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

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• The Museo de Antioquia celebrates Fernando Botero's 80th Birthday
• The Kirkland Museum surveys the nationally important Art History of Colorado
• All Visual Arts to show "Masakatsu Kondo ~ Whenever I am Silent"
• Jonathan LeVine Gallery shows new works by Nicola Verlato
• The Hood Museum of Art explores José Clemente Orozco's impact on Jackson Pollock's work
• Columbia Museum of Art donated gift of 594 works from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel
• MIT dedicates monumental sculpture by internationally renowned artist Cai Guo-Qiang
• Paintings, sculptures & installation by Valerie Hegarty opens at Marlborough Chelsea
• Inaugural Art Wynwood Contemporary Art Fair opens in Miami
• The Walters Art Museum To Show "Setting Sail: Drawings of the Sea"
• Figurative Paintings From the La Caixa Foundation Collection on View
• Alphonse Maria Mucha Was Honored With a Google Doodle
• The Pinacothèque de Paris to present Valadon and Utrillo ~ Mother & Son
• Denver Art Museum hosts Impressionist Plein-Air Landscape Paintings
• Martín Riwnyj solos at Rivergarden Gallery
• The Gemeentemuseum Presents Picasso in The Hague
• The École de Nancy Museum Presents the Art Nouveau Works of Jacques Gruber
• International Design Museum Munich presents The Schoonhoven Silver Award 2009
• Oklahoma City Museum of Art debuts " Paris 1900 "
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Museo de Antioquia celebrates Fernando Botero's 80th Birthday Posted: 08 Apr 2012 01:46 AM PDT Medellin, Colombia.- The Museo de Antioquia is proud to celebrate the 80th birthday of the Medellin-born and resident Fernando Botero by presenting "Viacrucis: La Passion de Cristo" on view through August 8th. Viacrucis —a Latin word meaning "the path of the Cross"— comprises 27 large-format oil paintings and 33 drawings. On display in this show are Botero's careful study of and deep love for the Italian primitives of the first half of the Fifteenth Century and for the artists of the Renaissance. Many artists painted the passion of Christ in scenes that included medieval fortresses and hill-dotted landscapes; now Botero approaches the subject in contexts that incorporate Manhattan or small Antioquia towns. One of the largest works in the show is a Pieta measuring 93 x 58" while a Descent of the Cross measures 90 by 50". Smaller works measuring 20 x 20" lose no power from their size and are made all the more touching by their very intimacy. The hallmark of all the paintings regardless of size and subject is Botero's stunning use of color that charges the works with both seductive beauty and elemental impact. Just as in his paintings of the Abu Ghraib prison, these works depicting Christ's Passion are intense and powerful not only because of the events depicted but also because of Botero's ability to convey pathos and emotion. Botero can be humorous and whimsical as some of his paintings over the years reveal, but he can also turn his considerable talents to portray tragic events as the paintings in this show effectively demonstrated. Botero has all his life been an avid observer of old master paintings and to this day he is a constant museum goer. His work has often been infused with various references to the masters either by subject such as his take on van Eyck's The Marriage of Arnolfini or by subtle references to structure and technique. What becomes immediately clear in the Via Crucis exhibition is Botero's long study and great love of the early Italian primitives of the first half of the fifteenth century as well as the early northern Renaissance painters. What those painters strove to achieve was a way to express naturalism of human form and to create a means to convey in regard to the story of Christ the great emotion and feeling of the event. Botero has in his inimitable, elegant style taken up this heroic and exalted subject and in a unique manner has, while remaining faithful to the events of the story, transformed it. In so doing he has achieved one of the most commanding cycles of works he has painted to date. Through a singular vision of the expression of human emotion and spirit these works are destined to be a high water mark of the artist's entire career. Just as the old master painters used places and people of their time to depict the Passion, Botero uses places and events of our time to portray The Way of the Cross. To give just a few examples, the background setting in one depiction of Christ's crucifixion is Manhattan; in the flogging of Christ, instead of Roman soldiers we see Colombian soldiers; in The Kiss of Judas we see a small figure in the left hand corner which is a self-portrait, and in Ecce Homo Pontius Pilate is represented by an accusatory finger and the village is a town in Botero's home state of Antioquia in Colombia. In the introduction essay to the exhibition catalog the writer Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz writes, "Botero, who in his own words is 'at times a believer, at times an agnostic,' has captured the intensity and cruelty but also the piercing poetry of the tremendous drama of Christ's journey along the Way of the Cross toward his crucifixion." In regard to Botero's style she astutely quotes the English poet, Francis Bacon, "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion." Botero's style is distinctly his own and highly original. His art, both in painting and sculpture, strikes a universal chord that goes beyond regional tastes and temporal values and reaches a fundamental feeling in people all over the world. There is perhaps no other living artist who has so many admirers and collectors. His work is recognized and sought-after as much in the United States, South America, and Europe as it is in South Africa, Asia, and Australia. Asia Pacific Sculpture News attributed this phenomenon to "a vision of humanity that transcends the boundaries of cultural specificity, a vision of humanity that pulsates to the ancient universal rhythms of life." Botero was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1932. He moved to Bogotá in 1951 and had his first show there the same year at Galeria Leo Matiz. His first retrospective took place in 1970 in Germany at museums in Baden Baden, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Hamburg. Since then, Botero has continually showed in museums all over the world. In the last ten years he has had an astounding number of museum shows in the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the United States.Botero's work can be found in forty-six museums. Among the most prominent are: The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, Venezuela; Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; The Museum of Modern Art New York; Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany; and The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Many books have been published on Botero's work in English, Spanish, French, German Italian, Chinese and Japanese. The Museum of Antioquia was founded in 1881 and was the first in the region, only the second museum in Colombia and one of the first South American museum's to feature an art room. In the first 60 years, the collection consisted mostly of objects representing important historical moments of Antioquia and Colombia. However, during the twentieth century, with the help of the Society of Public Improvements in Medellin, the museum began to expand its collection and displays of art. In 1975 the institution received the picture "Ex voto" from the Medellin-born Fernando Boteroa, and this paved the way for a close relationship, with Botero making further donations in the following years. Today the museum has a collection of over 5,000 pieces ranging from archaeological to contemporary art, spanning all eras of the history of Colombia. The building has an area of 14,500 m2, distributed over 4 floors. It is located in the historic center of town and was declared an Architectural Heritage of the Nation and restored in the 1990's by the Antioquia Railway Foundation. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.museodeantioquia.org.co

The Kirkland Museum surveys the nationally important Art History of Colorado Posted: 07 Apr 2012 11:38 PM PDT Denver, Colorado.- The Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art in Denver is pleased to present "Colorado Art Survey VII" on view at the museum from April 7th through September 2nd. Kirkland Museum's new exhibition continues the survey the nationally important art history of Colorado. Their visitors last year (from 37 foreign countries and 49 states) were fascinated to see Colorado art in depth, which they had not seen anywhere else.  Drawing from the museum's unparalleled and still growing collection of 4,610 works of art by 473 Colorado artists, three of Kirkland Museum's Colorado art exhibitions have received articles in American Art Review magazine. Colorado Art Survey VII features 160 paintings, prints and drawings by 128 artists, of which 51 works (32%) have never been shown at Kirkland Museum and another 20 works (12%) have been off view for over a year or more—all from the permanent collection.  Works in this exhibition date from 1875 to 2006.

All Visual Arts to show "Masakatsu Kondo ~ Whenever I am Silent" Posted: 07 Apr 2012 11:11 PM PDT London.- All Visual Arts are proud to introduce an exhibition of paintings by acclaimed Japanese artist, Masakatsu Kondo. "Whenever I am Silent", on view at the gallery from May 4th through May 31st, is a meditation on the artifice of nature, exploring the space between the perceived and the real.  From still, unsettling landscapes inspired by traditional Japanese composition to the more lyrical new works being exhibited for the first time. Kondo's paintings draw on the natural world and symbolic imagery of contemporary media; landscapes that adhere to the imagined, idealised notion of how they should appear. The artist opens up an inquisition of the world presented to us, particularly within an urban metropolis where 'natural' landscapes are architectures of the imagination. Kondo constructs subtly enhanced and engineered scenery suggestive of a peculiarly modern sense of isolation.

Jonathan LeVine Gallery shows new works by Nicola Verlato Posted: 07 Apr 2012 10:38 PM PDT New York City.- Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present "How the West Was Won", a series of new oil paintings on canvas and panel by Italian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Nicola Verlato, in what will be his first solo exhibition at the gallery. "How the West Was Won" will be on view at the gallery through May 5th. Verlato's dramatic allegorical compositions are rendered with remarkable use of perspective, reminiscent of the Renaissance-era. The show title, How the West Was Won, refers to the culture clash between monotheism and polytheism throughout human history, a battle that the artist believes to be at the very roots of the development of western civilization. In Verlato's words: "Figurative art is intrinsically related to a polytheistic attitude (cult of idols) while the monotheistic one prohibits graven images, as written in the bible. Monotheism clearly won in most aspects of western culture but polytheism still survives in pop culture."

The Hood Museum of Art explores José Clemente Orozco's impact on Jackson Pollock's work Posted: 07 Apr 2012 09:33 PM PDT HANOVER, NH.- This spring, the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, joins in a worldwide celebration of the centenary of Jackson Pollock's birth in 1912. In partnership with the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, New York, the museum presents Men of Fire: José Clemente Orozco and Jackson Pollock, an exhibition that explores the crucial importance of Orozco's murals for the American artist. The exhibition also marks the eightieth anniversary of Dartmouth's famous mural The Epic of American Civilization, which Orozco began painting for Baker Library's reserve reading room in 1932. Men of Fire will be on view from April 7th through June 17th, with an opening reception on Friday, April 13th, at 5:00 PM. The exhibition will then travel to the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and will be on view there from August 2 until October 27th. In the summer of 1936, twenty-four-year-old Jackson Pollock made the trip from New York City to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, to see Orozco's recently completed mural cycle. The mural was a revelation to him, and, in the years following this trip, Pollock engaged with themes found in Orozco's masterpiece, including myth, ritual, sacrifice, and the creative and destructive power of fire. Men of Fire assembles the paintings, drawings, and prints that Pollock created following his momentous trip to Dartmouth. Most were made between 1938 and 1941, at a time when Pollock's engagement with Orozco's art was at its most pronounced. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity not only to see many of these works together for the first time but also to compare them with the Orozco mural that inspired them, just a short walk across the Dartmouth Green. The mural will be represented in the exhibition by several rarely seen preparatory studies—drawings in pencil, charcoal, and gouache—that will present the work of these two great modern artists side-by-side. "When most people think of Jackson Pollock, they think of his large-scale abstract 'drip' paintings of the late 1940s," said Hood Museum of Art director Michael Taylor. "Men of Fire will, for the first time, focus attention on this lesser-known, transformative period in Pollock's career, a time when he immersed himself in the work of José Clemente Orozco. It is clear that the experience of seeing Orozco's mural at Dartmouth had an enormous impact on Pollock's subsequent work." "Men of Fire is the culmination of our year-long Pollock centenary celebrations," remarked Helen A. Harrison, director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. "Our only Pollock painting, known as Composition with Red Arc and Horses, strongly reflects Orozco's influence. The exhibition examines that relationship, which was crucial to Pollock's development. By pairing Pollock's art with Orozco's, Men of Fire enhances the understanding of both artists' contributions to twentieth-century art of the Americas." Pollock's painting Untitled (Bald Woman with Skeleton), about 1938–41, is perhaps the best example of Pollock's fascination with the Dartmouth mural and displays many of the elements of Orozco's work that most appealed to him. The painting depicts a skeletal figure with an ambiguous, hybrid anatomy lying across a white, stage-like ledge, as a female figure crouches above. The skeletal figure allowed Pollock to reinvent the sacrificial ritual scenes that are abundant in the Dartmouth mural, particularly the skeleton giving birth to dead knowledge in the section known as "Gods of the Modern World." Other Pollock works from this period, such as the Tate Gallery's magnificent Naked Man with Knife, about 1938–40, which returns to the United States for the first time to be part of this exhibition, also depict violent scenes of ritual sacrifice likely inspired by Orozco's Dartmouth mural panels. Orozco's imagery, divorced from any social or political meaning, arguably enabled Pollock to develop a vocabulary with which to express his experience of psychic trauma in visual terms. The title of the exhibition and catalogue references Orozco's famous fresco Man of Fire, painted for the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara from 1937 to 1939. The theme of fire—a powerful instrument of destruction and creation, and a symbol of renewal and rebirth—was frequently used by both Pollock and Orozco. Many of Pollock's works from this period were derived from an understanding of the symbolic use of flame that he drew, in some part, from his study of Orozco's murals. Pollock's The Flame, painted about 1934–38, for example, shows a white skeletal figure engulfed in vibrant orange, yellow, and red licks of fire, recalling in turn the fiery background of "Gods of the Modern World." Flames and fire, either referenced in some abstracted form through color or brushstroke, or more directly stated in the subject matter of the work, exist in many of the works assembled in this much-anticipated exhibition. Ultimately, both Orozco and Pollock, as Promethean artists, turned a critical eye to the traumas of the modern world to conjure imagery that would endure as a marker of a period of global economic depression and war. Visit the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College : http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/

Columbia Museum of Art donated gift of 594 works from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:46 PM PDT COLUMBIA, SC.- The Columbia Museum of Art is the recipient of 594 works of art from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, internationally recognized collectors of contemporary art. This substantial collection represents work in various media by 27 different artists including Richard Artschwager, Michael Lucero, Lucio Pozzi, Pat Steir, Daryl Trivieri, among others. Thirteen of these artists are not currently represented in the Museum's collection. The work of Trivieri and Pozzi comprises the bulk of the gift, and each artist is a master of a variety of media. Trivieri is at home with a ballpoint pen as he is with a motor-driven airbrush. His subjects include fantastic animals rendered with uncanny technical precision as well as ghostly, cloud-like portraits that fade away at the edges. Pozzi is an artist of limitless energy, at one moment creating a series of squares arranged on boldly painted blue backgrounds, and the next moment painting a brightly-colored seascape from up high on an Italian bluff. It is characteristic of contemporary artists that they drift from one medium to another, experimenting with many and mastering several.

MIT dedicates monumental sculpture by internationally renowned artist Cai Guo-Qiang Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:45 PM PDT CAMBRIDGE, MASS.- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announces the dedication of Ring Stone (2010) by internationally renowned artist Cai Guo-Qiang. The monumental white granite sculpture is the artist's first public work of art for a university campus. Located in the north garden adjacent to the MIT Sloan School of Management, the artwork celebrates the Sloan School's educational and cultural ties with China and will be on permanent display. A public dedication of Ring Stone will take place May 10th at 6:30PM at the site of the sculpture, where artist Cai Guo-Qiang will be in attendance. Preceding the dedication, the artist will be the keynote speaker for the MIT China Forum at 5:30PM in the MIT Wong Auditorium. The Forum is free and open to the public. Ring Stone was commissioned for the MIT Sloan School of Management as part of the MIT Percent-for-Art, a program overseen by the MIT List Visual Arts Center. An initiative begun in 1968, the MIT Percent-for-Art allots funds from each new building project or major renovation to commission or purchase art for a public space. In addition to funding by the MIT Sloan School of Management, the work was made possible through generous donations from the Annie Wong Art Foundation and the Robert D. ('64) and Sara-Ann Sanders family.

Paintings, sculptures & installation by Valerie Hegarty opens at Marlborough Chelsea Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:31 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Marlborough Chelsea presents Altered States, a solo exhibition of new paintings, sculptures and installation by Valerie Hegarty, at the gallery, located at 545 West 25th Street, NYC.The show's title "Altered States" has several references including a play on The United States of America and its current political climate, Hegarty's continuing investigation in transformation, and Paddy Chayefsky's 1978 science fiction novel and subsequent horror film adaptation where the protagonist's mind experiments causes him to morph physically. The state of objects, where form is unclassifiable due to a period of transition, permeates Hegarty's new series of meticulously fabricated deconstructions of paintings, furniture and a rug from America's colonial era. Hegarty's installation work of torn paper walls and floors function to extend the frame of these ciphers of history.

Inaugural Art Wynwood Contemporary Art Fair opens in Miami Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:20 PM PDT Miami, Florida.- Art Miami, LLC. is pleased to announce its confirmed exhibitor list in association with the launch of Art Wynwood, taking place President's Day Weekend, February 16th through 20th. Held in the spacious 100,000-square-foot Art Miami Pavilion, which attracted more than 55,000 attendees during the 2011 edition of Art Miami, the inaugural five-day International Contemporary Art Fair will showcase a compelling array of cutting-edge, contemporary and modern artwork by both emerging and established artists from more than 50 galleries, including "the flying murals of Wynwood" commissioned by the district's own Tony Goldman. Art Wynwood will feature paintings, photography, sculpture, art video and new media, conceptual art and urban street art by 500 artists from 13 countries: Argentina, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, the Netherlands, Venezuela, United Kingdom and the United States. With representation from 100 cities from around the world, including 50 across the U.S., Art Wynwood will further distinguish the Wynwood Arts District as a leading cultural destination for acquiring contemporary art. A VIP Private Preview will be held in celebration of the opening on Thursday, February 16th. Capturing the essence of what the Wynwood Arts District and the Miami Art scene have to offer is paramount. Notably, Tony Goldman, who has been a driving force in the evolution of the arts and warehouse district of Wynwood, will exhibit what he describes as "the flying murals of Wynwood" in the fair's VIP Lounge.  Under his guidance, six 8' x 24' murals by international artists, including a Retna work from the Janet and Tony Goldman Collection, an existing piece from How & Nosm, as well as new murals from DAZE, Aiko and Futura, will be installed. Goldman will also be an integral part of Art Wynwood's soon-to-be-announced host committee, which will be comprised of industry leaders in the art, design and media worlds from Miami and beyond. The following galleries have been confirmed for participation: 101/exhibit, Miami, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York, ACA Galleries, New York, Aldo de Sousa Gallery,Buenos Aires, Arcature Fine Art, Palm Beach, Art Nouveau, Miami, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami , Black & White Gallery, New York, BlueLeaf Gallery, Dublin, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Contessa Gallery, Cleveland, Cynthia-Reeves, New York, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, De Buck Gallery, New York , Dean Project, New York, Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, Dot Fiftyone Gallery, Miami, Durban Segnini Gallery, Miami, Forum Gallery, New York, Galerie Leroyer, Montreal, Galerie Von Braunbehrens, Munich, Hardcore Art Contemporary Space, Miami, Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Kavachnina Contemporary, Miami, Lausberg Contemporary, Dusseldorf, Leslie Smith Gallery, Amsterdam, Magnan Metz Gallery, New York, Mark Borghi Fine Art, New York, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, Mindy Solomon Gallery, ST. Petersburg, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York, Now Contemporary Art, Miami, Olyvia Fine Art, London, Pace Prints, New York, Pan American Art Projects, Miami, PRIVEEKOLLEKTIE, Heusdenaan de Maas, Rudolf Budja Gallery LLC, Miami, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, Tresart, Coral Gables, Unix Fine Art, London, Villa Del Arte Galleries, Barcelona, Waltman Ortega Fine Art, Miami-Paris, Waterhouse & Dodd, London, Westwood Gallery, New York and Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam Art Miami, LLC is a partnership consisting of art and media industry veterans Nick Korniloff, Mike Tansey and Brian Tyler. Art Miami LLC produces Art Miami (www.art-miami.com), Miami's longest running contemporary show. Visit the Art Wynwood website at ... http://www.art-wynwood.com

The Walters Art Museum To Show "Setting Sail: Drawings of the Sea" Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:19 PM PDT Baltimore, MD.- The Walters Art Museum is pleased to present "Setting Sail: Drawings of the Sea from the Walters' Collection", on view from June 18th through September 11th. "Setting Sail" features drawings, paintings, and prints of ships, sailors and the sea from the permanent collection of the Walters. The sea, and the men and women who make their living from it, have provided subjects for art from ancient times until the present day.

Figurative Paintings From the La Caixa Foundation Collection on View Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:18 PM PDT BARCELONA.- The La Caixa Foundation has cleaned the dust from its contemporary art collection, which was started in 1985, to show at CaixaForum in Barcelona the revitalization the painting experienced in the 1980s from the hand of artists such as Miquel Barceló and Ferran García Sevilla. The exhibition "Figurations" comprises 12 large works of art, owned by the private entity, many of which had never before been seen in Barcelona or only in the exhibition "26 Painters, 13 Critics: Panorama of Young Spanish Painting" that was organized in 1982. For "Figurations", which will remain on view through September 27, the most expressionist was selected, and not only from Spanish artists: Anselm Kiefer, with his Dionysius the Aeropagite - Hierarchy of Angels (1984-1986) Italian Enzo Cucchi, with a remembrance of Arthur Rimbaud in exile, and American Julian Schnabel, with The Quixote Meets Corleone (1983), are some of them.

Alphonse Maria Mucha Was Honored With a Google Doodle Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:17 PM PDT Art Knowledge News -Alphonse Maria Mucha, (July 24, 1860- July 14, 1939), was an incredibly talented Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist whose 150th birthday is being celebrated today with a gift from Google: a Google Doodle. Mucha was most known for his distinct style of paintings, illustrations, advertisements, and designs; mostly of women. See his Google Doodle below.

The Pinacothèque de Paris to present Valadon and Utrillo ~ Mother & Son Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:16 PM PDT   PARIS - The Pinacothèque de Paris is putting on an important exhibition of works by Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo; mother and son. This exhibition will take place between March 6th and September 15th, 2009, and will show about fifty works by each of these artists. An exhibition on this scale has never before been seen in Paris. Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo's story is that of the turn of the century in Montmartre. This mother and son "couple", untypical and bohemian, was at the heart of a whole artistic world that was mid-way between two periods, between two worlds. It illustrates how Impressionism, a bourgeois and comfortably settled movement came to beget, by means of one its most beautiful muses – Suzanne Valadon –, the School of Paris alongside one its most symbolic artists: Maurice Utrillo. It is also the story of the painful passage from a time of artists born into the middle classes to a new group of artists born into much more working class families. These "new" artists were sometimes heavily handicapped psychologically, and found their conditions as artists difficult to live with, a situation not encountered since Van Gogh. A case in point was Maurice Utrillo who went from the purely painterly, impressionistic, tradition (the "Montmagny" period) to the outburst of color ("white period") points up the difficulty for these artists to adapt themselves to a world in the throes of an industrial mutation, like the district in which they chose to settle: Montmartre, an area in constant rebuilding during Utrillo's time. A strong-willed woman, Suzanne Valadon found her niche in the almost exclusively male artistic world. An occasional model but a federating figure in the art world at the end of the 19th century, she posed among others for Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. Degas having strongly urged her to carry out her artistic destiny, she swiftly confirmed her talent as a powerful and innovative artist. Having become a mother at the age of eighteen, she transmitted her passion to her son. Always linked to the Parisian bohemian scene on account of his eccentric lifestyle, Utrillo was, thanks to his outstanding periods – "Montmagny" and the "White period" (1910-1914) – immediately regarded as one of the symbols of the School of Paris, the equal of Modigliani or Soutine. It was during those two great periods – that the Pinacothèque de Paris has chosen to put on exclusively – that Utrillo was to express the quintessence of his art in a few years. He showed great virtuosity in his approach to Paris and its districts with a totally new manner, with his topographical approach, simultaneously continuing the works by the Douanier Rousseau, the Impressionists and the Fauves, in which he combined his vision of the city, outbursts of color and naive art. The specific exchange that took place between this mother and her son is translated through their common love of painting as well as in their mutual admiration. And so we find in the Pinacothèque de Paris a selection of the best paintings by these artists, shown together in the form of a dialogue, no matter how intimate, recreating the Parisian flavor of the period. Visit the Pinacothèque de Paris at : http://www.pinacotheque.com/

Denver Art Museum hosts Impressionist Plein-Air Landscape Paintings Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:15 PM PDT DENVER, CO - Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism celebrates the great outdoors with some of the finest examples of mid- and late-19th century French and American landscape paintings. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art with works from its own collection, this traveling exhibition offers a broad survey of landscape painting as practiced by renowned artists including Monet, Courbet, Daubigny, Renoir, William Glackens,  and Sargent. Opening at the Denver Art Museum on June 13, 2008, Landscapes features 40 paintings and will continue through September 7, 2008.

Martín Riwnyj solos at Rivergarden Gallery Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:14 PM PDT   Denville, NJ – Rivergarden Gallery in Denville, New Jersey is proud to present "Fantasmas" the work of internationally acclaimed Argentine artist Martín Riwnyj which will be on view from Monday January 14th through Wednesday April 9th. With Ukrainian and Italic ancestry Martín has what Rafael Squirru calls the mystic vein of the Slavic world, which he displays in his urban landscape inspired paintings in which human and animal figures move like ghosts through a dream.

The Gemeentemuseum Presents Picasso in The Hague Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:13 PM PDT THE HAGUE, NL - If anyone deserves to be called the 'artist of the twentieth century', that man is Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973). The exhibition Picasso in The Hague covers his entire career and reveals his untiring urge to experiment. The works on show will include not only oil paintings, but sculpture, drawings, prints and ceramics. In addition, Roberto Otero's photographs of the mediagenic artist will provide an intimate insight into his turbulent life, in which work and private life were invariably closely intertwined. On exhibition through 30 March, 2008. The earliest item in the exhibition is a sketch which Picasso made of his father in 1899, when he was only eighteen. Other early drawings and paintings illustrate his early years in Paris, when he was still in search of an individual style and taking his lead from French painters like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. The 1901 painting 'Café in Montmartre' is a good example of his work during this period. The impressive 1904 etching 'The Frugal Repast' was Picasso's first print and is regarded as marking the end of his famous 'Blue Period'. His Cubist phase will be represented by various masterpieces, such as 'Girl with a Mandolin' (1910), and his Classical Period, when his paintings contained references to classical antiquity, by large compositions like 'Harlequin with Folded Hands' (1923). The period of the Spanish Civil War and World War II are likewise included. The monumental portrait 'Woman with an Artichoke' (1942) and the 'View of Notre Dame' (1945) are fine examples of his output at this time. In his famous 100-print 'Vollard Suite' (1930-1937), to be exhibited in its entirety, Picasso examines the relationship between the artist, the model and the final work of art. Is it the artist or the model who determines the visual image? Or is it the idea of the model that provides the catalyst for the creation of the image? The 'Vollard Suite' is an ode both to one of Picasso's mistresses, Marie Thérèse, and to art itself. Among the sculptures on show will be 'The Crane' (1952), generally regarded as one of his greatest achievements in this field. At the height of his fame, Pablo Picasso suddenly threw himself into ceramics. The exhibition shows how he drew inspiration from classical antiquity, from mythology and from other cultures, and how he created – within a mere decade – an impressive ceramic oeuvre displaying the same themes as his paintings and drawings. The main emphasis in the exhibition is on Picasso's late works. The artist continued to work compulsively right up to his death in 1973 and his undiminished creativity in his final years will be demonstrated not only by large oils like 'Recumbent Nude with Bird' or 'Musketeer and Cupid' (1969), but also by a number of small, intimate pastels and felt pen drawings. This exhibition is being organized in partnership with the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, where an exhibition called Mondrian in Cologne will be held simultaneously. Picasso in The Hague will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue (published by Waanders).   Visit The Gemeentemuseum at :  www.gemeentemuseum.nl/?langId=en

The École de Nancy Museum Presents the Art Nouveau Works of Jacques Gruber Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:12 PM PDT Nancy, France.- The École de Nancy Museum is proud to present "Jacques Gruber and Art Nouveau: A Decorative Path", on view at the Galeries Poirel from September 16th through January 22nd 2012. The museum has assembed more than 150 of Gruber's works, including posters and paintings, decorative pieces and furniture, but pride of place goes to the magnificent stained-glass works for which Gruber became most famous. Works have come from museums and private collectors in the Nancy area (where Gruber lived and worked), but also from major museum collections further afield, including Musée d'Orsay, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Royal Art and History in Brussels.

International Design Museum Munich presents The Schoonhoven Silver Award 2009 Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:11 PM PDT MUNICH.- "Poetry in Silver" is the motto of this year's 4th Schoonhoven Silver Award, which Japanese artist Hiroshi Suzuki won. Given its especially strict selection criteria the competition, which was first launched in 2002, has become a forum for leading silversmith artists from all over the world. The Jury admitted 51 of the 135 applicants to the competition including participants from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and the United States. Of those admitted 47 submitted objects from the broad spectrum between free and applied art.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art debuts " Paris 1900 " Posted: 07 Apr 2012 08:10 PM PDT   Oklahoma City, OK - The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will be the one and only venue for Paris 1900, opening December 20, 2007 through March 2, 2008. Bringing together more than 100 paintings, prints, posters, ceramics, decorative objects, and sculptures, the exhibition reveals the height of the Paris art scene at the turn of the twentieth century. "The 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, which celebrated the opening of the new century, emphasized the arts and is associated with the maturation of the complex and sensual beauty of the convoluted style of art, architecture, and interior design known as art nouveau," said Hardy George. "The exhibition will show the very interesting variety and extraordinary quality of the wide range of art forms associated with fin de siècle Paris." Paris 1900 explores important aspects of the art nouveau movement, while delving into other artistic and technological innovations that caused Paris to emerge as the center of artistic creativity as well as how advancements in the arts produced such a culturally rich period in history. It includes key artists and leading poster makers, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, and Jules Chéret, whose works drew attention to everything from performances at the Moulin Rouge to new commercial products. The exhibition introduces this period with large photographs of interiors designed by artists under the guidance of art dealer Siegfried Bing. Bing's Maison de l'Art Nouveau, which was presented in the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, featured rooms designed by leading artists and designers of the period, such as Edward Colonna, Georges de Feure, and Eugene Gaillard. Bing encouraged artists to work together in creating unified and organic interiors and was prominent in the introduction of Japanese art to the West. To show the direct influence of Japanese art, four color woodblock prints by Japanese artist And? Hiroshige as well as Bing's Japon Artistique with turn-of-the-century interpretations of the prints are included in Paris 1900. The Japanese prints illustrate the very different use of perspective, expressive color, and line that had been used by artists since the Renaissance. The incorporation of this style into European art can be seen in many of the ceramics, paintings, and posters by artists working in Paris around 1900. Paris 1900 features fine examples of art pottery by French master potters such as Adrien Pierre Dalpayrat, Paul Jeanneney, Edmond Lachenal, and Ernest Chaplet. Their skillful and inventive designs, many of which were presented in the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, helped further the international renaissance of the applied arts. The exhibition includes works by Lachenal that reveal the number of different historical styles that were being used. Nymph and Lily Vase by Agnes de Frumerie for Lachenal is one of the more interesting examples of how sculpture and ceramics were combined in art pottery. Several paintings by Charles Guilloux highlight the influences of early-nineteenth-century Japanese art. Guilloux's L'Inondation, a dreamy landscape composed of rows of trees and water, brings to mind the simplified design, soft tones, and atmospheric effects of And? Hiroshige's prints, seen previously in the exhibition. Other key painters include Charles Maurin, Maurice Denis, and Alphonse Osbert, whose subjects and styles are quite varied, ranging from Maurin's sphinx-like femme fatale to the angelic mortals in Denis's mural paintings and the classical figures of Osbert. The subject of dreams and dream-like states permeates many paintings from the late nineteenth century. It was an interest that also can be found in the early psychological studies of hypnosis and the related investigation of the unconscious by Dr. Jean Martin Charcot, of whom Sigmund Freud was a pupil. Paris 1900 concludes with key works by some of the most important poster and magazine cover designers of the period. These artists depicted everything from theater, circus, and cabaret performances to advertisements for soap, cigarettes, and publications, approaching their subjects in a unique way that redefined commercial art. The graphic works by these artists also made the connection between Japanese and eighteenth-century French art. One such work is Jules Chéret's Jardin de Paris. This work features costumed figures inspired by the Parisian theater of the eighteenth century, along with decorative lines and flat fields of bright color reminiscent of Japanese prints. Other pioneering graphic artists included are Georges de Feure, Alphonse Mucha, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The exhibition is organized by the Museum and co-curated by Hardy S. George, museum chief curator, and Gabriel P. Weisberg, professor of art history at the University of Minnesota. Accompanying the exhibition is a 176-page, four color catalogue with essays by Hardy S. George, Gabriel P. Weisberg, Elizabeth Fowler, and Sarah Sik. The Oklahoma City Museum of Art, located in the heart of the downtown Arts District, 415 Couch Drive east of the Civic Center Music Hall. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm; Thursday, 10am-9pm; Sunday, Noon-5pm and closed on Mondays and major holidays. more information, call (405) 236-3100, ext. 237 or visit online at www.okcmoa.com

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 07 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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