De riches galeries d'art passent le périph'

Source Le Monde par Harry Bellet
Reste une dernière question : qu'est-ce qui rend Paris si attractif pour ces riches marchands étrangers ? " Personne ne me la poserait si j'annonçais ouvrir à Hongkong, Londres ou New York, s'amuse Ropac. Paris regagne du terrain. Pensez au Palais de Tokyo, à la future Fondation Louis Vuitton de Boulogne... Et les artistes étrangers aiment cette ville. La concurrence est rude pour obtenir d'eux les meilleures oeuvres, mais ils sont prêts à faire des efforts, parce que c'est Paris. "
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Tripura's royal palaces to be turned into museums

Source Daily News
"Once beyond the reach of the people and an eyesore for the Communists, the palaces - Puran Habeli and Ujjayanta Palace - would not only be mere museums, these would be knowledge hubs and tourist hotspots for both Indians and foreigners," Tripura Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Anil Sarkar told IANS. "The endangered art, culture and history of northeast India's tribals and non-tribals, and the ethnic diversity, archaeological and geological reserves of the region would be showcased and preserved in the two giant museums."
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Journey to the West

Source Global Times by Zhang Zihan
It's been 1,400 years since legendary monk and scholar Xuan Zang returned from India to introduce Buddhist scriptures to China. However, few Chinese today know much about Indian culture, particularly its art, despite both countries being neighbors and the world's two most populous nations. However, Beijingers eager to learn more about the sub-continental country's artistic spirit can now experience modern Indian art at the exhibition "Indian Highway," which opened at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) on June 24.
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Art oasis in Mumbai

Source The Hindu Business Line
The idea behind it is simple: offer young artists small studios in which to work, and in exchange, they either offer her a work of art, or pay a subsidised market rent (at this point, about Rs 15,000 per month for 300 square feet). The beauty of Space 118 is that while it is located in a forgotten, ill-traversed part of south Mumbai, it’s a boon for artists seeking proximity to Mumbai’s major museums, libraries and galleries.
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Leaving the Figure Behind

Source The New York Times by Karen Rosenberg
To judge from this show, Indian modernism looks most “modern” when it takes the form of film, specifically the films made in the late 1960s, when the national Films Division of India and private foundations gave grants to select Indian painters. Three of the artists — M. F. Husain, Akbar Padamsee and Tyeb Mehta — are each represented at the Rubin by a painting and a short film. Generally the films outshine the paintings, though prolific artists like Husain are not well served by a single canvas.
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Histoires de voir, Show and Tell

Source Télérama par Bénédicte Philippe
Bonne nouvelle ! Aujourd'hui, il existe des professionnels de l'art suffisamment libres, aventureux et éclairés pour porter nos regards vers d'autres territoires, par-delà le modèle – très occidental – du White Cube et de son inévitable marché. Hervé Chandès est de ceux-là. Avec la complicité scénographique du designer italien Alessandro Mendini, il nous offre la plus réjouissante des expositions parisiennes du moment !
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Binayak Sen, Bulu Imam to receive International Peace Award

Source Hindustan Times
Two Indian human rights activists – Binayak Sen and Bulu Imam -- will be honoured with the International Peace Award given by the Gandhi Foundation at the House of Lords. The award was created in 1998 by Surur Hoda and Diana Schumacher with the support of the foundation's president, Lord Attenborough. The intention is to honour individuals and groups who have advocated and practised Gandhian non-violence but who have received little recognition for doing so.
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Christie’s lifts Sotheby’s-led gloom on Indian art market

Source Riding The Elephant by John Elliott
Congratulations tinged with relief was the message being given by dealers and collectors at the end of Christie’s South Asian modern art auction here yesterday to the event’s main organizers, Hugo Weihe and Yamini Mehta. Congratulations because, given the current climate of declining sales, the auction of some 112 lots had done well realising £4.1m ($6.38m) including buyers’ premium, with only about 15 lots not sold.
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Unsold ! Unthinkable !

The Forge is one of Raza’s masterpieces. This painting celebrates the union of modern Western art and Indian thought. This masterpiece tells of the greatest moments of abstract art. We find the surrealist flamboyance of Arshile Gorky, the gestural calligraphy of Mark Tobey. This masterpiece celebrates the tantric energy of the physical forces of color. One finds there the luxuriance of the psyche of Indian mythology.
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Invendu ! Impensable !

La Forge est l'un des chefs d'œuvre de Raza. Cette peinture célèbre l'union de l'art moderne occidental et de la pensée indienne. Ce chef d'œuvre nous parle des plus beaux moments de l'art abstrait. L'on y retrouve la flamboyance surréaliste d'Arshile Gorky, la calligraphie gestuelle de Mark Tobey. Ce chef d'œuvre célèbre l'énergie tantrique des forces physiques de la couleur. L'on y retrouve la luxuriance de la psyché des mythologies indiennes.
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Voyage dans les autres « mondes de l'art »

Source Le Quotidien des Arts par Richard Leydier
« "Histoires de voir" est née de la curiosité d'aller voir et de comprendre en quoi consiste l'art dit “naïf”, “autodidacte” ou “primitif”, d'aller à la rencontre d'artistes empruntant d'autres chemins que ceux imposés par les codes visuels dominants, de revisiter les relations entre art contemporain et art populaire, entre art et artisanat », annonce le texte d'introduction à l'exposition. La Fondation Cartier poursuit ici son exploration des marges de l'art contemporain, en projetant la lumière sur les univers parallèles qui évoluent à sa lisière.
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Une incursion au cœur du monde

Source Culturebox par Laurence Houot-Pemy
La première impression quand on entre dans l'exposition "Histoires de voir" à la Fondation Cartier, dans l'espace lumineux de la Fondation Cartier, c'est l'abondance. Un peu comme si on nous avait invité dans une forêt luxuriante, pleine de formes et de couleurs, où se déploient figures humaines, animales et végétales. Comme si le monde était entré ici, avec toute sa puissance, sa beauté, sa violence, son mystère. Peintures et sculptures naïves du Brésil, poteries cochiti du Nouveau Mexique, drapeau vaudou d'Haïti, dessins d'Inde ... La diversité des œuvres présentées traduit la richesse de ces formes d'expression artistiques, rarement accueillies dans les musées d'art contemporain. Cette très belle exposition fait l'effet d'une cure de jouvence et donne à réfléchir à la fois sur l'art mais aussi sur notre monde en mouvement.
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Making a Diverse Show a Coherent Whole

Source The Wall Street Journal by Judy Fayard
The extremely diverse works, by 50 artists from every corner of the world, might be described as naïve, or primitive, autodidactic, folk, popular or outsider. Many are untitled and/or undated. What brings them together is the discerning eye of the show's curator, Fondation Cartier general director Hervé Chandès. What they have in common is ingenuity, a fascination with nature and animals, and a sense of wonder about the world, and they form a surprisingly coherent whole. On a much larger scale, the vividly painted animals and trees of Jangarh Singh Shyam are based on myths and legends of the Gond tribe in India's Madhya Pradesh, and completely covered with multicolor dots and dashes arranged in graphic patterns of stripes and overlapping fans.
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L'égérie frenchie du cinéma hindi

Source Le Monde par Frédéric Bobin
Depuis trois ans, Kalki Koechlin a imposé sa silhouette fine et déliée sur les écrans indiens. Sa notoriété s'installe film après film. Elle ne jouit pas à proprement parler du statut de star féminine que Bollywood réserve à des beautés pulpeuses et stéréotypées (Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif...) sacrifiant aux fameuses chorégraphies. Elle est plutôt la révélation du cinéma d'auteur. Une sorte d'égérie de la nouvelle vague à l'indienne dont son mari, le réalisateur Anurag Kashyap, est le sulfureux porte-étendard.
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Now On in Paris: "Stories of Seeing: Show and Tell"

Source About.com by Courtney Traub
The Histoires de Voir: Show and Tell exhibition now running at the Cartier Foundation sells itself as a showing of "naïve" or "tribal" art. Often self-taught, artists featured in the show come from across the globe - Mexico, India, Congo, Brazil and elsewhere. While the pieces themselves are vibrant and often pleasantly surprising, what promises to be a compilation of unknown artists "discovered" by curators can be seen as a somewhat incongruous hodgepodge of colourful art. And for those who are sensitive to the cliche of placing artistic works from non-Western cultures under one umbrella, the theme of the show may appear suspect in this era of postcolonial critique. But understanding the concept of this unique exhibition is essential for truly appreciating the experience.
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Most important work by Tyeb Mehta to lead Christie's sale

Source Art Daily Notable international exhibitions of Indian art will be held in Brazil, Tel Aviv, America and Denmark this year, following the inaugural Indian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011 and exhibitions at the Pompidou Centre and Musée Guimet in Paris. In this dynamic context, Christie’s presents the annual London sale of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art on 11 June. The inspiring group of 112 lots spans the Indian modern masters through to distinguished contemporary artists, epitomising the creative vitality of art rooted in rich traditions. The top lot is Mahishasura, 1996, by Tyeb Mehta, the most important painting from this groundbreaking series to come to auction (estimate: £1.2 million – £1.8 million).
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'Criminal tribes' may finally be integrated in mainstream society

Source India Today
Branded "criminal tribes" by the British, about 200 so-called Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (DNT), who are among the most poor and destitute and whose number run into millions, may finally get a chance to join the national mainstream. The National Advisory Council (NAC), led by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, has asked the government to enumerate these tribes in the current Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC). Many states do not have a list of these tribes and their current status, as such, is not known. This has made these tribes among the most underprivileged and destitute communities in India, the council said.
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Shilpa Gupta : Nixon in China

Source The Hindustan Times by Riddhi Doshi
Like deities, US President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat seemingly appear out of thin air and walk down a gangway ladder to the stage. The setting is Paris’s iconic, 150-year-old Théâtre du Châtelet. Unfolding on stage is a scene from Nixon in China, an opera composed by Pulitzer Prize winner John Adams in 1987. “The entire project has been a learning experience,” says Gupta. “The most interesting aspect was the grand scale of designing for the opera. I had never worked on such a scale before.”
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Now, there’s invisible art!

Source Times of India by Ismat Tahseen
Can nothingness excite? It seems so. The premise is that art is about firing the imagination rather than simply viewing objects. So you have artworks that include a movie shot with no film, invisible ink drawings, a piece of paper that an artist stared at for 1,000 hours over a period of five years, and a plinth once stood on by Andy Warhol, supposed to be viewed in the presence of the artist's 'celebrity aura'! A website quoted gallery director Ralph Rugoff, as saying, "It leaves so much to your imagination. It's sort of like the power of radio compared to television - in great radio drama you're inventing characters in your head".
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Johnny Depp joins Native American tribe

Source Zeenews
Johnny Depp has been made an honorary member of the Comanche tribe. Depp, who is in New Mexico, shooting the film adaptation of ‘The Lone Ranger,’ plays ‘Ranger’ sidekick Tonto in the movie. Comanche Nation tribal member LaDonna Harris said on Tuesday that the tribal chairman presented the actor with a proclamation at her Albuquerque home May 16, the New York Daily News reported. She said the Comanche adoption tradition implies that she now considers Depp her son.
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The mundane as high art

Source The Hindu by Priyadeshini S.
“The biggest achievement for an artist is to create your own language. I am an aam aadmi from Bihar with middle class roots. Even today my work is about that. Unless you create your own language people won't recognise you. Even now I work with utensils.” But hasn't the shift in audience necessitated a change in idiom? Haven't the conveyor belt and suitcases, images in his subsequent works, distanced him from his roots, from the kitchen that he so nostalgically holds on to? “No, the conveyor belt in ‘Across Seven Seas' or ‘Saat Samundar Paar', has the tiffin from my home,” he says categorically. But then isn't the tiffin box turning a clichéd image? “The language of art is universal. Jasper John created images of the American flag, he cannot but create that… each artist will talk about his own culture and environment and deliver in that language.”
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Indian Art Market Confidence

Source ArtTactic
The overall ArtTactic Indian Art Market Confidence Indicator is marginally down by 2% from October 2011. The confidence in the Indian economy has increased from 28 to 45, off-setting a 9% decrease in confidence for the Modern Indian art market, and a 24% drop for the Contemporary Indian market. For the Modern Indian market, 30% of the experts believe the market will go up (34% in October 2011), and 70% believe the market will remain flat (66% in October 2011). An immediate recovery for the overall Modern Indian art market seem to be some distance away, with 50% of the experts believing the market will at least need two more years before a broader recovery will take place.
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Demand for tribal President grows

Source Times of India by Rakhi Chakrabarty Tribal groups are drumming up support for a Scheduled Tribe candidate as the next president of India, but they are yet to agree on a name. Earlier, former Speaker and NCP leader P A Sangma had pitched for a tribal candidate for the president's post. The Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ICITP), which represents 310 tribal organizations, delegation met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday and proposed Mooshahary as the presidential candidate. "Rahul Gandhi promised to seriously discuss our proposal," said Jebra Ram Muchahary, ICITP chief advisor.
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Paris's Palais de Tokyo Launches New Triennial With Racially Charged First Edition

Source Art Info

With "Intense Proximity," the Palais de Tokyo's new Triennial that opened April 20 and continues through August 26, France finally has a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that engages the full breadth of today's art world. Curator Okwui Enwezor, the Nigerian-born American art historian and director of Munich's Haus der Kunst, assisted by four French co-curators — Emilie Renard, Mélanie Bouteloup, Abdellah Karroum, and Claire Staebler — selected artists from every continent who are engaged in questioning the politics of representation. Now the French public has the chance to discover a whole segment of recent contemporary art that has been too rarely seen here.
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L'art comme chez soi

Source Le Figaro par Béatrice De Rochebouet
Pour l'inauguration vendredi soir sur le thème de la nouvelle scène artistique brésilienne, avec sept artistes de São Paulo, un guitariste chantera Hear my Train a Comin' de Jimi Hendrix devant l'œuvre du même nom de Paulo Climachauska, grande fresque architecturale à l'encre de chine, faite de lignes de soustraction, un contre-pied à notre société du toujours plus.
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