Festival of Asian Literature, London May 10th-26th

 

   The open night kicks off with: A Tibetan Journey - Colin Thubron – To a Mountain in Tibet in conversation with Erica Wagner from The Times.

   'Acclaimed as one of the greatest living travel writers, Thubron follows the pilgrimage route through Tibet to Mount Kailas, the most sacred of the world’s mountains. He talks with villagers and monks and tells the stories of exiles and of eccentric explorers from the West.   A haunting and beautiful travel book, it is also a very personal journey, undertaken shortly after the death of his mother, and interwoven with his own reflections on love, grief and solitude.'

Tickets £ 15 /£12
Asia House Friends £ 10

   Full details of the festival and of other Asia House events can be found in the links below.

   www.festivalofasianliterature.com

   www.asiahouse.org

New York Prints, Drawings & Paintings 1900-2000 - Swann 16/09/10

Martin Lewis - Quarter of Nine Saturday's Children, 1929, etching.
Est. USD$ 12,000-$18,000

Scenes of the City: Prints, Drawings & Paintings of New York 1900-2000 at Swann Auction Galleries in New York on 16th September.

From the website: 'The top lot is Edward Hopper’s Night Shadows, etching, 1921 (estimate: US$30,000-50,000), an important print depicting the same location near the Hudson River as his 1913 painting, New York Corner, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Etchings from the turn of the century, like Childe Hassam’s Fifth Avenue, Noon, 1916 (US$10,000-$15,000), and Washington’s Birthday, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, 1916 (US$8,000-$12,000), showcase American Impressionism and a divergence from the European tradition. John Sloan’s etchings, Sculpture in Washington Square, 1925 (US$2,500-$3,500), Fourteenth Street, The Wigwam, 1928 (US$2,500-$3,500), which illustrates the last physical address of Tammany Hall, and George Bellows’s lithograph, Solitude, 1917 (US$1,500-$2,500), exemplify the Ash Can School, where the gritty realism of Manhattan took center stage.

A run of works by Martin Lewis portrays Manhattan as both dark and elegant. His rare drypoints include Corner Shadows, 1930 (US$7,000-$10,000), Little Penthouse, 1931 (US$15,000-$20,000), Chance Meeting, 1940-41 (US$10,000-$15,000), Stoops in Snow, 1930 (US$20,000-$30,000), Shadow Dance, 1930 (US$20,000-$30,000), Spring Night, Greenwich Village, 1930 (US$15,000-$20,000), and Winter on White Street, 1934 (US$18,000-$22,000).

Lithographs by Raphael Soyer and Louis Lozowick represent the men and architecture of Depression-era Manhattan. Lozowick’s Mural Study: Lower Manhattan, 1936 (US$7,000-$10,000), and Mural Study: Triborough Bridge, 1936 (US$4,000-$6,000), relate to the artist’s commission from the Treasury Relief Art Project for two large oil paintings to adorn the walls of the Midtown Manhattan Post office at 33rd Street and 8th Avenue—they are still there. Soyer’s rare lithographs of people in the Lower East Side, The Mission, 1933 (US$12,000-$18,000), and Bowery Nocturne, 1933 (US$10,000-$15,000), each have hand colouring in watercolour.

A watercolour by George Grosz, Brownstone Houses, New York, circa 1937 (US$8,000-$12,000), stems from the time he emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1937. Additional watercolours include Reginald Marsh’s Tugboats Near the Brooklyn Bridge, 1938 (US$12,000-$18,000), and James Heseldin’s Fulton Street and Brooklyn Bridge, circa 1925 (US$1,000-$1,500).

Rounding out the sale are a selection of choice paintings, including Arthur Ernest Becher’s Drydock, New York, oil on canvas, 1912 (US$2,500-$3,500), Lydia Cooley’s oil on board Ringling Brothers, circa 1935 (US$1,500-$2,500), Don Freeman’s Meat Market, oil on wood panel, circa 1935 (US$1,200-$1,800), and Harry Gottlieb’s Winter Park Scene, New York, oil on canvas, circa 1930s (US$2,000-$3,000).'

I like cityscapes and I recommend having a look at the online catalogue.

St Paul's Cathedral art exhibition 21/9-15/10

Carl Laubin - View over One New Change

Images of St Paul’s in the 21^st Century will be held from 21^st September to 15^th October 2010 in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. In the first exhibition of its kind at St Paul’s, 64 artists have produced original works especially for the exhibition to celebrate the 300^th anniversary of the completion of Wren's great enterprise.

There will be a broad and eclectic range of interpretations of St Paul’s place in the life and rapidly changing topography of London. All of the pictures will be for sale, with the project’s entire charitable proceeds going to the St Paul's Cathedral Foundation, which supports the maintenance and mission of St Paul’s.

The Patron of the exhibition is the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, Dean of St Paul’s. The hardback book produced on the occasion of the exhibition will include contributions by Lord Foster, Sir Roy Strong, Professor David Watkin and Rowan Moore.

The full list of participating artists: Matthew Alexander, Naomi Alexander, Michael Aubrey, Alessia Avellino, Jeremy Barlow, Varsha Bhatia, Paul Birkbeck, Pablo Bronstein, Peter Brown, Hugh Buchanan, Paul Butler, Reg Carremans, Ricardo Cinalli, Gabriëlla Cleuren, Jane Corsellis, Bruce Denny, Maeve Dewar, John Doyle, Anthony Eyton, Annie Farrer, Charlotte Halliday, Joe Hargan, Simon Harling, James Hart Dyke, Ursula Haug, Clive Head, Patrick Hughes, Peter Kelly, David Awot Kibrom Kebede, John King, Natasha Kissell, Carl Laubin, Kate Lockhart, David Mach, Luke Martineau, Stan McMurtry, June Mendoza, Sally Moore, Anthony Morris, Jonathan Myles-Lea, Robert Neffson, Denis Pannett, David Parfitt, David Paskett, Jonathan Pike, Ethan Pollock, Nessie Ramm, Francisco Rangel, Martha Richler, Joyce Rowsell, Dennis Roxby-Bott, Alex Russell-Flint, Melissa Scott-Miller, Gerard Stamp, Sergei Sukonkin, Francis Terry, Viktoria Tikhomirova, Peter Welton, Anthony Whishaw, Steve Whitehead, Michael Whittlesea, Antonia Williams, Stephen Wiltshire and Tom Young.

The Affordable Art Fair 21-24 October 2010

From the website (here):

'Whether you are looking for the perfect painting to go over the mantelpiece or the next Murakami, amongst the 120 galleries you will find artwork to suit every taste and pocket. Alongside established names such as Norman Ackroyd, Howard Hodgkin and Bridget Riley, there are pieces by the stars of tomorrow, recently graduated from the likes of the Slade, RCA and Central St Martins.

The price ceiling of £3,000 and the clear labelling of all artwork ensures you know what you can and can’t afford. And with such a diverse range of paintings, sculpture, prints and photography, you will easily find a piece to love.

If you would like to be the first to hear about what’s on at the fair and receive ticket offers, please sign up for our email updates. We promise not to bombard you with hundreds of emails and we’ll never pass your data to another company.'

Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair 1-24 October

Further details can be found at www.candidarts.com & www.icadf.com

British Art Fair 15-19 September.

A date for your diary:

From the website (here):

The 20/21 BRITISH ART FAIR, the only fair specialising exclusively in modern and contemporary British art, will take place at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7, from 15 to 19 September 2010 .

Here you will find all the great names of 20th century art: Bacon, Freud, Frink, Frost, Hepworth, Hockney, Hodgson, Lanyon, Lowry, Moore, Nash, Piper, Riley, Scott, Sutherland and Spencer. Alongside is a large selection of work by both emerging and established contemporary artists – Hirst, Emin, Grayson Perry et al together with others who may be the stars of tomorrow.

The 20/21 BRITISH ART FAIR, now in its 23rd year, not only offers an enormous variety of art under one roof but also an opportunity to tap into the expertise of the 60 leading dealers. Whether your taste is for the earlier work, Scottish Colourists, pop art or the contemporary, the breadth and depth of over a hundred years of British art may well surprise. With prices from the low hundreds to hundreds of thousands, it is not to be missed!