Sotheby’s recent American Art auction included works by seven important female artists in a range of styles from classical sculpture to cubism and folk art. Self-taught artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses, known as “Grandma Moses,” painted "Hurrah for Christmas," one of the highlights of the auction. An autumnal success story, Grandma Moses didn't start painting until 75, becoming one of the most famous folk artists of the 20th century.
Latest Art News
The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is the latest institution to acquire one of Yayoi Kusama's hugely popular mirrored infinity rooms. Light of Life, 2018, is a seven feet square hexagonal box with three portholes that allow visitors to peer inside. LED lights in changing colors and flickering patterns put on a two-minute show that is reflected infinitely through the mirrors.
Featuring over 3000 artworks from 248 galleries, Art Basel Hong Kong opened this week with the $35 million sale of Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XII (1975). Given that all other major first day sales were male artists, the status quo could use some shaking up, especially in Women’s History Month. Enter the indomitable Guerrilla Girls, feminist art activists based in New York. Known for their signature blend of humor, hard facts and bold graphics, the Guerrilla Girls have been fighting for gender and racial equality in the art world since 1985.
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston installed and unveiled their new gleaming Anish Kapoor sculpture this week. "Cloud Column," conceived in the late 1990s and executed in 2006, is a 21,000-pound stainless steel vertical oblong. Situated in front of the future Glassell School of Art, the piece will be a focal point for the Museum’s newly redeveloped campus, set to open in May.
The installation sparked mockery from the Chicago Tribune. In the coming decades, Houston is predicted to overtake Chicago as the nation's 4th largest city.
On February 27th, Fernand Léger’s (1881-1955) L’usine or Motif pour le moteur sold at Christie’s London at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale for over 1.9 million pounds ($2.9 million), far exceeding the auction house’s estimate of nine hundred thousand to 1.2 million pounds.
Armory Arts Week filled Manhattan with art fairs and their patrons over the weekend. Centered around the Armory Show with an additional eight satellite fairs, there is truly something for everyone in every part of Manhattan. In addition to parallel fairs Art on Paper, Collective Design, Independent, Moving Image Art Fair, NADA, Scope, Spring/Break Art Show and Volta NY, museums and galleries held special events and openings. Works of art from masters of Modernism to emerging artists had offerings in every price range, bringing a full roster to Manhattan.
Art & Object is pleased to present jewelry and other wearable art recently sold at auction. Since the beginning of time, jewelry has proven to be a medium of expression that defines our tastes, our resources, and our sensibilities. Jewelry extends into decorative arts and has become a defining statement of culture. Our column is presented by Ettagale Blauer, author and authority on jewelry design.
March marks the beginning of Women’s History Month, and museums and art institutions across the US are ready to highlight female artists. The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NWMA)—the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to championing great women artists— is launching several initiatives. They’re bringing back their popular hashtag from last year: #5WomenArtists, asking if people can name five women artists, this year with an emphasis on remembering female artists of color.
A new chapel of art opened in Austin, Texas this month. The University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art opened the doors to Austin, the largest and last work by artist Ellsworth Kelly, who died in 2015 at 92. An American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Kelly is known for his abstract compositions of geometric forms in bright colors and patterns. Often associated with the Color Field movement, his work explores form, color, line, and shape.
Born and educated in Poland, London-based artist and designer Marcin Rusak blends the natural and industrial worlds in his dramatic objects for the home.
Rusak casts flowers and exotic plant life in poured resin, preserving their ephemeral beauty forever in tables, lamps, screens, and more. Rusak’s works are visually striking: the smoothness of his surfaces and the natural beauty of the plants embedded in them draw the viewer in. But what makes his works truly memorable are the contrasts they embody.
