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

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• The Baltimore Museum of Art Shows Photographer "Candida Höfer ~ Interior Worlds"
• 'Forrest Gump', Chaplin's "The Kid" to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry
• Beloved Pop Artist James Rizzi, creator of unusual projects worldwide, Dies at Age 61
• The Wichita Art Museum Celebrates Printmaking from the Lawrence Lithography Workshop
• The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Opens New Galleries for the Art of Asia
• Landscape by painter Antonio Joli donated by the Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado
• The Bank Austria Kunstforum Explores the Fernando Botero Phenomenon
• The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents "The Puppet Show"
• Annie Leibovitz Retrospective: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 at C/O in Berlin
• Museum Frieder Burda exhibits 'Nature in Contemporary Art'
• The Royal Ontario Museum to Host "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008"
• The Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver To Show 'Flesh and Blood' Recent Work by Shary Boyle
• Photographer Awards in Cannes
• The Art Institute of Chicago Presents Soviet TASS Posters at Home & Abroad, 1941–1945
• The Gemeentemuseum Presents Picasso in The Hague
• Philly’s Comix Pioneer R. Crumb at UArts Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery
• The Sondheim Artscape Prize: 2010 Finalists Exhibition at BAM
• Art 40 Basel ~ Extraordinary Quality; Surprisingly Strong Results With 61,000 Attending
• Van Gogh Unusual Painting Now Authenticated at Museum de Fundatie
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Baltimore Museum of Art Shows Photographer "Candida Höfer ~ Interior Worlds" Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:27 PM PST Baltimore, Maryland.- The Baltimore Museum of Art is proud to present " Candida Höfer : Interior Worlds" on view at the museum until February 26th. Internationally acclaimed contemporary German photographer Candida Höfer focused her camera on two of Baltimore's most venerable cultural institutions: The Johns Hopkins University's George Peabody Library and the Walters Art Museum . A selection of the resulting images will make their Baltimore debut in "Candida Höfer: Interior Worlds". The exhibition features 13 breathtaking images of European and American interiors that demonstrate how the artist goes beyond documenting architecture to capture moments of contemplative beauty. Höfer's images of the Peabody Library and Walters Art Museum contrast the exciting cast iron decoration in the library's late 19th-century reading room with the refined Italian Renaissance-inspired space of the early 20th-century museum interior. These enormous works, each more than six feet tall, are complemented by the artist's spectacular images of the State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe, Germany (1999); Basel University Public Library in Switzerland (1999); Bregenz Art Museum in Germany (1999); Library of the Royal Academy of Language in Madrid, Spain (2000); Harvard University Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (2001); Louvre Museum in Paris, France (2005); Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris, France (2005); Library of the Archiginnasio in Bologna, Italy (2006); and Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal (2006). The works in the exhibition are loaned by the artist and private collectors and are installed in two neoclassical galleries adjacent to the BMA's collection of 17th- and 18th-century European paintings. Known for her intensely detailed images of grand architectural spaces, Höfer (born 1944) is among an important group of artists that emerged from the Düsseldorf Academy in the 1980s under the tutelage of influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher . These artists transformed the formal and conceptual ambitions of their medium by repeatedly focusing their lenses on carefully defined subjects and expanding the size of their lushly colored images to rival painting. Höfer's meticulously composed photographs of rooms in libraries, museums, theaters, cafés, universities, and other centers of cultural life have been featured in numerous solo exhibitions in museums throughout Europe and the United States, including the Kunsthalles in Basel and Bern, Portikus in Frankfurt am Main, and the Power Plant in Toronto. She has participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art , New York; the Museum Ludwig , Cologne; and Documenta 11. She represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and is represented by galleries in Europe and the United States. She lives and works in Cologne, Germany. Throughout the Baltimore Museum of Art, visitors will find an outstanding selection of European and American fine and decorative arts, 15th- through 19th-century prints and drawings, contemporary art by established and emerging contemporary artists, and objects from Africa, Asia, the Ancient Americas, and Pacific Islands. Two beautifully landscaped gardens display an array of 20th-century sculpture that is an oasis in the city. As a major cultural destination for the greater Baltimore region, the BMA organizes and presents a variety of dynamic exhibitions and innovative programs throughout the year, and frequently hosts special events with cultural and educational partners. The Museum is located three miles north of Baltimore's Inner Harbor in a park-like setting in the heart of Charles Village, adjacent to the main campus of The Johns Hopkins University. It is distinguished by a grand historic building designed in the 1920s by renowned American architect John Russell Pope and a massive wing for contemporary art added in 1994. Gertrude's restaurant and The BMA Shop are destinations unto themselves. Visitors enjoy superb regional cuisine from celebrity chef John Shields while overlooking the scenic sculpture gardens or listening to the popular summer jazz concerts. The BMA Shop offers a variety of unique art-inspired gifts, including items from local artists and craftsmen. From a single object in 1914, The Baltimore Museum of Art's outstanding collection today encompasses 90,000 works of art, including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world, as well as masterpieces by Pablo Picasso , Paul Cézanne , and Vincent van Gogh . The BMA is recognized for an impressive collection of contemporary art that includes important examples of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist sculpture, and Pop Art with many late works by Andy Warhol , as well as major acquisitions of more recent work by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker .The Museum also boasts an internationally renowned collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15th century to the present; European masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli , Rembrandt van Rijn , and Sir Anthony van Dyck ; distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; one of the most important African collections in the country; and notable examples of art from the Ancient Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The BMA's Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern and contemporary sculpture on nearly three landscaped acres in the heart of the city. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.artbma.org

'Forrest Gump', Chaplin's "The Kid" to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:58 PM PST WASHINGTON, DC - Bambi, Forrest Gump and Hannibal Lecter have at least one thing in common: Their cinematic adventures were chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the world's largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. The registry began in 1989 under an act of Congress and now includes 575 films. Its aim is not to identify the best movies ever made but to preserve films with artistic, cultural or historical significance. Previous titles chosen range from "The Birth of a Nation" to "National Lampoon's Animal House." A majority of the 25 titles chosen this year for inclusion in the National Film Registry are lesser-known — including silent films, documentaries, avant-garde cinema and even home movies. The Library of Congress announced the selections Tuesday. Films must be at least 10 years old to be considered for the registry. Among the lesser-known titles chosen this year, "A Computer Animated Hand" (1972) by Pixar Animation Studios co-founder Ed Catmull was one of the earliest examples of 3D computer-generated imagery. The one-minute film shows a hand turning, opening and closing.

Beloved Pop Artist James Rizzi, creator of unusual projects worldwide, Dies at Age 61 Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:24 PM PST New York City.- James Rizzi, the world famous pop artist died peacefully in his sleep at his studio in SoHo, New York, the night after Christmas. Rizzi's managers, Art 28 GmbH & Co. KG, based in Stuttgart, Germany, said in a statement on its website that the artist died peacefully at his studio in New York's SoHo district on Monday. They gave no cause of death, but he was known to have had a heart condition. His sudden and unexpected death comes as a shock to family, friends, and collectors alike. James Rizzi became famous for the 3D paper sculptures he invented, the playful and childlike forms and bright colors were to become his artistic trademark.

The Wichita Art Museum Celebrates Printmaking from the Lawrence Lithography Workshop Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:18 PM PST Wichita, Kansas.- The Wichita Art Museum is proud to present "The Lawrence Lithography Workshop: Suites and Portfolios" on view at the museum through February 12th 2012. For more than 30 years artists have come to work at The Lawrence Lithography Workshop with master printer Mike Sims. This exhibition features more than 70 prints including noted local artists such as Peregrine Honig and Roger Shimomura, along with William T. Wiley of California and the late Luis Jimenez of New Mexico. "Suites and Portfolios" is a collaboration between the Belger Arts Center, TLLW, and the Wichita Art Museum. Stephen Gleissner, Chief Curator of Wichita Art Museum, curated many of the works for the exhibition, which will be supplemented with some artwork from the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation collection. A catalog is being produced by the Wichita Art Museum with support from the Belger Cartage Service, Inc.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Opens New Galleries for the Art of Asia Posted: 29 Dec 2011 06:23 PM PST Boston, Massachusetts.- Two new galleries recently opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). One celebrates rare sculptural works from India and neighboring countries (South Asia) and Southeast Asia. The other will showcase rotations of the rich painting traditions of India, Korea, the Himalayas, and Persia beginning with an important collection of Indian works in the exhibition "Gems of Rajput Painting". The two new galleries will reflect a broad range of cultures — from Iran to the west and Indonesia to the east, and from the Himalayas to the north and Sri Lanka to the south — reinforcing the global nature of the MFA's encyclopedic collection. Highlights include important Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain works, such as a rare 5th century painted fragment featuring Buddha's half-brother, Nanda, from the caves in Ajanta, a UNESCO World Heritage site in central India—the only known work to have left Ajanta—and an elaborately carved 11th century sculpture of the elephant-headed Hindu god of good fortune, Ganesh. The new galleries are located on Level 1 near the Museum's Huntington Avenue Entrance.

Landscape by painter Antonio Joli donated by the Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:55 PM PST MADRID.- The Museo del Prado is presenting this new donation in the form of a small exhibition of twelve works shown alongside View of Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony at the Arch of Trajan in Benevento, an architectural landscape executed in 1759 by the set painter and vedutista Antonio Joli (Modena, 1700 – Naples, 1777). The exhibition includes three paintings by the artist from the Museum's collection as well as various landscapes and views by his predecessors such as Panini and Vanvitelli, a group of etchings, two of them by Piranesi, and a Portrait of Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony by Giuseppe Bonito. Together, these works will enable the visiting public to locate Joli's canvas within the collections of the Prado and to appreciate the distinctive nature of this architectural landscape, which reflects the new intellectual attitude with which Grand Tour travellers of the day approached classical monuments. In addition, the presence in the painting of Queen Maria Amalia and an artist engaged in drawing refers to the importance of patronage for the conservation and dissemination of the art of antiquity. The three paintings by Joli that are exhibited alongside this new work by the artist that has recently entered the Museum reveal the artist's wide-ranging skills as a landscape painter, given that they combine the descriptive and topographical veduta with a description of historical events, in addition to offering lively records of official acts. Also dating from 1759, two of these panoramic landscapes depict the departure for Spain of the King and Queen of Naples and Sicily, Charles of Bourbon and Maria Amalia of Saxony, in order to assume the Spanish throne following the death of Fernando VI. The third view depicts the abdication of Charles of Bourbon, future Charles III of Spain, in favour of his son Fernando, a work that represents Joli's only known interior scene. In addition, a group of views and architectural landscapes will allow visitors to appreciate the way that Joli moved away from his artistic predecessors. They include a descriptive and topographical view of the Bay of Chiaia, Naples, by Juan Ruiz; an ideal landscape with ruins by Joli's master Giovanni Paolo Panini, which is animated by figures in Roman dress; the poetic landscape of The Grotto at Posillipo by Gaspar Vanvitelli, which reflects Grand Tour travellers' literary perception of the Italian landscape as described, for example, by Virgil; and the type of Sublime veduta developed by Giovanni Battista Piranesi and represented here by two prints from the Biblioteca Histórica of the Universidad Complutense, one of which depicts the Arch of Trajan at Benevento. In addition, there are two prints from the prestigious Le antichità di Ercolano esposte (1757-1792), a publication sponsored by Charles of Bourbon that disseminated the archaeological items excavated at Herculaneum and Pompeii across Europe. The exhibition also includes a portrait by Giuseppe Bonito of Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony. Educated at the court of Dresden, known as the "Florence of the north" due to its brilliant artistic life, the Queen was renowned for her sophisticated taste in classical antiquities. The new work by Joli that has recently entered the Museum is a depiction of the imposing Arch of Trajan at Benvento surrounded by the ruins of other Roman monuments in that city. It depicts Queen Maria Amalia's visit to these monuments, during which she listened to the explanations of an expert guide while an artist, also guided by a knowledgeable companion, copies various classical remains from life. The painting can be dated to the first decade spent in Naples by Joli, a leading Modena-born painter of theatrical sets and vedute who had worked in theatres in Venice, London and Madrid. Jolil arrived in Naples in the spring of 1759, a few months before the departure of the monarchs, at that point King and Queen of Naples and Sicily, in order to assume the Spanish throne. This work represents the latest in a series of generous donations through which the Fundación Amigos del Prado have contributed to the enrichment of the Prado's collections since 1982, the year that it made its first donation withThe Countess of Santovenia, "The Girl in Pink" by Eduardo Rosales. Other donations have included Portrait of a Dwarf by Juan van der Hamen in 1986; The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen by Bernardo Cavallino in 1988; Aureliano de Beruete y Moret the Younger by Joaquín Sorolla in 1994; and Self-portrait of the Artist in his Studio by Luis Paret y Alcázar in 1996. In addition, between the years 1983 and 1984, the Fundación donated drawings by Mariano Fortuny, Francisco de Goya, Herrera the Elder, José del Castillo and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, as well as the print portfolios The Museo del Prado seen by Twelve Contemporary Spanish Artists in 1990, and Twelve Women Artists in the Museo del Prado in 2007. The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture, it also contains important collections of other types of works. A new, recently opened wing enlarged the display area by about 400 paintings, and it is currently used mainly for temporary expositions. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it is considered to be among the greatest museums of art. The large numbers of works by Velázquez and Francisco de Goya (the artist more extensively represented in the collection), Titian, Rubens and Bosch are among the highlights of the collection. Visit : http://www.museodelprado.es/en/

The Bank Austria Kunstforum Explores the Fernando Botero Phenomenon Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:42 PM PST Vienna.- The Bank Austria Kunstforum is proud to host the first ever comprehensive presentation in Austria of the painted oeuvre by the Columbian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero (b. 1932 in Medellín). "Botero", on view at the gallery until January 15th 2012, includes 70 paintings ranging from the late 1950s until today telescope a view for us into Botero's artistic universe. The artist interprets his portraits, nudes and still life with allusions to his South American origins. They are pictures of seeming cheer and innocuousness, but at the same time are ambivalent and infused with dark, unfathomable cunning. Botero has been astonishing the world now for more than fifty years with his opulent, "blown up" figures, whose aesthetics as it were contradict the precise rendition of form and colour. Botero does nothing other than force art history to question its own canon. The exhibition includes the sensational Abu Ghraib Cycle of 2004/2005 and explores the "phenomenon of Botero", which is today more topical than ever. The exhibition is sectioned into various chapters: Everyday Life in South America, Catholicism, Bull Fight, or paraphrases of the most famous works in the history of art – images in which the sensuousness of life keeps colliding with its transience. "I am the most Columbian among Columbian artists," says Fernando Botero. He makes us understand with incredible consistency what a picture has to achieve according to his ideas: an unambiguous message, a dialogue between artist and observer that is unequivocally understood. Botero's subjects seem to come from another age and are full of melancholy and nostalgia. In this way Botero – exactly like contemporary South American literature and music – is placed entirely in the tradition of his home continent. His figures have the effect of being captured in an anachronism: they exist unconcernedly, they eat, drink, play cards, go for walks, sew, weep, go on picnics; they always seem isolated, plunged into some world deep inside themselves. Botero moreover inserts metaphors of impending threat into his pictures – such as erupting volcanoes or collapsing buildings – which turn the seeming idyll upside down into the negative. The reproach, also repeatedly made by art critics, that Botero deals only with cosy and "appetising" motifs, is not true by any stretch of the imagination, as is proven above all in his Abu Ghraib Cycle. Here the artist wants to bear emotional witness to the shame that rises when watching the terrible scenes of torture perpetrated by US American soldiers. With this cycle Botero brought political events of everyday into his art. Fernando Botero was born the second of three children in Medellín, in the mountains of Colombia. His parents were David Botero and Flora Angulo. David Botero, a salesman who traveled by horseback, died when the boy was age four, and his mother worked as a seamstress. An uncle took a major role in his life. Although isolated from art as presented in museums and other cultural institutes, Botero was influenced by the Baroque style of the colonial churches and then the rich life of the city. In 1944, after Botero attended a Jesuit school, Botero's uncle sent him to a school for matadors for two years. In 1948, at the age of 16, Botero published his first illustrations in the Sunday supplement of the El Colombiano daily paper. He used the money he was paid to attend high school at the Liceo de Marinilla de Antioquia. His first solo show was held at the Galería Leo Matiz in Bogotá, a few months after his arrival. In 1952, Botero travelled with a group of artists to Barcelona, where he stayed briefly before moving on to Madrid. In Madrid, Botero studied at the Academia de San Fernando. In 1952, he traveled to Bogotá, where he had a solo exhibit at the Leo Matiz gallery. Later that year, he won the ninth edition of the Salón de Artistas Colombianos. In 1953, Botero moved to Paris, where he spent most of his time in the Louvre, studying the works there. He lived in Florence, Italy from 1953 to 1954, studying the works of Renaissance masters. In recent decades, he has lived most of the time in Paris, but spends one month a year in his native city of Medellín. He has had more than 50 exhibits in major cities worldwide, and his work commands selling prices in the millions of dollars. While his work includes still-lifes and landscapes, Botero has concentrated on situational portraiture. His paintings and sculptures are united by their proportionally exaggerated, or "fat" figures, as he once referred to them. Botero is an abstract artist in the most fundamental sense, choosing colors, shapes, and proportions based on intuitive aesthetic thinking. Though he spends only one month a year in Colombia, he considers himself the "most Colombian artist living" due to his insulation from the international trends of the art world. In 1980, with the support and backing of the popular Viennese actor Heinz Conrad, the first exhibitions were organised in the former banking hall of the Österreichische Creditanstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (Austrian Bank of Trade and Commerce), premises built in 1914, which was then standing empty. The curtain-raiser was a comprehensive show on Austria's cultural and intellectual history from 1880 to 1980: "Aufbruch in die Moderne" (Starting out into the Modern Age), curated by Rupert Feuchtmüller and organised by Ivo Stanek, which attracted 28,000 visitors. Subsequent exhibitions, such as "Fotografis" – a presentation of the superlative photograph collection of the Länderbank, as it was then called – also proved to be great attractions for the public. The success of these exhibitions was as surprising as it was overwhelming, so that the director of the Länderbank and later Federal Chancellor Franz Vranitzky initiated a resolution to set up a permanent exhibition venue oriented on international standards – the Länderbank Kunstforum was born, and the present director of the Albertina, Klaus Albrecht Schröder, was its first director. In 1988, the Austrian star architect Gustav Peichl was commissioned to design the first reconstruction of the Kunstforum, making it the most modern exhibition building in Austria at the time. The re-opening was in March 1989 with "Egon Schiele und seine Zeit" (Egon Schiele and his Time). This exhibition attracted 186,000 visitors and was successful not only in Vienna; it created a sensation on tour in London, Munich and Wuppertal. The Schiele exhibition in the Kunstforum was the first major debut of the then little known Leopold Collection; it thus functioned as a booster for the Austrian Republic to purchase the collection and set up the present-day Leopoldmuseum. Since then, the objective of the Kunstforum has been very clearly defined: the presentation of international top exhibitions on classical modern art and its forerunners: Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, J. M. W. Turner, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Kazimir Malevich, Kurt Schwitters, Wassily Kandinsky, Tamara de Lempicka and many more. Visit the gallery's website at  ... http://www.bankaustria-kunstforum.at

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents "The Puppet Show" Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:41 PM PST HOUSTON, TX - The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's Brow Foundation Gallery becomes a stage for The Puppet Show, a group exhibition that looks at the imagery of puppets in contemporary art. The Puppet Show concentrates on sculpture, video, and photography and brings together several generations of artists from around the world. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, The Puppet Show is co-curated by Ingrid Schaffner, senior curator at ICA, and Carin Kuoni, director, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York. On view through 12 April, 2009

Annie Leibovitz Retrospective: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 at C/O in Berlin Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST BERLIN, GERMANY - C/O Berlin, International Forum For Visual Dialogues presents the work of photographer Annie Leibovitz in the exhibition A Photographer's Life from February 21st through May 24th, 2009. C/O Berlin presents "A Photographer's Life" as first and only venue in Germany.

Museum Frieder Burda exhibits 'Nature in Contemporary Art' Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST Baden-Baden, Germany - Nature is making its appearance at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden. The new show, that runs through February 08, 2009, is entitled "Nature. Contemporary art from the Altana Art Collection". The exhibition displays a selection of approximately 80 exhibited works by painters such as Georg Baselitz, Herbert Brandl, Franz Gertsch, Roni Horn, Axel Hütte, Alex Katz, Karin Kneffel, Wolfgang Laib, Norbert Tadeusz, Robert Longo and Markus Lüpertz, showing the variety of ways and methods, in which artists of the 20th and 21st century deal with the subject "nature" and man's interference with it.

The Royal Ontario Museum to Host "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008" Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:38 PM PST TORONTO.- The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 from September 26, 2009 to January 3, 2010. The exhibition, which garnered record-breaking attendance in its recent European engagements, showcases 150 portraits, including classic images from Vanity Fair's early period and photographs featured in the magazine since its 1983 relaunch. A collaboration between Vanity Fair and the National Portrait Gallery, London, the exhibition is curated by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, and David Friend, Vanity Fair's Editor of Creative Development. Vanity Fair Portraits is presented by the Bay and will be displayed in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. The ROM will be the only Canadian venue to display Vanity Fair Portraits, and this will be its first showing in eastern North America. Throughout its 95-year history, Vanity Fair magazine has helped define the public persona of some of the most influential individuals in the world. The exhibition brings together a collection of captivating images of cultural icons from the magazine's vintage and modern periods. Sitters range from Claude Monet, Amelia Earheart and Jesse Owens to David Hockney, Arthur Miller and Madonna, as well as legendary Hollywood personalities from Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo, to Demi Moore and Tom Cruise. The magazine's mix of artistic seriousness and popular celebrity means that portraits of writers, artists and leaders of the avant-garde will be displayed alongside images of actors, musicians and athletes, providing a fascinating range of high and popular culture. "We are delighted to bring Vanity Fair Portraits to the ROM. Across its history, the magazine has been a barometer of the cultural mood of the time. This exhibition succeeds in channelling a mixture of the bygone days of Hollywood glamour, as well as newsmakers in art, business, politics and sport - all captured by some of the best portrait photographers in history. We are grateful to the National Portrait Gallery in London and Vanity Fair magazine for the opportunity to show this beautiful exhibition in Canada. It will be the centrepiece in an upcoming series of programming on the nature of celebrity," said William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO.  Vanity Fair Portraits was mounted to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the modern-era magazine and the 95th anniversary of the original magazine's founding. The exhibition is divided into two parts, 1913-36, the magazine's early period, and 1983 to the present. In addition to the portraits, the exhibition will include vintage and modern editions of Vanity Fair magazines. The magazine was launched in 1913 by visionary publisher Condé Nast and editor Frank Crowinshield. From its inception, the magazine strove to engage its cosmopolitan and discerning audience with the vibrant modern culture that sparkled at the beginning of the 20th century. The birth of modernism, the dawning of the Jazz Age, and the 1913 Armory Show that introduced avant-garde art to the American public, all marked the beginning of this sophisticated new era. Vanity Fair magazine became a cultural catalyst, introducing and providing commentary on contemporary artists, personalities and writers. In these early years, Vanity Fair was the showcase for what was to become the most accessible art form in the 20th century, and an alluring array of portraits were commissioned from the greatest photographers of the period. Edward Steichen (1879-1973), the magazine's chief photographer for 13 years (from 1923 to 1936), became America's leading photographer of style, taste and celebrity. Steichen is best remembered for his timeless images of actors, whose likenesses in print and onscreen helped shape popular culture during the first quarter of the 20th century. A selection of his iconic photographs will be shown in the exhibition. From the magazine's beginning, British, Irish and American literary figures were frequently profiled in the magazine along with their writings. Among the vintage portraits shown in the exhibition are iconic images of H.G. Wells, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Rebecca West, Ernest Hemingway and George Bernard Shaw. Vanity Fair Portraits offers a rare opportunity to see some of the definitive portraits of the Jazz Age. Memorable images of men and women of the day are presented, such as Albert Einstein, Collette, Pablo Picasso and English playwright Noel Coward, whose images were captured by legendary photographers such as Martin Hölig, Cecil Beaton, Baron De Meyer, Man Ray and Edward Steichen. In 1936, Vanity Fair suspended publication, laying dormant for almost half a century. In the early 1980s, the vibrant cosmopolitan spirit streaming through the culture of the time persuaded Condé Nast Publications to resurrect the magazine. Once again, the magazine succeeded in immortalizing the newsmakers of the day - individuals of talent, stature and culture who were firmly embedded in the popular culture. And, as in the early period, portrait photography was the graphic bedrock of the magazine. Tina Brown, editor from 1983 to 1992, notably imbued the magazine with a mixture of personality profiles and first-rate reportage. When Brown moved on to the New Yorker in 1992, Graydon Carter took the editorial reigns at Vanity Fair and expanded the magazine's coverage of news and world affairs, and, amongst a variety of new franchises, inaugurated the now annual Hollywood Issue along with the much-celebrated annual Oscar party. The section of the exhibition representing the period 1983 to the present illustrates how the revived monthly followed in the tradition of its first editor, Frank Crowninshield, and commissioned the world's leading portrait photographers, among them Helmut Newton, Nan Goldin, Herb Ritts, Harry Benson, Mario Testino, Bruce Weber and Annie Leibovitz, Vanity Fair's principal photographer since 1983. Leibovitz, the most famous imagemaker of her generation, first came to prominence while she was working as a photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, eventually becoming chief photographer. Her Vanity Fair covers have left us with unforgettable images of prominent figures in American pop culture. Exhibition highlights: From vintage to contemporary prints, Vanity Fair Portraits captures viewers' imagination, taking them on a journey of nearly 100 years of popular culture. The glamour of the golden age of cinema shines in portraits of American actresses Gloria Swanson, Anna May Wong and the Gish sisters; an incandescent portrait of Jean Harlow three years before her death; and beloved icons of the silver screen, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. With a nod to modernity – a significant element of the magazine's inception - the Jazz Age is represented by classic studies of trumpeter Louis Armstrong and entertainer Josephine Baker. The selection also includes unpublished images, including a portrait of 1930s actress Alice White by Florence Vandamm and a study of Weimar era artist George Grosz by Emil Bieber. Bringing the exhibition to the 21st century, we are invited to look into the eyes of firefighters near Ground Zero (2001); a powerful image of actress Hilary Swank running on a beach (2004) and Annie Leibovitz's Hollywood Issue cover (2001), featuring Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Kate Winslet, Chloe Sevigny, Sophia Loren and Penelope Cruz. From the world of music, portraits of Philip Glass (2002) and Liza Minnelli (2002) are juxtaposed with images of Run DMC (2005) and Radiohead (2000). Vanity Fair's iconic photographs continue to make news. Post-1983 cover images include the Reagans dancing (1985), a very pregnant Demi Moore (1991), a formal portrait of President George W. Bush's Afghan War Cabinet (2002) and, most recently, actresses Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley photographed nude (2006). Exclusive to the ROM is a Jonathan Becker portrait of Conrad Black with his wife, Barbara Amiel.

The Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver To Show 'Flesh and Blood' Recent Work by Shary Boyle Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:37 PM PST Vancouver, BC.- The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present "Flesh and Blood", a major touring exhibition of recent work by Canadian artist Shary Boyle. Through drawing, sculpture, painting, writing and performance Boyle creates installations that examine a range of psychological and emotional situations rooted in a fictional world. Her position is at once feminist yet poetic, located within dreamlike states. Tense with troubled emotions, possessing an expressive immediacy and poised between grace and strangeness, her portraits and 'genre scenes' read as allegories of the human condition.

Photographer Awards in Cannes Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:36 PM PST CANNES, FRANCE - Vanessa Winship from United Kingdom has been named Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year, revealed at the VIP Gala Awards ceremony in Cannes. Her entry in the Portraiture category has beaten thousands of submissions to win the esteemed title, accompanied by a $25,000 cash prize.

The Art Institute of Chicago Presents Soviet TASS Posters at Home & Abroad, 1941–1945 Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:35 PM PST Chicago, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to present "Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941–1945" from July 31st through October 23rd. In 1997, 26 tightly wrapped brown paper parcels were discovered deep in a storage area for the Art Institute of Chicago's Department of Prints and Drawings. Their presence was a mystery, their contents a puzzle. As conservators and curators carefully worked to open the envelopes, they were surprised and intrigued to find that they contained 50-year-old monumental posters created by TASS, the Soviet Union's news agency. The idea for a major exhibition began to take shape. Impressively large—between five and ten feet tall—and striking in the vibrancy and texture of the stencil medium, these posters were sent abroad, including to the Art Institute, to serve as international cultural "ambassadors" and to rally allied and neutral nations to the endeavors of the Soviet Union, a partner of the United States and Great Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany.

The Gemeentemuseum Presents Picasso in The Hague Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:34 PM PST THE HAGUE, NL - If anyone deserves to be called the 'artist of the twentieth century', that man is Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973). The exhibition Picasso in The Hague covers his entire career and reveals his untiring urge to experiment. The works on show will include not only oil paintings, but sculpture, drawings, prints and ceramics. In addition, Roberto Otero's photographs of the mediagenic artist will provide an intimate insight into his turbulent life, in which work and private life were invariably closely intertwined. On exhibition through 30 March, 2008. The earliest item in the exhibition is a sketch which Picasso made of his father in 1899, when he was only eighteen. Other early drawings and paintings illustrate his early years in Paris, when he was still in search of an individual style and taking his lead from French painters like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. The 1901 painting 'Café in Montmartre' is a good example of his work during this period. The impressive 1904 etching 'The Frugal Repast' was Picasso's first print and is regarded as marking the end of his famous 'Blue Period'. His Cubist phase will be represented by various masterpieces, such as 'Girl with a Mandolin' (1910), and his Classical Period, when his paintings contained references to classical antiquity, by large compositions like 'Harlequin with Folded Hands' (1923). The period of the Spanish Civil War and World War II are likewise included. The monumental portrait 'Woman with an Artichoke' (1942) and the 'View of Notre Dame' (1945) are fine examples of his output at this time. In his famous 100-print 'Vollard Suite' (1930-1937), to be exhibited in its entirety, Picasso examines the relationship between the artist, the model and the final work of art. Is it the artist or the model who determines the visual image? Or is it the idea of the model that provides the catalyst for the creation of the image? The 'Vollard Suite' is an ode both to one of Picasso's mistresses, Marie Thérèse, and to art itself. Among the sculptures on show will be 'The Crane' (1952), generally regarded as one of his greatest achievements in this field. At the height of his fame, Pablo Picasso suddenly threw himself into ceramics. The exhibition shows how he drew inspiration from classical antiquity, from mythology and from other cultures, and how he created – within a mere decade – an impressive ceramic oeuvre displaying the same themes as his paintings and drawings. The main emphasis in the exhibition is on Picasso's late works. The artist continued to work compulsively right up to his death in 1973 and his undiminished creativity in his final years will be demonstrated not only by large oils like 'Recumbent Nude with Bird' or 'Musketeer and Cupid' (1969), but also by a number of small, intimate pastels and felt pen drawings. This exhibition is being organized in partnership with the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, where an exhibition called Mondrian in Cologne will be held simultaneously. Picasso in The Hague will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue (published by Waanders).   Visit The Gemeentemuseum at :  www.gemeentemuseum.nl/?langId=en

Philly’s Comix Pioneer R. Crumb at UArts Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:33 PM PST Philadelphia, PA - With coarse humor and keen satire, the irreverent and subversive works of Philly guy R. Crumb come home for their first Philadelphia one-person exhibition, My True Inner Self.  One of the most influential artists of the Underground Comix movement, Crumb is often compared to Durer, Brueghel and Goya.  His sexualized, sexist, anarchistic and perverse drawings have influenced generations of artists from Philip Guston, Oyvind Fahlstrom and Mike Kelley to today's wheatpasters and manga artists.  New York's Paul Morris Gallery and private collectors provided the show's works, which range from small sculptures to self portraits to notebooks full of observational sketches, all from the early 1960s through 2000.

The Sondheim Artscape Prize: 2010 Finalists Exhibition at BAM Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:32 PM PST BALTIMORE, MD - And the winner is.. . The Sondheim Artscape Prize: 2010 Finalists exhibition at The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) showcases the seven finalists for the $25,000 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. On view until August 1, 2010, the exhibition features a range of sculpture, film, animation, and multimedia works by Leah Cooper, Ryan Hackett, Matthew Janson, Nate Larson, Christopher LaVoie, Matt Porterfield, and Karen Yasinsky. Admission to the exhibition is free.

Art 40 Basel ~ Extraordinary Quality; Surprisingly Strong Results With 61,000 Attending Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:32 PM PST BASEL.- The 40th edition of Art Basel closed on Sunday, June 14, 2009. This year, the annual reunion of the international artworld attracted 61,000 artists, collectors, curators, and art lovers from around the globe, slightly more than last year and the highest number ever. The participating galleries, art connoisseurs, and the media were unanimous in pronouncing this a strong year for the show. Art 40 Basel demonstrated the health of the high-quality segment within the art market: Collectors rewarded excellent material and strong booth presentations with unexpectedly strong sales throughout the week.

Van Gogh Unusual Painting Now Authenticated at Museum de Fundatie Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:30 PM PST AMSTERDAM.- Today, the most recent painting to be authenticated as a genuine work of art created by Vincent Van Gogh, "Le Blute-Fin Mill", was put on display in the Museum de Fundatie in the central Dutch town of Zwolle, Amsterdam. The 19th century painting of a Paris mill was declared an original 25 years after the death of the man who bought it – Dirk Hannema. The painting's owner Dirk Hannema, who was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies in 1895, bought the piece in 1975 in Paris from an antique and art dealer for 5,000 Dutch guilders ($2,700), and then immediately insured it for 16 times more than what he paid. Hannema claimed that he was "absolutely certain" that the work of art was an original, but, because of an earlier claim of having bought a Vermeer in 1937 that was later proven to be a forgery, the buyer's declarations were discredited and went disregarded. Nevertheless Hannema, who was born to a wealthy art-collecting family, and was named art director of the respected Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam in 1921 when he was only 26, never gave up hope that one day his claims would be verified. Since his youth, the brilliant art curator collected high quality pieces by lesser known artists and had a preference for looking for works of masters that were yet to be attributed to them, though not usually with great success as he was mistaken nearly all of the time. His claims included that he owned seven Vermeers and more than one Van Gogh, as well as a few Rembrant's. Now 25 years after is death he seems to embody the famous quote of Marcel Proust…"If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time." Not a stranger to scandal the curator spent two years in jail after the war in 1945, before which during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands he was given responsibility for all the museums in the country. Although arrested and having stood trial for accusations of having aided in the illegal sale of art pieces to the Nazis that once belonged the Koenigs Collection, at that time owned by the port magnate D. G. van Beuningen, Hannema was later released and never formally convicted. "In 1958 Hannema created an institute for his collection and was allowed to live in Nijenhuis Castle in the village of Heino on condition that he allow public access to the works, which included many fine classical and modern pieces. Some were on permanent display in two small buildings on the grounds, and he conducted tours by appointment of his home until his death in 1984," states the Associated Press in their writings of today regarding this historic occasion in the for art-lovers around the world. The AP, further wrote, "The museum had sought once before, in 1993, to have experts authenticate Le Blute-Fin Mill to prepare for an exhibition, Schuurhuis said. But the Amsterdam experts had no time, and the painting went on display as a work that Hannema "claimed" was a Van Gogh." The painting, whose genre is considered unusual for the impressionist, depicts large human figures in a landscape climbing both up and down wooden steps in front of an enormous wooden windmill in Monmartre, Paris. Contrasting Van Gogh's iconic starry sky pieces in rich blues and yellows that he is so well-known for, this painting's sky is not only starless but also cloudless and it is so pale a blue that it seems almost an ivory white, suggesting perhaps that the weather is cold, which could be further established by looking at the barren trees with sparse leaves in tones of ochre, olive green, sienna, and suede grey. The clothing of the ladies, are a rainbow of brusque, yet defined, brush strokes ranging from a rich cranberry, red, and dusty rose, to pale yellows, sea-foam greens and a striking brownish-grey ensemble adorned with a bright red sash and big bow, and the windmill's wooden propeller, depicted from a view of its side, almost evokes thoughts of Don Quijote de la Mancha because of the shape of its wooden propellers. The piece, that shares Van Gogh's style through it's bright colors that are lavishly slathered onto the canvas, was painted in 1886 when the artist was living in Paris and bears the stamp of an art store that he was known to buy materials and pigments from, said Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to the Associated Press during an interview. Vincent Van Gogh painted almost 900 works during his short lifetime before he committed suicide at the age of 37.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:29 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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