Art Links

Hey everyone! I'm back with your Art Links this beautiful Friday:

-Those Hitler paintings that were up at auction recently sold for a lot more than people thought they would, coming in at around $143,000.

-I wish I was able to go to London to see this show at the Tate Britain, Van Dyck and Britain.

-This Leonardo mystery sounds like a case for Dan Brown! Oh wait, Gary Radke's work for the show Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of Genius actually sounds like art history at its finest. Dan Brown could learn something.

-An interesting interview with graffiti artist Sixeart.

-Depressing news: the dire market for academics gets even more dire.

Art Links

I'll be on blog-hiatus for the next 2 weeks or so, as I'll be on a fabulous Australian vacation. Here are some links to tide you over:

-Some sad news today: in addition to the loss of human life in the recent earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy, it also caused "significant" damage to historic buildings and works of art. Among the damages include portions of medieval towns, Santa Maria di Collemaggio (Romanesque, but heavily restored in the 20th century), and parts of the National Museum of Abruzzo.

-Pack the Bronze Duckling, previously stolen from his installation behind Mrs. Mallard at a Boston public garden, has been recovered.

-Art Dubai is getting better, but selling less.

-The Newark Museum celebrates its 100th anniversary with a new exhibition featuring work by living artists acquired in the last 15 years called Unbounded: New Art for a New Century.

-John D. Rockefeller's bedroom furniture from his west 54th St. townhouse are being relocated to some even fancier digs.

-The Michelle Obama/Carla Bruni Sarkozy/omg-what-are-they-wearing-today analysis is getting serious. Ladies and gentlement, the end of "wife wear."

-In especially cool medieval news, experts are close to archiving and translating all 10,000 of the inscriptions on the walls of Al Hambra palace in Spain.

Art Links

-Etruscan treasures in Dallas are on view at the Southern Methodist University Meadows Museum, and is supposedly the largest exhibition of Etruscan artifacts in the United States.

-The St. Louis Museum has Power and Glory: The Court Arts of China's Ming Dynasty on view through May 17th. Interestingly, the show is organized chronologically instead of thematically, which I think is a great way to view the arts of an entire dynasty.

-In case you were wondering, the stats on the most visited museums last year are out.

-A group of 13 paintings with questionable authenticity, supposedly by Adolf Hitler are scheduled to be auctioned at a British sale in April.

-And finally, is journalism (or more specifically, is photojournalism) art? Mannie Garcia's photo of President Obama, on which Shepard Fairey's iconic "Hope" poster is based, is on sale in a limited edition of 200 at a Chelsea gallery. J-art?

Art Links

-Shamed Upper East Side art dealer, Larry Salander, has been indicted on charges including grand larceny and falsifying business records. His gallery, Salander-O’Reilly, was known for both American contemporary art and Old Masters.

-A group of late Picasso works are on sale at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea. I suppose it's to be expected from Picasso's biographer, John Richardson, but he psychoanalyzes the works in a way I'm not entirely, art historically comfortable with.

-Yale University filed a suit this week to assert its ownership of van Gogh's The Night Cafe, after the descendent of the previous owner decided that it was rightfully his.

Bata Shoe Museum brings shoe history to the internet masses

I just stumbled across the Bata Shoe Museum's website devoted completely to online exhibitions. The special section, called All About Shoes, is broken down into several topics, all featuring a close look at a certain section of shoe history.

A number of the online shows trace the history of shoes within specific cultural contexts, like American Indian, Japanese, and Alaskan Coastal cultures. Other shows trace thematic issues, like shoes in wedding traditions from around the world, and my personal favorite Heights of Fashion: History of the Elevated Foot takes a look at the history of stilettos, from the very first platform shoes.

Each exhibit features fantastic digital examples of each shoe type that you can zoom in on, as well as a wealth of information...possibly more than you could ever want to know about shoes in history. My only criticism is that they included Blahnik, but left out Louboutin. In any case, the Bata Shoe Museum gets my applause for their efforts in adapting their material for the internet audience.

Art Links

-The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine here in New York recently put two of their twelve Barberini tapestries on display for Easter. Tapestries depicting "The Crucifixion" and "Agony in the Garden" are being used during Easter season "as this art is intended," to help teach and visualize liturgical events to the congregation.

The article in the NYT has a great slide show and some tidbits about how the tapestry collection at St. John's is preserved.

-On the other end of the art spectrum, the WSJ has a review of Synthetic, a new show open at the Whitney that explores the use of synthetic art materials during the 1960s. As the critic, James Gardner, points out, the show is composed of only 18 works, but attempts to answer large questions of criticism and art history. The works analyze the question "Did synthetic materials lead to the rise of synthetic art?"

Being the medievalist I am, I can't answer that question, though this review sort of makes me want to go see the show and find out. Synthetic is open until April 19th.

Fisherman Catches Ancient Bronze Statue

A feel-good story on a Monday afternoon:

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A Greek fisherman must have been expecting a monster of a catch when he brought up his nets in the Aegean Sea last week.

Instead, Greek authorities say his haul was a section of a 2,200-year-old bronze statue of a horseman.

A Culture Ministry announcement said Monday the accidental find was made in waters between the eastern islands of Kos and Kalymnos. The fisherman handed over the corroded metal figure to authorities, who have started the cleaning process.

Dating to the late 2nd century B.C., the statue represented a male rider wearing ornate breast armor over a short tunic and armed with a sheathed sword. The trunk of the horseman and his raised right arm have survived.

Corny fishing metaphors aside, this is pretty cool.