In the history of art there are artists who are remembered for a single artistic production, somehow overlooking the different expressions of their creativity. This is the case of Robert Indiana who due to one of his icons   has become part of collective imagination with one single figure, able to influence heavily the spectator’s perception. In brief, Robert Indiana is for everyone Love. That writing in capital letters positioned in a square with the tilted letter O, declined in thousands of ways, colours and materials.

Considered for many years a trivial product of the mass subculture, the tradition of graffiti-art, Writing and Street Art intended in the broader sense of the term, has now broken into the art system. In Italy, for instance, the first space that housed this type of art was the Prada Foundation, which hosted Barry McGee.

The June auction session has started and the first results seem positive. Starting from Finarte’s antique furniture and paintings, sold on 4th and 5th June in Milan. The auction totalled about 2,100,000 euros.
The catalogue offered objects from precious private residences, including an elegant residence of Belluno, many of which had not been on the market for a while. This was an important incentive for collectors.
The evening’s top lot was “Madonna col Bambino” (also called “Madonna di San Luca”). This is a painting by an anonymous artist from the Venetian-Cretan school.

It has taken three years of restoration and 6 million euros but in the end Villa Necchi is reopening its doors for visitors. The beautiful residence built between 1932 and 1935 by architect Piero Portaluppi and modernized by Tomaso Buzzi, brought architectonic rationalism to the Italian economic capital. The villa was built by an enlightened family of the high bourgeoisie of Pavia that, having moved to Milan, made of their house a coterie for cultural aggregation open to the world. It was donated to the FAI in 2001 by the sisters Gigina Necchi Campigli and Nedda Necchi and today it is reopening its doors, placing itself as the city’s renewed cultural reference point, which in the administrators’ intentions will have to be not only a place to admire but a place to live.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

Despite the huge increase in market exhibitions, that is finding its place everywhere; Art Basel can be confirmed as always as one of the most interesting international exhibitions dedicated to contemporary and classical XX century art.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

It was announced months ago. The people of Milan and all the international visitors from the Salone del Mobile (who had sponsored it) waited eagerly. And instead it will not be there or at least the original will not be there. Peter Greenaway’s performance based on the idea of Leonardo’s Last Supper, was in fact considered as potentially damaging for the delicate fresco by the master. For this reason the superintendent denied the necessary authorisation unleashing a diplomatic case.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

Between the 27th may and 2nd June 2008, the fifth edition of the Moscow Fine Art Fair (MWFAF) will arrive in the celebrated Manège, the biggest cultural space in Moscow and among the most elegant neoclassical buildings in the city, just a short way from the Piazza Rossa. For the 2008 edition, the Moscow World Fine Art Fair proposes some very interesting new works.

There are artists that we cannot understand unless we know the places in which they’ve worked. It would be unthinkable to conceive Atget without Paris, Weegee without New York, and Ansel Adams without its enchanting mountains. The bond between Jan and Prague is evident even before confirmation of his biographical dates.