Arts: Bronze in them hills Aug 4, 2009
Uganda has no tradition of sculpture: nothing like Kenya s popular Kamba carvings, still less the sophisticated wood and stone sculptures of Benin or elsewhere in West Africa, which brought bold lines into the work of Constantin Brancusi and other modernists. The Ugandan tradition, instead, is in music. (The Economist)
Renzo Piano adds onto Art Institute of Chicago May 26, 2009
Piano has provided elegantly proportioned galleries to accommodate special exhibitions and canonical gems of the AIC's modern and contemporary collection, which include Willem de Kooning's "Excavation" (1950), Henri Matisse's "Bathers by a River" (1909-17), a cluster of sculptures by Constantin Brancusi and a 1937 self-portrait by Max Beckmann. The special-exhibition galleries open bracingly with the one-venue show "Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works, 2000-2007" (through Sept. 13). (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
New modern art wing lights Chicago's Art Institute May 16, 2009
The top-floor galleries begin and end with works by Pablo Picasso, demonstrating the steady march toward increasing abstraction by such artists as Piet Mondrian and Constantin Brancusi. The added space also allows display of more of the museum's surrealist collection, some of which were kept in storage. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
Monet's 'Water Lilies' coming to the High Apr 15, 2009
In addition to Picasso and Warhol, the exhibit will include Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Fernand L;ger, Henri Matisse, Joan Mir;, Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock. The two museums have worked together before. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Art.view: Bull for a night Mar 1, 2009
The auction started off slowly; it wasn t until lot 35 a large, wooden sculpture by Constantin Brancusi that the buying hit bull-market momentum. Guy Bennett, a Christie s rep based in New York, put his arm in the air and kept it there, steamrolling the room and eventually winning the work for a record 29m an astonishing sum to spend on a day when the S&P hit a 12-year-low. (The Economist)
Saint Laurent auction rakes in $500 million Feb 26, 2009
Other top-selling pieces included a wooden sculpture by Romania's Constantin Brancusi that fetched euro26 million, a 1922 painting by Piet Mondrian that had inspired Saint Laurent's iconic 1965 shift dress, and a snake embellished armchair that set a record for a piece of 20th-century furniture, selling at euro21. 9 million. (MSNBC -- Lifestyle)
Auction lots in pictures Feb 26, 2009
This wooden sculpture by Constantin Brancusi entitled Portrait de Mme LR is expected to fetch 20 million euros (18m). Works by Picasso, Cezanne and Lautrec also feature. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
YSL art sale breaks new records Feb 25, 2009
Works by the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian, Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi and French innovator Marcel Duchamp, also earned record sums, well above estimates. By contrast, a much anticipated Pablo Picasso work, the highest in the collection - Musical Instruments on a Table - flopped. (Ninemsn)
* Records tumble as Yves Saint Laurent art collection sold Feb 25, 2009
Works by other artists, including Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian, Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi and French innovator Marcel Duchamp, earned record sums, well above earlier estimates. CHINA CLAIM. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World Business)
Yves Saint Laurent sale proves art is in fashion Feb 24, 2009
Works by Piet Mondrian, a big influence on Saint Laurent, Constantin Brancusi, the Romanian sculptor and Marcel Duchamp, the experimental artist, earned record sums well above earlier estimates. The 1917 work Madame L. R. by Brancusi went for 29 million, proving to many experts that collectors and investors were ready to put big money into art as a refuge in hard times. (Times Online)
Matisse sold for record price at Yves Saint Laurent auction Feb 24, 2009
A wood sculpture by Constantin Brancusi entitled "Madame L.R." went for euro26 million ($33. 3 million). (International Herald Tribune)
Yves Saint Laurent art sells for €206 million Feb 24, 2009
The first world record price went to an extremely unusual wood sculpture by Constantin Brancusi carved in the years 1914-1917. Despite its title "Portrait de Madame L.R.," the sculpture is handled in an abstract geometrical style derived from African art. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Record bids for YSL private art Feb 24, 2009
Another record was broken when a sculpture by the Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi was bought for 29m euros (25m), again well above the estimated price, the BBC's Paris correspondent Alasdair Sandford reports. The item expected to fetch the highest price, Picasso's cubist work Instruments de Musique sur un Gueridon (Musical Instruments on a Table), failed to reach a minimum price. (BBC News -- Europe)
Saint Laurent auction breaks world records Feb 24, 2009
Other records included the highest price paid for a 1914-17 sculpture by the Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi, at more than 29-million euros, or 21. 5-million euros for a 1922 abstract composition by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, Christie's said. (Globe and Mail)
Saint Laurent art auction -'sale of the century' Feb 22, 2009
Highlights include Piet Mondrian's 1922 painting "Composition in Blue, Red, Yellow and Black," whose squares of saturated colors inspired Saint Laurent's legendary 1965 shift dress; a wooden sculpture by Romanian Constantin Brancusi that is expected to sell for euro15 million-euro20 million ($19 million-$25 million); and a pair of bronze animal heads that disappeared from a Beijing palace in 1860 and that China now wants removed from the auction and returned. The lot that's expected to fetch the... (The Star Online, Malaysia)
