21st Century
Police take 'no further action' on Portrait Vandalism
March 17 2025
Video: Evening Standard
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the BBC that the Cambridgeshire Police force will take 'no further action' against activists who slashed with box cutters and spraypainted Philip de László's portrait of Lord Balfour at Trinity College Cambridge last year.
According to the article:
A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: "A thorough investigation was carried out but the investigation has now been filed pending any new information coming to light."
In a statement, Trinity College said it "continues to condemn this act of vandalism in the strongest terms".
It continued: "Trinity College will continue to cooperate with the police in the event further evidence becomes available so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.
"The portrait of Lord Balfour by Philip Alexius de László is undergoing restoration"
Time will tell what precedent this sets for the safety of art in the UK.
Fake FBI confiscate Fake Rembrandt
March 17 2025
Picture: Dalton Wisdom
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It seems that a contemporary art gallery in New York wanted to pull a fun prank on their drinks reception guests over the weekend. In the middle of proceedings, a group of dressed up 'FBI officers' raided the gallery to remove what seemed to be Rembrandt's The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, a picture stolen from the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in 1990 (and still missing). Alas, any eagle eye watcher of this video will notice that the 'Rembrandt' is in fact an oleograph, one of those cheap printed out photographs which is touched up with varnish to give the effect of being 'painted'. A nice try, I suppose!
Changes to UK Tax Rules to Affect London Market?
February 28 2025
Picture: artnews.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnews.com have published an interesting article on the possible effects of upcoming Labour government changes to the UK Tax rules on the art market in Britain. Essentially, how will the possible abolition of the current non-doms status, amongst other efforts, affect the attractiveness of London as a centre for the wealthy to buy art. There are lots of dealers and members of the trade quoted within and is certainly worth a read.
DIY La Tour Kits on Amazon
February 26 2025
Picture: Amazon.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I was rather bemused to see (spotted via. @neiljeffares on 'X') that Amazon are selling some rather curious DIY painting kits at the moment. These 'paint by numbers' on canvas boxes will allow you to make copies of some rather interesting portraits by Maurice Quentin De La Tour, for example, and cost a mere £17 to purchase.
Here are some of my favourite lines from the instructions supplied:
This DIY Oil Painting provide great painting process for kids who are over 6 years old and adults, even if the beginners. Can not eat, put far away from children.
IT SHOULD BE PAINTED BY YOURSELF. [...]
The Canvas:
It is made of high quality pure cotton, and was treated by a special process.
The Paint:
This paint is propylene dye and green nontoxic but not edible.
Paint can be directly colored, no need to add water.
Paint coverage is strong, if made error during painting process, cover it with the correct color. [...]
Due to the painting reason, there maybe some discrepancy of the colors between the reference picture and the products.
It really is that easy.
I would be grateful to know if any readers of this blog ever give one of these a go. I'll be most happy to share your reviews here in full!
UK PM Removing Historic Portraits (ctd.)
February 26 2025
Picture: artcollection.dcms.gov.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Following on from news last year that the UK's Prime Minister Keir Starmer had exclaimed 'I don't like it [portraits]. I like landscapes', there have been further stories in the press recently that historic portraits of the Duke of Wellington (x 3), Oliver Cromwell (x 5), King Charles I and Sir Winston Churchill have been removed from display in several Government buildings.
A New Renaissance for the Louvre
January 30 2025
Picture: NBC News
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There has been a lot of coverage in the press recently regarding President Macron's announcements regarding the future of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The headline stories of the announcements are expansions to deal with increased visitor numbers, a new separate home for the Mona Lisa, and increased entrance fees for non-EU visitors (ie. British visitors will have to pay more for entry).
The Art Museum in the Digital Age – 2025
January 14 2025
Picture: belvedere.at
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Belvedere in Vienna are hosting their 2025 instalment of The Art Museum in the Digital Age Conference next week. As usual, there are a wide variety of speakers on a vast number of relevant topics, all of which are available to watch online.
Doom: The Gallery Experience
January 9 2025
Video: Martinoz
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
As AHN is both dedicated to both the sublime and ridiculous, I thought it was worth sharing news that two game developers have reinterpreted the popular 1990s shoot 'em up classic Doom into a free browser game set in an art gallery.
According to the article linked above:
Doom: The Gallery Experience, created by Filippo Meozzi and Liam Stone, transforms the iconic E1M1 level into a virtual museum space where players guide a glasses-wearing Doomguy through halls of fine art as classical music plays in the background. The game links each displayed artwork to its corresponding page on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.
"In this experience, you will be able to walk around and appreciate some fine art while sipping some wine and enjoying the complimentary hors d’oeuvres," write the developers on the game's itch.io page, "in the beautifully renovated and re-imagined E1M1 of id Software's DOOM (1993)."
As you'll see from the video above, the comparison to an art show preview is simply uncanny.
New Modern Wing for the MET
December 13 2024
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have revealed more details about the new Tang Wing, an extension which will house their growing twentieth- and twenty-first-century art collection.
According to the article linked above:
Developed in close collaboration with teams at The Met over the last two years, Escobedo’s plan for the new Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing draws on her deep engagement with the Museum’s buildings, collection, and setting within Central Park, resulting in a compellingly dynamic and exceptionally inspired design. The project will increase our gallery space by nearly 50 percent, creating more than 70,000 square feet for the display of our outstanding Modern and Contemporary collection, while staying within the existing footprint and overall height of The Met. Importantly, the project will allow us to better illuminate points of connections across the Museum’s global collection encompassing more than 5,000 years of art history, while also addressing critical accessibility, infrastructure, and sustainability needs. With this elegant, contemporary concept—which is rooted in her deep understanding of architectural history, materiality, spatial configuration, and artistic expression—Escobedo cements her standing as one of the most relevant architects of our time while creating history as the first woman to design a wing at The Met.
The new wing is set to open for 2030.
New BBC Docu-Drama on Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael
December 6 2024
Video: BBC via. Sammi's Universe Extra
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
BBC 2 in the UK have just started a new docu-drama entitled Renaissace: The Blood and the Beauty. Here's the recent review from The Guardian which gives the new series 4/5 stars.
The end of art?
November 26 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Bendor Grosvenor:
What is art? I prefer a broad definition; anything which, via our senses and imaginations, conveys meaning and emotion, but without relying on language. What is art made of? Traditionally we might say mainly painting and sculpture, to judge from the contents of our major art galleries. But probably for most of human existence it consisted of everyday objects which may have been incised or carved, like bones, rock and long-lost bits of wood. Nowadays, pretty much anything counts; Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, Carl Andre’s bricks, Tracey Emin’s bed. And art can be as much an idea – a concept – as an object.
All of which is fine by me. People used to cry, ‘but is it art?’ when confronted by the latest genre-defying work, but we have moved on from that. I’m glad we think about art beyond the gallery. I’m glad too that we have (for the most part) stopped saying, ‘I could have done that!’ when faced with anything unconventional. As Damien Hirst once neatly replied, ‘but you didn’t.’ All creativity requires novelty, and if that involves sawing a cow in half, so be it. It is a Good Thing that over the last century the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of art have become so inclusive, even if the ‘why’ remains challenging, as it should. There can only be good art and bad art.
Or so I thought. Now, having seen the video (above) of Sotheby’s selling Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian for $6.2m, I wonder if we are stretching the boundaries too far. Have we debased art beyond repair, like a dictatorship printing money until it becomes worthless?
Comedian is a banana taped to a wall with gaffer tape. It was first seen at the Art Basel art fair in Miami Beach in 2019, where it immediately attracted worldwide media attention, before selling for $120,000. The buyer obviously didn’t get to keep the actual banana because it rots after a few days (though they did get the gaffer tape). What they really bought was the idea (insofar as it can be bought, Cattelan retains the copyright) and a ‘certificate of authenticity’.
When I first became aware of Comedian in 2019 I thought it was interesting, even if it was easy art for easy money, perfect for the online age and thus validated by the inevitable headlines and clicks. Probably, if a student had tried the same thing at an end of year show they would have scraped a pass. But we know that in the contemporary art world, context of display can be all-important, hence the trend for installations in grand, contrasting settings like historic houses. On the stands of Art Basel Miami, Cattelan’s challenge had a certain cheeky merit. As he explained in The Art Newspaper:
"To me, Comedian was not a joke; it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my rules."
But Comedian’s afterlife, and especially its sale at Sotheby’s last week for $6.2m, seems to me to negate what Cattelan says. He isn’t playing within the system, or setting any rules. Comedian is instead a product of the system, and - we see now - was created to serve it. It doesn’t break any rules, it obediently follows them.
Let’s leave aside the fact that Comedian is not a particularly original concept (Sotheby’s say it ‘represents the apex of a hundred year-long, intellectual yet irreverent interrogation of contemporary art’s conceptual limits’ which began with Duchamp, but their use of ‘apex’ suggests that even they think it’s time to try something else). What I want to focus on is how Comedian fits into the way the art market - at its extreme end - creates, packages and monetises art. For there is a revealing line in Sotheby’s catalogue entry; ‘this work is number 2 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proofs’. Comedian was therefore conceived from the outset as a series (whether of three or three hundred is irrelevant) and thus a commodity.
Commodification is one of the cleverer tricks of the mega-money end of the modern art market. We see most clearly how it works in the market for Warhol prints; if a high, benchmark price is set for one Marilyn Monroe print, all other Marilyns become worth a similar amount. Auction has become the best place to establish this benchmark price, because it is set (or gives the appearance of being set) transparently, in real-time and by public acclamation. Consequently, the major auction houses have over the last two decades or so become essential players in creating and sustaining the modern and contemporary art markets. This is the system.
Then we come on to the broader question of how we judge the quality of a work of art, and thus eventually its value. What makes art ‘worth’ something in the first place? Art, being so often intrinsically worth nothing, can be bewilderingly subjective to value. Historians of art will know that our means of judging its value (both financial and cultural) have changed over time. In the 18th century there was a system of gatekeeping by fellow artists, as at the Royal Academy in London, where a select group decided which works were admitted, and which could be hung in the most prized spaces. Later, the voice of the art critic held great sway. Today, the role of the media, both legacy and social, has become more important, in part because attention and profile matter in a busy, globally connected world, but also because we live in an age of brands, the ultimate method of adding value to just about anything. Finally, there is the market, because the question of quality and value are now projected as being one and the same. Expensive art is good art. These are the new rules.
For Comedian, Sotheby’s gave an estimate of $1-$1.5m, implying an institutional belief that it (or rather, one of the three versions of it, like a kind of artistic holy trinity) was now worth about ten times what it made at Art Basel Miami in 2019. I don’t have a particular problem with this, for artworks can indeed climb steeply in value. But what is revealing is the extent to which Sotheby’s justified the significance of Comedian, and their estimate, by focusing on the press coverage it has generated since 2019. In the ‘Literature’ section of the catalogue entry (normally reserved for status-enhancing books and exhibition catalogues) we see almost entirely a list of news and website headlines, from the Wall Street Journal to the Daily Mail. As Sotheby’s says:
Literature
The below is a representative selection of the extensive ongoing media coverage of Comedian. Live coverage is ongoing, and further literature references are available on request.
Later in the catalogue entry, Sotheby’s explicitly links the online and media coverage to value:
“In a matter of days, Comedian had earned its status as a universally recognizable image and become folded into a legacy of propulsive masterworks that incited radical recalibrations for their time [...]. What visitors were so invested in – and what collectors had actually purchased – was not the literal banana and piece of tape, but rather a certificate of authenticity and instructions for installation.”
Comedian is far from the first work of art to court and gain notoriety. But it used not to be the case that notoriety was a literal barometer of artistic merit, and thus value. Our former ways of judging artistic merit were never perfect, but they were certainly more critical and more deeply held than clicks and headlines. For can we know what the clicks really reflect? Do people think Comedian really is the work “of pure genius” Sotheby’s tells us it is? I’m not persuaded they do, and this matters because ultimately we still need people to believe in the broader value of art, just as we ask them to believe that Comedian exists as an artistic concept (and even believe in the cryptocurrency which paid for it).
In other words, the subjective intangibility of art - especially in the modern era - requires us (by which I mean those of us in the art world) to maintain a degree of public confidence in it, and we damage that at our peril. Auction houses like Sotheby's, with their healthy commissions, must find it hard not to see works like Comedian as a chance to make more headlines and more money, and doubtless enjoy being part of the game themselves. But they need to be careful, and think of their wider responsibility to art. For many, the sale of Comedian for $6m, at a time of multiple, terrible wars, not to mention the gurning, toe-curling applause as the hammer came down, felt like a giant art market self-own, demonstrating a Marie Antoinette-like detachment from reality; ‘let them eat bananas’. Either way, it feels like art needs a revolution, and perhaps it has already begun, far away from the art fairs, auctions, collectors, curators and commentators.
Does any of this matter? I think it does, if only for this reason: art can be made of anything or nothing – a mere concept – but it must have a meaning. Usually that meaning is rooted in truth. A banana on a wall can reveal a profound truth about the art world and its market, but not if it is in fact designed to be part of, and benefit from, the market. That’s just hypocrisy. Comedian has purpose - to make money - but no meaning. Without the market, it is nothing. That’s why it must exist simultaneously as both concept and object (one of three), so that it can be given a value, and live on as a speculative financial construct. And if we agree that is art, then it is the end of art, isn’t it?
As ever on AHN, let us know what you think.
Update - an artist writes:
Having just read your article on the sale of the above a little while ago, I thought I'd take up your invitation to let you know what I think.
I think the sale of the work confirms, to many people, that the contemporary art world is a joke. The amount that it sold for confirms that it is a joke at their expense, perpetrated by a contemptuous elite.
I agree that art and invention have always gone hand-in-hand, but invention has always been just one element, not the main event. Artist's used to try to PLEASE the public, but since Duchamp, they simply TROLL the public for a response. This is why the level of response, measured in clicks and column inches, is now converted into charts as the principle indicator of financial value.
'What is the point of art?' is like asking what is the point of life? As a painter, I'm very conscious of the fact that historically, painters and artists have been living examples of a great life lesson; we take dust and we strive to turn it into treasure. When we succeed, we may also please the public but it is the act of striving which is the important part of the lesson, the result, the artwork is merely a reward for that striving, both for the artist and the public.
Making such art used to be difficult and time consuming. The public have always admired that about artists. But if your goal is just to troll the public for a response, then it has to be neither difficult nor time consuming and the result is what counts, not the life lesson.
Art fundamentally changed with Duchamp. His admirers like to refer to that moment as a great and wonderful revolution. For those of us who don't appreciate being the victims of trolls, it was the moment that art died. 'Comedian' is just the latest in a long list of successful trolls, with zero benefit to broader humanity.
UK PM Removing Historic Portraits
November 26 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There have been quite a few articles published over the past month and a half concerning the recently elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's changes to the paintings hanging in No. 10 Downing Street. In October, it was reported that the PM had been removing historic portraits of Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh and William Shakespeare (amongst other historic political figures) in favour of landscapes. More recently, a group of 14 MPs has been former as part of a Commons Modernisation Committee, which amongst other things will look at making the paintings in the Houses of Parliament more diverse.
To quote one of the articles from The Telegraph:
The Prime Minister prefers landscapes to 'people staring down at him', apparently. 'When I was a lawyer, I used to have sort of pictures of judges. I don't like it. I like landscapes.'
Banana makes $6.2m at Sotheby's New York
November 21 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Maurizio Cattelan’s aforementioned Comedian realised an impressive $6.2m (all figures include commission) over its $1m - $1.5m estimate at Sotheby's New York yesterday evening.
Overall, it seems that the New York Modern & Contemporary sales have done rather well this season. Christie's New York's 20th Century Sale realised a total of $302,007,600 the other night, with Ed Ruscha's Standard Station soaring to $68,260,000 and Magritte's L'empire des lumières at $18,810,000 over its $6m - $8m estimate.
Let's hope this present feeling of economic optimism, in face of growing nuclear tensions far away from Yorke Ave and Rockefeller Plaza, will last until the Old Master Paintings sales in December!
________________
Well, there it is. I'm off to present 2 hours of lectures on Sir Joshua Reynolds this morning to clear the mind. I'll return in the afternoon to publish more AHN in due course!
Update - Everything in this video (Bendor adds) makes me want to bring in a form of communism so pure that even Karl Marx would blush. 'One of three editions (and two artist's proofs)'. FFS.
We were here - at the Venice Biennale
September 24 2024
Picture: wewereherethefilm.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those readers who might be going to be the Venice Biennale, before it closes later in November, then here's a new film which might be of interest. WE WERE HERE: The untold story of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe is the new production by the film maker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu and appears to spotlight a great deal of historic works of art.
According to the Biennale's website:
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Italian Afro- descendant filmmaker and activist currently living in New York. His early training was in the field of political science. We Were Here (2024), the film made by Kuwornu for the exhibition, is part of the journey that began with Inside Buffalo (2010) and continued with 18 Ius Soli (2012) and BlaxploItalian (2016). At the heart of these films is the intention to give visibility to the vicissitudes of Afro-descendants in Western societies: from historical events – such as the contribution of the 92nd Buffalo Soldiers regiment, which fought in Italy in World War II – to the micro-stories of second-generation immigrants engaged in the recognition of Italian citizenship, to the claim of Black identity in the world of creative industries and the arts. If BlaxploItalian investigates the processes of Blackness in the portrayal of the Black community in the media, We Were Here focuses on the history of art and the representation of Black Africans in European visual culture since the Renaissance. The journey is accompanied by the voice of the author, whose presence aims to create an empathic connection with the viewer.
Nicholas Penny Resigns from AIL Panel
July 8 2024
Picture: The Art Newspaper
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have reported on news that former director of The National Gallery, Nicholas Penny, has resigned from the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) panel. The article suggests that this was due to recent changes, including the departure of the Arts Council's senior policy adviser on cultural property, Anastasia Tennant, which Penny stated “will seriously impair the panel’s efficiency and efficacy”. Click on the link to read the full story, which includes Penny's calls that the 'AIL system should now be removed from administration by the Arts Council and made an independent body reporting directly to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.' The Arts Council are yet to respond to the article.
Sell council owned artworks and stop 'Wasting Monet', says TaxPayers' Alliance
July 4 2024
Picture: Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The BBC have run a story regarding calls from the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group 'urging the authority to sell some of the collection to help balance its books.' More precisely, a report from the group has criticised several council museums, including that of the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, for the large value (numerical and financial) of artworks kept in storage.
To quote parts of the article:
The council owns nearly 38,000 works of art, including five by Bristol street artist Banksy, with each worth an average of more than £3,500.
But only 4,245 pieces - 11.2% - are on public display, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service. [...]
The Taxpayers' Alliance said that despite being in nearly £100bn of combined debt, UK councils had built up art collections worth almost £1.5bn.
Report author Jonathan Eida said: “These findings won’t paint a pretty picture for hard-pressed taxpayers who have been hammered year after year by record-busting council tax hikes."
Bristol's collection of 37,983 works of art is nearly 15 times bigger than the National Gallery's and six times that for the average council.
Bristol council have rebuffed these claims explaining their 'collection is a vital part of the city’s cultural and educational offer, with a value that extends beyond an insurers’ estimate.'
______________
Regular readers will know that AHN has being calling on galleries and museums to do more to get works of art out of storage and on display (if not within galleries, then out on loan to other institutions). This debate will be an interesting one to keep an eye on in the upcoming years.
Which Painting Should the Aliens See First?
July 4 2024
Picture: Art Institute of Chicago
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those readers who might be in Chicago later this month, the Art Institute of Chicago will be running a free gallery event asking those questions we've all been thinking of for some time now.
According to the museum's website:
Join museum educators Maura Flood and Atlas Babcock in the Modern Wing to find artworks that offer interesting answers to a list of unlikely, counterintuitive, and human-centered questions. Determine which artwork misses its grandma or knows karate. Decide which masterpiece the aliens should see first. This exploratory program has no right or wrong answers.
The event will take place on 19th July 2024.
______________
Which paintings would the readers of AHN suggest that Aliens should see first? Do get in touch with your answers. I would probably show them William Blake's A Vision of the Last Judgment which is at Petworth House.
The Spoils - Premiere at Film Fest München
July 3 2024
Video: Key Art + Design
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new documentary film focusing on the Jewish art dealer Max Stern (1904-1987) will be premiering at the Film Fest München tomorrow. The Spoils was directed by Jamie Kastner.
According to the film's website:
Amid the rise of the far-right in Germany, as the spoils of post-WW2 collections hit the world art market afresh, lawyers, curators, politicians, and Jewish groups the world round are duking it out, painting by painting, sketch by sketch, over questions of ownership, history, and morality.
A series of failed attempts by the city of Düsseldorf to honour German-Jewish art dealer Max Stern, who barely escaped the war, settled in Montreal and became Canada’s most successful art dealer, cuts to the heart of the current crisis in Germany and the art world beyond around the restitution of Nazi-looted art.
Through a combination of exclusive interviews, actuality captured over a four- year period, and a gold-mine of rarely seen stock footage, The Spoils traces the betimes tragic, often irony-laced strokes in this ongoing battle.
Can Sound Damage Art?
June 26 2024
Picture: iiconservation.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Can sound damage art? Well, scientists from The National Gallery in London have been exploring this question and are 'still working through the data acquired and hope to share the results in a journal article in the near future'. If you'd like to read about the tests carried out, so have a look at the article written by Catherine Higgitt, Tomasz Galikowski, David Trew and others in the latest News in Conservation journal (free to access).
Addiction and Recovery through Art History
June 26 2024
Picture: hyperallergic.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The website Hyperallergic.com have published a review of Kikan Massara’s new book entitled The 12 Steps: Symbols, Myths, and Archetypes of Recovery. In particular, the article focuses on how explorations of artworks are used within the book.
To quote a section:
The core of this parlance is, of course, the eponymous 12 steps in the book’s title. A section of the book breaks down each step into its core principle, and then illustrates it through works of art and literature. Step One, summarized as “Admit Powerlessness,” is paired with “Despair” (1894) by Edvard Munch, “Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth” (1842) by J. M. W. Turner, “Sueño” (1992) by Kiki Smith, and even a Ptolemaic relief dating to 332 BCE from the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek in the Nile Valley of Egypt. Each captures the devastation, confusion, and tumult of a losing battle with alcoholism and other related diseases — one that drives millions of people to reach out for help.
Click on the link above to read more.
