Tuesday, December 7, 2010

ArtTraveler digests recent happenings about Spanish artists

Fiesta-fevered Miami Beach arts elite hosted a Mexican Mascarade party on 3 Dec. at the Florida Room.

Notables, including Spanish artist Veronica Gonzalez,  made notable masks, which the notable elite wore. Marcos Roundtree of Travesia Cuatro Gallery installed a piece inspired by Casa Dragones Tequila.

Looks like my good friend and animalist painter Kate Morris isn't the only artist whose works were stolen last week. Three guys in a van ran off with an estimated $6.6 million in sculptures and paintings, ripped off from a Madrid warehouse, one by Picasso and two works by Eduardo Chillida and one by Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero.

Speaking of Picasso, one of his works is heading for public display at Ramallah's International Art Academy in Palestine. The Dutch Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven cut the deal. Picasso's 'Buste de Femme' (1943) will be shown.

Salvador Dali's making a comeback at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. The High Museum this month opened a show featuring inter alia a series of black and white photographs by Philippe Halsman, focusing on Dalil's iconic mustache. Among Dali's works shown: 'The Madonna of Port Lligat' and 'Christ of St. John of the Cross.'

The father of Spanish comics, Felipe Hernandez Cava, told the Buenas Aires Herald last week  said he's no longer the leftist he was when he introduced comics into Franco's Spain. Cava said he was young then. Hmmm. The guy had allot of pundador (hutzpa?) if he did what he claims.

The Herald quotes him: "Our works were published in banned magazines that belonged to various parties that were against the government. Back then, we financed the publications with our own salaries, we would sell contributions to the orthodox press."

If he did all that, he would have been jailed. Trust me. I worked in Madrid as assistant managing editor of the Spanish Daily News in 1968. 

He's still a star in Spain, however. He won last year's Comics Award, a new category the culture minister established four years ago. Cava claims more than 3,000 comic books are published annually in Spain  with an average run of 1,000 copies each. Collectors anyone?

Credit for this one goes to Judith Staines of www.Culture360.org. She interviewed a pair of nomadic Spanish artists working for three months with a residence at the Seoksu Art Project in Anyang, South Korea, circa 2008.

Jasmina Llobet and Luis Fernandez Pons from Barcelona but living in Berlin since 2001 installed "Animal Tower," which they describe as "intervention in public space constructed of iron and glass, rabbits, hens, turtles, fishes."

Spanish painter Jaime Adan is currently completing a mural 1 m X 33 m in a private home in San Jose, CA visually depicting the history of missionaries in California. You will be seeing and reading  much more about Jaime Adan in these posts.

The 2010 a.RTISTS IN TRANSIt project by IGBK is a weblog about traveling artists.

The United Nations this fall purchased a few works by Spanish artist Clemente Gerez for its permanent collection.

The Church of England last week said it would reconsider plans selling Spanish artist Franciso de Zurbaran's portraits of Jaob and his 12 sons. Zurbaran's paintings may be worth $20 million. Since 1756, they have resided in Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland, official residence of the Bishop of Durham. The proposed sale drew protests because the set of historic paintings are linked to Jewish emancipation in the UK.

Oh, my friend Roy Kochendorfer from Santa Barbara, CA, subtley recommended this book to me, a story about money, ambition and art: AN OBJECT OF BEAUTY by Steve Martin (Grand Central Publishing. $26.99USD). Roy's got good taste. He also put me onto Jonathan Franzen and The Corrections and Freedom, both great reads.

Rock on and practice peace. And check out ArtTraveler's videos: http://bit.ly/h1vruw

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM)

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