The National Portrait Gallery in London has purchased a postcard-sized portrait of Queen Elizabeth I for the price of £329,000. Thought to be by renowned miniature painter Isaac Oliver, the piece will be part of a show of portraits depicting the Queen and her courtiers, opening this October. (more…)
National Portrait Gallery in London purchases portrait of famous transvestite Chevalier d’Eon. “The painting sheds fascinating light on gender in history…[D’Eon] is a positive role model for modern LGBT audiences,” says Lucy Peltz, curator of 18th-century portraits.
Lucian Freud, Reflection (Self-portrait) (1985). All images © The Lucian Freud Archive.
Lucian Freud‘s work spans a seventy year trajectory on view now at the National Portrait Gallery in London in the first ever exhibition to focus solely on the artist’s portraiture, curated in collaboration with Freud over his final years. Born the grandson of Sigmund Freud in 1922 in Berlin, Germany, L. Freud passed away at age 88 last July as perhaps one of the most influential and important artists of his generation. The expansive exhibition includes works from as early as 1940 to the last and unfinished painting Freud was working on, highlighting stylistic developments that occurred over the decades. Freud’s subjects ran the gamut from his family, friends and lovers, to celebrities, criminals and aristocrats.
BP Oil £10m controversial sponsorship of four British museums to continue, Tate director stating, “The fact that they had one major incident in 2010 does not mean we should not be taking support from them.” [AO Newslink]
National Portrait Gallery director unveils Tate’s operation to secure stolen Turners and £24m insurance [AO Newslink]
Marc Quinn’s Blood Head Self-Portrait displayed in a refrigeration unit at The National Gallery in London via Guardian
Titian, Diana and Acteaon via Artdaily
In related, Titian’s Diana and Acteaon, one of the six large-scale mythologies inspired by Ovid, acquired by The National Gallery in London, is to be displayed at Trafalgar Square [Artdaily]
Three paintings attributed to Adolf Hitler were sold at Weidler’s auction house in Germany for an accumulative price of $60,000 to three phone bidders [The New York Times]
The Museo National del Prado’s is exhibiting 2 Sorolla paintings of the Fanjul family that were illegally confiscated by the Cuban government which may cast the museum’s directors legal bind [Reuters]
A private European collector helps settle a 7-Year discord between the Swedish Moderna Museet and heirs of a Jewish businessman over a Nazi-looted Nolde painting and in related, Dutch Museums will return 13 artworks lost during Nazi occupation to heirs of Jewish collectors [Bloomberg]
Velázquez, Portrait of a Man via The New York Times
After restoration and cleaning of “Portrait of a Man” in MET’s collection, the author of the painting attributed to Vélazquez’ workshop is confirmed to be Vélazquez himself [The New York Times]
Phillips de Pury auction house, known for its focus on contemporary art, is adding 18 new sales for the upcoming year and a half [The Wall Street Journal]
As the market fluctuates, art collectors seize opportunities of investment, yet the auction market based on no identical units, making calculated predictions almost impossible, turn investing into gambling [NYTimes]
The Glyndebourne Opera House, England to sell a painting by the Italian Old Master, Domenichino; estimated at $16.5 million [Bloomberg]
Bill Viola declines an invitation to participate in a culture summit, organized by Pope Benedict XVI in an attempt to reconcile spirituality and artistic expression, supposedly due to the artist’s disagreement with policies put forth by the Vatican and the Catholic Church [Artnet]
Six of the missing works by Andy Warhol via Telegraph
$1million is being offered for a lead to locating the “Athletes” series by Andy Warhol from Richard Weisman’s collection that has been stolen from the collector’s Los Angeles residence [Telegraph]
Pencils from an installation by Damien Hirst were stolen by a 17-year old artist named Cartrain [The Independent] who had been stripped of his artwork for incorporating Damien Hirst’s ideas into his collages [ArtObserved]
“You can be immortalized in an artwork” says Damien Hirst in his search for a numerous sets of identical twins to literally become part of his artwork at Tate Modern [Guardian]
Charles Saatchi with his wife Nigella Lawson via The Independent
“My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic”, a book written by Charles Saatchi, who almost never gives interviews, is released without a loud PR campaign and is written in a format of potential interviewer’s questions and answers [Guardian UK]
Aleksandra Mir’s installation at Collective gallery in Edinburgh consists of rows of a limited edition cookbook titled “The How Not to Cookbook: Lessons Learned the Hard Way” [The Moment]
German police uncover a thousand fake Giacometti bronzes in the possession of a man who tried to sell them as originals [Art Market Monitor]
An editorial on the state of galleries dictated by the financial market provides an encompassing snapshot of what a gallery represents in the art-world and how it is likely to function in the current economic condition [NYTimes]
Bruce Nauman’s skywriting fittingly reads “Leave The Land Alone” via Los Angeles Times
On September 12 in Pasadena, artist Bruce Nauman realized his skywriting project, reading Leave the Land Alone, after a 40 year wait [Los Angeles Times]
Frédéric Mitterrand’s appointment to the post of French minister of culture is well received by most for his extensive previous background and involvement in the world of art and culture [The Art Newspaper]
London’s Outset Contemporary Art Fund brings artwork to a fair to be seen publicly and then purchased by the Tate [Bloomberg]
The story of Tony Shafrazi, art terrorist and later gallerist [Artnet]
A view of Sol LeWitt’s unveiled mural at 59th street via Gothamist
Sol LeWitt’s mural, comprised of 250 porcelain tiles, is installed at Columbus Circle subway station in Manhattan[Lindsay Pollock]
Run by oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, the PinchukArtCenter in Kiev announces a new art Prize and the shortlisted 20 nominees [ArtReview]
Gagosian’s plan for a gallery in Paris’ prestigious 8th arrondissement promises to gain instant success by providing access to Picasso’s work [Bloomberg]
In related, Gagosian is to open a bookstore on Madison avenue in Manhattan selling books, catalogues, magazines and Jeff Koons puppy vase that come in an edition of 3,000 [Art fag City]
UBS, a global financial services firm, is to close its gallery in Manhattan in an attempt to cut back on costs [Artinfo]
A photograph of Emmanuel Perrotin via The Selby
The Selby visits Emmanuel Perrotin at his gallery in Paris [The Selby]
Research shows that visitors to museums housing modern art are likely to respond emotionally, while those viewing ancient artworks are more prompt to describing their experiences in more cognitive terms [Miller McCune via Artinfo]
“The Art of the Steal”, a documentary film by Don Argott, explores the Barnes Foundation, a Post-Impressionist and early Modern art collection [The New York Times]
John Currin interviewed by Glenn O’Brien speaks about art, the art market and shares personal stories [Interview Magazine]
The rating service Moody’s estimates the current financial troubles and hence auction market distress to persist and drops Sotheby’s corporate credit rating by one level [Bloomberg]
Kara Walker’s participation in Whitney’s Biennial is manifested in an email correspondence with the organizer of the show documenting the artist’s refusal to participate in the Biennial [Artnet]
Centquatre art space in Paris via The Daily Undertaker
A site of the Municipal Funeral Services in Paris is now turned into an arts center providing the capital’s northern reaches an art initiative it has been lacking [Financial Times]
A survey of artistic practice based on technology and its move towards the usage of the Internet as means of expression [The New York Times]
Thomas Campbell, director of Met, shares his plans for the museum in an interview with The Art Newspaper [The Art Newspaper]
American artist Greg Wyatt’s 22-thousand-pound bronze sculpture “Two Rivers” is being transported to Piazza della Signoria in Florence, “the soul of the world of sculpture,” where it is to become the first American displayed at that location [Bloomberg]
An interview with the billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, who spoke about democratization of art and educational reforms [The Wall Street Journal]
Lesende (1994) by Gerhard Richter, via The National Portrait Gallery
Gerhard Richter Portraits currently at the National Gallery in London is the first major exhibition devoted to one of the greatest living painters. The selection of works date from the 1960s to the present including important early black and white paintings made by looking at magazine photographs, private snapshots, and a special installation of his renowned series 48 Portraits featuring images of modern culture heroes such as Wilde, Mann, Kafka, and Stravinsky.
RELATED LINKS
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Exhibition Page[National Portrait Gallery]
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Murdered Aunt, Ghostly Nude Star in Gerhard Richter Exhibit [Bloomberg]
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Photos and Fantasy: Gerhard Richter’s Portraits[The Independent]
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Groundbreaking Exhibition of Portraits by Gerhard Richter opens at the National Portrait Gallery UK [Artdaily]
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The Painted Illusions of Gerhard Richter [The Guardian]
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Faces from an Abstract Life [FT]
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Frau mit Schirm / Woman with Umbrella (1964) by Gerhard Richter
Following shows at London’s Serpentine Gallery and the National Galleries in Scotland, Gerhard Richter’s work is being featured at the National Portrait Gallery in London, in his third exhibition in the United Kingdom in the last year. Gerhard Richter, 76, is considered one of the world’s most prominent living painters, and has been a fixture of global contemporary art since the mid-1960s.
Portraits focuses on Richter’s trademark portraits, which are actually painted from photographic prints, news clippings and other sources. The sources are never reproduced in exact detail, and are transformed under Richter’s brush into something more ethereal and abstract. This quality is achieved by blurred lines, both literal and figurative: the portraits’ subjects range from the intimate and personal to the historical and public–often intertwined.
Tante Marianne, from 1965, appears to be an innocuous portrait of a teenage girl and a baby. However, the viewer soon learns that Marianne, Richter’s aunt, was schizophrenic and perished as part of a Nazi drive to euthanize the mentally ill. Herr Heyde, also from 1965, is recreated from a news clipping of the trial of the Nazi neurologist who was behind the mass euthanization and other atrocities. However both portraits manage to convey a sense of detachment from its subjects and their context, despite being their being an exploration of ostensibly loaded personal and national narratives.
In fact, Richter proudly and intentionally attempts to strip all narrative from his paintings. Frau mit Schirm appears to be a reproduction of an anonymous woman caught barely suppressing an unidentified but overwhelming emotional reaction. Almost unrecognizable, the image is of Jacqueline Kennedy moments after the assassination of her husband. With the narrative removed, the image becomes ghostly and almost inpenetrable; once the narrative is reintroduced, it creates a tension between what the viewer feels it should elicit and the presentation offered by Richter.
Portraits will be on display until May 31st.
Artist Page: Gerhard Richter
Exhibition Page: Gerhard Richter Portraits at National Portrait Gallery
Murdered Aunt, Ghostly Nudes Star in Gerhard Richter Exhibit [Bloomberg]
Photos and fantasy: Gerhard Richter’s portraits [The Independent UK]
Gerhard Richter at National Portrait Gallery, London [The Times of London]
Faces from an abstract life [Financial Times]
Confrontation 1 (1988) by Gerhard Richter, via Tate
Gerhard Richter, 76, one of the most prominent living painters, will have his work shown at the National Portrait Gallery in London, marking the first time the artist has had a single show covering his entire oeuvre. Gerhard Richter Portraits will feature 35 works by the painter, known for producing photo-realistic paintings, traced from slides, photographic prints, magazine cut outs, and other sources. Richter has recently had exhibitions at London’s Serpentine (as covered by AO here) and a retrospective in Edinburgh (as covered by AO here.) Richter is also especially known for his portraits, a famous example being his portrayal of the Kennedy assassination and of Jacqueline Kennedy following her husband’s death. Richter’s work stands in stark contrast to that of Andy Warhol, his contemporary, who often glamorized his portrait subjects–Richter’s work focused on moments of quiet reflection, and his subjects have at times been the recent victim of some sort of tragedy, as with the Kennedys.
Curated by Paul Moorhouse, the exhibit covers the period from the 1960s to the present, and includes a work that has not been previously exhibited. Additionally, a special installation of Richter’s acclaimed 48 Portraits, a series of portraits of important historical figures which increased the artist’s fame after it was displayed at the 1972 Venice Biennale.
Artist page: Gerhard Richter
Exhibit page: Gerhard Richter Portraits at National Portrait Gallery
Gallery hosts first Richter portrait show [Guardian]
National Portrait Gallery in London Announces Gerhard Richter Portrait Exhibition [ArtDaily]
Richter Paintings of Kennedy’s Killing to Be Reunited in London [Bloomberg]
Self (1991) by Marc Quinn, via Culture Loves Us
The National Portrait Gallery, home to portraits of major British figures such as kings, queens, and prime ministers, has set its eyes on acquiring ‘Self,’ a sculptural self-portrait of Marc Quinn made from ten pints of his own frozen blood. Marc Quinn–one of the most celebrated of the YBAs (Young British Artists) along with Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin–has made three sculptures using his blood as the raw material since 1991, and has said that he plans on making similar sculptures every five years until he is unable to. The original ‘Self’ was acquired by advertising magnate Charles Saatchi for £13,000; White Cube Gallery is offering the NPG the most recent iteration (dating from 2006) for £350,000, with its open market value being quoted at £1.5 million. The Art Fund and several other sources have committed £150,000 to acquiring the work, leaving £200,000 which the NPG needs to raise by December 31st.
National Portrait Gallery criticised over purchase of Marc Quinn’s Blood Head [TimesUK]
National Portrait Gallery Raises Money for Self-Portrait Made From Frozen Blood [ArtInfo]
Museum needs £200,000 for Marc Quinn’s blood portrait [The Art Newspaper]
Previously:
Go See: ‘Statuephilia’ at The British Museum today through January 25th [ArtObserved]
Marc Quinn’s gigantic baby sculpture up for private auction by Sotheby’s [ArtObserved]
