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

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• The Art Gallery of Ontario Presents Marc Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde
• The National Media Museum Shows Red Saunders' Photographic Tableaux Vivants
• Ink_d Gallery Presents New Works on Paper by Missum
• The Hofstra University Museum Presents Burton Silverman's Realist Paintings
• The Akron Art Museum Will Display "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism"
• The SOMArts Cultural Center Turns the Tables by Exhibition of ~ Man as Object
• The Gibbes Museum of Art To Showcase Two New Exhibitions
• The San Jose Museum of Art Presents a Major Joan Brown Retrospective
• Bonhams New York To Host Photography Auction on Nov. 1st
• The Stux Gallery To Feature New Paintings by Aaron Johnson
• Western and Asian Contemporay Art to Be Offered by Seoul Auction
• Crocker Art Museum Announces Inaugural Exhibitions for Expanded Museum
• Tate Modern Opens Most Extensive John Baldessari Retrospective in the UK
• The Ukranian Museum in NYC Presents a Sviatoslav Hordynsky Retrospective
• ICA in London Celebrates The True Underground Filmmaker ~ Jack Smith
• Corcoran Gallery of Art to exhibit 'The American Evolution: A History Through Art'
• Revolutionary Russians the Centenary of Shostakovich
• Tracey Emin to Create An Original Neon Artwork For No. 10 Downing Street in London
• The Boston Athenæum Shows "Faces & Places" From 19th Century Boston
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Art Gallery of Ontario Presents Marc Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde Posted: 19 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT Toronto.- The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is bringing the magic, whimsy and wonder of Marc Chagall to Toronto with a major exhibition organized by the Centre Pompidou. "Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris" on view from October 18th through January 15th 2012, features the lush, colourful, and dreamlike art of Marc Chagall alongside the visionaries of Russian modernism, including Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay, and Vladimir Tatlin. Drawn from the collection of the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition examines how Chagall's Russian heritage influenced and informed his artistic practice, illustrating how he at turns embraced and rejected broader movements in art history as he developed his widely beloved style. Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde comprises 118 works from a broad array of media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, and film. The artwork is drawn entirely from the collection of the Centre Pompidou and features 32 works by Chagall and eight works by Kandinsky. "Centre Pompidou is one of the world's preeminent art museums and we at the AGO are deeply grateful — and very excited — to be able to share these highlights from its collection with our visitors," says Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO's Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO. "The visual relationship — both complementary and contrasting — of Chagall's emotive figurations with the abstractions of the Russian avant-garde tells a compelling and complex story of influence and heritage, contextualizing Chagall within the art movements of his homeland for the very first time and offering visitors an opportunity to discuss, debate, and connect with some outstanding works of art." "Built around the great figure of Marc Chagall and the exceptional collection of our museum, this exhibition is an opportunity to consider the exceptional work of the Russian avant-garde from Chagall's perspective," says Alfred Pacquemont, director of the Musée national d'art moderne in Centre Pompidou. "Our collection of works by Chagall includes key works from Chagall's personal collection, many of which were gifts of the artist and his family; works by Kandinsky, Gontcharova, and Delaunay are also among our collection's highlights. We are privileged that the Art Gallery of Ontario will host this exhibition for its only North American showing, and that these great works—many of which rarely leave our museum—will be experienced and enjoyed by a Canadian audience." "From cubo-futurism and constructivism to folk art and expressionism, Chagall's influences are as wide-ranging and divergent as his work is boldly original and singularly imaginative," says Elizabeth Smith, the AGO's executive director of curatorial affairs. "This exhibition encourages new perspectives on Chagall's artistic development, and offers a comprehensive presentation of outstanding artwork by the 20th century's most imaginative and engaging Russian artists."Angela Lampe, curator of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, is the organizing curator of Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris. The exhibition is organized by Le Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou. Founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens as the Art Museum of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, with a physical facility of 583,000 square feet. The AGO expanded it facility in 2008 with an innovative architectural design by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. The AGO holds more than 80,000 works in its collection, which spans from 100 A.D. to the present. The Canadian collection vividly documents the development of the nation's art heritage since pre-Confederation, including one of the largest and finest Inuit art collections in the world. The collection includes pivotal works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius O'Brien, James Wilson Morrice, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne, Emily Carr, Paul-Emile Borduas, Joyce Wieland, and Kenojuak Ashevak. Masterpieces of European art include works by renowned artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte. The AGO maintains a comprehensive collection of Contemporary art spanning from 1960 to the present, reflecting global developments in artistic practice across all media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, projection art, and installation art. The collection is defined by strong holdings of leading Canadian artists such as David Altmejd, Brian Jungen, Francoise Sullivan, Jeff Wall, Shirley Wiitasalo, and inflected by major works by international artists such as Mona Hatoum, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Tino Sehgal, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. Artists represented in career-spanning depth include Iain Baxter & / N.E. Thing Co, Jack Bush, Betty Goodwin, General Idea, Robert Motherwell, Kazuo Nakamura, Greg Curnoe, and Michael Snow. The AGO houses the world's largest public collection of works by internationally renowned British sculptor Henry Moore. A collection of more than 40,000 photographs represents the emergence of the medium in all its artistic, cultural and social diversity. Works by 19th-century British, French, American and Canadian photographers, and 20th-century modernists, including a significant group of 1850s prints by British photographer Linnaeus Tripe, one of the foremost collections of works by Czech photographer Josef Sudek, and more than 18,000 press photographs from the Klinsky Press Agency taken in the 1930s and 40s. The Thomson Collection at the AGO includes a broad range of works, from European to Canadian art, ship models and decorative arts. Its European collection includes 900 works from the 12th to the 19th century, featuring Peter Paul Rubens' 17th-century masterpiece, The Massacre of the Innocents. The Canadian collection includes signature works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Paul Kane, Lawren Harris, and Paul-Emile Borduas. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.ago.net

The National Media Museum Shows Red Saunders' Photographic Tableaux Vivants Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:32 PM PDT Bradford, UK.- The National Media Museum is proud to present "Hidden", on view at the museum through December 10th. Red Saunders' epic photographic tableaux vivants ('living pictures') recreate momentous but overlooked events from Britain's struggle for democracy and equality, from the Peasants Revolt of 1381 to the Chartist movement of the mid nineteenth century.  Shown as part of Ways of Looking, a new photography festival in Bradford, this first major solo exhibition of Saunders' work features the world premiere of two dramatic new works, specially commissioned by Impressions Gallery and The Culture Company.Focussing on the contributions of ordinary men and women, rather than the monarchs and 'Great Men' that dominate official history, Saunders seeks to shed light on the parallel, 'hidden history' of revolutionaries and radicals. Meticulously detailed, atmospherically lit, and historically accurate, each scene is recreated and posed by models, providing photographic 'evidence' for events that occurred before the widespread adoption of camera technology.

Ink_d Gallery Presents New Works on Paper by Missum Posted: 18 Oct 2011 10:42 PM PDT Brighton, UK.- The Ink_d Gallery is proud to present "Place - Works on Paper by Missum", on view at the gallery from October 21st through November 21st. Missum is one half of the artist collective Miss Bugs. This unique artistic parternship, founded in 2007, has produced a body of work that has achieved international acclaim and developed a passionate home-grown following. In early 2011, Missum began to explore her own individual aesthetic. Departing from the kinetic, graphically-led collage style that had become synonymous with the work of Miss Bugs, Missum's focus addresses a more traditional method of printing.

The Hofstra University Museum Presents Burton Silverman's Realist Paintings Posted: 18 Oct 2011 10:30 PM PDT Hempstead, NY.- The Hofstra University Museum is proud to present "Burton Silverman: The Humanist Spirit", on view at the museum's Emily Lowe Gallery through December 16th. This exhibition demonstrates the continuing power of the realist tradition in the 21st century, as the artist examines the commonalities of existence of everyman through his contemporary realist portraits. In his paintings Burton Silverman balances formal visual elements and realistic representation to capture the essence of his subjects. His primary subjects, ordinary working people, are elevated to a stature of dignity and importance in which they are rarely seen. The individuality of his sitter is evident in the painting, as is the universality of their life experience.

The Akron Art Museum Will Display "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism" Posted: 18 Oct 2011 09:38 PM PDT Akron, OH.- The Akron Art Museum is proud to present "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism", on view in the Karl and Bertl Arnstein galleries from October 29th through February 5th 2012. "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism" offers a broad survey of landscape painting as practiced by leading French artists from Gustave Courbet to Claude Monet and their most significant American followers including Childe Hassam and John Singer Sargent. This exquisite exhibition of more than fifty paintings will include many of the finest examples of French and American impressionist landscapes from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum as well as American impressionist paintings from the Akron Art Museum.

The SOMArts Cultural Center Turns the Tables by Exhibition of ~ Man as Object Posted: 18 Oct 2011 08:59 PM PDT San francisco, California.- The SOMArts Cultural Center and Women's Caucus for Art is proud to present "Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze" on view from November 4th through November 30th.  This  exhibition re-envisions gender, society and the politics of exposure. With a gallery filled with men stripped naked, this body of work exposes women's cheeky, provocative and sometimes shocking commentaries on the opposite sex. The exhibition's contemporary scope encompasses all the ways that women view Man-as-Object, reversing the traditional view of male artists objectifying women. The show's extensive collection of male adoration, male impersonation and male appendages may make the viewer squirm a little. But that is precisely the point. The more than 100 women artists in the exhibition unapologetically reveal how they really see men. Through this public display at SOMArts Cultural Center, the show's organizers aim to equalize the gaze between the sexes.

The Gibbes Museum of Art To Showcase Two New Exhibitions Posted: 18 Oct 2011 08:09 PM PDT Charleston, SC.- The Gibbes Museum of Art is pleased to present two new exhibitions opening on October 28th and running through January 8th 2012. "Breaking Down Barriers: 300 Years of Women in Art", on view in the Main Gallery, will examine the challenges faced by women artists over the past 300 years. "Camera Works: Masters in Photography", on view in the Rotunda Galleries, features twentieth-century masters of photography selected from the Gibbes permanent collection and local private collections. Drawn from the museum's permanent collection, "Breaking Down Barriers: 300 Years of Women in Art" highlights a number of extraordinary women working in a variety of media and artistic styles.

The San Jose Museum of Art Presents a Major Joan Brown Retrospective Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:11 PM PDT San Jose, California.- The San Jose Museum of Art is pleased to present "This Kind of Bird Flies Backward: Paintings by Joan Brown", on view at the museum until March 11th 2012. This is the first in-depth examination of this beloved Bay Area artist's painting in over a decade. The exhibition is the first to explore Brown's art in the national context of the women's movement: the movement paralleled her career, yet she has been largely excluded from its history. Joan Brown (February 13, 1938 – October 26, 1990) was an American figurative painter who lived and worked in Northern California.

Bonhams New York To Host Photography Auction on Nov. 1st Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:10 PM PDT New York City.- Bonhams is thrilled to announce its auction of Photographs, to be held on November 1st in New York, simulcast in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The sale will feature a wide range of subject matter as seen through the lenses of various photographers. Judith Eurich, Bonhams Director of Prints & Photographs, states about the highlights in the sale, "There is a broad range of works by important 19th century photographers, such as Alfred Stieglitz and Carleton Watkins, the mid-century masters represented by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, and contemporary images by Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Hiroshi Sugimoto." Known for his documentary portraiture, as well as fashion photography, Irving Penn has an exemplary talent for working between two opposite worlds. This is apparent in his "Five Okapa Warriors, New Guinea" available in the sale (est. $20,000-30,000). This selenium-toned gelatin silver print features five Okapa Warriors in traditional dress, posing stoically with their bows and arrows. Penn's care in capturing them truthfully is evident. Also leading this group of masters is photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams, known for his romantic black and white photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park. His photograph "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California" (est. $20,000-30,000), in the sale, is a perfect example of the photographer's aesthetic, and would be an ideal addition for any fine art collector. Rounding out this group is Alfred Stieglitz, who was greatly influential is making photography an accepted art form. His "Gossip, Katwyck" (est. $15,000-20,000) is one of few images he was pleased with on his travels through Northern and Southern Europe. After returning to the states, he printed the image at Heliochrome Engraving Company, a photo engraving company and printing firm purchased by his father. The print was later given to the present owner's descendents by Stieglitz's brother as a wedding gift. Pre-dating motion pictures, the oldest highlight in the sale comes from British photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who is known for his pioneering work called "animal locomotion" which used multiple cameras to capture motion. Offered in the sale is "Selected plates, from Animal Locomotion," dated 1871-1885, which includes 67 collotype plates recording sequential motion of men walking and horses running (est. $16,000-20,000). Chronologically moving through the auction, the next highlight is French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Srinagar, Kashmir," (est. $10,000-15,000). This gelatin silver print documents the period of unrest in India in 1948: Muslim women stand on the slopes of Hari Parbat Hill and pray while the sun rises behind the Himalayas. This photograph was given by Helen Wright, Cartier-Bresson's agent, to its present owner. Next is Frank Horvat's aesthetically gorgeous "Givenchy Hat A, pour Jardin de Modes, Paris," taken in 1958 (est. $12,000-16,000). In this black and white portrait taken at a race track, five men stand in the back with top hats and binoculars, as renowned model Dovima's staring eyes are just visible from underneath a body-engulfing white hat with cascading white flowers. From Diane Arbus' series titled Revelations, in which she photographed little people, socialites, circus performers and the mental disabled, comes "Untitled-4," 1970-1971 (est. $6,000-8,000). Never turning away from the abnormal, Arbus cast her documentary lens on those that most shy away, unapologetically capturing things as they are. In the presented work she captured four asylum inmates masked with paper bags, questioning identity. Working during the same time as Arbus was American photographer and multi-faceted artist Ed Ruscha. Offered in the sale is "Dutch Details," a book with 10 fold-out leaves, featuring 116 black and white photographic reproductions that were interpretations of the artist's response to the Dutch landscape around Groningen, where he was invited to work. This first edition book is one of only approximately 200 copies that survived when most of the edition was accidentally discarded from the warehouse where it was stored (est. $10,000-15,000). Other highlights in the sale include Japanese photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Time Exposed" (est. $8,000-12,000); John Minihan's "Francis Bacon, Paris," a portrait of the mentioned contemporary artist against his work (est. $10,000-15,000); Sebastião Salgado's "Iceberg between the Paulet Islands and the Shetland Islands, Antarctica" (est. $10,000-15,000); and Ruth Bernhard's "In the Box-Horizontal" which is a nude model eloquently positioned with in an open box (est. $12,000-18,000). One of the few surviving Georgian auction houses in London, Bonhams was set up in 1793 when Thomas Dodd, a renowned antique print dealer, joined forces with the book specialist Walter Bonham. The company expanded and by the 1850s was handling all categories of antiques including jewellery, porcelain, furniture, arms and armour and fine wines. In the early 1950s the Bonham family purchased some land in Knightsbridge and erected a saleroom on Montpelier Street. In 2001 Bonhams became Bonhams & Brooks when it was acquired by Brooks auction house. Brooks had been founded in 1989 by the former Head of Cars at Christie's, Robert Brooks who specialized in the sale of classic and vintage motorcars. Brooks continued a major acquisition programme aimed at creating a new international fine art auction house. Later that year, Bonhams & Brooks merged with Phillips Son & Neale to form a new UK company trading as Bonhams. Phillips Son & Neale had been based in 101 New Bond Street, which subsequently became the new headquarters of Bonhams. The building consisted of seven different freeholds and had been described as "a Dickensian rabbit warren". The first of the sites to be acquired was Blenstock House, a striking Art Deco building at the junction of Blenheim Street and Woodstock Street. Phillips took over the ground and lower ground floors in July 1939, gradually claiming more floors until the whole building was acquired in 1974. In the 1980s, 101 New Bond Street was added. An extensive renovation programme directed by Clare Agnew was undertaken when Bonhams moved into the premises. Acquisition activity continued, and in 2002 Bonhams purchased Butterfields, a leading auction house on the West Coast founded in 1865. Bonhams changed Butterfields' name to Bonhams & Butterfields, and Malcolm Barber, formerly of Brooks, became the chief executive officer of the American subsidiary. Bonhams remained the company's brand name outside of the United States. By the end of 2003 Bonhams was conducting more than 700 annual sales, had over 600 employees, and revenues of $304 million. The company's worldwide network of sales included two major London venues, nine additional UK locations, and salerooms in Switzerland, Monaco, Germany, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sydney. Bonhams & Butterfields conducted its first East Coast sale in 2003 with an auction of Edwin C. Jameson's collection of classic cars and antiques in Massachusetts. During 2005, Bonhams continued to expand its presence in the USA and acquired a new saleroom on Madison Avenue in New York. The company also expanded further in Europe with the opening of the Paris office in June 2005. In October 2005, Bonhams gained full independence after buying back a 49.9% stake held by French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. In 2005 Bonhams magazine was launched. Published quarterly, the magazine feature articles written by curators, dealers, valuers, and also art critics such as Matthew Collings and Brian Sewell. In 2007 Bonhams opened an office in Dubai as part of a joint venture with the family of former Ambassador to the UK Mohammed Madhi Al Tajir. The first sale held in Dubai on 3rd March 2008 was of Modern & Contemporary Arab, Iranian, Indian & Pakistani Art, and achieved total sales of over US$13million – almost three times the expected amount. Bonhams opened a new office in Hong Kong in 2007, to further support its expansion into the Asian market. The business in Hong Kong works with clients in mainland China, Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. In March 2008, Bonhams New York moved to new salerooms on the corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue - formerly the home of the respected Dahesh Museum. The inaugural sale featured 20th century furniture and decorative arts. By 2007 Bonhams sales totalled US $600million. In 2009 Bonhams announced that it has taken market leadership in ten key areas of the UK art market for the first time. The company now dominates the following specialist areas in the UK: Antiquities, Arms & Armour, Design Prior to 1945, Ceramics, Clocks, Glass, Jewellery, Japanese Art, Miniatures and Watches. During 2009 these departments all sold more by value in the UK than any competing auction house. With Christie's, Bonhams is a shareholder in the London-based Art Loss Register, a privately-owned database used by law enforcement services worldwide to trace and recover stolen art. Visit the auction house's website at ... http://www.bonhams.com

The Stux Gallery To Feature New Paintings by Aaron Johnson Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:08 PM PDT New York City.- The Stux Gallery is pleased to present "Freedom from Want", an exhibition of new paintings by Aaron Johnson. In paintings that are glimmering, seductive, and emanating light, Johnson's monsters are gruesome, sadistic, and spewing venom. This body of work is a bold reflection on the decaying excesses of our insatiable culture. "Freedom from Want" is on view at the gallery from September 15th through October 22nd. With obsessive enthusiasm, Johnson has delved deeper into his lexicon of Americana Grotesque and has plunged his fiendish monsters further into a theater of cosmic madness. These paintings invite us to binge upon an exquisitely detailed feast of severed heads, Uncle Sam monsters, sausage crucifixes, fried eagles, mashed guts, fuck-burgers, camel roast, mutant sea creatures, and oil oozing fresh from the rig. Lingering ghosts of a Rockwellian American idyll smile naively as the American dream boils over into an ecstatic hallucinatory nightmare. War machines, fueled by dog shit and the blood of Christ, churn across oil fields and battle fields, as the angel of death flies over with a cackle of furious laughter. As they reflect on the callous cruelty of war, the absurd intersection of religion and government, and the hell on earth that society thereby creates, these paintings come boldly forward from the artist's admiration of past masters such as Goya, Hieronymus Bosch, Dieric Bouts, and Otto Dix. These works expose a desiring machine monster that consumes perpetually until there is nothing left to do but devour itself. The color in these works emanates exuberant pleasure, if not maniacal laughter, creating a marriage of humor with the darkness of the content. The pristine surfaces resonate in glowing crystalline layers, the result of Johnson's enigmatic process. He paints in reverse on clear plastic, building up layers of acrylic that are ultimately peeled off the plastic and mounted on polyester net. The techniques combine tightly controlled meticulous details with misbehaving splashes of poured paint. The weirdness of his process and his distinctive painterly vocabulary have grown together over the years in a symbiotic relationship, where the methods and the monsters worked together to invent each other. Painting in reverse is the artist's metaphor for scrutinizing the world from the inside out to reveal what lurks beneath the surface. The peeled paint technique is like a ripping off of the skin, a cracking open of the head, a release of the demons. Aaron Johnson received his MFA from Hunter College, NY in 2005, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. His work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally at such venues as the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, NY; Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen; Gallery Brandstrup, Oslo; The Running Horse Contemporary Art Space, Beirut; Leo Koenig Projekte, New York; Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York; and Marlborough Gallery, New York. Johnson's exhibitions have been reviewed in many publications including Art News, Beautiful Decay, Kunst International, The Art Newspaper, The Village Voice, and The New York Times. His work is in the permanent collections of The Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This is Johnson's second solo show at Stux Gallery and his fifth solo show in New York. Throughout the years the Gallery has fostered international relationships and collaborations over the years with an array of international galleries, such as Krinzinger Gallery (Vienna), Micheline Swajcer Gallery (Antwerp), Mayor Rowan Gallery (London), Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery (Australia), Seibu Gallery (Tokyo/Oasaka), Pilar Parra (Madrid), Jacob Karpio (Costa Rica), Galerie Christian Nagel (Köln/Berlin), Gallery Terra Tokyo (Japan), Kobayashi Gallery (Japan), and many others. The aesthetic vision that binds this broad array of artists together has more to do with their deep intelligence and commitment to innovation and conceptual art, than any particular formal characteristics.  The goal of the gallery is, ultimately, to present challenging work that rewards complex, multifaceted consideration by the viewer. At it's current location since 2004 in a newly refurbished, 4,000 sq. ft. ground floor space on 25th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea, the Gallery finds itself at the epicenter of New York's gallery scene. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.stuxgallery.com

Western and Asian Contemporay Art to Be Offered by Seoul Auction Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:07 PM PDT HONG KONG.- Seoul Auction, Korea‟s leading auction house, will offer an unrivalled selection of 80 works in its Modern and Contemporary Art Spring Sale in Hong Kong on 4 April 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. Expected to realize in excess of HK$60 million (US$8 million), the sale features works by leading Western and Asian masters, as well as up and coming artists from Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia, reflecting the dynamic vibrancy of contemporary Asian art.

Crocker Art Museum Announces Inaugural Exhibitions for Expanded Museum Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:06 PM PDT SACRAMENTO, CA.- This fall the Crocker Art Museum will celebrate the opening of its 125,000-square-foot expansion, designed by Charles Gwathmey, with a retrospective of the work of Sacramento native Wayne Thiebaud. On view beginning October 10, 2010, Wayne Thiebaud: Homecoming is one of a series of special exhibitions that will inaugurate the galleries in the Crocker's new Teel Family Pavilion. Featuring more than 50 paintings and drawings spanning the artist's career, Wayne Thiebaud celebrates the work of Sacramento's most renowned artist.

Tate Modern Opens Most Extensive John Baldessari Retrospective in the UK Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:05 PM PDT LONDON.- John Baldessari (b1931) is widely regarded as one of contemporary art's foremost conceptual artists. Tate Modern presents the most extensive retrospective of his work to date in the UK. "John Baldessari: Pure Beauty" will bring together more than 130 works and examine the principal concerns of this legendary Californian artist. With humor and irony, Baldessari's work dissects the ideas underlying artistic practice and questions the historically accepted rules of how to make art. Fascinated by language and meaning, he has always been interested in the connection between working in the visual field and working with words. On  view 13 October through 10 January, 2010.

The Ukranian Museum in NYC Presents a Sviatoslav Hordynsky Retrospective Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:04 PM PDT New York City.— An exhibition of works by prominent Ukrainian-born artist Sviatoslav Hordynsky (1906-1993) is on display at The Ukrainian Museum in New York through November 6, 2011. "The Worlds of Sviatoslav Hordynsky" highlights Hordynsky's artistic achievements and also documents his contributions as scholar, poet, critic, translator, and cultural activist. Despite an affliction in his youth that left him permanently deaf, Hordynsky went on to lead an extraordinary life. In 1924, he entered the Oleksa Novakivsky Art School (Lviv, Ukraine), which figured prominently in his artistic development. Seeking inspiration abroad, he traveled to Paris, where he studied the great artworks at the Louvre, took art classes at the Académie Julian, and exhibited in salons whenever possible. In 1929 he was admitted to Léger's Académie Moderne. The result of his study with Fernand Léger was a profusion of book designs, posters, ex libris, and other graphic works that reflected his modernist tendencies and rank among his best works.

ICA in London Celebrates The True Underground Filmmaker ~ Jack Smith Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:03 PM PDT LONDON.- Legendary American artist, filmmaker and actor Jack Smith (1932-1989), described by Andy Warhol as the only person he would ever copy and by John Waters as "the only true underground filmmaker", is celebrated at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in film, performance and debate with a retrospective of Smith's work from 7 to 28 September.  Working in New York from the 1950s until his death in 1989, Smith unequivocally resisted and upturned accepted conventions, whether artistic, moral or legal. Irreverent in tone and delirious in effect, Smith's films, such as the notorious "Flaming Creatures" (1963), are both wildly camp and subtly polemical. Smith is best known for his contributions to underground cinema but his influence extends across performance art, photography and experimental theatre.

Corcoran Gallery of Art to exhibit 'The American Evolution: A History Through Art' Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:02 PM PDT WASHINGTON, D.C. — This spring, the long-awaited re-installation of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's world-renowned collection of American art will open in a special exhibition, The American Evolution: A History through Art.  A fresh look at the Corcoran's extensive American holdings, the exhibition showcases more than 200 objects in a wide range of media, dating from the colonial era to present day.  The American Evolution will open on March 1 and remain on view until July 27, 2008.

Revolutionary Russians the Centenary of Shostakovich Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:01 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.

Tracey Emin to Create An Original Neon Artwork For No. 10 Downing Street in London Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:01 PM PDT London (BBC).- Artist Tracey Emin is to produce one of her trademark neon artworks for the British Prime-Minister's official residence at Number 10 Downing Street. The 47-year-old was invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to create an installation last year and expects it to be completed and installed later this year. Emin told The Telegraph she would like to hang her work in the old part of the building to give it a "bit of an edge". But she said she would be installing the neon in a newer room and on plastic, rather than screwed to the wall, as it is a listed building. Emin said the Downing Street piece would not feature any X-rated slogans, which have appeared in past works.

The Boston Athenæum Shows "Faces & Places" From 19th Century Boston Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:00 PM PDT Boston.- Celebrating the city of Boston and the people who made it great, the Boston Athenæum is proud to present "Faces & Places: Mid-19th Century Boston" on view through September 17th. This installation features over forty paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and artifacts that share the common genre of portraiture, whether they be portraits of people or images of the city itself. In the decades leading up to and encompassing the middle of the nineteenth century--a historical period that would end with the Civil War--Boston produced an impressive number of social reformers, political leaders, writers, and artists. Among these were John Albion Andrew, James Elliott Cabot, Edward Everett, Annie Adams Fields, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas H. Perkins, William H. Prescott, and Daniel Webster. All of these people, and more, will be represented in the exhibition by portraits of great historical interest, aesthetic quality and technical brilliance, and sharp insight into the lives and personalities of their subjects. In a final, dedicated section of the installation, Charles Sumner, the great senator, abolitionist, and patron of the arts, will be given special attention in acknowledgement of this, the 200th anniversary of his birth. The Boston Athenæum is one of the oldest and most distinguished independent libraries and cultural institutions in the United States. It was founded in 1807. It grew out of a slightly earlier organization known as the Anthology Society which had been formed in 1805 by a group of Bostonians with the primary purpose of producing a magazine that they called The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. In now creating the Boston Athenæum, their purpose was to form "an establishment similar to that of the Athenæum and Lyceum of Liverpool in Great Britain; combining the advantages of a public library [and] containing the great works of learning and science in all languages." The new Athenæum flourished in culture-starved Boston and, as it voraciously acquired books, art, and artifacts, it grew rapidly. In 1827, it added an Art Gallery and began a series of yearly exhibitions of American and European art. For nearly half a century the Athenæum was the unchallenged center of intellectual life in Boston, and by 1851 had become one of the largest libraries in the United States. Today its collections comprise over half a million volumes, with particular strengths in Boston history, New England state and local history, biography, English and American literature, and the fine and decorative arts. The Athenæum supports a dynamic exhibition program and sponsors a lively variety of events such as lectures and concerts. It also serves as a stimulating center for discussions among scholars, bibliophiles, and a variety of community-interest groups. The Athenæum's collections resided briefly in a group of structures known as Joy's buildings on Congress Street, but by the spring of 1807, it was firmly established in Scollay's buildings on Tremont Street near the present site of Government Center. The Athenæum remained in that location until 1809, when the Trustees purchased the Rufus Amory House, adjacent to the King's Chapel Burial Ground at what was then the easternmost point of the Boston Common. In 1822 the growing collections were moved again, this time to a mansion in Pearl Street that had been given to the Athenæum by Trustee James Perkins. In 1847, construction began on the Athenæum's present Beacon Street building, designed by Edward Clarke Cabot and opened two years later in 1849. The first floor was originally a sculpture gallery, the second floor housed the library's growing collection of books, and the third floor, which was originally the top floor of the building and was equipped with skylights, served as a painting gallery. The building was completely renovated in 1913-1914, at which time the fourth and fifth floors were added and the entire structure fireproofed. Architect Henry Forbes Bigelow designed these improvements. The Athenæum's five galleried floors overlook the peaceful Granary Burying Ground, and, as Gamaliel Bradford wrote in 1931, "it is safe to say that [no library] anywhere has more an atmosphere of its own, that none is more conducive to intellectual aspiration and spiritual peace." The building was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The Art Department at the Boston Athenæum has the primary function and responsibility of overseeing a large, historic collection of art that includes paintings, sculpture, prints, photographs, and decorative arts. Secondarily, the department plans and executes exhibitions of both historical and contemporary art in the Athenæum's Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery. During its early years, the Boston Athenæum became a center for the fine arts in Boston and, in fact, functioned as the city's first museum of fine arts. As one historian has written of that period, "For almost fifty years following [the Athenæum's] first art gallery exhibition in 1827, the trustees purchased paintings and sculpture, European and American, and fostered the production of works of art by exhibitions." By the time of the Civil War, the Athenæum had purchased or otherwise acquired a number of major paintings and sculptures by contemporary American artists. In addition, it had built an important collection of casts of antique sculptures and fine copies of Old Master paintings (as well as a few originals), making it a destination for artists and art lovers alike.  At the same time, it was amassing a collection of American prints and photographs that spans the entire history of these mediums and is now one of the finest such collections in the country. The Athenæum was instrumental in the founding of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in 1870. The new museum actually held its earliest exhibitions in the Athenæum's galleries before moving into its own building on Copley Square in 1876. Today, many remarkable works of art can be seen in the Athenæum's Beacon Street building. These include busts of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the Marquis de Lafayette by the French master Jean-Antoine Houdon; portraits of John Adams by Mather Brown and Gilbert Stuart; John Singer Sargent's portraits of Annie Adams Fields and George McCulloch; exquisite pastels by John Singleton Copley; Thomas Sully's life-size image of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, one of the Athenæum's most important early benefactors; and grand-manner portraits of Daniel Webster and John Marshall by Chester Harding. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.bostonathenaeum.org

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