Arts news

• How to Make the Ancient Iraqi Cookie that Signals the End of Ramadan

  26-05-2020 21:35 via smithsonianmag.com
  
  Made with rosewater, nigella seed and stuffed with dates or nuts, the bite-size 'kleicha' evokes layers of meaning and memory
  
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• Fire at Copenhagen’s Art-filled Stock Exchange, Israeli Artist Shuts National Pavilion, Controversial ‘Vessel’ Reopens, and More: Morning Links for April 16, 2024

  16-04-2024 14:53 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.THE HEADLINESISRAELI PAVILION SHUT. The Israeli artist and curators chosen to represent their country at the Venice Biennale have refused to open their national pavilion exhibit, titled “(M)otherland”, until there is “a ceasefire and hostage release agreement.” In the early hours of a press opening today, the doors remained shut to the exhibit i
  
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• Israel’s National Pavilion Won’t Open Until a Ceasefire Is Reached, Artist Says

  16-04-2024 09:38 via artnews.com
  
  Artist Ruth Patir, who was selected to represent Israel last September, said she will not open her exhibition for the country’s national pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale until “a cease-fire and hostage release agreement” is reached between Israel and Hamas, the New York Times reports. The Biennale officially begins press previews this morning, with the festival’s public opening launching on April 20.“I hate it, but I think it’s important,” Patir told
  
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• At the Venice Biennale, Ukrainian Artists Examine the Many Realities of Russia’s War

  16-04-2024 09:00 via artnews.com
  
  In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, civilians seemingly mobilized overnight. Weaving camouflage nets to shield Ukrainian defenders became one of the urgent tasks. In church basements and museums, these volunteers twisted together strips of dark fabric and rags.This action may seem like a smooth metaphor for a country coming together. But it disguised how complex this unity was, disuniform like the nets themselves—and how it has become even more so as the war stret
  
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• Did the US Rig a Golden Lion Win? A New Documentary Revisits a Venice Biennale Scandal

  16-04-2024 08:00 via artnews.com
  
  Every generation seems to get the scandalous, headline-grabbing art exhibition it deserves. The most recent one is Documenta 15 in 2022, which was so controversial that there may never be a future edition of the show in Kassel, Germany. There is also, of course, the 1993 Whitney Biennial, which introduced so-called identity politics into the mainstream discourse of art. Going back even further, there was the 1913 Armory Show in New York, the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874, and the 1865 P
  
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• Curator Adriano Pedrosa Kicks Off Venice Biennale with Star-Studded Dinner: In Pictures

  15-04-2024 21:05 via artnews.com
  
  The 60th Venice Biennale kicked off this week with a celebration of the more than 100 artists from around the world participating in the prestigious exhibition, titled “Stranieri Ovunque”—Foreigners Everywhere. Adriano Pedrosa, Biennale artistic director, hosted welcome festivities at La Caravella, and the intergenerational attendees included artists Samia Halaby, Lauren Halsey, Lydia Ourahmane, and Kim Yun Shin; as well as preeminent patrons Pamela Joyner and Fred Giuffrida.
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• At 92 Years Old, Photorealist Painter Audrey Flack is Having a Moment

  15-04-2024 19:08 via artnews.com
  
  Ars longa, vita brevis cautions the banner above Audrey Flack in her recent Self-Portrait with Flaming Heart (2022). The formidable nonagenarian artist, whose art career and life have in fact been enviably long (especially compared to the crowd of Abstract Expressionists she once rolled with), presents us with a Sacred Heart set afire. If one of her idols, Albrecht Dürer, could paint himself as Christ, then surely she can cast herself as the Virgin Mary, as she does here with her Star of Da
  
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• Etel Adnan, Late Writer and Painter of Luminous Landscapes, is Honored with Google Doodle

  15-04-2024 18:49 via artnews.com
  
  Google is celebrating the legacy of late Lebanese American writer and painter Etel Adnan with an illustration on its homepage. The artwork—from the series known as Google Doodles—depicts the artist at her desk, paintbrush in hand, framed by the fruit of her 50-year-long career: painted interpretations of the sun, sea, and mountains as jewel-toned geometries; and a prodigious body of writing on the legacy of war, national and diasporic identity, and feminism in the Arabic-speaking wor
  
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• British Museum Chair Reportedly Clashed with Officials at Prime Minister’s Office

  15-04-2024 17:45 via artnews.com
  
  British Museum chairman George Osborne reportedly clashed with officials from the Prime Minister’s office over the selection of the institution’s next museum director prior to the appointment of National Portrait Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan.According to the Telegraph, museum trustees on the selection panel were ordered by officials at Downing Street (the London residence of UK Prime Ministers) to send the names of the two finalists to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his advisor
  
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• The Birth of Impressionism Comes to Life in a Groundbreaking Exhibition in Paris

  15-04-2024 17:41 via artnews.com
  
  It might seem like gilding the lily to devote a two-part exhibition to a single historic event, and yet the result, “Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism,” is a revelation. In it, the Musée d’Orsay presents a show about a show—specifically, the first Impressionist exhibition, which opened 150 years ago today and ushered in what we think of as modern art.Related ArticlesWolfgang Laib's Piles of Rice and Pollen Meet Claude Monet's Ethereal 'Water Liles' in a New Exhib
  
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• Norman Lear Art Collection Heads to Christie’s, Green Vault Thieves Lose Appeal, Picasso’s Daughter Defends His Reputation, and More: Morning Links for April 15, 2024

  15-04-2024 15:29 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.THE HEADLINESCHURCH COVER-UP. A public debate is intensifying over whether to remove, cover, or leave untouched, the church mosaics, paintings, and stained-glass windows made by artist priests accused of sexual abuse, reports Le Monde. Jesuit Rev. Mark Rupnik and Fr Louis Ribes, are among a handful of Catholic priests who have made a large swath of artworks for churche
  
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• Taking Over the Australian Pavilion, Archie Moore Celebrates 2,400 Generations of First Nations People

  15-04-2024 15:00 via artnews.com
  
  Upon entering the box-shaped Australian Pavilion in the Giardini, the eyes slowly begin to adjust to the crepuscular light. What looks like a white mist slowly materializes on the black walls and envelops visitors. Linger a little and the “mist” crystallizes into a vast family tree going back 65,000 years, hand-written in white chalk across the four 49-by-16-foot walls. Artist Archie Moore, who is of Kamilaroi and Bigambul descent on his mother’s side and British and Scottish o
  
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• Christie’s to Sell the Collection of Famed ‘All in the Family’ Producer Norman Lear

  15-04-2024 14:19 via artnews.com
  
  Christie’s has secured the art collection of television writer, producer, and political advocate Norman Lear and his wife, Lyn Davis Lear, the auction house announced Monday. Lear passed away in December at 101 years old.Seven works from the collection will debut during the house’s 20th Century Evening Sale on May 16, with additional works appearing in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale, among others. The entire collection is expected to fetch more than $50 million.In the 197
  
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• Pierre Huyghe Takes on AI and Nonhuman Evolution in Venice

  15-04-2024 14:00 via artnews.com
  
  At a moment of growing anxiety about AI’s potential to usurp and overwhelm human intelligence, Pierre Huyghe offers neither reassurance nor prophecy of catastrophe. Instead, he proposes to take human consciousness out of the equation altogether. “Liminal,” an exhibition at the Pinault Collection’s Punta della Dogana, extends the French artist’s longtime exploration of otherness, conceived here as the experience of reality in biological, chemical, and technological e
  
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• Ayana Ross, Winner of the Second Bennett Prize, On Showing Her Work Around the Country: “It Put Me on a Different Playing Field”

  15-04-2024 06:01 via artnews.com
  
  When Ayana Ross heard that the Bennett Prize had opened its call for submissions, back in 2020, she almost didn’t apply.Related ArticlesThe Bennett Prize "Rising Voices" Touring Exhibition Soars to New Heights With $12 M. Donation, Michigan's Muskegon Museum Will Look to Build Wing Dedicated to Women Artists “I certainly didn’t see myself at that time as being suited for it,” she admits, calling from her home studio in McDonough, Ga. “But over a series of months, wh
  
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• Faith Ringgold, Pivotal Artist, Impassioned Activist, and Inventor in Many Mediums, Is Dead at 93

  14-04-2024 00:52 via artnews.com
  
  Artist Faith Ringgold, whose seven-decade career encompassed bestselling children’s books, incisive activism, and work in an astonishing array of mediums, and culminated with the kind of mass international acclaim that was long denied to Black visual artists and women artists like her, died on Saturday at her home in Englewood, New Jersey. She was 93. Her death was announced by her longtime New York representative, ACA Galleries, which did not specify a cause.Just one aspect of Ringgold&rs
  
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• Artists Rejected from Polish Pavilion to Stage Independent Show in Venice

  12-04-2024 22:56 via artnews.com
  
  Ignacy Czwartos, the artist originally selected to represent Poland at the 2024 edition of the Venice Biennale, later dropped from the plan after the new government dissented from the show, will now mount an independent exhibition titled “Polonia Uncensored” in Venice this month. The show will open on April 20 at a private space in the Viale IV Novembre, located close by to the Giardini site where Poland’s national pavilion is being held.The move comes after his initial presen
  
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• The Best Booths at Expo Chicago, from an Ode to Hometown Heroes to Solo Showcases

  12-04-2024 22:43 via artnews.com
  
  Expo Chicago has returned to Navy Pier, offering its fairgoers more of what it’s known for: a decidedly relaxed vibe (at least compared to its coastal counterparts), an unparalleled focus on regional operations, and wide-ranging art willing to take on American politics. This is the first edition of Expo under the leadership of Frieze, which acquired the event alongside the Armory Show in 2023. Tony Kaufman, EXPO director, told ARTnews that new management has only led to further improvement
  
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• Christie’s Partners with Fintech Lender Art Money for Interest Free Payment Plans

  12-04-2024 21:47 via artnews.com
  
  The Australian fintech start-up Art Money has announced a new partnership that will extend its interest-free loans that can be repaid in up to ten installments, to auctions at Christie’s.The partnership will officially launch with the Christie’s Prints and Multiples auction in New York on April 16. According to a spokesperson, Art Money can be used for works up to $1 million. In order to take advantage of the initiative, collectors must first be approved by A
  
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• Donna Dennis’s Newly Published Diaries Provide A Rare Glimpse Into A Heady Time of Change for Women Artists

  12-04-2024 20:01 via artnews.com
  
  More artists should keep diaries. While they can be deliciously revelatory, their pleasure mostly lies in the liberated quality of the writing. When writers keep diaries, the activity is freighted: this, after all, is their art form. Artists have a tendency to be less inhibited. Andy Warhol, for example, famously wrote down everything that happened to him; his diaries sometimes read like the society pages. Other artists record in painstaking detail the challenges—mental, emotional, physica
  
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• Christie’s to Offer $30 M. Basquiat Stretcher-Bar Painting during May Sale

  12-04-2024 19:46 via artnews.com
  
  With the May evening sales in New York fast approaching, Christie’s has announced that Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 work The Italian Version of Popeye Has Pork in His Diet will be among the highlights of its 21st century evening sale.The work, which is estimated to achieve around $30 million, is part of a series of works featuring tied-together wooden supports, onto which a canvas has been mounted. Nearly every inch of the 60-inch square canvas is peppered with figures,
  
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• Arthur Jafa Produces a Nauseating Disappointment with a Revisionist Take on ‘Taxi Driver’

  12-04-2024 17:58 via artnews.com
  
  If you recognize every image that Arthur Jafa has appropriated for his art in the past, you are in need of a digital detox.Some of Jafa’s pictures are famous: readily available stills from notable films, glamour shots of pop stars, photographs of ugly moments from American history that have appeared in textbooks. But many more of his images are considerably less well-known: the various Instagram Reels and YouTube clips, for example, that Jafa has pilfered from the internet and re-presented
  
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• Several Top Museums in UK Admit Hundreds of Items Were Lost, Stolen or Destroyed

  12-04-2024 17:47 via artnews.com
  
  Several museums in the UK have admitted that hundreds of items from their collections have been lost, stolen, or destroyed over the past five years, highlighting a sector-wide issue after the British Museum thefts scandal last year. Institutions including the Imperial War Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, and the Natural History Museum reported a variety of missing historic items. The information was released in response to Freedom of Information requests filed by The Independent, which f
  
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• Pace Gallery Takes Global Representation of Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative

  12-04-2024 17:00 via artnews.com
  
  Pace Gallery will globally represent the Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative, a foundation dedicated to managing the Pop artist’s art and legacy. Pace announced the news on Friday, just days before an Indiana show is set to open in Venice around the same time as the Biennale.The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative bills itself as the primary organization responsible for maintaining Indiana’s art and archives. It was formed by dealer Simon Salama-Caro in 2022, the same year that the estate
  
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• Famed War Photographer Lee Miller Gets a Surprise Shoutout in New Alex Garland Film ‘Civil War’

  12-04-2024 16:51 via artnews.com
  
  The protagonist of the new Alex Garland film Civil War is Lee Smith, a traumatized war photographer who heads to Washington, D.C. to shoot a conflict that threatens to undo the United States. Yet she owes her name to another war photographer named Lee—Lee Miller, that is.That much is pointed out to Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) early on in Civil War by Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a spunky, younger photographer seeking to make a name for herself by tagging along for the journey. Miller, Jessie note
  
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• Oliver Beer Herds and Harmonizes Cats

  12-04-2024 14:00 via artnews.com
  
  This essay originally appeared in Reframed, the Art in America newsletter about art that surprises us and works that get us worked up. Sign up here to receive it every Thursday.Herding cats is notoriously difficult, but how about making them harmonize? That is a hypothetical taken up long ago in a curious 17th-century musical text—and again more recently by the British sound artist Oliver Beer. His latest gallery show in New York, “Resonance Paintings –
  
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• Recipients of the 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship Announced, Including Nicholas Galanin, Lorraine O’Grady, and More

  11-04-2024 23:22 via artnews.com
  
  A diverse group of 188 artists, scholars, and cultural creators were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships this year from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Among the winners are 50 artists including Jessica Blinkhorn, Nicholas Galanin, Lorraine O’Grady, Arvie Smith, and Ada Trillo. The Guggenheim Fellowships is among world’s most prestigious awards, and this year alone had over 3,000 applicants. It total, 52 scholarly disciplines and artistic practices are represented in f
  
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• Man Ray Image of Kiki de Montparnasse Sells for $162,000 at Christie’s Auction

  11-04-2024 22:54 via artnews.com
  
  Two years ago, Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres (1924) showing a naked woman’s back with two f-shaped holes overlaid on top sold at Christie’s for $12.4 million after a bidding war on the phones. The print of the famed image of the artist’s muse, Kiki De Montparnasse, set a record for photography due to its rare status as an original photographic copy.On April 11, one of the three prints made from the original negative in 1970 by the surrealist artist sold in Paris for
  
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• Well-Preserved Frescoes Uncovered in a ‘Black Room’ Banquet Hall at Pompeii

  11-04-2024 22:50 via artnews.com
  
  Preserved frescoes from the ancient Roman city Pompeii have been revealed as part of a recently excavated banquet hall on site, the archaeological park announced Thursday.Frescoes lining the room’s painted black walls depicted mythological characters and subjects from the Trojan War. In one scene, Paris, the prince of Troy, stands before the Spartan princess Helen. In another, the god Apollo stands with a lyre in an attempt to seduce the Trojan priestess Cassandra, who ultimately rejects h
  
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• Venice Biennale U.S. Pavilion Curator Kathleen Ash-Milby Reveals Her Top Five Recent Obsessions

  11-04-2024 22:41 via artnews.com
  
  Kathleen Ash-Milby is the curator of Native American art at the Portland Art Museum and cocurator, with Abigail Winograd, of the U.S. pavilion for the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale. Below, she discusses the significance of broader histories and representation, along with related interests.
  
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