April 10, 2014 - Auction Central News

Slotin Folk Art sale stacked with iconic works April 26-27

Lot 135 – Sam Doyle, ‘St. Helena’s First Blak Midwife Trane By Dr. White,’ circa 1980s, signed and titled, house paint on found roofing tin, 28in x 50in. Est. $25,000-$35,000. Slotin Folk Art image.

BUFORD, Ga. – The highly anticipated weekend sale featuring 1,151 lots of self-taught art, outsider art, Southern folk pottery, antique and anonymous folk art, as well as blues, jazz and rock memorabilia and will be held April 26-27, 2014 by Slotin Auction.

LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding.

This sale will feature premiere examples from the collection of Dr. Robert Bishop, author and former director of the Museum of American Folk Art, the collection of Jay Johnson, authority in 20th century folk art and owner of American’s Folk Heritage Gallery, New York, and the Gitter Family Folk Art Collection. Also, featured in this sale is the entire blues, jazz and rock estate of prominent Atlanta collector Walter Glenn. A fully illustrated auction catalog is available, live phone and absentee bidding will be executed and LiveAuctioneers.com will host Internet bidding.

And this auction will feature and exciting mix of offerings: Southern folk pottery, self-taught art masters, Southern furniture, historical and political items, religious items, quilts, African American carvings and paintings, international paintings, Native American art, portraits, trade signs, weather vanes, vernacular photography, erotica, canes, new discoveries and more. And for the first time, Slotin Auction will offer vintage rock posters, autographs, photos and memorabilia of jazz and blues greats, period sheet music, primitive instruments, and an original 1937 Robert Johnson Record.

“We have a stunning catalog, with some of the best examples by each artist and art form we have every put together in one auction. There is much to choose from,” said Steve Slotin of Slotin Auction. Whether you are looking for a museum-quality masterpiece or a starter piece for your collection, this sale will definitely have something for everyone.

The April 26 session will kick off at 10 a.m. Eastern with more 125 lots of face jugs, the crowd-pleasing expressions of Southern folk pottery, crafted by some of the most famous artisans in the field: 12 fantastic early face jugs by Lanier Meaders, including lot 74, a black-eyed rock tooth devil jug (est. $3,000-$5,000), and Lot 75, devil jack-o’-lantern (est. $3,000-$5,000); 10 fantastic jugs and pots by Arie and Cheever Meaders including Lot 58, a rare Evan Javan brown devil face jug (est. $1,000-$2,000); three gorgeous Edwin Meaders Roosters and two rare W.J. Gordy works.

A nice selection of antique and anonymous items will also hit the auction block including Lot 126, “a sugar chest in the shape of a desk,” circa 1825-50 (est. $10,000-$20,000), and Lot 128, an 1863 35-star American flag (est. $1,000-$2,000).

The list of top-tier artists is extensive in this sale. Six works by Sam Doyle kick off the Masterpiece section, including Lot 135, the iconic St. Helena’s First Blak Midwife Trane By Dr. White (sic), which is from the private collection of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and illustrated on page 110 in the Museum of America Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art & Artists (est. $25,000-$35,000). Three works by William Hawkins will be sold. Of special note is Lot 141, Rider On Horseback (est. $20,000-$30,000). Lot 144, a rare Melrose Plantation quilt by Clementine Hunter from an important California estate, (est. $10,000-$15,000) will hit the auction block, along with stunning masterworks by Minnie Evans, Myrtice West, Chris Hipkiss, Mattie Lou O’Kelley, Vestie Davis, Ulysses Davis and Gustav Klumpp. A large Thornton Dial assemblage, Lot 165, is titled Fourth Of July Tiger (est. 20,000-25,000). Four works by Sister Gertrude Morgan are led by Lot 195, Seven-Headed Monster With Ten Horns, which was exhibited at the American Folk Art Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and illustrated on page 36 of William A. Fagaly’s The Art of Sister Gertrude (est. 6,000-9,000). A rare construction by Herman Bridgers, Lot 164, Two Churchmens, illustrated on page 37 of American Primitive by Roger Ricco and Frank Maresca, is sure to stir up excitement (est. $5,000-$10,000). An amazing grouping of large, early numbered works by crowd favorite and folk art master Howard Finster, will hit the block, including Lot 168, Henry Ford Had a Vision, #4,865 (est. $8,000-$12,000) and Lot 175, According To The Bible We Can Bridle The Tongue, #353 (est. $2,000-$4,000

Other prominent artists featured in this sale round out a virtual who’s who in self-taught art with examples by Nellie Mae Rowe, Victor Joseph Gatto, Jon Serl, Lawrence Lebduska, Israel Litwak, Antonio Esteves, Uncle Jack Dey, Nan Phelps, Abraham Levin, John Roeder, Frank Jones, Clarence Woolsey, Raymond Coins, Justin McCarthy, Jack Savitsky, Chelo Gonzalez, Johnnie Swearingen, Herbert Singleton, Kathy Jakobsen, Bettye Williams, Charlie Willeto, Lee Godie, Uncle Pete Drgac, Purvis Young, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Sulton Rogers, and an incredible new discovery, Oscar T. Nelson, who depicted scenes from the Euclid Beach (Ohio) Amusement Park on Lake Erie in the 1950s.

The Sunday sale will kick off with the estate of Walter Glenn beginning with Lot 739 and a collection of vintage first-run concert posters including a Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley design for Howlin Wolf At the Avalon, a concert that was canceled (Lot 741, est. $2,000-$3,000). The highly anticipated, Lot 766. Robert Johnson Walkin’ Blues and Sweet Home Chicago, full-range recording Vocalion, #03601, dated 1937, is estimated at $4,000-$6,000. Glenn’s world-famous autograph collection follows with rarities such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Miles Davis, Ray Charles Little Walter, B.B. King, T. Bone Walker, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and of special note, Lot 778, a seminude photo of Pearl Bailey and signature card, (est. $800-$1,200). Sunday’s lots will also include a collection of primitive instruments, erotica including nudes of Betty Page and original Paul “Kurt Schnurr” Kirchner illustration art for Screw Magazine, native baskets, Haitian paintings, Native American folk art and even some prison art.

Slotin Auction specializes in bringing the strange, the unusual and the vanishing America to auction.

For details contact Slotin Auction by calling 770-532-1115 or 404-403-4244, or email them at auction@slotinfolkart.com.

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.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Lot 778 – Pearl Bailey,‘seminude photograph with signature card.’ Photo is 7.5in x 10in. Signature card is 4.5in x 3.5in. Est. $800-$1,200. Slotin Folk Art image.

Lot 75 – Lanier Meaders, devil jack-o’-lantern face jug. c. 1970s, signed, opening in back for candle, 10in high. Est. $3,000-$5,000. Slotin Folk Art image.

Lot 141 – William Hawkins, ‘Rider On Horseback,’ 1988, Signed and dated with Hawkins’ birthdate, enamel on Masonite, image 48in x 36in. Est. $20,000-$30,000. Slotin Folk Art image.

Lot 766 – Robert Johnson, ‘Walkin’ Blues' and 'Sweet Home Chicago,' full-range recording, Vocalion #03601, dated, 1937. Est. $4,000-$6,000. Slotin Folk Art image. — Lot 766 – Robert Johnson, ‘Walkin’ Blues’ and ‘Sweet Home Chicago,’ full-range recording, Vocalion #03601, dated, 1937. Est. $4,000-$6,000. Slotin Folk Art image.

Lot 168 – Howard Finster, ‘Henry Ford Had a Vision, #4,865.’ 1985, signed, titled, numbered and dated, tractor enamel on board, size with frame 50in x 27in. Est. $8,000-$12,000. Slotin Folk Art image.

Grogan to host A Room with a Vieux retirement auction Apr. 26

Louis XVI-style fruitwood marquetry-inlaid and ormolu-mounted marble-top cylinder desk. Est. $2,000-$4,000. Grogan & Co. image

DEDHAM, Mass. – After more than 30 years as high-end French antique importers and dealers, Jeff Diamond and Ellen Nadler of A Room with a Vieux Antiques of Boston and Brookline, have decided that it’s time to retire. The inventory from both their retail locations will be sold in a one-day unreserved auction conducted by Grogan and Company, Fine Art Auctioneers and Appraisers on Saturday, April 26. Over 700 lots of French furniture and decorative works of art have been moved to Grogan and Company’s 7,000-square-foot gallery located at 22 Harris Street in Dedham, Mass., where the auction will be held. LiveAuctioneers will provide the Internet live bidding services for the sale.

Diamond opened A Room with a Vieux Antiques in the 1980s, making bi-monthly buying trips to France to seek out 18th- and 19th-century French furnishings and decorative works of art for his clients throughout the United States.

“I have never stopped feeding my addiction for the very best in French decorative objects and furniture,” said Diamond. “Interestingly, my French dealer friends who have visited me in Boston over the years have marveled at the collection that was assembled.”

Despite closing their two retail locations, Diamond will continue to operate Restorers without Borders, a furniture restoration business located in Brookline that specializes in the repair and restoration of all styles of new, vintage and antique furniture.

Diamond’s 30 years of passionate collecting has resulted in an impressive collection of French furnishings in the taste of all French styles: Henry II, Napoleon III, Empire, Louis XV, Louis XVI, and French provincial. The inventory boasts over 30 armoires, 20 marble top commodes, 40 cabinets, 70 tables, 30 carved giltwood mirrors, 50 chandeliers and sconces, 50 beds, and a selection of seating including settees, canapés, bergeres and fauteuils. A large assortment of decorative works of art includes ormolu-mounted marble cassolettes, desk accessories, floor lamps and lamp bases, fireplace accessories, cast-iron hall trees, garden sculptures and porcelain-inset stoves.

Highlights include an impressive French Louis XVI-style finely carved walnut dome-top armoire with a mirrored center door, bronze candelabra and side cabinets. The massive 114 by 82-inch armoire is estimated at $10,000-$20,000 and features a figural and putti carved motif with bird and flame finials and painted cartouche. Included, as well, is an 84-inch-tall Louis XVI-style fruitwood marquetry inlaid and ormolu-mounted 2-part vitrine-top cabinet, estimated at $5,000-$10,000; and a Louis XVI-style fruitwood marquetry-inlaid and ormolu-mounted marble-top cylinder desk estimated at $2,000-$4,000. One of the finer cabinets in the auction is a Napoleon III-style marquetry-inlaid and ormolu-mounted meuble d’appui, estimated at $5,000-$10,000 and measuring 45 x 39 x 17 inches.

A selection of more than 40 period Art Deco offerings is highlighted by a burled walnut dining room set, $3,000-$6,000, comprised of an impressive sideboard, table with leaves, and six dining chairs. A Pierre Cardin Art Deco burled walnut demilune desk, estimated at $8,000 to $10,000, has two pedestals with three drawers each and a leather inset writing area; while a 3-piece, circa-1930 Art Deco figural bronze and rouge marble clock garniture is estimated at $800-$1,200.

Highlights among the decorative works of art include a Barbedienne bronze and rouge marble clock garniture featuring a reduced version of Psyche by Eugene Aizelin mounted on a rouge marble clock base with figural bronze reliefs, accompanied by a pair of two-handled chalices on rouge marble bases. The three-piece set is estimated at $2,000-$4,000. Ceramic offerings include a selection of majolica and faience items, as well as two large, glazed-earthenware urns. A collection of prints by Louis Icart and two oils on canvas, one after 18th-century French artist Francois Boucher, appear late in the sale.

For enthusiasts of unusual objects, a very large and fanciful iron birdcage on stand, over 8 feet tall, has an estimate of $1,000-$2,000. A winged figural lamp used as a prop in a 20th-century French opera is estimated $200-$300, and a midcentury Italian chrome and plastic mushroom-shape lamp, $400-$600, was used in the recent film American Hustle.

The auction will start at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. All items will be offered without reserve. Everything must go. For more information on any item in the sale, call 781-461-9500.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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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.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Barbedienne bronze and rouge marble 3-piece clock garniture with a reduced version of Eugene Aiuzelin’s famous Psyche. Est. $2,000-$4,000. Grogan & Co. image

This midcentury Italian chrome mushroom-form plastic-shade lamp was recently used as a prop in the 2013 film ‘American Hustle.’ Est. $400-$600. Grogan & Co. image

Art Deco 3-piece figural bronze-mounted rouge marble clock garniture. Est. $800-$1,200. Grogan & Co. image

Napoleon III-style marquetry-inlaid and ormolu-mounted meuble d’appui. Est. $5,000-$10,000. Grogan & Co. image

Pierre Cardin Art Deco burled walnut 2-pedestal demilune desk, 20th century, with leather inset writing surface. Est. $5,000-$10,000. Grogan & Co. image

Impressive Louis XVI-style finely carved walnut dome-top armoire with bronze candelabra, 114 x 82 inches. Est. $10,000-$20,000. Grogan & Co. image

New technology unwraps mummies’ ancient mysteries

A mummy in the British Museum. Image by Klafubra. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

LONDON (AP) – Our fascination with mummies never gets old. Now the British Museum is using the latest technology to unwrap their ancient mysteries.

Scientists at the museum have used CT scans and sophisticated imaging software to go beneath the bandages, revealing skin, bones, preserved internal organs – and in one case a brain-scooping rod left inside a skull by embalmers.

The findings go on display next month in an exhibition that sets eight of the museum’s mummies alongside detailed three-dimensional images of their insides and 3-D printed replicas of some of the items buried with them.

Bio-archaeologist Daniel Antoine said Wednesday that the goal is to present these long-dead individuals “not as mummies but as human beings.”

Mummies have been one of the British Museum’s biggest draws ever since it opened in 1759. Director Neil MacGregor said 6.8 million people visited the London institution last year, “and every one asked one of my colleagues, ‘Where are the mummies?’”

The museum has been X-raying its mummies since the 1960s, but modern CT scanners give a vastly sharper image. Just like live patients, the mummies chosen for the exhibition were scanned at London hospitals – though they were wheeled in after hours.

Volume graphics software, originally designed for car engineering, was then used to put flesh on the bones of the scans – showing skeletons, adding soft tissue, exploring the nooks and cavities inside.

The eight mummies belong to individuals who lived in Egypt or Sudan between 3,500 B.C. and A.D. 700. They range from poor people naturally preserved in sand – the cheapest burial option – to high-ranking Egyptians given elaborate ceremonial funerals.

“You got what you paid for, basically,” said museum mummy expert John Taylor. “There were different grades of mummification.”

Embalmers were exceptionally skilled, extracting the brain of the deceased through the nose, although they sometimes made mistakes.

The museum’s scientists were thrilled to discover a spatula-like probe still inside one man’s skull, along with a blob of brain.

“The tool at the back of the skull was quite a revelation, because embalmers’ tools are something that we don’t know much about,” Taylor said. “To find one actually inside a mummy is an enormous advance.”

The man, who died around 600 BC., also had painful dental abscesses that might have killed him. Another mummy, a woman who lived in Sudan around A.D. 700 was a Christian with a tattoo of the Archangel Michael’s name on her inner thigh.

The star of the show is Tamut, a temple singer from a family of high-ranking priests who died in Thebes around 900 B.C. Her brightly decorated casket, covered in images of birds and gods, has never been opened, but the scans have revealed in extraordinary detail her well-preserved body, down to her face and short-cropped hair.

Tamut was in her 30s or 40s when she died, and had calcified plaque inside her arteries – a sign of a fatty diet, and high social status. She may well have died from a heart attack or stroke.

Several amulets carefully are arranged on her body, including a figure of a goddess with its wings spread protectively across her throat. It’s even possible to see beeswax figurines of gods placed inside her chest to protect the internal organs in the afterlife.

“The clarity of the images is advancing very rapidly,” Taylor said. “As the technology advances, we have hopes that we may be able to read even hieroglyphic inscriptions on objects inside mummies.”

MacGregor said the museum plans eventually to scan all 120 of its Egyptian and Sudanese mummies, and to reveal even more about their lives.

“Come back in another five years and you will hear Tamut sing,” he said.

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“Ancient Lives: New Discoveries” opens at the British Museum on May 22 and runs to Nov. 30.

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Follow Jill Lawless at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

AP-WF-04-09-14 1529GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Work under way to recover last Corvette from Ky. sinkhole

A 1962 Corvette was lifted out of the sinkhole nose first on Tuesday. Image courtesy of Chevrolet.

A 1962 Corvette was lifted out of the sinkhole on March 4. Image courtesy of Chevrolet.

BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky (AP) – Workers are digging away to retrieve the last of eight classic Corvettes gobbled up by a giant sinkhole beneath a museum in Kentucky.

The last car buried is a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette. The vehicle is upside down, about 40 feet beneath the surface.

National Corvette Museum spokeswoman Katie Frassinelli said the workers hoped to recover the car by Thursday.

The prized cars were swallowed by the sinkhole that opened up in February beneath part of the domed section of the museum in Bowling Green.

Frassinelli says the damage has been progressively worse as each car was pulled out in recent weeks.

The eight cars will be on display at the museum through August. They will be shipped to a General Motors plant in Michigan to be repaired.

AP-WF-04-09-14 1638GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Il mercato dell’arte in Italia: Frida Kahlo a Roma

Frida Kahlo, ‘Autoritratto come Tehuana, (o Diego nei miei pensieri),’ 1943, olio su tela, cm 76 x 61. The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art and The Vergel Foundation, Cuernavaca. © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. by SIAE 2014.

ROMA – Nel sessantesimo anniversario dalla scomparsa di Frida Kahlo (1907‐1954), l’Italia rende omaggio all’artista, mito e icona della cultura messicana novecentesca, con due mostre: una alle Scuderie del Quirinale a Roma (fino al 31 agosto), che analizza il rapporto tra l’artista e i movimenti artistici e culturali del suo tempo, e l’altra a Palazzo Ducale a Genova (dal 20 settembre) che indaga, invece, l’universo privato dell’artista e il suo rapporto con l’artista e compagno Diego Rivera.

Di certo nelle opere di Frida Kahlo è sempre presente l’inestricabile rapporto tra arte e vita, che per lei fu segnata da forti passioni e sofferenze, ma allo stesso tempo i dipinti e disegni dell’artista messicana riflettono anche i rivolgimenti del suo tempo, il suo credo politico, gli incontri con personaggi come André Breton e Lev Trotsky. “Sono nata con una rivoluzione”, sosteneva, anche se era nata nel 1907. “Diciamolo. È in quel fuoco che sono nata, portata dall’impeto della rivolta fino al momento di vedere giorno. Il giorno era cocente. Mi ha infiammato per il resto della mia vita. Sono nata nel 1910. Era estate. Di lì a poco Emiliano Zapata, el Gran Insurrecto, avrebbe sollevato il sud. Ho avuto questa fortuna: il 1910 è la mia data”.

Anche dal punto di vista artistico, le sue opere rappresentano una sorta di punto di intersezione tra le tradizioni folkloristiche e l’avanguardia artistica, tra il Modernismo e Surrealismo, tra la Nuova Oggettività e il Realismo magico, tra lo Stridentismo e il Muralismo messicano. Ed è questo che la mostra di Roma, la prima di queste dimensioni mai dedicata all’artista in Italia, vuole mostrare mettendo le opere di Frida Kahlo in dialogo con altri protagonisti del suo tempo, dagli italiani Giorgio de Chirico e Gino Severini, all’inglese Roland Penrose, al tedesco Carlo Mense, ai messicani José David Alfaro Siqueiros, Maria Izquierdo, Abraham Angel e naturalmente Diego Rivera.

L’esposizione è curata da Helga Prignitz Poda, autrice del catalogo ragionato dell’artista, e raccoglie circa 160 opere tra dipinti e disegni che coprono l’intera carriera di Frida Kahlo. Oltre quaranta i ritratti e gli autoritratti, a partire dal primo di una lunghissima serie: “Autoritratto con vestito di velluto” del 1926, dipinto a 19 anni per riconquistare l’amato Alejandro Gòmez Arias. In quest’opera, dipinta dopo il terribile incidente stradale che segnò la sua vita, Frida Kahlo raccolse la lezione di Diego Rivera, suo futuro marito, che attraverso i suoi affreschi le trasmise l’eredità rinascimentale, e si ispirò ad artisti come Botticelli e Bronzino.

Un altro celebre autoritratto in mostra, esposto per la prima volta in Italia, è “Autoritratto con collana di spine”, dipinto nel 1940. In quegli anni la fama di Frida Kahlo iniziava già a diffondersi a livello internazionale: nel 1938 c’era stata la prima personale a New York presso la galleria di Julien Levy, famoso per aver portato in America i surrealisti parigini; nel 1939 seguì una mostra a Parigi, alla galleria Lerou et Colle, organizzata da Breton. E poi nel 1942 espose di nuovo a New York, questa volta nella mostra “Portrait of the 20th Century” al MoMa e nel 1943 in una rassegna di artiste organizzata da Peggy Guggenheim.

In questo periodo Frida Kahlo viene chiamata ad insegnare all’Accademia e attorno a lei si crea un piccolo gruppo di seguaci che si facevano chiamare “Los Fridos”. Nell'”Autoritratto con scimmie”, del 1943, Frida Kahlo si rappresenta come un’insegnante orgogliosa e umoristicamente raffigura il suo gruppo di studenti come delle scimmiette adoranti. Anche importanti collezionisti e mercanti d’arte iniziarono a sostenerla con acquisti e commissioni. Per esempio il ritratto di Marucha Lavín, anch’esso in mostra a Roma, fu commissionato a Frida Kahlo da un suo collezionista, il ricco ingegnere José Domingo Lavín. Per dare enfasi alla figura della moglie di Lavín, Frida Kahlo adottò il formato rinascimentale del tondo.

In mostra ci sono anche diversi disegni, tra cui lo “Schizzo a matita per il dipinto Ospedale Henry Ford (o Il letto volante)” del 1932, e oggetti come il famoso “corsetto in gesso” che teneva Frida Kahlo prigioniera subito dopo l’incidente e che lei dipinse ancor prima di passare ai ritratti. Si tratta di un pezzo unico che fino a poco tempo fa si credeva perduto.

E infine le fotografie. La mostra include i ritratti di Frida Kahlo realizzati da Nickolas Muray, per dieci anni amante dell’artista, tra cui “Frida sulla panchina Bianca, New York, 1939” che è diventato poi una famosa copertina della rivista Vogue, contribuendo a creare il mito Frida Kahlo.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Frida Kahlo, ‘Autoritratto con vestito di velluto,’ 1926, olio su tela, cm 79,7 x 59,9. Collezione Privata © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. by SIAE 2014.

Frida Kahlo, ‘Autoritratto al confine tra Messico e Stati Uniti,’ 1937, olio su piastra di rame, cm 31,7 x 35. Collezione Privata © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. by SIAE 2014.

Art Market Italy: Frida Kahlo in Rome

Frida Kahlo, ‘Self-portrait as Tehuana, (or Diego in my thoughts),’ 1943, oil on canvas, cm 76 x 61. The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art and The Vergel Foundation, Cuernavaca. © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. by SIAE 2014.

ROME – On the 60th anniversary of the death of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Italy pays tribute to the artist – myth and icon of 20th-century Mexican culture, with two exhibitions: one at Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome (through Aug. 31), which analyzes the relationship between the artist and the artistic and cultural movements of her time, and the other at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa (starting on Sept. 20) that investigates, instead, the private world of the artist and her relationship with artist and partner Diego Rivera.

Of course in Frida Kahlo’s works the inextricable relationship between art and life, which for her was marked by strong passions and sufferings, is always present, but at the same time her paintings and drawings also reflect the upheavals of her time, her political beliefs, the encounters with characters such as André Breton and Leon Trotsky. “I was born with a revolution,” she liked to say, although she was born in 1907. “Let’s say so. It’s in that fire that I was born, carried by the impetus of the revolt until the moment I saw the light of day. The day was scorching. It inflamed me for the rest of my life. I was born in 1910. It was summer. Shortly after, Emiliano Zapata, el Gran Insurrecto, was to rouse the South. I had this good luck: 1910 is my date.”

Also from the artistic point of view, Frida Kahlo’s works represent a kind of point of intersection between folk traditions and avant-garde art, Modernism and Surrealism, New Objectivity and Magic Realism, Estridentism and Mexican Muralism. And this is what the exhibition in Rome, the first of this size ever dedicated to the artist in Italy, wants to show by putting the works of Frida Kahlo in dialogue with other protagonists of her time, such as Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Gino Severini, English artist Roland Penrose, German artist Carlo Mense, and Mexicans José David Alfaro Siqueiros, Maria Izquierdo, Abraham Angel, and of course Diego Rivera.

The exhibition is curated by Helga Prignitz Poda, author of the catalog raisonné of the artist, and includes about 160 works, including paintings and drawings spanning Kahlo’s entire career. There are over 40 portraits and self-portraits, from the first of a long series: Self-portrait with velvet dress from 1926, which she painted when she was 19 years old to win back the beloved Alejandro Gomez Arias. In this work, painted after the terrible accident that marked her life, Frida Kahlo picked up the lesson of her future husband, Diego Rivera, who through his frescoes taught her the heritage of the Renaissance, and inspired herself to artists such as Botticelli and Bronzino.

Another famous self-portrait in the exhibition, which is on display for the first time in Italy, is Self-Portrait with Necklace of Thorns, painted in 1940. In those years, the reputation of Frida Kahlo was already beginning to spread internationally. In 1938 she had her first solo exhibition in New York at the gallery of Julien Levy, famous for bringing the Parisian Surrealists to America. This was followed by an exhibition in Paris in 1939 at the gallery Lerou et Colle, which was organized by Breton. And then, in 1942, she exhibited again in New York, this time in the show “Portrait of the 20th Century” at the MoMA and, in 1943, in an exhibition of female artists organized by the Peggy Guggenheim.

During this period, Kahlo was called to teach at the academy. Around her a small group of followers who called themselves “Los Fridos” arose. In Self-Portrait with Monkeys, from 1943, Frida Kahlo represents herself as a proud teacher and humorously portrays her students as a group of adoring monkeys. Also important collectors and art dealers began to support her with purchases and commissions. For example, the portrait of Marucha Lavín, which is also on display in Rome, was commissioned to Frida Kahlo by one of her collectors, the wealthy engineer Domingo José Lavín. To emphasize the figure of Lavín’s wife, Frida Kahlo adopted the Renaissance format of the tondo.

In the exhibition there are also several drawings, including the Pencil Sketch for the painting Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed) from 1932, and items such as the famous “plaster corset” that held Frida Kahlo prisoner immediately after the accident and that she painted before moving on to portraits. It is a unique piece that until recently was believed to be lost.

And finally the photographs: The exhibition includes portraits of Kahlo made by Nickolas Muray, who was a lover of the artist for 10 years, including Frida on a White Bench, New York, 1939, which later became a famous cover of Vogue magazine, helping to create the myth of Frida Kahlo.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Frida Kahlo, ‘Self-portrait with velvet dress,’ 1926, oil on canvas, cm 79,7 x 59,9. Collezione Privata © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. by SIAE 2014.

Frida Kahlo, ‘Self-portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States,’ 1937, oil on copper plate, cm 31,7 x 35. Collezione Privata © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. by SIAE 2014.

Rare sarcophagus, Egyptian scarab found in Israel

Sarcophagus of Pharaoh Merenptah, Tomb KV8, Valley of the Kings. Photo taken by Hajor, December 2002, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license.

JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have unearthed a rare sarcophagus featuring a slender face and a scarab ring inscribed with the name of an Egyptian pharaoh.

The mystery man whose skeleton was found inside the sarcophagus was most likely a local Canaanite official in the service of ancient Egypt, Israeli archaeologists believe, shining a light on a period when pharaohs governed the region.

Edwin van den Brink, an Egyptologist and archaeologist with the authority, says the face is “very serene.”

He said his team of archaeologists found the sarcophagus while digging in recent months in northern Israel’s Jezreel Valley. He says the last time a similar item was found in the area was about 50 years ago.

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World’s top architects show off their own homes

Daniel Libeskind in front of his extension to the Denver Art Museum. Image by Ishmael Orendain. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

MILAN, Italy (AFP) – Leading world architects showed off features of their own homes this week at an international design fair in Milan – with eye-catching objects including indoor trees, red walls and a stair-bookcase.

Among the big names in attendance were U.S. architect Daniel Libeskind, Italy’s Massimiliano Fuksas and Japan’s Shigeru Ban – winner of this year’s prestigious Pritzker Prize, known as the “Nobel prize of architecture.”

“If I had to describe my apartment in three words they would be tree, tree and tree again!” a smiling Shigeru Ban said of his home in the suburbs of Tokyo at the sprawling Salone del Mobile in Italy’s business capital.

Rather than cut down the trees already on the site, Ban used them to create “wells” in the building, he said.

Curator Francesca Molteni told AFP the aim of the project – titled simply “Where Do Architects Live?” – was not to spy in their rooms but to understand what each culture means by the word ‘living.’

“For an architect, every home is a world,” she said.

Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan’s house in Sao Paulo has a large window “open on the chaos of the city.”

Fuksas and his wife, Doriana, a fellow architect, have an apartment on the Place des Vosges in Paris which she said she found inspirational because “it looks out over trees, like a carpet” that changes with the seasons.

Milan-based Mario Bellini offered up a signature detail of his house – a giant 30-foot-high staircase lined with books to save space.

“You are basically climbing over thousands of books and records. You distract yourself, you pick them up, you open them. All my photos are there too,” he said.

“Every time it’s a little journey through my story and what I love,” he said.

Libeskind, who is rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York, said he has a red wall in every room of his apartment as “a symbol of conscience and dynamism.”

Designing a house “is not just for the next fashion magazine” but about “sustainability,” he said.

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University of Illinois Alma Mater statue goes back to school

'Alma Mater' was created by Lorado Zadoc Taft (April 29, 1860 – Oct. 30, 1936), an American sculptor, writer and educator, born in Elmwood, Ill. Image courtesy of University of Illinois.

URBANA, Ill. (AP) – The University of Illinois’ Alma Mater sculpture has returned to campus after a year and a half away.

Campus officials say the 85-year-old sculpture began its trip home from Chicago early on Wednesday and was back in place on the corner of Wright and Green streets midmorning. The installation took several hours.

The 10,000-pound bronze sculpture was created by artist Lorado Taft. Generations of students have had their photos taken with it.

The statue was moved and disassembled in in 2012 for cleaning and a massive restoration.

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On the web:

Webcam of Alma Mater, http://illinois.edu/about/tours/almacam.html

AP-WF-04-09-14 1056GMT

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