Every quarter we gift you with our version of the current "creme de la creme" art exhibitions listings, and the unofficial start of summer in the northern hemisphere is no exception. Stan Parchin has once again diligently combed through a multitude of show candidates and written up his top picks. There are a lot of offerings in a lot of cities here, so there should, truly, be something for everyone. (You can also find a a printer-friendly version here.) Please do enjoy yourselves over the summer, soaking in all of this lovely art in climate-controlled comfort.
Warning: If you ever catch yourself thinking "Hmmm ... I wonder what's new in the world of Performance Art?" you are certain to find out quickly. This just happened to me, and the answer is "A young art student has 'married' her car." The bride wore white. The groom wore a massive top hat. Here is their wedding photo. (A million years in front of a keyboard and odds would still be excellent you'd never dream this sort of thing up.)
I don't know if it's the swirling drama, tortured emotion, elongated limbs, flying cows, preponderance of 16th-century symbolism crammed onto one canvas or a sign of cognitive deficiency, but I am often reduced to a drooling, glazed-eyed automaton muttering "Pretty colors! Pre-e-e-tty!" when confronted with Mannerism. Luckily for me, Stan Parchin and our great friend at The Frick Collection, Heidi Rosenau, have got a lock on what's significant about the special exhibition Veronese's Allegories: Virtue, Love, and Exploration in Renaissance Venice, on view from April 11 through July 16, 2006.
For example, the thumbnail view shown here very sincerely involves Wisdom and Strength - and not, as a drooling automaton might suppose, a gratuitous, stunning left-sided flash of some Late Renaissance Venetian Girl Gone Wild angling for Mardi Gras beads. It is always great to get these things straight. Thanks very much to Stan for pointing the way, as he so often does. Off to The Frick with us now, to view this exhibition properly armed with knowledge!
Well, no, that wasn't me blaspheming out loud (at least not now, and never here) but, rather, the title of Damien Hirst's next Big Project. No more sharks or sheep, nope - Hirst is reported to be undertaking coating a human skull (1) first with platinum and then (2) with diamonds. Real platinum and 8,500 really real diamonds; all authentic to the tune of an estimated £8m to £10m - or, as this is being touted "the most expensive work of art ever created."
"Most expensive upfront cash outlay," Hirst PR people, that's what you meant, right? Because I'm pretty sure an original Botticelli sells for more. (Let's not split hairs though - yes, I get it.) Couple of questions: why leave the skanky old human teeth exposed, for heaven's sake? Could you not dip them in 18-karat yellow gold and embed a stylish diamond or seventeen? And why omit the purple crushed-velvet hat with a big, white feather? Really, if you're going for the bling thing or some sort of parody about "life and death," do it up right proper and smack people over the head with it. (Um -- that last was supposed to be some kind of metaphor, not a suggestion to literally bash/slash anyone with a diamond-studded skull. Crawling sheepishly back to my wildly inexpensive pencils, paper and technical pens now ... )
Despite state-of-the-art climate controls that protect one of mankind's earliest artistic accomplishments, the caves in Lascaux, southwestern France have contracted Fusarium solani, a virulent white fungus often resistent to drug treatment. Lascaux is the site of 17,000-year-old Paleolithic wall paintings.
Six years ago, engineers replaced the caves' antiquated air conditioning system from the 1960s. They reportedly didn't sterilize their boots in a prescribed formaldehyde solution and introduced harmful fungi into the caves during the new system's installation. The caves' expanded entrance to make way for the new machinery may have contributed to the contamination. Heavy rains may have washed soil, possibly containing fusarium spores, into the cavernous location. Jean-Michel Geneste, director of France's National Center for Prehistory, has downplayed the situation's gravity in the press. He's insisted that only the caves' floor was covered rapidly in the fungus that resembles snow. Scientists are currently removing all traces of the parasite at the site by hand.
Read more...
In the course of working towards assembling all of my Da Vinci Code-related things into one neat package, I discovered a few things. First, it seems as if there is a movie based on That Book coming out. Secondly, Tom Hanks is starring in said movie and is, for some inexplicable reason, trying to bring the mullet back as a Man Hairdo. Tom, please! As if we all haven't spent a full two decades trying to move on from the fashion horrors of the 1980s.
The third thing I discovered is that everyone on this planet has written about Leonardo and the art found in The Da Vinci Code, whether doing so is in their job description or not. And, finally, in spite of the third thing, somebody still needs to step up to the plate and explain why the words "Da Vinci" are wrong, wrong, wrong. I can't do anything about the first three items, and have no more molar enamel to spare from the constant grinding in any case. All I can do is continue to try to answer your questions with facts, within my topic.
For example, the image you see here is from Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop. It is a fact that he was Leonardo's master. It is supposed, by some, that the fresh-faced lad on your right is modeled after none other than the young Leonardo, himself. Even more people suppose that Leonardo had a hand in the execution of this painting, Tobias and the Angel. I've brought this up in order to point toward Leonardo's early life and explore what Leonardo's name really and truly was. Care to read?
When Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, first reviewed Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur in 2005, circumstances were different. The exhibition itself was still at its holding institution, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It has since become a traveling exhibition and has journeyed to The St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri and the Houston Museum of Natural Science (where it is currently on view) - much to the delight of museum-goers in these respective locations.
Additionally, we did not have the technology last year to offer you the high-resolution images we often receive. Well, now we do. In fact, if you click on the image shown here, you'll get an eyeful of two human-headed bulls and the man who is providing a tripod for them. (Hard to say if any of the three aren't confused by this turn of events, judging from their facial expressions.) Please enjoy both the nice, big pictures of Mesopotamian art and Stan's descriptions of each. Thank you for the tour, Stan!
Holbein in England, an international loan exhibition of 40 portrait and subject paintings, accompanied by some 120 drawings, prints and decorative designs by Northern Renaissance master Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), will grace Tate Britain from September 28, 2006 through January 7, 2007. The show will illustrate Holbein's remarkable artistic skills. It will also examine Tudor culture as portrayed by Holbein in his works from the often tumultuous reign of England's King Henry VIII (1491-1547).
Arranged chronologically, the works of art on display will explore themes such as: Holbein's resolution of real and ideal representation in painting; his portraiture technique; the artist and his patrons; the royal family and court; Northern Renaissance Humanism, religious upheaval and the English Reformation; and Holbein's assimilation of concepts from the Renaissance classical revival as seen in his preparatory designs for goldsmiths and large-scale paintings.
Read more...
Writing about Double Take: From Monet to Lichtenstein has been a hoot. This special exhibition is on display until September 24, 2006 at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington and features 28 works culled from Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen's private collection. I had some initial gawker curiosity about that which a gazillionaire (co-founder of Microsoft, honestly!) would collect, given free rein in the Art World but, even more than that, I was intrigued by the concept behind this show. Curator Paul Hayes Tucker hung Double Take... in an "And now, for something completely different!" vein. We've got Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters sitting side-by-side with modern and contemporary masters' works. It is left to the viewer to supply any contextual clues in the pairings - a deliciously dangerous proposition.
For your viewing enjoyment, we've been provided with nine lovely images, in four pairings, from Double Take... . It was pleasurable, to say the least, to review them, guess at their relationships to one another and jot a few notes down for each. Rumor has it that this show may travel in the future. That is to be desired. While word on the street is that viewers are flocking to the Seattle venue, it would be wonderful if other audiences have a similar opportunity to look at these works firsthand. Some of them haven't been seen publicly for upwards of fifty years.
Special thanks to Emily Killoren, Press Officer, for her gracious help in bringing these images to all of us here.
This serves as notice that next Sunday is Mothers' Day in the United States. Since we seem to require a special day in order to acknowledge the Hardest Job in the Known Universe and take givers-of-life out to eat, here is a little additional food for thought. It comes to you courtesy of a mother, and I have some definite opinions about the position. I've shared a few of these thoughts in the blurbs written to accompany the images selected for 10 Favorite Mothers in Art. (Note: Not mothers who made art, mind you - rather, some of my favorite depictions of mothers in paintings, prints, a photograph and an illustration.) Read it and laugh, weep, agree, disagree or anything else you'd like - just don't, please, neglect to think fond thoughts of your own dear mother next Sunday. We do so adore the attention.
Every quarter we gift you with our version of the current "creme de la creme" art exhibitions listings, and the unofficial start of summer in the northern hemisphere is no exception. 
Despite state-of-the-art climate controls that protect one of mankind's earliest artistic accomplishments, the caves in Lascaux, southwestern France have contracted Fusarium solani, a virulent white fungus often resistent to drug treatment. Lascaux is the site of 17,000-year-old 
In the course of working towards assembling all of my Da Vinci Code-related things into one neat package, I discovered a few things. First, it seems as if there is a movie based on That Book coming out. Secondly, Tom Hanks is starring in said movie and is, for some inexplicable reason, trying to bring the mullet back as a Man Hairdo. Tom, please! As if we all haven't spent a full two decades trying to move on from the fashion horrors of the 1980s.
Holbein in England, an international loan exhibition of 40 portrait and subject paintings, accompanied by some 120 drawings, prints and decorative designs by Northern Renaissance master 
Writing about Double Take: From Monet to Lichtenstein has been a hoot. This special exhibition is on display until September 24, 2006 at the 
