amistad

"Two new documentaries delve into the ongoing saga of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi in a moment when true art crime stories are at their peak, writes Caryn James. (...)" (Lido em BBCNews 2021-08-21)

"Nigerian art creators are leveraging the art world's shift to the digital world through NFTs. And they are increasing their net worth while they're at it, despite a government crackdown on cryptocurrency.

Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are pieces of digital content linked to the blockchain, a digital database for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum.

While cryptocurrencies are fungible, which means they can be replaced and exchanged for the same unit in value -- like trading one ethereum for another -- NFTs cannot be mutually interchanged, and no two NFTs are the same, giving them scarcity value (,,,)"   "        (Lido em: CNN 2021-06-25)

“Caravaggio's The Supper at Emmaus features a snag in a wicker basket that mirrors an underground Christian emblem, writes Kelly Grovier.

“Sometimes a flaw isn't a flaw at all but a flourish – a stroke of genius. Take, for example, the tiny fray in the weave of the wicker basket that teeters on the edge of the table at the centre of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's early 17th-Century masterpiece The Supper at Emmaus, among the greatest treasures in the rich collection of the UK's National Gallery. Though countless eyes have marvelled at the mysterious drama unfolding in the shadowy interior of the inn in which the recently resurrected Christ has just revealed his true identity to a pair of dumbstruck disciples, the significance of an almost imperceptible imperfection has gone unnoticed in the four centuries since the painting was commissioned by the Italian nobleman Ciriaco Mattei in 1601. A loose twig, sticking out from the plait of the woven fruit bowl, is a dainty defect from which the work's truest meaning can be unravelled. Alone among the countless symbols that punctuate the religious painting, this delicately described detail – half in shade, half in light – transforms Caravaggio's celebrated canvas from a mere illustration of scripture scene into something active and daring – a spiritual challenge whose stakes could not be higher. (...)” (Lido em: BBCNews 2021-06-18)

“The world's largest canvas painting has sold at a Dubai auction for almost 228 million dirham ($62 million), putting it among the most expensive artworks ever to go under the hammer.

Measuring over 17,000 square feet, "The Journey of Humanity" is roughly equivalent in size to four NBA-regulation basketball courts.

The work was created by British painter Sacha Jafri in order to raise money for children affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Having cut the work into 70 parts, Jafri had initially intended to sell the panels separately in the hope of making a combined $30 million. But at a charity auction on Monday, Dubai-based businessman Andre Abdoune offered more than double that to buy them all.(...)”                                                         (Lido em: CNNNews 2021-03-28)

"What Jane Austen can teach us about resilience"

 

(Image credit: Alamy)

By Heloise Wood3rd February 2021

 

Her novels may be mischaracterised as romantic escapism, but at their core, they have a lot to say about perseverance – and it makes them perfect reading for now, writes Heloise Wood.

The tumultuous nature of the last year has led each of us to find our own particular cultural coping mechanisms. One of the key ones for me has been reading the novels of Jane Austen. After writing her work off in my younger days as simpering and convoluted, featuring heroines with whom I could never empathise, I have now found myself drawn to her work in a way I never have been before. (...)"   (Lido em: BBCNews 2021-02--03)

"Les photographes confinés exposent leurs images à Bruxelles!

"Par Claire Guillot"

En mars 2020, le festival PhotoBrussels a lancé un appel aux artistes pour récolter des photographies nées de cette période particulière. Elles sont présentées en ce moment au Hangar, en Belgique.

On a l’impression d’avoir déjà tout vu, tout lu et tout entendu sur le confinement, cette mesure sanitaire en forme de punition qui a marqué l’année 2020 et continue de s’étendre à l’horizon. A l’intérieur, les écrans, la routine, et toujours les mêmes murs contre lesquels se cogner. A l’extérieur, les villes désertées, lugubres, où des passants masqués passent sans s’arrêter. Heureusement, il y a les artistes, logés à la même enseigne, pour proposer une vision inattendue de cette vie diminuée. Et pour aider, peut-être, à la supporter. La preuve avec l’exposition organisée au centre d’art Hangar par le festival PhotoBrussels. Car, en Belgique, pour le moment, les coiffeurs sont fermés, mais les lieux d’art ouverts.(...)"  (Lido em:Le Monde 2021-01-31)

One of the last Sandro Botticelli portraits left in private hands sold at auction for more than $92 million at Sotheby's New York on Thursday.

The 15th-century painting "Young Man Holding a Roundel" became the most expensive work by the Renaissance artist ever to appear at auction, and the most valuable Old Masters work ever sold at Sotheby's, the auction house announced.(...)"    (Lido em: CNN 2021-01-309

“These otherworldly photographs warn of Iceland's disappearing rivers

Chris Burkard's new book, "At Glacier's End," shows beautiful aerial photos of Iceland's waterways, but he warns that they are at risk because of hydropower plants.”

“Visually it made no sense. It was a kaleidoscope of color breaking apart, like arteries full of blood and disintegrating into the ocean. ”

Chris Burkard (…) (Lido em CNN 2021-01-24)

"The fine line between art and pornography"

 

"For more than 100 years, activists have drawn attention to the depiction of female nudes in art. Is it time to look at them with fresh eyes, asks Lizzie Enfield."

"At the time the Black Lives Matter campaign in the UK was drawing the national spotlight to the statues of slave traders, another activist was highlighting the way women are represented in civic statuary. “Just look at what you are being socialised to accept as normal…” says the activist’s placard, focusing on a monument outside the Trafford Centre in Manchester. It shows a seated man bathing his feet surrounded by a clutch of fawning semi-naked women. Another sign beside a statue in Iowa, US – of a bronze topless woman arching her back and holding her breasts as if to deliberately enhance her cleavage – reads: “Iowa as a mother figure offering nourishment to her children? Yeah.”(...)"                                                                                   (Lido em: BBCNews 2020-10-209

“The Venetian master’s Bacchus and Ariadne is an iconic portrayal of falling in love. But it could also contain one of the greatest depictions of breaking wind, reveals Kelly Grovier.

You could easily miss it amid the romp and revelry that surrounds Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, as he leaps from his cheetah-drawn chariot after clapping eyes on the beautiful Ariadne: that tiny detail that transforms Titian's passionate painting of love-at-first-sight into something a little less fragrant.(...)”

(Lido em: BBCNews 2020-08-17)