Latest Art News

Modeled after a live bunch of violets, one of the many delights of this brooch is the use of demantoid (green) garnets and yellow sapphires, sprinkled within the amethysts, emulating the real flowers. Green garnets, weighing a total of 3.51 carats, and the 2.01 carats of yellow sapphires, bring brightness to the quiet purple of the carved amethysts. The artfully shaped amethysts capture the look of violets to a remarkable degree.

Sotheby’s recent auction, "A Beautiful Life: Photographs from the Collection of Leland Hirsch," presented fifty striking photos from Hirsch’s private collection. Richard Avedon’s iconic "Dovima with Elephants" led the auction, selling for $375,500, one of the highest prices of the season.

In the spirit of the English poet Alexander Pope, art, like hope, springs eternal. And this year the vernal equinox, signaling the onset of spring, our most hopeful season, occurred on March 19th, the earliest in recent memory. While March 2020 also saw the proliferation of that other “v” word necessitating a period of enforced isolation, artists are possibly the best equipped to weather this period given the solitary nature of most creative activity. Many artists have recognized the uplifting power of spring, particularly in times of societal upheaval.

Art & Object is pleased to present jewelry and other wearable art recently sold at auction. Since the beginning of time, jewelry has proven to be a medium of expression that defines our tastes, our resources, and our sensibilities. Jewelry extends into decorative arts and has become a defining statement of culture. Our column is presented by Ettagale Blauer, author and authority on jewelry design.

The FotoFest Biennial, an international platform for photographic and new media art, is known for discovering and presenting hot new talent from around the world. The Biennial is a citywide production, with Houston's leading art museums, art galleries, non-profit art spaces, universities and civic spaces all involved. This year’s festival theme is INDIA, with attendees coming from 34 countries, and artists from India and the global Indian diaspora representing the identities of their homeland.

Sotheby’s recent American Art auction included works by seven important female artists in a range of styles from classical sculpture to cubism and folk art. Self-taught artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses, known as “Grandma Moses,” painted "Hurrah for Christmas," one of the highlights of the auction. An autumnal success story, Grandma Moses didn't start painting until 75, becoming one of the most famous folk artists of the 20th century.

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is the latest institution to acquire one of Yayoi Kusama's hugely popular mirrored infinity rooms. Light of Life, 2018, is a seven feet square hexagonal box with three portholes that allow visitors to peer inside. LED lights in changing colors and flickering patterns put on a two-minute show that is reflected infinitely through the mirrors.

Featuring over 3000 artworks from 248 galleries, Art Basel Hong Kong opened this week with the $35 million sale of Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XII (1975). Given that all other major first day sales were male artists, the status quo could use some shaking up, especially in Women’s History Month. Enter the indomitable Guerrilla Girls, feminist art activists based in New York. Known for their signature blend of humor, hard facts and bold graphics, the Guerrilla Girls have been fighting for gender and racial equality in the art world since 1985.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston installed and unveiled their new gleaming Anish Kapoor sculpture this week. "Cloud Column," conceived in the late 1990s and executed in 2006, is a 21,000-pound stainless steel vertical oblong. Situated in front of the future Glassell School of Art, the piece will be a focal point for the Museum’s newly redeveloped campus, set to open in May. The installation sparked mockery from the Chicago Tribune. In the coming decades, Houston is predicted to overtake Chicago as the nation's 4th largest city.

On February 27th, Fernand Léger’s (1881-1955) L’usine or Motif pour le moteur sold at Christie’s London at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale for over 1.9 million pounds ($2.9 million), far exceeding the auction house’s estimate of nine hundred thousand to 1.2 million pounds.