Disney-Britton

ARTDAILY Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Salvator Mundi, c. 1500 Oil on walnut panel, 25 13/16 X 17 7/8 inches (65.6 X 45.4 cm) © 2011 Salvator Mundi llc. Photo: Robert Simon, Tim Nighswander. PARIS (AFP).- Later this year, the Louvre in Paris will host an exhibition of masterpieces by the Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci to mark his death 500 years ago in France. But the work that in recent months has been the intense focus of scrutiny by the media and da Vinci specialists, may not be on show. In 2017, "Salvator Mundi" was sold at auction by Christie's as a work by da Vinci for a record $450 million. But it has not been displayed in public since, triggering doubts about its ownership, its whereabouts and its authenticity. The painting, a portrait of Jesus, was to go on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi in September last year. [ More ]

JEWISH JOURNAL By Allison Futterman Originally from Spain, creative artist Almudena Solana has called Los Angeles home for the past several years. In Spain, she was a journalist and an author of several novels. She is also the creator of “Fabric Poetry”, one-of-a-kind scarves sold at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Solana considers her portable, wearable art to be a natural extension of her writing background — an artistic form of expression that tells a story. She has expanded her appreciation of beauty and storytelling to the creation of one-a-kind challah covers, even though she isn’t Jewish. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Mark Bradford – Mithra, 2008, plywood, shipping containers, steel, 2133.6 x 609.6 x 762 cm, installation view at Prospect.1, New Orleans Abstract artist, Mark Bradford tracks racial, gender, and social identity. In his paintings, videos, and sculptures, he merges the methods of outsider artists with black abstract artists of the 1960s. Racial justice is a dominant theme, and two works standout. Most recently, his criminal justice work, " Life Size ," an image of a police body camera isolated on a light-colored background. The other is “ Mithra ," his Noah’s Ark inspired sculpture and response to Hurricane Katrina. “Mithra" is headed to China, and that makes Mark Bradford our artist of the week .

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE S By Alicia Eler Above: Herbert Singleton, "Crucifixion Coffee Table," 1995. All images courtesy of Souls Grown Deep Foundation and Minneapolis Institute of Art. MINNEAPOLIS---Minneapolis Institute of Art just acquired 33 new works by African-American artists from the South. The art came via the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization dedicated to placing those artists in museums' permanent collections. “Mia really needs to increase its representation of various African-American traditions in art,” said Bob Cozzolino, a painting curator at the museum, who worked on this acquisition with Nicole LaBouff, associate curator of textiles. “Relative to other encyclopedic museums, we don’t really have a high percentage of works by African-American artists.” These works will become part of a show in 2020. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Ted Loos Diane and Arthur Abbey’s apartment contains a mix of modern art and Japanese baskets. On wall, clockwise from top left, “Spritze” (1924), Wassily Kandinsky; “Woman-Torso” (1965-66), Willem de Kooning; and “Moonlight Landscape” (1914), Man Ray. On left table, from left: “Fuki or Noble Wealth” (1940), Tanabe Chikuunsai II; bamboo basket for tea ceremony articles (2007), Watanabe Shochikusai II; and “Flower Basket” (after 1946), Suemura Shobun. Collectors who are just starting out spend time chasing down their objects of desire. Once they’ve made it, they can sit back and wait for the phone to ring. “We’re at the point now, where, if something brilliant comes up, somebody calls us,” said Diane Abbey, who, with her husband, Arthur, is among the world’s top collectors of Japanese bamboo baskets. The couple — who split their time between the Upper East Side and the Hamptons when not traveling the world — own around 300 in total. Some o...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Seated Tenjin, 1259. Kamakura period (1185–1333). Wood with color; 94.9 x 101.5 x 68.8 cm. Yoki Tenman Jinja, Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. Important Cultural Property. Photo: Nara National Museum CLEVELAND, OH---"Shinto: Discovery of the Divine in Japanese Art" is presented in two rotations at the Cleveland Museum of Art . The first rotation runs from Tuesday, April 9 to Sunday, May 19. The second rotation runs from Thursday, May 23, through Sunday, June 30. The exhibition will be closed on Tuesday, May 21, and Wednesday, May 22, to rotate the works of art. The exhibition reopens on Thursday, May 23. The veneration of deities called kami has been a central feature of Japanese culture for many centuries and the inspiration for a wide range of Japanese visual art. Most recently, kami veneration falls under the auspices of a diverse body of rites known as Shinto, or the “Way of the Gods.” [ More ]

ARTDAILY Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, c. 1650. Nicolaes Knüpfer (Dutch, c. 1603–1655/60). Pen and brown ink, brown wash, and white heightening over black chalk or charcoal on antique laid paper; sheet: 33.4 x 27.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2019.8. CLEVELAND---CLEVELAND, OH.- Significant recent acquisitions by the Cleveland Museum of Art include 17 drawings from the Golden Age of Dutch art; a fine painting by Louis Hayet, a key proponent of neo-impressionism; a contemporary sculpture by American artist Jenny Holzer from her iconic series Laments; and 13 photographs by modern American masters from generous donors Diann G. and Thomas A. Mann. The purchase of 17 important drawings greatly enhances the CMA’s collection of Netherlandish works on paper and allows the museum more fully to represent the variety of subject matter and styles during this prosperous period in Dutch history. The group of drawings includes natural history scenes, port...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Bras-reliquaire, région alpine, 1650-1700 Bois sculpté, peint et doré, métal 71 × 37 × 19 cm - Mucem, Marseille © Mucem / Yves Inchierman MARSEILLE.- A as in "Agnus Dei", B as in "Bras" (arms), C as in "Custos", D as in "Dent" (tooth), E as in "Épine" (thorn) ... The major themes related to Christian practices and belief are presented via 26 letters in the exhibition "R eliquaries from A to Z ": a mystical alphabet assembled from the collections of the Mucem. In 2002, the Mucem acquired from a private individual a unique collection of some 500 reliquaries. This very rich set testifies brilliantly to the variety of forms, techniques and uses of reliquaries in the European Christian world, mainly over a period from the 17th century to the first third of the 20th century. The term "relic", from Latin reliquiae (literally "remains"), refers to the human remains of holy persons (often bone ...

ARTDAILY Priest's mask, Galati, Moldovan Romania, 20th century, Ethnology of Europe collection, Musée national d’histoire naturelle, deposited at the Mucem © MNHN, photo Mucem. MARSEILLE.- The exhibition “ Persona. Works by Romanian artists ” questions notions of identity and identification through different motifs, such as the mask. It first considers the links between ethnographic heritage and rites of folklore and mythology, before proposing a broad critical examination of national, cultural, and ethnic affiliations. The Latin term “persona” has had an ambiguous development, from its original meaning to its current semantic applications in Latin languages, leaving the field wide open to a broad interpretation of what “person” and “character” can mean today, especially given the virtual avatars of new technologies. [ More ]

BROADWAY WORLD "Burning Bush" by Davi Yael Cheng. Courtesy of BCC People: LGBT Jews of Los Angeles Judaism is multiculturalism. The enchanting artwork of three diverse artists of mixed Jewish and Chinese, Muscogee (Creek) Nation or Tlingit descent will be on display at a new show at the Gallery at the Braid, opening May 4 in Santa Monica. Gallery director Marilee Tolwin said, "We are excited to exhibit artists who share with us their views of their multicultural backgrounds through deeply personal and introspective art works. The art in our new Gallery show beautifully reflects their diverse cultural backgrounds. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Robert Smith Giovanni Battista Moroni's “Two Donors in Adoration before the Madonna and Child and St. Michael,” circa 1557-60. One of his innovations was removing donors from the religious setting, showing them as citizens of the world.CreditVirginia Museum of Fine Arts It’s not often that the paintings of an Italian Renaissance master arrive in a New York museum unadorned by the aura of fame and towering talent, but so it is with Giovanni Battista Moroni. The art of this 16th-century painter who excelled at remarkably naturalistic portraits is having its first American survey at the Frick Collection in “Moroni: The Riches of Renaissance Portraiture.” Partly because Moroni’s reputation does not much precede him in this country, the show’s 23 portraits have a stunning freshness and clarity. We have the sense of seeing for ourselves — and there is much to look at. [ More ]

ARTDAILY Dan Flavin, Yellow and Pink Flourescent Light, 1969. Flourescent light bulbs (pink, yellow), 24 x 24-1/2 x 5 in. (61 x 62 x 13 cm) Hall Collection. Courtesy Hall Art Foundation © the artist HOLLE.- The Hall Art Foundation is presenting a group exhibition, "The Passion," being held at its Schloss Derneburg location. Installed throughout the cloister of the former monastery, the show examines the use of Christian iconography in contemporary art, while paying homage to Schloss Derneburg’s long ecclesiastical history. The show features approximately one hundred paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs and works on paper by twenty-nine artists. All the works come from the Hall and Hall Art Foundation collections. [ More ]

CHRISTIE'S Qur’an, signed Tanam al-Najmi al-Maliki al-Ashrafi, Mamluk Egypt, dated 21 Jumada I 894/30 April 1489. Folio 26¾ x 18 in (68 x 45.5 cm). Estimate: £500,000-800,000. Offered in Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets on 2 May 2019 at Christie’s in London ‘Mamluk Qur’ans of this size with a royal dedication are extremely rare. This is why they get so much attention when they come to market,’ says William Robinson, International Head of Islamic Art. The Qu’ran is offered in London on 2 MayAccording to William Robinson, International Head of Islamic Art at Christie’s in London, there are three primary factors that make this monumental royal Mamluk Qur’an extraordinary. The first lies in its royal provenance. The second factor is the size of the folio, which measures 68 cm by 45.5 cm (26¾ in x 18 in). The third factor that makes this Qur’an so exceptional is its script. [ More ]

THE HINDU By Ranjani Govind The plant life depicted in Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings will be dissected this weekend Art students can now gain a botanical perspective to Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings. ‘Encounters of his brush with the Botanical’ is a researched study where nearly three dozen works of this icon have been picked by The Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation from an eductional viewpoint. A short video presentation on the topic and a 100-page booklet of the study will be released to commemorate the 171st birth anniversary of Raja Ravi Varma at the National Gallery for Modern Art (NGMA) in the city on April 28.‘Encounters With The Botanical’ delves into various botanical elements in 33 paintings by the renowned artist,” says Gitanjali Maini, Managing Trustee and CEO, The Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation. [ More ]

THE WALLSTREET JOURNAL By Mary Tompkins Lewis Christ confront Jewish elders in Peter Paul Rubens' painting "The Tribute Money." Not all great artists starve. The smashing success enjoyed by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), who was also an entrepreneur, a diplomat and an intellectual, eclipsed that of any artist of his age. As argued, in "Early Rubens," a scholarly and illuminating exhibition of about 50 works curated by Kirk Nickel of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco and Sasha Suda of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the painter's prosperity and lasting renown, though guided by favorable historical winds would rest. [ More ]

ARTNET NEWS By Sarah Cascone Mark Bradford, Mithra (2008). Installation view, Prospect.1, New Orleans. Photo ©Mark Bradford, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth. American artist Mark Bradford is getting his largest show in China to date, courtesy of Shanghai’s Long Museum . The exhibition, “Mark Bradford: Los Angeles,” which opens in July, covers the last decade of Bradford’s career, but his large-scale public sculpture Mirthra (2008), which first appeared in Prospect.1 New Orleans, will serve as its centerpiece. The sculpture, a full-scale boat constructed from plywood panels picked off the streets of New Orleans after 2005’s catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, is a visual reference to Noah’s ark. It is a tangible representation of how hard the devastating storm hit the city’s African American community, but also a symbol of hope. [M ore ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton “Jacob Wrestling the Angel” (2017) by Michael Cook. Print #15 of 150, 27.5 x 19.5. Original is pencil on paper. What’s it like to wrestle with God? After 9 weeks with a fractured heel, Ernest will walk back into our church today. It’s not a perfect gait, but he’s walking. Healing any foot injury is a wrestling match that changes you, and this one inspired our purchase of a print by English artist Michael Cook . His interpretation from the books of Genesis and Hosea appears as if Jacob is wrestling himself. Note even the matching bare feet. These weeks changed us, and that’s why, on this Easter morning, “Jacob Wrestling an Angel” by Michael Cook is our art of the week.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Stanley Spencer’s “Christ's Entry into Jerusalem” (1920); Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries It’s Palm Sunday, and we're in Disneyland for our son Kai’s 32nd birthday (no church). Today’s Gospel: Mark 11: 1-11 recounts Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, but UK painter Stanley Spencer has a different insight. In his visual storytelling, we don’t see the palm-wavers but those who shunned him. He also places the moment in his own time and his hometown of Cookham. It's an unorthodox approach, and we like it. What if Christ arrived in your hometown today? That’s why “Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem” by Stanley Spencer is our art of the week.

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Hilarie M. Sheets Keith Rivers in his Beverly Hills home with, from left, “Untitled” (2017), by Arjan Martins; “Untitled (You drive a hard bargain)" (2011), by Barbara Kruger; and “Raised Eyebrows and Furrowed Foreheads” (2008), by John Baldessari.CreditCredit “Art gave me something to segue into,” said Keith Rivers, a former N.F.L. linebacker, at his art-filled house in Beverly Hills. “During his rookie season with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2009, Mr. Rivers bought his first piece — an Andy Warhol Electric Chair print — after a trip to the Museum of Modern Art with a woman he had been interested in when he was studying at the University of Southern California. Since he retired from football in 2015, after also having played for the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills, Mr. Rivers has deepened his pursuit of contemporary art and owns work by Kerry James Marshall , Kara Walker , and Arjan Martins , among others.[ More ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Diana Sette Nick Cave and “Wall Relief” (2013), mixed media, including ceramic birds, metal flowers, afghans, strung crystals, and gramophone (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic, except where otherwise noted) AKRON, Ohio — Nick Cave made his first Soundsuit in 1992 as a reaction to the beating of Rodney King by members of the LA Police Department, and has created over 500 since then. The individual objects embedded in the Soundsuits include buttons, twigs, and toys and feel everyday and familiar, but through Cave’s juxtaposition of these objects, something other and unfamiliar emerges. Hyperallergic met with Nick Cave at the Akron Art Museum as he installed his current exhibition, Feat. (February 23–June 2, 2019) and contemplated the creation of his forthcoming show at the Smithsonian. [ More ]

ARTDAILY Raqib Shaw, Allegory of Memories through Monozukuri, 2018-2019. Acrylic liner and enamel on Birch wood, 47-5/8" × 39-3/8" (121 cm × 100 cm) 49" × 40-3/4" × 2-3/4" (124.5 cm × 103.5 cm × 7 cm), frame © Raqib Shaw, courtesy Pace Gallery. NEW YORK, NY.- P ace Gallery is presenting new paintings by Raqib Shaw. The exhibition showcases Shaw’s first work in the long tradition of landscape painting, signifying a new direction for the London-based Kashmiri artist. Drawing inspiration from his childhood memories of Kashmir and the nature and architecture of the Indian subcontinent, Shaw has mined and re-envisioned his own personal history through the compulsively-detailed, meticulously-painted, and emotionally-potent works. Raqib Shaw: Landscapes is on view at 537 West 24th Street from April 5 – May 18, 2019. [ More ]

ARTDAILY Kiddush Cup, probably by William Harrison I (active ca. 1758-1781), London, England, ca. 1775, silver (sterling) and gold, Museum Purchase, The Antique Collectors’ Guild, 2016-1 WILLIAMSBURG, VA.- The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has recently added several important objects of Judaica to its collections: a sterling silver and gold Kiddush cup and a silver and gold yad (or Torah pointer). These mark the first such objects in the Foundation’s holdings and exemplify the concerted efforts in recent years by the curators to acquire objects and address the stories of all early Americans while remaining true to their long-standing strength in British and American decorative arts. Additionally, objects that represent the early Anglo-American experience have also been acquired. [ More ]

THE TIMES By Rachel Campbell-Johnston Stanley Spencer painting Parents Resurrecting in 1933. COURTESY OF THE STANLEY SPENCER GALLERY ARCHIVE You only have to glance up as you enter, and see the mural-scale picture that dominates the gallery, to know that you’re in the presence of a decidedly peculiar character. Stanley Spencer lifts Jesus Christ away from His usual biblical backdrop and plonks Him down in the middle of the Cookham boating regatta. There, crowned with a quaker’s broad-brimmed black hat, enthroned in a curved wicker chair of the sort that you might more normally find in a sunny conservatory, he preaches from his vantage point in a flat-bottomed punt. A gaggle of schoolchildren is his most immediate audience. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS St. Kateri Tekakwitha Ink on deerskin 5 1/2" × 8" This month, Indiana-based artist Daniel Mitsui is working to finish the second largest drawing that he has undertaken in my professional career, a panorama of the naval battle at Lepanto on half of a goatskin. In his April newsletter, he describes having drafted plans for several pictures in the Summula Pictoria , and drawing them in ink after receiving a new supply of vellum. The artists notes also that, "There is still time to place an order for prints to be delivered before Easter. Please include a note with your order if there is a need to expedite it for Holy Week." [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jason Fargo Detail of “Earth’s Skin” (2009) at Mr. Anatsui’s show at Haus der Kunst in Munich evokes layers of African history and postcolonial culture through its recycled materials. MUNICH — I find it so hard to describe them: as vast, undulant tapestries, each one rippling and fluttering like a flag by the seashore? Or as heavy, defensive tessellations of metal, like the plate armor of soldiers in medieval Europe or Japan? As monumental mosaics, as landscapes of metallic bits and bobs? The wall-mounted sculptures of El Anatsui here at the Haus der Kunst cry out for metaphorical comparisons — but no metaphor ever seems enough to sum up these commanding artworks, each intricate enough to leave you gasping. This show’s meticulous arguments about shape, color, medium and scale rebuke the narrowness — and, in some cases, the racism — of many western art museums. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By David Brooks “Golden Sea — a New Song,” a recent painting by Makoto Fujimura.CreditCreditWaterfall Mansion & Gallery, New York The two most recent times I saw my friend Makoto Fujimura , he put a Kintsugi bowl in my hands. They look like they have golden veins running through them, making them more beautiful and more valuable than they were in their original condition.I don’t know about you, but I feel a great hunger right now for timeless pieces like these. The internet has accelerated our experience of time, and Donald Trump has upped the pace of events to permanent frenetic. Probably like you, I’ve felt a great need to take a break from this pace every once in a while and step into a slower dimension of time. Mako’s paintings are very good for these moments. [ More ]

ARTDAILY An English Heritage conservator working on the 'Madonna of the Pomegranate'. LONDON.- A painting long thought to be a later imitation of Sandro Botticelli’s famous Madonna of the Pomegranate has been revealed to be a rare example by the artist’s own workshop, English Heritage has revealed today. Showing the Madonna and Christ Child flanked by four angels, the title refers to the pomegranate that is held by the Madonna and Child to symbolize Christ’s future suffering. The discovery was made while the painting was being cleaned by the charity’s conservators. The work’s true colours – hidden under more than a century of yellow varnish – will be revealed when it goes on display at Ranger’s House in Greenwich on 1 April. [ More ]

ARTNET NEWS By Sarah Cascone Head of Buddha with Regal Crown, China Ming dynasty (15th century). Photo courtesy of the Tsz Shan Monastery’s Buddhist Art Museum. Hong Kong unveiled its first Buddhist Art Museum this week at the Tsz Shan Monastery in Tai Po. Hong Kong’s richest citizen, Li Ka-shing, now a 90-year-old billionaire, conceived of the monastery in 2003. It opened in 2015 after over 10 years of construction, nestled in the verdant green hills of northern Hong Kong beneath the watchful eye of a massive 249-foot-tall bronze statue of Guanyin, goddess of mercy. The 24,000-square-foot museum sits at the foot of the statue and cost nearly $400 million to build, according to Cai Xing Global. It features 100 Buddhist statues and 43 handwritten Dunhuang sutras. The works were either donated by Li or purchased by his eponymous foundation, which he began in 1980.[ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton William Blake's "The Woman Taken in Adultery" (1805), Museum of Boston Fine Arts, Pen and watercolor over graphite pencil on paper, 14 × 14 1/2 in. Do you live like you are 16 or 60? After seven weeks wearing a monstrous fracture boot, Ernest replaced 2019 plans to skydive with baking. His lesson from the fall is to play it safe. How have you reacted to injuries? In today's Gospel story, Jesus meets an adulterer ( John 8:1-11 ). One lesson is to repent and never sin again. Another is the shame of criticizing others, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.” Everyday we choose between 16 and 60, and that’s why  William Blake's  "The Woman Taken in Adultery" is our art of the week.

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Ted Loos Dean Valentine in his home with “Untitled (Scream 3)” by Simphiwe Ndzube. LOS ANGELES — For a certain set of collectors, opening a private museum has become de rigueur. But Dean Valentine started a small art fair instead, with an eye to giving everyone a chance to discover new talent the way he does. The fair, called Felix , was founded with the local art-dealing brothers Al and Mills Morán. It drew 40 dealers who offered their wares in a series of rooms and cabanas at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (it was held Feb. 14-17, timed to be concurrent with the first edition of the Frieze Los Angeles fair). “I learned a lot of what I know about art from hanging out with dealers in the mid-90s and asking them, ‘Why is this any good?’” said Mr. Valentine, the former president of Walt Disney Television and the former chief executive officer of UPN. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Robin Pogrebin Reginald Van Lee at home with Tyler D. Ballon’s “The Pietà.” What attracted you to an unknown like Tyler Ballon — his religious-themed scenes of African-Americans? "I was blown away. [Gesturing to a large painting over a sofa] This is “The Pietà.” My role in life is to enhance things. I really like to support young artists." Reginald Van Lee should have bought those Basquiats when he had the chance. Jean-Michel Basquiat , before he was famous, offered two of his paintings to Mr. Van Lee, who declined, having never been a fan. The decision was consistent with Mr. Van Lee’s principles over the 20 years he’s been collecting: buying only art that he loves, never acquiring a piece solely because it is likely to appreciate in value. [ More ]

THE GUARDIAN NEWS By Brigid Delaney Ben Quilty’s The Last Supper, 2016, oil on linen. Photograph: Ben Quilty/Supplied AGSA Over drinks, Ben Quilty is gently teased by the nickname “Jesus Quilty”, owing to the cover of Good Weekend the weekend prior, which featured a portrait of the artist wearing a crown of thorns. Ben Quilty is one of Australia’s most famous living artists. It’s certainly unusual for a painter of his age to have an exhibition of this size and scale mounted of his work. Another art world insider tells me Quilty’s appeal says as much about us as it does about him: that we are so starved of men who passionately stand for something that when someone like him comes along – particularly someone so accessible, articulate and media-friendly – the response is one of great hunger. [ More ]

THE JAPAN NEWS The Yomiuri Shimbun; The statue of standing figure “Gozanze Myoo,” a designated national treasure, is displayed at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo, on Tuesday. A special exhibition of national treasures featuring Toji temple’s sculpture mandala associated with the priest Kukai started Tuesday at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo. The sculpture mandala is a three-dimensional representation of the pantheon of Shingon Buddhism and comprises 21 Buddha statues arranged in the lecture hall of the temple in Kyoto. It is based on the ideas of Kukai, who brought Shingon esoteric teachings from China to Japan in the Heian period (late eighth century to late 12th century). The Ryokai (Two Realms) Mandala, a national treasure, will also be displayed at the exhibition from April 23 through May 6. [ More ]

ARTSY By lina Cohen Frans Franken II, King Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba, ca. 1620–29. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum. Simple and stark, the biblical tale of the Queen of Sheba has launched innumerable, sumptuous artworks. The queen first appears as a visitor to King Solomon’s Jerusalem court in the Old Testament’s Books of Kings. It’s hardly the most lurid story in the Bible; no one dies, commits adultery, or suffers a plague. Yet over millennia, this unadorned narrative has undergone myriad transformations that alternately reinvent the Queen of Sheba as a converted heathen, the founder of a nation, and a magical being. Three major religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—spanning Asia, Europe, and Africa have claimed her as their own in vastly different literary and artistic representations. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Ted Loos Thomas Woltz in his living room with, from left to right, “Six Shooter” by Gresham Sykes (1990); “Santa Teresa, Venice” by Roger de Montebello (1997); bust of Marcus Aurelius, 17th-century marble copy of Roman original; Art Deco concrete owl; found object, “Weathering Steel”; “Whooping Crane” by Brad Woodfin (2012); raven, antique taxidermy; “Macerated Wood” by Rob Calvert, 2010; and “Tonka Truck” by Ken Smith (2011) (on table). Credit: Winnie Au for The New York Times The landscape architect Thomas Woltz doesn’t usually work at home. But one day, he was sketching at the breakfast table in his West Village sanctuary when he had an “aha!” moment for his design of the Public Square and gardens of Hudson Yards, the enormous new development on the West Side of Manhattan. “It was one of those desperate moments of asking, ‘What is the essence of this project?’” said Mr. Woltz, 51, nattily dressed, as usual, in a suit. He approaches ar...

TIMES OF ISREAL By Penny Schwartz Detail from 'The Wrath of Ahasuerus,' by Jan Steen, circa 1668. (Public domain) BOSTON — An unusual, 18th century oratorio was nearly lost to history — until its circumstances were overturned and it was rescued from obscurity. Now, a production earlier this month by the Miryam Ensemble has brought the rarely performed “Esther” by Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti to a new, 21st-century audience. Dated to 1774, the entire richly textured, Baroque oratorio is sung in Hebrew, with a libretto translated and adapted by the Venetian Rabbi Jacob Raphael ben Simah Judah Saraval. Based on the story of Esther, the heroine of Purim, the Hebrew version is an adapted translation of Handel’s 1732 English libretto. It is the only known full oratorio in Hebrew from the Baroque period, according to scholars. [ More ]

ARTDAILY Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Head with many Snakes, 2017. Earthenware, glaze and resin. CASULA.- Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre explores power in all its forms with a FREE launch day (2 – 4pm, Saturday 30 March, 2019, unveiling three incredible exhibitions from renowned contemporary artists. Launching will be: Creator, a collection of boundary-pushing sculptures by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran; Penelope Cain’s provocative exploration of coal power in Interregnum; and Anatomies by Robert Hague, as part of his 2016 Blake Established Artists Residency. All three exhibitions run from 30 March – 12 May 2019. Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran’s Creator topples the traditional boundaries of figurative sculpture and traditional ceramic. Presenting a stimulating mix of Hindu temple iconography and museum displays, Nithiyendran directly challenges museum practices around Asian faith-based objects. [ More ]

artnet news By Terence Trouillot Titus Kaphar. Photo: Christian Hogsted. Titus Kaphar came into the limelight soon after Time magazine commissioned him in 2014 to make a painting for one of its “Person of the Year” finalists, the Ferguson Protesters. The painting, Yet Another Fight For Remembrance (2014), is a 4-by-5-foot tableau depicting a group of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, streaked of white paint, as if erased from the picture plane or, more figuratively, the annals of history. Since then, the 43-year-old artist—in addition to receiving numerous accolades for his work, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2018—has been making paintings and sculptures that confront history head on: how it’s being told visually, and what is wiped from the record. [ More ]

MET MUSEUM BLOG By Marina Ruiz Molina Rama Releases the Demon Spies Shuka and Sarana: Folio from a Ramayana 'Siege of Lanka' Series,ca. 1725 Attributed to Manaku Three artworks now on view in the exhibition Seeing the Divine: Pahari Painting of North India provide an extraordinary glimpse into the creative process of the Pahari school of painting, especially that of the enigmatic painter Manaku, who was active at the Guler court of Northern India from around 1725 to 1760. These impressive large folios were part of an important commission that Manaku never finished—a series on the "Siege of Lanka" episode from the Ramayana. Because the three paintings were left at different stages of completion (see details above), they serve as invaluable time capsules of studio practice. Each artwork represents a specific stage within an elaborate painting method that transformed the narrative scenes of the Ramayana from bold sketches into exquisitely detailed color renderings...

ARTDAILY By Mary Sibierski The burning took place in front of his church after Sunday mass. WARSAW (AFP).- Catholic priests in Poland burned books they say are sacrilegious this weekend, including tomes from British author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy novels. "We obey the Word," priests said in a Facebook post showing photographs of the public book burning and quoting Biblical passages from the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. One passage exhorting believers to destroy the enemies of God includes the command to "burn their idols in the fire". The post, on a page run by the Catholic "SMS from Heaven" evangelical group, stirred controversy and has gone viral. [ More ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Liz Bucar & Amanda Randone Image by Ronny Overhate/Pixabay/Creative Commons When 23-year-old Rabia Khan was a student at Princeton University, she felt safe within the confines of its ivy-covered walls. That changed when she graduated. “I am hyperaware of whether someone will attack me or say racist things to me because I am hijabi,” Khan said. She is right to be concerned. A 2017 survey found that more than half of Muslim women living in the U.S. say they had experienced at least one incident of anti-Muslim discrimination in the last year. Women like Khan are watching closely as Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first female Muslims elected to Congress, take on leadership roles. The two are sending a message that the challenges Khan anticipates are not insurmountable. [ More ]

AL ARABIYA NEWS By N P. Krishna Kumar, Special to Al Arabiya English Ithra Art Prize 2019 winner, Daniah al-Saleh, with her award-winning work ‘Sawtam’ behind her. (Art Dubai and Photo Solutions) Unveiled at Art Dubai 2019 on Wednesday is the work of London-based Saudi Arabian artist Daniah al-Saleh , the winner of the second edition of the prestigious Ithra Art Prize . Her winning commission titled Sawtam (the Arabic translation of phoneme) is a large-scale multimedia artwork that explores the structure and complexities of language, deconstructing it to its smaller unit of sound, the phoneme. The Ithra Art Prize worth $100,000 is a collaboration between the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) and Art Dubai. It was launched in 2017 and is awarded to emerging Saudi and Saudi-based talent in contemporary art. Al Arabiya English caught up with Daniah al-Saleh on the eve of the opening of Art Dubai. [ More ]