COURTESY RIJKSMUSEUM
News
The New-York Historical Society will stage exhibitions about freedom, equality, and civil rights in the U.S. in a recently renovated 1,700-square-foot space called the Luman Reed galleries. “If we have one major contribution to make, I think it would be to say that the boundary between art telling history and other materials telling history has been torn down here,” said Louise Mirrer, president and chief executive of the NYHS. [The Art Newspaper]
María Luisa Menéndez, a shopkeeper in Rañadorio, Spain, repainted three 15th-century wooden sculptures of Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary, and the baby Jesus in vivid—and unorthodox—color. Her intended restoration of these works, which are housed in a local chapel, will likely have legal consequences. [The New York Times]
Artists
Andrea K. Scott on five female painters—including Judith Eisler and Barbara Takenaga—whose work is now on view at galleries around New York. [The New Yorker]
T Magazine has a Q&A with artists Michael Williams and Carroll Dunham, who have been friends for nearly ten years. Speaking about his practice, Williams said, “The content of my paintings is dictated by the content of my own psyche, so I wonder if I would still have the impulse to decorate and to make things if I felt settled.” [T: The New York Times Style Magazine]
Lives
Nancy Blomberg, chief curator and curator of native arts of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, died at age 72. The museum will honor Blomberg by establishing the Nancy Blomberg Acquisitions Fund for Native American Art. [ARTnews]
Collectors
Paris-based collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon is renowned for buying, selling, and exhibiting art and antiques related to Napoleon Bonaparte. About 30 of his objects—from a coronation baton to a rare goblet—are on display at La Biennale Paris at the Grand Palais in the French capital. Addressing his specific interest in the emperor, the eccentric Chalençon said, “Napoleon was a self-made man. And I am a self-made man.” [The New York Times]
Crime & Money
An in-depth article on the murky business dealings of Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire who sold his Leonardo painting, Salvator Mundi, for $450.3 million last fall, and bought Trump’s Palm Beach estate in 2008. [The New York Times]
Eye Candy
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is selling 3D replicas of some of the artist’s most famous paintings—including Sunflowers and The Bedroom—at a pop-up exhibition that will travel to various shopping malls around America. [Hyperallergic]
Take a look at these photographs of some of the most colorful, labyrinthine, and dynamic staircases in the world. [The Guardian]
Steph Mantis’ microscopic images of food are quite captivating. Here’s a video about the work and process of the self-described “bio artist.” [Atlas Obscura]