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

---

• The Traditional Wallraf-Richartz Museum In Cologne, Germany Is Re-Visited By Our Editor
• MoMA Presents ' Color Chart: Reinventing Color ~ 1950 to Today '
• Julien Levy's Role in the History of Photography
• New Commission by Mat Collishaw to Open at BFI Gallery
• Record Attendance Marks Opening of 14th American International Fine Art Fair
• Valencian Institute for Modern Art Exhibits of Works Donated to Its Collection
• GENRE PAINTINGS AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY of ARTS
• Best Works by Sarah Morris on View at Gallery Meyer Kainer
• Waterhouse & Dodd presents Jeremy Duncan's Solo Exhibition
• National Museum Wales Acquires Picasso's "Still Life with Poron"
• Raoul De Keyser ~ Watercolors exhibited at Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art
• Kunsthaus Zürich hosts Switzerland’s first Solo Show of the Works of Mircea Cantor
• Luanne Martineau Exhibits at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Traditional Wallraf-Richartz Museum In Cologne, Germany Is Re-Visited By Our Editor Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:30 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. ANNOUNCEMENT: Our Editor has been invited to visit Museums and cultural sites in mainland China, Korea, Vietnam. Myanmar, Thailand (Siam), Singapore, Bali and mainland Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Bhutan, Malaysia, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and now Germany. Because of the Editor's travel we will be posting many interesting articles from our archives, some of the BEST Articles and Art Images that appeared in your magazine during the past six plus (6+) years . . Enjoy.

MoMA Presents ' Color Chart: Reinventing Color ~ 1950 to Today ' Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:20 PM PST NEW YORK CITY - The first major MoMA exhibition devoted to this pivotal transformation, Color Chart will feature some 90 works of art—including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, digital art, videos, and films—by 44 artists, primarily ranging in date from the 1950s to the present. Several site-specific installations and commissions for the exhibition will be installed in the sixth-floor galleries and the Museum's lobby. The exhibition, which is organized by Ann Temkin, The Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, is on view from March 2 through May 12, 2008, in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery, sixth floor, and other locations in the Museum.

Julien Levy's Role in the History of Photography Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:17 PM PST Philadelphia, PA - In celebration of the centenary of the birth of Julien Levy (1906-1981), one of the most influential and colorful proponents of modern art and photography and an impassioned champion of Surrealism, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will present a major exhibition and publish a comprehensive book surveying Levy's collection of photographs.  Dreaming in Black-and-White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery will be on view from June 17–September 17, 2006.  More than 200 photographs, some exhibited for the first time in five decades, will be drawn from more than 2,000 images acquired by the Museum in 2001 in part as a gift from Levy's widow, Jean Farley Levy, and with a major contribution from philanthropists Lynne and Harold Honickman.

New Commission by Mat Collishaw to Open at BFI Gallery Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:14 PM PST LONDON.- Mat Collishaw has been a significant figure on the international art scene for over 20 years. His new commission for the BFI Gallery is in response to the visionary work of the late Georgian/Armenian film director Sergei Paradjanov. The project fuses sculpture and the moving image in an atmospheric work evoking the spirit of Paradjanov and forms part of the 2010 festival of his work and legacy. A season of Paradjanov films in the BFI Southbank cinemas complements the show. Mat Collishaw opens in the BFI Gallery on 26 February and runs until 9 May 2010.

Record Attendance Marks Opening of 14th American International Fine Art Fair Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:11 PM PST PALM BEACH, FL.- International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE) founders and AIFAF organizers David and Lee Ann Lester reported that a record 5,100 collectors attended the opening Vernissage honoring the Norton Museum of Art Tuesday evening at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Sales during the first day of the fair indicate that the US art economy is rebounding strongly – consistent with very strong auction sales in New York on Wednesday – where a Giacometti sculpture sold for a record $105 million – a new high for any work of art. The American International Fine Art Fair continues its run through February 8.

Valencian Institute for Modern Art Exhibits of Works Donated to Its Collection Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:08 PM PST VALENCIA.- The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern has received a lot of artworks over the last 25 years. Out of the 10 643 works comprising the IVAM's collection, 61 % are donations made by collectors, artists and heirs who have considered that the IVAM is the perfect museum to preserve and disseminate their creations. Thanks to the donations, the museum has increased its artistic heritage becoming a reference museum for studying the works of some artists, for example Julio González, whose name is also the name of the IVAM headquarters. Artworks by Miquel Navarro, Gerardo Rueda, the Equipo Crónica, Jacques Lipchitz, or Gabriel Cualladó also appear in the exhibition. We should emphasized the name of other artists who, thanks to the donations made by them or their heirs, have contributed to turn the museum into an essential place for the study and knowledge of their works. Some of these artists are: Ignacio Pinazo, Bernard Plossu, Eduardo Arroyo, Díaz Caneja, Horacio Coppola, Gabriele Basilico, Juana Francés, José Sanleón, Manolo Gil, Rafael Pérez Contel, Salvador Victoria, Paco Caparrós, Georges Zimbel, Carlos Canovas, Grete Stern, Joan Antoni Vicent, Roberto Otero, John Davies and Carlos Pascual de Lara. On view through 12 September.

GENRE PAINTINGS AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY of ARTS Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:05 PM PST   LONDON - This new display in the John Madejski Fine Rooms at the Royal Academy of Arts is a social commentary exploring the rich variety of paintings that reflect common themes of life from the 18th to 20th centuries. The exhibition consists of 34 pieces from the Academy's own collection – most of which are Academicians' Diploma Works and represent everyday life dating back to the 1770s. On exhibition until 7 December, 2008.

Best Works by Sarah Morris on View at Gallery Meyer Kainer Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:03 PM PST VIENNA.- Gallery Meyer Kainer presents "It's All True" an exhibition of new works by Sarah Morris, labeled after an unfinished documentary film by Orson Welles. Sarah Morris is an internationally recognized painter and filmmaker, known for her complex abstractions, which play with architecture and the psychology of urban environments. Morris views her paintings as parallel to her films - both trace urban, social and bureaucratic topologies. In both these media, she explores the psychology of the contemporary city and its architecturally encoded politics. On view through 30 April, 2020.

Waterhouse & Dodd presents Jeremy Duncan's Solo Exhibition Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:01 PM PST   London - Waterhouse & Dodd will hold the second full solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Jeremy Duncan. This exhibition will once again cover architectural representations of New York, but the comparison with London (made in the first solo exhibition) will be replaced by a comparison with Paris. Jeremy hopes that this juxtaposition will be a seductive blend of old and new world. As ever, his concerns are with abstract patterning created by sunlight on building facades. On exhibition 26th November – 19th December 2008.

National Museum Wales Acquires Picasso's "Still Life with Poron" Posted: 06 Jan 2011 07:58 PM PST CARDIFF.- A new, free display, bringing together mid 20th century still life paintings, including Pablo Picasso's striking "Still Life with Poron" (1948) - the first oil painting by the artist to enter a Welsh public collection - will be on view at National Museum Cardiff from Tuesday, 10 November 2009. The Centenary Fund has been a joint initiative between Amgueddfa Cymru and the Derek Williams Trust to mark the Museum's centenary by making exceptional acquisitions of modern art. The Picasso still life is the most important of these. It will be shown initially alongside work by other leading artists of the 20th-century including Paul Cézanne, Giorgio Morandi and Ceri Richards.

Raoul De Keyser ~ Watercolors exhibited at Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art Posted: 06 Jan 2011 07:56 PM PST Porto, Portugal  - The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art presents Raoul De Keyser: Watercolors, on view through May 3, 2009. Raoul De Keyser is a painter, born in 1930 in Deinze, Belgium, where he still lives. His works have been exhibited since the 1960s, and since the middle of the 1980s his painting has enjoyed the highest international acclaim. While Raoul De Keyser tries to avoid the glamorous side of the contemporary art world, his work is shown regularly by the leading museums and private galleries on both sides of the Atlantic. The present show presents 60 watercolours from 2001 to 2008 many of which have never been exhibited before.

Kunsthaus Zürich hosts Switzerland’s first Solo Show of the Works of Mircea Cantor Posted: 06 Jan 2011 07:53 PM PST Zurich, Switzerland - From 28 August to 8 November 2009, under the title 'Tracking Happiness', the Kunsthaus Zürich presents the young Romanian artist Mircea Cantor, whose work addresses traces left and deleted by our age of computer communication and electronic surveillance. With his videos, photos, objects and installations, Cantor puts the digital information society to the test in a remarkably poetic artistic process. The image of leaving a trace is fundamental for Cantor's art. In 'Tracking Happiness' he considers a society that stores ever more personal information: biometric databases produce profiles, people's locations and itineraries can be determined by mobile phone satellite, and credit and member's cards are scanned at the point of sale to collect information on consumer habits quickly and painlessly.

Luanne Martineau Exhibits at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal Posted: 06 Jan 2011 07:49 PM PST MONTREAL.- Saskatoon-born artist Luanne Martineau has made a name for herself with her virtually indescribable hybrid felt and wool sculptures. Human, animal and organic, all at once, they produce an experience that wavers between fascination and repulsion, the microscopic and the macroscopic. The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal presents the exhibition Luanne Martineau from February 4 to April 25, 2010.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 06 Jan 2011 07:48 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.

You are subscribed to email updates from Art News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610