Jackie Collins to 'Interview' Piers Morgan at
BritWeek 2012 Gala event BritWeek announced that its annual gala event on May 4th will feature best-selling author Jackie Collins (www.jackiecollins.com) ‘interviewing’ 2012 honoree Piers Morgan. The ‘Evening with Piers Morgan’ will be one of the signature events of BritWeek 2012, a two week program which takes place every spring in Los Angeles.
The purpose of BritWeek is to celebrate and highlight creativity and innovation between Britain and California, through a program of dozens of events. As this year’s honoree, Piers Morgan will follow in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sir Richard Branson, and LA business leader Tim Leiweke.
This will not be the first time that Jackie Collins and Piers Morgan have sat down with each other. Morgan interviewed Collins on his show, ‘Piers Morgan Tonight,’ last year. Now the shoe will be on the other foot, and the result promises to be an entertaining evening. Collins is a British novelist, and longtime resident of Los Angeles. She has written 28 novels and is currently working on her 29th book, The Power Trip, which will be released in spring of 2013. All her previous novels have made the New York Times bestsellers list, her books have sold over 500 million copies and nine have been made into movies.
The BritWeek ‘Evening with Piers Morgan,’ which will also feature first rate musical entertainment, will be held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Friday, May 4th. Proceeds from the event will benefit Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Tickets, tables and advertising opportunities are on sale now through the BritWeek website, www.britweek.org
BritWeek 2012 will run from April 24th to May 7th, with events all over Greater Los Angeles, as well as in Orange County and San Francisco. Full details are available at www.britweek.org 
Artist Thomas Kinkade once said that he had something in common with Walt Disney and Norman Rockwell: He wanted to make people happy. And he won success with brushwork paintings that focused on idyllic landscapes, cottages and churches – highly popular works that became big sellers for dealers across the United States. The self-described "Painter of Light," who died Friday at age 54, produced sentimental scenes of country gardens and pastoral landscapes in dewy morning light that were beloved by many but criticized by the art establishment. Kinkade died at his home in Los Gatos in the San Francisco Bay Area of what appeared to be natural causes, said family spokesman David Satterfield. 
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Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Explores Origins of
Ancient Egyptian Art
Exhibition Dates: April 10–August 5, 2012
Exhibition Location: Robert Lehman Wing, Gallery 964 and 965 (court level)
Some 180 examples of the very earliest works of Egyptian art—created in the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, around 4400 B.C.–2649 B.C. (the end of Dynasty 2) from throughout Egypt—will be featured in the exhibition The Dawn of Egyptian Art, opening April 10, 2012, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Outstanding examples of sculpture, painting, and relief from the collections of the Metropolitan and 11 other museums in the United States and Europe have been gathered for this presentation. “Visitors who are familiar with the appearance of hieroglyphs and other later Egyptian artistic expressions will be surprised by these early works, which are very different in scale, style, and subject matter,” commented exhibition organizer Diana Craig Patch. “Yet, if we look closely at this early art, we can already detect the origins of certain signs in later hieroglyphic writing and of some symbols and concepts associated with ancient Egyptian rulers and the gods. The Predynastic and Early Dynastic period was a time of great creativity, before the ‘typically Egyptian’ forms became codified. Yet, because of the rarity of these objects and lack of inscriptions, we cannot always explain what they meant to the early Egyptians.” The exhibition is made possible by Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. The exhibition includes depictions of landscapes painted on vessels, objects in the form of different animals—grouped by habitat (river, air, or desert)—and humans. Certain groupings will also reflect the important themes of fertility and renewal, and chaos versus order. Animals occur frequently in early Egyptian art, and the exhibition is particularly rich in images of hippos and crocodiles, turtles, and fish; antelopes, cattle, elephants, baboons, lions, and canids (jackals and dogs); ostriches, ducks, and falcons; and scorpions and snakes. Probably because of certain attributions or characteristics, some animals grew in importance during this period, and they carried forward as symbols in later Egyptian culture, while others disappeared. Depictions of humans are of two types: realistic figurines in bone or ivory that depict the entire human body; and abstracted forms in clay, mud, ivory, or stone in which the figures often lack arms, have missing or poorly formed legs, or have beak-like faces that emphasize the nose. All figurines have attributes that identify their gender clearly. Evidence indicates that some figurines were made to represent a specific activity and that their position in tombs was not arbitrary. The exhibition will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue by the exhibition’s curator, with essays by Renée Friedman, Ann Macy Roth, Marianne Eaton-Krauss, and David P. Silverman. The publication will be available in the Museum’s book shops ($60, hard cover). An audio tour, part of the Metropolitan's Audio Guide program, will be available for rental ($6, $5 for members, and $4 for children under 12). The Audio Guide program is sponsored by Bloomberg. In conjunction with the exhibition, a variety of education programs will be scheduled. These will include lectures and exhibition tours for adult visitors, and three workshops—one for teachers, one for families with young children, and an additional family workshop for people with learning and cognitive disabilities. A Sunday at the Met program on May 13 will focus on the topic of the ritual hunt in the Predynastic Period, with presentations by Diana Craig Patch, Associate Curator, Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Renée Friedman, Director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition; and Stan Hendrickx, a noted scholar of the Predynastic Period. The Museum's website (www.metmuseum.org) will include a special feature about the exhibition. The exhibition is organized at the Metropolitan by Diana Craig Patch, Associate Curator, Department of Egyptian Art. Exhibition design is by Michael Lapthorn, Exhibition Design Manager; graphics are by Norie Morimoto, Graphic Designer; and lighting is by Clint Ross Coller and Rich Lichte, Senior Design Managers, all of the Museum’s Design Department. 
Annie Leibovitz and Anthony Bourdain To Be Honored at 2012 CLIO Awards Joan Rivers Set To Host Advertising industry awards ceremony takes place on Tuesday, May 15th at New York City's American Museum of Natural History Photographer Annie Leibovitz and chef, author and television host Anthony Bourdain will receive honorary CLIO Awards at the 53rd Annual CLIO Awards, taking place at New York's American Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, May 15th at 6:30 PM. The CLIO Awards, which celebrate creative professionals in the advertising, design and communications industries, also recognize visionaries in fields as diverse as photography, fashion, food, travel, literature and film. Leibovitz and Bourdain will be honored for their outstanding bodies of work, which have encouraged people around the world to think differently. Comedy icon Joan Rivers will host the event. "Annie Leibovitz and Anthony Bourdain work in two very different fields, but share two common threads between them: their boundless creativity and their usage of their respective mediums to affect the way people think," said CLIO Director Karl Vontz. "Annie's work for magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue and her many international museum exhibitions have changed the way people around the world appreciate photography. Similarly, through his books and Travel Channel show, 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,' Anthony has introduced millions of taste-buds to new culinary experiences and dared people to be more adventurous diners." Annie Leibovitz's large and distinguished body of work encompasses some of the most well-known portraits of our time. Since beginning her career as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, while she was still a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, her pictures have appeared on hundreds of magazine covers. Chef Anthony Bourdain is currently "chef at large" at New York City's famed Brasserie Les Halles. An acclaimed author (Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, among others), he is widely known for his hit Travel Channel shows, "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" and "The Layover." His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times of London, Gourmet, Black Book and The Independent, and Food Arts magazine. Joan Rivers has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning more than four decades. She is currently on E! Entertainment Television hosting the network's popular franchise "Fashion Police," covering red carpet style for the annual awards season, as well as hosting E!'s popular "Fashion Police" weekly series. Joan has also taken over the reality TV circuit with her daughter Melissa in their weekly series on WEtv, called "Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?" This ultimate mother/daughter duo address the question plaguing daughters since the beginning of time: does mother really know best? Tickets to the 53rd Annual CLIO Awards can be purchased at www.clioawards.com or by calling 212.493.4036. ________________________________________________  | ART AND ANTIQUE DEALERS LEAGUE SPRING SHOW NYC
PRESENTS LECTURE SCHEDULE ON MAY 4-5 | During the four days of the Spring Show NYC - running from May 3 to May 6 at the Park Avenue Armory - not only will fair-goers enjoy feasting their eyes on world-class art and antiques, they'll also enjoy the chance to get even more up-close-and-intime with those subjects through their lectures. Presented by leading experts in their fields, the diverse topics cover the gamut of fine and decorative arts including Hollywood movie-set design, lady power-decorators Dorothy Draper and Elsie De Wolfe, Chinese art and Empress Eugenie's outré Oriental Chamber at Chateau Fontainebleau. The lectures, held in the historic Tiffany room, are complimentary with admission to the fair. Here's the schedule: Friday, May 4th
3 - 4 p.m.
Designs On Film: A Century Of Hollywood Art Direction Cathy Whitlock's lecture covers a century of cinematic set decoration, featuring highlights from every decade of Hollywood history. A slide presentation will show photographs, behind-the-scene images and designer sketches of sets from Top Hat, The Fountainhead, Gone With the Wind, The Age of Innocence, Something's Gotta Give-and many more!  | | Cathy Whitlock's book Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction (Harper Collins, November, 2010) represents the marriage of her two passions-design and cinema. She is also a contributing writer for Traditional Home magazine and The Huffington Post, and features editor for Array Magazine. Cathy writes the blog Cinema Style, which chronicles trends and inspirations in film, reaches 70 countries, was named one of the Top Ten Best Design Blogs of 2010 by Fox News. A graduate of Parsons School of Design and a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, Cathy has more than 24 years of experience in the interior design industry and has had practices in New York, Chicago, Memphis and Nashville. |  | | Phoenix Ewer with Polo | 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Adoption, Absorption, Assimilation: Foreign Influences In Early Chinese Art Dr. Robert D. Mowry's slide lecture examines China's native artistic traditions as they developed during the Great Bronze Age (1600 B.C.- A.D. 220). Attendees will learn about the wealth of materials introduced from foreign lands via the Silk Route trade during the Han through the Tang dynasties and see how Chinese artists absorbed and assimilated these new influences. Dr. Robert D. Mowry is Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art and Head of the Department of Asian Art at the Harvard Art Museum. He is also Senior Lecturer on Chinese and Korean Art in Harvard's Department of the History of Art and Architecture.  | | The Mount Gallery
Photograph By David Dashiell | | Saturday, May 5th
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Legendary Designing Women:
Inventing A Profession Emily Eerdmans discusses the history of interior decorating and how it evolved into a billion-dollar profession thanks to the seminal efforts of astute women like Elsie de Wolfe, Dorothy Draper and Madeleine Castaing. Emily Evans Eerdmans is a noted design historian and expert with Corfield Morris, a private art advisory. She is the author of several books, including The World of Madeleine Castaing and the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Wendell Castle. She received her master's degree in fine and decorative arts from Sotheby's Institute of Art in London and is an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. |  | | Chateau De Fontainebleau | 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Château De Fontainebleau: 500 Years Of Royal Taste In
Architecture And Design No French palace holds the living presence-the sweep of 500 years of French royal history-the way that Fontainebleau does. David Garrard Lowe traces its centuries-in-the-making transformation from a forested hunting ground for French kings into a magnificent royal palace in the 16th century. Tour Fontainebleau's interiors, including Empress Eugenie's astonishing Oriental Chamber with its rare Chinese porcelain, fine lacquer and jeweled Buddhas. Presented by French Heritage Society. David Garrard Lowe is a well-known cultural historian whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and American Heritage. He is Chairman of Cultural Programs, New York Chapter of French Heritage Society and President of the Beaux Arts Alliance; and has lectured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. | |
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