Pop Artist Dies

American pop artist Tom Wesselmann, famous for creating female nudes and showing them with objects like radios, fridges or cigarettes, has died aged 73 following heart surgery in a New York.

A contemporary of artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein, he was inspired by de Kooning, Matisse and Mondrian.
Although he prefered giving his art the "commercial look" without any signs of the hand of the painter, he was reportedly working recently on a series of nudes painted in the abstract expressionist style.

Browsing in New York?

Two not to be missed. The $840 million Museum of Modern Art project was completed in 2004 and the MoMA reopened - bring a crisp $20 bill for entry.
"The Aztec Empire" at the Guggenheim is more than awesome, it is a revelation. With more than 450 objects, it is the largest show of Aztec Art ever mounted outside of Mexico. Exhibition ends February 18th - expect $2 dollars change from yet another crisp $20 bill.
Suddenly, one begins to appreciate UK and Irish Art public gallery funding just that little bit more...
Irish Art

Cultural Cork Launches

Cork will launch its year as European Capital of Culture with a show of fireworks, water, light and music on Saturday, 8th of January. It should be the most spectacular outdoor event in Ireland from the smallest city to gain capital of culture status.
An ambitious programme of more than 230 events is planned with visual arts projects including a showcase of contemporary Irish Art at the Crawford Art Gallery and an exhibition about the 18th-century Cork painter James Barry, the only professor to be expelled from the Royal Academy for radical views and erratic behaviour.
Irish Art

Art Sleuth Software

Art thieves of the world, beware. Investigators may soon get a new weapon in the painstaking pursuit of stolen paintings and sculpture. Starting next year, Derdack, a company based in Potsdam, Germany, plans to start selling software for mobile phones that can take a photo of a suspicious painting with a cellphone or a personal digital assistant, send it wirelessly by GPRS or UMTS networks to international databases of stolen art and make a match - within seconds.
It could become a powerful tool in the fight against art theft, which Interpol says is increasing with the price of art. Across Europe, there are more than 100,000 pieces of stolen art on record.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

New or Old in 2005?

It is said that people buy contemporary art when they are confident about the future and old art when they are not.
Last month saw record auction sales of contemporary art in New York. Research by the Art Sales Index shows that over the past 4 years, the shares of contemporary and modern art in auction market turnover have risen, while Old Masters and 19th century works declined.
Irish Art