A seminal work by abstract artist Mark Rothko fetched a huge $75.1 million at Sotheby’s Tuesday, while a new record was set for a Jackson Pollock drip painting as the big spenders came out in force.
No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is seen by critics as one of the finest examples of Rothko’s characteristic style — a seemingly simple, but arresting juxtaposition of blocks of color.
The winning bid, reached after a prolonged bidding battle in New York, was short of the record $86.9 mi-llion paid for Rothko’s Ora-nge, Red, Yellow at Chr-istie’s in May. But it was far over the pre-sale $35-50 million estimate and highlighted a contemporary art auction full of big prizes. The work described by as Rothko’s “seminal, masterpiece” was selected by the artist for his landmark 1954 solo show.
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‘Early humans in africa ate grass like cows’
London: Early humans who roamed the African savanna three-and-a-half million years ago had a diet more like a cow than a great ape — comprising of grass and sedges, a new Oxford study has found.
Researchers found that Australopithecus bahrelghazali chomped its way through rushes and grasses rather than soft fruits preferred by its chimpanzee cousins, thanks to its powerful jaws and big grinding teeth.
The study shows the ancestral human diet diverged from that of the apes much sooner than previously thought, the Daily Mail reported.
It provides early evidence of humans adapting their diet to suit their environment. Researchers analysed the amount of carbon in teeth from specimens dug up from a fossil site in Chad with the help of a laser that freed carbon from the enamel. — PTI