Selasa, 24 Januari 2012

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

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


The Muskegon Museum of Art to Show New Deal Art From the Smithsonian Collection

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 11:50 PM PST

artwork: Harry Gottlieb - 'Filling the Ice House", 1934 - Oil on canvas - Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. - On view at the Muskegon Museum of Art, in "1934: A New Deal for Artists" from February 16th until May 6th.

Muskegon, Michigan.- The Muskegon Museum of Art is proud to present "1934: A New Deal for Artists" from February 16th through May 6th 2012. The exhibiton celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Project by drawing on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's unparalleled collection of vibrant paintings created for the program. The 56 paintings in the exhibition are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time. George Gurney, deputy chief curator, organized the exhibition with Ann Prentice Wagner, independent curator. Federal officials in the 1930s understood how essential art was to sustaining America's spirit. During the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration created the Public Works of Art Project, which lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934.


The purpose of the program was to alleviate the distress of professional, unemployed American artists by paying them to produce artwork that could be used to embellish public buildings. The program was administered under the Treasury Department by art professionals in 16 different regions of the country. Artists from across the United States who participated in the program were encouraged to depict "the American Scene," but they were allowed to interpret this idea freely. They painted regional, recognizable subjects ranging from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life to landscapes and depictions of rural life that reminded the public of quintessential American values such as hard work, community, and optimism. These artworks, which were displayed in schools, libraries, post offices, museums, and government buildings, vividly capture the realities and ideals of Depression-era America.

artwork: E. Martin Hennings - "Homeward Bound", 1933-1934 - Oil on canvas -  Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. On view at the Muskegon Museum of Art, Michigan

The exhibition is arranged into eight sections: "American People," "City Life," "Labor," "Industry," "Leisure," "The City," "The Country," and "Nature." Works from 13 of the 16 regions established by the Advisory Committee to the Treasury on Fine Arts are represented in the exhibition. The Public Works of Art Project employed artists from across the country including Ilya Bolotowsky, Lily Furedi, and Max Arthur Cohn in New York City; Harry Gottlieb and Douglass Crockwell in upstate New York; Herman Maril in Maryland; Gale Stockwell in Missouri; E. Dewey Albinson in Minnesota; E. Martin Hennings in New Mexico; and Millard Sheets in California. Ross Dickinson paints the confrontation between man and nature in his painting of southern California, Valley Farms (1934). He contrasts the verdant green, irrigated valley with the dry, reddish-brown hills, recalling the appeal of fertile California for many Midwestern farmers escaping the hopelessness of the Dust Bowl. Several artists chose to depict American ingenuity. Stadium lighting was still rare when Morris Kantor painted Baseball at Night (1934), which depicts a game at the Clarkstown Country Club's Sports Centre in West Nyack, N.Y.

Ray Strong's panoramic Golden Gate Bridge (1934) pays homage to the engineering feats required to build the iconic San Francisco structure. Old Pennsylvania Farm in Winter (1934) by Arthur E. Cederquist features a prominent row of poles providing telephone service and possibly electricity, a rare modern amenity in rural America. The program was open to artists who were denied other opportunities, such as African Americans and Asian Americans. African American artists like Earle Richardson, who painted Employment of Negroes in Agriculture (1934), were welcomed, but only about 10 such artists were employed by the project. Richardson, who was a native New Yorker, chose to set his painting of quietly dignified workers in the South to make a broad statement about race. In the Seattle area, where Kenjiro Nomura lived, many Japanese Americans made a living as farmers, but they were subject to laws that prevented foreigners from owning land and other prejudices. Nomura's painting The Farm (1934) depicts a darker view of rural life with threatening clouds on the horizon.

artwork: Morris Kantor - "Baseball at Night", 1934 - Oil on linen - Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. On view at the Muskegon Museum of Art.

Muskegon was a prosperous and booming town during the 1870s and 80s.  Charles H. Hackley and other local leaders were determined to save Muskegon after the sawmills closed by making this town "one of the most distinctive cities of its size in the country."  In the next eleven years, Hackley invested a good part of his fortune towards meeting that goal. Hackley was convinced that emphasis on such public projects as progressive new schools, a library and a hospital would attract new growth.  The idea of building an art museum for Muskegon was always high on Hackley's list of priorities.  Hackley died in 1905 before realizing his dream of an art gallery. However, Hackley left to the Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education, through a bequest in his will, an expendable trust of $150,000, to be used to purchase "pictures of the best kind". By 1910, having begun with Hackley Picture Fund the acquisition of some of the most treasured and valuable works of art still in the Museum's present day collection, the Board of Education wisely determined that a museum-quality facility should be built. They then proceeded to purchase the lots next to Hackley Public Library and began construction of a facility for their growing and important art collection. Upon completion, the Board of Education chose to honor the inspiration for the project, which, of course, was Charles Hackley, and named their newest building the Hackley Art Gallery. In 1979, ground was broken for a $1.6 million addition to the Hackley Art Gallery, also funded by the L.C. & Margaret Walker Foundation.  Construction was completed in 1980 and with that, the Hackley Art Gallery changed its name to the Muskegon Museum of Art with the Hackley Galleries and the Walker Galleries. The museum's permanent collection is the envy of many and their changing exhibition schedule is rich with opportunities for our community to experience art and artists from around the world. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.muskegonartmuseum.org

MOMA Wales to feature Six Young Celtic Artists New Works

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 11:44 PM PST

artwork: Sandra Kennedy - "Chatting Stones" - Oil on canvas - 113 x 93 cm. - Courtesy MOMA Wales, Machynlleth. On view in "TÍR – Land; Terrain; Earth; Territory" from January 23rd until February 29th 2012.

Machynlleth, Wales.- The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA Wales) is proud to present "TÍR – Land; Terrain; Earth; Territory", on view at the museum from January 23rd through February 29th. This exhibition is the work of six young professional artists, all of whom were born and brought up in small communities in North Wales, the Scottish Hebrides and the Irish Gaeltacht. All live and work through the native languages of their home community, and all six undertook residencies, during the Spring and Summer of 2009, in neighbouring cultures. Two were hosted by Aras Eanna on Inis Oírr in the Aran Islands of Co. Galway, two at Taigh Chearsabhagh in North Uist, and two at Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, near Pwllheli in Gwynedd. As well as their creative work, all worked hard to develop contacts between their home community and the one hosting them. The project is the work of the Celtic Neighbours Partnership, which exists to support artistic collaborations of all kinds between native language communities across the Celtic world.


John Smith: Worst Case Scenario ~ Films from 1975-2003 at The Weserburg Museum

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:39 PM PST

artwork: John Smith - "Blight", 1994-96 - Courtesy the artist and Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin - 14 Min, 16 mm Loop Video

BREMEN.- The exhibition is taking place within the scope of the 17th Internationales Bremer Symposium zum Film "Was ist Kino? Auswählen, Aufführen Erfahren" (What Is Cinema? Select, Present, Experience), in collaboration with the University of Bremen and City 46. The British artist John Smith (*1952 in London) has been making experimental films for about three decades now. With their calculated idiom and ironic playfulness they count among the most important works of the contemporary film avant-garde. They are puzzling, sharp-witted, and above all funny. John Smith challenges us not to take anything we hear or say at face value, and in doing so puts the criteria of fact and fiction to the test. Focus is placed on his creative treatment of sound and image and the lightness and irony with which he creates space for viewers to rethink their own perception.

Museum für Gegenwartskunst shows a Selection of Works by Tim Rollins + K.O.S.

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:29 PM PST

artwork: Tim Rollins + KOS - "Second Study for Amerika VII", 1987 - Gold watercolor on book pages on linen, 24 x 24 inches - Photo by Larry Qualls

BASEL.- More than twenty years after the Museum für Gegenwartskunst first presented the art of Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), the collective now shows a new selection of works. Based on Tim Rollins's studies of art as a form of collaboration in which individual creativity becomes operative as an agent of social change, the works pay poetic homage to the community, but also represent a political reference to the potential inherent in each individual. The oeuvre of Tim Rollins + K.O.S. blends classical education and 'street culture,' erudition and spontaneity, combining elements from various artistic movements such as the function of language as a medium of artistic expression in Conceptual art and the reference to the political meaning of everyday objects in Italian Arte Povera. On exhibition through 15 April.

The Georgia Museum of Art to Show George Ault and 1940's America

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:28 PM PST

artwork: George Ault - "The Artist at Work", 1946 - Oil on canvas - Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. On view at the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens in "To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America" from February 18th until April 16th.

Athens, GA.-  The Georgia Museum of Art is pleased to present "To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America", on view at the museum from February 18th through April 16th. This is the first major exhibition of Ault's work in more than 20 years and includes 47 paintings and drawings by Ault and his contemporaries. It centers on five paintings Ault made between 1943 and 1948 depicting the crossroads of Russell's Corners in Woodstock, N.Y. The mystery in Ault's series of nocturnes captures the anxious tenor of life on the home front. "To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America" is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.


LACMA presents Retrospective of 100+ Works on Paper by Ellsworth Kelly

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:16 PM PST

artwork: Ellsworth Kelly - Colors on a Grid (1976) - Lithograph on 350-gram Arches 88 paper, edition of 46 Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer - © Ellsworth Kelly and Tyler Graphics, Ltd.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents Ellsworth Kelly: Prints and Paintings, the first retrospective of the artist's prolific print practice since the late 1980s. This exhibition coincides with the forthcoming revised and updated catalogue raisonné of Kelly's prints, and features more than 100 works on paper, in addition to a selection of paintings from local collections. Ellsworth Kelly: Prints and Paintings is organized thematically by key motifs, demonstrating the artist's long-standing engagement with elemental form and pure color. Exhibition on view 22nd January through 22nd April.

Istanbul's Pera Museum exhibition Surveys the beginning of Turkish-Dutch Relations

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:03 PM PST

artwork: Jean-Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737) - "Eine Prozession des Sultans in Istanbul", 1737 - Oil on canvas, 62 x 93 cm.

ISTANBUL.- As one of the first key exhibitions of the year 2012, the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum is presenting Sultans, Merchants, Painters: The Early Years of Turkish-Dutch Relations; an exhibition commemorating four hundred years of cultural, diplomatic and trade relations between Turkey and the Netherlands. Organized in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum and with the support of several other partners, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Nationaal Archief in The Hague both in the Netherlands, the exhibition includes 81 works comprised of oil paintings, watercolors, engravings and books. Works by the well known master painter from the Tulip Era, Jean-Baptiste Vanmour are also included. Pera Museum's exhibition Sultans, Merchants, Painters: The Early Years of Turkish-Dutch Relations will be open to visitors between the dates of 21 January – 1 April; upon completing its İstanbul visit, the exhibition will be mounted in the Amsterdam Museum between the dates of 18 April – 26 August.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art to exhibit "Hyperrealism and American Culture"

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:02 PM PST


Vero Beach, Florida.- The Vero Beach Museum of Art is proud to present "Beyond Reality: Hyperrealism and American Culture", on view at the museum from Feburary 5th through May 13th. The show will include works of art that are closely associated with the concept of photo-realism and ultra-illusionistic paintings and sculpture that add an expressive dimension to the viewer's understanding of realism. The works of art will make the viewer aware of the breadth of subject matter and varying styles that have been explored in hyperrealist painting and sculpture since the 1970's. The exhibition will demonstrate the historical connections between contemporary hyper-realism and Courbet's concept that "Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it."


The term "hyperrealism" was first used by art dealer Ivan Karp and some of his contemporaries around 1970. Other art critics have often used the term 'photorealism' or 'New Realism' at the same time. However, hyperrealsim can include photorealism as well as other highly detailed styles of realism. It is also a term that can be applied to sculpture, as in the work of Duane Hanson and Marc Sijan. Nearly all hyperrealist painters have used photographs for reference, but some, such as Richard Estes and Robert Bechtle, seem to retain more of the look of a photograph in their work. John Baeder and Davis Cone also work from photographs, but they subtly manipulate or exaggerate what was present in their reference photos. The Hyperrealist style focuses much more of its emphasis on details and the subjects. Hyperreal paintings and sculptures are not strict interpretations of photographs, nor are they literal illustrations of a particular scene or subject. Instead, they utilize additional, often subtle, pictorial elements to create the illusion of a reality which in fact either does not exist or cannot be seen by the human eye. Furthermore, they may incorporate emotional, social, cultural and political thematic elements as an extension of the painted visual illusion; a distinct departure from the older and considerably more literal school of Photorealism.


Hyperrealist painters and sculptors make allowances for some mechanical means of transferring images to the canvas or mold, including preliminary drawings or grisaille underpaintings and molds. Photographic slide projections or multi media projectors are used to project images onto canvases and rudimentary techniques such as gridding may also be used to ensure accuracy. Sculptures utilize polyesters applied directly onto the human body or mold. Hyperrealism requires a high level of technical prowess and virtuosity to simulate a false reality. As such, Hyperrealism incorporates and often capitalizes upon photographic limitations such as depth of field, perspective and range of focus. Anomalies found in digital images, such as fractalization, are also exploited to emphasize their digital origins by some Hyperrealist painters, such as Chuck Close, Denis Peterson, Bert Monroy and Robert Bechtle. Subject matter ranges from portraits, figurative art, still life, landscapes, cityscapes and narrative scenes. The more recent hyperrealist style is much more literal than Photorealism as to exact pictorial detail with an emphasis on social, cultural or political themes. This also is in stark contrast to the newer concurrent Photorealism with its continued avoidance of photographic anomalies.

Hyperrealist painters at once simulate and improve upon precise photographic images to produce optically convincing visual illusions of reality, often in a social or cultural context. Some hyperrealists have exposed totalitarian regimes and third world military governments through their narrative depictions of the legacy of hatred and intolerance. Hyperreal paintings and sculptures further create a tangible solidity and physical presence through subtle lighting and shading effects. Shapes, forms and areas closest to the forefront of the image visually appear beyond the frontal plane of the canvas; and in the case of sculptures, details have more clarity than in nature. Hyperrealistic images are typically 10 to 20 times the size of the original photographic reference source, yet retain an extremely high resolution in color, precision and detail. Many of the paintings are achieved with an airbrush, using acrylics, oils or a combination of both. Ron Mueck's lifelike sculptures are scaled much larger or smaller than life and finished in incredibly convincing detail through the meticulous use of polyester resins and multiple molds. Bert Monroy's digital images appear to be actual paintings taken from photographs, yet they are fully created on computers.


The Vero Beach Museum of Art is located at 3001 River Park Drive, Vero Beach, Florida. It houses regional, state and national art exhibits and includes a sculpture garden. The Vero Beach Museum of Art is the principal cultural arts facility of its kind on Florida's Treasure Coast. The accredited art museum includes art exhibitions, a sculpture garden, studio art and humanities classes, exhibition tours, performances, a museum store, film studies, an art research library, workshops and seminars, children and youth events, and community cultural celebrations. Since 1991, the Vero Beach Museum of Art has been recognized by the State of Florida and the Florida Arts Council as a significant cultural establishment through grant awards and support. The Museum was awarded accreditation from the American Association of Museums in April 1997. It became recognized for its professionalism, quality of programming, exhibitions, and community outreach. The Museum was reaccredited in April 2007. In 2002, the Museum's Board of Trustees voted to change the institution's name from the Center for the Arts to the Vero Beach Museum of Art, which went into effect on July 1, 2002. In February 2007, the Museum added the Alice and Jim Beckwith Sculpture Park, which is 1.12 acres (4,500 m2), to its exhibition spaces. The permanent collection of the museum includes ofer 880 works of art and is currently concentrated primarily on American art. however, the museum is also growing its international holdings in the area of contemporary art. Amongst the artists included in the collection are Milton Avery, Romare Bearden, Charles Bellows, Charles E. Burchfield and sculptures by Deborah Butterfield. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.verobeachmuseum.org

Walker Art Center Exhibition Examines Three Decades of Work by Guillermo Kuitca

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:50 PM PST

artwork: Guillermo Kuitca - "El mar dulce", 1986 - Acrylic on canvas, 78 3/4 x 118 inches. - Collection Paul and Trudy Cejas – Cejas Art Ltd.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- One of the most independent voices in painting today, Buenos Aires-based Guillermo Kuitca has long operated outside the traditional spheres of the medium, incorporating influences from sculpture, architecture, theater, film, and literature. The exhibition Guillermo Kuitca: Everything—Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008, on a four-city tour, travels to the Walker Art Center June 26–September 19. This major exhibition, the first comprehensive U.S. survey of Kuitca's work in more than 15 years, examines nearly three decades of his career with some 50 paintings and 25 works on paper from public and private collections throughout the world. Several of the artist's most ambitious works will be featured, including a room-size configuration of 20 painted mattresses, and The Ring, a five-paneled piece inspired by Wagner's epic opera.

Presenting the full scope of Kuitca's production, the exhibition underscores the extensive range of his subject matter, the interdisciplinary nature of his work, and the issues of individual and communal relationships he explores. Celebrating the exhibition are a Walker After Hours Preview Party, Opening-Day Artist Talk, and Opening-Day Concert featuring fellow Argentine singer/songwriter Juana Molina. Guillermo Kuitca: Everything—Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008 is co-organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida.

artwork: Guillermo Kuitca - Sin título, 1995 Acrílico on canvasKuitca was only 19 when he first saw German choreographer Pina Bausch's work in a production of Café Müller staged at the Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires in 1980. In the years that followed this introduction, Kuitca produced several plays in Argentina and made canvases that drew upon Bausch and her productions. The earliest works in the exhibition such as El Mar Dulce and Siete Ultima Canciones, both completed in 1986, are reminiscent of stage sets viewed from a distance, with tiny figures acting out mysterious and disturbing dramas. Themes of absence and disappearance emerged in subsequent works of this period, which depict overturned chairs, sullied beds that appear to be on fire, and a microphone on an empty stage.

Kuitca's works of the late 1980s and early 1990s explore architecture and topography, as well as domestic and communal spaces. The floor plans of public institutions (the Tablada Suite), geographical maps (the artist's "map" paintings on canvas and mattresses), and genealogical charts (the People on Fire series) begin to serve as important references during this period. Though these works infer human interconnection and spaces which are normally occupied by large groups, the human figure remains notably absent.

Kuitca further explored organizational systems throughout the 1990s and early in this decade. In Neufert Suite (1998) a series of paintings, and L'Encyclopédie (2002), a series of works on paper, he references an architect's handbook and the work of French philosopher Denis Diderot, who attempted to condense the whole of human knowledge into an encyclopedia. In his series of drawings titled Global Order (2002), Kuitca fuses a map of the world with building plans for domestic spaces, identifying borders and notions of "place" as the changing products of human invention.

Since the late 1990s, Kuitca has created both large- and small-scale works on paper which investigate and deconstruct his painted works. Continuing his investigation of mapping, Kuitca based a 2007 series on seating charts from renowned performance spaces such as the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Kuitca selectively edits information from these charts in an electronic format before printing them. He then further alters their appearance and meaning by subjecting them to different water treatments which alter the printed image. The resulting works are surreal abstractions, whose pictorial elements have migrated across paper.

Drawing voraciously upon diverse subject matter across a variety of disciplines, Kuitca has frequently returned to familiar motifs of theaters, maps, and city plans throughout his career. Only recently has he taken on the legacy of painting. Desenlace (Denoument) is a series from 2007 with obvious references to noted painters from the history of abstraction, including Jackson Pollock, Joaquín Torres García, Georges Braque, and Lucia Fontana. Yet rather than simply appropriate the styles of these modern masters, Kuitca renders a different kind of homage and critique of the history of modern painting. His representations of these iconic forms of abstraction are empty shells, no different than the maps and theatrical seating plans of his earlier works. They are familiar yet disembodied artifacts of prescribed authority and value, representations of abstract systems and concepts that Kuitca has lovingly and ruthlessly divested of their efficacy. All to find a new pathway in painting, in which affinity and distance are held in striking, exquisite balance.

artwork: Guillermo Kuitca - "Blau Bart (Bluebeard), 1985 - Oil on canvas 57 5/8 x 75 1/4 inches - Private Collection

Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Guillermo Kuitca (born 1961, Buenos Aires) has garnered international attention since the mid-1980s. His first solo exhibition at age 13 took place in 1974 at Lirolay Gallery in Buenos Aires. In 1985 he represented Argentina in the XVIII São Paulo Biennal. His work was first seen in the United States in the group exhibition New Image Painting: Argentina in the Eighties at the Americas Society in New York in 1989.

In 1990 Kuitca began to exhibit internationally and had solo museum and gallery shows in the Netherlands and the United States, which included a Projects show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1992. Also that year, his installation for Documenta IX of map paintings and a large installation of bed sculptures brought him significant international attention. Since then Kuitca has had solo exhibitions at the Instituto de Arte Moderno (IVAM) in Valencia, Spain (1993), and Burning Beds: Guillermo Kuitca, A Survey 1982-1994, organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, and the Contemporary Art Foundation, Amsterdam, in 1994. In 1999 he exhibited at the Centro Hélio Oiticica, and in 2000 at the Foundation Cartier in Paris.

The most recent survey of Kuitca's works, covering the period 1983-2003, was organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, and traveled to the Museo de Arte Latino Americano, Buenos Aires (MALBA), in the summer of 2003. Kuitca was the chosen representative of Argentina at the Venice Biennale in 2007, where he was one of only three artists with work on view in both a national Pavilion and in the central international Biennale exhibition.

Visit the Walker Art Center at : http://www.walkerart.org/index.wac

Art from the University of Iowa Museum to Open at the Figge Art Museum

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:49 PM PST

artwork: Jackson Pollock -  'Mural,' 1943 - Oil on canvas, 8' 1 1/4 in. x 19' 10 in. - University of Iowa Museum of Art, gift of Peggy Guggenheim.

DAVENPORT, IA - Modern masterworks by celebrated artists including Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse will be featured in an upcoming University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA)-organized exhibition at the Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second St. in downtown Davenport, IA. The exhibition, "A Legacy for Iowa: Pollock's 'Mural' and Modern Masterworks from the University of Iowa Museum of Art," opens Sunday, April 19 and runs through Sunday, August 2. The two museums will celebrate the opening from noon to 5 p.m. on April 19 with a reception at the Figge Art Museum.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery exhibits the ' Intimate Portrait '

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:48 PM PST

artwork: Attributed to Nathaniel Dance (1735–1811) - Angelica Kauffman (c.1764–6) Graphite & watercolour, 132 x 113 mm. - Collection National Gallery of Scotland 

Edinburgh, Scotland - The first ever major UK exhibition to examine a fascinating but relatively unknown aspect of British portraiture is at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. 'The Intimate Portrait' explores the period between the 1730s and the 1830s – the heyday of British portraiture – when some of the country's greatest artists produced beautifully worked portraits in pencil, chalks, watercolours and pastels, as well as miniatures on ivory, that were often exhibited, sold and displayed as finished works of art. On view through 1 February, 2009.

DAVID ZWIRNER REPRESENTS THE ESTATE OF ALICE NEEL

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:47 PM PST

artwork: Alice Neel - Julie and Children, 1970 - Oil on canvas, 45 x 29 inches Courtesy Estate of Alice Neel and David Zwirner, New York

New York City - David Zwirner is pleased to announce that the gallery now represents the Estate of Alice Neel.  Alice Neel (1900-1984) is widely regarded as one of the most important American painters of the twentieth century. As the American avant-garde of the 1940s and 50s renounced figuration, Neel reaffirmed her signature approach to the human body. Working from life and memory, Neel created daringly honest portraits of her family and friends, downtrodden neighbors and public figures, art-world colleagues and poets, lovers and the occasional stranger.

Her choice of subjects was a reflection of her personal life and an expression of the political and social milieu in which she lived, rather than an intentional program. Through her choice of subjects, her work can be seen to have engaged with issues related to gender and racial inequality, labor struggles, and violence; at the same time her reexamination of the human body paralleled the cultural upheaval of the sexual revolution and women's movement. Calling herself a "collector of souls," Neel is acclaimed for not only capturing the truth of the individual, but also reflecting the era in which she lived. Neel challenged the Western artistic tradition that regarded sitter or muse as a woman's place in the arts. Through her five-decade exploration of women, Neel redefined the relationship in painting to the nude, the pregnant woman, the roles of mother and child.

artwork: Alice Neel - Stephen Shepard, 1978 - Oil on canvas - 32 x 24 in. Courtesy Estate of Alice Neel and David Zwirner, New YorkIn 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, Texas will mount an expansive survey of Neel's work (March 21 - June 13, 2010). Co-curated by Jeremy Lewison, freelance curator and Advisor to the Estate of Alice Neel, and Barry Walker, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the exhibition will travel to Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England (July 9 - September 19, 2010), and Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden (October 10, 2010 - January 2, 2011), for the first retrospective of Neel's work shown in Europe. The catalogue will include essays by Professor Tamar Garb, Professor Robert Storr, Jeremy Lewison, and Barry Walker.

Neel is currently the focus of Collector of Souls, a solo exhibition at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden until December 7th. Additionally, the Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where Neel was a student) is hosting an exhibition of her works on paper, titled Alice Neel: Drawing from Life, until December 6th. Her work is included in the traveling group exhibition, Paint Made Flesh, at Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee (January 23 - May 10, 2009); The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (June 20 - September 13, 2009); and Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York (October 24, 2009 - January 3, 2010).

Although she showed sporadically early in her career, from the 1960s onwards her work was exhibited widely in the USA. Neel was honored with her first retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1974. The Whitney again mounted a solo exhibition of the artist's work in 2000 after her death. That exhibition, titled The Art of Alice Neel, traveled to the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado.

In 2002, Rizzoli published a monograph focusing solely on Neel's remarkable portraits of women with an essay by Carolyn Carr. A documentary film about the artist, directed by her grandson Andrew Neel, was released by SeeThink Productions in 2007.

artwork: Alice Neel - 1928 Requiem Watercolor on Paper 9 x 12 in. / 22.9 x 30.5 cm Private Collection ( Note: Not  shown in the exhibition )Her work can be found in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tate Modern, London, England; among many others.

With galleries in Chelsea and on the Upper East Side in New York, David Zwirner represents close to forty artists and estates, including the painters Neo Rauch, Marlene Dumas, Luc Tuymans, and Lisa Yuskavage, and the Estates of Gordon-Matta Clark, Fred Sandback, and Al Taylor. 2008 marks Zwirner's fifteenth year as a dealer.

In addition to David Zwirner, the Estate of Alice Neel is represented by Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Berlin. The Estate of Alice Neel is advised by Jeremy Lewison Ltd.

Please visit the recently launched website: www.aliceneel.com  For more information, contact Julia Joern at julia-at-davidzwirner.com

David Zwirner -

525 West 19th Street New York NY 10011 - Tel 212 727 2070 Fax 212 727 2072 -  www.davidzwirner.com

Royal Academy of Arts Collection Displays Major Works Given by Early Members

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:46 PM PST

artwork: W.P. Frith, RA - Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881 - Oil on canvas, 1883 - (Collection: Pope Family Trust) Copyright Christies Image Limited
LONDON - History painting was regarded as the pinnacle of High Art and strongly promoted by Sir Joshua Reynolds above other genres such as portraiture, landscape and still life. This new display includes major works given by early Members of the Royal Academy of Arts to the Collection including biblical subjects by Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley and John Francis Rigaud, as well as Henry Fuseli's fantastical Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent. On exhibition through 29 November, 2009.

Will Maclean's Unique Scottish Art Celebrated In A London Retrospective

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:45 PM PST

artwork: Will Maclean & Jim Crawford - "Aignish memorial". Stone cairn, designed by Will Maclean and built by Jim Crawford, a local stonemason, commemorates the raid on Aignish Farm in 1888 by local people. Public sculpture at Aignish on the Isle of Skye.


London.- An important retrospective exhibition of works by the renowned Scottish artist Will Maclean is in display at The Fleming Collection, from 8 March to 4 June 2011. The show, entitled 'Will Maclean: A Survey Exhibition 1970-2010', includes loans from public and private collections as well as works from The Fleming Collection's own holdings. It coincides with the publication of a new book Will Maclean: Collected Works 1970-2010 by The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, the charity which runs The Fleming Collection. Maclean is internationally recognized as a foremost exponent of box construction art. Using found objects which he deconstructs and reconstructs in a display of visual thinking that is compelling, Maclean has developed a unique visual and poetic language.


The Royal Academy To Host "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century"

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:44 PM PST

artwork:  Robert Capa - Collaborator Woman who had a German Soldier's Child, Chartres, 1944. Silver gelatin print, 33 x 49 cm. Hungarian Museum of Photography. © ICP/Magnum Photo. On view in "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the Twentieth Century" at the Royal Academy, from June 30th through October 2nd.


London.- This summer, the Royal Academy of Arts will stage an exhibition dedicated to the birth of modern photography, featuring the work of Brassaï, Robert Capa, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy and Martin Munkácsi. Each left their homeland Hungary to make their names in Europe and the USA, profoundly influencing the course of modern photography. "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century" will be on view in the Sackler Wing of Galleries from June 30th through October 2nd.


Many other talented photographers who remained in Hungary, such as Rudolf Balogh and Károly Escher, will also be represented in the exhibition. Over 200 photographs from 1914 to 1989 will show how these world renowned photographers were at the forefront  of stylistic developments and reveal their achievements in the context of the rich photographic tradition of Hungary. Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and Munkácsi are each known for the important changes they brought about in photojournalism, documentary, art and fashion photography. By following their paths through Germany, France and the USA, the exhibition will explore their distinct approaches, signalling key aspects of modern photography.

artwork: Rudolf Balogh - "Shepherd with his Dogs, Hortobágy", circa 1930 - Silver gelatin print - 18 x 29 cm. © Hungarian Museum of Photography. On view at the Royal Academy, London from June 30th.

André Kertész (1894 – 1985) showed an intuitive talent for photography which blossomed when he moved to Paris in 1925.  Using a hand-held camera,  he captured lyrical impressions of the ephemeral moments of everyday urban life. Proud of being self-taught, Kertész considered himself an 'eternal amateur' whose vision remained fresh; his highly personal style paved the way for a subjective, humanist approach to photography. A painter and designer as well as a photographer, László Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) became an instructor at the Bauhaus in 1922.  He was a pioneer of photograms, photomontage and visual theory, using unconventional perspectives and bold tonal  contrasts to manifest his radical approach. His camera-less images and experimental techniques reflect on the centrality of light to the medium. Martin Munkácsi (1896 – 1963) was a highly successful photographer first in Budapest, then Berlin, covering everything from Greta Garbo to the Day of Potsdam. He moved to the US in 1934, securing a lucrative position with Harper's Bazaar, revolutionising fashion photography by liberating it from the studio. Taking photographs of models and celebrities outdoors, he invested his photographs with a dynamism and vitality that became his hallmark.

The image of modern Paris was defined by Brassaï (1899 – 1984).  Introduced to photography by Kertész, who was then at the heart of an energetic émigré community of artists, Brassaï is known for his classic portraits of Pablo Picasso.  His stunning photographs of sights, streets and people bring vividly to life the nocturnal characters and potent atmosphere of the city at night. Robert Capa (1913 – 1954) left Hungary aged seventeen, first for Berlin where he took up photography, then on to Paris. He is often called the 'greatest war photographer' documenting the Spanish Civil War, the D-Day landings and other events of World War II.  In 1947, he cofounded Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger. The exhibition will also celebrate the diversity of the photographic milieu in Hungary, from the early 20th century professional and club photography of Rudolf Balogh, Károly Escher and József Pécsi, to the more recent documentary and art photography of Péter Korniss and Gábor Kerekes.

artwork: László Fejes - "Wedding, Budapest", 1965 - Silver gelatin print - 15.5 x 23.8 cm. © Hungarian Museum of Photography. On view at the Royal Academy, from June 30th.

Key works by over forty photographers will show how major changes in modern photography have been interpreted through a particularly Hungarian sensibility. Varied subject matter will include 'Magyar style' rural images; urbanite 'New Objectivity' photography in Budapest and Berlin; vivacious fashion photographs; powerful photojournalism of war; and emotive social documentary in post-war Hungary. Highlights include images from Brassaï's  Paris by Night series, and such iconic photographs as Capa's  Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, 1936; Munkácsi's Four Boys at Lake Tanganyika, c. 1930 and Kertész's Satiric Dancer, 1926. The exhibition will feature works from the Hungarian National Museum of Photography in Kecskemét together with the National Museum Budapest and public and private collections in Hungary and the UK. Visit the Royal Academy's website at ... http://www.royalacademy.org.uk

"Venus" By Lucas Cranach the Elder Is Too Sexy

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:43 PM PST

artwork:  Lucas Cranach the Elder - Venus, 1532 - Oil and tempera on red beechwood 37.7 x 24.5 cm. - Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main - Photo © Jochen Beyer, Village-Neuf 

LONDON - Transport for London has refused to display a poster of the "Venus" painting by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder stating it was overtly sexual. This painting is one of the 70 works that will be on view at the Royal Academy of Arts on March 8 in London. According to the academy, Transport for London would only display the image if the bottom half was cropped out.

Cantor Arts Center to exhibit 'Pop to Present ~ Art of the 1960's'

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:42 PM PST

artwork: Al Held (USA, 1928-2005) - 'Torquad II,' 1985 -  Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72 1/8 inches - Cantor Arts Center, Gift of Donald and Jean Lamm 

STANFORD, CA - The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University announces "Pop to Present," March 18-August 16, 2009, the third in a yearlong series of exhibitions highlighting the museum's acquisitions from the past decade. This lively selection of modern and contemporary works - in particular American art made since the 1960s - is built on pre-existing strengths, such as Bay Area painting, while the pursuit of new collecting arenas includes northern California ceramics and contemporary prints.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to exhibit J.W. Waterhouse ~ The Modern Pre-Raphaelite

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:41 PM PST

artwork: John William Waterhouse,RA - Lady of Shalott, 1888 - Oil on canvas, 153 cm. x  200 cm. - Tate Museum, London

MONTREAL.- The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will host the largest-ever retrospective of works by the celebrated British artist John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite is the first large-scale monographic exhibition on Waterhouse's work since 1978 and the first to feature his entire artistic career. This retrospective features some eighty paintings that are among the finest and most spectacular of the artist's production, on loan from public and private collections in Australia, England, Ireland, Taiwan, the United States and Canada. It will also present many of the artist's attractive studies in oil, chalk and pencil. Several of these works have not been exhibited since Waterhouse's lifetime. The exhibition has been organized by the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands, with the collaboration of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition, which premiered at the Groninger Museum  and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will be presented until February 7, 2010.

Royal Academy of Arts announces Exhibition by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 – 1861)

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:40 PM PST

artwork: Utagawa Kuniyoshi - Hatsuhana prays under a waterfall, c. 1842 - Colour woodblock, oban 36.4 x 24.8 cm - American Friends of the British Museum (The Arthur R. Miller Collection) 15606

LONDON - The Royal Academy of Arts will present an exhibition on one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 – 1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition will present Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It will reveal the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenuous use of the triptych format. The majority of the exhibition will be drawn from the outstanding collection of Professor Arthur R. Miller which has recently been donated to the American Friends of the British Museum. This is the first major exhibition in the United Kingdom on Utagawa Kuniyoshi since 1961, on view 21 March through 7 June, 2009. 

artwork: Utagawa Kuniyoshi - Mitsukuni Defies the Skeleton-spectre Conjoured up by Princess Takiyasha, 1845 - Colour woodblock, oban triptych (centre sheet) 37.2 x 25.3 cm. - The British MuseumKuniyoshi was a major master of the 'floating world', or Ukiyo-e school of Japanese art, and, together with Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858) and Utagawa Kunisada (1786 – 1864), dominated nineteenth century printmaking in Japan. Prolific and multitalented, Kuniyoshi considerably expanded the existing repertoire of the school, particularly with thousands of designs that brought vividly to life famous military exploits in Japan and China. He portrayed historic heroes of Japan's warrior past and brigands from the Chinese adventure story The Water Margin giving dramatic pictorial expression to the great myths and legends that had accrued around them.

(b. Edo, 1797; d. Edo, 1861). Painter, woodblock print designer and book illustrator. He was born into the urban artisan class of Edo (Edokko), the son of a silk dyer. As a child he showed a flair for drawing. Biographies mention his boyhood fascination for picture books by KITAO SHIGEMASA and Kitao Masayoshi (1764–1824) and his contact with the works of Katsukawa Shun'ei  and Katsukawa Shuntei (1770–1820). Kuniyoshi's formal training took place from 1811 to 1814, when he was apprenticed to Toyokuni I, from whom he learnt the Utagawa style of yakushae ('pictures of actors') and bijinga ('pictures of beautiful women').

artwork: Utagawa Kuniyoshi - The Chinese warrior Zhang Heng, 1847-48 Colour woodblock, 24.5 x 18.2 cm. American Friends of the British Museum (Arthur R. Miller Collection)Kuniyoshi's images of heroes, with which he made his name, constitute the most important part of his artistic output. However, censorship regulations frequently required him to displace events of recent centuries to a more distant fictionalised past. Kuniyoshi developed an extraordinarily powerful and imaginative style in his prints, often spreading a scene dynamically across all three sheets of the traditional triptych format and linking the composition with one bold unifying element - a major artistic innovation.

Kuniyoshi was also very active in the other major subjects and genres of floating world art: prints of beautiful women, Kabuki actors, landscapes, comic themes, erotica and commissioned paintings. In each of these he was experimental, imaginative and distinctly different from his contemporaries. For example, he transformed the genre of landscape prints by incorporating Western conventions, such as cast shadows and innovative applications of perspective. This departure from tradition is an indication of his independent artistic spirit.

The exhibition will be divided into six sections beginning with 'Kuniyoshi's Imagination' which presents the range of the artist's repertoire and his unique treatment. Then there follow more indepth selections: warriors, landscapes, beauties, theatre and humour. Highlights will include rare original brush drawings and a woodblock, a selection of extraordinary dynamic triptych prints and one of the only known examples of a set of twelve comic erotic prints.

The exhibition will include works from the American Friends of the British Museum (The Arthur R. Miller Collection), the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and private collections in Japan and USA.

Kuniyoshi is the third exhibition in a series dedicated to Japanese Artists and Printmakers to be held at the Royal Academy of Arts. The previous exhibitions have been Hokusai (1991-92) and Hiroshige: Images of Mist, Rain, Moon and Snow (1997).

Visit the Royal Academy of Arts at : http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 09:39 PM PST

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