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

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• The Art Gallery Of New South Wales ~ The World's Leading Collection Of Australian Art ~ Visited By 1.5 Million Annually
• Exhibition Inspires Play ~ EN PLEIN AIR ~ at the Florence Griswold Museum
• Restored Leonardo Masterpiece on Display at the National Gallery in London
• 'Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists' at the San Diego Museum of Art
• Christie's Announces Impressionist and Modern Art Sale for March 10th
• Pinakothek der Moderne hosts ‘Passionately Provocative’ ~ The Stoffel Collection
• Pablo Picasso ~ The Vollard Suite ~ Exhibited at UMAG in Hong Kong
• "The Sea as a Pretext" Opens at Valencian Institute for Modern Art
• Fondation Beyeler Founder Ernst Beyeler Dies at 88 in Basel
• Collaboration Between the London and Edinburgh National Galleries to Secure Old Master Collection
• National Gallery of Victoria to exhibit Bugatti Family Treasures
• California Dealer Tatiana Khan Charged with Selling Phony Picasso
• Janvier and Gustaf: " Together " at Brevard Museum
• Exhibition Links Works from S.M.A.K.'s Collection to Gagarin Magazine
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Art Gallery Of New South Wales ~ The World's Leading Collection Of Australian Art ~ Visited By 1.5 Million Annually Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:31 PM PST The beginnings of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) date back to the 1800s. In the 1870s an Academy of Art was established in Sydney 'for the purpose of promoting fine arts through lecture, art classes and regular exhibitions' and, with funds made available by government, acquired the first artworks for the Gallery. 1870 was a year of violent unrest in Europe, the Franco-Prussian war and the establishment of the Paris commune threatened the great art treasure troves of Europe (the Louvre narrowly escaped being burned down), Italian troops occupied the Vatican, and the intelligentsia of a young Australia began considering having to carry the torch of culture as Europe degenerated into chaos. The fact that Melbourne had established an art gallery in 1861 riled Sydneysiders, who believed that their city should possess a collection of art worthy of the Mother Colony of Australia. The first home for Sydney's art collection was at Clark's Assembly Hall in Elizabeth Street. This building, which had at one time been used for dancing classes, was rented between 1875 and 1879. It was open to the public on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The International Exhibition of 1879 provided an opportunity for the national collection to be re-housed more suitably. Space was initially allocated in the main hall of the Garden Palace, but as lighting and display possibilities were not considered adequate, the government allowed William Wardell to construct a 'Fine Arts Annex' of nine rooms near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. Concerns for safety and conservation of works, as well as the fire which destroyed the Garden Palace in 1882, ruled out the annex as a permanent home for the collection. In December 1885 the collection was moved to a building of six rooms at the present site in the Domain. The present building (originally constructed between 1896 and 1909) is the work of government architect Walter Liberty Vernon, who secured the prestigious commission over the less conventional architect John Horbury Hunt. The trustees demanded a classical temple to art, not unlike William Playfair's fine gallery in Edinburgh, and that is what they got. The original building has been extended throughout its life, first in 1968 when the NSW government decided that the completion of the Gallery should be a major part of the Captain Cook bicentenary celebrations. This extension, which was opened to the public in November 1970, and those made to the east of the existing structure as part of the national bicentenary in 1988, were both the responsibility of Government architect Andrew Andersons. The 1988 eastern extension doubled the size of the Gallery. It provided expanded display space for the collection and temporary exhibitions, a new gallery for Asian art and an outdoor sculpture garden. In 1994 the Yiribana Gallery, a space devoted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture, was opened. In 2003, the new Asian gallery, designed by Sydney architect Richard Johnson of Johnson Pilton Walker, was opened. This major building project also included alterations to the original Asian gallery, a new temporary exhibition space above the Gallery's entrance foyer, new conservation studios, a cafe, a restaurant and a dedicated function area with spectacular harbour views. The gallery is now visited by more than 1,500,000 people annually. Visit the museum's website … http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ The European collections were initially based on a policy of acquiring contemporary British and Continental art on the recommendations of art advisers in London and Paris. The Art Gallery of NSW boasts a distinguished and extensive collection of British Victorian art, along with smaller but impressive holdings of Dutch, French and Italian painters of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and an excellent collection of modern British masters and European modernists. Key names in art history are represented, from Peter Paul Rubens to Pablo Picasso. In the early years of the Gallery, works from abroad were acquired soon after they were painted, often from the annual Royal Academy exhibition in London or the Paris Salon. With the help of benefactor James Fairfax, the gallery has added to their holdings of British Victorian art, including major works by Lord Frederic Leighton and Sir Edward John Poynter; Dutch, French and Italian painters from the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Canaletto; and Italian Mannerist paintings, including works by Agnolo Bronzino, Domenico Beccafumi and Nicolò dell'Abate. At the Gallery, these hang in the Grand Courts along with work by Eugène Delacroix, John Constable, Ford Madox Brown, Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro. British art of the 20th century occupies a significant place in the collection together with major European figures such as Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alberto Giacometti and Giorgio Morandi. The Department of Contemporary Art was founded in 1979. Purchases were made prior to that time, but it has been in the period since then that a lively exhibition program and acquisitions policy have been implemented. The collection focuses upon work which has developed since the 1960s, with an emphasis on the more recent artworks of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the famous David Hockney. Today, the contemporary collection is truly international, encompassing Asian and Western as well as Australian art in all media. Internationally, the focus is on European work and the influence of conceptual art, nouveau realisme, minimalism and arte povera, in particular. The first Australian oil painting to enter the Gallery's collection, William Piguenit's "Mount Olympus, Lake St Clair, Tasmania, the source of the Derwent", was a gift. This tradition of patronage has remained crucial to the development of the collections since that time. From the early 19th century to the present a legion of great Australian artists have filled the Gallery that was built for them and have formed its heart. The Art Gallery of NSW collection of Australian art is amongst the finest and most representative in the country. Dating from the early 1800s, it contains almost 12,500 works, including many iconic paintings and sculpture from the annals of Australian art history by Eugene von Guérard, Bertram Mackennal, WC Piguenit, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder along with 20th-century artists such as Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Lloyd Rees, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen, Robert Klippel, James Gleeson, Fred Williams, John Brack, Sidney Nolan, Charles Meere, and Brett Whiteley, all represented at their very best. Representing artists from communities across Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW's collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art celebrates Indigenous Australia's enduring cultural heritage and its myriad contemporary expressions. The earliest work in the collection, by Tommy McRae, dates back to the late 19th century, yet the stories, ceremonies and ancestral beings depicted in many of the works are testament to the oldest continuous culture in the world. From desert paintings created by small family groups living on remote Western Desert outstations and the bark paintings of the saltwater people of coastal communities to the new media expressions of 'blak city culture', contemporary artists have generated a renaissance of Indigenous visual art that has transfigured Australia's cultural landscape. For many years, the Art Gallery of NSW has played a major role in furthering understanding and enjoyment of Asian art and culture, and we are now firmly placed as a leading centre for Asian art. The first works to enter the Gallery collection in 1879 were a large group of ceramics and bronzes – a gift from the Government of Japan following the Sydney International Exhibition that year. Today, the Asian collections are wide-ranging, embracing the countries and cultures of South, Southeast and East Asia. The Art Gallery of NSW began collecting art from the Pacific region in 1962 at the instigation of the then deputy director, Tony Tuckson. Starting with purchases from commercial galleries in Sydney, the collection expanded significantly after Tuckson travelled to the Sepik region of New Guinea in 1965. The trip resulted in the first major exhibition of Melanesian art to be held at the Gallery, in 1966. One of the major lenders to that exhibition was Stanley Gordon Moriarty. Between 1968 and 1977, the Gallery acquired over 500 works from the Moriarty Collection, the largest and most important private collection of New Guinea Highland art. Today, our Pacific art collection numbers over 700 works from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and West Irian Jaya, and conveys the great cultural diversity of this vast area. A changing selection of works is displayed outside the Gallery's research library. Wood carvings and ritual masks, the best studied of Melanesian artifacts, are brilliantly colored. Each object was designed to serve a ritual purpose and thus was not meant to endure for posterity. Particular aspects of Melanesian art had an enormous impact on European artists, including Max Ernst and Constantin Brancusi (Sepik River style), Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore (New Ireland style), during the period from 1915 to 1940. Among the exhibitions currently on show at the Art Gallery of NSW is "Justin O'Brien: The Sacred Music of Colour" (until 27 February 2011). This retrospective celebrates the life's work of this much-admired Australian artist, Justin O'Brien (1917-1996). O'Brien is best known for his colourful and exuberant depictions of religious themes inspired by his biblical knowledge and the faith from which he had drifted and to which he later returned. He was the inaugural winner of the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 1951 and his painting "The raising of Lazarus" was acquired by the Vatican. This exhibition will also reveal a number of other key aspects of O'Brien's work, including his commanding use of colour and form and the sumptuous detail of his still lifes, portraits and landscapes. Many of his portraits are of students, painted during his 20 years as art master at the Cranbrook School in Sydney, and of fellow prisoners during his internment in Greece and Poland in World War II. They portray the remarkable story of compassion and respect shared between the artist and the people he encountered throughout his life. The exhibition includes over 90 paintings, watercolours and drawings, some of which have not been seen in public for more than 60 years, it brings to light works of intense beauty and harmony. "Artexpress" (until 10 April) features a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in Visual Arts, 2010. It includes a broad range of approaches and expressive forms, including ceramics, collection of works, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video. From now until the 22nd May 2011, "Rosemary Madigan, Sculptor" highlights the work of one of Australia's great stone and wood carvers, Rosemary Madigan as a celebration of her 85th year. As a 23-year-old in 1950 Madigan won the prestigious NSW Travelling Art Scholarship, which allowed her three years study in Europe. There, she met Henry Moore and studied the work of Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani, among others, but pursued more intensely the traditions of Romanesque sculpture through the churches and museums of England, France, Italy and Belgium. Sojourns in India – and the sensuousness, subtlety and stylisation of the three-dimensional art she encountered there – also had a profound impact. The influence of what Madigan has called the 'humanity and down-to-earthness' of medieval sculpture, along with the great traditions of Hindu and Buddhist art, can be seen in wonderfully understated works such as the 1986 "Torso", for which she received the Wynne Prize and which forms part of this Australian Collection Focus exhibition. 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

Exhibition Inspires Play ~ EN PLEIN AIR ~ at the Florence Griswold Museum Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:30 PM PST OLD LYME, CT - EN PLEIN AIR—Impressions of Painting in Giverny & Old Lyme is a new play created especially for the Florence Griswold Museum by actor Christopher Eaves.EN PLEIN AIR premieres Wednesday, June 25 and continues through Saturday, June 28.

Restored Leonardo Masterpiece on Display at the National Gallery in London Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:27 PM PST LONDON.- Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks went back on display in the National Gallery (afternoon of 14th July) after an 18-month restoration project which started in November 2008. The decision to restore the painting came after several years of intensive study of Leonardo's work and that of his Milanese associates and assistants – the so-called leonardeschi – from within the Gallery's collection. The experience gained from examining these pictures reinforced the view that 'The Virgin of the Rocks' could not be appreciated as originally intended. The cleaning process began because some varnish that was applied in 1948–9 was particularly unstable and prone to yellowing. Fine cracking in that varnish, and atmospheric dirt which had become absorbed in its waxy surface, meant that the ability of the varnish to fully saturate the picture had become seriously compromised. As a result the subtlety of shading and the sense of space were markedly reduced, and the impact of this great work significantly lessened.

'Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists' at the San Diego Museum of Art Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:26 PM PST   SAN DIEGO, CA — This summer, the San Diego Museum of Art will be the only North American venue for a remarkable exhibition of more than 100 Impressionist paintings drawn from both public and private collections. Running to September 30, 2007, Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915 includes key examples by Claude Monet, Theodore Robinson, John Leslie Breck, and Frederick Carl Frieseke, as well as many other international artists. The exhibition, organized by the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, in Normandy, France, explores the phenomenon of this turn-of-the-century art colony over a 30-year period.

Christie's Announces Impressionist and Modern Art Sale for March 10th Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:23 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on March 10th presents an exciting opportunity for collectors to purchase superb works by the great masters Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Tamara de Lempicka, and Henry Moore and to explore a wealth of drawings, sculpture and works on paper by lesser-known artists of the Impressionist and Modern periods. Prices begin at $1,200 and range up to $80,000. With over 160 works, the sale is expected to realize in excess of $1.5 million.

Pinakothek der Moderne hosts ‘Passionately Provocative’ ~ The Stoffel Collection Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:21 PM PST Munich, Germany - Passionately provocative major works of contemporary art were collected by the Stoffels from the 1970's onwards. 'Passionately Provocative': the Modern Art Collection at the Pinakothek der Moderne is now showing a large part of this splendid collection for the very first time with some 120 works exhibited over more than 1,200 m. On exhibition 20 November through 1 March, 2009.

Pablo Picasso ~ The Vollard Suite ~ Exhibited at UMAG in Hong Kong Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:17 PM PST Hong Kong - The Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau and The University Museum and Art Gallery are delighted to present "Pablo Picasso: The Vollard Suite", an exhibition of a hundred intaglio prints by the great artist, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973).  On exhibition 17 May to 20 July 2008.

"The Sea as a Pretext" Opens at Valencian Institute for Modern Art Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:15 PM PST VALENCIA,SPAIN - The sea has been an indispensable element of cultural germination and a symbol of inspiration thanks to the magic of its waters, its legends, its light, the contrast between calmness and roughness and, for that reason, artists have not overlooked these aesthetic sensations. The sea is a psychological allegory that encloses clear antitheses: surfaces and depths, the absence of confines on the horizon and the absence of light in the abyss. Unlike the earth – a symbol of the rational soul – the sea is indeed the metaphor of the heart. It is the figure of the uneasiness that tortures us: of our need to go in pursuit of unknown goals. On view through 10 May, 2010.

Fondation Beyeler Founder Ernst Beyeler Dies at 88 in Basel Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:13 PM PST GENEVA (AP).- Ernst Beyeler, whose early eye for undervalued Picassos and Impressionists helped him assemble one of Europe's most famous art collections, has died, his Beyeler Foundation said Friday. He was 88. Beyeler died Thursday evening at his home near Basel, said the museum, which he created 13 years ago out of his sprawling gallery of masterpieces. Beyeler, the son of a Swiss railway employee, became a widely respected art patron after World War II by acquiring hundreds of works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and others. He presented them to the public in his Basel gallery and later in the foundation he founded near the German border. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.

Collaboration Between the London and Edinburgh National Galleries to Secure Old Master Collection Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:11 PM PST   LONDON - The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and the National Gallery in London (NGL) are working together with the Duke of Sutherland to secure the long-term future of the Bridgewater loan of Old Master paintings. The Bridgewater Collection, currently on view at the NGS, is the most important private collection of Old Master paintings on loan to an institution in the UK and counts among the most important art collections anywhere in the world. The loan includes masterpieces by artists such as Raphael (3), Titian (4), Rembrandt (1) and Poussin (8).

National Gallery of Victoria to exhibit Bugatti Family Treasures Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:09 PM PST   MELBOURNE, AU - The National Gallery of Victoria will present Bugatti: Carlo Rembrandt Ettore Jean, the first Australian exhibition to focus on the extraordinary Bugatti family. Bugatti: Carlo Rembrandt Ettore Jean will comprise over 30 works across a range of media exploring the remarkable, creative output that emerged from this one family in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Welcome to the world of Bugatti. On exhibition 6 February through 26 April, 2009.

California Dealer Tatiana Khan Charged with Selling Phony Picasso Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:07 PM PST LOS ANGELES - The La Cienega Boulevard gallery owner allegedly hired an artist to fabricate a pastel and then sold it for $2 million, a criminal complaint says. The art collector must have thought he'd snagged a great deal when he purchased for $2 million what he thought was a $5-million Picasso pastel for less than half its value. Tatiana Khan, owner of the Chateau Allegre gallery on La Cienega Boulevard, claimed the artwork -- called "La Femme Au Chapeau Bleu" (The Woman in the Blue Hat) -- was owned by the Malcolm Forbes family estate and was a bargain at only $2 million, according to court documents. But the art collector became suspicious several years later and contacted a Picasso expert in 2008. Enrique Mallen, director of the On-Line Picasso Project, concluded the work was "not by the hand of Pablo Picasso."

Janvier and Gustaf: " Together " at Brevard Museum Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:05 PM PST Melbourne, FL – The Brevard Museum of Art and Science is pleased to present the exhibition Janvier and Gustaf : Together. Whimsical sculptures and painterly still lifes define an artistic life and partnership for Vero Beach artists Jan(vier) and Gus(taf) Miller. The exhibition contains ten years of inspired creativity.

Exhibition Links Works from S.M.A.K.'s Collection to Gagarin Magazine Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:02 PM PST GHENT, BELGIUM - "GAGARIN The Artists in their Own Words" is a unique international artist's magazine (°2000), entirely dedicated to the publication of especially written and unpublished texts by artists who are now working, anywhere in the world. The texts are published in their original language (from Albanian to Italian) with the addition of an English translation. GAGARIN does not restrict itself to a particular period or import and runs trough the codes that are applied in the world of art. Its orientation is artistic, documentary and historical. GAGARIN also aspires to provide an accurate source of information about the collaborating artists, using their own words.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:01 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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