Sotheby’s London to Sell Important Scottish Skating Scene on Duddingston Loch

LONDON.- Sotheby’s London is to offer Skaters, A Scene on Duddingston Loch near Edinburgh by Scottish artist Charles Lees (1800‐1880) in its sale of Victorian and Edwardian Art on Tuesday, 17 May 2011. Estimated at £100,000‐200,000, the painting will make its first known appearance at auction since it was painted in 1853, and comes to the market from a Private Scottish Collection. The subject of skaters would come to define Lee’s career and the present work is distinguished as the [...]

Ethel Carrick & E Phillips Fox’s Artistic Marriage Celebrated at the Queensland Art Gallery

BRISBANE.- The story of one of Australian art’s most significant marriages is told for the first time in a new exhibition at theQueensland Art Gallery. The personal artistic union of Ethel Carrick & E Phillips Fox, two of Australia’s most significant late impressionist painters, are celebrated in a major exhibition from April 16 to August 7, 2011. Queensland Art Gallery Director Tony Ellwood said ‘Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick and E Phillips Fox’ would includes more than 100 paintings, [...]

Bonhams to Sell J.M.W. Turner Masterpiece Depicting Whitstable Oyster Beds

LONDON.- One of the highlights of Bonhams next 19th Century Paintings sale will be a remarkable watercolour of the Oyster Beds at Whitstable, Kent by the master of colour, light and atmosphere, J.M.W. Turner. It is estimated to sell for £120,000-180,000 when it is offered for auction on 13th July 2011, at Bonhams New Bond Street. Turner lived in Margate for 20 years, just along the coast from Whitstable, and was fascinated by the pure, bright light of the region and [...]

Gagosian Gallery in New York Presents Picasso and Marie-Therese: L’amour fou

NEW YORK, NY.- Following the critical and popular success of Picasso: Mosqueteros in New York in 2009 and Picasso: The Mediterranean Years in London in 2010, Gagosian Gallery presents the next chapter in an ongoing exploration of Picasso’s principal themes. Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou brings together the paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints inspired by one of Picasso’s most ideal models and enduring passions. The exhibition is curated by the eminent Picasso biographer, John Richardson, together with Marie-Thérèse’s granddaughter, art historian [...]

Selected Paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder on View at Alte Pinakothek in Munich

MUNICH.- The third exhibition to mark the Alte Pinakothek’s 175th anniversary comprises 30 selected paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen’s extensive holdings. It is the first Cranach exhibition in the Alte Pinakothek. The exhibition is on display from April 14 and runs until July 17, 2011. A man walks past the paintings (L-R), ‘St. Anna Selbdritt’ (1516), ‘Abraham’s Sacrifice’ (1530) and ‘Adam and Eve’ (around 1510) after a press conference of the exhibition ‘Cranach in Bavaria’ [...]

Art Fund to Increase Funding for Museums and Galleries to Buy and Show Art by 50%

LONDON.- The Art Fund announce their plans to increase funding for museums and galleries to buy and show art by over 50% by 2014. Responding to the severe financial pressures facing most institutions, Art Fund is committing £7 million a year to their funding programme – up from £4.5 million. They also launched the National Art Pass, giving special access to art all over the UK. Artist Grayson Perry poses for a photograph at the Foundling Museum, in London April 13, [...]

National Portrait Gallery Announces BP Award Shortlist; Record Number of Entrie

LONDON.- After a record number of entries, four artists have been short-listed for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, one of the world’s most prestigious art prizes. This year the prize received 2, 372 entries, an increase of 196 on last year. For the fifth year, the competition has been open to all aged 18 or over. 55 portraits have been selected for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which runs from 16 June until 18 September [...]

Russian Art Auction Achieves $16.1 Million At Sotheby’s New York, Highest Result Since 2008

LONDON.- Sotheby’s auction of Russian Art in New York brought $16,089,390 in total today, in excess of the pre-sale high estimate and the highest result for an auction in New York in this category since April 2008. The Russian paintings on offer were highlighted by Petr Petrovich Vereshchagin’s View of St. Petersburg from the collection of Mikhail Baryshnikov, which sold for $746,500 above a pre-sale high estimate of $500,000. The sale was led by Henryk Siemiradzki’s The Sword Dance, which [...]

First Major Retrospective in 50 Years of Spanish Artist Joan Miró Opens at Tate Modern

LONDON.- Tate Modern presents the first major retrospective of Joan Miró (1893–1983) to be held in London for almost 50 years. The exhibition is on view from April 14 through September 11, 2011. Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape brings together over 150 paintings, works on paper and sculptures by one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists. The exhibition draws on collections from around the world to represent the astonishing breadth of Miró’s output. It also explores the wider context [...]

Sotheby’s to Sell an Appealing Private Collection of Old Master Paintings Assembled by Saam and Lily Nijstad

LONDON.- Sotheby’s London announces the sale of the collection of Old Master Paintings, on Thursday 7th July 2011, formed by Saam & Lily Nijstad over the last four decades. Saam Nijstad was for many years a leading dealer in Dutch Old Masters based in The Hague, but he and his wife were also passionate collectors for nearly sixty years. Assembled with care and knowledge, the collection of 38 lots is estimated to fetch in excess of £2 million. Santi Di [...]

The Getty Museum’s Rebecca Taylor Appointed Communications Director at MoMA PS1

NEW YORK, NY.- Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at MoMA, announced that Rebecca Taylor has been appointed Communications Director at MoMA PS1. In this role, Ms. Taylor will manage all communications functions for MoMA PS1, working in close collaboration with Mr. Biesenbach and the Marketing and Communications staff at MoMA. Her duties will include planning, developing, and implementing press strategies and press events; planning, developing, and executing marketing, advertising, and media strategies; overseeing web content [...]

45th Edition of Art Cologne Once Again Showcases Works by Well-Established Artists

COLOGNE.- Lively, open to change, daring and innovative – these are the qualities ART COLOGNE (13th-17th April 2011) is displaying 45 years after it was founded. The 45th International Art Fair is once again the event that showcases the works of well-established artists and also very promising up and coming talents, where art dealers with long years of experience engage in dialogue with daring young gallery owners. About 200 galleries from 22 countries are offering a comprehensive overview ranging from Modernist [...]

Guggenheim in Bilbao Presents The Luminous Interval: The D. Daskalopoulos Collection

BILBAO.- The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents The Luminous Interval: The D.Daskalopoulos Collection on view from April 12 through September 11, 2011. This is the first large-scale presentation of one of the world’s most significant private collections of contemporary art. Sponsored by Iberdrola and occupying the museum’s second floor and part of the first, the exhibition features approximately 60 works by some 30 artists, encompassing a wide range of mediums with a special emphasis on sculpture and environmental installations. Grounded in an [...]

Brooklyn Museum Announces First Large-Scale Exhibition of American Art of the 1920

BROOKLYN, NY.- The Brooklyn Museum will present the first wide-ranging exploration of American art from the decade whose beginning and end were marked by the aftermath of World War I and the onset of the Great Depression. Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties, which includes some 138 paintings, sculptures, and photographs by 67 artists, will be on view from October 28, 2011 through January 29, 2012 prior to a national tour. American life was dramatically transformed in the [...]

Hedda Sterne, America’s Last Original Abstract Expressionist and Sole Woman in the Group, Dies

NEW YORK, NY.- Clara Diament Sujo and collaborators at CDS Gallery announced that the artist HEDDA STERNE passed away yesterday at the age of 100. Up to the last minutes of her long and illustrative life, she was lucid about her work and felt rewarded by the recent acquisition of her painting by The Tate Modern in London. Notable for being the sole woman included in the famous 1951 Life Magazine photograph of The Irascibles by Nina Leen [see attached], [...]