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

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• The Wichita Art Museum to Display the "Tides of Provincetown"
• Over 1 million visitors to the National Museum of Ireland in 2011
• Video Series at New Museum features Brian Bress's "Status Report"
• Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction will Highlight fresh-to-market works
• Unique Exquisite Gold and Gemstone Paintings by Fareen Butt
• Screen Goddess car is the Star of Bonhams inaugural Auto Auction
• Foto/Grafica: A new history of the Latin-American photobook at Le Bal
• "Rockwell's America" named London's best art exhibition for 2011 by American Spectator magazine
• University of Richmond Museums opens "Dancing with the Dark: Joan Snyder Prints"
• The Katonah Museum of Art Shows Works of Art Inspired by New York City
• British Museum Announces Major Touring Exhibition on Chinese History & Culture
• The Art Gallery of Ontario hosts Two New Exhibitions of Social & Political Change
• Our AKN Editor Tours The Thorvaldsens Museum ~ Denmark's Oldest Museum Building
• Conner Contemporary Art To Host Concurrent Solo Exhibitions
• Berlin's Museum of Prints & Drawings opens Works by renowned German artist Emil Nolde
• A Safari Museum Hidden In The Middle of Kansas
• "A Venomous Bloom" by Kent Henricksen at Paul Kasmin Gallery
• Russia to Celebrate 450th Anniversary of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow
• The Weinstein Gallery Opens ~ "Surrealism: New Worlds", A Major Exhibition
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Wichita Art Museum to Display the "Tides of Provincetown" Posted: 24 Jan 2012 09:49 PM PST Wichita, Kansas.- The Wichita Art Museum is proud to present "Tides of Provincetown", on view at the museum from February 5th through April 29th. Works of art from what was at one time one of the world's largest and arguably most influential art colonies feature in this travelling exhibition organized by the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. The Tides of Provincetown will highlight over 100 well-known artists who called the art colony home at one point during their careers and who drew inspiration and support from its growing community. Among the artists represented in the exhibition are Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Edward Hopper. A bustling economy, train travel, and a war in Europe, which prevented artists from traveling overseas, were some of the prevailing factors in Provincetown, Massachusetts becoming a haven for artistic creativity and productivity. Hailed as the "Biggest Art Colony in the World" by the Boston Globe in 1916, the relatively small Cape Cod town has hosted some of the biggest names in art since the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has played a pivotal role in the development of nearly every major American art movement in the last 100 years. This exclusive exhibition gives the viewer the unique opportunity to travel visually from American Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism, observing the influence Provincetown artists had on their peers as well as on the art world at large. "We are honored to bring this exhibition to Wichita," Says Stephen Gleissner, the Museum's chief curator. "The breadth of this collection is staggering, and seeing all of these amazing, significant works of art in one place at one time is truly awe-inspiring." The exhibition will be divided into eight sections that focus on various key years and events in the art colony and highlight Provincetown's importance in America's art history. Artists have been selected based on their contribution to the Provincetown art colony as well as their influence beyond Cape Cod. Just as the focus is on the key moments in Provincetown's history, so the exhibition will highlight artists who played a pivotal role in the colony and were the important figures and artistic forces. Furthermore, their presence in Provincetown as well as their influence on other artists through schools, mentorships, and/or pure aesthetic power of their artwork are examined. While many of the artists worked or lived in Provincetown for years—such as Milton Avery, Charles W. Hawthorne, Henry Hensche, Hans Hofmann, Blanche Lazzell, Robert Motherwell, and E. Ambrose Webster—others "passed through" the art colony. We aim to show that many of the great artists of the twentieth century—including Stuart Davis, Willem de Kooning, Charles Demuth, Red Grooms, Edward Hopper, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol—were inspired by Provincetown, even if they were only there for a short period of time. The Wichita Art Museum was established in 1915, when Louise Murdock's Will which created a trust to start the Roland P. Murdock Collection of art in memory of her husband. The trust would purchase of art for the City of Wichita by "American painters, potters, sculptors, and textile weavers." The collection includes works by Mary Cassatt, Arthur G. Dove, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyshoi, John Marin, Paul Meltsner, Horace Pippin, Maurice Prendergast, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Charles Sheeler. The Museum's lobby features a ceiling and chandelier made by Dale Chihuly. The museum opened opened in 1935 with art borrowed from other museums. The first work in the Murdock Collection was purchased in 1939. Mrs. Murdock's friend, Elizabeth Stubblefield Navas, selected and purchased works of American art for the Murdock Collection till 1962. The building was enlarged with a new lobby and two new wings in 1963. In 1964 a foundation was established for the purpose of raising funds for new acquisitions. In the 1970's the city built a new and larger climate controlled facility. In 2003 the museum finished another expansion project giving the building 115,000 total square feet. Visit the museum's website at ... http://wichitaartmuseum.org

Over 1 million visitors to the National Museum of Ireland in 2011 Posted: 24 Jan 2012 09:24 PM PST DUBLIN, IRELAND - The total visitor figures to the 4 sites of the National Museum of Ireland for 2011 is 1,096,027 which was not only a 10% increase on 2010 but also the highest figure ever for visits to the Museum. The reasons for this increase were public programming, the exhibitions and galleries but also Free Admission which given the current economic climate, means everyone can visit the museum regardless of income. In addition, the number of tourists visiting Ireland increased by 7% in 2011 which also contributed to the increase in the NMI visitor figures. A major reason for the increase in visitors to the museum is free admission.

Video Series at New Museum features Brian Bress's "Status Report" Posted: 24 Jan 2012 08:47 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- The New Museum announces the latest presentation in its 'Stowaways' series, the New York premier of Brian Bress's Status Report (2009). In Bress's low-tech video, humorous characters, all played by the artist, struggle with interpersonal relationships, the pursuit of intended goals, and the desire to communicate. Manipulating pictorial and sculptural conventions through fantastically hand-crafted sets and costumes that combine drawing, painting, and collage, Bress creates a disjunctive world where spaces of imagination and representation compete for equal footing. Brian Bress (b. 1975) lives and works in Los Angeles. His videos have been shown at ICA, Philadelphia; LAX Art, Los Angeles; Diverse Works, Houston; University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa; and Parrish Art Museum, South Hampton.

Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction will Highlight fresh-to-market works Posted: 24 Jan 2012 07:25 PM PST LONDON.- Following Sotheby's third most successful year ever (2011) for global auctions of Contemporary Art, which totaled $1.17 billion, the company presents its forthcoming Contemporary Art Evening Auction. The sale, which will be staged in London on Tuesday, February 15th, 2012, will include an array of major artworks by established Post-War and Contemporary artists including Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alighiero Boetti and Alberto Burri, and will also feature an exceptionally strong British Art section, comprising works by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, Leon Kossoff, among others. The Evening Auction is estimated to realize in excess of £35.8 million.

Unique Exquisite Gold and Gemstone Paintings by Fareen Butt Posted: 24 Jan 2012 07:00 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- St. Armand Ventures with Sergio Fernandez de Cordova and Jonathan R. Stein in collaboration with curcioprojects and Mayson Gallery are excited to present artist Fareen Butt's unique series of crushed gems and semi precious stone "paintings" entitled MIRAGE MOUNTAINSCAPES: Landscapes of Creation. Dominique Nahas, well known writer, curator and educator, wrote an essay to accompany the works. Not your typical oil or acrylic paintings, the entire medium used is a combination of crushed gold, silver, sapphires, rubies, onyx and rare geological minerals such as witherite (phosphorescent mineral) or muonionalusta (mineral from a meteor), with additional precious metal-based pigments. The technique is derived from a synthesis of centuries old Japanese Nihonga, Persian and Hindostani gemstone painting while executed in the Pointillism style of Seuart and of contemporaries like Pousette-Dart.

Screen Goddess car is the Star of Bonhams inaugural Auto Auction Posted: 24 Jan 2012 06:58 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Bonhams foray into the Scottsdale auto auction week proved to be a strong success with a sale total of $6.2 million. Amidst the grounds of the beautiful and conveniently accessible AAA Four Diamond Westin Kierland Resort, an impressive and diverse line-up of cars offered buyers an unparalleled array of pedigree machinery from which to choose. The top seller of Thursday's sale was a well-documented 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet C, which brought $667,000 after a fierce bidding battle between home markets, the UK, eastern Europe and the Far East. Offered from a New York collection where it had resided for more than 40 years, the car will return to continental Europe for the first time since it was built. The true star of the auction, however, was the cover lot – the impeccable Marlene Dietrich 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Transformable Phaeton, which made its top estimate at $524,000 to the acclaim of the audience.

Foto/Grafica: A new history of the Latin-American photobook at Le Bal Posted: 24 Jan 2012 06:27 PM PST PARIS.- 'Photography', wrote August Sander, 'is like a mosaic: it only achieves a synthesis when you can display it all at once'. In order to arrive at such a synthesis, photographers have two forms at their disposal: the exhibition or the book, two continuous sequences of images structured into a comprehensive argument. FOTO/GRÁFICA thus constitutes an original approach insofar as it combines these two forms: an exhibition of photobooks as autonomous objects, accompanied by vintage prints, films and mock-ups. The research carried out on photobooks over the past ten years has gradually forged a new history of photography throughout the world, including Latin America. During the first Latin American Photo Forum, held in São Paulo in 2007, a committee composed of Marcelo Brodsky, Iatã Cannabrava, Horacio Fernández, Leslie A. Martin, Martin Parr and Ramón Reverté signalled the crucial lack of any overall survey of the books published on the continent during the twentieth century. A rigorous investigation was called for in order to compensate for this silence through the systematic rescue of works whose value was incontestable, owing to a complex alchemy of many ingredients: the quality of the images themselves, the sequencing, the text, the layout, the binding, the printing and so on. This research was to bear exclusively on photobooks published in Latin America by Latin American authors actively involved in the making of the book. This effort entailed more than three years of interviewing photographers, graphic designers, collectors, researchers and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic and combing rare bookstores and public and private libraries. Tracking down the 'unknown' on a continental scale transformed this investigation into a vertiginously exciting quest which had as its outcome an anthology of 150 books published between 1921 and 2009: The Latin American Photo Book. The books which came to light are incisive, complex, unsettling and often forgotten, star-crossed or otherwise secret works. The exhibition FOTO/GRÁFICA presents forty of them, most of which are unknown to the public, and thus serves to reveal Latin America's remarkable contribution to the world history of the photobook. CLAUDIA ANDUJAR and MARTÍN CHAMBI The exhibition begins with two major works echoing pre-Columbian America: one shows the landscape and its first inhabitants, the other, the cultures destroyed by colonisation. In Amazônia (1978), by Brazilian photographers Claudia Andujar (Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1931- ) and George Love (Charlotte, North Carolina, 1937-São Paulo, Brazil, 1995), the primeval America, Paradise lost and its inhabitants, the masters of the Earth are evoked through a dramatic, film-like narrative charged with emotion. Alturas de Macchu Picchu (Heights of Machu Picchu, 1954) brings together one of the major poems of Nobel Prize laureate Pablo Neruda and the photographs of the great master Martín Chambi (Coaza, Peru, 1891-Cuzco, Peru, 1973). These archaeological photographs are devoid of any human presence, unlike Neruda's verses, populated by 'Juan Stonecutter, son of Wiracocha' and other inhabitants of the vast Inca city lost for centuries before its rediscovery in 1911. HISTORY AND PROPAGANDA Photobooks of protest and propaganda trace a visual history of Latin America in the twentieth century which is fraught with implacable tensions between conservative and reformist ideologies. This history begins with the period of the great Mexican Revolution of the 1910s as related in the Álbum histórico gráfico (Graphic history album, 1921) of Agustín Víctor Casasola (Mexico City, 1874-1938). The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 mobilised an entire generation of outstanding photographers and graphic designers. The books of the early years embody faith in the future and rejection of the past, as seen in Cuba: Z.D.A. (Cuba Agrarian Development Zone, 1960), Sartre visita a Cuba (Sartre visits Cuba, 1960) and El socialismo y el hombre en Cuba (Socialism and man in Cuba, 1965). This revolutionary hope for change spread throughout Latin America, as demonstrated by photobooks such as América, un viaje a través de la injusticia (America, a journey through injustice, 1970), a synthesis of observation, emotion and culture on a continental scale by Enrique Bostelmann (Guadalajara, Mexico, 1939-Mexico City, 2003). URBAN PHOTOGRAPHY Latin America's cities have inspired major photobooks. Doorway to Brasilia (1959), a work by graphic designer Aloísio Magalhães (Recife, Brazil, 1927-Padua, Italy, 1982) and North American artist and printer Eugene Feldman, extols the architectural transformation of the landscape by means of an extraordinary demonstration of graphic ingenuity. More reserved, but just as monumental, Buenos Aires (1936) embodies the 'photographic vision' of Horacio Coppola (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1906- ), in an empty urban stage. By contrast, La Ciudad de Mexico III (Mexico City III) by Nacho López (Tampico, Mexico, 1923-Mexico City, 1983) celebrates the street life uniting architecture and city-dwellers. In Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (1958) by Sara Facio (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1932- ) and Alicia D'Amico (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1933-2001), the only decoration is the crowd, the hustle and bustle of ordinary people. Similarly privileging the public over the setting, Avándaro (1971) by Graciela Iturbide (Mexico City, 1942- ) recreates the energy of Mexico's first rock festival through the reframing and repetition of the images. Both of these books are distinguished by their graphic design, the work of Oscar Cesar Mara and Antonio Serna, respectively. Color natural (Natural colour, 1969) by Venezuelan photographer Graziano Gasparini (Gorizia, Italy, 1924- ), meanwhile, celebrates the gleaming, artificial colour of the city of Maracaibo. PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAYS A certain number of Latin American photobooks stand out for the complexity of their narratives and the uniqueness of their form. El rectángulo en la mano (The rectangle in the hand, 1963), for example, is a moving little artist's book with a marvellous form, a fragile masterpiece by the mythical photographer Sergio Larrain (Santiago, Chile, 1931- ). In Sistema nervioso (Nervous system, 1975), Venezuelan photographer Barbara Brändli (Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1932- ), graphic designer John Lange and writer Román Chalbaud present the city of Caracas like a puzzle composed of enigmatic signs reflecting 'the chaos, the improvisation, the humour, the grotesqueness . . . '. In Fotografías (Photographs, 1983), photographer Fernell Franco (Versalles, Colombia, 1942-Cali, Colombia, 2006) sheds light on endless mysteries: 'I liked to photograph the way the shadows gradually disappeared into total darkness and the light died'. Dissatisfied with the quality of the printing, Franco decided to destroy his book, and only a few copies are to be found today.  El cubano se ofrece (These are the Cubans, 1986), an essay by Iván Cañas (Havana, Cuba, 1946- ) on life in a Cuban village, shows the other side of official propaganda stereotypes. Retromundo (Retroworld, 1986), by Venezuelan photographer Paolo Gasparini (Gorizia, Italy, 1934- ) in close collaboration with graphic designer Álvaro Sotillo, contrasts two ways of looking: that of Europe and North America, which proliferates in a flood of chaotic images, and that of the New World, which goes beyond appearances to privilege direct contact with beings and things. The more theatrical photographs of Brazilian artist Miguel Rio Branco (Las Palmas, Spain, 1946- ) refer explicitly to film and painting and, with the blood-red bestiary Nakta (1996), undertake a 'journey of pain, of the material nature of suffering'.

"Rockwell's America" named London's best art exhibition for 2011 by American Spectator magazine Posted: 24 Jan 2012 05:49 PM PST LONDON.- The American Spectator magazine's December/January 2012 issue named the National Museum of American Illustration's Norman Rockwell's America - at London's oldest art museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery for their Bicentennial Celebration last year- to be London's best art exhibition of 2011. The exhibition drew record-setting attendance numbers as the first ever showing of Rockwell's original artworks in the UK, and is now on display at the NMAI in Newport, Rhode Island under the title Norman Rockwell: American Imagist. The National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI) is a nonprofit independent, educational, and aesthetic organization located in Vernon Court. It is the first national museum devoted exclusively to illustration art, images created to be reproduced in books, periodicals, art prints, and advertisements.

University of Richmond Museums opens "Dancing with the Dark: Joan Snyder Prints" Posted: 24 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST RICHMOND, VA.- On view in the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art , University of Richmond Museums , from January 24th to April 22nd, Dancing with the Dark: Joan Snyder Prints 1963-2010 features a selection of more than sixty works created between 1963 and 2010 by Joan Snyder (American, born 1940), and the exhibition is the first retrospective of the artist's prints. A nationally noted painter and 2007 MacArthur Fellow, Snyder has developed a powerful body of work that explores aspects of nature, humanity, and identity. A pioneering feminist artist, she has infused her works with physical energy and vibrant color to express deeply personal experiences. For more than forty-seven years, she has created remarkable prints full of passion and zeal.

The Katonah Museum of Art Shows Works of Art Inspired by New York City Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:39 PM PST Katonah, NY.- The Katonah Museum of Art is pleased to present "New York! New York! The 20th Century", on view at the museum through December 31st. Empire City, Gotham, The Big Apple — whatever you call it, there's no doubt that New York City has impacted millions of hearts, minds, and imaginations throughout history. Organized by the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL, this exhibition features over 50 works from the Norton collection, including paintings, photographs, sculptures, and works on paper, which capture the essence of New York throughout the 20th century. "New York! New York!" includes works by Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Stuart Davis, Andreas Feininger, William Gropper, Childe Hassam, Edward Hopper, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, and Edward Steichen, among others, and celebrates the city as muse to photographers, painters, and sculptors, encompassing the varied cultures and lifestyles of its inhabitants. Looking back on a century of tumultuous change, this exhibition is divided into five themes. 'On the Waterfront' showing the docks of the Hudson and East Rivers which have seen the arrival of industry and immigrants, marking the beginning of a new life for millions of people. The bridges that connect Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens are emblematic of the five boroughs' consolidation in 1898 into what we know now as New York City. 'Avenues and Streets' looks at the architecture and life of the city itself. Fifth Avenue evokes style and society, while power and money are the hallmarks of Wall Street. Sidewalks, storefronts, and public spaces reflect the vibrant character of the city's hundreds of distinct neighborhoods. 'In the Park' looks at how artists have long found inspiration in the abundance of life found within the city's parks. Whether picnicking in the grass or people-watching on a bench, the modern day flâneur can enjoy nature's wonders away from the hustle and bustle of crowded urban streets. 'On the Town' presents views of New Yorks social life. Teeming with culture and entertainment, New York is a place where there's always something happening no matter what the hour. The kinetic energy of gallery openings, concerts, and restaurants are the pulse of the "city that never sleeps." Finally, 'Tall Buildings' considers New York's famous skyline. A view of the top of the Empire State Building above a sea of clouds is the unofficial "welcome" to the city for air travelers. New York's inimitable skyline, which was considered daring in the early twentieth century, made way for today's aesthetic and environmental progress in architecture. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Katonah Museum of Art originates ten to twelve exhibitions annually, covering a broad range of art and humanities topics. As a non-collecting Museum, the KMA has the opportunity to develop an aspect of art historical concern from a focused and original point of view, and presents it within a fully developed educational context. Committed to making itself accessible and relevant to its community, the Museum offers lectures, symposia, films, workshops, concerts and other events for a general audience; and presents innovative and substantive programs for its member schools. The Children's Learning Center, which is open to the public free of charge, is the only interactive space in the community where children can come on a daily basis to explore, interpret, and create art. The Katonah Museum of Art serves a primary population of 850,000, with an annual attendance of approximately 40,000 people. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.katonahmuseum.org

British Museum Announces Major Touring Exhibition on Chinese History & Culture Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:38 PM PST   LONDON.- 250 years ago, the British Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time. From the very beginning the Museum has always sought to make its collection as accessible as possible to a world public. Continuing this tradition, China: Journey to the East, supported by BP a China now legacy project, is a unique touring exhibition of over 100 objects from the British Museum's collection, which offers visitors the chance to experience one of the world's most important and influential civilizations. The exhibition will tour to six venues across the country and is the largest UK loan of Chinese material the British Museum has yet undertaken.

The Art Gallery of Ontario hosts Two New Exhibitions of Social & Political Change Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:37 PM PST TORONTO, ONT - It's the summer of change at the Art Gallery of Ontario as two new exhibitions complement the current Surreal Things in an exploration of art as a catalyst for social and political change. Opening this weekend and continuing through August 30, Angelika Hoerle: The Comet of Cologne Dada is a powerful commentary on the intersection of art and politics in post–World War l Germany. In the midst of the cultural movement known as Dada, where traditional tenets of artistic expression were rejected in favour of "anti-art," Hoerle created an outstanding body of work from 1919 until her untimely death in 1923 from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-three.

Our AKN Editor Tours The Thorvaldsens Museum ~ Denmark's Oldest Museum Building Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:36 PM PST Thorvaldsens Museum is Denmark's oldest and also most extraordinary museum building. It is situated in the centre of Copenhagen. The museum opened on September 18, 1848. It houses nearly all of the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen's original models for the sculptures he created for numerous European countries. The collections at Thorvaldsen's Museum consist of Thorvaldsen's own sculptures and his extensive collections of contemporary art of his time, of antique Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman objects, of other artists' sculptures, his own medals, letters, books, personal objects etc. The collections at Thorvaldsens Museum have for the most part been collected by Thorvaldsen himself. Every work and object in the collections has an inventory number, which begins with a letter followed by a number. The online catalogue of Thorvaldsen's collections is under construction and not all works and objects are searchable as yet. The museum building is very characteristic with its strong colours, the unusual façade with its large gates and sloping lines around all gates and windows. On the roof the goddess of victory, Victoria, drives her four-in-hand and expresses the fame, which Thorvaldsen achieved in both his time and today. Inside the Museum the colours are equally strong both on the lavishly decorated ceilings, in the patterns of the floors and in the colours of the walls. And the light is fantastic in the Museum when it falls through the windows set high up and gives shape and shadow to the sculptures and reliefs. Thorvaldsens Museum was built from 1839 to 1848, next to Christiansborg Palace, occupied by a building housing the royal coaches and wagons. Parts of the old palace building are still inside the walls of the Museum. The Museum's architect was the young Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll (1800 – 1856), who had stayed in Rome in the 1830s and was familiar with Thorvaldsen and his sculptures. Bindesbøll drew several fantastic projects for the museum while in Rome, but in the end the result was instead a complete conversion of the existing wagon building. The Christ hall and the entrance hall were, however, newly erected. The museum remains Bindesbøll's most famous building as his career as a working architect was to last a mere 18 years during which he became architect to the State and, in his final year, professor at the Royal Academy. He was the first and finest architect of the young democracy of 1849. The exterior part of the museum, facing the canal, has frescos depicting the return of Thorvaldsen from Rome in 1838. After the death of this renowned artist he was buried in the inner courtyard of the Thorvaldsen Museum in September 1848. Website: _ www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/ Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) is one of Denmark's best known sculptural artists. For more than 40 years he lived in Rome where he became one of the most important European representatives of Neo-Classicist sculptural art. Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen on November 19th, 1770, to poor parents. His father was a carver and immigrant from Iceland. The young Bertel entered the Art Academy in Copenhagen age 11 recognized as an unusually bright talent and was educated there as a sculptor until 1793. In 1796 he got the opportunity of traveling to Rome as the Academy's scholar for three years to be further schooled. He stayed in Rome, received numerous commissions and became one of Europe's best known sculptors. The sculpture, which laid the foundation of Thorvaldsen's fame, was Jason with the golden fleece from 1803. Contemporaries saw the sculpture as no less than an image of the ideal future for human kind. Art and life was to be inspired by Roman and Greek Antiquities, called Neo-Classicism. Rome was the cultural centre of Europe and attracted art interested people who could afford his works in marble or bronze. Thorvaldsen gradually had many employees and no less than five studios in Rome, and his works were placed all over Europe. It says much about Thorvaldsen's fame that he received the commission to make the monument to Pius VII in the principal cathedral of the Catholic Church in the Vatican.The aged pontiff Pope Pius VII sits on his throne with his tiara on his head. He is holding out his hand in blessing while looking straight towards us. On the other hand, the allegorical female figure on the right representing Divine Wisdom, is looking emotionally up to Heaven, while the woman on the left, Divine Power is looking down, thoughtfully engrossed in the book, the Bible, which she is holding. Sitting at the centre, the Pope thus becomes the balanced conveyor of a message consisting of equal parts of Christian sentiment and Christian wisdom. During a whole lifetime Thorvaldsen created more than 550 sculptures, reliefs and portrait busts and in his will bequeathed a large collection of his works - as well as collected works of other artists to the city of Copenhagen in 1830. In 1839 the city began building a museum - appropriately designed in the neoclassical style - to house the aging sculptor's valuable collection. Among his most famous works are the sculptures with motifs from Classical mythology, Venus, Mercury, Ganymede, Hebe, Cupid and Psyche. To this comes a number of monumental sculptures of historical persons, e.g. Pope Pius VII (a grave monument in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome) and the equestrian statue of Jozef Poniatowski (Warsaw). Thorvaldsen also carried out large orders for Denmark; most famous of these are the statues of Christ and the Apostles (in Vor Frue Kirke – Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen). Thorvaldsen's museum collection includes the original plaster models of his sculptures, the original design sketches, and many original pieces of his artwork, including his "Self Portrait" (1839). It also houses a huge collection of some 4500 documents and letters from, to and about the world-famous sculptor. Now the letters are being published in their original languages, Danish, German, Italian, French etc. in a user-friendly work of reference. At the same time they are being provided with explanatory commentaries, illustrations, registers, search tools, reference articles etc. The Thorvaldsen Museum is today one of the most visited sites in Copenhagen with an outstanding collection of his sculptures and Danish art from the Golden Age 1800-1850. On the representation of the Three Graces, Pausanias wrote . . "Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped. At Smyrna, for instance, in the sanctuary of the Nemeses, above the images have been dedicated Graces of gold, the work of Bupalus; and in the Music Hall in the same city there is a portrait of a Grace, painted by Apelles. At Pergamus likewise, in the chamber of Attalus, are other images of Graces made by Bupalus; and near what is called the Pythium there is a portrait of Graces, painted by Pythagoras the Parian. Socrates too, son of Sophroniscus, made images of Graces for the Athenians, which are before the entrance to the Acropolis. All these are alike draped; but later artists, I do not know the reason, have changed the way of portraying them. Certainly to-day sculptors and painters represent Graces naked." The Charities are depicted together with several other mythological figures in Sandro Botticelli's painting "Primavera" among other artistic depictions, they are the subject of famous sculptures by Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen. ( Graces and Amor, by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1817-18, in Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen)

Conner Contemporary Art To Host Concurrent Solo Exhibitions Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:35 PM PST Washington, DC - Conner Contemporary Art is pleased to present concurrent solo exhibitions by Jeremy Kost, Joe Ovelman and Geoffrey Aldridge.We are also delighted to present special two *gogo art project installations by Jeremy Flick and Patrick McDonough. On exhibit 14 May through 2 July.

Berlin's Museum of Prints & Drawings opens Works by renowned German artist Emil Nolde Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:34 PM PST BERLIN.- As a main proponent of expressionism, Emil Nolde (1867-1956) ranks as one of the most renowned German artists of the 20th century. With its 110 works (made up of some 36 watercolours and approx. 70 of the artist's most important graphic prints - including etchings, lithographs and woodcuts), the Museum of Prints and Drawings in Berlin not only owns one of the oldest, but also one of the most comprehensive public museum collections of the artist's work, second only to the Nolde Foundation Seebüll, which administers Nolde's estate, and the Sprengel Museum Hanover, which owns a large collection of Nolde's prints. On view 3 July through 25 October, 2009.

A Safari Museum Hidden In The Middle of Kansas Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:33 PM PST CHANUTE, KANSAS - The story of Martin and Osa Johnson, an American couple whose documented journeys to places like Africa transformed them into national celebrities in the first part of the last century, has faded with time. Even in some parts of Kansas, where the couple grew up before setting off on their adventures, mention of the Johnsons can now draw looks of puzzlement. The museum draws its share of Osa and Martin Johnson devotees from far and wide. But other visitors, Mr. Froehlich acknowledges, have never heard of them. By the 1920s and 1930s, Martin and Osa Johnson were household names and faces — as famous in their era, according to one Johnson historian, as Michael Jackson in ours. Their comings and goings made headlines and, in perhaps the modern measure of celebrity, Mrs. Johnson had a stalker. But here in the rolling hills of southeastern Kansas, in the town where Osa Johnson grew up, their memory is alive and well. Inside an old train depot, the halls of the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum are filled with photographs from their trips, copies of their books and the possessions they carried — film splicers, licenses to fly airplanes, a waffle iron, even Mrs. Johnson's zebra skin shoes. Occupying these halls, too, is the double challenge of a small museum off the beaten track: How to explain the significance of a once-famed couple to an audience now accustomed to glancing at African scenes with the click of a mouse; and how to do that from a town that sits about two hours from the nearest major city (Wichita, Kansas City and Tulsa, Okla., are each about the same distance away.) The museum in Chanute, home to fewer than 10,000 residents, draws 5,000 or 6,000 visitors a year, said Conrad Froehlich, the director, who notes that small facilities, though often overlooked, actually make up the vast majority of the nation's museums. "That's peanuts compared to the Field Museum," Mr. Froehlich said of attendance here, referring to the natural history museum in Chicago. "But for where we are, that's not bad." "Some people just see the sign and stop in, and you can watch those visitors getting excited as they learn about the Johnsons for the first time," he said. "That reminds me why we're here. What we're doing is keeping their legacy alive."  They were ordinary Kansas kids, as museum officials put it, without wealthy backgrounds or lengthy educations. At a young age, Mr. Johnson yearned for adventure and managed to travel with Jack London on his 1907 voyage on the Snark. After marrying when Osa was 16 (another fact not emphasized for school groups), the pair set off on their exploits, spending years in Africa and the South Pacific and documenting the animals, people and scenes they saw in a series of films. Mr. Johnson captured the images. Mrs. Johnson, who was also a photographer and filmmaker, starred. The films were successful. Tours and talks followed. So did books. But in 1937, Mr. Johnson died in a commercial plane crash in the United States. Mrs. Johnson, whose 1940 autobiography, "I Married Adventure," became a best seller, died in New York in 1953. In the years that followed, some forgot about the Johnsons, whose films now seem dated. Some in new generations never heard of them. And travel — and travelogues — shifted, both in technology, style and reason for being. The museum opened in 1961, thanks to contributions and efforts from Osa Johnson's mother, Belle Leighty, who still lived in Chanute at the time. It has expanded to include objects of African art and an ethnographic collection of masks, tools and musical instruments. It also developed traveling exhibitions and moved to its current, more polished setting. The museum's 10,000 square feet (including a storage facility and space shared with a library) house a cozy theater and a gallery with statues of the Johnsons — Martin before his camera — at the center. The gallery guides the uninitiated through the Johnsons' story, featuring childhood clothing and personal memorabilia and photographs from their trips. Survival for any small nonprofit museum is hard, not least of all during a recession. With two full-time employees and one part-time worker, Mr. Froehlich said, the museum "stretches things as far as we can" to manage its $150,000-to-$200,000 annual budget. Since the 1970s, the museum has entered into licensing deals for the images of the Johnsons, a way to make ends meet. But those efforts have picked up sharply in recent years, and a larger campaign is under way, according to a lawyer who has been hired to lead the museum's licensing efforts. American Eagle Outfitters had a licensing agreement with the museum in connection with the retailer's Martin + Osa stores. The stores, which American Eagle recently decided to close, used the museum archives for "design and lifestyle inspiration," according to the clothing line. A Hollywood producer is developing a movie. If that all sounds contrary to the academic work of a museum, Mr. Froehlich says that it is quite in keeping with the way the Johnsons themselves got by. Some view them as pioneers in the notion of product placement in film. They used items like Hershey candy bars and Bisquick in their movies and elsewhere in order to pay for the next adventure, he said. In any case, Mr. Froehlich said, none of it clashes with the museum's goal: "Introducing the Johnsons' story and lives to a younger and more diverse group." Jacquelyn Borgeson, the museum's curator, says she sees signs that their story is re-emerging. In different decades, different fields of study have focused in on the Johnsons, finding relevance in their work. In the 1960s, she says, the Johnsons were rediscovered by conservationists. Then in the 1970s, anthropologists found them, followed by scholars of women's studies in the 1980s and aviation specialists in the '90s. During the last decade, those in the fashion world found Mrs. Johnson (who had her own clothing line and was once voted one of America's best-dressed women). "They're slowly coming back, niche by niche," she said. "It's a slow process." Others, too, are finding them, perhaps accidentally along the quiet road through this town. On an afternoon this year, the halls were mostly empty, but for a few of the curious. In a museum this size, there is time and space for visitors' journals. A recent entry gushed, "Osa Johnson is a woman who knew how to live." Visit the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum  at : http://www.safarimuseum.com/

"A Venomous Bloom" by Kent Henricksen at Paul Kasmin Gallery Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:32 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Kasmin Gallery presents the exhibition A Venomous Bloom by Kent Henricksen. Opening on May 6, 2010 at 511 W. 27th Street, this will be the artist's first show with the gallery, on view through 5 June. In Henricksen's canvases, gods and thieves, ladies and marauders, angels and tricksters are brought together and transformed through the use of silkscreen, embroidery, and gold leaf. Characters drawn from such diverse sources as Albrecht Dürer woodcuts, historical newspaper illustrations, José Guadalupe Posada engravings, and Max Ernst collages are recast into new roles, telling new tales.

Russia to Celebrate 450th Anniversary of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:31 PM PST MOSCOW - Russia will celebrate the 450th anniversary of St. Basil's Cathedral by opening an exhibition dedicated to the so-called "holy fool" who gave his name to the soaring structure of bright-hued onion domes that is a quintessential image of Russia. The eccentrically devout St. Basil wore no clothes even during the harsh Russian winters and was one of the very few Muscovites who dared to lambaste tyrannical Czar Ivan the Terrible. Ivan, whose gory purges claimed tens of thousands of lives, feared St. Basil as "a seer of people's hearts and minds," according to one chronicle. He personally carried St. Basil's coffin to a grave right outside the Kremlin. The cathedral, constructed to commemorate Ivan's victory over Mongol rulers, was built on the burial site.

The Weinstein Gallery Opens ~ "Surrealism: New Worlds", A Major Exhibition Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:30 PM PST San Francisco, California.- The Weinstein Gallery is pleased to announce "Surrealism: New Worlds", on view from December 10th through January 27th 2012 at 301 Geary Street in San Francisco. The exhibition will be the largest survey of Surrealism to be mounted by a private gallery on the West Coast and includes over 80 original paintings & sculptures by 22 leading Surrealists, This comprehensive exhibition represents five decades of this long-lasting, influential, and ever-present art movement and features many works that have until now been held for decades in private collections. The exhibition includes work by the original members —Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and Marcel Duchamp. It also features artists who came into the movement in the 1930s, drawn to the magnetism of its leader, André Breton, and his promise for a surrealist revolution, including Kurt Seligmann, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, André Masson, Marcel Jean, Alexander Calder, Wolfgang Paalen, Roberto Matta, and Gordon Onslow Ford. And, the exhibition looks at New World artists, who had studied surrealism from afar and then had it land in their backyard when the European surrealist artists were forced to flee to America during World War II. Among these are Enrico Donati, Jimmy Ernst, William Baziotes, David Hare, and Gerome Kamrowski. This show also features work by some of the underrepresented women artists, who were integral to the movement but who have received less attention for their critical role: Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, and Stella Snead. The accompanying 152-page catalogue features a new essay by Surrealism scholar, Mary Ann Caws. In it she writes that as the movement transitioned to America, "Surrealism reencountered a revolutionary aspect of which this remarkable exhibition is a manifestation, another sort of new world manifesto in visual terms." The word surrealist was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire and first appeared in the preface to his play Les Mamelles de Tirésias, which was first performed in 1917. World War I scattered the writers and artists who had been based in Paris, and in the interim many became involved with Dada, believing that excessive rational thought and bourgeois values had brought the conflict of the war upon the world. The Dadaists protested with anti-art gatherings, performances, writings and art works. After the war, when they returned to Paris, the Dada activities continued. During the war, André Breton, who had trained in medicine and psychiatry, served in a neurological hospital where he used Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic methods with soldiers suffering from shell-shock. Meeting the young writer Jacques Vaché, Breton felt that Vaché was the spiritual son of writer and pataphysics founder Alfred Jarry. He admired the young writer's anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition. Later Breton wrote, "In literature, I was successively taken with Rimbaud, with Jarry, with Apollinaire, with Nouveau, with Lautréamont, but it is Jacques Vaché to whom I owe the most." Back in Paris, Breton joined in Dada activities and started the literary journal Littérature along with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. They began experimenting with automatic writing—spontaneously writing without censoring their thoughts—and published the writings, as well as accounts of dreams, in the magazine. Breton and Soupault delved deeper into automatism and wrote The Magnetic Fields (1920). Continuing to write, they attracted more artists and writers; they came to believe that automatism was a better tactic for societal change than the Dada attack on prevailing values. The group grew to include Paul Éluard, Benjamin Péret, René Crevel, Robert Desnos, Jacques Baron, Max Morise, Pierre Naville, Roger Vitrac, Gala Éluard, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, Hans Arp, Georges Malkine, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Antonin Artaud, Raymond Queneau, André Masson, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert, and Yves Tanguy. In 1924 they declared their philosophy in the first "Surrealist Manifesto". That same year they established the Bureau of Surrealist Research, and began publishing the journal La Révolution surréaliste. Breton initially doubted that visual arts could even be useful in the Surrealist movement since they appeared to be less malleable and open to chance and automatism. This caution was overcome by the discovery of such techniques as frottage and decalcomania. Soon more visual artists became involved, including Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Alberto Giacometti, Valentine Hugo, Méret Oppenheim, Toyen, and later after the second war: Enrico Donati. The group included the musician, poet, and artist E. L. T. Mesens, painter and writer René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Marcel Lecomte, and André Souris. Giorgio de Chirico, and his previous development of metaphysical art, was one of the important joining figures between the philosophical and visual aspects of Surrealism. In 1924, Miró and Masson applied Surrealism to painting, explicitly leading to the La Peinture Surrealiste exhibition of 1925, held at Gallerie Pierre in Paris, and displaying works by Masson, Man Ray, Paul Klee, Miró, and others. The show confirmed that Surrealism had a component in the visual arts. Breton published Surrealism and Painting in 1928 which summarized the movement to that point, though he continued to update the work until the 1960s. Throughout the 1930s, Surrealism continued to become more visible to the public at large. A Surrealist group developed in Britain and, according to Breton, their 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition was a high water mark of the period and became the model for international exhibitions. Dalí and Magritte created the most widely recognized images of the movement. Dalí joined the group in 1929, and participated in the rapid establishment of the visual style between 1930 and 1935. From 1936 through 1938 Wolfgang Paalen, Gordon Onslow Ford, and Roberto Matta joined the group. Paalen contributed Fumage and Onslow Ford Coulage as new pictorial automatic techniques. Long after personal, political and professional tensions fragmented the Surrealist group, Magritte and Dalí continued to define a visual program in the arts. This program reached beyond painting, to encompass photography as well, as can be seen from a Man Ray self portrait, whose use of assemblage influenced Robert Rauschenberg's collage boxes. World War II prompted an artistic exodus from europe, and many of the surrealists including Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst became influential in the USA.  Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Roberto Matta and later, Mark Rothko all became involved with the surrealist movement, while in England Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Paul Nash used or experimented with Surrealist techniques. The Weinstein Gallery in San Fransico is situated on 3 floors in Union Square. The Gallery specializes in contemporary and modern masters, including Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Enrico Donati, Raoul Dufy, Jimmy Ernst, Leonor Fini, Roberto Matta, Joan Miró, Robert Motherwell, Gordon Onslow Ford and Pablo Picasso. The gallery made the news in 2011 when a Picasso was stolen from its walls in broad daylight, although it was quickly recovered and is now no longer for sale, its fame generating so many more gallery visitors! Fortunately, the gallery have not allowed the theft to deflect them from their aim of making art as accessible as possible, and they are well-known for their friendly and knowledgable staff who are helpful to every visitor, whether they can afford the art on the walls or not. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.weinstein.com

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 24 Jan 2012 04:29 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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