Pablo Picasso's ''The Charnel House'' Paris 1944-45; dated 1945, an oil and charcoal on canvas is seen in this undated handout photo released to Reuters on October 4, 2012.

NEW YORK | Thu Oct 4, 2012 5:53pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pablo Picasso may be best known for his Blue and Rose Periods and Cubism but the Spanish artist also used black and white in his works, many of which will be shown in a new exhibition opening on Friday at New York's Guggenheim Museum.

"Picasso Black and White," which runs through January 23 and includes 118 paintings, sculptures and works on paper from 1904 to 1971, focuses on Picasso's exploration of the use of the two colors.

"This is the first exhibition that examines his continuous use of the black and white palette throughout his career, therefore we think it is a ground-breaking exhibition," said Richard Armstrong, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.

"We think this offers new insights into his creative character," he added.

From "La Repasseuse" a stark, somber 1904 oil on canvas painting of an angular woman ironing to "The Kiss," a work in dark gray and black that was completed decades later, the exhibition runs in chronological order up the curving ramps of the museum.

It includes works that have never been seen in public before and more than 30 will be on view in the United States for the first time.

Carmen Gimenez, the curator of the exhibition, said the minimal use of color in Picasso's works in the exhibition showed his focus on line, form, drawings and tones, which is evident in "The Kitchen," a 1948 painting of angles, circles, curves, and varying shades of gray.

"His interest in on drawing and on the line," she explained in an interview.

Even in his Blue and Rose periods, Gimenez said black, white and gray is a recurrent motif. The lack of color, she added, enabled Picasso to manage complicated paintings such as his black and white masterpiece "The Milliner's Workshop," which is on loan for the exhibition from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

"The Charnel House," a jumble of corpses with a primitive quality, which was reportedly inspired by newspaper photographs of war, is another major work in the show, along with "The Maids of Honor," the largest of his 44 variations of Diego Velazquez's "Las Meninas" which Picasso painted in California.

"Black and white tended to be used in ambitious and complicated compositions," Gimenez explained.

She added that Picasso's monochromatic tones are rooted in Paleolithic cave drawings and were used to explore the works of other great Spanish artists such as Velazques, El Greco and Francisco de Goya, who also used black and gray.

"Gray was an essential part of the classical tradition," she said.

"Head of a Horse, Sketch for Guernica" is another work of art featured in the show. It is a study for arguably Picasso's most famous painting "Guernica," his reaction to the massive air raid by the Germans in 1937 on the Basque town of Guernica.

After its run at the Guggenheim, the show will move to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Japanese writer Haruki Murakami speaks during a ceremony where he was awarded the ''XXIII Premi Internacional Catalunya'' prize in Barcelona, June 9, 2011.

STOCKHOLM | Fri Oct 5, 2012 10:12pm EDT

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Japanese author who writes of love and isolation, researchers into "spooky" quantum physics and experts on economic inequality have all been tipped as possible Nobel Prize-winners ahead of the start to the annual awards on Monday.

Medicine, physics and chemistry laureates will receive their Nobels first in Stockholm next week, followed later by economics. But for many outside the world of science, the literature and peace prizes are the most widely discussed at the dinner table.

Odds at British bookmaker Ladbrokes and Sweden's Unibet put Japanese author Haruki Murakami and Chinese writer Mo Yan in the top two places for the literature prize. An American advocate of non-violent struggle and a Coptic Christian who runs a children's mission in Egypt are favored for the peace prize.

Murakami is very popular in Japan, but has also become well known abroad for his works which deal with isolation and love and bring the surreal into everyday life. Mo's works are rooted in his native China, its history and people.

Other literary names bandied about include Ireland's William Trevor, Syrian poet Adonis, South Korean poet Ko Un, U.S. novelist Philip Roth and singer/songwriter Bob Dylan.

Culture columnist Maria Schottenius of Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter said that despite the odds, the choice of the Nobel committee was always unpredictable.

"Last year we had a poet, now it could be a storyteller like Philip Roth," Schottenius said. Swedish poet Thomas Transtromer won the prize in 2011.

For the peace prize, betting agencies favour Gene Sharp, an American advocate of non-violent struggle and Maggie Gobran, a Coptic Christian who runs a children's mission in Egypt, but there is no clear candidate.

TELEPORTATION

Researchers who wrote the rulebook for quantum teleportation, described as "spooky" by Albert Einstein, are among the 2012 Thomson Reuters tips for science.

Research into the inner workings of the cell could be in line for the medicine prize, according to Nobel prediction expert David Pendlebury. His annual forecasts are based on the company's "Web of Knowledge" data on how often a scientist's published papers are cited as a basis for further investigation.

For economics, Thomson Reuters has predicted U.S. and British experts on pricing financial assets, how to measure inequality or how to understand market volatility, as possible winners.

In chemistry, Akira Fujishima at Tokyo University of Science, could be in the running for discoveries of new uses for titanium dioxide, long used mainly as an ingredient for paint.

Though their prestige remains undiminished, the cash element for the annual prizes created in dynamite tycoon Alfred Nobel's will to recognize achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace -- economics was added in the 1960s at the behest of the Swedish central bank -- have been cut by 20 percent to 8 million crowns ($1.20 million).

The Nobel Foundation which oversees the wealth left by the businessman said it was worried about future returns and that it had been hit by overspending in previous years' prize seasons.

The deliberations on all the prizes are wrapped in secrecy. For literature, the 18 members of the Swedish Academy who award the Nobel prize for literature, are only allowed to discuss the prize within the walls of the Academy itself.

It is extremely rare for the name of any winner to leak out, though 2010 was an exception when newspaper Svenska Dagbladet got a tip that test tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards had won.

The prize for medicine will begin the Nobel season on Monday, followed by physics and chemistry over the next two days. The literature prize will likely be handed out on Thursday October 11 or 18th, while the peace prize will be awarded in Oslo on Friday October 12th and the prize for economics on October 15th.

($1 = 6.6889 Swedish crowns)

(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Paul Casciato)

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1 of 7. Artist Vincent Castiglia poses for a portrait prior to the opening of his gallery show ''Resurrection'', at Sacred Gallery in New York October 3, 2012.

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 5, 2012 5:03am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Many artists claim to put their blood, sweat and tears into their work, but Vincent Castiglia means it: he paints with his own blood.

The New York painter has a new exhibit, "Resurrection," in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood that opened on Thursday and is due to run through October. It features a number of Castiglia's paintings from the last 10 years, all of which were created with Castiglia's blood.

Castiglia, 30, said in an interview this week that his first experiments with this medium were prompted by a "need to connect with my work on the most intimate level."

Human blood contains iron oxide, he explained, a pigment found in many traditional paints, and which occurs naturally in iron ore and common rust.

The public's reaction in the past has been overwhelmingly positive, he said, but he does not discount that some people could find his choice of medium creepy or gimmicky.

"My response would be to really take a look at the content of the work, which overshadows what it's made from, I think," he said. "In order for something to be a gimmick, it really would have to lack substance."

His process includes making a preliminary pen or graphite sketch and extracting just enough "paint" in the privacy of his studio. He then pulls out his brushes to paint surrealistic, red ochre-hued images typically featuring human bodies in some stage of decay paired with abstract backgrounds.

One of his larger, more detailed paintings can take more than three months to complete. His paintings range in price from $950 to $26,000. Rock and blues musician Gregg Allman, who recently acquired a 2006 painting by Castiglia called "Gravity."

His "Resurrection" exhibit is themed around Castiglia's interest in life's transience and harmony he sees between life and death.

As an example, he cited "Feeding," which depicts a mother with decaying legs in a wheelchair gazing at an infant she is breastfeeding. Castiglia said he sees it as an expression of the fragility of life and the hope and drive that can still accompany it.

His work is shown primarily the United States and Europe, but Castiglia's art may be familiar to slasher film and heavy metal aficionados. In 2010, a piece by Castiglia served as the poster for horror flick "Savage County," and other paintings were used as album art for Swiss heavy metal band Triptykon's debut "Eparistera Daimones" the same year.

(Additional reporting By Alicia Powell; Editing by Christine Kearney)

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Pablo Picasso's ''Nature morte aux tulipes'', an oil on canvas painted in March 1932 is seen in this handout photo.

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 5, 2012 4:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 1932 portrait by Pablo Picasso of his young lover and a pioneering 3-D Andy Warhol painting of the Statue of Liberty are expected to sell for at least $35 million each, but could fetch much more when they are auctioned next month.

The two works, Picasso's "Nature morte aux tulipes," and Warhol's "Statue of Liberty" will be the highlights of New York autumn sales at Sotheby's and Christie's.

The Picasso masterpiece is one of several renderings of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter and considered by art experts to be one of his most important works. It carries a pre-sale estimate from $35 million to up to $50 million ahead of the November 5 sale at Sotheby's.

"The young woman, with her Grecian profile and athletic, statuesque frame, inspired Picasso's greatest achievements in a variety of media," said Simon Shaw, Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art department in New York.

"Nature morte aux tulipes is exceptional within the series for its double-meditation on this subject, demonstrating the influence of Surrealism on his output: the artist builds a sculpture of Marie-Thérèse, and then paints that sculpture as a sexually-charged still life, allowing him to dissect her form on many levels," he added in a statement.

Marie-Thérèse, who was just 17 years old when she met the already married Picasso, featured in many of his works and bore him a daughter in 1935.

Another painting of her, "Femme à la fenêtre" from 1936, will also be included in the Sotheby sale with a pre-sale estimate of up to $20 million.

"Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur" a 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse was sold to anonymous buyer at a 2010 auction for $106.5 million.

The sale of the Picasso portraits coincides with a new exhibition of the works of the renowned Spanish artist at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

ICON OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

The following week, on November 14, Warhol's "Statue of Liberty," will go under the hammer at Christie's. It is the first of its kind in 3-D and the only example of the artist's experimentation with the technique still privately owned.

A child of immigrants, Warhol painted the red and green work showing multiple misaligned images of the iconic landmark in 1962 as a prelude to his Death and Disaster series, according to Christie's.

"Andy Warhol's 'Statue of Liberty' is one of the most important statements on America and on painting in the 1960s," said Brett Gorvy, the chairman and international head of Post-War and Contemporary Art.

"It is a famous icon of the American dream, alongside Warhol's most popular American subjects such as the Coca-Cola bottle, the Campbell's soup-cans and his Marilyns and Elvis."

Two other paintings from the 3-D series are part of museum collections in Switzerland and Pittsburgh.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announced last month that it would sell paintings, photos and other works by the pop artist in a series of auctions, private sales and online. Proceeds from the sales will be used to help the foundation expand its support of the visual arts.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Snow in Jerusalem 2012 by artist Paul Benney is seen in this undated handout photograph released in London October 2, 2012. ''Night Paintings'' is a new exhibition at London's Somerset House staged in the underground ''deadhouse'' caverns and featuring the work of Paul Benney.

LONDON | Tue Oct 2, 2012 1:30pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Above ground Somerset House boasts one of London's most famous courtyards, a neo-classical gem used for film sets, fashion shows and a glamorous skating venue in the winter.

Beneath the spectacular square are little-known underground passageways called the "Deadhouse", which this week open to the public for the first exhibition of paintings ever to be held there.

Somerset House's resident artist Paul Benney is exhibiting his paintings in a free show running from October 4 to December 9, and in the dingy subterranean chambers they hang alongside the headstones of French courtiers buried there in the 17th century.

"This was a space that I had come across by accident as I was wandering about finding my way around and getting used to the building," Benney told Reuters in a dark vault surrounded by his works.

Traditionally, he would have held the exhibition above ground in a naturally lit gallery running along one of the four sides of the courtyard.

"It gave me the idea that ... this might be a better place to try to see whether it would work for my work, and as it turns out I think it does."

Benney, who has had a studio at Somerset House for 2-1/2 years, has produced a series of eerie, elemental images including a Pan figure floating above a forest, a naked man "emerging" from thick fog and a face whose shaved head has burst into flames.

"I don't set out to make eerie or unsettling work," said the artist, also a well-known portrait painter. "It does eventually come across as that, I think, as a coincidence, as a result of me finding imagery that makes sense to me.

"My influences range from 20th century cinema like (Russian director Andrei) Tarkovsky right through to Rembrandt and Goya. Generally, of all those artists I am drawn to the subterranean subject matter."

That includes Goya's "Black Paintings", the Spanish artist's haunting canvases that include Saturn devouring his son and two ghoulish old men eating soup.

GRAVES DISTURBED

As well as the Deadhouse, a handful of Benney's works hang inside alcoves along the "lightwells", deep, paved alleyways that run along three sides of the court above.

Officials at Somerset House are hoping the combination of an innovative space unknown to most visitors and the art on display will make the "Night Paintings" show a major draw.

The Deadhouse has been used before as a party venue and for a sound installation, but damp conditions, and the fact that it is a service tunnel used by the venue, limit its potential as a permanent art space.

Somerset House Trust was set up in 1997 to conserve and develop the site and open it up to the public.

"We were only set up 15 years ago and opened to public in 2000, and we have been investigating how to show different parts of the building to the public," said trust director Gwyn Miles.

"We have used (the Deadhouse) for events - we've had some fabulous parties down there and we will use it probably more."

The headstones were set in the walls of the tunnel when Somerset House was rebuilt by William Chambers at the end of the 18th century.

When the old buildings were demolished to make way for the buildings that survive today, the graves of members of the queen's court were disturbed.

The headstones date back to 1637, when Henrietta Maria of France, who married Charles I, used what was then called Denmark House and had a Roman Catholic chapel built - a deeply unpopular move at the time.

Henrietta fled to France during the English Civil War in which her husband Charles I was executed, but returned to Denmark House as Dowager Queen after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, and launched a new phase of expansion.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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HONG KONG | Sun Oct 7, 2012 5:56am EDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A leading China auctioneer holds a debut sale in Hong Kong on Sunday, lured by the city's international buyers, low tax regime and stable regulatory framework in a trend that could bring more competition for global firms.

China Guardian's sale of Chinese art and classical furniture in the former British colony follows its rise as the world's third largest auction house on the crest of China's art market boom, with sales of $1.77 billion last year.

"We want to win over more overseas market and buyers," said Wang Yannan, the president of China Guardian and the well-connected daughter of former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang.

The sale, though relatively small, is seen as a symbolic foray by China's top auction firm into the turf of goliaths Christie's and Sotheby's who have long dominated international auction hubs like Hong Kong, New York and London.

China Guardian's key rival, Poly International is also planning an inaugural Hong Kong sale in late November, while A&F Auction and Beijing Rongbao Auction aim to enter Hong Kong in one or two years, according to art market reports.

China's wave of millionaire buyers and investors have helped propel Hong Kong into the world's fourth largest art auction hub, with nearly 7 percent of global art auction revenue in 2011, according to French art database Artprice.com.

"It's great for competition," Francois Curiel, Christie's Asia president, told Reuters. "Whenever I see more auction houses coming into the market, the pie became larger."

Some, however, felt the field was getting crowded.

"It's like separating a bowl of rice into two," said Tim Lin of the Lin & Lin Gallery in Beijing and Taipei, referring to increased competition for Hong Kong's multi-billion dollar art auction market.

"How long will they last? It's everyone's guess."

Art dealers and experts say the Chinese expansion into Hong Kong is also being driven by a tightening regulatory environment in China, that has grappled with widespread art crimes including tax evasion, a proliferation of fakes, money laundering and manipulative bidding practices.

TAX PROBE BLOW TO CHINA ART MARKET

In April, a large-scale Chinese customs probe into tax evasion on art imports delivered a blow to the art market, with at least six prominent art dealers, collectors and artists being investigated, according to art dealers and Chinese media reports.

"The tax probe had a huge impact on the spring auctions in China," said the owner of an art gallery in Taipei who is a frequent buyer in the Chinese art market but who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

"Everyone finds himself in danger so the market is extremely cold."

According to market research firm ArtTactic, total auction sales this spring from the biggest four auction houses in the China market dropped to $1.5 billion, 32 percent lower than the autumn season in 2011 and 43 percent less than a year before.

"The tax investigation has cast a shadow on the Chinese art market," said Lin from the art gallery.

"It has a psychological effect on buyers and sellers in China ... The chain reaction is going to last for a while."

China Guardian's 2012 auction sales tally dropped 46 percent to 2.14 billion yuan ($340 million) this spring season, from 3.98 billion yuan in the 2011 autumn auction, but Wang attributed this largely to a stuttering Chinese economy.

"It also has something to do with the slowdown in the economy, but it has nothing to do with the tax," Wang of China Guardian, told Reuters.

Art market experts, however, say Hong Kong's laissez-faire economy, solid regulatary framework and zero-tariffs on art imports, make it a secure and stable alternative for China's auction firms.

Although Beijing has lowered its import duties on arts to 6 percent from 12 percent since the beginning of 2012, another 17 percent of value-added tax still poses a huge burden to Chinese auction houses.

"Hong Kong is a more liberal tax region," said Simon Young, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong.

"One would have wondered why they didn't move sooner."

(The story corrects name in paragraph 16)

(Editing by James Pomfret and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Novelist Mark Helprin is pictured in this undated handout photo. Listening to novelist and political commentator Mark Helprin recount his life is a bit like listening to Forrest Gump. An eloquent, New York-born Forrest Gump. Like the titular hero of the Oscar-winning 1994 movie, Helprin seems to have been everywhere and met everyone. The sweep of his own story is similar to one of his many novels - broad, impressive, improbable.

NEW YORK | Wed Oct 3, 2012 3:06pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Listening to novelist and political commentator Mark Helprin recount his life is a bit like listening to Forrest Gump - an eloquent, New York-born Forrest Gump.

Helprin is hardly slow-witted, but like the titular hero of the Oscar-winning 1994 movie, he seems to have been everywhere and met everyone. The sweep of his own life story is similar to one of his many novels - broad, impressive, improbable.

Helprin's new book, "In Sunlight and In Shadow," released on Tuesday, is a high society romance, World War Two drama and mob thriller. It matches his previous novels in scope and length and carries on the author's fascination with old New York.

In person, as on the page, Helprin likes a good tale. He jovially boasts about his encounters with past presidents, war leaders and famous businessmen with the kind of confidence that, over a literary career spanning more than 40 years, he has typically donated to his fictional characters.

He dined with Richard Nixon, rode in a golf cart with George Bush Sr. and even met Winston Churchill.

"I've never ridden in a golf cart that hasn't been driven by a president of the United States," Helprin said during an interview this week, only half joking. That was in fact the only time he's ever ridden in a golf cart.

He recalled a night in the early 1960s when Nixon came over to his friend's parents' house for dinner, soon after Nixon's first failed race for the White House.

"I really liked him," Helprin said. "He seemed to be so approachable and humble."

A short man, with alert eyes and thick hair, Helprin is a youthful 65 and full of anecdotes. He enjoys making stark, surprising statements - "I have never drank coffee" or "I've never paid for a taxi" - but he mostly answers questions in long form, fitting for a writer whose novels span generations, countries and continents.

His storytelling prowess began aged seven and a major publisher was so impressed by his writing that he offered him a book contract. His father refused, Helprin said, wary of the trappings of childhood fame.

It was a minor stumbling block at the start of a long literary career. Helprin has won many awards and his stories were published in The New Yorker for nearly 25 years.

He is most famous for "Winter's Tale," his fantastical 1983 novel about New York at the dawn of the industrial age, which is being adapted for the big screen.

But he was thrown into the spotlight after penning Bob Dole's Senate retirement speech during his 1996 presidential bid. Helprin's words are credited with breathing life - if temporarily - into Dole's campaign. He remains a prominent columnist for The Wall Street Journal and other publications.

NEW YORK APOSTLE

The New York-born writer recounted living in 43 different places, including California, England, Italy and Israel, where he served in the Israeli Air Force in the late 1970s.

But the twists and turns of his real life stories have sometimes drawn unwanted attention, most notably in a New York Times Magazine article in 1991, which questioned the veracity of some of Helprin's stories, including whether he completed a stint as a British merchant marine in 1967.

Deeply affected by the criticism, Helprin searched for proof to counter the claims and found his crew record in a warehouse in Newfoundland, which he published in the Paris Review.

Years on, and with more than a dozen works of fiction to his name, "In Sunlight and In Shadow," his sixth novel, has arrived. He called it a "love song to my family," borrowing a phrase from "A River Runs Through It" author Norman Maclean. The lead character is very loosely based on his father.

"I waited a long time to write this book; to get the tone right. The hatch is closing and I wanted to get it in before I died," Helprin said.

The 700-page novel is based in the New York of his youth - a purer, rougher city than today's incarnation. As a young man, Helprin never got in a cab, was repelled by the cost of the subway and preferred walking, absorbing the city's people and places.

"New York is not the city I remember, which is one reason why I wrote the book - to preserve the city I remember," he said.

He does not expect the same commercial success that "Winter's Tale" achieved, which he described as "freakish." Indeed, he isn't bothered by some early reviews that have been scathing and critical of his preoccupation with the ultra wealthy.

"You are expected to write a very spare, limited exploration of a single topic which shows that you know the world is bitter and awful, a sort of fashionable nihilism," Helprin said. "This book is not that."

(Reporting By Edward McAllister, editing by Christine Kearney and Andre Grenon)

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