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• Lyons Wier Gallery To Display "Under the Radar" a Group Exhibition
• Gagosian Gallery Presents Picasso and Marie-Therese: L'amour fou In NYC
• The National Gallery of Canada features "The 1930s ~ The Making of "The New Man"
• Helmut Newton Foundation Exhibits 394 Photographs From Newton's Book Sumo
• PINTA the 3rd Annual Latin American Art Fair to Show the Evolution of Modern Latin American Art
• Estate of José Iturbi Sale at Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles
• Bank Austria Kunstforum exhibits "Georges Braque ~ The Lyricism of Geometry"
• Narrative Figuration Paris 1960-1972 at Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
• The Menil Collection to feature A Major Exhibition on Joaquín Torres-García
• The Schirn Kunsthalle Opens an Exhibition of "Erró: Portrait and Landscape"
• The World's Top Emerging Galleries to Convene for NADA's Seventh Art Fair
• Frank Auerbach Painting Emerges at Bonhams After 30 Years in Private Hands
• The Museo d'Arte Mendrisio Presents a Major Retrospective of Simonetta Martini
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Lyons Wier Gallery To Display "Under the Radar" a Group Exhibition Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:12 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- As expressed by its title, Under the Radar features eight New York based artists who have yet to surface prominently on the art scene but whose talent will surely rise to the top. The select eight are: Tobias Batz, Aleksander Betko, Dina Brodsky, Maya Brodsky, Talia Segal Fidler, Cobi Moules, Aristides Ruiz, and Mitra Walter. On exhibition at Lyons Wier Gallery in New York City from July 21st through August 20th. Tobias Batz' work, a fusion of fashion photography and street art, is a respectful celebration of the female sprit. It reflects the urban landscape of New York City and its inhabitants. His cutting edge use of photography, body painting, spray paint and experimental methods of digital processing pays homage to Andy Warhol, Frederico Fellini, Man Ray and edgy fashion photographers such as Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon. Aleksander Betko captures the definition of life in New York City. His paintings are of introspective moments that define the resiliency and strength it takes to live one's life on their own terms in a seemingly cold and unforgiving city that provides the backdrop to some of the triumphs of the human condition. In Dina Brodsky's series of paintings "Desert Places," the artist utilizes 17th century oil painting techniques to achieve a range of tonality in which light and shadow, as well as observation and imagination meld concordantly. Like the Robert Frost poem it references, Brodsky's panels explore the beauty that can be found in nature's most isolated places. The artist reveals the dichotomy of feeling that affects one in such settings. In these works, desolation is a siren that tempts our anxieties about loneliness to surface. Although fear suffuses the landscapes, their beauty is never overshadowed. Maya Brodsky's work is inspired by notions concerning the connection between past and present and how one's memory of the past is formed and changed visually. Her paintings allow the viewer a glimpse into her personal vision and present, which she considers ephemeral and precious. By depicting the specific form of her personal experience, the artist protects it from the obscuring effects of time, implying the existence of something that transcends the particular forms of her subjective reality. Cobi Moules creates a fantasy world in which only he exists. Throughout, there are many different narratives, coexisting to create an alternate world with a sense of excitement, self worth and play. Through the figure's multiplication and overwhelming presence within the landscape, it takes precedence over the landscape and integrates into it. The landscape, based off the Hudson River School style, is a stand in for the artist's own Christian upbringing, seeking to renegotiate his relationship, as a queer and transgender person, with his religious upbringing and of being seen as 'unnatural' through such Christian lens. The importance becomes the experiences of his multiple and overall presence in the landscape; engaging in different activities: playing, exploring his selves and nature, and thus becoming part of it. Talia Segal Fidler applies personal experiences and her immediate surroundings into her hybrid compositions. As a collector of "stuff," she applies what she collects to add textural and decorative elements to her portraits such as jewels, pills, feathers, hair, an old wood palette or a pair of panties. The artist breaks the flat canvas surface and goes beyond simple paint and canvas in order to immerse the work into her everyday life, touching on personal topics such as body image, beauty, consumption, and the passage of time. Aristides Ruiz' intricate ballpoint drawings of urban life and every day scenes capture the feelings and presence of a particular aesthetic moment in time, a single episode of a much longer tale. His 'snapshot' imagery attests to the undeniable presence of human life within the gritty landscape and their consequence on a broader scale. Mitra Walter's small, intimate portraits focus on women and children as she explores ways in which figuration can reveal contextualized perceptions of human nature. Visit the Lyons Wier Gallery in New York City at : http://lyonswiergallery.com/Home.html

Gagosian Gallery Presents Picasso and Marie-Therese: L'amour fou In NYC Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:11 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Following the critical and popular success of Picasso: Mosqueteros in New York in 2009 and Picasso: The Mediterranean Years in London in 2010, Gagosian Gallery presents the next chapter in an ongoing exploration of Picasso's principal themes. Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'amour fou brings together the paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints inspired by one of Picasso's most ideal models and enduring passions. The exhibition is curated by the eminent Picasso biographer, John Richardson, together with Marie-Thérèse's granddaughter, art historian Diana Widmaier Picasso, who is currently preparing a catalogue raisonné of Picasso's sculptures. The exhibition is on view from April 14 through June 25, 2011.

The National Gallery of Canada features "The 1930s ~ The Making of "The New Man" Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:10 PM PDT   Ottawa, Canada - The 1930s: The Making of "The New Man" exhibition, on view at the National Gallery of Canada. The exhibition, which has already attracted more than 50,000 visitors, has been well received by both critics and public. While the 1930s are known above all for the political upheavals that led to World War II, this decade merits being examined from another viewpoint. A North American exclusive, the exhibition The 1930s: The Making of "The New Man" brings together over 200 extraordinary works that explore the seminal link between art and biology.

Helmut Newton Foundation Exhibits 394 Photographs From Newton's Book Sumo Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:09 PM PDT BERLIN.- With SUMO, the Helmut Newton Foundation presents what might just be the most spectacular and expensive photography book project ever. Ten years ago, publisher Benedikt Taschen persuaded Helmut Newton to agree to produce a gigantic book with a print run of 10,000 copies, all signed by the photographer. Accompanied by a custom-made book holder by Philippe Starck, the book found its way into the homes of well-heeled buyers. Now, for the first time, its 394 photographs will go on display to mark the 10th anniversary of a photography publication that today is a much sought-after collector's item. To accompany this presentation, Taschen will publish a smaller and revised version of the book for the regular book market. In addition to SUMO, Mark Arbeit, George Holz and Just Loomis will be presented at the Helmut Newton Foundation with their photography under the title "Three boys from Pasadena". In the late 70s, they were students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and later became assistants of Helmut Newton. In recent years, the photo book has attracted particular appreciation, not least of all through Martin Parr's "The Photobook: A History" that examines some quite unusual photographic publications. A growing number of collectors have turned to this new field, and some photo books can fetch sums that are dazzling. At photo fairs from Paris to New York, photo book dealers appear in increasing frequency with especially valuable publications in tow. One of the most outstanding photo books of the last decade is Helmut Newton's SUMO, which appeared in 1999 in poster format with 464 pages and considerable weight. It was Benedikt Taschen who convinced the photographer to this publishing feat; it proved to be a smash hit. Philippe Starck crafted the metal stand for this extraordinary publication that appeared in an edition of 10,000 copies, all personally signed by Newton. The sales price matches the format and exclusivity of the photo book, and has found its way into the hands of only the best-endowed Newton enthusiasts. The limited availability contributed to the book's legendary status, the contents remained mostly unknown. The some 400 photographs in the book, many of which were published here for the first time, capture the essence of Newton's work. His first and award-winning photo book in 1976, "White Women," was followed by numerous publications with decidedly descriptive titles, such as 1981's "Big Nudes," whose circulation of over 100,000 copies to date has been Newton's most successful book; or "World Without Men" from 1984. At irregular intervals between 1987 and 1995, Helmut Newton published his own magazine and showcase for his newest images, "Helmut Newton's Illustrated." But it was with SUMO that the Newton/Taschen team topped them all in the field of photo books. Such monumental tomes already existed in the history of books and bookmaking, but these were bibles, books of hours and atlases, followed later – in the second half of the 19th century – by illustrated travelogues with inserts of original large format prints. This presentation of the corpus of images comprising SUMO traces the book's unique history. All of the book's pictures appear 1:1 as framed pages; additionally, there is a selection of original photographs, in black & white and color. Still other prints document the book's own elaborate production and glamorous presentation. Newton's fashion and nude photography, portraiture as well as advertising images hang side by side in equal standing. Some of these images can be found in other Newton publications, while others premiered in the book and may only now for the first time be seen on exhibit. This "best of" selection overlooks not a single aspect of Newton's opus. His portraits are intensely individual: Debra Winger returns our gaze while her half-hidden face fills the frame; David Bowie stoically bares his chest on the beach at Monte Carlo; and Liz Taylor bathes in the pool for Newton's camera, a green parrot perched on her finger. Helmut Newton visually escorted the exclusive and eccentric lives of the rich and beautiful including all of its eroticism and gluttony. While doing so, he both served and questioned the clichés at the same time. In order to understand both his work and the vehement reactions it often evoked, one should try to imagine the cultural tenor and the dominant public conventions at the time of their publication. It is only then that the controversy and provocation of many photographs fully emerges. In the early 1970s for example, his portrayal of two women passionately kissing – the one naked, the other in a tuxedo – was seen as a direct affront on social mores. It is since these times that Helmut Newton became known for his insertion of subtle as well as radical nudity into his fashion and product photography. Finding the borders and overstepping them belong to the trademark of the photographer who scorns in constant battle the established notions of "good taste". With his close-up reduction of a black stiletto heel, or the bulging fingers of a woman's hand reaching greedily for dollar bills, Newton succeeded in producing symbolic images beyond compare. Helmut Newton's seminal work remains singular and nonpareil. It is at the very latest while perusing SUMO that one realizes just how many icons of photographic history the photographer has indeed created. As with previous exhibitions at the Helmut Newton Foundation, the work of Newton's companions will be presented in parallel to SUMO. Mark Arbeit, George Holz and Just Loomis were students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, when they met Newton in the late 1970s; later they would assist him regularly. Some of Mark Arbeit's pictures are formally quite unusual. In his photo-technical experiments with deconstructed Polaroids enlarged onto photo paper, he reveals the other, flip side of the photographic image and its creation. Here and in his collages with African tribal art, Arbeit makes reference to experimental phases in the history of nude photography, for example in Surrealism. In another series, he portrays nudes in Parisian artist ateliers. The painters themselves are absent, represented only through their works on the easels and walls. The nudes in the studio medially paraphrase the paintings through their presence. In addition to his contract celebrity portraiture that includes the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Madonna, George Holz also looks to the female form, naked and life-sized, in interiors or natural settings. Some of his more stylized images evoke stills from early Fritz Lang films, while others are strictly unaccessorized – such as his photograph of Rachele, reclining poolside in Hollywood. The reciprocal sexual attraction often evident in his images evokes a pastoral affinity reaching towards a mystical fusion of man and nature. What captures Holz's eye here is timeless, natural nudity, occasionally cast by refined shadows varying subtly across the body's surfaces. Just Loomis opts for a direct and unadorned look at American everyday life. In black & white and color, we see the faces of young waitresses, skateboarders or passers-by looking back at us, uninvolved and unaffected. Independent projects that have emerged from his magazine work in fashion and beauty, such as his documentations of the fashion industry backstage or images from on the road, are now on display at the Helmut Newton Foundation. Hardly anything seems staged – these are intensely visual encounters with strangers. Timeless and yet contemporary, the portraits of Just Loomis play with the beauty and the banality of the moment.

PINTA the 3rd Annual Latin American Art Fair to Show the Evolution of Modern Latin American Art Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:08 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Fifty carefully selected galleries and museums will set the pace for the modern and contemporary Latin American art market in New York, during the celebration of PINTA, the annual Latin American art fair, which is slated for November 19 to 22, 2009 at the Metropolitan Pavilion y B. Altman Building, in Chelsea, New York. This third PINTA show offers a rich panorama of the history and evolution in modern Latin American art. Prominent works by the following artists will be exhibited:

Estate of José Iturbi Sale at Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:06 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA - By the close of the auction in Los Angeles, Bonhams & Butterfields clients - private and institutional collectors and members of the trade - had spent more than $1.76-million for fine art and furniture from the Beverly Hills Estate of conductor/composer José Iturbi and Marion Seabury, proceeds benefiting the José Iturbi Foundation.

Bank Austria Kunstforum exhibits "Georges Braque ~ The Lyricism of Geometry" Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:06 PM PDT VIENNA - The Bank Austria Kunstforum presents a large-scale retrospective on Georges Braque for 2008 as an act of homage to this major pathfinder of the avant-garde. It will not only be the first retrospective in Central Europe after a period of twenty years, but the very first presentation of Georges Braque in Austria – 45 years after his death. The exhibition Georges Braque – The Lyricism of Geometry will take this as an opportunity of (re-)discovering his extraordinary oeuvre. On display through 1 March, 2009. Around 80 paintings and the chief printed graphics will indicate Braque's special way into the European modern movement and illustrate the uniqueness of his painting adventure: Braque among the Fauves, Braque the methodical, Braque the inventor of papier collé, Braque's borrowing from decoration painting, in which he was apprenticed, Braque the master of "modern" still life and, last but not least, Braque the "lyrical constructor". All these components are to be honored equally in the exhibition, thus tracing an artistic oeuvre that is far more complex and exciting than reducing it to his insider relationship with Picasso and the fateful identification of his work with cubism – something that art historians have often been led to do. However, adequate scope has of course to be given to the path-breaking cubist works; cubism after all remains the groundbreaking discovery for Braque himself. It enabled him, as he said, "not just to reproduce an anecdotal fact, but a pictorial fact" (fait pictural). Why did painting mainly become autonomous through the still life motif ? How did the definition of still life and its relationship to reality transform Braque in the course of his artistic development and in the end advance him to become the master of modern still life? These are the key questions addressed by the exhibition. It aims to trace how Braque started out from the form repertoire of analytic cubism, and how a vein of consolidation and the impression of classicism noticeably asserts itself during the twenties and thirties. The partial reintroduction of naturalist forms, the beauty of line and contour and the emphasis of the value inherent in color as material produce a measured form of cubism with the tactile sensuousness so typical of Braque and so entirely alien to purism. The exhibition will be devoted to the "complete" Braque, thus also his late work, which has suffered a comparatively strong recession into the background in appreciation history. It will therefore cast light for instance on the visionary picture series of the "Ateliers", in which Braque most closely approaches his goal of the greatest possible condensation of material and space, space as a haptic experience. The Ateliers are without doubt the culmination of the fascinating late work of Georges Braque. Braque never ceased to urge on the development of his ideas, with a sense of the metamorphosis which nullifies the generally accepted differentiations not only between figuration and abstraction, but also between the genres. The Bank Austria Kunstforum is the top address for art lovers, especially for classical modern painting of the post-war years. Every year, 300,000 people visit the temporary exhibitions held in this private institution, shows that are unique across the globe. Leading museums present their works here as well as private collectors. Whether van Gogh or Miró, Kandinsky or Chagall, Warhol or Lichtenstein, the great names of art are united here. Since 2000, there have also been exhibitions devoted to contemporary artists. Visit : www.bankaustria-kunstforum.at/en/tresor

Narrative Figuration Paris 1960-1972 at Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:04 PM PDT PARIS - Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais present Narrative Figuration Paris 1960-1972, on view through July 13, 2008. Narrative Figuration was never proclaimed as a movement as such. It grew out of the initiative of art critic Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and artists Bernard Rancillac and Hervé Télémaque who worked together in July 1964 to set up the exhibition "Mythologies quotidiennes" at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

The Menil Collection to feature A Major Exhibition on Joaquín Torres-García Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:03 PM PDT HOUSTON, TX.- Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949) is revered today as one of the most influential artists and theorists of the early twentieth century to have emerged from Latin America. A charismatic figure in the international art world, he exhibited with the most famous artists of his time, including Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Jacques Lipchitz, and Marcel Duchamp. Organized by The Menil Collection in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood will offer to North American audiences for the first time an exploration of the artist's wooden constructions known as maderas. On exhibition 25 September, 2009 through 3 January, 2020.

The Schirn Kunsthalle Opens an Exhibition of "Erró: Portrait and Landscape" Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:02 PM PDT Frankfurt, Germany  - The Schirn Kunsthalle is proud to present "Erró: Portrait and Landscape", on view at the museum from October 6th through January 8th 2012. The Icelandic artist Erró is one of the great solitary figures of twentieth- century art. At once Pop and Baroque, eye-catching and narrative, critical of society and humorous, moral and inscrutable, over the past fifty years he has produced an opulent, unmistakable oeuvre that resists all categorization. His critical narrative collages reproduce in painting combinations of pictorial elements from various popular sources to create eloquent, often disturbing tableaux. As reflections on great social themes such as politics, war, sexuality, science, and art, these dense visual arrangements seem to create a comprehensive atlas of images of the modern world. On the occasion of Iceland's turn as guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Schirn will show Erró's series "Scapes" and, for the first time, the artist's entire cycle of "Monsters" from 1968. This bizarre series of double portraits confronts the official likenesses of prominent persons with a second, monstrously distorted face. Erró films from the 1960s will be shown as a link between the two work groups. Nothing about Erró's art is understated. A firm believer that more is better, this Icelandic artist creates jam-packed, dynamic, and often raucous paintings. Working in series and deploying a kaleidoscope of cartoon characters, art icons, and public figures, he comments on pressing political issues, references art history, and delights in wreaking visual havoc. Erró settled in Paris in 1958 after studying in Reykjavik, Oslo, and Florence. His early tempera-and-ink paintings depicting ghoulish figures firmly situate him in the postwar European figurative art scene. In 1963, his encounter with American Pop art on his first trip to New York proved decisive, and he began employing mass-culture imagery to explore social and cultural contradictions inherent in a world of never-ending consumption. From the very beginning, Erró also made collages—a technique that has been essential to his art—and has unceasingly investigated and amassed an ever-expanding archive of images culled from around the world. Comprising newspaper and magazine clippings, posters, leaflets, postcards, advertisements, and, importantly, comics, this wealth of materials provides the sources for the collages, which in turn he projects onto canvases and paints. Collage enables Erró to fashion startling combinations which can appear humorous or ironic but, on closer observation, can also be deeply unsettling. Indeed, in many of Erró's paintings, shiny, smooth surfaces belie pointed political critiques and complex psychological investigations. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is one of Germany's most renowned exhibition institutions. Since its founding in 1986, the Schirn has mounted approximately 180 exhibitions, including major survey shows devoted to the Vienna Jugendstil, Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism, to women Impressionists, to subjects such as "shopping — a century of art and consumer culture," the visual art of the Stalin era, new Romanticism in contemporary art, and the influence of Charles Darwin's theories on the art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Large solo exhibitions have featured artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Julian Schnabel, James Ensor, James Lee Byars, Yves Klein, Peter Doig, Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, and Georges Seurat. And artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Ayse Erkmen, Carsten Nicolai, Jan De Cock, Jonathan Meese, John Bock, Michael Sailstorfer, Terence Koh, Aleksandra Mir, Eberhard Havekost, and Mike Bouchet have developed new exhibitions for the Schirn. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt showcases highly charged themes and topical aspects of artists' oeuvres with an incisive voice and from a contemporary standpoint. As a site of discoveries, the Schirn offers its visitors an original, sensory exhibition experience as well as active participation in cultural discourse. Visit the kunsthalle's website at ... http://www.schirn.de

The World's Top Emerging Galleries to Convene for NADA's Seventh Art Fair Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:01 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Set to return for its 7th edition, the NADA Art Fair is highly recognized as the preeminent exhibition featuring the world's most significant emerging art galleries. Featuring 80 galleries from 33 cities worldwide, the fair celebrates new and innovative contemporary art from rising talents around the globe. No other art fair has been able to match our quality, style, and attitude. Organized and run by the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), the NADA Art Fair Miami Beach 2009 will be presented in the expansive Napoleon and Richelieu Ballrooms of the Deauville Hotel, a full-service beachside resort, conveniently located on Collins Avenue and the beach just north of the Small A Projects, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery,District and the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Frank Auerbach Painting Emerges at Bonhams After 30 Years in Private Hands Posted: 22 Apr 2012 09:00 PM PDT LONDON.- An important and large painting Looking Towards Mornington Crescent Station (1972 -74) by the highly acclaimed artist Frank Auerbach will be sold by Bonhams in the 20th Century British Art auction at New Bond Street on November 17th 2010. The painting, which has never appeared at auction before and hasn't been since in public since the late 1970s, is estimated to sell for £800,000 - £1,200,000. In June Bonhams achieved the highest ever price at auction for a small painting by Auerbach (Head of E.O.W. III for £860,000) and is now looking forward to offering this dynamic oil in November, along with a group of sketches by the same artist from the same collection.

The Museo d'Arte Mendrisio Presents a Major Retrospective of Simonetta Martini Posted: 22 Apr 2012 08:58 PM PDT Mendrisio, Switzerland.- The Museo d'Arte Mendrisio is proud to present "Simonetta Martini: Whither are You Taking My Art?", on view at the museum from October 29th through January 15th 2012. In this exhibition, the artist is showing an overview of her work of the past twenty years, with about twenty large-format works together with a series of drawings and ceramics (made in collaboration with Giusi Arndt). This is her first retrospective exhibition in a museum. The catalogue, which is part of a series of books devoted to contemporary art in Ticino, contains critical and literary essays by  Erri de Luca, Sylviane Dupuis, Maria Sole Martini Giovannoli, Simone Soldini, and Maria Will, and is illustrated with 54 colour plates. The Ticino-born artist Simonetta Martini studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and at the École Supérieure d'Art Visuel in Geneva. After finishing her studies, she travelled widely, spending time in El Salvador, Madagascar and India, and these experiences influenced her profoundly. On three different occasions she won a Federal Scholarship for the Visual Arts, and from 1988 to 1989 she stayed at the Swiss Institute in Rome, where she found herself immersed in the vast artistic heritage of the city, attracted by Roman and then Byzantine and Renaissance art. She returned to Ticino in 1990. Right from the start, in around 1985, her painting formed part of the movement to rediscover figurative art which started in the late 1970s, and she has continued to work in this direction without making a break from it. Simonetta Martini also views painting as a revisitation of the art of the past, overcoming the barriers of time, and she even includes direct quotations from the works of great masters such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Vermeer, Lega, and Pablo Picasso. At the heart of the image is the human figure, creating a mysterious interaction of profound harmony with nature and with the animal kingdom. Human presences have gradually been disappearing, making way for a sweeping, romantic vision of the landscape. Without indulging in symbolism or metaphysics, these images always maintain a sense of mystery and enigma. With their humble yet precious materials, Simonetta Martini's paintings appear as carpets or frescoes, and her powdery, chalky colours confer a soft luminosity upon her scenes. The originality of Simonetta Martini's painting, which is inspired by a powerful inner tension, is well reflected in the thoughts expressed by Erri de Luca: "Those who approach her work believing it to be meek and docile will get burnt, and those who misunderstand it as a state of tranquillity will find the furious swarming of bees in their ears. Simonetta Martini is absolute incandescence." (Erri de Luca, in Rosso, 2001). Founded within the walls of a former monastery in 1982, the Mendrisio Art Museum organises exhibitions dedicated to the great 20th century masters, among those most appreciated both by critics and the general public. After opening with two significant reviews of Paul Klee,the cycle of retrospectives has included reappraisals of painters such as Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Eduardo Chillida, Mark Tobey, Sam Francis, Jean Arp, Julius Bissier, Ben Nicholson, Meret Oppenheim, Fritz Wotruba, Walter Kurt Wiemken and Renato Birolli, with attention always focused on hitherto unexplored aspects and little-known materials used in their work. As a result of these initiatives, the Museum is recognised nationally and internationally and constantly collaborates with major museums in Switzerland and throughout Europe. Alternating with these events, exhibitions are held that relate to people and themes connected to the region, which examine aspects of local history and present local artists. Acting as a reference for the region the Museum regularly organises study exhibitions and produces publications regarding the region's art and history. Additionally, every year the Museum holds special interest events for schools. During these temporary exhibitions the Museum organises animation programmes for nursery and elementary schools, thus offering children the opportunity to visit the Museum and become familiar with art through didactic activities. Thanks especially to generous donations, the Mendrisio Museum of Art can now boast a remarkable collection of paintings (including an important group of ex-voto), sculptures and works on paper ranging from the 16th to the 20th century, which document local art history in detail (Maestro della Natività, Giovan Battista Bagutti, Antonio Rinaldi, Filippo Franzoni, Luigi Rossi, Edoardo Berta, Guido Gonzato, Pietro Chiesa, Imre Reiner, Giuseppe Bolzani, Jean Corty, Edmondo Dobrzanski). Of major importance is the collected work of a leading figure in 20th-century art in Ticino and Lombardy, Pietro Chiesa, comprising, in addition to 500 paintings and drawings, the artist's own valuable records. The collection is further enriched by a body of work by prominent figures in Italian post-war art (Mario Sironi, Gino Severini, Fausto Pirandello, Atanasio Soldati, Ennio Morlotti, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Gianni Dova, Piero Gilardi). The Museum also has in its keeping over 650 Trasparenti produced for Easter Week processions from the end of the 18th century to the present day. A legacy of extraordinary value, these constitute a unique historical and religious testimony of the region. Visit the museum's website at ... http://museo.mendrisio.ch

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 22 Apr 2012 08:57 PM PDT This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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