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

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• The Art Gallery Of New South Wales ~ The World's Leading Collection Of Australian Art ~ Visited By 1.5 Million Annually
• Kunsthistorisches Museum Presents the Amazing Bernard Pras Exhibition
• National Museum Wales Acquires Picasso's "Still Life with Poron"
• Savannah College of Art showcases Famous Works on Paper
• Metropolitan Museum of Art to show Pierre Bonnard ~ The Late Interiors
• "Art in Motion" by Sonia Delaunay at Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• The Neue Galerie New York presents “Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism"
• The Louvre Abu Dhabi Features the Museum's First Acquisitions Preview
• Egyptian Culture and Tourism Is Dying ~ Artifacts Are Being Repaired ~ Can Egypt Be Repaired?
• Toledo Museum of Art acquires Bolognese Master Guercino's Baroque Painting
• The Benaki Museum hosts Constantine (Dikos) Byzantios
• Warhol Exhibition opened at the New Johnson Center for the Arts
• The Frist Center to display Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris
• The Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK) ~ The Largest Museum for Modern & Contemporary Art in Vienna ~ Is Toured By AKN Editor
• The Morgan Library & Museum Hosts a Major Exhibition Honoring the Birth of Charles Dickens
• The Brooklyn Museum Shows Installation Art by Sanford Biggers
• The Corcoran Displays Contemporary African American Art in "30 Americans"
• The Provincetown Art Association & Museum Features Paintings & Watercolors by Kenneth Stubbs
• Getty Center Exhibition Explores the Birth of the L.A. Art Scene 1950 1970
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Art Gallery Of New South Wales ~ The World's Leading Collection Of Australian Art ~ Visited By 1.5 Million Annually Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:43 PM PDT The beginnings of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) date back to the 1800s. In the 1870s an Academy of Art was established in Sydney 'for the purpose of promoting fine arts through lecture, art classes and regular exhibitions' and, with funds made available by government, acquired the first artworks for the Gallery. 1870 was a year of violent unrest in Europe, the Franco-Prussian war and the establishment of the Paris commune threatened the great art treasure troves of Europe (the Louvre narrowly escaped being burned down), Italian troops occupied the Vatican, and the intelligentsia of a young Australia began considering having to carry the torch of culture as Europe degenerated into chaos. The fact that Melbourne had established an art gallery in 1861 riled Sydneysiders, who believed that their city should possess a collection of art worthy of the Mother Colony of Australia. The first home for Sydney's art collection was at Clark's Assembly Hall in Elizabeth Street. This building, which had at one time been used for dancing classes, was rented between 1875 and 1879. It was open to the public on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The International Exhibition of 1879 provided an opportunity for the national collection to be re-housed more suitably. Space was initially allocated in the main hall of the Garden Palace, but as lighting and display possibilities were not considered adequate, the government allowed William Wardell to construct a 'Fine Arts Annex' of nine rooms near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. Concerns for safety and conservation of works, as well as the fire which destroyed the Garden Palace in 1882, ruled out the annex as a permanent home for the collection. In December 1885 the collection was moved to a building of six rooms at the present site in the Domain. The present building (originally constructed between 1896 and 1909) is the work of government architect Walter Liberty Vernon, who secured the prestigious commission over the less conventional architect John Horbury Hunt. The trustees demanded a classical temple to art, not unlike William Playfair's fine gallery in Edinburgh, and that is what they got. The original building has been extended throughout its life, first in 1968 when the NSW government decided that the completion of the Gallery should be a major part of the Captain Cook bicentenary celebrations. This extension, which was opened to the public in November 1970, and those made to the east of the existing structure as part of the national bicentenary in 1988, were both the responsibility of Government architect Andrew Andersons. The 1988 eastern extension doubled the size of the Gallery. It provided expanded display space for the collection and temporary exhibitions, a new gallery for Asian art and an outdoor sculpture garden. In 1994 the Yiribana Gallery, a space devoted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture, was opened. In 2003, the new Asian gallery, designed by Sydney architect Richard Johnson of Johnson Pilton Walker, was opened. This major building project also included alterations to the original Asian gallery, a new temporary exhibition space above the Gallery's entrance foyer, new conservation studios, a cafe, a restaurant and a dedicated function area with spectacular harbour views. The gallery is now visited by more than 1,500,000 people annually. Visit the museum's website … http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ The European collections were initially based on a policy of acquiring contemporary British and Continental art on the recommendations of art advisers in London and Paris. The Art Gallery of NSW boasts a distinguished and extensive collection of British Victorian art, along with smaller but impressive holdings of Dutch, French and Italian painters of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and an excellent collection of modern British masters and European modernists. Key names in art history are represented, from Peter Paul Rubens to Pablo Picasso. In the early years of the Gallery, works from abroad were acquired soon after they were painted, often from the annual Royal Academy exhibition in London or the Paris Salon. With the help of benefactor James Fairfax, the gallery has added to their holdings of British Victorian art, including major works by Lord Frederic Leighton and Sir Edward John Poynter; Dutch, French and Italian painters from the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Canaletto; and Italian Mannerist paintings, including works by Agnolo Bronzino, Domenico Beccafumi and Nicolò dell'Abate. At the Gallery, these hang in the Grand Courts along with work by Eugène Delacroix, John Constable, Ford Madox Brown, Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro. British art of the 20th century occupies a significant place in the collection together with major European figures such as Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alberto Giacometti and Giorgio Morandi. The Department of Contemporary Art was founded in 1979. Purchases were made prior to that time, but it has been in the period since then that a lively exhibition program and acquisitions policy have been implemented. The collection focuses upon work which has developed since the 1960s, with an emphasis on the more recent artworks of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the famous David Hockney. Today, the contemporary collection is truly international, encompassing Asian and Western as well as Australian art in all media. Internationally, the focus is on European work and the influence of conceptual art, nouveau realisme, minimalism and arte povera, in particular. The first Australian oil painting to enter the Gallery's collection, William Piguenit's "Mount Olympus, Lake St Clair, Tasmania, the source of the Derwent", was a gift. This tradition of patronage has remained crucial to the development of the collections since that time. From the early 19th century to the present a legion of great Australian artists have filled the Gallery that was built for them and have formed its heart. The Art Gallery of NSW collection of Australian art is amongst the finest and most representative in the country. Dating from the early 1800s, it contains almost 12,500 works, including many iconic paintings and sculpture from the annals of Australian art history by Eugene von Guérard, Bertram Mackennal, WC Piguenit, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder along with 20th-century artists such as Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Lloyd Rees, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen, Robert Klippel, James Gleeson, Fred Williams, John Brack, Sidney Nolan, Charles Meere, and Brett Whiteley, all represented at their very best. Representing artists from communities across Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW's collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art celebrates Indigenous Australia's enduring cultural heritage and its myriad contemporary expressions. The earliest work in the collection, by Tommy McRae, dates back to the late 19th century, yet the stories, ceremonies and ancestral beings depicted in many of the works are testament to the oldest continuous culture in the world. From desert paintings created by small family groups living on remote Western Desert outstations and the bark paintings of the saltwater people of coastal communities to the new media expressions of 'blak city culture', contemporary artists have generated a renaissance of Indigenous visual art that has transfigured Australia's cultural landscape. For many years, the Art Gallery of NSW has played a major role in furthering understanding and enjoyment of Asian art and culture, and we are now firmly placed as a leading centre for Asian art. The first works to enter the Gallery collection in 1879 were a large group of ceramics and bronzes – a gift from the Government of Japan following the Sydney International Exhibition that year. Today, the Asian collections are wide-ranging, embracing the countries and cultures of South, Southeast and East Asia. The Art Gallery of NSW began collecting art from the Pacific region in 1962 at the instigation of the then deputy director, Tony Tuckson. Starting with purchases from commercial galleries in Sydney, the collection expanded significantly after Tuckson travelled to the Sepik region of New Guinea in 1965. The trip resulted in the first major exhibition of Melanesian art to be held at the Gallery, in 1966. One of the major lenders to that exhibition was Stanley Gordon Moriarty. Between 1968 and 1977, the Gallery acquired over 500 works from the Moriarty Collection, the largest and most important private collection of New Guinea Highland art. Today, our Pacific art collection numbers over 700 works from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and West Irian Jaya, and conveys the great cultural diversity of this vast area. A changing selection of works is displayed outside the Gallery's research library. Wood carvings and ritual masks, the best studied of Melanesian artifacts, are brilliantly colored. Each object was designed to serve a ritual purpose and thus was not meant to endure for posterity. Particular aspects of Melanesian art had an enormous impact on European artists, including Max Ernst and Constantin Brancusi (Sepik River style), Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore (New Ireland style), during the period from 1915 to 1940. Among the exhibitions currently on show at the Art Gallery of NSW is "Justin O'Brien: The Sacred Music of Colour" (until 27 February 2011). This retrospective celebrates the life's work of this much-admired Australian artist, Justin O'Brien (1917-1996). O'Brien is best known for his colourful and exuberant depictions of religious themes inspired by his biblical knowledge and the faith from which he had drifted and to which he later returned. He was the inaugural winner of the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 1951 and his painting "The raising of Lazarus" was acquired by the Vatican. This exhibition will also reveal a number of other key aspects of O'Brien's work, including his commanding use of colour and form and the sumptuous detail of his still lifes, portraits and landscapes. Many of his portraits are of students, painted during his 20 years as art master at the Cranbrook School in Sydney, and of fellow prisoners during his internment in Greece and Poland in World War II. They portray the remarkable story of compassion and respect shared between the artist and the people he encountered throughout his life. The exhibition includes over 90 paintings, watercolours and drawings, some of which have not been seen in public for more than 60 years, it brings to light works of intense beauty and harmony. "Artexpress" (until 10 April) features a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in Visual Arts, 2010. It includes a broad range of approaches and expressive forms, including ceramics, collection of works, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video. From now until the 22nd May 2011, "Rosemary Madigan, Sculptor" highlights the work of one of Australia's great stone and wood carvers, Rosemary Madigan as a celebration of her 85th year. As a 23-year-old in 1950 Madigan won the prestigious NSW Travelling Art Scholarship, which allowed her three years study in Europe. There, she met Henry Moore and studied the work of Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani, among others, but pursued more intensely the traditions of Romanesque sculpture through the churches and museums of England, France, Italy and Belgium. Sojourns in India – and the sensuousness, subtlety and stylisation of the three-dimensional art she encountered there – also had a profound impact. The influence of what Madigan has called the 'humanity and down-to-earthness' of medieval sculpture, along with the great traditions of Hindu and Buddhist art, can be seen in wonderfully understated works such as the 1986 "Torso", for which she received the Wynne Prize and which forms part of this Australian Collection Focus exhibition.

Kunsthistorisches Museum Presents the Amazing Bernard Pras Exhibition Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:40 PM PDT Vienna, Austria - In the course of putting together the exhibition on Arcimboldo (1526-1593), the show's curator, Sylvia Ferino, came across Bernard Pras and his unique oeuvre. After an extensive and wide-ranging training, the artist Bernard Pras slowly began to focus on portraiture while experimenting with many different techniques. We were particularly interested in his photographed "composite portraits" of famous, frequently long-dead personalities such as King Louis XIV of France, Salvador Dali, Albert Einstein, Lolo, or Dutronc, for which he selected composite elements that helped explain the sitter's character or the reason for his or her fame.

National Museum Wales Acquires Picasso's "Still Life with Poron" Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:38 PM PDT CARDIFF.- A new, free display, bringing together mid 20th century still life paintings, including Pablo Picasso's striking "Still Life with Poron" (1948) - the first oil painting by the artist to enter a Welsh public collection - will be on view at National Museum Cardiff from Tuesday, 10 November 2009. The Centenary Fund has been a joint initiative between Amgueddfa Cymru and the Derek Williams Trust to mark the Museum's centenary by making exceptional acquisitions of modern art. The Picasso still life is the most important of these. It will be shown initially alongside work by other leading artists of the 20th-century including Paul Cézanne, Giorgio Morandi and Ceri Richards.

Savannah College of Art showcases Famous Works on Paper Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:37 PM PDT SAVANNAH, GA - World-class works on paper by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse and Joan Miro will be on display and available for purchase at the Savannah College of Art and Design during the "Modern Masters" exhibition, held Sept. 2nd through 22nd  at Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St., Savannah.  An opening reception and printmaking demonstration will be held in the gallery Sept. 4, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Metropolitan Museum of Art to show Pierre Bonnard ~ The Late Interiors Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:36 PM PDT New York City - The first exhibition to focus entirely on the radiant late interiors and still-life paintings of Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) will open January 27, 2009, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors will feature 80 paintings, drawings, and watercolors that date from 1923 to 1947, when Bonnard centered his painting activity in Le Cannet, a hill town in the south of France. Working in his modest house overlooking the Mediterranean, Bonnard's paintings transformed the rooms and objects that surrounded him into dazzling images infused with intense light. It is these luminous late interiors that define Bonnard's modernism and prompt a reappraisal of his reputation in the history of 20th-century art. On view through 19 April, 2009.

"Art in Motion" by Sonia Delaunay at Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:31 PM PDT NEW YORK, N.Y. - A century ago, Sonia Delaunay and her husband, Robert, were brash young innovators in the avant-garde art world of Paris, exploring the idea that contrasting colors could be used to create a sense of movement and rhythm in art. Sonia, who was intent on merging art and everyday life, applied this principle of "simultaneity" (color suggesting motion) to clothing, which naturally moves and flows with the body. She says she realized the potential of fabric in 1911, when she made a patchwork quilt for her newborn son and saw that it evoked the abstract patterns of cubist art. Sonia Delaunay (nee Terk) (November 14, 1885 – December 5, 1979) was a Jewish-French artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Her work in modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing.

The Neue Galerie New York presents “Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism" Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:28 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY - The Neue Galerie New York presents "Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913." Featuring more than 100 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, this will be the first major exhibition in the United States to focus on the pioneering artists of the Expressionist group known as the Brücke. The show is organized by Reinhold Heller, a Neue Galerie board member and internationally recognized scholar of German Expressionism. The Neue Galerie is the sole venue for the show, where it will be on view through June 29.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi Features the Museum's First Acquisitions Preview Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:26 PM PDT ABU DHABI - On the occasion of a state visit by Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic, His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and President Sarkozy today inaugurated a preview experience of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the first universal museum in the Middle East. The event took place as part of a celebration to mark the commencement of construction of the museum. The preview, titled Talking Art: Louvre Abu Dhabi, will reveal for the first time the concept of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, with works from the Louvre and other French national museums being shown with the first acquisitions for the Louvre's Abu Dhabi developing collection.

Egyptian Culture and Tourism Is Dying ~ Artifacts Are Being Repaired ~ Can Egypt Be Repaired? Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:48 PM PDT CAIRO, EGYPT - While President Mubarak appeared on television to insist that he was staying on until elections in September, and it was unclear which way the Egyptian Army was going to jump, one of the world's great museums now resembles a military camp.  At The Egyptian Museum soldiers now patrol behind its wrought iron gates and armored vehicles are always parked nearby. Inside, workers with white coats and latex gloves delicately handle priceless artifacts that were damaged during the chaos sweeping Egypt. The country's most famous trove of antiquities have emerged mostly unscathed from the unrest so far, but tourism, a pillar of the Egyptian economy, has not. Tens of thousands of foreigners have fled Egypt, many on evacuation flights organized by their governments, draining a key source of employment and foreign currency. Egypt's most famous tourist attraction, the Pyramids of Giza, reopened to tourists on Wednesday after a 12-day closure. But few came to visit. The heavily guarded and shuttered Egyptian Museum in Cairo is next to Tahrir Square, a protest encampment that draws hundreds of thousands of people on some days.

Toledo Museum of Art acquires Bolognese Master Guercino's Baroque Painting Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:44 PM PDT TOLEDO, OH.-Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has been trying to fill for more than 50 years. A work by Bolognese master Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, commonly known as Guercino ("the squinter"), has been a long-sought-after addition to the TMA collection. Guercino's vibrant "Lot and His Daughters" (about 1651-1652) was acquired by the Museum in October of 2009. The large painting (176 x 231 cm / 69 ¼ x 90 7/8 inches) will be unveiled to Museum members and the general public on Friday, Jan. 22 during a 7 p.m. ceremony in the Museum's Great Gallery. "Lot and His Daughters" will temporarily hang in the gallery's most prominent location, normally reserved for Peter Paul Rubens' "Crowning of St. Catherine", which will be relocated to an adjacent wall. The move will result in several additional works being relocated within the gallery in order to show the new Guercino to its best advantage.

The Benaki Museum hosts Constantine (Dikos) Byzantios Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:43 PM PDT   Athens, Greece - The Benaki Museum hosts Constantine (Dikos) Byzantios (1924-2007), son of the painter Pericles Byzantios, was born in Athens. Since 1946 he lived and worked in Paris where he became a distinguished member of the École de Paris and associated a circle of eminent artists and intellectuals such as Alberto Giacometti, Eugène Ionesco, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Kastoriadis and Christian Zervos. On exhibition through 5 October, 2007.

Warhol Exhibition opened at the New Johnson Center for the Arts Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:43 PM PDT   Troy, AL - The Johnson Center for the Arts located in downtown Troy, Alabama, in conjunction with the Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, will feature an exhibition by Andy Warhol. Exclusive to The Johnson Center for the Arts, Alabama's first Andy Warhol retrospective brings together an outstanding selection of prints that capture a variety of subjects including celebrity, novelty, ordinary and the artist himself. The retrospective features a selection of works that span Warhol's most influential three decades of the 60's, 70's and 80's. The exhibition will be highlighted by The Center's Grand Opening to be held at 2 PM on September 14th.

The Frist Center to display Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:43 PM PDT PROVIDENCE, RI.- The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will present Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, opening Sept. 10, 2009, in the Upper-Level Galleries. The show, which offers a unique perspective on Surrealism by examining the intersection of documentary photography, manipulated photography and film, will be on exhibition.  It will travel to the International Center of Photography in New York followed by the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Ga. Paris was a hotbed of creative activity at the dawn of the 20th century, attracting artists and writers to its vibrant and wildly fertile art scene. Numerous galleries flourished during this period, fueling the immigration of many of the world's most talented artists.

The Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK) ~ The Largest Museum for Modern & Contemporary Art in Vienna ~ Is Toured By AKN Editor Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:43 PM PDT 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). The foundation of the museum in its current form was laid when the Ludwig Foundation was created in 1981, about half of the art collection owned by Peter and Irene Ludwig was transferred to the new foundation, augmented by a further, large donation in 1991. The need for space to display these works ultimately led the foundation to absorb the old Museum of the 20th Century and move to a larger site. Since 2001, it has been housed in a futuristic cube designed by architects Ortner & Ortner, right in the heart of Vienna's famous 'Museumsquartier' providing 4,950 square meters of exhibition space for the main works of the collection of modern and contemporary art. The building appears as a dark, closed block, its roof curving down low on the edges. It is monolithically clad in anthracite grey basalt lava on the façades and roof surfaces: thus it is clearly set apart from its surroundings and seems to emerge from the ground as though rising from the deep. The museum's collection is displayed on three levels of exhibition space in a series of presentations which change every year. A ten-meter wide outdoor stairway leads to the entrance plateau four meters above the courtyard level. Inside, a hall lit from above divides all of the levels into two differently proportioned groups of rooms. The entrance is on the third of the five levels, with two main exhibition levels above and two below. On one side of the access hall, five 5-meter-high, pillar-free exhibition areas measuring about 700 square meters each are stacked above each other. These areas can be flexibly subdivided. On the other side, there are more intimate rooms measuring 250 square meters each. Here the ceilings are 3.50 meters high. The various levels are connected by footbridges. The upper exhibition hall receives natural light through a large opening in the curved ceiling. The other slit-like openings and the panorama window in the uppermost floor give visitors a view to the outside and help provide a sense of orientation. The museum aims to preserve, enlarge, analyze, and make available to the public its collection of artworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, by serving as collection site, archive, research institution, and exhibition venue. A key concern is to contribute to the debate on contemporary art, and for this reason the Museum organizes events and discussions designed to raise awareness for new and experimental art, as well as to convey information on recent art history and theory. Visit the museum's website at : http://www.mumok.at 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 (including Yoko Ono's 'to Hammer a Nail', which, depending on source, may have been the work that introduced her to John Lennon). 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. The MUMOK is currently showing Hyper Real: The Passion of the Real in Painting and Photography (until13 February 2011). Focussing on photo realism, Super Realism, Radical Realism, New Realism, and Hyper Realism, this exhibition explores, through approximately 250 works, this important chapter in international art history. At the end of the 1960s in the USA a group of painters stepped out of the shadows of Abstract Expressionism and turned towards the tradition of painterly realism. However, in doing so they also exaggerated the illusionism that had been handed down from the 1920s and 1930s. These painters translated unspectacular templates such as snapshots, amateur photos and newspaper clippings, often using slide projections, into large-format images, the photographic image was used either as a verbatim model or it could be 'corrected' as Chuck Close did in his portraits by placing different photos next to each other in order to give each segment of the picture its own focal point and, in a complex work process, turning photography into painting. Starting from the MUMOK's own extensive collection of 40 works, the exhibition places the museum's holdings in the context of the realisms and investigates the concepts behind a painting genre that addresses the subject matter of city, streets, automobiles and the American way of life through works by Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Robert Bechtle, Malcolm Morley, Chuck Close, Don Eddy and Tom Wesselmann. Besides the focus on America, European artists like Gerhard Richter, Domenico Gnoli, Olivier Jean and Richard Hamilton are represented to show the rapid spread of realistic tendencies. Time and again the Photorealists emphasised the importance of Pop Art to their work and some of this is shown at the start of the exhibition before the presentation of the main protagonists such as Richard Estes, Ralph Goings or Don Eddy. The interaction between painting and photography is also shown through the presence of important international works by Jeff Wall, Candida Höfer, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth.

The Morgan Library & Museum Hosts a Major Exhibition Honoring the Birth of Charles Dickens Posted: 24 Sep 2011 05:15 PM PDT NEW YORK, N.Y.- Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was Britain's first true literary superstar. In his time, he attracted international adulation on an unprecedented scale, and many of his books became instant classics. Today, his popularity continues unabated, and his work remains not only widely read but widely adapted to stage and screen. The Morgan Library & Museum's Dickens collection is the largest in the United States and is one of the two greatest in the world, along with the holdings of Britain's Victoria and Albert Museum. Charles Dickens at 200 celebrates the bicentennial of the great writer's birth in 1812 with manuscripts of his novels and stories, letters, books, photographs, original illustrations, and caricatures. Sweeping in scope, the exhibition captures the art and life of a man whose literary and cultural legacy ranks among the giants of literature. On view through 12 February, 2012. "It is difficult to imagine a novelist of greater importance in the English language than Charles Dickens," said William M. Griswold, director of The Morgan Library & Museum. "His books are touchstones of literary history and his characters—from Tiny Tim and Oliver Twist to Ebenezer Scrooge and Uriah Heep—are some of the most vividly drawn in all of fiction. The Morgan is delighted to mark this important Dickens anniversary year with an exhibition that celebrates his extraordinary creativity and fascinating life." Charles Dickens at 200 will focus primarily on Dickens's novels and their relation to his various activities and collaborations—literary, artistic, theatrical, and philanthropic—from The Pickwick Papers (1836), his first book, to Our Mutual Friend (1865), the last he completed. (The Mystery of Edwin Drood remained incomplete at the time of Dickens's death in 1870). The Morgan's collection of Dickens material notably includes the complete manuscript of Our Mutual Friend, the only manuscript of a Dickens novel in the United States, as well as the manuscripts of three of Dickens's Christmas stories, including the iconic A Christmas Carol (1843). The Morgan has the largest collection of the author's letters (over 1500) in the U.S. as well as more than fifty original illustrations of Dickens's work, complete runs of Dickens's novels published in monthly installments, first editions of his books, portrait photographs, caricatures, playbills, and ephemera. One section of the exhibition explores the plot outlines and manuscript pages of Our Mutual Friend, a selection of which will be on view to allow visitors to follow Dickens's creative process. In 1865, Dickens dramatically crawled back into the wreckage of a train crash to retrieve the manuscript of an installment of this novel, which is preserved today in the Morgan's collection. Also on view will be examples of the first appearance of Dickens's novels in monthly published parts, as well as original illustrations (by such artists as Hablot K. Browne, John Leech, George Cruikshank, and Samuel Palmer). These illustrations, alongside Dickens's letters, shed light on his working relationships with the illustrators of his novels and stories. Dickens's fascination with dramatic performance, which manifested itself in his participation in amateur theatricals and public readings, and the impact of this interest on his literary technique, will be examined in the exhibition. A selection of original playbills illustrate this aspect of Dickens's work, which encompasses his collaboration with fellow novelist Wilkie Collins. The exhibition will also include Dickens's Christmas books. Visitors will be able to see the manuscripts of three of his five Christmas books, including A Christmas Carol (1843), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), and The Battle of Life (1846). The Morgan owns the manuscript of A Christmas Carol, and this installation will allow visitors to see it in the context of Dickens's other Christmas tales which have been credited by historians with significantly "redefining" the spirit and meaning of the holiday. According to Professor John O. Jordan, the Director of the international Dickens Project marking the 200th birthday celebration, Dickens is "unusual if not unique among canonical Englishlanguage authors in remaining at once a vital focus of academic research and a major figure in popular culture. Only Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and perhaps Jane Austen can compare with him in terms of their ability to hold the attention of both a scholarly and a general audience…. He is widely recognized as the preeminent novelist of the Victorian age and a major figure in world literature." Visit The Morgan Library & Museum at : http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

The Brooklyn Museum Shows Installation Art by Sanford Biggers Posted: 24 Sep 2011 05:14 PM PDT BROOKLYN, N.Y.- An Introspective challenges and reinterprets symbols and legacies that inform contemporary America in a focused selection of nine installations and additional artworks created by the New York-based artist. On view September 23, 2011, through January 8, 2012, this will be Biggers' first museum presentation in New York, and it will mark the Brooklyn debut of Blossom (2007), a large-scale multimedia installation. Sanford Biggers employs a variety of media, and his work incorporates references to a range of artistic and cultural traditions. The focal point of the Brooklyn Museum exhibition, Blossom (2007), is composed of a large tree that grows through, and uproots, a grand piano. At various intervals, the keys move as the piano plays the artist's arrangement of "Strange Fruit," a song first recorded in 1939 by the blues singer Billie Holiday.

The Corcoran Displays Contemporary African American Art in "30 Americans" Posted: 24 Sep 2011 05:14 PM PDT Washington DC.- The Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design is proud to present "30 Americans", a wide-ranging survey of works by many of the most important African-American contemporary artists of the last three decades. By bringing seminal artistic figures together with younger and emerging artists, the exhibition explores artistic influence across generations and sheds light on issues of racial, sexual and historical identity. Often provocative and challenging, "30 Americans" at the Corcoran explores ideas central to the American experience. "30 Americans" is on view at the gallery from October 1st through February 12th 2012.

The Provincetown Art Association & Museum Features Paintings & Watercolors by Kenneth Stubbs Posted: 24 Sep 2011 05:13 PM PDT Provincetown, Massachusetts.- The Provincetown Art Association and Museum is proud to present "Kenneth Stubbs", an exhibition of the Modernist paintings and traditional watercolors of Kenneth Stubbs on display at the museum from October 7th through November 27th. There will be a free opening reception on Friday, October 7th from 7-9pm. From the early 1930s to his death in 1967, Kenneth Stubbs was immersed in the Provincetown arts community, having studied with E. Ambrose Webster in 1931 and in 1934.  He showed regularly at the Provincetown Art Association and was a member of the Beachcomber's Club from 1938 – 1967.  Additionally, he has had 15 one-man shows in the Washington, DC and Cape Cod areas.

Getty Center Exhibition Explores the Birth of the L.A. Art Scene 1950 1970 Posted: 24 Sep 2011 05:12 PM PDT Los Angeles, CA - A new exhibition at the Getty Center explores the birth of the L.A. art scene with a historic survey of painting and sculpture from the 1950s and 1960s'. "Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950 - 1970" brings together 76 works by more than 40 artists produced in Southern California during this crucial period. The exhibition opens on October 1st and will remain on view through February 5th 2012, after which it will move to Berlin, where it can be seen at the Martin-Gropius-Bau from March 15th through June 10th 2012. In recent decades, Los Angeles has shed its stereotype as the land of sunshine, palm trees, and movie stars to become an artistic powerhouse and an increasingly important international creative capital. This fundamental shift in the cultural landscape of the city dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, a period of critical importance in art history that has never before been fully studied and presented.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 24 Sep 2011 05:11 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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