10 September 2019
Hix Award 2019 Shortlisted Artists Announced
The HIX Award, the annual art prize set up by the restaurateur and author Mark Hix, have joined up with Hauser & Wirth as this year’s main sponsor.
6 September 2019
Stolen Joshua Reynolds Painting In Japanese Museum Was Sold By Sotheby’s
A painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, stolen from a UK stately home in 1984, has been discovered in the collection of a Japanese museum.
5 September 2019
Grayson Perry: Ground-Breaking Lost Pots Reunited For The First Time
A new exhibition at the Holburne Museum reunites ceramics from Grayson Perry’s earliest forays into the art world. It will re-introduce the explosive and creative works he made between 1982 and 1994
British Museum Acquires Dante Gabriel Rossetti Painting Belonging To William Morris
The British Museum has acquired an important painting by the English painter, poet and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founder, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882).
31 August 2019
Banksy’s 17-Ton Laugh Now Truck To Be Sold At Bonhams
Banksy’s 17-ton truck, covered in graffiti by his own hand, will be going under the hammer at Bonhams on Saturday 14 September, at its motor car auction, the Goodwood Revival sale.
Nan Goldin Arrested As Sacklers Offer Insignificant Opioid Settlement
The American photographer Nan Goldin was arrested yesterday and charged with disorderly conduct. She and a group of protesters were stopped outside the Manhattan office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The P.A.I.N activists founded by Goldin are protesting the Sackler family’s involvement in the opioid crisis which has killed over 400,000 people in the […]
Ai Weiwei To Take Up Residence In The UK
The dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has decided to take up residence in the UK. By swapping Berlin for Britain, Mr Ai is giving the UK his seal of approval as a vibrant art scene.
Banksy’s Dover Brexit Mural Likely To Be Sold At Auction
A popular Brexit mural, in the English port of Dover by the elusive Street Artist Banksy has been covered over by scaffolding and netting with white paint blocking out the artwork. The mural depicts a star being chiselled from the EU flag. It appeared near the Dover ferry terminal in May 2017 at the height […]
Temporary Export Bar Placed On Pre-Raphaelite Masterpiece By Millais
A temporary export bar on Millais’ ‘Ferdinand Lured by Ariel’ has been put in place by Arts Minister Rebecca Pow
Jeremy Deller Unveils Peterloo Memorial In Manchester
Jeremy Deller, the Turner Prize-winning artist, has unveiled his £1m monument marking the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Peterloo massacre.
10 August 2019
High-Value Paintings Queue For Export As Sterling Drops In Brexit Uncertainties
An outstanding painting by Claude Monet ‘Le Palais Ducal’ 1908 is at risk of going abroad unless a UK buyer can be found . The picture valued at more than £28 million is one of a number of the artist’s works depicting Venice.
Takis: Kinetic Sculptor Exploring The Gap Between Art And Science Dies
Post-script: This piece was initially intended as a review of the exhibition ‘Takis’Tate Modern. Sadly, since the time of writing the artist has passed away, on the morning of the 9th of August. This piece has subsequently been revised as something of a tribute to a singular figure of contemporary art.
8 August 2019
Cruise Ships Finally Banned From Historic Venetian Canals
Following the collision between the MSC Opera, a 275m (900ft) long ocean liner, and a small tourist boat, during the opening weeks of the Venice Biennale, ships weighing more than 1,000 tonnes will be banned and rerouted away from the waterways in Venice’s historic quarter, from September.
8 August 2019
Brancusi Sculpture Damaged: Should This Devalue The £18m Work
When someone attacked Michelangelo’s Pieta with a hammer in the 1970s, the sculpture was severely damaged. It was restored and put back on display at the Vatican. A few years later a paranoid schizophrenic slashed Rembrandt’s masterpiece ‘The Night Watch’ putting a gaping hole in the canvas with a bread knife, at the Rijksmuseum.
Late Gallerist Karsten Schubert Leaves Cezanne Collection To Nation
The gallerist Karsten Schubert, who died last week has generously bequeathed his collection of Cezanne drawings and prints to the Nation. The works will be on long term loan to the Whitworth in an exhibition celebrating his extraordinary collection and life.
4 August 2019
Tate Modern Declared Crime Scene After Child Thrown From Viewing Platform
Tate Modern was shut and declared a crime scene on Sunday after a six-year-old French boy was thrown five floors from the 10th-floor viewing platform. The child crashed onto the fifth-floor roof above the new member’s room and was airlifted to hospital by air ambulance where he is in critical condition.
2 August 2019
Sackler Family Robs Peter So They Don’t Have To Pay Paul in Opioid Crisis
A filing to the Supreme Court, in the U.S. State of Arizona, has alleged that the Sackler family “siphoned” billions from the family-owned company, Purdue Pharma to deplete it in order to avoid paying claims connected to the prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin.”
Carlos Cruz Diez Installation To Feature At La Biennale Paris Grand Palais
La Biennale Paris, in partnership with La Patinoire Royale – Galerie Valérie Bach, will present “Transchromie”, a significant work by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz Diez.
Carlos Cruz-Diez Protagonist Of Kinetic And Op Art Dies
The Franco-Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, born Caracas, 1923 has died in Paris where he lived and worked since 1960. Cruz-Diez was a major protagonist in the field of Kinetic and Optical art, a movement that encouraged “an awareness of the instability of reality.” His body of work established him as one of the critical twentieth-century thinkers in the realm of colour.
28 July 2019
V&A Acquires Extinction Rebellion Graphic Design Archive
The V&A has acquired a series of work exploring the design identity of Extinction Rebellion (XR) – a global activist group calling for urgent action on climate change through acts of non-violent civil disobedience and disruption.
Marisa Merz Exponent Of Arte Povera Movement Dies Age 93
Marisa Merz (born 1931, Turin, Italy) the only woman artist closely associated with the Arte Povera movement has died age 93.
22 July 2019
Export Ban: Glyn Philpot Painting Of Nijinsky No Great National Loss
A temporary export bar on a painting depicting the Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinksy by the English artist Glyn Philpot has been placed by Arts Minister Rebecca Pow, in a bid to keep it in the country.
21 July 2019
Constantin Brancusi: Elderly New York Art Collector Sues Lawyer Over Deceit
An elderly New York art collector has taken his Philadelphia attorney to court for cheating him out of millions.
Ai Weiwei Wins Court Case Against Volkswagen In Denmark
In 2017, SMC a Volkswagen dealership in Copenhagen shot a photo of a new Volkswagen Polo parked in front of an installation by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. The photograph was subsequently used to promote a new model of the Polo car on its website and inhouse magazine.
17 July 2019
Louvre Removes Sackler Name From Galleries After PAIN Protest
Musée du Louvre has removed or taped over all references to the Sackler Family in response to protests from organisations including Nan Goldin’s PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now group.
17 July 2019
Tate Directors Make A Stand On Climate Change
The directors of Tate have come out emphatically declaring a climate emergency. In a letter dated today, the organisation hopes to spread the word that our fragile planet has reached a breaking point.
16 July 2019
V&A Annual Report Records Over 4.2m London Visitors
The V&A has had a terrific year with a London gate of over 4.2m visitors and the successful launch of their first outpost in Dundee.
Leon Kossoff – 1926-2019 – By Edward Lucie-Smith
As already stated on this site, Leon Kossoff’s death on July 4 marked pretty much the end of an epoch. Of the for artists who led the so-called School of London – Bacon, Freud, Kossoff and Auerbach – only Auerbach now survives.
Leon Kossoff Leading School Of London Painter Dies Age 92
The death of Leon Kossoff, who died on 4 July after a short illness is nearly the end of an era for the great wave of British painting known as the School of London.
4 July 2019
Hastings Contemporary: An Optimistic New Chapter For A Popular Gallery
Hastings Contemporary, (the former Jerwood Gallery) launched as an independent gallery on Tuesday with three notable exhibitions, Roy Oxlade alongside works by his tutor David Bomberg, Contemporary Danish Artist Tal R, and new works by artist/illustrator Quentin Blake.
4 July 2019
St Fagans National Museum of History Wins Museum of the Year 2019
The Art Fund’s Museum of the Year 2019 has been awarded to St Fagans National Museum of History, near Cardiff. The prize winner was presented with a £100,000 prize by the artist Jeremy Deller, at a gala ceremony at the Science Museum, London last night (3 July 2019). This is the UK’s most prestigious annual […]