Disney-Britton

CHRISTIANITY TODAY  By Abdu Murray Henry Ossawa Tanner's "The Savior" (1900-205) - Smithsonian American Art Museum When I was a Muslim, I thought that the Bible whitewashed Jesus, while the Qur’an depicted his Middle Eastern quality. When I read the Bible to really explore it, however, I discovered the opposite. What struck me during that exploration—and still strikes me—is Christianity’s Easternness and Middle Easternness. On every page of both the Old and New Testaments, I hear the Levantine accents of those speaking. As a Middle Easterner, every time I read Bible stories, a smile crawls across my face because its aphorisms sound so much like those my relatives use. [ More ] 

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Roberta Smith, Jillian Steinhauer and Martha Schwendener Don't Come for Me, Unless I Send for You, 2018 Oil on canvas. 51" x 36" NEW YORK - Galleries and museums are getting creative about presenting work online during the pandemic.  Sylvia Maier’s  beautifully crafted canvases in “About Sangomas and Soothsayers and Mischief” at  Malin Gallery , which you can visit in person or view online, are ideal for this moment in New York. A young man with a Maori-style tattoo on his face appears in many paintings, adding a contemporary element to her work that is countered by works like “The Beheading” (2020), an update of Renaissance and Baroque compositions drawn from biblical stories like Judith beheading Holofernes and referencing the 18th-century Haitian revolution that overthrew the French colonial regime.  Through Nov. 1. Malin Gallery, 515 West 29th Street, Manhattan; 646-918-7696, malingallery.com.  [ More ] 

VATICAN NEWS Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Disputation over the Most Holy Sacrament, detail, fresco, 1508-11, Vatican Museums, Vatican Apostolic Palace, Raphael Rooms, Room of the Segnatura, © Musei Vaticani Beauty creates communion. It unites onlookers from a distance, uniting past, present and future. Pope Francis has recalled this on a number of occasions. The Church has always translated the universality of the Good News into the language of art. From this premise, this dramatic moment in history characterized by uncertainty and isolation, gives rise to this initiative which is a partnership between the Vatican Museum and Vatican News: Masterpieces from the Vatican Collection accompanied by comments from the words of the Popes. [ More ]

ARTDAILY A Gilt Copper Alloy Figure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara. Khasa Malla, circa 1300-1350. Price realized: $956,075. Photo: Bonhams. NEW YORK, NY.- From July 21 to 26, Bonhams New York and Los Angeles held four auctions of Asian Art – Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Fine Japanese and Korean Art including property from the Collection of Drs Edmund and Julie Lewis, Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art, and Refined Pursuits: Fine and Decorative Chinese Art. The top lot of the four sales was a Gilt Copper Alloy Figure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara, Khasa Malla, circa 1300-1350, which realized $956,075 from the sale of Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art. It was estimated at $200,000-300,000. [ More ] 

THE NEW YORK TIMES By TED LOOS Kerry James Marshall’s “Black and part Black Birds in America: (Crow, Goldfinch),” 2020. It is one of two new works by the artist that David Zwirner Gallery will put on view this week. Kerry James Marshall and David Zwirner About 10 years ago, the artist Kerry James Marshall caught a crow with his bare hands. The bird was cornered awkwardly near Mr. Marshall’s home on the South Side of Chicago, and curiosity got the better of him. “At first he screamed like he was being murdered,” Mr. Marshall said. “The minute I put him by my side, he got quiet.” The next day, he let the bird go. The crow meeting, which started out as research, somehow edged into a metaphysical encounter with deeper meanings, and it now informs Mr. Marshall’s newest series of paintings. His first two canvases officially debut Thursday in an online show, “Studio: Kerry James Marshall,” at David Zwirner Gallery. [ More ] 

THE NEW YORK TIMES   By Peter Libbey Wangechi Mutu’s “The Seated I” (2019) is one of two sculptures that the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired from the artist’s series “The NewOnes, will free Us.”  Bruce Schwarz, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art The series of bronze statues by Wangechi Mutu that currently adorns the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s facade is scheduled to be on public display until early November. But two of the four pieces, “The Seated I” and “The Seated III,” will remain at the museum long after the exhibition closes as a part of its collections, the Met announced on Tuesday. “Sometimes when you do a site-specific commission it only works for the specific site or in that particular context,” Max Hollein, the museum’s director, said in an interview. “In regard to Wangechi’s works, it’s clear that on the facade they work as these four sculptures framing the facade, transforming the facade, but they also work as singular objects.” [ More ] 

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Julia Jacobs A report released in 2011 proposed a 310,000-square-foot building, roughly the same size as the African-American museum, that would be situated prominently on the National Mall.Credit...Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times Supporters of a National Museum of the American Latino are the closest they have ever been to gaining a spot on the National Mall. On Monday, the House passed a bill to establish such a museum within the Smithsonian, delivering a significant victory to a yearslong effort to build an institution devoted to the history and contributions of Latino Americans. Legislation establishing such a museum was first introduced in 2011, but this was the first time it secured House approval, and it did so by voice vote with bipartisan support. Prospects for a Senate version of the bill are unclear, but its Republican lead sponsor, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, said that he hopes that the chamber will be able to make the museum a reality.[ More...

THE NEW YORK TIMES   By Scott Reyburn Rembrandt’s small, sketch-like 1632 panel painting, “Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat,” sold for about $18.7 million. via Sotheby's LONDON — It was conceived as a Covid-enforced stopgap. But is watching an auctioneer on a screen really what “live” art sales are going to be from now on? Tuesday night, Sotheby’s held a livestream auction of 65 artworks from seven centuries that replaced its traditional summer marquee sales of old master, Impressionist, modern and contemporary art in the British capital. Rembrandt’s small, sketch-like 1632 panel painting, “Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat,” was a less obvious candidate for success in a high-tech “clicks-and-bricks” auction. One of just three Rembrandt self-portraits left in private hands, this was nonetheless pursued by six bidders to £14.5 million, or about $18.7 million, against a low estimate of £12 million. [ More ] 

THE KOREA HERALD By Park Yuna Installation view of “Tuesday” by Camille Henrot (Art Sonje Center) Art Sonje Center -- a private art museum in Seoul recognized for experimental contemporary art exhibitions -- is showcasing three solo exhibitions by different artists. Bringing different displays to the museum, the three artists -- Camille Henrot, Lee Mi-re and Don Sun-pil -- guide visitors through diverse aspects of contemporary art. At the exhibition “Saturday, Tuesday,” French artist Henrot brings light to social issues in connection with the seven days of the week. “Tuesday” shows a 20-minute video work of Brazilian martial artists competing in jiujitsu along with sculptures next to the video inspired by how the word “Tuesday” came from the Norse god of war and victory. [ More ]

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL By Kathleen Roberts Victor Goler’s “Santa Abigail” Bulto; carved wood, gesso, watercolor and beeswax. (Courtesy of Blue Rain Gallery) ALBUQUERQUE — With the pandemic shuttering all the major Santa Fe summer markets , Blue Rain Gallery is stepping in for devotional art. The 27-year-old showplace is offering a streamlined Spanish Market through Aug. 8 at 544 S. Guadalupe St. and at blueraingallery.com . Executive Director Denise Phetteplace has gathered works by eight artists with the help of famed Taos santero Victor Goler . The roster includes Alcario Otero , Lorrie Garcia , Marie Romero Cash , Jean Anaya Moya , Nicolás Otero , Frankie Lucero and José A. Lucero , as well as Goler. Each boasts a long history of exhibiting at Spanish Market. [ More ]

AG JOURNAL By Tracy Harmon "The Wool Blanket" by Oscar Rodrieguez is among the artwork created by Supermax  inmates that will be on display at Fremont Center for the Arts in Canon City through August CANON CITY — A one-of-a-kind art exhibit is set to showcase how beauty can still emerge from darkness as Supermax inmates bare their souls through artworks for the free world to see. The third and final installment of the annual “Color of Hope,” show focuses on art created by inmates who participate in the Creative Arts Platform at the Federal Bureau of Prisons Florence Correctional Complex. This year’s theme is “Brokenhood: The Art of Healing through Community.” For the first time in the three-year series, only Supermax inmates are exhibiting their art. The prison, located just south of Florence is the nation’s most secure and is known for housing the country’s notoriously dangerous convicts. [ More ]

HYPERALLERGIC  Lotuses grow in muddy, murky waters, rise to the surface, and unfold. They show us that transformation and beauty can emerge from challenging circumstances. In Tibetan Buddhism, this sacred symbol is associated with purity, awakening, transformation, and compassion, and appears in many works of art in the Rubin Museum of Art’s collection. For The Lotus Effect , the Rubin and origami artist Uttam Grandhi invite the public to fold a lotus flower and dedicate their origami creation to someone or something that has helped them overcome a challenging time. For more information, visit rubinmuseum.org/thelotuseffect. [ More ]

APOLLO MAGAZINE The Flight into Egypt, from the Mondsee Altarpiece (detail; c. 1495–99), Master of Mondsee. Photo: Johannes Stoll; © Belvedere, Vienna Little is known about the life of the Master of Mondsee, who worked in Austria during the late 15th century. This exhibition, which was on view for a month before museums were shuttered in March, reopens at the Upper Belvedere on 1 July (until 13 September). It is the first to bring together all eight surviving paintings from the lost altarpiece at the abbey of Mondsee, which were separated in 1791; these are the only known works by the artist. They are presented alongside works by older artists such as Michael Pacher who influenced the Master of Mondsee’s style. [ More ]

ARTDAILY Persian Ferahan Sarouk, circa 1875, High Collectible OAKLAND, CA.- In this installment of continuing series of interviews and articles featuring Claremont Rug Company founder/president Jan David Winitz, Art Daily spoke with him about Ferahan and Ferahan Sarouk carpets woven during the Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving (circa 1800 to circa 1910). Designed for an aristocratic regional clientele, the small rug-weaving workshops on the Ferahan Plain of West Central Persia developed a distinctive rug-weaving tradition in the 19th century. These rugs blended refined, curvilinear designs based on the museum-level carpets of the Safavid Dynasty with geometric influences from the surrounding tribes and villages. [ More ]

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL By Kathleen Johnson “Clymene’s Children,” oil and gold leaf on panel by Patrick McGrath Muñiz. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Many artists live cloistered within a studio, plying their trade sans outside interference. The notion of quarantine is normal. But as the pandemic roils across the nation, it seeps into those creative spaces, splashing across canvas and carving. “Contemporáneos Hispanos” gathers works by Nicholas Herrera , Patrick McGrath Muñiz and Thomas Vigil at Santa Fe’s Evoke Contemporary, evokecontemporary.com . Although each artist worked independently and without a theme, all managed to capture the sense of fear, anger and urgency engulfing them. Houston’s Patrick McGrath Muñiz mixes metaphors borne of ancient Greek and Mayan mythology to comment on contemporary issues. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Show Us Your Walls By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton   Gregory Disney-Britton stands in living room at home in Indianapolis with the newly acquired "Jesus, the Tolerant" by Tony Melendez. Before we married, Greg had a thing for Disney collectibles, and Ernest had been acquiring random new works without a particular focus. The idea of collecting  Jesus art began in 2008 when we first saw the mystical paintings of self-taught artist Tony Melendez at Jesus Metropolitan Community Church . It was our first date. Today, we have a Jesus Room packed with portraits by diverse artists, and more packed away in Clearbags . For the next few weeks, we'll share more collecting tips from our married couple collecting   journey that began with  Tony Melendez .

ARTNEWS By Claire Selvin Jean-Michel Basquiat's Air Power (1984) at Sotheby's in London in 2016. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enrico Navarra, a prominent collector of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat , has died at age 67. The news was confirmed by Christophe Van de Weghe, who runs a namesake gallery that has sold work by Basquiat. According to Van de Weghe, Navarra had been suffering from severe lung problems for a number of years. In 2000, Navarra and dealer Tony Shafrazi co-authored a three-volume publication focused on Basquiat. The book, which features essays by Navarra, Jean-Louis Prat, Achille Bonito Oliva, Johnny Depp, and others, is widely considered the most comprehensive catalogue of the artist’s work. Fellow Basquiat collector and dealer Alberto Mugrabi, who was a friend of Navarra, told ARTnews that Navarra was “the most faithful, honorable, and decent man I’ve come across.” He added, “[Navarra] loved his work and he did it better than anyone else.”[ More ]

THE YORK TIMES By May Lakin The view of the Peconic from the house. The tall grasses, Japanese black pines and Hollywood junipers were planted by the local landscape designer Vickie Cardaro. Shelter Island, N.Y., a sylvan splash of land positioned between the tines of Long Island’s North and South Forks, is only a 10-minute ferry ride from Sag Harbor and the rest of the Hamptons. And yet, with its weather-beaten clapboard houses and unmanicured lawns — and its lack of tony boîtes and traffic lights — it feels much farther away. The potter and designer Jonathan Adler and the author and fashion commentator Simon Doonan have been visiting the island since they met 25 years ago, and it’s here, on the northern shore, that they built their summer house in 2011.[ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Eric V. Copage The Chinese-born artist James He Qi’s ”Peace, Be Still” (1998) depicts Christ stilling the waters in bold colors that recall stained-glass window. He blends Chinese folk customs and modern western art.Credit...James He Qi Close your eyes and imagine that Jesus is in front of you. Is the man kneeling in prayer in the Garden at Gethsemane Chinese? Likely as not, the image that presents itself to most Americans is of a lithe, bearded man with shoulder-length, chestnut-colored hair. By the middle of the 20th century, the global center of Christianity had begun shifting away from Europe to Africa, Asia and Latin America. “Christianity around the world was becoming less white, and pictures of Jesus hanging in churches from Jordan to Japan to Jamaica were looking more like the people, instead of the standard white portraits from Europe or North America,” said Todd Johnson, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, at the Gordon...

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM "The Mosaic Panel" (detail), 16th century, made in Iran, 1931-76-1 Islam began over 1,400 years ago in the Arabian Peninsula and soon spread across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Today Muslims live on every continent and make up a quarter of the world’s population. The term “Islamic Art” refers to a variety of artwork made by and for Muslims over the centuries. Here are some exquisite examples drawn from the museum’s collection. Curators: Leslie Essoglou, Department Manager, South Asian Art; with Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles; Dirk H. Breiding, The J. J. Medveckis Associate Curator of Arms and Armor; Felice Fischer, Curator Emerita of Japanese Art; Jack Hinton, Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture; and Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art. [ More ]

How New York's Jewish Museum Anticipated the Avant-Garde https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/t-magazine/jewish-museum-new-york.html?referringSource=articleShare

'Almost Famous': The Oral History of a Golden God's Acid Trip https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/movies/almost-famous-anniversary-golden-god-scene.html?referringSource=articleShare

THE DECCAN HERALD By Giridhar Khasnis "Holy Man, Woman and Child" by George Keyt George Keyt died in Colombo on 31 July 1993, aged 92. “If a contradiction can be allowed, Keyt was a gregarious recluse,” wrote Martin Russell in an obituary published in The Independent , London.“He had to be one because he loved people and conversation and the other because his work demanded private thought, solitude and concentration.” Keyt's are seemed to absorb European Modernist innovations as well as ancient South Asian fresco techniques. "He was influence by many kids of art, particularly by the simple temple paintings of Ceylon, Indian sculptures and by the inventiveness of Picasso," observed Russell. [ More ]

HINDUSTAN TIMES Devotees offer prayers to Lord Shiva on the third 'Somwar' of the holy month of 'Shravan', in Jabalpur, Monday, July 20, 2020.(PTI) The third Monday of the Hindu Sawan month marks Somvati Amavasya, and devotees celebrated with masks and social distancing in place, in most places, amid the coronavirus pandemic. Celebrations were observed all across India, including in the cities of Prayagraj, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Varanasi, Deoghar, Ujjain, to name a few.Devotees celebrated in Prayagraj on the banks of the holiest river in India, the Ganga river. Speaking to ANI, Nita Devi at the banks of Ganga river said, “As a part of the ritual, I am fasting and have come here to take a dip in the Ganga. I have offered prayers asking for the long life of my husband as Parvati did for Shiva, according to Hindu beliefs.” [ More ]

TIMES OF ISRAEL By Anna Swartwood House A painting depicting the transfiguration of Jesus, a story in the New Testament when Jesus becomes radiant upon a mountain (Raphael /Collections Hallwyl Museum, CC BY-SA) The portrayal of Jesus as a white, European man has come under renewed scrutiny during this period of introspection over the legacy of racism in society. As protesters called for the removal of Confederate statues in the US, activist Shaun King went further, suggesting that murals and artwork depicting “white Jesus” should “come down.” His concerns about the depiction of Christ and how it is used to uphold notions of white supremacy are not isolated. Prominent scholars and the archbishop of Canterbury have called to reconsider Jesus’s portrayal as a white man. In a multiracial but unequal America, there was a disproportionate representation of a white Jesus in the media. It wasn’t only Warner Sallman’s Head of Christ that was depicted widely; a large proportion of actors ...

UCA NEWS A Pentecost scene at a Catholic church in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka created by Milton Kumar, a Hindu artist and sculptor. (Photo supplied) Casting statues has been a passion for Lincoln D’Rozario since he was 10 years old. “My maternal uncles were carpenters, and I grew up watching how they made statues from wood,” the Catholic father of four told UCA News. A member of Our Lady of Guidance Church in Padrishibpur of Barishal district in southern Bangladesh, he attained the skills to carve out statues from clay, fiber, cement and wood using his hands and chisels. His statues, ranging from small to life-size, mostly have white European features to meet local demand. “I don’t bother whether the statues have European or Asian faces. I only think about how to make them look real and devotional,” D’Rozario, 45, explained. [ More ]

THE DAILY UNIVERSE By Emily Andersen The painting “Adoration of the Child” by Gerrit van Honthorst, painted in about 1620, depicts baby Jesus surrounded by others from the nativity story. The painting is on display in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Christian churches around the world have produced a lot of artistic representations of scripture over the years, and the most commonly depicted figure is Jesus Christ. Recent racial protests in the United States have led some to question some of the best-known depictions of Christ, which usually portray him as white. According to BYU religion professor Mark Ellison, who specializes in early Christian art, the earliest known images of Jesus came from Rome around 200 A.D. “Most of the time, depictions of Jesus reflect the culture of the artist more than historical details about Jesus himself.” Ellison said over time, the European depiction of Christ became very common, and that was the artistic history that early members of The...

KOIN-CHANNEL 6 By Hannah Ray Lambert KatM18Offser by Mel Katz, Offset, 2018. Courtesy of artist and Russo Lee Gallery (and Oregon Jewish Museum) PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — “Now that I’m seeing the work up, installed, it’s even better than what I thought it would be,” artist Mel Katz said as he looked at his work on display in the windows of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE). Workers hung the anodized aluminum sculptures on Wednesday. They provide pops of bright red, blue and yellow for anyone walking past the museum while its doors remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s been incredibly difficult not to have people come into the museum,” OJMCHE director Judy Margles said. “I always say we’re social by nature, that’s what museums do, and this sort of oxymoron of social distancing is antithetical to our mission.” [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Robin Pogrebin An untitled acrylic and oil stick on paper by Jean Michel Basquiat (1982). Credit: via Fair Warning LLC Testing the notion that blue-chip art can be sold with a swipe, the former Christie’s executive Loic Gouzer on Monday will use his new app as the auction block for a large drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat that is estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million. The app, called Fair Warning , started as a lark, Mr. Gouzer said, a way to keep busy under lockdown and to see whether the art world could pivot to online sales in a meaningful way. (Auction houses have since held their first — successful — completely online sales). The first piece that he auctioned on the app, Steven Shearer’s 2018 portrait, “Synthist,” sold to a private collector in Europe for $437,000 — an auction high for the artist — on an estimate of $180,000 to $250,000. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton "Christ Weeps Over Lazarus" (2019) by Michael Cook. Charcoal on paper. 53 x 40cm. Original gifted to the  Community of the Resurrection in Derbyshire, UK.  When Christ wept for Lazarus, he already knew he would resurrect him, but he wept anyway ( John 11:35 ). This week, we wept for teachers forced to return to schools during COVID-19 . We wept for curators confronting racial injustice at American museums . We wept at the news of John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg . We also celebrated: delayed school reopenings , museum appointments , and artist commissions . We wept, celebrated, and advanced. That cycle makes Michael Cook's "Christ Weeps Over Lazarus," our art of the week.

THE JERUSALEM POST By Tobey Yani Jewish Wedding by Marco Marcuola,Venice, around 1780 (Photo credit: Moise.Nedjar/Wikimedia Commons) The huppah is considered a symbol of God’s love above the married couple. The traditional huppah features an open sky above acknowledging God as Creator, who infuses marriage with deep spirituality. The huppah, the Jewish bridal canopy, is one of the most beloved objects of Jewish art. It is steeped in history, customs, symbolism and beauty. It is both the actual bridal canopy and the ceremony. Here we will focus on the huppah as an object of Jewish art. The Hebrew word huppah means covering, or that which floats above. It is based on the root word hafah, which means to “cover” or “hide,” similar to the word hafaf, meaning to “protect.”[ More ]

ARTSY By Alina Cohen Portrait of Kent Belden and Louis Re by Douglas Friedman and Reid Rolls. Courtesy of Kent Belden. As a senior creative director for Epic Records, Kent Belden spent years at photo shoots, helping coordinate perfect portraits of musicians including Celine Dion, Shakira, Anastasia, and Garbage. Belden has filled his homes in Watermill, Manhattan, and Los Angeles with figurative painting and photography that’s as committed to storytelling as his own work has been. Over the years, Belden’s collecting habits have become increasingly focused—and political. Belden and his husband, orthopedic surgeon Louis Re, find a sense of solidarity in the compositions they collect: The pair supports artists who strive to make historically marginalized groups visible. [ More ]

KHAOSOD Painting depicting Buddha as Ultra Man BANGKOK — A group of academics and experts told a Parliament committee on Monday that crackdowns on arts deemed inappropriate to Buddhism are a danger to Thailand’s creativity. In a meeting with the House Committee of Religions, Arts and Culture, Chulalongkorn University political scientist Bundit Chanrochanakit and fellow panelists advised the government to back off from regulating artistic expression. The meeting was held in the wake of a recent order to erase a temple mural denounced by local officials as blasphemy. “We have government agencies that act as thought police, telling us what can or cannot be done,” Bundit said. “Are we living in modern society?… If not, we will be stuck in mud and prevented from learning.” [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Donald G. McNeil Jr. A depiction of the 17th-century painter Nicolas Poussin of a plaque described in the Book of Samuel. G. Dagli Orti/De Agostini, via Getty Images Nearly 140,000 Americans have been lost to coronavirus, and many experts fear the deaths will only accelerate in the fall as cold weather forces us indoors. By year’s end, half as many Americans may have died as did in the four years of World War II. In the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, many New Yorkers donned masks but 4,000 San Franciscans formed an Anti-Mask League. (The city’s mayor, James Rolph, was fined $50 for flouting his own health department’s mask order.) Slowly, science prevailed, and death rates went down. We need not accept death as our overlord — we can simply hang on and outlast him. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Graham Bowley The El Greco painting lent to the Detroit Institute of Arts, “St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata,” now hangs in the reopened museum’s medieval and Renaissance galleries.  Brittany Greeson for The New York Times It was a chance to borrow a rarely seen El Greco for a museum that had only a single painting by the old master. So the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts courted a wealthy Dallas collector to arrange for a loan of the painting, “St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata,” and it now hangs in the reopened museum’s medieval and Renaissance galleries. That coup, however, has set off a whistle-blower complaint, filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the Michigan attorney general, asserting that conflict-of-interest rules to prevent self-dealing have been skirted. The wealthy Dallas collector, it turns out, was the director’s father-in-law. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Peter Libbey Face coverings will be required inside the museum, and the number of visitors will be capped at 25 percent capacity.  Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Wednesday that its landmark location on Fifth Avenue will welcome visitors five days a week, Thursday through Monday, when it reopens to the public on Aug. 29. The museum, which had not been closed for more than three days in a row in over 100 years before it was forced to shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, has prepared for the reopening by devising safety protocols for visitors and staff that follow the guidelines formulated by the Centers for Disease Control and the government. Face coverings will be required in the museum, and social distancing will be encouraged. The number of visitors will also be capped at 25 percent of the facility’s maximum capacity. [ More ]

NUVO By Dan Grossman "Family Tree" ($3,000.00) by Willard Johnson; Oil on sewn canvas; 76 x 65 inches In between signing the required donation paperwork and getting my temperature checked — twice — I was able to talk to Willard Johnson through my surgical mask about his show “When Strangers Meet”. Willard’s work is heavily influenced by his upbringing. Born in Seoul, South Korea, he spent time in Egypt and went to high school in Beirut, Lebanon. “The Tide” is a mixed media painting, which features layers of cut paper in the form of arabesques. “They would always throw in mistakes to the designs,” Johnson said of Muslim artists who created abstract designs, to show that they were human and not divine. He told me he was influenced by Islamic art and New York School Abstract Expressionism. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Will Heinrich @streetphot_iran by @Zare_Mohaddese The engineer Ali Shokouhandeh started Streetphoto Iran four years ago as an independent forum for views of the country’s daily life. Surprised by the interest it generated, both at home and abroad, he recruited Hamed Mousavi and David Shokouhbeen, both fine street photographers in their own right, to help him edit the feed and find new work. Now it offers an extraordinary curated trip through Iran both historical and contemporary, from a handball game in the ancient city of Yazd to a sea of intricately patterned hijabs, from a fashion shoot beside the pink waters of Lake Maharloo to the very contemporary problem of adjusting Islamic burial practices to Covid-19 deaths. [ More ]

CNN INTERNATIONAL Ai Weiwei has raised over $1.4 million for charity by selling face masks printed with some of his most iconic artworks. Since announcing the project in May, the Chinese artist's studio has sold over 22,000 masks to people in over 40 countries, according to an update posted to the Instagram on Tuesday. The proceeds will be used to help vulnerable people impacted by Covid-19, the artist said. Three designs were made available at $50 each, including works titled "Mask with Middle Finger" and "Sunflower Seeds," a reference to the installation that saw Ai fill London's Tate Modern with over 100 million porcelain seeds. The cloth masks are not for medical use, nor are they even meant to be worn. [ More ] 

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Scott Reyburn Image courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze This October’s Frieze London and Frieze Masters art fairs, the double-headed centerpiece of the British capital’s busiest art market week, have been canceled “in light of continued unprecedented challenges regarding Covid-19 (coronavirus),” the organizers said Tuesday. Like the May edition of Frieze New York, which was also canceled because of the pandemic, the London fairs will revert to an online-only format. The in-person editions of Frieze London and Frieze Masters, which showcase international gallerists specializing in contemporary pieces and pre-21st-century art, had been scheduled to take place in their temporary structures in Regent’s Park from Oct. 8-11. [ More ]

ARTDAILY 'Prayers and Recitations at the Muharram Festival’, Circa of Sewak Ram. Patna, India, circa 1820-30. Estimate: £5,000-£7,000. LONDON.- Matthew Barton's European and Asian Works of Art auction of 374 lots encompasses centuries of craftsmanship; when browsing the catalogue, the diversity of pieces and ‘cross pollination’ of styles will stimulate a collector’s interest in influences brought along the trade routes and spread through expanding kingdoms and empires. Among the religious works of art, starting in South East Asia, a highlight from Cambodia is a Pre Rup style grey sandstone head of Harihara, a Hindu deity combining Vishnu and Shiva, circa 10th century, estimated at £4,000-£6,000. The Tibetan, Nepalese and Indian sculptures in the sale include a Jain brass shrine depicting Candraprabha, from Gujurat, circa 16th century, this has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500. [ More A] 

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ted Loos Rashid Johnson’s oil on cotton rag work “Untitled Anxious Red Drawing” (2020) hangs near the entrance to Rental Gallery. Karsten Moran for The New York Times EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. — The art collectors were finally coming out of hiding here recently, albeit quietly and tentatively. The artists were, too. The lure? All of a sudden, they have a lot more gallery options lining the immaculate streets of this famously upscale summer town, a seemingly unexpected development in the middle of a pandemic. Since the beginning of June, five major art galleries have opened here: Pace, Skarstedt, Van de Weghe, Michael Werner and Sotheby’s, all arms of New York art powerhouses. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Panel 28, 1956, painting location unknown. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of Lucia | Marquand .  At the Peabody, it is display with table of immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820 to 1840—115,773.  Before COVID-19 , we debated African American vs. Black or ALAANA (African, Latino, Asian, Arab, Native American) vs. people of color. Now, we consider  BIPOC as The New York Times capitalizes Black for the first time. This week, a young man asked, "Who is your favorite artist of the Black Arts Movement? (1960s)" We named Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), an artist rooted in the 1930s New Negro/Harlem Renaissance . An exhibition of his missing work is reopening this week at the Peabody Essex Museum , and that makes Jacob Lawrence , our artist of the week

CHRISTIE'S The dynamic young Korean Hong Gyu Shin talks to Christie’s about buying his first work at auction aged 13, his passion for rediscovering marginalised artists — and his reputation for exhibiting challenging work When Shin Gallery opened on New York’s Lower East Side in 2013, no one believed that its urbane proprietor, Hong Gyu Shin, was only 23 and still at college. Looking back, the South Korean-born art dealer and collector admits it was a risky venture. ‘I knew nothing about selling art,’ he says. ‘I didn’t even know that paintings were supposed to be hung at eye level.’ Seven years later, and the young entrepreneur has become an influential player on the art market, making headlines at auctions and regularly attending art fairs from New York to Miami. He is the savviest of collectors, possessed of a talent for rediscovering artists who have long been forgotten, often because they are female or from an ethnic minority.  [ More ]

ARTSY By Alina Cohen Portrait of Kristina Newman-Scott by Vikram Valluir. Courtesy of BFA Photos. Over the past 20 years, Kristina Newman-Scott has championed diversity and social justice in the arts. As a curator, director of culture for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, and now president of BRIC in Brooklyn, she’s long been committed to equity and representation in both the exhibitions she mounts and in the organizations she runs. “As a Black leader, somebody who has the privilege of leading an institution like BRIC, if I can’t invest in Black artists, what am I doing?” she said in a recent interview. “I won’t ever stop.” Newman-Scott’s engagement with the arts began when she was a young artist in Kingston, Jamaica, where she was born and raised. [ More ]

RELIGION NEWS  By Paul Robinson A mosaic depiction of Jesus. Photo by Dorothée Quennesson/Pixabay/Creative Commons I am not writing to "cancel" Warner Sallman or his portrait depicting Jesus as a blond, blue-eyed European. Sallman was a Christian, a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, and not the first to depict Jesus as “blond and blue-eyed.” At the time of Sallman’s “Head of Christ” the Swedish immigrants who founded what has become the Evangelical Covenant Church were integrated into American culture as “white.” The spoils of majority culture carry with it the ability to set the narrative, and Sallman’s art was not just the creation of his imagination, but the offspring of a narrative that America has been telling for some time. We are committed to reaching all ethnicities and inviting them in. [ More ]

ARTDAILY Karl-Holger Meyer (recreation of A. Dürer). BREMEN.- During the Coronavirus lockdown, the Kunsthalle Bremen called on people to recreate works of art from its collection in Bremen. The response was overwhelming! On Wednesday, 8 July 2020, visitors can view a selection of 77 photos in the South Foyer of the Kunsthalle Bremen titled Your Turn! Recreating Artworks During Quarantine. The quarantine period was a trying time, both for the museums that had to close and the public who were forced to stay at home, suddenly banned from undertaking any type of cultural outing. A new idea was born of necessity and the challenge #TussenKunstenQuarantaine (between art and quarantine) was launched on Instagram. [ More ]

ARTDAILY George Tice (b. 1938, Newark), Oak Tree, Holmdel, New Jersey, 1970. Platinum/palladium print, printed 2007, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61.0 cm). Edition 4/30. NEW YORK, NY.- Nailya Alexander Gallery is presenting Tree of Life , on view online through  Friday 31 July 2020. This group exhibition includes work by Denis Brihat (b. 1928, Paris), Albarrán Cabrera (b. 1969, Spain), Ingar Krauss (b. 1965, East Berlin), Sumner Wells Hatch (b. 1984, New Hampshire), Nicholas Hughes (b. 1963, Liverpool), Ann Rhoney (b. 1953, Niagara Falls), Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950, Helsinki), George Tice (b. 1938, Newark), and Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962, St. Petersburg). The exhibition also includes a new artist that Nailya Alexander is excited to welcome to the gallery, Lucretia Moroni (b. 1960, Milan). There are few symbols as pervasive across different religions, philosophies, and mythologies as the tree.  [ More ]

YONHAP NEWS AGENCY This photo provided by the Jogye Order shows the "Preaching Sakyamuni Buddha," which will be repatriated from the United States in July. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) SEOUL, June 25 (Yonhap) -- Four Buddhist paintings from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), which were illegally shipped out of the country soon after the 1950-53 Korean War, will be brought back home from the United States next month, a local Buddhist sect said Thursday. The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism said it and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have agreed on the restoration of the four Buddhist paintings, including the "Preaching Sakyamuni Buddha," particularly in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War. The paintings were taken out of Sinheung Temple, located at Mount Seorak, in Sokcho, 213 kilometers east of Seoul, in 1954. [ More ]

ARTDAILY This photo taken on June 23, 2020 shows members of a police squad on patrol in a temple complex in Bagan, Mandalay Region. A squad of gun-toting police patrol Myanmar's sacred site of Bagan under the cover of night, taking on plunderers snatching relics from temples forsaken by tourists due to coronavirus restrictions. Ye Aung THU / AFP. YANGON (AFP).- Two high-ranking officers were fired for having "failed their responsibilities" after a landslide in Myanmar killed at least 174 jade miners, the country's military said on Monday in a rare public sanctioning. Heavy monsoon rains on Thursday sent mud cascading down a hillside over workers scouring the land for the green gemstone in Hpakant in northern Kachin state. The victims were largely poor migrants who had travelled across the country to prospect in the treacherous open-cast mines, hoping to find valuable stones left behind by the big companies. It was the worst tragedy in living memory to hi...

ARTDAILY This picture taken on July 2, 2020 shows the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul. Turkey's top court considered whether Istanbul's emblematic landmark and former cathedral Hagia Sophia can be redesignated as a mosque, a ruling which could inflame tensions with the West. Ozan KOSE / AFP. by Gokan Gunes with Raziye Akkoc in Ankara ISTANBUL (AFP).- Turkey's top court considered Thursday whether Istanbul's emblematic landmark and former cathedral Hagia Sophia can be redesignated as a mosque, a ruling which could inflame tensions with the West. The sixth-century edifice -- a magnet for tourists worldwide with its stunning architecture -- has been a museum since 1935, open to believers of all faiths. Despite occasional protests outside the site by Islamic groups, often shouting, "Let the chains break and open Hagia Sophia" for Muslim prayers, authorities have so far kept the building as a museum. Hagia Sophia was first constructed as a cathedral in t...