Stolen Dali Returned

A week ago I reported on the theft of a small Salvador Dali painting Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio (left) and showed this image of the thief from CCTV footage (CLICK). Within a few days the Venus Over Manhattan gallery received an email saying the painting was "on its way back to you already". It was sent from Europe by express mail. US postal inspectors intercepted it at at John F Kennedy Airport yesterday. It is in good condition and will be authenticated (CLICK).

Horse Power Day

Tomorrow, from 11am to 4pm, the British Museum in London offers a free one-day drop-in event to celebrate everything horsey: Horse Power Day. CLICK for a pdf of the day's activities, talks and performances, including a parade of horses in the Forecourt. The museum graphic shows a fragment of a carved relief featuring three horses drawing a chariot, from the north-west palace, Nimrud, Assyria (today's Iraq) 9th century BC.

Apsley House Thefts

I can't understand the incompetent clots of the Metropolitan Police who delay publicizing the theft of valuable works of art until they run out of ideas. The Internet is a button push away. Get the theft into the public domain as quickly as possible. Luigi Eusebi's 19th century copy of Correggio's La Zingarella (the original shown here) and a number of other treasures were stolen from the private apartments of Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner on 14 June, but the Met. waited until 28 June before releasing this news to the BBC (CLICK). Why? To give the thieves time to make good their getaway? Surely it doesn't take a fortnight to watch one night's CCTV footage from the apartments. Apsley House, run by English Heritage, is still open to the public, if you wish to visit (CLICK). Only the family apartments were raided.

Bomber Command Memorial

At least one worthwhile sculpture was unveiled in London today. I was tackling the jungle in my back garden when the flypast roared overhead on its way to Green Park, where HM Queen Elizabeth II unveiled Philip Jackson's 9ft-high bronze sculpture of seven Bomber Command Aircrew returning from a mission. It stands within a memorial designed by Liam O'Connor and built in Portland stone. The sculpture was cast at the Pangolin Foundry. CLICK for details and videos.

Beasley at Pangolin

As if we don't already have enough bad sculpture in the old metropolis, Pangolin London has imported a load of rusty-looking iron abstracts by American Bruce Beasley, example Ascender II. Pangolin London is one of our few galleries dedicated to showing sculpture, but it's got to do better than this to rouse my interest. The show opened today and runs until 25 August (CLICK).

Bad Sculpture in City

The City of London Corporation has plonked seven sculptures in Great St Helen's Sculpture Space, allegedly by "internationally renowned artists". As Tracey Emin is one of them, she taints the whole project; but they are free to view until January 2013. The hopeless anonymous sculpture above gives you an idea of what to expect (CLICK). Don't think I'll bother, thanks, even though it is free.

Tower Bridge Rings

Yesterday London Mayor Bouncy Boris gave the command to reveal the Olympic Rings on Tower Bridge, marking the last 30 days before the Summer Olympiad 2012 begins. I for one will be glad when this celebration of human greed will be over. There's the greed of multinational corporations that want their share of the cake, the greed of transport workers who demand bonuses for working during the games, the greed of Olympic officials trying to offload their spare tickets on the black market, the greed of firms selling fake Olympic goods, the greed of criminals setting up deceptive websites to rip off unwary punters, the greed of hoteliers and landlords doubling their rents for the games, the greed of ticket touts, the greed of purported artists flogging rubbish for the Olympic Arts Festival....

Four Seasons 2

I previewed Philip Haas: The Four Seasons back in May (CLICK). The 15-foot-high fibreglass sculptures are on display in the gardens of the Dulwich Picture Gallery until 16 September. Shown is Summer. Entry to the Gallery grounds is free. I wonder what oddball Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo would think of these jumbo copies of his paintings (CLICK).

Munch Exhibition

Edvard Munch is famous for The Scream, but little else. On 28 June Tate Passé opens Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye, showing 60 paintings, many of them borrowed from the Munch Museum in Oslo. There will also be a rare showing of his work in film and photography. Shown is Munch's The Girls on the Bridge (1927). Admission: £14 adult, £12.20 silver surfer. The show runs until 14 October. CLICK to learn more. BBC News has posted some of Munch's pictures online: CLICK.

Saudi Women Olympians?

Now that Saudi Arabia has bowed to international pressure and agreed to allow Saudi women to compete in the Olympic Games for the very first time (CLICK), I thought you might like to see the sort of garb they must wear to look decent for misogynist Muslim nutters. This is the Jeddah Kings United female football team. Imagine trying to compete at Olympic level in athletics, gymnastics or swimming wearing all that! As far as I know the Saudis have only one sportswoman at Olympic standard: showjumper Dalma Rushdi Malhas (left). Let's hope she wins a medal in London.

BP Travel Award

The BP Portrait Award tends to get all the publicity while the BP Travel Award is sidelined. The latter is a £5,000 bursary awarded to the artist who comes up with the most exciting proposal for a painting in foreign parts. Last year's winner was Jo Fraser, who wanted to travel to the Cuzco region of Peru to observe the textile producers in indigenous communities. Her large oil painting The Weavers (2012) has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the BP Portrait exhibition. CLICK for a larger graphic. CLICK for the National Portrait Gallery.

Women Artists

I can't say that Kaija Bulbrook's Still Life with Pears fills me with enthusiasm for the next art show at the Mall Galleries in London. The Society of Women Artists 151st Annual Exhibition runs from Thursday 28 June to Saturday 7 July. Nearly 400 new artworks in all media, including sculpture, will be on show. Admission costs £3 for adults (CLICK).

Tunick in Munich

I see Spencer Tunick has been at it again. Here's his latest nude-installation thingy, The Ring, in Max Joseph Square in Munich. Yesterday he persuaded approximately 1,700 people to strip to the buff and have their bodies painted either gold or red and then form a circle round the Max Joseph monument in the centre of the square. Liberating for the nudes I'm sure, if a bit nippy, and fun for Tunick playing movie director and bossing all those nudes around, but boring and uninspiring from the artistic or photographic point of view. What a pathetic way to make a living.

Stargazing

Yesterday the Rossi & Rossi gallery in Mayfair, London, opened Stargazing, a group show by four prolific contemporary Indian female artists: Chitra Ganesh, Mithu Sen, Anita Dube, and Jaishri Abichandani. Their work is different, to put it mildly. Above is Mithu Sen's You Owe Me. CLICK to view Chitra Ganesh's How We Do at the End of the World (2011) and read the blurb. CLICK for the Rossi & Rossi website and Jaishri Abichandani's Cyborg As Self (2012). The exhibition runs until 19 July.

Artist of the Year

Submissions are invited to Artists & Illustrators Artist of the Year 2012. The winner will gain gallery representation from London art dealers Osborne Studio Gallery plus £300 worth of vouchers to spend on courses at Newlyn School of Art. Other prizes on offer are The Maimeri Watercolour Prize, The Society for All Artists (SAA) Prize and The West Design Prize. The competition closing date is 16 August. CLICK for details and an entry form. And good luck.

Looted Jug

Here's a detail from a 2,500-year-old water jug or kalpis which is being returned to Italy by the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, because investigators have determined it was looted (CLICK). At first glance it seems to show that the ancient Greeks discovered evolution centuries before Darwin did, but it depicts the myth that the Greek god Dionysos was once kidnapped by pirates and taken aboard a boat; he then turned the pirates into dolphins. Today's sailors could do with his help off the coast of Somalia.

Dali Stolen

A small Salvador Dali painting Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio (above left) has been stolen from the Venus Over Manhattan art gallery in New York (CLICK). On the right is a poor quality CCTV still of the thief making his escape. He simply took the painting off the wall while the security guard was distracted, put it into a black plastic bag and walked out with it. The Dali was part of the gallery's inaugural exhibition À rebours, which explores the idea of “against the grain” with more than 50 artworks. Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio (1949) is worth about £96,027 ($150,000).

TPOTY Exhibition

If the winning photos of the Travel Photographer of the Year look familiar, it's because the winners were announced in December last year and their photos well publicized then. Six months later, the exhibition finally opened today at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore, London (CLICK). Admission is free. Above is the winner of the Best Single Image in a Spirit of Adventure Portfolio: Franco Banfi from Switzerland with this outstanding photo under broken ice of a Beluga Whale in the White Sea, Karelia Region, Northern Russia (detail). Rather than clicking through 150+ photos, CLICK for an excellent 6-minute BBC News audio slide show produced by Paul Kerley.

Musical Cairn

My little corner of Essex has finally made it into ArtDaily (CLICK) thanks to a musical cairn by Mira Calix: Nothing Is Set In Stone (2012). Whether you like your cairns to be musical or not, you must admit it adds novelty to the traditional pile of rocks. Oxford Contemporary Music commissioned it. You'll find the work at Fairlop Waters, amid the geese (CLICK). Bouncy Boris approves of it.

Constable Sketches

A collection of 15 sketches by John Constable come up for grabs at Christie's Old Master and Early British Drawings and Watercolours Sale in London on 3 July (CLICK). The sketches lay in a cupboard for 60 years and were finally brought into Christie's for a routine valuation. They're worth an estimated £50,000. Above is Constable's Sketch of the Ruins of St Botolph's Priory, Colchester, England. His magnificent oil painting The Lock (1824) will be in the same auction.

Blogger Update

Since April I've been strugging to make the best of the pig's ear Blogger has made of its new interface. Three days ago the new Blogger Compose Page went bananas and refused to accept any title I tried to type in or paste. It kept crashing with error code bX-hzwrm3. That's why I haven't been able to write new posts for a few days. Complaints to Blogger got me nowhere. So today, after a lot of fiddling about, I managed to revert to the old Blogger interface. Brilliant!

Master Drawings

The twelfth edition of Master Drawings London takes place from 27 June to 5 July. Drawings from the Renaissance to the present day will be shown at participating galleries in the posher parts of London (CLICK). Above is Sir William Orpen's Self-portrait on a cliff top in Howth, a charcoal drawing with gouache and oil on buff paper, at Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd.

Aleah Chapin Wins

Congratulations to Aleah Chapin for winning the prestigious BP Portrait Award 2012 worth £25,000 plus a commission worth £4,000. I thought Aleah's painting of Auntie was outstanding when I posted the shortlist (CLICK). Her friends have been rooting for her in comments on that post. The BBC is very shy about showing bare white breasts (CLICK), but it doesn't mind showing bouncy black ones! Racist BBC! The award exhibition of the best 55 of the 2,187 entries opens on 21 June, admission free.

Lenticular Nudes

Hay Hill Gallery in Cork Street, London, is showing Jeffrey Robb Liminal State until 13 July. This exhibition of work by Jeffrey over the last 5 years includes moving 3D images using lenticular photography, a process of capturing multiple images of a subject. Jeffrey combines these images into a single 3D image on a computer. Red, green and blue lasers expose the photographic substrate, which he combines with a vertically aligned optical lens to produce the finished fine art image. Every stage of the process is done by hand and requires great skill. The gallery website shows an animated GIF to give you a rough approximation of the 3D movement this technique creates: CLICK.

Stripy Clothes

Take a look at these two pictures showing women wearing striped dresses, one with horizontal stripes, the other with vertical stripes. Does the bust of the woman on the right look higher than the one on the left? To my eyes it does. To my eyes, the woman in the vertical stripes looks taller and slimmer than the one in the horizontal stripes. These picture were used by Dr Peter Thompson of York University in an experiment to demonstrate the Helmholtz illusion: that wearing horizontal stripes makes a woman look taller (the opposite of what I'm seeing). Val Watham was sceptical about Dr Thompson's findings and entered Radio 4's So You Want to Be a Scientist? She contacted Dr Thompson and he agreed to help her turn her idea into an experiment, using real people in real clothes. Result: she upset Dr Thompson's findings and won the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year award (CLICK). Well done, that sceptic.

Photo Prize Update

In case you're wondering who won the Renaissance Photography Prize 2012, which I previewed 12 days ago (CLICK), it was Anastasia Taylor-Lind (UK) with the above photo from The Series The National Womb: Baby Boom In Nagorno Karabakh. CLICK to view all the winners in a range of categories. Clicking on photos expands them (slowly). Find NEXT on the top, right corner. You can order prints online. My favourite in the Disorientation category is at the bottom of the webpage: Fem!nist#4 by Catrine Val (Germany). Love that blonde in her Marigold gloves confronted by horrible German sausages! Very Freudian.

Banksy's For Sale

London auction house Bonhams is scouring Banksy's home town of Bristol for works to add to its first-ever Urban Art sale in Los Angeles on 29 October (CLICK). Let's hope this doesn't involve demolishing too many buildings. Why Los Angeles? There are some rich Hollywood stars who are collecting Banksy's. His Winnie the Pooh with a paw caught in a bear trap ... er ... man trap ... er ... Pooh trap ... is one of the works that will be up for grabs, estimated value $50,000 to $80,000. Without costing the taxpayer a penny, Banksy has done far more for British art than the overpaid Arts Council, which wastes vast sums of public money on daft ideas that make us a laughing stock in the eyes of the world.

Renoir Nude For Sale

Renoir's plump naked bather Baigneuse (1888) comes up for grabs at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on 20 June. Fifteen years ago it fetched £13.45m ($20.9m) a record price at auction for a nude by Renoir. We can safely assume it will exceed that sum next Wednesday, Lot 20. The auction also includes a collection of sculptures by Edgar Degas and a very creepy painting by Paul Delvaux Le Temple (1949) Lot 60, a snip at £1.5m to £2.5m (CLICK).

Watering Holes

At first glance this looks like a Barbara Hepworth sculpture, but it is actually a new drinking fountain in Green Park entitled Watering Holes. Pun aside, the holes at different heights allow adults, children, wheelchair users and dogs to avail themselves of fresh drinking water. An 800kg slab of Cornish granite was used to create the fountain, designed by Robin Monotti Architects and Mark Titman. Watering Holes was one of two winners in an international design competition organised by the Royal Parks Foundation, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and The Royal Parks, with generous financial support from The Tiffany & Co Foundation in New York. CLICK for more information.

BT Artbox

If you spotted a large number of weird and wonderful telephone boxes in Trafalgar Square today, don't panic! It's all in a good cause. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of charity ChildLine, BT invited artists and designers to reimagine Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic red telephone box. Above is Benjamin Shine's Box Lounger, a leather bound and studded sofa. These arty telephone boxes will be scattered around London before being put up for auction. CLICK for The Telegraph slide show of 26 photos. CLICK for a BBC video. CLICK for BT Artbox and further details.

The Newer Gender

If you're a hermaphrodite, here's the art show for you. XXXora - The Newer Gender opened yesterday at the Vyner Street Gallery in London. Anglo-Spanish artist XXXora describes her/his self as an emerging artist and a hermaphrodite. Shouldn't that be XYXora? Never mind. It certainly has a cartoonist's eye for politics and sex. Above is its Margaret Thatcher’s Tea Party. XXXora's debut solo exhibition is in Galleries One and Two until 24 June (CLICK).

Whitechapel Frieze

Yesterday Rachel Whiteread unveiled her frieze of golden leaves on the façade of the Whitechapel Gallery in east London. She described it as her "gift to the area"  (CLICK). Like hell it is! This gilded Tree of Life is one of the major commissions of the London 2012 Festival, paid for by the Art Fund and supported by Arts Council England, the Lottery Fund, The Henry Moore Foundation and Mayor Of London. In short, a lot of taxpayers' money went into this white elephant, a touch of glitter in the East End. How much did Rachel's "gift" actually cost? Stroll by and take a look. Pick a big number and see if you think it's worth it.

The Discobolus

This is Chinese sculptor Sui Jianguo's version of The Discobolus (discus thrower). It's on display in the British Museum in London, a free display in Room 3 until 9 September. Why a suit? East meets West; ancient meets modern. CLICK for more information.

Danny Boyle's Jerusalem

So, what do you think of Danny Boyle's notion of turning the Olympic Stadium into Britain's Green and Pleasant Land for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games (CLICK)? Is it a retreat into the past, because modern Britain is too horrible to stomach? Is it an attempt to create a land fit for Teletubbies? Is it intended to get up the noses of all those religious nutters who have invaded Britain by reasserting Britain's Christian heritage? The famous phrase comes from William Blake's devout poem Jerusalem, which Sir Hubert Parry turned into a stirring anthem in 1916 (CLICK).

 I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land (CLICK).

And, more importantly, who's going to clear up all the cow shit when the ceremony is over?

Rolf Harris OA

Rolf Harris collects honours like other people collect postage stamps. First he got an MBE, then an OBE, then a CBE (Member, Officer, Commander, of the Order of the British Empire). He has also been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). Now, in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2012, he has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia (CLICK). I wonder, is that OA or OOA? I've guessed OA. In case you're a bit sniffy about Rolf's art, take note that the Qatari royal family paid $56 million at auction for this Rolfaroo cartoon (1974). As Britain no longer has an empire, shouldn't our honours be renamed Order of the Commonwealth? That would be more suitable.

Face Britain Update

In December 2011 I posted news of Face Britain, a project by The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts to celebrate the Queen's birthday (CLICK). 201,948 children submitted self-portraits, which were used to create portraits of the Queen projected on to Buckingham Palace. Whatever you think of the resultant mess (above) Guinness has verified that the project beat the previous world record for an art installation worked on by the most artists (CLICK).

Masterpieces

The one that got away: "It was this big and only £20 million to £25 million". I see Christie's is following Coxsoft's advice: When in doubt, pose a beautiful young woman next to it. Why Christie's should be in doubt about John Constable's The Lock is anyone's guess. The blonde Christie's employee isn't holding up the frame; she's the added cheesecake to impart feminine glamour to the painting, like girls in bikinis at motor shows. If you want to see Constable's painting (minus the cheesecake), flash round to Christie's in London for its 3-day public exhibition Masterpieces (CLICK). Tomorrow is the last day. I only found out about it this morning (CLICK).

Junior Open House

Now that the school half-term holidays are over, Open City is offering kiddies its Junior Open House Festival 2012, which runs from 23 to 24 June. CLICK for Festival information and a wide choice of kiddie activities around London.

George Bellows

BBC News has published a slide show of artworks by that great American artist George Bellows (CLICK). Why should Auntie choose this subject when the exhibition just opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC (CLICK)? Answer: it's one of those big international shows jointly organised by major galleries, and the BBC's spy at the Royal Academy of Arts in London passed on the good news that this show will be coming to the RA in March 2013. It moves to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on 15 November 2012, then comes to London. This is a major retrospective of George Bellows' art - the first in 30 years -, comprising 130 paintings, lithographs and drawings of subjects ranging from powerful depictions of bare-knuckle boxing matches to skinny slum kids in New York. Above is Bellows' Portrait of Paddy Flannigan. In 2011 the National Gallery in London showed seven of Bellows' works in its show George Bellows and the Ashcan Painters (CLICK).

Grayson Perry's Taste

Try as one might, it's impossible to escape Grayson Perry, the Tate's answer to Lily Savage. Here's the lad doing his best to look as cute as Maria Bueno did in pink frilly knickers at Wimbledon. He's dressed to kill for his TV series on Channel 4 on Tuesdays: All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry (CLICK). Yesterday I reported that he was one of the judges for the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize (scroll down or CLICK). And he is currently exhibiting his jumbo tapestries at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London: Grayson Parry: The Vanity of Small Differences (CLICK). To see a large graphic of his tapestry take on Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, CLICK.

Daiwa Prize Winner

Last October I posted news of the shortlist for the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize (CLICK). It seems picture frames are the in thing at the moment. Behold Haroon Mirza's electrical installation thingy Frame for a Painting (2011). Believe it or not, this codswallop won the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize 2012. You can see it at the Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery in London until 19 July (CLICK). I can't imagine this daft idea impressing punters in central Tokyo, which is lit up with neon signs like Piccadilly Circus. This is what you get for employing the UK's doyen of bad taste and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry as a judge.

New Queen Portrait

One of the most boring aspects of being Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (2012) must be unveiling bad portraits of oneself and trying to think of pleasant things to say about them. What to say about the latest one, unveiled at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday? You don't want to upset Canadian PM Stephen Harper, clapping politely at the unveiling. His government commissioned the damned thing. "Er ... what a big one, Phil" (CLICK). Canadian artist Phil Richards might be good at painting the interiors of palaces, but his Diamond Jubilee portrait of Her Majesty leaves a lot to be desired.

Hayward Twaddle

If you want to hear anti-art bull at its worst, CLICK for Will Gompertz' interview with the curator of the Hayward Gallery's latest load of twaddle. Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957 - 2012 opens on 12 June and limps along until 5 August. Yes, it's all blank canvases or paper and the the curator invites you to take "a leap of faith" to picture art in these empty frames. As there's nothing to show, I've designed my own empty frame with a hidden message. Watch carefully. Invisible is supported by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. What a waste of money! Sack the curator and slash ACE's taxpayer subsidy again. How many twerps will be daft enough to visit this show?

Anna Camner

Today the Faggionata Fine Art Gallery in London opened Anna Camner: Dust, Dirt and Dingy Weeds, which runs until 5 July (CLICK). This is the first solo exhibition in the UK of new paintings by Swedish artist Anna Camner. All her works are Untitled. Above is Untitled 2012.

Winslow Homer at Morris

In contrast to the sculpture below (or CLICK) here is an example of magnificent art made out of wood. Low Tide is a wood engraving by Winslow Homer, first published in Every Saturday magazine on 6 August 1870. It's one of 28 superb engravings in On Vacation with Winslow Homer: Wood Engravings of an American Master, which opened yesterday at the Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey, USA, and runs until 7 October. Oh lucky Yanks. The exhibition is free, but you pay to enter the museum: $10 for adults or $7 for silver surfers. The Morris is a Blue Star Museum, offering free admission from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2012 for active duty military personnel and their families (CLICK). Why don't we do something similar for our armed forces? CLICK for Winslow Homer's Snap the Whip (1873).

David Nash at Kew

It amazes me that the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which houses one of the finest collections of botanical art in the world, should invite a junk-peddler like David Nash to inflict his mindless abstract sculptures upon its wonderful gardens. So he has 3 diplomas in art from 3 different art colleges and he's been making a living out of this junk for 40 years, but that's no excuse. David Nash at Kew: A Natural Gallery opens tomorrow and runs for an entire year (CLICK). He'll be working on dead trees until October. I'm all in favour of recycling, but turn it into something aesthetically pleasing or useful, not rubbish as above. Tickets cost £13.90 for adults, £11.90 for silver surfers, children under 17 free. CLICK for a BBC News video of Nash wittering on about his exhibits.

Chevalier D’Eon Update

Back in April I reported on Philip Mould's discovery of Thomas Stewart's portrait of Chevalier D’Eon (1792) lost since 1926 (CLICK). The National Portrait Gallery in London has acquired the painting as a landmark work and has put it on public display (CLICK). Ironic to consider that our modern kick-ass heroines owe it all to Chevalier D’Eon's popular displays of swordfighting in drag! A man led the way, girls.

Human Glue

This exquisite painting, Baker Girl by Thea Penna, reminds me of a Vermeer, the quality is so high. Love as well as huge talent went into this portrait. The artist's daughter? It's one of the works in a group exhibition Human Glue, which opens tomorrow at the Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, London, E2 8JD, and runs until 26 June. This is a collection of paintings and drawings on the theme of families by Beverlie Manson, Mark Paulding, Thea Penna and Johnny Cole. It's worth visiting for Baker Girl alone (CLICK).