February 4, 2012
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 4:17 pm
Even in the depths of an economic recession, art connoisseurs flocked to the occasional auction of fine art, specifically the art of British sculptors. At the Robert Bowman Modern selling exhibition in 2008, Henry Moore’s ‘Draped Reclining Woman’ sold for a record price of more than £4m.
This month (February) will mark the 60th anniversary of the Venice Biennale, when the works of several young British sculptors were first introduced.
Robert Bowman Modern is a showcase for the finest of the modern British sculptors including Henry Moore, Michael Ayrton, Jacob Epstein, Elizabeth Frink, Kenneth Armitage, Lynn Chadwick, Barbara Hepworth and Leon Underwood. The sales exhibition in February will feature some of the best creations of each, and sales prices will reportedly start at £10,000.
Arguably the most influential public sculptor of the 20th century, Henry Moore, created abstractions of organic shapes, most notably the human body. Much of Moore’s work demonstrates his admiration for primitive art, but in an original and modern style. He was the first British sculptor to receive large public commissions for his work, and over the years he became seriously wealthy, but never lived like a wealthy man. He even turned down a knighthood lest it set him apart from his fellow artists.
The artists who came along after the end of World War II had their own interpretations to offer; joining two or several figures in a single sculpture was a different form of the art that Kenneth Armitage used in some of his most famous creations such as ‘Children Playing’. Armitage won the David E. Bright Foundation Award at his one-man show in 1958 for ‘Diarchy’, and the maquette will be featured in the upcoming RBM show.
The most versatile and well-known portrait sculptor of the last century is probably Jacob Epstein; his portrait bust of Einstein is one of the highlights of the exhibition. This is probably Epstein’s most impressionistic work; Einstein posed for only three days (in 1933) for two hours each day, and left the artist with an impression of a nature “. . . of the humane, the humorous and the profound”. That impression was rendered in a sculptural impasto, with each modelling gesture clearly evident.
Leon Underwood did not get nearly as much recognition as his pupil Henry Moore, but he is considered a pivotal figure in 20th century British sculpture. His bronze creation ‘The Liar’ is another highlight of the show; it was cast by the artist himself and shows the influence of tribal culture that he garnered from trips to ancient Aztec and Mayan sites in Mexico.
Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frink, two of the most outstanding female sculptors of the period, are also represented. Hepworth’s ‘Two Forms (Gemini)’ is the only sculpture executed by the artist in glass; it will be yet another highlight of the February exhibition. Elizabeth Frink’s ‘Horse and Rider’ was originally commissioned as a trophy for the prestigious King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes flat race at Ascot.
January 31, 2012
Filed under: Art events — Alan @ 3:00 pm
The Great White South is a brand new exhibition of rare photographs taken by Herbert G Ponting, the official photographer who accompanied Scott of the Antarctic on his epic journey. These prints have been taken from negatives dating back to 1913. This is the largest collection of the original carbon prints from Ponting that have been seen together is almost 100 years, and were last seen in public in 1913.
Avid collectors will have the chance to buy these incredibly rare prints and they range in value from £12,000 to £27,000. A new and limited edition collection of 48 contemporary reprints from Ponting’s own personal collection will also be available. They will be published in an exclusive portfolio and priced at £25,000, with individual prints starting at £800.
The exhibition will also include Captain Scott’s lost photographs, which Scott took himself on is ill fated trip to the South Pole. The Atlas Gallery in Marylebone is the place to come and these amazing pictures, which Ponting lifted from his own negative in 1913, the year after Robert Falcon Scott 1910-1912′s expedition ended. A total of over 50 images will be displayed, and a preview of them can be found athttp://bit.ly/atlasgallery
The unique selling exhibition - The Great White South - will offer collectors the opportunity to purchase these valuable antique Carbon Print Photographs, which range in price from £12,000 – £27,000 [Full Price list below].
The original 1913 carbon prints on display, which are in exceptional condition, have not been exhibited publicly for nearly 100 years, and many remain in their original Edwardian frames. The ATLAS Gallery show is the largest exhibition of Ponting’s original Polar photographic prints assembled since first being displayed at the Fine Art Exhibitions between 1913 and 1915.
Herbert G. Ponting (1870-1935) was already one of the most renowned and accomplished photographers of his day when he was recruited as a ‘camera-artist’ to document Scott’s attempt to reach the pole. A highly experienced travel photographer, his photographs of Japan, Burma and China – taken before his journey to Antarctica – are still highly sought after by collectors today. Among his most collectable and rarest works are his photographs of the Antarctic, taken during the Terra Nova Expedition.
The ATLAS Gallery’s selling exhibition is from the collection of antique photography collector Richard Kossow, who started collecting Ponting’s polar photographs over 25 years ago. Kossow, a Literary Dealer, had his interest in Ponting’s photography sparked through his research into the diaries and memoirs of the Edwardian Polar explorers. After finding many of Ponting’s original prints in appalling states of decay, he devoted his collecting towards finding Ponting’s best-preserved original photographs, wherever possible in their original frames. These museum-quality works are exclusively represented by the ATLAS Gallery.
Ponting’s extraordinary visual record of thePolar regionsare considered to be of huge scientific and visual significance. His extraordinary technical and compositional talents captured images of the previously uncharted continent of unparalleled quality, which are still among some of the finest ever taken of the Antarctic. Ponting was the very first professional still and movie photographer to go to a polar region, and was the first movie cameraman to use his camera for naturalist studies. The photographs are also of considerable artistic note, displaying both the typically painterly compositions indicative to Edwardian photography, but also highly innovative, almost modernist perspectives on the polar landscape, demonstrating Ponting as a creative and pioneering photographer.
Additional works exhibited at the Great White South Exhibition:
Limited Edition Platinum Print Portfolio
In addition to the collection of the original carbon prints produced in 1913, there will also be a new limited edition collection of 48 platinum prints, published in a special portfolio in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, available for purchase. Handmade from Ponting’s original negatives, the prints will be exhibited with specially commissioned essays by experts including author and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, which provide a fascinating insight into the incredible story behind these remarkable photographs. The platinum print portfolios are priced at £25,000 for the complete portfolio with individual prints from around £800.
The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott
The exhibition will also feature the Lost Photographs of Captain Scott, taken by Scott himself during his tragic march to the Pole and first exhibited at the ATLAS Gallery in November 2011. Throughout his polar trek, and in the face extreme arctic weather conditions, Scott – trained by Ponting – captured some breathtaking polar panoramas as well as photographing the explorers themselves, documenting some of the most poignant and emotive records of the fateful expedition.
The collection of images, of which the works on display are modern limited edition reproductions of the original prints, chronicling the first part of Scott’s Antarctic journey, were thought lost for almost 70 years because the negatives had been misplaced and the prints were in private hands. When the collection resurfaced at a New York auction in 2001, they were bought by Richard Kossow who had planned to sell them on until they were bought by the Scott Polar Research Institute with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the British Nation.
Ben Burdett, Founder and Managing Director of the ATLAS Gallery said: “Ponting’s photography of the Antarctic had a tremendous impact when it was first displayed at the Fine Art Exhibitions in 1913 that is often difficult for a contemporary audience to fully understand. There was a huge outpouring of national grief for the loss of Captain Scott and his party, and Ponting’s images of the expedition became a focal point for the general public to see for themselves where Scott’s remarkable story played out.
“The original show was also a pivotal moment in the history of photographic curation. The Fine Art Exhibitions were the biggest selling exhibition of photography ever staged at that time, and the scale of the photographic prints surpassed any previously displayed in public.
“The quality of preservation we see in the collection we have today adds to the value of these unique artefacts, and we are extremely excited to be hosting this selling exhibition at the ATLAS Gallery.”
Richard Kossow, assembler of the Ponting Collection said: “The history of exploration in the Antarctic is fascinating, but, until the advent of Herbert Ponting, poorly represented in its photographic documentation. Most photographic records from the “Heroic Age” of Antarctic expeditions are of frustratingly low quality, which is why I was initially drawn to the exceptional calibre of Ponting’s photographs.
“Aside from their scientific importance, the beauty and creativity of their compositions make them amongst some of the most captivating travel photography ever taken. As Naomi Rosenblum said in her World History of Photography,“it is not surprising that some of Herbert Ponting’s images from Scott’s Terra Nova expedition should recall the freshness of vision that characterised the first views of the western American wilderness”. When considering the challenges to photography in the extreme Antarctic climate, their power and genius are even more impressive.
“I have committed 25 years to searching out the best-preserved prints the first showing at the 1913-14 Fine Arts Society’s Exhibitions of Ponting’s Terra Nova photographs and am delighted to be presenting this fine collection at the ATLAS Gallery”.
Captain Scott’s ill-fated polar trek remains imprinted in the public consciousness as the venture in which Scott was beaten to the South Pole by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, only to perish during his return journey, along with four other members of the polar party.
The ATLAS Gallery’s exhibition will mark the centenary of the death of Captain Scott and his men, as well as the National Service of Commemoration in honour of Scott, which will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral, 29 March 2012.
January 27, 2012
Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 11:02 pm
Manchester museums and art galleries are soon going to benefit from a multi-million bonanza as the cash is going to be split between deserving foundations. A large piece of the £60m fund has already been reserved for top culture venues the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Museum in an effort to get a new generation of youth interested in culture.
The cash will be used on various promotions targeted at babies, school children, and even some activities are aimed at getting pensioners to appreciate spending time at the galleries. Those in charge of the project hope to increase visitor numbers to the galleries up to 1m a year before 2015. Currently the number of visitors sits at 850,000 yearly.
How the money gets dispersed and more details will be described in April after the Arts Council finishes its negotiations, but until then it is hoped that at least a few million will go towards creating new visitor programmes throughout Manchester.
One such hope is that a sensory programme will be created for babies to help get them geared towards art lessons and arts. Another hope is that tours will be created for older people to take part in and that a volunteer programme can be established for those that would like to offer their services as a guide.
Joint director of the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Art Galleries Maria Blashaw stated that for the last several years they have made investments in order to help an increase of people benefit from what they have to offer, but there was always the question of what would happen in the future. Now Blashaw says that the news of funds coming their way will help them to start new programmes to help widen the audience that the museum is able to reach.
January 25, 2012
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 2:42 pm
Running until the 24th of June 2012, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is hosting ‘The Sculpture Show’. It has received many additional sculptures in order to make this show a success. With a huge variety, from classic sculptures such as those crafted by Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin around the start of the 20th century, to very modern pieces made by Damien Hirst and this year’s Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce.
The pieces are grouped according to their style. The show starts with realistic traditional works focusing on the human body. This demonstrates how sculpture and painting started as rivals, and the show plays on this to demonstrate the evolution of sculpture.
The main focus point of the Show is ‘A Girl’ by Ron Mueck, a 16 foot long sculpture of a baby girl. This piece has travelled the world and is now back home to be admired. Around the main space, the work of Ben Nicholson demonstrates a mixture of painting and sculpture. As Frank Stella said, when discussing the similarities and differences between the two mediums, a painting standing up by itself is a sculpture.
Another painting in this sculpture show is Wall Drawing #1136 created by Sol LeWitt. These rainbow swirls spread across the room, further blurring the line between a painting and a sculpture. David Weiss and Peter Fischli’s 1987 work is a video installation of a domino variant, showing a chain of consequences for 30 minutes; another example of how the lines of sculpture are blurred.
Sculpture can no longer be considered to be simple representations of the facts. There is a lot more representation and interpretation involved in the more modern sculptures. The Sculpture Show in the SNGMA is showing some of the best work from all around the world.
January 20, 2012
Filed under: Art events — Alan @ 3:51 pm
The London Art Fair is Britain’s first, and largest, exhibition of contemporary modern art in all its forms.This year the Art Fair, taking place from 18-22 January at the Business Design Centre in Islington, features works from 120 major galleries in the UK. It includes an entry by Scream for the first time, and the major attraction here is the pop art of Pakpoom Silaphan, a Thai native with a strong bond to England.
Silaphan uses a ‘canvas’ of tin or enamel advertising signs juxtaposed with portraits of artists and others whose work has influenced his own art. It’s a sort of connective tissue between the visual media and an eclectic series of high-profile human figures such as John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Barack Obama, Che Guevara, John-Michel Basquist and the Queen.
In this exhibition his latest sculpture appears; an aluminum representation of a paper plane that stands seven feet tall, called ‘The Identified Flying Object’. It appears to be made from the painting ‘Whaam’ by Lichtenstein, and uses that well-known work instead of the artist’s portrait to create his (Silaphan’s) distinctive imagery.
The sculpture was the inspiration for another aspect of Silaphan’s art that’s on show, in this case a series of paper planes in a ‘cut-out-and-keep’ format. In co-operation with Stylist Magazine, the artist created five designs that can be downloaded from the magazine’s website, printed and folded to make paper airplanes. Collectors who bring all five of the planes to Scream’s stand at the Fair will get a certificate of authentication.
Pakpoom Silaphan says of his art that it is a way to “. . .see everything as a symbol and symbolise everything”. To him, the airplane is a symbol of ambition and progress; as with art in general, the viewer draws his or her own inferences and conclusions.
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 10:58 am
The Art of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
Arken will be opening the doors for their latest exhibition on January 28th 2012. Entitled ‘The Essence of Colour – The Art of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, this is the biggest ever showcase of the Queens’s art, and allows visitors to follow her artistic progress over the past 35 years. There will be over 130 water colours, acrylics and decoupages on display, including several new woks that have never been seen before in public.
Christian Gether is the director of Arken, and he says of ‘The Essence of Colour’ that is a unique insight into Margrethe II, the artist. He added that we meet a vulnerable human being who is searching for ways of converting her reflections of live into lucid, yet simple, works of art’.
Colour first and foremost
In 1969 the Danish Queen read Tolkien’s epic fantasy, which inspired among other things the series of water-colours Landscapes for Lost Legends. Since then, nature has been a central theme in the Queen’s art. “It is not only charming, it is also vast and frightening – and most fascinating of all when it is vast and frightening,” explains the Queen in conversation with Christian Gether about her sombre, depopulated landscapes. This is a mythical universe where the intensity, depth and atmosphere of the subject are created by colours. At the same time the tones in the Queen’s water-colours and paintings express emotions beyond the reach of words. The Queen herself says to Christian Gether: “For me it is always the colour, first and foremost”.
Humour as an artistic ploy
The Queen’s works reflect a special relationship with history and the present. This is most clearly seen in the découpages; incredible compositions of cuttings from art periodicals and art sale catalogues, teeming with references to the history of style and architectural details that create a setting for a burlesque sense of humour. The découpages have been used among other ways as scenery in the filming of The Snow Queen and The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen, where they have evoked a fascinating, highly distinctive pictorial universe.
Traces of lived life
In her most recent works the Queen moves from the large landscapes to small natural fragments and ‘zooms in’ on individual elements such as rocks, carcases and bones. The bone series is brand new and has never been exhibited before. The urge to paint bones came irresistibly, just as the urge to paint stones and carcases was something inherent that simply had to come to expression through the brush.
The bone pictures are not ‘true to life’ and the Queen describes them as “large, strange pictures of imaginary bones on a yellow ground.” There is something latently eerie about them, and reflections on mortality inevitably spring to mind. There are both humour and seriousness in these raw Vanitas symbols with forms so organic that you feel like reaching out and touching them.
As a viewer one can simply enjoy the insight into the artistic universe that the Queen has so generously chosen to share with the public.
January 18, 2012
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 9:55 am
Newspapers have been describing David Hockney as the greatest living artist in the UK. He has rebutted these claims saying that it is just media hype, saying “It doesn’t really mean that much to me and doesn’t bother me. I don’t leave the house a great deal and I’m not very social so I find media speculation about me rather dull.”
Mr Hockney is due to have a new exhibition at the Royal Academy this January. The work is going to feature the area of East Yorkshire and these are the first works that he has painted of the UK since he returned from the United States in 2005.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Mr Hockney said that he feels landscapes are much less appreciated in the art scene than they once were. He commented, “People think that photographs can do everything and therefore they do not paint landscapes so much. Instead a drawing, or painting, allows you to present the world in the way you see it, and this is something that photography is just not capable of doing.”
The Royal Academy first approached Mr Hockney about doing another major exhibition over four years ago and they initially wanted it to be launched in 2011. Mr Hockney said that he would not be able to prepare an exhibition in such a short time and said that he needed an extra year.
Mr Hockney, who is now in his mid-70s and is suffering from a degree of deafness has said that loud cities are now a challenging place for him to be in and this is why he has returned to East Yorkshire to paint in a more quiet environment. Mr Hockney is also someone who has embraced new technology and often uses an iPad is to create his works.
January 14, 2012
Filed under: Art crime — Alan @ 10:01 am
Thieves have recently taken several famous paintings by the masters of the 20th century. Police have described the art theft as ‘spectacular’ and among the stolen artworks are paintings by Pablo Picasso. The thieves broke into the Athens National Gallery on Monday morning and the alarm failed to sound because the thieves had previously tampered with it.
The heist only lasted for seven minutes, and the lack of alarm meant that the response time to the incident was slow. On Sunday, the thieves had purposefully set off the alarm numerous times so that it was not set off when the actual heist occurred on Monday. A 1939 work by Picasso called ‘Women’s Head’ was stolen, as was a work by Piet Mondrian called ‘Mill.’ An additional painting they tried to steal was discarded as they fled the scene.
A spokesperson from the police has commented on the incident, “These thieves were experts and they had clearly been planning this heist for a long time. Everything about it was well calculated and well executed.” The police spokesman also confirmed that Interpol had been notified and anti-art theft experts are working to recover the arts and return them to their rightful owners.
Over the past few years, Greece has been putting greater pressure on art thieves by working with Italy to crack down on people who are trading in the stolen art market. Previously, both countries had problems with antiquities thieves and tomb raiders and there was not enough protection in place to protect these valuable artefacts.
This recent theft is sure to be something that the Greek authorities working in the anti-art theft world would have preferred to have avoided.
January 13, 2012
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 9:39 am
The United States dealer of Damien Hirst works has been Larry Gagosian for some time now, and the pair have recently come together to create an exhibition of Hirst’s work that is going to shown right across the globe. His ‘Spot’ paintings are going to be shown at Gagosian’s galleries all around the world, from New York to Hong Kong.
The works in the exhibition are all going to be the sale, but they are going to be far out of reach for most people. In the past, his works have sold for a minimum of about £600,000. For those who are unable to afford this, there are plenty of other products available based on the Spot artworks, including cufflinks and even tea towels. One of the more expensive items in the collection is a clock that is based on the artworks and retails for nearly £500.
The worldwide exhibition will showcase around 300 paintings which have been painted over the last 25 years. Many critics have criticised these works for being trivial and uninteresting, but Mr Hirst hopes they are still going to be welcomed by the world and sell for his typically high prices.
Mr Hirst has commented, “I am an artist who is not afraid to try things and take risks. Often I go against the flow in the art world and do things that most people think will not work. For example, in 2008 when I sold 200 works at Sotheby’s, it was something that people thought was far too over the top but it worked and the sale was very successful. This is something that people can resent, especially the English.”
The sale in 2008 netted Mr Hirst over £100 million in the first two days of the auction, but there were rumours that he was manipulating the bids by having friends and business associates bid large amounts of money on the items to raise their value.
January 4, 2012
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 2:02 pm
The Ulster Museum is going to be hosting some of the best work by street artists from the United Kingdom, and there is to be a special exhibition that will open before the touring exhibition of Street Art. This is a tour featuring exhibits from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Local street artists from Ulster have also been selected to have some of their work shown alongside some of the biggest names in the street art scene.
At the exhibition, some of the various street art from around the city of Belfast will be shown through photography. Street artists are now working with paint as well as digital mediums and one of the artists to be featured at the event is Marian Noone, who is also known as Friz. She is best known for her work as part of the SPOOM Collective, which is a group of artists who work together to create murals on a very large scale.
Another piece of work that Friz is particularly known for is the creation of the artworks for MTV that were used during the European Music Awards, recently held in Belfast. She recently commented, “To have work displayed in the Ulster Museum is a huge joy, it is a very prestigious gallery and a fantastic opportunity for me to display my work to the general public.
My style has been influenced by what I studied in college, which was classical animation, and I get a lot of inspiration from these old styles. I first became interested in street art because it was a way for me to display my style on a much larger scale. The street art scene is particularly enjoyable for me because it is such a strong community and people are always looking to help each other out and give tips about how they achieve their unique style.”
The Head of National Museums for Northern Ireland is Kim Mawhinney who has said, “This display of art is designed to show off what some of our most capable Street artists are doing and we have selected some of their best works that we feel will be most appealing to the public and we are very excited to welcome them into our galleries.
Some of the submissions have been outstanding and they are very different to what we normally offer the visitors of our museum. We hope that this collection of street art will also attract a younger audience to the museum and get them interested in all sorts of art.”
The winning artists at the event have been selected by a special panel assembled from representatives of various museums in Northern Ireland. Adam Turkington was one of the judges and he has said, “This is a wonderful exhibit because it shows off some of the best international street art and also welcomes local talent.”
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Even in the depths of an economic recession, art connoisseurs flocked to the occasional auction of fine art, specifically the art of British sculptors. At the Robert Bowman Modern selling exhibition in 2008, Henry Moore’s ‘Draped Reclining Woman’ sold for a record price of more than £4m.
