Friday, 24th October 2008
2:13pm
Getty wins in battle for bronzes
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, has acquired two 18th-century bronze casts after the British Cultural Ministry failed to raise funds to keep them in the country. The London dealer Daniel Katz, who bought the bronzes privately in 2005 after they failed to sell at a Christie’s auction, sold the bronzes to the museum for an undisclosed price. Made in 1724 by Florentine sculptor Pietro Cipriani, the life-sized versions of the ancient sculptures known as the Venus de Medici and the Dancing Faun, were commissioned by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield,...
Continue reading...
Email to a friend |
Permalink |
Comment
Thursday, 23rd October 2008
11:27am
For the first time in over 50 years Titian’s Diana and Actaeon has left the National Gallery in Edinburgh, where it has been on loan from the Duke of Sutherland since 1945. Unveiled today in Room I of the National Gallery, London, this great masterpiece is in a sense returning to its old home, as it forms part of the Bridgewater collection, which from the early 19th century until World War II was on view to the public in the gallery at Bridgewater House, overlooking Green Park in London, having been bought by the Duke’s ancestor, the 3rd Duke of...
Continue reading...
Email to a friend |
Permalink |
Comment
Friday, 17th October 2008
11:47am
Last weekend Manchester Art Gallery unveiled the first international exhibition in over 40 years about the life and work of the Pre-Raphaelite master William Holman Hunt. Writing for Apollo Muse, curator Jan Marsh discusses The Awakening Conscience, one of the highlights of the exhibition.
According to the critics, it was ‘an utterly disagreeable picture’, illustrating ‘a very dark and repulsive side of modern domestic life’. Yet today’s viewers find The Awakening Conscience the most fascinating of all Holman Hunt’s paintings (above).
It shows a young woman dallying with her lover – they are playing popular music in the middle of...
Continue reading...
Email to a friend |
Permalink |
Comment
Tuesday, 14th October 2008
4:56pm
After the unprecedented success of his groundbreaking £111m sale at Sotheby’s, London – which would have stolen headlines even without the current financial context – how could Damien Hirst fail to rank as anything but no.1 in ArtReview’s annual list, published tomorrow, of the art world’s ‘Power 100’?
There’s also an air of inevitability that Science – the company responsible for the team of studio assistants that produce, market and publicise the works that have turned Hirst into a superbrand – is the only corporate institution on the list this year. UBS and Deutsche Bank, key art sponsors who ranked...
Continue reading...
Email to a friend |
Permalink |
Comment
Friday, 10th October 2008
4:36pm
Tate secures Rubens for the nation
A Rubens sketch for the ceiling of the Banqueting House, Whitehall, is to remain in the UK after Tate successfully raised £5.7m by the final day of the deadline. The Apotheosis of James I was produced by Rubens during the course of his diplomatic mission to England in 1629 and has been described as ‘a unique treasure in the history of British art’. The sketch was at risk of being sold abroad by its owner, Viscount Hampden, who imposed a funding deadline of 30 September. On the final day the asking price was...
Continue reading...
Email to a friend |
Permalink |
Comment
Moma's show on the impact of new media in the 1960s and 1970s recalls an idealistic age, before art aspired to control its audience.
The 500th anniversary of Palladio's birth is rightly being celebrated, but his influence on architects has in many ways been pernicious.
The National Galleries in Edinburgh and London and the National Trust have formidable fund-raising tasks in hand, but the targets would be even higher were it not for Britain's tax laws – which could be about to get better.
Previous
