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

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• The Morgan Library & Museum opens "In the Company of Animals"
• Hauser & Wirth to Feature Ron Mueck's First Major London Show in 10 Years
• Exhibition of New Paintings & Sculpture by Georg Baselitz opens at Gagosian Gallery
• UK Museums buy Renaissance Masterpiece Titian's "Diana and Callisto" for $72 million
• The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Presents the Paintings of HM Rosenberg
• The ADAA Art Show Returns to New York
• The Legion of Honor in San Francisco Hosts "The Cult of Beauty ~ The Victorian Avant-Garde"
• The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and Loyola University Museum of Art Presents ~ Heaven+Hell
• The Haus der Kunst Mounts Comprehensive Thomas Ruff Exhibition
• The New National Museum of Monaco Shows Mark Dion's "Mysterious Seas" Exhibition
• The Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal Shows Déja ~ The Collection on Display
• SFMOMA Selects Snøhetta to Work on Museum Expansion and Design
• The Detroit Institute of Arts Presents "It's a Zoo in Here!"
• Solo Exhibition of New Work by Lothar Hempel at Stuart Shave-Modern Art
• Royal Ontario Museum shows Isabella Rossellini's Playful Short Film "Green Porno"
• Young Gallery presents Albert Watson's '(UFO) Unified Fashion Objectives'
• Marrakech Art Fair to be Held at Es Saadi Palace in October
• Leonard Baskin Works on Paper at Portland Art Museum
• Corcoran Gallery of Art to exhibit 'The American Evolution: A History Through Art'
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Morgan Library & Museum opens "In the Company of Animals" Posted: 01 Mar 2012 10:56 PM PST New York City.- The Morgan Library & Museum is pleased to present "In the Company of Animals: Art, Literature, and Music", on view from March 2nd through May 20th. Animals have provided a particularly fertile source of inspiration for artists, writers, and composers for centuries. From the carving of ancient seals with fearsome lions and mythical beasts, to the depiction of the serpent in representations of Biblical scenes by such luminaries as Albrecht Dürer, to more recent portrayals of endearing animal figures in children's stories, such as Babar and Winnie the Pooh, animals are everywhere. This exhibition will explore the representation of animals—as symbols, muses, moral teachers, talking creatures, and beloved companions—in eighty works of art, demonstrating the varied roles animals have played in the hands of some of the most renowned artists represented in the Morgan's collections. Animals are not always simply animals. They can represent gods, saints, myths, sins, temperaments, emotions, and ideas. Since ancient times, artists have repeatedly turned to animals to address eternal questions of life and meaning. The oldest work in the exhibition, a Mesopotamian cylinder seal used to make an impression when rolled over damp clay, is datable about 3500–3100 BC. Lions prowl across the surface of the inch-high engraved stone, symbolizing  the potential chaos of the natural world. Order is restored, however, by the one-eyed hero who grasps two lions upside-down. His domination over such feared creatures adds to his strength and power. The fall of Man as depicted in Albrecht Dürer's masterful engraving Adam and Eve, of 1504, is witnessed and aided by animals. A serpent twists itself around a branch to offer Eve the forbidden fruit as four creatures lie at the couple's feet. Jackson Pollock famously commented, "I am nature." Pollock's Untitled (Abstract Ram) dates about 1944, a time when the artist incorporated Jungian theories of the unconscious and imagery of the American Southwest into his work. The drawing is suggestive of a sheep-like animal with a circular horn, elongated head and muzzle, and swirls of curly wool. The exhibition includes three works related to Aesop, including the earliest known manuscript of his life and fables, made in southern Italy in the tenth or eleventh century. Similarly on view in the exhibition is a 1666 edition of the life and fables of Aesop, lavishly illustrated by one of the most accomplished animal and bird painters in seventeenth century England, Francis Barlow. Finally, a 1931 edition of Aesop's fables combines stories collected by the seventeenth-century English author Roger L'Estrange with fifty illustrations by American artist Alexander Calder. Storytellers have long used talking animals to highlight human foibles. Unlike the animals in fables and fairy tales, which maintain their animal characteristics, the talking creatures in this section of the exhibition blur the distinction between animal and human. George Orwell had a difficult time finding a publisher for Animal Farm, his tale of a utopia gone wrong, at the end of WWII. A first edition of the novel (eventually published in 1945) shows Orwell's original subtitle, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. A life-long equestrian, Anna Sewell was appalled by the way horses, especially working horses, were often treated by their owners. She said that her purpose in writing Black Beauty, her only novel, was "to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses." Although a favorite among children, Jean de Brunhoff's Babar faces adult-size challenges. In his illustration for page nine of Histoire de Babar, the young elephant—not yet in his signature green suit—arrives at the edge of the city. The scene becomes melancholy when one realizes that Babar is isolated, his mother having just been killed by a hunter. One section presents works ranging from thirteenth-century Persia to twentieth-century America, including a number of examples from the Renaissance, when a new perspective on the natural world created a lasting interest in observing, categorizing, and understanding animals. Masters of the human figure, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn and Peter Paul Rubens also made a number of animal sketches. In the sixteenth century when Dutch artist Jacob de Gheyn sketched his Studies of a Frog, Dragonfly, and Fantastic Bird, creatures such as the unicorn and the griffin were still believed to exist. Even Leonardo da Vinci included the occasional dragon in his sketches. Also on display is an anonymous watercolor of a lynx and recumbent unicorn from a fifteenth-century model book—an essential point of reference for medieval artists who wished to depict animals—which shows a similar pairing of reality and myth. John James Audubon is best known for his meticulous depictions of animals, such as his preparatory study for Gray Rabbit: Old male, female, and young, which later appeared in his The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845–1848). One hundred fifty years after Elizabeth Barrett Browning described her relationship with her dog, Flush, David Hockney made a similar observation about his dachshunds, Boodgie and Stanley, noting, "These two dear little creatures are my friends...I notice the shapes they make together, their sadness and their delight". A nineteenth-century drawing by Nicolas Hüet depicts an unusual variety of companion, a giraffe known as Zarafa with her Sudanese caretaker, Atir. The giraffe was a political gift from Muhammed Ali, the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, to Charles X of France in an attempt to convince the King not to interfere in the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Greeks. After a two-year journey from Sudan to Paris (which included two boat rides and a 550 mile walk from Marseilles to Paris), Zarafa lived with Atir in the Jardin des Plantes for eighteen years, where he "slept within scratching reach of her head." Today, The Morgan Library & Museum is a complex of buildings of differing styles and periods covering half a city block. It began as an intimate palazzo-like structure designed by Charles Follen McKim to serve as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan. "Mr. Morgan's library", as it became known, was built between 1902 and 1906 to the east of his New York residence at Madison Avenue and 36th Street. In the years since the Morgan's incorporation as a public institution in 1924, there have been several additions to the original library building. As the collections grew, the Annex was added in 1928, on the site of Morgan's home. In 1988, the mid-nineteenth-century brownstone on Madison Avenue and 37th Street, where J. P. Morgan, Jr., lived was also added to the complex. A garden court was built in 1991 to unite all three buildings in the complex. A century after the completion of the McKim building, The Morgan Library & Museum unveiled the largest expansion and renovation in its history. The Renzo Piano design integrates the three landmark buildings with three intimately scaled new pavilions constructed of steel-and-glass panels to create an accessible, inviting setting. Pierpont Morgan's immense holdings ranged from Egyptian art to Renaissance paintings to Chinese porcelains. For his library, Morgan acquired illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints. To this core collection, he added the earliest evidence of writing as manifested in ancient seals, tablets, and papyrus fragments from Egypt and the Near East. Morgan also collected manuscripts and printed materials significant to American history. Over the years—through purchases and generous gifts—the Morgan has continued to actively acquire rare materials as well as important music manuscripts, a fine collection of early children's books and manuscripts, and materials from the twentieth century (as well as earlier periods). Nevertheless the focus on the written word, the history of the book, and master drawings has been maintained. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.themorgan.org

Hauser & Wirth to Feature Ron Mueck's First Major London Show in 10 Years Posted: 01 Mar 2012 10:40 PM PST London.- Hauser & Wirth is proud to present Ron Mueck's debut exhibition with the gallery and his first major solo presentation in London for over a decade. "Ron Mueck" will be on view in the Saville Row gallery from April 19th through May 26th. The works shown in this exhibition highlight Mueck's unique form of realism and his poignant use of scale and placement. Using contemporary subjects, Mueck explores timeless themes depicted throughout traditional art history, encouraging the viewer to identify with the human condition. Mueck's sculptures link reality to the world of folklore, myth and magic. 'Woman with Sticks', a sturdy, middle-aged woman struggling to contain an unwieldy bundle of sticks nearly twice her size, suggests a woman tackling the near-impossible tasks set in fairytales and legends. Completely naked, this woman represents the 'eternal feminine', a topic that fascinated artists such as Cezanne and Gauguin. Where these artists focussed on the idyllic model, Mueck uses hair, skin and a physical build far from the norms of classical beauty. This woman is active, not contemplative; vigorous and energetic, not delicate and demure.

Exhibition of New Paintings & Sculpture by Georg Baselitz opens at Gagosian Gallery Posted: 01 Mar 2012 10:01 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Georg Baselitz. Baselitz's challenging career is a constant process of counterpoint, marked by intense periods of creative activity culminating in a masterpiece or group of master works, followed by a startling renewal and rethinking of the subject. A traditional artisan, he produces paintings, drawings, prints, and wood sculptures, often on a monumental scale. Baselitz has consistently explored what it is to be German and a German artist, although his oeuvre owes as much to a broader range of influences, including Art brut and the drawings and writings of Antonin Artaud, sixteenth century German woodcuts, and African sculptures. While his chosen forms embody an aspiration for the latitude and grandeur of post-war abstraction, the tormented and fragmented motifs that characterize his early works express the burden of post-war economic and spiritual depression. With the reunification of Germany in 1990, the angst seemingly ebbed from his vision and, for the past two decades, Baselitz has infused his work with lightness and a sense of spontaneity.

UK Museums buy Renaissance Masterpiece Titian's "Diana and Callisto" for $72 million Posted: 01 Mar 2012 09:47 PM PST LONDON - Two major British museums have raised 45 million pounds ($72 million) to buy a Renaissance masterpiece that has been in the U.K. for 200 years and keep it on public display — a purchase announced Thursday as a substantial cultural victory in tough economic times. Britain's National Gallery contributed 25 million pounds to buy Titian's "Diana and Callisto" which it will own jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland. The rest of the money came from an art charity, lottery profits and private donors. The galleries did not appeal to the public for funds. National Gallery Director Nicholas Penny said the purchase had used up most of the gallery's 32 million pound reserve fund, accumulated from a century of bequests.

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Presents the Paintings of HM Rosenberg Posted: 01 Mar 2012 08:50 PM PST Halifax, Nova Scotia.- The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is proud to present "Reinvention: The Art and Life of HM Rosenberg", on view through June 10th. This fascinating exhibition of beautiful and luminous paintings gives remarkable insights into the art and life of American artist and perpetual immigrant, Henry Mortikar Rosenberg. It brings together over 120 exquisite works including paintings, prints, and drawings drawn from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia's Permanent Collection, a variety of private collections, the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama, the National Gallery of Canada and locally from the Collections of the Dartmouth Heritage Museum, the Nova Scotia Museum and the New Brunswick Museum.

The ADAA Art Show Returns to New York Posted: 01 Mar 2012 08:21 PM PST New York City.- The 24th edition of The Art Show, the nation's foremost and longest running fine art fair, takes place March 7th through March 11th in New York City. Organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) to benefit Henry Street Settlement, the fair presents the nation's leading art dealers and galleries showcasing a variety of museum quality exhibits ranging from cutting-edge, 21st century works, to masterpieces from the 19th and 20th  centuries. "ADAA dealers represent the very best authorities on fine art in the country, and The Art Show is an opportunity for collectors to meet with these experts and take in fantastic exhibitions in a range of genres," noted ADAA President Lucy Mitchell-Innes.  Linda Blumberg, ADAA's Executive Director remarked on the experience of collectors at the show, "Art collectors appreciate The Art Show because the intimate atmosphere and consistently high level of works present an ideal opportunity to interact with our expert dealers and purchase works in a refined environment."

The Legion of Honor in San Francisco Hosts "The Cult of Beauty ~ The Victorian Avant-Garde" Posted: 01 Mar 2012 08:00 PM PST San Francisco.- The Legion of Honor is proud to present "The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900", on view at the museum through June 17th. The exhibition will be the first major exhibition to explore the unconventional creativity of the British Aesthetic Movement, tracing its evolution from a small circle of progressive artists and poets, through the achievements of innovative painters and architects, to its broad impact on fashion and the middle-class home. Over 180 superb artworks on view express the manifold ways that avant-garde attitudes permeated Victorian material culture: the traditional high art of painting, fashionable trends in architecture and interior decoration, handmade and manufactured furnishings for the "artistic" home, art photography and new modes of dress. The exhibition debuted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London before transferring to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. British Aestheticism radically redefined the relationships between the artist and society, between the "fine arts" and design, and between art and both ethics and criticism. The iconoclastic belief in that art's sole purpose is to be beautiful on its own formal terms stood in direct opposition to Victorian society's commitment to art's role as moral educator. Aestheticism is now recognized as the wellspring for both the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements. "The Cult of Beauty" showcases the entirety of the Aesthetic Movement's output, celebrating the startling beauty and variety of creations by such artists and designers as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, James McNeill Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones, E. W. Godwin, William Morris and Christopher Dresser. The first sections of the exhibition explore this search for a new beauty both in the design creations and paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and their circle. Exhibition visitors will delight to Morris wallpapers and then wonder why exquisitely beautiful aesthetic paintings, such as Frederic Leighton's sensual "Pavonia" (1858–1859) and the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt's, "Il Dolce Far Niente", (1866), shocked the conventional Victorian public. The Cult of Beauty continues to unfold in sections exploring significant aspects of the Victorian Avant-Garde aesthetic and its movement from the artist's studio to middle-class drawing rooms. An early highpoint underscores the Victorian avant-garde belief that art exists only to be beautiful, as suggested by their rallying cry "Art for Art's Sake." Featured is James McNeill Whistler's 1862 "Symphony in White No. 1: The White Girl" (notorious for its inclusion in Paris's famed Salon des Refusés of 1863), showing his paramour and muse Jo Hiffernan. Architect and designer Edward William Godwin's signature ebonized sideboard (1865–1875) reveals the deceptively "modern" result he achieved by mining historic sources. Showcased is the virtuoso collaboration between Godwin and Whistler: a glorious piece of furniture titled "Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Butterfly Cabinet" (1877–1878).  Inspiration from various disparate cultural and historic traditions is epitomized by William Eden Nesfield's Anglo-Japanese screen (1867). The importance of the 1877 opening of the Grosvenor Gallery (London's progressive gallery space) for the public reception of Aestheticism is the underlying narrative in a gallery devoted to Grosvenor exhibits. Edward Burne-Jones's monumental ode to "Laus Veneris" (1873–1878) sings with rich orange and red tones corresponding to Algernon Charles Swinburne's heady and sensual poem of the same name. And John Roddam Spencer Stanhope's ambitious "Love and the Maiden" (1877), which reintroduced the tempera medium to modern audiences, references mythology, classical art and the paintings of Botticelli. "Aesthetic Houses for Beautiful People, 1870s–1880s" speaks to the "artistic" lifestyle and domestic environment crafted by followers of the Cult of Beauty. Architectural and interior designs for the Aesthetes' cultivated patrons show visitors the sophisticated color schemes that created the House Beautiful. As the wider public adopted an aesthetic veneer, commercial enterprises, such as Liberty's of London, manufactured furnishing goods of all types to attract customers at every price point, from an extensive redecorating to a single peacock feather for the mantelpiece. Morris & Co. continued to market signature wallpapers, fabrics and other decorator items, including the Flora and Pomona (1883–1885) tapestries designed and executed by the team of Edward Burne-Jones and John Henry Dearle. James Jacques Joseph Tissot's "Frederick Gustavus Burnaby" (1870) depicts one of the beautiful people in his striking military uniform lounging in a well-appointed household. "Late-Flowering Beauty: 1880s–1890s" delights the visitor with sumptuous paintings and emotive sculpture. A longstanding contributor to the Cult of Beauty, Dante Gabriel Rossetti helped foster a close relationship between Aesthetic painting and literature by composing poems to accompany his paintings. A sonnet on temporality featuring a sycamore tree accompanies one of his final works, The Day Dream (1880). Fine examples of book design underscore the fascination of innovative artists with the Book Beautiful, including Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris's The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1898), and the cover designs of Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory (1893–1894) and Salome by Oscar Wilde (1920). The installation culminates with Frederic Leighton's life-sized bronze The Sluggard (1882­–1885) that represents The New Sculpture by communicating abstract emotions. And superbly, Albert Moore's masterpiece Midsummer (1887) beautifully anticipates the Symbolists' fascination with sleep and dreams. High on the headlands above the Golden Gate stands the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels to the city of San Francisco. Located in Lincoln Park, this unique art museum is one of the great treasures in a city that boasts many riches. The museum's spectacular setting is made even more dramatic by the imposing French neoclassical building. In 1915 Alma Spreckels fell in love with the French Pavilion at San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition. Alma Spreckels persuaded her husband, sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels, to recapture the beauty of the pavilion as a new art museum for San Francisco. At the close of the 1915 exposition, the French government granted them permission to construct a permanent replica, but World War I delayed the groundbreaking for this ambitious project until 1921. Constructed on a remote site known as Land's End, one of the most beautiful settings imaginable for any museum, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor was completed in 1924, and on Armistice Day of that year the doors opened to the public. Between March 1992 and November 1995—its seventy-first anniversary—the Legion underwent a major renovation that included seismic strengthening, building systems upgrades, restoration of historic architectural features, and an underground expansion that added 35,000 square feet. The architects chosen to accomplish this challenging feat were Edward Larrabee Barnes and Mark Cavagnero. The 1995 renovation realized a 42 percent increase in square footage, including six additional special exhibition galleries set around the pyramid skylight visible in the Legion courtyard. Today, the Legion of Honor's collection contains over 124,000 works of art and is recognized for its European decorative arts, sculpture and painting; Ancient art from throughout the Mediterranean and the Near East; and one of the largest collections of works on paper in the country.The Legion's permanent collection reflects a history of patronage by its founders, Adolph B. and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, whose particular collecting focus was 18th- and 19th-century French art. Additional early donors of note include Archer M. Huntington, Mildred Anna Williams and Albert Campbell Hooper, whose generosity fashioned the present collection's particular character. The Roscoe and Margaret Oakes collection brought highlights in Dutch, Flemish and British art of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Henry Raeburn. A selection of important paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection brought with it major works by El Greco, Pieter de Hooch and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Visit the museum's website at ... http://legionofhonor.famsf.org

The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and Loyola University Museum of Art Presents ~ Heaven+Hell Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:37 PM PST Chicago, Illinois.- Kicking off the 2012 exhibition year, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) present one exhibition at two venues: "Heaven+Hell", on view through June 30th. "Heaven+Hell " is an inspired collaboration of creative thinking and practical dynamics from two very different organizations: Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA). The exhibition serves as a bridge between the two museums with the Hell portion of the exhibition taking place in Intuit's Galleries at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. and Heaven shown at LUMA, 820 N. Michigan Ave. While Intuit and LUMA are barely a mile apart, the respective venues and audiences may be worlds apart.

The Haus der Kunst Mounts Comprehensive Thomas Ruff Exhibition Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:22 PM PST Munich, Germany - The Haus der Kunst in Munich is proud to present " Thomas Ruff ", on view at the museum through May 20th. In the first comprehensive exhibition in more than a decade, the exhibition presents the series that made Ruff internationally renowned.  The show depicts Ruff's artistic development in chronological order: starting with his first series begun in 1979 of German 'Interieurs', via 'Porträts', 'Häuser' and 'Sterne', to the series of the 1990's including 'Zeitungsfotos', 'blaue Augen', 'Nächte', 'Plakate' and 'andere Porträts'. The arch spans from 'l.m.v.d.r.' and 'nudes' via 'Maschinen', 'Substrat', 'Zycles', 'jpeg' and 'cassini' to the present with the topographical images of Mars ('ma.r.s.'), begun in 2011. Included for the first time in an exhibition is material relating to the reception of the work and the sources that inspired Thomas Ruff.

The New National Museum of Monaco Shows Mark Dion's "Mysterious Seas" Exhibition Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:14 PM PST Monaco.- The Nouveau Musee National de Monaco (NMNM - The New National Museum of Monaco) is showing "Oceanomania: Memories of Mysterious Seas", a project by Mark Dion until September 30th at the Villa Paloma (one of the museum's two sites within the city state). Continuing his investigations as a naturalist, archaeologist and traveler, Mark Dion explores the American collections of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco to create a monumental collection of curiosities, and plunges into the collections of the New National Museum of Monaco (NMNM) to create a large-scale intervention. Mark Dion's installation at the Villa Paloma brings together works by 20 artists including the monumental series 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' by Bernard Buffet and works by Matthew Barney, Ashley Bickerton, David Brooks, David Casini, Michel Camia, Peter Coffin, Marcel Dzama, Katharina Fritsch, Klara Hobza Isola and Norzi, Pam Longobardi, Jean Painlevé, James Prosek, Man Ray, Alexis Rockman, Allan Sekula, Xaviera Simmons, Lawrence Tixador and Abraham Pointcheval and Rosemarie Trockel. In addition, Dion's installation includes an eclectic collection of works of art, related to the sea (including two rarely seen paintings of the Bay of Monaco by Claude Monet), from the collections of NMNM alongside objects from the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. 'Oceanomania' is jointly curated by NMNM and the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. Two significant and conflicting maritime events form the conceptual framework of this project. They are the Census of Marine Life, recently completed (2010), and the explosion of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon. The first involved 2,700 scientists from 80 nations, who for 10 years studied the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the oceans. It resulted in the identification of 6,000 new species, of which only 1500 have been described so far. The Census of Marine Life has also highlighted the fact that the oceans are richer, more connected and more affected than imagined.The second, the explosion of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon has caused the flow of 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the sea in the Gulf of Mexico, producing a kill zone of 210 square kilometers and causing untold damage to the marine life. The consequences should still be felt for decades to come. In his exhibition, Dion examines our perception of the ocean. It challenges our sense of wonder at its great diversity and our sadness over the destruction. It's looks at the evolution of our fascination with the sea in time and space, design, literature and art, and reveals how the strange and wonderful have continuously inspired the research and creation Art. Blurring the boundaries between natural history, art and science, the work of Mark Dion focuses on the topics such as archeology, ecology and environmental protection. Dion has held major exhibitions at Oakland Museum of California (2011), EMSCHERKUNST, Germany (2010), Prefectural Museum Ancient Arles, Arles (2010), Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (2009), Natural History Museum, London (2007), Square Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Nîmes (2007), Miami Art Museum (2006), Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004), Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2003), and Tate Modern, London (1999). Dion has also created many permanent outdoor installations such as "Ship in a Bottle", a public commission for the Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Enhancement Project, California (2011), "Vertical Garden" at Tooley Street, London (2009), and "Neukom Vivarium" for the Olympic Sculpture Park commissioned by Seattle Art Museum (2006). He is represented by the gallery In Situ - Fabienne Leclerc Paris and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, Galerie Christian Nagel in Berlin, Georg Kargl Vienna and Galerie für Landschaftskunst Hamburg. Mark Dion lives and works in New York and Pennsylvania. Monaco's Nouveau Musée National de Monaco opened in 2010 and is located in two stunning venues, the Villa Paloma and the Villa Sauber. With a focus on modern, contemporary works of art, these completely re-designed venues present two expositions annually per venue and spotlight the cultural, historic and artistic virtues of Principality. The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco is open daily from 10:00am to 6:0pm. Entry is free to all under the age of 26. The Villa Paloma is one of the finest mansions in the Principality and was originally built around 1913 for an American, Edward N. Dickerson. After passing through numerous hands (and being severely damaged during World War II), the villa was bought by the State of Monaco in 1995 and became part of the new museum in 2008. The garden is the jewel of the Villa, and the museum took great care to preserve it as an Italian garden balcony overlooking the city and the sea, retaining the existing vegetation and creating links with the Princess Antoinette Park and the Museum of Anthropology. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.nmnm.mc/

The Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal Shows Déja ~ The Collection on Display Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:13 PM PST MONTREAL.- An exhibition that fills up all of the Musée's galleries and showcases a hundred or so major works from the Collection along a circuit that is neither conventional nor linear - that is the unique experience MAC visitors can look forward to with Déjà – The Collection on Display. These works exemplifying the history and scope of the Collection have been carefully selected, out of the 7,600 pieces listed altogether in the museum's inventory, by Josée Bélisle, curator of the exhibition and curator of the Musée Collection. In terms of scale, this is the largest space ever devoted to displaying the Collection. The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal presents Déjà from May 26 to September 4.

SFMOMA Selects Snøhetta to Work on Museum Expansion and Design Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:12 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has selected the architecture firm Snøhetta to be its partner in developing an expansion that enhances the museum's services to the community and its educational, social, and economic role in the city. The decision follows a comprehensive international search and two-year planning process to address the enormous growth of SFMOMA's collections and of audience demand for programming since the museum's move to its current building in 1995. Initial design concepts for the project—Snøhetta's first building on the West Coast of the United States—will be unveiled in the spring of 2011. The current project budget of $480 million includes $250 million for the expansion and $230 million for SFMOMA's endowment to ensure the museum's long-term success.

The Detroit Institute of Arts Presents "It's a Zoo in Here!" Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:11 PM PST Detroit, MI.- The Detroit Institute of Arts is proud to present "It's a Zoo in Here! Prints and Drawings of Animals" until September 25th. Herds of cattle and strings of ponies as well as pods of dolphins, ostentations of peacocks and lounges of lizards are just some of the subjects of more than 150 prints and drawings selected from the DIA collection to form this exhibition. Regardless of culture and despite centuries of time, artists of all generations are united in their portrayals of animals in a multitude of activities and roles.

Solo Exhibition of New Work by Lothar Hempel at Stuart Shave-Modern Art Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:10 PM PST LONDON.- Stuart Shave/Modern Art presents a solo exhibition of new work by German artist Lothar Hempel, Silberblick/Squint. This is his second solo show with Modern Art. Lothar Hempel's work inhabits a realm of dreamlike theatricality, full of many coexisting mystic possibilities. Hempel brings together a world of figures, shapes and colours in the stagelike expression of a certain attitude: graceful, cool, deliberate and poised – yet open and heartfelt. Often starting from 'just so much as a feeling', he weaves his material from movement, objects, and representations of performance. Hempel's narrative associations and contradictions effect a state of mind between consciousness and dream. On view through 3 July. In his photographs and in his sculptures Hempel incorporates found and collected images, often depicting dancers, performers, and societal transgressives. Images from Pina Bausch performances are recurrent, as are images of prostitutes, and cult heroes of late 20th century stage and screen. In selecting their qualities of gesture and character, he provides a release from their contexts and stories, liberates them from their histories and latent nostalgia, and infuses them with new life. These reborn characters come from a moment that is not quite of our own – yet while they appear slightly unfamiliar, they are recognisable, and can speak to us. Lothar Hempel's large new sculpture Verkehr (the German for 'traffic', and also a euphemism for sex) recaptures a double image of modern dancers as large photographic cut-outs, infused with spectral colour, depicted in a staged moment of euphoria and triumph. Hempel presents them frontally, propped-up on two separate plinths and triangles of unnaturally white sand, with an old traffic light nearby. There is a theatrical association, yet no one is exactly on stage. Hempel collapses the set, script and cast of a fantastic dance into sculpture. These sculptures are structured from two dimensional images in three dimensional space, and in this sense they almost undermine their themselves, revealing themselves as facades. Some images, though, are different; more important than others. There is a famous issue of the German news magazine Stern that Lothar Hempel has owned since 1978, when he was 12 years old. On its cover the image of a teenage girl, Christiane F., stares out from behind the headline 'Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo'; the subject of a tragic/romantic tale of teenage heroin addiction and prostitution. Her image and story has completely captivated Hempel since childhood: "I looked at her face for hours, studied every detail and listened to music at the same time, usually on headphones. Lothar Hempel was born in Cologne in 1966, and studied at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf 1987-1992. He currently lives and works in Berlin. In 2007 Hempel's work was the subject of the retrospective exhibition Alphabet City at Le Magasin, Grenoble. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Casanova, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2008); Concentrations 42, Dallas Museum, Dallas (2002), and Propaganda, Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2002). Lothar Hempel's work has been included in the recent exhibitions Heaven, Athens Biennale (2009), Le Song D'un Poete, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Nantes (2009); Beaufort 03, Triennial for Contemporary Art, Blankenberge (2009); 7th Gwangju Biennial (2008); Pale Carnage, Arnolfini, Bristol and DCA, Dundee (2007); Imagination becomes Reality. Werke aus der Sammlung Goetz, ZKM – Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe (2007). Lothar Hempel has exhibited regularly and continuously for almost two decades, during which time his work has been seen in exhibitions at many esteemed institutions, among them: the Venice Biennale; Tate Liverpool, ICA, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; P.S.1, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Portikus, Frankfurt am Main; Secession, Vienna; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. During this exhibition at Modern Art, Lothar Hempel will be exhibiting a solo project ABC as part of Art Unlimited, Art 41 Basel.

Royal Ontario Museum shows Isabella Rossellini's Playful Short Film "Green Porno" Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:09 PM PST TORONTO.- The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents Green Porno: Scandalous Sea, an art installation and series of short films written by and starring internationally-renowned actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini. Presented in partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival®: Future Projections, these two- to four-minute films, three of which receive their world premieres, illustrate in a humourously entertaining yet scientifically accurate portrayal the reproductive habits and ecological challenges of marine life. A variety of intricate and oversized paper sculptures and colourful costumes created for the Green Porno series accompanies the films.

Young Gallery presents Albert Watson's '(UFO) Unified Fashion Objectives' Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:08 PM PST BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - In "UFO (Unified Fashion Objectives)," Albert Watson unveils a collection of his best fashion photographs from 40 years as one of the world's leading artists in the field. Selected from his massive archives, Watson presents some of his most well-known fashion work alongside images that have never been presented to the public before. These masterpieces of fashion photography also offer a preview of Watson's upcoming book "UFO," to be published in fall 2010 by PQ Blackwell. The exhibition is on view at Young Gallery from February 25 through April 30, 2010.

Marrakech Art Fair to be Held at Es Saadi Palace in October Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:07 PM PST MARRAKECH, MOROCCO - The first edition of the Marrakech Art Fair will be held from October 9 to 11, 2010 (with a preview on October 8) at the Es Saadi Palace. Galleries from Europe, Morocco and the Arab world are pleased to invite art amateurs and collectors to present their recent discoveries during a four-day event. Modern art, contemporary art, and emerging scenes will be high on the agenda, during an ephemeral leisure staged between patio and garden through art works and creations from the 20th and 21st centuries. Visitors will be given the opportunity to walk through the fair either to look for novelties or just to rediscover the works by internationally-renowned artists such as: Karel Appel, Arman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Brassaï, Eduardo Chillida, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Robert Doisneau, Jean Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Erro, Jan Fabre, Philippe Favier, Sam Francis, Gérard Garouste, Raymond Hains, Simon Hantaï, Keith Haring, Hans Hartung, Rebecca Horn, Yves Klein, David Lachapelle, François-Xavier Lalanne, Richard Long, Man Ray, Roberto Matta, Mario Merz, François Morellet, Aurélie Nemours, Erwin Olaf, Giuseppe Penone, Robert Rauschenberg, Martial Raysse, James Rosenquist, Georges Rousse, Niki de Saint Phalle, Julian Schnabel, Richard Serra, Pierre Soulages, Daniel Spoerri, Nicolas de Staël, Frank Stella, Patrick Tosani, Vladimir Velickovic, Jacques Villeglé, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann… A series of cultural and artistic events will take place along with the launch of the Marrakech Art Fair, such as exhibitions in cultural centres, visits of artists' studios, presentations of private collections and more. The Marrakech Art Fair has also the «Golf Art Cup» in store, a golf competition between art market players, at the end of which a trophy made by a Moroccan artist will be awarded. This event was born from the collaboration between Moroccan and French art market players who combine their skills to provide Morocco with an exchange platform for gallerists, artists and collectors. The setting up of the Marrakech Art Fair is supported by Moroccan institutions: The Ministry of Tourism, The General Administration of Customs, the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) as well as partners such as the Es Saadi Palace, the ONAPAR Holding through the Amelkis golf club, and Prestigia, a company specializing in business travels and luxury stays in Morocco. Hicham and Zineb Daoudi, Brahim Alaoui, Caroline Clough Lacoste and Henri Jobbé Duval partnered to implement this totally unprecedented artistic meeting. They enjoy the support of the honour committee, made of people involved with the local and international cultural life … and Marc Blondeau has accepted to be among the fair's guests. The Marrakech Art Fair is destined to become the yearly appointment of the art market in the Kingdom of Morocco, enhancing its visibility beyond its borders and being part of the international contemporary art fair calendar.

Leonard Baskin Works on Paper at Portland Art Museum Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:06 PM PST   Portland, OR - An internationally acclaimed sculptor, printmaker, painter, calligrapher, essayist, book designer, and poet, Leonard Baskin (American, 1922-2000) was a major figure in 20th-century American art. In the 1940s and 1950s when movements such as abstract expressionism all but eliminated the human form in painting and sculpture, Baskin championed it. Through figuration, his overarching concern was to express the power and depth of the human condition at its most primal. This exhibition of some 50 prints, drawings, and artist books, selected chiefly from the Museum's holdings and northwest private collections, highlights images of humanity as a central theme in Baskin's works on paper. Graphic Force, Humanist Vision reveals both the brilliance of his skill and the immediate poignancy of Baskin's artistic legacy: the common consciousness of humankind.  On exhibition August 18 – November 11, 2007.

Corcoran Gallery of Art to exhibit 'The American Evolution: A History Through Art' Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:05 PM PST WASHINGTON, D.C. — This spring, the long-awaited re-installation of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's world-renowned collection of American art will open in a special exhibition, The American Evolution: A History through Art.  A fresh look at the Corcoran's extensive American holdings, the exhibition showcases more than 200 objects in a wide range of media, dating from the colonial era to present day.  The American Evolution will open on March 1 and remain on view until July 27, 2008. The American Evolution presents the collection in light of five themes that have shaped American culture: Money, Land, Politics, Cultural Exchange and The Modern World (see Exhibition Walk-Through Press Release).  These themes are fundamental to the development of the United States, as well as to the stories that have become central to the country's national identity.  As demonstrated in this exhibition, art plays a crucial role in telling these stories.     "This exhibition is one of the largest and most diverse displays of American art ever to be mounted at the Corcoran.  It is not size and scope alone that distinguish the installation from earlier presentations of our collection, however. The display also purposefully rejects the chronological structure of traditional art historical surveys in favor of a thematic model that highlights continuities in American artistic production and culture from the colonial era to the present day," said Emily Shapiro, Assistant Curator of American Art.   The American Evolution is sponsored by Sotheby's MasterCard and MasterCard International.  Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.   The term "evolution" suggests change over time, and The American Evolution proposes that the United States is a dynamic nation in a constant state of re-definition.  From Gilbert Stuart's stately 18th-century portrait of George Washington to Andy Warhol's irreverent 1973 likenessof the Chinese leader Mao Zedong, and from Frederic Edwin Church's dramatic 1857 view from the brink of Niagara Falls to Richard Diebenkorn's abstract 1975 rendering of the suburban expanses of Ocean Park, California, The American Evolution explores many of the ways that American life and art have developed over the past 250 years.   "This exhibition has work that will appeal to everyone, from people interested in traditional American painting and history to those more drawn to contemporary art and culture," said Sarah Newman, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art.  "It provides a tour of the most of the great developments in American art over the past two centuries, but it also puts them into a context which throws new light on old favorites."     This highly anticipated display of highlights from the Corcoran's American collection will include a remarkable number of iconic works in a variety of genres.  The display will feature stately Colonial-era portraits by John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Stuart; elegant neoclassical marble sculptures by Hiram Powers and William Rinehart; outstanding Hudson River School paintings by Thomas Cole and Sanford Gifford; grand Western subjects by Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Remington; light-filled landscapes and figure paintings by American Impressionists Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Childe Hassam; stunning examples of early American modernism by Marsden Hartley and Stuart Davis; important post-war abstractions by Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko; minimalist and post-minimalist treasures by Ellsworth Kelly, Gene Davis, and Martin Puryear; and contemporary works by Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker.   The Corcoran's collection of American classics returns to Washington in a new exhibition! This exhibition and its related programming will explore Americans' use of visual images as a means to describe and understand the world around them.  This extensive presentation of the Corcoran's collection will encourage a closer examination of the relationship between art and history.  The works stand on their own as outstanding examples of the major styles, subjects, and movements of American art history, yet they are also cultural artifacts that have much to teach visitors about themselves, their national identity and their evolving nation. The Corcoran Gallery of Art is thrilled to provide its first cell-phone tour in conjunction with The American Evolution.   A variety of speakers on selected topics will be available to visitors throughout the exhibition.  Using their own cell-phone, visitors choose interpretations or discussions of interest.  The cell-phone tour is provided free of charge and a Spanish translation of all discussions will be available.   ABOUT THE EXHIBITION The American Evolution: A History through Art is organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  Corcoran curators of the exhibition are Emily Shapiro, Assistant Curator of American Art and Sarah Newman, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art.   HOURS The Corcoran's hours of operation are as follows: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesday.  The hours of operation for the Corcoran's Café des Artistes are as follows: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.  The hours of operation for the Corcoran's Coffee Bar are as follows: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.     TICKETS Tickets to The American Evolution: A History through Art cost $12 for adults/seniors/military and $10 for students. Exhibition ticket prices include The American Evolution and general admission to the museum.  To purchase tickets, visit www.corcoran.org, www.ticketmaster.com or call (202) 639-1700.   MEMBERSHIP Members of the Corcoran Gallery of Art enjoy unlimited, free access to The American Evolution: A History through Art and to the museum's renowned permanent collection.  They also receive special invitations to lectures, films, concerts and a dazzling array of social events.  Additional benefits include valuable discounts at the Corcoran Shop, the casually elegant Café de Artistes, and courses at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.  Member Preview Day for The American Evolution is Thursday, February 28 from 10 a.m. to   9 p.m.   ABOUT THE CORCORAN The Corcoran Gallery of Art, a privately funded institution, was founded in 1869 as Washington's first and largest non-federal museum of art. It is known internationally for its distinguished collection of historical and modern American art as well as contemporary art, photography, European painting, sculpture and the decorative arts. Founded in 1890, the Corcoran College of Art + Design is Washington's only four-year college of art and design offering Bachelor of Fine Art degrees in Photojournalism, Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Interior Design, and Photography; Associate of Fine Art degrees in Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Photography; a five-year Bachelor of Fine Arts/Master of Arts degree in Fine Art and Teaching (BFA/MAT); and two-year Master of Arts degrees in Teaching, Interior Design, Exhibition Design, and the History of Decorative Arts.  The College's Continuing Education program offers part-time credit and non-credit classes for children and adults.  More information about the Corcoran is available at www.corcoran.org.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:04 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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