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As student, teacher, and principal of the Madras School of Art, and as mentor, colleague, editor, and painter, KCS Paniker (1911–77) lived within a network of relations that one might map, following Alex Seggerman's reading of Egyptian modernism, as a constellation. These figures include artists and critics in his immediate local network, students who helped build Cholamandal Artists' Village with him, and his legacy in the form of the following generations, including his son, the sculptor Nandagopal. He also corresponded with a range of collectors, critics, scholars, and artists around the world, during three trips abroad and in subsequent editorial efforts related to the journal Artrends. In past frameworks, we might think of these constellational relations as "influences" but this too unidirectionally defines them, and it causes us to privilege one end or the other of the interaction. My project here is to think broadly and critically about these relations, to acknowledge them as deeply important for our understanding of Paniker's work, but also to look for the dimmer stars – the fleeting comets that might be missed. How might attentiveness to Paniker's intellectual and artistic wanderings enable us to find toward a richer, pulsating and shining, picture of relation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across various markets, consumers rely on brokers to help them select goods. How do brokers shape consumers' valuation? We address this question by drawing from two independent but analogous ethnographies of brokerage and purchasing in the New York housing market and the New York art market. Building upon the relational turn in economic sociology, we identify the interlocking mechanisms by which brokers influence valuation in face-to-face interaction: Brokers (1) build trust by establishing rapport and displaying expertise, (2) prepare consumers to purchase by priming the consumption setting so that consumers compare a specified set of goods and experience urgency, and (3) posit matches between consumers and products, relying on demographic and cultural characteristics of consumers to complete transactions. Our novel theorization of brokerage has broader implications for understanding valuation and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Potvin's book, "Deco Dandy: Designing Masculinity in 1920s Paris," provides primary research that explores the existence of a 1920s dandy characterized by ambiguity and elegance. Contrary to expectations, the deco dandy was not exclusively queer but rather a French man who purchased luxury products to rebuild the nation after the war. The book is richly illustrated and draws on various primary sources to create a clear image of the deco dandy as a discursive construct and a persona performed by certain men. Potvin also examines the interwar period in Paris, highlighting the anxieties about masculinity and the multiple masculinities that existed. The book is interdisciplinary and will be of interest to art historians, design historians, fashion scholars, film scholars, and theater scholars. [Extracted from the article]

Though Douglas Huebler is most well-known for his photo-conceptualist works, this article explores how the artist innovatively employed another medium: the limited-edition print. While early chroniclers of Conceptual art often emphasized the artworks' resistance to being bought and sold, I argue that Huebler created limited editions intended specifically for the collector's market, using the medium as a conceptual tool to reshape the relationship between artist and collector. The structure of the limited edition both prompted Huebler to conceive of art collecting as a collective endeavor, with each owner of the edition a node in an interconnected network, and endowed the artist with the ability to authorize impressions as authentic and inauthentic. In a moment when works of art were increasingly treated as financial assets, the limited-edition print provided Huebler with a vehicle for questioning the nature of ownership, authorship, and value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barbara Sjoholm's book, "From Lapland to Sápmi: Collecting and Returning Sámi Craft and Culture," explores the history of collecting in Sámi areas, with a focus on Norway and Sweden. The book highlights the significance of Sámi cultural heritage items, particularly drums, and their role as symbols of resistance. Sjoholm also addresses the invisibility of Sámi people and their struggles to reclaim their cultural heritage. The book provides new insights and perspectives, shedding light on the stories of both Sámi and non-Sámi individuals involved in collecting. [Extracted from the article]

O Sech'ang embarked on an ambitious cultural project by acquiring impressive numbers of Korean painting and calligraphy during the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945). This article examines how O Sech'ang played a critical role in shaping the understanding of Korean art and in shifting the collecting pattern at the personal or institutional levels. By focusing on Kŭnyŏk hwahwi (Collections of Korean Painting) and Kŭnyŏk sŏhwi (Collections of Korean Calligraphy), it demonstrates that O Sech'ang engaged in collecting practices as a means of articulating Korean cultural identity built upon his own standing as a literatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mid-1950s saw the relationship between China and Indonesia evolve from one of mutual hostility to one of fraternity as a trend of détente emerged out of the Geneva (1954) and the Bandung (1955) conferences. This article explores why and how the two newly independent nations applied art diplomacy to reduce their ideological differences and facilitate their commercial and political rapprochements for the sake of Asian solidarity. Through contextualizing a series of art activities between the two nations, especially China's reproduction of President Sukarno's private collection of paintings and Chairman Mao Zedong's gifts of Chinese ink paintings to President Sukarno, this article argues that interactions in the name of art exemplify how China shaped its modern profile as an independent and industrialized power. It will also show how China deviated from its diplomacy of 'Leaning to One Side', formulated in the late 1940s, towards the 'Peaceful United Front' of the mid-1950s. More broadly, art relations between China and Indonesia reflect intensive cultural exchanges between the newly independent, yet ideologically clashing, nations of the Third World in the postwar period and offer a multifaceted history of the Cold War beyond the binary paradigm of the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual art exhibitions are on the agenda in Metaverse environments, as art is increasingly digitalized. With the transfer of art to virtual platforms such as Metaverse, it is possible to buy and sell works in virtual galleries, virtual auctions, and virtual environments. In this respect, it is important for art students to follow current issues and to be able to interpret and evaluate in the context of digital art. In this framework, the opinions of Visual Communication Design Department students about digital art and Metaverse were taken through a questionnaire, and the data obtained were analyzed with the quantitative analysis method and presented within the framework of descriptive analysis in a qualitative design. The sample of the research includes 128 students studying at Istanbul Topkapı University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, Visual Communication Design Department. The data of the research carried out in the Fall term of 2022-2023 were obtained with a questionnaire consisting of 8 questions. As a result of the research, Visual Communication Design department students have knowledge about Metaverse, find the concept of Metaverse interesting and follow it up-to-date, perceive the Metaverse art relationship, sometimes think of the Metaverse universe as complex, the idea of art in the Metaverse environment makes sense, the virtual Metaverse world is more interesting than the real world. It was revealed that they found it interesting and thought that Metaverse contributed to digital art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its impressive nature and culture, the Hardanger region was a well-known and popular destination for Germans at the beginning of the 20th century. In the small village of Lofthus, art collector Bertha Rohlsen and gymnastics pioneer Bess Mensendieck even moved into their own summer homes. The expressionist painter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was also a guest there and created images of the North that broke with traditional ways of seeing. This article examines the cultural contacts between people and landscape as well as the different kinds of cultural transfers that were made possible by the experience of space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Aesthetic Painting in Britain and America: Collectors, Art Worlds, Networks" by Melody Barnett Deusner explores the transatlantic connections that influenced Aesthetic movement painting and patronage in Britain and America from the late 1850s to the early 1900s. The book argues that Aesthetic painting is closely tied to modern life, particularly in the realms of business and global commerce. Deusner examines the role of networks in connecting art, taste, and commerce, using aspects of network theory and social network analysis. The book also explores the relationship between artists and patrons, as well as the significance of decoration and display in the Aesthetic movement. Overall, the book offers new interpretations of significant artworks, a transatlantic perspective, and interdisciplinary insights into the histories of commerce and capitalism. [Extracted from the article]

"Fashionability, Exhibition Culture and Gender Politics: Fair Women" by Meaghan Clarke explores the Fair Women exhibition that took place at the Grafton Gallery in 1894. The exhibition featured over 200 paintings, sculptures, miniatures, and decorative objects, showcasing a broad range of women's portraits and items associated with femininity. The exhibition aimed to promote female involvement in collecting and cultural enterprise, while also benefiting the lenders by increasing the value of their works. The study examines the motivations and reception of the exhibition, as well as its impact on later exhibitions and art writing focused on women collectors and critics. While the study acknowledges the exhibition's influence, it also recognizes other factors that may have contributed to similar developments in curatorial and exhibition practices. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the exhibition "Madayin: Eight Decades of Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings from Yirrkala," which recently took place at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC. The exhibition showcased 60 works of Australian Aboriginal bark paintings from Yirrkala, with a focus on the Yolngu people's cultural and artistic traditions. The Yolngu co-curators emphasized the depth and sacredness of their knowledge, providing viewers with only a surface understanding of the artworks. The exhibition aimed to illustrate and protect Yolngu epistemology, cosmology, and system of rights. The catalog accompanying the exhibition included essays from the artists, as well as visual criticism and cultural analysis. The artworks displayed in the exhibition demonstrated the beauty and diversity of the Yolngu painting tradition, with different aesthetic styles and themes. The exhibition also highlighted the continuity and permanence of Yolngu cosmology and emphasized the importance of clan and kinship relationships. The exhibition received praise for its collaborative and inclusive approach, as well as its efforts to share Yolngu knowledge and promote reconciliation. The exhibition will continue to be shown at the University of Virginia and the Asia Society Museum in New York City. [Extracted from the article]

An interview with artist Tarrah Krajnak discusses her exhibition "Re-Pose" at REDCAT, which explores the concept of reclaiming earlier works and poses, focusing on the woman's pose as a central theme. She also talks about her process, incorporating visual materials, and the idea of preserving ephemeral art in museums.

Teodorico Borgognoni was born in Lucca in 1205 and was appointed bishop of Bitonto and Cervia in 1262 and 1270. Following his father, he learned the art of surgery and collected relevant recipes in his most important work, entitled Cyrurgia seu filia principis. Among the disciplines reported in this work, the most interesting and innovative is anesthesia. The recipes in this field contribute to Borbognoni's consideration as the forerunner of modern anesthesia. Such recipes have been reported in other manuscripts from the Middle Ages, like Manuscript No. 1939. In the present work, we investigate the traditional preparations handed down in this manuscript, focusing on type of preparation and botanical ingredients. The results highlight that exploited ingredients can be divided into three groups: the first comprises plants already known for their narcotic effects, the second includes ingredients acting as an adjuvant for absorption or reducing the metabolism, and the last group includes ingredients not associated with biological activity to explain their presence in anesthetic recipes. This third group is of particular interest for future biological investigations. Our goal is to rekindle attention to the work of Teodorico Borgognoni on traditional preparation for anesthetic purposes: a topic often underestimated by ethnobotanical surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay looks at Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43), one of the most iconic paintings in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art since it was acquired in 1943, offering a counterpoint to persistent readings that fundamentally position the work within a narrative of the European avant-garde. In a story that is both familiar and new, this essay highlights the structural and political insights provided by Mondrian's engagement with boogie-woogie music in America, through both recordings and visits to the nightclub Cafe Society, positioning the painting at the confluence of two streams of migration: one that brought Mondrian to New York as a war refugee and another that brought boogie-woogie sound northward with the Great Migration. Tracing these parallel histories, and how boogie-woogie signified in specific historical and political ways, deepens our understanding of how it modeled a space of freedom for Mondrian and shaped the vision realized in his two final paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the meaning and context of Atlantic rock art motifs, specifically cup-and-ring marks, found in Scotland. The author emphasizes that it is difficult to determine the exact meaning of these symbols due to their ancient origins and cultural differences. Various theories have been proposed, including astronomical charts, sundials, and primitive astronomy. Recent research suggests that the positioning of rock art sites may have been influenced by the sun and moon, allowing the motifs to be illuminated. The author suggests that a creative approach focusing on sensory engagement with the rocks, land, and sky may be more fruitful in interpreting the meaning of these ancient symbols. [Extracted from the article]

The article examines Documenta 15, an art exhibition curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa, which aimed to challenge established norms in the art world. It discusses how the exhibition departed from traditional formats, embracing a festival-like atmosphere and encouraging active participation from visitors. It also acknowledge challenges in understanding and analyzing the exhibition due to its unconventional nature and the lack of centralized documentation.

This piece studies the decrees of the First Mexican Council, gathered in 1555 to establish legal norms for the newly founded Church province. Apart from some notes on the conciliar context, the article focuses entirely on the original manuscript (1555) and the first print edition (1556). It explains how the manuscript moved from the cathedral archives in Mexico City into the collections of Bancroft Library, where it is found today. The article also traces the provenance of all known copies of the first print edition. Many of them passed through the bookshelves of Mexican collectors, and today the majority are held by libraries outside Mexico. To understand this particular case, I identify members of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century networks involved in book and manuscript trade. I also explain how dramatic events in Mexican history allowed them to acquire early colonial documents and imprints. Combining provenance research with an analysis of the broader historical and political context, I provide a case study of the close relationship between historical developments, book collecting, and book sales, which led to the veritable exodus of written material from Latin America to Europe and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Walker was the leading portraitist of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarian elite. He achieved great commercial success with the replication of a simple formula of portraying his almost universally male sitters with military grandiosity. When, however, Walker was commissioned to paint a marriage portrait pair of Colonel Hutchinson and his wife, Lucy, Walker achieved greater depths of character, compositional flair and humanity than is found elsewhere in his oeuvre. Walker was perhaps inspired by the connoisseurial tastes of Colonel Hutchinson who was one of the leading buyers at the auctions of King Charles I's goods. More intriguingly, however, Walker may have been inspired by the literary talents and unvarnished decency of one of his only known female sitters – Lucy Hutchinson. The resulting marriage pair offers an intimate and unique vision into the lives of a happily married, art collecting, husband and wife. They also offer a more complex vision of an artist who has often been disregarded as a formulaic painter of men in armour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of new scientific techniques to examine collections of historic scientific apparatus and other technological artefacts. One project under discussion uses interferometry to examine the history of lens development, while another uses X-ray fluorescence to discover the kinds of materials used to make early mathematical and astronomical instruments. These methods lead to surprising findings: instruments turn out to be fake, and lens makers turn out to have been adept at solving the riddle of aperture. Although exciting, in some ways this is neither novel nor particularly unusual. After all, lab techniques have been used in art and archaeological collections for a very long time. In fact, scientific instruments themselves have been examined in this way since at least the 1950s. What, then, is special about the use of new instruments to examine old instruments? We argue that the answer has less to do with measuring historical innovation or establishing priority, and more to do with networks of craft know-how that, typically, have left no other historical traces than those embodied in surviving instruments themselves. We show, in particular, how collections of objects can be mobilised within wider histories of knowledge, placing instruments within a dynamic interplay of craft knowledge, expertise, labour, commerce, and material exchange, over the longue durée. Finally, we suggest that these kinds of lab analyses can be given an extra dimension through the use of computational modelling, and we introduce the "Tools of Knowledge" project, which is designed to bring together XRF with techniques from the digital humanities, in order to tell a new story about the development of scientific instruments from the 16th to the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes controversies surrounding Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and tries to answer the question of how NFTs can revolutionize virtual ownership. To answer this question, part I of the paper analyzes the technical and legal nature of NFTs and the ways users utilize this technology. This part also discusses the legal ambiguity surrounding NFTs and users' misconceptions about the scope of rights they get with NFTs. Part II analyzes NFTs from the perspective of two communities: gaming and art. This perspective is noteworthy because both communities had a need to simplify ownership of intangibles. Still, while artists and art collectors have welcomed the dawn of NFTs rather warmly, gamers expressed concerns about NFTs' utility. To understand the contrast this paper investigates how NFTs are used in the art world and gaming and what needs NFTs serve to satisfy in both communities. As one of the possible explanations, this paper suggests that NFTs do not make digital ownership easy but only make transfers easy. Because of this, users who looked for easier transfers got what they needed, while users who aspired to get the real-world type of digital ownership through NFTs were discontented. Part III of the paper focuses on the rights that users (namely gamers) would want to have for digital property and discusses whether NFTs (under the current legal framework) can give these extra digital rights. Part IV suggests a list of legal reforms that can bring NFTs closer to their promises. Part V concludes the analyses by discussing the role of NFTs for virtual property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although French fascination with Egyptian material culture is often dated to the nineteenth century, ancient Egyptian gems, architectural fragments, and small statues were already avidly collected in the eighteenth century. For some, the display and close study of small Egyptian works of art in private cabinets served to develop discernment, the formal properties illuminating historical moeurs, techniques, and artistic exchanges otherwise unknowable from then‐untranslated hieroglyphs. Others, however, dismissed these objects as fetishes and idols, produced under the control of priests and despots for ritual devotion. Escalating prejudices in Europe toward the peoples and objects of Africa was fundamental to this latter attitude. Yet, the bigoted language also illuminates the fraught boundaries perceived between connoisseurship and idolatry, both predicated on the focused attention toward material objects. This essay addresses the implication of ancient Egyptian sculpture in these period debates, and demonstrates the impact of these biases on art histories of sculpture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, billionaire and art collector Christian Ringnes launched an idea to fund a sculpture park in the Ekeberg area of Oslo, based around his private collection of female sculptures. The idea spurred heavy criticism for years leading up the park's opening in 2013. Local residents, local politicians, artists, art professors, art critics and newspaper columnists were highly engaged in discussing the park, performing their critiques in newspaper articles, at the construction site, in City Hall, and through official complaints to Oslo Municipality and the County Governor. In seeking to understand why it became such a contested issue, I have followed the mediated public debate throughout the process from idea to realization. The analysis shows that the debate has been agonistic, influenced by deep stories and feeling rules. Nevertheless, the intense debate resulted in a number of unintended consequences leading up to the park's successful integration into the art world upon its opening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from Los Angeles County Museum's rich holdings of ceramics, I Conversing in Clay i activates the museum's collection to put objects made across centuries and geographies in dialogue with one another. The partnering of the artist's work with the troubling vessel functions not only as an illustration of what the artist responds to, but seriously calls into question the value of problematic objects within the museum's collection. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses works of African artist Saarenald T.S. Yaawaisan who produced dynamic and artistic toys made primarily from previously discarded flip-flops in which he transformed this found waste products into items that bring joy. Topics include the flip-flop toys of Yaawaisan in the Bryn Mawr Art and Artifact Collections; how he began constructing toys made of bamboo and used to live amid the military barracks, experiencing homelessness, and managing to survive despite his misfortune; and his relationship with Jane Martin that helped his art continues to florish.

This text is a summary of a special issue that explores the themes of collecting, archives, and the commodification of cultural artifacts. The articles within the issue cover a range of topics, including the role of zinc in colonialism, the commodification of the work of illustrator Mario Miranda, and the re-narration of nomadic traders' journeys in Australia. The conclusion reflects on the concept of collectables and the challenges posed by digital morbidity. The special issue was based on a workshop titled "Re-creating Certitude: The Aesthetics of History in Art and Photography Collections in a Transoceanic Perspective." [Extracted from the article]

Francis Henry Dumville Smythe (1873-1966), a humble clergyman from England, spent a lifetime amassing his private collection of British watercolours. During the 1950s, he decided to gift the bulk of them to two art institutions in New Zealand - Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery in Wellington. They were welcomed with open arms and celebrated as "the finest collection of water colour pictures in the Southern Hemisphere." However, they soon fell out of favour as shifting aesthetic tastes and calls for a new national identity dominated the art scene in New Zealand during the latter half of the twentieth century. This paper will examine Smythe's collecting habits and tastes in art, as well as the formation, gifting and reception of the collection in Wellington and Dunedin. It is based on two chapters from the author's PhD thesis "A Matter of Taste: The Fate of the Archdeacon Smythe Collection of British Watercolours in New Zealand" (2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although not the longest river in Europe, the Danube has always manifested her existence in a plurality of voices, forms and guises, tempting leaders due to her strategic geographic position and the promise of abundance, thus risking to become a bone of contention on political maps, while revealing herself as an enchantress of colours and shades, of sounds and wor(l)ds beautifully blended in spectacular artistic creations that bring her to the fore. Starting from black-and-white snapshots of the Danube, this paper looks into her occurrences as a Shape Shifter, an Alchemist, a Collector and an Art Muse as they are embodied within literary and/or artistic records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to research and analyse the development of marketing technologies in the fine art market from the ancient times to the beginning of the 21st century. The research methodology consists in the application of comparative, empirical, and theoretical methods. This methodological approach allows analysis of the formation process and the history of the development of fine art marketing, conducting a research of marketing processes during the promotion of works of art on the art market at different periods of human history. The scientific novelty consists in expanding ideas about the fine art market. The article explores for the first time marketing processes on the art market from the ancient times to the beginning of the 21st century. The article analyses for the first time the problems that were formed and overcome during the history of the emergence and development of marketing in the field of culture and art. Besides, for the first time, the theoretical foundations of fine art marketing and the ways of their practical implementation are analysed. Conclusions. The conducted analysis allowed us to determine that even before the emergence of the modern art market as an element of the general capitalist market, the movement of works of fine art already thousands of years ago, in the ancient times contained elements of marketing approaches and technologies. This movement was caused by the processes of sale and purchasing, exchanging, and collecting works of art. In particular, we are talking about the precursors of marketing approaches and technologies aimed at a kind of satisfaction of the demand for works of fine art in society; organisation of classification and collection of works of fine art; examination of their quality and originality; determining the methods of works of art promotion in society. All these methods were already available at that time. In general, we can talk about the existence before the emergence of the modern art market of works of fine art, the so-called «wild market», which in a certain way "regulated" the processes of the movement of works of art in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]