Displaying items by tag: study

Since the late 1960s, art historians have known that another painting lay underneath Rembrandt’s famous An Old Man in Military Costume (painted about 1630-1631), a compelling character study (tronie) of age and one of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s most beloved Dutch paintings. Until now, however, seeing that hidden image in detail has been frustratingly elusive.

A recent collaborative study conducted by experts from Los Angeles, Antwerp, and Delft, using two complementary, element-specific imaging techniques, has provided the most detailed representation of the underlying painting—an image of a young man wrapped in a cloak—to date.

Sotheby’s has set a new auction record for a work on paper by Frederic, Lord Leighton during its July 15 Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art sale in London, selling a study for the artist’s “Flaming June” to an American collector for £167,000 against an estimate of £40,000-60,000.

The pencil and white chalk study is the only head study for the artist’s famous “Flaming June” masterpiece. It was rediscovered hanging discreetly on a bedroom wall at West Horsley Place, a 400-acre Surrey estate, by Sotheby’s Victorian Art specialist Simon Toll.

A remarkable study for "Flaming June," one of the best known of all Pre-Raphaelite paintings, has been discovered hanging discreetly behind a bedroom door in an English country mansion.

The discovery of the head study for Sir Frederic Leighton’s picture was announced on Friday – one of many extraordinary secrets to emerge from a 16th-century manor house owned by Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe until her death, aged 99, last year.

A mecca for the arts, New York City has also become one of the most multicultural cities in the country, with no single dominant racial or ethnic group and residents who speak more than 200 languages, according to the Department of City Planning.

Whether its cultural institutions reflect those demographics is another issue.

To find out, the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs is embarking on its first effort to measure diversity at the city’s many museums and performing arts groups. The aim is to help cultural organizations connect with New York’s increasingly polyglot population.

A series of lines scratched into rock in a cave near the southwestern tip of Europe could indicate that Neanderthals were more intelligent and creative than previously thought.

The cross-hatched engravings inside Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar are the first known examples of Neanderthal rock art, according to a team of scientists who studied the site. The find is significant because it indicates that modern humans and their extinct cousins shared the capacity for abstract expression.

The study, released Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined grooves in a rock that had been covered with sediment.

There are roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the United States, and about 14,000 McDonald's restaurants. But combined, the two chains don't come close to the number of museums in the U.S., which stands at a whopping 35,000.

So says the latest data release from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent government agency that tallies the number and type of museums in this country. By their count the 35,000 active museums represent a doubling from the number estimated in the 1990s.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it will rename its famed Costume Institute for Anna Wintour, the Editor in Chief of ‘Vogue’ and Conde Nast’s Artistic Director. Wintour has been a trustee of the museum since 1999 and has raised approximately $125 million for the Costume Institute alone. In addition, she helped collect enough funds to facilitate the Institute’s two-year renovation, which cost approximately $40 million.

The Anna Wintour Costume Center will open on May 8 and will include a renovated 4,200-square-foot main gallery, an updated costume conservation lab, and expanded study and storage facilities. 

A commissioned study showed that the annual economic impact of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which recently underwent an extensive renovation, has increased to €235 million since reopening. 80% of the reported increase is a result of the spike in visitor expenditure. In addition to boosting the city’s economy, the Rijksmuseum has created approximately 1,000 jobs since the renovation.

Wim Pijbes, Director of the Rijksmuseum, said, “It is clear that the investment in the new Rijksmuseum has had major consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the building itself. These results prove that the age-old wisdom of John Paul Getty still rings true: fine art is the finest investment.”

The Rijksmuseum, which was founded in 1798, is the national museum of the Netherlands. It reopened to the public after a 10 year, €375 million renovation on April 13,2013. The Rijksmuseum welcomed its millionth visitor on August 23, 2013.

In November 2013, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) will unveil its new Paintings Conservation Studio as part of the institution’s initiative to establish a more comprehensive on-site conservation program. Three long-term research projects that will utilize new analytical techniques and technologies will inaugurate the space.

The DMA’s new conservation studio features cutting edge technology including a digital x-ray system and will serve as a center for study and research as well as conservation treatments. The studio, which is enclosed by a glass wall, will be open to visitors so that guests of the museum can observe daily conservation activities.

As part of its efforts to improve its conservation capabilities, the Dallas Museum of Art has embarked on a number of projects with museums and universities in north Texas. The DMA is currently working with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas in Denton on various initiatives including the study of ultramarine pigment discoloration, the pigment and medium analysis of a work by Paul Gauguin, and the development of atomic sampling techniques for silverplated objects.

Maxwell L. Anderson, the Dallas Museum of Art’s Eugene McDermott Director, said, “The launch of these new conservation initiatives supports the DMA’s commitment to responsible stewardship of our collection, and the advancement of conservation research and practices in the region and across the museum field. We look forward to strengthening the DMA’s culture of conservation with the opening of this new facility and integrating conservation into the fabric of the Museum experience for the benefit and enjoyment of our community.”