Author: Iris
Scene depicting the myth of Hippolytus and Phaedra (Image courtesy of MIC Pompeii Archaeological Park)From sexy murals emerging from the ashes to hidden cities revealed through light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scans, archaeologists continue to make discoveries that change our understanding of the past and how best to preserve it for the future. This year in particular has seen archaeologists stand up for their work, speaking out about threats to Lebanese cultural heritage, and a video of Israeli soldiers handling artifacts in Gaza, to name just a few examples of researchers refusing to become complacent in the face of authoritarian…
Tlingit Unangax̂ Artist Nicholas Galanin has been awarded the 2024 Don Tyson Award for the Advancement of American Art from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Prize money includes a $200,000 cash award. The Don Tyson Award was established in 2016 to recognize an individual or collective in the United States working in any medium. The award was established by the Tyson family in memory of the late Don Tyson, former chairman and CEO of Tyson Foods. Past American artists who have won the award include Deborah Willis in 2022 and Vanessa German in 2018.“Nicholas Galanin’s…
French figurative painter Claire Tabouret has been chosen to create new stained glass windows for Notre Dame, which reopens on December 7 after six years of renovations. Tabre was selected by French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich and said in a statement to the media that her winning work depicts praying people from different cultural backgrounds. Celebrating Pentecost. The painter, who now lives in Los Angeles, will collaborate with the Simon & Mark glass studio in Reims, which was drafted in to restore the cathedral, which was damaged during World War II. Founded in 1640, its distinguished…
Last week, Swiss artist Reto Pulfer, Iranian artist Maryam Hoseini and German artist Anna Witt requested that their works be removed from the Venice nonprofit Scuola Piccola Zattere removed from the first exhibition. The exhibition, titled “Fraction of a Year: Primo Movimento,” opens on November 22 and is expected to run until March 30, 2025. There are still three artists in the exhibition: Agnieska Mastalerz from Poland and Italians Ludovica Carbotta and Tomaso De Luca. Scuola Piccola Zattere was founded in November by Victoria Mikhelson, the daughter of Russian billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, who serves as President of Russia Vladimir Putin…
when you hear this name Sandro Botticelli, you’re probably more likely to think of the Birth of Venus than the Birth of Jesus. But since it’s Christmas, now is a better time than ever to draw attention to a little-known and somewhat ominous painting by Botticelli depicting the latter. The Mysterious Nativity (1500), now in the National Gallery, London, is the only work signed by Botticelli. After centuries of obscurity, it reappeared in the 1800s as a complex composition imbued with symbolism.A cursory glance paints an ordinary Christmas image. The Virgin Mary and Joseph dote on baby Jesus in a…
Earlier this year, dealer Rebecca Camacho was standing in her new and expanded gallery in Jackson Square in downtown San Francisco when she paused to point to the arched windows facing the street. “There were people walking by all the time. It was live! ” she said. Others in parts of downtown San Francisco, such as the Union Square area near Camacho’s former location, see things differently. After the pandemic, nearly 37% of office buildings in the region remain vacant, a rate higher than the national average. The vacancies resulted in the closure of the retail space. Additionally, San Francisco…
In January, several industry insiders predicted that Aboriginal art would receive more attention this year. That month, Phillips prepared to open “New Terrain,” its first sales exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal and First Nations art, at its New York headquarters. It soon became apparent that Phillips’ predictions before and after the exhibition were correct. Later that month, the Venice Biennale will announce the list of artists for its main exhibition, “Foreigners Everywhere,” which will include many indigenous artists. Now, as 2024 draws to a close, museums, auction houses and galleries are providing further evidence that Aboriginal art is on the rise.…
One of the strengths of art historian AL McClanan’s latest book is its intention: to provide a historical overview of the multiple modes in which the legendary creatures known as griffons have appeared in art and literature. Gryphonology: The Place of Gryphons in Myth, History and Art Purposefully providing a range of different perspectives from different regions and eras to illustrate the popularity of this mythical creature in the cultural history of ethnoreligious groups around the world.MacLernan considers more than the narrow, widely accepted definition of “gryphon”: that is, a hybrid of a lion (the ruler of beasts) and an…
ArtEmily SteeleIsel Colquhoun, arbor1946. © Samaritans, Noise Abatement Society and Sister Perpetua Wing of St Anthony’s Hospital, Surrey (now part of Spire Healthcare). Courtesy of Dr. and Mrs. Richard Shillito.One hundred years after the Surrealist movement began, its themes still have strong relevance. This year, a major traveling exhibition led by the Center Pompidou captures Surrealism’s enduring and more popular themes, such as dreams and psychoanalysis. Other exhibitions focus on the individual works of the movement’s biggest names, such as “Man Ray Liberating Photography,” at the Elysée Photo Gallery in Lausanne, Switzerland; or “Dalí: Subversion and Devotion,” at the Museum…
The late American sculptor Robert Smithson’s most famous work, Spiral Pier (1970), is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at Point Rozelle on the northeastern shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, this monumental land art piece reflects the constant change of its surroundings and explores concepts of eternity and ephemerality.Entropy was the driving force behind Smithson’s great undertaking, as the artist was interested in the unusual microbial and mineral-rich basins, which gave the brine its reddish-pink hue, and the salinity of the lake at the time. , and the lake’s salinity allows few species to survive. Survive.…