Sunday, November 13, 2011

13th November 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

The Lady with the Ermine 1496 by Leornardo da Vinci
(portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)
Location: Gallery: Czartoryski Museum, Cracow, Poland
This week a blockbuster exhibition opened in London.  Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan is open until 5 February 2012.  It's unique because it has 9 of the 15 known paintings by Leonardo da Vinci still in existence,

Here's a link to a selection of blog posts and articles about Leonardo da Vinci which exploded last week.

First the queue - this is after all a once in a lifetime, never to be repeated exhibition!
and then a small sample of the reviews
I knew somebody wouldn't be able to resist a cute twist on Da Vinci connotations and so we have Art Info's article The Da Vinci Detective: Art Historian Martin Kemp on Rediscovering Leonardo's Tragic Portrait of a Renaissance Princess

Art Blogs and Artists

Drawing and sketching
Indian Summer at Sheffield Park
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils - 11.5" x 16" 
Sheffield Park - 29th October 2011
pen and ink and coloured pencil, 11.5" x 16"
iphone and ipad art

I came across these websites this month - about artists who focus on creating art on their iPhones and iPads
Landscapes
Painting
Sculpture
Art Business and Marketing

I summarised the results from The Big Artists Survey 2011 on Monday - which highlighted a lot of features of present day artists in the UK.

Selling art online
Selling art through a gallery
Paying tax
  • Ever since it was revealed that Chinese Contemporary Artist Ai Weiwei had got in a spot of bother because of an unpaid tax bill of $2.3 million, people have been making contributions to his tax bill - by sending notes wrapped around stones into the compound where he lives.  As of mid-afternoon Monday, Ai had received $804,000 in donations from 18,829 people.  Different!  According to the New York Times, he intends to contest the tax bill.  He has until 15th November to pay his back taxes.
Art Economy and Art Collectors
  • The financial turmoil in Europe is unsettling investors who are looking to art again as a good way of investing.  There have been a lot of auctions recently and a lot of money chasing the good works - see 
  • On Tuesday, I reviewed The ING Art Collection - which is home to the works which win the ING Purchase Prize at the Discerning Eye competition. (see below)
Art Competitions
  • REVIEW: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 - this is my review written following my visit to the exhibition on Wednesday.  I definitely recommend a visit - plus ruminated on a few things about portraiture at the end of the post
  • Review: ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2011 - On Thursday I went to the Private View of the only art competition I know which focuses on smaller works.  It has a unique structure having six selectors with different backgrounds who create six small exhibitions in one gallery.  There's over 600 works of art on view - and it's another one I recommend seeing - especially if you'd like to see Brian Sewell's selection.
Art Exhibitions

National Galleries
I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary
Pablo Picasso


Other Galleries
    Art Museums 


    Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented collaboration of cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene. Beginning October 2011, over 60 cultural institutions will make their contributions to this region-wide initiative encompassing every major L.A. art movement from 1945 to 1980. Celebrate the era that continues to inspire the world.
    Art Practice / Art Education Tips and techniques


    Tips and techniques
    Book reviews
    Art Supplies
    Art Television
    • On Monday night, the BBC has a new series by Andrew Graham Dixon.  This time he's telling the story of the Art of America (9pm BBC4).  I guess those of you living in the USA will also get to see it pretty soon!  Below is the description of Episode 1 in this series of three programmes.

      Andrew Graham-Dixon charts the history of American art on a coast-to-coast journey, beginning in the east, where he discusses how the country's rise to power was underpinned by the destruction of Native American cultural heritage. He examines portraits of Puritan settlers in Massachusetts, tells the story of a famous painting of Quaker settler William Penn, reads one of the world's most expensive books in Philadelphia and explore the wilderness landscapes that inspired artist Thomas Cole.
    Copyright

    Do you know about the 1977 California Resale Royalty Act? I didn't - but it looks like Chuck Close and a few others do as they are going after auction houses who have "forgotten" that they owe the artists royalty payments relating to sales in recent times. See

    Techies: internet, google, webware, blogging etc
    and finally......

    Prepare to be depressed at how much one nine year old schoolboy can earn in 10 minutes - for his art!  The boy's name is Kieron Williamson.

    To be honest I'm really struggling to understand what all the fuss is about.  What do you think?

    1 comment:

    1. Hi Katherine! Thanks for the nod... and sharing the giggle over turacos as art critics.

      ReplyDelete

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