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

---

• The Griffith University Art Gallery Shows "Hollow Mark ~ by Madeleine Kelly"
• The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Shows New Deal Art From the Smithsonian Collection
• The Akron Art Museum To Open Two New Exhibitions
• The Fitchburg Art Museum Presents the "World of the Graphic Novel"
• Closed for Refurbishment Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art Continues to Show its Collection
• Harvard Art Museums Receive Gifts of Outsider Art from Didi and David Barrett
• Ten Women Artists Receive Grants from "Anonymous Was A Woman" Award
• The Nahmad Collection Goes On View at Kunsthaus Zurich
• Audrey Cottin Experimental Appearance at Jeu de Paume
• Bonhams New York Hosts European Paintings Auction in NYC
• Indianapolis Museum of Art hosts "Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World"
• The Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao Shows "Daniel Tamayo ~ Fables"
• Goya's Complete "Los Caprichos" Suite at Taft
• Luis Meléndez's Still Lifes to Premiere at the National Gallery of Art
• Will Eisner Inspires Two Exhibitions ~ One Of The Founding Fathers Of Modern Comics & Graphic Novels
• National Gallery announces The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600-1700
• Haus der Kunst to feature William Eggleston's Retrospective of Photographs & Video
• Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson's Artworks at Columbus Museum of Art
• 'Vladimir Tretchikoff: The People's Painter' at the The Iziko Museum S.A. National Gallery
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Griffith University Art Gallery Shows "Hollow Mark ~ by Madeleine Kelly" Posted: 23 Oct 2011 10:42 PM PDT Nathan, Queensland, AU - The Griffith University Art Gallery is proud to present "Hollow Mark | Madeleine Kelly" currently on view at the gallery and running through November 13th. Madeleine Kelly graduated from Queensland College of Art in 1999, and has become increasingly recognised for quasi-narrative paintings which draw on personal and mythological sources. Her investigation of contemporary issues via painting uses metaphor and alusion to explore, among other things, the relationship between the individual self and consumer culture, sustainability and gaps in knowledge. At three metres in height, the figure of a man looms over the viewer. Painted on two fibreglass resin panels with a thin wash of paint in muted, sombre colours, the man is stretched and anamorphically distorted. His elongated legs seem to enable him to reach towards the sky, so it takes a moment to realize that this is a figure with no head or face, an anonymous figure burdened by two heavy bags of books that bend his back and drag his arms groundward. This enigmatic figure is painted on both panels of resin as an inverse mirror image or reflection. The metaphor of the mirror is also replicated by the luminous materiality of the fiberglass resin panels, through which it is possible to see shadows and movement, as though in a mythical world beyond the looking glass. Kelly has deliberately kept paint to a minimum on these surfaces in order to highlight this effect. The strategy of using the mirror to double, replicate or anamorphically distort an image is one that informs Madeleine Kelly´s latest body of work created for "Hollow Mark". In addition to "The Weight of the World", described above, for which Kelly worked with a new medium, the exhibition includes a group of new paintings, a vitrine of found objects and works on paper, and two works on sailcloth. Thematically, this is a very tight body of work, with many of the paintings focusing on a single human or biomorphic figure either mirrored or anamorphically distorted, and placed within a hollowed space of great flux and movement. Alchemical symbolism, which Kelly describes as "rife with dualisms and transformation", also provides a continuation of her focus on the mirror. As in many of her previous paintings, Kelly juxtaposes primordial and postindustrial elements with references to myth, art history, and contemporary culture. The title of the exhibition, "Hollow Mark", is a phrase drawn from a random sentence in Michel Foucault´s 'Archaeology of Knowledge'. With its contradictory implications of something both present and absent, it suggests for Kelly "absences, or gaps in knowledge—ideas that are never recorded by the governing power of history". She comments: "I am interested in the interstices that arrive somewhere between a hollow and a mark; the perplexing arena where figures and half resolved forms, float out from and into". In the works selected for Hollow Mark she has found an "archaeology of being" a valuable vein of investigation, as it allows her to offer a "counter-narrative", an "alternative to the materialistic implications of industrial progress". In many of the works in this exhibition, symbols of transformation are combined with contemporary references to politics, or to mining, to the primordial and the postindustrial. Most contain references to local scenes or to objects the artist has collected, as well as references to art historical and other sources, but—relocated, rescaled and recontextualised—they combine to form a multi-layered and compelling aesthetic language. Natural elements like bones, fallen tree trunks, natural sponges and water contrast with symbols from the mining industry and economic indications. If some elements have an autobiographical element, others (such as the mining tools in "Dirty Money", or, in "Split Unity", the hybrid phoenix-jet planes) are indicative of her reflections on contemporary politics. A three-fold approach towards mirroring becomes apparent in the paintings. The first is a doubled, reflected image created through the use of bowed Perspex mirrors. The second is anamorphism, which traditionally requires a mirror to create a perspectival distortion. Anamorphism also creates a second point of view articulated against the single viewpoint of linear perspective. The third type of mirroring presents a doubled point of view, or binocular focus, either in framing the image or within the image itself. These uses of the mirror allow her to explore notions of perception and subjectivity, and the boundaries between nature and culture. Griffith Artworks is responsible for the management and programming of exhibitions at Griffith University Art Gallery, based at the Queensland College of Art, South Bank campus. The rigorous exhibition program at Griffith University Art Gallery seeks to benchmark Australian and international art and design best-practice at the student interface. The gallery places special emphasis on the areas of academic focus by Queensland College of Art and Griffith University's Faculty of Arts, and on improving professional development opportunities for emerging artists, via employment, exhibition and research outcomes. Although there are several exhibiting areas on the South Bank campus - Project Gallery, Whitebox Space, Level 7 Webb Centre, QCM and numerous walls with hanging track installed - the Griffith University Art Gallery is intended to be the only secure, humidity and temperature controlled space capable of meeting International Facility Report standards, staffed by art museum professionals. The Griffith University Art Collection was established with the founding of the University in 1973 and acquires works by contemporary Australian artists. The collection focuses on works which are inter-disciplinary and which address debates from both within the art form and within the wider contexts of Australian society. The collection is exhibited throughout University buildings in thematic exhibitions that challenge and enhance the academic pursuits of the University's communities. Since 2005 efforts have been concentrated on honing the development of significant philanthropic support from the local community, and communities of interest. Three very significant gifts have been made to the Griffith University Art Collection, featuring some of Australia's great recent practitioners. The Paul Eliadis gift (2008) featured over 70 works by Australian artists, including a rare set of 1960s linocuts by Ian Burn, a set of 1970s studies by Howard Arkley, and works by significant local artists Scott Redford, Luke Roberts and Eugene Carchesio. A large 1998 painting titled 'Possum' a key work from the first generation of 'New Expression' works by revered Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara was also gifted by Dr Eliadis. In late 2008 the Gordon and Leanne Bennett gift of 120 works entered the Griffith University Art Collection. Consisting of his entire graphic oeuvre since 1984, this is the most significant holding of works on paper by Gordon Bennett in Australia. The museum also hosts a growing collection, currently comprising 400+, posters. The poster collection was conceived in 1979 when the Queensland Film and Drama Centre (now Griffith Artworks) established an archive of posters, any of which were produced in the centre. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.griffith.edu.au/visual-creative-arts/griffith-artworks

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Shows New Deal Art From the Smithsonian Collection Posted: 23 Oct 2011 10:41 PM PDT Montgomery, AL.- The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts presents "1934: A New Deal for Artists" through January 8th 2012. The exhibiton celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Project by drawing on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's unparalleled collection of vibrant paintings created for the program. The 56 paintings in the exhibition are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time. George Gurney, deputy chief curator, organized the exhibition with Ann Prentice Wagner, independent curator. Federal officials in the 1930s understood how essential art was to sustaining America's spirit. During the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration created the Public Works of Art Project, which lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934.

The Akron Art Museum To Open Two New Exhibitions Posted: 23 Oct 2011 10:20 PM PDT Akron, Ohio.- The Akron Art Museum is proud to present two new exhibitions opening on October 29th. "Supernatural: Landscapes by Bruce Checefsky and Barry Underwood" will be on view until March 4th 2012, while "Michelle Droll: Landslide - Between a Rock and a Place" will remain on view until February 19th 2012. Both exhibitions present very distinctive and skewed view of landscapes and complement the museum's presentation of "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism," an exhibition of more than 50 impressionist paintings which also opens on October 29th. Checefsky and Underwood both utilize the effects of atmospheric light in addition to outside light sources to create ephemeral moments in the landscape that give viewers the sense of discovering hidden worlds.

The Fitchburg Art Museum Presents the "World of the Graphic Novel" Posted: 23 Oct 2011 09:42 PM PDT Fitchburg, MA.- The Fitchburg Art Museum is proud to present "LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel", on view through January 1st 2012. The exhibition is organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum and is making its only traveling New England appearance at the museum. "LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel" will examine the use of this dynamic form of visual communication, and place specific emphasis on the art of the contemporary graphic novel, which is an internationally recognized artistic and literary genre. This special exhibition will feature over 200 original art works, including paintings, drawings, storyboards, studies, books, photographs, and a documentary film, offering insights into the lives of the artists and the nature of their work. The impact on art discourse and the surrounding public community will be deepened and heightened by the powerful literary element of the exhibition.

Closed for Refurbishment Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art Continues to Show its Collection Posted: 23 Oct 2011 09:25 PM PDT Sydney, Australia.- The galleries of Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art have been closed for refurbishment since June of this year. They should be reopening in early 2012. However, in the meantime the museum have been finding ways of working around the lack of gallery space. The annual 'Primavera' exhibition of work by Australia artists aged 35 and under is being held in various locations in and around Sydney's well-know "Rocks" precinct behind the museum, and the museum website is hosting "MCA Collection Online: New Acquisitions in Context". As part of the MCA's redevelopment, this online pilot project showcases 28 works from the recent MCA Collection: New Acquisitions in Context. This online resource, over time, will become a key component in showcasing the MCA's expanding collection of contemporary Australian art.

Harvard Art Museums Receive Gifts of Outsider Art from Didi and David Barrett Posted: 23 Oct 2011 09:24 PM PDT CAMBRIDGE, MA.- The Harvard Art Museums announce a gift of 38 drawings, paintings, and sculpture from Didi and David Barrett's 20th-century American Collection of Self-Taught, Folk, and Outsider Art. The gift comprises works by 24 American "outsider" artists, mostly from the 1930s through the 1990s. Among the notable figures represented in the collection are Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum, and Nellie Mae Rowe, whose work first came to public attention in the important Corcoran Gallery of Art exhibition Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980. In addition, the Barretts' gift includes three rare "ledger book drawings" made by members of the Plains Indian tribes in the late 19th century.

Ten Women Artists Receive Grants from "Anonymous Was A Woman" Award Posted: 23 Oct 2011 08:11 PM PDT NEW YORK, N.Y.- Anonymous Was A Woman announced the ten artists selected to receive the Foundation's sixteenth annual awards. The "no strings" grant of $25,000 enables women, over 45 years of age and at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work. Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, director of the program, explained, "Anonymous Was A Woman Awards are synonymous with important recognition in artists' personal and artistic development. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment, often at early stages of a new project, and, sometimes, recover from traumatic life events. In itself, the Award helps artists feel recognized and honored by other distinguished women who seek no credit for the role they play."

The Nahmad Collection Goes On View at Kunsthaus Zurich Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:57 PM PDT ZURICH - Over the past half-century the Nahmad family's primary relationship with art was how much money they could make by dealing in the works of Picasso, Monet and Dali. Now a new exhibition, "Miro, Monet, Matisse - The Nahmad Collection" reveals for the first time the world-class works they stashed away, almost forgotten in a warehouse. "Miro, Monet, Matisse - The Nahmad Collection" runs at the Kunsthaus Zurich until January 15. Their story began in the early 1960s, when brothers Ezra and David began buying art in Paris and transporting it back to Milan to sell.

Audrey Cottin Experimental Appearance at Jeu de Paume Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:56 PM PDT PARIS.- Audrey Cottin, a young French artist based in Brussels, enters Jeu de Paume space as a crowd. Her appearance is colorful, sculptural and spinning. She shares comfort and uneasiness of being in the company of people who don't stop keeping this world as a continuous creative experiment. Thus Audrey Cottin's exhibition completes a set of subjectivities that were intentionally displayed throughout the series of Satelite 4. Inspired by Robert Filiou's belief that "everybody is perfect" Audrey Cottin has been searching for a perfect collaboration with people she encounters. This search may include experts of various knowledges, skills and perspectives. The methods of collaboration are often defined by what kind of resonanse is created between those people (writers, sculptors, all kinds of impressarios, etc.) and Audrey herself. On view through 5 February.

Bonhams New York Hosts European Paintings Auction in NYC Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:55 PM PDT New York City.- Bonhams is excited to announce its sale of European Paintings, October 26th in New York, simulcast to San Francisco. The sale will feature a wide range of paintings spanning several centuries and artistic periods. The sale is led by works from the 19th century and highlighting the group is "The Trysting Place" by British painter John William Godward, one of the most significant painters of the classical revival (est. $200,000-300,000). In this work, a woman finds a note from her lover at their secret rendezvous place. Sorry to have missed him, she responds by drawing a heart on the edge of a pilaster. Unique to the artist's oeuvre, this work is considered an "answer painting" to his earlier oil of 1906, "Au Rendezvous." True to his goal of portraying peace and feminine beauty, this painting is an ideal representation of his artistic aesthetic. Another significant 19th century highlight of the sale comes from Romanian artist Nicolae Grigorescu. "The Bull Cart," featuring day-to-day peasant life with the backdrop of a rural landscape, is only the second known painting by the artist to come to public auction in the West (est. $100,000-150,000), making it a piece of great interest among Romanian collectors. After abandoning the idea of becoming an academic painter and leaving the studio of Sebastien Cornu in Paris, Grigorescu was greatly influenced by numerous French painters in the village of Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau. It was there that he was influenced by Jean-Francois Millet's renderings of working peasants, Corot's trees and Troyon's animals. Discovering his appreciation and love of the simple lives of peasants, he started to paint en plein air, developing his own language for landscapes, which made him a role model for future generations of artists. Grigorescu is considered today to be the founder of modern Romanian painting. It has been in private hands for over 50 years. A household name in Romania, Grigorescu continues to gain recognition in the West. Bonhams is thrilled to introduce his work to a wider audience." Three other highlights in the 19th Century section of the sale include: French artist Joseph Garibaldi's "The Old Port of Marseilles," which depicts the port of his native city, a popular subject throughout his career (est. $75,000-100,000); German artist Franz von Stuck's "A Portrait of Marianne Mechler," a strong example of the artistic style of portraying sensuous females for which the artist is known (est. $60,000-80,000); and "A Still Life with Peaches, Grapes and Hazelnuts" by German artist Johann Wilhelm Preyer, one of the most important German still-life painters of the 19th century (est. $30,000-50,000). Works of note in the Old Master section of the sale include "A Venetian Veduta with Strolling Figures" by Italian artist Francesco Albotto (est. $25,000-35,000). Several variants of this composition are known to exist; one being in the Museo del Castello Sforzesco, Milan, but the present work differs in some details from the other variations, making it a draw for collectors. A second Old Master highlight comes from the hand of Cornelis Kick, an Amsterdam artist and Dutch Golden Age painter who was trained by his father. Known for his flower pieces, the present painting, "A Still Life with Roses, an Iris, a Tulip and Other Flowers in a Vase resting on a Ledge," is an ideal example of the artist's work (est. $15,000-20,000). In the Sporting section of the sale, one can find James Ward's "Sir Richard Sutton's Chestnut Hunter" (est. $12,000-18,000). Known for his animal portraits, James Ward's oil on panel painting depicts the horse of the avid sportsman Sir Richard Sutton, the man some say had no equal when it came to hunting and shooting. Edwin Lord Weeks' "An Egyptian Caravan" leads the Orientalist section of the auction. Lord Weeks is one of the most distinguished and celebrated painters among American Orientalists. He showed an interest in painting and travel from a young age while growing up in Boston. Though exact details of his extensive travels are not well documented, the bulk of the artist's oeuvre tends to reflect his later travels to India and the Middle East, which is what makes this present work highly sought after. The painting depicts a camel caravan en route along the pyramids of Teti, and illustrates Weeks' skill for capturing majestic scenes possibly executed onsite or drawn from his archive of sketches. Another highlight in the Orientalist section of the sale comes from the French artist Georges Washington. "Arab soldiers at an Oasis" is an oil on canvas depicting mounted traveling soldiers resting at a small body of water within a vast landscape under a bright blue sky (est. $20,000-30,000). 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

Indianapolis Museum of Art hosts "Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World" Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:38 PM PDT INDIANAPOLIS, IN.- The first exhibition to examine the religious visual culture of 17th-century Spain and Latin America will premiere at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on October 11, 2009. "Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World" brings to life the challenges faced by visual artists such as El Greco, Francisco Zurbarán, Alonso Cano, Franciso Ribalta, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Juan de Valdes Leal, Juan Correa, Cristobal Villalpando and others, who were charged with the creative task of making religious images that were useful, truthful and moving. The exhibition will feature 80 works of art, including paintings, polychrome sculpture, metalwork and books, many of which have never before been seen in the United States. Sacred Spain will be on view exclusively in Indianapolis from October 11, 2009 through January 3, 2010. Exhibition highlights include: The legendary golden Crown of the Andes, made to adorn a statue of the Virgin Mary, venerated as the Queen of the Andes. The crown celebrates the devotion of the faithful to their protectress and makes visible the mystical tie with divinity. Set with 447 emeralds, the crown is the oldest and largest collection of emeralds in the world and has rarely been displayed publicly. A life-size and realistically-rendered sculpture, Juan Sánchez Barba's Cristo Yacente, which is featured in Holy Week processions in the Spanish town of Navalcarnero and has never been exhibited outside of the town. A trompe l'oeil "statue painting" by Cristobal Villalpando of a famous miracle-working image of the Virgen de la Soledad carved by Gaspar Becerra. Francisco Zurbarán's Agnus Dei, an illusionistic rendering of a lamb bound for sacrifice and presented as the object of prayer. This groundbreaking exhibition offers a new perspective on the sacred art of the Spanish world during the baroque period. In a departure from usual museum practice, in which religious images are treated solely as historical or aesthetic artifacts, Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World recognizes the possibility of transcendent images and seeks to reassert the art museum as a primary venue for cultural interpretation based on a deeper understanding of the creation, reception and uses of art. "While the scenes depicted in these works may be familiar to many, Sacred Spain puts these paintings and sculptures in the context of a pivotal period in Spanish history," said Maxwell L. Anderson, the Melvin & Bren Simon Director & CEO of the IMA. "This exhibition illuminates the remarkable role that the artist played at a time when art was believed to have divine power." "In an important sense, the exhibition is about the power of art," said Ronda Kasl, Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture before 1800 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. "It features works of art that were created with explicit responsive goals—they were meant to arouse wonder, devotion, and identification. We hope that viewers will be moved by the sheer visual impact of these works." The exhibition will be divided into six key sections: In Defense of Images; True Likeness; Moving Images; With the Eyes of the Soul; Visualizing Sanctity; and Living with Images. In Defense of Images - Sacred Spain will begin with an introduction to the essential elements of Spanish Catholic religious practice as they relate to images. These were used to aid memory, inspire devotion, and convey the worshiper toward contemplation of the divine. Faced with persistent accusations of idolatry, the Council of Trent (1545-63) previously had reaffirmed the usefulness of images for the instruction of the faithful and set the stage for an intense preoccupation with the theological arguments that shaped creative practice in 17th-century Spanish culture. This section features works by painter-theorists such as Francisco Pacheco, Fray Juan Ricci, Vicente Carducho, and others, including Juan de Valdés Leal, who contemplates the potential for creative human action, and the resulting attainment of glory or hell, in his Allegory of Vanity; its dense accumulation of symbolic objects makes pointed reference to the visual arts. True Likeness - Sacred Spain also will explore the idea that some religious images offered the possibility of divine presence. Some images owed their sacredness to a supposedly miraculous origin. The theological justification for the veneration of these works depended upon the acceptance that they were not made by mortals. Countless "portraits" of the Virgin are ascribed to the hand of St. Luke, while the face of Christ impressed on Veronica's veil and the Virgin of Guadalupe on Juan Diego's cloak are believed to have been transferred through direct physical contact with the divine. Francisco de Zurbarán's trompe-l'oeil Veronica bears the miraculous impression of Christ's bloodied face and implies the presence of the actual relic of the sacred cloth. Alonso López de Herrera's Holy Face, an image he replicated many times, was proclaimed a "true effigy" and authenticated by his signature. In other cases, the religious authority of an image resides in its convincing, sometimes exaggerated, lifelikeness, conveyed through artistic means such as realism or illusionism. The latter is powerfully on display in Zurbarán's Agnus Dei, which presents a lamb bound for slaughter as the object of prayer, challenging the boundary that exists between the representation of the sacred and its actual presence. Moving Images - One of the most compelling justifications for the use of religious imagery was its ability to provoke empathetic response and move the beholder toward contemplation of God. Spanish art often manifests the divine in terms that are both palpable and proximate, underscoring the role of the senses in apprehending purely spiritual qualities. Artists employed a wide range of techniques, but most of them shared the aim of intensifying emotional response. This is especially apparent in representations of Christ's Passion, where the subject is the graphic depiction of human suffering. This section will feature works by both painters and sculptors, including Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, Alonso Cano, Antonio Pereda, Gregorio Fernández and Juan Sánchez Barba. With the Eyes of the Soul - The works in this section of the exhibition reflect deliberate efforts by artists to render purely spiritual values in visual form. The exhibition considers the ways in which artists depicted visionary experiences and expressed what was at once unknowable and unrepresentable. Similarly, it explores the religious practices and aspirations that informed and motivated these artistic representations. Key works include Francisco Camilo's painting of a vision experienced by the Spanish mystic St. John of God, who receives a Crown of Thorns upon contemplating an image of the Crucifixion. Similarly, Cristóbal Villalpando depicts a rapturous St. Teresa being clothed by the Virgin and St. Joseph in a shining garment and a golden collar. The artistic challenge of representing such a vision is suggested by the saint herself, who wrote that the experience was beyond human understanding or imagining, and so beautiful that in comparison, everything on earth appeared to be a smudge of soot. Visualizing Sanctity - The visual representation of sanctity constitutes one of the most fertile areas of Hispanic artistic production in the 17th century. Saints were the protagonists of a religious history that was continually updated through the addition of new episodes that featured both historical and contemporary acts of heroism, holiness and virtue. Images of the saints were of fundamental importance in the promotion of the faith, and artists were faced with the problematic task of creating likenesses of them. The motive of truthful portrayal underlies the diffusion of images like Alonso Cano's Miraculous Portrait of St. Dominic at Soriano, depicting the "portrait" of St. Dominic said to have been given by the Virgin Mary to the monks of Soriano and Zurbarán's stark effigy of St. Francis, based on Pope Nicolas V's contemplation of the saint's mortal remains. Insistence on the necessity of truthful likenesses of the saints also resulted in portraits of individuals renowned for their saintliness, as well as postmortem portraits and death masks of the recently deceased. Living with Images - The final section of exhibition focuses on images created for use by individual worshipers, both lay and religious. Such images functioned as visual aids to prayer and meditation, practiced privately in the confines of home and cloister. The goal of these prayers was nothing less than spiritual perfection: to rise above mundane reality and achieve a closer union with God. Images connected with this pursuit provide an inventory of the religious values of the Spanish world and an index of its spiritual aesthetics. Works, including Francisco Ribalta's double portrait of a nobleman and his wife displaying a devotional image of St. Joseph and the pregnant Mary, chart the intimate, interactive relationship between worshiper and image and explore the visual strategies used by artists to activate memory and arouse response. Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World is organized by Ronda Kasl, Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture before 1800 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The exhibition concept and checklist were developed in consultation with an advisory committee of specialists in the art, history and culture of Spain and Spanish America. Principal curatorial advisors to the project include Javier Portús (Museo Nacional del Prado) and Concepción García Sáiz (Museo de América), two leading authorities on Spanish and Latin American baroque art. Visit the Indianapolis Museum of Art at : www.imamuseum.org/

The Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao Shows "Daniel Tamayo ~ Fables" Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:37 PM PDT Bilbao, Spain - The Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao is presenting a solo exhibiton of recent works by contemporary Basque painter Daniel Tamayo. "Daniel Tamayo: Fables" is on view until June 12th. Daniel Tamayo (Bilbao, 1951) was one of the original group of students at the University of the Basque Country's Fine Arts Faculty, where he now teaches. Beginning his career in the late seventies, Tamayo was influenced by the Pop movement and several leading names in the contemporary Spanish art world, such as Luis Gordillo. What we might call his figurative code has been marked by a taste for geometric drawing, "objectual" form and intense colours in smooth, flat inks.

Goya's Complete "Los Caprichos" Suite at Taft Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:36 PM PDT Cincinnati, Ohio - Acting as a 18 century version of ' The Daily Show ', Los Caprichos by Francisco Goya took an incisive perspective but with a black humor of contemporary Spanish society. From the provincial superstition devastating to the criticism of political corruption, this series of prints of Goya liberalism confirm and demonstrate the artist's revulsion towards the intellectual oppression of political and religious leaders. The complete series of compelling images of Los Caprichos the 18th century Spanish artist Francisco de Goya ("Los Caprichos" and "The Fantasy" published in 1799) confront the hypocrisy, pretension, fear and human irrationality, painting them in all conceivable. The uniquely original visions of Goya about monsters, ghosts, dead and bitter or hardened beings, pose challenges to the authority in all genres, including the church and state, while continuing to demonstrate accuracy and detail. On view through 30 January, 2011. The museum gallery will provide subtitles and information on the artist's art works in both English and Spanish. This is the first time that the Taft museum has bilingual subtitles on a display.

Luis Meléndez's Still Lifes to Premiere at the National Gallery of Art Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:35 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC.- Delights of the Spanish table depicted by 18th-century painter Luis Meléndez (1715-1780) will be presented to American audiences for the first time in nearly 25 years at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, May 17 through August 23, 2009. In a rare opportunity to explore the artist's working method, Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life will showcase 31 paintings, some of which have never been exhibited publicly, and nine examples of 18th-century kitchenware similar to those used as studio props by Meléndez.

Will Eisner Inspires Two Exhibitions ~ One Of The Founding Fathers Of Modern Comics & Graphic Novels Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:34 PM PDT New York City- The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is presenting "Will Eisner's New York: From the Spirit to the Modern Graphic Novel", an exhibit showcasing work of the comics and graphic novel master that was inspired by, and which spotlighted, his hometown, the city he always held closest to his heart: New York. The exhibition will run through June 30th 2011. March 6 would have been Will Eisner's birthday, and a further tribute was paid to him when Google's "doodle" featured 'The Spirit'. From the Golden Age of Comics through the creation of the modern graphic novel (a form he was instrumental in popularizing), you will find New York City at the heart of Will Eisner's work. Whether thinly disguised as "Central City" in the pages of his legendary creation, The Spirit, or more directly presented in his autobiographical graphic novels, New York was portrayed by Eisner as only a native of the city could know it.

National Gallery announces The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600-1700 Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:33 PM PDT LONDON.- Created to shock the senses and stir the soul… 'The Sacred Made Real' presents a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age. Paintings including masterpieces by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán are displayed for the very first time alongside Spain's remarkable 'polychrome' (painted) sculptures. The religious art of 17th-century Spain pursued a quest for realism with uncompromising zeal and genius. Far from being separate, this exhibition proposes that the arts of painting and sculpture were intricately linked and interdependent. On exhibition 21 October through 24 January, 2010 at The National Gallery.

Haus der Kunst to feature William Eggleston's Retrospective of Photographs & Video Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:32 PM PDT Munich, Germany - William Eggleston's early photographs were black and white. In the 1960s he began to photograph in colour and - almost single-handedly - heralded in the era of fine art colour photography. A solo show at the MoMA in 1976 made him famous. Eggleston's snapshot aesthetic and his psychologising use of colour was still unusual at the time; in an annual review, the MoMA show was even called, "The most hated show of the year." Today Eggleston enjoys a cult status among younger generations of photographers and film directors. On exhibition at the Haus der Kunst from 20 February through 17 May, 2009.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson's Artworks at Columbus Museum of Art Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:31 PM PDT Columbus, OH.- The Columbus Museum of Art presents "Street Talk and Spiritual Matters: Aminah's Mt. Vernon Avenue" from  May 20th through September 4th. This exhibition explores two related aspects of Aminah Robinson's work: her documentation of the Mt. Vernon Avenue community where she grew up and her depictions of women who personify the African-American spirituals she heard emanating from area churches and radios in the neighborhood. "The work in this exhibition pulsates with Aminah's drive to document and remember," said Carole Genshaft, CMA adjunct curator of education.

'Vladimir Tretchikoff: The People's Painter' at the The Iziko Museum S.A. National Gallery Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:30 PM PDT Cape Town, SA - The Iziko Museums are presenting 'Vladimir Tretchikoff: The People's Painter' at the S.A. National Gallery in Cape Town from 26 May 2011. While Vladimir Tretchikoff (1913-2006) is undoubtedly one of South Africa's most controversial artists, much maligned in the 1960's and onwards by members of the established arts community, there can be no doubt that he has become a cultural icon and remains a favorite artist to many South Africans. Despite this, there has been almost no serious assessment of Tretchikoffs legacy. In his heyday Tretchikoff's exhibitions drew record audiences at his home and abroad and he was considered to be one of the richest artists, with earnings comparable to Picasso. He pioneered the idea of selling affordable copies of his works, enabling working class people to own art which they proudly displayed above their mantelpieces. This retrospective exhibition aims to examine Tretchikoff anew and place him in contemporary perspective. Many iconic works such as the Chinese Girl and The Dying Swan will be on display. Vladimir Grigoryevich Tretchikoff was the youngest of eight children in a wealthy family in Petropavl, an industrial city in Siberia. Upon the Russian Revolution in 1917, the family abandoned their property and fled to Harbin, a city in China with a large Russian presence. Tretchikoff worked as a scene painter at the city's Russian opera house, and studied at the Manchurian College until the age of 16. This explains why much of his later work is designed to be seen from a distance with an inherent theatricality. A year previously, he was commissioned to paint portraits for the boardroom of the Chinese-Eastern Railway, and with the money from this commission he joined the community of Shanghai Russians. In Shanghai, Tretchikoff worked as an art director and illustrator for Mercury Press, an American-owned advertising and publishing company. At the same time, he contributed cartoons to local Russian and English-language magazines. He met and married Natalie Telpougoff, a fellow Russian emigré. The couple moved to Singapore, where Tretchikoff opened an art school and worked for the Straits Times. International recognition came in 1937 when he was commissioned by the head of IBM, Thomas Watson, to represent Malaya in an exhibition of international art for which he produced the painting 'The Last Divers'. When the Second World War spread to the Pacific in 1940, Tretchikoff became a propaganda artist working for the British Ministry of Information. In February 1942, Tretchikoff was on board a ship evacuating ministry personnel to South Africa. The ship was bombed by the Japanese, and the 42 survivors rowed first to Sumatra, which they found was already occupied by the Japanese Army. They then rowed to Java, which took 19 days, only to find that it too was occupied. Tretchikoff spent the rest of the war in a Japanese prison camp (where he spent three months in solitary confinement for protesting that as a Russian citizen he ought not to be imprisoned), and then on parole in Batavia, (now Jakarta), where he worked with a Javanese dance troupe. Here he met Leonora Schmidt-Salomonson (Lenka) who became his lover and one of his most famous models. In 1946 he was reunited with his wife and their daughter Mimi in South Africa (they had been successfully evacuated on an earlier boat). He quickly became famous in South Africa thanks to a book that collected his portraits of Oriental women and pictures of flowers, and held successful exhibitions in Cape Town and Johannesburg. His fame spread to the United States, where the Rosicrucians of San Jose invited him to launch an American tour. Around 19,000 people saw his show in Los Angeles and 51,000 in San Francisco. In Seattle, a rival show which included Picasso and Rothko sold fewer tickets, to Tretchikoff's satisfaction. A million Americans finally saw his paintings, which then went on to Canada with equal success. This was followed by a large exhibition in 1961 at Harrods in London where he decided that the Harrod's art gallery was too small. He requested and was granted the privilege of having his exhibition in the ground-floor exhibition space. About 205,000 people attended the exhibition and one of his British admirers, Leslie Rigall, bought ten paintings and designed his new house in Windsor Great Park around them. His famous "Chinese Girl", a 1950 painting featuring an Eastern model with blue-green skin, is one of the best selling prints of all time. Prints of the painting became widespread during the 1960s and 1970s, and the painting was featured in various plays and television programmes: the original set of Alfie, with a drawn moustache in one episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus and an episode of Doctor Who. Other popular paintings of oriental figures were Miss Wong and Balinese Girl. He said of British prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Markova, who sat for The Dying Swan, that she was his most stimulating sitter. 'Iziko' is an isiXhosa word, meaning "a hearth". Since the hearth of a typical African homestead usually occupies the central space, Iziko symbolizes both a hub of cultural activity, and a central place for gathering together South Africa's diverse heritage. The Iziko Museums of Cape Town include the Iziko South African National Gallery, South Africa's premier art museum, housing outstanding collections of South African, British, French, Dutch, Flemish and wider African art. With a permanent collection of almost 10,000 items, selections from the Permanent Collection change regularly to enable the museum to have a full program of temporary exhibitions of paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture, beadwork, textiles and architecture. These provide insight into the extraordinary range of aesthetic production in South Africa, the African continent and further afield. From an initial bequest of 45 paintings presented in 1871 by Thomas Butterworth Bayley, the collection of the Iziko South African National Gallery has grown to one of international stature, encompassing substantial holdings of South African, African and Western European art. The richness of the foreign collection is almost entirely due to the munificence of the early patrons of the Gallery. The main building, designed by Clelland & Mullins (Public Works Department) and F K Kendall, was completed in 1930, with funds from the Government, the City Council and the Hyman Liberman Estate. Since then various improvements have been made to the building, including the introduction of climate control and an upgraded lighting system in 1991. The art collections library provides an extensive art research and reference resource covering South African and international art, with books, journals, exhibition catalogues, sales/auction catalogues, newspaper clippings since 1904, artist files and art boxes, pamphlets, DVDs, CDs and videos. In line with museum policy, the Library develops projects to make its resources available to as many people in the community as possible. As well as the National Gallery itself, art from the Michaelis Collection (which also forms part of the Art Division of Iziko Museums of Cape Town) is housed in the Old Town House on Greenmarket Square, built in 1755 in Cape Rococo style. Donated by Sir Max Michaelis in 1914, it comprises a world-renowned collection of Netherlandish art from the 17th century, including paintings and works on paper by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob Ruisdael, Anthony van Dyck and Rembrandt. The historic Rust en Vreugd house contains the William Fehr donation of works of art on paper (watercolours, prints and drawings), whilst paintings from the same donation are displayed at the Castle of Good Hope. Visit the museums websites at … http://www.iziko.org.za/iziko/izihome.html

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:29 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.

You are subscribed to email updates from Art News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610