BERLIN (AP) – Abstract compositions of black lines and rectangles filled with red, blue and yellow highlight a new Piet Mondrian exhibition in Berlin. But the show goes far beyond the Dutch artist’s iconic works, tracing his stylistic development from the beginning with early works featuring idyllic nature scenes with windmills, willow trees and lawns.
JERUSALEM (AP) – A reserve colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps who led an international hunt for looted antiquities from Iraq a decade ago said Wednesday that the West needs to deploy forces to protect Mideast archaeological sites from extremists like the Islamic State group.
BEVERLY, Mass. – Kaminski Auctions will presents an unreserved auction Sept. 13 featuring two exceptional collections of porcelain, glass and silver: the collection of Dorothea M. Beers a noted Palm Beach, Fla. dealer specializing in Continental porcelain and silver, and a large New Hampshire estate. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding.
VINELAND, N.J. – In California, the term “private reserve” refers to wine of particularly high quality – often a type that has aged over a long period of time. It also describes to a ‘T’ the Clive Devenish bank collection, whose contents have “aged” serenely for decades in their owner’s various California homes. Undoubtedly one of the all-time great bank collections, it also stands out as being one of the least publicized, known to few in the hobby. That will change on Saturday, October 3rd, when Bertoia’s presents at auction Part I of the Clive Devenish collection of mechanical, still, tin and spelter banks. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
DENVER – One of the Denver Art Museum’s longest-running events, the 26th annual Friendship Powwow and American Indian Cultural Celebration will take place Saturday, Sept. 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, UK – Fellows’ Sept. 21 sale of silver promises to deliver a varied range of lots to suit all budgets and interests. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding.
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Russia has blocked Sweden from borrowing Marc Chagall paintings for an upcoming exhibition of the artist’s work, the Millesgarden Museum in Stockholm said Thursday, following a diplomatic dispute
between the two countries.
PITTSBURGH – Carnegie Museum of Art will soon unveil a group of exhibitions, running concurrently fall and winter, 2015–2016, celebrating modernism in Pittsburgh. Through extensive archival research, these exhibitions show a mid-century industrial city brimming with innovative architecture and design. They remind us that Pittsburgh has always been a hub of technology and creative industries, with developments here entering national conversations.
NEW YORK – In Tibetan Buddhism, prayer wheels are revolving metal or wooden cylinders filled with a scroll containing a mantra, or inscribed with prayers. Spinning the cylinders is considered comparable to saying the mantra, encouraging devotion and contemplation. Times Square is not a place of contemplation or devotion, aside from perhaps devotion to neon, life-size Elmos and the pursuit of giant M&Ms. Even so, street art duo Faile, in collaboration with the Times Square Alliance, created Wishing on You, a prayer wheel for our consumerist times.
The wheel is made of hand-carved and painted wood, set in the middle of a gazebo on the pedestrian plaza between 42nd and 43rd Streets. In place of spiritual mantras are pictures and phrases related to consumption, like “XXX movies,” “La Elegancia” and “Lottery.” Other symbols of our desire to acquire include ads for beer, toys made of gold and some “special deliveries” that suggest illicit pleasures for the right price.
More abstractly, a man with a dog’s head is rendered in candy-colored pastels. He’s carrying an orange-haired woman on his shoulders. She looks impossibly relaxed, leaning into an invisible breeze. There’s also a giant car, and a mermaid sitting beneath a “50% off” sign that makes it look as if she’s the object being discounted. It’s hard out there for a mermaid.
The exhibit is meant to be interactive; spin the wheel and you’ll set off the neon lights at the top. Either I need to work out more, or, much like finding peace in the middle of Times Square spinning the 7-foot-tall, heavy wheel is no easy feat.
If you’re a fan of Faile, but not of Times Square or of pushing heavy objects, you can get even more of the duo at the Brooklyn Museum for “Savage/Sacred Young Minds” exhibit, which includes, among other things, a temple and an arcade.
NEW YORK — LiveAuctioneers, the leading online marketplace for luxury and collectible auction items, is introducing a new program: Last Chance by LiveAuctioneers. In this venture, LiveAuctioneers works with auction houses to create curated sales using unsold, yet exceptional, items — giving discerning bidders a “last chance” at quality auction houses’ overlooked pieces.