Author: Ann Williams

ArtMaxwell RabbPortrait of Oliver Beer in “Resonance Paintings – Cat Orchestra” by Almine Rech, 2024. Photo by Thomas Barratt. Courtesy of Almine Rech.In 1650, the occult philosopher Athanasius Kircher invented an equally provocative tool: cat piano (or cat organ), in which live cats, arranged according to the pitch of their voices, screamed when the keys of the instrument were struck with their tails. This cruel instrument was first described by Kircher in his book Universal music and later appeared in the 1883 French textbook naturewhere seven cats in cages serve as the pipes of a piano. image of cat piano…

In 2016, American multidisciplinary artist Mike Bouchet hired a German perfume expert to distill the scent of the US dollar and spent almost a year extracting the chemical compounds from the pressed banknotes. Cotton and linen were infused with more than 100 chemicals, including ink, metal and sweat, before Bouchet’s new sculpture appeared at New York’s Marlborough Chelsea Gallery in early 2017. Tender, the “synthesized scent of US bills,” filled every corner of the gallery’s 45,000 cubic feet.When art patron, collector and activist Rachel Verghis read Bouchet’s interview in The Wall Street Journal, she was shocked. “It was like a…

Before the pandemic, Munich’s Lenbachhaus approached Tate with an idea: why not share the crown jewels from each other’s collections in some special exhibitions? As such, Germany gets its first major JMW Turner debut in 70 years and Tate Modern is about to open Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), the artist’s first show since the 1960s.”It’s an incredibly sustainable way of working,” says curator Natalia Sidlina. Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and Blue Rider. “Both in terms of collaboration, which allows us to work with specialists from both sides at a deep level of curation and research, and also in terms…

LOS ANGELES – Austrian conceptual artist VALIE EXPORT engages with the concrete of an urban landscape as if it were a playground. In his “photographic” series Body configurations (1972–76), bends, folds and stretches across the infrastructure of a seemingly desolate city, his body merging with the architecture of a built environment. The MAK Art and Architecture Center installs several photographs and two videos from this series at the Schindler House. VALIE EXPORT: Embodied, director of the center, Jia Yi Gu, curator. In these works, EXPORT heightens people’s instinct to disobey a built environment. In public parks, pedestrians can shun walking…

An untitled 1984 painting by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat will sell at Sotheby’s in May at its contemporary art evening sale, becoming one of the top lots of that marquee auction week. The photo will be the first to appear at auction since it was also sold at Sotheby’s in 2010 for $2.65 million. Sotheby’s has put its estimate at $18 million this time, which means that if it sells for that price, the value will increase more than sixfold. The work is part of a famous and polarizing group of paintings that the two art stars collaborated on…

of Francis Bacon Portrait of George Dyer crouching (1966) will be presented at Sotheby’s New York contemporary evening auction in May, making its first appearance on the market since its purchase from the Marlborough Gallery in 1970. The work is expected to fetch between $30 million and $50 million. It is one of 10 monumental portraits that Bacon painted between 1966 and 1968 of his lover and muse George Dyer.Portrait of George Dyer crouching it stands over six feet tall and is one of the few works in this department to remain in private hands. This work depicts a shirtless…

An enormous canvas made as part of the high-profile collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat will be one of the highlights of the spring auction season at Sotheby’s in New York. With an estimate of around $18 million, it is expected to set a new record price under the hammer for a work from the series when it is offered at the auction house’s contemporary art evening sale this May.The untitled 1984 painting is one of 160 works created by the two artists together over a two-year period, which would include some of the last years of their lives.…

Canadian-Korean artist Krista Kim was a very creative child, but her parents wanted her to pursue a “steadier career”. So he studied Political Science and Government at the University of Toronto, hoping to become a journalist, specifically as a television anchor. While living in Seoul he wrote for a newspaper, but when he lived in Japan between 2005 and 2008, he returned to his art. “When I was in the Ryōan-ji temple garden in Kyoto, I realized that Zen gardens are an immersive experience of well-being; were created [over] 500 years ago clever monks learned that the environment can become…

CHICAGO – A boy who goes to school with my children was killed two weeks ago. He was 11 years old, the star of the next school musical, very kind and cheerful with everyone, and he died trying to protect his mother from an attacker who entered their house with the intention of harming her. The situation was neither random nor unexpected. The mother had repeatedly threatened the man, who had spent years in prison for domestic battery and other charges, and had an active protective order in place. So it was with a very heavy heart that I saw…

Artist Profile Archive’s latest documentary short features Njideka Akunyili Crosby, an acclaimed Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist. In this video, the artist speaks from his LA studio, reflecting on his career as an artist, the creative process, and the 2023 exhibitions “The Hilton Als Series: Njideka Akunyili Crosby” and “Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Coming Back to See Through, Again.” ” by David Zwirner in Los Angeles and New York. Born in Nigeria in 1983, Akunyili Crosby immigrated to the United States at the age of 16. He attended Swarthmore College, where he majored in biology and took many art classes. “Art was…