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

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• We Are Still Undergoing Maintenance . . . Sorry About The Delay
• San Diego Museum of Art To Host “From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection”
• Adelson Galleries Featues the Paintings of Self-Taught Artist Winfred Rembert
• A Series of Exhibitions in Italy will Celebrate Elio Ciol's 80th Anniversary
• Dali Movie Delayed
• The Kampa Museum For Central European Modern Art ~ In Prague,Czech Republic Greets Our Editor
• The Museum Kunst Palast Reopens its Collection After Two years
• Sir Stanley Spencer New Auction Record
• "Guest of Cindy Sherman" A New Film Chronicles Life with the Reclusive Artist
• Smart Museum of Art shows Selections from the H. C. Westermann Study Collection
• Our Editor Visits The Tate Modern In London ~ The World’s Favorite Modern Art Museum
• LACMA Presents Most Extensive Retrospective of John Baldessari to Date
• Eugene Boudin Exhibition Honors the Centenary of National Gallery of Art
• Sotheby's Geneva Sale of Magnificent Tiara Sets a World Auction Record
• The Forum Gallery Presents "That Seventies Show"
• The Mississippi Museum of Art opens "Jim Henson’s Fantastic World "
• Vintage Poster Market Proves as Strong as Ever at Poster Auctions International
• Pompidou Centre in Paris opens Architect & Designer Ron Arad ~ 'No Discipline'
• Couturier Gallery to Display Unique "World Maps"
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

We Are Still Undergoing Maintenance . . . Sorry About The Delay Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:58 PM PDT ANNOUNCEMENT: Art Knowledge News will be taking a One Day break during a 24 hour, or less, period required for maintenance of our equipment. We are posting many interesting articles from our archives, some of the BEST Articles and Art Images that appeared in your magazine during the past six plus (6+) years . . and we are also publishing current art news articles on the left hand side under RECENT NEWS .. Enjoy

San Diego Museum of Art To Host “From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection” Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:55 PM PDT San Diego, CA.- From July 9th through October 3rd 2011, the San Diego Museum of Art is proud to be the only U.S. museum to show "From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection". This spectacular survey of Spanish art from the 16th century to the 1970s will feature 64 works drawn from one of the world's finest private collections From the golden age of Charles V and on through the modern period, this exhibition showcases such acclaimed masters of the Spanish school as El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Sorolla, Picasso, Dalí and Miró. Spanning four centuries, this selection of works by some of the world's most celebrated artists illustrates a splendid chapter in the history of Spanish art. Visitors to the exhibition will also be invited to discover dazzling artists little-known in the U.S., such as the Romantic Manuel Barrón y Carrillo, or the Modernist Romero de Torres. This exhibition proposes new perspectives on the story of Spanish art, considered both thematically and historically. An outstanding selection of old master paintings will  underscore the importance of religious piety and royal patronage from the 16th to the 18th century, including Jusepe de Ribera's sensational Saint Jerome, Bartolomé Murillo's sublime Immaculate Conception, and Francisco de Goya's masterful Doña María Teresa de Vallabriga y Rozas. The struggle between tradition and modernity will be considered from the late-18th to the 20th century, featuring six works by Salvador Dalí, among them his monumental Ascension of Christ, and the diptych Gala's Christ, painted for his wife and muse in 1978. Monuments of painting, the masterpieces assembled for this exhibition are also a testament to a preeminent collector's enduring passion. A native of Asturias, Spain, Juan Antonio Pérez Simón has made Mexico City his home. It is also home to his collection, begun in the 1970s, which now ranks among the greatest in the world. From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection, a choice selection from the outstanding works that comprise this stellar collection,premiered in Paris, at the Musée Jacquemart-André, before traveling to the Musée national des beaux-arts in Québec City. The San Diego Museum of Art's mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and display the finest works of art that men and women have created throughout time for the benefit of the broadest conceivable audience. The inspiration for a permanent public art gallery in San Diego can be traced to the Panama-California International Exposition, held in Balboa Park during 1915-1916.  The Exposition, which was organized to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and to promote San Diego as a seaport, also showcased San Diego as a growing cultural center. Planning for the new museum began in 1922 when local business and civic leader, Appleton S. Bridges (1849-1929), offered to fund the construction of a permanent structure to house a municipal art collection. A prominent site on the north side of Balboa Park's Plaza de Panama was secured and construction got underway in April 1924. Bridges hired one of San Diego's leading architects at the time, William Templeton Johnson (1877-1950), to design and construct the new art gallery. The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego officially opened its doors on February 28, 1926, at which time ownership and maintenance of the building was transferred to the City of San Diego. The Museum underwent an important period of expansion, in terms of both its collections and gallery space from 1955 until 1979. The completion in 1966 of the west wing doubled the space of Bridges' original structure and additional gallery space was added with the completion of the Gildred-Parker-Grant (east) wing in 1974. In 1978, Trustees changed the name of the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego to The San Diego Museum of Art in recognition of the Museum's status as a repository for applied and decorative arts in addition to the fine arts of painting and sculpture. The San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for 350,000 visitors annually. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th and 20th century American paintings and sculptures. The Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule supporting cultural and educational programs for children and adults. At The San Diego Museum of Art, exhibition text is always in English and Spanish. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.sdmart.org

Adelson Galleries Featues the Paintings of Self-Taught Artist Winfred Rembert Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:53 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- In a special event, Adelson Galleries and Peter Tillou Works of Art present the paintings of Winfred Rembert this spring. The exhibition, taking place April 7 through May 28, 2010, will be Rembert's first major solo exhibition in New York. A self-taught artist, Rembert grew up working in the cotton fields of Cuthbert, Georgia, in the 1950's. He was arrested after a 1960's civil rights march and survived a near-lynching before serving seven years in jail. It was in jail, creating wallets next to another inmate, that he first learned to hand-tool leather. Years later, at the suggestion of his wife, Rembert integrated storytelling and the tales of his youth into tableaux on sheets of tanned leather.

A Series of Exhibitions in Italy will Celebrate Elio Ciol's 80th Anniversary Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:52 PM PDT UDINE, ITALY.- A series of exhibitions organized at Villa Manin di Passariano, in Casarsa della Delizia and in Pordenone celebrates the eighty years of Elio Ciol, one of the Italian landscape photographers better known in the world, and sixty years of professional work of the artist. Elio Ciol is known mainly for his photographic interpretations of Italian landscape and for his work of documentation of artistic heritage. The Villa Manin exhibition deals with a lesser known period of the photographer, that of the years of his formation, between 1950 and 1964. The exhibition is made of 140 photographs, many of which never previously shown, and is held in a lateral building of Villa Manin, the great country palace near Codroipo that has been one of the major exhibition sites of Friuli Venezia Giulia county for many years

Dali Movie Delayed Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:51 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Antonio Banderas has confirmed that the Salvador Dali movie project has been delayed due to a dispute on the treatment of the script with the foundation that handles the Spanish painter's affairs. The actor from Malaga has assured that the financing for the film, which will be directed by British director Simon West, has been guaranteed, but what is delaying the film are the "ideological problems" with the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation.

The Kampa Museum For Central European Modern Art ~ In Prague,Czech Republic Greets Our Editor Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:49 PM PDT Above all, the Kampa Museum is a "fun" place. Yes, there is serious art, and yes, you can hear echoes of 1968 and the "Prague Spring" in many of the works, but the museum itself is such a relaxed, friendly and humorous place that it simply delights the visitor. The Kampa Museum for Central European Modern Art is located in a 15th century mill house situated within a park on Kampa island in Prague. The building, which was rebuilt and renovated in a contemporary style provides an intimate, humorous and friendly environment. Broad glass walls, a central glass tower and terraces containing contemporary sculpture (often spilling out into the adjacent Vltava river, as with the Cracking Art Groups' illuminated yellow penguins in 2009) blend the museum into its surroundings. The museum owes its existence to the well-known Czech-American art lover and historian, Meda Mladek, and the fulfillment of her vision to transform the historical Sova Mill complex into a museum for Central European modern art, which could publicly exhibit and preserve her bequest to the city of Prague of the unique art collection that she and her late husband, Jan Mladek, collected over their lifetime. Jan and Meda Mladek believed that culture is the basis for a nation's survival. For many years they supported and promoted artists who were persecuted, exiled or driven underground during the communist era. The museum's opening was not without incident, originally it was intended to open in 2002, but just before the completion of reconstruction and interior design, the Vltava River burst its banks and flooded the building up to a height of five metres, delaying the opening until 2003. The fate of one of its exhibits, the huge wooden chair carved by artist Magdalena Jetelova was followed by the media as this work of art drifted some fifty kilometres down the river and was eventually found close to the town of Melnik. In the permanent collection is František Kupka /1871 - 1957/ - The František Kupka exposition in Museum Kampa represents one of the largest and most famous collections of this great pioneer of modern art. The collection, which amounts to more than 200 pieces, covers works from his time as a student to his later abstract period. Also Otto Gutfreund /1889 - 1927/ - Museum Kampa is home to artworks by this famous Czech sculptor of the 20th century. Several of his sculptures are displayed in the museum, including his bronze cubistic pieces. Visit the museum's website at: http://www.museumkampa.cz/new/en/ The original Mladek bequest has subsequently been supplemented by donations from Jirí and Bela Kolár (Jiri Kolár already featured in the Mladek's collection) and the collection of the renowned art theorist Henry Chalupecký. Amongst the highlights of the Kampa's collection are; the František Kupka exposition, containing more than 200 works, covering his time from a student to his later abstract period; sculptures by Otto Gutfreund; and a unique collection of modern Czech art, including works by Vaclav Cigler, Hugo Demartini, Stanislav Kolibal, Adrien Šimotová, Vladimir Janousek, Vera Janoušková, Eva Kmentova, Magdalena Jetelová. Radek Kratina, John Kubicek, Karel Malich, Alena Kucerova, George Naceradský, Otakar Nightingale, and Charles Nepras. Art from other Central European countries is represented by artists including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Edward Dwurnika, Izabella Gustowské, Joseph Lukomského, Akos Birkáse, György Jovánovicse, Ivan Kozarica and Branko Popovic Mitzi. The collection includes hundreds of paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics by prominent Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and Yugoslavian artists. Temporary exhibitions (such as Andy Warhol's "Disaster Relics") allow the local art to be shown alongside its contemporary western art. In the old stables buildings, the Kampa is currently showing John Schmid's Ypsilon Theater posters (until 13 February 2011) and a second exhibition: Josef Svoboda - Robert Wilson, a comparative exhibition of works by two of the twentieth centuries greats of stage design is also showing at the Kampa until 6 February 2011. Also currently on show is Georg Baselitz's "Volk Ding Zero" (Zero Folk Thing). This 3' tall painted bronze casting was created in 2009, about half a ton of bronze went into the seated figure. Deliberately humorous and ambiguous, the figure has classic women's high-heeled shoes, but otherwise appears to be male (and the head is modelled on the artist himself, including the folded-newspaper hat that he wears to keep paint off his head).

The Museum Kunst Palast Reopens its Collection After Two years Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:47 PM PDT Dusseldorf.- After more than 2 years of closure, the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf reopened its collection with a a selection of 450 selected works from the middle-ages to the present-day. As a living art museum with a diverse, cross-cultural archive, with the rich collection from the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the archive of the artistic photography of the Rhine Kunsszene (AFORK), the new presentation allows the Museum Kunst Palast to let these collections speak for themselves and illustrate the history of the Düsseldorf art collection. The new exhibition includes works from the collection of late medieval sculpture, Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 16th to 18 Century, European paintings from Romanticism to Impressionism, a special focus on the Düsseldorf School, works of German Expressionism, the ZERO group and post 195 color field painting.

Sir Stanley Spencer New Auction Record Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:46 PM PDT LONDON.- The sale of 20th Century British Art at Sotheby's in London established a new auction record for a work by Sir Stanley Spencer (in pounds – see note at foot of email), when his "Hilda and I at Pond Street" sold for £1,430,050 ($2,249,612), far in excess of its pre-sale estimate of £400,000-600,000. (The previous auction record for Spencer was £1,320,000 ($2,161,454) and this was achieved for his The Crucifixion, which sold at Sotheby's in London in 1990.) "Hilda and I at Pond Street", from 1954, was arguably the finest work by the British artist to appear at auction in the last five years. It was offered for sale by The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago , to benefit the Museum's acquisition fund.

"Guest of Cindy Sherman" A New Film Chronicles Life with the Reclusive Artist Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:45 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY - In 1979, Cindy Sherman rocked the NYC art world at age 26 with her "Film Stills." The haunting photographic series appears to chronicle actresses in the midst of dramatic and evocative film scenes, but is in fact the artist herself posing as the different subjects. Hailed for her play on media and identity, the shy and reclusive Sherman almost always uses herself as the model in her photographs and always in disguise. Today, at age 54, she is internationally acknowledged as one of the world's most gifted and significant visual talents - in May 1999, ARTnews named Sherman, alongside Matisse and Picasso, as one of "The 20th Century's Most Influential Artists."

Smart Museum of Art shows Selections from the H. C. Westermann Study Collection Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:43 PM PDT CHICAGO, IL - The University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art presents Your Pal, Cliff: Selections from the H. C. Westermann Study Collection, a comprehensive new exhibition that offers fresh insight into the work and life of the postwar American artist H. C. ("Cliff") Westermann (1922–1981). On view from April 2 to September 6, 2009, the exhibition brings to light for the first time the full scope of the Smart Museum's Westermann holdings—one of the most significant public collections of artwork and ephemera related to this singular American artist. In thematic displays that mix artworks with objects of a more archival nature, the exhibition details Westermann's working process and legendary sense of craft. Drawn entirely from the H. C. Westermann Study Collection—established at the Smart Museum through donations by the estate of Westermann's wife, the artist Joanna Beall Westermann, and enhanced by many gifts from the artist's family and others—the exhibition includes not only finished sculptures, drawings, and prints, but also gift objects, sketchbooks, printing blocks, tools, unfinished projects, and correspondence from Westermann's circle of artist-friends. Your Pal, Cliff is the result of months of research by University of Chicago PhD candidates and exhibition curators Rachel Furnari and Michael Tymkiw. The exhibition will be accompanied by a rich array of public programs, highlighted by a lecture by renowned critic Robert Storr, and a gallery tour led by celebrated Chicago artists Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson. Horace Clifford (H. C.) Westermann (1922–1981) created a meticulously crafted and highly personal body of work that has long resisted easy categorization within the standard histories of postwar American art. Westermann blended imagery born of profound personal experiences—especially apparent in the Death Ship and other motifs related to his searing experiences in World War II—with at times bawdy, absurd, or unsettling elements from contemporary American material culture. In addition, Westermann consistently used figuration and paid fastidious attention to the crafts of wood- and metalwork. This often placed him at odds with the emphasis on abstraction and the use of readymade or commercially fabricated materials that characterized dominant American art movements of his generation. Westermann's significance as a postwar American sculptor was acknowledged in his lifetime by solo museum exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1969), the Whitney Museum of American Art (1978), and the Serpentine Gallery in London (1980). His artistic legacy has since been examined by three posthumous retrospective exhibitions devoted to his sculptures (Museum of Contemporary Art, 2001), graphic oeuvre (Smart Museum of Art, 2001), and painted work (Contemporary Art Center in Honolulu, 2006). No previous project has drawn so extensively on the full range of artwork, archival material, and ephemera that comprise the Smart Museum's study collection. Drawing on formal artworks and largely unstudied ephemera, this exhibition examines Westermann's artistic practice, particularly his use of craft and the convergence of his life and art. The exhibition is divided into thematic sections that highlight several challenging aspects of Westermann's oeuvre: the recurring subjects and themes such as the Death Ship or the daredevil performer; the fluid boundary between artworks intended for public audiences and those that were more private, such as personal gifts and correspondence; and the far-reaching, distinctive facets of his craftsmanship. The exhibition's sections form a set of linked threads that illustrate connections across media, style, and time. Horace Clifford Westermann, Jr. was born on December 11, 1922 in Los Angeles. He spent some time after high school in the northwest working for a logging company before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1942. During World War II, Westermann saw action in the Pacific as an antiaircraft gunner aboard the USS Enterprise. He was honorably discharged, toured with the USO as part of the hand-balancing act "Wayne and Westermann," and in 1947 enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), studying graphic and applied arts. Before completing his studies, he re-enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in the Korean War. Back in Chicago, he completed his studies—this time with a focus on painting—and graduated from SAIC in 1954. Westermann soon after turned to sculpture and began exhibiting with Allan Frumkin Gallery in Chicago. Westermann died of a heart attack on November 3, 1981, soon after completing the construction of their new home. All together, the study collection includes nearly fifty sculptures and objects (both large gallery pieces and smaller, more personal objects given as gifts to his wife and others), many drawings and letter-drawings by the artist, all but two of the artist's known prints, forty-five printing blocks, seventeen sketchbooks (dating from between 1952 and 1981), as well as an extraordinary mix of personal and professional correspondence (numbering over one thousand items), records, photographs, books and magazines, art making tools, unfinished sculptures, and other objects related to Westermann's life and art. The study collection has a dedicated home in the Smart Museum's contemporary galleries, where a rotating selection of Westermann material is permanently on view. The study collection is also a component of the Museum's growing online database and is available for use by appointment to students, scholars, and individuals interested in Westermann's life and work. Adjoining the exhibition in the Museum's contemporary galleries will be a presentation of related works drawn from the Smart Museum's permanent collection. Although Westermann resided for much of his professional life in Connecticut, he had deep personal and artistic connections to both California and Chicago. This installation features works by Robert Arneson and William T. Wiley as well as Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and other so-called Chicago Imagists who regarded Westermann as a forerunner and model. Visit The University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art at : http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/

Our Editor Visits The Tate Modern In London ~ The World’s Favorite Modern Art Museum Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:40 PM PDT Located in central London on the banks of the river Thames, the Tate Modern is one of the family of four Tate galleries which display selections from the Tate Collection (named for Sir Henry Tate, a Victorian sugar merchant, whose donation formed the basis of the modern collection). The Collection comprises the national collection of British art from the year 1500 to the present day, and of international modern art. The other three galleries are Tate Britain, also in London, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives, in Cornwall. Created in 2000 from a disused power station, the Tate Modern displays the national collection of international modern art, defined as art since 1900. The international modern art was formerly displayed alongside the British art at what was previously the Tate Gallery and is now Tate Britain. By about 1990 it was clear that the Tate Collection had hugely outgrown the original Tate Gallery on Millbank. It was decided to create a new gallery in London to display the international modern component of the Tate Collection. For the first time London would have a dedicated museum of modern art. At the same time, the Tate building on Millbank ( now the Tate Britain) would neatly revert to its original intended function as the national gallery of British art. The Bankside power station had closed in 1982 and was available, a striking and distinguished building in its own right, it was in an amazing location on the south bank of the River Thames opposite St Paul's Cathedral and the City of London. The fact that the original Tate Gallery was also on the river meant that the two could be linked by a riverboat service while a new footbridge (the Millennium Bridge) would connect the Tate Modern to St Paul's cathedral. An international architectural competition was held attracting entries from practices all over the world. The final choice was Herzog and De Meuron, a relatively small and then little known Swiss firm (who have subsequently won the Pritzker Prize and become world famous on the back of this, and other works). A key factor in this choice was that their proposal retained much of the essential character of the building. The power station (originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also created Liverpool's Anglican cathedral, University libraries in Oxford and Cambridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the design of the famous British red telephone box) consisted of a huge turbine hall, thirty-five metres high and 152 metres long, with, parallel to it, the huge boiler house. The turbine hall became a dramatic entrance area, with ramped access, as well as a display space for very large sculptural projects. The boiler house became many of the galleries. These galleries are on three levels running the full length of the building. The galleries are disposed in separate but linked blocks, on either side of the central escalators. Above the original roofline of the power station Herzog and De Meuron added a two-storey glass penthouse, known as "the lightbeam". The top level of this "lightbeam" houses a café-restaurant with stunning views of the river and the City, and the lower room with terraces on both sides of the building. In total, the Tate Modern has 34,500 square meters of floorspace, including over 9,800 m2 of display and exhibition space, plus 3,300 m2 for specific installations in the turbine hall. The Tate Modern opened in 2000 and became an instant hit with visitors from worldwide. Designed to handle up to 2 million visitors a year, it rapidly became the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 5 million visitors every year. Further expansion of the gallery has been a priority for some time, and a new extension is scheduled to open in 2012. Also designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the new extension will take the form of a ziggurat or pyramid with a sloping brick facade to match the original building. When completed, this will include galleries dedicated to photography, video, exhibitions and the community. Be sure to visit the museum's website at: … http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/

LACMA Presents Most Extensive Retrospective of John Baldessari to Date Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:38 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents John Baldessari: Pure Beauty, the most extensive retrospective to date of Los Angeles-based artist John Baldessari (b. 1931), on view June 27 to September 12, 2010. Organized by LACMA in association with Tate Modern, the exhibition will bring together more than 150 works and examine the principal concerns of Baldessari, who is widely regarded as one of the most important artists working today. LACMA's presentation will be the only West Coast showing and feature the greatest number of works of any venue on the show's major international tour.

Eugene Boudin Exhibition Honors the Centenary of National Gallery of Art Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:37 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC – The art of French landscape painter Eugène Boudin (1824 – 1898) will get a rare showing in America, when Eugène Boudin at the National Gallery of Art goes on view in the National Gallery of Art's March 25 through April 5, 2007.  The exhibition of approximately 40 paintings and works on paper will honor the centenary of the birth of Paul Mellon, the Gallery's founding president and the benefactor largely responsible for its Boudin collection, which is one of the largest and most distinguished in this country.  Proclaimed the "king of the skies" by Camille Corot, Boudin influenced a number of impressionist painters, most notably Claude Monet.

Sotheby's Geneva Sale of Magnificent Tiara Sets a World Auction Record Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:33 PM PDT GENEVA.- Sotheby's Geneva sold the most important emerald and diamond tiara to have appeared at auction in over 30 years for CHF 11,282,500 /$12,736,927, the highest price ever achieved for a tiara at auction. Six bidders competed for the magnificent and extremely rare emerald and diamond tiara, circa 1900, which was formerly in the Collection of Princess Katharina Henckel von Donnersmarck (est. CHF 4.6-9.2 million/$5-10 million [lot 443]); the price it fetched also represented an auction record for a piece of emerald jewellery. The total for the entire sale of Magnificent and Noble Jewels was CHF 78,944,900 / $89,121,687 (est. CHF 41.9 - 69 million / $ 47.3 – 77.9 million).

The Forum Gallery Presents "That Seventies Show" Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:29 PM PDT New York City.– The Forum Gallery is pleased to present "That Seventies Show" on view at the gallery until September 2nd. "That Seventies Show" is an exhibition of works created from 1970 to 1980 by a diverse group of creative artists whose energy and impulses are emblematic of the decade.  Unlike previous time periods, important art of the 1970s cannot be characterized by a term, or label.  Instead, the art on view represents the origins of pluralism and defies the idea of a collective effort or single artistic movement. Figurative drawings by William Beckman; and figurative paintings by Gregory Gillespie, Joseph Hirsch, David Levine, Ben Shahn and Raphael Soyer illustrate this diversity.  Although united by their focus on the human figure, each artist takes a different approach and the results are quite different.  Both Gillespie, who burst on the scene in the Seventies, and Shahn, who was by then a mature and well-known artist, created fantasies, but Gregory Gillespie had his own, intense surreal style, while Shahn, in the Seventies, was about lyrical dreamscape.  Hirsch and Levine were painting characteristic responses to social behavior of the time, while Beckman and Soyer were objective observers of the human form. Linear abstraction, represented here in three-dimensional works by Charles Biederman, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Eli Bornstein; and a major painting by Richard Anuszkiewicz, was the new abstract aesthetic of the decade of the 1970's.  Born of a response to the abstract expressionism of the previous decades, this art today has a visual clarity and emotional neutrality that compel attention. Original, realist works by Robert Cottingham and Tom Wesselmann are among the first creations in which painters employed photography as a means of observation.  The paintings focus on detailed, unidealized representation of life, and are clear antecedents of much of the photography-based drawing and painting that have followed. That Seventies Show also includes works by Yaacov Agam, Romare Bearden, Davis Cone, Rackstraw Downes, Yrjö Edelmann, Chaim Gross, Jules Kirschenbaum, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Saul Steinberg, Ernesto Tino Trova, Laura Ziegler and Francisco Zúñiga. The Forum Gallery celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. Founded by Bella Fishko in 1961, Forum Gallery today represents more than thirty contemporary artists and estates. In addition the gallery maintains an important inventory of twentieth-century and contemporary art, with a concentration on American and European modernism and figurative art. Forum Gallery has placed works in every major American museum and in private collections throughout the world, and is a founding member of the Art Dealers Association of America. In October, 2010, Forum Gallery moved to new quarters in the historic Crown Building, 730 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, New York.  Forum Gallery also operates Forum 57 at the Four Seasons Hotel, New York, a full-service gallery and art concierge service available to the public and guests of the hotel.  Our staff is available at Forum 57 to help with any fine art question or concern. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://forumgallery.com

The Mississippi Museum of Art opens "Jim Henson’s Fantastic World " Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:26 PM PDT Jackson, MS - Jim Henson's Fantastic Worldoffers a rare glimpse into the imagination and creative genius of the multi-talented innovator and creator of beloved characters like Kermit the Frog, Big Bird, and hundreds of others. From the beginning, the Mississippi-native expressed his ideas in incredible bursts of invention, through a variety of visual forms, clever dialogue, songs, comic bits, and animation. This exhibition presents original artwork, including drawings and cartoons, as well as other objects like puppets and movie props, all of which reveal the brilliant mind of their creator. On exhibition through 14 March, 2010.

Vintage Poster Market Proves as Strong as Ever at Poster Auctions International Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:23 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- A record number of buyers showed up at Poster Auctions International on November 8, proving that the vintage poster market is as strong as ever! In its 49th semi-annual auction of rare posters, Poster Auctions International realized over $1,600,000 million – a number 50% higher than that posted at this time last year. Art Deco certainly dominated the sale, with works by A.M. Cassandre and Paul Colin leading the way. Cassandre's famous poster for "Dubonet" as well as his "United States Lines", each saw $20,700, with his stately "La Route Bleue" close behind at $18,400. Even more impressive was Colin's "Leroy Opticien", far exceeding its estimate to reach $41,400. His portfolio "Le Tumulte Noir", a visual homage to the excitement of the "Jazz Age", also saw an impressive $23,000.

Pompidou Centre in Paris opens Architect & Designer Ron Arad ~ 'No Discipline' Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:21 PM PDT   PARIS - The Centre Pompidou is to devote an exhibition to the work of Israeli architect and designer Ron Arad, his first major one-person show in France. From its beginnings, the Centre has played a key role in presenting design and designers to the wider public, with exhibitions such as Design Français 1960-1990 (1988), Manifeste: 30 ans de création en perspective, 1960-1990 (1992) and D. Day, le design aujourd'hui (2005), as well as monographic exhibitions devoted to such figures as Carlo Mollino (1989), Ettore Sottsass (1994), Gaetano Pesce (1996), Philippe Starck (2003), Charlotte Perriand (2005), and now Ron Arad.

Couturier Gallery to Display Unique "World Maps" Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:18 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA - Maps are often deceptive, disguising more than meets the eye and manipulated for socio-political purposes.  Couturier Gallery is pleased to present World Maps,  a group exhibition including the work of four artists well known for their cartographic works: Kim Abeles,  Irene Dubrovsky,  Joyce Kozloff  and Ibrahim Miranda.  The maps of these artists reveal truths frequently obfuscated in mapping history. The works in the show examine social and political histories, issues of location and dislocation, identities, as well as chronicling historical and contemporary issues. This mixed-media show will open June 12th (and continue through July 17th ).  The opening artists' reception will take place Saturday, June 12th, 6-8 pm. Kim Abeles,one of Los Angeles 's preeminent conceptual artists, has worked for the past two decades documenting the urban experience.  Looking for Paradise, (from her Signs of Life series)  pinpoints categories of life forms in downtown Los Angeles in the form of trees.  Using a detailed aerial photograph, each piece identifies trees or structures built as homes for the nomadic homeless.  Abeles urges one to "look carefully at the city blocks with no signs of life, peculiar with their concrete landscaping. The edge of the cement world is as we remember it, and as we see it through a corrective lens."  Also included in this show is "Smog Map" a new work from her Smog Collector series, an image of the world's continents "drawn" with particulate matter (smog) collected on clear acrylic surface.  "Smog Collectors are both literal and metaphoric depictions of the current conditions of our life source.  They are reminders of our industrial decisions: the road we took that seemed so modern."  Abeles's work may be found many museum collections including the California African American Museum , Los Angeles ; California Science Center , Los Angeles ; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art , Los Angeles ; and the Museum of Modern Art Library Collection , NYC. The woven maps of Irene Dubrovsky (born in Argentina , resides in Mexico City ) result in a tension between a sedentary handicraft and the sophistication of modern technology.  Dubrovsky works from images of the globe circulated by Google Earth on the net and translates them into three-dimensional paper weavings polychromed with a mixed media.  The relief surfaces she creates in the weaving process restores to the globe textures it lacks on the computer monitor while at the same time translating the satellite images to a pictorial level, or "artistic surface," that can be explored through touch.  When viewed from a distance, the weft and woof of the woven paper create line patterns suggesting longitude and latitude lines of maps.  The merging of the hand-created world maps with the technologically precise satellite photos from which the images were taken brings the world down to earth. Dubrovsky extensively throughout Latin American and most recently participated in the Biennials of Cuenca and Havana .  This is her first exhibition in the United States . Pioneering feminist artist Joyce Kozloff (based in New York City ) is most concerned with issues such as history of Western ethnocentrism, the meaning of public space and the artificial separation of the fine and applied arts.  Kozloff is fascinated with the map as metaphor and her interests include the psychology of domination, the seductions of power and the fallacies of the patriarchal and Western-centric vision of history.  Her maps, be they in the form of globes, masks or banners gloriously painted, drawn, and/or collaged are elegant commentary on very current issues including national illusions of grandeur in various periods of world history, American global dominance, and distorted views of the world in general.  Kozloff's Knowledge series, world globes covered with layers of plaster, are painted with watercolor and based on "cartographic pieces dating from first century Rome to early 17th c.  Europe and encompass the Western world's key eras of global exploration and conquest.  They reflect the dominant thinking and assumptions of the rest of the world."  Her mask series, based on the Venetian Carnival, are painted with maps of islands taken from maps down through history which here take on the feel of tattoo or body art.    Kozloff's work has been widely published and may be found in numerous museum collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art;  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The long maps of Ibrahim Miranda (born and lives in Havana , Cuba ) display disproportionate extensions of images beyond what is routinely depicted in maps.  Each of these maps are constructed from pre-printed geographic maps of Cuba taken from old atlases and then painted, and/or printed with lithography, silk-screened or woodblocks.  Miranda superimposes depictions of the myths, religions, customs and cultures completely neglected in the technical and scientific geographic maps.  His inspiration comes from the poetry and myths familiar to him and without irony, sarcasm or cynicism proposes alternate models for the morphology of the island.  By sometimes obscuring the shape of the island, Miranda unwittingly suggests the primary function of maps- their precision and exactitude or "correctness," – is not sufficient to identify any one place in the world and by superimposing images of world historical reference he begins to reveal the more private, unacknowledged locale.  Public collections where Miranda's work may be found include Casa de las Américas, La Habana, Cuba;  Centro Wifredo Lam, La Habana, Cuba; Museum of Modern Art, New York;  Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, Cuba; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;  Peter Norton Collection.  Santa Mónica, Los Angeles ;  Thyssen – Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Austria . For further information or visuals, please contact the gallery:  Couturier Gallery 166 N La Brea Ave Los Angeles, CA 90036 323-933-5557 info@couturiergallery.com  /  Website : www.couturiergallery.com/

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:17 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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