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• The Philadelphia Museum of Art Is Gifted Important Fine Art
• The Gibbes Museum of Art Opens Two New Exhibitions
• Merry Karnowsky Gallery Presents a Summer Group Exhibition
• MoMA Wales Shows the Welsh Landscapes of Matthew Wood
• Great Olmeca Treasures on View at the National Museum of Anthropology
• The Metropolitan Museum Announces Highest Attendance in 40 Years ~ 5.68 Million Visitors
• Aldourie Castle in Scotland ~ Winner of The Historic Houses Restoration Award 2011
• The Pace Gallery Presents "Soft Machines" ~ A Group Exhibition
• British Realist Painter Lucian Freud ~ Distinguished & Highly Regarded ~ Dies Aged 88
• Our Editor Re-Visits The Musee du Louvre In Paris ~ The Most Visited Art Museum In The World ~ More than 8 Million Visitors Every Year
• Contrasts Gallery to Exhibit Six Prominent International Artists at Art Taipei
• Hamburger Kunsthalle presents Mark Rothko ~ The Retrospective
• OCMA presents "Illumination"an Exhibition of Four Important American Modernist Painters
• Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht Shows Modern Masterpieces from the Liege Collections
• Brazilian Museum of Sculpture to open "A Message for You by Guy Bourdin"
• Allentown Art Museum Receives Major Gifts from Peter Grippe Estate
• New Book Presents Comprehensive Collection of Projects Built by Architect Jim Olson
• Black Mountain College Museum to show Stan Vanderbeek: Avant-garde Filmmaker
• PAFA Acquires Works by Mark Bradford, Philip Evergood, & Lilly Martin Spencer
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Is Gifted Important Fine Art Posted: 22 Jul 2011 11:15 PM PDT PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art has acquired three important French Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley, and a pastel by Mary Cassatt, the Pennsylvania native and American expatriate who became famously associated with Paris during the late 19th century. All of the works are gifts from Chara C. and the late John Haas, longtime supporters of the Museum. They include Path on the Island of Saint Martin, Vétheuil (1881) by Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926); Apple Tree in the Meadow, Éragny (1893) by Camille Pissaro (French, 1830-1903); Mooring Lines, the Effect of Snow at Saint Cloud (1879) by Alfred Sisley (French, 1839-1899); and Madame Bérard's Baby in a Striped Armchair (1880-81) by Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926). The Monet and the Pissarro have now been placed on view in gallery 152, while the Sisley hangs in gallery 157 and Cassatt's pastel can be seen in gallery 162. "With these remarkable gifts, John and Chara Haas have greatly enriched the Museum's collections," said Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and CEO, "adding strength to the Museum's extensive holdings of Impressionist art and enabling us to present a more complete picture of these artists' remarkable achievements. We are deeply grateful to John and Chara Haas, who now join the many great collectors whose gifts have made the Philadelphia Museum of Art a major destination for art enthusiasts from around the world." "We are delighted to have these four works, which expand and enhance our rich Impressionist holdings with a radiant landscape by Monet created during the years he spent in Vétheuil in the late 1870s and early 1880s, a period that has not been represented in our collection, a remarkably fresh and beautifully painted winter scene by Sisley, a handsome landscape that Pissarro painted at his home in Éragny, and a charming pastel portrait of the young Lucie Bérard by Mary Cassatt," said Joseph Rishel, The Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, and Senior Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection and the Rodin Museum. Monet's Path on the Island of Saint Martin, Vétheuil (1881)is a colorful view of the fields near the village of Vétheuil on the north bank of the Seine, where Monet moved with his family in 1879. During the summer of 1881, Monet painted lush views of the town from the island of Saint Martin as his pictorial style evolved from the blunt, broad strokes of the 1870s to the delicate, rhythmic brushwork of Path on the Island of Saint Martin. This is the first work from Monet's Vétheuil period to come into the Museum's collection, and its presence will enable visitors to understand the development of the artist's work during this important time in his career. Apple Tree in the Meadow, Éragny (1893) captures the fields and gardens around Camille Pissarro's (French, 1830-1903) home in Éragny, a small village about 90 miles northwest of Paris. This focused study joins four other views of the Pissarro home in the Museum's collection from earlier years. A view of the meadow adjacent to Pissarro's house (the brick building visible on the left), it is marked by the strongly-patterned brush and palette knife work common in the artist's paintings of the 1890s and clearly demonstrates the influence that the work of the Post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891) had on Pissarro's work during this period. Alfred Sisley, an Impressionist landscape painter well represented in the Museum's collection, painted Mooring Lines, the Effect of Snow at Saint Cloud (1879) while living to the west of Paris. Of particular note is Sisley's dramatic treatment of the winter view in which the snowy river bank is animated by the mooring lines that secure an unseen barge to the bank of the river. Sisley was widely admired for his skillful renderings of winter scenes. Here the sky and the fugitive effects of light and weather are depicted here in nuanced tones of white and blue. Visit The Philadelphia Museum of Art at : http://www.philamuseum.org/

The Gibbes Museum of Art Opens Two New Exhibitions Posted: 22 Jul 2011 10:58 PM PDT CHARLESTON, SC.- The Gibbes Museum of Art presents two new exhibitions starting today July 22nd through October 16th. The Creative Spirit: Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, organized by the Gadsden Arts Center in Quincy, Florida, will be on view in the Main Gallery. The Creative Spirit features paintings, drawings, and sculpture by the foremost self-taught artists of the American South. In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color in Pre–Civil War New Orleans is co-organized by Worcester Art Museum and The Historic New Orleans Collection. The exhibition, on view in the Gibbes' Rotunda Galleries, is the first retrospective of the brief —but important —career of portraitist Julien Hudson, one of the earliest-documented free artists of color working in the 19th century.

Merry Karnowsky Gallery Presents a Summer Group Exhibition Posted: 22 Jul 2011 10:17 PM PDT Los Angeles.- The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present this summer's group exhibition featuring Deedee Cheriel's Songs For Infinite Starry Nights, Femke Hiemstra's Big Thousands of Golden Flowers, & Audrey Kawasaki's Restlessly Still. This group exhibition will be on view at the gallery from July 30th through August 27th. The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is home to several of the most significant artists working today. Founded in 1997 by Merry Karnowsky, the gallery has had a central focus for over a decade; championing emerging and mid-career artists who push beyond the boundaries of formal definition.

MoMA Wales Shows the Welsh Landscapes of Matthew Wood Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:23 PM PDT Machynlleth, Wales.- The Museum of Modern Art, Wales is proud to present "Matthew Wood: 110 Paintings of Wales", on view at the museum until September 3rd. After producing landscape paintings in Shropshire, Brussels and a variety of other European locations over the last 8 years, it was through geographical serendipity that I happened upon the theme of Welsh landscape. I have always been drawn to Wales as a source of inspiration. The Welsh landscape is arguably both sublime and picturesque: it represents a seemingly endless diversity of landscape motif, be it the calming southern vistas of the Cambrian Mountains seen from Aran Fawddwy, the upfront and brutal landscape of the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia or the scenic viewpoints of the Pembrokeshire coastline.

Great Olmeca Treasures on View at the National Museum of Anthropology Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:22 PM PDT MEXICO CITY.- After the success at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and de Young Museum in San Francisco, in the United States, where nearly 600,000 persons visited it, the exhibition Colossal Masterworks from Olmeca World is now open at the National Museum of Anthropology (MNA), where visitors may admire two original colossal heads that weigh more than 4 tons each. Organized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the exhibition offers a panorama of Olmeca civilization, starting from invaluable pieces found in different archaeological sites in the Gulf of Mexico area, where the civilization addressed as "mother culture" of Mesoamerica flourished 4,000 years ago.

The Metropolitan Museum Announces Highest Attendance in 40 Years ~ 5.68 Million Visitors Posted: 22 Jul 2011 08:19 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that 5.68 million people visited the Met during the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The number, which includes attendance at The Cloisters museum and gardens, is the highest recorded in 40 years. The total was more than 400,000 greater than in Fiscal Year 2010. "We are delighted by this extraordinary response to our collections and programs, especially in the context of ongoing fiscal challenges faced by both the Museum and the public," said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO.

Aldourie Castle in Scotland ~ Winner of The Historic Houses Restoration Award 2011 Posted: 22 Jul 2011 08:07 PM PDT LONDON.- The Historic Houses Association (HHA) and Sotheby's announced that the winning entry of their Restoration Award for 2011 - an award now in its fourth year - is Aldourie Castle, on the southern shore of Loch Ness, near Inverness, Scotland. Aldourie Castle's extensive programme of restoration has created an historic property for those wishing to experience the authenticity of a Scottish Baronial Castle and Estate at its best. Three commendations are also announced by the HHA and Sotheby's: Iscoyd Park, near Whitchurch in Wales; Hoveton Hall (Glasshouse), Norwich, Norfolk; and Browsholme Hall (Tithe Barn), Clitheroe, Lancashire. The 2010 winner of the award was Wilton House near Salisbury in Wiltshire.

The Pace Gallery Presents "Soft Machines" ~ A Group Exhibition Posted: 22 Jul 2011 08:06 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- The Pace Gallery presents Soft Machines, a group exhibition of artists exploring the influence and effects of control mechanisms on the human body. The exhibition features works by Stuart Brisley, Kathryn Garcia, Anthony Keith Giannini, Kate Gilmore, Tim Hawkinson, Liz Magic Laser and Anna Ostoya, Lovett/Codagnone, Adam Pendleton, Paul Pfeiffer, Ma Qiusha, Holton Rower, Sterling Ruby, and Kiki Smith. Soft Machines will be on view at 545 West 22nd Street through August 26, 2011. Soft Machines is curated by Sarvia Jasso, Harmony Murphy, and Nicola Vassell of The Pace Gallery.

British Realist Painter Lucian Freud ~ Distinguished & Highly Regarded ~ Dies Aged 88 Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:51 PM PDT London.- Lucian Freud 1922 – 2011. Lucian Freud was born in Berlin, the son of architect Ernst Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud.  In 1933, his family fled to London to escape the rising tide of Nazism, and Lucian and his two brothers were enrolled in English schools.  Largely untrained as an artist, he was intermittently enrolled in various schools and received nominal artistic instruction as a youth. His early paintings, dating to the 1940s, depict people, animals, and plants in unusual juxtapositions.  In delicately painted, thinly applied oils, Freud rendered his subjects with ultra-fine precision and crisp, clean contours.  In the mid-1950s, Freud traded his sable brushes for ones of coarse hog hair and began working with looser brushwork, thereby "liberating" his subjects from his prior meticulous technique. Freud died after an illness at his London home late Wednesday night at age 88. Over the course of the '50's, Freud gradually honed in on the portrait, which has become the core of his oeuvre.  Painting his first characteristic nude in 1966, over the next few decades his nudes became ever more exposed, genuine, and revealing. By the 1980s, Freud was painting with thick paints and heavily built-up impasto.  For Freud, the thick application of paint conveyed a tactile and tangible sense of reality: "I want paint to work as flesh ... As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me as flesh does (Lawrence Gowing, Lucian Freud, 1982, Thames & Hudson, p. 190-1)."  Though his style has dramatically evolved over his seventy years of painting, he has remained committed to realism and the unembellished portrayal of his own perceptions. From the very young to the old, the small to the gigantic, Freud has depicted his subjects with penetrating honesty and psychological depth. Most of Freud's sitters have been his lovers, family, and friends, including fellow artists Francis Bacon and David Hockney as well as his dealer, William Acquavella.  He has occasionally done commissions, painting portraits for the Baron Thyssen, Lord Rothschild, and the Queen of England.  Drawn to people for both their looks and character, he invited his subjects to sit with him and subject themselves to his unrelenting scrutiny in order to realize their truest likeness. The process is long and laborious, completed in up to six-hour sessions held daily for weeks, months, or even years. Freud could only finish his paintings once he felt that they have a life of their own.  As he explained in "Some Thoughts on Painting," first broadcast on the BBC: "The picture in order to move us must never merely remind us of life, but must acquire a life of its own, precisely in order to reflect life." His works have been increasingly sought after at recent auctions and his portrayal of an overweight nude woman sleeping on a couch sold in 2008 for $33.6 million (£20.6m) - a world record for a work by a living artist. Freud stubbornly refused to follow the trends of that world, insisting on using his realist approach even when it was out of favor with critics and collectors. He developed his own unique style, eventually winning recognition as one of the world's greatest painters. "He certainly is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th and 21st Centuries," said Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of the postwar art department at Christie's auction house in New York. "He stayed with his figurative approach even when it was extremely unpopular, when abstraction was the leading concept, and as time moved on his classic approach has proven to be very important. He fought the system and basically won." Acquavella Galleries has been the worldwide representative for Lucian Freud since 1992 and has held four exhibitions of the artist's work. Freud has been the subject of numerous museum retrospectives and exhibitions, including shows at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, the Museo Correr in Venice, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Britain, the Scottish National Gallery of Art, the Städtisches Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen in Germany, the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Tate Modern in London, the Fundació La Caixa in Barcelona, the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, and the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo. Freud was a member of the Order of Merit, one of Britain's most prestigious chivalry honours presented to individuals by the Queen for great achievement in the fields of the arts, learning, literature and science. The honour is restricted to 24 members at any one time, plus additional foreign recipients and past recipients include Florence Nightingale, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Edward Elgar and Mother Teresa.

Our Editor Re-Visits The Musee du Louvre In Paris ~ The Most Visited Art Museum In The World ~ More than 8 Million Visitors Every Year Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:40 PM PDT The Musee du Louvre has dominated central Paris since the late 12th century. Originally built for Philip II of France as an arsenal in 1190, it formed part of the defences built to ensure that Paris would remain safe while Philip II went to fight in the third Crusade. In the years that followed, Paris expanded and enclosed within the growing city, the Louvre lost its defensive function. In 1364, Raymond du Temple, architect to Charles V, began transforming the old fortress into a splendid royal residence. Contemporary miniatures and paintings show marvelous images of the ornately decorated rooftops that graced the new building. A majestic spiral staircase, the "grande vis," served the upper floors, and a pleasure garden was created at the north end. The sumptuous interiors were decorated with sculptures, tapestries, and paneling. In 1546, Francis I renovated the site in French Renaissance style. Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvre's holdings, his many acquisitions including Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". Improvement and extension work on the royal palace continued through to the reign of Louis XIV. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, construction work slowed, but still continued. During this period the Louvre was joined to the nearby Tuileries palace by new wings. In 1791, following the French Revolution, the revolutionary Assemblée Nationale decreed that the "Louvre and the Tuileries together will be a national palace to house the king and for gathering together all the monuments of the sciences and the arts.'' The Louvre first opened its doors to the public on August 10, 1793. Admission was free, with artists given priority over the general public, who were admitted on weekends only. The works, mostly paintings from the collections of the French royal family and aristocrats who had fled abroad, were displayed in the Salon Carré and the Grande Galerie, whilst other parts of the building were used for government offices. Through treaties and the spoils from Napoleon I's conquests, France acquired numerous paintings and antiquities, including major collections from the Vatican and the Venetian republic, all of which went into the newly opened Louvre Museum. The museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon in 1803 and a bust of the emperor by Bartolini was installed over the entrance. Although the collection was diminished by restitutions following Napoleon's defeat, the Louvre remained a public museum and continued to expand. During the Restoration of the monarchy (1814–30), Louis XVIII and Charles X between them added 135 artworks and created the department of Egyptian antiquities. After the creation of the French Second Republic in 1848, the new government allocated two million francs for repair work and ordered the completion of the Galerie d'Apollon, the Salon Carré, and the Grande Galérie. In 1861, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte bought 11,835 artworks including the 641 paintings of the Campana collection. During the Second French Empire, between 1852 and 1870, the French economy grew and by 1870 the museum had added 20,000 new pieces to its collections, and the Pavillon de Flore and the Grande Galérie had been remodelled under architects Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel. In May 1871, during the last days of the Paris Commune, as the army was poised to retake the city the Communards raced to destroy the Hôtel de Ville (city hall), the Cour des Comptes (the seat of France's public finance watchdog), and the Tuileries palace, a potent symbol of monarchy. The resulting fire gutted the palace buildings and threatened the Louvre itself. The demolition of the Tuileries in 1882 marked the birth of the modern Louvre. The palace ceased to be the seat of power and was devoted almost entirely to artworks and culture. Slowly but surely, the museum began to take over the whole of the vast complex of palace buildings. Throughout the twentieth century, the Louvre continued to expand and improve, the French Maritime Museum moved out in 1919, post 1848 artworks moved to the Pompidou Center (modern and contemporary art) and the Musee d'Orsay (impressionist and post-impressionist works) as these opened in 1977 and 1986 respectively. Although the Louvre now specializes in pre-1848 artworks, it has never been afraid to embrace the modern, a prime example of this being the George Braque creation of three ceiling paintings. Commissioned to complement those in the former royal antechamber (produced in 1557 by the wood-carver Scibec de Carpi), the resulting decorative design, The Braque Birds, were inaugurated in 1963. In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed the "Grand Louvre" plan to renovate the building and relocate the Finance Ministry, allowing displays throughout the building. Pritzker Prize winning architect I. M. Pei was awarded the project and proposed a glass pyramid to stand over a new entrance in the main court, the Cour Napoléon. The pyramid and its underground lobby were inaugurated on 15 October 1988. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée (The Inverted Pyramid), was completed in 1993. As of 2002, attendance had doubled since completion. The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 37,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres (652,000 sq ft) dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre exhibits sculptures, objets d'art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. It is the world's most visited museum, averaging more than 8 million visitors per year. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.louvre.fr The Greek, Etruscan, and Roman department displays pieces from the Mediterranean Basin dating from the Neolithic to the 6th century. The collection spans from the Cycladic period to the decline of the Roman Empire. This department is one of the museum's oldest; it began with appropriated royal art, some of which was acquired under Francis I. The Louvre holds masterpieces from the Hellenistic and Roman eras, including The Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BC) and the Venus de Milo, portraits of Agrippa and Annius Verus and the bronze Greek God Apollo of Piombino. The Islamic art collection, the museum's newest, spans "thirteen centuries and three continents". These exhibits, comprising ceramics, glass, metalware, wood, ivory, carpet, textiles, and miniatures, include more than 5,000 works and 1,000 shards. Among the works are the "Pyxide d'al-Mughira", a 10th century ivory box from Andalusia; the Baptistery of Saint-Louis, an engraved brass basin from the 13th or 14 century Mamluk period, and the 10th century "Shroud of Josse" from Iran. The collection contains three pages of the "Shahnameh", an epic book of poems by Ferdowsi in Persian, and a Syrian metalwork named the "Barberini Vase". The Egyptian department comprises over 50,000 pieces, including artifacts from the Nile civilizations between 4,000 BC and the 4th century. The collection, among the world's largest, overviews Egyptian life spanning Ancient Egypt, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, Coptic art, and the Roman, Ptolemaic, and Byzantine periods. The department's origins lie in the royal collection, but it was augmented by Napoleon's 1798 expeditionary trip to Egypt. After Jean-François Champollion translated the Rosetta Stone, King Charles X decreed that an Egyptian Antiquities department be created. Champollion advised the purchase of three collections, the 'Durand', 'Salt' and 'Drovetti', which added 7,000 works. Guarded by the Large Sphinx (c. 2000 BC), the collection is housed in more than 20 rooms. Holdings include art, papyrus scrolls, mummies, tools, clothing, jewelry, antique games, musical instruments, and weapons. Near Eastern antiquities, the second newest department, dates from 1881 and presents an overview of early Near Eastern civilization and "first settlements", before the arrival of Islam. The department is divided into three geographic areas: the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia (Iran). The museum contains exhibits from Sumer and the city of Akkad, with monuments such as the Prince of Lagash's Stele of the Vultures from 2,450 BC and the stele erected by Naram-Suen, King of Akkad, to celebrate a victory over barbarians in the Zagros Mountains. The 2.25-metre "Code of Hammurabi", discovered in 1901, displays Babylonian Laws prominently, so that no man could plead their ignorance. The Persian portion of Louvre contains work from the archaic period, like the Funerary Head and the Persian Archers of Darius I. This section is also contains rare objects from Persepolis in Persia. The sculpture department comprises work created before 1850 that does not belong in the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman department. The Louvre has been a repository of sculpted material since its time as a palace. The collection's overview of French sculpture contains Romanesque works such as the 11th century "Daniel in the Lions' Den" and the 12th century "Virgin of Auvergne". In the 16th century, Renaissance influence caused French sculpture to become more restrained, as seen in Jean Goujon's bas-reliefs, and Germain Pilon's "Descent from the Cross" and "Resurrection of Christ". The 17th and 18th centuries are represented by Étienne Maurice Falconet's "Woman Bathing" and "Amour menaçant" and François Anguier's obelisks. Neoclassical works includes Antonio Canova's "Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss". The collection of sculptures by non-French artists includes Michelangelo's "Dying Slave" and "Rebellious Slave" and Adriaan de Vries' "Mercury and Psyche". The Objets d'art collection contains the coronation crown of Louis XIV, Charles V's sceptre, and a 12th century porphyry vase. The Renaissance art holdings include Giambologna's bronze Nessus and Deianira and the tapestry "Maximillian's Hunt". From later periods, highlights include Madame de Pompadour's Sèvres vase collection and Napoleon III's apartments. The painting collection has more than 6,000 works from the 13th century to 1848. Nearly two-thirds are by French artists, and more than 1,200 are Northern European. The collection began with Francis, who acquired works from Italian masters such as Raphael and Michelangelo, and brought Leonardo da Vinci to his court. Exemplifying the French School are Enguerrand Quarton's "Avignon Pieta", an anonymous painting of King Jean le Bon (possibly the oldest independent portrait in Western painting to survive from the postclassical era), Hyacinthe Rigaud's "Louis XIV", Jacques-Louis David's "The Coronation of Napoleon" and Eugène Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People". Northern European works include Johannes Vermeer's "The Lacemaker" and "The Astronomer", Caspar David Friedrich's "The Tree of Crows", Rembrandt's "The Supper at Emmaus", "Bathsheba at Her Bath", and "The Slaughtered Ox". The Italian holdings are notable, particularly the Renaissance collection. The works include Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini's "Calvarys". The High Renaissance collection includes Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", "Virgin and Child with St. Anne", "St. John the Baptist", and "Madonna of the Rocks". Caravaggio is represented by "The Fortune Teller" and "Death of the Virgin". From 16th century Venice, the Louvre displays Titian's "Le Concert Champetre", "The Entombment" and "The Crowning with Thorns". The prints and drawings department encompasses works on paper. The origins of the collection were the 8,600 works in the Royal Collection (Cabinet du Roi), which were increased via state appropriation, purchases such as the 1,200 works from Fillipo Baldinucci's collection in 1806, and donations. The department opened on 5 August 1797, with 415 pieces displayed in the Galerie d'Apollon. The collection is organized into three sections: the core Cabinet du Roi, 14,000 royal copper printing-plates, and the donations of Edmond de Rothschild, which include 48,000 prints, 3,200 drawings, and 5,500 illustrated books. The holdings are displayed in the Pavillon de Flore; due to the fragility of the paper medium, only a portion are displayed at one time. The Louvre is currently showing 2 comparative exhibitions of sculpture, both of which are showing concurrently until the 25th of April 2011. In the Richelieu wing exhibition gallery is a collection of artworks by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt allowing the visitor to explore the world of this great German sculptor and expert portraitist, whose caustic humor and audacity won the hearts of the contemporary public. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was active in Vienna and Pressburg (now Bratislava) in the late 18th century. As a court sculptor, he executed portraits of members of the imperial family as well as notable intellectuals of his time, but is most celebrated for his series of violently expressive, bizarre and fascinating "character heads", whose originality and verve still captivate viewers today. Sculpted in metal (using alloys composed largely of tin and/or lead) and in alabaster, these heads convey the expressiveness of a master sculptor keen to depict the torments of the soul in all their extreme emotional variety. As a counterpoint to Franz Xaver Messerschmidt retrospectve, the museum plays host to a group of sculptures by the leading British contemporary artist Tony Cragg, under the title "Tony Cragg - Figure out / Figure in". In addition to existing works, the exhibition features a monumental sculpture by the artist, commissioned especially for the exhibition and displayed under the pyramid. The visual dialogue across the centuries between Tony Cragg and Messerschmidt's "character heads" is limited to a single bronze sculpture by this major contemporary sculptor, "Untitled" (2010) which, like the masterpieces of his 18th-century predecessor, through its distortions and superimposed layers, depicts a particularly expressive human face, from a very specific viewpoint. The seven other sculptures selected by Cragg to inhabit the space formed by the Cour Marly and the Cour Puget are of varying dimensions, shapes and types, thus reflecting this sculptor's broad use of materials (bronze, marble, fiberglass, wood), colors (white, red, black) and methods (circumvolutions around a central axis, displacement of oblique and overhanging elements along a lateral plane, accumulation of numerous fine layers, puncturing of surfaces). Sculptures conceived on the same themes, but of different sizes, allow visitors to consider the question of scale, and a sculpture in two parts, Runner, resonates with a number of works in the Louvre's collections.

Contrasts Gallery to Exhibit Six Prominent International Artists at Art Taipei Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:39 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.

Hamburger Kunsthalle presents Mark Rothko ~ The Retrospective Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:38 PM PDT Hamburg, Germany - Hamburger Kunsthalle presents Mark Rothko. The Retrospective, on view through 24 August 2008. The American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is one of the most important representatives of Abstract Expressionism. Twenty years after the last retrospective in a German museum this show at the Hamburger Kunsthalle offers a unique opportunity to discover his outstanding oeuvre anew. In the face of the most recent developments on the art market, where prices for Rothko's paintings have skyrocketed and considering the high sensitivity of the colour surface of his pictures and the challenging issues of conservation, the realisation of this exhibition marks a very special effort and a great responsibility to both the lenders and their works.

OCMA presents "Illumination"an Exhibition of Four Important American Modernist Painters Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:37 PM PDT NEWPORT BEACH, CA.- The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) presents Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce, the first exhibition to bring together the work of these four important American modernist painters. More than 100 works have been drawn from the most prominent and private collections in the United States for this exhibition. All four women made indelible marks on modernist art of the 20th century . . O'Keeffe and Pelton created distinctive images using lush, organic forms, while Martin and Pierce produced signature geometric works of sublime simplicity. They also all drew on nature as their primary focus, inspired by arid and spare desert environments: O'Keeffe, Pierce and Martin, lived much of their lives in New Mexico, while Pelton resided in Cathedral City near Palm Springs, California.

Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht Shows Modern Masterpieces from the Liege Collections Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:36 PM PDT Maastricht, NL - Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht presents Wintertuin / Wintergarden a selection of modern masterpieces from the Liège collections on view through 19 June 2011. In Wintertuin, the Bonnefantenmuseum is presenting forty classic masterpieces from the collections of the city of Liège and the French Community of Belgium, including seven works of exceptionally high quality known as 'Belgian national treasures' (Chagall, Ensor, Gauguin, Kokoschka, Liebermann, Marc and Picasso).

Brazilian Museum of Sculpture to open "A Message for You by Guy Bourdin" Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:35 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.

Allentown Art Museum Receives Major Gifts from Peter Grippe Estate Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:34 PM PDT ALLENTOWN, PA.- The Allentown Art Museum recently received a major gift of art and real estate from the estate of the artist Peter Grippe (1912-2002). Grippe, an American mid-century modernist artist whose works were inspired by Cubism, was a talented and inventive sculptor and printmaker who worked and exhibited with the major artists of the mid-20th century, including those from the New York School. "Peter Grippe left behind a substantial body of work, and the museum is honored and grateful to serve as a home for it," said Greg Perry, the Allentown Art Museum 's Priscilla Payne Hurd Executive Director. "The collection will be a boon to our 20th century holdings, and will allow the museum to more fully represent the wave of abstraction that followed and reinterpreted Cubism from the first decades of the century." An exhibition of Grippe's work is scheduled at the museum from January 31-May 16, 2011.

New Book Presents Comprehensive Collection of Projects Built by Architect Jim Olson Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:33 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- The Monacelli Press will release Jim Olson Houses, the most comprehensive collection of projects built in the last decade by the founding partner of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects as well as the most prominent heir to the legacy of the 1950's Northwest master architects. With a series of photographs documenting both exteriors and interiors at 16 residences in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, and Hong Kong, the book represents the holistic approach that has guided Olson throughout his career. The result is a vision that delicately mixes the architectural tradition of the Pacific Northwest, the influence of the Pacific Rim, and their focuses on indigenous craft.

Black Mountain College Museum to show Stan Vanderbeek: Avant-garde Filmmaker Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:32 PM PDT Ashville, NC - On Thursday, December 3rd at 7:30 pm, Johanna Vanderbeek will present and discuss the films of her late husband Stan. Combining animation, painting and collage with a Dadaist sensibility, Stan Vanderbeek made films in the 1950s and 60s that were beautifully original, humorous and revealed a passionate and experimental mind. Vanderbeek was a student at Black Mountain College in the early 1950s where he was around talents like Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg. In the 1960s he and his wife Johanna moved into the Gate Hill Community in Stony Point, NY which was founded by other BMC "refugees". There, he cut off the top of a silo and used the inside as a domed projection screen for multi-projector presentations. He called it a Movie-Drome.

PAFA Acquires Works by Mark Bradford, Philip Evergood, & Lilly Martin Spencer Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:31 PM PDT PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) recently acquired the following three works: Mark Bradford's Untitled (Dementia), 2009; Philip Evergood's "Mine Disaster", 1933/37; and Lilly Martin Spencer's "Mother and Child" by the Hearth, 1867. Mark Bradford is internationally recognized as a leading artist of his generation. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship Genius Grant, Bucksbaum Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. Major exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial, 27th São Paolo Biennial, Carnegie International, and a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2007. Bradford's work incorporates strong environmental, social, and political themes as well as Minimalist, Abstract Expressionist, and Conceptual elements. Bradford's "Untitled" (Dementia) is a twelve panel work using posters advertising services to Alzheimers sufferers and is currently on view at PAFA in the exhibition "Philagrafika 2010: The Graphic Unconscious". Suggesting the "matter-of-factness" associated with Minimal art, Bradford's work is not just a nod to a Minimalist grid, but also to the urban network of city streets from which Bradford's material emanates, its rough and tattered look reflecting the decayed and ruined environment from which it has been rescued. While invoking the history of collage and its incorporation of the everyday and the readymade into the work of art, Untitled (Dementia) is also a melancholic reminder of the economy it reflects, the trace of a world that formulates itself below the radar and a metaphor of forgotten histories. Bradford's work serves as a significant addition to PAFA's growing collection of contemporary art. "Philagrafika 2010: The Graphic Unconscious" will be on view through April 11, 2010. Untitled (Dementia) will subsequently be on view at PAFA from June 26 - September 12, 2010 during an exhibition of selections from PAFA's permanent collection. Philip Evergood, among the most influential and widely-respected figurative painters of the twentieth century, straddled the line between Surrealism and Social Realism throughout his career. The Great Depression and its societal and political reverberations influenced Evergood's style and subject matter in the 1930s and it was this body of work that brought him his first critical acclaim and established his high reputation in American art. His work into the mid-1940s often focused on the plight and experiences of laborers, including factory scenes, strikes, and working class street life. "Mine Disaster" is not only one of Philip Evergood's most important works but a major example of American social realism. Long considered among the most significant easel-sized paintings of the 1930s aimed at political and humanist themes, Evergood's painting was an appeal for his audiences to work for change in the world. At PAFA, "Mine Disaster" joins a later, important Evergood work from a different phase in his career, titled "Threshold to Success" (1955-57), which was purchased out of a PAFA annual in 1958. Mine Disaster is also a part of PAFA's growing collection of Magic Realist and socially concerned art, fleshing out the context for works by Jacob Lawrence, Reginald Marsh, Zoltan Sepeshy, Honoré Sharrer, Jack Levine, Rico LeBrun, Leon Golub, and others. "Mine Disaster" is currently on view in the Historic Landmark Building. Working as one of the few female artists in what was essentially a male-dominated profession, Martin's humorous and sentimental genre paintings present a different commentary on women's role in society, giving an insider's view of the middle-class domestic sphere. Mother and Child by the Hearth shows a middle-class American mother in the pose of a High Renaissance Madonna and Child, surrounded by the accoutrements of the American middle class dream. Spencer exhibited her work at PAFA in 1861 and 1862, however, Mother and Child by the Hearth is the first work by this most famous of mid-nineteenth century American women artists to enter the collection. The painting complements PAFA's outstanding collection of 19th century portraiture, genre painting, and still life, and will hang comfortably in the company of works by artists such as William Sidney Mount, Severin Roesen, and Thomas Sully. Mother and Child by the Hearth also adds to the collection's strong body of work devoted to the themes of childhood and motherhood from Peale and Heselius family portraits to the work of noted PAFA graduates Mary Cassatt and Cecelia Beaux. "Mother and Child by the Hearth" is currently on view in the Historic Landmark Building Visit The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) at : http://www.pafa.org/

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:31 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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