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

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• Memphis Brooks Museum hosts "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero"
• DC Moore Gallery shows Paintings by Jacob Lawrence and Jack Levine
• Recent Photographs by Elinor Carucci at James Hyman Gallery
• University of Virginia Art Museum to show Modern Art in Paris
• Porter Contemporary To Show "Body Beautiful" ~ A Group Show
• Christie's to Host Exhibitions and Auctions to Celebrate Frieze Week in London
• Mel Bochner shows Kvetch~Kvetch~Kvetch at Quint Contemporary Art
• Hit Leonardo da Vinci London Exhibition Coming to World Movie Screens
• The Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ A Phenomenal Collection Of American Art In Washington D.C.
• National Museum of Art in Wales Opens Six New Contemporary Art Galleries
• National Academy of Sciences says Cave Painters Were Realists ~ DNA Study Finds
• The Baltimore Museum of Art Shows Photographer "Candida Höfer ~ Interior Worlds"
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Memphis Brooks Museum hosts "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero" Posted: 23 Apr 2012 06:07 PM PDT MEMPHIS.- The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art presents The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, the first major U.S retrospective of the artist's work in more than 30 years, through January 11, 2009. Recognized as one of the most well-known and commercially successful artists to emerge from Latin America, the Colombia native now has his work exhibited and collected by major museums around the world. Fernando Botero (born 1932) is a painter, sculptor, and draftsman who highlights the comedy of human life-moving or wry, baroque in expression, sometimes with a mocking observation, sometimes with a deep, elementary emotion. Working in a broad range of media, Botero has created a world of his own, at once accessible and enigmatic, with a particular blend of violence and beauty. Fernando Botero has spent most of his years as an artist away from his native country, Colombia, but his art has maintained an uninterrupted link to Latin America. The 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures in this exhibition span the length of Botero's career-from paintings executed in 1959 in Colombia, to sculptures executed as late as 2007. The works were selected by John Sillevis, curator of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, and editor and contributor to the accompanying exhibition catalogue. The exhibition is organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia. All of the works are generously on loan from the artist himself. This collection, assembled over the last 50 years, includes favorite works that Botero was heretofore unable to part with, as well as pieces reacquired years after they left his possession. Many of these objects are being exhibited in public for the first time, providing an opportunity to investigate the complex workings of this artist not only by viewing some of his most renowned masterpieces, but also by studying his most personal works of art. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero presents a selection of the best works from various stages in his development as an artist, with occasional "flashbacks" to the early works of the 1950s, when Botero devised images of children that resembled giant dolls with frightening expressions. Here his struggle to define his own style is still evident. In 1957 he painted "Still Life with a Mandolin," enlarging the volume of the musical instrument in a manner that we now identify with Botero's style. He continued in this vein, painting a figure of a young girl inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." This painting was acquired-against the current of abstract expressionism that was dominating the art world in the United States at the time by Dorothy Miller, curator at the Museum of Modern Art for that collection. After her initial support of Botero, museum curators the world over soon followed suit, presenting Botero's works in major solo exhibitions. The exhibition also follows Botero in his extensive studies of the history of European art. In Spain he was particularly entranced by Velázquez's Infantes-the daughters of the Spanish king-in their elaborate court dresses. In France he studied Ingres, the nineteenth-century master of neoclassical perfection in line, and Delacroix, the master of romantic color. Botero would find inspiration in Italy through artists from the Renaissance, including Uccello and Piero della Francesca. As a young boy he had already admired some contemporary artists, such as Pablo Picasso. He was now confronted with the paintings and sculptures of Giacometti, who was in the habit of reducing his figures to an extreme slimness. These encounters were important for Botero's development. He was inspired by European art, but not seduced. He turned his attention to Mexico, where the monumental murals by Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros had a profound impact. Botero absorbed the dramatic self-portraits of Frida Kahlo and her idiosyncratic interpretation of Latin American folklore, and was intrigued by the mysteries of pre-Columbian artifacts. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero is divided into eight sections, corresponding to epochs and themes in Botero's oeuvre. First, early works from the 1950s, the period during which Botero first defined his unique style. Second, paintings which draw from colonial baroque pieces Botero observed in Latin America, including religious images of clergy, Jesus Christ, and the Virgin Mary. The third section contains works inspired by European masters, ranging from Titian to Vincent Van Gogh. Fourth, are Botero's eerie still lifes of lush and decaying fruit and flowers. Fifth, are images of power and violence in Latin America: scenes of presidents, earthquakes, and executions. The sixth section is based on memories from Botero's childhood in Colombia: street scenes, intimate interiors, and local figures. The seventh section focuses on Botero's works on paper, including detailed chalk drawings and watercolors. Lastly, the exhibition closes with Botero's elegant and imposing monumental bronze and marble sculptures. Visit : www.brooksmuseum.org

DC Moore Gallery shows Paintings by Jacob Lawrence and Jack Levine Posted: 23 Apr 2012 06:05 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.-DC Moore Gallerypresents Jacob Lawrence and Jack Levine, featuring paintings and drawings by two of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Though from different backgrounds - Lawrence (1917-2000) grew up in Harlem and Levine (b. 1915) in Boston's South End - their lives parallel each other in several ways, from the arc of their careers to their lifelong dedication to unique artistic visions. The exhibitions, which continue through February 6, are timed to coincide with Jack Levine's 95th birthday. On exhibition through 6 February, 2010.

Recent Photographs by Elinor Carucci at James Hyman Gallery Posted: 23 Apr 2012 06:04 PM PDT LONDON.- James Hyman Gallery presents a major London exhibition of recent photographs by Elinor Carucci from January 7 to Febuary 20, 2010. Elinor Carucci is one of the most celebrated artists working in photography today. Carucci's fresh take on the established genre of portraiture weaves together intricate strands of the artist's own life, celebrating moments of intimacy with her extended family; her parents, her husband and most recently, with her young children. This exhibition at James Hyman Gallery brings together several photographic series never before seen in London and presents a unique opportunity to view a recent cross-section of Carucci's work before its inclusion in a major museum exhibition (Jewish Museum, Munich) and an international photography festival (Lodz, Poland) which will broaden Carucci's exposure to European audiences in 2010.

University of Virginia Art Museum to show Modern Art in Paris Posted: 23 Apr 2012 06:03 PM PDT   CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - The University of Virginia Art Museum presents Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris: The T. Catesby Jones Collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Virginia Art Museum. This exhibition reunites works of art that were given in 1947 as bequests to two Virginia institutions, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) and the University of Virginia. On view 30 January through 24 April, 2009.

Porter Contemporary To Show "Body Beautiful" ~ A Group Show Posted: 23 Apr 2012 06:01 PM PDT New York City.- Porter Contemporary is pleased to announce "Body Beautiful", a group exhibition of seven artists that will both confirm and re-examine our ideas of beauty when it comes to the human form. The exhibition opens to the public with a wine reception with the artists on Thursday, January 12th, from 6:30 - 8:30 pm and remains on view through February 18th 2012. Porter Contemporary has selected artists and works that engage our inherent sense of beauty. The graceful and smooth marble sculptures of Carolina Baptista Rodriguez and the intimate photographs of Sarah Kaufman are juxtaposed with Juliet Foxtrot's modernized Da Vinci type painted nudes, Jennifer Murray's half human half animal mixed media works and Catherine Tafur's disturbing and erotic paintings. 'Body Beautiful' inspires a self-exploration of what defines beauty through different forms and mediums. David Ajengo is a self-taught artist born in Madrid and working in London. He works at refining his understanding of the visual language of the human body and his need to represent our psychologies, thoughts and emotions onto that which is at once most familiar, but also so easily lost in the complex visual cultures of the modern world. Born in Chile and currently living and working in London, Pato Bosich is drawn to creating atmospheres and situations that resist easy reading and instead convey a sense of mystery and tension. Often, the imagery comes from second hand visual sources and Bosich explores how experience of such sources can be arrested, slowed down and sensually intensified by expressing them through oil paint. Juliet Foxtrot is a Sydney based artist whose work captures the dynamic figure derived from contemporary life and imagery in punching, shouting kicks of acrylic and resin on canvas. Sarah Kaufman, an Assistant Professor of Art in Photography at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, finds her subjects on Craigslist and visits them in their homes. She asks them to try to show her the world that they inhabit when they are alone and the resulting photographs explore the relationships among the subjects, their bodies, and their spaces. Exploring themes of gender, sexuality, and sociopolitical power struggles, Jennifer Murray uses totemic animal characters to express her impressions of human life within the decaying and carnal confines of New York City. Murray recently completed a Masters in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, where her concentration was post-colonial studies, gender politics, and metaphorical framing in sociopolitical discourse. Carolina Rodriguez Baptista (image above) draws inspiration from the complex world of women: makers of life, owners of the secret keys of wisdom and intuition, and driving forces that shape the game of life. Rodriguez Baptista was born in Venezuela, moved to New York City to attend The Parsons School of Design and currently lives in Barcelona, Spain. Born in Peru, Catherine Tafur moved to New York City to attend the Cooper Union School of Art and now resides in New York. Using images of the body, Tafur explores ideas of gender deconstruction, confrontational sexuality, and the disillusionment and loss of innocence through imagery of disfigurements, idealized androgyny and mutilation. Launched in 2006, Porter Contemporary is dedicated to showcasing emerging and established artists from around the world whose work embodies both skill and risk taking. The mission of Porter Contemporary continues to be based on founder Jessica L. Porter's vision of opening contemporary art collecting to a broader audience. Over the past five years, the gallery has earned a dedicated following of new and established collectors who value art that pushes boundaries. In addition to presenting many distinctive exhibitions throughout the year, Porter Contemporary also provides art consultation services, collection management and artwork installation. Porter Contemporary is located in New York's Chelsea district at 548 West 28th Street, just steps away from the beautiful High Line Park -- like the gallery, a place to experience art and life from a new perspective. Visit the galley's website at ... http://portercontemporary.com

Christie's to Host Exhibitions and Auctions to Celebrate Frieze Week in London Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:51 PM PDT LONDON.- To co-incide with Frieze Week in October 2009, Christie's announces a series of exhibitions and auctions dedicated to Post-War and Contemporary Art. The leading highlights which will be on public view at Christie's include significant works by Peter Doig, Martin Kippenberger, Lucio Fontana, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Pino Pascali, Raqib Shaw and a rare, early rediscovered drawing by Lucian Freud. The auctions of Post-War and Contemporary Art featuring The Italian Sale and Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale are expected to realise £16,218,000 to £22,980,000.

Mel Bochner shows Kvetch~Kvetch~Kvetch at Quint Contemporary Art Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:49 PM PDT LA JOLLA, CA.- Quint Contemporary Art announces a solo exhibition of new thesaurus-inspired monoprints by Mel Bochner. This is the second solo exhibition for Mel Bochner at QCA. The exhibition will open with a public reception on Saturday, March 3rd from 6 to 8 PM. The exhibition will feature 17 new monoprints including Mel Bochner's largest monoprint to date, Blah Blah Blah, which measures 96 x 144 inches. Other pieces in the exhibition include Money, Head Honcho, Silent, Amazing, Obscene, Sputter, and more. These new works examine the landscape of language and delve deeply into the meaning of one single word or phrase.Kvetch~Kvetch~Kvetch in Yiddish means complain, bitch, or belly-ache.

Hit Leonardo da Vinci London Exhibition Coming to World Movie Screens Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:47 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Leonardo's latest is coming to a multiplex near you -- but that's da Vinci, not DiCaprio. In the latest example of high-brow culture being beamed into movie theaters, "Leonardo Live" an HD presentation of the sold out "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan" exhibition at London's National Gallery will play limited engagements at U.S. movie theaters and throughout the world. Billed as the first-ever tour of a fine art exhibition created for movie theater audiences, "Leonardo Live" will afford art lovers a two-dimensional look via satellite at the sold-out exhibition, which cannot tour due to the works' fragility.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ A Phenomenal Collection Of American Art In Washington D.C. Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:45 PM PDT The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum complex and research organization, comprising 19 museums and nine research centers. The Smithsonian American Art Museum, begun in 1829, is the first federal art collection and is dedicated to the collection and display of American Art (art produced by American artists or in America by others). The museum began with gifts from private collections and art organizations established in the nation's capital before the founding of the Smithsonian in 1846. The museum has grown steadily to become a center for the study, enjoyment, and preservation of America's cultural heritage. Today the collection consists of artworks in all media, spanning more than 300 years of artistic achievement. The collection began modestly in 1829 when a Washingtonian named John Varden set out to form a permanent museum for the nation with his collection of European art. At first, the art was placed in a room he added to his own house near the U.S. Capitol. In 1841, Varden's collection was displayed in the newly constructed Patent Office Building (coincidentally, the museum's home today). The establishment of the Smithsonian in 1846 eclipsed the prestige of the institute, which later disbanded. By 1858, many items in the Smithsonian Art Collection on view at the Patent Office Building were moved a few blocks to the newly completed Smithsonian Castle. The remainder of the collection followed in 1862. But a destructive fire there in 1865 increased the Smithsonian's reluctance to build cultural collections. For the rest of the century, most of the artwork was placed on loan to the Library of Congress and to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. A turning point in the history of the collection came in 1906. That year the probated will of Harriet Lane Johnston, an art collector and niece of President James Buchanan, forced an important decision in a federal court: the recognition that the Smithsonian's collection formed a "National Gallery of Art." Coined during a national art-collecting boom, the official name soon attracted major gifts. Highly prized were diverse artworks owned by John Gellatly and American impressionist paintings and Barbizon landscapes collected by William T. Evans. Plans to build a permanent home for the museum on the National Mall came and went, among them a prize-winning modernist structure that shocked federal officials. The competition had been organized after Andrew Mellon gave his European-focused art collection to the nation in 1937 with the stipulation that his new museum be called the "National Gallery of Art" in emulation of the National Gallery of Art in London. To comply with Mellon's wishes for a National Gallery of Art to house his European collection, the Smithsonian museum known as the National Gallery of Art for the previous thirty-one years was renamed the National Collection of Fine Arts in 1937. It was given a new mission based on New Deal idealism: to promote the work of living artists and to build a national audience. The interest in historic preservation after World War II ultimately was responsible for giving the first Smithsonian art museum a new home and preserving an architectural treasure. In 1957, a bill was introduced in Congress to tear down the elegant Patent Office Building to make way for a parking lot. Deteriorated but still one of the purest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the nation, the structure was saved when Congress turned the building over to the Smithsonian. In 1968, after an extensive interior renovation, the museum opened to the public. In 1972, the Renwick Gallery opened to the public as a branch museum featuring American crafts. In 1980, the museum's name was changed to the National Museum of American Art as part of a Smithsonian initiative to standardize the names of its many museums and to reflect the national scope of the collections. Since then, the museum has focused its energy on acquiring and promoting the work of artists in the United States exclusively. Twenty years later, the museum proposed that it be called the Smithsonian American Art Museum as an easy-to-remember name and a straightforward presentation of its mission. Congress approved this change in October 2000. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's main building, a dazzling showcase for American art and portraiture, is a National Historic Landmark and is considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. Several important early American architects were involved in the original design of the building, including Robert Mills and Thomas U. Walter. Begun in 1836 and completed in 1868, it is one of the oldest public buildings constructed in early Washington. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's branch for craft and decorative arts, the Renwick Gallery, is close to the White House in the heart of historic federal Washington. Its Second Empire-style building, also a National Historic Landmark, was designed by architect James Renwick Jr. in 1859 and completed in 1874. In the 1990s, the Smithsonian embarked on a plan to restore the main building, and to create innovative new public facilities. The recent renovation (2000-2006) revealed the full magnificence of the building's exceptional architectural features, such as the porticos modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, a curving double staircase, colonnades, vaulted galleries, large windows, and skylights as long as a city block. Full circulation on all three floors for the public has been restored. Extraordinary effort was made to use new preservation technologies to restore the historic fabric of the building and re-use historic materials. Two innovative and bold new public spaces are open to museum visitors: the Lunder Conservation Center and the Luce Foundation Center for American Art. In addition, the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium and the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard are major enhancements that make this a destination museum for the 21st century. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is one of the nation's leading centers for the study of American art. The museum offers academic opportunities for scholars at the graduate level and above, research opportunities for visiting scholars, and professional museum training for college seniors and graduate students. The museum also produces 'American Art', a peer-reviewed periodical on the arts in America, organizes scholarly symposia, and sponsors several annual publication prize awards. The museum's specialized art databases of a half million records and its extensive photograph archives further research efforts in the field. Education staff and docents welcome students and teachers at both venues, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the nation's first collection of American art and one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art made in the United States, is an unparalleled record of the American experience. The collection captures the aspirations, character, and imagination of the American people across more than three centuries. These artworks reveal America's rich artistic and cultural history from the colonial period to today. In recent years, the museum has strengthened its commitment to contemporary art, and in particular media arts. All regions, cultures, and traditions in this country are represented in the museum's collections, research resources, exhibitions, and public programs. Colonial portraiture, nineteenth-century landscape, American impressionism, twentieth-century realism and abstraction, New Deal projects, sculpture, photography, prints and drawings, contemporary crafts, African American art, Latino art, and folk art are all featured in the collection. More than 7,000 artists are represented in the collection, including major masters such as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Helen Frankenthaler, Christo, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Lee Friedlander, Nam June Paik, Jackson Pollock, Martin Puryear, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein. The museum has been a leader in identifying significant aspects of American visual culture and actively collecting and exhibiting works of art before many other major public collections. The museum has the largest collection of 'New Deal' art and the finest collections of contemporary craft, American impressionist paintings and masterpieces from the Gilded Age. Other pioneering collections include historic and contemporary folk art; work by African American and Latino artists; photography from its origins in the nineteenth century to contemporary works; images of western expansion; and realist art from the first half of the twentieth century. The Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, features one of the finest collections of American craft in the United States. Its collections, exhibition program, and publications highlight the best craft objects and decorative arts from the nineteenth century to the present. The museum's Luce Foundation Center for American Art, a study center and visible art storage facility, displays more than 3,300 artworks from the museum's permanent collection in a three-story skylight space. The highlight of the temporary exhibitions currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum is "Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow" until May 8th 2011. Alexis Rockman has been depicting the natural world with virtuosity and wit for more than two decades. He was one of the first contemporary artists to build his career around exploring environmental al issues, from evolutionary biology and genetic engineering to deforestation and climate change. Rockman has garnered attention for embracing these issues, as well as for the epic quality of his projects, including several monumentally scaled canvases. His work expresses deep concerns about the world's fragile ecosystems and the tension between nature and culture, which are communicated through vivid, even apocalyptic, imagery. Rockman achieves his vision through a synthesis of fantasy and empirical fact, using sources as varied as natural history, botanical illustrations, museum dioramas, science fiction films, realist art traditions dating back to the Renaissance, and firsthand field study. Alexis Rockman: A fable for Tomorrow is the first major survey of the artist's work and features 47 paintings and works on paper from private and public collections. The title of the exhibition is taken from the opening chapter of Rachel Carson's influential 1962 book Silent Spring. In it, Carson combines two seemingly incompatible literary genres, mythic narrative and factual reportage. Rockman approaches his paintings with a similar intent. The exhibition traces Rockman's artistic development from the mid-1980s to the present. Highlights include "Evolution" (1992), his first mural-sized painting, and "Manifest Destiny" (2003-2004), an ambitious large-scale work commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. An accompanying book has been produced, co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and London-based D Giles Ltd. In addition to the Rockman retrospective, 3 rotating exhibitions feature exhibits from the main collection. "Close to Home: Photographers and Their Families" until July 24th 2011 presents photographs made during the past three decades by both established and emerging artists. It features thirty-two color and black-and-white photographs from the permanent collection. "Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image" takes stock of the cutting-edge tools and materials used by video artists during the past forty years and features key artworks from the history of video art alongside works by the latest generation of artists. The "Grand Salon Installation: Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" at the Renwick Gallery is an installation of seventy paintings from the collection showing the development of American art from the 1840s to the 1930s. The Smithsonian American Art Museum displays its collections and presents special exhibitions in two locations in Washington, D.C. Its main building is located at the heart of a vibrant downtown cultural district, while its branch museum for contemporary craft and decorative arts, the Renwick Gallery, is located nine blocks west, near the White House. Before you visit, please take a moment to look over our Gallery Guidelines so you know what to expect. If you are looking for a quiet place to work or to check your e-mail, free public wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) is available in the Luce Foundation Center. Please note: the Kogod Courtyard and the Courtyard Cafe are temporarily closed due to construction. If your time is limited, stop by the Information Desk for a self-guided tour brochure, Ten Highlights, which includes the innovative Luce Foundation Center for American Art and the Lunder Conservation Center, or take advantage of one of the daily docent-led tours of the collection. Don't forget, American Art's main building is open every evening until 7 p.m. so you can visit your favorite painting before going to dinner or heading home. Education staff and docents welcome students and teachers to "our space" at two venues, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, interactive tours yield lively exchanges about our collection as windows on American history. At the Renwick Gallery, students handle and explore unique craft objects by contemporary artists to learn about process, material, and technique. A variety of programs are offered in the center, including themed scavenger hunts for children, a weekly sketching workshop, Art + Coffee tours and a variety of interactive games. Ten award-winning interactive computer kiosks share information about every object on display and include discussions of each artwork, artist biographies, audio interviews, still images, and nearly seventy videos created exclusively for the Luce Center. Audio tours with more than 180 stops can be accessed through a cell phone, iTunes, or free MP3 players available at the Center's information desk. Visit The Smithsonian American Art Museum at : www.americanart.si

National Museum of Art in Wales Opens Six New Contemporary Art Galleries Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:44 PM PDT CARDIFF, WALES.- Wales has many fascinating stories to tell through the work of the artists and collectors from, or inspired by, Wales. A number of these stories are told in the new £6.5m National Museum of Art ( Amgueddfa Cymru ), which opened to the public on Saturday 9th of July. For the first time, the full range of the nation's world-class art collection – a mix of fine and applied art, from the historic to the contemporary - is displayed under one roof at National Museum Cardiff, giving a new visibility to art in Wales and the art of Wales. The National Museum of Art features six impressive new contemporary art galleries, which offer 40% more space to display art from post-1950. Until now the Museum had only one gallery to display its range of modern and contemporary art, which is one of the UK's most important collections.

National Academy of Sciences says Cave Painters Were Realists ~ DNA Study Finds Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:42 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA - Cave painters during the Ice Age were more like Leonardo da Vinci than Salvador Dali, sketching realistic depictions of horses they saw rather than dreaming them up, a study of ancient DNA finds.  It's not just a matter of aesthetics: Paintings based on real life can give first-hand glimpses into the environment of tens of thousands of years ago. But scientists have wondered how much imagination went into animal drawings etched in caves around Europe. The latest analysis published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focused on horses since they appeared most frequently on rock walls. The famed Lascaux Cave in the Dordogne region of southwest France and the Chauvet Cave in southeast France feature numerous scenes of brown and black horses. Other caves like the Pech Merle in southern France are adorned with paintings of white horses with black spots.

The Baltimore Museum of Art Shows Photographer "Candida Höfer ~ Interior Worlds" Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:39 PM PDT Baltimore, Maryland.- The Baltimore Museum of Art is proud to present " Candida Höfer : Interior Worlds" on view at the museum until February 26th. Internationally acclaimed contemporary German photographer Candida Höfer focused her camera on two of Baltimore's most venerable cultural institutions: The Johns Hopkins University's George Peabody Library and the Walters Art Museum . A selection of the resulting images will make their Baltimore debut in "Candida Höfer: Interior Worlds". The exhibition features 13 breathtaking images of European and American interiors that demonstrate how the artist goes beyond documenting architecture to capture moments of contemplative beauty. Höfer's images of the Peabody Library and Walters Art Museum contrast the exciting cast iron decoration in the library's late 19th-century reading room with the refined Italian Renaissance-inspired space of the early 20th-century museum interior. These enormous works, each more than six feet tall, are complemented by the artist's spectacular images of the State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe, Germany (1999); Basel University Public Library in Switzerland (1999); Bregenz Art Museum in Germany (1999); Library of the Royal Academy of Language in Madrid, Spain (2000); Harvard University Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (2001); Louvre Museum in Paris, France (2005); Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris, France (2005); Library of the Archiginnasio in Bologna, Italy (2006); and Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal (2006). The works in the exhibition are loaned by the artist and private collectors and are installed in two neoclassical galleries adjacent to the BMA's collection of 17th- and 18th-century European paintings. Known for her intensely detailed images of grand architectural spaces, Höfer (born 1944) is among an important group of artists that emerged from the Düsseldorf Academy in the 1980s under the tutelage of influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher . These artists transformed the formal and conceptual ambitions of their medium by repeatedly focusing their lenses on carefully defined subjects and expanding the size of their lushly colored images to rival painting. Höfer's meticulously composed photographs of rooms in libraries, museums, theaters, cafés, universities, and other centers of cultural life have been featured in numerous solo exhibitions in museums throughout Europe and the United States, including the Kunsthalles in Basel and Bern, Portikus in Frankfurt am Main, and the Power Plant in Toronto. She has participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art , New York; the Museum Ludwig , Cologne; and Documenta 11. She represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and is represented by galleries in Europe and the United States. She lives and works in Cologne, Germany. Throughout the Baltimore Museum of Art, visitors will find an outstanding selection of European and American fine and decorative arts, 15th- through 19th-century prints and drawings, contemporary art by established and emerging contemporary artists, and objects from Africa, Asia, the Ancient Americas, and Pacific Islands. Two beautifully landscaped gardens display an array of 20th-century sculpture that is an oasis in the city. As a major cultural destination for the greater Baltimore region, the BMA organizes and presents a variety of dynamic exhibitions and innovative programs throughout the year, and frequently hosts special events with cultural and educational partners. The Museum is located three miles north of Baltimore's Inner Harbor in a park-like setting in the heart of Charles Village, adjacent to the main campus of The Johns Hopkins University. It is distinguished by a grand historic building designed in the 1920s by renowned American architect John Russell Pope and a massive wing for contemporary art added in 1994. Gertrude's restaurant and The BMA Shop are destinations unto themselves. Visitors enjoy superb regional cuisine from celebrity chef John Shields while overlooking the scenic sculpture gardens or listening to the popular summer jazz concerts. The BMA Shop offers a variety of unique art-inspired gifts, including items from local artists and craftsmen. From a single object in 1914, The Baltimore Museum of Art's outstanding collection today encompasses 90,000 works of art, including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world, as well as masterpieces by Pablo Picasso , Paul Cézanne , and Vincent van Gogh . The BMA is recognized for an impressive collection of contemporary art that includes important examples of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist sculpture, and Pop Art with many late works by Andy Warhol , as well as major acquisitions of more recent work by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker .The Museum also boasts an internationally renowned collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15th century to the present; European masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli , Rembrandt van Rijn , and Sir Anthony van Dyck ; distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; one of the most important African collections in the country; and notable examples of art from the Ancient Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The BMA's Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern and contemporary sculpture on nearly three landscaped acres in the heart of the city. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.artbma.org

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 23 Apr 2012 05:38 PM PDT This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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