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Toby, will work for “Treats!”
January 3, 2012 in Photography by admin
A video of my dog toby doing Tricks. Watch if you want to smile with joy!
A short video by Shannon Bivens
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Elizabeth Taylor’s Pearl Necklace!
December 15, 2011 in Jewelry by admin
See this amazing necklace that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Remarkable Pearl Makes History at Christie’s
Written by Edward Covington Wednesday, 14 December 2011 22:38
NEW YORK, N.Y.- The record-breaking $116 million sale of Elizabeth Taylor’s “legendary” jewelry collection at Christie’s Tuesday night took even the auctioneers’ breath away. Fair estimates on each of the 80 pieces suggested they would bring in some $30 million or more. But $116 million? It was “the magic of Miss Taylor present in the room,” one auctioneer said, that led to record prices on so many items. The extraordinary beauty, rarity and provenance of the pearl known as “La Peregrina” inspired a fierce bidding battle at Christie’s New York at the opening auction of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor . Estimated at $2-3 million, the pearl reached a world auction record price for a pearl at $11,842,500 (£ 7,579,200 / € 9,118,725) after four and a half minutes of bidding. The pearl, an historic 16th century pear-shaped pearl suspended from a necklace custom-designed for Ms. Taylor by Cartier, has been widely heralded as one of Elizabeth Taylor’s most iconic jewels.
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Stadel Museum shows Old Masters Collection
December 15, 2011 in Artists by admin
The Städel Museum’s Refurbished Main River Wing Shows its Old Masters Collection
Frankfurt am Main, Germany.- The reopening of the Städel Museum’s Main River Wing with the new presentation of the Städel’s “Old Masters” (1300–1800) collection on December 5th, marks the conclusion of the comprehensive refurbishment measures in the old museum building. Developed by Prof. Dr. Jochen Sander, chief curator of the “Old Masters” collection and Deputy Director of the Städel, the new presentation benefits primarily from the recovery of the historical main axis of the Main River wing, which, starting from the central Rotunda, connects the large skylight galleries and their related cabinets. While the eastern part of the building is reserved for German, Dutch, and Flemish painting with masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, Hans Holbein, and Adam Elsheimer, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Brueghel, and Peter Paul Rubens, the rooms following the cupola hall in the west mainly accommodate works by artists from Romance countries’ schools, splendidly represented by Andrea Mantegna and Sandro Botticelli, Tiepolo and Batoni, Nicolas Poussin and Chardin.
The Rotunda itself houses a small, yet qualitatively outstanding group of early Netherlandish paintings – a tribute to the crucial role played by masters like Jan van Eyck, the “Master of Flémalle,” or Rogier van der Weyden in the development of European painting north and south of the Alps.
Besides familiar and world-renowned masterpieces of the Städel, the restructured presentation of the collection also boasts numerous new acquisitions, which, as important additions, fill gaps in the Städel Museum’s collection of old masters. One of the highlights is certainly the purchased portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael and his workshop. A portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Younger could be secured for the museum through the work’s acquisition by the Städelsche MuseumsVerein. Guercino’s “Virgin with Child,” dating from about 1621/22, was added to the collection as a donation by Barbara and her husband Eduard Beaucamp. During the fifteen-month conversion period, the complete old museum building (the Main River wing and the garden wing) has undergone basic refurbishment. Under the direction of the architectural office schneider+schumacher, which is also responsible for the ongoing extension of the Städel, the fire protection facilities and the barrierfree accessibility of the museum were improved. Further measures concerned the creation of a connection between the old building and the extension via a central stairway located exactly in the axis of the main entrance, as well as the reconstruction of the Metzler Hall, for which the internationally acclaimed artist Thomas Demand conceived a specific work.
See the full article here:
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/
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The Boca Raton Museum Opens “American Treasures”
December 13, 2011 in Artists by admin
BOCA RATON, FL.- What characterizes a “treasure” and what defines “greatness” in art? The criteria of a “treasure” – whether historical or contemporary – is decided by history. In these revisionist times, artworks, no matter how important they may have been at the time of their creation, are subject to reassessment of how we view the past. On December 13th, the Boca Raton Museum of Art opens American Treasures, an exhibition featuring thirty-six artworks by renowned American artists. The exhibition offers viewers the opportunity to review two centuries of artistic achievement and reflect on the diversity of period styles and individual voices that make up the history of American Art. These enduring masterworks help illuminate our view of modern and contemporary art, by refreshing our sense of historical aesthetic memory. American Treasures presents exquisite examples of old and modern American masterworks, as a checklist of ideas and social values, hopes, dreams and perceived realities.
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London Bridge Photo Enhancement
December 13, 2011 in Photography by admin
LONDON BRIDGE – PHOTO ENHANCED BY SHANNON BIVENS
I have been looking for a new image to paint. My neice suggested London Bridge. I always open pictures in Photoshop and try to make them more artistic to get ideas for painting. I am going to try to do a painting similar to this. But, I want the painting to be a little more lifelike, but with these colors. But, I want to exagerate the paint strokes and make the painting feel like it is being veiwed with light behind the image. Something like a computer screen does to images. It really enhances them and makes them look like they glow from within. I love London and feel myself constantly being drawn to the city for some reason.
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Ava with Guitar 2011 by Shannon Bivens
December 4, 2011 in Artists by admin
Ava with Guitar 2011 by Shannon Bivens
I just finished this painting today. Luckily the person I did it for loved it and wants to pay me for it. Always a great thing. Portraits are not usually my thing, so I was very happy with the results.
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Missing Government Art
October 29, 2011 in Museums by iartdesi
The Government Art Collection (GAC), consisting of 13,500 works of art, many of which decorate government buildings and embassies, opened a second show at the Whitechapel Gallery in London last month (until 4 December). The latest exhibition has been selected by artist Cornelia Parker, and the collection is keen to make its works more accessible to the public. Ironically, the works could be safer hanging in a gallery open to the public than in government offices.
Thefts, bomb damage and looting are some of the more extreme threats the works face. The collection has lost more than 100 items throughout its 113-year history, excluding the recent losses in Tripoli (The Art Newspaper, June, p1). Of the 67 works that went missing in the past ten years, only 23 have been recovered. In 2008, Jeremy Hunt, then opposition culture spokesman, told The Times: “The Department for Culture, Media and Sport needs to get it together on a problem that has been going on for too long.
Questions raised
The recent reappearance of a lost painting at a London auction house raises questions around the degree of effort put in by the publicly-funded organisation to find works that have gone astray.
In May, William Brooker’s 1950-52 painting, Albert Bridge (est £5,000-£8,000), was withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s following suspicions that it might be a work from the GAC. The work was sold at Lawrences auction house, Somerset, in January but appeared to match a work recorded as missing on the collection’s website.
The painting disappeared in the 1950s from a building in Gibraltar, and is believed to have been consigned by an elderly gentleman who said he bought it around the same time. Owing to an ongoing investigation, the GAC was unable to comment on the current status of Albert Bridge, but a spokesman says: “The sale at Lawrences was not picked up at the time.” Lawrences says it is working with the Art Loss Register to resolve the matter.
Mislaid works
The GAC faces particular challenges in caring for the 9,000 works it has out on loan at any one time. One reason is that the level of security in government buildings is not of museum standard. The GAC says that while these buildings tend to offer a high general level of security, “to work with the same level [as a museum] would be enormously expensive and make it impossible for the GAC to do the job it does now.”
Richard Walker, the former curator of the GAC, wrote to The Times in 2009 to say that pieces were lost in “hurricanes, tropical storms… and occasionally in the luggage of a retiring civil servant”. The GAC says it is not aware of any recent evidence to back up this claim.
The GAC also faces political challenges, as shown during the looting in May of the British Embassy in Libya. The 17 missing paintings were not moved earlier, for fear it might suggest a British withdrawal.
It is likely, however, that many “missing” works have been mislaid rather than stolen: despite a year-round audit, there appears to be confusion concerning the location of works. According to the GAC, Thomas Shotter Boys’ Blackfriars from Southwark Bridge, 1842, went missing from Snaresbrook Crown Court in February 2004. But a court spokesman told us that the print had been returned to the collection in March 2004. The GAC maintains that “[that is] mistaken. The print remains missing.”
Conversely, Tricia Gillman’s Stepping Stones, 1968, is not listed as missing on the GAC’s website (which includes information about the current location of items), but the British Embassy in Vienna says it has gone.
Meanwhile, Albert Bridge could have been found with a simple internet search.
The GAC says it will not revise its approach to finding missing works but will “continue” to place details of missing works on relevant databases, including with Interpol and on London’s Metropolitan Police’s stolen art database.
A freedom of information request to the GAC, however, revealed that many works had not been reported to the police, including Patrick Caulfield’s 1975 print Evening Menu 31/70, missing from the British High Commission at Abuja, Nigeria, since 2009. The GAC says: “In general, we do not report missing historical prints or multiple-edition prints, up to the value of approximately £2,000.” Where items are not reported to police, investigations are made within the building.
Where are they now?
Lord Frederic Leighton, Capri: Sunrise, 1859
Presumed destroyed in the British Embassy in Berlin during the second world war and subsequently not reported as having been looted. Now thought to have been sold for £102,750 at Christie’s, London, in 2000. The GAC is currently investigating.
Henry Lamb, A Spotter, Heavy AA, 1942
The work was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, which oversaw the creation of more than 5,570 works of art, 169 of which were given to the GAC. It was loaned by the GAC to the Ministry of Defence college at Warminster in Wiltshire, before going missing between 1968 and 1980. In 2001, the Imperial War Museum attempted to track down all the War Artists’ Advisory Committee-commissioned paintings. The GAC failed to provide an update on those it held.
Abraham Van Beyeren, Beach Scene (date unknown)
Bought by the GAC for around £25 after the second world war, its last known location was the British Embassy in Ankara. Presumed stolen in December 1970.
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by iartdesi
Graffiti art honours Egypt’s revolution
October 29, 2011 in Artists, Exhibits by iartdesi
German street artist Case is due to paint a portrait of Khaled Said in Cairo
ALEXANDRIA. Since revolution swept through Egypt earlier this year, street art has appeared across the Arab country. As part of a graffiti project initiated by the Goethe Institute, German street art collective Ma’Claim has been invited to paint several murals in Alexandria, the hometown of Khaled Said, whose alleged murder by two policemen in the street in June 2010 contributed to sparking the revolution.
The first mural, finished on 23 October, consists of four panels depicting a sea of clenched fists punching the air, with each panel bearing a single hand offering the peace sign. “It’s about the power of a movement,” said Ma’Claim member Andreas von Chrzanowski, aka Case. The German artist also intends to paint a portrait of Said in Cairo, although he said finding a suitable wall in the Egyptian capital is difficult “as there is military everywhere.”
The project reflects the growth of graffiti art in Egypt, where more and more people are taking to the streets to express themselves. “From late-February until mid-March lots of people covered most of the walls in Alexandria with different types of wall paintings,” said Daniel Stoevesandt, the director of the Goethe Institute in Alexandria. “Graffiti has been used to keep the memory alive of those who died or disappeared during the revolution and therefore the medium has become very important.” Restricted by a lack of coloured spray paints, much of the street art in Egypt is basic, consisting mainly of slogans and stencils, says Case. “There is not much colour—Egyptian street artists stick to black and white,” he said.
At the end of September, Case painted Said’s face on a section of the Berlin Wall to mark the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s awarding of its annual Human Rights Award to the Egyptian blogger. The work is due to be permanently installed in Berlin’s Freedom Park. For Case, painting on the Berlin Wall had personal resonance. “I grew up in East Germany and was 11 when the wall came down,” he said. “Khaled Said stands for something similar to the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
