Pollution detectors installed in the Sistine Chapel

Fifty ultra-sensitive pollution detectors with the capability of measuring temperature, humidity, pollution rate (with particular focus on carbon dioxide) and speed as well as direction of air flows, have been installed in the Sistine Chapel.

These sensors have been installed following the discover in July 2010 of a concentration of chemical particles in the walls of the chapel, capable of damaging the frescoes. Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican museums, formed an experts comité to debate the issue and find a way that will permit the visit by near 4 million people every year with the least damage as possible to the paintings.

The sensors have already supplied some clues, namely about the air conditioner installed in 1993 when of the restauration of Michelangelo's Last Judgement, which can be in part responsible for some air quality deficiency.

Joana Vasconcelos at Versailles 2012

The Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, will be the guest artist to exhibit at the Estate of Versailles in 2012.

"Marilyn" ( two shoes with stiletto heels, made of stainless steel pans, lids and cement), the Perruque (a sort of Fabergée Egg furniture) and the black and red versions of Coração Independente (made with plastic forks imitating filigree or filigrane), are some of the works to be exhibited.

Joana has also created a drawing for a tapestry, especially for this event, which will be manufactured at the Tapestry Factory of Portalegre and will measure approximately 13 sqm.

Since 2008, the surroundings of the Palace of Versailles (Chateâu de Versailles) have assisted to narratives between great artists of the Baroque period - André Le Nôtre, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Charles Le Brun, Jules Hardouin-Mansart - and contemporary artists: Jeff Koons in 2008, Xavier Veilhan in 2009, Takashi Murakami in 2010 and Bernar Venet in 2011.

From June 19 to September 30, 2012, the public will have the opportunity to see the works of one of the most successful Portuguese contemporary artists and the first woman to exhibit in this project, as well as the youngest until today.

Joana Vasconcelos was born in Paris in 1971.

Manifest Gallery: International Drawing Annual 7 (INDA 7)

The Manifest Gallery is accepting submissions for the International Drawing Annual 7 (INDA 7) award, open to all artists submitting original works of art or design, completed within the last three years (2009-2011).

Participants are invited to submit a wide range of themes and subjects, including but not limited to fine art, illustration, graphic, digital, architectural, design, technical, etc.
Works can be completed in any media applicable to the practice of drawing, such as painting, installation, sculpture, photography, printmaking, etc.

Although the award is open to all artists, independently of their experience, it's important to stress that all submited works must evidence a high quality drawing.
Artists who previously exhibited at Manifest or had work included in our publication projects are perfectly eligible to submit.

INDA 7 also includes call for writing about drawing, where entrants are invited to write an essay directly relevant to the practice of drawing.
The essay can be in any form or style (poetic, historical, technical, philosophical) and must be original, with proper citation for quoted material. Length of written entries should be limited to a max. of approximately 1500 words.
It's possible to participate in both entries, drawing and writing, keeping in mind that written entries should not be an artist statement nor referring to specific works.

Each work submitted (drawn or written) must be accompanied by a $10 non-refundable entry fee, paid by U.S. check or money order made payable to MANIFEST, or by credit card via PayPal.
The number of entries is unlimited, although the average number of works submitted to typical Manifest calls is three. Detail images may be included at no additional cost but should only be provided when necessary to reveal accurate understanding of the artwork. Images must have print-quality.
Written entries, in either Word or PDF format, must be submitted electronically via e-mail attachment and file names must follow the same guidelines provided for images.
Careful refer to the participating guidelines to make sure that your submission is accepted by the juri.

The International Drawing Annual (INDA 7) will offer three cash prizes of $700, $200, and $100 for first, second, and third place winners of the drawing entries.
Artists selected for inclusion in the INDA 7 publication will also be considered for the Selections from the International Drawing Annual exhibit, scheduled for April/May 2012.

Each artist/author selected for inclusion in the INDA will receive one complimentary copy of the publication. The books produced for this ongoing project have increased in page count and print quality each year, with the most recent publication reaching over 180 pages in length.

An Internet-based online International Drawing Annual Resource website will be published to accompany the printed Annual. This will feature statements, bios, contact info., and professional information for each person included.

INDA 7 will be juried by a 9-12 member panel of professional and academic advisors with a broad range of expertise. The jury will then pass along their scores to the project curator who will assemble the final selections from the jury-approved pool.

Materials can be sent via e-mail or regular mail.
The deadline for entry is December 31, 2011.

Cesária Évora (1941-2011)

Cesária Évora was born on the 27th August 1941 in Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde.
She would become the most well known singer of "Morna" and quite probably the most famous Cape Verdean singer.
Known as the "barefoot diva", Cesária Évora passed away on 17 December 2011, in São Vicente.

"Portugal Connosco" A photography exhibition through the eyes of postmen

Last spring, near six thousand postmen were given a disposable camera to photograph what they see during the mail distribution.
The project, called "Portugal Connosco" (Portugal With Us), resulted in approximately eighty thousand photos, from which two hundred were selected by a team of curators.

From the most common situation to the most peculiar one, including some humorous ones, this unlosable exibition shows the genuine Portugal through the eyes of those who, in a world where social networks get so much hype, contact with the individual in loco.



The photos of "Portugal Connosco" can be seen in the CTT building located at Rua de São José, in Lisbon, until January 8, 2012. After which, a yearlong itinerant exhibition will take place throughout the country.



A book with the two hundred photos is available in every post office of the CTT (Correios de Portugal).

Photos (from top to bottom): Nelson Paiva; Paulo José Rodrigues; José António Pombo

Gerardo Rueda Modern Art Center in Matosinhos

The Gerardo Rueda Modern Art Center (Centro de Art Moderna Gerardo Rueda) was inaugurated today in the portuguese city of Matosinhos, Oporto district.
Exhibiting near 500 items from the Fundación Gerardo Rueda and others belonging to the heir José Luis Rueda, the permanent collection includes 35 pieces of several art genres completed by Gerardo, of which only 16 are showing, and artworks by Antonio López, Carmen Laffón, Doukopil, Manuel Millares, Miró, Palazuelo, Sempere and Zobel, among others.

The Center results from a three year protocol, renewable for another five, signed between the Fundación Gerardo Rueda and the City Hall of Matosinhos, where the first, besides lending the works of art, commits itself to organize eight temporary exhibitions per year in the Gerardo Rueda Modern Art Center and two exhibitions of portuguese art in Madrid, while the second one grants an annual subvention to the Foundation. Private sponsors are also involved in this project.

The first temporary exhibition will be dedicated to the portuguese artist Noronha da Costa, of whom José Rueda owns 200 works of art. After which will follow one that compares Gerardo Rueda and Viera da Silva and another one with works by Mapplethorpe and Warhol

Located inside the building of the Town Hall of Matosinhos, the Centro de Arte Moderna de Matosinhos is open from Tuesday to Sunday (1 pm - 7 pm) and has an admission price of €3.5.

In the future, the collection will move to the 30,000 sqm building of the former Real Vinícola, much better than the actual 6,000 sqm.
An association of friends of the Center and a Gerardo Rueda prize for the arts and sciences will also be created.

Pockets Warhol turns Art into a Monkey Business

A small capuchin monkey named Pockets, alias Pockets Warhol, is causing sensation in Toronto and abroad.
The primate, a resident at the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary (Sunderland, ON), started expressing his creative muse through paintings that remind the works of Jackson Pollock. The Warhol nickname comes from the fact that volunteer Charmaine Quinn found resemblances between him and the pop artist, which led her to introduce Pockets to non-toxic paint as a way of keeping him entertained: “He looked a bit like Andy Warhol with that wild, white hair,” she said.



Pockets' paintings are already being exhibited at the Sadie's Diner & Juice Bar in Toronto, until February 6, 2012.
The proceeds will go to the Story Book Farm sanctuary, a facility opened by Sherri Delaney 11 years ago with he purpose of rescuing primates from pet stores, private homes, entertainment, research labs and zoos across the country.

No buyer for Goya's Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo

Last month, the fact that the Spanish authorities didn't meet the price asked by a private collector for Goya's Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, Embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, and that little time was given for particulars or private institutions to make an offer, caused controversy when it was announced that the painting would be sold at auction.

Francisco de Goya's painting, a 42 5/8 x 32 3/8 in. (108.3 x 82.3 cm.) oil on canvas depicting a Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, Embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, seated, half-length, holding an embroidery design, was auctioned in yesterday's Old Master & British Paintings (Evening Sale) at Christie's London, King Street.
However, the painting with an estimate price of £4,000,000 - £6,000,000($6,248,000 - $9,372,000), did not find a buyer.

Nonetheless, the December 7, Old Master & British Paintings (Evening Sale) saw some new world record prices for artists at auction: " The Battle between Carnival and Lent" by Pieter Brueghel II, £6,873,250 ($10,722,270 / €8,021,083); " Dutch men-o'-war and other shipping in a calm" by Willem van de Velde II, £5,921,250 ($9,237,150 / €6,910,099); "An old man at a casement" by Govaert Flinck, £2,337,250 ($3,646,110 / €2,727,571); "The Holy Family" by Francesco Zaganelli da Cotignola, £1,015,650 ($1,584,414€ /1,185,264); "Portrait of a gentleman, possibly Richard Salwey, half-length, in a fur-trimmed red coat and a turban, leaning on a plinth" by Andrea Soldi, £825,250 ($1,287,390 / €963,067). The prices include buyer's premium.

X-ray scanning reveals hidden Rembrandt unfinished self-portrait

An X-ray fluorescence spectrometry scan, performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) light source in Grenoble, France, revealed an unfinished self-portait of Rembrandt, according to specialists.

In roughly 8 hours, the new Maia detector system, mapped the chemical elements in the colours used to paint the "Old Man With a Beard." The detected elements included copper for blue and green, iron for yellow, orange and brown, and mercury for red.

The 15cm x 20cm painting, hidden under the work "Old Man With a Beard", until now attributed to a Rembrandt's pupil, was supposedly painted when the artist was near 24 years of age and his reputation started to develop, leading him to move from Leiden to Amsterdam.



According to art historian Ernst van de Wetering, head of the Rembrandt Research Project, the discovered self-portrait, although not completed and lacking facial details, revealed contour lines of a beardless, seemingly younger male wearing a collar and beret, showing a typical posture characteristic of Rembrandt's early self-portraits.
Similarities with two denoted self-portraits, one of them dated from 1630, are also evident.
The attribution is attested by a 1633 print of the composition, with an inscription stating it was made by Rembrandt.

Authenticating Rembrant's works can reveal itself a complex task, as the old master encouraged his students to copy his works and he himself would perform final corrections in their works.

Between May 1 and July 1, 2012, the Rembrandt House Museum will stage a special exhibition of research into 10 paintings by Rembrandt and his contemporaries using XRF technology, including the investigation results about the unfinished self-portrait mentioned on this article.

Developed by Joris Dik of Delft University and Koen Janssens of Antwerp University, the X-ray fluorescence spectrometry enables the mapping of different chemical elements, revealing pigments in hidden layers of paint and allowing different views of the hidden image.

How Art Can Help People With Disabilities

Proclaimed in 1992, the annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons takes place on the 3rd of Decemmber.
The theme for 2011 is “Together for a better world for all:
Including persons with disabilities in development.”

We live in a society where laws and benefits fall far behind the needs of disable people and their families, and in many countries those laws are constantly disrespected without any sanction. Moreover there's a gap in terms of educating people in their relation with each other, especially between the so-called normal and those with disabilities - People with disabilities make up an estimated 15 per cent of the world’s population. Almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of people living with disabilities, or between 110-190 million, encounter significant difficulties. Furthermore, a quarter of the global population is directly affected by disability, as care-givers or family members.

One of the most successful methods of providing disabled people with personal development and social integration is through the arts, especially in the case of children.
Art enables dexterity development, a better perception of space (including negative space and relation), colour, form and many other things. It is also a great opportunity to end individual isolation, as art projects can be completed in group.
Several resources for those working with special needs students in the arts, can be found online or by contacting official and private institutions.

Several art projects for children can be found at Julie Voigt's blog Art for Small Hands.

Stephanie from NY is the winner of a brand new Kindle Touch offered by The Art Inquirer !

Last October, The Art Inquirer announced the offer of a brand new Kindle Touch (with special offers) worth $99 to one of its readers.
The draw took place yesterday and the winner was found.

Today, The Art Inquirer is delighted to announce that the Kindle Touch will be sent to Stephanie, resident in New York.

The Art Inquirer would like to thank to all who have entered this giveaway and wish better luck next time.

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The exhibition "Frida Kahlo - As Suas Fotografias" will be open during December 1st

The photography exhibition "Frida Kahlo - As Suas Fotografias" will be open during this holiday, December 1st.
A selection of 257 photos can be seen at the Museu da Cidade in Lisbon until January 29, 2012.