Displaying items by tag: Edvard Munch

The first edition of the biennial Edvard Munch Art Award, which comes with a NOK 500,000 ($66,000) prize and an exhibition at Oslo’s prestigious Munch Museum, will take place on the artist’s birthday, on 12 December.

Stein Olav Henrichsen, the director of the Munch Museum, has said he wants a jury composed of international experts “with knowledge on the art scene in China, India and other Eastern countries. It is very important not to focus too much on Europe and the US when looking for candidates.”

New York and London gallery Skarstedt is off to a roaring start at Frieze Masters 2014, counting among its early sales Andy Warhol’s 1984 remix of Edvard Munch’s "The Scream," which sold to a private collector for about $5.5 million.

That sum pales in comparison to the $119.9 million Leon Black paid for Munch’s own version of "The Scream" at Sotheby’s back in 2012, which set the record at the time for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.

A young woman hangs sheer white linens on a clothesline. A refulgent angel descends from the heavens while shepherds tend their flocks by night. And an early motion-picture camera captures the fairyland allure of a world’s fair, slowly panning its illuminated buildings.

These vastly different images — from a 19th-century painting, a 17th-century print and a 20th-century film — are among the treasures in the current exhibition at Vassar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. What brings them together is “Mastering Light: From the Natural to the Artificial,” a quirky, thought-provoking show that divides its subject into three sometimes overlapping areas: interiors and exteriors illuminated by daylight; nighttime events made visible by moonlight or firelight; and scenes either lighted by or on the subject of artificial light.

This past November, Francis Bacon’s triptych portrait Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969) sold for $142.4 million at Christie’s, setting an artist’s record and becoming the most expensive work ever sold at auction. Less than a month later, the massive contemporary masterpiece turned up on loan, not at a modern-day art mecca like New York’s Museum of Modern Art (as Edvard Munch’s The Scream did), but on the opposite end of the US, at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. The painting, which remained on view there through early April, was loaned by its new owner Elaine Wynn, ex-wife of casino mogul and top collector Steve Wynn. Mrs. Wynn, a resident of Nevada, was reportedly entitled to save more than $10 million in taxes by first parking the painting at the Portland Art Museum before bringing it to her home state.

After successful stints in Oslo and Tokyo, “Norwegian Icons: Important Norwegian Design” is on view in New York City. The exhibition, which is currently taking place at the Openhouse Gallery in SoHo, explores Norway’s contributions to mid-century Scandinavian design. The show includes high-end decorative arts and furniture created between 1940 and 1975 as well as works by Norwegian artists, including Edvard Munch.

Mid-century Scandinavian design is well-known for its clean, simple lines and high functionality. However, there is often little distinction made between the contributions made by each country. While most design enthusiasts are familiar with Arne Jacobsen’s egg chair (Denmark) and Maija Isola’s bold, colorful textiles for Marimekko (Finland), Norway’s contributions to mid-century design often fly under the radar. Organized by Blomqvist, an Oslo-based auction house, and Fuglen, a Norwegian cafe/bar/vintage design shop, “Norwegian Icons” aims to educate the public about Norway’s contributions to Scandinavian design, including Hans Brattrud’s development of Alvar Aalto’s wood-bending technique and Sven Ivar Dysthe’s flat-packed, ready-to-ship furniture.

Sotheby’s announced that it has named Alexander Rotter and Cheyenne Westphal the new Global Heads of Contemporary Art. Tobias Meyer, the auction house’s former Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, stepped down at the end of November 2013. Rotter and Westphal have both been with Sotheby’s for many years -- Rotter was behind the recent sale of Andy Warhol’s ‘Silver Car Crash,’ which brought a record $104 million, and Westphal helped launch Sotheby’s new contemporary art galleries in London.

Helena Newman and Simon Shaw will helm the auction house’s department of Impressionist and Modern Art. Newman, who joined Sotheby’s in 1988, was instrumental in the February 2010 auction that netted $263.6 million, a record for a European sale. Shaw, who has worked at Sotheby’s outposts in Stockholm, Paris and London, orchestrated the 2012 sale of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream,’ which sold for an historic price of $119.9 million, a record for a modern work of art at auction.

Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager who is Sotheby’s largest shareholder, recently commented on the auction house’s need to establish new leadership and more efficient operations.

On November 6, Sotheby’s held an evening sale of Impressionist and modern art in New York, which realized a shocking $290 million. It was the auction house’s most successful sale behind a May 2012 auction, which included a version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream that sold for a record $120 million.

 The sale, which surpassed its low estimate of $212.9 million but fell short of its $307.9 million high estimate, included new world auction records for six artists. Highlights included Alberto Giacometti’s Grande tete mince (Grande tete de Diego), the evening’s top lot, which achieved $50 million; Pablo Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Therese Walter, Tete de feme, which garnered nearly $40 million, exceeding its high estimate of 30 million; and Claude Monet’s Impressionist masterpiece Glacons, effet blanc, which sailed past its high estimate of $14 million and sold for approximately $16 million.

Simon Shaw, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department, said, “Tonight’s results speak for themselves and today’s efficient marketplace – collectors have a remarkable understanding not only of quality, but also of value. The key is matching their discerning taste with the right combination of fresh material and responsible estimates, and we did that this evening.”

Boston-based collector, Dorothy Braude Edinburg, has gifted nearly 1,000 works of art to the Art Institute of Chicago, making it one of the most significant donations in the museum’s history. The gift includes approximately 800 works on paper – primarily European prints and drawings from Old Mast to modern – and 150 works of Asian art. The donation will complement the considerable long-term loans and prior gifts made by Edinburg including works by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

The most recent gift, along with Edinburg’s previous donations, is part of the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, which honors Edinburg’s parents. Highlights include nearly 50 extremely rare Japanese volumes, many of which are from the Edo period, a sorely unrepresented period in American museum collections; Chinese celadons from the 12^th and 13^th centuries; and prints and drawings by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), among many others.

Edinburg said, “I have never thought of my collection as a personal endeavor. I have always believed that it should ultimately enter a major museum and serve a broad public…I have seen the Art Institute as the eventual home for my entire collection for many years, and I am thrilled to taking another step forward with this gift in honor of my parents.”        

In honor of the 150^th anniversary of the Norwegian artist’s birth, two museums in Oslo, Norway will organize the most comprehensive exhibit of Edvard Munch’s (1863-1944) work to date. Munch 150, which is currently on view at the National Gallery and the Munch Museum, includes the artist’s most recognizable works including The Scream, Vampire, and The Dance of Life.

The exhibition spans Munch’s extensive career from his earlier works to his death in 1944. The National Gallery’s show focuses on the artist’s formative years from 1882 to 1903 and the Munch Museum is handling his more mature works, created during the last 40 years of life.

Munch is revered for his visceral works that expertly capture the human condition but his home country did not readily accept him as a distinguished artist. In 1940, just days after the Nazis invaded Oslo, Munch bequeathed his entire oeuvre to the city in order to protect it. After the war, his works were placed in a nondescript building in the city, rarely visited, and poorly guarded.

Since then, Munch has become regarded as a highly important artist; exhibitions have been held across the globe to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of his birth and a version of The Scream, the only one in private hands, recently sold at auction for a record $119.9 million, securing his role as a powerful presence in the art market. In addition, Oslo authorities agreed to built a new Munch Museum in a more distinguished building, which is expected to open in 2018.

Munch 150, which includes 270 paintings and drawings, will be on view through October 13, 2013.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the birth of the Norwegian painter and printmaker Edvard Munch (1863-1944) with an exhibition of over 20 works from its collection. Edvard Munch: A 150^th Anniversary Tribute presents prints and drawings by the artist including Geschrei (The Scream) (1895), The Madonna (1895), and Two Women on the Shore (1898).

Best known for his seminal painting The Scream (1893), Munch is revered for his visceral works that expertly capture the human condition. In addition to his emotionally raw paintings, Munch also created tender depictions of women, children, and lovers.

The National Gallery has organized three major exhibitions of Munch’s work in recent decades with the last taking place in 2010. Curated by Andrew Robison, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery, Edvard Munch: A 150^th Anniversary Tribute will be on view at the museum through July 28, 2013.