Latest news with #Artnet
IOL News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
A cheeky condom from the 1800s steals the show at an Amsterdam museum
A rare condom dating from 1830 featuring an erotic print of a nun and three clergymen in provocative poses that went on display at the Rijksmuseum as part of an exhibit on 19th century prostitution and sexuality. It's an illustration that would be racy even by today's standards: A nun points her finger at a trio of clergymen, who raise their robes to reveal their aroused state. Her bare legs are splayed open, in a bizarre and humorous exchange. If that wasn't risqué enough, the drawing was printed on a condom nearly 200 years ago and is thought to have been circulated as a brothel souvenir. Likely made from a sheep's appendix, the early contraceptive is also inscribed with the words 'Voilà mon choix,' or 'This is my choice' - a tongue-in-cheek jab at celibacy. The yellowed, crinkled condom made its debut on Tuesday at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Perched on a tiny stand, it rests among other relics depicting 19th-century prostitution and sexuality in the museum's print room, which is dedicated to drawings and photographs across various media. 'Only two such objects are known to have survived to the present day,' the Rijksmuseum said in a release. 'It reveals that printing was being used in a wide range of contexts.' Curious readers can get a closer, possibly not-safe-for-work look here. The origin of the condom - or its derivatives - might date to around 3000 BC, when it was written that the mythological character King Minos of Crete protected his wife from the 'serpents and scorpions' in his semen by inserting a goat's bladder into her vagina before intercourse. It was said that Minos's mistress had died after having intercourse with him, leading him to seek further protection from disease. Other interpretations of the story suggest that Minos wore the goat's bladder himself. Some argue that condoms made from animal intestines have existed since at least the medieval age. In a lecture about the history of condoms, researcher Kate Stephenson said that the earliest evidence of condom use that she found was from 1564, when an Italian anatomist wrote about men using linen cloth made to fit over the penis. Another scholar documented similar methods a few years later, she added. The 1830 condom on display in the Netherlands 'embodies both the lighter and darker sides of sexual health, in an era when the quest for sensual pleasure was fraught with fears of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases - especially syphilis,' the Rijksmuseum wrote. Close-up photos on the museum's website show the intricate, etching-like nature of the drawing printed upon it. The museum says its inscription is also a parody of the Judgment of Paris, a Greek myth that tells of the Trojan prince choosing which of three goddesses - Aphrodite, Athena and Hera - is the most beautiful. Rijksmuseum curators purchased the condom six months ago at an auction. There were no other bidders, according to Artnet. The condom will be on display until the end of November, the museum said.
Hypebeast
02-06-2025
- Business
- Hypebeast
Young Asian Artists Are Facing a Market Slowdown
Summary Auction sales for young Asian artists born in the 1990s have dropped to their lowest level in three years, according toThe Asia Pivotby Artnet. Total sales fell to $9.7 million USD in 2024, with average prices down 26 percent to $13,905 USD per work. The segment which was once seen as a fast-rising part of the market is now slowing. Artists who previously led the pack are seeing sharp declines. Anna Park, who brought in $1.67 million USD in 2023, did not make the top 10 this year. Raghav Babbar's average prices were cut nearly in half, despite most of his works still finding buyers. Artnet points to a wider downturn across ultra-contemporary art. Fewer works are being sold, and those that do sell are often going for less. However, a few names continue to perform well. Yukimasa Ida from Japan remained among the top three. Sun Yitian from China ranked first in 2024 after her painting Prologue sold for $415,000 USD. Women artists made up nearly half of the top 50, with many based internationally. The data suggests a market that is changing, with more global representation. China and Japan still account for most of the top-performing artists. Although the post-pandemic excitement around this group has cooled, these artists continue to reflect larger shifts in the market and are likely to influence future trends.
Hypebeast
27-05-2025
- Business
- Hypebeast
Artnet to Go Private Following Beowolff Buyout of $65 Million USD
Summary Beowolff Capitalhas announced a $65 million USD deal to acquireArtnet, with plans to take the company private. The investment firm has already secured65% of Artnet's share capitaland is offering €11.25 per share to the remaining shareholders, representing a 97% premium over the company's closing price on March 3, the last trading day before rumors of the takeover surfaced. As part of the deal, Beowolff will purchase a 29.99% stake from Weng Fine Art AG for nearly €20 million, effectively ending a years-long power struggle between Artnet and the German art investment firm. The transaction is scheduled to close on May 30, 2025. Beowolff's acquisition of Artnet follows its recent purchase ofArtsy, signaling a broader strategy to dominate the digital art landscape. The firm intends to create a connected ecosystem of art platforms powered by shared AI tools, designed to streamline transactions, improve data access and boost market transparency. Despite the ownership change, Artnet will continue to operate as usual, retaining its leadership team, product offerings and editorial arm, Artnet News. Beowolff says it sees long-term value in Artnet's global reach and credibility as a marketplace and information hub for the art world
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean Combs Could Lose a $21 Million Kerry James Marshall Painting if He's Found Guilty
According to multiple reports this week, rapper and record executive Sean Combs may see many of his assets seized by the Department of Justice if he is found guilty of sex trafficking, a charge that he has denied. Among those assets are art that he owns—including a prized Kerry James Marshall painting that he won at auction in 2018. That painting, Past Times (1997), appeared in Marshall's traveling retrospective and was won by Combs, also known by the moniker Diddy, at Sotheby's. The painting sold in 2018 for $21.1 million with fees, setting an auction record for Marshall and making him one of the most expensive living artists. More from Robb Report Emma Stone Seeks $26.5 Million for Her Unfinished Austin Estate Porsche Is Ending Production of Its Gas-Powered Boxster and Cayman Julia Roberts's Former Hawaii Hideaway Can Be Yours for $30 Million ARTnews previously reported that Swizz Beatz, a collector in his own right, had encouraged Combs to buy the Marshall painting. 'I was like, 'This Kerry James Marshall has to stay in the culture,'' Beatz said. The depth of Combs's collection is not entirely known, but Artnet News reported in 2014 that he was actively buying work, with Maria Brito as his adviser. 'I don't want to take credit for bringing him into the art world,' Brito said in a profile for the Daily Beast, 'but before me he didn't really have any art…He never had a chance for someone to explain things to him in a way that would engage his mind, like how to look at contemporary and conceptual art.' But by 2024, with five civil suits pending against Combs, Artnet was speculating that he might soon sell art, not buy it. 'I don't think he plans on selling anything,' Brito told Artnet in that report, which noted that he had bought a Tracey Emin piece for $95,000, as well as pieces by Random International and Brett Murray. Best of Robb Report The 10 Priciest Neighborhoods in America (And How They Got to Be That Way) In Pictures: Most Expensive Properties Click here to read the full article.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
An Artist's Journey From the Soviet Union to the Frick
At the upper levels of capital-S society, or what remains of it, the name Vladimir Kanevsky is quietly dropped in conversation as a tell for arrival, a foolproof marker of taste. 'People who know, know,' said the interior designer and philanthropist Charlotte Moss, referring to Mr. Kanevsky, an artist who works in porcelain. The fashion designer Tory Burch once commissioned a 30-person dinner service from him. Not to be outdone, the interior designer Alberto Pinto ordered up a set of Mr. Kanevsky's floral dishes comprising more than 250 individual works. The society swan Deeda Blair curated a show of his flower sculptures at the high-end department store Bergdorf Goodman. The designer Carolyne Roehm promptly acquired most of them. Mr. Kanevsky's status as society's best kept secret seemed to change last week, when an Artnet headline declared: 'Porcelain Virtuoso Blows Up at the Frick." The Frick Collection, a gloriously staid New York City museum that reopened on April 17 after a five-year, $220 million renovation, is the last place anyone might associate with the latest thing. But there, amid masterpieces by Vermeer, Bellini and Rembrandt in the refreshed Beaux-Arts mansion on Fifth Avenue, stand 30 of Mr. Kanevsky's specially commissioned floral works. For Mr. Kanevsky, the Frick commission was both a homage 'to my beloved museum,' as he said by phone from his home in Fort Lee, N.J., and a nod to the fresh flowers used by Helen Clay Frick, a daughter of the museum's founder, to lighten the somber mood of the building when it opened to the public in 1935. A selection of modestly-scaled replicas of Mr. Kanevsky's new works for the Frick were produced to sell at the museum's gift shop: Of the 29 potted blooms he had created, 27 had sold by opening day. Priced from $3,000 to $15,000, they were a far cry from usual tote bag souvenirs. The Kanevsky commission was a testament to immigration, according to Howard Slatkin, the interior designer credited with having discovered the artist. 'It's a classic only-in-America story,' Mr. Slatkin said by phone from his home in Bermuda. 'Or, at least, it would have been until recently.' Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when it was part of the Soviet Union, Mr. Kanevsky, now 74, was trained as an architect. He came to the United States as a political refugee in 1989. 'It was not a great time to be Jewish in Russia,' Mr. Slatkin said. Speaking virtually no English at the time, Mr. Kanevsky joined a community of Ukrainian expatriates who had settled in and around Hoboken, N.J. A lawyer friend of his spotted a flyer Mr. Slatkin had posted at a health food store seeking a craftsperson capable of replicating items from his mother's collection of Meissen porcelain. 'I wanted someone who could copy an 18th-century melon tureen,' Mr. Slatkin said. Though Mr. Kanevsky knew almost nothing about porcelain, he began experimenting, using a small kiln he had purchased to fire clay sculptures. He eventually developed a technique for creating, petal by petal, the flowers that would bring him to the attention of the society people who would become his principal patrons. 'Without even realizing it, I developed this niche,' Mr. Kanevsky said. Ms. Moss, the interior designer, was an early backer. 'I became aware of him through Howard Slatkin and commissioned him to make pots of flowers based on the seasons for me to sell," she said. These proved so successful that Mr. Kanevsky was spurred on to bolder experiments. 'He did a tree peony for a client in Texas,' Ms. Moss said. Soon, his sculptural flora began turning up in some of Manhattan's most elegant rooms; in shelter magazine features; at the Dior home furnishings store in Paris; at exhibitions at the Hillwood mansion in Washington, D.C., the one-time the home of the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post; and at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, a former residence of czars that is now a part of the State Hermitage Museum. 'His artistry bridges past and present,' Xavier F. Salomon, the deputy director and chief curator at the Frick Collection, said in a statement. It also melds the illusion of floral recreation with the muscularity of sculpture. Consider Mr. Kanevsky's wild artichoke set in a pot near Giovanni Bellini's 'St. Francis in the Desert,' perhaps the Frick's most celebrated painting, or his human-scale hollyhock set alongside a monumental portrait by Anthony van Dyck. Mr. Kanevsky modestly attributes his success to the combination of his architectural training and happenstance. When he accepted the Frick commission, he was far from confident that his sculptures belonged among the greatest works of all time. 'There are so many masterpieces,' Mr. Kanevsky said. 'My first task was to understand, Who am I next to a Bellini? Do I belong that world? Obviously, no.' The conclusion he reached was that his flora could be thought of as conversation pieces, in dialogue with great masterworks. 'Then it's up to viewers to decide whether they deserve to be there,' he said.
