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

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• Heist-proof museums? U.S. Buildings Aided by Design, Location & Security
• New Exhibition at Auburn University Museum Explores Prints by Edvard Munch
• Sergio Cortesini Receives Smithsonian Prize for American Art International Essay
• "Original" Reproductions by Marcel Duchamp at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
• The Muskegon Museum of Art Kicks Off its 100th Year Celebrations
• PHILADELPHIA ARTISTS FIND CREATIVITY IN A CAN
• William Christenberry photo survey at the Gibbes
• Exhibition for Cuban Painter Raúl Martínez at Magnan Metz Gallery
• Fossil of Oldest Bird to be Displayed at London's Natural History Museum
• The de Young Museum opens "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier"
• Jerald Melberg Gallery Shows Romare Bearden
• Modern Art Masters from the Smithsonian Opens at Cheekwood Art & Gardens
• Daadgalerie shows Sejla Kameric
• The Worcester Art Museum Presents the 'Debut of the Modern French Woman'
• Christie's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale Realizes $155,995,500
• Kirkland Museum in Denver Highlights The Modernist Clashes of the 1940s
• "Matisse to Malevich: Pioneers of Modern Art from the Hermitage"
• Waterhouse & Dodd to Present a Major George Folmer Retrospective
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Heist-proof museums? U.S. Buildings Aided by Design, Location & Security Posted: 23 May 2012 06:48 PM PDT Washington, DC - Last week's $123 million heist of cubist and post-impressionist works at the Paris Museum of Modern Art continues a rash of painting pilferage in Europe over the past decade, with sensational headlines vaulting across the Atlantic. Van Goghs vanish in Amsterdam in 2002! "The Scream" swiped in Oslo in '04! Picassos purloined in Paris in '07 and '09! Art crime is at least a $6 billion global business. So, at the risk of tempting fate, one wonders: Why not more theaft here in the U.S.? Why doesn't thievery of this magnitude occur as often in the United States? Why has there never been a mega-heist in Washington, a city awash in priceless artifacts, the seat of the illustrious Smithsonian Institution and home to a dozen national art collections and a hundred museums and galleries? The answer may be that U.S. museums are newer, fewer and less exposed, and the District's museums, while not impenetrable, are more imposing than their European counterparts. The capital is crawling with armed guards and far from an international border, says Robert K. Wittman, a retired special agent who founded the FBI's National Art Crime Team. "Let's say you hit the National Gallery of Art -- you gonna escape to Baltimore?" Wittman says. "If you rob a museum in Philadelphia, where you gonna go -- Camden, New Jersey? Countries in Europe are so close, and you have open borders and unarmed guards. If you look at heists in Europe after the year 2000, many have been armed robberies." Thursday's theft was a simple burglary that exploited a fluky alarm system, a window with a single padlock and a deficiency in security-guard coverage. European museums tend to be located on cramped streets in converted houses that have accessible windows, plenty of corners and hidden spaces. While museums and private collections in the United States regularly endure smaller-scale vandalism and theft, the last mega-heist on American soil was 20 years ago. Two men dressed as cops were allowed inside Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum just after midnight on March 18, 1990. They bound two guards with duct tape and spent a luxurious 81 minutes inside. They made off with $500 million worth of art, including masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Manet, which have yet to be found. The perpetrators likely had ties to organized crime, according to Ulrich Boser, author of "The Gardner Heist," who says most art thieves are common crooks -- the class of criminal who would probably be flummoxed by Washington's high-profile museums, which are fortresslike and ringed by bollards. The steps around the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are considered visual deterrents, as are the cement planters and fountains. The National Museum of African Art and the Sackler Gallery are underground. The Renwick, near Blair House, is in the zone of Secret Service sharpshooters. The National Museum of Women in the Arts just installed cameras in its galleries and on its roof, and the footage is piped directly to guards' laptops. The layers of police presence create an aura of immunity, said Judy A. Greenberg, director of the Kreeger Museum, which has experienced zero thefts in its 16 years. "Everybody in Washington is so aware of security," Greenberg says. "We have so many ambassadors as neighbors, with their own security, in addition to our own security." Sometimes that's not good enough. The Art Loss Register, a recovery operation and private international database for stolen art, receives requests from Washington museums, galleries and private collectors every few months, according to its general counsel and executive director, Christopher A. Marinello. Cracks in Washington's armor showed up in a 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office, which found that the Smithsonian's security force was understaffed, its directors were lacking information on key security measures, and the number of security officers had decreased as the institution's square footage increased between 2003 and 2007. After the report, the Smithsonian hired about 40 guards and increased salaries to cultivate a more experienced security staff. By the end of this year, it plans to add 110 new security personnel. Vandalism at the Smithsonian's 18 open museums in the past decade has been minimal: Fossils have been snatched; water bottles were thrown at dinosaur exhibits; and visitors have spit on or kissed artworks. "We feel very comfortable with our security," says J.J. McLaughlin, director of the Office of Protection Services at the Smithsonian, who oversees a staff of 800. Because of federal funding and the size of its properties, the Smithsonian has a division that studies improvements, he says, "and looks at what has to be updated." The nature of exhibiting art creates a Catch-22 for museums, says Boser, "The Gardner Heist" author and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "We're seeing all these thefts because art values continue to skyrocket even as the economy is distressed, and because art isn't as secured as it could be," he explains. "To display art is to make it easier for thieves to steal the items. But museums can't look like banks, where money is secured in a vault in a basement." When Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was stolen in 2004, he says, Munch Museum directors put many works behind thick glass panels. The public complained that they couldn't see the brushstrokes and started calling the Oslo museum "Fortress Munch." "The Scream" was recovered in a police operation in 2006. While some experts calculate that only 5 percent of stolen art is ever found, Robert Wittman said big-name, high-priced works -- like the Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani stolen last week -- are found 90 percent of the time, usually within a generation. He believes the latest loot was taken by a loose-knit group of criminals based in the south of France who will attempt to either sell the paintings at the black-market rate of 5 or 10 percent of their worth, or trade them for drugs, or stash them away as bargaining chips should they be arrested on other charges. "These paintings are worth nothing," says Wittman, who asserts that anyone who could afford a black-market Picasso would simply buy one legitimately. "The reason a painting is worth anything is because of its provenance, the ability to transfer the title. When you don't have that, they're worthless. You can sell drugs, rare coins, and stolen cars and make money, but when it comes to selling masterpiece paintings . . almost impossible."

New Exhibition at Auburn University Museum Explores Prints by Edvard Munch Posted: 23 May 2012 06:46 PM PDT AUBURN, AL.- The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (JCSM) at Auburn University presents a new exhibition, Prints by Edvard Munch, on view from Feb. 5–April 30 in the Noel and Kathryn Dickinson Wadsworth Gallery. Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist who lived from 1863 to 1944 is world renowned for his evocative depictions of universal human emotions and experiences––love, attraction, separation and death. His widely reproduced painting, "The Scream", captures in expressive brushwork the anxious psyche of modern man, overwhelmed by his perceptions of a cruel or indifferent world. Art changes lives. Our mandate within the larger mission of Auburn University is to preserve, enhance, research and interpret the collections entrusted to us. Through the presentation of compelling exhibitions and programming to our diverse audiences, we foster the transformative power of art.

Sergio Cortesini Receives Smithsonian Prize for American Art International Essay Posted: 23 May 2012 06:45 PM PDT WASHINGTON, DC.- Sergio Cortesini of the University of Cassino in Italy has been awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum's 2010 Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize. Cortesini was selected by an international review panel for his essay "Unseen Canvases: Italian Painters and Fascist Myths across the American Scene." Cortesini is the first winner of the prize, which recognizes excellent scholarship by a scholar in the field of American art history based outside the United States.

"Original" Reproductions by Marcel Duchamp at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Posted: 23 May 2012 06:44 PM PDT TEL AVIV.- "Impossible for me to recall the original phrase", Duchamp noted alongside his signature on the replica of the readymade Bottle Rack in 1960. The first Bottle Rack that was found-chosen by Duchamp in 1914, was lost shortly after being chosen, and its caption remains unknown. The replica was purchased by Robert Rauschenberg for three dollars, following its presentation in the 1959 "Art and the Found Object" exhibition. It was preceded by two signed replicas (circa 1921; and 1936) and followed by three more approvals; but it was only in the act of signing this replica in 1960 that Duchamp made a double contradictory move: on the one hand, he re-applied the step of turning something into art—the signature—onto a mass-produced, practical object whose validity as an artistic object is based not on the appreciation of contemporary authorities (the scholar or the curator) but on its very announcement as such by the artist; on the other hand, he approved this replica, sold to Rauschenberg, as "an original" by the very sentence revealing the existence of a previous original.

The Muskegon Museum of Art Kicks Off its 100th Year Celebrations Posted: 23 May 2012 06:42 PM PDT Muskegon, Michigan.- The Muskegon Museum of Art kicked off the celebration of its 100th Year on December 11 with the unveiling of "The First 100 Years", a set of new exhibitions on display throughout the museum that highlights masterworks from the extensive museum collections. Exhibitions of "The First 100 Years" will be open through January 29, 2012. The museum's history began with a gift from lumber baron Charles Hackley, who made his fortune in during the 1980s Michigan lumbering boom. Hackley believed that the growth of Muskegon—the young city he adopted as home—would benefit from progressive new schools, a library and a hospital, and an art museum. Hackley died in 1905 before realizing his dream of an art gallery. However, he left an expendable trust of $150,000, through a bequest in his will, to the Board of Education of Muskegon Public Schools. The fund, now known as the Hackley Picture Fund, was to be used to purchase "pictures of the best kind." By 1910 some of the most treasured and valuable works of art still in the Museum's present day collection were purchased and then displayed at Hackley Public Library, and the Board of Education determined that the time had come to build a museum-quality facility to house the growing art collection. The new museum, called the Hackley Art Gallery, was built and, in June 1912, opened its doors to the public. The news was broadcast nationally and internationally. The young museum, eventually renamed The Muskegon Museum of Art, was and is still regarded as one of the finest regional art museums in the United States. The MMA's 100th Year schedule includes "The First 100 Years", a set of four exhibitions throughout the museum that highlight masterworks from the extensive museum collections. The exhibitions include Pictures of the Best Kind, Portfolios, Series, and Collections; Contemporary Works; and Tiny Treasures. "1934: A New Deal for Artists", a Michigan-exclusive showing of the nationally touring exhibition from the Smithsonian American Art Museum that will open at the MMA on February 16, 2012. "New Art for the New Century". In May, the MMA will unveil a remarkable and not-yet-seen collection of art newly acquired for in honor of its centennial year in this exhibition. The exhibition will open to the public May 4, 2012. The 84th Regional Exhibition. This annual juried show will be open to artists throughout the state of Michigan and will be on display throughout the summer, starting May 31. The MMA 100th Anniversary Gala will be held June 9. An elegant and special evening is planned for the black-tie event that will include a cocktail party, dinner, music, and silent and live auctions."50 X 50:  A Glass Invitational" is a major exhibition of contemporary studio glass opening August 23, just in time to mark the 50th anniversary of the studio glass movement, will feature 50 glass artists working in the field today. "Songs in Steel and Other Dreams" opens September 6, 2012. This exhibition features work by Caroline Lee, a sculptor renowned for her monumental work in Paris, who is returning to the U.S. for this exhibition. "Festival of Trees", a popular community event, will help to celebrate the 100th Year. It will be open November 23 through December 2, 2012. The 100th Year will then close out with an exhibition organized by the Muskegon Museum of Art featuring some of the very best fiber and textile artists from around the country, called Innovators and Legends: Generations in Textiles. The opening reception is set for December 13, 2012. 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. Masterevorks by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Frederic Remington, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and others are enhanced by a wide range of educational programs, services and temporary exhbits designed to make art accessible to a variety of audiences. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.muskegonartmuseum.org

PHILADELPHIA ARTISTS FIND CREATIVITY IN A CAN Posted: 23 May 2012 06:39 PM PDT   PHILADELPHIA, PA – Red Bull brings aluminum innovation to the City of Brotherly Love through a unique, international showcase of recycled art by presenting the 2007 Red Bull Art of Can exhibit in Philadelphia this fall.

William Christenberry photo survey at the Gibbes Posted: 23 May 2012 06:36 PM PDT   Charleston, SC – Ranging from his Brownie photographs of the early 1960s to his later work with a large-format camera William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961 – 2005 is a survey of this artist's poetic documentation of southern vernacular architecture, signage and landscape that captures moments of quiet beauty in a sometimes rustic terrain. The exhibition will be on view in the Main Gallery of the Gibbes Museum of Art from December 21, 2007 through March 16, 2008.

Exhibition for Cuban Painter Raúl Martínez at Magnan Metz Gallery Posted: 23 May 2012 06:32 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Magnan Metz Gallery presents for the first time in the United States an exhibition of personal work by Cuban painter Raúl Martínez (Ciego de Avila, 1927- Havana, 1995), considered one of the most influential artists in Cuba's history. Eagerly Awaiting will be on display from July 22 – August 13. Despite the fact that Martínez is considered an innovative and respected figure in Cuban art history, the political isolation of the island after the 1959 Revolution effectively prevented his artistic production from reaching much of the outside world.

Fossil of Oldest Bird to be Displayed at London's Natural History Museum Posted: 23 May 2012 06:30 PM PDT LONDON.- The fossil that confirmed Darwin's theory of evolution, Archaeopteryx, will be displayed for the first time in a new gallery called Treasures, opening at the Natural History Museum in November 2012. The fossil Archaeopteryx lithographica shows both bird and reptile features and was discovered just two years after Darwin published On the Origin of Species. The fossil became a key piece of evidence for the origin of birds and the confirmation of evolution and is known by some as the Mona Lisa of natural history.

The de Young Museum opens "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier" Posted: 23 May 2012 06:28 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Opening on March 24th and continuing its strong track record of exhibitions highlighting the work of the innovators and iconoclasts of the world of fashion, the de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park presents, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first exhibition devoted to the celebrated French designer and his personal themes of "equality, diversity and perversity." The de Young is the exclusive west coast venue for this critically acclaimed international exhibition after its premier at the organizing institution, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and its presentation at the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibition will be on view at the de Young in the Herbst Exhibition Galleries from March 24th through August 19th. Dubbed fashion's "enfant terrible" from the time of his first runway shows in the 1970s, Jean Paul Gaultier is indisputably one of the most important fashion designers of recent decades. Very early on, his avant-garde fashions reflected an understanding of a multicultural society's issues and preoccupations, shaking up—with invariable good humor—established societal and aesthetic codes. More of a contemporary installation than a fashion retrospective, this major exhibition—which the couturier considers to be a creation in its own right—features approximately 140 ensembles spanning over 35 years from the designer's couture and ready-to-wear collections, along with their accessories, and numerous archival documents. Many of these extraordinary pieces have never before been exhibited. "Was there ever a more perfect match than Jean Paul Gaultier and San Francisco?" asked John E. Buchanan, Jr., the recently deceased director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "This exhibition fuses the energy of street culture with haute couture craftsmanship and presents it through the lens of cutting edge multimedia that is synonymous to the Bay Area. As the exclusive venue for previous exhibitions of the work of Vivienne Westwood, Yves Saint Laurent and Cristobal Balenciaga, we know the Bay Area is ready to explore the oeuvre of yet another master of design, Jean Paul Gaultier." FAMSF curator of costume and textile arts Jill D'Alessandro expands, "Gaultier catapulted on to the fashion scene with his unconventional approach that drew inspiration from television, film, music, and street culture. For the last four decades he has remained a catalyst for our times. This dynamic exhibition is a truly multi-media extravaganza complete with animated mannequins, runway clips, and video excerpts from his extensive film and music collaborations, and succeeds in capturing the raw, sometimes chaotic energy that defines our contemporary lives and Gaultier's world." Keenly interested in all the world's cultures and countercultures, Gaultier has picked up on the current trends and proclaimed the right to be different, and in the process conceived a new kind of fashion in both the way it is made and worn. Through twists, transformations, transgressions, and reinterpretations, he not only erases the boundaries between cultures but also the sexes, creating a new androgyny or playing with subverting established fashion codes. A celebration of Gaultier's daring inventiveness and humanist vision, this exhibition pays tribute to his cutting-edge fashion and explores the audaciously eclectic sources of his ideas. "Jean Paul Gaultier," notes Thierry-Maxime Loriot, originating curator, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, "initiates trends rather than following them, which explains why he is still relevant after more than 35 years of creation. The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is not simply reminiscent of the past, but rather a link to the present as seen through the eyes of the couturier. By paying tribute to different cultures, mixing pop culture and couture, breaking the codes of fashion and taboos of society, you realize how open-minded and generous Gaultier's fashion is. This unique exhibition offers visitors access to the world of Jean Paul Gaultier and haute couture, as well as articulating the strong social message behind his work, which truly defines his very own distinctive aesthetic." The multimedia installation is organized along six different thematic sections tracing the influences, from the streets of Paris to the world of science fiction, that have marked the couturier's creative development: • The Odyssey of Jean Paul Gaultier – begins the exhibition with an exploration of several signature Gaultier motifs – the blue and white striped sailor shirt in all its themes and variations, spectacular mermaids and virgins, and welcomes the visitor with singing mannequins and a special cameo by the designer himself. • The Boudoir – explores Gaultier's fascination with lingerie and underpinnings culminating in his signature collaboration with Madonna for her Blonde Ambition tour. • Skin Deep – a risqué, provocative gallery featuring garments inspired by themes of bondage and body art. • Punk Cancan – features the dichotomy between the typical upscale French couture client and the street punks of London. • Urban Jungle – a multicultural clash of influences including Hussars, Mongolians, Hassidic Jews, Frida Kahlo and China. This gallery includes highlights of Gaultier's haute couture detailing with unusual materials and techniques on view. • Metropolis - concludes the exhibition with a presentation of Gaultier's work for film, performance pieces and his relationships with pop icons such as Kylie Minogue and Tina Turner. Sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, runway shows, concerts, videos, dance performances, and even television programs on view further explore how his avant-garde fashions challenged societal and aesthetic codes in unexpected, and often humorous ways. The many legendary artistic collaborations that have characterized Gaultier's global vision are examined in film (Pedro Almodóvar, Peter Greenaway, Luc Besson, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet); contemporary dance (Angelin Preljocaj, Régine Chopinot and Maurice Béjart); and within the realm of popular music through performers such as Madonna, whose friendship with Gaultier has led her to graciously lend two iconic corsets from her 1990 Blonde Ambition World Tour that launched the cone bra into fashion iconography. Fashion photography is also a major focus of attention, thanks to loans of never-before-seen prints from contemporary photographers and renowned contemporary artists including Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Erwin Wurm, David LaChapelle, Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Steven Klein, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Pierre et Gilles, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Paolo Roversi, and Robert Doisneau.  An innovative exhibition design by the Paris-based architectural and stage design company Projectiles, showcases the couturier's designs, as well as prints and video clips, illustrating many of Gaultier's artistic collaborations. Throughout the galleries, thirty unique mannequins wearing remarkable wigs and headdresses by Odile Gilbert, founder of the Atelier 68 in Paris, come 'alive' with interactive faces created by technologically ingenious audiovisual projections, surprising visitors with their lifelike presence. Poetic and playful, the production, design and staging of this dynamic audiovisual element has been produced by Denis Marleau and Stéphanie Jasmin of UBU/Compagnie de création. A dozen celebrities, including Gaultier himself, have lent their faces –projected on to the mannequins – and often their voices to this project.

Jerald Melberg Gallery Shows Romare Bearden Posted: 23 May 2012 06:27 PM PDT   Charlotte, NC - Born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1911, Romare Bearden, by the time of his death in 1988, had achieved a stature known by few artists during their lifetimes.  He was, and still is, considered America's greatest collagist and was thus honored by receiving the National Medal of Arts in 1987 from then President Reagan.  Jerald Melberg Gallery has exhibited the work of Romare Bearden (1911-1988) since 1983.  On exhibition May 19 - July 14, 2007.

Modern Art Masters from the Smithsonian Opens at Cheekwood Art & Gardens Posted: 23 May 2012 06:24 PM PDT NASHVILLE, TN.- Modern Masters examines the complex and varied nature of American abstract art in the mid-20th century through three broadly conceived themes that span two decades of creative genius – "Significant Gestures," "Optics and Order" and "New Images of Man." The exhibition "New Images of Man" includes works by Romare Bearden, Jim Dine, David Driskell, Grace Hartigan, Nathan Oliveira, Larry Rivers and several others, each of whom searched their surroundings and personal lives for vignettes emblematic of larger, universal concerns. Issues such as tragedy, interpersonal communication and racial relations guided the creation of these artists' pieces. On exhibit 19 March until 19 June at the Cheekwood Art & Gardens.

Daadgalerie shows Sejla Kameric Posted: 23 May 2012 06:22 PM PDT   BERLIN, GERMANY - On the occasion of the Berlinale 2008, the Artists-in-Berlin Program, as usual, presents the work of an artist whose main medium is film or video. This year, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian artist Šejla Kamerić will show her film What do I know (2007). After having been shown as a film on the Venice Film Festival 2007, where it received widespread attention, the work will now be exhibited in the Daadgalerie as a four-piece projection, effectively making it a video-installation. The claustrophobia suggested by the spatial presentation will echo a central filmic theme; that is, film as providing a physically sensible structure of space.

The Worcester Art Museum Presents the 'Debut of the Modern French Woman' Posted: 23 May 2012 06:20 PM PDT Worcester, MA.- The Worcester Art Museum is pleased to present "Leisure, pleasure and the Debut of the Modern French Woman", a selection of prints and drawings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that illustrate an overall shift in the depiction of women in France. Stereotypically seen in pastoral, aristocratic settings, French women in eighteenth century art are typically portrayed as virtuous role models or dangerous coquettes. However, less than a century later, though depictions such as these still remain, women are portrayed with greater influence economically and socially, and with greater intellectual and emotional depth. The exhibition features works by Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, James Tissot, Paul Gauguin, Philibert-Louis Debucourt, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Mary Cassatt along with other major artists from both centuries. "Leisure, pleasure and the Debut of the Modern French Woman" is on view at the museum until September 11th. The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 35,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day, representing cultures from all over the world. The WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is the second largest art museum in New England. In September 1896 Stephen Salisbury III and a group of his friends gathered together to created the Art Museum Corporation. Salisbury then gave a tract of land, on what was once the Salisbury farm (now fronting Salisbury Street in Worcester, Massachusetts), as well as $100,000 USD to build an art museum. The museum was designed by Steven Earl, a Worcester architect, and formally opened in 1898. The museum's collection at this point consisted largely of plaster casts of "antique and Renaissance" sculptures as well as a selection of 5,000 Japanese prints, drawings, and books, willed to the museum from John Chandler Bancroft, son of John Bancroft. In 1905, Stephen Salisbury died and left the "bulk" of his five million dollar estate to the Art museum. The Worcester Art Museum continued to grow and slowly gathered a world class art collection. The WAM became the first museum in the United States to purchase works by Claude Monet as well as Paul Gauguin. The museum was also the first institution to transport a medieval building, the chapter house, from Europe and install it in America. Between 1932 and 1939, the Worcester Art Museum joined a consortium of museums and institutions to sponsor expeditions to the archaeological sites where the city of Antioch once stood. This group of museums, including Princeton University, the musée du Louvre, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Harvard University's affiliate Dumbarton Oaks, discovered hundreds of intricate floor mosaics. the Antioch mosiacs as they are now known, were split up amongst the institutions The WAM received many mosiacs including the Worcester Hunt which now is installed in the Renaissance Court's floor. Beginning in the 1990s the WAM began renovating all of its galleries. Beginning with the European galleries and then the Chinese Decorative Arts Gallery, the museum then moved onto its Early American Galleries, and Art Since the Mid-20th Century Galleries. The Art Since the Mid-20th Century galleries had been closed for about a decade before they were reopened as part of this program. The renovation of there two galleries cost $85,000USD and included new flooring, lighting, wall refinishing, and some conservation work. In addition to the Roman mosaic-laden Renaissance court and French chapter house, strengths of the permanent collection include collections of European and North American painting, prints, photographs, and drawings; Asian art; Greek and Roman sculpture and mosaics; and Contemporary art. European paintings include some fine Flemish Renaissance paintings, an El Greco, a Rembrandt, and a room of impressionist and 20th century works by the likes of Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, and Kandinsky. The American painting collection includes works by Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, William Morris Hunt, Elizabeth Goodridge, among others. In the 20th century gallery, the Museum displays works by Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Joan Mitchell. In 1901, John Chandler Bancroft, a wealthy Bostonian, bequeathed more than 3,000 Japanese prints. The Bancroft collection spans the history of woodcut printmaking in Japan, with particular strength in rare, early images from the late 17th and 18th centuries. Salisbury's estate donation included many portraits commissioned by his family, as well as sculpture, furniture, and silver. These works, by artists such as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Crawford, and Samuel F.B. Morse and the craftsmen Paul Revere, Edward Winslow, and Nathanial Hurd, constituted the nucleus of the American collections. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.worcesterart.org

Christie's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale Realizes $155,995,500 Posted: 23 May 2012 06:19 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale achieved $155,995,500 (£93,597,300/€104,516,985), demonstrating the continuing appeal of this category among collectors worldwide. Three works sold for over the US$20 million mark, and two new artist records were set for the Fauve artist Maurice de Vlaminck and the neo-Impressionist artist Maximilien Luce. In total, sell-through percentages were strong, with 82% sold by lot and 81% by value.

Kirkland Museum in Denver Highlights The Modernist Clashes of the 1940s Posted: 23 May 2012 06:16 PM PDT Denver, CO.- The Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art in Denver presents "15 Colorado Artists: Breaking With tradition" from May 6th to July 31st. Original artwork of the founding members of this modernist group, some from their first exhibit launched in December of 1948, will be on view. Never-before-seen vintage photos of the artists and reproductions of the newspapers where much of the modernist debate in Denver was hashed out will also be displayed. Those who led the modernist charge in 1948 (and who are featured in the exhibition) include  Don Allen, John Billmyer, Marion Buchan, Mina Conant, Eo Kirchner, Moritz Krieg, Duard Marshall, Louise Ronnebeck, William Sanderson, Paul K. Smith, J. Richard Sorby, Frank Vavra and Vance Kirkland, in whose former home the Kirkland Museum is based. Curators Hugh Grant and Deborah Wadsworth will publish articles in a book that will accompany the exhibition.

"Matisse to Malevich: Pioneers of Modern Art from the Hermitage" Posted: 23 May 2012 06:15 PM PDT AMSTERDAM.- Outstanding works by Matisse, Picasso, Van Dongen, De Vlaminck, Derain and many other contemporaries of theirs will be seen in a magnificent display from 6 March 2010 to 17 September 2010 at the Hermitage Amsterdam in the exhibition Matisse to Malevich. Pioneers of modern art from the Hermitage. For this exhibition about 75 paintings have been selected from the Hermitage St.- Petersburg, which has one of the world's finest collections of French painting of the early twentieth century. Apart from the world-famous French masters, such equally celebrated Russian contemporaries as Malevich and Kandinsky will be represented. These artists are seen as the pioneers of Modernism. Almost all the works exhibited are on permanent display in St.- Petersburg. Most come originally from the Moscow collections of Morozov and Shchukin.

Waterhouse & Dodd to Present a Major George Folmer Retrospective Posted: 23 May 2012 06:03 PM PDT New York City.- Waterhouse & Dodd are pleased to present a major retrospective of the innovative French abstract artist, Georges Folmer. The exhibition is entitled simply "Φ", the Greek letter 'Phi' that lies at the heart of much of Folmer's work from the 1930s onwards: it is the symbol of The Golden Ratio, the ancient mathematical and geometrical theory upon which most of his works are constructed; it signifies the philosophy of balance in all things, in life and art; and it is the character that Folmer used to sign many of his works. The exhibition opens at Waterhouse & Dodd's gallery at 104 Greene Street in SoHo on Thursday 19th January 2012 and continues until 15th February. Selected works will tour to TEFAF Maastricht in March 2012 and to Waterhouse & Dodd's London gallery at 16 Savile Row in April. This will be the largest collection of Folmer's works ever seen outside a museum, and although this this is the first exhibition of Folmer's work in the USA, since his death there have been six museum shows devoted to his work. As well as paintings the exhibition will include a number of 3-dimensional works, including the artist's historically important polychromatic constructions, among the earliest ever made, and his unique 'Roto-peintures' and 'Tableaux-grilles' with rotating and movable panels. Jonathan Dodd sees this as "a unique opportunity for New Yorkers to rediscover one of the greats of abstract art, an intensely serious artist of enormous intellect and unique vision. For 35 years these works have been hidden away by the artist's daughter, released only for museum shows. And here they are bursting free, in a riot of shape and colour, purely abstract work unencumbered by the natural world and existing in a higher realm of geometry and poetry." Georges Folmer was born in 1895 in Nancy. At the age of 15, he enrolled at the Art School of his native town where he studied painting, sculpture and architecture for the next three years. At the outbreak of war he happened to be in Germany, where he was interned. He put his enforced idleness to good use by painting the scenery for a small theatre organised by the prisoners, who included well-known artists such as Etievant and Lucien Nat, the future star of the Baty theatre. After that, Folmer was sent as a prisoner on parole to Geneva, where he quickly became a student at the Art School. He spent a year there before the hazards of war took him to Algeria. Delighting in the light he found there, he discovered the colours which he used in his paintings during his travels in both Algeria and Tunisia. Once the war was over, he decided against returning to Nancy and settled instead in Paris in 1919, where he became a regular exhibitor at, and then a member of, the Salons des Indépendants d'automne and at the Tuileries. In order to earn his living, the artist's eternal problem, he worked in various professions connected with art. This included designing the theatrical costumes for the actor Dullin at the Ibels workshop. This gave him the opportunity to frequent literary and modern art circles, and in 1926 he met Del Marle for the first time, along with members of the Vouloir group, including Lempereur-Haut, who was to become a loyal friend. He continued with his painting whilst at the same time doing wood engraving and enamel work. Critics at the time remarked on his new style - "solidity in construction" and "colourful cadence" - which was his first move towards Cubism: "Thanks be to the Billiet-Vorms Gallery for having revealed the new Georges Folmer to us". From the Thirties onwards and without abandoning his Cubist vision, he studied the influence of Cubism in comparison with the first attempts at abstract art. In 1932, he met Herbin and was attracted by the young "Abstraction-Creation" movement. He continued developing his studies and his practical and technical research work on the Section d'Or and on the harmonic division of space, split up into different planes. In 1935, he exhibited at the first Salon d'Art mural alongside Delaunay, Gleizes and Wassily Kandinsky. From then on, he totally expressed "non-imitative plastic art", according to Del Marle's definition. In 1939 his work was shown together with that of Frédo-Sides at the Galerie Charpentier at the still-famous event which included all the non-representational artists of the time. This event was the precursor of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles which opened in 1946 after the war. Georges Folmer exhibited there regularly until 1972 and from 1947 onwards he showed his spatial constructions and his paintings on canvas. Before that, in 1942, he had created a new technique for his drawings, which he called "Monotypes", involving the superimposing of various printing inks applied with rollers or tools he devised himself. In 1949 at the Café du Globe he, Gorin, Servanes and Beothy were among the first nine artists who, at Del Marle's initiative, made preparations for forming what was to become the Groupe Espace, whose famous manifesto he signed in 1952. In the 1950s his art blossomed: individual exhibitions at Colette Allendy's where he showed his sculptures in polychromatic wood. At the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles under the aegis of Auguste Herbin, he developed constructivist representation and became responsible for the "geometric section". In 1956, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Salon, which prompted Michel Seuphor to comment in "L'Oeil" in October 1959, "he's a tenacious constructor", "one of the moral pillars of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles". In 1960 he founded the Mesure Groupe, of which he was the President and Gorin the Vice-President. This group, devoted to experimenting with formal plastic research, wanted the ideas of architects and plastic artists, painters and sculptors of exclusively geometric designs, to be brought together into a close dialogue. In this spirit, the Groupe Mesure continued its work with the Cercle culturel de l'abbaye de Royaumont - the Gouin-Lang foundation, and with the Association française des coloristes conseils (AFCC). The Groupe Mesure held exhibitions in France and Germany until 1965. At the same time, Georges Folmer developed his plastic experiments still further and constructed his "roto-paintings": these were pictures brought to life by a polychromatic relief giving the feeling of movement on an abstract plane. These pictures represented the very essence of the transformable work, the humanity of which reveals the vast possibilities offered to movement. His "roto-paintings", and subsequently his mobile sculptures, translated his own expression into kinetic art. As R.V. Gindertael wrote in his preface to the individual exhibition held in 1966 at the Galerie Cazenave, Folmer created "contemporary art of monumental character that is perfectly in tune with the boldest trends of a forward-looking architecture". He continued taking part in several group exhibitions, including one which he organised together with Denise René at the Centre Culturel of the city of Toulouse in 1967. In 1968 he retired to the banks of the Rhine where he went back to working on the monotypes, which he exhibited at the Galerie Landwerlin in Strasbourg in 1969. In his last years in Strasbourg he led a solitary life, devoting himself to writing his reflections on art. Before his death in January 1977, he made his last journey to Paris in June 1972 on the occasion of his Jubilee, which was organised for him by the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. Ray Waterouse and Jonathan started working together in 1982 and formed Waterhouse & Dodd  five years later. In 1989 they opened a first-floor gallery in Bond Street and in 2001 moved nearby to 26 Cork Street. Their gallery at Cork Street is now dedicated to a program of contemporary art exhibitions, whilst their Impressionist and Modern art has recently relocated to new premises at 16 Savile Row. Waterhouse & Dodd are also proud to announce the opening of their first gallery outside the UK, at Greene Street in the heart of New York's Soho district. The gallery will exhibit international contemporary art. Eleanor Cheetham has joined the company as gallery manager in New York. For more than 25 years Waterhouse and Dodd have dealt in paintings from the late 19th and 20th centuries, combining great paintings by both major and minor artists. During the 1990s they increasingly offered professional advice to collectors, a service that became formalised into one of the most respected art advisory services in the world, Fine Art Brokers. In 2008 they curated ArtRoutes, a major show of contemporary Middle Eastern and Arab Art that was the first in a series of such annual exhibitions. As well as publishing up to ten catalogues a year, their newsletter The Fine Art File is now up to issue 36. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.waterhousedodd.com

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 23 May 2012 06:02 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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