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

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• The Fundacion Mapfre in Madrid Presents a Major Odilon Redon Retrospective
• Fred Torres Collaborations Hosts David LaChapelle's "Earth Laughs In Flowers"
• Robert Bowman opens "Geniuses of Modern British Sculpture"
• The National Art Museum of Ukraine Shows "Mykola Bilous ~ Quotations"
• The Royal Academy Presents Chris Orr's Lithographs ~ Method & Madness
• Tibor de Nagy Shows Dwight Ripley's Travel Posters & Language Panels
• Pallant House Gallery to Host "Robin Ironside ~ Neo-Romantic Visionary"
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens "Rembrandt & Degas as Young Men"
• "Gustav Klimt & Josef Hoffmann Pioneers of Modernism" at the Belvedere
• The Very Surprising & Enlightening Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town
• UK's Longest Running Photography Festival Celebrates 20 Years
• The National Gallery of Canada Exhibits the 2010 Governor General's Awards
• National Gallery of Canada Embarks on New Partnership with the Art Gallery of Alberta
• Martin Parr 'Assorted Cocktail' at La Rotonde, Luxembourg
• Museu Coleccao Berardo presents " From Torres-García to Vieira da Silva "
• Bonhams & Butterfields’ Fine Asian Art Brings More than $3-Million
• Leading Artists Donate to "Art for Africa Auction" at Sotheby's London
• Metropolitan Museum hosts Photographs by Samoan Multimedia Artist ~ Shigeyuki Kihara
• The Israel Museum shows Contemporary Chinese Art
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Fundacion Mapfre in Madrid Presents a Major Odilon Redon Retrospective Posted: 23 Feb 2012 12:34 AM PST Madrid, Spain. The Fundacion Mapfre is currently showing "Odilon Redon", on view through April 29th. This exhibition is the first major retrospective of this French artist's oeuvre in Spain. A hundred and seventy works, including drawings, prints and paintings, will enable visitors to meet one of the key players in the genesis of modern art, who is also one of the least well-known. His work is a clear precedent for expressionisism, metaphysical painting and surrealism, and  some of the works from the latter stage of his career are within striking distance of the abstractionists. The exhibition has been produced in collaboration with the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. The exhibition is chronologically themed and begins with his early years as a lithographer under the guidance of Rodolphe Bresdin, and folloows the artist through the period of colour and his grand pieces, from what he called his noirs in the atmosphere of the symbolists to his mythological scenes and "The Chariot of Apollo", an ode to light. This path of shade and light followed by the artist has no comparison in the history of art and is presented in this exhibition through a selection of 170 masterpieces from various institutions, which include oils, drawings, etchings, decorative panels and sketches for textiles. Also included in the exhibition are works from the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux and the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, as well as from important, foreign private collections. Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, to a prosperous family. The young Bertrand-Jean Redon acquired the nickname "Odilon" from his mother, Odile. Redon started drawing as a child, and at the age of ten he was awarded a drawing prize at school. Aged fifteen, he began the formal study of drawing, but on the insistence of his father he changed to architecture. His failure to pass the entrance exams at Paris' Ecole des Beaux-Arts ended any plans for a career as an architect, although he briefly studied painting there under Jean-Léon Gérôme in 1864. (His younger brother Gaston Redon would become a noted architect. Back home in his native Bordeaux, he took up sculpture, and Rodolphe Bresdin instructed him in etching and lithography. His artistic career was interrupted in 1870 when he joined the army to serve in the Franco-Prussian War. At the end of the war, he moved to Paris, working almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography. He called his visionary works, conceived in shades of black, his noirs. It would not be until 1878 that his work gained any recognition with Guardian Spirit of the Waters, and he published his first album of lithographs, titled Dans le Reve, in 1879. Still, Redon remained relatively unknown until the appearance in 1884 of a cult novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans titled, rebours (Against Nature). The story featured a decadent aristocrat who collected Redon's drawings. In the 1890s, pastel and oils became his favored media, and he produced no more noirs after 1900. In 1899, he exhibited with the Nabis at Durand-Ruel's. In 1903 he was awarded the Legion of Honor. His popularity increased when a catalogue of etchings and lithographs was published by André Mellerio in 1913 and that same year, he was given the largest single representation at the New York Armory Show. Redon died on July 6, 1916. In 1923 Mellerio published: Odilon Redon: Peintre Dessinateur et Graveur. An archive of Mellerio's papers is held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Institute of Culture of Fundacion Mapfre in Madrid is an institution rooted in the Latin-American world. For more than 20 years It has tirelessly launched and supported initiatives making a huge sum of knowledge available. In the fields of art and culture, this is best shown through it's Madrid gallery. With a focus on modern, 20th century drawings, the collection gathered by foundation  includes works by Spanish masters such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Dario de Regoyes and Eduardo Chillida, as well as international avant-garde masters including Henri Matisse, Paul Klee, Francis Picabia, Lazslo Moholy Nagy, Kurt Schwitters and George Grosz. Among others, It owns a complete set of the Vollard Suite, the most important collection of engravings in the 20th century, but its singularity lies in the prominent role played by the masters of Spanish modernism, such as José Gutiérrez Solana and Daniel Vázquez Díaaz, and the complete  estate of major Art Deco  illustrator Rafael de Penagos. The goal of the collection is to embrace Spanish modernity and to lay empahisis on its masters that happen to be quite unrepresented in Spanish public collections. 20th and 21th century photography is the other focus of the collection, which includes essential names in the history of the art such as Eugene Atget, Lee Frielander, Diane Arbus, and Lisette Model, as well as contemporary artists like Fazal Sheikh, Graciela Iturbide and Dayanita Singh. The collection is about representing artists which have only a marginal presence in Spanish public collections for now. Visit the foundations website at ... http://www.mapfre.com/fundacion/es/home-fundacion-mapfre.shtml

Fred Torres Collaborations Hosts David LaChapelle's "Earth Laughs In Flowers" Posted: 23 Feb 2012 12:21 AM PST New York City.- From February 23rd through March 24th, Fred Torres Collaborations will present "Earth Laughs In Flowers", an important new series of ten large-scale photographs by David LaChapelle. First shown at the Kestnergesellschaft Museum in Hannover, Fred Torres Collaborations will exhibit the entire series for the first time in the United States. On the occasion of this exhibition, Fred Torres Collaborations (FTC) announces that it now represents David LaChapelle in New York. FTC has managed LaChapelle's fine art career since 2005. In "Earth Laughs In Flowers" David LaChapelle appropriates the traditional Baroque still life painting in order to explore contemporary vanity, vice, the transience of earthly possessions and, ultimately, the fragility of humanity. Expectations of the still life are satisfied through the inclusion of symbolic objects such as fruit, flowers and skulls, but also upended by the insertion of everyday items such as cell phones, cigarette butts, balloons, Barbies, and a Starbuck's iced coffee cup.

Robert Bowman opens "Geniuses of Modern British Sculpture" Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:56 PM PST London.- Robert Bowman Modern is pleased to present a selling exhibition of the greatest Modern British Sculptors. 2012 marks the 60th anniversary of the seminal 1952 Venice Biennale that first introduced the exciting work of a new group of young British sculptors including Kenneth Armitage, Lynn Chadwick, Bernard Meadows, Edouardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. These sculptors had emerged in the wake of the older Henry Moore immediately after World War II. Their work was characterised by the spiky, twisted forms famously described by the art critic Herbert Read as the 'Geometry of Fear'. The exhibition is an exploration of the period and includes work by Kenneth Armitage, Michael Ayrton, Lynn Chadwick, Jacob Epstein, Elizabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Prices will start at  £10,000. "Geniuses of Modern British Sculpture" will be on view at the gallery from February 23rd through April 20th.

The National Art Museum of Ukraine Shows "Mykola Bilous ~ Quotations" Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:10 PM PST Kiev, Ukraine.- The National Art Museum of Ukraine is showing "Mykola Bilous: Quotations" on view until March 18th. "Quotations" are the artist's replicas of well-known Ukrainian classics from the permanent collection of the museum. Images borrowed by Bilous become actualized and lose their "old-fashioned" aura. Among those chosen by the artist are Fedir Krychevs'kyi, Anatol' Petryts'kyi, Ivan-Valentyn Zadorozhnyi, Serhiy Svitoslavs'kyi, folk painting "Kozak Mamay", "Samson" sculpture, Mykola Pymonenko, Oleksandr Murashko and other classics. After viewing Mykola Bilous's paintings, visitors can explore the museum's other exhibition halls to find the original on which Bilous' work was based. Mykola Bilous thinks that "Quotations" will help to re-introduce the national arts heritage and unite tradition and modern times.

The Royal Academy Presents Chris Orr's Lithographs ~ Method & Madness Posted: 22 Feb 2012 08:23 PM PST London.- The Royal Academy is pleased to present "Lithorrgraphy: Chris Orr RA and the Art of Chemical Printing", on view at the Academy's Tennant Gallery from February 23rd through May 20th. This new exhibition explores the method and madness featured in the lithographs of Chris Orr RA. Orr is one of Britain's foremost artist-printmakers, renowned for his technical mastery, joyfully anarchic subject matter and thought provoking content. The medium of lithography is a process that depends on the chemical antipathy of grease and water to create a printed image and this exhibition will contain more than twenty prints, ranging in date from 1974 to 2011. All prints in the exhibition have been generously presented to the Royal Academy Collection by the artist.

Tibor de Nagy Shows Dwight Ripley's Travel Posters & Language Panels Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:43 PM PST New York City.- Tibor de Nagy is pleased to present "Dwight Ripley: Travel Posters and Language Panels", on view at the gallery until March 10th. Dwight Ripley was a British born artist, whose work was the subject of five solo exhibitions at Tibor de Nagy starting in 1951. A polymath, Ripley was a serious botanist, the author of a volume of poetry, and spoke fifteen languages. However, it was for his artwork that he was most recognized. Six of his drawings were included in an exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim's legendary gallery Art of This Century.

Pallant House Gallery to Host "Robin Ironside ~ Neo-Romantic Visionary" Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:39 PM PST Chichester, England.- Pallant House Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the visionary artist Robin Ironside (1912-1965). "Robin Ironside: Neo-Romantic Visionary", on view at the gallery from February 28th through April 22nd will be the first museum show of his work for over 40 years. In his lifetime, Robin Ironside's meticulous, highly-detailed romantic paintings were shown alongside the likes of Paul Nash , Henry Moore and even Francis Bacon . Yet, unlike his fellow 'Neo-Romantics' John Craxton , John Minton , John Piper and Graham Sutherland, the visionary painter's work has rarely been exhibited since his posthumous retrospective at the New Art Centre in 1966. This exhibition provides a timely reassessment of his artistic legacy and positions him as a leading Neo-Romantic artist and 'an heir to the visionary qualities of William Blake ' (Simon Martin, Curator).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens "Rembrandt & Degas as Young Men" Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:39 PM PST New York City.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art ("The Met") is pleased to present "Rembrandt and Degas: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" on view from February 23rd through May 20th. The exhibition will feature a series of early portraits by the two artists and highlight the Dutch master's guiding influence on the young French Impressionist. The first exhibition to examine this subject, it will unite some two dozen works by the artists, including oil portraits, drawings, and etchings from the Metropolitan Museum's collection and other museums in the United States and abroad. The intimate scale of the exhibition and size of the works on display will illuminate the unique kinship that exists between the self-portraits created by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917) at the start of their illustrious careers.

"Gustav Klimt & Josef Hoffmann Pioneers of Modernism" at the Belvedere Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:38 PM PST Vienna.- The Belvedere is proud to present "Gustav Klimt/Josef Hoffmann: Pioneers of Modernism", on view at the Lower Belvedere Palace until March 4th. With "Gustav Klimt/Josef Hoffmann", the Belvedere pays tribute to two pioneers of Modernism in a comprehensive exhibition that simultaneously introduces the Klimt Year 2012. The painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and the architect and product and interior designer Josef Hoffmann shared a common vision of an art that was meant to touch all spheres of life. Over two decades, they were joined in their artistic and social activities, even if the intensity of their collaboration varied over time. They frequented the same circles, worked for the same clientele, and were both leading personalities in Vienna's newly emerging art scene. Such outstanding projects as the Beethoven exhibition at the Vienna Secession in 1902 and the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, were landmarks for generations to come. The exhibition focuses on Klimt and Hoffmann's collaboration on the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, the only true "Gesamtkunstwerk", or total work of art, produced by the Wiener Werkstätte. This unusual building and its lavish interiors are presented in detail for the first time at this special exhibition. Exact replicas of wall designs, an architectural model and numerous plans and preparatory sketches for Klimt's Stoclet Frieze provide a valuable insight into the story behind the construction of this Art Nouveau Gesamtkunstwerk. Klimt and Hoffmann strove to establish a harmony between the visual and the applied arts and set new benchmarks in Europe when it comes to the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk. By means of numerous paintings, original plans, elaborate reconstructions, models, and historical documents, the show at the Belvedere illustrates the genesis and spatial impact of their joint projects and elucidates the intensive exchange with the Belgian art scene that lastingly influenced the evolution of Viennese Modernism. Hoffmann also designed numerous exhibitions during his career, many of which featured works by Gustav Klimt. Plans and reconstructions of individual rooms bring the early 1900s back to life. One such room is a replica of the Klimt Room where the Beethoven Frieze was shown to the public for the very first time in 1902. A scale model of the Beethoven exhibition recreates Vienna's first ever Gesamtkunstwerk. Klimt's compositional sketches for the frieze and various studies by some of the other artists represented at the exhibition provide additional context for the show. Another focus is on the artists' cooperation for the Kunstschau 1908 where Klimt's masterpiece "The Kiss" went on display to the public for the first time. Other attractions include a reconstruction of Klimt's last studio (including a number of original items) that bears Josef Hoffmann's design signature, as well as Hoffmann's sketches for Klimt's tomb, which was ultimately never completed. The Belvedere Palaces, have harbored treasures of art ever since their beginnings, at first the collections of Prince Eugene and, from 1781, extensive parts of the imperial collection, which were also open to the public. Around 1900, since no measures were being taken to build the planned new museum for the state collection of contemporary art, Austrian artists were urging an improvised accommodation of works in the Lower Belvedere. In 1903, the Moderne Galerie was indeed opened there, thus laying the foundation for today's collection. In 1923, the baroque museum was opened in the Lower Belvedere as the first part of the museum's "restructuring". The Galerie des XIX Jahrhunderts (Gallery of the XIXth Century) was set up in 1924 in the Upper Belvedere, with works by international and Austrian artists, meanwhile the Moderne Galerie was accommodated in the Orangerie, where the monumental sculpture found an ideal setting in the adjacent large landscaped garden. During the National-Socialist regime the Moderne Galerie remained closed, which meant that the inventory of so-called "degenerate" works was untouched. Museum operations during the post-Second World War period have been characterized by numerous new acquisitions, extensions and modernization measures. From 1991 to 1996, the Upper Belvedere underwent general refurbishment. The Lower Belvedere and the Orangery are used as the Belvedere's exhibition forum. Medieval at the Upper Belvedere: The Belvedere owns internationally outstanding works of Late Gothic sculpture and panel painting. They offer an overview of the major artistic developments in the International Style from around 1400 to the early sixteenth century. The Baroque Collection of the Belvedere left the Lower Belvedere in 2007 and the most important works of Austrian Baroque are now shown in the east wing of the Upper Belvedere. The 19th century collection encompasses a wide range of masterpieces, including classicism, romanticism and Biedermeier, realism and historicism, and the art of impressionism. Classicism and romanticism are pre-eminently represented in portraits and mood landscapes, especially by Caspar David Friedrich. Besides examples of Austrian mood impressionism, there is a remarkable and exclusive selection of international art with works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. Visit the Belveder's webpage at ... http://www.belvedere.at

The Very Surprising & Enlightening Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:19 PM PST 'Iziko' is an isiXhosa word, meaning "a hearth". Since the hearth of a typical African homestead usually occupies the central space, Iziko symbolizes both a hub of cultural activity, and a central place for gathering together South Africa's diverse heritage. The Iziko Museums of Cape Town include The South African Museum of Natural History, Planetarium, Maritime Center, SAS Somerset (an ex-South African Navy Boom Defense Vessel – the last such vessel left in the world), the Wine Museum at Groot Constantia, the Slave Lodge, Bo-Kaap Cultural Museum and a number of historic houses alongside the Iziko South African National Gallery. The National Gallery is South Africa's premier art museum, housing outstanding collections of South African, British, French, Dutch, Flemish and wider African art. With a permanent collection of almost 10,000 items, selections from the Permanent Collection change regularly to enable the museum to have a full program of temporary exhibitions of paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture, beadwork, textiles and architecture. These provide insight into the extraordinary range of aesthetic production in South Africa, the African continent and further afield. From an initial bequest of 45 paintings presented in 1871 by Thomas Butterworth Bayley, the collection of the Iziko South African National Gallery has grown to one of international stature, encompassing substantial holdings of South African, African and Western European art. The richness of the foreign collection is almost entirely due to the munificence of the early patrons of the Gallery. The main building, designed by Clelland & Mullins (Public Works Department) and F K Kendall, was completed in 1930, with funds from the Government, the City Council and the Hyman Liberman Estate. Since then various improvements have been made to the building, including the introduction of climate control and an upgraded lighting system in 1991. The art collections library provides an extensive art research and reference resource covering South African and international art, with books, journals, exhibition catalogues (some are available for sale), sales/auction catalogues, newspaper clippings since 1904, artist files and art boxes, pamphlets, DVDs, CDs and videos. In line with museum policy, the Library develops projects to make its resources available to as many people in the community as possible. As well as the National Gallery itself, art from the Michaelis Collection (which also forms part of the Art Division of Iziko Museums of Cape Town) is housed in the Old Town House on Greenmarket Square, built in 1755 in Cape Rococo style. Donated by Sir Max Michaelis in 1914, it comprises a world-renowned collection of Netherlandish art from the 17th century, including paintings and works on paper by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob Ruisdael, Anthony van Dyck and Rembrandt. The historic Rust en Vreugd house contains the William Fehr donation of works of art on paper (watercolours, prints and drawings), whilst paintings from the same donation are displayed at the Castle of Good Hope. Visit the museums websites at … http://www.iziko.org.za/iziko/izihome.html The permanent collection contains particularly fine examples of British art and many leading artists of the early 20th century are represented, including members of the New English Art Club and those of the Bloomsbury Group. Works by John Walker, Michael Porter, Gary Wragg, Alan Davie and Ronald Kitaj were acquired in the 1980s. Limited funds and the prohibitive prices of Western art have limited any significant additions to these collections recently, but the collection is sufficiently broad to provide a lot of interest, whilst also serving to set the more recent African art in an international context. The extraordinary vitality and significance of the art that began to emerge in South Africa in the 1980s, brought about a shift in acquisition policy, which now concentrates on contemporary South African art. Serious attempts are also being made to fill the gaps in the collection resulting from the apartheid past. Since 1990 one of the major tasks has been to establish a collection that acknowledges and celebrates the expressive cultures of the African continent, particularly its southern regions. An authoritative collection of beadwork has been established and the permanent collection has been enriched with the addition of indigenous sculpture, as well as the repatriation of artifacts that were removed from the country over the last two hundred years. A comprehensive database contains information on the artists and works in the permanent collection and over the years a series of excellent catalogues has been published. Selections from the permanent collection change regularly and temporary exhibitions of paintings, works on paper, photography, new media, sculpture, beadwork and textiles are hosted. They provide insight into the range of aesthetic production in South Africa, the African continent and further afield. Numbering over 400 items including paintings, prints and drawings, the Sir Abe Bailey Bequest is the largest bequest held at the SA National Gallery to this day. It also constitutes one of the largest collections of British sporting art held by any public art museum in the world. The Sir Abe Bailey Trust has remained actively involved in its maintenance, and in more recent years has made substantial contributions to ongoing conservation work on the collection. This provides funding for the conservation work to be carried out on the paintings, frames and work on paper. The Michaelis collection boasts works by acknowledged Dutch masters such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen, Pieter de Hoogh, Abraham van Beyeren and Willem van Aelst, as well as Flemish artists such as Anthony van Dyck, David Teniers, Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Frans Snijders. Containing portraits and group portraits, still-lifes and interiors, landscapes, townscapes and marines, genre scenes and church interiors, it can now be regarded as one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind outside the Netherlands and a few of the major world capitals. Temporary exhibitions are regularly held at many of the Iziko museums sites. Currently on show at the National Gallery are two photography exhibitions. Until 30th April 2011, "Ernest Cole, Photographer" shows the work of South Africa's first black photographer, a man who went to extraordinary lengths to show the suffering under apartheid. So passionately did Ernest Cole believe in his mission to tell the world, in photographs of unsurpassed strength and gravitas, what it meant to be black under apartheid, that he had himself reclassified as "colored" so that he could legally travel to New York. However, with the publication of his book, 'House of Bondage' (which was immediately banned in South Africa) in 1967, his exile became permanent. Tio fotografer, an association of Swedish photographers with whom Cole worked from 1969 to 1975 when he lived in Stockholm, received a collection of his prints, and these were later donated to the Hasselblad Foundation. Never before internationally exhibited, these extremely rare photographs are now to be seen publicly for the first time in a major exhibition. The Hasselblad Foundation chose South Africa as the first venue for this unique world tour in honor of Ernest Cole and his family. A second photography exhibition, "Roger Ballen and Boarding House" (until 17th April 2011) features works that stand apart from those of his contemporaries in their intensity and beauty, their enigmatic quality and sense of impending violence. Born in the United States, Roger Ballen grew up with the work of great modern photographers, through his mother's work with Magnum and her gallery in New York. Ballen's photography in South Africa began when he started travelling through 'dorps' (small rural towns), where rural white communities showed evidence of poverty and social collapse. Although continuing to use many of the same people as subjects, in the late 1990s he began to work less in a documentary style and more like a choreographer or director. In Ballen's most recent body of work, 'Boarding House', his photographs evince a sense of the theatrical, a tension between the fictional and constructed, and that which is absolutely real and present at the moment he exposes the photograph. In the imaginative worlds that Ballen creates, puppies, rats, wire, drawings and old furniture perform roles within the claustrophobic confines of a door-less stage that are part-tragic, part-comedic, and wholly disturbing. The Iziko SA National Gallery is showing 'Boarding House' together with photographs from earlier bodies of work, including'Dorps', 'Outland'and 'Shadow Chamber'. A third exhibition "Imagining Beauty: Body Adornment from the Iziko Collections and Young South African Designers" is on show until 30th April 2011. It features the works of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Awards winning designers, Black Coffee, Darkie, Maya Prass and others that were shown in Berlin in 2010. These modern designs are presented alongside traditional South African beadwork and other treasures from the collection, including a rare Rwandan crown, worn by the royalty of the Great Lakes region shortly before its collapse, as depicted in Irma Stern's famous portrait of Queen Gicanda in 1942.

UK's Longest Running Photography Festival Celebrates 20 Years Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:18 PM PST HEREFORDSHIRE.- 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of Hereford Photography Festival. The longest running annual photography festival in the UK, Hereford Photography Festival has presented a broad range of international photography since 1990. This year, the Festival builds on its strong history of showing work by groundbreaking and leading photographers such as Martin Parr, Rankin and Wang Qingsong, with a major retrospective, new commissions, a series of exhibitions and more. Starting on Friday 29th October with a launch weekend of exhibitions, talks, workshops and a conference, this year's festival will be bigger than ever and encompass the city and local area. Entry to all exhibitions is free.

The National Gallery of Canada Exhibits the 2010 Governor General's Awards Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:17 PM PST OTTAWA.- They are sculptors, filmmakers, painters, video artists, photographers, or visionary administrators. Their works and reputations have reached beyond our borders to garner global attention. Today they are being awarded one of the highest national distinctions for their exceptional careers and remarkable contributions to the visual and media arts. They are the winners of the 2010 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts, and their pioneering works will be presented to the public until June 20, in a special exhibition located in the contemporary galleries at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC).

National Gallery of Canada Embarks on New Partnership with the Art Gallery of Alberta Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:16 PM PST TORONTO.- As of January 31, visitors to the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) will have the opportunity to enjoy exceptional works of art drawn from the National Gallery of Canada (NGC)'s collections. The announcement of the three-year partnership was made today by the NGC and the AGA. In a designated space on the main floor of the new AGA, called The National Gallery of Canada at the Art Gallery of Alberta, special exhibitions will be presented by both institutions. These will range from the presentation of single works or new acquisitions, to full exhibitions of different sizes, covering a variety of collecting areas from the past to present. This new programming initiative will build on the strong commitment of the NGC to sharing the national collections with Canadians. Exhibitions offered through the Gallery's travelling exhibition program have been a mainstay of the AGA since its very first exhibition in 1924. This expanded partnership will be the first of a limited number of satellite programs available within Canada and will demonstrate both galleries' commitment to bringing the best of the national collections to Western Canada, featuring both Canadian and international art. Exhibition projects will be organized collaboratively. "All of us at the National Gallery of Canada are particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve Edmonton directly in this way'', said Marc Mayer, Director, National Gallery of Canada. ''Heartfelt thanks and warm wishes go out to our colleagues at the Art Gallery of Alberta for their vision in inviting us to this partnership.'' The National Gallery of Canada at the Art Gallery of Alberta program will launch at the grand opening of the magnificent new Art Gallery of Alberta building on January 31, 2010. The first exhibition will be "Goya The Master Printmaker: The Disasters of War and Los Caprichos", featuring the Spanish master's legendary print suites The Disasters of War of 1810-23, edition of 1863, and a rare bound edition of his print masterpiece, Los Caprichos, from 1797-98, edition of 1799. It will be on view until May 30, 2010. "Our partnership with the National Gallery of Canada reflects the national significance of the Art Gallery of Alberta and is critical to our future development", said Gilles Hébert, AGA Executive Director. "We want to reach out beyond the borders of Edmonton and engage the entire community and province. Hosting and curating exhibitions that feature incredible works of the National Gallery of Canada's collection will help us do that." The National Gallery of Canada at the Art Gallery of Alberta program is made available to the AGA on a cost recovery basis, encompassing hard production and touring costs only. The NGC provides its staff resources, curatorial expertise, and access to its collections free of charge. Capital Power has joined the Art Gallery of Alberta in a three-year sponsorship commitment of unprecedented scale to support these production costs. Visit : http://www.gallery.ca/

Martin Parr 'Assorted Cocktail' at La Rotonde, Luxembourg Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:15 PM PST Luxembourg - The exhibition Assorted Cocktail presents over 150 works produced by the British photographer Martin Parr between 1985 and 2003 as well as 10 new works on Luxembourg especially commissioned for the exhibition at La Rotonde. << Carte Blanche>>, the series commissioned by Luxembourg and Greater Region, European Capital of Culture 2007 and produced during the official opening celebrations of the cultural year, represents an unconventional look at the capital city of Luxembourg. On exhibition until 8 April, 2007.

Museu Coleccao Berardo presents " From Torres-García to Vieira da Silva " Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:14 PM PST Lisbon, Portugal - Museu Colecção Berardo – Modern and Contemporary Art presents "Intuition and Structure - From Torres-García to Vieira da Silva", 1929-1949, on view through February 15, 2009. The exhibition opens with Maria Helena Vieira da Silva's discovery of Joaquín Torres-García's work in 1929, and continuing loosely, from year to year, through to 1949, the year of Torres-García's death in Montevideo. over this period, the artists learned from each other and asserted their very particular structure, all the more particular for belonging to a sort of no-man's land between abstract and figurative composition.

Bonhams & Butterfields’ Fine Asian Art Brings More than $3-Million Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:13 PM PST San Francisco, CA - Rare prints and paintings by the renowned Japanese print artist Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) from the family's private collection brought record prices in a November 20, 2006 two-session Asian art auction held by Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco.  A collection of 61 lots illustrating the breadth of the artist's talent went 100% sold, with international bidders vying via telephone and in the room.  Star lots included Asahi, and oversize print dated Taisho 15 (1926), which sold for $23,900, and Kumoi sakura from the same year, which brought $35,850.  Twelve watercolors by Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) capped the Shin Hanga works offered, bringing $50,788, more than double its low estimate. Bidding for Japanese works reached a fever pitch for a rare and important bronze figure of Amitabha Buddha.  The massive sculpture, measuring 67-inches and dated by inscription to 1680, sold over the telephone for a staggering $172,250, over four times its low estimate.  Ceramics, cloisonné, swords and sword fittings brought solid prices.  The momentum continued into the rest of the morning session, as Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian works of art were offered.  A Tibetan standing figure of a Tara, 16th/17th century, from the collection of Parisian Edgar Gutman by descent to the current owner, churned a heated contest between two telephone bidders, ultimately bringing $65,500. The afternoon session opened with 26 lots of Contemporary Asian Art.  This section of the sale featured works from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, bringing more than $1-million.  Included were paintings by important Chinese cynical realists Yue Minjun, Zeng Fanzhi, and Zhang Xiaogang, and the Taiwanese living national treasure Ju Ming.  Conservative estimates for works by these important artists inspired interest on the telephones and in the salesroom with eager buyers from China, Taiwan, Europe and America. Yue Minjun's Great Solidarity, painted in 1992, brought more than twice its low estimate, selling to a Chinese buyer in the room for $309,750. Zeng Fanzhi's Mask series No. 14 sold to the same buyer for $183, 250, again, doubling its high estimate.  Two works by the renowned artist Zhang Xiaogang: Baby No. 19 from the Bloodline Series, and Amnesia and Memory, dated 2005, sold within estimate at $172,250 and $205,250 (respectively).  Paintings by new artists Yang Din, Yang Maoyuan and the Hong Kong based artists Nancy Chu Woo and Hon Chifun sold to telephone bidders as did traditional style oil paintings by Chen Jinyu and Zhang Jingsheng.  A large and compelling photograph of Pukou, from the Assembly Hall Series by the husband and wife team Shao Yinong and Muchen, sold within the estimate to an American buyer for $21,510. Ju Ming's monumental sculpture entitled Buffalo dragging the wood, executed in 1990, brought $133,750, sold to an international bidder while Sans titre (totem) by the Beijing born artist Wang Keping, sold in the room for $19,120. The afternoon session continued with Chinese classical and modern ink paintings.  Again, noted artists and rarity ruled the day.  Twelve album leaves from the Imperial Household regulations, 8th century, brought over five times its estimate, selling to a telephone bidder for $62,625.  Works by Qi Baishi, Wu Guanzhong, Zhang Daqian sold well, with bids for a Qi Baishi work Chicken and Coxcomb flowers pecking its way to $53,775. Rarity and condition were the determining factors in the strong prices achieved for additional Chinese lots.  A fine Canton enameled bronze hand warmer, Qianlong mark and period, brought three times its estimate, selling for $35,850 over the telephone.  A carved and polychrome ivory figure of a Western beauty, based on a prototype attributed to the Jesuit artist Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), brought $53,775.  Chinese cloisonné and later bronzes brought strong prices, with a fine 'sunspot' bronze censer and stand, 18th century, selling for $41,825 and a pair of cloisonné enameled hu-form vases, 18th/19th century, selling for $32, 863. Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques.  The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America, and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies.  Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world with a global network of offices and regional representatives providing sales advice and valuation services in 25 countries.  It offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge; and a further 10 throughout the UK.  Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and in Switzerland, Monaco, and Australia.  For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of more than 50 Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com/us

Leading Artists Donate to "Art for Africa Auction" at Sotheby's London Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:12 PM PST LONDON.- Sotheby's announces that Marlene Dumas, William Kentridge, David Goldblatt, Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn, Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare are among the artists who have donated works to Art For Africa, a unique auction presenting for the first time such a major offering of works by some of South Africa's leading artists alongside pieces by some of the foremost contemporary artists from the UK, which will be held at Sotheby's London on Monday, September 21, 2009.

Metropolitan Museum hosts Photographs by Samoan Multimedia Artist ~ Shigeyuki Kihara Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:11 PM PST   NEW YORK CITY - Sixteen photographs by contemporary artist Shigeyuki Kihara (b. 1975, Samoa) are on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This marks the first presentation of Samoan contemporary art at the Museum. Shigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs explores themes of Pacific culture, identity, colonialism, indigenous spirituality, stereotypes, gender roles, and consumerism. Works on view include a hauntingly beautiful picture from the artist's 2004 Vavau series called Taema ma Tilafaiga: Goddess of Tatau, depicting Samoan goddesses chanting about the art of tattooing, as well as a highly praised work titled Fa'a fafine: In a Manner of a Woman, Triptych 1-3, a sequence of photographs, in which the artist re-create and addresses a Samoan portrait genre, in which women were posed as reclining "South Seas Belles." All works on view were printed this year by the artist in Auckland, New Zealand, except two from the Metropolitan's own collection.

The Israel Museum shows Contemporary Chinese Art Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:10 PM PST JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Six years after the success of its China: One Hundred Treasures exhibition in 2001, which displayed Chinese treasures covering 5,000 years, from neolithic bronzes to Ming porcelains, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, presents the newest chapter in the history of Chinese art. Made in China: Contemporary Art from the Estella Collection includes both established artists and rising stars from the world of international contemporary art, among them: Ai Weiwei, Chen Shaoxiong, Huang Yan, Ma Liuming, Qiu Zhijie, Wang Ningde, Zhang Huan and Zhang Xiaogang. The Estella Collection from New York is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of contemporary Chinese art. The fifty-seven artists in the exhibition were born in the years before, during or immediately after the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and the highly politicized climate of that period, together with the tragedy of Tiananmen Square in 1989, were formative for their art. While some of these artists work and live in China, many are members of China's artistic diaspora, living in the US, Europe and Australia. The works displayed in the exhibition use a wide range of mediums, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, installation and performance art. "The incredible variety of expression reflected in the works of these artists attests to the fertile creativity that can emerge from any sociopolitical setting," states Israel Museum director James S. Snyder. "Each work in this exhibition reflects the dialogue between the artist and issues emerging from life in China during this dramatically transforming time." The Mao Legacy - The legacy of Chairman Mao pervades the work of many artists in the post-Mao era. Although thirty years have passed since his death, Mao's incalculable influence on contemporary Chinese culture and the imprint of his image on Chinese society's collective memory continue to be felt. During Mao's time, artistic creativity was subject to official oversight and mandated to serve social and societal objectives of the state. The glorification of the worker, the soldier, and particularly Mao himself, was typical of the social-realist style of the time and served to enhance Mao's popular profile. Images of Mao were mass-produced throughout the years of the Cultural Revolution. Several works in Made in China respond to this cult of image and personality: Yue Minjun's Liu Chunhua – Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan takes one of the most widely reproduced images of Mao, set against a typical Chinese landscape, and removes Mao himself, leaving only the landscape; Legacy Mantle, a sculpture by Sui Jianguo, presents the Chairman's jacket,emblematic of his regime, as a hollow shell; Yu Fan's Sacrifice of Liu Hulan depicts the well-recognized communist martyr of the revolution, not standing defiantly in her Mao suit, as she was regularly depicted in heroic sculptures and propoganda posters, but rather as a young girl brutally cut down, with the dignity of an individual rather than as the prototypical martyr. Dialogue with Tradition - During the Mao era, social-realist painting took the public place that had traditionally belonged to calligraphy, after Mao condemned the classic Chinese arts as symbols of the elitism of conservative China. In the years since Mao's death, many Chinese artists have reestablished a dialogue with this traditional art form, whether through the creation of pseudo-calligraphic works or by using untraditional tools and surfaces. For example, Xu Bing's installation The Living Word consists of over 400 Chinese characters hovering in space – characters from different Chinese periods for the word bird – showing how Chinese writing has developed from simple representations into more and more abstract signs. In Zhang Huan's Family Tree, the artist directs three calligraphers to write texts chosen by him on his face until the meaning of the calligraphy is lost through repeated overwriting, just as the features of Zhang's face disappear. Chinese art was once also closely associated with landscape, until this tradition was suppressed during the Revolution, and contemporary artists now relate to this tradition in a variety of ways. Rendered on the surface of artist Huang Yan's body, Chinese Landscape – Tattoo reasserts the life force, or qi, that was always present in the landscape in traditional Chinese painting and signals how China's cultural legacy has left a deep mark on its people. Liu Wei's manipulative photomontage Landscapes No. 1-6 refers to the ongoing presence of tradition while engaging in a humorous dialogue with China's strong taboo against depicting the naked body. Toward a New China - The extensive reforms underway in China today, and the relentless speed with which they are implemented, are central to the work of many artists. Old China is being torn down almost overnight, while the country transforms itself into a global economic power, and traces of the past are rapidly disappearing. In one example, Ai Weiwei's Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn takes an historical work of art and destroys its nominal value, as the urn falls and breaks, while creating a contemporary conceptual artwork. Shao Yinong and Mu Chen's Assembly Hall series is an attempt at preserving a disappearing fragment of the past, illustrating the halls that were once used for local political meetings and that now serve very different purposes or stand quietly in decay. With the disappearance of a state-mandated collective identity, contemporary Chinese artists address issues of individuality and new identity. In his Exchange Series, Cang Xin raises fundamental questions inherent in the attempts of young people in China to forge an identity for themselves that is strikingly different from that of their parents. By changing clothes with people in various occupations, the artist questions the role of external appearances in defining one's identity. Made in China has been organized by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, and curated in Jerusalem by Suzanne Landau, the Israel Museum's Yulla and Jacques Lipchitz Chief Curator of the Arts and Landeau Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art. It is accompanied by a 100-page, full-color catalogue in English, with a Hebrew-language insert. The exhibition is made possible by the Sam Weisbord Trust, Los Angeles. A full schedule of public programs and events will be held at the Museum in conjunction with the exhibition.   Visit The Israel Museum at : www.imjnet.org.il/

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:09 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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