Category Archives: Reviews

Top New Art Magazines: “Apollo – May 2020” Issue

INSIDE THE ISSUE
FEATURES | Julio Le Parc interviewed by Gabrielle SchwarzGlenn Adamson on the MFA Boston at 150; Aaron Rosen on the Rothko Chapel in Houston; Valeria Costa-Kostritsky on rebuilding Notre-Dame
REVIEWS | Morgan Falconer on Donald Judd at MoMA; Edward J. Sullivan on Mexican muralism at the Whitney; Maichol Clemente on Renaissance terracottas in Padua; Susan Owens on ghosts in ancient Rome; Craig Burnett on Philip Guston; Stephen Patience on Blake Gopnik’s biography of Andy Warhol; Thomas Marks on F.T. Marinetti’s Futurist Cookbook
MARKET | Gareth Harris on online viewing rooms; and the latest art market columns from Susan Moore and Emma Crichton-Miller
PLUS | Thomas Campbell and Adam Koszary debate the role of the digital museumJames Wilkes on trompe-l’oeil and artistic trickery; Kathryn Hughes on the image of Florence NightingaleTimothy Brittain-Catlin on contemporary architectural follies; Thomas Marks in search of art during lockdownRobert O’Byrne on an exceptional collection of Chinese art

Read more or subscribe

Art Books: “Velázquez – The Complete Works”

Velázquez The Complete Works Taschen 2020Manet called him “the greatest painter of all.” Picasso was so inspired by his masterpiece Las Meninas that he painted 44 variations of it. Francis Bacon painted a study of his portrait of Pope Innocent X. Monet and Renoir, Corot and Courbet, Degas and Dalí…for so many champions of art history, the ultimate soundboard was—and remains—Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660).

Velazquez The Complete Works
Las Meninas – Diego Velázquez (1656)

This updated catalog raisonné brings together Velázquez’s complete works, jaw-droppingly reproduced in extra-large format, with a selection of enlarged details and brand new photography of recently restored paintings, achieved through the joint initiative of TASCHEN and Wildenstein. The book’s dazzling images are accompanied by insightful commentary from José López-Rey on Velázquez’s interest in human life and his equal attention to all subjects, from an old woman frying eggs to a pope or king, as well as his commitment to color and light, which would influence the Impressionists over two centuries later.

Taschen Logo

The authors

José López-Rey (1905–1991) taught Italian Renaissance at the University of Madrid and worked as an art advisor for the Spanish Ministry of Education. Before the end of the Spanish Civil War, he emigrated to the USA, where he resumed his teaching career at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York. In 1973 he was awarded emeritus status. López-Rey was a corresponding member of the Hispanic Society of America and a consultant and contributor to several international art journals, including the Gazette des Beaux Arts and Art News.

Odile Delenda, graduate of the École du Louvre, served as professor there, and then as deputy head of the department of paintings at the Musée du Louvre until 2007. She has collaborated on several exhibitions of old master paintings. A research fellow at the Wildenstein Institute in Paris since 1990, she has continued her study of Spanish art from the Siglo de Oro. She is, among other works, the author of Vélasquez, peintre religieux (1993) and, under the auspices of the Wildenstein Institute, the first critical catalogue raisonné of the painted oeuvre of Francisco de Zurbarán and his studio (2009/10).

Read more or purchase

Infographic: “Don’t Ignore Heart Symptoms During Coronavirus”

Coronavirus-and-Your-Heart-Dont-Ignore-Heart-Symptoms-600px

Hospitals across the U.S. are experiencing an influx of COVID-19 patients, but clinicians are reportedly seeing fewer patients going to the emergency room for heart attack or stroke.

Experts worry that patients who need critical care are delaying their treatment over COVID-19 concerns.

To encourage patients to pay close attention to their symptoms and call 9-1-1 immediately if they believe they are having a heart attack or stroke, ACC’s CardioSmart team developed the Coronavirus and Your Heart Infographic.

The infographic urges patients not to ignore symptoms, especially if they have a heart condition, and reassures them that hospitals have safety measures to protect patients from infection with the novel coronavirus.

Natural World Art: “Ten Artists Who Celebrated Nature” (Christie’s)

From Christie’s article (April 22, 2020):

Ivan Shishkin Siverskaya 1896 Christie's
Ivan Shishkin “Siverskaya” (1896)

From Switzerland to South America, from the South of England to the coast of Maine, they have been moved by mountains, oceans, deserts, plains, lakes and forests — we hope you will find their art every bit as stirring as we do

Russia’s pine forests

Siverskaya, located 70km south of St Petersburg, was a popular summer retreat for Russian city-dwellers in the 19th century. It was in Siverskaya and its neighbouring woods that Ivan Shishkin — one of Russia’s most famous landscape painters, dubbed ‘the patriarch of forests’ — created some of his best-known works.

Peak of Mount Emei (1958) - Huang Junbi - Christie's
Peak of Mount Emei (1958) – Huang Junbi

Mount Emei, China

Mount Emei in Sichuan, southwest China, is the highest of China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains, reaching to 3,099 metres. The mountain is a place of pilgrimage, where dozens of temples and monasteries have been erected, and has been an inspiration for artists for centuries.

Wednesday 22 April, 2020 marks 50 years since the declaration of the first Earth Day in 1970 — an occasion on which to reflect on our natural world, and perhaps take action to help sustain it. In celebration of this anniversary, we look back on a selection of artists for whom nature — and our planet — has been an inspiration and guide. 

Christie's

Read and view more

Art Insider: Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” – Art Institute Of Chicago

On this episode of Art Institute Essentials Tour, take a closer look at Nighthawks, painted by Edward Hopper in 1942. Inspired by “a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet,” Hopper’s painting, one of the best-known images of 20th-century art, has a timeless, universal quality that transcends locale.

Website

The Art Of The Curator : “A Day In The Countryside” (National Gallery Video)

Lucy Chiswell, the Curatorial Fellow for Paintings 1600-1800, explores a day in the countryside through paintings by Rubens, Constable and Corot.

Paintings mentioned

0:50 Peter Paul Rubens ‘An Autumn Landscape with a View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’ 🎨 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa…

Find out more about Rubens the artist 🖌️ https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ar…

 

4:19 John Constable, ‘The Hay Wain’ 🎨 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa…

Find out more about Constable the artist 🖌️ https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ar…

 

8:03 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ‘The Four Times of Day: Night’ 🎨 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa…

See more: the four times of day (Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night) 🎨 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/pa…