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• Museo de Arte de Ponce announces "Treasures of the Collection : The Pre-Raphaelites"
• The Tibor de Nagy Gallery Exhibited New Collages by Poet John Ashbery
• The 17th Annual LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary Opens January 18th
• Chen Wenling in Singapore with "Red Memory" & "China Scene" on Exhibit
• The Kenan Center Presented a Catherine Parker Solo Show
• Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome shows Carsten Höller's Award-winning Project
• Philadelphia Museum of Art hosts 'Rhythms of India ~ The Art of Nandalal Bose'
• Exhibition of Prints by Jacob Lawrence at the Hudson River Museum
• Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park to host Unique Sculpture Exhibition by Jonathan Borofsky
• Tacoma Art Museum opens Speaking Parts: Between Works in the Collection
• "The Fruit of Promise" Exhibition at the Germanisches National Museum
• Big Pink Paintings: Abstract Paintings by Martha Jones on View at VMFA
• Baroque 1620 ~ 1800: Style In The Age of Magnificence at the Victoria & Albert Museum
• The National Academy Museum Reopening Features a Will Barnet Retrospective
• Tacoma Art Museum hosts Luminous Landscapes of Victoria Adams
• Figurative Paintings From the La Caixa Foundation Collection on View
• Lora Schlesinger Gallery presents Adonna Khare ~ By A Thread
• Works In Wood at Crystal Bridges
• Philip Pearlstein retrospective at The Montclair Art Museum
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Museo de Arte de Ponce announces "Treasures of the Collection : The Pre-Raphaelites" Posted: 30 Dec 2011 09:48 PM PST PONCE, PR.- In an unprecedented event for Puerto Rico, on Saturday, February 4, 2012, Museo de Arte de Ponce will host an international symposium titled "Treasures of the Collection in Context: The Pre-Raphaelites in the Museo de Arte de Ponce Collection." From 10 am to 5 pm, renowned specialists in art history and Victorian literature will meet in this south-coast Puerto Rico city to discuss the artists and works contained in the museum's world-famed collection. This conference represents the most important academic event ever held on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Puerto Rico. The symposium is made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Among the scholars specializing in Victorian England expected to take part in the conference are Tim Barringer (Yale University), Sally Huxtable (Northumbria University), Franny Moyle (author and BBC producer), Jason Rosenfeld (Marymount Manhattan College), Alison Smith (Tate Britain), and Madeleine Vala (University of Puerto Rico). Their presentations will be in English, with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish. The speakers promise to throw light on the creative processes of the young artists who founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, their sources of inspiration, and the recurrent themes and subject-matter of the movement, and there will be panels on the artistic and literary exchanges that occurred as a result of the movement's sweeping influence and popularity. Also to be discussed are the curatorial approaches that have been taken in Pre-Raphaelite exhibitions organized since 1980. The remarkable collective of painters and poets that comprised the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood decried the formulaic nature of the art promulgated by the Royal Academy in London, and proposed instead to return to an "honest" art—the sort that existed, in their view, prior to Raphael. And so the Brotherhood's name: the Pre-Raphaelites. Museo de Arte de Ponce's British Collection consists of sixty-six objects dating from 1760 to 1905. Forty of these works are Pre-Raphaelite paintings, drawings, and a photograph. It represents one of the clear strengths among its holdings, and the nucleus of Victorian works in the British Collection has been called one of the most important outside London itself. "This symposium will be a milestone in the Museum's history, as it will offer, for the first time, a broad look at these wonderful works of art outside the context in which they were created," said Agustín Arteaga, the museum's director and chief executive officer, who then added, "Through this international symposium we will be bringing this important group of works to the attention of a broader public and continuing to promote our permanent collection as an object of study and intercultural dialogue." The conference will serve as a preamble to the publication, in the summer of 2012, of a bilingual (English/Spanish) catalog of the Museo de Arte de Ponce's British Collection, which is being co-edited by Cheryl Hartup (the museum's curator-in-chief), Alison Smith, and Sally Anne Huxtable. This collection, which has traveled to the Tate Britain, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Gemeente Museum in The Hague, and the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, among many others, contains such masterpieces as The Sleep of King Arthur in Avalon (1881–1898) by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Flaming June (c. 1895) by Frederic, Lord Leighton. The catalog of the British Collection is planned as the first in a series of volumes on specific areas of the museum's permanent collection, specifically those that solidify its position as an institution of great international prestige. The Museum is offering financial aid for graduate students in Art History or Victorian Literature who wish to take part in the symposium for academic purposes. Those interested in applying for this aid (which will be given on a competitive basis) should send a current curriculum vitae accompanied by a letter of interest explaining how their participation in the symposium is related to the museum's collection, and how it would further their studies and possible or ongoing research. The letter should be addressed to kjelias@museoarteponce.org, and should specify the university where they are studying and their year of study. Deadline for application is January 7, 2012. To complement this academic event, on the evening of February 4, the museum's restaurant Al Sur will offer a prix-fixe menu designed especially for the symposium. Chef Ariel has drawn inspiration from the Romanticism that was a part of the age of the Pre-Raphaelites, and he is making preparations to delight diners with foods known in the culinary world for their relationship to love and passion. And coincidentally, that dizzying passion of the time is at the heart of the BBC-produced mini-series "Desperate Romantics," based on the best-selling novel by one of the symposium's speakers, Franny Moyle.

The Tibor de Nagy Gallery Exhibited New Collages by Poet John Ashbery Posted: 30 Dec 2011 08:30 PM PST New York City.- The Tibor de Nagy Gallery presented an exhibition of new collages by acclaimed poet John Ashbery. This is the gallery's second solo exhibition devoted exclusively to Ashbery's collages, following his hugely successful debut with the gallery in 2008. "John Ashbury: Recent Collages" Ashbery was fascinated in his youth by the collage novels of Max Ernst and the partly collaged Cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque. He started making collages as an undergraduate at Harvard, and has continued the collage process in both his visual and literary creations ever since. Influenced by such collage giants as Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, and more directly, Joe Brainard, Ashbery's work combines equal doses of art historical and contemporary pop culture references. These recent works are more inventive and confidently his own than ever before. Ashbery continues to explore the collage medium, pushing the imagery into increasingly amorphous shapes with unexpected and often humorous juxtapositions, in much the same way that he has consistently pushed the boundaries of poetry.

The 17th Annual LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary Opens January 18th Posted: 30 Dec 2011 07:20 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA.- The 17th Annual LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary will feature the California debut of new works by artists Damien Hirst and photographer David Bailey. Locally accessible for the first time, new works by Hirst include 'The Souls' series of shimmering foil-­‐block butterfly prints and gold foil block skulls 'Death or Glory.' Bailey will exhibit new works of still lives, fashion images, and portraits. Both artists are represented by Paul Stolper Contemporary Art Gallery from London, UK. The LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary will kick off with a high-­‐profile Opening Night Premiere Party on Wednesday, January 18 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Hosted by actor and Art of Elysium supporter David Arquette, proceeds from the Opening Night Premiere Party will enable Preview beneficiaries The Art of Elysium to expand its program to bring arts to critically ill hospitalized children and increase substantially the number of school children who visit the Getty through the J. Paul Getty Museum's Education Department program for Title One School visits. Show dates January 18 - 22.

Chen Wenling in Singapore with "Red Memory" & "China Scene" on Exhibit Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:53 PM PST SINGAPORE.- Ode To Art Contemporary will be holding a solo exhibition for one of China's top ten contemporary sculptors, Chen Wenling , at Art Stage 2012 from 12 – 15 January at the Marina Bay Sands Convention & Exhibition Center (booth D4-05). This exhibition showcases artworks from his two renowned series of sculptures: Red Memory and China Scene. Following a number of prestigious exhibitions, such as Art Basel in Switzerland and the Shanghai Biennale , Chen has been represented by Ode To Art for the last five years. The two main themes of Chen Wenling's sculptures are the manifestations of extreme humanity and immaterial images. His self extreme condition begins from the series of "Red Boy" (Red Memory). It is neither realism nor vanguard sculpture, but the self expression of Chen Wenling himself to the critical state of life. For example, dread, gladness, game and fancy are the basic main motivations of his sculptures. This series of "Red Boy" (Red Memory) conveys his experience in an autobiographic form.

The Kenan Center Presented a Catherine Parker Solo Show Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:52 PM PST Lockport, New York.- The Kenan Center was honored to present a solo exhibit of painter Catherine Parker's works. "Catherine Parker: Resonance"  Parker's intensely pigmented watercolors are inspired by poetry, music and places. An acute observer of her surroundings, Parker revels in small and large occurrences, finding ideas both in the boundlessness of travel, and the intimacy of watching a flower grow on her kitchen windowsill. The artworks featured in the show span a period of creative output encompassing the last two decades. Many new pieces, created especially for this event, will be on view. "The Kenan Center is especially pleased to present Catherine Parker's work," said Susan Przybyl, executive director of the Center. "Aside from being the first exhibit of Catherine's art at the gallery, her show has additional significance; our first gallery exhibit, 45 years ago in 1966, was an exhibition of works by her father, noted American watercolorist Charles Burchfield. We are pleased to be contributing to this ongoing family and artistic legacy."

Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome shows Carsten Höller's Award-winning Project Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:51 PM PST ROME.- Enel Contemporanea entry shown in MACRO's exhibition schedule in the autumn with one of the most important artists today: Carsten Höller, the winner of the 2011 Enel Contemporanea Award. His work Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes will be on view and free to public untill 26th February 2012 at the MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. Enel Contemporanea Award 2011 is the prize promoted by Enel within its "Enel Contemporanea" programme, which calls for the annual production of an original artwork on the theme of energy by international artists. For the past number of years, Enel has focused on contemporary art due to its ability to express and transmit values of innovation, attention to the environment and an openness to the world. Today, these values constitute the three fundamental axes pertaining to the creation of a sustainable future and also reflect the evolution of a company like Enel. In Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes the public will be also able to interact with two moving merry-go-rounds created by the artist. Turning slowly and in opposite directions, the merry-go-rounds allow the public to get on and off easily, as if they were enormous mills or grindstones, where the people, sitting on top, come closer together and move further apart in constant rotation. Around the merry-go-rounds, criss-crossing lines (the "Zöllner Stripes") create a destabilizing effect, deforming spatial perception to provoke a slowed-down vision of reality. Born in Brussels in 1961 (to German parents), Carsten Höller graduated in agricultural sciences with a specialization in plant pathology and a Masters' thesis on olfactory communication between insects, uses art as a cognitive tool in probing objective reality and perception. Disorientation is a key feature in most of his works from the rotating mushrooms suspended from the ceiling of the Prada Foundation in 2000 to the steel Test Site slides in Turbine Hall at London's Tate Modern in 2006, as part of the Unilever Series, to his most recent exhibition, Soma, at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin. Carsten Höller has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in such prestigious international institutions as the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam and the Bregenz Kunsthaus. He represented Sweden at the Venice Biennial 51st International Art Exhibition (with Miriam Bäckström) and has participated in numerous editions of Documenta and the São Paolo Biennial. The New Museum in New York is currently featuring his solo show entitled Carsten Höller: Experience. He lives and works in Stockholm. The 2011 winning artwork was selected by the international jury, which met on the 2nd of June in Venice at the 54th International Art Exhibition, of which Enel was the main sponsor. The jury chose the laureate among 3 internationally recognized artists—Carsten Höller (Germany), Bruce Mau (Canada) and Paola Pivi (Italy)—invited to participate in the competition by the Artistic Director of the Award, Francesco Bonami. The jury, presided by Gianluca Comin, Enel's Group Director of External Relations, was made up of representatives of some of the most prestigious international arts institutions: Joseph Backstein (Curator of the Moscow Art Biennial), Luca Massimo Barbero (Associate Curator Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice), Iwona Blazwick (Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London), Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director of the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan), Ivo Mesquita (Chief Curator of the Sao Paolo National Gallery), Jack Persekian (Director of the Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem). Previous Enel Contemporanea editions have featured the works of eight international artists: in 2010 the Dutch duo Bik Van der Pol's "Butterfly House" inaugurated the new MACRO wing by Odile Decq. Enel Contemporanea previously presented the American artist Doug Aitken and Jeffrey Inaba, the French-Brasilian assume vivid astro focus, the Italian A12 group and Patrick Tuttofuoco, the Danish Jeppe Hein and the British Angela Bulloch.

Philadelphia Museum of Art hosts 'Rhythms of India ~ The Art of Nandalal Bose' Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:41 PM PST Philadelphia, PA - The first traveling exhibition outside Asia to highlight the works of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) will make its only East Coast stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this summer. Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (June 27 – Sept. 1, 2008) includes nearly 100 of the artist's finest paintings in a variety of styles and media.  Considered the father of modern art in India, Bose chronicled and — through his art —contributed to India's emergence from British colonial rule and transition to an independent nation in 1947. The San Diego Museum of Art organized the exhibition in collaboration with the government of India and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. The paintings on display were selected from nearly 7,000 of the artist's works, all of which are held by the NGMA as the result of a gift to India from the artist's family. The exhibition marks the first time Bose's artworks, considered Indian National Treasures, have been permitted to travel to the United States. "We are delighted to share with our visitors this rare retrospective, examining one of South Asia's great 20th century artists," Anne d'Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said. "Bose's art is inextricably bound to the story of India's national awakening and independence, and at the same time is deeply personal and nuanced. Although he was highly influential to a younger generation of artists, his work represents an area of modern art that has been little understood in the United States, and along with our colleagues in San Diego, we are thrilled to introduce it to a broad public. We are particularly delighted to be able to show Nandalal Bose in the context of this Museum's fine collections of earlier painting and sculpture from India." Throughout his 60-year career, Bose utilized a wide range of styles and techniques. Many of his works depict devotional and literary subjects and natural, tribal and village life scenes in modes that draw from indigenous Indian, Japanese and Chinese sources. The exhibition, organized by Sonya Rhie Quintinilla, the San Diego Museum of Art's Curator of Asian Art, contains six sections that highlight the depth and variety of Bose's work and the different formats he used, from intimate monochrome sketches on postcards or scroll-like wash paintings to brightly colored monumental murals. It also examines his relationships with key figures including Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) — a major political and spiritual leader during the independence movement — and the writer, educator and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Bose's adoption of Japanese and Chinese techniques to illustrate India's heritage, national pride, and spirituality is evident throughout the exhibition. Many of these Asian-inspired paintings evoke scenes from nature. In Darjeeling and Fog (1945), Bose captured the picturesque Bengal village of Darjeeling in the style of a Chinese landscape painting. He borrowed from East Asian artistic traditions again in Floating a Canoe (1947), in which two Eastern Indian tribal fisherman move with the rhythm of the sea. In Dolan Champa (1952), a delicate depiction of a flower common in Bengal, Bose went so far as to write his name vertically in a Chinese-style seal. Bose also depicted traditional Indian religious icons in modern styles, as illustrated in Saraswati (1941), a fresh take on the Indian goddess of knowledge, learning and music.  In Annapurna (1943), he depicts the Hindu god Shiva's wife — whose name translates as "abundance of food" — together with her ascetically emaciated husband, as a comment on the great Bengal famine of the same year, caused by the British stockpiling rice for World War II military rations.  In Sati (recreated in 1943 from a prize-winning work he did as a student in 1907), Bose reveals one of Siva's other wives in a moment of supreme devotion. He painted it in a style reflecting the delicacy of Indian Mughal "miniatures" while using a Japanese-inspired wash technique. Visitors to a simultaneous exhibition, Multiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005, can see more than 25 drawings, prints and watercolor paintings created by Bose's contemporaries and successors. Multiple Modernities (on view in the Museum's second floor Gallery 227 from June 14 – Dec. 7, 2008) reveals the broad range of artistic sources, traditions and experiments in visual culture that emerged before and after Indian independence. In conjunction with the exhibition, the San Diego Museum of Art has published a 304-page catalogue with nearly 100 color plates, along with essays by a renowned and international group of art historians, historians and contemporary Indian artists. About Nandalal Bose India's changing political climate influenced Bose's life and art greatly. When Bose was born in 1882, Britain had ruled India for nearly 25 years, and anti-British sentiment was at an all-time high. Indian artistic traditions had been pushed aside by rapid westernization and mass production, and most artists were forced to work in either European or photographic modes. As a child, Bose exhibited an extraordinary facility for drawing, and in 1905, he enrolled in Calcutta's Government School of Art to study with the modern master Abanindranath Tagore. At the outset of his career, Bose worked closely with Abanindranath and his visionary uncle, the writer and educator Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), on a cultural regeneration movement sometimes known as the "Bengal Renaissance." Bose studied earlier Indian art, including Mughal "miniature" painting and the 5th-century Buddhist murals at Ajanta. In 1919, Rabindranath selected him as the first director of art at Visva-Bharati University.  The Nobel laureate (1913) had founded this experimental institution at Santiniketan in rural Bengal in order to foster traditional Indian teaching methods instead of British-style education. There, Bose developed his interest in indigenous Indian art and village craft traditions — passions he continued to cultivate throughout his life. After Bose retired from teaching in 1951, he produced highly personal monochromatic ink paintings that pare his home landscape to a few essential lines. In his years as an art instructor, his openness to various styles and techniques made his students feel free to work in whichever medium best suited their talents. Many of his students became major names in Indian contemporary art, and their works are also represented in the exhibition. About the Collection of Indian and Himalayan Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art houses one of the finest collections of South Asian art in the United States, including the spectacular Pillared Temple Hall (16th century) from Southern India; paintings and sculptures from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet; an important group of textiles; and a variety of decorative arts. Works from the Indian and Himalayan Art Collections are displayed in a series of galleries (224, 227, 229–232) on the second floor. The William P. Wood Gallery hosts changing collection exhibitions primarily devoted to 16th- through 20th-century art from India. Gallery 232 presents art from the Himalayan region, including Buddhist and Hindu paintings, metal images, and ritual implements. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States, showcasing more than 2,000 years of exceptional human creativity in masterpieces of painting, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and architectural settings from Europe, Asia and the Americas. The striking neoclassical building stands on a nine-acre site above the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and houses more than 200 galleries. The Museum offers a wide variety of enriching activities, including programs for children and families, lectures, concerts and films. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call (215) 763-8100, or visit the Museum's website at www.philamuseum.org

Exhibition of Prints by Jacob Lawrence at the Hudson River Museum Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:40 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Jacob Lawrence, born in 1917, became one of the most important African American artists of the twentieth century, renowned for his paintings of African Americans and black people of other lands who struggled for freedom. Jacob Lawrence Prints, 1963 – 2000, at the Hudson River Museum through June 6, 2010, include 81 of Lawrence's brilliantly-colored individual prints as well as three series of prints that show his versatility as an artist and storyteller. The Legend of John Brown series depicts a deeply religious and passionately anti-slavery John Brown, who felt called to violent insurrection to dismantle the institution of slavery in the United States; the Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis series is based on Lawrence's memories of the Baptist ministers of his youth, whose sermons contained stories of Creation; and the series on Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture focuses on the Haitian slave who became the commander of the revolutionary army that fought France and England for Haiti's freedom.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park to host Unique Sculpture Exhibition by Jonathan Borofsky Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:39 PM PST   GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, one of the nation's most significant sculpture and botanic experiences, will host an upcoming exhibition by celebrated American sculptor Jonathan Borofsky. On display January 30 through May 10, 2009, it will be the first of only two exhibitions for Borofsky this year. Borofsky describes his work as being connected through "the search for human understanding – symbols that give us a feeling of connection to each other."

Tacoma Art Museum opens Speaking Parts: Between Works in the Collection Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:38 PM PST TACOMA, WA - Tacoma Art Museum's new exhibition seeks to answer the question, "How do museums decide which works of art to add to the permanent collection?" Speaking Parts: Conversations between Works in the Collection is organized around Northwest artist Dennis Evans' mixed-media construction Writing Lessons with every other artwork in the gallery—paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, or jewelry—relating back to it. Speaking Parts is on view through November 2010.

"The Fruit of Promise" Exhibition at the Germanisches National Museum Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:37 PM PST NUREMBERG.- Bitter oranges and lemons are found in portraits since the 15th century. Varied meanings are tied up with the fruits. In the Baroque age, it was popular to symbolize the descent of a portrait subject from the Dutch ruling dynasty of Orange by a small fruit-bearing orange tree. Often a citrus fruit represented the social or moral status of the portrait subjects. But citrus fruits could also point to personal botanical preferences and to dream destinations in Southern climes. On exhibition at the Germanisches National Museum through 11 September. Time and again citrus fruits were also associated with the subject of wedding, marriage and love. This traces back to the golden apples of the Hesperides which already in the classical myths were a wedding gift and a beauty prize. Religion: Adam's Apple Since time immemorial the citron has been playing an important part in the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, in which the gathering in of the harvest is celebrated for a week in fall. To this day it is used in the morning prayer, together with the festal bouquet of purple willow, myrtle and palm. The citron, called "etrog" in the Talmud, is of highly symbolic value in the Jewish faith. As the fruit of the biblical 'goodly tree', it was equated with the fruit of the tree of knowledge, of which Adam and Eve ate. At the same time, the etrog symbolizes the Jewish hope of paradise. Customs: Illness and Death In German-speaking Europe, lemons and bitter oranges played an important part in various customs surrounding illness, death and funeral. The earliest known depiction of a deceased with a citrus fruit in his hand is to be found on the 1247/48 tomb of Count Henry of Sayn and his daughter. The citrus fruit symbolizes the hope of resurrection and eternal life. In addition, lemons in particular served as get-well gifts for sick people, due to their medicinal properties. Still Lifes: Feast for the Eyes and Sensuous Delight Around 1600, still lifes developed in Italy and the Netherlands as a distinct genre from religious painting. Citrus fruits played an important part in them from the outset, which is attributable, apart from the fruits' exoticism and value, to their importance as a Marian symbol. This religious interpretation manifests itself in the simply composed Spanish fruit still lifes until the 17th century. However, the botanically exact documentation of the various citrus varieties was also a significant stimulus for their depiction, primarily in the Italian still lifes. In the 17th century, the charging of the still lifes with inner meaning as well as the virtuosic composition of selected objects and citrus fruits was brought to a climax by the Dutch. In their paintings citrus fruits can be interpreted as an exhortation to moderation in the midst of portrayed luxury. At the same time the bright citrus fruits with their pitted skins and the transparently shimmering pulp provided an opportunity to the artists to bear witness to their skills. Insects, dew drops and traces of fruit decay added a theme of temporality to the still lifes and heightened the virtuosity by yet another element. Botany: Artifact and Miracle of Nature For centuries well-to-do garden lovers and patricians in these climes have collected and enjoyed citruses. The scent of the delicate flowers, the bright colors of the fruit and the bitter-sweet taste of their juice made them something special. In the Middle Ages they had already found their way into many areas of life in Central Europe. They were coveted as seasoning and as remedies, for the strange and exotic was deemed particularly efficacious. Citrus Trade: Golden Apples Traveling Some citrus varieties like sour lemons and thick-skinned citrons have been known to the Western world since antiquity. However, it is uncertain when trading with these and other citrus fruits began in Central Europe. Not until around 1400 is there increased evidence of goods traffic along Central European long-distance trade routes involving these exotic fruits. In the 19th century the worldwide cultivation of citrus fruits goes hand in hand with their growing consumption in broader levels of the population, both as fresh fruit and processed into lemonade. The two world wars of the 20th century mark a deep break here, too: In post-war Germany fresh oranges became a rarity again, of which we are reminded by their presence on German Christmas plates even today. Table Culture: Culinary Art and Table Decoration Citruses adorn the festive table in Italy and Spain as early as the beginning of the Renaissance.They are reproduced initially in faience, later in silver, porcelain and glass. Often silver or porcelain lemons were also used as jar knobs. In addition, porcelain figures decorated the tables of upper-class parties. Among the best-known rococo figures are the reproductions of Paris street vendors, which, known as the Cris de Paris series, originate around 1744. Here, too, the lemon vendor or 'lemon monger' is to be found. Orangeries: Conceived Space From the 16th century on, citruses were transported across the Alps to the North in increasing numbers. In central Europe, the valuable plants developed into important mobile elements of decoration in the French formal garden in summer. To overwinter the sensitive tub plants, bitter orange houses and orangeries, which became a permanent feature of princely palace grounds, were built. Linked to the orangery was the ideal of classical antiquity and of the mythical Garden of the Hesperides where trees bearing golden apples flourish. Treatises on architecture and gardens, especially between 1650 and 1750, focus on orangery culture and the architectural development of orangeries. The era of great representative works in the 1st half of the 18th century begins with Johann Friedrich Nette and Matthias Diesel and reaches its climax and end with Salomon Kleiner's copperplate prints. Apart from the etrog, the Adam's apple is another citrus fruit that since the late Middle Ages has been identified as the paradisiacal fruit of the tree of knowledge. In the Ghent Altarpiece, Eve is portrayed for the first time with one such Adam's apple in her hand. Especially in devotional pictures of Mary and the infant Jesus the Adam's apple becomes a frequently used symbol of the overcoming of the Fall by Mary, the new Eve, and Jesus, the new Adam.  Johann Christoph Volkamer and His Work on the Hesperides Citrus fruits came into fashion in the Baroque age. Hardly another fruit has since been given as much attention as the evergreen, simultaneously blossoming and fruit-bearing plants on which especially the so-called Hesperides literature focuses. In the early 18th century the Nuremberg merchant Johann Christoph Volkamer created the two-volume standard work on the culture of citrus fruits, still accepted today: "Nürnbergische Hesperiden" ("Nuremberg Hesperides") and their "Continuation". His etchings were created based on his own observations of the fruits that Volkamer raised in great numbers in his Nuremberg garden and received from other garden owners at home and abroad. Each folio combines the life-size rendering of a fruit with a topographical view, which lends the work its unique charm. The first volume shows views of Nuremberg Patricians' and burghers' gardens; the second, the villas of Veneto. A third volume of the "Nürnbergische Hesperides" depicting citrus fruits above villas of the Bolognese nobility does not get beyond engraver's copies and proofs. They are showcased in this exhibition for the first time.

Big Pink Paintings: Abstract Paintings by Martha Jones on View at VMFA Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:36 PM PST RICHMOND, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) presents Big Pink Paintings: Abstract Paintings 2008-11 by Martha Jones is on view July 16, 2011 through November 13, 2011. This exhibition of recent works by Martha Jones features oil paintings based on a consistent set of elements that call on the viewer to think about issues of color, scale, and abstraction within an artistic tradition.

Baroque 1620 ~ 1800: Style In The Age of Magnificence at the Victoria & Albert Museum Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:35 PM PST LONDON - The magnificence and splendour of Baroque, one of the most opulent styles of the 17th and 18th centuries, is the subject of the V&A's spring exhibition. The exhibition will reflect the complexity and grandeur of the Baroque style, from the Rome of Borromini and Bernini to the magnificence of Louis XIV's Versailles and the lavishness of Baroque theatre and performance. On display will be religious paintings by Rubens and Tiepolo while silver furniture, portraits, sculpture, a regal bed and court tapestries will conjure up the rooms of a Baroque palace. The exhibition will be the first to examine all the elements of the Baroque style and will show how, as European power spread, Baroque style reached other parts of the world, captured in objects such as a gilded Mexican altarpiece.

The National Academy Museum Reopening Features a Will Barnet Retrospective Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:34 PM PST New York City.- The National Academy Museum reopens to the public after major refurbishment on September 16th. Amongst an array of new exhibitions, the museum will be showing the first New York retrospective of Will Barnet's work. "Will Barnet at 100" will explore the dialogue between figuration and abstraction that has defined Barnet's remarkable 80-year career. A painter, printmaker and teacher who has worked largely outside the various schools of Modernism, Barnet has made significant and unique contributions to American art in the realms of both abstraction and figuration. Will Barnet at 100 will feature approximately 45 works from private and museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Montclair Art Museum, and the Neuberger Museum of Art. "Will Barnet at 100" will be on view at the museum from September 16th through December 31st. Born in 1911 in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet knew by the age of ten that he wanted to be an artist. As a student he studied with Philip Leslie Hale at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and viewed first-hand John Singer Sargent at work on the murals of the Boston Public Library. In 1930 Barnet studied at the Art Students League of New York, with Stuart Davis, beginning his long association with the school. Here he concentrated on painting as well as printmaking, and in 1936 he became the official printer for the Art Students League. There, he later instructed students in the graphic arts at the school and taught alongside the likes of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Robert Beverly Hale and Richard Pousette-Dart. Barnet continued his love of teaching with positions at the Cooper Union, at Yale University, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Barnet's works, while remaining universal, reference his own personal history complete with images of his wife, his daughter and their family pets. As James Thomas Flexner wrote, Barnet's work "makes us experience the interplay between the personal and the universal." While remaining representational, the simple elegance of the figures and their flat surfaces reflect his exploration with abstraction. He was a key figure in the New York movement called Indian Space Painting, artists who based their abstract and semi-abstract work on Native American art. For many years he pursued abstraction in painting, then a fashionable trend in the USA. His later work returned to figurative painting. He is probably best known for his enigmatic portraits of family, made from the 1970s onwards, notable the Silent Seasons series. However, his earlier works maintain an edginess and brooding contemplation that is even more remarkable when compared with the more placid and pretty works which followed his second marriage. His works have entered virtually every major public collection in the United States, including, the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has been the subject of over eighty solo exhibitions held at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design Museum, the National Museum of American Art, Montclair Art Museum,and the Boca Raton Museum of Art among others. Barnet has been the recipient of numerous awards including the first Artist's Lifetime Achievement Award Medal given on the occasion of the National Academy of Design's 175th anniversary, the College Art Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art's Lippincott Prize, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters' Childe Hassam Prize. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Design, The Century Association, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Barnet has defined an artistic career that, in the words of Robert Doty, "has always gone beyond the limitations of modern art because his work affirms a faith in life." Founded in 1825, the National Academy is the only institution of its kind that integrates a museum, art school, and association of artists and architects dedicated to creating and preserving a living history of American Art. Modeled after the Royal Academy in London, the National Academy was founded with the simple yet powerful mission to "promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition." For the very first time in this country, an arts institution was conceived with artists and architects at its core. Today, with its museum, art school, and association of artists and architects – the National Academicians – the Academy sees its original mission realized through a contemporary lens. It is a continually evolving testament to the transformative power of art, an institution that sheds light on over 7,000 great works, a thriving forum for education, intergenerational dialogue and debate, and a source of vibrant exhibitions. The National Academy is an organization where tradition is celebrated and new visionaries embraced, connecting the past, present, and future of American art. Funded by generous bequests from Eleanor D. Popper, a former student of the School, and author Geoffrey Wagner in memory of his wife, Colleen Browning Wagner, an American realist painter and National Academician (NA), the National Academy's newly renovated spaces open September 2011. The renovation will revitalize the Academy's entrance on Fifth Avenue, include new student and faculty galleries, enhance the second and fourth floor galleries and expand the public assembly space. Visit the academy's website at ... http://www.nationalacademy.org

Tacoma Art Museum hosts Luminous Landscapes of Victoria Adams Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:33 PM PST TACOMA, WA.- Somewhere between the soothing and the sublime, the work of landscape artist Victoria Adams offers a respite from our busy lives. Tacoma Art Museum is proud to present Where Sky Meets Earth: The Luminous Landscapes of Victoria Adams. A local artist living on Vashon Island, Adams paints rich, panoramic views of sky and land, untouched and untrammeled by man.  On view through 3 October, 2010.Victoria Adams will visit Tacoma Art Museum throughout the summer with lectures, workshops, book signings and more.

Figurative Paintings From the La Caixa Foundation Collection on View Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:33 PM PST BARCELONA.- The La Caixa Foundation has cleaned the dust from its contemporary art collection, which was started in 1985, to show at CaixaForum in Barcelona the revitalization the painting experienced in the 1980s from the hand of artists such as Miquel Barceló and Ferran García Sevilla. The exhibition "Figurations" comprises 12 large works of art, owned by the private entity, many of which had never before been seen in Barcelona or only in the exhibition "26 Painters, 13 Critics: Panorama of Young Spanish Painting" that was organized in 1982. For "Figurations", which will remain on view through September 27, the most expressionist was selected, and not only from Spanish artists: Anselm Kiefer, with his Dionysius the Aeropagite - Hierarchy of Angels (1984-1986) Italian Enzo Cucchi, with a remembrance of Arthur Rimbaud in exile, and American Julian Schnabel, with The Quixote Meets Corleone (1983), are some of them.

Lora Schlesinger Gallery presents Adonna Khare ~ By A Thread Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:32 PM PST   Santa Monica, CA - Lora Schlesinger Gallery is proud to present Adonna Khare, By A Thread.  The show is the artist's second solo exhibition with Lora Schlesinger Gallery.   Adonna Khare creates a world without humans, a natural paradise at first glance, but looking closer reveals a more entangled kingdom. The animals in her drawings are bound together and connected by thin ropelike threads and pulleys.  Many endure heavy burdens, such as entire castles.  On exhibition 5 April through 10 may, 2008.

Works In Wood at Crystal Bridges Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Two striking portraits in wood by female artists – one a rising star, the other an icon of the 1960s art scene – are the most recent works announced by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Room (2007-08) by Alison Elizabeth Taylor is a life-size architectural portrait created using the craft of marquetry, or inlaying sections of wood on a flat surface to form an image. Portrait of Martha Graham (1977) by Marisol, one of the few female artists to be associated with the Pop art movement, is a wood, plaster, oil and graphite rendering of the woman who pioneered modern dance in America. Both works are examples of female artists taking on art forms traditionally created by males. "These two artists are a couple of generations apart, but they both work on a large scale, with strenuous techniques and materials: Marisol with her heavy, chopped woodworks and Alison Elizabeth Taylor with marquetry, an exquisite craft perfected by male artisans during the Renaissance," said Don Bacigalupi, executive director of the Museum.

Philip Pearlstein retrospective at The Montclair Art Museum Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:30 PM PST   Montclair, NJ - This exhibition, featuring 40 works by artist Philip Pearlstein, is the first retrospective in 25 years, since his 1983 survey at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Montclair Art Museum's exhibition includes paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints that cover Pearlstein's art from 1940 through 2008. On exhibition through February 1, 2009. 'Philip Pearlstein: Objectifications'  displays 40 works, including Pearlstein's first, award-winning high school work, Merry-Go-Round; his expressionist works of the 1950s; his signature, post-1961 female and male studio nudes; lesser-known landscapes and cityscapes; and a selection of his portraits. Among these works is an elaborate object still-life assemblage that was used in the most recent painting, Two Models and Four Whirly – Gigs, as well as three of his nude figurative works that depict his favorite model of recent years, Kilolo Kumanyika, a resident of East Orange, New Jersey. Philip Pearlstein is among the most important and innovative American realist painters to have emerged in the last 50 years. His objectified compositions using nude human figures revitalized realism as they challenged precepts of artistic modernism and subject matter. His breakthrough was based on his firm commitment to painting from direct observation. Pearlstein, born in 1924, was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). During War World II, he toured Europe serving in the US Army, afterward residing back home in Pittsburgh. In 1949, he moved from Pittsburgh to New York City, which remains his home today. While living in New York City he maintained a second residence on Fire Island, New York, from the 1980s through 1998, and since 1998 in Highland Lakes, New Jersey. Pearlstein has also had a concomitant academic career, starting in 1955 with his master's degree from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and teaching appointments at Pratt Institute, Yale University, and Brooklyn College. He received a Fulbright Hayes Fellowship in 1958 and a National Endowment for the Arts Artists Fellowship in 1968. He has served as president of the National Academy of Arts and Letters, where he has been a member for more than 25 years. He has also earned several honorary degrees and lifetime achievement awards. Pearlstein has written and lectured extensively on his own art, as well as other art. He has assembled an extensive art library, traveled widely, and, with his wife, Dorothy, has collected a distinguished array of artifacts and decorative arts ranging from antiquities to Americana. Since 1955 his work has been widely written about by scholars and critics, featured in over 135 solo and 300 group exhibitions, and included in nearly 70 public collections. The exhibition was organized by Patterson Sims, Director of the Montclair Art Museum since 2001. It will be accompanied by a publication that will include a compendium of writings by the artist and an essay on Pearlstein with individual commentaries on the works in the show by Sims.  Visit : www.montclairartmuseum.org

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 30 Dec 2011 06:29 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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