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☆ She's worked for Nike, the NBA — and Maya Angelou. Meet abstract artist Ya La'ford
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Lucy Handley | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Artist Ya La'ford in front of one of her artworks. Ya La'fordAbstract artist Ya La'ford is in demand. Her commissions — including sculpture, installations and gallery exhibitions — mean she is fully booked for the next four years. "American Roots" (2021), an installation at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, by Ya La'ford. The work was defaced in 2012 and restored in 2014, and Ya La'ford said it is one of her favorite artworks.

Persons: Ya, Ya La'ford, La'ford, She's, Janet Jackson, John, Maya Angelou, Maya, Melinda Gates, Mark Rothko's, London's, Rob Stothard Organizations: Nike, McLaren Racing, Orlando Magic, CNBC, NFL, Ringling Museum of Art, Fine Arts, Art Institute of Boston, University of Florida's Levin College of Law, Orlando Museum of Art . Orlando Museum of Art, U.S, Tampa Museum of Fine Arts, Asia, London's Tate, Getty Locations: St . Petersburg , Florida, Sarasota , Florida, Houston, China, Palenque , Colombia, St . Petersburg, Ogden , Utah, Jacksonville , Florida, Bronx , New York

☆ Art Seeks Enlightenment in Darkness
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Jori Finkel | More About Jori Finkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This article is part of our Museums special section about how institutions are striving to offer their visitors more to see, do and feel. To enter Kehinde Wiley’s show “An Archaeology of Silence” is to step into darkness, where only the art itself seems to emit light. The space feels somewhere between a crypt and a cathedral, featuring paintings and bronze sculptures of reclining Black bodies, spread out in repose or entombed like corpses, that appear to glow from within. The show, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, culminates with a monumental sculpture of a fallen man on horseback, draped over the horse as if he had just been shot, his Nikes dangling below the saddle. Made in the year after George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis, this monument — and more broadly, the show as a whole — confronts the “legacy and scope of anti-Black violence,” according to Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation.

Persons: George Floyd, Darren Walker Organizations: Museum of Fine Arts, Ford Foundation Locations: Houston, Minneapolis

☆ At TEFAF Art Fair, Museums Make Up for Shrinking Private Sales
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Scott Reyburn | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“This would be a bold acquisition to make,” said Frederick Ilchman, the chair of European paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This extraordinary, long-lost portrait by Lavinia Fontana was an outstanding example of the many works by women artists on show Thursday at the bustling preview of the TEFAF Maastricht fair in the Netherlands. The Fontana portrait was priced at 4.5 million euros, about $5 million, on the booth of the Geneva-based dealership Rob Smeets. Ilchman has regularly traveled from Boston to TEFAF since 2007; in that time, the focus of his acquisitions has evolved. It seems like a useful task to amend this discrepancy,” he added, acknowledging that museums with large holdings of pre-20th art can seem disconnected from the 21st century’s cultural concerns.

Persons: ”, Frederick Ilchman, Antonietta Gonzales, Don Pietro, Duke of Parma, Lavinia Fontana, Rob Smeets, Gentileschi’s, Magdalene, Ilchman, ” Ilchman, “ Organizations: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Islands Locations: Maastricht, Netherlands, Geneva, ”, Boston, TEFAF

☆ Was John Singer Sargent also the first celebrity stylist?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Leah Dolan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

London CNN —In the spring of 1888, New York socialite Eleanora Iselin welcomed the portrait artist John Singer Sargent into her home, feverish over the question of what she would wear. Despite curating a selection of her best frocks, Eleanor Iselin was captured in her casual day dress at the insistence of Sargent. Working during the rise of haute couture, both Sargent and his subjects were living through a new dawn of fashion. Rachel was styled in a scrap of pink fabric which Sargent manipulated on canvas to become a dress. “Their work was ready-to-wear, using off the (rack) elements of portraiture, whereas with Sargent it always was bespoke.

Persons: Eleanora Iselin, John Singer Sargent, Eager, Iselin, “ Sargent, Eleanor Iselin, Sargent, It’s, James Finch, ”, —, Finch, Margaret Oliphant, Edith Wharton, Gretchen, Rachel Warren, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Rachel, Tate Britain “ He’s, ” Finch, “ He’s, ” Sargent, Sybil Sassoon, couturier Charles Fredrick Worth, Worth, Sassoon, ’ Reframing, Lily, Lily Rose ”, Sybil Sassoon’s, “, they’ve, Ellen Terry, Lady Macbeth, Jai Monaghan, Tate Britain ‘, Sargent’s Organizations: London CNN —, Fashion, Tate, of Art, Tate Britain, CNN, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Fenway Court, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts Locations: New York, Tate Britain, of Art , Washington, London, Scottish, Boston, Worth, Paris

☆ Research unveils gruesome history of Tasmanian tiger skins in British museum’s collection
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Warning: This article contains disturbing descriptions about the practices of colonial settlers in Tasmania and violence against Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples. “In all, Allport shipped five Tasmanian Aboriginal skeletons to Europe, proudly identifying himself as the most prolific trader in Tasmanian bodily remains,” according to the study. The colonial government allowed settlers to murder Tasmanian Aboriginal people without punishment and, in 1830, even established a bounty for the capture of Indigenous humans and Tasmanian tigers, or thylacines. Some Aboriginal Tasmanian people did survive colonial persecution, Ashby added, though at brutal costs. Their descendants make up today’s Tasmanian Aboriginal community, Ashby said.

Persons: Jack Ashby, Morton Allport, Allport, Ashby, It’s, ” Ashby, Mortan Allport, ”, incentivized Allport, William Lanne, William Crowther, Crowther, Truganini, thylacines, “ We’re, Rebecca Kilner, ” Kilner Organizations: Tasmanian Aboriginal, CNN, Cambridge University’s Museum of Zoology, Tasmanian, Allport Library, Museum of Fine Arts, State, of, Royal Society of Tasmania, Royal Society, British Museum, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, University of Cambridge Grappling Locations: Tasmania, United Kingdom, Europe, Belgium, of Tasmania, Great Britain, London, Bass, ”, Brussels, Tasmanian, Cambridge

☆ Sumptuous Attire Shines in John Singer Sargent’s Portraits from the Gilded Age
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Karen Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The painter John Singer Sargent has sometimes been dismissed as an artist of flattery and frivolity — a portraitist-for-hire who catered to the vanities of his elite subjects, whether they were British aristocrats or Boston Brahmins. Often, these criticisms have centered on fashion: The writer D.H. Lawrence once ridiculed Sargent’s works as “nothing but yards and yards of satin from the most expensive shops, with some pretty head propped up on the top.”The exhibition “Fashioned by Sargent,” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which travels to Tate Britain early next year, skillfully parries these jabs with some 50 canvases in which style and substance are deeply intertwined. This is a show to win over even the most hard-boiled Sargent skeptics, turning a purported weakness — the artist’s obsessive attention to his subjects’ attire, expressed through both of-the-moment outfit choices and fabric-flaunting brushwork — into a strength. And yes, there are clothes — magnificent examples of couture and costuming, including some of the exact pieces worn in the paintings. Anyone partial to Julian Fellowes dramas will find, in time for the second season of “The Gilded Age,” ballroom-hushing silk and velvet dresses by the House of Worth and requisite accessories from Chantilly lace fans to the feathery swoosh of a hat ornament known as an aigrette.

Persons: John Singer Sargent, D.H, Lawrence, Sargent’s, Sargent, ”, Julian Fellowes Organizations: Boston Brahmins, Museum of Fine Arts, Tate Britain, House Locations: Boston, Chantilly

☆ Provenance of a Museum’s Greek Exhibit Is Questioned, Fueling a Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-17 | by ( Graham Bowley | More About Graham Bowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Fla., was riding high as “From Chaos to Order,” an exhibition of ancient Greek art, became its first major traveling show in years, making stops at museums in Florida and South Carolina before preparing to head west. “The idea was to look at the origins of Greek art in a new way,” said Michael Bennett, the former St. Petersburg curator who organized the show of works from the Geometric period, circa 900 to 700 B.C. “We felt it had something new to say about Greek art.”But earlier this year, when the exhibition was scheduled to travel to the Denver Art Museum, the staff there balked because many of the 57 artifacts lacked detailed provenances. The Denver museum had recently had its own scandal, when it returned four artifacts to Cambodia. Its director, Christoph Heinrich, suggested postponing the Florida exhibition in the hope that the provenance issues could be resolved.

Persons: ”, Michael Bennett, Sol Rabin, Christoph Heinrich Organizations: of Fine Arts, Denver Art Museum, Denver Locations: St . Petersburg, Fla, Florida, South Carolina, St, Petersburg, Denver, Cambodia

☆ Why these Korean moon jars sell for millions at auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Christy Choi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

‘Owning a piece of happiness’The first moon jars were created in the royal kilns in Gwangju (a city just outside Seoul, not the larger southern city of the same name) from 1650 to 1750. A modern-day moon jar made by South Korean potter Kwon Dae Sup, who said: "To appreciate a moon jar properly, you should look beyond its simple shape. He works out of a studio in Gwangju, where the royal kilns that produced moon jars were once located. Moon Duk Gwan/Axel Vervoordt GalleryKwon Dae Sup lifts a large moon jar into a kiln. Moon Duk Gwan/Courtesy Axel Vervoordt GalleryThere’s a great deal of preparation that goes into making a moon jar traditionally.

Persons: Alain de Botton, London’s Victoria, Beth McKillop, ”, Angela McAteer, “ You’ve, it’s, Yanagi Soetsu, Bernard Leach, Leach, Lucie Rie, Charlotte Horlyck, Sotheby’s, Kwon Dae, Axel Vervoordt, Choi Sunu, South Korea’s, Yu Woo, you’ve, Mark, Rothko, “, Ceramist Kim Syyong, Yun, Choi Bo Ram’s, Kwon, Duk Gwan, Duk, There’s, ” Kwon, Axel Vervoodt Organizations: CNN, Albert Museum, British Museum, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, University of London’s School of Oriental, African Studies, Art Bulletin, National Museum of, BTS Locations: New York, Americas, Europe, Gwangju, Seoul, British, South Korean, National Museum of Korea, ”, South, Korean

☆ Art Shows and Exhibitions to See This Fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Will Heinrich | More About Will Heinrich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A blockbuster meetup of Manet and Degas, an unprecedented retrospective for Ed Ruscha and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see an 800-year-old ink painting that has never before left Asia — the new season of museum shows is full of heart-stoppers. A new gallery devoted to plaster is set to open at the Museum of Modern Art, too, and drawing shows are everywhere, from Hanne Darboven in Texas to Stéphane Mandelbaum in New York. SeptemberONLY THE YOUNG: EXPERIMENTAL ART IN KOREA, 1960s-1970s Coming of age in a rapidly changing country, postwar Korean artists innovated without fear. Organized with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, this show is slated to travel on to the Hammer in Los Angeles. (Sept. 1-Jan. 7, 2024; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)JA’TOVIA GARY: THE GIVERNY SUITE A Black feminist angle on art history — and on Monet’s famous gardens at Giverny, France — in a newly acquired video installation.

Persons: Manet, Degas, Ed Ruscha, Hanne Darboven, Stéphane Mandelbaum, Ruth Asawa, Michelangelo, Asawa, Solomon R, GARY Organizations: Museum of Modern, Whitney Museum of American, Francisco’s Legion, Honor, National Museum of Modern, Art, Guggenheim Museum, Modern, of Fine Arts Locations: Asia, Texas, New York, KOREA, Seoul, Los Angeles, Giverny, France, Houston

☆ Relationships Carved From Clay Bring New Partners to Museums
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Patricia Leigh Brown | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Claudia Mitchell, a potter from Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, gathers clay on a mesa between two sandstone rock formations, hammer and pick at the ready. Through her vessels, “the spirit of all those people is brought back to life,” she said. “Our past and present become the future in the pottery.”Now she is helping to broaden the understanding of American art. The objects were all selected by members of the Pueblo Pottery Collective and the labels highlight Pueblo peoples’ voices and perspectives, rather than the traditional museum label style. (The show, through June 2024, continues by appointment in a more intimate setting at the Vilcek Foundation in Manhattan, before traveling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.)

Persons: Claudia Mitchell, —, Lucy M, Lewis, Mitchell, ”, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vilcek Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Saint Louis Art Museum Locations: Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, Pueblo, Clay, American, Manhattan

☆ This rare female painter in Edo Japan was ‘coveted’ for her exquisite ink paintings
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But he laments the fact that Yukinobu — and other women artists from Japan — are not given more prominence beyond occasional inclusion in broad group shows. But she never signed her paintings, according to Kanō tradition, as Kanō Yukinobu. The Denver Art Museum alone has 13 imitations of Yukinobu paintings, and only one authentic work. A peony in the collection of MFA Boston (not on view), which holds several Yukinobu paintings. “There’s a core group of female scholars who are pursuing this (the study of Japanese women artists),” he explained.

Persons: Kiyohara Yukinobu, —, ”, Einor Cervone, Yukinobu, Benzaiten, Paul Berry, “, ” Berry, Kanō Tan’yū, Kusumi Morikage, Berry, Cervone, Yang Guifei, Tang, Xuanzong, it’s, Kiyohara, consort Yang Guifei, ” Cervone, Boston Berry, he’s, don’t, Picasso, I’m, It’s Organizations: CNN, Denver Art Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Miho Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Suntory Museum of Art, Women’s University Locations: Japan, Kyoto, New York, “, Tokyo, Shibuya, East Asia

☆ $630,000 Homes in Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Angela Serratore | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is also close to a Japanese grocery store, a record shop and a toy store, as well as numerous restaurants, including those serving Greek food and homemade ice cream. A branch of the Richmond Public Library is two blocks away. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is less than half a mile away. Driving to Virginia Commonwealth University or the Capitol District takes about 10 minutes. An entrance door topped by an original transom window opens into a foyer with original hardwood floors and a staircase to the second level.

Organizations: West Cary Street, Byrd Theatre, National Register of Historic Places, Richmond Public, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Capitol District Locations: Richmond, Va, West

☆ How Hokusai’s Art Crashed Over the Modern World
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Jason Farago | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

One of the most influential figures in European modern culture never set foot in Europe. But a few years after his death in 1849, when the “black ships” of Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into what’s now Tokyo Bay, Japan’s markets were forcibly opened, and Hokusai’s woodblocks started to flutter over the ocean. In France, in Britain, and soon in America, a whole new kind of art would emerge: born in Tokyo, spanning the whole world. Beautiful and bloated by turns (but well worth the trip), it makes ample use of the MFA’s unparalleled collection of Japanese art. Here you will see more than 100 of Hokusai’s prints, paintings and manga — literally “whimsical sketches” of bathers and courtesans and birds and beasts, which Hokusai published in 15 best-selling volumes.

Persons: Katsushika, Matthew Perry, Hokusai’s woodblocks, Hokusai Organizations: Mount Fuji, Museum of Fine Arts, Mount, Fuji Locations: Europe, Edo Japan, what’s, Tokyo, France, Britain, America, Boston, American

☆ UNESCO grants Odesa's historic centre World Heritage in Danger status
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A man walks next to the Opera Theatre building in the city centre, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Serhii SmolientsevPARIS, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, said on Wednesday that it had designated the historic centre of Odesa, a strategic port city on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, a World Heritage in Danger site. The status, awarded by a UNESCO panel meeting in Paris, is designed to help protect Odesa’s cultural heritage, which has been under threat since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and enable access to financial and technical international aid. Although the city suffered significant damage in World War Two, its famed central grid square of low-rise 19th century buildings survived mostly intact. Odesa was one of Ukraine’s main tourist hubs before Russia’s invasion.

Nash - one of the United States´ best-known contemporary jazz performers, will lead a project called Jazz X. He and several Cuban musicians will compose new works inspired by visual art in Cuba´s National Museum of Fine Arts, then present them together to the public in several sessions. Well-known Cuban musicians Alejandro Falcón, Arnulfo Guerra y Ruy López Nussa will perform alongside Nash. The project, Nash said, brings together musicians from the two countries, and art of different forms, in a fusion of creativity across cultures and mediums. The U.S. economic embargo on Cuba has for decades restricted most travel and official collaboration between the two countries.

☆ The Music of Inuit Art
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Peter Saenger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In the Inuit language, tusarnitut means “sounds that please the ear.” It’s a fitting title for a new exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts focused on the power of songs and music in Inuit art. “TUSARNITUT! Music Born of the Cold,” opening on Nov. 10, juxtaposes prints, drawings and installations by modern and contemporary artists with musical instruments and field recordings. Today, more than 180,000 Inuit live in a band of northern territory stretching from Eastern Siberia through Alaska, Canada and Greenland. In the traditionally male art of drum dancing, performers use drums of seal or caribou skin to celebrate important events like births, marriages or successful hunts, as well as to honor the dead.

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