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

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• The San Francisco Fine Art Fair returns for a third year
• Metropolitan Museum shows Rylands Hagaddah: Important Medieval Hebrew manuscript
• The October Gallery to show Contemporary Masterpieces of Buddhist & Hindu Art
• The Villa Bardini features "Grand Tour in Tuscany" from the Olschki Collection
• The Robert Koch Gallery to show "Experimental Photomontage of Robert Heinecken & Edmund Teske"
• SFMOMA to present first solo exhibition of Katharina Wulff in a U.S. Museum
• Surrealist masterworks featured in Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern sale on 2 May
• Gedi Sibony's exhibition of works collected by Emily and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
• Clars Auction Gallery to offer items from the estate of Rebecca and Seymour Fromer
• The Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City ~ One Of The World’s Leading Collections of Mexican Art
• Morton´s Auction House Sale of Important Latin-american Works of Art
• Leopold Museum Pays a $19 Million Settlement for Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Wally"
• The Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid features ~ Edward Steichen Retrospective
• Author Michael Crichton Collection Features World-Class Artists
• George Eastman House Camera Book Illustrates History of Photography
• George Tooker Dies at 90 ~ Social Realism Painter & National Medal of Arts Winner
• Rembrandt Exhibition at Busch-Reisinger Museum
• Phoenix Art Museum showcases "Locals Only ~ 12 Chicano and Latino Artists"
• The Oceanside Museum of Art Presents Works by Françoise Gilot
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The San Francisco Fine Art Fair returns for a third year Posted: 05 Apr 2012 11:55 PM PDT San Francisco.- The San Francisco Fine Art Fair (SFFAF) returns from April 17th through April 20th, for a third year as one of the highlights in the Bay Area for contemporary art. In 2011, a rousing 16,500 art enthusiasts lined up and streamed through the fair. There was a bursting energy in the air and contagious enthusiasm as attendees were stunned, entertained and amazed by the wide spectrum of hi-caliber fine art displayed by the 73 exhibiting galleries. The well designed and spacious exhibit floor show cased scores of breath-taking installations, thought-provoking live performances, spectacular indoor and outdoor sculptures, memorable photography, significant paintings and historically important works on paper. Partnering with the City of San Francisco, the Opening Gala bestowed Richard L Greene with the Lifetime Achievement Award for the benefit of ArtCare. Emceed by local TV personality Liam Mayclem and introduced by SFMOMA's Exec. Director Neal Benezra, the kickoff ceremony set the high-energy and high profile tone for the Opening Gala. Over 3,000 eager visitors, many of whom were the who's who of the northern California art buying community, poured into the exhibition over the 3 hours. As the pioneering and solo fair in 2010, SFFAF returned the glamour and prestige of an international fine art fair to SF-after an 8-year absence. Its rousing success re-established the Bay Area as a well-earned stop on the national art fair circuit. Now with a 2 year track record of producing 15,000+ sophisticated and knowledgeable acquisition-oriented fairgoers and generating  $5-6+ million in annual sales,  SFFAF has  established itself as viable location for serious art commerce. Its success has inspired other fairs to jump in. With the 2012 event planned to be its  most impactful to date, SFFAF will maintain  the city's statue as one of the most important art marketplaces in America- in the eyes of gallerists, collectors and the national art press. Expect the best in post-war and contemporary art. Experience a most carefully selected collection of galleries. Select from 5,000 significant works of art from 400 respected artists all presented by 70+ prominent galleries worldwide. Get inspired as you explore our 50,000 sq ft of world-class art under one roof. We expect our range and quality of galleries to be among the most exciting and relevant showcased on the West Coast. Attend impactful lectures, which help uncover and define the latest trends in contemporary art. There's mesmerizing installations, passionate live performances, special celebrity appearances, that will make for an unforgettable day of art buying at this invigorating Bay view bucolic setting. With the help of the Selection Committee's discriminating eyes, SFFAF offers visitors the very best in broad spectrum of media from 1950 to present. The treasures you can acquire range from paintings, works on paper, drawings, and printed editions to fine art photography, indoor and outdoor sculpture, and glass art. Prices ranged from $1,000 to $1 million. While large enough to rank as a major international art fair with 70+ galleries, the fair also lends itself into a cozy boutique setting on the pier. This provides visitors a fun and manageable viewing experience. SFFAF will ignite your creative instincts as you meander through the 3 spacious aisles, exploring the memorable displays. It's the perfect setting to meet many of the nations' top art dealers The Festival Pavilion, with sweeping and spectacular views of SF Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, is an ideal setting to contemplate and experience the art. In just three years, the Hamptons Expo Group has emerged as one of the fastest growing fine art fair organizers in America. Their "boutique" shows feature prominent galleries offering the finest in post-war and contemporary art. Headquartered in Southampton, New York, the Hamptons Expo Group created and produces ArtAspen, ArtHamptons, the San Francisco Fine Art Fair, the Houston Fine Art Fair and debuting in February 2012, the Palm Springs Art Fair. Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.sffineartfair.com

Metropolitan Museum shows Rylands Hagaddah: Important Medieval Hebrew manuscript Posted: 05 Apr 2012 11:41 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- A lavishly illustrated 14th-century Catalonian haggadah from the collection of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, England, is being displayed in the Gallery for Western European Art from 1050 to 1300 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A haggadah is the book used at the Passover seder, the ritual meal that commemorates the exodus of the ancient Israelites from Egypt. Works of art from the Museum's own collection, made for Christian use, but depicting the saga of the Hebrew people, will suggest the larger, medieval context of biblical storytelling in which the Haggadah was created. Each month, the Haggadah will be open to a different page, affording visitors the exceptional opportunity to follow the artist's telling of the Exodus story.

The October Gallery to show Contemporary Masterpieces of Buddhist & Hindu Art Posted: 05 Apr 2012 11:31 PM PDT London.- The October Gallery is delighted to present a unique exhibition of contemporary masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu art, which features the work of some of the most skillful miniature and visionary painters of our time. This show is a sequel to October Gallery's successful 'Radiant Transmission' exhibition of 2003, and is likewise drawn from the work and collection of the British artist Robert Beer. "Robert Beer: Visions of the Divine" will be on view at the gallery from April 19th through May 26th. Robert Beer (born 1947) has studied and practiced Tibetan art for more than forty years, and is the author and illustrator of 'The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs'.The largest part of this show is devoted to the exquisite paintings of the little-known community of Newar artists of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. These artists venerate and depict the tantric gods and goddesses of their vast Hindu and Buddhist pantheon with humility and divine inspiration.

The Villa Bardini features "Grand Tour in Tuscany" from the Olschki Collection Posted: 05 Apr 2012 11:17 PM PDT Florence, italy.- For the first time, the original nucleus of a large and valuable private collection, practically unseen by the general public, is finally on display in the splendid galleries of Florence's Villa Bardini. "Grand Tour in Tuscany", which opened on April 1st and remains on view through November 4th, presents pieces from a collection that has been enriched from generation to generation, and survived to this day, with works by Italian Macchiaioli and post-Macchiaioli artists, such as Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini, Giuseppe Abbati, Eugenio Cecconi, Vito D'Ancona, Luigi Cioli, Ruggero Panerai, Oscar Ghiglia, Ulvi Liegi and Llewelyn Lloyd. The exhibit provides a fascinating exploration of collecting in Tuscany from the 19th to the 20th century, using works from the Olschki Collection. The original nucleus of the collection was determined by the friendship between founder Giovanni Fattori (of the original Macchiaiolo artist's group) the Florentine nobleman, doctor and scientist and the Greek doctor, John Garibaldi. Through John's daughter Emma, a part of this collection was grouped into that of the family of Alexander Roster (1865-1919), son of the  architect Giacomo Roster, creator of the tepidarium of the Horticultural Garden and a colleague of John's. Alexander, besides being doctor, was a keen cyclist (writing one of the first Italian cycling manuals) and as well as being the principal author of the collection as we know it today, telling a very significant story in the extraordinary history of collecting Tuscan art between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Subsequent generations (of the Rapisardi and Olschki families) added to the collection with an important section of post-Macchiaioli art, with a particular fondness for Llewelyn Lloyd with whom they stayed during family holidays on the Island of Elba. Alongside the paintings are displayed some 60 previously unpublished photographs that come from these family holidays. The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century, who, breaking with the antiquated conventions taught by the Italian academies of art, did much of their painting outdoors in order to capture natural light, shade, and colour. This practice relates the Macchiaioli to the French Impressionists who came to prominence a few years later, although the Macchiaioli pursued somewhat different purposes. The most notable artists of this movement were Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega and Telemaco Signorini. The movement grew from a small group of artists, many of whom had been revolutionaries in the uprisings of 1848. In the late 1850s, the artists met regularly at the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence to discuss art and politics. These idealistic young men, dissatisfied with the art of the academies, shared a wish to reinvigorate Italian art by emulating the bold tonal structure they admired in such old masters as Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Tintoretto. They also found inspiration in the paintings of their French contemporaries of the Barbizon school. They believed that areas of light and shadow, or "macchie" (literally patches or spots) were the chief components of a work of art. The word macchia was commonly used by Italian artists and critics in the nineteenth century to describe the sparkling quality of a drawing or painting, whether due to a sketchy and spontaneous execution or to the harmonious breadth of its overall effect. In its early years the new movement was ridiculed. A hostile review published on November 3, 1862 in the journal Gazzetta del Popolo marks the first appearance in print of the term Macchiaioli. The term carried several connotations: it mockingly implied that the artists' finished works were no more than sketches, and recalled the phrase "darsi alla macchia", meaning, idiomatically, to hide in the bushes or scrubland. The artists did, in fact, paint much of their work in these wild areas. This sense of the name also identified the artists with outlaws, reflecting the traditionalists' view that new school of artists was working outside the rules of art, according to the strict laws defining artistic expression at the time. Although the Macchiaioli have often been compared to the Impressionists, they did not go as far as their younger French contemporaries in the pursuit of optical effects. Many of the artists of the Macchiaioli died in penury, only achieving fame towards the end of the 19th century. Today the work of the Macchiaioli is much better known in Italy than elsewhere; much of the work is held, outside the public record, in private collections there. Villa Bardini stands next to Fort Belvedere and offers a breathtaking view from the top of Costa San Giorgio over the quarter of San Niccolò and much of Florence. A simple country villa of the 14th century, it was restructured and enlarged in the 17th century by the architect Gherardo Silvani for his friend Francesco Manadori (it was previously known as Villa Manadora or as Villa Belvedere, because of its magnificent view). It was later acquired by Stefano Bardini, the antiquarian, who further enlarged it and the surrounding gardens, with the loggia and lemon houses. After years of abandon, the great villa, which once contained the collections of Bardini, has been restored and transformed (thanks to the Ente Cassa di Risparmio), as an important cultural centre to host exhibitions, concerts, conventions and conferences, as well as two new Museums: the Roberto Capucci Museum (with the collections by the famous sculptor of fashion and femininity); and the Annigoni Museum, dedicated to this contemporary genius, whose work was inspired by the great artists of the Renaissance. It will also host the Tuscan Horticultural Society, which has been studying and producing flowers, fruit, vegetables and other delights for the garden and the table since the 19th century. The ground floor contains a display of archeological remains from the gardens and a refined restaurant; the second floor instead boasts a huge convention and exhibition hall, together with the offices of the Bardini Peyron Foundation, the Capucci Foundation, the Tuscan Horticultural Society, a library and a flat for the custodian; the third floor is split between the Annigoni Museum and the Capucci Museum, which also extends to floor above. The fascinating itinerary that runs inside the 14th century city walls from Porta Romana to the Pitti Palace, through the Boboli Gardens and the Garden of the Cavaliere up to Fort Belvedere is now linked up with Villa Manadora or Bardini and its splendid grounds. For more information, see ... www.bardinipeyron.it

The Robert Koch Gallery to show "Experimental Photomontage of Robert Heinecken & Edmund Teske" Posted: 05 Apr 2012 10:29 PM PDT San Francisco, Californina.- The Robert Koch Gallery is pleased to present "Robert Heinecken and Edmund Teske: Experimental Photomontage", an exhibition pairing these innovative photographers together for the first time. Both teachers in the University of California, Los Angeles's influential photography program during the 1960s, Teske and Heinecken are known for their alternative approaches and processes that challenged and expanded traditional notions of the medium. "Experimental Photomontage" will be on view at the gallery from April 14th through June 30th. Heinecken, the founder of UCLA's photography program, rarely used a camera, instead drawing on appropriated imagery from magazines and newspapers, and treating them to techniques like lithography, etching, camera-less exposure and photo emulsion on canvas. Teske, who began creating composite images in the mid-1930's, was a popular figure in 1960's counterculture in LA, running in circles that included Jim Morrison and filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Though Teske worked in relative obscurity during his lifetime, his persistent innovation and dedication to his own lyrical path had a profound impact on a generation of younger photographers.

SFMOMA to present first solo exhibition of Katharina Wulff in a U.S. Museum Posted: 05 Apr 2012 10:13 PM PDT San Francisco.- From April 13th through September 4th, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will present "New Work: Katharina Wulff", the first solo exhibition in a U.S. museum of the Morocco-based artist, and the first presentation of her work on the West Coast. Featuring nearly 20 works, the exhibition brings together a selection of Wulff's paintings made over the last five years, along with several new works, that illustrate both the breadth and distinctive character of her work. Organized by Apsara DiQuinzio, SFMOMA assistant curator of painting and sculpture, the exhibition continues the museum's New Work series dedicated to featuring the most innovative expressions of contemporary art. Founded in 1935, SFMOMA was the first museum on the US West Coast devoted to modern and contemporary art. With strong holdings in photography, painting and sculpture, architecture and design, and media arts, SFMOMA strives to present key examples of Modernism as well as more recent works that reflect a variety of artistic developments occurring regionally, nationally, and around the world. Working dexterously from sources inspired by literature, Old Master paintings, and photographs in popular magazines, Wulff makes paintings inflected by wide-ranging references and in the process builds a surreal universe that moves across time periods. Within a small selection of her paintings, one can discern hints of the decorative motifs of Pierre Matisse; unsettling figures of Pierre Klossowski; otherworldly symbology of William Blake; dark satire of George Grosz; and cheerful palette of Florine Stettheimer. Despite these myriad resonances, Wulff's pictures are decidedly of the present and together define a body of work that is uniquely her own. At turns whimsical and macabre, naïve and sophisticated, Wulff's paintings draw the viewer into an imaginary realm diversely marked by distant locales: grassy green knolls, rocky ocean cliffs, Venetian street windows, and Moroccan terraces. Strange animals regularly populate these settings, and alluring visages depicted in close-up are frequently left half-painted or disfigured. Perspectives are often flattened, creating spaces that are compact and psychologically charged. Some canvases are heavily built up with an admixture of charcoal and oil, while others possess faint graphite outlines and thin washes. An obscure sense of narrative suffuses each of the artist's scenes—sometimes hysteric and haunting and other times serene and inviting. Wulff moves fluidly between moods and color palettes, so that each painting seems distinct and still retains a tenuous connection to her larger body of work. Color and setting are defining attributes for many of her landscapes and portraits. For instance, a woman is distinguished by her blazing red-orange coiffure, glistening green eyes, and crimson lips, with a brilliant yellow forest that sets her in relief. In Wulff's paintings of the last several years, the rooftop vistas, lush riad interiors, and twisting medina alleys of Marrakech (her home) inspire the artist's work. While certain characters reappear throughout the works, loosely implying narrative threads, ultimately each picture stands as an autonomous work—part of an incongruous, ever-shifting whole. Born in 1968 in Berlin, Katharina Wulff lives and works in Marrakech, Morocco. She studied painting at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin (1990–96). In 2010, she had solo exhibitions at Green Naftali, New York, and Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne. Additional solo exhibitions have occurred at Galerie Neu, Berlin; The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; Galerie Bleich-Rossi, Graz, Austria; and the Bonner Kunstverein. Additionally she has participated in the group exhibitions At Home/Not At Home: Works from the Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson (2010); Painting Now and Forever, Part II, Greene Naftali and Matthew Marks, New York (2008); The Subversive Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2006); 25 Years of the Deutsche Bank Collection, Guggenheim Foundation, Berlin (2005); and actionbutton at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2003). From its inception in 1987, SFMOMA's New Work series was conceived as a means to feature the most innovative expressions of contemporary art. Artists such as Matthew Barney, Marilyn Minter, and Christopher Wool were given their first solo museum exhibitions through the program, establishing the series as an important vehicle for the advancement of new art forms. Over the ensuing decade, New Work featured artists such as Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Tatsuo Miyajima, Doris Salcedo, Luc Tuymans, Kara Walker, and Andrea Zittel, among many others. After a four-year hiatus, SFMOMA reintroduced the New Work series in 2004 and has since showcased work by Richard Aldrich, Phil Collins, Vincent Fecteau, Rachel Harrison, Lucy McKenzie, Wengechi Mutu, Anna Parkina, Mai-Thu Perret, R. H. Quaytman, Mika Rottenberg, Felix Schramm, Ranjani Shettar, and Paul Sietsema. Each year, in addition to organizing ongoing installations of permanent collection works, our curators develop a variety of collection-based presentations to complement the special traveling exhibitions hosted by the museum. Including both modern art masterworks and glimpses of contemporary art in the making, the permanent collection contributes to SFMOMA's standing as a dynamic art center where visitors can learn, reflect, and be inspired. Mario Botta's SFMOMA building is an iconic presence within the cityscape of San Francisco. Since it opened in 1995, the building has become a hub of the downtown South of Market (SoMa) area. It will soon be an even more dynamic destination: SFMOMA is developing a major expansion, designed in collaboration with the architecture firm Snøhetta, to accommodate the ongoing growth of the museum's programs and audiences and to showcase the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection of contemporary art. The museum has in its collection important works by Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn, Clyfford Still, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp and Ansel Adams, among others. In 2009 the museum gained a custodial relationship for the important contemporary art collection of Doris and Donald Fisher of The Gap. The Fisher Collection includes some 1,100 works from artists such as Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Anselm Kiefer, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol, among many others. The collection will be on loan to SFMOMA for a period of 100 years. In February 2011, the acquisition of 195 new works was announced, including paintings from Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Francis Bacon. The works will be displayed along with the Fisher collection upon the museum's expansion, slated to be completed in 2016. Visit the museum's website at … www.sfmoma.org

Surrealist masterworks featured in Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern sale on 2 May Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:35 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- A superb offering of Surrealist works in Sotheby's Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on 2 May 2012 will be led by Salvador Dalí's Printemps nécrophilique from 1936. Painted at the height of the artist's most creative years in Paris, the canvas exemplifies his unique aesthetic at its most refined and sensational. Printemps nécrophilique has not appeared on the market in nearly 15 years and is estimated to sell for $8/12 million*. The May auction will also include important works by other Surrealist giants including Max Ernst, René Magritte and Paul Delvaux. A select group, including Printemps nécrophilique, will be shown in London from 13-18 April before exhibition and sale in New York. Sotheby's set a new record for Paul Delvaux when his Les Cariatides achieved $9 million. Surrealism continues to present exciting opportunities for collectors given the wide range of material available at varying price points – literature, works on paper, paintings, sculpture and objects – and the fact that great masterworks remain in private hands. Additionally, given that the roots of much recent art lie in Surrealism, it crosses over well with collections of Contemporary art.

Gedi Sibony's exhibition of works collected by Emily and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:34 PM PDT ST. LOUIS, MO.- In celebration of its 10th-anniversary year, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts presents the exhibition In the Still Epiphany, on view from April 5th to October 27th. Artist Gedi Sibony is creating a large-scale, temporary work of art comprised of approximately forty objects from the collection of Emily and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.—including works by John Singer Sargent, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee, Lucia Moholy, and Lucio Fontana. Sibony is arranging these predominately figurative works within the spaces of Tadao Ando's building to create a flow of experience that is involving, meditative, and surprising. Modern and contemporary European and American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper—many of them chosen for their depiction of domestic interiors and the figures that inhabit them—are combined with African, Asian, and Pre-Columbian ritual and decorative objects. These groupings resonate within the galleries of the Pulitzer building to impart a distinct character to each space and to offer the visitor a journey through the activity of life as depicted in the frozen moments captured by the works themselves.

Clars Auction Gallery to offer items from the estate of Rebecca and Seymour Fromer Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:33 PM PDT Oakland, California.- Clars Auction Gallery is very honored to be offering many items from the estate of Rebecca and Seymour Fromer at the April 14th and 15th Antiques and Fine Art Auction. Seymour Fromer founded the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, CA in 1960. The Museum has grown to hold one of the largest collections of Judaica and is the third largest Jewish museum in North America. It is dedicated to preserving the contributions of Jewish Americans and their contributions to the development of the West. The Judah Magnes Museum was originally located in a turn-of-the-century mansion on the University of California-Berkeley campus and has recently moved to a new location in Berkeley. It and holds more that 10,000 artifacts and historical documents from around the world. In addition, the Museum is home of the Western Jewish History Center also founded by Fromer, which houses letters, diaries, business documents and photographs dating back to the California Gold Rush in the 1840s and 1850s.

The Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City ~ One Of The World’s Leading Collections of Mexican Art Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:19 PM PDT The Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) is the Mexican national art museum, located in the historical center of Mexico City. The museum was founded in 1982 as the Museo Nacional de Arte, and after being closed for an intense program of remodeling and technological upgrades, reopened in 2000, when it also took its current name. MUNAL is a subdivision of the 'Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes' and as part of this organization is involved in projects concerning the conservation, exhibition and study of the fine arts of Mexico, MUNAL specializing in Mexican and international art from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century. MUNAL is located in the old 'Palace of Communications'. In the early part of the 20th century, the government hired Italian architect Silvio Contri to design and build this "palace" to house the Secretariat of Communications and Public Works, with the intention of showing Mexico's commitment to modernization. The Palace was constructed on the former site of the hospitals of San Andres and of Gonzalez Echeverria. The architectural design is eclectic, characteristic of that time period, and mixes elements of various past architectural styles. The decorative elements of the building were done by the Coppedé family of Florence, who designed the door knockers, window frames, leaded crystal, stonework, furniture, lamps and ironwork among many other elements. Over the years, much of the Palace deteriorated, until around 2000, when the MUNAL project restored the palace to its original look while adding the latest technology for the preservation of artistic works. Two rooms that stand out are the Reception Hall and the sculptures in the Patio de los Leones. The Reception Hall is on the second floor and designed to imitate the splendor of similar halls in Europe. It is profusely decorated with precious metal and crystal ornaments as well as allegorical murals dedicated to themes such as science, the arts, liberty, history, work and progress. The work devoted to the concept of progress subdivides into four themes of force, justice, wisdom and wealth. This hall became the preferred place for President Porfirio Diaz to perform public declarations and receive dignitaries from abroad. Like the rest of the building the Patio of the Liones synthesizes a number of different architectural styles. The two primary styles seen here are Classic and Gothic with other styles introduced in the forms of sculptures, lighting and sculpted stonework. In the center is a large semicircular staircase to the upper floors. Later in the 20th century, the building served as the Archivo General de la Nación and from 1982 as the Museo Nacional de Arte. The plaza in front of the building is named after Manuel Tolsá, who created the statue of Carlos IV there, also known as 'El Caballito'. Today almost all of the building is used to house the permanent collection of MUNAL with the Reception Hall and the Patio de los Leones used for events such as concerts, book-signings and press conferences. MUNAL's permanent collection contains more than 3,600 pieces displayed in more than 5,800 square meters of exhibition space and the museum also has a museum shop and very good café. Visit the MUNAL's website at … http://www.munal.com.mx The museum's permanent collection is designed to give a panoramic view of the development of the fine arts in Mexico from the early colonial period to the mid-twentieth century. The artwork is subdivided into three distinct periods. The first covers the colonial period from 1550 to 1821. The second covers the first century after Independence and the third covers the period after the Mexican Revolution to the 1950s. Works created after that time period are on display at a number of museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in Chapultepec Park. The collection of art from the colonial period is entitled "Asimilación de occidente" (Assimilation of the West) and is contained within Salons 1-14 on the second floor. This collection shows how western-style painting transferred over and synthesized in Mexico, eventually leading to the establishment of Mexico's own fine arts institution, the Academy of San Carlos, the first of its kind in the Americas, and from which many of the works in the MUNAL collection came. Works from this period include noted paintings by Juan Correa, Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz, Miguel Cabrera, Cristóbal de Villalpando, the brothers Rodríguez Juárez and Tolsá Valencia. Art from the first century of Mexican Independence (1810–1910) is entitled "La construcción de la Nación" (Construction of a Nation) and housed in Salons 19-26 of the second floor. Coinciding with the Romanticism period, most paintings have themes such as Mexican customs and landscapes and attempt to present a distinct Mexican identity. Among the artists represented are major works by Eugenio Landesio, José María Velasco Gómez, Leandro Izaguirre, Luis Monroy, José Guadalupe Posada and Julio Ruelas and a collection of early Mexican photography. The last time period in the collection is titled "Estrategías plásticas para un México moderno" (Strategies for the fine arts in modern Mexico) and housed in Salons 27-33 on the first floor. Historically, this period is from the end of the Mexican Revolution when questions of modernity and nationalism were foremost. It also coincides with the development of the Mexican muralist movement. Artists featured in this section of the museum include, Ramón Cano Manilla, Saturnino Herrán, Gerardo Murillo, Francisco Goitia, Rufino Tamayo, Juan O'Gorman and Diego Rivera. Among the artists represented in the MUNAL's collection of post-Mexican Revolution, Diego Rivera is perhaps the most well known. Born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico, Rivera became famous for his expansive and politically-charged murals, and for his love affair with artist Frida Kahlo. Rivera was born a twin, but his brother, Carlos María, died before he turned two. Rivera studied painting in Mexico before going to Europe in 1907. While in Europe he took up cubism and had exhibitions in Paris and Madrid in 1913 before showing in New York City in 1916. In 1921 he returned to Mexico, where he undertook government-sponsored murals that reflected his communist politics in historical contexts. He married Kahlo in 1929, and their tempestuous marriage got to be as famous as their art. In the 1930s and '40s Rivera worked in the United States and Mexico, and many of his paintings drew controversy. His 1933 mural for the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan featured a portrait of Communist Party leader V.I. Lenin; the resulting uproar led to his dismissal and to the mural's official destruction in 1934. Similarly, a 1948 mural for the Hotel de Prado in Mexico that included the words "God does not exist" was covered and held from public view for nine years. Even so, Rivera's talent for historical murals and his tributes to earthy folk traditions made him one of the most influential artists in the Americas and one of Mexico's most beloved painters. One of his most famous works is a tribute to workers in Detroit, Michigan, commissioned in 1932 by Henry Ford. Never very faithful romantically, Rivera was married four times to three different women, Guadalupe Marin (1922-27), to Kahlo (1929-39, then again from 1940 until her death in 1954), and to art dealer Emma Hurtado (from 1955 until his death in 1957). He also lived with the artist Angelina Beloff for many years in Paris, and she is sometimes counted among his spouses as a common-law wife. Currently the Museo Nacional de Arte is showing, "Image, Rhythm and Movement: Fine Art, Music and Dance", including a careful selection of pieces with themes of dance and music produced by Mexican and foreign artists working in Mexico. Mexican paintings from the last 160 years have been selected from the collections of the Museo del Pueblo, Guanajuato and the Museo Nacional de Arte, which show the cultural importance of music and dance to the Mexican people. Featured artists include Casimiro Castro, José Guadalupe Posada, Edouard Pingret, Pablo O'Higgins, Ernesto Garcia Cabral, Miguel Covarrubias, Maria Izquierdo, Raul Anguiano, Fermin Revueltas and Federico Cantú. The exhibition is curated in collaboration the José Limón National Center for Dance Research, Documentation and Information, and was presented first at the Museo del Pueblo, Guanajuato before moving to MUNAL. The exhibition runs from 17 February to 15 May 2011. The next temporary exhibition to be hosted by MUNAL will be "The Image of Flight of Images: Feather art in Mexico and Europe", starting in April 2011. This exhibitions will together more than 250 objects that reflect the symbolism and ritual use of feathers and birds among indigenous Mexican cultures, both ancient and contemporary. It will showcase works from 1400 to 1800 AD, such as paintings, sculptures, medieval manuscripts, Mesoamerican manuscripts, works of gold and precious stones, from collections in Italy, England, Germany, United States U.S., Canada, Austria and Mexico. In addition, the exhibition will include a selection of contemporary feather art from Mexico.

Morton´s Auction House Sale of Important Latin-american Works of Art Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:18 PM PDT Mexico City.- On very few occasions have so many important works of art from Mexican and Latin-American painters have been offered in the same auction. This November 10th in Morton Casa de Subastas the different faces of Latin-American art will all be present, from portraits to still lives, to monumental pieces from the great masters of contemporary abstracts. The expressions of colour manifest the spirit of this land, one which surpasses the frontiers of the region and bring an added value to their voices. All of these works of art will be offered, works of art from renowned artists from the caliber of: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Francisco Zúñiga, Juan Soriano, Guillermo Meza and Ricardo Martínez, to name but a few. Great female artists are lso represented with works by María Izquierdo, Cordelia Urueta, Lilia Carrillo, Valetta Swann and Silvia H. González. Latin-American art at its finest by Kcho, Eduardo Kingman,  Fernando de Szyszlo, Roberto Fabelo and Santiago Rebolledo. Boris Viskin, José Antonio Farrera, Héctor de Anda and Gabriel Orozco, will be under the hammer as well.

Leopold Museum Pays a $19 Million Settlement for Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Wally" Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:17 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP).- A 12-year dispute that illustrated the difficulty of proving art was stolen by Nazis in World War II ended Tuesday with an agreement that a 1912 oil painting entitled "Portrait of Wally" will be returned to a Vienna museum and displayed with an acknowledgement that it was stolen from a Jewish art dealer by a Nazi agent. The settlement calls for the Leopold Museum to own the painting by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele after paying $19 million to the estate of Lea Bondi Jaray and allowing it to be displayed for three weeks at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan.

The Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid features ~ Edward Steichen Retrospective Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:16 PM PDT Madrid, Spain - Edward Steichen is one of the key figures in the history of photography. Beginning as a leading exponent of the 19th-century romantic movement called Pictorialism, Steichen metamorphosed rapidly into one of the leading lights of modernism. For more than half a century he occupied centre stage as the most famous living photographer, the medium's first household name. However, until now Steichen, -- a Luxembourger by birth -- has never been the subject of a significant retrospective in Europe.

Author Michael Crichton Collection Features World-Class Artists Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:15 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY (AP).- Best-selling author Michael Crichton approached art in the same way he did his writing — through extensive research — but also by developing close friendships with many of the artists whose works he collected. The popular thriller writer died in 2008 leaving behind such blockbusters as "Jurassic Park," ''The Andromeda Strain" and the TV series "ER." But he also left a 20th century art collection that features some of pop art's best known artists, including Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg.

George Eastman House Camera Book Illustrates History of Photography Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:14 PM PDT ROCHESTER, NY.- For the first time in the two centuries of photographic history, a book has been produced that celebrates both the camera and the art of the photograph — displaying images alongside the cameras that created them. George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film launches this month "Camera: The History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital" (Sterling Innovation, 2009, 368 pp., $45). The world's oldest museum of photography, Eastman House is home to a number of world-class collections, including the world's largest collection of camera technology.

George Tooker Dies at 90 ~ Social Realism Painter & National Medal of Arts Winner Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:13 PM PDT New York, NY - One of the most acclaimed painters of his generation, George Tooker (1920-2011) possessed an originality and depth of vision that is unsurpassed in modern American art. For over sixty years, he has been highly regarded for his luminous and often enigmatic work. His themes range from alienation and the dehumanizing aspects of contemporary society to personal meditations on the human condition. Tooker began his career at a time when the prevailing aesthetic was "modernism" and the darlings of the art world were American minimalists. Tooker, however, was clear from the beginning that he had no interest in minimalist art, very much to the contrary, he was instead bent on creating "maximalist" art. He has said that "in one kind of painting I'm trying to say 'this is what we are forced to suffer in life,' while in other paintings I say 'this is what we should be.'" Tooker first came to prominence for imaginative visions that expressed the uncertainty of the Cold War era. Among his best-known paintings is "Subway" (1950, Whitney Museum of American Art), a powerful work that explores the anxiety and isolation of nameless individuals in urban society. He was very involved with the Civil Rights Movement as well, in one instance marching in Selma, Alabama, with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965, and frequently addressed issues of race and oppression in his work. In addition to his engagement with social commentary, Tooker also created strikingly beautiful paintings of a more personal nature, many of which are concerned with states of consciousness, mysterious meditative realms between sleep and wakefulness. His good friend Lincoln Kirstein once characterized his work as Magic Realism, which has since been frequently used to describe his paintings. Tooker never cared much for that designation, however, because of the connotations of fantasy and Surrealism. "I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I am not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy," he once said. Tooker died at his home in Hartland, Vermont, on Sunday, March 27 at the age of ninety. The cause was kidney failure according to DC Moore Gallery, New York, which represents the artist. George Claire Tooker, Jr. was born August 5, 1920, in Brooklyn New York. He was the first child of a Cuban-American mother and a father who was a municipal bond broker. Tooker's only sibling, Mary, was born later. Shortly after his birth the Tooker family moved to the more rural Bellport in south-central Long Island, some fifty miles east of New York City. The trajectory of his life began to manifest itself from the age of seven, when he began taking painting lessons from Malcolm Fraser, a family friend whose oeuvre was in the Barbizon tradition. Tooker began high school in Bellport. However, his parents weren't much impressed with the quality of the school, and he spent his last two years at the more rigorously academic Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, north of Boston. George developed an intense dislike of the straight-laced school, with its orientation toward business and finance, and its concern that its students learn to hide their emotions. He gravited instead toward the school's art studio, where he worked at landscape drawing and watercolors. By virtue of its location, Andover did furnish some additional, if unintended education - Tooker became aware of effects of the Depression on the mill towns north of Andover. He was angered by the sharp contrast between the comfortable lifestyle of the children of the economic elite who attended the academy, and the many unemployed. After graduation from Phillips in 1938, Tooker went on to Harvard, where he majored in English literature, that having been the only academic subject of interest to him at Phillips. Yet he spent much of his time at the Fogg Art Museum, and in the towns surrounding Boston, where he made watercolor sketches of the urban and rural landscapes. The Fogg's holdings include early Italian Renaissance, pre-Raphaelite and 19th-century French art. He also took up with some radical political organizations, but soon found them doctrinaire and boring. Nevertheless, it was during this time that he first became interested in the potential of art as a tool for social justice. Especially inspirational was the work of Mexican painters, especially David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco. Graduating from Harvard in 1942, he immediately enlisted in the Marine Corps Officer's Candidate School, but an old stomach ailment turned serious, and he was discharged after a few months there. Now at loose ends, Tooker decided to pursue his long-standing desire to study art. Securing his parent's support, he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York. Here he studied for two years with Reginald Marsh who worked in egg tempera, Kenneth Hayes Miller who also taught Edward Hopper, and Harry Sternberg. In 1944 Tooker met the painter Paul Cadmus. Cadmus was another painter who worked with egg tempera (using traditional Reanissance techniques), and transmitted this expertise to Tooker, whose use of this medium marks his mature style. A year later, with the financial support of his family, George moved to a flat on the bohemian Bleecker Street in Greewich Village, New York. In 1949 Cadmus and Tooker spent six months travelling in Italy and France; and in the same year George met painter William Christopher, who was to become his life partner until Christopher's death in 1973. In 1950 Tooker and Christopher moved into an illegal loft located at W. 18th St. Here, in order to support themselves, they made custom furniture. However, Tooker was beginning to earn both recognition and income from his art, the Whitney Museum bought his best-known painting, "The Subway", that year, he had a one-man exhibition in New York City in 1951, in 1954 he received a commission to design sets for an opera and in 1955 he held his second one-man show. With greater means as their disposal, the two first bought and renovated a brownstone on State Street in Brooklyn Heights and then, in the late 1950s, he and Christopher built a weekend home near Hartland, Vermont. The one-man shows in New York galleries picked up speed, Tooker having his own exhibitions in 1960, 1962, 1964 and 1967. Christopher died in Spain in 1973, and Tooker spent most of 1974 there, wrapping up disposition of his estate. Also in '73, a major survey exhibition of Tooker's work was organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. That exhibition traveled to Chicago, New York, and Indianapolis. In 1976 Tooker became a Roman Catholic, and attended St. Francis of Assisi Church. After it burned down, he created a major painting for it, The Seven Sacraments. Until his death, Tooker lived and worked in in Harland, Vermont. George Tooker is represented in museum collections across the country, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and National Museum of American Art. He has had numerous museum exhibitions over the years, such as a retrospective, George Tooker: Paintings, 1947-1973, organized by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California, in 1974; George Tooker: Paintings and Working Drawings at the Marsh Gallery, University of Richmond, Virginia, in 1989; 50 Years of Painting and Study Drawings at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1994; and George Tooker: A Retrospective at the National Academy Museum, New York, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, in 2008-09. His most recent exhibition was George Tooker: Studies for Paintings at DC Moore Gallery, New York, in 2009. He received the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2007. Tooker is survived by a sister, Mary Tooker Graham; her children, Peter and Russell Hume, and Angus and Angela Graham; and family members, Aaron Watkins and Sheila Adams, and Robert and Robin Watkins.

Rembrandt Exhibition at Busch-Reisinger Museum Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:12 PM PDT CAMBRIDGE, MA - Selected primarily from Harvard collections, Rembrandt and the Aesthetics of Technique, an exhibition at the Busch-Reisinger Museum from September 9 to December 10, 2006, will invite visitors to engage intensively with nearly fifty drawings, paintings, and prints by the master, his pupils, and his contemporaries.  The exhibition will focus primarily on the role of technique—the artist's manipulation of his materials—in enabling the innovative visual effects that distinguish Rembrandt's creative achievement.  Arranged in several small groups of works, the installation will encourage visitors to make comparisons that highlight, through similarity or contrast, some of the artist's technical decisions.  The exhibition was organized at the Harvard University Art Museums by William W. Robinson, Maida and George Abrams Curator in the Department of Drawings, and Ivan Gaskell, Margaret S. Winthrop Curator in the Department of European Painting, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.  Robinson and Gaskell are two of the world's leading scholars in the field of 17th-century Dutch studies.

Phoenix Art Museum showcases "Locals Only ~ 12 Chicano and Latino Artists" Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:11 PM PDT PHOENIX, AZ.- Locals Only, now on view at Phoenix Art Museum, showcases the work of 12 Chicano and Latino artists currently living and working in metropolitan Phoenix. Their contemporary works explore issues of identity, tensions between high and low culture and a broad range of artistic styles. Included in the show are paintings, sculptures, installations, prints, and photographs by Claudio Dicochea, Fausto Fernandez, Luis Gutierrez, Annie Lopez, Melissa Martinez, Monica Aissa Martinez, Martin Moreno, Hector Ruiz, Roy Wasson Valle and DOSE, Lalo Cota and Mykil ZEPata. On view through 25 October, 2009.

The Oceanside Museum of Art Presents Works by Françoise Gilot Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:10 PM PDT Oceanside, CA.- The Oceanside Museum of Art presents "Transitions: Works by Françoise Gilot" until November 13th. Interested in mythology, symbolism, and the power of memory, French/American artist Françoise Gilot expresses complex philosophical ideas with lyrical accessibility. Transitions: Works by Françoise Gilot features a collection of oil paintings and works on paper that highlight her interest in color relationships and the fine line between figuration and abstraction. Gilot uses abstract organic shapes to reflect her interest in the formal arrangements of lines and planes, tone-color coordination, and her respect for simplicity. Also known for her earlier relationship with 20th century icon Pablo Picasso, Gilot resided for many years in La Jolla with her husband, polio vaccine pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk. Gilot currently divides her time between studios in New York and Paris. The theme of this exhibition explores the transitions in Gilot's life and work that formed her artistic voice. Relying on structures, rhythms and color, Gilot often challenges the boundaries between figuration and abstraction by evoking rather than describing, to heighten the surface tension of the canvas and to entice and engage the imagination of the viewer. Featuring over 40 works of art,  including oil paintings, watercolors, gouaches, monotypes and original prints, this exhibition will explore the evolution of Gilot's unique abstract, symbolist style from the early 1960s to her more current work. Born in Paris in 1921, Françoise Gilot has exhibited her work for more than seventy years. She continues to be a vital presence in the art world, creating a bridge between the School of Paris of the 1940s and 1950s and the contemporary American art scene.  In 1943, during the time of her first exhibition in Paris, Gilot met Pablo Picasso, an artist 40 years her senior. In 1946, Gilot and Picasso began a decade-long relationship as she became both a witness and a participant in one of the last great periods of the modern art movement in Europe. Their circle included poets, philosophers, writers, and many legends of the art world, such as Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, and Henri Matisse. This artistic union was also shared with their two children, Claude and Paloma, whose antics and acrobatic postures were often captured in drawings and paintings. By late 1953, the relationship with Picasso had run its course and Gilot left the home they shared in Vallauris and returned to Paris with their children. During the 1950s and 1960s, Gilot continued the trajectory of her artistic explorations with studios in London, Paris and  the south of France. In 1969, during an exhibition of her work in Los Angeles, Gilot traveled to La Jolla and was introduced to Dr. Jonas Salk. The kinship was immediate and they were married in Paris in June of 1970.  Their  25-year marriage was truly the merging of science and art and Gilot traveled between her studios in La Jolla, New York and Paris as her career continued to evolve and thrive. Paintings, drawings, monotypes, and original prints by Francoise Gilot are included in the permanent collections of numerous museums throughout Europe and the United States including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Musee Picasso, Antibes, France, Phoenix Art Museum and the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris. Also a writer and poet of note, Gilot is the author of a number of books, the best known of which are Life With Picasso (1964), The Fugitive Eye (1976), Interface: The Painter and the Mask (1983), An Artist's Journey (1987), and Matisse and Picasso: A Friendship in Art (1990). Oceanside Museum of Art is a cultural jewel located in downtown Oceanside with a view of the Pacific Ocean and the historic Oceanside Pier. The museum presents provocative, contemporary exhibitions from the region and around the world. OMA offers art instruction at the OMA School of Art, concerts, films, lectures, docent tours, and the OMA Museum Store. Oceanside Museum of Art is a gathering place where friends meet to share and enjoy the rich cultural experiences available in the region. In addition to a progressive exhibition schedule, Oceanside Museum of Art is housed in side-by-side buildings designed by two of southern California's most renowned Modernist architects. The classic Irving Gill designed building is nestled against the contemporary Frederick Fisher designed Central Pavilion creating the perfect union of past and present architecture. Exhibitions showcase the finest art of the southern California region from landscape paintings to studio furniture, neon sculpture, art quilts, and architectural glass. OMA's galleries feature on enlightening survey of contemporary art enriched by the cultures of the community. The museum's galleries are redesigned for each exhibition, surprising visitors with a fresh, exciting visual transformation for every new exhibit. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.oma-online.org

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:09 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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