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Tatsuo Ikeda and Art News of the Week 07 - 13 December 2020

Tatsuo Ikeda was a Japanese artist who became known for his collection of drawings inspired by his experiences during World War II. Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, presents an exhibition of portraits by two of Britain’s leading figurative painters: Frank Auerbach and Tony Bevan. “Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop” will be on view from March 28, 2021, at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Tatsuo Ikeda, Creator of Disquieting Works About the Toll of War, Has Died at 92 December 11, 2020 Via artnews.com Tatsuo Ikeda died in November at the age of 92. During his career as an artist he created beautiful, somber-looking drawings inspired by his experiences during World War II. Ikeda was born on August 25, 1928, in Saga Prefecture, Japan. The news was announced by Ikeda's gallery, Fergus McCaffrey, which has locations in New York, Tokyo and St. Ikeda was a leading Japanese artist who became known for his collection of drawings: Anti-Atomic Bomb, Chronicle of Birds and Beasts, and Genealogy of Monsters. Ikeda was selected as a kamikaze pilot in 1943, but luckily for the art world he was not sent on a last suicide flight before the end of the war. After that painful experience, Ikeda moved to Tokyo where he studied at Tama Art University. There he later joined the Vanguard Art Study Group of Taro Okamoto and Kiyoteru Hanada. The three Japanese artists formed the “Seisakusha Kondankai” producers' discussion group that searched to create a new realism by d Read the full article

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Trending Argentine Contemporary Art

We could consider the beginning of Argentine contemporary art during the decade of 1960s. The artistic movements were witnessing at that time a series of transformations linked to the search for new practices. Coinciding with similar experiences at the international level. The Center of Visual Arts of the Di Tella Institute was a place where this change was promoted. The beginning of Argentine contemporary art It was during the sixties that a very young Marta Minujín carried out her settings and happenings. In 1962 Antonio Berni was the first Argentinean honored at the Venice Biennale. With the International Grand Prize for Printmaking, for his collages and woodcuts. Within Argentine contemporary art, we can include a great number of artists who started in the '60s. Such as Julio Le Parc, Luis Felipe Noé, León Ferrari, Lucio Fontana, Liliana Porter, Victor Grippo, Margarita Paksa, Alejandro Puente among others. The cultural environment suffered between 1976 and 1983 the repression and censorship of the last Argentinean military dictatorship. But in the '80s there was a revaluation of painting at a global level and Argentina was not an exception in this new wave of art. Names of prominent artists such as Marcos Lopez, Guillermo Kuitca, Alfredo Prior, Claudia Fontes, and many more burst in. The last three decades During the 1990s some institutions allowed these opportunities to extend beyond the city of Buenos Aires. The Fondo Nacional de las Artes and the Fundación Antorc Read the full article

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The Manipulation of Media in the Art of Rashid Rana

Rashid Rana is a contemporary Pakistani artist who works incorporating painting, installation, photography, and collage. He is widely considered to be the leading Pakistani artist of his generation. Before gaining wider, international exposure after the millennium, Rashid first came to prominence in South Asia alongside artists such as Subodh Gupta. Rashid was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1968 where he lives and works. He has been involved in numerous exhibitions with his works in abstractions on canvas in Pakistan and abroad. Rashid is a multidisciplinary artist known for have made photo mosaics; photo sculptures; large stainless steelworks; photographic/video performances; collages using found material; and collaborations with a billboard painter. Life and Studies Rashid Rana trained as a painter at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan. Where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1992. Later he received a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1994, Massachusetts, USA. He actually serves as an associate professor, he is one of the founding faculty members and the head of the Fine Art department of the School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. Veil III (2004). Photo: christies.com The principal works of Rashid have a political edge and often include a dialogue with the painting. These have been displayed in various exhibitions around the world. Like his show “Perpetual Paradox” at the Mu Read the full article

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The Louvre Reopens and the Art News of the Week 22 – 28 June

The Louvre Museum in Paris, will open for the first time in almost four months. Christie’s will offer seminal paintings by Adrian Ghenie and Cecily Brown as part of ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century on 10th July 2020. Recently, the largest ceremonial site in the UK has been discovered buried right next to Stonehenge. New York museums have been organizing digital happy hours as a way to connect with their audiences. The Louvre reopens next week June 26, 2020 - Via artnet.com PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 01: The Louvre Museum in Paris, the most visited Museum in the World, which shut today over concerns over France's coronavirus outbreak, after staff voted not to open on March 1, 2020 in Paris, France. France has reported 100 cases of the Covid-19 virus, and in an effort to curb the spread of the virus the French government has banned all indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people. (Photo by Kiran Ridley/Getty Images) The world's largest art museum will reopen on July 6. The Louvre Museum in Paris, will open for the first time in almost four months. But the experience of future visitors will be affected after the isolation caused by the Coronavirus. The institution announced this week that all guests aged 11 and older will have to wear masks and all visitors will have to book a time to enter. Only 70 percent of the museum's 925,000 square-foot will be open to the public. Read the full article

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New Auction Records For Five Artists Despite The Global Pandemic

Welcoming good news for a change. Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso, Mozambican painter Bertina Lopes, Zimbabwean painter Richard Mudariki, Tanzanian painter Elias Jengo and Nigerian painter Shina Yussuff have all seen their work sell at a better than the anticipated amount at Sotheby’s during the month of March this year.  Sotheby’s modern and contemporary African art sale opened online on March 27th just three days after lockdown came into force in the UK. Having to move the sale entirely online at short notice was an easier task for a company with means and resources such as Sotheby’s—a move that has been repeated by Frieze New York and 1-54.  There were questions over whether or not people would be in the frame of mind for buying art of any kind in light of the pandemic and the shift in financial attitudes. Often in a crisis, the arts are the first to suffer—and this is a crisis like no other. Art Sales Online Hannah O’Leary,director and head of modern and contemporary African art at Sotheby’s, explains how they managed to save the auction by putting it online at such short notice. “ Our contemporary African sales are very international; we have bidders from every continent. It’s a slight change of focus, and a few people weren’t always able to view the sales. Many people often don’t view the sales in person and will buy online or over the telephone, therefore the market can still continue.” Contemporary African Art. Read the full article

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Gisela McDaniel - Art as Therapy

When you’re a survivor of violence, particularly sexual violence, it’s your duty to try to reclaim your body and your life, and McDaniel’s remit is exactly that. In a statement on her website, McDaniel says, “Practice lies in social research, oil portraiture, emotional aesthetics, and the use of technology to fuse audio and visual representations of her subjects”. As a survivor of sexual violence, she creates safe spaces for women survivors to forge paths towards healing. As part of this process, McDaniel has created an immersive experience allowing the subjects to choose how they are portrayed; right down to choosing how they sit or stand and with various levels of anonymity while incorporating the voices of the survivors through the use of technology. The hope is that the interaction of the voices and the painting combined will create greater understanding.  Gisela McDaniel. Photo: Pilar Corrias Gallery Born in Cleveland and based in Detroit, McDaniel received her BFA from the University of Michigan. She describes herself as “a diasporic indigenous Chamorro feminist artist”. A proud member of Detroit Art Babes, an intersectional feminist art collective that gives women the opportunity to be creative regardless of their background or social standing. A Nod to Gauguin It would be impossible not to recognize the similarities to Gauguin. #FemaleArtist #Gauguin #GiselaMcDaniel #Photography Read the full article

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Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the Art of Wrapping the World Together

Their last act was “Barrels and the Mastaba” planned by Christo and Jeanne-Claude since 1977 to be performed in the United Arab Emirates. But those plans changed and it was finally performed in London in 2018, nine years after Jeanne-Claude’s death. This project consisted of a 20-meter high mastaba, built with 7,506 barrels of oil stacked together. The 55-gallon barrels were colored to resemble a mosaic. The London Mastaba was a temporary floating installation that was on display from June 19 to September 9, 2018. It sat on a high-density polyethylene floating platform, supported by 32 anchors, and weighed 600 tons. The work, located in Serpentine Lake in London’s Hyde Park, was carried out with 7,506 barrels stacked, painted red, blue, purple and white, and anchored to a floating platform. The London Mastaba - Photo by acuteart.com Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria on June 13, 1935, and died in New York on May 31, 2020. He had a long relationship with Jeanne-Claude who was born in Casablanca, Morocco on June 13, 1935, until his death on November 18, 2009. Born on the same day in Bulgaria and Morocco, respectively, the couple met and married in Paris in the late 1950s. Both were a couple of artists who made environmental art installations. These are characterized by the use of fabric to c giant buildings or cover large public areas. The first of their large installations was the “5,600 Cubicmeter Package” from 1968. #Christo #Contemporaryart #JeanneClaude #SurroundedIslands #TheGates #TheLondonMastaba #ThePontNeufWrapped #ValleyCurtain #WrappedReichstag Read the full article

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Art Market News Around the World

The latest body of work by Zhang Huan is a direct response to his experience of the pandemic. The statue of a slave trader was removed from outside a London museum. A group of Hong Kong artists will launch “Silence is Compliance”, a new online project. The Rubens House in Antwerp has a recently rediscovered Rubens self-portrait. Street artist Banksy shared a proposal for what should replace a statue of Edward Colston. Pioneering Artist Zhang Huan Reveals His Pandemic Diary: ‘Death Is My Lover!’ Shanghai • June 10, 2020 • Via artnews.com Zhang Huan in his studio. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND PACE GALLERY The latest body of work by Zhang Huan, a Chinese artist based in Shanghai and New York, is a direct response to his experience of the pandemic. In a new pandemic diary below, Zhang, who debuts a new series of paintings, describes reading news about the coronavirus and finding spiritual equilibrium in the meanwhile. "Death is my lover! Every time I went to Tibet, my mind became delusional, and I started to have strong hallucinations. Tibet is intoxicating! Maybe it was the geography of the Tibetan plateau? I yearned for a sky burial, which is my mysterious garden. #Art #ArtNews #Market #Pressreview Read the full article

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Art Tribute to George Floyd

The whole world is aware of how George Floyd was killed by police during an arrest in Minneapolis on 25th May 2020. The #BlackLivesMatter movement quickly followed in an attempt to stop racism and racial inequalities against the black community in the United States. We are more interested in the art tributes to George Floyd. We absolutely condemn racism and do not understand how some people can be racist while we are all human and equal. Just as Black Lives Matter has been trending, artists are showing their support with their art piece. Banksy, a famous but anonymous England-based artist is one of those who paid tribute to George Floyd. We are compiling here all the art pieces and support shown by the art community that we came across. More are popping up daily. If ever we missed any do mention it in the comments. Banksy Photo: Instagram | Banksy Banksy shared the image on his Instagram along with the message: “At first I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue. But why would I do that?It’s not their problem. It’s mine. People of colour are being failed by the system. The white system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. This faulty system is making their life a misery, but it’s not their job to fix it. They can’t - no-one will let them in the apartment upstairs. This is a white problem. #ArtTribute #BlackLivesMatter #GeorgeFloyd #StreetArt Read the full article

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Amoako Boafo aims to challenge the notion of Blackness

Now, more than ever, art speaks to us through a medium that challenges without raising a fist or drawing blood; no one is more adept at saying what needs to be said than Amoako Boafo. Looking through Boafo’s portfolio I’m immediately drawn to the Diaspora Series (2018 ongoing) with its bold colours and patterns. The series of paintings is a celebration of black life. It aims at challenging the notions of blackness that embodies and dehumanises, by assimilating it with negativity. Portraying individuals from the Diaspora and the continent by highlighting self-perception and beauty. It invites for a reflection on blackness and asks for an understanding of its diversity and complexity.

Art is not a job

Born in Accra, Ghana, brought up by his mother and grandmother along with two siblings who made their feelings clear about his career choice. But Boafo knew from an early age he wanted to paint, to be an artist. Starting his journey at Ghanatta College of Arts and Design in Ghana, Boafo credits his peers for teaching him his art. A very generous statement from someone who is so clearly naturally talented and unusually modest.

Amoako Boafo Straight from art school, Boafo studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Immediately finding the Austrian capital unreceptive to black people and subsequently the art scene is, in his words, “just as challenging”. He tempers this atmosphere in his first exhibition at the Roberts Project in Los Angeles, in February 2019 with a portrait series which is a celebration of his identity and blackness; an attempt at self-preservation, he says.

Just Like Egon Schiele

Talking to the Los Angeles Times, Boafo recalls his first impression of Vienna. “When I arrived in Vienna, I didn’t think of changing the way I paint or anything, but I heard certain names over and over—Klimt, Schiele, Lassnig—and I wanted to see why they were so famous. I actually love their paintings, and every now and then I would test myself to see if I could paint the way they were painting. I could, of course. But with Schiele, I was most interested in seeing how he got his results. You could really see all the brushstrokes and colours he mixed to make a painting, unlike Klimt, whose work is very well mixed, realistic and decorated, which is also good. I just want my paintings to be as free as possible, and Schiele gave me that vibe—the strokes, characters, and composition”.

It’s all in the brushstrokes

Looking at the painting, you are drawn to the immaculate texturing and the all expressions on the sitters face made more poignant by the brushstrokes; drawing the viewer into the quality of statement while allowing you to make up your own mind. The work is excellent and has a broad range, which many might consider un-appealing. This work is so far from bland. To be challenging you need to be seen and you really get the feeling that Boafo sees. The portrait that resonates with me is “Bel”, a 2018 portrayal of a long-suffering woman, possibly his wife, giving that well-known expression of humouring a loved one and acknowledging a back seat position that is both powerful and comforting.

"Bel", 2018. Photo: fashionweekdaily

Every Artist needs a break

Things moved quickly for Boafo once Kehinde Wiley, a prominent gallery owner, bought one of the paintings and then introduced Boafo to his gallery. This may not seem unusual to most but African art was not being bought in Austria; especially contemporary art, and certainly nothing that hadn’t been painted for at least two hundred years earlier. Exhibitions follow soon after with his first exhibition at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, titled “I see me” and, more recently, “wish you were here” also at the Roberts Projects—a phrase that resonates with all of us at this moment in time.

We Dey, a nonprofit arts organization in Vienna

Most artists would be put off by the negative response and hightail it back to Ghana. But Boafo is a stoic individual, to be seen and not to have his art whitewashed meant starting We Dey, a self-funded space for artists of any discipline to include performance, drawing, painting. In order to maintain the space, the exhibition space is funded by a successful yearly crowdfunded project.  No one can deny that enthusiasm and hard work pay off. The aim now is to create a similar space in Ghana to support other artists. Boafo is an artist we will see much more of in the years to come. Anyone who can be quiet and extremely vocal at the same time is a force to be reckoned with—mark my words. Read the full article

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Art Market News Around the World

In an attempt to face the problem of the male-dominated art world, Nordic Chart Art Fair's organizers plan to only show women artists at this year edition. Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the Cuban-American artist, has nearly completed his 20,000-foot mural of the pediatrician Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo in Queens. Kovet.Art is a new online platform that will showcase the work of recent graduates from UK universities. Christo, the artist who wrapped the Reichstag and installed The Gates in Central Park, has died at the age of 84. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture launched last week a new online portal to expand the nation’s conversation on race.

Facing the problem of the male-dominated art world

[Nina Beier's Empire (2019) Photo: Kunst-dokumentation.com. Courtesy of Croy Nielsen, Vienna In an attempt to face the problem of the male-dominated art world, Nordic Chart Art Fair's organizers plan to only show women artists at this year’s eighth edition (28-30 August). The proposal will have the purpose to “highlight one of the biggest structural barriers in the art scene and art market: gender imbalance”. This year the fair will embrace a new “de-centered format” taking place across five Nordic cities in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Nanna Hjortenberg, the fair's director, said "We are already planning to present women artists exclusively at Chart 2020 with a strong collective statement from the participating galleries, we want to start the debate around gender inequality and engage the entire arts sector in developing solutions for a better-balanced art scene.” There will be 28 participating galleries with works by artists like Andrea Büttner, Anastasia Ax, Ane Graff, Emma Helle, and Chantal Joffe. Only 36% of the artists represented by galleries in 2018 were female, accounting for an average of 32% of sales, and from a survey of 82 events, just 24% of the 27,000 artists shown at art fairs are women. This was highlighted by Last year’s Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market's report on how gender inequality underpins the male-dominated art market.

Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo honored with a 20,000-foot mural in Queens

Somos La Luz, a mural by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada depicting the Queens doctor Ydelfonso Decoo, who died on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the Cuban-American artist, has nearly completed his 20,000-foot mural in Queens, New York City. This great street painting titled "Somos La Luz" (we are the light) is meant to increase awareness of the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on communities of color. The massive artwork represents pediatrician Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo, one of the first minority doctors to die during the pandemic. He was part of SOMOS Community Care who treat patients from marginalized communities like those in Queens hardest hit by the coronavirus. SOMOS Community Care is a physician-led network of mainly Latino and Chinese doctors. The mural painting was organized thanks to the help of the immigrant's rights organization "Make the Road New York and El Museo Del Barrio", and it is being painted on a city-owned parking lot between the Queens Museum and the New York State Pavilion.

Kovet.Art, a platform for recent graduates

The Kovet.Art team: Saras Rachupalli, Camilla Grimaldi and Averil Curci Courtesy of Kovet.Art Kovet.Art is a new online platform that will showcase the work of recent graduates from UK universities. This new online platform intends to help emerging artists sell work during the pandemic. Saras Rachupalli, the company founder, says that this platform will also provide guidance in areas such as market support, publishing, and pricing as part of a mentoring plan. "Delineating Dreams" is the title of the Kovet.Art’s launch show and went live on 3rd June 2020. It will include works by some artists like Candice Jewell from Plymouth College of Art; Max Gimson, a graduate of London’s Royal College of Art; and Kristy M. Chan from the Slade School of Fine Art. This new action enables “a closed number of top-class art degree students to develop their practice and profile in credible and authentic ways”. The price of available works is usually less than £10,000 (excluding tax) and the company will take a percentage of the sales. "It's more than an e-commerce platform. There will be conversations about knowledge for the curious about art" says Rachupalli. The Kovet.Art team includes Saras Rachupalli, Camilla Grimaldi and Averil Curci.

Christo has died at the age of 84

Bulgarian artist Christo Vladimirov poses with photographers next to his work 'La Mastaba' on London's Serpentine Lake in 2018 (NIKLAS HALLE'N / AFP) Christo, the artist who wrapped the Reichstag and installed The Gates in Central Park, has died at the age of 84. He created monumental interventions on architecture and landscape with his late wife and partner Jeanne-Claude. Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born on 13 June 1935 in Bulgaria—the same day Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon was born in Morocco. Christo studied at the Sofia Academy from 1953 to 1956 and then at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, before moving to Paris in 1958, where he painted portraits to earn money. He met Jeanne-Claude when he was commissioned to paint her mother’s portrait. The two collaborated on their first project together, covering barrels at the port of Cologne, in 1960. They created their first intervention in Paris, Rideau de Fer (Iron Curtain) in 1962. Blocking off the Rue Visconti near the River Seine with oil barrels as a statement against the Berlin Wall. His following major project "To wrap L'Arc de Triomphe is Paris", was still on track to take place in September 2021. It had been delayed by a year due to the coronavirus.

A Conversation About Race at the Smithsonian's African American Museum

The new online portal of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Photo: Getty Images The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture launched a new online portal to expand the nation's conversation on race last week. The portal, called "Talking About Race" offers videos, quizzes, role-playing exercises, scholarly articles, and other multimedia resources that address racism, racial identity and the profound ways these issues shape society. The series of recent incidents, including police actions that resulted in the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, led the Washington, DC Museum to move up the launch date of the portal. The museum said that many people believe they don't have the information they need to talk about race "in a way that is frank, safe, and respectful of other views and experiences." Smithsonian museums have been closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic since 14th March 2020 and have not set a date for reopening yet. Read the full article

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Art Market News Around the World

In an attempt to face the problem of the male-dominated art world, Nordic Chart Art Fair's organizers plan to only show women artists at this year edition. Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the Cuban-American artist, has nearly completed his 20,000-foot mural of the pediatrician Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo in Queens. Kovet.Art is a new online platform that will showcase the work of recent graduates from UK universities. Christo, the artist who wrapped the Reichstag and installed The Gates in Central Park, has died at the age of 84. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture launched last week a new online portal to expand the nation’s conversation on race.

Facing the problem of the male-dominated art world

[Nina Beier's Empire (2019) Photo: Kunst-dokumentation.com. Courtesy of Croy Nielsen, Vienna In an attempt to face the problem of the male-dominated art world, Nordic Chart Art Fair's organizers plan to only show women artists at this year’s eighth edition (28-30 August). The proposal will have the purpose to “highlight one of the biggest structural barriers in the art scene and art market: gender imbalance”. This year the fair will embrace a new “de-centered format” taking place across five Nordic cities in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Nanna Hjortenberg, the fair's director, said "We are already planning to present women artists exclusively at Chart 2020 with a strong collective statement from the participating galleries, we want to start the debate around gender inequality and engage the entire arts sector in developing solutions for a better-balanced art scene.” There will be 28 participating galleries with works by artists like Andrea Büttner, Anastasia Ax, Ane Graff, Emma Helle, and Chantal Joffe. Only 36% of the artists represented by galleries in 2018 were female, accounting for an average of 32% of sales, and from a survey of 82 events, just 24% of the 27,000 artists shown at art fairs are women. This was highlighted by Last year’s Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market's report on how gender inequality underpins the male-dominated art market.

Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo honored with a 20,000-foot mural in Queens

Somos La Luz, a mural by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada depicting the Queens doctor Ydelfonso Decoo, who died on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the Cuban-American artist, has nearly completed his 20,000-foot mural in Queens, New York City. This great street painting titled "Somos La Luz" (we are the light) is meant to increase awareness of the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on communities of color. The massive artwork represents pediatrician Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo, one of the first minority doctors to die during the pandemic. He was part of SOMOS Community Care who treat patients from marginalized communities like those in Queens hardest hit by the coronavirus. SOMOS Community Care is a physician-led network of mainly Latino and Chinese doctors. The mural painting was organized thanks to the help of the immigrant's rights organization "Make the Road New York and El Museo Del Barrio", and it is being painted on a city-owned parking lot between the Queens Museum and the New York State Pavilion.

Kovet.Art, a platform for recent graduates

The Kovet.Art team: Saras Rachupalli, Camilla Grimaldi and Averil Curci Courtesy of Kovet.Art Kovet.Art is a new online platform that will showcase the work of recent graduates from UK universities. This new online platform intends to help emerging artists sell work during the pandemic. Saras Rachupalli, the company founder, says that this platform will also provide guidance in areas such as market support, publishing, and pricing as part of a mentoring plan. "Delineating Dreams" is the title of the Kovet.Art’s launch show and went live on 3rd June 2020. It will include works by some artists like Candice Jewell from Plymouth College of Art; Max Gimson, a graduate of London’s Royal College of Art; and Kristy M. Chan from the Slade School of Fine Art. This new action enables “a closed number of top-class art degree students to develop their practice and profile in credible and authentic ways”. The price of available works is usually less than £10,000 (excluding tax) and the company will take a percentage of the sales. "It's more than an e-commerce platform. There will be conversations about knowledge for the curious about art" says Rachupalli. The Kovet.Art team includes Saras Rachupalli, Camilla Grimaldi and Averil Curci.

Christo has died at the age of 84

Bulgarian artist Christo Vladimirov poses with photographers next to his work 'La Mastaba' on London's Serpentine Lake in 2018 (NIKLAS HALLE'N / AFP) Christo, the artist who wrapped the Reichstag and installed The Gates in Central Park, has died at the age of 84. He created monumental interventions on architecture and landscape with his late wife and partner Jeanne-Claude. Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born on 13 June 1935 in Bulgaria—the same day Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon was born in Morocco. Christo studied at the Sofia Academy from 1953 to 1956 and then at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, before moving to Paris in 1958, where he painted portraits to earn money. He met Jeanne-Claude when he was commissioned to paint her mother’s portrait. The two collaborated on their first project together, covering barrels at the port of Cologne, in 1960. They created their first intervention in Paris, Rideau de Fer (Iron Curtain) in 1962. Blocking off the Rue Visconti near the River Seine with oil barrels as a statement against the Berlin Wall. His following major project "To wrap L'Arc de Triomphe is Paris", was still on track to take place in September 2021. It had been delayed by a year due to the coronavirus.

A Conversation About Race at the Smithsonian's African American Museum

The new online portal of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Photo: Getty Images The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture launched a new online portal to expand the nation's conversation on race last week. The portal, called "Talking About Race" offers videos, quizzes, role-playing exercises, scholarly articles, and other multimedia resources that address racism, racial identity and the profound ways these issues shape society. The series of recent incidents, including police actions that resulted in the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, led the Washington, DC Museum to move up the launch date of the portal. The museum said that many people believe they don't have the information they need to talk about race "in a way that is frank, safe, and respectful of other views and experiences." Smithsonian museums have been closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic since 14th March 2020 and have not set a date for reopening yet. Read the full article

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Mary Sibande - Post Apartheid Art

Mary Sibande is a multi-talented artist from Johannesburg. Born in 1982, the South African artist’s art consists of sculptures, photography, paintings, and design. With her creations, she depicts black South Africans in a postcolonial context. Her work often focuses on her own personal experiences and black women during apartheid. About Mary Sibande The artist was raised in apartheid South Africa by her grandmother. Her mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all domestic workers and inspired many of her works. Sibande initially wanted to be a fashion designer. Something that is very much present in all of her sculptures. She uses both fashion and design to tell a sad part of history beautifully.

Mary Sibande Sophie and her inspirations Sophie is Mary Sibande’s alter ego who tells the story of post-apartheid South Africa. A Reversed Retrogress, a tableau she created in 2013 are two mirror-image manikins with one dressed in blue and the other covered in with purple tassels. Both women look suspended in time. With this representation, she pays homage to the women in her family who were all maids from her great grandmother to her own mother. Black women were discriminated against and didn’t have a choice.  Sophie was given this name for some specific reason as mentioned by the artist. During apartheid, it was a must for black children to have Christian names. Sophie was inspired by her great grandmother. She explains how her masters didn’t learn her African name and decided to call her “Elsie”. With Sophie, Sibande wants this part of history to stay alive, so future generations would know. Changing colors To not be referred to as the artist who “makes Sophie stories about domestic workers in her family”, Sibande has to change her color scheme every four years. Living Memory (2011), female figures in teal combat trousers are inspired by her father who was a soldier but the manikin has a female body. This is because everything she knew of her father during her childhood was through her mother. She was only three when her parents separated. The young artist used to be angry with her father but later understood that he had no choice to join the army. Black men in Africa were taken away to work as miners or soldiers.

Living Memory (2011). Photo: Gallery MOMO Many of her other representations are of different colors. The use of purple represents the Purple Rain protest of 1989 in Cape Town. Anti-apartheid marchers were sprayed with purple dye so that they were visible and easier to arrest later on.  The untold part of history Mary Sibande’s art is very deep as it touches subjects that are very much taboo. Her works are also personal, which include members of her family that she holds close to her heart but also references the history of South Africa from the black’s perspective.  She tells the sad story in a happier way, knowing that it won’t take away what happened to black women in the South African past but still portray the painful truth. What people want to see will depend on the viewer, some may see violence but others can see her representation of women to be dancing and being happy.  Read the full article

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Searching for Balance In Hong Kong

Clara Cheung is searching for balance in an unbalanced world: more so in the context of violent social and political unrest and, given the Chinese communist party’s authoritarian stranglehold, the people of Hong Kong, who had been hoping for a gradual liberalisation of the regime, are constantly teetering on the edge of losing their fundamental freedoms.  The only way to demonstrate support for democracy was through the local elections, which happened last year in November 2019. Although the newly elected pro-democracy counsellors have limited powers and their reach is very limited, such an appointment within the community represents important leverage if there is any hope for change.  Given the current climate, it is surprising that the artists who were elected for the first time to the head of the three major Hong Kong Districts are independent of all political parties, and all have chosen to express their artistic work through an intense interest in the community. Namely, Susi Law Wai-shan, Wong Tin Yan, and Clara Cheung won the election with a resounding majority. Their work collectively is indicative of this era.

Clara Chung and her partner Gum Cheng

Clara Chung and her partner Gum Cheng created their first exhibition to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Hong Kong’s retrocession to China and of the famous Basic Law back in 2007. The "one country, two systems" principle is enshrined in a document called the Basic Law - Hong Kong's mini-constitution. This came into effect on 1 July 1997, the day British rule ended and the territory was returned to China. Although this law allows very little in the way of democracy it is an agreement that is only valid for 47 years. The eponymously named C&G Artpartment, a space Clara and Gum founded in 2007, is one of the first independent art spaces in the territory, hurriedly opened to offer artists a place where they could freely tackle local socio-political issues; frequently stemming from topics ironically borrowed from current events. Bringing into focus the now famous ‘Umbrella Movement’ - Chung invited artists to express their thoughts on this and other issues that have divided neighbours and the wider society. Currently exhibiting “Plan B” an exhibition of work by 26 local artists and the second part of a year-long concept called “Plan A”, the gallery says, “These works by ‘THE’ 26 artists involve a large spectrum of artistic concepts, art media and styles. All of them are very spectacular, very much readable, collectable and full of potential for all sorts of things”. Viewing is possible with restrictions in place as a response to COVID-19.  

Susi Law Wai-shan

Susi Law Wai-shan is behind the conversion of the Foo Tak Building, a fourteen-story building in downtown Hong Kong; now almost entirely dedicated to art and artistic organizations. Elected by a personal landslide victory to her post as councillor, her election promises were to “enhance community participation and communal engagement, utilise and open up existing and new public spaces, promote green living”.  Going on to promise to “safeguard the freedom and rights of Hongkongers and monitor the District Council and the government”. These promises are much harder to deliver but one thing for sure: Susi is a cultural professional first, as well as a champion of the cause. 

Wong Tin Yan

Wong Tin Yan, whose sculptures are based on recycling, recently opened ‘Form Society’; a self-financed space in a working-class neighbourhood. It is there that exhibitions, film projections and access to workshops are available all. Focusing on repairs and recycling, this is an extension of his work as an artist; putting forward the theory that art is first and foremost a state of mind focusing on new possibilities. A reinvention of an old world order being a part of the new world, as well as a lower-key commitment to the close community.  With no current exhibitions, Wong Tin Yan is focusing on the work at hand and enabling others to express themselves in increasingly difficult circumstances. Many Hong Kong artists are looking to balance both social activism and politics: refusing to make explicitly political art, but striving, however, to create art that says something and is notable in years to come. With the boundaries of Basic Law being pushed all the time, and a bill passed in 2014 after the ‘Umbrella Movement’ protests stating that anyone living in or visiting Hong Kong and suspected of a crime (journalists, NGOs, social workers, businessmen, priests or pastors), would be arrested, extradited and judged in mainland China. With this at the forefront of the minds of artists and activists alike, it is no surprise current artworks have stopped being made altogether or remain low key. Read the full article

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News from the Art Market

In this article, we'll look at some of the most important news from the art market in the past week. We'll comment on how Italian museums began to reopen, International Museum Day, how the Venice Art Biennale will be delayed, the rejection of artists by the British government's self-employment support scheme, UK galleries putting on virtual shows during the lock-in, US art dealers struggling to survive and how the Met is not expected to reopen before next August. 

Italian museums began reopening

Mole Antonelliana in Turin, Italy. Photo by Ralf Steinberger On May 18 after a 55 billion euro government lifeline. The national spending package includes emergency support for state museums, arts organizations, and cultural enterprises. Italian museums have suffered a financial blow in the last 70 days of closure, but the government has thrown them a lifeline with measures included in a 55 billion euro national spending package called the "Decreto Rilancio" (relaunch decree) announced last Wednesday. There was more good news over the weekend. It had been said that the museums could reopen from 18 May, and on Saturday night, Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini gave the green light. 

International Museum Day

Musée du Louvre, Paris This year's International Museum Day has as its theme "Museums for Equality": Diversity and Inclusion. International Museum Day was celebrated on May 18, an initiative coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) every May 18 since 1977. Suay Aksoy, president of Icom, says that the museums closed by the Covid-19 closures "need to defend themselves because their survival may depend on it. With thousands of cultural institutions closed due to the Covid-19 closures around the world and isolated from their physical audiences, many have migrated online, launching virtual tours, webinars, and social media campaigns in recognition of the day under hashtags #IMD2020 and #Museums4Equality. 

The Venice Biennale will take place from 23 April to 27 November 2022.

Venice The 59th Venice Biennale will be held in 2022 following the decision of the Biennale's officials to postpone the Architecture Biennale until May 2021 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. The most prestigious biennial in the world was initially planned for next year. The move means that the art calendar is in flux again with the art biennial, overseen by Italian curator Cecilia Alemani, now scheduled to take place from 23 April to 27 November 2022. Other important events planned for the summer of 2022 are Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany (18 June to 25 September), and the Lyon Biennial (September).

Rejection of artists by the British government's self-employment

Photo by Polina Zimmerman Many British artists and musicians do not qualify for the British government's income support program for the self-employed (SEISS). Many British artists and musicians, whose income has been decimated by Covid-19, are not eligible for the UK government's self-employed income support scheme (SEISS), which was launched online last week and attracted hundreds of thousands of applications. The Musicians' Union estimates that nearly 40% of its members do not meet all the requirements of the scheme, which stipulates that at least 50% of an individual's income must come from self-employment and their earnings must be £50,000 or less. 

UK galleries putting on virtual shows during the lock-in

Galleries in the UK are putting on virtual shows at the Bull Run using a new digital tool. The Art UK's Curations initiative allows "anyone anywhere with Internet access" to create an exhibition using the national image database. A new online tool called Curations allows institutions to put on virtual shows. UK museums and galleries have been given a digital lifeline with the launch of a new online tool called Curations that allows institutions to put on virtual shows during the coronavirus pandemic. Curations, an open-source initiative of the Art UK charity, allows users to create exhibitions from Art UK's online collection which currently includes more than 250,000 works by 46,000 artists from over 3,000 public institutions.

US art dealers struggling to survive

Art dealers in the US are struggling to survive while a new report projects a 73% loss of income. A survey by the Art Dealers Association of America also reveals a 74% reduction in employment for contractors and freelancers due to the coronavirus. As numerous organizations try to measure the financial consequences of the coronavirus (Covid-19) on the art world, the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) today released its latest findings, revealing that U.S. art galleries are projecting a 73% loss of revenue for the second fiscal quarter. In addition, there may be few resources for the recovery of these businesses and even some forays into financial relief for their artists and staff in the short term. Of the galleries surveyed, 76% applied for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Payment Check Protection Program (PPP) Loan, launched in March by the Trump administration as a financial relief measure; only 28% of galleries were confirmed for the forgivable loan to help cover staff and operating costs and nearly a quarter of applicants have yet to receive any response. About 40% of survey respondents had also applied for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), of which only 11% were approved.

The Met is not expected to reopen before next August

The Met will not reopen until mid-August at the earliest. The museum also cancels visits, lectures, concerts, and events until the end of the year. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has postponed its scheduled reopening date from July 1 to mid-August or "maybe a few weeks later. The museum says its postponed opening is being planned in conjunction with New York State's cautiously phased plan to reopen the city as coronavirus cases recede. The Met paved the way for many art institutions by closing in response to the growing Covid-19 contagion in New York City on March 12. The museum later proposed a reopening date of July 1.  Hopefully the coronavirus can be controlled and all kinds of activities around the world can gradually return to normal. From this humble article, we hope that art will find its place again in this society that will surely be changed after passing this hard test. I am sure that artistic expressions will continue to change and adapt, as they always have and always will. Read the full article

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Tara Donovan - The Champion of The Ordinary

Everyday materials like drinking straws, toothpicks and styrofoam cups are elements used by American artist Tara Donovan when she creates her amazing sculptural works. A celebration of the ordinary object available to everyone is her raison d’etre; although she will tell you, “it’s nothing special”. In my view, that's not for Donovan to decide. Born in 1969, the year Neil Amstrong walked on the moon, in Queens, New York, she hasn’t moved far away; living and working in Brooklyn, New York, today. Her large-scale installations, sculptures, drawings, and prints comment on the effects of accumulation and aggregation. Lauded for her commitment to the process of making, she has earned acclaim for her ability to exploit the inherent physical characteristics of an object in order to transform it into works that generate unique perceptual anomaly and ethereal effects.  She is considered to be a process artist who uses various artistic fields for work influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond, the aesthetic of minimalism; but goes further on to post-minimalism with the use of simple materials, and goes out of the way to say that the art is totally about the aesthetics and has no other meaning. Donovan stresses that her work is not a comment on climate change or political unrest and that the concept is so simple that many of her pieces are not even named. Donovan's formal art studies began at the School of Visual Arts (New York) in 1988–89 a commerical art and design college. Donovan received her BFA (Bachelor of Art) at the Corcoran College of Art and Design (Washington DC) in 1997 MFA (Master of Art)  from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999.  After completing her undergraduate work, she worked from a studio in Baltimore and began participating in group exhibitions at galleries and non-profit art spaces. Her first major exhibition was ArtSites 96 at Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, where she presented the first incarnation of her now-famous toothpick cubes. Reportedly Donovan held her first solo exhibition, ‘Resonances’, at Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington DC, a commercial gallery; although reviews on this exhibition are non-existent. However, in the same year, while working with Carlton Newton, she went on to exhibit New Sculpture at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and this was a documented success. The major breakthrough came in 1999. Donovan presented ‘Whorl’, an installation made out of approximately 4,000 kilos of white nylon fibre that was bundled into units and then spread out on the floor in an expanding spiral pattern or whorl. Soon after she relocated to New York and was invited to participate in the 2000 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she presented a floor installation (Ripple, 1998) made of cut electrical cable.  In early 2003, to a fanfare of review in the New York Times, Village Voice and Art in America among others, Donovan occupied the entire Ace Gallery space at 274 Hudson Street in New York with a series of installations built specifically for the gallery. These installations represent her signature and include Haze (2003), which is composed entirely of translucent plastic drinking straws stacked against a wall and reinforced by the adjoining walls to create a monumental sculpture with ethereal effects. The floor installation Nebulous (2002) is made entirely of Scotch tape that has been unspooled and unplanned ‘woven’ into interconnected units.  The review of Donovan’s work from the Ace gallery goes on to read like a menu - Moiré (1999) consists of large spools of adding machine paper that is manipulated and layered to form radiating patterns that shift with the position of the viewer. Colony (2000) is composed of cut pieces of standard pencils at various lengths, which are arranged on the floor to suggest the architectural sprawl of urban development. Transplanted (2001) expanded upon her previous projects with torn pieces of tar paper in order to create a monumental slab of material occupying a footprint of over 25-feet square. Strata (2000) is another expansive floor installation made of pooled and layered pieces of dried Elmer's glue.  None of the menu-like facts from the Ace Gallery tells you much about the art or the artist. In some ways, the catalogue acts a disservice; a bland CV, a rendition of events without really telling you anything about the installations. After reading the reviews and looking at the photos, I can only draw a conclusion based on the artist’s own view, “It’s nothing special”! But what do I know? Read the full article

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Yinka Shonibare the embodiment of irony

Shonibare is the embodiment of irony. Forced at 18 to consider why as a black artist he wasn’t making authentic African art, Shonibare, now 57, has spent a lifetime pondering this question. He is an artist who turned the concept of authentic African art on its head; continually questioning the construction of stereotypes and cultural identity while forcing the viewer to consider their own prejudices. Born in South London, England in 1962, to Nigerian parents, Shonibare was raised biculturally. He returned to Lagos with his family when he was 3, but the family kept the house in South London, allowing him to return to Britain at 18 to do his A-levels at Redrice School. Shonibare contracted transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, which resulted in long-term physical disability. One side of his body is paralysed and he uses a wheelchair. Any lesser person would have given up at this point, but Shonibare didn’t allow the disability to hold him back. He went on to study Fine Art first at Byam Shaw School of Art (now Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design), a notoriously competitive and difficult college to gain access to. Thousands apply every year but only the exceptional go on to study there. This experience completely transformed his life and, in turn, his work. While studying at Byam, Shonibare took an interest in Perestroika, a political movement widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost policy. Glasnost is a 1980s communist policy adopted by the Soviet government that stressed openness about the economic problems in the country. This was extremely relatable to Shonibare at the time, but not so to his lecturer who asked him why Russia? Why not Africa? This comment set in motion a narrative that would dominate his life. In an attempt to be ‘more’ African, Shonibare visits an African fabric shop in the Brixton market in South London, discovering, to his amazement, that the most authentic African fabric was actually manufactured in the Netherlands and exported to Africa. Further, the Dutch wax prints, as they are known, were originally inspired by Indonesian batiks; so the fabric which identifies a nation isn’t African at all. The idea of appropriation is born and is the precursor for every piece of art from that moment on.

A duel. After Yinka Shonibare. Shonibare recreates traditional Western European scenes using fabrics that recall the colours of African dress. Years later, talking to Andrew Carnduff Ritchie at a lecture at The Yale Center For British Art about his piece Gallantry and Criminal Conversation for Documenta XI, otherwise known as Nelson’s ship in a bottle, a commission in 2010 for the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. Shonibare discusses the use of this Dutch waxed fabric in the sails and the location of the plinth next to Nelson’s column in a comment on colonialism. Shonibare is quick to comment on this piece, as most believe it is a celebration of the Battle of Trafalgar - jingoism, when in fact it is the contrary. Looking forward, this vital piece of information punctuates his work from the very beginning of his career to his most recent piece the Refugee Astronaut 2020. Moving on to Goldsmiths, the University of London, where he received his Masters (MFA), graduating as part of the Young British Artists generation, with Damien Hirst the most prominent of the group. Shonibare is quick to point out he is nothing like Hirst and his cohorts, working to support himself throughout this time; it’s true to say while his work is beautiful it is quiet in comparison. However, like them, Shonibare got a major break from the collector Charles Saatchi. Saatchi of the Saatchi Gallery London bought two of his pieces, for what the artist then in 1982  considered an astronomical sum, about £8,000 each. One piece is owned by the Museum of Modern Art Salzburg and is on show in a retrospective exhibition, called ‘End of Empire’. This early success did not change Shonibare, who worked tirelessly as an arts development officer for Shape Arts, an organisation which makes arts accessible to people with disabilities. A statement maker all his life, in 1998 Shonibare elaborately stages photographic works to illustrate his point, like ‘Diary of a Victorian Dandy’. Clearly identifying himself with the lead character, an outsider who gains entry to society through wit and style. In One-piece Shonibare cast himself as a dandy who is fussed over in bed by white maids or, in another piece, looked up to at a billiards table by white associates. These pieces bring with them a comment on class and race. In 2003 in a strong visual statement, we see a piece called Scramble for Africa. A large installation, the focal point is the positioning of 14 headless and “brainless” men at a conference table adorned with the map of Africa as if they were European leaders dividing up the continent, reminiscent of events of the late 1800s and succinctly sums up the end of the century. Shonibare, the artist who continuously challenges assumptions and stereotypes, was shortlisted in 2004 for the Turner Prize for his Double Dutch exhibition; at the same time, he was awarded an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). While Shonibare didn’t win he continued to make art and comment about issues of colonialism alongside those of race and class, through a range of media where he openly examines the construction of identity and tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories, describing himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, all of this makes him intriguing. So here’s the irony, why would Shonibare accept the MBE award and later the CBE? There is no doubt he is talented and his comment is more relevant now than ever. Quoted as a “born contrarian, not constitutionally designed to belong to any art movement”. This award celebrates contribution to art and science, this in itself is laudable. However, the MBE is a symbol of colonialism, of repression and worst of all slavery. Surely the use of Dutch Wax fabric in every piece of work acts as a reminder of his philosophy? But maybe the acceptance and use of MBE/CBE appended to his name is the biggest irony of all. Read the full article