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

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• The Museo d'Arte Mendrisio Presents a Major Retrospective of Simonetta Martini
• MOCA Presents Comprehensive Survey Exhibition of Graffiti & Street Art
• The ARKEN Celebrates Donation of Anselm Reyle Works
• Exhibition of New York Times Magazine photographs at FOAM Museum in Amsterdam
• MUMOK to Show Groundbreaking Early Works by Claes Oldenburg
• Joslyn Treasures Return ~ Well Traveled & Rarely Seen at the Joslyn Art Museum
• " Andy Warhol & Other Famous Faces " on view at Maryhill Museum of Art
• Abu Dhabi developer offers a new timetable for opening of Louvre & Guggenheim Museums
• Swann Galleries American & Contemporary Art Auction in New York
• Museum Ludwig Shows Paintings, Sculptures & Drawings by Roy Lichtenstein
• The Inaugural Art Newport Fair to be Held on $40M Purpose-Built Yacht
• Swoon Creates 20-Foot Sculpture Suspended from NOMA's Century-Old Ceiling
• The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Hosts A Major Retrospective of Antonio López
• Frank Gehry Designs $150 Million Dollar 'Tree House'
• Tate Britain Hosts Sumptuous Exhibition "Van Dyck and Britain"
• Christie's NY Post War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale totals $93,734,500
• Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts 'Abstract Expressionist & Modern Works'
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Museo d'Arte Mendrisio Presents a Major Retrospective of Simonetta Martini Posted: 24 May 2012 09:37 PM PDT Mendrisio, Switzerland.- The Museo d'Arte Mendrisio is proud to present "Simonetta Martini: Whither are You Taking My Art?", on view at the museum from October 29th through January 15th 2012. In this exhibition, the artist is showing an overview of her work of the past twenty years, with about twenty large-format works together with a series of drawings and ceramics (made in collaboration with Giusi Arndt). This is her first retrospective exhibition in a museum. The catalogue, which is part of a series of books devoted to contemporary art in Ticino, contains critical and literary essays by  Erri de Luca, Sylviane Dupuis, Maria Sole Martini Giovannoli, Simone Soldini, and Maria Will, and is illustrated with 54 colour plates. The Ticino-born artist Simonetta Martini studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and at the École Supérieure d'Art Visuel in Geneva. After finishing her studies, she travelled widely, spending time in El Salvador, Madagascar and India, and these experiences influenced her profoundly. On three different occasions she won a Federal Scholarship for the Visual Arts, and from 1988 to 1989 she stayed at the Swiss Institute in Rome, where she found herself immersed in the vast artistic heritage of the city, attracted by Roman and then Byzantine and Renaissance art. She returned to Ticino in 1990. Right from the start, in around 1985, her painting formed part of the movement to rediscover figurative art which started in the late 1970s, and she has continued to work in this direction without making a break from it. Simonetta Martini also views painting as a revisitation of the art of the past, overcoming the barriers of time, and she even includes direct quotations from the works of great masters such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Vermeer, Lega, and Pablo Picasso. At the heart of the image is the human figure, creating a mysterious interaction of profound harmony with nature and with the animal kingdom. Human presences have gradually been disappearing, making way for a sweeping, romantic vision of the landscape. Without indulging in symbolism or metaphysics, these images always maintain a sense of mystery and enigma. With their humble yet precious materials, Simonetta Martini's paintings appear as carpets or frescoes, and her powdery, chalky colours confer a soft luminosity upon her scenes. The originality of Simonetta Martini's painting, which is inspired by a powerful inner tension, is well reflected in the thoughts expressed by Erri de Luca: "Those who approach her work believing it to be meek and docile will get burnt, and those who misunderstand it as a state of tranquillity will find the furious swarming of bees in their ears. Simonetta Martini is absolute incandescence." (Erri de Luca, in Rosso, 2001). Founded within the walls of a former monastery in 1982, the Mendrisio Art Museum organises exhibitions dedicated to the great 20th century masters, among those most appreciated both by critics and the general public. After opening with two significant reviews of Paul Klee,the cycle of retrospectives has included reappraisals of painters such as Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Eduardo Chillida, Mark Tobey, Sam Francis, Jean Arp, Julius Bissier, Ben Nicholson, Meret Oppenheim, Fritz Wotruba, Walter Kurt Wiemken and Renato Birolli, with attention always focused on hitherto unexplored aspects and little-known materials used in their work. As a result of these initiatives, the Museum is recognised nationally and internationally and constantly collaborates with major museums in Switzerland and throughout Europe. Alternating with these events, exhibitions are held that relate to people and themes connected to the region, which examine aspects of local history and present local artists. Acting as a reference for the region the Museum regularly organises study exhibitions and produces publications regarding the region's art and history. Additionally, every year the Museum holds special interest events for schools. During these temporary exhibitions the Museum organises animation programmes for nursery and elementary schools, thus offering children the opportunity to visit the Museum and become familiar with art through didactic activities. Thanks especially to generous donations, the Mendrisio Museum of Art can now boast a remarkable collection of paintings (including an important group of ex-voto), sculptures and works on paper ranging from the 16th to the 20th century, which document local art history in detail (Maestro della Natività, Giovan Battista Bagutti, Antonio Rinaldi, Filippo Franzoni, Luigi Rossi, Edoardo Berta, Guido Gonzato, Pietro Chiesa, Imre Reiner, Giuseppe Bolzani, Jean Corty, Edmondo Dobrzanski). Of major importance is the collected work of a leading figure in 20th-century art in Ticino and Lombardy, Pietro Chiesa, comprising, in addition to 500 paintings and drawings, the artist's own valuable records. The collection is further enriched by a body of work by prominent figures in Italian post-war art (Mario Sironi, Gino Severini, Fausto Pirandello, Atanasio Soldati, Ennio Morlotti, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Gianni Dova, Piero Gilardi). The Museum also has in its keeping over 650 Trasparenti produced for Easter Week processions from the end of the 18th century to the present day. A legacy of extraordinary value, these constitute a unique historical and religious testimony of the region. Visit the museum's website at ... http://museo.mendrisio.ch

MOCA Presents Comprehensive Survey Exhibition of Graffiti & Street Art Posted: 24 May 2012 09:35 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art presents Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum exhibition on the history of graffiti and street art, April 17 through August 8, 2011, at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The exhibition traces the development of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to the global movement it has become today, concentrating on key cities where a unique visual language or attitude has evolved. Following MOCA's presentation, the exhibition will travel to the Brooklyn Museum, where it will be on view March 30–July 8, 2012.

The ARKEN Celebrates Donation of Anselm Reyle Works Posted: 24 May 2012 09:33 PM PDT Copenhagen, Denmark.- The ARKEN Museum is celebrating another fantastic donation. Nine giant artworks by Anselm Reyle at a value of DKr 13.5 million are being donated to ARKEN by Annie and Otto Johs. Detlefs Almennyttige Fond. The works are to hang as a permanent installation in the Detlefs Hall at ARKEN. ARKEN director Christian Gether says: "Annie and Otto Detlefs' donation is a quantum leap towards establishing ARKEN as a museum with an absolutely leading-edge collection of contemporary art, both in the Danish and the international context".

Exhibition of New York Times Magazine photographs at FOAM Museum in Amsterdam Posted: 24 May 2012 09:29 PM PDT AMSTERDAM.- For over thirty years, the New York Times Magazine has presented the myriad possibilities and applications of photography. The New York Times Magazine Photographs is an exhibition that reflects upon and interrogates the very nature of both photography and print magazines at this pivotal moment in their history and evolution. The exhibition is co-curated by Kathy Ryan, longtime Photo Editor of the Magazine, and Lesley A. Martin, Publisher of Aperture Books. The Aperture-produced exhibition is comprised of eleven individual modules, each of which focuses on a notable project or series of projects that have been presented in the pages of the Magazine. The featured projects mirror the Magazine's eclecticism, presenting seminal examples of reportage, portraiture, as well as fine art photography. The book, The New York Times Magazine Photographs, published by Aperture will appear alongside the exhibition. The New York Times Magazine Photographs can be seen from 23rd March until 30th May at FOAM Museum.

MUMOK to Show Groundbreaking Early Works by Claes Oldenburg Posted: 24 May 2012 09:27 PM PDT Vienna, Austria.- The Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK) is proud to present "Claes Oldenburg: The Sixties", on view at the museum from February 2nd through May 28th 2012. With his humorous depictions of everyday objects, Claes Oldenburg is one of the most important and popular artists since the late 1950s. He is not only a main proponent of pop art, performance art and installation art, but also and in collaboration with Coosje van Bruggen has produced monumental "Large Scale Projects" in numerous cities around the world. Claes Oldenburg (born in 1929, Stockholm, Sweden) has not only been a major artist in Pop Art, Performance Art and Installation Art but, in partnership with Coosje van Bruggen, also a strong influence on art in public spaces with his monumental Large Scale Projects in numerous major cities worldwide. With his humorous and profound depictions of everyday objects he is one of the most important and admired artists since the late 1950s. One central point of reference in Oldenburg's oeuvre is the industrially produced object—the object as a commodity which, in ever-new metamorphoses of media and form, becomes a conveyor of culture and a symbol of the imagination, desires, and obsessions of the modern world. Organized by the MUMOK, this is the largest show ever of Oldenburg's ground-breaking and emblematic early work of the 1960s. Numerous icons of Pop art will be seen in the exhibition, beginning with the installation The Street and its graffiti-inspired depictions of modern life in the big city and continuing to the famous consumer articles of The Store to the spectacular everyday objects of the modern Home: telephone, toilet bowl, bathtub, fan, saw, and light switch. Another chapter is dedicated to Oldenburg's first designs for the colossal monuments of his consumer objects for public spaces. The exhibition concludes with mumok's Mouse Museum a walk-in miniature museum in the form of a Geometric Mouse, for which Oldenburg collected 385 objects. With its souvenirs, kitsch objects, and studio models, the Mouse Museum demonstrates the incredible cultural variety—and mysteriousness—of capitalist society. With its reduction to abstract basic figures of formal invention, the Geometric Mouse, a central motif within the artist's oeuvre, represents a dovetailing of high art and popular culture. It also functions as Oldenburg's alter ego. The MUMOK (Museum für Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien) is Austria's largest and most significant museum for contemporary art. First opened in 1962 as the Museum of the 20th Century in the Schweizergarten park, the MUMOK is now at its third address and with its third name (regularly moving to accommodate its expanding collection). MUMOK's commitment to both history and the present and its museological, scientific and educational mission demands its profound engagement in the collection, research and communication of international artworks of modernism, the recent past, and the the present. With its emphasis on Pop Art and Photorealism, taken from the Austrian Ludwig Foundation, Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme, taken from the Hahn Collection, and Viennese Actionism, MUMOK offers a unique blend of art focusing on society and reality as well as of performative art of the 20th century. MUMOK communicates the social relevance of art by illustrating the changes in art perception and their causes, both historical and contemporary. With reference to the present, MUMOK participates in the socio-political discourse and opposes tendencies which challenge the freedom of art and cultural policy. The collection spans from the Cubist, Futurist, and Surrealist works of classical modernism to Pop Art, Fluxus, and Nouveau Realism from the 1960s and 1970s. The early 20th century is represented with paintings and sculptures by masters Like Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. The collection includes important works of Pop Art by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein as well as definitive examples of Fluxus, and conceptual art, In recent years, the collection has been expanded with present-day film, video, photo and graphic art. In total, the MUMOK collection contains around 9,700 works: paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, graphic works, photos, videos, films, architectural models and furniture from the first half of the 20th century. The collection of Classic Modernism contains the most important movements and artists of the heroic years of modernism right up to the abstract and expressive tendencies of the post World War II period. Expressionism (Richard Gerstl, Oskar Kokoschka, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff), Cubism and Futurism (Henri Laurens, Giacomo Balla), constructive tendencies, Bauhaus (Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee) are represented as are important works from the areas of Dada and Surrealism (Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Max Ernst, René Magritte). Amongst the pioneering works of modernism to be found are André Derain's Cowering Figure and František Kupka's Nocturne, two of the earliest examples of conscious abstraction. The great 'lone warriors' who were committed to the human figure such as Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon are represented with outstanding works and form an antipole to the abstractionists of the 50's (Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Morris Louis, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni). Nouveau Réalisme is one of the focal points of the Hahn collection which was acquired by MUMOK in 1978, and the collection includes important works by Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques de la Villeglé. César, Mimmo Rotella, Georg Baselitz, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Gérard Deschamps and Christo. Equally important in the collection are works from the Fluxus movement. Alongside numerous important works of Viennese Actionism the museum also holds extensive documentation in the MUMOK's archive of actionism. A younger generation of artists is showcased in the 'MUMOKFactory', a separate exhibition space with a cinema, where the emphasis is on experimental media and performance art and several exhibition levels are used for special exhibitions. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.mumok.at

Joslyn Treasures Return ~ Well Traveled & Rarely Seen at the Joslyn Art Museum Posted: 24 May 2012 09:26 PM PDT OMAHA, NE.- Joslyn Art Museum's collection is not only known and admired by those in Omaha who consider the museum their own, but is respected by institutions worldwide. A quick look at the itinerary of the Museum's most popular works over the past years would make even the most seasoned traveler jealous — requested for over three dozen exhibitions, objects from the Joslyn collection have toured from coast to coast as well as to Europe. Joslyn Treasures: Well Traveled and Rarely Seen reunites these familiar and important favorites with highlights from the vaults to showcase forty works from antiquity through the twentieth century. The exhibition is on view at Joslyn from June 4 through August 28.

" Andy Warhol & Other Famous Faces " on view at Maryhill Museum of Art Posted: 24 May 2012 09:24 PM PDT GOLDENDALE, WA.- American Andy Warhol (1928-1987), one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th Century, on view at Maryhill Museum of Art in the spectacular Columbia River Gorge for a four-month exhibit in the form of his famous prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation. Opening on Saturday, July 19, the Andy Warhol & Other Famous Faces

Abu Dhabi developer offers a new timetable for opening of Louvre & Guggenheim Museums Posted: 24 May 2012 09:20 PM PDT DUBAI (AP).- The developer of an ambitious cultural district in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday outlined a new timetable for the stalled project, with its first attraction — a branch of the Louvre — now slated to open in 2015. A division of the Guggenheim Museum will follow in 2017, which like the outpost of the French art institution will make its debut in the Emirati capital years later than originally planned. The landmark projects on the emirate's multi-billion dollar Saadiyat Island development have been hit by a series of delays since being unveiled five years ago, including an announcement last year that the government-backed developer was dropping plans to award a major construction contract. The museums had been scheduled to start opening this year, but officials had already said that was no longer possible. Abu Dhabi is the largest and richest of the seven semiautonomous sheikdoms that make up the UAE. Its executive council helps set policies for the emirate, though final authority rests with the emirate's heredity ruler, who is also the president of the UAE.

Swann Galleries American & Contemporary Art Auction in New York Posted: 24 May 2012 09:14 PM PDT New York City.- Swann Galleries' November 17th auction of American Art & Contemporary Art offers outstanding unique works and prints by choice American artists and those working in the late 20th century. The Contemporary Art portion of the auction features some highly desirable prints by Andy Warhol, including his 1967 color screenprint of Marilyn Monroe, his earliest print of the blonde icon, who is depicted in shades of gray and black (estimate: $100,000 to $150,000). Also by Warhol are Flowers, offset color lithograph, 1964 ($10,000 to $15,000); New England Clam Chowder, color screenprint, 1969 ($10,000 to $15,000); Cow, color screenprint in purple and black on wallpaper, 1976 ($12,000 to $18,000); and Untitled (Sex Parts), unique screenprint in black on green cloth cut from a man's work shirt, circa 1980—the proceeds from this lot will benefit the non-profit Lifelong AIDS Alliance ($15,000 to $20,000). The works will be on public exhibition Saturday, November 12th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Monday, November 14th through Wednesday, November 16th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Other pop art highlights are Roy Lichtenstein's Moonscape, color screenprint on blue Rowlux, 1965 ($10,000 to $15,000), and Brushstroke, offset color lithograph, 1965 ($12,000 to $18,000); Jasper Johns's Cicada, color lithograph on Arches 88 paper, 1981 ($20,000 to $30,000); Keith Haring's Art Attack on AIDS, unique screenprint in black with hand coloring in yellow gouache, 1988 ($15,000 to $20,000); and Tom Wesselmann's Monica Sitting with Mondrian, color screenprint, 1989 ($12,000 to $18,000). There is a selection of fine color lithographs by Alexander Calder as well as a 1971 gouache, At Last a Yellow Saucer, which reflects much of the playfulness and color of his well-known mobiles ($20,000 to $30,000). Other unique works of note include an oil on board painting by Wayne Thiebaud, from early in his career—before he began depicting sweets—called Blighted Area ($30,000 to $50,000); Red Grooms's Artist on the Beach, color pastels on paper, 1970 ($30,000 to $50,000); a set of four color pencil drawings by Robert Mangold, Arc Studies: 4 Drawings, 1974 ($20,000 to $30,000); and David Hockney's For Riggs and John, watercolor and gouache on the back of a double-page fold from a Hockney catalogue, 1988 ($15,000 to $20,000). Desirable portfolios are Josef Albers's Homage to the Square, with 10 color screenprints, 1962 ($12,000 to $18,000); Sol Lewitt's Composite Series, set of five screenprints, 1970, and Stars, set of eight color aquatints, 1993 ($10,000 to $15,000 each); and Robert Indiana's Decade, with 10 color screenprints, 1971 ($18,000 to $22,000). The American Art section of the sale features two paintings by Robert Gawthmey, who is best known for his unromanticized depictions of African-American life in the rural South, from the estate of noted black business leader J. Bruce Llewellyn. Prologue II, a 1962 oil on canvas, depicts churchgoers and farmers; Southern Farmer, oil on canvas, 1966, in which the subject's face is mostly obscured, may be a nod to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man ($60,000 to $90,000 and $40,000 to $60,00 respectively). There are three other Gwathmey works in the sale, two watercolors with pen and ink, Picking Cotton and Picking Cotton II ($4,000 to $6,000 each); and a pencil drawing, Tin of Lard, which has the same subject as the Southern Farmer painting ($1,000 to $1,500). Other paintings of note are Carl Brandien's View of Toledo, oil on canvas, 1931 ($4,000 to $6,000); Robert Bliss, Provincetown Beach, oil on board, 1962 ($3,000 to $5,00); David Burliuk's Still Life with Roses, Daffodils and Iris, oil on canvas ($20,000 to $30,000); and several landscapes by Hayley Lever. Rounding out the American art are Elie Nadelman's Mother and Child, pen and ink, circa 1905 ($5,000 to $8,000); Blanche Lazzell's Mosquito Wharf, gouache on card, 1934 ($8,000 to $12,000); William Zorach's The Family, bronze sculpture, 1957 ($10,000 to $15,000); Francisco Zuñiga's Descansado, watercolor and chalk, 1968 ($5,000 to $8,000); and one of Ludwig Bemelmans's illustrations of the beloved children's book protagonist Madeline, gouache and watercolor, 1939 ($8,000 to $12,000). Swann Galleries was founded in New York in 1941 by antiquarian book dealer Benjamin Swann as an auction house specializing in rare and antiquarian books. George Lowry acquired the business and became president in 1970 upon Mr. Swann`s retirement. At that time, a staff of four organized and conducted book auctions for a customer-base composed mainly of dealers. As the auction world opened to the general public, separate departments were established for different fields of collecting: first photographs, then autographs, and in the late 1980s-early 90s, prints and drawings and vintage posters. Swann is now a world leader in the auction market for works of art on paper. Nicholas Lowry joined Swann in 1995 as head of the Poster department. He was named Principal Auctioneer in 1998 and Vice-President in 2000. In January 2001, he assumed the title of President and took over day-to-day management of the company, which now has a staff of 30; George Lowry stepped up to the new title of Chairman. For over 25 years, Swann has been located on East 25th Street, just one block east of Madison Square Park, adjacent to the historic Murray Hill, Gramercy Park, and Flatiron districts, and right across town from Chelsea. The premises doubled in size in 1999 with the addition of a second gallery and salesroom. Visit the auction house's website at ... http://www.swanngalleries.com

Museum Ludwig Shows Paintings, Sculptures & Drawings by Roy Lichtenstein Posted: 24 May 2012 09:12 PM PDT COLOGNE.- The halftone dots used by Pop maestro Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) are world famous. Taking motifs from the realms of comics and consumerism, Lichtenstein made paintings by piecing together dots and colored surfaces. But a very different side of his work can be discovered at this exhibition in Museum Ludwig . Around 100 exhibits, chiefly large-scale paintings along with a number of sculptures and drawings, reveal his fascinating explorations of style through the history of art – from Expressionism and Futurism to Bauhaus and Art Deco. Lichtenstein even appropriated works by his artist heroes - Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian and even Dali - and interpreted them in an often ironic and cryptic manner using his own visual language. On view through 3 October, 2010.

The Inaugural Art Newport Fair to be Held on $40M Purpose-Built Yacht Posted: 24 May 2012 09:11 PM PDT Newport, RI.- The inaugural Art Newport Fair will be held aboard the 228-foot floating exhibition venue, SeaFair - America's Megayacht Venue from June 30th through September 5th. Art Newport will gather 28 international galleries from 7 countries across the globe including North America, Great Britain, France, The Bahamas and Israel. 102 artists will be featured in the 67-day fair. The carefully selected presentation will feature all forms of modern and contemporary art, with a focus on 20th and 21st century works. The dynamic ensemble will include fine art glass, photography, painting, mixed-medium, sculpture, jewelry and design.

Swoon Creates 20-Foot Sculpture Suspended from NOMA's Century-Old Ceiling Posted: 24 May 2012 09:09 PM PDT NEW ORLEANS, LA.- This summer, the New Orleans Museum of Art unveiled a new large scale, site-specific installation by the internationally renowned artist Swoon. This installation, entitled Thalassa, is named for and inspired by the Greek goddess of the sea. The work began with a careful examination of NOMA's Great Hall and was specifically designed for the space. The twenty-foot tall piece depicts a monumental female deity with extended tentacles rising from the waters, her body comprised of colorful swathes of fabric and aquatic creatures. The work is made of an enormous reinforced linocut enhanced with prints and paper cutouts.  Thalassa will be on display until September 25.

The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Hosts A Major Retrospective of Antonio López Posted: 24 May 2012 09:07 PM PDT Madrid, Spain - From June 28th through September 25th, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid is presenting a temporary exhibition that offers a complete overview of the work of the Spanish artist Antonio López (born Tomelloso, 1936). The exhibition is articulated through the artist's own gaze on his recent and earlier work, given that López has steered the selection of works and overseen their installation, working with the curators. The result is a major exhibition of an almost autobiographical nature. Works from the last twenty years, which will arrive at the Museum directly from the artist's studio and which represent almost half of the 140 works on display, are displayed alongside others created in the more distant past, as far back as the 1950's. Rather than a chronological presentation, the exhibition moves backwards and forwards within the oeuvre of Antonio López, who, as is clearly evident, remains active and working. This is clearly manifested in the Museum's galleries, in which paintings, drawings and sculptures coexist in a balanced manner, representing the three media in which the artist has worked over the course of his career. López's celebrated views of Madrid, including his most recent depictions of the Gran Vía, are shown here alongside depictions of his native Tomelloso, paintings and drawings of fruit trees, portraits of paired figures and interiors. Visitors can thus appreciate the recurring themes in the universe of Antonio López and the influence of artistic tradition and his connections with it, given that the artist considers himself the heir to that tradition to an almost obsessive degree. López García was born January 6, 1936 in Tomelloso, Ciudad Real , a few months before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. It first appeared that Antonio would continue in the family tradition as a farmer, but an early facility for drawing caught the attention of his uncle Antonio Lopez Torres, a local painter of landscapes, who gave him his first lessons. In 1949 he moved to Madrid in order to study for entrance to the competitive Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Between 1950 and 1955 he studied art at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, winning a number of prizes. He formed friendships with Francisco Lopez Hernandez, Amalia Avia, and Isabel Quintanilla. Out of this nucleus a realist group was formed in Madrid. Madrid of the postwar period was isolated from the international panorama of art and culture. All the information that López García accessed on contemporary art was derived from library books at the school; he gradually became aware of Pablo Picasso and other great artists of the period. In 1955, a scholarship allowed him to travel to Italy with Francisco Lopez and study Italian painting from the Renaissance. During this period he began to reevaluate Spanish painting in the Prado, especially Velázquez, a constant reference. By 1957 his work had registered a certain surreal quality. Magic Realism continued to inform his work through the mid-1960s, but gradually, as he said, "the physical world gained more prestige in my eyes." In fact he had never abandoned it. Some of his relief sculptures conjure fantastic episodes, such as "The Apparition" (1963), in which a child hovers mid-air against a wall, gliding toward an open door. There are many affinities with the Tuscan Renaissance in his work in three dimensions. García's painting also reverberates with the art of the past. "The Grapevine" (1960) evokes Tiepolo's sunlight, "The Quince Tree" (1962) Chardin's dusky murk, and other paintings echo Old Masters from Albrecht Dürer to Edgar Degas. Though López García is devoted to the mundane — he depicts humble people, buildings, plants, and cluttered interiors — his portrayal of these subjects is compelling and beautiful. He began to paint panoramic views of Madrid about 1960. His work from this period attracted recognition, first within Spain — in 1961 he had his first solo show in Madrid — and later, in 1965 and 1968, at the Staempfli Gallery in New York. López García faithfully adhered to familiar subjects: images of women, anonymous and humble objects of domestic surroundings, desolate spaces, images of his garden and landscape. The pictures are sometimes worked on for more than twenty years, some of them remaining unfinished. He is a versatile realist, proficient in the traditional media of pencil drawing, oil painting on board, carved wood sculpture, and bas relief in plaster. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Spanish), is one of the three Madrid museums that make up the "Golden Triangle of Art", which also includes the Prado and the Reina Sofia (modern and contemporary) galleries. The collections's roots lie in the privately owned Thyssen-Bonremisza collection, once the second largest private art collection in the world (after the British Royal Collection). When Baron Thyssen decided to open his collection to the public, he conducted a Europe-wide search for a new home. The competition was won in 1986 when the Spanish government came to an agreement to provide a home for the collection (the 19th century Villahermosa Palace close to the Prado in Madrid) and fund the museum in return for the loan of the collection for a minimum of nine and a half years. Pritzker prize winning Spanish architect, Rafael Moneo was employed to redesign and extend the building and the museum opened in 1992. However, so impressed were the Thyssen-Bornemiszas with the building and Spain's commitment to the collection, that even before it opened, they were negotiating with the Spanish government to make the museum permanent. In 1993, the Spanish government agreed to buy the collection (valued at up to 1.5 billion dollars) for $350 million and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum became a permanent fixture in Madrid. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum offers visitors an overview of art from the 13th century to the late 20th century. In the nearly one thousand works on display, visitors can contemplate the major periods and pictorial schools of western art such as the Renaissance, Mannerism, the Baroque, Rococo, Romanticism and the art of the 19th and 20th centuries up to Pop Art. The museum also features works from some movements not represented in state-owned collections, such as Impressionism, Fauvism, German Expressionism and the experimental avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. In addition, it boasts an important collection of 19th-century American painting not found in any other European museum institutions. Visit the museum's website at : http://www.museothyssen.org

Frank Gehry Designs $150 Million Dollar 'Tree House' Posted: 24 May 2012 09:05 PM PDT SYDNEY, Australia— Known for a postmodern approach that uses fragmented forms, star architect Frank Gehry has opted to look backward for his first commissioned building in Australia, taking inspiration from his childhood by invoking an adventurous youthful icon: the tree house. In a statement, Gehry said that his new building for Sydney's University of Technology will have "a trunk and core of activity and... branches for people to connect and do their private work." The design is also characterized by two distinct façades, with the east side consisting of undulating sandstone-colored brick while the west side will feature large, angled sheets of glass that will reflect and fracture images of surrounding buildings. Frank O. Gehry & Associates has grown to over 140 employees, and the geographic terrain covered by the firm's work includes the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.

Tate Britain Hosts Sumptuous Exhibition "Van Dyck and Britain" Posted: 24 May 2012 09:04 PM PDT LONDON - Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was the greatest painter in seventeenth-century Britain. 'Van Dyck and Britain' will reveal the Flemish artist's unique impact on British cultural life, from the reign of Charles I onwards. This visually sumptuous exhibition will bring together some of the finest and most magnificent paintings that van Dyck produced during his years in Britain. It will also demonstrate his continuing visual legacy through portraits by artists from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, including Sir Joshua Reynolds and John Singer Sargent. On exhibition 18 February through 17 May, 2009.

Christie's NY Post War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale totals $93,734,500 Posted: 24 May 2012 08:40 PM PDT NEW YORK, NY.- In a packed salesroom, bidders drove Christie's Post War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale total to $93,734,500, and five new world auction records for artists David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Douglas Wheeler, Tony Smith, and Kerry James Marshall. The sale was 91% sold by lot and 94% by value. Leading the Evening Sale was a group of 20 works from the collection of the renowned American philanthropist Betty Freeman which was 90% sold by lot and achieved a combined total of $31,606,500. One of the most important David Hockney works to come to the auction market, Beverly Hills Housewife, 1966-1967, achieved the evening's top price of $7,922,500, and set a new world auction record for the artist.

Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts 'Abstract Expressionist & Modern Works' Posted: 24 May 2012 08:38 PM PDT   New York City - One of the preeminent collections of Abstract Expressionism, The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection was given to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006, contributing significantly to the Museum's holdings in modern art. To celebrate the gift, Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art — on view through February 3, 2008 — presents 55 works assembled by one of the most prescient and astute collectors of the mid-20th century. Included in the roster of important paintings in the exhibition are: Jackson Pollock's Number 28, 1950, a supreme example of the artist at the height of his career; Attic (1949), a key work by Willem de Kooning from the 1940s; Franz Kline's Nijinsky (1950), the artist's first painting in his mature style; an early signature work by Clyfford Still; and Mark Rothko's glowing No. 3 (1953). Also featured are major works by slightly younger American artists working in the early 1960s, such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Claes Oldenburg. In addition, the Newman gift includes fine works by European modernists, such as Max Ernst's 1924 portrait of Gala Eluard; a 1927 Joan Miró from the Circus Horse series; a 1930 relief by Jean Arp; and Alberto Giacometti's bronze sculpture The Forest (1950). "The Newman Collection constitutes a magnificent contribution to the Metropolitan Museum," stated Director Philippe de Montebello. "This generous gift represents a New York homecoming for remarkable works by a number of the most important New York artists of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. Comprised of 63 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by 50 artists, The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection is the only extant collection of Abstract Expressionist works gathered at the time of their creation. Mrs. Newman's collection — "the best of the newest," as Chicago curator Katharine Kuh once described it — is also notable for its depth. In addition to the pivotal paintings and sculptures mentioned above, it includes wonderful works by Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Arthur Dove, Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz, John Marin, Matta, Larry Rivers, Anne Ryan, Kurt Schwitters, David Smith, and Wols, among others. "Muriel Newman is one of the rare collectors who grasped the importance of a radical new development in the visual arts and acted on that understanding immediately, with almost pitch-perfect accuracy," said Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art. Mrs. Newman has said of her gift, "This was a collection of New York art, and I had always felt it belonged in New York." Known for her intelligence and enthusiasm, Muriel Newman combined her background as a painter, her love of New York, and her eye for modern art to become one of the most prominent collectors of Abstract Expressionism. She was born in Chicago in 1914 and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Institute of Design, and the University of Chicago, then became an accomplished portrait painter. In 1938, she married Jay Z. Steinberg. Although a lifelong Chicagoan, Muriel Kallis Steinberg always loved New York, and the Steinbergs traveled there six to eight times a year. On a visit to New York in 1949, one of her art professors from Chicago introduced her to The Club, the hangout of a new generation of American artists. Known there as a fellow artist, she met the Abstract Expressionist painters who were just about to achieve recognition. Although the Steinbergs had begun to buy works by better-known European modernists, such as Miró, Léger, Arp, Schwitters, and Giacometti, by 1953 she decided to focus on the exciting new development in American art. Venturing into territory where there were few collectors, she acted quickly and with great discernment, choosing artists whom history would later validate. By 1954 she had purchased superb paintings by Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, and Rothko. After the death of Jay Steinberg, she stopped collecting for several years. She took it up again in the late 1950s, after her marriage to Albert Hardy Newman, and she added significant works by Robert Motherwell, Hans Hofmann, and Clyfford Still to her collection. The Newmans shared a passion for travel, and she acquired objects and textiles on trips to Egypt, Kathmandu, and other far-flung destinations; at the same time, she continued to be involved in promoting the cause of modern American art. In the early 1960s, for example, Mrs. Newman visited New York in order to select works that could be purchased by supporters of the Art Institute of Chicago. Some of her choices — including paintings by Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski — remained unsold; as a result, she bought them herself. The Newmans began to look for a permanent home for the collection in the 1970s. In 1980, Mrs. Newman made a promised gift of the collection to the Metropolitan Museum, and a major exhibition of the collection was organized at the Museum in 1981. In 2006 she decided to make the gift immediate.  Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works is organized by Gary Tinterow; Nan Rosenthal, Senior Consultant; and Lisa M. Messinger, Associate Curator, all of the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art. Exhibition design is by Daniel Kershaw, Senior Exhibition Designer; graphics are by Barbara Weiss, Graphic Designer; and lighting is by Richard Lichte and Clint Coller, Senior Lighting Designers, all of the Museum's Design Department. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, edited by Mr. Tinterow, Ms. Rosenthal, and Ms. Messinger. The publication features texts by leading scholars, including David Anfam, Pepe Karmel, Carolyn Lanchner, and Richard Shiff, as well as an introduction by Mr. Tinterow. It is published by the Metropolitan Museum and distributed by Yale University Press and is available for $50 (hardcover). The exhibition catalogue is made possible by the Blanche and A.L. Levine Fund and the Mary C. and James W. Fosburgh Publications Fund. Education programs offered in conjunction with the exhibition include: a private gallery tour with Gary Tinterow on October 29 (with limited availability); a Sunday at the Met program on November 11, featuring short films on Pollock and de Kooning and lectures by Lisa Messinger and Katy Siegel, Associate Professor of Art History, Hunter College; a screening of the documentary The New York School (1973) on November 8; and an "Evening for Educators" on November 30. The exhibition will also be featured on the Metropolitan Museum's Web site at : www.metmuseum.org

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 24 May 2012 08:37 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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