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

---

• The Beyeler Foundation Collection ~ Near Basel in Switzerland Receives Our Editor
• Brooklyn Museum to host Retrospective of Acclaimed Artists Gilbert & George
• Portraits & Still Lifes by Vera Mercer at Kommunale Galerie in Berlin
• Thomas Chambers (1808 – 1869) featured at The Hyde Collection
• New Painting by Shiva Ahmadi at Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery
• The Frans Hals Museum Presents Master Painters Side by Side
• Pierre Huyghe's La saison des fetes Installation at Museo Reina Sofia
• Tracey Moffatt to Speak at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
• McCaffrey Fine Art shows First Ever Solo Exhibition of Kazuo Shiraga in the U.S.
• Gerald Peters Gallery presents Max Weber ~ Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s
• Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale in Paris Shows Leading 20th Century Artists
• Tiffany Exhibition Coming to VMFA in May Opens at Musée du Luxembourg in Paris
• Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Exhibition Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes
• The Taubman Museum of Art features Devorah Sperber & Chris Doyle Exhibitions
• Jeff Koons Original To Benefit Tel Aviv Museum of Art
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Beyeler Foundation Collection ~ Near Basel in Switzerland Receives Our Editor Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:55 PM PST The Fondation Beyeler (Beyeler Foundation) owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler that was built up by the couple over five decades and placed under the aegis of the foundation in 1982. The collection was first publicly exhibited in its entirety at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 1989. Seeking a permanent home, the Beyelers considered lending the collection to various existing museums, but none of the available spaces would have done justice to the collection. Impressed by the work of world-renowned architect Renzo Piano (the Pritzker prize winning architect who designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris amongst other well known works), the couple commissioned him to design a new purpose-built museum building to be built in Riehen near Basel. When the museum opened in 1997, the collection finally gained a permanent home where it could be made permanently accessible to the public. A masterpiece of contemporary architecture, the museum is airy and through the soft colors, large windows and outdoor park (with two ponds) creates different shades of light and color as they reflect on artworks on the walls of different rooms. Renzo Piano's building is designed to serve the arts and does not overwhelm the works on display with any architectural extravagances. Designed with simplicity in mind, the building blends into the landscape around it, large windows bring the outside into the building providing views which enhance the paintings on show (particularly effective in the room featuring Monet's waterlillies paintings, where the visitor can view the waterlillies in the room, but with a small movement and change of perspective, see the real thing in the pond outside the windows and perhaps even reflections of Monet's works in the water). The outer walls are constructed from red Patagonian porphyry, imported specifically for the museum, and it is topped with a lightweight glass roof which allows the museum to be flooded with natural light. The rooms are defined by their balanced proportions, materials and the special light. Set in an English landscape park with old trees, the gentle paths allow sculptural works by Alexander Calder and Ellsworth Kelly to be enjoyed. A late baroque villa is opposite the museum and houses the museum administration, and the splendid restaurant. The Beyelers always saw the museum as a place of living involvement and innovation, the resulting juxtapositions have provided surprising insights and experiences for a broad range of visitors. Visit the museum's website at: www.fondationbeyeler.ch When the museum opened in 1997, the collection comprised about 180 paintings and sculptures, supplemented by 25 selected pieces of tribal art from Africa, Alaska and Oceania. Since then, 38 further prize artworks have been added to the permanent collection. These range from Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Chagall, through Picasso, Léger, Klee, Arp, Dubuffet, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rothko, to Kiefer and Ellsworth Kelly. Works by the 40 artists featured in the collection provide an extensive overview of classic modern art. Starting with late and Post-Impressionist works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, it continues via Cubism with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque to other characteristic groups of works by Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, Vasily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. American Expressionism is represented by artists like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman, pop-Art by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. The collection's time-frame ends with works by Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer and Luciano Fabro. Other artists to feature in the collection include Max Ernst, Francis Bacon and Jean Dubuffet. A number of sculptures from Africa, Alaska and Oceania provide an exciting counterpoint to the works of European and American origin. Most of the works in the Beyeler Collection are paintings but it also includes a few sculptures (both within the museum and in the grounds), including Rodin's intensely kinetic bronze - "Iris, Messenger of the Gods". It ends with works by Baselitz, Kiefer and Fabro. Conceptual art, the second main development in modern art, and more recent trends are intentionally not represented in the permanent collection, but featured in temporary exhibitions. The collection is presented thematically with, for example, sections devoted to portraits, nature, abstraction and the juxtaposing of landscapes and cityscapes. Almost the entire magnificent collection is always on view to local and worldwide visitors. Until 6 February 2011, the Beyeler Museum is showing "Vienna 1900 – Klimt, Schiele and their time". The exhibition includes about 200 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings are shown alongside architectural models, furniture, textile designs, glass and silver objects, artist posters and photographs. They paint a fascinating picture of Vienna in 1900, when it became one of the birthplaces of modern art. Works on show include, the famous ornamental portraits and landscapes by Gustav Klimt and the expressive body images of Egon Schiele, portraits by the young Oskar Kokoschka and the tragic self-portraits and works of the painter Richard Gerstl. Until 17 April 2011, "Segantini" shows the works of Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899), one of the great painters of the mountains and the life of the farmers and animals who lived in them. The exhibition celebrates Segantini as a pioneer of modern painting parallel to Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne or Klimt. His huge panels were painted in the open air as he steadily rose higher and higher up the mountains. He reached the summit with the legendary Alpine Triptych, which he prepared with large-scale studies. The increasing elevation of the painting led Segantini in a realm in which it appeared the mountains were an earthly paradise. His last words were "voglio vedere le mie montagne" (I want to see my mountains). The exhibition includes about seventy oil paintings and drawings from all periods of the artists life. Recently opened, and open through 25 April 2011, The Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes features in her first solo exhibition in Switzerland. One of the most respected artists of the international art scene, her oeuvre covers the diversity of tropical nature as well as the history and culture of her homeland, reflected in vibrant compositions with arabesques, floral and abstract ornamentation, geometric shapes and rhythmic patterns in bright colors. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a specially-made painting on which Milhazes been working for two years – "The four seasons". 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, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg , Austria, and now The 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, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria The Czech Republic, and now Switzerland. 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. 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.

Brooklyn Museum to host Retrospective of Acclaimed Artists Gilbert & George Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:53 PM PST BROOKLYN, NY.- The Brooklyn Museum will be the final venue of an international tour of the first retrospective in more than twenty years of art by the internationally acclaimed artists Gilbert & George. On view from October 3, 2008, through January 11, 2009, the exhibition comprises of more than ninety pictures produced since 1970, among them more than a dozen that will be seen only in the Brooklyn presentation.

Portraits & Still Lifes by Vera Mercer at Kommunale Galerie in Berlin Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:51 PM PST BERLIN.- The photographic work of Vera Mercer has remained relatively unknown until now. Born in 1936 in Berlin as Vera Mertz, she received Swiss citizenship following her marriage in 1958 to Daniel Spoerri.  In the same year, the couple moved to Paris, where they became part of an artistic avant-garde that would become known as the "Nouveaux Réalistes". In the following years, Vera Mercer, who was trained in modern dance and a self-taught photographer, portrayed visual artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Filliou, Niki de Saint-Phalle and Jean Tinguely as well as Daniel Spoerri time and again. Mercer's friendship with Swiss painter and sculptor Eva Aeppli, who was Tinguely's partner in the early 1960s, led to a systematic, decades-long documentation of Aeppli's work, two publications as well as the founding of a small Eva Aeppli-Museum including her "Garden of the Zodiac" in Omaha, Nebraska. According to Mercer, no other artist has influenced her more than Aeppli.

Thomas Chambers (1808 – 1869) featured at The Hyde Collection Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:50 PM PST   Glens Falls, NY – The Hyde Collection's newest exhibition, Thomas Chambers (1808 – 1869): American Marine and Landscape Painter, is the first survey seeking to define the artist's style, sources, and the audience for his mid-nineteenth-century landscape and marine paintings. The exhibition, runs through Sunday, April 19, 2009, includes fifty-four works from private and public U.S. collections. Forty-five paintings are by Chambers himself and these are complemented by related works of his contemporaries.

New Painting by Shiva Ahmadi at Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:48 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- An exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Shiva Ahmadi will be on view from February 4 through 27 February, 2010, at  Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery. Ahmadi has created a dynamic visual language inspired by Persian miniatures and Islamic art and architecture that she uses to explore social and political issues affecting both the Middle East and the West. Shiva Ahmadi: Reinventing the Poetics of Myth examines issues of capitalism and the glory of oil in the Middle East and as well as the dependency of the West on oil. To call attention to these issues, Ahmadi often paints on panels shaped like oil barrels or actual oil barrels, which become transformed into objects of beauty.

The Frans Hals Museum Presents Master Painters Side by Side Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:47 PM PST HAARLEM, NL - The Frans Hals Museum is presenting a work by the British artist Francis Bacon flanked by two monumental paintings by Cornelis van Haarlem. What links these artists is their admiration for Michelangelo. This Italian painter, sculptor, architect and poet was a great source of inspiration for them both. The exhibition Conversation Piece II is on view from 3 July to 10 October 2010. With the series 'Conversation Piece', the Frans Hals Museum wants to encourage visitors to take a fresh look at the 16th and 17th-century collection of paintings. By juxtaposing these works with modern and contemporary art, surprising links are laid between highly varied styles and periods in the history of art. The museum demonstrates that even though certain perceptions and opinions have a long history they are nevertheless still valid today and continue to be revisited and explored.

Pierre Huyghe's La saison des fetes Installation at Museo Reina Sofia Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:45 PM PST MADRID.- The Palacio de Cristal was inaugurated in 1887 with an exhibition of the flora of the Philippines, Spain's pre-eminent colony at that time. Palm trees and indigenous plants of many kinds were installed in a ceremonial layout that centred on two chairs raised on a dais, flanked by tapestries and accessed across a spread of oriental carpets. Transforming the greenhouse into an exotic mise-en-scene, Pierre Huyghe's installation formed part of a larger project devoted to the Philippines, its natural resources and material culture. In its built form the Palacio de Cristal belongs to the typology of the green house; in its role and functions, however, it can be more closely aligned with Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace built in 1852 for one of the first world's fairs. The kinds of exhibits presented in London at that epochal event – manufacturing and industrial goods, art and artefacts – became the staple of the Universal Exhibitions that were to prove such a popular feature of later 19th and early 20th century western culture.

Tracey Moffatt to Speak at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:44 PM PST SYDNEY.- Leading visual contemporary artist, Tracey Moffatt is arguably Australia's most successful international artist. Now back in Australia after 15 years of working in New York, she is known for her film, photography and video works, which are held in leading art institutions around the world including 100 works in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' collection. Tracey Moffatt was selected for the international section of the 1997 Venice Biennale and has also featured in the Biennales of Sydney, Sao Paulo (1998) and Gwangju (1995).

McCaffrey Fine Art shows First Ever Solo Exhibition of Kazuo Shiraga in the U.S. Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:42 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- McCaffrey Fine Art is showing at their new gallery at 23 East 67th Street the first ever solo exhibition of Kazuo Shiraga in the United States.He succeeded in creating paintings of great innovation with his unique style that involved sliding, spinning, and swirling his feet in mounds of oil paint on large sheets of paper laid on the floor. By the time of his 1957 "performance painting" on stage, Sanbaso–-Super Modern, Shiraga was amongst the most avant-garde artists working anywhere and his work was drawing international attention.  Kazuo Shiraga: Six Decades which continues through January 23, 2010.

Gerald Peters Gallery presents Max Weber ~ Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:40 PM PST New York City - Max Weber was at the forefront of abstraction as one of its most versatile, inventive, and exceptional trail blazers in America. A consummate Expressionist who touched on virtually every phase of modernism, Weber served as a crucial link between the first wave of American modernism and the action painters associated with the New York School at mid-century. On view at the Gerald Peters Gallery New York from November 13 through December 19, 2008, Max Weber: Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s features over 40 paintings and works on paper selected from the Weber Estate.

Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale in Paris Shows Leading 20th Century Artists Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:38 PM PST PARIS - Sotheby's two-session sale of contemporary art, to be held in Paris on December 10th and 11th, has an overall estimate of €12-17 million and features 142 important works by leading 20th century artists. Several represent landmarks in their artists' careers or number among the handful of works by the artist still in private hands.

Tiffany Exhibition Coming to VMFA in May Opens at Musée du Luxembourg in Paris Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:36 PM PST PARIS.- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director Alex Nyerges, in Paris today for a preview of one of the most significant exhibitions ever mounted of works by the master of American glass, Louis Comfort Tiffany, called the show "dazzling." The exhibition opens to the public at the Musée du Luxembourg Wednesday, Sept. 16, and continues through Jan. 10. It will then travel to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for a showing from Feb. 11 to May 2, 2009. The American première of "Tiffany: Color and Light" will be at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond May 29. VMFA will be the only American museum to show the exhibition, which will continue in Richmond through August. 15th.

Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Exhibition Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:35 PM PST PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present the first exhibition to examine the genesis, construction, and reception of Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage (Given: 1° The Waterfall, 2° The Illuminating Gas), Marcel Duchamp's enigmatic final masterwork. Duchamp (1887-1968) constructed Étant donnés in complete secrecy over a period of twenty years, from 1946 to 1966, during which he publicly claimed to have gone "underground" and given up art for chess. It was not until after his death on October 2, 1968 that the work was discovered in his studio. The multi-media assemblage surprised the art world and perplexed the public when, as a gift to the Museum and in accordance with the artist's wishes, it was permanently installed in July 1969, joining the world's largest collection of his works, including Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2 (1912); The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) (1915-23), to which it closely relates, and readymades such as With Hidden Noise (1916) and Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?(1921).

The Taubman Museum of Art features Devorah Sperber & Chris Doyle Exhibitions Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:33 PM PST ROANOKE, VA.- The Taubman Museum of Art just opened will open three new exciting exhibitions on March 20 and will offer a full schedule of exhibition-related programs. "These new and exciting exhibitions of the work of Devorah Sperber, Chris Doyle, and the regional instrument makers, all organized by the museum, are part of our on-going strategy to engage the various segments of our growing community," said David Brown, director of art for the Taubman Museum of Art.

Jeff Koons Original To Benefit Tel Aviv Museum of Art Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:28 PM PST NEW YORK CITY - The American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (AFTAM) is pleased to announce its exclusive sale of Monkey Train (Blue), 2007, a limited-edition silkscreen print by Jeff Koons to benefit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA). Koons, a recipient of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art's Artist of the Year Award in 2007, has generously created a limited-edition of 40 of these original prints in support of AFTAM's fundraising efforts on behalf of the Museum. Each silkscreen is printed on heavy, acid-free, archival paper and is signed, numbered, and dated in pencil. Individual prints will be offered unframed at a price of $30,000 ($5,000 tax-deductible).

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:27 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