1. Zona Maco 2023 breaks records.
Zona Maco has positioned itself as the most important art fair in Latin America after its 18 editions. This year, held from February 8 to 12 in Mexico City, its 19th edition brought together artists, collectors and the public with the aim of covering and promoting the sectors of art, design, antiques and artistic photography.
The organizing committee announced that Zona Maco 2023 for the first time received more than 50 international museum groups, art advisory firms and institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Bass Museum Of Art (Miami), Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA), among others.
In addition, it also broke an attendance record by receiving more than 77,000 visitors and reaching 29 countries represented in this edition.
The Duque Arango Gallery participated this year with great artists of the continent such as: Fernando Botero, Oswaldo Guayasamín, Olga de Amaral, Gustavo Vélez, Sair García, Fernando de Szyszlo and Ariel Cabrera.
2. A woman accidentally breaks a sculpture valued at US$42,000.
A woman visiting the Wynwood Fair in Miami accidentally broke a porcelain sculpture “Balloon Dog” by U.S. artist Jeff Koons. The accident occurred during the opening night of the fair. The woman touched the work and it fell to the floor, fragmenting completely. At first, many people thought this might be part of a performance and clustered around the accident, but when they saw that the staff rushed to sweep up the fragments of the work, they realized that it was indeed an incident.
The sculpture was part of a limited edition that has now been reduced from 799 to 798.
The piece was insured by the gallery that exhibited it. They claim that the woman did not intend to damage the sculpture, so the insurer will assume the value of the damage.
3. “Sculpting the Renaissance”: The Donatello Exhibition
Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi) is not only one of the greatest representatives of Renaissance Art, but of the entire history of art.
The Victoria & Albert Museum until June 11, will delve into the Quattrocento, into the art of Donatello with The UK’s first major exhibition to explore the exceptional talents of the Renaissance master, who is arguably the greatest sculptor of all time.
The exhibition consists of 130 works distributed in six sections that demonstrate that “Donatello’s sculpture is still as modern today as it was when it was created six centuries ago,” says the curator, Peta Mottere.
4. First Biennial of Islamic Arts held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
More than 280 historic works of Islamic artifacts will be on display at the Biennial, including 239 from Saudi Arabia and 15 that have never been exhibited before. The exhibition brings Islamic art to the birthplace of Islam. Its staging in Jeddah, near Mecca, also represents the, “Awwal Bait,” which means “first house” in Arabic. The theme evokes the symbolic unity of the Holy Kaaba, the building at the center of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, the most important mosque in Islam.
The last major exhibition of Islamic art was held in 1976 in London. The Islamic Arts Biennial, he says, sheds light on Islamic art and culture from the “Muslim perspective of our part of the world.”
5. Klimt painting that survived Nazi plundering is exhibited for the first time in Vienna’s Belvedere.
It is ‘Water Snakes II’, which was stolen during World War II and is now owned by an anonymous collector who gave it to the exhibition, and for the first time the public will be able to enjoy it.
The Belvedere Palace and Museum is not only a Baroque palace, but also houses one of the most valuable art collections in Austria. It is the museum with the largest collection of works by Gustav Klimt, Austrian symbolist painter, and one of the most prestigious representatives of the modernist movement of the Viennese Secession.
Oil on canvas, 80 x 145 cm.
Private collection.
