Artist Jonas Wood‘s
painting “Japanese Garden 3” (2019) will be sold by Christie’s on May 15 to
fund a 600,000-acre reserve in the South American rainforest to aid the area’s
biodiversity, combat climate change, and protect several native endangered
species on plot of land twice the size of Los Angeles. The Global Wildlife
Conservation and the Rainforest Trust will match the hammer price by 400
percent, to go toward the conservation project. The painting is estimated to
sell for $500,000–$700,000. [Rainforest Trust]
The Asia Society is
launching a new triennial in New York in June 2020. The exhibition, featuring
40 pan-Asian artists, is titled We Do Not Dream Alone. Boon Hui Tan says he and
his co-curator Michelle Yun will “examine the meaning of art from Asia in an
increasingly global context. We must value art because it not only allows us to
dream without fear, but also because it is one of the few spaces where we can
disagree without explicit conflict.” [New York Times]
A portrait of
Leonardo da Vinci by Francesco Melzi (via Wikimedia Commons)
Scientists in Italy
are performing DNA tests on a possible lock of Leonardo da Vinci‘s hair,
currently on display in the Tuscan town of Vinci concurrent to the global
celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the artist and inventor’s death after
it was discovered in an American private collection. “We are not 100 percent
sure it is his hair, we are saying it is possible through genaeological
research to compare the genetic material’s DNA with that of Leonardo’s living
descendants who have been found in Tuscany,” says art historian Alessandro
Vezzosi. Many art historians are skeptical, including Eike Schmidt of the
Uffizi Gallery in Florence. “No specialist thinks so, and it is extremely
unlikely that a lock of Leonardo’s hair could wind up in an American
collection,” he told Italian media. Vezzosi plans to release his findings in
the coming months. [France24]
On the 500th
anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci‘s death, news outlets revealed that that the
world’s second-known portrait of the polymath had been discovered. Outside of
self-portraits, the only known depiction of the artist from his lifetime was
once a sketch by his pupil, Francesco Melzi. But while researching an
exhibition for The Queen’s Gallery in London, Martin Clayton identified another
sketch as a study of Leonardo made by an unidentified assistant of Leonardo’s,
shortly before the genius’s death in 1519. [BBC]
Trevor Paglen‘s
satellite art, “Orbital Reflector,” cannot be tracked, say officials at the
Nevada Museum of Art, which helped create the $1.5 million space sculpture.
During the recent 35-day government shutdown, engineers were unable to deploy
the work, and have are not able to create contact with the object, which has
been in the works for a decade. [artnet]
The UK government
has temporarily barred the export of four early works by Francis Bacon,
included a painted screen by the British artist valued at £2.5 million (~$3.2
million), and three rugs. The artworks are banned from being sold outside of
the UK until public British institutions are given the chance to raise funds to
purchase them. [Guardian]
A Banksy painting
(titled “Season’s Greetings”) found in a Welsh town has faced an uncertain fate
for months, as locals rallied with a hope to preserve the work and display it
in the town of Port Tablet. Local authorities in Port Tablet have come to a
conclusion with John Brandler, the art dealer who purchased the work for a
reported £100,000 (~$130,000). At the end of May, the painting will be
relocated and put on display in a former police station for at least three
years. [Guardian]
Daniela Molinari, an
Italian-Canadian art conservation student, was selected as the winner of the
Louvre‘s partnership with Airbnb to spend a night at the famous Parisian
museum. She was chosen from over 180,000 competitors who submitted their
response to the question: “Why would you be the Mona Lisa’s perfect guest?” The
26-year-old Molinari says. says, “I wrote about offering a drink to Mona Lisa,
to ask her about Leonardo … we would share a spritz, because she never had a chance
to taste one.” [France24]
An Italian
prosecutor believe an 11th-century manuscript in the collection of the Morgan
Library and Museum was stolen from a parish church in 1925. The Morgan was
gifted the missal in 1984 from the collection of investment banker William S.
Glazier, but the prosecutor points to missing provenance details that call into
question whether the work was acquired in good faith. (TAN)
Transactions
Damien Hirst,
"Frank Eggs-ellent Dunphy" (2010), pen on placemat, 22 cm (image
courtesy the British Museum)
Damien Hirst, “Frank
Eggs-ellent Dunphy” (2010), pen on placemat, 22 cm (image courtesy the British
Museum)
The British Museum
has acquired 73 portraits of Frank Dunphy by Damien Hirst, donated by Dunphy
through the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The portraits are known as “The Wolseley Drawings”
and were created between 2004 and 2010, when the two would meet for breakfast
at the Wolseley in Mayfair. During their meetings, Hirst drew these portraits
on the back of the Wolseley restaurant’s 22 centimeter diameter placemats. [via
email announcement]
This and other
notable sales and acquisitions are chronicled in our latest Transactions story.
https://hyperallergic.com/497375/week-in-review-500-years-since-leonardos-death-jonas-wood-sale-will-fund-rainforest-conservation/
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