Outspoken Artist Ai Weiwei’s Design Firm Told It Has Not Paid Corporate Taxes

BEIJING (AP).- Chinese authorities told representatives of outspoken artist Ai Weiwei’s design firm Thursday that the company had not paid corporate taxes for a decade, but did not allow them to keep documents showing the alleged offense. The representatives, including Ai’s wife, were shown the documents at a hearing they had been granted to challenge a $1.85 million tax bill delivered by authorities after the dissident was released from nearly three months’ detention. The prominent government critic was the most high-profile [...]

Exhibition Looks at the Connections in Photography between Africa, Color, and Color Photography

NEW YORK, NY.- “Africolor” – the exhibition – looks at the connections in photography between Africa, color, and color photography. While Africa as a subject has attracted and inspired photographers since the invention of photography, because of the obvious financial and technical issues involved – photographing Africa in the 19th century was largely a European endeavor. By the middle of the 20th century, however, photography both as a business and a means of artistic expression was beginning to flourish across the [...]

National Maritime Museum in London Opens New £35 Million Sammy Ofer Wing

LONDON.- This July the National Maritime Museum opens the Sammy Ofer Wing, a transformative £35m capital project which sets a new strategic direction for the Museum. Opening 14 July 2011, the £35m wing is the largest development in the National Maritime Museum’s history and a catalyst for the organisation to change completely the way it presents its galleries, exhibitions and events. This major new project has been made possible through a generous donation of £20m from international shipping magnate and philanthropist Sammy Ofer [...]

Chapman Brothers Work in Separate Studios to Produce New Exhibition at White Cube

LONDON.- White Cube presents a new exhibition by Jake or Dinos Chapman. Jake and Dinos Chapman began their artistic collaboration after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London in 1990 when they created We are Artists. Since this self-defining anti-aesthetic manifesto was first stencilled onto a mud-splattered wall at the ICA, London in 1992 they have developed their own shared discourse as ‘sore-eyed scopophiliac oxymorons’ with, as they put it at the time, ‘a benevolent contingency of conceits’. Over the [...]

Alexander Calder’s Horizontal Permanently Installed in Front of Centre Pompidou

NEW YORK, NY.- The Calder Foundation announced the permanent installation of Calder’s 1974 monumental standing mobile Horizontal in front of the Centre Pompidou’s iconic façade. The placement of the sculpture on the museum’s beloved plaza was determined in accordance with architect Renzo Piano. The 8-meter sculpture, which had been in storage following its last exhibition in Bonn in 1993, recently underwent extensive restoration with the collaboration of the the Calder Foundation and the sponsorship of KPMG France. The Centre Pompidou possesses one [...]

Online Community Participates in Brooklyn Museum’s Latest Exhibition “Split Second”

BROOKLYN, NY.- Split Second invited the Brooklyn Museum’s online community to participate in a project that resulted in a small installation of Indian paintings from the Museum’s permanent collection. Taking its inspiration from the critically acclaimed book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, this online experiment and resulting installation explores how our initial reaction to a work of art is affected by what we know, what we’re asked, and what we’re told about the object in question. Split [...]

The Haight-Ashbury Collection of Original Hand-Crafted Psychedelic Art at Heritage Auctions

DALLAS, TX.- The Haight-Ashbury Collection of original hand-crafted psychedelic art, original 1960s rock posters, including original work by the biggest names in the genre – artists Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse, David Singer and Victor Moscoso, among the many – will be offered as part of Heritage Auctions‘ July 29 Signature(r) Music & Entertainment Memorabilia Auction in Dallas. “This amazing collection originated years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was assembled by a true patron of the arts,” said [...]

Director of Tate Liverpool, Dr. Christoph Grunenberg, Concludes Ten Successful Years

LIVERPOOL.- It is announced today that Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool, has been appointed Director of the Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany. Christoph leaves Tate after a decade as Director of Tate Liverpool. He has made a critical contribution to the cultural regeneration of Liverpool and the city’s extraordinarily successful year as European Capital Culture of Culture in 2008 in which Tate Liverpool attracted over one million visitors. The new director of the Kunsthalle Bremen, Dr. Christoph Grunenberg. Photo: Harald Rehling. In that remarkable [...]

Czech Abstract Painter Zdenek Sykora, Known for Computer Geometrical Paintings, Dies

PRAGUE (AP).- Czech painter Zdenek Sykora, who was one of the first to use computers for his geometrical paintings, has died aged 91. Sykora’s aide Veronika Hudeckova says he died at his home in the town of Louny on Tuesday evening. In this Jan. 25, 2006 file picture Czech painter Zdenek Sykora is photographed in his studio in Louny, about 70 km nortwest from Prague, Czech Republic. Sykora died on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 aged 91 years. AP Photo,CTK/Libor Zavoral. Born [...]

Swann Galleries Announces Two-Session Vintage Poster Auction in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- On Wednesday, August 3, Swann Galleries will conduct a two-session auction of Vintage Posters, which features a wonderful assortment of summer resort and beach posters from around the world, World War I and II propaganda posters, and the ever-popular Mather Work Incentive posters. The sale opens with a selection of more than 40 American turn-of-the-century literary posters—which is the largest offering of these works at auction in years. The majority are Edward Penfield’s designs for issues of Harper’s magazine. Penfield, [...]

Berlin’s University of Arts Says Recently Freed Artist Ai Weiwei Accepts Job Offer

BERLIN (AP).- A German university says recently released Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has accepted an offer to join the Berlin institution as a visiting lecturer. Berlin’s University of Arts said Wednesday it was unclear when Ai will be able to start in his new position due to his legal troubles in China. A file picture shows Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in front of his artwork, entitled Template, at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. EPA/TOBIAS HASE. University president Martin Rennert [...]

Clark Art Institute Launches International Tour of Masterpieces in Giverny

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Continuing its commitment to global outreach and cultural exchange, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute opens the exhibition La Collection Clark à Giverny, de Manet à Renoir at the Musée des impressionnismes in Giverny, France, as part of the international tour of masterpieces from its collection of nineteenth-century European paintings. Open to the public from July 13 through October 31, the exhibition represents a unique opportunity to present many of the greatest works from the Clark’s extraordinary holdings of French [...]

Sotheby’s France to Offer 400 Items from The Fabius Frères Gallery Collection

PARIS.- Sotheby’s announce, in association with the auction house PIASA, the sale of the Fabius Frères Gallery collection on the 26th and 27th October 2011 in Paris. The 400 sculptures, pieces of furniture, works of art, drawings and 19th century paintings, estimated to sell in the region of €10 million ($14,5 million), will be on view at the Galerie Charpentier for five days prior to the sale. The Fabius Frères Gallery is known worldwide for the exceptional quality, condition and provenance of [...]

Galerie Richard Opening with Paul Henry Ramirez’s First Solo Exhibit in NYC in Four Years

PARIS.- Galerie Richard in Paris announce the opening of their second gallery in Chelsea, NYC this coming September at the ground floor of 514 West 24 Street. The inaugural solo exhibition of Paul Henry Ramirez entitled PLAYCONICS opens on September 8, 2011. Donald Kuspit, noted curator and writer, will be writing an essay for the exhibition catalog. Jean-Luc Richard, owner and director says of the expansion –“I mainly support emerging and mid-career artists that I want to see accepted as major established [...]

Legal Victory by the Fundació Salvador Dalí in the Defense of the Artist’s Resale Rights

PARIS.- The Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí announced that the High Court of Paris has upheld the claims of the Fundació Dalí and acknowledges that the Spanish State is the sole holder of the resale right on the works of Salvador Dalí. The Foundation is glad to receive such a transcendental ruling because it is not only a step forward in the defence and protection of Salvador Dalí’s rights but it also creates jurisprudence. In a ruling passed on Friday 8 July, the High [...]