Displaying items by tag: photographs

The Portland Art Museum has acquired 69 photographs by Robert Adams of western Oregon. Taken between 1992 and 2012, the photographs explore the impact of clear-cutting in Oregon’s Coast Range and the hope of recovery along the Pacific Ocean; they were included in the museum’s recent exhibition The Question of Hope: Robert Adams in Western Oregon.

Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer (on light ground) by Francis Bacon is to go under the hammer in Sotheby's Evening sale of Contemporary Art in London . The painting depicts the man who was the love of Bacon’s life at the moment when they were most deeply involved, this exceptionally rare lifetime depiction of Dyer is full of the painterly exuberance that marks out Bacon as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. An outstanding example of Bacon at the height of his powers, this museum- quality work is also of critical importance because it is, in all likelihood, the first painting for which Bacon used the legendary photographs by his friend John Deakin as source material for a painting. An outstanding example of Bacon at the height of his powers, this exceptional work has only rarely been seen in public. Having remained in the same collection since 1970, it now comes to auction for the first time ever with an estimate of £15-20 million.

Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s Senior International Specialist in Contemporary Art, said: “Painted less than a year after their first encounter, Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer marks both the height of Bacon’s affair with Dyer and the zenith of his achievement in portraiture. Full of the painterliness, chaotic brushstrokes and raw emotion that make Bacon such a giant among artists, we expect it to create great excitement at auction, coming at a moment when the market for works by Bacon is at an all-time high.”

A unique scholarly institute devoted to Francis Bacon is to open in Monaco, where the painter drew inspiration from the light and landscape, as well as the principality's gambling dens and bars.

The idea of the wealthy Lebanese-born property developer Majid Boustany, the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation's collection will bring together previously unseen photographs, oil paintings from the 1920s to the 1980s, and furniture and rugs from Bacon's spell as an interior designer. There will also be an extensive library open to scholars and members of the public by appointment.

The Arizona State University Art Museum announced that it is the recipient of six new works by artist Andy Warhol, a gift from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. These original Warhol screenprints will be on view in the lobby of the ASU Art Museum at Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe this summer, beginning May 27.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established after Warhol’s death in 1987, and in accordance with Warhol’s will, it has given prints to many institutions across the country to ensure “that the many facets of Warhol’s complex oeuvre are both widely accessible and properly cared for.” In 2008, the ASU Art Museum received 155 photographs by Andy Warhol from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, part of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program, which donated over 28,500 photographs to educational institutions across the United States.

The roster of small jewelry workshops in Manhattan’s diamond district keeps shrinking, but at least one company that’s winding down is preserving the history of its designs. After six decades of making jewelry at various addresses in the West 40s, Henry Dankner & Sons is closing and donating its paperwork and molds to the jewelry design department at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

If not for that gift, the family’s story of escaping the Nazis in Hungary and winning renown in New York for their gold mechanical charms (with moving parts) would be largely forgotten.

The final group of paintings, drawings and sculptures bequeathed to museums by Paul Mellon before his death in 1999 have at last begun to arrive. Hidden away for decades, many are rarities that had never been seen by curators.

The group includes more than 200 works — examples by such artists as van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Monet and Seurat — that were only recently removed from the walls of the Mellons’ many homes, where they were enjoyed by his widow, Rachel Lambert Mellon, who died in March at 103.

If you've ever wanted to wallpaper your living room with the work of the old masters, now's your chance. The Metropolitan Museum of Art this month released an astounding 394,000 high-resolution images to the public. Visitors to the Met’s website can sort images by artist, medium, location, and era, and freely download images that are generally at least 10 megapixels in size.

The Met’s collection is one of the most extensive in the world, with more than 500 Picassos available for download, along with dozens of paintings from Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas. Aside from European painters, the collection also includes photographs of Aztec stonework, Greek sculpture, and Chinese calligraphy. Looking for an image of a 200-year old spittoon from India? It's yours.

A 28 inch by 50 inch folk art rendering by the renowned self-taught artist Sam Doyle (1906-1985), titled St. Helena’s First Blak (sic) Midwife Trane (sic) By Dr. White, soared to $204,000 – a new world auction record for the artist – at Slotin Folk Art Auction’s Delta Blues to Visual Blues Auction, held April 26th and 27th at the Historic Buford Hall in Buford.

The painting, created from house paint on found roofing tin, was in excellent condition and depicted Mr. Doyle’s grandmother, a midwife, holding a newborn infant. It was the top lot of the April 26 session, dedicated to Visual Blues (folk art, typically from the Deep South). The April 27 session was themed Delta Blues and featured photographs, concert posters, records and more.

The Delaware Art Museum will auction off one of its iconic Pre-Raphaelite paintings, "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" at Christie's in London next month, museum officials announced Tuesday. The William Holman Hunt oil painting, purchased by the museum in 1947, is one of as many as four works the museum will sell over the next several months to pay off construction debt and replenish its endowment. The Delaware museum boasts the most significant collection of Pre-Raphaelite works outside of the United Kingdom.

Museum officials have declined to release the names of the other works, explaining that it could hurt the market for private sales. They have promised not to sell any works acquired through gift or bequest. Winslow Homer's "Milking Time," one of the museum's most treasured works purchased in 1967, disappeared from its wall and collections database last month. Museum officials won't confirm that it is scheduled to be sold.