VIENNA | Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:51pm EST

VIENNA (Reuters) - Romani artist Ceija Stojka, whose work helped expose the Nazis' persecution of the Romani people, died in a Vienna hospital on Monday aged 79, her publisher told the Austria Press Agency on Tuesday.

Holocaust survivor Stojka wrote one of the first Romani autobiographical accounts of Nazi persecution, the 1988 book "We Live in Seclusion: The Memories of a Romani", and dedicated decades to telling her people's story through music and art.

The Romani people, like the Jews, were sent to concentration camps by Germany's Nazis during the Second World War. Up to 1.5 million were murdered in an attempted genocide.

Austrian-born Stojka survived internment in the Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrueck concentration camps, along with just five other members of her 200-strong family.

"I reached for the pen because I had to open myself, to scream," the activist said at an exhibition in Vienna's Jewish Museum in 2004.

The Budapest-based European Roma Cultural Foundation on Tuesday described Stojka as an "outstanding Austrian Romani woman ... and a key figure for the history, art and literature of Romani culture in Europe".

The foundation's executive director, Timea Junghaus, wrote in an email to Reuters: "She was a role model for the present generation and an inspiration for the future generations of Roma in Europe."

Stojka began painting at the age of 56, often using her fingers or toothpicks instead of brushes to apply acrylic paint and ink.

Her works, many of which are recreations of her experiences in the concentrations camps, have been described as "eerie" and "childlike" by viewers of her exhibitions around the world.

Romani people are still subject to forced assimilation or segregation, cultural repression, eviction and other forms of discrimination in many countries, especially in Europe.

The European Union estimates there are between 10 and 12 million Romani people in Europe, making them the continent's largest ethnic minority, although populations are hard to count, since many choose not to register their ethnic identity.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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SYDNEY | Thu Jan 3, 2013 11:26pm EST

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A pair of "ghost gum" trees in Australia's outback made famous in watercolors by Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira have been destroyed in a suspected arson attack, shortly before they were due to be placed on a national heritage register.

Namatjira is credited with bringing ghost gums, native trees featured in Aboriginal Dreamtime stories and named for their white bark that glows in moonlight, to wider public consciousness as a symbol of Australian identity.

Northern Territory Indigenous Advancement Minister Alison Anderson said the pair of ghost gums that frame the West MacDonnell Ranges and feature in many of the late Namatjira's works were found burnt to the ground a few days ago.

"In his watercolors (Namatjira) brought the beauty of the Central Australian landscape to the world and helped make it a symbol of Australian identity," Anderson said.

Authorities believe the fire was likely deliberately lit.

Susan McCulloch, author of McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper the destruction of the ghost gums was "appalling and a tragic act of cultural vandalism".

Born in the Northern Territory in 1902, Namatjira held his first exhibition in 1938 and painted for the next two decades, earning international acclaim before his death in 1959.

Aboriginal Dreamtime stories have been passed down through generations to recount indigenous beliefs about the creation of the world and its creatures by totemic spirits in an era known as Dreamtime.

(Reporting By Jane Wardell, editing by Elaine Lies)

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Visitors look at Gerhard Richter's ''Abstraktes Bild (809-4) from 1994 which has an estimated value of £9 to £12 million (US$14.1-$18.8 million) at Sotheby's London October 8, 2012.

LONDON | Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:54am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - An abstract painting by German artist Gerhard Richter has a set a new record for the price paid at auction for the work of a living artist, after selling for $34.2 million, Sotheby's auction house in London said.

"Abstraktes Bild (809-4)", from the collection of rock guitarist Eric Clapton, was sold to anonymous buyer after five minutes of bidding late on Friday, triggering a round of applause.

The sale smashed the previous 2010 record of $28.6 million paid for Jasper Johns' "Flag" at Christie's auction house in New York in 2010.

Richter's red, yellow and black oil on canvas had been estimated to fetch $14-19 million.

"The combination of outstanding provenance and gold-standard quality in this sublime work by this blue-chip artist made for an historic auction moment," said Alex Branczik, senior director at Sotheby's and head of the sale.

The top end of the art market has performed strongly in recent years despite a faltering global economy.

($1 = 1.0000 US dollars)

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Pravin Char)

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1 of 2. ''Snake Ceiling,'' by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, is pictured at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2009, in this handout photograph obtained on October 2, 2012. The work is part of Ai's first major U.S. art exhibition scheduled for launch at Washington's Hirshhorn Museum on October 6, 2012. The show, ''Ai Weiwei: According to What?'', groups sculpture, photography, video, audio and installation work.

WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:50pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's most famous political dissident, Ai Weiwei, launches his first major U.S. art exhibition on Sunday with some unflinchingly political works, including an image of his brain bleeding from a police beating.

The show, "Ai Weiwei: According to What?" at Washington's Hirshhorn Museum groups sculpture, photography, video, audio and installation work.

The choice of the Hirshhorn on the National Mall reflects Ai's desire to connect with political leaders, hundreds of foreign diplomats and the network of think tanks in the U.S. capital, museum director Richard Koshalek told reporters.

Ai said in a statement: "This exhibition has been an opportunity to re-examine past work and communicate with audiences from afar. I see it as a stream of activities rather than a fixed entity."

Ai's 81-day detention last year sparked an international outcry. Activists see authorities' tax evasion case against him as an attempt to muzzle the artist over his criticism of the Chinese government.

The exhibition fills much of the ring-shaped museum with scores of Ai's works. It centers on such themes as the relationship between art, society and individual experience.

The works include dozens of ink jet prints of the construction of Beijing's 2008 Olympic Stadium, which he helped design, and "China Log," a 63-inch-high (1.61-metre-high) map of China made of ironwood taken from demolished temples.

Much of show is devoted to the deadly 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province and the thousands of schoolchildren who died when shoddily constructed buildings collapsed. Ai was among the dissidents who had challenged Chinese authorities to investigate the deaths.

The ghostlike magnetic resonance image of his bleeding brain, measuring 3.3 by 6.5 feet, he attributes to a 2009 police beating.

"Snake Ceiling" is a 295-foot (90-meter) sculpture of a twisting snake made from student backpacks and mounted on the museum's ceiling.

A wall-sized print shows the names of 5,000 students killed in the quake. They are recited on a three-hour, 41-minute voice recording nearby.

Ai, 55, who is not allowed to leave China, was in frequent contact with organizers about how his works were displayed, curator Mami Kataoka said.

China is piling more pressure on Ai, with the artist saying on Tuesday that authorities have revoked the business license of the company that produces his art.

"Ai Weiwei: According to What?" runs at the Hirshhorn until February 24, 2013. It then travels to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Miami's Perez Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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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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Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei pulls up his shirt bearing a portrait of himself as he chats with journalists at the courtyard of his studio before his verdict hearing in Beijing, July 20, 2012.

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:09pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Artist Ai Weiwei has made headlines worldwide since his detention in China last year, but outside art circles few people in western countries such as the United States know of his efforts to push for a more open government in his country.

As an artist, he is an eclectic talent who draws, paints, sculpts and does conceptual art, photography, cultural criticism and architecture.

Now, a film documentary, "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" sheds light on the man behind the dissident artist, with a goal that U.S. and other audiences might learn more about Chinese culture and, perhaps, about themselves.

Ai, 54, disappeared in his country in April 2011, and after an outcry by art lovers, free speech activists and politicians, he was found to have been jailed by Chinese officials.

He was released after 81 days in detention, and this month, a Chinese court upheld a $2.4 million tax evasion fine against him that is largely considered a way to muzzle his voice.

Those are the headlines, but who is the man?

"For me, that was one of the driving questions. Who is this guy?," Alison Klayman, the filmmaker of "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," now playing in U.S. theaters, told Reuters.

"I really feel like what I found, and what is reflected in 'Never Sorry,' is someone who is...an incredibly effective communicator, a political organizer, a social commentator. But above all, he is an artist, and an artist who is motivated by the desire to push his country forward," Klayman said.

Klayman first met Ai while living in China and working for National Public Radio, PBS show "Frontline" and other US media outlets. She had been asked to tape an interview with Ai following his role as artistic consultant for the 2008 Beijing Olympic stadium, dubbed the Bird's Nest for its striking design.

While Ai's work on the Bird's Nest vaulted him to worldwide fame, he was already well-known in China for his art, design, activism and family. His father is Chinese poet Ai Qing, and after spending the 1980s studying in the United States, Ai Weiwei returned to China to be with his dad, who died in 1996.

In the 1990s, Ai Weiwei published a series of underground books about young and emerging artists who were bucking convention. In the 2000s, he challenged official China's version of life behind the Great Wall with, among other work, paintings that showed a hand giving the middle finger to images symbolizing Chinese authority such as Tiananmen Square.

In 2007, he denounced the Bird's Nest and the Beijing Olympics as political propaganda, and in 2008, Ai began work to expose the names of more than 5,000 children killed in a massive earthquake -- names the government did not want disclosed.

SPEECH IS FREE

"The question: 'Why is he not in jail?' was one that I asked pretty much all of my interviewees, certainly all the ones that were done before his (2011) detention," Klayman said. "Actually, it's something that I asked Weiwei within the first week or two of us filming together...And his response was, 'I don't know...It's not up to me whether I'm in jail or not.'"

Ai's answer is simple and complex at the same time because it requires understanding societal shifts in modern China, and his life and work seem a fitting vehicle to explore the country's changing cultural landscape.

What emerges in "Never Sorry" is a portrait of a man who deeply loves his country and fellow citizens, yet also wants to expose his government's suppression of individual rights.

Following his work on the Bird's Nest, Ai exploded onto the international art scene, but it was his use of Twitter that gave his voice even wider reach around the globe and earned the wrath of Chinese officials who'd already shut down his personal blog.

"Weiwei was talking about all of the exciting possibilities of the Internet well before the Arab Spring and Wikileaks and all these things in current affairs," said Klayman.

Yet, as much as "Never Sorry" paints a portrait of an artist and sheds some light on Chinese life, Klayman also hopes it challenges western audiences to express themselves without fear of retribution, whether by family, friends or governments.

"It really makes people inspired to think, 'What can I do in my world, and where do I need to put it out there, put it on the line, risk something to make my world a better place," she said.

(Additional reporting by Alicia Avila; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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