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

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• The Legion of Honor Displays Bernini's Masterpiece ~ "The Medusa"
• Artists to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2012
• The J. Paul Getty Museum Shows Los Angeles Photography 1945 -1980
• Groninger Museum Presents a Solo Exhibition of the World-famous Designs of of Studio Job
• More Accurate View of George Washington Crossing at the New-York Historical Society
• Photographer Jim Goldberg Wins Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2011
• Domenichino Masterpiece Returns to the Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Kunstmuseum Bern shows Swiss Landscapes From 1800 to 1900 from the Collection
• Elo: Inner Exile ~ Outer Limits on View at MUDAM in Luxembourg
• Tamara de Lempicka's Art Deco Paintings on View for the First Time in Mexico City
• Art Gallery of South Australia Unveils $3.6 Million Refurbishment
• Exhibition Opens Window onto Little-Known Cultures of Ancient Nubia
• L.A. Louver presents New Sculptures by Deborah Butterfield
• ASU Art Museum shows " NOW: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection "
• Metropolitan Museum of Art to display International Loan Exhibition of Korean Art
• R. Michelson Galleries Hosts Photographic Retrospective of Artist-Actor Leonard Nimoy
• Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to exhibit J.W. Waterhouse ~ The Modern Pre-Raphaelite
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Legion of Honor Displays Bernini's Masterpiece ~ "The Medusa" Posted: 25 Dec 2011 08:25 PM PST San Francisco, California.- The Musei Capitolini in Rome lent San Francisco one of their greatest treasures, the Baroque masterpiece "The Medusa" by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, one of history's finest sculptors and a leading figure in 17th-century Italian art and architecture. This loan is part of the "Dream of Rome", a project initiated by the mayor of Rome to exhibit timeless masterpieces in the United States from 2011 through 2013.  The Medusa represents the inaugural object loaned as part of a joint venture signed recently between the Musei Capitolini and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco designed to share exhibitions, collections, curatorial and conservation knowledge and to collaborate on educational programs. "The Medusa" is on view at the Legion of Honor until February 19th 2012. Recent conservation efforts have restored the Medusa to its full glory and revealed previously hidden polish and patina. Believed to date from between1638 and 1648, this extraordinary work takes its subject from classical mythology, as cited in Ovid's Metamorphoses. It shows the beautiful Medusa, one of the Gorgon sisters, caught in the terrible process of transformation into a monster. Her hair is turning into writhing snakes, which, according to Ovid, was a punishment from Minerva for having had an affair with Neptune, god of the sea. The punishment also made Medusa an instrument of death by turning anyone who looked upon her to stone. Famously, Perseus overcame Medusa's curse by looking at her reflection in a shield to behead her. Bernini's depiction does not describe this incident but rather the agony of Medusa's initial dramatic transformation. Her face is contorted with pain and anxiety and her mouth is open as if crying out. What is remarkable about Bernini's interpretation of this ancient mythological creature is that it conveys passion, emotion and the humanity of the moment, rather than the monstrous and horrific aspects of Medusa treated by artists and sculptors hitherto. Created during a bleak period when the artist was out of favor at the papal court, the figure is thought to represent for Bernini the power of sculpture and the value of the sculptor. Recent research also indicates that the Medusa may well represent Costanza Bonarelli, Bernini's lover, whom he caught with his own brother, Luigi, ending the affair in a particularly bitter manner! Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) was a virtuosic genius of the Roman Baroque in the 17th century. Not only the greatest sculptor of the age, he was also an internationally renowned architect, painter, playwright and theatrical designer. Living and working mainly in Rome until his death, he was the leader of that city's artistic scene for more than 50 years, far outshining his contemporaries as the major exponent of the Italian Baroque. Serving six popes, he left a permanent mark on the city of Rome with his designs for the colonnade and interior of Saint Peter's Basilica and with his famous public fountains. His ability to synthesize sculpture, architecture and painting into a conceptual entity was recognized by scholar Irving Lavin as a "unity of the visual arts." Born the son of a Tuscan sculptor in Naples in 1598, Bernini was a child prodigy and learned sculpting skills from his father, who worked for the great families in Rome starting in 1605. Even in his first works, the artist attempted to represent subjects and moods never before attempted, such as portraying the human soul. The Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museums) are a complex of buildings located on the Capitoline Hill, one of the traditional Seven Hills of Rome. In antiquity the hill was the religious and political heart of the city, the site of many temples, including the massive Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, which overlooked the Forum. During the Middle Ages, the ancient buildings fell into disrepair. Rising from their ruins were new municipal structures: the Palace of the Senators, which was built largely in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and which turned away from the Forum, toward Papal Rome and the Old Saint Peter's Basilica; and the Palace of the Conservators (magistrates), constructed in the 15th century beside the Palace of the Senators. A donation made in 1471 marked the beginning of a new function for the buildings on the Capitoline Hill, reflecting a rising interest in the artistic legacy of Roman antiquity. In that year Pope Sixtus IV transferred to the Capitoline four ancient bronze sculptures from the Lateran Palace, then the principal papal residence. In 1537 Pope Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to relocate another sculpture from the Lateran to the plaza in front of the Palace of the Senators: the monumental bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which had escaped destruction during the Middle Ages only because it was then believed to represent Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Michelangelo was also charged with reorganizing the area, known as the Piazza del Campidoglio. For the Palaces of the Senators and Conservators he designed new facades, which were completed after his death in 1564. To balance the Palace of the Conservators, he conceived a matching building, the New Palace, which was finished in 1667. Together, these buildings constitute the Musei Capitolini. The last element of Michelangelo's masterpiece of urban planning, the Piazza, was not completed until 1940 under Mussolini. Despite the centuries of construction, most of Michelangelo's plans for the site were implemented. In the 16th century the Capitoline collections increased dramatically through the acquisition of newly excavated works and donations such as the ancient works of art given by Pope Pius V with the intention of "purging the Vatican of pagan idols." The Palace of the Conservators became so crowded with sculpture that the magistrates found it difficult to carry out their official duties. In the late 17th century, many of the works were transferred to the recently completed New Palace. Since then, the Musei Capitolini have continued to expand their holdings, bringing together one of the world's great collections of Roman antiquities. High on the headlands above the Golden Gate stands the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels to the city of San Francisco. Located in Lincoln Park, this unique art museum is one of the great treasures in a city that boasts many riches. The museum's spectacular setting is made even more dramatic by the imposing French neoclassical building. In 1915 Alma Spreckels fell in love with the French Pavilion at San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition. Alma Spreckels persuaded her husband, sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels, to recapture the beauty of the pavilion as a new art museum for San Francisco. At the close of the 1915 exposition, the French government granted them permission to construct a permanent replica, but World War I delayed the groundbreaking for this ambitious project until 1921. Constructed on a remote site known as Land's End, one of the most beautiful settings imaginable for any museum, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor was completed in 1924, and on Armistice Day of that year the doors opened to the public. Between March 1992 and November 1995—its seventy-first anniversary—the Legion underwent a major renovation that included seismic strengthening, building systems upgrades, restoration of historic architectural features, and an underground expansion that added 35,000 square feet. The architects chosen to accomplish this challenging feat were Edward Larrabee Barnes and Mark Cavagnero. The 1995 renovation realized a 42 percent increase in square footage, including six additional special exhibition galleries set around the pyramid skylight visible in the Legion courtyard. Today, the Legion of Honor's collection contains over 124,000 works of art and is recognized for its European decorative arts, sculpture and painting; Ancient art from throughout the Mediterranean and the Near East; and one of the largest collections of works on paper in the country.The Legion's permanent collection reflects a history of patronage by its founders, Adolph B. and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, whose particular collecting focus was 18th- and 19th-century French art. Additional early donors of note include Archer M. Huntington, Mildred Anna Williams and Albert Campbell Hooper, whose generosity fashioned the present collection's particular character. The Roscoe and Margaret Oakes collection brought highlights in Dutch, Flemish and British art of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Henry Raeburn. A selection of important paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection brought with it major works by El Greco, Pieter de Hooch and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Visit the museum's website at ... http://legionofhonor.famsf.org

Artists to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2012 Posted: 25 Dec 2011 08:05 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In one of the signature events celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2012, fifteen leading artists from the Bay Area and around the world will create on-site installations responding to the bridge as an icon, historic structure, and conceptual inspiration. Organized by the nonprofit FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and the National Park Service, International Orange will occupy selected areas of all three floors and the spacious courtyard of the historic Fort Point building, dating from 1861 and nestled at the southern base of the bridge. International Orange will open on Memorial Day weekend, May 26–28, as part of the kickoff to the 75th anniversary and will remain on view to the public free of charge through October 2012. Featuring site-specific installations, live performance, interactive art experiences, and public programs, the exhibition will offer visitors new insights into the bridge, its history, and the unparalleled surrounding environment through the diverse work of fifteen leading contemporary artists.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Shows Los Angeles Photography 1945 -1980 Posted: 25 Dec 2011 08:04 PM PST Los Angeles, California.- As part of the region-wide 'Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980' initiative, The J. Paul Getty Museum is pleased to present "In Focus: Los Angeles, 1945–1980", an exhibition of photographs from the permanent collection made by artists whose time in Los Angeles inspired them to create memorable images of the city, on view at the Getty Center through May 6th. The photographs are loosely grouped around the themes of experimentation, street photography, architectural depictions, and the film and entertainment industry. Works featured in the exhibition are from artists such as Jo Ann Callis, Robert Cumming, Joe Deal, Judy Fiskin, Anthony Friedkin, Robert Heinecken, Anthony Hernandez, Man Ray, Edmund Teske, William Wegman, Garry Winogrand, and Max Yavno. Drawn from the Museum's permanent collection, including several recent acquisitions inspired by the Pacific Standard Time initiative, the exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a broad range of approaches to the city of Los Angeles as a subject and to the photographic medium itself. One of the most well-known works in the exhibition is Garry Winogrand's photograph of two women walking towards the landmark theme building designed by Charles Luckman and William Pereira that has come to symbolize both Los Angeles International Airport and midcentury modern architecture in popular culture. Though a quintessential New Yorker, Winogrand made some of his most memorable photographs in Los Angeles, where he chose to settle in the final years of his life. Also included in the exhibition is Diane Arbus' dreamily lit photograph of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland park in Anaheim. Although technically not located in either the city or the county of Los Angeles, Disneyland—and Arbus' photograph—continues to capture the notion of entertainment and fantasy that has come to be so intrinsically associated with the city. Other photographers in the "In Focus: Los Angeles" exhibition who produced the majority of their most creative work in the city include Edmund Teske, with his experimentation in the darkroom and his complex double solarization process; Robert Heinecken, with images that are equally complex but often incorporate existing printed materials, such as negatives; Anthony Hernandez, whose portraits of Angelenos on the street emphasize the isolation of the individual in an urban environment; and Anthony Friedkin, who combines his passions for surfing and the Southland beaches in his photographs. The inclusion of three photographs from Judy Fiskin's earliest photographic series, Stucco (1973–76), provided the impetus for a monographic presentation of the artist's complete photographic work by Getty Publications. Entitled Some Aesthetic Decisions: The Photographs of Judy Fiskin and featuring an introductory essay by curator Virginia Heckert, the book will be published concurrently with this exhibition. "In Focus: Los Angeles" is the tenth installation of the ongoing In Focus series of exhibitions, thematic presentations of photographs from the Getty's permanent collection. The J. Paul Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The Center sits atop a hill, connected to a visitor's parking garage at the bottom by a three-car, cable-pulled tram. With more than 1.3 million visitors annually, the Getty Museum is one of the most visited art museums in the USA. It is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the second being the 'J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa in Malibu', dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The 'J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Centre' is the branch of the museum specializing in "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs". Besides the Museum, the Center's buildings house the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which owns and operates the Center. The Center was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier and includes a central garden designed by artist Robert Irwin. GRI's separate building contains a research library with over 900,000 volumes and two million photographs of art and architecture. Originally, the Getty Museum started in J. Paul Getty's house located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, when in 1954, he expanded the house with a museum wing. In the 1970's, Getty built a replica of an Italian villa on his property to better house his collection, which opened in 1974. After Getty's death in 1976, the entire property was turned over to the Getty Trust for museum purposes. However, the collection outgrew the site, which has since been renamed the Getty Villa, and management sought a location more accessible to Los Angeles. The purchase of the land upon which the Center is located (a campus of 24 acres on a site in the Santa Monica Mountains, surrounded by 600 acres kept in a natural state) was announced in 1983. The top of the hill is 900 feet (270 m) above Interstate 405, high enough that on a clear day it is possible to see not only the Los Angeles skyline but also the San Bernardino Mountains to the east as well as the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Center opened to the public on December 16, 1997. After the Center opened, the villa closed for extensive renovations, and reopened on January 28, 2006. The Center museum building consists of a three-level base building that is mostly closed to the public and provides staff workspace and storage areas. Five public, two-story towers on the base are called the North, East, South, West and the Exhibitions Pavilions. The Exhibitions Pavilion acts as the temporary residence for traveling art collections and the Foundation's artwork for which the permanent pavilions have no room. The permanent collection is displayed throughout the other four pavilions chronologically. The first-floor galleries in each pavilion house light-sensitive art, such as illuminated manuscripts, furniture, or photography. Computer-controlled skylights on the second floor galleries allow paintings to be displayed in natural light. The second floors are connected by a series of glass-enclosed bridges and open terraces, both of which offer views of the surrounding hillsides and central plaza. Sculpture is also on display at various points outside the buildings, including on various terraces and balconies. The lower level (the highest of the floors in the base) includes a public cafeteria, the terrace cafe, and the photography galleries. Visit the museum's website at ... www.getty.edu/museum/

Groninger Museum Presents a Solo Exhibition of the World-famous Designs of of Studio Job Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:53 PM PST GRONINGEN, NL - On exhibition until 4 March 2012, the Groninger Museum presents the exhibition entitled Studio Job & the Groninger Museum. The exhibition displays the world-famous designs of Studio Job, which consists of Job Smeets (1970) and Nynke Tynagel (1977). In the past ten years, the Groninger Museum has accumulated a substantial collection of work by Studio Job. Important series such as Homework (2006-2007) and Robber Baron (2007) illustrate Studio Job's virtuoso handling of extraordinary materials and extreme techniques. But the archetypical and monumental objects show, above all, an expressive engagement at the interface of art and design. The Groninger Museum has been following Studio Job closely since 2001, and currently possesses the largest collection of their products. In December 2010, as a component of the building revitalization that has just been completed, the Museum opened a new reception area conceived by the designers: the Job Lounge.

More Accurate View of George Washington Crossing at the New-York Historical Society Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:34 PM PST NEW YORK (AP).- One of America's most famous images, a painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, got much of the story wrong: The American commander wouldn't have stood triumphantly on a rowboat in daylight, but on a ferry bracing himself against a fierce snowstorm on Christmas night. That's the historic scene depicted in a new painting that goes on display this week at the New-York Historical Society Museum in Manhattan. "No one in his right mind would have stood up in a rowboat in that weather," artist Mort Kunstler said. "It would have capsized." He told The Associated Press that he's "not knocking the original" — the well-known 1851 painting by German-born artist Emanuel Leutze , who Kunstler says "was glorifying Washington using what he knew at the time." But Kunstler said his new piece is aimed at righting the historical mistakes. Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to mount a surprise attack on Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton on Dec. 26, 1776. The Americans killed 22 Hessians, wounded 98 and captured nearly 900 while losing only three of their own men.

Photographer Jim Goldberg Wins Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2011 Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST LONDON.- Jim Goldberg (b.1953, USA) has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011, which marks the 15th year of the Prize and the 40th anniversary of The Photographers' Gallery. The prize was announced on Tuesday 26 April 2011 when the broadcaster and critic Miranda Sawyer presented the £30,000 award at a special ceremony. The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 is organised by The Photographers' Gallery. This year, while the Gallery undergoes extensive redevelopment works to transform its gallery space, which will reopen later this year, the Prize is displayed at Ambika P3, University of Westminster until 1 May 2011.

Domenichino Masterpiece Returns to the Dulwich Picture Gallery Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST LONDON.- For the first time since 1971, Domenichino's masterpiece returns to Dulwich to close the celebrations of the Bicentenary. Domenichino's The Adoration of the Shepherds, believed in the eighteenth century to be the work of Annibale Carracci , was one of the most highly-prized paintings in the collection of Noel Desenfans and Sir Francis Bourgeois, the Gallery's founders, in their house in Charlotte Street, London. The canvas was arguably the most important Italian seventeenth-century painting left by Desenfans and Bourgeois to Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1811. The masterpiece will be on display through 8 January 2012.

Kunstmuseum Bern shows Swiss Landscapes From 1800 to 1900 from the Collection Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST BERN, SWITZERLAND - Gottfried Keller's enthusiasm for what he sees before him is the motto for the exhibition on the 19th-century image of Switzerland from the Kunstmuseum Bern collection. The museum presents not only works that are strange or have hardly yet been seen, or visionary and realistic, but also well-known and familiar pieces from the rich fund of hidden museum treasures. With imagery that is deeply rooted in the national pictorial memory of the Swiss, a multi-facetted panorama enfolds in the exhibition that, still today, models the tourists' image of the country. On exhibition 13th July through 4th October, 2009. The exhibition focuses on representations of Switzerland that, in emulation of Albrecht von Haller and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were spread far and wide in the 19th century via the medium of art. The overview commences with the political upheavals around 1800 and concludes with the decades that ensue the founding of the young federal state. Within this century a great diversity of national pictorial subject matter evolves. The exhibition is devoted to the theme of landscape. It reveals how, in the context of the legendary «Grand Tour,» the English tourists pilgrimaged to the natural spectacles and in what ways the artists responded to their demand for images. The perspective of the stranger on the sublime alpine region builds the starting point of the exhibition circuit. Further chapters show how the landscape as political allegory is interpreted as symbolizing freedom and how the Romantic aesthetic experience of nature is continued through to the art of the Symbolists. Besides the great Salon paintings, the exhibition focuses on the «paysage intime,» on sentimental Realism, and on artificially lit transparent pictures. Simultaneously, visitors can submerge themselves in a familiar and yet aloof world of drawings, prints, book illustrations, topographical representations, sculptures, medals, and reliefs, which, in part, have never before been exhibited. The presentation is conceived as a «hike» through the Swiss countryside, from the souvenir pictures of the lesser masters through to Ferdinand Hodler's cosmic view, and subdivided into themes. The exhibition room titles facilitate orientation and selecting the route. The Museum of Fine Arts Bern is the oldest art museum in Switzerland with a permanent collection and houses works covering eight centuries. Works by Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Ferdinand Hodler and Meret Oppenheim have made the Museum of Fine Arts Bern an institution with an international reputation. At the present time, the constantly growing and evolving collection consists of over 3,000 paintings and sculptures as well as 48,000 drawings, prints, photographs, videos and films. The roots of the museum's history reach back to the revolutionary ideas proliferating towards the end of the 18th century which, in 1809, led to the founding of the National Art Collection in Bern and, in 1879, to the opening of the first museum building. Visit : http://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch/index.cfm?nav=567,1333&SID=1&DID=9

Elo: Inner Exile ~ Outer Limits on View at MUDAM in Luxembourg Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:13 PM PST   LUXEMBOURG - The exhibition Elo ("now" in Luxembourg parlance) presents a snapshot of contemporary production in Luxembourg. Organised by Mudam, it exhibits works mostly produced specially for the exhibition by artists brought together by the independent curator Christian Mosar. On exhibition through 2 February, 2009 at The Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean ( MUDAM).

Tamara de Lempicka's Art Deco Paintings on View for the First Time in Mexico City Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:12 PM PST MEXICO CITY.- President Felipe Calderón inaugurated the Tamara de Lempicka Exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts, adding that during his government, an enormous effort has been made to enable Mexicans to discover and enjoy great national and international exhibitions, some of which have been unparalleled. He said that Tamara de Lempicka belongs to the great 20th Century women painters who were attracted to Mexico and found refuge and a source of inspiration here, such as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington and Alice Rahon. Of Tamara de Lempicka, the President said that her fascinating, avant-garde plastic discourse made her one of the main exponents of Art Déco. The exhibition gathers 48 paintings, 15 works on paper and 21 photographs, that come from private collections in France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, United States and Mexico. It is important to mention that Jack Nicholson's collection has been included in the show.

Art Gallery of South Australia Unveils $3.6 Million Refurbishment Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:11 PM PST ADELAIDE, AU - The Art Gallery of South Australia opened the doors to the newly refurbished Elder Wing of Australian Art on Saturday 18 June, following a ten month, $3.6 million refurbishment. The opening marked the 130th anniversary of the Gallery for which over $5 million in gifts has been received. Modernized to meet international museum standards in lighting and environmental control, the Elder Wing's interior has been refurbished to reinstate it as perhaps Australia's most beautiful museum interior. "Visitors will have a different sense of the Gallery from the moment they enter from North Terrace. The refurbished vestibule and Elder Wing have now taken on a more contemporary feel but one which still honours the building heritage," said Art Gallery of South Australia, Director Nick Mitzevich. The refurbishment was designed by award winning architecture, design and urban planning firm HASSELL. Christie Bailey, HASSELL Senior Associate Architect, said the refurbishment respected the original symmetrical design of the space and incorporates contemporary, minimalist design pieces such as a new granite concierge counter. "We worked closely with the Gallery to develop a solution which balanced the old with the new and meets the functional needs of the public and gallery staff," said Ms Bailey. State of the art lighting has been installed throughout the Elder Wing by US museum and lighting design firm George Sexton and Associates. This renowned firm has an extensive history of involvement with complex museum and architectural projects, as exemplified through work with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Denver Art Museum, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, England. Along with the architectural refurbishment, the Australian pre-colonial, colonial, federation and modern art that the Elder Wing houses has been re-hung to introduce a fresh narrative, one that makes new connections between works of art. Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture, Tracey Lock-Weir, said that the new displays tell a revised story of Australian art, one that reflects a greater understanding of who we are at this point in time. "From the first chapter of this new narrative, major works of Aboriginal art introduce the pre-contact period and the continued presence of Aboriginal culture. Aboriginal art in all its various disciplines will be an integral component of the whole story of Australian art as never told before," she said. Included in the rehang are twenty spectacular new, multi-million dollar gifts in honour of the Gallery's 130th anniversary. Highlights include several stunning works by Hugh Ramsay from the ever-generous Diana Ramsay and Richard Noble's striking painting of Elizabeth Solomon, 1862, and Tom Roberts's pivotal work Winter morning after rain, Gardiner's Creek, 1885, both of which are recent major gifts from Max Carter, AO. "Our hope is that visitors feel a sense of comfort when they visit the Elder Wing – like seeing an old friend, but also delight in seeing things afresh, both the architecture and the collection," said Mr Mitzevich. The refurbishment of the Elder Wing would not have been possible without the significant grant from the South Australian Government and the generous support of the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation and the Thyne Reid Foundation. Visit The Art Gallery of South Australia at : http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home

Exhibition Opens Window onto Little-Known Cultures of Ancient Nubia Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:10 PM PST NEW YORK, N.Y.- The rich cultures of ancient Nubia, located in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan, are the subject of an exhibition on view at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University from March 11 through June 12, 2011. Entitled Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa, the exhibition evokes the rise, fall, and re-emergence of Nubian power over the course of some 2,500 years, from the earliest Nubian kingdoms of about 3000 BC through the conquest of Egypt beginning in about 750 BC. With more than 120 objects, ranging from statues portraying kings to military weapons, jewelry, pottery, and more, the exhibition illuminates the culture of ancient Nubia—particularly its ongoing, complex relationship with Egypt—and reveals its remarkable and distinctive aesthetic tradition.

L.A. Louver presents New Sculptures by Deborah Butterfield Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:09 PM PST Venice, CA - L.A. Louver is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new sculptures by Deborah Butterfield. The show includes both small and large-scale horse forms, made from a range of materials including cast bronze, steel, copper and concrete. The sculpture is presented throughout all first and second floor galleries. Deborah Butterfield has created sculpture in the form of horses since the early 1970s. In her early work the artist used humble materials such as mud, clay and sticks. On exhibition through 9 May, 2009.

ASU Art Museum shows " NOW: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection " Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:08 PM PST TEMPE, AZ.- The ASU Art Museum opens its new major exhibition, NOW: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection, on view through September 28, 2008. Featuring a group of international contemporary artists, the exhibition showcases artworks that are fresh from the artists' studios-dating from 2006-2008, which illustrate recent trends in contemporary art.

Metropolitan Museum of Art to display International Loan Exhibition of Korean Art Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:07 PM PST New York City - The early Joseon period, a time of extraordinary artistic achievements in Korea, will be explored in a loan exhibition opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in March 2009. Showcasing approximately 47 spectacular works—painting, ceramics,metalwork, and lacquer—Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600 will illustrate the lively and nuanced story of the formidable cultural renaissance that flourished during these two centuries. On exhibition March 17th through June 21st, 2009.

R. Michelson Galleries Hosts Photographic Retrospective of Artist-Actor Leonard Nimoy Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:06 PM PST NORTHAMPTON, MA - Artist/actor Leonard Nimoy has been a photographer most of his life He first experienced the magic of making photographic images as a teenager in the early 1940's. "I was about thirteen," he says, when he discusses his attraction to the family camera, a bellows Kodak Autographic, which is a cherished part of his collection to this day.   His darkroom was the family bathroom in their small Boston apartment.   His subjects were family and friends. Nimoy's first enlarger was a do-it-yourself number built around the same time as the family Kodak. On exhibition from July 29th to October 31st with an artists reception and book signing on July 29th from 6 to 8 pm.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to exhibit J.W. Waterhouse ~ The Modern Pre-Raphaelite Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:05 PM PST MONTREAL.- The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will host the largest-ever retrospective of works by the celebrated British artist John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite is the first large-scale monographic exhibition on Waterhouse's work since 1978 and the first to feature his entire artistic career. This retrospective features some eighty paintings that are among the finest and most spectacular of the artist's production, on loan from public and private collections in Australia, England, Ireland, Taiwan, the United States and Canada. It will also present many of the artist's attractive studies in oil, chalk and pencil. Several of these works have not been exhibited since Waterhouse's lifetime. The exhibition has been organized by the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands, with the collaboration of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition, which premiered at the Groninger Museum  and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will be presented until February 7, 2010. Often associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, who aimed to recapture the beauty and simplicity of the medieval world, Waterhouse was also a classical painter. The exhibition will show how Waterhouse's paintings reflect his engagement with contemporary themes like medievalism, classical heritage, spiritualism and the femme fatale. Born the year the Pre-Raphaelites first exhibited at the Royal Academy, he inherited their taste for Alfred Tennyson, John Keats and William Shakespeare and was fascinated by beauty, the underworld and myths of enchantresses. His paintings reveal a romantic fascination for female passions: among his subjects are the Lady of Shalott, Ophelia, Ariadne, Cleopatra, Circe, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Lamia, the Sirens tormenting Ulysses, and Mariamne condemned to death. Inspired by literature and Greek mythology, he also drew from classical myth as interpreted by Homer and Ovid. Although the works of J. W. Waterhouse are admired by millions of people worldwide, the general public actually knows relatively little about the man himself and his artistic production. Waterhouse's painterly manner distinguishes him from his truly Pre-Raphaelite forerunners. Waterhouse discovered the work of the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais and Ophelia (1851-1852) in particular in 1886. It was also during this same period that he was influenced by the spontaneity of newer French art through the work of English artists like William Logsdail, Frank Bramley and the Newlyn and Primrose Hill schools. The twentieth-century scholars who rediscovered the Pre-Raphaelites often marginalized Waterhouse for such seemingly contradictory tendencies, yet it is these which have endeared him to viewers today. The exhibition will place his most renowned works in the context of his whole career to illustrate why Waterhouse can be regarded as one of the most important artists of classical and romantic tradition. The artist was born in Rome to British parents, but the family returned to London five years later. Even at a very young age, Waterhouse assisted in the studio of his father, where he developed his interest in painting, sculpture and classical antiquity. He was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1870, and gradually began to make a name for himself with strikingly original and melancholy pictures inspired by ancient Greece and Rome. His richly coloured, emotionally charged images of beautiful women brought him renown throughout the British Empire and at the World Exhibitions of the 1890s and 1900s. Visit The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts at : http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:04 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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