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

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• Swann Galleries to Auction an Oustanding Selection of Vintage Posters
• The Frist Center for the Visual Arts Shows Northern Renaissance Paintings
• LaMontagne Gallery Presents Four Young Boston Artists
• Zhong Gallery for Contemporary Chinese Art opens in Berlin
• Art Basel Announces Selection of the Most Cutting-edge Galleries
• The Guggenheim Museum organizes 7 hour finale for Maurizio Cattelan
• Wine Cooler owned by George Washington Sold for $782,500 at Christie's
• Grassi Museum for Applied Arts shows Record Covers created by Andy Warhol
• The High Museum of Art to Feature a Major Exhibition by KAWS
• The Uffizi Gallery In Florence ~ The Finest Collection Of Renaissance Art In The World
• Waterhouse & Dodd To Show 20th Century European & American Art in Soho
• Art Gallery of New South Wales Exhibition Focuses on Six Photographers
• The Romanian Academy hosts the 7th Edition of Spazi Aperti ~ The Annual Collaborative Exhibition
• National Trust & Royal Academy of Arts Collaborate on New Public Art Commission
• ARCOmadrid Opens 30th Edition with Works of Art Between the Ordinary and Extraordinary
• Avant-Garde Artist Christo Coetzee on Show at the University of Pretoria
• Waterhouse & Dodd to host Angela Palmer's solo ' Unravelled '
• David Prentice 'London Cityscapes' at the John Davies Gallery, UK
• The Art Galery of New South Wales Unveils New Floor for Contemporary Art
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Swann Galleries to Auction an Oustanding Selection of Vintage Posters Posted: 21 Jan 2012 12:35 AM PST New York City.- Swann Galleries will offer an outstanding assortment of more than 430 Vintage Posters at auction on Thursday, February 2nd. This sale, the first of Swann's 2012 season, features some exceptional rarities, as well as iconic images from the U.S. and Europe. The auction opens with a selection of approximately 100 rare and important Art Nouveau posters, which features a stunning set of Alphonse Mucha 's The Seasons, four decorative panels, each in near perfect condition, 1896 (estimate: $70,000 to $100,000); and two variations of Mucha's celebrated Reverie, one 1897, the other circa 1898 ($12,000 to $18,000 each). Of great technical interest is a group of six color proofs for Jules Chéret 's Libraire ed. Sagot / Affiches-Estampes, which offers insight into the poster printing process, 1891 ($2,000 to $3,000); a rare horizontal-format piece for The New York Symphony Orchestra, 1893 ($3,000 to $4,000); several images by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , including La Revue Blanche, 1895 ($25,000 to $35,000); and Jacques Villon 's L'Anti-Bélier, 1899 ($15,000 to $20,000). A rooster serves as the mascot for a literary magazine called Cocorico in a poster by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, 1899 ($12,000 to $18,000), which also appears on the cover of the auction catalogue. The posters will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries on Saturday, January 28th and Monday, January 30th through Wednesday, February 1st. A run of posters of Judaic and Hebraic interest includes Miskovitz's rare advertisement for the film The Promised Land, billed as "the first movie filmed in Palestine," with text in Hungarian and Romanian, circa 1930s ($4,000 to $6,000). Steven Spielberg adapted this image for a poster promoting his Jewish Film Archive. There are also posters for the Jewish National Fund, the Palestine & Near East Exhibition, the inauguration of an international memorial monument at Birkenau, and more. There is a fine selection of Mather Work Incentive Posters, the workplace images created by a Chicago printer in the 1920s meant to boost productivity and good business practices. Highlights of these are an image of a steam-spewing locomotive with the tag line "No Lost Motion… Make Every Effort Count," 1926 ($2,000 to $3,000); Don't Touch Me!, featuring a prickly porcupine, 1929 ($1,200 to $1,800); and a racing sailboat in The Perfect Finish, 1929 ($2,000 to $3,000). The sale continues after a lunch break with a section of ski and winter resort posters from around the world. American examples include Ernest Haskell 's 1896 image for Truth Magazine, which is the first American ski poster, and possibly the earliest ski poster from anywhere ($2,000 to $3,000); 17 posters for the annual Dartmouth Winter Carnival, including some of the most striking and rare images from the late 1930s; Lou Hechenberger 's bright and colorful image of a female skier toting her skis in New Hampshire, 1941 ($2,000 to $3,000); and Sascha Maurer's previously unknown Winter Sports / New England / The New Have R.R., circa 1937 ($1,500 to $2,000). Rare and desirable advertisements for Sun Valley, Idaho include Willmarth's Summer Holiday, 1939 ($2,000 to $3,000); a rare variant of Dwight Clark Shepler 's "Round House" on Baldy Mountain, 1940 ($3,000 to $4,000); and Augustus Moser 's circa 1940 Union Pacific poster ($4,000 to $6,000). International ski posters of note are Emil Cardinaux's Palace Hotel / St. Moritz, 1920 ($10,000 to $15,000); Franz Lenhart 's Sports Invernali in Italia, circa 1930; H. Ashley 's Ski at Banff in the Canadian Rockies, 1938; and Maciej Urbaniec 's Come and See Polish Mountains, 1961 ($1,200 to $1,800 each). There are more than 20 posters for the bygone magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, with iconic artwork from its covers by Joseph C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell , among others. The sale concludes with a section devoted to circus and Wild West posters, with highlights such as Count Orloff, known as "the transparent man," circa 1900 ($1,000 to $1,500); an English and German language poster for Giant Beard Man, touted as the "man with the largest and most beautiful beard in the world," circa 1900 ($1,200 to $1,800); and several Buffalo Bill pieces, including Buffalo Bill's Wild West / Le "Poney Express," 1900 ($4,000 to $6,000) and W.F. Cody / Buffalo Bill , circa 1905 ($12,000 to $18,000). Swann Galleries was founded in New York in 1941 by antiquarian book dealer Benjamin Swann as an auction house specializing in rare and antiquarian books. George Lowry acquired the business and became president in 1970 upon Mr. Swann`s retirement. At that time, a staff of four organized and conducted book auctions for a customer-base composed mainly of dealers. As the auction world opened to the general public, separate departments were established for different fields of collecting: first photographs, then autographs, and in the late 1980s-early 90s, prints and drawings and vintage posters. Swann is now a world leader in the auction market for works of art on paper. Nicholas Lowry joined Swann in 1995 as head of the Poster department. He was named Principal Auctioneer in 1998 and Vice-President in 2000. In January 2001, he assumed the title of President and took over day-to-day management of the company, which now has a staff of 30; George Lowry stepped up to the new title of Chairman. For over 25 years, Swann has been located on East 25th Street, just one block east of Madison Square Park, adjacent to the historic Murray Hill, Gramercy Park, and Flatiron districts, and right across town from Chelsea. The premises doubled in size in 1999 with the addition of a second gallery and salesroom. Visit the auction house's website at ... http://www.swanngalleries.com

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts Shows Northern Renaissance Paintings Posted: 20 Jan 2012 08:47 PM PST Nashville TN.- A selection of magnificent Northern Renaissance paintings from an often overlooked collection will be on exhibition in the Frist Center for the Visual Arts' Upper-Level Galleries.  "A Divine Light: Northern Renaissance Paintings from the Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery" features 28 paintings from 15th- and 16th-century Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain. The exhibition is conceived as an intimate encounter with the devotional art of the Renaissance and explores the way in which 15th- and 16th-century Northern European painters expressed the central mysteries of the Christian faith through setting, pose, gesture and the objects of everyday life. These paintings, which are part of a collection better known for its grand Baroque pictures, have been little studied since their acquisition in the mid-20th century. Since that time, considerable advances have been made in analytical methods and connoisseurship of Northern Renaissance paintings and additional archival research has been undertaken. "A Divine Light" is on view now at the Frist.

LaMontagne Gallery Presents Four Young Boston Artists Posted: 20 Jan 2012 07:57 PM PST Boston, Massachusetts.- The LaMontagne Gallery is pleased to present "Four Young Boston Artists: Corey Corcoran, Sean Downey, Kris Mortensen, Paul Endres Jr.", on view at the gallery from January 21st through February 24th, with an opening reception on Saturday January 21st. Founded in 2007, LaMontagne Gallery is a 2,300 square foot exhibition space located in South Boston on East Second Street. LaMontagne Gallery was founded to create an environment in Boston for the display and sale of emerging contemporary artists. The gallery features visual, sound and performance artists based in Boston and beyond. LaMontagne Gallery will also provide a fresh platform to introduce international curators to the Boston art market. Russell LaMontagne was previously co-Founder of LFL Gallery in New York City. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.lamontagnegallery.com

Zhong Gallery for Contemporary Chinese Art opens in Berlin Posted: 20 Jan 2012 07:09 PM PST BERLIN.- The Zhong Gallery in Berlin will open its doors on January 21 as Europe's first gallery for contemporary art founded by Chinese gallerists, presenting perspectives on Chinese art which have received little attention from the European art scene so far. The opening exhibition "Dawn – New Art from China" will be showing work by the artists Chen Yujun, Li Jikai, Li Qing, Wang Guangle, Wang Yabin, Wu Di, Yuan Yuan, Zhong Zhang and UNMASK. Over the course of the last decade, Chinese art has succeeded in establishing itself on the international art market, however its real market value is not to be measured purely in terms of the activities of largely foreign art dealers. In order to really ascertain its worth, what is required is contextualization, critical engagement and an understanding for the complex and often conflict-laden relationship between Chinese and western culture.

Art Basel Announces Selection of the Most Cutting-edge Galleries Posted: 20 Jan 2012 06:22 PM PST BASEL.- Art 43 Basel: The Premier International Art Show taking place in Basel, Switzerland from June 14th to June 17th, Art 43 Basel will again present a premier selection of the most influential and cutting-edge galleries from across the world. Every June, Art Basel marks the summer reunion of the international artworld, hosted by the city of Basel, which has been a cultural capital for centuries. This year, more than 300 galleries from 36 countries on 6 continents will show works by over 2,500 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Selected from nearly 1,000 by the Art Basel Committee, an international jury of renowned gallerists, the galleries include 73 from the United States; 55 from Germany; 31 from Switzerland; 29 from Great Britain; 28 from France; 15 from Italy; 9 from Belgium; 6 each from Austria, Japan and Spain; 4 each from Brazil, China and the Netherlands; 3 each from Mexico, Norway and Poland; 2 each from Canada, Denmark, Dubai, India and South Africa; and 1 each from Argentina, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Lebanon, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Korea and Sweden. Art Galleries Sector Once again, more than 99 percent of last year's exhibitors reapplied for the Art Galleries sector. This year's strong roster of returning galleries will be enhanced by an international range of new exhibitors. Showing for the first time in the Art Galleries sector are Miguel Abreu Gallery (New York), Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai), Galerie Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin), Thomas Dane Gallery (London), David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles), Long March Space (Beijing), maccarone (New York) and ProjecteSD (Barcelona). After a brief hiatus, Eigen+Art (Berlin) and Galerie Susanne Zander (Cologne) rejoin Art Basel's exhibitors in the Art Galleries sector. Art Statements Sector Continuing its proven track-record as a place to discover exciting young artists, Art Statements will this year spotlight 27 international galleries, including Arratia Beer (Berlin), Balice Hertling (Paris), Laura Bartlett Gallery (London), Cherry and Martin (Los Angeles), Fonti (Napoli), Gandy Gallery (Bratislava), Green Art Gallery (Dubai), Harris Lieberman (New York), hunt kastner (Prague), Lautom Contemporary (Oslo), Tanya Leighton Gallery (Berlin), Michael Lett (Auckland), Lullin + Ferrari (Zurich), Proyectos Monclova (Mexico), Motive Gallery (Amsterdam), Peres Projects (Berlin), RaebervonStenglin (Zurich), Raster (Warsaw), Gallery Side 2 (Tokyo), Galerie Diana Stigter (Amsterdam), Tilton Gallery (New York), Upstream Gallery (Amsterdam), Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai), Galerie Vidal Cuglietta (Bruxelles), Vilma Gold (London), Wentrup (Berlin) and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff (Paris). Art Feature Sector Now in its third year, Art Feature will again focus on precise curatorial projects. For this year's edition, 20 galleries will present a mix of artistic dialogs, solo shows and exceptional art-historical material. The exhibiting galleries are: A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro), Applicat-Prazan (Paris), Galerie Guido W. Baudach (Berlin), Boers-Li Gallery (Beijing), Galerie Andrea Caratsch (Zurich), D'Amelio Gallery (New York), Alexander Gray Associates (New York), Galerie Henze & Ketterer (Wichtrach/Bern), Herald St (London), Hotel (London), In Situ Fabienne Leclerc (Paris), Krobath (Vienna), McCaffrey Fine Art (New York), Galerie Mezzanin (Vienna), Murray Guy (New York), Galeria Plan B (Cluj), Galerie Micky Schubert (Berlin), Sorry we're closed (Bruxelles), Stevenson (Cape Town) and Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois (Paris). 65,000 people attended Art 42 Basel, the last edition of this favorite rendezvous for the global artworld, including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts. Basel ranks as a culture capital, and that cultural richness helps put the Art Basel week on the agenda for art lovers from all over the globe. During Art Basel, a fascinating atmosphere fills this traditional city, as the international art show is reinforced with exhibitions and events all over the region. Located on the banks of the Rhine, at the border between Switzerland, France and Germany, Basel is easily navigated by foot and trams. On this website you can find practical information about visiting Art Basel, photos of past shows, press releases, and information concerning participating galleries and artists. www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/

The Guggenheim Museum organizes 7 hour finale for Maurizio Cattelan Posted: 20 Jan 2012 06:21 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- On the occasion of Maurizio Cattelan's announcement of his retirement from art making, the Guggenheim is marking the closing of the Maurizio Cattelan: All exhibition by holding a multidisciplinary program called The Last Word on Saturday, January 21, at 6 pm. During the seven-hour finale event, thirty or so prominent representatives from the fields of visual art, philosophy, literature, film, music, economics, law, politics and activism, religion, dance, theater, sports, and fashion will come together to contemplate the subject of voluntary endings. Maurizio Cattelan: All brings together virtually everything the artist has produced since 1989 and presents the works en masse, strung seemingly haphazardly from the ceiling of the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda. Hoisted by rope as if on a gallows, the suspended objects explicitly reveal the undertone of death that pervades the artist's work. More than just a powerful culmination of a career, this exhibition signifies its end. With the opening of Maurizio Cattelan: All, Cattelan announced his retirement from the art world, although what this means precisely remains to be seen.

Wine Cooler owned by George Washington Sold for $782,500 at Christie's Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:55 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- A Sheffield-plated silver wine cooler, ordered by George Washington in 1789, and given to Alexander Hamilton in 1797, sold at Christie's during Americana Week for $782,500, exceeding its estimate of $400,000-600,000. This four-bottle wine cooler is an exceptionally well documented historical object, symbolizing the famous partnership between Washington and Hamilton in the early days of the republic. It was sold by direct descendants of Alexander Hamilton and bought by Americana expert, Gary Hendershott.  Embodying this intent to be majestically plain, the elegant wine cooler is simply decorated with lion's mask and ring handles. The choice of Sheffield-plated silver, a layered combination of silver and copper, instead of solid silver, emphasizes the founding fathers' preference for austerity.

Grassi Museum for Applied Arts shows Record Covers created by Andy Warhol Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:32 PM PST LEIPZIG, GERMANY - Andy Warhol (1928–1987), one of the most popular representatives of Pop Art, had just completed his study of Applied Art when he came to New York in 1949 and designed his first Album Cover for Columbia Records . This grew into a life-long working cooperation. In the designing of Album Covers , the young, yet unknown quantity Warhol saw an ideal opportunity of establishing his style of Art and name. He then began approaching Record Labels to offer his artistic services. The Cover "A Program of Mexican Music" was one of his earliest professional works. Until his death in 1987, Warhol designed about 50 more Album Covers often with rich complementary materials, from which the Covers for The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground attained cult status, doing this often in close cooperation with musicians. Known previously only on the margins of the art world, artist designs for the Record industry much like other "applied" works, increasingly found their way into museums and galleries.

The High Museum of Art to Feature a Major Exhibition by KAWS Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:31 PM PST Atlanta, GA.- The High Museum of Art will premiere a major multi-site exhibition of work by Brooklynbased artist Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS. "KAWS: Down Time" will open on February 18th 2012, with a 22-foot-high, sitespecific mural painted in the Margaretta Taylor Lobby of the High's Wieland Pavilion, along with a 24-foot-long  triptych hung in of the Museum's Robinson Atrium. In addition, a gallery installation of paintings, drawings and sculpture will feature a grid of 27 tondo paintings, each 40 inches in diameter. Visitors will be able to watch KAWS over the course of a week in early February as he creates the mural exclusively for the High. The exhibition will also include KAWS's monumental sculpture "Companion" (2010), which will be installed on the Museum's piazza on November 18th. "KAWS: Down Time" has been organized exclusively for the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and will be on view from February 18th through May 27th. "From their saturated palettes and seductive surfaces to their complex spatial geometries, KAWS's paintings have a formal elasticity that is humorous and playful as well as complex, sophisticated and discursive," said Michael Rooks, the High's Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. "KAWS has created a new order of American Pop—one that suggests the protean universe of New York abstraction re-imagined within the frame of Cartoon Network. His work is uncannily familiar but foreign at the same time, like in a dream, and it unites the often distant worlds of fine art and youth culture." An influential member of a new generation of street artists who have successfully united commercial enterprises with their artistic practices, KAWS employs his skill and delight as a designer of toys and other objects in his practice as a painter and sculptor. The objects he produces for commercial consumption are in direct dialogue with his art; in fact, he thinks of his t-shirt designs as "drawings." His new paintings in this exhibition allude to pop culture sources such as Sponge Bob Square Pants, as well as the more obscure work of artist H. C. Westermann, who also drew upon popular cartoon imagery in his work. "Companion," which will be installed on the Museum's Sifly Piazza, represents one of several hybrid figures created by KAWS who are part of a growing cast of characters. Enlarged to a monumental scale, "Companion" fuses a Mickey Mouse-inspired body with an inflated skull-and-crossbones head, an image that has become emblematic of KAWS. The sculpture's contemplative pose recalls Rodin's famed "The Thinker," provoking us to wonder what is on the character's mind and inviting us to empathize with its tragicomic posture. Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, emerged as a street artist in the early 1990s, painting his moniker on walls and billboards in and around Jersey City and New York City. In the mid-1990s he began modifying advertisements in bus shelters and on phone booths with paintings of his emblematic skull-andcrossbones motif. He continued to develop this image for the next few years, conducting guerilla interventions on advertisements in bus shelters and phone booths not only in New York City, but also Paris, London, Berlin and Tokyo. This work led to direct collaborations with the commercial photographers and designers who produced the original ads and has been featured in numerous publications. It was exhibited most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, as part of the groundbreaking exhibition "Art in the Streets." KAWS studied at The School of Visual Arts in New York City and currently lives in Brooklyn. His work has been exhibited internationally in Japan, France, Spain and The Netherlands. KAWS is represented by Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, and Galerie Perrotin, Paris. The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States. With more than 12,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High's media arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005 the High opened three new buildings designed by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum's size, creating a vibrant "village for the arts" at the Woodruff Arts Center in midtown Atlanta. Visit the museum's website at ... www.High.org.

The Uffizi Gallery In Florence ~ The Finest Collection Of Renaissance Art In The World Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:30 PM PST The Uffizi Palace is one of the most loved monuments in Florence and contains the world's leading collection of renaissance art. Originally commissioned by Cosimo I, Duke of Florence and the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Uffizi was designed by Giorgio Vasari in the middle of the 16th century. The intention of Cosimo I was to build a palace that could host the thirteen administrative and judicial Magistrature or Uffizi, from which the palace would take its name. Vasari was also responsible for the building, five years later, of an overhead corridor passing above Ponte Vecchio and the Church of Santa Felicità, to link the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace, the new residence of the Medici family, and which provides stunning views of the palace courtyard and Arno river. The building has an unusual and singular horseshoe shape, which opens towards the Arno River. The two floors of the building, rise above a pillared portico that runs along the whole length of the palace. The portico niches contain statues of Florentine dignitaries and artists from the middle Ages to the 19th century. It was Francesco I de' Medici, Cosimo I's son, who first created an art Gallery on the second floor of the Palazzo degli Uffizi to entertain himself, during his walks, with the collection of paintings, sculptures and arrases belonging to the Medici family. The key point in the history of the Uffizi came in 1737, when the last Medici heiress, Anna Maria Luisa moved to France and signed an agreement that all the Medici artworks were not to be removed from Florence. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public. Over the years, the Uffizi has survived wartime bombing, flooding in 1966 and 2007 and a terrorist car bombing (attributed to the Sicilian Mafia) in 1993 which damaged some frescoes in the Niobe room beyond repair. In addition to its galleries, the Uffizi contains teaching facilities, an art restoration laboratory, photographic studio and research center. Rennovations are currently under way on parts of the building, under the "New Uffizi" project. When completed these will increase the gallery space, allow more of the collection to be put on public display and reduce the overcrowding caused by almost 2 million visitors every year. Visit the Uffizi's website at … http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/uffizi/ The exhibition rooms are composed of over 45 rooms containing about 1,700 paintings, 300 sculptures, 46 tapestries and 14 pieces of furniture and/or ceramics. The Uffizi actually owns about 4,800 works, the remainder are either in storage or on loan to other museums. On the ground floor, is the series of frescoes by Andrea del Castagno as well as an Annunciation by Botticelli (a fresco detached from the church of S. Martino alla Scala). A large staircase, built by Vasari, leads to the second floor, were the Medici theatre once stood. This area now contains the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, an exceptional graphic collection comprising more than 120,000 works, from the 14th to the 20th century. On the third floor are two vestibules, which lead into the galleries and which contain a collection of busts of grand dukes and Roman statues. Three corridors on this floor contain the bulk of the visible collection. The first corridor contains the religious art of the Renaissance and the artworks by Flemish artists. Along the perimeter of the corridor is the Medicean collection of head moulds, on the vaulted ceilings are frescoes representing animals, imaginary monsters, satyrs and the Medicean achievements. The first rooms are dedicated to the art of the 13th and 14th centuries, including "The Madonna d'Ognissanti" by Giotto, "The Maestà di Santa Trinita" by Cimabue and "The Maestà" by Duccio di Buoninsegna. From the 14th century the "Triptych of San Matteo" by Andrea di Cione, the "Polyptych of San Pancrazio" by Bernardo Daddi and the "Presentation to the Temple" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti lead into the collection of international Gothic works. These include "The Adoration of the Magi" by Lorenzo Monaco. Among the artworks of the early Renaissance the "Coronation of the Blessed Virgin" by Beato Angelico, the "Battle of San Romano" by Paolo Uccello, "Portrait of the Dukes of Urbino" by Piero della Francesca and "The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin" by Filippo Lippi. These are followed by the collection of Boticelli masterpieces, including "La calunnia", "Primavera", "The Birth of Venus", "The Adoration of the Magi", "Madonna della Melagrana", and "Coronation of the Blessed Virgin". The Renaissance is celebrated by two magnificent paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, "l'Adorazione dei Magi" and "The "Annunciation" alongside works by Pietro Perugino and Piero di Cosimo. Superb examples of Florentine portraiture from the 16th century include Medici portraits by Pontormo, 'l'Angiolino musicante' by Rosso Fiorentino and 'la Dama col Petrarchino' by Andrea del Sarto. In a series of adjoining rooms are the works of German art from the 15th and 16th century and paintings from Lombardia and Emilia that evoke mythological tales and detailed Flemish landscapes, including "Adam and Eve" by Lucas Cranach, "Adoration of the Magi" by Andrea Mantegna and "The Blessed Virgin adoring the Child" by Correggio. The second corridor contains Roman statues and portraits under the frescoed vaulted ceilings. The miniatures Cabinet opens off this corridor. The third Corridor contains the 16th century artworks by Michelangelo ("The Tondo Doni") and Rafael ("Madonna of the Goldfinch" and "Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi"), Titian ("Flora" and "Venus of Urbino), Parmigianino ("The Madonna of the Long Neck") amongst others. From the 17th century works, highlights include, Peter Paul Rubens ("Judith with the Head of Holofernes", "Portrait of Isabella Brant", "Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry", "Self-Portrait without a Hat" and others), Caravaggio ("The Sacrifice of Isaac" and "Medusa"), Rembrandt Van Rijn ("Self-portrait as a Young Man", "Self-portrait as an Old Man" and "Portrait of an Old Man") and views by Canaletto. The Uffizi now houses a huge artistic heritage consisting of thousands of paintings from medieval to modern times, a great number of antique sculptures, illuminations, and tapestries. It is also famous for its collection of self-portraits, which constantly grew through new acquisitions and donations of contemporary artists, as well as for another remarkable collection, that of the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints. Throughout the 19th century, new rooms were opened and the picture gallery continued to expand through the addition of major works including Botticelli's famous The Birth of Venus (acquired in 1815) and Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation (acquired in 1867). The acquisition of the Primavera, the splendid panel painted by Botticelli around 1482, dates to 1919. The 20th century led to the re-arrangement of the works, on various occasions, much restoration and, in recent times, the definitive arrangement of the Contini Bonacossi collection. From March 11th 2011 until June 12th 2011, the Uffizi is hosting "Figure, memory, Space", a selection of drawings from the 15th century taken equally from the Uffizi and British Museum collections. The exhibition unites two of the most important graphics collections in the world in a partnership symbolically using an identical number of loans from each collection. The intention is to focus on the decades from the start of the fifteenth century to the early years of the sixteenth when drawing established its role as an independent artistic expression. The artists featured are all outstanding and include Florentine and central Italian artists such as Lorenzo Monaco, Beato Angelico, Filippo and Filippino Lippi, the Pollaiolo, Verrocchio, Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandaio right through to Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo. Alongside these, northern Italian artists represented include Pisanello, Amico Aspertini, the Ferrara school, Jacopo and Gentile Bellini, Mantegna and Titian. Each of them offers their own interpretation of drawing, an intimate expression of their individual draughtsmanship, elaboration of a style, experimentation of a technique and meditation on the subject. In conjunction with this exhibition, in the Reali Poste, the Prints and Drawings Department will be displaying a further selection of fifty drawings, engravings and jewelry, again inspired by the three categories of Figures, Memories and Space. These are works visible only in Florence (the main exhibition had previously been on show at the British Museum), such as Mantegna's Judith or the small cartoon for the Equestrian Monument to Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Uccello and two small sketches once attributed to Cimabue, possibly by Giorgio Vasari himself. Finally, in the actual Gallery around twenty paintings by Renaissance artists have been provided with informative panels designed to connect the paintings with the preparatory studies on show in the Reali Poste. The shows are accompanied by two catalogues published by Giunti. The first of these is an Italian version of the preceding English publication, while the second is devoted to the works on display in the Prints and Drawings Department and to issues connected with collecting, taste and the critical reception of fifteenth-century Italian drawings and Florentine prints from Vasari to Berenson.

Waterhouse & Dodd To Show 20th Century European & American Art in Soho Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:29 PM PST New York City.- Waterhouse & Dodd are delighted to present a major exhibition "Art of the 20th Century in Europe & America" in their new Soho gallery. The exhibition will be on view from from 9th June to 23rd June at the gallery in Greene Street, Soho, New York City.

Art Gallery of New South Wales Exhibition Focuses on Six Photographers Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:28 PM PST SYDNEY.- In May 1955 a group of six Australian photographers showed some 200 photographs in an exhibition held at David Jones Gallery in Sydney. The artists were Gordon Andrews, Max Dupain, Kerry Dundas, Hal Missingham, Axel Poignant and David Potts. It was a key exhibition in representing a shift away from the traditions of pictorialism to the recording of contemporary life. On exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales through 7 March, 2010.

The Romanian Academy hosts the 7th Edition of Spazi Aperti ~ The Annual Collaborative Exhibition Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:27 PM PST ROME - The Romanian Academy announced the 7th edition of Spazi Aperti, the annual collaborative exhibition in a continuous expansion, opening on Wednesday, 27th May 2009. The exhibition is curated by Mirela Pribac and will take place in the alternative spaces of the Romanian Academy in Rome, opened for site-specific installations. As in previous editions, Spazi Aperti is the largest collaboration between the artists in residence at foreign academies and institutes in Rome, this year including: the American Academy, the Belgian Academy, the Danish Academy, Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici, the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, the Hungarian Academy, the British School at Rome, the Scandinavian Circle, the Swedish Institute, the Swiss Institute, the Royal Spanish Academy and Temple University. For the first time Spazi Aperti is launching a theme: re:making worlds / ri:fare mondi. With this theme artists are invited to create and exhibit work exploring the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality, bridging between past and present, navigating among personal memories and memory in a larger, historical sense. The works will engage in a discourse on how memory can be preserved and re:delivered, as filtered through the fantastic net of imagination. Fantasy becomes the mediator between past and present and will determine the way memories are recycled. In a year marking the passage of 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the decline of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, artists will explore how fantasy worlds emerge from sublimated historical trauma. The title also playfully connects with the theme of 53rd Venice Biennale entitled Making Worlds / Fare Mondi, underlining the ludic element of the exhibition that aims to re:activate realities of the past through fantasy, without embarking on the utopian enterprise of redefining the world. The opening concert will feature an extraordinary performance by Alexander Balanescu of the Balanescu Quartet in London, playing together with the Romanian cult vocalist Ada Milea. The electronic music concert of the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, the Infinite Column theatre performance by Telluris Associati and the Argentinian Tango of Marco Lo Russo Ensemble are curated by Alexandra Solea. The special guest for this edition will be the National Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, presenting the works of young Romanian talents. The selected artists include: Michele Bressan, Valeriu Catalineanu, George Enache, Anca Stirbacu, Dragos Stroe. Participants include: David Humphrey, Marie Lorenz, Jeff Williams (American Academy), Térèse Dehin (Belgian Academy), Fie Tanderup (Danish Academy), Emmanuel Giraud (Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici), Henriette Grahnert, Jochen Lempert, Charlotte Seither, Daniel Widrig (German Academy Rome Villa Massimo), János Kórodi, Erik Mátrai, Annamaria Ory, Nóra Bujdosó (Hungarian Academy), Chris Cook, Katie Cuddon, Celia Hempton, Eddie Peake (The British School at Rome), Daniel Hoflund (Scandinavian Circle), Amanda Werger (Swedish Institute), Luzia Hürzeler, Una Szeemann e Bohdan Stehlik (Swiss Institute), Ingrid Buchwald, Iñaki Carnicero, Iñaki Estrada Torio, Héctor Fernández-Elorza, Fernando Maquieira, Jaumesimo Sabatergarau, Manuel Saiz, Toni Tena (Royal Spanish Academy), Marius Purice, Monica Timofei, Paul Timofei (Romanian Academy), Christopher Hartshorne, Louis-Pierre Lachapelle, Sheryl Oppenheim (Temple University). Other Special guests include: Georgiana Branea e Doru Popescu (Romania), Adina Drinceanu e Matteo Peretti (Italy), Alessandra Giacinti (Italy), Mark Kostabi (Italy/USA) e Myriam Laplante (Italy/Canada). Laplante will give the first performance of a work designed for the Venice Biennale.

National Trust & Royal Academy of Arts Collaborate on New Public Art Commission Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:26 PM PST LONDON.- The Royal Academy of Arts and the National Trust today announced a major new public art commission to go on display on the façade of the Royal Academy's 6 Burlington Gardens as part of the forthcoming exhibition GSK Contemporary, Earth: Art of a changing world, which opens on 3 December 2009. The commission represents the first collaboration between these two major cultural organisations and, at the end of the London exhibition in 2010, the work will tour selected National Trust properties. CO2 morrow, a spectacular 8 metre diameter artwork by artists Marcos Lutyens and Alessandro Marianantoni, is inspired by a zeolite, a molecule that scrubs carbon dioxide from pollution sources.

ARCOmadrid Opens 30th Edition with Works of Art Between the Ordinary and Extraordinary Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:25 PM PST MADRID.- ARCOmadrid opens its doors on February 16th to art world professionals from noon to 9 pm, who can now get their passes to the fair online in the Request for Professional Access section on our web. After two professional preview days, the fair opens to the general public on Friday 18th until Sunday 20th, from noon to 8 pm. The public can also get their tickets online. Anyone interested in knowing more about the upcoming fair can find what they are looking for in INFOARCO, also available on our web. INFOARCO contains details of how to get there, admission, galleries, the different sections, awards, prizes, etc. plus lots of useful information on Madrid and what's happening art-wise in the city during the fair. At the same time, this coming February 9th, ARCOmadrid is launching its application for iPhone and iPad, downloadable from iTunes. ARCO runs from 16 February 2011 until 20 February 2011. With a number of 197 galleries taking part this year, 2011 edition has a special focus on Russia.

Avant-Garde Artist Christo Coetzee on Show at the University of Pretoria Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:24 PM PST Pretoria, SA - The University of Pretoriais showing a retrospective of the controversial avant-garde South African artist Christo Coetzeeuntil July 31st. This extraordinary exhibition of 64 of his works is on view in the Edoardo Villa Museum, Old Merensky Building on the main campus of the University. In 2000 Christo Coetzee bequeathed his entire collection to the University of Pretoria. This temporary exhibition showcases some of the greatest works of Christo Coetzee in the collection of the University of Pretoria, as well as some of his best personal works recently acquired from his home in Tulbach. Also represented in the exhibition will be the artworks of his late wife, Ferrie Binge-Coetzee who was tragically killed in a fire in 2010. This remarkable exhibition is presented by the Department of UP Arts and showcases artworks by this artist which have rarely been seen before. Avant-garde works shown include a painted typewriter, a miniature painted piano and many more of his unconventional artworks. Five artworks by his artist-wife Ferrie Binge-Coetzee (1926-2009) will also be on show. This winter exhibition, which is on until 29 July 2011, is a must for anyone interested in the exceptionally creative avant-garde creations of this world renowned 20th century South African artist. Christo Coetzee was born in Johannesburg on 24 March 1929. His father died when he was 10 years old, and he was raised by his mother and his two sisters. Coetzee graduated from Wits University, where among his classmates were a number of artists with whom he would maintain contacts for many years, including Cecil Skotnes, Esmé Bermanand Gordon Vorster. Coetzee had his first solo exhibition in Cape Town shortly after graduating. He then went on to travel the world, spending time in London, Italy, France, japan and Spain during the 1950s and 60s. His work featured regularly in solo and group shows around the world, including Osaka and Tokyo (Japan), in New Hampton, Pittsburgh and New York (USA), Turin (Italy) and at the Galerie Stadlerin Paris. In Japan, Coetzee was introduced to the avant-garde Gutai Groupand he remained in close contact with them. By the 1970's Coetzee's work was being appreciated in South Africa, and he made numerous visits to promote the almost annual exhibitions of his work that were held. In 1975, the day after the opening of a solo exhibition of Coetzee's work in Cape Town, the artist went back to the gallery and cut up 23 of his paintings in what he called an act of "construction" rather than "destruction". Four months after this "protest exhibition" as Coetzee called it, he re-imaged the same works by combining and supplementing the fragments and pieces to create new works to be shown at the Rand Afrikaans University's Gencor Gallery in Johannesburg. Coetzee died in Tulbagh at the age of 71 in November of 2000. The University of Pretoria's art and heritage collections encompass fifty-two unique collections, these include four significant collections which are on permanent public display in the Edoardo Villa, Mapungubwe, Van Wouw and Van Tilburg buildings. The UP Arts Museums play a major role in disseminating heritage and cultural information to diverse societies and is an ideal environment for quality temporary exhibitions. All the collections are available for research, education, conservation, and enjoyment purposes. The South African art collection contains the work of 350 painters and graphic artists, 60 sculptors and 14 potters. There are large collections of paintings by particular artists. The sculpture collection, the largest in South Africa, contains work by Sidney Kumalo, Thijs Nel, Maureen Quinn, Michael Teffo, Lucky Sibya, Ian Redlinghuys, Anton Smitand others, while the pottery collection has, amongst others, beautiful pieces from the Ardmore Studio. All these artworks are displayed in uildings spread over the University campus, with the most important works safely secured. As well as South African artists, there are also excellent artworks by prominent international artists including Max Pechstein, Kathe Kollwitz, Max Lieberman, George Grosz, Otto Mueller, Thomas Benton, Marc Chagall, Karol Fox and others. At present the collection consists of 2,760 paintings and graphic works, 800 sculptures and 30 ceramic pieces. Visit the university art galleries web site at ... http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=10318

Waterhouse & Dodd to host Angela Palmer's solo ' Unravelled ' Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:23 PM PST   London - Angela Palmer's work represents a meeting point between science and art.  'Unravelled' traces the journey of an Egyptian mummy child from the The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford to the scanning theatres of the John Radcliffe hospital where the mummy child underwent a series of MRI scans. This intriguing journey through its bandages unearthed an enlarged head and a delicate body removed of various organs. These scans then became the source material behind Angela Palmer's quest to compose a portrait of this child. This led Angela to re-trace the steps of this child back to Cairo and the Fayum desert in Egypt. There Angela found new faces and lives which she brings into her exhibition through, stills, film and glass sculptures.

David Prentice 'London Cityscapes' at the John Davies Gallery, UK Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:21 PM PST Moreton-in-Marsh, UK - David Prentice: City Paintings is the title of a small exhibition of magnificent large canvases depicting the City of London as viewed from the top of King's Reach Tower. The show runs from April 19th – May 10th at John Davies' new 3,000 sq. ft. gallery located in Moreton-in-Marsh, the Cotswolds. Landmarks in the paintings include The London Eye, Swiss Re Tower (The Gurkin), St Paul's, and Tower Bridge, to name a few.

The Art Galery of New South Wales Unveils New Floor for Contemporary Art Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:20 PM PST Sydney, AU - On May 21st, the Art Gallery of New South Waleswill unveil a new floor for contemporary art, featuring the John Kaldor Family Gallery. With the inclusion of the Kaldor Collection, the Gallery now holds Australia's most comprehensive representation of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day.In 2008 John Kaldor and his family announced their intention to give the John Kaldor Family Collection to the state of NSW. This was the catalyst for the government to provide funds to the Gallery to build a state-of-the-art offsite storage facility to allow space within the Gallery to display the collection. The Kaldor Family gift, valued in excess of $35 million, is the largest single art donation to an Australian public gallery and includes over 200 works of art. This extraordinary gift, together with funds generously donated by the Belgiorno-Nettis family, enabled the re-development of the Gallery's old storage area and existing display space to create an entire new floor of 3300 square metres of exhibition space. The floor comprises the John Kaldor Family Gallery, a suite of contemporary and modern galleries, a dedicated photography gallery and a study room for the Gallery's works on paper collection. There are a number of commissioned and newly installed, site-specific works of art, including five vast drawings by Sol LeWitt, a major wall work by Richard Long and a new installation by Ugo Rondinone on the large stairwell that descends into the John Kaldor Family Gallery. The Gallery will hold an open weekend to celebrate the launch of the new contemporary galleries on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of May. Events include keynote talks by leading international and Australian artists, floor talks by Edmund Caponand John Kaldor, and an extensive performance and film program. While the Kaldor Projects have been very public, Kaldor's collection has only been exhibited twice before and has until now filled the Kaldor family home, offices and a large storage facility. From May 2011 a selection of works from the collection will always be on public display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The first display from the Kaldor Collection features a selection of key works while in adjacent galleries major works from the Gallery's collection will be on show. In 2012 the entire floor will integrate both collections: this will enable, for the first time in Australia, the telling of a comprehensive art history from the 1960s to now. The new floor includes a dedicated photography gallery. The first exhibition in the photography gallery is Tracey Moffatt's series Up in the sky 1998. The Gallery's modern international collection is also displayed on this level. From the birth of modernism at the beginning of the 20th century to the present, this gallery includes major works by Braque, Kirchner, Beckmann, Picasso, Morandi, Auerbachand Giacomettiamong others. Established in 1874, the Art Gallery of NSW is proud to present fine international and Australian art in one of the most beautiful art museums in the world. We aim to be a place of experience and inspiration, through our collection, exhibitions, programs and research. Modern and contemporary works are displayed in expansive, light-filled spaces, offering stunning views of Sydney and the harbour, while our splendid Grand Courts are home to a distinguished collection of colonial and 19th-century Australian works and European old masters. There are also dedicated galleries celebrating the arts of Asia and Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander art. Alongside our permanent collection are regularly changing temporary exhibitions – more than 30 each year – including flagship annual exhibitions such as the Archibald Prizeand ARTEXPRESS. One of the most popular art museums in Australia, visited by over 1.3 million people annually, the Gallery is far more than just a destination for looking at pictures. It's also a place to enjoy lectures and symposia, films, music and performances, meet friends for a meal or coffee in the cafe or restaurant, or browse in the Gallery Shop. Our range of access programs is aimed at engaging diverse audiences with different needs. And more than 100 000 students visit each year to take part in our engaging and stimulating education programs. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:19 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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