Category: visual

An old man in Spain pulls out a dirty old envelope and reveals… an El Greco. “The elderly man said The Baptism of Christ had been in his family for over a century: he had no idea where it came from before that, and was astonished at its value – estimated at up to £600,000, although it could go for more at auction in December.”

Richard Dorment recalls a time when the Turner Prize mattered to him. “This year, the shortlisted artists don’t rise to the level of being controversial. Tate Britain has mounted the Starbucks of art exhibitions: a show of almost interchangeable artists all working with film and video and all politically engaged in exactly the same, wholly predictable way.”

A family claiming ownership of a Van Gogh painting looted by Nazis and now owned by Elizabeth Taylor, has gone to court in Los Angeles to try to get her claim on the painting voided. “If the dismissal motion is successful it could set the stage for a major legal battle between the two-time Oscar-winning actress, who purchased the van Gogh at auction in 1963, and the heirs of the German Jewish collector who first bought the landscape in 1907 and who, they claim, subsequently lost it “as a result of Nazi economic and political coercion” before the start of the Second World War.”

In the past decade London has emerged as a major hotspot for contemporary art. “The rise of the contemporary art market is being driven both by the age-old laws of supply and demand and by a change in taste. Collectors are finding it increasingly hard to buy great Impressionist and Old Master pictures, many of which are in museums, while living artists can feed a hungry market. Contemporary art is also more fashionable, especially among the new rich who have made their money in the past decade.”

The work in this year’s show of finalists’ for the Turner Prize turns out to be much more political than organizers expected. “The political engagement is very striking this year. It is good to see artists looking beyond the art world and their lives.”

Work of the four artists who are finalists for this year’s Turner Prize goes on display this week.”Among the pieces on display is an interactive digital reconstruction of Osama Bin Laden’s base in Afghanistan, created by artists Langlands and Bell. But one piece of their work has been removed because it features an alleged Afghan warlord who is currently on trial at the High Court in London.”

London’s Frieze Art Fair opens for its second year, and it looks like a hit. “When the so-called Young British Artists appeared in the 1990s, there was no main conduit to buy their works, but the Frieze Fair has filled the gap, giving international dealers an opportunity to sell their art in one room, under the banner of the art magazine Frieze.”

Deborah Gribbon has resigned as director of the Getty Museum, citing differences with Getty president Barry Munitz. “Barry and I have differences on a range of things. They are real differences. I think this is a very important moment for the Getty. Perhaps to a fault, I believe in the good of the institution. I think it’s better to resign than let differences become a distraction.”

So why did Deborah Gribbon resign as director of the Getty Museum? “Her resignation, submitted Monday, came as no surprise to the museum world. It has been well known among directors and curators that Ms. Gribbon and [Getty president] Barry Munitz never got along.”

The new exhibition of paintings by Raphael at the UK’s National Gallery is expected to be an illuminating look at a body of work that has rarely, if ever, been seen in one place. Tickets are already at a premium, and the National will undoubtedly clean up on the show, financially speaking. And that’s good news for the exhibition’s curator, who has been working on the show for a mind-boggling six years, because she has never been so exhausted in her life.