Obamas Looking for Art

The Obamas are sending ripples through the art world as they put the call out to museums, galleries and private collectors that they’d like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic and female artists for the White House. In a sharp departure from the 19th-century still lifes, pastorals and portraits that dominate the White House’s public rooms, they are choosing bold, abstract artworks.

The overhaul is an important event for the art market. The Obamas’ art choices could affect the market values of the works and artists they decide to display. Museums and collectors have been moving quickly to offer up works for inclusion in the iconic space.

Read complete article at WSJ.

UPDATE: 

Listen to a discussion of this topic in Episode 11 at iconomaniacs.com.

Kunstbar (Art Bar)

by The Petrie Lounge

Sam Maloof dies at 93

Sam Maloof, a designer and woodworker whose furniture was initially prized for its simplicity and practicality by Southern Californian homeowners in the 1950s and later valued for its beauty and timelessness by collectors, museum curators and U.S. presidents, has died. He was 93.

Maloof died Thursday at his home in the Alta Loma section of Rancho Cucamonga.

View complete LA Times article.

Henry Moore Sculpture Melted

British police say they have figured out what happened to a two-ton Henry Moore sculpture stolen in 2005. They say it was probably melted down and sold as scrap metal!

Michelle Obama to Visit the Met

Lee Rosenbaum reports on her blog CultureGrrl that Michelle Obama will attend on Monday the ribbon-cutting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new American Wing, which will be followed by a private meeting with arts and entertainment leaders.

UPDATE: The arts define who we are as a people.

www.artinfo.com

Speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the new American wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday, First Lady Michelle Obama called for improving access to the arts — and arts education.

"The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it," she said. "Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation."

"We've been trying to break down barriers that too often exist between major cultural establishments and the people in their immediate communities; to invite kids who are living inches away from the power and prestige and fortune and fame, we want to let those kids know that they belong here, too."

Obama also gave a shoutout to those who work in the arts, and recognized the contribution that those workers and institutions bring to the national economy, pointing out that "nearly 6 million people make their living in the nonprofit arts industry, and arts and cultural activities contribute more than $160 billion to our economy every year."

Possible Early Michelangelo Painting on way to Texas

What may be Michelangelo's first known painting has been acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. “The Torment of St. Anthony” is believed by some scholars to have been painted by Michelangelo at 12 or 13. It will be displayed starting this fall after a summer exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Associated Press reports.

Speculations on the purchase price hover at more than $6 million.

A Possible 35,000-year-old Ivory Carving

Associated Press:

A carved ivory female figurine is presented in Tuebingen, southern Germany, Wednesday, May 13, 2009. The figurine, found in 2008 in a cave in Schelklingen, southern Germany is allegedly the world's oldest reproduction of a human with an estimated age of at least 35,000 years.

Sol LeWitt... That's It?!?

As a fan of Sol Lewitt's Conceptual works, I'd like to share a bit about him and his works. Sol LeWitt, born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1928, is considered to be an originator of Conceptual Art. In 1949, LeWitt earned his BFA from Syracuse University, and in 1953 attended what is now known as the School of Visual Arts in NY City. He worked as a graphic designer for an architect, and later worked the night desk at the Museum of Modern Art, NY to gain additional influence to a unique style of art he would soon pioneer.

1968 is the year that LeWitt first started a series of Wall Drawings where he would continue to add to the conceptual series through the beginning of the next century. They began very minimal, composed only of lines drawn with pencil or crayon directly on the wall, according to specific instructions written by the artist. These conceptual wall drawings brought him much popularity as well as criticisms from the art world.

Lewitt mastered a wide array of different media to create his artworks. To its simplest form of Wall Drawings: pencil directly on the wall, sculptures composed of wood in his series of Incomplete Open Cubes, to cinder blocks while he was in Italy, and later fiberglass, acrylics and even furniture, LeWitt was able to represent lines, and geometric shapes and patterns in a very distinct, unique, minimalistic style that only he could conceptualize. The change in his works and his choice in media and form shows his ability to progress through four decades of appreciation, criticism, and advancement in technologies to become a distinguished name in the art community.

Artist Talk

Please join the Chaffey College Student Invitational Artists as they discuss their artwork in this year’s exhibition.

Art Student Creates Invisible Car

University of Central Lancashire art student Sara Watson turned an old car from a local recycling company into a piece of environmental art. She created a trompe l’oeil by painting the vehicle to match the parking lot in front of her art studio’s entrance. The artwork is now being used to promote recycling.

Story with video on BBC NEWS.

Election of CAO Officers

All art students!

Will you be returning to Chaffey College in the Fall of 2009? Are you interested in all things art related? Are you wanting to be more involved on campus? Then you need to join the Chaffey Art Organization (CAO) and become a club officer. Learn more about the group at http://www.chaffeyart.org/.

CAO will be meeting this Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12:30 in the Wignall Museum. We will be discussing plans for next year and selecting new club officers. Positions that will be filled are President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.

If you'd like to be an officer, attend the meeting on Wednesday and bring your great ideas for next year!

Theory Claims Gauguin Cut Van Gogh's Ear

There is a new and very controversial theory about how Vincent van Gogh's ear was cut. Two German art historians believe that the injury was not self-inflicted, but rather Paul Gauguin sliced off a piece of Vincent van Gogh's ear with a fencing foil.

From The Guardian:

Vincent van Gogh's fame may owe as much to a legendary act of self-harm, as it does to his self-portraits. But, 119 years after his death, the tortured post-Impressionist's bloody ear is at the centre of a new controversy, after two historians suggested that the painter did not hack off his own lobe but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.

According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.

But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.