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

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• The Mint Museum showcases Three Exhibits in 'Surrealism and Beyond'
• The Bruce Museum & Greenwich Art Society Celebrate their 100th Anniversaries
• The Downtown Art Center Gallery to host 'New Works by Mario Canali'
• The Neue Galerie Celebrates its 10th Anniversary with Selections From the Ronald S. Lauder Collection
• Edinburgh Printmakers features 'Kirsty Whiten: Breeder Badlands'
• The Dallas Museum of Art opens Large-Scale Exhibition of "Art of the American 1920's"
• The Second Caribbean Fine Art Fair to be Held in the Barbados
• Nassau County Museum of Art features Private Art Collections in " Long Island Collects "
• Monique van Genderen Solos at Galerie Michael Janssen
• The Charles Riva Collection Exhibits Selected Works by Paul McCarthy
• The von Liebig Art Center in Naples, Florida to show Local Collector's Artwork
• Hammer Museum features "Nine Lives ~ Visionary Artists from L.A."
• Dutch Museums May Sell Its Treasures to Make Ends Meet
• Rare Preliminary Watercolor from Pinocchio at Bonhams & Butterfields' Auction
• New Book Presents Comprehensive Collection of Projects Built by Architect Jim Olson
• Our AKN Editor Greatly Enjoyed A Guided Tour Of The ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum In Denmark
• Sotheby's Paris sales of Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art brings $54.4 Mil
• Museum of Fine Arts shows Douglas Deihl Abstracts
• Milwaukee Art Museum shows First U.S. Museum Exhibition of Warhol's Late Works
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Mint Museum showcases Three Exhibits in 'Surrealism and Beyond' Posted: 03 Mar 2012 10:18 PM PST Charlotte, North Carolina.- The Mint Museum is proud to present "Surrealism & Beyond" on view at the museum through May 13th. The Mint Museum is once again breaking new ground by bringing together three exhibitions comprising the largest and most significant examination of Surrealism and Surrealist-inspired art ever presented in the Southeast. Organized by The Mint Museum and overseen by Jonathan Stuhlman, the Mint's curator of American art, the project consists of three fascinating shows examining the work of four artists: "Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy"; "Seeing the World Within: Charles Seliger in the 1940s"; and "Gordon Onslow Ford: Voyager and Visionary". "Double Solitaire" explores the exchange of ideas that informed the work of the important Surrealist artists Kay Sage (American, 1898-1963) and Yves Tanguy (French/American, 1900-1955) during their 15-year relationship. It is the first exhibition to examine Sage and Tanguy's work from this perspective, the first significant exhibition of Tanguy's art organized by an American museum since 1955, and the first major gathering of Sage's paintings since 1977. By intermingling Sage and Tanguy's paintings, this exhibition of approximately 50 works of art tells the fascinating story of the couple's complex personal and artistic relationship and, more importantly, elucidates the commonalities and ties between each artists' work, which historically has been kept separate. Visitors will see firsthand the impact each artist had upon the other as they explored and developed their own unique visual languages. While many of the paintings in the exhibition are drawn from prominent public collections, a number of privately-held works will also be included—some of which have never before been exhibited, and some of which the artists dedicated to each other. "Seeing the World Within: Charles Seliger in the 1940s" focuses on the remarkable paintings and drawings created by the American artist Charles Seliger during the first decade of his career. Born in 1926, Seliger quickly acquired a strong working knowledge of early 20th century modernism. But it was the fantastic imagery, inventive processes, and creative freedom of Surrealism that truly captured his attention and inspired him to develop his own mature aesthetic between 1942 and 1950. Although his work was rooted in the same basic principles and ideas as that of the Abstract Expressionists, many of whom he exhibited alongside in the 1940s, Seliger found a distinctly personal voice and artistic vocabulary. Because of this, he was given his first solo exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim's "Art of this Century" gallery in 1945, when he was just 19. By the end of the decade, Seliger had narrowed his focus and further honed his style, resulting in an approach that defined his work until his death in 2009. Seeing the World Within is the first exhibition to focus on the groundbreaking paintings Seliger created during the first decade of his career, and the first museum-organized exhibition of Seliger's work in 30 years. It brings together approximately 35 of his best works from the 1940s, drawn from public and private collections as well as his estate. "Gordon Onslow Ford: Voyager and Visionary" is the first retrospective of the British-American Surrealist painter's work organized by an American museum in more than 30 years. Featuring approximately 30 paintings by the artist, it is drawn entirely from his family's collection. Many of the objects in the exhibition were either created specifically for Onslow Ford's sister, Elisabeth, or were given to her for such special occasions as her birthdays. Because of the closeness and longevity of their relationship, the exhibition will offer visitors a look at the full range of Onslow Ford's career – from early, more traditional canvases from the 1920s and 1930s, to his first experiments with Surrealism in the late 1930s and 1940s, to his later work from the 1950s forward, which took a more cosmic, symbolic approach to abstraction. It is a particularly apt companion for the Sage and Tanguy and Seliger exhibitions, as it reveals another dimension of Surrealism and its impact, and features an artist who knew and worked alongside Sage and Tanguy in the 1930s and 1940s and who wrote a book on Tanguy's artistic process in 1980. Gordon Onslow Ford: Voyager and Visionary is accompanied by a selection of ephemera and works by family-member artists who were inspirational to Onslow Ford early in his career. aThe Mint Museum in Charolotte, North Carolina is housed in two separate buildings. The Mint Museum Uptown houses the internationally-renowned Mint Museum of Craft + Design, as well as outstanding collections of American, contemporary, and European art. Designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston, the five-story, 145,000-square-foot facility combines inspiring architecture with groundbreaking exhibitions to provide visitors with unparalleled educational and cultural experiences. Located in the heart of Charlotte's burgeoning uptown, the Mint Museum Uptown is an integral part of the Levine Center for the Arts, a cultural campus that includes the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, the Knight Theater, and the Duke Energy Center, and features a range of visitor amenities, including a 240-seat Auditorium, Family Gallery, studios, Café, and Museum Shop. Housed in what was the original branch of the United States Mint, the Mint Museum Randolph opened in 1936 in Charlotte's historic Eastover neighborhood as the first art museum in North Carolina. Today the Mint features collections that span more than 4,500 years of human creativity from all over the world. Intimate galleries invite visitors to engage with the art of the ancient Americas, ceramics and decorative arts, historic costume and fashionable dress, and European, African, and Asian art, among other collections. Resources include a reference library with over 15,000 volumes, a theater featuring lectures and performances, and a Museum Shop offering merchandise that complements both the permanent collection and special exhibitions. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.mintmuseum.org

The Bruce Museum & Greenwich Art Society Celebrate their 100th Anniversaries Posted: 03 Mar 2012 09:56 PM PST Greenwich, Connecticut.- The Bruce Museum is proud to present "Coming Full Circle: The Greenwich Art Society Celebrates 100 at the Bruce Museum", on view through April 1st. It is not mere coincidence that the year 2012 marks the 100th anniversaries of both the Greenwich Art Society and the Bruce Museum. Their histories in the early decades are closely intertwined and the Bruce Museum is delighted to collaborate once again with the Greenwich Art Society to celebrate these honored milestones. The exhibition highlights each decade of the Greenwich Art Society's history through 43 paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by the most distinguished members who were exhibiting artists and/or teachers, such as Leonard, Mina Fonda and Dorothy Ochtman; Childe Hassam; Simka Simkhovitch; Margaret Brassler Kane; Ann Chernow; and Leo Manso.

The Downtown Art Center Gallery to host 'New Works by Mario Canali' Posted: 03 Mar 2012 09:35 PM PST Los Angeles, California.- Under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles the Downtown Art Center Gallery (DAC) in conjunction with Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles (IIC LA), National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) and COM.IT.ES Los Angeles, is pleased to present new works by Mario Canali. There will be an opening night reception at DAC Gallery on Saturday, March 10th from 6-9:30pm and the exhibition will remain on view through April 6th. Produced during a year-long visit to Los Angeles in 2011, the new works of Canali explore and represent, with amazing creativity and precision, the world of the contemporary human being. Fascinating and troubled, it is a world of complexity, beauty, and discrepancy. Mario Canali is a visionary. Through his emotions and moods he gives birth to new biological shapes.

The Neue Galerie Celebrates its 10th Anniversary with Selections From the Ronald S. Lauder Collection Posted: 03 Mar 2012 09:15 PM PST New York City.- The Neue Galerie Museum is proud to present "The Ronald S. Lauder Collection: Selections from the Third Century BC to the 20th Century/Germany, Austria, and France" on view at the museum through April 2nd. This exhibition, featuring works from the collection of one of the museum's co-founders, provides a rare glimpse into this private art collection and forms part of the museum's 10th anniversary celebrations. The Ronald S. Lauder Collection encompasses a broad range of masterworks. The exhibition will focus on six areas: medieval art, arms and armor, Old Master paintings, 19th- and 20th-century drawings, fine and decorative art of Vienna 1900, and modern and contemporary art. Among the artists represented are Albrecht Altdorfer, Constantin Brancusi, Paul Cézanne, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, Quentin Massys, Pablo Picasso, Gerhard Richter, Egon Schiele, Georges Seurat, and Vincent van Gogh.

Edinburgh Printmakers features 'Kirsty Whiten: Breeder Badlands' Posted: 03 Mar 2012 08:56 PM PST Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburgh Printmakers is pleased to present "Kirsty Whiten: Breeder Badlands" on view now. This engaging solo exhibition by Kirsty Whiten deals with the complexities of the new familial unit and contains both large works on canvas and a new series of stone lithographs commissioned and co-published by Edinburgh Printmakers. Entrance is free. Keenly rendered figures, faces and gestures are examined in detail and placed in an unsettling context. The exhibition showcases a body of work spanning nearly two years, from small-scale drawings, through life size oil and varnish paintings shot through with Day-Glo, to new prints. These are bare and essential images; mothers, fathers and infants in knotted groups, travelling and resting in imagined woodlands and badlands. Stripped of clothes and technology, these families are none the less robustly connected, and surviving.

The Dallas Museum of Art opens Large-Scale Exhibition of "Art of the American 1920's" Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:41 PM PST Dallas, Texas.- The Dallas Museum of Art is pleased to present "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties" on view from March 4th through May 27th. The exhibition is the first wide-ranging examination of American fine art from the end of World War I through the start of the Great Depression. This nationally touring exhibition, features more than 130 works of painting, sculpture, and photography by more than sixty-five artists, will demonstrate how American artists of the period embraced a progressive, idealized realism visible in a resurgence of figuration and in highly distilled images of American places and things. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum , "Youth and Beauty" will include three works from the DMA's own collections. The twenties saw a vigorous renewal of figurative art that melded uninhibited body-consciousness with classical ideals. Wheareas images of the modern body were abundant, artists represented American places and things as distilled and largely uninhabited arrangements of pristine forms. Encompassing a wide array of artists, Youth and Beauty celebrates this striking and original modern art and questions its relation to the riotous decade from which it emerged. The first section of the exhibition's two primary thematic sections is Body Language: Liberation and Restraint in Twenties Figuration, which investigates the realist portrait, naturally erotic figure subjects, and heroic types. Throughout the twenties, motion pictures, advertising, "healthy body culture," and the theories of Sigmund Freud all contributed to an era of physical liberation, sensuality, and a near obsession with bodily perfection. Many artists celebrated the modern physical ideal in nude subjects that pictured the newly exposed body freed from conventional restrictions and empowered through fitness or liberating forms of dance. Artists also responded to the rising influence of urban black culture with representations of the idealized black body. Although startlingly direct, these images are also restrained in a way that suggests an uneasiness with the accelerated energy and action of modern life. Works that celebrate this controlled modern physicality include George Wesley Bellows 1924 "Two Women", in which a nude and a fully clad figure are juxtaposed in a domestic setting. Thomas Hart Benton 's 1922 "Self-Portrait with Rita", which portrays the bare-chested artist beside his wife, who sports a daring body-revealing swimsuit. Works such as Alfred Stieglitz 's "Rebecca Salisbury Strand", a voluptuous nude subject for which the wife of photographer Paul Strand served as a model, display a direct and frank sensuality. John Steuart Curry 's 1928 "Bathers", a scene of robust male nudes cooling themselves in a water tank, channels heroic proportions and Renaissance ideals to foreground healthy physicality in an age of rampant automation and urbanization. The new realism was also apparent in portraits that portray natural beauty with decisive clarity and assertive immediacy. Often cast in the format of the newly popular "close-up," twenties portraiture emerged from a culture in which advertising prompted rigorous self-scrutiny and current theories of psychology suggested complexly layered personalities. The portraits on view will include Luigi Lucioni's magnetic 1928 likeness of the young artist Paul Cadmus; Imogen Cunningham's intimate photograph of the seminal writer Sherwood Anderson; and Romaine Brooks ' stark 1924 portrait of Una, Lady Troubridge, lover of the English novelist Radclyffe Hall. The exhibition's second half, Silent Pictures: Reckoning with a New World, explores subjects as diverse as still life and industrial and natural landscapes while highlighting their shared qualities of compositional refinement and muted expression. Painters and photographers depicted the ready-made geometries of industrial towers, stacks, and tanks, and the webs of struts and beams, with little reference to their utilitarian actualities or to human activity. In his masterful 1927 composition "My Egypt", Charles Demuth transformed the functional architecture of a massive grain elevator complex into a transcendent composition swept by fan like rays. Charles Sheeler paid homage to modern engineering in his pristine 1927 photograph "Ford Plant, River Rouge, Blast Furnace and Dust Catcher", commissioned by Ford's advertisers. In George Ault 's 1926 "Brooklyn Ice House", the artist's reductive treatment of the industrial buildings and playful description of a black smoke plume result in a compelling combination of the modern and the naive. Challenged by the sensory assault of the modern urban-industrial world around them, artists also portrayed American landscape settings as precisely distilled and largely uninhabited. Intent on maintaining their own individuality in a new era of mass-production and mass-market advertising, they described the features of more remote American places with a marked intensity and austerity. In Edward Hopper 's 1927 "Lighthouse Hill", the forms of architecture and landscape are stripped of incidental details and cast in a transcendent raking light. Georgia O'Keeffe's 1927 "Lake George Barns" (one of seven works by the artist in the exhibition), offers a similar hybrid realism, as does Ansel Adams ' 1929 photograph of the sculptural Church at Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. In their still-life compositions, American artists of the twenties applied a modernist penchant for essential form to exacting arrangements of insistently simple things. Objects as disparate as flowers, soup cans, razors, eggs, and cocktail shakers, appear in compositions that suggest the new tensions between the traditional and the modern in art and in life. Twenties images such as Peter Blume 's "Vegetable Dinner", in which one modern woman enjoys a cigarette while her counterpart peels some humble vegetables, prompts consideration of the individual's relationship to the larger material world. Imogen Cunningham's 1929 photograph "Calla Lilies" embodies a precise, natural perfection akin to modern body ideals, while Gerald Murphy 's 1924 "Razor" employs a hard-edged billboard aesthetic to foreground the required accessories of the well-groomed modern man. The Dallas Museum of Art is one of the largest art museum's in the US. Its history began with the establishment in 1903 of the Dallas Art Association, which initially exhibited paintings in the Dallas Public Library. The Museum's collections started growing from that moment on, and after mergers, moves and changes of name, the museum is now housed in a massive Edward Larrabee Barnes designed building. The museum's collections include more than 24,000 works of art from around the world ranging from ancient to modern times. The museum's significant collection of European art starts in the 16th century with works including paintings by Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Pietro Paolini, and Nicolas Mignard. Art of the 18th century is represented by artists like Canaletto, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, and Claude-Joseph Vernet. The 19th and 20th century collection of European art also stands out. Among significant works in this collection are pieces by Gustave Courbet , Claude Monet , Paul Gauguin , Constantin Brâncusi , Edouard Vuillard and Piet Mondrian. Among the 1,400 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper donated by Emery Reves are works from leading impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist artists, including Paul Cézanne , Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas , Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet , Claude Monet , Camille Pissarro , Auguste Renoir , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , and Vincent van Gogh . The America collection covers more than three millennia, displaying sculptures, prints, terracotta, and gold objects from pre-Columbian to the present day. The American art collection includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the United States, Mexico, and Canada including highlights by Childe Hassam , Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth , Georgia O'Keeffe and Gerald Murphy. One of the most beautiful pieces in the collection is "The Icebergs" by Frederic Edwin Church. The Dallas Museum of Art also has one of the most thorough collections of Texas art. From its establishment in 1903 as the Dallas Art Association, one of the Museum's missions was to collect and exhibit the work of living artists. However, it was only with the 1950 acquisition of Jackson Pollock 's "Cathedral" that the collection really started. Every important artistic trend since 1945 is represented in the Dallas Museum of Art's vast collection of contemporary art, from abstract expressionism to pop and op Art, and from minimalism, and conceptualism to installation art, assemblage, and video art. The collection is now the largest in the world outside of specialist modern and contemporary art museums. Contemporary artists within the collection include Jackson Pollock , Mark Rothko , Franz Kline, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Nauman, and Robert Smithson. Among photographers represented in the collection are Cindy Sherman , Nic Nicosia, Thomas Struth, and Lynn Davis. When the current Museum facility opened in the mid-1980s, several artists were commissioned to create site-specific works especially for the Dallas Museum of Art: Ellsworth Kelly, Sol Lewitt, Richard Fleischner, and Claes Oldenburg with Coosje van Bruggen. In recent years, the museum has shown a strong interest in collecting the work of contemporary German artists such as Gerhard Richter , Sigmar Polke, and Anselm Kiefer , while simultaneously collecting works by young contemporary artists. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.dm-art.org

The Second Caribbean Fine Art Fair to be Held in the Barbados Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:40 PM PST Barbados.- For the second year, in the English-speaking Caribbean, over 35 exhibitors of paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, original limited edition prints and new media exploring the cultural traditions of the Caribbean will be exhibited at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, located at Two Mile Hill, Barbados, West Indies.  The Caribbean Fine Art Fair (CaFA) opens Wednesday, March 7th 2012 with a Gala Reception featuring David Boothman & Friends and the presentation of the Caribbean Luminary of the Arts Award, and runs through Sunday, March 11th. Three seminars are scheduled to examine particular issues. 'Caribbean Art: Exploring our relationship with Latin America' will feature panelists examining the growth of Latin American art, the correlation with increased interest and scholarship in Caribbean art and the avenues for increased recognition of Caribbean art within the region and beyond.

Nassau County Museum of Art features Private Art Collections in " Long Island Collects " Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:21 PM PST Roslyn Harbor, NY - Hidden from public view no more, some extraordinary artworks from the holdings of private collectors on Long Island are on exhibition at Nassau County Museum of Art (NCMA) from January 18, 2009 through March 15, 2009. Many of the works have never before been seen by the museum-going public. The artworks are arranged in thematic clusters based on important art movements, among them Impressionism (exemplified by Cezanne, Renoir and Pissarro), Modernism (exemplified by Picasso, Léger and de Chirico) and post-war American Art (exemplified by Larry Rivers, Jim Dine and Cindy Sherman). Beckmann, Degas, Chagall, Matisse, Lichtenstein and Pollock are among the many other artists represented in Long Island Collects. The exhibition, sponsored by David Lerner Associates, is curated by Constance Schwartz and Franklin Hill Perrell. European artists dominate in the Impressionism and Modernism sections of the exhibition. Highlights include a previously unseen work by Turner and a Cezanne still life. Three oils by Renoir, a painting and a pastel by Pissarro, and two charcoals by Degas are among the other works representing Impressionism. The moderns include Matisse, Vlaminck, Braque, Robert Delaunay, and a substantial body of work by Picasso, all but one of which have never before been at NCMA Also shown are a Chagall fantasy landscape, a vividly colored Léger, and several strong German Expressionist oils by Beckmann, Pechstein, and Münter. The section on American postwar art begins with one of Hans Hofmann's classic abstract paintings, demonstrating his vibrant palette and formal concept of "push and pull" color relationship. The dynamics and scope of the Abstract Expressionist movement are further reflected in a charismatic work by Franz Kline, a small but distinctive Jackson Pollock, a drip and splatter painting by Sam Francis, and a serene color field painting by Helen Frankenthaler. Subsequent figuration includes work by Larry Rivers, David Hockney and Wayne Thiebaud. Large scale photo works by Cindy Sherman and Candida Hofer conclude this eclectic section of the exhibition. Also drawn from Long Island collections are works comprising the two companion exhibitions in adjacent galleries: Poetic Journey: Hudson River School Paintings from the Collection of Laura and David Grey and Andy Warhol Silkscreens. Nassau County Museum of Art is chartered and accredited under the laws of New York State as a not-for-profit private educational institution and museum. It is operated by a privately elected board of trustees which is responsible for its governance. The museum is funded through income derived from admissions, parking, membership, special events and private and corporate donations as well as federal and state grants. Combining the dynamic imagery of a museum setting, with an historic mansion and the natural beauty of incredible gardens Providing the Long Island community and beyond with four important exhibitions per year of the works of internationally acclaimed artists. Programming includes fostering exhibitions of local artists, art education for all ages, and cultural activities including lectures, trips and various other events to make the enjoyment of art available to all. Nassau County Museum of Art - One Museum Drive, Roslyn Harbor, NY 11576 - (516) 484-9337 Website : http://www.nassaumuseum.com/index.html

Monique van Genderen Solos at Galerie Michael Janssen Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:20 PM PST BERLIN - Galerie Michael Janssen presents its second solo exhibition by L.A.-based artist Monique van Genderen. Entitled The Gentle Art of Making Enemies the exhibition alludes to the book of the same name by James Abbot McNeill Whistler. First published in 1892 it is an account of personal revenges between Whistler and the art critic John Ruskin who criticized Whistler's painting Nocturne in Black and Gold, exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1877, as „unfinished" and as „a pot of paint flung in the public's eye". Whistler was incensed with the criticism and initiated a libel case against Ruskin. While the text is a narrative about the development of abstract painting, it also explores the relationship between artist and viewer and their expectations and desires for imparting unfixed ideas.

The Charles Riva Collection Exhibits Selected Works by Paul McCarthy Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:19 PM PST BRUSSELS.- Charles Riva Collection presents an exhibition of Selected Works by Paul McCarthy from 1993 to 2009, rarely shown in Brussels. Paul McCarthy's (1945) career, spanning over forty years of production, can at once be summarized as chaotic, grotesque, and provocative. His work stems from an adolescence in American popular culture saturated with corn syrup, ketchup, and coca cola, childrens' toys and Disney - materials and references which act as sweetened and cheapened metaphors for the very most basic elements of human life: sweat, blood, sex, desire, feces.

The von Liebig Art Center in Naples, Florida to show Local Collector's Artwork Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:18 PM PST   NAPLES, FL - Some of the most impressive works of art in Collier County, Florida aren't found in the galleries, museums or art centers. They are secured in private homes, admired by collectors who appreciate works by masters such as Picasso, Calder and Chagall. Now, The von Liebig Art Center is letting the public get a glimpse of these magnificent treasures that are rarely seen in public. The art center is hosting a Naples Collects exhibition Jan. 10 through 25 in its galleries at 585 Park St. in downtown Naples. More than a dozen local collectors are loaning an average of three pieces each for the show. All media are included, from paintings and photography to sculpture and drawings.

Hammer Museum features "Nine Lives ~ Visionary Artists from L.A." Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:17 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA.- Nine Lives: Visionary Artists from L.A. is the fifth in the Hammer Museum's biannual invitational exhibition series highlighting work created in greater Los Angeles. Nine Lives features over 125 works, much of it new, by nine artists spanning four generations — Lisa Anne Auerbach, Julie Becker, Llyn Foulkes, Charles Irvin, Hirsch Perlman, Victoria Reynolds, Kaari Upson, Jeffrey Vallance, and Charlie White. The works include video, paintings, drawings, photography, textiles, and two new sculptural installations. As all of the artists live and work in L.A., Nine Lives embodies many of the psychic complexities and paradoxes of the city . . it is at once beautiful and frightening, refined and unruly. On view 8 March through 31 May, 2009. The reinvention of oneself is central to several of these nine artists' practices. They create characters and tell stories of fantasy and science fiction, building alternate worlds grounded on their obsessions. Popular culture, folk and urban mythology are common themes, as are alternative lifestyles, conspiracy theories, forgotten rites and subcultures. The exhibition is curated by Ali Subotnick and it is her first large-scale project since she joined the curatorial team at the Hammer in 2006. "In approaching this exhibition, I chose to concentrate on nine idiosyncratic artists who struck me as being especially hard to define or categorize," said curator Ali Subotnick. "The artists are intriguing because they dive so deeply into their own fabricated worlds that a kind of myopic vision occurs, which very viscerally communicates their fears, dreams, anxieties, fantasies, curiosities, and moral concerns." These nine artists play make believe, perform mad science experiments, conduct intense research projects, and lead treasure hunts. They are amateur anthropologists, biographers, behavioral profilers, passionate collectors and documentarians. The luxury of space and privacy that Los Angeles affords allows them the freedom to tinker, research, and explore their obsessions which often parallel Hollywood's dream factory. "The Hammer's biannual invitational exhibitions are terrific opportunities to explore the unlimited modes of artistic expression in this city," says Ann Philbin Director of the Hammer Museum. "Each of these exhibitions – Eden's Edge, Thing, International Paper, and Snapshot – has brought a wholly unique perspective and surprising look at artists working in L.A. and beyond. Nine Lives continues this tradition beautifully." Hirsch Perlman makes photographs and videos that capture mysterious landscapes, strange experiments, enigmatic characters, and unexplained phenomena. For this exhibition Perlman made a new body of photographs—portraits of a cat shot with a 4 x 5 camera – which are studies of movement and stillness, both beautiful and haunting at the same time. Lisa Anne Auerbach's artistic practice is multi-faceted — she is a writer, a passionate advocate of bicycling, a knitter, a photographer, and a political activist. Auerbach has co-opted the traditional female craft of knitting and transformed it into a tool for wry, pointed political messages. Her contribution to the exhibition includes sweaters with hand-knit political jokes and riddles, as well as 'cover girl' self-portrait photographs featuring the artist in deadpan poses revealing the her sly sense of humor. Julie Becker's work is often based on the obsessive imagined intimate details of fictional characters. For this exhibition Becker shows video, photographs, collages, drawings, and sculptures from the ongoing (w)hole project which is based on the life of the deceased former tenant of her last apartment. She weaves connections between the mysterious man's life and her own. Llyn Foulkes's career can be traced from his First Award for Painting at the Fifth Paris Biennale in 1967, through his participation in the legendary Helter Skelter (1992) exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. This exhibition will include ten works spanning four decades that use both humor and horror to expose the hypocrisies and the absurdities of American culture. Charles Irvin presents, in addition to drawings and paintings, a new video in the style of conspiracy theory documentaries, exploring the origins and agenda of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a support group for individuals who claim to have been falsely accused of perpetrating child sexual abuse. Victoria Reynolds creates rich, highly detailed paintings of raw meat. She paints pictures of venison, bacon strips, tripe, and reindeer meat in bold strokes, often encasing the paintings in elaborate rococo frames, which give the meat an almost regal portraiture quality. The sinewy tissues and tendrils resemble gems, pearls, and blossoms both seductive and repulsive. Kaari Upson has created a new installation which re-imagines the grotto at the Playboy mansion with several video projections and a bubbling pond. It is a continuation of the ongoing Larry Project, which investigates the life and identity of a stranger whose personal items Upson discovered in an abandoned burned out home in 2005. First shown as a Hammer Project in 2007, this body of work confronts ideas about identity and privacy as Upson explores a bizarre fantasy life with this stranger whose biography she has become absorbed with. Jeffrey Vallance is a collector of objects from all over the world and is often described as an amateur anthropologist. However, unlike most anthropological studies, Vallance's work zeros in on the overlooked treasures of everyday life. He takes kitschy and seemingly banal objects and ideas and transforms them into humorous works of art. For this exhibition, Vallance presents one of his many object collections which is displayed on a replica of a wall from his home. Charlie White's work reflects his fascination with mainstream American popular culture and his interest in subcultures. In this show, White presents a new video, American Minor (2008) which explores the angst and boredom of a pre-teen girl, and a new photo series pairing teenage girls and pre-op transwomen, both on the verge of womanhood. Visit The Hammer Museum at : http://hammer.ucla.edu/

Dutch Museums May Sell Its Treasures to Make Ends Meet Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:16 PM PST ROTTERDAM, NL - Rotterdam's Wereldmuseum plans to sell its African and American treasures to cover funding shortfalls made more likely by the economic crisis in Europe and a planned cut in state subsidies to the arts starting in 2013. It is one of several Dutch museums under pressure to raise money from the public purse, and ideas being explored have ranged from "adopting" star exhibits to opening a hotel on the premises. "We are going to sell the entire Africa collection and the Americas collection, and will only keep the top pieces in the rest of our collection so we can focus on Asian art," said Stanley Bremer, director at Wereldmuseum. "The money we raise we will put in the bank," he told Reuters.

Rare Preliminary Watercolor from Pinocchio at Bonhams & Butterfields' Auction Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:15 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA.- Bonhams & Butterfields' Entertainment Memorabilia auction on June 13, 2010 will include a wide range of collectible items related to our popular culture including a rare preliminary watercolor from the Oscar-winning® Walt Disney film Pinocchio, 1940, by famed children's book and cartoon illustrator Gustaf Tenggren. The painting depicts a scene from the animated classic where Pinocchio runs into Gideon and J. Worthington Foulfellow on a cobbled narrow Bavarian street. In this watercolor, the puppet's two acquaintances are depicted as well as a quaint village with diminutive houses, which feature carved details.

New Book Presents Comprehensive Collection of Projects Built by Architect Jim Olson Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:14 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- The Monacelli Press will release Jim Olson Houses, the most comprehensive collection of projects built in the last decade by the founding partner of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects as well as the most prominent heir to the legacy of the 1950's Northwest master architects. With a series of photographs documenting both exteriors and interiors at 16 residences in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, and Hong Kong, the book represents the holistic approach that has guided Olson throughout his career. The result is a vision that delicately mixes the architectural tradition of the Pacific Northwest, the influence of the Pacific Rim, and their focuses on indigenous craft.

Our AKN Editor Greatly Enjoyed A Guided Tour Of The ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum In Denmark Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:13 PM PST ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, in Aarhus, Denmark is one of the largest art museums in northern Europe, 10 floors high with a total of 17,700 m². The museum opened on 7 April 2004 after a construction process that started with Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen winning the design competition in 1997. The name ARoS is the Old Danish name of the city Aarhus, while the capitalized letters of the name hint at the Latin word for art, namely ars. It is the ambition of ARoS to create and develop an international art museum in Aarhus to be known and appreciated both nationally and internationally as an innovative and attractive art museum with a high degree of artistic experience. The museum is divided into three different permanent collections: The Danish "Golden Age" 1770–1900, Danish Modernism 1900–1960 and Contemporary Art. The ARos also includes The 9 Spaces, a specific use "gallery in progress" of installation art, where 1 or 2 rooms are done by guest artists each year. The use of the number 9 refers to Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and the 9 circles of hell. The rooms are painted black to contrast with the bright white exterior. The roof terrace substitutes for the divine light as if you descended from hell. In this way the whole museum is part of the travel from hell to heaven. This movement is emphasized by the grand spiral staircase in the main 'museum streetscape'. With thousands of square meters spanning the ten levels the museum now has ample space to showcase its extensive collection of 2,100 paintings, 400 sculptures and installations, 200 art videos and over 7,000 drawings, photos and graphics: a collection that ahead of the inauguration was enhanced by the addition of works by international artists such as Bill Viola, Tony Oursler, Carsten Höller, Miwa Yanagi and James Turrell. In large measure, a donation of DKK 40m by New Carlsberg Foundation over a ten-year period enabled the purchase of these works. Besides finishing The 9 Spaces, and many future exhibits ARoS extended the museum with "Your Rainbow Panorama" by Ólafur Elíasson (see image below ). Situated on the roof, it is a circular skywalk in the colors of the rainbow, the gives a very unique panorama of the city of Aarhus. ARoS has featured some prominent changing exhibitions inspired, curated or made by the likes of Bjørn Nørgaard, Ingvar Cronhammar, architect Frank Gehry, Paul McCarthy, Robert Rauschenberg, Michael Kvium, H.C. Andersen, and Wim Wenders. The first of these exhibitions presented a series of main works by pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. As many other modern art galleries and museums ARoS also plays great tribute to architects and their works having hosted several architecture themed exhibitions. Website: _ www.aros.dk/ ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum's collection of paintings and sculptures from the 18th and 19th centuries is the largest in Denmark outside Copenhagen. The collection of art from the Danish "Golden Age" in particular is one of the finest in the country. The collection is located in Gallery I at the top of the building – provides two gallery trails that bring visitors into close contact with major works from the museum's comprehensive collection of paintings and sculptures dating from the period 1770-1930. The first trail traces the development of Danish art from N.A. Abildgaard at the close of the 1700s through Vilhelm Hammershøi and J.F. Willumsen at around 1900: a trajectory that includes "Golden Age" paintings by C.W. Eckersberg, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Christen Købke, P.C. Skovgaard among many others as well as works representative of National Romanticism and late Romanticism. French Salon art from Mønsted's Collection leads on to Naturalism, P.S. Krøyer and the Skagen School. The selection of nineteenth century works is rounded off by a series of realist works by Frants Henningsen, among others. Classical modernism from 1900-1930 is the theme of the gallery's second trail. Here visitors encounter notable works by early modernists such as Karl Isakson,Edvard Weie, Harald Giersing and Olaf Rude. The collection of contemporary art at ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum reflects the international thrust of the modern age. Gallery II – the middle gallery – shows works from the museum's collection of Danish and international art dating from the period 1930–1980. The collection of artworks from these highly consequential 50 years concentrates on a succession of pillars in twentieth century art. The groundbreaking experiments of 1930s' surrealism led to the formation of two international schools – Cobra with Asger Jorn as its leading light and that of "concrete art" pioneered by Richard Mortensen and Robert Jacobsen. Both movements are represented in the gallery. Separate rooms are dedicated to the two luminaries of post-war expressivism – Svend Wiig Hansen and Mogens Andersen. The 1960s saw the total subversion of the concept of art through the emergence of experimental movements such as Pop Art, Fluxus and the Danish Eks-school. Trailblazing works by Andy Warhol, Arthur Køpcke and Bjørn Nørgaard occupy a prominent position in the gallery, as does the museum's Per Kirkeby collection, which is the most comprehensive Kirkeby collection in the world. The museum's gallery for contemporary art shows Danish and international art from 1980 to the present day. The collection ranges from the Danish "Neue Wilden" of the 1980s to the 1990s' experiments with the new mediums of photography, video and installation art. The Gallery is home to works by a spectrum of artists – both Danish and international – who, as established figures on the international art scene, enable us to take the pulse of art today. The West Gallery with its almost 400 square meters hosts three to four temporary exhibitions annually as well as a number of informal presentations of particular art projects. The exhibition space highlights new media – photography, video and installation art. The exhibitions focus on both young, experimental art and established artists. As is the case with the other exhibitions in the museum, the west gallery presents art of high, international quality. ARoS is currently exhibiting the work of Christian Lemmerz - "GHOST", through March 6th 2011, a revolutionary artist who employs a wide range of materials, such as marble, paper, wire, meat, fat, and margarine. Lemmerz has created a large body of art that fascinates even as it repels, brushing against or transgressing taboos and incarnating the darker sides of human nature in artistic form. With the exhibition 'Ghost', the largest solo exhibition of the works Christian Lemmerz yet staged, ARoS wishes to celebrate an artist who has continually renewed his artistic idiom over the course of the last 25 years. Employing a wide range of materials, such as marble, paper, wire, meat, fat, and margarine, Christian Lemmerz has created a large body of art that fascinates even as it repels, brushing against or transgressing taboos and incarnating the darker sides of human nature in artistic form. From his original point of departure in the experimental art scene of the 1980's, e.g. at Værkstedet Værst, Christian Lemmerz has evolved to become a master of classical arts. With his marble sculptures he has inscribed himself in a sculptural tradition with roots going back to the immortal masters of Antiquity, the Renaissance, and neo-classicism. In 2009 his endeavors were recognized when he was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal, the most prestigious accolade any Danish sculptor can receive. Over the course of two years, ARoS has worked closely with Christian Lemmerz on setting up the comprehensive exhibition, which features his large-scale, painstakingly crafted marble and bronze sculptures as the central works.

Sotheby's Paris sales of Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art brings $54.4 Mil Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:12 PM PST   PARIS, FRANCE - Paris Week, the inagural series of events organised this week by Sotheby's France, has concluded tonight on a high note, with the results of the sale of Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art bringing the total for the week to €37,165,325 ($54,477,158), the best result achieved in Paris for a series of sales at Sotheby's to date.

Museum of Fine Arts shows Douglas Deihl Abstracts Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:11 PM PST   SPRINGFIELD, MA – The exhibit Abstract Paintings by Douglas Deihl  is on view through April 13 in the Community Gallery at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts.

Milwaukee Art Museum shows First U.S. Museum Exhibition of Warhol's Late Works Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:10 PM PST MILWAUKEE, WI.- The Milwaukee Art Museum presents the first U.S. museum exhibition to explore the work Andy Warhol produced during his late years. Organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum, Andy Warhol: The Last Decade premieres in Milwaukee September 26, 2009 through January 3, 2010 before heading on national tour. Created amidst the bustle of Warhol's Pop celebrity, the works on view illustrate as never before the artist's vitality, energy, and renewed spirit of experimentation during the final years of his life. "Warhol is as misunderstood as he is famous," said John McKinnon, Milwaukee Art Museum assistant curator of modern and contemporary art. "This first-of-its-kind exhibition evaluates the artist's late work to demonstrate his skills as a master painter and fervent collaborator." Warhol created more new series of paintings in the last decade of his life, in larger numbers and on a vastly larger scale, than during any other phase of his 40-year career. But far from a period of "Factory" production, it was a time of extraordinary artistic development for Warhol, during which a dramatic transformation of his style took place alongside the introduction of new techniques. The artist confidently utilized and combined hand painting, mechanical reproduction, representation, and abstraction. Collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, and Keith Haring were central to his pursuit of new ideas, and stimulated the artist to return to painting by hand. The exhibition includes nearly 50 works lent by private collectors and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Baltimore Museum of Art; and Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Along with an introduction to Warhol's oeuvre, it is divided into thematic sections based on significant Warhol series: abstract works, collaborations (featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente), black-and-white ads, works surrounding death and religion, self-portraits, camouflage patterns, oxidation paintings, and a concluding section of the artist's Last Supper series— the largest series that he produced in his entire career. Several large-scale works 25 to 35 feet in width punctuate the exhibition. In 1984, Warhol purchased a new studio building where he had the luxury of an expansive space in which to work. The paintings created there mushroomed in size to monumental proportions. Andy Warhol: The Last Decade is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and guest curated by Joseph D. Ketner II, Lois and Henry Foster Chair in Contemporary Art, Emerson College, Boston. The exhibition is coordinated at the Milwaukee Art Museum by John McKinnon, assistant curator of modern and contemporary art. During Andy Warhol: The Last Decade, an entire Warhol experience will permeate throughout the Museum, and includes two special presentations in the Collection Galleries. In Gallery 21 with Andy Warhol: Pop Star, prints from the Marilyn and Mao portfolios in the Museum's Collection will make a rare appearance, alongside works on loan to the Museum from local collectors. The Museum first began acquiring works by the iconic Pop star as early as 1967. In the Koss Gallery, Figurative Prints: 1980s Rewind, on view through November 29, 2009, features more than 30 works by contemporaries of Warhol, including Eric Fischl, Susan Rothenberg, and Julian Schnabel, and continues a tradition the Museum established in 1987 when it presented, for the first time, Warhol in the context of his peers in Warhol/Beuys/Polke.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 03 Mar 2012 07:09 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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