Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Juan de Pareja has been a showstopper since it first left the artist’s makeshift studio in Rome in 1650. When it made its public debut, in the Pantheon, this piercing half-bust likeness of the man who was Velázquez’s slave for two decades, was a way for the Spanish Golden Age painter to announce his artistry and arrival on the Roman art scene—one that led to illustrious commissions (including Pope Innocent X).
In the first episode of this new series of A brush with… Ben Luke talks to Matthew Krishanu about his influences—including writers, composers, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work.
The Belarus-born, France-based painter Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) is precisely the kind of figure we now associate with the School of Paris. Less of a formal movement than an informal time span, it was marked by cosmopolitanism, with Modernist-minded artists from around the world flocking to the French capital, in the first half of the 20th century, to innovate, hang around, work in obscurity, and wait for genius to emerge and fame to pounce.
One of India's leading contemporary artists, Vivan Sundaram, has died, aged 79, his Mumbai gallery has confirmed. He passed away earlier today in a New Delhi hospital from complications related to a brain haemorrhage. He is survived by his wife, the leading art historian Geeta Kapur.
Sundaram was born in Shimla, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, in 1943, in then-British India.
A debate has erupted over the Uffizi’s decision to display an iconic painting by Caravaggio at one of the world’s biggest wine trade fairs.
Caravaggio’s Bacchus (around 1598) will be shown at the Vinitaly trade fair in Verona this spring as part of government efforts to promote the country’s huge wine industry. Art and heritage campaign group Mi Riconosci has described the plans as “absurd” and “unacceptable”, arguing that government rules prohibit the painting from leaving the museum.
All images © Pneuhaus, shared with permission
A spectrum of glowing light pulses through 23 inflated columns that ascend from the ground in Pneuhaus’s (previously) new public installation, illuminating an invisible world just beneath our feet.
Dogs have featured in art throughout history, from the earliest cave paintings to the latest digital works. This week, the Wallace Collection in London will host the first major UK exhibition dedicated to works of art featuring our four-legged friends.
“There are no human sitters—this is just about dogs,” says Alexander Collins, the assistant curator of Portraits of Dogs: from Gainsborough to Hockney.
The dispute over Vincent van Gogh’s Liseuse de romans (The Novel Reader, 1888) has been resolved out of court by the parties who had been claiming rightful ownership of the work. The loser in the case may be the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), which an appeals court ordered in January to hold onto the painting pending the resolution of the ownership dispute—it had been loaned to the museum for its blockbuster Van Gogh in America exhibition, which closed on 22 January.
On a cold and stormy night earlier this month in Los Angeles, heavy rain pelted the streets outside while a small mob crowded into Allouche Gallery. Heads were craning about to see the creator of the large paintings hanging on the walls—many of them landscapes verging on abstraction, and rather moody themselves. The artist, actor Sharon Stone, was holding court in the gallery’s first room, a striking figure in a black suit accented with gatherings of magenta ruffles.
All images © Janny Baek, shared with permission
