Cooper-Hewitt Announces Winners and Finalists of the 12th Annual National Design Awards

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will celebrate outstanding achievement in design this fall with its 12th annual National Design Awards program. Today, Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners and finalists of the 2011 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines. The award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Thursday, Oct. 20, at Pier Sixty in New York. “As the nation’s design museum, Cooper-Hewitt raises awareness that design is everywhere,” said [...]

Many Artists at ART HK International Art Fair Revel in Freedom to Support Ai Weiwei

HONG KONG (REUTERS).- Ai Weiwei may be languishing in Chinese detention, but the influence of the prominent artist and social activist has permeated Hong Kong’s burgeoning art scene, from glitzy art fairs to edgy street art. The cavernous halls of the ART HK International art fair straddling the iconic harbor are filled with a blitz of works, from the nature-inspired art of Iceland’s Olafur Eliasson to male nude photographs by Zhang Huan. But tucked inside one of nearly 300 galleries [...]

Bellevue Arts Museum Honored with 2011 Eastside Business Award

BELLEVUE, WA.- Bellevue Arts Museum, the Pacific Northwest’s center for the exploration of art, craft and design, has just been honored with the prestigious 2011 Eastside Business Award in the Non-Profit/Community Impact category by the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. The award recognizes outstanding Eastside organizations that uphold a strong commitment to quality, community and innovation. “We’re so pleased to receive this important award,” says Stefano Catalani, Director of Curatorial Affairs/Artistic Director of Bellevue Arts Museum. “The Museum is a vital [...]

For the First Time Ever, National Gallery Painting by Van Gogh Comes to Life

LONDON.- For the first time ever, a painting is being made into a ‘living wall’ outside the National Gallery. With over 8,000 living plants, General Electric (GE) has brought a masterpiece to life with a version of Van Gogh’s famous painting A Wheatfield, with Cypresses as part of the Gallery’s carbon plan. Situated on hoarding on the western side of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, the painting will be grown throughout the summer and autumn, remaining in place until [...]

LACMA Presents 32 Images of Elizabeth Taylor in Iran: Photographs by Firooz Zahedi

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Elizabeth Taylor in Iran: Photographs by Firooz Zahedi, featuring thirty-two images taken in 1976 during Elizabeth Taylor’s first and only visit to Iran. Accompanying her was Firooz Zahedi, today a successful Hollywood photographer but then a recent art school graduate just learning his craft. Iran provided an exotic and engaging locale for Taylor, a tireless global wanderer still at the height of her fame. For Zahedi, who had [...]

Sotheby’s Russian Art Auctions to be Led by Important Group of Paintings by Vereschagin

LONDON.- Sotheby’s Summer Sales of Russian Art, which take place in London this June, will present for sale Russian Paintings, Works of Art, Fabergé, Icons and Contemporary Art. The Evening auction of Important Russian Paintings will take place on Monday, June 6, 2011, the Russian Paintings Day Sale will be staged on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 and Russian Works of Art, Fabergé and Icons takes place on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. Combined, all three auctions are estimated to realise in [...]

Richard Long, A Pioneer of Land and Conceptual Art, Exhibits at Haunch of Venison

LONDON.- Haunch of Venison presents its fourth exhibition with Richard Long. Long is widely recognised as one of the most important artists to have emerged since the 1960s and is a pioneer of Land and Conceptual art. Human Nature is Richard Long’s first show in London since his acclaimed retrospective at Tate Britain in 2009. It features new works made in Spain, Switzerland, China and South Africa, as well as in Long’s ‘home’ landscape of Dartmoor. Richard Long, Human Nature, [...]

Christie’s Latin American Art Sale Establishes Fourteen New World Auction Records

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s Latin American Art Sale achieved a strong total of $22,571,450 (£13,763,079/ €15,895,387). Held in two sessions on May 26 and 27, the sale was sold 75% by lot, 79% by value and established an impressive 14 new world auction records. The top lot was Miguel Covarrubias’ Offering of Fruits for the Temple, 1932 (detail), for which Christie’s established a new world auction record for the artist, realizing $1,022,500 — more than three times the high estimate [...]

British-Born Surrealist Painter Leonora Carrington Dies at Age 94 in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP).- British-born painter, writer and sculptor Leonora Carrington, considered one of the last of the original surrealists, has died, Mexico’s National Arts Council confirmed Thursday. She was 94. Carrington was known for her haunting, dreamlike works that often focused on strange ritual-like scenes with birds, cats, unicorn-like creatures and other animals as onlookers or seeming participants. Once the lover of German artist Max Ernst, Carrington was also part of a famous wave of artistic and political emigres who [...]

National Gallery of Victoria Celebrates 150th Birthday with a Gift of 173 Indigenous Artworks

VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.- On the 24th of May 2011, the National Gallery of Victoria celebrated its 150th birthday. To honour this tremendous milestone, the NGV unveiled an exceptional gift of 173 important Indigenous works of art including three by contemporary artists Vernon Ah Kee, Brook Andrew and Jonathan Jones who were commissioned to create works that pay homage to the highly celebrated Wurundjeri artist, William Barak. These pieces have been gifted by the Felton Bequest, established in 1904 by the NGV’s [...]

The National Galleries of Scotland Reveal Dramatic Changes to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

EDINBURGH.- The National Galleries of Scotland will today reveal the dramatic changes that have transformed the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in the two years since it closed for renovation in April 2009. The £17.6 m project, the first major refurbishment in the Gallery’s 120-year history, has restored much of the architect’s original vision of the building, clearing away an accumulation of twentieth-century interventions, and increasing the public and exhibition space by more than 60 percent. In addition, a range of [...]

Bonhams Achieve Blockbuster Sales of Chinese Art in Hong Kong Today with All Lots Sold

HONG KONG.- Bonhams Hong Kong secured another ‘Golden Gavel’ triumph today (25 May 2011) with the sale of the legendary Mary and George Bloch Collection of Chinese Snuff bottles: Part III. All 142 lots sold out for a total of HK$38,361,600 (£3,054,329). The blockbuster sale proves that the international market for the finest Chinese snuff bottles shows no sign of abating at the top level. The Island Shangri-La Hotel’s ballroom was filled to capacity today as bidders from Hong Kong, [...]

Old Masters Paintings Sale at Christie’s New York Features a Great Selection of Works

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces its upcoming auction of Old Master Paintings on June 8, 2011 at 10 am, featuring a selection of works by the great French, Italian, Flemish and British masters of the 15th through the 19th century including Pieter Breughel II, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, among others. This dedicated sale of Old Master Paintings – the first at Christie’s New York since early 2008 – offers collectors and dealers the opportunity to acquire important examples [...]

Bonhams to Sell Sleep-Walking Masterpiece by Pre-Raphaelite Artist Sir John Everett Millais

LONDON.- The Somnambulist by Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir John Everett Millais, PRA will be a highlight of the 19th Century Paintings auction on 13th July 2011 at Bonhams New Bond Street. It is estimated to sell for £70,000-100,000. “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins was published in 1860 and proved immensely popular – it is thought that it may have provided Millais with inspiration for this painting. At the time, the Victorians were fascinated by sleepwalking and preoccupied with all [...]

Cincinnati Art Museum Conservator Conducts Conservation of van Gogh in Public

CINCINNATI, OH.- From Monet’s garden to Art Deco delights, the Cincinnati Art Museum will take you on a journey through time and place as part of its 2011-2012 Exhibition season. Highlighting both the Art Museum’s superb permanent collection and great works of art it is bringing to this community, the exhibition schedule also includes major renovations to galleries. “We will be using our collection of sixty thousand objects covering six thousand years of human history to reveal beauty in gardens, [...]