Author: Ann Williams

Francis Bacon, “Portrait of George Dyer Crouching” (1966), oil on canvas, 78 x 58 inches (all images courtesy of Sotheby’s) Francis Bacon, “Portrait of George Dyer Crouching” (1966), oil on canvas, 78 x 58 inches (all images courtesy of Sotheby’s) Francis Bacon, “Portrait of George Dyer Crouching” (1966), oil on canvas, 78 x 58 inches (all images courtesy of Sotheby’s) Since his creation in the 1940s, painter Francis Bacon has been known for his phantasmagoric compositions that seemed to emerge directly from his hedonistic lifestyle. Bacon had a famously mercurial personality, although some of that reputation is likely tied to…

Two men accused of selling more than 2.6 million pounds (about $3.2 million) worth of fake fine art attributed to Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso have been jailed in London. A six-year money laundering investigation by Sussex Police found that Behrad Kazemi and Raj Nasta sold Dalí works for £2,000 to £3,000 and Picasso works for £5,000 to £20,000 between October 2016 and June 2018 to more than 125 victims. The scheme involved cold calls from Asset Consulting Services and a company called Treasury Asset Group and a push to buy artworks instead of traditional investments. Related Articles A Sussex…

A collaborative work by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, measuring an impressive 10 x 13 metres, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction in May. The untitled artwork last appeared on the market nearly 15 years ago, when it hammered $2.65 million at Sotheby’s in 2010. Today, the auction house is worth about 18 million dollars, growing almost six times. Without a title It was produced between 1983 and 1985 as part of a great collaboration between the two artists, which was explored in depth at last year’s exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Fondation in Paris. Zurich gallerist Bruno…

Javier Arce, “Sobre lo cerca (Waka)” (2023), oil on canvas, 11 x 10 inches (all photos by Lauren Moya Ford/Hyperallergic) Javier Arce, “Sobre lo cerca (Waka)” (2023), oil on canvas, 11 x 10 inches (all photos by Lauren Moya Ford/Hyperallergic) Javier Arce, “Sobre lo cerca (Waka)” (2023), oil on canvas, 11 x 10 inches (all photos by Lauren Moya Ford/Hyperallergic) SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain – As the world entered its first pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020, Javier Arce lived in a mountain village in Cantabria, a small, sparsely populated region in northern Spain. With supplies dwindling and art…

Winding through Materials for the Arts’ 35,000-square-foot home is as close as visiting Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. At the beginning of the year, the sprawling warehouse in Queens was filled with Christmas decorations, ornaments, pink evergreens, and lavish soap boxes, along with paper and books, envelopes, archival photos, all kinds of fabric, buttons, beads. , and cut There are also hospital lab coats, Javits Center furniture and vintage typewriters and computer towers, CDs and file folders. Filled with the outcasts of contemporary New York City life waiting to be brought out of the darkness, the list goes on. Most of…

Phillips’ “New Now” auction brought in $5.5 million last night in New York. The sale was led by an untitled work by Wade Guyton from 2007, which sold for $241,300—more than three times the low estimate of $70,000 (all prices include taxes). In the evening there was a 72% sale rate by lot, with 149 of the 208 lots on offer finding buyers. “It was wonderful to see the great depth of international bidding at our New York ‘New Now’ sale, with nearly 50 countries participating by phone, online and in the saleroom,” said Avery Semjen, associate specialist at Phillips…

LONDON – It’s one thing for a museum to commission a survey of its past colonial activity, as many UK institutions are doing after the Black Lives Matter movement and specifically the 2020 demolition of the Colston statue. Another is to encourage open dialogue to move forward as a society. This is the aim of the Royal Academy in the exhibition Entangled Pasts 1768–Present: Art, Colonialism and Change, which marries works from its 250-year history with contemporary responses from 50 RA-affiliated artists. His curation is at once academically rigorous, profound and emotionally moving. Although framed by the history of RA,…

Los Angeles-based sculptor Alison Saar has been commissioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the city of Paris to create a public sculpture for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The sculpture will be inaugurated on the Olympic Day of June 23.The artist—the daughter of artist Betye Saar, a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement—will focus on international diversity, equality and peace.”My hope is that this artwork, a gift to the people and the city of Paris, will become a gathering place for the public to experience the spirit of friendship and interconnection across cultures and borders,”…

LONDON – Almost all political movements soften their influence over time. As the mainstream changes, the razor’s edge of contemporary debate becomes part of a longer timeline. By the time artistic production becomes a museum, it is over, firmly locked in the past. Women in rebellion! Art and Activism in the United Kingdom 1970–1990 is a classic example of this: a massive spectacle covering British feminism from the 1970s to the 90s, pressing different groups and causes into a neat timeline. This exhibition occupies the large galleries on the ground floor of Tate Britain and is overflowing with material, much…

Art MarketArun KakarThe 2024 Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) benefit auction is special to its cause and curators. This year’s sale, which will take place at Artsy from March 15-28, is organized by collectors Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall. The duo is known for amassing an enviable collection of work by female and mid-career female and queer artists, which they share on The Icy Gays on Instagram. Rob (a surgeon) and Eric (a professor of political theory) have also channeled their artistic passions into supporting arts organizations that align with their vision of supporting LGBTQ+ and women artists. They first came…