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THE NEW YORK TIMES By Zachary Small The closed Metropolitan Museum of Art, where officials will tap the institution’s endowment to pay employee salaries to May 2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that it will extend pay for all staff until May 2, providing job security for another month to its 2,200 employees as millions of Americans experience layoffs triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. “Our highest priority remains to support our staff as best we can in helping to keep everyone safe and as financially secure as possible,” said Daniel Weiss, the museum’s president and chief executive officer. Met employees had previously been told that the museum could only guarantee salary payments until April 4. [ More ]

CNN By Christian Louboutin Standing bodhisattva, 1st to 3rd centuries. Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet Credit: Thierry Ollivier / RMN-GP Christian Louboutin is CNN Style's new guest editor. He's commissioned a series of stories on the topic of "Journeys. Below are excerpts from 'Christian Louboutin, the Exhibition(ist)' published by Rizzoli: "The Greek Macedonian sculptors who were with Alexander the Great looked at this Indo-Buddhist statuary, which was already very accomplished, and were fascinated. And from that, the Macedonian sculptors would derive nourishment and inspiration from this local statuary, so that in this area there was a marriage of Hellenistic art and Indo-Buddhist art that produced a type of Indo-Hellenistic statuary that's known today as Gandhāran art." [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Matthew J. Milliner “Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted I,” 2016, by Kehinde Wiley.Credit...Courtesy of Galerie Daniel Templon. The European museum director asked me my field of study, and I replied, “icons of the Virgin Mary.” His silver beard unsuccessfully concealed a snicker. “Men don’t typically study Mary,” he told me. I still found my way to Europe for my doctoral studies, visiting countless Byzantine churches, chasing depictions of Mary. That men, too, are called to also be like Mary is less a result of transgressive gender theory than of mainstream Christian theology. Jesus, after all, calls anyone his mother who does the will of God (Mark 3:35). For Paul, not just women, but all Christians groan in labor along with creation itself (Romans 8:22-23). That having been said, “Mary is for both men and women,” as my colleagues Amy Peeler and Jennifer McNutt have asserted, and both sexes can take her as their model. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Roberta Smith Romare Bearden’s “Wine Star,” from 1959, on view (and online) at DC Moore Gallery. Credit...Romare Bearden Foundation; via DC Moore Gallery An unfamiliar side of the work of the great American modernist Romare Bearden is the subject of an exceptional exhibition on view (by appointment) and online at DC Moore Gallery: the improvisational abstract paintings he made from 1958 to around 1962. Bearden (1911-88) is best known for his indelible figurative collage depictions of African-American life in all its quotidian richness, strength and struggle. These efforts, arguably his greatest, even took some artistic revenge. Made of fragments of cutup magazine images, their angular figures and faces in particular pushed Cubism back toward its primary source, African sculpture. They were both formally innovative and fraught with the signal event of their era: the civil rights movement. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Graham Bowley Derek Fordjour in his studio. Six years ago, when Derek Fordjour was a little-known art student at Hunter College, before Michael Ovitz and Beyoncé began collecting his work, before his paintings came to sell for more than $100,000, the fledgling artist struck a deal with a New York gallery. He agreed, according to a lawsuit now being pursued in New York Supreme Court, to produce 20 works for $20,000. The Robert Blumenthal Gallery is suing him now, saying he still owes the gallery seven of those pieces, and — as ample evidence of the surging popularity of Mr. Fordjour’s art — says it will accept no less than $1.45 million in their stead. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS COVID-19 inspired masks by Philip Campbell are a social art project Working out of his studio in downtown Indianapolis, Alpha & Omega Prize - 2016  honoree Philip Campbell describes his newest creations as his "current social art project." We're big fans of this wood sculptor--a carver to be more precise, who began making quilts a few years ago "so you could become a participant in my art. You complete each piece by allowing it to comfort, warm, and protect you." There are two types of artists: traditional whose art expresses their take on the world, and there are social artists like Campbell who create to problem solve and create a better world. Find out more by following Philip Campbell at  Instagram.com/philipcampbell .

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton “Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo” (1624) by Anthony van Dyck Before Covid-19, there were plaques and artists, like everyone else, are impacted by them. That's why we were excited to see The New York Times story on how a quarantined Anthony van Dyck painted a portrait of Saint Rosalie of Palermo as she saved his city from a plaque in 1624. The artist seized that moment 400 years ago to create new work. We see the same in Indy, such as the colorful COVID-19 inspired masks of Philip Campbell you can see on Instagram . Even during a pandemic, artists keep creating, and that makes Anthony van Dyck , our artist of the week .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jason Farago “Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo,” by Anthony van Dyck, made during the artist’s time in quarantine, is itself quarantined, in its assigned place for “Making the Met.” The commemoration of the museum’s 150th birthday, due to open next week, has been postponed because of the coronavirus Credit...Vincent Tullo for The New York Times It’s springtime, the year is 1624, and the 25-year-old Anthony van Dyck is establishing his international career as a portraitist to the rich and famous, but then: disaster. On May 7, 1624, Palermo reports the first cases of a plague that will soon kill more than 10,000, some 10 percent of the city’s population. “ Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo ,” painted almost 400 years ago and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of five surviving pictures of Rosalia made during van Dyck’s days in quarantine. It was, in fact, one of the Met’s very first acquisitions...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Julia Jacobs Taylor Stanley (in air) and members of New York City Ballet last May in George Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which was to have been performed again in spring.Credit...Andrea Mohin/The New York Times New York City Ballet announced on Thursday that it was canceling its spring season because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the company plans to pay its dancers, musicians and other employees through May 31, the date the season was to have ended. The cancellation was expected, with museums shut down, theaters dark and cultural events of every kind on hold across the city. The cancellation of the season — which was set to begin on April 21 — would mean a projected financial loss of about $8 million for the company by the end of this fiscal year, which includes lost revenue from a spring gala. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Julia Jacobs Estimating a $100 million shortfall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is pushing for substantial government support for arts nonprofits in the upcoming stimulus package. Credit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times The so-called coronavirus curve is far from flat, but for many of the country’s arts organizations, revenue certainly is. Ticket sales are practically nonexistent. So, like other sectors of the economy, arts organizations have been turning to local and federal taxpayers for help, trying to make the case that American culture needs a bailout, too. The $2 trillion federal stimulus deal, which was approved by the Senate on Wednesday.... includes $75 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and $75 million.... Another $50 million was designated to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which distributes funds to museums and libraries. [ More ]

THE YORK TIMES By Aimee Ortiz and Julia Jacobs The Majestic Theater, where “The Phantom of the Opera” has been playing since 1988. All Broadway theaters have been shut down to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Credit...Vincent Tullo for The New York Times With governments and health officials trying to limit the spread of the coronavirus by discouraging or banning large gatherings, the highly contagious virus has had a palpable impact on the plans of would-be vacationers, theatergoers, sports fans and others. In light of the situation, many agencies and companies have updated refund practices or introduced new policies, such as eliminating change fees and offering coupons. But customer service departments around the nation are currently slammed as they handle the fallout of the epidemic. Some refund requesters have found it easy to get a refund or rebook their tickets, while others have waited for hours on the phone, receiving confusing and inconsistent information. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Marriage of Adam and Eve Summula Pictoria #67 Ink on calfskin 6" × 6 3/4" Medium: Drawing, color ink on calfskin vellumDimensions: 6" × 6 3/4"Year: 2020 We'd been overwhelmed by  COV-19  news including the sixth  Indiana death  and the plummet of the  stock market . Then Indiana-based  Daniel Mitsui shared a new drawing , "Marriage of Adam and Eve Summula Pictoria." It's a timely reminder that the Garden of Eden, a paradise where there is no more fear or pain—is still promised. In these final 20 days until Easter, let's focus on creating that paradise, and as part of it, support artists  like Mitsui (Originals: $450-3,964). Artists keep creating, and that makes Daniel Mitsui , our artist of the week .

THE NEW YORK TIMES  Show Us Your Walls By Hilarie M. Sheets Fatima Shaik and James Little in their Garment District apartment with, clockwise from top left, two untitled 1972 works by Alma Thomas; “Untitled” (1978) by Toshio Iwasa; “Untitled” (2001) also by Iwasa; and, perched over that frame, “Money Lures,” made of shredded money, by Richard Mock (1975). Andrea Mohin/The New York Times “Coming from my background, which was a very segregated upbringing in Tennessee, I felt that abstraction reflected the best expression of self-determination and free will,” said the artist James Little , 67. “I have this affinity for color, design, structure and optimism.” The Garment District apartment where Mr. Little lives with his wife, Fatima Shaik, a writer, is hung with dynamic abstractions by artists including Toshio Iwasa , Stanley Whitney , Thornton Willis and Stewart Hitch . “I don’t really follow trends,” said Mr. Little, as can be seen in the couple’s collection of more than ...

HARPER'S BAZAAR BY Rebecca Anne ProctorR Sara and Nassib Abou Khalil. Above are works by artist Tsherin Sherpa entitled Untitled (Free Spirit) (2013); Tara Gaga (2016); This is not a Rorschah (Hey Vajra) (2015) An Alice in Wonderland type of world awaits all who have the opportunity to enter an apartment on the first floor of Oceania Residences on the Palm Jumeirah. Every inch of brother and sister Sara and Nassib Abou Khalil’s abode is meticulously dressed in contemporary art, offering a widespread cast of artists from the Middle East and elsewhere who seemingly play roles in their ever expanding collection. The thoughtfulness and precision by which the siblings have displayed their art is akin to a stage set—a fantasy world whereby the protagonists are the artists—and Sara and Nassib the directors. [ More ]

DANIEL MITSUI March 2020 Newsletter Marriage of Adam and Eve Summula Pictoria #67 Ink on calfskin 6" × 6 3/4" Medium: Drawing, color ink on calfskin vellumDimensions: 6" × 6 3/4"Year: 2020 I hope that you are all safe and well. Given that I work from home and educate my children at home - and that my family has already experienced several medical trials requiring extended self-isolation - I am relatively well prepared to endure the current epidemic. I am at least able to draw as much as ever. I ask that you offer your prayers for and your support to those performing artists who are unable to earn their livelihood at all now, most especially singers of sacred music. I know that many parents have unexpectedly become homeschoolers lately. I have at least one resource to offer them: a variety of coloring sheets available for free download. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Gideon Jacobs Snowmen don’t last. Photos do. The camera’s ability to memorialize what is ephemeral is part of what makes the backyard sculptures of winter so photographable. We grow eager to freeze time when we realize a hard-earned creation won’t remain frozen for long. The artist Eric Oglander suspects this has something to do with why there are so many old snapshots of snowmen. Oglander, who describes himself as a “collector of aesthetics,” remembers first encountering a snowman photo when doing a cursory eBay search for “antique photographs.” “The idea for the collection clicked immediately,” he said. “After I saw one, I started buying every snowman I found compelling.” [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Roberta Smith Agnes Pelton, Mother of Silence, 1933. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Credit: Agnes Pelton, Mother of Silence, 1933. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. A few years ago, I interrupted a panel discussion at the Guggenheim as it moved toward the dead-horse question of whether painting was still viable. Hindsight arrived one or two years later, when a largely unknown sector of that past was emphatically, unforgettably heard from — at the Guggenheim. This divine noise was the full-rotunda exhibition of the paintings of Hilma af Klint. A similar jolt — if not of that magnitude — can now be felt in “Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist,” an exhibition at the Whitney Museum. This career-spanning survey of 45 paintings offers a reminder that the history of modernist abstraction and women’s contribution to it is still being written. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Robin Pogrebin Visitors outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Thursday, right before it closed to the public. Its target date for reopening now seems likely to be July. In a powerful sign that casualties of the coronavirus outbreak include even the country’s strongest cultural institutions, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is projecting a total shortfall of close to $100 million for the near future and expects to be closed until July , according to a letter the museum sent to its department heads on Wednesday. If even a behemoth like the Met — with an operating budget of $320 million and an endowment of $3.6 billion — is anticipating such a steep financial hit, smaller institutions may not be able to survive at all. [ More ]

IU NEWSROOM Tsherin Sherpa, "Spirits (Metamorphosis)," 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 49 1/2 inches by 83 1/2 inches. Image courtesy of Tsherin Sherpa Originally scheduled to open March 11, the IUPUI Herron School of Art and Design postponed the opening of "Metamorphosis: Recent Painting and Sculpture by Tsherin Sherpa," the first of a new annual exhibition series dedicated to contemporary international art and artists. Tsherin Sherpa , a Nepalese artist of Tibetan descent, has studied traditional thangka painting since the age of 12. Today, his work merges Western popular culture and classical Buddhist iconography to investigate the dichotomy found where sacred and secular traditions and worlds collide. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ben Sisario The lighting technician Joshua Dirks was on the road with Kiss last week. A few days later, he was working on a lighting plan at his home in Mount Juliet, Tenn. Sound engineers, lighting technicians and more gig-to-gig employees who fuel the touring industry are “preparing for the worst” as the coronavirus puts a halt to live shows. Last week, Live Nation Entertainment and AEG Presents, the two biggest powers in the industry, put their shows on hiatus amid growing concern over the rapid spread of the coronavirus, sending stars like Billie Eilish, Jason Aldean and Cher to social media to apologize to their fans for the scuttled shows. How long the disruption lasts will depend on the Covid-19 outbreak. But even if the spread is contained soon, it may take months to recalibrate the complex scheduling details that go into planning a tour, and workers say they are bracing for a year of vastly reduced income. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Robin Pogrebin From Art Basel’s new Online Viewing Room, the virtual exhibition by Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery of Keltie Ferris’s “Cloud Line.” Mitchell-Innes & Nash In 2017, having realized how much business the gallery did through online previews before art fairs, the dealer David Zwirner decided to develop virtual viewing rooms . Now, as art fairs are canceled, museums close and auction houses consider whether to call off their spring sales in response to the coronavirus, Mr. Zwirner seems prescient. This week Art Basel will, for the first time, offer online viewing rooms to replace the Hong Kong fair that was canceled this month because of the pandemic. More than 230 dealers who planned to bring work to Asia will instead offer some 2,000 pieces through the virtual fair with an estimated value of $270 million, including 70 items over $1 million. And galleries throughout the United States are considering web-based works and curated online exhibi...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Osman Can Yerebakan The artist Leidy Churchman in their Brooklyn studio with their work “Kishkindha Forest (Jodhpur)” (2020).  Jacob Pritchard Tucked at the end of an unassuming alley in Red Hook, Brooklyn, amid 19th-century red brick houses originally built to accommodate fishermen, Leidy Churchman’s studio feels like a refuge — a minimalist retreat that exudes the kind of tranquillity found in the artist’s meditative paintings. Churchman, 40, is known for their contemplative, detailed explorations of a broad array of themes relating to memory, pop culture and art history. If they have a signature, it is perhaps the diversity of their subject matter, which has included exotic animals, Tibetan Buddhism, maps, online videos, paintings by other artists, from the French Post-Impressionist Henri Rousseau to the American Modernist Marsden Hartley, and book covers. [ More ]

THE YORK TIMES By Marina Harss Making do and staying fit: clockwise from top left: Nadia Scherani, who teaches class remotely; Marco Messina, Piera Nicoletti Altimari and Giuseppe Picone. Clockwise from top left, via Nadia Scherani, Marco Messina, Tiziana Aiello and Giuseppe Picone. Dance is a social art form that happens in crowded rooms full of people. Partnering and dance instruction are all about touching. Movement requires large spaces. So what happens in a period of enforced separation and reduced square footage? American dancers are just beginning to deal with these challenges. How are Italian dancers handling this new reality? The first answers came, unsurprisingly, from social media. On March 11, Marco Messina, a corps de ballet dancer from the Ballet Company of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan posted a mash-up of videos created by his fellow dancers showing them doing barre exercises in their bedrooms, stretching their feet while watering plants, bench-pressing toddlers...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Kara Walker,  Allegory of the Obama Years by Kara E. Walker  (2019). © Kara Walker, courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Our entire sector will be harmed by COVID-19, but the gravest harm will be to the hourly workers  at  our museums , and none more than people of color. Recent research suggests that 55% of those hospitalized will be black compared to 26% of whites. Also, too many of these low-wage workers, who are disproportionately people of color,  do not have sick-leave or insurance . However, there is hope because arts worker-based relief  is being created by local arts advocates. Such Obama-like hope, " as dark clouds close in ," makes  Kara Walker  our artist of the week.

THE NEW YORK TIMES  Show Us Your Walls By Shivani Vora From left, Andrew Wingrove and Maneesh Goyal in their apartment, with Mickalene Thomas’s “Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires.” Mickalene Thomas/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Brittainy Newman/The New York Times Maneesh Goyal, who grew up in Dallas, and his husband, Andrew Wingrove, from Hilton Head, S.C., met more than 12 years ago as recent transplants to New York City. Neither had a particular interest in collecting art until then. “In New York, we discovered a rich art community together and met artists and started to visit galleries and art fairs,” Mr. Wingrove said. Fast forward to today, and to the couple sitting in their loft overlooking Union Square. It’s full of Indian drawings and paintings, and contemporary works by American gay, lesbian and transgender artists. [ More ]

ARTNEWS Amir H. Fallah, Scales of Justice, 2019. The nonprofit Artadia , which gives unrestricted grants to artists working across the United States, has revealed that Beatriz Cortez , Amir H. Fallah , and Suné Woods are its 2020 awardees in Los Angeles. Cortez and Woods, who were both included in the 2018 edition of the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. biennial, will each receive $10,000 and  Fallah  will get $25,000 as the Marciano Art Foundation Artadia Awardee. Supporting artists equitably is a critical part of the Artadia Award process: we consider the unique populations of each community and are proud to reflect our country’s diversity with an Awardee pool that is 50 percent female and 33 percent persons of color. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jason Farago “Untitled” (1985) by Rotimi Fani-Kayode, featured in the exhibition “Masculinities: Liberation Through Photography” at the Barbican Art Gallery in London through May 17. Rotimi Fani-Kayode; via Autograp h LONDON — I know we all have bigger concerns now — the swelling hospitals, the swooning markets — but I can’t stop turning over the case of Benjamin Griveaux , the French politician who dropped out of the race for Paris mayor last month. Masculinities soften and harden, and men fashion themselves in new ways, against new backdrops, with new tools. And if gender is a performance, social media has given it the intensity, and sometimes the reach, of a Hollywood production. I fear you won’t find much of these changes in “ Masculinities ,” a soggy and slothful exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London through May 17. It’s a photography and film show, and it includes 50 artists, men and women, but its research is thin and its surprises are f...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ted Loos Salman Toor, who has an upcoming show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in his Brooklyn studio. Peter Fisher for The New York Times Until fairly recently, the world of contemporary art went through a period of turning up its nose on figurative art — works that have a strong resemblance to the real world, especially the human figure. But two new exhibits by two queer artists on opposite coasts help demonstrate how much that attitude has changed — and how much the change is fueled by fresh perspectives ( Salmon Toor and Christina Quarles ). The exhibitions — “Salman Toor: How Will I Know” at the Whitney Museum of American Art and “Christina Quarles” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago — present two artists around the same age and at similar career stages with strikingly different styles of figuration. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Claudia Dreifus At the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, 800 steel monuments loom above, each representing a county in Alabama where lynchings had taken place. Audra Melton for The New York Times For many Americans now, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s has faded into history, reflected in old black and white photos that look like they were taken in some faraway land. For others, though, those years and the events that unfolded remain embedded in our psyches, having profoundly affected who we came to be. The museums are often on the actual site of critical events, delivering an experience to activist baby boomers similar to what “Greatest Generation” veterans must feel at Omaha Beach or Iwo Jima. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ted Loos Memorial poles by the contemporary artists Joe Guymala, Gabriel Maralngurra and Joey Nganjmirra are among 112 on view in Virginia. Collection of Debra and Dennis Scholl For indigenous artists all over the world, the march toward representation in museums has been slow and not at all steady. It has come in fits and starts. In North America, Canadian institutions have generally made more sustained efforts at devoting space and resources to indigenous art than those in the United States. But that has been changing of late. A current show at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville offers American viewers a chance to see works by indigenous artists from a remote part of Australia’s Northern Territory known as Arnhem Land. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Alina Tugend A detail from John Singer Sargent’s “Thomas McKeller” (1917-21), the only portrait he did of the model as himself. Thomas McKeller worked as an elevator operator in an elite Boston hotel. His life, which spanned the first half of the 20th century, was largely unheralded. But the countenance of McKeller, who was African-American, is everywhere in Boston, in the work of one of the most prominent painters of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent . McKeller appears as classical gods and goddesses in a mural in the rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; as a World War I soldier in a stairwell of Harvard University’s Widener Library; and as the body in a portrait of A. Lawrence Lowell, an early-20th-century Harvard president. But McKeller never appears as a black man. Although it is not definitively known, it is thought possible that the relationship was also romantic. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Hilarie M. Sheets Panel 1 of “Struggle: From the History of the American People.” The work, by Jacob Lawrence, was received with some ambivalence by the art world. The collection was eventually purchased by a private collector who later resold each panel separately. The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, via PEM During the civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) — one of the leading black artists of his day — painted a series of 30 panels re-examining early American history. The series, “Struggle: From the History of the American People,” presented a radically integrated view of the nation’s founding, including unheralded contributions of African-Americans in the fight to build a new democracy. The majority of these little-seen paintings have been reunited for the first time in roughly 60 years in “ Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle ,” on view at the Peabody Essex Museum in ...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Through his 2014 series "Maşallah," photographer Sarp Kerem Yavuz navigated the conflicts and alienation that arise as a result of the dual nature of his Turkish heritage. The Louvre reopened on Wednesday after shutting down for three-days of art-world anxiety over the spread of the coronavirus . On the same day, we read a New York Times profile on a D.C. introvert's 150 piece art collection, including work by Sarp Kerem Yavuz . In 2014, the Turkish photographer began exploring gender and religion in his series "Maşallah" by projecting islamic patterns onto naked men. Priced between $2,500 and $10,000, and represented by  Carl Hammer Gallery  in Chicago, the work of Sarp Kerem Yavuz is our art of the week .

THE NEW YORK TIMES  Show Us Your Walls By Audrey E. Hoffer Michael Manganiello in his Washington home with, from left, Gio Black Peter’s “My Body Is a Castle, One Day I’ll Outgrow It” (2017); Sarp Kerem Yavuz’s “Massallah” (2014); and Mr. Peter’s “Venture to the Stars” (2017). Emma Howells for The New York Times WASHINGTON — In Michael Manganiello’s condo, graceful boys and handsome men sit on the beach, climb bales of hay, pose beside ancient ruins, dangle legs over a stone wall, stand in a forest or lie in bed. “I’m interested in art that addresses homosexual narratives and works that push boundaries in the realms of expression of intimacy and sensual pleasure,” said Mr. Manganiello, 61. The 150 paintings, photos, drawings and prints at his home in the Iowa building, in northwest Washington, represent both emerging and established talent. The creators include Don Bachardy , George Platt Lynes , Mark Beard , Jimmy Wright , Slava Mogutin , Roland Caillaux , Donna Gottschalk ...

RELIGION NEWS By XXX SAN FRANCISCO — From paintings of icons to saints to the life of Christ, more than one hundred pages are filled with beautiful, religious art of Michael O’Brien in a new book aptly titled THE ART OF MICHAEL D. O’BRIEN. Readers won’t need to go to a museum, university or website to pray and meditate using religious art; it’s all in the book, which compiles some of O’Brien’s most stunning work and includes explanations of the art. In THE ART OF MICHAEL D. O’BRIEN, the artist presents and comments on many of his important pieces. He explains his development as a religious artist and his philosophy of sacred art. The vibrancy, originality and variety of his work are on display in more than one hundred twenty full-color reproductions of his paintings and Byzantine-style icons. Also included are some of his drawings and other works in black and white. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Elisabetta Povoledo Raphael’s “Madonna and Child with St. John,” painted around 1510, is one of his works on display. ROME — To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael, curators of the blockbuster exhibition that opened this week at the Scuderie del Quirinale exhibition space here have gone for a Benjamin Button approach. The exhibition starts by refreshing our memories about Raphael’s repute at the time of his unexpected death in 1520, when the Renaissance artist was still in his prime and enjoying A-list status. It then traces his artistic development in reverse, ending with his early years in Urbino, Italy, where he was born in 1483. His untimely death at 37 is also a sobering “memento mori” at a time when the coronavirus outbreak has cast uncertainty over the world and caused the closure of schools, universities, theaters and museums across Italy. [ More ]

BBC By Huw Thomas Mr Lek's paintings included his 1970 work focused on the Parys Mountain copper mine on Anglesey An artist who fled the Nazis during World War Two and made Wales his home, has died. Karel Lek was a child when his Jewish family left Belgium after Hitler invaded in 1940. Mr Lek, who was 90 and lived on Anglesey, had described finding "freedom" in Wales, with the scenery inspiring his work. His work is contained in many public and private collections, including the National Library of Wales. During an interview with BBC Wales in 2007, he said after experiencing prejudices at school in Belgium, he found freedom in his new home. [ More ]

NEW ORLEANS.COM NEW ORLEANS (press release) – The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society, on view March 13 through June 7. Presenting nearly seventy of the finest examples of Asian art in the United States, Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon showcases the broad range of bronzes, ceramics, and metalwork assembled by John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1906–1978) and his wife Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller (1909–1992) between the 1940s and the 1970s. With highlights including Chinese vases, Indian Chola bronzes, and Southeast Asian sculptures, the collection reveals great achievements in Asian art spanning more than two millennia. [ More ]

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES By Kyle MacMillan - For the Sun-Times El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). “Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple,” about 1570. The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The William Hood Dunwoody Fund. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago In visitor surveys the Art Institute of Chicago has conducted in recent years, El Greco scored surprisingly high name recognition. While such familiarity was a big plus, it was the expressive power of the 16th century artist’s paintings that spurred Rebecca Long, the museum’s associate curator of European painting and sculpture, to spotlight him in a large-scale exhibition that runs March 7 through June 21. “The images themselves are so compelling,” Long said, “even if you don’t know the name of the artist. It’s the same reason people like Picasso are drawn to him. The work speaks for itself. It’s incredibly distinctive.” [ More ]

NET SHARK Celebrated Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei has sparked controversy online for using sacred Tibetan art in her recent fashion collection. The renowned couturier shared images of her Guo Pei Spring/Summer 2020 Couture Collection on Instagram, where many called her out for disrespecting Tibetan culture and religion. In Tibetan culture, a Thangka is a Tibetan Buddhist painting, commonly depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala, on cotton or silk. Traditionally, Thangkas are used for worship and then kept unframed and rolled up when not on display. Since selling of religious artifacts is frowned upon in the Tibetan community, Tibetans usually do not sell Thangkas. According to a Tibetan source, Thangka is meant to be hung up on a wall or placed beside the altar for worship and not intended to be worn, especially at a fashion show. [ More ]

CHRISTIAN POST The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky bathed in sunset colors. | (PHOTO: ANSWERS IN GENESIS) The $100 million Ark Encounter biblical theme park with a life-sized Noah's Ark replica, and its sister institution, the Creation Museum, have finished No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in USA Today's 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards for 2020. The Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum received the most readers’ votes from a list of the top religious museums in the nation as selected by a panel of top travel experts. “Both attractions have made Northern Kentucky the leading faith-based destination in America,” the two winners said in a statement Friday. “We are so grateful to USA Today for considering our internationally recognized attractions in its contest,” said Answers in Genesis' Ken Ham, who is also the CEO and founder of the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum.[ More ]

KOREA TIMES By Kwon Mee-yoo Ven. Gyeongam demonstrates the Korean "bulbokjang," or dedicating sacred materials to Buddhist image, ritual at Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC on Feb. 22. / Courtesy of the Preservation Society of the Traditional Bulbokjang Ceremony A gilded wooden statue of "Gwaneum," the bodhisattva of compassion and mercy crafted during 918-1392 Goryeo Kingdom, and its sacred devotional materials are on view at the "Sacred Dedication: A Korean Buddhist Masterpiece" exhibition at the Smithsonian's Freer|Sackler, giving a glimpse into Korea's "Bulbokjang" (dedication of materials in Buddhist statues) tradition. The Bulbokjang ritual, or the Buddhist image consecration ritual, refers to a religious ceremony of installing dedication materials into the hollow cavity of a Buddhist sculpture, transforming the material image into a divine being for religious worship.[ More ]

BROADWAY WORLD The Rubin Museum of Art will present "Death Is Not the End," a new exhibition opening September 18 that explores notions of death and the afterlife through the art of Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity. Featuring prints, oil paintings, bone ornaments, thangka paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, and ritual items, "Death Is Not the End" invites contemplation on the universal human condition of impermanence and the desire to continue to exist. "Death Is Not the End" is part of the Rubin Museum's yearlong thematic exploration of impermanence, a fundamental principle in Buddhist philosophy, and will be on view from September 18, 2020, to February 8, 2021. [ More ]

ADPRO Doug Birkenheuer's "Construction Lover" (1991). Image courtesy of the artist CHICAGO--Nearly 200 members and allies of the LGBTQI+ Alliance of the AIA Chicago chapter gathered last Thursday at the Eggersmann showroom in River North for an evening of cocktails, canapés, and queer art. Between bites of Mediterranean-inspired hors d'oeuvres and specially crafted mai tais, guests perused the paintings, sculptures, and performance pieces from local artists—many of whom are part of the LGBTQI+ community. Several black-and-white works by renowned photographer Doug Birkenheuer were on display, as well as Rick Sindt’s expressive and sensual graphite drawings. Both Birkenheuer and Sindt were in attendance at the event, as were fellow artists Michael Van Zyel and Garek . [ More ]

TOLEDO BLADE One of three large-scale patterned-steel pieces by Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha , that was part of a winter installation at the Toledo Museum of Art, goes back on view Friday. Intersections will be back on view through May 3, the museum has announced. It was part of the exhibition Anila Quayyum Agha: Between Light and Shadow , that closed Feb. 9. Agha, a Pakistan-born American immigrant, uses life experiences in her work, coupled with light and shadow within space, to both connect and recognize social, religious, and cultural barriers. [ More ]

ARTNEWS By Alex Greenberger Controversy over a planned exhibition of Bulgarian religious art at the Louvre museum in Paris has led to a fateful conclusion—the show has been canceled altogether. Last week, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture decided to can the show, titled “Art and Cultures in Bulgaria between the 16th and 18th Centuries,” following concern from experts over the curatorial framework, which focused on stylistic dialogues between Christian and Islamic art in Bulgaria. The Balkan Insight reported that the since-canceled show was originally scheduled to open in June, and was to include 60 artworks. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Robert Ferris' "Gethsemane" oil on canvas 60x40 Born in 1978 in Taranto, Italy,  Roberto Ferri  paintings concern sacred and profane themes. Inspired by Baroque painting - Caravaggio in particular, he participated in the 54th Edition of the Venice Biennale, Italy Pavilion, with his painting “Redemption” and in 2012 he took part in the collective exhibition organized within the Fabbri Award for the Arts, “A century and 7”, held at the National Library in Bologna and at the Alinari Museum in Florence. Ferri's works are included in many important private collections in Rome, Milan, London, Dublin, Paris, the Castle of Menerbes (Provence), Madrid, Barcelona, Malta, New York, Boston, Miami, and San Antonio. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton David B. Frye’s “Hillbillies Board the Arc Each With Their Golden Bull,” at NYC's Spring/Break Art Fair 2020, March 3-8. Born in England in 1963, and raised in Indianapolis, David B. Frye is best known for sexualizing "false historical narratives" as a form of protest against violence. In 2009, his Lincoln Paintings exhibit in Indianapolis prompted more than a few patrons to comment that he'd "offended Jesus" for his depictions of long snake-like penises. Frye said, "I was flattered that Jesus found time to hate my paintings." Find his "Hillbillies Board the Arc" this week at NYC's Spring/Break Art Fair (Recent pricing $4-5K). Jesus makes David Frye,  our artist of the week .