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• A Monumental Sculpture by French Artist Bernar Venet at the Versailles Palace
• The Ari Kupsus Gallery Exhibits Works by Nadya Hadun and Yan Yeresko
• Hammer Galleries Creates an Interactive Virtual Tour for Modern Masters Exhibition
• MAXXI's First Birthday: 479,628 Visitors in 310 Days Since The Opening
• The Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City Shows Paintings by Lacey Lewis
• Unique Charlie Chaplin Film to Sell at Bonhams' Entertainment Memorabilia Auction
• Boris Kustodiev Masterpiece to Headline MacDougall's Russian Art Sales
• Art 42 Basel International Art Fair From June 15th Through 19th
• J. Paul Getty Museum ~ A “Must-See” Museum With A Stunning Collections in Los Angeles
• Major Outdoor Florida Exhibition by Internationally Acclaimed Artist Yayoi Kusama
• The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey opens at The Jewish Museum
• Gerald Peters Gallery presents Max Weber ~ Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s
• Metropolitan Museum of Art opens Whimsical & Fantastical Victorian Photocollages
• Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona To Double Exhibition Space For Its Own Collection
• Arp Museum In Germany Presents the Work of Gerda Steiner & Jorg Lenzlinger
• Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City opens 300% Spanish Design Exhibition
• Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
• Metro Pictures opens André Butzer's Second New York Show
• The Photo Exhibition 'Soul and Body' Attracts a Record Number of Visitors in Budapest
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

A Monumental Sculpture by French Artist Bernar Venet at the Versailles Palace Posted: 31 May 2011 11:25 PM PDT PARIS.- Bernar Venet is the Palace of Versailles's guest in 2011. He is taking over from Takashi Murakami who, as we know, attracted considerable interest and sizeable crowds in 2010. The exhibition is on view from June 1st through November 1st, 2011. The Palace of Versailles chose Bernar Venet to showcase a French artist's meticulous, intense efforts to probe the question about the relationships between art, landscapes and architecture, and therefore between art, time and history. I was excited when Jean-Jacques Aillagon asked me to take over the Palace of Versailles for two reasons: because it was an amazing backdrop for my sculptures, and because it was an amazing opportunity to capture my conception of space. I found Versailles fascinating even before they started organising contemporary art exhibitions. I made my own photomontages, overlaying my sculptures and the Chateau de Versailles backdrops, long before the Jeff Koons exhibition. I kept that project secret, along with several other "perfect views" for my work. During the Versailles heyday, those projects would have been called "caprices". The only difference is that, in my case, they were sculptural rather than architectural "caprices". Versailles, as I see it, is all about wide open spaces and perspectives that stretch as far as the eye can see. It is the perfect venue for my sculptures – and a real challenge to take on such a sublime, grandiose milieu. My Arcs have to blend in without fading away in the backdrop. So I have to accommodate several variables. That was why I decided to tailor new sculptures to the area's topology and scale. It was clear at the start that my sculptures would not be on show inside the Château, as they would unleash their full potential in the paths across Le Notre's gardens. I am thinking about the sunrises and sunsets, and the golden light that steeps the Corten steel in red and brown hints. The curves on my sculptures will contrast with the angular geometry in the gardens, and espouse the circular edges around the Basin d'Apollon and Grand Canal. - Bernar Venet When he was doing his military service in Tarascon (in Southern France), in 1961, Bernar Venet delivered a performance lying nestled in refuse. That was the first work he laid claim to. More than 50 years down the road, this artist is taking over the Palace of Versailles court of honour and gardens with his Corten steel Arcs, Lignes Indéterminées and Effondrements ("collapses"). The book published for this exhibition tells this protean artist's visual story, the story about his path from conceptual art to public art, and the story about how his paintings, installations, performance, monumental sculptures and even writing have made a lasting mark on the contemporary aesthetic landscape. Bernar Venet's career began in 1961 when he coated canvas with tar and exhibited mere mounds of coal as sculptures. The French artistic scene's leading lights – Arman, César, Jacques Villeglé, etc. – promptly encouraged this avant-garde artist to take it further. He moved to New York in 1966, discovered minimal art there, and continued experimenting with tubing blueprints, reproducing scientific drawings solely to distil the evocative, meaningful views. The neutral images were stripped from any artistic addition and devoid of the artist's subjective eyes. He exhibited alongside the day's minimal and conceptual art top names – Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, etc. He made the mainstream with exhibitions featuring his sculptures around the world (inter alia in Paris). In Versailles, he will be baking over the eminently classical and distinctly geometrical Palace gardens, which radiate the rules of perspective. He is fully aware of this symbolic aura enveloping this place, and set out to underscore the lines, capture the coherence, and cast a new light on it – on occasion using contrast, i.e. a overlapping a collapsing view and the exactly drawn lines (for example, something that looks like a wreck, not lacking in form yet deliberately anti-formal, between the Bassin d'Apollon and the Grand Canal, enthroned in the par-excellence architectural gem that is Versailles). Bernar Venet was born in 1941 in Château-Arnoux Saint-Auban, in the Alpes de Haute Provence (France). He lives and works in New York and Hungary.

The Ari Kupsus Gallery Exhibits Works by Nadya Hadun and Yan Yeresko Posted: 31 May 2011 09:35 PM PDT Budapest.- The Ari Kupsus Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Belarusian painters Nadya Hadun and Yan Yeresko from June 2nd and remaining on view until until July 1st. The exceedingly talented couple already graduated from the Fine Arts Academy of Minsk five years ago, but they moved to Budapest after deciding to continue their studies at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts. Through lyrical and thoughtful works, they blend the artistic and cultural traditions of their home country with inspirations of their new home.

Hammer Galleries Creates an Interactive Virtual Tour for Modern Masters Exhibition Posted: 31 May 2011 08:03 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- In conjunction with the opening of their Modern Masters exhibition, Hammer Galleries has created an interactive virtual tour highlighting both the exhibition and their gallery space. Following their inaugural Renoir exhibition, Modern Masters is the second major European exhibition to take place at Hammer Galleries' new location: 475 Park Avenue, New York, NY through July 29. By clicking the link below you will be brought to the virtual tour of Modern Masters.

MAXXI's First Birthday: 479,628 Visitors in 310 Days Since The Opening Posted: 31 May 2011 08:03 PM PDT ROME.- MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts designed by Zaha Hadid celebrated its first birthday having opened to the public on 30 May 2010 after a three-day inauguration (27, 28, 29). To mark the occasion there was a great family party on Saturday 28 May: the museum piazza was awash with the colours of the MAXXI windmills made by the visitors with the museum's Education Department staff. Visitors to the museum received also an exclusive limited edition gift: a pin realized in collaboration with Il Gioco del Lotto and inspired by the fluid lines of Zaha Hadid's architecture.

The Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City Shows Paintings by Lacey Lewis Posted: 31 May 2011 07:48 PM PDT Kansas City, MO.- The Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City is pleased to present "Identity/Duplicity by Lacey Lewis". the exhibition opens on June 3rd and will remain on view through June 24th. In "Identity/Duplicity" Lewis explores the identity of people and the duplicity of it, through her paintings she examines how one presents themselves to others as compared to who they really are. Lacey Lewis paints images of the human form to create narratives that fuse contemporary and traditional ideas.

Unique Charlie Chaplin Film to Sell at Bonhams' Entertainment Memorabilia Auction Posted: 31 May 2011 07:31 PM PDT LONDON.- Bonhams are to sell the remarkable, only known surviving copy of the film 'Zepped' in their Entertainment Memorabilia auction on Wednesday 29th June at Bonhams Knightsbridge. In 2009 the vendor Morace Park bought a battered cinema reel tin from an online auction site. Once he eventually opened the tin it revealed a roll of film entitled 'Charlie Chaplin in Zepped'. Having been unable to find any record or mention of the film during his subsequent research, Mr Park began a worldwide investigation to find out if he had discovered the last copy of a forgotten Charlie Chaplin film.

Boris Kustodiev Masterpiece to Headline MacDougall's Russian Art Sales Posted: 31 May 2011 07:31 PM PDT LONDON.- An exceptional portrait by Boris Kustodiev will be among the highlights of London's June 2011 Russian week. Painted in 1911 while Kustodiev was undergoing treatment in the Swiss resort town of Leysin, this intimate portrait of his daughter Irina was included in the 1912‐1913 World of Art exhibition in St Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev, as well as the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö in 1914. In 1924 it was shown at the Russian Art Exhibition in New York and was subsequently acquired by an American collector. Offered for the first time at auction, Portrait of Irina Kustodieva is estimated at £1,200,000-1,800,000.

Art 42 Basel International Art Fair From June 15th Through 19th Posted: 31 May 2011 07:30 PM PDT Basel.- The 42nd International Art Fair in Basel will be held from June 15th to June 19th. The world's premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show's multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works. Nearly 300 of the world's leading art galleries for Modern and contemporary art display 20th- and 21st-century art works. Visitors to Art Basel's main hall can discover paintings, drawings, sculpture, installations, prints, photography, video and digital art by more than 2,500 artists. The pieces available range from editioned works by emerging artists to museum-caliber masterpieces by legendary figures in art history. 62,500 people attended Art 41 Basel, the last edition of this favorite rendezvous for the global artworld, including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts. This year's Art Unlimited features 62 projects. The artists showing at this exhibition of ambitious contemporary art represent a cross-section of leading figures from the international art scene, with works by artists of five different decades. Many pieces have been created especially for Art Unlimited. In the 17,000-square-meter exhibition hall, Art Unlimited offers artists and galleries a platform for works that exceed the possibilities of the conventional gallery booth, showcasing outsize sculptures, video projections, installations, wall paintings, photographic series, and performance art. Since its launch in 2000, many of the world's leading contemporary artists have exhibited in the Art Unlimited sector, which is generously supported by UBS. The design of this year's exhibition, drawn exclusively from proposals by the show's gallerists, has once again been devised by the Geneva curator Simon Lamunière. This year, works by long-established artists - such as Carl Andre, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Dan Flavin, Mona Hatoum, Anish Kapoor, Robert Rauschenberg, Thomas Schütte, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Cerith Wyn Evans - are joined by pieces from younger and emerging stars such as Jennife) - Textr Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Jacob Kassay, Robert Kusmirowski, Mark Leckey and Sarah Morris. For Art 42Basel the Art Statements sector spotlights 28 solo projects by young artists. Selected by the Art Basel Committee from more than 300 applications, the participating artists come from 17 different countries. The Art Statements sector has promoted young artists for over 10 years now, offering them a special platform that brings them to the eyes of an international audience of curators, collectors and art critics. Many previous participating artists have been awarded major exhibitions as a result of being discovered at Art Statements. With its world-class museums, outdoor sculptures, theaters, concert halls, idyllic medieval old town and new buildings by leading architects, Basel ranks as a culture capital, and that cultural richness helps put the Art Basel week on the agenda for art lovers from all over the globe. During Art Basel, a fascinating atmosphere fills this traditional city, as the international art show is reinforced with exhibitions and events all over the region. Located on the banks of the Rhine, at the border between Switzerland, France and Germany, Basel is easily navigated by foot and trams. Visit the Art Basel website at ... http://www.artbasel.com

J. Paul Getty Museum ~ A “Must-See” Museum With A Stunning Collections in Los Angeles Posted: 31 May 2011 07:21 PM PDT The J. Paul Getty Museum is located within the Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The Center sits atop a hill, connected to a visitor's parking garage at the bottom by a three-car, cable-pulled tram. With more than 1.3 million visitors annually, the Getty Museum is one of the most visited art museums in the USA. It is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the second being the 'J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa in Malibu', dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The 'J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Centre' is the branch of the museum specializing in "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs". Besides the Museum, the Center's buildings house the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which owns and operates the Center. The Center was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier and includes a central garden designed by artist Robert Irwin. GRI's separate building contains a research library with over 900,000 volumes and two million photographs of art and architecture. Originally, the Getty Museum started in J. Paul Getty's house located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, when in 1954, he expanded the house with a museum wing. In the 1970's, Getty built a replica of an Italian villa on his property to better house his collection, which opened in 1974. After Getty's death in 1976, the entire property was turned over to the Getty Trust for museum purposes. However, the collection outgrew the site, which has since been renamed the Getty Villa, and management sought a location more accessible to Los Angeles. The purchase of the land upon which the Center is located (a campus of 24 acres on a site in the Santa Monica Mountains, surrounded by 600 acres kept in a natural state) was announced in 1983. The top of the hill is 900 feet (270 m) above Interstate 405, high enough that on a clear day it is possible to see not only the Los Angeles skyline but also the San Bernardino Mountains to the east as well as the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Center opened to the public on December 16, 1997. After the Center opened, the villa closed for extensive renovations, and reopened on January 28, 2006. The Center museum building consists of a three-level base building that is mostly closed to the public and provides staff workspace and storage areas. Five public, two-story towers on the base are called the North, East, South, West and the Exhibitions Pavilions. The Exhibitions Pavilion acts as the temporary residence for traveling art collections and the Foundation's artwork for which the permanent pavilions have no room. The permanent collection is displayed throughout the other four pavilions chronologically. The first-floor galleries in each pavilion house light-sensitive art, such as illuminated manuscripts, furniture, or photography. Computer-controlled skylights on the second floor galleries allow paintings to be displayed in natural light. The second floors are connected by a series of glass-enclosed bridges and open terraces, both of which offer views of the surrounding hillsides and central plaza. Sculpture is also on display at various points outside the buildings, including on various terraces and balconies. The lower level (the highest of the floors in the base) includes a public cafeteria, the terrace cafe, and the photography galleries. Visit The J. Paul Getty Museum at : www.getty.edu/museum/

Major Outdoor Florida Exhibition by Internationally Acclaimed Artist Yayoi Kusama Posted: 31 May 2011 07:20 PM PDT CORAL GABLES, FL.- This December, the world famous Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will present Yayoi Kusama at Fairchild as part of its annual visual art program. The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, known for her distinctive sculptures and paintings that involve hand-worked repetition and bold patterning, will be exhibiting works from the exuberant new sculptural ensemble Flowers that Bloom at Midnight (2009), a group of her classic Pumpkins, as well as Guidepost to the New Space, a multi-part floating work specifically conceived for Fairchild's Panandus Lake.

The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey opens at The Jewish Museum Posted: 31 May 2011 07:19 PM PDT New York, NY – The Jewish Museum will present a new exhibition, Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey, from March 14 through August 1, 2010. Curious George, the impish monkey protagonist of many adventures, may never have seen the light of day were it not for the determination and courage of his creators: illustrator H. A. Rey (1898 – 1977) and his wife, author and artist Margret Rey (1906 – 1996).   They were both born in Hamburg, Germany, to Jewish families and lived together in Paris from 1936 to 1940.   Hours before the Nazis marched into the city in June 1940, the Reys fled on bicycles carrying drawings for their children's stories including one about a mischievous monkey, then named Fifi.   Not only did they save their animal characters, but the Reys themselves were saved by their illustrations when authorities found them in their belongings.   This may explain why saving the day after a narrow escape became the premise of most of their Curious George stories.

Gerald Peters Gallery presents Max Weber ~ Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s Posted: 31 May 2011 07:18 PM PDT New York City - Max Weber was at the forefront of abstraction as one of its most versatile, inventive, and exceptional trail blazers in America. A consummate Expressionist who touched on virtually every phase of modernism, Weber served as a crucial link between the first wave of American modernism and the action painters associated with the New York School at mid-century. On view at the Gerald Peters Gallery New York from November 13 through December 19, 2008, Max Weber: Paintings from the 1930s, 40s and 50s features over 40 paintings and works on paper selected from the Weber Estate.

Metropolitan Museum of Art opens Whimsical & Fantastical Victorian Photocollages Posted: 31 May 2011 07:17 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- In the 1860s and 1870s, long before the embrace of collage techniques by avant-garde artists of the early 20th century, aristocratic Victorian women were experimenting with photocollage. Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 9, 2010, is the first exhibition to comprehensively examine this little-known phenomenon. Whimsical and fantastical Victorian photocollages, created using a combination of watercolor drawings and cut-and-pasted photographs, reveal the educated minds as well as accomplished hands of their makers.

Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona To Double Exhibition Space For Its Own Collection Posted: 31 May 2011 07:16 PM PDT Barcelona, Spain (ACN).- After recently celebrating its 15th anniversary, the Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona (MACBA) wanted to underline its own impressive collection, giving it more visibility, strength and identity within the museum facilities. So, from February 2012, the permanent collection will occupy the first floor of the Richard Meir building. The project will double the amount of exhibition space for these pieces of art. However, it will not be a typical 'permanent' collection, but will be displayed as a series of temporary exhibitions. These exhibitions will show different narratives and focus on different themes, using the museum's collection. Despite the 5% budget reduction for 2011, leaving the Museum's yearly budget at 12 million euros, the MACBA faces an intense year. Apart from the permanent collection's redistribution, 2 major projects are being undertaken: 'The International' exhibition, organized with 4 other European museums, and the acquisition of 'Between the Frames: The Forum' a major installation by Antoni Muntadas, and creating its own podcast site . . Radio Web MACBA.

Arp Museum In Germany Presents the Work of Gerda Steiner & Jorg Lenzlinger Posted: 31 May 2011 07:15 PM PDT ROLANDSECK, GERMANY - Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger are internationally recognized as two of the most successful representatives of the Swiss art scene. The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck is presenting them for the first time in Germany in a large solo exhibition. Characteristic of their art are the works they develop for the respective venue, which fill out the spaces with their multitudinous parts, and transport the viewer to bizarre and poetic worlds. The installation called "High Water – Drink, Oh Heart, from the Overflow of Time", deals with the specific location of the Arp Museum on the Rhine. The theme of water and the river illuminates the aspect of the river as an "artery of life", bearing a great wealth of life forms, and influencing the surrounding landscape, even though it may turn into a destructive and uncontrollable natural catastrophe when high water flooding occurs. The ecological, biological, and civilization phenomena that result from this devastation play just as much a role in the works as does the confrontation between nature and civilization. On view 6 February until 14 August, 2011.

Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City opens 300% Spanish Design Exhibition Posted: 31 May 2011 07:14 PM PDT MEXICO CITY.- Through its 300 original pieces (100 chairs, 100 lamps and 100 posters) showing the rich Spanish contribution to the world's creative culture, and with prestigious designer Juli Capella as its curator, the exhibition attempts to reveal the creative potential of Spanish design, widely publicising its best designers, brands and companies. Spanish design includes many disciplines, and has borne excellent fruit in all of them, such as architecture, interior design, handicraft, jewellery, fashion, graphic design, etc. In spite of this, on this occasion, three everyday elements which help us in our daily tasks have been chosen: chairs, lamps and posters. On view through 8 November, 2009  at the  Museo Franz Mayer.

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Posted: 31 May 2011 07:13 PM PDT CANBERRA.- The National Gallery of Australia opened its major summer exhibition Ballets Russes: the art of costume. The exhibition celebrates the centenary of the first Paris seasons of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet), the dance company that revolutionised ballet with its sensational fusion of art, movement and music. Featuring 150 costumes and accessories from the ballet as well as film, drawings, photography and original programs, the exhibition brings to life the famed ballet troupe's stunning avant-garde performances in the largest Ballets Russes display ever held in Australia. The exhibition showcases 34 productions from 1909 to 1940, evoking the exoticism and drama of its performances. This exhibition aims to celebrate the centenary of the Ballets Russes by showing how its spirit continues for our time and place.

Metro Pictures opens André Butzer's Second New York Show Posted: 31 May 2011 07:12 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- André Butzer's second New York show at Metro Pictures "Nicht fürchten! Don´t be scared!" features a group of new, closely related works that focus on the "formal event" of painting. By emphasizing shapes and fields of color, these works possess a less linear take on the usual motifs in his work—colorful hybrids of abstraction and cartoon figuration featuring a family of characters inspired by art history, comics, politics and animation. Both sinister and amusing, these elegant compositions balance large, vaguely recognizable biomorphic forms within chaotic, multicolored backgrounds or heavily textured monochromatic fields. On view through 1 May.

The Photo Exhibition 'Soul and Body' Attracts a Record Number of Visitors in Budapest Posted: 31 May 2011 07:11 PM PDT BUDAPEST - The photography exhibition Soul and Body at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest has attracted more than 36 thousand visitors since its opening in early June, which makes it the most frequented Hungarian exhibition of photographic art. More than 220 works by some 90 artists, including André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy, Brassaï, Robert Capa, are displayed at the exhibition, open until late August.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 31 May 2011 07:11 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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