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• Did Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein "Gather" a Multimillion-Dollar Cache of Stolen Art?
• Our Editor Visits The Picasso Museum Barcelona ~ A Priceless Collection Of Picasso's Art
• The Wichita Art Museum (WAM) to host "The Wyeths: Three Generations"
• Frye Art Museum’s Summer Exhibitions Celebrate Alaskan Art
• Ashcan School Art exhibited in New York City
• SFMOMA will Become Home to Gap Founder's Contemporary Art Collection
• Christie's Announces Landmark Lowry Sale from the Collection of Selwyn Demmy
• 1000 Strip Off in Spencer Tunick Tribute to Artist LS Lowry
• Timothy J. Clark ~ A Retrospective at The Butler Institute of American Art
• The Farnsworth Art Museum opens a Major Robert Indiana Exhibition
• The New Jersey State Museum features Mel Leipzig ~ Selected Works
• War Photographer Philip Jones Griffiths Dies
• Tarble Arts Center Showcases Art Collection for 25th Anniversary
• National Portrait Gallery shows Zaha Hadid's Portrait in Changing Colors
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Did Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein "Gather" a Multimillion-Dollar Cache of Stolen Art? Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:09 PM PST PARIS - Artworks worth tens of millions of dollars registered as "disappeared" or "stolen" — including some by Degas and Manet — have been seized from a world renowned art institute run by one of President Nicolas Sarkozy's closest friends. Guy Wildenstein, the Old Master and Impressionist art dealer whose New York gallery had a decades-long partnership with the Pace Gallery that was dissolved last April, is already embroiled in one lawsuit regarding his late father's estate. Now he's been accused yet again of using executorships to take artworks that don't belong to him. French police seized 30 paintings from the Wildenstein Institute last month — including an Impressionist work valued at over one million dollars — which may have been stolen from the estates of two different collectors.While investigating the previous suit against Wildenstein — filed by his late stepmother — a French anti-fraud unit photographed a room at the Institute with hundreds of artworks stacked from floor to ceiling, according to French magazine Le Point, which broke the story.

Our Editor Visits The Picasso Museum Barcelona ~ A Priceless Collection Of Picasso's Art Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:08 PM PST Barcelona's un-missable Picasso Museum (Museu Picasso) houses an exhaustive collection of the Spanish master's work, though with a concentration on his early works, reflecting the links he had with Barcelona at that time. One of the most popular and most visited museums in Barcelona, the Museum occupies five large town houses or palaces on the Carrer de Montcada. The original palaces date from the 13th-15th centuries, undergoing major refurbishments over time, the most important carried out in the 18th century. The Picasso Museum was first opened in the Gothic Aguilar Palace, the City Council extended the museum by annexing first the adjacent Baró de Castellet Palace, and then the Meca Palace. A new museum extension was opened in 1999 at the casa Mauri, a house partially built over Roman era structures belonging to one of the towns in the outskirts of Barcino colony. Although each palace had been subject to rennovation during their lives, they still retain period features and now provide a common structure surrounding a courtyard with access to the main floor via an outdoor open stairway. Although born in Malaga, Picasso's family moved to Barcelona in 1895 (after the death of his sister Conchita from diphtheria) when he was 14 years old and he served his artistic apprenticeship in the city. Picasso thrived in Barcelona, later regarding it, in times of sadness or nostalgia, as his true home, and remained there until leaving Spain altogether for the more bohemian art scene in Paris in 1904. Picasso's deep relationship with Barcelona continued until his death in 1973, his first donation to the city having been "Harlequin" in 1919. The Picasso museum was opened in 1963, thanks to the personal wishes of Picasso and through the offices of his friend and personal secretary, Jaume Sabartés. Originally called "the Sabartés Collection", because Picasso's opposition to Franco's regime made it impossible to use his own name for the new museum, it was renamed after democracy returned to Spain. Although Picasso refused to return to Spain for the opening of the museum, and never visited, he supported it through donations as well as supervising the original plans and designs. The Museum has undergone successive renovations and expansions, and is currently developing new programmes, activities and services intended to turn the museum into a reference source for anyone interested in Picasso and his works, dedicated to spreading knowledge and fostering visitor participation and critical views. The Museum wishes to be a dialogue space, exploring new approaches to Picasso's work and influence and offering new perspectives on its collection. A drawing by Picasso was donated to the Museum by Catherine Hutin, the daughter of Jacqueline Picasso the orginal sketch for Picasso's "Las Meninas".Visit the museum's website at: http://www.bcn.cat/museupicasso The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is a key reference for understanding the formative years of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. The original collection was made up of Sabartés's personal collection and the Picasso works previously held in other Barcelona Art Museums (principally "Harlequin", the "Plandiura Collection" and the drawings bequeathed by collector Lluís Garriga i Roig). Subsequent additions came from Salvador Dalí (who donated the illustrated book "Les Metamorphoses d'Ovide" containing 30 Picasso etchings from 1931) and Picasso's own donations, starting with "Blue Portrait of Sabartés" (1901) and the 58 canvases making up the "Meninas" series (1957) in homage to his dead friend, Jaume Sabartés and followed by the entire large collection (921 works, made up of paintings and drawings from his youth) that his family held in Barcelona. Additional donations and bequests created the current collection, which, through its more than 3,800 works, reveals the genius of the young artist. Although the artist only lived in Barcelona on a permanent basis from 1895-1904 (until he was 23), these were crucial years and his early schoolboy doodles and startlingly precocious early "academic" work form the starting point of the museum's collection. It also has some very beautiful Blue Period paintings from the end of the same period. The other strengths are high Cubist works of 1917 (when Picasso briefly returned to Barcelona) and the 1950s series done in response to Velázquez's bizarre group portrait "Las Meninas" (now housed in the Prado, Madrid). Highlights of the collection include two of his first major works, "The First Communion" (1896), and "Science and Charity" (1897), and a fascinating representative selection of Picasso's works from 1917, when he met his first wife, the ballerina Olga Kokhlova and journeyed to Rome. The Picasso Museum's collection shows a clear transition from Cubism to Picasso's return to classicism after his journey to Italy and in terms of his famous Blue Period, there is no other collection in the world that can compare. Following recent renovations, there are now nine halls for temporary exhibitions. The focus of the temporary shows is on avant-garde art of the first half of the 20th century, looking at movements or significant individuals, but with an obvious focus on Picasso. Previous exhibitions have explored Picasso's relationship with other artists, such as Degas and Rusiñol. Until 20 February 2011, visitors can enjoy a detailed exhibition of Picasso's "Science and Charity". The exhibition provides fascinating detail behind the artist's most famous work of social realism, created at his father's urging as his entry to the National Exhibition. Accompanying booklets explain the work in context and through the use of advanced technologies, lay bare the secrets of the technical process revealing how the picture was created. Future exhibitions planned during 2011 include "Comics on the Frontline" (from 18 March) which focuses on Picasso's etchings from the "The Dream and Lie of Franco" series from 1937, conceptual and formal precursors to Guernica which are symbols of the committed political position the artist assumed during the Spanish Civil War; and "Devouring Paris. Picasso 1900-1907" (from 1 July) coproduced by the Picasso Museum with the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam, will present Picasso's artistic evolution from his arrival in 1900 to Paris, where he discovered a thriving international art community, to 1907, when he assumed the role of leading the artistic vanguard in the French capital. ANNOUNCEMENT: Our Editor has been invited to visit Museums and cultural sites worldwide, and they are featured on our Home Page (center). 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 . . and we are publishing current art news articles on the left hand side under RECENT NEWS .. Enjoy

The Wichita Art Museum (WAM) to host "The Wyeths: Three Generations" Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:07 PM PST Wichita, Kansas -  The Wichita Art Museum is the first museum in the Midwest to host The Wyeths: Three Generations . The exhibition, which includes paintings and drawings provided by the Bank of America Art in Our Communities Program, will be on view from September 27, 2009, through January 10, 2010 in the Beren and Graves Galleries. Public programs and publicity are made possible by the Downing Foundation and by the late E.W. and Mrs. Armstrong. The Wyeths: Three Generations consists of more than 60 paintings and drawings by three generations of the Wyeth family of artists: N. C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth, and his grandson Jamie Wyeth. The works—from the early 1900s to the present—reveal the breadth of the Wyeth family's creative output and illustrate both common themes within their vision, as well as each artist's individual style.

Frye Art Museum’s Summer Exhibitions Celebrate Alaskan Art Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:05 PM PST SEATTLE, WA.- The Frye Art Museum's summer exhibitions celebrate the tenure of former Frye Director Ida Kay Greathouse, the role that Alaska played in the history of the Museum, and the artwork of Fred Machetanz, who captured the rugged mountains and brilliant light of Alaska. On Arctic Ice: Fred Machetanz (June 12–September 6). Working in the isolated wilderness, Fred Machetanz (1908-2002) produced a body of artwork that encompasses the rugged mountains and brilliant light of Alaska. On Arctic Ice: Fred Machetanz showcases a selection of stone lithographs produced by Machetanz between 1946 and 1980 that depict the flora, fauna, and people of America's northernmost state.

Ashcan School Art exhibited in New York City Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:04 PM PST New York City - The painters of the Ashcan School just wanted to have fun. They chronicled the lives of poor city dwellers, but they were neither social critics nor reformers. Robert Henri, George Luks, John Sloan and other early-20th-century American realists identified with the group were high-spirited fellows who prided themselves on fielding a baseball team that regularly defeated those of the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League.

SFMOMA will Become Home to Gap Founder's Contemporary Art Collection Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:02 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Board Chair Charles Schwab and Director Neal Benezra today announced that the museum is developing a groundbreaking relationship with Doris and Donald Fisher that would provide the Fisher Collection—one of the world's leading collections of contemporary art—with a home at SFMOMA. The Fishers, who together founded Gap Inc. in 1969, have long envisioned keeping their collection intact for the public in their hometown of San Francisco. The Fisher Collection includes some 1,100 works by leading artists including Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Anselm Kiefer, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol, among many others.

Christie's Announces Landmark Lowry Sale from the Collection of Selwyn Demmy Posted: 06 Feb 2011 09:00 PM PST LONDON.- Christie's announce the landmark sale of 21 works by the iconic British artist Laurence Stephen Lowry, R..A. (1887-1976) to be offered at auction on Thursday 11 November 2010 from the private collection of Selwyn Demmy (b. 1932), renowned bookmaking magnate, boxing organiser and club owner. Only the very best collections illustrate, as this one does, the true breadth and depth of a single artist's oeuvre. Comprising drawings and paintings which span the 1920s to the 1960s, this Lowry collection is the most important and extensive to be offered at auction in recent memory, as it celebrates not only the artist's world renowned industrial cityscapes,  and his landscapes, seascapes and explorations of architecture.

1000 Strip Off in Spencer Tunick Tribute to Artist LS Lowry Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:59 PM PST Manchester, UK - More than one thousand volunteers braved the cold and stripped naked. . in the name of art. People of all ages, shapes and sizes were photographed by Spencer Tunick at eight landmark locations across Salford and Manchester. The nude mass gathering was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Lowry arts centre, with the pictures set to form part of an exhibition at the venue later in the year.The New York artist has photographed thousands of nude volunteers across the world, most recently at the Sydney Opera House last month. But he chose chilly Salford and Manchester for his first multiple site installation after being inspired by the works of LS Lowry, who also captured crowds of people in public places . . albeit with their clothes on.

Timothy J. Clark ~ A Retrospective at The Butler Institute of American Art Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:56 PM PST YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO - The watercolor and oil paintings of Timothy J. Clark are represented in permanent museum collections including The Butler Institute of American Art, Farnsworth Art Museum (Maine), and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. This mid-career retrospective opened at the Pasadena Museum of California Art in January 2008, then will travel to the Butler Institute of American Art, 19 June - 3 August, and will conclude at the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts in the fall of 2008.

The Farnsworth Art Museum opens a Major Robert Indiana Exhibition Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:55 PM PST Rockland, ME - On Saturday, June 20, the Farnsworth Art Museum, in Rockland, will open a major exhibition entitled Robert Indiana and the Star of Hope which will run in the museum's Morehouse Wing and Crosman Gallery through October 25. The opening of Robert Indiana and the Star of Hope will be celebrated at a Live at Night at the Farnsworth party at the museum on Friday, June 19, with a members' only preview and reception from 6:30 to 8 p.m. followed by a free public party from 8 to 9:30 p.m. The exhibition on renowned American artist Robert Indiana is drawn almost exclusively from his extensive holdings at his home and studio, the Star of Hope Oddfellows Lodge on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine. The show explores the vast range of Indiana's work from the 1950s to the present, focusing on what he has done since 1978, when he moved permanently to the Star of Hope Lodge, a late nineteenth-century building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The New Jersey State Museum features Mel Leipzig ~ Selected Works Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:54 PM PST TRENTON, NJ.- Artist As Curator and Mel Leipzig: Selected Works by Trenton-based painter Mel Leipzig, are now on display at the New Jersey State Museum through September 6, 2009. Visitors may watch the artist at work while he creates a new painting on the Museum's campus. Mr. Leipzig will be painting en plein air (in the open air) continuing through the end of May. He will be on - site, weather permitting, on Wednesdays and Saturdays from noon to 4 pm.

War Photographer Philip Jones Griffiths Dies Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:52 PM PST   LONDON - Philip Jones Griffiths, who was best known for his Vietnam War photographs, died in London at age 72.  Philip Jones Griffiths once wrote, "I'm a storyteller in the sense that I present the truth in an engaging way, rather like the way a lawyer would present evidence to a jury. There's a logic to it. I try to explain what's happening, using a narrative that leads to a convincing conclusion."

Tarble Arts Center Showcases Art Collection for 25th Anniversary Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:51 PM PST   CHARLESTON, IL - As part of its silver anniversary year the Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University is presenting the exhibition The Tarble at 25 - Celebrating the Collection. The exhibition is on view through October 14 in the main galleries. Tarble volunteer docents will be available to talk about some of the works in the exhibition at The Tarble at 25 – Community Celebration on Saturday, September 30, 2-4pm. Admission is free and the public is invited.

National Portrait Gallery shows Zaha Hadid's Portrait in Changing Colors Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:48 PM PST   LONDON.- A groundbreaking constantly changing new portrait of a world-famous architect by one of Britain's most influential artists goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery this week. The portrait of Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect of the London 2012 Olympic Aquatics Centre, is the first work by Michael Craig-Martin, one of the key figures in British contemporary art, to be commissioned by the Gallery. Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, says: 'The portrait of Zaha Hadid is startling and magical, reflecting the brilliance of both sitter and artist.'

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 06 Feb 2011 08:47 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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