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

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• The LA Art Show Returns to Los Angeles January 18th
• The Orlando Museum of Art opens Barbara Sorensen's Topographies Exhibition
• Neue Berliner Räume Opens a Group Exhibition in a Vacant Factory
• The Williams College Museum of Art features African Americans & the American Scene,1929–1945
• The Green Art Gallery in Dubai shows Renowned Turkish Photographer Nazif Topcuoglu
• The Cape Gallery to Show Recent Works by Roelof Rossouw
• RH Gallery to Present Daniel Escobar's First Solo Exhibition in the US
• The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu Hawaii ~ A Delightful Contemporary Art Museum
• Four Local Artists Will Exhibit At The Artlington Museum Of Art
• Jeff Koons to Curate Dakis Joannou Collection Exhibition at the New Museum
• Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf opens Per Kirkeby Retrospective
• Miró, Marc, Monet and Picasso highlight Christie's Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art
• The Kunstmuseum Basel to Showcase Max Beckman's Landscapes
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to feature Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art
• Lehmbruck Museum's Extensive Exhibition Celebrates its 100th anniversary
• Major Richard Avedon Retrospective that Celebrates Portraiture at SFMOMA
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art celebrates The Kemper Collection
• Banco do Brasil's Cultural Center shows Works Made by the Russian Avant-Gardes
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The LA Art Show Returns to Los Angeles January 18th Posted: 08 Jan 2012 09:58 PM PST Los Angeles, California.- The LA Art Show returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center from January 18th through January 22nd 2012. The Los Angeles Art Show will have a new vision for its January 2012 art event, and will debut two separate shows, The Los Angeles Fine Art Show: Historic and Traditional (HAT) and the LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary (MAC). The Los Angeles Fine Art Show: Historic & Traditional features galleries that offer significant, quality paintings and sculpture to the discerning collector. From 18th century European to contemporary realism - from California plein air to the Hudson River School, this show presents varied yet complimentary genres and celebrates artists who continue to explore respected regional styles. "Collectors who are drawn to 'traditional art' are not simply interested in works from a particular time period. They often appreciate representational art from many periods. They've crafted the Los Angeles Fine Art Show: Historic & Traditional to include galleries and works that these collectors will find appealing. They'll be able to view an entire art fair focused on the art they are looking for, whether it's French Academic, Taos School, Urban and Industrial Realism, Barbizon, or Contemporary Realism" states Kim Martindale, show producer. Under new direction, the Los Angeles Art Show: Historic & Traditional will be produced and operated by the Los Angeles Art Show, an LLC Partnership between Art Miami, LLC and Kim Martindale, General Manager. This powerful alliance represents a focused investment for the Art Miami team, merging the considerable assets of these bi-coastal shows and elevating outreach to new levels. The LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary features bold and exciting work from today's great artists and influential visionaries. Bringing together respected galleries from around the world, the show creates a vibrant atmosphere that examines the present while formulating the future and is committed to showing the highest quality works ranging from Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Henry Moore, Sebastião Salgado, David Hockney, Judy Chicago, Roy Lichtenstein, Arshile Gorky, Jim Dine, Andy Warhol, Fernando Botero and others. Once an encyclopedic show, the new LA Art Show is focused on the immediate past as well as today's and tomorrow's contemporary trends, honed and edited to showcase top caliber galleries featuring modern and contemporary works by established and emerging artists. Under new direction, the LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary will be produced and operated by the Los Angeles Art Show, an LLC Partnership between Art Miami, LLC. and Kim Martindale, General Manager. This powerful alliance represents a focused investment for the Art Miami team, merging the considerable assets of these bi-coastal shows and elevating outreach to new levels. This show meets the needs of the global gallery community and provides heightened opportunities for serious collectors, as well as the local arts community. Designed to showcase forward thinking artists, this exciting new show will feature performance pieces, mixed media and video installations, photography, paintings and sculptures, and a series of curated special exhibitions. The Opening Night Premiere Party on Wednesday January 18th allows visitors to be the first to preview art from 100 top galleries and enjoy culinary delights and specialty beverages courtesy of Los Angeles' finest restaurants. The Symposia Series is an engaging range of art discussions featuring leading voices from today's art world: collectors, curators, artists, writers, and a cast of prominent art professionals present on a scintillating mix of current, up-to-date, topics, held throughout the duration of the fair. There is a program of invitational offerings and exclusive experiences customized to the needs of the discerning collector. Curated exhibitions will take place in a special section of project spaces showcasing engaging exhibits current to the art world interests of the day. You will be able to experience live art performances, site specific installations, video presentations and sculpture displays across the show floor. Get even more out of your LA Art Show experience by taking a docent led tour of the show in English, Korean or Chinese. Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.laartshow.com

The Orlando Museum of Art opens Barbara Sorensen's Topographies Exhibition Posted: 08 Jan 2012 08:01 PM PST ORLANDO, FL.- The Orlando Museum of Art has expanded its permanent collection with dynamic sculptures donated by renowned artist Barbara Sorensen and her husband. The sculptures included in the donation are nine pieces from the Dwellings Series, which are currently on display at the museum's entrance. Beginning January 7, 2012, visitors will have the opportunity to view Barbara Sorensen: Topographies, as part of the museum's Made in Florida series. Made In Florida will showcase the exemplary work and influence of Florida artists throughout the 2012 season. Renowned for her ability to capture the unique form, surface and texture of the Earth through sculpture, Topographies will feature installations from the last 20 years of Sorensen's work and take viewers on a topographical expedition of the world's most rugged and remote settings. New pieces will be on view for the first time as well. Topographies will remain on display through April 1, 2012.

Neue Berliner Räume Opens a Group Exhibition in a Vacant Factory Posted: 08 Jan 2012 07:43 PM PST BERLIN.- Neue Berliner Räume presents the exhibition CLAIM in January 2012. The exhibited works are united by their reliance on a direct aesthetic presence rather than a conceptual background. The exhibition has been staged in a disused factory building and features works of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, and video and sound art by the artists Christian Achenbach, Giuseppe Armenia, Carlo Bernardini, David Buckingham, Guido Canziani Jona, Jesper Carlsen, Paolo Grassino, Douglas Henderson, Philip Loersch, Jacopo Mazzonelli, Christopher Munch Andersen, John O'Connor, Kaspar Oppen Samuelsen, Domenico Piccolo, Federico Pietrella, Christoph Schirmer, Moritz Schleime, Owen Schuh, Secret Stars**, Klaus-Martin Treder and Per Wizén.

The Williams College Museum of Art features African Americans & the American Scene,1929–1945 Posted: 08 Jan 2012 07:42 PM PST Williamstown, Massachusetts.– The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is pleased to present "African Americans and the American Scene, 1929–1945", on view from January 14th through April 22nd 2012. "African Americans and the American Scene" explores the role of African Americans in the visual and performing arts during the Great Depression. On Thursday, February 16th there will be a Multidisciplinary Gallery Talk at 4:30 pm followed by a public reception from 5:30–7:30 pm. These events are free and all are invited to attend. "African Americans and the American Scene" focuses on the Depression era. Shaken by the economic collapse, the country experienced a profound crisis of national identity during the Great Depression.  Artists began to picture the "American Scene," subjects culled from daily life such as farms, labor, picnics, and landscapes.

The Green Art Gallery in Dubai shows Renowned Turkish Photographer Nazif Topcuoglu Posted: 08 Jan 2012 07:41 PM PST Dubai.- The Green Art Gallery is pleased to open its 2012 program with a solo exhibition for the acclaimed Turkish photographer Nazif Topcuoglu presenting a new series of works. "Nazif Topcuoglu" will be on view at the gallery from January 11th through March 5th 2012, a reception will be held on the 11th of January from 7 - 9 pm in the presence of the artist. Known for his highly staged theatrical works typically featuring young girls living in lavish period backdrops, Nazif Topcuoglu's photographs take on a nostalgic view of youth. While in his works, like Proust, he does not glorify a certain-definite- "past" era, he nonetheless implies a yearning for one's own youth or an imagined "golden age". The way in which we as humans rate our experience as valuable is through moments that are imagined, be they in the past (half-remembered) or in the future (not yet realized). This idealization of youth however, goes hand in hand with an overall sense of sadness and desperation felt by the artist. With the encroaching global problems facing the youth today, wars, famines, economical downturns, a hope for a better future becomes an idealization in itself. Topcuoglu, who is part of the generation who participated in the major upheavals the world faced in the 1960's, maintains that the sense of hope, of a view of changing the world experienced then, seems desolate and almost obsolete today. The young female characters depicted in his works have grown up in this very context and are now facing the various adult issues of the day. Like a modern day Alice, they may be opposed and frustrated at every turn, but they are mostly dissenters not collaborationists, speaking up against the way people insist on the rightness of their conventional ways of doing things. Like in the Alice stories, these girls raise the voice of common sense against the arbitrary rules and unjust commandments of the grown-up world. It is for this reason that when looking at Topcuoglu's seemingly 'pretty' images of attractive girls, the viewer nonetheless cannot help but sense a disturbing tension at what lies beneath. Born in 1953, Nazif Topcuoglu graduated with a Masters degree from the Institute of Design in Chicago in 1981. Since then he has exhibited worldwide and has held several solo shows both in Istanbul and abroad, as well as publishing 3 books on the history and criticism of photography. Topcuoglu's work was included in the Turkish pavillion during the 50th Venice biennale in 2003 and he has participated in various prestigious group shows including" A Subjective Panorama of Contemporary Turkish Photography" as part of the Turkish Cultural Season in Paris at the Maison de Metallos in November 2009. His work is included in several public and private collections as well as several significant publications on contemporary art. These include: "Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography", published by Phaidon in 2006, "User's Manual: Contemporary Art in Turkey 1986-2006", published by artist in 2007 and "Unleashed: Contemporary Art from Turkey" which was published by Transglobe in the spring  of 2010. Green Art Gallery was first established in 1995, and was a key player in the development of major modern Arab artists in the region. In late 2008, keeping only the name intact, Green Art Gallery went through a complete rebranding and restructuring of its identity, artist roster, and curatorial focus. In 2010 the gallery relocated to a 3000 sqft warehouse space which allowed for the innovative and ambitious projects which were to follow. Central to the curatorial program are contemporary artists of all media from the Middle East, North Africa, South East Asia, and Turkey, who rely heavily on a research-based practice. Most recently the gallery has continued to grow with the additions of internationally renowned and emerging artists including Hale Tenger, Kamrooz Aram, and Shadi Habib Allah to the artist roster. Visit the gallery's website at ... https://gagallery.wordpress.com

The Cape Gallery to Show Recent Works by Roelof Rossouw Posted: 08 Jan 2012 07:30 PM PST Cape Town, South Africa.- The Cape Gallery is pleased to present "Rustic Beauty of the Cape", a solo exhibition of work by Roelof Rossouw, on view at the gallery from January 15th through February 4th. This will be Rossouw's eleventh solo exhibition at The Cape Gallery, he has also exhibited throughout South Africa, Glasgow, London, Cheltenham, UK, Canada, Ireland, San Francisco and Miami.

RH Gallery to Present Daniel Escobar's First Solo Exhibition in the US Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:54 PM PST New York City.- RH Gallery is pleased to present "Fictitious Topographies", Daniel Escobar 's first solo exhibition in the United States, on view from January 17th through March 2nd 2012. The exhibition is comprised of new work from three series on Escobar's interpretation of the urban landscape, specifically Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where the artist resides, and New York City.  Escobar's manipulation of maps, documents and images reflect an exploration of imaginary landscapes as opposed to real ones replicated in satellite imagery and maps. In the series entitled Permeable (Up Close), Escobar extracts details from billboard advertisements that he perforates repeatedly and then layers to create new composite images. For The World, Escobar has produced a series of photographs depicting particular details of pop-up books that he made using promotional materials produced for the tourism industry.

The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu Hawaii ~ A Delightful Contemporary Art Museum Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:40 PM PST Located on Oahu in the Honolulu neighborhood of Makiki, on a hill overlooking the city and the ocean, the Contemporary Museum (TCM) is the only museum in Hawaii that is devoted exclusively to contemporary art and features artworks from 1940 to the present. TCM provides an accessible forum for provocative, dynamic forms of visual art, offering interaction with art and artists in a unique Island environment. TCM presents its innovative exhibition and educational programs at two venues, in residential Honolulu at the historic Cooke-Spalding house, and downtown at the First Hawaiian Center. In addition to preserving art from 1940 to the present, the Museum also maintains and presents the historic Cooke-Spalding house and gardens for the enjoyment and enrichment of Hawai'i's residents and visitors. The structure that houses TCM was built as a residence in 1925 by Mrs. Charles Montague Cooke. At the same time, The Honolulu Academy of Arts was being built on the site of her former home on Beretania Street. The Makiki Heights home was designed by Hart Wood and later enlarged by the firm of Bertram Goodhue and Associates. The Honolulu Academy of Arts acquired the estate as a bequest from Anna Rice Cooke's daughter, Alice Spalding, in 1968 and operated it as an annex from 1970 to 1978. After passing through the hands of a private developer in the late 1970s, the property was acquired by a subsidiary of The Honolulu Advertiser. In 1986 the Twigg-Smith family offered it as a site for The Contemporary Museum. Following interior renovation by The CJS Group Architects and the construction of the Milton Cades Pavilion, the museum opened to the public in October 1988. TCM includes a variety of off-the-beaten-path treasures. In the Café, visitors can sit indoors in a gallery-like atmosphere amid changing displays of art or outdoors in a garden setting. The J. Russell and Charlotte McLean Cades Library welcomes visitors to stop by and enjoy the collection of information on contemporary art and artists. The library houses 900 volumes of surveys, monographs, catalogues, periodicals and artist files, and is used daily by artists, students, writers, and the museum's curators and educators. In addition, books from recent TCM exhibitions are on the library shelves, including 'Enrique Martínez Celaya' and 'Drawing is another kind of language'. Another highlight of The Contemporary Museum is the gardens, which encompass 3.5 acres. These sculpture and meditation gardens are called Nu'umealani (heavenly terrace), and they are so beautiful that the museum won the American Society of Landscape Architects Millennium Award for preserving and maintaining them. Designed to provide a place to retreat, meditate and experience the harmony of nature, the gardens include a sprawling lawn, a tropical terraced garden, walking paths and places to sit. The grounds display sculpture by Satoru Abe, Charles Arnoldi, Deborah Butterfield, Jedd Garet, George Rickey, Toshiko Takaezu, DeWain Valentine and Arnold Zimmerman, and regularly changing murals on the walls. The Contemporary Museum can even provide picnic baskets for visitors who want to enjoy their lunch in the gardens. They are open to the public during museum hours. A satellite facility is located in downtown Honolulu in the First Hawaiian Center, the corporate headquarters of First Hawaiian Bank. Opened in 1996, the changing program of exhibitions focus on Hawaiian art and are underwritten by First Hawaiian Bank. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.tcmhi.org/ The Contemporary Museum has a growing collection of works in all media spanning 1940 to the present by local, regional, national and international artists. Among artists represented are Vito Acconci, Josef Albers, Robert Arneson, Jennifer Bartlett, Deborah Butterfield, Enrique Chagoya, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, William Kentridge, Sol Lewitt, Robert Motherwell, Vik Muniz, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Price, Andres Serrano, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, Masami Teraoka, Mark Tobey, Richard Tuttle, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselman, and Peter Voulkos. Approximately one-third of the works in the collection are by artists of Hawai`i. The remainder largely comprises works by artists from the continental United States, with a growing representation of artists from Europe, Latin America, Japan and Australia. TCM's collection has greatly expanded since its inception to reflect the achievements of both established and emerging artists. The collection comprises more than 3,400 works in the following categories: paintings; sculpture and installations; drawings and watercolors; prints; photographs and video works; assemblage; ceramics; glass; wood; metal; and fiberworks/textiles. The Museum have a particularly strong collection of ceramic including three works by Robert Arneson (amongst them, the monumental 'Temple of Fatal Laffs'), and important examples by Stephen De Staebler, Ken Price, Peter Voulkos, Ron Nagle, Adrian Saxe, Mark Burns, Nancy Carman, Robert Brady, and Daisy Youngblood. TCM has assembled significant holdings by artists who explore the tradition of the vessel in ceramic, wood, fiber, metal and glass. Among the artists represented are Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Beatrice Wood, Lucie Rie, Rudolf Staffel, Jay Musler, Ferne Jacobs, Richard DeVore, June Schwarz, Ron Kent, Diane Itter, and Dale Chihuly. TCM's photography collection focuses on works that are conceptually based or employ alternative processes that challenge traditional notions of photography. Artists represented include William Wegman, Robert Cumming, John Coplans and Lucas Samaras, as well as younger artists such as Catherine Opie, Gregory Crewdson, Christopher Bucklow, Candida Hofer, Bill Jacobson, Vik Muniz, Thomas Ruff, and Liza Ryan. Highlights of TCM's print collection include "Electric Chair", a series of ten screenprints by Andy Warhol; "Savarin", a monotype by Jasper Johns; "Had Gadya", a series of ten mixed-media prints by Frank Stella; and "High Green", a color etching and aquatint by Richard Diebenkorn. Other significant holdings include an untitled oil on canvas by Robert Motherwell; "Marsaxlokk Bay", a large-scale mixed-media metal relief by Frank Stella; "The White Cup", a mixed-media assemblage by Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz; and eighteen works by Dennis Oppenheim. The Contemporary Museum hosts temporary exhibitions in both the Cooke-Spalding house, and downtown at the First Hawaiian Center. The main exhibition at the Cooke-Spalding house is 'Steven & William Ladd: 9769 Radio Drive' (until May 8, 2011). In keeping with The Contemporary Museum's mission of providing emerging artists with significant opportunities to expand and show their work, TCM presents Steven and William Ladd: 9769 Radio Drive, the first solo museum exhibition for these Brooklyn, New York based artists. The Ladd brothers have created a large exhibition specifically for the museum's spaces that provides a significant overview of their art and transforms TCM's galleries. The Ladds' work collaboratively and frequently draws upon their past experiences for inspiration. The current exhibition includes references to their parents, grandparents, and siblings, and 9769 Radio Drive, referenced in the exhibition title, is the address of the home in St. Louis in which they grew up. Their sculptures initially take the form of towers of handmade boxes, which are shown open in the exhibition to reveal dazzlingly elaborate sewn and beaded interiors that could be interpreted as fanciful, mysterious landscapes. Other works incorporate found objects. At the heart of the exhibition is a large installation titled Ant Epidemic, which fills TCM's largest gallery with images of thousands of small black ants. Together, Steven and William Ladd have forged a body of work that exists in a nexus of text, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, craft/design, and fashion. They have combined a range of techniques, forms, materials, and practices, forging something which is uniquely theirs. The First Hawaiian Center Gallery has three temporary exhibitions currently running (all until 15th July 2011). "Recent Photographs by Andrew Binkley and Inka Resch" presents recent works from two photographers capturing the daily lives of people in China and Dubai. Photographer Andrew Binkley layers multiple exposures in Photoshop to create images that capture the connections and paths between people on the streets of China below. Through images of enormous towers and the countless tiny figures building them, Hawai'i-raised artist, Inka Resch, reveals the oppositions, contradictions, and contrasts that characterize Dubai, the city in which she currently lives and works. Also on show at the The First Hawaiian Center Gallery is "Suzanne Wolfe: Cuptopia". As a faculty member at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Suzanne Wolfe's teaching specialty is in low-temperature ceramics media, mold techniques, and ceramics history. Her current work explores the process of developing layered glaze imagery, the transformation of found ceramic objects, and an investigation of the relationship between interior and exterior. In this exhibition, Wolfe will show more than 300 ceramic cups, each conveying a unique narrative through the application and juxtaposition of multiple image transfers. A third exhibition "In the News: Bernice Akamine, Deborah Nemad, Vince Hazen, Mac James, and Pearlyn Salvador" showcases works that are inspired by local, national, and/or international news. The artists take their inspiration from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, using these media to create their works utilizing techniques such as collage and image transfer. The exhibition features both two- and three-dimensional multi-media works. Artists include Bernice Akamine, Vince Hazen, Deborah Nemad, Mac James, and Pearlyn Salvador. Changing exhibits of contemporary art are also shown in the Contemporary Café, where a selection of works by local artist Jill Butterbaugh is currently displayed. This selection of two-dimensional work includes large oil paintings on wood and drawings on paper done in charcoal and conte. "Vintage Girls" explores the distinct look of the 30's, 40' and 50's in larger than life portraits. Other selected works in charcoal and conte include dramatic still life drawings of various subjects from dendrobium orchids to somber looking stuffed animals.

Four Local Artists Will Exhibit At The Artlington Museum Of Art Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:39 PM PST Arlington, TX. - A new exhibition at the Arlington Museum of Art from April 6 to May 29 2011 celebrates 4 local artists from the Dallas and Forth Worth area. "The Innovative Eye: Art by Four DFW Artists" features works by Bonny Leibowitz and Enrique Fernández Cervantes of Dallas and Soon Warren and Mazie Pannell of Fort Worth. The distinctive styles and diverse media of these four area artists are emphasized in this show and includes innovative visual perspectives in watercolor, oil, acrylic, encaustic and photography. Bonny Leibowtiz owns the Bonny Studio and teaching workshop in Richardson, Texas. Her work concerns itself with moments that effect change and create new realities. A myriad of choices emerge as layered busyness forms life's patterns, tones and textures. These essential qualities speak to the consequence of relationship, transitions, wounds, healing and growth both interpersonal and universal. Leibowitz is currently working with combinations of wax, digital painting, photography, abaca fiber, seeds, ink and oil, finding these mediums give an intriguing combination of both control and loss of control. Using these mediums allows for internal exploration, deelopment and expression.

Jeff Koons to Curate Dakis Joannou Collection Exhibition at the New Museum Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:38 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- The Dakis Joannou Collection will come to the New Museum in late February 2010. Artist Jeff Koons will curate the exhibition which will take over the entire Museum. This is the first time that Joannou's collection will be seen in the United States. Koons and Joannou have had a close association and friendship for nearly three decades, and a large concentration of Koons' work from all periods is at the center of the collection. Engaging Jeff Koons as a curator reflects the kinds of ongoing conversations with artists that have inspired and animated Joannou's collection from the start. In this role, Koons' curatorial and artistic vision will bring a fresh perspective to the collection and to the works on view.

Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf opens Per Kirkeby Retrospective Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:37 PM PST DUSSELDORF, GERMANY.- Born in 1938, Per Kirkeby is the best known Danish artist of his generation and one of the most important contemporary European artists. After a degree in geology and several expeditions to Greenland, Kirkeby turned his attention entirely to the world of art in the mid-1960s and embarked upon a journey that involved researching the vast diversity of painting options while also working as a sculptor, architect, printer, illustrator, film maker and author. Retrospective on view from 26 September through 10 January, 2010.

Miró, Marc, Monet and Picasso highlight Christie's Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:36 PM PST LONDON.- The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale will take place at Christie's on 23 June and will offer 46 works of art, including exceptional museum-quality masterpieces by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Franz Marc, Joan Miró, Camille Pissarro and Marcel Duchamp. The auction is expected to realise in excess of £40 million and will be on public view at Christie's in London from 18 to 23 June 2009. Giovanna Bertazzoni, Director and Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie's London: "Impressionist and Modern art continues to attract global interest as illustrated by the strong results at our recent auctions in London in February and in New York in May.

The Kunstmuseum Basel to Showcase Max Beckman's Landscapes Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:35 PM PST Basel, Switzerland.- The Kunstmuseum Basel is proud to present "Max Beckman - The Landscapes" on view from September 4th through January 22nd 2012. Max Beckmann (Leipzig 1884 – 1950 New York) is one of the titans of modernism, even though he saw himself as the last Old Master. He never joined any of the avant-garde groups of the twentieth century, but the experiences of Impressionism, Expressionism, New Objectivity, and abstract art left their traces in his oeuvre. Beckmann was long perceived as a typically German artist, and only in the past few years has his importance been fully appreciated on the international stage, with retrospectives in Paris, London, and New York. Against the modernist tendency to dissolve the traditional genres, Beckmann remained a lifelong defender of classical genres: the depiction of the human figure—in the form of portraits, mythological tableaus, and acts—the still life, and the landscape. Famous as a painter of the human condition, he also renewed the genre of landscape painting with outstanding and haunting works that are virtually without equal in twentieth-century art. The comprehensive special exhibition at Kunstmuseum Basel now turns the focus on the artist's oeuvre in landscapes, showing seventy paintings, among them masterpieces such as "The Harbor of Genoa" from the St. Louis Art Museum and the "Seashore" from the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, but also sublime works from numerous private collections, some of which have rarely been on public display. Beckmann's landscapes allow the beholder to trace the development of his art in its purest form. Less shaped by allegorical layers of meaning, they directly reveal his magnificent qualities as a painter. Beckmann's reserved view of the landscape remains striking: vistas framed by windows, curtains, parapets, columns, and elevated vantage points often mediate the distance between the inhabited world and the boundless expanses of nature. Private objects from Beckmann's possessions frequently appear in the foregrounds of these landscapes as vestiges of the still life, giving the beholder a sense of the painter's presence. The dramaturgy of these vistas is evidence that Beckmann fuses an abstractly conceived image of the landscape with the recollection of the impression he received from a particular scenery that is the foundation of each painting. The gaze he fixes on nature helps clarify his standpoint and places him in a relationship with the world. Landscapes from different phases of his life – Beckmann's fresh start in Frankfurt after World War I or the years he spent in exile in Amsterdam – illustrate how this relationship evolves. The history of Basel's public art collection can be traced back to the 17th century. When it acquired the Amerbach Kabinett, Basel became the first municipality to possess its own art collection long before princely collections were made accessible to the public in other cities of Europe. On the death of Basilius Amerbach (1533-1591), grandson of the famous printer and son of a distinguished lawyer who had been a close friend of Erasmus, the encyclopaedic collection contained not only some 60 paintings (among them 15 by Hans Holbein the Younger) and a very large portfolio of drawings and prints, but natural objects, ethnographic artefacts and a library as well. In 1671 the art collection was transferred to the "Zur Mücke" house near the Cathedral Square and opened to the public, becoming one of the city's major attractions. In 1823 the Amerbach art collection, which had already been enhanced by donations from the Council and private donors, was merged with the holdings of as second museum started by jurist Remigius Faesch (1595-1667). This brought not only further paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger, but also important works by 15th to17th century artists from the Upper-Rhine region into the collection. In 1849, the need for more display space resulted in a move to the late classicist, multi-purpose building by Melchior Berri in Augustinergasse (which still houses the Museum of Natural History and the Museum today). A bequest by Samuel Birrmann (1793-1843), a Basel painter and art dealer, helped to introduce an acquisition policy, and in 1855 a fund earmarked for contemporary Swiss art was established under the aegis of the Museum Commission. The Canton of Basel-Stadt, too, has been providing acquisition funding since 1903. With the completion of a purpose-built building by architects Rudolf Christ and Paul Bonatz in St. Alban-Graben, the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung moved into the Kunstmuseum Basel in its present form in 1936. The building has been thoroughly refurbished over the past few years. For additional display space The Museum für Gegenwartskunst was established in a converted factory at St. Alban-Rheinweg in 1980. A joint venture with the Emanuel Hoffmann and Christoph Merian Foundations, many more recent works were transferred from the Kunstmuseum to the new museum. Never content to stand still, the next great challenge for the Kunstmuseum is implementing a planned expansion. This new building, will be located opposite the museum, is intended to be a special exhibition area offering the visitor a constantly new experience. Much remains to be done before the projected opening date of 2015, but its completion will be the latest chapter in this museum's long tradition of re-invention and growth. The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the largest and most significant public art collection in Switzerland, particularly Upper-Rhenish and Flemish paintings and drawings from 1400 to 1600 and 19th to 21st century international art. The museum has the world's largest collection of works by the Holbein family. Other highlights of the fifthteenth and sixteenth century are paintings by Konrad Witz, Hans Fries, Hans Baldung (called Grien), Niklaus Manuel (called Deutsch), Lucas Cranach the Elder and outstanding works by the Upper-Rhenish Masters of the fifthteenth and sixteenth century as well as Flemish art of the sixteenth century. The main features of the seventeenth and eighteenth century are the Flemish and Dutch schools (Rubens, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Francken, Rembrandt, Jacob Ruisdael), German and Dutch still lifes (Wilhelm Claesz Heda, Georg Flegel, Sebastian Stoskopff) and an important group of paintings by the Swiss artist Caspar Wolf. The Kunstmuseum also owns the worldwide largest collection of paintings by Arnold Böcklin. Noteworthy in the nineteenth century collection are the most comprehensive group of Nazarene paintings in Switzerland including works by Koch, Overbeck, and Olivier, important assemblages of works by Füssli, French painting from Romanticism to Realism including Delacroix, Géricault, Corot and Courbet. Swiss art of Birmann, Calame, Anker, Zünd, Buchser, Segantini and Hodler. German art with Feuerbach and Marées and especially French Impressionism with works of art by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Postimpressionism represented by Cézanne, Gauguin and van Gogh. The museum also has 8 sculptures by Rodin. The focal points of 20th-century art on display are Cubism, Expressionism and American art after 1945, including the unique compilation of works by Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Paul Klee, Hans Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall, Barnett Newman, Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella and Bruce Nauman. In January 2005, the Library of the Kunstmuseum Basel moved into a building directly adjacent to the Kunstmuseum. Formerly home to premises of the Swiss National Bank, the building was donated to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel by Maja Oeri in 1999 and bears the name "Laurenz-Bau", in memory of the prematurely deceased son of the donor and her husband. Apart from the library, the building also houses the administrative offices of the Kunstmuseum and the Department of Art History of Basel University. The Library, which is open to the public, contains over 150,000 titles. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to feature Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:34 PM PST BOSTON, MA.- Sixteen paintings by luminaries of modern Indian art will be featured in Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art, on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), from November 14, 2009–August 22, 2010. These vibrant Bharat Ratna—literally "Jewels of India"—are drawn from the renowned collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rajiv Jahangir Chaudhri, who have assembled some of the finest examples of post-Independence Indian art. The exhibition represents the first time that a significant number of works from this collection will be displayed publicly. It is also the first exhibition of modern Indian art at the MFA, and the first exhibition of Indian art at a major American museum in nearly 30 years.

Lehmbruck Museum's Extensive Exhibition Celebrates its 100th anniversary Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:33 PM PST DUISBURG, GERMANY - Grace kneels in Duisburg, was forged in 1911 in a Parisian studio. For its creator Wilhelm Lehmbruck, the Kneeling Woman became a completely personal mark of creation. Affecting the art of the modern era like an impulse, with its graceful yet peculiar pose and a gesture that until that time was unique the piece has exercised an immense influence on sculpture and painting in the past hundred years. In 2011 the Kneeling Woman celebrates its anniversary, and the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg thus dedicates one of the most complex and extensive exhibitions in their history to the piece, curated by an international team managed by Marion Bornscheuer, curator of the Lehmbruck Collection and painting and graphics. Exhibition on view from 24th September to 22 January 2012.

Major Richard Avedon Retrospective that Celebrates Portraiture at SFMOMA Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:32 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- As a highlight of its summer exhibitions schedule, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946–2004, on view from July 11 through November 29, 2009. Widely celebrated as one of America's preeminent photographers, Avedon was among the first to challenge the conventional boundaries between studio photography and reportage. Some of his best-known portraits—a young Bob Dylan standing in the rain, Marilyn Monroe caught in a vulnerable moment, Andy Warhol and his Factory cohorts—are the most iconic of the 20th century. SFMOMA is the only U.S. venue for this exhibition, which is the first major retrospective of the Avedon's work since his death in 2004.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art celebrates The Kemper Collection Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:31 PM PST Kansas Ciity, MO - This exhibition celebrates the 36 modern and contemporary works acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative to date. On exhibition 3 May through 20 July, 2008. William T. Kemper was passionate about all art, but in particular championed contemporary art of his own time. To honor his spirit of curiosity and imagination, the William T. Kemper Foundation — Commerce Bank, Trustee in 1999 presented the Nelson-Atkins with a remarkable gift: $1 million each year for 10 years to be used for the acquisition of modern and contemporary art.

Banco do Brasil's Cultural Center shows Works Made by the Russian Avant-Gardes Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:30 PM PST SAO PAULO.- Banco do Brasil's Cultural Center opened an exhibition of 123 works of art on loan from the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg. The show includes works by the Russian Avant-Gardes including Marc Chagal, Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich. The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism. The works on view in Sao Paulo come from the Russian State Museum of St. Petersburg, which holds the most important public collection of works by Malevich. In March 1936, about one year after the artist's death, the Museum received a donation from his family of 86 paintings and some 80 drawings, practically everything that was left in his apartment at the time when he died. A few months later, in June 1936, after an article entitled On Formalism in Art had been published in Pravda, the museum received strict instructions to eliminate Malevich's canvases from its permanent collections. So it was that, just as the artist had foretold while he was still alive, the building became a sort of cemetery of his art. For many years thereafter, not only was the museum forbidden to show his works, it was even instructed never to admit that they were even a part of its collections. It was not until 1977, by which time the artist had become an international celebrity, that it was possible to overcome the ideological prejudice working against his name, so that his canvases could once again return to the place they so justly deserve. The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modern art that flourished in Russia (or more accurately, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union) approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960. The term covers many separate, but inextricably related, art movements that occurred at the time; namely neo-primitivism, suprematism, constructivism, and futurism. Given that many of these avant-garde artists were born or grew up in what is present day Belarus and Ukraine (including Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandra Ekster, Vladimir Tatlin, Wassily Kandinsky, David Burliuk, Alexander Archipenko), some sources also talk about Ukrainian avant-garde. The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism. Notable figures from this era include: Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Liubov Popova, El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Vladimir Tatlin, among others.

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 08 Jan 2012 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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