Museums News
Remarkable Discovery: Hidden painting of St. George unveiled behind 16th-century “Life of San Severo” masterpiece. In a scene reminiscent of a classic mystery novel, a hidden gem has been uncovered in the world of art restoration. Behind Alessio D'Elia's 16th-century masterpiece known as “Life of San Severo,” restorers at the Church of Saint George Maggiore in Naples, Italy, have stumbled upon another painting of historical and artistic significance. A team of restorers were preserving the original painting when, during the delicate restoration process, as layers of grime and time were carefully removed from “Life of San Severo”. An astonishing revelation emerged behind a sturdy chassis with hinges on which D'Elia's canvas is situated, revealing the magnificent painting behind-a depiction of St. George engaged in the
Museums News
Drone art installation companies have envisaged what destroyed or unfinished structures, like the Sagrada Familia , Colosseum and Whitby Abbey, would look like if complete. Studio DRIFT has been crafting its images of life-size drone sculptures since 2020. DRIFT creates these installations in collaboration with companies Drone Stories and Nova Skystories – and it’s not the only company using this technique to imagine what unfinished buildings could look like. Drone light show company Cyberdrone Drone Shows also reconstructs ruined structures using drone images. Here’s a few examples, showing what Whitby Abbey in the UK, the Roman amphitheatre in Plovdiv and the ruins of Soli in Asia Minor could’ve looked like in their prime.
Museums News
"Art doesn’t just exist in the hallowed walls of museums, it can be hidden and magical”. Chewing gum artist makes plea to save Millennium Bridge works. Ben Wilson told most of his art on discarded gum to be removed during engineering and cleaning work. 🫧 An artist who paints tiny pictures on discarded chewing gum has pleaded for his works to be saved after being told most of them will be removed from the Millennium Bridge in London as part of engineering work. 🫧 Ben Wilson, nicknamed “the chewing gum man”, has been painting on pieces of chewing gum trodden into the bridge since 2013. 🫧 The suspension bridge, which crosses the River Thames and connects St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London with
Museums News
Silver drinking vessel in the form of a fist. Hittite, Asia Minor, 1450-1300 BC. Currently housed in the Museum Of Fine Arts - Boston Mfa
This ceremonial drinking vessel is shaped in the form of a human fist with decoration in relief on the cuff. The scene depicts the "Great King Tudhaliya" pouring a libation before an altar of the storm god, who is shown holding a bull. The king is followed by five figures, some playing musical instruments.
Museums News
Stolen Van Gogh painting recovered by Groninger Museum in an IKEA Bag. Ikea bags transport a lot of things because of their large size, durability, and relatively low cost to consumers. But recently, the signature item from the Swedish furniture and home goods retailer held a stolen painting by Vincent van Gogh, 'The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring'. Three and a half years ago, the work was stolen from the Singer Laren museum in a smash-and-grab robbery while the institution was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 1884 painting had been on loan to the Singer Laren from the Groninger Museum voor Stad en Lande in the Netherlands. Video security footage shared with The Guardian showed an individual breaking through the Singer Laren’s
Museums News
A steel and canvas painted German munitions sallet helmet from c.1500AD that is currently housed in The Wallace Collection, London. The helmet provides rare proof of regular army armour being painted with monstrous motifs and heraldic colours. The sides of this helmet are painted with large monogram N’s, which may indicate that its owner was in the service of the city of Nuremberg. The photo of the artefact from the Wallace Collection is followed by photos of a modern reconstruction from the Royal Oak Armoury. This rough, ‘munition’ sallet was in its working lifetime a common, unremarkable object. Its uneven lines, bumpy surfaces and jagged edges testify to the fact that its maker was working quickly. His workshop was no doubt making a large number
Museums News
The German director of the British Museum resigns after suspected thefts of Ancient Greek treasures. British Museum director Hartwig Fischer and his deputy to step down after blunders prompt international embarrassment and questions about systemic failures over handling of the widespread theft of artefacts. Hartwig Fischer said on Friday he accepted responsibility for the museum’s failure to properly respond to warnings about the suspected thefts of thousands of objects in 2021. It emerged last week that items from the museum’s collection were found to be “missing, stolen or damaged”, prompting a police investigation. In his resignation statement, Fischer said: “It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have in response to the warnings in 2021, and to the
Museums News
The British Museum employee sacked after the disappearance of precious objects has been named as a senior curator of Greek collections, Greek sculpture and the Hellenistic period, who worked at the institution for 30 years, according to the Guardian. The senior curator was allegedly dismissed earlier this year after the museum realised that gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD were missing, stolen or damaged. On Wednesday, the museum announced that it had put “emergency measures” in place and ordered an independent review of security. The Metropolitan police launched an investigation. The British Museum said it had discovered earlier this year that items from its collections were missing. It has not said exactly what the
Museums News
Each piece of art of typewriter artist James Cook Artwork contains more than 100,000 individually-stamped typewritten marks and he can spend at least a month working on a single work.
Cook's works have been working exhibited in the past at the Trinity Buoy Wharf, Wonky Wheel and Moot Hall Maldon galleries in the UK.
Museums News
🦀 Samurai helmet made by famous Japanese metal smith Myochin Nobuie in the Dai-ei era (c.1525), now housed in the Asian art collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
🦀
The materials used in the construction of the suit were numerous: iron for the helmet, face mask, and breastplate; chain mail on arms and legs; leather slats and lacquer; rich silk brocade for the sleeves; and colorful silk lacing.
🦀
What makes this helmet especially rare and interesting is the dent on the front – made by a bullet from a matchlock gun, used to test the helmet’s strength against bullets.
Museums News
Did you know that Salvador Dali designed the Chupa Chups logo?
Founded by Spaniard Enric Bernat in 1958, Chupa Chups is now owned by the Italian-Dutch multinational Perfetti Van Melle (the corporation also owns brands such as Mentos, Smint, and Fruitella). The Chupa Chups brand name comes from the Spanish verb chupar, meaning “to suck.”
In 1969, Dali was approached to design a new Chupa Chups logo, and the result became as instantly recognisable as his melting clocks. Dali incorporated the Chupa Chups name into a brightly coloured daisy shape. Always keenly aware of branding, Dali suggested that the logo be placed on top of the lolly instead of the side so that it could always be seen intact.
Museums News
The world's first Barbie? This terracotta female doll with headdress and a short chiton dress has articulated arms and legs that were joined to the torso with string or wire and were movable. Figurines of this type were produced throughout the 5th and 4th c. BC in the pottery workshops of Corinth, Greece, from which this example comes. The front part was made in a mould, while the back of the figurine was flat. A tiny hole at the top of the head was used for dangling the figurine from a string, as if dancing. In some cases the figures held castanets or rattles. This "toy" is one of the rare finds that shed light on the world of children and of play in Antiquity.
Museums News
Felix Nussbaum (1904 – 1944) was a Jewish-German painter who lived in Brussels until he was caught by the Nazis and deported to his death in Auschwitz.
After the war some of the people who had kept his paintings became entangled in legal disputes regarding the ownership of his paintings. After lengthy proceedings, Nussbaum’s surviving relatives were given custody of most of the paintings and a large collection was bought by the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Museumsquartier Osnabrück, a museum established in 1998.
Museums News
This small carving of a water bird was created 33,000 years ago and it's the earliest known representation of a bird. Sculpted in mammoth ivory, it was found in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany in 2002. It can be seen at the Prehistory Museum of Blaubeuren ( Urmu - Urgeschichtliches Museum Blaubeuren ) Details: Prehistoric carved bird. Prehistoric carving in mammoth ivory of a water bird. It is thought to be a diver, cormorant, or duck. This Stone Age (palaeolithic) artefact (47 millimetres long) was found in the period 2001-2 in the Hohle Fels cave, Germany. It has been dated to between 31,000 and 33,000 years ago, and is thought to have been produced by the Aurignacian culture. These early humans lived in Europe
Museums News
Valter Casotto has worked on numerous film productions as senior prosthetic makeup artist on films such as Harry Potter, X-Men: First Class, Prometheus and The Hobbit.
In his spare time he works on hyperrealistic tangible models of famous paintings, such as Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, or artists, such as David Bowie.
His work has been exhibited at Opera Gallery's 'Hyperreality' exhibition at New Bond Street, London.
Museums News
Damien Hirst's 'Black Sun' at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is a round canvas coated with a combination of flies and resin. Created in 2004, the canvas was primed with black acrylic primer before the dead houseflies and clear resin mixture was poured onto it. This method of application resulted in an uneven surface with different levels and a variation in colour caused by the different fly parts (red, brown, black and white). The painting’s overall colour is a rich brown-black. The resin mixture increases the natural glossiness of the flies, with the result that the surface coating has a sticky appearance reminiscent of tar or toffee. Hirst’s use of flies is viscerally and emotively charged. For him, flies are metaphors for human
Museums News
A newly cleaned section of the ceiling of Egypt’s Temple of Esna includes depictions of the 12 zodiac signs. Some of these include Sagittarius reliefs, before (left) and after (right) restoration.
Museums News
The Misalignment Museum in San Francisco imagines a future in which AI starts to take the route mapped out in countless science fiction films—becoming self aware and setting about killing off humanity. Fortunately, in curator Audrey Kim’s vision, the algorithms self-correct and stop short of killing all people. Her museum, packed with artistic allegories about AI and art made with AI assistance, is presented as a memorial of humankind’s future near-miss with extinction.
Museums News
Designed by architect Ferruccio Laviani to look just as you see it, like a wavy digital glitch, the cabinet titled 'Good Vibrations Storage Unit' is being crafted in order to be presented at Italy’s annual interior design show, Salone del Mobile.Milano Laviani's cabinet blends traditional furniture design with a thoroughly modern "glitch" aesthetic to stunning effect. Lavini's piece looks, for the most part, like any meticulously-crafted cabinet, complete with ornate carvings that wouldn't look out of place at in a 16th-century home. What makes it special, however, is a trio of "glitches" inspired by the errors that occur when a digital image doesn't render correctly. To achieve the glitches, Laviani will carve the cabinet from oak using a CNC machine.
Museums News
Happy Fourth of July feat. Vito Acconci's 'Instant House' (1980). Vito Acconci (1940–2017). Acconci’s subversive, boundary-pushing practice largely centered on ephemeral concepts such as language, sexuality, and bodily movement. His works, which spanned poetry, criticism, performance, sound, film, photography, and sculpture, featured numerous provocations: Throughout his career, the artist bit himself, burned off his body hair, and narrated fantasies about gallery visitors over a loudspeaker—all in the name of art. Other, tamer works documented Acconci’s movement through space via photography or video. In the 1970s, the artist expanded his spatial investigations into the realms of furniture design and architecture. Beginning in the 1980s, Acconci ran his own design and architecture firm with his wife, Maria. The artist’s work has been exhibited at intuitions including the
Museums News
The Design Museum has just announced the opening date for 'REBEL: 30 years of London Fashion', which is set to open on 16 September 2023. This landmark collaboration with the British Fashion Council, sponsored by Alexander McQueen, will celebrate 30 years of their NewGen programme, an initiative that supports the best emerging fashion design talent. The show will be one of the most compelling contemporary fashion exhibitions ever staged in the UK, acknowledging the work of over 300 designers and featuring over 100 objects – from innovative and trailblazing garments to films, drawings and memorabilia. A few of the exuberant, rebellious and radical designs which you can expect to see:
Museums News
Justin Bateman, also known as Pebble Picassos, creates ephemeral realistic, naturalistic portraits from pebbles found on beaches. Unlike mosaics, the pebbles are not cemented on another surface for posterity, but are left on the beach to be washed away.
Museums News
Jetta Frost performing Lawrence Malstaf 's 'Shrink' at Trondheim kunstmuseum. 'Shrink' was first performed by Malstaf in 1995. The installation for the performance consists of two large, transparent plastic sheets and a device that gradually sucks the air out from between them, leavi g the body (in this case the artist himself) vacuum-packed and vertically suspended. The transparent tube inserted between the two surfaces allows the person inside the installation to regulate the flow of air. As a result of the increasing pressure between the plastic sheets, the surface of the packed body gradually freezes into multiple micro-folds. For the duration of the performance the person inside moves slowly and changes positions, which vary from the initial almost embryonic position.
Museums News is at Malmö Konsthall.
Roman Signer activates his sand bucket sculpture at Malmö Konsthall. It is Signer’s first major solo exhibition in Sweden, featuring works and films from throughout his career, from the 1970s to the present day.
The work presented is called 'Sandsäule', which can be translated as “column of sand” in French. It had already been installed in 2008 at Galerie Martin Janda in Vienna, Austria.
Museums News
The long-awaited International African American Museum (IAAM), more than two decades in the making, will celebrate its grand opening on the 24th June 2023, at the waterfront site that was the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The museum is situated at Charleston Harbor, where the initiating shots of the Civil War were fired on the site of a former shipping pier known as Gadsden’s Wharf.
The museum is dedicated to telling their stories and celebrating the contributions of their descendants.
More info at: iaamuseum.org/