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

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• Merry Karnowsky Gallery to Feature New Work in A Group Show
• Morgan Lehman Gallery Presents "Don Doe ~ Tossed Overboard"
• Babcock Galleries Presents American Sculpture from Three Centuries
• MoMA P.S. 1 announces a Solo Exhibition of Darren Bader
• Scott Richards Contemporary Art To Show David Michael Smith's "Elegy"
• BRINK to Feature Rita Gabrowska at Kenilworth Wines
• Nelson-Atkins Museum Opens Renovated Chinese Galleries to Celebrate New Year
• The Ashmolean To Display Indian Paintings from the Howard Hodgkin Collection
• The Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art In Budapest, Hungary ~ A Modern Palace Of Fabulous Art
• Alexander McQueen Retrospective Among Top 10 Most Visited Exhibitions at The Met
• Thomas Wrede to Show Works from Manhattan Series at Beck & Eggeling International
• Paul Gauguin Bust Sells at Sotheby's Auction for $11.3 Million
• Gibbes Museum of Art to Feature Modern Masters from the Ferguson Collection
• The Speed Art Museum announces The Most Famous People in the World: Yousuf Karsh 100
• Baltimore Museum of Art presents works by Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard
• The de Young Museum Hosts Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso
• India's Most Prominent Painter ~ M.F. Husain, Dies at Age 95
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opens Two Shows in Artists Gallery
• The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts To Host "Fabergé Revealed"
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Merry Karnowsky Gallery to Feature New Work in A Group Show Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:41 PM PST Los Angeles.- The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present "New Work by Tara McPherson, Deedee Cheriel, Lindsey Way & Aiko" on view at the gallery from February 4th through March 3rd. While all the artists are working in their unique styles and mediums there is a parallel lyrical motif. Tara Mcpherson is an artist based out of New York City. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Melvins. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive. Her new work displays a focus on sensual female portraiture, aiming at capturing an essence of a woman, and spanning through seasonal changes. These portraits capture an idealized moment in time with subtle aspects of a persona conveyed in a single expression. Deedee Cheriel's work demonstrates a powerful tension between the design elements of stripes, patterns, and color fields, with lyrical illustration. – Shepard Fairey. Growing up skateboarding and playing in bands in the Pacific Northwest, Deedee Cheriel's iconic work is both graphic and painterly and borrows from her Indian heritage. Her current body of work references Indian ritual art: attempting to invoke deities, exorcise negative forces, celebrate rites of passage, and mark turning points in death and renewal. Drawing upon nature and her trademark hybrid animal-people as subjects, Deedee creates dark and meditative narratives. Lindsey Way was born in Dunoon, Scotland. She attended Pratt Institute, where she studied fine art and illustration. She then worked as a window display artist throughout New York City, assisted the prolific painter Ron English and toured the globe playing bass for the band Mindless Self Indulgence. Her work has been in CBGB's 32nd Anniversary Art Show, "Hung" and the traveling group show, "Draw". In 2010 she displayed 13 dioramas called, "Hush" in a two women show entitled "Smile Even if it Hurts", was chosen to be one of the artists to participate in South Park's 15th Anniversary art exhibition curated by Ron English, and was featured in Longan Hick's show "Pretty Ugly" at New York's Opera Gallery. Lindsey's current body of work is a collection of dioramas entitled "The Flu" a dark, nautical, viral take over depicting victims and survivors. Aiko, always expressing a dichotomy between true love and the dark melancholic flipside, returns with a personal theme and show title of "After a Long Time". Perhaps since the beginning or end of a long tumultuous relationship, or perhaps reflective of a creative burgeoning. Aiko's new paintings are scattered with beautiful images of memory and passion. Her current body of work will showcase a mixture of installation and stencil based paintings reminiscent of her childhood in Japan, and international street art practice. The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is devoted to exhibiting contemporary works of art that are challenging, innovative and committed to fostering new directions in American art. With a creative stable that is one of the most significantly sought after both nationally and internationally, the gallery has become one of Los Angeles' premier insurrectionary art venues. In March of 2008, Karnowsky opened a second gallery in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, committed to bringing fresh, innovative works to the burgeoning Berlin art scene. Articles about the gallery, and/or it's artists have been featured in Juxtapoz, Swindle, Flaunt, Paper, Nylon, The Face, Variety, Giant Robot, Super X Media, Art Week, Art Issues, Flash Art, Modern Painters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The LA Weekly, and The Los Angeles Times. MKG Gallery artists have been included in group and solo Museum exhibitions at The Grand Central Art Center, The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, The Cincinnati Art Center, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, MOCA Miami, The San Jose Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Visit the gallery's website at ... www.mkgallery.com/

Morgan Lehman Gallery Presents "Don Doe ~ Tossed Overboard" Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:41 PM PST New York City.- The Morgan Lehman Gallery is pleased to present "Don Doe: Tossed Overboard", on view at the gallery from February 2nd through March 3rd. This is Doe's first solo exhibition with the gallery. The artist is closely associated with the group of figurative artists that includes Lisa Yuskavage and John Currin – all of whom graduated from the same class in Yale's Fine Art MFA program. While these artists choose to frequently represent fantastically sexualized images of nude women, each of them have chosen highly individualized stylistic methodologies and theoretical underpinnings in which to explore issues of kitsch, gender and sexuality. Don Doe creates fantasy images of women depicted in the garb and backdrop of the sea-faring pirate. Typically in a work, a lithe female is a represented, often semi-nude, with costume accouterments such as an eye-patch, bandana, parrot or buccaneer's cutlass.

Babcock Galleries Presents American Sculpture from Three Centuries Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:21 PM PST New York City.- Babcock Galleries are pleased to present "The American Hand - Sculpture from Three Centuries", on view at the gallery from February 2nd through March 16th. Masterpieces of American sculpture help commemorate Babcock Galleries' historic 160th Anniversary celebration. This exhibition is carefully curated from the gallery's holdings and includes superb works by such notable masters as Hiram Powers, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, William Zorach, Seymour Lipton and Dorothy Dehner. "Stories that attend the art we encounter are often as vivid as the art itself," observes John Driscoll in his introduction to the exhibition's full-color catalogue.  The American Hand celebrates some of the greatest achievements of American sculptors and some of the great stories that accrue when works of art subsequently pass from hand to hand, collection to collection.

MoMA P.S. 1 announces a Solo Exhibition of Darren Bader Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:00 PM PST LONG ISLAND CITY, NY.- Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana Marx / Stuff: the precise affinity between the generic and the specific.Sculpture's everywhere. It's space and space is everywhere. Space is in your thought, space is in front of your eyes and around you, it fills your mouth and infiltrates your hearing. Space is the stuff on the other side of contact. Our hands—which is to say, our eyes ears tongue nose respiration language—are all over the place/space. There's this stuff called art. I'm really into it, or at least I was and think I still am. This stuff is a way to infuse space. Art is not sculpture somehow. Sculpture comes to establish a place; art subsists on space, but also transcends it. Art might be sleeping in the parking lot, but could also drive up and take you out for dinner. Art somehow happens inside of you—it's any of your proverbial hands being guided by art's specific and unlocatable contours. On view January 29th—May 14th.

Scott Richards Contemporary Art To Show David Michael Smith's "Elegy" Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:37 PM PST San Francisco, California.- Scott Richards Contemporary Art is pleased to present "David Michael Smith: Elegy" on view at the gallery from February 2nd through March 17th. An opening cocktail reception for the artist will take place on Thursday, February 2nd between 5:30 and 7:30 pm; and on Saturday, February 4th from 4-6 pm Smith will be present to discuss his work.In this new series, Smith delves into the realm of tragic and unforeseen consequences, focusing on our haphazard stewardship of the planet.

BRINK to Feature Rita Gabrowska at Kenilworth Wines Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:09 PM PST Kenilworth, England.- BRINK is proud to present the works of Rita Gabrowska at Kenilworth Wines from February 1st through March 31st. A fascinating exhibition of works, where familiar symbols, objects and forms are merged to create imaginary and dreamlike 'mindscapes'. Gabrowska, who was born in Wroclaw, Poland, currently lives and works in Leamington Spa as a graphic designer, painter, digital artist, photographer and jewellery designer. As well as exhibiting in the UK, Poland and Italy, this talented and multi-faceted artist has five digital art works in the collection of the Dolnoslaskie Towarzystwo Zachety Sztuk Pieknych art institute. Reminiscent of the Suprematist movement, her works are sometimes  self-referential  or inspired by mass media symbolism, such as road signs, electronic components and man-made objects. The images emerge as "mindscapes", where everyday objects are extrapolated from reality and reinterpreted in a new, autonomic world, composed of captivating colours and abstract forms.

Nelson-Atkins Museum Opens Renovated Chinese Galleries to Celebrate New Year Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:55 PM PST Kansas City, Missouri.- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has completed renovation on four of its Chinese galleries, and they will be opened to the public at the start of the Museum's Chinese New Year celebration, which began on Friday, January 27th. The main Chinese gallery and the Temple Room re-opened in 2010 and involved a complete re-organization of displays, along with the addition of a number of important pieces that have been off display for decades, including a 6th-century stone tomb gateway and three-color-glazed Tang dynasty tomb figures. Lighting has been added to the coffered ceiling in the Temple Room, where Guanyin of the Southern Seas majestically sits, so visitors can now see the intricately carved dragon pattern in the concentric gilded wood framework. Linked to the main Chinese galleries are two newly renovated galleries that explore the mysterious world of ritual and ancestors  in ancient China, as well as tombs. Tombs were repositories for valuables such as jade carvings, lacquered vessels and ceramic sculptures. "Luxury items were commonly placed in tombs in ancient China," said Colin Mackenzie, senior curator of Chinese art.

The Ashmolean To Display Indian Paintings from the Howard Hodgkin Collection Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:54 PM PST Oxford, England.- The Ashmolean Museum is proud to present "Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin", on view at the museum from February 2nd through April 22nd. Howard Hodgkin has been a passionate collector of Indian paintings since his school days and his collection has long been considered one of the finest of its kind in the world. At times he has devoted almost as much effort to developing his collection as to his own work as a painter. It will go on show at the Ashmolean for the first time in its entirety. The collection comprises most of the main types of Indian court painting that flourished during the Mughal period (c. 1550–1850), including the refined naturalistic works of the imperial Mughal court; the poetic and subtly coloured paintings of the Deccani Sultanates; and the boldly drawn and vibrantly coloured xxstyles of the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills. Above all, this is a personal collection, formed by an artist's eye. Artistic quality has always mattered most to Hodgkin – the narrative content and other aspects of paintings far less.  All his Indian pictures are of an unusual or exceptional quality. They include illustrations of epics and myths, royal portraits and many scenes of court life or hunting scenes. There is a large and outstanding group of elephant portraits and studies of the Mughal and Kota schools. Some of the works in the collection vividly evoke the urban or daily life of India, a country which has inspired Hodgkin on his frequent visits made over some 50 years. There is also great diversity in these pictures, some containing exciting passages or juxtapositions of colour, as can also be found in Hodgkin's own work. But many others are lightly coloured brush drawings which show an expressive mastery of line. A large part of Hodgkin's collection has been on long-term loan to the Ashmolean for the last ten years and selected pictures have been shown in the Museum's Indian galleries. Others have been lent by Howard Hodgkin especially for this exhibition. Many of the works which will be shown have never been exhibited to the public before. "My collection has been seen before in an incomplete form but it's since grown considerably. Now I'm struck all over again by its quality... I never bought paintings or drawings on the tempting but distracting basis of their topography, their school of art, their theme, period or style. I just wanted great art" said Howard Hodgkin. Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean Museum is the most significant museum of art and archaeology in the heart of Britain, and the finest university museum in the world.  Its collections are large, rich and unusually diverse, ranging from archaeology to fine and decorative arts, and from numismatics to casts of classical sculpture from the  great museums of Europe. The Ashmolean is home to the best collection of Predynastic Egyptian material in Europe; the only great collection of Minoan antiquities outside Greece; the largest and most important group of Raphael drawings in the world; the greatest Anglo-Saxon collections outside the British Museum; a world-renowned collection of coins and medals; and outstanding displays of Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Islamic art. The works and objects in these remarkable collections tell the story of civilisation and the aspirations of mankind from Nineveh and ancient Egypt, to the Renaissance, right up to the triumphs of twentieth century Europe. Visitors are welcome to The Jameel Centre to view the Ashmolean's study collections of Eastern Art. The Eastern Art collections comprise over 30,000 objects spanning 5,000 years. They include ceramics, textiles, sculpture, metalwork, paintings, prints, and other decorative arts from the Islamic  world, South and South-East Asia, China, Japan, and Korea. Highlights of the collection include the world's foremost collection of modern Chinese art; Japanese art of the Meiji period; Islamic ceramics, embroideries and textile fragments; and Indian, Tibetan and South-East Asian sculptures. Launched in February 2010, The Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art, provides online access to the Ashmolean Museum's Eastern Art department collections. As part of the University of Oxford, the collections hold particular value for teaching and research, but they also appeal to visitors who may not be as familiar with the material. This project aims to open up the collections and enable everyone to find what they are interested in; whether for research, artistic inspiration or general curiosity. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.ashmolean.org/

The Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art In Budapest, Hungary ~ A Modern Palace Of Fabulous Art Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:40 PM PST The Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, Hungary, was the first Ludwig Museum to be established in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1989 the art-collecting couple, Irene and Peter Ludwig, made a contract with the Hungarian state and established this contemporary fine-art museum with 72 works of their own pieces of art. In 1991 they added a further 195 pieces, expanding the collection which can be seen at the Palace of Arts, and which is continually being added to. The Palace of the Arts opened in 2005 and it accommodates the most diverse branches of the arts, with facilities incorporating the most advanced theater, museum, and acoustic technologies. The spectacular building occupies an area of more than 10,000 m2 at the Pest side of the Lágymányosi Bridge, adjacent to the National Theatre, the first pillar of the Millennium City Centre being built on the site. The main objective of the architects – Zoboki, Demeter and Associates – was that the multi-functional building should present a coherent whole when viewed from the outside. The exterior presents a simple, clear aspect with large expanses of glass, and almost devoid of decorative elements. Inside, the building is laid out into broad, clearly-arranged internal spaces. The outer surfaces are of "dead" material – concrete, glass and Süttő limestone, while inside, an enormous undulating main wall, clad mainly in walnut, creates a warm, friendly atmosphere. The building's principal visual feature is the imposing lobby, which connects the three main sections: the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, the Festival Theatre, and the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art. Its design and size are optimal for a lovely and educational trip through contemporary international and Eastern European art. The Béla Bartók National Concert Hall is the largest section of the building. With an audience capacity of 1700, the concert hall ranks among the best of the world in terms of acoustics, having been built by Artec of New York in association with Hungarian engineers. The fabulous acoustic system is coupled with a high-tech audio-visual system which can serve the needs of any visiting production at world standard. The queen of musical instruments, the great organ, was installed in spring 2006. The concert hall is home to the National Philharmonic and its Orchestra, Choir, and Music Library. The Festival Theatre occupies the east wing of the complex. It seats an audience of 452, and its stage technology is of equal standard to that of the concert hall. The theatre hosts visiting companies and is home to the National Dance Theatre. The Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, formerly accommodated in Buda Castle, takes up the whole side of the building facing the Danube. In addition to the exhibition halls, the Museum wing incorporates the Glass Hall, the events hall of the Palace of the Arts, and an expandable lecture and projection hall. The Museum has a gross floor area of 12,000 m2. The flooring in the exhibition halls is bamboo, and illumination of art works is largely by natural light, supplemented by a system of concealed light sources. In line with international standards, the humidity is constantly monitored and controlled, and adjusted to suit each exhibition's particular needs. Visit the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art website: http:www.ludwigmuseum.hu Its continuously growing collection gives an overview of international art since 1950 and of Hungarian art from the 1960's to recent days. It displays masterworks of modern and contemporary art in its permanent collection, focused on American pop art (Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, etc.) and on Eastern and Central European art. The museum's collection also has a valuable classic and contemporary avant-garde Russian collection. The Ludwig collection of some 800 works by Picasso is one of the largest collection in the world and from this collection three significant paintings from his late period are in Budapest. Budapest is the ideal place to reflect on the role of art and politics, and the Ludwig Museum, in its permanent collection exhibition, showcases the intersection of contemporary art and politics. The collection reflects on the social and political utopias, mines cultural memory and explores the limits of creativity in public spaces, and above all, the complex role that the artist plays in society. These reflections are especially fraught with complex questions in the former eastern bloc, as any history of art will be wrapped up with questions of censorship, propaganda and authorship. The different conceptual bases for art due to the repressive political climate mean that certain "apolitical" forms, such as abstract art, took on a political cast during the Cold War. In this case, abstraction became a negation of the systematic ideals of Eastern Europe and a form of rebellious expression. The exhibition rescues many works which had been obscured by political pressures to shed new light on them for both localand international visitors. This wonderful permanentexhibition collected artwork from about fifty artists both from Hungary and various corners of the Eastern and Western European world. In its most recent and current exhibitions, the thematic approach is the strongest principle defining the selection of works from the Museum's collection. Instead of displaying the well-known highlights, the exhibition intends to focus on newer works, and endeavours to acquaint the wider public with them. Among them are recent acquisitions on display for the first time in the context of the Museum, in part from Hungarian artists (including István Csákány, Tamás Kaszás, Ádám Kokesch, Csaba Nemes). Some of the works are well-known pieces from the international scene (e.g., the works of Harun Farocki, Zbigniew Libera, Simon Starling, Mladen Stilinović, Bálint Szombathy, Goran Trbuljak). The works are not arranged according to an art historical categorisation or a chronological principle, but in a way which enables us to highlight some other (thematic or formal) aspect of the works. Some of these connections might seem banal or trivial at times, but they rather serve to provide the visitors with starting points for the formations of new meanings (Ferenc Ficzek, Zsigmond Károlyi, Stanislav Kolíbal, Timm Ulrichs, etc.). The exhibitions aim to "rescue" these works form a traditional and rigid art historical system that is often capable of showing only a fraction of the connections and correspondences of the works. For this reason, the exhibition strongly relies on the visitors' active participation, invited to mobilize and make use of their own experience and knowledge in the reception and interpretation of the works, thus enabled to enter into a more personalized relationship with them. Following on the Ludwig Museum's exhibition, New Acquisitions – Rarely Seen Works (2009), Kind of Change, immediate upcoming exhibitions will focus on the display of recently acquired works of art. These exhibitions can be considered a complete whole together with the rearranged permanent exhibition, Unmistakable Sentences (2010), where many of the newly acquired works have been on view. The majority of the works of art that have been acquired by the museum during the last couple of years are embedded in the texture of the recent past of East-Central Europe and that of its ever-changing present, where questions of artistic forms and existence, and of historically determined artistic products have been constantly and painfully raised. Some these upcoming exhibitions are: Sing! - Mladen Stilinović Retrospective (April 22, 2011 - July 03, 2011), a retrospective exhibition that brings together the main installations, collages, photographs and art books of the most important neo-avant-garde artists in the former Yugoslavia; László Moholy-Nagy - The Art of Light (June 10, 2011 - September 25, 2011). In this exhibition, the exceptionally diverse artistic and media-theoretical activity of László Moholy-Nagy, key figure of modernist art, is arranged around the motif of light. The selection includes 200 paintings, black and white and colour photographs and graphic drafts from the period after 1922, concurrent with his development of the genre of photogram and his influential pedagogical and art theoretical activity at the Bauhaus; and Rita Ackermann (November 18, 2011 - February 05, 2012), in this exhibition, the atmosphere of the late 1980s and the 1990s means a crucial factor in the development of the art of Rita Ackermann, who started her studies as a painter in Hungary before leaving for New York where she lives and works today. After several prominent galleries and group exhibitions worldwide her works will be on display as a part of the Ludwig Museum's solo exhibition series.

Alexander McQueen Retrospective Among Top 10 Most Visited Exhibitions at The Met Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:39 PM PST NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which closed last night at midnight, attracted 661,509 visitors during its run from May 4 to August 7, placing it among the Museum's top 10 most visited exhibitions. Joining other blockbusters on the list such as Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978), Mona Lisa (1963), and Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2010), Savage Beauty ranks as the eighth most popular exhibition ever held at the Met in its 141-year history, and is the most visited of the special exhibitions organized by The Costume Institute since it became part of the Museum in 1946.

Thomas Wrede to Show Works from Manhattan Series at Beck & Eggeling International Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:38 PM PST MUNICH.- To start off a cooperation between Henn Gallery, Munich and Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf, the German photographer Thomas Wrede (*1963) will show works from his series Manhattan Picture Worlds. The Vernissage will be on Thursday, 4th March, 7 p.m. at Henn Gallery, Augustenstrasse 54 in Munich, with introductory words by Dr. Inka Graeve Ingelmann, Head of Department Photography and New Media, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.

Paul Gauguin Bust Sells at Sotheby's Auction for $11.3 Million Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:37 PM PST NEW YORK (AP).- A rare wooden sculpture of a Tahitian girl by Paul Gauguin sold for $11.3 million at auction Tuesday. The "Young Tahitian" bust, last seen by the public in 1961, had been estimated to bring $10 million to $15 million, the Sotheby's auction house said. The sculpture is of a serene-looking Tahitian girl wearing large earrings and a necklace of coral and shells the French artist collected and strung himself. It's the only known fully worked three-dimensional bust he made.

Gibbes Museum of Art to Feature Modern Masters from the Ferguson Collection Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:36 PM PST Charleston, South Carolina – The Gibbes Museum of Art will present the exclusive exhibition Modern Masters from the Ferguson Collection in the Main Gallery from April 30 through August 22, 2010.  Selected from the private collection of prominent art enthusiasts Esther and James Ferguson, this exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by significant twentieth-century artists such as Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, and Christo.  The Ferguson's remarkable collection reflects their personal tastes in art, but also offers an overview of European and American modernism.  Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art are among the many movements represented by this exhibition. Esther and James Ferguson have said, "We are delighted to share 25 years of collecting extraordinary art with the Gibbes." Christo – A Presentation and Dialogue The Fergusons befriended the artist Christo in the 1990s and have two mixed-media works by the artist in their collection. As the plans were getting underway for the Modern Masters exhibition at the Gibbes, the couple asked Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude to come to Charleston to discuss their projects in a public setting.  On Tuesday, April 13, Christo will discuss the artists' past and future monumental installations in a presentation and dialogue scheduled for 5:30pm at Memminger Auditorium, 56 Beaufain Street in downtown Charleston.  Christo will share images and stories of the famed large-scale art projects that use fabric in both urban and rural environments.  After the presentation, Christo will welcome questions from the audience and participate in a book signing.   "We are grateful to Esther and Jim for allowing us to share their impressive collection with visitors to the Gibbes. We are benefiting not only with this glorious exhibition, but also from their invitation to Christo to come to Charleston," said Gibbes Executive Director Angela Mack. Preview Party – Take it to the Street The opening of the exhibition Modern Masters from the Ferguson Collection will be celebrated with a street party on Thursday, April 29 from 7:30 – 10:30pm. The Beaux Arts façade of the Gibbes will serve as a backdrop for a street party inspired by Christo's monumental art installations. Guests will enjoy live entertainment, an open bar, and creative "street food" crafted by Charleston's most celebrated chefs from Caviar and Bananas, Charleston Grill, Fig, McCrady's, Palmetto Café, Slightly North of Broad, Trattoria Lucca, and Voysey's and Tides of Kiawah Island Club. Tickets, available online at www.gibbesmuseum.org/events, are $75 for museum members and $100 for non-members. This exhibition is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, William Means Real Estate, US Trust, and Charleston Magazine. Gibbes Museum of Art Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the Gibbes Museum of Art opened its doors to the public in 1905.  Located in Charleston's historic district, the Gibbes houses a premier collection of over 10,000 works, principally American with a Charleston or Southern connection, and presents special exhibitions throughout the year. In addition, the museum offers an extensive complement of public programming and educational outreach initiatives that serve the community by stimulating creative expression and improving the region's superb quality of life. MUSEUM HOURS TUESDAY - SATURDAY: 10 A.M. - 5 P.M., SUNDAY: 1 P.M. - 5 P.M. ADMISSION: ADULTS: $9.00 · SENIORS, STUDENTS & MILITARY: $7.00 · CHILDREN (6-12): $5.00 ·MEMBERS AND CHILDREN UNDER 6: FREE. 135 Meeting Street * Charleston, SC * 29401 * www.gibbesmuseum.org

The Speed Art Museum announces The Most Famous People in the World: Yousuf Karsh 100 Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:35 PM PST Louisville, Kentucky - The Speed Art Museum announces The Most Famous People in the World: Karsh 100 on view from March 12 to June 27, 2010. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this exhibition presents iconic portraits of many of the 20 -century's most famous people taken by world-renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002). "The minute I saw this exhibition on its international tour in Seoul, South Korea, I knew the Louisville public would love it," said Dr. Charles L. Venable, Director of the Speed Art Museum. "If you like great photography, are interested in history, or are simply intrigued by famous and powerful people, this is an exhibition that you will not want to miss."

Baltimore Museum of Art presents works by Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:34 PM PST Baltimore, MD - The Baltimore Museum of Art presents a luminous two-gallery exhibition of works by Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard—two modern masters whose experimental work inspired artists from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Henri Matisse. On view April 23 through August 10, 2008, Bonnard & Vuillard features more than 30 works that explore the profound impact both Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) and Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940) had on each other as they evolved from a late 19th-century interest in everyday life to a colorful exploration of domestic life in interior scenes into the 1930s.

The de Young Museum Hosts Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:33 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The de Young Museum presents a major exhibition by the seminal artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso. The exhibition Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, opens on Saturday, June 11, in the Herbst Special Exhibition Galleries and runs through October 9th. This exhibition of 150 important paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings created by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) is drawn from the permanent collection of the Musée National Picasso, Paris, the largest and most significant repository of the artist's work in the world, and comes to the de Young as part of an international tour. The artwork is touring because the Musée is currently closed and undergoing a multi-year renovation expected to last through 2012. Ranging from informal sketchbooks to finished iconic masterpieces, this unique collection of "Picasso's Picassos" provides significant proof of the artist's assertion that "I am the greatest collector of Picassos in the world." "This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition comprises works from every phase of Picasso's extraordinary career, including masterpieces from his Blue, Rose, Expressionist, Cubist, Neoclassical and Surrealist periods," describes John E. Buchanan, Jr., director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "These works present eloquent testimony to his role as a protean figure who not only created and contributed to new art forms and movements, but also forever transformed the very definition of art itself. Following on the heels of our recent exhibitions of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, this exhibition represents a natural progression forward to the masterworks of the 20th century." "The exhibition Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris lifts the curtain on the first act of a groundbreaking partnership between the Musée Picasso and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, with the intention of deepening our institutional, artistic and scientific links over the coming decade," says Anne Baldassari, general commissioner and president of the Musée National Picasso. The exhibition, co-organized by the Musée National Picasso and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is part of a world tour that began in 2008 with stops at museums in Madrid, Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Seattle, Richmond (VA), San Francisco and Sydney. The Musée National Picasso's collection preserves the highly personal works that Pablo Picasso kept for himself with the intention of shaping his own artistic legacy. Exhibited chronologically, covering all the phases of the modern master's expansive eight-decade-long career and featuring the various media in which he worked, this meticulously assembled presentation includes: • One of his earliest Paris works—The Death of Casagemas (1901) • The Blue period—La Célestine (1904) • The Rose period—The Two Brothers (1906) • African-inspired proto-Cubist work —studies for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Three Figures Under a Tree (1907) • Analytic Cubism—Man with a Guitar (1911) • Synthetic Cubism—Violin (1915) • The Neoclassical period—Two Women Running on the Beach (1922) • Surrealism—The Kiss (1925) • The war years—The Weeping Woman (1937), and the sculptures Bull's Head (1942) and Death's Head (1943) Picasso developed a unique personal style for each new woman in his life, and remarked, "How awful for a woman to realize from my work that she is being supplanted." The exhibition chronicles Picasso's tempestuous relationships with three of the significant women in his life and demonstrates how his work changed with each relationship: • His first wife Olga Khokhlova, realistically depicted in Portrait of Olga in an Armchair (1918) • Mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, whose affair with Picasso began when she was 17, portrayed in voluptuous curves, pastel colors and soft sinuous volumes in Reclining Nude (1932) and a series of five bronze busts created in 1931 that range from recognizable representations to the nearly abstract. • Mistress Dora Maar, the photographer whose passionate and emotionally charged relationship with Picasso was represented in works characterized by hard-edged, jagged lines, angular forms and acidic colors, such as Portrait of Dora Maar (1937). Sculpture plays an important part in the exhibition, demonstrating Picasso's aesthetic three-dimensionally and featuring work that spans Picasso's career, including an early bust, The Jester (1905); Figure (1907), a roughly hewn wooden piece inspired by Picasso's fascination with African tribal art; Head of a Woman (1909), widely considered the first Cubist sculpture; the relief construction Guitar and Bottle of Bass (1913); a multimedia assemblage, The Violin (1915); the Bull's Head (1942), constructed from a cast-off bicycle seat and handlebars; the iconic bronze The Goat (1950); and the life-sized, six-piece figurative series created during a summer in Cannes, The Bathers (1956). "I haven't got a style," Picasso claimed, but over the course of his long and prolific career, he created revolutionary works that laid the foundations of modern art.

India's Most Prominent Painter ~ M.F. Husain, Dies at Age 95 Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:32 PM PST NEW DELHI (AP).- M.F. Husain, a former movie billboard artist who rose to become India's most sought-after painter before going into self-imposed exile during an uproar over nude images of Hindu icons, died Thursday. He was 95. CNN-IBN TV channel quoted a friend, Arun Vadehra, as saying that Husain, often described as India's Picasso, died at the Royal Brompton hospital in London. His lawyer, Akhil Sibal, confirmed the death to The Associated Press.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opens Two Shows in Artists Gallery Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:31 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The SFMOMA Artists Gallery ushers in the fall art season with two new shows. Bay Area artists David Ivan Clark, Emily Payne and Kerri Lee Johnson present their most recent work in individual one-person shows in the main gallery. Upstairs in the gallery's loft space Kirk Crippens and Max Lawrence show work on the theme of technology as part of the series "New World Order." Both shows are celebrated with a reception for the artists on Friday, September 4 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Representing Northern California artists, the SFMOMA Artists Gallery offers a diverse selection of original artwork for sale and rent.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts To Host "Fabergé Revealed" Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:30 PM PST Richmond, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is proud to present the largest collection of Fabergé on public view in the United States. The exhibition, "Fabergé Revealed", includes works from four collections in America, totaling more than 500 objects. It will be on view at VMFA from July 9th through October 2nd. The Russian jeweler Karl Fabergé, arguably the most famous jeweler of all time, crafted objects for the families of the last two tsars of Russia and for most of Europe's nobility. He is best known for his Imperial Easter eggs. On exhibition from 9 July through 2 October at the VMFA. VMFA's collection is the largest public collection of Fabergé in this country and includes five Russian Imperial Easter eggs. Only 50 were created by this world-renowned jeweler. Most Fabergé works are made from gold, platinum, diamonds and rubies, among other precious metals and gemstones. The dazzling artistry of Fabergé has been a longtime favorite of visitors to our art museum," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director Alex Nyerges said. "To see the Easter eggs is a treat itself, but to see them accompanied by hundreds of other Fabergé works of art is just incredible. We are pleased to have Dr. Géza von Habsburg, a preeminent Fabergé scholar, to curate this exhibition and provide fascinating new scholarship on the Virginia Museum's most popular collection." The name Fabergé is synonymous with refined craftsmanship, glittering luxury and the last days of the doomed Russian imperial family. The array of enameled picture frames and clocks, gold cigarette cases and cane tops, hardstone animals and flowers in rock crystal vases, and ruby encrusted brooches and boxes continue to fascinate viewers as they did when first displayed in the windows of Fabergé's stores in St Petersburg, Moscow and London. In addition to showcasing VMFA's extensive Fabergé collection, the exhibition will feature loans from distinguished private collections.  The collection of Matilda Geddings Gray of Louisiana has loaned its rare Napoleonic Egg and Lilies of the Valley Basket. Noteworthy loans from the Arthur and Dorothy McFerrin Foundation Collection include the Nobel Ice Egg and the Empress Josephine Tiara.  Additionally, in a complementary exhibition, more than 100 pieces will come from the family collection of Virginia-born Daniel Hodges, including the Bismark Box and the Coiled Serpent Paperweight. Alongside these loans, "Fabergé Revealed" will present VMFA's entire collection to the public and will create a rare opportunity to view more than 500 objects by the celebrated jeweler to Russian Tsars Alexander III and his son and successor Nicholas II. The exhibition will be separated into six sections, showcasing works with precious metals, gemstones, enamels, miniature Easter eggs and hardstone carvings.  The installation will also allow for a 360-degree view of each Imperial Easter egg. Karl Fabergé, born in 1846, took over the family business from his father, the jeweler Gustav Fabergé in 1872. Initially the firm produced jewelry, but achieved a breakthrough in 1882 with a first sale to Empress Maria Feodorovna, the wife of Tsar Alexander III, who acquired a small piece of archeological gold jewelry. Soon thereafter Fabergé was appointed Supplier to the Imperial Crown and began his series of 50 Imperial Easter eggs, which were to create his everlasting fame. Maria Feodorovna received 30 of these masterpieces.  Her daughter-in-law Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of the last Tsar Nicholas II, received 20 Imperial eggs. Fabergé's firm, the largest of its time, with 500 craftsmen and with six branch offices, produced more than 150,000 pieces of jewelry, silver and precious objects, of which very few survived the 1917 Revolution. The large majority of these treasures were disassembled, melted or destroyed by the Bolsheviks. After the murder of Tsar Nicholas and his family, Fabergé closed his shops, fled and died as a refugee in Switzerland in 1920. In the midst of the Great Depression, on January 16, 1936, Virginia's political and business leaders bravely demonstrated their faith in the future and their belief in the value of art by opening the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The English Renaissance-style headquarters building was designed by Peebles and Ferguson Architects of Norfolk. The museum's first addition was built in 1954 by Merrill C. Lee, Architects, of Richmond. By the mid 1960s, additional gallery space was again desperately needed. The museum's second addition, the South Wing, was designed by Baskervill & Son Architects of Richmond. It featured four new permanent galleries and a large gallery for loan exhibitions, as well as a new library, photography lab, art storage rooms and staff offices. As more exhibition space and visitor services were needed, a third addition, the North Wing, designed by Hardwicke Associates, Inc., Architects, of Richmond, was completed in 1976. It added three more gallery areas (two for loan exhibitions and one for the Sydney and Frances Lewis Art Nouveau Collection) as well as a new sculpture garden with a cascading fountain. In December 1985, the museum opened its fourth addition, the West Wing. It now houses the Mellon collections, consisting of major examples of French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and British Sporting art (which was permanently given to the museum in 1983); the Lewis Contemporary art collections; and the outstanding Lewis collections of Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture, glass and other decorative arts. The West Wing was designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates of New York. The museum has assembled a wide-ranging collection of world art characterized by great breadth and exceptional aesthetic quality. It includes significant holdings of Classical and African art, paintings by European masters such as Nicolas Poussin, Francisco Goya, Michel Delacroix and Claude Monet, and American masters such as John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer, one of the world's leading collections of Indian and Himalayan art, an internationally important collection of fine English silver, unequaled holdings of Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture, ceramics, glass and jewelry, a dynamic collection of Modern and Contemporary art, a popular collection of Fabergé imperial jeweled objects and noted holdings of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, including original waxes and bronzes by Edgar Degas. In 2003, a year after its selection of London-based architect Rick Mather, VMFA unveiled a master plan for a $100-million building expansion and transformation of its 13 1/2-acre campus. Mather's design will provide Virginians with a work of contemporary architecture that will display more fully the museum's extensive collection of world art. His virtuoso handling of transparency and natural light will function as both a tool and a metaphor to open the museum to its surroundings and create an inspiring atmosphere in which to view art. Visit the mueum's website at ... http://www.vmfa.state.va.us

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:29 PM PST This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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