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U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in Beijing, China on Sunday, November 15 and in preparation for the event, Chinese artist Liu Bolin constructed and then set alight his eerily evocative "Burning Man Obama" sculpture which he claims represents Obama's worldwide influence. Showing his admiration, Liu Bolin said, "Obama is a very interesting and perspective leader. He is so hot now that I decided to impress this in "Burning Man Obama" work. Yes, setting something on fire can have negative connotations, but this piece represents energy and life that Obama has given to the world. We're eager to...

LANGLEY, Va. - Part of the new Dan Brown novel is based on a local mystery. In the introduction to his new best-selling novel, "The Lost Symbol," author Dan Brown lists the following: "In 1991, a document was locked in the safe of the director of the CIA. The document is still there today, its cryptic text includes references to an unknown location underground. The document ... includes the phrase, 'It's buried out there somewhere.'" Brown says the 20-year-old document contains the answers to a 20-year-old mystery. WTOP's National Security Correspondent J.J. Green investigated the claim, and found out it's...

Michael Nagle for The New York Times Wreckage from 9/11, stored at Kennedy Airport, is being granted to groups around the country. When Jeff Cox, a 15-year-old candidate for the rank of Eagle Scout in Windermere, Fla., approached the small town’s mayor with park improvement ideas to help earn a badge, the mayor informed him that those projects were already covered. “He came back and said, ‘Would the town like a memorial if I can get World Trade Center steel?’ ” Mayor Gary Bruhn said. “I was stunned. I said, ‘Son, the town would be elated to have something...

One of the more controversial of all the 9/11 memorials is an artwork originally entitled "Tear Of Grief", a forty-foot stainless steel teardrop suspended within a 100-foot-tall, 175-ton, bronze-clad tower that is now officially entitled "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism". This extraordinary work is a gift to the United States from the people of Russia and from its creator, renowned sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. Mr. Tsereteli first envisioned the image of the "Tear Of Grief" on September

Sculpture of Angelina Jolie Breastfeeding to Be Shown in Oklahoma Next Month Controversial celebrity sculptor Daniel Edwards has unveiled his latest work: a park-bench-sized statue of Angelina Jolie in the nude, double breastfeeding her twins. This artistic work of public indecency (she's not wearing pants!) is called "Landmark for Breastfeeding" and was inspired by Jolie's cover photograph on W magazine last year. Edwards decided that, in order to encourage more women to breastfeed and to raise global awareness of public nursing, he would depict one twin as African-American and the other as not, since that could totally happen in the...

We enjoyed the Rodin exhibit at the National Gallery of Art and made this brief video of his work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmSuNoye3-M Before viewing his work, we heard a lecture regarding his relationship with his model and student, Camille Claudel. We learned she had died in a mental institution following their break up.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Parents in Florida are complaining about a sculpture of a nude family outside a shopping center west of Delray Beach.

Should Michael Jackson be the butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair? Yes 1,054 (25.8%) No 3,038 (74.2%)

We appreciate the input of hundreds of people who have voiced their opinions, both positive and negative, on the issue of including Michael Jackson in the 2009 butter sculpture. The ongoing discussion has created a lot of, well, ‘churn.’ Since everyone has an opinion about the sculpture, we’ve decided to put it to a vote and let Fairgoers decide. The concept of the sculpture will be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk on July 20, 1969. In honor of Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind,” this year’s sculpture will include an astronaut, an American flag and a...

LONDON (Reuters) – A housewife from Sleaford in Lincolnshire will be the first of thousands of people to stand for one hour on top of a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square as part of a 100-day "live sculpture" exercise. "One & Other" is a work devised by sculptor Antony Gormley for the square's empty plinth, now a platform for temporary works of art. The first of 2,400 people to feature in Gormley's work is Rachel Wardell, a 35-year-old housewife and mother-of-two. Participants are chosen at random, and 14,500 people have applied so far. Applications are still open and can be...

Lawmaker returns joke gift from Schwarzenegger Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press A bull testicle sculpture for Sen. Darrell Steinberg was meant as a prod to help with tough budget choices. By Patrick McGreevy and Eric Bailey June 18, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento -- As lawmakers wrangled last week over how to plug California's giant deficit, the governor who once called them "girlie men" sent the state Senate leader a package that has some Capitol insiders tsk-tsking over what they see as an ill-timed display of machismo. The gag gift from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a metal sculpture of bull testicles, came...

BERLIN A 35,000-year-old ivory carving of a busty woman found in a German cave was unveiled Wednesday by archaeologists who believe it is the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts. "It's very sexually charged," said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, whose team discovered the figure in September. Carbon dating suggests it was carved at least 35,000 years ago, according to the researchers' findings, which are being published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature. "It's...

A hoax artwork which was supposed to celebrate European diversity provoked a full-scale diplomatic incident between Bulgaria and the Czech Republic today. The sculpture, commissioned by the Czech government to mark their EU presidency, mocked Europe’s national stereotypes, but some governments have failed to get the joke. Bulgaria has taken exception to its caricature, which depicts the country as a Turkish squat toilet. The country's ambassador wrote formal letters of complaint to the Czech EU presidency and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, today. Related Links Officials have demanded that the sculpture be taken down before the exhibit’s public...

County: Gun art violates rulesArtist says county has agreed to let sculpture remain in place until spring By JASON KAUFFMAN Express Staff Writer  Blaine County officials have asked local artist Bob Kantor to pull his sculpture titled "Line of Hope 2" farther away from state Highway 75. They claim the sculpture is violating county rules that require a 100-foot setback from the highway.  Blaine County has a gun problem. No doubt nearly every Blaine County motorist has seen Wood River Valley sculptor Bob Kantor's highly visible art piece off of state Highway 75 south of Ketchum. Titled "Line of...

** EXCERPT ** The powerful clay work shows Mrs Obama in the style of an African Queen, wearing large hooped earrings and an "afro pick" comb in her Egyptian-influenced hairstyle. An American flag is tattooed across her naked chest and the comb is decorated with pearls, the traditional garb of a First Lady, and an American Eagle. The work, by controversial sculptor Daniel Edwards, is clearly a nod to both Mrs Obama's ethnic roots and her position at the heart of American culture and politics. As her husband, Barack Obama, battles to win the next US presidential elections, she has...

A giant, bronze monument to the enema has been erected as a tribute to the cleansing procedure. An 800-pound syringe bulb held by three cherubs has been unveiled at the Mashuk-Akva Term spa in Zheleznovodsk, Russia. "There is no kitsch or obscenity, it is a successful work of art," spa director Alexander Kharchenko told the Associated Press. "An enema is almost a symbol of our region."

Naomi Campbell, one of the most famous and beautiful women in the world, and known for her Intemperate behavior, will be immortalized in sculpture. She has been posing for photographer Nick Knight, who is using three-dimensional scanners to create the sculptures...

SPRING GLEN - Those heartbroken women. Sculptor Karen Jobe Templeton's thoughts kept coming back to the wives and mothers as, day after day after day, she listened to radio accounts in August of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster. She would look around the light-filled studio she and her devoted husband, Kent, had spent two years building behind their home in this community between Price and Helper, and ponder: "How would I deal with losing Kent, if I had nothing to touch, to feel?" She resolved to do something about it. This week, Templeton is delivering clay bas-relief sculptures of the...

Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures.

Lion sculpture gets record price The Guennol Lioness was discovered at a site near Baghdad A tiny limestone figure of a lion from ancient Mesopotamia has sold at auction for $57m (£28m), almost double the previous record price for a sculpture. The 8.3cm (3.25in) tall Guennol Lioness is thought to have been carved 5,000 years ago in what is now Iraq and Iran. The lion, whose new owner has not been identified, had been on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for 59 years. The previous record for a sculpture was set last month when Pablo Picasso's Tete de...

NEW YORK (AFP) - A tiny and extremely rare 5,000-year-old white limestone sculpture from ancient Mesopotamia sold for 57.2 million dollars in New York on Wednesday, smashing records for both sculpture and antiquities. The carved Guennol Lioness, measuring just over eight centimeters (3 1/4 inches) tall, was described by Sotheby's auction house as one of the last known masterworks from the dawn of civilization remaining in private hands. "It was an honor for us to handle The Guennol Lioness, one of the greatest works of art of all time," Richard Keresey and Florent Heintz, the experts in charge of the...

Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight The world watched in horror when Taliban forces destroyed the monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. Political and cultural leaders from around the globe condemned the attacks. Offers of help poured in. Everyone asked: will the world be ready next time? Alas, the answer is a resounding “no.” In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked...

I don't know if this has been placed out here before, but I received these pics via email and wnated to share it with FR: Luke 1:49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

WASHINGTON — The selection of a Chinese sculptor to carve a three-story monument to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall is raising questions about what part of his legacy should be celebrated. King promoted peace and understanding among all people. His primary fight, however, was to win particular opportunities for blacks in the United States by juxtaposing the plight of an oppressed people against a message of freedom and democracy.

35,000-Year-Old Mammoth Sculpture Found in Germany In southwestern Germany, an American archaeologist and his German colleagues have found the oldest mammoth-ivory carving known to modern science. And even at 35,000 years old, it's still intact. The 35,000-year-old mammoth figurine was revealed on Wednesday. REUTERS Archaeologists at the University of Tübingen have recovered the first entirely intact woolly mammoth figurine from the Swabian Jura, a 220-meter long plateau in the state of Baden-Württemberg, thought to have been made by the first modern humans some 35,000 years ago. It is believed to be the oldest ivory carving ever found. "You can be...

NEW YORK (AP) - A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan. The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan, said Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director. Semler said he submitted his resignation after officials at the Roger Smith Hotel shut down the show. The six-foot sculpture was the victim of "a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing," Semler said. "They jumped...

This is a "headsup" for reviews of interviews on selected Civil-era War books on BookTV this weekend. (links to summaries of presentations will be posted in post 2). The "Generals In Bronze" segment is a rebroadcast. I saw an earlier airing. It is about a sculptor that got many Union Army generals to "dish" wartime details they'd never disclose to the public. If a more sensational editor had produced the book, it could easily be subtitled "Union General Confidential". I haven't seen the other two presentations, so I can't speak about the books or authors.

A Richard Serra sculpture is not always an easy experience. Most famous over the nearly half century of his career for the towering, metal shapes that have graced civic spaces from Tokyo to New York to Bilbao, Spain, he specializes in the monumental, the breathtaking, and the surprising. His deceptively unfettered, simple metal walls that cut through public walkways and plazas have confounded some while delighting others. This sheer physicality of his sculptures force passersby to approach the space with a new awareness. ........ "Public sculpture used to have a code," says the San Francisco native, who acquired his early...

(CBS) CHICAGO A plan to beautify a new CTA station with art is raising some eyebrows. Critics say the sculpture resembles a certain part of the male anatomy. CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports on the offending flower. At a Northwest Side workshop, Chicago’s next public art project is being created. Josh Garber is a local sculptor in charge of creating the two pieces of art that will decorate the Kimball CTA station. “These are petals right here and they come up to about 20 inches above the ground,” Garber said. But his sculptures are in the middle of a...

A Giant statue by Damien Hirst showing the insides of a pregnant woman and entitled The Virgin Mother was unveiled at the Royal Academy of Arts in London yesterday. The Virgin Mother took 18 months to complete The 35ft bronze sculpture, which dominates the courtyard in front of the gallery, reveals the foetus and the woman's skull, muscles and tissue. The work, weighing 3.5 tons, took a year and a half to make and will form part of the Summer Exhibition, From Life, which starts on June 12. "It will be very interesting to see people's reactions," said Edith Davaney,...

An artist's sculpture has been rejected by the Royal Academy of Arts which has instead opted to display the wooden support it was put on. David Hensel, 64, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, was told his 'Laughing Head' sculpture would be part of the summer exhibition. But at a preview he found that just a piece of wood intended to support the head was on display on the plinth. The Academy said the judging panel assumed the two pieces were separate and decided the support was better.

Archangel sculpture rises from Lichfield nave Maev Kennedy Monday February 20, 2006 Simply red ... the carving of the Archangel Gabriel recently discovered under the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. Photograph: Shelley Stratford The Archangel Gabriel, his wings still fiery with colour applied over 1200 years ago, has emerged from beneath the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. The Anglo-Saxon carved figure was found when builders, watched over by archaeologists, took up part of the floor of the nave to build a new rising platform for concerts and recitals. "None of us imagined that the project would provide a priceless gem, with the...

Belgian coastal town bans Czech sculpture of Saddam Hussein 10.2.2006 - Dita Asiedu The massive protests against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have rocked the world. Buildings have been burnt down; people have died at demonstrations. To avoid further offence to the Muslim community, the mayor of a little Belgian coastal town recently banned a local exhibition from displaying a sculpture of Saddam Hussein, made by the Czech artist David Cerny. Czech Republic's David Cerny is one of the country's most original but also most provocative visual artists. His work includes the giant black babies that crawl up...

Ferrofluid is a very interesting material originally developed by NASA it has now found itself been used for a whole range of devices including dampers for controlling and stabilizing large building that move around in the wind. Whats also amazing is that they have such lovely visual qualities when magnetized. The term liquid architecture is used a lot in interactive architecture based on the ideas of how architecture becomes animated by adding the 4th Dimension of Time. Sachiko has taken this idea of liquid architecture more literally with these stunning sculpture made from Ferrofluid which changes its state by the...

Ancient furnace sparks archaeological interest A UNIQUE site in the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean and expected to shed more light on ancient copper mining has been uncovered in the Mathiatis area, about 20km south of Nicosia. It consists of the base of a copper smelting furnace with its last charge of slag still in place. The discovery was made by students participating in an educational research programme in cooperation with Inter Community School Cyprus Project 2005, under the direction of Dr Walter Fasnacht. The participants from the staff of the Department of Antiquities were G. Georgiou, archaeologist, and E...

Controversial sculpture on Poland's struggle removed from U.S. park 00:22 2006-01-19 A sculpture hailed by some as an apt tribute to freedom fighters and deplored by others as a depressing annoyance is headed back to its owner after 23 years on loan in Boston, according to a media report. The "Partisans" sculpture by Polish immigrant Andrew Pitynski, which depicts five weary, emaciated horsemen, was hauled to a South Boston storage facility to be returned to its owner, the Sculpture Foundation of San Francisco, the Boston Globe reported. The sculpture was inspired by Poland's struggle with the Nazis and communists, and...

Madrid 'mislays' Serra sculpture The sculpture comprises four large slabs A leading Spanish museum has admitted it has lost a massive steel sculpture which weighs 38 tonnes. Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum bought the Richard Serra sculpture in the 1980s for more than $200,000 (£114,000). The museum says that in 1990 it put the sculpture in a warehouse belonging to a company that specialises in storing large-scale artwork. But when it sought to put the sculpture back on display a few months ago, no-one knew where to find it. The police are now investigating its disappearance. The museum, one of Madrid's...

NEW YORK (AFP) - A large-scale metal sculpture by American artist David Smith has become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction, fetching 23.8 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York. Five bidders competed for Smith's "Cubi XXVII" which was the starting lot at a Wednesday evening sale of 54 contemporary works that brought in 114.5 million dollars. The 1965 sculpture was finally snapped up by Manhattan dealer Larry Gagosian at nearly twice its high estimate of 12 million dollars. Experts attributed the record price to the fact that most of Smith's works are in museums...

BAYONNE (NEW JERSEY), September 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin laid a stone into the foundation of a monument to the victims of September 11, 2001 terrorist acts. The ceremony took place on Thursday in the town of Bayonne on the Hudson River. The stone bears a sign reading: “A gift from the Russian people. President Vladimir Putin. A monument will be erected here devoted to the fight against international terrorism. The work by sculptor Zurab Tsereteli”. The 30-meter high monument will be erected in front of lower Manhattan where the World Trade Center twins stood. The broken bronze...

In downtown Seattle, they light a big Christmas tree for the holidays. But in Fremont, they're going to light up -- what else? -- the big statue of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin will be lighted at 5 p.m. Dec. 3 at the corner of Fremont Place North and North 36th Street. (It's the intersection with the big statue of Lenin.) The monument will be bedecked with garland and lights -- and probably not just red ones. It will be the first time the 18-foot bronze statue has been lighted since it came to the Center of the Universe in 1995 by...

Attention all FReepers ~ I just discovered that we have a very special new FReeper on board! She hails from Jennerstown,PA. and signed on with us this past Sunday. Get your ping lists ready and please help give this very special lady a really special Freeper welcome.

Road to the Top Renaming of street spotlights sculptor's resounding success BY WILLIAM KERNS A-J ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Internationally revered sculptress Glenna Goodacre on Friday morning officially joined award-winning singer-songwriter Mac Davis with a Lubbock street renamed in her honor. Eighth Street between University Avenue and Avenue Q now is Glenna Goodacre Boulevard. Nearby is Mac Davis Lane, formerly Sixth Street. Even more streets in the same area could be renamed after Lubbock natives who shine a favorable light on the city, according to Mayor Marc McDougal. City Councilman Jim Gilbreath opened Friday's ceremony at The Centre, 2400 Glenna Goodacre Blvd.,...

ST. PETERSBURG, August 2 (RIA Novosti, Olga Vtorova) - Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli's monument to the victims of the 9/11 attacks on New York City has been loaded onto a ship in the port of St. Petersburg. The monument, weighing 150 metric tons, will now be taken across the Atlantic and mounted at a site near Ground Zero. Its centerpiece - a huge crystal sculpture representing a tear (hence the title, "Tear of Sorrow") - has been clad in leaf iron to keep it from being damaged along the way. In accordance with Tsereteli's design, the tear, with water pumped...

A sculpture and a controversy of mythological proportions.-- WELLINGTON — She's a striking figure called The Siren, these days spending borrowed time in the flower bed fronting Wellington's Community Center. Her arms are raised above her head like a ballerina's, and her frame — as slender as a whip —- is curved back and up in the shape of a teardrop. Bill Ingram/The Post A MATTER OF SIZE: The Siren, a bronze and steel sculpture donated by artist Norman J. Gitzen to Wellington's nascent Art in Public Places program, outside the community center. But it's the part of her anatomy...

It is one of the world's most baffling puzzles, the bane of professional cryptologists and amateur sleuths who have spent 15 years trying to solve it. But the race to find the secrets of Kryptos, a sculpture inside a courtyard at the CIA's heavily guarded headquarters in Langley, Virginia, may be reaching a climax. And interest has soared since Dan Brown hid references to Kryptos on the cover design for his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, and suggested it might play a role in his next novel, The Solomon Key. The Kryptos sculpture incorporates a coded message made up...

HENDERSON, N.C. -- People in Henderson are talking about the massive sculpture of a woman's legs, spread open on Welcome Avenue. At first glance, it looks more like something you'd find at a strip club, instead of a quiet neighborhood. A backhoe contractor, Ricky Pearce poured concrete into hand-drawn molds to create the 40-ton, 17-foot-high legs. Then, he lifted them into place with a crane. Complete with some landscaped foliage, strategically placed, the display is making some folks chuckle, and others shake their heads in disgust. "The project took about three years," Pearce said. "I was inspired by Marilyn Monroe's...

A scholar has suggested that "Laocoön," a fabled sculpture whose unearthing in 1506 has deeply influenced thinking about the ancient Greeks and the nature of the visual arts, may well be a Renaissance forgery - possibly by Michelangelo himself. Her contention has stirred some excitement and considerable exasperation among art historians in the Classical and Renaissance fields. Many other challenges to accepted attributions have faded quickly into oblivion. The scholar advancing the theory, Lynn Catterson, a summer lecturer in art history at Columbia University, presented her argument in a talk at the university's Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America...

Artist Andy Goldsworthy is best known for working alone in nature, making fragile, temporary sculptures from leaves, rocks, even ice. The sculptor works quietly for hours in each place, a process captured in the 2001 documentary Rivers and Tides. Photographs of Goldsworthy's work hang in galleries and museums around the world. His latest project is a permanent piece in the center of Washington, D.C. It's the first new work commissioned by the National Gallery of Art in 26 years. Goldsworthy mastered optics and engineering to create a series of domes constructed of slabs of slate designed to hold together permanently...

March 27, 2005 Goddess with 100ft breasts to rival Angel of the North Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor FIRST came the Angel of the North. Now motorists using the A1 are to be confronted with the far earthier figure of a giant reclining “goddess” stretching her curves alongside nearly half a mile of the dual carriageway. The woman, with breasts and hips up to 100ft high, will be created 10 miles north of Newcastle from the waste material generated by open-cast mining, with each of her enormous curves concealing millions of tons of mining spoil. By the time the “Goddess of...