Three art fairs in Madrid this month

by Sean McLachlan on

Madrid has always been a favorite destination for art lovers, and in February you have three more reasons to go. Later this month the Spanish capital will host three contemporary art fairs.

Art Madrid is the biggest, with 45,000 visitors last year. Now in its sixth year, Art Madrid is hosting 89 exhibition spaces that will showcase the collections of 60 art galleries from across Spain and around the world. It’s open from Feb. 16-20.

ARCOmadrid is celebrating its 30th year by focusing on Russian and Latin American contemporary art. Pieces from 12 Russian galleries will be on display and a “Solo Projects” program features artists from Latin America. It’s open Feb. 18-20.

JUSTMAD2 is the youngster of the crowd and only in its second year. About 50 exhibitors from many different countries will be showing their stuff. There will also be special programs on experimental design and sound art. It’s open Feb. 18-20.

It’s no coincidence that these are all happening at the same time. Buyers from all over the world will be here looking for The Next Great Talent, and like book fairs or other trade shows there will be a lot of hustling going on. Visiting one of these fairs will not only give you a large, interesting art exhibition for your money, but also insights into the inner workings of the art world.

Egypt changes stance: King Tut’s tomb will stay open (for now)

by Sean McLachlan on


The famous tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt will remain open for the time being, the chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass announced.

While earlier this week he stated that it and two other tombs in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor would close by the end of the year, now he’s saying that they’ll close at some undetermined time in the future.

Egypt plans to build a Valley of the Replicas to show off exact duplicates of King Tut’s tomb and those of Seti I and Queen Nefertari. These and other tombs are suffering damage due to the large numbers of people passing through. The extra humidity from their breath is causing mold to grow and is damaging the ancient paintings that adorn the walls. The number of visitors to Tutankhamun’s tomb has already been limited to 1,000 a day, down from a peak of 6,000 a day.

Once the Valley of the Replicas is open, and there’s no set date for that yet, King Tut’s tomb will close to everyone except those paying an extra fee that will probably run into the thousands of dollars. The pharaoh’s mummy will remain in its tomb.

[Photo courtesy user Kounosu via Wikimedia Commons]

Egypt to close Tutankhamun’s tomb

by Sean McLachlan on


The Valley of the Kings is one of the highlights of any trip to Egypt. In this hot, dusty ravine are some of the most remarkable tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. Paintings adorn their walls, showing the soul’s journey through the afterlife and the gods and goddesses described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Now the most popular of those tombs is going to close. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has announced he will close Tutankhamun’s tomb by the end of the year. Two others will also close. The brilliant paintings that make the tombs so attractive were preserved because the tombs were sealed. With thousands of people passing through every day, the tombs have become hotter and more humid. Paint is flaking off and mold is growing in some parts, as you can see from the above photo. It’s sad, but to save the tombs they have to be shut from public view.

Dr. Hawass has commissioned an exact replica of King Tut’s tomb so that visitors will get an idea what the original looked like.

[Photo courtesy user Hajor via Wikimedia Commons]

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Caligula’s tomb discovered? Probably not

by Sean McLachlan on

The newswires are on fire with a remarkable discovery–the tomb of the infamous Roman emperor Caligula has been discovered near Rome.

The Guardian reports that Italian police caught a man loading a Roman statue onto the back of a truck at Lake Nemi, where Caligula had a palace. They arrested him and when they examined the statue were amazed to see that the man it depicted wore caligae, a type of half boot popular with Roman soldiers. When Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was a boy, he used to tag along on his father’s military expeditions dressed in a miniature uniform. The soldiers thought this was cute and nicknamed him Caligula, which means “little boots”. The tomb robber led the officers back to the tomb where he found the statue. The police triumphantly announced that they had discovered Caligula’s tomb and the press went wild.

Not so fast, says Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard. In a post for The Times she points out that lots of statues show men wearing caligae. It was the normal footwear for soldiers, after all. She also states that since Caligula was so hated by the powers-that-be and was assassinated, it’s highly unlikely that he was given a fine tomb. More likely he was quietly buried in some unobtrusive spot like many other unpopular emperors.

Yet the story doesn’t end there. Dr. Beard admits she hasn’t seen photos of the statue or the tombs (at time of press they hadn’t been released) and until there’s a full archaeological excavation it’s impossible to say for sure whether the tomb contains the mortal remains of one of Rome’s most notorious emperors.

Caligula has always been the subject of inaccurate reporting. While there’s no doubt that his reign from AD 37 to 41 included many abuses, especially insults against the Senate, many of the charges laid against him are unsubstantiated. Some Roman writers said he slept with his sisters, but there’s no proof of this. Modern writers often say say he appointed his favorite horse as consul, but that’s a misreading of Seutonius, who wrote, “it is also said that he planned to make him [the horse] consul.” That sounds like he’s repeating a rumor.

[Photo of the statue of Caligula courtesy Louis le Grand. It is not the statue the police recently discovered.]

Bogota: Hernan Diaz retrospective

by Alex Robertson Textor on


Fernand Léger’s map of Colombia.

If for some reason you need another reason to visit Bogotá soon, here it is. There is currently a retrospective of the late famed Colombian photographer Hernán Díaz on display in Bogotá.

Hernán Díaz is a Colombian treasure. The photographer, who passed away in November 2009, was loved for his portraits of Colombian artists and other important cultural figures. There are the labored, precise photographs of his own cohort of artists, besuited men who reveal little. Then there are the more joyful images of actors, artists, politicians, and other figures from the artist’s later years.

Some credit Díaz with single-handedly raising the profile of Cartagena among Colombians. Prior to the publication of a book in 1972 by Díaz on Cartagena’s people and sights, the city had little standing in the country. It was simply a neglected colonial city on the country’s sweltering Caribbean coast, a forgotten backwater. Díaz considered Cartagena his adopted home and spent a great deal of energy documenting it.

To round out the focus on Colombia and various forms of documentation, there is also a set of male nudes included in the exhibit. Lastly, there are a number of images of a vanquished New York City, including one of a Horn & Hardat food service automat.

Anyone visiting the city shouldn’t miss the opportunity to obtain a look at modern Colombian history. This intense retrospective of Hernan Diaz’s works at the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá is open through January 15.