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Tuesday, 02 August 2016 12:12

Earlier this year, BP ended its sponsorship of the Tate Gallery—a controversial partnership that had spawned a spate of headline-grabbing protests, especially after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Despite recently distancing itself from the Tate, the oil company will continue to sponsor a number of Britain’s most important institutions, including the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, until 2023.

Tuesday, 02 August 2016 12:11

The Art Institute of Chicago has announced plans to open a dedicated gallery for its rarely seen architecture and design collection.  Zoë Ryan, the museum’s Curator of Architecture and Design, is spearheading the initiative. The institution’s holdings include objects by Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Joris Laarman. Ryan is also working on a forthcoming book—As Seen: Exhibitions That Made Architecture and Design History. The tome’s release will coincide with the opening of the Art Institute’s new gallery.

Monday, 01 August 2016 15:04

At first glance, it is just an old family photograph (Fig. 1). As it turns out, the informal snapshot, inscribed across the top margin, “Sally. Milton March. Vermont/ ’35,” is one of the few archival documents that connect the modern American painter Milton Avery (1885–1965) to Vermont. The photograph establishes a particular place and mood. A relaxed Avery is seated in the grass with his wife, Sally Michel Avery, an accomplished artist in her own right, and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, March—on what looks to be a perfect summer afternoon.

Monday, 01 August 2016 15:02

To commemorate its fiftieth anniversary, the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City, Iowa, has acquired a winter scene by Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses. While she is often referred to as a folk artist, Moses creates works that were decidedly modern and had a profound influence on many of her more mainstream contemporaries. Going Home From Church is currently on view at the MacNider Art Museum.

Monday, 01 August 2016 15:00

J. Tomilson Hill, the billionaire vice chairman of the Blackstone Group and president and CEO of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, has announced plans to open a private museum in Manhattan in fall 2017. Hill and his wife, Janine, are passionate collectors and have amassed an impressive collection that includes works by Christopher Wool, Cy Twombly, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Monday, 01 August 2016 14:59

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has announced the subject of its fall exhibition. Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion aims to make fashion, and the process of collecting it, more approachable by charting its evolution through the centuries. The exhibition will feature sixty pieces spanning from the early-eighteenth century to the present, all culled from the Institute’s monumental collection.

Monday, 01 August 2016 14:58

One of Robert Rauschenberg’s most iconic combines—a term coined to describe his groundbreaking works that merged aspects of painting and sculpture to create an entirely new medium—will go on view at Tate Modern in December. Monogram, 1955-1959, which features a stuffed Angora goat, will be part of the museum’s highly anticipated Rauschenberg retrospective. The work belongs to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Friday, 29 July 2016 11:59

The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA)—an esteemed organization dedicated to preserving the history of Nantucket Island and fostering an appreciation of its historic significance—has revamped its fundraising plan for 2016, placing a greater emphasis on design. The new approach includes the debut of Nantucket by Design—a weeklong design extravaganza that will include a panoply of events featuring some of the country’s most notable tastemakers.

Friday, 29 July 2016 11:57

The Victoria & Albert Museum has unveiled plans for its outpost in East London. The institution, which will be known as V&A East, will be built at Olympicopolis—a culture and education development located at Olympic Park, where the 2012 summer Olympics were held. The 18,000-square-foot structure was designed by the London-based firm Allies and Morrison and Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey and will feature a brick and glass facade.

Friday, 29 July 2016 11:56

Taikang Life—one of China’s biggest insurers—has acquired a 13.5% stake in Sotheby’s, making the firm the auction house’s largest shareholder. The company’s shares are estimated to be worth around $233 million. Taikang Life’s head, Chen Dongsheng, is the founder of China Guardian Auctions—a government-run auction house that specializes in Chinese art and antiques.

Friday, 29 July 2016 11:55

The Austrian city of Linz has been ordered to pay $10 million to the heirs of art collector Olga Jäger who loaned four artworks by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele to the Lentos Kunstmuseum  in 1951. In 2006, Jäger’s heirs asked for the artworks back, but were told that they had been lost. Jäger’s family has been battling with the museum for a decade. The Lentos Kunstmuseum is widely regarded as one of Austria’s finest modern art museums.

Friday, 29 July 2016 11:53

Agnes Husslein-Arco has been dismissed as the director of the Belvedere Museum in Vienna after ten years with the institution. Husslein-Arco violated the museum’s code of conduct by charging inappropriate expenses to the institution as well as hiring museum employees for private services. She will leave the institution, which is home to the world’s greatest Gustav Klimt collection,  in 2017.

Thursday, 28 July 2016 12:21

The Hampton Designer Showhouse kicked off with a Gala Preview Party on Saturday, July 23. This year’s showhouse—a traditional Shingle Style abode—is presented by the celebrated shelter magazine, Traditional Home. Twenty-five top interior designers and decorative artists, including Melanie Turner Interiors, Dodson Interiors, and Michael del Piero Good Design, have been selected to transform the residence using eye-catching art, furniture, and decor.

Thursday, 28 July 2016 12:20

Paintings by Salvador Dali and the Polish Art Deco painter, Tamara de Lempicka, have been recovered seven years after they were stolen from the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art in Spanbroek, Netherlands. According to art detective Arthur Brand, the thieves gave the works to a criminal gang in lieu of payment. The paintings have not been damaged and will be returned to their rightful owners.

Thursday, 28 July 2016 12:19

A new documentary by the Dutch producer and writer, Pieter van Huystee, explores the fascinating work of Hieronymous Bosch—an early Netherlandish painter known for his highly detailed works, which are filled with fantastical imagery. The film centers around the exhibition, Hieronymous Bosch: Visions of Genius, which took place at the Noordbrabants Museum earlier this year and commemorated the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.

Thursday, 28 July 2016 12:18

A Boston mobster-turned-pastor recently told authorities that paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 are buried under a concrete floor in Florida. Alonso Esposito (formerly Robert “Bobby” Luisi Jr.), who is currently enrolled in the Witness Protection Program, claimed that he received the tip-off from a former associate, the late Robert “Unc” Guarente, years ago. The Gardner heist, which involved the robbery of $500 million worth of art, remains unsolved.

Thursday, 28 July 2016 12:16

On Tuesday, July 26, furniture and architectural details from the famed Four Seasons Restaurant went up for sale in New York. The auction was organized by Wright and netted a whopping $4.1 million, soaring past the $1.3 million pre-sale estimate. An icon of modern architecture, the Four Seasons featured Philip Johnson-designed interiors brimming with stylish mid-century modern furniture by the likes of Le Corbusier, Hans Wegner, Eero Saarinen, and Mies van der Rohe, as well as tableware by Ada Louise Huxtable. The legendary eatery closed for good on July 16.

Wednesday, 27 July 2016 11:36

1. Central Park West Family Home by Amy Lau Design.

This bright and bubbly family home puts a fresh spin on mid-century style. While the residence does feature classic modern furnishings, including an Eero Saarinen Tulip dining set, designer Amy Lau incorporated a number of singular elements, such as a magnificent living room rug inspired by a Fort Street Studio watercolor. The home’s pièce de résistance is a custom undulating wall that helped solve some of the residence’s inherent layout issues.

Wednesday, 27 July 2016 11:35

The film studio, Whydah Productions, has announced that it will begin working on a film about the heist that took place at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts in 1972. While the thieves made off with works by Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, and Rembrandt, their victory was short-lived as officials tracked them down in Rhode Island and returned the paintings to the museum. The robbery appears in the well-known art theft book, Stealing Rembrandts, which Whydah Productions has acquired the rights to.

Wednesday, 27 July 2016 11:34

It was recently revealed that Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, quietly sold off a painting by the early American Modernist, Florine Stettheimer, as well as a work by the celebrated illustrator, Rockwell Kent, several years ago. The works were part of the University’s Alfred Stieglitz art collection, which was donated to the institution by Stieglitz’s widow, Georgia O’Keeffe. Fisk University attempted to unload two more works from the collection after the initial sale (which remained under wraps), but was told that the plan violated the conditions of the gift.

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