Arts

Helena Newman, Head of Europe at Sotheby's, announced the presence of the painting in the next auction on 2nd March in London: "The empire of lights brings together two fundamental elements of everyday life - day and night - on a paradoxical canvas.". Magritte created the picture in 1961 and dedicated it to Anne Marie Gillion Crowet, daughter of the patron Pierre Crowet, a historical friend of the painter. He certainly never expected his "empire des lumières" to be not only considered one of the most representative works of surrealism, but also to reach an estimate of € 52 million by Sotheby's. The famous canvas, until now, had been part of the Crowet family collection, lent to the Magritte Museum in Brussels from 2009 to 2020. The dimensions of the work of art are also important,...

Chicago, more precisely the Art Institute, is the first city to host the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama which will be on tour until May 2022.  The National Portrait Gallery in Washington – home to the two works created in 2018 by artists Kehinde Wiley (author of the former President’s portrait) and Amy Sherald (author of the former First Lady’s portrait) – organized the tour in 5 different cities of the United States: the exhibition will be available, in addition to Chicago until August 15, also in New York (from August 27 to October 24 at the Brooklyn Museum), in Los Angeles (at the County Museum of Art from November 7 to January 2, 2022) , then in Atlanta (at the High Museum of Art from 14 January to 13 March 2022) and finally in Housto...

22 years after the entrepreneur and art collector François-Henri Pinault’s plans, his contemporary art museum has been finally inaugurated at the Bourse de Commerce, the former Paris stock exchange building.  The new exhibition gallery, restored through the intervention of the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, ​​will house the entire collection of François-Henri Pinault who for over 50 years has collected contemporary works by artists from all over the world. "The idea was to design a lively space that would foster a dynamic dialogue between the new and the old, which is what a site dedicated to contemporary art should be", said Tadao Ando. “It was a challenging construction project, but the team has created a rema...

Nonostante la pandemia da Coronavirus stia ancora sortendo i suoi effetti negativi su teatri, musei, circhi, mostre e sale cinematografiche, che restano chiuse per ragioni di sicurezza, la cultura sceglie di non fermarsi e il digitale sembra essere la chiave per ripensare lo spettacolo. Seppur con tutti gli spettacoli in presenza bloccati per ragioni di sicurezza, la regione Emilia-Romagna si sta reinventando per far ripartire la sua offerta. I dati relativi alle attività culturali e di spettacolo di questo 2020 non sono però incoraggianti. L’Osservatorio sullo spettacolo della SIAE ha infatti presentato i dati sulla stima dei danni causati dalla pandemia sulla cultura emiliano-romagnola che evidenziano come, rispetto al 2019, la mancata “spesa del pubblico” per eventi, proiezioni e spett...

Christie's is one of the most famous auction houses in the world, it was founded in London in 1766 and offers around 350 auctions every year. The British auction house has announced that on December 9 there will be two very important events: John Keats’ funeral mask and Joseph Severn’s Portrait of John Keats at Wentworth Place on the day of his composing 'Ode to a Nightingale' will be offered for sale.  Who was John Keats? The English artist was born close to London on October 31, 1795, after finishing his studies he decided to quit his career in medicine in order to dedicate his life to literature. Keats belonged to the second generation of romantic poets and, despite his short life, he left us some of his most sign...

The world of art is experiencing a significant moment. On November 28, a live streaming conference announced a very important news not only for the city of Piacenza, but for both Italian and European culture. The Ricci Oddi art gallery of Piacenza has announced the return of Gustav Klimt's work "Portrait of a Lady", stolen twenty-three years ago.  In 1925 the Austrian artist’s painting was purchased by the Italian collector Giuseppe Ricci Oddi, then in 1997 it was stolen from the gallery and only in December 2019 was found in a bag in the same art gallery where it was exhibited. A rather mysterious fact, almost like the painting itself. In 1996 the student Claudia Maga realized that...

Da sempre l’arte, per esplicitare la propria essenza, ha bisogno del pubblico e di un luogo nel quale prendere forma. Oggi più che mai la creatività necessita di una “piazza” per raccontare se stessa e la nuova serie condotta da Nicolas Ballario, in onda su Sky Arte, realizzata da Tiwi, rappresenta uno spazio in cui potersi esprimere. Al via giovedì 26 novembre The Square, un luogo in costruzione i cui contenuti vengono dai palcoscenici del mondo dell’arte e della cultura, ora vuoti, e sono emblema di nuove modalità in risposta all’epoca complessa nella quale siamo immersi. Gli ospiti sono artisti, musicisti, registi, attori, danzatori, finalmente accolti da un luogo che si trasforma in cassa di risonanza per la loro attività. Durante il primo episodio sarà raccontata l’evoluzione digi...

The word totem is often misused to refer to the poles depicting animals associated with Native American culture. Actually by totem, a term deriving from ototeman, we mean a natural or supernatural entity that takes on a symbolic meaning for a person or within a clan or tribe. The cult based on the presence of totems is called totemism and it is a religious practice of tribal origin. Several native tribes of North America who adhered to this cult used to carve tree trunks and decorate them to depict overlapped totems, hence creating the so-called totem poles. These symbolized and/or commemorated cultural beliefs related to family legends, clan lineages or other important events.  Many think that the art of totem poles is a peculiarity of all Native Americans. The truth is that t...