All posts for the month March, 2012

Art Buzz Review March 30, 2012: How to Teach Art in 89 Simple Lessons ‘Draw It With Your Eyes Closed,’ Edited by Paper Monument

ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY NEWS

ART BOOK NEWS & REVIEWS

How to Teach Art in 89 Simple Lessons

‘Draw It With Your Eyes Closed,’ Edited by Paper Monument

Source: New York Times, 3-30-12

When the American painter, sculptor and installation artist Paul Thek (1933-88) taught art classes at Cooper Union in the late 1970s, he wrote and then gave to his students a long, provocative and now famous list of questions and marching orders he titled “Teaching Notes.”

Patricia Wall/The New York Times

DRAW IT WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

The Art of the Art Assignment

Edited by Paper Monument

128 pages. Paper Monument. $15.

Thek’s list has been passed around by serious art teachers for decades. It is now reprinted in — and its spirit lingers over — a mischievous and nourishing new book called “Draw It With Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment,” compiled by the editors of the art magazine Paper Monument, a sibling publication of the literary magazine n + 1….

Here’s what Paper Monument’s editors, in this slim book, have had the wit to do: They’ve asked dozens of artists and teachers, some well known and some not, to speak about the best art assignments they’ve given or received or even heard of.

The results are aimed at M.F.A.-level teachers, but these 89 entries are accessible to anyone, many even to children. Like the conversation in the final hour of a boozy art opening, these small anecdotal essays mix gossip, profundity, bogosity and lecherousness in equal parts. The book is buzzy and wild, like real talk….READ MORE

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by bonniekgoodman on March 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Art Teaching / Education, Books, Reviews
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Posted by bonniekgoodman on March 30, 2012

https://arthistorybuzz.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/art-buzz-review-march-30-2012-how-to-teach-art-in-89-simple-lessons-draw-it-with-your-eyes-closed-edited-by-paper-monument/

Art Buzz March 28, 2012: Da Vinci’s Last Painting “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” & Twin Mona Lisa Unveiled at Louvre Museum Exhibit

ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY NEWS

ART NEWS & MUSEUM NEWS

The real da Vinci code: Louvre unlocks last work

https://i0.wp.com/www.theartnewspaper.com/imgart/louvre-Sainte-Anne-restored.jpg

Source: AP, 3-28-12

An intense and controversial restoration of the last great work by Leonardo da Vinci goes before the public Thursday at the Louvre Museum, revealing “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” in the full panoply of hues and detail painted by the Renaissance master 500 years ago.

The 18-month-long restoration of the painting that Leonardo labored on for 20 years until his death in 1519 will go a long way to raising “Saint Anne” to its place as one of the most influential Florentine paintings of its time and a step towards the high Renaissance of Michelangelo.

The cleaning has endowed the painting portraying the Virgin Mary with her mother Saint Anne and the infant Jesus with new life and luminosity. Dull, faded hues were transformed into vivid browns and lapis lazuli that had visitors awe-struck….

The exhibit brings together some 130 preparatory drawings and studies by Leonardo and his apprentices — something curator Vincent Delieuvin likened to “a police investigation” — tracing the painting’s conception and revealing to experts today the entire development over the last 20 years of Leonardo’s life….READ MORE

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by bonniekgoodman on March 28, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Art News, Museum News, Renaissance Art
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Posted by bonniekgoodman on March 28, 2012

https://arthistorybuzz.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/art-buzz-march-28-2012-da-vincis-last-painting-the-virgin-and-child-with-saint-anne-twin-mona-lisa-unveiled-at-louvre-museum-exhibit/

Art Buzz March 13, 2012: Uncovering Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Battle of Anghiari’ will destroy one of the great legends of Renaissance art history.

ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY NEWS

ART NEWS

Leonardo Da Vinci: nothing to find but disappointment

Uncovering Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Battle of Anghiari’ will destroy one of the great legends of Renaissance art history.

Source: Telegraph UK, 3-13-12

'Proof' that long lost Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece lies behind Florence painting

Image 1 of 3
National Geographic Fellow Maurizio Seracini (foreground) and his team view footage captured by the endoscope behind the Vasari wall Photo: Dave Yoder
'Proof' that long lost Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece lies behind Florence painting

Image 1 of 3
A banner showing the painting which might be hidden Photo: DARIO THUBURN/AFP/Getty Images
'Proof' that long lost Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece lies behind Florence painting

Image 1 of 3
The endoscope and sampling tool used to investigate the air gap behind the Vasari mural in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio Photo: Dave Yoder

It is one of the most influential paintings that never quite were. Commissioned for the Hall of the Five Hundred, the gigantic meeting room of Florence’s governing body in the city’s Palazzo Vecchio in 1504, Leonardo’s ‘Battle of Anghiari’ was to have been his largest painting, a vast fresco that was for centuries a watchword among artists for the portrayal of heroic muscular effort.

Depicting a battle of 1440, in which the papal forces, led by Florence, defeated those of Leonardo’s home city Milan, it centred on a murderous struggle between four horsemen for the possession of a standard. Their snorting steeds writhing and rolling as the knights grapple, the scene couldn’t be further from the transcendant serenity that characterised the National Gallery’s recent Leonardo blockbuster.

Yet it’s a work that changed the way artists approached the problems of movement and physical struggle. Or that is what we’ve been led to understand, for no one has set eyes on the painting for over 450 years.

Its great rival in this category of non-existent exemplar was commissioned to hang on the wall opposite: Michelangelo’s ‘Battle of Cascina’. This was to have been the place where the two giants, and the great artistic rivals, of that extraordinary period came face to face across the political fulcrum of the most important city of the Renaissance.

In fact, the whole thing was a fiasco from first to last. The two artists had as little to do with each other as possible. Leonardo, who had had problems with fresco – tempera on wet plaster – while working on the ‘Last Supper’, took the unprecedented step of applying oil paint directly onto the wall. A thunderstorm created excessive humidity, causing the colours to drip and merge into each other. Discouraged, he abandoned the project….READ MORE

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by bonniekgoodman on March 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Art News, Renaissance Art
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Posted by bonniekgoodman on March 13, 2012

https://arthistorybuzz.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/art-buzz-march-13-2012-uncovering-leonardo-da-vincis-battle-of-anghiari-will-destroy-one-of-the-great-legends-of-renaissance-art-history/

Art Buzz March 13, 2012: Maurizio Seracini: Has Lost Leonardo Da Vinci the Battle of Anghiari Been Found? Mona Lisa Paint Found Behind Wall in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio Lends Clue

ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY NEWS

ART NEWS

Lost Da Vinci Found? Mona Lisa Paint Lends Clue

The search for a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece reveals intriguing traces of paint that was also used in the Mona Lisa.

Source: Discovery News, 3-13-12

THE GIST

  • Art experts have drilled a hole through a 14th-century frescoed wall and recovered traces of a paint once used by Da Vinci in the Mona Lisa.
  • The researchers believe this may be evidence that a long lost Da Vinci masterpiece has been hidden behind the wall.
  • The work is a painting called the “Battle of Anghiari” and its recovery would be a huge discovery.
Rubens copy of Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari

Peter Paul Rubens’ copy of Leonardo’s “The Battle of Anghiari.” Click to enlarge this image.
Wikimedia Commons

Researchers struggling to solve a longstanding Leonardo da Vinci mystery — the fate of a lost masterpiece known as the “Battle of Anghiari — have found intriguing traces of paint hidden behind a 5-inch-thick frescoed wall in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s 14th-century city hall.

The color is consistent with that used by the Renaissance creator of the Mona Lisa, suggesting that Leonardo’s artwork has remained hidden behind that frescoed wall for more than 500 years.

Known as the “Battle of Marciano,” the mural was painted by the renowned 15th-century painter, architect and writer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in the imposing Hall of the Five Hundred. The hall was a room built at the end of the 15th century to accommodate the meetings of the Florentine Council.

PHOTOS: The Face of Da Vinci: An Enduring Mystery

Right behind that wall could lie one of the biggest discoveries in the history of art, according to art diagnostic expert Maurizio Seracini, director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego, who has been searching for the lost masterpiece since the 1970s….READ MORE

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by bonniekgoodman on March 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Art News, Renaissance Art
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Posted by bonniekgoodman on March 13, 2012

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Art Buzz March 8, 2012: Alexander Nemerov: ‘Renowned’ Yale art historian leads Alfred Heber Holbrook Memorial Lecture at Georgia Museum of Art

ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY NEWS

ART HISTORIANS NEWS:

‘Renowned’ art historian leads lecture

The wait is over.

Dr. Alexander Nemerov, Vincent Scully Professor of the History of Art at Yale University will give this academic year’s Alfred Heber Holbrook Memorial Lecture, which normally takes place in November.

Alexander Nemerov

“This is the 26th one,” said Hillary Brown, director of communications for the Georgia Museum of Art. “It’s happened almost every year. Usually, we do it in the fall. We skipped a year so that we could have Nemerov.”

“This one is a pretty big deal,” she said. “We usually have an art historian who is renowned and out-of-state.”

The lecturer is carefully chosen each year to provide a variety of topics at the commemorative lecture as well as a high-quality educational experience.

“One of the things we strive to provide is a world-class art experience to students on their own campus,” Brown said.

Nemerov’s lecture coincides with GMOA’s exhibition “To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America.”

Recently, he has published a book on the same topic.

“He’s a distinguished speaker,” said Carissa DiCindio, curator of education. “He writes about American visual culture in the 18th to mid-20th centuries.”

As soon as the George Ault exhibition came to the GMOA, the University was eager to invite Nemerov back.

“We really wanted Dr. Nemerov to speak with the exhibition because we’ve heard him speak in the past and we know that he’s a great lecturer,” DiCindio said. “His knowledge on this topic is so great, too.”

At this lecture, Nemerov will speak about Ault, an American painter of the 1940s, whose artwork is loosely classified with the Precisionist movement with Cubist and Surrealist influences. Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent and Andrew Wyeth are a few of his contemporaries.

Other art historians who have delivered AHHM lectures before include Francis Naumann and Marvin Trachtenberg.

The annual lecture honors Alfred Heber Holbrook.

“It’s named after our founder and director,” Brown said. “He was definitely interested in art scholarship. He was self-taught in everything he knew about art.”

A key element of the lecture is providing the knowledge to everyone.

“We want to make sure all of our education programs are free so that … they are accessible to everyone,” DiCindio said. “That is really important to us.”

Although the honorary lecture is held months later than normal, the honor to Holbrook and Nemerov’s revisit could not be at a better time.

“It has a very special place in the museum’s programming every year,” DiCindio said.

MEMORIAL LECTURE

Where: Georgia Museum of Art

When: Tonight at 6

Cost: Free

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by bonniekgoodman on March 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Art Historians News, Lectures
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Posted by bonniekgoodman on March 8, 2012

https://arthistorybuzz.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/art-buzz-march-8-2012-alexander-nemerov-renowned-yale-art-historian-leads-alfred-heber-holbrook-memorial-lecture-at-georgia-museum-of-art/

Art Buzz March 1, 2012: Website lets world admire ‘Ghent Altarpiece’ in 100 billion pixels

ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY NEWS

ART NEWS

Website lets world admire ‘Ghent Altarpiece’ in 100 billion pixels

Source: CNN, 3-1-12
<br/>Thought to be one of the most famous panel paintings in the world, the Ghent Altarpiece, completed in 1432, can now be viewed on a specially-designed, open source website.
Thought to be one of the most famous panel paintings in the world, the Ghent Altarpiece, completed in 1432, can now be viewed on a specially-designed, open source website.
<br/>Stolen several times from St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent where it is housed, the altarpiece features many intriguing details, including a 'Mystic Lamb' bleeding into a chalice.
Stolen several times from St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent where it is housed, the altarpiece features many intriguing details, including a ‘Mystic Lamb’ bleeding into a chalice.
<br/>Consisting of 12 panels and depicting numerous complex theological scenes, the documentation project has rendered the work into 100 billion pixels using the highest resolution photography.


Consisting of 12 panels and depicting numerous complex theological scenes, the documentation project has rendered the work into 100 billion pixels using the highest resolution photography.

<br/>Here the Virgin Enthroned is seen in digital infrared reflectograms, which look past the painted surface of the picture and reveal the under-drawings beneath.


Here the Virgin Enthroned is seen in digital infrared reflectograms, which look past the painted surface of the picture and reveal the under-drawings beneath.

<br/>The same panel of the Virgin Enthroned seen with digital infrared macrophotographs. One major question scholars are hoping to answer is how involved Hubert van Eyck, older brother of Jan van Eyck, was in the painting of the work.


The same panel of the Virgin Enthroned seen with digital infrared macrophotographs. One major question scholars are hoping to answer is how involved Hubert van Eyck, older brother of Jan van Eyck, was in the painting of the work.

<br/>Digitized X-radiographs of the Virgin Enthroned panel. These images allow the viewer to see the skeleton of the picture, revealing the evolving nature of the composition over time.


Digitized X-radiographs of the Virgin Enthroned panel. These images allow the viewer to see the skeleton of the picture, revealing the evolving nature of the composition over time.

<br/>A detail from the Angel Musicians, in digital macrophotographs on the left and in digital infrared reflectograms on the right.
A detail from the Angel Musicians, in digital macrophotographs on the left and in digital infrared reflectograms on the right.
<br/>A detail from the famed Adoration of the Lamb. Viewed with digital macrophotographs on the left and an assembly of digital infrared reflectograms on the right.
A detail from the famed Adoration of the Lamb. Viewed with digital macrophotographs on the left and an assembly of digital infrared reflectograms on the right.
SHOW CAPTION

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Minute details of Ghent Altarpiece now available to view online in 100 billion pixels
  • Project emerged from documentation process prior to conservation work
  • Website shows under-drawings beneath surface of the painting
  • Site — a rich resource for scholars — is open to all

With its remarkably realistic depictions and dramatic history, the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) is widely thought to be one of the most famous panel paintings in the world.

Stolen several times (most notoriously during World War II by the Nazis, who hid it in a salt mine), the altarpiece, currently housed in St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium, depicts among other things a ‘Mystic Lamb’ bleeding into a chalice.

It has been admired and coveted for centuries. Now an ambitious digital documentation project is allowing scholars and art-lovers alike to pore over the minute details of Jan and Hubert van Eyck’s multi-part painting in a specially-designed, open source website entitled ‘Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece.’

Consisting of 12 panels (one of which is a copy, the original having been stolen in 1934) and depicting numerous complex theological scenes, the documentation project has rendered the already composite work into 100 billion pixels using the highest resolution photography.

A collaboration between the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Lukasweb, Belgium, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and funded with support from the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the venture to digitally document the work took 9 months, initially to assess it for conservation.

“And then it grew into ‘These results are interesting, how can we share this information with the widest possible audience on a website?’” said Deborah Marrow, Director of the Getty Foundation.

The documentation process — which made use of macrophotography in visible light, macrophotography in infrared light, infrared reflectography and X-radiography — probed beneath the painted surface to reveal the under-drawings.

It’s technically an amazing feat that they were able to juxtapose the regular image, as you would normally see it, with the under-drawing
Antoine Wilmering, Getty Foundation

“One of the big open questions surrounding the polyptych is the involvement of Hubert van Eyck, the older brother of Jan van Eyck, in the production of the painting,” said Ron Spronk, Professor of Art History at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, who led the project.

“We ought to look for Hubert’s hand in the under drawings of the panels, which were revealed with infrared macrophotography, and with infrared reflectography,” he explained….READ MORE

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by bonniekgoodman on March 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Art News, Flemish Art
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Posted by bonniekgoodman on March 1, 2012

https://arthistorybuzz.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/website-lets-world-admire-ghent-altarpiece-in-100-billion-pixels/