Richard Estes, ‘Nedick’s,’ 1970. Collection Carman Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
MADRID – The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will present an exhibition titled “Hyperrealism, 1967-2012,” which attempts to make the 20th century art movement crystal clear. Organized by the Institut für Kulturaustausch (German Cultural Exchange Institute), the retrospective will run March 22 through June 9.
The late 1960s saw the emergence of a group of artists in the United States who painted objects and scenes from daily life with a high degree of realism, using photography as the basis for their works. This new movement achieved international recognition when it participated in the “Kassel Documenta” of 1972.
The exhibition at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza offers the first survey of Hyperrealism, from the great U.S. masters of the first generation such as Richard Estes, John Baeder, Robert Bechtle, Tom Blackwell, Chuck Close and Robert Cottingham, the movement’s continuation in Europe and to its impact on painters of subsequent generations up to the present day.
Hyperrealism is not a closed movement and today, more than 40 years after it first appeared, many of the group’s pioneers continue to be active, together with new artists who deploy a photo-realist technique in their works.
The artistic resources and motifs have evolved and changed over time but Hyperrealist works, with their astonishing definition, precision and detail, continue to fascinate the public.
The present exhibition brings together 66 works by three generations of artists, loaned from numerous museums and private collections. The exhibition’s principal aim is to offer visitors a complete survey of the contribution made by Hyperrealism to the history of art and this is the first exhibition on the subject of this scale to be seen in Europe, offering an unprecedented chance to see a large group of works representative of this movement as a whole.
After its run at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the exhibition will move on to the Museum and Art Gallery in the UK.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Richard Estes, ‘Nedick’s,’ 1970. Collection Carman Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.Robert Bechtle, ‘Chrysler Alameda,’ 1981. Courtesy of Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York.
Front view of a Dunkleosteus skull at the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. LadyofHats image, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – Present-day Erie was under a saltwater ocean 364 million years ago.
And a top-of-the-food-chain predator in that ancient ocean ate sharks for lunch. And for breakfast and dinner, too.
Erie geologist Scott McKenzie is patiently putting together pieces of the skull and shoulder armor of that powerful prehistoric fish, Dunkleosteus, the rest of whose remains are embedded in sandy shale in an Erie County location he cannot reveal in an agreement with the private property owners.
Now that spring is almost here, McKenzie, colleagues from other universities and geology students will return to the site to see if erosion through wind, rain and snow have exposed more bones.
“We’re restricted to surface collection,” said McKenzie, assistant professor of geology at Mercyhurst University. “The landowners don’t want a significant hole dug on the land.” And digging could damage the missing pieces, he said.
Some years, they find nothing. Other years, they find more bones to add to the collection.
“It’s eroding slowly – much too slowly for my taste,” said McKenzie, who makes several trips to the site during the year.
In 10 years, or sooner, McKenzie hopes to have the skull and shoulder armor of Dunkleosteus put together and displayed at the university’s Sincak Natural History Collection, where he is curator.
When his work is complete, the specimen will be impressive – the head, including the shoulder armor, will rival the front of a Volkswagen Beetle in size, he said.
Dunkleosteus was arguably the most terrifying creature during the Devonian period, and its huge jaws opened so fast they created a suction force that pulled prey into its mouth, according to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Among its many fossil specimens of the creature, the museum has a giant armored skull of Dunkleosteus terrelli on display. McKenzie doesn’t know if the fish he’s reconstructing is the terrelli species until he gathers more material.
Dunkleosteus – named after the late David Dunkle, one of the Cleveland museum’s former curators – varied from 15 to 30 feet in length, and possibly weighed up to 4 tons.
McKenzie said the Erie County find likely wasn’t a full-grown adult, but still was probably 15 to 25 feet long and weighed about 1 ton. He said it could be the largest of its kind found in Erie County.
“If you caught him on a rod and reel, you’d be in for the fight of a lifetime. And if you fell in (the water), heaven help you because no one else could help you,” he said. He displayed the Erie County remains of the ancient fish and pieces of others in a university classroom last week.
Talk about Jaws. The giant predator could snap a prehistoric shark in two with its “razor-sharp jawbones,” according to the Cleveland Museum.
And yet it was a bit of an oddity. The fish did not have developed teeth.
“Instead, the edges of their jawbones kept sharp by rubbing against each other like self-sharpening scissors,” the museum said on its website.
A SPECIAL OCCASION
Though McKenzie won’t reveal the site, he said the remains would be difficult to locate. They are along the side of a stream bank in a heavily wooded area, and a passer-by also would have to recognize that the bones are embedded in the rock, he said.
Some geologists use their tongue to lick bone to distinguish it from rock. The tongue tends to stick to the bone because – even all these years later – it draws water to the tongue, he said.
McKenzie doesn’t use that method. “I’m a little bit of a germophobe,” he said.
McKenzie and Mercyhurst geology students use tools to strip the rock from the bone. “It’s a delicate procedure because you don’t want to leave any tool marks on the bone,” he said.
McKenzie gets a lot of help in gathering pieces of this monster fish and pieces of others like it. He frequently relies on collectors to scout out sites and bring in the remains.
The shoulder armor he is now reconstructing was found by Kirk McFadden, president of the Gem City Rock and Mineral Society. McFadden lifted it out of the ground and carried it out in a backpack, McKenzie said.
McKenzie said it’s not rare to find scraps of bone, but he called it “a special occasion” to find a whole plate or the skull and shoulder armor. The body of the fish probably wasn’t preserved, he said.
Most specimens from North America have been collected from Cleveland shale in Ohio, said Joe Hannibal, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
“It’s really interesting to see somebody put together a reconstructed skeleton based on material from somewhere outside of Ohio,” Hannibal said.
“It’s good to have another pair of eyes and another brain there to try to figure out how these bones go together, and Scott has a lot of experience in paleontology and he’s very insightful,” he said.
Hannibal said the rocks of western Pennsylvania are “somewhat different from those of the classic fossil fish-collecting areas in the Cleveland area, and represent somewhat different environmental conditions.
“And so the fossils that Scott has may or may not be somewhat different from the ones in this area, but that remains to be seen,” he said.
GOLDEN TICKET
When he’s not reconstructing the fish, McKenzie said he keeps the pieces in a storage area with “proper ventilation and security.” The geologist said he once kept fossils of that fish and other prehistoric species at home until his wife insisted that they be moved because “the buckets and buckets and buckets of rock fragments” took up too much space.
He’s turned over thousands of various animal fossils to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh and hundreds more to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
McKenzie said bones such as the one he is putting together are “all over the place,” saying it’s a matter of recognizing them.
“Every streambed, every rock exposure, is like a lottery ticket, and you could scratch it and come up with Dunkleosteus,” he said.
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Online:
http://bit.ly/13CUneq
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Information from: Erie Times-News, http://www.goerie.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-05-13 1537GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Front view of a Dunkleosteus skull at the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. LadyofHats image, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.Dunkleosteus ‘intermedius,’ based on a skeletal drawing from B. Dean. Image by Creator:Dmitry Bogdanov. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
‘The Trial of the Bow,’ 1929. N.C. Wyeth, American, 1882-1945. Oil on canvas, framed: 58 x 45 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches. Gift of GlaxoSmithKline. Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC has donated a painting with a mysterious past to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The work by N.C. Wyeth was one of 16 illustrations made in 1929 for George Herbert Palmer’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Wyeth sold the series to a private collector in 1930, but the whereabouts of all but six are unknown.
The Trial of the Bow, which was placed on view Monday, is the first N.C. Wyeth work in the museum’s collection. Wyeth is the patriarch of three generations of artists who lived and worked in Chadds Ford in the Brandywine River valley, including son Andrew Wyeth, who died in 2009, and grandson Jamie Wyeth.
“This is how we increase the quality of life in our community beyond the economic engine of jobs,” said Bob Carr, Glaxo senior vice president.
The large oil-on-canvas depicts the moment when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, reveals his identity to Penelope by stringing his bow and firing an arrow through 12 ax handles. The painting was acquired in the late 1980s by GlaxoSmithKline, but the company is still working to uncover who purchased it and where.
Kathleen Foster, curator of American art, said the painting was likely acquired by a now-retired Glaxo executive who was in charge of art acquisitions.
“That’s the person who’s going to know,” she said, adding that details of the sale could point the way to other lost paintings from The Odyssey series that may have been sold at the same time.
GlaxoSmithKline recently moved from its downtown office tower to an ultra-modern new home at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and decided to part with its collection of several hundred photos, drawings, textiles and paintings. The new building has glass walls and an open floor plan without a lot of places to hang works of art; employees were given the opportunity to buy some pieces at half the appraised value and others were auctioned or donated.
“It always captivated me that we had this painting,” said Ray Milora, project executive for Glaxo. “We’re beyond proud to be able to be here today … this is sort of the exclamation point on our move.”
More than 95 percent of the museum’s collection came as gifts, so donations like The Trial of the Bow are essential and appreciated, museum director and chief executive officer Timothy Rub said.
The museum also announced several other gifts Monday including a watercolor by Pierre Joseph Redoute, four paintings from 18th-century colonial Latin America, a rare Tiffany chandelier and more than 200 photographs by modernist photographer and filmmaker Paul Strand.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-05-13 1905GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘The Trial of the Bow,’ 1929. N.C. Wyeth, American, 1882-1945. Oil on canvas, framed: 58 x 45 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches. Gift of GlaxoSmithKline. Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Oakland Police returned the Gold Rush-era jewelry box to the museum Tuesday. Image courtesy Oakland Museum of California.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – A 45-year-old parolee has been arrested in connection with the theft of a valuable Gold Rush-era jewelry box from the Oakland Museum of California.
Alameda County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Andre Taray Franklin, of Oakland, with one count of receiving stolen property after he was arrested Sunday in Oakland. He is being held in jail without bail.
The 19th century gold-encrusted jewelry box valued at more than $800,000 was stolen from the museum on Jan. 9. It depicts images of early California history and was originally a wedding anniversary gift from a San Francisco pioneer to his wife in the 1800s.
The rare artifact, which is about the size of a small shoebox and weighs about three pounds, was returned to the museum on Tuesday. It was again enclosed in a large Plexiglas case under the careful watch of a security guard.
“It is a happy day for Oakland and a happy day for the state of California,” museum director Lori Fogarty told reporters. “Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the Oakland Police Department, we have our beautiful and historical jewelry box returned to the museum and a suspect in custody.”
Police say Franklin is also a suspect in the November theft of gold nuggets and Gold Rush-era pistols that were also stolen from the popular Gallery of California History exhibit. Those items have not yet been recovered.
Video surveillance in the museum during the second theft two months ago played “a key role” in identifying Franklin as a possible suspect, Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said Tuesday.
According to a criminal complaint, Franklin has had nine felony convictions, including auto theft, receiving stolen property, petty theft, commercial burglary and unlawful sexual intercourse.
The jewelry box had been in a Plexiglas case equipped with an alarm that sounded after it was stolen, Fogarty said, adding that police arrived in less than five minutes. Both thefts were caught on security cameras, she added.
After the first theft in November, Fogarty said the museum added extra security guards and cameras.
Mayor Jean Quan credited her embattled police department for finding the artifact.
“They have a lot of different pressures, a lot of different crises and then a lot of every day crimes in addition to something as spectacular as this,” Quan said. “I don’t think they get enough credit when they’re successful, so I think the whole community and the whole state wants to thank the department.”
Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan and Lt. Oliver Cunningham credited Sgt. Mike Igualdo for his diligence.
“Well, what affected me was the history, our California history, our American history, our heritage,” Igualdo said. “I think a lot of young kids should know their heritage, where America had started and how it was a country of opportunity.”
Igualdo said that he and a team of investigators thought they were in the movie National Treasure, after they discovered the artifact.
Cunningham interrupted and said, “There was a bunch of high fives. A lot of high fives.”
It was not the first time the jewel box, which has been associated with the museum since the 1960s, was stolen. Fogarty said it was taken in 1978 and recovered at an auction house several years later.
“We are committed to this never happening again,” Fogarty said Tuesday. “We have really worked tirelessly in the last four months to improve our (security) systems to make sure everything we can do is in place.”
Fogarty said the box will be back on display after it undergoes an inspection, despite it being stolen twice.
“It is our mission and our responsibility to share California’s history with the public,” Fogarty said. “And if we were just a treasurer’s trove and a mausoleum, then we wouldn’t be serving our mission.”
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-06-13 0224GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Oakland Police returned the Gold Rush-era jewelry box to the museum Tuesday. Image courtesy Oakland Museum of California.
Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo. Image by Addesolen. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
STRASBOURG, France (AFP) – A damaged Ferrari once belonging to Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is to be sold on eBay, after its new owner came to an agreement with the Internet auction site, the vendor’s lawyer said on Thursday.
Renaud Bettcher told AFP said he and his client – a garage owner from the eastern city of Strasbourg – were “very satisfied” that they had finally been given the go ahead to sell the car, after eBay asked for proof of its provenance.
The site would also pay undisclosed damages to the dealership, the lawyer added. According to the Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace newspaper, the figure could be as much as 20,000 euros ($26,000, £17,000).
Star Autos took action against eBay after the auction site withdrew an advertisement for the sale of the car “for security reasons” and concern that it may not have been genuine.
It then asked the garage to provide proof about its previous owner, which Bettcher said they supplied three times.
No date was given for the new sale.
The garage bought the red Ferrari 599 GTB from a Portuguese vendor for about 33,000 euros and had been asking for 50,000 euros for it at auction.
Bids had reached 125,000 euros when the item was withdrawn.
Ronaldo crashed the 250,000-euro sports car into a barrier near Manchester airport in 2009, a week before the then-Manchester United striker was awarded the 2008 Ballon d’Or as world player of the year.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo. Image by Addesolen. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Original artwork from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ (CBS-TV, 1999-85) starring Catherine Bach, John Schneider and Tom Wopat. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Profiles in History.
BYRON, Ga. (AP) – The upcoming Dukes of Hazzard reunion in Byron is beginning to have the makings of a countrified Woodstock.
Organizer Chris Jennings said when he first conceived the Dukes of Hazzard Georgia Reunion, Classic Car Show and Music Festival, he was hoping for 10,000 people. He said he now believes more than 60,000 will show up for the event that runs Friday through Sunday. He said tickets have been sold in all 50 states and nine countries.
The reunion will feature seven of the original cast members, including John Schneider (Bo Duke), Tom Wopat (Luke Duke), Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke), James Best (Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane), Sonny Shroyer (Deputy Enos Strate), Ben Jones (Cooter Davenport) and Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus Hogg). The cast members will be available for autographs Saturday.
The show aired from 1979 to 1985 and at one time was second only to Dallas in the ratings. It featured the exploits of the Duke boys and their battles with corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg and his right-hand man, Sheriff Coltrane. Their confrontations invariably resulted in car chases, featuring the Duke’s iconic 1972 Dodge Charger, the General Lee.
“It was just a great family-oriented show,” said Jennings, a Macon car dealer. “The only bad thing is all of the cars I’ve wrecked over the years trying to imitate them. I remember racing home to watch it.”
The event will feature a concert Friday by country singer David Allen Coe, a classic car show with more than 500 cars, an Army tank, a monster truck, helicopter rides and jump houses for children. Other musical performances through the weekend include Ben Jones & Cooter’s Garage Band, Confederate Railroad and The Lacs, a “country-rap” duo. Other local musical acts also will perform.
Hours are 4-11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday.
The reunion is being held at the Old Middle Georgia Raceway at 4015 U.S. 41 North in Byron. Advance one-day tickets are $20. All three days costs $35. Children 6 and younger and seniors 65 and older are free.
Jennings said proceeds will go to the Bradley Baptist Church Road to Hope Program, the Jones County Cruisers Annual Charity Drive for children and families, as well as other charities.
In the show, fictional Hazzard County was set in Georgia. The first five episodes were filmed in Covington, Ga., but the filming then moved to California.
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Information from: The Macon Telegraph, http://www.macontelegraph.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-06-13 1255GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Original artwork from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ (CBS-TV, 1999-85) starring Catherine Bach, John Schneider and Tom Wopat. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Profiles in History.
Elvis Presley at a live performance. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Pioneer Auction Gallery.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A new exhibit opening at Graceland showcases Elvis Presley’s strong connection to Las Vegas, where he performed and vacationed.
The exhibit called “Elvis: Live from Las Vegas” officially opened Tuesday at the Graceland tourist attraction, which sits across from Presley’s mansion in Memphis.
The exhibit chronicles Elvis’ experiences in Las Vegas, where he often performed.
About 120 pieces of Vegas-related memorabilia are featured in the exhibit, including 30 flashy jumpsuits and other pieces of clothing worn by the singer during his energetic stage performances.
Among the more unusual artifacts are two large bus-bench signs advertising Elvis shows, a tablecloth used in 1969 by promoter Colonel Tom Parker as a contract for future shows at the International Hotel, and a silver and gold belt festooned with diamonds, rubies and sapphires that was given to Elvis for breaking attendance records during 57 sold out shows at the International.
A large stuffed hound dog, hotel receipts and food menus also are included. Video screens placed throughout the exhibit show Elvis performing on stage.
Angie Marchese, director of archives at Elvis Presley Enterprises, said planning for the exhibit took about year.
“Elvis made Vegas a destination for entertainment,” said Kevin Kern, spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises.
Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977, in Memphis.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-06-13 0434GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Elvis Presley at a live performance. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Pioneer Auction Gallery.
