Qian Xue'er 畹町
Recently, american billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt handed over $70 million of stolen artifacts, a famous philanthropist, collector and hedge fund pioneer who had a "greedy appetite" for looted artifacts and decorated mansions with 6,000 B.C. artifacts.
In London, Cohend Veere's solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Art shows respect and challenge to authoritative artists. In Shanghai, calligrapher Wang Weiping exhibited calligraphy works, and for many years he used Mr. Xie Zhiliu's poems to encourage himself to write. Art groups Natalie Durberg and Hans Berger have a solo exhibition at the House of Honors, presenting the truth in the absurd. Photographer Dai Muyu used the cross-border exhibition "Always on the Line" to express the dialogue between black and white film and painting daily lessons.
The Paper, Art Review, "Art Figures of the Week", reports and analyzes art topic figures and hot events at home and abroad.
United States | Billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt
The surrender of $70 million in stolen artifacts may be exempt from charges
Michael Steinhardt
According to ARTFORUM Chinese Network, New York philanthropist, collector and hedge fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt recently handed over 180 looted artifacts worth $70 million to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. In addition, he was banned for life from purchasing antiquities, a move the prosecutor's office called "unprecedented." New York University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum all have colleges or galleries named after Steinhardt, and Bloomberg called him "Wall Street's Greatest Trader" in 2014.
The confiscation and punishment follow a four-year investigation by the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office for The Smuggling of Artifacts, assisted by about 60 researchers, investigators, and 11 different countries. Authorities found $2.6 million worth of deer-headed ceremonial vessels in the billionaire's stolen items used to decorate numerous homes around the world, a $150,000 gold bowl stolen from Iraq in 2020 during the Islamic State's looting, and a stone-made remains mask dating back to $400,000 B.C. dating back to 6,000 B.C. The prosecutor's office said 171 of the 180 seized items had been identified as smuggled artifacts by law enforcement authorities.
Michael Steinhardt previously collected the Golden Bowl
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement: "For decades, Michael Steinhardt has shown a voracious appetite for looted artifacts, with no regard for whether his actions are legal, whether the items he buys and sells are legal, or the serious cultural damage he has caused around the world." ”
If Steinhardt complies with the penalty provisions, he will not face any charges. In a statement, Vance noted that prosecutors decided not to prosecute because they wanted to return the stolen items to their rightful owners as soon as possible and protect the identities of numerous witnesses around the globe who would otherwise be summoned to testify at trial. (Finishing / Hatamachi)
London | Artist Koheend Willy
National Gallery Solo Exhibition: Respect and Challenge to Authoritative Artists
Kohend Willy
Recently, Kehinde Wiley, an African-American artist who painted portraits of former US President Barack Obama, held a solo exhibition "Keheand Wiley: Overture" at the National Gallery in London. The exhibition will dismantle the traditions of Western landscape and seascape painting, the relationship between humans and nature, and issues such as the migration crisis and climate change. The exhibition is curated by Christine Redding.
Born in 1977, Heind Wiley is known for his highly naturalistic Portraits of African Americans. In the new exhibition "Overture", curator Kristen Redding attempts to establish a dialogue between Veere's work and the classics in the museum's permanent collection. "What the exhibition really shows is that he both honors these artists and tries to challenge them," Says Reding, "who appreciates their traditions and the energy of their compositions, their craftsmanship and imagination." But equally, he critiques the cultures and societies involved, as well as the prejudices in them. ”
Still frame A still from Kehinde Wiley's Prelude (2021)
The exhibition will consist of a six-channel film from Haiti and Norway, and five paintings inspired by epic works by Romantic artists. In the exhibition, Veer explores themes of the sublime and transcendental, with a special focus on mountains and seas. In one chapter of the film, black men and women appear against a desolate glacial backdrop, overwhelmed by the dominant "white" in the local landscape. In other fragments, they merge with nature. The title of the exhibition is taken from the poetry of the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth and echoes the Romantic metaphor for the wanderer: usually a white male with his back to the viewer, gazing at the land, looking for spiritual connection.
In the exhibition, Veere's work will be surrounded by historical portraits, landscapes and seascapes from the National Gallery. Verry's work borrows from the style of the Old Masters, and Letin sees these new series of works as a development that reinterprets artistic and poetic traditions while expressing insights into some of the most important issues of the day. (Text/Qian Xue'er)
Shanghai | Calligrapher Wang Weiping
Ink marks are scattered in ancient vines, and a solo exhibition of calligraphy sketches is held in Shanghai
Wang Weiping
Calligrapher Mr. Wang Weiping's calligraphy sketch exhibition was recently held at the M50 Lily Hall Academy in Shanghai. The exhibition focuses on the fine works of Xiao Kai written by Wang Weiping in recent years, and his Xiao Kai is the most famous and powerful feature of his book world. And it is extremely particular about paper and ink, and all small letters are written in old ink of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The exhibition has 80 exhibits, and the forms are diverse, and the calligraphy is exquisite, which reflects Wang Weiping's calligraphy thinking, exploration and practice in recent years.
Mr. Wang Weiping served as vice chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Literature and Literature, director of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, and vice chairman of the Shanghai Calligraphers Association. Mr. Wang Weiping is a senior scholar in the Hainei book industry, and his influence is as far as Japan, South Korea and other countries and regions in the Chinese character cultural circle.
Mr. Wang Weiping immersed himself in calligraphy for more than half a century, and studied under Shan Xiaotian, Shu Bai Banana, and Asked Xie Zhiliu. His calligraphy is based on the Jin and Tang dynasties, and is widely related to various families, and has been taken from the Yellow Valley, the Zodiac Zhou, the Eight Greats, Liangkuan, and Hongyi. Wang Weiping has a deep study of penmanship, pays attention to the use of pens, reverses the in and out, and never returns. Wang Weiping's knots have a special understanding of the center of gravity and spatial processing, and they are interesting to write, which also forms the appearance characteristics of his book style.
Written by Wang Weiping
Wang Weiping said when talking about the art of the Hai School, "The Hai School we are talking about now and the previous Hai School are also completely two concepts, the previous Hai School attaches great importance to inheritance, and now only Xiao Kai is still the Jin and Tang Dynasties, because it has very few references, that is, the stele. Big characters are different, and now it is easy to go to two extremes: it is not small, it is very large. The big words have no references and are all played by themselves. From my point of view, many of their cursive scripts have broken the cursive law. ”
Wang Weiping has been using a poem by Mr. Xie Zhiliu to encourage himself to write. "Ink marks are like ancient vines", saying that the lines of writing should be like ancient vines, important, and textured; "the traces should be light and the wings should be light", the turns should be large, and the rotation should be smooth, like an eagle flying in the sky, and the very smooth wings are gliding the feeling; "standing upright and leaning against the trend" means that the pen should be retrograde; "knowing the new negative name", if your new style and your fame want to stay, you must do these three things.
The exhibition will be held at Lily Hall College, Building 6, M50 Creative Park, Moganshan Road, Shanghai, until January 10, 2022. (Finishing / Hatamachi)
Shanghai | Artistic duo Natalie Durberg and Hans Berg
RongZhai solo exhibition, presenting the truth in the absurd
Artistic duo Natalie Durberg (right) and Hans Berg
Recently, the solo exhibition "The Moon Wrapped in Kraft Paper" by Swedish duo art group Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg is being held at the Prada Rong House in Shanghai. The title of the exhibition is derived from the poem "Valentine's Day" by the British poet Carol Ann Duffy, in which the onion is described as a "moon wrapped in kraft paper", depicting the romance and reality of love in the process of layers of unveiling. In this specific space of the House, clay sculptures and films created by the two artists since 2000 are also unfolding like layers: accompanied by music, after a series of absurd and even eerie clay sculptures, they are finally wrapped in a series of dense video works. These images are like surreal dreams, in which animals, characters, and monsters each play their own roles and evoke the emotions of the audience.
Natalie Durberg and Hans Berg currently live and work in Lysehir and Stockholm, Sweden. Born in Lysehir, Sweden in 1978, Durberg received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Malmö Academy of Arts in Sweden in 2002. Born in 1978 in Reitvik, Sweden, Berg is a musician, producer and composer who works on electronic music. The duo met in Berlin in 2004 after being introduced by a mutual friend and began to work as a duo art group. They won the Silver Lion Award for Emerging Artists at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 for their installation The Experiment. In addition, their works are collected by museums around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA.
The Dark Side of the Moon, 2017, Natalie Durberg and Hans Berg
Yang Beichen, curator and art critic, said: "It's a carnival-like world with a crazy rhythm, in which the viewer needs to face a variety of challenging pictures and narratives, but it is not really strange. This parallel world of dark fairy tales is filled with deviant animals, demons of all shapes, and unsightly human beings, and these anomalous beings are linked to many contemporary issues: from the fluidity of gender to the multiplicity of identities, from the capitalization of desire to the ubiquitous physical and emotional violence. ”
In the couple's clay animation, the monster becomes "our repression and anxiety, the hidden collective, the unconscious, the unrecognized desire and the unspeakable fear." And the flowing liquid echoes "the modernity of flowing." "I'm more like amorphous, I can be anything, anybody, and that's what you see in your work." Natalie Durberg once said. In her opinion, "all animation is about the feeling it evokes, not what it depicts." Thus, in the irrational and confusing narrative development of the market, everyone walks into their own spiritually ineffable "labyrinth". (Text/Qian Xue'er)
Shanghai | Photographer Dai Muyu
Solo exhibition "Always on the Line": A Dialogue between Black and White Film and a Daily Lesson on Painting
Dai Muyu
Photographer Dai Muyu's exhibition "Always on the Front Line" is recently being held at Shanghai Ruipin Gallery, with the photographic works "Floating Dust" series, paintings "Dream", "Holding", "Complexity" and "Stop" all displayed.
Dai Muyu was born in the 1970s. Graduated from the Department of Decorative Arts of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1999, he now lives in Shanghai, focusing on the art creation of paper painting, and has participated in several sessions of Shanghai 021 Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai West Bund Art Fair, Hangzhou Ink Art Fair, London ART14 Art Fair, etc.
Dai Muyu "Floating Dust" photographic work
Dai Muyu's "Unconscious" painting
Dai Muyu believes that visual creation is an outlet for the soul, and it has a certain peaceful and restrained temperament - the surface seems to be a restriction, and there are often more possibilities behind it. "I've been practicing writing for quite a long time, practicing concentration and calmness, while trusting my intuition." Dai Muyu said.
Dai Muyu will take inspiration from some events, "The experience of photographers in the past has made countless memory pictures reappear, without imagination, the drama of the pictures becomes the background color, opening a new mode." The process of creation requires restraint and tempering, bringing changes to the shape structure and line color, so that the tone of the 'heart phase' tends to be cool and introverted. Freedom in the heart, trying to approach, and finally leaving, the viewer looks at the mind, which varies from person to person. ”
In his view, by constantly doing subtraction, art can become a part of life. The shooting and painting of black and white film went on in parallel, both conflicting and merging. Capturing "meaning" does bring happy surprises to the picture, and the use of lines is a primitive visual language, breaking the conventional understanding and presenting a magical departure. Returning to the studio, regular daily classes and constantly superimposed workload produce a large number of drawings, and at the same time, because of uncertainty, it is fun. Life is impermanent, so cherish the present even more. (Finishing / Hatamachi)
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