Articles

From a contemporary point of view, textiles are a powerful source of political and social symbolism. Textile crafting such as embroiderers, quilts or tapestries are a universal form of creative expression, present in the tradition of many communities around the world. Their nature as decorative and domestic elements and also its link with manufacturing processes makes them objects of artistic and socio-political representation.

It is not a book you can read because it was never meant to be read. The publisher describes it as a playscript, but it seems highly unlikely that anyone could use it without supplementary knowledge to produce the piece it purports to script. Costume En Face was meant to be used by its writer, and perhaps by others doing the same kind of work, to take the work deeper. Period. It is an archival object rather than a traditional piece of writing.

Reintroducing the body into his works, Imran Qureshi applies paint to the pain of a region under seize. As Rajesh Punj scrutinises the grief and grandeur of his inaugural show at ROPAC, Paris.

On 9th December this year, Sotheby’s London will offer for sale John Constable's The Lock - one of the small group of monumental landscapes.

LALIQUE, the French crystal maker, is proud to unveil a new collaboration with Elton John. The Elton John Music is Love for Lalique includes seven exceptional crystal sculptures: three limited editions and four unique pieces. The three limited edition sculptures are available from today at Lalique boutiques worldwide, with 10% of the proceeds to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The twenty-ninth edition of the Florence International Biennial Antiques Fair – BIAF – will be held from 26 September to 4 October. 88 dealers in ancient and modern art, including 27 foreign antiquarians, will come to Palazzo Corsini sull'Arno to display scrupulously selected works of impeccable quality.

As a centerpiece of the October Photographs auctions, Phillips is pleased to announce the single owner sale, Innovators of Photography: A Private East Coast Collection.

Sotheby’s is pleased to announce that its 5 November 2015 Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art will feature one of the finest works by Kazimir Malevich.

This work by Anish Kapoor is universal; it has nothing to do with the King or the Queen, with Versailles or France. Appreciated in 2011 in Italy, it will be just as liked throughout the world, because this work speaks of light, of birth, of life’s journey, of the unknown: the mystery and darkness that surround death. It also tells us that we all come from the same planet and that we have to love it.

EXPO CHICAGO 2015, the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, is due to take place from the 17th to the 20th of September. From its very start, EXPO CHICAGO had an array of undeniable advantages, such as timing, location, along with the rich and long history of its predecessor. The timing for EXPO CHICAGO is actually ideal: the fair opens the fall art season and rules the roster for the whole year. Not to mention the fair’s location in the heart of America, which attracts the attention of collectors and art lovers from both coasts. EXPO CHICAGO can rightly be considered the successor of Art Chicago, which was established in 1980 and acted as a pillar of contemporary art sales, along with such fairs like Art Cologne and Art Basel.

There was a time when a trip to Europe could be described as ‘Grand’. Long before bargain flights, crossing the continent was a major undertaking. It was part education, part shopping trip, and if you weren’t wealthy, or at least in the retinue of someone who was, it was beyond your means. Grand Tours flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries, a time during which the nobility stocked their stately homes with artworks and antiquities from the Mediterranean lands. In 2015, they still have an exclusive aura, or did so until the arrival of Pablo Bronstein.

Revisions and Alternative Ending to Revolutionary Song Revealed for the First Time. Estimated £150,000-200,000 at Sotheby's.

Dutch artist Hellen van Meene is well known for her style of photographic portraiture. Van Meene’s works depict mostly adolescents, but there are also sometimes small children or even animals. When looking at these photographs it is hard to say exactly when and where they were made. The background is only available at a glimpse, and the nondescript clothes pull the viewer’s attention completely towards the model. The subject’s postures and facial expressions that van Meen captures can almost paralyze the viewer, so deep is the experience of immersion, as Hellen van Meene stops the moment and captures the viewer within the world of these children.

Zaha Hadid Architects, working with Leonhardt, Andrä & Partner and Sinotech Engineering Consultants, have won the international competition to design the new Danjiang Bridge in Taipei for the Directorate General of Highways, Taiwan, R.O.C. Located at the mouth of Tamsui River that flows through the capital Taipei, the Danjiang Bridge is integral to the infrastructure upgrading program of northern Taiwan.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong autumn 2015 sale series to take place from 3 to 7 October.

German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol just finished his work on a large outdoor sculpture. The larger-than-life figure represents a kneeling but upward looking man dressed in a white shirt and black trousers. It is 5.70 metres high and weighs nearly 3 tons. Originally Balkenhol had designed the figure for the Freedom and Unity Monument in Berlin in 2010.

Marco Godoy (Madrid 1986) understands his artistic practice as a way to find spaces from which to redefine social and political events. His works are linked to protest and political art, but the aesthetics and mediums he uses present new approaches from which to address specific topics.

Art Basel has recently announced that Noah Horowitz is appointed to the new position of Director Americas for Art Basel, starting in August 2015. Based in the United States, Horowitz will direct Art Basel's Miami Beach show moving forward, further strengthen Art Basel's relationships with galleries, collectors, artists, museums and institutions from the Americas, and promote them throughout Art Basel's activities worldwide. Horowitz joins Art Basel's Executive Committee – led by Marc Spiegler at a global level – alongside Adeline Ooi, Director Asia; Marco Fazzone, Director Resources and Finance; and Patrick Foret, Director Business Initiatives.

Those who like adventure with their art are currently well served at Ambika P3, that vast space for the University of Westminster in North London. Visitors follow bright signs to a sex club, indeed an Alien Sex Club. Passing through a towering veil of coloured organza, you are then invited to lose yourself in an array of boarded passages and darkened cells.

Beyond the canvas posters of Swiss-French designer and architect Le Corbusier, the Pompidou’s idiosyncratic building in central Paris also plays host to a retrospective styled exhibition of Beirut born, London and Berlin based artist Mona Hatoum. Whose work has since the early 1980’s been concerned with the trappings of control; as it proved the invasive ingredient for her Palestinian up-bringing. Leaving Lebanon for London in 1975 as a consequence of civil war, Hatoum’s work draws attention to the lives and landscapes of those permanently under seize and out of place.