Wall by Forrest Meyers, New York City. Photo by Kelsey Savage.
NEW YORK – While it’s been up on SoHo since 1973 (with a break between 2002 and 2007) the Wall, also known as the Gateway to SoHo, is still a relevant iconic point of street art today. In fact, the bright cerulean wall with contrasting turquoise steel beams, designed by Forrest “Frosty” Meyers, is testimony to the city’s embrace of public art.
In 1997, the owners of the building put in a request to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to tear down the piece under the guise of restoring the interior of the wall, but really so that they could use the building space to gain advertising revenue. The courts decided in favor of the city and the piece will be maintained for the future. It stands as an enduring portal not just to the defined area of New York, but as a legacy to the pioneers who changed the manufacturing area into a community of forward-thinking artists.
It’s an enduring incentive to street artists to continue to infuse the city streets with their creativity, to fight against commercialism. There’s still an aspect of the city that welcomes art over ad revenue.
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Wall by Forrest Meyers, New York City. Photo by Kelsey Savage.Wall by Forrest Meyers, New York City. Photo by Kelsey Savage.Wall by Forrest Meyers, New York City. Photo by Kelsey Savage.
Osvaldo Borsani Tecno P-40 adjustable lounge, textile covering. Estimate: 2,000-2,500 euros. E-Art Auctions image. ASTI, Italy – An interesting design collection of Modern Italian Art of the 20th century will be presented by E-Art Auctions on Feb. 7. The auction will feature many ceramics, furniture and glass works, with many objects made in Italy, from Ponti to Mangiarotti, Sottsass, Colombo and many others. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding. The 90-lot sale will begin at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, 6 p.m. Italian time.
E-Art Auctions specializes in Contemporary Art, Modernism and Design Made in Italy of 20th Century.
It is also a destination for those who seek to learn and share knowledge about art, design and collecting, offering valuations for personal property, appraisals and auction exhibitions online. Attention to consignors is of paramount importance and clients enjoy direct access to partners and experts throughout the valuation, consignment and auction process, say the owners.
Highlight pieces in the Feb. 7 auction include:
Lot 61 – “Cheerio” chandelier having six thick glass bicolor blots, Venini. Presale estimate: 3,000-4,000 euros;
Lot 13 – Floor lamp with three adjustable arms and aluminum reflectors, by Giuseppe Ostuni, O-Luce, about 175 cm. Estimates: 1,500-1,800 euros;
Lot 30 – Cantalever standard lamp, adonised steel suppoert on rectangular marble base, signed with manufacturer’s mark, by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Flos. Estimate: 1,300-1,500 euros;
Lot 51 – Eleven Modular vases. Model M9-M10. Signed with manufacturer’s mark, by Angelo Mangiarotti, Fratelli Brambilla. 1968. Estimate: 700-800 euros.
View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
For details email e.art.auctions@gmail.com or phone +39 328 9667353.
‘Cheerio’ chandelier by Venini. Estimate: 3,000-4,000 euros. E-Art Auctions image.
Giuseppe Ostuni, O-Luce floor lamp with three adjustable arms and aluminum reflectors. Estimate: 1,500-1,800 euros. E-Art Auctions image.
Cantalever standard lamp, adonized steel support on rectangular marble base. Signed with manufacturer’s mark by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Flos. Estimate: 1,300-1,500 euros. E-Art Auctions image.
Eleven Modular vases, Model M9-M10, signed with manufacturer’s mark, by Angelo Mangiarotti, Fratelli Brambilla, 1968. Estimate: 700-800 euros. E-Art Auctions image.
Grand Central Terminal in New York. Image by Jim.henderson, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
NEW YORK (AFP) – Built in palatial style, celebrated in movies, and narrowly saved from the wrecking ball in the 1970s, New York’s Grand Central Terminal turned 100 Friday.
The iconic building no longer has long-distance trains, but its commuter services and multiple subway lines ensure that Grand Central remains at the heart of the Big Apple’s teeming daily commute, even while being one of the world’s biggest tourism sites.
With staircases recalling the Paris opera, an elaborate depiction of the Zodiac across the vast ceiling, chandeliers and a famed, multimillion-dollar clock, Grand Central still has the power to awe visitors.
Incredibly, though, the soaring building erected by the Vanderbilt family and opened in 1913 came close to being razed and replaced with an office tower before it was saved in a campaign led by John F. Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“It’s not easy to last 100 years in a city of constant change,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the start of anniversary celebrations in the terminal on Friday.
About three quarters of a million people enter Grand Central daily. In honor of the 100th birthday, station shops and food outlets were charging 1913 prices, such as 10 cents for a shoeshine and six cents for a loaf of rye bread.
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Grand Central Terminal in New York. Image by Jim.henderson, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ 1942. Image courtesy Wikipaintings.org.
PARIS (AFP) – Nighthawks, the best known painting of Edward Hopper, will be on show for Parisian night owls this weekend as a smash-hit exhibition that has confirmed the enormous appeal of the American realist artist reaches its conclusion.
The doors of Paris’s Grand Palais were to remain open throughout the nights of Friday and Saturday to allow an expected 40,000 visitors to squeeze in a final viewing of a collection which has been one of the hottest tickets in town since it opened Oct. 10.
The all-night opening was an honor accorded previously to blockbuster displays of the works of Picasso (in 2008-09) and Claude Monet (2010-11).
The extraordinary success of the Hopper collection suggests that he has
moved into the same league, in terms of popularity, as those giants of the art world.
By Wednesday evening, a total of 727,000 visitors had passed through the Grand Palais’s entrance, and the final attendance figure is projected at 775,000.
That will place it just behind the Picasso collection in terms of numbers, although it will not threaten the Monet retrospective (913,000 visitors) as the most visited exhibition of recent decades.
Hopper (1882-1967) is celebrated for the mastery of light and atmosphere displayed in Nighthawks, a melancholy late-night café scene, Morning Sun, which depicts a woman sitting on a bed by a window, and his many landscapes from the U.S. East Coast.
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Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ 1942. Image courtesy Wikipaintings.org.
Paul Cezanne’s ‘Sept Baigneurs’ (Seven Bathers), circa 1900, is one of the paintings in the exhibit. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
VIENNA (AFP) – Vienna’s Leopold Museum said Friday that visitors are welcome to strip off at a special nudist night later this month and admire its popular “Nude Men” exhibition as nature intended.
“As there were several requests from nudist associations we decided to give this opportunity to all lovers of the Freikoerperkultur, the Free Body Culture,” spokesman Klaus Pokorny told AFP.
“Our museum will be a clothes-free zone for one evening” on Feb. 18, he said by email. “Nudists, naturists are welcome.”
The Leopold recently extended its “Nude Men” exhibition to run until March 4 after it proved to be a major hit, helping visitor numbers at the museum rise by nearly a fifth in 2012.
With interest in nudes in art usually in the female form, what the Leopold calls its “long overdue” exhibition focuses instead of artistic depictions of naked men from 1800 to the present.
For more information log on to the museum website: http://www.leopoldmuseum.org .
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Paul Cezanne’s ‘Sept Baigneurs’ (Seven Bathers), circa 1900, is one of the paintings in the exhibit. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
A giant baseball bat adorns the outside of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville. Image by Derek.cashman. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory has had a record year.
The Courier-Journal reports the facility operated by Hillerich & Bradsby announced a record attendance in 2012 with 244,049 visitors. Crowds have increased to set record levels for the last three years. The 2011 attendance was 238,912, and the 2010 attendance was 234,771.
Two exhibits last year helped increase attendance. The museum hosted “Ballparks: From Classic Cathedrals to Concrete Donuts” in the spring and “Baseball Hotties” in the summer and fall.
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Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-01-31-13 0905GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A giant baseball bat adorns the outside of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville. Image by Derek.cashman. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Francis Newton Souza, ‘Balzac Etcetera,’ 1971 oil on canvas board, Pravin Khatau Estate. Souza is regarded as India’s most important contemporary artist in today’s auction marketplace. Image credit: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License – Pravin Khatau Estate.
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India’s art world has converged on New Delhi for the industry’s biggest annual event where upbeat talk and parties are likely to disguise a market that is still in the doldrums since crashing in 2008.
Indian art auction prices are down 70 to 75 percent from their peak, when speculation driven by new prosperity in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai pushed them to “unsustainable levels”, says art analyst Anders Petterson.
Petterson, managing director of London-based global art market analysis firm ArtTactic, says India is still suffering from the after effects of the 2008 global financial crisis, but says he sees signs for cautious optimism.
“We glimpse a market gradually turning around,” he said.
The three-day India Art Fair — now in its fifth year and featuring 105 art houses — offers valuable global exposure to local artists and a chance for overseas galleries to woo India’s increasingly affluent population with international works.
However artists and galleries still face a battle to restore confidence among buyers who are worried about the “sustainability of art values”, according to veteran art critic Kishore Singh.
“People want to know that if they buy a work at least it will be worth the same next year or in a few years and perhaps a little more,” he said.
The price of top works by India’s Modernist masters — the late M.F. Husain and others from the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group — are returning to pre-crash levels, said Singh, but rich collectors are still nervous about taking risks.
A canvas by Tyeb Mehta, a top member of the Progressives’ group, fetched a record price of $3.24 million in 2011, but the high price paid was seen as a one-off.
Works by the younger contemporary school of artists are still overpriced by around 30 percent, estimates Kapil Chopra, editor of Indian e-art magazine Wall, noting large gallery stockpiles.
The woes of the Indian art world, however, look unlikely to dim enthusiasm for the fair among the public who have flocked to the event, which was launched by 32-year-old marketing graduate Neha Kirpal in 2008.
“The fair has grown exponentially in India, which is a country deprived of seeing art,” said Kirpal, who told Agence France Presse she has kept tickets at an affordable 200 rupees ($3.75) — below the price of a cinema ticket — to “ensure accessibility.”
For collectors and art lovers alike, the fair is regarded as the best chance to get a handle on India’s hugely varied art scene — from paintings to sculpture, multi-media installations and interactive projects — in a country where there are few state-funded museums.
“Every serious collector, scholar and curator makes themselves available for this event, it’s an amazing platform,” Amin Jaffer, a leading expert on Asian art at London auction house Christie’s, told AFP.
Visitor numbers have risen 10-fold to over 100,000 since the show’s launch, while the size of the venue — a huge tent designed by top Indian scenographer Sumant Jayakrishnan — has mushroomed seven-fold.
But critics say increased visitor footfall does not equate to buyers, making it an expensive venture for galleries.
Twenty foreign galleries are present this year, the same tally as in 2012. Key dropouts include Europe’s Hauser and Wirth and London’s Lisson Gallery, although they have been replaced by others including London’s Scream.
“It’s a classic case of musical chairs. The foreign galleries are drawn by the hype of the ‘Great Indian success story’ but then get disappointed because they don’t sell,” says Chopra.
The fair has works on offer ranging from an affordable few thousand dollars to $1 million.
Experts say India’s market is still in its infancy and is far behind that of China.
“The Chinese market is much larger and of much longer standing with a highly developed auction house culture and no end to government-endorsed museums,” said Christie’s Jaffer.
Fair founder Kirpal insists long-term prospects for the market are bright as India’s population grows richer.
“With India’s young population, who are increasingly wealthy and well traveled, art is becoming a global contemporary language,” she said.
“In five to 10 years everyone will want to be showcased here.”
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Francis Newton Souza, ‘Balzac Etcetera,’ 1971 oil on canvas board, Pravin Khatau Estate. Souza is regarded as India’s most important contemporary artist in today’s auction marketplace. Image credit: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License – Pravin Khatau Estate.
Lincoln Cottage with the main building of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in the background. Image by Hij. This work has been released into the public domain by its author at the wikipedia project.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Whether you’re interested in Lincoln the president or Lincoln the movie, Washington is a downright thrilling destination.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and one of the country’s most admired, rising from humble roots in a frontier cabin to become a self-educated lawyer and brilliant politician. As president, he ended slavery by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and preserved the nation despite the Civil War. The story of his assassination is one of the best-known chapters of American history.
Many museums are offering special exhibits for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. Other sites can be visited any time: the Lincoln Memorial, the cottage where he summered, Ford’s Theatre, where he was shot, and the Petersen House, where he died.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL: This larger-than-life white marble statue of Lincoln, completed in 1922, sits inside a massive columned building. The design, according to the National Park Service, was inspired by the Parthenon, the ancient Greek temple that is considered the birthplace of democracy. About 6 million people visit the memorial each year. Even on a cold winter day, the steps are crowded with visitors from around the world taking pictures and speaking many languages. Located on the National Mall, http://www.nps.gov/linc/ .
FORD’S THEATRE AND PETERSEN HOUSE: Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre in 1865 while watching a play with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. He was brought to a house across the street, now a museum and historic site called the Petersen House. You can see the room where he died and where his war secretary, Edwin Stanton, was said to have uttered the famous words: “Now he belongs to the ages.”
A visit to Ford’s and the Petersen House reveals fascinating details of the crime: The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, an actor as famous in his day as Justin Bieber or George Clooney, walked right up to the box where Lincoln was sitting and shot him in the head. He then leapt to the stage, ran out and fled by horse. Booth was hunted down and shot in a barn 12 days later. A plaque marks the site of a nearby boardinghouse where conspirators were said to have plotted the assassination; the building at 604 H St. (originally 541 H St.) is now a restaurant. The boardinghouse owner, Mary Surratt, was hanged.
Within 16 months of the assassination, Ford’s Theatre closed and the federal government bought the building. The interior was ripped out and turned into offices. In 1933, the National Park Service acquired the building as a site of historic significance. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson sanctioned the restoration of a working theater and the interior was recreated to look the way it did when Lincoln was shot. Every president since 1968 has attended a show here, though they now sit near the stage, not in the box. Exhibits at Ford’s and at Petersen House include Booth’s diary and pistol, Lincoln’s shawl, campaign memorabilia and photos.
Located at 511 10th St., NW, http://www.fordstheatre.org/. Hours vary, depending on show schedules. Tickets do sell out. Tickets for a self-guided walk-through of Ford’s and Petersen House bought through Ticketmaster including fees are $9.75.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S COTTAGE: This was Lincoln’s summer home, where he and his family escaped Washington’s heat and humidity. Located on a breezy hill three miles from the White House, it was the 19th century equivalent of contemporary presidential retreats like Camp David. A statue of Lincoln and his horse evoke his daily half-hour commute to the White House on horseback. He first visited the house three days after his inauguration and last rode to the site the day before he was shot.
Wagonloads of furniture were brought here each summer from the White House. But unlike many historic sites, the house today is not filled with furniture or personal items, and that’s the point. Guided tours of the mostly empty rooms emphasize Lincoln’s ideas and the people he encountered during his stays here and on his daily rides, from favor-seekers and foreigners to former slaves and soldiers. You’ll stand in the room where he read Shakespeare and the Bible, hear about his meetings with the secretary of war, see the view from the porch that once offered a clear sightline all the way to downtown Washington, and walk up the stairs where his footsteps were heard when he couldn’t sleep. Through April 30, an exhibit here displays one of just 26 existing signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Located on the grounds of one of the country’s first federally funded homes for soldiers, known today as the Armed Forces Retirement Home. Entrance at Rock Creek Church Road NW and Upshur Street NW, near 140 Rock Creek Church Road NW. Free parking. Closest metro station, nearly a mile away, Georgia Avenue/Petworth stop on green/yellow lines. From the metro, the local H8 bus takes four minutes and stops at the site’s front gate. Open 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Saturday (first tour 10 a.m., last 3 p.m.) and 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sundays (tours 11 a.m.-3 p.m.). Guided tour tickets required, $15 ($5 for children ages 6-12), http://lincolncottage.org/ .
SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY: Lincoln’s famous top hat, brown and glossy with age, is currently on display here in the “Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 and the March on Washington, 1963” exhibit (second floor east through Sept. 15). Lincoln was tall at 6 foot 3 and the hat made him even taller. He wore the hat to Ford’s Theatre the night he was murdered.
The “Changing America” exhibit portrays the sweep of history from the abolition of slavery to the civil rights movement. When Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington, he stood at the Lincoln Memorial and echoed Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, which began, “Four score and seven years ago.” King’s opening line: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” (Score is an archaic term for 20 years.)
Another treasure is in the museum’s “The First Ladies” exhibit (third floor): Mary Todd Lincoln’s purple velvet gown with white satin piping, mother of pearl buttons and an enormous hoop skirt. The dress was made by her seamstress and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley, an African-American woman who had purchased her own freedom. “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden” (third floor east) highlights other Lincoln objects including hand casts made two days after he was nominated for presidency, showing his right hand still swollen from shaking so many hands. Uniforms, weapons and other Civil War relics can be seen in “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War” (third floor east).
Located between 12th and 14th streets on Constitution Avenue NW, free and open daily, http://americanhistory.si.edu/ .
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM AND NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY: “The Civil War and American Art” (first floor west), on display through April 28, offers paintings portraying what the museum describes as the “transformative impact of the Civil War and its aftermath.” An 1865 landscape painting of Yosemite Valley notes that Lincoln set aside the California wilderness as America’s first federally protected park. Other works show scenes of soldiers. Many of the most thought-provoking images depict African-Americans fleeing slavery or contemplating their new postwar lives. The exhibit includes paintings by some of the era’s most important artists, Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Frederic Church and Sanford Gifford.
In the National Portrait Gallery, you’ll find a photo made of Lincoln in a local studio in 1865, a painting of the president by George P.A. Healy, and plaster casts of Lincoln’s face – one made early in his tenure, another made later showing the toll the war took on his gaunt features – along with casts of his hands.
Located at Eighth and F streets NW, free and open daily, http://americanart.si.edu/civilwar and http://npg.si.edu .
NEWSEUM: An exhibit here called “Blood and Ink: Front Pages From the Civil War” displays more than 30 front pages from the era, from the founding of the Confederacy through Lincoln’s death. “A Nation Mourns,” reads one headline.
Located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, the former site of the National Hotel, where Booth was staying when he shot Lincoln, http://www.newseum.org/. Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets, $21.95 plus tax ($12.95 for ages 7 to 18).
DINING: Two excellent restaurants near Ford’s Theatre are Jaleo, pricey but fabulous tapas, 480 Seventh St., NW, and Teaism, a local chain offering moderately priced eclectic and Asian-influenced dishes, 400 Eighth St., NW. A restaurant called Lincoln, 1110 Vermont Ave., NW, offers a locavore menu and a floor covered with Lincoln pennies.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-01-30-13 2250GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Lincoln Cottage with the main building of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in the background. Image by Hij. This work has been released into the public domain by its author at the wikipedia project.
