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

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• The Cafesjian Centre for the Arts Opens "Victor Vasarely ~ The Father of Op-Art"
• James Cohan Gallery in Shanghai Exhibits Taaffe - Tomaselli - & Winters
• The Grolier Club Presents Hollywood Golden Age Glamour Photographs
• The Third Alph-ville Festival Explores Post-Digital Culture in London
• D. Wigmore Fine Art Shows Major Southern Commissions of the 1930s-1940s
• Edinburgh Printmakers Presents "The Writing on Your Wall"
• The Montclair Art Museum Presents Marina Zurkow's Animation & Works on Paper
• Tony Cragg Exhibition Opens at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas
• Babcock Galleries Shows Ten Paintings by Robert Schwartz
• The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon ~ Portugal's Finest Museum of Classical Art
• Chagall: Masterpieces 1908 – 1922 at the BA-CA Kunstforum
• Art Chicago Atracts International Modern & Contemporary Galleries
• Michael Hoppen Contemporary to Present Photographer Kishin Shinoyama
• Bank of America Expands ~ Museums on Us(TM) ~
• Kunsthaus Wien Shows a Comprehensive Retrospective Devoted to HR Giger
• The Art Students League of New York Highlights at Lowe Art museum
• SCOPE Basel 2011 Returns with Its Cutting Edge Contemporary Art
• Revolutionary Russians the Centenary of Shostakovich
• The Art of Italy in the British Royal Collection Opens in Edinburgh
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Cafesjian Centre for the Arts Opens "Victor Vasarely ~ The Father of Op-Art" Posted: 11 Sep 2011 11:41 PM PDT Yerevan, Armenia.- The Cafesjian Centre for the Arts is proud to present "Victor Vasarely: Optical perspectives" on view at the museum from September 10th. A selection of 44 prints from the Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection will represent various periods of Vasarely's legacy. Vasarely was recognized the founding father of op-art. Defining the principle of unity of color and form, Vasarely creates the plastic alphabet, the units of which, through reconfigurations and permutations generate endless creative combinations. By developing the plastic alphabet into the universal language of art Victor Vasarely aspires to make art accessible to all, to contribute to the harmonious development of art and society. Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art. His work entitled 'Zebra', created in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art. Vasarely was born in Pécs and grew up in Pieš'any and Budapest where in 1925 he took up medical studies at Budapest University. In 1927 he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Podolini-Volkmann Academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled at Sándor Bortnyik's workshop, then widely recognized as the center of Bauhaus studies in Budapest. Victor Vasarely became a graphics designer and a poster artist during the 1930s who combined patterns and organic images with each other. Vasarely left Hungary and settled in Paris in 1930 working as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies Havas, Draeger and Devambez (1930–1935). His interactions with other artists during this time were limited. After the Second World War, he opened an atelier in Arcueil, a suburb some 10 kilometers from the center of Paris (in the Val-de-Marne département of the Île-de-France). In 1961 he finally settled in Annet-sur-Marne (in the Seine-et-Marne département). Vasarely eventually went on to produce art and sculpture mainly focused around the area of optical illusion. Over the next three decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art, working in various materials but using a minimal number of forms and colours. During this period, Vasarely experimented with cubistic, futuristic, expressionistic, symbolistic and surrealistic paintings without developing a unique style. Afterwards, he said he was on the wrong track. He exhibited his works in the gallery of Denise René (1946) and the gallery René Breteau (1947). Finally, Vasarely found his own style. The overlapping development are named after their geographical heritage. Denfert refers to the works influenced by the white tiled walls of the Paris Denfert - Rochereau metro station. Ellipsoid pebbles and shells found during a vacation in 1947 at the Breton coast at Belle Île inspired him to the Belles-Isles works. Since 1948, Vasarely usually spent his summer months in Gordes in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. There, the cubic houses led him to the composition of the group of works labelled Gordes/Cristal. He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view. From his Gordes works he developed his kinematic images, superimposed acrylic glass panes create dynamic, moving impressions depending on the viewpoint. In the black-white period he combined the frames into a single pane by transposing photographies in two colours. Tribute to Malevitch, a ceramic wall picture of 100 m² adorns the University of Caracas, Venezuela which he co-designed in 1954 with the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is a major work of this period. Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Jesús Rafael Soto, Jean Tinguely were exhibited at the Denise René gallery under the title Le Mouvement (the motion). Vasarely published his Yellow Manifest. Building on the research of constructivist and Bauhaus pioneers, he postulated that visual kinetics (plastique cinétique) relied on the perception of the viewer who is considered the sole creator, playing with optical illusions. On 2 March 1959, Vasarely patented his method of unités plastiques. Permutations of geometric forms are cut out of a coloured square and rearranged. He worked with a strictly defined palette of colours and forms (three reds, three greens, three blues, two violets, two yellows, black, white, gray; three circles, two squares, two rhomboids, two long rectangles, one triangle, two dissected circles, six ellipses) which he later enlarged and numbered. Out of this plastic alphabet, he started serial art, an endless permutation of forms and colours worked out by his assistants. (The creative process is produced by standardized tools and impersonal actors which questions the uniqueness of a work of art.) In 1963, Vasarely presented his palette to the public under the name of Folklore planetaire. The Tribute to the hexagon series consists of endless transformations of indentations and relief adding color variations, creating a perpetual mobile of optical illusion. In 1965 Vasarely was included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "The Responsive Eye," created under the direction of William C. Seitz. His Vega series plays with spherical swelling grids creating an optical illusion of volume. In October 1967, designer Will Burtin invited Vasarely to make a presentation to Burtin's Vision '67 conference, held at New York University. On 5 June 1970, Vasarely opened his first dedicated museum with over 500 works in a renaissance palace in Gordes (closed in 1996). A second major undertaking was the Foundation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, a museum housed in a distinct structure specially designed by Vasarely. It was inaugurated in 1976 by French president Georges Pompidou. Also, in 1976 his large kinematic object Georges Pompidou was installed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely Museum located at his birth place in Pécs, Hungary, was established with a large donation of works by Vasarely. In the same decade, he took a stab at industrial design with a 500-piece run of the upscale Suomi tableware by Timo Sarpaneva that Vasarely decorated for the German Rosenthal porcelain maker's Studio Linie. In 1982 154 specially created serigraphs were taken into space by the cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien on board the French-Soviet spacecraft Salyut 7 and later sold for the benefit of UNESCO. In 1987, the second Hungarian Vasarely museum was established in Zichy Palace in Budapest with more than 400 works. He died in Paris on 15 March 1997. The Cafesjian Center for the Arts is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary art to Armenia and presenting the best of Armenian culture to the world. Inspired by the vision of its founder, Mr. Gerard L. Cafesjian, the Center offers a wide variety of exhibitions, the majority of which are derived from Mr. Cafesjian's own extensive collection of contemporary art. The building that now houses the Cafesjian Center for the Arts is well known to the Armenian people, especially those living in its capital city of Yerevan. Known as "The Cascade," the complex was originally conceived by the architect Alexander Tamanyan (1878–1936). Tamanyan wanted to connect the northern and central parts of the city with a vast green area of waterfalls and gardens, cascading down one of the city's highest promontories. Unfortunately, the plan remained largely forgotten until the late 1970s, when it was revived by Yerevan's Chief Architect, Jim Torosyan. Torosyan's conception of the Cascade included Tamanyan's original plan but incorporated new ideas that included a monumental exterior stairway, a long indoor shaft containing a series of escalators, and an intricate network of halls, courtyards, and outdoor gardens embellished with numerous works of sculpture bearing references to Armenia's rich history and cultural heritage. Construction of Torosyan's design of the Cascade was launched by the Soviets in the 1980s but abandoned after the Armenian earthquake of 1988 and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. With independent rule and the transition to democracy, Armenia entered a period of severe economic hardship, and the Cascade remained a neglected relic of the Soviet era for more than a decade. Mr. Cafesjian, working with the City of Yerevan and the government of the Republic of Armenia, initiated its recent revitalization in 2002. Over the next seven years, virtually every aspect of the monument was renovated, and much of it completely reconstituted into a Center for the Arts bearing the name of its principal benefactor. Visit the Cafesjian Center for Arts website at ... http://www.cmf.am

James Cohan Gallery in Shanghai Exhibits Taaffe - Tomaselli - & Winters Posted: 11 Sep 2011 10:45 PM PDT SHANGHAI.-James Cohan Gallery Shanghai presents the exhibition Alchemy & Inquiry with works by three prominent American artists,Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli and Terry Winters. The exhibition was organized by independent curator Raymond Foye and Senior Curator Jennifer McGregor at the Wave Hill botanical garden and cultural center in New York City, where this exhibition first originated and was on view from April to June. Nature and the natural world have long inspired artists in both Western and Eastern cultures. While each of the three artists in this exhibition have their own distinctive and innovative approach to their process and materials, they each share a common interest in producing works that become diverse, visually engaged responses to the ways in which they study nature and observe the changing landscape.

The Grolier Club Presents Hollywood Golden Age Glamour Photographs Posted: 11 Sep 2011 10:22 PM PDT New York City.- The Grolier Club is pleased to present "Silver Screen/Silver Prints: Hollywood Glamour Portraits from the Robert Dance Collection", on view from September 14th through November 12th. This exhibition of vintage Hollywood photography traces the careers of the leading photographers and many of the great stars of the "Golden Age" of motion pictures. "Silver Screen/Silver Prints" is drawn from the collection of Grolier Club member Robert Dance and curated by Anne H. Hoy. The works on display are shown together for the first time. The photographs in the exhibit demonstrate the centrality of studio portraits to the film industry's star-making apparatus, especially in the two decades before the Second World War and, most notably at MGM — which boasted "more stars than there are in the heavens." The exhibition is divided into ten parts, each dedicated to a single photographer, star, or theme.

The Third Alph-ville Festival Explores Post-Digital Culture in London Posted: 11 Sep 2011 09:41 PM PDT London.- Taking place from 22nd to the 25th of September, the third edition of Alpha-ville Festival will spread across several venues in London, running alongside the London Design Festival and the Digital Design Weekend at V&A , and including venues such as Whitechapel Gallery, Rich Mix, Netil House, The Vortex, XOYO and Space Studios. This year's theme explores the transition from digital to post-digital culture . It showcases an extensive programme of innovative and ground breaking work by some of the most influential international digital artists, aimed to investigate the intersection between art and technology, and the impact on both society and the creative practice. Through  social media, interactive art, open labs, meet-ups, talks, workshops, screenings, live music, visual performances and parties , Alpha-ville offers a new experience for a wide audience, both off and online, promoting interaction, participation and awareness of how we perceive and use digital and the impact on our lives - the post-digital era. The programme is divided into four strands: Innovation: Live: Screening: And Exchange.

D. Wigmore Fine Art Shows Major Southern Commissions of the 1930s-1940s Posted: 11 Sep 2011 09:28 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc. presents Major Southern Commission of the 1930s-1940s, on view through October 28th, 2011. Over 40 oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings show the range of commission work in the 1930s-1940s, including corporate projects, illustrations for famous literature, and studies for post office murals. The exhibition includes many works on paper from George Biddle's 1930 visit to Charleston. Biddle (1885-1973) used these works as the basis for his illustrations for the original libretto for George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, published alongside the opera's New York premiere in 1935. The opera will have a revival on Broadway in the 2011-2012 season.

Edinburgh Printmakers Presents "The Writing on Your Wall" Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:47 PM PDT Edinburgh.- Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery is pleased to present "The Writing on Your Wall", an exhibition curated by Rob Tufnell, on view from September 17th through October 29th. Featuring works by contemporary artists Jeremy Deller, Ruth Ewan, Alasdair Gray, Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan amongst others "The Writing on Your Wall" is an exhibition that looks at printmaking as a socially concerned, democratic media designed to disseminate radical ideas. The Gallery and Studio are very centrally situated being only a few minutes walk from both the railway station, central bus station and the main shopping and cafe areas.

The Montclair Art Museum Presents Marina Zurkow's Animation & Works on Paper Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:46 PM PDT Montclair, NJ.- The Montclair Art Museum is proud to present "Marina Zurkow: Friends, Enemies, And Others" on view at the museum from September 17th through January 8th 2012. Marina Zurkow's art examines our complicated and often perilous relationship to the natural environment. Working primarily in digital animation, she draws upon both new media and traditional fine arts techniques to create videos and works on paper that are at once lyrical and discomfiting, whimsical and profound. This exhibition will mark the launch of New Directions, a series of solo exhibitions of contemporary artists inaugurated by MAM's new curator of contemporary art, Alexandra Schwartz.

Tony Cragg Exhibition Opens at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:34 PM PDT DALLAS, TX.- This fall, the Nasher Sculpture Center presents Tony Cragg: 'Seeing Things., the first major U.S. museum exhibition in nearly 20 years of the work of the award-winning, internationally-acclaimed artist. The exhibition will be on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center from September 10th to January 8th, 2012. Featuring approximately 30 large- and moderately-scaled sculptures dating from 1993 to the present, the exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see and better understand the artist's work since his last U.S. museum exhibition in the United States in 1990-92.

Babcock Galleries Shows Ten Paintings by Robert Schwartz Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:33 PM PDT San Francisco, CA.- Babcock Galleries are proud to present "Robert Schwartz", ten of the artists paintings, on view at the gallery from September 8th through October 7th. Robert Schwartz provides a portal into a world of emerging gay culture and social upheaval of the 1960s, seeking to expose truths about the human condition by depicting people involved in curious behaviors set in a world of his own invention. The 10 exquisite paintings in this exhibition represent the first major presentation of the late San Francisco-based artist's work since 2005 and are accompanied by an exhibition brochure with an essay by art journalist and critic Carol Kino. Robert Schwartz (1947-2000) painted detailed cross sections of a world where characters move about in the ironic overlaps of incongruous realities. With an intricacy often compared to that of medieval miniatures, each of Schwartz's paradoxical narratives is expertly composed in a space rarely exceeding 10 inches wide--inviting close examination of his intriguing, yet revealing social scenarios. Working in gouache on paper and oil on panel, Schwartz created what critic Donald Kuspit calls "a kind of little theater." In his sets, representative landscapes, evocative of old-master sensibilities, are juxtaposed with urban architecture. In his figurative scenes, casts of nudes play on public stages next to others who are fully clothed. The artist's wry sense of humor emerges from the tension of opposites; these depictions of peculiar relationships, impeccably rendered mysteries, averted gazes, veiled desires, all become almost familiar. "Nothing is left to chance," writes Kuspit. "Nothing is incomplete." Art in America's Nathan Kernan, while seeing a likeness to the techniques of Joan Nelson and even early Robert Greene, cites Schwartz as a 'prescient' precursor to artists like John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage. Schwartz graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1970 and exhibited widely in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York.  In 1992, he received the National Endowment for the Arts WESTAF Award. Retrospectives of his work were held at the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara, California in 1990 and at Seattle's Frye Art Museum in 2000. After Schwartz's unexpected death due to heart failure, the San Jose Museum of Art held a survey of his works, including 56 paintings, in September 2004 to January 2005. A major monograph, Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz, by Barry Schwabsky and Susan Landauer, was published in conjunction with the San Jose exhibition. From the Babcock Gallery's earliest years it has been an important source for major works by America's greatest masters. Highlights of Babcock Galleries' history include the 1866 George Inness exhibition, which featured the monumental "Peace and Plenty" now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the Inness paintings they have placed in recent years are "Sunset at Montclair" acquired by the Montclair Art Museum and "Sunburst", an exceptional masterwork acquired through Babcock Galleries by the Palmer Museum of Art. Babcock Galleries has handled many works by Winslow Homer, including the famous "The Gale" sold to the Worcester Art Museum in 1916 for a then record price of $30,000. The Gallery was also agent for the Estate of Thomas Eakins, placing significant paintings in major museums from New York to Honolulu. In recent years we have sold a number of significant Eakins works, including one of his largest paintings: "A Street Scene, Seville". For the past half century Babcock Galleries has also been the leading source for works by Marsden Hartley. More than fifty museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and the Huntington Museum and Library have acquired Babcock Hartleys. During the past few years the gallery has sold nearly twenty major Marsden Hartley paintings, including one of his most famous works, "Mountains of Stone, Dogtown", 1931, which was featured in both the National Gallery's Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and his New York Galleries, and the Wadsworth Athenaeum's retrospective exhibition Marsden Hartley. For more than ten years Babcock Galleries has been the exclusive agent for the heirs of Edwin Dickinson. In that role they have sold more than one hundred works to important public and private collections nationwide. Similarly, as agent for the Estate of Charles Hawthorne, we have recently placed more than thirty works in collections. Today, Babcock Galleries remains a key source for important American art of all periods. In the past few years the gallery has sold many exceptional works including a life portrait of George Washington by Edward Savage; Charles Deas' famous "Long Jakes", Randolph Rogers' iconic "Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii", a major luminist painting by Jervis McEntee; a classic Frederic Church American landscape; and Robert Duncanson's amazing 1850 "View of Ashville, North Carolina". In recent years five museums have acquired six highly important Severin Roesen still life paintings from the gallery. We have sold important works by Fitz Hugh Lane, Asher B. Durand, William Sidney Mount, Sanford Gifford, and placed more than twenty-five works by John F. Kensett, including what is perhaps his finest Beacon Rock, Newport painting. Masters such as Ralph Blakelock, Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Mary Cassatt, and Childe Hassam have figured in sales and exhibitions. We are particularly pleased to have sold some of the finest works that have entered the market place by George Luks, Ernest Lawson, Arthur B. Davies, John F. Carlson, Arthur Dove, Charles Demuth, Georgia O'Keeffe, Max Weber, Milton Avery, and Franz Kline. Our current inventory includes landmark works by John F. Kensett, Severin Roesen, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Marsden Hartley, Charles Webster Hawthorne, Edwin Dickinson, George McNeil, Will Barnet, and Paul Wonner. Babcock Galleries' long and distinguished tradition of connoisseurship and service assure the highest quality of important American art to their clientele, museums and private collectors alike. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.babcockgalleries.com

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon ~ Portugal's Finest Museum of Classical Art Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:29 PM PDT The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (the "Gulbenkian") owes its existence to one man. Calouste Gulbenkian revealed his passion for art at an early age, reflecting his upbringing in Cappadocia and Constantinople, both crossroads of civilizations. Throughout his life, he assembled an eclectic and unique collection that was influenced by his travels and his personal taste. His collection now totals over 6,300 pieces from all over the world and dating from antiquity to the early twentieth century (including examples from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, Babylonia, Armenia, Persia, Islamic Art, Europe, and Japan). The Paris-based collection was divided for security reasons in the 1930s and part was sent to London. In 1936, the collection of Egyptian art was entrusted to the care of the British Museum while the finest paintings went to the National Gallery. Later, in 1948 and 1950, the same works would be sent on to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. As his collection grew, Gulbenkian grew more concerned about how to preserve his achievement. In 1937 he started discussions with Kenneth Clark, who had advised him in assembling his collection, about a "Gulbenkian Institute" at the National Gallery in London. However, during World War II, he was declared an "enemy under the act" by the British Government and they temporarily confiscated his share of the oil from the Iraq Petroleum Company. Although this was a technical legal decision, this action by his adopted country irritated him. Consequently he then considered the National Gallery of Art in Washington as a potential home for his collection and in 1943 began negotiations. At the time of his death in 1955, Gulbenkian does not appear to have decided where he wanted his collection to be housed and finally left it to his British lawyer, Lord Radcliffe to decide. However it was clear that Gulbenkian wanted his collection brought together under one roof where people could appreciate what one man could achieve in his lifetime. After his death, arduous negotiations with the French Government and the National Gallery in Washington ensued. In 1960, the entire collection was brought to Portugal, where it was exhibited at the Palace of the Marquises of Pombal (Oeiras) from 1965 to 1969. Fourteen years after Gulbenkian's death, his wish was fulfilled, when the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum was opened in Lisbon. The large premises, comprise the museum and headquarters of the Gulbenkian Foundation, and were designed by the Portugese architects Ruy Athouguia, Pedro Cid, and Alberto Pessoa. The museum is located within a landscaped park, at the intersection of Av. de Berna and Av. António Augusto de Aguiar, in Lisbon. Sharing the serene gardens of the Gulbenkian Museum is the Modern Art Center, containing modern and contemporary Portuguese and foreign art displayed on two floors, including works by Paula Rego, Almada Negreiros, Souza Cardoso, and Vieira da Silva. As a cultural center, the Gulbenkian Foundation sponsors plays, films, ballets, and concerts, as well as a rotating exhibition of works by leading modern Portuguese and foreign artists. Visit the museum's website at … www. http://museu.gulbenkian.pt The Calouste Gulbenkian Collection comprises some 6,300 pieces of which approximately 1,200 are on display in the museum galleries. The permanent exhibition galleries are distributed in chronological and geographical order and spread over two floors. The collection starts with Egyptian art, which includes a variety of pieces documenting the artistic periods that most marked Egyptian civilization from the Old Empire to the Roman Era. Greco-Roman art is represented by an extraordinary collection of Greek coins and "medallions" which form part of the treasure found at Aboukir, Egypt in 1902, as well as sculptures, ceramics, glass, jewels and gems. The small collection Mesopotamian art includes an outstanding Assyrian low relief from the palace of Assumazirpal. Calouste Gulbenkian's interest in artistic production from Persia, Turkey, Syria, the Caucasus and India, dating from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, is very much in evidence in the collection of Eastern Islamic art. The numerous objects on display include carpets, fabrics, illuminated manuscripts, book bindings, mosque lamps, painted tiles and ceramics. The Armenian art collection is essentially made up of illuminated parchments from the 16th and 17th centuries and show the great interest the collector had in his Armenian origins. Important items of art from the Far east, include porcelain and hard stone carvings from China, lacquer from Japan and a large collection of Japanese prints. The section of European sculpture includes pieces from the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century. The delicate image of the 'Virgin and Child', attributed to Jean de Liège, who worked for the French king Charles V, dates from the Middle Ages, while the works attributed to Antonio Rosselino and Andrea della Robbia stand out among the Renaissance collection. The same period is also represented by a significant collection of medals that includes a substantial nucleus of work by Pisanello. Eighteenth-century French sculpture includes work by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Pigalle, Caffieri and Houdon, the artist who produced "Diana", one of the highlights of the collection. The nineteenth-century's artistic vision of sculpture is emphasized in the Gulbenkian Collection with the inclusion of work by Carpeaux, Barye, Dalou and Rodin. The collection also contains historic books and manuscripts, including a series of Flemish, French, Dutch, English, Italian and German illuminated manuscripts, printed books and bindings dating from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The European decorative arts section is introduced by sixteenth-century tapestries from Flanders and Italy. Outstanding 18th century French works include Gobelins, Beauvais and Aubusson tapestries, very fine sets of furniture dating from the time of the Regency, Louis XV and Louis XVI, made by Cressent, Oeben, Riesener, Jacob, Carlin and Sené. Also on display are pieces in silver or gold by the best French craftsmen such as F.-T. Germain, Duran, Lehendrick, Roettiers and Auguste. The collection of works by René Lalique (a personal friend of Gulbekian) is quite exceptional for the quality of the jewelry and other objects, particularly the glass, which, because of its quality and consistency is considered to be quite unique. The Gulbenkian's collection of paintings is justifiably world famous, and includes some pieces from the Hermitage collection which were sold off by the Soviets. Covering the fifteenth to early twentieth century, the collection includes significant and well know works by almost every important artist. A dominant theme of the two hundred and twenty-nine paintings acquired and kept by Gulbenkian personally, was portrait and landscape painting, and these genres are given particular preponderance in the exhibition galleries of the museum. The main centers of artistic production from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are represented by the work of such artists as Stefan Lochner ("Presentation in the Temple"), Van der Weyden ("St. Catherine"), Pisanello, Anton Van Dyck ("Portrait of a Man"), Dierick Bouts, Jean-Marc Nattier, Domenico Ghirlandaio ("Portrait of a Girl"), Vittore Carpaccio, Cima de Conegliano, Giovanni Battista Moroni, Frans Hals, Jacob von Ruisdael, Peter Paul Rubens ("Portrait of Hélène Fourment", "The Love of the Centaurs" and "Flight Into Egypt"), Andrea della Robbia and Rembrandt ("Portrait of an Old Man", "Pallas Athene" and "Alexander the Great"). Eighteenth-century French painting is in turn represented by the work of Nicolas de Largillière, François Boucher, Hubert Robert, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Lépicié, Nattier and Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. The eighteenth century is also represented by an area devoted to the work of the Venetian painters Francesco Guardi and Canaletto, while another gallery brings together English painters such as Lawrence, George Romney and Thomas Gainsborough. Nineteenth-century English painting is in turn represented by the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The section of nineteenth-century French painting includes work by Corot, Jean-François Millet, Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Henri Fantin-Latour, as well as that of Édouard Manet, Dégas, Mary Cassatt ("The Stocking"), Renoir ("Portrait of Madame Claude Monet") and Claude Monet ("The Breakup of the Ice" and "Still life With Melon") . The Gulbenkian is currently in-between temporary exhibitions, but on 21st October 2011, "In the Presence of Things. Four Centuries of European Still-Life Painting (Part Two: 1840 – 1955)" will open and remain on view until 8 January 2012. This exhibition follows 'Part One' which was presented in 2010 (and looked at European still-life paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). The second part will focus on modern still life in the 19th century and on the fundamental changes which occurred during the first half of the 20th century. A revival of interest in still life among avant garde painters in France will be illustrated through the works of the Realists and the new stylistic language of Impressionism. A centerpiece of this part of the show will be the museum's own Still-life with Melon by Claude Monet. At the end of the 19th century still life was particularly appealing to Post-Impressionist painters like Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, who will be represented by a number of key loans. The exhibition will show the transformation of the genre into a vehicle for ever more radical pictorial experimentation in the work of Picasso, Braque and Matisse. Still-life will be shown to have allowed artists to engage and critique contemporary society. It was also overlaid with the new realities of the subjective experience in the work of Magritte and Dalí. The fragmentation and reinvention of the very category of still life will be explored through sculptures and artists' use of actual objects as works of art. This is the proposed journey of still-life painting in Western Art through different ages and geographical places, illustrated with major works by painters who have treated this artistic genre. Still life was the pretext for painters' explorations, and it is the source of fascination to many museum visitors.

Chagall: Masterpieces 1908 – 1922 at the BA-CA Kunstforum Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:28 PM PDT Vienna, Austria - The BA-CA Kunstforum is showing an exhibition devoted to the most important phase in the work of Marc Chagall, the years up until 1922, when he made his inimitable mark on the art of the classical modern era.  Chagall's work unites the formal-aesthetic achievements of the Paris avant-garde with the wild, tenderly poetic exultation in narrative of his native Russian.  The exhibition gathers together more than a hundred works of an artist who is probably the most renowned representative of the flamboyant and the exotic in the history of art. On exhibition until 18 February, 2007.

Art Chicago Atracts International Modern & Contemporary Galleries Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:27 PM PDT Chicago,IL - Art Chicago was founded as an American version of the Art Basel contemporary art exposition in 1980. It was the first such in North America. For years it was held in the long barnlike sheds on Chicago's Navy Pier. In 1989 the leaky old sparrow-infested sheds on the pier were demolished and replaced by a mall, theatres, entertainment venues and convention exhibition halls. In the 1990s Art Chicago was called "the nation's leading fair of 20th-century art, second only to Art Basel in Switzerland in global importance". Art Chicago 2011 will take place April 29 - May 2, with an Opening Preview on April 28.

Michael Hoppen Contemporary to Present Photographer Kishin Shinoyama Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:26 PM PDT LONDON.- Still hard at work well into his late 70s, Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama's images have lost none of the potency that would make his 1960's nude studies so revered and sensationalized in equal measure. Michael Hoppen Contemporary announced the first exhibition of his work in the UK, which will focus on his most iconic series – Birth, Twin, Death Valley, Brown Lilly and Phantom, as well as studies of a dancer, also from the 1960s. Shinoyama was born in Tokyo in 1940 and at the age of three underwent ordination rites to become a Buddhist priest.

Bank of America Expands ~ Museums on Us(TM) ~ Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:25 PM PDT BOSTON and LOS ANGELES - PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of "National Museum Month," Bank of America today launched the tenth season of Museums on Us(TM) by introducing the program in California.  This expansion - the largest in the program's decade-long history - enables anyone with a Bank of America credit or check card or MBNA credit card plus one guest the opportunity to visit 86 of the nation's finest cultural institutions on both coasts for free during the month of May.  Museums on Us(TM) provides unparalleled access to some of the nation's greatest museums and cultural institutions.  Over 74 million people in the U.S. have at least one eligible card that enables them and a guest to participate in the program.

Kunsthaus Wien Shows a Comprehensive Retrospective Devoted to HR Giger Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:24 PM PDT VIENNA.- In this comprehensive retrospective devoted to HR Giger, who was born in 1940 in Chur, Switzerland, Kunsthaus Wien takes a fresh look at the works of a controversial artist who, more than almost anyone else, has had a far-reaching influence on pop culture and cyberculture. The exhibition is on display until June 26, 2011. The exhibition focuses on the painter and sculptor HR Giger, who not only has achieved world fame as the creator of the film creature "Alien", which earned him an Oscar, but at the same time has produced a richly varied artistic oeuvre that is unmatched for its visionary power and disturbing intensity. Running through HR Giger's entire oeuvre, like two closely entwined threads, are the themes of sexuality and death. A special section of the exhibition entitled "Eros and Thanatos" traces this existential tension field through almost all the creative phases of the artist.

The Art Students League of New York Highlights at Lowe Art museum Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:23 PM PDT The Art Students League of New York, Highlights from the Permanent Collection, featuring some seventy -five paintings, works on paper, and sculptures, will be on view at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, from December 15, 2007 through February 3, 2008. As one of America's oldest art schools -- established by and for artists -- The Art Students League of New York has attracted outstanding talents as teachers and helped prepare others who left their mark on twentieth-century American art.

SCOPE Basel 2011 Returns with Its Cutting Edge Contemporary Art Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:22 PM PDT BASEL.- SCOPE, the art show that has established its name by curating cutting edge contemporary art from around the world, proudly returns to Basel for the fifth year. Running concurrent with Art Basel for the next three years, SCOPE returns to its high profile venue in historic Kaserne just blocks from Art Basel 42. Located in the heart of the city, SCOPE Basel's new home, a pavilion offering over 5,000 m², will provide the real opportunity for gallerists, collectors, curators, artists, critics and art lovers alike to experience a view of the contemporary art market available nowhere else. The fair opens to Press and VIP's on Wednesday, June 15 with the FirstView benefit.

Revolutionary Russians the Centenary of Shostakovich Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:21 PM PDT Canberra, Australia - 2006 marks the centenary of the birth of the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich.  He was born in St Petersburg on 25 September 1906 into a Russia wracked by revolutionary ferment.  In the hundred years that followed, Russia endured continual upheavals and at least four revolutions.

The Art of Italy in the British Royal Collection Opens in Edinburgh Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:20 PM PDT   EDINBURGH - The drama of the Baroque just opened in Edinburgh in part two of The Art of Italy in the British Royal Collection. The 31 paintings and 43 drawings selected for the exhibition reflect the great stylistic diversity of the period, which gave birth to the powerful realism of Caravaggio, the revolutionary naturalism of the Carracci and the cool classicism of Poussin and Domenichino. Highlights of the exhibition include two works by Caravaggio, The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew and Boy Peeling Fruit, both previously thought to be copies of lost originals.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:19 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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