Tag Archives: arts

Beastie Boys co-founder Adam Yauch Dead at 47

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This is tragic news. Adam Yauch, Beastie Boys co-founder, has died at age 47. Yauch had been in treatment for cancer since 2009. The rapper was diagnosed in 2009 after discovering a tumor in his salivary gland.

Yauch was one of the founding members of hip-hop trio The Beastie Boys, along with his friends Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock). In 1986, The Beastie Boys released their first full-length album, “Licensed to Ill,” which became the first hip hop album to top the Billboard 200.

Recently, The Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but Yauch was unable to attend the ceremony.

“Beastie Boys regret that Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch will be unable to join Mike ‘Mike D’ Diamond and Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz at the band’s induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in April,” said a statement released by group in April. “Mike, Adam and Adam are truly grateful for the honor but with only two of the three Beastie Boys attending, they will unfortunately not be able to perform at the ceremony.”


Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ sells for $119.9 million at Sotheby’s

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Sotheby’s New York sold Edvard Munch’s 1895 “The Scream” for $119.9 million on Wednesday night, setting a record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction.

The top spot was previously held by Picasso’s 1932 “Nude, Green, Leave and Bust” — a painting of his much-younger lover Marie-Therese Walter that sold at Christie’s in 2010 for $106.5 million.

The identity of the buyer, who was bidding by phone during the 12-minute auction, has not been confirmed. Bidding started at $40 million, with at least five bidders. Rumors before the sale, not confirmed, focused on interest from the royal family of Qatar.

Munch’s “The Scream” achieved another milestone: It now ranks as the most expensive drawing publicly sold. For this version of “The Scream” — one of four — is best described as a crayon or pastel drawing, not a painting, on board. The Munch Museum in Oslo owns a pastel as well as a painted version, while the National Gallery of Norway holds the earliest painting, dated 1893.


Christian Louboutin Exhibit at the Design Museum in London

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The Design Museum in London is celebrating twenty years of design and inspiration by shoe designer Christian Louboutin on 1 May, 2012.

Running until 9 July, 2012, the exhibition is a celebration of Louboutin’s career till date, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoe design from stilettos to lace-up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps.

Drawing from Christian Louboutin’s personal archive, the exhibition presents his celebrated shoe designs, referencing the origins of the iconic red sole, through to the latest Louboutin collections including a range for men and desirable handbags.

“I was brought up in a very feminine environment. I had three sisters, I had a father who was barely there,” Louboutin stating during a press conference to launch the 10-week exhibition. He said that as a result of his upbringing he grew up with “the biggest love and the biggest respect for women”.


Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman, Guggenheim Museum

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Although she only studied photography for about five years prior to her death, mainly as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Francesca Woodman left behind more than 800 negatives. Many of these photos have never been seen by the public, until now. Her parents, both artists, have protected her work for decades, granting only select permissions to reproduce her work, waiting for the right venue to showcase their daughter’s collection. The first major U.S. museum exhibition of Woodman’s work in 25 years, the ‘Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman’ exhibit is now at the Guggenheim Museum in New York where it will be through June 13.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is pleased to announce the afternoon symposium Art in the 1970s: Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Francesca Woodman, on view through June 13.

On Friday, May 18, beginning at 4pm, scholars and artists examine the relationship between the still and moving image in Francesca Woodman’s and other artists’ production during the 1970s, particularly as associated with Post-Minimalism, performance, and video. Using the framework of Woodman’s work, which the New York Times calls “a rare and beautiful thing,” this series of brief talks and group conversations reconsiders artistic video in the 1970s, notions of time and space in Woodman’s work, and feminist practice during the transformative artistic juncture of the period. Woodman’s recently released short videos will be screened.

Organized by Jennifer Blessing, Senior Curator, Photography, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Woodman_Untitled_Providence-2 6_Woodman_Untitled_NewYork_0 tumblr_lz1qvw6T1b1qz4vjro1_r1_500 ht_space_2_dm_120320_vblog ht_untitled_from_angels_dm_120320_vblog Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman, Guggenheim Museum


Rare Beatles Photos to Be Auctioned

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Very rate twenty images of the band Beatles taken by Pinewood Studios props manager Peter Allchorne while they were filming their first feature film, 1964′s A Hard Day’s Night, will be up for sale at Omega Auctions in Stockport, Chesire on May 19, the BBC reports.

According to the report, taking photos on-set were strictly prohibited, but the 87-year-old Allchorne was able to without any hindrance.

Up until this point, the images — which show the Beatles with their instruments and also between takes capturing candid moments — were put into a family album. One of the photographs shows Beatles member Ringo Starr leaning on bricks to make himself taller for the camera.

Allchorne’s daughter, Jacqueline Griffin, said that her father was largely unaware of the growing interest in the Beatles and said it was typical for him to capture images while on a set.

“He wanted to take pictures of one of the crew, a mate Alfie, and they were there, it was when the Beatles were on stage,” Griffin told the BBC.

She added: “He got to know them quite well but he was just not that interested. I think they just larked about and had a good time. He was not particularly star-struck, they were just four lads in a band, it didn’t really hit him.”

Griffin noted at one point that her father “never held any value on them because he was not into the Beatles, he was just working on the films.”

Other items that will be up for sale at the same auction include a menu card signed by the four Beatle members and an unsigned menu card with the misspelling of the band’s name “Beattles.”
The auction is expected to rake in about $16,100 (£10,000).


Stockholm Subway System, The Craziest Underground Art Gallery

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The Stockholm subway system is filled with eye popping art and bright colors. Each stop presents riders with a different visual feast as if they have been transported to a new magical underworld. The metro has 100 stations of which 47 are underground. Construction of the large system began in 1941 with the last station opening in 1994. Some of the cavernous interiors where left with crude bedrock exposed, others have been tiled or even embedded with Romanesque statues. See the photo gallery of the craziest underground art gallery.


Dick Clark dies at 82

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No more Rockin’ Eve with Dick Clark. We’re sad to report that former disk jockey Dick Clark had died of a heart attack at the age of 82.

(Previously, Dick Clark’s Bedrock-styled Malibu Retreat Lists for $3.5 Million)

The 82-year-old, a successful TV producer and host of American Bandstand and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, was reportedly in Los Angeles’ St. John’s hospital after having an outpatient procedure performed Tuesday night, as first reported by TMZ.

Clark previous had a massive stroke in 2004. Following the event, he retired from hosting Rockin’ Eve, acquiescing his duties to Ryan Seacrest and only appearing for part of the broadcast and kiss his wife Kari Wigton at the stroke of midnight.


Hexagonal Pewter Stool by Max Lamb

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From Max Lamb: “Inspired by a childhood spent on the beaches of Cornwall building castles, boats and tunnels in the sand, I decided to return to my favourite beach at Caerhays on the south coast of Cornwall to produce a stool using a primitive form of sand-casting. Molten pewter was poured into a sand mould sculpted directly into the beach by hand, and once cooled the sand was dug away to reveal a pewter stool.”


Titanic 100 Years Later

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A century after the ship hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and three years after the death of the last Titanic survivor, the disaster feels as familiar as if it happened yesterday.

The centennial has seen an eruption of books, articles, films, museum exhibits, memorial services, ocean cruises and, of course, the 3-D version of the 1997 James Cameron movie that won an armload of Oscars. And there’s another layer of commemoration, the meta layer — the discussion of why we’re discussing this at all. The Titanic has become a case study in what the folks in the faculty lounge would call mythogenesis.

Below, James Cameron and his team pull together a new CGI of how they believe the TItanic sank and reached the ocean floor:


R. Crumb Exhibit at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

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R. Crumb, the American cartoonist, is said to be a timid, reclusive soul who doesn’t like visitors, photographers, reporters or even fans. But here he was on Thursday, dressed in a smart black sport coat and trousers, posing for photographers and holding forth with journalists about fame, fortune, art, politics, music and death. The occasion was the impending opening, on Friday, of “Crumb, From the Underground to Genesis,” an exhibition covering nearly five decades of his work, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and his first comprehensive museum retrospective. – read more from the New York Times