The Buddha statue discovered in Egypt indicates trade with ancient India  

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!

The Buddha statue discovered in Egypt indicates trade with ancient India  

A Buddha statue was discovered by a group of Polish-American archaeological team, led by historian Steven Sidebotham of the University of Delaware and archaeologist Mariusz Gwiazda of the University of Warsaw. The Buddha stands about two feet tall and holds part of his robes in his left hand in this 28-inch statue. There is a halo with sun rays around his head and a lotus flower at his side. Around the second century, it is thought to have been made in Alexandria. This also shed greater light on trade between ancient Rome and India, it also is the first Buddha found west of Afghanistan. Along with this, the team found a Sanskrit inscription dating to the reign of the Roman emperor Marcus Julius Philippus, who hailed from present-day Syria and was known as Phillip the Arab (244–49 CE). Read more on ARTnews

Artist Willie Cole accuse Met Gala of stealing the chandelier design

The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted its annual gala beneath a gargantuan chandelier made of plastic water bottles which according to several artists and people of the art community present there, is a blatant rip-off of American artist Willie Cole. taking a toll on the issue, art curator Ellen Hawley wrote on Instagram: “Willie’s work is on display at the Met and the 2nd-floor Mezzanine store sells many of his prints and home décor. Interestingly, Willie wasn’t asked to be involved to collaborate on this installation, nor asked for his permission to use the likeness of his art…The fashion and art worlds face copycat challenges all the time. This seems like a blatant copy – at The Met of one of their exhibiting artists.” Although there is no formal response to Cole’s allegations from the Met, Cole did share a photo comparing his work with the Met’s chandelier. Read more on ARTnews.

The first official portrait of King Charles unveiled

Artist Alastair Barford paints the first official portrait of King Charles and it is not a sitting portrait but the king working at a Buckingham Palace reception (in February).  Barford also used photographs from the global biodiversity event at the palace to complete his rather traditional portrait of the royal, who wears a bracelet given by the Amazon indigenous leader, Domingo Peas, rather than ceremonial robes. The artist told the art newspaper: “The problem wasn’t so much the lack of painting hours. It was, that I felt that as I had such a tight time frame to get the work done in, I felt I had to work on the portrait pretty much all day every day. I felt guilty if I spent any time not working on the picture! I’m used to having much longer to work on a portrait and this created certain technical problems; an oil painting needs time to dry.” He adds: “I also came to realise that the time we spend away from our work, the time we spend thinking about and processing what we are doing but not necessarily painting, is a hugely important part of the process.” Read more on The Art Newspaper.

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