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

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• The Royal Academy To Feature A Showcase of David Hockney's Landscapes
• "Paris: Life & Luxury" Brings 18th Century French Elegance to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston
• National Portrait Gallery Announces Lucian Freud Portraits Exhibition in 2012
• The International Art Fair ~ ART MOSCOW Opens Today
• The John Michael Kohler Arts Center Shows "Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts"
• The Art Gallery of Western Australia Shows Princely Treasures From the V&A
• The CaixaForum in Barcelona Welcomes Our Editor ~ A Cultural Gem In Spain
• "Landscapes from Monet to Hockney" at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art
• Italy Lends the Getty Museum a Bounty of Berninis
• Cal State Fullerton Art Gallery to show Art Nouveau & the Female Figure
• Getty Museum Acquires L' Entrée au Jardin Turc by Louis Léopold Boilly
• Contemporary Arts Center presents Austrian Painter Maria Lassnig's first US Solo
• Banco do Brasil's Cultural Center shows Works Made by the Russian Avant-Gardes
• The Vienna Secession exhibits "The Death of the Audience"
• Serpentine Gallery presents Beijing-Based Artist Cao Fei
• The Royal Academy Show Focuses on "Neglected" British Painter Paul Sandby
• Museum of Monaco Launches Major Exhibition by Damien Hirst
• Rare Guercino and Michelangelo Paintings Acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Royal Academy To Feature A Showcase of David Hockney's Landscapes Posted: 20 Sep 2011 11:04 PM PDT London.- The Royal Academy of Arts is proud to present "David Hockney: A Bigger Picture", the first major exhibition in the UK to showcase David Hockney's landscape work. Vivid paintings inspired by Yorkshire landscape, many large in scale and created specifically for the exhibition, will be shown alongside related drawings and films. Through a selection of works spanning fifty years, this new body of work will be placed in the context of Hockney's extended exploration of and fascination with landscape. Highlights will include three groups of new work made since 2005, when Hockney returned to live in Bridlington, showing an intense observation of his  surroundings in a variety of media. The exhibition will reveal the artist's emotional engagement with the landscape he knew in his youth, as he examines on a daily basis the changes in the seasons, the cycle of growth and variations in light conditions. "David Hockney: A Bigger Picture" will be on view in the Main galleries fro January 21st through April 9th. The exhibition will take the visitor on a journey through Hockney's world. The exhibition will address the various approaches that David Hockney has taken towards the depiction of landscape throughout his career. Past works from national and international collections will include "Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians", 1965 (Acrylic on Canvas), "Garrowby Hill", 1998, (Oil on Canvas) and the ambitious (Oil on 60 Canvases) "A Closer Grand Canyon", 1998. "David Hockney: A Bigger Picture" will also highlight the artist's vast knowledge and research of the old masters and their techniques. Hockney's involvement with the depiction of space is traced in this exhibition from the 1960s, through his photocollages of the 1980s and the Grand Canyon paintings of the late 1990s, to the recent paintings of East Yorkshire, many of which have been made en plein air. He has always embraced new technologies; recently he has used the iPhone and iPad as tools for making art. A number of iPad drawings and a series of new films produced using eighteen cameras will be displayed on multiple screens, providing a spellbinding visual experience. Born in Bradford in 1937, David Hockney attended Bradford School of Art before studying at the Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1962. Hockney's stellar reputation was established while he was still a student; his work was featured in the exhibition Young Contemporaries, which heralded the birth of British Pop Art. He visited Los Angeles in the early 1960s and settled there soon after. He is closely associated with southern California and has produced a large body of work there over many decades. David Hockney was elected a Royal Academician in 1991. "David Hockney: A Bigger Picture" has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. The exhibition has been curated by the independent curator Marco Livingstone and Edith Devaney, the Royal Academy of Arts. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. The Academy was founded by George III in 1768. The 34 founding Members were a group of prominent artists and architects including Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir William Chambers who were determined to achieve professional standing for British art and architecture. They also wanted to provide a venue for exhibitions that would be open to the public; and to establish a school of art through which their skills and knowledge could be passed to future generations of practitioners. The Academy today continues to aspire, in the words of its eighteenth-century founders, 'to promote the arts of design', that is: to present a broad range of visual art to the widest possible audience; to stimulate debate, understanding and creation through education; and to provide a focus for the interests of artists and art-lovers. The Academy now enjoys an unrivalled reputation as a venue for exhibitions of international importance. One of the founding principles of the RA was to 'mount an annual exhibition open to all artists of distinguished merit' to finance the training of young artists in the RA Schools. Now known as the Summer Exhibition and held every year without interruption since 1769, the exhibition attracts around 10,000 works, the selection being carried out by Academicians chaired by the President. The RA continues to fulfil its founders' aims by mounting a continuous programme of internationally-acclaimed loan exhibitions, supported by extensive education programmes, seminars and debates. The Main Galleries and The Sackler Wing of Galleries host a variety of major exhibitions from all periods and art forms. Recent exhibitions have been Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600 - 1600; Monet in the 20th Century; Citizens and Kings: Portraits in the Age of Revolution, 1760-1830; China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795; From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg; Byzantium 330-1453 and The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. The RA owns a major collection of works by Royal Academicians past and present together with the oldest and one of the best fine-art libraries in Britain. The Collection has received outstanding bequests such as the Michelangelo Tondo on display in the Sackler Wing of Galleries. Highlights from the Collection can be seen on free guided tours of the John Madejski Fine Rooms. The Academy's art school (it is known as 'The Schools' because each 'School' originally corresponded to a different element in the training of the artists that had to be mastered in a particular order) is the oldest in Britain. Past students include many famous British artists such as William Blake, JMW Turner, Edwin Landseer, JE Millais and, more recently, John Hoyland, Sir Anthony Caro and Sandra Blow. Today, 60 students study drawing, painting and printmaking on a three-year postgraduate course - the only such course currently available in Britain. Visit the academy's website at ... http://www.royalacademy.org.ukects.

"Paris: Life & Luxury" Brings 18th Century French Elegance to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Posted: 20 Sep 2011 10:40 PM PDT Houston, TX.- The nation of France, and its capital city of Paris in particular, held a special status in European culture during the 18th century. The upper echelons of societies throughout Europe were predominantly Francophiles— imitating French fashions of dress and furniture in their daily lives. On view at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston until December 11th, "Paris: Life & Luxury" re-imagines, through art and material culture, the complex and nuanced lifestyle of elite 18th century Parisians who made their city the fashionable and cultural epicenter of Europe. Inspired by the Getty Museum's extensive French decorative arts collection and the correspondingly strong holdings of French illustrated books in the Getty Research Institute, Paris: Life & Luxury provides a rich cultural and historical experience that closely mirrors daily life in 18th century France.

National Portrait Gallery Announces Lucian Freud Portraits Exhibition in 2012 Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:56 PM PDT LONDON.- The last work of the late Lucian Freud will go on show for the first time at the most ambitious exhibition of the artist's work for ten years, opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in February 2012. The inclusion of Portrait of the Hound 2011, the unfinished nude painting of Freud's assistant David Dawson with his dog Eli, will enable exhibition visitors for the first time to see the artist's most important portraits from the earliest in the 1940s to the one he was painting shortly before his death on 20 July 2011. With over 100 paintings and works on paper loaned from museums and private collections throughout the world, Lucian Freud Portraits is the result of many years' planning by the Gallery in close partnership with the late Lucian Freud. The exhibition will be the first to focus on his portraiture and is a countdown event for the London 2012 Festival – the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.

The International Art Fair ~ ART MOSCOW Opens Today Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:41 PM PDT MOSCOW, RUSSIA - From September 21 through 25, the International Art Fair ART MOSCOW which is the principal annual event on the Russian art market focusing on contemporary actual art will be held at the Central House of Artists. ART MOSCOW is renewed annually, not only presenting to the public new works, names and galleries, but also introducing vital changes, which deeply affect the development of the project. This year the number of experts in the Expert Council enlarged by entering foreign professionals from Great Britain (Rachael Barrett) and Germany (Anne Maier).

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center Shows "Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts" Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:20 PM PDT Sheboygan, Wisconsin.- The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is pleased to present "Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts" on view until the end of December. Memory is embedded in everything around us—in our culture, beliefs, possessions, relationships—it is a central component of human nature. Memory's reach can be lifelong or fleeting. We define ourselves through memory, yet it can deceive us when we are least prepared. We continually search for new and inventive ways to keep memory alive: creating, preserving, and sharing memories through Internet databases, oral and written accounts, and visual records. All of this is in an attempt to keep memory out of the mind's deep hiding places—to master time, hang on to things we no longer possess, and share recollections we hold dear. Many fear losing their memory, while others long to forget.

The Art Gallery of Western Australia Shows Princely Treasures From the V&A Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:59 PM PDT Perth, Australia.- The Art Gallery of Western Australia is proud to present "Princely Treasures: European Masterpieces 1600-1800 From the Victoria and Albert Museum", on view from September 24th through October 27th, coinciding with the Commonwealth Festival in Perth. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has one of the greatest collections of European decorative art of the 17th and 18th centuries, from the miniature to the monumental. Over ninety masterpieces from these magnificent collections have been selected for this exhibition, including painting and sculpture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and furniture, textiles and dress, prints and drawings.

The CaixaForum in Barcelona Welcomes Our Editor ~ A Cultural Gem In Spain Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:41 PM PDT One of Spain's top tourist attractions, the CaixaForum has a fascinating history. Inaugurated in February 2002, CaixaForum is the Barcelona headquarters of "La Caixa" Foundation, a social and cultural foundation created by "La Caixa" savings bank. The "La Caixa" Foundation is a non-profit institution, created at the beginning of the 1980s to supervise the bank's charitable works (which had been part of their philosophy since being established at the start of the twentieth century). The foundation is active in a wide range of cultural areas, including providing public libraries, organizing music festivals, the provision of social services and medical research. However, it is for its museums that it is best known. As well as 2 large science museums (in Barcelona and Madrid), the foundation has art museums and exhibition spaces in Madrid, Mallorca, Palma, Lleida, Tarragona and Barcelona, under the "CaixaForum" banner. The Foundation started collecting contemporary art in 1985 and since then it has accumulated over 950 works. CaixaForum Barcelona is based in a former textile factory in Barcelona that serves both as the foundation's headquarters and also as the main art exhibition space. Commissioned by the industrialist Casimir Casaramona i Puigcercós as a textile factory, this art-nouveau style building was designed by the famous Barcelona architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch and opened in 1911. A triumph of modern, enlightened working conditions and stunning architecture, the building immediately became a design icon for the city, winning local design awards and with many locals refusing to believe that behind the fabulous exterior, it hid a mundane textile factory. The bare brickwork is topped by Catalan vaults resting on cast-iron columns and enclosing light-filled, spacious workshops. By necessity, a long and low building, the architect broke its silhouette with battlements and two slender towers. Unfortunately, it only survived as a factory for a few years before becoming first a warehouse and then stables and garages for the National Police Force. "La Caixa" acquired the building in 1963, and in 1992 it was decided to return this building to the people of Barcelona, and the country as a whole, while giving it a new function with social, cultural and educational aims, it thus became the CaixaForum. Local and international architects, including the RIBA gold medal winning Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, who designed the main entrance (a sculpted structure in the form of metal trees covered by panes of glass) and visitors' reception area in the Centre, contributed to the refurbishment and extension work. The building now provides 3,600 m2 of exhibition space (in 5 exhibition galleries), a 350-seat auditorium, a kids' art workshop, café-restaurant and gallery shop. It has become one of Barcelona's most dynamic, active and lively cultural centers. From the entrance, escalators and the lift run from Isozaki's sculpture down to the open-air English courtyard below, which gives onto the foyer. This part of the building also houses the "Secret garden", a minimalist, intimate, closed-off area that allows the visitor to clear their mind before encountering more of the artworks. Visit the museum's website at: http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/nuestroscentros/caixaforumbarcelona/caixaforumbarcelona_es.html The permanent exhibition features works from the "La Caixa" Foundation collection. Starting from a small collection of Catalan art (the first purchases were group of works by the Catalan movements "Dau al Set" and "El Paso"), the foundation now contains a selection of works which show Catalan art in context through broader Spanish and international works. Amongst over 150 Spanish artists featured in the collection are Miquel Barceló, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Txomin Badiola, Cristina Iglesias, Pello Irazu, Albert Rafols Casamada, Susana Solano, Juan Muñoz, Ana Laura Alaéz and Rogelio López Cuenca. These sit alongside international works from Joseph Beuys, Manuel Sáez, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Saul LeWitt, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, James Turell, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis and Giovanni Anselmo. In 2010, the "La Caixa" foundation came to an agreement with the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) to share funding and artworks. This will allow shared use by both institutions of a joint collection containing approximately 4,450 works worth about 160 million euros as well as subsequent new acquisitions. The first fruits of this agreement will be exhibitions starting later in 2011 that bring artists works from both collections together. In addition to the permanent collection works on display, exhibited under the title "Once an Art Nouveau factory", the CaixaForum have three temporary exhibitions. Until 20 February, the "Roads to Arabia" exhibition features fascinating archaeological finds from Saudi Arabia that illustrate the country's long history as a crossroads on international trade routes. "Human, All Too Human", which also ends on 20 February 2011 features Spanish Art of the 1950 and 1960s. Inspired by Friedrich Nietzche's book of the same title, the exhibition looks at the work of Spanish artists influenced, directly or indirectly, by Nietzche's confrontation with the German romantic ideal. The exhibition consists of a selection of works from that period from the museum's own collection by Antonio Saura, Manuel Millares, Antoni Clavé, José Guerrero and Equipo Crónica. Alongside their own works, the exhibition also includes a series of paintings by Picasso, Dalí and Tàpies, from other collections, accompanied by a selection of period films by Joaquim Jordà, Juan Antonio Nieves Conde and Frédéric Roussif, among others. Until 17 April 2011, "Building the Revolution: Russian Art and Architecture 1915-1935" highlights Soviet avant-garde works from the 1920s and 1930s. This was a period highlighted by the radical proposals of architects like Konstantin Melnikov and Moisei Ginsburg, and visual artists of the constructivist movement including, Liubov Popova, Vladimir Tatlin, Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky and Gustav klucis. The exhibition consists of about 250 paintings, archival photographs of buildings constructed between 1920 and 1930, from the State Museum of Architecture in Moscow Schusev, drawings, paintings and models from the Costakis Collection of the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki and a selection color photographs by British photographer Richard Pare taken between 1992 and 2010 and showing architecture of the period in its current forms. If, like me, you really enjoy a well done art exhibition presentation, and really enjoy interesting architecture that was transformed into a visionary cultural center . . .then check out the CaixaForum, you'll get to enjoy both.

"Landscapes from Monet to Hockney" at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:40 PM PDT Las Vegas, NV.- The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (BGFA) proudly presents "A Sense of Place: Landscapes from Monet to Hockney" from Arpil 16th 2011 through January 2012. Through a juxtaposition of images, "A Sense of Place" presents more than 30 artworks ranging from paintings, photographs and a video installation that contrast and compare both approach and expressionism in art. The exhibit showcases landscapes by artists including Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, Helen Frankenthaler, David Hockney, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Robert Rauschenberg, Christo, Vik Muniz and many others. From Monet's impressionistic haystacks painted in 1885 to Muniz's carefully rendered pigment prints created in 2006, precise representational paintings are placed alongside austere abstract works in order to reveal how landscape has been portrayed by artists throughout history.

Italy Lends the Getty Museum a Bounty of Berninis Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:39 PM PDT ROME, ITALY -  A major loan exhibition of Bernini's sculptures, paintings and drawings that is also described as the first full viewing of this artist's portrait busts is headed for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles this summer. Including major loans from Italian museums, the exhibition underlines the benefits gained by the Getty from its recent handover of several dozen Greek antiquities that Italy asserted had been looted from its ancient archaeological sites.

Cal State Fullerton Art Gallery to show Art Nouveau & the Female Figure Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:38 PM PDT FULLERTON, CA.- Redefining the Line: Art Nouveau & the Female Figure features the graphic design, illustration and installation work of international contemporary artists : Pomme Chan, Deanne Cheuk, Naja Conrad-Hansen, Aya Kato, Pandarosa, Marguerite Sauvage, Alberto Seveso, Sonya Suhariyan, Yoshi Tajima and Eveline Tarunadjaja. Redefining the Line investigates the influence of historical Art Nouveau on contemporary artists and exhibits work by artists who use both traditional and digital media.

Getty Museum Acquires L' Entrée au Jardin Turc by Louis Léopold Boilly Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:37 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of L'Entrée au Jardin Turc (The Entrance to the Turkish Garden) by Louis Léopold Boilly, one of the few important paintings by the artist still in private hands. Crisply painted in glowing colors and teeming with anecdotal detail, Boilly's picture transports viewers to the heart of Napoleonic Paris, outside the entrance to the city's most celebrated café, the Jardin Turc. Located in the Marais at 28, boulevard du Temple, the establishment offered its middle-class clientele pleasures once reserved for the aristocracy. Founded in 1780, the Jardin Turc comprised an elegant garden, restaurant, and café housed in a series of tented pavilions whose crescent finials and oriental decor reflected an eighteenth-century taste for turquerie.

Contemporary Arts Center presents Austrian Painter Maria Lassnig's first US Solo Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:36 PM PDT   CINCINNATI, OHIO - The Contemporary Arts Center presents a solo exhibition of vibrantly colorful, dramatically intense oil paintings by Austrian artist Maria Lassnig. Initiated and organized by the Serpentine Gallery in London and curated by Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist in association with Rebecca Morrill, the exhibition features work made during the most recent ten years of Lassnigs career, as well as seven films made between 1971 and 1992. Maria Lassnig will remain on view through January 11, 2009 in the Rosenthal Center.

Banco do Brasil's Cultural Center shows Works Made by the Russian Avant-Gardes Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:35 PM PDT SAO PAULO.- Banco do Brasil's Cultural Center opened an exhibition of 123 works of art on loan from the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg. The show includes works by the Russian Avant-Gardes including Marc Chagal, Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich. The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism.

The Vienna Secession exhibits "The Death of the Audience" Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:34 PM PDT VIENNA.- The exhibition The Death of Audience takes place in Vienna in one of the mythical sites that helped launch modernism, a site that is considered the first white cube. In this building, at the eve of the twentieth century, western art history marked a rupture with the past. This artist inspired and the defiant act engendered the conditions for a renewal of art in society by breaking down the boundaries separating the different institutional disciplines. As an artistic revolution it intervened in the developing industrial revolution, redistributing the values associated with the notion of the "Gesamtkunstwerk" (the total work of art) and gave its name to this site: the Secession. On exhibition through 30 August, 2009.

Serpentine Gallery presents Beijing-Based Artist Cao Fei Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:33 PM PDT LONDON - Beijing-based artist Cao Fei (born 1978) is fusing fantasy with the contemporary Chinese city in her construction of RMB City, an experimental art community in the internet-based virtual world of Second Life. Second Life was conceived as a platform for participants to create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams, and 14 million people worldwide have registered since it launched in 2003. Each user is represented by an avatar, a digital figure that they can customize and control.

The Royal Academy Show Focuses on "Neglected" British Painter Paul Sandby Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:32 PM PDT LONDON (REUTERS).- Art history has been less than kind to Paul Sandby, an 18th century British painter whose name was eclipsed by contemporaries like Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. But a new exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy sets out to remind visitors of Sandby's importance in promoting the status of the watercolor, recognizing the power of print and taking on William Hogarth, whose works he dared to parody. A founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, Sandby was regarded as "the father of English watercolor," and in focusing on landscapes and scenes across England, Scotland and Wales rather than Italy, he left an important record of social, economic and political change. "Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain" runs from March 13-June 13 in the Sackler Wing.

Museum of Monaco Launches Major Exhibition by Damien Hirst Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:31 PM PDT MONACO.- The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, which this year celebrates its centenary, opens its galleries to contemporary art for the first time, to present a major exhibition of works by celebrated British artist Damien Hirst. CORNUCOPIA is the title of the exhibition, which spans the last 15 years of the artist's career and comprises over 60 key works, including early paintings and sculptures. The exhibition is presented with the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. On view 02 April through 30 September, 2010.

Rare Guercino and Michelangelo Paintings Acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:30 PM PDT FORT WORTH, TX.- The Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired the painting Christ and the Woman of Samaria, dated to 1619–20, by the Italian artist Guercino, one of the foremost painters of his time. The purchase was announced today by the Museum's director, Eric M. Lee. The painting dates from Guercino's early, rarest, and most desirable period, when the artist achieved acclaim for the emotional power of his compositions. Also on exhibition is Michelangelo's first known painting, The Torment of Saint Anthony, is now on view among the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art Museum.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:29 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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