Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:43:43 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Fine Arts :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/fine-arts istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us JAMES GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/arts/painting-for-eternity-pietre-dure-at-the-met/81182/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST There is nothing quite like those two little words, "decorative arts," to send all but the most committed museumgoers heading for the exit. Unless the commodity in question is jewelry whose knockoffs can be sold in the museum store, any attempt to entice viewers with largely anonymous heirlooms from the ancien regime is probably a fool's errand. To date, the Metropolitan Museum has had only one notable popular success in this regard, the gorgeous two-part tapestry show that occupied its... FRANCIS MORRONE http://www.nysun.com/arts/americas-birth-papers-at-the-nypl/81185/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Americans began celebrating the Fourth of July before the nation had achieved independence, with the first celebration occurring in 1777, in Philadelphia. Tomorrow we celebrate the 232nd anniversary of our nation's birth. And once again, the New York Public Library has placed on display its copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote out this fair copy in the week following July 4, 1776, for submission to the Continental Congress. Of the few copies he... DAVID COHEN http://www.nysun.com/arts/phillip-pearlstein-objectifying-the-nude/81183/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Philip Pearlstein is the great genre-bender of contemporary art. Ostensibly, the subject of his relentless scrutiny over the last four decades has been the nude in the interior, as the almost retrospective overview of his career at Betty Cuningham, "Philip Pearlstein: Then and Now," suggests in 13 canvases ranging from 1964-69 and 1988-2008. And yet, for all the pounds of flesh and claustrophobic constructions of actual, lived-in and worked-in space these pictures present, the paintings are... LANCE ESPLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/nature-painted-with-force/81221/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST When Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) paints wind, steam, mist, surf, smoke, cloud, and fire — when he really hits it, as he does frequently after 1830 — it's as if the heavens have opened up and the artist, equal mixtures of Apollo and Dionysus, were a romantic messenger from the gods, a bringer of light. Throughout his long and successful career, Turner painted numerous subjects, including mythological, historical, and religious scenes, land and sea battles, and landscapes and... JOHN GOODRICH http://www.nysun.com/arts/cut-and-paste-then-and-now/81192/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Shortly before World War I, the Cubists began incorporating bits of their physical environment — printed images, text, and patterns — into their work to heighten its spatial paradoxes. So was born the medium of collage. Today, the tenets of Cubism hold no special sway for most artists, but the medium of collage thrives. Always intriguing for its invocations of materiality and process, collage also lends itself especially well to the discordant, composite narratives of much contemporary art. It... DANIEL KUNITZ http://www.nysun.com/arts/retrospective-been-there-sold-that/81190/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST 'Retrospective," a group show at Gagosian's 21st Street gallery, is like a summer concert festival with some very promising, big-name acts. Its organizing principle, the ways a major artist looks back and reassesses his — unfortunately, in this case, only his — career, also strikes a promising note. Too bad, then, that so many of these guys showed up out of shape, like Vegas has-beens listlessly running through medleys of their greatest hits. For the opening act, Gagosian wheels out the... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/strike-looms-at-la-scala/81158/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Workers at La Scala opera house in Milan are threatening to stage a strike next week that would cancel the first three performances of "La Bohème." But union representative Giancarlo Albori said Wednesday that talks with management were still going on. He said a decision on whether to strike would be made at the end of meetings, possibly on Friday. Scenery and costume workers, chorus members, and the orchestra are in contract renewal talks. The strike would target the Monday performance of... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/ten-works-set-records-at-sothebys-contemporary/81153/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:18:18 EST A Richard Prince 'Nurse' and an Antony Gormley 'Angel of the North" were among 10 works to set records for their makers at Sotheby's contemporary-art auction in London, where a Francis Bacon portrait was the star attraction and Irish rock band U2 among the sellers. Bacon's status as the world's most expensive postwar artist was bolstered last night by the sale of a painting of his lover, George Dyer, which fetched a top price of 1$27.5 million with fees. Sotheby's is testing demand after... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/israel-museum-returns-art-looted-by-nazis/81064/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The Israel Museum in Jerusalem came to an agreement with the heirs of a Polish countess on the repurchase of two rare gold-glass medallions that found their way into its collection after being looted from Warsaw by the Nazis in 1941. The medallions feature Jewish symbols, and were embedded in the walls of the Rome catacombs as tomb markers, according to a statement today from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which helped the heirs negotiate the restitution. One has been repurchased from... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/monet-and-money/81135/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST As consumers tighten their budgets and cope with a global economic downturn, the art world would be the last place one would expect to find a thriving market. Yet, even as house prices collapse, stocks plunge, and commodity prices spike, prominent art collectors are spending huge numbers of dollars on famous works of art. "The international art market is extremely robust and now operating at levels we haven't seen for over 15 years," a Christie's spokesman, Rick Pike, told The New York Sun. A... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/british-museum-boss-turns-down-met/81063/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST British Museum director Neil MacGregor was approached to be the next head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but has opted to keep his London job for another five years, the British Museum said. At a press breakfast, Chairman Niall FitzGerald said that Mr. MacGregor had agreed to lead the museum through 2012. Mr. MacGregor took over in 2002. Referring to the Met, British Museum head of press Hannah Boulton later said, "He was approached by them, he had a conversation with them, but in the... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/george-manahan-re-ups-at-city-opera/81067/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Maestro George Manahan has renewed his contract as music director of the New York City Opera through 2012, the organization announced Tuesday. Mr. Manahan was appointed music director in 1998. He has since conducted 53 different operas, two of them in world-premiere productions, and has worked on four albums, including the 2003 Grammy-nominated "Desire Under the Elms" (Naxos) with the London Symphony. Mr. Manahan is scheduled to conduct performances of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress"... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/terra-cotta-relief-falls-to-met-floor/81098/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST A terra-cotta relief by the Renaissance sculptor Andrea della Robbia fell off the wall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at some point Monday night or early Tuesday morning, the museum said Tuesday. The relief, a lunette depicting Saint Michael the Archangel, came loose from its wall mounts and fell on its back side, suffering "a lot of cracking and separation," the Met's spokesman, Harold Holzer, said. "There are very large pieces that are still intact," Mr. Holzer said. "The judgment now is... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/bacon-basquiat-lead-sothebys-london-auction/81100/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Francis Bacon's "Study for Head of George Dyer" (1967) was the top seller at Sotheby's strong Contemporary Art Evening Auction Tuesday, selling for $27.4 million. Another highlight was Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Untitled (Pecho/Oreja)," created in 1982-83, which sold for $10.1 million. The painting had been estimated at around $10 million, and came from the collection of rock band U2. In total, the sale generated $188.9 million for the auction house... JAMES GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/arts/robert-sterns-brompton-is-pre-war-elegance-newly/80989/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The Brompton, which is approaching completion on the southeast corner of Third Avenue and 86th Street, may very well be a better building than its neighborhood deserves. If this is not the case, it is only because the area is getting decidedly better, thanks to this new arrival, designed by Robert Stern, and to the Lucida, also nearing completion one block west on Lexington Avenue. For the longest time (that is to say, living memory), 86th Street between Lexington Avenue and Second Avenue has... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/pavarotti-family-settles-will-dispute/80971/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST A lawyer for Luciano Pavarotti's widow said his family has come to a friendly agreement on how to divide up his estate. Pavarotti had drafted two wills near the end of his yearlong battle with cancer. One divided his assets by Italian law, giving half to his second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and half to his four daughters. The second left the tenor's American holdings to Ms. Mantovani. Pavarotti died last September. He had three adult daughters from his 35-year marriage to his first wife, Adua... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/contemporary-sale-disappoints-at-phillips/80970/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST A 1996 adults-only installation by Paul McCarthy with a top estimate of $4 million was unsold at Phillips de Pury's London auction last night, the priciest flop in a sale where one in three lots didn't find buyers. Mr. McCarthy's "Bunk House," featuring a dog-headed bartender and a bare-bottomed blonde in a Western setting, was one of 31 artworks that didn't sell at Phillips, the first of a series of contemporary-art auctions in London this season that's expected to fetch as much as 329 million... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/solid-sales-at-christies-london-auction/80986/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Jeff Koons's "Balloon Flower (Magenta)" (1995-2000) sold for $25.6 million at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale in London yesterday. The piece, which has been on display in London's St. James's Square for a week, had been estimated at $24 million. Other highlights of the sale were Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for Self-Portrait" (1975), which sold for $34.3 million, and Lucian Freud's "Naked Portrait with Reflection," painted in 1980, which sold for $23.4 million. The works... NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT http://www.nysun.com/arts/got-to-paint-the-lewitts/80896/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST When Sol LeWitt died in April last year, there was no debate over where or how his life and work should be celebrated. He had already decided that a permanent showcase of his vast geometric forms and schematic color arrangements should be put on permanent display at MASS MoCA, the complex of former brick textile factory buildings that has become the Berkshires' magnet for those interested in Modern and Contemporary art. "Sol came here and chose which buildings he wanted to use to house his art... JAY AKASIE http://www.nysun.com/arts/contemporary-auctions-poised-to-take-off/80856/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST When Jeff Koons's "Balloon Flower (Magenta)" sculpture went on display in London's St. James's Square last week, the members of the many gentlemen's clubs nearby were among the first to realize that the Contemporary sales of the major auction houses were approaching in a major way. "In the center of the square is an equestrian statue of William III and now, on one end, is a Jeff Koons sculpture. This sort of thing was sure to stir things up in St. James's Square," a Christie's spokesman... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/john-stanley-named-whitney-deputy-director/80780/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST John Stanley has been appointed to the position of deputy director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the museum announced Thursday. Mr. Stanley has served as the chief operating officer and deputy director of programs and services at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston since 1995. He will assume his role at the Whitney in August. Mr. Stanley will be working with Adam Weinberg, the director of the museum, in overseeing its exhibitions, permanent collection, marketing, publications, human... JAMES GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-one-bryant-park-scale-changes-everything/80783/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST One of the biggest banks to open in Manhattan in many years will be the Bank of America flagship that is promised for the all but completed One Bryant Park, a massive skyscraper designed by the firm of Cook + Fox. The building will also be known as the Bank of America Tower, in honor of its foremost tenant. Already the offices of the bank have been installed in this pale, Deconstructivist tower, and though we are still some months away from the project's completion, it is sufficiently far along... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/barbican-unveils-2008-09-lineup/80671/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Robert Capa, the war photographer who died stepping on a land mine in Indochina, will share the spotlight with architect Le Corbusier and choreographer Mark Morris in the London Barbican Centre's 2008-09 season. The Barbican will also start a development fund to lure corporate and individual donations. Europe's largest multidisciplinary arts complex costs 33 million pounds ($65 million) a year to run, 19 million pounds of which are provided by the City of London Corporation, the local authority... JOHN GOODRICH http://www.nysun.com/arts/salvador-dalis-super-reality/80734/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Salvador Dalí (1904-89) considered himself a prophet and a genius, and much of the world agrees, judging from the popularity of his prints and the several museums devoted to his work. Critics have tended to be less enthusiastic about the flamboyant Catalonian, whose promotional stunts and forays into fashion and advertising helped make him a household name. In recent years, a spate of exhibitions commemorating the centennial of his birth has prompted a reassessment. "Dalí: Painting and Film,"... LANCE ESPLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/when-life-trumps-art-the-sculpture-of-louise/80706/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The art of the past is accessible, but Modern and contemporary art are difficult and obtuse, even confrontational — or so the myth goes. Recent art, that myth contends, is personal and subjective (whatever you want it to be), as opposed to universal, and abstraction has no subject and, therefore, no content. But that same myth suggests also that to be successfully brought to the masses, the art of the last 100 years must appeal to our insatiable thirst for entertainment and to our increasingly... OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT http://www.nysun.com/arts/marcel-breuer-meets-buckminster-fuller/80687/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST "Starting with the Universe," an exhibit on the life and works of R. Buckminster Fuller that opens today at the Whitney Museum of American Art, presents the unique opportunity to step into one of the masterpieces of Brutalism to see a show on uninhibited idealism. The Whitney twice dodged a bullet, first in 1985, when the Michael Graves plan to drown it in a Postmodern pastiche was scrapped, then again in 2003, when the insolent Rem Koolhaas proposal for a slouching tower was shelved. By 2005... DANIEL KUNITZ http://www.nysun.com/arts/three-artists-do-it-themselves/80757/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST One corporate-style production-line aesthetics inaugurated by Andy Warhol (and celebrated by artists from Damien Hirst to Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons) has been the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) reaction to it. Although the term is loosely defined, DIY artists emphasize the personal and the handmade; draw inspiration from the world of craftsmanship, and tend to rely on "weak" materials such as fabric and paper. "Personal Protocols and Other Preferences," a challenging and innovative exhibition... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/sothebys-names-buyer-of-artek-pavilion/80675/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST A gallery for modern and contemporary furniture, Sebastian + Barquet, was the buyer of the Artek Pavilion, a structure sold at the June 14 Sotheby's Important 20th Century Design sale, the auction house announced Wednesday. Sebastian + Barquet plans to use the pavilion to showcase exhibitions by some of its major designers, the gallery says. The pavilion was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and is made of a wood-plastic composite, a new material that comes from scrap plastic and paper... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/severini-record-at-sothebys-london/80677/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST A painting by the Italian Futurist artist Gino Severini sold for $29.6 million including fees, a record for the artist, at a Sotheby's auction of Impressionist and Modern art in London on Wednesday. The sale brought in a total of more than $200 million. The brightly colored 3-foot, 3-inch-high canvas, "Danseuse" (1915) had not been seen on the auction market for more than 80 years. It had been expected to fetch up to $20 million, Sotheby's said. The seller of the painting had been guaranteed a... DAVID COHEN http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-erotic-the-political-and-the-personal/80685/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The Surrealist writer André Breton once declared that beauty would have to become convulsive, otherwise it would cease to be. As if in late vindication of this injunction, the paintings of Dawn Mellor set off a strange chain reaction of anger and lyricism. She is an artist driven by both sociopolitical protest and ambiguous, personal longings, linking her to Surrealism. Her paintings are at the dual service of Eros and Thanatos, awash equally with alienation and empathy, desire and indignation... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/homoki-takes-over-berlins-komische-oper/80587/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Andreas Homoki, the director of Berlin's Komische Oper opera house, will leave his post in 2012 to become director of Zurich's Opernhaus, the Swiss opera company said in a statement. He succeeds Alexander Pereira, who will prolong his contract by one year to fill the gap before Mr. Homoki's contract begins. Mr. Homoki, who is 48, has led the Komische Oper since 2002. Last year, music critics chose the house as winner of Opernwelt magazine's "Opera House of the Year" title. "Even though we... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/philadelphia-museum-names-interim-director/80588/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The Philadelphia Museum of Art appointed chief operating officer Gail Harrity to serve as interim chief executive officer until a permanent successor is found for director Anne d'Harnoncourt, who died on June 1. The museum also announced its schedule of coming exhibitions, headlined by "Cézanne and Beyond," a retrospective of some 150 paintings, watercolors, and drawings by French artist Paul Cézanne. The show will run from February 26 to May 17, 2009, and will include works by 17 artists... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/monet-sets-a-record-at-london-auction/80600/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST A large Claude Monet water-lilies painting from 1919, "Le bassin aux nymphéas," sold for $80.5 million at Christie's robust sale of Impressionist and Modern art in London Tuesday night. The painting, from Indiana industrialist J. Irwin Miller's private collection, had been estimated between $36 million and $47 million and is one of the largest and last of Monet's water lilies. The sale broke the previous Monet record of $41.4 million, set last month at a Sotheby's auction in New York. Edgar... JAY AKASIE http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-rare-titantic-original-for-sale/80598/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST While James Cameron's film "Titanic" revived interest in the historic tragedy, the 1997 movie supported an extensive market for forgeries of material connected to the doomed ship. "The reality is that 99% of the things associated with the Titanic are replicas and reproductions," the specialist and head of sale for today's Ocean Liner auction at Christie's, Gregg Dietrich, said. "Someone recently approached us with a bunch of Titanic items that turned out to be from a museum gift shop." The... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/mcenroe-set-to-sell-warhol-portrait/80505/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Former tennis star John McEnroe is selling a portrait Andy Warhol made of him and his ex-wife Tatum O'Neal at Sotheby's in London next week, the auction house said Monday in an e-mailed statement. Warhol's acrylic and silk-screen portrait of the celebrity couple is expected to fetch up to $687,000. Proceeds will benefit Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit Christian organization that provides housing through an international network of volunteers, Sotheby's said. The portrait was made in 1986... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/high-end-sales-drove-recent-auctions/80506/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Billionaires such as Roman Abramovich are propping up the top end of the world's Contemporary art market, while some cheaper pieces worth less than $500,000 are struggling to sell, according to a survey published today. "Recession-proof" buyers such as Mr. Abramovich and the Al-Thani family of Qatar are making the market for the highest-quality items priced at $1 million and more, the London-based research company ArtTactic Ltd. said. The wealthiest buyers operate independently from... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/dia-names-philippe-vergne-as-its-new-director/80520/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The Dia Art Foundation has hired the deputy director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Philippe Vergne, as its director, the New York Times reported Monday. As the Dia's new director, Mr. Vergne, 42, will be responsible for helping the foundation find and develop a permanent exhibition space in New York City. In 2006, the Dia abandoned its plan to open a museum at the entrance to the High Line after it lost its director, Michael Govan, and its board chairman and benefactor, Leonard... JAY AKASIE http://www.nysun.com/arts/in-london-will-moderns-move/80473/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Nothing heralds the arrival of the summer auctions quite like a vibrant seaside scene — be it in the hand of Claude Monet, Lyonel Feininger, or even René Magritte. Both Sotheby's and Christie's are holding significant Impressionist and Modern evening sales in London this week, a far cry from the days when the auction market would traditionally cool down for the season. "We're seeing a very strong market for top quality Impressionist paintings this summer," the vice chairman of Impressionist &... FRED KIRSHNIT http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-met-arrives-in-prospect-park/80451/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Even though Senator Schumer, introducing the festivities in Prospect Park on Friday, stated that the summer solstice was the "longest night of the year" — it is, of course, just the opposite — the time seemed to fly by as the Metropolitan Opera presented soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna singing a program of highlights and arias. This was typical summer fare: Everything was fine, nothing was great. I have profound admiration for Ms. Gheorghiu. Her steadfast refusal to appear in... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/foundation-buys-russian-theater-art-collection/80434/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST A private foundation headed by a Kremlin official said it has bought one of the most important private collections of Russian art outside the country. The St. Petersburg-based International Konstantinovsky Charitable Fund said it purchased the Nikita and Nina Lobanov-Rostovsky collection of theater art from the Panama-based Europactole Properties Inc. for $16 million. The collection has 810 watercolors, drawings, and gouaches by Russian Modern artists. Most of the works were made for Sergei... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/damien-hirst-direct-to-auction/80340/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Damien Hirst said he will offer a sculpture of a gold-trimmed bull that he expects to fetch up to $23.5 million at a Sotheby's London auction of his works in September. The Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction on September 15 and 16 is Sotheby's second sale of works by Britain's richest artist. The New York-based Sotheby's will offer a range of pieces in various media created by Mr. Hirst in the last two years, the company said in an e-mail statement today. Its centerpiece is "The Golden... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/authenticity-confirmed-for-disputed-rembrandt/80339/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The Gloucestershire auction house Moore Allen & Innocent thought the portrait was a 17th-century Rembrandt knockoff, and valued it at just $3,100 before a sale last October. But the British buyer who won a speculative bidding war and paid about 1,500 times more than that apparently knew what he was doing. Experts have confirmed "Rembrandt Laughing" — bought for a bargain price of $4.5 million at the October auction — is a self-portrait by the Dutch master himself, depicted with his head tilted... KATE TAYLOR http://www.nysun.com/arts/harvards-three-art-museums-will-share-one-name/80353/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The students have packed up and left for the summer, and pretty soon Harvard's art museums will go on an extended hiatus, as well. After many years and many false starts, Harvard is finally launching a major expansion of its art museums. In the process, what have been three separate institutions — the Fogg Art Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum — will be consolidated under one roof, and one name: the Harvard Art Museum. The Fogg and the Busch-Reisinger will... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/urban-art-performs-in-england/80242/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Two spray paintings by Banksy sold for an above-estimate $234,000 each in a London sale of urban art Tuesday. "Laugh Now but One Day We'll Be in Charge," featuring a chimpanzee wearing a sandwich board, and "Bombing Middle England," showing pensioners playing bowls with grenades, achieved the joint top price with fees at a sale by the U.K. regional auction house Dreweatts. They had been expected to fetch up to $100,000 and $155,000 each. Both were bought by telephone bidders. The 146-lot sale... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/copernicus-first-edition-sells-for-22m/80244/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST A first edition of the book in which Nicolaus Copernicus broached his earthshaking theory of the cosmos has fetched more than $2.2 million at a New York auction, nearly doubling the expected price. The 1543 copy of Copernicus's "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium," or "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," was among more than 300 books offered at Christie's. The auction house says Tuesday's sale brought in a total of more than $11 million. The Copernicus book puts forth the astronomer's... JOHN GOODRICH http://www.nysun.com/arts/cezanne-at-the-heart-of-the-guggenheim/80311/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Under the stewardship of departing director Thomas Krens, the Guggenheim has become the cosmopolitan highflier of New York museums, with new branches in Bilbao, Spain, and Berlin, and visions of others in a startling number of locations: Lower Manhattan, Las Vegas, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico, Lithuania, and Abu Dhabi. Guggenheim outposts operated for several years in the first two places. A branch three times the size of the Bilbao museum is slated to open in Abu Dhabi in 2011... KATE TAYLOR http://www.nysun.com/arts/clark-art-institute-expands/80260/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Unlike an urban museum, which must scrounge for every last square foot of real estate, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., has room to breathe: 140 acres, to be exact, of bucolic fields and woodlands, which slope up from the museum's main buildings to a hillside that affords views of Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. Still, like many museums, the Clark has recently found its facilities too cramped for its ambitions. It has embarked on a dramatic, two-phase... DAVID COHEN http://www.nysun.com/arts/back-to-the-future/80264/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST New York will have a "back to the future" feel starting next week, thanks to the opening of the Whitney Museum's eagerly awaited exhibition, "Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe." As if to keep company with this extraordinary, off-the-wall design theorist and inventor, two venues in SoHo have shows that celebrate lesser-known, though exemplary, mid-20th-century aesthetic theorists with a penchant for the fusion of art and science. These men, both scions of the Austro-Hungarian empire... LANCE ESPLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/paradise-on-earth-at-the-rubin-museum/80274/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Threats of punishment and promises of reward inspire a lot of spiritual quests. Unless you are a true masochist, pessimist, or martyr, however, imagining enlightenment, resurrection, and redemption is probably preferable to thoughts of suffering and damnation. Most of us prefer a massage to a hair shirt; hope to fear; picturing walking into the light, rather than into the fire. That is probably why, although most cultures have visions of heaven, fewer have visions of hell. It is blissful... FRANCIS MORRONE http://www.nysun.com/calendar/bedford-stuyvesant-out-of-crisis-mode/80247/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Not long ago, Americans discussed the "urban crisis." One measure of how little the phrase is used nowadays is that while Wikipedia has entries for "Energy Crisis" and "Urban Sprawl," the online encyclopedia has no entry for "Urban Crisis." It is no longer part of the lexicon of the young, but it was a phrase once much bandied, and its byword was Bedford-Stuyvesant. Life cycles of American urban neighborhoods have been volatile in the age of sprawl. (What sprawl giveth, sprawl taketh away.)...