Controversial Austrian Artist Alfred Hrdlicka Dead at 81

VIENNA.- Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka, whose controversial works in metal, paint and pencil alienated as much as attracted the public died Saturday, Austrian media reported. He was 81. The Austria Press Agency cited gallery owner Ernst Hilger as announcing Hrdlicka’s death in the daily Die Presse. Telephone calls late Saturday to Hilger’s private number as well to his downtown Vienna gallery, which frequently exhibited Hrdlicka’s works, were not returned. Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka smiles during a reception on the occasion [...]

Peter Forakis, Originator of Geometry-Based Sculpture, Dies at 82

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The influential American sculptor Peter Forakis died Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, 2009 at Petaluma Valley hospital in Petaluma, California from complications of pneumonia. He was 82. Forakis was born in 1927 in Hanna, Wyoming to Greek immigrants. He grew up in Oakland and Modesto, California. After military service in Korea, he attended the California School of Fine Arts from 1955 to 1957. After a highly productive period in New York and Vermont, where he established his [...]

Kirsty Young to Chair Judging Panel for 100,000 Art Fund Prize

LONDON.- Broadcaster Kirsty Young will chair a panel of seven high profile judges who will choose the winner of The Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries 2010, the UK’s largest single arts prize. Kirsty’s fellow judges come from the worlds of media, arts, culture, science and academia: • Kirsty Young (Chairman), broadcaster • Kathy Gee, museums and heritage adviser • Professor A C Grayling, Professor of Philosophy, Birkbeck College, London • Professor J Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics, University [...]

Margaret Thatcher Returned to London’s Downing Street to Unveil Portrait

LONDON (AP).- Former British leader Margaret Thatcher returned to London’s Downing Street Monday as she unveiled her own portrait, which has been installed in the official residence of Britain’s prime minister. Thatcher, British leader from 1979 to 1990, joined current Prime Minster Gordon Brown and David Cameron, a successor to Thatcher as Conservative Party leader, at 10 Downing Street to unveil the new the work. The 84-year-old former leader — nicknamed “The Iron Lady” for her uncompromising stance against the [...]

Artist Jeanne-Claude, Who Co-Created ‘The Gates’ with Husband Christo, Dies at Age 74

NEW YORK, NY (AP).- Artist Jeanne-Claude, who created the 2005 Central Park installation “The Gates” and other large scale “wrapping” projects around the globe with her husband Christo, has died. She was 74. Jeanne-Claude died Wednesday night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm, her family said in an e-mail statement. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he spoke with Christo on Thursday morning and offered condolences on behalf of all New Yorkers. The two artists met in [...]

British art curator Nick Waterlow and daughter murdered in Sydney

A British art curator and his daughter were found dead of multiple stab wounds at a million-dollar home in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs on Monday night. The Australian art community was in shock over the gruesome deaths which were discovered after police broke into a house in Randwick and found the bodies of Nick Waterlow, 68, and his daughter Chloe, 37, a cookbook author. Three children were at the property when the bodies were found. One child, a three-year-old girl, [...]

Unearthly Art: Astronaut Alan Bean paints moon from unique perspective

SEYMOUR — There may be many artists, but only one can lay claim to having stepped on the surface of a heavenly body. Astronaut Alan Bean couldn’t be prouder of his career as an astronaut on the 1969 Apollo 12 moon mission, but that was then. Now, he’s an artist whose historic past achievements in space have made him a singular sensation in what he does best — painting. The result of his concentrated effort in that dimension, have just [...]

101 Western painters you should know

1. PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) – Picasso is to Art History a giant earthquake with eternal aftermaths. With the possible exception of Michelangelo (who focused his greatest efforts in sculpture and architecture), no other artist had such ambitions at the time of placing his oeuvre in the history of art. Picasso created the avant-garde. Then Picasso destroyed the avant-garde. He looked back at the masters and surpassed them all. He faced the whole history of art and single-handed redefined the tortuous [...]

Picasso’s Blue Period 1901-04

Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period refers to a series of paintings in which the color blue dominates and which he painted between 1901 and 1904. The blue period is a marvelous expression of poetic subtlety and personal melancholy and contributes to the transition of Picasso’s style from classicism to abstract art. As one of the founders of modern abstract art, Pablo Picasso is generally associated with cubism and related styles which are predominantly abstract. It is therefore essential to realize that [...]

Recent Deaths in the Arts

All Art News recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, curators, photographers, collectors, architects, museum directors, and other professionals and important figures in the visual arts. Maurice Agis, a London-born sculptor and creator of Dreamspace, an inflatable, interactive sculpture that explores color, form, movement, light and sound, died on October 12, 2009, at the age of 77 Maryanne Amacher, a composer of site-specific sound installations that explore psychoacoustic properties, died on October 22, 2009. She was 66 [...]