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

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• Two Exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum Showcases 120 Years of Staged Photography
• The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Shows "Rembrandt & Degas: Two Young Artists"
• RISD Museum Shows Art Created and Inspired by 19th Century Italy
• The Chrysler Museum Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement
• Frieze New York 2012 ~ Inaugural Frieze Projects Program Announced
• Frank Lloyd Wright archival reproductions now available at 1000Museums.com
• Jenness Cortez invites a Visual Conversation through her unique American Realism
• Fran Hill Gallery Shows "Story-Telling" New York Artists
• Rothko & The Abstractionists: Major canvas by Rothko at a Christie's London auction
• Annie Leibovitz opens new art show at Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington
• The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
• 'Masks ~ Metamorphoses of the Face from Rodin to Picasso' at the Mathildenhohe Institute
• Como, Italy exhibits Masters of Russian Avant-garde: Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich
• Auction of the World's Largest Collection of Original Vintage Glamour Photography
• The Dali Collection in St. Petersburg, Florida to Move to Hurricane-proof Building
• Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Photographers Paul Steinitz and Ja’bagh Kaghado
• The Contemporary Jewish Museum presents " In the Beginning "
• Library of Congress Acquires Charles Randall Dean Print Collection
• The Grand Palais in Paris Presents 'Odilon Redon ~ The Prince of Dreams'
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Two Exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum Showcases 120 Years of Staged Photography Posted: 26 Jan 2012 11:02 PM PST Saint Louis, Missouri.- The Saint Louis Art Museum is pleased to present "The First Act: Staged Photography Before 1980", on view at the museum from January 20th through April 29th. Apparent in the upcoming Focus on the Collection installation, the idea of staging pictures through scene setting, acting, and directing has been fundamental to the field of photography since its inception in 1839. "The First Act" provides a prehistory to the large-scale theatrical work in the concurrent feature exhibition, "An Orchestrated Vision: The Theater of Contemporary Photography", which explores various elements of theatricality in photography from the last 20 years, and can be seen from February 19th through May 13th. Photographers have visualized literary passages, constructed dreamlike imagery in darkrooms and studios, and drawn upon cinematic techniques in their pursuit of fabricating alternate realities. On view in "The First Act" will be twelve photographs spanning 120 years, including works by Julia Margaret Cameron, Clarence John Laughlin, Henry Peach Robinson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sandy Skoglund, Edward Steichen, and Cindy Sherman. "The Theater of Contemporary Photography" is a compelling survey of contemporary photographers, many presented in St. Louis for the first time. Seen together, the works reveal the remarkable potential of the photographic medium in contemporary artistic practice. On view will be over 40 works from an international group of artists which includes Thomas Struth, Carrie Mae Weems, and Gregory Crewdson. These photographers have focused on the elements of scene setting and directing to meticulously construct environments that are mesmerizing in their large scale, absorbing in their uncanny beauty, and haunting in their elusive meaning. They inventively exploit photography's unique capacity to operate in the boundaries between fact and fiction. Each image is the product of the painstaking execution of the ambitious vision of the artist. The Saint Louis Art Museum was founded in 1879, at the close of a decade that saw the establishment of art museums in great cities across the eastern half of the United States. This Museum's comprehensive collections bear witness to the inspirational and educational goals to which its founder aspired and the moral and democratic imperatives he embraced. What began as a collection of assorted plaster casts, electrotype reproductions, and other examples of "good design" in various media rapidly gave way to a great and varied collection of original works of art spanning five millennia and six continents. Today the quality and breadth of the Museum's collection secure for it a place among the very best institutions of its kind. The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the nation's leading comprehensive art museums with collections of artworks that include those of exceptional quality from virtually every culture and time period. Areas of notable depth include Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes, and European and American art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with particular strength in 20th-century German art. The American art collection features masterworks of paintings and sculpture from Colonial portraiture through modernist and abstract art of the first half of the 20th century. The Museum's American holdings reflect the nation's longstanding fascination with landscape and include Hudson River School paintings by Jasper Cropsey, Thomas Cole, and John Frederick Kensett, as well as scenes of the Western frontier. The local landscape is well represented in the work of Missouri artists Henry Lewis, Charles Ferdinand Wimar, and George Caleb Bingham. The Election Series, illustrating three stages of the Missouri electoral process, is one of the highlights of the Museum's paintings by Bingham. The collection also includes major works by the late nineteenth-century artists Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, and Bessie Potter Vonnoh as well as Impressionist compositions by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Childe Hassam, and John Henry Twachtman. Important twentieth-century work by Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Hart Benton, Marsden Hartley, and Philip Guston is also presented. The Collection of European Art to 1800 includes exceptional examples of art made across the continent of Europe and the British isles from the seventh through the eighteenth centuries. The earliest pieces in the collection are a pair of toga pins made in Spain in the seventh century. Other examples from the medieval period include enamels and metalwork; architectural fragments; stone, wood and ivory sculpture; manuscript illuminations; and stained glass. The Museum's medieval holdings are strongest in French and German Romanesque (c.1050–c.1200) and Gothic (c.1200–c.1500) art. Highlights include a French St. Christopher, a superb alabaster Madonna, an exquisite head of St. Roch, and a German gilded Christ of exceptional quality.The collection of paintings and sculpture comprises work made in Europe between 1300 and 1800. Highlights include a late Titian masterpiece (1570–76) left in his studio at his death; a marble Pan made in Michelangelo's workshop in the 1530s; one of only 37 known works by the baroque master Bartolomeo Manfredi painted around 1615; a copper painting made in 1612 by Artemisia Gentileschi; an important Neo-Classical narrative painting by François-André Vincent exhibited in 1785; and a stunning portrait by Hans Holbein depicting the wife of King Henry VIII's comptroller of 1527. The Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs houses more than 13,000 works of art on paper. There are approximately 8,500 prints, 3,000 photographs, and 1,500 drawings, watercolors, and collages from a wide range of periods and cultures. The department has particular strengths in art from Western Europe and the United States. It is internationally known for its German works on paper, and houses the largest public collection of Max Beckmann's prints in the world. The print collection also has impressive holdings by Albrecht Dürer, Max Klinger, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Jacques Callot. The collection of drawings features significant works by George Caleb Bingham, Edgar Degas, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The photography collection is strong in 20th century American with large holdings of works by Edward Curtis, Paul Strand, Andreas Feininger, and Moneta Sleet Jr. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.slam.org

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Shows "Rembrandt & Degas: Two Young Artists" Posted: 26 Jan 2012 11:01 PM PST Williamstown, MA.- A selection of portraits by two great masters will be on view at the Clark in the intimate exhibition "Rembrandt and Degas: Two Young Artists", a first-time exploration of Rembrandt van Rijn's influence on Degas presents portraits by both artists side-by-side. The portraits and etchings on view will include Rembrandt's "Self-Portrait as a Young Man" (c. 1628–29) from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and "Self-Portrait as a Young Man" (c. 1628–29) from the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and Degas's "Self Portrait" (c. 1857) from the Clark's collection. "Rembrandt and Degas: Two Young Artists" comes to the Clark from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Following the Clark, the exhibition will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in February. The exhibition was organized by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the works are drawn primarily from the holdings of each institution.

RISD Museum Shows Art Created and Inspired by 19th Century Italy Posted: 26 Jan 2012 10:43 PM PST Providence Rhode Island.- With its lush landscape, storied history, and magnificent architecture and art collections, Italy has long served as a source of inspiration for artists—enthralling, in the 19th century, such masters as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, J M W Turner, John Singer Sargent, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The RISD Museum of Art's new exhibition, "Pilgrims of Beauty: Art and Inspiration in 19th-Century Italy", offers a window into this remarkable period of experimentation and artistic collaboration with more than 60 works all drawn from the Museum's collection. Pilgrims of Beauty opens February 3rd and runs through July 8th. "Italy's magic is both familiar and fresh," says RISD Museum Director John W. Smith. "Every work within this show is a unique and intimate journey into this timeless world. As we explore Rome's grand ruins and the sparkling Venetian canals through these artists' eyes, we discover how each developed a distinctive, often highly personal, visual experience of this one special place."

The Chrysler Museum Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement Posted: 26 Jan 2012 09:06 PM PST Norfolk, Virginia.- To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the American Studio Glass movement, the Chrysler Museum of Art and the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio will present a year-long series of exhibitions and live demonstrations featuring eight internationally known artists. The Visiting Artist Series will include a special exhibition of selected work by each artist in the Museum along with a week of live public demonstrations in the Glass Studio. The series will provide a range of educational programs on the various techniques, histories, and artistic concepts explored in glass. Audiences will enjoy exciting demonstrations and chances to meet the artists, and the companion exhibitions will enhance visitors' appreciation of contemporary glass. The Visiting Artist Series exhibition and demonstrations are free. The first exhibition in the series will be "Benjamin Moore, Dante Marioni, Janusz Pozniak", on view at the museum from January 27th through March 18th.

Frieze New York 2012 ~ Inaugural Frieze Projects Program Announced Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:50 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Frieze announced the artists that have been commissioned to produce unique works as part of the inaugural Frieze Projects program for Frieze New York. The fair will be located in the unique setting of Randall's Island Park, overlooking the East River. The eight artists that will participate in Frieze Projects New York are: John Ahearn, Uri Aran, Latifa Echakhch, Joel Kyack, Rick Moody, Virginia Overton, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. and Ulla von Brandenburg. The Frieze Projects program is realized annually at Frieze New York and is curated this year by Cecilia Alemani. The majority of the commissioned projects are situated outdoors and are located throughout Randall's Island. Artists have been invited to react to the exceptional environment of Frieze New York and to create special projects that respond to the island's unique geography. The projects have been conceived as not only interactions with the existing architecture of the site but also participatory platforms for the fair's visitors and existing local communities. Forming a temporary pop-up village, the commissioned artworks will provide punctuation points to the island, activating vital sites or remote locations and will provide a navigational tool for visitors to the fair and its environment.

Frank Lloyd Wright archival reproductions now available at 1000Museums.com Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:40 PM PST SCOTTSDALE, AZ.- The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation announced a new licensing agreement with 1000Museums, the premier provider of archival reproductions from museums around the world. Now, with the help of print-on-demand technology, never-before-printed selections from the Foundation's Archives will be available to admirers of Wright's work. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives is the most complete collection of materials related to a single artist housed under one roof anywhere in the world. Wright's work ranged from residences designed in the Prairie style in the late 19th century, to modern works including 'Fallingwater', the 'Usonian Homes', and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in the late 50's.

Jenness Cortez invites a Visual Conversation through her unique American Realism Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:31 PM PST NAPLES, FL.- DeBruyne Fine Art of Naples, Florida will host an exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Jenness Cortez. On view January 26th through March 31st, "Homage to the Creative Spirit 2012," invites viewers into a visual conversation with Cortez to discuss how iconic works of art can inspire us to rediscover and revalue our own creative potential. Robert Yassin, Executive Director of the Palos Verdes Art Center calls Jenness Cortez one of the world's most eloquent and successful visual conversationalists. Yassin says that, "All art is a dialogue, a conversation through the medium of the artwork between the artist and the viewer. It is the level of that dialogue that establishes the intrinsic value of a given work. Among the many characteristics of a real work of art, two are most significant and define both the quality and significance of the dialogue. The first is that what the artist is saying must be meaningful; the second, that it is clearly communicated and understood. In Cortez' paintings, both criteria are more than fully met. The work talks to us at many levels and creates in us a sense of both understanding and well being. This happens because there is nothing arbitrary in Cortez' paintings. The choice of the painting reproduced, the elements surrounding it, the space the elements occupy, the lighting, the color, everything is carefully selected and orchestrated following a fully articulated plan determined by the artist. The paintings of Jenness Cortez make my heart sing."

Fran Hill Gallery Shows "Story-Telling" New York Artists Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:30 PM PST Toronto, Canada.- The Fran Hill Gallery is pleased to present "In The End A Good Story Is All That Remains", on view at the gallery through February 19th. The exhibition features the recent work of eight "story telling" New York City based artists, each one unique in their focus, concerns, and manner of presentation. While much art on view today is about spectacle and requires 3 seconds to both digest and forget, the art and artists in "A Good Story" re-awaken the very act of seeing as they linger lovingly, as well as imaginatively – and so will you – on the wonders of everyday life, the so-called intricate workings of the world around us. The age of the artists in this exhibition range from the young and emerging, to mid-career and old master, the latter in a neo classical sense.

Rothko & The Abstractionists: Major canvas by Rothko at a Christie's London auction Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:15 PM PST LONDON.- The first major canvas by Mark Rothko to be presented in a London auction in a decade, the spectacular Untitled was executed in 1955 (estimate on request). Realized at the height of the artist's celebrated classic period, it forms part of a series of abstract works exhibited and owned by a number of major international museums. Rendered in a palette of brilliant red vermillion, burnt ochre and white, Untitled comprises two rectangular forms floating within the canvas. Faced with this large-scale and vivid piece, 'abstract sublime' and 'spiritual awe' are amongst the terms used to describe this work which inevitably provokes a wealth of emotions for the transcended viewer.

Annie Leibovitz opens new art show at Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:06 PM PST WASHINGTON, DC - Photographer Annie Leibovitz says she has come back from some dark days and revived her creativity with a new project now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that marks a departure from her popular celebrity portraits. Two years ago, Leibovitz was facing millions in debt and a mismanaged fortune that nearly cost her the legal rights to her own work, which includes some of pop culture's most memorable images. The ordeal was a good lesson in managing her business, Leibovitz said, but left her "emotionally and mentally depleted." At the museum she led a tour through the photographs she says renewed her inspiration with a few road trips through U.S. history. The idea grew out of a book she had wanted to make with her partner, Susan Sontag , with a list of destinations and an excuse to visit them. After Sontag died, she eventually revived the idea with her young children. On exhibition through 20th May.

The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art Celebrates its 10th Anniversary Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:05 PM PST Sedalia, Missouri.- The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art on the State Fair Community College campus will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the museum's opening with the exhibition "10! The First Decade" on view from February 4th through May 27th. The museum-wide survey of the Daum's permanent collection will feature 125 artworks ranging from 1966 to 2010, including painting, ceramics, graphics, photography, and mixed media collections. Some selections are making their debut and others are familiar pieces in the collection. They will be arranged in groupings that show shared traits among objects that date from different decades, represent distinct media or conform to disparate movements. The museum opened to the public in January 2002. It is named for collector and benefactor Harold F. Daum, M.D., and contains nine galleries devoted to the exhibition of art created since the mid-20th century. At its founding, the permanent collection comprised 300 artworks collected by Daum. Today, the collection includes more than 1,000 works of art in various media by some of the most celebrated artists of the last 60 years.Daum's core collection continues to determine the nature and kind of all subsequent additions to the permanent collection. The primary holdings are in the areas of painting, ceramics and prints, but there are growing collections of photographs, sculpture and works on paper. The core of the painting collection includes works by artists associated with Post-Painterly Abstraction, including Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Friedel Dzubas, and Gene Davis. Tangents of this movement are represented by Larry Poons, Walter Darby Bannard and Laddy John Gill. The collection of ceramics is centered on large-scale sculpture and includes signature works by many of the contemporary ceramists responsible for the singular achievements made in this medium during the last 50 years, among them Peter Voulkos, Ron Nagle, Marc Leuthold, Annabeth Rosen, Ramon Elozua, and Sunkoo Yuh. The print collection includes compositions by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns; pop artists Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist and Roy Lichtenstein; conceptualists Sol LeWitt and Chuck Close; neo-expressionists Eric Fischl and David Salle; as well as graphics by celebrated figures like Louise Bourgeois and Richard Serra. The exhibition also presents 30 highlights of the museum's collection of more than 450 examples of contemporary photography, ranging from documentary work and social commentary to portraiture, landscape and abstraction. Included are works by Ansel Adams, Linda Connor, Jack Welpott, JoAnn Verburg, and Joel Meyerowitz. Another significant concentration of the collection focuses on work by Midwestern artists, many of whom live in Missouri, including Keith Jacobshagen, Warren Rosser, Philomena Bennet, Lupus Garrett, Anne Lindberg, and Gary Passanise. The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art sheds light on the stimulating complexity of modern and contemporary art by collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting artworks created since the mid-20th century. In concert with the faculty and students of State Fair Community College, the Daum works to enhance the cultural and educational life of the college, the city of Sedalia, and the 14-county area of central Missouri that comprises its primary audience. The educational mission of State Fair Community College guides and informs every aspect of the Museum and its operation. As part of an institution of higher learning responsive to the entire needs of the college, it works in collaboration with faculty and students. Through its educational programming, the Museum enhances the cultural life of its immediate community. The Museum is uniquely positioned to serve Missouri's central region and to specifically attract patrons traveling between its two major cultural centers, Kansas City and St. Louis. It is not duplicated in its region. The Museum constitutes a cultural "oasis," dedicated to the highest level of aesthetic and educational standards to implement innovative, humane, and enlightening programs. The Daum offers a temporary exhibition series that changes three times each year. It houses nine exhibition galleries on three levels, with a combined area of 9,300 square feet. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.daummuseum.org

'Masks ~ Metamorphoses of the Face from Rodin to Picasso' at the Mathildenhohe Institute Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:47 PM PST Darmstadt, Germany - In collaboration with Musée d'Orsay, Paris and Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is showcasing the exhibition "Masks. Metamorphoses of the Face from Rodin to Picasso". For the first time ever this comprehensive themed exhibition places the focus squarely on masks as the subject and motif of art. In the historical exhibition building on the Mathildenhöhe significant loans from throughout Europe – first and foremost masterpieces by Arnold Böcklin, Jean Carriès, Jean Cocteau, Paul Gauguin, Emil Nolde and Auguste Rodin – together with numerous new discoveries will document the heyday of mask art between 1860 and 1930, while also looking back as far as antiquity. On view 8 March through 7 June, 2009. "Not only has the mask been a fascinating object in cult and theater since living memory. It is simultaneously the founding element of modern sculpture in Rodin and helped to give birth to modern painting in Picasso. For the first time this exhibition examines an exciting chapter of art and cultural history," explains Dr. Ralf Beil, Director of the Mathildenhöhe Institute. As an object that veils and transforms the face, the mask plays a key role in almost every culture: in rites, customs and theater. To date, however, there has been only scant research on the mask as a subject matter of art. Two hundred exhibits from all categories of art not only create a gallery of real portrait pictures but also imaginary faces, which reveal the radical nature of the subject as well as formal and material experiments in the late 19th and early 20th century. Major film presentation of these years completes the fascinating panorama of mask art. Because it discloses through disguise and disguises by disclosing, the mask touches the very roots of mankind and life itself. While in the cultures of antiquity it was of major importance as a cult object and a theater requisite since the mid-19th century the mask experienced a remarkable renaissance in Europe: Its »disconcerting strangeness« is experienced as extraordinary enrichment and aesthetic revival. Conceived by Édouard Papet for Paris and enlarged by Ralf Beil for the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, the exhibition examines the previously little explored enthusiasm many artists around 1900 had for the metamorphosis of the human face. The masks on show and their interactions in sculpture, painting, graphic art, film and photography demonstrate the special features of a visual grammar, which can push both illusionist obsession and hypnotic symbolism to the limit. Around 1900 the suggestive power of masks, their capacity to reflect the whole individual or even create him anew inspired numerous artists, sculptors and photographers. Though the memory of their classical role remains vivid increasingly ancient archetypes such as the gorgon's head of Medusa or Christian topoi such as the severed head of John the Baptist are ousted by contemporary influences, say from Japanese art. And the mask is inseparably linked with the principle of fragmentation, which gave sculpture fundamental new impulses around the turn of the century. Art nouveau embellishment breathes new life into the old decorative element, the gargoyle. In the early 20th century when the so-called primitive masks from Africa and Oceania acquired incredible popularity, the artistic exploration of the mask took a highly individual and eminently modern turn. Established at the turn of the century, the colony became an examplary center for the production of modern design. Founded in 1899 by Ernst Ludwig, the Grand Duke of Hessen, the colony rapidly became one of the chief homes of the European art nouveau movement. In the wake of the First World War the colony was disbanded. The Second World War was also responsible for considerable destruction and the complete loss of parts of the Mathildenhöhe colony. Since the 1970s, the city of Darmstadt has been gradually attempting to restore individual buildings and the outside grounds.? This house is the jewel in the neighborhood called Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt which is particularly known for its Jugendstil architecture. Style: Art Nouveau - Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt  /  Structure Type: Culture/Entertainment Architect: Joseph Maria Olbrich  /  Date Built: 1901   Visit : http://www.mathildenhoehe.info/

Como, Italy exhibits Masters of Russian Avant-garde: Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:46 PM PST COMO, ITALY - The Villa Olmo is showcasing eighty works – including oil paintings, tempera works and drawings from leading Russian museums and private collections – tracing the great period of Russian avant-garde art from the beginning of the twentieth century to the early 1930s, with masterpieces by Vassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevic and Pavel Filonov. The eighteenth-century Villa Olmo is now showing to 26th July 2009, a sophisticated show on Russian avant-garde art.

Auction of the World's Largest Collection of Original Vintage Glamour Photography Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:45 PM PST CALABASAS, CA.- George Hurrell's iconic portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug created for Vanity Fair magazine now spearheads the largest auction of Glamour Photography in art history. The original camera negative, as well as a custom print of this incomparable photograph is regarded as Hurrell's most important portrait and is estimated to sell for well over $20,000. The multi-million dollar Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection, which contains tens of thousands of the best examples of Hollywood fine art, will be auctioned by Profiles in History March 26-27, 2010. Worldwide bidding begins at 12:00pm (noon) PST both days. The Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection is recognized as the world's largest collection of George Hurrell and includes over 1,000 original vintage photographs as well as 500 camera negatives. Featured are dozens of the most valuable 8 x 10 camera negatives from Hurrell's career. Included is the bearskin rug portrait of Ann Sheridan as well as the negatives used for the Hurrell Portfolios together with those of Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake , and Johnny Weissmuller from Tarzan, which is the most symbolic ever taken of a male subject in Hollywood . The sequence of photographic lots include most of the heralded stars of Hollywood 's golden age, including Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and Norma Shearer. Incorporated are two custom photographs of Ramon Novarro taken in 1929 from Hurrell's first sitting with a Hollywood subject. In addition to the Glamour photography collection, there are many significant master prints by Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Cindy Sherman, Julius Schulman, Jock Sturges, Howard Zieff and Edward Steichen. Moreover, the collection contains an incomparable assemblage of Len Prince and Mel Roberts works as well as fine art by Andy Warhol, Richard Duardo, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Beatrice Wood and numerous others. Epstein comments, "It's time for Scott and me to share the fruits of our 25-year collection with the rest of the world. We want others to enjoy and embrace the most rewarding field of collecting with which we can ever imagine being involved." Epstein continues, "There is no better organization than Profiles in History to entrust our collection. I am certain that Scott and I will be back collecting once this auction is over." Also included in the auction will be several hundred photographs and camera negatives from Hurrell's contemporaries in Hollywood , featuring a comprehensive sequence from Clarence Sinclair Bull, who was Hurrell's contemporary and stylistic rival at M-G-M. Included are dozens of master images from Bull's most important subject, Greta Garbo. There are dozens of rare prints of some of the most important Hollywood subjects including a Louise Brooks from 1925 before she signed with Paramount , Marlene Dietrich by Edward Steichen, and unseen prints of a luminous teenaged Marilyn Monroe. Len Prince is one of the few master photographers utilizing the large-format 8 x 10 view camera and detailed lighting in the fashion of Hurrell, Bull and Richard Avedon during their peak years. Prince rarely uses the digital format and prefers the "old school" refinement of shadows and highlights achieved by the rigorous demands of 8 x10 view cameras; he is recognized as one of the foremost glamour photographers. Among his celebrated subjects are some of the world's most beautiful women including his most recent muse, Jessie Mann, daughter of acclaimed photographer, Sally Mann. Drew Barrymore, Kirsten Dunst, Teri Hatcher, Kelly Klein and Sarah Jessica Parker are also featured. One of the most comprehensive collections of Prince's work ever to be offered at auction, Epstein and Schwimer's personal collection includes many custom prints created for them by Len and Charlie Griffin. Prince's prints are almost all in expensive and archival permanent selenium toned papers, which produce rich deep tones. The Harry Langdon archive includes the life work of a master photographer from the large-format fashion work of the 1960's to the present. He has photographed virtually every Hollywood celebrity from the magical Angelina Jolie at 15, to Ann-Margret, Halle Berry , Cher and Diana Ross at their most memorable. Also included, a young George Clooney, Will Smith, Cher, Rock Hudson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, all during their prime. Langdon's impeccably high standard and style is widely recognized throughout the world. Included in the sale of this vast archive covering forty years of work in black-and-white and lush color includes approximately 50,000 vintage prints, black-and-white and color negatives and transparencies, as well as full copyrights. The complete Mel Roberts archive will be also sold intact including several thousand vintage prints with many unpublished, black and white negatives and color transparencies, as well as his personal video collection. All reproduction rights and copyrights for his name and photographs will also be part of this archive. First published in a physique magazine in the early 1960's, Roberts took over 50,000 photographs of nearly 200 male models, many of them friends and lovers. They were not the perfectly bodied men common in the physique magazines of the time but tanned in the California sun and casually posed by the pool or beach. In 2003, The New Yorker described his "witty Technicolor pictures" as "capturing all the giddy delights of being young during summertime..." Mel Roberts' photographs are included in many notable collections in Hollywood . Visit : http://www.liveauctioneers.com/

The Dali Collection in St. Petersburg, Florida to Move to Hurricane-proof Building Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:44 PM PST ST. PETERSBURG, FL.(EFE) - The largest collection of Salvador Dali works outside of his native Spain is being moved to a more secure location, a hurricane-proof, cement and glass building located just blocks away from its original location in St. Petersburg, Florida. The collection of 2,140 pieces, including 96 paintings by the "enfant terrible" of Surrealism, as well as numerous etchings and drawings, will be relocated in a new, $35 million structure in that west-central Florida city that will have a sturdier structure and be less exposed to the elements. The most unique aspect of the new Salvador Dali museum will be its 45 centimeter-thick (18-inch-thick) walls, capable of resisting the impact of a Category 5 hurricane packing winds of up to 265 kilometers (165 miles) per hour.

Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Photographers Paul Steinitz and Ja’bagh Kaghado Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:43 PM PST MOSCOW - Moscow Museum of Modern Art and BrainStorm Management present an unprecedented exhibition of the legendary Paul Steinitz – photographer, visual artist and publisher, known by all and by no one. Paul Steinitz, whose silhouette reminds both of an incredibly flamboyant artist and an impoverished vagabond, has been an obscure legend of the Paris and New York underground of the last two decades. To gain proof of it, one needs only to flick through the copies of Amaan Magazine that he has published since the mid-90s. On its pages are writers, filmmakers, designers, and top models – everyone Paul Steinitz photographed was transformed by his vision and later earned international recognition.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum presents " In the Beginning " Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:42 PM PST San Francisco, CA - An extraordinary collection of historical, modern and contemporary artworks will be on view in the Contemporary Jewish Museum's inaugural exhibition In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis (on view through January 4, 2009). Exploring the continuing relevance of the story of creation in Genesis Chapter I, the Museum has commissioned new installations by seven significant contemporary artists: Alan Berliner, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Ben Rubin, Matthew Ritchie, Kay Rosen, Shirley Shor, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. These works, ranging from multi-media and sound installations to computer animations, projections, and wall drawings, are presented in a unique dialogue with a compelling array of historical works, some rarely seen in public, and never before seen together. Featured works include: a rendering of a 6th-century Roman synagogue mosaic; illuminated manuscripts from the Medieval and Renaissance periods; 18th and 19th-century drawings by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and William Blake; modern and contemporary works by Auguste Rodin, Marc Chagall, Barnett Newman, Jacob Lawrence, and Ann Hamilton. The exhibition will also include three works that respond to Genesis by San Francisco-based artist Tom Marioni. The exhibition will be uniquely designed to create a lively dialogue between the new installations by the contemporary artists and the historical representations of the story of creation. The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) will opened its new, Daniel Libeskind-designed building in the heart of downtown San Francisco's Yerba Buena cultural district. The Museum's major inaugural exhibition, In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis, will occupy the Museum's 7,000-square-foot second floor gallery. "In the Beginning will be the first in a series of exhibitions the Contemporary Jewish Museum plans to develop that will examine the contemporary relevance of Jewish texts from a variety of artistic, cultural, and literary perspectives," said Director Connie Wolf. "And for all of the obvious reasons, symbolic and otherwise, it made sense to start at the beginning." Artist Commissions: Creating New Commentary The text of Genesis-the story of the origins of the universe and the creation of humanity-is rich in universal themes related to religion, language, physics, creation, the environment, and ancient literature. Since ancient times, biblical text has been scrutinized, reexamined, and reinterpreted so that it remains meaningful in a changing world. Inspired by this rabbinical practice of adding new commentary to biblical text and the Museum's mission of looking at tradition through a contemporary lens, the Contemporary Jewish Museum commissioned seven nationally and internationally-recognized artists to create major, site-specific installations for In the Beginning. "In effect, we've invited the artists to add their own layers of 21st-century commentary to this longstanding tradition of interpretation," observed Fred Wasserman, deputy director for programs. "We wanted to bring together a culturally and ethnically diverse group of artists who work in a variety of media, and all of whom have a particular interest in text, Genesis, and the origins of the universe," Wasserman noted. The artists selected include New York-based filmmaker and media artist, Alan Berliner; Texas-based painter, textile and installation artist, Trenton Doyle Hancock; New York-based media and sound artist, Ben Rubin; New York-based British painter and installation artist, Matthew Ritchie; Indiana-based painter and installation artist, Kay Rosen; New York-based and Israeli-born new-media artist, Shirley Shor; and New York-based installation and public artist, Mierle Laderman Ukeles. The commissioned works vary widely in approach and artistic practice, but all are highly engaging and experiential in nature. Ben Rubin will create a sound sculpture/installation that reexamines early scientific efforts to measure the Big Bang in counterpoint to the Genesis narrative. Matthew Ritchie's visitor-activated multi-media installation will explore the experience and impact of the formation of the universe. Onto a large structure shaped like a water well, Shirley Shor will project text fragments from the Internet in English and Hebrew that consider how Biblical language manifests itself in our everyday language. Alan Berliner is making a large-scale seven-screen "slot machine," which draws on an extraordinary range of archival film and sound, and invites visitors to "play God" as they question the level of agency each of us has in our own lives. In colorful, psychedelic wallpaper and painting, Trenton Doyle Hancock imagines a new chapter in his ongoing biblically inspired creation story. Mierle Laderman Ukeles's mystical installation is inspired by Kabbalistic interpretations of creation and will invite visitors to make a commitment to perform an act of tikkun olam (repairing the world). Finally, in her conceptual wall mural, Kay Rosen will mine the text of Genesis Chapter I to critique the way that mankind has degraded the original creation. These bold and provocative new works encourage audiences to rethink assumptions and to consider new ideas about the creation of our world and humankind. The commissioning process involved both inviting the artists to participate in the long-standing Jewish tradition of interpreting text for its contemporary relevance and to respond to the Museum's new Daniel Libeskind-designed building (which itself is a response to an historic structure). The artists visited San Francisco for a walkthrough of the new building so that they could respond to the site where their work would be installed. "The Museum then organized a one-day workshop at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where five of the artists met with Biblical scholars, all of whom presented different perspectives on the text of Genesis, Chapter I," explained Dara Solomon, assistant curator. "The workshop afforded a unique opportunity for the artists to engage with one another and with specialists on the topic of Genesis. This experience strengthened the connections between the text and their installations for In the Beginning." Commentary through the Ages  In keeping with the Museum's commitment to exploring art and ideas, In the Beginning provides visitors with a historical context for appreciating how the understanding of creation-and artistic interpretations of the theme-have changed over time. The exhibition will be uniquely designed to create a lively dialogue between these historical representations of the story of creation and the seven major artist projects commissioned by the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The exhibition will feature several richly illuminated Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts that depict God blessing the earthly orb alongside rare Jewish representations of creation found in Passover Haggadot from 14th to 15th century Spain. In the Beginning will investigate the shift to a more dramatic approach to Genesis during the Renaissance with Michelangelo-inspired images of a heavenly God creating the world, followed by atmospheric and dramatic works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Gustave Doré, and James Tissot, as well as Auguste Rodin's The Hand of God, from the 18th and 19th centuries. Continuing into the 20th century, the exhibition will explore the various abstract and figurative styles used to depict creation, from the existential questioning of "creation" and "being" found in works by artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Marc Chagall to Barnett Newman's Onement II, part of a series of paintings in which he explores artistic and universal dualities. The exhibition design will encourage a dialogue between the artists, time periods, and differing perspectives on the story of creation, as well as a conversation between Museum visitors and the works themselves. With artwork and rare manuscripts drawn from major museum and library collections across the United States, including the National Gallery of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Bancroft Library, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, together with the seven newly commissioned installations, In the Beginning offers visitors a truly unique opportunity to consider relationships and connections between historic, modern and contemporary works never before seen together in this context. Genesis Now: Other Perspectives  Continuing the theme of ongoing commentary, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is developing a documentary in which 12 to 15 scientists, writers, filmmakers, theologians, and others respond to the text of Genesis, Chapter I. Directed by renowned Bay Area filmmaker, Pamela Rorke Levy, this documentary will provide viewers with an understanding of the ongoing quest to understand creation, the origins of the universe, and new beginnings. In the Beginning is organized by the Contemporary Jewish Museum and co-curated by Director and CEO, Connie Wolf; Deputy Director for Program, Fred Wasserman; and Assistant Curator, Dara Solomon. In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis is generously supported by The Shenson Foundation in memory of Ben and A. Jess Shenson; Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, celebrating Israel's 60th Anniversary. Funding for the video, Genesis Now, comes from the John Templeton Foundation with additional in-kind support from Pam Rorke-Levy. About the Contemporary Jewish Museum With the opening of its new building on June 8, 2008, the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) will usher in a new chapter in its 20-plus year history of engaging audiences and artists in exploring contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas. The new facility, designed by internationally renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, will be a lively center where people of all ages and backgrounds can gather to experience art, share diverse perspectives, and engage in hands-on activities. Inspired by the Hebrew phrase "L'Chaim" (To Life), the building is a physical embodiment of the CJM's mission to bring together tradition and innovation in an exploration of the Jewish experience in the 21st century.  Visit : www.thecjm.org/

Library of Congress Acquires Charles Randall Dean Print Collection Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:41 PM PST Washington, DC - The Library of Congress has acquired an exceptional collection of American Abstract Expressionist prints from the 1940's to 1960's, now available through the Library's Prints and Photographs Division.The Charles Randall Dean Collection of 125 prints includes exquisite and often rare impressions by such artists as James Budd Dixon, Sonia Gechtoff, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, James Kelly, Lee Krasner, Frank Lobdell and Hedda Sterne.

The Grand Palais in Paris Presents 'Odilon Redon ~ The Prince of Dreams' Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:40 PM PST Paris.- In exhibition organised by the Grand Palais, the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée Fabre, Montpellier, the Grand Palais, Galeries National in Paris Presents Odilon Redon: The Prince of Dreams. The exhibition is on view until 20 June, after which it transfers to the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, from 7 July to 16 October 2011. Although he was a contemporary of the Impressionists (he took part in the group's last exhibition in 1886), Odilon Redon (Bordeaux 1840 – Paris 1916) remains the champion of mystery and the subconscious in a period which focused on reality and objectivity. One of the leaders in the art world at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, he was a key figure in early symbolism, with his charcoals and lithographs (the famous noirs) before being admired for his pastels and paintings by the young generation of artists in love with colour, the Nabis and the Fauves. He was then regarded as one of the precursors of surrealism. The exhibition in the Galeries nationales is a real rediscovery of this artist. A number of major exhibitions have recently been devoted to him in other parts of the world (Chicago and London, 1994; Frankfurt, 2007), but this retrospective is the first in Paris since the exhibition in the Orangerie in 1956. It is based on the study of many unpublished documents which shed new light on Redon's work. In particular it makes systematic use of his "book of reason" (Paris, Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet), in which he jotted down the titles and dates of his works. The book will be on display and published in the appendix to the catalogue. Some hundred and seventy paintings, pastels, charcoals and drawings, many unpublished, and a major set of engravings and lithographs (about a hundred prints, courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France) are arranged in chronological order to emphasise the development in Redon's style and themes, from the anguished period of the Noirs to the explosion of colour in his last works, in a gradual progression from shade to light. For the first time, the great mural that he painted for his patron Robert de Domecy will be displayed in its original size and layout. Redon's work in the decorative arts will also be on show, thanks to major loans from the Mobilier national. Despite the overall continuity of his style throughout his career, three periods can be distinguished, The early years (until 1890), saw Redon' youth and his training in etching under the mysterious Rodolphe Bresdin (1822-1885) in Bordeaux, until the beginning of the Noirs (charcoal drawings, lithographs) which, from his first collection of lithographs (Dans le Rêve, 1879), made his reputation in the budding symbolism movement, particularly in literary circles. Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) paid homage to him in his famous novel À rebours (Against the Grain, 1884), whose archetypal refined, decadent hero fervently collected Redon's work. His references are Darwin and the mysteries of the origins of the world but also the sumptuous macabre works of Edgar Allen Poe and Goya. The extraordinary beauty of his lithographs is due to an accomplished technique and velvety blacks, which were said to be inimitable. From 1892 until the end of the century is the period when the dreams of the Noirs were gradually transposed into colour. Yeux clos (Closed Eyes 1890, Paris, Musée d'Orsay), of which there is a painting and a lithograph, is a turning point after which Redon approached colour in a new spirit. He used pastel with startling originality and, alongside Degas, is still one of the great masters of this medium. He became a major figure in symbolism, and mixed with Mallarmé and Gauguin. After 1899, Redon gave up lithography and charcoal drawing. Black and white gave way to vivid colour in increasingly large formats. Collectors competed for his mythological themes and brightly coloured flower paintings, a sign of his new peace of mind. It was during this period that Redon produced some of the great decorations which number among the lesser known masterpieces of the twentieth century, including the one in the Fontfroide abbey, which will be open to the public while the exhibition is showing at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, in summer 2010. He won the admiration of Bonnard, Vuillard, Matisse and the Fauves and in his last years he designed tapestry cartoons for the Manufacture des Gobelins. Constructed in just three years for the 1900 Universal exhibitions in Paris, the Grand Palais is a true architectural achievement. For over a century it has been inseparably associated with key artistic movements, major technological breakthroughs in aviation, the automotive industry, and radio broadcasting, and has hosted a wide range of events from show jumping to high fashion, as well as the most avant-garde and offbeat themes. The Grand Palais offers visitors a rich and diversified programme of events in its enormous 72,000 m2 (over 250,000 sq. ft) of floor space, separated into three distinct areas: the Nave, the Galeries Nationales and the Palais de la Découverte. Refurbished between 2001 and 2008 the Grand Palais is one of the major exhibition venues in Paris and currently hosting 5 separate exhibtions. Visit the Grand Palais website at ... http://www.rmn.fr/

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:39 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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