05 Works, The Art of War, Rembrandt andJohn Frederick Lewis's The destruction of Gaza, with footnotes

After John Frederick Lewis

Alma Lamenting the Destruction of her city

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Available at deviantart

John Frederick Lewis RA (London 14 July 1804 – 15 August 1876) was an Orientalist English painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in exquisitely detailed watercolour or oils. Lewis lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo, and (after his return to England) painted highly detailed works showing both realistic genre scenes of Middle Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper class Egyptian interiors with no traces of Western cultural influence yet apparent.

His very careful and loving representation of Islamic architecture, furnishings, screens, and costumes set new standards of realism, which influenced other artists, including the leading French Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme in his later works. Unlike many other Orientalist painters who took a salacious interest in the women of the Middle East, he "never painted a nude", and his wife modelled for several of his harem scenes. More on John Frederick Lewis

After Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Alma Lamenting the Destruction of her home

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Available at deviantart

Alma Lamenting the Destruction of Gaza is a painting In the style of Rembrandt, the renowned Dutch artist who in 1630 painted the destruction of Jerusalem. 

After Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Alma Lamenting the Destruction of Gaza

AI Generated

Available at deviantart

Rembrandt's interpretation of the scene showcases his mastery of light and shadow. The diagonal composition directs the viewer's attention to Alma, the central figure. She is shown wearing robes, her face expressing deep sorrow as she bows her head as she sits amongst the ruin of her home.

The background of the artwork features remnants of the ruined city, symbolizing the devastation caused by war and destruction. The muted color palette and subdued tones further contribute to the somber atmosphere of the scene.

After Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

The destruction of Gaza

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Available at deviantart

Alma Lamenting the Destruction of Gaza stands out as religious paintings, showcasing Rembrandt's ability to convey human emotions and spirituality through his art. 

Alma was by far the most distinguished of women because of her many superior qualities, especially because of the bravery she demonstrated in defense of her people.

Islam elevated the status of women, treating them on an equal footing with a man. Women had a newfound independent identity, in the physical and spiritual spheres.

Islamic history is full of warrior women who fiercely fought for what they believed in, defended what they cherished, and defied all expectations and became legends.

The Warrior Woman is an ancient archetype that is not well known because the stories have been both forgotten and suppressed. Mythology is full of warrior goddesses.

Traditionally, the Bedouin were among the most dangerous of desert tribes, fighting among themselves when outsiders weren’t available. Constantly on the move to find new pastures for their livestock, they learned to live with the minimum of possessions and little external support in the harshest of lands. Loyalty to tribe and family was all that helped a warrior survive. More on Desert Warriors

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.

 

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified most notably in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

 

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization." More on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and deviantart

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Our Art for this week - Mami Urakawa, Nelson Shanks, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Siamese King, Marc Chagall, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Dalí, Pablo Picasso,

A photo republished by the AP shows ISIS destroying a tomb at the ancient site of Palmyra.

As ISIS and other groups continue to destroy important heritage sites and ancient artifacts, archaeologists and other onlookers continue to scramble to find ways to counter the destruction. The latest effort comes from an organization called the Institute for Digital Archaeology, which will distribute some 10,000 3D cameras in West Asia over the next year, in the hopes of documenting archaeological sites and objects before they’re gone, the Daily Beast reports. More

A black and white reproduction of La famille (1935) – one of the works purported to be up for sale in the coming year. 

Picasso’s ‘inheritance without love’
Pablo Picasso passed away in 1973. The same year, his grandson Pablito (Marina’s brother) died in a hospital after swallowing bleach. Four years later, his former mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter hanged herself, and his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, shot herself in 1986.

Maurice Rheims, an expert appraiser, spent five years determining the status the heirs, and cataloging the 1,885 paintings, 7,089 drawings, 3,222 ceramic works, 17,411 prints and 1,723 plates, 1,228 sculptures, 6,121 lithographs, 453 lithographic stones, 11 tapestries and eight rugs left by the artist.

Although conflicting reports of the distribution have been made, the widow’s share amounted to roughly three-tenths of the art, or $52 million in 1977, after taxes; the three illegitimate children, Maya, Claude and Paloma, were awarded one-tenth, or $18 million worth of art; meanwhile, Marina and Bernard each received one-fifth of the the art, slices valued at $35 million. Additionally, Bernard received the chateau at Boisgeloup in Normandy, while Marina inherited the sumptuous La Californie... More at: The Conversation

Vincent van Gogh, “Wheat Stack Under a Cloudy Sky” (1889)

Vincent van Gogh’s reds have been turning white due to a rare lead mineral in his paint as the missing link. .” Interestingly, it’s a different issue than the recent analysis of the fading of red in Renoir’s “Madame Léon Clapisson” (1883), where the red lake pigment made of cochineal insects was separating.  More at: Hyperallergi

Rembrandt, Susanna and the Elders (1647)

Berlin's Gemäldegalerie announced they've made a shocking discovery about the museum's Rembrandt masterpiece Susanna and the Elders (1647), Focus reports. An X-ray analysis of the oil painting has revealed that the it had at one time undergone extensive alterations.

According to the daily Berliner Morgenpost art restorer Claudia Laurenze-Landsberg, who conducted the analysis, noticed tiny pigments on the canvas that didn't exist in the 17th century. What's more, some parts of the painting were in a style that she didn't recognize as Rembrandt's. She found out that in the 18th century large parts of the painting were simply painted over, and entire sections were washed out using solvents and re-painted in a more modern, light shade. More at: Art Net

The Japanese-born, Florence-based street artist Mami Urakawa was arrested for tampering with road signs in Kyoto and Osaka. She, along with her boyfriend Clet Abraham, transformed some 60 signs between late December and early January. More at: Hyperallergic

Monica Lewinsky Casts a Shadow on Bill Clinton’s Presidential Portrait. Nelson Shanks worked this iconic garment into the portrait subtly: the painting depicts Clinton standing prominently before the mantel in the Oval Office while the dress makes an inconspicuous appearance in the form of a shadow behind him. (Shanks also opted to leave Clinton’s wedding ring out of the painting.) Apparently, the 42nd president’s controversial sexual relationship with a White House intern will persist as a visual and metaphorical blight on his terms in office

Official opening, of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, date probably in 2016. The 5,000-strong workforce is expected to swell to 7,500 over the coming months. “We shall deliver the building at the end of 2015,” its architect Jean Nouvel tells The Art Newspaper.

The crown of the Siamese King offered in 1861 to Napoleon III in the Château de Fontainebleau was stolen in the early hours of Sunday morning, 1 March, along with around 15 other precious artefacts from eastern Asia. More at: The Art Newspaper

A painting by Jean-Leon Gerome of Napoleon III receiving a delegation from the King of Siam in the ballroom at the Chateau de Fontainebleau in 1864.

Marc Chagall (Russian/French, 1887-1985) 'Then the old woman mounted on Ifrit's back' Lithograph, 1948, printed in colours, , on laid, with margins, signed and numbered 23/90 and inscribed 'pl.7' in pencil, printed by Albert Carman, New York, published by Pantheon, Paris, 370 x 280mm (14 1/2 x 11in)(I)

Leonardo da Vinci's self portrait. - Photo: courtesy Muscarelle Museum of Art

Newly Discovered Leonardo da Vinci Portrait on Display at the College of William and Mary

A newly discovered self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci which was unearthed five years ago within the Codex on theFlight of Birds, one of only 20 of da Vinci's remaining codices, which includes both text and 18 sketches of birds, is currently on exhibit at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The show features over 20 precious drawings in addition to the portrait, including a study for Virgin of the Rocks (1483–1486). Eight works by da Vinci's rival Michelangelo Buonarroti are also on display.

"Leonardo Da Vinci And The Idea Of Beauty" is on display at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary from February 21–April 5, 2015. It will be on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from April 15 through June 14, 2015. More at: Art Net & Muscarelle Museum of Art

Our News Letter for July 2, 2015

Frederick Walker, ARA (1840-1875)

The Lost Path, c. 1863

Oil on canvas

7½ x 5¼ in. (9.1 x 13.3 cm.)

Foundling Museum

In an age when sexual innocence was highly valued and sex for a respectable woman was deemed appropriate only within marriage, the loss of chastity for an unwed woman had multiple repercussions. The figure of the ‘fallen’ woman was popularly portrayed in art, literature and the media as Victorian moralists warned against the consequences of losing one’s virtue. More on this painting

Frederick Walker was a painter; born 26 May 1840, in London. Trained in architect’s office 1855, at Leigh’s Academy 1857 and Royal Academy Schools 1858, then with engraver Josiah Wood Whymper 1858–9; joined the Langham Artists’ Society 1859 and made his mark as an illustrator, contributing to publications including Once a Week and Cornhill Magazine, where his popular drawings for Thackeray’s The Adventures of Philip appeared; subsequently established a reputation as a watercolourist and oil painter of contemporary subjects, notable for their lyrical and poetic feeling and dealing with narrative and social realist themes; member of the Old Watercolour Society from 1864, exhibited at the RA during the 1860s and elected ARA 1871.

He was described by George Du Maurier as ‘small and slight, though beautifully made, with tiny hands and feet’. [4] Walker was a vivid and engaging personality and a sportsman, especially keen on hunting and fishing. Magdalene Keaney

Richard Redgrave RA (1804 - 1888

The Outcast, c. 1851

Oil on canvas

784 mm x 1071 mm x 22 mm

Royal Academy of Arts

The Outcast represents a fallen woman with her illegitimate child being evicted from her home by her stern father, despite the pleadings of the family. On the floor is a purse of money and an incriminating letter. The scene is made more pathetic by the snowy wastes outside the door and the innocent child’s hand raised in echo of the hand of the pleading sister. More on this painting

Richard Redgrave (1804–1888) was an English painter, writer, and art administrator. He began as a painter of anecdotal literary subjects, often in 18th-century costume, but in the 1840s he became a pioneer of scenes of contemporary social concern (The Poor Teacher, 1845, Shipley AG, Gateshead). ‘It is one of my most gratifying feelings’, he wrote, ‘that many of my best efforts in art have aimed at calling attention to the trials and struggles of the poor and the oppressed.’ In his later career his artistic output consisted mainly of landscapes painted when he was on holiday, as most of his time was taken up with administration: he was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures (see Royal Collection) from 1857 to 1880, and also held various posts at the Government School of Design (which became the Royal College of Art) and the South Kensington (later Victoria and Albert) Museum. More on Richard Redgrave (1804–1888)

In an age when sexual innocence was highly valued and sex life for a respectable woman was deemed appropriate only within marriage, the loss of chastity for an unwed woman had multiple repercussions. The figure of the ‘fallen’ woman has been mythologised through contemporary art, journalism and literature as Victorian moralists warned against the consequences of losing one’s virtue. The Foundling Museum. 

The answer, as a new exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery demonstrates, is not always straightforward. Here, curator Dr Karen Serres talks to Lavender Au about the show and 'incomplete' works by del Vaga, Rembrandt, Monet, Cézanne and more

An exhibition at Paris's Musée Marmottan Monet invites you into the bathrooms of the beauties of yesteryear, thanks to the voyeuristic brushstrokes of greats like Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,Pierre Bonnard, and Berthe Morisot. More

A valuable Picasso stashed away for 55 years, an illegitimate baby and a love affair between a Russian soldier and a Scottish teenager during the height of the cold war.

It sounds like something out of a spy novel or a Hollywood film.

But it’s actually the secret past discovered by Dominic Currie, from Methil near Kirkcaldy in Fife, while cleaning out his attic. More

Newly Discovered Photo from 1887 showing Emile Bernard (second from the left), Vincent van Gogh (third from the left), André Antoine (standing at center), and Paul Gauguin (far right), and Other Drunk Artists, in a group photo (via the Romantic Agony auctions) More

[LEONARDO DA VINCI] AND VARIOUS PHOTOREPORTERS - Documenting the Theft and the Return of Mona Lisa, Florence-Paris, 1913 intage silver print, about 130x180 mm. The painting's fame increased greatly when it was stolen on 21 August 1911. The next day, Louis Béroud, a painter, walked into the Louvre and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years, he found four iron pegs.... The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid in investigation of the theft. The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire as well as Pablo Picasso came under suspicion ... but were later released. It was Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee, who had stolen the psinting, entering the museum during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out the building with the painting hidden ... (Cf. L’Illustration, Le Retour de la Joconde). Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed Leonardo's painting should be returned to Italy for display in an Italian museum.  

CIRCLE OF EMILE BERNARD (1868-1941) -  "Van Gogh seated, seen from behind," Asnieres, winter 1886-1887 aristotype, 132x160 mm, later mount, ink caption on the print by Bernard: "asnières, my portrait 1886 "[Asnieres, My Portrait in 1886], Reviews another handwriting on the folded mount precised". Émile Bernard in conversation with Vincent Van Gogh on the quays of the Seine at Asnieres in 1887 both made ​​a painting entitled "Le Pont d ' Asnieres "which can be seen in the background of this photograph [Émile Bernard in talking with Vincent Van Gogh on the Seine's banks at Asnieres. In 1887 Both made ​​a painting titled" The Bridge at Asnieres "bridge can be seen in qui the background of this photograph]. "

'Tete au masque', 

ceramic plate by Pablo Picasso estimated between £6,000 and £8,000

BEIRUT: As militants and opportunists take advantage of regional chaos to loot antiquities, Lebanon is filling warehouses with trafficked artifacts, keeping the priceless objects under lock and key until they can be returned to their countries of origin. The international cooperation, which has been going on for many years, has taken on new importance as the conflicts in Iraq and Syriathreaten to destroy cultural heritage across the region

Jamil Naqsh | The Muse, Messengers & Miniatures 

11 Jun - 11 Jul 2015 

Jamil Naqsh’s work is increasingly an elaboration of a private mythology – but a mythology that is, nevertheless, deeply rooted in the culture the artist belongs to. This mythology is, above all else, romantic. Romantic, both in the sense that it involves a backward glance, or a series of backward glances, to the Indian subcontinent’s princely past, and also, in a very different way, to the tradition of courtly love that flourished within that social context

THE HAGUE — The painting was sliced down the middle and straight through its center in the 19th century, probably to be sold as two Rembrandt portraits. At some point in the next 40 years, it was sutured back together with pieces of an entirely different canvas, and layered with paint to cover up its scars.

In 1898, the director of the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery here proudly displayed it in the museum as “Saul and David,” one of Rembrandt’s most important biblical works. Then in 1969, a top Rembrandt authority discredited the painting, and for years it hung next to a label that read, “Rembrandt and/or Studio,” a serious demotion.

Edward Burne-Jones, The Rose Bower from the "Legend of Briar Rose."
Photo via: Wikiamedia Commons

A 2,000-year-old grave of a woman filled with treasures from the Roman Empire has been found in Northern Ethiopia. The British archaeologists who found the grave, have nicknamed the woman "sleeping beauty" because of the way her body had been positioned.

"She was curled up on her side, with her chin resting on her hand, wearing a beautiful bronze ring," Louise Schofield, a former British Museum curator who oversaw the dig, told the Guardian, which reported the story. "She was buried gazing into an extraordinary Roman bronze mirror. She had next to her a beautiful and incredibly ornate bronze cosmetics spoon with a lump of kohl eyeliner." More

Disputed Painting Is Declared an Authentic Rembrandt

THE HAGUE — The painting was sliced down the middle and straight through its center in the 19th century, probably to be sold as two Rembrandt portraits. At some point in the next 40 years, it was sutured back together with pieces of an entirely different canvas, and layered with paint to cover up its scars.

In 1898, the director of the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery here proudly displayed it in the museum as “Saul and David,” one of Rembrandt’s most important biblical works. Then in 1969, a top Rembrandt authority discredited the painting, and for years it hung next to a label that read, “Rembrandt and/or Studio,” a serious demotion.

Our Art News Letter for June 5, 2015 - Including News for Dali, Frederic Remington, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Manet, Pablo Picasso, Picassi, Rembrandt,

John Willis Good (1845 - 1879)

Before & after the Race

Two massive bronze sculptures of horses by Josef Thorak, which stood outside the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin during Adolf Hitler’s rule, were recovered by German police, along with a number of other long-missing Nazi artworks — More

Picasso masterpiece “Les Femmes d’Alger,” which recently sold at Christie’s for a record $180 million, could be on its way to Qatar. Sources tell us that Hamad bin Jassim — also known as HBJ — was the buyer. One said, “The painting almost certainly will not go on public display in Qatar because of the nudity, even though it is a cubist work.”

Extraordinarily inventive and enduringly influential, J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) produced many of his most important and famous pictures after the age of sixty, in the last fifteen years of his life. Demonstrating ongoing radicalism of technique and ever-original subject matter, these works show Turner constantly challenging his contemporaries while remaining keenly aware of the market for his art. More

A Paris art dealer has been detained by French authorities as part of a probe into an alleged art-trafficking ring, according to a person familiar with the matter, after the stepdaughter of Pablo Picasso complained that pieces from her collection had gone missing. More

The Art Of Salvador Dali

Frederic Remington's 'Pretty Mother of the Night -- White Otter is No Longer a Boy,' circa 1900; estimated at $1.2 million to $1.8 million

Christies: Visions of the West: American Paintings from the William I. Koch Collection represents the breadth of Western Art with works spanning the 19th Century to the present day. Highlights include the most important historic artists of the genre including Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington, Henry F. Farny, William Robinson Leigh, and Philip R. Goodwin, among others. The sale also features notable examples by many of the most important contemporary Western artists, including Howard Terpning, Martin Grelle, Tom Lovell and G. Harvey, among others. Representing a wide variety of Western subjects, the sale represents an excellent opportunity for new and established collectors alike.

Marina Picasso, Pablo Picasso’s granddaughter, is selling his villa in Cannes and 126 of his ceramics as she tries to shake off unhappy childhood memories of the artist. She has already received an offer of 150 million euros for La Californie, the luxurious Riviera villa and studio where the Spanish-born artist lived and worked during her childhood, she told the Nice-Matin regional newspaper on Saturday, while Auction house Sotheby's hopes to raise 6-8 million euros in the sale of the Picasso ceramics.

She has been selling off his works for years to support herself and her charities. She renovated the villa in 1987 and renamed it the “Pavillon de Flore”, although it is better known as “La Californie”.

She intends to use the proceeds of the auction to finance projects for elderly people and teenagers in France. Marina Picasso, who has five children, three of them adopted, has long been involved in philanthropy and financed a village for 350 orphans in Vietnam for 25 years.

She admits that she "couldn't bear to see his paintings" and "it took a lot of time to make the distinction between the artist and the grandfather".

Marina Picasso is also reportedly aggressively selling off some of her 10,000-piece collection of his art. Seven of the works are valued at $290 million.

Poor little rich girl?

This image released by Sotherby's auction house in London shows Edouard Manet's Le Bar aux Folies-Bergere. One of the defining images of French Impressionism is up for sale, as Sotheby's auctions Edouard Manet's "Le Bar aux Folies-Bergere." The auction house said Monday that the painting will be offered at a June 24 sale in London, with an estimated price of 15 million pounds to 20 million pounds ($23 million to $30.7million) 

A  painting described by Dr Christopher Brown, former director of theAshmolean Museum where it has recently been on loan, as “one of the greatest Old Masters in this country and one of finest portraits ever made by Rembrandt,” is to be sold to a private buyer for £35 million in a sale conducted by Sotheby’s. Unless a British institution can muster sufficient funds in the next six months, it will in all likelihood leave the UK, where it has been since the early-18th century. More

Acknowledgment: Telegraph, Telegraph, People, CBSNews, 

Our Art News Letter for May 2, 2015 - CATHERINE L. JOHNSON, Charlie Hebdo, El Anatsui, Georgina Adam, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Juan Antonio Picasso, Kour Pour, Louis XIII, Nicholas Roerich, Oscar Niemeyer, Paul Durand-Ruel, Picasso, Rembrandt...

The surviving Charlie Hebdo cartoonist who frequently drew Mohammed for the newspaper has announced he’s retiring the character. More

The entrance of the Palazzo Bollani during the 53rd Venice Biennale. It was also the venue for Costa Rica’s cancelled pavilion this year. (Image via Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/Flickr)

Over the course of the last month, the number of countries exhibiting at the 56th annual Venice Biennale has dropped from 90 to 88, following the withdrawal of Costa Rica and Kenya from the show. More

The Dealer,  Paul Durand-Ruel, Who Made Impressionism Famous - 

So universally popular are the Impressionists today, it’s hard to imagine a time when they weren’t. But in the early 1870s they struggled to be accepted. Shunned by the art establishment, they were even lambasted as ‘lunatics’ by one critic.

Monika Rostvold temporary removed her blindfold to interact with campus police.

Monika Rostvold, an art student at Texas State University, sparked a frenzy both on campus and online Monday when she sat on the steps of her university's library wearing nothing but a blindfold, a nude-colored thong, and pasties. More

Six Authors Withdraw from PEN Gala in Protest of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Honor

More

Figueres, Spain: Art of Salvador Dalí

Georgina Adam wants to know why Sotheby’s is carting a lot of art to Qatar only to sell it back to buyers in Europe and North America. Sotheby’s said it “sets out to attract an international spread of bidders and buyers”. A painting by Kour Pour, the hot young US-based artist whose work is inspired by carpets, sold for $162,500, well over its $70,000-$90,000 estimate, going to a US buyer. More

Kour Pour

The Nicholas Roerich Museum will sell two works by Roerich's works that have never appeared at auction before to fund acquisitions:

His Country, dedicated to the interpretation of the Himalayan landscape. 

The Host of Gesar Khan. the great semi-mythical King, venerated widely throughout Central Asia.

Nicholas Roerich (October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947) – was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, perceived by some in Russia as an enlightener, philosopher, and public figure, who was influenced by a movement in Russian society around the occult. He was interested in hypnosis and other spiritual practices and his paintings are said to have hypnotic expression.

The world's top detective for Nazi looted art: Sleuth has tracked down £250 million worth of stolen art including priceless works by Picasso, Renoir and Matisse.  Read more

Picasso stage curtain painting going on view - A stage curtain believed to be the largest Pablo Picasso painting in North America is set to be displayed at a New York City museum.

Measuring 20 feet by 19 feet, “Le Tricorne” or “The Three-Cornered Hat,” was painted in 1919 for an avant-garde ballet troupe. It hung at the storied Four Seasons restaurant for 55 years.

It will be placed on long-term view at the New-York Historical Society beginning May 29. A related exhibition will run from May 29 through summer 2016. More

GET YOUR DANCE OUT! + CATHERINE L. JOHNSON / ARTIST + ST. PAUL’S SPRING 2015 ART CRAWL

A collage by Vik Muniz depicting Rio de Janeiro was seized in the scandal (all images courtesy the Oscar Niemeyer Museum )

A Brazilian museum has opened an exhibition of art seized amid the largest corruption scandal in its country’s history. Works Under the Guard of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, on view at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in the southern city of Curitiba, features 48 of the 203 photographs, sculptures, and paintings the institution is holding for the Federal Police. More

SOTHEBY’S TO AUCTION BIG ASS EGG - “Nearly 200 times the size of a chicken egg and at least 400 years old”, “Laid by the largest bird ever to live on the planet”.

1. Elephant birds are members of the extinct family Aepyornithidae. Elephant birds were large to enormous, flightless birds that once lived on the island of Madagascar, which lies about 420 km off the southeast coast of Africa. Wikipedia

El Anatsui’s Earth’s Skin (2007), in the collection of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

The Venice Biennale, which opens to the public in a little more than three weeks, announced today that it has awarded its highest honor, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, to artist El Anatsui, saying in a statement that the prize “acknowledges not just his recent successes internationally, but also his artistic influence amongst two generations of artists working in West Africa. More

Juan Antonio Picasso

“Los Picassos Negros” (“The Black Picassos”).

Pablo Picasso’s maternal grandfather, Francisco Picasso Guardeño, left Spain in the late 1800s to pursue business opportunities in Cuba. He died on the island in 1888, but not before falling in love and having four children with an Afro-Cuban woman, Cristina Serra. 

Juan Antonio Picasso is one of more than 40 living descendants of that union, the Cuban branch of the Picasso family, and he is the only one who is known to make his living as an artist. 

Juan Antonio Picasso - Se Van Los Seres. Photograph: Julie Schwietert Collazo

Except for his passion for art and the fact that his home town of Havana, like Pablo's Malaga, looks out over the sea, Juan Antonio has few similarities with the great Spanish artist.

Juan Antonio Picasso - Rapto Guajiro.110x130cm. Óleo

He says he feels more inclined toward Antoni Tapies - another Spaniard - than to Picasso, but further details his influences citing Cuban artists Nelson Dominguez, Roberto Diago and Eduardo "Choco" Roca.

Juan Antonio Picasso - Yose y Paloma.70x50cm-Tempera

He has currently mounted in Havana his third one-man show, after his March 2005 exhibition in the northeastern Spanish town of Figueras, where, he said, "it all went very well." "Mixtures," as he has dubbed his exhibition, brings together 31 works in oil, charcoal, water colors and tempera, in a compendium of nods at Cuban daily life not lacking in references to the island's syncretic religions or the kitchen appliances the government hands out to the island's inhabitants.

More: Guardian, LinkedIn,   Artnet, DominicanToday

The Rijksmuseum exhibit The Late Rembrandt has already drawn about 400 thousand visitors. This is great news for the museum, but apparently not for some of the visitors. The museum has also receive hundreds of complaints about how the busy the museum is, especially from Dutch people.
This is according to Rijksmuseum director Wim Pibjes, who is absolutely absolutely thrilled that the exhibit has drawn so many visitors, Het Parool reports. More

The found painting is thought to be the second version of Ingres's Le Vœu de Louis XIII (The vow of Louis XIII, 1824) Photo via: Wikipedia

The chance discovery of a painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, located in the town of Lons-le-Saunier, in the French province of Jura, was made during an inventory conducted by Emmanuel Buselin, curator and advisor of historical monuments of the region, the work was found in the attic of the chapel of the former hospital Hôtel-Dieu, Le Monde reports. More

A detail of the Ingres painting found in Jura, Photo via: La Voix de Jura