| Artists, protesters target Blair book party
(Reuters) |
Reuters - Former British premier Tony Blair has been forced to postponed a party at the Tate Modern art gallery celebrating the launch of his autobiography because of threats from anti-war protesters, his office said on Wednesday. |
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| Blair postpones book party at Tate Modern
(Reuters) |
 Reuters - Former premier Tony Blair has postponed a party at the Tate Modern art gallery celebrating the launch of his autobiography because of threats from protesters, his office said on Wednesday.
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| The United States Picks Allora & Calzadilla for the 54th Venice Biennale
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - After almost a year of speculation, the Puerto Rico–based multimedia duo Allora & Calzadilla has been announced as the United States' representatives to the 2011 Venice Biennale, marking the first time that an artist pair or collective has been picked by the nation to fill the prestigious role. The selection was made by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which the U.S. State Department has entrusted to organize next year's pavilion; Lisa Freiman, the chair of the museum’s contemporary art department, has been tapped as the commissioner of the pavilion. She will also curate the presentation. |
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| Daniel Libeskind's German War Museum Rumbles To Its Finish, With an Arrow in Its Heart
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - Dresden's Museum of Military History has existed in a variety of incarnations over the years, each mirroring the successive regime that shaped its image. Established in 1897 in a stately neoclassical building that once housed an arsenal, the museum became a celebration of German military might under the Nazis. Its location outside the historic center of Dresden allowed the building to survive the Allied bombing campaign at the end of World War II; thereafter it proudly displayed Communist tanks and submarines under East German rule. In 1989, Germany's Bundeswehr — or Federal Defense Force — was unsure how the museum would fit into the newly unified German state, deciding to simply shut it down. |
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| First Quicksand, Now a "Complex Situation" Delay New York's African Art Museum
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - Half a decade after it shuttered its exhibition space in Long Island City, the Museum for African Art announced on Friday that it would delay opening its new Upper East Side building by at least five more months as a result of construction delays. Slated to open in April 2011, the Robert A. M. Stern-designed museum will not be inaugurated until at least September 2011, according to he museum’s director, Elsie McCabe Thompson. |
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| Jerry Hall to Auction a Pregnant Nude Portrait and Other Art at Sotheby's
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - As if the action-packed fall art season wasn't sexy enough already, Jerry Hall — world-famous supermodel, actress, and the alleged subject matter of Mick JaggerÂs hit love song, “Miss You”— will be selling her collection of contemporary art at Sotheby’s next month. The 14 artworks, which attest to Hall’s glamorous life amidst the avant-garde 1970s and 80s in New York, will be auctioned to coincide with London’s Frieze Art Fair. |
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| Egypt Cracks Down on Arts Officials After Van Gogh Theft
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - Egyptian authorities have been unable to recover the $50 million van Gogh that was stolen in broad daylight from Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum last month, but they have certainly wasted no time in finding scapegoats for the embarrassing theft. Eleven people in the country's arts establishment, including a senior culture minister and the head of the museum, are now set to be tried in court on charges of negligence in protecting the painting. |
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| Sistine Chapel Threatened by Too Much Love
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - It appears that the millions of sweat-stained tourists who invade Rome's landmarks every year are a nuisance to more than just the locals — they're even starting to disturb God. At least, that is, the depictions of God on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, which showed signs of damage during a routine cleaning this summer. According to Vatican Museums director Antonio Paolucci, the harm has been caused by the 4.5 million people who visit the site each year. |
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| An Imperial Stamp, Protected by a Dragon, Sells for $1.3 Million at a Hong Kong Auction
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - Yesterday, ARTINFO ventured into the world of numismatics, discovering a strange and exciting land of niche collectibles. But today we are being even bolder, delving into what some might argue is an even narrower, more specific pursuit: timbrophily! Stamp collectors the world over received a jolt of excitement on Saturday when Hong Kong postage auction house Phila China brought the hammer down on a toasty timbrophilic lot at $1.3 million, a new record in the already-sizzling Chinese stamp market. |
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| Jerry Hall's art collection on auction block
(AP) |
 AP - Model Jerry Hall plans to auction some of her art collection next month, including a famous portrait by Lucian Freud that shows her nude when she was eight months pregnant, Sotheby's said Monday.
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| Is Damien Hirst a Serial Plagiarist?
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - Damien Hirst has been accused of a lot of things in his day — from peeing in the sinks of posh Soho clubs in his early years to, of late, making "ugly, ugly, ugly" paintings — and one of the more persistent allegations has been that the bad-boy YBA is a little too quick to steal other artists' ideas. Now this complaint has been vociferously resurrected by Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckist movement, who is accusing Hirst of plagiarizing at least 15 of his most famous works, including his medicine cabinets, spin paintings, diamond-encrusted skull, and pickled shark. |
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| In Financial Jeopardy, the Seattle Art Museum Seeks a $10 Million Loan
(ARTINFO) |
ARTINFO - Though corporate America appears to have weathered the worst of the housing-market collapse, the nonprofit sector is continuing to suffer from the weak economy. The latest organization to face considerable danger is the Seattle Art Museum, which has filed a motion in county court asking for approval of a plan to borrow $10 million from its $96 million endowment in order to avoid having to default on a loan that financed its 2007 downtown expansion. |
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