Arts news

• What Happens When Computers Get "Better" At Great Art Than Artists?

  10-05-2017 23:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "If art is defined by human emotions,  what might happen once external algorithms are able to understand and manipulate human emotions better than Shakespeare, Picasso or Lennon? After all, emotions are not some mystical phenomenon -- they are a biochemical process. Hence, given enough biometric data and enough computing power, it might be possible to hack love, hate, boredom and joy."
  
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• Dueling High-End Auctions Reveal A Fascinating Battle Over Pricing Art

  10-05-2017 23:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "The Spiegels, who died eight years ago, left their art to their two daughters, who each received half of its estimated value. For this month’s auctions, one chose Christie’s and the other, Sotheby’s—though not without intrigue within the houses themselves. The companies expect the works could sell for more than $160 million, the two largest art consignments of the bellwether spring auction season. The dueling auctions on May 17 and May 18 illustrate the ch
  
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• Venice diary: New Zealand’s Lisa Reihana makes a grand Biennale entrance

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  New Zealand celebrated the integration of its pavilion into the main body of the Venice Biennale in grand style. The participating artist Lisa Reihana made a dramatic waterborne entrance at the new Tese dellIsolotto Arsenale location yesterday (10 May). She arrived not just in any old gondola, but in the historic Disdotona, the largest vessel in Venice, which is only used for the most important civic occasions and requires 18 specialist rowers. Reihana, who is of Maori and British descent, was
  
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• Van Gogh, Schiele and Beckmann to lead Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale this summer

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  A rare figurative work painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889, the year he admitted himself to an asylum, and an equally uncommon townscape by Egon Schiele from 1915 are among the highlights that will lead Christies Impressionist and Modern sale in London this June. Le Moissonneur (daprs Millet) is one of ten paintings Van Gogh made after a group of drawings by Jean-Franois Millet, seven of which are in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The colourful canvas, of a reaper work
  
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• Van Gogh, Schiele and Beckmann to lead Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  A rare figurative work painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889, the year he admitted himself to an asylum, and an equally uncommon townscape by Egon Schiele from 1915 are among the highlights that will lead Christies Impressionist and Modern sale in London this June. Le Moissonneur (daprs Millet) is one of ten paintings Van Gogh made after a group of drawings by Jean-Franois Millet, seven of which are in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The colourful canvas, of a reaper work
  
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• From here to eternity: the nine trans-pavilions at the Venice Biennale

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  Christine Macel says that she has constructed Viva Arte Viva like a journey, an experience, that leads you through the exhibition. It starts in the Giardini in the central pavilion (the former Padiglione Italia) and then moves to the 320m-long, 14th-century Corderie (rope factory) in the Arsenale, finishing in the gardens at the end of the complex. It is divided into nine themed sections, which Macel calls trans-pavilions that put the voice, the role and the responsibilities of the artist at it
  
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• Collaterals and extras: the Venice Biennale’s other shows

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  Loris Graud A ghost ship on Murano
  The French artist Loris Graud will show 1,000 glass pieces made from hourglass sand in an abandoned furnace on Muranothe Venetian island famous for producing elaborate glassware. The furnace, which has been closed for more than 60 years, will be secretly revived and will play host to a whole new trade: an unofficial production line, says a project statement. The continuous performance of the glass gaffers [blowers] on site will soon turn into a strange tableau
  
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• Circumstantial evidence clinches the case: how careful archaeology corrects misunderstandings

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  Early Cycladic sculpture has captivated scholarly and popular imagination for centuries, originally as crude and ugly representations of a bygone era, and later as collectables and works of art praised for their abstract form and beauty, inspiring artists such as Picasso, Modigliani and Brancusi.
  Since the late 19th century, sculptures of this period have been praised in their own right, for providing archaeologists with important information for the better understanding of the societies that p
  
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• Artists strike a chord as music fills the Venice Biennale

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  The Venice Biennale opens to the public this weekend (13 May-26 November), but the 57th edition includes so many sound works and sculptures it feels as though the citys Biennale of Music later in the year (29 September8 October) has been given a head startas invited guests discovered this week. Visitors to the French pavilion encounter professional musicians and sound technicians rather than paintings and sculptures as the artist Xavier Veilhans Studio Venezia has turned the space into a workin
  
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• Artists’ commissions, tech gifts and guns: the legal issues facing US museums

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  Whats keeping museum lawyers up at night? The new future. That was the message at the annual meeting of more than 200 museum professionals and lawyers in Dallas in March. They discussed how to stay out of trouble when commissioning installation and performance art, how to prepare for changes to US tax law and how best to collaborate with technology companies. The programme was organised by the American Law Institute and cosponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. Here are our picks of the most p
  
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• A weak sketch of influence: on John Latham at the Serpentine Galleries

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  Despite a long exhibition history and a house and studio in London that have become a public institution, John Latham (19212006) remains an elusive character in contemporary art. The influential career of this British artist, who worked in almost every genre and collaborated with artists from Gustav Metzger to his students at Central St Martins art school in London, has been the subject of a number of exhibitions since he passed awaywhich is why it is hard to see what makes A World View, a show
  
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• A bottomless repository of culture: on illuminated Medieval manuscripts

  10-05-2017 23:00
  
  These six books carry a considerable weight of scholarship, which also amounts to a 15kg load over nearly half a metre of bookshelf. Three are catalogues and represent the collaborative effort of a large number of scholars, curators, conservators and scientists; two are demonstrations of personal erudition gained after a lifetime of meticulous and ground-breaking investigation; and one is a traditional coffee-table book. All of them build on a recent history of the study of illuminated manuscrip
  
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• Kim Yong-Ik at Tina Kim Gallery, New York

  10-05-2017 22:29 via artnews.com
  Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday. Read More
  
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• White House curator William Allman to retire after 40 years of service

  10-05-2017 20:57
  
  The White House curator, William Allman, who is in charge of preserving the art and furnishings of the presidential residence, will retire on 1 June after serving there for 40 years. Allman had considered retiring last year, the Washington Post reports, but stayed on to help the new First Family during their transition into the White House.
  It has been a tremendous honor to serve eight Presidents and First Ladies in helping to preserve and beautify the White House, and maintain and interpret it
  
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• Consumer Reports: Sam McKinniss

  10-05-2017 20:00 via artnews.com
  Sam McKinniss is an artist in New York. His latest exhibition, titled “Egyptian Violet,” opened this past October at Team Gallery in lower Manhattan. More recently, the pop star Lorde revealed a portrait by McKinniss as the cover art for … Read More
  
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• Scenes from the Venice Biennale: Day 2

  10-05-2017 19:16 via artnews.com
  The second day of the Venice Biennale press preview began today. Below, a look around more of the action in and around the Arsenale and Giardini.
  
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• Summer Preview: Museum Shows and Biennials Around the World

  10-05-2017 19:15 via artnews.com
  30 shows from around the world to see this season. Read More
  
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• Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker Named CEO and Director of the Biennale of Sydney

  10-05-2017 18:47 via artnews.com
  Australia’s Biennale of Sydney announced today that Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker will be its new CEO and director. She will oversee the opening of the 2018 edition of the biennial, which will be curated by Mami Kataoka, and which recently announced … Read More
  
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• Sotheby’s Posts $11.3 M. Loss for First Quarter of 2017, a Marked Improvement in a Typically Quiet Spell

  10-05-2017 18:42 via artnews.com
  In an earnings call this morning about its first quarter of 2017, which traditionally lacks any big sales, Sotheby’s announced a net loss of $11.3 million, marking a 49-percent improvement over the same period last year. The uptick was attributed to a … Read More
  
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• Getty Research Institute Director Thomas W. Gaehtgens to Retire

  10-05-2017 18:23 via artnews.com
  After a decade as the Getty Research Institute’s director, Thomas W. Gaehtgens has announced that he will retire next year. Gaehtgens plans to travel to Berlin, to pursue independent research projects.Gaehtgens first joined the Los Angeles–based institution in 2007. In … Read More
  
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• Luxury Ladders in Venice

  10-05-2017 17:49 via artnews.com
  Call me crazy, but these ladders-turned-handbag displays at Burberry in Venice look an awful lot like the ladders that Jim Lambie was doing a few years back. (Only without the mirrors in between the steps.) Alright, this is my last story … Read More
  
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• ‘Everything Is Not What It Fully Is on the Surface’: Rachel Rose on ‘Lake Valley,’ Her Beguiling Video in the Biennale

  10-05-2017 17:42 via artnews.com
  A pet is in the kitchen of a suburban town, left behind by its owner, who’s taking his daughter to school. A framed poster leans against the wall. An egg cracks to reveal a garish yellow yolk. Orange rinds are left … Read More
  
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• A Penguin in Venice

  10-05-2017 17:34 via artnews.com
  Here’s a sentence I never thought I would write: I had the most wonderful little art-viewing trip at Louis Vuitton in Venice today.On the first floor, Vuitton has a big display of the new Jeff Koons merchandise, which are, of course, … Read More
  
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• Water Ways: Chris Ofili Delivers a Stunning Show of Drawings at Victoria Miro in Venice

  10-05-2017 17:13 via artnews.com
  If you are in Venice right now, drop what you are doing and go see “Poolside Magic,” Chris Ofili’s exhibition at the new space that London gallery Victoria Miro opened last night in San Marco. It is a resoundingly beautiful show, a jewel box of twenty-seven smoldering drawings on a … Read More
  
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• Water Ways: Chris Ofili Delivers a Beautiful Show of Drawings at Victoria Miro in Venice

  10-05-2017 17:13 via artnews.com
  If you are in Venice right now, drop what you are doing and go see “Poolside Magic,” Chris Ofili’s exhibition at the new space that London gallery Victoria Miro opened last night in San Marco. It is a resoundingly beautiful show, a jewel box of twenty-seven smoldering drawings on a … Read More
  
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• Liste Art Fair, Satellite to Art Basel, Announces Exhibitors for 2017 Edition

  10-05-2017 17:13 via artnews.com
  The Liste Art Fair, a satellite fair around Art Basel dedicated to young artists and emerging galleries, has named the exhibitors for its 2017 edition. This year’s fair, which opens to the public in Basel, Switzerland, on June 13, will feature 79 … Read More
  
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• ‘A lost freedom’: When new age travellers found acid house – in pictures

  10-05-2017 17:05
  
  Matthew Smith’s book Exist to Resist captures the moment in the 90s when ravers, new age travellers, drugs and protest collided in a joyous movement – until the government got involvedIn the wake of the second summer of love in 1988, acid house seemed to alter pop culture as a whole; its influence changed everything from the sound of indie bands to the productions of Stock Aitken Waterman. But few groups embraced it with quite the enthusiasm of new age travellers. Dance music played
  
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• Tunisia Returns to the Biennale Bearing Passports

  10-05-2017 16:16 via artnews.com
  There is no artist representing Tunisia at the 2017 Venice Biennale, but the country does have a pavilion—its first one in 50 years—and a curator, Lina Lazaar, who has put together a project called “The Absence of Paths.” At three locations around the … Read More
  
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• Tracey Moffatt review – horrible histories from Australia's Venice envoy

  10-05-2017 16:06
  
  Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale
  With her opaque studies of asylum and memory, indigenous Australian artist Tracey Moffatt hints at cyclical violence – but asks her audience to fill in the gapsStills from an unmade movie, false memories, history and fiction are the core of Tracey Moffatt’s My Horizon. She is the first indigenous Australian artist to represent her country at the Venice Biennale since 1997; one of Australia’s best known and internationally exhibited artists,
  
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• Morning Links: Phyllida Barlow’s Rise to Fame Edition

  10-05-2017 15:00 via artnews.com
  Here's what we're reading this morning. Read More
  
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• Courtney Love Is Here in Venice to Defend Damien Hirst

  10-05-2017 14:28 via artnews.com
  A quick scene from last night: a rainy patio at the Bauer Hotel, guests ducking into the few umbrellas and buying the €25 tickets needed to procure a cocktail. And then emerged Courtney Love, the pop culture icon who I got … Read More
  
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• Yacht Watch: Investigating the Stella Maris, a Gigantic Vessel Parked By the Giardini

  10-05-2017 13:40 via artnews.com
  As you approach the Giardini via water taxi, there’s a big hulking boat the size of an apartment building bestriding the Grand Canal. It’s name is Stella Maris, and it is a superyacht.Now, yachts this size are not uncommon in … Read More
  
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• 'Reinventing the world': Venice Biennale gives older and lesser-known artists their due

  10-05-2017 12:23
  Christine Macel, the director of the 57th Venice Biennale and the chief curator of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, promised an exhibition with art and artists at its centre, and an exploration of the way that artists, in her words, wish to reinvent the world. Her exhibition, called Viva Arte Viva, welcomed invited guests yesterday; it will open to the public on 13 May and runs until 26 November.
   
  What Macel has given us is a thoughtful, logically-argued show, if one that tends towards the c
  
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• Thoma Foundation Gives Arts Writing Awards in Digital Art to Rudolf Frieling, Ed Halter

  10-05-2017 12:00 via artnews.com
  The winners of this year’s Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation awards for writing about digital art are San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator Rudolf Frieling and Light Industry cofounder Ed Halter. This is the third year the awards … Read More
  
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• Phyllida Barlow: I couldn't have coped if fame had come 20 years ago

  10-05-2017 08:00
  
  Sculptor who is representing UK at Venice Biennale says she bears no grudge that she spent decades neglected by the art worldPhyllida Barlow, the sculptor representing the UK at the Venice Biennale, has said that while it may have taken the art world decades to pay attention to her work, the timing of her recognition was perfect, adding: “20 years ago, I wouldn’t have coped.”Barlow has been making her vast and ramshackle sculptures for more than five decades but her work went a
  
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• Phyllida Barlow: I couldn't have coped if fame came 20 years ago

  10-05-2017 08:00
  
  Sculptor, who is representing UK at Venice Biennale, says she bears no grudge that she spent decades neglected by the art worldPhyllida Barlow, the sculptor representing the UK at the Venice Biennale, has said that while it may have taken the art world decades to pay attention to her work, the timing of her recognition was perfect, adding: “20 years ago, I wouldn’t have coped.”Barlow has been making her vast and ramshackle sculptures for more than five decades but her work went
  
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• Bright young thing: the early work of Cecil Beaton – in pictures

  10-05-2017 08:00
  
  Cecil Beaton photographed the beautiful people of the decadent 1920s and 30s, from London to Hollywood, before turning a critical eye on the second world war Continue reading...
  
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• Sex and art by the Grand Canal: how Peggy Guggenheim took Venice

  10-05-2017 07:00
  
  In the 1940s, the heiress fled New York and, with a makeshift gallery, became the star of Venice. But she was not the first woman to dazzle the city. As the Biennale opens, Judith Mackrell tells their story
  In the summer of 1948, the Venice Art Biennale was back in business after the long and isolating years of war. It was a historic event, celebrating not only international peace but also the end of fascism in Italy, and among its showcased artists were several who had been banned as “deg
  
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• McArthur Binion Addresses the Past in a Stunning Suite of Paintings

  10-05-2017 00:16 via artnews.com
  One of the first galleries in the Giardini section of Christine Macel’s curated exhibition at the Biennale, “Viva Arte Viva,” is a skylit display of paintings by the African-American artist McArthur Binion. Complited between 2014 and 2016, this suite of … Read More
  
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• Ottawa on the Grand Canal: Celebrating Bob Rennie’s $12 M. Gift

  10-05-2017 00:00 via artnews.com
  You might have heard today that Vancouver-based collector Bob Rennie has donated 197 contemporary artworks with a collective value of $12 million to the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa. Earlier this evening, on the occasion of the Venice Biennale, … Read More
  
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