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

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• The Kunsthalle Tübingen celebrates Allen Jones' 75th Birthday with a Retrospective
• The Peabody Essex shows "Ansel Adams ~ At the Water's Edge"
• The Museum Tinguely dedicates Summer Exhibition to Vladimir Tatlin
• Two new exhibitions to open at the Andy Warhol Museum in June
• PAFA Presents "Dive Deep ~ Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting"
• The Legion of Honor to present "Man Ray ~ Lee Miller ~ Partners in Surrealism"
• The Chrysler Museum displays Contemporary African American Art in "30 Americans"
• Sotheby's NYC Auction of Latin American Art Features Major Works by Tamayo, Botero and Lam
• The Joan Miró Foundation announces a František Kupka Retrospective
• The National Gallery Of Ireland ~ A Cultural Gem In The Emerald Isle ~ The Best of the Best On View
• Museu Picasso presents " Living Things ~ Picasso Figure / Still Life "
• Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Announces "The Art Auction"
• BBC Uploads 63,000 Paintings Online as It Launches "Your Paintings"
• The University of Wyoming Art Museum Shows Eliot Porter's Photography
• David Hockney's "Bigger Trees Near Warter" Gift Presented at Tate Britain
• 15th Los Angeles Art Show Returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center
• Maastricht European Fine Art Fair Expects Record 76,000 Visitors
• Asia Society Museum in New York opens works by Artist Sarah Sze
• The Albertina exhibits 'Monet to Picasso ~ The Batliner Collection'
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Kunsthalle Tübingen celebrates Allen Jones' 75th Birthday with a Retrospective Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:22 PM PDT Tübingen, Germany.- The leading British Pop artist Allen Jones caused an international furor in 1969 with his provocative furniture sculptures. In 1979, the first large-scale retrospective was devoted to the artist, forty-one at the time, in Liverpool, London, Baden-Baden, and Bielefeld. His 70th birthday was celebrated in 2007 at the Tate Britain in London with an exhibition of current works as well as several early pieces. In time for his 75th birthday, the Kunsthalle Tübingen is extending an invitation to rediscover the oeuvre of the internationally influential artist in the most comprehensive retrospective to date, on view at the Kunsthalle until September 16th. The notorious sculptures from 1969, which depict women transformed into pieces of furniture, will also be shown in the most comprehensive Allen Jones retrospective to date: one with outstretched hands that serves as a hat stand, a table consisting of a woman posing as an obedient dog would do, a woman lying on her back with the back of her thighs pressed against her body and her lower legs aloft serves as a chair—they are all buxom, bare-breasted, have long legs, and are armored with stilettos and leather accessories. The sculptures seem realistic despite the erotic exaggeration; apparently so much so that they are still, as they were then, in a position not only to bring sworn enemies of pornography onto the scene but also the heralds of sexual self-expression. "Nothing is as it seems" — this is how Allen Jones once described the guiding principle behind his creative work, and thus it would be a fatal error to confuse the depicted content with the message of the work of art. It is fiberglass and steel forced into the shape of furniture—and not people! For the artist, it is not about contempt for women but questioning restrictions on free thought and moral barriers. In his choice of the colloquial expression "off the wall" for the title of the exhibition catalogue, which means eccentric or unconventional, Jones transports trivial themes such as sexual allusions from advertising and show business into the visual arts in order to stylize and satirize them. Yet "off the wall" is also to be understood in a literal sense: away from two-dimensional representation, off the wall and out into the world! He departed from the panel picture for the first time with the formed canvases of his bus paintings from 1962. With his sadomasochistic sculptures from 1969 he crossed the threshold from the visual to the haptic in order to again approach the painting, for example with a female figure he has step out of an abstract composition in 1991/92, or sculptures resembling cut-out and folded pictorial motifs. Jones uses this spatial-pictorial ambivalence to interpret the grand theme of Pop Art: the transgression of the barrier between art and everyday life. Yet in the process, he never succumbs to the false conclusion of being able to tear down the boundaries between these two spheres. Rather, he defends the autonomy of the aesthetic by, for example, having figuration encounter abstraction, by symbolically overdrawing body forms or by, two years before Georg Baselitz, placing motifs upside down. Thus, his oeuvre points beyond the democraticizing Pop Art impulse and seduces us with sensual physicalness into the spheres of art-theoretical reflection. In 1979, the first large-scale retrospective was devoted to the artist, forty-one at the time, in Liverpool, London, Baden-Baden, and Bielefeld. His 70th birthday was celebrated in 2007 at the Tate Britain in London with an exhibition of current works as well as several early pieces. Just in time for his 75th birthday, the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Tübingen is joining a large selection of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper created between 1957 to 2009 for the first time. This most comprehensive retrospective to date, developed in collaboration with Tübingen's Institute for Cultural Exchange, invites viewers to rediscover the oeuvre of the internationally influential English artist. The Kunsthalle Tübingen has a tradition of presenting large-scale exhibitions of Pop Art, having mounted solo shows of works by George Segal, Richard Hamilton, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Duane Hanson, Tom Wesselmann, and Mel Ramos. With Allen Jones, another pearl is being added to the string. The founding of the Kunsthalle in Tübingen is the result of the financial contribution of the sisters Paula Zundel and Dr. Margarethe Fischer. These daughters of Robert Bosch enabled the city of Tübingen in 1971 to begin the construction of a Kunsthalle dedicated to the memory of the painter Friedrich Zundel, as a permanent center for the enrichment of the local arts scene. The institution was built in an area of new construction at the northern edge of the university town and comprised a streamlined, one-storey building which made excellent use of natural light. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Götz Adriani, the 1970's saw a succession of high quality exhibitions that established the international reputation of the Tübingen Kunsthalle. In addition to the high level of scholarship of these programs another of their main characteristics was the alternation between modern and contemporary art. Important contemporary artists were often shown at an early stage in their international careers. Among them were such artists as: Franz Erhard Walter (1972), George Segal (1972), Ulrich Rückriem (1973), Joseph Kosuth (1973), Joseph Beuys (1973), Richard Hamilton (1974), Claes Oldenburg (1975), Sigmar Polke (1976), Frank Stella (1977), or Richard Serra (1978). Extraordinary interest was shown by the public in the single artist exhibitions devoted to the great forerunners of modern art such as Paul Cézanne (1978, 1982, 1993), Edgar Degas (1984, 1995), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1996), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1976, 1986, 2002), Pablo Picasso (1986, 2001) or Henri Rousseau (2001). These exhibitions drew hundreds of thousands of visitors. The revenue generated by these exhibitions was used to improve the infrastructure of the Kunsthalle and enabled the construction of a separate building for the administrative offices. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.kunsthalle-tuebingen.de

The Peabody Essex shows "Ansel Adams ~ At the Water's Edge" Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:20 PM PDT Salem, Massachusetts.- This summer, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) is showing an exhibition shedding new light on one of history's most iconic and beloved photographers. "Ansel Adams: At the Water's Edge", on view through October 8th, features more than 100 photographs combining famous images with extraordinary lesser-known works that focus on the artist's treatment and exploration of water in all its forms. Full of energy and dynamism, Adams' photographs of seascapes, beaches, bays, tide pools, clouds and waterfalls provide a fresh perspective on the artist's celebrated career. "Ansel Adams: At the Water's Edge" was organized by the Peabody Essex Museum where it will be on view for its exclusive U.S. engagement from June 9 through October 8, 2012, and will then travel to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK. In this exhibition, drawn from the Ansel Adams Archive at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona and other prominent private and institutional collections, viewers will have the opportunity to see the pictures that Adams made for himself. Both grand and intimate at turns, these personal, and sometimes experimental images express his thoughts about the natural world, and often push the boundaries between realism and abstraction. Ranging in size from 3 x 5-inch prints to 10 x 12-foot murals, many will be appearing publicly for the first time at the Peabody Essex Museum. Adams was one of the first photographers to work in the large-scale mural format which has now become standard among contemporary artists. "At the Water's Edge" provides a fresh look at Ansel Adams, as well-known and beloved pictures of rugged mountains, desert landscapes, and rocky cliffs blend with sparkling, spraying, whirling waters in all of their flowing power and reflective nuance. The undeniable attraction of water as a photographic subject captured Adams at an early age. The very first photograph Adams ever made, shown at PEM for the first time, features a watery pool at the Panama Pacific Exhibition of the 1915 World's Fair, made when Adams was just 14 years old. Over time, his lens claimed the territory between Yosemite National Park and the Pacific, as well as Hawaii and Alaska, where he shot images shown in this exhibition.Notably, he made a powerful group of photographs of New England, the only coastal location outside of California that Adams photographed steadily. Over a course of decades, he explored the coast from Connecticut to Maine, especially in Massachusetts, making repeated trips to Cape Cod and Boston's North Shore. Visitors will have the opportunity to see rarely-viewed objects, including the print of Golden Gate before the Bridge that used to hang over Ansel Adams' desk, and which he considered among his very best photographs. At the same time, stunning, oversized exhibition prints of iconic photographs including Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite, Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park and Stream, Sea, Clouds, Rodeo Lagoo, Marin County, California will be on display, among others. One of the surprises revealed in At the Water's Edge is Adams' interest in using sequential imagery to freeze motion in time. An especially powerful example is the majestic surf sequence, San Mateo County Coast, California, 1940. Adams was possibly the first well-known photographer since Eadweard Muybridge to attempt to use photography in this way, employing seriality and sequence to create a cohesive narrative. Another series of photographs of Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, shows a different approach to sequentiality. A poignant exploration of form, movement and time, they can be viewed as Adams' version of Monet's haystacks. As with Claude Monet, Adams visited Old Faithful at different times of day, photographing in varying light and changing atmospheric conditions.Another unexpected addition is the exceedingly rare Japanese-style screen, Grass and Pool, 1948, dating from a period of tremendous creativity in Adams' work. Standing on round metal feet, it was designed to be shown directly on the floor in a domestic environment. In subject and treatment, it was inspired by Asian painted screens in which picture planes are flattened and perspectives tilted. The three articulated panels can be angled to catch the light differently, the rhythm of the fold cleverly mirroring the angular pattern of the exposed grass.For Adams, part of the appeal of creating such a work was thwarting conventional expectations about what a photograph might look like and where and how it could be shown. Like many modernists, Adams considered photographs not just as images but as objects - the craft and sheer physical presence of the work reinforced its significance as a work of art and the focus of contemplation. The roots of the Peabody Essex Museum date to the 1799 founding of the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes who had sailed beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society's charter included a provision for the establishment of a "cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities," which is what we today would call a museum. By 1825, the society moved into its own building, East India Marine Hall, which today contains the original display cases and some of the very first objects collected. Salem was also home to the Essex Historical Society (founded in 1821), which celebrated the area's rich community history, and the Essex County Natural History Society (founded in 1833), which focused on the county's natural wonders. In 1848, these two organizations merged to form the Essex Institute (the "Essex" in the Peabody Essex Museum's name). In the late 1860s, the Essex Institute refined its mission to the collection and presentation of regional art, history and architecture. In so doing, it transferred its natural history and archaeology collections to the East India Marine Society's descendent organization, the Peabody Academy of Science (the "Peabody"). In turn, the Peabody, renamed for its great benefactor, the philanthropist George Peabody, transferred its historical collections to the Essex. In the early 20th century, the Peabody Academy of Science changed its name to the Peabody Museum of Salem and continued to focus on collecting international art and culture. After in-depth studies showed the benefits of such a merger, the consolidation of these two organizations into the new PEM was effected in July 1992. The museum possessed extraordinary collections — more than 840,000 works of art and culture featuring maritime art and history; American art; Asian, Oceanic, and African art; Asian export art; two large libraries with over 400,000 books, manuscripts, and documents; and 22 historic buildings. Today's collection has grown to include approximately 1 million works and Yin Yu Tang, the only complete Qing Dynasty house outside China. Among the American artists represented in the colleciton are Clifford Warren Ashley, James Bard, Frank Weston Benson, James E. Buttersworth, John Singleton Copley, Michele Felice Cornè, George Washington Felt, Alvan Fisher, Fitz Hugh Lane, Charles Osgood, Frederic Remington, George Ropes Jr., Robert Salmon, John Singer Sargent and Charles Wilkes. True to the spirit of its past, PEM is dedicated to creating a museum experience that celebrates art and the world in which it was made. By presenting art and culture in new ways, by linking past and present, and by embracing artistic and cultural achievements worldwide, the museum offers unique opportunities to explore a multilayered and interconnected world of creative expression. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.pem.org

The Museum Tinguely dedicates Summer Exhibition to Vladimir Tatlin Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:19 PM PDT Basel.- This year the Museum Tinguely in Basel is dedicating its large summer exhibition to one of the most important figures of the Russian avantgarde: Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953). It is now almost twenty years since the last comprehensive retrospective to be devoted to this radically innovative artist. The presented works will include early paintings, counter-reliefs that reach out into the surrounding space, reconstructions of his revolutionary tower, and the flying machine Letatlin. The exhibition is rounded off with examples of his work for the theatre. "Tatlin: New Art for a New World" remains on view through October 14th. The oeuvre of this outstanding artist from the watershed period at the beginning of the twentieth century will be represented in over one hundred masterpieces, mostly on loan from major collections in Moscow and St Petersburg. Vladimir Tatlin began his career as a seaman. Until 1913 his artistic activities were limited exclusively to painting and drawing. Interested in the traditional fields of icon-painting and folk art, he later transferred his attention to the most modern avant-garde trends in Russia and Western Europe, more precisely Paris. His entire later work is founded on painting. The exhibition will show a comprehensive selection of his early paintings with their bold expanses of colour, rhythmic curves, and striking use of dark and light outlines. In these eye-catching works Tatlin achieved a highly original synthesis of the Russian tradition and the French avant-garde. In 1914, Tatlin changed from being an avant-garde painter to being a revolutionary artist: there was already a sense of what was to come in 1917. Little has been preserved of Tatlin's painterly reliefs and the counter-reliefs. These works, produced before the October Revolution, constitute his most radical and far-reaching contribution to modern art. In the exhibition the few still existing originals from Moscow and St Petersburg are complemented with a representative selection of the reconstructions made on the basis of photographs, thus shedding light on this crucial aspect in the history of art. Tatlin's counter-reliefs, with which he aimed to effect a total break with the bourgeois art world in all its forms, are to be understood as a "contre-attaque" in the sense of an increase in energy. Characteristic of his art is a finely calculated economy of means. Tatlin's counter-reliefs all have something of the nature of a happening. They give an impression of floating in a state of high tension. Rather than standing on any particular point, they are suspended in a rigging that replaces the plinth of earlier statues. The compositional principle contains a clear anti-static component: what is presented is a game between gravity and the negation of gravity. These works are all about distance, about the space in between, a space that is at once real and yet situated in the realm of the imagination. In literally material terms, Tatlin shifts his art into the sphere of the here-and-now; by experimenting with sculptural forms he generates the present. Revolution, architecture and utopia – Tatlin's tower Few twentieth-century works of art have acquired such a legendary status as Tatlin's projected Monument to the Third International of 1919–20, which was to have been 400 metres tall. For various reasons – Civil War, lack of material resources, and the technological limitations of the time – it was never realized. The monument – set parallel to the earth's axis with four inner bodies rotating each on its own axis at various speeds in accordance with cosmological rhythms and laws – would have been the seat of the hierarchically and justly organized government of a new social order. The rotating spatial bodies of Tatlin's "world machine" are indicative of revolution in both senses of the word. In 1920 Nikolai Punin praised the design as "an international event within the world of art" and saw it as "the organic synthesis of the principles of architecture, sculpture and painting." Had it been built, the tower would have represented the logical extension of the principles of time and space developed in Tatlin's counter-reliefs, and would have made possible a new experience of space in certain senses not dissimilar to that of flying. Tatlin's tower project acted as a catalyst in the discussion conducted by figures such as Leon Trotsky and Anatoly Lunacharsky about how life, art and the state were to function in the young post-revolutionary Soviet Union; now it ranks as an inspirational and interpretational work of the highest order. In the course of the rediscovery of Tatlin's oeuvre since the 1960s, the lost model of the tower has been reconstructed in a number of different variants. The exhibition in Basel will juxtapose the two most outstanding examples – from Moscow and Paris – and bring them into dialogue. This spectacular presentation will generate illuminating insights into the way Tatlin's work has been received and will help visitors to understand the factors that led to its creation. The 1920s saw Tatlin engaging in a search for new dimensions in human flight. In 1929/32 he gave expression to the dreams of a collectively regulated society with his visionary flying machine Letatlin. With his strong penchant for mysticism, Tatlin considered that flying was a kind of primordial human experience lost in the course of evolution and wished to reappropriate it for modern man. Letatlin – a flying machine displaying a remarkable synthesis of art, technology and utopia – can be regarded as the culmination and end result of the exploration of the scope and limits of sculpture that the artist began in Tsarist times with his counter-reliefs and raised onto a monumental scale with the revolutionary tower model. Tatlin's highly suggestive flying sculpture can be interpreted variously as a metaphor for acceleration, a vehicle for extending the imagination, or a deus ex machina of modernism. However we interpret it, Tatlin's dream of flying was to remain unfulfilled – even today, Letatlin has not yet left the ground. The theatre as the stage of the new world Tatlin had a life-long interest in theatre. He was a passionate admirer of Richard Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman, with which his own life had certain elements in common. Tatlin took its gripping musical sea- and soul-scapes and attempted to match them with a late Romantic Rayonist painted equivalent, taking tone colour and translating it into colour combinations full of drama and life. The peak of Tatlin's creative work for the theatre came in 1923 with his staging of Velimir Chlebnikov's futuristic super saga Zangezi. Tatlin decided "to juxtapose the word constructions with a material construction." For Tatlin the linguistic material of poetry and the materials of visual art were two articulations of the same world energy. The fascination of his avant-gardistic experiment with Zangezi lay in the synesthetic correspondences he discovered between sounds, colours, textures and light. Today Tatlin still retains his power to fascinate because his work was always done in the light of the total social context and with the intention of bringing about change. Furthermore, almost a century ago, he paved the way for currents that have still not lost their relevance and power to inspire in the field of contemporary art. Tatlin had no fear of stepping beyond the bounds of his field and liked to work collectively. He was a master of inter-disciplinarity and synthesis, in the art of bringing things and materials together, and of techniques and forms of presentation that were entirely unprecedented in his day. With his museum situated on the Rhine, the architect Mario Botta created an unusual stage for Tinguely's works. In the huge central hall alone there is space for twenty machine-sculptures. After visiting the Museum, the historical Solitude Park with its centenary trees, the promenade along the Rhine and the Bistro «Chez Jeannot» are an invitation to relax, stroll and enjoy the moment. With its situation on the right bank of the river, where the Rhine forms the outer border of a large district of the city, the Museum creates a new order within a rather questionable urban design alongside the highway. The rectangular museum occupies the entire eastern part of the Solitude Park. The four sides of the building each relate in a specific manner to the surrounding spaces. Works and work groups belonging to all phases of Jean Tinguely's career are to be found in the museum's collection. Along with selected temporary loans, they afford the visitor an extensive view of the artist's career. Apart from sculptures, the collection furthermore comprises a large number of drawings and letter-drawings, documents, exhibition posters, catalogues and documentation such as photographs. In the measure of the possible all the exhibits are accessible to the public and regularly shown, be it in the permanent collection or as loans to exhibitions worldwide. The museum's collections are the result of a generous donation by the artist's widow, Niki de Saint Phalle, made on the occasion of its foundation, a donation of works from the Roche collection, as well as several other gifts and acquisitions. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.tinguely.ch

Two new exhibitions to open at the Andy Warhol Museum in June Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:18 PM PDT Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.- The Andy Warhol Museum is proud to present two new exhibitions opening later this month. "Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein", the first comprehensive survey of Donald Moffett's investigations into art history, paint, politics and form, provides the breadth and range of the artist's practice over the past 20 years, and opens on June 23rd. "Factory Direct: Pittsburgh" showcases the artwork of 14 established contemporary artists invited to conduct artist residencies in Pittsburgh-based factories, and opens on June 24th. Both exhibitions remain on view through September 9th. As a painter, Moffett extends the traditional two-dimensional frame, converting the ordinariness of the flat plane into highly textured relief works. Some of these signature oil paintings are illuminated by incorporating video projections onto the canvas. Moffett also incorporates sound and light in his work, sometimes as stand alone projects and at other times in conjunction with his paintings. The subject matter of his paintings ranges from landscape and nature to politics and history. Moffett uses his power as an artist to critique the world at large. As a founding member of Gran Fury, the artistic arm of the activist group ACT UP, Moffett has remained engaged with issues surrounding the presence of gays in historical and contemporary culture. Moffett's work is not dominated by frameworks of politics and power, though these issues remain vital foundations in his ongoing advocacy toward civil rights.

PAFA Presents "Dive Deep ~ Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting" Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:17 PM PDT Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.- The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) presents major works by figurative painter Eric Fischl, an internationally acclaimed artist known for his representational painting focusing on the American suburban experience and the language of human bodies. "Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting", on view from June 29th through September 30th, explores Fischl's rigorous and iterative creative process and encourages viewers to see the world through his eyes, with sharpened powers of observation and insight. Fischl was a central figure in the painting renaissance of the 1980s, achieving prominence with suburban scenes, often with connotations of transgression and of social privilege. The artist recalls, "I was trained as a painter, but in a conceptual environment, so painting wasn't a focus. You had to learn it on your own, and the emphasis wasn't really on technique so much as on process. It was at a time when painting was considered dead...but the good part of it was you had to constantly argue why painting wasn't dead, it made you stronger." "Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting" showcases 145 works of art, including 50 working photographs and 14 paintings from 1979 to the present. The exhibition is accompanied by a constellation of related studies in various media, most of which have never before been made available for public viewing and provide a revealing look into the painter's provocative visual intelligence. Together these works illustrate Fischl's process as a synthesis of astute observation and interpretation. Eric Fischl's paintings have chronicled certain sections of American society for more than thirty years. He laboriously made clay maquettes, photographed them, and then used the photographs as the basis for sketches that became studies for a painting. Fischl has also used figures from photographs by Thomas Eakins that are part of PAFA's permanent collection as the subjects of some of his works. Fischl has now adopted Photoshop, fully integrating technology into his hybrid processes, adding and removing figures before arriving at his final composition. The exhibition will reveal how the artist's compositional process has moved from the canvas to computer, while the process of execution – the act of painting – remains central to what makes his work unique. "Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting" is an exhibition collaboratively developed by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the San Jose Museum of Art. The exhibition is co-curated by PAFA's Edna S. Tuttle- man Director of the Museum, Harry Philbrick, and SJMA's Associate Curator, Jodi Throckmorton. Through the rare combination of spectacular galleries, an internationally known school of fine arts, and their public programs, the Academy strives to provide students and visitors alike with a unique and thrilling experience. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a national leader in fine arts education that brings together artists and the public through exceptional teaching programs, a world-class collection of American art, major exhibitions, and widely accessible public programs. A rare combination of a world-class museum and school of fine arts, PAFA will be a defining voice for education in the evolving traditions and cultural diversity of the fine arts in America. PAFA's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Its archives house important materials for the study of American art history, museums, and art training. Since its founding in 1805, PAFA has been committed to fostering and collecting American art. Scholars have deemed PAFA's one of the world's three best collections of American art for its depth, breadth, and quality.With a collection of nearly 1,800 paintings, PAFA owns some of the most important and recognizable works in American art, including works by Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Charles Willson Peale and Winslow Homer. The paintings collection is renowned for its holdings from the Federal period, including works by the Peale family, numerous portraits by Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully, and a fine collection of portrait miniatures. Works from the late 19th century, when American artists began working in a more international style, constitute one of the high points of the Academy's collection. Paintings bv William Merritt Chase, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, John Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, Childe Hassam, Henry O. Tanner, Cecilia Beaux and Thomas Eakins are among the most significant examples. In the early 20th century, the Academy collected works by some of its famous alumni, including Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens, Everett Shinn and George Luks, all of whom were connected with the Ashcan School. Twentieth century developments in abstraction are documented in the collection by artists such as Arthur B. Carles, Florine Stettheimer, Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ben Shahn, Jack Levine, Mark Rothko, Jacob Lawrence and Richard Diebenkorn. As a school synonymous with the figurative tradition, the Academy's collections also are rich in the works of 20th-century representational artists such as Edward Hopper, Guy Pène du Bois, Reginald Marsh, Isabel Bishop, Thomas Hart Benton, Alfred Leslie, Philip Pearlstein, Andrew Wyeth and Bo Bartlett. PAFA houses more than 12,000 works on paper, including drawings, watercolors, pastels and all media of printmaking. The Academy's collection is highlighted by noteworthy works by some of America's most important artists such asJohn Singleton Copley, John James Audubon, Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Maxfield Parrish, John Sloan, George Bellows, John Marin, Charles Demuth, Charles Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth, Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol. Sculpture has been an intrinsic part of the Academy since its founding in 1805. With more than 300 works ranging from 1780 to the present, the Academy's sculpture collection is particularly notable for its portrait busts, neoclassical marble sculpture, French-inspired bronze figures, direct carvings in stone and wood and the overall variety of materials and techniques represented. William Rush, one of the three artists connected with the formation of PAFA, was also one of the nation's first sculptors, representative of the American craft tradition aspiring to European fine arts. The Academy holds several notable works by Rush, including a masterful self-portrait.  Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.pafa.org/Museum

The Legion of Honor to present "Man Ray ~ Lee Miller ~ Partners in Surrealism" Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:16 PM PDT San Francisco, California.- One of the art world's most notorious relationships will come alive at the Legion of Honor, with "Man Ray| Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism" on view from July 14th through October 14th in the Rosekrans Galleries. The exhibition consists of approximately 115 photographs, paintings, drawings and manuscripts that explore the creative interaction between Man Ray and Lee Miller, two giants of European Surrealism. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, this is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the pair's artistic relationship. The works in the exhibition are drawn primarily from the Lee Miller Archives and Penrose Collection in Sussex, England, augmented for the San Francisco presentation by loans from important public and private collections in the United States. Included are selected works by artists in Ray and Miller's circle in Paris, including paintings byPablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Roland Penrose and Dora Maar and a small sculpture by Alexander Calder. Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, 1890–1976) was a leader in two pioneering modern art movements, Surrealism and Dada, but was never deeply invested in either of the two. Although accomplished as an avant-garde photographer, he eschewed labels and thought of himself primarily as a painter and as an artist wedded to no single medium. Man Ray and Lee Miller lived together in Paris from 1929 through 1932, first as teacher and student, and later as lovers. Their mercurial relationship resulted in some of the most powerful works of each artist's career, and helped shape the course of modern art. The two artists inspired each other equally, collaborating on several projects. Though they lived together for only three years, Man Ray | Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism examines the lingering effect each had on the other's art. Connecting photography with other media, and combining rare vintage photographs, paintings, sculpture and drawings, the exhibition reveals how the Surrealists combined imagery in playful and unexpected ways, creating extraordinary feats of imagination. It also offers a window into the maelstrom of artistic and social experimentation that animated Paris in the 1930s and gave inspiration to writers, poets, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists of all stripes. Man Ray's camerawork marked a turning point in the integration of photography among other visual art forms. When he and Lee Miller parted, Ray often lovingly and cleverly referred to her via coded motifs in his artworks years afterward. Lee Miller (1907–1977) started her career as a fashion model in New York. With the encouragement of American artist and curator Edward Steichen, for whom she was a favorite subject, she moved behind the camera and moved to Paris in 1929 to seek out Man Ray as a teacher. Working in tandem and separately, Ray preferred to work in the studio while Miller mostly took to the streets. After she and Ray parted, she remained a photographer for two decades, including a seminal period as World War II war correspondent for Condé Nast. A first-hand witness to some of the worst atrocities of her time, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder that later hampered her productivity. This is the first exhibition that presents Man Ray and Lee Miller together on equal terms. Lee Miller is regarded here as an artist and potent Surrealist force in her own right rather than as a foil for Man Ray's work. Historically, Miller has been described as Ray's muse, but their love affair was in fact a key source of mutual and sustained inspiration, which pushed the art of their time in a new direction. High on the headlands above the Golden Gate stands the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels to the city of San Francisco. Located in Lincoln Park, this unique art museum is one of the great treasures in a city that boasts many riches. The museum's spectacular setting is made even more dramatic by the imposing French neoclassical building. In 1915 Alma Spreckels fell in love with the French Pavilion at San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition. Alma Spreckels persuaded her husband, sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels, to recapture the beauty of the pavilion as a new art museum for San Francisco. At the close of the 1915 exposition, the French government granted them permission to construct a permanent replica, but World War I delayed the groundbreaking for this ambitious project until 1921. Constructed on a remote site known as Land's End, one of the most beautiful settings imaginable for any museum, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor was completed in 1924, and on Armistice Day of that year the doors opened to the public. Between March 1992 and November 1995—its seventy-first anniversary—the Legion underwent a major renovation that included seismic strengthening, building systems upgrades, restoration of historic architectural features, and an underground expansion that added 35,000 square feet. The architects chosen to accomplish this challenging feat were Edward Larrabee Barnes and Mark Cavagnero. The 1995 renovation realized a 42 percent increase in square footage, including six additional special exhibition galleries set around the pyramid skylight visible in the Legion courtyard. Today, the Legion of Honor's collection contains over 124,000 works of art and is recognized for its European decorative arts, sculpture and painting; Ancient art from throughout the Mediterranean and the Near East; and one of the largest collections of works on paper in the country.The Legion's permanent collection reflects a history of patronage by its founders, Adolph B. and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, whose particular collecting focus was 18th- and 19th-century French art. Additional early donors of note include Archer M. Huntington, Mildred Anna Williams and Albert Campbell Hooper, whose generosity fashioned the present collection's particular character. The Roscoe and Margaret Oakes collection brought highlights in Dutch, Flemish and British art of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including works byRembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Henry Raeburn. A selection of important paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection brought with it major works by El Greco, Pieter de Hooch and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Visit the museum's website at ...http://legionofhonor.famsf.org

The Chrysler Museum displays Contemporary African American Art in "30 Americans" Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:15 PM PDT Norfolk, Virginia.- The Chrysler Museum presents "30 Americans", an exhibition of contemporary African-American art of the past three decades. From Robert Colescott and Jean-Michel Basquiat to Kehinde Wiley and Iona Rozeal Brown, works by some of the most important African-American artists of our time will take over the Chrysler Museum this spring. The provocative—and at times controversial—exhibition goes on view from March 16th to July 15th, admission is free. Drawn from the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, 30 Americans brings together 75 works by 31 emerging and established artists who work within a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation. While some works probe the notion of racial and social difference in a candid manner, others evoke universal concepts and emotions using a sophisticated blend of visual beauty, humor, and irony.  30 Americans surveys the most significant artistic contributions of the past three decades, this exciting exhibition brings together 75 works by 31 emerging and established African-American artists who work within a variety of mediums. While some works probe the notion of racial and social difference in a gritty, direct manner, others evoke universal concepts and emotions using a sophisticated blend of visual beauty, humor, and irony. Unique to the Chysler's exhibition will be an entire room dedicated to Robert Colescott, three of the Rubell's paintings will be paired with the Chrysler's own two monumental works by the artist in order to capture the full breadth of Colescott's vibrant, edgy work. 30 Americans is unique in that it allows several generations of artists to intermix in interesting ways. While some artists, (such as Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Purvis Young, Nick Cave, William Pope L., Kerry James Marshall and Barkley Hendricks) grew up admist the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and '70s, others continue to live within its aftermath. David Hammons, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Glenn Ligon opened up new dialogues in conjunction with the multiculturalism and identity politics discourse of the '90s. More recently, Wangechi Mutu, Iona Rozeal Brown, Mickalene Thomas, Shinique Smith, Rashid Johnson and Kalup Linzy have gained notoriety in the contemporary art scene for their demonstration of a wide range of visual and conceptual strategies. Nick Cave's lyrically elaborate sound suits combine a variety of disparate materials in unique and beautiful ways. Their departure from our everyday environment suggests a time and place where race and gender doesn't really matter--where people are just people. Iona Rozeal Brown's transnational paintings blend African-American and Asian cultural attributes and reference the appropriation of hip-hop style among Japanese youth. Known as the ganguro, or literally, "black face," these teenagers dress in funky clothes, dye and weave their hair into cornrows and darken their skin at tanning salons or with makeup. Brown traveled to Japan in the late 1990s and her fascination with this style inspired this particular body of work. Several of the artists rework and manipulate history in interesting and thought-provoking ways. Glenn Ligon's work pushes the boundaries of Conceptualism into a socio-political realm. Ligon's paintings incorporate phrases and text from diverse sources from famous 19th-century abolitionist Sojourner Truth to the stand-up comedian, Richard Pryor. In his photographs, 34-year old artist Rashid Johnson mines the past in search of his own self-identity, portraying himself as abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Barkley Hendricks' powerful portrayals of African-American subjects merge the long-standing tradition of portraiture with a striking sense of urban realism. The self-assured, confident stance, as well as the dignity and beauty of his subjects are carried over into Mickalene Thomas's glitzy and alluring paintings of contemporary women. At once seductive and empowered, Mickalene's portraits speak to a woman's roles in our post-feminist world. In the words of Art Historian Darby English, some of the 30 Americans artists seem to question, "what becomes of black art when black artists stop making it?" The history of the Chrysler Museum starts with more than a century of hard work and dedication by many, many residents of Hampton Roads who believed in the civic virtue of art and art education. Those rewarding efforts moved to an entirely different level 40 years ago, with what is now considered one of strongest and most varied gifts ever made in American history to a single museum by a single person. Walter Chrysler Jr., scion of the automotive company founder, donated nearly 10,000 objects as part of an arrangement where the Norfolk Academy of Arts and Sciences became the Chrysler Museum of Art. The story of his gift goes far beyond the sheer numbers. It's what his collection contained that remains breathtaking to this day. A late, legendary New York Times art critic called Chrysler the most underrated American collector of his time, and it's easy to see why. As a young man he met the top avant-garde artists of Paris (including Pablo Picasso) and was soon purchasing works by them all. He spent his summers in American artist colonies (such as Provincetown, Mass.), and bought works from many future art stars well before they way famous. He was known for buying against fashion, as he had confidence that the special qualities he saw in various pieces would gain acceptance later. Perhaps what's most remarkable is the almost impossible-to-define sense of knowing which one to buy; that is, if you can have only one example of a certain style, if you can have only one item from a certain artist, which one would you pick and why? Such judgments are completely subjective, of course, but a lot of art experts believe Walter Chrysler had the knack for getting the right one. By 1976, the city of Norfolk had added 20 galleries to hold the works. There were further building additions in the 80s, including the George and Linda Kaufman Theatre. Walter Chrysler chaired the Museum Board of Trustees until 1984, and he died in 1988 after a long battle with cancer. In the history of the Museum, donations from collectors such as Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbish, Emile Wolf, Goldsborough Serpell, Erwin and Adrianne Joseph and the family of Joel Cooper have dramatically enriched the Museum's collection. Members of the Mowbray Arch Society have contributed great works to the Chrysler, and the Norfolk Society of Arts remains active to this day. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.chrysler.org

Sotheby's NYC Auction of Latin American Art Features Major Works by Tamayo, Botero and Lam Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:14 PM PDT New York City.- Sotheby's November 2011 Latin American Sale will highlight a retrospective selection of works by the great Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo and the Venezuelan Kinetic artist Jesús Rafael Soto. The cover lot, Tamayo's vibrant "Watermelon Slices", 1950, headlines the selection of this artist's work in the sale. "Watermelon Slices" epitomizes one of Tamayo's most recognized themes, which often served as a vehicle for an unparalleled use of color from this master of pigment. The reds, oranges, pinks and purples pulse throughout the composition giving the painting a mesmerizing glow. This boldness of color and the subsequent abstraction of figures is seen in the early 1928 "Frutero y Dominó" to the 1951 "Tres personajes", and "El Tragafuego", 1955.

The Joan Miró Foundation announces a František Kupka Retrospective Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:13 PM PDT BARCELONA.- The Joan Miró Foundation will be presenting František Kupka, an exhibition curated by Brigitte Léal, Assistant Director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou, and sponsored by BBVA. The exhibition will show for the first time in Spain a selection of around 80 paintings and drawings by the Czech artist, all from the Centre Georges Pompidou, and documents from the collection of Pierre Brullé, a leading expert on Kupka, who was considered the first painter to explore the concept of abstract act. The splendid collection of works from the Centre Georges Pompidou, mostly donated by the artist's widow in 1963, shows very clearly the development of Kupka's art from his early Symbolist paintings to his final years.

The National Gallery Of Ireland ~ A Cultural Gem In The Emerald Isle ~ The Best of the Best On View Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:12 PM PDT In June 1852 William Dargan, the father of the Irish rail network, approached the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) with an offer to underwrite a spectacular exhibition on Leinster Lawn in Dublin, the home of the RDS since 1815. He wished to imitate the great exhibition that had taken place at Crystal Palace in London the previous year. Just eleven months later, on the 12th May, the exhibition was opened in an astonishing series of pavilions for which the architect, John Benson, received a knighthood. The enthusiastic response of the visiting crowds demonstrated an active interest for art as well the desire for the establishment of a permanent public collection that would also be a fitting tribute to the generosity of Dargan. Following the success of the exhibition a special committee was established to promote the establishment of a National Gallery in Dublin. In November 1853 the Irish Institution reported that it had considered four possible sites for the location of a Gallery including one adjacent to Leinster Lawn. The next ten years saw active campaigning for the funding of the new Gallery building which was designed by Francis Fowke. Meanwhile the Irish Institution, continued under the direction of George Mulvany to hold loan exhibitions until 1860 when it was disbanded. On Saturday, the 30th of January 1864, the Earl of Carlisle officially opened the National Gallery of Ireland to the public. The collection comprised just one hundred and twelve pictures, including thirty nine purchased in Rome in 1856 and thirty which were on loan from the National Gallery in London and elsewhere. In 1866 an annual purchase grant of £1000 was allocated for the acquisition of pictures and the institution would thrive over the years through purchases, bequests and donations. In 1901 the Countess of Milltown gifted over 200 pictures to the gallery from her house at Russborough as well as a collection of silver, furniture and books from her library. The gift was so substantial that a new extension was constructed to accommodate it. This would be only one of a number of bequests and gifts that the National Gallery of Ireland would receive and which have contributed to the quality of the collections housed there today. In 1968 the gallery was extended again with designs by Frank DuBerry, senior architect with the Office of Public Works. This new extension is today named the Beit Wing in acknowledgement of the exceptional generosity of Sir Alfred and Lady Beit who gifted seventeen outstanding old master pictures to the institution in 1987. Some six years later in 1993 the Gallery became the focus of international attention when Caravaggio's, 'The Taking of Christ', a painting recorded in contemporary biographies on the artist and known through copies but long believed to be lost or destroyed, was discovered in a Jesuit house of studies in Dublin. The picture remains in the gallery on indefinite loan from the Jesuit fathers. The most recent addition to the Gallery complex was the Millennium Wing opened in January 2002. Designed by London based architects Benson & Forsyth and located on sites purchased by the Gallery in 1990 and 1996, the new wing introduced a new, second public entrance to the gallery from the busy thoroughfare of Clare Street in Dublin. Currently the Gallery is refurbishing the Dargan and Milltown wings to better accommodate the nearly 1 million visitors who pass through every year. Visit the museum's website at … http://www.nationalgallery.ie The National Gallery houses some 16,000 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and objets d'art dating from the early thirteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century. The collection boasts an impressive range of masterpieces by artists from the major European schools of art whilst also featuring the world's most comprehensive collection of Irish art. Two whole rooms in the National Gallery of Ireland are dedicated to the paintings of Jack Butler Yeats, brother to the great poet W. B. Yeats. Other Irish artists within the collection include, James Barry, Augustus Nicholas Burke, Nathaniel Hone the Elder, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Francis Danby, Daniel Maclise, Sarah Purser, Roderic O'Conor, Walter Osborne, John Lavery, Paul Henry, William John Leech, Sean Keating, Mainie Jellett, Gerard Dillon and Louis le Brocquy. The Centre for the Study of Irish Art (CSIA), within the National gallery supports and promotes the study of Irish art and associated disciplines. Its library and archive collection documents the country's rich artistic legacy from early celtic art to the present. It is an essential resource for anyone interested in the visual arts in Ireland. The holdings include a library of publications on Irish art, enriched by a rare book collection and illustrated book collection featuring work by Irish artists such as Rose Barton, Harry Clarke, Louis le Brocquy and William Scott. The collection of works by British and American artists includes, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, J M W Turner, Henry Raeburn, George Romney, John Singer Sargent, Stanley Royle, Francis Wheatley and Andrew Festing. The European art collection includes masterpieces from Spain (including works by Luis de Morales, Jusepe de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, Francisco Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Pablo Ruiz Picasso and Juan Gris), France (Jacques Yverni, Nicolas Poussin, Jean Lamaire, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Kees van Dongen and Edgar Degas), Italy (Fra Angelico, Zarobi Strozzi, Filippino Lippi, Titian, Giovan Battista Moroni, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Sassoferrato, Luca Giordano, Carlo Maratta, Francesco Solimena and Canaletto), Germany and Holland (Georg Pencz, Angelica Kauffmann, Emil Nolde, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Anthony van Dyck, Gerrit van Honthorst, Rembrandt, Willem Cornelisz Duyster, Aelbert Cuyp, Matthias Stomer, Rembrandt, Willem Drost, Anthonie de Lorme, Gabriel Metsu, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer and Cornelis Troost). The Prints and Drawings Study Room provides access to the Gallery's collection of prints, drawings, watercolors and miniatures from the sixteenth century to the present day. It is open to all members of the public, students and visiting scholars for the study and appreciation of the collection... Because of the current refurbishment work, there are currently no temporary exhibitions showing at the National Gallery of Ireland. However, works from the National Gallery are currently touring in the "Gabriel Metsu: Rediscovered Master Of The Dutch Golden Age" and can be seen on display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam until 21 March 2011 before moving on to the National Gallery of Art, Washington on 17 April 2011.

Museu Picasso presents " Living Things ~ Picasso Figure / Still Life " Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:11 PM PDT   BARCELONA.- Museu Picasso presents Living Things: Picasso Figure - Still Life, on view through March 1, 2009. One of the primary objectives of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona is to constitute a centre of reference for research and the generation of knowledge about Picasso and his work. The Museum has brought together under the auspices of its Rethinking Picasso programme a number of projects that offer vital new approaches to Picasso, moving beyond traditional biographical narratives and stylistic classifications to seek new perspectives and free the subject from the weight of convention and cliché.

Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Announces "The Art Auction" Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:10 PM PDT CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Auction, the Museum of Contemporary Art's (MCA) Chicago's most important fundraiser, is being held for the first time ever in the galleries of the museum. This year, the auction features works by the most recognized contemporary artists working today, including Olafur Eliasson, Louise Nevelson, Ed Ruscha, Mark Bradford, Kiki Smith, Lari Pittman, René Magritte, Julie Mehretu, Luc Tuymans, William Wegman, Lorna Simpson, and Christopher Wool, along with works by promising emerging artists. The event is co-chaired by Leslie Bluhm and David Helfand, and Liz and Eric Lefkofsky. The event takes place at 6:30 pm on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

BBC Uploads 63,000 Paintings Online as It Launches "Your Paintings" Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:08 PM PDT LONDON.- The BBC in partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) announced the launch of Your Paintings, a project to create a complete catalogue of every oil painting in the national collection, on a dedicated website. The UK holds in its galleries & civic buildings one of the largest collections of oil paintings in the world, a treasure trove of tens of thousands of individual works, including pieces by some of the world's leading artists, from world famous names such as Picasso to Rubens to unknown local painters.In all, the national collection amounts to some 200,000 works, held in 3,000 galleries, museums, libraries and public institutions all over the country, making it probably one of the largest and most diverse collections of paintings in the world.   These paintings and other works of art aren't just of interest to art lovers, they also make up one of the biggest pre-photographic records of 600 years of British society, life and culture, a hugely important educational and historical resource. And yet the public's access to this incredible resource has to date been limited by physical constraints: some 80% of the works are in storage, or otherwise unavailable to view; those that can be seen are scattered around the country, looked after by a diverse range of institutions, from the major national galleries right through to individual council offices and even fire stations, with no way for the public to see the scale of the combined collection. The vast majority have never been published online before. The first phase of Your Paintings went live yesterday, with over 60,000 paintings by 15,000 artists from 860 collections. The site will feature online selections made by well known artists, historians and celebrities including Yinka Shonibare, Rory Bremner, Frank Skinner, Dan Snow, Tracey Cox, Matt Baker, Gus Casely Hayford, Mary Beard, Alastair Sooke, Monty Don and The Reduced Shakesspeare Company encouraging the public to take part in the development of this monumental project, tagging works, and helping to classify paintings as they are uploaded to the site over the next eighteen months towards completion by the end of 2012. With the help of crowd-sourcing technology pioneered by the Astrophysics Department at Oxford University to classify galaxies, the public will join the experts in deciding how the works will be catalogued as they tag and classify each painting. The artist Alison Watt explains how to tag in a short film on the site. This tagging will allow future users to do their own searches - these could range from a simple object search, such as for rivers, racing cars, costume or cats to deeper research to look for places, people, styles and movements. The paintings are drawn from public collections in every part of the country, big and small, from the most famous to the completely unknown. They include the UK's national museums and galleries, regional collections, the National Trust, as well as the less obvious public collection like those in universities, council buildings, hospitals and fire stations. New works and more functionality will be added to the site as the project evolves. As the project develops the site will present a body of knowledge and learning resources that will give everyone the opportunity to discover the richness and diversity of the great works of art in public ownership. The painstaking research to locate the paintings up and down the country has been carried out by the Public Catalogue Foundation, launched in 2003 as a registered charity to do this work. The PCF's team of 50 regional co-ordinators and 30 photographers have traveled all over the country to find and catalogue each of the paintings, the majority of which are either rarely or never normally seen. In addition to opening up the BBC Online platform to enable Your Paintings to happen, the BBC will enrich the online offer through related programmes airing this summer across BBC TV channels. For one month from 24 June to 24 July, selected highlights of the Your Paintings collection will be viewable in 20 cities across the UK on the BBC Big  Screens. Andrew Ellis, Director of the Public Catalogue Foundation, says: "Today marks the start of an exciting journey. No country has ever embarked on such a monumental project to showcase its entire painting collection online. Working with collections and individuals all over the UK, this project is only possible thanks to the advent of digital technologies and the unique resource of the BBC."

The University of Wyoming Art Museum Shows Eliot Porter's Photography Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:07 PM PDT Laramie, WY.- The Univrsity of Wyoming Art Museum is pleased to present "The West of Eliot Porter: Images of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah" on view at the museum until December 22nd. Eliot Porter (American, 1901-1990) created a new way of viewing the world by introducing color to landscape photography, which today has become commonplace.  Porter began working in color in 1939, long before his fellow photographers accepted the medium. Trained as a chemical engineer and a medical doctor, Porter began his career in photography in the early 1930s by making black-and-white prints in his spare time while working as a bacteriologist and teaching at Harvard University. It was around this time that his brother, Fairfield Porter, a realist artist and art critic, introduced him to photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. Offering guidance, Stieglitz began to critique Porter's black-and-white photographs and in 1938 exhibited Porter's work in his New York gallery, An American Place.

David Hockney's "Bigger Trees Near Warter" Gift Presented at Tate Britain Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:06 PM PDT LONDON.- David Hockney gifted Bigger Trees near Warter 2007 to Tate in 2008. The oil painting, his largest ever, was made on fifty canvas panels and was executed outside, en plein air. Measuring 4.6 x 12.2 metres (15 x 40 feet), its subject is a typical Yorkshire landscape, west of Bridlington. The work was first exhibited in 2007 at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. David Hockney also presented Tate with two digital photographic renderings of the painting on paper sheets in the same dimensions as the oil. Focusing on the arrival of spring before trees have come into leaf, Bigger Trees near Warter features two copies, a mighty sycamore tree, buildings and a road curving to the left flanked by early flowering daffodils.

15th Los Angeles Art Show Returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:05 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, CA.- The 15th Annual Los Angeles Art Show returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center January 20-24, 2010. Presented by the Fine Art Dealers Association (FADA) and KR Martindale Show Management this encyclopedic art event will feature more than 100 international exhibitors, an engaging lecture series and special events program, a sculpture garden, and special exhibit spaces. The 2010 Los Angeles Art Show debuts a Guest Country Program and welcomes Uruguay. By invitation-only and launching in 2010, the Los Angeles Art Show welcomes Uruguay, as its first Guest Country.  Additional Special Exhibitions include: Signs: Contemporary Middle Eastern Art , Snapshot, The Sister Cities of Los Angeles International Art Exhibition , Vox Humana and An Intimate View of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Art Show has been a driving force for the City's Arts Month. According to the resolution passed in August of 2009, "The Los Angeles Art Show, bringing thousands of works from 100 domestic & international galleries and a number of world class museums to Los Angeles. The City will use the confluence of over 50,000 visitors to anchor a month-long celebration of arts in the City. WHEREAS, Los Angeles Arts Month is an opportunity for the Los Angeles art community to synergize the Los Angeles Art Show with the City's artists and art institutions to create a cultural Mecca ..." The Los Angeles Art Show will open in conjunction with the International Fine Print Dealers Association's (IFPDA) 25th Annual Los Angeles Fine Print Fair offering collectors and art lovers a comprehensive look at Prints in all techniques. Juxtaposing many periods and movements, visitors will have an opportunity to view and purchase fine prints from across a broad spectrum of Old Master, German Expressionist, antique and modern Japanese, 18th and 19th-century European, 19thcentury American, American Regionalist, Latin-American, and Modern works to Contemporary masterworks and new editions. The 2010 Show will feature expanded satellite programs and special events, including a compelling symposia series of art discussions highlighting prominent artists, museum, and arts professionals in topical discussions. The programming will be complemented with after-show mixers for the art enthusiast and the trendsetters of the Hollywood art scene. The Los Angeles Art Show VIP Program will also return for art industry professionals and avid collectors. The Los Angeles Art Show continues to be the largest art fair on the West Coast and a must-see for both the art connoisseur and the arts-curious. With 2009 posting a record-breaking attendance of 35,000 visitors and exceptional sales, the 2010 show promises to be more encompassing. Works sold at the 2009 show include pieces by: Charles Partridge Adams, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Rembrandt, Ed Ruscha, Buffet, Julian Schnabel & Emerson Woelffer. With more than 10,000 significant paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings and prints on exhibit and available for purchase, the Los Angeles Art Show brings together the West Coast art community in an internationally attended fiveday celebration of the arts. Presented by the Fine Art Dealers Association www.fada.com , the Los Angeles Art Show takes place on January 20-24, 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015.

Maastricht European Fine Art Fair Expects Record 76,000 Visitors Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:04 PM PDT   MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands  - Collectors, curators, museum directors and auction house experts have flocked here in record numbers in recent days to browse through Rembrandts, Warhols, opulent French furniture and rare antiquities at the European Fine Art Fair. Yet so far sales have been mixed, many dealers said. "It seems slower this year," said Richard Nagy, a London dealer. "People involved in the stock market are feeling less flush."

Asia Society Museum in New York opens works by Artist Sarah Sze Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:03 PM PDT NEW YORK, N.Y.- Sarah Sze (born 1969, U.S.) is known for her elaborate installations in which everyday materials—such as plastic bottle caps, sheets of paper, strings, tape measures, cotton swabs, and scissors—are hung from the ceiling, mounted in corners, or nestled into discreet spaces. Sarah Sze: Infinite Line is the first exhibition to focus specifically on Sze's work from drawings to sculpture to installation. The exhibition is on view on view December 13, 2011 through March 25, 2012. Sarah Sze combines spontaneity and systemization in her work, which often suggests movement and the ephemeral. Energized chaos becomes painstaking order, when, upon closer inspection, seemingly turbulent scenarios reveal precisely placed objects. Her intimate, sculptural installations invite viewers to reevaluate their relationship to their surroundings.

The Albertina exhibits 'Monet to Picasso ~ The Batliner Collection' Posted: 17 Jun 2012 10:02 PM PDT   Vienna, Austria - The exhibition "Monet to Picasso" offers an informative overview of one of the most exciting chapters in the history of art: the turn from figural to abstract art, the progressive deconstruction of traditional picture forms. In approximately 250 artworks – paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures – the development of the most important, and one could well say revolutionary, stylistic epochs of the last hundred years can be traced in the continual progression from Impressionism to modernism. The fortunate combination of the Batliner Collection and the Forberg Collection with the Albertina's inventory has brought together work groups by pioneering artists, making it possible to provide a comprehensive look at the many "isms" of the modern era. At the centre of this presentation is the Batliner Collection, which was transferred to the Albertina by the Herbert and Rita Batliner Foundation in May 2007.  Impressionism and "Der Blaue Reiter" The point of departure is French Impressionism, with exceptional late works by Monet ("Water Lily Pond") and Degas ("Two Dancers") and Post-Impressionism, primarily represented by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Cézanne, the latter with his favourite themes such as the Arc Valley and the Sainte-Victoire Mountains or the bathers. The show continues with the Nabis group with Bonnard and Vuillard, whose predilection for ornamental composition in surfaces is manifested most of all in lithographs. The "wild", intensely colourful works by Matisse, Vlaminck and Derain exemplify the Fauvist movement, while the Signac's Pointillist approach represents Neo-Impressionism. Orphism is presented in key works by Delaunay and Kupka, followed by the German artists of Der Blaue Reiter, Marc, Macke and the early Kandinsky, who were decisively influenced by this "ism". Cubism and Russian avant-garde An important step on the path to abstraction is represented by Cubism, which is brilliantly represented by Braque and Picasso. Picasso's late work, which played a uniquely significant role in shaping the art of the 20th century, forms a further highpoint of the exhibition. Alienation and mystification are reflected in the Surrealist paintings of Miró, Klee, Arp, Magritte and Delvaux. An independent chapter of no small significance is represented by the Russian avant-garde with Lissitzky and Malevich. The show concludes with impressive examples of Abstract Expressionism, including Appel, Rothko and Newman, and the New Realism of Yves Klein. THE BATLINER COLLECTION Herbert and Rita Batliner started collecting art almost 50 years ago. Their close friendship with Ernst Beyeler influenced them from the very start to base a specific part of their collection on French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Meanwhile, the couple concentrated from the beginning also on works by Pablo Picasso; more than forty of them are in the Batliner Collection today, among them ten paintings, as well as many drawings and unique one-off ceramic works. Thanks to his extensive travelling, the long-time president of Liechtenstein's Constitutional Court and managing partner of a large law firm in Vaduz came to know and love the Russian avantgarde. The couple were particularly fascinated by the collections of Russian avant-garde art at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim Museum/New York, the Ludwig Museum/ Cologne, and the Russian Museum/St. Petersburg. Over the years, they consistently and with great connoisseurship built up their own collection of Russian avant-garde art of the period between 1905 and 1935. Marc Chagall plays a central role here, but the collection is also remarkable particularly for groups of works by Natalia Goncharova and Popova, by Michael Larionov, and a major work by Kasimir Malevich, which he painted immediately after his release from prison during the Stalin era as a remembrance and picture of his resistance against his arrest. The legacy of a collector couple The Batliners have been forging a plan for several years of maintaining this great private collection as an integral whole and transferring it in its totality as a legacy to a museum. Believing that every substantial art collection is just as unique and worthy of preservation as a single major work of art, Herbert and Rita Batliner have resolved to endow the collection to the general public during their lifetime. As much as the collectors "rejoiced in" and "felt the intellectual challenge" of the hundreds of paintings, pastels, gouaches and sculptures through the decades, they now desire the tangible and intellectual enrichment of making their collection accessible to a wide public. The Batliner Collection in the Albertina To safeguard the indivisibility of this great private collection and its fundamental perpetuity, Herbert and Rita Batliner have incorporated their works of art into a foundation: the Herbert and Rita Batliner Art Foundation. This is the provider of the permanent loan now being transferred to the Albertina, similar to the Austrian Ludwig Foundation, which also brought works acquired over 25 years as the Foundation's inalienable property into the collection of the Albertina (and also of the MUMOK). The Albertina's curatorial autonomy The Albertina has the sole right to decide upon presentation, loaning, publication and scholarly processing. The museum is independent of the foundation in its decisions on the type and method of exhibition of the Batliner Collection. However, it is in the mutual interest of both parties that the intention and wish of the collectors be respected in exhibiting their art works as optimally as possible, so as to fulfil the purpose of the foundation in making the private collection accessible to the public. "Art can be owned, but by its nature it is a public resource," states Herbert Batliner. The permanent exhibition of this great European art collection will be dedicated to the collectors Herbert and Rita Batliner as their legacy. Thus the Batliner Collection is aligned with those museum foundations that have notably enhanced and extended existing museum collections, such as the Berggruen Collection as part of the Berlin Nationalgalerie, the Walter Annenberg Collection as part of the Metropolitan Museum/New York, and the Thannhauser Collection in the Guggenheim Museum. These have recently been joined by the Brandhorst Collection in Munich and the Hahn and Ludwig collections in Vienna. Visit the Albertina in Vienna at : www.albertina.at

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