Glass artist Dale Chihuly provides personal insights into his work.

via ArtsJournal

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About the film:

This short video artwork explores three different relationships to secrets: hiding, destroying and revealing. Through images of hands interacting with a tiny envelope containing a secret, the video examines what we do with our secrets and what they do to us. Which has more power: the keeper of the secret or the secret itself? To reinforce this theme, the visual perspective vacillates between that of the \”secret keeper\” and the secret. In one moment the viewer watches hands cup around the envelope; in the next, those same hands seem to be enveloping the viewer, turning them into the secret. Ultimately, who is hiding whom? Who is destroying whom? Who is revealing whom?

“Our restoration department examined some 70 paintings with X-rays, with infrared technology and paint tests to deconstruct and explain the painters’ techniques for an exhibition starting in two weeks,” Stefan Swertz told AFP.

“There were several things that made us take a closer look at ‘The Seine at Port Villez’ and we have absolutely no doubt that it was not painted by Monet,” he said.

One of the things that unmasked the fake Monet was the fact that the painter’s name was not signed just once but later retraced to be darker.

Its last known owner was Edemar Cid Ferreira, the former owner of Banco Santos and one of Brazil’s largest art collectors. The bank went bankrupt in September 2005, leaving behind debts of over $1 billion.

Ferreira was convicted in Brazil on charges including money laundering and bank fraud. He was ordered to begin serving a 21-year sentence in December 2006, but was released while his appeal winds through the courts.

A Brazilian court ordered the seizure of $20 million to $30 million worth of art, saying Ferreira and his relatives and associates had bought the works with proceeds of illegal schemes, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Shaun Greenhalgh, an Englishman whose furtive career has been unfolding in courtrooms, newspapers and museums for the last three months, may well be the most versatile art forger in history.

In 2002, Dad dropped in to the Bolton Museum to ask whether anyone would like to see a 20-inch-high Egyptian sculpture, which his great-grandfather had purchased in 1892 from the contents auction at the home of the 4th Earl of Egremont. It was translucent alabaster, and in photos it’s pretty.

Dad suggested it might represent a daughter of Nefertiti. He guessed it could be worth £500 ($996). He brought along the catalogue of the auction, which his great-grandfather had fortunately kept. In truth, Shaun had found the catalogue. He used the descriptive details in its yellowing pages to make the sculpture.

Experts pronounced it authentic and Bolton Council paid £439,767 to buy it for the Bolton Museum. It wasn’t local money, of course; it came from a national fund supported by lotteries. The museum people were quite chuffed. They thought the piece possibly worth twice that much. One museum employee called Dad “a nice old man who had no idea of the significance of what he owned.” The sculpture remained on exhibit until one fateful day in February, 2006.

After many successful years, and scores of sales, the Greenhalghs were caught out by that old devil hubris. Shaun, deeply impressed by his own talent, forgot that serious chicanery requires careful attention to detail. He sent the British Museum what was apparently an ancient Assyrian stone relief showing a soldier and horses with cuneiform writing. It looked great until someone noticed a minor spelling mistake in the writing and someone else said that the harness on the horses was from the wrong period.

Winners – International Judges’ Awards:
Best New Hotel: Riva Lofts, Florence
Best New Public Building: New Museum, New York, by SANAA
Best Fashion Collection: Jil Sander, autumn/winter 2007
Best New Grooming Product: TweezLight tweezers
Best New Private House: Ring House, Karuizawa, by TNA
Best Domestic Appliance: Katamari 01 speaker by Gyanze
Furniture Designer of the Year: Tokujin Yoshioka
Best New Restaurant; Mathias Dahlgren, Stockholm
Best City: Los Angeles
Most Life-Enhancing Item: $100 laptop, by Yves Béhar

There are 63 categories in this year’s ‘Best’. If you head over here you can see the full list. Why not review the shortlists and decided for yourself if the judge’s got things right (look for the short list links towards the right side of the screen).

From Wallpaper Magazine:

Danielle Arnaud’s gallery is well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in domestic architecture and interiors, as the space is also her home.

The current show: Annie Whiles Cuckoo, plays with the interior theme further with a series of large scale drawings that give a number of iconic 20th-century pieces of furniture a starring role.

Follow on forward to Wallpaper’s gallery.

via artsjournal

Click here to view the embedded video.