Jumat, 20 April 2012

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

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


The Courtald Gallery To Feature "Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril"

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:49 PM PDT

artwork: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - "At the Moulin Rouge", 1892-93 - Oil on canvas - 123 x 141 cm. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. On view at the Courtald Gallery in "Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge" from June 16th through September 18th.

London.- The Courtald Gallery is proud to present "Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge" from June 16th through September 18th. Nicknamed La Mélinite after a powerful form of explosive, the dancer Jane Avril (1868-1943) was one of the stars of the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s. Known for her alluring style and exotic persona, her fame was assured by a series of dazzlingly inventive posters designed by the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Jane Avril became an emblematic figure in Lautrec's world of dancers, cabaret singers, musicians and prostitutes.  However, she was also a close friend of the artist and he painted a series of striking portraits of her which contrast starkly with his exuberant posters. The exhibition explores different public and private images of Jane Avril.  Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge brings together a rich group of paintings, posters and prints from international collections to celebrate a remarkable creative partnership which captured the excitement and spectacle of bohemian Paris.


artwork: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - "Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris", 1893 - Colour lithograph 125 x 90 cm. Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)In contrast to Toulouse-Lautrec, who was a member of one of France's oldest noble families, Jane Avril was the daughter of a courtesan. Born Jeanne Beaudon, she suffered an abusive childhood and, aged thirteen, ran away from home. The following year she entered the formidable Salpêtrière hospital in Paris to be treated for a nervous disorder popularly known as St Vitus' Dance. It was at one of the bal des folles, the fancy dress balls which the hospital organised for its patients, that she took her first dance steps and found both her cure and her vocation.  New research undertaken for this exhibition examines the connections between her eccentric movements, described by one observer as an 'orchid in a frenzy', and contemporary medical theories of female hysteria. Her experiences helped shape her public persona and, as a performer, she was not only known as La Mélinite but also as L'Etrange (the Strange One) and Jane La Folle (Crazy Jane). At the age of twenty she was taken on by the Moulin Rouge as a professional dancer.  Adopting the stage name Jane Avril (suggested to her by an English lover), she was determined to make her mark as a star in the flourishing world of the Montmartre dance-halls and cabarets, which featured such larger-than-life personalities as 'La Goulue (the Glutton)', 'Grille d'Egout (Sewer-grate)' and 'Nini les-Pattes-en-l'air (Nini legs-aloft)'. The ability to generate publicity through a carefully crafted image was the key to success and celebrity in the entertainment industry of Montmartre. A racy portrait of the brazen La Goulue, lent to the exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, underscores the contrasting sophistication of Avril's public image.

The epicentre of this world was the famous Moulin Rouge. Opened in 1889, it offered customers a nightly programme of performances by its roster of stars. 'At the Moulin Rouge', an exceptional loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, is one of Toulouse-Lautrec's most celebrated paintings and a highlight of the exhibition. It serves as the artist's homage to this venue as well as a monumental group portrait of his circle.  Shown from the rear, Jane Avril is instantly recognizable by her red hair. The scandalous La Goulue is seen with raised arms in the background, where the diminutive figure of Lautrec can also be made out. The ghostly face of May Milton, one of several English performers, looms into the canvas from the right. Although she also sang, Jane Avril's true vocation was as a solo dancer and she devised her own choreographic routines and dress. Combining sensuality and ethereal detachment, her remarkable performances captured the imagination of artists and writers alike. Lautrec's friend, Paul Leclercq, described the scene: 'In the midst of the crowd, there was a stir, and a line of people started to form: Jane Avril was dancing, twirling, gracefully, lightly, a little madly; pale, skinny, thoroughbred, she twirled and reversed, weightless, fed on flowers;  Lautrec was shouting out his admiration.'

artwork: Mademoiselle Elegantine's Troupe", 1896 - Colour lithograph - 62 x 80 cm. - Collection of the V&A Museum, On view at the Courtald Gallery from June 16th through September 18th.

artwork: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - "Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge, Putting on her Gloves", circa 1892 - Oil and pastel on millboard, laid on panel - 102 x 55.1 cm. Collection of the Courtald Gallery in London.Jane Avril became the subject of some of Lautrec's greatest posters, landmarks in the history of both art and advertising.  One of the first was made to promote Avril's appearance at the Jardin de Paris, to which a special bus ran every night after the Moulin Rouge closed at eleven. This large and dramatic poster shows Jane Avril in the provocative high kick of the cancan, framed by the hand of a musician grasping the neck of a double-bass. The radical composition reflects Lautrec's admiration for Japanese prints.  The poster was an instant hit and Avril credited it with launching her career. No less striking is the image of Jane Avril seen in profile as a member of the audience at the venue known as the 'Divan Japonais'.  As in all his publicity posters, Lautrec focuses on enhancing the uniquely recognisable aspects of his subject's appearance. Referring to this image of Avril, the critic Frantz Jourdain praised 'the svelte spectator with her sharp eye, her provocative lips, her tall slender, adorably vicious body'. One of Lautrec's last posters of Avril shows her full length; a snake coils up her dress, animating her wild dance.

In 1896 Jane Avril travelled to London to perform at the Palace Theatre as part of the troupe of Mademoiselle Eglantine. At her personal request Toulouse-Lautrec designed a poster for the performance which shows Avril at the end of the line of four cancan dancers, captured in a brilliant froth of petticoats and black stockings. The exhibition reunites a group of material relating to this commission, including a preparatory drawing, Avril's letter to Lautrec from London and the programme for the Palace Theatre. Avril's repertoire included songs such as 'Mon Anglais (My Englishman)'. She admired England and critics speculated that aspects of her dance style and attire had English origins. She noted pointedly in her memoirs that 'over there, one lives freely, without bothering others or making fun of them, as happens so often at home'. New research has uncovered further fascinating details about Lautrec and Avril's connections with England, including the first British exhibition of works by Lautrec in 1894.

Toulouse-Lautrec's relationship with Jane Avril was closer than with any of his other Montmartre subjects and she remained the artist's loyal friend until his death. A photograph records Lautrec wearing Avril's hat and scarf to a fancy dress party in 1892. Their friendship is reflected in a series of remarkable portraits in which the star is shown as a private individual, in contrast with her exotic poster image and her performances at the Moulin Rouge. An arresting bust-length portrait of Avril, loaned by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, focuses on her startlingly white and angular face. The Courtauld Gallery's 'Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge' captures Avril on the cusp of public and private worlds. A carriage is glimpsed in the background while the hat and coat on the wall may allude to her male admirers. However, she seems withdrawn and far older than her twenty-two years. In 'Jane Avril leaving the Moulin Rouge', Avril is shown as a passer-by, an elegant but anonymous and solitary figure. The exhibition reunites these portraits for the first time and also includes a rich documentary section exploring the intersection of Avril's medical history and her public persona.

Toulouse-Lautrec's death in 1901 marked the end of the golden age of Montmartre. Jane Avril went on to perform briefly as a stage actress before marrying and settling into bourgeois obscurity. Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril examines a friendship which has come to define the world of the Moulin Rouge. However, it also looks beyond Avril's identity as a star of Lautrec's posters to consider the complex personal histories and the cultural changes which lay behind this remarkable creative partnership.

The Courtauld Gallery is one of the finest small museums in the world. Its collection stretches from the early Renaissance into the 20th century and is particularly renowned for the unrivalled collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. The Gallery also holds an outstanding collection of drawings and prints and fine example of sculpture and decorative arts. The Courtauld Gallery's collection is one of the most important and best-loved in Britain. Especially famous for its outstanding Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, the collection reaches from the early Renaissance to Modernist works of the 20th century. After a major refurbishment of the Gallery's first floor rooms the new hang and re-interpretation of the world-famous collection were unveiled in June 2011. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.courtauld.ac.uk

The Louvre Presents 'The Art of Paper' ~ an Exhibition of 70 Works on Paper

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:48 PM PDT

artwork: Raoul Dufy - "The Eiffel Tower", 1935 - Watercolor on paper - Private collection - On loan to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris

PARIS.- For this exhibition, seventy works on paper by some fifty artists active between the fifteenth century and the present day have been selected from the print and drawing collections of three museums in Paris—the Musée du Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Centre Pompidou—as well as from a number of other French collections.


Russian Avant-garde Opens at the Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:46 PM PDT

artwork: Olga Rozanova (1886-1918) - Composition with a Train, Early 1910s - Oil on canvas; 48.5 x 71.4 Courtesy Moscow Museum of Modern Art

TOKYO, JAPAN - The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Government of Moscow, Moscow Department of Culture, Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Embassy of the Russian Federation in Japan and Art Impression Inc. present The Spring-Time of Russian Avant-garde - Works from the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in an unprecedented show at four Japanese museums. The Moscow Museum of Modern Art opened in 1999 owns a rich collection of works by the leading painters of the "Russian Avant-Garde," which flourished in the first decades of the 20th century.

John Fincher's "Recent Works" at the LewAllen Gallery in Santa Fe

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:32 PM PDT

artwork: John Fincher - "Red Tree", 2010 -  Oil on linen - 70" x 58". Courtesy the LewAllen Gallery, © the artist. On view in "John Fincher: Recent Works" at the LewAllen Gallery in Santa Fe from June 3rd through July 10th.


Santa Fe, NM.— LewAllen Galleries is pleased to announce its "John Fincher: Recent Works". Dedicated to registering and relaying shifts in the relationship between nature and culture, John Fincher is recognized as a leading painter of our contemporary landscape. The artist's singular aesthetic brings into dialogue a diverse range of formal strategies and art historical quotations that reflect the heterogeneity of a rapidly changing world. The exhibition will be on view from June 3rd through July 10th.


"Rome After Raphael" at The Morgan Library & Museum

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:27 PM PDT

artwork: "Illuminated" by Giulio Clovio (1498–1578) - "The Crucifixion of Christ, Moses and the Brazen Serpent," Farnese Hours, Italy, Rome, 1546. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1903; MS M.69 (fols.102v–103r)

NEW YORK, NY.-In the early 1500s, Rome's majesty was a distant memory: its marble temples and palaces had been ransacked; its population was a fraction of what it had been in antiquity. Yet, over the course of the next hundred years, the Eternal City would experience an amazing rebirth, as a series of popes rebuilt and revitalized Rome and its population doubled. At the center of this metamorphosis was an unprecedented influx of artistic talent and creative exchange. Rome After Raphael is organized by Rhoda Eitel-Porter, Charles W. Engelhard Curator and Department Head of Drawings and Prints at The Morgan Library & Museum. On view through 9 May, 2010.

It is this remarkable period in art history that is the subject of a new exhibition, Rome After Raphael, atThe Morgan Library & Museum. Featuring more than eighty works selected almost exclusively from the Morgan's exceptional collection of Italian drawings, the exhibition brings to light the intense artistic activity in Rome from the Renaissance to the beginning of the Baroque period, approximately from 1500 to 1600.

The exhibition is the first in New York to focus solely on Roman Renaissance and Mannerist drawings, beginning with Raphael and ending with the dawn of a new era, the Baroque, as seen in the art of Annibale Carracci. It includes striking examples by Raphael and Michelangelo as well as works by artists associated with the dominant stylistic traditions established by these two iconic figures.

artwork: Giuseppe Cesari (1568–1640), "Child Walking, Looking Over Its Shoulder" Black and red chalk, 12 x 8 7/16 inches Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1910; IV, 161A. Photo: Graham Haber, 2009.Among the prominent artists represented are: Baldassare Peruzzi, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Giulio Romano, Perino del Vaga, Parmigianino, Daniele da Volterra, Francesco Salviati, Pirro Ligorio, Pellegrino Tibaldi, Taddeo Zuccaro, Girolamo Muziano, Cesare Nebbia, Federico Zuccaro, Raffaellino da Reggio, and Giuseppe Cesari, called Il Cavaliere d'Arpino.

The exhibition also features Giulio Clovio's sumptuous Farnese hours, one of the greatest illuminated manuscripts, as well as the Codex Mellon—an architectural treatise on key Roman sites and projects, including Raphael's design for St. Peter's—and a magnificent gilt binding of the period. Also on view is a Raphael workshop painting from the Morgan depicting the Holy Family, which has recently undergone a technical examination.

"The quality and importance of the Morgan's collection of sixteenth-century Italian drawings has long been recognized," remarked Morgan director William M. Griswold. "Although individual sheets have appeared in major exhibitions in Europe and the United States, the Morgan has never before brought together so many outstanding works from this period and place in one show. Seen together for the first time, the drawings convey the opulence and artistic diversity of this pivotal period."

It was during the reign of Pope Julius II, elected in 1503, that Rome embarked on a century-long program of renewal and restoration. By the time Pope Clement VIII died in 1605, the overarching political and artistic ambitions of popes, cardinals, and foreign dignitaries had given rise to one of the richest periods in art history, transforming Rome into the unrivaled cultural capital of Europe.

Numerous drawings in the exhibition are related to Roman projects and commissions, including elaborate schemes for fresco decorations for city palaces, rural villas, and funerary chapels as well as altarpieces, tapestry designs, and views of recently discovered antiquities. The exhibition also opens a window into the artistic sensibility and lavish patronage of the period, from Julius II—patron of both Michelangelo and Raphael and arguably the most culturally sophisticated of the popes—to his successor Leo X and the "Gran Cardinale" Alessandro Farnese and his nephew Odoardo. Cardinal Ippolito d'Este and the Medici also generated luxurious commissions as they competed to create their own legacies in chapels, palaces, and villas.

Exhibition Highlights
Through their sheer quality and novelty, the works of Raphael and Michelangelo in the Vatican established a tradition that resonated throughout the history of Western art. The exhibition brings to the fore the central artistic dialectic of the century: the rivalry between the legacies of Raphael, whose work epitomizes elegant restraint and clear narrative style, and that of Michelangelo, characterized by high drama and muscular nudes.

Raphael
Arriving in Rome in 1508, Raphael found success as court artist to popes Julius II della Rovere and Leo X de' Medici. The Morgan's holdings by the artist trace his development from his early pre-Roman period, represented by the fresco design Cardinal Piccolomini Presents Eleanor of Portugal to Her Betrothed, Emperor Frederick III and the cartoon related to the predella panel depicting Christ's Agony in the Garden, to his metalpoint drawing Male Figure Symbolizing an Earthquake—a study of ca. 1515 for one of the tapestries Raphael designed for the Sistine Chapel.

Raphael's Followers
Heavily employed by a succession of popes and secular patrons, Raphael developed a large workshop that included artists such as Polidoro da Caravaggio, Perino del Vaga, and Giulio Romano, all magnificently represented in the Morgan's collection of drawings. After Raphael's premature death in 1520, these artists developed their own highly successful careers. Polidoro was one of the city's most prolific facade decorators, an aspect of his career uniquely illustrated by the Morgan's study of a Prisoner Brought Before a Judge, a scene once painted on a Roman house. Perino's independent career included a commission from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese for the design of rock-crystal plaques, which today still comprise part of the treasury of St. Peter's Basilica. The Morgan's two extraordinary designs for this commission, Christ Healing the Lame at the Pool of Bethesda and the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, are on view in the exhibition. One of Raphael's most successful pupils (and later court artist to the Gonzaga in Mantua), Giulio Romano is represented by an early lunette design and by the vigorous St. Jerome and St. Augustine. The show also includes the Codex Mellon, one of the earliest and most important volumes of Renaissance antiquarian drawings relating to contemporary architectural projects. Probably drafted ca. 1513 by an architect from the circle of the great Renaissance master Donato Bramante, the sketchbook records plans for the new basilica of St. Peter's as well as those relating to Bramante's Palazzo Caprini, also known as Raphael's house.

Michelangelo
One of the great figures of the Renaissance whose fame has rarely been eclipsed, Michelangelo was among the forces that shaped the style usually called Mannerism. He had been summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II in 1508 to design the pope's tomb for St. Peter's, was also employed on the decoration of the Sistine ceiling and altar wall, and worked for the papacy in Rome for the last thirty years of his long and fruitful career. The Morgan's Annunciation to the Virgin of ca. 1547 and a series of four sketches of David Slaying Goliath superbly demonstrate the artist's consummate skill as a designer of dramatic compositions and draftsman of the human anatomy.

Michelangelo's Followers
artwork: Raffaellino Motta da Reggio Italian, 1550–1578 Rome The Apparition of the Angel to St. Joseph, ca. 1576 - Pen & brown ink and brown wash, over red chalk 15 x 11 1/8 inches / Inscribed Zuchero. / Purchased in honor of Charles E. Pierce, Jr.'s tenure as director.Unlike Raphael, Michelangelo did not keep a large workshop, although he did have a number of associates, artist friends, and followers. Among them was Daniele da Volterra, whose Kneeling Figure of ca. 1550—a study for a fresco in the church of Santissima Trinità dei Monti—is a rare example of his delicate, precise drawing style. A drawing attributed to Giulio Clovio, that is a reprise of Michelangelo's renowned composition The Dream of Human Life (Il Sogno) of the early 1530s reflects the fame and influence of the great master's highly refined and innovative presentation drawings. The show also includes the Farnese Hours, once the most famous illuminated manuscript, lavishly illustrated by Clovio for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Pellegrino Tibaldi's heavily draped Seated Barbarian Prisoners, a further superb example of the enduring influence of Michelangelo's figure style and draftsmanship, is also on display.

Parmigianino
Supremely gifted as a painter and draftsman, Parmigianino came to Rome in 1524 seeking papal patronage but fled, as did so many of his contemporaries, when the troops of Charles V invaded the city in 1527 during the Sack of Rome. A group of five drawings from this short period are shown, including a stunning red chalk design for a print of the philosopher Diogenes, a lyrical Girl Seated on the Ground that illustrates the artist's penchant for domestic scenes, and a moving, pen-and-ink Pietà freely inspired by Michelangelo's famous marble group in St. Peter's.

Antiquity
As the city was being rebuilt and reconceived under the direction of the popes, archaeological finds were commonplace, triggering a sixteenth-century fashion for antiquity that spread throughout Europe. Marble sculptures representing river gods, excavated during the 1510s and immediately put on display at the Vatican Palace, are recorded in Enea Vico's two spectacular, scrupulously detailed drawings of the early 1540s. Rome's illustrious antiquarian past informed much artistic production as illustrated by the jewellike album on precious vellum titled The Ruins of Rome. This amusing juxtaposition of somewhat fanciful reconstructions of ancient monuments with their ruined 1570s appearance is an intriguing document of the Renaissance mind-set, bringing to life the vivid interest in reconstructing the antique.

Late Mannerism and the Counter-Reformation
The last third of the sixteenth century saw the predominance of a highly decorative and technically masterful style generally known as Late Mannerism. This is exceptionally well represented in the Morgan collection, with outstanding examples by Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro and their followers Girolamo Muziano, Jacopo Bertoia, and Cesare Nebbia. The weightless grace of their style can be seen in Taddeo's St. John the Baptist Preaching and The Foundation of Orbetello, the latter a study for decoration of the Palazzo Farnese. Among the myriad themes that define the period are the need of the Roman Catholic Church to defend its authority against the rising threat of Protestantism. The Renaissance popes' lavish spending had led them to encourage the sale of indulgences—two are documented in the exhibition—a practice heavily criticized by Martin Luther. Eventually, the Catholic Church recognized the need for reforms and convened the Council of Trent, resulting in a movement known as the Counter-Reformation, the consequences of which became apparent in artistic production toward the end of the sixteenth century. Palestrina's mass for Pope Marcellus, the published score and recording of which are featured in the exhibition, places counter-reformatory emphasis on an easily comprehensible declamatory text.

Annibale Carracci and the Beginning of the Baroque
Several artists of the last decade of the sixteenth century facilitated the artistic reforms brought about by Annibale Carracci, his brother Agostino, and his cousin Ludovico. Giuseppe Cesari, called Il Cavaliere d'Arpino, is represented by the lively figure study of a Child Walking, Looking Over Its Shoulder and the striking Portrait of a Lady, both from the late 1580s. Both he and Cristofano Roncalli restricted the purely decorative Mannerist aspects of their work and reassessed High Renaissance models. Annibale Carracci himself paved the way for the Baroque, achieving a synthesis of Raphael's elegance and Michelangelo's drama and vigorous muscularity. Harkening back to Raphael, Annibale revived the practice of studying from the live model, as is amply obvious in his luminous Flying Putto of the late 1590s, which exhibits an astonishing command of the figure rendered in space. In addition, a new emphasis on an idealized yet naturalistic depiction of landscape is apparent in his magnificent Eroded Riverbank with Trees and Roots.

Visit The Morgan Library & Museum at : http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

The Forest Lawn Museum Presents Prominent Mexican American Artists

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:25 PM PDT


Glendale, CA.- The Forest Lawn Museum is proud to present "¡Adelante! Mexican American Artists: 1960s and Beyond", showing the eclectic and influential work of more than 40 prominent Hispanic artists, many who helped forge the Chicano Art Movement that began in the 1960's, as well as a number of the new generation of artists.  This extraordinary exhibit includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, and photography. "Adelante" is on view at the museum from September 9th through Sunday, January 1st 2012. This cemetery is the only place in the world containing a complete collection of replica Michelangelo's sculptures, which were made from castings taken from the originals and using marble from the same quarries in Carrara, Italy as used by Michelangelo.


William Kentridge: 'Tapestries' at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:24 PM PDT

artwork: Office Love, 2001 - William Kentridge - Tapestry weave with embroidery: mohair, acrylic, and polyester - (344 x 455.9 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art; Purchased with funds contributed by the Committee on Modern and Contemporary Art  

Philadelphia,PA - In 2006, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired Office Love, a tapestry by William Kentridge, whose work encompassing drawing, video, sculpture and theater, has made him one of the strongest artistic voices to emerge in post-apartheid South Africa. On view from December 12, 2007 through April 6, 2008, William Kentridge: Tapestries showcases a group of tapestries from a series conceived by Kentridge and executed under his artistic direction between 2001 and 2007.

The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo Exhibits "Goya from Museo del Prado"

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:20 PM PDT

artwork: Francisco Goya - "Clothed Maja", 1800-1805 - Oil on canvas - 97 x 190 cm. - Collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid. On view at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo in "Goya: Light and Shade. Masterpieces from the Museo del Prado" until January 29th 2012.

Tokyo.- The National Museum of Western Art is proud to show "Goya: Light and Shade. Masterpieces from the Museo del Prado" on view through January 29th 2012. The Museo del Prado is continuing its rewarding collaboration with Japan in this third exhibition project, the first to be devoted to a single artist. It marks the culmination of a decade of exhibitions co-organised with leading Japanese institutions and made possible through the sponsorship of The Yomiuri Shimbun. Following the two exhibitions entitled Masterpieces from the Museo del Prado held in 2002 and 2006, which comprised rigorous selections of some of the Museum's masterpieces, this exhibition will be entirely devoted to one of the most important names within the Prado's collection: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes.


The Prado has placed great emphasis on the organisation of this exhibition, which will present a sizeable selection of its collection of paintings, drawings and prints by Goya, one of the artists most admired by the Japanese public. The works to be shown have been selected with the intention of offering the visiting public a chronological survey of the work of Goya. Without aiming at being exhaustive, the exhibition will be structured into different sections in the manner of small visual accounts that will analyse the principal themes depicted by the artist during the course of his career. The result will be to present a series of fundamental ideas around which Goya's artistic, political and social thinking was articulated. The different sections of the exhibition will thus reflect the social reality of Goya's life, in which monarchs, the social elite, his friends and the working people all played prominent roles. It will also focus on the thematic variety and impressive technique evident throughout Goya's oeuvre in all the different media in which he worked, as well as the fact that he simultaneously produced official commissions and other works of a freer, more critical nature that were the response to his own expressive needs.

artwork: Francisco Goya - "Los Disparates: Cheerful Folly", circa 1820-1823 - Etching, aquatint, drypoint, etc. - 24.5 x 35.0 cm. Collection of the Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.  - "Goya: Light and Shade. Masterpieces from the Museo del Prado"

artwork: Francisco Goya - "Witches' Flight", 1797 Oil on canvas - 43.5 x 30.5 cm. Collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.An important aspect of the exhibition is its emphasis on Goya's astonishing mastery of the different techniques employed in his paintings, drawings and prints, which laid the way for the subsequent liberation achieved by modern art. Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to appreciate technical and conceptual links between Goya and later artists that established a unique path and one that made him 'the first modern artist'. The exhibition will feature more than 100 works, including 45 prints by Goya from the National Museum of Western Art's own colleciton as well as 6 from other Japanese institutions: the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum and the Fuji Art Museum, the latter also in Tokyo. The Museo del Prado will be lending around 25 paintings and 46 works on paper.

The National Museum of Western Art was established in April 1959 and was based on the Matsukata Collection focusing on the Impressionist paintings and Auguste Rodin's sculptures previously stored by the French government. The museum's purpose is to provide the public with opportunities to appreciate western art. Since its opening, the museum, as Japan's only national institution devoted to western art, has been involved in exhibitions, art work and document acquisition, research, restoration and conservation, education and the publication of materials related to western art. The museum exhibits works from the Matsukata Collection as well as works created from the Renaissance to the early 20th century that have been acquired since the museum's opening.

The museum has purchased art work every year since its establishment in its efforts to build and develop its permanent collection. These permanent collection works are displayed in the Main Building (Le Corbusier, 1959) and New Wing (MAEKAWA Kunio, 1979) throughout the year. The museum is involved in the development and organization of a special exhibition every year. These exhibitions feature works on loan from private collections and museums both in and out of Japan. The museum also co-sponsors exhibitions organized jointly with outside organizations, including major newspapers, that are held held twice a year.

Special exhibitions are displayed in the Exhibition Galleries completed in 1997. The museum's collection features pre-18th century paintings including those by Andreas Ritzos, Joos Van Cleve, Paolo Veronese, Peter Paul Rubens, Salomon Van Ruysdael, and Jusepe de Ribera, 19th to early 20th century French paintings including works by Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Gustave Moreau and works by the next generation of artists, such as Albert Marquet, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Jean Dubuffet and Jackson Pollock. Visit the museum's website at ... http://collection.nmwa.go.jp

The Royal Academy of Arts Shows Albert Irwin's Vibrant Abstract Prints

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:13 PM PDT

artwork: Albert Irvin RA - "Tabard", 2005 - Screen-print with woodblock - Edition of 75 - 76.5 x 96.75 cm. Courtesy of Advanced Graphics London. On view at the Royal Academy of Arts in "Albert Irvin: From Hollyrood to Stratford" until September 25th.

London.- The Royal Academy of Arts is presenting a selection of Albert Irvin's vibrant abstract screen prints dating from the late 1980s to present. "Albert Irvin: From Hollyrood to Stratford" will include many works which have not previously been displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts and works on show will be a mix of editions and monoprints. The exhibition title evokes a wide geographical spread, which in turn is evident in the broad range of work which will be exhibited. 'Holyrood' is a street in SE1, London and 'Stratford' is a road in a small town outside Boston, USA. Irvin's titles always have a connection with a cartographical reference. The exhibition remains on view until September 25th.


High Museum of Art Announces Acquisition of Four Major Works of Art

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:10 PM PDT

artwork: Camille Pissarro, French, 1830–1903 - Snowscape with Cows, Montfoucault, 1874 - Oil on canvas - 47.6 x 51.4cm. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. -  Purchase with funds from Helen C. Griffith to honor Robert Sherrill Griffith, Jr. and from Joan N. Whitcomb in memory of Taylor Stuckey


Atlanta, GA - The High Museum of Art recently acquired four major works for its permanent collection, including the pastel "Mother and Child," by Mary Cassatt; the oil painting "Snowscape with Cows, Montfoucault," by Camille Pissarro; the oil painting "The Breakfast," by Pierre Bonnard; and the painting on paper "Villa les Écluses, St. Jacut, Brittany," by Édouard Vuillard. The new acquisitions were purchased from the estate of longtime Atlanta resident Kathryn Welch Hartzog.

The Israel Museum Shows Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:06 PM PDT

artwork: Vahram Aghasyan - "Ghost City", 2005–2007 - Three chromogenic prints from a series of ten - Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. On view in "Magic Lantern: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art" until April 30, 2012.

Jerusalem.- The Israel Museum is pleased to present a selection of 18 recent acquisitions and gifts of international and Israeli contemporary art, on display for the first time at the Museum. "Magic Lantern: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art" brings together works in a range of mediums by an international cadre of artists, including Vahram Aghasyan, Ilit Azoulay, Luis Camnitzer, Isaac Julien, Jonathan Monk, Adrian Paci, Anila Rubiku, Yehudit Sasportas, Hiraki Sawa, Jan Tichy and Maya Zak, among others, all of which explore the theme of enchantment. The exhibition is on view through April 30, 2012. Whether in landscapes or interior scenes, the works in Magic Lantern invoke the world of legend, daydream, fantasy and illusion. Through imaginary journeys, blurred silhouettes in the mist, flickering flames and dark forest shadows, the real world assumes the diffuse contours of something magical.


The exhibition features works in a range of mediums, including installation, photography, video and film. Some of the exhibition highlights include; Vahram Aghasyan's photographic series "Ghost City" (2005–2007), showing the actual state of a utopian urban development — a housing project planned in Armenia by the Soviet regime but left unfinished when the USSR collapsed, and now overtaken by seemingly apocalyptic floodwaters. In his photography, Aghasyan investigates sites and structures that originated during the Soviet era but are non-functional, incomplete or irrelevant in their current socio-political environment. Ilit Azoulay's "Tree for Too One, The Keys, Window" (2010), a work composed of thousands of photographs of a variety of objects and people, taken from several angles and then pieced together. Shapes and sizes are reworked digitally and recast as a single image, creating a new photographic reality in which multiple layers of being, memory and association exist simultaneously in one coherent whole.

artwork: Luis Camnitzer - "Landscape As An Attitude", 1979 - Silver Gelatin Photograph - 25.4 x 20.3 cm. Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. On view in "Magic Lantern" until April 30, 2012.

Jonathan Monk's "Candle Film" (2009), made up of eight 16 mm films of a candle filmed as it changes slowly over time. The 16 mm film and film projector require that the reels be changed on a regular basis—approximately once every hour—by a technician. Maya Zack's "Living Room" (2009), which recreates the interior of an apartment in Berlin just before it was abandoned in 1938 by means of computer visualization. Based on the artist's interview with Yair Noam and his description of his childhood home, the work addresses such questions as the limitations of memory, the imagination of the artist, and the impossibility of recapturing what has been lost.

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek was the driving spirit behind the establishment of the museum, one of the leading art and archaeology museums in the world. The Museum has extensive collections of biblical archaeology, Judaica, ethnography, fine art, artifacts from Africa, North and South America, Oceania and the Far East, rare manuscripts, ancient glass and sculpture. A uniquely designed building on the grounds of the museum, the Shrine of the Book, houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and artifacts discovered at Masada. The museum's holding include 500,000 objects with some 7,000 objects and works currently online. The director of the museum is James S. Snyder, former Deputy Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who was appointed in 1997. Mr. Snyder oversaw a 100 million dollar campaign to renovate the museum and double the gallery space. The renewed museum opened on July 26 2010. The museum covers nearly 50,000 sq. meters. It attracts 800,000 visitors a year including 100,000 children to its Youth Wing. The Samuel Bronfman Biblical and Archaeological Museum, which is a part of the museum complex, contains various archaeological finds. It has the largest collection of artifacts from Israel in the world.

artwork: Hiraki Sawa - "Going Places Sitting Down", 2004 - Three-channel video projection, 8:30 mins. Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. On view in "Magic Lantern" until April 30, 2012.

The Shrine of the Book houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered 1947–56 in 11 caves in and around the Wadi Qumran. An elaborate planning process of seven years led to the building's eventual construction in 1965 which was funded by the family of David Samuel Gottesman, the Hungarian émigré, the philanthropist who had purchased the scrolls as a gift to the State of Israel. The shrine is built as a white dome, covering a structure placed two-thirds below the ground. The dome is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it. Across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. The colors and shapes of the building are based on the imagery of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, whereas the white dome symbolizes the Sons of Light and the black wall symbolizes the Sons of Darkness. The interior of the shrine was designed to depict the environment in which the scrolls were found. There is also a permanent display on life in the Qumran, where the scrolls were written. The entire structure was designed to resemble a pot in which the scrolls were found. It was designed by Austrian architect Fredrick Kiesler and opened in 1965. As the fragility of the scrolls makes it impossible to display all on a continuous basis, a system of rotation is used. After a scroll has been exhibited for 3–6 months, it is removed from its showcase and placed temporarily in a special storeroom, where it "rests" from exposure. The museum also holds other rare ancient manuscripts and displays The Aleppo Codex, which is from the 10th-century and is believed to be the oldest complete Bible in Hebrew.The Israel Museum holds a large collection of paintings representing a wide range of periods, styles, subjects and regions of origin. Painters in the collection include such international figures as Rembrandt, Marc Chagall and Camille Pissarro as well as such Israeli and Jewish artists as Abel Pann. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/htmls/home.aspx

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:05 PM PDT


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