The Holy Thorn Reliquary is a work of both ornate beauty and sublime significance. The grandeur and intricacy of the late-medieval French goldsmith’s craft is harnessed for the reverence of a single buckthorn – believed by many to be from the Crown of Thorns placed on the head of Jesus before the crucifixion.
September 2018 Art News
Taking a contemporary perspective, the Whitney is looking back through their collection, reviewing how programming has evolved in modern and contemporary art. Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 begins with early conceptual works from artists like Sol LeWitt, Josef Albers, and Donald Judd, who used rules and instructions to guide their creative practices. By creating and working within these parameters, these early conceptual artists of the 1960s insisted that the idea behind the work was just as important as the work itself.
British installation artist Rebecca Louise Law uses flowers and natural materials as her medium to “paint in the air.” The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has commissioned this vanguard contemporary artist to design and implement her largest site-specific installation to date exploring the relationship between humanity and nature.
Phillips New Now auction proved itself to be a staple of the auction calendar this week, mixing work by emerging and established artists in a successful sale. With over 250 lots offered, the auction expected to realize over $5 million, and made $6.4 million.
Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auction concluded last night in New York with a total of $31 million – the highest-ever total for the auction series since it was introduced at Sotheby’s in 2013.
On 15 November, Phillips will offer Joan Miró’s Femme dans la nuit among the star lots of the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale. Painted in 1945, the work is an important example of Miró’s output created during the Second World War and was included in the important 1962 retrospective of the artist’s work at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris.
A group exhibition showcasing contemporary female artists based in Austria and the United States, Women.Now. explores women’s changing roles through a variety of media, including paintings, pottery, textiles, drawing, mixed media projects and video.
A pioneer of institutional critique, artist Hans Haacke creates conceptual works that expose connections among money, art, and politics. Haacke recounts the realizations that inspired him to demystify the relationships between art and the outside world, as in his SFMOMA collection work News (1969).
Opening September 17 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Delacroix is the first comprehensive retrospective in North America devoted to the artist. Visitors will discover a protean genius who continues to set the bar for artists today.
Dr. Mindy Besaw, Curator of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Dr. Steven Zucker discuss Nari Ward's We the People (black version), 2015 (shoelaces, 8 × 27 feet, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art).
