Displaying items by tag: british art

The Yale Center for British Art will reopen to the public on May 11, 2016, after completing the third phase of a major building conservation project. Visitors to the renovated building will experience a stimulating new installation of the Center’s unparalleled collection of more than five centuries of British art, largely the gift of the institution’s founder, Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929).

The Long Gallery, located on the fourth floor, will be wholly reconfigured, returning to the architect Louis I. Kahn’s original conception of a study gallery, with over two hundred works installed from floor to ceiling across seven bays.

New York should be grateful that the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven is closed for renovations. As a result, eight canvases by the inimitable English painter George Stubbs, one of the great artists of the 18th century, have been lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Works by Stubbs are scarce in this town: The Met has one painting, and there’s a drawing at the Frick Collection. This makes “Paintings by George Stubbs From the Yale Center for British Art” a rare and thrilling treat.

A 54-minute “essay film” that refers to IRA martyrdom, Marxist theory and anthropomorphic ketchup dispensers as it explores the value of art won its maker Duncan Campbell the 2014 Turner prize.

It was by no means a surprise. Campbell, aged 42 and probably the best known of the four artists shortlisted, had been the bookmakers’ favorite all along to take a prize created 30 years ago to “promote discussion of new developments in contemporary British art.”

His film, "It for Others," was first seen at the Scottish pavilion of the Venice Biennale in the summer of 2013.

An old shed isn't exactly where you'd expect an artwork  by a famous painter to turn up, but that's exactly where a lost piece by British artist Alfred Munnings being auctioned off by Bonhams next month was discovered. The untitled, undated watercolor painting depicts a bucolic scene, with a pair of cows grazing in front of hay wagons.

The painting is expected to be among the highlights at the auction house's East Anglian Picture Sale in Knightsbridge, London on Tuesday, November 18, carrying an estimate of £8,000–12,000 ($13,000–19,000).

She was married to Humphrey Bogart. Shot films with the likes of John Wayne and Paul Newman. And over her long career racked up a pair of Tony Awards and an honorary Oscar. But if there was one figure who made screen legend Lauren Bacall weak in the knees it was British sculptor Henry Moore. 

Bacall, who passed away in August, was a longtime art collector, who amassed hundreds of artworks. Her tastes were broad and wide-ranging and her collection included African art and Pablo Picasso. But the actress had special affinity for works by Moore, whom she began collecting in the 1950s and first met in person in the mid-1970s.

The year 1534 was crucial to the history of the United States of America.

It was then that the first Act of Supremacy was instituted. These acts granted King Henry VIII royal supremacy over England and established the Church of England, thus severing all ties with Rome. It was in this legal, religious, governmental and cultural context that the Puritans came to be, including the ones who came on the Mayflower to what is now New England.

In England, the Pilgrims’ religious practices were considered sedition. They were forced to flee in secret to Holland, where they experienced the functional separation of church and state – which they imparted to one of our country’s three fundamental founding documents, the Mayflower Compact.

On Tuesday, October 28, the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation was inaugurated by Prince Albert of Monaco. The opening of the private non-profit institute coincided with the 105th anniversary of the birth of the postwar British artist. Located in Monaco, the foundation brings together over 2,000 Bacon-related items, including artworks, photographs, works on paper, and working documents, as well as examples of the artist’s furniture and rug designs from his early career. Some of these objects have never been publicly displayed.

The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation was established by the Lebanese-born Swiss property developer Majid Boustany to promote a deeper understanding of the work and life of Bacon worldwide.

Tate has acquired 100 works as an addition to their collection thanks to The Outset /Frieze Art Fair Fund to benefit the Tate Collection. The selection panel includes Agustín Pérez Rubio (Artistic Director, MALBA, Buenos Aires) and Laurence Rassel (Director, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona) and also Frances Morris (Head of Collections, International Art, Tate), Ann Gallagher (Head of Collections, British Art, Tate), Tanya Barson (Curator, International Art, Tate) and Clarrie Wallis (Curator, Contemporary British Art, Tate). The fund is organized and financed by Outset and in 2014 enjoys continued support from Leviev Extraordinary Diamonds. The annual fund at Frieze London, allows Tate to acquire important works of art at the fair for the national collection. This year the Fund is set at £150,000.

Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate said of the fund: “For more than a decade, the Outset Contemporary Art Fund has played a major role in helping Tate to build the national collection of contemporary art for the benefit of audiences across the country and in London. We are immensely grateful to Outset for this support."

Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture Figure for Landscape (1960) sold for a record-setting £4,170,500 / ($7,085,680) at Christie’s sale of modern British and Irish art in London on Wednesday evening. Hepworth’s previous record was set at the same Christie’s sale in July of last year for Curved Form (Bryher II) (1961), which was sold for £2,413,875 ($3,604,412), according to the artnet Price Database.

The sculpture, which was estimated to fetch £1–2 million, was consigned by Norway’s Kunsthall Stavanger, which is on the brink of closure due to lacking public funds.