Picasso painting sells for $103 mn in New York

"Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)" by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso's "Woman Sitting Near a Window (Marie-Therese)" sold Thursday for $103.4 million at Christie's in New York, the auction house said. The painting, completed in 1932, was sold after 19 minutes of bidding for $90 million, which rose to $103.4 million when fees and commissions were added, Christie's said. Christie's had estimated the painting would sell for $55 million.

The sale confirms the vitality of the art market despite the Covid-19 pandemic -- but also the special status of Picasso, who was born in 1881 and died in 1973. The generally good performance of Thursday's auctions, totaling $481 million, "signals a real return to normal and also a message that the art market is really back on track," said Bonnie Brennan, president of Christie's America.

The painting, depicting Picasso's young mistress and muse, Marie-Therese Walter, was acquired only eight years ago at a London sale for 28.6 million pounds (about $44.8 million), less than half the price offered Thursday. Five works by the Spanish painter have now crossed the symbolic threshold of $100 million. Even before this sale, he was already alone at the top of this very exclusive club with four paintings, including "Women of Algiers", which holds the record for a Picasso, at $179.4 million in 2015. This is the first time in two years that a work has broken the $100 million mark since an 1890 Claude Monet "Meules" painting reached $110.7 million at Sotheby's, also in New York. On Tuesday, the painting "In This Case" by the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $93.1 million at Christie's in the first of the major spring sales, one of the two most important events in the auction world.

read more

Photos of Singapore dating back to 1890

19th-Century S’pore Photos Available From US Library Of Congress, Hi-Res Files Free To Download

Singapore’s known to be a modern city with a relentless pace of change, and the old quickly makes way for the new. Even Singaporeans in their 20s and 30s can recall old hangouts that are gone forever.

For some, this ruthless discarding of the old has evoked a sense of curiosity over what Singapore was like before the congested roads and gleaming skyscrapers.

A foreign source – the United States Library of Congress – has satiated a little of that curiosity with free downloadable images of 19th-century Singapore.

read more

Old photos of early 1900s Singapore digitised & released by New York Public Library since 2016

Several dozen high-resolution images of Singapore from the early 20th century were digitised and released by the New York Public Library on Jan. 6, 2016.

This is part of the library's generous move to make its digital collection as available as possible, having uploaded 187,000 images free for all to use.

All of the photographs — rare and unique as they all are — have become public domain works, which means they are no longer restricted under copyright law.

read more

US Library Of Congress

Singapore Collyer Quai 1890

To find the photos at the US Library of Congress website https://www.loc.gov type in “Singapore” in the search bar. Be sure to select “Photos, Prints, Drawings” in the category field on the left.

After clicking the magnifying glass icon, be sure to refine your results by checking those that are available online. To narrow down your search even further, you can choose photos according to date and location, e.g. 1800 to 1899, and Singapore.

To download the photo, there’s a link below where you can choose 4 resolutions. 3 of them are JPG files, and there’s an option to download it as a hi-res TIFF file that’s as large as 130MB.

read more

Cherian George 4 Feb 22:21

For history buffs: Thanks to Chia Yeow Tong of the Malaysia and Singapore Society of Australia, I've just discovered the US Library of Congress's wonderful collection of freely downloadable 1890 photos of Singapore (including TIFF files as large as 130MB that you can print for display).

read more

First signs of age-related Cataract

Age-related cataract is a condition that basically everyone gets as we are actually all suffering from it when we’re around the age of 85. When you get older, the lenses in both your eyes get less and less clear. This is because the protein in your eyes gets lumpy, which makes the lenses cloudy, and as a result you get blurred vision. 

A frequent age-related condition such as diabetes can speed up this process. What a lot of people don’t know is that the cloudiness that comes with age-related cataract can already manifest itself quite early: around the age of 55. Around three percent of people between the ages of 55 and 65 has age-related cataract. In some cases it’s even sooner than that as there are people who already notice their sight deteriorating from the age of 40.

There are a number of symptoms that can indicate that you are developing age-related cataract. Look out for the following changes:

• Your vision is blurred, both near and far.
• Colours are less bright and sometimes a bit yellow or brown.
• You sometimes have doubled vision when you’re only using one eye to see.
• Your vision is bad at night. You see a halo around streetlights, headlights, and other light sources.
• You suddenly need glasses with a corrective lens that’s very different from the glasses you used to have.

read more

Don't Give Up to Each Other

A constant ringing in your ears

Why do some people hear it, is it normal?

That phantom noise is called tinnitus and experts say it may worsen with age. Here’s what you can do to prevent that

Do you sometimes hear a ringing, buzzing, humming or hissing that no one else seems to be bothered by? It may be constant or it may come and go. The noise can be so loud that it interferes with your ability to concentrate or hear the sounds around you.

As enigmatic and frustrating as it is, this phantom sound is very real and it is what the experts call tinnitus.

“It appears to affect those aged 40 to 55 years most,” said Joyce Lim, a senior tinnitus counsellor at Changi General Hospital (CGH). Globally, it affects 40 per cent of the population and like hearing loss, tinnitus increases with age.

read more

Why cleaning your ears might do more harm than good

Hands up, if you enjoy scraping out your ears and seeing the amount of wax extricated. I’ll admit, I belong to the club, even though I know better than to insert anything into my ears.

There’s something relaxing about the sensation when you gently drag a scraper down the ear canal. Like a light massage for your ears, if you will, or an ASMR experience that sends tingles up and down your spine.

"It's like scratching an itch," said Dr Lim Keng Hua, consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon from Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre’s Ear Nose Throat, Head & Neck Surgery – Singapore ENT Specialist Clinic. "The more you scratch, the itchier and more satisfying it feels." Even more satisfying is seeing what the scraper scoops out. And I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

read more

Clogged Ears, Pain & Infection

How to Properly Clean Your Ears

If your ears are bothering you and you’re ready to grab a cotton swab — think again. Cotton swabs condense and impact earwax deeper into the ear canal — and you may be risking your hearing each time you reach for a swab. In fact, many do-it-yourself ear-cleaning methods do more harm than good. Although unpleasant, earwax has nothing to do with personal hygiene and the ear canal naturally cleanses itself through your body’s everyday movements.

Here are a few simple tips to help you properly clean ears without damaging this delicate sense organ:

• Dampen a soft washcloth with warm water to clean the outside of your ear.
• Clean the outside of your ear with cotton balls, but do not insert them into your ear canal.
• Use an earwax softener to make removal easier.
• Ask your doctor’s office to remove wax during your regular exam.

If you must remove earwax, remember these safety tips:

• Do not clean your ears with bobby pins, twisted napkin corners, or other long pointed objects.
• Do not insert cotton balls or cotton swabs into the ear canal. They will merely push the wax deeper into the ear canal, possibly causing a blockage.
• Do not use ear candles. The Food and Drug Administration issued a public warning in 2010 that the use of ear candles can lead to serious injuries.

read more