Art

According to legend, Michelangelo once hid in an underground corridor in 1530 to avoid persecution from Pope Clement VII, who was laying siege on Florence. Located under the Medici Chapels, the Italian polymath once used the walls of the space as a canvas to create a series of human figures scrawled in charcoal and chalk.Nearly five decades since it was first unearthed, Michelangelo's secret drawing room will be open for public viewing from November 15 to March 30, 2024. "This place allows today’s visitors the unique experience of being able to come into direct contact not only with the creative process of master," said Francesca de Luca, curator of the Museum of the Medici Chapels, "but also with the perception of the formation of his myth of divine artist, taken as a model by his contemp...

Pablo Picasso's 1934 painting, Femme a la Montre (Woman with a Watch), just sold for $139m USD via Sotheby's. The work shattered its prior estimate of $120m USD and has become the most valuable artwork to sell globally via auction this year. Created in his signature Cubist style, the painting depicts French model Marie-Thérèse Walter, who Picasso had an affair with from 1927 to 1935, as she's sat in a throne-like chair against a cobalt blue background. While still married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, Picasso saw Walter as a muse who would inspire numerous works during the height of his career. Femme a la Montre gave Picasso a “sense of release," wrote Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist & Modern Art for the Americas, giving the Spanish artist "full painterly rein ...

Pablo Picasso's 1934 painting, Femme a la Montre (Woman with a Watch), just sold for $139m USD via Sotheby's. The work shattered its prior estimate of $120m USD and has become the most valuable artwork to sell globally via auction this year. Created in his signature Cubist style, the painting depicts French model Marie-Thérèse Walter, who Picasso had an affair with from 1927 to 1935, as she's sat in a throne-like chair against a cobalt blue background. While still married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, Picasso saw Walter as a muse who would inspire numerous works during the height of his career. Femme a la Montre gave Picasso a “sense of release," wrote Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist & Modern Art for the Americas, giving the Spanish artist "full painterly rein ...

Henry Taylor is showcasing his first major exhibition in France at Hauser & Wirth Paris. FROM SUGAR TO SHIT comprises over 30 works, including recent paintings, sculptures, and installations, providing a comprehensive look at the Los Angeles-based artist's four-decade long career.Defined by saturated applications of paint and gestural brushstrokes, Taylor's work seeks to capture fleeting moments as a way to record a person's history. While often categorized as a portraitist, Taylor is quick to reject labels, using his practice as a way to reflect his daily experiences — from his mundane processes, the family and friends close to him, as well as the historical and pop cultural references that he draws inspiration from. Recently, the artist was tapped by fellow Angeleno Kendrick Lamar ...

Henry Taylor is showcasing his first major exhibition in France at Hauser & Wirth Paris. FROM SUGAR TO SHIT comprises over 30 works, including recent paintings, sculptures, and installations, providing a comprehensive look at the Los Angeles-based artist's four-decade long career.Defined by saturated applications of paint and gestural brushstrokes, Taylor's work seeks to capture fleeting moments as a way to record a person's history. While often categorized as a portraitist, Taylor is quick to reject labels, using his practice as a way to reflect his daily experiences — from his mundane processes, the family and friends close to him, as well as the historical and pop cultural references that he draws inspiration from. Recently, the artist was tapped by fellow Angeleno Kendrick Lamar ...

Enigmatic Spanish artist PEJAC has just cut the ribbon on his his debut solo exhibition in the U.S., titled 6 FEET UNDER. The showcase, which takes over three floors inside a warehouse-like venue located at 18 East 50th Street in New York City, explores the "destruction, dystopia and renaissance of our planet due to global warming, rising seas, and the changing of the earth due to human intervention" through three acts and 19 original works.Curated by Martin Klipp, PEJAC's exhibition flaunts the vastness of his artistic prowess, with mediums spanning sculptural installations to paintings on canvas and techniques including a burning method called pyrography. Notably, the show's name is derived from an installation that nods to Monet's signature Water Lillies inside an emptied, six-feet-deep...

Enigmatic Spanish artist PEJAC has just cut the ribbon on his his debut solo exhibition in the U.S., titled 6 FEET UNDER. The showcase, which takes over three floors inside a warehouse-like venue located at 18 East 50th Street in New York City, explores the "destruction, dystopia and renaissance of our planet due to global warming, rising seas, and the changing of the earth due to human intervention" through three acts and 19 original works.Curated by Martin Klipp, PEJAC's exhibition flaunts the vastness of his artistic prowess, with mediums spanning sculptural installations to paintings on canvas and techniques including a burning method called pyrography. Notably, the show's name is derived from an installation that nods to Monet's signature Water Lillies inside an emptied, six-feet-deep...

Felipe Pantone has touched down in Shanghai for a new solo exhibition at Gallery ALL. Entitled Diagonal Reading, Stroboscopic Attention, and Profound Oneness, the show presents a comprehensive look at the Spanish-Argentine artist's career, including his SUBTRACTIVE VARIABILITY and CHROMADYNAMICA series, as well as newer sculptural explorations. Pantone's latest show explores the way in which contemporary images are consumed, an attempt to mirror the frantic nature of social media feeds, by challenging viewers to engage with the artwork in a unique and dynamic manner. Standout works include AEROSOLID IMPULSE 9S, a resin and lacquer sculpture that aesthetically looks like those old 3D pipe loading screens from the Windows XP days, but freeze-framed into anthropomorphic blob that veers betwee...

51 years ago today, Led Zeppelin IV was ushered into the world, forever changing rock music. The record featured some of the band's seminal hits, including "Black Dog" and "Stairway to Heaven," along with a now iconic cover, which depicted an old man hunched over carrying a bale of twigs on his back. According to the New York Times, Brian Edwards, a research fellow at the University of the West of England, was routinely browsing the internet for auction finds in March, when suddenly, he spotted a remarkably similar image of the old man in a Victorian photo album. "There was something familiar about it straight away,” he told the Times. After contacting the Wiltshire Museum, who previously bought the photo album, Edwards determined that Ernest Howard Farmer was the photographer behind the w...

Later this week in Singapore, Jahan Loh will be presenting an immersive installation entitled “Golden Chamber,” as part of his and ACU’s Live Long & Prosper exhibition.The space centers around a large LED display with a backdrop of perpetually rolling golden ingots. For this installation, Loh draws inspiration from the auspicious Chinese expression “黄金满地,” which literally translates to “floor covered in gold.” In a complementing gold hue, the side walls are also fitted with reflective materials that extend and amplify the richness of the display. Highlighted in the space are 1,888 inflatable ingots, all packed into the center and reminiscent of a children’s ball pit where visitors can indulge in the feeling of “rolling in gold.”A sequel to Loh and ACU’s God of Fortune BE@RBRICK series,...

Later this week in Singapore, Jahan Loh will be presenting an immersive installation entitled “Golden Chamber,” as part of his and ACU’s Live Long & Prosper exhibition.The space centers around a large LED display with a backdrop of perpetually rolling golden ingots. For this installation, Loh draws inspiration from the auspicious Chinese expression “黄金满地,” which literally translates to “floor covered in gold.” In a complementing gold hue, the side walls are also fitted with reflective materials that extend and amplify the richness of the display. Highlighted in the space are 1,888 inflatable ingots, all packed into the center and reminiscent of a children’s ball pit where visitors can indulge in the feeling of “rolling in gold.”A sequel to Loh and ACU’s God of Fortune BE@RBRICK series,...