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• Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921 ~ Reinventing Tradition at the National Gallery of Art
• The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art Features Three New Exhibitions
• Saffronart announces its Inaugural Auction of Impressionist and Modern art
• The Pera Museum Presents Historic Photographs of the Anatolian Shore
• The McManus Galleries shows Highlights from the Dundee Art Galleries & Museums
• LACMA Presents the First International Survey of Women Surrealists in Mexico & the USA
• Pablo Genovés solos at Galería Pilar Serra in Madrid
• Artist John Miller transforms Metro Pictures into a Bizarre Public Space
• The Fondation Beyeler Presents a Major Retrospective of Pierre Bonnard
• Our Editor Tours The Saatchi Gallery In London ~ Always Controversial - Always Cutting Edge Fine Art
• Large-Scale Wall Installation by the Artist Chitra Ganesh at P.S. 1
• Projects Gallery Presents Florence Putterman & Elizabeth Bisbing
• Christie's Latin American Sale to feature Rare Masterpieces & Contemporary Paintings
• Highlights of Bonhams & Butterfields $1.6 Million Fine Prints Auction
• Hammer Galleries Show Great Masters of the Modern Movement
• Playboy Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Iconic Bunny with Exhibition
• Nelson-Atkins Museum Announces Exhibition by Alfred Jacob Miller
• The Smithsonian Museum of American Art Shows New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image
• SFMOMA Celebrates 75th Anniversary with Anniversary Exhibition
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921 ~ Reinventing Tradition at the National Gallery of Art Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:09 PM PST WASHINGTON, DC.- Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was the greatest draftsman of the 20th century, exploring every technique from a single line to explosions of color. Through some 60 works, Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition presents the dazzling development of the artist as a draftsman during the first 30 years of his career, from the precocious academic exercises of his youth to his radical innovations of cubism and collage. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from January 29th through May 6th, the exhibition includes many of Picasso's finest drawings, watercolors, and pastels, borrowed from American and European public and private collections—including the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte—and seven drawings from the Gallery's collection of 278 works by Picasso. "Drawing served as an essential means of invention and discovery in Picasso's multifaceted art, connecting him with the European masters of the near and distant past," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "Picasso's work has long been integral to the Gallery's collection and has been the subject of six important exhibitions here, but this is the first to focus on his major drawings, watercolors, pastels, and collages." Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition presents a diverse selection of works on paper arranged chronologically, from early academic studies and life drawings to preparatory drawings for paintings, major independent and finished drawings made for sale, and portraits of family and friends in all media. The son of a drawing instructor, Picasso began to sketch at an early age. The exhibition opens with a selection of the most accomplished drawings from his childhood, including Hercules (1890)—his earliest known drawing. By age 14, he had mastered the conventions of classical draftsmanship through intense academic study and hard work, exemplified in Study of a Torso (1895) and Study from Life (1895–1897). The lessons learned in this period, as well as exposure to the art academies of La Coruña, Barcelona, and Madrid, and to old masters in the Prado, stayed with Picasso throughout his life. Picasso's move to Paris in 1904 coincided with rising public access to works on paper by old master and 19th-century artists through museum exhibitions and new means of reproduction. Inspired by Ingres, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, and Degas, as well as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities, Picasso produced virtuoso drawings as independent works in a variety of materials (pen and ink, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and gouache) and subjects (the couple, mother and child, and the harlequin family), for example Juggler with Still Life (1905). The exhibition showcases the way in which Picasso (with Georges Braque) devised new approaches in drawing that culminated in cubism and collage—the most critical development in his career and arguably in the 20th century. His interest in ancient Iberian art led to geometric stylization in visions of his mistress Fernande Olivier. In studies of individual figures, such as Yellow Nude (Study for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) (1907), he revealed his thought processes as he progressively rendered the human figure more abstract. Watercolors of landscapes and still lifes as well as figures track Picasso's development of the interlocking facets that underlay cubism. Six major variations on a standing female nude explore his analytic vocabulary. Another series shows the artist's brilliant transformation of the new medium of collage into major artistic statements. In the collage The Cup of Coffee (1913), Picasso created a dialogue between conventional means of drawing and unconventional materials and techniques, and between virtual flatness and illusion of depth. During World War I and immediately following, Picasso balanced tradition against innovation, embracing both classical modes and the cubist approach to representation. In portraits and images of bathers and figures, the artist rendered his subjects in spare contour drawings—for example, The Bathers (1918)—and in carefully executed sculptural drawings of the face and body, as in Portrait of Madame Georges Wildenstein (1918). The concluding works in the exhibition are from the summer of 1921, when Picasso and his wife Olga Khokhlova and baby Paulo were staying at Fontainebleau. Head of a Woman and Woman in a Hat Holding a Missal are pastel and charcoal renderings of monumental female figures, reflecting Picasso's deep interest in the classical Mediterranean tradition. The curators of the exhibition are Susan Grace Galassi, senior curator, The Frick Collection; Marilyn McCully, an independent scholar and Picasso expert; and Andrew Robison, senior curator of prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Visit : http://www.nga.gov/

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art Features Three New Exhibitions Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:36 PM PST Toronto, Ontario.- The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is pleased to launch its 2012 season with three visually stimulating and contemplative exhibitions: "Tasman Richardson: Necropolis"; "Spectral Landscape"; and "Daisuke Takeya: GOD Loves Japan". All three exhibitions open on February 4th and remain on view through April 1st. The opening celebration for all three takes place on February 4th from 2-5pm.

Saffronart announces its Inaugural Auction of Impressionist and Modern art Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:35 PM PST MUMBAI.- Saffronart, India's leading auction house announces its entry into Western art with its Inaugural Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art. As part of its long-term commitment to provide art connoisseurs in India and across the globe with access to the finest art works, Saffronart now introduces this landmark auction of Western art, a first for India. The auction offers a unique opportunity for collectors to acquire significant works by the legends of the art world including Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, and others. With a total of 73 lots, the sale includes a wide variety of paintings, works on paper and sculptures of exceptional provenance and quality by leading Western artists. The auction will take place online at www.saffronart.com on February 15th -16th. A selection of lots from this auction will be previewed at Saffronart's galleries in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The Pera Museum Presents Historic Photographs of the Anatolian Shore Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:14 PM PST Istanbul.- The Pera Museum is pleased to present "From Constantinople to Istanbul: Photographs of the Anatolian Shore of the Bosphorus from the Mid XIXth Century to the XXth Century" on view at the museum through April 1st. This photography exhibition encompasses works by photography masters who practiced their art in and around Istanbul from the end of the 19th to the early years of the 20th century. Curated by Architect Dr. Sinan Genim, it features a selection from the Suna and Inan Kiraç Foundation Photograph Collection as well as works from private collections, revealing the magnificent structures, the daily life and the intriguing personalities of an Istanbul of the past. Taken by renowned photographers of the period, such as Ali Sami Aközer, Felice Beato, Guillaume Berggren, the Abdullah brothers, the Gulmez brothers, Ernest Edouard de Caranza, Sebah & Joaillier, Maurice Meys, Ali Oza Enis and James Robertson, as well as amateur photography aficionados, who all employed the difficult and challenging techniques of the period, the photographs included in the exhibition not only offer us a glimpse into the physical and socio-cultural structure of the Istanbul of the period, but they also reveal unique beauties of the city, many of which are either transformed or altogether lost today.

The McManus Galleries shows Highlights from the Dundee Art Galleries & Museums Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:56 PM PST Dundee, Scotland.- The McManus Galleries are proud to present "Delebrated", on view from January 27th through August 12th. In 2008, the fine and applied art collections of Dundee Art Galleries & Museums were designated as being of national importance. This display showcases these collections with a selection of key works, including Stanley Spencer's 'Ferry Hotel Lawn, Cookham' and Fantin-Latour's 'Roses', that have recently returned to the City from loan to prestigious exhibitions across the country, and Laura Knight's newly conserved 'Last Act'. Housed in a splendid Gothic Revival-style building and displaying Dundee's main collection, the museum is managed and operated by Leisure and Culture Dundee.

LACMA Presents the First International Survey of Women Surrealists in Mexico & the USA Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:59 PM PST Los Angeles, California.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is proud to persent "In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States", on view at the museum from January 29th through May 6th. Co-organized by LACMA and the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM) in Mexico City, "In Wonderland" is the first large-scale international survey of women surrealist artists in North America. Past surveys of surrealism have either largely excluded female artists or minimized their contributions. This landmark exhibition highlights the significant role of women surrealists who were active in these two countries, and the effects of geography and gender on the movement. Spanning more than four decades, "In Wonderland" features approximately 175 works by forty-seven extraordinary artists, including Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning, Louise Bourgeois, and more. Surrealism called for the destruction of bourgeois culture and traditional standards and advocated intellectual and political liberty. When promoted in North America, these ideals flourished especially among the supposedly "second sex."In standard studies on surrealism, female artists have been cast primarily as mistresses, wives, or muses—the inspiration for the male fetishized subject matter. This exhibition however explores the legacy of the movement in the United States and Mexico through its influence on several generations of women artists. Unlike their male counterparts, these artists delved into the unconscious as a means of self-exploration that enhanced an often haunting self-knowledge in their quest to exorcise personal demons. For women surrealists—whether natives by birth, émigrés, or temporary visitors—North America offered the opportunity for reinvention and individual expression, a place where they could attain their full potential and independence. "In Wonderland" illuminates the work of a diverse group of artists—both well-recognized and lesser known—who were active during a period that witnessed both the internationalizing of surrealism and the professionalizing of women in the visual arts in urban centers such as Mexico City, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The survey presents an extensive range of work, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, photographs, and film. The works date primarily from about 1930 (the period when Lee Miller and Rosa Rolanda first experimented with surrealist photograph techniques) to 1968 (the year that Yayoi Kusama, working in New York City, presented one of her landmark happenings, "Alice in Wonderland," in Central Park). A selection of later works is also included to illustrate surrealism's historical overlap and influence on the feminist movement. "In Wonderland" is organized according to nine major themes that demonstrate recurrent issues in the women's lives and art: Identity; The Body and Fetishes; The Creative Woman; Romance and Domesticity; Games and Technical Innovations; North America: The Land, Native People, and Myths; Politics, Depression and the War; Abstraction; and Feminism. Most prominent in the show are portraits and self-referential images, ranging from bluntly honest to disturbing, that reveal unresolved issues haunting the artists. Equally telling are the many double, couple, and group portraits, and narrative fables that exemplify the women's friendships, loves, and families, and convey the difficulties and dramas often involved in such relationships. For instance, the portrayal of love and marriage ranges from storybook romances by Sylvia Fein and Remedios Varo; cynical, somewhat eerie courtship scenes by Leonora Carrington and Gertrude Abercrombie; and an obsessive fascination for a lover (i.e., Diego Rivera) by Frida Kahlo. The struggle of motherhood and domesticity versus an artistic career is often cast in terms of houses, dolls or other toys in the works of Carrington, Ruth Bernhard, Louise Bourgeois, Gerri Gutmann, and Kati Horna. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection extending from ancient times to the present. A museum of international stature as well as a vital part of Southern California, LACMA shares its vast collections through exhibitions, public programs, and research facilities that attract nearly a million visitors annually. Among the museum's special strengths are its holdings of Asian art, housed in part in the Bruce Goff-designed Pavilion for Japanese Art; Latin American art, ranging from pre-Columbian masterpieces to works by leading modern and contemporary artists including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco; and Islamic art, of which LACMA hosts one of the most significant collections in the world. LACMA has its roots in the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, established in 1910 in Exposition Park. In 1961, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established as a separate, art-focused institution. In 1965, the fledgling institution opened to the public in its new Wilshire Boulevard location, with the permanent collection in the Ahmanson Building, special exhibitions in the Hammer Building, and the 600-seat Bing Theater for public programs. Over several decades, the campus and the collection have grown considerably. The Anderson Building (renamed the Art of the Americas building in 2007) opened in 1986 to house modern and contemporary art. In 1988, Bruce Goff's innovative Pavilion for Japanese Art opened at the east end of campus. In 1994, the museum acquired the May Company department store building at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, now known as LACMA West. Most recently, the Transformation project revitalized the western half of the campus with a collection of buildings designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. These include the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a three-story 60,000 square foot space for the exhibition of postwar art that opened in 2008. In fall of 2010, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion opened to the public, providing the largest purpose-built, naturally lit, open-plan museum space in the world, with a rotating selection of major exhibitions. Ray's restaurant and Stark Bar opened in 2011, invigorating the central BP Pavilion near Chris Burden's iconic Urban Light. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.lacma.org

Pablo Genovés solos at Galería Pilar Serra in Madrid Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:39 PM PST MADRID.- Following "Precipitados" (Precipitates), Pablo Genovés' first individual show in the Galería Pilar Serra, now presents Cronología del ruido (Noise Chronology), an exhibition in which he returns to his particular process of re-signification of symbolic spaces of western culture from the combination of media and signs, and his liking for contrast and the unexpected. "Is renovation possible when catastrophe rises up before us as the natural and eternal state of things? In the images of Pablo Genovés, destruction transgresses the laws of time and establishes its own chronology. The symbols and fictions of our culture apparently succumb in the face of the irruption of the untameable: mechanical natures, monumental in their disproportion and now out of all control. But hiding behind this aggression is a secret pact of compromise. The pre-existing and its end are offered each aware of the other, in the warmth of a historical intimacy. In this Cronología del ruido, the spaces of representation – museums, theatres or churches – are revealed as enormous apparatuses of engineering: machines for the generation of myths which when cracked show their steel innards. In his images, Genovés locates our myths and values in an arc of time and he tenses them to their limit, up to the moment immediately prior to tearing, necessary for the percussion. Like the metal which, when struck, faithfully reproduces a noise of storm." . . . Lucía Carballal

Artist John Miller transforms Metro Pictures into a Bizarre Public Space Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:26 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- John Miller elaborates on many of the tropes he has masterfully cultivated throughout his thirty-plus year career in "Suburban Past Time," his latest exhibition at Metro Pictures. Through artificial rocks and plants ranging in scale from massive to ordinary, wallpaper, store-bought and handmade decorative elements, Miller transforms the gallery into a bizarre yet familiar public space. The works included in the exhibition are a continuation of the artist's ongoing sociological investigation into so-called middlebrow culture, which focus on artifice in Western consumer societies. Also on view are a series of flash animations Miller created with long time collaborator Takuji Kogo under the name Robot. Lifting the text from personal ads and setting them to MIDI voice recordings, cultural hierarchies related to age and wealth emerge from the borrowed lyrics of these videos projected on the gallery's walls.

The Fondation Beyeler Presents a Major Retrospective of Pierre Bonnard Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:08 PM PST Basel, Switzerland.- The Fondation Beyeler is pleased to present "Pierre Bonnard", on view from January 29th through May 13th. With the exhibition "Pierre Bonnard", the Fondation Beyeler celebrates one of the most fascinating of modern artists. With more than 60 paintings by the renowned French colorist on loan frominternational museums and private collections, the show provides a fresh review of Bonnard's oeuvre and development. It covers his entire career from his beginnings with the Nabis through Symbolism and Impressionism to his ever more colorful and abstract late works. The paintings depict familiar scenes with bathers, views of the artist's garden, everyday life, and the bustle of the Paris streets. Born in Fontenay aux Roses near Paris, Bonnard (1867–1947) worked principally in his private residences and studio apartments in Paris. The main locations were his house "Ma Roulette" in Vernnonet, Normandy (1912-39), and the villa "Le Bosquet" in Le Cannet on the Côte d'Azur (1927-47) and their respective gardens. In these personal surroundings Bonnard found the scenes and inspirations for his compositions in color as well as his preferred subjects, to which he remained faithful throughout his life while varying them in different ways. Marthe, his lover and, from 1925, his wife, was his favorite model. The wedding ended the ménage à trois among Marthe, Bonnard and Renée Monchaty - the painter's model, muse and lover from 1918 onwards - who reacted by taking her own life. At the onset of the twentieth century, Bonnard practiced his own personal style, a "different modernism" beyond all "isms" beholding to French classicism, and never questioned the centrality of objectivity. Yet he broke through the traditional barriers between genres and developed them further. He created unconventional still lifes that included human figures and animals. Landscapes depicting "wild nature" stood in contrast to vibrant Parisian cityscapes. In his representations of interiors he oscillated between intimate depictions of his wife at her toilette and views of their bourgeois dining room. The vitality of his often luminous palette soon set Bonnard off from the Impressionists. Turning away from their attempts to capture the fleeting moment, he represented the permanence and memorableness of things. With the aid of color composition, he lent his paintings an unusual sense of space as perceived by the human eye rather than the camera lens. In the end, he was concerned to convey the whole range of sensory impressions through color. If shortly after his death in the middle of the past century Bonnard was viewed as a representative of a superficial harmony and an "innocent" chronicler of haute bourgeois life, ever since the 1984 travelling exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (which was also on view at the Zurich Kunsthaus), he has figured as an artist who captured the profound disquiet of a society destined to vanish. By means of subtle aesthetic nuances, Bonnard delved beneath the ostensible harmony of the day. This is seen in his color dissonances, interpenetrating spaces, ambiguous locations and alogical figure placements. In the exhibition, conceived as a "maison immaginaire de Bonnard," his paintings are grouped in association with certain spaces that provided his favorite motifs: "La rue," "La salle à manger," "Intimité", "Le miroir," "Le passage entre intérieur et extérieur," and "Le grand jardin." The exhibition opens with the room "La rue." Bonnard painted Parisian street scenes especially in his early phase. He repeatedly chose a busy traffic intersection in northwestern Paris not far from his studio, as evidenced by two outstanding paintings of the same title - Place Clichy (1906-07 and 1912) - from a private collection and the Musée national d'Art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. The next room features depictions of Bonnard's "Salle à manger" with its very special atmosphere. This dining room offered him many opportunities to cast an often humorous eye on the bourgeois interior, as in the major painting Le Café (Coffee), 1915, from the Tate London and La Nappe blanche (The White Tablecloth), 1925, from the Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal. The dining room still lifes mark a contrast with the intimate interiors of the bedrooms and bathrooms on view in the room "Intimité". The nude was one of Bonnard's favorite motifs. The major examples on view here include L'Homme et la Femme (Man and Woman), 1900, from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Depicting the artist and his lover, Marthe, this early work marked a first transition point in Bonnard's oeuvre, possessing a very modern-looking naturalness with which he left the stark simplifications of the Nabi phase behind. Besides the other rooms in his house, Bonnard was particularly inspired by the bathroom, from 1908 focusing increasingly on the subject of a woman at her toilette. An outstanding example, on account of its condensed spatial structure, is Le Cabinet de toilette (The Bathroom), 1932, from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Bonnard's bathtub motifs are renowned. A full five works in this genre are on view: La Source (Nu dans la baignoire), (The Source (Nude in the Bathtub)), 1917, from a private collection; Baignoire (Le Bain), (The Bath,) 1925, from the Tate; Nu à la baignoire (Sortie du bain), (Nude by the Bathtub (Getting out of the Bath)), 1931, from the Musée national d'Art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Nu dans le bain (Nu dans la baignoire), (Nude in the Bath), 1936-38, from the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, and La Grande Baignoire (Nu), (The Large Bathtub (Nude)),1937-39, from a private collection. A further section comprises solely pictures with the mirror motif, which expands the pictorial space and simultaneously questions it. Here, in addition to Le Cabinet de toilette au canapé rose (Nu à contre-jour), (The Dressing Room with Pink Sofa (Nude in Contre-Jour)), 1908, from the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, we find two self-portraits made in front of the mirror in the artist's bedroom: Autoportrait (Le Boxeur), (Selfportrait (The Boxer)), 1931, from the Musée d'Orsay, and Portrait de l'artiste dans la glace du cabinet de toilette (Autoportrait), (Portrait of the Artist in the Bathroom Mirror (Self-Portrait)), 1939-45, from the Musée national d'Art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Then comes a room devoted to the important relationship between interior and exterior space in Bonnard's art. Windows intrigued him throughout his career. His views through windows are always recognizable as such, the outside world being clearly perceived from an interior point of view. This leads to an integration of the environment in the interior realm, as seen to good effect in Fenêtre ouverte sur la Seine (Vernon), (Open Window towards the Seine (Vernon)), 1911-12, from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice, and Grande salle à manger sur le jardin, (Dining Room on the Garden), 1934-36, from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. The exhibition also includes a rather large number of garden depictions from all phases of the artist's career. After the turn of the century, nature advanced to become a key motif in Bonnard's visual repertoire. In his eyes the garden represented an order in which the human relationship to nature in general was reflected. In the early La Partie de croquet, (The Croquet Game), 1892, from the Musée d'Orsay, the landscape still serves as a foil for an ornamental harmony. In his later nature depictions Bonnard interlocked the landscape and garden with his house, as seen in the famous painting Le Jardin sauvage (La Grande Terrasse), (The Wild Garden (The Large Terrace)), 1918, from the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., and Décor à Vernon (La Terrasse à Vernon), (The Terrace at Vernon), 1920/39, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The "Pierre Bonnard" exhibition continues the Fondation Beyeler tradition of devoting exhibitions to artists represented in our collection. Ernst Beyeler dealt in Bonnard works and in 1966 mounted a Bonnard show in his gallery. With Le Dessert, (The Dessert), 1940, the Beyeler Collection possesses one of the artist's major late still lifes. During his fifty years as an art dealer Ernst Beyeler was constantly collecting art. In time, this required him to make provisions for the future of his pictures and sculptures. The most obvious solution would have been to bequest the works to the Kunstmuseum Basel. However, when the government of the canton Basel City put forward suggestions for a new home for the collection, it soon became apparent that none of these locations could do justice to the works of art. So the foundation was launched and with it came the idea of building a museum specifically to house the collection. Ernst Beyeler was excited by the vision of combining groups of works by major artists from the last hundred years with sculptures from Africa and Oceania in a compatible setting. However, this setting had yet to be created. Having been highly impressed by the work of Renzo Piano, who designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Menil Collection in Houston, he commissioned the acclaimed Italian architect without competition to design the new museum. The beautiful grounds of the Villa Berower estate, provided by the municipality of Riehen, offered ideal surroundings for a museum intended as a home for Claude Monet's Water Lilies. The idea of creating an exciting synthesis of nature, daylight and art could not have met with more favourable conditions. There was something altogether painterly about the meadow parkland with its richly varied vegetation. Ernst Beyeler and Renzo Piano engaged in an extensive exchange of ideas throughout the entire process of planning and building the museum. From the outset Renzo Piano proposed building a museum tract that would consist of three sections integrated into the terrain in a series of steps. A section was added along the building's eastern side – like the side deck of an aircraft carrier – which also screened the museum from the main road. To the west, an adjoining winter garden opens up a view of the countryside as it sweeps down towards the river Wiese at the foot of the Tüllinger Hill. Renzo Piano paid considerable attention to the design of the roof, seeking ways of allowing the changing phases of daylight to be experienced inside the galleries while abiding by conservation requirements. The building was designed to radiate simplicity while maintaining harmony with its setting. Ernst Beyeler's wish that visitors should be able to experience the museum and its collection on a single floor without the need to climb stairs, and that a pond be created outside the south-facing façade, was fulfilled by sinking the entire complex to a lower level in the ground. This draws the museum into closer communion with the landscape as well as lending it a more intimate character. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.fondationbeyeler.ch

Our Editor Tours The Saatchi Gallery In London ~ Always Controversial - Always Cutting Edge Fine Art Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:49 PM PST The Saatchi Gallery is the product of one man's devotion to contemporary art. Charles Saatchi, one of the wealthiest advertising moguls in the world, started to collect contemporary art in 1969, amassing a huge collection over the years that followed. When the Saatchi Gallery first allowed Charles Saatchi's personal collection to be seen by the public in 1985, it occupied a disused paint factory in St John's Wood, North London with 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) of space. Dedicated to providing an innovative forum for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work had rarely or never been exhibited in the UK, the gallery made an immediate impact, the first exhibition featuring works by American minimalist Donald Judd, American abstract painters Brice Marden and Cy Twombly and American pop artist Andy Warhol. This was the first U.K. exhibition for Twombly and Marden. In April 2003, the gallery moved to County Hall, the Greater London Council's former headquarters on the South Bank of the Thames, occupying 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of the ground floor. 1,000 guests attended the launch, which included a "nude happening" of 200 naked people staged by artist Spencer Tunick. The opening exhibition included a retrospective by Damien Hirst, alongside work by other young British artists, such as Jake and Dinos Chapman and Tracey Emin alongside some longer-established artists including John Bratby, Paula Rego and Patrick Caulfield. In October 2008 the gallery moved to its current location, the 70,000 sq. ft. Duke of York Headquarters building on King's Road, Chelsea. The Duke of York's Headquarters was built in 1801 to the designs of John Sanders (architect), who also designed the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. In 1969 it was a declared a Listed building, due to its outstanding historic or architectural special interest. The building was originally called the Royal Military Asylum and was a school for the children of soldiers' widows. In 1892 it was renamed the Duke of York's Royal Military School. In 1909, the school moved to new premises in Dover, and the Asylum building was renamed the Duke of York's Barracks. After being sold, the site was redeveloped to plans from Paul Davis and Partners as the Duke of York Square. The development includes a public square, upmarket housing and retail outlets, and part of it is the new premises for the Saatchi Gallery. The new site opened with an exhibition dedicated to new art from China. Free admission to all shows, including temporary, curated exhibitions has been enabled through the Gallery's corporate partnership with the leading contemporary art auction house Phillips de Pury & Company. You must visit the museum's website at: … http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk The Gallery also includes a dedicated space for Saatchi Online artists to exhibit and sell their work commission free. Corporate sponsorship and Charles Satchi's vested interest in the artworks has caused controversy over the years, the gallery (and travelling exhibitions) courted publicity and never backed away from negative publicity, if it produced headlines and promoted the art, whilst some artists complained about the (private) collection selling works that formed part of public exhibitions. However, it has certainly been extremely successful in promoting new artists and their works, with names such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin now extremely well known and collectable. In 2010, Charles Saatchi announced that the 70,000 sq ft gallery would be renamed MOCA London (Museum of Contemporary Art, London) when he retires, and would feature "a strong, rotating permanent collection of major installations", including 200 works (worth an estimated £25m) that would be donated to the nation. Since there is already a "Museum of Contemporary Art" in London (who are not best pleased about the appropriation of their name), this announcement continued the gallery's headline-grabbing traditions. Another news making affair was the "Sensation Show" in New York which offended Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, because of Chris Ofili's painting, Holy Virgin Mary, which incorporates elephant dung.Giuliani, who had seen the work in the catalog but not in the show, called it "sick stuff" and threatened to withdraw the annual $7 million City Hall grant from the Brooklyn Museum hosting the show, because "You don't have a right to government subsidy for desecrating somebody else's religion." John O'Connor, the Cardinal of New York, said, "one must ask if it is an attack on religion itself," and the president of America's biggest group of Orthodox Jews, Mandell Ganchrow, called it "deeply offensive". However, even without the spice of controversy, a visit to the Saatchi gallery will astonish, confound and delight, with an ever-changing selection of the best works from cutting-edge artists from around the world, as the 1.25 million visitors annually will attest to. Since the gallery exhibits work from a private collection, and the owner's tastes have changed with time, the exhibitions have changed accordingly. Initially, the gallery had a strong focus on US artists, including, Sol LeWitt, Frank Stella, Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, Philip Guston and Cindy Sherman amongst others. However, in the 1990's the focus changed to new, young British artists, and this focus has remained ever since, complimented with works by international artists. The permanent collection includes a large number of works from young British artists, including, Damien Hirst's iconic "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (the famous "shark in formaldehyde"), Mark Quinn's "Self", Richard Wilson's "20:50" (the "Oil Room" installation), "Tragic Anatomies" by Jake and Dinos Chapman as well as works by Tracey Emin, Emily Prince, Jitish Kallat and Kader Attia. Works from the permanent collection have always featured in themed gallery shows. In 1998 Saatchi launched a two part exhibition entitled Neurotic Realism. Though widely attacked by critics, the exhibition included many future international stars including; Cecily Brown, Ron Mueck, Noble and Webster, Dexter Dalwood, Martin Maloney, Chantal Joffe, Michael Raedecker and David Thorpe. In 2000 Ant Noises (an anagram of "sensation"), also in two parts, tried surer ground with work by Hirst, Lucas, Saville, Whiteread, the Chapmans, Turk, Emin and Chris Ofili. During this period the Collection was based at '30 Underwood St' an artist Collective of 50 studios and four galleries, the gallery made several large philanthropic donations including 100 artworks in 1999 to the Arts Council of Great Britain Collection, which operates a "lending library" to museums and galleries around the country, with the aim of increasing awareness and promoting interest in younger artists; 40 works by young British artists through the National Arts Collection Fund, now known as The Art Fund, to eight museum collections across Britain in 2000; and 50 artworks to the Paintings in Hospitals program which provides a lending library of over 3,000 original works of art to NHS hospitals, hospices and health centers throughout England, Wales and Ireland in 2002. On view until 17 April 2011, the gallery is exhibiting "Newspeak: British Art Now, Part II". This is the second installment of the Gallery's museum-scale survey of emergent British contemporary art, providing an expansive insight into the art being made in the UK today. Far from manifesting a visual language in decline, which the Orwellian title might suggest, the exhibition celebrates a new generation of artists for whom the stimulus of our hyper-intensified, codified, contemporary world provides a radical pathway to a host of new forms and images. From sculpture and painting, to installation and photography, artists here employ a hybrid of traditional and contemporary techniques and materials to create a new language with which to articulate the wikified world around them. In this melting pot, east merges with west, celebrity with classicism, fantasy with obsessive formalism. This explosion of new and vigorous forms is an exciting indicator of the ongoing and future strength of contemporary art in Britain. The exhibition includes works by Alan Brooks, Alexander Hoda, Anna Barriball, Anne Hardy, Ansel Krut, Anthea Hamilton, Arif Ozakca, Caragh Thuring, Carla Busuttil, Caroline Achaintre, Clarisse D'Arcimoles, Dan Perfect, Dean Hughes, Dick Evans, Edward Kay, Gabriel Hartley, Gareth Cadwallader, Graham Durward, Graham Hudson, Henrijs Preiss, Idris Khan, Jaime Gili, James Howard, Jonathan Wateridge, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Kate Groobey, Luke Gottelier, Luke Rudolf, Maaike Schoorel, Marcus Foster, Maurizio Anzeri, Mustafa Hulusi, Nicholas Hatfull, Nicholas Byrne, Nick Goss, Olivia Plender, Paul Johnson, Peter Linde Busk, Renee So, Robert Fry, Spartacus Chetwynd, Steve Bishop, Systems House, Tasha Amini, Tessa Farmer, Toby Ziegler, Tom Ellis and Ximena Garrido-Lecca. On display from 27 May until 16 October 2011, the main exhibition will be "Shape of things to come: New sculpture" and will feature works by artists David Altmejd, John Baldessari, David Batchelor, Matthew Brannon, Peter Buggenhout, Bjorn Dahlem, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Folkert De Jong. Martin Honert, Thomas Houseago, Joanna Malinowska, Kris Martin, Matthew Monahan, Anselm Reyle, Sterling Ruby, Dirk Skreber, David Thorpe, Oscar Tuazon, Rebecca Warren and Yeesookyung amongst others.

Large-Scale Wall Installation by the Artist Chitra Ganesh at P.S. 1 Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:48 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- P.S.1 presents a large-scale wall installation by the artist Chitra Ganesh, for the second installment of the new series "On-site" which continues P.S.1's long standing tradition of commissioning site-specific, wall based projects. Ganesh's new wall piece, The Silhouette Returns (2009), was put on view in the P.S.1 lobby this October 1, 2009 and will continue through April 5, 2010. Chitra Ganesh creates wall installations, paintings, drawings, photographs, and animations that make use of an expansive visual vocabulary that ranges from Bollywood films, comics and graphic novels, to iconic feminist imagery.

Projects Gallery Presents Florence Putterman & Elizabeth Bisbing Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:47 PM PST PHILADELPHIA, PA - Projects Gallery presents its second solo exhibition of Florence Putterman. Known for her textural paintings and bold, earthy colors, Noir et Blanc features works in only black and white, focusing the exhibition on Putterman's keen image-making. Utilizing etching and woodcuts, these works on paper continue to explore an imaginative world of whimsy and humor. Expressive and figurative, these prints are companion pieces to her often large-scale paintings that have been the benchmark of this artist's extensive body of work.

Christie's Latin American Sale to feature Rare Masterpieces & Contemporary Paintings Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:46 PM PST NEW YORK, NY - Christie's Latin American Sale in New York on May 28 and 29 will feature rare masterpieces spanning from 17th century Colonial art to Contemporary paintings. Important artists represented include Diego Rivera, Leonora Carrington, Mario Carreño, Cundo Bermúdez, Wifredo Lam, Rufino Tamayo and Matta. The two-day sale will offer 276 lots and expects to realize in excess of $14 million. A self-portrait by Diego Rivera will lead the sale (estimate: $1.2-1.8 million). Sigmund Firestone, an American engineer and art collector from Rochester, New York, met Rivera and Frida Kahlo on a business trip to Mexico in 1939, and subsequently maintained a friendship and correspondence with the artists, commissioning self-portraits from each.

Highlights of Bonhams & Butterfields $1.6 Million Fine Prints Auction Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:45 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA.- On May 3, 2011, Bonhams & Butterfields presented its $1.6-million Fine Prints auction, marked by strong surrealism sales: the exceptional $134,000 purchase of Salvador Dalí - La Divine Comédie, a complete signed portfolio of 100 color wood engravings from Dante Alighieri, L'Enfer, La Purgatoire, and Le Paradis, estimated at $50,000-70,000; and The Magic Flute, an After Marc Chagall, color lithograph on wove paper, estimated at $20,000-30,000 that sold for $42,700.

Hammer Galleries Show Great Masters of the Modern Movement Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:44 PM PST New York, NY - The great masters of the Modern Movement (which in fact began its life over a century ago, with the sensational appearance of the Fauves in the Paris Salon d'Automne in 1905) retain their allure for a variety of reasons. One of the most important is that they seem to deserve the adjective 'modern' in two different senses. They are modernist in a generically historical sense yet still seem very much of our own later time. This is not surprising, if we consider that two of their basic aims were, first, to clarify appearances, often reducing these to their most basic forms; and secondly, to communicate emotional states through both form and color. A painting or drawing by one of the great experimental masters of the high modernist epoch nearly always has immediate appeal. We encounter it, and it at once begins to communicate what it has to say. At the same time, however, these are not superficial artists. Everything they did shows how determined they were to break down and remake visual conventions. We respond instinctively to the exuberant energy of their work. Currently on view at Hammer Galleries, and you can enjoy a virtual tour at : http://vtg.virtualtourgallery.com/vtg-0111/

Playboy Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Iconic Bunny with Exhibition Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:43 PM PST CHICAGO, IL.- Playboy Enterprises, Inc. and The Andy Warhol Museum invited more than 20 emerging and established artists to reinterpret the iconic Playboy Bunny in a variety of mediums for "Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny", a new exhibition that will open at the Pittsburgh museum on March 27, 2010. This new exhibition is part of Playboy's global, year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Playboy Bunny and Playboy Clubs. Playboy will also commemorate the milestone with 50 Playboy Club parties in 50 cities, all held on one night, and newly-designed Playboy apparel. Twenty-five artists, hailing from the fine art gallery world to the underground art scene, were invited to use the Playboy Bunny as their muse and have reinterpreted the Bunny's image, ideals and cultural impact through their own artwork. The resultant exhibition, Playboy Redux, includes a broad variety of interpretations in mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography. Co-curated by Aaron Baker, Eric C. Shiner and Ned West, the exhibition features works from a diverse group of artists, including: Scott Anderson, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Zoe Charlton, Ain Cocke, Brian Ewing, Brendan Fernandes, Jeremy Fish, Moyna Flannigan, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Chitra Ganesh, Ludovica Gioscia, Jeremy Kost, Frank Kozik, Simone Leigh, Kalup Linzy, Tara McPherson, Hiroki Otsuka, Shag (Josh Agle), SEEN, Seth Scriver, Andrew Schoultz, Vadis Turner, Saya Woolfalk and O Zhang. "The Playboy Bunnies, with their recognizable costumes and sexy sophistication, help bring the Playboy brand to life," said Aaron Baker, curator and business development director, Playboy Art. "We're thrilled to partner with The Andy Warhol Museum and these 25 talented artists to celebrate and honor the beloved Playboy Bunnies in a fresh, unique way." This new exhibition represents an extension of Playboy's longstanding relationship with Andy Warhol. The artist's work was featured in Playboy magazine several times during his lifetime, including a January 1986 cover featuring the revered Rabbit Head Logo and a Polaroid pictorial in the August 1976 issue. Playboy Redux will include additional materials that give context to the connection between the Bunny and Andy Warhol, including one of Warhol's four paintings of the Rabbit Head Logo; a video, which provides rare footage from Playboy Clubs in the 1960s; and archival objects and images from both Warhol's personal collection and the Playboy Archives. The Bunny-inspired exhibition will open on March 27, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. with a Playboy Pajama Party event at The Andy Warhol Museum. Bunny-clad Playmates Laurie Fetter and Lindsey Vuolo will be onsite to kickoff the party in true Playboy fashion, and guests will enjoy music from Pittsburgh's own DJ Zombo, photos with the Playmates, appetizers and a full bar. Tickets will be available at the door for: $35 for opening party and 8:00 p.m. lecture (Warhol's Fight with Brigid Berlin, Charles Rydell & Vincent Fremont); $20 for opening party; and $15 for opening party for Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh members and students. Tickets are also available in advance by calling or by visiting www.ticketweb.com. Historical Background Originally opening to the public on February 29, 1960 in Chicago, the Playboy Clubs quickly became the embodiment of sexy sophistication and one of the world's most-successful night club chains. The famous venues, which were home to the iconic Playboy Bunnies, allowed key holders to enjoy performances by some of the era's biggest names in entertainment, including Steve Allen, Ann Margaret, the Count Basie Orchestra, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, George Carlin, Ray Charles, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Ginger Rogers, the Smothers Brothers, Mel Torme and Muddy Waters. The original Bunny Costume, worn by more than 25,000 working Playboy Bunnies over the years, was created for female staff at the first Playboy Club and started as a modified one-piece swimsuit. The Bunny Costume, recognizable for its satin bodice, cotton tail and rabbit ears, went on to become the first uniform to be issued a trademark registration by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Before they launched their careers, actresses Lauren Hutton, Julie Cobb, Lynne Moody, Sherilyn Fenn, Susan Sullivan, Jackie Zeman, Maria Richwine and Barbara Bosson all worked as Bunnies, as did rock star Deborah Harry. As one of the world's most-recognized uniforms, the Playboy Bunny Costume was redesigned in 2006 by Roberto Cavalli for the Playboy Club Las Vegas Bunnies and Playboy Club Celebrity Dealers, including Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra.

Nelson-Atkins Museum Announces Exhibition by Alfred Jacob Miller Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:42 PM PST KANSAS CITY, MO.- Vibrant and masterful mixed media works on paper by the artist Alfred Jacob Miller, depicting the American West inspired by a six-month expedition in 1837, will be on view in Romancing the West: Alfred Jacob Miller in the Bank of America Collection, an exhibition that opens this fall at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., then travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2011.

The Smithsonian Museum of American Art Shows New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:41 PM PST Washington, D.C.- The Smithsonian American Art Museum opened a new gallery dedicated to examining the history and the latest developments in the art of the moving image. This permanent-collection gallery, located on the museum's third floor, allows for the presentation of the full range of media art practices. "Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image", the current exhibition in the gallery features key artworks from the history of video art and a new generation of artists on the cutting edge of media arts.

SFMOMA Celebrates 75th Anniversary with Anniversary Exhibition Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:40 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Celebrating the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)'s impact on modern and contemporary art, the exhibition "The Anniversary Show" traces the art and individuals that have made SFMOMA the institution it is today. Throughout the anniversary year, SFMOMA will present a series of exhibitions under the heading "75 Years of Looking Forward" illustrating the story of the artists, collectors, cultural mavericks, and San Francisco leaders who founded, built, and have animated the museum. Co-organized by Janet Bishop, SFMOMA curator of painting and sculpture; Corey Keller, SFMOMA associate curator of photography; and Sarah Roberts, SFMOMA associate curator of collections and research, and assembling some 400 works of art, "The Anniversary Show" highlights both the significant and the idiosyncratic while considering the moments when SFMOMA helped shape the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art locally and worldwide. The exhibition relates many behind-the-scenes stories as it chronicles the events that shaped SFMOMA and established the commitment to innovation, artistic collaboration, and community engagement that the museum maintains in the present moment. On view from December 19, 2009, to January 16, 2011, "The Anniversary Show" mines the depth and breadth of SFMOMA's collection—the soul and long-term memory of the museum—and constitutes the first complete reinstallation of the second floor galleries since the museum opened its doors on Third Street in 1995. Paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, video works, architectural models, and design objects will be supplemented by archival material orienting visitors to the timeframe and context in which these works were first shown and acquired. From mounting Jackson Pollock's first solo museum exhibition in 1945 to championing the emerging Mission School scene in the mid-1990s to exhibiting snapshot photography in 1998, SFMOMA has consistently broken new ground, challenging conventional wisdom of what an art museum should present and collect. As the curators note, SFMOMA has grown through bold leaps of faith, true to the adventurous, entrepreneurial spirit that has pervaded the Bay Area since the Gold Rush. It took a great deal of gumption on the part of the museum's founders to start a cultural institution in the middle of the Great Depression to make it flourish in those early years. "The Anniversary Show" begins on the second-floor landing with an introductory selection titled San Francisco Views, 1935 to Now. Featuring some three dozen works of art, this presentation sets the stage for the exhibition with images of San Francisco created by a host of artists in a variety of media. Ranging from Gabriel Moulin's 1935 photograph "San Francisco" to a 1962 painting by James Weeks titled "Looking West" from "Spanish Fort—Baker Beach", to a 1998 drawing by Rigo 98 titled "Study for Looking at 1998 San Francisco from the Top of 1925", and a poster by Martin Venezky titled "San Francisco Prize Poster: Harvey Milk Plaza, 2000", this grouping of works reveals the many ways the city has inspired artists over the last three quarters of a century. The first gallery in the exhibition focuses on the local, national, and international impact of local patron Albert M. Bender. Bender's personal interests in Mexican modernism, photography, and the art of the Bay Area gave an initial shape to the museum's core collection. His early gifts included many highlights of the collection, such as "Trees in Snow in Front the Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley, California" (1929) by Ansel Adams; Frida Kahlo's "Frieda and Diego Rivera" (1931); Diego Rivera's "The Flower Carrier" (1935); and "Two Shells" (1927) by Edward Weston. Bender not only gave art to the museum, but also established a fund to buy what he called "contemporaneous" art. Bender's support for living artists and his passionate engagement with both his own local art community and those more geographically and culturally distant are values that SFMOMA still embraces today. In an adjacent gallery, the exhibition explores the tremendous legacy of the museum's founding director (1935–1958), Grace McCann Morley, her efforts to build the modernist collection, and the fervor with which she pursued her conviction that art was an essential part of everyday life. Key acquisitions led by Morley are showcased, including works by Constantin Brancusi, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Yves Tanguy, among others. Also on view are more recent acquisitions by artists such as Jean Arp, Claude Cahun, Alberto Giacometti, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian, and Man Ray, works which have continued to build on the modernist foundation established by Morley. The exhibition then considers the dialogue between American modernist painters and photographers through the story of Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Morley working together to bring about SFMOMA's important 1952 acquisition of photographs from the estate of Alfred Stieglitz. Photographs by Stieglitz, Charles Sheeler, and Paul Strand are juxtaposed with paintings by O'Keeffe, Helen Torr, and Arthur Dove to demonstrate both the shared and distinct artistic concerns of the circle of artists associated with Stieglitz. The following gallery illustrates the little-known activities of the museum during World War II, when the museum offered a wealth of diverse programs in support of the community. Exhibitions protesting the war took place alongside screenings of educational films meant to prepare citizens for the possibility of air raids, and the museum provided special programs to find work for artists and offer respite for servicemen during this trying time. Jackson Pollock's "Guardians of the Secret" (1943) stands at the center of the next gallery, which considers Morley's exhibitions program and the lengths she went to in order to show the work of the most advanced and, in some cases, most unfamiliar artists she could find. In addition to the remarkable story of the 1945 Pollock show, the gallery will tell the story of a 1941 Alexander Calder exhibition that Morley discovered in late September and managed to install at the museum by November 4. More surprising is the selection of bright watercolors by Rhodesian schoolboys that Morley brought into the galleries as a benefit for a school she had visited in that country (now Zimbabwe) in 1956. The next gallery chronicles the early history of the museum's engagement with architecture and design objects, an extension of Morley's impulse to sensitize the public to the presence of good design principles in commonly used objects and in the built environments of home and city. Underpinning much of the museum's programming in the early decades was Morley's conviction that art was an essential part of everyday life. Perhaps the highest profile expressions of this agenda were the museum's television programs 'Art in Your Life' and 'Discovery'—the first ever television programs devoted to art—clips of which can be viewed on a vintage television in this gallery. The museum's collegial relationship in the 1940s and 1950s with the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) provides the focus of the following gallery. Faculty and students—among them Charles Howard, Robert Howard, Adaline Kent, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Minor White—regularly exhibited their work at the museum and supported the museum's activities by bringing students to study works of art in exhibitions, teaching classes in the museum's education program, and designing posters and brochures. Both the museum and the school were founded under the auspices of the San Francisco Art Association, and the museum served as the venue for the association's annual exhibitions for three decades. In the 1950s participants included Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, and David Park, and Bay Area figurative painting surfaced within the context of these shows. The next gallery celebrates a group of artists who deliberately disregarded traditional boundaries between media and whose work is central to SFMOMA's collection: Robert Rauschenberg (whose work SFMOMA acquired through the passion and generosity of the museum's great patron Phyllis Wattis) and two San Francisco Beat artists, Bruce Conner and Jay DeFeo. The following Anderson gallery highlights the museum's American Pop art collection, anchored by a major gift from local collectors Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson, a group of works that includes such favorites as Rouen Cathedral Set V (1969) by Roy Lichtenstein and Land's End (1963) by Jasper Johns. Conceptual art in the Bay Area is at the focus of the next gallery, illuminating the critical role of media art with groundbreaking work by Howard Fried and Bruce Nauman. Multimedia works by Eleanor Antin, Terry Fox, David Ireland, and Tom Marioni and a grouping of photographs by Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan further illustrate the heterogeneity of this complex field. The exhibition then focuses on Postminimalism, a major strength of the museum's collection and exhibition program. The gallery includes seminal works by Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, and Richard Tuttle, as well as artist Dan Fischer's exacting drawing of Tuttle working at SFMOMA on the occasion of his 2005 retrospective. Two important ongoing exhibition series, "New Work" (launched in 1987) and the "SECA Art Award" (begun in 1967), are the subject of the following galleries, underscoring the museum's continuing commitment to contemporary art and local artists. Focusing on New Work artists associated with appropriation and its legacy, the gallery features work by Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mai-Thu Perret, Richard Prince, Christopher Wool, and others. The biennial SECA Art Award allows the museum to focus on work being made by local artists, and the selection process serves as an important reminder that the Bay Area has its own highly sophisticated and international art scene. The gallery devoted to SECA will feature work by award recipients associated with the Mission School: Simon Evans, Chris Johanson, Barry McGee, Mitzi Pederson, Will Rogan, and Leslie Shows. Additional galleries focus on unique facets of the museum's programs: the architecture and design department's outstanding collection of wood chairs and visionary urbanism, and the photography department's extensive holdings of snapshots and other forms of vernacular photography. The exhibition concludes with a gallery devoted to works that are perpetually in progress, and thus represent a living history. Works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Nicholas Nixon are featured alongside a new work by Penelope Umbrico titled "5,332,272 Suns from Flickr", (2009).  Visit : http://www.sfmoma.org/

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:39 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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