followed by a Q&A after the screening. DVD launch reception at the Filmstore after the programme. RESISTANCE[S] III, [...]

Christie’s to Present Magnificent Gustav Klimt Portrait in London

LONDON.- Christie’s announced that they will offer one of the last of the great female portraits painted by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on 23 June 2010. Executed in 1917-18, Frauenbildnis (Portrait of Ria Munk III) is the third and final painting in a series of three portraits commissioned by the Munk family of their daughter Ria. One of the last and most modern of Klimt’s full-length female portraits, the painting offers [...]

Christie’s to Present an Important Auction of Orientalist Masterpieces

LONDON.- Christie’s announced the auction of Orientalist Art which will take place on 15 June 2010, and which follows the success of the auction in November 2009 which realised £10.6 million, selling 2 works for over £1 million. The auction will offer a selection of 54 works led by Bondage, an epic masterpiece by Ernest Normand (British, 1857-1923) which measures 184 x 307 cm and which will be offered in its original, purpose-built frame (estimate: £2 million to £3 million). [...]

Amon Carter Museum Exhibits Ansel Adams Photographs

FORT WORTH, TX.- Works by one of the world’s most widely recognized and celebrated photographers will go on view this spring at the Amon Carter Museum. Ansel Adams: Eloquent Light features 40 photographs by the artist and runs from May 29 through November 7, 2010. “Ansel Adams was the last major artist to subscribe to the romantic tradition of American landscape, an artistic lineage that included Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, William Henry Jackson and Carleton Watkins,” says John Rohrbach, senior [...]

New York Judge Urges Settlement in Obama Poster Dispute

NEW YORK, NY (AP).- A judge urged Friday that a copyright dispute between an artist and The Associated Press over the Barack Obama “HOPE” image be settled quickly, saying it was likely the AP would win the case. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein made the suggestion at a hearing in which he ordered Fairey’s lawyers to turn over records of communications Fairey had with his lawyers before he sued the AP in February 2009. He also said AP lawyers can [...]

The Global Art World Gathers in Hong Kong for the City’s Third International Art Fair

HONG KONG.- The international art world glitterati jetted into Hong Kong for the hottest ever event of the art calendar in Asia. Takashi Murakami, Jay Jopling, Zhang Xiaogang, Antony Gormley and Baz Luhrmann are amongst a very long list attending. ART HK 10 is open from 27-30 May at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) and it is set to attract the biggest ever gathering the city has witnessed of top artists, gallery directors, curators, collectors, critics and [...]

Miniature Chinese Art Makes World Record Prices at Bonhams

LONDON.- Bonhams Hong Kong today celebrated the first-ever “Golden Gavel Auction” in its history, when part of the world’s finest collection of important Chinese snuff bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, sold 100% and achieved world record prices. Against presale estimates of HK$20,000,000 (£1.8m), the sale total was HK$66,146,800 (£5.8m), with every one of the 140 rare bottles successfully sold. This figure was double the previous sale total for a single-owner snuff bottle auction held in New York on [...]

Tiffany’s Dazzling Designs at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

RICHMOND, VA.- The most important exhibition in decades devoted to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s opulent creations in glass will open on May 29 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond is the only U.S. stop for “Tiffany: Color and Light,” which will continue until August 15. The exhibition includes more than 170 works by Louis Comfort Tiffany – the master of American glass – and his studio. Handblown glass objects, leaded-glass windows, lamps, and other decorative items from Tiffany’s studios [...]

Cuban Voodoo-Variant Art Tops Sotheby’s Latin American Sale

NEW YORK (REUTERS).- A painting blending surrealism and Cuban-like voodoo led Sotheby’s Latin American art sale, setting a world auction record for the artist, Cuban Wifredo Lam. The Thursday night sale drew $12.2 million, below the $13.8 million minimum pre-sale estimate. It also failed to match Sotheby’s $14.6 million Latin American auction last fall. Auction officials downplayed the lackluster showing, and they highlighted the genres drawing top dollar bids. “The big trend that I saw that the surrealist works did [...]

Albertina Opens Major Survey of Printed Works by Alex Katz

VIENNA.- Alex Katz Prints, presented by the Albertina from May 28 to August 29, 2010, offers a major survey of the artist’s printed works. In autumn 2009 Katz donated his complete graphic oeuvre to the Albertina. The exhibition shows a representative selection of it, with works dating from the 1960s to the present. The show comprises about 150 prints, cut-outs (painted or printed aluminum silhouettes), and artist books. Born in New York in 1927, Alex Katz ranks among today’s most [...]

Internationally Renowned Director to Lead The San Diego Museum of Art

SAN DIEGO, CA.- The Board of Trustees of The San Diego Museum of Art has named Roxana Velásquez Martínez del Campo as the new executive director of the Museum. The internationally celebrated director will take the lead, the first female ever appointed to this role, in early fall. American born and raised in Mexico, Velásquez has represented professional, civic, and cultural endeavors at three major national museums in Mexico City. She has served as the director of Museo Nacional de [...]

Group Exhibition of Street Art on View at Affirmation Arts

NEW YORK, NY.- Affirmation Arts presents Street Smart, curated by Heidi Lee, featuring artists: Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Blek le Rat, D*Face, Dalek, Date Farmers, Shepard Fairey, Doze Green, Keith Haring, James Jean, KAWS, Mark Ryden, Jeff Soto, Robert Williams and WK Interact. Street art, as a fine art genre, has been challenged since its inception in the 1980s and endured much resistance from society and art critics alike. Recently, it is experiencing a revival and the value and importance [...]

Artist Fred Tomaselli to Have Solo Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum

BROOKLYN, NY.- Fred Tomaselli, a mid-career survey featuring the artist’s two-dimensional works from the late 1980s tothe present, will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from October 8, 2010, through January 2, 2011. This exhibition focuses on the trajectory of Tomaselli’s career, from early experiments with photograms and collage to recent paintings and prints that combine abstraction with allusions to current events. Fred Tomaselli includes more than forty artworks and will feature collages and paintings created specifically for the [...]