'Fake' still life in US museum confirmed as real Van Gogh

Art experts have confirmed that a small still-life at a US museum once dismissed as a fake is in fact by Vincent van Gogh, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said Wednesday. The painting, “Still Life with Fruit and Chestnuts”, was donated by a couple to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco in 1960 and suspected to be by the Dutch master. Several experts had previously said that the painting dated to 1886 was not a real Van Gogh, and it was not included in previous official catalogues of works by the painter, who committed suicide in 1890. “It is true that at the end of last year, experts from the Van Gogh Museum attributed a painting from the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco as a Vincent van Gogh painting,” press officer Milou Bollen told AFP. “There was always a question whether the painting was or was not made by Van Gogh.”

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New York's Museum of Modern Art to undergo four-month renovation

The Museum of Modern Art in New York, home to works by Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and other modern masters, will close for four months this year to expand and offer “more art in new and interdisciplinary ways,” it said on Tuesday. MoMA is one of the most prominent art museums in the United States and will reopen on October 21. It will have one-third more exhibition space after the $400-million project that aims to highlight “creative affinities and frictions” by displaying a range of media together — from painting to architecture, performance, or film, the museum said in a statement. At its heart will be a space dubbed The Studio that will feature live programming and performances “that react to, question, and challenge histories of modern art and the current cultural moment,” MoMA said. An expanded ground floor will have street-level galleries to bring art closer to people, it added.

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The V&A opens the largest exhibition ever staged in the UK on the House of Dior

The V&A opened the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever staged in the UK on the House of Dior – the museum’s biggest fashion exhibition since Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in 2015. From 1947 to the present day, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams traces the history and impact of one of the 20th century’s most influential couturiers, and the six artistic directors who have succeeded him, to explore the enduring influence of the fashion house. Based on the major exhibition Christian Dior: Couturier du Rêve, organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, the exhibition is reimagined for the V&A. A brand-new section explores, for the first time, the designer’s fascination with British culture. Dior admired the grandeur of the great houses and gardens of Britain, as well as British-designed ocean liners, including the Queen Mary. He also had a preference for Savile Row suits. His first UK fashion show to

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Willemien de Villiers: From conception to creation

Willemien de Villiers is a South African artist and member of the 62 Group. Her long career spans sculpture, painting and stitching. In her work, she often explores the themes of connectedness through nature as well as gender inequality, misogyny and patriarchy.

In her stitched work, Willemien creates detailed, intricate and interlinked pieces based on her feelings of our deep interconnection to the world at a cellular level. Creating through a slow, meditative practice to mimic the passing of time in nature, she chooses to work on pre-used fabrics with obvious signs of wear. Her attention to the reverse side of her work enhances the feeling of interconnection by raising the importance of what is hidden behind the surface.

She is intrigued by the patterns found in biological cells and uses repeat patterns, integrating them with existing marks and stains on old fabrics. In her latest works, she expresses strong feminist statements about the power dynamics in a marriage.

In this article, Willemien shares how she developed her recent Subversive Bride series based on the concept of a trousseau. These works are abstract representations of a bride’s trousseau dreams and hopes. She sews onto used tablecloths and other domestic fabrics, incorporating their stains to explore patriarchy and the restrictions on women that still exists in most cultures.

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