Disney-Britton

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Ernest and Vernieda at the ArkEncounter in Williamstown, Kentucky on August 7, 2017 Of our best museum visits this past year, the National Museum of African American History & Culture inspired happiness; the Metropolitan Museum of Art  renewed our creative passion, and a visit to Kentucky’s ArkEncounter satisfied a curiosity. As we look ahead into 2018, we’ve marked our calendars to see Makoto Fujimura’s "Charis-Kairos (The Tears of Christ)" at the Museum of the Bible, in Washington, DC; and Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” at the New-York Historical Society. However, our biggest wish for 2018 is to be inspired by more artists with religious imaginations, like new favorites of 2017 - Jeremie Riggleman , Renee Cox , and 2017 Alpha Omega Prize awardee Kelvin Burzon . Have an inspired New Year!

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "The Matriarch" (2010) by Niccolo Cosme, Philipines

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Farah Nayeri Barbara Jatta, the first female director of the Vatican Museums, in the Hall of Animals of the Pio Clementino Museum this month. Credit Mattia Balsamini for The New York Times VATICAN CITY — Vatican City has been governed by men since it was established as an independent state in 1929. A year ago, however, a woman joined the upper ranks: Barbara Jatta, the first female director of the Vatican Museums. Ms. Jatta was the only woman on an initial list of six candidates, and she was chosen by Pope Francis. In the post since January, she oversees some 200,000 objects and an array of museums, papal apartments, sculpture courtyards and other sites, including the Sistine Chapel. Ms. Jatta’s mission, as she described it, was to “find a way for visitors to see them in the right conditions.” [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton "The Matriarch" by Niccolo Cosme, Philipines Whether or not you’re a believer, you’ve got to admit, there’s a profound spirit in this season, and we believe Filipino photographer Niccolo Cosme captures that spirit in his “The Matriarch.” While Renaissance artists depicted the holy family as white Europeans, today’s artists reflect the story through the lens of their own cultural surroundings. Niccolo Cosme depicts the moment in Luke 2:7 right after the miracle birth, and his Virgin Mary and Christ child are Filipino like himself. Cosme’s mother is draped in the straw of the manger, as well as the verdant green of the Philippines. His Christ child is wrapped in divine white. From all of us at the Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts, we wish you a very "Mary" Christmas!

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Tim McKeough The architect Steven Holl in his Manhattan apartment with a charcoal drawing by Richard Artschwager. It is one of the several pieces Mr. Holl has acquired from prominent artists by swapping his own work for something of theirs. Credit 2017 Richard Artschwager/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times NEW YORK---Almost every morning, the architect Steven Holl wakes in his loftlike West Village apartment just before sunrise, climbs to an elevated platform by windows that offer a panoramic view of Manhattan, and paints. “Sometimes it’s a building I’m working on — they’re the concept drawings,” said Mr. Holl, 70. “Other times, it has nothing to do with any building. I just do what I feel.” He has followed a similar ritual since 1979, when he decided to limit his creations to 5-by-7-inch watercolors, which are small enough to paint on airplane tray tables when he travels. Today, he has an ar...

THE NATIONAL Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margret Adamson Friday inaugurated an art exhibition “Illustrations on the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)” by Australian Pakistani artist Tusif Ahmad at COMSATS Art Gallery (CAG) in the COMSATS University Islamabad. ISLAMABAD---An art exhibition “Illustrations on the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)” by Australian Pakistani artist Tusif Ahmad was held here Friday at the COMSATS Art Gallery in the COMSATS University. Tusif Ahmad uses paper cutting technique to create his art work and is exhibiting a total of 19 art pieces which he has created over a five years’ time. The show was inaugurated by Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margret Adamson. The event invited a large number of people representing all walks of life . Inaugurating the exhibition Margaret Adamson said: “Pakistani artists like Tusif Ahmad form a great example of the diverse people-to-people connections between our two countries –engaging Australians and P...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Peter Libbey One of only three surviving embellished Hebrew Bibles from the kingdom of Castile in the 14th century. Credit via Sotheby's [Last] Wednesday, the final day of Hanukkah, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its acquisition of an illuminated Hebrew Bible from 14th-century Spain. The Met bought the manuscript for an undisclosed sum from the collector Jaqui E. Safra before it went to auction in Sotheby’s Judaica sale. The auction house had estimated the piece would sell for $3.5 to $5 million.The Bible will be displayed at the Met Cloisters museum in spring 2018.The museum’s new acquisition is one of only three surviving embellished Hebrew Bibles from the 14th-century Spanish kingdom of Castile. [ More ]

20X200.COM Visible Heavens (set of four), a 20x200 Vintage Edition 10"x8" ($80) | 14"x11" ($200) | 20"x16" ($900) | 30"x24" ($3000) O holy night the stars are brightly shining….and whether or not you’re a fan of deep cut Christmas carols, you’ve gotta admit: there’s something festive, fortuitous and profound about stargazing on the first night of Winter. This set of four vintage celestial maps, Visible Heavens is an old-school ode to astronomy... Each intricate image in the set corresponds to one quarter of the year, and maps out the constellations of the night sky as they would have been seen from New York City in the mid-1800s. O holy night the stars are brightly shining….and whether or not you’re a fan of deep cut Christmas carols, you’ve gotta admit: there’s something festive, fortuitous and profound about stargazing on the first night of Winter. This set of four vintage celestial maps, Visible Heavens is an old-school ode to astronomy.....

THE IRISH TIMES By Derek Scally in Berlin An ancient book with Jewish text, part of the “Welcome to Jerusalem” exhibition in Berlin. The diverse challenges Jerusalem faces are presented in historical displays, artistic reactions and medial staging. Photograph: Felipe Trueba/EPA When Germans talk of a Reise nach Jerusalem, they might be discussing a trip to the city recognised last week by US president Donald Trump as the capital of Israel. Or they might be referring to the game we know as musical chairs: too many people march around too few chairs and, when the music stops, the person who fails to grab a chair is excluded. Given that the game usually ends in tears, its German fits perfectly with Jerusalem’s 5,000-year history of too many groups fighting over contested spaces to the exclusion of one or more – often with catastrophic results. From now until April, anyone taking a trip to Berlin can take a quick detour to Jerusalem, in a striking new exhibition at the German capital...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Ernest Disney-Britton stands at home in Indianapolis next to new photographer Kelvin Buzon's diptych titled "Ama Namin” (“Our Father" in Tagalog) and “Ina ng Gracia” (“Mother of Grace"), AP prints; top left and middle left; Doug Birkenheuer's "Evil Innocence," bottom left; and William Rasdell’s “Jews in the African Diaspora" collection, bottom right. There was a photography studio inside the arts center where I had my first arts management job after college graduation in 1984. I recall being struck by how the photographers saw themselves as storytellers, and it was during those years that I bought my first religious-themed photographs. When I left the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, I also took a long hiatus from photography. However, since Greg and I married ten-years ago, we have begun following the work of a number of contemporary photographers who tell religious stories. Most recently, we met Fili...

GP TIMES By Weida Li The three 3D-printed reproductions of Buddhist statues displaying in Qingdao. China News Service QUINGDAO, CHINA---Three 3D-printed reproductions of Buddhist statues located in ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes in northwestern China are being displayed in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, reports Chinese news media China News. They are exact replicas of the statues located at the Yungang Grottoes, which were carved into the face of a sandstone cliff during the 5th and 6th centuries in the province of Shanxi and are about 792 metres long and between nine and 18 metres high. The Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001. More than 10,000 photos of the original were taken and 842 models were printed using local sandstone materials. [ More ]

THE GUARDIAN By Anna Furman Ammar al-Beik - Untitled, 2017 Photograph: Robert Divers Herrick LONDON---In a sun-dappled chapel perched atop San Francisco’s decommissioned military base Fort Mason, the well-trodden wood floors are lined with prayer rugs. Shoeless visitors can traipse across, kneel or lay on the four-by-six wool rugs, which are kaleidoscopic in color, and neither spartan nor sumptuous in texture. Designed by 36 contemporary artists – including Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei , Palestinian mixed-media artist Mona Hatoum and African-American conceptualist Hank Willis Thomas – the rugs were hand woven in Lahore, Pakistan and express shipped to California for the exhibit Sanctuary. Originally focused on artists from the six Muslim-majority countries on Trump’s travel ban, the organizers expanded the list to include artists from Botswana, Syria, Mexico, and 17 other countries. [ More ]

MODERN TOKYO TIMES By Lee Jay Walker TOKYO---Saito no Musashibo Benkei (1155-1189) is a famous and highly esteemed Japanese warrior of the twelfth century. Not only is Benkei revered for his loyalty, prowess, and knowledge but also he is deeply admired for his Buddhist faith. Of course, in the realm of Japanese art then Benkei appealed greatly during the Edo Period through the prism of ukiyo-e. After all, the Tokugawa elites admired loyalty and reverence based on power concentration. At the same time, the Buddhist faith was utilized to the maximum in order to quell the ambitions of distant Christian powers, emanating from Europe, during the early part of the Edo Period. [ More ]

THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer The Cleveland Museum of Art's Krishna Govardhan sculpture as it was installed in the museum's new Asian Wing in 2013. The museum removed the work recently to embark on a yearlong project to take it apart and put it back together. When finished, it will be displayed freestanding in a gallery as opposed to against a wall, as is shown here. CLEVELAND, Ohio---The Cleveland Museum of Art's seventh-century Cambodian statue of the Hindu god Krishna, a broken masterpiece painstakingly reassembled in 1978, is ready for a yearlong radical makeover in the museum's conservation lab. The goal of the project, funded by a $70,000 Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant, is to dismantle and reconstruct the sculpture's 11 pieces to re-create its correct pose for the first time since the fragments were unearthed in stages starting more than a century ago. The pose matters because it will help reveal the work...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Giovanni Bellini,'s "Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and a Female Saint in a Landscape" (detail), about 1501, continues at the Getty Museum through Jan. 14, 2018. Greg just finished his third year of Christmas concerts as a member of the Indianapolis Men’s Chorus , and Ernest's favorite part was the second half featuring sacred hymns. These hymns, like “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Mary, Did You Know?,” and “The First Noel” force us to pause and to focus on religious traditions that we see disappearing from December. But, what can anyone do to fix it? That is why we celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas (Dec. 25-Jan 5) and include a visit to a local art museum as part of that celebration. Religious art powerfully focuses our attention on the sacred, and one such painting is now on exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Created in 1501, Giovanni Bellini’s “ Virgin and Child...

THE STATE By Lezlie Patterson “The Ajak Web Cycle” by Renee Cox, 2016. Mixed media; 46 inches by 46 inches by 5 inches. Columbia Museum of Art courtesy of the artist COLUMBIA, SC---“ Soul Culture ” is not your grandmother’s art exhibit. The exhibition of Renee Cox’s work – considered controversial by some, boundary-breaking by others – open[ed] Friday, Dec. 15, at the Columbia Museum of Art . A guided tour will be 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17. The artwork in the exhibition deconstructs issues of race and gender using the body as central image to promote positivity and empowerment. Cox transforms her photographic portraits into hypnotic video and mandala-like reliefs influenced by Hindu and Buddhist religious art, the visual escapism of 1960s psychedelia, and the use of fractals in African culture. [ More ]

CHRISTIANITY TODAY By Kate Shellnutt Image: Courtesy of Crossway Centuries before Christians searched Scripture on illuminated digital screens, the Word of God was “lit up” with masterful calligraphy, colorful illustrations, and gold and silver filigree in the illuminated Bibles and manuscripts of the Middle Ages. A new Bible edition from Crossway offers contemporary readers a glimpse of that classic style in an English Standard Version (ESV) Bible glimmering with hundreds of hand-drawn gold illustrations. Christian designer Dana Tanamachi , nationally renowned for her chalk art and lettering work, spent seven months creating full-page illustrations for each book of the Bible and served as art director for the project, which follows Crossway’s launch of a multi-volume reader’s Bible in 2016 and a single-column journaling Bible in 2014. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Manohla Dargis In “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Adam Driver returns as Kylo Ren, a charismatic villain who has modeled himself on Darth Vader. Credit Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures HOLLYWOOD---One of the truisms of the “Star Wars” series is that its battle between good and bad has always uneasily and sometimes openly mirrored the attendant struggle between good and bad filmmaking. Yes, the latest “Star Wars” installment is here, and, lo, it is a satisfying, at times transporting entertainment. Remarkably, it has visual wit and a human touch, no small achievement for a seemingly indestructible machine that revved up 40 years ago and shows no signs of sputtering out (ever). Evil is ascendant. The Resistance — an intrepid, multi-everything group whose leaders include a battle-tested woman warrior — has been fighting the good fight for years but is outnumbered and occasionally outmaneuvered. [ More ]

THE GUARDIAN By Mark Brown A two-sided limestone relief from the Great Shrine at Amaravati. Photograph: British Museum LONDON---For decades, the Amaravati sculptures , a stupendous collection of early Buddhist art considered one of the greatest treasures in the British Museum, have been poorly lit and difficult for visitors to see close up. On Thursday, they will be displayed in their full glory when the central London museum reopens its largest gallery to the public after a two-year renovation. The newly improved Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery of China and South Asia will allow a different story to be told, curators say, with some objects going on show for the first time. The refurbishment and redisplay means the Amaravati sculptures, which are held in a separate room at one end of the gallery, can be seen from the other. “They are just as important as the [Parthenon] marbles but people don’t know about them so much,” Portal said. [ More ]

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES By Christopher Knight, Art Critic Nicolás Enríquez (attrib.), "Virgin of Sorrows," circa 1750 LACMA LOS ANGELES---To get an idea of just how bold and ambitious painters were in 18th century Mexico, an era of unprecedented splendor in the colony of New Spain, look no further than the very first painting at the entrance to a smashing new exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art . Juan Rodríguez Juárez and his brother, Nicolás, were leading artists in Mexico City early in the century. It was one of four commissions for the chapel altar of an important Jesuit residence. The LACMA exhibition, “Painted in Mexico, 1700-1790: Pinxit Mexici,” is filled with eye-popping pictorial moments like this. [ More ]

THE GUARDIAN By Stuart Jeffries One eye on his CV … a detail from The Apparition of the Apostle Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco, which features in Navid Kermani’s book. Photograph: akg-images / Erich Lessing There is a particularly ugly nutwood carving of the infant Jesus dating from 1320. The nose is wider than it is long and the lower lip is pulled up, emphasizing a ball-shaped chin and unpleasantly globular cheeks. Only a mother could believe this cherub beautiful, says Navid Kermani, who also takes issue with the three discolored fingers Jesus is holding up, supposedly in blessing. Kermani, a German Muslim writer of Iranian Shia ancestry, has included this exhibit, which sits in Berlin’s Bode Museum, in his new book, Wonder Beyond Belief: On Christianity. Kermani does something both refreshingly cheeky and philosophically instructive. [ More ]

THE NATIONAL By Salam Al Amir A ceramic by Salim Jawhar, one of the previous works on display at the Islamic Arts Festival at Sharjah Art Museum. Pawan Singh / The National SHARJAH, UAE---Artists from 31 countries from across the world are to take part in this year’s 20th edition of the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival (SIAF). The SIAF, organized by the Sharjah Cultural Affairs Department and with a theme of “impact”, will start on December 13 and run until January 23, 2018. It is to include 81 artworks that will be showcased in different venues across the emirate. Mohammed Al Qaseer, general coordinator of SIAF, said that 270 activities will take place as part of the festival, including 44 exhibitions, 46 lectures and 153 workshops. More than 30 of the exhibitions are to be held at the Sharjah Art Museum, presenting the works of five artists from the UAE, as well as others from Arab countries and countries around the world. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS  Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903) "Woman with Mango Fruits," ca. 1889 Painted oak, 11 3/4 x 19 1/4 in. (30 x 49 cm) Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1781 Photograph by Ole Haupt © Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen SAN FRANCISCO---An exceptional display of more than fifty paintings, wood carvings and ceramics by the French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) from the renowned collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, will be on view for the first time in San Francisco at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park . These pieces will be presented alongside Oceanic art from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s permanent collection and with works on paper by Gauguin from the Museums’ Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. The exhibition (November 11, 2018 - April 7, 2019)  will explore Gauguin’s inner quests and imaginings—his spiritual journey—and how his intimate relationships with his wife, other artists, and people he enc...

KHALEEJ TIMES By Afkar Abdullah A visitor watching the artwork EPISTROPHE, by artist Timo Nasseri at the Sharjah Art Museum. - KT photo by M. Sajjad Artists from various parts of the world gathered on Wednesday at the 20th Sharjah Islamic Art Festival (SIAF) displaying different vibrant styles of artworks illustrating the authenticity of the Islamic Art in tune with the contemporary art world. Sheikh Abdullah bin Salem Al Qassimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, inaugurated the SIAF at the Sharjah Islamic Art Museum, which will run until January 23, 2018. The event is organised under the patronage of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, by the cultural affairs department at the Sharjah department of information culture. The festival is one of the most renowned Islamic art events in the region, and its events include local and international exhibitions, intellectual programmes, and interactive activities. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By John Ortved Ariel Foxman in the living room of his Gramercy Park home, where he has on display two Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, “Mike Spencer,” left, and “Flower.”CreditAdrienne Grunwald for The New York Times NEW YORK---On a recent afternoon Ariel Foxman was having a one-way conversation with his son, Cielo, as he lifted up the newborn “Lion King”-style and then brought him in for a kiss. The baby, just 7 weeks old, was soon asleep on his shoulder. It’s been a big year for Mr. Foxman, professionally as well as personally. In August, he was announced as the chief brand officer for Olivela, an online fashion site that uses part of its proceeds to support children’s health and education. The couple’s apartment, a corner unit in a large, modern building in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, provides a sightly path through his past and present lives. In the living room, the eye travels from a small Tom Wesselmann nude hangin...

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Kimberly Winston Giovanni Bellini,'s "Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and a Female Saint in a Landscape" (detail), about 1501,  tempera and oil on wood panel. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Photo credit: Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY LOS ANGELES---Think of an illuminated manuscript and a few stock images come to mind: ornate capital letters, high-browed pale ladies, haloed babies and lines of Latin words in Gothic script. But two current shows at the Getty Center , this city’s white Legoland of a hilltop museum, ask viewers to look beyond those conventions to the backgrounds of illustrated religious manuscripts. “The goal of these artists was to promote a deeper meditation,” said Alexandra Kaczenski, co-curator of one of the exhibitions. “The hope was that these images would promote an emotional connection in the viewer that would be the equivalent of being there when Christ was crucif...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Liam Stack President Trump and his wife, Melania, at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree near the White House in November. Credit Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency Combatants in the annual “War on Christmas” have some new data to chew on, thanks to a survey released this week by the Pew Research Center. While many doubt that Christmas is embattled, as some conservative pundits contend, the new study does suggest American attitudes are changing. The Pew study, based on interviews conducted in recent weeks with 1,503 adults, found that while a vast majority of Americans still celebrate Christmas, most find the religious elements of the holiday are emphasized less than in the past — and few of them care about that change. Fifty-six percent of Americans believe that the religious elements of Christmas are emphasized less now than they were in the past, but only 32 percent of Americans say that development bothers them either “a lot” or “some,” ac...

WORLD RELIGIONS NEWS The Satanic Temple Sues MN Town for $35,000 BELLE PLAINES, MN----A Satanic monument in the shape of a black cube with inscribed inverted pentagrams and an upturned helmet on its top surface was not allowed to be installed in the Veterans’ Memorial Park in the city of Belle Plaine, Minnesota. This happened even after they received the approval and also hired a contractor to construct the monument.The plan of the Satanists was to install this public piece of art adjacent to a Christian cross with a kneeling soldier. The objective was the same as the Christian structure: honor the contribution of veterans. [ More ]

WUBR.ORG By Penny Schwartz The Torah finials at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. (Penny Schwartz for WBUR) BOSTON---One of the gallery highlights during the Museum of Fine Arts' celebration of Hanukkah , the Jewish Festival of Lights, on Wednesday is a pair of handcrafted Colonial-era silver adornments for a Torah scroll. The rare pieces, called Torah finials, made by artisan Myer Myers, have been on loan to the MFA from the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, since late 2010 — and are at the center of a high-stakes intra-religious legal battle between two centuries-old Jewish congregations. The dispute over ownership between a Rhode Island and a New York congregation, which began in late 2012, is now before the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The court's decision could bear on whether these artifacts remain on public view in the MFA's Art of the Americas wing. [ More ]

THE DENVER POST By Colleen Smith Students from the Denver Center for International Studies learn about menorahs at the Mizel Museum on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. DENVER---Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, has for centuries outshined the darkness of bigotry. “Hanukkah is even more important this year because this holiday brings light and hope into the world at a time when it’s really needed,” said Melanie Avner of the Mizel Museum , a Jewish cultural center in Denver. That Hanukkah light originates from menorahs, which come in all sizes and shapes and are made of a variety of materials and range in tone from somber to silly. This year, Hanukkah begins the evening of Dec. 12. [ More ]

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE By Hanna Shaul Bar Nissum, Brandies University Even though only about one in 50 Americans is Jewish, U.S. Jews donate at high levels, both as individuals and as a community. Most Jews, regardless of their economic status, heed their religious and cultural obligations to give. In fact, 60 percent of Jewish households earning less than US$50,000 a year donate, compared with 46 percent of non-Jewish households in that income bracket. Interestingly, the same study also found that Jews, black Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics give at similar levels to congregations and to other causes. However, Jews give relatively less to congregations and more to other causes. Two explanations involve education and wealth, traits strongly correlated with philanthropy. The Jewish community is among the nation’s most educated and wealthy demographic groups. [ More ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By Gareth Harris The disputed tombs Xavier Zapater Lleida Museum Unrest has broken out at the Lleida Museum in western Catalonia after Spanish law enforcement officers entered the institution [yesterday] morning. The move is the latest development in a long-running restitution saga centered on 44 religious artifacts housed at the museum, which have become a symbol of Catalonia’s bid for independence. The disputed pieces were removed from the Monasterio de Santa Maria de Sijena in neighboring Aragon under the post-war dictatorship of General Franco, and deposited in Catalonian institutions. Some objects have been returned but religious items, including medieval sarcophagi, remained at Lleida Museum. A spokeswoman for the museum tells us that “the objects are packed and will leave the museum today”. The Spanish ministry of culture declined to comment. [ More ]

MODERN TOKYO TIMES By Lee Jay Walker “Art of Buddhism and Shintoism and Two Paths in the Snow,” by Utsumi shows that two religious paths can co-exist naturally without seeking to crush and humiliate the other. TOKYO---The latest art piece by Sawako Utsumi , a contemporary Japanese artist who hails from Northern Japan, utilizes the snowy landscape by highlighting the respective strengths of Buddhism and Shintoism despite terrible adversity. Of course, the adversity applies to the terrible weather conditions faced by the holy men of Buddhism and Shintoism in this art piece. However, on a bigger nuance, then it applies to certain international events that have decimated Buddhism and Traditional Beliefs throughout history – and is still happening today. “Art of Buddhism and Shintoism and Two Paths in the Snow,” is an adorable piece of art by Utsumi. This is based on the amazing landscape, the three holy men of Buddhism and Shintoism, the terrible winter conditions, the power of faith...

THE PRESS HERALD By Meredith Goad "Menorasaurus Rex" by Lisa Pierce PORTLAND---When Hanukkah begins Tuesday, Lisa Pierce’s family will light her grandmother’s menorah, a family heirloom that looks like a traditional candelabrum with nine branches. Then, just for fun, she’ll light a dinosaur menorah. Or a hippo. Or a penguin. Pierce’s menorah menagerie consists of her own playful creations that she sells mostly through her Etsy.com shop, The Vanilla Studio . The most popular is “Menorasaurus Rex,” a fierce-looking Tyrannosaurus Rex, but she also makes other dinosaurs (a brontosaurus and a triceratops), as well as an elephant, alligator, turtle, hippo and yes, even a not-so-kosher lobster. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton "Zoo of Lusts" (2015) by Jeremie Riggleman. Acrylic, photos & resin, Edition of 5 & AP Jeremie Riggleman is our favorite creator of Christian kitsch. He simultaneously honors the sacred while spotlighting the odd and eccentric. His “Zoo of Lusts” is a 36 x 36-inch work in acrylic, photo and resin with an open-ended narrative featuring fifteen toy animals, including an "angel" bear, that watch-over the sleeping baby Jesus in his manger. As far as we know, none of these elements have ever been assembled together in a nativity painting before. Riggleman shipped  one of its five editions this week to be included in "The Beautiful,” a traveling group exhibition of 35 contemporary works organized by Christians in the Visual Arts. CIVA is a national association of artists and arts administrators, and by the way, Ernest is a member too. Born, in Owosso, MI, today Riggleman teaches...

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Warren Strugatch Rick Friedman and Cindy Lou Wakefield with some of the more than 250 artworks on display in Mr. Friedman’s Southampton home, including pieces by Henri Matisse (“Head of Woman,” top far left), Jackson Pollock (“Untitled,” from 1940, top to the right of the mirror), Willem de Kooning and Lee Krasner. Credit 2017 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2017 Karel Appel Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2017 John Chamberlain/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2017 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/ Artists Rights Society, New York; 2017 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2017 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2017 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Gordon Grant for The New York Times SOUTHAMPTON---In the late ’70s and early ’80s, as an entrepreneurial and luxuriously mustachioed you...

JEWISH MUSEUM Heinrich Wilhelm Kompff's "Torah Finials" (1797-99) NEW YORK---In a publication of 1931, this pair of finials (rimmonim) is described as being in one of the two Kassel synagogues. Nothing is known of their whereabouts from Kristallnacht (1938) until 1970, when the finials were purchased from a dealer. According to their inscriptions, the finials were "a donation of Rabbi Zelig, son of Rabbi Feis of blessed memory, for the Torah scroll of the Benevolent Society in the year [5]559 [1798/99]." This inscription appears along the circular bases that were probably added to the finials shortly before they were purchased. The unusual form of the finials reflects the late-eighteenth-century interest in antiquity and the vogue for classical forms in the decorative arts. [ More ]

ARTicle "Goddess Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon (Mahishasuramardini)", Angkor period, 10th century, Cambodia. Sandstone, 26 7/16 x 15 3/16 x 8 1/4 in. CHICAGO---Girl power! This multi-armed figure represents the fierce Hindu goddess Durga, whose name means "the invincible." The wicked demon Mahishasura had unleashed a reign of terror, and none of the gods could defeat him as Brahma had rendered Mahishasura impervious to destruction at the hands of a male. Shiva, Vishnu, and all the male gods combined their energy into one force, from which the goddess Durga emerged. As the female warrior aspect of the supreme godhead, Durga was not subject to Mahishasura's power and cut off his head with her sword. Find this sculpture of the Goddess Durga in Gallery 142 at the Art Institute of Chicago. [ More ]

ARTFIX DAILY Chen Hongshou (1599–1652) , Self-image , Ca. 1633, Album of eleven paintings; ink and color on silk, 8 3/4 x 8 9/16 in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng, 1999 999.521a-k BERKELEY---One of the most influential artists of seventeenth-century imperial China is the subject of a major museum survey, the artist’s first in North America, when the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) presents " Repentant Monk: Illusion and Disillusion in the Art of Chen Hongshou ." The exhibition includes twenty-five rarely exhibited works that exemplify Chen’s important role in driving the course of Chinese art history. The paintings are drawn from BAMPFA’s own substantial holdings of Chinese art and from international collections, including works from the Shanghai Museum that have never been exhibited in the United States. On view through January 28, 2018 [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By A.O. Scott Sally Hawkins with Doug Jones, as the Asset, in “The Shape of Water.” Credit 20th Century Fox “The Shape of Water” is partly a code-scrambled fairy tale, partly a genetically modified monster movie, and altogether wonderful. Guillermo del Toro , the writer and director, is a passionate genre geek. The most obvious reference point for “The Shape of Water” is “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” a Cold War-era camp-horror classic about a strange beast, quasi-fish and sort-of human, discovered in the rain forests of the Amazon. In Mr. del Toro’s update, such a creature is brought to Baltimore in the early 1960s and kept in a tank at a government research lab, where he is subjected to brutal torture in the name of science and national security. [ More ]

CHICAGO TRIBUNE By Marc Vitali Crèche, mid-18th century. Naples. (Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago) CHICAGO---For six weeks each year, a dramatic work of religious art is unveiled in Chicago. The Christmas season is the only time to see a rare Nativity scene that blends both spiritual and earthly pursuits. “Chicago Tonight” visited the Art Institute and found an elaborate piece of art originally seen in churches in 18th century Naples. The Art Institute’s crèche is in the European Painting and Sculpture Galleries through Jan. 7, 2018. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Holland Cotter “Nose Greeting,” one of the photographs in Farah al-Qasimi’s show “More Good News,” at the Helena Anrather Gallery. Credit Farah Al Qasimi, via Helena Anrather Gallery, New Yor k Often, Ms. Qasimi’s photographs are like cryptic visual puzzles. An Instagram photograph posted by the recently opened Louvre Abu Dhabi shows two men in traditional Arab clothing standing before Jacques-Louis David’s 1803 painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps. The image clearly juxtaposes cultures, and perhaps notions of masculinity, art, propaganda and power. Farah al-Qasimi’s approach is more subtle and enigmatic in her photographs of Arab men in New York and the United Arab Emirates, her native country, in “ More Good News ,” at Helena Anrather. Through Dec. 22. Helena Anrather, 28 Elizabeth Street, Manhattan; 212-587-9674, helenaanrather.com

HYPERALLERGIC By Sheila Regan Aliza Nisenbaum, “Nimo, Sumiya, and Bisharo harvesting flowers and vegetables at Hope Community Garden” (2017) (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) MINNEAPOLIS — The subjects in Aliza Nisenbaum’s group portraits, now on view in A Place We Share at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), look almost regal in their presentation. The groups are carefully composed, as if they were posing for a formal photography shoot, though in reality Nisenbaum had each person sit with her individually. While these people don’t wield a huge amount of social or political power, Nisenbaum portrays them with majesty and importance, and in so doing upends class and status structures. Nisenbaum, a Harlem-based artist who was born in Mexico City and raised by Russian-Jewish and Scandinavian-American parents. Aliza Nisenbaum: A Place We Share continues at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2400 3rd Ave S., Minneapolis) through February 4. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Jan van Eyck and Workshop, The Virgin and Child with St. Barbara, St. Elizabeth and Jan Vos, ca. 1441–43. oil on panel , 8 5/8 × 24 1/8 inches, The Frick Collection, New Yo NEW YORK---For the first time in twenty-four years, The Frick Collection will reunite two masterpieces of early Netherlandish painting commissioned by the Carthusian monk Jan Vos for the exhibition,  The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos   (September 18, 2018, through January 13, 2019). These works, including  Virgin and Child with St. Barbara , St. Elizabeth , and Jan Vos , were commissioned from Jan van Eyck and completed by his workshop, and The Virgin and Child with St. Barbara and Jan Vos (known as the Exeter Madonna, after its first recorded owner), painted by Petrus Christus and now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, will be shown with a selection of objects that place them in the rich monastic context for which they were created. [ More ]

ARTNEWS By Alex Greenberger Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, ca. 1500, sold for $450.3 million at Christie’s last month. The buyer of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Salvator Mundi (ca. 1500), which as of last month is the most expensive artwork ever sold, is the Saudi prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud. The buyer’s identity, reported by the New York Times this evening, was discovered in the midst of an investigation into Saudi Arabia’s elite class, including Prince Bader’s family and associates, who have been criticized for their showy displays of wealth. Prince Bader is not well-known as an art collector. It had been speculated, however, that the buyer might have hailed from the Middle East, particularly following posts on social media earlier today announcing that the painting was making its way to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Michelangelo, 'The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist ('The Taddei Tondo')', about 1504–05 © Royal Academy of Arts, London LONDON---Through January, there is unique opportunity to explore the complex relationship between three giants of Renaissance art in a special display at the National Gallery. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael around 1500 brings together eight works by Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo Buonarroti , and Raffaello Santi, or Raphael ; three artists who were keenly aware of each other’s work and at times intensely rivalrous. Together they are credited as fathers of a new, dynamic, monumental, and psychologically incisive approach to art – the High Renaissance. The centrepiece of this free display is The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John , also known as the Taddei Tondo  (1504–05). [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jason Farago Edvard Munch’s “Self-Portrait in Hell” (1903). Credit Munch Museum/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York NEW YORK---There are painters in full control of themselves, whose art radiates the tranquillity of lives well lived. And then — hold onto your Xanax — there is the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch . Out of that torment, though, came an oeuvre of raw focus that sometimes shrieked into the abyss — as in his most famous painting, “The Scream” — but, far more often, embraced melancholy, resignation and the inevitability of decline. Who better to guide us through our own fatalistic age? “ Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed ,” a calibrated and unostentatious exhibition now at the Met Breuer, reintroduces this nervous genius to New York and makes a point of highlighting his later paintings. [ More ]