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Saturday, May 5, 2012 |
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Mexican experts find blood, muscle, tendon, skin and hair on ancient stone knives
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A sharp obsidian knife found in Cantona, in the central Mexico state of Puebla, is displayed for photos. Researchers in Mexico announced Wednesday that they have found blood cells and fragments of muscle, tendon, skin and hair on 2,000-year-old stone knives, calling it the first conclusive evidence from a large number of stone implements pointing to their use in human sacrifice. (AP Photo/INAH/Yadira Martinez.
By: Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP).- Traces of blood and fragments of muscle, tendon, skin and hair found on 2,000-year-old stone knives have given researchers the first conclusive evidence that the obsidian blades were used for human sacrifice so long ago in Mexico. Researchers had long seen cut marks on ancient bones that appeared to suggest varied practices of dismembering victims in many pre-Hispanic cultures, but the find announced Wednesday positively identifies the sort of actual knives that were used in the ancient rituals. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said the finding clearly corroborates accounts from later cultures about the use of such knives to cut out hearts or cut up bodies. ... More |
| London's Frieze art fair debuts New York edition taking place in Randall’s Island Park |
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Solo exhibition by William Wegman of recent postcard paintings at Sperone Westwater |
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First major presentation of Loris Gréaud's work opens at The Pace Gallery |
Frieze New York 2012. Photograph by Linda Nylind Courtesy of Linda Nylind/ Frieze.
NEW YORK, NY.- The first edition of Frieze New York taking place in Randall’s Island Park, Manhattan from 4–7 May 2012. Designed by New York-based SO – IL Architects, Frieze New York is housed in a bespoke structure and located in a unique setting overlooking the East River. Frieze New York features 180 of the most exciting contemporary galleries working today. A strong American and European contingent of galleries is joined by those from the rest of the world. Galleries that are regular exhibitors at Frieze London are accompanied by those new to Frieze, in particular the young galleries included in Frame, a section dedicated to those established less than six years ago. The New York fair introduces Focus, a section for galleries opened in or after 2001 showing a presentation of up to three gallery artists. Frieze New York also benefits from a program of specially commisioned Projects curated by Cecilia Alema ... More |
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William Wegman, Location Vacation, 2011-2012 (detail). Oil and postcards on wood panel; diptych, 72 x 96 inches (183 x 244 cm) overall. Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sperone Westwater presents Artists Including Me, a solo exhibition by William Wegman of recent postcard paintings that feature imagery from secondhand souvenirs, imaginary landscapes, and art about art. This is the artist’s fifth solo show at the gallery. Mounting found postcards from his vast personal collection onto wooden panels, Wegman enhances and embellishes a detail from one card and seamlessly connects it to the next with rich painterly strokes. He weaves in and out of each found image to create unique and dreamlike environments and ecosystems. Countries, epochs, and cultures collide, and the joys of exploration and travel are evident. In the painting Artists Including Me (2012), Wegman depicts a museum storage space with works from time periods and movements ranging from ... More |
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Film still from One Thousand Ways to Enter, 2008-11.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Pace Gallery presents Loris Gréaud: The Unplayed Notes, on view at 534 West 25th Street from May 5 through June 9, 2012. This exhibition marks the first major gallery presentation of Gréaud’s work to date and his first exhibition in New York in nearly six years. The Unplayed Notes will feature a series of site-specific, multisensory installations that activate new ways of experiencing Gréaud’s on-going investigation of altered realities. The exhibition will also include the U.S. premiere of the film, One Thousand Ways to Enter (2011), which was originally conceived for the artist’s traveling museum exhibition CELLAR DOOR. The artist will be present for an opening reception on Saturday, May 5 from 6 to 8 P.M. Known for creating long-term projects and immersive large-scale installations riddled with deep philosophical and conceptual undercurrents, Gréaud refers to his process as an “emp ... More |
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| Researchers from British Museum in London say they have new clue to Lost Colony |
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Exhibition of recent work by Chinese artist Yan Pei-Ming opens at David Zwirner |
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Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 'Little Prince' discovery offers new political insight |
"La Virginea Pars" painted by explorer John White between 1585-1586. AP Photo/British Museum.
By: Martha Waggoner, Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL, NC (AP).- A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century. Experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London discussed their findings Thursday at a scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their focus: the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866. "We believe that this evidence provides conclusive proof that they moved westward up the Albemarle Sound to the confluence of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers," said James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and author of a 2010 book ... More |
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Yan Pei-Ming, Exécution, Après Goya, 2008. Oil on canvas, 110 1/4 x 157 3/4 x 2 5/8 in. Photo: Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- David Zwirner presents an exhibition of recent work by Yan Pei-Ming, on view at the gallery’s 519 West 19th Street space. Born in Shanghai in 1960 and based in Dijon, France, Ming has gained international recognition for his large-sized, monochromatic portraits. His subjects, which range from historical figures, political leaders, and celebrities to anonymous soldiers, serial killers, female prisoners, orphans, and the artist himself, are typically presented face-on, with bold and expressive brushwork. The artist’s fluid yet precise technique and his use of shallow pictorial space combine to create iconic, monumental, and psychologically charged works. The paintings in this exhibition, Ming’s second at the gallery, relate to events in the recent and distant past. In a departure from previous work by the artist, they extend beyond the depiction of a singular subject to reference broad histori ... More |
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A manuscript draft for classic children's book The Little Prince by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery. AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere.
By: Thomas Adamson, Associated Press
PARIS (AP).- Newly-discovered draft pages of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" — that may shed new, political insight on the classic book — have been put on display at a Paris auction house for the first time. Following their surprise discovery in private hands two months ago in France, the handwritten pages about the young, curious prince who embarks on interplanetary adventures, will be auctioned off later this month after a rare public viewing. "It's incredible. No one knew they even existed two months ago, and now someone can own them," auction specialist Benoit Puttemans said Thursday. "They're the only pages from 'The Little Prince' in the world apart from the manuscript in the New York (Morgan) library." The text comprises of near unreadable, annotated writings on two translucent ... More |
| Connecticut teen points out inaccurate map to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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British Council announces digitisation of over 120 unique films from its own archive |
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Amateur sleuth helps stop National Archives and Records Administration thefts |
Benjamin Lerman, of West Hartford, Conn., posing by a map at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. AP Photo/Joanne Lerman.
WEST HARTFORD (AP).- — A Connecticut seventh-grader says workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City didn't believe him when he pointed out an inaccuracy with a map that was on exhibit. The map purported to show the Byzantine Empire at its largest size in the 6th century, but he noticed that Spain and part of Africa were missing from the depiction. Benjamin Lerman Coady knew he was right, because he had just studied the empire in school before last summer's trip to the museum with his mother. He was told to fill out a form. "The front desk didn't believe me," Benjamin told The Hartford Courant. "I'm only a kid." The 13-year-old West Hartford resident filled out the form and never expected a response, but a museum official wrote him in September saying his comments were under ... More |
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Man on the Beat. © British Council.
LONDON.- Over 120 films providing fascinating snapshots of the UK’s cultural, sporting, industrial and political heritage have been launched online to the public today thanks to funding from Google and the British Council. The films are from the British Council’s own film archive which dates back to late 1939 – and give an insight not only into a bygone age, but also serve to capture how cultural relations has changed. For several decades, the Council was an enthusiastic commissioner and distributor of documentaries, designed to showcase Britain to the outside world and promote democratic values at a time when fascism was spreading across Europe. The films were largely shown at embassies, consulates and to students and schoolchildren around the world. Many of the films are the work of talented filmmakers who went on to carve out hugely successful careers in the film industry. For the last thirty years t ... More |
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J. David Goldin, shows his radio collection in Sandy Hook, Conn. AP Photo/Jessica Anne Gresko.
By: Jessica Gresko, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP).- When J. David Goldin saw the recorded interview of baseball great Babe Ruth for sale on eBay he knew something was wrong. There was only one original record of that 1937 interview of Ruth on a hunting trip, and Goldin had donated it to a government archive more than 30 years ago. Now someone was auctioning it off, the winning bid just $34.75. "I took one look at the record label and I said, 'holy smokes, that's my record,'" said the retired radio engineer. From his home in Connecticut, filled with antique radios and tape reels, Goldin launched an amateur sleuthing effort that helped uncover a thief ripping off the country's most important repository of historical records. The heist turned out to be an inside job. The culprit was the recently retired head of the video ... More |
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| 30 years after its conception, garden designed by Sol LeWitt is now under way in Philadelphia |
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First US exhibition by the acclaimed Australian artist Michael Snape at Waterhouse & Dodd |
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New installation by Tara Donovan at the Milwaukee Art Museum highlights the extraordinary |
Lines in Four Directions in Flowers. Sol LeWitt (American, 1928-2007).Commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association in 1981. Realized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2012. Flower plantings, evergreen hedges, gravel paths. Courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt. Proposed plan. © OLIN.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- On May 24, 2012, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will commemorate the installation of Sol LeWitt’s Lines in Four Directions in Flowers, a garden consisting of rows of flowers in four different colors planted on a long rectangular plot of land in the William M. Reilly Memorial at Fairmount Park, adjacent to the Museum’s Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden. A leading figure in the Conceptual Art movement,LeWitt (1928-2007) conceived this installation 30 years ago, yet it has remained unrealized until now. It is the only project of its kind within LeWitt’s acclaimed and remarkably diverse body of work. On the morning of May 24th at 11:00 a.m., the Museum will host a tribute and reception at the Lines in Four ... More |
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Michael Snape, Bowl 2, 2011. Painted steel. 45.5 x 35.5 x 12 in. Photo: Courtesy Waterhouse & Dodd.
NEW YORK, NY.- Waterhouse & Dodd New York is presenting the first US exhibition by the acclaimed Australian artist Michael Snape. Taken from detailed drawings of the human figure in seemingly infinite amalgamations, Snape creates laser-cut sculptures from steel and brass. The artist balances negative space with multiple figure compositions that address the artist's concern for shaping a raw material to its exhaustive capacity. "Figure and Bowl" tracks the sculptural manifestations of four drawings, and expands on the way they can be employed. Also included are sculptures made from the negative shapes or 'off-cuts' produced during the process. His new works explore the ways in which coupled and grouped figures can be deployed for the same purpose. Snape coaxes each intricately cut steel sheet into bowl-like structures- pushing the solidity of the material to achieve a form at once vigorous and delicate. While each f ... More |
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Tara Donovan, Detail of Untitled, 2008. Polyester film. installation dimensions variable© Tara Donovan, courtesy The Pace Gallery. Photo by: Dennis Cowley / Courtesy The Pace Gallery.
MILWAUKEE, WIS.- The Milwaukee Art Museum opens the latest installation in its “Currents” series with the sculptural works of contemporary artist Tara Donovan. The exhibition runs through October 7, 2012. Recognized for her commitment to process, Donovan utilizes the inherent physical characteristics of common and manufactured materials—straws, pins, Styrofoam cups—and the multiplication and interaction of the individual units, to create organic installations with powerful perceptual and atmospheric effects. In 2010, the Museum acquired Donovan’s Bluffs, which is comprised of thousands of buttons, stacked and glued in such a way as to evoke glistening stalagmites or a coral reef. “Donovan’s process involves selecting one material and finding one unique solution for its construction, whether ... More |
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| More News |
 Museum makes a million: Museum of Liverpool welcomes one million visitors
LIVERPOOL.- The Museum of Liverpool has welcomed one million visitors through its doors since opening in July 2011, just nine months ago. The largest newly built national museum in Britain for more than a century was forecast to attract 750,000 people in its first year, but in nine months it has already well exceeded that target. David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool said: “The response has been tremendous, not only from Merseysiders but from visitors to the city from all over the globe. “The people who live in and around Liverpool have always known it‘s a very special city, and now the Museum of Liverpool is the must-visit place to discover and celebrate the city’s history and culture. A lot of local people want to show off the Museum to visitors to the city.” Celebrating the milestone, David Fleming was joined by Director of the Museum of Liverpool Janet Dugdale ... More Stephan Dillemuth explores current issues in exhibition at the Secession
VIENNA.- Stephan Dillemuth considers his options as a fine artist with regard to a changing public sphere. In the context of our societies of control, he attaches particular importance to forms of self-organization as ways of generating personal and collective integrity. With its inherent scope for reflection, analysis, and experimentation, art creates beauty, but for this reason Dillemuth also credits it with the potential to change society. When exploring current issues, Stephan Dillemuth studies historical movements and situations of social upheaval. But this research—into the “Lebensreform” (life reform) movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, the Bavarian Soviet Republic, and progressive countercultures of the 1970s—is always put to the test using experimental artistic means. The results of these experiments take the form of installations, mises en scène, and collaborative works ... More Anita Lobel: Caldecott Honor Medalist's illustrations on view at Joslyn Art Museum
OMAHA, NE.- All the World’s a Stage at Joslyn Art Museum comprises more than 70 colorful, richly patterned artworks — pen and ink, watercolor, and gouache (pronounced GOO-ahsh; a technique of painting with opaque watercolors prepared with gum) pictures — from 31 children’s books by author-illustrator Anita Lobel. The exhibition shares its title with a featured book – a poem paying tribute to Shakespeare, and nine of his well-known plays, beautifully illustrated with precise details of the times and the world of Elizabethan theatre. The exhibition opened April 14 and is on view through July 1. “I usually plan a book as a play. The pictures become ‘scenes’ with ‘principals’ and ‘chorus’ grouped and regrouped according to what is then happening in the story," says Lobel. "Writing and illustrating books for children is a form of drama for me. I approach the construction ... More UK sentences art forger to 2 years in jail
LONDON (AP).- British police say a man has been sentenced to two years in jail for forging up to 1,000 paintings. Scotland Yard says 63-year-old William Mumford imitated artists such as Maqbool Fida Husain, Kyffin Williams and John Tunnard. It says a number of co-conspirators had placed the works for sale on eBay and at British auction houses in exchange for a 20 percent cut. Police said the scam was identified in 2009 after a major auction house saw that an unusually large number of Husain paintings were offered for sale. Police said Mumford admitted creating up to 1,000 forgeries and that detectives found some of his bogus works had been sold for up to 30,000 pounds ($38,500). Mumford was sentenced Thursday at a London court after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud. ... More The MUSE Awards honor BMW Guggenheim Lab website and its Urbanology game
NEW YORK, NY.- The BMW Guggenheim Lab website and its interactive game, Urbanology, were recently honored by the 2012 MUSE Awards, presented by the American Association of Museums (AAM) to recognize digital-media achievements and innovation by museums. Urbanology, an online game that invites the public to role-play as city planners, won the Gold MUSE Award for Games and Augmented Reality, while the Lab's website earned an honorable mention in the Online Presence category. Developed by Local Projects and ZUS, Urbanology is an interactive game in which players confront the challenges and trade-offs of managing a city. By answering a series of yes or no questions—such as whether to raise taxes for schools or to subsidize hotels to encourage tourism—participants create a "future city" that reflects their ideas about city planning. At the end of the ... More Oklahoma tribe reclaims vessel donated to NY Goodwill
BUFFALO (AP).- An Oklahoma Indian tribe is reclaiming what's believed to be ancient pottery that was dropped off at a Goodwill Industries donation trailer in western New York. Officials with Goodwill Industries tell The Buffalo News (http://bit.ly/KVjX58 ) that the 7½-inch tall vessel turned up at the organization's warehouse last month. When a photograph of the item was posted on Goodwill's online auction site, the group received emails identifying the vessel as ancient Indian pottery. A note stuffed inside the pottery said it had been found in a burial mound near Spiro, Okla., in 1970. Spiro Mounds is a prehistoric American Indian archaeological site. The newspaper reports the artifact could be more than 1,000 years old. Goodwill officials say the pottery is being given to the Caddo Indian Nation, whose homelands include Oklahoma. ... More |
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