Displaying items by tag: Fire

On Sunday, December 7, a fire swept through the Galerie Canesso, on the rue Laffitte in central Paris, destroying part of its library, documents, and offices. The gallery specializes in Italian Old Master paintings from the Renaissance to the Baroque. The fire was caused by an electrical fault, said Véronique Damian, an art historian who works with the gallery’s founder Maurizio Canesso.

“This was a great loss for us but fortunately no paintings were damaged,” Damian said in a telephone interview.

A crane lifts charred debris from the roof of Glasgow School of Art. Windows on the building's ruinous west side, their glass gone, reveal the burnt-out studios within. It is a scene of devastation.

But, in a gallery a few steps away, the courage and creativity of students whose biggest moment was wrecked by the fire that rampaged through Charles Rennie Mackintosh's great building last month makes for what must be the most moving of this summer's graduate exhibitions.

This is not a normal degree show. It cannot be. The School of Fine Art that was based in the Mackintosh building has put together what it calls a showcase for those of its students whose degree work was caught up in the fast spreading inferno.

Firefighters in Scotland were able to salvage most of the Glasgow School of Art from a fire last week, except for its iconic library located at the top of the building, said Duncan McKenzie, a press officer for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on Monday. The cause of the fire, which began on Friday and was extinguished a day later, remained unknown, he said.

“Ninety percent of the structure remains viable and firefighters recovered around 70 percent of the items inside,” Mr. McKenzie said.

Amagansett firefighters are working to contain a fire in a guest house on the art dealer Larry Gagosian's Further Lane property. 

The fire, which was suspected to be electrical in origin, was reported after an alarm went off around 4:45 p.m. Firefighters reported light smoke in the crawl space, and they were checking behind walls with thermal imaging cameras.

The iconic 11,000-square-foot house, designed by the late Charles Gwathmey, was heavily damaged in a June 2011 fire that was linked to plumbing work.

A fire broke out at an historic 17^th century mansion in Paris on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, destroying artworks dating back hundred of years. The mansion, known as Hotel Lambert, was acquired by the Qatari royal family in 2007 and was in the midst of controversial renovations when the blaze took place. The fire devastated murals, paintings and frescoes by French luminaries such as Charles Le Brun (1619-1690).

The architect Louis Vau designed Hotel Lambert, which overlooks the Seine, in the 1640s for the wealthy financier, Nicolas Lambert. The mansion is considered one of the finest examples of mid-17^th-century French architecture, boasting frescoes by Le Brun and other masters of the day including Eustache Le Sueur (1617-1655). In addition to its impressive interior, the Hotel Lambert was home to many powerful figures over the centuries including the philosopher, Voltaire. When the Qatari royal family purchased the mansion, critics feared that one of France’s historic gems would be destroyed, especially after the family revealed plans to renovate the estate.

Dozens of firefighters battled the blaze at the UNESCO-designated mansion for nearly six hours. The cause of the fire has not been determined and is still under investigation by police.

Thirty-five out of forty-four senior art students were left without their sketchbooks, canvases, brushes, books, and completed works after a fire broke out at Pratt Institute in New York City on February 15, 2013. The fire, which ignited in Pratt’s historic Main Building due to faulty electrical wiring, also destroyed much of the structure’s roof and the studios that painting students are given in their final year.

In an effort to ease the students’ crushing loss, art dealer Larry Gagosian has partnered with Pratt to present a special drawing and painting exhibition. Gagosian was especially moved by Pratt’s fire as he almost lost a sizable chunk of his own collection after a fire broke out at his home in the Hamptons in 2011.

Flameproof will feature 100 works by Pratt’s 44 senior drawing and painting students and will be curated by Eugenie Tsai, the John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition is focused on the students’ collective experience at Pratt and was largely facilitated by the Pratt recovery effort, which provided students with donated supplies and gift cards from the school’s administration and local art stores.

Flameproof will be held at the Seagram Building on Park Avenue from May 9-14, 2013.

A fire broke out behind the walls of renowned art dealer Larry Gagosian's house in Amagansett on Tuesday night, leaving it uninhabitable for the time being, fire officials said.

Artists that Gagosian's New York City gallery represents or has exhibited include Pablo Picasso, John Currin, John Chamberlain, Roy Lichtenstein, and Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst.

Amagansett Fire Department Chief Mark Bennett said a caretaker, who was at the house, even ran out of the house at 424 Further Lane with two paintings for safe keeping.

The fire started when a plumber was soldering pipe behind a refrigerator on Tuesday evening, Bennett and East Hampton Town Chief Fire Marshal David Browne said on Wednesday morning. Browne said there was ongoing work being done on the estate, on one of the most exclusive blocks in the Hamptons.

Known as "Toad Hall," Gagorian bought the estate for $8 million in 1990, according to an article in New York Magazine the following year. The house was designed by the famous architect Charles Gwathmey for Francois de Menil.

A worker inside the house called 911 at 8:50 p.m., according to East Hampton Town police.

"He dumped two or three fire extinguishers on it trying to put it out," Browne said.

The house was filled with smoke, the fire chief said. Flames were in the walls, between the first and second floors, he said, adding that volunteer firefighters had to cut holes in the ceiling and on the second floor where there was a foot and a half gap.

His department did a good job of knocking down the fire quickly and containing the damage to just three rooms in the house, which include a home theater.

"We got there pretty quickly, so we got a stop on it," he said.

"But there's smoke damage and some water damage," he said, adding, though, that they were careful about using tarps to protect what they could. A tarp saved a flat-screen television -- the biggest Bennett said he's ever seen.

However, he wasn't sure about other artwork.