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

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• The Art Gallery of Ontario shows "Picasso ~ Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso"
• Three New York Museums to Celebrate Caribbean Art
• Unique Prints Highlight Swann Galleries Auction of American & Contemporary Art
• The Carnegie Museum of Art Shows Impressionism in a New Light
• The Kunsthaus Zurich shows restored Aristide Maillol & Rodin Sculptures
• The National Museum of Singapore Shows Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay
• Picasso ~ Painting Against Time ~ at Albertina Museum Wien
• US Government Orders The St Louis Art Museum To Return Egyptian Death Mask
• "Octopus" installation featured in Art London this year
• Museum Frieder Burda shows Masterpieces from Collection of the Lenbachhaus in Munich
• The Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts Shows Printmakers From the Bauhaus School
• Exhibition Inspires Play ~ EN PLEIN AIR ~ at the Florence Griswold Museum
• Our Editor Views Many Of Max Ernst Masterpieces at The Max Ernst Museum Brühl, Germany
• Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
• Michael Raedecke's Latest Work at Museum of Contemporary Art in the Hague
• The Fine Art Society Celebrates the Centenary of the Camden Town Group
• The National Museum of Wales shows "John Piper :The Mountains of Wales"
• Norton Simon Museum displays " The Art of War: American Posters from World War I & World War II "
• The Malmö Konsthall Presents "Misaki Kawai – Big Bubble"
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Art Gallery of Ontario shows "Picasso ~ Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso" Posted: 03 Jun 2012 10:42 PM PDT Toronto.- The Art Gallery of Ontario's highly anticipated "Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris" opened on May 1st and will remain on display through August 26th. "The Musée National Picasso, Paris, is a living legacy to one of the most influential and radical figures of modern art. Its collection is made up of the works the artist kept for himself and his family, making this exhibition of the collection's masterpieces a rare glimpse of 'Picasso's Picassos,'" says Matthew Teitelbaum, AGO director and CEO. Coming nearly 50 years after the AGO's last blockbuster presentation of Pablo Picasso's works, the monumental exhibition (Made possible only by the closure of the Musée National Picasso in Paris for renovations), makes the only Canadian stop on its world tour to bring 147 highlights from the Musée's collection to Toronto. The collection of the Musée National Picasso, Paris comprises more than 5,000 works that Picasso kept for himself and his family over the course of his career, ranging from informal sketchbooks to iconic masterpieces."This is an extraordinary opportunity for Canadian audiences to view major works by Picasso, drawn from the world's most comprehensive collection of his artwork," says Teitelbaum. "With Abstract Expressionist New York, this fall's Marc Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde, and now Picasso, AGO members and visitors have the chance to take an incredible, year-long journey through some of the most thrilling and significant moments and masterpieces of 20th-century art." Exhibited chronologically and covering virtually every phase of the modern master's unceasingly radical and diverse career, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris features, "The Death of Casagemas", one of the first works he created in Paris in 1901, "Autoportrait (Self-Portrait)", the iconic 1906 self-portrait, the 1904 Blue-period masterpiece "Celestina (The Woman with One-Eye)", and "The Two Brothers", a 1906 work from his Rose period, landmark African-inspired artwork that led to the advent of Cubism, including studies for the 1907 masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Three Figures Beneath a Tree, 1907-08, examples of his genre-defining Analytic and Synthetic Cubism artworks, including the 1909-10 "Sacré Coeur", 1911's seminal "Man with a Guitar" and 1915's "Violin", "Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race)", a 1922 masterwork from his Neoclassical period, and 1925's "The Kiss", from his Surrealist period, a series of sculptures created during the Second World War, including 1942's "Bull's Head", and two bronzes, 1943's "Death's Head" and 1950's "The Goat". "The Bathers", the 1956 life-sized, six-piece figurative sculpture series created during a summer in Cannes; and "The Matador", the famous self-portrait painted in 1970, three years before his death. The exhibition also highlights Picasso's depictions of his numerous muses and mistresses, including 1918's Portrait of Olga in an Armchair, which features the Russian ballerina and Picasso's first wife seated on a Spanish tapestry, the background left purposefully unfinished. French surrealist photographer Dora Maar, who inspired his 1937 "Weeping Woman" series, is also prominently featured, as is Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's second wife and most-painted muse, depicted in the 1954 work Jacqueline with Crossed Hands. "A dialogue about Picasso and his extraordinary career started at the AGO with the ground- breaking exhibition Picasso and Man in 1964," says Anne Baldassari, chairman and chief curator of collections of the Musée National Picasso, Paris. "Now, the conversation continues with Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, an exhibition presenting a magnificent collection of the artist's work, giving Toronto audiences a true understanding of the artist's inventive and transformative legacy." A special complementary exhibition entitled Look Again: Picasso and Man is the first in the AGO's new series of Look Again exhibitions devoted exclusively to celebrating the Gallery's history. In 1964, the AGO (then known as the Art Gallery of Toronto) grabbed national headlines for organizing the country's most ambitious art exhibition to date, Picasso and Man. Featuring works loaned from around the word and two loaned by Picasso himself, an astonishing 106,000 people viewed the landmark exhibition during its five-week run. Opening April 14th and running until September 30th, in the Valerie Greenfield Thompson & Hunter E. Thompson Gallery, film footage of the original uncrating, stern instructions to the Women's Committee on etiquette, candid photos and Mrs. Lester Pearson's opening remarks are only a few of the archival gems on display as part of Look Again: Picasso and Man. A prolific draughtsman and printmaker, Picasso's drawings and prints reveal his technical virtuosity. On display from March 24th to September 3rd in the Esther & Arthur Gelber Treasury is Making His Mark: Picasso Prints and Drawings, a small installation of prints and drawings culled from the AGO's collection. These six works on paper, dating from the beginning to the end of the artist's career, demonstrate the wide range of his thematic choices. Founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens as the Art Museum of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, with a physical facility of 583,000 square feet. The AGO expanded it facility in 2008 with an innovative architectural design by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. The AGO holds more than 80,000 works in its collection, which spans from 100 A.D. to the present. The Canadian collection vividly documents the development of the nation's art heritage since pre-Confederation, including one of the largest and finest Inuit art collections in the world. The collection includes pivotal works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius O'Brien, James Wilson Morrice, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne, Emily Carr, Paul-Emile Borduas, Joyce Wieland, and Kenojuak Ashevak. Masterpieces of European art include works by renowned artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte. The AGO maintains a comprehensive collection of Contemporary art spanning from 1960 to the present, reflecting global developments in artistic practice across all media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, projection art, and installation art. The collection is defined by strong holdings of leading Canadian artists such as David Altmejd, Brian Jungen, Francoise Sullivan, Jeff Wall, Shirley Wiitasalo, and inflected by major works by international artists such as Mona Hatoum, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Tino Sehgal, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. Artists represented in career-spanning depth include Iain Baxter& / N.E. Thing Co, Jack Bush, Betty Goodwin, General Idea, Robert Motherwell, Kazuo Nakamura, Greg Curnoe, and Michael Snow. The AGO houses the world's largest public collection of works by internationally renowned British sculptor Henry Moore. A collection of more than 40,000 photographs represents the emergence of the medium in all its artistic, cultural and social diversity. Works by 19th-century British, French, American and Canadian photographers, and 20th-century modernists, including a significant group of 1850s prints by British photographer Linnaeus Tripe, one of the foremost collections of works by Czech photographer Josef Sudek, and more than 18,000 press photographs from the Klinsky Press Agency taken in the 1930s and 40s. The Thomson Collection at the AGO includes a broad range of works, from European to Canadian art, ship models and decorative arts. Its European collection includes 900 works from the 12th to the 19th century, featuring Peter Paul Rubens' 17th-century masterpiece, The Massacre of the Innocents. The Canadian collection includes signature works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Paul Kane, Lawren Harris, and Paul-Emile Borduas. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.ago.net

Three New York Museums to Celebrate Caribbean Art Posted: 03 Jun 2012 10:10 PM PDT New York City.- In an unprecedented collaboration organized by El Museo del Barrio with the Queens Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem, "Caribbean: Crossroads of the World", an ambitious and trailblazing exhibition, will highlight over two centuries of rarely-seen works from the Haitian Revolution (c. 1804) to the present. The show features more than 400 works including painting, sculpture, prints, books, photography, film, video and historic artifacts from various Caribbean nations, Europe and the United States. "Caribbean: Crossroads" will be on view at El Museo del Barrio from June 12th through January 6th, at the Queens Museum of Art from June 17th through January 6th, 2013 and at the Studio Museum in Harlem from June 14th through October 21st. "Caribbean: Crossroads is a vital extension of the Studio Museum's commitment to exhibiting a broad and diverse range of artistic practices," declares Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. "We are thrilled to partner with our peer institutions, El Museo and the Queens Museum, to present this exceptional opportunity to explore the art, culture and history of a region that has influenced and inspired artists of African descent for centuries."

Unique Prints Highlight Swann Galleries Auction of American & Contemporary Art Posted: 03 Jun 2012 09:14 PM PDT New York City.— On Thursday, June 14th Swann Galleries will conduct a two-part sale of American Art and Contemporary Art that features drawings, paintings, sculpture and prints by notable American artists and artists working in the late 20th century through the present day. Among the big names in the Contemporary Art portion of the auction are several works by Andy Warhol, including a pen and ink drawing of Charles Lisanby with Heart, circa 1956 (estimate: $15,000 to $20,000); and an Untitled pen and ink drawing of a reclining male figure's pants ($8,000 to $12,000). Other unique pieces by Warhol are a double-sided color screenprint of Flowers, 1970 ($8,000 to $12,000); Grapes (Special Edition), screenprint with diamond dust, 1979 ($25,000 to $35,000); and Mimosas, color screenprint and acrylic paper collage on canvas, circa 1976 ($30,000 to $50,000). Rounding out the Warhol highlights are Electric Chair, color screenprint, 1971 ($10,000 to $15,000); Viewpoint, color lithograph on Arches, 1984 ($10,000 to $15,000); and The Souper Dress, a paper and cotton sleeveless sheath, with the artist's iconic Campbell's soup cans printed on it, circa 1966-67 ($2,000 to $3,000). Other featured pop art works are Roy Lichtenstein's Brushstrokes, color screenprint, 1967, and Yellow Brushstroke, color etching on Rives, 1985 ($12,000 to $18,000 each); Red Grooms' Street Scene, gouache, watercolor and ink, 1975 ($20,000 to $30,000); Keith Haring's Three Lithographs (Jealousy), 1985 ($5,000 to $8,000); Robert Indiana's portfolio The American Dream, with 30 color screenprints, 1997 ($7,000 to $10,000); Tom Wesselman's Still Life with Blonde, color screenprint, 1999 ($10,000 to $15,000); and Alex Katz's Cow, enamel screenprinted aluminum multiple, 2006 ($15,000 to $20,000). Also from the 21st century are Anthony Goicolea's Recital, chromogenic printed on Plexiglas mount, 2001 ($12,000 to $18,000); Jenny Holzer's Truth Before Power, portfolio with four digital pigment prints, 2004 ($4,000 to $6,000); Harland Miller's larger than life oil on canvas versions of Penguin classics book jackets, Too Cool to Die, 2004, and Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore, 2007 ($30,000 to $50,000 and $40,000 to $60,000 respectively); and Damien Hirst's The Hours Spin Skull, unique multiple with household gloss on plastic skull with metallic watch faces, 2009 ($7,000 to $10,000). Other unique works of note include Fritz Winter's Composition, gouache and oil on board, 1954 ($8,000 to $12,000); Alfred Leslie's Untitled, oil, gouache, ink and paper collage on board, 1958 ($10,000 to $15,000); Robert Motherwell's Lyric Suite #11, watercolor on Japan paper, 1965 ($30,000 to $50,000); and Robert Rauschenberg's Samarkand Stitches III, screenprint and collage on fabric, 1988 ($7,000 to $10,000). Desirable portfolios are Ten Works + Ten Artists, with prints by Indiana, Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly and others, 1964 ($12,000 to $18,000); 1989 Portfolio, with 11 prints by Chuck Close, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman and more, 1989 ($8,000 to $12,000); and a "working proof" set of The Geldzahler Portfolio, with six (of 10) prints by artists including Jasper Johns and Dennis Hopper, 1998 ($8,000 to $12,000). The American Art section of the sale features drawings, paintings and sculpture by many celebrated American artists. There is a circa 1915 oil on canvas by Blanche Lazzell of Street Scene, Provincetown ($15,000 to $20,000); two Milton Avery gouaches, Seated Man and Sun Worshipper, circa 1932, ($15,000 to $20,000 each); an Abstract Taliesin by Frank Lloyd Wright, mixed media on stationery paper, circa 1946 that dedicated to his friend and Guggenheim curator Hilla Rebay ($8,000 to $12,000); Hugh J. Ward's Break-In, oil on canvas ($10,000 to $15,000); Boris Israelevich Anisfeld's Rabbi Inscribing a Torah, oil on board, circa 1965 ($10,000 to $15,000); Mavis Pusey's Carome, oil on canvas, circa 1970  ($15,000 to $20,000); and Francisco Toledo's Saltamontes, gouache and sand on paper, circa 1978 ($20,000 to $30,000). Prints and drawings include José Clemente Orozco's Study for "Sleeping (The Family)," pencil and wash on paper, circa 1930 ($15,000 to $20,000); Lazzell's My Studio Garden, color monotype, 1940 ($7,000 to $12,000); Marsden Hartley's Maine Landscape, lithograph crayon on paper, circa 1938 ($10,000 to $15,000); and Seated Male Nude (NM 258) by Paul Cadmus, chalks on paper, 1983 ($8,000 to $12,000). A run of works by Jared French includes drawings and plaster and bronze sculptures. There are also sculptures by Leonard Baskin, Chaim Gross, Dorothy Dehner, as well as two bronze pieces by Francisco Zuniga, Madre con nino, 1969, with the portfolio Zuniga, which also includes a watercolor ($30,000 to $50,000), the other Mujere sentada, 1982 ($20,000 to $30,000). The morning session of the auction, American Art, will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 14th. The afternoon session of Contemporary Art follows, after a lunch break, at 1:30 p.m. 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

The Carnegie Museum of Art Shows Impressionism in a New Light Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:22 PM PDT Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.- "Impressionism in a New Light: From Monet to Stieglitz", on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art through August 26th, presents a robust picture of what Impressionism means in art, displaying paintings, drawings, prints, and pastels by major artists alongside works by many of the most famous Pictorialist photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Championed by Alfred Stieglitz, Pictorialists emphasized photography as an act of "creating," rather than recording an image, and were among the first to insist that photography join the ranks of the fine arts. In the complex artistic milieu of the period, across media, artists engaged in a visual dialogue with one another, finding similar optical expressions and manipulating light, composition, and subject matter on the canvas and in the darkroom. Impressionism in a New Light will recapture the radical nature of Impressionism in its many meanings and expressions by visually showcasing this dialogue in the exhibition, and with an impressive schedule of programs, including an opening night performance by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and a cabaret evening laced with bawdy performances, comedy sketches, artworks, and absinthe. Organized by Amanda Zehnder, associate curator of fine arts, and Linda Benedict-Jones, curator of photography, Impressionism in a New Light focuses on works from Carnegie Museum of Art's distinguished collection, augmented by loans from the Museum of Modern Art New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Frick in Pittsburgh, and private collectors. The paintings and works on paper represented include Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Childe Hassam, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Alfred Sisley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, John Twachtman, Georges-Pierre Seurat, and Claude Monet. Works by photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Gertrude Käsebier, Clarence White, and others who called themselves Pictorialists illustrate the establishment of photography as art equal to painting and the other fine arts. The photographs intermix with pastels, sketches, and prints in a lively display of themes of interest to many artists of the time. Even as painters and Pictorialists approached themes such as urbanization, agrarianism, and the human body with a strikingly similar, painterly aesthetic, debates still raged throughout the larger art world about whether photography functioned to document or to create. According to curator of photography Linda Benedict-Jones, "Photography has been presented as an art form in Pittsburgh since the 19th century. In 1904, Alfred Stieglitz was invited to organize an exhibition at this museum, and we were one of the first in the country to recognize photography as a fine art." Even though the Stieglitz exhibition was on view for a mere three weeks, it attracted 11,000 visitors. "Our new exhibition allows us to revisit Pictorialist photographs from that era while seeing them in the context of Impressionism, a platform that is rare for photography." Many of the photographs in Impressionism in a New Light are drawn from the permanent collection of Pictorialist works, including a large donation to the museum by the George Ebbs family in 2007, as well as from the Metropolitan Museum of Art inNew York City and the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. For associate curator of fine arts Amanda Zehnder, Impressionism in a New Light: From Monet to Stieglitz will broaden our picture of Impressionism, "exploring the radical, avant-garde aspects of Impressionism and the uproar that surrounded it in the late nineteenth century, its unique social scene, and how Impressionist aesthetics apply to many different media." To coincide with the exhibition, the museum will publish a full-color, illustrated handbook entitled Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Collection Highlights. Carnegie Museum of Art offers a distinguished collection of contemporary art that includes film and video works. Other collections of note include works of American art from the late 19th century, French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and European and American decorative arts from the late 17th century to the present. The Heinz Architectural Center, opened as part of the museum in 1993, is dedicated to the collection, study, and exhibition of architectural drawings and models. The Hall of Architecture contains the largest collection of plaster casts of architectural masterpieces in America and one of the three largest in the world. The marble Hall of Sculpture replicates the interior of the Parthenon. While most art museums founded at the turn of the century focused on collections of old masters, Andrew Carnegie envisioned a museum collection consisting of the "Old Masters of tomorrow." In 1896, he initiated a series of exhibitions of contemporary art and proposed that the museum's paintings collection be formed through purchases from this series. Carnegie, thereby, founded what is arguably the first museum of modern art in the United States. Early acquisitions of works by such artists as Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, and Camille Pissarro laid the foundation for a collection that today is distinguished in American art from the mid-19th century to the present, in French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and in significant late-20th-century works. Over the century, the museum has amplified its scope of interest to include European and American decorative arts from the late 17th century to the present. The Heinz Galleries are dedicated to the presentation of temporary changing exhibitions; they host three to five major exhibitions per year. In 2009, the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Galleries of decorative arts and design reopened after a complete renovation. The first major reinterpretation of the decorative arts collection in two decades, the installation traces the evolution of style and design in the Western world from the mid-18th century to the present. Visit the museum's website at ... http://web.cmoa.org

The Kunsthaus Zurich shows restored Aristide Maillol & Rodin Sculptures Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:21 PM PDT Zurich.- Until December 16th, the Kunsthaus Zürich will be exhibiting six bronze sculptures and a terracotta figure by Aristide Maillol which have been restored over the last twelve months. Alongside Auguste Rodin, Maillol is considered the most important French sculptor of the early modern era. Now, for the first time, the works of the two artists are to be exhibited together in a group of around a dozen pieces from the Kunsthaus collection. The Kunsthaus Zürich holds seven works by Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) – together with Auguste Rodin one of the leading bronze sculptors of the transition from the 19th century to the modern era – covering almost all periods of his career. Maillol's work is characterized by rounded forms, compact surfaces and classical poses informed by a sensually Mediterranean vision of woman. In 1920 the Kunsthaus received as a legacy the collection of Hans Schuler and with it for the first time works of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard. After many years of preparation Wartmann organised his first exhibition with Edvard Munch in 1922 and began to build up the largest collection of works by the Norwegian artist outside of Scandanavia.

The National Museum of Singapore Shows Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:04 PM PDT Singapore.- The National Museum is proud to host "Dreams & Reality: Masterpieces of Painting, Drawing & Photography from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris", on view at the museum until February 5th 2012. Instead of travelling 12 long hours to Paris to appreciate the world's finest  collection of modern art, Singaporeans can now view over 140 Salon, Realist, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from the greatest painters in the likes of Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas and many more at the National Museum of Singapore.Titled "Dreams & Reality: Masterpieces of Painting, Drawing  & Photography of  the Musée d'Orsay, Paris", the exhibition is a rare opportunity for the art works to travel out of the Musée d'Orsay is possible only because the museum is undergoing renovation works of its galleries. At the turn of the century from 1848 to 1914, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, a rapidly urbanising social and economic landscape in Europe compelled Man to react towards modernity. The arts particularly grew in prominence as artists were confronted by a whole new world of ideas, possibilities and influences. Some chose to pursue their desire to capture contemporary subjects; others who were anguished and disorientated by the onslaught of massive change, sought refuge in their dreams and imagination founded on mythologies, legends and ancient civilisations. Their varied response generated new ways of depicting reality and a proliferation of artistic styles, redefining their own identities amidst the radical transformations taking place around them. This exhibition is divided into four main sections: Allegory and History, Man and Contemporary Life, Man and Nature and Solitude. Allegory and History is illustrated with works by artists such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, who blended myths of classical antiquity with history and reality, creating a new trend that was perpetuated in the Salons during the second half of the 19th century. Gods and goddesses were increasingly depicted as stylised figures, stripped of meaning. During the Romantic period in the 19th century, the links between literature, theatre, music and painting grew. Artists sought to free themselves of classicism; yearning freedom, they embraced a dark melancholy and rebellious pessimism. After France surrendered and lost two provinces Alsace and a large part of Lorraine to Prussia in the 1870 War, many artists were affected by the tragic events and dedicated paintings and drawings to the defence of Paris and the Commune – a resistance movement against the Empire's defeat. Man and Contemporary Life Family Family was the only constant source of stability, comfort and moral support for the artists. Family members thus became tractable models with whom the artists could share their difficulties in artistic creation. When the once agrarian society transited into an urban one, some artists  felt nostalgic towards the countryside as a sort of "lost paradise", while others denounced the archaic conditions and exploitation of peasants. Another group of artists looked at a different reality – contemporary life in the city and the exalted heroism of factory workers. As Paris modernised, an array of new leisure activities sprung up. Artists began to discover the beauty of modern life by painting new places like theatres, public gardens and railways. Man and Nature The Human Figure From the mid-19th century, traditional approaches to figure-painting, portraits and nudes were widely challenged and succeeded by new artistic styles which included informal poses, people donning their own clothes performing daily tasks in their homes or on the streets. While landscape in art was initially linked to history, mythology and the Bible, it moved towards a more subjective and lyrical interpretation from the second half of the 18th century onwards. Towards the end of the 19th century, landscapes became increasingly devoid of human presence, underlining the insignificance of man as a subject compared to the forces of Nature. Man as a solitary being Surrounded by progress on all fronts, a group of artists were concerned about the irreversible changes made to the fast urbanising environment, hence, they set out to depict Man as a solitary being. In the artists' perspective, the only way humans can escape the weight of science and technology is through the individual's mind. With a history dating back to its inception in 1887, the National Museum of Singapore is the nation's oldest museum with a progressive mind. The National Museum is a custodian of the 11 National Treasures, and its Singapore History and Living Galleries adopt cutting-edge and varied ways of presenting history and culture to redefine conventional museum experience. A cultural and architectural landmark in Singapore, the Museum hosts vibrant festivals and events all year round – the dynamic Night Festival, visually arresting art installations, as well as amazing performances and film screenings – in addition to presenting lauded exhibitions and precious artefacts. The programming is supported by a wide range of facilities and services including F&B, retail and a Resource Centre. The National Museum of Singapore reopened in December 2006 after a three-year redevelopment. The museum used to house a vast collection of zoological items, but were transferred to the National University of Singapore (NUS) and other museums in the Commonwealth. Among the highlights of the collections are the Singapore Stone, the Gold Ornaments of the Sacred Hill from East Java, a Dagguerreotype of Singapore Town which was one of the earliest photographs of Singapore, the will of Munshi Abdullah, the portrait of Frank Athelstane Swettenham, the hearse of Tan Jiak Kim, a Peranakan coffin cover, the mace of the City of Singapore commemorating King George VI's raising of the island's status to a city in 1951, the Xin Sai Le puppet stage, William Farquhar's drawings of flora and fauna and the portrait of Shenton Thomas, who was the former governor of Singapore. Rocks from the nearby Fort Canning Hill were used to create two sculptures commissioned from Cultural Medallion-winner Han Sai Por. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.nationalmuseum.sg

Picasso ~ Painting Against Time ~ at Albertina Museum Wien Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:03 PM PDT Vienna, Austria - Nobody has marked the art of the 20th century more lastingly than Pablo Picasso.  Amongst the many phases and stylistic periods of his creative output, the late works take a special position.  The exhibition in the Albertina is especially devoted to this period.  Werner Spies, former director of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and one of the most renowned Picasso researchers nowadays, has functioned as its curator.  On exhibition 22 September 2006 – 7 January 2007. More than 200 works from some 60 lenders, including paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures, document Picasso's specific working processes and the uniqueness of the style in his late art, focusing on the dialectics of painting and drawing: the masterfully quick, "wild" and infinitely sensual paintings are contrasted by the meticulous and detailed drawings.  It is an exciting dialogue, showing the greatest artist of the 20th century racing against time. Lenders: Musée Picasso, Paris; Bernard Picasso, Metropolitan Museum, and Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Fondation Beyerler and Kunstmuseum, Basel; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum Frieder Burda, Baden- Baden; as well as numerous private collections. Werner Spies on the exhibition Picasso Picasso – Painting Against Time : A STYLE OF PAINTING, A STYLE OF DRAWING The »topicality« of Picasso's late work, which is referred to in numerous exhibitions to authorize the art scene's wild and expressive manner of painting, seems superficial, even a fake.  Something decisive is being overlooked here: the »wild« Picasso had always, even during his very last years, had a reflective counterpart employing his memory and craft masterfully in the drawings.  The contrast we encounter is so conspicuous and so significant that one feels bound to find a plausible reason for it.  Obviously, Picasso's distinction between a painter's and a draughtsman's style may be explained by his panic fear of time running out. A RACE AGAINST DEATH Horror of and resistance against old age and death were reflected in the organization of working time.  The work Picasso accomplished day after day seems to have been a rebellion against temporality and disappearance.  This utilization of time leads us back to the »time in Mougins«, into the studio of Notre-Dame-de-Vie.  One has the impression that the constant glimpse at the clock was in the foreground.  To each of the daily performances in front of the easel or on the drawing sheet, the artist used to assign a certain amount of time.  Starting out from this ever identical amount of time the artist invested in a work, a painting, drawing, etching, or sculpture was created.  Thus the challenge the artist faced in the case of a large-sized canvas painting was much greater in terms of scope and organization than that of a drawing. RESTLESS CANVAS PAINTING That is why, taking this rule into account, a painting, for which there was not more time available than for an etching, could not be treated with the same meticulousness we generally encounter in the late graphic works.  Restlessness was meant to exorcise death: this is illustrated by the late works that cling to sensuality and embrace with every fiber and display kissing and copulation as close-ups.  We recognize a type of frenzy that is in no way inferior to Pollock's or De Kooning's.  It leads to open pictures.  No part of the canvas is privileged. LOVE SCENES, SELF-PORTRAITS, NUDES Everything strives for swiftness and abbreviation.  In this context, Picasso developed a kind of hieroglyphic language that treats a subject contractively.  The »fa presto« he employs leaves entire areas of the picture blank, i.e., white, all over again.  This procedure tends to dissolve form.  Colored areas overlap irregularly, with colors blending into one another.  The paintings focus practically exclusively on the representation of the figure or couple.  There are only few motifs: masquerades of cloak-and-dagger scenes (pictures of musketeers), self-portraits, amorous pastoral scenes, the subject of poorly matched lovers, nude figures. In retrospect one realizes that Picasso addressed dominant subjects of his time. METICULOUSNESS IN THE DRAWINGS In his drawings and prints, the artist continued to employ a meticulous technique.  Outlines and graphic details remain largely precise and keenly observed.  The time the artist has at his disposal in the medium of drawing, when working on smaller, reduced formats, is transformed into detail and accuracy.  Also the variety of subject matters is guided by this temporal rhythm.  The late drawings are marked by a unique love for narration.  The exhibition Picasso – Painting Against Time attempts to trace these questions – questions of technique, iconography, and the works' position in art history.  Some 70 paintings, 40 drawings, 80 prints, and several »folding sculptures« underline the dialectic principle revealed by the drawn and painted oeuvres from the »years in Mougins«. Visit the Albertina Museum Wien at : www.albertina.at

US Government Orders The St Louis Art Museum To Return Egyptian Death Mask Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT St Louis, MO. (BBC).- The US government has stepped into a row over an ancient Egyptian death mask, ordering the St Louis Art Museum to hand over the artefact. Egypt claims the 3200-year-old mask of 19th Dynasty noblewoman, Ka-Nefer-Nefer, was stolen. The museum paid $500,000 (£310,000) for the mask in 1998 and has already sued the US government to try and block seizure of the object, stating they do not have enough evidence that it was stolen. However, the federal complaint says the government is "certain" the mask was stolen and has traced its path from its discovery by an Egyptian excavator in 1952. The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities began its attempt to recover the piece in 2006, after discovering it had been purchased by the St. Louis museum. US Attorney Richard Callahan said the dispute was "unfortunate" and would be "resolved by the courts."

"Octopus" installation featured in Art London this year Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:58 PM PDT LONDON.- Renowned international artist, Marialuisa Tadei, is now exhibiting her landmark installation "Octopus" at Thomas More Square, St Katherine's Dock. Octopus featured in Art London this year and was chosen as pick of the week in Country Life Magazine, following a very favorable reception from art critics. The work seeks to bridge the gap between the material and spiritual worlds in response to the extreme consumerism of the modern world. The installation is created entirely of hand-cut coloured-glass tiles, laid as a mosaic over a concrete and steel frame.

Museum Frieder Burda shows Masterpieces from Collection of the Lenbachhaus in Munich Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:15 PM PDT BADEN BADEN, GERMANY - Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) is coming to Baden-Baden. At its major summer exhibition that is running from June 27 through October 11, 2009, the Museum Frieder Burda is presenting around 80 masterpieces from the famous collection of the Lenbachhaus in Munich, comprising outstanding paintings such as "Blue Horse I" by Franz Marc from 1911, "Meditation" bysterpieces from the famous collection of the Lenbachhaus in Munich Alexej von Jawlensky from 1918, "Jawlensky and Werefkin" by Gabriele Münter from 1909 and "Promenade" by August Macke from 1913. "It is the most extensive selection of Blue Rider paintings we have ever lent," stresses Helmut Friedel, director of the Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus. Long-standing relationship between Baden-Baden and Munich Baden-Baden owes this exhibition to the close relationship that Frieder Burda maintains with the Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus in Munich. For many years, the Baden-Baden art collector has been lending numerous paintings of his own collection, including a great many works by Gerhard Richter, to the Lenbachhaus. Since the Lenbachhaus is scheduled to close for the following three years because of extensive construction and renovation works, director Helmut Friedel is sending his internationally renowned paintings to the venue in Baden-Baden. During the renovation period, Baden-Baden will be the only German venue for exhibition of the Lenbachhaus paintings. Helmut Friedel, who is also curating the exhibition, on the Baden-Baden museum: "The Museum Frieder Burda is embedded in nature and offers fantastic sights on the surrounding park. It is going to be the ideal venue for the Blue Rider paintings, mirroring the mostly close-to-nature motifs of this movement." He further states that the Baden-Baden exhibition is much more than a simple transfer of paintings from one location to another. "The concept of the Baden-Baden show is based on intensive research on the mutual friendship and regular encounters between the painters. This is also the reason why we lend the painting "Portrait of the dancer Alexander Sacharoff" by Alexej von Jawlensky for the first time ever," emphasizes Friedel. The painting is extremely fragile and won't be on display at other exhibitions.The same restriction applies to Franz Marc's "Blue Horse", one of the highlights of the Lenbachhaus collection. Though usually no longer available for loan, it is going to be on display in Baden-Baden. Moreover, the exhibition will comprise many portraits of Blue Rider painters. The members of the movement regularly painted each other, depicting events and situations of their own life and transporting the intimate relationship of the group. Thus, the show will allow the visitor to simultaneously contemplate the artistic as well as the private life of the painters. This intimate character of the exhibition is increased by the display of 60 photographs by Gabriele Münter, depicting scenes from trips to Tunisia or Italy, life in Murnau as well as private pictures. Though the photographs are mostly private pics, they are nevertheless of great artistic value. No other group of artists has been that well documented in photograph. They provide an invaluable testimony of the history and development of the movement "Der Blaue Reiter" and of Münter's and Kandinsky's relationship between 1902 and 1914. Helmut Friedel emphasizes the intensive cooperation between the Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus and the Museum Frieder Burda. Friedel: "I am convinced the our two houses will continue to maintain this close relationship in the future." Most important collection of paintings of Der Blaue Reiter In 1957, Gabriele Münter celebrated her 80th birthday by donating her large collection of own works as well as works by Kandinsky and other Blue Rider painters to the Lenbachhaus in Munich. Today, the Lenbachhaus houses the worldwide most extensive collection of paintings of the Blue Rider. Frieder Burda: "In Baden-Baden, we feel flattered to host these masterpieces in the Richard-Meier-designed museum building. A long-cherished wish is coming true." The Blue Rider movement emerged from the former group of artists Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artist's Association of Munich), its first exhibition at the Gallery Thannhauser in Munich in 1911 was creating a stir. Apart from the Die Brücke in Dresden, the Blue Rider was the most important German group of artists of the 20th century. The movement included among others the painters Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, Alexej von Jawlensky and Paul Klee. Der Blaue Reiter almanac, edited and published in 1911 by Kandinsky and Marc, presented the movement's artistic synthesis: "Without any stylistic restrictions, the most diverse manifestations of creativity have been included, featuring recent international avant-garde works as well as examples of primitive and folk art, children's drawings as well as art by non-professionals. Another major role is attributed to New Music." For Kandinsky, "great realism" and "great abstraction" were equivalent. We therefore find a wide range of stylistic approaches and artistic expressions among the painters of the Blue Rider. During his time in Munich until 1914, Kandinsky himself chose the way toward abstraction. His development from early studies of nature to a more representational style is perfectly represented in the collection of the Lenbachhaus. His counterpart was Franz Marc, who, in his paintings, was seeking to reconcile nature and creature. Helmut Friedel: "Around the year 1910, Marc's animal studies were set free from the restrictions of pure representation and became sheer color events. But also Gabriele Münter, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky and Paul Klee developed individual artistic expressions, though expressionist landscapes were prevailing."

The Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts Shows Printmakers From the Bauhaus School Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:12 PM PDT Springfield, MA.- An exhibition of prints by American and European artists associated with the Bauhaus School in Germany is on view at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts through October 30th. The Bauhaus School, or school of architecture, was one of the first colleges of design. It was the result of a merger between the Weimar Academy of Arts and the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts in Germany. Founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 during the Industrial Revolution, the Bauhaus School brought together many international contemporary artists. The school combined crafts and fine arts and was famous for its design curriculum. Industrial design was an important component of the movement.

Exhibition Inspires Play ~ EN PLEIN AIR ~ at the Florence Griswold Museum Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:11 PM PDT OLD LYME, CT - EN PLEIN AIR—Impressions of Painting in Giverny & Old Lyme is a new play created especially for the Florence Griswold Museum by actor Christopher Eaves.EN PLEIN AIR premieres Wednesday, June 25 and continues through Saturday, June 28.

Our Editor Views Many Of Max Ernst Masterpieces at The Max Ernst Museum Brühl, Germany Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:09 PM PDT The Max Ernst Museum Brühl of LVR is the world's first and only museum that is the work of this seminal artist and world citizen Max Ernst (1891-1976) dedicated. It shows an overview of the extensive work of the Dadaists and Surrealists, whose imagery - as with almost any other artist of the 20th Century - are distinguished by astonishing creativity and inspiring genius. Max Ernst not only created a large number of paintings, collages, graphics, sculptures and assemblages, and his boundless creativity was reflected in numerous books, artist portfolios and poems. In his world of images we encounter poetic landscapes, fantastic compositions and bizarre creatures whose powers of invention and clever wit and fascinating at the same time and cause confusion in the viewer inexorably lead an effeminate wake of the suggestion. The painter, sculptor, graphic artist and poet Max Ernst is one of the most important representatives of the Dadaism and Surrealism. Early in his life he breaks with conventional painting and turns towards the use of indirect techniques such as over-paintings, collage, frottage (rubbing technique), grattage (scrapping technique) and decalcomania (tracing technique with oil colours). These techniques serve the systematic survey of the realms „Beyond Painting" (Max Ernst). By exploiting his hallucinatory capabilities Max Ernst reinterprets objects and structures of his environment to then fix his visionary perception of the world. The alienation of the ordinary as well as the irritating orchestration of the inexplicable and the dreamlike are consistently broken up by irony and humor in his many works of art. During the summer of 1934, German-born artist Max Ernst executed a mural for the Dancing Mascotte, the bar at Zürich's Corso Theatre. One of the largest painted works of the artist's seven-decade career, Pétales et jardin de la nymphe Ancolie (Petals and Garden of Nymph Ancolie) adorned a wall of the popular nightspot in Zurich. Based on an illustration found in a Victorian-era botanical encyclopedia, the surrealist imagery features a dancing bird-like figure emerging from a lush backdrop of red and gold flower petals. This amazing huge nightclub mural has been full restored and on display until March, 2011. The Max Ernst Museum Brühl of LVR also presents five major works by Max Ernst from the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, makes for a whole year under the "collection on display in the change." The Menil Collection is one of the world's largest private art collections. Given the Menil's preeminent Ernst holdings – the result of a lifelong friendship between the artist and John and Dominque de Menil – the Houston museum was the ideal venue for the debut of the fully restored Pétales et jardin de la nymphe Ancolie. The de Menils met the artist for the first time, in Paris, in 1934 – the year Ernst completed the Zürich mural. The building complex is a combination of old and new: far from the palace of Augustus, with its castle park stands the classical three wings of the 19th Century, which was extended by a centrally inserted glass pavilion and a "floating" entrance plateau and supplemented in the basement with additional exhibition and meeting rooms.For four years, the conversion work continued by the Cologne architect Thomas van den Valentyn and Seyed Mohammad Oreyzi. The restoration of the heritage-listed building was there a main idea, visited but also the young Max Ernst that "Brühler pavilion, a picnic area, in 1844, so at the same time, the construction of the railway line between Cologne and Bonn, as a further attraction of the recreation area Brühl built. For the realization of the project, the existing building with the requirements of a museum and the aesthetic standards of contemporary architecture to agree harmoniously, received the Max Ernst Museum awarded "exemplary building in North Rhine-Westphalia". Since 1 July 2007 is the Max Ernst Museum to the Museum Association of the Rhineland Regional Council. Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism. He was born in Brühl, near Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family. His father Philipp Ernst was a teacher of the deaf and dumb and an amateur painter. Ernst visited asylums and became fascinated with the art of the mentally ill patients; he also started painting this year, producing sketches in the garden of the Brühl castle and portraits of his sister and himself. In 1911 Ernst befriended August Macke and joined his Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, deciding to become an artist. In 1912 he visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works by Pablo Picasso and post-Impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin profoundly influenced his approach to art. His own work is exhibited the same year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in 1913. In 1914 Ernst met Hans Arp in Cologne. The two soon became friends and their relationship lasted for fifty years. Next year Ernst visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, which left a deep impression on him. The same year, inspired partly by de Chirico and partly by studying mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals, and similar sources, he produced his first collages (notably a portfolio of lithographs), a technique which will come to dominate his artistic pursuits in the years to come.Constantly experimenting, in 1925 he invented a graphic art technique called frottage which uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images. He also created another technique called 'grattage' in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. He uses this technique in his famous painting 'Forest and Dove' (as shown at the Tate Modern). Along with other artists and friends (Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall) who had fled from the war and lived in New York City, Ernst helped inspire the development of abstract expressionism. Ernst died on 1 April 1976, 1 day before his birthday, in Paris.

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:07 PM PDT CANBERRA.- The National Gallery of Australia opened its major summer exhibition Ballets Russes: the art of costume. The exhibition celebrates the centenary of the first Paris seasons of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet), the dance company that revolutionised ballet with its sensational fusion of art, movement and music. Featuring 150 costumes and accessories from the ballet as well as film, drawings, photography and original programs, the exhibition brings to life the famed ballet troupe's stunning avant-garde performances in the largest Ballets Russes display ever held in Australia. The exhibition showcases 34 productions from 1909 to 1940, evoking the exoticism and drama of its performances. This exhibition aims to celebrate the centenary of the Ballets Russes by showing how its spirit continues for our time and place.

Michael Raedecke's Latest Work at Museum of Contemporary Art in the Hague Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:05 PM PDT THE HAGUE, NL - Michael Raedecker – one of the most successful artists of his generation – presents a broad overview of his latest work at the Gemeentemuseum (GEM) this summer. His complex, multi-layered paintings, which daringly combine the "high-status" medium of paint with the homelier medium of embroidery, are based on traditional genres like the still life and flower painting. Raedecker has shot to fame since 1999, winning international prizes and seeing his work included in renowned collections like Saatchi and Tate Modern. On exhibition 11 July through 1 November, 2009.

The Fine Art Society Celebrates the Centenary of the Camden Town Group Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:03 PM PDT London.- The Fine Art Society is pleased to present "The Camden Town Group Centenary Exhibition", on view through July 14th. Led by Walter Sickert the Camden Town Group was at the forefront of modern art in Britain in the years running up to the First World War. The artists took as their subject matter the everyday lives of ordinary Londoners and the glitter and grime of the modern city itself. Painted in the dry, crusty paint and pulsating Post-Impressionist colour harmonies of Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner and Robert Bevan, or the darker, sleeker Old Master tones of Walter Sickert the Camden Town Group introduced new modes of painting to Britain, inspired by the work of Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas. The Fine Art Society's exhibition will be the only one to mark the Centenary of the Group's founding (the first exhibition of the Group opened at the Carfax Gallery in June 1911). Works for sale with be accompanied by a small number of loans. The exhibition makes a special focus of such artists to demonstrate the continuity and wider flowering of Camden Town style in a much greater circle than just the original members, something which has not been visible in previous shows. As a formation the Camden Town Group were short-lived and staged only three collective shows of their work before reconstituting themselves as the much bigger and more diverse London Group in 1913. But they were enormously influential and breaking with tradition and they represented the beginning of modern art in Britain. Their work is vernacular and sympathetic, taking subjects from everyday London life and human experience whether beautiful or banal with which we can still empathise today. The outmoded ideals of Academic art were replaced with direct observation of life as it was really lived, but painted in a highly innovative way. Post-Impressionism was still virtually unknown in Britain and the colourists of the Camden Town Group – principally Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner, Robert Bevan, Malcolm Drummond and William Ratcliffe – took up and adapted this style in canvases painted in pulsating colour harmonies of soft mauves and pinks and greens using broken touches of dry crusty paint. This was in contrast to Walter Sickert who employed a richer, darker, Venetian Old Master palette in his paintings but nevertheless followed modern French principles by painting the effects of light, whether it be the last glow of afternoon sunlight as the sun slips behind the rooftops of Dieppe in "St Jacques" or the thin daylight penetrating a North London bedroom in "Seated Woman, Mornington Crescent". Sickert had spent considerable periods living in France and had direct knowledge of French practice through his friendship with Impressionist painters such as Degas, whose example he was able to pass on to younger member of the Camden Town Group. They were able also to gather theories of Impressionist painting from another slightly older member, Lucien Pissarro, who was a direct link through his father Camille Pissarro to French innovations still largely unknown in London. The decision to form the Camden Town Group was taken over a slightly boozy supper held one Saturday in Gatti's restaurant in Regent Street in April 1911. 'We had indulged in a good dinner', Charles Ginner recalled ,'with abundance of wine to wash it down'. As they emerged outside, with characteristic theatricality and a perceptive sense of moment, Sickert announced 'We have just made history!' Sickert, Gore, Gilman, Bevan and Ginner had gathered to plot the creation of a new exhibiting society that would showcase the progressive modern painting they were developing. In large part it was a reaction to the creeping conservatism of the New English Art Club that had started to refuse their work and to stifle innovation. It was their aim, Ginner recalled, to gather 'a group which was to hold within a fixed and limited circle  those painters whom [we] considered to be the best and most promising of the day'. There were eventually sixteen  elected members. The Fine Art Society is an art dealership with two premises, one in New Bond Street, London (held since 1876, given a new entrance in 1881 by Edward William Godwin, and fully refurbished in 2004-05, with a New Gallery created for contemporary work) and the other in Edinburgh (Bourne Fine Art, established 1978). It was formed in 1876. Its speciality is British art and design from 1600 to the present (with the Edinburgh premises specialising in Scottish art of this period). Historically, the Society is best known as a pioneer in the idea of the one-man exhibition, most famously that of Whistler's Venetian etchings in 1883. Living exhibitors at the London premises have included John Singer Sargent, Frank Brangwyn, Walter Sickert, Lamorna Birch, Walter Crane, George Washington Lambert, Joseph Southall, Arthur Wardle, Norman Wilkinson, George Spencer Watson, Violet Lindsay and Richard Caton Woodville. Memorial exhibitions have included one to Lady Alma Tadema in 1910. The Society also puts on shows and fairs in New York, Dubai, Maastricht, Hong Kong and London. Its chairmen have included Angus Grossart. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.faslondon.com

The National Museum of Wales shows "John Piper :The Mountains of Wales" Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:02 PM PDT Cardiff, Wales.- The National Museum Cardiff is proud to present " John Piper : The Mountains of Wales" on view through May 13th. One of the most versatile British artists of the twentieth century, John Piper's (1903-1992) work encompasses portraiture, landscape, architectural studies, still life, ceramics and design for stained glass and tapestry. Piper's interest in landscape and architecture extended to all areas of Britain. This exhibition presents an outstanding group of views in Snowdonia by John Piper from a private collection. The mountains of North Wales provided a key source of inspiration to Piper from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, during which time he rented two cottages in the Snowdonia area, Pentre in the Nant Ffrancon Valley and Bodesi, near Llyn Ogwen opposite Tryfan. Using these as a base, he travelled round this landscape, capturing the complex, semi-abstract forms and rich colours of the mountains. There are 29 works from the private collection and 36 works in all in the exhibition. The exhibition will be touring next to Oriel y Parc, St Davids, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno and the Whitworth Art Gallery , Manchester.

Norton Simon Museum displays " The Art of War: American Posters from World War I & World War II " Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT PASADENA, CA.- The Norton Simon Museum presents The Art of War, an exhibition featuring 33 government-sponsored posters created for the public during World Wars I and II. Chosen from the Museum's extensive collection of 20th-century war posters, these vibrant pieces of visual propaganda have rarely, and in some cases never, been on view. Together, they provide a unique opportunity to examine artworks commissioned by the U.S. government from some of the most important and popular artists of the 20th century. Timed to coincide with the presidential election season, the exhibition is also intended to encourage an exploration of the ongoing dialogue between contemporary politics and visual art. On view September 5, 2008 – January 26, 2009.

The Malmö Konsthall Presents "Misaki Kawai – Big Bubble" Posted: 03 Jun 2012 05:59 PM PDT Malmö, Sweden.-  The Malmö Konsthall is pleased to present "Misaki Kawai – Big Bubble", on view from September 10th through November 27th. The Japanese artist Misaki Kawai (b. 1978) works with painting, drawing, sculpture, installations and artists' books. Her works are filled with colourful characters, who appear to come from the dream world of film, music and comics. Strongly influenced by today's consumer society – of which she herself is a part – Kawai fuses East with West, humour with seriousness and dreams with reality. The result is both chaotic and exuberant. Misaki Kawai has been drawing since she was very young, and the drawn line forms the basis of her work. She is influenced by the Japanese manga style called heta-uma, which means "bad-good" or bad technique with good result. It refers to the minimizing of conscious decision making or intentional stylization while drawing – a sort of uninterrupted connection from the brain to the hand. In her paintings, she uses a simple drawing line filling the areas with clear, strong colour to create and intensify moods and emotions in her pictures. There is a happiness and spontaneity. We encounter the same characters, animals and people who appear in her installations. Kawai deliberately works on the border to the banal, using an understated humour that indirectly reminds us of how our society functions. Misaki Kawai has been living in New York since 2000. There she collects, as she does on her many trips abroad, ideas, materials and objects from markets and low-cost stores. Inexpensive things like mass-produced plastic toys, stickers, ceramic ware and fabrics. Her artists' books are often decorated with patterned pieces of fabric or strings, making every book unique. They can be about the adventures of a Yeti warrior or be linked to her travels, such as Nepali Special or China Special. Her latest book project, Pencil Exercise, consists of 500 drawings that she produced in the course of a year, at least one every day. In her playful installations, Kawai creates imaginative worlds in materials such as papier-mâché, wood, cardboard and fabric. These doll house-like universes feature an incredible wealth of detail. A recurring theme bas been space and the futuristic worlds of tomorrow. All the colours, shapes, textures and patterns give her installations almost a kaleidoscopic effect, and it is difficult to withstand this hubbub of sweet, dream-like fantasy beings and colourful constructions. She always depicts places filled with movement, action and events. Kawai has said that she admires the action film star Jackie Chan because he is unique and cool. He is her sensei – her master. For the exhibition at Malmö Konsthall, Misaki Kawai will create completely new works, including a large sculptural installation. She has been working on site in Malmö since June. The exhibition catalogue will be in the form of a numbered, limited edition long-sleeved T-shirt. The Malmö Konsthall was opened in 1975 and is one of Europe's largest exhibition halls for contemporary art. Architect Klas Anshelm created an exhibition hall with great flexibility, generous space and fantastic light. The construction materials are light and simple: concrete, glass, wood and aluminium. Most of the gallery has a ceiling constructed like a latticework of 550 domes with both natural and artificial light sources. The height of the ceiling varies. The light well - with the higher ceiling - has a big sloping skylight towards the north. Klas Anshelm got inspiration for the construction when visiting the sculptor Constantin Brancusi in his Paris studio. The result is a gallery that is both functional and aesthetic. An exhibition space that presents the artist with endless possibilities. Malmö Konsthall arranges exhibitions with an international focus which encompasses both the classics of modern art and current experiments. Previous exhibitions have featured Edvard Munch, Jean Debuffet, Marc Chagall, Claes Oldenburg, Paul Klee, Richard Serra, Antony Gormley, Georg Baselitz, Keith Haring and many others. Visit the exhibition hall's website at ... http://www.konsthall.malmo.se

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 03 Jun 2012 05:58 PM PDT This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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