Expressionism

An electric company in England has uncovered a host of millennia-old objects dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Roman, and Saxon periods at a site near the city of Dorchester. Spanning 6,000 years of history, the artifacts were excavated as part of a project that lasted almost two years.

The finds were announced last month by the London-based electric company National Grid, which partnered with Oxford Archaeology to conduct the project. Historic England, the Dorset AONB Partnership, and Dorset County archaeologists also provided input.

Artifacts recovered include over 6,000 shards of prehistoric pottery and more than 40,000 struck flints, as well as a greenstone axe head, a bone awl, and antler tine, all dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

The Neolithic period in Britain starts around 4,000 B.C.E. and continues to 2,500 B.C.E. During this time, the population transitioned from hunting and gathering to a more sedentary lifestyle characterized … Read the rest

Artist Leslie Wayne molds and manipulates oil paint to create surfaces that blur the confines of painting and sculpture. Wayne found “an approach to [paint] that was very dimensional,” as she told Brooke Jaffe in a recent interview for “ARTnews Live,” our ongoing IGTV series featuring interviews with a range of creatives.

Wayne, the daughter of a concert pianist and a writer, began painting lessons at the age of 7 and lived in what she describes as a very open and “encouraging” household. Dissatisfied with the body of abstract geometric paintings featured in her first show—she says they felt formally rigorous but “hollow”—Wayne soon began integrating sculptural techniques into her paintings, which she says “helped me kind of build a vocabulary that was fresh and new to me.”

It was then that Wayne realized “paint could be used like you would use any other material to build a work … Read the rest

A three-year-long, multimillion-dollar legal battle between the estate of Robert Indiana and the Morgan Art Foundation, which represented Indiana during his lifetime and owns the copyright to much of his work, including his famed “LOVE” symbol, has culminated in a settlement. Various suits and countersuits that were pending in court were also dismissed. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

According to a filing in New York District Court last week, the remaining suits between the Morgan Art Foundation and the executor of his estate, James W. Brannan, have all been dismissed, along with ones against the artist’s longtime caretaker, Jamie Thomas. The settlement will allow for the estate and the Morgan Art Foundation to jointly represent the artist’s work and grow his market. The terms of the settlement were not revealed, though all the parties agreed to bear their own legal costs.

In the days … Read the rest

Leonardo da Vinci’s recently rediscovered painting Salvator Mundi (ca. 1500) may very well eclipse the Mona Lisa in fame, though the reasons why have to do less with its art-historical significance than its market value—the painting sold for $450 million at a Christie’s auction in 2017. This paradox guides Andreas Koefoed’s masterfully told documentary The Lost Leonardo, which debuted this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. In just 95 minutes, Koefoed charts how the painting became the most expensive artwork of all time and how it mysteriously disappeared, in the process managing to offer new insights into a story that has been explored ad nauseam in the press.

The film opens dramatically, with reenacted footage of a man rifling through an art storage unit at night. With a flashlight in hand, he explains what a “sleeper” painting is: “a painting that’s being offered … which is … Read the rest

More than two dozen looted artifacts were returned to Cambodia by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., on Friday, in a move that officials said was intended to restore cultural heritage to the country. The 27 repatriated artifacts are estimated to be worth $3.8 million.

Among the objects returned were statues of Shiva and Buddha, as well as artifacts dating back to Cambodia’s Angkor era, which lasted from the 9th to the 15th century.

In a statement, Vance said, “The repatriation of these 27 stunning relics to the people of Cambodia restores an important link between the nation’s classical Angkor era and its modern customs and beliefs that, for far too long, was disrupted by the greed of stolen antiquities traffickers.”

Twenty-four of the artifacts were obtained in connection with an investigation into disgraced dealer Subhash Kapoor and his network. Kapoor, who operated the New York gallery Art of the … Read the rest

A stamped seal in the ancient village of Tel Tsaf dating to the 5th millennium B.C.E. has been unearthed, according to a study in the journal Levant by archaeologists Michael Freikman and David Ben-Shlomo, of the University of Ariel and Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, respectively.

Of the nearly 150 seals that have been uncovered at the Tel Tsaf site, this one is the only stamped one. Additionally, it is the oldest stamped seal ever recovered in Israel.

In the 5th millennium B.C.E., Tel Tsaf wealthy inhabitants had the means to purchase goods from Mesopotamia, Turkey, Egypt, and the Caucasus. The study suggests that the stamped seal could be a sign of the region’s rich trade system, and that it was related to administrative practices. A seal would have been used to identify an individual, so it may have been used to authenticate documents.

The stamped seal’s … Read the rest

Daniel Sallick is board chair of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and a founding partner of Subject Matter, a creative advocacy firm based in the city. The views expressed here are his own.

The art world has been invigorated in the past year by the notion that equity and inclusion should be mandates rather than mere abstract concepts. But while we’re good at hashtags, putting on fundraisers, and lifting up what we believe should be ideals, it’s time to walk the walk and lobby Washington to usher in a much more ambitious and nimble approach to the federal government’s role in the arts. We can’t continue to wait and see which way the political winds blow. We must summon the art world’s collective power to set a new and bold agenda for making access to the arts a fundamental component of education in America.

There are … Read the rest