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

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• The National Gallery Of Art In Washington D.C. ~ A US Treasure Of European & American Art That Attracts 4.5 Million Visitors Annually
• A Celebration and Sale of Scottish Art at Sotheby's London This Autumn
• Leading Artists Donate to "Art for Africa Auction" at Sotheby's London
• Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' Named World's Most Popular Oil Painting Reproduction
• Yousuf Karsh 100 " A Biography In Images " to open at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Artists with African Roots Exhibit at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin
• Lucas Cranach the Elder coming to the Städel Musem
• Somerset House will Present a Major New Exhibition by SHOWstudio
• Alejandra Laviada Presents Her First Solo Exhibition in Madrid
• The Grand Palais in Paris Welcomes "Turner and the Masters"
• Yale University Says Suit Over Vincent Van Gogh's Work "Imperils Other Art"
• Natasha Kissell Modernist Landscapes
• Davis Museum at Wellesley College exhibits ' the Age of Dürer and Titian '
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The National Gallery Of Art In Washington D.C. ~ A US Treasure Of European & American Art That Attracts 4.5 Million Visitors Annually Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:16 PM PST Now visited by more than 4.5 million people annually, the National Gallery of Art is now one of the world's leading art museums. The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. Since its inception, the mission of the National Gallery of Art has been to serve the United States of America in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art, at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards. The original West Building, designed by John Russell Pope (architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives), is a neoclassical marble masterpiece with a domed rotunda over a colonnaded fountain and high-ceilinged corridors leading to delightful garden courts. At its completion in 1941, the building was the largest marble structure in the world. On March 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building and the collections on behalf of the people of the United States of America. The paintings and works of sculpture given by Andrew Mellon have formed a nucleus of high quality around which the collections have grown. Mr. Mellon's hope that the newly created National Gallery would attract gifts from other collectors was soon realized in the form of major donations of art from Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Joseph Widener, Chester Dale, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, and Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch as well as individual gifts from hundreds of other donors. The modern East Building, designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect I. M. Pei and opened in 1978, is composed of two adjoining triangles with glass walls and lofty tetrahedron skylights. The pink Tennessee marble from which both buildings were constructed was taken from the same quarry and forms an architectural link between the two structures. The East Building provided an additional 56,100 m2 of floor space and accommodated the Gallery's growing collections and expanded exhibition schedule as well as housing an advanced research center, administrative offices, a great library, and a burgeoning collection of drawings and prints. The two buildings are linked by an underground concourse featuring sculptor Leo Villareal's computer-programmed digital light project "Multiverse". On May 23, 1999 the Gallery opened an outdoor sculpture garden located in the 6.1-acre block adjacent to the West Building at 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. The garden provides an informal, yet elegant setting for works of modern and contemporary sculpture. The National Gallery of Art contains three museum shops, three cafes and a bar as well as the Library, a major national art research center serving the Gallery's staff, members of the Center for Advanced Study, visiting scholars, and serious adult researchers. Visit the museum's thorough website at .. http://www.nga.gov The National Gallery of Art has one of the finest art collections in the world, including an outstanding and highly representative collection of European art. The permanent collection of paintings spans from the Middle Ages to the present day. The strongest collection is the Italian Renaissance collection, which includes two panels from Duccio's "Maesta", the great tondo of the "Adoration of the Magi" by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, a Botticelli on the same subject, Giorgione's Allendale "Nativity", Bellini's "The Feast of the Gods", the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas, and significant groups of works by Titian and Raphael. Other European collections include examples of the work of many of the great masters of western painting, including Mattias Grünewald, Cranach the Elder, Rogier van der Weyden, Albrecht Dürer, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner and Eugène Delacroix, among many others. American artists featured in the collection include Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, Thomas Chambers, Fitz Henry Lane, Martin Johnson Heade, Frederic Edwin Church and Mary Cassatt among many others. The collection of sculpture and decorative arts includes such diverse works as the "Chalice of Abbot Suger of St-Denis", a superb collection of work by Rodin and Degas, Honoré Daumier's entire series of bronze sculptures, including all 36 of his caricatured portrait busts of French government officials, superb modern sculpture by Henry Moore and others and wonderful examples of Chinese porcelain. The east wing is a showcase for the museum's collection of 20th-century art, including works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston and Mark Rothko as well as hosting the gallery's special exhibitions. The National Gallery of Art is home to fifteen diverse permanent exhibits that highlight artworks by Henri Matisse ("cutouts"), Alexander Calder (untitled mobile, commissioned for the East Building atrium), Andy Goldsworthy ("Roof", a sculpture installed on the ground level of the East Building) and other specially commissioned pieces or highlights from the collection. Three major exhibitions are now on view at the National Gallery of Art. "From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection" (until 2 January 2012) highlights works from Chester Dale's magnificent bequest to the National Gallery of Art in 1962. This special exhibition features some 83 of his finest French and American paintings. Among the masterpieces on view are Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's "Forest of Fontainebleau", Auguste Renoir's "A Girl with a Watering Can", Mary Cassatt's "Boating Party", Edouard Manet's "Old Musician", Pablo Picasso's "Family of Saltimbanques", and George Bellows' "Blue Morning". Other artists represented include Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, and Claude Monet. Dale was an astute businessman who made his fortune on Wall Street in the bond market. Portraits of Dale by Salvador Dalí and Diego Rivera are included in the show, along with portraits of Dale's wife Maud (who greatly influenced his interest in art) painted by George Bellows and Fernand Léger. A selection of works from the museum library entitled "Collections Frozen in Time" (until 24 July 201) focuses on historic private collection catalogues held by the National Gallery of Art's own library. From the Middle-Ages until the 19th century, rulers, nobles, and wealthy merchants acquired and sold paintings, classical sculpture, gems, vases, and numismatics. As these private libraries grew they became a way to demonstrate an individual's wealth and sophistication and had to be documented. Some collectors wrote their own catalogues, others sought noted scholars to catalogue the works. In the days before photography, artists were commissioned to produce lavish engravings depicting the assembled objects in fine detail. The private collection catalogue soon became as much a luxury object as the items it described, and as collections were dispersed over time, these catalogues often remained the only record of the collections' original contents. Until the 15th of May 2011, the National Gallery of Art is spotlighting Ter Brugghen's "Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene" (on loan from the Allen Memorial At Museum of Oberlin College) hanging it alongside their own, famous "Bagpipe Player". Although these paintings belong to different genres, they reveal the sure fluidity of brush, exquisite color harmonies, and sophisticated compositional orchestration for which Ter Brugghen is renowned. "Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene" depicts an episode from the life of Sebastian, a third–century Roman soldier. After refusing to renounce Christianity he was bound to a tree and shot by archers. Irene, along with her maidservant, rescued him, removed the arrows from his flesh, and nursed his wounds. The circumstances prompting the creation of this work are not certain, but it is probable that Ter Brugghen painted it for a hospital in Utrecht. Major forthcoming exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art include "Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals" from 20th February 2011. Organized jointly with the National Gallery, London, this exhibition will explore the 18th century art inspired by the city of Venice. The exhibition celebrates the rich variety of these Venetian views, known as 'vedute', through some 20 masterworks by Canaletto and more than 30 by his rivals, including Michele Marieschi, Francesco Guardi, and Bernardo Bellotto. Responding to an art market fueled largely by the Grand Tour, these gifted painters depicted the famous monuments and vistas of Venice in different moods and seasons. From February 27thth 2011, "Gauguin: Maker of Myth will feature nearly 120 works by Gauguin in the first major look at the artist's oeuvre in the United States since the blockbuster National Gallery of Art retrospective of 1988–1989, "The Art of Paul Gauguin". Organized by Tate Modern, London, in association with the National Gallery of Art, the exhibition will bring together self-portraits, genre pictures, still lifes, and landscapes from throughout the artist's career. It will include not only oil paintings but also pastels, prints, drawings, sculpture, and decorated functional objects. Organized thematically, the exhibition will examine Gauguin's use of religious and mythological symbols to tell stories, reinventing or appropriating narratives and myths drawn both from his European cultural heritage and from Maori legend. Opening on April 17th 2011, a retrospective of work by Gabriel Metsu will featue some 35 paintings. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667) is one of the most important Dutch genre painters of the mid-17th century. His ability to capture ordinary moments of life with freshness and spontaneity was matched only by his ability to depict materials with an unerring truth to nature. Although his career was relatively short, Metsu enjoyed great success as a genre painter, but also for his religious scenes, still lifes, and portraits. This exhibition will be the first monographic show of Metsu's work ever mounted in the United States. 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

A Celebration and Sale of Scottish Art at Sotheby's London This Autumn Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:39 PM PST LONDON.- The second of Sotheby's bi-annual Scottish Sales will take place in London on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 and it will bring to the market more than 150 works from many of the leading names in the field of predominantly 20th Century Scottish Art. The Scottish Colourists will feature strongly, as will Anne Redpath, Joan Eardley, Peter Howson and Jack Vettriano and the sale is estimated to bring in the region of £4 million. All of the sale's offerings will be exhibited at Edinburgh's Mansfield Traquair between Tuesday, September 15 and Thursday, September 17 and this exhibition is open to the public.

Leading Artists Donate to "Art for Africa Auction" at Sotheby's London Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:38 PM PST LONDON.- Sotheby's announces that Marlene Dumas, William Kentridge, David Goldblatt, Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn, Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare are among the artists who have donated works to Art For Africa, a unique auction presenting for the first time such a major offering of works by some of South Africa's leading artists alongside pieces by some of the foremost contemporary artists from the UK, which will be held at Sotheby's London on Monday, September 21, 2009.

Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' Named World's Most Popular Oil Painting Reproduction Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:34 PM PST WICHITA, KAN.- overstockArt.com, the leader in handmade oil painting art reproductions, has officially released its Top 10 list of the most popular oil paintings from the past decade. Topping the list is Vincent van Gogh's irrefutable magnum opus, "Starry Night". The company claims to be the internet leader of handmade reproduction oil paintings.

Yousuf Karsh 100 " A Biography In Images " to open at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:33 PM PST BOSTON, MA - The legacy of Yousuf Karsh. . the man behind the lens of some of the 20th century's most famous photographic portraits is illuminated as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), presents Karsh 100: A Biography in Images. The exhibition of more than 100 works celebrating the 100th anniversary of Karsh's birth (1908) presents his iconic portraits of the era's most illustrious faces alongside rarely seen earlier photographs and little-known work. Karsh 100 will be on view September 23, 2008, through January 19, 2009, in the Rabb Gallery at the MFA. This exhibition is generously supported by the Government of Canada through the Consulate General of Canada in Boston.

Artists with African Roots Exhibit at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:31 PM PST BERLIN.- Five internationally renowned artists of African descent show their art on the grounds of the Nationalgalerie Berlin. El Anatsui, Zarina Bhimji, António Ole, Yinka Shonibare, and Pascale Marthine Tayou have been invited to present themselves in the various, architecturally significant buildings in which the Nationalgalerie accommodates its large collections of art from the 19th to 21st century. Their artistic treatment of the different stylistic, political, and social references will conspicuously mark the buildings and their collections during the course of the project. The ensemble of the Nationalgalerie will thus become an itinerary of large-scale, sculptural, and installation-based works, which are for the most part created outdoors in a site-specific manner.

Lucas Cranach the Elder coming to the Städel Musem Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:30 PM PST Frankfurt, Germany - In a comprehensive exhibition which will open its doors to the public on 23 November 2007, the Städel Musem will be assembling more than a hundred masterpieces by Lucas Cranach the Elder, the great painter of the Reformation period. More popular and economically more successful than his contemporary Albrecht Dürer, it was Lucas Cranach who presumably exerted the longest-lasting influence on the world of German imagery. His early landscape depictions were trailblazing, he inspired old religious themes with completely new life, as well as inventing entirely new pictorial types for the reformed faith. His portraits of Martin Luther, Frederick the Wise, Philipp Melanchthon and others have shaped our conception of these personages to this very day.

Somerset House will Present a Major New Exhibition by SHOWstudio Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:29 PM PST LONDON.- Somerset House will present a major new exhibition by SHOWstudio, the award-winning fashion website led by Nick Knight, one of the world's most influential fashion image-makers. Collaborating with high-profile photographers, artists, writers, designers, stylists and cultural figures, SHOWstudio has forged a revolution in the way fashion is communicated. Over the past nine years SHOWstudio has championed Fashion Film as a wholly new form of experiencing fashion in the digital age. Showcasing a retrospective of SHOWstudio's groundbreaking projects around the three central themes of 'Process', 'Performance' and 'Participation', the exhibition will continue in this same tradition of innovation and invention. On view 17 September through 20 December, 2009.

Alejandra Laviada Presents Her First Solo Exhibition in Madrid Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:28 PM PST MADRID.- The young Mexican artist Alejandra Laviada took part in the portfolio presentation which took place in Mexico City in 2009, later receiving the Descubrimientos PHE (Discoveries PHE) Brugal Extra Viejo Award for her series Photo Sculptures, in which she photographs ephemeral sculptures created from discarded objects. This group of photographs alters the concept of daily objects, it registers spaces which are completely demolished or transformed and implies the stories of the people who live there.   She was awarded honorable mention at the XII Photography Biennial in Mexico, and her work was singled out by critics when it was most recently shown as part of the exhibit "Chisel" at the first New York Photo Festival.

The Grand Palais in Paris Welcomes "Turner and the Masters" Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:26 PM PST PARIS.- The British landscapist J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was highly unusual in that he responded to the works of the old Masters and his contemporaries throughout his lengthy career. This often anxious, pernickety, deliberately competitive but always fertile exchange was an integral part of his work as a painter. Turner emerged in the mid-1790s as a particularly gifted and ambitious watercolourist, rivalling his greatest contemporaries (including his friend Thomas Girton (1775-1802)) but also eager to improve his painting technique by studying the Welsh landscapist Richard Wilson (1713-1782) and visiting private collections. In the absence of museums, the early British collections gave him access to the old masters he sought to equal. On view through 23 May, 2010.

Yale University Says Suit Over Vincent Van Gogh's Work "Imperils Other Art" Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:25 PM PST NEW HAVEN, CT (AP).- The ownership of tens of billions of dollars of art and other goods could be thrown into doubt if a lawsuit seeking the return of a famous Vincent Van Gogh painting is successful, according to a court filing by Yale University. The Ivy League university sued in federal court in March to assert its ownership rights over "The Night Cafe" and to block a descendant of the original owner from claiming it. Pierre Konowaloff is the purported great-grandson of Russian industrialist and aristocrat Ivan Morozov, who bought the painting in 1908.

Natasha Kissell Modernist Landscapes Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:24 PM PST Wainscott, NY - Jill Fortunoff Gerstenblatt is delighted to present new paintings by Natasha Kissell at – ScopeHamptons, July 14 - 16th 2006, located at East Hampton Studios, 75 Industrial Highway, Wainscott, NY.

Davis Museum at Wellesley College exhibits ' the Age of Dürer and Titian ' Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:22 PM PST   Wellesley, MA – The Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College presents an astounding exhibition of monumental works on paper in Spring 2008.  Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian is a major loan exhibition that highlights the little-studied phenomenon of large-scale printed imagery in Renaissance Europe. In the fifteenth century, prints were essentially limited by the size and shape of single sheets of paper and the size of a standard press.  On exhibition March 19 – June 8, 2008.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:21 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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