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

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• The Städel Museum presents German Drawings from the Museum's Collection
• The Freud Museum London opens "Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed"
• The Weatherspoon Art Museum to present "Matisse and the Decorative Impulse"
• The Japan Society Gallery to show "Deco Japan: Shaping Modern Culture, 1920 –1945"
• The Harn Museum of Art displays Selections from the Debra & Dennis Scholl Collection
• The Royal Academy showcases a Retrospective of Johan Zoffany,RA
• Gil Elvgren dominates $3+ million Heritage Auctions Illustration Art Sale
• Guercino's "The Samian Sibyl" acquired by the UK on public display in the National Gallery
• The Statens Museum for Kunst presents "Vilhem Hammershøi and Europe"
• SFMOMA Shows Mexican Photography from the Collections of Daniel Greenberg & Susan Steinhauser
• The American Museum in Britain to display "John James Audubon ~ Fur and Feather"
• The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opens Dutch & Flemish Works from the Van Otterloo Collection
• The Getty Images Gallery exhibition of Original Dresses & Unique Images of Marilyn Monroe
• Museum of Contemporary Art Announces Record-Breaking Exhibition Attendance
• Rare Audubon Bird Book Sold For $11.5m
• The Tyler Museum to Show “Reflections on Water in American Painting”
• Cheekwood Museum of Art shows The 3rd Annual Exhibition of "Scarecrows"
• Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art ~ Form, Balance, Joy at Chicago's MCA
• The National Gallery of Art Displays Antico's rare Renaissance Sculptures
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Städel Museum presents German Drawings from the Museum's Collection Posted: 08 Mar 2012 11:19 PM PST Frankfurt, Germany.- Frankfurt's Städel Museum presents "The Liberation of Sight. The Art of Drawing from Kobell to Corinth from the Städel Museum" on view through May 28th. In this exhibition the Städel Department of Prints and Drawings is presenting German drawings of the nineteenth century from the museum's rich collection. Some one hundred outstanding works by fifty-two artists have been selected for the show. The selection mirrors the entire breadth and diversity of the Prints and Drawings Department holdings from that multifaceted epoch, which encompassed such widely differing styles as Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Naturalism and Realism and even the beginnings of Modernism. The spectrum ranges from such artists as Wilhelm von Kobell, Josef Anton Koch, Carl Philipp Fohr, Carl Blechen, Carl Rottmann, Carl Morgenstern, Moritz von Schwind, Hans von Marées, Wilhelm Leibl, Adolf von Menzel, Max Liebermann and Wilhelm Busch to those already quite modernist in their approaches, for example Max Klinger, Ferdinand Hodler, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lovis Corinth and Käthe Kollwitz. At the same time, the show will span the various forms of graphic production from the sketchbook page, the preliminary study for a painting and the large-scale fresco cartoon to the highly developed and coloured drawing conceived as an artwork in its own right. The particular abundance of nineteenth-century drawings from the German-speaking regions in the holdings of the Städel Museum's Department of Prints and Drawings is closely linked with the history of the museum's collecting activities. Above and beyond widely known works, the show also aims to draw the public's attention to less well-known drawings of this epoch. A number of the examples are indicative of another of the Städel Museum's special qualities as an institution. Johann Friedrich Städel not only bequeathed his art collection and library to the people of Frankfurt, but also initiated the establishment of the Städelschule as an academy of contemporary art affiliated with the foundation. A substantial number of the artists represented in the exhibition were associated with the Städelschule as pupils or teachers, among them Philipp Veit, Moritz von Schwind, Victor Müller, Otto Scholderer and Louis Eysen. The qualitative breadth of the Städel Museum holdings is reflected not only in connections with the region and the collection's eventful history, but also in the fact that these holdings encompass representatives of the nineteenth century's most important art centres in the German-speaking part of the world: Berlin, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Munich and Vienna. Wilhelm von Kobell's meticulous and splendidly colourful market scenes rendered in watercolour, Carl Philipp Fohr's romantic landscapes, the strongly contour-oriented compositions by the Nazarenes as well as the large-scale cartoons they executed for their ambitious fresco projects – the variety of intentions and possibilities pursued by artists in the nineteenth century could hardly have been greater. The landscape details by Carl Morgenstern or Ernst Fries (Scattered Boulders and Stunted Tree Trunk), the caricature-like depictions by Wilhelm Busch and the striking portraits by such widely different artists as Friedrich Olivier and Fritz von Uhde are just a few of the many extremes. The diversity of the selection serves to document the changes taking place in the art of draughtsmanship with regard not only to its purpose, but also to its means of expression. A hazy, dream-like landscape by Blechen is impetuously juxtaposed with a three-dimensionally conceived figure by Hans von Marées; an interior rendered with dissolved contours in painterly manner by Wilhelm Leibl encounters a portrait by Stauffer-Berns which betrays its maker's preoccupation with photography. Draughtsmanship was awarded a new and higher status in the nineteenth century. Above all artists of the first half of this era admired the pencil as a means of expression which "cannot be hard enough, cannot be sharp enough" (Adrian Ludwig Richter). They strove to condense the entire content, the entire meaning of the motif in the line, to dematerialize the motif and elevate it to a higher realm. Against the background of a narrowly conceived academic training system, the century bears the marks of the artists' efforts to liberate themselves. Draughtsmanship was an area in which they could try out new ideas and approaches. The Nazarenes in Rome renounced the themes of Neoclassicist art – primarily Greek and Roman mythology – and strove for society's religious renewal through their art. They recorded their monumental Christian pictorial programmes in large-scale cartoons which, as drawn versions of the frescoes, were particularly admired and carefully preserved. Illustration, caricature and the arabesque are recognized in our context as forms of drawing unique to this epoch. In a manner previously unheard of, an entertaining, decorative and amusing facet was now permitted, which often concealed a deeper meaning beneath its surface (Cornelius's Faust illustrations, Ludwig Richter's fairy tale illustrations, Wilhelm Busch's picture stories). From the middle of the century onward, the artist's subjective gaze could concentrate on the pure form of the motif. Artists such as Leibl and Menzel (Study of a Young Woman) spoke out in favour of independent visual perception – "to learn to see is everything!" – and created astonishing excerpts from reality. The human being in everyday life and at work now became a subject in its own right and could be captured in drawing with the immediate freshness of spontaneous observation (Liebermann's Girls Sewing, Hodler's Reapers). Portrait art underwent a heyday in the first half of the century; among other things, artists frequently painted likenesses of their artist friends as well as themselves (Peter Cornelius's portraits of Friedrich Olivier and Theodor Rehbenitz or Friedrich Nerly's self-portrait). In the later decades, the human figure came to be treated ever more abstractly, detached from the narrative context and depicted in the service of a universally valid theme, as exemplified by Hans von Marées (composition study Old Man and Children) and Käthe Kollwitz (Mother and Child). The Städel Musuem was founded in 1815 by the Frankfurt banker and merchant Johann Friedrich Städel. In 1878, a new building, designed according to the Gründerzeit style, was erected on Schaumainkai street, presently the major museum district. By the start of the 20th century, the gallery was among the most prominent German collections of classic Pan-European art; the other such collections open to the public were the Dresden Gallery, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, and the Altes Museum in Berlin. In 1937, 77 paintings and 700 prints were confiscated from the museum when the National Socialists declared them "degenerate art". In 1939, the collection was moved out of Frankfurt to protect it from damage in World War II. The gallery was substantially damaged by air raids in World War II and it was rebuilt by 1966 following a design by the Frankfurt architect Johannes Krahn. An expansion building for the display of 20th-century work and special exhibits was erected in 1990, designed by Gustav Peichl. Small structural changes and renovations took place from 1997 to 1999. Overall, the collection currently comprises some 2,700 paintings, 600 sculptures and more than 100,000 drawings and prints. The rich collection presents an overview of more than 700 years of European art - from the early 14th Century through the Renaissance, Baroque and classical modernism to the present. Highlights of the extensive collection consists of works by Holbein, Cranach the Elder. Albrecht Dürer, Botticelli, Rembrandt and Vermeer, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Beckmann and Paul Klee as well as by Francis Bacon, Small, Serra, Judge and Kippenberger. Visit the museum's website at ... www.staedelmuseum.de

The Freud Museum London opens "Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed" Posted: 08 Mar 2012 11:19 PM PST London.- The Freud Museum London is delighted to announce "Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed", on view at the museum from March 8th through May 27th. The exhibition will show original documents from the artist's recently discovered psychoanalytic writings, as well as drawings and sculptures, in the house of the founding father of psychoanalysis. Following its first showing in Latin America, the exhibition has been re-imagined for the unique setting of the Freud Museum London, which was discussed as a venue by Louise Bourgeois before her death. Appropriately, in the final home of Sigmund Freud and his daughter Anna Freud, this exhibition will explore the artist's complex and ambivalent engagement with the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and lived in the United States from 1938 until her death in 2010. She became one of the best known artists of the 20th century, whose work has inspired a rich commentary from academics and critics alike. What is not generally known is that she also undertook a psychoanalysis spanning three decades.

The Weatherspoon Art Museum to present "Matisse and the Decorative Impulse" Posted: 08 Mar 2012 10:57 PM PST Greensboro, North Carolina.- The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is pleased to present "Matisse and the Decorative Impulse", on view at the museum from April 14th through July 8th. Attracted to bold patterning throughout his career, Henri Matisse explored in both prints and paintings the decorative possibilities of simplified forms and areas of flat surface design mixed with volumetric representation. Matisse's proliferation of patterning served to unify his compositions—and also inspired a succeeding generation of artists. Following the French master's precedent, the artists featured in this exhibition likewise examine the possibilities of robust design and the restorative contemplation of beauty.

The Japan Society Gallery to show "Deco Japan: Shaping Modern Culture, 1920 –1945" Posted: 08 Mar 2012 10:18 PM PST New York City.- The Japan Society is pleased to present "Deco Japan: Shaping Modern Culture, 1920–1945" on view from March 16th through June 10th. A thoroughly Japanese expression of the first truly global design style — Art Deco — came into being in the 20s and 30s, when the luxe and the low, the old and the new, and the East and the West were shaken and stirred into a unique cultural cocktail. The exhibition assembles fine examples of the sophisticated craftsmanship and design one associates with Japan—in ceramics, lacquerware, glass, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, sculpture, painting, and lithography—contextualized by colorful ephemera and goods mass-produced for the modern home.  Some 200 works are drawn from the Levenson Collection, the world's finest private holding of Japanese art and design from the Art Deco period. All bangs, bob, and bright red lips, the modern girl, or moga, is undoubtedly the star of the show.  As the primary subject as well as the primary consumer of Art Deco design in Japan, the moga appears on a vast majority of the works featured in Deco Japan.

The Harn Museum of Art displays Selections from the Debra & Dennis Scholl Collection Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:22 PM PST Gainesville, Florida.- The Harn Museum of Art is proud to present "Vanishing Points: Paint and Paintings from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection", on view at the museum through April 29th. The exhibition showcases contemporary artists who push and explore the boundaries of painting. Twenty-seven international artists defy the limits of painting by applying it to large-scale canvases, sculptures and found objects. These works combine to create a rich and exciting visual experience. The collectors, Debra and Dennis Scholl, have been collecting contemporary art for 33 years. They loaned the works for this exhibition, which represents established and emerging artists who work across the boundaries of specific media, providing proactive and new perspectives on art and culture.

The Royal Academy showcases a Retrospective of Johan Zoffany,RA Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:01 PM PST London.- The Royal Academy is pleased to present "Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed" on view from March 10th through June 10th. This exhibition will constitute a radical re-evaluation of the extraordinary life and career of this brilliant and enigmatic artist. Born near Frankfurt in 1733, Zoffany moved to London in 1760. Adapting to the indigenous art culture and patterns of patronage, he created virtuoso portraits and subject pictures that proved to be highly desirable to a wide range of patrons. His work provides an invaluable and often unique appraisal of key British institutions and edifices: the art academy; the Court; the theatre; the bourgeois family; and the British Empire. This exhibition has been co-organised by the Royal Academy of Arts and the Yale Center for British Art. Of all the major artists at work in eighteenth-century England, none explored more inventively the interstices of Georgian society and the complexities of British imperial rule than Johan Zoffany (1733-1810). The exhibition will feature oil paintings, and a selection of drawings and prints from British and international public and private collections, a number of which have been rarely or never exhibited before. The works testify to the central importance of Zoffany to the artistic culture of eighteenth-century Europe. Zoffany was an astute observer of the many social circles in which he functioned as an artist over the course of his long career. This catalogue investigates his sharp wit, shrewd political appraisal, and perceptive social commentary (including subtle allusions to illicit relationships)—all achieved while presenting his subjects as delightful and sophisticated members of polite society. A skilled networker, Zoffany established himself at the court of George III and Queen Charlotte soon after his arrival in England from his native Germany. At the same time, he befriended the leading actor David Garrick and through him became the foremost portrayer of Georgian theater. His brilliant effects and deft style were well suited to theatricality of all sorts, enabling him to secure patronage in England and on the continent. Following a prolonged visit to Italy he travelled to India, where he quickly became a popular and established member within the circle of Warren Hastings, the governor-general. Zoffany's Indian paintings are among his most spectacular and allowed him to return to England enriched and warmly welcomed. This volume provides a sparkling overview of his finest works. The Royal Academy Collection focuses on British art and artists and predominantly ranges from the 18th century to the present day. Highlights in the collection of paintings and sculpture include major works by Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, JMW Turner, John Constable, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, John Flaxman, JE Millais, Frederic Leighton, Waterhouse, Sargent, Stanley Spencer and David Hockney. The Collection includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, architectural designs, historic books, archives, historic photographs and plaster casts. Founded in 1768, the RA Schools is Britain's oldest art school, having been founded with the Royal Academy in 1768. It is remarkable for being an independent art school that enables students to develop their practice on a three year full time postgraduate fine art course, without having to pay fees. The RA continues to fulfil its founders' aims by mounting a continuous programme of internationally-acclaimed loan exhibitions, supported by extensive education programmes, seminars and debates. The Main Galleries and The Sackler Wing of Galleries host a variety of major exhibitions from all periods and art forms. Recent exhibitions have been Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600 - 1600; Claude Monet in the 20th Century; Citizens and Kings: Portraits in the Age of Revolution, 1760-1830; China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795; From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg; Byzantium 330-1453 and The Real Vincent Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. The RA owns a major collection of works by Royal Academicians past and present together with the oldest and one of the best fine-art libraries in Britain. The Collection has received outstanding bequests such as the Michelangelo Tondo on display in the Sackler Wing of Galleries. Highlights from the Collection can be seen on free guided tours of the John Madejski Fine Rooms. The Academy's art school (it is known as 'The Schools' because each 'School' originally corresponded to a different element in the training of the artists that had to be mastered in a particular order) is the oldest in Britain. Past students include many famous British artists such as William Blake, JMW Turner, Edwin Landseer, JE Millais and, more recently, John Hoyland, Sir Anthony Caro and Sandra Blow. Today, 60 students study drawing, painting and printmaking on a three-year postgraduate course - the only such course currently available in Britain. Visit the academy's website at ... http://www.royalacademy.org.ukects

Gil Elvgren dominates $3+ million Heritage Auctions Illustration Art Sale Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:39 PM PST BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- Collector enthusiasm for the works Gil Elvgren remains undiminished as the great illustrators' work dominated the top 10 lots of Heritage Auctions' $3,000,000+ March 3 Illustration Art Signature® Auction, led by Vision of Beauty (Unveiling), 1947 (Realized: $140,500) and Let's Eat Out, 1967(Realized: $104,500), both of which come from the continually prolific Estate of Charles Martignette. All prices include Buyer's Premium. The auction, featuring 872 lots overall, finished with a final sell-through rate of 98% quantity. The other Elvgren highlights of the auction include "I Hope the Boys Don't Draw the Straws Tonight," Brown and Bigelow calendar illustration, 1946 (realized: $68,500); The Winner (A Fair Catch), Brown and Bigelow calendar illustration, 1957 (Realized: $59,375); On the Fence, 1959 (Realized: $59,375); "Everything Seems Awfully High Around Here!" 1946 (Realized: $54,688) and Pin-up in Front of the Fireplace (Realized: $43,750).

Guercino's "The Samian Sibyl" acquired by the UK on public display in the National Gallery Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:24 PM PST LONDON.- A stunning masterpiece by one of the greatest painters of 17th century Italy has been acquired for the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. Guercino's "The Samian Sibyl" (1651) is a superb example of the Baroque artist's late style, and has been temporarily allocated to the National Gallery, where it will be on display from Thursday 8 March, alongside other 17th century Italian paintings. Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, said: "I'm delighted that Guercino's The Samian Sibyl now belongs to the nation and will shortly be on public display for all to see. This stunning painting, with its fascinating history, is a brilliant example of the success of the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and it is wonderful that this arrangement continues to bring masterpieces like this into public collections."

The Statens Museum for Kunst presents "Vilhem Hammershøi and Europe" Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:23 PM PST Copenhagen.- The National Gallery of Denmark is proud to present "Hammershøi and Europe" on view at the museum through May 20th. This great spring exhibition serves a dual purpose: The exhibition presents the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) and his art as a phenomenon in itself. In addition to this the exhibition takes a new – and investigative – approach to Hammershøi by having his art enter into a dialogue with fellow European artists of his day. Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) has often been regarded as a singular, isolated figure within the Danish and European art scene. The exhibition "Hammershøi and Europe" marks a break with this tradition. It takes the artist down new roads by juxtaposing his works with those of other artists from his era such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Gauguin, and Fernand Khnopff. The European works at the exhibition act as companion pieces and counterpoints to Hammershøi's art and help raise our awareness of the things that are at stake within Hammershøi's sensuous and introspective universe.

SFMOMA Shows Mexican Photography from the Collections of Daniel Greenberg & Susan Steinhauser Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:11 PM PST San Francisco, California.- The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is proud to present "Photography in Mexico: Selected Works from the Collections of SFMOMA and Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser", on view from March 10 through July 8th. Exploring the distinctively rich and diverse tradition of photography in Mexico from the 1920s to the present, the exhibition showcases works by important Mexican photographers as well as major American and European artists who found Mexico to be a place of great artistic inspiration. The exhibition begins with the first artistic flowering of photography in Mexico after the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and goes on to look at the explosion of the illustrated press at midcentury; the documentary investigations of cultural traditions and urban politics that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s; and more recent considerations of urban life, globalization, and issues particular to the U.S.-Mexico border region.

The American Museum in Britain to display "John James Audubon ~ Fur and Feather" Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:56 PM PST Bath, England.- The American Museum in Britain is proud to present "John James Audubon: Fur and Feather" on view at the museum from March 10th through July 1st. John James Audubon is known for his remarkable studies of American birds depicted in their natural habitats. His 'The Birds of North America' (1827-1839), in which he identified 25 new species and a number of new sub-species, is considered to be one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. However, his studies of mammals are less well-known. To complement 'The Compassionate Eye: Birds and Beasts from the American Museum's Print Collection', on view in the Exhibition Gallery, the American Museum in Britain will display twelve folio engravings by this great ornithologist, naturalist and painter, in Claverton Manor at the start of the period room trail. John James Audubon changed forever the way in which nature is illustrated. His painstakingly executed, life-size images underscore his genius and confirm his place as one of the great American artists of the 19th century.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opens Dutch & Flemish Works from the Van Otterloo Collection Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:38 PM PST Boston, Massachusetts.- Approximately 40 works from the acclaimed collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA), from March 10th through June 24th. Included in "Complementary Collections, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and the MFA" will be paintings by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Gerrit Dou, Aelbert Cuyp, Ambrosius Bosschaert, Frans Hals, Hendrick Avercamp, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Salomon van Ruysdael, and Jan Lievens. The pictures, which have been on tour in Holland and the United States, will be integrated into the MFA's holdings of 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings to deepen the viewer's understanding of the work of certain artists and, in some cases, to showcase painters not yet represented in the MFA's collection. These will be displayed in three MFA galleries on the second floor: Northern Europe, 1600–1700 (Dutch/Flemish), Europe 1600-1800 (Robert and Ruth Remis Gallery), and Northern Europe, 1400–1600 (Leo and Phyllis Beranek Gallery). "It is a pleasure to welcome back to the MFA's Dutch and Flemish galleries these superb paintings from the Van Otterloo collection," said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA.  "Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo have been longtime friends and supporters of the Museum and we greatly appreciate their generosity in sharing this group of magnificent works with our visitors." Among the paintings from the Van Otterloo collection on view will be "Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh, aged 62" (1632) by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, which will be shown with the MFA's Rembrandt paintings "The Artist in his Studio" (about 1628) and two oval portraits from 1634—works which together tell the story of the artist's early career. Other complementary paintings will include the Van Otterloos' "Wooded River Landscape" (about 1655–60) by Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael, which will be displayed with the MFA's "Rough Sea" (about 1670) by the artist. Similarly, Gerrit Dou's "Sleeping Dog" (1650) and "Self-Portrait" (about 1665) from the Van Otterloos, together with the MFA's "Old Woman Cutting Bread" (about 1655), show many of the varied aspects of that important artist's work. Also showcased will be several major pictures by artists not represented in the MFA's collection, among them "Orpheus Charming the Animals" (about 1640) by Aelbert Cuyp, "Ships in a Gale on the IJ before the City of Amsterdam" (1666) by Ludolf Bakhuizen, and "Portrait of the De Kempenaer Family (The Margaretha Portrait)" (about 1653) by Jan Baptist Weenix. Other exquisite paintings that supplement the MFA's holdings are "Winter Landscape near a Village" (about 1610–15) by Hendrick Avercamp, "Still Life with Roses in a Glass Vase" (about 1619) by Ambrosius Bosschaert, "Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco" (1633) by Willem Claesz Heda, and "View of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam" (about 1667–70) by Jan van der Heyden. "The quality and condition of these pictures is what makes this the finest collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings in private hands. Each of the major artists of the Dutch Golden Age is illustrated by a representative and beautiful example of his or her work. The Van Otterloo collection, assembled over the past two decades or so, is a perfect complement to the MFA's holdings, amassed through gifts and purchases over the past century and a half," said Ronni Baer, William and Ann Elfers Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, at the MFA. The Van Otterloos are longtime benefactors of the MFA. In addition, Eijk van Otterloo is a former Trustee and a current member of the Art of Europe Visiting Committee. Rose-Marie van Otterloo is a Trustee, chairs the MFA's Collections Committee, and is a member of the Conservation Visiting Committee and Art of Europe Visiting Committee. She is also an MFA Senior Associate. In 2002, the couple lent 18 paintings to the Museum's exhibition The Poetry of Everyday Life: Dutch Painting in Boston. The Van Otterloos have given more than 275 works of art to the MFA, primarily European prints and drawings from the 16th-20th centuries, including five works by Rembrandt.  They also created an endowment for the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Conservator of Paintings. The original MFA opened its doors to the public on July 4, 1876, the nation's centennial. Built in Copley Square, the MFA was then home to 5,600 works of art. Over the next several years, the collection and number of visitors grew exponentially, and in 1909 the Museum moved to its current home on Huntington Avenue. Today the MFA is one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world; the collection encompasses nearly 450,000 works of art. We welcome more than one million visitors each year to experience art from ancient Egyptian to contemporary, special exhibitions, and innovative educational programs. November 2010 marked the opening of The New MFA. Designed by the world-renowned Foster and Partners architects, The New MFA comprises a new wing for Art of the Americas; renovated art of Europe galleries; improved conservation and education facilities; The Linde Family Wing devoted entirely to contemporary art; and a new, larger public space—the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard. Established in 1876, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is one of the oldest and most distinguished art schools in the United States. Through an affiliation with Tufts University established in 1945, the SMFA offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, providing students with a full range of academic resources. Some highlights of the MFA's collection include, Egyptian artifacts, a major collections of French impressionist and post-impressionist works including Paul Gauguin's "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" as well as works by Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and many others. The 18th and 19th century American art collection includes many works by John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. Visit  the museum's website at ... www.mfa.org

The Getty Images Gallery exhibition of Original Dresses & Unique Images of Marilyn Monroe Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:22 PM PST LONDON.- The Getty Images Gallery announced its upcoming exhibition, Marilyn, a collection of imagery and memorabilia to commemorate 50 years since the untimely death of Marilyn Monroe. Showcased in London for the first time, the exhibition will feature a number of original dresses and costumes worn by the Hollywood icon, alongside unique and iconic photographs. Marilyn runs from Friday 9 March to Sunday 23rd May and admission is free. A smaller exhibition will also be on display at Getty Images Gallery in Westfield Stratford City at a slightly later date of 23 March to 3 June 2012.

Museum of Contemporary Art Announces Record-Breaking Exhibition Attendance Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:15 PM PST LOS ANGELES, CA - The Museum of Contemporary Art announced today that the exhibition Art in the Streets, presented in the first year of MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch's tenure at the museum, attracted 201,352 visitors from April 17–August 8, 2011, marking the highest exhibition attendance in the museum's history. Previous attendance records were set with the museum's presentations of Andy Warhol Retrospective (2002) and MURAKAMI (2007), which welcomed 195,000 and 149,323 visitors, respectively. With this exhibition, MOCA expects to double its annual attendance this year to 400,000 visitors. "It is my mission to increase MOCA's attendance and to engage new audiences," said Deitch. "Art in the Streets reflected a wide array of creative disciplines and local communities, and these record-breaking attendance figures go a long way to doubling the museum's attendance this year." The exhibition ran for 81 days, with a daily average attendance of 2,486, which breaks previous daily attendance records. The final week of the show drew 32, 278 visitors, also a museum record. One of the most popular features of the exhibition, and an unprecedented gesture by an artist, was Free Mondays, the first-ever museum sponsorship by British artist Banksy. The program, which provided free exhibition admission on Mondays, drew an average 4,083 visitors each Monday. On closing day, an all-time daily high of 8,424 visitors attended, with lines stretching from the entrance of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA to Alameda Street in Little Tokyo. For the duration of the exhibition, the museum extended its hours on Saturday nights with the support of Ovation, and continued free admission on Thursday evenings, with the support of Wells Fargo. In addition to these high attendance figures, nearly 2,500 new members joined the museum during the 17-week exhibition run. For the first time, MOCA commissioned the design studio of artist Shepard Fairey, who was featured in the exhibition, to create the exhibition's poster and banners. As an extension of the exhibition, three public murals displayed on the exterior walls of the new West Hollywood Library are the result an innovative collaboration between Vanity Fair and Cadillac in partnership with MOCA and the City of West Hollywood. The project, known as "The West Hollywood Library Murals," features work from three of the biggest names working in the visual arts today: Shepard Fairey, RETNA (a.k.a. Marquis Lewis), and Kenny Scharf. The official unveiling is slated for October 12, 2011. The museum currently has eight exhibitions on view at MOCA Grand Avenue, and two exhibitions at the MOCA Pacific Design Center. In conjunction with Pacific Standard Time, the museum will present Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981, opening October 1 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, and Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles will open November 13, on the occasion of the museum's 2011 annual gala, with artistic direction by celebrated performance artist Marina Abramovic. The gala will take place at MOCA Grand Avenue on Saturday, November 12, 2011.

Rare Audubon Bird Book Sold For $11.5m Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:14 PM PST London - A magnificent, rare, copy of John James Audubon's "Birds of America" early- 19th-century  sold  at Sotheby's for 7.3 million pounds ($11.5 million), a record for any printed work.  The 4-volume, "double elephant folio" work was estimated was estimated at 6 million pounds at Sotheby's but fiery enthusiasm from collectors bidding on the phones and in the room drove the price rapidly well beyond pre-sale expectations. The work was bought by London-based art dealer Michael Tollemache. Its price exceeded the $8.8 million paid in March 2000 by Sheikh Saud al-Thani of Qatar at Christie's International for another copy. The Audubon at Sotheby's was part of the sale of Magnificent Books, Manuscripts and Drawings from the Collection of Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh. John James Audubon's "Birds of America" is a rare blend of art, natural history and craftsmanship, unique enough to be the world's most expensive book. Only 119 copies are confirmed to exist, of which 108 are in libraries, universities, and museums. The book contains 1,000 life-sized illustrations of almost 500 breeds and comes from the collection of late Lord Hesketh. It took wildlife artist John James Audubon 12 years to complete his study. The collection of 435 hand-coloured prints, made from engravings of Audubon's illustrations, measures more than 90 cm. by 60 cm. because Audubon wanted to paint the birds life size. Audubon was part frontiersman, part artist, and possessed a rare, almost unequaled ability to observe, catalog and paint the birds he observed in the wild. Experts say the book he produced is unmatched in its beauty and also of considerable scientific value, justifying its stratospheric cost.

The Tyler Museum to Show “Reflections on Water in American Painting” Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:13 PM PST Tyler, Texas.- The Tyler Museum of Art is proud to present "Reflections on Water in American Painting", on view at the museum from December 9th through March 4th 2012. The exhibition combines 50 paintings from the Arthur J. Phelan Collection that together tell a unique history of the country's maritime growth from the grand sailing ships of the U.S. Navy and the river boats of Mark Twain's Mississippi River to the more contemporary pleasure of leisure time spent by the sea. Ranging in date from 1828 to 1945, the exhibition opens with the earliest form of American maritime painting with a selection of grand, academic-style portraits of graceful sailing ships. The exhibition progresses forward in time with waterscapes from the sea to the lakes and rivers of the American heartland, light-flooded impressionist visions of quaint New England seaside towns, and modernist renderings of industrial waterfronts and everyday life on the water. The underlying theme of the exhibition reflects changes in American attitudes towards our most important resource from the endless supply of water and land the first settlers found and the dominant role ships played in fostering growth and trade, to the popularity of second homes and beaches and the change in port facilities from picturesque to industrial in the 20th century. "Reflections on Water in American Painting" is drawn from the collections of Arthur J. Phelan, well-known for his paintings depicting life in the American West. Phelan began collecting nautical paintings in the 1960s. Highlights of his collection and the exhibition include James Bard's meticulously drawn Hudson River steamboat, Frank Benson's marshland with more than 30 rising ducks, William Trost Richards' breaking waves, William Merritt Chase's intense study of the Arno River, and Reginald Marsh's cathedral-like rendering of a New Jersey railway bridge. "I have built a number of collections that started with a chance acquisition of an artwork that reminded me of something in my past," says Phelan. "This group of maritime and coastal scenes arises from time spent at my family's summer home in Connecticut. Our house, between New London and the Connecticut River, was on the water. During World War II, I sailed small sloops at the point where Long Island Sound empties into the Atlantic and where large commercial sailing ships occasionally still passed by. Later, while at Yale [B.A. and M.A. in American history], I was never far from the Sound." In April 1952, the Tyler Service League formed the first Community Arts Committee. Because there was not an art museum within one hundred miles of Tyler, they knew there were many children who had no opportunity to see and experience works of art. "Picture Ladies" from the Tyler Service League took prints to 5th and 6th grade classrooms, rotating the prints once each week. This program continued and in 1960 they purchased the property known as the Jamie T. Smith home and established an art center there. They remodeled the house, designating space for traveling exhibitions and a children's arts and crafts program. In 1965, the League sold this property and set aside funds with the goal of establishing an art museum for Tyler. The Tyler Service League became the Junior League of Tyler, and through its efforts the Tyler Museum of Art was opened in 1971. It is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Trustees. The mission of the Tyler Museum of Art is to exist as an educational and cultural center to enrich the lives of East Texas citizens and visitors through the collection, preservation, study, exhibition, interpretation, and celebration of the visual arts. The Museum is housed today in an award-winning structure nestled on a tree-shaded site, adjacent to the campus of Tyler Junior College. The building contains two major exhibition galleries on the ground floor, the North Gallery and the Bell Gallery. There is also a library, classroom, café, and gift shop. The Tyler Museum of Art's growing permanent collection features over 1200 works including paintings, prints, photographs, and sculpture by artists such as James Surls, Vernon Fisher, Alexander Calder, Terry Allen, and Charles Umlauf. From its inception, the Museum concentrated on exhibitions of 19th and 20th century art and gained recognition for its particular emphasis on the work of emerging contemporary artists from Texas and surrounding states. For the past few years, exhibitions have included a greater variety of styles as the Museum has endeavored to more fully represent the diversity and interests of the community. Recent exhibitions have ranged from 18th and 19th century British teapots from the Norwich Castle Museum in England to 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings. Other exhibits have featured Edward Hopper, Jun Kaneko, and Norman Rockwell, as well as a comprehensive retrospective of the work of the late Louisiana artist Clyde Connell. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.tylermuseum.org

Cheekwood Museum of Art shows The 3rd Annual Exhibition of "Scarecrows" Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:12 PM PST NASHVILLE , TN – Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art is pleased to announce the final list of participants for the third annual exhibition, Scarecrows, on display through November 1, 2009.   This year is bigger than ever with sixty-five fabulous and funny, small and tall, sweet and scary, silly and sophisticated scarecrows lurking along Cheekwood's garden paths. The community was invited to participate by designing one of the many scarecrows that will be displayed.   Scarecrows is generously sponsored by SunTrust. This year we are proud to announce we will be participating in NASHVILLE'S CITY WIDE CELEBRATION OF MARK TWAIN by inviting our participants to go along with the theme (optional).   Cheekwood joins the Nashville Public Library and the entire city of Nashville in celebrating the literary heritage and humor of Mark Twain in this inclusive and cross-discipline artistic celebration of the lively, provoking, and distinctly American writer. Each year, Cheekwood awards the best scarecrows in featured categories: Best Mark Twain theme, Staff Favorite and Member Favorite. "This is a beautiful time of year at Cheekwood ," said Jack Becker, President/CEO of Cheekwood, "and we are thrilled to bring our community and our partner institutions together for an enjoyable outdoor experience." The final list of of some of the participants, along with their titles is:    A New Leaf Preschool and Camp, The Crowing Frog of Calaveras County Adventure Science Center , Scare-odactyl Amy and Ken Walls, "Scare"iachi Boys and Girls Clubs of Rutherford County (Murfreesboro), Jehanne D'Arc – l' e'pouvantail courageux de bonne!" Customs House Museum, Saturday's Punishments Friendship Christian School 5th Grade Art, Crow-Mander Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Toulouse-LauCrow Gilbert / Phillips Family, Cheekwood Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Art Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee Troop 439, Crow White & the Seven Pumpkins Girl Scouts of Middle TN   Troop 1176, Merlin's Hocus Crowcus Kevin Webster, Fetidly Foul Fleer Compel Fowl to Flee McRu, Crow-off to Win Becky's Heart from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer Ms. Jeanine and Ms. Hannah's WCPS 4's Class, The Celebrated Scarecrow Frog of Cheekwood Gardens Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, eCROWnomic proSCAREity: Giving Nashville Something to Crow About Nashville Ballet, Giselle, the Ghostly Wili Nashville Opera, Mad Lucia Nashville Scene, musiCROW Nashville Symphony, Woodwinds, Percussion and Strings!   Oh my! Nashville Zoo, Meerkat Masquerade Old Hickory Village Community Garden , You Are My Sunshine Shadrick &Clark, Crow-w-w-Dee-e-e St. Cecilia Academy Art Club, SCArab Crow SunTrust, Solid Lives Green The Nature Conservancy, Tennessee Chapter, Tennessee's Real Superhero The history of scarecrows dates back 3000 years.   Farmers still use scarecrows all over the world.  During the growing season scarecrows still stand in fields around the world and each fall many communities have scarecrow contests.  Cheekwood's Scarecrows continues to be a much beloved annual fall tradition for Middle Tennessee families! Cheekwood is a 55-acre botanical garden and art museum located on the historic Cheek estate. Cheekwood exists to celebrate and preserve its landscape, buildings, and art and botanical collections, and, through these unique means provide an inspiring place for visitors to explore their connections with art, nature and the environment.  Cheekwood is located at 1200 Forrest Park Drive in Nashville, 8 miles southwest of downtown Nashville.  Open Tuesday – Saturday 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.   For further information call 615-356-8000 or visit www.cheekwood.org .

Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art ~ Form, Balance, Joy at Chicago's MCA Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:11 PM PST CHICAGO, IL (AP).- Colorful mobiles made from boldly painted sheet metal and steel wires will dangle above visitors' heads this summer as the Museum of Contemporary Art displays an exhibit of 60 works by Alexander Calder. But this Calder show, which debuts Saturday, doesn't only feature the artist's abstract pieces in the museum's large, white main-floor gallery. In an equally large gallery across the way, dozens of works by young artists who have a Calderesque style are on view. Exhibition dates 26 June through 17 October, 2010. The idea of juxtaposing Calder's works alongside those from a younger generation came from museum curator Lynne Warren. Warren sought out specific artists who were looking to Calder. Her aim was to assess his influence on contemporary artists. Calder, who died in 1976 at age 78, first took art classes in New York before traveling in the 1920s to France, where he debuted his signature mobile. In 1933, he moved to a Connecticut farm and he continued to work. "We really have the best of both worlds here," Warren said. "We can also learn more about Calder by looking at him through the eyes of contemporary sculptors." Calder was revolutionary in his development as a sculptor, making movable parts in his works and creating what became known as the mobile. The exhibit — "Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy" — remains in Chicago at the museum just east of the city's famous Michigan Avenue through Oct. 17 before it travels to museums in California, North Carolina and Texas. It contains five Calder pieces from the MCA's collection, along with Calder works on loan from more than a dozen institutions around the country, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. There are more than 30 works from the young artists, who range in age from 36 to 43. Their works echo Calder's color, playfulness, engineering and mobility. In the Chicago exhibition, his mobiles hang silently from the gallery ceiling, moving slightly back and forth with the room's air currents. Nathan Carter was 8 years old when he was first introduced to Calder on a trip to the Whitney with his parents. "It was a big moment," the Brooklyn artist, now 39, said. The Chicago exhibit includes four works from Carter, who said he finds a suspension of reality in Calder. "What I really pull from it, it's almost like a childlike space that is a relief from all the ills in the world," Carter said. Artist Kristi Lippire, 36, of Los Angeles, who also has four works in the show, said she was drawn to the movement and shadows created by Calder's work when she first saw it in Paris while in college. She bought the Paris exhibit's catalog, even though it was all in French. "From that moment on, I think I reconsidered how a two-dimensional can function in a three-dimensional space," Lippire said. "It's the fact that they can spin and occupy a volume of space." Lippire describes Calder's pieces as "poetic and physically stable" at the same time. "It's all steel and metal," she said. "Yet it's light as a feather" It may be that simplicity that makes Calder so accessible to many different audiences. Viewers don't need to know a lot about art or the artist himself to appreciate Calder's work, Warren said. "These works can just be looked at and enjoyed," she said. "They will tell you everything you need. The enjoyment is all right there." The Calder show next travels to the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas from Dec. 11 to March 6, 2011; the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, Calif., during summer 2011; and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, N.C., in 2012. Visit MCA at : http://www.mcachicago.org/ Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. / By: Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press Writer

The National Gallery of Art Displays Antico's rare Renaissance Sculptures Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:10 PM PST WASHINGTON, D.C.- Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455–1528), transformed the art of bronze sculpture. His contributions are celebrated in Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes, the first monographic exhibition in the United States devoted to the Italian sculptor and goldsmith. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from November 6, 2011, through April 8, 2012, the exhibition includes some 40 rare works—medals, reliefs, busts, and Antico's renowned statuettes—more than three-quarters of the sculptor's known works. In 2008–2009, the first monographic exhibition on Antico was presented at the restored apartments of Isabella d'Este in the Ducal Palace in Mantua, Italy. The exhibition presents 37 masterpieces by Antico, grouped thematically and installed with related works by fellow Gonzaga court artist Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431–1506), Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430/1435–1516), and others. "The late Robert H. Smith, former president of the Gallery, was one of the keenest admirers and collectors of Antico's work, and his vision and generosity have made the Gallery a leader in the study of Renaissance bronzes," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "The exhibition and accompanying catalogue are dedicated to Bob's memory and serve as a tribute to his leadership as a collector and philanthropist." The Exhibition Antico's earliest known work in the exhibition is an elegant portrait medal representing his patron, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (c. 1479–1482), wearing contemporary clothing. In a later medal, he is portrayed as an ancient figure, wearing antique-style Roman drapery. The exhibition includes Antico's finest statuettes, such as the Seated Nymph (1503, Robert H. and Clarice Smith), a beautiful example of the rich interplay of gilded, silvered, and patinated surfaces. Highlighting the refinement Antico achieved in the modeling of the hair and drapery, this work is identified through surviving letters as a statuette made for the private study of the famous Marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este. The Seated Nymph is reunited, for the first time, with four other bronze statuettes from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna that were also most likely made for Isabella's study: Hercules and Antaeus (1519), Pan (probably after 1519), Atropos (probably after 1519), and Hercules (probably after 1519). Two sculptures from antiquity that served as models for Antico are on view, offering insights into how he interpreted the classical precedents that are at the core of his artistic output. An example of this relationship in the exhibition is the loan from the Hispanic Society of America, New York, of a marble Roman portrait bust of a young man (c. AD 140–150), which is the source for Antico's Young Man (c. 1520, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles). Antico's bronze inventions in turn promoted ancient Roman statuary, such as the Apollo Belvedere, excavated in Rome in 1489, that became widely appreciated through Antico's multiples of small bronzes. As part of the exhibition project, Gallery conservators have undertaken a technical study of Antico's innovative casting and finishing techniques that shed new light on his workshop practices. Several casts of a single model—including two of Hercules, Apollo Belvedere, and Atropos—are on view to illustrate the issues that arise in serializing bronzes. Text panels describe Antico's complex casting technique for statuettes and his methods of patination, gilding, and silvering. The exhibition would not be possible without the cooperation of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, the greatest repository of sculpture by Antico, which lent ten works of art to the exhibition. Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455–1528) Probably born in Mantua, Antico is first documented in 1487. He is known to have been married with children by 1496. Antico spent his entire career in the service of the Gonzaga family. His first patron was Gianfrancesco Gonzaga di Ròdigo, lord of Bozzolo (1446–1496), followed by bishop-elect Ludovico Gonzaga (1460–1511), Gianfrancesco's younger brother. By 1501, Antico was working and living at the court of Gazzuolo, the residence of Gianfrancesco's widow, Antonia del Balzo (c. 1460–1538), and bishop-elect Ludovico. After Ludovico's death, the Marchesa Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) in Mantua became Antico's principal patron. The artist is recorded as restoring antique marble statues in Rome, but his greatest works were commissioned by the Gonzaga family over three generations. The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. During the 1920s, Mr. Mellon began collecting with the intention of forming a gallery of art for the nation in Washington. In 1937, the year of his death, he promised his collection to the United States. Funds for the construction of the West Building were provided by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. On March 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building and the collections on behalf of the people of the United States of America. The paintings and works of sculpture given by Andrew Mellon have formed a nucleus of high quality around which the collections have grown. Mr. Mellon's hope that the newly created National Gallery would attract gifts from other collectors was soon realized in the form of major donations of art from Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Joseph Widener, Chester Dale, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, and Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch as well as individual gifts from hundreds of other donors. Visit : http://www.nga.gov/

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 08 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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