A Pictorial Point at Monya Rowe Gallery

Saturday, 18 February 2006 11:48

Read more: [[A Pictorial Point at Monya Rowe Gallery]]

School Needs To Sell Keith Haring Mural

Saturday, 18 February 2006 11:52

Read more: [[School Needs To Sell Keith Haring Mural]]

Old Europe Prints & Drawings c.1500 to c.1800

Tuesday, 23 May 2006 09:48

Sydney, Australia - The story of the graphic arts in Europe between c.1500 and c.1800 is superbly illustrated in this exhibition of over 100 prints from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  Many of these early prints and drawings have rarely been seen by the public.

Because a printed image existed in multiple versions, it was the most important means of broadcasting stylistic innovations and artistic ideas across Europe.  Before the age of multi-media, printmaking was the new technology that revolutionised the visual culture of Europe.

Beginning in late 15th-century Nuremberg, where the technique of woodblock printing was raised to new heights, this exhibition shows the achievements of that city's favourite son, Albrecht Durer, whose fame and influence was established across Europe, thanks to his use of prints.  The exhibition includes the technically dazzling work of Netherlandish and Italian engravers of the High Renaissance, such as Hendrik Goltzius, Giorgio Ghisi and Giovanni Battista Scultori.

Read more: [[Old Europe Prints & Drawings c.1500 to c.1800]]

Ji Wenyu & Zhu Weibing Exhibit at Shanghart Gallery

Written by Lonnie Bose Monday, 07 March 2011 00:02

Shanghai, China - "Here, the Scene is Better" features new oil paintings by Ji Wenyu and 'softsculptures' (textile sculptures) Ji Wenyu created together with his artist wife Zhu Weibing in the last few years.  It is the first time several of their sculptures will be presented to the public.  Noted for his meticulous pop style since the mid to late 1990s, Ji Wenyu focuses in his paintings on the depiction of everyday element she sees around him.  His canvas is often filled crowdedly with ordinary people or a particular vulgar life scene.  He is a keen observer of the contradictions, 'funny encounters' and problems occurring during the development of his home town Shanghai from a Chinese city to an international megalopolis and the modernization and internationalization of China in general.

Read more: [[Ji Wenyu & Zhu Weibing Exhibit at Shanghart Gallery]]

John H.Twachtman " A Painter's Painter " at Spanierman

Written by Lester Lawton Tuesday, 28 September 2010 00:09

New York City - Spanierman Gallery, presents John Twachtman (1853-1902): A “Painter’s Painter,” an exhibition of over eighty works spanning the career of an artist whose landscapes are esteemed as probably the most original, modern, and poetic among those of the American Impressionists.  Incapable of following trends or painting to please the art buyers of his time, Twachtman never created derivative or simply pretty images, and his devotion to a spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and to his personal vision brought him an unmatched admiration from his peers, who deemed him a “painter’s painter,” and an artist, ahead of his era, whose “time would come.”

Accompanying the show is a catalogue by Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D.  Building on her 1995 dissertation on Twachtman and the catalogue she wrote for an exhibition of Twachtman’s art, organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999, Dr. Peters addresses Twachtman’s role in the context of his time in three essays and explores the uniqueness of his art in entries on the works in the show.  The catalogue is a prelude to the Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné, coauthored by Ira Spanierman and Dr. Peters, which is currently available from spanierman.com and through the gallery.  This major exhibition ends June 24, 2006.

Read more: [[John H.Twachtman " A Painter's Painter " at Spanierman]]

Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic

Monday, 12 June 2006 10:16

Philadelphia, PA - Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s most recognized and beloved artists, is the subject of a compelling retrospective that takes a fresh look at seven decades of accomplishment.  Though linked to the realist traditions of Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and Edward Hopper, Wyeth often transcends literal transcription to move into the realm of memory and imagination, inviting viewers into a strange and wondrous world.  In Wyeth’s work, objects transform metaphorically into portraits of friends, family, and even the artist himself.  The exhibition explores how Wyeth invests these objects with meaning, and how he will sometimes begin with figure subjects and then gradually paint people out of the picture, leaving the objects to tell the stories themselves.

Read more: [[Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic]]

Rineke Dijkstra Portraits at Galerie Rudolfinum

Monday, 12 June 2006 10:32

Prague, CZ - Rineke Dijkstra documents people in transitional moments: mothers shortly after giving birth, young people entering the military, matadors still bloody from a bullfight, young club kids just off the dance floor, and preadolescent bathers on various beaches in the United States and Eastern Europe.  Formally, her images resemble classical portraiture with their frontally posed figures isolated against minimal backgrounds.  Despite their uniformity, however, Dijkstra's pictures deftly expose the emotional state of her individual sitters.  Although she isolates the subjects in her Beaches series (1992–96) and frames them with only sea and sky, the artist reveals much about them by capturing a subtle gesture or expression in these unguarded moments that reside somewhere between the posed and the natural.  In photographing the already awkward young subjects in their bathing suits, Dijkstra sets up a situation marked by a self-consciousness that parallels the uneasy passage between childhood and adulthood.

Read more: [[Rineke Dijkstra Portraits at Galerie Rudolfinum]]

Highwaymen Newton and Hair at Museum of Art : Ft. Lauderdale

Monday, 12 June 2006 10:50

Fort Lauderdale, FL – Highwaymen Newton and Hair : The American Dream in the Sunshine State, organized by the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, on exhibit through November 30, 2006.  The exhibition has been generously funded in part with a grant from The Links, Incorporated, Fort Lauderdale Chapter.

Read more: [[Highwaymen Newton and Hair at Museum of Art : Ft. Lauderdale]]

" Bobby On The Beat " at Bonham's Auction

Monday, 12 June 2006 11:14

London - One of the most arresting pictures to go under the hammer at Bonhams’ New Bond Street salerooms on 14 June 2006 has got to be the Portrait of Constable Horace Hood.  An ordinary “Bobby on the beat” in the London suburb of Notting Hill Gate, Hood was painted by Arthur John Trevor Briscoe in 1933 and his portrait is expected to fetch £15,000-20,000 in the Sale of 19th Century Paintings.

The British artist Arthur Briscoe (1873-1943) normally painted maritime scenes rather than people and Bonhams’ Director of 19th Century Paintings, Alistair Laird, says he has never seen anything like this picture at auction before.  He comments: “In all the 24 years I have worked in the auction world, I cannot remember seeing a painting of a policeman before; it is an extremely rare subject.“

Constable Hood was attached to the Notting Hill police station at Ladbroke Grove when Briscoe spotted him.  He had noticed that the Royal Academy often exhibited works of art featuring other public service members but never a policeman, so charged himself with righting the situation.  On 7 April 1933, Briscoe told the Evening Standard: “I have noticed that at the Academy firemen, sailors and soldiers, dancers, cowboys and all the rest have been painted - but never a London policeman.

Read more: [[" Bobby On The Beat " at Bonham's Auction]]

Bellini, Giorgione, Titian and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting

Written by Felix Baumeister Thursday, 10 November 2011 21:44

Washington, DC - A major new international exhibition, Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting will present more than 50 masterpieces from the most exciting period of the Renaissance in Venice.  Premiering June 18 through September 17 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the exhibition explores the relationships between these and other artists, emphasizes their innovative treatments of new pictorial themes such as the pastoral landscape, and reveals what modern conservation science has discovered about the Venetian painters’ techniques.

Two museums with outstanding collections of Renaissance art, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, are the exhibition organizers: together they are contributing about one-third of the works on view.  Among the most admired masterworks of the Renaissance, Titian’s Pastoral Concert (“Concert Champêtre”) (c. 1510), is being lent by the Louvre to the United States for the first time.  The exhibition features significant loans from The National Gallery, London; the Prado, Madrid; the Uffizi, Florence; and many other museums and private collections.

“I am very pleased and proud to be able to offer the Italian Embassy in Washington’s cooperation in the installation of this outstanding show,” said the Italian ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta, who also thanked the National Gallery of Art, “which, together with Bracco, has made possible an event that captures in all its artistic glory such a fervent period in our cultural history.”

“This exhibition brings the Renaissance alive not only as an era in history, but also as a concept embraced by the most adventurous artists of their time,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art.  “It is gratifying to be able to share with the public so many masterpieces, thanks to the generosity of our lenders.  We are also very grateful to the Bracco Group for making this exhibition possible; we welcome them as a sponsor to the Gallery, and appreciate their enthusiasm "

The Exhibition : JUNE 18–SEPTEMBER 17, 2006

Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting differs from previous surveys of 16th-century Venetian art by focusing exclusively on paintings from the first three decades of the century, and by presenting them thematically, rather than by artist.  The period represents, visually and intellectually, the most exciting phase of the Renaissance in Venice, when the old Bellini (d. 1516), Giorgione (d. 1510), young Titian, Sebastiano Luciani, later called del Piombo (active in the city until 1511), and Jacopo Negretti, known as Palma Vecchio (d. 1528), were all working side by side.  While celebrating the achievements of Bellini and his most famous pupils, the exhibition also presents more conservative masters, like Cima da Conegliano and Vincenzo Catena, and it includes other artists, like Lorenzo Lotto, who worked, though not exclusively, in Venice at the time.

In early 16th-century Venice, artists turned to new subjects drawn from classical antiquity and developed new styles and new techniques to represent them.  Provocative subject matter and virtuoso displays of skill were appreciated by a new kind of sophisticated patron.  A highlight of the exhibition will be the presentation of Titian’s Bacchanal of the Andrians (1522–1524), and Bellini and Titian’s Feast of the Gods (1514 and 1529), paintings that once hung together in the Duke of Ferrara’s study, considered the most beautiful room in Renaissance Italy.

The exhibition emphasizes the artists’ innovative treatments of several new pictorial themes, outlined below, and demonstrates how religious painting, still dominant, was transformed.  It also explores how ideas about music, love, and time pervade the art of the period.

The pastoral landscape.  The pastoral landscape, with its Arcadian motifs of nymphs, shepherds, and shady groves, became a quintessentially Venetian mode of painting.  The exhibition includes the epitome of the genre, Titian’s Concert Champetre.  The development of the pastoral extended to religious painting, with Christian or biblical figures or narratives vividly portrayed in idyllic settings.  In one of many illuminating juxtapositions in the exhibition, one can compare Bellini’s Virgin with the Blessing Child (1510) and Titian’s Virgin and Child (“Gypsy Madonna”) (c. 1511); Titian has shifted his figures off the central axis to emphasize the landscape view.  Also on view is Giorgione’s version of the Adoration of the Shepherds (“Allendale Nativity”) (c. 1500), which employs elements of the pastoral and was much admired: the exhibition includes three variants on this work.

The female nude and eroticism. Given that images of women of any sort were rare in Venetian painting, the introduction of nudes or partially clothed figures in early 16th-century paintings was truly revolutionary.   In the exhibition, Giorgione’s famous “Laura” (1506), which launched the new genre, is presented with Titian’s Flora (c. 1520) for the first time.  Titian’s portrait became a model for the “Belle Donne” of other artists, such as Palma Vecchio.  Even to this day, it is not known whether these images of women are idealized portraits of actual women or images of ideal female beauty.

Male portraits. Giorgione and his circle introduced a new kind of idealized portrait, in which an individual was shown in the guise of a lover, poet, musician, or soldier.  Called “action” portraits, these works depict young men acting out roles, as in Portrait of a Poet (c. 1520) by Palma Vecchio or Man in Armor (c. 1511/1512) by Sebastiano del Piombo.  Beyond single portraits, there are double and triple portraits of men together, as in Titian’s Concert (c. 1511/1512) and Cariani’s Concert (c. 1518). The exhibition ends with Titian’s Man with a Glove (c. 1523/1524), whose realism breaks with Giorgione’s poetic idealization.

Conservation Science Reveals Venetian Painters’ Methods

Because modern technologies have revolutionized our understanding of the methods of the Venetian painters, the exhibition will include a room devoted to conservation studies of Venetian paintings, undertaken by Elke Oberthaler of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Elizabeth Walmsley of the National Gallery of Art, including x-radiographs and infrared images of several works on view.  Similarly, the exhibition catalogue includes new studies of the Venetians’ painting methods and materials.

Early 16th-century Venetian paintings were among the first to be studied using x-rays, which revealed pentimenti, or changes of mind, as the artists worked out their compositions.  More recently, infrared reflectography has qualified Vasari’s claim that Venetian artists did not draw, by exposing the underdrawings lying beneath the surfaces of their paintings.  On view will be a new infrared reflectogram of Giorgione’s Three Philosophers (c. 1506) that reveals insights into the artist’s creative process, a complex method of continuous revision.  Similarly, an x-radiograph of Titian’s “Gypsy Madonna” shows how the artist changed his characterization of the Virgin.

In the exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art conservation scientist Barbara Berrie and art historian Louisa C. Matthew of Union College present their research findings about the famous “Venetian palette” and its extraordinary luminosity.  The Venetian glass industry, centered on the island Murano in the Venetian lagoon, flourished in the late 15th century.  According to Matthew and Berrie, painters obtained pigments of superior quality from “color sellers,” and added pulverized glass to lend added brilliance to the hues in their pictures.

Curators, Catalogue, and Related Activities

The exhibition curators are David Alan Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish painting at the National Gallery of Art, and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, curator of Italian Renaissance paintings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  In addition to the curators, an outstanding group of specialists in Venetian Renaissance art have contributed to the catalogue, including Jaynie Anderson, University of Melbourne; Deborah Howard, Cambridge University; Peter Humfrey, University of St Andrews; and Mauro Lucco, Università degli Studi di Bologna.  The fully illustrated catalogue will be published in English, German, and Italian. Early support for planning and research for the exhibition was provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

Visit The National Gallery of Art at : http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/index.shtm

Retrospective of Bill Brandt's Photography at Boca Raton Museum

Friday, 23 June 2006 10:16

Boca Raton, FL - British master photographer Bill Brandt’s wide ranging work is explored in a comprehensive exhibition, Bill Brandt: A Retrospective, on view at the Boca Raton Museum of Art from June 28 through August 27, 2006.

From Brandt’s early work that documents fixed social contrasts of pre-World War II life in Britain to his later experimentation with a surreal style, this exhibition spans 50 years of Brandt’s far reaching career in an extensive assemblage of 155 vintage gelatin silver prints from the Bill Brandt Archive in London.  Brandt’s vision, unconfined by easy categories, extends from photojournalism to moody, atmospheric landscapes to stark, revealing portraiture to high-contrast nudes, distorted with very wide-angle lenses.

Read more: [[Retrospective of Bill Brandt's Photography at Boca Raton Museum]]

Artistic Siblings at Centre For Fine Arts Brussels

Friday, 23 June 2006 10:39

Brussels, Belgium - The Centre For Fine Arts Brussels presents Family Affairs - Brothers and Sisters in Art, on view through September 10, 2006.  In collaboration with Munich's Haus der Kunst, the Centre for Fine Arts takes a look at sibling relationships in the domain of artistic creation.

The artistic destiny of members of the same family would seem, to some extent, to bear out a determinist view.  The exhibition opens with the eighth century (Herline and Relinde in the convent of Maaseik) and takes in the great schools of painting in modern times before concluding with the 21st century. 

The main focus is on painting and drawing, without neglecting sculpture, design, music, cinema, and video.  Some of the artists concerned are major figures: the brothers Jan and Pieter Brueghel, Johannes, Ambrosius and Abraham Bosschaert, Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo, Giorgio De Chirico and Alberto Savinio, Marcel and Suzanne Duchamp, Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Koen and Frank Theys, L.A. Raeven.  The rivalry that could be expected to emerge among such artistic siblings does not seem to have affected them.  Indeed, collaboration often develops in a spirit of fraternity, with the pairs in question functioning as one unit and producing work in common - hence the title of the exhibition: Family Affairs.

Morris Museum Presents Art by John R. Grabach

Friday, 23 June 2006 11:04

Morristown, NJ - The Morris Museum exhibits the exquisite works of New Jersey artist John R. Grabach in the exhibition John R. Grabach: Century Man, on view from June 27 – September 17, 2006.  This exhibition consists of 40 works, including oil paintings, rare drawings and watercolors, many of which have not been viewed publicly in over 60 years.  The Morris Museum is pleased to loan Sailing Off the Cape from its own permanent collection to this traveling exhibition.

John R. Grabach was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts in 1880.  At an early age Grabach achieved a remarkable degree of success.  At 21, his painting December Day was accepted at The National Academy of Design Winter Exhibition where it received a favorable mention by critics.

Read more: [[Morris Museum Presents Art by John R. Grabach]]

Heckscher Museum Shows Survey of Arthur Dove Watercolors

Written by Peter Carleton Monday, 29 November 2010 21:13

Huntington, New York – The Heckscher Museum of Art will present an important exhibition of watercolors by Arthur Dove from July 11 through September 3, 2006.  Organized by the Alexandre Gallery, located at 41 East 57^th Street in Manhattan, in association with the Heckscher Museum of Art, “Arthur Dove Watercolors” offers a comprehensive survey of the best examples of the artist’s watercolors from 1930 through the mid-1940s, with particular emphasis on his works from the mid-1930s through the early 1940s.

Long regarded as a pioneer of American Modernism, Dove first explored the medium of watercolor on Long Island – down New York Avenue in Halesite – where he lived for nine years with his life companion and second wife, the artist Helen Torr. 

Read more: [[Heckscher Museum Shows Survey of Arthur Dove Watercolors]]

DeCordova Museum Shows 'Big Bang! Abstract Painting'

Written by Ronald Wilson Monday, 13 September 2010 22:31

LINCOLN, MA — Abstract painting is not dead!  Big Bang! Abstract Painting for the 21st Century heralds the revitalization of non-representational painting for a new century.  This thematic group exhibition features works by fifteen contemporary artists active in the Northeast whose imagery is informed by computer technology, cosmology, quantum physics, information theory, genetics, neurology, complexity theory, remote sensing, and other ways of analyzing, representing, and processing vast amounts of ever-shifting and morphing data.  The paintings in Big Bang! surge with energy, explode with color, and immerse viewers in parallel universes of stunning visual experience and sheer imagination.  And despite the insistent references to science and the digital world, each artwork is completely painted by hand, juxtaposing cutting-edge and age-old technologies.  On exhibition 20 January until 22 April, 2007.

Read more: [[DeCordova Museum Shows 'Big Bang! Abstract Painting']]

Maria Friberg Shows at Conner Contemporary Art

Tuesday, 09 January 2007 14:58

Washington, DC - Conner Contemporary Art is pleased to present embedded, a new series by prominent Swedish artist Maria Friberg in her third solo show with the gallery.  In a video triptych and still photographs Friberg deepens her celebrated exploration of constructs of masculine power to create a pictorial allegory of the relationship between nature and human culture in the contemporary world.

Read more: [[Maria Friberg Shows at Conner Contemporary Art]]