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

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• The Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau Shows "New Objectivity in Dresden"
• Sotheby’s London Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale totaled $31,364,399
• Photographer Russell James' "Nomad Two Worlds" On Exhibition in New York
• The Von der Heydt Museum Celebrates Alfred Sisley ~ The True Impressionist
• The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art to show "Mary Tuthill Lindheim ~ Agent of Change"
• Haunch of Venison in London presents Ten of Britain's Most Important Post-war Painters
• The Alaska State Museum Shows Recent Paintings by Constance Baltuck
• The Kunsthal Rotterdam Shows a Sir Stanley Spencer Major Retrospective
• Yue Minjun and 'the Symbolic Smile' solos at the Queens Museum of Art
• Portland Museum of Art exhibits " American Menagerie "
• The Danioth Pavillion at the House of Art Shows "Much Ado About Everything"
• Art4Barter ~ Artists Exchange Art for Services and Goods, not Money
• Andre Villers Intimate Photos of Picasso to Sell at Bonhams
• Major Outdoor Florida Exhibition by Internationally Acclaimed Artist Yayoi Kusama
• New Documentary on Painter John Marin Will Premiere in December
• Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute of Religion Hosts Tamar Hirschl
• 8th Annual "Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art" Opens
• The Dali Collection in St. Petersburg, Florida to Move to Hurricane-proof Building
• Sotheby's Hong Kong to Hold Contemporary Asian Autumn Sales
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau Shows "New Objectivity in Dresden" Posted: 07 Dec 2011 11:26 PM PST Dresden, Germany.- The Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau (The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections)) is pleased to present "New Objectivity in Dresden" on view at the museum through January 8th 2012. In the 1920s Dresden, long established as a city of art, became an important centre of the artistic styles known as "Neue Sachlichkeit" (New Objectivity) and Verism. For the first time, a special exhibition is being devoted to this phenomenon in Dresden, in which it will be possible to draw comparisons with other artistic centres in Germany. With cool distance and razor-sharp precision, painters depicted the world around them in paintings which leave an impression of extreme realism. A selection of works by more than 70 artists will enable visitors to gain new perspectives on familiar paintings by viewing them in their contemporary artistic context and at the same time to discover hitherto little-known artists whose works are of exceptional quality. The point of departure for the research accompanying the exhibition was the collection held in the Galerie Neue Meister. Important works on loan from other renowned museums will provide a broader view of this artistic current reflecting the period of the Weimar Republic, with its problems of inflation, short-term stabilisation and political unrest. Fastidious training in drawing at the Dresden Kunstakademie and Kunstgewerbeschule moulded an entire generation of artists, including Otto Dix, George Grosz, Otto Griebel, Hans Grundig, Wilhelm Lachnit and Bernhard Kretzschmar. They produced disillusioned images of unemployed people, war invalids and prostitutes as well as portraits of working women and children, expressing the artists' desire for social change. At the end of the 1920s, against the backdrop of the Wall Street Crash and the subsequent Great Depression, the students of Otto Dix's paint shop – among them Curt Querner, Rudolf Bergander and Willy Wolff – again turned their attention to sociocritical themes. "Neue Sachlichkeit" (New Objectivity) combined biting irony and social criticism with old-masterly elegance and Neo-Romantic ideas. The spectrum of the artists' personal styles ranges from powerfully naive painting to rigid construction to tranquil traditionalism. Franz Radziwill, for example, produced unconventional landscapes in Dresden, while Richard Oelze and Franz Lenk painted strangely alienated still-lifes. The main interest of nearly all the artists was, however, portraiture: whimsical and ordinary, touching and sometimes also sophisticated faces painted with a fine brush, often using the technique of layer painting employed by the Old Masters. The exhibition contains over 140 paintings and about 40 drawings and prints. These are complemented by selected sculptures and photographs from the holdings of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden as well as explanations about painting techniques along with photographs and films documenting events in Dresden in the 1920s. An accompanying series of talks will also investigate additional themes from the fields of architecture, literature and history. Between the Frauenkirche and the Brühlsche Terrasse an impressive building for the arts was constructed in the 19th century. With its glass dome – nicknamed the "lemon squeezer" on account of its form – the building is a prominent feature on Dresden's skyline. When it was first built the "lemon squeezer" was highly controversial because it was seen as rivalling the dome of the Frauenkirche. Today, however, it is regarded as an enrichment to the city's historic Altstadt. The ornately decorated complex of buildings was called the "Lipsiusbau" after its creator, Professor of Architecture Constantin Lipsius. In addition to the Kunstakademie, it accommodated the exhibition building belonging to the Sächsischer Kunstverein (Saxon Art Society). Over many decades sensational art exhibitions were held here. For example, as early as 1905 the painters of the newly founded artists' group "Brücke" were already represented in the Kunstverein exhibitions. After its partial destruction in 1945 the exhibition building was left in a state of disuse for many years. Reconstruction work under the auspices of the Saxon State Ministry of Finance was eventually completed in 2005. When it was rebuilt, traces of the destruction were purposely left visible, creating an impressive contrast with the architecture. Thus, aspects of the building's history were not concealed but made to stand out. This created architectural juxtapositions in which past and present converge. For their design, the working group consisting of the firm Auer + Weber + Architekten with Rolf Zimmermann and the state-owned enterprise Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement as the client were awarded the Architecture Prize of the Bund der Architekten Sachsen (Saxon Union of Architects). Through the recreation of the Kunsthalle, which is now used by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the city has now regained an impressive venue for art exhibitions. Numerous exhibitions offer visitors an informative and varied programme of events. However, the particular role of the Kunsthalle is to be a place for viewing and discussing contemporary art. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.skd.museum

Sotheby’s London Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale totaled $31,364,399 Posted: 07 Dec 2011 11:00 PM PST LONDON.- Last night's Sotheby's London Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale realized a total of £20,074,500/ $31,364,399/ €23,437,051, comfortably within the pre-sale estimate of £17.6 – 24.2 million. The top lot of the sale was a pair of paintings by Johann Zoffany - the most important works by the artist to appear on the market in recent years - The Garden at Hampton House, with Mr and Mrs David Garrick taking tea and The Shakespeare Temple at Hampton House, which fetched £6,761,250/$10,563,777/ €7,893,784 (pre-sale est. £6-8 million).  A further sale highlight was Jan Havicksz Steen's masterpiece An elegant company in an interior with figures playing cards at a table, which was sold for £4,875,250 /$7,588,967/€5,670,857 (est. £4.5-6 million) and established a new record at auction for the artist.

Photographer Russell James' "Nomad Two Worlds" On Exhibition in New York Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:59 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Nomad Two Worlds, the sweeping, multi-media collaborative art project conceived by contemporary art and fashion photographer Russell James, returns to New York with two of its Indigenous Australian artists appearing in a special "Australia" segment of "Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway," and a Limited Editions Exhibition opening at CATM Chelsea Gallery. The exhibition focuses on the works of Nathan Mundraby and Clifton Bieundurry, the two artists performing alongside Jackman, runs from December 8, 2011 to January 8, 2012 and benefits the Nomad Two Worlds Foundation. Jackman and Donna Karan co-hosted the original star-studded launch of Nomad Two Worlds in New York in January 2009.

The Von der Heydt Museum Celebrates Alfred Sisley ~ The True Impressionist Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:39 PM PST Wuppertal, Germany.- The Von der Heydt Museum is proud to present "Alfred Sisley: The True Impressionist" on exhibtion at the museum through January 29th 2012. Alfred Sisley felt that aside from the object of the painting — the motif — the most interesting thing about a landscape is movement, life. To create the illusion of life was the most important thing in a work of art for him. We see it in his brushstrokes. When they let the small clouds wander, when they make the surface of the water tremble, when they draw a delicate breath of wind through a sea of leaves. The Von der Heydt-Museum was able to bring about eighty such more or less animated paintings to Wuppertal. This large retrospective documents Sisley's whole oeuvre — it takes us from the forests around Fontainebleau, where Sisley set up his easel in the 1860s, to the paintings created during his last trip to England in 1897. In doing so, the exhibition presents an extremely unspectacular painter. Distinctive breaks, unexpected twists, pioneering ideas beyond impressionism—none of that leaps to our eye during a tour of the retrospective. Sisley continued to work in modest dimensions and with landscape motifs. He delved into the sky, water, meadows, trees, and held them fast in all types of weather, at various times of the day and year.

The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art to show "Mary Tuthill Lindheim ~ Agent of Change" Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:19 PM PST Novato, California.- The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to present "Mary Tuthill Lindheim: Agent of Change", featuring the work of the late Bay Area ceramicist, sculptor, and activist, Mary Lindheim (1912-2004). It will be the first museum exhibition of Lindheim's work since her death, and the most comprehensive solo show ever of her work. "Agent of Change" will be on view at the museum from December 10th through January 15th 2012. MarinMOCA Executive Director, Heather Murray, will curate the exhibition in close collaboration with the artist's estate and Abby Wasserman, editor and essayist of the recently published 'Mary Tuthill Lindheim: Art and Inspiration' (Cameron and Company, 2010). The exhibition honors Lindheim, who lived in Sausalito and Bolinas for the last 65 years of her life, not only as an artist but as someone passionately dedicated to social justice.

Haunch of Venison in London presents Ten of Britain's Most Important Post-war Painters Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:19 PM PST LONDON.- Haunch of Venison London presents an exhibition of ten of Britain's most important post-war painters, revealing the story behind their art. 'The Mystery of Appearance' is a fresh appraisal of ten artists - Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow - with a display of over forty paintings and drawings including works that haven't been on public display for decades. In the mid-twentieth century this group of artists revived portrait and landscape painting at a time when abstract painting dominated. Their continued influence on a younger generation of artists is demonstrated by the powerful hold figurative art has today. On view 7 December through 18 February.

The Alaska State Museum Shows Recent Paintings by Constance Baltuck Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:28 PM PST Juneau, Alaska.- The Alaska State Museum is proud to present " Constance Baltuck , a Solo Exhibition" on view at the museum through January 14th 2012. Constance Baltuck came to Juneau in December 1981, where she has been painting and showing her work ever since. In this current exhibit, she presents landscapes and points of interest in the landscape from in and around Juneau, as well as Kobuk Valley National Park near Kotzebue, where she spent an artist-in-residency this past August. Working in watercolors, pastels, oils, and her favorite of late — acrylics, Baltuck paints canvases of all sizes, ranging up to as large as 36 x 48 inches. "When I paint landscapes, I feel free to play around with my subjects, color, and composition," she says. In fact, Baltuck's paintings are all about color—the purples, oranges, and deep blues that infuse the predominant grey and white of Southeast Alaska.

The Kunsthal Rotterdam Shows a Sir Stanley Spencer Major Retrospective Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:27 PM PST Rotterdam, Netherlands.- The Kunsthal Roitterdam is proud to present "Sir Stanley Spencer: Between Heaven and Earth" on view at the museum through January 15th. "Between heaven and Earth" is the first major retrospective of Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) to be held in contintal europe androfiles one of the most important British painters of the twentieth century. His work is characterized by a wealth of topics such as Bible stories, landscapes, portraits and domestic scenes. Through his figurative, narrative painting and its subject matter Spencer has made a significant contribution to the development of modern art. The exhibition includes more than eighty paintings and drawings in a broad art-historical context by the addition of some twenty works by English contemporaries including Lucian Freud and Dora Carrington. Spencer's artistic influence in the Netherlands is shown through several works of his admirers Dick Ket and Charley Toorop. Generous loaned for the exhibition is a generous selection of Stanley Spencer's finest works made from museum collections and private collections including Andrew Lloyd Webber. Tate Britain and the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham set very generously of their biggest and most important works available. The exhibition is the result of new research by guest curator Dr. Alied Ottevanger. Spencer was born and spent much of his life in Cookham in Berkshire. From 1908 to 1912, Spencer studied at the Slade School of Art at University College, London under Henry Tonks and others. His contemporaries at the Slade included Dora Carrington, Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, Edward Wadsworth, Isaac Rosenberg and David Bomberg. After a long period of agonising whether or not to join up, in 1915 Spencer volunteered with the Royal Army Medical Corps and worked as an orderly at the Beaufort War Hospital. In 1916, the 24-year-old Spencer volunteered for service with the RAMC in Macedonia, and served with the 68th Field Ambulance unit. He subsequently volunteered to be transferred to the Berkshire Regiment. His survival of the devastation and torment that killed so many of his fellows indelibly marked Spencer's attitude to life and death. Such preoccupations come through time and again in his religious works. Towards the end of the war he was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee to paint what became "Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916" (now in the Imperial War Museum). A further major commission was to paint murals for the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere dedicated to the war dead. The altarpiece depicts the Resurrection of the Soldiers. In 1939, he went on a painting holiday at the suggestion of one of his friends, William Rothenstein, to Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire. This holiday extended to two years, Stanley stayed at the White Hart Inn and created many of his important works in his room above the bar which he used as a studio including 'Us in Gloucestershire' and 'The Wool Shop'. Spencer's work as a war artist in the Second World War included his epic depiction of shipbuilding workers and their families at Port Glasgow on the Clyde. When the war ended he again took up, as did certain other British neo-romantic artists of the time, his visionary preoccupations—in Spencer's case with a sometimes apocalyptic tinge. In 1925, Spencer married Hilda Carline, then a student at the Slade and sister of the artist Richard Carline. A daughter, Shirin, was born in November of that year and a second daughter, Unity, in 1930. Spencer met the artist Patricia Preece in 1929 in Cookham. He became infatuated with her. Carline divorced Spencer in 1937. A week later he married Preece, who persuaded him to sign over his house to her; she, however, was a lesbian. She continued to live with her partner, Dorothy Hepworth, and though she frequently posed nude for her husband, she refused to consummate the marriage. When Spencer's bizarre relationship with Preece finally fell apart (though she would never grant a divorce), he would visit Hilda, an arrangement that continued throughout the latter's subsequent mental breakdown. Hilda died from cancer in November 1950. Spencer was knighted in 1959. He died of cancer at nearby Cliveden later that year. Spencer has been described as an early modernist painter. His works often express his fervent if unconventional Christian faith. This is especially evident in the scenes that he envisioned and depicted in Cookham. Very evident in these too is the compassion that he felt for his fellow residents. His quirky romantic and sexual obsessions were also expressed within this home environment, but it is a mistake to regard him merely as some sort of quaint village innocent, inextricably tied to small-town England. His works originally provoked great shock and controversy. Nowadays, they still seem stylistically avant-garde, whilst the nudes that arose through the futile relationship with Patricia Preece, such as the Leg of mutton nude, foreshadow some of the much later works of Lucian Freud, who has expressed admiration for Spencer. Spencer's early work is regarded as a synthesis of French Post-Impressionism, exemplified for instance by Paul Gauguin, plus early Italian painting typified by Giotto. This was a conscious choice, and Spencer was a key member of a group who called themselves the "Neo-Primitives." Allied with him were David Bomberg, William Roberts and other young contemporaries at the Slade. The Kunsthal is a museum in Rotterdam, which opened its doors in 1992. The museum is situated in the Museumpark of Rotterdam next to the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, and in the vicinity of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The Kunsthal has no permanent collection, but organises a wide range of temporary exhibits. The large space available 3,300 m2 (36,000 sq ft) allows various exhibits in parallel. The Kunsthal stages some 25 exhibitions a year, presenting culture in the widest sense of the word: old art, new art, design, photography - from elitist to popular. The Kunsthal frequently experiments with themes which in many cases provide the first impulse for an exhibition. This approach has resulted in an exciting and varied exhibition repertoire highlighting Impressionism, lingerie, Leonardo da Vinci, Blackfoot Indians, Jewels of the Orient, Pop-art. More than 3300 square metres of exhibition space are available in the striking building designed by Rotterdam architect Rem Koolhaas - a work of art in its own right, making a visit to the Kunsthal well worth your while. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.kunsthal.nl

Yue Minjun and 'the Symbolic Smile' solos at the Queens Museum of Art Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:20 PM PST   Queens, NY - Yue Minjun's first museum show in the U.S. opened at the Queens Museum of Art on October 14, 2007. One of the self-styled, Beijing-based artists who emerged in the early 1990's, Yue Minjun has since gained international recognition. Yue Minjun has successfully parlayed his iconic smiling self-portrait into his signature motif, and is widely considered a pioneering figure in Chinese contemporary art. Yue's laughing faces are at once exuberant and eerie. Placed against various recognizable backdrops, the tirelessly optimistic faces compel the viewer to question the larger social context portrayed in each painting. Yue Minjun began his career as a founding member of the "Cynical Realism" school. This group emerged in the early 1990's, in the wake of the Tiananmen Square incident and the subsequent crackdown on artistic freedom imposed by the Chinese government. From the founding of the PRC in 1949, through the decade long Cultural Revolution that ended in 1976 with the death of Chairman Mao Zedong, art was solely created to promote Communist Party ideology. All of China's artistic production was framed by a system of government-imposed directives. In the current art world, Yue Minjun and his renowned contemporaries, including artists Zhang Xiaogang and Fang Lijun, are making artworks that reflect a social consciousness relevant to China's changing political and economic climate. China's avant-garde artists, many of whom are based in Beijing's booming art scene, enjoy a surprising degree of creative liberty in utilizing parody and critique to comment on the state of their country. The attention these artists have received from the West also makes them less vulnerable to censorship by the central government. Yue Minjun's laughing faces convey the paradox of present-day China. The jubilant expressions depicted on the hearty faces of cloned figures make us wonder about the reality under the toothsome smile. The backgrounds depicted, from a stoic Tiananmen Square to a teeming nuclear mushroom cloud, also allude to the shifting realities of contemporary China. The seemingly cheerful demeanor of these figures suggests an attempt to cope with the country's complexities. Yue Minjun's work begs the question: what is truly joyful? The key to decoding these enigmatic portrayals may lie in the rich cultural tradition that has influenced this artist from the Mainland. Yue's laughing faces recall the "Buddha of the Future," a welcoming figure located at the entrance of countless Buddhist temples throughout China. While his beaming faces bespeak contemporary concerns, they also implore an optimistic future. Yue Minjun and the Symbolic Smile at the Queens Museum of Art will include bronze and polychrome sculptures, paintings and drawings and will be on view through January 6, 2008. The show will be accompanied by a smaller-scale exhibition of the artist's watercolors entitled, YUE MINJUN "I Love Laughing," at the Asia Society. The 6 watercolors that present a softer side of the artist's oeuvre will be on display at the Asia Society in New York City through January 2, 2008. For more information, please contact Jennifer Suh at 212-327-9273 or jennifers@asiasoc.org or visit www.Asiasociety.org. ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT The Queens Museum of Art is housed in the New York City Building, which is owned by the City of New York. With the assistance of the Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and the New York City Council, the Museum is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature. Major funding is also provided by corporate and foundation supporters, QMA's Board of Directors and members. The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough's unique, international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art. The Museum provides valuable educational outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens, families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities. For general visitor information, please visit the Museum's website www.queensmuseum.org or call 718.592.9700. Asia Society is the leading global organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States. We seek to enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of policy, business, education, arts, and culture. Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonprofit educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Washington, DC. Asia Society and Museum - 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City.

Portland Museum of Art exhibits " American Menagerie " Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:19 PM PST PORTLAND, ME - From the earliest examples of American art until the present day, images of animals serve as vehicles for meaning. Native and exotic creatures alike help artists to explore issues of identity: the quality and nature of being American or foreign, human or beast, wild or civilized, innocent or worldly. These are all issues that artists grapple with in the exhibition American Menagerie. On view from August 16 through November 9, 2008, at the Portland Museum of Art, American Menagerie features more than 25 works of art drawn primarily from the Museum's permanent collection.

The Danioth Pavillion at the House of Art Shows "Much Ado About Everything" Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:18 PM PST Altdorf, Switzerland.- The House of Art is pleased to present "Much Ado About Everything" showing the influence of the baroque in contemporary art. "Much Ado About Everything" is on view in the Danioth Pavillion from June 18th through August 28th. Baroque meets the spirit of today in more spectacular ways than we would expect. For a historical period (c. 1590-1750), that ended more than two centuries ago, this is all the more surprising. Paraphrasing William Shakespeare, "Much Ado About Everything" shows these links and how both the baroque and the contemporary are exciting and 'noisy' times in art. Amongst the artists featured in the exhibition are, Jean Tinguely, Peter Roesch, Caro Suerkemper, Pipilotti Rist, Stephan Melzl, Una Szeemann, Terry Rogers and Eloyan Poor.

Art4Barter ~ Artists Exchange Art for Services and Goods, not Money Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:17 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Bartering may be the answer to bail us out of our current crisis. Although artists have historically been bartering as much as possible it is more relevant now than ever before. It can provide a solution to survival for so many of us and create a new vision for society. The artists that are participating are all professional artists, and will present their works for barter. No works shall be sold for money but rather for services and goods. The exact service or good that the artist requires will be on the label next to their art. For example, if an artist were to ask for dental work or other medical procedures in exchange for their art, or for a studio to work in, etc., it will give the community an opportunity to barter for those items that are missing from the artists' lives. Show goes from August 27th through August 29th.

Andre Villers Intimate Photos of Picasso to Sell at Bonhams Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:16 PM PST LONDON.- Four images of the celebrated Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), are to be sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as part of its Photographs Sale on 19 May 2011. Three of the pictures - Picasso in front of 'La Chute d'Icare', Vallauris, 1957; Picasso à Vallauris, October, 1953; and Les Yeux de Picasso, Cannes, 1956 - were taken by French photographer, André Villers, with whom Picasso struck up a great friendship following a chance meeting on a street in Vallauris, France, in 1953, when Villers stopped to take Picasso's picture. Each photograph has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £1,500 – 2,000. The fourth image was taken by German photographer, Werner Bokelberg. Entitled Picasso at St Tropez, 1965, it is estimated at £1,000 – 1,200.

Major Outdoor Florida Exhibition by Internationally Acclaimed Artist Yayoi Kusama Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:15 PM PST CORAL GABLES, FL.- This December, the world famous Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will present Yayoi Kusama at Fairchild as part of its annual visual art program. The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, known for her distinctive sculptures and paintings that involve hand-worked repetition and bold patterning, will be exhibiting works from the exuberant new sculptural ensemble Flowers that Bloom at Midnight (2009), a group of her classic Pumpkins, as well as Guidepost to the New Space, a multi-part floating work specifically conceived for Fairchild's Panandus Lake. This will be the first time anywhere in the world that all these sculptures have been shown together in an outdoor setting. "Yayoi Kusama at Fairchild" will open on December 5, 2009, to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach, and will be on view through May 30, 2010. "Fairchild is absolutely thrilled to bring Yayoi Kusama's enchanting art works to South Florida," said Bruce Greer, Fairchild's board of trustees' President. "Her surreal, botanically inspired monumental sculptures, brought together with Fairchild's world-famous tropical garden landscape, are sure to provide a magical experience for visitors of all ages." Flowers that Bloom at Midnight consists of vividly painted, giant cast flowers measuring between five and sixteen feet in height. These sinuous baroque forms will provide a lively contrast with the monolithic Pumpkins. The multi-part floating work Guidepost to the New Space, a series of rounded "humps" in fire-engine red with white polka dots, will protrude enigmatically from the water in a pond on the 83-acre garden. Thus Kusama's artificial garden will unfold in all its psychedelic glory, against the exotic backdrop of Fairchild's gardens with their equally rare and wondrous tropical vegetation. All sculptures in the exhibition are on loan from Gagosian Gallery. Yayoi Kusama is one of the world's leading artists and a living legend of the international art avant-garde. Flamboyant yet profound, her oeuvre encompasses unique masterpieces in painting, sculpture, and installation, as well as mass production and popular culture. Kusama also produces playful sculpture on a monumental scale. Her first large-scale sculpture appeared in 1994, a huge, vivid yellow pumpkin covered with an optical spot pattern, which was installed at the end of a jetty on the island of Naoshima in the Seto Sea, Japan. She has since completed several major sculptural commissions—ensembles of huge, brightly hued, triffid-like plants and flowers—for public institutions in Japan and abroad including The Visionary Flowers (2002), Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano, Japan; Tulipes de Shangri-La (2003), Eurolille, Lille, France; Tsumari in Bloom (2003) Matsudai-machi Higashikubiki-gun, Niigata, Japan; and The Hymn of Life: Tulips (2007), Beverly Hills City Council, Los Angeles. Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto City, Japan in 1929. Her work is in the collections of leading museums throughout the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate Modern, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Major exhibitions of her work include Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka, Japan (1987); Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York (1989); "Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1969," LACMA, 1998 (traveling to Museum of Modern Art, New York, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo), 1998–99; Le Consortium, Dijon, 2000 (traveling to selected venues in Europe and Korea), 2001–2003; "KUSAMATRIX", Mori Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2004 (traveling to Art Park Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo Art Park, Hokkaido); "Eternity – Modernity", National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (touring Japan), 2004–2005; and "The Mirrored Years," Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2008,which traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and will open at the City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand later in 2009. "Yayoi Kusama at Fairchild" is part of an annual exhibition series in support of the Garden's conservation work, educational outreach programs and commitment to cultural enhancement in South Florida. Fairchild houses internationally important collections of rare tropical fruit and cycads as well as the largest palm collection in the U.S. The Garden maintains an international conservation program, which works with more than 20 countries to preserve some of the worlds' rarest species and tropical habitats. Fairchild's major art exhibitions have included world-renowned artists such as Mark di Suvero, Roy Lichtenstein, and Dale Chihuly. Visit : http://www.fairchildgarden.org/

New Documentary on Painter John Marin Will Premiere in December Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:14 PM PST PORTLAND, ME.- 217 Films and independent filmmakers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of Ashford, Connecticut announced the following regarding the premiere of their new film about American master John Marin. On Friday, December 11 at 6:30pm, John Marin: "Let the Paint be Paint!" will make its world premiere at the Portland Museum of Art, Seven Congress Square, in Portland, Maine. There will be an encore screening on Saturday, December 12 at 2:30pm.

Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute of Religion Hosts Tamar Hirschl Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:13 PM PST New York City - Tamar Hirschl: Cultural Alarm, a fine art installation, awakens viewers to the dangers of human and environmental destruction.  Hirschl's artwork draws on her personal memories of war and displacement in Croatia and Israel.  It conveys a universal warning challenging the viewer to acknowledge the unnatural separation of cultures, religions and societies that exists in the modern world.  As well as illuminates the destructive effect that man's "progress" has had on the animal kingdom, the natural world, and humanity itself.  On exhibit until January 30, 2007 at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

8th Annual "Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art" Opens Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:12 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- The Indo-American Arts Council's 8th Annual Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora features work by 43 artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian subcontinent. This group of multinational and intergenerational artists, chosen by curator Vijay Kumar, reflects a broad range of life experiences and aesthetic values. The artists interpret diverse subject matter—figurative, abstract and conceptual—in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, sculpture and installation. The resulting works often meld Indian and Western ideas about color, form and subject. This traveling exhibition is presented as part of Asian Contemporary Art Week 2011 and the opening reception at the Queens Museum of Art is scheduled for Sunday, March 27, 2011.

The Dali Collection in St. Petersburg, Florida to Move to Hurricane-proof Building Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:11 PM PST ST. PETERSBURG, FL.(EFE) - The largest collection of Salvador Dali works outside of his native Spain is being moved to a more secure location, a hurricane-proof, cement and glass building located just blocks away from its original location in St. Petersburg, Florida. The collection of 2,140 pieces, including 96 paintings by the "enfant terrible" of Surrealism, as well as numerous etchings and drawings, will be relocated in a new, $35 million structure in that west-central Florida city that will have a sturdier structure and be less exposed to the elements. The most unique aspect of the new Salvador Dali museum will be its 45 centimeter-thick (18-inch-thick) walls, capable of resisting the impact of a Category 5 hurricane packing winds of up to 265 kilometers (165 miles) per hour.

Sotheby's Hong Kong to Hold Contemporary Asian Autumn Sales Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:10 PM PST Hong Kong.- Sotheby's Hong Kong will hold its Contemporary Asian Art Autumn Sale 2011 on October 2nd and 3rd at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The first evening follows the record-breaking sale of 'The Ullens Collection – The Nascence of Avant-Garde China' last April, presenting the second instalment, 'The Ullens Collection: Experimentation and Evolution', comprising 90 lots estimated in excess of US$10 million. The Contemporary Asian Art sale will take place on 3 October, with 18 sale will take place on 3 October, with 180 lots estimated at approximately US$25 million. The works include important contemporary Chinese masterpieces, helmed by Zhang Xiaogang's "Bloodline: Big Family No. 1", a series of innovative and inspiring design by Korean artists, and works by Japan's Tomoko Konoike. In total, 270 lots will be on offer for the two sales, amounting to an estimate in excess of US$35 million. Zhang Xiaogang's iconic paintings have broken records in recent sales at Sotheby's Hong Kong, and this season they are proud to offer yet another significant piece from the 'Bloodline: Big Family' series. Drawing from those conventional black and white family photos taken during the Cultural Revolution, Zhang's series has become emblematic and ubiquitous, summoning the collective memories of an entire era. Among the earliest of the series, the present example - 'Bloodline: Big Family No. 1' depicts an intellectual-turned-worker and his two sober children wearing Mao pins on their chests. The minimal, refracted light source and the thin red line connecting them are important motifs in the Bloodline series; here they appear well-defined and well-crafted. The yellow and red colours on their faces symbolise the Chinese people, set against an expansive grey background that hovers like a shadow of historical memory. This work was painted in 1994, the year that marked the beginning of the Bloodline series. It was exhibited in the 22nd International Biennale of São Paulo that same year, marking the first time Zhang's art was shown outside China, one year before Zhang garnered international acclaim at the Venice Biennale. Zeng Fanzhi's Mask Series centres on the anxiety of urban living. It also attests to how Chinese artists discarded the idealism and passion of the 1980s and turned their focus toward everyday life. The man in the painting not only has perfectly coiffed hair but also wears a suit. Paired with the mask that hides his emotions, they make up the basic gear for urban survival. The red scarf and the badge on his shoulder not only symbolise how modern Chinese people shoulder the weight of the Cultural Revolution, but also represent the artist's youthful but unfulfilled desire to become a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Young Pioneers, and how he was not accepted in the mainstream. These alienating elements formed the basic premise for Zeng's Mask Series. On the canvas is also a fighter jet flying high in the sky, representing the inexorable force of modernisation. However, the toy plane clasped in the man's hand, symbolising the loss of ideals and the powerlessness of resistance, is destined not to fly on its own. Although tears flow from the protagonist's eyes, the mask holds back any emotional expression as if it were a restraining device. Filled with paradoxes and contradictions; this canvas is almost a tragedy. This work stands apart from the artist's other early pieces in its use of vivid colours and added metaphorical layers - "Mask Series 1998 No. 5" is a fine example of the middle period of Zeng's Mask Series. First created in 1991, Series 2 belongs to Fang Lijun's most mature series of his early period. Fang brought works from this series to the 1993 Venice Biennale and Series 2, No. 2 also made the cover of the  New York Times Magazine. That was a time of unparalleled success, marking the pinnacle of artist's early career. The present lot - "Series 2, No. 11" portrays a bald figure with his back to the viewer facing a young woman swimming in the distance. These two signature motifs are juxtaposed for the first time here: the self-mocking baldhead signifying the loss of ideals of the 1980s, and swimming as metaphor for the human struggle to survive in the 1990s – a theme that would proliferate and eventually gain widespread popularity.  This is one of the most important works in early contemporary Chinese art, a veritable treasure in any collection. Recently, art, architecture and design have become inextricably linked. Korea is a country distinguished by its active innovations and respect for tradition. It has exported many fine contemporary designers to the world, consolidating the importance of design in shaping the future of the country on cultural, social, political and philosophical realms. This sale features a collection of minimalist works by extremely appealing, resourceful and inspiring designers, among them Choi Byung Hoon, Studio Joon&Jung and Kim Baek Ki. Currently the Director of the Institute of Art & Design at Hongik University, Choi Byung Hoon is well-respected in Korea and abroad. "AfterImage" is one of the artist's most famous series. Other editions of this work are in the permanent collections of the Busan Museum of Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. Silhouettes, materials, contours and forms from negligible aspects of daily phenomena are appropriated and subsequently reimagined by the artist, combining qualities of both the aesthetic and the functional.  In this work, the polished granite sits perfectly in balance with the lowest level of the stepped plank. The sculptural conversation between wood and stone, along with tensions between straight lines and curved, lightness and weight or positive and negative space, reveal an ultimate harmony of coexistence. Hailing from Eindhoven, design team Joonsoo Kim, Hyunwook Lee and Jungyou Choi received training in their native Korea and the Netherlands. Their works, as Studio Joon&Jung  weave together two vastly different visual cultures and their dogged  commitment toward integrating people with one another underlines each of their designs. In the wooden installation "Petals" that face downward bloom into a big flower in response to human presence underneath. The light itself also increases in luminosity, silently welcoming and interacting with the people as if having its own life.  It is a catalyst for social ambience. "Rocking on the Beach" consists of seemingly industrial moulded pipes that contain sand and gravel from the beach. As the chairs rock, a natural rhythm of the beach can be heard, bringing forth the tranquillity of the Dutch seas. Formerly a product designer, Kim Baek Ki is famous for his versatility; his Domestic Perspectives series links and conflates collective elements in the medium of furniture. The lacquered wooden "Positives=Negatives" adopts its flaring and elegant contours from the roof of a traditional Korean house. Kim declares that "Everything has two sides," of which this is a great example. This object can be a bench or a low desk that when flipped becomes a rack or a shelf. After the Japan earthquake on 11 March 2011, terror and fear of the nuclear crisis changed man's attitude toward the world. Tomoko Konoike is honest in expressing her own thoughts and emotions regarding this tumultuous event. The gold dust on the canvas, seemingly insinuating nuclear rays, looks like small knives – a signature motif in this artist's work, both of which are threatening and terrifying. While viewers often ask artists the question, "What are you creating?", Konoike's work poses the question in reverse "You Who Are Looking Who Are Looking  -  - -- What Are You Looking At After The   What Are You Looking At After The Tsunami", blurring the boundary  between viewer and creator, believing in "the viewer [finding] what should be seen beyond the creator's intentions."  Viewers inspired by the world will have a new understanding of it, and, therefore, contemplating the way they view creation. Other highlights includes works by Yu Youhan, among the first Chinese artists to delve into abstraction since the country's reopening in the 1980s.  "1990-5" was executed in 1990, the last year of the artist's abstract period. For the previous eight years, Yu had concentrated on monochromes. After 1988, he began to incorporate vibrant colours of the Pop aesthetic into his abstract works. "1990-5" is an exceptional sample from this period - a multicolour abstraction with each brushstroke applied in a host of warm colours against a blue background, disseminating gradually from the upper left to the lower right, as if they were currents of nature. One of the founding members of the Pond Society during the  '85 New Wave, Song Ling visited factories in Shanghai in the early 1980s, which clearly influenced his "People: Pipelines" series. In this work, Song Ling employs surrealist techniques to position a set of symbolic human figures with no facial features within the round mouth of a pipe. At first glance, it resembles the style and format of propaganda posters found in industrial areas throughout the 1980s, though that was clearly not the artist's intention. To him, the cold machinery reduces men into tools on an assembly line. This work reveals the anxiety and hopelessness of men in the face of industrialisation and urbanisation. When it was shown at the "'85 New Space" exhibition, Song Ling garnered a lot of attention Sotheby's was founded in London on March 11, 1744, when Samuel Baker auctioned "several Hundred scarce and valuable books" from the library of the Rt Hon Sir John Stanley for a few hundred pounds. The story of Sotheby's expansion beyond books to include the best in fine and decorative arts and jewellery is also the story of the global auction market, defined by extraordinary moments that continue to capture the world's attention. Since 1744, Sotheby's has distinguished itself as a leader in the auction world. Our auctions, conducted in the venerable salerooms in London and Paris, the museum-quality galleries of our headquarters in New York and the spirited environs of Hong Kong rivet audiences worldwide. Season after season, the depth and excellence of Sotheby's offerings have produced watershed, record-breaking sales. Sotheby's has been entrusted with the sale of many of the world's treasures, amongst them: Napoleon's St Helena library, the Duchess of Windsor's jewels, the Estate of Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer, Rubens' Massacre of the Innocents, Pablo Picasso's Garçon à la Pipe, Francis Bacon's Triptych, 1976, The Grand Ducal Collections of Baden, the Qianlong Yellow-Ground Famille-Rose Double-Gourd Vase, the 5,000-year-old Guennol Lioness, Giacometti's L'Homme Qui Marche I, the Magna Carta, the first printing of the Declaration of Independence and The Martin Luther King Jr Collection. Sotheby's has long recognised that great works of art, as well as the collectors interested in consigning and acquiring them, inhabit the global sphere. We were the first international auction house to expand from London to New York in 1955, and the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong and the then–Soviet Union. Today they maintain 90 locations in 40 countries and we conduct 250 auctions each year in over 70 categories. In addition to their four principal salerooms, the company, recognising the potential in new markets, also conducts auctions in six other salerooms around the world, further expanding their global reach. Through BidNow, clients can also watch all Sotheby's auctions live online and place bids in real time, from anywhere in the world. And through the ever-enriching content on Sothebys.com, the oldest publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (BID) continues to be fresh and current, while always mindful of its historic roots. An unwavering commitment to the very highest level of quality remains the goal of one of the most storied names on the global business stage. Visit Sotheby's website at ... http://www.sothebys.com

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 07 Dec 2011 08:09 PM PST 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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