Wednesday, 23rd September 2009
1:15pm
‘Turner and the Masters’ at Tate Britain (23 September-31 January 2010) achieves what the organisation’s outgoing director, Stephen Deuchar, describes as the ‘logical conclusion’ to presenting a Turner retrospective. The exhibition is, as Deuchar explains, ‘a simple idea’ documenting the career of Turner. It shows what made him the master he is considered today through an exploration of his artistic personality.
This retrospective, however, doesn’t simply provide a visual chronology of Turner’s work but offers a comparison with Turner’s own artistic influences, including artists such as Rembrandt, Poussin and Titian. In exhibiting the works alongside each other, the Tate...
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Friday, 18th September 2009
1:34pm
1. ‘Missing’ collection of Eileen Gray furniture has led to a dispute between Robin Symes and the family of Christo Michailidis
Robin Symes, partner of Christo Michailidis, is being investigated over a missing collection of Eileen Gray furniture by the family of Michailidis.
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The collection, thought to be worth £18 million, has allegedly been discretely sold off. The family of Mr. Michailidis claim that Mr. Symes sold the collection, ‘spiriting away the money’ before a court order was given to freeze his assets. Private investigators hired to gather evidence...
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Friday, 11th September 2009
6:22pm
1) Several restitution cases in the news this week:
A court in San Diego, California, has ruled that a Holocaust survivor can continue his legal battle against the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain, for the return of a painting by Pissarro that he claims was taken from his grandmother by the Nazis. The painting has been on display in the museum since 1993.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/09/holocaust-survivor-pissarro-painting
The heirs of a prestigious Austrian family are seeking the return of a painting which they claim was sold, under duress, to Hitler in 1940. The family's lawyer stated that Count Jaromir Czernin...
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Wednesday, 9th September 2009
12:22pm
'The Polish Connection', which runs until 27 September, is inspired by the tale of the abortive first Polish national art collection. In 1790 the Polish king Stanislaw Poniatowski commissioned two London-based French art dealers to acquire paintings to form the basis of the collection. Although the kingdom of Poland was dissolved before the king could take possession, the two dealers – Noel Desenfans and Peter Francis Bourgeois – continued to add to the collection. Eventually the art came to rest (along with their mausoleum) in Dulwich, where it has remained to this day. A quick wander round the...
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Friday, 4th September 2009
1:02pm
1. Picasso seized in Iraq probably a fake:
Art authorities have called into question the authenticity of the alleged Picasso painting recovered recently by Iraqi police in South Baghdad. The painting (The Naked Woman) was supposedly looted by the Iraq army during the invasion of Kuwait in 1991. However, the presence of ‘Louvre’ stamps on the back of the painting (the museum denies ever having sold a Picasso) leaves its authenticity in doubt.
Artforum article
BBC article
2. Mexican art organisations in trouble:
The art institutions of Mexico...
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Now in its 30th year, the London Park Lane Arms Fair returns with its annual array of fine arms and armoury. Elsewhere in the capital, impressive surveys of Freud, Hirst and mid-century British art can be found.
George Gilbert Scott described the dome as ‘the noblest of all forms’, and it appears as a powerful symbol in secular and religious architecture throughout history. On the island of Malta, however, the craze for dome-building reached astonishing heights.
