Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Caracas
By Walker Simon
(Reuters) – Caribbean heat mingles with Andean cool in Caracas, which is nestled against a verdant mountain range, cresting at over 9,000 feet (2,765 metres).
Languidly tropical by day, the Venezuelan capital’s climate turns brisk after sundown. The perfume of the lush greenery infuses the evening breeze, encouraging outdoor dining.
Latam art sales in U.S. have best year since 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Latin American art sales, which totaled nearly $90 million in New York in 2011, scored their best year since the 2008 financial crisis, aided by a boom in Brazilian art and demand from Asia.
The sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s were second only to the 2008 Latin American market total of $96 million, according to the auction houses.
Tamayo tops Latam auction, kinetic art sales strong
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Rufino Tamayo’s painting “Watermelon Slices” fetched $2.2 million, topping Sotheby’s Latin American sale, which also set auction records for pioneering Venezuelan kinetic artist Carlos Cruz-Diez.
“It was a great night for Rufino Tamayo,” Sotheby’s Latin American art chief Carmen Melian said of the Wednesday evening sale, which totaled $17 million.
Botero bronze, Brazil artists hit auction records
NEW YORK (Reuters) A towering bronze sculpture by Fernando Botero and works by several Brazilian artists set auction records during Christie’s Latin American sale, the auction house said on Wednesday.
Cast in 2007, Botero’s “Dancers” fetched $1.76 million. Weighing 3,500 pounds (1.6 metric tones) and 10 feet 5 inches tall, it is probably the tallest Botero sculpture ever auctioned, said Virgilio Garza, Christie’s Latin American art chief.
Botero sculpture, Tamayo painting lead Latam sales
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A towering Fernando Botero sculpture and a painting by Mexican master Rufino Tamayo lead Latin American art auctions this week, which could benefit from strong demand seen in earlier art sales in New York.
Botero’s bronze “Dancers,” which was cast in 2007 and is 10 feet 5 inches tall, could sell for as much as $2 million when it goes under the hammer at Christie’s.
Diego Rivera murals reunited after 80 years
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Five murals by Mexican artist Diego Rivera will go on display on Sunday in a new exhibit that reunites works that struck a chord across a broad social spectrum when they were unveiled during the Great Depression.
The works, which were first shown in 1931 and 1932, are the highlight of “Diego Rivera, Murals for The Museum of Modern Art,” which runs through May 14.
48 hours in Bogota, Colombia
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s capital city lures tourists with its mild year-round weather, booming nightlife and its museums about gold, emeralds and the artist Fernando Botero.
Once sleepy streets buzz with crowds at outdoor tables and modern art graces courtyard cafes.
Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Bogota, Colombia
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s capital city lures tourists with its mild year-round weather, booming nightlife and its museums about gold, emeralds and the artist Fernando Botero.
Once sleepy streets buzz with crowds at outdoor tables and modern art graces courtyard cafes.
Germans atone for Holocaust with “stumble stones”
(Photo: “Stumble stones” in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district November 7, 2008/Fabrizio Bensch)
The metal plaques, called Stolpersteine, or “stumble stones,” are set into the ground at my father’s ancestral home in this picturesque village south of Frankfurt.
The squares, 10 cm by 10 cm (4 inches by 4 inches), are barely conspicuous, but the words etched in brass seem to cry out for memory of the home’s last five Jewish inhabitants.
Museum exhibit unveils Andy Warhol’s Catholic, abstract side
(Photo: Andy Warhol’s work “The Last Supper” from 1986/The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts)
As a pop art pioneer, Andy Warhol blazed his way to fame with trademark Brillo soap pad boxes and silk-screens of Campbell’s Soup cans. But a new museum exhibit shows pop art was just a seven-year phase for Warhol in the 1960s, before his 1980s plunge into abstract art and Christian imagery, particularly his versions of “The Last Supper.”
Flippant, brazen and flamboyant as an art world personality, Warhol long kept private his devout, lifelong Catholicism.
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