August 14, 2013 - Auction Central News

Disfigured Spanish fresco of Christ is hit for artist, town

Before/after views of the fresco. It is believed that the use of this image of a copyrighted work constitutes fair-use and does not infringe on copyright. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

MADRID (AP) – A year ago, Cecilia Gimenez’s botched attempt to restore a fresco of Christ inspired ridicule and references to monkeys. Now, the 81-year-old Spanish artist is having the last laugh.

The disfigured fresco has drawn more than 40,000 visitors and raised more than 50,000 euros ($66,285) for a local charity in the town of Borja since gaining worldwide attention. It has spurred the town to put the likeness on merchandise it hopes will sell for years to come. And Gimenez has even had her own art exhibit, with two dozen of her other works showing through Aug. 24 in the town of 5,000.

Gimenez and a local council are to sign a deal next week to share profits from merchandise featuring the image, with the artist getting 49 percent and the council the rest, said councilor Juan Maria Ojeda, who listed the tourism and income figures.

The turnaround is apparently quite the relief for the Spanish retiree, who was overwhelmed by the attention a year ago.

“Now it seems like everyone’s happy,” local paper Heraldo de Aragon quoted the once-media shy Gimenez as saying in Sunday’s edition. “I’m grateful that things have quieted down.”

The fresco originally depicted Christ with a crown of thorns in a style known as Ecce Homo (Behold the Man). The church painting was for decades a little-known piece of religious art by a minor Spanish artist. It had remained in peaceful obscurity in the Misericordia sanctuary since it was painted in 1930.

That was until Gimenez, a longtime devotee of the work, decided it needed some attention because it was flaking due to the damp church air. Her attempt didn’t go so well, and some dubbed Gimenez’s retouching of it Ecce Mono—Behold the Monkey.

But soon the retouched version grew popular. The image started appearing—without authorization—on T-shirts and cellphone covers, coffee mugs and wine labels. People arrived in Borja asking to see the painting.

The council started charging an entrance fee of 1 euro ($1.30), giving the money to the Sancti Spiritus charitable foundation, which used the windfall to help pay bills at a care home for 60 elderly people. The council also got lawyers to establish copyright and draw up a merchandising agreement, which will see the image put on plates, postcards and cigarette lighters, among other items.

“It’s a timely agreement,” Ojeda, the councilor, told The Associated Press by telephone from Borja. “The money is going to good causes.”

AP-WF-08-13-13 1717GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Museum of Art and Design to showcase ‘Inspired’ works

‘Late V Chair,’ 2008, by Sebastian Brajkovic. Bronze, embroidered upholstery. Photo credit: Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London.

NEW YORK – As part of its fifth anniversary celebration, the Museum of Arts and Design will present “Inspired,” an exhibition showcasing works that have joined the museum’s collection since the opening of its new Columbus Circle building in 2008. Featuring more than 100 works of sculpture, jewelry, ceramics, furniture and textiles, “Inspired” will explore how contemporary creators from around the globe are carrying the craft tradition into the 21st century with innovative techniques and practices that incorporate mediums both new and familiar.

On view from March 18 through Oct. 13, 2014, the exhibition will highlight varied sources of artistic inspiration as expressed in handcrafted works by Robert Arneson, Judy Chicago, Mary Jackson and Kim Schmahmann, alongside cutting-edge design objects by Ron Arad, Sebastian Brajkovic and Ayala Serfaty, among many others.

“‘Inspired’ will offer viewers insight into contemporary inspiration as it highlights common themes that fuel artistic creativity,” said David Revere McFadden, chief curator at MAD. “From its opening in 1956 as the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the museum has dedicated itself to bringing to life the vision of today’s living artists. As we look back on the past five years since moving to Columbus Circle, we are thrilled to continue this tradition of revealing the spectrum of influences in art and design practice today with the presentation of some of the best examples of contemporary craftsmanship from MAD’s collection.”

The launch of the Jerome and Simona Chazen Building at Columbus Circle has allowed MAD to advance its institutional vision and mission of celebrating the craftsmanship and creative processes of contemporary artists and designers from around the world. In the last five years, the collection has grown in scope, depth and in synergy with this mission, with over 700 works that illustrate imaginative approaches to transforming materials. Beyond providing an overview of the collection’s ongoing development, “Inspired” will aim to highlight common thematic threads across MAD’s recent acquisitions, revealing several shared sources of artistic inspiration across the contemporary art and design fields.

The exhibition will delve more specifically into six sources of inspiration at play in the featured works. Many of the artists and designers are motivated by the aesthetic and inherent properties of materials, either retaining their structure or manipulating it to create distinctly new visual forms. Similarly, the process of transforming materials, whether using traditional techniques or digital production, can serve as an impetus for creating imaginative works. Others reflect on the past, either through autobiographical and cultural narratives as an outlet for personal stories, or to illustrate shared political and cultural histories. The inherent beauty of the natural world has also served as an influence for artists and designers, catalyzing their interest in replicating or embellishing on the organic formations found in the environment. Additionally, the profundity of silence figures prominently in works that focus on the simplicity of color, shape, material and craftsmanship, and that have a reflective, meditative quality as a result.

Highlights from the exhibition include the following works:

Maya Lin critiques the accumulation of refuse in today’s consumer-based society with FedEx World, 2007, a topographical sculpture created from FedEx packages the artist received over the course of a year;
Dror Benshetrit’s Vases of Phases, 2006, visually captures the object’s broken form after it was dropped at three intervals;
Ron Arad reconceptualizes chair design with 2 R Not, 1992, which can be configured in a variety of positions to create a seat, with the exception of two sides, thus the name;
Melanie Bilenker transcribes a photo of herself in several mediums to create Sock, 2010, a self-portrait pendant using her own hair;
Edyta Cieloch renders a porcelain tea set nonfunctional with Spanish Lace, 2008, whose form is hand-carved with a delicate lace pattern;
A strong autobiographical narrative emerges in Grayson Perry’s Fake, 1995, a ceramic vase in which the artist depicts himself as his cross-dressing alter-ego “Claire;”
Jo Meester examines the shift from a natural to corporate-dominated landscape by sandblasting away the decoration on a traditional Oriental vase to recreate Holland’s contemporary skyline in Vases (ornamental inheritance), 2004;
Judy Chicago confronts her cultural past with The Fall, 1993, a 15-foot tapestry narrative of the Holocaust.

“Inspired” is organized by David Revere McFadden, William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design. In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of essays will be released online and made available to the public via the Museum of Arts and Design website.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

‘Melting Teapot,’ 2005, by Myra Mimlitsch-Gray. Silver, formed. Photo credit: Ed Watkins.

K-Series, Floor Lamp, c. 1972, by Shiro Kuramata. Acrylic. Photo credit: David Behl.

‘Flowers from McFadden Field,’ 2008, by Paul Stankard. Glass, flame-worked, cold-worked. Photo Credit: Ed Watkins.

British museum hopes to buy Jane Austen ring from singer

American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson at the January 21, 2013 inauguration of President Barack Obama, where she sang 'My Country 'Tis of Thee.' Official US Marine Corps photo by Kathy Reesey. Read more: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/index.php/features/people/10336-uk-halts-export-of-jane-austen-ring-purchased-by-kelly-clarkson#ixzz2bxLRXYNf

LONDON (AP) – A Jane Austen museum said Monday it has received 100,000 pounds ($155,000) from an anonymous benefactor to help it buy the writer’s ring back from singer Kelly Clarkson.

Earlier this month, the British government placed a temporary export ban on the gold-and-turquoise ring in the hope that money could be found to keep it in Britain.

The Jane Austen’s House museum said it had raised 103,200 pounds of the 152,450-pound asking price since launching a fundraising campaign on Friday, most of it from a single anonymous donation.

“We are two-thirds of the way there in 48 hours, which is tremendous, but we’re not there yet,” said museum fundraiser Louise West.

The author of Pride and Prejudice, who died at age 41 in 1817, left the ring to her sister Cassandra. It remained in the family until it was sold at a Sotheby’s auction last year.

The museum at Austen’s former home in Chawton, southern England, had hoped to buy the ring last year but was outbid when it sold for five times the estimated price.

Clarkson, an Austen fan who owns a first edition of the author’s novel Persuasion, was the successful buyer. But she has been prevented from taking the ring home to the U.S. by a power that allows the British government to temporarily halt the export of works judged to be national treasures.

The museum has until December to raise the rest of the money, and Clarkson has agreed to sell the ring should a buyer come forward.

West said the situation is a shame for Clarkson, “but the ring should stay in this country, because there is so little of Austen’s personal effects left.”

West said the museum had invited the 2002 American Idol winner to come visit the next time she is in Britain. She said Clarkson’s interest in the author was another sign that Austen’s popularity remains strong, 200 years after she published her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice.

“It is very good for Jane Austen PR that a young, famous American pop star expresses a love for her,” West said.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

AP-WF-08-12-13 1652GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Knitters cover Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Bridge in yarn

The Andy Warhol (Seventh Street) Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pa. Image by TheZachMorrisExperience. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – More than 1,800 knitters have covered Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Bridge in 3,000 feet of colorful yarn.

Volunteers worked all weekend to attach 580 blanket-size, hand-knitted panels to the pedestrian walkways on the downtown bridge.

The project was organized over the last year by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh and other local institutions. The group says knitters from more than 80 Pittsburgh neighborhoods and 120 area townships signed up to help.

The guild calls it the nation’s largest “yarn bomb.” The term applies to artists who knit coverings for everyday objects like lampposts, street signs and trees.

A community arts and crafts party will be held at the bridge on Aug. 25. The bridge will be covered in the yarn until Sept. 6.

AP-WF-08-12-13 1518GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Animal welfare group vandalizes Iowa butter cow

Postcard of John K. Daniels’s butter sculpture of a boy, cow and calf, Iowa State Fair, 1904. Sponsored by Beatrice Creamery Co. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An animal welfare group intent on sending a message in support of veganism hid until closing time then poured red paint over the Iowa State Fair’s butter cow. But the damage was quickly scraped away and visitors never knew the sculpture had been damaged.

Iowans for Animal Liberation claimed responsibility for the attack in a news release emailed Sunday night, saying members hid in the cavernous Agriculture Building on Saturday night and emerged after the fair closed for the day. They then broke into a refrigerated room where the sculpted cow and other butter sculptures are displayed and poured red paint over the cow.

The words “Freedom for all” were scrawled on a display window.

“The paint represents the blood of 11 billion animals murdered each year in slaughterhouses, egg farms, and dairies,” the group said in the statement. “We intend this action to serve as a wake up call to all who continue to consume meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and all animal products: You are directly supporting suffering and misery on the largest scale the world has ever known.”

Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Scott Bright said Monday that fair staffers discovered the damage Sunday morning. A sculptor scraped off damaged sections of the cow and reapplied new butter while other workers cleaned off paint elsewhere in the room.

The display area, which this year also features a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and a depiction of the Lincoln Highway that crosses Iowa, opened as usual at 9 a.m. Sunday.

The cow, which is made with about 600 pounds of butter covering a wood and metal frame, has been a part of the fair since 1911. The butter is reused for up to 10 years.

Describing the vandalism as “more of an inconvenience than anything else,” Bright said security procedures at the 450 acres fairground in east Des Moines would remain the same. He noted the Agriculture Building, built in 1904, has plenty of hiding places and is usually packed with people, many of whom gather around the butter cow display.

“Everyone comes out to see the butter cow,” Bright said. The fair typically attracts more than 1 million visitors annually.

“The butter cow looks good now and everything is back to normal,” he said.

AP-WF-08-12-13 1713GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Dreier loses $33M art collection in wake of Ponzi scheme

NEW YORK (AP) – Eighteen contemporary artworks have been transferred to a hedge fund victimized in a massive $400 million fraud scheme, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office said Monday.

The works by such boldface artists as Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst had belonged to Marc Dreier, a once-prominent Manhattan lawyer whom prosecutors called “the Houdini of impersonation and false documents.”

Dreier is serving 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and other charges in 2009. The scheme involved the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in fake promissory notes to hedge funds.

U.S. marshals turned over the works, valued at some $33 million, to New York-based Heathfield Capital Limited.

Some of the transferred works include Hirst’s Elaidic Anhydride (hot pinks spot painting), Rothko’s Untitled and Warhol’s Jackie.

In July, federal Judge Jed Rakoff upheld Heathfield’s right to the artworks that Dreier had pledged as security to finalize a deal, calling the fund the “last and largest victims of Dreier’s fraud.”

Heathfield previously transferred $1.65 million in forfeited funds to the government, which will be made available to other victims of the scheme, prosecutors said.

Authorities say Dreier received $670 million between 2004 and 2008 from the sale of fictitious securities, spending much of it on a lavish lifestyle that included millions of dollars worth of art, beachfront homes on both coasts and a yacht.

AP-WF-08-12-13 1751GMT

MLK Memorial may not be ready for anniversary

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. National Park Service photo, sourced from Wikimedia Commons. It is believed that the use of this image of a copyrighted work constitutes fair-use and does not infringe on copyright.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Work to refinish part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial where a disputed inscription was recently removed may not be done until after the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Executive architect Ed Jackson Jr. told The Associated Press on Monday that a disagreement arose over the past 10 days over how to sandblast and refinish the stone where an inscription was recently chiseled away.

The side of the memorial’s “Stone of Hope” has been left unfinished because the main contractor, Worcester Eisenbrandt Inc. of Baltimore, doesn’t have insurance to complete the sandblasting with steel pellets, the way it was originally created, Jackson said.

There are color differences now where words were removed, and a slight yellow stain was left on the stone Friday when workers tried an alternate process using walnut shells to blast the stone.

“It looks unfinished,” Jackson said. “The artist is furious about leaving his work unfinished.”

Sculptor Lei Yixin, who created the memorial, traveled from China to do the corrective work and plans to return home Aug. 20.

Lei told AP that sandblasting was always a crucial piece of the project, and he did not know how it was left out of the National Park Service’s contract.

“All we have done is kind of physical damage to the sculpture because we chiseled the inscription out,” Lei said through his son, Ke Shi, who interpreted. “The sandblasting is a way to restore the damaged surface to make those damaged surfaces look uniform with the rest of it.”

National Park Service spokeswoman Carol Johnson said officials agree the work must be done, but it may have to be part of a new contract because of government rules.

The project may have to stop for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on Aug. 28 when commemorative events are expected to draw big crowds. Scaffolding would be taken down around the monument, and work would resume later, she said.

“We are committed to going forward in the way Master Lei wants to go forward,” Johnson said. “It’s just a question of what’s the best way and the quickest way to get this done.”

It was not clear how the sandblasting process that was used to create the memorial more than two years ago was left out of the contract.

Jackson said part of the problem was there was never full agreement with the National Park Service on the process outlined by Lei. He said the foundation that built the memorial felt the park service was choosing the wrong contractor to remove the disputed inscription.

The Park Service said the project requirements were not clear.

“We certainly didn’t know that this is what was going to be necessary until the process had already started,” Johnson said. “Otherwise it would have been in the contract.”

The agency is still working to finish the project before Lei leaves for China, Johnson said. It is seeking approval to have the work done by the agency’s Historic Preservation Training Center, “under the watchful eye of Master Lei,” she said.

That could allow the project to be completed before the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The now-removed inscription was a paraphrase from King’s “Drum Major” speech. It read, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”

Critics, including the poet Maya Angelou, argued the quotation was taken out of context when it was paraphrased and shortened. Angelou said it made King sound arrogant.

___

Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

AP-WF-08-13-13 0019GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Sign up for daily highlights by email