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

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• The Muskegon Museum of Art to Show New Deal Art From the Smithsonian Collection
• Weserburg Museum opens exhibition dedicated to Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze (WOLS)
• The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art Hosts "Surrounding Bacon and Warhol"
• Artist Marta Minujin Builds a "Tower of Babel" in Buenos Aires
• Pierre et Gilles Retrospective opens at C/O Berlin the International Forum For Visual Dialogues
• The Malmö Konsthall Presents Chris Johanson's Playful & Humorous Works
• Abstract Art in South & North America at the Amon Carter Museum
• The Georgia Museum of Art Shows Watercolors From the Permanent Collection
• Ken Grant ~ New Paintings at White Bird Gallery
• Ruud van Empel "Photoworks 1995-2010" to Open at the Groninger Museum
• The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Yakov Kazhdan ~ 233º C
• Williams College Museum of Art Continues Its Reinstallation Project With "Expressions"
• Pinakothek der Moderne features Canadian artist Marcel Dzama
• George Segal's 'Circus Acrobats' at the Princeton University Art Museum's Entrance
• 'Carol Wax ~ Dance of Shadows' At the Herakleidon Museum in Athens
• The Kunsthalle Tübingen Celebrates its 40th Anniversary With "Cézanne Renoir Picasso & Co"
• '48 Tucker Torpedo In Smithsonian Race
• Sigmar Polke's Complete Graphic Works Exhibited in Sao Paulo Brazil
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Muskegon Museum of Art to Show New Deal Art From the Smithsonian Collection Posted: 20 May 2012 07:50 PM PDT Muskegon, Michigan.- The Muskegon Museum of Art is proud to present "1934: A New Deal for Artists" from February 16th through May 6th 2012. The exhibiton celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Project by drawing on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's unparalleled collection of vibrant paintings created for the program. The 56 paintings in the exhibition are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time. George Gurney, deputy chief curator, organized the exhibition with Ann Prentice Wagner, independent curator. Federal officials in the 1930s understood how essential art was to sustaining America's spirit. During the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration created the Public Works of Art Project, which lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934. The purpose of the program was to alleviate the distress of professional, unemployed American artists by paying them to produce artwork that could be used to embellish public buildings. The program was administered under the Treasury Department by art professionals in 16 different regions of the country. Artists from across the United States who participated in the program were encouraged to depict "the American Scene," but they were allowed to interpret this idea freely. They painted regional, recognizable subjects ranging from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life to landscapes and depictions of rural life that reminded the public of quintessential American values such as hard work, community, and optimism. These artworks, which were displayed in schools, libraries, post offices, museums, and government buildings, vividly capture the realities and ideals of Depression-era America. The exhibition is arranged into eight sections: "American People," "City Life," "Labor," "Industry," "Leisure," "The City," "The Country," and "Nature." Works from 13 of the 16 regions established by the Advisory Committee to the Treasury on Fine Arts are represented in the exhibition. The Public Works of Art Project employed artists from across the country including Ilya Bolotowsky, Lily Furedi, and Max Arthur Cohn in New York City; Harry Gottlieb and Douglass Crockwell in upstate New York; Herman Maril in Maryland; Gale Stockwell in Missouri; E. Dewey Albinson in Minnesota; E. Martin Hennings in New Mexico; and Millard Sheets in California. Ross Dickinson paints the confrontation between man and nature in his painting of southern California, Valley Farms (1934). He contrasts the verdant green, irrigated valley with the dry, reddish-brown hills, recalling the appeal of fertile California for many Midwestern farmers escaping the hopelessness of the Dust Bowl. Several artists chose to depict American ingenuity. Stadium lighting was still rare when Morris Kantor painted Baseball at Night (1934), which depicts a game at the Clarkstown Country Club's Sports Centre in West Nyack, N.Y. Ray Strong's panoramic Golden Gate Bridge (1934) pays homage to the engineering feats required to build the iconic San Francisco structure. Old Pennsylvania Farm in Winter (1934) by Arthur E. Cederquist features a prominent row of poles providing telephone service and possibly electricity, a rare modern amenity in rural America. The program was open to artists who were denied other opportunities, such as African Americans and Asian Americans. African American artists like Earle Richardson, who painted Employment of Negroes in Agriculture (1934), were welcomed, but only about 10 such artists were employed by the project. Richardson, who was a native New Yorker, chose to set his painting of quietly dignified workers in the South to make a broad statement about race. In the Seattle area, where Kenjiro Nomura lived, many Japanese Americans made a living as farmers, but they were subject to laws that prevented foreigners from owning land and other prejudices. Nomura's painting The Farm (1934) depicts a darker view of rural life with threatening clouds on the horizon. Muskegon was a prosperous and booming town during the 1870s and 80s.  Charles H. Hackley and other local leaders were determined to save Muskegon after the sawmills closed by making this town "one of the most distinctive cities of its size in the country."  In the next eleven years, Hackley invested a good part of his fortune towards meeting that goal. Hackley was convinced that emphasis on such public projects as progressive new schools, a library and a hospital would attract new growth.  The idea of building an art museum for Muskegon was always high on Hackley's list of priorities.  Hackley died in 1905 before realizing his dream of an art gallery. However, Hackley left to the Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education, through a bequest in his will, an expendable trust of $150,000, to be used to purchase "pictures of the best kind". By 1910, having begun with Hackley Picture Fund the acquisition of some of the most treasured and valuable works of art still in the Museum's present day collection, the Board of Education wisely determined that a museum-quality facility should be built. They then proceeded to purchase the lots next to Hackley Public Library and began construction of a facility for their growing and important art collection. Upon completion, the Board of Education chose to honor the inspiration for the project, which, of course, was Charles Hackley, and named their newest building the Hackley Art Gallery. In 1979, ground was broken for a $1.6 million addition to the Hackley Art Gallery, also funded by the L.C. & Margaret Walker Foundation.  Construction was completed in 1980 and with that, the Hackley Art Gallery changed its name to the Muskegon Museum of Art with the Hackley Galleries and the Walker Galleries. The museum's permanent collection is the envy of many and their changing exhibition schedule is rich with opportunities for our community to experience art and artists from around the world. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.muskegonartmuseum.org

Weserburg Museum opens exhibition dedicated to Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze (WOLS) Posted: 20 May 2012 07:48 PM PDT BREMEN, GERMANY - He is one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century, yet scarcely anyone knows his name. Art history views him as the pioneer of Art Informel painting, and yet the complexity of his artistic existence defies any categorization. In 1932, just nineteen years old, he leaves Germany to have his finger on the pulse of time in Paris. He gains access to bohemian circles there but continues to be a loner. For throughout his life he struggled for an existence beyond the middle-class, and in doing so not lastly slid into the vicissitudes of the National Socialist war against European culture. Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, who began calling himself WOLS in 1937, is one of the most colorful artist personalities of the last century.

The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art Hosts "Surrounding Bacon and Warhol" Posted: 20 May 2012 07:46 PM PDT Oslo.- The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is proud to present "Surrounding Bacon and Warhol", on view at the museum until October 2nd. This exhibition takes Francis Bacon (1909–1991) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987) as its starting point. Bacon and Warhol were two great artists of the 20th century with very different approaches to creativity, to the processes of working, to the nature of images and to the notion of art in general. Bacon, who painted in the first person, transferred his visceral energy and enigmatic symbols and metaphors directly to the canvas, while Warhol, who worked in the third person, adopted existing forms and figures from the media and made them his own through various techniques of reproduction. And while Bacon belonged to a long and rich tradition of Expressionistic painters, Warhol marked the beginning of a new, more distanced development in contemporary art – Pop. Both produced meaningful works, however, that are ambiguous, complex and highly influential.

Artist Marta Minujin Builds a "Tower of Babel" in Buenos Aires Posted: 20 May 2012 07:43 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES (Reuters).- A spiraling tower made from thousands of books in dozens of languages is the latest landmark to dot the skyline of Buenos Aires, named the World Book Capital this year. Called the Tower of Babel, the 82-foot (25-meter) high installation by Argentine artist Marta Minujin is made from 30,000 bricks, donated by readers, libraries, and more than 50 embassies.

Pierre et Gilles Retrospective opens at C/O Berlin the International Forum For Visual Dialogues Posted: 20 May 2012 07:42 PM PDT BERLIN.- C/O Berlin, International Forum For Visual Dialogues, will present the retrospective of French artists Pierre et Gilles from July 25 through October 4, 2009. As only venue in Germany, C/O Berlin presents the exhibition as the first of Pierre et Gilles in fifteen years. The show comprised a total of 80 unique large-format works – from their early photographies of the 1970s to the brand new pictures that were never shown in public before "It's hard to think of contemporary culture without the influence of Pierre et Gilles, from advertising to fashion photography, music video, and film. This is truly global art." Jeff Koons. The cosmos of the worldwide renowned French artist duo is a vivid, colorful world poised between baroque sumptuousness and earthly limbo. Pierre et Gilles create unique hand-painted photographic portraits of film icons, sailors and princes, saints and sinners, of mythological figures and unknowns alike. Pierre et Gilles pursue their own, stunningly unique vision of an enchanted world spanning fairytale paradises and abyssal depths, quoting from popular visual languages and history of art. Again and again, they re-envision their personal dream of reality anew in consummate aesthetic perfection. Pierre et Gilles are among the most influential artists of our time. In their complex, multilayered images, they quote from art history, transgress traditional moral codes, and experiment adeptly with social clichés. Their painterly photographic masterpieces exert an intense visual power that leaves the viewer spellbound. Over the last thirty years, Pierre et Gilles have created photographic portraits of numerous celebrities including Marc Almond, Mirelle Mathieu, Catherine Deneuve, Serge Gainsbourg, Iggy Pop, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Nina Hagen, Madonna, and Paloma Picasso. They work almost exclusively in an opulently furnished studio, where their subjects are costumed lavishly and placed before three-dimensional backgrounds. Pierre photographs the model, and Gilles retouches and hand-colors the print. The reproducible portrait is rendered unique through painting, which highlights each detail with carefully selected materials and accessories. The artist duo Pierre et Gilles (b. 1950 and 1953, respectively) have been living and working together since 1976. Influenced by Pop Art, Gilles first painted a photograph by Pierre in the year 1977. This form of collaboration between photography and painting became the trademark of their work, which has remained unique and has exercised a defining influence on contemporary photography. By the end of the 1980s, Pierre et Gilles were depicting non-Christian mythological figures such as Neptune, Sarasvati, and Médusa. This interest in religious subjects was coupled with a growing fascination with secular ideologies. Le Petit Communiste ­ Christophe (1990), for example, which shows a uniformed Soviet soldier with the familiar tear trickling down his face, was created the year after the Berlin Wall fell. Le Petit Chinois ­ Tomah (1991), in which a white-shirted Asian man confronts the viewer with a bloodied knife in hand, can be read as the image of a defiant China. From a slightly different perspective, Le Petit Mendiant ­ Tomah (1992), centers on the grinning countenance of an anonymous beggar, whose outstretched hand contrasts with a profusion of glittering stardust filling the air around him. The viewer cannot decide whether the beggar's acceptance of his fate transcends his mortal needs or if the West's tendency to romanticize all aspects of the East, even its underside, is being spoofed. In their work of the last ten years, the range of subject matter and moods has further matured. Though Pierre et Gilles continue to depict celebrities, as represented in frequently startling portraits of Catherine Deneuve (1991), Nina Hagen (1993), Sylvie Vartan (1994), and Juliette Greco (1999), they are just as likely to produce more humorous images, such as the campy I Love You ­ Dominique Blanc (1992) and the melodramatic Le Papillon Noir ­ Polly (1995). Some of the most recent images have introduced a melancholic tone that is new for their work, as evinced by the faraway look in one of their favorite model's eyes in Tentation ­ Jiro Sakamoto (1999) or in the seemingly empty helmets in Autoportraits sans Visage (1999). But their most elaborate series of the 1990s, Les Plaisirs de la Forêt, comprising erotic scenes in a nocturnal forest, highlights the combination of erotic tension, elaborately executed settings, and attention to minute detail that characterizes Pierre et Gilles's surprisingly diverse oeuvre. Visit C/O Berlin, International Forum For Visual Dialogues at : http://www.co-berlin.info/co-neu/web/Aktuell/start.php

The Malmö Konsthall Presents Chris Johanson's Playful & Humorous Works Posted: 20 May 2012 07:40 PM PDT Malmö, Sweden.-  The Malmö Konsthall is pleased to present "Chris Johanson – Alright Alright", on view through November 27th. The American artist Chris Johanson (born 1968) is a self-taught product of San Francisco's skateboard and graffiti culture. In his playful and humorous works he comments on what it is like to be human and live in today's society. He works in widely varying media such as painting, film, installation and music. Johanson grew up in a suburb of San José in California and began his artistic career as a teenager. He painted skateboards and made posters and flyers for his friends, and then gradually began using public space to comment on American society. Even his early drawings show a spontaneous and slightly naïve imagery. He still likes to work in public spaces such as department stores and bookshops or directly in the street environment while also exhibiting at established galleries and museums.

Abstract Art in South & North America at the Amon Carter Museum Posted: 20 May 2012 07:36 PM PDT FORT WORTH, TX.- On June 26, the Amon Carter Museum presents Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s–50s. This groundbreaking exhibition is the first to bring together South American and U.S. geometric abstraction and includes a range of paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, drawings and films. Constructive Spirit will be on view through September 5; Admission is free.

The Georgia Museum of Art Shows Watercolors From the Permanent Collection Posted: 20 May 2012 07:32 PM PDT Athens, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art presents "American Watercolors from the Permanent Collection" from May 14th until August 7th in the Lamar Dodd Gallery. This exhibition features American watercolors from the mid-19th century to the 1970s from the permanent collection of the Georgia Museum of Art. Paintings by Jasper Francis Cropsey, William Stanley Haseltine and Frederic Remington demonstrate the importance of the medium in American 19th-century art while American moderns Charles Burchfield, John Marin and Andrew Wyeth represent true masters of watercolor. Some American painters used the medium to create drawings or compositional studies, including Elaine de Kooning in her sketch of a sculpture in Paris. Others used it to make a final, finished product, emphasizing technique and enjoying its immediacy and spontaneity. "Palm Springs Chairs" (1975) by Robert Bechtle is a highly detailed and meticulously painted watercolor that has the feel of a vacation snapshot of a motel pool. The Georgia Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Georgia, in Athens, is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent collection consists of American paintings, primarily 19th- and 20th-century; American, European and Asian works on paper; the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection of Italian Renaissance paintings; and growing collections of southern decorative arts and Asian art. From the time it was opened to the public in 1948 in the basement of an old library on the university's historic North Campus, the museum has grown consistently both in the size of its collection and in the size of its facilities. Today the museum occupies a contemporary building in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the university's burgeoning east campus. There, 79,000 square feet house more than 8,000 objects in the museum's permanent collection—a dramatic leap from the core of 100 paintings donated by the museum's founder, Alfred Heber Holbrook. Much of the museum's collection of American paintings was donated by Holbrook in memory of his first wife, Eva Underhill Holbrook. Included in this collection are works by such luminaries as Frank Weston Benson, William Merritt Chase, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Jacob Lawrence and Theodore Robinson. Over the years it has been impossible to separate the history of the museum from the story of Holbrook's generosity. In April 1996, the Georgia Museum of Art opened a new building on the East Campus of the university as part of the Performing and Visual Arts Complex, which also includes the School of Music, the Performing Arts Center, and, now, the Lamar Dodd School of Art. The new building allowed for larger and more ambitious exhibitions and a new emphasis on professional practices. The museum has become a leader, in particular, among university museums, and its educational programs have been the most tangible example of the balance it strives to achieve among state, local, and university audiences as it seeks to fulfill its trifold mission of teaching, research, and service. The Green Center also includes the Green Library, which greatly expanded the museum's library of art books and has served as a model for the archival aspects of the other centers. The Pierre Daura Center was established at the museum in 2002 with a gift from Martha Randolph Daura in honor of her father and joined the Green Center and the Jacob Burns Foundation Center, bringing its own extensive archives of Pierre Daura's papers. These three centers, plus the newly founded C. L. Morehead Jr. Center for the Study of American Art, make up four study centers that are a focus of the expanded and renovated building, facilitating research in the humanities and access to the museum's curators. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.georgiamuseum.org

Ken Grant ~ New Paintings at White Bird Gallery Posted: 20 May 2012 07:29 PM PDT   Cannon Beach, Oregon - Ken Grant's paintings capture unique moments in time whether it be the reality of changing light through a window, shadows cast from lone objects in otherwise empty rooms or surreal scenes contrived with wit and fantasy. Grant paints interiors of rooms, chairs, still-lifes, and figurative works rendered in a highly refined style that resembles photo realism.

Ruud van Empel "Photoworks 1995-2010" to Open at the Groninger Museum Posted: 20 May 2012 07:26 PM PDT GRONINGER.- From 10 September to 27 November 2011, the Groninger Museum will present the exhibition entitled Ruud van Empel. Photoworks 1995-2010. Ruud van Empel (1958) is one of the most extraordinary photographic artists of this moment, both nationally and internationally. From hundred of fragments adopted from digital photos, he compiles new images that seem very life-like and realistic, but also conjure up a world that has never existed. The exhibition is the first large-scale museum overview of the work of Van Empel.

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Yakov Kazhdan ~ 233º C Posted: 20 May 2012 07:21 PM PDT MOSCOW - The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents Yakov Kazhdan - 233ºC - A personal show, on view through September 14, 2008. Artist Yakov Kazhdan is well known to the Moscow audience: nominated for the 'Innovation' award as a young artist and one of the prize-winners of the 'Izolenta' festival, he took part in numerous video festivals and group exhibitions in Russia, Germany, Belgium, and the USA.

Williams College Museum of Art Continues Its Reinstallation Project With "Expressions" Posted: 20 May 2012 07:18 PM PDT Williamstown, MA.– The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is proud to present "Expressions", the current installation in The Gallery of Crossed Destinies from July 16th through Sunday, September 11th. Featured as one of the centerpieces of the museum's Reflections on a Museum reinstallation project, The Gallery of Crossed Destinies invites us to consider how our perceptions of objects change in the museum setting. The museum invited four guest curators — a florist, a group of high school students, a theater festival director and an athletic coach — to create their own narratives from a miniature "collection" of 25 artworks. Each curator has responded to the same objects to conceive a distinct exhibition, determining every aspect of presentation from art placement to wall text. Each exhibition explores how objects evoke stories and how these narratives change depending on how they are presented and who presents them. The current installation, "Expressions", is by Jenny Gersten, Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF). Gersten approached the exhibition by connecting to the art through the medium of theater. She was interested in how artworks express themselves and wanted to endeavor to give the artworks a voice. Gersten reached out to  theater artists, specifically playwrights, and showed them particular images of art selected for the exhibition and asked them if they would either write something for it, or choose something already written that might accompany the work in some way. The result will culminate with readings by actors from the WTF's non-Equity company on Tuesday, July 19th at 2:00 p.m. Actor/director/MacArthur Recipient Bill Irwin will direct the performance of works by Samuel Barclay Beckett, Liz Flahive, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, Howard Korder, Donald Margulies, Itamar Moses, and Bess Wohl. When asked about the connection between the visual art and the written art Gersten responded, "There are very few chances to exercise one's imagination anymore. In the digital age when we can look up anything at any moment, it can be very limited. This is one of the great opportunities to exercise your imagination." The Gallery of Crossed Destinies is a project inspired by a text that Williams Professor Mark Haxthausen assigned to his students to encourage critical thinking about museum practice. In Italo Calvino's fantastical novel, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, a group of travelers meet at an enchanted castle where guests must communicate with only a set of tarot cards. Continually shuffled, these cards—like the art objects in The Gallery of Crossed Destinies—tell new stories with each sorting. The artwork presented in The Gallery of Crossed Destinies features an eclectic mix of some of the museum's finest treasures. The collection includes such items as oil paintings by Edward Hopper and George Inness, artifacts from ancient China and Egypt, and sculpture by Louise Nevelson and Claes Oldenburg. The ongoing exhibitions are on view in the Class of 1935 Gallery, where three large windows have been reopened after having been covered for almost 20 years. This new, dramatic influx of light has had a transformative effect on the gallery space. The windows act as a metaphor for the project as a whole, visually connecting the museum with the outside community. The previous projects of The Gallery of Crossed Destinies were Light Affects by local florist Chad Therrien and The Art of Emotion by 9th graders at Mt. Greylock Regional High School.  Aaron Kelton, the head football coach at Williams College, will curate the gallery this coming fall. Widely considered one of the finest college art museums in the country, the Williams College Museum of Art is a department of Williams College. The mission of the Williams College Museum of Art is "to advance learning through lively and innovative approaches to art for the students of Williams College and communities beyond the campus." The museum was accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1993 and re-accredited in 2004. WCMA houses nearly 13,000 works that span the history of art. The museum encourages multidisciplinary teaching through encounters with art objects that traverse time periods and cultures. An active, collecting museum, its strengths are in modern and contemporary art, photography, prints, and Indian painting. The museum is especially known for its stellar collection of American art from the late 18th century to the present. With the largest collection in the world of works by the brothers Charles and Maurice Prendergast, the museum is a primary center for study of these American artists in a transatlantic context of the 19th and early 20th centuries. WCMA's signature exhibition style is to place art within a broad cultural and historical context. Special exhibitions curated by museum staff, faculty, students, and guest curators focus on new scholarship and encourage multiple perspectives. The museum's catalogues are consistent with this mode of presentation, in that they typically include writings from a range of scholars, and it is characteristic to find art historians and artists writing alongside historians and political scientists. WCMA actively publishes catalogues to accompany our self-organized loan exhibitions, many of which travel nationally and internationally. Some of these exhibitions include: Introjection: Tony Oursler, mid-career survey, 1976–1999 (1999); Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project (2000); Prelude to a Nightmare: Art, Politics, and Hitler's Early Years in Vienna, 1906–1913 (2002); Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress (2003); Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1890–1910 (2005); Jackson Pollock at Williams College: A Tribute to Kirk Varnedoe '67 (2006); Beautiful Suffering: Photography and the Traffic in Pain (2006); Drawing on Hopper: Gregory Crewdson/ Edward Hopper (2006); Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy (2007); Liu Zheng: The Chinese (2008), and Prendergast in Italy (2009). WCMA has received recognition from the International Association of Art Critics for the following four exhibitions: Introjection: Tony Oursler, mid-career survey, 1976–1999; Prelude to a Nightmare: Art, Politics, and Hitler's Early Years in Vienna, 1906–1913; Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1890–1910; Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Prendergast in Italy. The year 2011 saw the reinstallation of ten of the museum's galleries with Reflections on a Museum, an ambitious project that stresses the importance of the museum's collection as the heart of this teaching museum. Visit the museum's website at ... http://wcma.williams.edu

Pinakothek der Moderne features Canadian artist Marcel Dzama Posted: 20 May 2012 07:14 PM PDT   Munich, Germany - Canadian artist Marcel Dzama has designed the next Edition 46 of the SZ-Magazin (weekly magazine of Süddeutsche Zeitung). It appeared on Friday, 14th November 2008. The project will be accompanied by an exhibition of the artist's work at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. On exhibition through 15 February, 2oo9.

George Segal's 'Circus Acrobats' at the Princeton University Art Museum's Entrance Posted: 20 May 2012 07:12 PM PDT PRINCETON, NJ.- Visitors to the Princeton University Art Museum will be greeted by two new faces— those of George Segal's Circus Acrobats (1981), a recent gift to the Museum from the George and Helen Segal Foundation. The Foundation has been especially generous to Princeton over the years, and Circus Acrobats joins a suite of reliefs and sculptures, including the poignant Woman in a White Wicker Rocker (1984–85), currently on view in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery.

'Carol Wax ~ Dance of Shadows' At the Herakleidon Museum in Athens Posted: 20 May 2012 07:09 PM PDT Athens.- The Herakleidon Museum in Athens is presenting 'Carol Wax: Dance of Shadows" until 19th June 2011. The exhibition includes 100 works on paper by the contemporary New York artist Carol Wax. The majority of these works are mezzotints, however a number of pencil and mixed media drawings are also being shown. The antique sewing machines, typewriters, electric fans, toys, instruments, cameras, projectors, textiles and other items she collects inspire Carol's images. Living with these objects in her home and studio means she is constantly studying them from different angles and finding new and diverse ways to revisit subjects, making the ordinary seem extraordinary. Artifacts of early industrial manufacturing, discarded shards of recent technology, and kitsch of any era reveal a great deal about our materialistic culture and changing attitudes toward the "stuff" in our lives. Common objects are laden with magic and symbolic associations that reflect and affect the psyche. Her interest in kitschy items has recently been heightened by things she finds in the street. Whenever she come across these items, (gag gifts, broken children's toys, etc.) she asks how they came into being and the effort that went into making them. How many sketches, meetings, prototypes, office memos, man-hours, plastic, and energy went into their manufacture? Who would buy these items, how were they used, and did anyone care when they were discarded? Even finding a single child's sock on the ground makes me think of the effort that went into its manufacture, thoughts the mother had while buying it, and the sadness that must have been felt upon discovering its loss. It's not just a lost sock, it's a mini-opera of human pathos. Each item and the manner of its discovery seem to shout, "Pay attention -- something happened!" The Herakleidon Museum is privileged to have among its permanent collections the entire body of works of Carol Wax's printmaking career. In addition, the museum owns several of her pencil drawings and an original copper plate, a generous gift from the artist. The founders of the museum, Paul and Belinda Firos, avid collectors of her work, recognize Carol Wax's place among the great artists of the emerging twenty first century. She is the foremost authority on mezzotint and has written a book on the subject, The Mezzotint: History and Technique, first published by Harry N. Abrams in 1990.  Carol Wax is an internationally recognized artist whose work has been widely exhibited. While she also works in pencil, pastel, and oil paint, mezzotint is her principal métier and the work for which she is best known. With the exception of several printmaking classes, she is self-taught as an artist. The need to learn techniques about which there were no existing texts prompted her to conduct research that ultimately led her to write The Mezzotint: History and Technique. Published in hard cover in 1990 and again in 1996 in soft cover, it has become the definitive book on the subject. Her ongoing research has produced, among other things, a system for weighting mezzotint rockers that facilitates the grounding process. Now manufactured by toolmakers Edward C. Lyons, the weights are the first improvement on this tool in over three hundred years. Carol Wax's prints are in numerous museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Boston and New York Public Libraries. She has had more than fifteen solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous group shows. A private museum space in the heart of Athens, under the shadow of the Acropolis, the Herakleidon Museum opened its doors to friends of the fine arts in the summer of 2004. The exhibition program consists of artists who play or have played an important role in the evolution of Art. Mr. Paul Firos and his wife Anna-Belinda, collectors and art lovers, were inspired to create this new private museum by their love of neoclassic buildings and their commitment to preserve such buildings. This is combined with their desire to share with others their enthusiasm for the fine arts and thus contribute to the artistic life of Athens. The museum's mission is to introduce visitors to the art of the exhibited artist, to show how the artist has evolved through the various important periods in his or her career, to explain the various techniques used by the artist to express his or her vision, and to help the visitors connect to both the artist's life and work. To accomplish this, not only will works of the artist be on exhibit, but also preparatory sketches, drawings, photographs and personal items. Audiovisual and other aids provide complete and detailed information on the life of the artist, each phase of his or her work, and his or her techniques. In addition to the permanent collections, the museum "Herakleidon, Experience in Visual Arts" hosts exhibitions of work by Greek and foreign artists. The museum also hosts other events, such as musical performances, literary events, book presentations, scientific and other seminars, corporate presentations, conferences, and lectures beyond those pertaining to the visual arts. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.herakleidon-art.gr

The Kunsthalle Tübingen Celebrates its 40th Anniversary With "Cézanne Renoir Picasso & Co" Posted: 20 May 2012 07:08 PM PDT Tübingen, Germany.- On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Kunsthalle Tübingen looks back at its history in two successive exhibitions. The first anniversary exhibition, "Cézanne  Renoir  Picasso & Co" is currently on view and runs through January 29th 2012. Its theme is the development that commenced in 1982 and frequently referred to by the media as the "Miracle of Tübingen": with an exhibition of watercolors by Paul Cézanne, founding director Götz Adriani succeeded for the first time in attracting more than 100,000 visitors to the museum. An exhibition of pastels and oil sketches by Edgar Degas two years later attracted an even larger crowd. In the years and decades that followed, a number of further successful shows ensued, for instance of Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec or Henri Rousseau.

'48 Tucker Torpedo In Smithsonian Race Posted: 20 May 2012 07:03 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History announced the winners of its "Race to the Museum" initiative: the 1929 Miller race car with 43 percent of the vote and the 1948 Tucker sedan with 23 percent of the vote. The Miller and the Tucker will be on display at the museum Jan. 22 to Feb. 21 near the "America on the Move" exhibition, first-floor East Wing. The museum presented eight cars sampling the breadth of its vehicle collection for a public vote to determine the two top vote getters that would go on view. This is the first time that the Smithsonian has asked the public to help choose objects for display, a decision usually made by the curators, and the initiative has been a great success with almost 24,000 people voting over 22 days.

Sigmar Polke's Complete Graphic Works Exhibited in Sao Paulo Brazil Posted: 20 May 2012 07:00 PM PDT SAO PAULO.- After organizing the special and prized exhibition German Contemporary Painting and inaugurating the international tour of Places, Strange and Quiet, a photo show by Wim Wenders, MASP\ creates and produces Sigmar Polke – Capitalist Realism and other illustrated histories, an exhibition with the complete series of graphic works (edition prints, 1963-2009) and other objects by the German visual artist, plus the series Day by Day (mixed media) which was a thrill in the 13th Art Biennial of São Paulo in 1975, when Polke received the first prize for painting. In the first international exhibition of the German artist Sigmar Polke after his death in June, 2010, at the age of 69, MASP presents the complete series of graphic works (edition prints) created by this visual artist between 1963 and 2009. On the whole, more than 220 pieces lent by the collectionist Axel Ciesielski plus 25 works in mixed media of the series Day by Day, created by Polke for the International Art Biennial of São Paulo in 1975, which were lent for this exhibition by another private collection. After the show German Contemporary Painting and Places, Strange and Quiet, photos by Wim Wenders, both brought to São Paulo last year, the exhibition SIGMAR POLKE – Capitalist Realism and other illustrated histories makes MASP stand out in the international scene of the contemporary production. Curated by Tereza Arruda with the collaboration of Teixeira Coelho, this show may be seen from October 28 to January 29, 2012. Considered one of the most significant creative forces of post-War Europe, Polke was born in 1941 in Silesia – a region incorporated by Eastern Germany in 1949 and today shared by Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. When 12 years old he moves, along with his family, to the then Western Germany and at 20 years-old he is accepted by the Art Academy of Düsseldorf. In 1963, he becomes known when organizing, with his classmates Gerhard Richter and Konrad Fischer (then Konrad Lueg), the performance and later the movement called Capitalist Realism, so named in order to make a satire of the Socialist Realism, the official aesthetic and artistic doctrine of the Soviet Union, and also to criticize the market-driven art world in Western capitalism. In the 70s his work focuses mainly on photographic production and manipulation, amid his many world travels. In 1975, he becomes the great star of the 13th Art Biennial of São Paulo by winning the grand prize of painting and presenting the series Day by Day (mixed media), which MASP now presents in its original format for the first time. In the 80s, he experiments with different kinds of paint, chemicals and solvents and in 1986 he receives the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennial for his installation Athanor, with a paint developed by him based on pigments that reacted to the local light and dampness by changing color. The prize reinforced his name as one of the most important of German art, besides Richter, Joseph Beuys, Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer. Above all, Sigmar Polke was a free iconoclast spirit. The fact that his work cannot be included in any specific school or style is, per se, the best definition of his work. Sigmar Polke, the freedom to want by Teixeira Coelho, curator of MASP. Extracts: (...) When words lack to seize something, to explain something even if only to oneself, when one is not able to really understand, vague terms come to the rescue: Polke was called a pop artist, of the pop version that came from beyond the Iron Curtain or the Berlin Wall. To say this is too little, nothing actually. There are more fitting expressions for Polke. In 2004, again the Tate, now the Modern, from London, presented a comprehensive exhibition of his work. This exhibition came under a title that expressed well whatever would be seen: History of Everything. The title of the exhibition was: Sigmar Polke: History of Everything. And Polke made precisely that, a history of everything. His art is an art of the history of everything. History is, history still is the main character and one of the central drives of the work of many German artists, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Keefer and Neo Rauch, to name just a few among the most relevant (with some who were caught unawares by History). And it is also in and for Polke. But in fact Polke, even more than the others, really composed, with his varied work in painting, gouache, print, photos and films, a history of everything. A history from soccer to politics, passing by the Olimpic Games and contemporary everyday scenes. Of Germany and the world. (...)People say that an artist should have a say about the world so that whatever he or she says will add to the world. What Polke has to say about the world is a lot. It is everything, almost everything, everything possible. But whatever he says of relevant about the world, when he says it about art it is about the mode of liberty, the mode of liberty to wish. That is what can be identified in Polke when one can see him among others: the wish of freedom to want, very hard to practice, very hard even to imagine, a freedom that in art is divine. Such as in fields of life. Sigmar Polke (1941 – 2010) was born in Oels, Silesia. In 1953 he moved from Thuringia to Düsseldorf where he began an apprenticeship as a glass-painter in 1959. Between 1961-1967 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Over 40 years Polke created complex works that have helped define the art of the time. In the 1960s he created a new and unique vision of German art, which during the postwar years had been largely derivative of gestural abstraction. During this time Polke began making his 'dot' paintings, manually executed parodies of the Benday dot screens used by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 20 May 2012 06:58 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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