Fierce friends: Artists & animals in the Industrial Era

Saturday, 08 October 2005 10:53

AMSTERDAM.-The Van Gogh Museum presents the thematic family exhibition Fierce friends: Artists & animals in the Industrial Era, 1750-1900. This multidisciplinary show examines the relationship between man and the animals with displays of over 200 objects. The exhibition will appeal to a broad public.

Read more: [[Fierce friends: Artists & animals in the Industrial Era]]

Landmark Artists Exhibit at NGV

Wednesday, 18 January 2006 10:40

Melbourne, AU - To coincide with the staging of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the NGV is presenting Land Marks, a major exhibition in the BlueScope Steel Indigenous Galleries at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia opening 10 February 2006. Land Marks looks at the history of Indigenous art and identifies momentous changes that have occurred since works were first made for Europeans in 19 th-century Victoria by William Barak and Tommy McRae. The exhibition will feature more than 200 works dating from 1875 until 2005, including drawings, paintings, ceramics, sculptures and fibre works.

Read more: [[Landmark Artists Exhibit at NGV]]

Masterpieces from the World's Museums at Hermitage

Wednesday, 18 January 2006 10:50

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA.-The State Hermitage Museum presents Masterpieces from the World’s Museums in the Hermitage. Three paintings by Max Ernst from the Art Collection of Northern Rhine-Westphalia (Düsseldorf), on view through February 19, 2006. The paintings Carmagnole of Love (1926), After Us - Motherhood (1927), and Landscape with Sprouting Grain (1936) are on loan from the Art Collection of Northern Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf. .This is the second exhibition of Max Ernst in the Hermitage. In 1995 the Museum showed the artist’s printed graphics from the collection of Lufthansa Airlines: a series of engravings, well-known collages and books.

" Anatomy Revised ": Thanos Zakopoulos

Thursday, 19 January 2006 10:23

MILAN,IT- "Anatomy Revised" is the first personal exhibition in Italy of the Greek artist Thanos Zakopoulos (Athens, 1978) currently living in Venice. Subsequent to his studies of product design at the Southampton Institute (UK) he follows the post graduate course of visual arts in IUAV (Venice). The works presented in this exhibition are only a part of the artists' multiple activities that vary from photography to design and from installations to digital art. "Anatomy revised" is a duality, a dialogue between opposites as well as a confrontation between classical anatomical images (Western) and Manga comics (Japanese) in an attempt to find similarities and at the same time extreme differences.

Read more: [[" Anatomy Revised ": Thanos Zakopoulos]]

Nature Transformed Into Music By Bamboo Orchestra

Thursday, 19 January 2006 10:27

Waterloo, Iowa- The Bamboo Orchestra of Japan explores a wealth of sound found in nature by playing a palette of more than 20 bamboo instruments. Bamboo has been used to make instruments in Asia for centuries, because its hollow structure can be readily made into resonating pipes. The instruments' sounds vary greatly from booming bass tones of the gigantic Jegog Marimba to the graceful melodies of the Shinobue flute. The musicians focus on a vision of the Japanese culture -- the harmony in coexistence between people and nature and between people themselves. The five member Orchestra will perform in Waterloo as the second leg of the Midwest World Fest. "The Bamboo Orchestra has performed extensively throughout Japan and France," says Cammie Scully, Director of the Waterloo Center for the Arts. "Therefore, hosting the ensemble in Waterloo provides us with the unique opportunity to learn more about and enjoy a slice of Asian culture and one of its forms of musical expression."

Read more: [[Nature Transformed Into Music By Bamboo Orchestra]]

Alberto Sughi Retrospective Collection

Thursday, 19 January 2006 10:34

PARMA, IT- A large retrospective exhibition of the work of Alberto Sughi, one of the most influential Italian artists since the 1950s. The exhibition contains 642 works, including paintings, tempera, drawings and lithographs, owned by the collections of the Centro Studi ed Archivio della Comunicazione (CSAC) at the University of Parma. It includes the large canvases City by night (1958), People at the Supper (1976) Goodbye to the Red House (1992) and Rimmel (2004). Alberto Sughi was born in Cesena in 1928. A self-taught painter, by the end of his formative years he had become one of the greatest Italian artists of his generation. He started painting in the early 1950s, choosing realism in the debate between abstract and figurative art in the immediate post-war period. Even from his early works, however, Sughi’s paintings have avoided any attempt at social moralising.

Read more: [[Alberto Sughi Retrospective Collection]]

Dutch Masters at Speed Museum

Thursday, 19 January 2006 17:41

Louisville, Kentucky- The Speed Art Museum will present works by some of history’s greatest artists with the special exhibition Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. Works by Dutch masters Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Wtewael and Cuyp and others will be on view, January 10 through March 26, 2006. The passage of time, wars, fires, floods, storms and other natural disasters each leave their mark on landscapes and structures. The Dutch fascination with subjects that represent the transformative effects of time or circumstances are explored through 85 seventeenth-century paintings, drawings and prints pulled from collections throughout the United States.

Read more: [[Dutch Masters at Speed Museum]]

Julio Gonzalez : Sculpture at Bass Museum

Friday, 20 January 2006 10:01

MIAMI BEACH, FL– This exhibition is comprised of approximately forty pieces drawn from a collection of the artists’ 400 works in the IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art) in Spain that illuminates the artistic career of Julio Gonzalez (1876-1942), one of one of the most influential and inspirational Modern sculptors. González was a pioneer in fusing Cubism and industrial ironworking by creating welded open linear structures in iron, bronze and silver that evoke a primordial, totemic and playful feel. Between 1928-1931 he gave lessons in metalworking to Pablo Picasso and served as source of inspiration for artists such as Anthony Caro, Melvin Edwards, Mark di Suvero, Richard Stankiewicz, and David Smith, who called González “the father of all iron sculpture.” Though González was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, he was one of the least known. This exhibition brings to light how González revolutionized the use of welded iron as a medium that initiated a new language in sculpture, and it is the first showing of his work in the region. Approximately forty rarely-seen works, all from the important collections of IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art) will be featured. In addition to bronze and iron sculpture reliefs, handcrafted jewelry and figurative drawings will be shown. Julio González: Sculpture and Drawings from the IVAM Collection opens to the public on January 27 at the Bass Museum of Art and is on view through April 16, 2006.

Montgomery Exhibition at Daum Museum

Friday, 20 January 2006 10:07

SEDALIA. MO—Nine major works plus a multi-piece installation of monumental size by New York ceramicist Steven Montgomery will open Feb. 11 at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art on the State Fair Community College campus. The exhibition will continue through May 21. Mr. Montgomery’s ceramic pieces are designed to look like deteriorating engines, motors, and other 20th century industrial creations. Although his "machines" are fictitious creations, his careful imitation of decomposing metal shows how these objects are rusting away, and how these artifacts of the industrial age serve as romantic remembrances of earlier times and suggest the impermanence of the modern world. He has been called a “visionary ceramicist,” a term coined by art historian Arthur C. Danto to designate artists who use clay as a means to realize visions.

Read more: [[Montgomery Exhibition at Daum Museum]]

" Live It and Love It " by David Dayan Fisher

Thursday, 16 February 2006 14:27

Los Angeles- British actor David Dayan Fisher will mesmerize the Art World with a showing on March 24th, 2006 entitled "Dangerous Passions". Bringing a vivid mixture of delicious color and "touch me" texture to his canvasses, Fisher will bring the viewer into a world of bold emotional strength and spontaneous beauty. The show will open at Melrose Lightspace, 7600 Melrose Avenue, Suite N, Los Angeles, California.David Dayan Fisher just guest-starred on popular series "Charmed", "24" with Kiefer Sutherland, and "Numbers" with Rob Morrow. Recent movie credits include "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage. He approaches his artwork the same way as he approaches an acting role, with total spontaneity. "I paint with no concept of what will happen. My work is an occurrence…with only a moment to moment knowledge of what commences in toto. Every squeeze of the [acryllic] tube creates the next squeeze, which creates the next brush stroke. A continuous flow that has no finish until it happens." Arrogant style, yes? Adventurous at the least. "Live It And Love It" is the mantra David Dayan Fisher repeats on a daily basis. "Dangerous Passions" is the name of the collection. His canvasses reflect a swaggering haughtiness that dares you to enter a world that is brimming with self-confidence. Dare to feel what he feels, see what he sees, and conquer what he conquers. 10% OF ALL ART SALES GO TO PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS (PETA ).

" Live It and Love It " by David Dayan Fisher

Thursday, 16 February 2006 14:47

Los Angeles- British actor David Dayan Fisher will mesmerize the Art World with a showing on March 24th, 2006 entitled "Dangerous Passions". Bringing a vivid mixture of delicious color and "touch me" texture to his canvasses, Fisher will bring the viewer into a world of bold emotional strength and spontaneous beauty. The show will open at Melrose Lightspace, 7600 Melrose Avenue, Suite N, Los Angeles, California.David Dayan Fisher just guest-starred on popular series "Charmed", "24" with Kiefer Sutherland, and "Numbers" with Rob Morrow. Recent movie credits include "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage. He approaches his artwork the same way as he approaches an acting role, with total spontaneity. "I paint with no concept of what will happen. My work is an occurrence…with only a moment to moment knowledge of what commences in toto. Every squeeze of the [acryllic] tube creates the next squeeze, which creates the next brush stroke. A continuous flow that has no finish until it happens." Arrogant style, yes? Adventurous at the least. "Live It And Love It" is the mantra David Dayan Fisher repeats on a daily basis. "Dangerous Passions" is the name of the collection. His canvasses reflect a swaggering haughtiness that dares you to enter a world that is brimming with self-confidence. Dare to feel what he feels, see what he sees, and conquer what he conquers. 10% OF ALL ART SALES GO TO PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS (PETA ).

Goya's Portraits Coming to SDMA

Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:20

SAN DIEGO, CA- This spring, a special focused exhibition of approximately one dozen portrait paintings by the Spanish master Franscisco de Goya will be presented exclusively at the San Diego Museum of Art from April 8 to June 18, 2006. The display will highlight one of the Museum’s most notable paintings, Goya’s Marquis of Sofraga, providing context for Goya, his work, and the sitter of the SDMA painting. Goya’s Portraits marks the Museum’s first major collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, which has organized a large-scale exhibition of the artist’s work . SDMA’s exhibition will feature an intriguing selection of about a dozen important portraits from this larger Mexico City show, with works coming from public and private collections in San Francisco, Indianapolis, Worcester, Detroit, Puerto Rico, São Paulo, and Mexico City. The carefully selected works included in Goya’s Portraits span the artist’s career and include official, full-length portraits of luminaries of late 18th- and early 19th-century Spain.

Read more: [[Goya's Portraits Coming to SDMA]]

The Case of the Stolen SCREAM

Friday, 17 February 2006 10:32

You may remember that in August 2004, armed robbers stole Edvard Munch's masterpiece, The Scream, from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. The thieves brandished their weapons, grabbed The Scream (and Madonna, another Munch painting), and fled in broad daylight. This week, a Norwegian court has begun trying six men with possible ties to organized crime for their alleged involvement in the heist. Still, The Scream remains at large, and authorities increasingly fear that threats from the Norwegian mob may be making sure that no one tells where it is. This isn't the first time Norwegian mobsters have been linked to art theft. On February 12, 1994--the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway--thieves seized a different version of The Scream (Munch made four in all) from Norway's National Gallery. Other version: here

Read more: [[The Case of the Stolen SCREAM]]

The Exhibition of Catherine Sullivan “The Chittendens?

Friday, 17 February 2006 10:42

Brussels, Belgium- CATHERINE SULLIVAN ... TALKS ABOUT THE CHITTENDENS, 2005 ... Heinrich Von Kleist tells the story of a famous dancer who, praising the marionette theater, suggests that a mechanical figure could be designed to “perform a dance that neither he nor any other outstanding dancer of his time . . .could equal.” For this marionette’s every movement, he claims, would be more graceful than any person’s—akin to that of a pendulum, whose insentient motion is determined solely by an unwavering center of gravity. Kleist’s legendary discourse comes to mind when considering Catherine Sullivan’s most recent work, The Chittendens, 2005, whose evolution also began with a notion of the performer’s “self-possession” (or lack thereof). For this group of films, the artist asked sixteen actors to execute scripted sequences of what she calls “attitudes”—behavioral cues ranging from the emotive catatonia and melancholic loss to the physical bayonet in the back, golf swing, and speech to the senate. . and to repeat this limited vocabulary of movements precisely. Yet as Sullivan’s players engage these choreographies against the backdrop of modern-day office. The scene for a more abstract sort of control and role-playing—the actors’ stutters, seizures, and spasms seem to speak more to psychosis than standardization.

Read more: [[The Exhibition of Catherine Sullivan “The Chittendens?]]

Frans Van Mieris at National Gallery of Art

Friday, 17 February 2006 11:19

WASHINGTON, DC.- Amorous Intrigues and Painterly Refinement: The Art of Frans van Mieris is the first retrospective exhibition devoted exclusively to the work of this influential 17th-century Dutch painter. Thirty-four paintings by Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–1681) will be on view in the Dutch Cabinet Galleries of the National Gallery of Art from February 26 through May 21, 2006, the only venue for the exhibition in the United States. Intimate in scale, Van Mieris’ masterpieces rarely measure more than 15 square inches, but they are remarkable for their extreme realism, depiction of human emotion, and technical mastery. The widely-copied paintings influenced many fellow painters, including Vermeer. Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), founder of the Leiden school of fine painters (fijnschilders) and Van Mieris’ teacher, called him “the prince of all my pupils.” The exhibition was organized by the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Organized chronologically, the exhibition presents the full scope of Van Mieris’ career. The works were selected in consultation with leading Van Mieris scholar Dr. Otto Naumann.

Read more: [[Frans Van Mieris at National Gallery of Art]]

Women & Children in Africa at Tarble Arts Center

Saturday, 18 February 2006 11:28

CHARLESTON, IL– The photo-documentary exhibition “Women and Children in Africa: A Photographic Portrait by Dr. Alfred Olusegun Fayemi” is currently on view at the Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University. A Nigerian, Dr. Alfred Olusegun Fayemi has devoted his energies as a photographer to the social documentation of the peoples of Africa on the African continent and their descendants wherever they are in the world. The exhibition are co-sponsored with EIU’s African American Studies program, and are presented in recognition of EIU’s African American Heritage Celebration Month. Dr. Fayemi is the author/photographer of the books Voices From Within: Photographs of African Children, Windows to the Soul: Photographs Celebrating African Women – the two books from which the photographs for this exhibition were selected – and Balancing Acts: Photographs From West Africa. He is planning a book on the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Read more: [[Women & Children in Africa at Tarble Arts Center]]