Disney-Britton

CBS MORNING NEWS David Moore and his daughter, Jami, light one of their 154 menorahs. It’s Hanukkah, the Jewish “Festival of Lights.” Serena Altschul fills us in on the mysteries of the menorah: Hanukkah, the Jewish “Festival of Lights” -- a time for family and dedication, a tradition that wouldn’t be complete without lighting at least one menorah. Or, in the case of David Moore and his daughter, Jami, 154 of them. “We counted them the other day,” he laughed. “We lose track every once in a while, but we now have 154 menorahs in our collection.” Properly called Hanukkah lamps, their collection is about as varied as they come. “Here’s a fun one -- you know, Hanukkah’s not complete without a pink Cadillac!” [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Nicholas Kristof “The Lamentation” by Marco Basaiti shows the mourning for Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. Credit HIP/Art Resource What does it mean to be a Christian in the 21st century? Can one be a Christian and yet doubt the virgin birth or the Resurrection? I put these questions to the Rev. Timothy Keller , an evangelical Christian pastor and best-selling author who is among the most prominent evangelical thinkers today. Our conversation has been edited for space and clarity. "I wouldn’t draw any conclusion about an individual without talking to him or her at length. But, in general, if you don’t accept the Resurrection or other foundational beliefs as defined by the Apostles’ Creed , I’d say you are on the outside of the boundary." [ link ]

ESQUIRE By Corey Atad Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures HOLLYWOOD---Pop culture is often thought of as a secular space, where the dominant religions of the west are at best nominally applied—or, at worst, used for scapegoating. Characters are Christian in that they celebrate Christmas and occasionally attend church, but rarely is religion brought to the fore. Silence is a story that takes on the challenge, as have other works of serious religious thought. To have one of American cinema's great popular directors diving back into that realm is something to be celebrated. It took [Martin] Scorsese 28 years and foreign financing to get a serious, complicated film about religion made in Hollywood, but it's great that he did, and I would hope more filmmakers feel free to follow his lead. [ link ]

HI-FRUCTOSE MAGAZINE By Andy Smith BOOMBOX SAINT, ASBURY PARK, NJ 2016 (VIDEO) NEW YORK ---  Dylan Egon , a New York City-born artist raised by two fine artists, creates sculptures and assemblages that reflect American culture, whether through religious or monetary iconography. A New York Times review once referred to his work as “sites of cultural compression, fetishization and wonder.” Egon was last featured by Hi-Frustose in 2011. Originally unintended for public consumption Egon’s seamless collage assemblages, compositionally based behind glass or within boxes, are complimented by his bold, graphic screen prints. Revolving around the theme of American culture via a subversive dive into vices and consumerism, the work reveals connections between ‘found’ objects by their proximity and placement to one another, revealing patterns and symbology otherwise lost when free standing. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Marc Chagall, Yellow Crucifixion, 1942. ISRAEL---The exhibition " Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art " opens with Chagall’s Yellow Crucifixion, painted at the height of World War II. The work depicts Jesus with a Christian martyr's halo, but also with tefilin (phylacteries) on his arm and head, as a symbol of Jewish suffering. Sigalit Landau’s video work marks the end of the exhibition where the artist stands on a watermelon, submerged in the Dead Sea – alluding to the description of Mary, mother of Jesus, standing on the earth. In other works, Jesus’ figure was used to convey cutting, political statements. [ link ]

TIMES FREE PRESS By Kelsey Dallas/Deseret News via AP Utah Valley University President Matthew Holland, left, and Tom and Gayle Holdman look at the progress of "The Roots of Knowledge" at Holdman Studios in Lehi, Utah. The 80-panel stained-glass project recently was at the UVU Library. (Laura Seitz/The Deseret News via AP) Photo by Laura Seitz In many communities, stained-glass windows are a comforting sight, even for those who aren't members of the particular church. They're often a longstanding image of a neighborhood, both permanent and ever-changing. They can't be easily moved from their frame or rearranged, but shifting sunbeams affect what each new admirer sees. Utah Valley University joined this secular stained glass movement, which often draws on storytelling techniques associated with religious displays. Officials recently unveiled an 80-panel stained glass project along the front of the university's campus library. Exhibits like "Roots of ...

THE INDIAN EXPRESS By Adrija Roychowdhury A painting depicting religious discussions in Akbar’s Ibadat Khana, (Wikimedia Commons) INDIA---While Christianity had been received and adopted in several other countries before it came to India, the religion’s reception here was unique in the sense that it was accommodated in a manner serving the interests of the Mughal rulers. But in so doing, the Mughals made known to native Indians, Christian values and traditions that the country would go on to celebrate for centuries to come. The very first paintings to reach the Mughal court were large oil paintings of Mother Mary, a religious figure known to the Muslim world, by her presence in the Quran. The Jesuits then presented the Royal Polyglot Bible to Akbar, with Biblical illustrations done by a Flemish painter. [ link ]

KUWAITI NEWS AGENCY By Redha Sardar Kanonian calligraphy TURKEY---Arabic, or rather, Islamci calligraphy has a long history in Turkey dating back to  the days of the Ottoman Empire. In fact, clligraphy is especially revereal among the Islamic arts since it was the primary means for the preservation of the Quran. There is also the kanomian calligraphy, names after Sultan Suleyman Kanoni. [ link ]

ALGEMIENER By Robert Gluck / JNS.org This “deer” Hanukkah lamp is from 19th century Eastern Europe. Photo: The Jewish Museum, gift of Dr. Harry G. Friedman. NEW YORK---New York’s Jewish Museum is shining a bright light on the many forms and enduring ritual uses of Hanukkah menorahs in a new exhibit that runs through the winter holiday season. In “ Masterpieces & Curiosities: Memphis Does Hanukkah ,” the museum’s vast collection of 1,022 Hanukkah lamps — dating from the Renaissance period to modern day — is on display. The menorahs are made from a wide variety of materials and come from virtually every part of the world, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Each one holds a unique history. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton In September, Bill Viola unveiled the second installation at St Paul’s Cathedral London. Viola said: “Mary is a universal female figure present in nearly all spiritual and religious traditions. It was a year of remarkable surprises and profound excitement. New drawings by  Leonardo da Vinci   and  Albrecht Dürer  were discovered. Deteriorating Buddhist caves in China were restored and  replicas displayed  in California. We became obsessed with Pittsburgh-based artist  Devan Shimoyama  when he began the year with a splash in Los Angeles and ended with the PULSE Prize in Miami. Museums pitted the art of the Roman Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation with shows featuring the works of  Caravaggio  and his followers  versus works by  Lucas Cranach the Elder’s  studio on behalf of the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther's Protestant Reforma...

CRI. ENGLISH NEWS As a Buddhist art form, Thangka paintings are often hung on the walls of the homes of Tibetan families for worship. Moreover, they are ideal souvenirs for tourists in Tibet or other Tibetan areas. CHINA---Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region is making standards for Thangka painting -- a traditional style of Tibetan Buddhist scroll painting, local authorities said Friday. Wangchen, director of the institute for standardization under the regional bureau of quality and technical supervision, said that the standards will define Thangka from the aspects of the cloth, pigment, painting skills and so on. The standards which will be issued in 2017 will include the rating principles for Thangka products, according to Wangchen. Thangka is a form of silk painting that dates back to the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom (about 629-840). [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Ernest & Greg standing in their living room on Christmas Eve This Fall, we debuted a new feature on our Alpha Omega Arts news blog, a Collector Spotlight highlighting our varied interests as collectors. In last night's Christmas Eve photo above, Ernest and Greg are holding a new work by Anila Quayyum Agha titled, "Moon Beam For My Love 1." This is only the second piece we've aquired by Agha (with the first being a more abstract work in 2014 ), but we've been fans since first being introduced to her work in 2013 . Do you collect old masters, new masters, or even flea-market prints, we invite you to share your story too! ( Begin here )

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory  &  Ernest Disney-Britton Still shot of Bill Viola's "Mary" (2016). Video triptych. Merry Christmas! We are writing as we drive to Cincinnati, where we will spend the day celebrating the birth of Jesus. Celebrating that birth is also what video artist Bill Viola did this year at Saint Paul's Cathedral in England. Video is the defining medium of our time, and Viola's " Mary " is the most important religious art installation of 2016. He depicted the mother of Jesus as both a nursing Mary and a grieving Mary. Viola's "Mary" is a universal female figure radiating unconditional love , as she experiences both birth and death in the past and in the present. The work is a 2014 companion piece to ' Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) ,' the first moving-image artwork to be installed in a cathedral in England on a long-term basis. As we celebrate today, we are honored to have spent the year of 2016 reli...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Manohla Dargis Collateral Beauty Official Movie Poster HOLLYWOOD----The five stages of grief sometimes seem applicable to movie reviewing, except that I usually skip denial, rarely get around to acceptance and generally just settle into anger, which is where I am with “ Collateral Beauty .” Many of the words that I would like to use to describe this waste of talent and time, which riffs on Dickens’s eternal “A Christmas Carol” and tries to manufacture feeling by offing Tiny Tim, can’t be lobbed in a family publication. So, instead, I will just start by throwing out some permissible insults: artificial, clichéd, mawkish, preposterous, incompetent, sexist, laughable, insulting. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Emily McFarlan Miller Americans remain split on whether they prefer to be met in stores with “Merry Christmas” or a more general greeting like “Happy Holidays,” according to poll results released Monday by Public Religion Research Institute . The poll found 47 percent of Americans say stores and other businesses should use “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” out of respect for people of non-Christian faiths, while 46 percent say they should not. Those results have not changed much since 2010, when those numbers were 44 percent and 49 percent, respectively, according to PRRI. Republicans were as likely to support “Merry Christmas” (67 percent) as Democrats were to support “Happy Holidays” (66 percent). [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Brooks Barnes and Amy Qin 2016 Chinese movie "The Great Wall" HOLLYWOOD---“The Great Wall,” an epic fantasy film that cost at least $150 million to make, opens with Matt Damon fleeing on horseback through red stone formations in Northwest China. The movie, filmed entirely in China, was engineered not just as escapist entertainment but also proof that the Chinese film industry can serve up global blockbusters too — that event films can rise in the East and play in the West. The last Chinese-language film to become a breakout hit in North America was “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which awed with its martial arts and stunt work and took in a surprising $180 million in 2000, after adjusting for inflation. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Janet Tappin Coelho The World 5th Largest Statue of Jesus - Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - YouTube BRAZIL---The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro has launched an international appeal for donations to help restore Christ the Redeemer, Brazil’s most famous statue, considered one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. “Christ the Redeemer, with its open arms, is the greatest showcase for Rio and Brazil,” said Cardinal Orani João Tempesta, the archbishop of Rio, at the launch of the “Friends of Christ the Redeemer” campaign earlier this month. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathan Jones Foretells the end of days … a detail from Sandro Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity (1500). Photograph: National Gallery, London Nativity scenes are the art we see at Christmas, often on cards that put a masterpiece on the mantelpiece. Yet we close our eyes to the reality of this art. We turn Renaissance and baroque paintings into empty kitsch when we appropriate them as part of modern Christmas celebrations, which in truth have little in common with the much more religious world that created these images. Look a bit harder and the great paintings of the nativity story that we sentimentalise at Christmas are full of death and decay. Some are are literally apocalyptic. [ link ]

THE FEDERALIST By Peter Burfeind The halo, borrowed from pagan art, endowed a subject with divinity. Early Christian iconographers haloed Christ to affirm his divinity, as the “Logos made flesh.” The concept of Logos is critical, because arguably the loss of a logo-centric cosmic architecture explains the decline of the West. Art has always been a harbinger of historical trends, especially in the West. As declining religion gave way to proxies—political religions, new-age kookery, myopic scientism, and sacralized hedonism—art heralded the way. In the Renaissance, halos begin to fade. In this painting, full naturalism is on display in a balanced, if staged, setting. In philosophical terms, it’s like the Logos loses its upper case. Can the West go on with a pursuit of objective truth without a divinized Logos fueling that pursuit? What does all this mean for today, particularly with the rise of Trump and the role of art during his administration? [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Henri Neuendorf French painting expert Eric Turquin announcing the authentication of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes. Photo: PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images. Science and technological advances combined with new insights and scholarly research have resulted in some amazing art-related discoveries in 2016. Here, artnet News presents 10 of the most unbelievable and unexpected finds of the year: (1) Hieronymus Bosch , The Temptation of St. Anthony ; (2) Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes ; (3) Mino da Fiesole’s Portrait of a Young Woman ; (4) Paul Gauguin , Fleurs D’Ete Dans Une Goblet ; (5) The newly-discovered YInMn blue; (6) Albrecht Dürer engraving; (7) Jacob Jordaens’ Mileager and Atalanta ; (8) missing piece of legendary René Magritte canvas; (9) ‘lost city’ thought to be first ancient Egyptian capital; (10) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Szene im Café . [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Randy Kennedy Marian Goodman, between paintings by Julie Mehretu, in her gallery on West 57th Street. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times NEW YORK---At 88, Ms. Marian Goodman carries herself with a quiet, unassailable authority that makes you think she could be a retired banker or New York City schools chancellor or a high-level diplomat, a job she aspired to before falling under art’s spell as a young, Upper West Side mother in the early ’60s. Her gallery enters its 40th year next month as one of the most powerful in the business, despite having operated in few of the ways other galleries have as the contemporary art world morphed into the sleek financial behemoth it is now. Long on West 57th Street, it never branched out to SoHo or Chelsea. It never became a player in the auction market. [ link ]

ARTNET | NEWS By Sarah Cascone An Alex Israel painting in Ivanka Trump’s apartment. Courtesy of Ivanka Trump via Instagram. NEW YORK---As artists urge Ivanka Trump to act as the voice of reason in the administration of her father, newly-elected President Donald Trump, it’s worth noting that the young business woman is an enthusiastic art collector. These images reveal a home filled with contemporary art: she counts Cy Twombly , Wade Guyton , and Joe Bradley among her favorite artists, and she told Artsy that her rules for collecting are that “we don’t buy art that we don’t love and we only buy something if we BOTH love it and want to live with it.” [ link ]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Edward Rothestein Lucas Cranach the Elder’s ‘Christ and Mary’ (c. 1516–20) PHOTO: FOUNDATION SCHLOSS FRIEDENSTEIN GOTHA Sometime around Oct. 31, 1517, the Western world changed. Before, saints and spectacle were the subjects of religious art; after, intimacy and individualism reigned. Such were the transformations associated with Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailing his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg (now in Germany). And it is in anticipation of that event’s 500th anniversary and the Protestant Reformation that followed that two major exhibitions have been mounted: “ Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation ” at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York and “ Martin Luther: Art and the Reformation ” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (A third, more modest exhibition is in Atlanta at the Pitts Theology Library.) [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Michael Walker Pete Wentz of the band Fall Out Boy with a painting of SpongeBob by KAWS, left, and a work by the Chicago graffiti artist POSE, painted with cel-animation ink. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times CALIFORNIA---Pete Wentz, the bassist for Fall Out Boy and an avid collector of contemporary art, adorns the walls of his Spanish-style home here with works that betray his roots as a graffiti-obsessed punk aspirant growing up in suburban Chicago. During my recent visit there, Mr. Wentz gamely played docent: the former street artist Shepard Fairey’s portrait of his wife (“right before the Obama poster”); a watercolor by José Parlá , another former graffiti star and painter of the One World Trade Center mural; a moody canvas by the pop provocateur Yayoi Kusama ; and refrigerator-size paintings by the artist and entrepreneur KAWS ( Brian Donnelly ) that subvert SpongeBob and the Smurfs. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By Emily Sharpe A single-volume Qur’an from Medina (1577) (Image: courtesy of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul) WASHINGTON, DC---It was a major boon for a collector to own a Qur’an by a celebrated calligrapher or copied at a holy site, such as the prayer room of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, or written in lampblack from the oil lamps at the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. By acquiring, reading and reciting from Qur’ans, the blessings they carry are bestowed on to their new owners. The movement of Qur’ans is explored in an exhibition at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC, which features rare loans from Istanbul’s Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. [ link ]

WCPO - CHANNEL 9 Ramesh Malhotra is a Cincinnat-based entrepreneur, a philanthropist and interfaith art collector OHIO---Ramesh Malhotra is an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and an author who lives and works in Mason. And he is deeply spiritual and knowledgeable about all religions. Malhotra has written a book, " Spiritual Wisdom: An Evolutionary Insight ," which arose from his travels to India, Israel and other countries to visit spiritual centers in an effort to unlock the mysteries of religion. That's why he opened the " Museum of Spiritual Art -- The Malhotra Collection (MOSA) ," located in Franklin. It celebrated its grand opening in September. [ WCPO ]

ARTDAILY MFA staff installs the painting in the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro gallery. MASSACHUSETTS---The recently acquired "Devout Men Taking the Body of Saint Stephen" (1776) by Benjamin West is one of the largest paintings in the MFA’s collection —together with its towering frame, it measures more than 18 1/2 feet tall. Over the past two years, the monumental altarpiece was treated in the Conservation in Action studio, where Museum visitors were able to witness the gradual process of cleaning and restoring the work. The painting and its original gilded wood frame, which was also conserved, are now reunited as the dramatic centerpiece of a new installation that explores how 18th-century artworks and artists traveled across both intellectual and geographical borders. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL Robert Indiana speaks at the dedication of his LOVE sculpture on Oct. 22, 1975. (Registration Historical Files, 75.174 file, IMA Archives. © 2016 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York) INDIANA---The Indianapolis Museum of Art plans to remove its iconic "LOVE" sculpture from view on the museum grounds so it can restore the piece and then reinstall it inside its Great Hall. The IMA is seeking donations to help pay for the rehabilitation of the sculpture, which was completed in 1970 and is particularly important because it was the first in a series of "LOVE" pieces created by artist Robert Indian a. The piece—made of Cor-Ten steel, a trade name for weathering steel—has been deteriorating. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Tom Mashberg A second-century Indian relief that the authorities seized from the Nancy Wiener Gallery in Manhattan. Credit Manhattan district attorney’s office NEW YORK---One of New York’s most prominent antiquities dealers was arrested Wednesday on charges that she obtained millions of dollars in stolen artifacts from international smugglers and sold them illegally — often through major auction houses — by creating fraudulent documents to camouflage their history. Wiener, and several co-conspirators have trafficked in illegal antiquities since at least 1999. Works from the Wiener gallery are in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, and in institutions around the world. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Rachel Donadio The Italian art historian Barbara Jatta. Credit Musei Vaticani / Handout/European Pressphoto Agency VATICAN CITY---Pope Francis has chosen Barbara Jatta as the first woman to direct the Vatican Museums. Currently the museums’ deputy director, Dr. Jatta, 54, will take over on Jan. 1, 2017, becoming the highest-ranking female administrator in the Vatican, where most senior positions are reserved for cardinals and bishops. The Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel, are among the most popular in the world. A professor of history of graphic arts at the University of Naples, Dr. Jatta has been at the Vatican since 1996, as curator of graphics in the prints department and the head of the Cabinet of Prints in the Vatican Apostolic Library. [ link ]

ALETEIA Pope Francis prays for the victims of the Berlin terrorist attack. VATICAN CITY---Pope Francis sent a telegram to the Archbishop of Berlin, expressing his deep sadness on hearing the news [of the Berlin Christmas market attack ]. “His Holiness wishes to manifest his own participation in the morning of family and loves ones, expressing his compassion and assuring them of his closeness in their pain,” the telegram, sent on the pope’s behalf by Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, said. “In prayer, he entrusts the departed to the mercy of God, imploring him also for the healing of the wounded. The Holy Father thanks the first responders for their pro-active commitment.” [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By the Associated Press Pope in Christmas Speech Blasts Vatican Resistance to Reform VATICAN CITY---Pope Francis on Thursday denounced the "hidden" resistance he's encountering in reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, saying some of it is inspired by the devil and that the prelates who work for him must undergo "permanent purification" to serve the Catholic Church better. For the third year in a row, Francis took the Vatican bureaucracy to task in his annual Christmas greeting. This year, he gave the priests, bishops and cardinals who work for him 12 guidelines that are inspiring his reform process, which has involved consolidating Vatican departments and creating new ones. [ link ]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Lee Lawrence Quran folio (Abbasid period, late 9th-early 10th century) PHOTO: MUSEUM OF TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ARTS, ISTANBUL WASHINGTON, DC---Devoid of illustrations, written in a language only one half of 1% of Americans speak at home, and associated with a religion some terrorists invoke when committing mass murder—the Quran is an ambitious, courageous and somewhat fraught choice for the subject of a major museum show. Hats off to the Smithsonian’s Freer-Sackler for tackling it. “ The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures From the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts ” may use the occasional decorative object to add visual interest in a gallery, but its focus never wavers from the book—when and how people penned its text, the mesmerizing illuminations and bindings it inspired, and the history of individual volumes. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Y.G. Srimati, Mahakali New York, 1980. Watercolor on paper, 29 ¼ in. x 21 7/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Michael Pellettieri, in memory of Y.G. Srimati, 2009 (2009.211) Photo: © 2009 M. Pellettieri. NEW YORK---The first retrospective exhibition devoted to the Indian artist Y. G. Srimati (1926–2007) is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . "An Artist of Her Time: Y. G. Srimati and the Indian Style" demonstrates Srimati’s consistent commitment to her vision of an Indian style. Raised in the heated climate of the independence movement—as a teenager, she performed devotional songs at prayer meetings for Mahatma Gandhi— Srimati explored themes from Indian religious epic literature and rural culture, asserting traditional subject matter as part of a conscious expression of nationalist sentiments. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest O. & Gregory A. Disney-Britton British collector Brian Sewell spent decades assembling an impressive collection of religious art by old masters that included "Saint Jerome" by Matthias Stomer . We've been collecting for only nine-years, and our focus is definitely more about "new American masters." This year, we ran a periodic feature in the  Alpha Omega Arts  weekly e-newsletter,  Collector Spotlight , about our collecting habits. In 2017, we're opening it up to all AOA readers collecting work from any religious tradition. Whether you collect old masters, contemporary abstracts, or flea-market prints and statues, please share your art of the religious imagination! ( Begin here )

THE TELEGRAPH By Charlotte Zajicek Expert handling: knowing the right people is essential CREDIT: GETTY By stocking your little black art book with these four essential contacts, you could have a career ahead of you as an art collector. Having access to an advisor not only enlightens the collectors as to which piece to invest in. Choosing the right shipping company that you can be sure will take care of your works in transit is a fundamental must. Having a restorer in your armoury as a collector could be a real benefit when it comes to preserving your art. Having a tried and tested framer who you can trust with your prized artworks is an undoubted essential for any art collector. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Christopher D. Shea Donnie Yen in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” While the film is having great success, a Star-Wars-related group is not: A commission in Britain ruled that Jediism is not a religion. C redit Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd UNITED KINGDOM--- The “Star Wars” spinoff “Rogue One” trounced the competition at the weekend box office, but on Monday the franchise suffered a defeat: The Charity Commission for England and Wales published an official ruling that Jediism does not count as a religion. The commission, which oversees British organizations’ applications for nonprofit or charity status doesn’t often wade into religious debates. It did so now because a group known as the Temple of the Jedi Order applied for charity status, citing its dedication to furthering “the religion of Jediism, for the public benefit worldwide, in accordance with the Jedi Doctrine.” [ link ]

SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel "White Crucifixion" (1938) by Marc Chagall. Oil on canvas, 60 7/8 x 55 1/16 in. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago CALIFORNIA---This past Shabbat at Temple Beth Shalom we had a most remarkable discussion on the famous Russian painter, Marc Chagall , as we discussed his various paintings of Jesus’s crucifixion. A panel consisting of Dr. David Strom, Dr. Tzvi Sax, and myself explored the history of several of Chagall’s painting, most famously, the painting he made in 1938, “White Crucifixion.” Chagall did something that no artist before or after him—he portrayed Jesus as a martyr of the Jewish people, and it was this picture that drew considerable attention to the anti-Semitism that occurred in Russia and in Germany in the 1930s. The entire picture cannot help but make Jews and Christians uncomfortable looking at this graphic work of art. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Milan Schureuer These interior wooden panels, featuring Adam and Eve (holding a citrus fruit), and the iconic “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,” have yet to be restored. For many years, the inside panels were only displayed on feast days. Credit Hugo Maertens, Lukas-Art in Flanders/St. Bavo Cathedra BELGIUM---Layers and layers of paint have been virtually and physically removed from the 15th-century Ghent Altarpiece, a renowned work of biblical figures on wood panels, revealing for the first time in hundreds of years the individual brush strokes of the original paintings. In this first phase of restoration on one of the earliest art works to use oil paints on a large scale, new scanning techniques uncovered the singular skills of the Flemish brothers Jan and Hubert Van Eyck , beneath layers of overpainting and varnish. [ link ]

THE EPOCH TIMES By Sarah Le "Agony in the Garden," oil on birch, 2016, by Eric Armusik. (Courtesy Eric Armusik) PENNSYLVANIA---As a boy growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Eric Armusik loved to draw. He won his first art contest at the age of 10 and went on to participate in numerous competitions and receive awards. On Sundays, he stared at the walls and ceilings of his community’s large, ornate Catholic churches, filled with elaborate murals and colorful stained glass windows. The painter also hopes to show the full-scale exhibit in the United States and possibly in Europe for the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death in 2021. [ link ]

QSPIRIT By Kittredge Cherry I create my own queer Nativity scenes for the Christmas season. One has two Marys at the manger with the baby Jesus, and the other features two Josephs with the Christ child. I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph—just like putting two brides or two grooms on top of a wedding cake! Obviously this is not about historical accuracy, but I believe my queer Nativity scenes are true to the spirit of the Christmas story in the Bible: God’s child conceived in an extraordinary way and born into disreputable circumstances. Love makes a family—including the Holy Family. [ link ]

SOTHEBY'S Marc Chagall's "Juif à la Thora." Painted circa 1968-1976. NEW YORK---Sotheby's sale of Israeli & International Art was led by Marc Chagall's deeply poignant and personal painting, Juif à la Thora , which realized $1,632,500, and saw record prices achieved for two of Israel's top emerging artists, Tal Mazliach and Ronen Sharabani . A 1937 Self Portrait by renowned Israeli artist Reuven Rubin achieved $312,500, leading a group of 10 works by the artist that all found buyers. [ View results ]

BLOUIN | ARTINFO By Deborah Will Domenico and Eleanore De Sole (Courtesy Rebecca Stumpf) COLORADO---Eleanore De Sole made a splash upon her arrival at the 2015 benefit gala for Anderson Ranch, the Aspen artist retreat and studio school. On the arm of her husband, Domenico—the longtime business partner of Tom Ford and current chair-man of the board of Sotheby’s. Although the two are clearly a collecting couple, Eleanore might have more of the shopping bug. “She buys art like a drunken sailor,” Domenico teases. That passion speaks to a very European way of collecting and displaying art in a private home, where genres and eras are combined to create a mix that truly reflects the owners’ taste and personality. In the De Soles’ Aspen abode, a very desirable Fontana buchi work from 1954 hangs adjacent to a diptych by the less well-known German abstract painter Helmut Dorner , who studied with Gerhard Richter. [ link ]

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD By Daniel Kany Richard Brown Lethem's Horses of Plenty" (2015) oil on canvas MAINE---"The Pilgrim’s Progress” is Able Baker Contemporary’s quirky but ostensibly unironic foray into spiritual art. It’s a fascinating show with a bizarrely functional aesthetic. If you could call it “beauty,” it would be the type the surrealist Comte de Lautréamont (Isidore-Lucien Ducasse) famously described as “beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella.” The goal of “P ilgrim’s Progress ” appears to be a broad view of regional religious and spiritual art. It reaches from mystical modernists like Richard Brown Lethem to street-style, posterized Christian “icons” to Shaker “gift drawings.” But the title even tilts toward a false start. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "A Very Merry Christmas" (1987) by Keith Haring The top news story this week was the purchase of "A Very Merry Christmas" by Keith Haring through Paddle 8 . Created in 1987, the same year our son Kai was born, we envy the lucky collector who is taking home this Christmas red & gold illustration of the birth of Christ. This week we also read a new Galatians 2:20 inspired reflection by Greg's mother-in-law, Verneida Britton  and we posted it online along with Rembrandt's drawing "Christ Crucified.” Additionally, we've enjoyed two new poems by our friends Norbert Krapf and Charlie Goetz , and Greg had his Christmas concert series with the Indianapolis Men's Chorus (bottom of page) where he was a featured dancer. At this time of year, creating and collecting are both about memories.

HUFFINGTON POST By Antonia Blumberg Atkin Olshin Schade Architects; Temple Adath Israel; Merion Station, Pennsylvania; Liturgical/Interior Design It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes a space feel sacred. But walk through the hallowed passages of a majestic temple or kneel at the foot of an ancient tomb, and you may feel the sacred to be an almost palpable force. For the past 38 years, Faith & Form magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture have hosted an annual awards program for architects and artists around the world who evoke this sacred feel in works of religious architecture and design. For artists and architects, the task of evoking the divine through structures and shapes is a difficult one, said Michael J. Crosbie, editor-in-chief of Faith & Form. [ link ]

APOLLO MAGAZINE By Emma Crichton-Miller St Stephen taken to his Martyrdom (c. 1625-30), Andrea Vaccaro Courtesy of Otto Naumann, price undisclosed You only need to drop the magic name of Caravaggio for people to queue around the block. But it is not just the work of the tempestuous, radical genius that commands interest; his followers too are on the rise, celebrated in three major exhibitions this year (‘ Beyond Caravaggio ’ at the National Gallery, London; ‘ Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio ’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; ‘ Caravaggio and the Painters of the North ’ at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). ‘There is a growing number of collectors with an interest in dramatic pictures,’ says Henry Pettifer, Christie’s head of Old Master and British paintings. [ link ]

THE FEDERALIST By William Newton “The Annunciation” by the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) Countless works of art depict the birth of Jesus. When looking at this art, it’s easy to focus on the representations of people and settings that we can overlook the appearance of text in these images. So let’s consider three works by three Old Master painters that depict three important moments in the story of Christ’s birth, and just so happen to feature some text as well. “ The Annunciation ” by the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck (c. 1390-1441), which was painted sometime between 1434-36. If you look closely, coming out of the mouth of Gabriel, almost like a medieval cartoon bubble, we can see tiny gold letters that read, “Ave gratia plena,” Latin for “Hail, full of grace.” These are just a few examples of how text can play an important role in art. [ link ]

OUTLOOK By Nikhil Mandalaparthy By analyzing a representative sample of Amar Chitra Katha comics, Parameswaran and Cardoza conclude that skin colour is intentionally associated with certain attributes. There is a reason heroes and devas are shown with light skin, while villains and asuras are given dark skin INDIA---It's no secret that light skin is favoured over the darker one throughout the Indian sub-continent. How does religion play a role in reinforcing these attitudes? One needs to look no further than our gods and goddesses themselves. Today, 'calendar art' is the most widespread artistic style through which Hindu deities are perceived. Pioneered by Raja Ravi Varma , calendar art became hugely popular as the lithographic press spread throughout India. Calendar art has now become the de facto method of portraying Hindu deities in today's India and the diaspora. In almost every case, Hindu deities portrayed in this style have extremely fair skin. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Randy Kennedy After working for more than 30 years in one studio, Joyce Pensato moved to this new one about a year ago. Her paintings are derived from her eclectic collection of toys and figurines. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times NEW YORK---Even among painters who thrive in the existential slop of a messy studio, Ms. Joyce Pensato , 75, is a local legend. The longtime subjects of her chaotically elemental portraits — cartoon characters like Batman, Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, Homer Simpson and, more recently, Stan Marsh from “South Park” — are derived from her collection of toys or figurines, which are strewn around the floor, crowded into shelves and pinned to the walls, each covered in the paint drizzle and ambient muck that is part of Ms. Pensato’s process. [ link ]

DAZED DIGITAL By Bex Shorunke "Red Mongol" by Karina Akopyan in "Martyrs & Martyroshkas" Russian-born, London-based artist Karina Akopyan’ s work is a unique blending of the past with the present. In her latest exhibition, Martrys & Martyoshkas, she draws upon the symbolism, folk tale and ritualistic elements of her Russian Orthodoxy heritage and mixes in the dark voyeurism of London's fetish scene. It’s a form of escapism grounded in realism. Her art is a combination of paintings, photography, sculpture, installations, video footage and costume pieces featuring vivid colours and brazen figures. Whether it's dripping blood, gimps, PVC or role play, this is provocative art intended to spark a reaction. [ link ]

SAUDI GAZETTE By Shahd Alhamdan SAUDI ARABIA---A solo exhibition by an Italian artist is being held in Jeddah after a 20 year lull. Titled “The Journey of the Sparrowhawk,” the exhibition is showcasing around 10 Islamic art pieces by Italian artist Maïmouna Guerresi . Splitting her time between Italy and Senegal, Guerresi says it was a visit to the latter that prompted her to convert to Islam in the 1990s. Guerresi used salt and a chandelier as symbols of light. She said the salt in the artwork is a special symbol and the viewer can feel this through the eyes of the women in the piece who are looking at the grains of salt as if they are looking at diamonds. The solo exhibition runs through Jan. 25 at the Hafez Gallery : 6559 King Abdul Aziz Road, Al-Zahra District, Jeddah. [ link ]