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

---

• The Kunsthaus Zurich Shows Masterpieces From the Nahmad Collection
• The Anchorage Museum to Show Preston Singletary's Tlingit Inspires Glassworks
• Exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art Highlights its Rich Collection
• The Andy Warhol Museum Presents the Comic Book Art of Alex Ross
• The Weatherspoon Art Museum Shows "Altered States" From Its Collection
• The Brauer Museum of Art Shows the Unique Art of Ron Villani
• The Brazos Gallery at Richland College to Show "Midway to Madness"
• The Tel Aviv Museum of Art Features A Major Exhibition of Works by Anselm Kiefer
• The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon ~ Portugal's Finest Museum of Classical Art
• Jean-Marc Bustamante's 'Dead Calm' Exhibition On Display The Fruitmarket Gallery
• Kunsthaus Zurich to Present the Work of Painter & Poet Salomon Gessner
• Carnegie Museum of Art Presents Early 20th-Century of Abstract Art
• Colored Woodcuts From 19th Century Japan at the Benton Museum of Art
• National Gallery in UK to Present Major Exhibition of Picasso: Challenging the Past
• 'Gary Simmons: Shine' ~ Haunting New Works at The Simon Lee Gallery in London
• Solo Exhibition of New Work by Lothar Hempel at Stuart Shave-Modern Art
• Rediscovered Baroque Italian Masterpiece
• Tim Burton Major Retrospective at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art opens ' Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America & The Railway, 1830-1960 '
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Kunsthaus Zurich Shows Masterpieces From the Nahmad Collection Posted: 16 Dec 2011 10:33 PM PST Zurich.- Through January 15th 2012 the Kunsthaus Zürich is proud to present the first-ever exhibition of masterpieces from the private collection of the Nahmad family. This exclusive world premiere, entitled 'Miró, Monet, Matisse – The Nahmad Collection', will feature more than 100 paintings by Miró, Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Monet, Magritte and many others. Based in Monaco but with members as far away as London and New York, the Nahmad family has been collecting great art for two generations, ranging from Impressionism to Surrealism and beyond. With a connoisseur's eye for quality, the art-dealing family has spent decades single-mindedly acquiring paintings and sculptures. The masterpieces that make up this unique private collection have never before been shown together. Their extraordinary quality caught the public eye when works generously loaned to the Kunsthaus were displayed as part of the hugely successful 'Picasso' exhibition which closed earlier this year. Indeed Picasso, with a breathtaking selection of work from all phases of his career, is one of the best-represented artists in the Nahmad Collection; but there are also Matisse, Modigliani and Kandinsky, with whole series of brilliant pieces; and Claude Monet, one of the ancestors of the modernist movement, with luminous images of his travels in the south. With a collection numbering several hundred works to choose from, some tough decisions needed to be made. Christoph Becker, Director of the Kunsthaus Zürich and curator of the exhibition, and Helly Nahmad, have been entrusted with the preparations, and made some surprising choices. Exceptional works by Mark Rothko, Alberto Giacometti and Salvador Dalí have been omitted, and the focus of the selection lies elsewhere. It follows the orthodox canon but with some highly eclectic touches: starting with the late Impressionism of Renoir and Degas at the end of the 19th century it moves on to cover everything from Cubism and Abstraction to Surrealism. Renee Magritte, Fernand Léger and Max Ernst are shown side by side with an outstanding group of works by Joan Miró. Claude Monet's 'Canotiers à Argenteuil' (1874), Wassily Kandinsky's 'Study for Improvisation 3' and Kazimir Malevich's important 'Suprematist Composition' (1916) have been picked to appear in Zurich. Together with Henri Matisse's 'Portrait au manteau bleu' and Modigliani's portrait of the art dealer Paul Guillaume, they offer a truly astonishing tour of some great moments in modern art. Among the more than 100 works are a number that the family has not parted with for decades. One prominent example is Picasso's charming 'Petit pierrot aux fleurs'. Painted in 1923/24, it was presented by Pablo Picasso to the paediatrician who tended his son Paulo – shown wearing a harlequin costume – following an accident. The Nahmads acquired it for their collection in 1988. Out of the public eye for many years, the original of this popular motif can now at last be viewed by a wider audience. Founded in 1787, the Künstlergesellschaft began to collect works of art in 1794. Every member donated either one of his or her own drawings or one by an artist towards what they termed a 'Malerbuch' – a painting book. In 1812 they took out a loan to acquire premises, which initially functioned as a club house and bar. Thanks to an international appeal for funds it became possible in 1818 to secure the Zurich's main artistic attraction, the 'Gessnerische Gemählde-Cabinet', for the city; this encompasses 24 gouache pictures of idyllic landscapes and a number of drawings by Salomon Gessner. In 1847 the rotating exhibition organized by the Swiss Kunstverein from 1840 onwards provided the impetus to annex a tiny gallery , designed by Gustav Albert Wegmann, the architect responsible for the Villa Tobler and the Kantonsschule, to the original premises. For a long time the new 'museum' was dominated by the collection donated by Colonel Keller zum Mohrenkopf in 1854, a representative selection of Zurich painting from Hans Asper to the 18th century. In order to attract a broader public the Künstlergesellschaft founded the 'Zürcher Kunstverein' in 1853, thereby generating a modest but regular inflow of funds which was used above all for local and Swiss art. In 1885 the painter A. Rudolf Holzhalb bequeathed CHF 100,000 to the Künstlergesellschaft which enabled it to settle outstanding debts, renovate the gallery (the hanging space increased from 90 to 144 m2) and establish a fund for the building of a new museum. A little later the federal government, in 1890, and the Gottfried Keller-Foundation, in 1892, began to display works acquired with significantly larger funds in the gallery. In 1895 the association of the 'Künstlerhaus Zurich' was founded and opened a salon for temporary exhibitions in the Börsenstrasse. In the following year the 'Zürcher Kunstverein' and the 'Künstlerhaus Zürich' amalgamated to form the 'Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft' and intensified their efforts to build a real museum. In 1898 Heinrich Schulthess von Meiss bequeathed his collection of 80 paintings by famous contemporary German and Swiss painters to the Kunstgesellschaft. But it was not until 1910 that the 'Kunsthaus' was opened on a plot of land donated by city councillor Landolt – neither 'museum' nor 'art gallery', as the architect Karl Moser pointed out, but both. The name 'Kunsthaus' (house of art ) consciously reflects its democratic aspirations and wish to bring art to a broad public. Due to the small size of the collection the first curator, Wilhelm Wartmann (director until 1949), initially concentrated on Swiss art and alongside the most interesting works of the time he put together groups of late Gothic painting and pictures by Johann Heinrich Fuseli. When the Kunsthaus held a large Ferdinand Hodler exhibition in 1917, it became clear that the financial resources of the 'Kunstgesellschaft' were insufficient, and Alfred Rüetschi responded by founding the 'Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde' (Society of Zurich Friends of Art), which even today regularly helps to extend the Kunsthaus collection with significant acquisitions. Rüetschi himself made many large compositions and important landscapes by Hodler available to the Kunsthaus. In 1920 the Kunsthaus received as a legacy the collection of Hans Schuler and with it for the first time works of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Bonnard. After many years of preparation Wartmann organised his first exhibition with Edvard Munch in 1922 and began to build up the largest collection of works by the Norwegian artist outside of Scandanavia. In 1925 Karl Moser extended the Kunsthaus. In 1929 Dr. Hans E. Mayenfisch began to buy works by living Swiss artists for the Kunsthaus; by the time of his death in 1957 the collection had increased to over 450 works. The Nobel prize winner Leopold Ruzicka set up a foundation in 1949 with his outstanding collection of Dutch 17th century painting. When in 1950 René Wehrli replaced Wilhelm Wartmann as director he moved the focus on to French painting since Monet; subsequent to the Monet retrospective the two large water lily panneaux were acquired. In 1958 the large, adaptable exhibition gallery which had been planned since 1944 by the Pfister brothers and was financed by Emil G. Bührle was opened. A group of art lovers close to the Bechtler brothers created a foundation in 1965 with the most important collection of works by Alberto Giacometti, to which the artist donated additional pieces. In 1966 Nelly Bär endowed the Werner-Bär gallery, donating a group of sculptures from Rodin to Richier. Thanks to Gustav Zumsteg and the support of a number of patrons and the artist himself the Marc Chagall gallery was created in 1973. In this period, Erna and Curt Burgauer began donating works from their collection of modern art to the Kunsthaus. In 1976 the extension was opened by Erwin Müller. Felix Baumann replaced René Wehrli as Director. In 1980, thanks to numerous donations, an extensive collection of works documenting the Dada movement was established. The Johanna and Walter L. Wolf collection added significant new works of French art from Impressionism to Classic Modern in 1984. Betty and David M. Koetser gave their important collection of Dutch paintings, Italian baroque and the Venetian Settecento to their foundation in 1986 and in 1995 Walter Haefner presented the Kunsthaus with twelve outstanding paintings by artists from Monet to Magritte. From 1998 to 2000 the Villa Tobler was restored in a manner befitting its status as a new renaissance palazzo to become the new home of management and to serve as a venue for representational purposes. In September Christoph Becker succeeded Felix Baumann as the new director and the electorate of Zurich voted in favour of a loan of 28.5 million Swiss francs for renovation of the Kunsthaus. In 2001 the Kunstrat decided on a new artistic guiding strategy: internal working groups and a public commission of experts dealing with the future of the Kunsthaus underpin reforms of internal structures, during which time the renovation work begins. On the 28 May 2002 the departing President of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, Thomas W. Bechtler, Director Christoph Becker and the Chairman of the City Council, Elmar Ledergerber, presented plans for a further extension of the building at Heimplatz. Since June of 2002, Walter B. Kienholz, the new president of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, one of the largest European art associations with its 20'000 members, supports the plans that also aim at creating more space for the growing collection. The extension building is scheduled to be realized by 2015. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.kunsthaus.ch

The Anchorage Museum to Show Preston Singletary's Tlingit Inspires Glassworks Posted: 16 Dec 2011 10:21 PM PST Anchorage, Alaska.- The Anchorage Museum is proud to present "Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire and Shadows", on view from February 3rd through April 22nd 2012. For more than 20 years, Preston Singletary has melded the legends of his Tlingit heritage with the beauty of glass to create a distinctive, powerful body of work. "Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire and Shadows", is a mid-career survey chronicling Singletary's evolution from night watchman at a glass studio to internationally recognized glass artist. The exhibition was curated by the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, and traveled last year to the National Museum of the American Indian's gallery in New York City. Singletary, who lives in Seattle, was raised with stories about his Tlingit heritage from his great-grandmother, Susie Johnson Bartlett, and other relatives from southeast Alaska. Inspired by this legacy, he dedicated his work to both honoring Tlingit tradition and infusing it with new vitality. He sees the Alaska exhibition as a homecoming.

Exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art Highlights its Rich Collection Posted: 16 Dec 2011 09:15 PM PST Santa Fe, NM.- The New Mexico Museum of Art is hosting an on-going exhibition highlighting the region's artistic history. "How the West Is One: The Art of New Mexico", organizes key objects from the museum's collections so that they outline an intercultural history of New Mexico art, from the arrival of railroads in 1879 to the present. This long term exhibition presents 70 works by Native American, Hispanic, and European-American artists which illustrate the changing aesthetic ideals that have evolved within southwestern art over the last 125 years. The exhibition allows viewers to discover the one-ness of New Mexico Art. Unique, unpredictable, often contradictory unity developed from the interactions of the Native American Hispanic, and mainstream American aesthetic traditions. Ranging from tourist icons to internationally acclaimed art, these prime objects exemplify the changing aesthetic paradigms of southwestern art.

The Andy Warhol Museum Presents the Comic Book Art of Alex Ross Posted: 16 Dec 2011 07:31 PM PST Pittsburgh, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum is proud to present "Heroes & Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross" on view at the museum through January 8th 2012. "Heroes & Villains" is the first museum exhibition celebrating the artwork of Alex Ross, today's foremost comic book artist. Ross, acclaimed for the photorealism of his work is often referred to as "the Norman Rockwell of the comics world." Heroes & Villains features over 130 works represented as paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures from Ross's personal collection. The pieces range from a crayon drawing of Spider-Man that he created at the age of four through to today's paintings. This exhibition outlines Ross's career of redefining comic books and graphic novels for a new generation of followers of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and other classic comic book superheroes. The exhibition also includes original artwork by Frank Bez, J.C. Leyendecker, Andrew Loomis, Norman Rockwell, and Lynette Ross (Ross's mother and a successful commercial illustrator), as well as artworks and archival material from The Andy Warhol Museum collection.

The Weatherspoon Art Museum Shows "Altered States" From Its Collection Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:28 PM PST Greensboro, North Carolina.- The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is pleased to present "Altered States" on view at the museum through February 12th. The term "altered states" (of mind, of consciousness, of awareness, etc.) describes intense mental and/or psychological changes that cause the person to lose his/her normal sensory perceptions. Almost always temporary, these distortions can occur as a result of fever, psychosis, meditation, lucid dreaming, sensory deprivation or overload, and trauma, to name but a few stimulants. Frequently associated with being transported into a transcendent realm of higher consciousness or truth, the phenomenon often is associated with artistic creativity as well. The works of art on display in this exhibition not only feature figures experiencing such mind expansions and visions, but also depict the products of such mental conditions. The exhibition is based around works from the museum's collection.

The Brauer Museum of Art Shows the Unique Art of Ron Villani Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:27 PM PST Valparaiso, Indiana.- The Bruauer Museum of Art at the Valparaiso University Center for the Arts is proud to present "Mindless Mayhem: The Art of Ron Villani", on view at the museum through March 18th 2012. Approximately 80 new and recent works in various media (mostly paintings, but also a few sculptures and sketchbooks) comprise this exhibition that showcases Villani's remarkable technical skills, sense of humor, and vivid imagination. His works blend science fiction, fantasy, and social commentary in fresh and exciting ways. "The show is a continuing evolution of images," Villani has said. "It's set up in a way that the images could be a little uncomfortable, they could be interesting, and a person can look at it and see what they want to see all at the same time." Villani was raised in Chicago and resides in north suburban Glenview. A graduate of Chicago's School of the Art Institute, he has created and overseen celebrated advertising campaigns for Anheuser Busch, Apple and McDonalds over the course of the last four decades.

The Brazos Gallery at Richland College to Show "Midway to Madness" Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:08 PM PST Dallas, Texas.- Richland College's Brazos Gallery is pleased to present "Midway to Madness", a series of large scale digital prints by Richland Faculty Dwayne Carter . The banner size images blend photography and digital painting into narrative compositions, echoing their origin from Carter's self published photo novella: 'Midway to Madness #2'. Copies of the zine will be available during the exhibition and at the reception on Thursday, January 26th from 12:00 to 1:00 PM. The exhibition will run from January 9th through January 27th, 2012.

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art Features A Major Exhibition of Works by Anselm Kiefer Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:07 PM PST Tel Aviv.- The Tel Aviv Museum of Art inaugurated the new Herta and Paul Amir building by hosting an exhibition of work by Anselm Kiefer, "Shevirat Ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels)". Specially conceived by Anselm Kiefer for the dramatic new museum space, the exhibition is on view until April 15th 2012. An extraordinary selection of Anselm Kiefer's monumental paintings, sculptures, woodcuts and installations on themes of Jewish history and mysticism, chosen predominantly from the artist's own collection, will be presented in this exhibition. The new building's dramatic 9,000-square-foot special exhibition gallery will feature five new sculptures from the artist's 'Les femmes d'Antiquité (Women of Antiquity)' series, five new monumental, mixed-media paintings, three more recent paintings from Kiefer's own collection, and another two from private collections, three large new woodcuts, each measuring approximately 2 x 3 meters, a version of the large-scale installation 'West-Eastern Divan', and a new installation, 'Shevirat Ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels)', to be specially created by the artist on site. A landmark addition to the main complex of the  Tel Aviv Museum of Art — the leading museum of modern and contemporary art in Israel — the Amir Building designed by Preston Scott Cohen, provides large, well-proportioned galleries for temporary exhibitions and works from the permanent collection (principally Israeli art, architecture and design, prints and drawings, and photography) within a spectacular, continually unfolding public space. "Breaking of the Vessels" has been organized by the late Professor Mordechai Omer, Director and Chief Curator, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in collaboration with the artist. Among the subjects addressed in the works in Shevirat Ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels)  are the stories of biblical figures such as Cain and Abel, Noah and Samson; the Kabbalistic ideas of the "tree of Sephirot" (or emanations of God) and the shattering of a formerly unified world (shevirat ha-kelim, or Breaking of the Vessels); Isaac Abravanel, the 15th-century Biblical scholar and statesman who was forced from Spain in the expulsion of 1492; and Paul Celan, the Romanian-born, German-language Jewish poet who survived the Holocaust and was one of the first in the post-war era to write about these experiences. Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945 in Donaueschingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. From 1993, he lived and worked near the Cevennes (Gard) in Barjac, France; since 2007 he is based in Paris. After studying law, and Romance languages and literature, he devoted himself entirely to painting. He attended the School of Fine Arts at Freiburg in the Breisgau district and the Art Academy (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste) in Karlsruhe (under Profs. Peter Dreher and Horst Antes), while maintaining contact with Joseph Beuys. His work has been shown in and collected by major museums throughout the world. Recent major exhibitions include a retrospective at the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth (2005), traveling to the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and SF MOMA; an extensive survey of recent work at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007); and the commission to create a huge, site-specific installation of sculptures and paintings for the inaugural Monumenta at the Grand Palais, Paris (2007). Also in 2007, Kiefer became the first living artist since Georges Braque (in 1953) to have a permanent installation at the Louvre. In 2009, he directed and designed the sets for Am Anfang (In the Beginning) at the Opéra National in Paris. Kiefer's connection with Jewish heritage and Israel was recognized in 1990 when he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Foundation Prize in the Arts. He used the entirety of the $100,000 prize money to establish the Ingeborg Bachmann Scholarship for young Israeli artists. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is Israel's leading museum of modern and contemporary art, and home to one of the world's largest collections of Israeli art. Since its founding in 1932, the Museum has served as one of Tel Aviv's major cultural hubs, displaying a vibrant mix of permanent collections and temporary exhibitions in a wide variety of fields – painting, sculpture, prints and drawings, photography, video, architecture and design. Situated in an impressive architectural complex, the Museum is an integral part of the city's major cultural center – the Golda Meir Cultural and Art Center – home to the Israeli Opera and the Cameri Theater. One of the most diverse and dynamic cultural institutions in Israel, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art serves as a hub of activity for the local arts scene. In addition to its collections, the Museum presents performances of music and dance, film, and lecture series on philosophy and art. The fully computerized art library and its Documentation Center for Art in Israel serve over 15,000 students, scholars and curators each year. The library subscribes to the major art journals and receives the latest catalogues of exhibitions of Israeli art, modern and contemporary art, photography, design and architecture. It is the most comprehensive reference center in the Middle East. The Museum's original building on Rothschild Boulevard has great historical significance: it was there that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, an adjunct to the main building, functions as a showcase and platform for young talents. Opened in 1959, it was beautifully renovated in 1989 with funds provided by the Helena Rubinstein Foundation and the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo. The Danek and Jadzia Gertner Gallery specializes in changing long-term exhibitions of decorative art. Each week some 1,500 children, youth and adults from all walks of life attend classes in painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, photography, video and computer art, and printmaking at the Museum's Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Art Education Center. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.tamuseum.com

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon ~ Portugal's Finest Museum of Classical Art Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:00 PM PST The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (the "Gulbenkian") owes its existence to one man. Calouste Gulbenkian revealed his passion for art at an early age, reflecting his upbringing in Cappadocia and Constantinople, both crossroads of civilizations. Throughout his life, he assembled an eclectic and unique collection that was influenced by his travels and his personal taste. His collection now totals over 6,300 pieces from all over the world and dating from antiquity to the early twentieth century (including examples from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, Babylonia, Armenia, Persia, Islamic Art, Europe, and Japan). The Paris-based collection was divided for security reasons in the 1930s and part was sent to London. In 1936, the collection of Egyptian art was entrusted to the care of the British Museum while the finest paintings went to the National Gallery. Later, in 1948 and 1950, the same works would be sent on to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. As his collection grew, Gulbenkian grew more concerned about how to preserve his achievement. In 1937 he started discussions with Kenneth Clark, who had advised him in assembling his collection, about a "Gulbenkian Institute" at the National Gallery in London. However, during World War II, he was declared an "enemy under the act" by the British Government and they temporarily confiscated his share of the oil from the Iraq Petroleum Company. Although this was a technical legal decision, this action by his adopted country irritated him. Consequently he then considered the National Gallery of Art in Washington as a potential home for his collection and in 1943 began negotiations. At the time of his death in 1955, Gulbenkian does not appear to have decided where he wanted his collection to be housed and finally left it to his British lawyer, Lord Radcliffe to decide. However it was clear that Gulbenkian wanted his collection brought together under one roof where people could appreciate what one man could achieve in his lifetime. After his death, arduous negotiations with the French Government and the National Gallery in Washington ensued. In 1960, the entire collection was brought to Portugal, where it was exhibited at the Palace of the Marquises of Pombal (Oeiras) from 1965 to 1969. Fourteen years after Gulbenkian's death, his wish was fulfilled, when the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum was opened in Lisbon. The large premises, comprise the museum and headquarters of the Gulbenkian Foundation, and were designed by the Portugese architects Ruy Athouguia, Pedro Cid, and Alberto Pessoa. The museum is located within a landscaped park, at the intersection of Av. de Berna and Av. António Augusto de Aguiar, in Lisbon. Sharing the serene gardens of the Gulbenkian Museum is the Modern Art Center, containing modern and contemporary Portuguese and foreign art displayed on two floors, including works by Paula Rego, Almada Negreiros, Souza Cardoso, and Vieira da Silva. As a cultural center, the Gulbenkian Foundation sponsors plays, films, ballets, and concerts, as well as a rotating exhibition of works by leading modern Portuguese and foreign artists. Visit the museum's website at … www. http://museu.gulbenkian.pt The Calouste Gulbenkian Collection comprises some 6,300 pieces of which approximately 1,200 are on display in the museum galleries. The permanent exhibition galleries are distributed in chronological and geographical order and spread over two floors. The collection starts with Egyptian art, which includes a variety of pieces documenting the artistic periods that most marked Egyptian civilization from the Old Empire to the Roman Era. Greco-Roman art is represented by an extraordinary collection of Greek coins and "medallions" which form part of the treasure found at Aboukir, Egypt in 1902, as well as sculptures, ceramics, glass, jewels and gems. The small collection Mesopotamian art includes an outstanding Assyrian low relief from the palace of Assumazirpal. Calouste Gulbenkian's interest in artistic production from Persia, Turkey, Syria, the Caucasus and India, dating from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, is very much in evidence in the collection of Eastern Islamic art. The numerous objects on display include carpets, fabrics, illuminated manuscripts, book bindings, mosque lamps, painted tiles and ceramics. The Armenian art collection is essentially made up of illuminated parchments from the 16th and 17th centuries and show the great interest the collector had in his Armenian origins. Important items of art from the Far east, include porcelain and hard stone carvings from China, lacquer from Japan and a large collection of Japanese prints. The section of European sculpture includes pieces from the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century. The delicate image of the 'Virgin and Child', attributed to Jean de Liège, who worked for the French king Charles V, dates from the Middle Ages, while the works attributed to Antonio Rosselino and Andrea della Robbia stand out among the Renaissance collection. The same period is also represented by a significant collection of medals that includes a substantial nucleus of work by Pisanello. Eighteenth-century French sculpture includes work by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Pigalle, Caffieri and Houdon, the artist who produced "Diana", one of the highlights of the collection. The nineteenth-century's artistic vision of sculpture is emphasized in the Gulbenkian Collection with the inclusion of work by Carpeaux, Barye, Dalou and Rodin. The collection also contains historic books and manuscripts, including a series of Flemish, French, Dutch, English, Italian and German illuminated manuscripts, printed books and bindings dating from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The European decorative arts section is introduced by sixteenth-century tapestries from Flanders and Italy. Outstanding 18th century French works include Gobelins, Beauvais and Aubusson tapestries, very fine sets of furniture dating from the time of the Regency, Louis XV and Louis XVI, made by Cressent, Oeben, Riesener, Jacob, Carlin and Sené. Also on display are pieces in silver or gold by the best French craftsmen such as F.-T. Germain, Duran, Lehendrick, Roettiers and Auguste. The collection of works by René Lalique (a personal friend of Gulbekian) is quite exceptional for the quality of the jewelry and other objects, particularly the glass, which, because of its quality and consistency is considered to be quite unique. The Gulbenkian's collection of paintings is justifiably world famous, and includes some pieces from the Hermitage collection which were sold off by the Soviets. Covering the fifteenth to early twentieth century, the collection includes significant and well know works by almost every important artist. A dominant theme of the two hundred and twenty-nine paintings acquired and kept by Gulbenkian personally, was portrait and landscape painting, and these genres are given particular preponderance in the exhibition galleries of the museum. The main centers of artistic production from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are represented by the work of such artists as Stefan Lochner ("Presentation in the Temple"), Van der Weyden ("St. Catherine"), Pisanello, Anton Van Dyck ("Portrait of a Man"), Dierick Bouts, Jean-Marc Nattier, Domenico Ghirlandaio ("Portrait of a Girl"), Vittore Carpaccio, Cima de Conegliano, Giovanni Battista Moroni, Frans Hals, Jacob von Ruisdael, Peter Paul Rubens ("Portrait of Hélène Fourment", "The Love of the Centaurs" and "Flight Into Egypt"), Andrea della Robbia and Rembrandt ("Portrait of an Old Man", "Pallas Athene" and "Alexander the Great"). Eighteenth-century French painting is in turn represented by the work of Nicolas de Largillière, François Boucher, Hubert Robert, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Lépicié, Nattier and Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. The eighteenth century is also represented by an area devoted to the work of the Venetian painters Francesco Guardi and Canaletto, while another gallery brings together English painters such as Lawrence, George Romney and Thomas Gainsborough. Nineteenth-century English painting is in turn represented by the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The section of nineteenth-century French painting includes work by Corot, Jean-François Millet, Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Henri Fantin-Latour, as well as that of Édouard Manet, Dégas, Mary Cassatt ("The Stocking"), Renoir ("Portrait of Madame Claude Monet") and Claude Monet ("The Breakup of the Ice" and "Still life With Melon") . The Gulbenkian is currently in-between temporary exhibitions, but on 21st October 2011, "In the Presence of Things. Four Centuries of European Still-Life Painting (Part Two: 1840 – 1955)" will open and remain on view until 8 January 2012. This exhibition follows 'Part One' which was presented in 2010 (and looked at European still-life paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). The second part will focus on modern still life in the 19th century and on the fundamental changes which occurred during the first half of the 20th century. A revival of interest in still life among avant garde painters in France will be illustrated through the works of the Realists and the new stylistic language of Impressionism. A centerpiece of this part of the show will be the museum's own Still-life with Melon by Claude Monet. At the end of the 19th century still life was particularly appealing to Post-Impressionist painters like Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, who will be represented by a number of key loans. The exhibition will show the transformation of the genre into a vehicle for ever more radical pictorial experimentation in the work of Picasso, Braque and Matisse. Still-life will be shown to have allowed artists to engage and critique contemporary society. It was also overlaid with the new realities of the subjective experience in the work of Magritte and Dalí. The fragmentation and reinvention of the very category of still life will be explored through sculptures and artists' use of actual objects as works of art. This is the proposed journey of still-life painting in Western Art through different ages and geographical places, illustrated with major works by painters who have treated this artistic genre. Still life was the pretext for painters' explorations, and it is the source of fascination to many museum visitors.

Jean-Marc Bustamante's 'Dead Calm' Exhibition On Display The Fruitmarket Gallery Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:59 PM PST LONDON.- Jean-Marc Bustamante is one of France's senior artists and a major figure in the international art world. His clear, direct vision manifests itself in an almost bewildering array of materials and media – first photography, then sculpture, painting, architectural projects, installation. His work is unified and characterized by its calm intelligence and a kind of extraordinary ordinariness that helps us see its subject, the world around us, in a new way. Jean-Marc Bustamante's 'Dead Calm' exhibition is on display until April 4, 2011. Bustamante's art has not been seen enough in Britain, and The Fruitmarket Gallery brings it to new audiences in Scotland.

Kunsthaus Zurich to Present the Work of Painter & Poet Salomon Gessner Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:58 PM PST ZURICH.- In an exhibition entitled "Idyll in an Obstructed Landscape", to run from February 26 until May 16, 2010, Kunsthaus Zürich presents the work of the painter and poet Salomon Gessner, a long-time resident of Zurich. The show reconstructs Gessner's cabinet, the cornerstone of today's Kunsthaus collection laid in the first half of the 19th'century. Salomon Gessner (1730-1788) was celebrated during his lifetime for his art and poetry, the latter translated into more than 20 languages. In Europe and the Americas as well as in Russia, Armenia and the Caucasus, Gessner's "Idylls" elegantly naïve tributes to the ideals of the Enlightenment, met with an enthusiastic reception. Gessner spent the better part of his life in Zurich, painting, writing, publishing, practising politics and raising a family, while his gouaches, watercolours, drawings and engravings made their way into the most renowned cabinets in Paris, St. Petersburg, Weimar and Vienna, among other places. Committed to a lyrical school of painting guided by the subjective experience of nature and independent study beyond the walls of the academy, Gessner had admirers and detractors in equal numbers.

Carnegie Museum of Art Presents Early 20th-Century of Abstract Art Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:57 PM PST PITTSBURGH, PA - Abstract Art before 1950: Watercolors, Drawings, Prints, and Photographs, an exhibition highlighting works by some of the abstract art movement's most famous and pioneering practitioners, will be on view in the Scaife Works on Paper gallery at Carnegie Museum of Art from June 13–October 18, 2008. The exhibition presents abstraction as one of the defining innovations of early 20th-century avant-garde art and will feature more than 80 watercolors, drawings, collages, prints, and photographs, mostly from the museum's collection. Many of the works are on display for the first time.

Colored Woodcuts From 19th Century Japan at the Benton Museum of Art Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:56 PM PST Storrs, CT.- The Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut is currently showing "The Colored Woodcut in 19th-Century Japan: Edo and Osaka" until August 7th. The colored woodcut was ubiquitous in 19th-century Japan, and for Europeans a source of artistic influence and of pleasure in collecting them. The late 19th-century artistic influence of the woodcut lay in its disavowal of Western perspective, an ingrained facility for two-dimensional patterning, and an unwavering sense of coloration. The pleasure of collecting the color woodcuts in the late 19th and 20th centuries lay in a more profound interest in Asian arts, Chinese as well as Japanese, than had been expressed by the decoratively brilliant but very western Chinoiserie of the 18th century.

National Gallery in UK to Present Major Exhibition of Picasso: Challenging the Past Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:55 PM PST London - Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), arguably the most influential artist of the 20th century, pitted himself against the greatest Masters of European painting in a life-long artistic dialogue. 'Picasso: Challenging the Past' explores the ways he took up the artistic concerns of the painters of the past and made audacious responses of his own. On view at The National Gallery 25 February through 7 June, 2009. Picasso was a passionate student of the grand tradition of European painting. El Greco, Velázquez and Goya were of crucial importance to him, as were Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet and Cézanne. All of these artists are represented by major paintings at the National Gallery. Displaying some 60 works by the artist, this exhibition invites visitors to re-explore the National Gallery's permanent collection in light of Picasso's fascination with the Old Masters. The exhibition is organised thematically, showing how Picasso repeatedly returned to the great subjects of the European painting tradition, analysing them as his personal style developed in myriad directions. Sections include self portraits, the Spanish tradition of male portraiture, the female nude, still life, and the seated female figure. 'Picasso: Challenging the Past' culminates in a display of the artist's Variations where, late in life, Picasso makes direct reference to masterpieces such as Velázquez's 'Las Meninas' and Manet's 'Déjeuner sur l'Herbe', turning them into "something else entirely". At the time of his death, Picasso, by now a multi-millionaire, owned a vast quantity of his own work, consisting of personal favorites which he had kept off the art market, or which he had not needed to sell. In addition, Picasso had a considerable collection of the work of other famous artists, some his contemporaries, like Henri Matisse, with whom he had exchanged works. Since Picasso left no will, his death duties, or estate tax to the French state were paid in the form of his works, and others from his collection. These works form the core of the immense, and representative collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris. And recently in 2003, relatives of Picasso inaugurated a museum dedicated to him, in his hometown of Malaga, Spain, called the Museo Picasso Málaga. This exhibition is organised in conjunction with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, the Musée National Picasso, the Musée du Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.The major exhibition, 'Picasso et les Maîtres' runs in Paris from 6 October 2008 - 2 February 2009. The National Gallery was established for the benefit of all. With a commitment to free admission, a central and accessible site, and extended opening hours the Gallery has ensured that its collection can be enjoyed by the widest public possible, and not become the exclusive preserve of the privileged. The Gallery continues to pursue a vigorous and socially inclusive outreach programme, and caters to the needs of all groups in society. Visit the National Gallery in London at : www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

'Gary Simmons: Shine' ~ Haunting New Works at The Simon Lee Gallery in London Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:54 PM PST London.- The Simon Lee Gallery will be hosting its second solo exhibition of renowned American artist Gary Simmons' work from April 8 until June 2 2011. For Gary Simmons, the act of erasure has been a central theme in his work throughout his career. Referencing film, architecture, and white American popular culture, his new "erasure"drawings move away from the use of paint and canvas, and revert back to pastel and chalk on black or white paper, which is where his practice began. Inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film 'The Shining', Simmons uses the iconic imagery of the overlook hotel for one of his new drawings, whose imposing architecture takes on a haunting personality of its own. The image also incorporates the structure of The Bryce Hospital in Alabama, an institution to house African Americans deemed "insane" in the early 20th century. This alludes to the root of the inspiration of this new body of work: haunted spaces; Structures containing traces of memories, people, and stories that are no longer there but continue to resonate in the collective consciousness of viewer. The combination of social history and cultural reference works here to create an image alive   with its ghostly past. By erasing only layers and fragments of these images, the artist demonstrates the impossibility of eradicating racial and cultural stereotypes from our collective identity.

Solo Exhibition of New Work by Lothar Hempel at Stuart Shave-Modern Art Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:53 PM PST LONDON.- Stuart Shave/Modern Art presents a solo exhibition of new work by German artist Lothar Hempel, Silberblick/Squint. This is his second solo show with Modern Art. Lothar Hempel's work inhabits a realm of dreamlike theatricality, full of many coexisting mystic possibilities. Hempel brings together a world of figures, shapes and colours in the stagelike expression of a certain attitude: graceful, cool, deliberate and poised – yet open and heartfelt. Often starting from 'just so much as a feeling', he weaves his material from movement, objects, and representations of performance. Hempel's narrative associations and contradictions effect a state of mind between consciousness and dream. On view through 3 July.

Rediscovered Baroque Italian Masterpiece Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:52 PM PST   DALLAS, TX.-A valuable, 300-year old Italian Baroque masterpiece painting, whose whereabouts were not publicly known for centuries until earlier this year when it was identified in a Texas warehouse, will be offered in a fine arts auction by Heritage Auction Galleries (www.HA.com ) in Dallas, Texas and online, Nov. 20, 2008.

Tim Burton Major Retrospective at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:51 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Tim Burton, a major retrospective exploring the full range of Tim Burton's creative work, both as a director of live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. Taking inspiration from popular culture, fairy tales, and traditions of the gothic, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of a personal vision. The exhibition is on view at LACMA from May 29 through October 31.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art opens ' Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America & The Railway, 1830-1960 ' Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:50 PM PST   Kansas City, MO – A major international exhibition opening this fall at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will capture the excitement and range of emotions that steam-powered trains elicited as railroads reshaped culture around the world. The exhibition, Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960, open from Sept. 13 through Jan. 18, 2009, will feature more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs drawn from 64 museums and private collections. Art in the Age of Steam   Is the most wide-ranging exhibition ever assembled of American and European works of art responding to the drama of the railroad, from the earliest days when steam trains churned across the landscape through the romance of the Victorian era to the end of the steam era in the 1960s. The exhibition opened first at Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where it was on view from April 18 to Aug. 10. It drew more than 113,000 visitors and received excellent reviews in general and scholarly publications. Extensive exhibition-related programming has been developed not only at the Nelson-Atkins, but also with eight Kansas City-area community partners. In light of Kansas City's historic position as a railway town, this exhibition has strong local resonance. At the same time, it captures the international fascination with the steam train as both an inspiration for art and a life-changing experience for the world at large, said Marc F. Wilson, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell Director/CEO of the Nelson-Atkins. It is especially fitting that the exhibition arrives from Liverpool, another city with transportation at the core of its modern history. Among the works of art are modern and Impressionist masterpieces, including Edouard Manet's The Railway,  Claude Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare, Gustave Caillebotte's On the Pont de l'Europe and Rene Magritte's Time Transfixed. The exhibition features works that span a variety of styles, from an early lithograph by John Cooke Bourne, No. 1 Tunnel, to Edward Hopper's modern Railroad Sunset, and Thomas Hart Benton's The Wreck of the Ole 97. Photography, which also came of age during the rise of steam trains, is represented with works by Alfred Steiglitz, Charles Sheeler, André Kertész and O. Winston Link. The exhibition demonstrates how art and technology came together to contribute to the definition of modernity, exemplified by the speeding up of modern life in an increasingly mechanical society, said Ian Kennedy, Louis L. and Adelaide C. Ward Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins, who co-curated the exhibition with Julian Treuherz, former Keeper of Art for National Museums Liverpool, England. Britain was the cradle of the railroad and Liverpool was a major railroad terminal. The railroad was critical for the westward expansion of the young United States, and Kansas City's Union Station was the nation's second largest railroad station after Chicago. The exhibition will be presented in six sections: The Formative Years in Europe Explores the genesis of railroading in Great Britain and France. The Human Drama of the Railway Focuses on classic topics of the Victorian railroad – the station and the passenger compartment – and includes Augustus Egg's masterpiece Travelling Companions. Crossing Continents: America and Beyond Explores railroad expansion in the American Midwest and West and features the well-known Nelson-Atkins work by Thomas Otter, On the Road, as well as Albert Bierstadt, Donner Pass. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Demonstrates how artists captured both the power of the iron world and the psychological interplay of people in train stations. States of Mind Surveys the depiction of the railroad in art movements of the late 19th and early 20th century, from Symbolism through Futurism, Expressionism and Surrealism, represented by Wassily Kandinsky, E.L. Kirchner and Giorgio de Chirico. The Machine Age Moves from admiration of the power of steam and locomotive machine to the feelings of nostalgia as it declined in general passenger travel use. The Railway in Art : Early observers viewed the steam train with combined wonder and fear. Many early prints and paintings explored the evolving landscape of the industrial age, punctuated with the bridges and viaducts built to accommodate the new trains. The view from the train car provided a new panoramic—almost cinematic—perspective. Particularly in the American west, broad landscape paintings illustrated the cinematic point of view from a railroad carriage, emblematic of the vast and unexplored frontier now made accessible by train travel. Prints and paintings also focused on train stations themselves as new centers of city life. Reactions were not purely celebratory, though: Honoré Daumier's realist works hinted at the anxieties of mixing with strangers of different classes in the closed compartments of a train car. Later in the 19th century, the French Impressionists latched onto the steam train as a symbol of modernity, simultaneously heralding and expressing anxiety about the fast pace of the new city. The train provided a convenient link between city and country, condensing what had previously been a day of travel time into an hour, and many Impressionist works explored the newly-accessible countryside as a site of leisure, a counterpoint to the bustling city. Stylistically, the bursts of steam spewed by the trains provided stunning illustrations of the emphasis on light and movement that characterizes Impressionism. In the early 20th century, modern artists used the train to explore abstracted depictions of speed and power in an increasingly mechanized society. Russian poster designers celebrated the train as the epitome of strength and power and as a valuable tool for a Socialist system. Art Nouveau travel posters, meanwhile, depicted the train as a sleek bullet and the essence of glamour. The railway continued to serve as a metaphor for power or the restlessness and alienation of modern life well into the 20th century, especially in the works of Hopper and Benton, but eventually with the increasing dominance of new forms of transport – railway art became imbued with nostalgia for a golden age, particularly after steam haulage was superseded by diesel or electric traction. Nostalgia for a vanishing age is poignantly expressed in the photography of O. Winston Link. A full-color catalog published by Yale University Press is directed at both art lovers and railroad enthusiasts. It opens with a historical introduction by Oxford University lecturer Michael Freeman, followed by an essay by University College London lecturer Matthew Beaumont on the railroad and literature. The catalog is divided into six sections written by the co-curators Kennedy and Treuherz, who address the ways in which various artistic schools and artists addressed the subject of railroads. The catalog also includes extensive technical notes on works exhibited, as well as a timeline and bibliography. The catalog will be available at the Museum Store. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America's finest encyclopedic art museums. The Nelson-Atkins serves the community by providing access and insight into its renowned collection of more than 33,500 art objects and is best known for its Asian art, European and American paintings and modern sculpture. Housing a major art research library and the Ford Learning Center, the Museum is a key educational resource for the region and a national model for arts education. The Nelson-Atkins' expansion is also leading a field of new investments in local cultural infrastructure that is becoming known as Kansas City's $6 Billion Renaissance. The recently completed 165,000-square-foot Bloch Building by Steven Holl Architects was a major milestone in the ongoing institution-wide transformation of the Nelson-Atkins. The multi-year project also encompassed the renovation of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building and the expansion of the Museum's renowned Kansas City Sculpture Park, and continues with renovations to the American and American Indian galleries as part of the reinstallation of the encyclopedic collection. The Nelson-Atkins is located at 45th and Oak streets, Kansas City, Mo. Hours are Wednesday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission to the Museum's permanent collection is free to everyone. Additionally, newly produced audio guides are free for visitors, presenting art & architecture tours, overall collection highlights, and select special exhibitions tours. For Museum information, phone 816.751.1ART (1278) or visit : www.nelson-atkins.org.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 16 Dec 2011 05:49 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.

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