holiday window shopping

Vogue France has this photo stream of spectacular 2013 Christmas windows and more.  Above, see Harrods on Brompton Road in London.  Each Harrods window features the interior of a lavishly decorated British steam train. 

have yourself a merry little christmas

a magical thing

Homemade tamales in Phoenix.

kwakwah

The Los Angeles Annenberg foundation turns out to be one of the mysterious bidders in another controversial Paris auction of sacred Native American artifacts, this time selling off 24 antique masks from the Hopi and 3 from the San Carlos Apache tribes based in Arizona.  A French court ruled last December that an earlier contested auction could legally proceed, and in this case, the French court ruled similarly.

As reported at this blog, tribal members and supporters protested in France last April, since the masks - also known as Katsinam - are held by indigenous peoples to be real, sacred beings with a value that precludes sale as art. The Katsinam are also described as stolen during the early 20th century.

In a surprising twist of good news though, the kind that restores faith in humanity, it turns out that the charitable Annenberg organization intended all along to restore these pieces to the tribes in question - and had moved in on the auction with exactly that purpose.  A suspenseful short story, whereby secret French and English-speaking operatives, along with the tribes' attorney (via Survival International), collaboratively triumphed in the bidding war, ultimately making off with 21 Hopi artifacts and all three San Carlos Apache for 530,000 dollars.

In further good news, one of the three remaining artifacts was incidentally purchased by a private couple also intending to repatriate their acquisition to the Hopi.

The masks were made during the 19th and early 20th century.  Like many of the artifacts in dispute, they are used in religious ceremonies and eventually "retired or left to disintegrate naturally."  One Hopi protester said in April that children are not even supposed to look at them, and some websites report that display in photographs and media is offensive, though the images have been widely circulating throughout the internet.

Robert Redford leveraged his well-known voice in the protests, calling the auctions, "criminal."

From Huffpost:

The U.S. Embassy had also called for a delay so that tribal representatives could come to France to identify the artifacts and investigate whether they have a claim under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, to which both France and the U.S. are signatories.

A widely noticed and magnificent Angwusnasomtaqa or Tumas Crow Mother, shown here in April's post, and variously reported as sold for 171,000 or 210,000 dollars, was among those acquired at the earlier auction in April when Reuters described another mysterious collector who suggested that he might one day "give some back."

Unfortunately, that was not an Annenberg operative.

As for this caper, if you will, Hopi katsina priest Sam Tenakhongva thanked Annenberg, attorney Pierre Servan-Schreibert, and Survival International, while asserting that no one should "have to buy back their sacred property."

“Hopefully," he said, "this gesture [of Annenberg's] is the beginning of a larger conversation to discuss and inform various communities about what is sacred and what is for sale.  Although we were disappointed in the decision of the court which allowed the sale to proceed, we will continue to work to protect our cultural heritage on behalf of our Hopi people and others."  He added, "Our hope is that this act sets an example for others that items of significant cultural and religious value can only be properly cared for by those vested with the proper knowledge and responsibility. They simply cannot be put up for sale."

Annenberg reports that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act gives federally recognized Native American tribes a way to reclaim "funerary objects from federal agencies and museums in the U.S.," but that the law does not apply to items held internationally.

The Navajo Observer reported on December 10th that 6 similarly contested items from the Zuni tribe in New Mexico were also up for sale at the December 9th and 11th Paris auctions at Eve Auction House.


*Photo credit/via Voice of America/Reuters,  Following a French court's ruling, Hopi and San Carlos Apache masks are displayed at an auction house in Paris, April 11, 2013.  Most will be returned to the groups following purchases by the Annenberg Foundation and a private couple. 

in the studio

Eddie Martinez working on a painting in his Brooklyn studio, video below.  His 2010 mixed media on canvas The Feast (shown above) is currently on view at the Saatchi Gallery in London through March 2014, part of the exhibition, "Body Language."  Photo via New American Paintings in an Art Basel Miami Beach installation view.

007

James Bond was drunk.  (This is disheartening.)

burlesque

Rave review for this steamy burlesque version of the Nutcracker, now through Jan. 5th at NYC's Minetta Lane Theatre:

street fashion

Purple tights, London.

con una rosa

Vinicio Capossela plays Con Una Rosa in Sanremo in 2001. 

1700 b.c. vintage

American and Israeli researchers excavating the Tel Kabri archaeological site in Israel announced discovery of the oldest known palatial wine cellar from ancient Canaan - "striking wine," that is, and when breaking through to a storage room adjoining a banquet hall, with the remains of 40 ceramic jars equivalent to what was once about 3,000 bottles of red and white wine.  They may find even more wine cellars.

Chemical analysis of residue indicate that it probably tasted like retsina or contemporary Greek resinous wines.  According to the NY Times, the group will be reproducing "a reasonable facsimile."  At banquets, it would have been served up with goat meat. 

*Photo credit/via NY Times, photographer: Eric H. Cline/George Washington University, remains of ceramic wine jars from the ruins of a 1700 B.C. Canaanite palace in Northern Israel.  

balloon fiesta

Via Huffpost, a time lapse youtube of 700 hot air balloons taking flight at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.  Held over a period of 9 days last month, it's the largest hot air balloon festival in the world.

it felt like i knew you

Taking exhibition sleep to new heights?  Perchance to dream?  Aye, there's the rub with a daring subway performance art piece from George Ferrandi.

Antonellapavesse.com also comments here on a city that always sleeps on its underground along with 800 more pictures of  Big Apple MTA snoozing.  The blogger observes, "New York is the city that is chronically sleep deprived and takes naps on the subway."

intersections

Sweet potato latkes with cranberry sauce, anyone?  The NY Times reports on a rare convergence of Thanksgiving and Hannukah this week. The last time the two holidays overlapped was in 1918, and the next intersection won't happen until 2070.

antique egg poacher

An antique egg poaching stand in action (video below) via the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans.  The museum just opened the first pubic library in the south devoted entirely to southern culinary literature, and is also housing The Menu Project, collecting menus from restaurants throughout the southern United States. 

street fashion

black leather jacket.

manoir de mes rêves

Around the fire with Angelo Debarre and friends.

strange museums

Bananas, bad art, barbed wire, and the delightfully weird.

le ballet mécanique

Le Ballet Mécanique (1924), a collaboration between American composer George Antheil, French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker Joseph Fernand Henri Léger, filmmaker Dudley Murphy, and American modernist artist Man Ray who contributed cinematographic input.



The Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently hosting an interdisciplinary exhibition through January 5th, 2014, Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis.   Curated by Anna Vallye, the exhibit is designed to "shed new light on the vitally experimental decade of the 1920s in Paris when the great French modernist Fernand Léger (1881-1955) played a leading role in redefining the practice of painting by bringing it into active engagement with the urban environment and modern mass media. This will be the first exhibition to take as its inspiration and focus Léger’s monumental painting The City (1919), a cornerstone of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collection and a landmark in the history of modern art, placing it in dialogue with the urban art and culture of modernity."

PMA hosted a screening and discussion of Le Ballet Mécanique, what wiki describes as one of the masterpieces of early experimental filmmaking. Composer Antheil's "most enduring work" was intended as a soundtrack, but film and music were reportedly not brought together until the 1990s.

sleeping beauty

 
Behind the scenes for The New Victory Theater's sumptuous Sleeping Beauty marionette production.  Carlo Colla & Sons have been handcrafting these puppets since the 19th century, using wool from Scotland, silk from China, along with real human hair for the wigs, and carved from linden wood.  The puppets are repainted for different shows, and were featured in a February cat walk during Milan's Fashion Week wearing costumes for Giuseppe Verdi's operas.  T Magazine reports, "Modern costumes are much more intricate than those of early marionette shows, because the change in stage lighting from lanterns to lightbulbs made it easier for audiences to see details."

Video advertisement:



*Photo credit/via T Magazine,  "A Marionette Production of ‘Sleeping Beauty,” Created With Centuries-Old Techniques, by Alainna Lexie Beddie.

one fabulous party

This had to be one fabulous Halloween party - don't miss the photostream at the link (and note the poisons ready to serve up!) -

Queda menos para la noche más terrorífica y tenemos ideas y trucos para celebrarla a lo grande http://t.co/eZxJiUXLhE pic.twitter.com/JYsD3bVi7D
— Vogue España (@VogueSpain) October 31, 2013

all hallow's eve

Happy Halloween!  Enjoy this animation short from Nocturnaloner who says it was completed in time for Christmas.



Also see some of the world's creepiest attractions, including a Museum of Death in Hollywood.

take it back

Enjoy this costume website:  Take Back Halloween! A Costume Guide for Women with Imagination.  No dearth of  ideas there browsing a fabulous resource guide featuring Glamour Grrls, Goddesses and Legends, Notable Women, and Queens.  And, they tell you how to put it all together.

why

Leon Redbone's Why.

 

arising

Yoko Ono invites women everywhere to participate in an exhibition.

peace can be realized even without order

Teamlab installation shown in the video below at the Singapore Art Museum.



Seemingly endless holographic figures play music and dance, influenced by the sounds of the figures close to them.  From Teamlab's description:

[...] There is no lead figure that oversees or can influence all the other dancers, and there is also no center or order enforced on the crowd.  External events can cause disorder, but then in time gradually peace will be restored.

When a person enters the installation and a figure senses the viewer, the figure responds to that person and stops playing music.  The figure passes on this information to other figures close by.  After a short period of time the figure will start playing music and dance again, but this disturbance will have disrupted the harmony.  If, however, the viewer stays still or leaves, the dancers will begin to form back into one harmonious group and the feeling of peace will return.

More video of the work:



Here, too:



Teamlab describes the ancient Japanese Awa Dance Festival whereby various groups of dancers and musicians arbitrarily roam town playing and dancing as any given group so chooses.  As one group encounters another, each begins to "gradually and unconsciously" match the music and tempo of the other, "not due to any set of rules," and whereby, "an extraordinary peaceful feeling prevails,"  Teamlab stating:

Today, in the Internet age, the speed at which people can connect with other people has accelerated.  As a result people throughout the world have become increasingly connected, and the influence of connections to other people has become more important.  What we experience in this new age can be considered similar to the experience of the dance festival, and perhaps in these unordered connections there is a way to find peace.

And more - the concept of ultra subjective space.

self-portrait

Via Elizabeth Avedon's blog, Midtown East Manhattan at the Howard Green Gallery now showing an exhibition of photographer Vivian Maier's self-portraits.  See portfolios of her work here.

nyc map links

NYU Professor Steve Hutkin's NYC map links.  Via The Map Room.

dimensions of dialogue

Another selection from surrealist Jan Svakmajer -- his 1982 animation, Dimensions of Dialogue.

red shoes

and some hardline advice.

float on

Dedicated to the brilliant lights on twitter .. a Seattle area classic too, this Modest Mouse video is featured in one of the music exhibits at the Emerald City's exciting, very hands-on Museum of History and Industry. 

by the wayside

With another Francis Alÿs, Zapatos Magnéticos.  (See here, too.)  And, a studio interview with the artist about his creative process in The Last Clown.



 One of his later and better known works, When Faith Moves Mountains.

 

20,000 leagues under the sea

A photostream of the remarkable South Philly home of Adam Wallacavage, militant ornamentalist and father of octopus chandeliers.  Much of what you see in that photostream was made by Adam Wallacavage himself with a solo exhibition of his works, Magic Mountain, slated for the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC, Oct 19th-Nov. 16th, 2013.  Mr. Wallacavage is also a photographer - so don't miss this series.  Or browse here at instagram.

city of the angels

Via Huffpost, L.A.'s Radar Theater festival is a not-to-miss if you're city-scape south through October 1st. Includes Japanese Dogugaeshi, Mexican surrealist theater, and one very, very sinister puppet plot .. amidst other contemporary and urban, visually compelling, socio-political explorations.  Yes indeed.

*Photo credit/via Redcat, photographer: Amanda Shank, Puppet scene from the serial murder tale in "Clouded Sulphur" by Janie Geiser and Erik Ehn.

back alleys of tribeca

Weekend's last chance to see the complete current show at Museum, reportedly NYC's tiniest museum housed in a 60 square foot freight elevator on Cortland Alley between Franklin and White Streets.  This is the place that boasts the shoe thrown at George Bush amongst its permanent collection of modern day artifacts from around the world. 

What's to see currently includes personal ephemera from Al Goldstein, rocks & tools from Tom Sach's Mars expedition, objects made for or by prisoners in U.S. prisons, fake vomit, and Jim Walrod's collection of NYC tip jars.

Visit Sat. or Sun. between 12 noon to 6 PM.  Otherwise, check out the viewing window 24/7.  Or a virtual catalog here with objects of interest from previous exhibitions. 

 

*Photo credit/via Szabrodski Instagram and Inhabitat.

jabberwocky

Jan Svankmajer's 1971 animation, Jabberwocky.

 

blue blanket

Some kiss.

shine on harvest moon

Hope you had the chance - or will have the chance - to see a lovely harvest moon September 18th and 19th.  Some awesome photos here via EarthSky News.  And more here, including why you see that red color and what farmers were doing with all the extra moonlight in the days before electricity.

Leon Redbone's wonderful rendition of Shine On Harvest Moon, composed by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth in 1903.  If you enjoy Django Reinhardt, you'll also want to listen to Milton Brown's version here, "cofounder of western swing" and an important influence on Reinhardt.  Of course, the musically sweet sound of the Hal Kemp orchestra in 1929.

 

*Photo credit/Wikipedia, uploaded by Roadcrusher, "Harvest Moon."

in the street

Francis Alÿs in Mexico City, 1997, Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing, or Paradox of Praxis 1. 

 

"this doesn't look like france"

But it's pretty good.  Besides, consider this.  

frida

Via Museo Frida Kahlo, a rescued Blue House image; raw, fleeting, unedited, unpublished. 

  

 More Frida blogging here.

from attic to museum

So journeys a newly discerned Vincent Van Gough, Sunset at Montmajour, enthusiastically unveiled by Amsterdam's Van Gough Museum on Monday.  Museum experts thought otherwise in 1991 when an undisclosed collector initially carried the painting over for them to have a look at.

Since 1991, new techniques for authenticating art have developed;  so, reports the New York Times, about ten years later, the owner (still haunted by questions, one gathers) took the painting back.  Enabled and emboldened by these new techniques, researchers looked again, and have been looking ever since, with Van Gough now believed to have indeed painted this "more experimental" work from his "mature period" on July 4th, 1888 when he wrote to his brother on the following day,

“Yesterday, at sunset, I was on a stony heath, where very small, twisted oaks grow, in the background a ruin on the hill, and wheat fields in the valley. It was romantic, it couldn’t be more so, à la Monticelli, the sun was pouring its very yellow rays over the bushes and the ground, absolutely a shower of gold. And all the lines were beautiful; the whole scene had charming nobility.”

 A flicker photographer (similarly bewitched, one supposes) snapped this yellow Montmajour sunset upon a group of wild horses.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston reports that painting on site in Montmajour was a constant struggle for Van Gough because of "fierce, blustering winds that swept through this region" and "whipped violently against his canvases."  MFAH is home to another 1888 Montmajour Van Gough titled The Rocks.  The Rocks played a key role in conclusively determining that Sunset at Montmajour was truly a Van Gough.

1888 is also the same year Van Gough's ear incident went viral. 

Via wiki, Montmajour Abbey, the "ruins" of which are said to be seen from a distance in Sunset at Montmajour.  During the Middle Ages, the abbey was an important pilgrimage site, and during the 18th century, housed a Maurist monastery that is now in ruins, shown second.  Wiki reports the building largely demolished for building materials after the French Revolution (1789-1799).

 

 

*Photo credit/top, New York Times, photographer: Herman Wouters; second, via cbswpam, Sunset at Montmajour, by Vincent Van Gough;  third, Wikipedia, uploaded by Len'Alex, March 2005, Vue générale de l'abbaye; fourth, Wikipedia, photographer: Marc Ryckaert (MJJR), Montmajour Abbey near Arles (département des Bouches-du-Rhône, France): ruins of the Monastère Saint-Maur, 18th century.

a coney island of the mind

From Hazy Productions and director Nora Finton, A Coney Island of the Mind.  

pastimes

"I'm trying to illustrate a dream I had last night."

sepan todos que muero

By José Marín (1628-1699), Montserrat Figueras: Soprano, Rolf Lislevand: Guitare Baroque, Pedro Estevan: Percussions.  From album "Marín: Tonos Humanos", 1997 Alia Vox.

in the studio

Via huffpost and Stucky Art, cartographer and artist Jerry Gretzinger has spent the last fifty years (and for the next twenty, plans to continue) sketching and painting a map for a fictional world.  An online version here.  I think it's called Ukrania, but I'm not sure.

vegetable sandwiches

Imagination's the limit with vegetable sandwiches.  Or very simply such with any number of choices, remembering, for example, Harriet the Spy's tomato recipe.  A purist example.  The point being, who says you have to use tomatoes?  Or who says you have to use portobello?

Or just make a salad, put it in some crusty bread, and crack open a red wine.  (Harriet's grown up, of course.)

#daydetroit

The internet rallies to save the Detroit Art Institute.  As I joined in the virtual "march" - which you can view on twitter at #DayDetroit (and better yet, also participate), I couldn't take my eyes off the museum's Paul McPharlin Puppetry Collection (example, photo left), "one of the most significant collections of historical puppets in the United States."

Check out more here, here,  here, and here.

Ouch, the DIA also houses Howdy.

 What has become of us when our nation's most prized art collections are scattered to the winds?

Here are some of my picks from among the more traditionally smitten favorites;  a detail from Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry;  Bourguereau's hazelnut gatherers;  Paul Cézanne's bathers.


More news on this sad state of affairs from Rachel Maddow:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ferris wheels

A photostream of the world's coolest ferris wheels (well, some of ). 

More here at wiki where it says that "pleasure wheels" turned by men may have originated in 17th century Bulgaria.  To the left, an Adam Olearis (1599-1671) 17th century engraving depicting an early Turkish design for what was also known as an "up and down."  The pleasure wheel has been traced to communities in Romania, India, and Siberia, eventually arriving in England and Europe.  Antonio Manguino introduced the first American idea of the ferris wheel with a wooden "pleasure wheel" at his start-up fair in Walton Springs, Georgia.  The original 1893 "Ferris Wheel," also known as the "Chicago Wheel," was designed and constructed by American engineer George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.

back of the mike

A Jim Handy short providing "an insider's view" of the sound effects from a 1930s radio show.  Back of the Mike moves back and forth between the visual scene in a listener's imagination and the actions taking place in the old time radio studio.  From shaggylocks who recommends you "watch it the second time with your eyes closed." 

street fashion

This NYC photo with basic black.

marionette

Them Bird Things.

woodfish

In the studio and gallery with Bellingham, Washington artists Tom Wood and RR "Fishboy" Clark, from their February 2013 collaborative exhibit, Woodfish at the Lucia Douglas Gallery.  The youtube was made and posted by Bellingham artist and muralist Lanny Little.

unmasked

O my goodness.  Robert Galbraith, author of The Cuckoo's Calling, is really .. J.K. Rowling. 

Reviewers have described it as an “exhilarating debut” and marvelled at how a male author could ever describe women’s clothes so well.

and

The book is described as “a gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London – from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho.”

joy of eggplant

in its myriad forms.

Another favorite of mine is an eggplant panini, via the chefs at Sauk River Review. 

gone fishin'

Yep.

alice in wonderland

The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland.  The 1903 film was severely damaged and restored by the British Film Institute (BFI) Archives.

"Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations. In an act that was to echo more than 100 years later, Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen, and he himself appears as the Frog Footman. Even the Cheshire cat is played by a family pet."

green bathing suit

From December 1, 1944 in the Vogue archives.

che cossè l'amor

I discovered the fabulous Vinicio Capossela via Putumayo's collection, Italian Café, and in Che Cosè L'Amor - the album pamphlet saying that he "has been compared to Tom Waits because of his quirky creativity, use of unusual instruments, lyrics that describe complex and bizarre characters and nostalgic melodies that conjure up bygone eras."  Mr. Capossela is also a novelist, wiki reporting his lyrics "highly original" and "often inspired by literary sources such as John Fante, Geoffrey Chaucer, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others."  From Putumayo:  "Che Cosè L'Amor (What Is Love?) deals with the meaning of love.  The impressionistic lyrics describe various unusual objects and characters, asking them their definition of love.  He asks the wind, he asks a frozen hammock blown from its gazebo, he asked a disinterested coatroom attendant and a dancing Peruvian, who tells him, 'What is love? It's like a pebble in your shoe that stings with each lazy step of the bolero.'" 

be nice or leave

A short documentary about "Dr. Bob" Schaffer, a New Orleans folk artist whose work is well known and displayed throughout the city.  Dr. Bob has been featured in many newspapers and magazines including the Smithsonian, the Times-Picayune, and Big City Rhythm and Blues-- and purchased by notables like Emmy Lou Harris and Mariah Carey.  Dr. Bob works in a 6,000 square foot Chartres Street warehouse often visited by other artists -- and where you can peruse a rich collection of signs, paintings, assemblages, found objects, and now charmed witticisms (like his familiar, "Be nice or leave.")

writing advice

With thirty-one pearly pieces of this wisdom from famous authors.  My favorite, I think, from Mr. Hemingway's typewriter:

"The first draft of everything is shit."

sautéed greens

A simple classic Sicilian dish from Simply Recipes.  Many a green will do, with pine nuts, garlic, and raisins.  For that matter, cranberries and almonds sound good, as well.

jazz swing

1959 in Vienna.  The photograph is by Volkmar K. Wentzel with National Geographic.

omar and his skyhook

An enchanting 2009 short from Doug Purver and Roadnorth - Omar and His Skyhook, styled after early silent films.

 

street fashion

This writer in red plaid.

over the rainbow

Happy Mother's Day ...

maker of monsters

Talking with and about artist Beau Dick.

associations

Paul Klee's puppets associated to Henry Darger.  In the early 1920's, he made 50 for his son Felix, 30 of which have survived.  Ptak also comments,
  
The puppets are intimate, made for his son for play, and are composed of bristle and bone and nutshells and electrical outlets and bits of gingham and cloth and wire and buttons.  Stuff from the junk drawn or whatnot box.  Klee did construct more elaborate puppets for his connection with the theatre, and of course was also a sculptor.  But I do like these little puppets, much in the same way as I enjoy the small toys made by Alexander Calder for his kids.

Charming Calder toy and circus photos here at Mochimochi Land who writes:  

When living in Paris in the 1920s, Calder created a cast of human and animal figures made of wire and scraps of other simple materials. Each of these toys could perform a trick of motion when manipulated by hand: a lion tamer snapped a whip, a dog walked around on its hind legs. Calder held entire mini circus performances in which he would get down on the floor and manipulate his modernist toys for audiences adults and children. (Back in New York, fans could book Calder’s circus through the Junior League at Saks Fifth Avenue.)

Via Mochi, the Whitney has this youtube of Calder performing his circus, though noting that seeing it in person during the 1920's must have been a vastly different experience:

*Photo credit/top, Ptak Science Books/3 of Paul Klee's surviving puppets/second, Mochimochi Land, an Alexander Calder circus toy.

yam and white bean stew

A vegetarian yam and white bean stew via Sauk River Review.

mcdonald's

Photographs by Nolan Conway of people in McDonald's.

playhouse

From The Last Reading On Earth, Ever - Playhouse, by Joseph Bates.

street fashion

Young trendsetter from Planet Awesome.

o those violinists

 Iwao Furusawa hanging out at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

in the gallery

Outsider visionary folk artist Leon Kennedy discusses his work, Without A Vision, The People Perish.

angwusnasomtaqa

 

A protested French auction of ancient and sacred Hopi masks went ahead in Paris via a judge's ruling.  It generated 1.2 million dollars in sales, the 1880's artifact shown above (World News/Art Et Communication / Ho / EPA), Angwusnasomtaqa or Tumas Crow Mother selling for the highest price at $210,000.  

During the auction of Crow Mother, a woman stood up amidst the group of about 200 applauding auction goers, calling out, "Don't purchase that.  It is a sacred being."   

Protesters gathered with signs outside the auction, urging auction goers not to participate.  Bo Lomahquahu, an American exchange student and member of the Hopi tribe said, "We have lots of art that can be shared with other cultures, but not these.  Children aren't even supposed to see them."

The buyer, who declined to be identified,  defended his purchase, stating that, ".. if it had not been for collectors in the 19th century who contributed to the field of ethnology, there would very little knowledge of the Hopi," and, "One day I might give some back."  The buyer acquired 3 other masks, expressing delight at being able to add to his collection of Hopi artifacts.

The Hopi tribe of northeastern Arizona and supporters, including the U.S. ambassador to France and actor Robert Redford, urged the Paris auction house to suspend the sale due to the masks' cultural and religious significance.  Robert Redford wrote:  "To auction these would be in my opinion a sacrilege, a criminal gesture that contains grave moral repercussions."

The French court rejected the motion from both the tribe and Survival International, a London-based advocacy group representing the tribe's interests, the court asserting that it could only intervene to protect human remains or living beings.

Pierre Servan-Schreiber, the lawyer for Survival International, said, "This decision is very disappointing.  Not everything is necessarily up for sale or purchase, and we need to be careful."

pasta

Via Sauk River Review, a lovely lemon pepper pappardelle pasta with roasted shrimp and tomato.

the night watch

Via MuseumResearch&Study, a Dutch flashmob adventurously arrives at the mall on horseback in a dramatic reconstruction of Rembrandt's most famous (and controversial) painting, The Night Watch (De Nachtwacht), or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq. 

Fascination around bringing the renowned work of art further "to life" is not new, including several films, music, possibly even the second movement of Gustav Mahler's 7th symphony.

Russian artist Alexander Taratynov created a bronze-cast representation of the painting - Nightwatch 3D - first exhibited in 2006, and now permanently installed in front of Louis Royer's 1852 cast iron statue of Rembrandt at the Rembrandtplein  in Amsterdam (shown in photo to the left, source: wikipedia, uploader: Hippolyte). Which the actors' rendition may show a more immediately apparent resemblance to.

According to wiki and Rembrandt The Nighwatch blogspot, The Night Watch is notable for its sense of motion - versus the more static military postures employed - along with the painting's large size and rendition of light and color.   The painting has had a long and colorful history of its own, including several alterations (also removing two characters), storage in a Dutch castle throughout World War II, theft, conspiracy theory, and two major acts of vandalism - one by a man throwing an acid, and another by an unemployed schoolteacher with a bread knife who later committed suicide.

 

As for that surprising and enjoyable shoppers' *treat*, those actors (in seventeenth century outfits - and also swinging in from the ceiling) were promoting the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and following an extensive restoration program since 2003.  The Night Watch is housed there - the Dutch national museum, that is, which is located in Museum Square, Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw.

*Photo credit, bottom/Wikipedia/public domain without source information/Recreation of Rembrandt's The Night Watch, the lines showing how the present painting was cut down from the artist's original.   You can see the two excluded characters to the viewer's left.

merry frolics

Enjoy a 1906 feature - The 400 Tricks of the Devil - from French illusionist and filmmaker Georges Méliès (who also stars in).



According to wiki, this enchanting short has also been known as The Merry Frolics of Satan, Les quatre cents farces du diable, Les 400 farces du diable, and Les quatre cents coups du diable.

street fashion

This photo in Austin at the SXSW.

swingin' bach

Iwao Furusawa and Taro Hakase swingin' with Bach's Concerto for Two Violins.

in the shop

NY photographer Dustin Cohen takes us into the shop of  91 year old veteran Frank Catafulmo with this charming film short, The Shoemaker.  Mr. Catafulmo has been repairing shoes in Brooklyn almost 70 years, since the end of World  War II.  Via Huffpost with photostream here.

great and mighty things

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is running an outsider art exhibit, Great and Mighty Things, through June 9th.  It includes 200 pieces collected over the last 30 years by long-time Philadelphians Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz.  The show's title comes from one of several selections by the late artist Reverend Howard Finster who combined religious text and imagery (in this case, from Jeremiah 33:3, "Come with me and I will show you great and mighty things").  More here in a review by Sarah Burford with Title Magazine.  Below, a tour by Curator Ann Percy and Curatorial Assistant Cara Zimmerman.

hot cocoa

How to really make one (whatever time of year).

whale of a tale?

You may have read that risqué tale about Tattoos and Scrimshaw: The Art of the Sailor, the B.C. Vancouver Maritime Museum exhibit including two dozen erotic carvings on sperm whale teeth presumably dating back to the 19th century.  The family-friendly locale gained notoriety when a local mom took her two sons, ages two and three, to inadvertently see things like this (photostream at link with sexually graphic content).  Such a twitter went up that Stephen Colbert hilariously featured the issue on his show.  The National Post now reports that the artifacts are fake - and not because they are not naughty - but because the pornography is not from the 19th century.  James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a former executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum - previously called in expert Stewart Frank, a Massachusetts-based curator and authority in the realm of fake scrimshaw.  Apparently, the market "abounds with specimens attempting to masquerade as the work of a Moby Dick-era whaler."  Said Mr. Frank, "It's all a fake."  At which Mr. Delgado, during his tenure, squirreled the material away in museum storage with a report on their findings.

From the Post:

The style was indeed too modern to have come from the 1800s, but the real “smoking gun” could be seen in the cracks of the antique ivory itself. The engravings, which had likely been done with a machine, were conducted over top of the existing cracks — indicating a recent engraving, even if the whale teeth themselves were authentic.

Mr. Frank even had a possible culprit; an unknown carver in the Los Angeles area that had been selling fake erotic scrimshaw since at least the 1970s. “He said it was likely the work of one person who unscrupulously took in this collector who wouldn’t know otherwise,” said Mr. Delgado.

As for the otherwise controversial issues surrounding the show, the show goes on, with an additional disclaimer to the one accompanying the museum's family-friendly photo ad, but one that was there all along;  i.e.:

This whole arrangement was known to the museum’s current managers, of course, which is why they posted a sign warning that some of the pieces have had their “authenticity questioned,” but that “it was felt that the images depicted were true to the period.”

 “We can’t say for sure if these examples are from the period, but even if they were produced in the 1920s, does that make them fake because they weren’t produced in the 19th century by whalers?” said current museum director Simon Robinson.

*Photo credits/top, Vancouver Sun/photographer: Arlen Redekop/Tattoos & Scrimshaw: The Art of the Sailor exhibit at Vancouver Maritime Museum/bottom, Vancouver Sun/photographer: Arlen Redekop/"A whalebone carving showing a captain preoccupied with land-based pursuits from Tattoos & Scrimshaw: The Art of the Sailor exhibit on now at the Vancouver Maritime Museum."

the magician and the scientist

From Sean Davies and Random Pictures, The Magician & The Scientist, a short story ...

street fashion

This photograph taken in San Francisco.

tiger rag

O those violinists!  Stephane Grapelli and Iwao Furusawa in Tiger Rag.

in the studio

Via frieze, Sturtevant in Paris.

To sleep, perchance to Dream ..

Aye, there's the rub, in Tilda Swinton's  performance art piece, The Maybe, currently running at MoMA with random unannounced appearances throughout the year, each time in a different location in the museum.

The Gothamist carries photos here, reporting she's there today (March 25th), maybe and if you hurry over.

More photos at this link.

Ms. Swinton originally staged The Maybe with artist Cornelia Parker in 1995 at the Serpentine Gallery in London, then continuing solo in Rome and Paris.  MoMA's exhibition is part of an effort to bring back historic performance art.  Chief Curator Klaus Biesenbach and the artist have been discussing MoMA's inclusion of The Maybe since 2005.

*Photo credits/top, posted by the Gothamist/middle, Gothamist, photographer: Jen Chung/bottom, Gothamist, via gallerinaoffduty's Instagram, signage for The Maybe at MoMA/Various views of "The Maybe" with artist Tilda Swinton, currently running randomly at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City.

pesach

How to be a vegan during Passover.

somewhere in philly

Via boing boing, an epic infographic from Hilly "chatgirl" Sargeant on the 1990 500 million dollar Gardner Museum Heist.  (Go to the PDF version to read the fine print.)

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, while virtually every other Bostonian lay drunk in gutters or passed out in their beds, two men dressed as Boston Police officers conned their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by telling guards they were responding to some kind of disturbance.  The men spent a total of 81 minutes inside the museum, and made off with thirteen (13) works of art currently valued at over $500 million.  In 2013, on the 23rd anniversary of the heist, the FBI announced that they knew who committed the crime.  But they won't name names.  And the whereabouts of the artwork remains a mystery.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI now believes some of the pieces, somewhere in Philly.  The mysterious heist is considered the largest property crime in U.S. history.  See the thirteen works of art here at Time NewsFeed.

More on lost (as well as stolen) art here, via the Tate's intriguing online exhibition, The Gallery Of Lost Art.


*Photo credit/Time NewsFeed/FBI photograph/"Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait," (1634), one of the 13 works of art from the mysterious 1990 Gardner heist.

dr mermaid

Via Expanded Animation, the glassmation work of Mark Elliot and Jack McGrath.  Created in collaboration with Vanessa White, Dr Mermaid and the Abovemarine is the tale of a marine biologist who can speak to fish.  Blog In A Bottle says the 6 minute film took a year to make, with glassblower Mark Elliot making the figurines and then heating them up to create the small movements.

street fashion

Erica Renfew with the Vancouver Observer fondly remembers her father's plaid shirts in a short history of plaid fashion. 

Milan.

Los Angeles.

Seattle.



*Photo credit/Vancouver Observer/photographer: Erica Renfew/"My father's plaid shirts."

how high the moon

Stephane Grappelli in a rare 1991 Warsaw performance of How High The Moon.  From fostexD160 who says, "Always reminds me what a musician should play and could play on stage."

in the studio

Georgia O'Keefe frequently painted in her car in New Mexico. 

city of books

Photostream of José Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City.

lamb stew

Via Simply Recipes, this Basque style lamb stew adapted from an old paper issue of Saveur Magazine.

saved

 

Arthur Panajian's paintings. 



*Photo credit/CBS New York/photographer: Thomas Schultz/Arthur Panajian paintings found in Thomas Schultz' garage.  (Photostream at CBS link.)

quay brothers

From the Brothers Quay, their 1986 Street Of Crocodiles.  MOMA had a retrospective last year reviewed by Roberta Smith.  Also a slideshow here from that exhibit, a MOMA video interview with the artist/filmmakers, and a video overview with MOMA curators from ThirteenWNET.

 

street fashion

This photograph taken in Paris.

clair de lune

Moonlight on Brittany, France with Django Reinhart's quintet ..

 

in the studio

Familiar friendly photography of French artists in their studios by Jean-Marc Pau.

beyond color

An exclusive Marc Chagall exhibit is currently running in the U.S. at the Dallas Museum of Art.  "Beyond Color" presents lesser known works by the artist, including a centerpiece of costumes he designed for the 1942 Léonide Massine ballet Aleko - with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. 

The costumes have only been seen  in the U.S. once before - in 1942 when the ballet was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York - and 4 weeks after a Mexico City opening where the audience included famous muralists like Diego Rivera and José Orozco and concluded "with tumultuous applause" and 19 curtain calls.  The hero of the evening, Chagall had also painted the backdrops for the ballet, and in New York, where the ballet was similarly received, art critic Edwin Denby described "a dramatized exhibition of giant paintings... It surpasses anything Chagall has done on the easel scale, and it is a breathtaking experience, of a kind one hardly expects in the theatre."

The exhibit reportedly follows some of Chagall's visual relationships to Mexico and the southwest, also to space and volume.  It includes ceramics, collages, and to a lesser degree, some of his paintings.  The costumes themselves (hand-painted by Chagall) were sewn by seamstresses in Mexico where Chagall traveled in the course of working on the ballet.  They were found in a Mexico City storeroom in the eighties.

Organized by DMA curator Olivier Meslay, and with Musée La Piscine in Roubeaux, France.  The exhibit runs to May 26, 2013.

*Photo credit/Art and Seek/One of Chagall's handpainted costumes for the 1942 Léonide Massine ballet "Aleko," "Costume For A Fish."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/20/4630556/seeing-chagall-in-3d-at-the-dallas.html#storylink=cpy

port fonda

Cool Mexican eatery in Kansas City, MO. 






 *Photo credit/New York Times/photographer: Nathan Eaton/Port Fonda restaurant in Kansas City, MO.