Modernism

As the market for Old Master paintings continues to prove fertile, Christie’s will auction a potentially record-breaking landscape by Italian artist Bernardo Bellotto during it’s July 8 evening sale in London dedicated to the category. The 18th-century painting, View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi (ca. 1745-47) depicts a view of a canal in the Italian city. Coming to auction after 50 years in private hands, it is expected to fetch a price of £12 million–£18 million ($17 million–$25 million).

Measuring at more than 5 by 7 feet, the work was purchased by its current owner in 1971 at Christie’s for £300,000 ($720,000). Since 1973, it has been on long-term loan at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.

“It is a picture that defined [Bellotto’s] artistic vision and shaped the extraordinary pan-European success he enjoyed as a topographical view painter,” Henry Pettifer, Christie’s London head of Old Masters, … Read the rest

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Oil painting can be an expensive hobby. Due to the complex, arduous processes of sourcing, grinding, and treating pigments, some paints can reach shelves with hair-raising price tags. Thankfully, you can be kind to your wallet without sacrificing too much in terms of quality. There are plenty of student-grade and hobbyist oil paints on the market that are well worth inclusion in your art arsenal. These tend to be made with easily sourced or synthetic pigments, contain more oil or fillers, and lack outstanding lightfastness. But many still handle and perform very well. Our picks below will convince you that you can indeed achieve satisfying results with budget-friendly oil paints.

ARTNEWS RECOMMENDS
Blick Artists’ Oil Paints and Sets
Affordable enough for everyday use, these are artist-grade oils that are … Read the rest

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Like all autobiographies, artist memoirs require two ingredients: a compelling life story and the ability to put it to paper. For lots of people, though, it seems counterintuitive that a visual artist would pick up a pen. This is nonsense, of course. Many artists can write, even if people are surprised when they do. As proof that artists are often accomplished at it, we present our choices for the best artists’ memoirs, ranging from scandalous to epic. (Price and availability current at time of publication.)

1. David Wojnarowicz, Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration
The life of David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) would make a fascinating subject for any book. Born in suburban New Jersey and physically abused as a child by his alcoholic father, Wojnarowicz wound up in … Read the rest

In 1981, after 15 years playing with the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, Alan Page left his career as a professional athlete to become a lawyer. This was a rare move for a Hall of Fame football player, but after finally coming to terms with a years-long inner conflict over sport and law, as Page recently told ARTnews, “it was time for me to move on.” Since then, he has risen to the highest levels of the legal world. In 1993, he was appointed as a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the first Black person to obtain the position.

Now an accomplished philanthropist at age 75, Page is reflecting on another commitment that has lasted nearly a lifetime: art collecting. In the early 1970s, with his wife Diane Page, who died in 2018, he began buying art. They started small, first buying works on paper by artists … Read the rest

A well-stocked studio should always include some permanent markers. These versatile tools, great for both functional purposes (like labeling) and artistic pursuits, are easy to work with and inexpensive, especially when purchased in sets. They come in many nib sizes, which makes them a great tool for detailed artworks. Whether you’re filling in a coloring book, drafting on acetate, or working on a design project for a client, choose the best products to express yourself. Read on to learn about our top picks.

ARTNEWS RECOMMENDS
Bic Permanent Markers
Available in 36 blendable colors and compatible with a variety of surfaces, Bic’s markers are our favorite go-to for any job. Each marker is juicy, with easy-flowing ink that doesn’t feather on paper and dries almost immediately to a translucent finish. The ink is acid-free and resists fading unless kept under direct sunlight for long periods. You can write or draw on … Read the rest

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A kneaded eraser is an essential artists’ tool for erasing, yes, but also for blurring edges, highlighting, and using other subtractive drawing techniques. It is made of a flexible gummy material that you can mold to any form or take a small piece of to access hard-to reach areas. Most often, artists use a press-and-lift technique with kneaded erasers rather than rubbing them across surfaces. This method leaves paint undisturbed and does not damage even soft paper. Kneaded erasers are versatile and absorb graphite, charcoal, pastel, and chalk on contact. Browse our selection of the best kneaded erasers below.

ARTNEWS RECOMMENDS
Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser
Simply press this eraser onto graphite for a noticeably clean lift, even in heavily shaded areas. The Faber-Castell kneaded eraser is quite flexible, making it … Read the rest

For decades, Faith Ringgold has invited the dark shadows of American life onto the nation’s bright face, chronicling its grim histories, untold betrayals, and unsung heroes. The sound-bite description of the artist—Black Power activist, feminist, maker of story quilts—subsumes the complexities of her fulsome vision and personal voice. Her politics, while prophetic, earned her little respect within the mainstream art world or among her peers in the 1960s and ’70s. With more than seventy artworks hung mostly chronologically, the Glenstone Museum’s survey, organized by the Serpentine Gallery in London, elaborates on the context and development of Ringgold’s work across genres (early figuration, political posters, soft sculpture, quilts) and historically bound series, including “American People” (1963–67), “Black Light” (1967–69), and “Feminist Series” (1972). It is the most expansive exhibition of Ringgold’s work to date.

The first galleries introduce “Super Realism,” Ringgold’s signature style of abstracted figuration and sharp graphic and conceptual … Read the rest

Marilyn Minter’s paintings, photographs, and videos often depict the female body in a variety of ways—from up-close views of women’s feet in heels and eyeshadow-covered eyelids to more explicit sexual imagery—to confront beauty standards, desire, and pleasure in her work. They’ve been described as “steamy, soiled, smeared, and sensual,” as Brooke Jaffe notes in a recent interview with Minter for “ARTnews Live,” our ongoing IGTV series featuring interviews with a range of creatives.

“I’m always thinking in terms of: What do we know exists, but you’ve never seen an image of it?” Minter told Jaffe, referring to her depictions of sweat, freckles, and body hair, which are often removed from images that circulate in the media.

“We’re shot through with imperfection,” she continued, adding that we all take “shameful pleasure” in glamour, fashion, and near-impossible beauty standards for women. “I think of it as a giant industry in our … Read the rest

Eli Broad, a collector who dramatically reshaped Los Angeles’s art scene with a museum in his name and large financial contributions to top arts venues, has died at 87. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which oversees his collection, announced his death on Friday night.

“Eli saw the arts as a way to strive to build a better world for all,” Joanne Heyler, the founding director of the Broad, the L.A. art museum he opened in 2015, said in a statement. “He was a fiercely committed civic leader, and his tenacity and advocacy for the arts indelibly changed Los Angeles. He will long be remembered for his unmatched generosity in sharing the arts passionately and widely.”

With his wife Edythe, whom he married in 1954, Broad amassed a world-class collection filled with artists ranging from Jeff Koons to Kerry James Marshall. The Broads have ranked on the annual ARTnews Top … Read the rest

Over the course of a career that spanned more than half a century, Emma Amos profoundly shifted the course of art history through her varied experiments combining painting and textiles. These works exploded with color, and they brought forth new mediations on what figurative painting could be, reckoning in the process with issues of race and gender. “I try to make a painting resonate in some kind of way,” Amos said in an oral history with the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in 2011.

The influence of Amos, who died last year at 83, now looms large in the art world, but that wasn’t always the case. She struggled to find gallery representation early on in her career, and for much of her life, she didn’t sell many works. Even fewer of her paintings entered museum collections while she was alive. But Amos was never one to give up easily. … Read the rest