From $4 to $90K for Bowie painting; a Rembrandt \’uncropped\’; new-age LS Lowry gets his due

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

US$4 David Bowie painting auctioned for US$90K

A painting by British pop icon David Bowie was just recently discovered and purchased for about USD$4 at a Canadian store that resells donated goods. Now, it has been sold at auction in Toronto for nearly USD$90,000, blowing past auction house Cowley Abbot\’s estimated USD$7,000 to USD$10,000 valuation earlier. The diminutive artwork 24×20 centimetre went to an American collector — it is a painting of a pale figure dressed in teal clothes, with teal and red hair on a crimson background, and was originally sold through a website around 2001. It somehow found itself two decades later at a donations store Ontario where an anonymous buyer paid USD$4 for it. Malay Mail reports.

300 years later, Rembrandt’s Night Watch uncropped

A mixture of artificial intelligence and painstaking research has allowed researchers to restore Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch to its original size, centuries after it was trimmed down to fit in a smaller wall. The work was conducted as part of the Operation Night Watch project, and the results are being exhibited in the Honor Gallery in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which sees the original painting flanked by printed strips filling in the lost sections. New details in the margins of the painting include two new faces and also a small child, leaning on a railing, rather than simply running out of frame. The Verge reveals more.

Book review: ‘Reflections on Mughal Art and Culture’

The Mughal Empire was one of the most powerful at the height of its glory. In \’Reflections on Mughal Art and Culture,\’ edited by Roda Ahluwalia, 13 eminent scholars explore its rich aesthetic and cultural legacy. Their insights take the reader “into a world where the art of calligraphy, painting, lapidary, architecture, textiles and books are being honed to perfection under imperial patronage, and some long-held beliefs are questioned and challenged”. Women, architecture, libraries, temples, multicultural life, contexts and confluences are all explored in fascinating narratives via Mika Natif, Subhash Parihar, Ursula Sims-Williams, Catherine Asher, Anamika Pathak, Vivek Gupta and more. Scroll gets a fascinating glimpse.

Hidden in a book — new Van Gogh sketches found

Discoveries of totally unknown Vincent van Gogh drawings are rare — perhaps once or twice in a decade. But now, one of his most unusual artworks has emerged — three unknown sketches of peasants, drawn on a thin vertical strip of paper. The sheet has just gone on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in a new exhibition on acquisitions, Here to Stay (until September 12). The bookmark, as it were, was in a novel on the French peasantry gifted by the famous artist to his Dutch artist friend Anthon van Rappard. The Art Newspaper has all the details.

Unskilled UK labourer turns out to be a secret LS Lowry

An unskilled labourer left a secret legacy of 70-years worth of artworks stacked in the cupboards at his terraced home — and now, two of London’s top galleries will display his work. Ex-boxer Eric Tucker has been likened to well-known artist LS Lowry. He left school aged 14 without any qualifications and worked for the majority of his life as a builder in Warrington, Cheshire. But when he died in July 2018 at the age of 86, his family discovered 400 artworks tucked away in his home. While he was rejected by the art establishment while alive, his talent is finally being celebrated. The Daily Mail tells you his story.

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