Arts Roundup: Nudes in Eden, a Tatooed Madonna, Zuni War Gods, Wine for Art and Why is Art Valuable?
February 26th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
Photographer Justine Kurland describes her work as “a Huckleberry Finn narrative, but giving it to girls.” Her photographs of nude mothers and babies, sets them in Edenic locations, often in the woods. [NY Times]
Bill Soukoreff considers what makes art valuable. [Blogcritics Magazine]
An “up-to-date Madonna,” Catherine Opie’s Self Portrait/Nursing (2004) “shows the hefty, tattooed photographer (faintly scarred with the word ‘pervert’ carved in cursive script across her chest) cradling a blond baby boy who feeds at her breast, each gazing upon the other with rapt attention.” [Village Voice]
Christie’s is selling 170 paintings from a settlement hailed as “one of the largest restitutions of art seized by the Nazis.” [IHT]
Twenty years after Warhol’s death, his estate offers to return a war god, claiming Warhol “could not have known of the war god’s religious significance or its shady past”:
To the Zunis, war gods — or Ahayu:da — have a value far greater than money. Carved by priests and placed in secret shrines on the reservation, the wooden figures are not considered art. To the Zuni people, Ahayu:da are living deities who, when disturbed, have the power to upset the world’s balance. War gods are owned communally by the tribe and are never sold. If one appears in an art collection or museum, it has been stolen. [Salon]
Jewish, influential Picasso collector, Heinz Berggruen died at age 93. [CBS]
Wine for art, Rothschild style. [Reuters]
A representative of the Kamil International Ministries Organization, which aims to “raise an awareness of the danger of Islam,” was permitted to distribute a handout titled “Do Not Marry a Muslim Man” to a high school class. This has no art significance, but it is quite offensive. [AP via Yahoo]