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• Musee du Quay Branly assembles The Jazz Century Exhibition
• Los Angeles County Museum to show "Art of Two Germanys / Cold War Cultures"
• MAC Exhibition Brings Together the Great Names of Belgian Contemporary Art
• Art Gallery of Ontario Shows Canadian Artist Kathleen Munn Exhibition
• The Albright-Knox Art Gallery Celebrates 150 Years of Collecting
• Art Basel Miami Beach Opens
• New Exhibition by American Master Philip Guston Opens at the Phillips Collection
• Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Realises $483.8 Million at Christie's
• "Klee Meets Picasso" Exhibition at The Zentrum Paul Klee
• Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Exhibits the Collection of Entrepreneur Max Fischer
• Metro Pictures debuts André Butzer
• Sotheby's NY Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art to feature Masterpieces in May
• Kunst Haus Wien presents Pablo Picasso ~ Myths, Fables and Models
• Disney Animated Art to be Returned by a Japanese University
• The Rose Art Museum presents Major Hans Hofmann Exhibition : Circa 1950
• David Rokeby solos at Pari Nadimi Gallery
• Simon Lee Gallery shows Matias Faldbakken
• The Moscow Museum of Modern Art Hosts Masterpieces from the Valencia Institute of Modern Art
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

Musee du Quay Branly assembles The Jazz Century Exhibition Posted: 22 May 2012 07:33 PM PDT PARIS - Jazz, along with cinema and rock music, constitutes one of the major artistic developments of the 20th century. Born at the beginning of that century, this musical hybrid marked every aspect of world culture with its sounds and rhythms. More than a simple musical genre, jazz not only revolutionized music but also introduced a new way of life in 20th century society, which has deeply influenced the history of art of the last century. The Century of Jazz, shown at the musée du quai Branly offers a new perspective on a section of African American art, a specific aspect of American culture still little known on this side of the Atlantic and which has resulted in numerous artists being shown in the exhibition. With nearly 2,000 m2 of exhibition space, The Jazz Century invites the public to see to what extent the soundtrack of jazz has influenced the other arts, of painting, photography, cinema and literature, not forgetting the graphic arts, comic strips and animated cartoons. It offers a multidisciplinary and lively reading of the complex history of this music through ten chronological sections and nearly 1,000 works; objects and documents, illustrated musical scores, posters, records and sleeves, photographs, audiovisuals, etc. The variety of the numerous documents shown bears witness to the variety of disciplines affected by the Jazz phenomenon: paintings by Léger, Pollock, Dubuffet, Basquiat or Bearden mixed with photographs from Man Ray, Carl Van Vechten, Jeff Wall and lesser known European artists. The exhibition includes copies of the Survey Graphic review, Columbia and Atlantic label covers, comic strips by Loustal and Guido Crepax, Chasing the Blue Train, an installation by David Hammons, nearly 40 sound sources, including the famous Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, notably revived by Maria Schneider. A history of jazz, a red thread guides us through the century The exhibition is chronologically based around a red thread consisting of a timeline, a large showcase, 50 metres long, which follows year on year, the main events of the history of jazz. The numerous music scores, posters, records, reviews and magazines, books, photographs, films, animated cartoons and recordings exhibited remind the visitor of the marked episodes of this era. The timeline takes us from Nobody by Bert Williams (1905) or Some of These Days by Sophie Tucker (1910;, successes which preceded the appearance of the mysterious « jazz » term, to the concerts at the Lincoln Centre or to the young «Downtown» generation of New York and numerous records and historic concerts, not forgetting the first ever jazz recording by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. Punctuated by sound and audiovisual sources, this timeline guides visitors, leading them from room to room. The music clips played in a chronological order, serve as stages one encounters one after the other. PRE-1917 It is obviously impossible to fix a precise date for the birth of jazz. 1917 is nevertheless considered as crucial because of the combination of two decisive events. In February, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, with its white musicians, made their first recording under the Jazz label (or to be more exact, Jass). In November, the American army closed down the red-light district of Storyville in New Orleans, whose famous establishments had employed a number of musicians, the majority of whom emigrated to the north of the United States and in particular to Chicago and New York. One has to be careful, however, not to overlook numerous earlier signs – minstrels, coon songs, cake-walk, ragtime, etc. – which announced the musical phenomenon which was about to dramatically change the century and inspired numerous artists well before this date. "THE JAZZ AGE" IN AMERICA 1917-1930 In the United States, the First World War was followed by a fantastic craze for jazz music, as can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald's book Tales of the Jazz Age in 1922. The fashion was such that the expression coined by Fitzgerald, came to describe this whole period, a generation of "children of jazz" and no longer purely the sound track to the era. In addition to the marvellous illustrations that decorated the music scores of hit songs, the jazz age can be seen in the photographs taken by Man Ray during this period (in particular the one entitled Jazz in 1919) and numerous other works by American artists such as Arthur Dove and James Blanding Sloan or individuals such as Miguel Covarrubias and Jan Matulka, who were living in the United States. HARLEM RENAISSANCE 1917-1930 Whilst white Americans were living their Jazz Age, African Americans for the first time in their history reached true cultural recognition with the movement later called the Harlem Renaissance. If the jazz of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington was certainly one of the major components of this creative effervescence, the music was nevertheless far from being the only aspect. Under the leadership of key figures such as the writer Langston Hughes or the painter Aaron Douglas, a number of artists produced flourishing masterpieces, as much literary as visual, for whom the music was far more than just a pet subject. It also important to remember the significant role played in this mainly black movement by white artists such as Winold Reiss or Carl van Vechten. "THE JAZZ AGE" IN EUROPE 1917-1940 James Reese Europe's infantry band, the Harlem Hellfighters, arrived in France during the First World War and introduced new syncopated rhythms to Europe. With the end of hostilities, the Jazz craze quickly took over all aspects of the culture of the old continent. The arrival in Paris in 1925 of the Revue nègre with Josephine Baker crowned the invasion of this Tumulte noir, so nicknamed by Paul Colin in his famous portfolio. From Jean Cocteau to Paul Morand, Michel Leiris or George Bataille, countless writers were inspired in one way or another by this tidal wave. The phenomenon was no less appreciable in the field of the visual arts, from Marcel Janco to Kees Van Dongen, Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix or Fernand Léger. THE SWING YEARS 1930-1939 Following on from the jazz age came Swing, a dance evoked during the explosive years of the thirties by the performances of important black bands with Duke Ellington and Count Basie or white bands such as those led by Bennie Goodman, Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller. When sound came to the cinema, numerous musical comedies bore witness to this new fashion and its appealing syncopated beat, which equally inspired many artists. In the United States, the modernist painter Stuart Davis and the regionalist Thomas Hart Benton shared the same interest in music. Whilst in Europe, Frantisek Kupka dedicated several paintings to this type of jazz that experts such as Charles Delaunay d escribed as "Hot" in order to set it apart from its sweeter offshoots. An event would take place at the end of this decade that would prove to be decisive: Alex Steinweiss, then a young unknown artist, would design the first record cover for Columbia Records. TEMPO OF WAR 1939-1945 The Second World War had a dramatic impact on world culture. Whilst music, thanks to the V-discs produced by the American army, accompanied soldiers on to the battlefields, the calamity did not slow down jazz repercussions in other artistic fields. Piet Mondrian had no sooner arrived in New York than he discovered the Boogie Woogie, which would determine the essential style of his final masterpieces. William H. Johnson paid tribute to the popular steps of the Jitterbug. Simultaneously in Paris, the Zazous, probably so called because of a piece of music by Cab Caloway, were known for their eccentric attire – the Zoot Suit!- which although hardly risky, ironically demonstrated their opposition to the invaders. Paradoxically, jazz was enjoying great popularity in France at this time, which perhaps explains the interest of Jean Dubuffet or Henri Matisse who, took up his scissors and cut some coloured paper from which he created his famous work Jazz. BEBOP 1945-1960 With Bebop, which sprang up at the end of the war, jazz in turn became modern, whilst in painting, abstract expressionism was getting ready to show its first colours. Some of these protagonists, Jackson Pollock in particular, found direct inspiration from the jazz music that he was listening to all the time. In Europe, Renato Guttuso, Antoni Tapiès and Nicolas de Staël, also found in jazz a subject for their painting. A new artistic field, which appeared with the microgroove record, was the record cover. Some dozens of graphic artists, both famous and unknown, from David Stone Martin to Andy Warhol, Josef Albers to Marvin Israel, Burt Goldblatt to Reid Miles, devoted themselves to the task of the seduction of music lovers in a rigorously well-defined format : 30 x 30 cm. And lastly, cinema did not escape the influence of modern jazz. Amongst the dozens of films that remind us of this are Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Lift to the Scaffold) by Louis Malle or La Notte (The Night) by Michelangelo Antonioni. THE FREE REVOLUTION 1960-1980 Ornette Coleman recorded Free Jazz in 1960. With its double entendre title– Free jazz! or Free jazz – this record whose cover shows a reproduction of White Light by Jackson Pollack, marks a new order: after the modern period came this libertarian avant-garde. The visual arts responded to this contemporary free revolution of black liberation movements – Black Power, Black Muslims, Black Panthers, etc. –this is reflected in the full maturity of the work of artists such as Romare Bearden, newcomers such as Bob Thompson, who lived too short a life, or in Europe, British Alan Davie. Amongst the many effects of this upheaval, we must not forget Notes towards an African Orestes, this rough draft of a film in which director Pier Paolo Pasolini invited free improvisation by Gato Barbieri bringing Aeschylus to Africa. CONTEMPORARY PERIOD 1960-2002 The presence of jazz in the contemporary art scene, if not always obvious, is far from negligible; as witnessed by the richly layered works of Black Music by Jean Michel Basquiat or those of his senior, Robert Colescott. In their own, very different, way, videos by Adrian Piper, Christian Marclay, Lorna Simpson and Anri Sala equally confirm this presence in the same way as the Prologue by Canadian artist Jeff Wall, whose inspiration came from Ralph Ellison's great novel, the Invisible Man. Finally, the little blue train of David Hammons, running through the coal hills, and the piano-lids conceived by this legendary African American artist serves as a conclusion to the exhibition: if the 20th century, that Century of Jazz, is well and truly over, the train of music that accompanied it is itself, still in motion. Visit Musee du Quay Branly at:  http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/accueil/index.html

Los Angeles County Museum to show "Art of Two Germanys / Cold War Cultures" Posted: 22 May 2012 07:32 PM PDT   Los Angeles, CA - For East and West Germany during the Cold War, the creation of art and its reception and theorization were closely linked to their respective political systems: the Western liberal democracy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Eastern communist dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Reacting against the legacy of Nazism, both Germanys revived pre-World War II national artistic traditions. Yet they developed distinctive versions of modern and postmodern art—at times in accord with their political cultures, at other times in opposition to them. On view 25 January through 19 April, 2009 at LACMA.

MAC Exhibition Brings Together the Great Names of Belgian Contemporary Art Posted: 22 May 2012 07:31 PM PDT HORNU, BELGIUM.- "À toutes les morts, égales et cachées dans la nuit" (To all the departed equal and hidden in the night) is the major summer exhibition at the MAC's (the Museum of Contemporary Art). It opens its doors to the public from 20th June to 10th October 2010. Bearing the unmistakable mark of the work of Laurent Busine, the exhibition brings together the great names of Belgian and international contemporary art, as well as little known artists and even some anonymous works.

Art Gallery of Ontario Shows Canadian Artist Kathleen Munn Exhibition Posted: 22 May 2012 07:29 PM PDT TORONTO.- The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) opened a unique exhibition featuring Canadian artist Kathleen Munn, on view until August 28. The Passion of Kathleen Munn features nearly 40 works by Munn, including her highly regarded Passion Series drawings, as well as paintings and prints. In addition, the exhibition is supported by archival material from the AGO's collection, including sketches, notebooks, diagrams, collages and a custom-made light box.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery Celebrates 150 Years of Collecting Posted: 22 May 2012 07:27 PM PDT Buffalo, New York.- The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is proud to present "The Long Curve: 150 Years of Visionary Collecting at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery" on view through March 4th. "The Long Curve" presents a survey of one of America's foremost Collections and will feature eighty iconic works by more than  seventy-five artists from the late nineteenth century to the present, highlighting the history of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's extraordinary Collection, and the benefactors and museum professionals who made it possible. Founded in 1862 as The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (now the governing body of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery), it is among the oldest arts organizations in America and one of the most celebrated for its long-standing commitment to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. To complement and contextualize the exhibition, the Gallery will also present "The Impermanent Collection: The Room of Contemporary Art, 1939–1971". This installation tells the story of the Room of Contemporary Art, an untried approach to collecting art through which the Gallery was able to acquire, through purchase or gift, many bold and fearless works of its time—helping to create a reputation for which the museum is still known today. Organized by Albright-Knox Chief Curator Douglas Dreishpoon, "The Long Curve" marks the beginning of the Gallery's celebration of its 150th year. The history of the Collection centers around several benefactors, each of whom possessed a compelling and prescient vision and a deep commitment to contemporary art. Together, A. Conger Goodyear, Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Martha Jackson, and Natalie and Irving Forman donated more than 1,300 works to the Collection over the course of the last century and a half. Most recently, in 2008, the Gallery acquired seventy-one works of art by fifteen artists from the renowned collection of Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, through the generosity of the Panza Family and existing Gallery funds. This is a landmark exhibition of the Albright Knox's Collection, one of the world's most important modern and contemporary art  collections, A. Conger Goodyear joined the Gallery's Board of Directors in 1912. A man of eclectic tastes, guided by connoisseurship, he pursued a collection of cutting-edge art over the course of forty years. During his many years of service to the Gallery, and even after he left Buffalo, in 1926, to become the first president of the Board of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, he continued to donate work by such exceptional artists as Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, Robert Delaunay, and Frida Kahlo, all of whom are represented in the exhibition. In his later years, Goodyear deferred to others to make sense of the postwar artistic landscape and the new work that poured forth from New York's lofts and cold-water flats. Seymour H. Knox, Jr., joined the Gallery's board in 1925. Later described as "the Dean of American Art Patrons", Knox was a consistent advocate for contemporary American art. His tenure on the Board, and his long-standing collaboration with Gallery Director Gordon M. Smith, gave rise to an intense period of visionary collecting, focused on 'Masters of the Future', that, to this day, represents one of the most significant periods of growth in the Gallery's Collection. Major works acquired during this time by postwar American artists Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Sam Francis, Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, and Lee Krasner will be included in the exhibition. Many of Knox's daring acquisitions were made possible through the able facilitation of New York art dealer and Buffalo native Martha Jackson, who graciously introduced Knox and Smith to many artists of the New York School. The nimble way in which Goodyear, and later, Knox, could make bold acquisitions of experimental art under such unpredictable circumstances was made possible by a radical initiative at the then Albright Art Gallery known as the Room of Contemporary Art. An installation entitled The Impermanent Collection: The Room of Contemporary Art, 1939–1971, organized by the Gallery's Head of Research Resources Susana Tejada, will present original letters, photographs, publications, and other documents drawn from the Gallery Archives that will help museum visitors understand the significant role the Room of Contemporary Art played in the history and development of the Collection. Described as 'a meeting place between the artist and the public', the Room of Contemporary Art was established in 1939 with the express purpose of bringing new art to Buffalo. Selections were shown at the Gallery in rotating exhibitions placed in a dedicated public space that was designed to feel much like a domestic living room. The public was invited to relax and feel at home with the cutting-edge art installed there. Visitors were encouraged during the first three weeks of the Room's opening literally to cast their votes for the art on view. Ballots were tallied, for both Gallery visitors and staff, for first, second, and third favorites. Works in the Room were brought in 'on probation', and, if any of them failed to live up to expectations, they could be exchanged or sold. Objects carefully chosen for retention became valuable additions to the Gallery's Collection. These purchases were made possible through a special fund set aside for this purpose and financed principally through a sizeable gift given by the Knox Family and seventeen other individuals. The Room functioned until 1971, circumventing institutional protocol and allowing one of America's great art collections to prosper in Buffalo. "The Long Curve: 150 Years of Visionary Collecting at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery" also includes work by Joseph Kosuth, Robert Therrien, Anne Truitt, John Beech, and Florence Pierce that have entered the Collection in more recent years as part of significant gifts to the Collection by renowned collectors Count Giuseppe Panza Di Biumo (gifts and acquisitions), and Natalie and Irving Forman. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of contemporary and modern art. Founded officially in December 1862, The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy is among the country's oldest public arts institutions, sharing that distinction with the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford; and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, among others. With Edward B. Green as its architect, the Greek revival structure that became the permanent home for the Albright Art Gallery was dedicated on May 31, 1905. During the middle years of the century, Seymour H. Knox, Jr., became the Gallery's most influential supporter, not only making possible the building of a new addition designed by Gordon Bunshaft, but also amassing a brilliant collection of artworks. The group of nearly seven hundred works collected during this time still represents the most intense period of growth for the Gallery's Collection, a result of Mr. Knox's daring spirit, discerning judgment, and the unique partnership and vision he shared with Director Gordon M. Smith. The new wing that was dedicated in 1962, one hundred years after the founding of the Academy, stands as a testament to Mr. Knox and his vision; his generosity was reflected in the institution's adoption of a new name, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The Gallery's nearly 150-year tradition of collecting, conserving, and exhibiting the art of its time has given rise to one of the world's most extraordinary art collections, including such renowned works as "La Toilette" by Pablo Picasso, "Carnival of Harlequin" by Joan Miró, "Gotham News" by Willem de Kooning and "The Liver is the Cock's Comb" by Arshile Gorky. The Gallery has continued to add cutting-edge contemporary art to its Collection, adding major works in recent years by such artists as Matthew Barney, Mark Bradford, Tara Donovan, Teresita Fernandez, Liam Gillick, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mona Hatoum, Jim Lambie, Catherine Opie, Jorge Pardo, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Philip Taaffe. Visiting the Gallery today promises unexpected surprises. Constantly changing installations and special exhibitions pair contemporary art with the masterworks of modernism, always inviting a reexamination of the old with the new in innovative and exciting ways. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.albrightknox.org

Art Basel Miami Beach Opens Posted: 22 May 2012 07:25 PM PDT Now is the time of the year when Miami turns its back on the sea and casts its eyes on the work of 2,500 artists, represented by over 250 galleries from all over the world, at the US edition of Art Basel Miami. This year ABMB's organizers have put the "Art Positions" and "Art Nova" sections, devoted to emerging galleries and artists, alongside the more established dealers. "These are two sections I particularly enjoy," says Elizabeth Neilson, who heads the Zabludowicz Collection in London. "It is really important to be able to give the younger galleries a chance to show their rising stars and that for us is a really exciting place to be." She adds that, for curators like her, this is an opportunity to see artists one does not normally get the chance to see "in the flesh". In some peoples' eyes, a positive consequence of the slower pace is that institutions have more of a chance to buy. Tanya Bonakdar said that she had sold a Haim Steinbach sculpture to the Hammer Museum at U.C.L.A., and the Mexican gallery Kurimanzutto said it had a major work on hold for a museum. Lest the fair get overwhelming, the organizers have developed applications for iPhones and BlackBerries to help visitors navigate their way around and earmark their favorite pieces. Even old ABMB hands may find them useful. "There are a lot of new things happening in this edition of the fair. More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the ninth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which opened to the public Thursday and runs until Sunday. In the first 90 minutes after the 11 a.m. opening, the rush proved profitable: Dealers at the contemporary art fair reported sales far stronger than last year's, and several patrons noted that they'd tried to put works on reserve -- only to find out they were already sold. Many gallerists said works were selling for at or near asking prices. The trend held into the night

New Exhibition by American Master Philip Guston Opens at the Phillips Collection Posted: 22 May 2012 07:21 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC.- This winter, The Phillips Collection showcases the work of modern master Philip Guston (1913–1980). The exhibition shines a spotlight on a pivotal moment in the artist's illustrious career, revealing the evolution of his personal aesthetic. The exhibition open on Feb. 12, 2011, and remain on view through May 15. "From acquiring Guston's powerfully abstract Native's Return in 1958 to exhibiting his most recent works on paper in 1981, the Phillips has a long history of supporting this complex artist's periods of exploration and breakthrough," said Dorothy Kosinski, director of The Phillips Collection. "This exhibition focuses on an important moment of transition in Guston's career."

Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Realises $483.8 Million at Christie's Posted: 22 May 2012 07:16 PM PDT PARIS - The three-day sale of the magnificent Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé at the Grand Palais, offered by Christie's in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, realised in total €373,935,500 / £332,802,595 / $483,835,144. A remarkable 95.5% of lots sold by lot, and 93% sold by value. This historic sale set a world record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction, was the highest grossing sale in Europe on record, and set multiple world records for Impressionist and Modern Art, 20th Century Decorative Arts, Silver, Sculpture and Works of Art. One of the most exceptional and significant collections of art in private hands, it generated unprecedented interest from bidders throughout the world and pre-sale estimates for both the sale as a whole and the individual works, were significantly exceeded.

"Klee Meets Picasso" Exhibition at The Zentrum Paul Klee Posted: 22 May 2012 07:15 PM PDT BERN.- Two masters, four themes, eight pictures. Poetry here, drama there. Irony here, sensuality there. Romanticism here, spirituality there. Paul here, Pablo there. The interactive exhibition «Paul und Pablo» by the children's museum Creaviva invites guests to take part in a journey of creative dialogue beginning on the 6 June and on view through 26 September, 2010.

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Exhibits the Collection of Entrepreneur Max Fischer Posted: 22 May 2012 07:14 PM PDT STUTTGART.- To this day, the private collection of the entrepreneur Max Fischer (1886-1975) of Stuttgart is little known although it unites classical modern art of the highest quality. The generosity of the heirs in leaving the collection to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in the form of a permanent loan is now enabling the museum to pay tribute to this comprehensive collection for the first time, and to present a selection of 180 works - from a total of more than 250 - to the public. The significance of this collection will also become evident in the juxtaposition with individual works from the Staatsgalerie's holdings. On view through 20, June , 2010. The Collector Max Fischer Dr. Max Fischer was a collector who played a prominent role in the multifaceted Stuttgart art scene of the post-war period. In amassing his collection, Fischer relied on his own perusal of scholarly texts on art, with whose aid he acquired the ability to assess quality confidently. Apart from the societal circumstances which prevailed after World War II, this was a decisive criterion for the building of a collection concentrating primarily on Expressionism. The result was a superb collection with a clear profile, which - despite its private nature - increasingly received loan requests from all over the world. An Overview of the Holdings In addition to Expressionist works on paper by Max Beckmann, Heinrich Campendonk, Otto Dix, Conrad Felixmüller and Max Pechstein, the early acquisitions in the area of modern art also included paintings by the Stuttgart artist Oskar Schlemmer. Fischer purchased further important works in the 1920s primarily in the Kunsthaus Schaller in Stuttgart. Among them are the touching composition Two Girls (ca. 1923) by Carl Hofer, an interior by Oskar Kokoschka (ca. 1925) for which Fischer paid the considerable sum of 3,000 Reichsmarks, as well as the dream-world watercolour Two Female Nudes (1912) by Franz Marc. Fischer acquired the majority of his collection in the Stuttgart Kunstkabinett which - founded in 1946 by Roman Norbert Ketterer - was to become the most important auction house for art of the twentieth century. Outstanding Expressionist works at what were still very moderate prices convinced the collector to concentrate increasingly on Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde and Max Beckmann. Among the artists of the Bauhaus, he had a special predilection for Oskar Schlemmer and the Cubist-inspired Lyonel Feininger. The Brücke - Blauer Reiter - Bauhaus core of the inventory was enhanced by sculptures of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, and a substantial number of works by friends of the collector: the Stuttgart artists Alfred Lörcher and Ida Kerkovius as well as their teacher Adolf Hölzel. The Heavyweight in the Collection: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner With nearly sixty prints, forty-eight drawings and a group of six paintings executed between 1908 and 1924, the artist most prominently featured in Fischer's holdings is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Max Fischer succeeded in assembling a Kirchner ensemble covering the entire development of the artist who died in Davos in 1938 and including all of the media in which the latter worked. A group of brush-and-ink and pastel drawings - some very large in scale - executed between 1912 and 1915 and depicting women in the studio or on the street constitute a highlight of Fischer's Kirchner collection. During a bidding battle at the Stuttgart Kunstkabinett, Max Fischer relinquished the prominent landscape painting Sailboats near Grünau of 1914, today in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, to then-director and confidant Erwin Petermann, and purchased the colour lithograph of the motif instead. Apart from Kirchner, Max Fischer also collected works by Brücke artist Erich Heckel. It is an indication of his expertise that he concentrated on the essential works of printmaking by this artist of the years 1907 to 1919. The latter include his early experiments with the painterly qualities of lithography (Cabaret Singer of 1907/1906?) and representative woodcuts which were groundbreaking for his further work (Two Women Resting; Fränzi Reclining, both of 1909, and the famous White Horses of 1912). Mavericks: Emil Nolde, Edvard Munch and Max Beckmann Among the forerunners to the Brücke artists, the simplified, planar art of the Norwegian Edvard Munch is particularly prominent. Fischer recognized its significance for the Expressionists and invested substantial funds in purchasing important early prints. One of the collection's very special works is the frottage Head by Head (1905), existing in only a few copies, for which Munch rubbed coloured chalk into the printing block. This work is juxtaposed in the show with a colour woodcut of the motif belonging to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart's Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs (Head by Head [Man and Woman Kissing]), 1905). Max Fischer sharpened the profile of his collection by selling works. In order to purchase an important painting of the 1940s by Max Beckmann (Akademie I, 1944) at a very high price, he disposed of works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as well as his entire Dürer and Altdorfer holdings. With a dynamic that virtually bursts the confines of the format, the studio painting executed by Beckmann in exile in Amsterdam is yet another highlight of the Fischer collection. The dialogue between the painter lost in gloomy contemplation and the oversize, heroically vibrant model mirrors the artist's depressive mood. Bauhaus: Oskar Schlemmer, Paul Klee Already before World War II, Fischer purchased two landscape paintings by Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer (In Front of the Cloister, 1914; Stuttgart Landscape, 1912). The Heroic Scene of 1935, in which the artist - prohibited from exhibiting his works in public - reacted to the political circumstances, was the last Schlemmer work to be acquired by Fischer. The confusion of the densely crowded figures contrasts strongly with earlier large-scale major works (Five Men in a Room, 1928; Scene at a Balustrade, 1931; Boy in Blue and White, 1931). In the works of Paul Klee, the collection strategy so carefully pursued by Max Fischer over decades is particularly convincing. In 1925, only one year after the Staatsgalerie had acquired the painting Rhythm of the Windows (1920), Fischer purchased the watercolour The Parlour Maid's Suicide (1923). The last Klee acquisition to enter the collection - in 1955 - was A Park and the Trespasser (1939), executed long after the artist's Bauhaus period. Alongside the filigree earlier compositions, this late work using elements of collage and paste paint has an almost frightening quality about it. As is also the case in the late works of Schlemmer and Beckmann, premonitions of death and the threats posed by the events of the time are starkly present here. The collector Max Fischer, who sought the "insight of truth" in his preoccupation with art, was moved precisely by intense works such as this one, and it was they who lend his collection its distinctive profile. Visit the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart at : http://www.staatsgalerie.de/

Metro Pictures debuts André Butzer Posted: 22 May 2012 07:04 PM PDT   New York City - For his New York debut at Metro Pictures,  André Butzer will show 12 new brilliantly-colored paintings that survey the ongoing motifs of his work.  Butzer's paintings reference German and American history, culture and politics (both historical and contemporary), art history, science fiction, comics and animation. On exhibition 28 March - 3 May, 2008. Opening: March 27, 6-8 pm.

Sotheby's NY Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art to feature Masterpieces in May Posted: 22 May 2012 07:02 PM PDT   NEW YORK CITY - Sotheby's evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on May 7, 2008 in New York will present a superb offering of key works by many of the leading artists of the period: Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch, Fernand Léger, Alberto Giacometti, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Joan Miró and others. The sale of 53 lots is estimated to bring $207 / 284 million. Prior to the exhibition and sale in New York, highlights of the offering will be on view at Sotheby's London from April 20-25, 2008.

Kunst Haus Wien presents Pablo Picasso ~ Myths, Fables and Models Posted: 22 May 2012 07:01 PM PDT Vienna, Austria - Kunst Haus Wien presents Picasso – Myths, Fables and Models, on view through July 5, 2009. With 120 graphic works by Pablo Picasso, taken from five creative periods spanning approximately a decade each, the exhibition leads us into Picasso's universe of motifs and obsessions. We encounter fabulous creatures from Greek mythology, such as the Minotaur or the centaurs, as well as the bullfight theme and several of Picasso's favourite models. The exhibition, conceived especially for Kunst Haus Wien, presents works selected from the extensive collections of the Graphikmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster and offers unique insights into Picasso's methods.

Disney Animated Art to be Returned by a Japanese University Posted: 22 May 2012 06:55 PM PDT Tokyo - A Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Company that were mislaid in storage after traveling to Japan nearly five decades ago. Disney said that the art — cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings and storyboard sketches — was part of a collection that was handpicked by Walt Disney himself. It was sent to Japan in 1960 for a touring exhibition timed to the opening of the film "Sleeping Beauty." The exhibition opened at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo in May of that year and traveled to 16 other stores throughout Japan. "Walt wanted to explain every element of the animation process, so he chose artwork from all phases of production and a number of films," said Lella Smith, creative director of the Disney Animation Research Library in Burbank, Calif., which preserves the studio's artwork. "But the primary focus was 'Sleeping Beauty.' " Although most of the art is from that film, the collection also includes rare set-ups (cel and background combinations) from two Oscar-winning Silly Symphony cartoons: "Flowers and Trees" (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon and the first film to win the Academy Award for animated short film, and the landmark short "Three Little Pigs" (1933). "The 'Flowers and Trees' set-up is an extremely important piece," Ms. Smith said in an interview at her office in the library. She said other highlights included two backgrounds from the "Nutcracker Suite" and "Rite of Spring" sequences in the 1940 film "Fantasia." Among other striking works is a sequence of images by the designer Eyvind Earle that show how he created the stylized forest backgrounds for "Sleeping Beauty." The delicate clusters of leaves and intricately textured bark on the trees reflect Mr. Earle's interest in 15th-century French manuscripts and the painting of Van Eyck, and foreshadow his later serigraphs. After the department store tour, Disney donated the artwork to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. But the material was not considered a good fit for its permanent collection, so the museum gave the pieces to Chiba University to enhance the study of the visual arts. Chiba's academic focus was on science, engineering and medicine, however, and the Disney art was consigned to a janitor's closet and forgotten until it was found by chance four years ago. Although the artwork suffered some damage because of dampness, the rarest pieces were sealed in frames, which protected them somewhat. After a year of restoration work by technicians at Disney's Animation Research Library, some 200 works went on tour in Japan, along with 350 additional pieces lent by the studio in an exhibition titled "The Art of Disney." The show toured seven museums around the country in 2006 and 2007, including the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art. At the end of its run, Chiba University offered to return the artwork to Disney. In a statement Chiba University's president, Toyoki Kozai, said, "The response to the exhibit gave us a new appreciation for the historical and artistic value of these works." Because the university was concerned about keeping them in good condition for the next generation, he said, it "concluded that entrusting them to Disney would be the best route to take." In return, Disney is giving Chiba University high-resolution digital copies of the artworks and $1 million for scholarships. But both sides said the deal should not be viewed as a sale. In 1960 little value was placed on artwork from animated films, and cels were sold at Disneyland for a few dollars apiece. Today animation art is prized by collectors, and a top-quality Earle background from "Sleeping Beauty" might sell for $20,000 to $30,000. Given the rarity of some of the pieces, it is hard to assign a dollar value to the collection over all, because nothing comparable has been offered for sale. "There is no way to put a price on these works — they represent our artistic heritage," Ms. Smith, of Disney, said. "That said, their value as archival materials for study and research is very high." By. . . Charles Solomon

The Rose Art Museum presents Major Hans Hofmann Exhibition : Circa 1950 Posted: 22 May 2012 06:52 PM PDT   WALTHAM, Mass. – Several works by legendary American abstract expressionist painter Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), never shown in a U.S. museum before, debuts at The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. "Hans Hofmann: Circa 1950" includes more than 35 works, some never seen before in a U.S. museum. An extraordinary body of work created by Hans Hofmann for the architect Josep Sert's 1950 city plan called the Chimbote Project is the genesis for this exhibition. On exhibition 15 January through 5 April, 2009.

David Rokeby solos at Pari Nadimi Gallery Posted: 22 May 2012 06:50 PM PDT   Toronto, Ont., Canada - Pari Nadimi Gallery is pleased to announce a major solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist David Rokeby. Machine for Taking Time (boul. Saint-Laurent) (2007) is the second in an ongoing series of works in which video cameras on motorized mounts survey particular places over time, building up large image databases from which the final work is constructed. The original, commissioned by the Oakville Galleries, Canada, surveyed the Gairloch Gardens. Plots Against Time on exhibition March 01 – April 26, 2008.

Simon Lee Gallery shows Matias Faldbakken Posted: 22 May 2012 06:47 PM PDT LONDON - Matias Faldbakken's diverse visual practice is defined by his myriad explorations of negation. Agitating at the nexus between independence and commercialism, his work questions the potential of artistic intervention to disrupt both capitalist and moral status quo.  For his first exhibition at Simon Lee Gallery, Faldbakken has devised a series of strategies to create an improbable marriage between a conceptual, open-ended use of language, where things are defined by their negative or inverse, and more colloquial gestures of vandalism and appropriation.

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art Hosts Masterpieces from the Valencia Institute of Modern Art Posted: 22 May 2012 06:44 PM PDT Moscow.- The Moscow Museum of Modern Art is proud to present "Masterpieces of the 20th Century from the Collection of the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM)", on view at the museum until October 30th. The IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno) opened in 1989 and became the first museum of modern art in Spain. This marked the beginning of a new stage in Valencia art life and an event of universal importance in the sphere of modern art. Its collection of masterpieces of the 20th and 21st centuries is highly valued all over the world and attracts a lot of visitors every year. It is remarkable that the IVAM and the MMoMA collections are similar to each other in many respects. Each collection counts over 10,000 exhibits and tends to present a panoramic view of modern art in all its diversity, with special emphasis on the national heritage. So it comes as no surprise that the Moscow Museum of Modern Art hosts this important exhibition. The IVAM collection presents an overview of the avant-garde art of the first decades of the 20th century and all art tendencies of the postwar period. The art of Julio González, a pioneering Spanish artist and sculptor of the first half of the past century, occupies a special place in the IVAM holdings. The IVAM holds the richest collection of his artworks. The exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art opens with Julio González's oeuvre together with the works by Torres Garcia, a Uruguayan artist of the early 20th century. Also on view at the Museum, will be kinetic sculptures by Alexander Calder, installations by Kurt Schwitters and Man Ray, abstract works by František Kupka and works by classic Surrealist and Dadaist masters Joan Miro, Marcel Duchamp, André Masson, Jean Arp. The exhibition will show experimental tendencies of the postwar period, which reflected a newly formed worldview. These are works by European masters, i. e. Antoni Tàpies, Antonio Saura, Karel Appel, Ad Reinhardt, Pierre Soulages, and works by celebrated American artists, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Serra. Works by American Pop-art artists, such as Richard Hamilton, James Rosenquist and European representatives of this tendency, such as Eduardo Arroyo, Equipo Crónica group and others will also be exhibited. Starting from the 1980s, artists have been actively using new media, new techniques and electronic devices. The IVAM responded to the new art trends early on and acquired for its collection works by Andreu Alfaro, Miquel Navarro, John Davies, Bruce Nauman, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Christian Boltanski, Eduardo Chillida and Juan Usle. Some of these artworks will be displayed at the exhibition "Masterpieces of the 20th century". Postwar Modern Art will be represented at the exhibition by the works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Since the IVAM holds the most extensive and valuable collection of photography in Spain, a section of the exhibition is devoted to photography of the past century. Among other photo masterpieces of the 20th century, the show will feature a work by Alexander Rodchenko, one of the greatest Russian photographers. The Moscow Museum of Modern Art is the first state museum in Russia that concentrates its activities exclusively on the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inauguration, the Museum has expanded its strategies and achieved a high level of public acknowledgement. Today the Museum is an energetic institution that plays an important part on the Moscow art scene. The Museum was unveiled on December 15, 1999, with the generous support of the Moscow City Government, Moscow City Department of Culture. Its founding director was Zurab Tsereteli, President of the Russian Academy of Arts. His private collection of more than 2.000 works by important 20th century masters was the core of the Museum's permanent display. Later on, the Museum's keepings were enriched considerably, and now this is one of the largest and most impressive collections of modern and contemporary Russian art, which continues to grow through acquisitions and donations. Today the Museum has five venues in the historic centre of Moscow. The main building is situated in Petrovka Street, in the former 18th-century mansion house of merchant Gubin, designed by the renowned neoclassical architect Matvey Kazakov. Apart from that, the Museum has three splendid exhibition venues: a vast five-storey building in Ermolaevsky Lane, a spacious gallery in Tverskoy Boulevard, the beautiful building of the State Museum of Modern Art of the Russian Academy of Arts, and Zurab Tsereteli Studio Museum. The Museum's permanent collection represents main stages in formation and development of the avant-garde. The majority of exhibits are by Russian artists, but the display also includes some works by renowned Western masters. For example, graphic pieces by Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró and Giorgio De Chirico are on view, along with sculptures by Salvador Dalí, Armand and Arnaldo Pomodoro, paintings by Henri Rousseau and Françoise Gilot, and installations by Yukinori Yanaga. Within the Museum's holdings, a special emphasis is put on the assembly of Russian avant-garde. Many works have been acquired in European and American galleries and auction houses, and thus returned from abroad to form an integral part of Russian cultural legacy. The highlights include paintings and objects by Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, Pavel Filonov and Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin and David Burliuk, as well as sculptures by Alexander Archipenko and Ossip Zadkine. Besides that, the Museum owns a unique collection of works by the famous Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani. An extensive section of the permanent display is devoted to Non-Conformist art of the 1960s-1980s. The creative activity of these masters, now well-known in Russia and abroad, was then in opposition to the official Soviet ideology. Among them are Ilya Kabakov, Anatoly Zverev, Vladimir Yakovlev, Vladimir Nemukhin, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Oscar Rabin, Dmitry Krasnopevtsev, Leonid Schwartzman, Oleg Tselkov, and more. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.mmoma.ru

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 22 May 2012 06:43 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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