Arts and Culture Headlines

Electric dreams: Cerith Wyn Evans sets White Cube alight

Art in Pictures:

A Review of Toby Price’s Portfolio (Guardian) Some strong portfolio images from Toby Price, with quirky images depicting delicious muted tones. In ‘Dives’ we feel like we could be there, watching the girl splash into the water, I can almost hear the noises of the sea when I look at this.

Electric dreams: Cerith Wyn Evans sets White Cube alight (Guardian) A dazzling new exhibition by Cerith Wyn Evans has transformed London’s White Cube into a world of light, sound and reflection. The show, entitled Everyone’s Gone to the Movies, is on until 22 May 2010 – but why not take a squint at the highlights here?

Art Reviews:

Jasper Johns: ‘Ink on Plastic’ (NYT) This lovely, disquieting show is the first to focus exclusively on Jasper Johns’s works in ink on plastic, a combination that he began using in 1962 with velvety, unstable results.

Shoja Azari (AI) Shoja Azari is blasphemous. Shoja Azari is a controversialist. Shoja Azari has marred the sacred. Shoja Azari is counting on us for such salacious accusations. For it is only at that very moment of our self-righteous shock that we are awakened long enough to bear witness to the calamities of repression and tyranny masked by the familiar and the sacred.

Curator of Accidents (Art in America) Stephen Hannock says that when he paints landscapes he’s not painting mountains, water, and trees so much as he’s painting light itself. Hannock’s most recent work, the large-format landscape (80″ x 128″) Mt. Blanca with Ute Creek at Dawn, is the latest addition to the Denver Art Museum’s Western American art collection.

Sculpture’s lost in the third dimension (Guardian) Sculpture used to mean statues and bronzes. Now it’s anything from abstract flamingoes to buddhas wearing buns, as three new shows demonstrate.

Art News and Opinion:

Art traded for medicine and care (Independent) via wmmna Artists often sacrifice a great deal for their craft and many countries have programs to support starving artists (France gives tax credits and in Japan artists can be named living national treasures). The United States is not known for its altruism toward artists especially in term of health benefits, but one hospital has a creative approach.

Rare nude sketch by Constable discovered (Guardian) A sketch of a naked woman by John Constable that was hidden away for more than a century – apparently because it was considered too risqué – has sold for four times its estimated valuation. The pencil drawing featuring a bare bottom was placed in an album of other work by the English artist but had a dinner invitation pasted over it. The hidden sketch was discovered when the album was bought by a collector and has now been sold on at Bonhams in London for £20,000.

Tate Modern at ten: how Middle Britain learned to love Modern Art (Telegraph) When the Tate Modern first opened its doors 10 years ago, the gargantuan Turbine Hall and vast new gallery spaces filled to the brim with a glittering crowd.

Why Tate Modern needs to expand (ArtNewspaper) The forces that are changing the world are challenging the role of museums. Our world is different, even compared with 20 years ago: the advance of globalisation, increasing cultural diversity, technological and personal mobility has had an impact on the world we address.

Elite art: how to get a foot in the door (ArtNewspaper) A select group of artists rarely appear at auction. If you want to own their work, you’ll need more than just deep pockets.

Jasper Johns’ $28.6 Million Flag Leads All-American Christie’s Auction (AI) Of the five artist records set, Jasper Johns’ beautiful, compact Flag (1960–66) owned by Crichton and composed of encaustic and printed paper collage on paper laid down on canvas, handily beat its $10–15 million estimate, selling for $28,642,500 to New York dealer Michael Altman.

Auction Thriller (Art in America) Christie’s did it again last night, this time as the famed Michael Crichton collection spearheaded its evening sale of Post war and contemporary art. The quintessential American sale was exciting, with brisk bidding both in the room and on the phone. The night’s main attraction was the sale of Jasper Johns iconic Flag; executed with encaustic and newspaper, the work has a textured three-dimensional appearance.

Purple Craze for Warhol (Art in America) Last night Sotheby’s demonstrated the enduring ability for the auction houses to sell high-powered art, and sell it well. Sotheby’s had a tightly edited 53-lot sale; only three lots failed to sell. Several lots were hotly contested. Warhol had another big evening, particularly in the case of Self Portrait (1986), a nine-foot-tall painting of Warhol wearing his now-famous fright wig was the star lot. Tom Ford owned the impressive painting, which is from a series of five. At least five bidders chased it until the bidding slowed at around $25 million. The contest narrowed to three bidders until the work was hammered at $29 million ($32.6 million with premium) to a Sotheby’s phone bidder. The pre sale estimate was $10–15 million.