Hidden Van Gogh discovered in Scotland; Weiwei unveils new installation in Sweden; and one more Art story

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!

Hidden Van Gogh self-portrait discovered behind another painting

A painting likely to be a previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh has been discovered by the National Galleries of Scotland, according to the Edinburgh institution. The portrait was found on the back of the canvas of the Dutch post-Impressionist’s 1885 work ‘Head of a Peasant Woman’, covered by layers of glue and cardboard. It shows a bearded sitter in a brimmed hat with a neckerchief tied loosely at the neck. His left ear, which the painter famously cut off in 1888 after tempers flared with Paul Gauguin, is clearly visible. Visitors will be able to see it at a forthcoming exhibition between July 30 and November 13 as an X-ray image through a specially designed light box. Van Gogh was known for reusing canvas to save money by turning it around and working on the opposite side. Al Jazeera has the details.

 

Ai Weiwei unveils new installation — \’Arch\’ — in Stockholm

Ahead of getting an as-yet-undisclosed permanent home in the city, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei\’s steel sculpture Arch has been installed outside the Nationalmuseum gallery in Stockholm. The 12-metre-tall cage-like structure was made from polished steel and has a cut-out at its centre that depicts two intertwined human figures. Appearing to break through the steel bars that surround them, these characters represent the “free passage of all populations, and appealing for a world without borders”, as per creative foundation Brilliant Minds, which has organised the installation. Ai was one of the speakers at this year’s Brilliant Minds event, which took place in Stockholm in June. Ai is known for his politically charged artworks. Recently, the artist designed a home extension with hexagonal ends for a weekend home in New York. Dezeen tells you more.

 

Priyanka Chopra-Jonas’s NYC restaurant ‘Sona’ now has blue-chip art on sale

Actor Priyanka Chopra-Jonas’s restaurant Sona, a stylish space in New York’s upmarket neighbourhood of Gramercy, will now also showcase 20th century Modern Indian art by some of the most recognised names. Coming from the DAG collection, the curated display will be rotated on a regular basis. Serving modern Indian cuisine and boasting interiors inspired by the Art Deco period in India, the restaurant has on its walls artwork spanning 1960s to early 2000s, from artists including Himmat Shah, GR Santosh and Avinash Chandra. The showcase, also on sale, features \’Untitled 1970\’, an abstract oil-on-canvas by Ambadas, and Dharmanarayan Dasgupta’s 1987 acrylic painting, where two women clad in sarees are seen talking. P Khemraj’s 1993 acrylic with marble texture is populated by a mosaic of figures floating among moving clouds, swaying to a cosmic rhythm, while Sohan Qadri celebrates life through a DNA-strand-like chain of interlinked units, in his 2003 paper work. The Indian Express reports.