365 Days of Art: October 29 – Tortured Witness Testifies Against Artemesia,...
October 29, 1612 The manuscript from the trial of Artemisia Gentileschi’s rapist shows that Artemisia’s studio assistant gives testimony against the victim, his boss…while being tortured. Nicolo...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 6 – NEA Withdraws Grant for AIDS Exhibition
November 6, 1989 The New York Times reports that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has cancelled a grant for a show about AIDS, called Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing. The withdrawal of funds...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 8 – Surrealists Expel Another Member, Out of...
November 8, 1948 Andre Breton expels Victor Brauner from the Surrealist group, because Brauner refuses to condemn Matta, who has already been expelled for contributing to Gorky’s suicide, by sleeping...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 10 – Frida and Diego Arrive in SF, NY Times Reports...
November 10, 1930 Frida and Diego arrive in San Francisco, where he has mural commissions to work on. November 10, 1943 The New York Times reports “Unique Collection of Art Treasures Taken Away by...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 11 – Calder Dies, Vietnam Vet Shoots Avedon Photo
November 11, 1976 Alexander Calder dies. November 11, 1986 Ellis Nelson enters the Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis, pulls a gun from his coat, and shoots two holes in an original Richard Avedon...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 12 – Art Forger Convicted, Replica of David...
November 12, 1947 Han van Meegeren, one of the most famous art forgers ever, is convicted of fraud and sentenced to a just one year in prison. He never serves any time, since he dies of a heart attack...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 14 – Monet is Born
November 14, 1840 Claude Monet is born. I appreciate all of his contributions to art history (dedication to working in series, careful observation of atmospheric conditions and how they change...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 15 – Homer is Published, O’Keeffe is Born,...
November 15, 1862 Winslow Homer’s The Army of the Potomac-A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty a wood engraving based on a painting, is published in Harper’s Weekly. November 15, 1887 Georgia O’Keeffe is...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 16 – Frida Writes a Letter from US, AIDS Exhibition...
November 16, 1933 Frida writes a letter to her friend Isabel Campos that she is “dreaming about my return to Mexico:” New York is very pretty and I feel better here than in Detroit, but in spite of...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 26 – Whistler v. Ruskin Libel Trial Concludes
November 26, 1878 The two-day trial, filed by James Abbott McNeill Whistler against art critic John Ruskin, concludes. In July 1877, Ruskin writes a heavy-handed and extremely critical review of...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 29 – Mona Lisa Thief Contacts Antiques Dealer
November 29, 1913 Two years after the theft of the Mona Lisa, the thief contacts an antiques dealer named Alfredo Geri. Geri has innocently placed an ad in several Italian newspapers to advertise his...
View Article365 Days of Art: November 30 – National Portrait Gallery Censors AIDS Film
November 30, 2010 The National Portrait Gallery removes a film from the first-ever gay portraiture exhibition, Hide/Seek, after receiving complaints from a Catholic organization and members of...
View Article365 Days of Art: December 10 – Art Thief Tries to Negotiate Return of Mona Lisa
December 10, 1913 A man enters Geri’s antique shop in Florence, and after waiting for the other customers to leave, announces that he is in possession of the stolen Mona Lisa. The man gives his name as...
View Article365 Days of Art: December 11 – Stolen Mona Lisa Recovered in Hotel Room,...
December 11, 1913 By appointment, antiques dealer Signor Geri and director of the Uffizi Gallery Signor Poggi arrive at Leonardo Vincenzo’s Florence hotel room to inspect what Leonardo claims is the...
View ArticleLoving Vincent
Some thoughts on the movie Loving Vincent . . . It is both spectacular and maddening. The plot is ridiculous: Armand Roulin, twenty-something son of the bushy-bearded postmaster whom Van Gogh painted...
View Article365 Days of Art: June 18 – Chicago Tribune Reveals Nevelson Estate in Turmoil
June 18, 1989 The Chicago Tribune discloses that the late sculptor Louise Nevelson’s son and her personal assistant (and perhaps closeted lover) are locked in a legal battle over her estate. And it...
View Article365 Days of Art: June 25 – Serial Art Attacker Ignites Painting
June 25, 2006 Serial art attacker Hans-Joachim Bohlmann pours lighter fluid on the painting Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Guard in Celebration of the Peace of Münster (1648) by Bartholomeus van der...
View Article365 Days of Art: June 28 – Warhol’s Shooter Indicted for Attempted Murder
June 28, 1968 Valerie Solanas is indicted on charges of attempted murder, assault, and illegal possession of a gun for the June 3 shooting of Andy Warhol.
View Article365 Days of Art: June 30 – Hitler Authorizes Degenerate Art Exhibition;...
June 30, 1937 Hitler signs an order authorizing the Degenerate Art Exhibition, and Joseph Goebbels accordindgly creates a commission to oversee the confiscation from museums and private art collections...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 1 – De Kooning Begins Teaching, Lennon’s 1st Exhibition...
July 1, 1948 Willem de Kooning begins teaching at Black Mountain College, an experimental art college near Asheville, North Carolina. Famous colleagues include Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller, John...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 16 – Gorky Physically Confronts Matta, and His Wife...
July 16, 1948 Arshile Gorky physically confronts Matta over sleeping with his wife Agnes (aka Mougouch), and she leaves Gorky on the advice of his own doctor. The morning after a huge fight, Gorky’s...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 19 – Hitler Kicks Off Degenerate Art Fair, Gorky...
July 19, 1937 Hitler opens The Entartete (or Degenerate) Art Fair in Munich with an enraged speech about the “great and fatal illness” of art, while the exhibition itself is designed to invite public...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 23 – Frida Writes Letter to Diego After His Affair with...
July 23, 1934 Frida writes a letter to Diego, who has been carrying on an affair with her sister Cristina for about a year: . . . all these letters, liaisons with petticoats, lady teachers of...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 25 – Nazis Send Telegram About “Rescue” of Two...
July 25, 1944 SS General Karl Wolff sends a telegram to Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, reporting on the “rescue” of two paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder (the diptych Adam and Eve), noting how much...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 26 – Three Events About Women in the Art World: a...
Three events today, about women in the art world: July 26, 1971 Diane Arbus commits suicide. She is a photographer, known for her black-and-white, usually head-on photos of folks that might make other...
View Article365 Days of Art: July 28 – Andy Warhol is Released from Hospital Following...
July 28, 1968 Time for some good news this week: After almost two months of care following the attempt on his life, Andy Warhol is released from the hospital.
View Article365 Days of Art: August 5 – Matisse Painting Attacked
August 5, 2011 At the National Gallery of Art, in her second assault this year at that institution, Susan Burns attacks The Plumed Hat, by Henri Matisse. She slams the painting repeatedly against the...
View Article365 Days of Art: August 15 – Employee Commits Mass Murder at Frank Lloyd...
August 15, 1914 Frank Lloyd Wright’s cook kills Wright’s mistress and six others on what was supposed to be his last day of work. Julian Carlton arrives at Wright’s estate, Taliesin, in Wisconsin...
View Article365 Days of Art: August 20 – Richard Avedon Photographs Andy Warhol’s Gunshot...
August 20, 1969 Fourteen months after the assassination attempt that almost took his life, Richard Avedon photographs Andy Warhol’s wounds.
View Article365 Days of Art: August 21 – Mona Lisa is Stolen, but Theft Goes Unnoticed
August 21, 1911 The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre, but it takes 24 hours to notice that it is missing. What in the world?? Yes, guards, and visitors too apparently, believe that the famous...
View Article365 Days of Art: August 22 – The Scream is Stolen by Masked Men
August 22, 2004 Gun-wielding men in masks raid the Munch Museum in broad daylight and steal The Scream (one of several versions),as well as Munch’s Madonna. About seven months later, a suspect is...
View Article365 Days of Art: August 24 – Serial Art Attacker Strikes Rubens Portrait with...
August 24, 1977 Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, serial art attacker, damages the painting Archduke Albrecht by Rubens by assaulting it with acid. Still in the beginning of this career, he nevertheless starts...
View Article365 Days of Art: August 31 – Stolen Munch Paintings Recovered
August 31, 2006 Norwegian police announce the recovery of Munch’s The Scream and Madonna, which were stolen almost exactly two years prior, in a daylight raid. Neither the Chief of Police nor the...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 4 – Thieves Steal 13 Paintings in Montreal
September 4, 1972 Thieves steal 18 paintings from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It is the largest art theft in North America until the Boston Museum of Fine Arts robbery almost 20 years later. They...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 5 – Monet Paints Wife on Deathbed, Oldenburg...
September 5, 1879 Monet’s wife Camille dies of cancer at age 32, and he paints a portrait of her on her deathbed. While Monet’s portrait and correspondence seem to show real feeling over her death, he...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 7 – Apollinaire is Arrested for Theft of Mona Lisa
September 7, 1911 Seventeen days after the Mona Lisa is stolen without anyone noticing, police arrest the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. As a critic and surrealist, he’s suggested in the past that the...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 8 – Ana Mendieta Falls to Her Death; Husband Carl...
September 8, 1985 Ana Mendieta dies at age 32, after falling from her 34th floor apartment in New York’s Greenwich Village; her husband, sculptor Carl Andre is charged with her murder. Though there are...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 13 – Michelangelo Begins Carving, Childe Hassam...
September 13, 1501 About a month after signing the contract for his first commission, Michelangelo picks up his tools early in the morning and begins carving the statue of David. He will work on it for...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 14 – Hitler Issues Orders to Commandeer the...
September 14, 1943 SS General Karl Wolff, Supreme Leader of All SS Troops and Police in Italy, receives the following instructions from Hitler: As soon as possible I want you and your troops to occupy...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 15 – Gorky Marries; David Struck by Hammer
September 15, 1941 Driving back home to New York from an exhibition in San Francisco, Arshile Gorky and Mougouch (Agnes Magruder) are married in Nevada. September 15, 1991 A 47-year old art vandal...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 22 – Leonardo Studies Birds, Michelangelo Seeks...
September 22, 1507 Leonardo makes studies of birds in flight. September 22, 1510 Exactly halfway through painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo departs Florence, where he’d taken a break to...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 24 – Barnes Foundation Announces Plans to Move
September 24, 2002 The Barnes Foundation, possibly the best collection of Post-Impressionist works in the world, announces a petition to move from Merion, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. The need for a...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 27 – Munch Museum Celebrates Return of Damaged...
September 27, 2006 Munch’s The Scream and Madonna go on view in a special five-day exhibition to celebrate their return to the Munch Museum–damages and all–after being stolen by masked gunmen two years...
View Article365 Days of Art: September 30 – Nazis Set Fire to Villa, Destroying...
September 30, 1943 Nazi soldiers set fire to a villa outside of Naples, which temporarily houses the contents of the Filangieri Museum and State Archives of Naples. In addition to 85,978 historical...
View Article365 Days of Art: October 1 – Nazi Radio Vilifies Monuments Men
October 1, 1943 Nazi radio announces: The US President of the European Monuments and Art Treasures Committee, an organization consisting of thieves and Jews, said in a statement to the Press that a...
View Article365 Days of Art: October 5 – Jury Acquits Arts Center of Obscenity Charges
October 5, 1990 A Cincinnati jury acquits the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director of misdemeanor obscenity charges, for displaying Robert Mapplethorpe’s exhibition, The Perfect Moment.
View Article365 Days of Art: October 6 – Archers Destroy Leonardo’s Clay Model, Velázquez...
October 6, 1499 Louis XII of France invades Milan, and allows his archers to shoot target practice at Leonardo’s 25-foot clay model for an equestrian statue. For shame! The Duke of Milan commissions...
View Article365 Days of Art: October 7 – Lover’s Death Inspires Hartley Portrait, Rothko...
October 7, 1914 Marsden Hartley’s lover, Karl von Freyburg, dies in World War I; his death inspires Hartley to paint Portrait of a German Officer. October 7, 2012 Art vandal Wlodzimierz Umaniec uses...
View Article365 Days of Art: October 8 – Serial Art Vandal Arrested After Attacking...
October 8, 1977 Serial art vandal Hans Bohlmann is arrested, after vandalizing four paintings, including two Rembrandts, the day before. Bohlmann is known for targeting faces in his attacks, which I’m...
View Article365 Days of Art: October 25 – Picasso is Born, Krasner and Pollock Marry,...
October 25, 1881 Picasso is born. Two fun facts about Picasso: his father was a drawing professor, and while most people think he couldn’t draw because of his focus on abstraction and Cubism, Picasso...
View Article