Luchita Hurtado died last August 13 at age 99 in his home in Santa Monica, United States. Tarek Atoui has won the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation prize for 2022. An exhibition of Toulouse Lautrec’s work will be held at the Hangaram of the Seoul Arts Center from June 6 to September 13, 2020. “Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud)” is an online sales exhibition at Christie’s dedicated to promoting black art that opened on July 31.
Luchita Hurtado, images of women and nature
August 14, 2020 – Via artnews.com
Luchita Hurtado died last August 13 at age 99 in her home in Santa Monica, United States. She was a Venezuelan painter who worked and exhibited for 7 decades in galleries in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Santa Monica. She leaves for posterity a wide range of work with an artistic style immersed between surrealism and informal abstraction.
A representative of Hauser & Wirth Gallery confirmed her death and declared that “over the course of 70 years, Hurtado resolutely committed to documenting the interconnectedness of human beings, nature, and terrestrial life. Her profound engagement with and deep compassion for earth and humanity is evidenced by her extensive oeuvre of paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints.
The Venezuelan painter’s works were marked by different influences such as the surrealism of the beginning of the century, Mexican muralism, and her commitment to environmentalism. It is a pity that her paintings have only recently become known to the general public since Hurtado’s pioneering work began in the 1950s when she painted several paintings of her own naked body including sets of surrealistic objects.
There was a marked interest in nature that manifested itself through her works of art throughout her career. In her work, you can find the feminist spirit, between the lines of her body and her environment. She also claimed the importance of the environment by showing bodies as part of the landscape. Unfortunately, until now, the vast work built up over Hurtado’s time has not been as widely recognized as it deserves.
Tarek Atoui wins 2022 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize
August 14, 2020 – Via artforum.com
Tarek Atoui (born 1980) is a contemporary artist and composer born in Lebanon and living in Paris. His work reflects the notion of the instrument, how it interacts with listening, composition, and performance, based on research into the history of music and traditional musical practices. Atoui has won the 2022 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, founded by The Contemporary Austin trustee Suzanne Deal Booth. This biennial award includes an academic publication and $200,000. The winner also wins a solo exhibition that will open in downtown Austin in the spring of 2022 and then will move on to the FLAG Art Foundation in New York City.
Atoui moved to France from his native Beirut in 1998 and began composing electronic music. He worked as an artistic director at STEIM in Amsterdam in 2007 and gave his first solo exhibition entitled “Un-drum 3” in 2010. Atoui develops a multidisciplinary and collaborative ethnomusicological practice. He is in charge of creating installations and live performances. He does this by bringing together sound engineers, instrument makers, musicians, and local communities.
According to Heather Pesanti, chief curator and director of Contemporary, “In these unprecedented times, the museum is grateful for the opportunity to support Atoui and his collaborators as they continue to create different ways to experience art and sound in various communities. Their sensitivity to place through research and collaboration is perfect for our times”.
Toulouse Lautrec’s works presented at the Seoul Arts Center
August 14, 2020 – Via artdaily.com
Toulouse Lautrec (1864 – 1901) was a French painter, poster artist and one of the pioneers of modern graphic arts. He was noted for his depiction of Parisian nightlife at the end of the 19th century. An exhibition of his work will be held at the Hangaram of the Seoul Arts Center from June 6 to September 13, 2020. More than 150 original works consisting of drawings, prints, and sketches will be on view there. These works are part of the collection of philanthropists and art collectors Anna-Belinda and Paul Firos.
For the exhibition, eight oil paintings by Toulouse Lautrec are selected and reproduced as media art. Lautrec’s work is characterized by a photographic style, full of spontaneity, capturing the movement in his scenes and characters. His works were influenced by Japanese art, this is manifested in the diagonal compositional lines and the sudden cutting of the figures by the edges.
Lautrec had a photographic memory and paints very quickly. He was at the forefront of modernism and art nouveau. His first influence was impressionist painting and, above all, the figure of Degas, from whom he followed the urban theme, moving away from the landscapes that Monet or Renoir interpreted. He portrayed the lifestyle of the Parisian bohemians at the end of the 19th century in the famous settings of the Rue de l’art, Montmartre, and the symbol of night culture, the Moulin Rouge.
The exhibition includes posters, sketches, illustrations, lithographs, drawings, and watercolors. “Jane Avril, 1893” and “Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret, 1893” are presented here among others. The graphic illustrations and satirical lithographs published in magazines are images that represent the painter Toulouse Lautrec as a symbol of the Belle Époque in Paris at the end of the 19th century.
Speculation on the black artists market and how to prevent it
August 13, 2020 – Via artnet.com
Amoako Boafo was the protagonist of a major art sale as last February when one of hIS paintings was sold in London by Phillips for over $ 800 thousand, ten times its estimated price, and a three thousand percent of what the seller had paid for this piece less than a year earlier. But the sad thing about this story is that the Ghanaian artist did not see a penny of this transaction. This proves once again that auction houses are not friendly places for emerging talent.
Most recently 22 emerging black artists participated in “Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud),” an online sales exhibition at Christie’s dedicated to promoting black art that opened on July 31. But this time the auction house took action along with Destinee Ross-Sutton, the curator of the show, to prevent buyers from turning the works around later for a profit.
They ensured that all the artists participating in this show would receive the full gains from the sale of their work. In order to do this, all buyers had to sign a contract in which they committed not to resell the work purchased at this auction for at least five years. If they wish to sell within a shorter period than that agreed they must give the artist the right of first refusal, and if they sell to someone else they must return 15 percent of the profit to the artists.
This type of measure serves a dual purpose, as a test of the buyer’s real motivations and as a way to support the development of the growing careers of new artists. Christie’s has noted that 75 to 80 percent of the exhibition has been sold to collectors and some institutions to date. Prices range from $475 for a Cary Fagan’s limited edition—an artist from Houston—to $43,000 for the two major works by Nelson Makamo, a well-known South African artist.
