Art Knowledge News - Keeping You in Touch with the World of Art...

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• Legendary Jewels from the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor to be Sold by Christie's
• The Brooklyn Museum Exhibits "Ten Years Later ~ Ground Zero Remembered"
• Calvert 22 Presents Contemporary Art From Central Asia
• "Docks Art Fair" ~ The 3rd Edition of the Lyon International Contemporary Art Fair
• Mallick Williams & Co Presents a Solo Exhibition by Erik Foss
• Eleven Fine Arts Presents Ben Turnbull's Celebration of Modern Day Heroes
• MUMOK Reopens With New Exhibition from its Permanent Collection
• George Tooker Dies at 90 ~ Social Realism Painter & National Medal of Arts Winner
• The Museum of Modern Art presents Tim Burton ~ A Major Retrospective
• Selected Paintings 1969-2009 by Shirley Jaffe at Tibor de Nagy
• Ullens Center for Contemporary Art opens "8 Key Figures of China's New Generation of Artists"
• See Nero and Seneca by Eduardo Barrón "Converse" at the Prado Museum
• Miami Art Museum Presents Self-Taught Miami Artist - Purvis Young
• Riflemaker in Soho to feature Alice Anderson's "Time Reversal"
• Museum of Modern Art Celebrates Pioneering Filmmaker Ida Lupino
• Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) to showcase Illustrations from the Mazza Collection
• First Major Exhibition in Armenia of Original Works by Artist Arshile Gorky
• World's Leading Photography Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles
• The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum opens "Sleeping Under Stars" a Finley & Muse Project
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Legendary Jewels from the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor to be Sold by Christie's Posted: 07 Sep 2011 10:25 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY - Elizabeth Taylor dazzled the world with her luminous beauty, lavish lifestyle — and an unquenchable passion for diamonds and jewels that was fueled by the great loves of her life. The late Hollywood star amassed one of the foremost jewelry collections in the world, including a 33.19-carat diamond ring and a 16th century pear-shaped pearl from one of her seven husbands, Richard Burton. The Associated Press recently viewed about two dozen of her most iconic pieces at Christie's auction house, which is selling her complete jewelry collection, valued at $30 million, in New York on Dec. 13-14. "These are the top jewels that Elizabeth Taylor received from the great loves of her life, Mike Todd and Richard Burton," said Christie's jewelry expert Rahul Kadakia. "They're from moments in life that were very dear to her," jewels that were purchased in Bulgari in Rome, at Cartier in New York and at auction. The stories behind them are as priceless as the gems themselves. In a 2002 memoir, "My Love Affair with Jewelry," Taylor took readers on a personal journey of her collection, describing in her own words how she came to own each piece. "I never, never thought of my jewelry as trophies," she wrote. "I'm here to take care of them and to love them. . When I die and they go off to auction I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home." It's an extraordinary collection of rubies, diamonds, emeralds and sapphires in intricate and bold designs. Among the standouts is the 16th-century La Peregrina, one of the largest and most symmetrically perfect pear-shaped pearls in the world, which Burton purchased for Taylor in 1969 as a Valentine's Day gift. The two had met in Italy on the set of the 1963 film "Cleopatra," and married for the first time in 1964. Once part of the Crown Jewels of Spain, the pearl later passed into the hands of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon III and the Duke of Abercorn. When it came up at auction in New York, Burton snapped it up for $37,000, beating out the underbidder, a member of the Spanish Royal family. Cartier later created a ruby and diamond necklace from which the pearl was suspended, a design that was inspired by the famous Velazquez portraits of Spain's Queen Margarita and Queen Isabel wearing the pearl as a necklace. It is estimated to fetch $2 million to $3 million. Taylor, who was married eight times — twice to Burton — died in March at age 79. The couple appeared together in about a dozen films, including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in which Taylor played an alcoholic shrew in an emotionally sadomasochistic marriage. Burton was enamored of historical pieces, and in 1972 purchased the famous 17th-century Taj Mahal diamond pendant for Taylor's 40th birthday. The transaction took place at John F. Kennedy International Airport because the couple didn't have time to run into the city before catching a plane, said Kadakia. The heart-shaped diamond is associated with one of history's greatest love stories. It belonged to Emperor Shah Jahangir, who had the diamond inscribed with his wife's name "Nur Jahan." He later passed the stone on to his son, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife Mumtaz, who died in childbirth. "I would have liked to buy her the Taj Mahal but it would cost too much to transport," Burton remarked after buying it. Cartier later recreated the diamond's original silk cord as a gold rope-like necklace set with rubies and diamonds. The necklace has a pre-sale estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. "Jewelry was a way of life for Elizabeth Taylor. They were her friends. She enjoyed wearing them and it gave her a lot of pleasure because they reminded her of the great moments in her life, the great places in her life," Kadakia said. Like the time Taylor's third husband, theater and film producer Mike Todd, presented her with a red leather Cartier box as she sat by the pool at a rented villa in the south of France. Inside was a ruby necklace, matching earrings and bracelet. "She was so, so happy that she jumped into the pool wearing all this jewelry and started doing laps," said Kadakia, adding that the pieces will be sold separately. One of the most extravagant gifts Taylor received from Burton was the asscher-cut 33.19-carat diamond set in a platinum ring. Known as the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, Kadakia said its size and clarity — "as white as they can be and potentially flawless" makes it a perfect gem. Burton purchased it in 1968 at a New York auction for $305,000. At the December sale, it's expected to fetch $2.5 million to $3.5 million. "Elizabeth Taylor used to refer to it as her baby and wore it as much and as often as she could," said Kadakia, including in nearly all her subsequent films. Among the pieces of jewelry that Taylor purchased for herself was the Duchess of Windsor diamond brooch, which she got at auction for $620,000. Kadakia said she paid a big price for it for two reasons, to remember her friend and because the proceeds were going to a cause dear to her, AIDS research. The brooch is estimated to bring $400,000 to $600,000. Eighty of the most iconic pieces will be sold on the evening of Dec. 13. The following day, 189 more gems will be sold. About 500 pieces of Taylor's costume jewelry will be sold online at the same time. Christie's also will be selling the star's haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion, accessories, 20th-century decorative arts and film memorabilia from her Bel Air home on Dec. 14-16. Details have not been released. Christie's said the top 80 jewelry pieces will be shipped prior to the auction to Geneva, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai and Los Angeles; many of them also will be shown in London and Moscow. Serious collectors will be able to try on the jewelry by appointment. The entire collection will be exhibited from Dec. 3-10 at Christie's New York galleries. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibition admissions and publications related to the sales will be donated to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Proceeds from the auctions will go to Taylor's estate. Christie's auction house has announced the sale of the late great actress's collection of clothes, objects d'art and memorabilia at a series of auctions whose exact dates will be publicized. The main attraction at the upcoming sellout will be Taylor's world-famous collection of jewelry including unique gems like the 69-carat Taylor-Burton diamond. Taylor died in March at the ripe age of 79, having amassed a collection of precious stones worth approximately $150 million – the result of a life-long habit of being on the receiving end of numerous gifts from people she knew and studios. Elizabeth died on March 23 due to some cardiac problems, but before she passed away she asked for her casket to arrive 15 minutes late at the funeral. The actress had a private funeral in a Jewish cemetery in Forest Lawn Memorial Jewels were not only keys to her heart, they were something she understood and appreciated. Taylor's friend Lorraine Schwartz, a jeweler, told PEOPLE that the movie icon had rooms taken up by collections – yet she knew the exact location of every single item, a quality that she found amazing. PEOPLE's article that appeared on March 28 at the first indication that Christie may begin an auction sale of the collection also quotes Peter Sedghi, President and SEO of Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills. He cooperated with the actress on the House of Taylor jewelry range and was surprised to see that Taylor was more knowledgeable on the subject than he was. Burton paid $305,000 for the 33.19-carat Harry Winston ring in 1968. "This remarkable stone is called the Krupp diamond because it had been owned by Vera Krupp, of the famous munitions family that helped knock off millions of Jews," wrote Taylor. "When it came up for auction in the late 1960s, I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it. In truth, though, there's nothing funny about the Krupp. When I look into it, the deep Asscher cuts—which are so complete and ravishing—are like steps that lead into eternity and beyond. With its sparks of red and white and blue and purple, and on and on, really, it sort of hums with its own beatific life. To me, the Krupp says, 'I want to share my chemistry—my magic—with you.'" She wore it almost every day of her life.

The Brooklyn Museum Exhibits "Ten Years Later ~ Ground Zero Remembered" Posted: 07 Sep 2011 09:28 PM PDT BROOKLYN, N.Y.- The Brooklyn Museum will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, with an installation, Ten Years Later: Ground Zero Remembered, the focal point of which will be a work in the late Michael Richards's Tuskegee Airmen Series (1997) and Christoph Draeger's photographic jigsaw puzzle WTC, September 17 (2003). The works will be displayed alongside two 2002 comment books filled with text and images by visitors who viewed images documenting 9/11 displayed on the first anniversary of the tragic events.

Calvert 22 Presents Contemporary Art From Central Asia Posted: 07 Sep 2011 07:49 PM PDT London.- Calvert 22 is proud to present "Between Heaven and Earth: Contemporary Art from the Centre of Asia", on view from September 14th through Novermber 13th. "Between Heaven and Earth" is a ground-breaking and timely exhibition which will bring to UK audiences a strong sense of the overlooked, yet exceptionally vibrant contemporary art that is being made in the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as in Afghanistan and Mongolia. The persistent mythology of the Silk Road, as well as the 'Great Game' played out between the British and Russian Empires in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has dominated the Western view of these mysterious lands. More recently, however, these rich cultural and physical landscapes have been dismissed in the West as the 'Stans' and downgraded to theatres of environmental degradation, religious conflict and war. The result of such a reductive approach, is a perception radically different from the truth: one that is devoid of nuance and processed into inhuman clichés of a "Borat" style, post-Soviet wasteland. "Between Heaven and Earth" depicts a radically different 'landscape'.

"Docks Art Fair" ~ The 3rd Edition of the Lyon International Contemporary Art Fair Posted: 07 Sep 2011 07:34 PM PDT Lyon, France.- Created in 2007 by gallery owners Olivier and Patricia Houg, Docks Art Fair is the only biennial fair devoted to solo shows by contemporary artists. This monograph focus is coupled with a unique artistic approach, in an accessible, friendly environment. Docks Art Fair is on from September 13th through September 18th (public days are from the 15th through the 18th). The fair is held on the docks, 100m from the Sucrière at 45 quai Rambaud - 69002 Lyon, France. With the support of the Grand Lyon urban community, the RhôneAlpes region, the CIC Lyonnaise de Banque, main private sponsor, and Montblanc, co-organiser of the Montblanc/Docks Art Fair Prize.

Mallick Williams & Co Presents a Solo Exhibition by Erik Foss Posted: 07 Sep 2011 07:20 PM PDT New York City.- Mallick Williams & Co. is thrilled to open its autumn season with "Avarice", a solo exhibition of abstract poignant paintings by artist Erik Foss, on view at the gallery from September 11th through September 30th. Throughout his career Foss has established a practice that challenges status-quo notions of propriety by functioning between the worlds of high art and downtown culture. Foss in his artwork and social gestures (he is a founder of Lit and the attendant Fuse gallery) frames the clash of these two worlds that both neglects and provides ornate excess.

Eleven Fine Arts Presents Ben Turnbull's Celebration of Modern Day Heroes Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:42 PM PDT London.- Eleven Fine Arts is delighted to present a new series of collages by Ben Turnbull, entitled "Supermen", which constructs modern day heroes from collaged fragments of vintage comic book idols. On the advent of the ten year anniversary of 9/11, Turnbull celebrates the real life heroes, the firemen, and policemen who protect us everyday, in iconic new images meticulously constructed from fragments of fictional superheroes including Captain America, Daredevil, and The Fantastic Four as well as Batman, Spiderman, and the Hulk. The palette of red, white and blue that predominates in the work and gives form to these figures reflects the depth of their patriotism and willingness to serve. "Supermen" is on view at the gallery from September 16th through October 22nd.

MUMOK Reopens With New Exhibition from its Permanent Collection Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:41 PM PDT Vienna, Austria - On the 9th of September Karola Kraus will be re-opening the MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien with her "Museum of Desires" and thus ushering in a new era on the 10th anniversary of the institution in the MuseumsQuartier. After renovations and rebuilding by the Austrian architects Ortner & Ortner and the installation of a cinema by Heimo Zobernig and Michael Wallraff the museum relaunch will begin with a focussed programme and a new appearance. "Museum of Desires" will remain on view through January 8th 2012. The Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK) stands for open and innovative interaction with modern and contemporary art. The exceptional collection and the pioneering exhibitions and events have given the museum an excellent international reputation so that compared to larger institutions it is a jewel. "With the "Museum of Desires", my first large presentation, I want to send a signal about the collection and the exhibition strategy for the museum in the coming years," said Director Karola Kraus who has been in office since 1 October 2010. In her first exhibition Karola Kraus will be presenting her subjective point of view of the MUMOK's nine-thousand-work collection on all of its levels. In the process she focuses attention on a selection of key works and work groups. These are structured according to chronology and content and feature pioneers of modernism, continuing on up to the most recent positions. In amongst the exhibits from the collection there are works that the museum would like to acquire in the coming years. More than thirty works by internationally acclaimed artists—including Dan Flavin, Fred Sandback, Ray Johnson, Robert Barry, Henryk Stazewski, Geta Bratescu, Isa Genzken, Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler and Monika Sosnowska — have been selected by Karola Kraus so as to supplement existing collection focal points and set new accents for the future. The "objects of desire" have been loaned by galleries and collectors for the duration of the exhibition. Patrons and supporters are being encouraged to help the MUMOK gratify its desires and thus enable the museum to continue to fulfil is responsibilities in regard to its core mission—collecting—despite dwindling public funds for acquisitions. Following up on past "wish" exhibitions such as the legendary "Museum of Our Wishes" by Pontus Hultén at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (1963-1964, 2009) and the one in the Ludwig Museum Köln by Kasper König (2001), Karola Kraus links in her initial exhibition innovative presentational forms with goals which are proactive in relation to acquisition strategy. Her curatorial signature takes the foreground along with her vision of presenting the museum as a lively and open institution. "This show sends out a number of signals. On the one hand I consider it important to further expand the collection. On the other hand I would like to show large scale monographic exhibitions and subject-related group shows that enter into a dialogue with the collection. The "desires" are intended to fill gaps in the collection, especially in the areas of minimal and conceptual art, but also to underline our intention to give more attention to the acquisition of positions in contemporary art. For example, I wish for monument for V. Tatlin (1964), one of Dan Flavin's seminal works, in order to provide a historical basis for the works by the artist which are already in the collection. We also want a work by Fred Sandback, a further artist who is central to minimal art and not yet represented in the collection. Furthermore I would like to integrate the most important pioneer of conceptual art, Marcel Broodthaers, into the collection thus closing a large gap. Cindy Sherman and Louise Lawler are pioneering artists in the area of new media whose works are still available on the market at affordable prices. In addition, we would like to acquire works by younger artists such as Thomasz Kowalski, Marzena Nowak or Christian Mayer. With the "Museum of Desires" my first concern is to show the direction in which our collection should go and, of course, I very much hope that many of our wishes will come true," says Karola Kraus. The MUMOK (Museum für Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien) is Austria's largest and most significant museum for contemporary art. First opened in 1962 as the Museum of the 20th Century in the Schweizergarten park, the MUMOK is now at its third address and with its third name (regularly moving to accommodate its expanding collection). MUMOK's commitment to both history and the present and its museological, scientific and educational mission demands its profound engagement in the collection, research and communication of international artworks of modernism, the recent past, and the the present. With its emphasis on Pop Art and Photorealism, taken from the Austrian Ludwig Foundation, Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme, taken from the Hahn Collection, and Viennese Actionism, MUMOK offers a unique blend of art focusing on society and reality as well as of performative art of the 20th century. MUMOK communicates the social relevance of art by illustrating the changes in art perception and their causes, both historical and contemporary. With reference to the present, MUMOK participates in the socio-political discourse and opposes tendencies which challenge the freedom of art and cultural policy. The collection spans from the Cubist, Futurist, and Surrealist works of classical modernism to Pop Art, Fluxus, and Nouveau Realism from the 1960s and 1970s. The early 20th century is represented with paintings and sculptures by masters Like Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. The collection includes important works of Pop Art by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein as well as definitive examples of Fluxus, and conceptual art, In recent years, the collection has been expanded with present-day film, video, photo and graphic art. In total, the MUMOK collection contains around 9,700 works: paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, graphic works, photos, videos, films, architectural models and furniture from the first half of the 20th century. The collection of Classic Modernism contains the most important movements and artists of the heroic years of modernism right up to the abstract and expressive tendencies of the post World War II period. Expressionism (Richard Gerstl, Oskar Kokoschka, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff), Cubism and Futurism (Henri Laurens, Giacomo Balla), constructive tendencies, Bauhaus (Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee) are represented as are important works from the areas of Dada and Surrealism (Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Max Ernst, René Magritte). Amongst the pioneering works of modernism to be found are André Derain's Cowering Figure and František Kupka's Nocturne, two of the earliest examples of conscious abstraction. The great 'lone warriors' who were committed to the human figure such as Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon are represented with outstanding works and form an antipole to the abstractionists of the 50's (Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Morris Louis, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni). Nouveau Réalisme is one of the focal points of the Hahn collection which was acquired by MUMOK in 1978, and the collection includes important works by Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques de la Villeglé. César, Mimmo Rotella, Georg Baselitz, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Gérard Deschamps and Christo. Equally important in the collection are works from the Fluxus movement. Alongside numerous important works of Viennese Actionism the museum also holds extensive documentation in the MUMOK's archive of actionism. A younger generation of artists is showcased in the 'MUMOKFactory', a separate exhibition space with a cinema, where the emphasis is on experimental media and performance art and several exhibition levels are used for special exhibitions. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.mumok.at

George Tooker Dies at 90 ~ Social Realism Painter & National Medal of Arts Winner Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:31 PM PDT New York, NY - One of the most acclaimed painters of his generation, George Tooker (1920-2011) possessed an originality and depth of vision that is unsurpassed in modern American art. For over sixty years, he has been highly regarded for his luminous and often enigmatic work. His themes range from alienation and the dehumanizing aspects of contemporary society to personal meditations on the human condition. Tooker began his career at a time when the prevailing aesthetic was "modernism" and the darlings of the art world were American minimalists. Tooker, however, was clear from the beginning that he had no interest in minimalist art, very much to the contrary, he was instead bent on creating "maximalist" art. He has said that "in one kind of painting I'm trying to say 'this is what we are forced to suffer in life,' while in other paintings I say 'this is what we should be.'" Tooker first came to prominence for imaginative visions that expressed the uncertainty of the Cold War era. Among his best-known paintings is "Subway" (1950, Whitney Museum of American Art), a powerful work that explores the anxiety and isolation of nameless individuals in urban society. He was very involved with the Civil Rights Movement as well, in one instance marching in Selma, Alabama, with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965, and frequently addressed issues of race and oppression in his work. In addition to his engagement with social commentary, Tooker also created strikingly beautiful paintings of a more personal nature, many of which are concerned with states of consciousness, mysterious meditative realms between sleep and wakefulness. His good friend Lincoln Kirstein once characterized his work as Magic Realism, which has since been frequently used to describe his paintings. Tooker never cared much for that designation, however, because of the connotations of fantasy and Surrealism. "I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I am not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy," he once said. Tooker died at his home in Hartland, Vermont, on Sunday, March 27 at the age of ninety. The cause was kidney failure according to DC Moore Gallery, New York, which represents the artist. George Claire Tooker, Jr. was born August 5, 1920, in Brooklyn New York. He was the first child of a Cuban-American mother and a father who was a municipal bond broker. Tooker's only sibling, Mary, was born later. Shortly after his birth the Tooker family moved to the more rural Bellport in south-central Long Island, some fifty miles east of New York City. The trajectory of his life began to manifest itself from the age of seven, when he began taking painting lessons from Malcolm Fraser, a family friend whose oeuvre was in the Barbizon tradition. Tooker began high school in Bellport. However, his parents weren't much impressed with the quality of the school, and he spent his last two years at the more rigorously academic Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, north of Boston. George developed an intense dislike of the straight-laced school, with its orientation toward business and finance, and its concern that its students learn to hide their emotions. He gravited instead toward the school's art studio, where he worked at landscape drawing and watercolors. By virtue of its location, Andover did furnish some additional, if unintended education - Tooker became aware of effects of the Depression on the mill towns north of Andover. He was angered by the sharp contrast between the comfortable lifestyle of the children of the economic elite who attended the academy, and the many unemployed. After graduation from Phillips in 1938, Tooker went on to Harvard, where he majored in English literature, that having been the only academic subject of interest to him at Phillips. Yet he spent much of his time at the Fogg Art Museum, and in the towns surrounding Boston, where he made watercolor sketches of the urban and rural landscapes. The Fogg's holdings include early Italian Renaissance, pre-Raphaelite and 19th-century French art. He also took up with some radical political organizations, but soon found them doctrinaire and boring. Nevertheless, it was during this time that he first became interested in the potential of art as a tool for social justice. Especially inspirational was the work of Mexican painters, especially David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco. Graduating from Harvard in 1942, he immediately enlisted in the Marine Corps Officer's Candidate School, but an old stomach ailment turned serious, and he was discharged after a few months there. Now at loose ends, Tooker decided to pursue his long-standing desire to study art. Securing his parent's support, he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York. Here he studied for two years with Reginald Marsh who worked in egg tempera, Kenneth Hayes Miller who also taught Edward Hopper, and Harry Sternberg. In 1944 Tooker met the painter Paul Cadmus. Cadmus was another painter who worked with egg tempera (using traditional Reanissance techniques), and transmitted this expertise to Tooker, whose use of this medium marks his mature style. A year later, with the financial support of his family, George moved to a flat on the bohemian Bleecker Street in Greewich Village, New York. In 1949 Cadmus and Tooker spent six months travelling in Italy and France; and in the same year George met painter William Christopher, who was to become his life partner until Christopher's death in 1973. In 1950 Tooker and Christopher moved into an illegal loft located at W. 18th St. Here, in order to support themselves, they made custom furniture. However, Tooker was beginning to earn both recognition and income from his art, the Whitney Museum bought his best-known painting, "The Subway", that year, he had a one-man exhibition in New York City in 1951, in 1954 he received a commission to design sets for an opera and in 1955 he held his second one-man show. With greater means as their disposal, the two first bought and renovated a brownstone on State Street in Brooklyn Heights and then, in the late 1950s, he and Christopher built a weekend home near Hartland, Vermont. The one-man shows in New York galleries picked up speed, Tooker having his own exhibitions in 1960, 1962, 1964 and 1967. Christopher died in Spain in 1973, and Tooker spent most of 1974 there, wrapping up disposition of his estate. Also in '73, a major survey exhibition of Tooker's work was organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. That exhibition traveled to Chicago, New York, and Indianapolis. In 1976 Tooker became a Roman Catholic, and attended St. Francis of Assisi Church. After it burned down, he created a major painting for it, The Seven Sacraments. Until his death, Tooker lived and worked in in Harland, Vermont. George Tooker is represented in museum collections across the country, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and National Museum of American Art. He has had numerous museum exhibitions over the years, such as a retrospective, George Tooker: Paintings, 1947-1973, organized by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California, in 1974; George Tooker: Paintings and Working Drawings at the Marsh Gallery, University of Richmond, Virginia, in 1989; 50 Years of Painting and Study Drawings at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1994; and George Tooker: A Retrospective at the National Academy Museum, New York, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, in 2008-09. His most recent exhibition was George Tooker: Studies for Paintings at DC Moore Gallery, New York, in 2009. He received the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2007. Tooker is survived by a sister, Mary Tooker Graham; her children, Peter and Russell Hume, and Angus and Angela Graham; and family members, Aaron Watkins and Sheila Adams, and Robert and Robin Watkins.

The Museum of Modern Art presents Tim Burton ~ A Major Retrospective Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:30 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) presents Tim Burton, a major retrospective exploring the full scale of Tim Burton's career, both as a director and concept artist for live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. On view from November 22, 2009, through April 26, 2010, the exhibition brings together over 700 examples of sketchbooks, concept art, drawings, paintings, photographs, and a selection of his amateur films, and is the Museum's most comprehensive monographic exhibition devoted to a filmmaker. An extensive film retrospective spanning Burton's 27-year career runs throughout the exhibition, along with a related series of films that influenced, inspired, and intrigued Burton as a filmmaker. Tim Burton is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

Selected Paintings 1969-2009 by Shirley Jaffe at Tibor de Nagy Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:29 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Tibor de Nagy presents a forty-year retrospective of works by Paris-based American abstract painter Shirley Jaffe. The exhibition is the artist's third with the gallery. Jaffe's large-scale geometric abstractions are inspired by what she sees day to day in the urban Paris landscape. This vision is translated ultimately into colorful shapes and scriptive lines, set against generous white grounds, creating playful and balanced compositions. On view through 24 April.

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art opens "8 Key Figures of China's New Generation of Artists" Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:28 PM PDT BEIJING.- The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) presents "Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China's New Generation of Artists", a groundbreaking exhibition showcasing a comprehensive look at the future of contemporary art in China. The exhibition will gather an exciting group of emerging and mid-career artists working throughout China today: Cao Fei, Chu Yun, Liu Wei, MadeIn, Qiu Zhijie, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Yang Fudong and Zheng Guogu. On exhibition from 17 November through 28 Febuary, 2010.

See Nero and Seneca by Eduardo Barrón "Converse" at the Prado Museum Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:27 PM PDT MADRID.- Visitors of The Prado are able to contemplate the sculptural group Nero and Seneca (Eduardo Barrón, 1904) in room 74 and admire the result of the study and restoration process undertaken on the piece by the restoration department in coordination with the sculpture department of the Museum. Eduardo Barrón's plaster and partly polychromed sculptural group of Nero and Seneca won the gold medal at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in 1904. The artist was also the author of the first catalogue raisonné of the Museo del Prado's sculpture collection and the Museum's curator and restorer of sculpture until his early death in 1911. Together with the particularly fragile nature of the plaster of which it is made, this meant that various fragments were missing and that it had generally deteriorated. As a result, its recent restoration at the Museum was a particularly complex operation.

Miami Art Museum Presents Self-Taught Miami Artist - Purvis Young Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:26 PM PDT MIAMI, FL.- Miami Art Museum opens a new exhibition in the Focus Gallery section of its Permanent Collection installation, dedicated to works by the late Purvis Young. Focus Gallery: Purvis Young (July 30 - November 7, 2010) features a selection of Young's paintings from the museum's permanent collection that span the career of the celebrated, self-taught Miami painter who passed away in April of this year at the age of 67. Purvis Young's work reflects the condition experienced by residents of Miami's Overtown, the historic African American neighborhood that was transformed from a thriving community to an impoverished inner-city environment in the 1960's and 70's, when interstate 95 was erected. Against this backdrop, Young's work serves as inspiration for the capacity of the creative spirit to reclaim, transform, restore and renew.

Riflemaker in Soho to feature Alice Anderson's "Time Reversal" Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:25 PM PDT LONDON.- The French/Algerian artist Alice Anderson (b.1976) will fill Riflemaker in Soho with thousands of metres of hair as part of an installation, including film, sculptures and photographs, based on fictional childhood memories from 1 March 2010. Anderson considers time, or more particularly the way that time shapes itself, to be her most significant working material. For her, memories can be described as reconstructions, often distorted to the extent that each becomes a creation or fiction itself. She views memory as the 'master of fiction', whereby the passage of time may lead to a remembrance being more akin to fiction than fact.

Museum of Modern Art Celebrates Pioneering Filmmaker Ida Lupino Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:24 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Ida Lupino: Mother Directs, a comprehensive selection of films by actress and filmmaker Ida Lupino (American, b. Great Britain, 1918–1995) runs August 26 through September 20, 2010, at The Museum of Modern Art, presenting select films from 1949 to 1966, including her directorial debut Never Fear (1950). The series highlights the filmmaker's brilliantly balanced career both in front of the camera, acting in over 100 productions for film and television, and behind the camera as a pioneering director who pushed the limits of social taboos and become the second woman to be admitted to the Director's Guild. The 14 film exhibition is organized by Anne Morra, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) to showcase Illustrations from the Mazza Collection Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:23 PM PDT TOLEDO, OH.- A new exhibition featuring approximately 75 enchanting original illustrations for children's books opens Oct. 9 at the Toledo Museum of Art. Storybook Stars: Award-Winning Illustrations from the Mazza Collection will be shown through Jan. 31, 2010 in the Works on Paper Galleries. Admission to both the Museum and the exhibition is free. The new exhibit features works produced over the past 50 years by such celebrated artists as Maurice Sendak, Eric Carle, Arnold Lobel and Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss).

First Major Exhibition in Armenia of Original Works by Artist Arshile Gorky Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:22 PM PDT YEREVAN, ARMENIA.- The Cafesjian Center for the Arts announced that the first major exhibition in Yerevan of original work by the American-Armenian artist Arshile Gorky will take place at the Center from November 8, 2009 through January 31, 2010. "Arshile Gorky: Selections from the Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection" will exhibit 16 drawings and 7 paintings by the man who would become known as the most monumental presence in American twentieth-century art. This is the first major exhibition of original work in Armenia by Arshile Gorky, an artist once described by a critic of the time as a "hero of Abstract Expressionism."

World's Leading Photography Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:21 PM PDT ARLES, FRANCE - The third cycle of the Prix Pictet launches at Les Rencontres d'Arles, the world's foremost photography festival, on 8 July 2010. The new cycle will be announced at the Théâtre Antique, Arles, with a special presentation of work by the four Prix Pictet laureates to date. Benoit Aquin's 2010 Haiti project is among the new work to be featured. The Prix Pictet, conceived and run by the Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie, is the first photography award to provide a global platform for the application of art to the critical issues of global sustainability. Its honorary president is HE Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum opens "Sleeping Under Stars" a Finley & Muse Project Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:20 PM PDT RIDGEFIELD, CT.- The collaborative team of Jeanne C. Finley and John Muse have based their first major project in the northeast on the sweep of over 200 years of Ridgefield, Connecticut's, history. The exhibition will debut on Sunday, January 31, 2010. The exhibition ends on June 6, 2010 at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. The exhibition, entitled Sleeping Under Stars, Living Under Satellites, explores different ways of keeping time and moving through space by presenting the wanderings of legendary historical figures from Ridgefield, Sarah Bishop and the Leatherman.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 07 Sep 2011 06:19 PM PDT This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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