Picasso Hoard Discovered in Garage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

271 undocumented works by Pablo Picasso estimated to be worth at least €60 million (£50 million) have been discovered in the South of France. A retired French electrician and his wife have revealed the paintings drawings and prints, which had been stored in a garage for over 30 years. Read More....

BFI Takes Over UK Film Council funding Role

The BFI (British Film Institute) is set to take over the funding role previously managed by the UK Film Council. It was controversially removed in July with the abolition of the body. The new responsibilities will start in April 2011 and the BFI will also distribute lottery money to filmmakers based in the UK. Regional agency Film London will take on the Film Council's role in promoting the UK as a filmmaking destination.

Culture Minster Ed Vaizey set out a package of measures today to ‘support’ UK filmmakers, creating financial stability and a more direct and open relationship with the Government. The key parts of the proposal include:

The BFI will take on a key role as the lead strategic film body and distributor of Lottery funds to UK filmmakers.
Lottery funds for film will rise from around £27m today to around £43m annually by 2014; and
Film London will be given a UK-wide responsibility to promote this country as the best place to invest in film.
DCMS and BFI will lead a review on how to build a more sustainable film industry and develop audiences for British films.
The BFI will work with Film London, BAFTA and to consider the role BAFTA and BBC Worldwide could play to support the distribution of British films abroad; and English Regional Screen Agencies are transforming their network into Creative England, a more efficient structure with an expanded remit to support the creative industries. Read More.....

Turner Prize Goes To Londonderry In 2013

The 2013 Turner Prize is to be hosted in Londonderry Northern Ireland as part of its city of culture celebrations. The UK City of Culture also stands to host The Booker and the Brits. The three-month-long Turner Prize exhibition will highlight the 5 shortlisted artists, and culminate with the prize giving ceremony announcing the winner. It is expected to attract up to 100,000 visitors to the city. The Tate, which runs the Turner Prize, said showing it outside London would “attract new audiences around the country and bring the prize to a wider and more diverse audience outside the capital. Read More.....

Lélia Pissarro - THE COLOURS OF SILENCE - Stern Pissarro Gallery

New Works
The subject of this series of snow paintings is Yeyette Lebatard’s house, in the heart of the Calvados village of Clécy, a motif Lélia visited five years ago but explores again with a fresh eye, a fresh mind and a different technique.

Again, Lélia concentrates on the exploration of variation within a single subject, achievable only through a series of repetitions, each one finely yet distinctly different from the preceding canvas.

Lélia Pissarro has painted since the age of 4, having been educated by her grandfather Paulémile and her father H.Claude Pissarro Read More....

Lord Chadlington Appointed New Chairman of LAPADA

LAPADA The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers has announced the appointment of Lord Chadlington as their new Chairman.  The founder of PR giant Shandwick, Lord Chadlington is currently Chief Executive of Huntsworth plc, the international public relations and healthcare communications company, a former Director of Halifax plc, and was made a Life Peer in 1996.  His knowledge of communications, business and politics provides a sound depth of experience with which to lead LAPADA through the current economic climate.  Next week a formal announcement will be made with regards to the appointment of the Association’s new Chairman. Read More.....

Government Encourages Museums to Sell off Some Family Treasures

Does the new Coalition Government want Museums to sell off some of the family treasures? In late October, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey was asked by the Museum journal, Should cash strapped Museums be allowed to sell from collections, in order to stay open? and as repugnant as it sounds to all of us insiders, the minister from the DCMS has said that museums should not “shy away from disposal” as a way of refreshing collections but added that museums being forced to sell collections in order to stay open would be a “terrible thing”. Vaizey response acknowledged that selling collections is a “hugely emotional” issue.
Read More....

Whitney Biennial Choses Curators

The seventy-sixth Whitney Biennial in 2012 will be co-curated by Independent curator Jay Sanders and the Whitney’s Elisabeth Sussman. The series of annual and biennial exhibitions was inaugurated in 1932 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and has continued to be a fixture of important international art events for the last 80 years.  Read More....

Leading UK Museum Director Resigns

Sir Mark Jones, The Victoria & Albert Museum director, is leaving his job to become Master of St Cross College Oxford. The London museum made the announcement on Friday. The former director of the National Museums of Scotland was knighted in the 2010 New Year's honours list for services to the arts and has been the director at the V&A since 2001. Read More....

Banksy Oscar Nomination

Exit Through the Gift Shop, the Banksy documentary that was released earlier this year, has been placed on the long-list, for an Oscar in the category of, Best Documentary Film. The feature, which is narrated by Welsh Actor, Rhys Ifans and is really more about the American Graffiti Artist/Fan Thierry Guetta, is an engaging and extremely watchable film. The outsider status of graffiti artist Banksy may be further challenged but the bottom line is, this is a very good film. Read More.....

Cindy Sherman Becomes Honorary Member The Royal Academy of Arts

Photographer Cindy Sherman, has been invited by The Royal Academy Of Arts in London, to become an honourary member. This rare token has been given to only a handful of elite American and international Artists, in the last century. Sherman was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey in 1954. She studied art at Buffalo State College (1972–6) specializing in photography. Her photographs are portraits of herself in various scenarios that parody stereotypes of woman. Numerous characters and settings are drawn from sources of popular culture: old movies, television soaps and pulp magazines. While the mood of Sherman's early works ranges from quiet introspection to provocative sensuality, there are elements of horror and decay.  Read More....

Eight UK Museums Lose Government Funding

The DCMS as part of its four-year business plan, has announced, it will no longer fund eight Museums that it currently sponsors. It will scrap national funding of “museums that should be the responsibility of local communities”. This affects eight non-national museums: the Design Museum; the Geffrye Museum; the Horniman Museum and Gardens; the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester; the National Coal Mining Museum for England; the National Football Museum; the People’s History Museum; and Tyne and Wear Museums. These institutions will now be turned over to their local communities and own resources for funding. If this is unworkable and private funding unavailable, they may simply shut. Read More...

Neville Gabie Appointed Artist In Residence For 2012 Olympics

Artist Neville Gabie  has been appointed by the  ODE (Olympic Delivery Authority) as  the Artist in residence for the 2012 Olympic park, in East London. The Authority will work alongside the park's diverse communities in order to create a memorable cultural experience. A similar honour was awarded to Chinese dissident Artist, Ai Weiwei for the recent 2008 Beijing Olympics. Read More....

LIU XIAOBO 10 WAYS to FREE the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER

In light of the Global Action plan to run a Media campaign on the 3rd of Dec 2010 and a Peaceful Demonstration day on the 5th of Dec 2010, to Free the Nobel Peace Prize Winner. HKalliance (www.alliance.org.hk) has 10 Practical Action plans for those who wish to protest against an unfair rule of law that permits “political prisoner jails” in CCPcontrolled China: By Cecilia W Yu (余詠詩)  Read More...

£53 Million “Pinner” Chinese Vase Sets Auction Record

An auction record was set this week for a piece of Chinese art, when a 16 inch high ceramic vase decorated with 4 circular cartouches, each masterfully carved and enameled with carp (a symbol of plenty) beneath a primrose yellow trumpet neck sold through the small suburban auction room, Bainbridges in Ruislip, Middlesex UK. Read More.....

Christie's Record Breaking Contemporary Art Sale

Auction News    

The highest total for a Post-War and Contemporary Art sale was achieved yesterday when Christie’s New York led by an exceptional group of works from Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and Gerhard Richter pushed prices even higher into the art world stratosphere. A total of $272,873,000/£169,181,260 /€199,197,290, selling 93% by lot and 92% by value was achieved. Read More....

Jack Levine Social Realist Painter Dies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Levine the American Social Realist Painter has died, he was 95. Levine was born in Boston on January 3, 1915 and grew up on the rough, teeming streets of Boston's South End, a predominantly Irish area of town.In the depths of the Depression, his mother made lunches for the bootleggers in the neighbourhood. Read More....

Stuart Cary Welch Collection Of Islamic and Indian Art Offered By Sotheby's

Sotheby’s has announced today the sale of works from the personal collection of Indian and Islamic Art acquired by the late American academic, Stuart Cary Welch. This renowned collector pioneered this area of art collecting as early as 1952. He was also a curator, scholar and gifted teacher. Read More..

Museums Denied Access To Private Donations By Treasury

The British Museum and the National Gallery are finding it difficult to access over £50m given by private donors because of changes to Treasury regulations implemented under the last government. The scale of the problem is widespread, as the reserves for all national museums total over £285m. The museums have not openly admitted that a problem exists fearing repercussions from a Treasury who has already cut their budgets by up to 30%. It has been agreed that national museums can have access to half their reserves, amounting to  £143m. Although in theory museums should now have access to half their £285m of reserves, DCMS has not yet told them how the new system will actually work.  Read More......

Artist Ai Weiwei Under House Arrest

Ai Weiwei The Chinese Artist responsible for the Sunflower seed installation, this years Unilever sponsored exhibit in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, has been placed under house arrest in his residence in Beijing. It was reported on Sunday afternoon that three men in plainclothes in a minivan with no license plates was blocking the entrance to Ai's home in an artists colony on the eastern edge of the city. "I'm under house arrest to prevent me from going to Shanghai. You can never really argue with this government". Read More....

Arts Council England To Cut 100 Organisations

More than 100 smaller organisations are likely to lose their Arts Council funding. The announcement follows the government’s decision to slash funding for the arts by 29.6% as part of the comprehensive spending review. Tate,V&A, British Museum, ICA, National Gallery as well as the The Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet are among the organisations supported by Arts Council England. Arts Council England currently distributes cash to about 850 groups. They want to make recipients more accountable and open up the process to new organisations. Read More....

Kengo Kuma To Design V&A Museum Dundee

The Japanese architectural firm Kengo Kuma & Associates have been chosen to design a new museum in Dundee. The project, sponsored by the V&A, was put to tender by an international competition. Which included  The six shortlisted firms, chosen from more than 120 entries by firms around the globe.  Read More...

Zaha Hadid,New Serpentine Gallery Building For 2012

The Serpentine Gallery along with the Royal Parks have agreed to a contract for a new venue
in Kensington Gardens. This will work along side the already existing Serpentine 'Magazine' building.
The project, to be known as the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, has been made possible by The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation which has given the largest single gift the Serpentine
Gallery has received in its 40 year history. It is rumored that Zaha Hadid is to renovate the existing building to create a new and exciting venue for contemporary art. Read Full Story

RCA SECRET 2010

COLLECT A PIECE OF ART HISTORY FOR JUST £45 

It's November again and this means it's time for the RCA Secret annual contemporary art exhibition. ArtLyst will keep you up to date with all of the exhibition information. We may even hold your place in the queue if you need to pop out for a coffee! This sale consisting of around 2,500 original postcard-sized artworks, made and donated by professional artists, designers and illustrators, plus up-and-coming students and alumni from the Royal College of Art.  The cards are all sold to the public in a huge sale, with every postcard costing just £45, regardless of whether it has been made by a famous name or a young art student.

 What’s the Secret?  Each postcard is signed on the back, so collectors don’t know the identity of the artist until they have made their purchase. Although it can help to know the difference between a drawing by Tracey Emin and a sketch by Sir Paul Smith, a lot of it is down to pure luck and many collectors don’t realise whose work they have chosen until they hand over their cash on the sale day. 

Read More...