The rubber duck, long an icon of Western culture, is making inroads in a big way in Asia. Image by Alexander Klink. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
HONG KONG (AFP) – An inflatable bright yellow rubber duck six stories high sailed into Hong Kong harbor on Thursday to the cheers of hundreds of people who gathered to watch the classic bathtime-inspired artistic creation.
The 54-foot-tall artwork, conceived by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, dwarfed other craft as it was towed past the city’s iconic skyline by a tugboat a fraction of its size.
Since 2007 the duck has traveled to 13 different cities in nine countries ranging from Brazil to Australia in its journey around the world.
Peggy Shieh, 28, made a special trip from Taiwan to see the duck after she learned about it on Facebook. “It takes me back to my childhood memories,” she said.
People began queuing from as early as 6 a.m. for a chance to buy a miniature replica. Kathy Cheung, who was second in line, took half a day off work to ensure she got her piece of art history.
“I think it’s the first and last time I will see a rubber duck in Hong Kong. It has a message for peace but for me it’s just fun,” she said.
Hofman said he hopes the duck, which will stay until June 9, will act as a “catalyst” for connecting people to public art.
“It’s about connecting people … don’t take life for granted, your urban space for granted. You walk every day the same route to work, but look and stop going too fast,” he said.
The duck has already proved a welcome distraction from the everyday routine of city life, with office workers pressing up against skyscraper windows to take pictures.
Twitter and Facebook feeds hailed its arrival, brightening the gloomy weather. “So there’s a duck in HK harbor … a really really big duck!” said Twitter user Jason Girard.
The southern Chinese city is also exhibiting a land-based collection of inflatable art, including a larger-than-life upside-down cockroach, close to where the rubber duck is moored.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The rubber duck, long an icon of Western culture, is making inroads in a big way in Asia. Image by Alexander Klink. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) – Macedonian police say they have carried out raids across the country and arrested 17 people, including two state museum employees, for alleged involvement in an antiquities looting gang.
A police statement Wednesday said officers confiscated valuable artifacts dating to as early as the fourth century B.C., including pottery, a clay female figurine and 121 coins—one with the portrait of Alexander the Great.
Fourteen church icons were also seized, although police did not provide dates for them.
The arrests and seizures took place late Tuesday after raids on 23 homes and business premises in the capital Skopje and four other cities. The suspects include a police officer.
Authorities are also seeking two Serbian nationals suspected of involvement in the ring that allegedly sought to sell the antiquities abroad.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Collection of vintage Beatles albums. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Specialists of the South Inc.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – When Nate Niceswanger opened ZZZ Records in 2000, he figured baby boomers would be his vinyl store’s target demographic. An entire generation whose moms had tossed out their vinyl, baseball cards and comic books would come in and start their new collection from scratch.
Instead, The Des Moines Register reports he has found a generation of young music fans who are embracing their parents’ old vinyl alongside digital music. Today, collecting vinyl combines old-school cool, while offering the convenience of MP3 downloads in most newer record releases.
“It seems like there’s a new audience,” said Niceswanger, whose store is among those around the country participating in Record Store Day today.
According to Nielsen SoundScan and Billboard, sales on nondigital physical music were down 12.8 percent in 2012. Vinyl is the lone bright spot in that group—sales rose 17.7 percent, its fifth straight year of growth. And 67 percent of vinyl purchases are made at independently owned music stores.
Those independent record stores teamed up to create Record Store Day in 2007. On the third Saturday in April stores get special vinyl releases to sell. Bands releasing special material on Record Store Day today include The White Stripes, Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper, David Bowie, Elliott Smith, Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and dozens of others.
Lines often form hours early for fans looking to snap up those limited and exclusive records. Premium items end up going for high prices. Phish’s “Junta” three-song LP released last year now sells for about $150 on eBay.
When Niceswanger opened ZZZ, no other local shops focused on vinyl. Now Des Moines has five shops with a vinyl focus, and Jay’s CD & Hobby on the south side also has a section for new and used records.
The Highland Park neighborhood around Euclid and Sixth avenues has become a miniature vinyl district for the city. There are four shops within walking distance of each other: Red Rooster Records, 509 Euclid Ave., Wayback Records, 3524 Sixth Ave., The Underground Rock Shop, 617 Euclid Ave. and Uncle Moe’s Records, 516 Euclid Ave., which opened earlier this month.
“It’s great, because it makes it a destination for collectors,” said Steve Radcliff, who owns the Underground Rock Shop. “People can walk around and check us all out.”
Increasingly, vinyl is a go-to option for Iowa bands. It’s more expensive to produce than a CD, but fans are often more willing to shell out extra money for the larger art, especially when the album includes a digital download code inside. CDs have become just a delivery system for MP3s, while LPs can be a memento of a favorite show.
Poison Control Center guitarist Patrick Fleming said the band’s double LP Sad Sour Future offers the best profit margin at its merchandise table at shows. The central Iowa band makes $6 off each CD, but $8 off the vinyl version of the album.
“The only thing bands could possibly make more money on than vinyl is digital download cards, because they cost you pretty much nothing to produce,” Fleming said. “But for a touring band it’s pretty hard to sell those cards, so vinyl is the preferable format to sell music on tour.”
The Iowa label Maximum Ames Records was founded in 2011 by a collective of musicians who wanted to release albums on vinyl. Label co-founder Chris Ford (of the band Christopher the Conquered) said the cost of physically making vinyl is much higher than CDs (around $7.50 per record compared to $1.10 for a CD). But for fans of an artist, vinyl represents something more.
“The higher profile physical item with the beautiful art implies a higher value,” Ford said. “It’s sort of resistance to everything being compartmentalized on a hard drive. Vinyl feels like something people can pass on to their kids.”
Maximum Ames Records started with enough capital to fund just one album, Mumford’s Trinities. The label will release its 10th disc, Papoose, by the Iowa musician HD Harmsen on April 27. Ford said he expects two more Maximum Ames releases by the end of June.
Collector Daniel Bosman, 31, hasn’t missed a Record Store Day. He started a vinyl collection about a decade ago, not long after getting his first iPod.
“As I got more into digital, I also got more into records,” Bosman said. “Then I got my mom and dad’s collection, then my grandma and grandpa’s and before you know it I had a couple thousand records and am a collector.”
Bosman has five record players around the house, but still uses an iPod for listening in the car. He said he’s lost some of the excitement for Record Store Day this year, because while the day once focused on independent stores and labels, more and more big labels have gotten involved and prices have risen as a result.
“Major labels are putting out vinyl for $35-$40 a disc, while the indie acts have kept things around $16-$20,” Bosman said. “Once it gets up to $35, it feels like you’re taking advantage of the fans a bit. That’s what drove people to download in the first place.”
Doug Harmer, 30, started collecting vinyl while growing up in the ’90s. He would read about a hip-hop act sampling an older obscure song and dig through bargain bins of vinyl to find things. Over the last decade he’s worked at record stores specializing in vinyl in Baltimore, Chicago, and most recently Half Price Books in West Des Moines.
“When the first CDs were coming out, they kind of had a hollow, tinny sound,” Harmer aid. “But vinyl definitely had a different type of warmth. You get addicted to the way they sound.”
Harmer said you can get a different feel from every record store you visit, with each store having its own bin of oddities and specialty discs. Harmer also notices different feels for stores in different cities. He said there was more focus on jazz in Chicago, while he’s more likely to find a unique Pink Floyd bootleg in Des Moines.
“It makes you wonder how records get where they are, and how people find them,” Harmer said.
Niceswanger sees a definite trend toward vinyl, especially over the last five years. When he opened, CD sales remained strong. Early on, he would order four to five copies of each CD. Now he’s deciding whether to order zero or one. And that one is not always a sure bet.
“When I started, everyone thought I was nuts. It didn’t seem like the right format to be focusing on in the year 2000,” Niceswanger said. “Now we’ve gotten to the point where CD stores have fizzled out. The common denominator seems to be that stores that focus on vinyl are the ones surviving.”
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Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-04-28-13 2053GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Collection of vintage Beatles albums. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Specialists of the South Inc.
Artist Grant Wood signed the front of this 48-page sketchbook. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. CHICAGO – Grant Wood’s artworks have always held a special place in the hearts of Midwesterners—they capture the land and the people Wood knew best, hardworking men and women of 20th century rural America. We see his visions as a memorial to the American working class and generations of collectors have established a strong market for his iconic views of rolling hills and hearty farmhands.
The Veterans Memorial Building in Grant Wood’s hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, boasts a towering landmark to his artistic achievement, a 24-foot-tall stained glass window—the largest in the United States in 1929 at the time of its inception. The window features a central figure of a Lady in Mourning, modeled after the artist’s sister and sitter for the iconic painting, American Gothic, Nan Wood. The figure is flanked by life-size soldiers from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War I. It is the only known stained-glass window designed by Wood.
On May 12, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will offer Grant Wood’s personal 48-page sketchbook embellished with over 70 preparatory drawings and studies for the Memorial Window. Wood has signed the cover of the small journal and an inscription from the artist’s sister, signed and dated May 1, 1946, confirms: “This book was the property of Grant Wood. It contains sketches and ideas for the stained glass memorial window he designed for the memorial building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The sketches were made in 1929.”
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
There are no known sketchbooks attributed to Wood in institutional or private collections, and the auction house is confident it will exceed its $40,000-$60,000 presale estimate.
The sketchbook outlines Wood’s progression of ideas for the central female figure, the four soldiers, and the layout as a whole. One discarded idea shows a Madonna-like figure in the form of a pieta, holding a dead soldier and filling the entire window like an altarpiece. Another shows the figure of Justice holding scales, and another Victory with her winged cap. Other drawings echo papal tombs and Greek architecture.
“The sketchbook is unprecedented,” says Mary Kohnke, director of books and manuscripts. “It shows the artist struggling with issues of perspective, draping, the female and male forms, and even the use of Roman numerals, which he rearranged to fit in the allotted space. We are very excited to have the opportunity to present this exciting item to the public.”
For additional information, contact Kohnke at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, 312-334-4236.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Artist Grant Wood signed the front of this 48-page sketchbook. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.
A drawing of a Civil War soldier is contained in the Grand Wood sketchbook. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.
Veterans Memorial Building window designed by Grant Wood. Veterans Memorial Commission, photo courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
A massive six-sheet poster (81 inches by 81 inches) for the iconic movie Casablanca, one of just two copies known, sold for $107,550 at a vintage movie poster auction held March 23-24 by Heritage Auctions in Dallas. Also, a one-sheet for MGM’s 1932 classic Tarzan and the Ape Man reached $65,725; a poster for D.W. Griffith’s controversial epic Birth of a Nation made $47,800; a lobby card for 1931’s Frankenstein brought $38,837; and a reissue one-sheet on linen for RKO’s King Kong hit $35,850. Prices include a 19.5 percent buyer’s premium.
Dublin auctioneers Whyte’s rock and pop memorabilia sale saw €4,300 ($5,600) change hands for this set of Beatles signatures on the cover of their 1970 hit single ‘Let It Be.’ Image courtesy of Whyte’s.
LONDON – “Damn. Get that on the radio and they’ll run us out of town.”
The poetic words of rock ’n’ roll session-man Bill Black after recording That’s All Right with Elvis Presley at Sun Studios in Memphis in July 1954. At Whytes auction house in Dublin recently it was more a case of “Get that under the hammer and the buyers will run into town” because the acetate of that landmark recording—Elvis’ first commercial release—was the star of Whytes’ groundbreaking rock and pop memorabilia sale where it realized a hammer price of €65,000 ($84,800). This rare acetate of ‘That’s All Right’ recorded by Elvis Presley at Sun Studios in Memphis in July 1954 was the star of Whytes’ recent rock and pop memorabilia sale in Dublin where it made €65,000 ($84,800). Image courtesy of Whyte’s. A few lots later, Elvis’ Mathey-Tissot wristwatch added a further €8,000 ($10,450) to the sale total. Elvis Presley’s Mathey-Tissot wristwatch brought €8,000 ($10,450) at Whye’s groundbreaking rock and pop sale in Dublin. Image courtesy of Whyte’s.
Rock and pop memorabilia is a long-established category in the UK auction arena. Not only does it help to broaden an auction house’s public profile, it can also introduce a younger clientele to the pleasure of auctions. The trick, of course, is to assemble enough prestigious material to bring in the buyers and focus media attention. Whytes’ sale was Ireland’s first ever auction of rock and pop material. Its success was due in no small measure to the inclusion not only of that rare relic of early Elvis recording history but to a decent tranche of Beatles collectibles too. The most keenly contested of the Fab Four lots was a cover of the 1970 hit single Let It Be, signed in ballpoint pen by all four members of the band, which realized €4,300 ($5,600).
Coincidentally, Beatles signatures also appeared this month at sales held by Cirencester auctioneers Moore Allen and Innocent and at Duke’s auction rooms in Dorchester. Moore Allen’s signatures featured in an album containing signatures by a host of other stars too, including The Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, Orson Welles and Bing Crosby which together realized £3,800 ($5,890) while Duke’s Beatles signatures, also in an album with those of Roy Orbison and many others, fetched £1500 ($2,325). These coincidences can be a useful guide to market values.
One other lot worth mentioning at Duke’s sale was a fine landscape of 1952 by Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) titled Potato Patch, Rostrevor, which found a buyer just under the lower end of the estimate at £195,000 ($302,000). Fine examples of the work of Sir Stanley Spencer seldom come under the hammer; hence the £195,000 ($302,000) offered for this fine landscape of 1952 titled ‘Potato Patch, Rostrevor,’ at Duke’s in Dorchester in April. Image courtesy of Duke’s. That price indicates the infrequency with which major works by Spencer come up for sale.
Perhaps the most noteworthy news from the regions this month was the innovative collaboration forged between the new UK regional auction body, the Association of Accredited Auctioneers (known as “Triple A” for short), and their Chinese counterparts. The 21 members of the UK group contributed lots to a 900-lot auction of Western art and antiques staged in Xiamen Freeport on April 19 in conjunction with Epailive, Asia’s on-line live bidding portal. ‘Paving the Way to Greater Transparency’—organizers of the first UK-Chinese collaborative auction in Xiamen pose for a group photograph. Image courtesy of Chris Ewbank and the Association of Accredited Auctioneers (AAA).
Guildford auctioneer Chris Ewbank Guildford auctioneer Chris Ewbank of the Association of Accredited Auctioneers and QiQi Jiang, founder of China’s EpaiLive, at the first collaborative auction in Xiamen Freeport in April. Image courtesy Ewbanks and AAA. was the main entrepreneurial force behind the project. He told Auction Central News that although only around 25 percent of the lots found buyers the consensus was that the endeavor had been a great success. “An unsold rate like that would be considered a disaster in the UK,” he said. “But that didn’t apply here. We were mainly concerned to test the market and we succeeded in that regard. We covered our costs and learned a great deal about the potential for future collaborations with China.”
Ewbank said that an enthusiastic reception greeted the silver, clocks and the better quality Victorian and Edwardian furniture in the sale, but other categories were clearly not wanted by Chinese buyers. These includes pictures, coins, stamps and most of the higher value furniture. That said, notable exceptions included an important pair of Louis XVI-style gilt bronze amboyna center tables by Francois Linke, which sold for 2.3 million RMB ($377,960), This important pair of Louis XVI-style gilt bronze amboyna centrr tables by Francois Linke sold for 2.3 million RMB ($377,960) at the first UK-Chinese collaborative auction in China’s Xiamen Freeport in April. Image courtesy Ewbanks and AAA.while a highly unusual Louis XV-style gilt bronze mounted kingwood and marquetry writing desk and cartonnier, the clock dial signed “Brindeau a Paris,” sold for 1.38 million RMB ($226,790), and a fine Louis XVI-style gilt bronze mounted marquetry commode after a model by Jean Henri Riesener sold for 1.15 million RMB (£188,980). Those are decent prices under any circumstances.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the sale, according to the UK auctioneers, was the 94,300 RMB ($15,500) paid for a pair of late 19th-century bronze Marly horses after Guillaume Coustou the Elder, which had been estimated at 38,000-50,000 RMB. This pair of bronze Marly horses fetched the equivalent of £10,000 ($15,500) at the Xiamen auction of Western art and antiques organized by the UK’s Association of Accredited Auctioneers and EpaiLive in China. Image courtesy Ewbanks and AAA.
“I see this venture as a huge international coup for our members,” said Ewbank. “We are also giving a lead to Chinese auctioneers’ associations because they are not happy with what is happening in their market and want to see it develop properly.” The sale went out under the slogan: “Paving the Way to Greater Transparency.” It will be interesting to see whether future collaborative ventures between the various parties succeed in delivering on that laudable aim.
With so much media attention currently focused on the high-ticket, blue-chip end of the art market, Triple A’s attempt to open up new overseas markets for mid-price furniture, works of art and collectibles has to be seen in a positive light. Here at home, and sensitive to these recessionary times, some UK auctioneers have been marketing themselves as “recycling agents”—an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to buying new. Tennants, the go-ahead North Yorkshire auctioneers, alert to the growth of the Affordable Art Fair— which is now franchised in many cities around the world—have started holding sales of “Antique Interiors and Affordable Art,” which seem to be going down well with local buyers.
In April Tennants also ventured into ethnographic material and arms and armor. They saw lively bidding for three Andaman Island wooden bows of double paddle form, which climbed over an estimate of £600-800 to make £5,800 ($8,975), Yorkshire auctioneers Tennants’ recent sale of ethnographic material included these three Andaman Island wood bows, which together climbed over an estimate of £600-800 to make £5,800 ($8,975). Image courtesy of Tennants.while among the collectible guns a pair of late 18th-century officer’s flintlock dueling pistols by Robert Wogdon of London made £6,000 ($9,300) This pair of late 18th-century officer’s flintlock dueling pistols by Robert Wogdon of London made £6,000 ($9,300) at Tennants in Yorkshire. Image courtesy of Tennants. and a pair of early 19th-century flintlock pistols by Clark of London, brought £3,800 ($5,880).
RICHMOND, Va. – VMFA opens its permanent early 20th-century European art galleries on May 4, showcasing French and German art from the first half of the 20th century. The galleries, also known as the Deane & Goodwin Galleries, are located on the Atrium level of the museum.
“It’s noteworthy that the galleries will house the collections of two visionary Virginia collections, Ludwig and Rosy Fischer and T. Catesby Jones,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director Alex Nyerges said. “Both collections represent internationally significant artists and open important dialogues with the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family collection of mid to late 20th-century art as well as the Lewis Art Nouveau and Art Deco Decorative Arts collection.”
The Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection, which came to VMFA as a gift-purchase in 2009, was assembled by the couple in Frankfurt, Germany, between 1905 and 1925. In its time, it was widely known as one of the most significant collections in Europe of new German art. Brought to the United States in 1934, it became the last refugee collections of German Expressionism to enter a U.S. museum when it was acquired by a combination purchase-gift in 2009. It includes the work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Conrad Felixmuller, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee, among others.
T. Catesby Jones, a native Virginian who pursued a law career in New York, gave his French Modernism collection to VMFA as a bequest in 1947. He purchased works between 1924 and 1939 from prominent artists of the era – Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, André Masson, Jacques Lipchitz, and others – as well as works by such artists as André Lhote and Jean Lurçat, who are less widely known today. For a time, his gift placed VMFA in the vanguard of U.S. museums collecting modern European art. New acquisitions, including the 1912 sculpture Maggy by French artist Raymond Duchamp-Villon, also will be on display.
Altria Group is the presenting sponsor of this installation.
About German Modernism:
The new galleries will feature German Expressionist art from just before World War I through the 1920s, with an emphasis on Die Brücke (“the Bridge”), a movement in which artists opposed the dominant style of Impressionism and its focus on color and light. Die Brücke artists responded to the changing world of the early 20th century and employed a style defined by vivid palettes, strong lines, and distorted forms. These characteristics symbolize the German Expressionism movement as a whole. The artists witnessed industrialization and either celebrated it by depicting aspects of the bustling, modern city, or opposed it by fleeing the city and painting rural landscapes in response to the pressures of modern life.
Ludwig and Rosy Fischer, who embraced the changing art of their time, purchased the majority of German works in the new early 20th-century European art galleries. From 1905 to 1925, they acquired paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and illustrated books, and the collection was passed to their two sons, Max and Ernst upon their deaths. In 1934, Ernst left Germany with his family and his half of the collection and accepted a position at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Max’s half of the collection stayed in Germany, which was then confiscated and destroyed by the Nazis. In 2009, the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection of German Expressionist Art, approximately 200 works, became part of VMFA’s permanent collection through a gift-purchase agreement with Ernst’s widow, Anne Fischer.
About French Modernism:
During the first half of the 20th century, European artists viewed Paris as a cultural capital where a spirit of experimentation and innovation produced a succession of artistic movements including Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism. While many of the artists represented in the European Modernism gallery were French, some were émigrés from other European countries: Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Salvador Dalí were from Spain; Jacques Lipchitz was from Lithuania; and Alexander Archipenko came from the Ukraine. There were connections between artists working in Paris and German Expressionists, and the dialogues between different nationalities emphasized the web of cultural influences that shaped the way artists in Paris understood the modern world.
Many of these works came to VMFA’s collection from T. Catesby Jones (1880-1946). Descended from a Virginia family, Jones spent his childhood in Petersburg, Va., and attended Hampden-Sydney College, Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law. In 1911, he moved to New York City and when the modern art boom occurred in the city during the 1920s, he became a dedicated collector of 20th- century art. After two decades, he amassed almost 300 works including paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, textiles and illustrated books. He often traveled to Paris and formed friendships with artists such as Jacques Lipchitz, Jean Lurçat, and André Masson. Jones was a VMFA trustee and he donated works during his lifetime and left his paintings, sculptures and drawings as a bequest to the museum in 1947.
About the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts:
VMFA’s permanent collection encompasses more than 33,000 works of art spanning 5,000 years of world history. Its collections of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, English silver, Fabergé, and the art of South Asia are among the finest in the nation. With acclaimed holdings in American, British Sporting, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist, and Modern and Contemporary art – and additional strengths in African, Ancient, East Asian, and European – VMFA ranks as one of the top comprehensive art museums in the United States. Programs include educational activities and studio classes for all ages, plus lively after-hours events. VMFA’s Statewide Partnership program includes traveling exhibitions, artist and teacher workshops, and lectures across the Commonwealth. VMFA is open 365 days a year and general admission is always free. For additional information, telephone 804-340-1400 or visit www.vmfa.museum.
Ellsworth Kelly (American, b. 1923-), The Meschers, 1951, oil on canvas, 59 x 59 inches, Museum of Modern Art. Kelly was a pioneer of hard-edge painting in the 1940s and 1950s. Fair use of low-resolution copyrighted image to illustrate the artist’s unique style. Image by permission of the Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, which represents Ellsworth Kelly.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is preparing to open its first-ever solo artist exhibition with a display of wall sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly.
The 90-year-old Kelly is expected to attend the sneak preview Tuesday at the Barnes.
The exhibition will be on view to the public from May 4 to Sept. 2.
It will mark a homecoming of sorts for one of Kelly’s early landmark works: “Sculpture for a Large Wall,” which was commissioned for a Philadelphia high-rise in 1957.
The huge sculpture of 104 anodized aluminum panels was removed in 1998 during building renovations and then sold, to the disbelief of many in the local arts community. It is now owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which is loaning the piece to the Barnes.
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Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Ellsworth Kelly (American, b. 1923-), The Meschers, 1951, oil on canvas, 59 x 59 inches, Museum of Modern Art. Kelly was a pioneer of hard-edge painting in the 1940s and 1950s. Fair use of low-resolution copyrighted image to illustrate the artist’s unique style. Image by permission of the Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, which represents Ellsworth Kelly.
Christine Keeler by Stephen Ward, pastel, 1961.Copyright: National Portrait Gallery, London.
LONDON – A display commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Profumo Affair opened Tuesday at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The British political scandal came to a head in 1963 and was named after John Profumo, the then secretary of state for war.
Profumo (married to the actress Valerie Hobson) had a brief affair with the nightclub hostess and model Christine Keeler, who was also romantically involved with the senior Russian naval attaché, Yevgeny Ivanov. The infamous affair took place against the backdrop of the Cold War and heightened political paranoia.
The display features a rare vintage print of one of Lewis Morley’s iconic seated nude portraits of Christine Keeler as well as Stephen Ward’s pastel of her, made at Cliveden. Images of the other protagonists in the Profumo Affair are portrayed through photographs, magazines and ephemera from the period.
Scandal ’63 was the title given to one of the many books published about the Profumo Affair at the time. It is also the title of a Pop Art work by Pauline Boty that incorporated Lewis Morley’s iconic photograph of a naked Christine Keeler. The painting features four of the key players: John Profumo; Keeler’s friend, artist and osteopath to the establishment, Stephen Ward; Keeler’s former lover the jazz promoter, Johnny Edgecombe; and his rival, the jazz musician Aloysius “Lucky” Gordon. Two of Michael Ward’s color photographs of Boty with this now lost painting also form part of the display.
Also featured are a number of contemporary press photographs of those involved, including Christine Keeler’s friends Mandy Rice-Davies and Paula Hamilton-Marshall, which describe the unraveling of the story in the media. The display features Tom Blau’s on-set photographs of Keeler, which were taken to publicize The Keeler Affair, a film banned in Britain that gained notoriety in Denmark and the United States. Two American lobby cards advertising the film are also included. The film was remade in 1989 as Scandal starring Joanne Whalley and Bridget Fonda as Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies. Satirical comments on the scandal are represented by Gerald Scarfe’s cartoon of Harold Macmillan as Keeler appearing in Private Eye and an LP cover for That Affair featuring an illustration by Barry Fantoni.
The humiliation and distrust of the establishment at the height of the Cold War led to the end of Harold Macmillan’s tenure as Conservative prime minister and the election of Harold Wilson’s Labor Government in 1964.
“A great deal of ephemera and original press material has been sourced, which really illustrates what a key role the media played in unraveling the scandal. Despite the events occurring 50 years ago, the stories connected to these fascinating images still seem so vivid today,” said Clare Freestone, associate curator of photographs, National Portrait Gallery, London.
“Scandal ’63: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Profumo Affair” runs through Sept. 15.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Christine Keeler by Stephen Ward, pastel, 1961.Copyright: National Portrait Gallery, London.Pauline Boty by Michael Ward, 1964. Copyright: Michael Ward Archives / National Portrait Gallery, London.
Poster for 1946 film ‘Monsieur Beaucaire’ starring bob Hope and Joan Caulfield. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and The Last Moving Picture Co.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Hundreds of personal items, including antiques, artwork and furniture once owned by Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores, will be auctioned to benefit a Southern California charity.
The Daily News of Los Angeles reports proceeds from the sale Saturday will help the family service center at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, where Dolores Hope was a member for 70 years.
The couple’s daughter, Linda Hope, says memorabilia from Bob Hope’s long show business career will also be up for sale.
Prices will range from $10 to several hundred dollars an item.
An auction of additional property from the couple’s Toluca Lake estate will be announced by Julien’s Auctions of Beverly Hills later this year.
Dolores Hope died in 2011. Bob Hope died in 2003.
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Information from: (Los Angeles) Daily News, http://www.dailynews.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Poster for 1946 film ‘Monsieur Beaucaire’ starring bob Hope and Joan Caulfield. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and The Last Moving Picture Co.
