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• Please Excuse Our 24 Hour Delay For Maintenance
• Our Editor Re-Visits The Musee du Louvre In Paris ~ The Most Visited Art Museum In The World ~ More than 8 Million Visitors Every Year
• The Kunsthalle Bremen Presents Exhibitions Featuring Edvard Munch
• The Skirball Cultural Center Presents the Art and Magic of Harry Houdini
• Metropolitan Museum of Art announces A Landmark Picasso Exhibition
• Tate Liverpool to show 'William Blake ~ The River of Life'
• Whitechapel Gallery Opens Retrospective of Influential Painter Alice Neel
• New Museum Presents C.L.U.E. (Color Location Ultimate Experience)
• The Kunstmuseum in Bern (Switzerland) ~ and The Zentrum Paul Klee Receive Our Editor
• Pioneering Abstract Impressionist Esteban Vincente at The Meadows Museum
• The Reynolda House Museum of American Art Shows Modern Masters from the Smithsonian
• The Prado Museum Announces Presentation of Its Collection in Australia
• Gagosian Gallery features Mike Kelley's First NY Show Devoted to Painting
• Museum Frieder Burda Dedicates Summer Exhibition to Neo Rauch
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News
• Old Masters, Whistler, Renoir & Picasso among highlights of Swann Galleries Print Auction
• Christie's NY opens the spring jewelry auction season with $40 Million Sale
• Milwaukee Art Museum acquires major work by London Contemporary artist Isaac Julien
• Barry Friedman Ltd to present “Toots Zynsky ~ Crossing Lines”
• “Art Beijing 2012” one of Asia’s most influential Art Fairs opens April 29th

Please Excuse Our 24 Hour Delay For Maintenance Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:48 PM PDT ANNOUNCEMENT: Art Knowledge News will be taking a One Day break during a 24 hour, or less, period required for maintenance of our equipment. We are posting many interesting articles from our archives, some of the BEST Articles and Art Images that appeared in your magazine during the past six plus (6+) years . . and we are also publishing current art news articles on the left hand side under RECENT NEWS .. Enjoy

Our Editor Re-Visits The Musee du Louvre In Paris ~ The Most Visited Art Museum In The World ~ More than 8 Million Visitors Every Year Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:46 PM PDT The Musee du Louvre has dominated central Paris since the late 12th century. Originally built for Philip II of France as an arsenal in 1190, it formed part of the defences built to ensure that Paris would remain safe while Philip II went to fight in the third Crusade. In the years that followed, Paris expanded and enclosed within the growing city, the Louvre lost its defensive function. In 1364, Raymond du Temple, architect to Charles V, began transforming the old fortress into a splendid royal residence. Contemporary miniatures and paintings show marvelous images of the ornately decorated rooftops that graced the new building. A majestic spiral staircase, the "grande vis," served the upper floors, and a pleasure garden was created at the north end. The sumptuous interiors were decorated with sculptures, tapestries, and paneling. In 1546, Francis I renovated the site in French Renaissance style. Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvre's holdings, his many acquisitions including Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". Improvement and extension work on the royal palace continued through to the reign of Louis XIV. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, construction work slowed, but still continued. During this period the Louvre was joined to the nearby Tuileries palace by new wings. In 1791, following the French Revolution, the revolutionary Assemblée Nationale decreed that the "Louvre and the Tuileries together will be a national palace to house the king and for gathering together all the monuments of the sciences and the arts.'' The Louvre first opened its doors to the public on August 10, 1793. Admission was free, with artists given priority over the general public, who were admitted on weekends only. The works, mostly paintings from the collections of the French royal family and aristocrats who had fled abroad, were displayed in the Salon Carré and the Grande Galerie, whilst other parts of the building were used for government offices. Through treaties and the spoils from Napoleon I's conquests, France acquired numerous paintings and antiquities, including major collections from the Vatican and the Venetian republic, all of which went into the newly opened Louvre Museum. The museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon in 1803 and a bust of the emperor by Bartolini was installed over the entrance. Although the collection was diminished by restitutions following Napoleon's defeat, the Louvre remained a public museum and continued to expand. During the Restoration of the monarchy (1814–30), Louis XVIII and Charles X between them added 135 artworks and created the department of Egyptian antiquities. After the creation of the French Second Republic in 1848, the new government allocated two million francs for repair work and ordered the completion of the Galerie d'Apollon, the Salon Carré, and the Grande Galérie. In 1861, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte bought 11,835 artworks including the 641 paintings of the Campana collection. During the Second French Empire, between 1852 and 1870, the French economy grew and by 1870 the museum had added 20,000 new pieces to its collections, and the Pavillon de Flore and the Grande Galérie had been remodelled under architects Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel. In May 1871, during the last days of the Paris Commune, as the army was poised to retake the city the Communards raced to destroy the Hôtel de Ville (city hall), the Cour des Comptes (the seat of France's public finance watchdog), and the Tuileries palace, a potent symbol of monarchy. The resulting fire gutted the palace buildings and threatened the Louvre itself. The demolition of the Tuileries in 1882 marked the birth of the modern Louvre. The palace ceased to be the seat of power and was devoted almost entirely to artworks and culture. Slowly but surely, the museum began to take over the whole of the vast complex of palace buildings. Throughout the twentieth century, the Louvre continued to expand and improve, the French Maritime Museum moved out in 1919, post 1848 artworks moved to the Pompidou Center (modern and contemporary art) and the Musee d'Orsay (impressionist and post-impressionist works) as these opened in 1977 and 1986 respectively. Although the Louvre now specializes in pre-1848 artworks, it has never been afraid to embrace the modern, a prime example of this being the George Braque creation of three ceiling paintings. Commissioned to complement those in the former royal antechamber (produced in 1557 by the wood-carver Scibec de Carpi), the resulting decorative design, The Braque Birds, were inaugurated in 1963. In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed the "Grand Louvre" plan to renovate the building and relocate the Finance Ministry, allowing displays throughout the building. Pritzker Prize winning architect I. M. Pei was awarded the project and proposed a glass pyramid to stand over a new entrance in the main court, the Cour Napoléon. The pyramid and its underground lobby were inaugurated on 15 October 1988. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée (The Inverted Pyramid), was completed in 1993. As of 2002, attendance had doubled since completion. The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 37,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres (652,000 sq ft) dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre exhibits sculptures, objets d'art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. It is the world's most visited museum, averaging more than 8 million visitors per year. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.louvre.fr The Greek, Etruscan, and Roman department displays pieces from the Mediterranean Basin dating from the Neolithic to the 6th century. The collection spans from the Cycladic period to the decline of the Roman Empire. This department is one of the museum's oldest; it began with appropriated royal art, some of which was acquired under Francis I. The Louvre holds masterpieces from the Hellenistic and Roman eras, including The Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BC) and the Venus de Milo, portraits of Agrippa and Annius Verus and the bronze Greek God Apollo of Piombino. The Islamic art collection, the museum's newest, spans "thirteen centuries and three continents". These exhibits, comprising ceramics, glass, metalware, wood, ivory, carpet, textiles, and miniatures, include more than 5,000 works and 1,000 shards. Among the works are the "Pyxide d'al-Mughira", a 10th century ivory box from Andalusia; the Baptistery of Saint-Louis, an engraved brass basin from the 13th or 14 century Mamluk period, and the 10th century "Shroud of Josse" from Iran. The collection contains three pages of the "Shahnameh", an epic book of poems by Ferdowsi in Persian, and a Syrian metalwork named the "Barberini Vase". The Egyptian department comprises over 50,000 pieces, including artifacts from the Nile civilizations between 4,000 BC and the 4th century. The collection, among the world's largest, overviews Egyptian life spanning Ancient Egypt, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, Coptic art, and the Roman, Ptolemaic, and Byzantine periods. The department's origins lie in the royal collection, but it was augmented by Napoleon's 1798 expeditionary trip to Egypt. After Jean-François Champollion translated the Rosetta Stone, King Charles X decreed that an Egyptian Antiquities department be created. Champollion advised the purchase of three collections, the 'Durand', 'Salt' and 'Drovetti', which added 7,000 works. Guarded by the Large Sphinx (c. 2000 BC), the collection is housed in more than 20 rooms. Holdings include art, papyrus scrolls, mummies, tools, clothing, jewelry, antique games, musical instruments, and weapons. Near Eastern antiquities, the second newest department, dates from 1881 and presents an overview of early Near Eastern civilization and "first settlements", before the arrival of Islam. The department is divided into three geographic areas: the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia (Iran). The museum contains exhibits from Sumer and the city of Akkad, with monuments such as the Prince of Lagash's Stele of the Vultures from 2,450 BC and the stele erected by Naram-Suen, King of Akkad, to celebrate a victory over barbarians in the Zagros Mountains. The 2.25-metre "Code of Hammurabi", discovered in 1901, displays Babylonian Laws prominently, so that no man could plead their ignorance. The Persian portion of Louvre contains work from the archaic period, like the Funerary Head and the Persian Archers of Darius I. This section is also contains rare objects from Persepolis in Persia. The sculpture department comprises work created before 1850 that does not belong in the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman department. The Louvre has been a repository of sculpted material since its time as a palace. The collection's overview of French sculpture contains Romanesque works such as the 11th century "Daniel in the Lions' Den" and the 12th century "Virgin of Auvergne". In the 16th century, Renaissance influence caused French sculpture to become more restrained, as seen in Jean Goujon's bas-reliefs, and Germain Pilon's "Descent from the Cross" and "Resurrection of Christ". The 17th and 18th centuries are represented by Étienne Maurice Falconet's "Woman Bathing" and "Amour menaçant" and François Anguier's obelisks. Neoclassical works includes Antonio Canova's "Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss". The collection of sculptures by non-French artists includes Michelangelo's "Dying Slave" and "Rebellious Slave" and Adriaan de Vries' "Mercury and Psyche". The Objets d'art collection contains the coronation crown of Louis XIV, Charles V's sceptre, and a 12th century porphyry vase. The Renaissance art holdings include Giambologna's bronze Nessus and Deianira and the tapestry "Maximillian's Hunt". From later periods, highlights include Madame de Pompadour's Sèvres vase collection and Napoleon III's apartments. The painting collection has more than 6,000 works from the 13th century to 1848. Nearly two-thirds are by French artists, and more than 1,200 are Northern European. The collection began with Francis, who acquired works from Italian masters such as Raphael and Michelangelo, and brought Leonardo da Vinci to his court. Exemplifying the French School are Enguerrand Quarton's "Avignon Pieta", an anonymous painting of King Jean le Bon (possibly the oldest independent portrait in Western painting to survive from the postclassical era), Hyacinthe Rigaud's "Louis XIV", Jacques-Louis David's "The Coronation of Napoleon" and Eugène Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People". Northern European works include Johannes Vermeer's "The Lacemaker" and "The Astronomer", Caspar David Friedrich's "The Tree of Crows", Rembrandt's "The Supper at Emmaus", "Bathsheba at Her Bath", and "The Slaughtered Ox". The Italian holdings are notable, particularly the Renaissance collection. The works include Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini's "Calvarys". The High Renaissance collection includes Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", "Virgin and Child with St. Anne", "St. John the Baptist", and "Madonna of the Rocks". Caravaggio is represented by "The Fortune Teller" and "Death of the Virgin". From 16th century Venice, the Louvre displays Titian's "Le Concert Champetre", "The Entombment" and "The Crowning with Thorns". The prints and drawings department encompasses works on paper. The origins of the collection were the 8,600 works in the Royal Collection (Cabinet du Roi), which were increased via state appropriation, purchases such as the 1,200 works from Fillipo Baldinucci's collection in 1806, and donations. The department opened on 5 August 1797, with 415 pieces displayed in the Galerie d'Apollon. The collection is organized into three sections: the core Cabinet du Roi, 14,000 royal copper printing-plates, and the donations of Edmond de Rothschild, which include 48,000 prints, 3,200 drawings, and 5,500 illustrated books. The holdings are displayed in the Pavillon de Flore; due to the fragility of the paper medium, only a portion are displayed at one time. The Louvre is currently showing 2 comparative exhibitions of sculpture, both of which are showing concurrently until the 25th of April 2011. In the Richelieu wing exhibition gallery is a collection of artworks by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt allowing the visitor to explore the world of this great German sculptor and expert portraitist, whose caustic humor and audacity won the hearts of the contemporary public. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was active in Vienna and Pressburg (now Bratislava) in the late 18th century. As a court sculptor, he executed portraits of members of the imperial family as well as notable intellectuals of his time, but is most celebrated for his series of violently expressive, bizarre and fascinating "character heads", whose originality and verve still captivate viewers today. Sculpted in metal (using alloys composed largely of tin and/or lead) and in alabaster, these heads convey the expressiveness of a master sculptor keen to depict the torments of the soul in all their extreme emotional variety. As a counterpoint to Franz Xaver Messerschmidt retrospectve, the museum plays host to a group of sculptures by the leading British contemporary artist Tony Cragg, under the title "Tony Cragg - Figure out / Figure in". In addition to existing works, the exhibition features a monumental sculpture by the artist, commissioned especially for the exhibition and displayed under the pyramid. The visual dialogue across the centuries between Tony Cragg and Messerschmidt's "character heads" is limited to a single bronze sculpture by this major contemporary sculptor, "Untitled" (2010) which, like the masterpieces of his 18th-century predecessor, through its distortions and superimposed layers, depicts a particularly expressive human face, from a very specific viewpoint. The seven other sculptures selected by Cragg to inhabit the space formed by the Cour Marly and the Cour Puget are of varying dimensions, shapes and types, thus reflecting this sculptor's broad use of materials (bronze, marble, fiberglass, wood), colors (white, red, black) and methods (circumvolutions around a central axis, displacement of oblique and overhanging elements along a lateral plane, accumulation of numerous fine layers, puncturing of surfaces). Sculptures conceived on the same themes, but of different sizes, allow visitors to consider the question of scale, and a sculpture in two parts, Runner, resonates with a number of works in the Louvre's collections.

The Kunsthalle Bremen Presents Exhibitions Featuring Edvard Munch Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:44 PM PDT Bremen, Germany.- The Kunsthalle Bremen is proud to present "Edvard Munch – Mystery behind the Canvas" on view at the museum until February 26th 2012. The first exhibition after the reopening of the Kunsthalle Bremen is devoted to an extraordinary discovery of an unknown painting by Edvard Munch Edvard Munch, hidden for more than a century. An exceptional discovery is the starting point for this major exhibition of the Norwegian pioneer of modern art: In 2005, during an examination of Munch's painting "Dead Mother" (1899), a second canvas was found, displaying a previously unknown painting by the artist: "Girl and Three Male Heads" (1895-98). In 1918, the Kunsthalle's Director Emil Waldmann purchased the aforementioned work for 20.000 marks. It was the first painting by the Norwegian artist to be acquired by a German museum and one of the first ever to enter a public collection. He could not have known that the painting harbored another canvas by Munch – hidden beneath the original one.

The Skirball Cultural Center Presents the Art and Magic of Harry Houdini Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:42 PM PDT Los Angeles, CA.- The Skirball Cultural Center is proud to present "Houdini: Art and Magic, on view through September 4th. Magician, escape artist, and showman extraordinaire Harry Houdini (1874–1926) has remained an object of fascination for generations. Combining biographical and historical artifacts with contemporary art inspired by his physical audacity and celebrity, Houdini: Art and Magic explores Houdini as an individual and an enduring cultural phenomenon, documenting the period in American history when the young Jewish immigrant helped shape the cultural landscape and became an acknowledged mass-market star. Featuring more than 150 objects — including film clips, stunning period posters, dramatic theater ephemera, rare photographs, original props (including a straitjacket, milk can, and Metamorphosis Trunk used by Houdini), and the work of select avant-garde artists — the exhibition reveals Houdini's legacy as an iconic figure, both in his time and in ours, who has inspired artists today to reconsider his role as a daring persona.

Metropolitan Museum of Art announces A Landmark Picasso Exhibition Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:39 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA a landmark exhibition of 150 works by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973), will present an unprecedented opportunity to view the Met's extensive collection of the artist's work. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 27, 2010, this first exhibition to focus exclusively on works by Picasso in the collection will reveal the Museum's complete holdings of the artist's paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics—never before seen in their entirety—as well as a significant selection of his prints. The exhibition encompasses the key subjects that variously sustained the artist's interest: the pensive harlequins of his Blue and Rose periods, the faceted figures and tabletop still lifes of his Cubist years, the monumental heads and classicizing bathers of the 1920s, the raging bulls and dreaming nudes of the 1930s, and the rakish musketeers of his final years. Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art will feature 34 paintings, 58 drawings, a dozen sculptures and ceramics, and a representative selection of prints (some 50 from a total of 400), all acquired by the Museum over the past 60 years. Importantly, the exhibition includes many works on paper by Picasso that have rarely, if ever, been exhibited before at the Metropolitan. Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art continues the Museum's tradition of organizing major exhibitions that bring to light its impressive collection of works by a singular artist or period of particular importance, such as Goya in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1995); Toulouse-Lautrec in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1996); John Singer Sargent Beyond the Portrait Studio: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Collection (2000); Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic (2002); and The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2007–8). The Metropolitan's collection reflects the full breadth of Picasso's multi-sided genius as it asserted itself over the course of his long and influential career. The works range in date from a dashing self-portrait of 1900 (Self-Portrait "Yo") by the 19-year-old Spaniard to the fanciful Standing Nude and Seated Musketeer (1968), created when the artist was 87. Picasso's iconic portrait of Gertrude Stein from 1906—a bequest of the writer herself in 1946—was the first painting by Picasso to be acquired by the Metropolitan. Over the next six decades, the holdings were shaped by a succession of purchases and gifts from more than 25 donors, among them other pioneering champions of modernism, such as Alfred Stieglitz and Scofield Thayer, and such illustrious collectors as Florene M. Schoenborn, Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, and Jacques and Natasha Gelman. The Metropolitan's collection of Picasso's works also stands apart for its exceptional cache of drawings, which remain relatively little known, despite their importance and number. Examples of the numerous compelling drawings in the exhibition are: Standing Female Nude (1910), one of the key works shown in Picasso's first U.S. exhibition, at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery in 1911; and Head of a Woman (1922), a powerful chalk drawing from his Neoclassical period, which lasted from 1918 to 1925. The collection is notable for its remarkable constellation of early figure paintings, which also include: Seated Harlequin (1901), from the beginning of his Blue period; At the Lapin Agile(1905), in which the artist depicts himself dressed as a melancholy harlequin; and a self-portrait from 1906 that reflects Picasso's encounters with African and Iberian sculpture. Among the many other celebrated paintings in the exhibition are Woman in White (1923), The Dreamer (1932), and Dora Maar in an Armchair (1939). In preparation for this exhibition, all of Picasso's works in the collection have been studied closely, and many were conserved to reveal the artist's intentions or to restore their physical integrity. The exhibition will disclose a number of exciting discoveries made during the conservation process. Complementing the presentation of the artist's works will be photographs of Picasso by Man Ray, Brassaï, and others, also drawn from the Museum's collection. The exhibition is organized by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Chairman, with Susan Alyson Stein, Curator, both of the Metropolitan's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art.  Visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA at : http://www.metmuseum.org/

Tate Liverpool to show 'William Blake ~ The River of Life' Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:36 PM PDT LONDON.- At the end of 2008, Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture, Tate Liverpool is presenting a display of major works by William Blake (1757-1827), the renowned painter, printmaker, poet and mystical philosopher. Largely ignored in his own lifetime, Blake is today regarded as one of the great geniuses of British art, appealing to a universal audience. On view from 12 December 2008 until 22 March 2009, the Wolfson gallery will house selected William Blake masterpieces, in a spellbinding display that re-considers the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Whitechapel Gallery Opens Retrospective of Influential Painter Alice Neel Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:35 PM PDT LONDON.- The Whitechapel Gallery presents the first major retrospective of influential 20th century American painter Alice Neel. Alice Neel (1900–1984) is best known for her portraits of celebrated artists and writers from New York, including Andy Warhol, Frank O'Hara, Meyer Shapiro and Linda Nochlin. A self-proclaimed 'collector of souls', she painted friends, family and neighbours in the Manhattan district of Spanish Harlem, delving into their personalities with rare frankness. Undeterred by a turbulent personal life that included a year of hospitalisation following a nervous breakdown, and the destruction in 1934 of over 250 paintings and drawings, it was only in her later years that she gained widespread recognition. On view until 17 September.

New Museum Presents C.L.U.E. (Color Location Ultimate Experience) Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:34 PM PDT   NEW YORK, NY - This fall, the New Museum on the Bowery presents "C.L.U.E. (color location ultimate experience), Part 1, 2007," a special project coinciding with major surveys of work by painters Mary Heilmann and Elizabeth Peyton. A collaboration between artist A.L. Steiner and movement artists' robbinschilds (Layla Childs and Sonya Robbins), "C.L.U.E." morphs and changes to accommodate the spaces it temporarily occupies. In its rebirth at the New Museum, it takes the form of site-specific performance, multi-channel video and video projection, created specifically for the museum's unique gallery located on its interior staircase between the fourth and third floor galleries.

The Kunstmuseum in Bern (Switzerland) ~ and The Zentrum Paul Klee Receive Our Editor Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:32 PM PDT Outstanding works by Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Ferdinand Hodler and Meret Oppenheim have made the Museum of Fine Arts Bern an institution with an international reputation and well worth a visit. At the present time, the constantly growing and evolving collection consists of over 3,000 paintings and sculptures as well as 48,000 drawings, prints, photographs, videos and films. The roots of the museum's history reach back to the revolutionary ideas proliferating in Europe towards the end of the 18th century which, in 1809, led to the founding of the National Art Collection in Bern and, in 1879, to the opening of the first museum building. The Museum of Fine Arts Bern is the oldest art museum in Switzerland with a permanent collection and houses works covering eight centuries, making it not only one of the most important and variegated collections in Switzerland but, due to its substantial collection of works from the classical modern period, also one of international significance. The present building in the Hodlerstrasse was built between 1876 and1879 under the guidance of architect Eugen Stettler. Between 1932 and1936 under the guidance of the architect Karl Indermühle (from the firm of Salvisberg & Brechbühl), the museum was extended. In 1983, the local Bern architects Atelier 5 designed a further extension. Currently the museum are planning yet another expansion, to improve the facilities available for displaying its expanding collection of contemporary art. The museum has close ties to the nearby Paul Klee Center, and hosted the Paul Klee Foundation's collection until they moved to their own, new building. The Paul Klee Cultural Centre, Bern was designed by Ptitzker award winning architect Renzo Piano, and opened in 2005. Around 4,200 of Paul Klee's paintings, watercolours and drawings as well as archives and biographical material, have been brought together at the Centre, which also hosts exhibitions and cultural events. It is currently jointly hosting "Lust and Vice: The Seven Deadly Sins from Dürer to Nauman" with the Kunstmuseum Bern. The exhibition provides a fascinating record of artistic preoccupation with this theme from medieval times to the present day. "Lust and Vice: The Seven Deadly Sins from Dürer to Nauman" also addresses the relevance of the notion of sin in contemporary society and how our culture justifies changes in values. The exhibition is split between the two venues, with pride, avarice, envy and anger at the Kunstmuseum, lust, gluttony and sloth displayed at the Paul Klee Centre. Visitors to Bern should not miss visiting both of these oustanding museums. Visit both museum's websites : http://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch ; and the Paul Klee Cultural Centre (Zentrum Paul Klee) at: www.zpk.org/ Highlights of the museum's collection include a unique group of 14th and 15th century Italian paintings featuring works by the Sienese painter Duccio di Buoninsegna. The early modern period is represented by outstanding works of local Berne artists from the late Gothic through to the realism of the 19th Century, including paintings by Niklaus Manuel, Joseph Heintz , Joseph Plepp , Kauw Albrecht and Joseph Werner. The museum also contains a significant collection of works by Albert Anker (often referred to as Switzerland's "National Painter" for his popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss village life). The growth of modern art from the mid-19th Century onwards is well represented with an international quality collection, including individual works by Manet, Cézanne, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. Significant groups of works representing cubism, the "Blue Rider" group of artists from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (Munich), "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) - Dresden group, Bauhaus and Surrealism are held by the museum and presented in coherent groupings. Local Swiss artists are very well represented with multiple works by Ferdinand Hodler, Cuno Amiet and Giovanni Giacometti from all their creative periods. A major focus for the museum is "outsider art", and one of world's most prominent representatives, the former Bernese farmhand Wölfli (1864-1930). In conjunction with the Adolf Wolfli Foundation, the museum contains a large collection of his works. The Kunstmuseum Bern is also one of the few public collections in Switzerland, which have long been explicitly collecting and promoting the work of female artists. Artists including; Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Meret Oppenheim and Marina Abramovic are therefore well represented in the collection. Contemporary works include extensive groups of works by Bernhard Luginbuhl, Franz Gertsch, James Lee Byars, Markus Raetz, Urs Lüthi, Dieter Roth and Sigmar Polke. The Graphic Collection of the Kunstmuseum Bern consists of around 48,000 drawings, prints and photographs. The 16th Century is represented by a large number of prints from various periods including works by Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Sebald Beham, Hans Burgkmair Ae. and Albrecht Dürer. From the 17th Century, the collection contains prints by Jacques Callot, Van Dyck, Rembrandt van Rijn and Hendrik Goltzius. A significant part of the collection is the art of the Bernese minor masters of the 18th Century. These small-scale landscape views and traditional representations of Swiss life helped made the Bernese Oberland (and other parts of Switzerland) famous as early tourist destinations. 19th Century works include the Swiss artists, Ferdinand Hodler, Albert Anker, Karl Stauffer-Bern and Rudolf Friedrich Kurz and international works by of Camille Corot, Edgar Degas, Adolf von Menzel, Hans von Marées and Max Liebermann. Important 20th century artists represented include, Otto Meyer-Amden, Otto Nebel, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, Louis Moilliet, Pablo Picasso, Andre Masson and Salvador Dali. Visitors currently are able to enjoy "Chinese Window: Big Draft Shanghai - Contemporary Art from the Sigg Collection". The latest in a series of exhibitions of work by the Chinese artists from the Uli Sigg collection which unifies more than 1,200 Chinese contemporary art pieces, ranging from canvases to videos, photos and installations. "Big Draft Shanghai" features a number of artists from China's artistic powerhouse, presenting a broad panorama of Chinese contemporary art including Shi Guorui's futuristic view of the city with his urban silhouettes of Shanghai, Jin Jiangbo's focus on the life of a day laborer in an interactive installation, Zhang Qing brings taxis to dance in his video, Jin Feng's "Flying Angels" and Shi Yong evokes the anonymity of urban life with small plaster-of-Paris figures. In contrast, Ni Youyu designs geometrical experimental spaces on canvas in which bizarre landscapes have been inscribed. In conjunction with the exhibition, and also until 6 February, a 2008 video installation with the title "Chinesisch von Vorteil" (Chinese is an Advantage) by the artist couple Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer is taking place at the nearby PROGR building. Exploring language barriers, this is an ideal counterpoint to the art on show in the main museum building. The museum is also exhibiting (until 27 February 2011) "Yves Netzhammer. A Refuge for Drawbacks". Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer's first large solo exhibition in his native country provides a retrospective of his art, and includes drawings, room installations, murals, and computer-generated videos which fascinate with their corporeal impact and formal clarity while they probe the dark side of our existence. Complementing the Netzhammer exhibition, until the end of 2014, the museum has (on loan from Dr. H.C. Hansjörg) Yves Netzhammer's monumental installation "The Subjectification of the Repetition. Project B" consists of pulsating images, projections and sound within a room-sized, wedge-shaped construction. The final exhibition currently being held at the Kunstmuseum (until 20 March 2011) is "Don't Look Now – The Collection of Contemporary Art, Part 1". This exhibition is the first of a series of themed presentations of works from the collection of the museum, in conjunction with those of the Kunsthalle Bern, Kunst Heute, GegenwART and the Bernische Stiftung für Fotografie, Film und Video. The title is borrowed from Nicolas Roeg's (1973) film classic with the same title and refers to the central role that visual perception plays in the fine arts and the transformation of corporeal and sensory perception into knowledge. It also ironically refers to the "hidden" nature of much of the museum's contemporary art collection, which has been in storage or limited display awaiting the new extension to be properly displayed. The starting point for the exhibition is James Lee Bryars' The Looking Glass (1978), a pane of glass larger than man-size with a viewing hole cut into it at about 1.8 meters from the base.

Pioneering Abstract Impressionist Esteban Vincente at The Meadows Museum Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:31 PM PDT Dallas, Texas - Until July 31st, 80 lyrical collages and polychrome sculptures are on display at the Meadows Museum in Dallas as part of the exhibition "Concrete Improvisations: Collages and Sculpture by Esteban Vicente". Vicente, a Spanish-born American painter, was a member of the first generation of New York Abstract Expressionists and a significant 20th century artist and teacher. Vicente participated in Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg's landmark exhibition 'Talent 1950' and also helped to organize the seminal 9th Street show. The Meadows exhibition marks the first time Vicente's collages and sculptures have been paired together in a major exhibition. Vicente's collages, which he first began producing in 1949, provide an insightful connection when viewed alongside works on paper created by some of his contemporaries, including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

The Reynolda House Museum of American Art Shows Modern Masters from the Smithsonian Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:29 PM PDT Winston-Salem, North Carolina.- The Reynolda House Museum of American Art is proud to present "Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" on view through December 31st. The exhibition features 43 key paintings and sculptures by 31 of the most celebrated artists who came to maturity in the 1950s. "Modern Masters" examines the complex and varied nature of American abstract art in the mid-20th century through three broadly conceived themes that span two decades of creative genius—"Significant Gestures," "Optics and Order" and "New Images of Man." The decades following World War II were stimulating times for American art. While some vanguard artists began to paint or sculpt in the 1930s as beneficiaries of WPA-era government support, other immigrant artists fled to the United States as Nazi power grew in Germany. A few artists were highly educated; others left school at an early age to pursue their art. Working in New York, California, the South and abroad, these artists blended knowledge gleaned from the old masters and modernists Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse with philosophy and ancient mythology to create abstract compositions that addressed current social concerns and personal history.

The Prado Museum Announces Presentation of Its Collection in Australia Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:27 PM PDT MADRID.- The Prado will be presenting in Australia a portrait of the Museum through the great masters in its collections. The Museo del Prado has entered into a collaborative agreement with Art Exhibitions Australia (AEA), a non-profit-making body responsible for the organisation of major exhibitions in Australian museums, and with the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane. As a result of this agreement, signed in the presence of Ángeles González Sinde, the Spanish Minister of Culture, the Prado will next year present the exhibition Portrait of Spain. Masterpieces from the Prado at the Queensland Art Gallery. The Prado will thus be continuing with its programme of international exhibitions, for which it receives the special support of ACCIONA, a Benefactor Member of the Museum. With this new exhibition, the Museum will present for the first time in Australia a survey of the history of Spain and Spanish art from the 16th century to the early 20th century through a group of works comprising 80 paintings and around 20 works on paper. Within the Museum's "International Prado" exhibition programme, this new event will allow the Prado to present itself to Australian society as special ambassador for Spain thanks to the initiative of the AEA, which has also been the guiding force behind important exhibitions held in other European institutions such as the Tate Gallery, London, the Musée du Louvre, the Musée Picasso and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in addition to important US institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA, both in New York. Portrait of Spain. Masterpieces from the Prado will present around 100 works with the aim of encouraging a reflection on the evolution of painting in Spain over the course of more than three centuries and on the internal and external factors that influenced it. To explain this development, the exhibition will be presented in chronological order, focusing on three major periods with clearly defined political, social and artistic characteristics: an initial section covering the years 1550 to 1770, which coincides in political terms with the Ancien Régime and in cultural terms with the so-called Spanish Golden Age. This will be followed by a section spanning the last quarter of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, which was a "critical" period with important shifts in mindsets, political organisation and forms of social relations. Finally, there will be a section on the last fifty years of the 19th century, the period that saw the birth of modern Spain. Within each period the exhibition features works by the leading artists of the day as well as examples of the most characteristic themes and subjects that distinguish each period from the others. As a result, the visitor will not only learn about the stylistic evolution of Spanish painting but also how thematic interests changed over time and how new subjects were introduced. The works in the first section are grouped under the headings "Portrait and Power: monarchs and buffoons", "Mythology as the Language of Power", "Painting and Religion" and "Secular Society: the still life". While most of these themes continued to be present in later centuries they are represented here in the section that corresponds to the period of their greatest influence over the formulation of art in Spain. In the case of the second section ("1770-1850: A changing world") the headings are "Images of a Society", "Portrait and daily Life" and "Reason and Madness", the last comprising graphic work by Goya that covers aspects of art and thought in Spain at that time that cannot be represented through paintings. The last section ("1850-1900: On the threshold of modern Spain") will reveal how the country itself, its history, landscape and literature were the subject of artistic reflection by painters, many of whose works express the links that they felt with Spanish artists of the past. This section includes the headings "Defining the traditional Image of Spain" and "Spanish Painting looks at itself in the Mirror". Among the artists represented in the exhibition are El Greco, Ribera, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Murillo, Valdés Leal, Carreño, Paret, Van der Hamen, Meléndez, Goya, Vicente López, Federico de Madrazo, Rosales, Fortuny, Beruete and Sorolla. There will also be paintings by foreign artists working in Spain or directly influenced by Spanish painting, such as Titian, Anthonis Mor, Rubens, Luca Giordano, Houasse, Tiepolo and Mengs.

Gagosian Gallery features Mike Kelley's First NY Show Devoted to Painting Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:26 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian Gallery presents Mike Kelley's "Horizontal Tracking Shots," his first show in New York devoted entirely to painting. Evoking painting as a series of experiences akin to the movie camera gliding through space, capturing action as it goes, Kelley has devised a spatial push-pull effect through the arrangement of large polychrome panel paintings and smaller framed canvases. In the untitled colored reliefs, individual colors pop or recede in relation to each other. The colors of the flat support panels are determined by key colors in the organically shaped panels that are attached to them. On  view through 23 December, 2009.

Museum Frieder Burda Dedicates Summer Exhibition to Neo Rauch Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:25 PM PDT BADEN-BADEN, GERMANY.- The grand summer exhibition 2011 at the Museum Frieder Burda is dedicated to Neo Rauch. Around 40 main works by the artist from Leipzig from the past 20 years are shown from 28 May to 18 September 2011. Many of these works are publicly exhibited for the first time. They reflect the abundance of imagination and topics covered by the artist. There is a boundless force within the picturesque world of the painter Neo Rauch. His subjects seem like a mixture of realism and surrealism, influenced by pop-art and comics. Inhabited by strange figures, partly eccentrically equipped with costumes and props, great scenarios are created, that touch all your senses. The world is turned into a ridiculous theater that knows no linear timeline. If you look more closely you might even discover a story behind the picture. The painter from Leipzig was immediately taken with the idea of presenting his works at the museum planned by the architect Richard Meier. On his first visit, Neo Rauch said: "The building convinced me straight away, as architectural and sculptural setting in the existing context. This is not natural because I usually set high benchmarks as to contemporary architecture. Concerning the indoor space concept, I can only say that I couldn't avoid imagining my pictures there. In my mind, I immediately started placing the pictures inside the building". Four significant large format paintings as well as ten drawings by Neo Rauch are part of the collection Frieder Burda. Frieder Burda says: "To me, Neo Rauch is a very important artist, who follows his path with unmistakable paintings. He certainly is one of the most important contemporary painters. When I visited Rauch in his studio in Leipzig with regard to this exhibition, I saw a large almost finished oil painting titled: Die Ausschüttung ("disbursement"). I was fascinated by the myth, the mystery, by the colors, by the charisma of this painting". Neo Rauch, born in Leipzig in 1960, is one of the most influential international artists of his generation. He studied at the Leipzig University of Graphics and Book art with Arno Rink, then became an assistant and from 2005 to 2009 professor and since 2009 he has been honorary professor there. His art can be seen in the tradition of old masters. As modern points of reference, the artist himself names Beckmann, Bacon, Beuys, Baselitz and his tutors from Leipzig. In 1997 he first stepped into the public with a large exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig. In 2006, the Art Museum in Wolfsburg dedicated a retrospective to him. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the exhibition "para" followed in 2007. Last year, Munich (Pinakothek Museums) as well as Leipzig (Museum of Fine Arts) honored the painter with a large double exhibition named Begleiter ("companions"). Visit the Museum Frieder Burda at : www.museum-frieder-burda.de/

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 11 Apr 2012 08:24 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.

Old Masters, Whistler, Renoir & Picasso among highlights of Swann Galleries Print Auction Posted: 11 Apr 2012 02:07 AM PDT New York City.- On Wednesday, April 25th Swann Galleries will auction a large and varied assortment of Old Master Through Modern Prints that features 40 exceptional etchings by Rembrandt, an impressive collection of American prints and drawings from a Virginia gentleman, and exquisite examples of modern European prints by some of the most significant artists working in the 19th and 20th centuries such as Chagall, Matisse, Renoir, Picasso and Whistler. The lots will be on view at the gallery from April 20th through April 24th. The sale opens with more than 200 Old Master prints – solidifying Swann's position as the only U.S. auction house to devote sales to this material. Among the Old Masters is a selection of 40 exceptional etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn, which include The Flight into Egypt: Altered from Seghers, etching, engraving and drypoint circa 1653, the only known time Rembrandt was known to reuse the plate of another artist, in this case, Hercules Seghers' Tobias and the Angel ($60,000 to $90,000); a very rare first-state lifetime impression of Rembrandt's portrait of his friend Jan Lutma, Goldsmith, etching and drypoint, 1656 ($200,000 to $300,000); and several self-portraits, including one with Plumed Cap and Lowered Shade, 1634 ($20,000 to $30,000); with Saskia, 1636 ($25,000 to $35,000); and Leaning on a Stone Sill, etching and drypoint, 1639 ($50,000 to $80,000). Other Old Masters include Martin Schongauer's The Adoration of the Magi, engraving circa 1475, one of only six to come to 2auction in the past 25 years ($15,000 to $20,000); and several prints by Albrecht Dürer, among them The Babylonian Whore, woodcut, 1498 ($12,000 to $18,000); The Small Horse, engraving, 1505 ($15,000 to $20,000); and Melancolia I, engraving, 1514 ($20,000 to $30,000). Rounding out the Old Master highlights are etchings by Annibale Carracci, Hendrick Goltzius,  Ferdinand Bol, Adriaen van Ostade, Giovanni Piranesi, Francisco Jose de Goya and George Stubbs' A Lion Devouring a Horse, soft-ground etching and engraving, before 1788 ($40,000 to $60,000). The 19th-century prints section of the sale features a fine assortment of works by James A.M. Whistler, including a group of six etchings from his Jubilee / Naval Review Set. The artist created 12 etchings of the Naval Review celebrating the 50th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1887, much in the way contemporary artists today are commemorating the diamond jubilee (60 years) of Queen Elizabeth II. This is the first time as many as six of these etchings are coming to auction as a group ($70,000 to $100,000). Another 19th-century highlight, and the image chosen to illustrate the cover of the catalogue, is a large, important color lithograph by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Enfants Jouant á la Balle, with fresh, strong colors, 1898-1900 ($50,000 to $80,000). Among the American prints in the sale are approximately 30 from the collection of a Virginia gentleman, who built his collection in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s—even acquiring some of them from Swann. His collection features an excellent impression of George Bellows' celebrated lithograph of boxers Dempsey and Firpo, 1923-24 ($60,000 to $90,000); and Edward Hopper's intimate East Side Interior, etching, 1922 ($50,000 to $80,000). Other American highlights include Childe Hassam's Marie at the Window, 1923 ($18,000 to $22,000); Maurice B. Prendergast's In the Garden, color monotype ($20,000 to $30,000); and a portfolio of Twelve Etchings by Paul Cadmus, one of 35 numbered copies from a total edition of 50, 1979 ($30,000 to $50,000). The sale concludes with excellent examples of European prints, such as Marc Chagall's The Old Woman Mounted on the Ifrit's Back, color lithograph, 1948 ($15,000 to $20,000); a deluxe edition of René Magritte's Auvbe a l'Antipode, portfolio with seven pencil-signed etchings, 1966 ($30,000 to $50,000); and Pablo Picasso's Françoise en Soleil, lithograph, 1946 ($25,000 to $35,000); Nature morte a la Pasteque, color linoleum cut, 1962 ($40,000 to $60,000); and an after print of Les Saltimbanques, color etching and aquatint, 1922 ($20,000 to $30,000). Swann Galleries was founded in New York in 1941 by antiquarian book dealer Benjamin Swann as an auction house specializing in rare and antiquarian books. George Lowry acquired the business and became president in 1970 upon Mr. Swann`s retirement. At that time, a staff of four organized and conducted book auctions for a customer-base composed mainly of dealers. As the auction world opened to the general public, separate departments were established for different fields of collecting: first photographs, then autographs, and in the late 1980s-early 90s, prints and drawings and vintage posters. Swann is now a world leader in the auction market for works of art on paper. Nicholas Lowry joined Swann in 1995 as head of the Poster department. He was named Principal Auctioneer in 1998 and Vice-President in 2000. In January 2001, he assumed the title of President and took over day-to-day management of the company, which now has a staff of 30; George Lowry stepped up to the new title of Chairman. For over 25 years, Swann has been located on East 25th Street, just one block east of Madison Square Park, adjacent to the historic Murray Hill, Gramercy Park, and Flatiron districts, and right across town from Chelsea. The premises doubled in size in 1999 with the addition of a second gallery and salesroom. Visit the auction house's website at ... http://www.swanngalleries.com

Christie's NY opens the spring jewelry auction season with $40 Million Sale Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:55 AM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- At its first jewelry auction since the record-breaking $137.2 million jewelry sale of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor last December, Christie's New York will present a blockbuster sale of exceptional jewelry on April 17 at its flagship Rockefeller Center saleroom. The auction features over 300 individual jewels, including top-quality diamonds, gemstones, natural pearls and signed jewels, with auction estimates ranging from $2,000 up to $8 million. The total sale is expected to achieve in excess of $40 million. The sale is anchored by several important American collections, including jewelry from the Estate of Huguette M. Clark, one of the last great heiresses of America's Gilded Age. Ms. Clark's stunning personal jewelry collection, which is believed to have been stored in a bank vault since the 1940s, includes signed Art Deco jewels by Cartier, Dreicer & Co., and Tiffany & Co., including The Clark Pink, an extremely rare 9-carat pink diamond ring, and The Clark Diamond, a superb 20-carat D-color diamond ring. The complete collection of 17 jewels is expected to fetch up to $12 million.

Milwaukee Art Museum acquires major work by London Contemporary artist Isaac Julien Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:46 AM PDT MILWAUKEE, WIS.- The Milwaukee Art Museum has acquired a video work by London-based Contemporary artist Isaac Julien. Western Union: Small Boats (2007) juxtaposes the grandeur of the Sicilian Palazzo Gangi (made famous by Luchino Visconti's 1963 cinematic masterpiece The Leopard) with present-day sea voyages from Africa to the Mediterranean. Western Union: Small Boats is part of Julien's "Expeditions" trilogy, now on view as part of the Museum's Currents series, which highlights the work of Contemporary artists. As with all the works in "Expeditions," Western Union is presented on three separated projection screens, physically indicating the fragmented narratives of the work. Isaac Julien's "Expeditions" is on view through February 17, 2013 in the Contemporary Galleries at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Barry Friedman Ltd to present “Toots Zynsky ~ Crossing Lines” Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:34 AM PDT New York City.- Barry Friedman Ltd. is pleased to present "Toots Zynsky: Crossing Lines", a solo exhibition of new organic multi-colored glass sculptures, as well as rare elongated pieces from the artist's Chaos series of the early and mid-1990s. With a return to an ever-broadening complex mastery of color and elaboration of form, Zynsky continues the inventiveness and exploration for which she is known, presenting her boldest and most compelling works to date. The exhibition will open with a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 26th from 6-8 pm and remain on view through June 29th. Utilizing her signature 'filet de verre' technique, which she developed in 1982, Zynsky creates richly-colored sculptures through the construction of fused and thermo-formed glass threads.

“Art Beijing 2012” one of Asia’s most influential Art Fairs opens April 29th Posted: 10 Apr 2012 10:46 PM PDT Beijing.- After six years of growth and maturation, Art Beijing has established itself as one of Asia's most influential art fairs. Today, it is a high-end cultural and creative project that enjoys tremendous support from the Beijing Municipal Government. This year, for the first time, the "Art Beijing • Contemporary Art Fair" and "Art Beijing • Fine Art Fair" will be held jointly as "Art Beijing 2012" at the Beijing National Agricultural Exhibition Center, from April 29th through May 2nd. With this special 2012 exhibition, Art Beijing builds on its "locally based and Asia-oriented" concept to further deepen its cooperation with local art galleries in China, with galleries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and with galleries in the United States and Europe. Together, Art Beijing and its partners seek common ground in integrating art resources and presenting different perspectives on culture and art creation across various countries and regions. Art Beijing 2012 will be divided into two parts: the Contemporary Hall and the Classical Hall. The total exhibition area will be approximately 20,000 sq. meters, making it the largest art fair in Asia. The Contemporary Hall will be located in the new building of the Agricultural Exhibition Center, and will display various contemporary art works from hundreds of galleries and art organizations from both home and abroad. In addition to jointly working with many art organizations, Art Beijing 2012's "Art Breakthrough - Art Unforbidden" and "Photo Beijing" theme exhibitions will continue to highlight academic and commercial trends in the art market by displaying pioneering and experimental contemporary art works. Meanwhile, this year's "Art Platform" will involve the Culture Office of the France Embassy, the Goethe Institute, the Cultural Affairs Office of the Embassy of Mexico, the Artist Network of New York and other international cultural and artistic institutions. On display will be Chinese and Western contemporary art works from various cultural backgrounds. In addition, a new Art Auction Preview will also be set up in the Contemporary Hall. Here, five top auction houses from across Asia will exhibit stunning previews of their upcoming auctions. The Classical Hall, located just outside the Contemporary Hall, will exhibit Chinese and Western traditional art works from 40 art institutions. Art forms on display will include traditional Chinese ink painting, fine brushwork, sculpture, Thangka, classical furniture, jewelry, jade, porcelain, and miscellaneous antiques, as well as classical Western painting and sculpture. The Classical Hall will also hold academic theme exhibitions. Art Beijing will also work with three art organizations to integrate traditional art resources from both China and abroad to provide great art historical detail. The "VIP Education Forum" and "Art Economic Forum" have been two of Art Beijing's most profound successes, and this year, Art Beijing again takes on its social responsibility of art education with these two events. The 2012 exhibition will also again include public lectures by esteemed authorities on art, and Art Beijing proudly invites art lovers and collectors to join in to learn more about the latest academic trends, and discuss the future development of the art market. Art Beijing 2012 is poised to break through the trend of homogenization in art fairs, to establish its own distinct personality. Art Beijing continually promotes the development of China's culture and knowledge of art, helping the public more deeply appreciate the beauty of art, and thereby enable the arts to truly serve the people. Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.linkart.cn/fine/index.php?lung=cn

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