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

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• The Flint Institute of Arts Presents Award Winning Illustrator Jerry Pinkney
• The Savannah College of Art and Design Presented Joanna Wezyk's Paintings
• Jasper Johns featured in Foundation De 11 Lijnen Exhibition in Belguim
• The Hepworth Wakefield Art Display opens at Harvey Nichols in Leeds
• Gemeentemuseum Den Haag Exhibits Loan from Centre Pompidou in Paris
• Watchmaking in Geneva: Treasures of gold & enamel at the Musée d'art et d'histoire
• The Morris Museum of Art Highlights Works by Southern Photographers
• The Leopold Museum Shows Works from Rudolf Leopold's Private Collection
• Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opens "Target Practice ~ Painting Under Attack 1949-78"
• The Metropolitan Museum Announces Highest Attendance in 40 Years ~ 5.68 Million Visitors
• Frye Art Museum New Exhibition Celebrates Its Founding Collection
• Louise Bourgeois's Sculpture "Maman" Coming To Fondation Beyeler Park
• Colgate's Picker Art Gallery Exhibitions ~ Treasures from the Permanent Collection
• Silences ~ by Marin Karmitz at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCS)
• Library of Congress Acquires Charles Randall Dean Print Collection
• Provocative and Colorful Pop Artist Takashi Murakami Opens in Valencia
• The Deichtorhallen Shows Works from the Collections of Thomas Olbricht & Harald Falckenberg
• The National Gallery and Tate Receive 18 Masterpieces from the Hon.Simon Sainsbury
• Sotheby's Presents Monumental Sculptures in the Grounds of Chatsworth House
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Flint Institute of Arts Presents Award Winning Illustrator Jerry Pinkney Posted: 01 Jan 2012 09:32 PM PST Flint, Michigan - The Flint Institute of Arts is proud to present "Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney", on view at the institute from January 14th through April 15th. Jerry Pinkney received the 2010 Caldecott Medal for his acclaimed children's picture book "The Lion & the Mouse", this exhibition, organised by the Norman Rockwell Museum is the first major overview of his extraordinary and influential career, which spans 50 years. "Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney" presents an overview of the artist's long and varied career as a designer and illustrator. The exhibition touches on such deeply felt personal and cultural themes as the African-American experience; the wonders of classic literature; and the wisdom in well-loved folk tales. A belief in the ability of images to speak about and to humanity is at the artist's core, and the works featured in the exhibition celebrate both small yet extraordinary moments, as well as significant historical events, reflecting the transformative power of visual storytelling in our lives. More than 140 of Mr. Pinkney's luminous watercolors illustrations will be on full display, and include work from such classic picture books as "A Patchwork Quilt" (1985), "Home Place" (1990), "John Henry" (1994), "Minty: A Story of a Young Harriet Tubman" (1996), "Black Cowboy, Wild Horses" (1998), "The Little Match Girl" (1999), "Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales" (1999), "The Old African" (2005), "The Lion & the Mouse" (2009), and "Sweethearts of Rhythm" (2009). Illustrated commissions for such clients as music artists, National Geographic, and The African Burial Ground Interpretive Center will also be on view, as well as a collection of the artist's supplies, personal photos, book awards, and video and interactive displays, which further highlight the artist's career and inspirations. "I feel I've been helping to establish a new cultural understanding," says Pinkney. "As I learn about a new subject, I in turn open the door for other to also learn."  A native of Philadelphia, Jerry Pinkney studied at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) where, in 1992 he received the Alumni Award. He has been illustrating children's books since 1964, and has produced illustrations for over one hundred titles. He has been the recipient of a Caldecott Medal for the recent book The Lion & The Mouse, as well as five Caldecott Honor Medals, five Coretta Scott King Awards, four Coretta Scott King Honor Awards, and many other accolades. His books have been translated into 16 languages, and published in 14 different countries. He received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University in 2003, and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in 2010. Pinkney was a United States nominee for the 1997 Hans Christian Andersen Illustration Medal, and has been awarded four gold medals, four silver medals, the Hamilton King Award, five "New York Times" Ten Best Illustrated Books awards, and in 2006 the Original Art's Lifetime Achievement Award from The Society of Illustrators, New York, New York. In addition to his work in children's books, the artist has illustrated for a wide variety of clients, including the United States Postal Service, National Park Service, and National Geographic. Mr. Pinkney was appointed to serve on the United States Postal Services Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee (1982-1992), and in 2001 was invited by First Lady Laura Bush to illustrate and design the White House Christmas Program. He has held professorships teaching art at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware; and the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. In 2003, Pinkney was appointed to the National Council of the Arts (2003-2009). His art can be found in the permanent collections at the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Delaware Art Museum and the Brandywine River Art Museum. A current trustee for the Katonah Museum of Art, the artist also served on the board of trustees of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Pinkney has had over 30 one-man retrospectives at venues ranging from the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, to the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California. He has also exhibited in over one hundred group shows in the USA, Japan, Russia, Italy, Taiwan and Jamaica. The artist lives with his wife, author Gloria Jean, in Westchester County, New York. The Flint Institute of Arts has served an important role in the life of the Flint community since its founding in 1928 and today, continues to play a major role in the growth and revitalization of the city of Flint. Through its exhibitions, interpretive programs, film screenings, concerts, lectures, family events and educational outreach programs, the FIA serves more than 120,000 adults and children annually from all over southeast Michigan. The selection and presentation of exhibitions and related programming is at the heart of the FIA's mission which is to advance the understanding and appreciation of art for all through collections, exhibitions, and educational programs. The FIA has been accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1972 and in 2002 the FIA's collection was designated a National Treasure by the Presidents Committee on the Arts. In 2007, the FIA received the Governor's Award for Arts and Cultural Organization. The FIA's 150,000 sq. ft. facility is a unique space with more than 25,000 sq. ft. of gallery space, a large light-filled and welcoming entrance and lobby area with visitor amenities including a café and gift shop, an Art School, a library, a theater ideal for presentations, films, and lectures, a video gallery, and a large "great hall," seating more than 200 for events of all kinds. The FIA maintains a collection of over 8,000 objects, sustains a membership of 3,200, registers 1,700 students from pre-school age to senior citizens in Museum Art School studio classes, and presents school programs to 25,000 K-12 students annually. The Flint Institute of Arts has assembled outstanding collections of American, European, Native American, African, and Asian art including paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts. Highlights of the collection include: 15th to 18th century English, French, and Italian decorative arts, a rare shaped panel by Peter Paul Rubens, a complete set of 17th century French tapestries; a fine collection of 18th and 19th century paperweights and European glass; American and French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings; Hudson River School paintings; Regional and Great Lakes paintings; Modernist; and, Abstract Expressionist and Photorealist paintings. The collection includes works by renowned artists such as Auguste Renoir, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton, Andrew Wyeth, and Duane Hanson. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.flintarts.org

The Savannah College of Art and Design Presented Joanna Wezyk's Paintings Posted: 01 Jan 2012 08:54 PM PST Lacoste, France. - The Savannah College or Art and Design ( SCAD ) exhibitions department proudly presented "In Wonderland," a solo exhibition featuring new paintings and works on paper by Polish artist Joanna Wezyk . In these deeply hued landscapes, Wezyk weaves fantasy and reality by integrating interpretations of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" characters within the sublimely haunting and painterly landscapes of America's Yellowstone National Park. These inventive scenes evoke a paradox between beauty and danger serving as a universal metaphor for the balance and wonderment of life's struggles, fascinations and curiosities. Joanna M. Wezyk's "In Wonderland" shown at La Galerie Pfriem in Lacoste, France.

Jasper Johns featured in Foundation De 11 Lijnen Exhibition in Belguim Posted: 01 Jan 2012 07:14 PM PST OUDENBURG, BELGIUM - Jasper Johns has been using his own handprint as an element in his paintings, drawings, and prints for close to 50 years. This exhibition presents many of his lithographs and intaglios that demonstrate not only the wide variety of effects he has achieved through this deceptively simple device but his mastery of printmaking techniques. The first time Johns used his hands as a component of a work was in 1962, in four Study for Skin drawings. These were made by the artist covering his face and hands in oil and imprinting them on paper. Since these drawings were studies for a "rolled-out" sculpture of a head, this first manifestation of the artist's hands can be seen as incidental. However, later that year, handprints appeared as focal points in several important paintings, including Diver, Land's End, and Periscope (Hart Crane), as well as in large drawings.

The Hepworth Wakefield Art Display opens at Harvey Nichols in Leeds Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:57 PM PST LEEDS, UK - A new display by The Hepworth Wakefield in partnership with Harvey Nichols Leeds will be available to view until February 2012. The Hepworth Wakefield at Harvey Nichols, is a new temporary display of works by artist Clare Woods and designer Laura Slater. The display at the store's Fourth Floor Café has been devised and supported by Harvey Nichols Leeds in partnership with The Hepworth Wakefield and artists Laura Slater and Clare Woods. Andy Berrington, Display Manager at Harvey Nichols said: "December and January are particularly busy months for us, with over 35,000 shoppers expected to come through our doors each week. By working with The Hepworth Wakefield we can offer our shoppers something a little extra during their visit. We're delighted to be able to get involved and help to showcase cultural talent on our doorstep to our audiences."

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag Exhibits Loan from Centre Pompidou in Paris Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:45 PM PST THE HAGUE.- The prestigious Centre Pompidou in Paris has loaned forty of its top works for a special exhibition in Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. The exhibition includes famous masterpieces by such artists as Kandinsky, Brancusi, Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Giacometti, Léger, Braque and Delaunay. Visitors to the museum this will have a unique opportunity to experience Paris as the dazzling city of modern art in The Hague. In the first half of the 20th century, Paris was an irresistible magnet which attracted up-and-coming artists from all over the world. It was here that modern art history was written. The most progressive artists of the Netherlands were also drawn to this exciting site of renewal and artistic freedom. This autumn the flow has been reversed as the top collection of the Centre Pompidou comes to The Hague, forming the backbone of a major exhibition featuring Paris as the centre of modern art. This exhibition is being complemented by the historical photography exhibition Gard du Nord in The Hague Museum of Photography. On view until 29 January.

Watchmaking in Geneva: Treasures of gold & enamel at the Musée d'art et d'histoire Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:29 PM PST GENEVA.- Sharing the richness and beauty of the watchmaking, enamelware and jewellery collections of the Musée d'art et d'histoire is the objective of the exhibition Watchmaking in Geneva. The Magic of Craftsmanship, Treasures of Gold and Enamel. On view until April 29th 2012, this exhibition puts on display more than a thousand objects and masterpieces from the 16th century to today. It also presents some pieces that can be admired by the public for the first time. To enter the world of the watchmaking, enamelware and jewellery collections of the Musée d'art et d'histoire is to step into a realm of luxury where treasures of perfection are waiting to be discovered: watches, clocks and jewels in addition to enamels and miniatures. Monumental pieces and minuscule specimens of only a few millimeters are revealed as genuine masterpieces where beauty blends with high precision and technical prowess, compelling the viewer's admiration in the face of such know-how.

The Morris Museum of Art Highlights Works by Southern Photographers Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:29 PM PST Augusta, Georgia.- Organized from the Morris Museum of Art's renowned photography collection, "Local Color: Photography in the South" at the Morris. The exhibition containing more than thirty-five photographs dating from the mid-sixties to the present by some of the South's most important photographers, including Dave Anderson, John Baeder, William Christenberry, William Eggleston, the late Janos Enyedi, William Greiner, Birney Imes, Greg Kinney, Jim McGuire, and Meryl Truett, remains on view through January 29, 2012.  "Local Color brings to public view some of the best photographs held by the Morris and underscores the rich range of aesthetic possibilities within a medium that is often thought to be the purview of amateur photographers. The work of these internationally known photographers has been little-seen here in the past, though their reputations are well established," said Kevin Grogan, director of the Morris Museum of Art. "Their subjects range from the commonplace—rural landscapes and near-forgotten small towns—to the surreal. The work in this exhibition explores and celebrates the region and speaks to the significance of the visual artist—in fact, all expressive artists, no matter their medium—to Southern culture."

The Leopold Museum Shows Works from Rudolf Leopold's Private Collection Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:28 PM PST Vienna.- As part of the celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Leopold Museum is proud to present "The Excitement Continues", on view through January 30th 2012. "The Excitement Continues" presents a cross-section of post-1945 Austrian and foreign art, and gives a first-ever comprehensive impression of the contemporary-art holdings from the private collection of Rudolf Leopold, the so-called "Leopold Collection II". The exhibition is rounded out by works that belong to the "Leopold Collection I", which is owned by the museum after having originally been contributed by collector and museum founder Rudolf Leopold. The works in the Leopold Collection II were purchased by Rudolf Leopold after 1994, when the museum collection was founded, and are owned by the Leopold family. The lion's share of this collection, which consists mostly of Austrian art with some foreign works, has rarely – if ever – been presented publicly. Rudolf Leopold's nearly sixty years of collecting saw him concentrate on several areas: paintings and drawings by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl and Alfred Kubin, works by artists active mainly after 1918 such as Albin Egger-Lienz, Herbert Boeckl and Anton Kolig, and finally Austrian art of the 19th century including works by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Friedrich Gauermann, Anton Romako and the Austrian Mood Impressionists. Additionally, Rudolf Leopold also took an enthusiastic interest in Arts-and-Crafts objects ranging from furniture to ceramics, as well as in African and Asian art. It is a hitherto little-known fact that Rudolf Leopold also purchased numerous works by modern and contemporary artists. An initial look at this area of collecting was offered by the exhibition of over one hundred paintings by Otto Muehl in 2010/11 at the Leopold Museum. Rudolf Leopold valued quality and artistic passion not only at a historical distance, but also in the immediacy and language of the present. The collector Rudolf Leopold was never interested in chasing fashions or trends, but rather in the sincerity and seriousness of a type of art which was often regarded by many as being awkward and difficult. Without regard for styles or artistic schools, he repeatedly discovered artists who conformed to the high standards by which he evaluated artistic expression. It was early on, therefore, that Rudolf Leopold saw in the junk-like tube sculptures created by Oswald Oberhuber during the 1950s (which were later to receive high praise from experts) an artistic relevance that was in every measure equal to that of the dignified Hagenauer-School brass works which were likewise created during the 1950s. It was unimportant to Leopold whether or not the realistic passions of Leopold Hauer and Leopold Birstinger dating from the 1950s to the 1980s were in conformance with the modern avant-garde mainstream, nor did he not worry about whether the early material paintings by Adolf Frohner and Hermann Nitsch from the 1960s were actually taken seriously in their shocking radicalism. Thus, it is not surprising that Rudolf Leopold's selection of post-1945 art works is of a strongly subjective character and represents a natural consequence of his specific collector's view. Some artists who have by now come to be considered major representatives of their eras were not admitted to his collection, while from others he purchased entire work groups. It was thus that, during the 1990s, Rudolf Leopold purchased nearly 200 paintings by Otto Muehl. Leopold dedicated a further focus of his collecting to the painter Robert Hammerstiel. Other artists who enjoyed Rudolf Leopold's high esteem include Josef Mikl, August Walla, Robert Zeppel-Sperl, Kurt "Kappa" Kocherscheidt, Elke Krystufek, Robert Kern, Alfred Klinkan and Peter Weibel. Even if the emphasis of the Leopold Collection II is on artists from Austria, the collection also includes works by prominent international artists including Roy Lichtenstein and Mario Merz. The Leopold Museum is a unique and active museum awash with light in the heart of Vienna and the biggest cultural magnet in the MuseumsQuartier. Besides exciting special exhibitions, it not only houses the most substantial and most important collection of Egon Schiele worldwide but also priceless masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, including what is probably most important figurative painting "Death and Life". In no other museum in Vienna one can get so close to the fabled "Fin de siècle Vienna" and witness the birth of Modernity. The collection shows how the art of the Habsburg Empire changed from strict Historicism and romantic impressionism within a few years to the unique "Wiener Moderne" which encompasses Klimt and Schiele as well as Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl, Koloman Moser and many other artists who are all well represented with major works at the Leopold Museum. A further focus of the museum is on the Austrian interwar period, which brought out many important artists like Albin Egger-Lienz, Anton Kolig and Herbert Boeckl and partly points in the direction of the second half of the twentieth century. This is why Austrian artists of the post war generation or exceptional works of the nineteenth century by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Friedrich Gauermann, August von Pettenkofen, Anton Romako, Emil Jakob Schindler, Carl Schuch and others are repeatedly presented. Substantial and amazingly modernly designed into the everyday objects of the Fin de Siècle round up the collection, especially works by Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Dagobert Peche and the founders of the Wiener Werkstätte Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser all of whom can be seen in the museum. And since all the great artists of the Wiener Moderne met on a regular basis in the epochal coffee houses for inspiring exchanges, it goes without saying that the Leopold Museum also has a coffee house. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.leopoldmuseum.org

Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opens "Target Practice ~ Painting Under Attack 1949-78" Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:20 PM PST SEATTLE, WA.-  Organized by the Seattle Art Museum (SAM),Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78 is an international, historical survey of the assaults that painting endured in the years following World War II, documenting why artists felt compelled to shoot, rip, tear, burn, erase, nail, unzip and deconstruct painting in order to usher in a new way of thinking. Target Practice includes works by well-known artists like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, as well as lesser-known peers who were making equally challenging work in Europe, Asia, South America and North America. With more than 70 works of art, including documentary photographs and video, Target Practice introduces a compelling way to appreciate the breakthroughs made by a new generation of artists in the fertile years between 1949 and 1978. Curated by Michael Darling, SAM's Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the exhibition will be on view at SAM from June 25 to September 7, 2009. In the introductory essay to the exhibition catalogue, Darling states, "If the works in Target Practice are any measure, one might say that between 1949 and 1978 painting was not killed off so much as tortured." Many artists began to view painting as a trap, and they devised numerous ways to escape the conventions and break the traditions that had been passed down to them over hundreds of years. In so doing, according to Darling, artists of this generation "would bring painting the closest it had ever come to extinction." Target Practice uses the work of Argentine artist Lucio Fontana as a launching point to explore the many ways in which these "movements" manifest throughout the world. Working in war-torn Italy in 1949, Fontana created Concetto spaziale or Spatial Concept pieces – works on paper mounted on canvas, which he pierced with masses of holes or buchi, reflecting the broken physical environment he observed around him. With his buchi, Fontana had suddenly brought the surface behind the canvas into play in his compositions. The lines between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional were blurred, and many of painting's boundaries were irrevocably shattered. In the years 1949-1978, a new attitude exploded across the art world. In reaction to various feelings of global instability, angst and dissatisfaction, artists from across continents– separately and simultaneously – began to reevaluate the traditional, two-dimensional medium of painting – to the point of the physical and theoretical destruction of the genre. FROM TARGETS TO LAST RITES Literally and figuratively, beginning in about 1949 artists began acutely questioning, dismantling and even destroying paintings and "painting." All of the works in Target Practice were created with a certain degree of self consciousness and intellectualism. Some artists, however, chose to demonstrate their rebellion in acutely physical ways, while others were more directly driven to cerebral concepts. In the mid to late 1950s, Jasper Johns' Target paintings provocatively aligned seeing with shooting, offering up bull's eyes that would typically receive bullets, arrows or some other form of destruction – although no actual shooting took place in his works of this time. Alongside Target Practice's namesake painting, Johns' Target of 1958, is a video documentation of one of French artist Niki de Saint-Phalle's Tirs or shooting paintings from the early 1960s, in which she fired a gun at canvases that "bled" drips of paint from their bullet wounds – taking the idea behind Johns' Targets to their ultimate conclusion. More direct and sometimes violent physical abuse of works of art was taking place elsewhere. Target Practice includes Robert Rauschenberg's Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953), a definitive break from his art historical lineage, which, in fact, is exactly what the title implies. And, as Alberto Burri was ripping, cutting, burning, and reassembling canvases in Italy, Viennese artist Otto Muehl was displaying the mangled remnants of a violent physical attack on a painting in his works from the 1960s and Japanese-American Yoko Ono first exhibited Painting to Hammer a Nail (1961) which invites museum visitors to participate in the work's creation– or destruction, depending on your point of view – offering a hammer and nails to be pounded into a painted wood panel affixed to the wall. By 1978, Warhol takes the physical defamation of painting to the ultimate extreme with his Oxidation Paintings, in which canvases coated with copper metallic paint were urinated on, creating patterns of dribbles and spatters. Jasper Johns took a slightly more measured approach in Canvas (1956), a stretched canvas mounted backwards to another canvas, so only its "skeleton" is visible. Italian Giulio Paolini similarly arranged three stretched canvases, one inside another, with the "front" of the piece facing the wall, in Untitled (1962-63). Roy Lichtenstein's Stretcher Frame – Two Panels (1968) is a traditional painting on canvas, except that the subject of the painting is the unpainted "backs" of two stretched canvases. These iconoclastic works deny everything traditionally presented in painting without losing their reason for being. The artists featured in Target Practice rebelled not only against the studied compositions of representational painting, but also took-on the alleged spontaneity of the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s – and what was seen as an arrogant adherence to the idea of the supremacy of the artist, "the lone genius who was responsible for stirring up the fevered inspirations that took form on the canvas" according to Darling. Gerhard Richter seems to poke fun at the egotistical abandon of the Abstract Expressionists in his Farbtafel (Color Chart) works initiated in 1966. In these paintings, the German artist divided the canvas into a precise grid, filling its squares with a series of solid fields of pleasing color. These are arranged with an "algorithmic" precision that seems to negate the necessity of an artist's hand in the work's final arrangement. It seems, as Darling notes that the Farbtafels' innumerable possible arrangements "might as well be left up to a computer to complete." Target Practice demonstrates, also, ways in which artists began removing the art of painting from gallery walls and inserting elements of time, space, and the body. For instance in 1965, Japanese artist Shigeko Kubota attached a paintbrush to her underwear and spread red paint on paper laid out on a stage in the performance Vagina Painting. Here, an artist is both redefining the constraints of the medium and shockingly mocking its historic domination by males. Austrian Günther Brus melds his own body with the canvas itself in Selbstbemalung (Self-Painting) (1964). He has painted his head the same white as the wall against which he stands and is seen painting a heavy black line up this ambiguous surface – head and wall being treated as one. Target Practice brings together works by artists who took traditional ideas of painting out of the expected studio or gallery context, such as Daniel Buren from France, Hélio Oiticica from Brazil, and Yayoi Kusama from Japan; some who physically deconstructed the elements of a painting, as when Richard Tuttle pinned irregularly-shaped sections of canvas to the gallery wall or Karen Carson "unzipping" her canvases in the 1970s; and still others who blatantly mocked the "mandatory" components of a painting. The latter is exemplified in Target Practice with works such as Robert Rauschenberg's Untitled of 1954, in which the artist has combined all of the parts of a typical painting in a mishmash of wood shards, canvas scraps, masking tape and a smashed paint tube affixed to the surface, and Danish artist Asger Jorn's "détournée" pieces, in which he brazenly painted over more traditional paintings he had collected. Painting's "Last Rites" were possibly declared, and are represented in Target Practice, by works by Americans Lawrence Weiner, Lee Lozano, and others who sought to distance themselves as far as possible from painting, while continuing to use the medium as the key reference point for their own works of art. In Weiner's An Amount of Paint Poured Directly Upon the Floor and Allowed to Dry (1968) the exhibitor is invited to either enact the artist's textual instructions, or present the text as the work of art itself. Lozano's Idea that cannot be drawn, Nov. 16, 1968 is a piece of graph paper with text that describes a "recipe for a painting" that would use transparent paint – thus leading her viewers (or readers) to imagine a work of art that barely exists as a painting at all. Visit the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) at : http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/

The Metropolitan Museum Announces Highest Attendance in 40 Years ~ 5.68 Million Visitors Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:19 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that 5.68 million people visited the Met during the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The number, which includes attendance at The Cloisters museum and gardens, is the highest recorded in 40 years. The total was more than 400,000 greater than in Fiscal Year 2010. "We are delighted by this extraordinary response to our collections and programs, especially in the context of ongoing fiscal challenges faced by both the Museum and the public," said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO.

Frye Art Museum New Exhibition Celebrates Its Founding Collection Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:18 PM PST SEATTLE, WA.- Reflecting its continuing commitment to honor the legacy of Charles and Emma Frye, the Frye Art Museum announced a new exhibition "Tête-à-tête" that opens February 6, 2010. "Tête-à-tête" features nearly one hundred fifty paintings from the Frye Founding Collection, recreating the sumptuous viewing experience enjoyed by visitors to the art gallery in Charles and Emma Frye's Seattle home in the early decades of the twentieth century. Hung floor-to-ceiling in the Museum's largest gallery, the paintings, as well as a rare circa 1880 Oriental carpet, potted silk palms, and the Frye's iconic gossip chairs, capture the atmosphere of the Fryes' salon-style exhibitions, which showcased the artists of the renowned Munich Secession and the "stars" of the preceding Artists' Association, the Munich Künstlergenossenschaft.

Louise Bourgeois's Sculpture "Maman" Coming To Fondation Beyeler Park Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:17 PM PST ZURICH.- Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was one of the most significant and influential artist personalities of our times. She would have celebrated her 100th birthday on December 25, 2011. To mark this occasion, the Fondation Beyeler is mounting an exhibition featuring a concentrated selection from her oeuvre. An advance highlight is the presentation of her renowned and largest spider sculpture Maman (1999) on Bundesplatz in Bern, Bürkliplatz in Zurich, and at a site in Geneva. Subsequently Maman will be on view during the exhibition in the Fondation Beyeler park in Riehen/Basel. Louise Bourgeois's sculpture "Maman" on tour The both fascinating and threatening monumental bronze sculpture of a spider titled Maman, or Mother (927.1 x 891.5 x 1023.6 cm) is key work for the understanding of Bourgeois's art. On the one hand, it represents an homage to her mother, who was employed as a restorer of tapestries in Paris, and hence, much like a spider, incessantly renewed woven fabric. On the other hand, in Bourgeois's eyes the spider was a universal symbol for the unending story of life, whose principle is continual renewal. This is just as comforting as it is threatening, for there is no way to escape this eternal cycle. Thus Bourgeois's Maman represents a magnificent monument to the existence of change. After compelling presentations at the Tate Modern London in (2000/2007) and the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris in (2007-08), at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (since 2001) and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (2001), Maman is on view for the first time in Switzerland. The installation of the gigantic sculpture alone is impressive, and at every site where it was shown it proved to be highly popular, attracting crowds of viewers. The Fondation Beyeler exhibition To mark the artist's 100th birthday, the Fondation Beyeler additionally presents an exhibition of about twenty works, including sculptures from every decade of her career. This outstanding selection addresses central themes of her oeuvre, such as her involvement with other artists, her transmutations of biographical events, and her translation of emotions into objects of art. This holds especially for the legendary Cells, represented in the show by Passage Dangereux (1997), the largest-scale Cell Bourgeois ever created. In addition to series of works from major museums and private collections, such as The Insomnia Drawings (1994-95), the exhibition includes more recent works – including the late cycle A l'infini (2008) – which have never before been on public view. These are juxtaposed to groups of works by artists from the Beyeler Collection whom she knew personally and with whom she had a special relationship, such as Fernand Léger, Francis Bacon, and Alberto Giacometti. Visit the Fondation Beyeler at : www.fondationbeyeler.ch/

Colgate's Picker Art Gallery Exhibitions ~ Treasures from the Permanent Collection Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:16 PM PST HAMILTON, NY.- The Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University features two new exhibitions for the summer and fall seasons, both highlighting special selections from the permanent collection: A Painters' World: Twentieth Century Paintings and I See You: Drawings of Figures and Faces. The exhibitions will both be on view until November 16.

Silences ~ by Marin Karmitz at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCS) Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:15 PM PST STRASBOURG, FRANCE - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France  presents Silences, A statement by Marin Karmitz. "Throughout my career I have always been preoccupied with establishing bridges between what I was most familiar with, the cinema, and different disciplines, such as literature, music, painting, photography, sculpture and video" (interview with Marin Karmitz, Silences exhibition catalogue. As such and following in this spirit of de-compartmentalization, Strasbourg's Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art gave Marin Karmitz the opportunity to develop an exhibition project three years ago. Silences will be presented at MAMCS from April 18th to August 23rd 2009.

Library of Congress Acquires Charles Randall Dean Print Collection Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:14 PM PST Washington, DC - The Library of Congress has acquired an exceptional collection of American Abstract Expressionist prints from the 1940's to 1960's, now available through the Library's Prints and Photographs Division.The Charles Randall Dean Collection of 125 prints includes exquisite and often rare impressions by such artists as James Budd Dixon, Sonia Gechtoff, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, James Kelly, Lee Krasner, Frank Lobdell and Hedda Sterne.

Provocative and Colorful Pop Artist Takashi Murakami Opens in Valencia Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:13 PM PST VALENCIA, SPAIN - The particular, provocative and colorful artistic dialogue between his ancestral Japan and Pop symbols from Occident which have taken him to become ambassador of modernity is the main theme in the new Takashi Murakami exhibition which opened this week at La Llotgeta Gallery. Organized by the Aula de Cultura de Caja Mediterráneo (CAM), "Superflat. New Pop Culture" gathers 21 lithographs and several small sized sculptures made by Murakami, considered to be one of the most recognized international Japanese artists. The exhibition is on view through 29 December, 2009. Murakami's style, called Superflat, is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga. Superflat is an artistic style that comments on otaku lifestyle and subculture, as well as consumerism and sexual fetishism. Like Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami takes low culture and repackages it, and sells it to the highest bidder in the "high-art" market. Unlike Warhol, Murakami also makes his repacked low culture available to all other markets in the form of paintings, sculptures, videos, T-shirts, key chains, mouse pads, plush dolls, cell phone caddies, and $5,000 limited-edition Louis Vuitton handbags. This is comparable to Claes Oldenburg, who sold his own low art, high art pieces in his own store front in the 1960s. What makes Murakami different is his methods of production, and his work is not in one store front but many, ranging from toy stores, candy aisles, comic book stores, and the French design house of Louis Vuitton. Murakami's style is an amalgam of his Western predecessors, Warhol, Oldenberg and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as Japanese predecessors and contemporaries of anime and manga. He has successfully marketed himself to Western culture and to Japan in the form of Kaikai Kiki and GEISAI. The paintings, sculptures, and balloons of Takashi Murakami are colorful and attractive, and accessible in their reference to lovable cartoon characters.  Murakami uses his deep understanding of Western art to integrate his work into its structure; working from the inside to portray "Japanese-ness" as a tool to bring about revolution in the world of art. While proposing a rethinking of "Japan" to those both within and outside, Murakami maintains a strong commitment to promoting Japanese art throughout the world.  Twice a year he holds the GEISAI festival in Japan for young emerging talent, and with his company Kaikai Kiki, supports and manages a group of young artists while preparing for his future endeavors. "To become a living example of the potential of art." This is the burning force behind Takashi Murakami's work. Interviewer Magdalene Perez asked him about straddling the line between art and commercial products, and mixing art with branding and merchandizing. Murakami said, "I don't think of it as straddling. I think of it as changing the line. What I've been talking about for years is how in Japan, that line is less defined. Both by the culture and by the post-War economic situation. Japanese people accept that art and commerce will be blended; and in fact, they are surprised by the rigid and pretentious Western hierarchy of 'high art.' In the West, it certainly is dangerous to blend the two because people will throw all sorts of stones. But that's okay—I'm ready with my hard hat."

The Deichtorhallen Shows Works from the Collections of Thomas Olbricht & Harald Falckenberg Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:12 PM PST Hamburg - The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg is proud to present its summer exhibition "Two Collectors: Thomas Olbrecht and Harald Falckenberg", on view in the Halle fur Aktuelle Kunst until August 21st. The exhibition features works from two of the most important private collections of contemporary art in Germany. One main feature of the collection of doctor and chemist Thomas Olbricht (who lives in Essen and Berlin), is a clear proclivity for eclecticism, in which context his programmatic focus lies on memento mori depictions. By contrast, Hamburg-based lawyer Harald Falckenberg is more interested in the grotesque, the political and the provocative.

The National Gallery and Tate Receive 18 Masterpieces from the Hon.Simon Sainsbury Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:11 PM PST LONDON - The National Gallery and Tate jointly announced one of the most significant bequests of paintings ever to the nation. The collector, Simon Sainsbury (1930-2006), has generously bequeathed 18 paintings from his outstanding international and British art collection to the National Gallery and Tate. Five paintings by artists Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet and Henri Rousseau will go to the National Gallery, and Tate will receive 13 works by artists Francis Bacon, Balthus, Pierre Bonnard, Lucian Freud, Thomas Gainsborough, Victor Pasmore, John Wootton and Johan Zoffany.

Sotheby's Presents Monumental Sculptures in the Grounds of Chatsworth House Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:10 PM PST Chatsworth, Derbyshire, UK - Sotheby's are once again bringing contemporary sculpture to the relaxed setting of the historic gardens of Chatsworth House in England's Peak District. "Beyond Limits", now in its sixth year running, opens to the public on September 16th (though many of the artworks are already installed) and will run until October 30th. Works by more than 20 leading artists from around the world, including René Magritte, Nadim Karam, Takashi Murakami, William Turnbull, Marc Quinn, Ju Ming, Jaume Plensa and Barry Flanagan, will be on display with many showing in the UK for the first time. Some sculptures reach up to five metres in height and all are available for sale to collectors through Sotheby's. Sotheby's was founded in London on March 11, 1744, when Samuel Baker auctioned "several Hundred scarce and valuable books" from the library of the Rt Hon Sir John Stanley for a few hundred pounds. The story of Sotheby's expansion beyond books to include the best in fine and decorative arts and jewellery is also the story of the global auction market, defined by extraordinary moments that continue to capture the world's attention. Since 1744, Sotheby's has distinguished itself as a leader in the auction world. Their auctions, conducted in the venerable salerooms in London and Paris, the museum-quality galleries of their headquarters in New York and the spirited environs of Hong Kong rivet audiences worldwide. Season after season, the depth and excellence of Sotheby's offerings have produced watershed, record-breaking sales. Sotheby's has been entrusted with the sale of many of the world's treasures, amongst them: Napoleon's St Helena library, the Duchess of Windsor's jewels, the Estate of Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer, Rubens' Massacre of the Innocents, Pablo Picasso's Garçon à la Pipe, Francis Bacon's Triptych, 1976, The Grand Ducal Collections of Baden, the Qianlong Yellow-Ground Famille-Rose Double-Gourd Vase, the 5,000-year-old Guennol Lioness, Giacometti's L'Homme Qui Marche I, the Magna Carta, the first printing of the Declaration of Independence and The Martin Luther King Jr Collection. Sotheby's has long recognised that great works of art, as well as the collectors interested in consigning and acquiring them, inhabit the global sphere. They were the first international auction house to expand from London to New York in 1955, and the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong and the then–Soviet Union. Today they maintain 90 locations in 40 countries and they conduct 250 auctions each year in over 70 categories. In addition to their four principal salerooms, the company, recognising the potential in new markets, also conducts auctions in six other salerooms around the world, further expanding its global reach. Visit the auction house's website at ... http://www.sothebys.com Chatsworth House is a stately home in North Derbyshire, England. It is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and has been home to his family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549. Standing on the east bank of the River Derwent, Chatsworth looks across to the low hills that divide the Derwent and Wye valleys. The house is set in expansive parkland, and backed by wooded, rocky hills rising to heather moorland and contains a unique collection of priceless paintings, furniture, Old Master drawings, neoclassical sculptures, books and other artefacts. Three floors are open to the public, allowing the collections to be seen in their original settings. From the grandeur of the 1st Duke's Painted Hall and State Apartments with their rich decoration and painted ceilings, to the 19th century Library, Great Dining Room and Sculpture Gallery. Chatsworth has been selected as the United Kingdom's favourite country house several times.Chatsworth House appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It represented Pemberley, Mr Darcy's home. The house was also used in The Duchess (2008), featuring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes, and The Wolfman (2010), with Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. Visit the house's website at ... http://www.chatsworth.org

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:09 PM PST This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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