Current News
September 2014
Burning Man Draws 66,000 People to the Nevada Desert
Posted 9/2/2014 RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Burning Man counterculture festival drew a peak crowd of nearly 66,000 celebrants as it neared an end Monday on the northern Nevada desert.
Friday's official peak attendance of 65,922 was within the population cap of 68,000 the federal Bureau of Land Management imposed on the quirky art and music festival 110 miles north of Reno, said Gene Seidlitz, manager of the agency's Winnemucca District. The number was down from last year's record peak crowd of 69,613, which resulted in organizers being placed on probation for a second time in three years for violating the limit. Organizers had been warned that if they were placed on probation a second straight year, the agency might suspend or cancel their permit. "That (crowd size) is not a problem this year," Seidlitz said, adding the attendance cap was one of 55 conditions organizers had to comply with under terms of their permit. "We don't see any reason why we shouldn't meet all other stipulations," Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham said. Overall, the weeklong festival leading up to Labor Day was successful and safe except for Thursday's death of a 29-year-old Wyoming woman who was struck by a bus carrying passengers on the playa of the Black Rock Desert, Seidlitz said. Crime statistics will not be released until later this month, he added. Rain early on closed the gate for a day — the longest closure in the event's history — and dust storms caused occasional whiteout conditions Friday. But the festival's eclectic artwork, offbeat theme camps, concerts and other entertainment drew praise from participants from around the world. "Actually, I feel renewed faith in humanity," John Bacon, of Seattle, told KRNV-TV. Ron Adair, of Ojai, California, said he felt "a little tired." "It's a little hard to have that many nights in a row and get by on four, five, six hours of sleep every night," Adair said. After it moved from San Francisco, the inaugural Burning Man in Nevada drew only about 80 people in 1990. huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/burning-man-2014_n_5751648.html |
August 2014
Veteran Graffiti Artist King Robbo Dies at Age 45
Posted 8/1/14 Graffiti artist King Robbo, who rose to prominence in London in the 1980s and notoriously feuded with fellow artist Banksy, has died. The 45-year-old had been in a vegetative state since 2011 when he was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs with a head injury. His team paid tribute to him after he died on Thursday, claiming he "changed the art world forever". Robbo's tit-for-tat feud with Bansky was the subject of a TV documentary.
On Robbo's website, his team wrote: "Peace and respect to Robbo's close family and friends... the Crew of Team Robbo and WRH and all his many fans and supporters around the world. "Team Robbo - "All the way" - Robbo changed the art world…forever!" Banksy's tribute King Robbo started tagging trains in London in the 1980s after the practice became popular in New York, though he became less active in the 90s. A representative from Team Robbo said: "He was known by a lot of underground graffiti writers, old-school writers, the original pioneers." He added: "He was infectious. Once you'd met him, you'd know that you would have met him." His notorious feud with Banksy began in 2009 when the Bristol-based artist painted over one of his tags next to Regent's Canal in Camden, which dated from 1985. London graffiti blogger Joe said it was one of the last authentic pieces from the hey-day of graffiti, which was why Robbo was so angry. In retaliation, he painted his name over Banksy's artwork - an image of a painter and decorator hanging wallpaper over Robbo's original tag. The street war continued and the pair painted over each other's work numerous times. The feud reignited interest in Robbo's work, which he said gave him the impetus to return to the art scene, and an exhibition of his paintings was subsequently held in a London gallery. Team Robbo said the artist was the self-appointed king of the London graffiti scene in its 1980s. At 6ft 8in tall, he was an imposing figure on the graffiti scene, his team said. "He was a bit of a scallywag. However, you do silly things when you're younger, but we're now talking about a 45-year-old man," his team said. Banksy has paid tribute to Robbo on his website, listing the names of the graffiti crews he was a part of: "Robbo WRH WD PFB - RIP". Graffiti Wars, a documentary examining the duo's rivalry, was broadcast on Channel 4 in September 2011. bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-28605694 |
July 2014
A Contemporary Art Festival has Infiltrated Russia
Posted 7/11/14 Over fifty five contemporary artists have gathered in St. Petersburg to infiltrate one of the world's oldest museums. Why? Because Manifesta, the nomadic European Biennial that sets up shop in a different city every two years to bridge the gap between East and West, fixed its sights on Russia for the 10th version of the festival.
The timing couldn't have been worse. As curators began planning Manifesta 10, tensions between Ukraine -- a country undergoing yet another revolution -- and Russia intensified. Russian forces eventually flooded into Crimea, a disputed peninsula on the Black Sea between the two countries, and the world observed territorial annexation in the 21st century. While the diplomatic image of the former Soviet Union dipped below satisfactory, Russia's domestic affairs fared no better. Anti-gay legislation and state-led censorship peaked. Authoritarianism seemed all but on the rise for a nation spanning over one-eighth of planet Earth. Despite the obvious obstacles, the Manifesta team forged forward. While some artists pulled their support of the biennial by boycotting, the festival remained steadfast. Manifesta curator Kasper König, along with State Hermitage Museum director M. Piotrovsky and Manifesta director Hedwig Fijen, made their intentions clear early on. "Manifesta stands for artistic independence and has a responsibility to art and artists and those who wish to engage with the context in which we situate ourselves," Fijen stated in a press release last March. "Our work is one of debate, negotiation, mediation, and diplomacy, that does not shy away from the conflicts of our time. At a time when everything tends to be read through a geo-political lens, art is there to provide complexity and nuance.” huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/11/manifesta-10_n_5578695.html?utm_hp_ref=arts |
June 2014
Picasso's The Blue Room hides a secret painting
Scientists using infrared imagery find a mystery bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand Posted 6/17/14 Scientists and art experts have found a hidden painting beneath one of Pablo Picasso's first masterpieces, The Blue Room, using advances in infrared imagery to reveal a bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand. Now the question that conservators at the Phillips Collection in Washington hope to answer is simply: who is he?
It's a mystery that is fuelling new research about the 1901 painting created early in Picasso's career while he was working in Paris at the start of his distinctive blue period of melancholy subjects.
Curators and conservators revealed their findings for the first time last week. Over the past five years, experts from the Phillips Collection, National Gallery of Art, Cornell University and Delaware's Winterthur Museum have developed a clearer image of the mystery picture under the surface. It is a portrait of an unknown man painted in a vertical composition by one of the 20th century's great artists. "It's really one of those moments that really makes what you do special," said Patricia Favero, the conservator at the Phillips Collection who pieced together the best infrared image yet of the man's face. "The second reaction was, well, who is it? We're still working on answering that question." In 2008, improved infrared imagery revealed for the first time a man's bearded face resting on his hand with three rings on his fingers. He is dressed in a jacket and bow tie. A technical analysis confirmed the hidden portrait was a work Picasso had probably painted just before The Blue Room, curators said. After the portrait was discovered, conservators used other technology to scan the painting for further insights.
Conservators long suspected there might be something under the surface of The Blue Room, which has been part of the Phillips Collection since 1927. Brushstrokes on the piece clearly do not match the composition that depicts a woman bathing in Picasso's studio. A conservator noted the odd brushstrokes in a 1954 letter, but it was not until the 1990s that an x-ray of the painting first revealed a fuzzy image of something under the picture. It was not clear, though, that it was a portrait.
"When he had an idea, you know, he just had to get it down and realise it," the curator Susan Behrends Frank said, revealing that Picasso had hurriedly painted over another complete picture. "He could not afford to acquire new canvases every time he had an idea that he wanted to pursue. He worked sometimes on cardboard because canvas was so much more expensive." Experts are researching who this man might be and why Picasso painted him. They have ruled out the possibility that it was a self-portrait. One possible figure is the Paris art dealer Ambroise Vollard who hosted Picasso's first show in 1901. But there is no documentation and no clues left on the canvas, so the research continues.
Favero has been collaborating with other experts to scan the painting with multi-spectral imaging technology and x-ray fluorescence intensity mapping to try to identify and map the colours of the hidden painting. They would like to recreate a digital image approximating the colours Picasso used. Curators are planning the first exhibit focused on The Blue Room as a seminal work in Picasso's career for 2017. It will examine the revelation of the man's portrait beneath the painting, as well as other Picasso works and his engagement with other artists. For now, The Blue Room is on a tour to South Korea until early 2015 as the research continues. Hidden pictures have been found under other important Picasso paintings. A technical analysis of La Vie at the Cleveland Museum of Art revealed Picasso significantly reworked the painting's composition. And conservators found a portrait of a moustached man beneath Picasso's painting Woman Ironing at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. Dorothy Kosinski, the director of the Phillips Collection, said new knowledge about Picasso and his process could be discovered through the high-tech collaboration among museums. "Our audiences are hungry for this. It's kind of detective work. It's giving them a doorway of access that I think enriches, maybe adds mystery, while allowing them to be part of a piecing together of a puzzle," she said. "The more we can understand, the greater our appreciation is of its significance in Picasso's life."theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/17/pablo-picasso-the-blue-room-hidden-painting |
Self-portrait is authentic Rembrandt,
National Trust confirms Posted 6/10/14 A remarkable 17th-century self-portrait has finally been verified as an authentic Rembrandt following decades of doubt, after scientific analysis proved it had been painted by the artists' own hand.
The 1635 painting depicts the Old Master looking out at the viewer while wearing a black cloak, a feathered bonnet and a metal band around his neck from a suit of armour. Its authenticity has been called into question for nearly 50 years, with doubters believing certain areas of the painting were "not accomplished enough to be by Rembrandt". Months of comprehensive analysis by the National Trust, including visual examination under magnification, infra-red reflectography, x-rays, raking light photography and pigment and medium analysis, have now verified it is a self-portrait, with the less accomplished elements added later during well-meaning preservation. The newly authenticated painting will now go on display as part of the Rembrandt Revealed exhibition, at Buckland Abbey in Devon, on June 13. It has been owned by the National Trust since 2010, when it was believed to be the work of one of Rembrandt's pupils, after it was left to the organisation by the estate of Lady Samuel of Wych Cross.
Its origins had been called into serious question in 1968, when Rembrandt specialist Horst Gerson argued areas of the painting were not accomplished enough to be the work of the famous Dutch painter. The National Trust, which owns the painting, was later prompted to send the painting away for scientific analysis after another specialist, Professor Ernst van de Wetering, said he believed that the half-length portrait was genuine. Experts at the Hamilton Kerr Institute (HKI) in Cambridgeshire have now removed several layers of aged and yellowed varnish and analysed the artist's signature. Painting conservator Christine Slottvedd Kimbriel said: ''What was revealed was a true depth of colour, much more detail and a three-dimensional appearance to the fabric in Rembrandt's cloak.'' But, she added: ''It was close investigation of the artist's signature that gave us one of the biggest clues as to its true authenticity. ''The signature and date of 1635, inscribed both on the front and back of the panel, had been considered problematic in previous assessments as it was thought that the style and composition was much more akin to the artist's style slightly later in his career. ''But the cross-section analysis left no reason to doubt that the inscription was added at the time of execution of the painting.'' Compositional changes - including the inclusion of Rembrandt's left hand in the original composition and alterations made to the shape of his hat - were revealed through infra-red reflectography and X-ray photography. Ms Slottvedd Kimbriel said: ''Such alterations are present in many of Rembrandt's own works, suggesting a dynamic process of painting typical of Rembrandt.'' Analysis of the cell structure of a thin cross-section of the wooden panel under the microscope showed that the wood was from the poplar/willow family, which Rembrandt used for some of his paintings. Research showed that the pigments, including the blue mineral azurite and blue cobalt, were consistent with those used by Rembrandt and his studio assistants. David Taylor, paintings and sculpture curator at the National Trust, said: ''The varnish was so yellow that it was difficult to see how beautifully the portrait had been painted. ''Now you can really see all the flesh tones and other colours, as well as the way in which the paint has been handled - it's now much easier to appreciate it as a Rembrandt.'' The portrait is dated 1635, when Rembrandt, who is considered to be one of the greatest painters in European art history, was 29 years old. He was living in Amsterdam at the time and his self-portraits were becoming increasingly popular as his fame and wealth grew. Rembrandt is thought to have depicted himself in at least 40 paintings but the National Trust painting, thought to be worth £30 million and featuring the artist in ''fanciful costume'', shows him continuing to feature role play in his portraiture and experimenting with painting different surfaces. Prof Van de Wetering, the world's leading Rembrandt expert, said: ''Although I was pretty certain the painting was a Rembrandt when I saw it in 2013, I wanted to further examine it after cleaning and see the results from the technical analysis as this had never been done before. With all this additional scientific evidence, I am satisfied it is by Rembrandt.'' Work on the portrait, which cost around £20,000, was funded by the People's Postcode Lottery. - The painting will go on display at Rembrandt Revealed, at Buckland Abbey in Devon, on June 13 telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/10886646/Self-portrait-is-authentic-Rembrandt-National-Trust-confirm.html Israel Gets Its Very Own Burning Man Festival
Posted 6/9/14 NEGEV DESERT, Israel (AP) — For the Bedouin Arab shepherds tending their flocks in Israel's Negev desert last week, it was almost as if aliens had landed from outer space.
Some 3,000 people set up a colorful encampment in the dusty moonscape, swinging from hoops by day and burning giant wooden sculptures by night. It was Midburn, Israel's first Burning Man festival, modeled after the popular carnival held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Midburn is a mix of "midbar," Hebrew for desert, and the English word "burn." For five days, participants — mostly Israelis — created a temporary city dedicated to creativity, communal living and what the festival calls "radical self-expression." Some came costumed in cape or corset. Others, from babies to grandparents, went nude. Participants brought their own food and water, and shared with others. The only thing on sale was ice because of the scorching heat. There were workshops in sculpture, drawing, and touch therapy. There was music and theater. At the "tent of heaven and hell," participants were chosen at random for one of two fates: getting massages or doing chores. During the day, Bedouin shepherds meandered to the fence surrounding the festival to observe the spectacle. When day turned to night, a larger-than-life wooden sculpture was set on fire. The festival took place a few miles southwest of the desert gravesite of Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion, who dreamed of making the Negev desert bloom — though he probably didn't envision it blossoming with hula hoops and pyrotechnics. At the end, participants were told to remove their own trash and leave the desert without a trace. huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/09/israel-burning-man_n_5473351.html |
May 2014
April 2014