Disney-Britton

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton Crucifixion" (1922) by David Jones, Pencil and Watercolor (9.3 x 6.5 in.) Collection of David Bowie Head’s up, collectors. We’re calling your attention to British artist David Jones (1895-1974), a Christian artist we learned about this week. He is best known for his watercolors like "Crucifixion," but he also created sculptures and drawings. Christianity and Welsh heritage dominated Jones's work, and you can find examples in collections throughout the UK at the Tate Museum, the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, and the National Museum of Wales. Another of his collectors was rock star David Bowie , and when Bowie died in January, many wondered what would happen with his collection? Wonder no more. This fall, you can bid on " Crucifixion " by David Jones at auction.

GETTY 360 Initial B: The Trinity, cutting from a gradual, about 1460-70, Ferrara, Taddeo Crivelli. The J. Paul Getty Museum Religious experiences are deeply personal, yet throughout history individuals who have spiritual or mystical encounters have attempted to share their visions with wider audiences. These "unseen" experiences, recorded by Jewish and Christian authors in antiquity, were translated in new ways by the illuminators of medieval and Renaissance books. The innovative images in this exhibition offer visual entry points to the ineffable nature of faith. The Getty Center: Things Unseen: Vision, Belief, and Experience in Illuminated Manuscripts (Through September 25, 2016) [ link ]

ARTDAILY St Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child, Dieric Bouts the Elder. UNITED KINGDOM---The Bowes Museum announced that it has secured funding from Art Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), and a number of private donors, totalling £2,290,650, to acquire an outstanding 15th century painting deemed an important British cultural asset and initiating a partnership with York Art Gallery and Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. In November 2015, the Government placed a temporary export bar on the painting, St Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child, attributed to the workshop of Dieric Bouts the Elder, to allow the opportunity for it to remain in the UK. It is of exceptional interest due to its close associations with Dieric Bouts, regarded as one of the leading Netherlandish painters of his time, and the subject matter it depicts. Both these elements are extremely rare, and comparable examples do not exist in the UK. [ link ]

DANIEL MITSUI ARTIST By Daniel Mitsui ILLINOIS---I recently passed the sixth anniversary of my full-time self-employment as an artist and have been giving thought to the future. I have already begun some intense research and experimentation with new methods for drawing and composition that are described below. My first coloring book, The Mysteries of the Rosary , has just been published by Ave Maria Press. It is available for purchase from the publisher , or on Amazon . A second, The Saint s, will be published in November. [ link ]

HAARETZ By Naama Rib A poster by Mehdi Saeedi from the "Sign from Iran" exhibition. Courtesy of Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic ISRAEL---“I couldn’t get into Iran, so I brought Iran here,” says graphic designer Yossi Lemel , who together with Czech curator Marta Sylvestrova put together the exhibit “Sign from Iran,” on display at the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem until November 19. Lemel’s interest in Iranian culture began when he was a graphic design student at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design 30 years ago. [ link ]

ALFRED UNIVERSITY [ AOPrize Finalist: Click to Vote ] A Theory of Everything: Black Stupa, 2014 WASHINGTON, DC---Chinamania, featuring works by Walter McConnell , professor of ceramic art in the School of Art & Design at Alfred University, at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Freer/Sackler, The Smithsonian’s Museum of Asian Art. The exhibition “explores the West’s enduring obsession with Chinese blue-and-white porcelain,” according to a release from the gallery. It will remain on view through June 2017. McConnell has exhibited at the Denver Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, the Daum Museum, the CU Art Museum, Boulder, Colorado and at SOFA, New York. He has exhibited internationally in Sweden, the Netherlands, Taiwan, China and Korea. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS  By Henri Neuendorf, July 26, 2016 S.H. Raza, Patchtatva (2007). Courtesy Auctionata. INDIA---The Indian artist Syed Haider Raza has died at the age of 94. He passed away in a New Delhi hospital on Saturday. According to the Hindustan Times , the artist started out as a landscape painter and colorist, but later turned his attention to “metaphysical ideas and the essence of life.” As such, he began to explore the Hindu philosophies of prakriti (nature), kundalini, (primal energy), tribhuj (triangle), and bindu (circle/dot) in his artistic practice. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Carol Civre A still from Mary, 2016, by Bill Viola; Executive Producer, Kira Perov. Published in The Guardian UNITED KINGDOM---Internationally acclaimed artist Bill Viola will unveil his second permanent large-scale video installation at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. The video titled "Mary" will be inaugurated in the North Quire Aisle on September 8, 2016 to coincide with the Feast of Mary. The installation accompanies Viola’s previous artwork commissioned by the cathedral titled "Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)," which was unveiled in the South Quire Aisle in 2014. Together, Viola’s pieces are the first moving-image installation to be housed in the cathedral on a long-term basis. Both Mary and Martyrs are a collaboration between Viola and his wife, Kira Perov . [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Naomi Rea Yazmeen Sabri, Walk a Mile in Her Veil (2016). Courtesy of the artist. UNITED KINGDOM---Artist Yazmeen Sabri was devastated when one of her artworks featuring a burka, which was being exhibited at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) as part of her MFA degree show, was vandalized by an intoxicated woman. The offending septuagenarian, identified as Mikaela Haze, will be sentenced next week for damages done to the burka sculpture, worth £6,000 ($7,800). The defendant pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated criminal damage at Westminster Magistrate’s court after drunkenly attacking Sabri’s artwork, the Evening Standard reports. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Michelle L. Dozois The New Museum’s summer show “ The Keeper ” explores the complex relationships we have with the things we collect. Why do we amass certain objects? How do these collections affect us and those around us? When does a pleasant hobby cross the line into obsession, even madness? Inspired by this vast exhibition, which includes some 4,000 items and artworks over four floors, created or preserved by 30 “keepers,” The New York Times asked readers to submit stories and photos of their own collections. The hundreds of responses were inspirational, delightful, poignant, shocking and disgusting, occasionally all at once. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN  By Jonathon Jones Michelangelo’s statue of the Risen Christ in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, with a loincloth added after Michelangelo’s death. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Religion turned against the sexual freedom of Renaissance art. When it was unveiled in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s Last Judgment was accused of being more fit for a gay bathhouse than the Pope’s church. As soon as Michelangelo died, a painter was hired to cover the buttocks of his flying nudes with “decent” draperies. Many of these idiotic veilings are still there – the Vatican has not allowed modern restorers to remove them. The same goes for Michelangelo’ s statue of the Risen Christ in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, which wears a ridiculous loincloth added after Michelangelo’s death. It’s all gratifying proof of the power and life of great art. The Renaissance is still dangerous after all these years. Just ask its censorious enemies. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Maev Kennedy Adam and Eve are seen as they were painted 500 years ago. Photograph: Andrew Morris/The Fitzwilliam Museum Adam and Eve are once again as naked as the day they were created, centuries after some prudish hand wrapped his loins in a grass skirt and draped a veil around her, in an illustrated book to go on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The original naked figures – correct according to the biblical account where Adam and Eve only became ashamed of their bare bodies when they ate the forbidden fruit and were expelled from the Garden of Eden – were considered perfectly suitable by Queen Anne of Brittany in 1505, who commissioned the book as a gift for her five-year-old daughter, Claude. [ link ]

THE TELEGRAPH By Colin Gleadell January 16, 2016 David Bowie pictured alongside a Peter Howson. David Bowie pictured alongside Peter Howson's controversial 1994 Croatian Muslim war painting Most of the obituaries for rock star David Bowie refer to him not only as a musician, performer, style icon and artist, but also as an art collector. In 1998 he told the New York Times : “Art was the only thing I’d ever wanted to own”. In 1999 he told the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman that “the only thing I buy addictively is art”. So what did he collect? He had a couple of Old Masters and some German Expressionist prints that jelled with his edgy Berlin period. But “the majority of what I have is British 20th century,” he told the New York Times . What will happen to the Bowie collection now is anyone’s guess. Hopefully we’ll get to see it all together somewhere, sometime. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter The artist Oliver Croy and the critic Oliver Elser preserved “The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz (1916-1992) Insurance Clerk from Vienna, 1993-2008.” Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times NEW YORK---You call it collecting. I call it hoarding. The New Museum calls it art and has a captivating exhibition devoted to it. Titled “ The Keeper ,” the show fills three floors and a lobby gallery with hundreds of thousands of mostly small objects and images gathered, sorted, arranged and recorded by some 30 retentive artists — keepers — over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. People surround themselves with things to compensate for perceived deprivation past, and as a hedge against fear of future want. They encase themselves in environments that will magnify their view of themselves in the world or protectively narrow it, and, either way, keep thoughts of dissolution at bay. [ link ]

THE DAILY BEAST By Allison McNearney AGE Fotostock/Alamy BELGIUM-In 1432, Jan van Eyck put the finishing touches on the large masterpiece that he began with his brother years earlier. It was one of the most intricate oil paintings to ever have been produced, and the result was a powerful and stunning work of religious art. Over the past five centuries, the painting has become one of the most coveted works of all time. The real trial for the work came during WWII, when both Hitler and chief henchman Hermann Göring became desperate to acquire it for their personal art collections. Now, art lovers from around the world can examine the work up close and in minute detail through the interactive digital recreation. [ link ]

YATED NE'EMAN By Menucha Levin "Tradition" (1966). Oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm, signed 'I. Holtz' lower right (recto); titled, signed, located 'New York,' and dated (verso); Provenance: Private Collection, New Jersey NEW YORK---I was born in 1925 in a small town called Skiernewice, near Warsaw in Poland. My father, who was artistic, was a hat-maker and a furrier. I showed an early talent for art from the age of three by drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. I studied at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts for two years, from 1945 to 1947. I experimented with abstract art for a while, but then resumed painting Jewish figures and street scenes. I feel my artwork is strongly connected to my beliefs: “You have to live that religious life to fully capture it on canvas.” People even come from America to Eretz Yisroel to buy my art. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Burn Through, 2014 ILLINOIS--Chicago-based photographer  Doug Birkenheuer has devoted his talent and vision to photography for over twenty years. He received his Associates Degree from the Antonelli Institute of Photography in Cincinnati, OH in 1988. We met right before he relocated to Chicago in 1994, where he impressed me with his mystical and sensual photo collages in Cincinnati. In recent years,  Doug Birkenheuer  has taught photography courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he's continued to develop a loyal following among individual collectors like me.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "American Gothic" (1930) by Grant Wood. Friends of American Art Collection There’s no time like summertime for an arts road-trip, and American museums have a lot to offer this summer. While the weather’s heating up, the best place to cool-off is the air-conditioned comfort of an art museum. We’re heading to Chicago  for  Grant Wood  and  Tom Torluemke ; but we're also excited about 20+ other exhibitions featuring A&O favorites, (and there’s certainly more we missed). There's Agnes Martin in Los Angeles;  R. Crumb in Seattle;  Robert Indiana in Indianapolis; Kehinde Wiley in Richmond, VA;  Shirin Neshat  in Washington, D.C.; and  Lucas Samaras  in NYC. For a full rundown, take a look at the exhibitions on our calendar . Don’t miss this summer's art of the religious imagination, and we'll look for you in Chicago!

VARIETY By Justin Kroll HOLLYWOOD--- Chiwetel Ejiofor is in talks to play Peter the Apostle in the Weinstein’s Company and See Saw Pictures’ “Mary Magdalene,” sources confirmed to Variety. Rooney Mara is set to star in the title role with Joaquin Phoenix playing Jesus Christ. Garth Davis will direct the pic from a script by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett. Production is set to begin this summer for a 2017 release. See Saw’s Iain Canning and Emile Sherman will produce. Ejiofor will play Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles and his lead disciple. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Kangxi Seal of the Mandate of Heaven. Photo: Sotheby's. HONG KONG.- Commenting on the 2016 first half year results, Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby’s Asia, says: ‘We are delighted by the exceptional half year results that reached 22% over last year. After more than four decades in Asia, Sotheby’s maintains an unrivalled ability to source the finest and rarest objects from notable collections around the world – a critical element to our success. Longstanding relationships with seasoned collectors worldwide led to a number of important consignments – from the Pilkington Collection of Chinese ceramics, to Zhang Daqian’s Peach Blossom Spring, to the Mi Yun Hall Collection of Classical Chinese Paintings – that drove remarkable results across collecting categories. [ link ]

BLOUIN | ARTINFO By ARCHANA KHARE-GHOSE An undeclared self-portrait by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam, who has written an insightful critique of his life story and his art, in the book “Finding My Way,” co-authored by S. Anand (Venkat Raman Singh Shyam) INDIA--- Venkat Raman Singh Shyam has been fighting ill-informed labels all his life. He has done it through his art but categorizations by critics, who are accustomed to seeing only categories, have even tried to subvert his art. So, he decided to tell his own story before any of those category-happy critics could cause irreparable damage. He has done that through a book titled “ Finding My Way ” (published by Juggernaut), with the help of author and publisher S. Anand. The book, released in New Delhi sometime back, is Shyam’s life story told through the art that he practises — the Gond Art — in his own words, given the form of text by Anand. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Brassaï, photo of Picasso in his studio at 23 rue La Boétie, standing in front of Rousseau’s Portrait of a Woman 1932 Musée Picasso © ESTATE BRASSAÏ -R.M.N. FRANCE---He was once regarded as a bit of a joke. A self-taught "Sunday painter" who couldn't do hands and who was laughed at by other artists for his amateurish technique. But a century after he died penniless in Paris, the public has taken Henri Rousseau to their hearts. An exhibition of his greatest work has become one of the biggest hits of the decade at the Musee d'Orsay -- in spite of a sharp dip in tourist numbers in the French capital. "The Customs Man Rousseau" which closed at the weekend, had nearly 480,000 admissions, the museum said Wednesday, "one of our greatest successes of the last 10 years". Picasso bought several of his naive works and threw a wild bohemian banquet in his honour in 1908, when the hard-drinking Rousseau was 64. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Christianity in Aisa: An ornate portable Jesuit shrine with doors that open to reveal a painting of the Holy Family and John the Baptist. It is believed to have been made in Japan in the late 16th century.(credit: ACM) SINGAPORE.- The Asian Civilisations Museum is presenting Christianity in Asia: Sacred Art and Visual Splendour, the world’s first exhibition on the history and spread of Christian art in Asia. This is also the ACM’s inaugural special exhibition after an extensive revamp last year. Asia has played a significant role in the spread of Christianity since the 7th century and Asian art absorbed influences from many different cultures, including the Middle East, India, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. The exhibition in the Singapore Asian Civilizations Museum would close on September 11. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS [ AOPrize Finalist: Click to Vote ] "Tuesday's Garbage Day" by Tom Torluemke ILLINOIS--- Firecat Projects  will host the book release of  Tom Torluemke’s SYMPTOMS: satirical drawings by Tom Torluemke . The limited-edition, 200-page, softbound book includes 90 images from Tom’s blog, Torluemke’s Daily Punch : a series of daily impressions and ideas about our society and politics made into simple but powerful statements using acrylic paint marker on paper. Tom’s spontaneously drawn reactions and visual vocabulary touch on a variety of subject matter in this hard-hitting series.  The book will be released at an opening exhibition (also titled, Symptoms) with a selection of the original drawings on Friday, August 26, 2016 at Firecat Projects , 2124 N. Damen Avenue Chicago, IL, from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

THE WASHINGTON POST By Phillip Kennicott VIRGINIA---There’s really no point in standing up close to a painting by Kehinde Wiley , the young African American artist whose works are among the most sought-after contemporary art in the world today. His large-format paintings, full of bold colors and strong contrasts of background pattern and figuration, are arresting, but they tend to arrest you about 10 to 15 feet away. “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” began at the Brooklyn Museum of Art more than a year ago and has since been seen in Fort Worth and Seattle. Art historical references abound, with Wiley borrowing poses and gestures from paintings by Dutch masters, Velázquez , Holbein , Manet , Landseer and Titian . [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Mark Hudson David Bowie in 1974: the singer is thought to have started collecting art in earnest in 1976, after moving to Berlin CREDIT: REX Yet while it’s become a truism that collectors reveal themselves through what they buy, Bowie’s impulses were so diverse, they conceal as much as they divulge. Bowie’s fascination with the primitive led him to another “untutored genius”, the New York graffiti artist-turned-art world darling Jean-Michel Basquiat , to Outsider Art (the expressions of psychiatric patients) and to Surrealism. Just when you think you’ve pinned him down through one set of interests, he appears somewhere else in a different guise. But soon, anybody else interested in the pop icon and the ideas that influenced his music will get the chance to see items from his huge and eclectic art collection when Sotheby’s stages a major exhibition and three-part sale. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Matthijs Ilsink, art historian – Saint Christopher, 1490 – 1505. Rotterdam - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Courtesy of Kino Lorber. NEW YORK--- Film Forum will present Pieter van Huystee’s new documentary, Hieronymus Bosch , " Touched by the Devil ," for its US theatrical premiere on Wednesday, July 27. This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Dutch master painter’s death. Whether you’re aware of it or not, his wildly bizarre imaginings of hell are permanently etched upon your psyche. Hieronymus Bosch, Touched by the Devil will have a two-week engagement, July 27 – August 9, at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street (West of 6th Avenue), with screenings daily at 12:30, 2:30, 4:45, 7:00, and 9:10. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By William L. Hamilton Ydessa Hendeles, a Canadian artist, gathered thousands of photographs of people with their teddy bears for “Partners (The Teddy Bear Project).” Credit Robert Keziere, via Ydessa Hendeles and the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto NEW YORK---In a culture being redefined by the way it consumes, what to make of people who collect things, who keep things? “T he Keeper ,” the New Museum’s summer show, a four-floor exhibit that opens on Wednesday, July 20, is a museum blockbuster of a different kind. With over 4,000 objects representing more than two dozen collectors, including contemporary artists making art conceived by collecting, Massimiliano Gioni, the museum’s artistic director, and his team of curators have mounted a remarkable series of object lessons about what it means to “keep,” the relationship of possession to loss, the madness inherent in love, and the undeniable importance of the individual’s voice in recording and interpret...

ARTDAILY From the 15th century onwards, Leuven was one of the principal centres of glass production in the Low Countries. BELGIUM--- Jan de Caumont (1577–1659) was one of the greatest 17th-century glass painters in the Low Countries. The Leuven artist is best known for the 41 stained-glass windows he painted for the ambulatory at nearby Park Abbey. These were repurchased in 2013 under the Flemish Masterpiece Decree with a view to reinstalling them in the abbey. M has supplemented its collection with a rare early work by de Caumont dating from 1618. From the 15th century onwards, Leuven was one of the principal centres of glass production in the Low Countries. Jan de Caumont (1577–1659), meanwhile, was a key artist in Leuven’s history. [ link ]

BLOUIN | ARTINFO By Nicholas Forrest Santa Dorotea, 2014, Fernando Botero Oil paint on canvas, 188 x 100 cm NETHERLANDS---“ Botero: Celebrate Life! ” at the Kunsthal Rotterdam until September 11 is a retrospective of the work of Colombian artist Fernando Botero , who is best known for his paintings and sculptures of figures with exaggerated proportions. Featuring almost a hundred paintings, sketches, and pastels, as well as a number of sculptures — all selected by Botero from his own collection — the exhibition offers a unique insight into the artist’s oeuvre through the prism of his personal favorite pieces. Highlights of the exhibition include the paintings “The Vatican Bathroom,” 2006, “Self Portrait with Guardian Angel,” 2015, “La Corrida,” 2002, among many others; and works on paper. [ link ]

NBC NEWS By Chris Fuchs "Islamophoben," a satirical "medicine" that cures Islamophobia distributed by CAIR at the Republican National Convention. Chris Fuchs / NBC News OHIO---A Muslim civil rights organization kicked off the first day of the Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland with a news conference Monday morning, criticizing GOP officials and presumptive nominee Donald Trump for what it says are their anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim stances. In a satirical move, CAIR also handed out packets of "Islamophobin" — a mock medicine (actually chewing gum) to cure Islamophobia. The packaging says Islamophobin treats "blind intolerance" and "unthinking bigotry" and advises patients to "take two and call a Muslim in the morning." [ link ]

ARTDAILY Valeria Napoleone. Photo: Michael Leckie. UNITED KINGDOM---Valeria Napoleone, a leading international collector of work by female artists, is exhibiting highlights from her collection in public for the first time this July at Museum Sheffield’s Graves Gallery. Drawn from a collection with a singular purpose: to champion the work of women artists and redress gender imbalance in the art world, this exhibition offers the chance to see major works by some of the most pioneering artists to have emerged in the past 20 years. [ link ]

YAHOO NEWS By Stephen Bevis Mandorla Art Award winner Megan Robert’s The Bread Basket at Emmaus – then Flesh returned to Word. Bible paper and thread. AUSTRALIA---A bread basket woven from the pages of the Bible, Sydney textile artist Megan Robert’s representation of the “Word made flesh”, has won the 2016 Mandorla Art Award. Robert was (on July 15) announced as the winner of the $25,000 main prize in Australia’s most significant Christian-themed art prize at Linton and Kay Galleries in Perth. She was selected from 44 featured artists, including comedian, painter and writer Anh Do, previous winner Paul Kaptein and indigenous artist Sally Morgan. Artists submitted works responding to this year’s theme of The Resurrection.[ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "American Gothic" (1930) by Grant Wood. Friends of American Art Collection ILLINOIS---This summer, the Art Institute of Chicago invites visitors to discover how artists responded to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 until the United States’ entry into World War II by forging  a new national art and identity. Featuring fifty masterpieces of American painting—including seminal works by Grant Wood , Thomas Hart Benton , Paul Cadmus , Aaron Douglas , Charles Sheeler, Stuart Davis , and others—the exhibition tells the story of the turbulent economic, political, and aesthetic world of the 1930s and how artists in the United States sought to come to terms with the critical question: What is American art?

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS [ AOPrize Finalist: Click to Vote ] By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "The Book of Genesis" (2009) by R. Crumb Do you believe in the story of Noah's Ark and a global flood? "You don't have to be a Fundamentalist Christian to be interested in the Bible," said artist R. Crumb . Raised in the 1950s, Robert Dennis Crumb is a legendary illustrator from the world of "underground comix" who signs his work "R. Crumb." In 207 ink drawings on paper, his “ The Book of Genesis " (2009) is a sometimes wrenching and often gritty word-for-word tour of the first book of the Bible. Crumb's handling of the exit from Noah’s Ark leaves you in no doubt of his skill as one of art history's graphic masters along with Dürer   and Rembrandt . With options this month to visit a life-sized replica of Noah's Ark in Kentucky or to travel to Seattle, Washington for Crumb's version, we recommend visiting ...

MIAMI HERALD By Tom Eblen Kentucky Noah’s Ark attraction has state tax incentives KENTUCKY---Curiosity finally got the best of me. I had to drive up I-75 and see Noah’s Ark. I found the ark to be an impressive piece of woodcraft, which made me feel better about paying $40 to see it. (It cost another $10 to park in the 4,000-space parking lot, which was only a fraction full.) Answers in Genesis , the ministry that built the $100 million Ark Encounter theme park, calls it the world’s largest timber-frame structure. It also is a slick piece of propaganda.... But I didn’t come to Ark Encounter as an atheist . I came as a mainstream Christian, and two things bothered me: Answers in Genesis’ claim that its pseudo-science is “true” Christianity, and some critics’ assumption that all Christians are anti-science rubes. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Attributed to the Master of the Antiphonary of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas (Italian, active 2nd quarter of 14th century), Initial A: Christ Wiping the Tears from the Eyes of the Saved, about 1330 - 1340. Tempera colors and gold. Leaf: 13.5 × 13.5 cm (5 5/16 × 5 5/16 in.) Accession No. 2015.57.recto. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 113, recto. CALIFORNIA---Medieval and Renaissance manuscript illuminators sought to convey spiritual experiences through paint, ink, and gold in order to condense biblical narratives or complex prophecies into understandable images. Drawn primarily from the J. Paul Getty Museum’s extraordinary collection of manuscripts, this exhibition focuses on aspects of medieval spirituality that can be difficult to translate visually, including miraculous encounters with the divine, grand visions of the end of time, the intricacies of belief, and the intimate communications of prayer. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Paul Sullivan Jessica Goldman Srebnick with “Billboard #3” by Alexandre Farto, who also goes by Vhils, in her Miami Beach home. Credit Scott McIntyre for The New York Times Jessica Goldman Srebnick, chief executive of Goldman Properties, a real estate developer, is in a unique position as a collector: She owns both the walls on which street artists paint and pieces that hang in her home. Her company has offered street artists a wall on the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery in Manhattan since 2008. Three artists a year have the opportunity to use the space, and after their time is up, the wall is whitewashed so someone else can begin. “We had recognized that Keith Haring was one of the first to create these public art walls,” Ms. Srebnick said. “It was a nod to him and a nod to public art and street art.”[ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter CALIFORNIA---Some of the world’s greatest art treasures are remote and immovable. Such is the case with the complex of nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples and monasteries known as the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang in northwestern China, an ancient trading city on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Hand-carved into stone cliffs between the fourth and 14th centuries A.D., many of the caves are covered with religious murals and painted clay sculptures of Buddhist deities. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jason Farago “The Lovers Radha and Krishna in a Palm Grove,” from around 1775-80. Credit Kronos Collections, The Metropolitan Museum of Art NEW YORK---It is the colors that awe most in Hindu painting of the 16th to 19th centuries: the saturated reds, the lambent golds, or the milky blues of Krishna’s skin and the sky at twilight. They are as vivid as ever in “ Divine Pleasures ,” a handsome and uncommon show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which features nearly 100 watercolor and ink paintings from northern India. Illustrations of the Ramayana and other holy texts, portraits of rajahs with horses and elephants, and love scenes both spiritual and erotic plot the development of Indian aristocratic taste over three tumultuous centuries. But the color gleams throughout, alive with otherworldly devotion. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Kerie Campbell, Member of WORLD Postcard Annie Leibovitz Photographer This postcard features a great photograph of Kerie Campbell. The woman's nude body is covered in body paint. Through her portraits, Jewish photographer  Annie Leibovitz  fights stigma, raises awareness and puts a human face on AIDS. In 1986, Leibovitz photographed a Kenneth Cole ad to raise awareness of AIDS in America. That effort continued in a series of projects including the  INSPI(RED) and Be Here for the Cure  campaigns. These have been defining moments in the history of the epidemic including her photograph of Kerie Campbell , a mom and artist who lost custody of her children  because she was HIV positive. This summer The Bronx Museum of the Arts presents " Art AIDS America ," an exhibition examining the ongoing influence of the AIDS crisis on American art and culture and it features Leibovitz's photograph of Kerie Campbell.

LEXINGTON-HERALD By Linda Blackford and Bill Estep Full-Scale Noah's Ark Opens in Kentucky KENTUCKY---A secular foundation has contacted hundreds of public schools in Kentucky to warn them against taking field trips to the Ark Encounter , the new amusement park featuring a 500-foot replica of Noah’s Ark and a belief that the world is only 6,000 years old. Officials with the Freedom From Religion Foundation say field trips would expose children to religious proselytizing that would violate the constitutional separation between church and state. In reply, Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt sent a message to school districts late Monday saying that neither outside groups nor the Kentucky Department of Education should dictate field trip selection. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Raqib Shaw, Self Portrait in the Study at Peckham, after Vincenzo Catena (Kashmir version), 2015. Acrylic and enamel on birchwood, 39 3/8 x 51 3/16 in. (100 x 130 cm) © Raqib Shaw. Photo © Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd Courtesy White Cube. UNITED KINGDOM---White Cube Bermondsey presents an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Raqib Shaw . This exhibition will include a series of paintings referencing, in part, Old Masters from the collections of the National Gallery, London, and Prado Museum, Madrid, as well as three new bronze sculptures that recall the style of the Renaissance Mannerist period. Born in Calcutta, Shaw was raised in Kashmir but came to London in 1998, where he continues to live and work. His vision is transgressive, explored through highly personal, opulent and fantastical imagery, reflecting a cultural hybridity that combines iconography from both East and West. Drawing on a wide range of sources including art history, mythology, poetry, theatre...

ARTDAILY "The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb" (2009) by R. Crumb. WASHINGTON---In its first large-scale exhibition devoted exclusively to the graphic arts, the Seattle Art Museum presents Graphic Masters: Dürer, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Picasso, R. Crumb (June 9–August 28, 2016). Featuring over 400 works by some of history’s greatest printmakers, the exhibition offers an in-depth exploration of the more than 500-year history and process of printmaking. Requiring less costly materials than painting or sculpture, printmaking gave artists the freedom to experiment, push boundaries, and express their own views with a much larger audience. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606-1669, The Descent from the Cross: second plate, ca. 1633, etching and burin (State ii/v), 20 13/16 x 16 1/8 inches, Collection of Dr. Dorrance T. Kelly. NEW YORK---The Hyde Collection presents Dürer & Rembrandt: Master Prints from the Collection of Dr. Dorrance Kelly in its Charles R. Wood Gallery. At the same time, The Hydes & Rembrandt will be on view in the adjacent Whitney-Renz Gallery. Both shows open on July 10 and continue through October 2. Dürer & Rembrandt features 82 prints, showcasing 29 superb engravings and woodcuts by the German printmaker, Albrecht Dürer , and 35 exceptional etchings by the Dutch Master, Rembrandt van Rijn . [ link ]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Susan Delson ‘Art AIDS America,’ opening Wednesday at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, shows how artists have grappled with the AIDS crisis. Shown, Tino Rodriguez’s ‘Eternal Lovers’ (2010). PHOTO: TINO RODRIGUEZ/TACOMA ART MUSEUM NEW YORK---How artists grappled—and continue to grapple—with the epidemic is the focus of “Art AIDS America,” opening Wednesday at the Bronx Museum of the Arts . In some 120 works by close to 100 artists , the show captures the rage, anguish and overwhelming sense of loss that accompanied the epidemic at its height, along with the activism it sparked and its continuing reverberation through the culture. Organized by the Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with the Bronx Museum, the exhibition features artists ranging from the familiar to the less well-known, including Jasper Johns , Annie Leibovitz , Felix Gonzalez-Torres , Catherine Opie and Martin Wong . [ link ]

DESERET NEWS By William Hamblin and Daniel Peterson Although Christ was widely represented in early Christian art as both human teacher and resurrected God, God the Father first appeared only as a human hand reaching through the veil of the heavens to teach or bless, such as in the apse mosaic in San Clemente in Rome. One could argue that the most significant cultural passage in the Bible is Exodus 20:4-5: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” These verses thus created a conundrum for subsequent Jewish, Christian and Muslim artists. Should art be completely forbidden under any circumstances? Can one create geometrical, non-representational religious art as long as it does not represent divine things? Is there a distinction between “venerating” a religious image (showing respect and ...

LGBT NATION By Erin Rook Samira, pictured, is a queer Iranian Muslim based in Toronto. Samra Habib When Samra Habib was growing up in Pakistan and later in Toronto, faith was a core part of her identity, but she struggled to integrate it into her sexual identity, until she found Unity Mosque. The photographer, who documents LGBTQ Muslim was recently featured in HuffPost Religion’s series highlighting Muslim artists during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends this year on July 5. Habib said she was encouraged to do the photo series, “Just Me and Allah,” by one of the mosque’s founders. The photos reveal the diversity of LGBTQ Muslims and their spiritual journeys.[ link ]

CHRISTIE'S "Temptation of St Anthony" (1984) by Claudio Bravo. Painting Oil on canvas. Collection of the Museo Nacional de Bellas UNITED KINGDOM---After gaining international recognition as a successful society portraitist in Madrid, Claudio Bravo moved to New York for a short period in which he held multiple exhibitions. The Claudio Bravo Collection: From the Artist’s Studio and Home , Morocco takes place on 13 July at Christie’s South Kensington, and presents a unique opportunity to acquire the fine and decorative art that belonged to and inspired the late Chilean artist. Claudio Bravo (1936-2011) was, until his death, arguably the most prestigious Chilean painter of his time. A hyperrealist who was heavily influenced by Renaissance and Baroque artists, Bravo is best known for his still life paintings, portraits and series of tied packages. He also made drawings, lithographs, engravings and small sculpture. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "The Agony in the Garden" (1469) by Giovanni Bellini You will want to know this. There are amazing paintings in the exhibition, "Painters' Paintings" this summer in London. There are works by Picasso , Bellini , Rembrandt , and others all previously owned by other artists such as Anthony van Dyck , Henri Matisse , and Lucian Freud . It's an opportunity to see what these artists collected, but it's also an exhibition that investigates why they collected the work of other artists. Reasons presented include a desire for creative inspiration, to support fellow painters, as status symbols, to sell later and even obsession. With today's cheaper travel to Britain because of Brexit , we should all be heading to  The National Gallery in London .