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Finalists Selected--London's Tate Gallery has announced four finalists for the 2000 Turner Prize--two painters, an installation artist, and a photographer. The winner of this annual award of $32,000 given to a British artist under 50 will be announced in November.--And the Guggenheim Museum has announced the international finalists for the Hugo Boss Prize, a $50,000 award given every two years to an artist whose work represents a significant development in contemporary art. The winner will be announced in November with a show in February.

Comic Strip Retired--Cartoonist Jules Feiffer has retired his 24-year-old Sunday comic strip, "Feiffer," citing his age and the weekly schedule. The 71-year old icon continues to write plays, teach, illustrate children's books, and draw political cartoons for major publications.

Record Set--A record for a drawing by an old master was set recently at Christie's auction in London. Commissioned in 1514 for a church in Rome, the Michelangelo drawing sold for over $12 million.

Stamps Unveiled--Twenty baseball legends are now featured on postage stamps, the first produced by the U.S. Postal Service to honor a single sport. Now available nationwide, they were illustrated by Savannah artist Joseph Saffold.

Doubts are Cast--Cave drawings recently found in the Egyptian desert have been dismissed by some experts as poor imitations. Scientific tests are now being conducted to verify their age.

Chapel Reopens--The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, has reopened after an 18-month renovation costing $1.8 million. The artist's paintings have been restored in the commissioned chapel, which opened in 1971.

Musical Sculpture Featured--Visit the new Experience Music Project, a $240 million rock 'n' roll museum in Seattle, and you'll see a giant sound sculpture made of 600 guitars strung along the branches of a metal tree rising more than 30 feet into the air. It took Seattle sculptor/composer Trimpin five months to build his piece titled "If 6 Was 9."

Exhibitions:

Kansas City, MO -- The Architecture of Reassurance: Designing the Disney Theme Parks -- Nelson-Atkins Museum -- This exhibition explores the architecture of Disney's theme parks and their significance as cultural phenomena and architectural artifacts. Drawings, paintings, and models for the parks and their attractions reveal the multiple myths of the parks and trace the evolution of Disney's thematic environments from Adventure Land to Tomorrow Land and beyond. Through Sept. 3.

Philadelphia, PA -- Andy Warhol: Social Observer -- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - This exhibition, comprised of 85 paintings, prints, photos and one film, examines the depth and variety of Warhol's critical observations of American society and the ways in which his artistic strategies changed over the course of his career. Through Sept. 21.

Purchase, NY -- Welded! Sculpture of the Twentieth Century -- Neuberger Museum of Art -- Purchase College (SUNY) -- A survey of welded sculpture of the twentieth century, this exhibition begins with the work of Julio Gonzalez and continues through the accomplishments of others such as Nancy Graves and David Smith. Welding is shown in all of its variations as cut, bent, crushed and painted metal that is stable or that moves, that includes sound and water that is rigidly formalistic, figurative, humorous or playful, depending upon the individual artist's intention. Through Aug. 27.

Chicago, IL -- Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen -- The Art Institute of Chicago -- This exhibition makes the city of Amarna come alive for modern viewers with more than 250 objects--including surprisingly naturalistic representations of the royal family and private citizens, objects from daily life, architectural fragments, a large-scale model of the city, graphics, and a video presentation--as well as an interactive Web site program. Through Sept. 24. Travels to Boston, Los Angeles and The Netherlands.

Pasadena, CA -- Picasso: Graphic Magician-Prints from the Norton Simon Museum -- Norton Simon Museum -- This important exhibition of 120 prints by Picasso surveys the artist's long, prolific career as a printmaker and emphasizes his technical virtuosity and ingenuity as well as the multi-faceted nature of his imagery. Through Sept. 4.

Minneapolis, MN -- American Impression -- Minneapolis Institute of Arts -- This exhibition, featuring American Impressionist painters like William Merrit Chase, Mary Cassatt, and Maurice Prendergast, is one of several scheduled to tour the nation while the Smithsonian American Art Museum is closed for three years. Opens Aug. 20 through Oct. 29.

Blue Mountain Lake, NY -- Visions of Wildness -- The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts -- This exhibition includes Adirondack landscape photography by Carl Heilman II, author and photographer of Adirondacks: Views of an American Wilderness. Through Oct. 15.

Baltimore, MD -- Art in a Day's Work: Prints From the WPA -- Baltimore Museum of Art -- Seventy prints by 57 artists employed by the Works Progress Administration and produced during the Depression years are included in this exhibition. Through Sept. 24.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 10 No. 10 -- August 2000