Arts news

• Kim Kardashian May Have Bought $4.9 M. Basquiat Painting at Christie’s Auction

  17-12-2024 21:59 via artnews.com
  
  Rumors are swirling that Kim Kardashian may be the owner of a $4.9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat painting that appeared at auction at Christie’s in 2017.Kardashian has yet to officially confirm she is the buyer of the Basquiat painting, a 1982 canvas called Both Poles. But keen-eyed entertainment journalists noted in late October that Kardashian appeared to feature the painting in a Kris Jenner Instagram post including a picture of her house.Both Poles is hardly the most expensive Basquiat
  
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• Following Hurricane Damage, the Rothko Chapel Reopens to the Public

  17-12-2024 21:18 via artnews.com
  
  After closing due to hurricane-related damage earlier this year in July, the landmark Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas reopened to the public on Tuesday.The chapel boasts a suite of 14 massive paintings by the color field abstraction artist, with American abstract artist Barnett Newman’s monumental sculpture Broken Obelisk (1963–67) outside. It was commissioned by powerhouse art world collectors John and Dominique de Menil in 1964 and opened in 1971.The groundbreaking for an
  
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• Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ Added to National Register of Historic Places

  17-12-2024 21:10 via artnews.com
  
  Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, the renowned 54-year-old Land art installation on Utah’s Great Salt Lake, has officially been added to the National Register of Historic Places.Overseen by the National Park Service, a subdivision of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the list recognizes places of national importance. The addition of Spiral Jetty to the list will make it easier to preserve the piece in the long term.Smithson created the installation in 1970, just three years before h
  
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• Christie’s Totals $5.7 B. in 2024, Down from Last Year’s $6.2 B. Amid ‘Challenging Environment’

  17-12-2024 20:41 via artnews.com
  
  Christmas is almost here, which means Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti did his best to bring festive cheer by crunching the auction house’s 2024’s numbers during his end-of-year press conference Tuesday. Cerutti said the house’s projected sales for this year total $5.7 billion across both art and luxury, around an 8 percent drop from last year’s total $6.2 billion.During Tuesday’s Zoom presser, Cerutti rehashed the rhetoric he used in July, when he described t
  
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• Christie’s Totals $5.7 B. in 2024, Down from Last Year’s $6.1 B. Amid ‘Challenging Environment’

  17-12-2024 20:41 via artnews.com
  
  Christmas is almost here, which means Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti did his best to bring festive cheer by crunching the auction house’s 2024’s numbers during his end-of-year press conference Tuesday. Cerutti said the house’s projected sales for this year total $5.7 billion across both art and luxury, around an 6 percent drop from last year’s total $6.1 billion.During Tuesday’s Zoom presser, Cerutti rehashed the rhetoric he used in July, when he described t
  
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• UK Considers Granting Artists ‘Right to Personality’ Amid Rise of Generative AI

  17-12-2024 20:34 via artnews.com
  
  The UK government is considering an upgrade of its “right to personality” law that could gain artists new safeguards against generative artificial intelligence models capable of mimicking their styles.Per the Financial Times, the Labor administration today launched a review of how AI companies train their technology by scraping digital content—a process that has already courted controversy among creators in the UK and US. New legislation based on its findings is expected to be
  
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• Cast of New Film ‘The Gallerist’ Confirmed As Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and More

  17-12-2024 19:18 via artnews.com
  
  MRC is set to independently finance The Gallerist, Cathy Yan’s new film starring the previously announced Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega.The company also today officially confirmed the remaining cast for the film, which includes Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers), Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), Emmy nominee Zach Galifianakis (Only Murders in the Building), Golden Globe nominee Daniel Brühl (The Franchise), Grammy
  
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• The Most Impactful Archaeological Discoveries of 2024

  17-12-2024 15:59 via artnews.com
  
  This year had no shortage of archaeological discoveries, and ARTnews reported on the most notable and exciting of them.A number of the finds this year involved burials, including the discovery of a 2,800-year-old burial mound in Siberia that mimics the graves of the Eurasian Steppe peoples; a 6,800-year-old skeleton in Germany that offers new insights into the Neolithic Age; and an ancient Chinese cemetery in Hubei Province that shed light on the elusive Warring States period (5th cent
  
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• A New National Museum of the American Latino Moves Forward as It Fights to Find Its Footing

  17-12-2024 15:22 via artnews.com
  
  The National Museum of the American Latino (NMAL) faces a Herculean challenge. Established in late 2020, nearly 30 years after it was first proposed, the Smithsonian component must represent the art, history, and culture of a diverse population of 64 million Latinx Americans, with roots in      more than 30 countries across North and Latin America and the Caribbean. Each of those communities, from Tejanos of Texas to Cubans in Miami and Puerto Ricans in New York, comes w
  
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• The Defining Artworks of 2024

  17-12-2024 14:30 via artnews.com
  
  Crumbling amber, a nonbinary deity, a horned woman, a disco ball formed from synthetic hair: all these things and more appeared in the year’s most memorable artworks. Produced during a time that was a chaotic as any other in recent history, these works made powerful pleas for liberation (particularly in Gaza, where Israel’s war continues on), pushed at the limits of traditional mediums such as painting and sculpture, and contended with the knotty histories that span centuries.A bias
  
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• Iconic David Hammons Work to Be Restaged by Hauser & Wirth During Frieze LA

  17-12-2024 14:00 via artnews.com
  
  As part of its programming for the upcoming Frieze Los Angeles fair, Hauser & Wirth will restage David Hammons’s iconic work Concerto in Black and Blue (2002) for the first time since its debut more than 20 years ago.The only time Concerto in Black and Blue has ever been realized was in 2002 at Ace Gallery in New York. (At the time, it was the artist’s first show in New York in a decade.) Upon arrival, visitors were given blue-light flashlights to navigate 20,000 square feet of s
  
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• Banksy Strikes Again with Mysterious Madonna and Child Mural Featuring a Rusty Bosom Wound

  17-12-2024 13:12 via artnews.com
  
  On December 16, British street artist Banksy stirred speculation after posting a mysterious work on Instagram referencing the Madonna and Child. The painting on a metal panel in an unknown location shows the woman’s breast with a rusting hole for a nipple as the baby looks despairingly into his mother’s eyes.The Instagram post has no caption and appeared at around 2PM UK time. There is no information about the artwork’s location or meaning.As expected, the image has triggered a
  
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• Banksy Posts Mysterious Madonna and Child Mural on Instagram, Stirring Speculation

  17-12-2024 13:12 via artnews.com
  
  On December 16, British street artist Banksy posted on Instagram an artwork referencing the Madonna and Child, stirring speculation to its meaning. The painting on a metal panel in an unknown location shows the woman’s breast with a rusting hole for a nipple as the baby looks despairingly into his mother’s eyes.The Instagram post has no caption and appeared at around 2PM UK time. There is no information about the artwork’s location.As expected, the image has triggered a flurry
  
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• Niki de Saint Phalle Biopic Is a Convincing Portrait of an Artist in Transformation

  17-12-2024 11:00 via artnews.com
  
  In 1952, Niki de Saint Phalle moved from the United States to France with her husband Harry Mathews and her infant daughter. Dark childhood memories, including ones involving her incestuous father, started to resurface, moving her to commit herself to a mental institution, where she received electroshock treatment. Her short stay there inspired a major life change. No longer would she be a model and an actress. Now, she would become a full-time artist.The de Saint Phalle that most people know is
  
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• A Norwegian Kunsthall Transformed into a Dog’s Pleasure Palace

  17-12-2024 11:00 via artnews.com
  
  Anyone empathetic toward canines will feel contagious joy walking through Emilie Gossiaux’s exhibition at Norway’s Kunsthall Trondheim. Before you even enter, you notice Kongs—those rounded rubber cones dogs shove their tongues into, slowing their devouring of peanut butter, turning it into a game. And you never stop noticing the Kongs as you traverse the Kunsthall’s two floors. There are over 100 ceramic Kongs here, all handmade by Gossiaux. They are painted in almost ev
  
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