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• The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University exhibits Alexander Calder & his Legacy
• The Corey Helford Gallery Presents Two Solo Shows by David Stoupakis & Tom Bagshaw
• Kunsthalle Bielefeld to showcase World-renowned Chinese Artist Fang Lijun
• Comparative Exhibition of Chaim Soutine & Francis Bacon at Helly Nahmad Gallery
• LACMA hosts Four BMW Art Cars by Warhol, Stella, Lichtenstein, & Rauschenberg
• Merry Karnowsky Gallery to Feature New Work in A Group Show
• "Cities of Gold and Mirrors" on View at the Julia Stoschek Collection
• PINTA Announces Its 2nd Latin American Art Show in London
• Daniel Libeskind's Michael Lee-Chin Crystal Cited as Architectural Marvel
• The Sammlung Essl at Klosterneuberg ~ Austria′s Biggest Private Collection of Contemporary Art ~ Toured By AKN Editor
• Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi with Keith Haring at Paul Kasmin Gallery
• Jean Dubuffet's life explored in new exhibition at the Pace Gallery
• Jennifer Steinkamp’s 3-D Installations
• The Museum of Contemporary Art highlights Architect Paul Preissner's "Spotting"
• Hamburger Bahnhof Opens Major Exhibition of American Artist Bruce Nauman
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News
• Blain|Di Donna's Inaugural Exhibition Displayed the Works of René Magritte
• Sally Mann Exhibits in the Musee de L'Elysee ~ a Swiss Museum for the First Time
• After Legal Odyssey ~ Homecoming Show for Looted Antiquities
• Getty Museum Acquires L' Entrée au Jardin Turc by Louis Léopold Boilly

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University exhibits Alexander Calder & his Legacy Posted: 08 May 2012 09:08 PM PDT Durham, North Carolina.- The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University presents " Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance and Joy" on view at the museum through June 17th. This exhibition pairs some 34 masterworks by Alexander Calder with the work of seven contemporary artists whose practices are bound to Calder's legacy as modern sculptor. While a well-known, even beloved figure, Calder is not often considered an important point of reference for contemporary artists. This is the first exhibition to explore Calder's significance for an emerging generation of sculptors, reconsidering his influence and innovation through a presentation of his own work alongside the work of contemporary artists. The seven other artists in this exhibition- Martin Boyce , Nathan Carter , Abraham Cruzvillegas , Aaron Curry , Kristi Lippire , Jason Meadows and Jason Middlebrook -have taken important cues from Calder including a return to hands-on production, the creative reuse of materials and explorations of form, balance, color and movement. Both directly and indirectly influenced by Calder, all seven artists look toward modernist forms and ideas, challenging and recontextualizing what is for many a familiar art history. "Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy" is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago . Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, on July 22, 1898. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, a majority of them in Philadelphia. Calder's grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, was born in Scotland and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1868. In the summer of 1916, Calder spent five weeks training at the Plattsburg Civilian Military Training Camp. In 1918, he joined the Student's Army Training Corps, Naval Section, at Stevens and was made guide of the battalion. In 1919, Calder decided to study mechanical engineering and enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and excelled in mathematics. Calder received a degree from Stevens in 1919. For the next several years, he held a variety of engineering jobs, including working as a hydraulics engineer and a draughtsman for the New York Edison Company. In June 1922, Calder found work as a mechanic on the passenger ship H. F. Alexander. While the ship sailed from San Francisco to New York City, Calder worked on deck off the Guatemalan Coast. Calder moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Students' League, studying briefly with Thomas Hart Benton and John Sloan , among others. While a student, he worked for the National Police Gazette where, in 1925, one of his assignments was sketching the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Calder became fascinated with the circus, a theme that would reappear in his later work. In 1926, Calder moved to Paris where he established a studio at 22 rue Daguerre in the Montparnasse Quarter. In June 1929, while traveling by boat from Paris to New York, Calder met his future wife, Louisa James, grandniece of author Henry James and philosopher William James. They married in 1931. While in Paris, Calder met and became friends with a number of avant-garde artists, including Joan Miró , Jean Arp , and Marcel Duchamp . Calder and Louisa returned to America in 1933 to settle in a farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised a family (first daughter, Sandra born 1935, second daughter, Mary, in 1939). In 1962, Calder settled into his new workshop Carroi, which was of a futuristic design and overlooked the valley of the Lower Chevrière to Saché in Indre-et-Loire (France). He did not hesitate to offer his gouaches and small mobiles to his friends in the country, he even donated to the town a stabile trônant, which since 1974 in situated front of the church: an anti-sculpture free from gravity. In 1966, Calder published his Autobiography with Pictures with the help of his son-in-law, Jean Davidson. Calder died on November 11, 1976, shortly after opening a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York. He had been working on a third plane, entitled Salute to Mexico, when he died. The Nasher Museum was founded in 1966 as the Duke University Museum of Art with the acquisition of 200 medieval works from the Ernest Brummer Collection. In 2005, the museum opened a new 65,000-square-foot facility designed by Rafael Viñoly and was renamed the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, in honor of the late Raymond D. Nasher, Duke alumnus, collector and benefactor. The museum (designed by Rafael Viñoly) promotes engagement with the visual arts among a broad community including Duke students, faculty, and staff, the greater Durham community, the Triangle region, and the national and international art community. The museum presents an ambitious schedule of exhibitions that travel to major institutions around the world, and has a growing collection of international contemporary art. The museum  contains more than 13,000 works of art in its collection, including works by Ai Weiwei , Romare Bearden , Christian Boltanski, William Cordova, Petah Coyne, Noah Davis, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas , Sam Durant, Olafur Eliasson , Darío Escobar, Francois Gerard, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks , Sean Landers , Hong Lei, David Levinthal, Sol LeWitt , Glenn Ligon , Christian Marclay , Dan Perjovschi, Paul Pfeiffer, Robert A. Pruitt, Robin Rhode, Dario Robleto, Ed Ruscha , John Singer Sargent , Cindy Sherman , Gary Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Jeff Sonhouse, Eve Sussman, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Bob Thompson, Kara Walker , Nari Ward, Andy Warhol , Carrie Mae Weems , Kehinde Wiley , Fred Wilson and Lynette Yiadom Boakye. The museum is dedicated to presenting under-recognized contemporary art from around the world as seen in the exhibition Street Level: Mark Bradford, William Cordova and Robin Rhode, as well as the first career retrospectives of Barkley L. Hendricks and Dan and Lia Perjovschi. Visit the museum's website at ... http://nasher.duke.edu

The Corey Helford Gallery Presents Two Solo Shows by David Stoupakis & Tom Bagshaw Posted: 08 May 2012 09:06 PM PDT Culver City, CA.-  The Corey Helford Gallery is proud to present standout double solo exhibitions by New York painter David Stoupakis and UK digital artist Tom Bagshaw. "David Stoupakis: Walking Within These Shadows" and "Tom Bagshaw: Beautiful Imperfections" are on view at the gallery from August 6th through August 27th, with an opening Reception on Saturday, August 6th from 7-10pm. Returning to the gallery for his third solo exhibition entitled "Walking Within These Shadows", Stoupakis reveals a more personal side to his work — exploring life, death and the unknown. Stoupakis is internationally recognized for his clever narratives and haunting imagery that portray the darker side of childhood innocence and fairytales. However, his new body of work adopts a more serious tone, departing from the playful themes he is known for.

Kunsthalle Bielefeld to showcase World-renowned Chinese Artist Fang Lijun Posted: 08 May 2012 09:05 PM PDT BIELEFELD, GERMANY - Born in 1963 in the Chinese province of Hebei, Fang Lijun is a world-renowned artist who has been exhibiting steadily in France, Japan, the Netherlands, and New York since 1995. He made his European debut in the international art world in 1993, with the Biennale di Venezia and in Berlin at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Two retrospectives in China and the presentation of his large-format woodcut at Berlin's Kupferstichkabinett in 2006 demonstrated to what extent he has become one of the art world's most influential figures. On exhibition 30 August through 8 November, 2009.

Comparative Exhibition of Chaim Soutine & Francis Bacon at Helly Nahmad Gallery Posted: 08 May 2012 09:04 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Helly Nahmad Gallery New York presents SOUTINE/BACON, the first comparative exhibition of Chaim Soutine and Francis Bacon, on view May 2 through June 18, 2011. Chaim Soutine's paintings have not only had a crucial impact on the development of modern art in the twentieth century, but also a sustained critical influence on contemporary practice. The artists most often associated and identified with his influence are the post-war Abstract Expressionists in the United States, best exemplified by Willem de Kooning, who referred to Soutine as his "favorite artist."

LACMA hosts Four BMW Art Cars by Warhol, Stella, Lichtenstein, & Rauschenberg Posted: 08 May 2012 09:02 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presented an installation of BMW Art Cars designed by Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg in early, 2009. The unique cars were on view in the BP Grand Entrance, an admission-free area of the museum's campus. LACMA is the first U.S. venue in a major worldwide tour of the cars; they next appeared in New York City's historic Grand Central Terminal, before heading to a three-city museum tour in Mexico.

Merry Karnowsky Gallery to Feature New Work in A Group Show Posted: 08 May 2012 09:01 PM PDT Los Angeles.- The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present "New Work by Tara McPherson, Deedee Cheriel, Lindsey Way & Aiko" on view at the gallery from February 4th through March 3rd. While all the artists are working in their unique styles and mediums there is a parallel lyrical motif. Tara Mcpherson is an artist based out of New York City. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Melvins. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive. Her new work displays a focus on sensual female portraiture, aiming at capturing an essence of a woman, and spanning through seasonal changes. These portraits capture an idealized moment in time with subtle aspects of a persona conveyed in a single expression. Deedee Cheriel's work demonstrates a powerful tension between the design elements of stripes, patterns, and color fields, with lyrical illustration. – Shepard Fairey. Growing up skateboarding and playing in bands in the Pacific Northwest, Deedee Cheriel's iconic work is both graphic and painterly and borrows from her Indian heritage. Her current body of work references Indian ritual art: attempting to invoke deities, exorcise negative forces, celebrate rites of passage, and mark turning points in death and renewal. Drawing upon nature and her trademark hybrid animal-people as subjects, Deedee creates dark and meditative narratives. Lindsey Way was born in Dunoon, Scotland. She attended Pratt Institute, where she studied fine art and illustration. She then worked as a window display artist throughout New York City, assisted the prolific painter Ron English and toured the globe playing bass for the band Mindless Self Indulgence. Her work has been in CBGB's 32nd Anniversary Art Show, "Hung" and the traveling group show, "Draw". In 2010 she displayed 13 dioramas called, "Hush" in a two women show entitled "Smile Even if it Hurts", was chosen to be one of the artists to participate in South Park's 15th Anniversary art exhibition curated by Ron English, and was featured in Longan Hick's show "Pretty Ugly" at New York's Opera Gallery. Lindsey's current body of work is a collection of dioramas entitled "The Flu" a dark, nautical, viral take over depicting victims and survivors. Aiko, always expressing a dichotomy between true love and the dark melancholic flipside, returns with a personal theme and show title of "After a Long Time". Perhaps since the beginning or end of a long tumultuous relationship, or perhaps reflective of a creative burgeoning. Aiko's new paintings are scattered with beautiful images of memory and passion. Her current body of work will showcase a mixture of installation and stencil based paintings reminiscent of her childhood in Japan, and international street art practice. The Merry Karnowsky Gallery is devoted to exhibiting contemporary works of art that are challenging, innovative and committed to fostering new directions in American art. With a creative stable that is one of the most significantly sought after both nationally and internationally, the gallery has become one of Los Angeles' premier insurrectionary art venues. In March of 2008, Karnowsky opened a second gallery in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, committed to bringing fresh, innovative works to the burgeoning Berlin art scene. Articles about the gallery, and/or it's artists have been featured in Juxtapoz, Swindle, Flaunt, Paper, Nylon, The Face, Variety, Giant Robot, Super X Media, Art Week, Art Issues, Flash Art, Modern Painters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The LA Weekly, and The Los Angeles Times. MKG Gallery artists have been included in group and solo Museum exhibitions at The Grand Central Art Center, The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, The Cincinnati Art Center, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, MOCA Miami, The San Jose Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Visit the gallery's website at ... www.mkgallery.com/

"Cities of Gold and Mirrors" on View at the Julia Stoschek Collection Posted: 08 May 2012 08:59 PM PDT DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - The Julia Stoschek Collection is presenting selected works in a newly designed exhibition. The show features 44 works by 35 artists in all, including many that have never been shown before, works acquired in the past few years and site-specific spatial interventions. Each work is presented in its own, carefully elaborated setting. Rather than being organised around a single theme, the exhibition picks up on several content strands and reflects current themes in contemporary art. Its title, CITIES OF GOLD AND MIRRORS, taken from a film by Cyprien Gaillard shown in the exhibition is a metaphor for the fact that the pieces on display explore socio-political questions relating to urban development, humankind's relationship to architecture, and our own personal vanities and desires. The first exhibition area presents artists like Gordon Matta-Clark, Tobias Zielony, Cyprien Gaillard and Francis Alÿs, whose works reflect on the relationship between humankind and architecture. On view until summer of 2012.

PINTA Announces Its 2nd Latin American Art Show in London Posted: 08 May 2012 08:58 PM PDT LONDON.- Following a successful first year in London in 2010, PINTA, the Latin American Art Show is returning to Earls Court Exhibition Centre this June 6th - 9th to present the very best in modern and contemporary Latin American art. Launched in New York City in 2007, PINTA has become the annual meeting place for Latin American Art. In June 2011, PINTA will bring to London over fifty galleries from the Americas and Europe including Guillermo de Osma Galería and Distrito 4 from Madrid; Maddox Arts from London; Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte from Buenos Aires; LucIa de la Puente from Peru, Galería Enrique Guerrero from Mexico, Galeria Nara Roesler from São Paulo, Aninat Isabel from Santiago, Chile and Durban Segnini and Sammer Gallery from Miami.

Daniel Libeskind's Michael Lee-Chin Crystal Cited as Architectural Marvel Posted: 08 May 2012 08:57 PM PDT TORONTO.- The book 'Off the Tourist Trail: 1,000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives', names the Royal Ontario Museum's (ROM) Michael Lee- Chin Crystal, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, as one of the world's architectural marvels and one of six modern buildings to rival Australia's Sydney Opera House. Prefaced by famed American author Bill Bryson and published in fall 2009 by Dorling Kindersley (DK) as part of its Eyewitness series, the book praises the highly successful Renaissance ROM project, the Museum's renovation and expansion project, and Libeskind's design.

The Sammlung Essl at Klosterneuberg ~ Austria′s Biggest Private Collection of Contemporary Art ~ Toured By AKN Editor Posted: 08 May 2012 08:56 PM PDT A short journey from Vienna, in the town of Klosterneuburg, is the Essl Collection Museum, which occupies its very own purpose-built art museum by the Danube. It houses Austria′s biggest private collection of contemporary art. Art collecting powerhouse couple, Agnes and Karlheinz Essl (Karlheinz Essl is the founder of bauMax, a chain of do-it-yourself and garden centres) believe that "art enriches life and releases innovative forces," the two have always sought to collect challenging works. The collection was originally meant to be housed in the 'MuseumsQuartier' in Vienna, but after a long - and typically Austrian - argument about the architecture of the museum it was built in Klosterneuburg, where they live and where bauMax has its headquarters. The striking building was designed by the award-winning Austrian architect Heinz Tesar and when it opened in 1999, the Essls could now display a collection that boasted the likes of Damien Hirst, Paul McCarthy, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Bill Viola, Tony Oursler and Jonathan Meese. Visitors enter the Exhibition Building of the Essl Collection through an entrance pavilion in the southern part of the building. From the entrance hall and the light-flooded stair hall that extends freely over all five storeys one reaches the first floor with its inner courtyard, lawn and water basin. This floor also contains the lobby, the entrance to the library, the galleries and the exhibition hall. On the mezzanine floor, a spacious studio is used for the numerous events and activities of the educational program. The six large storage rooms on the ground floor with a total floor space of 2,500 sq. meters are supplemented by additional rooms devoted to conservation, workshops, technical equipment and the administration of the artworks in the storage rooms. The seven galleries which are located on the west side contain the permanent display of the Essl Collection. They each have different dimensions and are lit through their three meter high skylights. The east-facing Exhibition Hall receives its daylight from the windows along one side and is visually linked to the corridor on the floor below that leads to the art storage rooms. The Rotunda connects the Exhibition Hall with the "Large Hall" on the floor above. Adjacent to it is the Lecture Hall, where lectures, special events and music performances are held. The Rotunda connects the Exhibition Hall with the Large Hall. It has been intentionally left empty and is filled only with the sounds of specifically conceived sound installations by various composers. The "Large Hall", where the sculptures and installations are displayed is lit by windows along one side as well as by skylights. The hall is covered by an 820 sq. meter roof that is shaped like a wave. Adjacent to the "Large Hall" are the Café and the museum shop. Situated approximately 600 meters from the Essl Museum, the Schömer-Haus (also designed by Heinz Tesar) is just a few minutes' walk away. Although its main function is as the Schömer-bauMax-Corporate Group headquarters it also provides extra exhibition space for the Essl Museum. Entry is free. it serves as an exhibition hall for the Essl collection and as a concert hall. The concert series, Music at the Schömer-Haus, has been curated by the composer Karlheinz Essl since 1992. About four times a year, the building is transformed into a venue for exceptional musical events, where primarily New Music is presented with all its radical, unconventional facets. Visit the museum (and Schömer-Haus) website at: http://www.sammlung-essl.at With more than 6.000 exhibits the Essl Collection today offers an excellent overview of Austrian painting since 1945, placing it in an international context. Collecting in depth was always an essential idea and the artists' development in the course of their oeuvre was to be shown. The scope of the Austrian exhibits in the Collection ranges from the Abstract Expressionism of the 50's and 60's to the Vienna Actionism and New Painting of the 80s and all the way to the reductionist art of the 90s. In addition to the post-war paintings the Collection contains an important group of works of Classical Austrian Modernism. In the past few years the selection of the works by international artists has been made mainly on the basis of their significance for painting and their relationship to the Austrian art tradition. Among the well-known artists represented are; Arnulf Rainer, Sam Francis, Maria Lassnig, Antoni Tàpies, Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Valie Export, Markus Oehlen, Daniel Richter, Gerhard Richter, Hubert Schmalix, Siegfried Anzinger, Jonathan Meese, Sean Scully, Per Kirkeby, Oskar Kokoschka, Lois Renner, Gottfried Helnwein, Karel Appel and Krystufek . The collection is supplemented in photography, video and sculpture by the work of Franz West, Nam June Paik, Shirin Neshat, Cindy Sherman, Jannis Kounellis and Barbara Szüts as well as high-quality sculptures. Currently the Essl Museum has 3 exhibitions on exhibition. "India Awakens" (until February 13th 2011) is in the main exhibitions hall and presents the new generation of contemporary Indian artists. Alongside paintings, sculpture and photography the exhibition will include spacious video installations and contemporary Tribal Art. All works were acquired by the Essl Museum and have partly been created specifically for this exhibition. In the main hall, under the title of "Private Wurm", one of Austria's most internationally successful artists, Erwin Wurm presents recent works (until 30th January 2011). In this personal show the artist takes a look at his childhood and youth. In his work, Wurm explores the realms of action art, performance art and sculpture and translates them into a contemporary media context. "Beautiful Klosterneuburg", a personal choice of works selected by German artist Albert Oehlen is presented in the seven gallery rooms (until 8th May 2011). The exhibition features paintings and sculptures by artists including Rudolf Hausner, Friedensreich Hundertwasser but also contemporary art by Paul McCarthy and Heimo Zobernig. In the 1980s, Albert Oehlen was part of the "Neue Wilde" group, which included names such as Martin Kippenberger, Werner Büttner and his own brother Markus Oehlen. These "new savages" took an ironic stance and challenged the entire medium of painting. At the nearby Schömer-Haus art collector Agnes Essl takes a look at artists whose work has been represented in The Essl Collection from its inception and who have become creative "Associates of Long Standing (until spring 2011). Of the idea behind the exhibition, Agnes Essl says: "In our first guest-book I found an invitation to a preview of Kurt Moldovan's work for 10 November 1979. This exhibition was one of the first we had organised in a very private context in our home for our relatives and a few friends. Then others followed, among them Rudolf Hradil, Herbert Breiter, Ernst Gradischnig, Gottfried Salzmann, Markus Vallazza, Hans Kruckenhauser and Giselbert Hoke. That was the beginning of our collection!"

Photos by Tseng Kwong Chi with Keith Haring at Paul Kasmin Gallery Posted: 08 May 2012 08:56 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Kasmin Gallery presents an exhibition of photographs taken by the American artist Tseng Kwong Chi in 1983 in collaboration with the choreographer Bill T. Jones and the artist Keith Haring. Shown in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of of Tseng and Haring's deaths, these striking large-format photographs celebrate the spirit of interconnected creativity that pulsed throughout the East Village in the 1980's and will be on display at 511 W. 27th Street until March 13, 2010.

Jean Dubuffet's life explored in new exhibition at the Pace Gallery Posted: 08 May 2012 08:55 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- The Pace Gallery presents Jean Dubuffet: The Last Two Years, on view at 510 West 25th Street from January 20th through March 10th. During the final two years of Jean Dubuffet's life, his canvases exploded with raw emotion. The artist's mental landscapes described a non-place, made perceptible by fluid intertwining lines and radiant colors that seem drawn from an alternate reality. "To see the last works," Murphy writes, "is to see all of Dubuffet, his theories contracted into an energetic force comprised of wild, fluid brushstrokes that appear as if they could escape from the confines of any boundaries imposed upon them." After twelve years of working on his Hourloupe cycle (the longest series of his career) with a palette of primarily red, blue, and black, contained by thick black outlines, in 1983 Dubuffet unleashed an extended color palette across the canvas, removing the borders and a representational reference point. Nearly twenty works drawn from the final two bodies of work by the artist (Mires and Non-Lieux) will be on view.

Jennifer Steinkamp’s 3-D Installations Posted: 08 May 2012 08:51 PM PDT Buffalo, NY - Melding aspects of computer animation, abstract painting, film, architectural space, and motion, Los Angeles based artist Jennifer Steinkamp creates stunning 3-D installations.  This exhibition, on view at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery  through June 29, 2008,  offers a comprehensive view of one of the most important and prolific video and new media artists of our time.

The Museum of Contemporary Art highlights Architect Paul Preissner's "Spotting" Posted: 08 May 2012 08:50 PM PDT CHICAGO, IL - The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, ( MCA), shows  March UBS 12 x 12 Presents Paul Preissner, on view through March 29, 2009. Architecture and selective dog breeding converge as architect Paul Preissner uses digital technology to create building designs that strive to be strong and identifiable parts of a cityscape, rather than structures that anonymously blend in with their surroundings. He presents new architectural drawings, animations, and models whose unique combinations of surface patterns and "spotting" serve as a communicative strategy for identification similar to the habits of selective dog breeding that produce desired coat patterns and body shapes.

Hamburger Bahnhof Opens Major Exhibition of American Artist Bruce Nauman Posted: 08 May 2012 08:50 PM PDT BERLIN.- The Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof is presenting Bruce Nauman. "Dream Passage", the first major exhibition of the American artist Bruce Nauman in Berlin. The exhibition is being held on the occasion of the installation of the spectacular architectural sculpture Room with My Soul Left Out, Room That Does Not Care from 1984, which was recently donated to the Nationalgalerie by the collector Friedrich Christian Flick. Close cooperation with the artist meant that this work, extreme in every meaning of the word, could be installed on a permanent basis. The sculpture is made of three intersecting corridors, of a series of works called Dream Passage which was inspired by a dream of the artist. An exceptional presentation of some outstanding examples of the artist's "experience architecture" will be on show in the central hall of the museum. At the end of the 1960s, Nauman began constructing corridors and spaces that could be entered by visitors and which evoked the experience of being locked in, of being abandoned and of spatial uncertainty. The complex work Corridor Installation (Nick Wilder Installation) from 1970, where visitors are recorded by a video camera and then confronted with their own image, will also be exhibited. Corridor with Mirror and White Lights (1971) cannot be entered. Nevertheless, this work evokes the impression of the viewer getting closer to his or her own reflection in the mirror. Explicit political connotations have been a major focus of Nauman's work since the beginning of the 1980s, for example, in sculptures where hanging metal chairs are used – like Musical Chair from 1983 – illustrating the artist's critique of torture and violence used in totalitarian regimes. Complex neon works like American Violence, 1981-82 or Sex and Death / Double 69, 1985 for their part explore the connections between sex, violence and death. On the occasion of the exhibition Dream Passage, further works by Bruce Nauman are on display in the Rieckhallen of Hamburger Bahnhof; here they enter into dialogue with works from the museum's collections by the artist's contemporaries, like Robert Morris, Eva Hesse, Richard Jackson or Nikolaus Lang and younger artists like Absalon and Manfred Pernice. At the end of the passage through the Rieckhallen, visitors encounter the sculpture Room with My Soul Left Out, Room That Does Not Care, which can be related to the "experience architectures" from the oeuvre of the artist, which are on display in the historical hall of the museum. The sculpture is also one of a total of five large-format works from 1983, 1984 and 1988 that constitute the series Dream Passage. The exhibition benefits from the unique selection of works by the artist in the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, which have been lent to the Nationalgalerie. These are complemented by significant loans from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Tate Modern in London. Visit : http://www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 08 May 2012 08:49 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.

Blain|Di Donna's Inaugural Exhibition Displayed the Works of René Magritte Posted: 07 May 2012 09:51 PM PDT New York City.- Blain|Di Donna is delighted to present as its inaugural exhibition, "Dangerous Liaisons", a survey of paintings, works on paper and objects by the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte. The exhibtion was viewed at the new gallery in the Carlyle Hotel. Bringing together over twenty five major oils, gouaches and drawings, this is the first Magritte show of this scale to be presented in New York in almost fifteen years, and comes at a time of renewed interest in Surrealism and its key exponents. The exhibition's title is derived from Magritte's seminal early work, "Les Liaisons dangereuses" (1935), an enigmatic painting thought to have been inspired by the eighteenth century French novel of the same name, in which two rival lovers deploy sex as a weapon to humiliate others. As with many of the works in the artist's oeuvre, it delights and disturbs in equal measure; uncanny, poetic, playful and erotic, it underlines his unsettling ability to pull at the threads of philosophical and psychological certainties, and in doing so eloquently sets the tone of the exhibition as a whole. Also included is "La Trahison des images" (1952), Magritte's best known painting and one of the great propositions of Modern art; a smoking pipe rests on a wooden background under which 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' is inscribed on a plaque, posing the question: how can we really believe what we see and what role does perception play in our comprehension of reality? Equally recognizable is "Le Goût de l'invisible" (1964), in which an apple engulfs the face of a bowler-hatted man, while "L'Empire des lumières" (1954) presents one of the artist's most celebrated and popular subjects, and is characteristically an iconic image and a visual paradox. This large-scale enigmatic painting explores phenomena including the coexistence of day and night, the nocturnal landscape and the skyscape, and the interplay of lightness and darkness, evoking the mysterious quality embedded in Magritte's expressive art. A selection of Magritte's best work in gouache accompanies these masterpieces, and the drawings demonstrate his brilliance as a draughtsman, offering a rare insight into this aspect of his artistic practice. Above all, Magritte was celebrated for his wit, humor and playfulness, characteristics which are encapsulated perfectly by the inclusion of "Femme-bouteille" (1941), where the form of a naked woman mirrors the curves of the wine bottle upon which it lies, the bacchanal connotations flowing within the viewer's mind. Iconic, immediately affecting and universally recognizable, Magritte's pictorial conundrums, trademark double-takes, and visual-verbal paradoxes are as pervasive as ever, as indicated by the appropriation of his imagery by subsequent artists, film directors, advertising agencies, and musicians – key examples include the logos of The Beatles and CBS. The floor-to-ceiling windows in the new Blain Di Donna gallery in the Carlyle Hotel look out on the brown marble building that houses Larry Gagosian's uptown digs and serve as something of a contrast to that gallery's submarinelike enclosure. The Blain Di Donna space is the former home of Ursus Books, the art-book store favored by dealers—it was here that Larry Salander racked up a tab of over $300,000 before he went bankrupt and was sent to prison. The gallery's opening marks the beginning of a new career for Emmanuel Di Donna, the 17-year veteran of Sotheby's and the presence of an impressive new secondary-market gallery in the city. With the support of his partner, the powerful English dealer, Harry Blain, Blain Di Donna is poised to make waves when it comes to the business of trading contemporary, Impressionist and Modern works in this city. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.blaindidonna.com

Sally Mann Exhibits in the Musee de L'Elysee ~ a Swiss Museum for the First Time Posted: 07 May 2012 09:41 PM PDT LAUSANNE.- For the first time in Switzerland, a museum exhibition is devoted to the exceptional oeuvre of Sally Mann. Over the past fifteen years this body of work has earned Mann a deservedly international reputation. Since the 1970's this American photographer (b. Lexington, Virginia in 1951) has been dealing with the troubling themes of intimacy and the inexorable passage of time. Sally Mann's work is centered on portraits of her children, as she observed them closely and with great honesty as they grew into young adults. The portraits are complemented by landscapes, revealing strangely timeless places characterised by an exuberant nature seemingly charged with symbolism. The exhibition will be on view from March 6 through June 6, 2010 at the Musee de L'Elysee.

After Legal Odyssey ~ Homecoming Show for Looted Antiquities Posted: 07 May 2012 09:40 PM PDT   ROME, ITALY - In Greek, the word nostos means homecoming; the plural is nostoi. Hence the title of an exhibition that Italy has organized to trumpet the return of dozens of ancient artifacts that until recently adorned showcases in American museums and private galleries. "Nostoi: Recovered Masterpieces" does not pull its punches in explaining how those objects made their way abroad: They were looted from Italian archaeological sites.

Getty Museum Acquires L' Entrée au Jardin Turc by Louis Léopold Boilly Posted: 07 May 2012 09:38 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of L'Entrée au Jardin Turc (The Entrance to the Turkish Garden) by Louis Léopold Boilly, one of the few important paintings by the artist still in private hands. Crisply painted in glowing colors and teeming with anecdotal detail, Boilly's picture transports viewers to the heart of Napoleonic Paris, outside the entrance to the city's most celebrated café, the Jardin Turc. Located in the Marais at 28, boulevard du Temple, the establishment offered its middle-class clientele pleasures once reserved for the aristocracy. Founded in 1780, the Jardin Turc comprised an elegant garden, restaurant, and café housed in a series of tented pavilions whose crescent finials and oriental decor reflected an eighteenth-century taste for turquerie.

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