Friday, September 19, 2008

Travolta

Click here to find out a happy story on what artwork is in John Travolta's new yatch.

By the way, Elena Maza, the artist in this case, also writes political/Cuban op-ed pieces here.

New DC Arts Executive Director

(Via DCist)"Former BET exec and video marketing entrepreneur Gloria Nauden has been named Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities."

From what I can find on Google, Gloria Nauden is the founder of Radar Entertainment Group, a District-based boutique marketing and video production company. They provide specialized marketing services to companies such as Verizon, Lincoln Mercury, Moet Hennessy and XM Satellite Radio.

Nauden previously worked as an executive at Black Entertainment Television in the Strategic Business Development division, where she is credited with "successfully managing a $12 million development budget with 250 employees spanning three states."

Nauden has lived in the District for almost 20 years, and serves as a volunteer at numerous civic organizations including, Parklands Community Center; Sasha Bruce House; Foods & Friends; The Covenant House; Thurgood Marshall Center; and House of Ruth.

We welcome Gloria Nauden to that very important job; Bienvenida!

We'll be watching.

Lost Dalis

"Relatives of one of the world's most famous portrait photographers have sued a Manhattan gallery, saying it lost valuable photographs created with Spanish surrealist master Salvador Dali.

A daughter and two grandchildren of the late Philippe Halsman say in a lawsuit 41 of the works created by Halsman and Dali were reported stolen in April 2007.

The works were among dozens delivered to the Howard Greenberg Gallery in 2003 and 2004.

The federal court lawsuit demands $684,000 in damages."
Read the AP story here.

Ann Temkin at MoMA

Ann Temkin, once from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is now the Museum of Modern Art's new chief curator of painting and sculpture. She succeeds John Elderfield, who retired as chief curator of painting and sculpture in July.

Read the NYT report here.

DC Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow

The Washington DC International Arts Expo opens to the public tomorrow. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. In the evening, attend two special events benefiting local arts programs, Life Pieces to Masterpieces and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10am - 9pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

10am – Doors Open
12Noon - Opening Ceremony with performance from singer David Kirton
1pm - Seminar “Art Talk with the Experts” Special guests’ speakers’ artists James Denmark and Paul Goodnight
2pm - Seminar “Art Collecting 101" with Atlanta-based art historian and collector Paul Jones
3pm – The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Presentation
10pm-1am - The After Hours Xperience

The Collective Collaboration Student Mural Project, 3pm - 4pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D

Making its inaugural debut, The Collective Collaboration Project joins students from various arts programs across the country to present their original mural designed with the theme in mind, “Artists Are Colorless.” The goal of this project is to not only engage the creative mind of our next generation of fine artist, but to teach them how to work together no matter their creative differences. A cash award will be presented to the school with the best mural.

An Intimate Evening of Art, 6pm - 9pm
The Park at 14th Street, 1101 14th Street, NW
Tickets $100 with proceeds to Benefit Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The After Hours Xperience, 10pm-1am
Washington Convention Center, Expo Hall D Main Stage
Tickets $15 with proceeds to benefit Washington Project of the Arts

Hosted by 88 and X Culture TV, late night owls and the party people will be in the house to “xperience a 21 century art happening for the mature!” A fast-paced inspired and inspiring event that brings artists off the canvas, out of their studios and into a live-action, multi-media environment.

Che dell'Egitto

"This spring the state apartments of Italy's presidential palace, the Palazzo del Quirinale, hosted a remarkable exhibit of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts, all of them found on Italian soil but held until recently in private collections and museums in the United States, notably the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The exhibit marked a diplomatic coup for Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome who until last April had served the left-wing government of Romano Prodi for two years as minister of culture. Through an arrangement of long-term loans and the deft application of diplomatic pressure, Rutelli had convinced museum directors that returning these artifacts, all of them acquired from dealers whose methods were not entirely scrupulous, would help to discourage the knowingly illegal looting of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan sites in Italy."
Read the New Republic article here.

Richard The Great PryorThe rest of the planet has to return every Italian artifact that doesn't pass the Italian dodgyness test to Italy?

If the answer is Si! Then do Italian museums have to return Roman antiquities that were made in other parts of the Roman Empire to the nations that now exist there?

If Si, then Italy better start packing the 13 Egyptian obelisks that are now part of Rome. The "dealers" who brought those pieces to Rome did so by force.

Newsflash: Cairo is clearing out some spaces for them!

Every Greek vase back to Greece? But do Greek museums have to return Cypriot antiquities to Cyprus?

Does every dodgy mummy have to find its way back to Egypt?

I know what Richard Pryor would have said.