New Artemisia Gentileschi Play
November 25 2024
Picture: primarystages.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those readers in the New York City, a new play based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi is currently in production. Written by Kate Hamil, and produced by the theatre company Primary Stages in association with the Chautauqua Theater Company, there are still a few dates left in November and December for those who might be interested.
According to the theatre's website:
At the height of the Italian Renaissance, artists are reshaping the very image of humanity. Artemisia Gentileschi wants to become one of the great painters...but women are not thought capable of true artistry. With persistence and bravado she quickly establishes a groundbreaking perspective, but just as her career begins to gain momentum, a series of devastating betrayals crack the foundation of her life and art. Told through her piercing point of view, The Light and The Dark (the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi) weaves a magnetic and empowering tapestry of art, ambition, rage, and resilience.
From Kate Hamill, the playwright behind Primary Stages’ critically acclaimed adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Little Women, comes a new play about how Gentileschi transcended trauma to become one of the most successful artists of her time and an inspiration for women throughout the ages.
Here's a theatrical trailer, providing an idea of the visuals of the play.
Upcoming: European Master Drawings from the Wadsworth Atheneum
November 25 2024
Picture: Wadsworth Atheneum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that the Wadsworth Atheneum will be publishing their first ever catalogue devoted to European drawings in January 2025. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the museum will also be putting on an exhibition featuring many highlights from its rarely-seen collection of works on paper.
Here's a blurb from the museum's website:
The Wadsworth Atheneum’s rich collection of European drawings, watercolors, and pastels is little-known and rarely seen. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the museum has acquired by purchase and gift a diverse group of nearly 1,250 European drawings of impressive quality. Paper, Color, Line showcases about sixty to seventy highlights on view for the first time in decades. This long overdue exhibition provides a unique survey of artists engaging with the medium over a span of more than five hundred years.
The museum’s holdings are particularly strong in works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Renowned drawings by Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec will be included in this exhibition, as well as highlights by Egon Schiele, Paul Klee, and Joan Miró. The collection is additionally noted for its theatrical designs, particularly its material linked with the Ballets Russes, which encompasses sheets by Pablo Picasso, Léon Bakst, and Natalia Gontcharova. Significant drawings from the Renaissance to the Rococo by artists such as Giorgio Vasari, Carlo Maratti, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze emphasize the timeless appeal of the medium and will complement the overview.
The exhibition will run from 16th January until 27th April 2025.
Caravaggio's Maffeo Barberini at the Palazzo Barberini
November 22 2024
Video: Il Sole 24 Ore
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that Caravaggio's Portrait of Maffeo Barberini has gone on display at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Maffeo, who eventually became Pope Urban VIII, was a considerable patron of Caravaggio and the arts in general. Curiously, news reports have pointed out that the painting is rarely on public display and that only 'five or six specialists' have seen it (click on the link to read more).
The painting will be on display in Rome until 23rd February 2025.
AGO Frames Conference available online
November 22 2024
Picture: ago.ca
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
In case you didn't manage to make it to the Art Gallery of Ontario's (AGO) recent two-day conference entitled Many Lives: Picture Frames in Context, the art gallery has published recordings of all the presentations for free online (click on the link to read more).
Here's the blurb explaining the purpose of the conference:
This online conference on the history and conservation of frames was co-organized by the museum’s curatorial and conservation departments to promote inter- and multi-disciplinary dialogue. The AGO is home to an important collection of historic frames, and a project is currently underway at AGO to catalogue and conserve this collection to make the collection more accessible for study and use. In light of this project, the symposium presented current research that contextualizes frames in their many incarnations, including research on frame makers, framing traditions, frames’ afterlives, frame collections, pairings of frames to paintings, artists’ frames, the commercial history of framing, and related topics.
Monuments Men Largillierre Soars
November 22 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There were some rather strong and encouraging prices achieved in last night's Maîtres Anciens : Peintures - Dessins - Sculptures sale at Christie's Paris. Amongst them was this splendid Nicolas de Largillierre (pictured), which features within a famous photograph showing the Monuments Men with recaptured Nazi loot. In this case, the painting had been taken by the Nazis from one branch of the famous Rothschild family, and was eventually restituted to them in 1946. It was later subsequently sold at auction in 1978.
The painting realised 529,900 EUR over its 50k - 80k EUR estimate in last night's sale.
Spanish Embassy Berninis on loan to Vatican
November 21 2024
Picture: vaticannews.va
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Spanish Embassy to the Holy See have loaned their two famous busts by Bernini to the Vatican Museums for a special exhibition. The two works, depicting the Blessed Soul and Damned Soul, will be the focal point of a display prompted by the current Pope's interests in combining faith and culture. Funds raised by the sales of their catalogue will be donated to help victims of the recent flooding in Spain.
The display will run until 31st January 2025.
€330,000 Nicolas Tournier pre-empted by Musée des Augustins
November 21 2024
Picture: Millon
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This rather finely painted Lute Player by Nicolas Tournier, plucking what I can see is a rather nicely detailed 10-course instrument, realised a respectable €330,000 over its €150k - €200k estimate earlier this week at Millon. It was so highly admired that the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse have already 'pre-empted' it for their own collection. The unrecorded painting has been in a private collection for well over two centuries, and although it had been known from sources from the period it had always been considered missing.
Holburne Museum are hiring!
November 21 2024
Picture: holburne.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Holburne Museum in Bath are hiring an Assistant Curator.
According to the job description:
The Assistant Curator works alongside the Director, Exhibitions Manager, Curator and Assistant Curator, as part of a small permanent team complemented by temporary staff and volunteers, contributing to the planning and implementation of an ambitious programme of exhibitions and displays, and assisting in the care of the collection.
The job comes with an annual salary of £24,750 and applications must be in by 6th January 2024.
Good luck if you're applying!
FAB Paris 2024
November 21 2024
Video: FAB Paris
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
FAB Paris 2024 (Fine Arts Paris & La Biennale) is opening tomorrow at the city's Grand Palais. With about 100 exhibitors, with Old Master Paintings and related fields rather well represented, it seems like a must-see if you're in Paris this weekend.
The fair will run until 27th November 2024 and here is a full list of exhibitors.
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!
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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.
Dutch / Flemish Witt Pictures Online!
November 20 2024
Picture: Courtauld
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news to report (spotted via CODART) that the Dutch / Flemish paintings (over 351,000 images) of the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute have been uploaded online! Hundreds of hours of happy research at our finger tips.
Degenerate art: the trial of modern art under Nazism
November 20 2024
Picture: claudinecolin.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée Picasso in Paris will be opening a new exhibition in February 2025 entitled Degenerate art: the trial of modern art under Nazism. This exhibition will be the first in France to tackle the subject.
According to the website sortiraparis.com:
The exhibition looks back at the ideological and methodical offensive waged by the Nazi regime againstmodern art, notably through the infamous Entartete Kunst exhibition held in Munich in 1937. By shedding light on this dark chapter in art history, the exhibition offers an enriched reflection on the attacks on the artistic avant-garde, through emblematic works and an in-depth historical context.
Curated by Johan Popelard, head of the conservation and collections department, and François Dareau, researcher at the Musée Picasso, this exhibition recalls the scale of the Nazi regime's persecution of the arts. More than 20,000 works, including those by figures such as Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso, were confiscated, destroyed or sold. Major artists such asOtto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee were stigmatized as representatives of this so-called "degenerate art", culminating in Entartete Kunst, which brought together over 600 works by around a hundred artists.
The show will run from 18th February until 25th May 2025.
PAN Amsterdam 2024
November 20 2024
Picture: PAN Amsterdam
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The antiques, art and design fair PAN Amsterdam will be opening to the public on Sunday. Old Masters and their related fields are usually rather well represented at the fair, and usually one or two important rediscoveries are unveiled there (mostly relating to Dutch works of art, as one would expect!).
The fair will run from 24th November until 1st December.
Guido Reni and the poets
November 19 2024
Picture: Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It seems that Italian museums are particularly interested in celebrating both paintings and poetry this autumn, as the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna has just opened an exhibition dedicated to exploring the interconnections between writers and artists in Guido Reni's Bologna. The display includes works by painters such as Guido Reni, Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana, Agostino and Ludovico Carracci and will run until 16th February 2025.
Sir William Pope Reidentified
November 19 2024
Picture: YCBA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Edward Town, curator at the Yale Center for British Art, has shared some interesting new research undertaken on this very beautiful portrait by William Larkin in the YCBA's collection. Having previously thought to have been a likeness of Grey Brydges, fifth Baron Chandos, and more recently downgraded to 'Portrait of an unknown man', Town has put forward the idea that this is in fact an image of Sir William Pope, later Earl of Downe. Click on the link to read the full story.
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Exciting news too that the YCBA will be reopening to the public on 29th March 2025.
Poetry and Painting in the 17th Century at the Galleria Borghese
November 19 2024
Picture: Galleria Borghese
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition opens at the Galleria Borghese in Rome today entitled Poetry and Painting in the 17th Century. Giovan Battista Marino and the Marvelous Passion.
According to the gallery's website:
Following the path offered by the texts of Giovan Battista Marino (1569-1625), the exhibition traces a journey through the great Renaissance and Baroque art, from Titian to Tintoretto, from Correggio to the Carracci, from Rubens to Poussin, celebrating the greatest Italian poet of the 17th century and his 'marvelous' passion for painting.
Curated by Emilio Russo, Patrizia Tosini, and Andrea Zezza, the exhibition focuses on the golden age of the Baroque in painting and literature, a period during which the relationship between the two arts finds perhaps its highest expression in the life and works of the poet.
Known for his poem Adone (1623), centered on the love story between Adonis and Venus, Giovan Battista Marino is also the author of La Galeria (1619), a collection of 624 poetic compositions dedicated to an equal number of works of art, divided between Paintings and Sculptures, Fables and Histories. This collection was crafted with a play of reflections and a continuous expressive challenge between poetic texts and works of art, real or imaginary.
The show will run until 9th February 2025.
Sotheby's New York Modern Sales realise $322m
November 19 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Results from the recent Modern Evening sales at Sotheby's New York appear to show that the high-end of the Modern and Impressionist market is in a rather good place at the moment. Sydell Miller's single-owner auction, which was a white-glove sale (meaning all lots sold), brought in a total of $215,953,000 (all figures inc. premiums). The top lot was Monet's Nymphéas (pictured), which achieved an impressive $65,500,000. Likewise, the Modern Evening Auction achieved a total of $106,184,000, with a bust by Alberto Giacometti making the top price of $13,250,000.
Whether or not you attribute these positive results to what the New York Times has described as the 'Trump Bump', the real test will perhaps be on Thursday when Maurizio Cattelan's highly anticipated Comedian [also known as the Banana duct taped to a wall] is offered for sale carrying a $1m - $1.5m estimate. The Modern and Contemporary market never fails to produce surprises, it seems.
The Christie's New York 20th / 21st Century Evening Sales are scheduled for this evening, so more news to come.
Council Approves sale of Bouchardon Bust
November 18 2024
Picture: ross-shirejournal.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular readers of AHN will remember the ongoing story relating to the attempts by Highland Council to sell off a bust of Sir John Gordon by Bouchardon which was discovered in their collection back in 1998. It is the intention of the council that money resulting from its sale would be put forwards a 'Invergordon Common Good Fund', and a 'high quality replica' put in its place.
The most recent update, as reported in the Ross-shire Journal, are as follows:
Members of the Black Isle and Easter Ross area committee voted in May to pursue the sale, which was rubber stamped by a full council meeting a month later.
That vote followed public consultation over the plans which drew dozens of responses - with 48 of the 70 received being in favour of the sale despite strong criticism from some quarters.
And last Thursday [14th November 2024] the council applied to Tain Sheriff Court for formal approval to sell the bust under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
We'll wait and see how this story progresses.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael at the Royal Academy
November 18 2024
Video: Euronews
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A quick reminder that the Royal Academy's winter exhibition, entitled Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504, has just opened in London. It will run until 16th February 2025.
National Horseracing Museum acquires Charles II Portrait
November 18 2024
Picture: Katherine Field
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, Norfolk, has acquired a Portrait of Charles II. The King is of great significance to Newmarket, as it was he who founded much of the stables and course which survives to this day in one form or another. The painting (which is based on a Lely prototype) was purchased from the auctioneers Adam's in Dublin earlier this year with funds raised, within two days I'm told (!), by the Friends of NHRM. Congratulations to all those involved.
