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

---

• 'John Martin: Heaven & Hell' ~ Apocalyptic Visions at the Laing Gallery
• 'Vee Speers: Immortal' On Exhibition at Jackson Fine Arts in Atlanta
• The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibits "Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso"
• The International Center of Photography (ICP) Celebrates the Career of Elliott Erwitt
• Honor Fraser Gallery To Feature "Annie Lapin ~ The Pure Space Animate"
• National Portrait Gallery Announces Annual BP Portrait Art Prize Shortlist
• Contrasts Gallery to Exhibit Six Prominent International Artists at Art Taipei
• Montréal Museum of Fine Arts to host Restrospective of Kees Van Dongen
• University of the Arts Hosts First Group Exhibition of Women's Pop Art
• Exhibition of Prints by Jacob Lawrence at the Hudson River Museum
• The de Young Museum and Musée d'Orsay Announce Two Impressionist Exhibitions to Debut in San Francisco
• Maurice Denis : at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
• Brazilian Museum of Sculpture to open "A Message for You by Guy Bourdin"
• The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Yakov Kazhdan ~ 233º C
• Christian Dior & Chinese Artists Exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
• The Walker Art Center features An Exhibition of Abstract Resistance
• "Holland Art Cities" Exhibitions & Events Attracts Scores of International Visitors
• Mint Museum of Art explores 60 years of High Fashion Design
• Michael Jackson Portrait
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

'John Martin: Heaven & Hell' ~ Apocalyptic Visions at the Laing Gallery Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:17 PM PDT Newcastle,UK - The Laing Gallery hosts a major retrospective of the works of John Martin until June 5th 2011. Part of the Great British Art Debate, 'John Martin: Heaven & Hell' is the first major exhibition of the paintings by 19th century artist John Martin for more than 40 years. His spectacular, apocalyptic works are displayed at the Laing, capturing the drama and impact which they had when they were originally displayed. The exhibition is a comprehensive display of Martin's apocalyptic works, bringing together his finest pieces from the Laing's own collection, Tate and galleries from the UK and abroad. John Martin's many influential works brought him huge popularity in his lifetime and his paintings have gone on to inspire film-makers, designers and artists in Europe and America. John Martin was born in July 1789, at Haydon Bridge, near Hexham in Northumberland, the 4th son of Fenwick Martin, a one time fencing master. He was apprenticed by his father to a coachbuilder in Newcastle upon Tyne to learn heraldic painting, but owing to a dispute over wages the indentures were canceled, and he was placed instead under Bonifacio Musso, an Italian artist, father of the enamel painter Charles Muss. With his master, Martin moved from Newcastle to London in 1806, where he married at the age of nineteen, and supported himself by giving drawing lessons, and by painting in watercolours, and on china and glass. Martin began to supplement his income by painting in oils, some landscapes, but more usually grand biblical themes inspired by the Old Testament. He was heavily influenced by his childhood experiences. His landscapes have the ruggedness of the Northumberland crags, while vast apocalyptic canvasses, like 'The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah' show his intimate familiarity with the forges and ironworks of the Tyne Valley as well as the words of the Old testament. His timing could not have been better. In the years of the Regency from 1812 onwards there was a fashion for such 'sublime' paintings, encouraged by the publications of travellers returning from the Grand Tour or the Middle East with exotic tales of places like Ur and Babylon, Pompeii and Alexandria. Martin's break came at the end of a season at the Royal Academy, where his first great biblical canvas 'Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion' had been hung – and ignored. He brought it home, only to find there a visiting card from William Manning MP, a governor of the Bank of England. Manning wanted to buy it from him. Such influential patronage propelled Martin's career onto a major stage though he was never, to his disgust, elected to the Royal Academy. This promising career was interrupted though, by the death of his father, mother, grandmother and young son – all in a single year. Another distraction was his brotehr, William, who frequently asked him to draw up plans for his inventions, and whom he always indulged with help and money. But, heavily influenced by the works of Milton, he continued with his grand themes, despite a number of financial and artistic setbacks - one of his works was ruined while waiting to be hung at the Academy by a careless artist spilling a pot of dark varnish over it. In 1816 he finally achieved public acclaim with 'Joshua', an immense theme which struck a popular chord even though it broke many of the conventional rules of composition. In 1818, on the back of the sale of the 'Fall of Babylon' for more than £1000, he finally rid himself of debt and bought a house in Marylebone, where he came into contact with a wide range of artists, writers, scientists and Whig nobility. His triumph was 'Belshazzar's Feast', of which he boasted beforehand, "it shall make more noise than any picture ever did before... only don't tell anyone I said so." Five thousand people paid to see it. It was later, in a superb historical irony, nearly ruined when the carriage in which it was being transported was struck by a train at a level crossing near Oswestry in 1841, with John Martin himself on the footplate, Isambard Kingdom Brunel ran a train at 90 mph to disprove Stephenson's theory that locomotives could not go faster than horses. In private Martin was passionate, a devotee of chess, swordsmanship and javelin-throwing as well as being a radical who won a reputation for hissing at the National Anthem in public. Nevertheless, he was courted by royalty and presented with several gold medals, one of them from the Russian Tsar Nicholas, on whom a visit to Wallsend colliery on Tyneside had made an unforgettable impression: 'My God,' he had cried, 'it is like the mouth of Hell.' Martin became the official historical painter to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg who later became the first King of Belgium, where he constructed Europe's first major railway. Leopold was the godfather of Martin's son Leopold, and endowed Martin with one of Belgium's first knighthoods, the Order of Leopold. Martin frequently had early morning visits from another Saxe-Coburg, Prince Albert, who would engage him in banter from his horse, Martin standing in the doorway still in his dressing gown, at seven o'clock in the morning. Martin, and his highly intelligent wife Susan were warm and affectionate friends to many, but he was also a passionate defender of deism, evolution (before Darwin) and rationality. Georges Cuvier, the great French naturalist, became an admirer of Martin's, and he increasingly enjoyed the company of scientists, artists and writers – Dickens, Faraday and Turner among them. He began to experiment with mezzotint technology, and as a result was commissioned to produce 24 engravings for a new edition of Paradise Lost – perhaps the definitive illustrations of Milton's masterpiece, of which copies now fetch many hundreds of pounds. Politically his sympathies were radical and among his friends were counted William Godwin, the ageing reformed revolutionist, husband of Mary Wollstonecraft and father of Mary Shelley; and John Hunt, co-founder of The Examiner. A great number of Martin's works survive in collections: the Laing art gallery in Newcastle - which also holds his famous 'black cabinet' of projects in progress; the Tate, the Victoria and Albert museum, and elsewhere in Europe and the USA. The RIBA holds many of his exquisite engineering drawings. There are letters in private collections and many of his papers are kept at Queen Mary College in London. The art critic William Feaver wrote an acclaimed, and now expensively rare artistic biography of him in the 1970s. Other biographies include that of Mary Pendered whose chief source, Martin's friend Sergeant Ralph Thomas, wrote a diary - now lost - of their relationship. A major source for his life is a series of reminiscences by his son Leopold, published in sixteen parts in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle in 1889. There are a number of surviving letters and reminiscences by, among others, B.R. Haydon, John Constable, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Rossettis, Benjamin Disraeli, Charlotte Brontë and John Ruskin – a persistent critic who, even so, admitted Martin's uniqueness of vision. John Martin's influence survived in perhaps curious places. One of his few followers was Thomas Cole, founder of American landscape painting. Others whose imaginations were fired by him included Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Brontës, the pre-Raphaelites (especially Rossetti), and several generations of movie-makers, from DW Griffiths, who borrowed his Babylon from Martin, to Cecil B de Mille and George Lucas. Writers like Rider Haggard, Jules Verne and HG Wells were influenced by his concept of the sublime. The French Romantic movement, in both art and literature, was inspired by him. Much Victorian railway architecture was copied from his motifs, including his friend Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge. Martin's engineering plans for London which included a circular connecting railway, though they failed to be built in his lifetime, all came to fruition later. This would have pleased him inordinately – he admitted he would rather have been an engineer than painter. John Martin died on the Isle of Man in 1854. He is buried in Kirk Braddon cemetery. After falling out of fashion after his death, John Martin's star is again on the rise, the Laing exhibition, "John Martin: Heaven & Hell" will travel on to Sheffield before being shown at the Tate Gallery in london. The Laing is home to an impressive collection of art and sculpture and its exhibition programme is renowned for bringing the biggest names in historic, modern and contemporary art to the North East. The Gallery has a packed programme of free events which include gallery talks, family activities and artists' events. The impressive permanent collection can be enjoyed throughout the season with dynamic landscapes by John Martin and sculpture by Henry Moore. There are events throughout the year including talks from leading contemporary artists and fun activities for families. Many of these events, like the gallery, are free of charge. The Gallery also has a shop and cafe. The Laing Art Gallery is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle City Council. Visit the Laing Gallery's website at ... www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing

'Vee Speers: Immortal' On Exhibition at Jackson Fine Arts in Atlanta Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:16 PM PDT Atlanta, GA - Jackson Fine Arts in Atlanta, Georgia will be showing 'Vee Speers: Immortal" from April 15th until June 18th 2011, an exhibition of new works by Vee Speers. Vee Speers presents the viewer with a distinctly fascinating and highly personal body of work intent on exploring the friction between temporality and timelessness. Vee Speers earned international acclaim with her series The Birthday Party, a collection of portraits informed by the artist's observation of her daughter's eighth birthday. The children portrayed in these photographs were garbed in party dresses and animal masks, blowing facesized bubbles; or dressed in nurse uniforms and gas masks, their expressions steadily transfixing viewers from within timeless compositions awash in anachronistic elements. The Birthday Party found Speers and her subjects gracefully straddling the delicate divides between childhood and old age, past and present, solemnity and play.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibits "Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso" Posted: 13 Apr 2011 09:57 PM PDT Richmond VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is presenting a landmark exhibition in honor of its 75th anniversary, "Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris". VMFA is the only East Coast venue for the exhibition's seven-city international tour. The exhibition, which will be on view until May 15, 2011, is co-organized by the Musée National Picasso, Paris and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Drawn from the collection of the Musée National Picasso in Paris, the largest and most significant repository of the artist's work in the world, this exhibition represents works produced during every major artistic period of Pablo Picasso's eight-decade career. It includes 176 works from Picasso's personal collection, art that he kept for himself with the purpose of shaping his own legacy. In addition to showcasing some of Picasso's most outstanding works, the exhibition tells a compelling story about the development of the artist's career, his artistic inspirations, and his profound impact on modern art. The unique opportunity to exhibit Picasso's work at this time is possible because the Musée Picasso National in Paris is closed for renovations until 2012, allowing for a global tour of this full-scale survey to travel for the first and possibly only time.

The International Center of Photography (ICP) Celebrates the Career of Elliott Erwitt Posted: 13 Apr 2011 09:27 PM PDT New York.- "Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best" at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York runs from May 20th to August 28th 2011. This major retrospective showcases the career of photographer and filmmaker Elliott Erwitt, the recipient of this year's ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement. Distinguished as both a documentary and commercial photographer, Erwitt has made some of the most memorable photographs of the twentieth century, including portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Che Guevara, as well as astonishing scenes of everyday life, filled with poetry, wit, and special sense of humor. Born in Paris in 1928 to Russian émigrés, On view are over 100 of his favorite images from the past sixty years, as well as some previously unseen and unpublished prints from his early work.

Honor Fraser Gallery To Feature "Annie Lapin ~ The Pure Space Animate" Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:22 PM PDT Los Angeles.- Honor Fraser Gallery is pleased to present 'Annie Lapin:The Pure Space Animate" in Los Angeles from May 21st until Jul 9th 2011. This will be Annie Lapin's first solo exhibition with the gallery. In a new group of paintings on canvas, Lapin's luscious, high-energy compositions comingle painterly conventions of representation with an obliterating gestural abstraction. Lapin refers to specters of realism that haunt the abstraction in these richly layered paintings. In The Pure Space Animate, there is less occasion for the multi-figure groups and enigmatic narratives of previous works, with further prominence shifted to the intensive formal activity. The coherent scenic space and figural focal points which remain are yet more densely encircled and perforated by painterly forces that counteract their legibility, leaving the viewing experience characteristically unstable.

National Portrait Gallery Announces Annual BP Portrait Art Prize Shortlist Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT London.- The shortlist for this year's BP Portrait Award have been unveiled. The winner, who will be announced on the 14 June, will receive £25,000 prize money and a commission worth £4,000. The annual BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world, promoting the very best in contemporary portrait painting. This year's exhibition, on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London from June 16th to September 18th, will feature fifty-five works selected from a record 2,372 international entries, including the four shortlisted artists; Ian Cumberland for "Just to Feel Normal", Wim Heldens for "Distracted", Sertan Saltan for "Mrs Cerna" and Louis Smith for "Holly", as well as the BP Travel Award 2010 winner, Florence-based American artist Paul Beel, who travelled to Corfu to paint a large-scale, plein-air group portrait of figures on a secluded nudist beach. From intimate and personal images of friends and family, to revealing paintings of celebrity sitters, the exhibition presents a variety of styles and approaches that together illustrate the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by artists of all ages and nationalities. Last year the award was won by former teacher Daphne Todd for a painting of her 100-year-old mother's corpse. Ian Cumberland was born in Banbridge, Co. Down, in 1983. He studied painting at the University of Ulster, Belfast, graduating in 2006. On leaving the University of Ulster he was offered a place at Goldsmith College, London, but decided rather to paint full-time. Artists who have influenced him include Lucian Freud and Stephen Conroy, although he borrows freely from those who he admires. His interests are firmly set in realism and he has never been drawn to abstraction. Although he has exhibited at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Ulster Academy, this is his first major exhibition. One of his paintings, acquired from his degree show at the University of Ulster, is in the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He lives and works in Ireland. As a painter Cumberland's main interest is with people and the (often absurd) things they do. Thus his pictures reflect situations in everyday life, attitudes and values expressed or implied and so on. In his own words, he is 'always watching people' and his observations shape his compositions. There is nothing judgmental in his work, but he indulges in what he calls 'black comedy' in terms of the general surrealism that is never far from his view. His early pictures, done around 2002-04, were much influenced by graphic design and the world of advertising as well as by images derived from the cinema. Wim Heldens is a self-taught, professional artist who lives in Amsterdam and whose work has been seen in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. He was a BP Portrait Award exhibitor in 2008 and 2010. Wim's shortlisted portrait is of Jeroen, a 25-year-old philosophy student to whom the artist has been a father-figure for twenty years: 'I have been fascinated with painting Jeroen in all stages of life through growing up. While I have painted him many times in groups, once in a while there is the desire to paint a simple portrait of just him. Now, he is an intelligent and sensitive young man.'  For Wim Heldens, a meticulously realistic with a time consuming technique, painting is an expression of dedication and a tribute to the human soul as against the background of a commercialized, materialistic society, people barely have time for each other any longer. In a time when for most people, life seems to be geared toward instant gratification and making an easy, quick profit, leading to an immense impoverishment of human existence, he chooses to work for months on only one painting in a refined renaissance-like technique. In his paintings, Wim Heldens wants to confront the viewer with other people, making them aware of the presence of the human character and soul in an art-form that needs no explaining and theorizing. In his portraits, he is never flattering or glamourizing his subjects. Heldens is always in search of the human soul behind the face, the inner reality behind the faade, which can sometimes make looking at his paintings a rather disturbing and unsettling - but always compelling - experience. Sertan Saltan, originally from Turkey, now lives and works in Avon, Connecticut (USA), where he is developing a studio. He studied painting at a famous atelier in Istanbul before moving to the United States in 2006 to continue his studies at New York State University where he gained a BFA in Product Design. Sertan's sitter, Mrs Cerna, is the younger sister of a friend in New York City: 'The contrast of knife, gloves and rollers brought both humour and horror to mind. I wanted to capture on canvas that moment which allows the viewer to meet this extraordinary woman and experience the richness and complexity of her preparation for this Thanksgiving dinner.' Louis Smith was born in 1969 in Manchester England. In 1995 he took a Pre-Grad Foundation course in Art and Design at Tameside College. The course lasted two years and he specialised in Fine Art Painting for the second year. Once he had completed this programme he went on to study a BA Honours degree in Fine Art Painting at Sheffield University. In 1991 he took a new direction. His desire to learn the skills to make himself a better artist lead him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art London, studying scene painting and learning the basics of painting backgrounds and props. After graduating from the academy he felt more confident making a living in an industry that appreciated his skills as a realist painter. At the beginning of his career he assisted other scenic artists. He was inspired by some very talented people, and strove to rise to their level throughout his career. In his spare time he created his own paintings and in 2004 showcased his work at the Fresh Art Fair, London. He gained interest from a number of galleries and went on to exhibit at both the Farmelo Gallery and Cork Gallery in London, and at both the Vernon Gallery and Object Art Gallery in Manchester. In 2004 he studied a part-time teaching course at Central College, Manchester. After deciding to commit fully to Classical Realism Art, he went on to study for 3 years in Florence Italy. Since leaving he has been shortlisted for a number of awards. Louis' huge portrait is an allegory of the Prometheus story re-imagined in female form – as punishment for stealing fire from Zeus Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle ate his liver daily only for it to grow back to be eaten the next day: 'It's a message of composure in the face of adversity, something we can all draw strength from in our struggle to make a living each day.' The National Portrait Gallery was formally established on 2 December 1856, and amongst its founder Trustees were Stanhope as Chairman, Macaulay, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere. The National Portrait Gallery was established with the criteria that the Gallery was to be about history, not about art, and about the status of the sitter, rather than the quality or character of a particular image considered as a work of art. This criterion is still used by the Gallery today when deciding which works enter the National Portrait Gallery's collection. Originally, it was decided by the Trustees that "No portrait of any person still living, or deceased less that 10 years, shall be admitted by purchase, donation, or bequest, except only in the case of the reigning Sovereign, and of his or her Consort". This rule changed in 1969 in order to encourage a policy of admitting living sitters. The Gallery's early years were spent without a permanent home and for forty years the collection was moved around London to a succession of homes. In 1889, promted by a significant donation offer, the government assigned a site which had previously been occupied by St Martin's Workhouse to the north-east of the National Gallery. The doors were opened at 10am on 4 April 1896 without an official ceremony, and 4,200 people visited the new building on the opening day. By the time the new Gallery opened it was already too small to display the Gallery's growing collection, and in 1928 the art dealer and benefactor, Sir Joseph Duveen agreed to fund a £40,000 extension, which took the form of a wing along Orange Street. Post-World War II, the National Portrait Gallery was a fairly quiet and scholarly establishment. However, a key member of staff who was to take the Gallery into a new era was appointed in 1959. A young Roy Strong joined as an Assistant Keeper and later succeeded David Piper as Director in 1967. During Strong's directorship, a succession of great and memorable events took place, including Cecil Beaton's photographs in 1968 which attracted 75,000 visitors; the opening of a new department of film and photography; the commissioning of Annigoni to paint the Queen in 1970, a portrait seen by nearly 250,000 people during the first two months and the decision in 1972, to make a substantial loan of 16th & 17th century portraits to Montacute, a National Trust house in Somerset. The profile of the Gallery and its attendance figures rose significantly. Today, the Gallery offers a superb visitor experience with a high standard of public facilities and three floors of gallery space. As well as the Collection which is permanently on view, the Gallery stages six major exhibitions and more than ten special displays a year and runs a full and varied programme of events, conferences, family activities, music evenings and talks. Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery continue to increase with over 1.8 million visits in 2009. Visit the National portrait Gallery's website at ... http://www.npg.org.uk

Contrasts Gallery to Exhibit Six Prominent International Artists at Art Taipei Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT TAIPEI.- Contrasts Gallery will exhibit works from six prominent international artists for the 17th edition of Art Taipei, August 20 – 24, 2010. The booth will showcase highlights from their 2010 program with works by Zhang Huan, Wang Dongling, Shao Fan, Wang Tiande and David LaChapelle. As a special feature, Contrasts Gallery will unveil new paintings by Li Tianbing in anticipation of his upcoming solo show Childhood Fantasy with the gallery this September.

Montréal Museum of Fine Arts to host Restrospective of Kees Van Dongen Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT MONTREAL, QUE - The exhibition Van Dongen - A Fauve in the City, presented from January 22 to April 19, 2009 at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts is the first major retrospective of the work of Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968) in North America. The exhibition, which brings together some 200 works, including over a hundred paintings, forty rare drawings, prints and other archival documents and photographs as well as for the first time, a dozen Fauvist ceramics, will illustrate the influential role Van Dongen played in the early twentieth century as the only portraitist among the Fauves.

University of the Arts Hosts First Group Exhibition of Women's Pop Art Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rauschenberg are names synonymous with the Pop Art movement of the 1950s and '60s. Drexler, Webber and Chryssa, however, are far less familiar: they are members of the lost legacy of female Pop artists. "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958 – 1968," the first major exhibition of female Pop artists, will be presented at the University of the Arts January 22 – March 15, 2010, taking aim at these questions in an attempt to more accurately reflect the depth of women's contributions to Pop Art.

Exhibition of Prints by Jacob Lawrence at the Hudson River Museum Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Jacob Lawrence, born in 1917, became one of the most important African American artists of the twentieth century, renowned for his paintings of African Americans and black people of other lands who struggled for freedom. Jacob Lawrence Prints, 1963 – 2000, at the Hudson River Museum through June 6, 2010, include 81 of Lawrence's brilliantly-colored individual prints as well as three series of prints that show his versatility as an artist and storyteller. The Legend of John Brown series depicts a deeply religious and passionately anti-slavery John Brown, who felt called to violent insurrection to dismantle the institution of slavery in the United States; the Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis series is based on Lawrence's memories of the Baptist ministers of his youth, whose sermons contained stories of Creation; and the series on Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture focuses on the Haitian slave who became the commander of the revolutionary army that fought France and England for Haiti's freedom.

The de Young Museum and Musée d'Orsay Announce Two Impressionist Exhibitions to Debut in San Francisco Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Musée d'Orsay jointly announce two consecutive special exhibitions, Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay and Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay which will be on view at the de Young Museum for a combined eight months beginning in May 2010 and ending in January 2011. Each exhibition will include approximately 100 paintings from the Musée d'Orsay's permanent collection and highlights the work of nearly 40 artists including Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Sisley, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and Vuillard.

Maurice Denis : at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT Montreal, Canada - From February 22 to May 20, 2007, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will present a major exhibition, the first retrospective ever shown in North America of the French painter Maurice Denis (1870-1943), whose work, imbued with poetic symbolism, was influential in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Denis, a famous theorist and critic in his day, was a versatile artist.  Maurice Denis: Earthly Paradise will comprise about a hundred paintings, decorative art and works on paper, as well as never before exhibited photographs taken by the artist.  This retrospective, which takes into account the most recent studies of Denis, will restore his reputation as one of the most celebrated artists of his generation, and one of the best-known members of the circle of painters called the Nabis.  The exhibition, to be shown in Paris, Montreal and Rovereto, is organized by the Musée d'Orsay and the Réunion des musées nationaux in Paris, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy.

Brazilian Museum of Sculpture to open "A Message for You by Guy Bourdin" Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - Carlos Jereissati Filho, CEO of Iguatemi, announced the third edition of the Iguatemi Photo Series with the exhibition A Message for you, by Guy Bourdin at MuBE (Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, São Paulo). The instillation of previously unpublished works, which continues the commemoration of a Year of France in Brazil, will launch on August 14th with a cocktail celebration and will be open to the public from August 15th until August 31st. The exhibition, curated by Chico Lowndes, spans Guy Bourdin's career from the 1950s through the early 1990s. On display will be 177 works by the artist including unpublished images, as well as fashion editorials, short-feature movies, and his historic movement based editorials.

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Yakov Kazhdan ~ 233º C Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT MOSCOW - The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Yakov Kazhdan - 233ºC - A personal show, on view through September 14, 2008. Artist Yakov Kazhdan is well known to the Moscow audience: nominated for the 'Innovation' award as a young artist and one of the prize-winners of the 'Izolenta' festival, he took part in numerous video festivals and group exhibitions in Russia, Germany, Belgium, and the USA.

Christian Dior & Chinese Artists Exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT BEIJING - Christian Dior, in partnership with Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, brought glamour's and celebrities from across the world to the red carpet gala dinner to mark the opening of the "Christian Dior and Chinese Artists" exhibition. Christian Dior SA has tapped China's top contemporary artists such as Zhang Xiaogang for its Beijing exhibition, the latest European luxury-goods maker to blend fashion and culture to promote their brand in the nation. The exhibition will be held at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts until January 15th, 2009.

The Walker Art Center features An Exhibition of Abstract Resistance Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- Now-legendary figures as well as younger artists who have revolted against the aesthetic orthodoxies of their times are featured in the Walker Art Center exhibition Abstract Resistance on view February 27–May 23. Nearly 40 works ranging from the 1950s to a brand-new commission do not conform to a single theme, but are united in challenging what is expected of art, from the way it looks to the role it plays in society at large. The exhibition considers "resistance" as a complex formal and political force, as is suggested by the title it borrows from a featured sculpture by Thomas Hirschhorn. Ultimately, Abstract Resistance proposes an alternative framework for aesthetically inventive, ethically engaged, and politically defiant art.

"Holland Art Cities" Exhibitions & Events Attracts Scores of International Visitors Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT LEIDSCHENDAM, NL - During the first nine months of the Holland Art Cities art and culture event, well over 860,000 visitors from abroad, and 100,000 visitors from the United States saw one or more exhibitions. "Holland Art Cities" will run until mid 2011 and the theme until July 1, 2010 is "Young: Modern and Contemporary Art and Design". The theme "Young: Modern and Contemporary Art and Design" presents a cross section of the very best in today's world of art and design. Both Dutch and foreign artists, such as Matisse, Malevich, Picasso, Van Dongen, De Vlaminck, Derain, Kadinsky, Gauguin and fashion designers, including Aziz, Alexander van Slobbe and Chanel are included in the modern art collections of various museums and are truly exciting.

Mint Museum of Art explores 60 years of High Fashion Design Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT CHARLOTTE, N.C. − Impressive works of wearable art will be on display in the special exhibition The Art of Affluence: Haute Couture and Luxury Fashions 1947-2007, at the Mint Museum of Art opens on July 5, 2008. This exhibition presents selections from the Museum's extensive holdings of haute couture and luxury garments that reflect 60 years of creativity by top European and American fashion designers.

Michael Jackson Portrait Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:21 PM PDT EAST HAMPTON, NY.- The Vered Gallery in East Hampton has temporarily removed an Andy Warhol portrait of Michael Jackson from the auction block. The Associated Press reported that gallery co-owner Janet Lehr said in a statement she wanted to offer the 1984 work to "the greatest number of prospective purchasers."  Pre-sale estimates ranged from one to 10 million US dollars. The painting shows Michael Jackson wearing a red jacket from his Thriller era.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:32 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.

You are subscribed to email updates from Art News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610