Medrar art center relocates to larger space in Garden City

Medrar for Contemporary Art, an artistic organisation for arts and media, relocated to a larger space in Cairo's Garden City district last week. Mohamed Allam, a founder of Medrar, talked to Ahram Online about the organisation and its various projects.
Medrar, which means 'abundant' in classical Arabic, was founded in 2005 by two independent artists, Mohamed Alaa and Mohamed Abdel Karim, the latter of whom is no longer a member.
Its first project was a 2005 video festival, which was held at the Cairo International Conference Centre. "The video festival included short experimental films and video art pieces from different countries," Allam told Ahram Online.
However, due to a lack of space, Medrar's projects were always held at venues such as the conference centre, the Townhouse art gallery or the Goethe Institute.
"It used to take a lot of time, going around to different cultural centres to find venues for our events," said Allam. "Having this new, bigger space has made it much easier."
The spacious, high-ceiling apartment in Garden City has three rooms for exhibitions, lectures and workshops. The space was obtained through the Mawred Al-Thaqafy's Abbara Programme.
"We have three main projects, along with other temporary ones," said Allam.
Along with the video festival, the organisation's main projects include 'Open Lab' and 'Medrar TV,' a YouTube channel devoted to the contemporary art scene.
"We want to document all contemporary artistic events because there are many performances and exhibitions, which, when they end, are lost forever," Allam said. "The channel will also be a link between artists and audience. Different artists speak about their art so as not to alienate the audience from what they do."
The 'Open Lab' project, meanwhile, aims to develop the digital arts in Egypt through Open Source tools, thus creating a local community of artists, designers, educators and engineers that can help develop electronic interfaces.
Other temporary projects include 'Witness Bearing,' a workshop in which artists tell their own stories within their society through contemporary means. The project represents a collaboration with the Bronx Museum in New York.
"We're also considering doing more projects in collaboration with Arab artists," said Allam, who has been to Tunisia several times this year alone. "All contemporary art centres in Egypt obtain funds from Europe and deal with European organisations. We want to have more of a connection to the Arab world."
Allam said the Tunisian music and theatre scenes were marked by variety and experimentation.
"There is a wide audience there," he said. "Concerts are usually attended by around 1000 people; they have many events and festivals throughout the year. And it is not only the artists who attend these events, but rather anyone on the street."
"What we are most aware of is that artists don't need organisations anymore, while money isn't a problem since artists obtain many funds," he added. "Even art education is easily obtained through the Internet."
"The Internet isn't an alternative space anymore," Allam concluded. "It's become a parallel world and we're adapting to that."
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Body-Art Advertising: Intriguing Art On Beautiful Women

Body paint on beautiful women is not just a college co-ed tradition anymore; it’s a new wave of advertising.
Beautiful women are spray painting company designs and logos on their bare bodies in the hopes that you’ll turn your heads.
These “bill-bods” are the brainchild of Margarita Dominguez and Mason Hunt.

Dominguez, who owns the event-planning company Sky Blue Entertainment, saw in this strategy the potential for viral advertising. As the icing on the cake, she teamed up with the artistic talents of Fernello Designs, and the idea took off.

We came up with concepts with Fernello Designs to put these company logos on beautiful, hot bodies. When people started taking pictures of us, the pictures go viral, go on Facebook.  This is why I knew this would be a marketable idea.

- Maragarita Dominguez

“We came up with concepts with Fernello Designs to put these company logos on beautiful, hot bodies,” she said. “When people started taking pictures of us, the pictures go viral, go on Facebook.  This is why I knew this would be a marketable idea.”
Dominguez, a body-art model herself and classical pianist on the side, has 20 “bill-bod” models working for her company.
Her company came into the spotlight when she and her models were hired for the New York Knicks Iman Shumpert’s birthday party and Mexican beer company Corona advertisements.
Body artist, Fernello, said his intricate, detailed designs take about one to two hours to paint on the girls.
“Margarita Dominguez and I always had this idea,” Fernello said in our studio as he painted the Fox News Latino logo on model, Jules.  “It all works hand in hand. Our artwork, [Margarita’s] vision; it’s definitely made for great advertising.”
Packages range from having the models simply walking around to serving drinks or collecting e-mails.
The savvy advertising tactic is not just a hit with men.
“You’re never gonna please everybody, but I’ve gotten some great responses from the masses. People go crazy,” Dominguez said. “A woman’s website can go on another woman’s body. People are gonna look at it.”
Men or women, intriguing art and beautiful bodies definitely seem to be a dead-on advertising combination able to stir interest in anyone.
“For the most part, everyone loves it. It just creates a beautiful ambiance for any type of event.”

Winning art gallery rated a flop for movies

A Hamilton film buff says the gallery's design is not audience-friendly. Photo / Supplied

The Auckland Art Gallery's $121 million revamp won New Zealand's top award for architecture, but a Hamilton film buff says its design is not audience-friendly.
Warren Brown says the auditorium in the basement, which is hired out for film showings should have a sloping floor, as is standard in cinemas.
He went to the auditorium last weekend to see Cuban and Russian documentaries screening as part of the International Film Festival.
"It could have been a fascinating film," he said yesterday. "But the Australian architects who turned the basement into an auditorium put almost no slope on the floor.
"As a result, only those in the front row could read the English subtitles at the bottom of the screen
"The rest of us were forced to peer between the heads of other audience members in the vain hope of working out what was happening on screen.
"At least a dozen people in the nearly full theatre rushed to the front row within the first five minutes to get a better view of the screen.

"I wish the architects could have been there to experience the misery that they inflicted on members of the public."
A festival spokeswoman said audiences for future screenings could be assured of seeing subtitles because adjustments had been made by the projectionist to lift the screen image so subtitles were above the heads of people in the front row.
Gallery director Chris Saines said the auditorium work extended its length, improved its rake to the maximum extent possible, and added more seating, within constraints imposed by the original building.
"While it is a general purpose auditorium and not a purpose-built cinema or theatre, it nonetheless has all the technical capacity required for screening films and video of different kinds, particularly documentaries, and we have done so with great success on many occasions."

BMW's art car collection is well worth a visit

For the first time ever in the UK, BMW has convened an exhibition of its fabled art car collection as part of the London 2012 Festival In a city currently awash with once-in-a-lifetime spectator opportunities, it would be easy to overlook the two-week transformation of a nondescript car park in Shoreditch into an art gallery. But the occupants assembled in this windy multi-storey make for a visit every bit as unique as the five-ringed extravaganza unfolding down the road.
For the first time ever in the UK, BMW has convened an exhibition of its fabled art car collection as part of the London 2012 Festival. And not just four or five examples, either; the entire line-up, from Alexander Calder’s original 3.0 CSL to Jeff Koons’ climactic M3 GT2, are spread over six floors of the NCP-owned venue.
The 16 cars (Olafur Eliasson’s frozen H2R project is obviously absent) will appeal to anyone with a passing interest in contemporary art – the hand-painted Andy Warhol M1 is worth the trip alone – or those with a lingering affection for ‘Batmobile’ CSLs. But for those partial to the notion that functional automotive design is already capable of dipping its head beneath the waterline of art, it is a must-see show.
Suspended on bare concrete like ink blots on canvas, the best of the collection invoke the furnace of creativity, energy, identity and movement that characterise motorsport. Some, like Roy Lichtenstein’s Group 5 320i Turbo, blur the line considerably; are you admiring the pop artist’s compositions or the thread-thin pillars and chasmal intakes of the aerodynamically enhanced BMW? Does it matter which?
Even if such questions don’t occur or intrigue, the exhibition also makes for a fine excuse for an excursion because, in the best tradition of London’s public galleries, it is free to attend. Just don’t expect to get up close and personal; BMW, naturally protective of its 35-year-old portfolio, has laid on enough shark-eyed security personnel to host an Olympic skeet shoot.
The Art Drive! BMW art car collection will remain on display until 4 August at the NCP car park on Great Eastern Street, and is open from midday to 9pm daily. exander Calder-designed 3.0 CSL kicked off the BMW art car collection in 1975

For the first time ever in the UK, BMW has convened an exhibition of its fabled art car collection as part of the London 2012 Festival

Art of Television Costume Design Exhibit: FIDM Displays TV Costumes

  Aside from being popular television shows, what do "New Girl," "Game of Thrones," and "Downton Abbey" have in common?
Fantastic costumes!
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has partnered with the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) to celebrate small-screen costumes in the sixth annual exhibit, "The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design," celebrating exquisite costume design.
The exhibition features the drool-worthy work of costume designers nominated for this year's Primetime Emmys. Attendees can see more than 75 costumes from 16 shows, movies, and mini-series.
The nominated series are “Boardwalk Empire,” "Game of Thrones," “Once Upon a Time,” and "Downton Abbey," while the nominated mini-series or movies are “American Horror Story,” "Great Expectations," and “Hemingway & Gellhorn.” In addition to costumes from these shows, the exhibit features work from “Sons of Anarchy,” “Pretty Little Liars," “Smash,” “New Girl,” “Pan Am," "Revenge," and more.
With so many shows represented, you can see everything from the latex S&M suit that Dylan McDermott wore in "American Horror Story" (which apparently rips easily) to the red skater-style dress that Zooey Deschanel wears in the opening sequence of "New Girl."
Check out the exhibit in the photos below, but if lusting after drop-waist dresses and sparkling crowns from the comfort of your couch isn't enough, head downtown and check out Elizabeth McGovern and Emilia Clarke's clothes in real life.
Entrance to "The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design" is free, and the exhibit will run from Tuesday, July 31 through Saturday, October 20. The FIDM Museum is located at 919 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles (at the corner of Grand Avenue & 9th Street), and hours are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Art gallery wants to host big national exhibitions

The Nanaimo Art Gallery announced the start of a study to see if they can host national exhibitions in the coming future.
The gallery is undertaking a feasibility study to see if they can qualify for a Category 'A' designation.
If they do qualify, they would be only the second gallery on Vancouver Island to earn the designation, with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria the only other Island representative.
"It is vital to the cultural life and standing of the city of the city," said Camela Tang, president of the Centre for the Arts of Nanaimo. "We deserve it."
Becoming an 'A' institution would allow the gallery to have art pieces and exhibitions from the National Gallery of Canada.
"It would open up the possibilities of hosting traveling exhibitions," said Julie Bevan, the executive and artistic director of the gallery.
The designation is awarded by Heritage Canada, and the gallery has to meet several criteria before it can be considered.
Legal criteria, environmental levels for the paintings and the current collection and gallery size all play a role in meeting the standards set by Heritage Canada.
According to the Centre for the Arts for Nanaimo, the designation would be a step in developing the presence of art in Nanaimo.
"Everyone in the arts community has always wanted the gallery to be a Category 'A' exhibition space," said Tang. "The gallery has been with us for over 25 years and we haven't been able to get more space."
The gallery operates out of two locations, one at 150 Commercial St., the other at Vancouver Island University. The downtown building is owned by the city, and the parks, recreation and culture department help run it.
As part of the ownership, the building has to be used for the arts.
The department gave their formal approval at a meeting held last Wednesday.
"Culture is a high priority of the strategic plan by the city," said Richard Harding, director of the department speaking about the decision to support the study. Part of the long term goal of the gallery is to move out of their space at VIU and consolidate the art at their downtown location.
"This is Nanaimo's art district and there's advantage to staying down here," said Bevan.

Children art goes on display

Islamabad—As many as 22 children including art students displayed a collection of around 200 art pieces in a children art show here Monday. Hunerkada College of Visual and Performing Arts arranged the show that was outcome of a six-week summer art workshop for children of 4-14 age group.

The courses covered during the workshop were drawing, painting, sculpture, design, ceramic and print making through mediums of water color, oil paint and mix-media.

While the students captured their innovative themes and visualized their fantasies through soft expressions of art to get extra skills as well as show their abilities.

The displayed items were an attraction for art lovers to get a taste of the artistic endeavors by young minds.

The summer art workshop started on June 18 and concluded on July 30 with a focus on imparting basic skills of fine arts to budding artists.

Through various techniques, the exhibition featured drawings, water and oil paintings, ceramic art, various forms of design, print making and other displays.

The themes of the show were open for children to express their creativity and imaginative ideas with professional techniques learnt from experts in the field.

Speaking on the occasion, Head of Hunerkada, Jamal Shah, said during the seventeen years of its existence, Hunerkada College of Visual and Performing Arts has endeavored to educate, inspire and train people in various disciplines of art.

Hunerkada Gallery spotlights fresh and imminent talent and strives to provide a launch pad for professionals and talented amateurs, he said. The exhibition will continue till one week.

Swiss Group Plans $100 Million Art Vault for Beijing

Swiss logistics group Euroasia Investment SA plans to build a $100 million tax-free storage facility next to Beijing Capital International Airport to tap the booming Chinese art market.

The company is to replicate its Singapore Freeport model, its chairman said. The port has a maximum-security vault for art, gold and valuables, allowing collectors to store valuables without paying taxes or filling customs forms.
The Beijing Freeport of Culture project is a joint venture between Euroasia and state-backed Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group. The project is part of a government initiative to promote the culture industry and clamp down on art smuggling.
“There will be a kind of public service in charge of authentic works getting in and out,” Tony Reynard, chairman of the Singapore Freeport, said by telephone from Singapore.
The Beijing facility, which is still awaiting its license, should be ready by the middle of 2014, said Reynard. The Freeport is planned to be exempt from import duties, value added tax and consumption tax, amounting to a 34 percent saving, he said.
The 83,000 square-meter (893,405 square feet) facility will be almost three times as large as Singapore’s, where all available space is fully let, he said.

Auction Space

The site will also include exhibition space designed to host international auctions, he said. Executives at Sotheby’s (BID) and Christie’s International in Hong Kong were not immediately available for comment. Neither currently holds auctions inside China.
While China boasts more than 1,000 auction houses, the business is plagued by problems of fakes, smuggling and non- payment.
Last year, China overtook the U.S. to become the world’s largest art and antiques market, said a report published by the Netherlands-based European Fine Art Foundation. Auctions in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan raised 9.8 billion euros ($12 billion) in 2011, said the report.
Muse highlights include Manuela Hoelterhoff on arts and Jorg von Uthmann on Paris art.

Mohammed Rafi: Living for his art

MUMBAI: If ever there was a saint in human form in Indian cinema, it was the late Mohammed Rafi, who passed away on July 31, 1980. No one spoke ill of him - ever, which is a kind of a record in an industry.

And who could sing everything to perfection, like Rafi-saab did? You could never guess that the pristine voice that sang a bhajan was not a devout Hindu, but make him sing a devout qawwali or naat and he would sound no less than a paighambar, the Islamic messenger of God! He was urban lover-boy as easily as a rustic, full-throated farmer. When his dedication saw him blend the needs of a song and the preferences of its composer with the persona of from Dilip Kumar to Rishi Kapoor with Johnny Walker and lesser-known names, it was as if the actor himself was singing.

Rafi lived for his art, and never succumbed to the mart - he was the busiest singer for decades only on merit, the demand being as much for Rafi the simple man as for the fact that he was our most versatile singer. But while his associations with top actors and composers are well-documented, it is a fact that Rafi put in his 200 per cent not just for them but for every small-time composer, whether their films had a known actor or not. As a tribute to this trait on the occasion of his 32nd death anniversary, let us look at his songs for 32 such composers from early in his career - Rafi was already a top singer by the late '40s.

Rafi would charge the less-affording producers and composers less - if at all he did take money from them. Frequently, if he loved the song, he would smilingly wave (and waive) away the payment. 'Paas Baitho Tabiyat Machal Jaayegi' from Punar Milan (1964) was one such song, composed by newcomer C.Arjun, who was to be best known later for the chartbusting score of Jai Santoshi Maa.

Lavish in his words of praise and encouragement to such newbies, strugglers and humbler talents, he never realized what he had achieved himself in such songs, and how he often changed the very fortunes of the compositions, the films, and the men behind them. Like when he lead four other singers (Asha Bhosle, Shailendra Singh, Bhupinder and Sapan Chakravorty) in the song that is Raamlaxman's signature tune a decade before Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! - the rousing 'Deva O Deva Ganpati Deva' from Humse Badhkar Kaun? Even today, the song is a must-play track at every Ganesh Festival.

For years after his death, Rafi's songs kept coming in various films and albums. Two beauties that we must single out here are the title-track of Mera Salaam, a Muslim social composed by Rajkamal (later to do Chashme Buddoor and B.R.Chopra's epic serial Mahabharat) and Jugal Kishore-Tilak Raj's duet in Bheegi Palkein, 'Janam Janam Ka Saath Hai', with Lata, as filmed on Raj Babbar and Smita Patil.

In 1972, Rafi sang the deceptively-simple 'Kaisi Shaam Suhani Aayi Re' from Pasand Apni Apni composed by Vishnu Khanna, never heard of again, with its quick change in octaves at the cross-line (the transition from antara back to the mukhda). The song was filmed on Sameer, younger brother of Feroz and Sanjay Khan. In the same steeply melodious mould were Shatrughan Sinha's twin towers, 'Dil Ka Soona Saaz' (Ek Nari Do Roop) composed by Ganesh, (Laxmikant-) Pyarelal's brother and 'Kahin Aisa Na Ho' (Milap), with Brij Bhushan as composer. Ganesh's title-track from 'Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi' was another high-point.

Lyricist Prem Dhawan's limited but sparkling career as composer is strobe-lit by Rafi stunners, led by 'Ae Watan Ae Watan' from Shaheed (1965) and 'Agar Bewafa Tujhko Pehchan Jaate' (Raat Ke Andhere Mein / 1970). Very few know that occasional composer Vijay Singh was Maine Pyar Kiya heroine Bhagyashree's dad. What a song he created for Rafi in Khoon Khoon, a 1973 rehash of Hollywood's classic Dirty Harry - 'Maati ke jalte deepak ki jyot to ek din bujh jaani hai! It was nothing less than a melodious oasis in a cacophony of action!

N.Dutta, a hugely-talented Hindi-Marathi composer, owes Rafi his signature tune in Hindi films, 'Tu Hindu Banega Na Mussalman Banega' from Yash Chopra's debut film Dhool Ka Phool. A name often confused with him is of fellow Goan genius Dattaram, Shankar-Jaikishan's key assistant for decades - and Rafi rollicked his way through the latter's Mama ho mama with Manna Dey in the 1959 Parvarish.

Rafi and Manna Dey together always proved a lethal combo, and the raag-rich 'Sudh Bisar Gayi Aaj' by freedom fighter-actor-composer S.N.Tripathi from Sangeet Samrat Tansen also proved it. Tripathi it was for whom Rafi's 'Zaraa Saamne To Aa O Chhaliye' in the 1957 Janam Janam Ke Phere and 'Na Kisiki Aankh Ka Noor Hoon' (Lal Quila/1960) also became raging hits. Rafi gave another classicist composer, Pt.Shivram, his career biggest hit in 'Daulat Ke Jhoote Nashe Mein' in the 1955 Oonchi Haveli.

When Pandit Ravi Shankar stepped in to compose Godaan, it was Rafi to the fore again with the superbly rustic 'Pipra Ke Patwa Sarikhe Dole Manwa'. Also a giant in his field but a 'smallie' on the Hindi scene was Marathi cinema's biggest composer, Sudhir Phadke in whose Hindi debut in 1947, Aage Badho starring Dev Anand, Rafi sang the quaint hit, Saawan ki ghataaon (with Khursheed).

For years after his death, Rafi's songs kept coming in various films and albums. Two beauties that we must single out here are the title-track of Mera Salaam, a Muslim social composed by Rajkamal (later to do Chashme Buddoor and B.R.Chopra's epic serial Mahabharat) and Jugal Kishore-Tilak Raj's duet in Bheegi Palkein, 'Janam Janam Ka Saath Hai', with Lata, as filmed on Raj Babbar and Smita Patil.

In 1972, Rafi sang the deceptively-simple 'Kaisi Shaam Suhani Aayi Re' from Pasand Apni Apni composed by Vishnu Khanna, never heard of again, with its quick change in octaves at the cross-line (the transition from antara back to the mukhda). The song was filmed on Sameer, younger brother of Feroz and Sanjay Khan. In the same steeply melodious mould were Shatrughan Sinha's twin towers, 'Dil Ka Soona Saaz' (Ek Nari Do Roop) composed by Ganesh, (Laxmikant-) Pyarelal's brother and 'Kahin Aisa Na Ho' (Milap) , with Brij Bhushan as composer. Ganesh's title-track from 'Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi' was another high-point.

Lyricist Prem Dhawan's limited but sparkling career as composer is strobe-lit by Rafi stunners, led by 'Ae Watan Ae Watan' from Shaheed (1965) and 'Agar Bewafa Tujhko Pehchan Jaate' (Raat Ke Andhere Mein / 1970). Very few know that occasional composer Vijay Singh was Maine Pyar Kiya heroine Bhagyashree's dad. What a song he created for Rafi in Khoon Khoon, a 1973 rehash of Hollywood's classic Dirty Harry - 'Maati ke jalte deepak ki jyot to ek din bujh jaani hai! It was nothing less than a melodious oasis in a cacophony of action!

N.Dutta, a hugely-talented Hindi-Marathi composer, owes Rafi his signature tune in Hindi films, 'Tu Hindu Banega Na Mussalman Banega' from Yash Chopra's debut film Dhool Ka Phool. A name often confused with him is of fellow Goan genius Dattaram, Shankar-Jaikishan's key assistant for decades - and Rafi rollicked his way through the latter's Mama ho mama with Manna Dey in the 1959 Parvarish.

Rafi and Manna Dey together always proved a lethal combo, and the raag-rich 'Sudh Bisar Gayi Aaj' by freedom fighter-actor-composer S.N.Tripathi from Sangeet Samrat Tansen also proved it. Tripathi it was for whom Rafi's 'Zaraa Saamne To Aa O Chhaliye' in the 1957 Janam Janam Ke Phere and 'Na Kisiki Aankh Ka Noor Hoon' (Lal Quila/1960) also became raging hits. Rafi gave another classicist composer, Pt.Shivram, his career biggest hit in 'Daulat Ke Jhoote Nashe Mein' in the 1955 Oonchi Haveli.

When Pandit Ravi Shankar stepped in to compose Godaan, it was Rafi to the fore again with the superbly rustic 'Pipra Ke Patwa Sarikhe Dole Manwa'. Also a giant in his field but a 'smallie' on the Hindi scene was Marathi cinema's biggest composer, Sudhir Phadke in whose Hindi debut in 1947, Aage Badho starring Dev Anand, Rafi sang the quaint hit, Saawan ki ghataaon (with Khursheed).
Let us also not forget that Rafi also was an integral and 'hit' part of so many debuts of composers who went on to hit big-time, from Shankar-Jaikishan in Barsaat to Anu Malik in Poonam, with Ravi, Usha Khanna, Kalyanji-Anandji, R.D.Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Sonik-Omi, Ravindra Jain, Rajesh Roshan and Nadeem-Shravan (in the Bhojpuri Dangal) in between. We mention this only to emphasize that Rafi never knew which way their careers would head when he blessed them, so to speak, by doing his vocal best for their firt films.

We wrap up with six more names to show that for Rafi, the song as a composition and a musical exercise and tapasya was the only thing that mattered, not mundane material things like money or the stature of those involved in the songs or the film.

It was Rafi who sang singer Sharda's biggest hit as a composer, 'Accha Hi Hua Dil Toot Gaya' from Maa Bahen Aur Biwi and Robin Banerjee's popular 'Iraada Na Tha' with Suman Kalyanpur (Aandhi Aur Toofan / 1964). The very talented Nashad may have just a letter missing from Naushad, but that seemed to change his fortunes! However, his classic 'Bhula Nahin Dena Jee' (with Lata/Baradari in 1955) was a raging hit not to be forgotten even today.

And speaking of Naushad, who gave Rafi his first Hindi break in the 1944 Pahele Aap, the legendary composer famous assistant Ghulam Mohammed could only achieve limited success as an independent composer, but Rafi's lustrous Lata duets 'Hum Tum Yeh Bahaar' (Amber/1952 for Raj Kapoor-Nargis) and 'Chalo Dildaar Chalo' (Pakeezah/ 1972 for Raaj Kumar and Meena Kumari) still stands tall in his work. Naushad's other assistant Mohammed Shafi recorded 'O Bichhade Hue Saathi' with Rafi-Lata as early as 1951 in Hulchul. And finally, we cannot ignore one of Rafi's finest Muslim devotional songs in this month of Ramzan, Shafi's stunner 'Madad Kijiye Tajdar-E-Madina' from the 1975 Dayar-E-Madina.

Electronic Art Posts Narrower Loss Than Street Expected

Video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) said Tuesday after the markets closed that its first quarter profit fell 9% from last year, as revenue dropped.
The company's adjusted loss per share was smaller than analysts expected, but its quarterly revenue fell short of analysts' forecast. However, the company reconfirmed its fiscal 2013 adjusted earnings outlook.
Electronic Arts also said that its Board of Directors has authorized a program to repurchase up to $500 million of the company's common stock.
"We had a solid first quarter and are reconfirming non-GAAP guidance of annual earnings per share growth of 30% at the midpoint of our guidance," said Electronic Arts' Interim Chief Financial Officer Ken Barker. "The $500 million stock buyback demonstrates our confidence in EA's future."
Also Tuesday after the bell, rival Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) reported a sharply wider first quarter net loss amid a 32% drop in quarterly revenue due to weak sales of its new title "Max Payne 3." The company's results also came in worse than analysts' expected. At the same time, the company cuts its revenue and adjusted earnings outlook for the fiscal year 2013.
Electronic Arts shares are currently gaining 1.36% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $11.02, down 21 cents or 1.87%. The shares trad in a 52-week range of $10.86 to $26.13.
Take-Two shares are currently losing 2.05% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $8.78, down 35 cents or 3.83%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $8.69 to $16.99.
For the first quarter ended June 30, 2012, Electronic Arts reported net income of $201 million or $0.63 per share, compared to $221 million or $0.66 per share for the year-ago quarter.
Excluding the impact of the change in deferred revenue and other items, adjusted net loss for the first quarter was $130 million or $0.41 per share, compared to an adjusted net loss of $123 million or $0.37 per share in the prior year quarter.
On average, 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.42 per share for the first quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net revenue for the first quarter declined 4% to $955 million from $999 million a year ago, while adjusted net revenue for the quarter fell 6% to $491 million from $524 million last year due to a reduction in distribution revenue for the quarter. Twenty-three had a consensus revenue estimate of $500.06 million for the first quarter.
For the first quarter, the company had forecast net revenue of about $950 million, adjusted net revenue of about $500 million, earnings of $0.40 to $0.48 per share and adjusted net loss of $0.45 to $0.40 per share.
Net digital revenue for the quarter rose 47% to $342 million from $232 million a year ago, while net publishing packaged goods and other revenue fell 8.5% to $9592 million from $647 million last year. Net distribution packaged goods revenue for the quarter dropped 82.5% to $21 million from $120 million a year earlier.
Looking forward to the second quarter, the company forecast net revenue of $650 to $700 million, adjusted net revenue of $1.05 to $1.10 billion, a net loss of $1.43 to $1.36 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.07 to $0.12 per share.
Analysts currently expect the company to earn $0.14 per share on revenue of $1.07 billion for the second quarter.
For the fiscal year 2013, the company now expects net revenue of $3.90 to $4.05 billion and adjusted. net revenue of $4.10 to $4.25 billion. Previously, the company expected net revenue of about $4.075 billion and adjusted net revenue of about $4.300 billion.
Basic loss and diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2013 is now expected to be a loss of $0.17 to profit of $0.05. The company's prior guidance was for a net loss of $0.36 to $0.16 per share.
The company continues to expects fiscal 2013 adjusted earnings to be in the range of $1.05 to $1.20 per share.
Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.06 per share on revenue of $4.27 billion for the fiscal year 2013.
The company today named Blake Jorgensen as its new chief financial officer.
He will join the Electronic Arts in early September.

Art sales: retrospectives flower in Scotland

Edinburgh's commercial galleries give a retrospective flavour to events of the summer's Festival, with collections from former National Gallery artist in residence Jock McFadyen and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Yellow Tulips by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 

Edinburgh is a city steeped in history, and while much of the flavour of the sponsored events of the summer’s Festival is to do with the new, there is a distinctly retrospective flavour to events in the commercial galleries.

The Open Eye Gallery, for instance, looks back over the stormy career of John Bellany, who has just turned 70, anticipating a major retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland in November. Bellany made his name in the Sixties, infusing figurative painting with tough expressionism and elemental allegory. In 1990, the art critic Peter Fuller rated him as “the most outstanding painter of his generation”. But since then he has adopted a softer style. For an artist of such renown, his prices are also relatively soft, from £2,500 to £15,000.

Sixty-year-old Jock McFadyen, a former Artist in Residence at London’s National Gallery, has worked in the East End of London for most of his life, and this month returns to the country of his birth for a retrospective exhibition at Bourne Fine Art. The show takes the viewer from his earliest caricatures of the Seventies to his later, vast, depopulated and graffiti-strewn London landscapes. McFadyen prices also start at £2,500 and rise to £55,000 for the largest works.

At the Scottish Gallery there are not one but two retrospectives – the first for 75-year-old Duncan Shanks, whose exuberant abstracted landscapes cost £2,500 to £25,000, and a centenary show for the modernist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (£6,000 to £27,000). The Ingleby Gallery, meanwhile, displays a rediscovered work from 1977 by Ian Hamilton Finlay in which an epic air/sea battle is portrayed using common domestic objects. An ironing board becomes an aircraft carrier, irons are destroyers, model planes dot between cotton-wool clouds and so forth – all set to music by John Purser. The exhibition, with works from £200 to £50,000, precedes major presentations this autumn of the artist’s work at the São Paulo Biennale and Tate Britain.

Since Sotheby’s and Christie’s no longer hold auctions of Scottish art in Scotland, the Festival competition is now between Bonhams and Lyon & Turnbull. This year, Bonhams has a stronger focus on historic art for its August 20 sale, with a handsome three-quarter-length portrait of Scottish lawyer John Campbell, by Allan Ramsay, estimated at £80,000 to £100,000 and a stunning, rediscovered view of Edinburgh Castle in the 1860s by swashbuckling Scottish painter Sam Bough that could fetch a record for the artist at £100,000 to £150,000. The 20th century is represented with Scottish colourists and lashings of paintings by Jack Vettriano and the late Alberto Morrocco, but there is no cutting-edge contemporary art at all.

This is a field that Lyon & Turnbull tries to cover, though its August 15 sale looks very conservative apart from the odd example by Hamilton Finlay or Beck’s Prize-winner, Glaswegian artist Toby Paterson. But the company’s main event sees Glaswegian art a century ago taking centre stage with a £1 million-plus plus collection of Scottish works of art formed by the American TV producer Donald L Taffner and his wife Eleanor. Taffner developed a passion for Scottish art after meeting the Scottish artist Barbara Rae, and Tony Ray of the Glasgow School of Art.
The collection is centred round the figure of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, with silver tableware and furniture commissioned by the Glasgow tea-rooms owner Kate Cranston, and a group of his later watercolours. Top price of the sale is expected for one of several watercolours of flowers that he painted in Suffolk and London. Yellow Tulips was painted in 1919 and is estimated to fetch £100,000 to £150,000. Taffner bought it in 1994 for £183,000, which was close to a record for Mackintosh. Estimates are set slightly below the prices that Taffner paid in the Eighties and Nineties.
The collection also represents the so-called Glasgow Girls who studied at the Glasgow School of Art at the turn of the century and made such a contribution to art and design – Mackintosh’s sister in law, Frances Macdonald MacNair, Annie French, Jessie Keppie, Mary Sturrock, and Jessie Marion King – and will go on view the day after Bonhams’ picture sale on August 21 prior to being sold on September 7.