Minggu, 31 Juli 2011

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Jul 31, 2011 12:22 pm | Anne Proffit

Allen Johnson NHRA Dodge Allen Johnson has horsepower at altitude and sea level Photos: Anne Proffit Moving from the mountain altitude of Bandimere Speedway to the fog-laden oasis at Infineon Raceway Sears Point, the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series begins the second leg of its three-race Western Swing with the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals on the Sonoma, CA...


Jul 31, 2011 06:53 am | Viknesh Vijayenthiran

Sebastian Vettel at 2011 Hungarian Grand PrixTeams will be enjoying warm weather today at the 2011 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, with temperatures in Budapest expected to peak around 70 degrees F (21 degrees C) and conditions remaining only partially cloudy. The weather at the Hungaroring race track during the summer months is traditionally hot and dry though we are expecting slightly...


Jul 30, 2011 04:35 pm | Viknesh Vijayenthiran

2011 Range RoverThe 2011 Land Rover Range Rover may not be as roomy or powerful as some of its rivals, but the big Brit remains the progenitor of the luxury SUV and the model every other automaker in this segment tries to emulate. The Land Rover brand has had a turbulent recent past, switching ownership from BMW to Ford and now Tata, but the influences of its...



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

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The William Benton Museum of Art Shows "The Art of Dr. Seuss"

Posted: 31 Jul 2011 02:18 AM PDT

artwork: Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) - "Horton". From the collection of Animazing Gallery. ™ & © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. On view at the William Benton Museum in "The Art of Dr. Seuss".

Storrs, CT.- The William Benton Museum of Art is proud to present a retrospective of works by "America's favorite illustrator," a small but comprehensive exhibition of rare original works by Ted Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. This engaging collection showcases some of his earliest sketches of the Cat in the Hat and Horton the Elephant, and shows how his iconic and beloved characters evolved during his lifetime. The exhibition includes published illustrations, political cartoons, sketches, drawings, sculpture, prints, and whimsical paintings created in the artist's later years, along with panels, labels and music from some of the most popular animated treatments of "The Grinch," "Horton Hears a Who," "Seussical," and "Gerald McBoing Boing." The Art of Dr. Seuss brings together loans from private collections and Animazing Gallery in New York. "The Art of Dr. Seuss" is on view at the museum.


Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Theodor Robert and Henrietta (Seuss) Geisel. Geisel attended Springfield's Classical High School, and entered Dartmouth College in fall 1921 as a member of the Class of 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief. While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. As a result, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities, including the college humor magazine. To continue work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss". His first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for The Judge where his weekly feature Birdsies and Beasties appeared. Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth. After Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife, Helen Palmer; he married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning a degree. He began submitting humorous articles and illustrations to Judge, Life, Vanity Fair, and Liberty. The July 16, 1927 issue of the The Saturday Evening Post published his first cartoon under the name Seuss. He became nationally famous from his advertisements for Flit, a common insecticide at the time. His slogan, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" became a popular catchphrase. Geisel supported himself and his wife through the Great Depression by drawing advertising for General Electric, NBC, Standard Oil, and many other companies. In 1935, he wrote and drew a short-lived comic strip called Hejji. In 1937, while Geisel was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street! As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper, PM.

artwork: Theodor Seuss Geisel - (Dr. Seuss) - "Cat in the Hat". From the collection of Animazing Gallery. ™ & © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. - Courtesy of The William Benton Museum Geisel's political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, denounced Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of non-interventionists ("isolationists"). His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt's handling of the war, combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress (especially the Republican Party), parts of the press (such as the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Washington Times-Herald), and others for criticism of Roosevelt, criticism of aid to the Soviet Union, investigation of suspected Communists, and other offenses that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently. In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army and was commander of the Animation Dept of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included Your Job in Germany, a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II, Our Job in Japan, and the Private Snafu series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. Our Job in Japan became the basis for the commercially released film, Design for Death (1947), a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950), which was based on an original story by Seuss, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. After the war, Geisel and his wife moved to La Jolla, California. Returning to children's books, he wrote many works, including such favorites as If I Ran the Zoo, (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1954), Horton Hatches the Egg (1954), If I Ran the Circus (1956),The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957) and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). Although he received numerous awards throughout his career, Geisel won neither the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery Medal. Three of his titles from this period were, however, chosen as Caldecott runners-up (now referred to as Caldecott Honor books): McElligot's Pool (1937), Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1939), and If I Ran the Zoo (1950).

artwork: Theodor Seuss Geisel - (Dr. Seuss) - "Martini Bird". From the collection of Animazing Gallery. ™ & © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. - Courtesy of The William Benton Museum Dr Seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which was released in 1953. The movie was a critical and financial failure, and Geisel never attempted another feature film. During the 1950s he also published a number of illustrated short stories, mostly in RedBook Magazine. Some of these were later collected (in volumes such as The Sneetches and Other Stories or reworked into independent books (If I Ran the Zoo). A number have never been reprinted since their original appearances. In May 1954, Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, William Ellsworth Spaulding, the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin who later became its Chairman, compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words.  Spaulding challenged Geisel to "bring back a book children can't put down." Nine months later, Geisel, using 236 of the words given to him, completed "The Cat in the Hat". It retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works, but because of its simplified vocabulary could be read by beginning readers. The Cat in the Hat and subsequent books written for young children achieved significant international success and they remain very popular today.

Geisel went on to write many other children's books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary manner (sold as Beginner Books) and in his older, more elaborate style. The Beginner Books were not easy for Geisel and reportedly took him months to complete. Geisel died of throat cancer on September 24, 1991, following several years of poor health, in San Diego, California. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered. On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, UCSD's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.

The William Benton Museum of Art has a proud past, a vibrant present and an exciting future. The Benton opened officially in 1967, but its roots go back to the early twentieth century and the days of the Connecticut Agricultural College, which evolved into the University of Connecticut. The building that housed the original Museum was constructed in 1920 and served as The Beanery,? the campus' main dining hall until the mid-1940s. The small, elegantly designed College Gothic structure, with its gracious sculpture garden, is among the core campus buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Museum collection traces its beginnings to College President Charles Lewis Beach who bequeathed his impressive holdings of American art to the University on his death in 1933, along with a trust fund for future acquisitions. It was President Beach's intent that the collection "instill and cultivate an appreciation of works of art in the student body of the College and in such other persons as may avail themselves of said collection." This original collection included works by Childe Hassam, Henry Ward Ranger, Emil Carlson, Charles H. Davis, Ernest Lawson and Guy Wiggins. Since then, the Benton has added works by such renowned artists as Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton, Fairfield Porter, George Bellows, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Braque, Gustav Klimt, Edward Burne-Jones, Maurice Prendergast and Kiki Smith.

artwork: Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) - "Green Eggs and Ham". From the collection of Animazing Gallery. ™ & © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. - On view at the William Benton Museum.

In 1965, Dr. Walter Landauer, an internationally recognized geneticist and professor, gave the University 107 Käthe Kollwitz prints and drawings. In 1966, during the Presidency of Dr. Homer Babbidge, these treasures and the Beach Collection, which by then included works by such well-known artists as Mary Cassatt, George Bellows and others, found a home at the Museum later named in honor of prominent Connecticut Senator and University trustee William Benton. His family generously donated to the Museum some of his sizable collection of Reginald Marsh paintings and works by other important 20th century American artists. Today the Museum has an exceptionally fine collection of more than 5,500 works including paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, photographs, and sculptures. The future is bright for the Benton with the new addition including the Evelyn Simon Gilman Gallery, new and refurbished galleries and lecture areas, an elegant Members Lounge, Café Muse, and The Store. This expansion serves to enhance the Benton's reputation as a museum of significance, a vital part of the University environment, and an important art venue in the Northeast. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.thebenton.org

A Historic Collaboration Between the National Gallery in London and The Louvre

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 11:04 PM PDT

artwork: Leonardo da Vinci - "The Virgin of the Rocks", between 1483 and 1486. - Oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 199 x 122 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (INV777) - © RMN / Franck Raux.

LONDON.- The National Gallery and the Louvre announce a unique collaboration which brings both versions of the 'Virgin of the Rocks' together for the very first time. The two pictures will be shown at The National Gallery's exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci: Painter of the Court of Milan from 9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012 in London. Just a few months later, but this time at the Louvre in the exhibition, 'Leonardo da Vinci's St Anne', Leonardo's newly cleaned and restored 'The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne' will be joined with the National Gallery's version, The Burlington House Cartoon - Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and John the Baptist, from 29 March – 25 June 2012.

Anime! High Art-Pop Culture at the Art & Exhibition Hall of the Republic of Germany

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 10:52 PM PDT

artwork: A woman stands in front of an information board on comics at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundeskunsthalle) in Bonn. From 29 July 2011 till 08 January 2012, the 'Anime! High Art - Pop Culture' exhibition is at the Bundeskunsthalle. - EPA/Oliverberg

BONN, GERMANY - Anime, the specifically Japanese form of animated cartoons, has been a hugely successful fixture in Germany since the 1970s, captivating the imagination of young and old alike. An umbrella term, Anime describes a wide variety of techniques employed to make drawings come to life in film. Alongside Manga, the Japanese comic strip, Anime has developed an international pictorial language that appeals to audiences of all ages. Both hand-drawn and computer-animated anime exist. It is used in television series, films, video, video games, commercials, and internet-based releases, and represents most, if not all, genres of fiction. As the market for anime increased in Japan, it also gained popularity in East and Southeast Asia. Anime is currently popular in many different regions around the world.

The deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum Shows Ursula von Rydingsvard's Monumental Wood Sculptures

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 08:54 PM PDT

artwork: Ursula von Rydingsvard - "Ocean Floor", 1996 - Cedar, graphite, and intestines. © Ursula von Rydingsvard. Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Lelong. Photograph by Andy Ryan. On view at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in "Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture" until August 28th.

Lincoln, MA.- The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is pleased to present "Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture" on view in the museum until August 28th. Ursula von Rydingsvard works on a monumental scale. For over thirty years, she has worked with red cedar, a soft and fragrant wood. Using both carving and construction techniques she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and glues the cedar beams which have been shaped by a circular saw.  In a final, unifying action, von Rydingsvard rubs the sharply textured, exposed surfaces with graphite powder to create works of enormous grandeur and stirring intimacy. Built slowly and incrementally from thousands of small cedar blocks, each work reveals the mark of the artist's hand, her respect for physical labor, and deep trust of intuitive process. Her signature shapes are abstract yet refer to things in the real world from the modest to the majestic.


The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley Shows Masterpieces From the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:38 PM PDT


Winchester, VA.- The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is proud to present "Goya, Dali, Warhol: Masterpieces of World Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", on view at the museum until September 25th. More than 30 works of art from across the world will be on view in the exhibition. Along with etchings by Francisco Goya, a painting by Salvador Dali, and the famous silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, the exhibition will include a Chinese stone carving from the sixth century, a French Art Deco bronze, and a Peruvian bottle that is more that 1,600 years old. Goya, Dali, Warhol has been organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in celebration of 75 years of sharing art statewide with generous support from Altria Group. See below for the exciting summer programming being offered in conjunction with this special exhibition.


The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Shows Interactions Between Painting and Photography

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:37 PM PDT

artwork: Cindy Sherman - "Untitled (#213)", 1989 - Color photograph - 105.4 x 83.8 cm. - Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures. On view at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in "Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph" until September 11th.

Santa Fe, NM.- "Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph", a major exhibition that addresses the anxious, yet highly productive relationship between painting and photography in 20th-Century American art is on view at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum until September 11th. This exhibition of more than 75 paintings and photographs focuses on the work of American painters for whom the photograph has been essential, beginning with the acclaimed 19th century realist Thomas Eakins and continuing through to contemporary art, including such masters as Georgia O'Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Charles Sheeler, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Chuck Close, David Hockney and Sherrie Levine. Major works by such ground-breaking photographers as Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman and Margaret Bourke-White will also be included.


Shared Intelligence brings together approximately 75 photographs and paintings by artists for whom the two mediums were essential to their practices, such as Robert Bechtle, Chuck Close, Thomas Eakins, Sherrie Levine, Georgia O'Keeffe, Cindy Sherman, Charles Sheeler, Ben Shahn and Edward Steichen.  The exhibition pairs paintings and photographs to demonstrate specific relationships between the two media and how painters consistently turned to photography to invigorate aspects of their work. In the beginning of the 20th Century, photographers felt obligated to justify their use of the camera as a means of expression.  Today however, the question is no longer Can photography be the equal of painting? but rather Has the photograph supplanted painting's position in the hierarchy of the art world? Certainly it is nearly impossible to imagine a contemporary artist whose work is untouched by the camera, if only as a means of reproduction.  And yet, the photograph's role in modern art goes far beyond reproduction or even as a source of subject matter.

artwork: Chuck Close - "Phil/Fingerprint" 2009, Screenprint in 25 colors 142.2 x 111.7 cm. - Edition of 80 Photograph courtesy Pace Prints /Pace Gallery, NY. © Chuck ClosePhotographic seeing, the way the lens freezes, flattens, enlarges and crops the world, conditions all visual representations.  Above all, there is no way of escaping the the camera's service to the vast legal, scientific and economic systems of knowledge that categorize and regulate modern existence itself. The exhibition intends to refute the idea that painting from a photograph is some sort of failure of imagination or technique - rather the two mediums enrich each other.  Ultimately, the exhibition emphasizes the role of the artist as picture maker, rather than as either painter or photographer.  In opposition to modernist critics such as Clement Greenberg and John Szarkowski who have tried to establish the autonomy of painting and photography, a crucial theme of this exhibition is the way in which the two mediums have always intersected and spilled into each other.  Painting has used the camera repeatedly to reinvigorate itself, just as photography has been equally enriched by a dialogue with painting.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened to the public in July 1997, eleven years after the death of the artist from whom it takes its name. Welcoming more than 2,225,000 visitors from all over the world and being the most visited art museum in the state of New Mexico, it is the only museum in the world dedicated to an internationally known American woman artist. One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) was devoted to creating imagery that expressed what she called "the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it." She was a leading member of the Stieglitz Circle artists, headed by Alfred Stieglitz, America's first advocate of modern art in America.  These avant-garde artists began to flourish in New York in the 1910s. O'Keeffe's images—instantly recognizable as her own —include abstractions, large-scale depictions of flowers, leaves, rocks, shells, bones and other natural forms, New York cityscapes and paintings of the unusual shapes and colors of architectural and landscape forms of northern New Mexico. The Museum's collection of over 3,000 works comprises 1,149 O'Keeffe paintings, drawings, and sculptures that date from 1901 to 1984, the year failing eyesight forced O'Keeffe into retirement. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is the largest single repository of O'Keeffe's work in the world. Throughout the year, visitors can see a changing selection of these works. In addition, the Museum presents special exhibitions that are either devoted entirely to O'Keeffe's work or combine examples of her art with works by her American modernist contemporaries.  The Museum also organizes exhibitions of works by her contemporaries, as well as by living artists of distinction.

artwork: David Hockney - "California" (Copied from 1965 Painting in 1987), 1987 - Acrylic on canvas - 152.1 x 182.6 cm. © 2009 Museum Associates/LACMA/Art Resource, NY. - © David Hockney. - On view until September 11th.

Over 140 artists other than O'Keeffe have been exhibited at the Museum, such as Arthur Dove, Sherrie Levine, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center opened in July 2001 as a component of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. As the only museum-related research facility in the world dedicated to the study of American Modernism (late nineteenth century – present), it sponsors research in the fields of art history, architectural history and design, literature, music and photography.  Its annual, competitive stipend program awards six stipends to qualified applicants who can spend three to twelve months at the Research Center, which makes its library, collections and unique archives accessible to researchers worldwide as well as to its in-house scholars. The Museum and its Research Center are both Pueblo Revival-style buildings located two blocks from the historic Santa Fe Plaza and were renovated in 1997 and 2001, respectively, by Gluckman Mayner Architects, New York. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/







George Tooker Dies at 90 ~ Social Realism Painter & National Medal of Arts Winner

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:22 PM PDT

artwork: George Tooker (1920-2011) - "Government Bureau", 1956 - Egg tempera on wood - 49.8 x 75.2 cm. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - George A. Hearn Fund, 1956

New York, NY - One of the most acclaimed painters of his generation, George Tooker (1920-2011) possessed an originality and depth of vision that is unsurpassed in modern American art. For over sixty years, he has been highly regarded for his luminous and often enigmatic work. His themes range from alienation and the dehumanizing aspects of contemporary society to personal meditations on the human condition. Tooker began his career at a time when the prevailing aesthetic was "modernism" and the darlings of the art world were American minimalists. Tooker, however, was clear from the beginning that he had no interest in minimalist art, very much to the contrary, he was instead bent on creating "maximalist" art. He has said that "in one kind of painting I'm trying to say 'this is what we are forced to suffer in life,' while in other paintings I say 'this is what we should be.'" Tooker first came to prominence for imaginative visions that expressed the uncertainty of the Cold War era. Among his best-known paintings is "Subway" (1950, Whitney Museum of American Art), a powerful work that explores the anxiety and isolation of nameless individuals in urban society.

He was very involved with the Civil Rights Movement as well, in one instance marching in Selma, Alabama, with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965, and frequently addressed issues of race and oppression in his work. In addition to his engagement with social commentary, Tooker also created strikingly beautiful paintings of a more personal nature, many of which are concerned with states of consciousness, mysterious meditative realms between sleep and wakefulness. His good friend Lincoln Kirstein once characterized his work as Magic Realism, which has since been frequently used to describe his paintings. Tooker never cared much for that designation, however, because of the connotations of fantasy and Surrealism. "I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I am not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy," he once said. Tooker died at his home in Hartland, Vermont, on Sunday, March 27 at the age of ninety. The cause was kidney failure according to DC Moore Gallery, New York, which represents the artist.

artwork: George Tooker (1920-2011) - "The Subway", 1950 - Egg tempera on composition board - 46 x 91.8 cm. Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; purchased with the Juliana Force Purchase Award.

George Claire Tooker, Jr. was born August 5, 1920, in Brooklyn New York. He was the first child of a Cuban-American mother and a father who was a municipal bond broker. Tooker's only sibling, Mary, was born later. Shortly after his birth the Tooker family moved to the more rural Bellport in south-central Long Island, some fifty miles east of New York City. The trajectory of his life began to manifest itself from the age of seven, when he began taking painting lessons from Malcolm Fraser, a family friend whose oeuvre was in the Barbizon tradition. Tooker began high school in Bellport. However, his parents weren't much impressed with the quality of the school, and he spent his last two years at the more rigorously academic Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, north of Boston. George developed an intense dislike of the straight-laced school, with its orientation toward business and finance, and its concern that its students learn to hide their emotions. He gravited instead toward the school's art studio, where he worked at landscape drawing and watercolors. By virtue of its location, Andover did furnish some additional, if unintended education - Tooker became aware of effects of the Depression on the mill towns north of Andover. He was angered by the sharp contrast between the comfortable lifestyle of the children of the economic elite who attended the academy, and the many unemployed.

After graduation from Phillips in 1938, Tooker went on to Harvard, where he majored in English literature, that having been the only academic subject of interest to him at Phillips. Yet he spent much of his time at the Fogg Art Museum, and in the towns surrounding Boston, where he made watercolor sketches of the urban and rural landscapes. The Fogg's holdings include early Italian Renaissance, pre-Raphaelite and 19th-century French art. He also took up with some radical political organizations, but soon found them doctrinaire and boring. Nevertheless, it was during this time that he first became interested in the potential of art as a tool for social justice. Especially inspirational was the work of Mexican painters, especially David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco. Graduating from Harvard in 1942, he immediately enlisted in the Marine Corps Officer's Candidate School, but an old stomach ailment turned serious, and he was discharged after a few months there. Now at loose ends, Tooker decided to pursue his long-standing desire to study art. Securing his parent's support, he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York. Here he studied for two years with Reginald Marsh who worked in egg tempera, Kenneth Hayes Miller who also taught Edward Hopper, and Harry Sternberg.

artwork: George Tooker (1920-2011) - "Waiting Room", 1957 - Egg tempera on gesso panel, 24" x 30".  From the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

artwork: George Tooker (1920 - 2011) - "Self-Portrait", 1947 - Egg tempera on gesso panel - 18" diameter. From the collection of the Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, MN.In 1944 Tooker met the painter Paul Cadmus. Cadmus was another painter who worked with egg tempera (using traditional Reanissance techniques), and transmitted this expertise to Tooker, whose use of this medium marks his mature style. A year later, with the financial support of his family, George moved to a flat on the bohemian Bleecker Street in Greewich Village, New York. In 1949 Cadmus and Tooker spent six months travelling in Italy and France; and in the same year George met painter William Christopher, who was to become his life partner until Christopher's death in 1973. In 1950 Tooker and Christopher moved into an illegal loft located at W. 18th St. Here, in order to support themselves, they made custom furniture. However, Tooker was beginning to earn both recognition and income from his art, the Whitney Museum bought his best-known painting, "The Subway", that year, he had a one-man exhibition in New York City in 1951, in 1954 he received a commission to design sets for an opera and in 1955 he held his second one-man show. With greater means as their disposal, the two first bought and renovated a brownstone on State Street in Brooklyn Heights and then, in the late 1950s, he and Christopher built a weekend home near Hartland, Vermont. The one-man shows in New York galleries picked up speed, Tooker having his own exhibitions in 1960, 1962, 1964 and 1967. Christopher died in Spain in 1973, and Tooker spent most of 1974 there, wrapping up disposition of his estate. Also in '73, a major survey exhibition of Tooker's work was organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. That exhibition traveled to Chicago, New York, and Indianapolis. In 1976 Tooker became a Roman Catholic, and attended St. Francis of Assisi Church. After it burned down, he created a major painting for it, The Seven Sacraments. Until his death, Tooker lived and worked in in Harland, Vermont.

George Tooker is represented in museum collections across the country, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and National Museum of American Art. He has had numerous museum exhibitions over the years, such as a retrospective, George Tooker: Paintings, 1947-1973, organized by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California, in 1974; George Tooker: Paintings and Working Drawings at the Marsh Gallery, University of Richmond, Virginia, in 1989; 50 Years of Painting and Study Drawings at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1994; and George Tooker: A Retrospective at the National Academy Museum, New York, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, in 2008-09. His most recent exhibition was George Tooker: Studies for Paintings at DC Moore Gallery, New York, in 2009. He received the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2007.

Tooker is survived by a sister, Mary Tooker Graham; her children, Peter and Russell Hume, and Angus and Angela Graham; and family members, Aaron Watkins and Sheila Adams, and Robert and Robin Watkins.

¡Cuba! A Voyage through This Island's Art ~ A Retrospective at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:21 PM PDT

artwork: Alexander Calderón -  "Another Creation", 1998 - Oil on canvas,  39"x 47", 99 cm x 120 cm - Private collection

Montreal, Que., Canada - Organized and presented by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from January 31 to June 8, 2008, ¡Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today, which brings together some 400 works of art, is the most important exhibition ever presented to showcase the art of this Caribbean island, which Christopher Columbus described as "the most beautiful land eyes have ever seen." Thanks to the collaboration of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Fototeca de Cuba, and of many collectors and museums in the United States, including the MoMA, this exhibition draws a broad panorama of Cuban art and history.

Loans by Oberlin College to Open at the Cleveland Museum of Art

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:20 PM PDT

artwork: Louis Lagrenée (French, 1724-1805) - Midday (Le soleil dissipant les vents et les orages), 1772 - Oil on canvas Mrs. F. F. Prentiss Fund, 1974.10 i - Courtesy of the Allen Memorial Art Museum's (AMAM) collections.

OBERLIN, OH.- Beginning March 23, 2010, through early 2011, 20 works of art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum's (AMAM) collections of 17th-19th century European art will be integrated into the galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). The works on view include paintings by Batoni, Lawrence, Hogarth, Van de Venne, Hobbema, Chardin, Boucher, Oudry, Lagrenée, and Boilly. Two bronze statues— one by 18th-century artist Francesco Bertos and another from the 17th century after a model by Giambologna—have been on view during the past month in the CMA's Italian Baroque court. In fall 2010, seven miniatures will also be put on display in a special case the CMA recently fabricated for the display of such works.

Art Gallery of Hamilton to feature " Inspirational ~ the Collection of H. S. Southam "

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:19 PM PDT

artwork: Lawren Harris (Canadian 1885-1970) - Ice House, Coldwell, Lake Superior, c. 1923 - Oil on canvas Art Gallery of Hamilton, Bequest of H.S. Southam, C.M.G., LL.D, 1966 - Photo: Cheryl O'Brien 

Hamilton, Ont. - Newspaper publisher Harry Stevenson Southam (1875-1954) was recognized as one of Canada's foremost collectors of art in the 1930s and 1940s. His home in Ottawa was filled with modern European and Canadian paintings that were often requested for major exhibitions. As Chairman of the National Gallery of Canada Board of Trustees for almost twenty years, he helped shape the national collection and foster an appreciation of new Canadian art. Southam Collection on view 17 January through 3 May, 2009. Curated by Alicia Boutilier

Nike Gallery In Lagos Presents Dele Jegede's First Nigerian Exhibition In Over 20 Years

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:18 PM PDT

artwork: Dele Jegede - "Kwanzaa", 1991 - Oil on board - 71.1 x 61 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Jegede's first exhibition in his native Nigeria for more than 20 years opens on 30 April 2011 at the Nike Gallery in Lagos.


Lagos, Nigeria (Nigerian Compass).- An exhibition, opening in Lagos on Wednesday, April 30, will feature works by the US-based Nigerian artist, and art history scholar, Professor Dele Jegede's. Comprising recent works, this will be his first solo show on home soil for more than 20 years. One of Nigerian leading artist on the international scene, the widely respected art scholar stages the show in the Nike Art Gallery, in Lagos. His research interests straddle the two worlds of studio practice and art history. As art historian, his research is concerned with the contemporary and popular arts of Africa, with particular focus on the seamlessness of creative boundaries in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, possibly Africa's craziest city. As a painter, his creative research draws on iconic elements in African and Western cultures. The exhibition in the Nike Gallery will be an opportunity for Nigerians (and others) to view the works of one of Nigeria's most prolific artists for the first time since he emigrated to the USA.


Ackland Art Museum Celebrates Legacy of Eminent Asian Art Scholar Sherman Emery Lee

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:17 PM PDT

artwork: Attributed to Sesshu Toyo - Birds and Flowers; folding screen; ink and color on paper. Ackland Fund Ackland Art Museum exhibition Sage in the Bamboo Grove: The Legacy of Sherman E. Lee 

CHAPEL HILL, NCThe Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents Sage in the Bamboo Grove: The Legacy of Sherman E. Lee (February 28 - September 20, 2009), a multi-gallery exhibition of treasures from the Museum's Asian art collection. The exhibition is mounted in celebration of Sherman Emery Lee, the renowned Asian art scholar and esteemed former director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, whose contributions to the Ackland and UNC-Chapel Hill helped the Museum to build what is now the most significant collection of Asian art in North Carolina, and one of the premier collections in the south.

"Eduardo Martinez Bonati:Homecoming" at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:16 PM PDT

artwork: Eduardo Martinez Bonati - "Opera Bufa, Acto I (Comic Opera, Act 1)", 1978. On view at the "Eduardo Martinez Bonati: Homecoming" exhibition presented by the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago until May 22nd 2011.

Santiago, Chile.- The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in Santiago, Chile is showing "Eduardo Martinez Bonati: Homecoming" until May 22nd 2011. Containing oil paintings and watercolors produced during the artist's exile, this is the first major solo exhibition of Bonati's 'exile' work to be held in Chile since he returned to the country in 2005 ("Requiem" an earlier exhibtion featured his recent work). To celebrate Bonati's return from exile, a series of exhibitions are planned at the National museum of Fine Arts. This, the first one, concentrates on works created between 1978 and 1986, alongside some recent works, drawings and a video. The title of the exhibition references Bonati's pre-exile period, when he worked as a professor of engraving at the University of Chile's School of Arts on the nearby Forest Park campus, now home to the Museum of Contemporary Art.


Russian Spy Cat

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:15 PM PDT

artwork: Russian Spy Cat - The idea behind steganography is this: instead of making your data unreadable with encryption, you're hiding the fact that there's data at all. For example, the classic example is the secret message hidden in a seemingly innocuous picture of a cat. The algorithms generally conceal the secret payload in pictures by altering the least significant bit of the pixels in the image.

New York, NY - Monday's New York Times reported that the Justice Department had arrested a Russian spy ring in the United States. The articles read like chapters of a Robert Ludlum spy book. The whole story is tremendously weird, starting with the fact that there were Russian spies trawling for state secrets in Montclair, New Jersey (home to a Starbucks, a Talbots, and a Supercuts, but crucially bereft of a CIA, an FBI, or any other of the 16 intelligence agencies that pepper our nation). If the people recently arrested in the Russian spy ring had been a bit more clever about how they sent data, they might never have been caught.

Three Paintings Top the Million Dollar Mark at Heffel's $11.3 Million Spring Auction

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:14 PM PDT

artwork: Lot # 137, Thomas John (Tom) Thomson, Birches and Cedar, Fall - Sold for $1,404,000 Courtesy of Heffel Fine Art Auction House

VANCOUVER, BC.- Heffel Fine Art Auction House set a new record sale price tonight when a rare Emily Carr painting sold for $2,164,500 in the second session of Heffel's Live Spring Auction. Wind in the Treetops, a 36-1/2 x 21-1/4 inch oil on canvas, circa 1936-1939, is from the most sought-after period in Carr's career – the mature period of the 1930's. Heffel Fine Art Auction House has previously sold two Carr paintings for more than $1-million and is the only auction house to reach that price point for her works. This ranks as the fourth highest priced painting in Canadian history. Tonight's sale result of $11.3-million was well past the $6 - $9-million presale estimate for Heffel's two sessions. The Canadian Post-War & Contemporary Art, which commenced at 4 p.m. PST, had sales totalling $4.7-million. The second session of Fine Canadian Art began at 7 p.m. PST and had a sales total of $6.6-million. Both sessions were held before a crowd of 300 people at Vancouver's new Convention Centre overlooking Coal Harbour.

The Smithsonian Associates Commissions "Museum Moment" Print by Sam Gilliam

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:13 PM PDT

artwork: Sam Gilliam - Museum Moment , 2009 - 90-color screen print, signed edition of 105. Paper Dimensions: 32 x 40 inches.

WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian Associates Art Collectors Program announces the 2009 commission of Sam Gilliam to create a limited-edition screen print. "Museum Moment" is on display at the Graphic Eloquence exhibition in the Smithsonian's Ripley Center. This signed and numbered print is available for purchase through the Art Collectors Program. Proceeds support the educational and cultural programs of The Smithsonian Associates. "Museum Moment" is a 90-color, screen print limited edition of 105, printed on Rising two-ply acid-free paper. Produced by master printer Lou Stovall of Workshop Inc., each unframed print is numbered and signed by the artist and comes with a certificate of authenticity from the Smithsonian.

Monumental Roy Lichtenstein Sculpture on Display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:12 PM PDT

artwork: Roy Lichtenstein -  

Washington, DC - The monumental sculpture "Modern Head" by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), a major figure in the pop art movement, will be on public view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum beginning Aug. 27. The sculpture will be installed on the grounds of the museum's main building at the corner of Ninth and F streets N.W. in Washington, D.C. It is on loan from the James Goodman Gallery and Jeffrey H. Loria & Co. Inc. in New York City.

Rossi & Rossi to Exhibit the Tibetan Female Artist ~ Dedron

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:11 PM PDT

artwork: Dedron - Pray, 2009 - Mineral pigments on canvas - 80 x 50 cm. Courtesy of Rossi & Rossi

LONDON - Dedron: Nearest the Sun, the first exhibition ever devoted to the Tibetan female artist Dedron, will be staged by Rossi & Rossi at 16 Clifford Street, Mayfair, London W1, from Wednesday 6 May to Friday 12 June 2009. There will be some twelve recent works on view, offered for prices ranging from £1,500 to over £10,000.

Renowned Artist Philip Brooker Gives Miami's Saucy Image a Makeover

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:10 PM PDT

artwork: A community initiative founded by veteran artist and illustrator Phillip Brooker - The Miami Poster Project.

MIAMI BEACH, FL.-
ArtCenter/South Florida presents Miami Poster Project, a community initiative founded by veteran artist and illustrator Phillip Brooker with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. In celebration of Miami Poster Project's inaugural year, Brooker has created a series of five super-sized posters, marking a departure from the typical stale, superficial and tourist industry-driven images that have saturated the city. In offering visual content that is instead a reflection of Miami's complex and fascinating cultural microcosm, Brooker draws on tropical living, snow birds, urban undertones and the arts. The opening reception on Saturday, September 11, 2010, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at ArtCenter's 800 Lincoln Road gallery is free and open to the public; works will be on view until October 17, 2010.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 07:09 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.

This Week in Review in Art News