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• The Albertina Highlights Modernist Paintings From the Batlinger Collection
• Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opens exhibition featuring 17th century Tibetan Paintings
• The Ethnological Museum in Berlin hosts "Native American Modernism"
• The Courtauld Gallery Presents Piet Mondrian & Ben Nicholson "In Parallel"
• The Hamburger Kunsthalle Shows "Exhausted Heroes ~ Hodler, Dejneka & Rauch"
• The Denver Art Museum features Garry Winogrand Photographs From the Collection
• The American Museum in Britain to Show Birds & Beasts from the Collection
• The National Museum of Wales shows "John Piper :The Mountains of Wales"
• Street Artist Banksy's First Film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" ~ Is Up For An Oscar
• National Gallery of Victoria opens "Stick it! Collage in Australian Art"
• Dalí Universe presents 350 Works of Art by Salvador Dalí at Shanghai Art Museum
• Chaïm Soutine and Modernism at the Kunstmuseum Basel
• Provincetown Art Association & Museum (PAAM) to Present a Weekend With Walton Ford
• Collage Paintings from the 1960's by Larry Zox at Stephen Haller Gallery
• The Royal College of Art Hosts the 20/21 British Art Fair in September
• Pablo Picasso Graphics Museum in Münster Celebrates with Miró Exhibition
• The Traditional Wallraf-Richartz Museum In Cologne, Germany Is Re-Visited By Our Editor
• Pera Museum Welcomes Colombian Artist Fernando Botero to Istanbul
• Woodward Gallery to Show Lady Pink's Graffiti Based Art
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Albertina Highlights Modernist Paintings From the Batlinger Collection Posted: 05 Mar 2012 10:18 PM PST Vienna, Austria - Under the title "Monet to Picasso", the Albertina will exhibit its vast holdings of paintings from the period of Modernism, which are primarily made up of works from the Batliner Collection. The epochs covered by this reinstallation of the museum's permanent collection range from Impressionism and Fauvism to German Expressionism, the Bauhaus, and the Russian avant-garde; the presentation concludes with works by Pablo Picasso. "Monet to Picasso" opens on March 14th and will remain on display through December 31st. In spring 2007, one of Europe's greatest private collections of classical modern art came to the Albertina as a permanent loan from the Rita und Herbert Batliner Foundation in Liechtenstein. The Albertina is now in a unique position to compensate for the major gaps in the Austrian state-run museums' holdings of international modern art with key works of French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, German Expressionism, Fauvism and the Russian avant-garde. The Batliner Collection has received acclaim from museums and connoisseurs for decades. It includes outstanding works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Amedeo Modigliani, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon. These masterpieces can be seen in a new permanent exhibition at the Albertina. The Batliner Collection is augmented by works from the Forberg Collection in Switzerland, which was also transferred to the Albertina on permanent loan. Herbert and Rita Batliner began collecting art nearly half a century ago. Due to their close friendship with the legendary art dealer Ernst Beyeler, French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting formed a cornerstone of the collection from the very beginning, along with the work of Alberto Giacometti. Exceptional works by Monet such as The Water-Lily Pond, Edgar Degas' Two Dancers, or Cézanne's Arc-Tal and Mont Sainte-Victoire landscapes attest to the couple's passion for French art. Picasso became an additional focal point. Today he is represented in the collection with over 40 works, including ten paintings and numerous drawings and one-of-a-kind ceramics. In the course of his travels, Herbert Batliner gained familiarity with Russian avant-garde art. He and his wife were inspired by the works they saw in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, to build their own fine collection of Russian avant-garde art from 1905-35. The focus of their acquisitions was on Marc Chagall, but they also sought out works by Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova und Mikhail Larionow. The collection includes a major work by Kazimir Malevich, painted as a defiant memory image immediately following the artist's release from a Stalinist prison. As the collection has grown from decade to decade, so has its recognition within the art world. Herbert and Rita Batliner regularly lent to museums; rare was the Picasso, Monet, Modigliani or Giacometti exhibition that did not include works on loan from the Batliner Collection. Several years ago the Batliners decided to respect the integrity of the collection by transferring the entire collection to a museum as a bequest. Convinced that extraordinary art collections are no less distinctive, and as such worth preserving, than great works of art, the Batliners decided to make their collection accessible to the general public in their lifetime. The couple derived enormous pleasure and intellectual stimulation from the daily contact they had with their paintings, pastels, gouaches and sculptures, and now they wanted to share this experience with others. To safeguard the unity of their distinguished collection in perpetuity, the Batliners set up the Herbert and Rita Batliner Art Foundation, which transferred the artworks to the Albertina as a permanent loan. The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings. Apart from the graphics collection the museum has recently acquired on permanent loan two significant collections of Impressionist and early 20th century art, some of which will be on permanent display. The museum also houses temporary exhibitions. Vienna's Albertina was erected on one of the last remaining sections of the fortifications of Vienna, the Augustian Bastion. In 1745, it was refurbished by the director of the Hofbauamt, Emanuel Teles Count Silva-Tarouca, to become his palace. The building was later taken over by Duke Albert of Saxen-Teschen. He used it as his residence and later brought his graphics collection there from Brussels, where he had acted as the governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. For that purpose, he had the building extended by Louis Montoyer. Since then, the palace has immediately bordered the Hofburg. The collection was expanded by Albert's successors. The collection was created by Duke Albert with the Genoese count Giacomo Durazzo (Austrian ambassador in Venice). In 1776 the count presented nearly 1,000 pieces of art to Duke Albert and his wife Maria Christina (Maria Theresia's daughter). Count Giacomo Durazzo – brother of Marcello Durazzo (Doge of Genoa) – "wanted to create a collection for posterity that served higher purposes than all others: education and the power of morality should distinguish his collection...." In the 1820s Archduke Charles, the foster son of Duke Albert and Maria Christina, initiated further modifications of the building by Joseph Kornhäusel, which affected mostly the interior decoration. After Archduke Charles, his son Archduke Albrecht and then Albrecht's nephew Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen lived in the building. In early 1919, the building and the collection passed from the Habsburgs into the ownership of the Republic of Austria. In 1920, the collection of prints and drawings was unified with the collection of the former imperial court library. The name Albertina was established in 1921. In March 1945, the Albertina was heavily damaged by bomb attacks. The Albertina was completely refurbished and modernized from 1998 to 2003, but the graphics collection did not reopen until 2008. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.albertina.at

Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opens exhibition featuring 17th century Tibetan Paintings Posted: 05 Mar 2012 09:55 PM PST BOSTON, MA.- The search for the utopian realm of Shambhala, also sometimes known as "Shangri-la" has captured the imagination of people for thousands of years. Be it a state of mind or an actual place somewhere in Central Asia, this legendary kingdom is said to be ruled by a lineage of 32 mythological kings who are protectors of Tibetan Buddhist texts. A set of newly conserved 17th-century paintings representing 22 of these Shambhala kings provides the focal point of the MFA's exhibition Seeking Shambhala, on view from March 6 to October 21 on the second floor of the Museum. Through these centuries-old scroll paintings and decorative objects, as well as contemporary works, the exhibition examines the spiritual journey to find "The Pure Land" where peace reigns, wealth abounds, and no illness exists. Seeking Shambhala is presented with generous support from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund and the Dr. Robert A. and Dr. Veronica Petersen Fund for Exhibitions.

The Ethnological Museum in Berlin hosts "Native American Modernism" Posted: 05 Mar 2012 09:08 PM PST Berlin.- The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is pleased to present "Native American Modernism: Art from North America" on view at the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem from March 3rd through October 28th. About 90 artworks - paintings, graphics and sculptures from the collection of the Ethnological Museum - offer an unusual insight into Native American art of the late 20th century from the USA and Canada. The exhibition focuses on developments over the past forty years in the art movement termed Native American modernism that is little known in Germany despite the traditional admiration for American Indian culture. Numerous innovative works explore everyday social, political, economic and cultural aspects of North American multi-ethnic society. Although the subject of indigenous origins is a common thread throughout these works, it is not their sole preoccupation. The artists may be deeply rooted in their respective Native communities or may have consciously turned away from traditional styles, media and content to establish themselves on the international art market - yet their political message remains, often conveyed with irony.

The Courtauld Gallery Presents Piet Mondrian & Ben Nicholson "In Parallel" Posted: 05 Mar 2012 08:46 PM PST London.- The Courtald Gallery at Somerset House is pleased to present "Mondrian I Nicholson: In Parallel", on view through May 20th. This exhibition tells the remarkable story of the creative relationship between Piet Mondrian, one of the most celebrated painters of the 20th century, and Ben Nicholson, one of the UK's greatest modern artists.  It has been conceived around The Courtauld's important Nicholson canvas, "1937 (painting)", and will unite a group of major paintings and reliefs to explore the parallel artistic paths charted by the two artists during the 1930s. Their friendship culminated with Mondrian moving from Paris to London in 1938, at Nicholson's invitation, and the two working in neighbouring studios in Parkhill Road, Hampstead, when for a short period London was an international centre of modernist art. The works selected for the exhibition each have a particular historical significance. Paintings and reliefs that were shown together in exhibitions or included in avant-garde publications during the 1930s will be reunited. Other works were originally bought by influential members of their circle in London, or were produced whilst the artists occupied neighbouring studios in Hampstead. In addition, a selection of archival material, including photographs and a group of Mondrian's and Nicholson's letters, will offer further insights into this fascinating relationship.

The Hamburger Kunsthalle Shows "Exhausted Heroes ~ Hodler, Dejneka & Rauch" Posted: 05 Mar 2012 08:04 PM PST Hamburg, Germany.- The Hamburger Kunsthalle is proud to present "Exhausted Heroes: Ferdinand Hodler – Aleksandr Dejneka – Neo Rauch" on view through May 13th. The exhibition deals with the utopian ideal of the 'Neue Mensch' ('new man') and its history in the 20th century. In the oeuvre of the three painters featured in this exhibition, the radical transformation of this ideal can be  observed in exemplary fashion. It starts with the proclamation of the 'new man' at the beginning of the 20th century, leads on to the political appropriation of the ideal in the vision of a socialist order, and ultimately draws to a close with the abandonment of all idealism after the end of Communist rule in the East Bloc in the late 1980s. The art of the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) is deeply rooted in the ideals of the 'life reform' movement. The discourses of a 'new man' that featured so prominently, and with great pathos, in the Lebensreform movement naturally found their way into his paintings. Despite their monumental appearance, his large-scale renditions of both female and male figures are marked by a measure of decoration and affectation. To the degree that Hodler subdued the heroism of his figures, they are here presented as tired, or 'exhausted heroes'.  Kursk-born painter Aleksandr Dejneka (1899-1969), was a leading representative of postrevolutionary painting in Russia between 1918, the year of Hodler's death, and 1932, when Socialist Realism was proclaimed as the official art of the Soviet Union. In his subject matter, in the painterly modeling of his figures, and in their gestures and posture, Dejneka closely appropriates the model of Hodler's figural compositions and relocates them in a post-revolutionary Russian context – a process that has hitherto gone unnoticed. In this way, for instance, Dejneka transforms Hodler's blossoming nature into an industrial landscape under construction. His working women and men appear like a  renewal of the Swiss painter's symbolist works in proletarian guise. After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the painter Neo Rauch (*1960), who grew up and was educated in East-Germany, takes up exactly the type of figure developed by Hodler and Dejneka. In conscious reference to the heroes of technology and industry from the 'Twenties and 'Thirties, Rauch's figures are frozen in meaningless postures, performing inhibited actions and quixotic rituals in late industrial settings. The utopian vision of a 'new man' is here turned into a complete denial of any faith in progress or ideology of any kind. In the exhibition 'Exhausted Heroes' the oeuvre of Neo Rauch, the internationally renowned representative of the 'Leipzig School' of painting, is for the first time presented in a historical and an art-historical perspective. Moreover, the exhibition offers a singular opportunity to discover the oeuvre of Aleksandr Dejneka, a painter very highly-esteemed in Russia, who is represented by a large number of important works that have never before been shown in Germany. In thematically ordered references to the large number of works by their modern predecessor, Ferdinand Hodler, the exhibition presents a historical development from the 'New Man' around 1900 to the contemporary figure of a 'Tired Hero'. The exhibition comprises more than a hundred large-scale paintings as well as prints and drawings. The Hamburger Kunsthalle is one of the largest and most important museums of art in Germany. Its superb permanent collection takes visitors on a journey through seven centuries of art history, from the medieval altars of Master Bertram through to the stars of the contemporary art scene such as Gerhard Richter and Neo Rauch. Among the highlights of the collection are Dutch paintings of the 17th century, including works by Rembrandt and Ruisdael, German painting of the Romantic period with extensive groups of works by Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge, as well as important paintings by Adolph Menzel and Max Liebermann. The outstanding collection of classical modernist art features works by Max Beckmann, Edvard Munch and the painters of the "Brücke" group. In addition to its permanent collection, the Hamburger Kunsthalle has also won international acclaim for the quality of its special exhibitions, which attract thousands of visitors to the city every year. The Hamburger Kunsthalle consists of three striking buildings: the brick building from 1869 with its ornamental facade, the neoclassical extension building from 1919 made of light-coloured shell limestone, and the white cube of the Galerie der Gegenwart designed by architect Oswald Mathias Ungers and opened in 1997. Centrally located between Hamburg's main railway station and the Alster lakes, the Kunsthalle is therefore also one of the city's architectural highlights. Besides offering wonderful surroundings for the appreciation of art, the Kunsthalle also houses two museum shops with a large selection of international art books, posters, postcards and design objects for sale. Visitors can enjoy one of the finest views of the city from the Bistro in the Galerie der Gegenwart, which together with Café Liebermann in the historical section of the museum and the new Café George Economou in the rotunda offers a relaxing dining experience. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de

The Denver Art Museum features Garry Winogrand Photographs From the Collection Posted: 05 Mar 2012 07:43 PM PST Denver, Colorado.- The Denver Art Museum is proud to present "Garry Winogrand: Women are Beautiful", on view at the museum through July 8th. The exhibition features a selection of 50 photographs from the museum's permanent collection, culled from the hundreds that Garry Winogrand took of women on the street, a selection of which were published in the 1975 book Women are Beautiful. Garry Winogrand was born on January 14th 1928 in New York. Winogrand grew up in the then predominantly Jewish working-class area of the Bronx, New York, where his father, Abraham, was a leather worker, and his mother, Bertha, made neckties for piecemeal work. Winogrand studied painting at City College of New York and painting and photography at Columbia University in New York City in 1948. He also attended a photojournalism class taught by Alexey Brodovich at The New School for Social Research in New York City in 1951. In the early 1960s Winogrand photographed on the streets of New York City alongside Joel Meyerowitz, Lee Friedlander, Tod Papageorge and Diane Arbus.

The American Museum in Britain to Show Birds & Beasts from the Collection Posted: 05 Mar 2012 07:16 PM PST Bath, England.- The American Museum in Britain is proud to present "The Compassionate Eye: Birds and Beasts from the American Museum's Print Collection" on view at the museum from March 10th through July 1st. The exhibition features prints by American artists depicting the sympathetic relationship between man and beast. These images, many of which will be displayed for the first time at the Museum, will be accompanied by early folio engravings after the celebrated drawings of American birds by John James Audubon (1785-1851).  The American Museum in Britain was founded by two visionary collectors, Dallas Pratt (1914-1994), a New York psychiatrist, and his partner John Judkyn (1913-1963), an English antiques dealer who took American citizenship after the Second World War. The two shared the ambition of establishing a museum in Britain to further understanding of the history of the United States and its people through the medium of American decorative arts.

The National Museum of Wales shows "John Piper :The Mountains of Wales" Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:55 PM PST Cardiff, Wales.- The National Museum Cardiff is proud to present " John Piper : The Mountains of Wales" on view through May 13th. One of the most versatile British artists of the twentieth century, John Piper's (1903-1992) work encompasses portraiture, landscape, architectural studies, still life, ceramics and design for stained glass and tapestry. Piper's interest in landscape and architecture extended to all areas of Britain. This exhibition presents an outstanding group of views in Snowdonia by John Piper from a private collection. The mountains of North Wales provided a key source of inspiration to Piper from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, during which time he rented two cottages in the Snowdonia area, Pentre in the Nant Ffrancon Valley and Bodesi, near Llyn Ogwen opposite Tryfan. Using these as a base, he travelled round this landscape, capturing the complex, semi-abstract forms and rich colours of the mountains. There are 29 works from the private collection and 36 works in all in the exhibition. The exhibition will be touring next to Oriel y Parc, St Davids, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno and the Whitworth Art Gallery , Manchester.

Street Artist Banksy's First Film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" ~ Is Up For An Oscar Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:35 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA - Street artist Banksy's first film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is up for an Oscar -- and it seems the subversive Briton may be waging an unorthodox awards campaign on the walls and billboards of Los Angeles. Several examples of graffiti bearing the hallmarks of Banksy's style and humor have turned up in areas of the city in recent days, including a Charlie Brown figure apparently bent on arson, and a cocktail-swigging Mickey Mouse. The Mickey Mouse graffiti, first spotted on Wednesday, featured a lascivious Mickey grabbing the breast of a model and appears on a billboard opposite the Directors Guild of America offices near Hollywood's Sunset Strip. The billboard was taken down late on Wednesday. The story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work.The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards. Other pieces noted by bloggers and graffiti artists in recent days include a giant Oscar-like gold figure wearing a hoodie and standing on a red carpet being guarded by "Star Wars" style troopers, and a young boy brandishing a machine gun loaded with colorful crayons. Representatives of the elusive artist, whose identity is unknown in public, could not immediately be reached for comment. Banksy is thought to be based in the southwestern English city of Bristol. He first drew attention in the early 1990s, and his street art pieces now sell for huge sums. "Exit Through the Gift Shop" -- billed as "the world's first Street Art disaster movie" -- premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and at that time, Banksy hit Park City, Utah, where the festival is held, to paint up the streets. The movie, which looks not just at Banksy's work but how he has inspired numerous others in cities around the world, was nominated last month for a best documentary Oscar. The Oscars, which are the world's top film awards, will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb 27. I sat down to watch "Exit Through the Gift Shop". I was expecting a grainy documentary about street arts heyday, full of young artists on the rise. And while there was plenty of that, I wasn't prepared for the sharp turn this "documentary" took nor for the arrival of Mr. Brainwash. Whether you see the film as a documentary or you believe the hoax theory, the film speaks volumes about the art world's practices, attitudes and hype machines. At its heart, the film is a jab at an establishment by someone who's been nicely compensated within that establishment. Is that hypocritical? Maybe. But it's kind of nice to see the artist land a punch. If the subjects of a film are the type of people you absolutely wouldn't want to hang out with in real life, yet you don't want the movie end, you know you are seeing something good. And that goes doubly for a documentary. "Exit Through The Gift Shop" tells, in its own unique way, the story of 21st Century street art. It is a comedy, an adventure, an expose, a commercial, an unashamed bit of posturing and, at times, one of the most infuriatingly / innovatively "meta" motion pictures I've ever seen. It is required viewing for all undergraduates and anyone who likes to roll up their sleeves and argue "what is art?" It is also smart enough to never look you dead in the eye and ask an idiotic question like "what is art?" The film is credited to Banksy, the most secretive and, in my opinion, clever of the underground, not-quite-legal artists on the "scene." The bulk of the footage, however, was shot, independently, by a man named Thierry Guetta. We travel with him as artists flee street cops and Disneyland security, all in the name of making a subversive statement. How ownership of the project moved from Guetta to Banksy is very much central to the story – and only a gossip would give that away in a review.

National Gallery of Victoria opens "Stick it! Collage in Australian Art" Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:34 PM PST MELBOURNE,AU - The National Gallery of Victoria presents "Stick it! Collage in Australian Art", the Gallery's first exhibition to focus on this fascinating art form. Featuring over forty works primarily drawn from the NGV Collection together with a small number of loans, Stick it! explores graphic and eye-catching works created by pasting and applying paper, ephemera and other materials to a base. Stick it! Collage in Australian Art will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square from 20 March to 29 August 2010. Open 10am–5pm, closed Mondays. Entry is free.

Dalí Universe presents 350 Works of Art by Salvador Dalí at Shanghai Art Museum Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:33 PM PST SHANGHAI.- The Stratton Foundation and the Dalí Universe present an exciting exhibition dedicated to the renowned artist and master of Surrealism, Salvador Dalí. The exhibition "Salvador Dalí in Shanghai" is a rare collection of artworks that will delight and surprise. Opening July 31st and on view till the 14th of August at the Shanghai Art Museum, it continues to run throughout August at the Art Shaker.

Chaïm Soutine and Modernism at the Kunstmuseum Basel Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:32 PM PST BASEL - The Kunstmuseum Basel opened the exhibit Chaim Soutine and Modernism through July 6. In comparison to the much more renowned work of friends and contemporaries, such as Amedeo Modigliani or Marc Chagall, Chaïm Soutine's oeuvre still has an aura of discovery. In a representative survey at the Kunstmuseum Basel, a reassessment of Soutine's position as a painter will be presented within the framework of the complex fabric of movements that marks 20th-century art. Born in Belarus in 1893, Soutine was confronted with unimaginable, in part religious opposition to his desire to become an artist. The decision to study art in Vilna showed great daring and courage. His path took him to Paris in 1913, the capital of the European avant-garde. Like many Jewish newcomers from Eastern Europe, Soutine initially found refuge in the sociotope of the studio residence, La Ruche, and later at the Cité Falguière, where he worked alongside such artists as Chagall, Modigliani and Jacques Lipchitz. Beyond this small circle, Soutine led a largely isolated life. While artistic movements, some of them originating in Paris, made waves throughout Europe – Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism – Soutine remained relatively unimpressed by these ramifications of modernism and instead cultivated a distinctive, highly intense painting of his own, informed with an unprecedented degree of profound and palpable emotion. His pictures are freighted with the tension of collapsing perspective and hyperbolically distorted figuration, reinforced by a powerful, gestural brushstroke. The revolutionary potential inherent in this painting exerted an influence well into the 20th-century and was a seminal force in the work of artists like Francis Bacon or Willem de Kooning. Paradoxically, Soutine is as much a visionary as he is a traditionalist: he was quite indifferent to one of the greatest achievements of modernism, the freedom of subject matter; he maintained an unwavering, lifelong devotion to the triad of still life, landscape and portrait. There is, in fact, not a single subject in Soutine's art for which one could not find a 17th-century model. It almost seems as if art historically sanctioned genres afforded him the security that he needed in order to venture into uncharted territory as a painter. The exhibition comprises some 60 works by Soutine, one point of departure of being the works of the Im Obersteg Collection on permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel. Insightful juxtapositions with paintings by Soutine's friends – Modigliani, Chagall, or Utrillo – and artists like Picasso, Braque or Munch highlight the artistic context of Soutine's oeuvre. The selection clearly shows that Soutine was faced with the same artistic issues as his contemporaries, despite the fact that his extremely idiosyncratic trajectory eludes classification. The exhibition presents a new image of Soutine as the central figure at the intersection of the various artistic tendencies of his day. The Kunstmuseum Basel possesses the worlds largest collection of works by the Holbein family. Further examples of Renaissance art include major pieces by such masters as Konrad Witz, Martin Schongauer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Mathias Grünewald. Most of these early treasures originally belonged to the collection of a Basel lawyer, Basilius Amerbach. Purchased by the city in 1661, they formed the core of the worlds first public municipal museum. Paintings by Basel-born Arnold Böcklin feature among the 19th-century highlights. In the field of 20th-century art, the accent is on Cubism (Picasso, Braque, Léger), German Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism and American art since 1950. Contemporary art is exhibited at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Museum of Contemporary Art).  Visit : www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/home/

Provincetown Art Association & Museum (PAAM) to Present a Weekend With Walton Ford Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:31 PM PST Provincetown, MA - The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) and Norman Mailer Writers Colony (NMWC) announce two special events featuring the internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Walton Ford; both events are open to the public and proceeds will benefit both non-profit groups. First is a gathering and intimate dinner with the artist at the historic Norman Mailer Home on Saturday, August 15, 7:30pm. At $325, tickets include a signed copy of Ford's book, Pancha Tantra. The second event is a public presentation at PAAM on Sunday, August 16, 11am, during which this former Guggenheim Fellow discusses his creative journey and his artworks in an open forum.

Collage Paintings from the 1960's by Larry Zox at Stephen Haller Gallery Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:30 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Larry Zox: Collage Paintings includes rare early collage works, including Banner, a seminal work from the late artist's personal collection. Represented in nearly every major museum in the country, Larry Zox achieved art world prominence in 1973 as the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In the catalogue to that exhibition curator James Monte writes that these earliest collage works are "extremely graphic and take advantage of spatial jumps alternately back into an illusionary picture plane and forward into the viewer's space." On view from June 30 - August 5 at the Stephen Haller Gallery in New York City.

The Royal College of Art Hosts the 20/21 British Art Fair in September Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:29 PM PST London.- The 20/21 British Art Fair, the fair which champions Modern British art, will take place from 14 – 18 September at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London. It will be opened by the highly acclaimed author and scriptwriter, Anthony Horowitz, at 5pm on the 14th. The Royal College of Art, arguably 'the spiritual home of British art', is an ideal setting to see work by the great names of the 20th century, many of whom are former students: Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Elisabeth Frink, Luke Frost, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Peter Lanyon, L. S. Lowry, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Briget Riley, Stanley Spencer and Graham Sutherland. Alongside will be a large selection of contemporary work by established names such as Hirst, Tracey Emin, Banksy as well as by both emerging artists and recent graduates. With some 56 of the country's leading dealers exhibiting, the Fair, now in its 24th year, is not to be missed! A curated selection of sculpture which highlights British excellence and expands on the theme set earlier this year by the Royal Academy. Exhibitors have been invited to submit pieces of special interest and, with many of the best Modern British dealers exhibiting at the Fair, this promises to be an exciting and informative feature. With names as wide-ranging and significant as Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore, Hepworth and Anthony Caro and Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst all now celebrated internationally as well as nationally, there is a strong case to be made for British sculpture, rather than painting, representing this country's most original and successful means of artistic expression through the 20th century. Yet, as the recent Modern British Sculpture show at the Royal Academy made clear, as much by its omissions as by its inclusions, the story is even richer and more interesting than such a random list of names as this might at first suggest. With this in mind, the organisers of this year's 20/21 British Art Fair (being held at the Royal College of Art from 14 – 18 September) decided to put together a selected 'trail' of their own. Curated by exhibitors René Gimpel and Peter Osborne and entitled 'Form – Matter – Material', 12 galleries are participating in the 'trail' which, it is hoped, will draw wider attention to just some of those other sculptors, and periods of sculpture, which many felt were perhaps sidelined or neglected in that show. With this in mind the emphasis of the 22 pieces is very much on post-war and more recent work, the only earlier pieces being Jacob Epstein's vividly modelled Portrait of Sunita 1925 (Boundary Gallery) and Henry Moore's one-time teacher, Leon Underwood's exuberant, African-influenced terracotta figure June of Youth 1933 pictured right (Redfern Gallery). After this, the focus moves on to that quite remarkable, youthful explosion of sculptural activity in the immediate post-war period, the critic Herbert Read's 'geometry of fear' sculptors, Reg Butler, Kenneth Armitage and Lynn Chadwick among others, who made such an impact at the 1952 Venice Biennale. In fact all eight of those who showed then are represented here and many by extremely characteristic pieces. Geoffrey Clarke, for example, whose 'Complexities of Man' piece at the Biennale caused a particular stir, is represented here by another work from 1951, full of those post-war political and social anxieties about nuclear war that characterised all their work, the welded iron sculpture Man as Fortress (Keith Chapman). No less seminal a piece is Kenneth Armitage's major bronze Linked Figures 1949, pictured right (Piano Nobile), the first sculpture in which he experiments with the idea, later to become very characteristic of his work, of grouping two or more figures in a single, dynamic form. Meanwhile, equally resonant of this significant moment in post-war British sculpture are Eduardo Paolozzi's magnificent bull of 1946, Bernard Meadows' Armed man I 1961, with its animalistic body armour and claws and Reg Butler's precariously balanced bronze, Girl Bending Over, 1955, of which he observed at the time "I try to get the mass up in the air like an explosion…". Of the others in this original Biennale group, Lynn Chadwick is seen here with a later piece, one of his monumental bronzes from the great 'Jubilee' series that emerged in the late 70s, the two figures, their cloaks blowing out behind them, of his Maquette Jubilee II 1983, imbued with an intense, dynamic energy; William Turnbull, too, is represented by a later 1980s piece, Metaphoric Venus 4 (1982), one of what were termed his 'new' sculptures, sleek, ambiguous forms created between 1979-1986, that embody ideas derived from primitive fertility symbols, non-European masks and prehistoric tools; and finally, there is Robert Adams, whose exuberant carved yew-wood figure Centaur 1948, dating to that period before he went more fully abstract, again speaks of a fascination with the direct expressiveness of primitive art. Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth had of course also been shown in that Venice Biennale display as kind of godparents to this younger generation and they are present here too but, again, with rather later pieces: Moore with a highly characteristic 1976 cast bronze, Working Model for Reclining Figure: Prop, Hepworth with a rather more abstract small bronze Six Forms in a Circle of 1967 (both Osborne Samuel). Moore, meanwhile had become, a point of reaction for sculptors emerging in the late 50s, among the most notable of whom was, of course, his former assistant Anthony Caro, represented here by one of his ruggedly architectural welded bronze/brass pieces Late Quarter (Variation F) 1981. The even more iconoclastic 60s spirit is, at same time, also wittily represented here by two highly distinctive and unusual Pop Art works, Jann Haworth's mixed media Lindner Doll 1964 and Clive Barker's chrome-plated bronze, Homage to Magritte 1968, Peter Blake's wife at the time, Haworth's sewn and stuffed soft sculpture, using vinyl, nylon stockings and sequins (among other things), broke every rule in the sculpture book while the shiny blank modernity of Barker's sculpture now appears almost like an early prefiguring of Jeff Koons. Barry Flanagan, too, worked in a similarly anarchic vein for much of his life, as his edgily humorous Anvil and Pilgrim 1984 powerfully demonstrates. That same, distinctly 60s, spirit also lived on in the Boyle Family's work, a piece like Study for the Fire Series with Blackened Sandstone 1989, clearly deriving its inspiration from the 'found' forms of the street, becoming both poetic and intensely resonant in feeling. (Barry Flanagan is having a retrospective at Tate Britain opening 27th September).  A good note, in short, to end on – the innovative, thoughtful, engaged and poetic qualities that have always abounded in the rich tradition of British sculpture over the last century or more, still very much alive and in good hands! Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.britishartfair.co.uk

Pablo Picasso Graphics Museum in Münster Celebrates with Miró Exhibition Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:28 PM PST MUNSTER, GERMANY - It will be a time to celebrate at the Pablo Picasso Graphics Museum in Münster in 2010. Germany's only Picasso Museum will be ten years old. To mark the event, the Museum will be presenting three huge special exhibitions, on Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee. The exhibition 'Joan Miro - Die Farbe seiner Traeume' (Joan Miro - The color of his dreams), running from 05 March to 06 June, 2010

The Traditional Wallraf-Richartz Museum In Cologne, Germany Is Re-Visited By Our Editor Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:27 PM PST The Wallraf-Richartz Museum is one of the great traditional art galleries in Germany. It is located in Cologne, Germany and houses a collection of fine art from the medieval period to the early twentieth century. Part of its collection was used for the establishment of Museum Ludwig in 1976. The museum lies at the heart of the Old Town, within view of the cathedral, right next to the historical city hall. Virtually every school of style and historical period of European painting is also represented here, from the Dutch masters to the late Impressionists of France. The Cologne merchant Johann Heinrich Richartz (1795-1861), who gave his name to the museum, supported the first public museum building which was opened in 1861. After the destruction of the building in the Second World War the museum was housed in 1957 in a new building designed by Rudolf Schwarz and Josef Bernard. After a few years in a modern museum building, which from1986 housed both the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and the Museum Ludwig, at the beginning of 2001 the museum moved into a new building designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers. A "permanent loan" of numerous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by the Swiss collector Gerard Corboud was made a short time later. The new building in the quarter between the town hall and Gürzenich stands on an important site in the history of art: In the Middle Ages this was the artistic centre of the cathedral city with the workshops of the goldsmiths and painters of Cologne. Once the museum moved into their modern new building in 2001 the name was changed for marketing purposes to: "Wallraf, The Museum." Visitors approaching the museum from the cathedral come up against a quiet façade of classical proportions, built on the basis of the ancient canons on a massive basalt base, marked with a series of windows. The facade is then developed toward the top as a blind wall with only a few panoramic windows all in a row in one corner. The smooth, clear upper wall, corresponding to the exhibition halls, is the result of geometric partitioning of the artistic work of Ian Hamilton Finlay. Rectangular slabs of slate arranged in two parallel rows are repeated at intervals all over the tuff block of the complex, revealing to passers-by the names of the artists whose works are kept in that area. On the western side, the building is divided into three staggered towers echoing the church bell tower: they house offices and a multifunctional hall and are clearly separated from the museum block itself. The entrance immediately evident from outside, follows the path of the old medieval road where artist Stefan Lochner lived and on the underground floor. The organization of space inside is very simple: a large entrance hall offers access to the three exhibition floors, divided on the basis of strictly chronological criteria, from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The atrium is developed on the basis of the template formed by square units, multiplied and divided over and over again against the luminous ceiling and made up of pillars forming an orderly grid. The works in this internationally prominent collection are not contained in a single hall, but in rooms of different sizes, arrangements and colors. Each floor has its own layout and a color identifying a period in history: terracotta for the Middle Ages, Verona green for the Renaissance, Carrara grey for the nineteenth century. A famous collection of art from the 13th to the 19th centuries occupies a postmodern cube designed by Cologne's own Oswald Mathias Ungers. Works are presented chronologically, with the oldest on the 1st floor where standouts include brilliant examples from the Cologne School, known for its distinctive use of color. Upstairs are Dutch and Flemish artists like Rembrandt and Rubens, Italians such as Canaletto and Spaniards including Murillo. The 3rd floor focuses on the 19th century with evocative works by Caspar David Friedrich and Lovis Corinth. Thanks to a permanent loan from Swiss collector Gèrard Corboud, there's now also a respectable collection of impressionist paintings, including some by heavyweights Monet and Cézanne. A donation by Swiss collector Gèrard Corboud in 2001 greatly expanded the museum's stock of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. The museum also have a 20th Century collection of American Pop Art Retrospective with works from artist like James Rosenquist. The museum carries out a permanent research and restoration program and on February 14, 2008, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum announced that "On the Banks of the Seine by Port Villez", attributed to Claude Monet, was a forgery. The discovery was made when the painting was examined by restorers prior to an upcoming Impressionism exhibition. X-ray and infrared testing revealed that a "colorless substance" had been applied to the canvas to make it appear older. The picture was acquired by the museum in 1954. The museum, which will keep the forgery, still has five authentic Monet paintings in its collection. Visit website:_ www.wallraf.museum/ Exhibition of Alexandre Cabanel – The Tradition of Beauty - 4 February – 15 May 2011 One of the foremost artists of 19th century France, Alexandre Cabanel (1823 – 1889), will be featured in his first exhibition at the Wallraf in Spring 2011. In cooperation with Musée Fabre in Montpellier, the Wallraf in Cologne will present over 60 works by a man who rose from the rank of a lowly carpenter's son to become court painter to Napoleon III. Alexandre Cabanel began his training in fine art at the age of 17 in Paris. In 1844 he was exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon. His breakthrough first came when he turned his brush to mythological themes and with that to the nude. The best example we know of this is his magnum opus "The Birth of Venus" dating from 1863 – a work of captivating beauty that now numbers among the highlights of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Apart from such powerful men as Napoleon III and Ludwig II of Bavaria, Cabanel also was very popular among the ladies of the aristocracy. They enjoyed having their portraits done by him. His skill in drawing was apparently evident by the age of 11. His father could not afford his training, but in 1839 his département gave him a grant to go to Paris. This enabled him to register at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts the following October as a pupil of François-Edouard Picot. Cabanel was also a successful teacher. His pupils (like those of his master, Picot) often won the Prix de Rome; among the best known are Jules Bastien-Lepage, Edouard Debat-Ponsan, Edouard Théophile Blanchard (1844-79), Henri Gervex and Lodewijk Royer. He was elected regularly to the Salon jury, and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the Salons. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of 'belle époque' French painting. Cabanel's pictures were always drawn and painted with a high degree of academic virtuosity, combined with an undercurrent of strong feeling, as in the Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta (1870; Paris, Mus. d'Orsay). This made him popular in his lifetime, but it was the wrong combination for the tastes of later generations.

Pera Museum Welcomes Colombian Artist Fernando Botero to Istanbul Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:26 PM PST ISTANBUL.- Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum welcomed one of the most exceptional artists of the 21st century, Fernando Botero in İstanbul for the very first time with an exhibition comprising a selection of 64 works. Botero's art is not exclusively a narration or a representation, but brings with it the force of an inner vision, of his knocking on life's door. Protecting his Latin and Colombian identity, Botero has succeeded forming his own style nourished not only by folkloric elements but also by the works of grand masters, and has poured his rich inner world into his works with a sophisticated, humorous and wise approach. From acrobats to matadors, dancing people to naked lovers, cardinals to sad clowns and to musicians, the exhibition invites us to discover Botero's lyricism and his enchanting world.

Woodward Gallery to Show Lady Pink's Graffiti Based Art Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:25 PM PST New York City.- The Woodward Gallery is pleased to show "Lady Pink - Evolution", on view at the gallery from November 5th through December 30th, with an artist reception on Saturday, November 5th from 6-8pm. Lady Pink is the first woman in graffiti based art.  In her current solo exhibition "Evolution," Lady Pink re-masters work she once created as public murals. Lady Pink muses on old lettering outlines which have evolved from three decades of writing. To the cultured eye, Lady Pink's street tag can be identified from the period in which it was deliberately constructed. The colorful POP- surreal canvases today, have her trademark name interwoven throughout the elaborate image, as if to authenticate her mark in art history. Lady Pink's unique personal vision has been communicated throughout her evolution from subway writer to fine artist. Sandra Fabara, aka, Lady Pink, was born in Ecuador in 1964, raised in Queens, New York, and studied at the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan. While a student there, she met a group of graffiti artists and began writing at age fifteen. She was soon well known as the only prominent female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Lady Pink painted subway trains from the years 1979-1985.  She appeared in theaters in the starring role of Rose in Charlie Ahearn's 1983 film Wild Style and quickly acquired hip-hop, cult figure status. That same year, Lady Pink was featured in the landmark Graffiti exhibition at the West 57th Street Sidney Janis Gallery where she met the elite collectors of the art world. Lady Pink's canvases are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Groningen Museum, Holland. They were featured in the major exhibitions "Art in the Streets" at the LA MOCA and "Graffiti" at the Brooklyn Museum. Lady Pink continues to mature as an artist, selling work internationally and producing ambitious murals commissioned for universities, corporations and institutions.  This year, Pink's art has also been seen on television commercials for the search engine BING. Woodward Gallery is located in the heart of Manhattan's Lower East Side, a neighborhood with a rich history of art and culture. The gallery's 5000 square foot location offers two floors of exhibition space within walking distance of the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The first floor of the gallery features a schedule of rotating exhibitions; the bottom floor offers an intimate viewing area for special events and private appointments. Since 1994, Woodward Gallery has specialized in developing private and corporate art portfolios with Contemporary and Modern Masters from Pablo Picasso to Andy Warhol and through the unique painting of their acclaimed Gallery Artists. Woodward Gallery maintains an inventory of art by Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Richard Hambleton and Jean Michel Basquiat. An extensive collection of important limited edition prints are available by New York '80's East Village Artists: (Richard Hambleton and Keith Haring); POP Artists: (Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol); and by their Gallery Artists: (Deborah Claxton, Margaret Morrison, Jo Ellen Van Ouwerkerk and Cristina Vergano). Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.woodwardgallery.net

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:24 PM PST 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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