What We're Reading: 5/15/24
King Charles: First official portrait since coronation is unveiled, painted by Jonathan Yeo
The first official painted portrait of King Charles III since his coronation has been unveiled at Buckingham Palace.
The vast oil on canvas shows a larger-than-life King Charles in the uniform of the Welsh Guards.
The vivid red work, measuring about 8ft 6in by 6ft 6in, is by Jonathan Yeo, who has also painted Tony Blair, Sir David Attenborough and Malala Yousafzai.
Queen Camilla is said to have looked at the painting and told Yeo: "Yes, you've got him."
Via BBC
It is not a good week for an auction house to suffer a technological failure, but that is what Christie’s is facing as it prepares for its marquee New York auctions of Modern, contemporary, and Impressionist art. Since Thursday, the house’s website has displayed a message saying that it is offline and supplying phone numbers to contact its various locations. While the house has only called it a website outage, it is widely thought to be a cyberattack. The house’s app displays a message that it was down for “scheduled maintenance.”
Via Artnet
Big Dreams for Little Village: A makeover in Motor City
Detroit, a metonym for boom and bust in American industry across the twentieth century, has a split personality courtesy of the national news media. This poster child for yesterday’s urban blight is being shaped into a fledgling paradise for tomorrow, with space for urban farms, artists’ studios, and other major real-estate opportunities. This cyclical narrative of rebirth is echoed on the city’s seal: Speramus meliora and resurget cineribus, Latin phrases for “we hope for better things” and “it will rise from the ashes.” Art and culture play a starring role in this burgeoning new identity for the metropolis, but astride these persistent narratives are niggling questions regarding economic inequality and sustainability, plus the robust skepticism of many longtime Detroiters.
Sale of De la Cruz Collection Raises Concerns in Miami’s Art World
Last month, the Cuban-born, Miami-based art collector and philanthropist Rosa de la Cruz died at the age of 81. A few weeks later, the museum that housed her private collection in the city’s Design District closed permanently. A portion of the artworks were consigned by Christie’s, where they will go under the hammer in a series of sales kicking off May 14, in New York City.