Category: visual

“Two important paintings by the famed Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri that sold at a Sotheby’s auction on Monday have gone to overseas collectors. It is believed the National Gallery of Australia had hoped to buy Emu Corroboree Man as it was the first painting Clifford Possum produced. The gallery appears to have lost out when furious bidding pushed the price to a record for the artist. Melbourne art dealer Irene Sutton bought the small work for $411,750, which she said was on behalf of an American collector… As it was brought back from the US for the sale, it is not covered by Australia’s Moveable Cultural Heritage Act, which restricts the removal of early Aboriginal works from Australia. The second Clifford Possum, a wall-sized painting titled Man’s Love Story, was bought by a French collector also for $411,750. It also falls outside the heritage act.”

The Atlanta College of Art has announced a plan which would remove it from the city’s umbrella organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, and would see it join forces with the new Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of art and Design. SCAD “now has more than 7,000 students enrolled in classes at its flagship Savannah campus. About 150 students have signed up for fall classes at the Atlanta location, and SCAD projects that 600 students will be enrolled by 2008. About 350 students attend the Atlanta College of Art, which calls itself the oldest private college of art and design in the Southeast.” News of the proposed merger came as a shock to faculty at both schools, and there are issues of accredidation to be considered, as well.

Plans for Chicago’s latest insanely tall building will be officially introduced this week, and will check in at 115 stories topped by a 542-foot spire which would make the skyscraper the tallest building in the U.S. The tower’s design, by the Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava, is winning raves from Chicago pols and business types, but of course, there are the omnipresent security concerns…

Towering skyscrapers and 80-story skylines have so far largely eluded Europe’s major cities, but that is starting to change, with London the latest metropolis to consider the addition of massive new superstructures. In fact, London currently has 31 major new developments underway, £100 billion worth of construction waiting to happen, and they will likely change the face of one of the world’s most venerated cities.

“Two of America’s major photographic houses have launched a joint venture to provide one of the largest freely available archives of pictures on the internet. The collaboration between New York’s International Centre of Photography and George Eastman House is expected to include at least 200,000 images by the time it is fully set up next year. They want to add thousands more to this number when rights agreements have been reached with individual photographers or their estates.”

The UK is about to become party to “a new law by which a living artists or their heirs for 70 years after their death will receive a cut of about 3 per cent whenever a piece is sold. Some commentators argue that this gives poor artists a slice of future success. Others believe it threatens to cripple the market. The law is causing conflict throughout Europe, especially in Britain, where the Patent Office is currently deciding how to implement it. The levy, called ‘droit de suite’ or ‘artist’s resale right’, was initiated in 1920s France to help impoverished artists and their heirs. In 2006 it is due to be introduced across the European Union in order to stop vendors from avoiding the levy by moving sales away from France, Germany and four other European countries in which the law now applies.”

“Now in its third year, the South Australian Museum’s Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize has become one of the nation’s prestige art competitions. A record 609 entries were received for the 2005 event, with 109 short-listed for the final judging next week.” The competition also has to be one of the world’s most specific art contests, intended to “promote and recognise excellence in art that depicts natural history or wildlife… a noticeable number of artists have also brought topical global issues, such as climate change and sustainability, into their work. However, under the rules of the competition, no man-made elements or settings are allowed to be depicted.”

“A new museum dedicated to Belgian surrealist master Rene Magritte is to open in Brussels after organizers secured French funding, a report said. The museum, expected to open in early 2007, will present some 150 works by the painter famous for eye-catching pictures often involving startling, dream-like juxtapositions.”

“BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has joined forces with London’s National Gallery for a new poll which aims to find the greatest painting in Britain. The survey, believed to be the first of its kind, will allow members of the public to nominate and comment on their favourite works of art. Any painting currently hanging in a British art gallery is eligible, regardless of its origins.”

“Over the course of nearly 150 years, two enigmatic paintings at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church have been treated as anything but masterpieces. They’ve been stashed away in closets, ripped, faded and – perhaps worst of all – touched up at the hands of a well-meaning, but ill-advised, artist. That apparent artistic license has been particularly puzzling to current church officials and a German conservator as they worked to restore the paintings, ignored for years but now believed to be the work of 19th-century Italian master Constantino Brumidi. Who would have painted a completely different halo over Jesus’ head, or given him a full new beard?”