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

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• Mat Collishaw Brings Ron Arad's Installation to Life at the Roundhouse in London
• The Art Gallery of New South Wales Highlights Modernity in German Art from 1910 to 1937
• The Chrysler Museum of Art Brings Self-Taught Artists into the Mainstream
• Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair ~ World's Most Compelling Choice of Asian Contemporary Art
• The Asheville Art Museum Invites Viewers to Explore "Color Study"
• Robert Rauschenberg: Botanical Vaudeville at The Edinburgh Festival 2011
• Charles Dickens Revealed Out of Museum of London's Archives
• Alexander McQueen Retrospective Among Top 10 Most Visited Exhibitions at The Met
• "A Walk in the Wild: John Muir's Journey" at the Oakland Museum of California
• The Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ A Phenomenal Collection Of American Art In Washington D.C.
• Gerhard Richter's Overpainted Photographs Presented by Fundación Telefónica
• 'Pop Life' at Hamburger Kunsthalle Proves that "Good Business is the Best Art"
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Awards a $2 Million Challenge Grant
• Vanderbilt University shows Views from the Collection III
• Galerie Gabriel Rolt in Amsterdam Exhibits 'Ryan McGinley: Somewhere Place'
• Léon Ferrari Retrospective Opens at a Catholic Church in Arles
• Sotheby's Exhibits Highlights from Forthcoming Sales of Russian Art in Paris
• Henri Matisse ~ People, Masks, Models Exhibition ~ at Staatsgalerie Sttutgart
• Library of Congress to discuss "Setting the President’s Table"
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Mat Collishaw Brings Ron Arad's Installation to Life at the Roundhouse in London Posted: 08 Aug 2011 11:34 PM PDT LONDON.- Mat Collishaw has collaborated with architect and designer Ron Arad to create a monumental, site-specific installation at the Roundhouse in London. Entitled Curtain Call, Arad's structure comprises 5,600 silicon rods suspended from an 18-metre diameter ring, and serves as a 360-degree canvas for film, as well as a platform for live performance and audience interaction. Collishaw will utilise this unique structure to premiere a new video work, Sordid Earth, 2011. Using 15 projectors, the film will be immersive and can be viewed from both the interior and exterior of Curtain Call. Sordid Earth draws on Collishaw's earlier series, Infectious Flowers, where he explored the confluence of beauty and decay, digitally grafting various skin diseases onto photographs of flowers. The Roundhouse video will use similar images of infected and visually menacing flowers, heightening the impact of these strangely alluring plants by presenting them on a far greater scale. Set within a tropical landscape with cascading waterfalls, it will depict the life cycle of the flowers. On the opening day of the exhibition, 9 August, the video will be accompanied by a 20-strong band of Brazilian drummers; thereafter a recording of their performance will be played within the space. Standing in the middle of this panoramic landscape, the viewer will watch as the visceral scene unfolds to the beating of the drums; day turns to night as the flowers blossom and grow, contracting repulsive infections, including sores and pustules, weeping as they die. Collishaw incorporates the architectural nuances of Arad's structure, as the silicon rods evoke jungle-like tendrils. >Collishaw's inspiration comes from the landscapes of John Martin and Martin Johnson Heade, both of whom created strange and apocalyptic visions. Discussing the impetus behind Sordid Earth, Collishaw says: "It intends to exploit the corrosive effects of our unquenchable appetite for depictions of a catastrophe-ravaged Earth". It's the interaction between artists on stage and 11–25s that makes the Roundhouse unique. Young people have interviewed Paul McCartney for Roundhouse Radio, filmed a documentary on NoFit State circus, and worked with Apple to deliver live streaming of events.  Visit : http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/

The Art Gallery of New South Wales Highlights Modernity in German Art from 1910 to 1937 Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:34 PM PDT Sydney, AU - The Art Gallery of New South Wales is pleased to present "The Mad Square: Modernity in German Art 1910-1937" from August 6th through November 6th. This will be the first exhibition in Australia to look in-depth at the turbulent time of the Weimar Republic when, following the catastrophe of World War I and in a period of intense crisis, Germany entered an extraordinary era of creative and artistic fervour. The "Mad Square" exhibition is organised by the Art Gallery of New South Wales with loans from museums and private collections from around the world.

The Chrysler Museum of Art Brings Self-Taught Artists into the Mainstream Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:33 PM PDT Norfolk, VA.– The Chrysler Museum of Art and Old Dominion University partner to present "Into the Mainstream: Self-Taught Artists from The Garbisch and Gordon Collections". The exhibition opens August 13th in the Chrysler Museum and will be on view through December 31st. This collaborative exhibition pairs ODU's Barron and Ellin Gordon collection of self-taught artists with the Chrysler's 19th-century work in the same tradition. The Chrysler's contribution includes works collected by Walter Chrysler, Jr.'s, sister and her husband, Bernice and Edgar Garbisch. The Garbisch collection is extensive, with more than 2,600 pieces. Upon their deaths, most of their art was donated to major museums such as the Chrysler and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair ~ World's Most Compelling Choice of Asian Contemporary Art Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:06 PM PDT SHANGHAI.- From September 7th to the 10th Shanghai is the place where all art lovers should be as SH Contemporary—Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair— discloses the world's most compelling choice of Chinese and Asian contemporary art alongside a selection of Western artists and galleries. Under the new direction of Massimo Torrigiani, the 5th edition of the fair has gathered an unprecedented group of established and emerging galleries from China presenting mostly previously unseen works in the striking Shanghai Exhibition Center, punctuated this year by a surprising curatorial programme with works and projects by over 40 artists.

The Asheville Art Museum Invites Viewers to Explore "Color Study" Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:05 PM PDT Asheville, NC.- The Asheville Art Museum is pleased to announce the opening of "Color Study". Featuring the stunning works of Kenneth Noland, W.P. Jennerjahn and Helen Frankenthaler, Julian Stanczak, David Appleman and Bill Scott other noteworthy artists, "Color Study" will remain on view in the Museum's Appleby Foundation Gallery until Sunday, November 6th. As the name suggests, Color Study features artists using color as their primary means of expression. According to Assistant Curator, Cole Hendrix, the exhibition showcases artworks and issues of both contemporary and historical importance, while exploring the troublesome nature of color for artists who like to be in control. Though each artist's interpretation is unique, the compilation of artwork exhibited in Color Study presents a beautifully cohesive story of the artists' shared devotion to the use of color.

Robert Rauschenberg: Botanical Vaudeville at The Edinburgh Festival 2011 Posted: 08 Aug 2011 08:51 PM PDT EDINBURGH.- The American artist Jasper Johns (B.1935) once said of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) that he had invented more than any artist since Picasso. Rauschenberg has altered the cultural landscape and continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary artists. Robert Rauschenbeg: Botanical Vaudeville is the first museum exhibition devoted to the artist to take place in the UK in thirty years – and it features thirty seven works made between 1982 and 1998. Rauschenberg died on May 12, 2008, on Captiva Island, Florida. He died of heart failure after a personal decision to go off life support.

Charles Dickens Revealed Out of Museum of London's Archives Posted: 08 Aug 2011 08:00 PM PDT LONDON.- The first works of art and objects, which will tell the story of Charles Dickens in a new exhibition exploring one of the world's most influential authors, have been taken out of storage at the Museum of London. The exhibition will examine the central relationship between Dickens and London – the city that inspired much of his work – and that he described as his 'magic lantern'. Often walking the streets at night, Dickens would build in his mind the settings, plots and characters of his novels. Evoking the atmosphere of the streets of Victorian London and the river Thames , visitors will follow in Dickens' footsteps and be taken on a memorable and haunting journey, discovering the places and subjects which sparked his imagination.

Alexander McQueen Retrospective Among Top 10 Most Visited Exhibitions at The Met Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:21 PM PDT NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which closed last night at midnight, attracted 661,509 visitors during its run from May 4 to August 7, placing it among the Museum's top 10 most visited exhibitions. Joining other blockbusters on the list such as Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978), Mona Lisa (1963), and Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2010), Savage Beauty ranks as the eighth most popular exhibition ever held at the Met in its 141-year history, and is the most visited of the special exhibitions organized by The Costume Institute since it became part of the Museum in 1946.

"A Walk in the Wild: John Muir's Journey" at the Oakland Museum of California Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:20 PM PDT OAKLAND, CA.- The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) presents A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir's Journey, on view August 6, 2011, through January 22, 2012, in the Museum's Great Hall. John Muir's experience in the Golden State led to his becoming a founding figure of the environmentalist movement. In this provocative new exhibition, OMCA celebrates the legendary naturalist's life, work, and legacy in California and beyond. Told through OMCA's collections of art, history, and natural science, as well as interactive digital technology and extensive loans Muir's journals, manuscripts, original drawings and plant collections―the exhibition pays tribute to the "Father of the National Parks," whose legacy continues to inspire environmental stewardship in California today. Through interactive, multisensory displays, A Walk in the Wild invites visitors to explore the vast natural environment of California and experience the sights, sounds, and smells that Muir encountered during his explorations. Through four main themes of wonder, adventure, discovery, and action, the exhibition brings the radical preservationist's legacy to life, and connects it to contemporary activists of environmental study, conservation, and exploration working today in California. Through video and interactive technology, visitors are able to meet these Modern Day Muirs and learn about their work and motivations. The featured Modern Day Muirs include: Shelton Johnson, Yosemite National Park ranger; John Wehausen, wildlife biologist; Dune Lankard, Alaskan environmental activist/fisherman; Rick Deutsch, Half Dome hiker/author; Jean Krejca, cave explorer;Greg Stock, Yosemite National Park geologist; Steve Sillett, redwood canopy researcher; Tori Seher, Yosemite National Park bear biologist and Alcatraz bird biologist; and Kemba Shakur, tree planter for Oakland Relief. "This incredible exhibition explores the abundance of California's natural treasures through the lens of John Muir—the radical environmentalist who adopted this state as his own," says OMCA Executive Director Lori Fogarty. "This is a fitting story for OMCA to tell as it utilizes our multidisciplinary collection focus and reinforces our dedication to telling the many stories of California. With its interactive approach, A Walk in the Wild provides an exciting primer to what visitors can expect with the reopening of our transformed Gallery of California Natural Sciences in June 2012." Simulation activities featured throughout the exhibition allow visitors to travel alongside Muir during his many explorations. From the ability to enter a giant hollow Sequoia tree in Yosemite, and see and smell the burnt embers of the forest burning around you to testing your skills at glacier and crevasse leaping in Alaska to following Muir's trek from Yosemite to Mount Whitney on Google Earth to the ability to take a simulated photograph of yourself mountaineering, A Walk in the Wild offers many opportunities to learn about Muir's legacy and bring out the John Muir in you. "This exhibition is filled with wonder and discovery," says guest curator Dorris Welch. "We all have many things to learn from John Muir's legacy. To be able to honor and bring John Muir's legacy into a modern-day light is an extremely important thing," Welch says of the OMCA-exclusive show. The exhibition features striking large-scale photographic murals by Steven Joseph showcasing the natural wonders of Muir's explorations and dramatic landscape paintings by William Keith and Thomas Hill, allowing visitors to explore the beautiful scenery that inspired John Muir. Through original artifacts on loan from the John Muir Papers, University of the Pacific, and the John Muir National Historic Site, visitors are able to see Muir's journals and manuscripts where he cites the awe and wonder he experienced alone in nature—from the musical qualities of waterfalls, streams and rivers in Yosemite Valley to the majestic glacially sculpted granite landscapes he explored in the highest of the High Sierra. Visitors can also explore how the minimal gear Muir carried in the mountains compares to the elaborate mountaineering gear of today. The exhibition also features "Nature's Beloved Son," a print gallery highlighting Stephen Joseph's prints of Muir's original pressed plant collections, displayed with Muir's original plant collection herbarium sheets. In early 1892, Professor Henry Senger, a philologist at the University of California, Berkeley contacted Muir with the idea of forming a local 'alpine club' for mountain lovers. Senger and San Francisco attorney Warren Olney sent out invitations "for the purpose of forming a 'Sierra Club.' Mr. John Muir will preside." On May 28, 1892, the first meeting of the Sierra Club was held to write articles of incorporation. One week later Muir was elected president, Olney vice-president, and a board of directors was chosen that included David Starr Jordan, president of the new Stanford University. Muir would remain president until his death 22 years late In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park Bill that was passed in 1899, establishing both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Because of the spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings, he was able to inspire readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks," and the National Park Service produced a short documentary on his life. A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir's Journey opened at the Oakland Museum of California on Saturday, August 6, 2011, and continues through January 22, 2012. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Dorris Welch, and is made possible by generous support from the Oakland Museum Women's Board, The Bernard Osher Foundation, the J.M. Long Foundation and the University of the Pacific Library, John Muir Papers, Holt Atherton Collections/Muir-Hanna Trust. Additional exhibition partners and collaborators include: Bonnie Gisel, Muir scholar and author; Jerry Pentin, videographer with Spring Street Studios; Dr. Bill Swagerty and Shan Sutton, University of the Pacific, Holt Atherton Special Collections, John Muir Papers; Carola DeRooy and Isabel Jenkins Ziegler, John Muir Historic Site National Park Service; and Malcolm Margolin, Heyday Books.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ A Phenomenal Collection Of American Art In Washington D.C. Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:11 PM PDT The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum complex and research organization, comprising 19 museums and nine research centers. The Smithsonian American Art Museum, begun in 1829, is the first federal art collection and is dedicated to the collection and display of American Art (art produced by American artists or in America by others). The museum began with gifts from private collections and art organizations established in the nation's capital before the founding of the Smithsonian in 1846. The museum has grown steadily to become a center for the study, enjoyment, and preservation of America's cultural heritage. Today the collection consists of artworks in all media, spanning more than 300 years of artistic achievement. The collection began modestly in 1829 when a Washingtonian named John Varden set out to form a permanent museum for the nation with his collection of European art. At first, the art was placed in a room he added to his own house near the U.S. Capitol. In 1841, Varden's collection was displayed in the newly constructed Patent Office Building (coincidentally, the museum's home today). The establishment of the Smithsonian in 1846 eclipsed the prestige of the institute, which later disbanded. By 1858, many items in the Smithsonian Art Collection on view at the Patent Office Building were moved a few blocks to the newly completed Smithsonian Castle. The remainder of the collection followed in 1862. But a destructive fire there in 1865 increased the Smithsonian's reluctance to build cultural collections. For the rest of the century, most of the artwork was placed on loan to the Library of Congress and to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. A turning point in the history of the collection came in 1906. That year the probated will of Harriet Lane Johnston, an art collector and niece of President James Buchanan, forced an important decision in a federal court: the recognition that the Smithsonian's collection formed a "National Gallery of Art." Coined during a national art-collecting boom, the official name soon attracted major gifts. Highly prized were diverse artworks owned by John Gellatly and American impressionist paintings and Barbizon landscapes collected by William T. Evans. Plans to build a permanent home for the museum on the National Mall came and went, among them a prize-winning modernist structure that shocked federal officials. The competition had been organized after Andrew Mellon gave his European-focused art collection to the nation in 1937 with the stipulation that his new museum be called the "National Gallery of Art" in emulation of the National Gallery of Art in London. To comply with Mellon's wishes for a National Gallery of Art to house his European collection, the Smithsonian museum known as the National Gallery of Art for the previous thirty-one years was renamed the National Collection of Fine Arts in 1937. It was given a new mission based on New Deal idealism: to promote the work of living artists and to build a national audience. The interest in historic preservation after World War II ultimately was responsible for giving the first Smithsonian art museum a new home and preserving an architectural treasure. In 1957, a bill was introduced in Congress to tear down the elegant Patent Office Building to make way for a parking lot. Deteriorated but still one of the purest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the nation, the structure was saved when Congress turned the building over to the Smithsonian. In 1968, after an extensive interior renovation, the museum opened to the public. In 1972, the Renwick Gallery opened to the public as a branch museum featuring American crafts. In 1980, the museum's name was changed to the National Museum of American Art as part of a Smithsonian initiative to standardize the names of its many museums and to reflect the national scope of the collections. Since then, the museum has focused its energy on acquiring and promoting the work of artists in the United States exclusively. Twenty years later, the museum proposed that it be called the Smithsonian American Art Museum as an easy-to-remember name and a straightforward presentation of its mission. Congress approved this change in October 2000. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's main building, a dazzling showcase for American art and portraiture, is a National Historic Landmark and is considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. Several important early American architects were involved in the original design of the building, including Robert Mills and Thomas U. Walter. Begun in 1836 and completed in 1868, it is one of the oldest public buildings constructed in early Washington. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's branch for craft and decorative arts, the Renwick Gallery, is close to the White House in the heart of historic federal Washington. Its Second Empire-style building, also a National Historic Landmark, was designed by architect James Renwick Jr. in 1859 and completed in 1874. In the 1990s, the Smithsonian embarked on a plan to restore the main building, and to create innovative new public facilities. The recent renovation (2000-2006) revealed the full magnificence of the building's exceptional architectural features, such as the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows, and skylights as long as a city block. Full circulation on all three floors for the public has been restored. Extraordinary effort was made to use new preservation technologies to restore the historic fabric of the building and re-use historic materials. Two innovative and bold new public spaces are open to museum visitors: the Lunder Conservation Center and the Luce Foundation Center for American Art. In addition, the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium and the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard are major enhancements that make this a destination museum for the 21st century. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is one of the nation's leading centers for the study of American art. The museum offers academic opportunities for scholars at the graduate level and above, research opportunities for visiting scholars, and professional museum training for college seniors and graduate students. The museum also produces 'American Art', a peer-reviewed periodical on the arts in America, organizes scholarly symposia, and sponsors several annual publication prize awards. The museum's specialized art databases of a half million records and its extensive photograph archives further research efforts in the field. Education staff and docents welcome students and teachers at both venues, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the nation's first collection of American art and one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art made in the United States, is an unparalleled record of the American experience. The collection captures the aspirations, character, and imagination of the American people across more than three centuries. These artworks reveal America's rich artistic and cultural history from the colonial period to today. In recent years, the museum has strengthened its commitment to contemporary art, and in particular media arts. All regions, cultures, and traditions in this country are represented in the museum's collections, research resources, exhibitions, and public programs. Colonial portraiture, nineteenth-century landscape, American impressionism, twentieth-century realism and abstraction, New Deal projects, sculpture, photography, prints and drawings, contemporary crafts, African American art, Latino art, and folk art are all featured in the collection. More than 7,000 artists are represented in the collection, including major masters such as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Helen Frankenthaler, Christo, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Lee Friedlander, Nam June Paik, Jackson Pollock, Martin Puryear, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein. The museum has been a leader in identifying significant aspects of American visual culture and actively collecting and exhibiting works of art before many other major public collections. The museum has the largest collection of 'New Deal' art and the finest collections of contemporary craft, American impressionist paintings and masterpieces from the Gilded Age. Other pioneering collections include historic and contemporary folk art; work by African American and Latino artists; photography from its origins in the nineteenth century to contemporary works; images of western expansion; and realist art from the first half of the twentieth century. The Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, features one of the finest collections of American craft in the United States. Its collections, exhibition program, and publications highlight the best craft objects and decorative arts from the nineteenth century to the present. The museum's Luce Foundation Center for American Art, a study center and visible art storage facility, displays more than 3,300 artworks from the museum's permanent collection in a three-story skylight space. The highlight of the temporary exhibitions currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum is "Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow" until May 8th 2011. Alexis Rockman has been depicting the natural world with virtuosity and wit for more than two decades. He was one of the first contemporary artists to build his career around exploring environmental al issues, from evolutionary biology and genetic engineering to deforestation and climate change. Rockman has garnered attention for embracing these issues, as well as for the epic quality of his projects, including several monumentally scaled canvases. His work expresses deep concerns about the world's fragile ecosystems and the tension between nature and culture, which are communicated through vivid, even apocalyptic, imagery. Rockman achieves his vision through a synthesis of fantasy and empirical fact, using sources as varied as natural history, botanical illustrations, museum dioramas, science fiction films, realist art traditions dating back to the Renaissance, and firsthand field study. Alexis Rockman: A fable for Tomorrow is the first major survey of the artist's work and features 47 paintings and works on paper from private and public collections. The title of the exhibition is taken from the opening chapter of Rachel Carson's influential 1962 book Silent Spring. In it, Carson combines two seemingly incompatible literary genres, mythic narrative and factual reportage. Rockman approaches his paintings with a similar intent. The exhibition traces Rockman's artistic development from the mid-1980s to the present. Highlights include "Evolution" (1992), his first mural-sized painting, and "Manifest Destiny" (2003-2004), an ambitious large-scale work commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. An accompanying book has been produced, co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and London-based D Giles Ltd. In addition to the Rockman retrospective, 3 rotating exhibitions feature exhibits from the main collection. "Close to Home: Photographers and Their Families" until July 24th 2011 presents photographs made during the past three decades by both established and emerging artists. It features thirty-two color and black-and-white photographs from the permanent collection. "Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image" takes stock of the cutting-edge tools and materials used by video artists during the past forty years and features key artworks from the history of video art alongside works by the latest generation of artists. The "Grand Salon Installation: Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" at the Renwick Gallery is an installation of seventy paintings from the collection showing the development of American art from the 1840s to the 1930s. The Smithsonian American Art Museum displays its collections and presents special exhibitions in two locations in Washington, D.C. Its main building is located at the heart of a vibrant downtown cultural district, while its branch museum for contemporary craft and decorative arts, the Renwick Gallery, is located nine blocks west, near the White House. Before you visit, please take a moment to look over our Gallery Guidelines so you know what to expect. If you are looking for a quiet place to work or to check your e-mail, free public wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) is available in the Luce Foundation Center. Please note: the Kogod Courtyard and the Courtyard Cafe are temporarily closed due to construction. If your time is limited, stop by the Information Desk for a self-guided tour brochure, Ten Highlights, which includes the innovative Luce Foundation Center for American Art and the Lunder Conservation Center, or take advantage of one of the daily docent-led tours of the collection. Don't forget, American Art's main building is open every evening until 7 p.m. so you can visit your favorite painting before going to dinner or heading home. Education staff and docents welcome students and teachers to "our space" at two venues, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, interactive tours yield lively exchanges about our collection as windows on American history. At the Renwick Gallery, students handle and explore unique craft objects by contemporary artists to learn about process, material, and technique. A variety of programs are offered in the center, including themed scavenger hunts for children, a weekly sketching workshop, Art + Coffee tours and a variety of interactive games. Ten award-winning interactive computer kiosks share information about every object on display and include discussions of each artwork, artist biographies, audio interviews, still images, and nearly seventy videos created exclusively for the Luce Center. Audio tours with more than 180 stops can be accessed through a cell phone, iTunes, or free MP3 players available at the Center's information desk. Visit The Smithsonian American Art Museum at : www.americanart.si

Gerhard Richter's Overpainted Photographs Presented by Fundación Telefónica Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:10 PM PDT MADRID.- Fundación Telefónica presents the personal project of one of the greatest creators of the XX century, made of more than 300 painted pictures coming from his personal albums. The show includes images from private collections and from the artist himself on which Richter has worked since 1989 until the present. Gerhard Richter is considered one of the most influential artists of our time without ever having limited himself to one single style. His varied production includes sculptures and paintings that range from landscapes to colourist abstractions and monochromatic greys. Dragging the photos over wet paint, Richter creates new images.

'Pop Life' at Hamburger Kunsthalle Proves that "Good Business is the Best Art" Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:09 PM PDT HAMBURG.- The exhibition Pop Life takes Andy Warhol's famously provocative claim that "good business is the best art" as the starting point for a completely new interpretation of the legacy of Pop art and the influence of its chief protagonists. Pop Life shows the various ways in which artists since the 1980s have engaged with the mass media, often involving the deliberate creation and cultivation of an artistic persona as a 'brand'. The exhibition features works by Andy Warhol alongside key pieces by Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Martin Kippenberger, Tracey Emin, Takashi Murakami and others. Some 320 exhibits will be on display, including paintings, drawings, photographs, magazines, sculptures, videos, merchandising products, spatial installations and a shop.  On view through 9 May, 2010 at the Hamburger Kunsthalle.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Awards a $2 Million Challenge Grant Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:08 PM PDT CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago has been awarded a $2 million challenge grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to aid the museum's efforts in conservation and scientific research on its collections. Of this generous grant, $1.5 million, to be matched by $500,000, will be used to endow a new position for an associate conservation scientist within the museum's Department of Conservation. The remaining $500,000 of the grant will support, over a four-year period, the continuation and expansion, in both depth and scope, of the art conservation and scientific research collaboration the museum has recently undertaken with colleagues at Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory.

Vanderbilt University shows Views from the Collection III Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:07 PM PDT NASHVILLE, TN  – The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, Views from the Collection III, drawn from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection. Views from the Collection III opens Thursday, April 3, and will be on view through June 30. This is the final installment in a three-part series of exhibitions of art from the permanent collection. The current show will feature a cross-section of work from Europe, the United States, India, Papau New Guinea, Japan, China, and Africa.

Galerie Gabriel Rolt in Amsterdam Exhibits 'Ryan McGinley: Somewhere Place' Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:06 PM PDT Amsterdam.- Galerie Gabriel Rolt is delighted to present a new series of works by acclaimed American photographer Ryan McGinley. This will be his second solo exhibition in The Netherlands, following on from the 2007 exhibition at FOAM. 'Ryan McGinley: Somewhere Place' will be on show from April 9th to May 14th 2011, with an opening reception on Saturday 9 April from 17.00 – 19.30 hrs. Youth, liberation and the joy of losing yourself in the moment are elements that feature throughout Ryan McGinley's work, from his early roots in documenting the urban adventures of his downtown Manhattan friends to his subsequent cross-country travels in utopian environments throughout America to his most recent studio portraits. McGinley's elaborate and rigorous process of photo-making creates moments of breathtaking beauty: naked feral kids poised in ecstatic abandon. The lack of clothing and other contemporary signifiers along with the archetypical landscapes give the photos a sense of timelessness in which the viewer can project his or her own story.

Léon Ferrari Retrospective Opens at a Catholic Church in Arles Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:05 PM PDT ARLES, FRANCE - The presence of a Léon Ferrari retrospective in a church is a paradox verging on the miraculous: here we have a famous, ninety-year-old artist who has devoted a large part of his working life to studying and implacably criticising the Catholic Church from its origins up to the present day. Ferrari's œuvre foregrounds the contradictions of the human condition: the abuses of power and the intolerance, sexual repression, racism, violence and authoritarianism that characterise different kinds of organisations in contemporary society. In 2009 the Museum of Modern Art , MoMA in New York featured his work in a major exhibition with artist Mira Schendel called Tangled Alphabets.

Sotheby's Exhibits Highlights from Forthcoming Sales of Russian Art in Paris Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:04 PM PDT LONDON.- To coincide with the 2010 'L'année de la Russie en France', Sotheby's announced that it will exhibit important works from its forthcoming sales of Russian Art in New York (April 2010) and London (June 2010) at its Paris Saleroom from March 4th to March 9th, 2010. The exhibition of around 25 paintings by leading Russian artists – some of whom emigrated to France – will also include a group of important works by Pavel Tchelitchew, which have come from the estate of American actress and socialite, Ruth Ford.

Henri Matisse ~ People, Masks, Models Exhibition ~ at Staatsgalerie Sttutgart Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:03 PM PDT STUTTGART, GERMANY - Staatsgalerie Sttutgart presents today the first world exhibition dedicated to portraits by Henri Matisse, with a total of 110 works of art. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, and drawings that will allow us to understand how he created the human face from a personal aspect and know his works from unexpected angles, according to museum director Sean Rainbird. The exhibition is titled "People, Masks, Models," and will be on view through January 11, 2009.

Library of Congress to discuss "Setting the President’s Table" Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:02 PM PDT   Washington, DC - The purchase and use of White House china provides a window into the importance and style of entertaining by U.S. presidents and their First Ladies,  and it will provide the public with a lot to dish about, too, as in the cases of Mary Todd Lincoln and Nancy Reagan. Christina Keyser, an assistant curator at Mount Vernon, will discuss "Setting the President's Table" at the Library of Congress at noon on Thursday, Jan. 15, in Room 139 on the first floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:02 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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