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

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• New National Gallery Exhibition Shows Claude Lorrain's Influence on J M W Turner
• The Von der Heydt Museum Celebrates 'Der Sturm' Magazine & Galerie Der Sturm
• The North Dakota Museum of Art to Show Ethiopian Artist Elias Sime
• The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts to open “Dale Nichols ~ Transcending Regionalism”
• The Newark Museum Shows "Japan and the Art of Leisure"
• Corey Helford Gallery to Show Buff Monster's "Legend of the Pink Cherry"
• The Cafesjian Centre for the Arts Opens "Victor Vasarely ~ The Father of Op-Art"
• Rich Selection of Modern and Contemporary Works at Sotheby's Prints Sale
• The National Gallery of Art opens Solo Exhibition of Robert Bergman's Photographs
• Major Survey of the Work of Charles Burchfield at the Whitney Museum
• Caixa Forum In Barcelona presents "Palladio ~ The Architect (1508-1580)" Exhibition
• Collection of Paul R. Jones at Studio Clout Fine Art Gallery
• The Inaugural Houston Fine Art Fair Opens September 16th
• The Mathaf Gallery Shows Arab Horses by Peter Upton
• ClampArt Hosts Jill Greenberg's : Monkey Portraits
• Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) Exhibits ~ Narrative Figuration Paris ~
• GENRE PAINTINGS AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY of ARTS
• Snap Galleries Presents Michael Putland's Photo Triptychs
• The Columbia Museum of Art Displays Masterpieces of the Hudson River School
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

New National Gallery Exhibition Shows Claude Lorrain's Influence on J M W Turner Posted: 11 Mar 2012 10:15 PM PDT London.- The National Gallery is pleased to present "Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude" on view from March 14th through June 5th. Turner's lifelong fascination with the light filled Italian Landscapes of the artist Claude Lorrain, are the focus of this exhibition, the most in-depth examination to date of Turner's experience of Claude's art. Featuring major loans, including expressive late works by Turner. Turner admired Claude Lorrain most of all the Old Masters and enthused about the quality of light in the artist's Italian landscapes. On his death, Turner left the National Gallery 'Dido building Carthage' and 'Sun rising through Vapour: Fishermen cleaning and selling Fish' in his will on condition that they were hung between two pictures by Claude, which he named as 'The Seaport' ('Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba') and 'The Mill' ('Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca'). This exhibition brings together other closely related works by both artists, many of which share the same theme, giving visitors a chance to appreciate fully the enormous influence Claude's mastery of light and landscape had on Turner from his formative years until the end of his life. 'Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude' introduces visitors to the story of the Turner Bequest and its importance in the history of the National Gallery, with the final room of the show exhibiting archive material dedicated to this relationship. Turner and Lorrain had much in common, both came from humble origins, Lorrain was orphaned at the age of 12, Turner (the son of a barber and wig maker) was often sent to live with his uncle. Both found success at at a relatively early age, travelled widely in Europe, enjoyed long careers and died extremely wealthy men. Turner is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist. He became known as 'the painter of light', because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include water colours, oils and engravings. Turner was born near Covent Garden in London and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1789. His earliest works form part of the 18th-century topographical tradition. He was soon inspired by 17th-century Dutch artists such as Willem van der Velde, and by the Italianate landscapes of Claude and Richard Wilson. He exhibited watercolours at the Royal Academy from 1790, and oils from 1796. In 1840 he met the critic John Ruskin, who became the great champion of his work. Turner became interested in contemporary technology, as can be seen from 'The Fighting Temeraire' and 'Rain, Steam and Speed'. At the time his free, expressive treatment of these subjects was criticised, but it is now widely appreciated. Turner bequeathed much of his work to the nation. The great majority of the paintings are now at Tate Britain. Claude Gellée was born in the Duchy of Lorraine but left around 1612 for Germany, then Rome, where he became a studio assistant to the landscapist Agostino Tassi. He visited Naples and returned to Nancy before settling permanently in Rome around 1628. He sketched in the Roman countryside with Poussin. Ideas from the drawings he made were integrated into oil paintings finished in the studio. Claude recorded his compositions in drawings, in the 'Liber Veritatis' (Book of Truth), now in the British Museum, perhaps to prevent pastiches being sold. Scottish and English aristocrats on the 18th-century Grand Tour bought many of his works; a number in the Collection come from such sources. Claude was influenced by other northern painters who had worked in Rome, such as Elsheimer. He was also influenced by the Bolognese artists Annibale Carracci and Domenichino, who evolved the balanced classical landscapes he used. In his turn Claude exerted considerable influence on landscape artists of the 18th and 19th centuries, as these examples show. The English painter Turner was especially indebted to Claude, and tried to outdo his grand compositions. In the Turner Bequest he directed that two of his works should hang with two of Claude's in the Gallery. The first paintings in the National Gallery collection came from the banker and collector John Julius Angerstein. They consisted of Italian works, including a large altarpiece by Sebastiano del Piombo, "The Raising of Lazarus", and fine examples of the Dutch, Flemish and English Schools. In 1823 the landscape painter and art collector, Sir George Beaumont (1753 – 1827), promised his collection of pictures to the nation, on the condition that suitable accommodation could be provided for their display and conservation. The gift of the pictures was made in 1826. They went on display alongside Angerstein's pictures in Pall Mall until the whole collection was moved to Trafalgar Square in 1838. Initially, the Gallery had no formal collection policy, and new pictures were acquired according to the personal tastes of the Trustees. By the 1850s the Trustees were being criticised for neglecting to purchase works of the earlier Italian Schools, then known as the Primitives. Following the reform of Gallery administration in 1855, the new Director travelled throughout Europe to purchase works for the Gallery. In the 10 years that he was Director, Sir Charles Eastlake ensured that the Gallery's collection of Italian painting expanded and widened in scope to become one of the best in the world. Eastlake's purchases included Botticelli's "Adoration of the Kings" and Uccello's, "The Battle of San Romano". In 1871 the Gallery's collection was broadened yet further, when 77 paintings were bought from the collection of the late Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. These consisted mainly of Dutch and Flemish paintings, and included Hobbema's "The Avenue at Middleharnis". From the very beginning, the National Gallery's collection had included works by British artists. By the mid-1840s, the rooms of the National Gallery had become overcrowded. When Robert Vernon presented a large gift of British works to the Gallery in 1847, they had to be displayed elsewhere: first at Vernon's private house, and later at Marlborough House. Not long afterwards, the artist Joseph Mallord William Turner bequeathed over 1000 paintings, drawings and watercolours. When they came into the collection in 1856, they had to be displayed at South Kensington, along with the Vernon collection, which was moved from Marlborough House. In 1876 the National Gallery was enlarged, and the paintings were returned to Trafalgar Square. Following the completion of the Sainsbury Wing in 1991, the Gallery has a total floor area of 46,396 metres squared - equivalent to around six football pitches. It would be big enough to hold over 2,000 London double-decker buses. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

The Von der Heydt Museum Celebrates 'Der Sturm' Magazine & Galerie Der Sturm Posted: 11 Mar 2012 10:14 PM PDT Wuppertal, Germany.- The Von der Heydt Museum is proud to present "The Storm: The Center of the Avant-Garde", on view at the museum from March 13th through June 10th. 'Der Sturm' (German: The Storm) was a magazine covering the expressionism movement founded in Berlin in 1910 by Herwarth Walden. It ran weekly until 1914 when it became a monthly publication and became a quarterly in 1924 until it ceased publication in 1932. This exhibition explores the history of the magazine and gallery and their influence on European art. The exhibition presents works of art from the great museums of the world, from the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin, the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the National Gallery in Washington and many others.

The North Dakota Museum of Art to Show Ethiopian Artist Elias Sime Posted: 11 Mar 2012 10:00 PM PDT Grand Forks, North Dakota.- Ethiopian artist Elias Simé's exhibition "Eye of the Needle, Eye of the Heart" will open at the North Dakota Museum of Art on Tuesday, March 27th and remain on view through May 31st. Elias Simé will travel from Ethiopia to open his solo exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art in an opening reception for the artist on Tuesday, March 27th. He will be accompanied by anthropologist Meskerem Assegued who co-curated the show with Peter Sellars, the visionary theater, opera, and multi-disciplinary arts impresario.

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts to open “Dale Nichols ~ Transcending Regionalism” Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:54 PM PDT Montgomery, Alabama.- "Dale Nichols: Transcending Regionalism" a major retrospective exhibition will open at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) on March 17th and remain on view through June 10th. Curated by the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art, David City, Nebraska, this exhibition displays a body of work by internationally known painter Dale Nichols. Nichols became famous for his Americana scenes of Midwestern homesteads with picturesque red barns and white snow. These have become the prized works on which Nichols built his career and from which contemporary collectors have built their collections. Dale Nichols (1904–1995), also published under his full name, Dale William Nichols, was an American visual artist whose works included illustrations, paintings, lithographs, and wood carvings. He is best known for his work as a rural landscape painter. However, there is much more to the story of Dale Nichols. "Transcending Regionalism" gives credit to these commemorative artworks and events and describes how these early works explain Nichols' exploration of style. The exhibition was at the Bone Creek museum of Agrarian Art before transferring to the Georgia Museum of Art and now is has reached Montgomery. Paintings dating from 1935 to 1972 establish Nichols not only as the fourth regionalist in a line of great artists, such as Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, but one who transcended the confines of the genre to achieve universal success in art.  This exhibition represents Nichols' years on the farm in Nebraska and manifests those memories in a variety of styles and places. Nichols held firm to his Midwestern roots while he traveled the world in search of adventure and truth. Nichols' work is often classified with that of other regional American landscape artists, including Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. Nichols was born on July 13, 1904 in the small town of David City, Nebraska, and began his career as an artist while studying at The Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, IL. He spent the greater part of the 1920s and 1930s in Chicago, later becoming the Carnegie Professor in Art at the University of Illinois. Nichols would then take a position in 1943 as the Art Editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Upon leaving his post at Britannica, Nichols spent the remainder of his life traveling, splitting the majority of his time between Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, and Guatemala. He died in Sedona, Arizona on October 19, 1995, at age 91. In September 1939, Nichols' was featured in Time Magazine. Said one Time reviewer in that issue, "Subjects he prefers are the prairie landscapes of his youth, usually snowed under. These famed smooth snow effects Artist Nichols gets by laying on his oils in a thin film with watercolor brushes." More recently, his art was published on postcards sold by the United States Postal Service in 1995. Three of Nichols' paintings are now listed in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Museum of Nebraska Art features four of his large oil paintings, along with four lithographs, and four sketches. The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1930 by a group of local artists and patrons under the name of the "Alabama Society of Fine Arts." The Museum's home for the first 29 years was the former Lawrence Street School at the corner of High and Lawrence Streets in downtown Montgomery. In 1960, the Museum became a department of the City of Montgomery and, in 1983, Montgomery County joined the City to support the Museum as an equal partner, sharing the institution's operating costs. Since 1930, the budget of the Museum has grown from $1,000 per year to more than $4 million. The staff has increased from a small volunteer force to over 50 full and part-time employees. Until 1971, the Museum's collections included historical objects, archeological artifacts and art. In that year, the focus of the Museum's collections was redefined and the collecting and preservation of art became the focus of the Museum's mission. The Museum opened in the Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park on September 18, 1988, featuring its collection of American paintings, sculpture and works on paper, with the addition of forty-one historical American paintings given by Blount Incorporated. An interactive gallery, ARTWORKS, was inaugurated to teach about art through interactive exploration and to complement the permanent collection. In 1993, more than 5,000 square feet of gallery space, made possible by a gift from Ida Belle Young, was added in order to increase the Museum's ability to display contemporary and regional art from the permanent collection. The Weil Graphic Arts Study Center, named for Adolph "Bucks" Weil, Jr., an outstanding connoisseur of art and collector of fine prints, was dedicated in May 1998. The Study Center and its ongoing programming and specialized exhibitions focus on the Museum's growing collection of works on paper. The most recent additions to the building, completed in 2006, include the Margaret Berry Lowder Gallery, the Jean K. Weil Gallery, the Williamson Gallery, a second studio, an addition to ARTWORKS, the Wynona W. Wilson Orientation Center, the catering kitchen, the Docent Lounge, and additional office space. Since the Museum moved into Blount Cultural Park, over 3 million visitors have enjoyed the wide range of exhibitions and programs. An unusually successful partnership of public and private commitment to the arts in Montgomery, Alabama has assured the future of one of the South's premier cultural institutions. The Museum's collection includes nearly 4,000 objects, including major collections of American art, Old Master prints, Southern regional art, and decorative arts. In addition to the Permanent Collection, the Museum exhibits six to eight temporary exhibitions each year organized by major museums across the country. Current year exhibitions include: The Art of the Theatre, African American Folk Art, Bessie Potter Vonnoh Sculpture, Patrick Dougherty site-specific sculpture, Montgomery Art Guild, Mia Pearlman Paper Sculpture and Contemporary Alabama Quilts. Visit the museum's website at ... http://mmfa.org

The Newark Museum Shows "Japan and the Art of Leisure" Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:53 PM PDT Newark, New Jersey.- The Newark Museum is proud to present "Poetic Pastimes: Japan and the Art of Leisure" on view at the museum through May 6th. "Poetic Pastimes: Japan and the Art of Leisure" brings to life the Japanese passion for play and it's long-held affinity with nature through more than 100 pieces of fine and decorative arts spanning the last two and a half centuries. The pursuit of pleasure and self-cultivation has been central to Japanese life and culture since the development of an aristocratic court life in the classical Heian period (794–1185).  Leisure activity across social classes was elevated to a refined art form based on highly ritualized behavior and mediations on nature and the transition of seasons—the migration of birds, blossoming flowers and trees, autumn foliage under a harvest moon and brances laden with snow.

Corey Helford Gallery to Show Buff Monster's "Legend of the Pink Cherry" Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:38 PM PDT Los Angeles, California. On Saturday, April 14th, Los Angeles street artist Buff Monster returns to Corey Helford Gallery to unveil the "Legend of the Pink Cherry," his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery and his most ambitious to date. there will be an opening reception on Saturday, April 14th from 7 to 10 pm, and the exhibition will remain on view through May 5th. Internationally known for his super bright, happy, and bold imagery, the paintings in the main gallery will celebrate the last eleven years of Buff Monster's career, culminating in a timeless epic tale of good vs. evil. For the "Legend of the Pink Cherry," the artist draws inspiration from Renaissance paintings. Buff Monster will introduce his latest creamy creation, a soft serve ice cream cone with human-like arms and legs. Each acrylic-on-wood panel piece in the show is delicately rendered with airbrush, a first for the artist. Buff Monster's narratives are more character and figure-based than before, and the series of paintings created for the exhibition will also reveal a new direction in Buff Monster's career. "I've always thought of my work as inspired by and representative of Los Angeles—Hollywood more specifically. Los Angeles is the birthplace of Buff Monster. Part of why I feel compelled to tie everything together is that I feel that this chapter of my life and my work is coming to an end, and I'm looking to the future. It's time to go East."

The Cafesjian Centre for the Arts Opens "Victor Vasarely ~ The Father of Op-Art" Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:22 PM PDT Yerevan, Armenia.- The Cafesjian Centre for the Arts is proud to present "Victor Vasarely: Optical perspectives" on view at the museum from September 10th. A selection of 44 prints from the Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection will represent various periods of Vasarely's legacy. Vasarely was recognized the founding father of op-art. Defining the principle of unity of color and form, Vasarely creates the plastic alphabet, the units of which, through reconfigurations and permutations generate endless creative combinations. By developing the plastic alphabet into the universal language of art Victor Vasarely aspires to make art accessible to all, to contribute to the harmonious development of art and society. Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art. His work entitled 'Zebra', created in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art. Vasarely was born in Pécs and grew up in Pieš'any and Budapest where in 1925 he took up medical studies at Budapest University. In 1927 he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Podolini-Volkmann Academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled at Sándor Bortnyik's workshop, then widely recognized as the center of Bauhaus studies in Budapest. Victor Vasarely became a graphics designer and a poster artist during the 1930s who combined patterns and organic images with each other. Vasarely left Hungary and settled in Paris in 1930 working as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies Havas, Draeger and Devambez (1930–1935). His interactions with other artists during this time were limited. After the Second World War, he opened an atelier in Arcueil, a suburb some 10 kilometers from the center of Paris (in the Val-de-Marne département of the Île-de-France). In 1961 he finally settled in Annet-sur-Marne (in the Seine-et-Marne département). Vasarely eventually went on to produce art and sculpture mainly focused around the area of optical illusion. Over the next three decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art, working in various materials but using a minimal number of forms and colours. During this period, Vasarely experimented with cubistic, futuristic, expressionistic, symbolistic and surrealistic paintings without developing a unique style. Afterwards, he said he was on the wrong track. He exhibited his works in the gallery of Denise René (1946) and the gallery René Breteau (1947). Finally, Vasarely found his own style. The overlapping development are named after their geographical heritage. Denfert refers to the works influenced by the white tiled walls of the Paris Denfert - Rochereau metro station. Ellipsoid pebbles and shells found during a vacation in 1947 at the Breton coast at Belle Île inspired him to the Belles-Isles works. Since 1948, Vasarely usually spent his summer months in Gordes in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. There, the cubic houses led him to the composition of the group of works labelled Gordes/Cristal. He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view. From his Gordes works he developed his kinematic images, superimposed acrylic glass panes create dynamic, moving impressions depending on the viewpoint. In the black-white period he combined the frames into a single pane by transposing photographies in two colours. Tribute to Malevitch, a ceramic wall picture of 100 m² adorns the University of Caracas, Venezuela which he co-designed in 1954 with the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is a major work of this period. Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Jesús Rafael Soto, Jean Tinguely were exhibited at the Denise René gallery under the title Le Mouvement (the motion). Vasarely published his Yellow Manifest. Building on the research of constructivist and Bauhaus pioneers, he postulated that visual kinetics (plastique cinétique) relied on the perception of the viewer who is considered the sole creator, playing with optical illusions. On 2 March 1959, Vasarely patented his method of unités plastiques. Permutations of geometric forms are cut out of a coloured square and rearranged. He worked with a strictly defined palette of colours and forms (three reds, three greens, three blues, two violets, two yellows, black, white, gray; three circles, two squares, two rhomboids, two long rectangles, one triangle, two dissected circles, six ellipses) which he later enlarged and numbered. Out of this plastic alphabet, he started serial art, an endless permutation of forms and colours worked out by his assistants. (The creative process is produced by standardized tools and impersonal actors which questions the uniqueness of a work of art.) In 1963, Vasarely presented his palette to the public under the name of Folklore planetaire. The Tribute to the hexagon series consists of endless transformations of indentations and relief adding color variations, creating a perpetual mobile of optical illusion. In 1965 Vasarely was included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "The Responsive Eye," created under the direction of William C. Seitz. His Vega series plays with spherical swelling grids creating an optical illusion of volume. In October 1967, designer Will Burtin invited Vasarely to make a presentation to Burtin's Vision '67 conference, held at New York University. On 5 June 1970, Vasarely opened his first dedicated museum with over 500 works in a renaissance palace in Gordes (closed in 1996). A second major undertaking was the Foundation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, a museum housed in a distinct structure specially designed by Vasarely. It was inaugurated in 1976 by French president Georges Pompidou. Also, in 1976 his large kinematic object Georges Pompidou was installed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely Museum located at his birth place in Pécs, Hungary, was established with a large donation of works by Vasarely. In the same decade, he took a stab at industrial design with a 500-piece run of the upscale Suomi tableware by Timo Sarpaneva that Vasarely decorated for the German Rosenthal porcelain maker's Studio Linie. In 1982 154 specially created serigraphs were taken into space by the cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien on board the French-Soviet spacecraft Salyut 7 and later sold for the benefit of UNESCO. In 1987, the second Hungarian Vasarely museum was established in Zichy Palace in Budapest with more than 400 works. He died in Paris on 15 March 1997. The Cafesjian Center for the Arts is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary art to Armenia and presenting the best of Armenian culture to the world. Inspired by the vision of its founder, Mr. Gerard L. Cafesjian, the Center offers a wide variety of exhibitions, the majority of which are derived from Mr. Cafesjian's own extensive collection of contemporary art. The building that now houses the Cafesjian Center for the Arts is well known to the Armenian people, especially those living in its capital city of Yerevan. Known as "The Cascade," the complex was originally conceived by the architect Alexander Tamanyan (1878–1936). Tamanyan wanted to connect the northern and central parts of the city with a vast green area of waterfalls and gardens, cascading down one of the city's highest promontories. Unfortunately, the plan remained largely forgotten until the late 1970s, when it was revived by Yerevan's Chief Architect, Jim Torosyan. Torosyan's conception of the Cascade included Tamanyan's original plan but incorporated new ideas that included a monumental exterior stairway, a long indoor shaft containing a series of escalators, and an intricate network of halls, courtyards, and outdoor gardens embellished with numerous works of sculpture bearing references to Armenia's rich history and cultural heritage. Construction of Torosyan's design of the Cascade was launched by the Soviets in the 1980s but abandoned after the Armenian earthquake of 1988 and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. With independent rule and the transition to democracy, Armenia entered a period of severe economic hardship, and the Cascade remained a neglected relic of the Soviet era for more than a decade. Mr. Cafesjian, working with the City of Yerevan and the government of the Republic of Armenia, initiated its recent revitalization in 2002. Over the next seven years, virtually every aspect of the monument was renovated, and much of it completely reconstituted into a Center for the Arts bearing the name of its principal benefactor. Visit the Cafesjian Center for Arts website at ... http://www.cmf.am

Rich Selection of Modern and Contemporary Works at Sotheby's Prints Sale Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:21 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's autumn auction of Prints will be held in New York on 29 October, 2009, and will offer collectors a broad selection of modern and contemporary works from the 19th century to present day. Works from the sale, estimated to bring in excess of $7.8 million, will be on view at Sotheby's New York galleries beginning 25 October at 1 pm. The sale will also include Richard Diebenkorn's 'Green', a large scale etching and aquatint from 1986 (est. $200/300,000).

The National Gallery of Art opens Solo Exhibition of Robert Bergman's Photographs Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:20 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC.- In the first solo exhibition of American photographer Robert Bergman (b. 1944), approximately 30 color portraits will display the artist's exceptional ability to reveal the singular nature of each of his subjects and their common humanity. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from October 11, 2009, through January 10, 2010, "Robert Bergman: Portraits, 1986–1995" presents everyday people the artist encountered in the streets of the United States during his travels from 1985 to 1997. The portraits were previously published in Bergman's book, "A Kind of Rapture," with an introduction by Toni Morrison and afterword by art historian Meyer Schapiro.

Major Survey of the Work of Charles Burchfield at the Whitney Museum Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:19 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art focuses on the work of the visionary artist Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) in an exhibition curated by acclaimed sculptor Robert Gober. Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield features more than one hundred watercolors, drawings, and paintings from private and public collections, as well as selections from Burchfield's journals, sketches, scrapbooks, and correspondence. Organized by the Hammer Museum, in collaboration with the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, the exhibition provides the most comprehensive examination to date of an underappreciated modernist master. Whitney senior curatorial assistant Carrie Springer is overseeing the installation in the third-floor Peter Norton Family Galleries, where it will be on view from June 24 through October 17, 2010. Born in 1893 in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, and raised nearby in Salem, Burchfield spent most of his adult life in upstate New York, in Buffalo, where he moved in 1921, and the neighboring suburb of Gardenville. Working almost exclusively in watercolor on paper, his principal subject was his experience of the natural world, which led him to create deeply personal landscapes that are often imbued with highly expressionistic light. His works quiver with color and the almost audible sounds of humming insects, rustling leaves, bells, birds, and vibrating telephone lines. In 1945 he noted, "It is as difficult to take in all the glory of a dandelion, as it is to take in a mountain, or a thunderstorm." Contemporary artist Robert Gober has curated previous exhibitions, most notably The Meat Wagon at the Menil Collection in Houston, in 2005, drawn from the diverse selection of works in the Menil's holdings. With this exhibition, Gober – who discovered that his interest in Burchfield was shared by Hammer Director Ann Philbin and coordinating curator/Hammer Deputy Director Cynthia Burlingham – is for the first time curating a large-scale monographic show of another artist's work. The exhibition is arranged chronologically, with each room presenting a distinct phase of Burchfield's career. Exploring both physical and psychological terrain, Gober has augmented the selection of Burchfield's works with extensive material that sheds light on the artist's thoughts about his work and artistic practice. Burchfield (with much help from his wife, Bertha) left a trove of well-maintained sketches, jottings, notebooks, journals, and ephemera spanning his entire career. This material is now part of the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College. The title of the show, Heat Waves in a Swamp, comes from the title of a Burchfield watercolor. Gober writes of Burchfield in his catalogue introduction: "He loved swamps and bogs and marshes. He loved all of nature and was torn as a young man between being an artist and being a nature writer. He liked nothing more than to paint while literally standing in a swamp. Liked the mosquitoes and the rain and the decay of vegetation. I felt early on that this title had a metaphorical sweep that captured Burchfield's enthusiasms at their deepest and best." The exhibition begins with work Burchfield created in 1916 while living in Salem, Ohio, and follows his career with particular attention to transformative and reflective moments in his life and work. Among the earliest works is a 1917 sketchbook entitled "Conventions for Abstract Thoughts," which includes a series of symbolic drawings depicting human emotions. The abstract forms in these drawings would reappear in Burchfield's work for years to come. A room is dedicated to a series of works that were shown in a 1930 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Charles Burchfield: Early Watercolors, 1916 to 1918, the first show at MoMA devoted to a single artist. Correspondence between Burchfield and MoMA's legendary curator/director Alfred Barr will be shown alongside the work. As Gober notes, "Burchfield's complex communion with nature, as seen in these early watercolors, would resurface later, becoming the inspirational touchstone for the work of the last two decades of his life." From 1921 to 1929 Burchfield worked as a designer at the M. H. Birge & Sons wallpaper factory in Buffalo. His designs, like all his art, were based in nature and reveal such diverse influences as Japanese woodcuts by Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige, Chinese scroll paintings, and the illustrations of Arthur Rackham. Burchfield's work as a wallpaper designer during the 1920s is featured in a room that includes watercolors from the same period hanging on walls covered in a reprint of one of his designs. When the opportunity arose to show his paintings at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, Burchfield gave up his job and decided to paint full time. Burchfield accepted commissions from Fortune magazine to paint railroads in Pennsylvania, sulphur mines in Texas, and coal mines in Virginia. Many of his paintings of this period deal with the rural and industrial worlds around him and present these worlds in a less fantastical way than in his earlier watercolors. By the mid-1930s, Burchfield was celebrated for his realist depictions of the American landscape. In 1943 Burchfield faced a creative crisis as he was approaching fifty and the country was in the middle of World War II. At that point he began to look back at his earlier watercolors and to expand them. The exhibition reunites two pivotal paintings, both completed in 1943 within a month of each other, although one was begun in 1917 and the other in 1934. These two paintings, The Coming of Spring and Two Ravines, were the works that marked Burchfield's transition from crisis to the extraordinary achievements of his last two decades. Gober notes, "He felt that his work had lost the intensity of his early watercolors, and in his struggle to make works that he felt reflected the best possibilities for his creativity, he took early drawings and physically expanded them to make these two landmark works." Although he struggled with health problems during the 1950s and 60s, until his death in 1967, Burchfield created some of his most vibrant and fascinating works toward the end of his life. As Gober writes, "The works from this period of Burchfield's life are immersed in what he perceived as the complicated beauty and spirituality of nature and are often imbued with visionary, apocalyptic, and hallucinatory qualities. In these large, late watercolors, Burchfield was able to execute with grace and beauty many of the painting ideas that he had developed as a young man…And in so doing, he transformed himself and his practice, producing one of the rarest events in the life of any artist: great art in old age." Visit The Whitney Museum of American Art at : http://www.whitney.org/

Caixa Forum In Barcelona presents "Palladio ~ The Architect (1508-1580)" Exhibition Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:18 PM PDT BARCELONA.- Caixa Forum in Barcelona presents Palladio, The Architect (1508-1580), on view through September 6, 2009. Palladio was not only one of the greatest Italian architects; he was also a practitioner whose work has continued to resonate down five centuries. Active in Vicenza, Venice and the Veneto region, he crafted a new architectural language derived from classical sources yet shaped to fulfill the functional demands and aesthetic aspirations of his own age. His impressive oeuvre includes public buildings and churches; however, it was his town palaces and country villas that influenced subsequent generations of European and American architects. Large-scale models, computer animations, original drawings, books and paintings will present the full range of this exceptional architect's output and his legacy, demonstrating why Palladio's name has been synonymous with architecture for 500 years.

Collection of Paul R. Jones at Studio Clout Fine Art Gallery Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:17 PM PDT ATLANTA, GA.- Studio Clout Fine Art Gallery is showing a segment of The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art, which, in its entirety, is one of the largest and most comprehensive art collections of 20th century African-American visual art in the world. The art collection originated from Jones' discovery that many art museums he had visited held few works by African-American artists. Throughout the years, Jones' home in Atlanta became too small to hold all his collected art work and after much consideration, Jones decided to donate major portions of his massive art collection to The University of Delaware and The University of Alabama.

The Inaugural Houston Fine Art Fair Opens September 16th Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:16 PM PDT Houston, TX.- Anticipation is building throughout Houston and the international art world as the Houston Fine Art Fair puts the finishing touches on its inaugural launch, taking place on September 16th at the George R. Brown Convention Center. For three days, until September 18th, 81 galleries from 13 countries and more than 30 cultural, media and corporate sponsors will fascinate visitors with thousands of works of art and related events. Expectations are high, parties are planned, top collectors are preparing their lists—and Houstonians can't wait to welcome their first ever international art fair. In addition to an outstanding VIP Program and on-site interviews and panel discussions, HFAF organizers are eager to unveil a stellar line-up of galleries that will present an unprecedented mix of modern and contemporary works of art. Converging in Houston from Latin America and across the US and Europe, a unique blend of international talent has been assembled to provide collectors of all levels with both highly sought-after and emerging talent. Amongst the highlights of the fair will be 20th century Latin American masters, including Leon Ferrari at Pan American Art Projects, Wifredo Lam at Cernuda Arte, Jose Pedro Costigliolo at Sammer Gallery, Mira Schendel at Arevalo Gallery, Carlos Cruz-Diez at Sicardi Gallery, Jesus Rafael Soto at Art Nouveau Gallery, and Edgar Negret at Luis Perez Galeria, to name just a few. Latin American contemporary masters and rising stars featured include, Mauro Giaconi at Dot Fiftyone, Graciela Sacco at Diana Lowenstein Fine Art, Artur Lescher at Alejandra von Hartz, Hugo Lugo at Ginocchio Galeria, Milton Becerra at Hardcore Contemporary Art Space, Pablo Zuleta Zahr at Richard Levy Gallery, RES at Yam Gallery, and Colombian artist Sair Garcia's paintings about exodus and displacement, created with petroleum at ArteConsultores/Beatriz Esguerra. Asian and non-Western works include Egyptian artist Sherin Guirguis at Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern, Syrian painter Ahmad Moualla at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Tianhong Sheng at Schuebbe Projects, Chul-Hyun Ahn at C. Grimaldis Gallery and Taiwanese artist Long-Bin Chen at NOW Contemporary Art. A unique accent to this fair is Santa Fe's Tai Gallery, featuring Japanese bamboo art and Douglas Dawson Gallery from Chicago, presenting contemporary and historic art objects from Africa, Asia and the Americas. Notable contemporary masters and emerging artists include German photographer Michael Wesely at Oscar Cruz Galeria, Robert Rauschenberg's last print series at ULAE, Sarah Frost's site-specific wall construction made of discarded computer keyboards at William Shearburn Gallery, Julie Mehretu at Hollis Taggart Galleries, currency collages by Mark Wagner at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, Susan Graham's hip porcelain sculptures at Schroeder Romero & Shredder, Giuseppe Penone at Haunch of Venison, and Canadian-born Christian Eckart at McClain Gallery, among hundreds of others. Photography is featured throughout the fair including Sebastiao Salgado at Peter Fetterman Gallery, William Eggleston will be on view at David Lusk Gallery and Colton & Farb Gallery presents KIWI Arts Group's newly published photographs by William Kennedy of Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. The Houston Fine Art Fair aspires to reflect Houston's sophisticated and diverse collecting practices, where arts enthusiasts will encounter an international cross-section of works in all media, from post-war to the present. Some 80 distinctive exhibitors from across the US, Latin America and Europe are participating in the fair, featuring modern and contemporary masters, mid-career and emerging artists from around the globe. HFAF will also feature on-site installations, special projects, and an exciting program of panel discussions designed for both novice and experienced collectors. Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.houstonfineartfair.com

The Mathaf Gallery Shows Arab Horses by Peter Upton Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:15 PM PDT LONDON - The Mathaf Gallery is delighted to host an exhibition of paintings by Peter Upton – artist, author and international judge of the Arab horse.  Peter has been exhibiting his paintings at the Mathaf for a number of years, building up a devoted following of collectors eager to acquire his latest works.  In 2005 he contributed to a joint show with his twin brother Roger, and nephew Mark – Out of the Desert - The Uptons: An Artistic Dynasty.  However, this will be his first one man exhibition at the Mathaf and will consist of some 20 oil paintings and 10 watercolors.  On exhibition 14 - 28 June, 2007.

ClampArt Hosts Jill Greenberg's : Monkey Portraits Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:14 PM PDT New York City - ClampArt is pleased to announce "Monkey Portraits" by Jill Greenberg, the artist's first solo show in New York City.  The exhibition coincides with the release of the Greenberg's wonderful monograph of the same title from Bulfinch Press.  On exhibition October 12th – November 11th, 2006.

Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) Exhibits ~ Narrative Figuration Paris ~ Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:13 PM PDT VALENCIA, SPAIN - Narrative Figuration was never proclaimed as a movement as such. It grew out of the initiative of art critic Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and artists Bernard Rancillac and Hervé Télémaque who worked together in July 1964 to set up the exhibition "Mythologies quotidiennes" at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. Over these years, Narrative Figuration set itself apart from the social neutrality of the Paris school and the formalism of American Pop Art and denounced all forms of alienation in contemporary life. At a time when Pop Art was triumphing at the Venice Biennale (Rauschenberg was awarded first prize for painting in June 1964) and generally making its presence felt in Europe, "Mythologies quotidiennes" brought 34 artists (Arroyo, Bertholo, Bertini, Fahlström, Klasen, Monory, Rancillac, Recalcati, Saul, Télémaque, Voss…) who, like their American counterparts, put contemporary society and its images at the core oftheir work. A few months later, the Salon de la Jeune Peinture was disrupted by the mass arrival of young artists (Aillaud, Arroyo, Cueco, Recalcati, Tisserand…) who had set themselves the goal of making art once more a tool for social change. Narrative figuration was a powerful force, attracting painters from very different artistic and geographical backgrounds in the 1960s (those mentioned above, but also Adami, Erró, Fromanger, Stämpfli, la Coopérative des Malassis…) who, working from images taken from photography or film, advertising, comic strips or even classical painting, produced works which twisted the original significance of these images and gave them unexpected meanings, suggested other narratives and highlighted their political implications.  The effervescence of the late sixties led the most militant painters in the movement to take an active part in politics and, in particular, in the events of May '68 in Paris. Exhibition: Bringing together over one hundred paintings, objects or films, "Narrative Figuration Paris, 1960-1972" is an exploration of the sources of the figurativerevival which marked the history of art in the sixties in Paris. The exhibition, which can be seen as the best way to remind the public of the inventiveness of these founding years, reconstitutes the creative environment of these works, which were sparked by the cultural and social ferment of the sixties. Following a dynamic circuit focusing on the major themes common to most of these artists, the exhibition is divided into clearly separate sections. 1) The Origins of Narrative Figuration (Prémices) 2) The exhibition "Mythologies quotidiennes" (1964) 3) Objects and Comic Strips 4) The Art of diversion 5) Painting is a detective novel 6) A politic figuration.

GENRE PAINTINGS AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY of ARTS Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:12 PM PDT   LONDON - This new display in the John Madejski Fine Rooms at the Royal Academy of Arts is a social commentary exploring the rich variety of paintings that reflect common themes of life from the 18th to 20th centuries. The exhibition consists of 34 pieces from the Academy's own collection – most of which are Academicians' Diploma Works and represent everyday life dating back to the 1770s. On exhibition until 7 December, 2008.

Snap Galleries Presents Michael Putland's Photo Triptychs Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:11 PM PDT LONDON.- Snap Galleries hosted a solo show for Michael Putland in their Birmingham gallery in 2005 which was a great success, and now they are working with Michael again on this new exhibition of triptychs. In this new exhibition, Michael Putland presents a collection of work from his extensive 1970's and 80's photographic archives in a stunning new format, combining sets of three images as triptychs, presenting three individual frames as a single artwork. The exhibition is on view from April 13th through May 21st, 2011.

The Columbia Museum of Art Displays Masterpieces of the Hudson River School Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:10 PM PDT Columbia, South Carolina.- The Columbia Museum of Art is proud to be hosting forty-five magnificent paintings from the rich collection of the New-York Historical Society, which will be on view in "Nature and the Grand American Vision: Masterpieces of the Hudson River School Painters" at the museum from November 19th through April 1st 2012. Though the New-York Historical Society seldom loans individual works, these iconic works of 19th-century landscape painting are traveling on a national tour for the first time and are circulating to four museums around the country as part of the Historical Society's traveling exhibitions program 'Sharing a National Treasure'. The Columbia Museum of Art is the first stop in the South. During the second quarter of the nineteenth century, a loose-knit group of artists and writers — who collectively became known as the "Hudson River School" — forged the first American landscape vision and literary voice. That vision, still widely influential today, saw the natural world as a source of spiritual renewal and an expression of an emerging national identity. It was first expressed through the majestic scenery of the Hudson River Valley. Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is the leading artist associated with the Hudson River School, and is widely credited as being its founder. An English émigré, Cole arrived with his family in Ohio in 1818, where he learned the elements of painting from an itinerant portrait painter. Earning few commissions for portraits, Cole gradually moved east. He settled in New York City in 1825, and shortly afterwards sailed up the Hudson River for the Catskill Mountains, making sketches along the banks of the Hudson. Cole produced a series of paintings which were spotted in a bookstore window by three influential artists, garnering him instant acclaim and widespread commissions. Cole's style was marked by dramatic forms and vigorous technique, reflecting the British aesthetic theory of the Sublime, or fearsome, in nature. This technique, virtually unprecedented in American landscape, expressed a growing appreciation of the wild native scenery which was explored throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. "Nature and the Grand American Vision" explores the evolution of the Hudson River School through four thematic sections. Within these groupings, we see how Cole and his followers visually conveyed powerful ideas and ideals about nature, culture, religion, and history to a fledging Republic, one still searching for a collective national identity. The first section of the exhibition, 'The Grand American Tour', features paintings of the Catskill, Adirondack, and White Mountain regions, long celebrated for their scenic beauty as seen in such natural wonders as Lake George and Niagara Falls, as well as man-made historic sites. These were the destinations that attracted both artists and travelers. The second section, 'American Artists Afield', contains works made during the latter half of the century by Hudson River School artists who sought inspiration further from home. The paintings of Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill and Martin Johnson Heade illustrate how these painters embraced the role of artist-explorer, thrilling audiences with images of the awe-inspiring landscape of the American West, Yosemite Valley, and tropical South America. 'Dreams of Arcadia: Americans in Italy' features luminous canvases wrought by Thomas Cole, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sanford Robinson Gifford, and others celebrating Italy as the center of the Old World and the principal destination for Americans on the Grand Tour through Europe. Viewed as the storehouse of Western culture, Italy was a living laboratory of the classical past, offering a survey of the artistic heritage from antiquity. It also provided a striking contrast to the untamed wilderness of North America. In the final section of the exhibition, 'Grand Landscape Narratives', all of these ideas converge in Thomas Cole's epic five-painting series, The Course of Empire (c. 1834-1836). Through this sweeping visual narrative, Cole traces the evolution of a great civilization from an untamed landscape to its ultimate decay into ruin. Through these iconic works — equally heralded at their time of creation as they remain today — Cole provides a cautionary tale and explores the tension between Americans' deep veneration of the wilderness and their equally ardent celebration of progress. That celebration of progress ultimately would grind to a halt nearly a quarter-century later, as the nation became engulfed by the flames of Civil War. In the years following the war, the aesthetic orientation of the United States abruptly shifted from Great Britain to the Continent, especially France. The appeal of figure painting grew somewhat at the expense of landscape, but the face of landscape painting itself altered with the influence of the softer, more intimate French Barbizon-style. By the turn of the twentieth century — perhaps coincident with the deaths of Church and Bierstadt in 1900 and 1902, respectively — the Hudson River School had all but vanished. The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina has a collection of European and American fine and decorative art that spans several centuries. The museum building was transformed from an urban department store into a light-filled space with 25 galleries. The museum has a Renaissance and Baroque collection – a gift from the Samuel Kress Foundation, which features Old Master paintings, many of which were commissioned by churches in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Nativity scenes, Madonna and Child paintings, and scenes from the Old and New Testaments are featured in the museum's upstairs galleries. The museum also has a large and rare Nativity fresco transferred to canvas by Sandro Botticelli, a pre-eminent Florentine Renaissance artist. Also in the museum's permanent collection are "The Seine at Giverny" by Claude Monet and art glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The decorative arts holdings at the museum number around 3,000 objects, ranging in date primarily between the 17th and 20th centuries. Some Asian objects in the Turner Collection date back to the T'ang Dynasty. Holdings include silver, Chinese export porcelain, contemporary art glass, American furniture, textiles and sculpture. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.columbiamuseum.org

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 11 Mar 2012 07:09 PM PDT 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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