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• Singapore Art Museum (SAM) ~ World's Largest Collection Of Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art
• Francois Pinault opens The New Punta della Dogana Contemporary Art Centre in Venice
• Vancouver Art Gallery to feature Expanding Horizons: The American & Canadian Landscape 1860-1918
• IVAM Collection on View at Bancaja Cultural Centre of Alicante
• Chinese Art Market Soul-Searches as Chinese Contemporary Art Plunges Over 60 Percent
• VMFA Announces Exhibition Lineup to Follow Grand Opening in May
• Moscow Museum of Modern Art features Soviet Art between Trotsky and Stalin, 1926-1936
• A Great American Artist & Pop Art Pioneer, Robert Rauschenberg Died in Florida at 82
• Migros Museum showcases the Art & Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art presents Portraits & Glass Sculpture
• Ekundayo solos at Thinkspace Gallery
• Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Las Vegas Venetian Hotel Will Close
• American Red Cross To Sell Pieces of Its Historic Collection to Cut Deficit
• Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum displays Utopian & Experimental Works by Georges Vantongerloo
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Singapore Art Museum (SAM) ~ World's Largest Collection Of Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:48 PM PDT Opened in January 1996, the mission of the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is to preserve and present the art histories and contemporary art practices of Singapore and the wider Southeast Asian region. In pursuit of this aim, SAM has amassed one of the world's largest public collection of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian artworks. Housed in a restored 19th century mission school, the museum draws from its collection and collaborates with leading international museums to present shows covering both local and international art practices, as well as cutting edge art expressions. Contemporary art of the region is given international exposure through the museum's travelling exhibition program and loans from the collection. Through strategic alliances with international arts and cultural institutions, SAM facilitates visual arts education, exchange, research and development within the region and internationally. The museum has forged partnerships with institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Seoul National University Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum, Bonn Art Museum, Centre of International Modern Art, National Museum of India, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Asia Society in New York, Fukuoka Art Museum and Queensland Art Gallery. With Singapore becoming a global city for the arts, SAM's international networks bring about a confluence of ideas, and create a dynamic arts scene invigorated by international flows of ideas, talents, knowledge and resources. Community outreach continues to be an important area of the Museum's function. Through the Museum's exhibition programmes as well as its education and public programmes which cover a diversity of art trends and practices, fringe activities and public lectures, SAM Museum promotes awareness and appreciation of contemporary art and encourages the growth of an active and stimulating cultural environment in Singapore. The museum has hosted a series of travelling exhibitions since its opening, including those featuring works by Liu Kang, Leonardo Da Vinci, Chen Chong Swee, Fan Chang Tien, Lim Tze Peng and Chen Wen Hsi. SAM is also the organiser of the Singapore Biennale 2011. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg The building once housed St Joseph's Institution (SJI), a Catholic boys' school, run by La Salle Brothers. In 1855, the cornerstone was laid by its founder, Father Jean-Marie Beurel. After 135 years in Bras Basah Road, SJI was relocated, making way for SAM to be created in the vacant building. With 10,000 meters of floor space, the restored building includes 18 fully climate controlled galleries, an auditorium, a multi-purpose hall, a museum shop, courtyards, one café and two restaurants. The rectangular part of the Central Building forms the oldest part of the whole structure completed in 1867. Designed by French Priest, Charles Benedict Nain, the Classical grand façade including the dome were later additions in 1903. The glass hall was originally a gymnasium and opened on three sides. It was 'modernized' in the 1950s to become the school hall, then known as the Oei Tiong Han Hall. This hall was restored to its original state based on an original drawing found on site. The colorful Persian glass installation by American artist Dale Chihuly enhances the beauty of this hall. The Glass Hall is commonly utilized for exhibition openings and company & wedding functions. The galleries in the Central Building were formed by knocking down cross walls that made up the classrooms. A new wall system, comprising a light weight wall, insulation material and vapour barrier, was added to the existing walls. Paintings are hung from picture rails fixed on top of the walls. The auditorium was the former chapel and preserves all the important elements of the original chapel. These include the small 'basins' for holy water, stations of the cross, original pressed steel ceiling and dado panels, and original concrete floor tiles. A plaque outside the chapel commemorates Brother Michael (1856-1936) who, as Director of SJI (1900 – 1914) played a major part in the development of the 3 historic buildings that are preserved. This auditorium will now be used for talks, symposiums, seminars, film screenings and a favorite venue for wedding ceremonies. The Anderson wing is named after Sir John Anderson, governor of the Straits Settlements 1904 – 1911. The Straits Settlements Government had made a generous contribution towards the building funds. The Queen Street Wing used to be the site of the Brothers' Quarters, too small and narrow for conversion to Museum use, the building had to make way for the current new structure, designed to harmonize in rhythm and composition with the historic building and yet have a contemporary look. It is clad with the machine-made precast concrete panels with stylized details, which contrast with the hand-made classical details of the historic buildings. The museum's extension building, SAM at 8Q, was opened in August 2008, expanding the museum's contemporary art space to present fresh, multi-disciplinary, interactive and community-oriented programming. Today, SAM is a place where the public can directly experience the diversity of contemporary art practices ranging from painting and sculpture, to installation, film & video, photography, new media, performance art and sound art, experience the work and ideas of living artists of Southeast Asia, and relate to the region's unique aesthetic and social context. The museum's collection ranges from sculptures to architectural elements, installations and paintings. Since its opening in 1996 the museum's permanent collection has grown from under 2,000 art works to almost 8,800. The core of the collection is an unrivalled selection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, complimented by an expanding collection of New Asian and International Contemporary Art. Like the region itself, contemporary art from Singapore and Southeast Asia is diverse, dynamic and multifaceted, possessing its own distinctive aesthetics and artistic traditions shaped by different approaches to art-making and practices. With this in mind, SAM has been building a stellar collection of contemporary Southeast Asian art. SAM's acquisitions policy devotes 80% of funds to Southeast Asian art, and the remaining 20% to the wider Asian region, such as China, India, Korea and Japan to provide a broader cultural context for the core collection. The artists represented in the SAM collection fall into three broad groups: the 'pioneering' contemporary artists or ones associated with avant-garde practices, mid-career artists, and emerging practitioners. Through its acquisition policy and continued funding support from the government, individuals and corporate donors, SAM is able to include iconic works of art in its collection, encourage artists to create important new works through artist commissions and showcase the best in contemporary art from the region. Local Singapore artists are best represented with major collections of works by Georgette Chen, Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Lim Tze Peng, Chen Wen His, Chen Chong Swee, Chua Mia Tee, Tan Swie Hian and Huang Yao. Other South-East Asian artists represented in the collection include Affandi and Hendra Gunawan from Indonesia, Wong Hoy Cheong from Malaysia, Tran Trong Vu, Bui Xuan Phai and Le Pho from Vietnam, Pratuang Emjaroen and Montien Boonma from Thailand and a superb collection donated by the famous Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong. The Tyler Print Collection contains well over 1,200 additional works, including some of the most prominent names in the 20th century international art scene such as Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein. Features of the museum include Filipino artist Ramon Orlina's abstract-glass window in the former school chapel and US artist Dale Chihuly's sea anemone–like blown-glass installations. The Singapore Art Museum is famous for the exhibitions it hosts, whether travelling or from its own collections. Currently one of the highlights of any visit is "Seeing the Kites Again" (until 2 May 2011), which features 22 paintings from the donation of 113 works made by Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong. An internationally eminent artist, Wu is best known for marrying the distinct art form of traditional Chinese ink with modern concepts in Western art. Recently published as a seven-volume anthology, Wu's writings provide deep insights into his aesthetics and art practice. "Seeing the Kites Again" is an exhibition inspired by Wu's metaphor of the kite. Since the 1960s, Wu Guanzhong has produced a great number works, based on his personal recollections. These works are centered around his home in the South of China, his childhood, as well as the villages and towns he has been to. His interest in life and his attention to ordinary scenes, infuse his art with an aesthetic quality that demonstrates a return to simplicity. "Negotiating Home, History and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, 1991 – 2010" between 12 March and 26 June 2011, presents the work of fifty-five seminal practitioners in contemporary art from six Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, The Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia) created over the last two decades. The exhibition showcases pieces of art spanning the early years of contemporary art-making in the region to the present, drawn mostly from the Singapore Art Museum collection. This extensive survey gives audiences the opportunity to form a cogent picture of the diverse realities and threads linking Southeast Asia and its art through inquiries into topics such as nation building, urbanisation, religious and gender discourse from an Asian perspective. Amongst the artists featured are Dadang Christanto (Indonesia), Kamin Lertchaiprasert (Thailand), Suzann Victor (Singapore), Wong Hoy Cheong (Malaysia), Tran Luong (Vietnam) and Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan (The Philippines). Through a broad range of media including photography, video, painting, performance and installation art, the exhibition provides an entry to the specific characteristics of Southeast Asia's aesthetic language and offers a key to understanding some of the region's more recent political and social developments. 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

Francois Pinault opens The New Punta della Dogana Contemporary Art Centre in Venice Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:46 PM PDT VENICE.- Punta della Dogana, the new art center for contemporary art of the François Pinault Foundation, opens its doors after fourteen months of renovation entrusted to the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The first exhibition Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection, curated by Alison M. Gingeras and Francesco Bonami, is shown simultaneously at Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi and is shaped in response to the particular atmosphere of each space. With its triangular shape, Punta della Dogana split the Grand Canal from the Giudecca Canal. As center for contemporary art , the former monumental port of the city present a permanent exhibition of works from François Pinault Collection.

Vancouver Art Gallery to feature Expanding Horizons: The American & Canadian Landscape 1860-1918 Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:44 PM PDT VANCOUVER, BC.- The Vancouver Art Gallery will present the first exhibition to compare the extraordinary work of American and Canadian landscape artists during the formative days of each nation. Beginning with the American Civil War and ending with the conclusion of the First World War, Expanding Horizons: Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscape 1860-1918 presents some of North America 's greatest artworks from a time when each country was aggressively extending their boundaries westward. On view from October 17, 2009 to January 17, 2010, the exhibition, organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, includes more than 175 of the most celebrated examples of landscape painting and photography from this decisive period selected from outstanding international public and private collections.

IVAM Collection on View at Bancaja Cultural Centre of Alicante Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:40 PM PDT   ALICANTE, SPAIN - Art and sport are two cultural expressions which are of ever-increasing interest for the general public. The exhibition The Avant-garde and Sport in the IVAM Collection, which Bancaja presents at its Cultural Centre in Alicante, is taking place thanks to the collaboration agreement between the IVAM and Bancaja which, every year, enables the Valencian museum to bring its artworks closer to the citizens of Alicante. Throughout the course of the modern age, sporting events have occupied an increasingly more important position within the wide-ranging offer of leisure time activites of industrial cities and their public spaces.

Chinese Art Market Soul-Searches as Chinese Contemporary Art Plunges Over 60 Percent Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:37 PM PDT HONG KONG (REUTERS).- The fallow plots of farmland on the edge of the artists' village of Songzhuang are a symbol of Chinese contemporary art's recent boom and bust cycle. When prices for Chinese art soared, there were grand plans to build more galleries and studios in this artists' hamlet near Beijing. Yet today, after art prices plunged by some 60 percent in the past year, the expansion plans have floundered. After a white-hot stint, the financial crisis has battered China's art landscape, shrinking investment in grand schemes like Songzhuang, shuttering galleries in Beijing's pioneering 798 arts district and deflating bloated egos, valuations and excesses.

VMFA Announces Exhibition Lineup to Follow Grand Opening in May Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:34 PM PDT RICHMOND, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VMFA,  has announced a lineup of exhibitions that will begin when the museum opens its new $150-million James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing May 1, 2010. This exhibition of more than 70 paintings, works on paper and sculptures - dating from the antebellum to the modern periods - is drawn from one of the finest private collections of historical American art in the country. Featured artists include George Bellows, Mary Cassatt, William Merrit Chase, Childe Hassam, Martin Johnson Heade, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, George Luks, William Rimmer, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. "American Art from the McGlothlin Collection" / May 1, 2010-July 18, 2010.

Moscow Museum of Modern Art features Soviet Art between Trotsky and Stalin, 1926-1936 Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:31 PM PDT MOSCOW - "Struggling for the Banner" is the first major presentation of the period of "new leftist" art in the USSR, and especially that from the period of the "cultural revolution" (1928-1932), when the struggle against the passive, contemplative, purely aesthetic, and formal side of art reached its apogee. However, this art is not only anti-bourgeois in terms of theme. Instead, its aesthetic often comes surprisingly close to that of the political art of our own age. Many of the works in the exhibition have never been shown to the public before: monumental paintings, photomontages, photographs, graphic reproductions, posters, mass action sculpture projects, and films make for around 250 works by more than 100 authors. On exhibition June 18 through July 4, 2009 at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

A Great American Artist & Pop Art Pioneer, Robert Rauschenberg Died in Florida at 82 Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:28 PM PDT NEW YORK CITY - The New York Times has reported and confirmed through PaceWildenstein the death of one of America's greatest artists, Robert Rauschenberg. In addition to painting and sculpture, Rauschenberg's long career has also included significant contributions to printmaking and Performance Art. He also won a Grammy Award for his album design of the Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues. As of 2003 he worked from his home and studio in Captiva, Florida.

Migros Museum showcases the Art & Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:26 PM PDT   Zurich, Switzerland - Tadeusz Kantor (born 1915 in Wielopole Skrzyńskie, died 1990 in Krakow) is regarded as one of the most significant Polish artists of the 20th century. Alongside his work as a visual artist he was also a theatre reformer influenced by avant-garde artists Antonin Artaud and Alfred Jarry, and also attracted by the Bauhaus theatre. Kantor was particularly interested in breaking the illusion created by classical theatre, and used alienation or defamiliarisation techniques revealing the artificiality of classical stage production, thus forcing an opening through to real life. On exhibit at Migros Museum until 16 November.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art presents Portraits & Glass Sculpture Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:24 PM PDT BENTONVILLE, ARK.- The beauty of glorious attire and what it communicates to others is celebrated in two works of art announced by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Mrs. Theodore Atkinson, Jr. (1765), an oil portrait by John Singleton Copley, considered one of the most influential painters in colonial America, augments an exceptional collection of portraits by Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent. Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl (2007) by Karen LaMonte, a leading figure among American artists using glass in large-scale sculptures, builds on the collection's emerging strength in contemporary art.

Ekundayo solos at Thinkspace Gallery Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:20 PM PDT Los Angeles, CA - Ekundayo solos at Thinkspace. Ekundayo was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1983 and raised there until the age of five at which point he left with his father to travel around the United States. After his father passed away in 1994 he found an escape through graffiti and hasn't looked back or stopped painting since. Among Ekundayo's many influences are Arthur Rackham, Nicoli Fechin, Toulouse Lautrec, Lucien Freud, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Gustave Klimt, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Sergio Toppi and Alan E. Cober; to name just a few. Ekundayo studied Illustration at Art Center College of Art and Design in Pasadena.

Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Las Vegas Venetian Hotel Will Close Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:19 PM PDT   Las Vegas, NV - After nearly seven years on the Strip, the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian Hotel will close its doors May 11 Guggenheim officials made the announcement and said the museum will continue to partner with the Venetian on "a number of projects," but wouldn't elaborate. The museum will offer free admission beginning Friday until it closes in May. With the closure, and Steve Wynn's dismantling of his own fine arts gallery — the only remaining Strip art gallery is at the Bellagio, where the effort to bring fine art to the Las Vegas masses began in 1998.

American Red Cross To Sell Pieces of Its Historic Collection to Cut Deficit Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:17 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC (AP).- Rose Percy has a long history with the American Red Cross. Complete with an extensive wardrobe and her own Tiffany jewelry, this 23-inch wax doll was first sold for $1,200 back in 1864 to benefit the U.S. Sanitary Commission — the precursor to the Red Cross, one of best-known U.S. charities. Now, Rose Percy, is on the auction block again. On Tuesday, Rose Percy will be sold in one of the first rounds of an extensive sale of treasures the American Red Cross has amassed over the decades. The current bid online: $5,000. The Red Cross also is selling a rare four-faced Cartier clock lamp, nurse uniforms from World War I and what could be the last Civil War-era flag of the forerunner U.S. Sanitary Commission.

Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum displays Utopian & Experimental Works by Georges Vantongerloo Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:15 PM PDT DUISBURG.- The artist Georges Vantongerloo, born in Antwerp in 1886 and died in Paris in 1965, is one of the pioneers of geometrical abstraction in Europe, in particular of abstract sculpture. Because of his artistic contributions to the "Stijl" movement, his leading role within the Parisian avant-garde group "Abstraction-Création", and not least due to his innovative sculptural works after 1945 and his theoretical writings, Vantongerloo is considered one of the outstanding artist of the 20th century. The exhibition is a joint venture between the Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg and the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:14 PM PDT 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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