Old masters and new worlds, with lawyers
This year got off to a slow start for art markets. Christie’s Old Masters sale, considered a bellwether for art markets in general, produced better numbers than last year but [...]
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Posted March 05, 2025in Art News
Posted February 05, 2025in Art News
All is not as it seems
This month’s art news is filled with dreams, confusions and deceptions with lawyers going to court to argue that fake art is the same as the real thing it imitates. [...]
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Posted January 01, 2025in Art News
Jeff Fleming’s unbearable lightness of being
Jeff Fleming will kick off the 2025 cultural year in Des Moines Jan. 10 with an exhibition of all new works based on old family photos. Fleming paints ghosts and [...]
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Posted December 04, 2024in Art News
2024 – when diversity, equality and inclusion trumped everything else
Jim Duncan will further reckon the year in Des Moines arts in his The Daily Umbrella column the last two weeks of the year. It’s free to subscribe, and no [...]
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Posted November 06, 2024in Art News
Des Moines’ radar for genius
Two of the art world’s hottest commodities this autumn have Des Moines stints on their schedules. Both are testimony to a radar for genius at two local institutions — Hoyt [...]
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Posted October 02, 2024in Art News
Art imitates soccer
“Football is not just a game; it’s an art form. You have to be creative, think outside the box, and always be one step ahead.” – Ronaldinho “And ah, [...]
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Posted September 04, 2024in Art News
A terrible beauty is born
W.B. Yeats coined the expression “A terrible beauty is born” amid the Irish Easter Rising of 1916. Its hopeful sentiment has accompanied war art ever since. Scott Charles Ross’ paintings [...]
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Posted July 31, 2024in Art News
Growing up in summer
In the art world, summer is the season of aestivation. That started before air conditioning when art patrons and performers retreated from sultry cities for cooler climes. It persists as [...]
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Posted July 03, 2024in Art News
Sarah Grant’s Independence Day party
Sarah Grant has returned to her camp stake roots. The grand dame of Des Moines’ art scene has opened a celebrative new solo show at Moberg Gallery. Grant has always [...]
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Posted June 05, 2024in Art News
The good, the bad and the handsome
New York, New York? While righteous protesters abandoned expensive tents amid mounds of garbage at an elite university on Broadway, another wasted camp site staked claim to 50,000 square feet [...]
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