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• Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza ~ A Jewel In The "Golden Triangle of Art" In Madrid
• Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art Presents Ryan Martin ~ WELCOME
• New York State Museum opens Latin American Art from MoMA
• Christie's New York Russian Art Sale Presents Works of Art & Paintings
• Pope Benedict Meets Artists from Around the World in the Sistine Chapel
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to display Batiste Madalena ~ Hand-Painted Film Posters 1924–1928
• Largest Fabergé Collection at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
• Icon of Art History Henri Matisse's "Dance" on Loan at Hermitage Amsterdam
• Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art debuts Chinese Classicism in New Media
• Sol LeWitt ~ Forms Derived from a Cube at PaceWildenstein, NYC
• New Works by Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
• Pompidou Centre in Paris opens Architect & Designer Ron Arad ~ 'No Discipline'
• NASHER MUSEUM OF ART PRESENTS NEW ACQUISITIONS
• A CENTURY OF CCA at the OAKLAND MUSEUM of CALIFORNIA
• Frank Gehry Gets Golden Lion
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza ~ A Jewel In The "Golden Triangle of Art" In Madrid Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:07 PM PDT The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Spanish), is one of the three Madrid museums that make up the "Golden Triangle of Art", which also includes the Prado and the Reina Sofia (modern and contemporary) galleries. The collections's roots lie in the privately owned Thyssen-Bonremisza collection, once the second largest private art collection in the world (after the British Royal Collection). The collection started in the 1920s as a private collection by Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon (1875–1947). In a reversal of the movement of European paintings to the United States during this period, one of the Baron's sources was the collections of American millionaires coping with the Great Depression and inheritance taxes, from which he acquired such exquisite old master paintings as Ghirlandaio's 'Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni' (once in the Morgan Library) and Carpaccio's 'Knight' (from the collection of Otto Kahn). The collection was later expanded by Heinrich's son Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921–2002), who re-assembled most of the works from his relatives' collections (distributed after his father's death) and proceeded to acquire large numbers of new works. In 1985, the Baron married Carmen Cervera (a former Miss Spain 1961) and introduced her to art-collecting. Carmen's influence was decisive in persuading the Baron to decide on the future of his collection and cede the collection to Spain. When Baron Thyssen decided to open his collection to the public, he initially tried to have his museum in the Villa Favorita in Switzerland expanded, when this proved impossible, a Europe-wide search for a new was home started. The competition was won in 1986 when the Spanish government came to an agreement to provide a home for the collection (the 19th century Villahermosa Palace close to the Prado in Madrid) and fund the museum in return for the loan of the collection for a minimum of nine and a half years. Pritzker prize winning Spanish architect, Rafael Moneo was employed to redesign and extend the building and the museum opened in 1992. However, so impressed were the Thyssen-Bornemiszas with the building and Spain's commitment to the collection, that even before it opened, they were negotiating with the Spanish government to make the museum permanent. In 1993, the Spanish government agreed to buy the collection (valued at up to 1.5 billion dollars) for $350 million and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum became a permanent fixture in Madrid. The museum currently houses two collections from the Thyssen-Bornemiszas, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, acquired by the Spanish government from Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza on permanent display since the museum opened in 1992 and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, owned by the baron's widow and held by the museum since 2004 on loan. These two collections comprise over one thousand works of art (mostly paintings), with which the museum offers a stroll through the history of European painting, from its beginning in the 13th century to the close of the 20th century. The Baroness remains involved with the museum, deciding the salmon pink tone of the interior and in May 2006 campaigning against plans to redevelop the Paseo del Prado as she thought the works and traffic would damage the collection and the museum's appearance. A collection of works from the museum is housed in Barcelona in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.museothyssen.org One of the key characteristics of the Thyssen-Bonemisza Museum is that it complements the Prado's collection of old paintings and the modern art housed at the Reina Sofía Museum, featuring movements and styles such as the Italian and Dutch primitives, German Renaissance art, 17th century Dutch painting, Impressionism, German Expressionism, Russian Constructivism, Geometric Abstraction and Pop Art. And, setting it apart, its singular display of 19th century North American painting (practically unknown in any other European museum), which occupies two halls of the museum. With the museum's own acquisitions, it now contains over 1,600 paintings and sculptures, which are laid out in chronological order. One of the focal points is in early European painting, with a major collection of trecento and quattrocento (i.e. 14th and 15th century) Italian paintings by Duccio, and his contemporaries. Among the highlights are paintings by Luca di Tomme, Benozzo Gozzoli , Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello ("Crucifixion among saints"), Cosimo Tura, Ercole de'Roberti, Bramantino ("Christ Risen"), Antonello da Messina and "The Young Knight" by Vittore Carpaccio, generally considered the first full-length portrait painted in Europe. Works of the early Flemish and Dutch painters include masterpieces by Jan Van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Holbein. Later Renaissance and Baroque works include significant paintings by Italian, Dutch and Flemish masters such as Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, Caravaggio, Rubens, Tintoretto, El Greco, Van Dyck, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Claude Lorrain, Murillo, Rembrandt and Frans Hals as well as wonderful portraits by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Vittore Carpaccio. The artistic shift from rococo through to realism and romanticism is reflected in works of European artists including Watteau, Boucher ("The Toilet"), Nicolas Lancret, Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Jean-Marc Nattier, Chardin ("Still Life with Cat and Stripe"), Giambattista Tiepolo ("Death of Jacinto"), Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto and Pietro Longhi ("Tickle"), English paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence and Johann Zoffany and the works of Goya, Delacroix ("The Arab Horseman"), Géricault, Courbet and Caspar David Friedrich marking the transition to realism and romanticism. In line with museum policy, from 1960 onwards different parts of the collection began to travel all over the world and a major programme of loans to other galleries was put in practice, meaning that the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection was nearly always present, in some form or another, in the big collective exhibitions. The collection of nineteenth century artworks includes all the masters, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Degas ("Green Dancer" and others), Pissarro, Bonnard, Berthe Morisot, Gaughuin, Toulouse-Lautrec ("Redhead with White Blouse") and important works by Van Gogh. American nineteenth century art includes examples by Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. The twentieth century section has a significant role in the Thyssen Museum, and includes Fauvist works by Henri Matisse ("Yellow Flowers") and André Derain, but it is in Cubism, Russian Constructivism and German Expressionism where the collection is concentrated. Of note is the abundant collection of works such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ("Alley With Woman in Red"), Emil Nolde, Max, Franz Marc, Ludwig Meidner and Erich Heckel among others. The jewel is possibly "Metropolis", a masterpiece by George Grosz. The ground floor is devoted entirely to twentieth century art, from Cubism to Pop Art. Examples of analytic cubism include noteworthy pieces by Pablo Picasso ("Man With Clarinet"), Georges Braque ("Woman With Mandolin") and Juan Gris. "Harlequin Mirror" and "Bullfight" are highlights from Picasso's blue period. Surrealism is well represented, including a number of important works by Salvador Dali. Highlights from the 1960s and 1970s include "Moon Over Alabama" by Richard Lindner, works by David Hockney , Tom Wesselmann ("Large Nude # 1") and Roy Lichtenstein ("Women in the Bathroom"). A "Portrait of Baron Thyssen" painted by Lucian Freud in the early 1980s is the latest work, and one of three Freud's in the collection. Other important artists amongst the incredible collection of 20th century artistic trends include, Edvard Munch, James Ensor, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Lyonel Feininger, August Macke, Otto Dix, Albert Gleizes, Frantisek Kupka, Gino Severini, Fernand Léger, Rodin, Liubov Popova, El Lissitzky, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Edward Hopper, Joan Miró, Kurt Schwitters, Balthus, Paul Delvaux, Magritte, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Ronald Kitaj, Alberto Giacometti, Lucio Fontana, Francis Bacon, Roberto Matta, Richard Estes and Robert Rauschenberg, representing almost every artistic movement from impressionism to hyper-realism. Temporary exhibitions, educational activities, conferences, publications, voluntary, corporate and promotional programmes, are just some of the initiatives that have been put in practice over these years, aimed at progressively increasing the cultural services on offer to promote the collection, as well as to involve an ever broader section of society in the life of the museum. Two major temporary exhibitions can currently be viewed at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Until 22 May 2011, "Jean–Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)" provides an in-depth retrospective of this controversial French artist. Jean-Léon Gérôme was one of the most famous French painters of his day, but in the course of his long career, he was the subject of controversy and bitter criticism, in particular for defending the conventions of the waning genre of Academic painting. However, as this exhibition shows, Gérôme was not so much heir to that tradition as he was the creator of totally new pictorial worlds, often based on a strange iconography. This exhibition, the first retrospective of this artist's works to be held in Spain, sheds light on the most noteworthy features of his painting and sculpture from his early career in the 1840s up to his last works. "Heroines" from 8th March to 05th June 2011 is a joint exhibition, hosted between the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Fundación Caja (both in Madrid). The history of Western art is full of images of seductive, indulgent, submissive, defeated and enslaved women. But the women whom this exhibition centers on are strong women. The focus is on active, independent, defiant, inspired, creative, domineering and triumphant women as depicted in art. Following a non-chronological but thematic order, the exhibition explores the backgrounds and aspirations of heroines, through the iconography of solitude, work, delirium, sport, war, magic, religion, reading and painting (the first 5 at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the latter 4 at the Fundación Caja). In each "chapter" artworks from different periods, languages and artistic environments are juxtaposed, providing food for thought on what has changed and what has remained the same over time. And in each chapter, one or several voices of women artists, particularly contemporary women, respond to images created by their male counterparts. From June 28th until 25th September 2011 the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will be holding a comprehensive exhibition of the work of the Spanish artist Antonio López (born Tomelloso, 1936). It will feature oil paintings, drawings and sculptures of some of his most typical subjects such as the interior of houses, the human figure, landscapes and urban views (principally of Madrid), as well as his still life depictions of fruit and other subjects. In the reality that surrounds him López looks for everyday aspects that he can reproduce in his work, using a slow, highly meditated creative process that aims to capture the essence of the object or landscape.

Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art Presents Ryan Martin ~ WELCOME Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:06 PM PDT San Francisco, CA - Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art is pleased to present "Welcome," a series of new paintings by Oakland-based Ryan Martin. Working in oils, Martin composes vivid portraits and fantastical pastoral scenes of young men and young women, often with young reptiles, young pachyderms, and young ungulates.  A stylistic virtuoso, he uses smooth, groomed brushstrokes to render flora and fauna in electrified photorealistic detail while deploying broad, expressionistic flourishes of color and texture for background.  On view 5 June - 31 July, 2008. Reception: June 5, 2008, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.

New York State Museum opens Latin American Art from MoMA Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:05 PM PDT ALBANY, NY – Latin American and Caribbean Art: Selected Highlights from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opens at the New York State Museum. On view through October 13 in the Museum's West Gallery, the exhibition is the 19th installment of the Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York State's leading art museums to the State Museum. This also is the fourth exhibition in the Bank of America Great Art Series drawn from the Museum of Modern Art's collections.

Christie's New York Russian Art Sale Presents Works of Art & Paintings Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:04 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's Russian Art sale on 23 April in New York comprises an extensive representation of the history of Russian Art from 18th century works of art to 21st century paintings. A silver and enamelled Imperial presentation charger by Sazikov leads an impressive section of 210 works of art, highlighted by a wide selection of cloisonné enamels and more than 60 works by Fabergé. In 2009 Christie's New York established a market share of more than 60% for works of art by the renowned house of Fabergé in the US. Among the paintings, Konstantin Makovsky's In from a stroll will lead a fine selection of paintings from the 19th to 21st centuries.

Pope Benedict Meets Artists from Around the World in the Sistine Chapel Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:03 PM PDT VATICAN CITY (REUTERS).- Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often "illusory and deceitful." The Pope told the gathering of hundreds of painters, sculptors, architects, poets and directors, held beneath the vaulted ceiling of the chapel painted by Michelangelo, that he wanted to "renew the Church's friendship with the world of art." Against the backdrop of Michelangelo's vast fresco of the Last Judgment, which adorns the chapel's altar wall, Benedict lamented that the once-close cooperation between the Church and the artistic community had weakened.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to display Batiste Madalena ~ Hand-Painted Film Posters 1924–1928 Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:02 PM PDT New York City - Batiste Madalena (American, b. Italy, 1902–1988) was hired by George Eastman during the late period of silent cinema to design and hand-paint film posters for his theater in Rochester, NY—at the time the third-largest cinema in the U.S. His works were certainly the most definitive set of original film posters in America. They were a wonderful and priceless collection. On exhibition at MoMA from October 15 through April 6, 2009.

Largest Fabergé Collection at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:01 PM PDT   RICHMOND, VA - The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' Pratt collection is the largest public collection of Fabergé imperial Easter eggs outside Russia. The full Pratt collection numbers approximately 150 creations from the Fabergé workshops.

Icon of Art History Henri Matisse's "Dance" on Loan at Hermitage Amsterdam Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:00 PM PDT AMSTERDAM.- From Thursday 1 April the painting Dance (1909-1910) by Henri Matisse will be included in the exhibition Matisse to Malevich. Pioneers of modern art from the Hermitage. Dance, which will be seen at the Hermitage Amsterdam only until 9 May, has never previously been displayed in the Netherlands. It is one of the icons of art history and comes from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It is rarely loaned out. Very recently the Ministry of Culture in Moscow gave permission for Dance to be loaned to the Hermitage Amsterdam for six weeks.

Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art debuts Chinese Classicism in New Media Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:58 PM PDT   San Francisco, CA - Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art is pleased to present a group exhibition of new works by Chinese artists Wang Tian De, Hong Lei and Gao Yuan, all of whom combine digital media and print photography to reinterpret the themes and iconography of classical Chinese painting. On exhibition 5 March through 25 April, 2009. Reception: Thursday, March 5, 2009, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.

Sol LeWitt ~ Forms Derived from a Cube at PaceWildenstein, NYC Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:57 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- PaceWildenstein presents Sol LeWitt: Forms Derived from a Cube, an exhibition of Sol LeWitt's wall drawings, gouaches and structures based on his transformations of the original cubic form. The exhibition will be on view through October 17, 2009 at 32 East 57th Street, New York City. Sol LeWitt helped revolutionize the definition of art in the 1960s with his famous notion that "the idea becomes a machine that makes the art." Reducing art to its essentials, the cube became the basic modular unit for his artistic inquiry—"the grammatical device"—from which his work would proceed from the inception of his career throughout successive decades of his practice. A universally recognizable form that could not be mistaken to represent anything other than itself—and requiring no intention from the viewer, the cube eliminated "the necessity of inventing another form," reserving its use "for invention."

New Works by Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:56 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Tanya Bonakdar Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (B. 1967). Eliasson's sixth solo show at the gallery continues his exploration of and experimentation with modes of perception and the experience of space and time. Focusing on movement, color, and light - and the interplay between the three phenomena - the exhibition involves the viewer in a collaborative creative process. Throughout his career, Eliasson has challenged the notion of the artwork as a static object, instead suggesting that the meaning and generative potential of each work lies in the exchange between the piece and the viewer. It is the visitor's experience, his or her subjective perception and mediation of the work that activates it; in turn Eliasson's installations, public projects, photographs and paintings prompt a new awareness in the visitor of his or her own methods of interpreting the world. On view through 20 March, 2010.

Pompidou Centre in Paris opens Architect & Designer Ron Arad ~ 'No Discipline' Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:55 PM PDT   PARIS - The Centre Pompidou is to devote an exhibition to the work of Israeli architect and designer Ron Arad, his first major one-person show in France. From its beginnings, the Centre has played a key role in presenting design and designers to the wider public, with exhibitions such as Design Français 1960-1990 (1988), Manifeste: 30 ans de création en perspective, 1960-1990 (1992) and D. Day, le design aujourd'hui (2005), as well as monographic exhibitions devoted to such figures as Carlo Mollino (1989), Ettore Sottsass (1994), Gaetano Pesce (1996), Philippe Starck (2003), Charlotte Perriand (2005), and now Ron Arad.

NASHER MUSEUM OF ART PRESENTS NEW ACQUISITIONS Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:54 PM PDT   DURHAM, NC - The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University will present "New at the Nasher," an exhibition of works acquired in recent years that reflect the museum's focus on contemporary art, from July 19 through July 6, 2008. The two-part exhibition opens with works by Christian Boltanski, Petah Coyne, Christophe Draeger, Olafur Eliasson, Barkley Hendricks, David Levinthal, Paul Pfeiffer, Kara Walker and Eve Sussman. On Feb. 23, 2008, a second installation in the same gallery space will feature works by artists William Cordova, Dario Escobar, Hong Lei and Ed Ruscha, among others.

A CENTURY OF CCA at the OAKLAND MUSEUM of CALIFORNIA Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:53 PM PDT   OAKLAND, CA - California College of the Arts (CCA) culminates its centennial celebration with ARTISTS OF INVENTION: A CENTURY OF CCA, a survey of work by 100 faculty and alumni, many among California's most influential artists. The show continues through March 16, 2008, at the Oakland Museum of California.

Frank Gehry Gets Golden Lion Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:51 PM PDT   Venice, Italy - The Board of the Foundation La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, and on the proposal of the Director, Aaron Betsky, attributed the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition to Frank Gehry. With this award, the desire is to stress –in line with the spirit of the 11th Architecture Biennale– how much Gehry's work is the significant result of years of experimentation. "Frank Gehry has transformed modern architecture"; writes Aaron Betsky in his motivation. "He has liberated it from the confines of the 'box' and the constraints of common building practices. As experimental as the art practices that have been his inspiration, Frank Gehry's architecture is the very modern model for an architecture beyond building".

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:50 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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