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

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• The Edinburgh Art Fair Celebrates its 7th Anniversary in November
• The Ketterer Kunst Presents Pop Art Prints in Berlin
• Christie's Joins with Takashi Murakami to Benefit Victims of Japan's Earthquake
• Hayward Gallery showcases "Walking in My Mind" For Its Summer Exhibition
• Exhibition Links Works from S.M.A.K.'s Collection to Gagarin Magazine
• A New Antony Gormley Sculpture "Transport" Unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral
• Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art presents USA Today Exhibition
• Babcock Galleries Shows Ten Paintings by Robert Schwartz
• Kevin Bubriski Named Visiting Artist Fellow at the Peabody Museum
• Vintage Racecar Exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art opens ' Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America & The Railway, 1830-1960 '
• Renowned Impressionism Collection Returns Home to Art Institute of Chicago
• Pinakothek der Moderne Shows "Curvatureromance" by the American Artist John Chamberlain
• The Kunsthaus Bregenz (the "KUB") ~ Outstanding Exhibition Spaces for Contemporary Art In Austria ~ Is Toured By AKN Editor
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The Edinburgh Art Fair Celebrates its 7th Anniversary in November Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:39 PM PDT Edinburgh, Scotland.- This year sees the Edinburgh Art Fair celebrate its seventh anniversary at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange. In 2005 when the first fair took place with an impressive 50 exhibiting galleries the organisers, whilst confident that Edinburgh could sustain such an event, could not have envisaged just how successful and revered it would become on the international art scene. This year, like each of the last 6, the fair is attracting professional galleries from not only the UK but also from overseas with galleries from Ireland, Czech Republic and Canada participating. The fair is open to the public from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th November with doors opening at 11am daily and closing at 6pm Friday and Saturday and 5pm Sunday. Now bringing an even more impressive 64 galleries together for the 3 day event, East Lothian based, Arte in Europa are delighted to have seen the event become the most successful event of its kind in the UK comparable with the large London based events. Last year yet again saw the attendance top 12,000 visitors and for the third year running sales of more than 1,000 individual artworks resulted in more than £1m changing hands. The success of the event is no doubt partly due to the location, Edinburgh is, after all, renowned worldwide for its culture and hospitality and it is perhaps for these reasons that many of the attending galleries have been coming back again and again since the fairs inception in 2005. This year there are of course some notable new faces, the strict selection process ensures the fair stays fresh and this year more than ever before the quality of the work, which will be on show and for sale, is nothing short of exceptional. Of course with so many exhibiting galleries showcasing the work of literally hundreds of artists there is sure to be something to suit all tastes, from the contemporary work of well known Scottish artists such as Peter Howson, John Bellany and Alexander Miller to the much more traditional work specialised in by many of the attending galleries. Sculpture has also paid a large part in the success of the fair in the past and this year is no exception with the likes of Louise Giblin being shown for the first time by new exhibitor, Saffron Gallery. Taught by Antony Gormley (Angel of the north) Louise is currently working on a range of bronze bodycasts of famous olympians for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Edinburgh will see the first showing in public of some of these pieces including a Kriss Akabussi body sculpture, which is currently nearing completion and will be ready for the fair private view on Thursday 17th November. "Notwithstanding the plethora of successful artists showing, the fair does not solely cater for collectors of these big named artists", Andy Naismith of Arte in Europa is keen to point out, "there is also a huge range of work from many highly talented artists just starting out in their careers. Picking up on these future stars is without doubt one of the best ways of starting ones own collection of original art, and the fair is without doubt the best opportunity of seeing the work of these artists alongside the current stars of the art world". Visit the fair's website at ... http://www.artedinburgh.com/

The Ketterer Kunst Presents Pop Art Prints in Berlin Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:38 PM PDT Berlin.- The Ketterer Kunst is pleased to present "Pop Art in Berlin: It Doesn't Always Have to be Warhol" on view at the gallery through October 9th. Andy Warhol is both the epitomy and an icon of pop art. However, it doesn't always have to be Warhol, this exhibition demonstrates just that. With prices ranging between € 50 and € 10.000, the more than 60 original prints on display are affordable for all those who are interested in Pop Art. What is considered Pop Art today has its origins in both the USA and England in the 1950's. It was Jasper Johns who made an artwork consisting of two bronze beer cans in 1959, three years before Andy Warhol came up wit the famous Campbell soup tins, and in the series of prints named "Reaper", Richard Hamilton decomposed a lawn mower into its parts as early as in 1949.

Christie's Joins with Takashi Murakami to Benefit Victims of Japan's Earthquake Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:37 PM PDT NEW YORK, N.Y.- Christie's announced it will join with Takashi Murakami and Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. to provide support for the victims of the March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake in Japan by dedicating a special section of a forthcoming New York auction to the continuing relief effort. Murakami is personally selecting a roster of artists who will donate works to be auctioned. All proceeds from the special sale, including works made by some of the biggest names in contemporary art, will be contributed to organizations providing relief to the survivors of the catastrophe, the effects of which continue to be devastating.

Hayward Gallery showcases "Walking in My Mind" For Its Summer Exhibition Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:34 PM PDT LONDON.- The Hayward Gallery's 2009 summer exhibition continues the recent tradition of inviting high profile and up-and-coming artists from around the world to transform the Gallery's unique outdoor and indoor exhibition spaces. This year, ten artists have been selected to show works that explore how the inner workings of the mind - emotions, thoughts, memories and dreams – can be represented in three-dimensional space, shedding light on their creativity and inviting visitors to explore their own thought processes. Walking in My Mind is curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Chief Curator of the Hayward Gallery, and Mami Kataoka, International Associate Curator. It opens at the Hayward Gallery on 23 June – 6 September 2009. The exhibition features new and existing works by the following artists: Charles Avery (UK), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland), Yayoi Kusama (Japan), Bo Christian Larsson (Sweden), Mark Manders (The Netherlands), Yoshitomo Nara (Japan), Jason Rhoades (USA), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Chiharu Shiota (Japan) and Keith Tyson (UK). Over the last few summers, with major successes such as Antony Gormley: Blind Light (2007) and Psycho Buildings: Artists Take On Architecture (2008), the Hayward Gallery has established itself as a leading venue for curated experiential exhibitions, tailored to the Gallery's unique spaces. Highlights of this year's show include three works by iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, rarely exhibited in the UK, as she transforms the Gallery into a vision of her signature polka dots. Visitors are able to immerse themselves in Dots Obsession (2009), a large mirrored corridor filled with red spotty balloons, and walk through a dot-covered landscape on one of the outside sculpture terraces. Twenty-five trees along Queen's Walk are also covered in red and white polka dots for the duration of the exhibition. Five of the ten artists in the exhibition have created new works, each presenting a different way in which artists construct images and installations that explore the mind. Turner-prize winner Keith Tyson is showing a new series of Studio Wall Drawings, including a gigantic composite image of a brain, while Charles Avery is presenting new drawings and sculptures as part of his ongoing The Islanders project. Two new sculptures by Dutch artist Mark Manders, who is exhibiting for the first time in a major London show, are on display. The exhibition also introduces visitors to new works by Chiharu Shiota and Bo Christian Larsson, two promising artists who have not been seen in a major UK exhibition before. Stephanie Rosenthal, Chief Curator of the Hayward Gallery, said: 'Many artworks encourage the viewer to see the world through the artist's eyes. The works in Walking in My Mind do more than this, as they pull the viewer into the unique worlds of ten major international artists who are explicitly preoccupied with their own minds and the creative process. The installations function as metaphors for the creative mind, inviting visitors to walk in and around the artists' inner worlds translated into physical works of art.' Since 2004, Charles Avery's (b. 1973) work has focused on a single, epic project, The Islanders, an encyclopaedic investigation of an imaginary island and everything it contains, documented in text, paint and sculpture. For Walking in My Mind, Avery presents his tardis-like Eternity Chamber on one of the Gallery's external sculpture terraces, as well as new drawings and sculptures of island creatures, inviting visitors to lose themselves in the artist's imagination. Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn (b. 1957) has said of his art that he wants the visitor 'to be inside a 24-hour brain in action'. He is represented by Cavemanman (2002), a sprawling complex of caves and linking tunnels made from cardboard and glossy brown parcel-tape. In each of the four caves, the visitor encounters an eclectic array of information, objects and images – from clocks showing the same time in different cities and foil-covered shop dummies, to gigantic books tied to sticks of dynamite and photocopied excerpts from philosophical writings. Iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's (b.1929) work is characterised by compulsive iterations of certain motifs, such as polka dots and infinite nets, which the artist says are the result of hallucinations that she has experienced since childhood. Her installation Dots Obsession (2009), part of a series, immerses visitors in a large mirrored corridor filled with red spotty balloons, leading on to one of the outside sculpture courts, which is transformed with bright green Astroturf under foot and big red spotty skittleshaped sculptures. Visitors come face-to-face with the subconscious of Swedish artist Bo Christian Larsson (b. 1976) in a new sculptural environment taking up the entire staircase connecting the Hayward Gallery's upper and lower galleries. Based in Germany and a rising figure on the continental art scene, this is the first opportunity visitors have to experience Larsson's performance installation art in England. The startingpoint for The first cut is the deepest and the division of seven is a performance during the preparation period of the exhibition, involving the artist and actors performing a cast of characters representing Larsson's different persona, which form the basis of an eerie installation bedecked with trees and owls. Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962) is best known for her lush multimedia installations that playfully and provocatively merge fantasy and reality. This is the first opportunity for a UK audience to see Extremities (smooth, smooth) (1999), a film installation reconfigured for the Hayward exhibition, in which images of body parts – a gigantic foot, hand, breast, mouth and ear – float and dance in space, immersing the viewer's own body with that of the artist's work. Turner-prize winner Keith Tyson's (b. 1969) interest in the creative process is demonstrated by his Studio Wall Drawings, an ongoing series of complex works on paper which record the artist's thought process and working practice. Occupying three walls, Tyson's new series of drawings includes a gigantic composite image of a brain, set within a landscape. The installation also features a sculpture representing the artist as a young boy and is accompanied by sound pieces explaining each work as it is made. Visit The Hayward Gallery at : http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/

Exhibition Links Works from S.M.A.K.'s Collection to Gagarin Magazine Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:32 PM PDT GHENT, BELGIUM - "GAGARIN The Artists in their Own Words" is a unique international artist's magazine (°2000), entirely dedicated to the publication of especially written and unpublished texts by artists who are now working, anywhere in the world. The texts are published in their original language (from Albanian to Italian) with the addition of an English translation. GAGARIN does not restrict itself to a particular period or import and runs trough the codes that are applied in the world of art. Its orientation is artistic, documentary and historical. GAGARIN also aspires to provide an accurate source of information about the collaborating artists, using their own words.

A New Antony Gormley Sculpture "Transport" Unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:31 PM PDT KENT, UK - "TRANSPORT" a new sculpture created by the artist Antony Gormley was unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral. Antony Gormley is credited with a radical re-investigation of the body as a zone of memory and transformation. The two metre long work uses hand made antique iron nails from the Cathedral's repaired south east transept roof to construct a delicate filter-like membrane outlining the space of a floating body. The membrane is pierced with nails passing through it from inside to outside and vice versa. The work is suspended above the site of Thomas Becket's vestry place in the Eastern Crypt of the Cathedral.

Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art presents USA Today Exhibition Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:26 PM PDT   Chicago, IL - USA Today is an exhibition of works from the MCA's collection, made primarily in the 1980s and 90s that reveals the continuing resonance and complexity of topics spanning freedom of expression, militarism, the pursuit of social justice, the dynamics of race, and the human and economic consequences of globalization as defining elements in our society today. The exhibition includes works in a variety of media from painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and video to artists' books and presents the work of artists based locally, nationally, and internationally. USA Today, on view through March 15, 2009.

Babcock Galleries Shows Ten Paintings by Robert Schwartz Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:24 PM PDT New York, NY- Babcock Galleries are proud to present "Robert Schwartz", ten of the artists paintings, on view at the gallery from September 8th through October 7th. Robert Schwartz provides a portal into a world of emerging gay culture and social upheaval of the 1960s, seeking to expose truths about the human condition by depicting people involved in curious behaviors set in a world of his own invention. The 10 exquisite paintings in this exhibition represent the first major presentation of the late San Francisco-based artist's work since 2005 and are accompanied by an exhibition brochure with an essay by art journalist and critic Carol Kino. Robert Schwartz (1947-2000) painted detailed cross sections of a world where characters move about in the ironic overlaps of incongruous realities. With an intricacy often compared to that of medieval miniatures, each of Schwartz's paradoxical narratives is expertly composed in a space rarely exceeding 10 inches wide--inviting close examination of his intriguing, yet revealing social scenarios. Working in gouache on paper and oil on panel, Schwartz created what critic Donald Kuspit calls "a kind of little theater." In his sets, representative landscapes, evocative of old-master sensibilities, are juxtaposed with urban architecture. In his figurative scenes, casts of nudes play on public stages next to others who are fully clothed. The artist's wry sense of humor emerges from the tension of opposites; these depictions of peculiar relationships, impeccably rendered mysteries, averted gazes, veiled desires, all become almost familiar. "Nothing is left to chance," writes Kuspit. "Nothing is incomplete." Art in America's Nathan Kernan, while seeing a likeness to the techniques of Joan Nelson and even early Robert Greene, cites Schwartz as a 'prescient' precursor to artists like John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage. Schwartz graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1970 and exhibited widely in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York.  In 1992, he received the National Endowment for the Arts WESTAF Award. Retrospectives of his work were held at the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara, California in 1990 and at Seattle's Frye Art Museum in 2000. After Schwartz's unexpected death due to heart failure, the San Jose Museum of Art held a survey of his works, including 56 paintings, in September 2004 to January 2005. A major monograph, Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz, by Barry Schwabsky and Susan Landauer, was published in conjunction with the San Jose exhibition. From the Babcock Gallery's earliest years it has been an important source for major works by America's greatest masters. Highlights of Babcock Galleries' history include the 1866 George Inness exhibition, which featured the monumental "Peace and Plenty" now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the Inness paintings they have placed in recent years are "Sunset at Montclair" acquired by the Montclair Art Museum and "Sunburst", an exceptional masterwork acquired through Babcock Galleries by the Palmer Museum of Art. Babcock Galleries has handled many works by Winslow Homer, including the famous "The Gale" sold to the Worcester Art Museum in 1916 for a then record price of $30,000. The Gallery was also agent for the Estate of Thomas Eakins, placing significant paintings in major museums from New York to Honolulu. In recent years we have sold a number of significant Eakins works, including one of his largest paintings: "A Street Scene, Seville". For the past half century Babcock Galleries has also been the leading source for works by Marsden Hartley. More than fifty museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and the Huntington Museum and Library have acquired Babcock Hartleys. During the past few years the gallery has sold nearly twenty major Marsden Hartley paintings, including one of his most famous works, "Mountains of Stone, Dogtown", 1931, which was featured in both the National Gallery's Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and his New York Galleries, and the Wadsworth Athenaeum's retrospective exhibition Marsden Hartley. For more than ten years Babcock Galleries has been the exclusive agent for the heirs of Edwin Dickinson. In that role they have sold more than one hundred works to important public and private collections nationwide. Similarly, as agent for the Estate of Charles Hawthorne, we have recently placed more than thirty works in collections. Today, Babcock Galleries remains a key source for important American art of all periods. In the past few years the gallery has sold many exceptional works including a life portrait of George Washington by Edward Savage; Charles Deas' famous "Long Jakes", Randolph Rogers' iconic "Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii", a major luminist painting by Jervis McEntee; a classic Frederic Church American landscape; and Robert Duncanson's amazing 1850 "View of Ashville, North Carolina". In recent years five museums have acquired six highly important Severin Roesen still life paintings from the gallery. We have sold important works by Fitz Hugh Lane, Asher B. Durand, William Sidney Mount, Sanford Gifford, and placed more than twenty-five works by John F. Kensett, including what is perhaps his finest Beacon Rock, Newport painting. Masters such as Ralph Blakelock, Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Mary Cassatt, and Childe Hassam have figured in sales and exhibitions. We are particularly pleased to have sold some of the finest works that have entered the market place by George Luks, Ernest Lawson, Arthur B. Davies, John F. Carlson, Arthur Dove, Charles Demuth, Georgia O'Keeffe, Max Weber, Milton Avery, and Franz Kline. Our current inventory includes landmark works by John F. Kensett, Severin Roesen, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Marsden Hartley, Charles Webster Hawthorne, Edwin Dickinson, George McNeil, Will Barnet, and Paul Wonner. Babcock Galleries' long and distinguished tradition of connoisseurship and service assure the highest quality of important American art to their clientele, museums and private collectors alike. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.babcockgalleries.com

Kevin Bubriski Named Visiting Artist Fellow at the Peabody Museum Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:23 PM PDT CAMBRIDGE, MA.- Kevin Bubriski first began photographing Nepal in 1975, when he was stationed there as a Peace Corps water engineer. In the decades that followed he continued to shoot in Nepal, creating a large documentary record of the country. With the Robert Gardner Visiting Artist Fellowship, Bubriski will continue his photographic documentation of Nepal's Karnali Zone this year and then be in residence preparing his material for publication. He describes that history as an "evolution from an exotic destination for overland European travelers in the 1970s, political turmoil and strict monarchic rule in the 1970s and 1980s, democracy movement of 1990, the ten-year civil war from 1996 to 2006, to the current precarious peace."

Vintage Racecar Exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:21 PM PDT ST. PETERSBURG, FL.- For the first time in its history, the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, FL will exhibit a classic racecar. The Tracta A—the only car of its type in the world —will be installed in the glass Conservatory March 24 and will remain on view through April 7. Tracta of France made only two cars in 1929 to race at Le Mans. The Tracta A to be exhibited placed first in its class and seventh overall. It is a front-wheel drive vehicle, with a four-speed transmission with overdrive, that was designed specifically for the challenging Le Mans racetrack. The car could reach speeds up to 90 mph. Except for a new coat of paint and new tires, everything is original. Reflecting its expert craftsmanship, the car still drives beautifully. The car will actually be driven from the lender, the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum in Pinellas Park, to the MFA.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art opens ' Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America & The Railway, 1830-1960 ' Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:20 PM PDT   Kansas City, MO – A major international exhibition opening this fall at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will capture the excitement and range of emotions that steam-powered trains elicited as railroads reshaped culture around the world. The exhibition, Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960, open from Sept. 13 through Jan. 18, 2009, will feature more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs drawn from 64 museums and private collections. Art in the Age of Steam   Is the most wide-ranging exhibition ever assembled of American and European works of art responding to the drama of the railroad, from the earliest days when steam trains churned across the landscape through the romance of the Victorian era to the end of the steam era in the 1960s. The exhibition opened first at Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where it was on view from April 18 to Aug. 10. It drew more than 113,000 visitors and received excellent reviews in general and scholarly publications. Extensive exhibition-related programming has been developed not only at the Nelson-Atkins, but also with eight Kansas City-area community partners. In light of Kansas City's historic position as a railway town, this exhibition has strong local resonance. At the same time, it captures the international fascination with the steam train as both an inspiration for art and a life-changing experience for the world at large, said Marc F. Wilson, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell Director/CEO of the Nelson-Atkins. It is especially fitting that the exhibition arrives from Liverpool, another city with transportation at the core of its modern history. Among the works of art are modern and Impressionist masterpieces, including Edouard Manet's The Railway,  Claude Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare, Gustave Caillebotte's On the Pont de l'Europe and Rene Magritte's Time Transfixed. The exhibition features works that span a variety of styles, from an early lithograph by John Cooke Bourne, No. 1 Tunnel, to Edward Hopper's modern Railroad Sunset, and Thomas Hart Benton's The Wreck of the Ole 97. Photography, which also came of age during the rise of steam trains, is represented with works by Alfred Steiglitz, Charles Sheeler, André Kertész and O. Winston Link. The exhibition demonstrates how art and technology came together to contribute to the definition of modernity, exemplified by the speeding up of modern life in an increasingly mechanical society, said Ian Kennedy, Louis L. and Adelaide C. Ward Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins, who co-curated the exhibition with Julian Treuherz, former Keeper of Art for National Museums Liverpool, England. Britain was the cradle of the railroad and Liverpool was a major railroad terminal. The railroad was critical for the westward expansion of the young United States, and Kansas City's Union Station was the nation's second largest railroad station after Chicago. The exhibition will be presented in six sections: The Formative Years in Europe Explores the genesis of railroading in Great Britain and France. The Human Drama of the Railway Focuses on classic topics of the Victorian railroad – the station and the passenger compartment – and includes Augustus Egg's masterpiece Travelling Companions. Crossing Continents: America and Beyond Explores railroad expansion in the American Midwest and West and features the well-known Nelson-Atkins work by Thomas Otter, On the Road, as well as Albert Bierstadt, Donner Pass. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Demonstrates how artists captured both the power of the iron world and the psychological interplay of people in train stations. States of Mind Surveys the depiction of the railroad in art movements of the late 19th and early 20th century, from Symbolism through Futurism, Expressionism and Surrealism, represented by Wassily Kandinsky, E.L. Kirchner and Giorgio de Chirico. The Machine Age Moves from admiration of the power of steam and locomotive machine to the feelings of nostalgia as it declined in general passenger travel use. The Railway in Art : Early observers viewed the steam train with combined wonder and fear. Many early prints and paintings explored the evolving landscape of the industrial age, punctuated with the bridges and viaducts built to accommodate the new trains. The view from the train car provided a new panoramic—almost cinematic—perspective. Particularly in the American west, broad landscape paintings illustrated the cinematic point of view from a railroad carriage, emblematic of the vast and unexplored frontier now made accessible by train travel. Prints and paintings also focused on train stations themselves as new centers of city life. Reactions were not purely celebratory, though: Honoré Daumier's realist works hinted at the anxieties of mixing with strangers of different classes in the closed compartments of a train car. Later in the 19th century, the French Impressionists latched onto the steam train as a symbol of modernity, simultaneously heralding and expressing anxiety about the fast pace of the new city. The train provided a convenient link between city and country, condensing what had previously been a day of travel time into an hour, and many Impressionist works explored the newly-accessible countryside as a site of leisure, a counterpoint to the bustling city. Stylistically, the bursts of steam spewed by the trains provided stunning illustrations of the emphasis on light and movement that characterizes Impressionism. In the early 20th century, modern artists used the train to explore abstracted depictions of speed and power in an increasingly mechanized society. Russian poster designers celebrated the train as the epitome of strength and power and as a valuable tool for a Socialist system. Art Nouveau travel posters, meanwhile, depicted the train as a sleek bullet and the essence of glamour. The railway continued to serve as a metaphor for power or the restlessness and alienation of modern life well into the 20th century, especially in the works of Hopper and Benton, but eventually with the increasing dominance of new forms of transport – railway art became imbued with nostalgia for a golden age, particularly after steam haulage was superseded by diesel or electric traction. Nostalgia for a vanishing age is poignantly expressed in the photography of O. Winston Link. A full-color catalog published by Yale University Press is directed at both art lovers and railroad enthusiasts. It opens with a historical introduction by Oxford University lecturer Michael Freeman, followed by an essay by University College London lecturer Matthew Beaumont on the railroad and literature. The catalog is divided into six sections written by the co-curators Kennedy and Treuherz, who address the ways in which various artistic schools and artists addressed the subject of railroads. The catalog also includes extensive technical notes on works exhibited, as well as a timeline and bibliography. The catalog will be available at the Museum Store. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America's finest encyclopedic art museums. The Nelson-Atkins serves the community by providing access and insight into its renowned collection of more than 33,500 art objects and is best known for its Asian art, European and American paintings and modern sculpture. Housing a major art research library and the Ford Learning Center, the Museum is a key educational resource for the region and a national model for arts education. The Nelson-Atkins' expansion is also leading a field of new investments in local cultural infrastructure that is becoming known as Kansas City's $6 Billion Renaissance. The recently completed 165,000-square-foot Bloch Building by Steven Holl Architects was a major milestone in the ongoing institution-wide transformation of the Nelson-Atkins. The multi-year project also encompassed the renovation of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building and the expansion of the Museum's renowned Kansas City Sculpture Park, and continues with renovations to the American and American Indian galleries as part of the reinstallation of the encyclopedic collection. The Nelson-Atkins is located at 45th and Oak streets, Kansas City, Mo. Hours are Wednesday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission to the Museum's permanent collection is free to everyone. Additionally, newly produced audio guides are free for visitors, presenting art & architecture tours, overall collection highlights, and select special exhibitions tours. For Museum information, phone 816.751.1ART (1278) or visit : www.nelson-atkins.org.

Renowned Impressionism Collection Returns Home to Art Institute of Chicago Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:18 PM PDT   CHICAGO, IL.- Just in time for the 2008 holiday season, the Art Institute of Chicago's famed Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection will be fully reinstalled in 11 newly renovated and expanded galleries by December 19, 2008. Masterpieces by artists such as Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh --many of which were loaned to the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas, and enjoyed by approximately 170,000 visitors there during a four-month stay--have returned to Chicago.

Pinakothek der Moderne Shows "Curvatureromance" by the American Artist John Chamberlain Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:16 PM PDT MUNICH.- CURVATUREROMANCE is the first museum presentation of the large-format metal sculptures completed during the last four years by the American artist John Chamberlain (b.1927). The show also marks the start of the AMERICAN SUMMER program in the Pinakothek der Moderne, on view from July 7th through October 23rd. As early as the late-1950s Chamberlain created a sculpture for the first time that made use of colored steel parts from a car that was in the backyard of his friend Larry Rivers. He thereby found his Carrara - a working material that was to become as natural for Chamberlain, as marble was for sculptors of the Renaissance.

The Kunsthaus Bregenz (the "KUB") ~ Outstanding Exhibition Spaces for Contemporary Art In Austria ~ Is Toured By AKN Editor Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:14 PM PDT In August 1993 the district administration office of Bregenz issued the building permit for the construction of a new art museum. Planning and negotiation had begun some years before, and construction started the following year. Both the museum itself and adjacent administration building were designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor a Pritzker Prize winner. The Kunsthaus Bregenz ( the KUB) was opened on July 25, 1997. The architect described the building as: "The art museum stands in the light of Lake Constance. It is made of glass and steel and a cast concrete stone mass which endows the interior of the building with texture and spatial composition. From the outside, the building looks like a lamp. It absorbs the changing light of the sky, the haze of the lake, it reflects light and colour and gives an intimation of its inner life according to the angle of vision, the daylight and the weather." Within the Urban Context The Kunsthaus Bregenz was built as a solitary construction in a prominent location not far from the lakefront bank. It filled the space on "Seestraße" between the Theater for Vorarlberg and the main post office. Fresh air is conducted through a gap between the floor and the outer walls to the halls. The used air is sucked in through the gaps between the sheets of glass of the light ceiling and flows out through this space, requiring no mechanical air conditioning. The entrance lies on the eastern side of the building facing the town. The administration building, situated in front of the museum towards the city centre, acts as a transitional structure to the smaller and low buildings of the old part of the town. All functional facilities of the Kunsthaus other than those directly associated with the presentation of art are housed separately in this smaller building, which accommodates a library, the museum shop and a café besides the administrative offices. The striking facade consists of etched glass shingles that lend the building lightness and transparency, provide insulation and form an essential part of the lighting arrangement for the building. The refractive properties of the glass shingles and a 90-centimetre wide light pit between the glass cladding and the concrete structure of the building proper makes it possible to direct daylight to the first subterranean level and illuminate the building at night. Three exhibition floors are used to exhibit the museum's own collection and featured thematic or solo artist exhibitions. As a new institution, the Kunsthaus' own collection is still very young, but focuses on contemporary Austrian art The collection begins in the 1980s with works by the younger generation of artists which broke away from the determining traditions of postwar Austrian art in favor of a more international orientation (for example Bohatsch, Brandl, Kogler, Kopf, F. Pichler, Rockenschaub, Scheibl, Schmalix, Ströhle, Türtscher, West, Wurm, Zobernig, among others). Acquisitions of groups of works by the most important artists set focal points. In parallel to these exhibitions, the KUB Arena's program examines examples of differing forms of curatorial practice (such as the current Antony Gormley installation in the high Alps). Visit the museum's website at : www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at Currently, the Kunsthaus are showing three exhibitions. Haegue Yang's "Arrivals" runs until 4th March 2011 and features both the artist's older work as well as 33 new light sculptures, which enigmatically populate the third floor like alien life-forms and her largest installation to date, specifically for the Bregenz show, consisting of approximately 200 aluminum venetian blinds, which occupy KUB's entire second floor with an impressive weightlessness. These complex installations, sculptures, objects, photographs, videos, and slide projections, which in their atmospheric intensity appear equally poetic and conceptual, negate any unequivocal interpretation. Haegue Yang's work captivates precisely because of its ambiguity, which is rooted as much in the conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s, as in an engagement with current theoretical discourses. Also 'Living Archives' - Cooperation Van Abbemusem (which runs until 4th March 2011) explores artistic archives. What is an archive? What is a collection? What are the relationships between the documents stored in archives and objects stored in collections concerned with memory, identity, history, and politics? The collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven is a joint consideration of the significance of archives and collections, which play a major role in the current reconsiderations of artistic practices and conservations in the realm of the museum. Alongside the exhibit Living Archive – Mixed Messages of the Van Abbemuseum, which includes works by Francis Bacon, Robert Indiana and Paul McCarthy, works by Michal Heiman, Hannah Hurtzig (both from the collection of the Van Abbemuseum) and Katrin Mayer offer a range of processual and amenable strategies of collecting and archiving. Meanwhile, for the more adventurous visitor, The KUB Arena presents Antony Gormley's "Horizon Field" which can be found in the High Alps of Vorarlberg, a short journey from Bregenz. The Kunsthaus Bregenz and the British artist Antony Gormley (born in 1950) realized a unique project in the mountains of Vorarlberg. Horizon Field is the first art project of its kind erected in the mountains and the largest landscape intervention in Austria to date. Horizon Field consists of 100 life-size, solid cast iron figures of the human body spread over an area of 150 square kilometers. The work forms a horizontal line at 2,039 meters above sea level. This height has no specific metaphorical or thematic relevance in the placement of the figures. It is an altitude that is readily accessible but, at the same time, lies beyond the realm of everyday life. Some of the figures are installed in places one can hike to or ski past in the winter. Others are unapproachable though visible from certain vantage points. The works are neither representations (statues) nor symbols, but represent the place where a human being once was, and where any human being could be. Horizon Field engages the physical, perceptual, and imaginative responses of anyone coming within its relational field. Over the 2 years during which this installation is in place, the work will be exposed to the elements, to different lighting conditions, and to the changing seasons, thus enabling constantly new perceptions and impressions.

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