Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall to Play Nude Diana in Titian Painting

EDINBURGH — Actress Kim Cattrall, best known for her role as Samantha Jones on Sex and the City, announced that she will pose nude once again in the name of art. This is the second time the English-born Cattrall has volunteered her body to raise funds to keep classic Renaissance paintings on display in the U.K.

In 2008, Cattrall played Diana (goddess of the hunt) for a recreation of the Titian painting Diana and Actaon. Although the work was on display at the National Gallery in London, the painting's owner, the Duke of Sutherland, threatened to sell the work on the open market. The successful campaign raised the $83 million necessary to keep the piece in Britain.

This time, Cattrall will pose naked for Titian's Diana and Callisto. The masterpiece portrays the moment in which Diana discovers that her maid Callisto has become pregnant by Jupiter. The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery in Edinburgh, but the Scottish government has refused to pay for the piece to stay there.

The man-eating character Samantha Jones is known for openly embracing her sexuality and the 53-year-old Cattrall is certainly not shy about it either. "Kim is committed to do whatever she can to keep the second Titian on public view," a representative for the actress said.

Note: Sex and the City 2 is scheduled to hit theaters in May 2010.

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[Photo: Kim Cattrall in a recreation of Titian's Diana and Actaon painted in 2008]

Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall to Play Nude Diana in Titian Painting

Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns at the National Gallery of Art

"An aspect always of interest to me is to develop an idea or an image and execute it in different ways to determine what its meaning could be." ~Jasper Johns

The National Gallery of Art has acquired the largest institutional repository, over 1,700 proofs, by American contemporary artist Jasper Johns. A new exhibit at the museum showcases a selection of this acquisition. 

Johns is known for incorporating pop culture icons and symbols such as the American flag into his paintings. Though simplistic and familiar, whether or not there is a significance to the artist's execution of the imagery  is subject to interpretation. “There may or may not be an idea, and the meaning may just be that the painting exists,” says Johns, who remains fairly elusive when asked to comment on his work.

WASHINGTON, DC /NGA/ — The prints of Jasper Johns (b. 1930) are heralded for their beauty as well as their conceptual and psychological complexity. A group of the artist's "working proofs" — prints pulled during the working process on which Johns made drawn and painted additions — will be showcased as independent works of art for the first time in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art.  

Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns includes approximately 45 proofs for lithographs, etchings, and screenprints that the artist expanded in a range of media, including pastel, ink, and paint. The works of art are installed in two galleries. The first features works from the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting motifs associated with Johns' art throughout his career, such as the alphabet, targets, and body parts. The second gallery introduces complex compositions from the 1980s and 1990s, among them autobiographical references such as family photographs and art objects owned by the artist

This extraordinary body of work, which incorporate a range of media that includes graphite, pastel, ink, and watercolor, has been created and carefully annotated by Johns over four decades.

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Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns (Oct. 11, 2009 – April 4, 2010)

National Gallery of Art | Website

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Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns at the National Gallery of Art

Irving Penn, Celebrity Fashion Photographer (1917-2009)

This week, the fashion world mourned the loss of one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers; Irving Penn passed away on October 7th. His "signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museum-goers worldwide," (New York Times, Oct. 8). Penn's famously striking photo of Pablo Picasso captured the artist peering apprehensively from beneath a wide-brimmed hat [above].

NEW YORK /EarthTimes/ -- US photographer Irving Penn, whose pioneering work blurred the line between fashion and art photography, has died at his Manhattan home at the age of 92, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Penn was a known for his blend of elegance and minimalism and his photographs included sensuous portraits of fashion icons like Marlene Dietrich, close-ups of cigarette butts and other street debris.

He was also known for his meticulous photographs of indigenous people around the world, and his work was shown at major galleries including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

His series of more than 250 photos of butchers, bakers and others in The Small Trades was acquired by Los Angeles' J. Paul Getty Museum in 2008 and is on display until January 2010.

Called a "grand master of American fashion" by the Los Angeles Times, Penn was born in 1917 and started contributing to Vogue magazine in 1943. He was married to his favorite model Lisa Fonssagrives from 1950 to her death in 1992 and is the brother of film director Arthur Penn.

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Read More -
US Photographer Irving Penn Dies | EarthTimes
Parting Glance: Irving Penn (photo slideshow) | Lens Blog - NYTimes.com

Irving Penn, Celebrity Fashion Photographer (1917-2009)

Obamas Choose Art for the White House: The Final List Is Revealed

The White House has released the final list of 45 works of art that will adorn the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue during the Obama administration. Critics are busy scrutinizing their choices and speculating as to what the First Family's selections may imply. For instance, could it be that artist Ed Ruscha's masterpiece of indecision, I Think I'll..., (containing the words; "Maybe...Yes...", "Maybe...No..." and "On Second Thought"), is reflective of the President's own decision-making process?

WASHINGTON /AP/ -- You can't see it, but there's a quiet cultural revolution under way at the White House. The Obamas are decorating their private spaces with more modern and abstract artwork than has ever hung on the White House walls. New pieces by contemporary African-American and Native American artists are on display. Bold colors, odd shapes, squiggly lines have arrived. So, too, have some obscure artifacts, such as patent models for a gear cutter and a steamboat paddlewheel, that now sit in the Oval Office.

Working with California decorator Michael Smith and White House curator William Allman, the Obamas have borrowed dozens of works from various Washington museums and galleries, being sure to use only items that weren't already on display. "The first lady had clear ideas about what they were aiming for," Allman said.

Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery, said the Obama's selections are exciting the art world and should provide a significant boost to the arts in general. "This is great art to live with," he said. "A lot of it is challenging. There are different styles: figurative art, abstract art. A lot of it is avant-garde: It was avant-garde, and a lot of it still is avant-garde."

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[Hirshhorn Museum (HM); National Gallery of Art (NGA); Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM); National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI); National Museum of American History (NMAH)]

LIST OF WHITE HOUSE ART

Located in the Residence:

JOSEPH ALBERS

■ Homage to the Square: Elected II (HM)

■ Homage to the Square: Midday (HM)

■ Study for Homage to the Square: Nacre (HM)

GEORGE CATLIN

■ A Crow Chief at His Toilette (NGA)

■ Camanchees Lancing a Buffalo Bull (NGA)

■ Mired Buffalo and Wolves (NGA)

■ Cheyenne Village (NGA)

■ Grizzly Bears Attacking Buffalo (NGA)

■ Game of the Arrow-Mandan (NGA)

■ A Foot War Party in Council-Mandan (NGA)

■ Ball-Play Dance-Choctaw (NGA)

■ Buffalo Chase, with Accidents (NGA)

■ Catlin and Indian Attacking Buffalo (NGA)

■ K’nisteneux Indians Attacking Two Grizzly Bears (NGA)

EDWARD CORBETT

■ Washington, D.C. November 1963 III (NGA)

EDGAR DEGAS

■ Dancer Putting on Stocking (HM)

■ The Bow (HM)

RICHARD DIEBENKORN

■ Berkeley, No. 52 (NGA)

NICOLAS DE STAEL

■ Nice (HM)

SAM FRANCIS 

■ White Line (NGA)

WINSLOW HOMER

■ Sunset (NGA)

JASPER JOHNS

■ Numerals, 0 through 9 (NGA)

WILLIAM H. JOHNSON

■ Booker T. Washington Legend (SAAM)

■ Children Dance (SAAM)

■ Flower to Teacher (SAAM)

■ Folk Family (SAAM)

GLENN LIGON

■ Black Like Me #2 (HM)

GIORGIO MORANDI

■ 2 Still Lifes (NGA)

LOUISE NEVELSON

■ Model for “Sky Covenant” sculpture (NGA)

SUSAN ROTHENBERG

■ Butterfly (NGA)

MARK ROTHKO

■ Red Band (NGA)

EDWARD RUSCHA

■ I Think I’ll . . . (NGA)

ALMA THOMAS

■ Sky Light (HM)

LEON POLK SMITH

■ Stretch of Black III (NGA)

UNKNOWN ARTIST

■ Chief Jumper of the Seminoles (NGA)

Located in the West Wing - Cabinet Room:

FRANK O. SALISBURY

■ President Harry S. Truman (Harry S. Truman Library)

Located in the West Wing - Oval Office:

LUCY M. LEWIS [Acoma Pueblo]

■ Vase (NMAI)

JERI RECORN [Caddo]

■ Bottle: Intertwining Scrolls (NMAI)

STEVE S. [Iroquois]

■ Jar (NMAI)

MARIA POVEKA MARTINEZ [San Ildefonso Pueblo]

■ Jar (NMAI)

SAMUEL F. MORSE

■ Telegraph Register patent model (NMAH)

JOHN A. PEER

■ Gear Cutter patent model (NMAH)

HENRY WILLIAMS

■ 1877 steamboat feathering paddlewheel patent model (NMAH)

Located in the East Wing:

ALMA THOMAS

■ Watusi [Hard Edge] (HM)

Not yet placed:

MARK ROTHKO

■ No. 17 / No. 15 (NGA)

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Read More -
CAPITAL CULTURE: Modern art hits 1600 Pa. Ave. | AP

In Pictures: Obamas' Art Choices | BBC News

Obamas Choose Art for the White House: The Final List Is Revealed