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

---

• TEFAF Maastricht Celebrates its Silver Jubilee March 16th through 25th
• The video art & photography of Neil Goldberg at the Museum of the City of New York
• London's Barbican Centre at 30 ~ Creating the arts centre of the future
• The Michener Art Museum shows New York Cartoonist Sylvia Getsler
• The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture opens Retrospective of Self-taught Artist Margarete Bagshaw
• Martin Lawrence Gallery exhibition marks the 25th Anniversary of Warhol's death
• Sotheby’s will auction Photographs from the legendary Buhl Collection in New York
• Meem Gallery features the art of Mohammed Melehi with Ahmed Cherkaoui & Jilali Gharbaoui
• P.P.O.W. Gallery to Present "George Boorujy ~ Blood Memory"
• The Museum of Modern Art in Wakayama Presents its Spring Collection
• The Sammlung Essl at Klosterneuberg ~ Austria′s Biggest Private Collection of Contemporary Art ~ Toured By AKN Editor
• Swann Galleries 4th African-American Auction
• Jeff Koons Unveil His Psychedelic BMW Art Car at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
• Carvings By Father & Daughter Nairi And Larisa Safaryans At The Silvana Gallery
• The Walt Disney Company to Acquire Marvel Entertainment for $ 4 Billion
• Our Editor Views Many Of Max Ernst Masterpieces at The Max Ernst Museum Brühl, Germany
• Baltimore Museum of Art honors Edgar Allan Poe's Bicentennial with Macabre Art
• The Emmanuel Fremin Gallery to Exhibit Surrealist Photographer Giuseppe Mastromatteo
• Banksyyy ~ Best of British now an American Arts Hero ?
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

TEFAF Maastricht Celebrates its Silver Jubilee March 16th through 25th Posted: 12 Mar 2012 10:33 PM PDT Maastricht, Netherlands.- Exhibitors at TEFAF Maastricht will be bringing an extraordinary array of rare and beautiful works of  art as The European Fine Art Fair celebrates its Silver Jubilee at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) in the southern Netherlands from March 16th through 25th.  The renowned international specialists who exhibit at TEFAF always keep their best works of art back to show but this year they will be pulling out all the stops as TEFAF marks the 25th anniversary of its foundation. It is this insistence on quality that since 1988 has transformed TEFAF from a relatively small-scale event into the world's most important art and antiques fair attracting collectors, curators and connoisseurs from more than 50 countries. A tulip created especially for TEFAF will be unveiled at the Fair as part of its Silver Jubilee celebrations. Visitors to the 2012 Fair will be greeted by a spectacular new entrance hall designed for the 25th anniversary containing an astonishing light installation by the artist Leo Villareal. On the morning of Friday 16 March there will be a symposium about the changes and developments in the art market between 1988 and 2012. TEFAF is also producing a special Silver Jubilee book, has set up a Museum Restoration Fund to help institutions with restoration projects and has become the principal sponsor of the Museum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht. Among the works to be exhibited at TEFAF 2012 will be a stunningly beautiful gold, diamond and enamel dragonfly pendant by René Lalique, the undisputed genius of Art Nouveau jewellery. This signed piece made around 1903 depicts four dragonflies with green-blue enamelled legs and wings with a large oval acquamarine in its centre. It was originally purchased directly from Lalique by the glassmaker Leon Appert, the brother-in-law of the great French painter Georges Seurat. The pendant will be exhibited by Epoque Fine Jewels from Belgium. A rare cup made from a coconut once owned by Alexander von Humboldt, the German naturalist and explorer. The silver-mounted  Humboldt Cup was one of a series of works commissioned in the 17th century by Johan Maurits van Nassau, the Dutch prince and general whose residence is now the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. It later belonged to Von Humboldt and only four comparable objects have survived, all in public collections. It will be brought to TEFAF by Kunstkammer Georg Laue of Munich. A newly-discovered 16th century alabaster relief by the German sculptor and woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider, "The Annunciation", dating from 1515 – 1520 and measuring 32 cm by 21.5 cm, was intended for private devotion and strikes a balance between formal elegance and expressive strength. Riemenschneider's work in alabaster is rare and this piece with details such  as the letter from God and the Virgin's crossed hands appears to be unique. It will be exhibited by Daniel Katz Ltd of London. The last available work from a set of six bronzes made by the influential Mannerist sculptor Giambologna (Jean de Boulogne) in 1596 for the Eucharistic tabernacle in the Certosa del Galluzzo monastery in Florence. The other five are all in public collections or foundations in the United States and Australia. "An Angel Alighting" will be on the stand of Altomani & Sons from Milan. A magnificent example of the work of Pieter Brueghel the Younger depicting peasants working in the field and resting over lunch. "The Harvest", signed and dated 1621, was one of a series of paintings of the seasons of the year produced by the younger Brueghel. It brilliantly portrays the fertility of the earth amid the heat and torpor of August. The painting will be exhibited by De Jonckheere of Paris. A unique photographic self-portrait of the painter Edgar Degas probably taken in the autumn of 1895. Degas began experimenting with  photography in the 1880s, capturing scenes of everyday life from unexpected viewpoints. The intimate photograph entitled Self-portrait in his library shows him sitting by a shaded sculptural bust. This contact print is unique although two enlarged versions of this image are known in museum collections. The historic image will be shown at TEFAF by Hans P. Kraus Jr Fine Photographs of New York. A 3000 year-old Egyptian  shabti  figure which would have been placed in a tomb with the deceased. The Shabti of Sunero, dating from the 19th Dynasty (c1306 – 1186 BC), depicts the Master of the Horse, a high-ranking military officer, holding his ba, his personality and individuality, to his chest. This 22cm high dark brown serpentinite figure will be exhibited by Galerie Harmakhis of Brussels. One of a distinctive group of drawings by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo intended by the artist to be sold as finished works. The Raising of the Cross, in pen and brown ink with brown wash, is signed and was executed in the late 18th century as part of the 'Large Biblical Series'. It will be shown by Stephen Ongpin Fine Art from London. A portrait of Jacques-Louis David, the French artist who was the leading figure in Neoclassical painting and an active supporter of the French Revolution. The picture was painted in 1817 by David's pupil François-Joseph Navez, who became a successful portrait painter in his own right. He produced three other portraits of David, all of which are in museums. This picture will be  shown at TEFAF by Jean-François Heim of  Paris. One of the most beautiful snow scenes in French art painted by the leading Realist artist Gustave Courbet. "Effet de Neige", painted by Courbet in his native Ornans region during the uncommonly cold and snowy winters of 1866-68, uses an aggressive painting technique and an unmistakeable colour scheme. This superb oil on canvas work will be taken to TEFAF 2012 by French & Company of New York. A unique oak table with a slate top designed by Børge Mogensen and produced by cabinetmaker Erhard Rasmussen in Denmark in 1951 will be one of the highlights of TEFAF Design. It will be exhibited by Galerie Eric Philippe of Paris. From its modest beginning as The Pictura Fine Art Fair in 1975, to its current position as the world's leading fine art fair, TEFAF Maastricht has always sought to lead the way and set the standards which others follow. Apart from continually improving the breadth, quality and display of the items for sale, it has presented memorable exhibitions and made ground breaking initiatives in the way the fine art world does business. It pioneered the music and lecture programmes and has taken the initiative on issues as diverse as VAT and vetting procedures. The pre eminent position of TEFAF Maastricht today is, as you will see, a result of much hard work over many years. At the 2011 event, 16 countries were represented at TEFAF by just over 260 dealers. To celebrate the first anniversary of TEFAF Paper, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam presented a small but exquisite exhibition of works selected from its print collection, entitled 'Director's Choice: The Happy Hunter'. The Art Market Report was again compiled by Dr Clare McAndrew, and presented an update of the general statistics on the international art market, and also revisits the in-depth examination of the Modern and Contemporary art market carried out in 2005. The entrance foyer and La Concorde restaurant both had stunning new designs. In total 73,574 people visited the Fair. Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.tefaf.com

The video art & photography of Neil Goldberg at the Museum of the City of New York Posted: 12 Mar 2012 09:58 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Contemporary video art and photography by noted artist Neil Goldberg (b. 1963) exploring the unexpected resonance of everyday moments in New York City is on view at the Museum of the City of New York through May 28th. Stories the City Tells Itself: The Video Art, Touring Shows, and Photography of Neil Goldberg presents eight video artworks and three photographic projects that direct the viewer's attention to moments that are usually experienced only fleetingly. For Neil Goldberg is the first-ever presentation of contemporary video art at the Museum of the City of New York . The exhibition marks a renewed commitment to the presentation of contemporary art that communicates the Museum's mission to explore all aspects of the past, present and future of New York City .

London's Barbican Centre at 30 ~ Creating the arts centre of the future Posted: 12 Mar 2012 09:37 PM PDT LONDON.- A utopian vision for the arts when it opened its doors to the public in March 1982, the iconic Barbican Centre remains at the forefront of the arts as it celebrates its 30th anniversary . With a world-class arts and learning programme spanning and often combining theatre, art, architecture, design, film, music, opera and dance, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms for its diverse audiences. To mark this milestone, the Barbican today looks to major future developments, and announces programme highlights from its 2012-13 season. As our venues expand and the Guildhall School's major new Milton Court building with its concert hall and studio theatres opens in 2013, we are looking forward in our ambition to create a vibrant cultural quarter in the heart of the City of London. This creative hub of performance and learning will combine the continued strength of our partnerships with our associates and collaborators, to create huge opportunities for the future.

The Michener Art Museum shows New York Cartoonist Sylvia Getsler Posted: 12 Mar 2012 09:20 PM PDT Doylestown, Pennsylvania.- In the 1950s, Rosie the Riveter morphed into Betty Crocker, and Madison Avenue's seductive images of happiness and contentment in the home governed women's lives. Sylvia Getsler chose a different path. The Michener Art Museum is taking a close look at that path in "Have Gags Will Travel: The Life and Times of a New York Cartoonist", on view through July 1st in the Pfundt Gallery. This exhibit is sponsored by Mary Lou and Andrew Abruzzese, The Pineville Tavern. From The New Yorker to Boys' Life, from lurid detective magazines to church quarterlies, the "gag" has become such a staple of American life that we rarely notice the skills that go into making them. Sylvia Getsler (1926-2009) was a rarity in the cartooning world—a highly successful female gag artist whose work was published in the Saturday Evening Post, Playboy, True Detective, McCall's, and Ladies Home Journal.

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture opens Retrospective of Self-taught Artist Margarete Bagshaw Posted: 12 Mar 2012 09:00 PM PDT Santa Fe, Nw Mexico.- The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is proud to present a major retrospective spanning 20 years of the self-taught artist Margarete Bagshaw. "Margarete Bagshaw: Breaking the Rules" will feature more than 30 paintings (some on sculpted wood panels), bronze and clay as wall art and multi-colored ceramic vessels that demonstrate the breadth and multi-dimensionality of her work. The exhibition runs through December 30th 2013. Bursting with color and activity Bagshaw's canvases are vibrant combinations of precise shape, texture, translucent layering, and light. Her paintings range from small to quite large and have an abstract, Cubist quality steeped in spirituality - a connection to her Native heritage and to her artistic forbears.

Martin Lawrence Gallery exhibition marks the 25th Anniversary of Warhol's death Posted: 12 Mar 2012 08:07 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Attempting to justify why something is cool belies the word itself. Some things just are: The Rolling Stones, the Corvette Stingray, James Dean, Gibson guitars, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Cash. Martin Lawrence Gallery presents all of the above in a unique survey of the Pop Art movement, with over 40 works by Andy Warhol (14 of those unique), a large-scale iconic collage by Roy Lichtenstein, original Keith Haring sumi ink drawings and a momentous canvas collaboration by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Warhol, measuring over 14 feet wide. Juxtaposed with this rare, museum quality collection are the tangible embodiments of cool – an extraordinary selection of classic American electric guitars, Johnny Cash's infamous black fringed funeral coat from the Hurt music video, a 1975 candy apple red Corvette, a leather motorcycle jacket hand-painted by Keith Haring, and the famous 1971 custom painted Dodge Challenger Pro Stock racer (Pyscho II).

Sotheby’s will auction Photographs from the legendary Buhl Collection in New York Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:53 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's will celebrate the legendary Buhl Collection of photographs in a single-owner sale in New York. The collection explores the theme of the human hand, encompassing works from the art form's early 19th century pioneers to the masters of 20th century photography and beyond. It was assembled over the course of 20 years by the visionary philanthropist and collector Henry M. Buhl. The collection was the subject of the critically-acclaimed exhibition Speaking With Hands: Photographs from the Buhl Collection at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 2004, and has since been featured in many of the world's most renowned institutions from Moscow to Macau. Overall, the auction will comprise approximately 400 lots and is estimated to bring $8/12 million, with a significant portion of the proceeds benefiting The Buhl Foundation. Prior to the exhibition and auction in New York, highlights from the collection will be shown in Zurich at the time of Art Basel, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Paris to coincide with Paris Photo.

Meem Gallery features the art of Mohammed Melehi with Ahmed Cherkaoui & Jilali Gharbaoui Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:52 PM PDT DUBAI.- Art Morocco, held at Meem Gallery this spring, presents the rare opportunity to view the work of Moroccan modern masters Mohammed Melehi, Ahmed Cherkaoui and Jilali Gharbaoui. Pioneers of modern abstract painting in Morocco, their work demonstrates how, following the country's independence in 1956, artists created an aesthetic dialogue between their cultural heritage and the impact of colonialism on North African artistic culture. Having studied abroad during the late 1950s (in Europe and the US), the three artists' work formally adheres to modern Western artistic techniques but simultaneously references traditional Moroccan arts and crafts, signs and symbols. In 1959, Melehi and Gharbaoui exhibited their work at the Première Biennale des Jeunes in Paris, introducing the international art world to contemporary Moroccan art. The artists, along with Cherkaoui, also participated in the second installment of the Biennale in 1961. This exhibition is the first show to display the work of the three artists in the United Arab Emirates. Mohammed Melehi Mohammed Melehi (b. 1936, Asilah) graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts, Tétouan, Morocco, in 1955. He continued his studies abroad, learning fine art in Seville and Madrid, sculpture in Rome, and engraving in Paris. In the early sixties, he travelled to the United States, where he studied at Columbia University (with a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation) for two years before returning to Morocco in 1964. It was during this time that Melehi began to explore his cultural heritage as a primary source of inspiration and started using a bolder, more brilliant colour palette. In 1969, Melehi organised the first open-air group exhibition, held in Marrakech medina's Jamaa el-Fna Square, in Morocco. Eliciting much acclaim from the public and art critics, this exhibition radicalized the country's contemporary art scene. Melehi was Professor of painting, sculpture and photography at the Casablanca School of Fine Arts from 1964-69. In 1978, Melehi and Mohamed Benaissa created the Al Mouhit Cultural Association, a non-political organization with purely cultural objectives. The result of this venture is the Asilah Cultural Moussem, an annual festival held every summer. A highlight of the festival is the mural painting event, first held in April 1978, a project which has revitalized the formerly dilapidated appearance of the artist's birthplace. Asilah is now celebrated for its vividly coloured murals, many of which have been created by Melehi. Melehi is also President of the Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts, and was the Director of Arts for the Ministry of Culture, from 1985-92, and was also the cultural consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operations, from 1999-2002. He has held numerous solo exhibitions including a retrospective at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 1995, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 1984. He has participated in group shows in Casablanca, Tangiers, Rabat, Marrakech, Baghdad, Algiers, London, Paris, Rome, Zurich, New York, Chicago and Montreal. His work is held in international museum collections such as Centre Georges Pompidou, Beaubourg, Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, MOMA, New York, and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha. Ahmed Cherkaoui Ahmed Cherkaoui (b. 1934-1967, Boujad) developed an early interest in Arabic calligraphy while studying the Koran as a child. After attending secondary school in Casablanca, Cherkaoui travelled to Paris to study Graphic Design at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris (1956-59), followed by a fine arts course held in Aujame's studio at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts (1960). In 1961, he left Paris for Warsaw to study at the Fine Arts Academy for a year. That summer he returned to Morocco for a visit, a time when he started to gain a keener understanding of himself as an artist and placed greater focus on the study of signs and the importance of research as a basis for his work. Settling in Paris, in 1962, Cherkaoui received a UNESCO grant to study Arabic calligraphy and Berber signs. In his paintings the artist did not replicate signs or letters found in his research but, rather, used such forms as a point of departure in his exploration of abstraction. The artist's oeuvre reflects numerous other influences including Moroccan arts and crafts and European painting. Cherkaoui's career was cut short when he passed away suddenly in 1967 at the age of thirty-three. Since his death there have been many retrospective exhibitions of his work including Cherkaoui: La Passion du Signe, Institut du Monde Arabe (1996) and Hommage à Cherkaoui, Salon de Mai (1968). During his life he held solo exhibitions in Rabat, Casablanca, Tangiers, Paris, Warsaw, Johannesburg and London. He also participated in numerous group show and biennales worldwide. His work is held in international collections including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Institut du Monde Arabe and Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris. Jilali Gharbaoui Jilali Gharbaoui (b. 1930-71, Jorf El Maleh) started his artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts, Fez (attending evening classes while working as a newsagent during the day). In 1952, he received a scholarship to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After graduating in 1956, he continued his studies in Fine Arts at Académie Julian, Paris. In 1958, he moved to Rome after receiving a fellowship from the Italian government. During his stay in Europe, Gharbaoui became interested in the work of the Impressionists, Dutch painting and German Expressionism, leading to his exploration of abstract painting. Gharbaoui held his first solo exhibitions in Rabat and Casablanca in 1957, and held further one-man shows in Rome and Morocco until 1971. He also participated in numerous group exhibition and biennales in Rome, Paris, Casablanca and Madrid. In 1957 he was awarded first prize by the San Francisco Museum of Art. His work is held in international collections including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Fondation ONA, Casablanca; Fond Municipal d'Art Contemporain, Paris; and Musée de Grenoble. His oeuvre is defined by his compositional studies of light and colour. Gharbaoui's work is often interpreted in relation to his introverted and reflective personality, more specifically his tendency towards depression (Gharbaoui attempted suicide in 1955) and substance abuse, which lead to his untimely death in 1971. Regarded as one of the founders of modern abstract painting in Morocco, in 1980 a retrospective of his work was held at Galerie l'Oeil Noir, Rabat.

P.P.O.W. Gallery to Present "George Boorujy ~ Blood Memory" Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:42 PM PDT New York City.- P•P•O•W is pleased to announce "George Boorujy: Blood Memory", on view at the gallery from March 15th through April 14th. This will be George Boorujy's second solo exhibition with the gallery. In his expansive and finely observed drawings, Boorujy uses a trained naturalist's eye to depict iconic North American animals and landscapes, presenting an intriguing vision of life on the continent that is at once foreign and familiar. Since Paleolithic times we have used animals, not only for survival, but for symbolic and ritualistic purposes. Tracing a line from the cave paintings of Lascaux up to and through Audubon, there has been an impulse and desire to depict and understand animals.

The Museum of Modern Art in Wakayama Presents its Spring Collection Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:20 PM PDT Wakayama, Japan.- The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama is proud to present "Collections: Spring 2012", on view through May 27th. The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama now holds more than 10,000 pieces from Japan and abroad in its collection. The exhibits in the Collection Galleries are changed seasonally with various featured themes. About 70 works from the collection are featured in the Spring selection. The Spring exhibition is split into sections, the first section "Artists from Wakayama and Japanese Modernism" introduces artists from, or working in, Wakayama from the end of the Meiji-era (1912). At this time, young artists began to seek new ways of expression, and among them were Kyokichi Tanaka and Ryumon Yasuda . Teiji Takai developed an experimental expression of the new machine age.

The Sammlung Essl at Klosterneuberg ~ Austria′s Biggest Private Collection of Contemporary Art ~ Toured By AKN Editor Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:13 PM PDT A short journey from Vienna, in the town of Klosterneuburg, is the Essl Collection Museum, which occupies its very own purpose-built art museum by the Danube. It houses Austria′s biggest private collection of contemporary art. Art collecting powerhouse couple, Agnes and Karlheinz Essl (Karlheinz Essl is the founder of bauMax, a chain of do-it-yourself and garden centres) believe that "art enriches life and releases innovative forces," the two have always sought to collect challenging works. The collection was originally meant to be housed in the 'MuseumsQuartier' in Vienna, but after a long - and typically Austrian - argument about the architecture of the museum it was built in Klosterneuburg, where they live and where bauMax has its headquarters. The striking building was designed by the award-winning Austrian architect Heinz Tesar and when it opened in 1999, the Essls could now display a collection that boasted the likes of Damien Hirst, Paul McCarthy, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Bill Viola, Tony Oursler and Jonathan Meese. Visitors enter the Exhibition Building of the Essl Collection through an entrance pavilion in the southern part of the building. From the entrance hall and the light-flooded stair hall that extends freely over all five storeys one reaches the first floor with its inner courtyard, lawn and water basin. This floor also contains the lobby, the entrance to the library, the galleries and the exhibition hall. On the mezzanine floor, a spacious studio is used for the numerous events and activities of the educational program. The six large storage rooms on the ground floor with a total floor space of 2,500 sq. meters are supplemented by additional rooms devoted to conservation, workshops, technical equipment and the administration of the artworks in the storage rooms. The seven galleries which are located on the west side contain the permanent display of the Essl Collection. They each have different dimensions and are lit through their three meter high skylights. The east-facing Exhibition Hall receives its daylight from the windows along one side and is visually linked to the corridor on the floor below that leads to the art storage rooms. The Rotunda connects the Exhibition Hall with the "Large Hall" on the floor above. Adjacent to it is the Lecture Hall, where lectures, special events and music performances are held. The Rotunda connects the Exhibition Hall with the Large Hall. It has been intentionally left empty and is filled only with the sounds of specifically conceived sound installations by various composers. The "Large Hall", where the sculptures and installations are displayed is lit by windows along one side as well as by skylights. The hall is covered by an 820 sq. meter roof that is shaped like a wave. Adjacent to the "Large Hall" are the Café and the museum shop. Situated approximately 600 meters from the Essl Museum, the Schömer-Haus (also designed by Heinz Tesar) is just a few minutes' walk away. Although its main function is as the Schömer-bauMax-Corporate Group headquarters it also provides extra exhibition space for the Essl Museum. Entry is free. it serves as an exhibition hall for the Essl collection and as a concert hall. The concert series, Music at the Schömer-Haus, has been curated by the composer Karlheinz Essl since 1992. About four times a year, the building is transformed into a venue for exceptional musical events, where primarily New Music is presented with all its radical, unconventional facets. Visit the museum (and Schömer-Haus) website at: http://www.sammlung-essl.at With more than 6.000 exhibits the Essl Collection today offers an excellent overview of Austrian painting since 1945, placing it in an international context. Collecting in depth was always an essential idea and the artists' development in the course of their oeuvre was to be shown. The scope of the Austrian exhibits in the Collection ranges from the Abstract Expressionism of the 50's and 60's to the Vienna Actionism and New Painting of the 80s and all the way to the reductionist art of the 90s. In addition to the post-war paintings the Collection contains an important group of works of Classical Austrian Modernism. In the past few years the selection of the works by international artists has been made mainly on the basis of their significance for painting and their relationship to the Austrian art tradition. Among the well-known artists represented are; Arnulf Rainer, Sam Francis, Maria Lassnig, Antoni Tàpies, Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Valie Export, Markus Oehlen, Daniel Richter, Gerhard Richter, Hubert Schmalix, Siegfried Anzinger, Jonathan Meese, Sean Scully, Per Kirkeby, Oskar Kokoschka, Lois Renner, Gottfried Helnwein, Karel Appel and Krystufek . The collection is supplemented in photography, video and sculpture by the work of Franz West, Nam June Paik, Shirin Neshat, Cindy Sherman, Jannis Kounellis and Barbara Szüts as well as high-quality sculptures. Currently the Essl Museum has 3 exhibitions on exhibition. "India Awakens" (until February 13th 2011) is in the main exhibitions hall and presents the new generation of contemporary Indian artists. Alongside paintings, sculpture and photography the exhibition will include spacious video installations and contemporary Tribal Art. All works were acquired by the Essl Museum and have partly been created specifically for this exhibition. In the main hall, under the title of "Private Wurm", one of Austria's most internationally successful artists, Erwin Wurm presents recent works (until 30th January 2011). In this personal show the artist takes a look at his childhood and youth. In his work, Wurm explores the realms of action art, performance art and sculpture and translates them into a contemporary media context. "Beautiful Klosterneuburg", a personal choice of works selected by German artist Albert Oehlen is presented in the seven gallery rooms (until 8th May 2011). The exhibition features paintings and sculptures by artists including Rudolf Hausner, Friedensreich Hundertwasser but also contemporary art by Paul McCarthy and Heimo Zobernig. In the 1980s, Albert Oehlen was part of the "Neue Wilde" group, which included names such as Martin Kippenberger, Werner Büttner and his own brother Markus Oehlen. These "new savages" took an ironic stance and challenged the entire medium of painting. At the nearby Schömer-Haus art collector Agnes Essl takes a look at artists whose work has been represented in The Essl Collection from its inception and who have become creative "Associates of Long Standing (until spring 2011). Of the idea behind the exhibition, Agnes Essl says: "In our first guest-book I found an invitation to a preview of Kurt Moldovan's work for 10 November 1979. This exhibition was one of the first we had organised in a very private context in our home for our relatives and a few friends. Then others followed, among them Rudolf Hradil, Herbert Breiter, Ernst Gradischnig, Gottfried Salzmann, Markus Vallazza, Hans Kruckenhauser and Giselbert Hoke. That was the beginning of our collection!"

Swann Galleries 4th African-American Auction Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:12 PM PDT   New York City - On Tuesday, October 7, 2008 Swann Galleries will hold its fourth African-American Fine Art Sale, spotlighting more than 100 scarce and important paintings, sculptures and works on paper by some of the most distinguished African-American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Featured lots include rare examples of early African-American abstract art by Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Ellis Wilson, among others.

Jeff Koons Unveil His Psychedelic BMW Art Car at the Centre Pompidou in Paris Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:11 PM PDT PARIS.- At the premiere of the 17th BMW Art Car Jeff Koons unveiled and signed his car in front of 300 international VIP guests on June 1 in the Centre Pompidou, one of the world's most prestigious cultural institutions for modern and contemporary art. It is the same place where Roy Lichtenstein back in 1977 first presented and signed his Art Car. In the spirit of Calder, Stella, Lichtenstein, Warhol, BMW announced this year that the 17th Art Car created by Jeff Koons will race where the first rolling pieces of art by legendary artists raced – at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France on June 12-13, 2010. Koons' canvas is a BMW M3 GT2, which was homologated to compete at this year's running of the world's most famous endurance race. The public will have the chance to see the Art Car free of charge in the Forum of the Centre Pompidou.

Carvings By Father & Daughter Nairi And Larisa Safaryans At The Silvana Gallery Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:10 PM PDT Glendale CA.- The Silvana Gallery will present an exhibition of the works of master and world class woodcarver Nairi Safaryan alongside his daughter Larisa's famous carved eggshells from March 26 to April 15 2011. Working with different mediums, both these artists have a delicate and extremely intricate touch, creating works of stunning beauty.Nairi Safaryan was born in Nagorno Karabakh in Armenia in 1958. After graduating from the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute as an engineer in 1980, he expected to go into scientific research and took up a post in a prestigious local enterpirse. However, and despite meeting his wife through his job, it did not last for long, when his childhood love of woodcarving reasserted itself. As a child, Nairi had been well know for his wooden toys, chalk sculptures and drawings. In 1987 Nairi Safaryan became a member of the Art Fund which gave him a chance to show his works.

The Walt Disney Company to Acquire Marvel Entertainment for $ 4 Billion Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:09 PM PDT BURBANK, CA.- Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today. Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Our Editor Views Many Of Max Ernst Masterpieces at The Max Ernst Museum Brühl, Germany Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:08 PM PDT The Max Ernst Museum Brühl of LVR is the world's first and only museum that is the work of this seminal artist and world citizen Max Ernst (1891-1976) dedicated. It shows an overview of the extensive work of the Dadaists and Surrealists, whose imagery - as with almost any other artist of the 20th Century - are distinguished by astonishing creativity and inspiring genius. Max Ernst not only created a large number of paintings, collages, graphics, sculptures and assemblages, and his boundless creativity was reflected in numerous books, artist portfolios and poems. In his world of images we encounter poetic landscapes, fantastic compositions and bizarre creatures whose powers of invention and clever wit and fascinating at the same time and cause confusion in the viewer inexorably lead an effeminate wake of the suggestion. The painter, sculptor, graphic artist and poet Max Ernst is one of the most important representatives of the Dadaism and Surrealism. Early in his life he breaks with conventional painting and turns towards the use of indirect techniques such as over-paintings, collage, frottage (rubbing technique), grattage (scrapping technique) and decalcomania (tracing technique with oil colours). These techniques serve the systematic survey of the realms „Beyond Painting" (Max Ernst). By exploiting his hallucinatory capabilities Max Ernst reinterprets objects and structures of his environment to then fix his visionary perception of the world. The alienation of the ordinary as well as the irritating orchestration of the inexplicable and the dreamlike are consistently broken up by irony and humor in his many works of art. During the summer of 1934, German-born artist Max Ernst executed a mural for the Dancing Mascotte, the bar at Zürich's Corso Theatre. One of the largest painted works of the artist's seven-decade career, Pétales et jardin de la nymphe Ancolie (Petals and Garden of Nymph Ancolie) adorned a wall of the popular nightspot in Zurich. Based on an illustration found in a Victorian-era botanical encyclopedia, the surrealist imagery features a dancing bird-like figure emerging from a lush backdrop of red and gold flower petals. This amazing huge nightclub mural has been full restored and on display until March, 2011. The Max Ernst Museum Brühl of LVR also presents five major works by Max Ernst from the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, makes for a whole year under the "collection on display in the change." The Menil Collection is one of the world's largest private art collections. Given the Menil's preeminent Ernst holdings – the result of a lifelong friendship between the artist and John and Dominque de Menil – the Houston museum was the ideal venue for the debut of the fully restored Pétales et jardin de la nymphe Ancolie. The de Menils met the artist for the first time, in Paris, in 1934 – the year Ernst completed the Zürich mural. The building complex is a combination of old and new: far from the palace of Augustus, with its castle park stands the classical three wings of the 19th Century, which was extended by a centrally inserted glass pavilion and a "floating" entrance plateau and supplemented in the basement with additional exhibition and meeting rooms.For four years, the conversion work continued by the Cologne architect Thomas van den Valentyn and Seyed Mohammad Oreyzi. The restoration of the heritage-listed building was there a main idea, visited but also the young Max Ernst that "Brühler pavilion, a picnic area, in 1844, so at the same time, the construction of the railway line between Cologne and Bonn, as a further attraction of the recreation area Brühl built. For the realization of the project, the existing building with the requirements of a museum and the aesthetic standards of contemporary architecture to agree harmoniously, received the Max Ernst Museum awarded "exemplary building in North Rhine-Westphalia". Since 1 July 2007 is the Max Ernst Museum to the Museum Association of the Rhineland Regional Council. Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism. He was born in Brühl, near Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family. His father Philipp Ernst was a teacher of the deaf and dumb and an amateur painter. Ernst visited asylums and became fascinated with the art of the mentally ill patients; he also started painting this year, producing sketches in the garden of the Brühl castle and portraits of his sister and himself. In 1911 Ernst befriended August Macke and joined his Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, deciding to become an artist. In 1912 he visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works by Pablo Picasso and post-Impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin profoundly influenced his approach to art. His own work is exhibited the same year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in 1913. In 1914 Ernst met Hans Arp in Cologne. The two soon became friends and their relationship lasted for fifty years. Next year Ernst visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, which left a deep impression on him. The same year, inspired partly by de Chirico and partly by studying mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals, and similar sources, he produced his first collages (notably a portfolio of lithographs), a technique which will come to dominate his artistic pursuits in the years to come.Constantly experimenting, in 1925 he invented a graphic art technique called frottage which uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images. He also created another technique called 'grattage' in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. He uses this technique in his famous painting 'Forest and Dove' (as shown at the Tate Modern). Along with other artists and friends (Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall) who had fled from the war and lived in New York City, Ernst helped inspire the development of abstract expressionism. Ernst died on 1 April 1976, 1 day before his birthday, in Paris.

Baltimore Museum of Art honors Edgar Allan Poe's Bicentennial with Macabre Art Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:07 PM PDT BALTIMORE, MD.- In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birth, The Baltimore Museum of Art presents a dramatic exhibition of prints, drawings and illustrated books inspired by the master of the macabre. Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon, on view October 4, 2009-January 17, 2010, features the works of renowned French artists Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, and Odilon Redon, as well as surrealist René Magritte and abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell all paying tribute to Poe's genius. Curated by BMA Director Doreen Bolger, the exhibition includes 35 prints, five drawings, and more than 40 illustrated books drawn primarily from the BMA's world-renowned collection of works on paper and supplemented with important loans from the Art Institute of Chicago, Dedalus Foundation, The Johns Hopkins University Libraries, and Enoch Pratt Free Libraries.

The Emmanuel Fremin Gallery to Exhibit Surrealist Photographer Giuseppe Mastromatteo Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:06 PM PDT New York City.- The Emmanuel Fremin Gallery is pleased to announce its grand re-opening in its new, larger Chelsea space located at 547 West 27 Street, suite 508. The gallery's first vernissage will be held on January 5th 2012 from 6-8 pm, introducing a 5 week solo show for Italian born artist Giuseppe Mastromatteo for his "Indepensense" series (which will close on February 12th). Following a wide acclaim reception in 2011 at Art Hamptons, the AAF, Greenwich Art Fair and Red Dot Miami, this will be be the first solo show for Giuseppe in the United States. Giuseppe Mastromatteo was born in Italy in1970 . After a period spent as a recordist's assistant inside a record company, he graduated from Accademia di Comunicazione di Milano in art direction. He writes about the Arts, teaches Advertising at various significant academic institutions, and collaborates with the Triennale Museum of Milan in the role of art director. Since 2005 his works have been exhibited at the Fabbrica Eos Art Gallery, Milan as well as at national and international art fairs. He currently lives and works in Milan.

Banksyyy ~ Best of British now an American Arts Hero ? Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:05 PM PDT London - Banksy is the most exciting artist to come out of the UK for more than a decade - or so many people on both sides of the Atlantic will tell you. But is he really so much more than a prankster with a spray can? Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones gives his view. It's not often you hear someone roar the name of an artist as if they were cheering on a football player. In Bristol, however, I once heard a man scream out "Banksyyy!" as he walked past one of his murals. He was in good company. Hollywood, the New Yorker magazine, Sotheby's (which sells him), Damien Hirst (who collects him) and Glastonbury (where he recreated Stonehenge with a group of portable toilets) all concur that Banksy is the artist of our time, the rising star, the news. A poll of 18- to 25-year-olds recently named him an "arts hero" in third place behind Walt Disney and Peter Kay, and ahead of Leonardo da Vinci. America was originally just a great target for Banksy - but then it unexpectedly took him to heart when he put orange-clad sculptures of Guantánamo prisoners in Disneyland. That was a taster for last year's one-man exhibition in Los Angeles, the opening of which was attended by the likes of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. There were massive queues to see the show's installation of a living room with 18th-century pictures on the walls, containing a live elephant with its body painted pink and gold. Suddenly Banksy was no longer a merely British obsession. A couple of months ago he got an accolade he could scarcely have dreamed of when he was spraying slogans on walls as a teenager - the New Yorker dedicated a seven-page feature to him. It makes funny reading if you're British: as if describing a journey into some Dickensian slum, the author evokes the seediness and sleaze of the Soho gallery owned by Banksy's dealer - on Greek Street, near some of London's most expensive restaurants. What are we to make of the Banksy phenomenon? Banksy, obviously, is not his name. You can't help thinking he might have chosen a better tag if he knew he would one day be taken seriously by the art world. I mean ... Banksy. Most people believe that Banksy - who has so far concealed his true name - comes from Bristol or its environs, and his surviving murals in that city have become objects of local pride. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that a new building development in Bristol, instead of destroying his street painting The Mild Mild West, will incorporate it and profit from the association. We may not know much about Banksy as a person, but we know he's ambitious. He went to Ramallah to paint on the dividing wall in the occupied West Bank, and this summer was booked to enliven the Glastonbury festival. Banksy makes open-air sculptures that are like gags from a Dom Jolyesque television show - he put shark fins in a pond in Victoria Park in east London - and this humour has translated easily into his indoor gallery installations. The resulting stardom must surely soon make anonymity impossible. One anecdote he does tell about his origins is how, when he was painting graffiti as a teenager, he was chased by the police: hiding under a van, he saw a stencil-like plate on its chassis and decided there and then to use stencils to design his street art. That way he could paint faster and elude the law; but this also meant he could paint better, becoming something far more like a proper artist. Banksy's stencil technique is now what makes his style so recognisable, like Andy Warhol's silkscreens. Banksy is not just a graffitist but a guerrilla conceptualist. His gags have included surreptitiously infiltrating his own works into museums - the British Museum took a full eight days to notice his chunk of "rock art" depicting a stone age hunter with a shopping trolley, together with the caption crediting it to "Banksyus Maximus" - and has also redone Monet's water garden with a supermarket trolley and bollards. I know you're laughing. Now you've stopped. My favourite is the parody of Andy Warhol he put in New York's MoMA, depicting a can of Tesco Value cream of tomato soup. What is it that constitutes Banksy's appeal? First of all, he is talented - for a graffiti artist. That's a big qualification. Banksy is fascinated by trompe l'oeil - the art of deceiving the eye - and has quoted from "a man in the pub" a story about art and illusion that in fact comes from the writings of Pliny the Elder. Two painters compete to fool the eye: one paints realistically enough to deceive birds, but the other fools humans. Banksy's TV set would only fool myopic birds. But you get the point: it's far more ambitious and lucid than the graffiti around it. Banksy's stencil method permits him to paint pictures where others just spray their names. It also encourages the use of icons and stereotypes, making his art a long series of variations on themes - and drawing comparison with Warhol from those who see him as a great modern iconographer. He deprives his art of the qualities that graffiti can offer modern art: its violence and chaos and paranoid mania. The French artist Jean Dubuffet argued 50 years ago that high art was exhausted, and acclaimed graffiti as art brut, raw art. While Dubuffet was admiring graffiti, Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly were being influenced by it. In 1980s New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat was seen as a raw hero of authentic street art, revitalising American painting. But Basquiat's art exposes Banksy's. Where Basquiat's has the dirt and mystique of true graffiti, dredging something from Down There, even though Basquiat actually came from a middle-class background and briefly attended a school for gifted children, Banksy is merely one of the lads, having a laugh. And yet this isn't about talent or lack of talent. One of Banksy's most irritating attributes is his conservatism, as an artist who seems proud of the fact that he "draws", rather than just making "concepts". He appeals to people who hate the Turner prize. It's art for people who think that artists are charlatans. This is what most people think, so Banksy is truly a popular creation: a great British commonsense antidote to all that snobby pretentious art that real people can't understand. Yet to put your painting in a public place and make this demand on attention while putting so little thought into it reveals a laziness in the roots of your being. Actually, it's fine to like him so long as you don't kid yourself that this is "art" - and you don't believe that for one second, do you? Sotheby's well-educated connoisseurs surely don't believe it either. Collectors presumably do, so the joke's on them. Perhaps the rise of Banksy is the fall of Art - that is, the waning of art as the force it has been in recent culture. A decade ago, the art of the Damien Hirst generation pushed itself into anyone's view of what was happening in Britain. Probably the rise of Banksy means that moment is coming to an end; people care more about other things. Bansky is a background artist, as in background music: like all graffiti, his is essentially an accompaniment to other activities. The reason to admire Damien Hirst is that he makes art as if art mattered. In Banksy, the philistines are getting their revenge.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:04 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.

You are subscribed to email updates from Art News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610