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

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• The Kunstmuseum in Bern (Switzerland) ~ and The Zentrum Paul Klee Receive Our Editor
• Selections from Brooklyn Museum's Holdings Reinstalled in Kevorkian Gallery
• The Mississippi Museum of Art opens "Jim Henson’s Fantastic World "
• The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to show 19th Century Photographs of Rome
• Cécile Whiting Is Awarded the 21st Annual Eldredge Prize for "Pop Art in Los Angeles"
• Smithsonian Museum Presents a Major Retrospective of African American Modernist Aaron Douglas
• Forum Gallery NYC to feature New Works of Steven Assael
• Guggenheim Teams with Google in the launch of Design It / Shelter Competition
• Paintings on Paper by Reeve Schley at James Graham & Sons Gallery
• Design Museum in London to exhibit Richard Rogers + Architects
• Photographer Lori Nix solos at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
• Galerie Stefan Röpke introduces Aleksandar Duravcevic ~ "Restless"
• Kemper Museum to show Dan Christensen: Forty Years of Painting
• Roy Lichtenstein Sculpture
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Kunstmuseum in Bern (Switzerland) ~ and The Zentrum Paul Klee Receive Our Editor Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:29 PM PST Outstanding works by Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Ferdinand Hodler and Meret Oppenheim have made the Museum of Fine Arts Bern an institution with an international reputation and well worth a visit. At the present time, the constantly growing and evolving collection consists of over 3,000 paintings and sculptures as well as 48,000 drawings, prints, photographs, videos and films. The roots of the museum's history reach back to the revolutionary ideas proliferating in Europe towards the end of the 18th century which, in 1809, led to the founding of the National Art Collection in Bern and, in 1879, to the opening of the first museum building. The Museum of Fine Arts Bern is the oldest art museum in Switzerland with a permanent collection and houses works covering eight centuries, making it not only one of the most important and variegated collections in Switzerland but, due to its substantial collection of works from the classical modern period, also one of international significance. The present building in the Hodlerstrasse was built between 1876 and1879 under the guidance of architect Eugen Stettler. Between 1932 and1936 under the guidance of the architect Karl Indermühle (from the firm of Salvisberg & Brechbühl), the museum was extended. In 1983, the local Bern architects Atelier 5 designed a further extension. Currently the museum are planning yet another expansion, to improve the facilities available for displaying its expanding collection of contemporary art. The museum has close ties to the nearby Paul Klee Center, and hosted the Paul Klee Foundation's collection until they moved to their own, new building. The Paul Klee Cultural Centre, Bern was designed by Ptitzker award winning architect Renzo Piano, and opened in 2005. Around 4,200 of Paul Klee's paintings, watercolours and drawings as well as archives and biographical material, have been brought together at the Centre, which also hosts exhibitions and cultural events. It is currently jointly hosting "Lust and Vice: The Seven Deadly Sins from Dürer to Nauman" with the Kunstmuseum Bern. The exhibition provides a fascinating record of artistic preoccupation with this theme from medieval times to the present day. "Lust and Vice: The Seven Deadly Sins from Dürer to Nauman" also addresses the relevance of the notion of sin in contemporary society and how our culture justifies changes in values. The exhibition is split between the two venues, with pride, avarice, envy and anger at the Kunstmuseum, lust, gluttony and sloth displayed at the Paul Klee Centre. Visitors to Bern should not miss visiting both of these oustanding museums. Visit both museum's websites : http://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch ; and the Paul Klee Cultural Centre (Zentrum Paul Klee) at: www.zpk.org/ Highlights of the museum's collection include a unique group of 14th and 15th century Italian paintings featuring works by the Sienese painter Duccio di Buoninsegna. The early modern period is represented by outstanding works of local Berne artists from the late Gothic through to the realism of the 19th Century, including paintings by Niklaus Manuel, Joseph Heintz , Joseph Plepp , Kauw Albrecht and Joseph Werner. The museum also contains a significant collection of works by Albert Anker (often referred to as Switzerland's "National Painter" for his popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss village life). The growth of modern art from the mid-19th Century onwards is well represented with an international quality collection, including individual works by Manet, Cézanne, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. Significant groups of works representing cubism, the "Blue Rider" group of artists from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (Munich), "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) - Dresden group, Bauhaus and Surrealism are held by the museum and presented in coherent groupings. Local Swiss artists are very well represented with multiple works by Ferdinand Hodler, Cuno Amiet and Giovanni Giacometti from all their creative periods. A major focus for the museum is "outsider art", and one of world's most prominent representatives, the former Bernese farmhand Wölfli (1864-1930). In conjunction with the Adolf Wolfli Foundation, the museum contains a large collection of his works. The Kunstmuseum Bern is also one of the few public collections in Switzerland, which have long been explicitly collecting and promoting the work of female artists. Artists including; Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Meret Oppenheim and Marina Abramovic are therefore well represented in the collection. Contemporary works include extensive groups of works by Bernhard Luginbuhl, Franz Gertsch, James Lee Byars, Markus Raetz, Urs Lüthi, Dieter Roth and Sigmar Polke. The Graphic Collection of the Kunstmuseum Bern consists of around 48,000 drawings, prints and photographs. The 16th Century is represented by a large number of prints from various periods including works by Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Sebald Beham, Hans Burgkmair Ae. and Albrecht Dürer. From the 17th Century, the collection contains prints by Jacques Callot, Van Dyck, Rembrandt van Rijn and Hendrik Goltzius. A significant part of the collection is the art of the Bernese minor masters of the 18th Century. These small-scale landscape views and traditional representations of Swiss life helped made the Bernese Oberland (and other parts of Switzerland) famous as early tourist destinations. 19th Century works include the Swiss artists, Ferdinand Hodler, Albert Anker, Karl Stauffer-Bern and Rudolf Friedrich Kurz and international works by of Camille Corot, Edgar Degas, Adolf von Menzel, Hans von Marées and Max Liebermann. Important 20th century artists represented include, Otto Meyer-Amden, Otto Nebel, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, Louis Moilliet, Pablo Picasso, Andre Masson and Salvador Dali. Visitors currently are able to enjoy "Chinese Window: Big Draft Shanghai - Contemporary Art from the Sigg Collection". The latest in a series of exhibitions of work by the Chinese artists from the Uli Sigg collection which unifies more than 1,200 Chinese contemporary art pieces, ranging from canvases to videos, photos and installations. "Big Draft Shanghai" features a number of artists from China's artistic powerhouse, presenting a broad panorama of Chinese contemporary art including Shi Guorui's futuristic view of the city with his urban silhouettes of Shanghai, Jin Jiangbo's focus on the life of a day laborer in an interactive installation, Zhang Qing brings taxis to dance in his video, Jin Feng's "Flying Angels" and Shi Yong evokes the anonymity of urban life with small plaster-of-Paris figures. In contrast, Ni Youyu designs geometrical experimental spaces on canvas in which bizarre landscapes have been inscribed. In conjunction with the exhibition, and also until 6 February, a 2008 video installation with the title "Chinesisch von Vorteil" (Chinese is an Advantage) by the artist couple Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer is taking place at the nearby PROGR building. Exploring language barriers, this is an ideal counterpoint to the art on show in the main museum building. The museum is also exhibiting (until 27 February 2011) "Yves Netzhammer. A Refuge for Drawbacks". Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer's first large solo exhibition in his native country provides a retrospective of his art, and includes drawings, room installations, murals, and computer-generated videos which fascinate with their corporeal impact and formal clarity while they probe the dark side of our existence. Complementing the Netzhammer exhibition, until the end of 2014, the museum has (on loan from Dr. H.C. Hansjörg) Yves Netzhammer's monumental installation "The Subjectification of the Repetition. Project B" consists of pulsating images, projections and sound within a room-sized, wedge-shaped construction. The final exhibition currently being held at the Kunstmuseum (until 20 March 2011) is "Don't Look Now – The Collection of Contemporary Art, Part 1". This exhibition is the first of a series of themed presentations of works from the collection of the museum, in conjunction with those of the Kunsthalle Bern, Kunst Heute, GegenwART and the Bernische Stiftung für Fotografie, Film und Video. The title is borrowed from Nicolas Roeg's (1973) film classic with the same title and refers to the central role that visual perception plays in the fine arts and the transformation of corporeal and sensory perception into knowledge. It also ironically refers to the "hidden" nature of much of the museum's contemporary art collection, which has been in storage or limited display awaiting the new extension to be properly displayed. The starting point for the exhibition is James Lee Bryars' The Looking Glass (1978), a pane of glass larger than man-size with a viewing hole cut into it at about 1.8 meters from the base. 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.

Selections from Brooklyn Museum's Holdings Reinstalled in Kevorkian Gallery Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:27 PM PST BROOKLYN, NY.- Selections from the Brooklyn Museum's holdings of Ancient Near East art have been reinstalled in the third-floor Kevorkian Gallery, renovated with a sloped floor to improve wheelchair access. The centerpiece of the installation continues to be twelve massive carved alabaster reliefs completed in 859 B. C. that once adorned the vast palace in Nimrud of the Assyrian King Ashur-nasir-pal II. The reliefs are now complemented by some fifty objects reflecting the diverse cultures of the region that is present-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Several of the works on view date to 5000 B. C., and were created during a time when there were no national or political boundaries, but geographic barriers that led to the development of separate cultures-the Sumerian, Assyrian, Achaemenid Persian, and Sabean-each with its own distinctive artistic tradition.

The Mississippi Museum of Art opens "Jim Henson’s Fantastic World " Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:26 PM PST Jackson, MS - Jim Henson's Fantastic Worldoffers a rare glimpse into the imagination and creative genius of the multi-talented innovator and creator of beloved characters like Kermit the Frog, Big Bird, and hundreds of others. From the beginning, the Mississippi-native expressed his ideas in incredible bursts of invention, through a variety of visual forms, clever dialogue, songs, comic bits, and animation. This exhibition presents original artwork, including drawings and cartoons, as well as other objects like puppets and movie props, all of which reveal the brilliant mind of their creator. On exhibition through 14 March, 2010.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to show 19th Century Photographs of Rome Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:25 PM PST WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Through 100 photographs taken between 1850 and 1880, the exhibition Steps off the Beaten Path: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome and its Environs encourages a "walking tour" through Rome with recognizable sites among the out-of-the-way scenes nineteenth-century Romans and Europeans encountered in their daily lives. The exhibition opens at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Sunday, October 11th through 3 January, 2010,

Cécile Whiting Is Awarded the 21st Annual Eldredge Prize for "Pop Art in Los Angeles" Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:24 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded the 2009 Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art to Cécile Whiting for her book "Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s" (University of California Press, 2006). It is recognized for its "impeccable yet adventurous research, which invites a reconceptualization of pop art and opens a discussion about a region and a period that has needed further exploration." The Eldredge Prize, named in honor of the former director of the museum (1982-1988), is sponsored by the American Art Forum, a patrons' support organization. This annual award, initiated in 1989, seeks to recognize originality and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing and clarity of method.

Smithsonian Museum Presents a Major Retrospective of African American Modernist Aaron Douglas Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:23 PM PST Washington, DC - "Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist," on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum May 9 through Aug. 3, presents the first nationally touring retrospective of Aaron Douglas (1899–1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas vividly captured the spirit of his time and established a new black aesthetic and vision. The exhibition is presented in Washington, D.C., under the gracious patronage of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and first lady Michelle Fenty.

Forum Gallery NYC to feature New Works of Steven Assael Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:22 PM PST New York, NY – Steven Assael, the New York artist hailed by The Art Newspaper as "the foremost figurative painter of his generation", will exhibit his latest paintings and drawings at Forum Gallery, New York, from March 19 through May 2, 2009. The exhibition, Assael's seventh since joining the Gallery in 1998, focuses on public and private aspects of urban life and explores issues of intimacy, gender and personal identity. The portraits and narratives the artist paints touch on contact, isolation, sexuality and the journey through life.

Guggenheim Teams with Google in the launch of Design It / Shelter Competition Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:20 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Google today announced the launch of Design It: Shelter Competition, a global, online initiative that invites the public to use Google Earth and Google SketchUp to create and submit designs for virtual 3-D shelters for a location of their choice anywhere on Earth. The competition opens today, June 8, 2009, Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday; closes to submissions on August 23; and ends on October 21, the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum's opening, when two prizes, a Juried Prize and a People's Prize, will be awarded.

Paintings on Paper by Reeve Schley at James Graham & Sons Gallery Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:19 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- James Graham & Sons Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Reeve Schley, Outdoor Light, which marks the artist's eighteenth solo exhibition with the gallery. Schley has been exhibiting with James Graham & Sons for close to 40 years. The show will be on exhibit from May 5th through June 18th, 2010. The show will feature over two dozen new watercolors as well as four large-scale oil paintings, conveying imagery personal to the artist and painted en plein air.

Design Museum in London to exhibit Richard Rogers + Architects Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:17 PM PST LONDON -One of the most influential British architects of our time, Richard Rogers has established himself and his practice at the forefront of today's architectural culture through such high-profile projects as the Pompidou Centre, the headquarters for Lloyd's of London, the Millennium Dome, the National Assembly for Wales and Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. On exhibition through 25 August, 2008.

Photographer Lori Nix solos at Jenkins Johnson Gallery Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:16 PM PST New York City - Jenkins Johnson Gallery announces a solo exhibition of photographer Lori Nix featuring her latest work, Shadows of the City, as well as work from previous series.  The photography of Lori Nix executes hyper-color scenes where catastrophes unfold.  Her images are morbidly fascinating and her twisted sense of humor highlights the comedic that can be found in the tragic.  In her new series, Shadows of the City, Nix constructs interior decay of buildings whose fate has been solemnly met.  On exhibition through 21 April, 2007.

Galerie Stefan Röpke introduces Aleksandar Duravcevic ~ "Restless" Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:13 PM PST Cologne, Germany - Galerie Stefan Röpke is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Germany by Montenegran born, New York based artist Aleksandar Duravcevic, "restless", on view from April 22 through June 13. "My images are based on anatomical and anthropological diagrams. Through these images I am trying to establish a dialogue - a continous investigation which stems from a personal need to open, to disect, to catalog - to make a mark. An infinite desire or curiosity for organic forms both visible and invisible." The artist will be present for the opening reception on April 22, 2009, 6 -9 pm.

Kemper Museum to show Dan Christensen: Forty Years of Painting Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:11 PM PST   KANSAS CITY, MO - For more than forty years, American artist Dan Christensen—long associated with the Color Field movement—experimented with colors, shapes, and forms in his large-scale paintings. Featuring 35 of the artist's works of art from 1966 to 2006, the exhibition Dan Christensen: Forty Years of Painting is the first comprehensive Museum retrospective of the artist's work since his death in 2007. The exhibition is on view May 15 through August 30, 2009, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Roy Lichtenstein Sculpture Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:10 PM PST WASHINGTON, DC - The monumental sculpture "Modern Head" by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), a major figure in the pop art movement, now is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection. In 1996, "Modern Head" was installed by the Public Art Fund of New York City in Battery Park City, one block from the World Trade Center. The sculpture survived the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack with only surface scratches and temporarily was used by the FBI as a message board during its investigation.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:09 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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