Open Contemporary Young Artist Award winner announced The recipient of the award that highlights emerging talent from across the UK is the 23-year-old Hertfordshire-based artist Juliet Gibbs. She has been awarded £1,000 for her painting Scaffold, which was inspired by the Barbican Conservatory in London.
Gibbs, who graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Falmouth University in 2018, explained: “It’s this amazing place where tropical, other-worldly plants meet concrete and steel and man-made structures that would seem cold and harsh in any other setting than this.”
In addition to the prize money the artist will also have the opportunity for a solo show with The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle, in 2020. She added: “It’s a huge honour to have been chosen as the winner and also a very welcome and unexpected surprise.
“It means that my practice has not only been promoted through The Biscuit Factory, but I’m also being given a fund of money for the creation of future work, meaning I can be more ambitious and creative in my approach to my next series of paintings.”
Gibbs’ work is currently on display at The Biscuit Factory as part of the Open Contemporary Young Artist Award’s group exhibition, which showcases artwork from all 38 shortlisted entrants. The public is also invited to vote online or during their visit to the gallery for a People’s Choice Winner, who will be awarded £250. The exhibition runs until 25 August 2019.
Louvre decides against including Salvator Mundi painting in da Vinci show due to authenticity doubts The Louvre in Paris has opted to not include the world’s most expensive painting in this year’s blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci show because the exhibition’s curators do not believe it can be attributed solely to the artist. The work, entitled Salvator Mundi, was sold for $450m (£354m) at Christie’s in New York in 2017, with the buyer later being identified as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
It had originally been purchased in 2005 by two American art dealers from a New Orleans estate sale for just $1,175 (£924). Although it was in poor condition, after years of restoration experts became convinced it was genuinely a lost Leonardo and it went on display in the National Gallery’s own blockbuster show in London in 2011.
However, because the Louvre’s curators don’t believe it to be the sole work of da Vinci, the work would be displayed with the tagline ‘workshop’, which would have serious ramifications for its value.
Art historian and writer Ben Lewis told the Guardian: “My inside sources at the Louvre, various sources, tell me that not many curators think this picture is an autograph Leonardo da Vinci. If they did exhibit it they would want to exhibit it as ‘workshop’. If that’s the case, it will be very unlikely that it will be shown, because the owner can’t possibly lend it. The value will go down to somewhere north of $1.5m (£1.2m).”
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the famed renaissance artist and inventor’s death.
Painter and Northumbria University tutor Duncan Newton dies The artist known for making abstract paintings had a career spanning more than five decades. He exhibited internationally, including in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the British School at Rome, Italy and the Kings Plow Art Centre, Atlanta, USA.
Commenting on his passing, artist Narbi Price said: “Duncan Newton was one of my first encounters with a ‘real painter’, funny, intense, serious and hilarious. I had a very good year in the studio outside his office back in 2003. He was the first person to buy one of my paintings after graduation. A true one-off. Thanks Duncan, with love and respect. Narbi x.”
Images:
1. Juliet Gibbs, winner of the Open Contemporary Young Artist Award
2. Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi. Reproduction of the painting after restoration by Dianne Dwyer Modestini, a research professor at New York University. Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci,_Salvator_Mundi,_c.1500,_oil_on_walnut,_45.4_×_65.6_cm.jpg
More on a-n.co.uk:
Venice Biennale 2019: ‘May You Live In Interesting Times’ puts emphasis on borders, identity and the environment
2019-20 Mark Tanner Sculpture Award: Olivia Bax wins £8,000 prize for emerging artists
Exploding myths about money: the ‘bank’ printing artworks to pay off community debt
