ZERO - from 2011 AIAFbyChristopher Kezelos and David Cox
An animation film festival at Wagga Wagga in central New South Wales has drawn entries from filmmakers in 30 countries. Wagga Wagga’s Australian International Animation Festival - AIAF – is now in its 9th year.
The finalised films for the 2012 AIAF Program were in March after reviewing more than 2000. Organisers say they’re excited, that 2012 is particularly good year for auteur animation. And of course, we’ll be sure to keep up the very fine AIAF traditions of special prizes and surprise screenings :: Read the full article »»»»
Veteran Associated Press war photographer Horst Faas, who was known for his images of the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 79. German-born Faas oversaw AP’s photo operations in Saigon for a decade from 1962, during the height of the combat, in a career that spanned nearly half a century.
Associated Press said he died in Munich on Thursday. The news agency said he had been paralysed from the waist down since suffering a spinal haemorrhage in Hanoi in 2005.
When Faas accepted the first of his two Pulitzer prizes in 1965, he had said his mission had been to “record the suffering, the emotions and the sacrifices of both Americans and Vietnamese in … this little blood-stained country so far away” :: Read the full article »»»»
UPDATE :: Lot 26 is a 1936 oil on canvas by Salvador Dali (1904-1989) that is entitled “Printemps Necrophilique.” According to Simon Shaw, head of Sotherby’s Impressionist & Modern Art, said this is one of the finest Dalis to appear on the market in years. Only Dali could decide to leave nothing in the center, he added.It has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $16,322,500.
PREVIOUS POST :: Printemps Necrophilique, is a 1936 work by the Spanish master, the piece depicts a seated male and a standing female in an eerily realistic landscape, has a presale estimate as high as $US15 million when it’s offered at the Sotherby’s May 2 sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York. the piece was last on the market 15 years ago :: Read the full article »»»»
The only privately owned version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream – one of the most recognisable paintings in history – has set a new world record, selling for $US119.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York.
Heated competition between seven bidders took the price tag to the highest for a work of art at auction in just 12 minutes. The packed sales room erupted into applause and cheering when the hammer went down.
An unnamed telephone bidder gave the final offer of $119,922,500, including commission, far exceeding pre-sales estimates of about $US80 million.
“A group of seven bidders jumped into the competition early, but it was a prolonged battle between two highly determined phone bidders that carried the final selling price to its historic level,” said Sotheby’s spokesman Darrell Rocha:: Read the full article »»»»
Renowned portrait painter Lucian Freud has left a record ₤96 million – $AU150 million – in his will, the largest sum bequeathed by a British artist, according to London’s Mail On Sunday newspaper.
Freud died last July aged 88, by which time his uncompromising, fleshy portraits had made him one of the world’s most revered and coveted artists, with subjects ranging from the Queen to supermodel Kate Moss. His Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, a 1995 portrait of a woman asleep in the nude on a sofa, fetched $US33.6 million at Christie’s in 2008 – an auction record for a living artist.
The newspaper said Freud left 2.5 million pounds and a house to his long-term assistant David Dawson, who is pictured in Freud’s last unfinished work Portrait Of The Hound, which also featured the artist’s pet whippet Eli :: Read the full article »»»»
Sergio Fermariello exhibition at Ronchini Gallery, London
Opening from April 20th to June 9th at Ronchini Gallery London, the new exhibition of Sergio Fermariello is inspired by the archetypal symbols and shapes from the past,with a particular emphasis on mythology and antiquity. This first show of the artist in the UK includes new and existing key works from Fermariello and has been curated by ARTNESIA.
The work of Fermariello began with the symbol of a warrior, an image that holds particular significance to him as a sign of strength. These armed figures have been synthesised and repeated throughout his canvases with an obsessive rhythm for over 20 years. The icons of archers and soldiers that Fermariello use on his work are borrowed from the Etruscans and the Garamantes :: Read the full article »»»»
The National Museum of Australia in Canberra has purchased two rare pen and ink drawings thought to have been created more than a century ago by an Aboriginal artist. ‘Buckley’s Escape’ drawn by Aboriginal artist Tommy McRae, depicts convict William Buckley escaping captivity to spend the next 32 years of his life with Aboriginal people. The Museum paid $AU65,000 for the drawing.
The National Museum of Australia scooped up the two 1890s drawings by Tommy McRae at Deutscher and Hackett’s Important Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Auction in Melbourne on April 4. The museum bid $AU20,000 for the second McRae drawing, Murray Tribe Warfare, which shows Aboriginal people fighting in northern Victoria. McRae lived in the Upper Murray, Victoria, where he made and sold books of drawings. He is one of only a few Aboriginal artists to depict life in 19th century Australia. Both McRae drawings had been held by the same NSW family since being bought directly from the artist in the 1890s :: Read the full article »»»»
Sydney: Belvoir Street Theatre’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s play The Wild Duck has been invited to be part of the International Ibsen Festival in Norway later this year. Belvoir Street Theatre’s production, directed by Simon Stone, was completely rewritten and set inside a glass box featuring a live duck. The production won several Helpman and Sydney Theatre Awards. The Ibsen festival is held at the National Theatre in Oslo and celebrates the best Norwegian and international productions of the famous playwright’s works:: Read the full article »»»»
Those überslick people at Acclaim Mag have scored a superneat interview with Canadian songstress Grimes. One of the most interesting and innovative figures to come out of Canada in recent years, Clair Boucher AKA Grimes, set the blogosphere on fire with her 2012 album Visions. Its du jour mix of new wave, electronica and her signature vocal flexibility revealed a true post-internet multi-talent. Lachlan McPhee speaks to Grimes about the album, her visual art and the scene in her current home-base, Montreal.
An Italian museum has begun torching its collection of contemporary artworks to protest against harsh budget cuts that have left many cultural institutions close to financial ruin.
The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum near Naples held a bonfire in its grounds for the first torching of a painting by French artist Severine Bourguignon, who was in favour of the protest and followed it on Skype. Museum director Antonio Manfredi said: “Our 1,000 artworks are headed for destruction anyway because of the indifference of the government.”
Manfredi last year announced he had written a letter to German chancellor Angela Merkel asking for asylum, saying he was fed up with mafia threats and the government’s failure to protect Italy’s rich cultural heritage :: Read the full article »»»»
