The Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair comes to Baltimore April 28th

Written by Alice Mortimer Saturday, 14 April 2012 02:32

Baltimore, Maryland.- This spring, take a closer look at prints by leading contemporary artists and innovators in printmaking when the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) brings 20 presses, printers, and galleries from around the U.S. for the Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair on Saturday, April 28th 11 a.m.–6 p.m., and Sunday, April 29th 12–6 p.m. This biennial event provides new and established collectors the opportunity to peruse and purchase limited editions, single prints, portfolios, photographs, and drawings by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Faith Ringgold, Richard Serra, and Kiki Smith. Visitors are also encouraged to take advantage of the museum’s intimate and informal setting to talk with artists, curators, and printers to learn more about contemporary art and printmaking techniques. Additionally, the Print Fair weekend includes a talk with acclaimed artist Trenton Doyle Hancock, a lecture by the founders of Printeresting.org, and the presentation of the sixth Artist & Editions Award. Tickets are $10 per person for one day or $15 per person for both days, and free for BMA Members. Students and teachers are free with valid ID at the door. Proceeds from the Print Fair are used to acquire contemporary works on paper for the BMA’s collection.


Vendors participating in this year’s event include: Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (New York, NY); Brodsky Center at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ); Carolina Nitsch (New York, NY); Carroll and Sons (Boston, MA); Clay Street Press (Cincinnati, OH); David Krut Projects (Johannesburg, South Africa and New York, NY); Durham Press (Durham, PA); Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moysant Weyl (New York, NY); Goya Contemporary & Goya-Girl Press (Baltimore, MD); Graphicstudio–USF (Tampa, FL); Harlan & Weaver (New York, NY); Highpoint Editions (Minneapolis, MN); Jim Kempner Fine Art (New York, NY); Manneken Press (Bloomington, IL); Paulson Bott Press (Berkeley, CA); Shark’s Ink (Lyons, CO); Tamarind Institute (Albuquerque, NM); Tandem Press (Madison, WI); Universal Limited Art Editions (Bay Shore, NY); and Western Exhibitions (Chicago, IL).

New this year! Look for a special Print Fair poster designed by Trenton Doyle Hancock and produced by students from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) using the archives of the famed Globe Poster Company. The Globe Poster Company created iconic posters for vaudeville, rock ‘n roll, and R&B acts for 80 years using wood type and wood and metal cuts before closing and selling their materials to MICA. In addition, a limited-edition benefit print will be created by Trenton Doyle Hancock. Sales of the print will benefit the BMA’s acquisition funds and MICA.


The Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair is presented by the BMA’s Print, Drawing & Photograph Society. The BMA’s Print, Drawing & Photograph Society fosters the appreciation, collecting, and study of prints, drawings, and photographs. PDPS sponsors lectures by curators, critics, and artists, and schedules trips to special exhibitions and private collections. Through the generosity of its members, PDPS provides support for programs and acquisitions of the BMA’s Department of Prints, Drawings & Photographs. Visit the museum's website at ... http://artbma.org

The Art Gallery of New South Wales to exhibit "Australian Symbolism ~ The Art of Dreams"

Written by Keith Partington Saturday, 14 April 2012 02:18

Sydney, Australia. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is proud to present "Australian Symbolism: The Art of Dreams", on view at the gallery from May 11th through July 29th. "Australian Symbolism" is the first major exhibition to explore the influence of the Symbolist movement on Australian art at the turn of the nineteenth century. While Australian painting from this period is known for its depiction of the landscape as a national emblem, figures of fantasy and mythology also gained an increasing presence in art at this time, reflecting the impact on Australian artists of the Symbolist movement flourishing in Europe. In Paris in 1886 poet Jean Moréas published a manifesto eloquently describing the Symbolists’ aim as to ‘clothe the idea in sensuous form’ and to turn the artistic gaze inwards to register the terrains of the imagination, dreams and desires. By the 1880s Symbolism could be identified across the visual arts, literature, music and theatre.

Australian Symbolism: the art of dreams features 70 paintings, sculptures, photographs and decorative art objects that showcase the diversity of Australian artistic responses to Symbolist themes and ideas. Works by some of the era’s most well known artists are included, such as Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts, Rupert Bunny, Sydney Long, Bertram Mackennal and George Lambert. The exhibition investigates two main streams of Symbolist art in Australia: works by artists who trained or lived overseas and drew directly from European Symbolist genres; and works by artists in Australia who referenced Symbolism to define a local experience.


In Paris in the 1890s Rupert Bunny’s Pastoral c1893 and Abbey Alston’s The Golden Age 1893 were acclaimed at the Salon and depict Arcadian dream worlds with figures transfixed by music. Another Salon work, Bertram Mackennal’s exceptional life-size sculpture Circe 1892–93, portrays the quintessential Symbolist femme fatale and is a direct outcome of the sculptor’s experiences in Paris. While Australian expatriates in France painted European idylls as dreams of a modern Arcadia, artists working in Australia were similarly adopting Symbolist subjects to redefine the environment in terms of a spiritual reading of place. With suggestions of dreams, legends and mythologies, and depictions of personified elements of nature, Symbolism inspired artists to characterise a poetic rather than material reality. Charles Conder was one of the most influential Symbolist artists in Australia and his work appealed directly to his fellow painters, especially Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. Conder’s Symbolist painting Hot wind 1889, in which he depicts nature in the guise of a treacherous woman, will be displayed alongside Streeton’s painting Spirit of the drought c1896, in which the influence of Conder is evident in the form a nymph descending from a parched hilltop to administer her powers of destruction. Of all the Australian artists influenced by Symbolism, Sydney Long is perhaps the most well known and loved. Two seminal works by Long – Spirit of the plains 1897 and Pan 1898 – are included in the show. Rarely seen together, these works are key achievements of Symbolist expression and show Long’s use of Art Nouveau stylisation to portray an emotionally charged and mythologically enhanced Australian environment. Denise Mimmocchi, a curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW, is curator of Australian Symbolism: the art of dreams and author of the accompanying book, the first publication devoted to the subject of Australian Symbolism. The richly illustrated book will be available from the Gallery Shop and online for $35, and selected bookstores nationally for $45.


Established in 1874, the Art Gallery of NSW is proud to present fine international and Australian art in one of the most beautiful art museums in the world. We aim to be a place of experience and inspiration, through our collection, exhibitions, programs and research. Modern and contemporary works are displayed in expansive, light-filled spaces, offering stunning views of Sydney and the harbour, while the splendid Grand Courts are home to a distinguished collection of colonial and 19th-century Australian works and European old masters. There are also dedicated galleries celebrating the arts of Asia and Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander art. Alongside our permanent collection are regularly changing temporary exhibitions – more than 30 each year – including flagship annual exhibitions such as the Archibald Prize and ARTEXPRESS. One of the most popular art museums in Australia, visited by over 1.3 million people annually, the Gallery is far more than just a destination for looking at pictures. It’s also a place to enjoy lectures and symposia, films, music and performances, meet friends for a meal or coffee in the cafe or restaurant, or browse in the Gallery Shop. The gallery's range of access programs is aimed at engaging diverse audiences with different needs. And more than 100 000 students visit each year to take part in our engaging and stimulating education programs. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum shows Andrea Dezsö ~ Haunted Ridgefield

Written by Conrad Butterfield Sunday, 29 April 2012 21:54

RIDGEFIELD, CT.- The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to announce the opening of Andrea Dezsö: Haunted Ridgefield—the latest installment of the Museum’s popular Main Street Sculpture Project—featuring folklore, fantasies, and fears. The Transylvania-born artist’s site-specific exhibition at The Aldrich showcases her skill in traditional, labor intensive, hand-crafted book-making, and will take the form of a diorama, in which a series of cut-out panels will reveal layers of a hallucinatory narrative featuring fantasy worlds and idiosyncratic characters.

Read more: [[The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum shows Andrea Dezsö ~ Haunted Ridgefield]]

The Ukrainian Museum to feature "A Singular Vision ~ Ilona Sochynsky"

Written by Gerald Macmillan Friday, 13 April 2012 20:50

New York City.— "A Singular Vision: Ilona Sochynsky, Retrospective of Painting", a comprehensive exhibition of more than 50 paintings, including many largescale works from all phases of the artist's development, opens to the public on May 13th and will be on view through October 7th at the Ukrainian Museum in New York. Ilona Sochynsky’s painting career, entering its fourth decade, presents an oeuvre of visual beauty, intelligence, intensity and complexity. At its core, it is a profoundly personal journey of discovery. Her earliest paintings explore the imagery of Pop Art (she was especially drawn to the works of James Rosenquist) and Photorealism, a movement prominent in the 1970s. She responded to the latter’s hyperrealism and its subject matter of cars, motorcycles and street scenes, which she reinterpreted in her work to extraordinary effect.These works are at once exhuberant and complex in their formal presentation and in their content. They are, as well, among the artist's most compelling images. To engage them is to discover the richness of the creative process.

Read more: [[The Ukrainian Museum to feature "A Singular Vision ~ Ilona Sochynsky"]]

Granville Fine Art shows New Works by Janice Robertson

Written by Campbell McWhirter Saturday, 14 April 2012 00:27

Vancouver, British Columbia.- Granville Fine Art is pleased to present "New Works by Janice Robertson" on view at the gallery from April 14th through April 19th. There will be an opening reception with the artist on Saturday April 14th from 1 to 4pm, and the artist will give a demonstration starting at 1pm. Janice Robertson was born on Vancouver Island in 1952, into a family with a long history of women artists. She lives in the historic village of Fort Langley, BC with her artist husband, Alan Wylie. Janice launched her career as a professional artist in 1989. She has received many awards including the Foreign Award in the Houston Watercolor Society’s Exhibition in Texas in 2004, the William and Margaret Foley Award in the Adirondacks National Exhibition of Watercolors in 2008, and she has won the Bronze Medal three times in the Federation of Canadian Artists Annual Signature Members exhibition. Janice is a signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Landscape Artists International and the Northwest Watercolor Society.

Read more: [[Granville Fine Art shows New Works by Janice Robertson]]

The National Museum of Wildlife Art to show “Bob Kuhn ~ Drawing on Instinct”

Written by Ellen Froelich Saturday, 14 April 2012 00:00

Jackson Hole, Wyoming.- A lifelong student of drawing, the late great wildlife artist Bob Kuhn left behind more than 5,000 studies in his studio after his death in 2007.  Now a new retrospective, “Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct,” opening May 10th at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, mines that amazing record dating back to his youthful sketching at the Buffalo Zoo to explore the artistic process behind Kuhn’s masterful work. The exhibition will be on display at the museum through August 19th, and then travel to the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia, the Sam Noble Museum at the University of Oklahoma, and the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block.

Read more: [[The National Museum of Wildlife Art to show “Bob Kuhn ~ Drawing on Instinct”]]

The Metropoilitan Museum of Art to host Chinese Prints from the British Museum

Written by Karen Marshall Friday, 13 April 2012 21:05

New York City.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art will showcase some of the finest and most celebrated prints ever produced in China in the special exhibition "The Printed Image in China, 8th-21st Century", opening May 5th and on view through July 29th. The more than 130 works on view will be drawn from the full range of the Chinese print collection at the British Museum — one of the most comprehensive such collections outside Asia. The exhibition will survey the evolution of the art of Chinese printing, from the time of its inception around the early eighth century through its burgeoning as an artistic medium in the 17th century and its continued vitality as a medium for both popular culture and political commentary in the 20th century.

Works on view will include Buddhist prints from the Silk Road, the earliest example of multiple block color printing, striking anti-war images from the Modern Woodcut Movement, and contemporary prints by acclaimed artists. As the first exhibition of this scope to survey the Chinese print, it will offer the visitor an opportunity to glimpse China’s past from a fresh perspective. Printing on paper is believed to have been invented in China around 700 A.D., establishing China as the country with the longest history of printing in the world. Organized in roughly chronological order, the exhibition will explore various aspects of Chinese pictorial printmaking including production techniques, aesthetic principles, and cultural context.


Highlights of the exhibition will include a woodblock image of Avalokiteshvara from the ninth century that was recovered from the desert oasis of Dunhuang. Depicting the deity of infinite compassion, it is a rare example of a printed text and image with hand-tinted color. The image is framed by dark blue mounts, also printed, that make the piece resemble a hanging scroll. The first picture collection in China to be printed in color is a deluxe set of books dating to around 1633 called the Ten Bamboo Studio Collection. The British Museum edition is one of the earliest versions known. A unique feature of the exhibition will be popular prints, such as Flower Basket, that can be dated with certainty to before 1750 because they were collected by the British Museum’s founder Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). The exhibition will also include politically charged works created by artists of the Modern Woodcut Movement. Among them is a powerful image executed by a leader of the group, Li Hua (1907-1994), entitled Struggle (1947) from his series Raging Tide; it exemplifies the iconic images Li created to bring about a more democratic China. The exhibition will also include Struggle on the Front Line (1974); created toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, this print highlights the “Red Chinese” communist party’s insistence on ever greater demonstrations of loyalty—the caption reads “The Furnace Fire is Even Redder.” In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of education programs will be offered, including gallery talks; a special Met Escapes hands-on printmaking workshop for visitors suffering from dementia and their care partners; and a lecture on May 11th by Clarissa von Spee, curator of Chinese and Central Asian collections, Department of Asia, The British Museum, on the collection and its history. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by the British Museum.


The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially The Met) contains more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, is one of the world's largest art galleries; there is also a much smaller second location, at "The Cloisters", in Upper Manhattan, which features medieval art. Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue. Today, the Met measures almost 1/4-mile (400 m) long and occupies more than 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2). The Met's permanent collection is cared for and exhibited by seventeen separate curatorial departments, each with a specialized staff of curators and scholars, as well as four dedicated conservation departments and a department of scientific research. Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine and Islamic art. After negotiations with the City of New York in 1871, the Met was granted the land between the East Park Drive, Fifth Avenue, and the 79th and 85th Street Transverse Roads in Central Park. A red-brick and stone "mausoleum" was designed by American architect Calvert Vaux and his collaborator Jacob Wrey Mould. Vaux's ambitious building was not well-received; the building's High Victorian Gothic style being already dated prior to completion, and the president of the Met termed the project "a mistake." Within 20 years, a new architectural plan engulfing the Vaux building was already being executed. Since that time, many additions have been made including the distinctive Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue facade, Great Hall, and Grand Stairway. These were designed by architect and Met trustee Richard Morris Hunt, but completed by his son, Richard Howland Hunt in 1902 after his father's death. The wings that completed the Fifth Avenue facade in the 1910s were designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White. The modernistic sides and rear of the museum were the work of Roche, Dinkeloo, and Associates in the 1970s and 1980s. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.metmuseum.org/

Historic Conservation Project by Global Heritage Fund begins at “Machu Picchu of the North”

Written by Alejandro Figueroa Friday, 18 May 2012 23:31

HUAMACHUCO.- If you ask Alejandro Figueroa, Global Heritage Fund Project Site director at Marcahuamachuco what her take on cultural heritage is, she’d say her personal stake in the preservation of this mysterious, ancient site is twofold. “As an archaeologist, I want to see the site protected and prepared to survive… As a Peruvian citizen, I cannot ignore the many needs of my country’s population, and the desire for improving their quality of life…Marcahuamachuco has great potential to…strengthen the bond between people from Huamachuco and their cultural heritage and Peru’s past...”

Read more: [[Historic Conservation Project by Global Heritage Fund begins at “Machu Picchu of the North” ]]

Blain|Di Donna to show "André Masson, The Mythology of Desire ~ Masterworks from 1925 to 1945"

Written by Camile Dupont Friday, 13 April 2012 20:51

New York City.- Blain|Di Donna is delighted to present its second exhibition, "André Masson, The Mythology of Desire: Masterworks from 1925 to 1945", on view at the New York gallery from April 27th through June 15th. Bringing together paintings and works on paper created during one of the most important periods of the artist’s career, this is the largest and most comprehensive survey of Masson’s art to be exhibited in New York since the 1976 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. André Masson was an initial component of the Surrealist movement from 1925-28 (and again in the late 1930s), closely associating with artists and writers such as André Breton, Joan Miró and Georges Bataille. From his early Cubist paintings to his late calligraphic abstract works, Masson’s elusive stylistic developments situate him beyond simple categorization.

Read more: [[Blain|Di Donna to show "André Masson, The Mythology of Desire ~ Masterworks from 1925 to 1945"]]

Elmgreen & Dragset to unveil new Sculptural Mate for Denmark's "Little Mermaid"

Written by Caroline Gooding Friday, 13 April 2012 20:23

LONDON.- This Summer, Denmark’s national icon – The Little Mermaid – has a new male counterpart. Situated on the harbour in the city of Elsinore, Han is the latest sculptural project by duo Elmgreen & Dragset, the artists behind the current Fourth Plinth sculpture in Trafalgar Square, London. Han depicts a young man positioned on a stone by the seaside - just like his famous “sister” The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. The new sculpture has been created in contemporary materials: both the male figure and the stone have been cast in polished stainless steel, mirroring the surroundings in the sculpture’s curved surface thereby creating a distorted imagery reminiscent of a psychedelic aesthetic. With true Elmgreen & Dragset chicanery and courtesy of a hydraulic mechanism, the eyes of the sculpture will close for a split second once every hour – just one blink – before it becomes a traditional static statue once more.

Read more: [[Elmgreen & Dragset to unveil new Sculptural Mate for Denmark's "Little Mermaid"]]

A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, 2005-2011 on view at S.M.A.K.

Written by Claudell Gardner Saturday, 21 April 2012 22:41

GHENT, BELGIUM - The collection is S.M.A.K.’s DNA and reflects the museum’s core identity as the pivot between recent art history and current trends. S.M.A.K.’s acquisition policy has developed organically over the years and has three distinct levels. Firstly, the museum strives to form an ensemble around the oeuvre of a select group of artists. Instead of representing an artist with just a single work, S.M.A.K. aims to collect an oeuvre in depth in order to present it in all its complexity. Secondly, there is a substantial interaction with the temporary exhibitions, which can be seen as the engine of the collection policy. Finally, by acquiring the work of emerging artists the museum attempts to give a major boost to further developing young artistic practices. Thus, through expanding clusters, S.M.A.K. seeks to arrive at constellations which enter into dialogue with each other within the collection.

Read more: [[A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, 2005-2011 on view at S.M.A.K.]]

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

Written by Editor, Art Knowledge News Thursday, 12 April 2012 19:29

This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here .

When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

Milwaukee Art Museum to host the Poster-art of Toulouse-Lautrec & the Paris Belle Époque

Written by Thomas Gladstone Thursday, 12 April 2012 23:27

Milwaukee, Wisconsin.– This summer, the Milwaukee Art Museum transports visitors to nineteenth-century Paris with its feature exhibition, "Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries". Opening on June 1st, and remaining on display through September 9th, the exhibition brings together the finest French examples from the golden age of the poster. Advertising everything from theatre productions to the debaucherous cancan, bicycles to champagne, brightly hued, larger-than-life-size posters with bold typography and playful imagery punctuated the streets of turn-of-the-century Paris. Posters of Paris features more than one hundred of these posters (including a few designs that were originally censored) by artists hailed as masters of the medium: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret, Pierre Bonnard, Alphonse Mucha, and others. These artists drew from an array of styles, from Byzantine and Rococo to Realist and Art Nouveau.

“These works celebrated the dawn of new entertainment, new products, and new technology,” said Mary Weaver Chapin, exhibition curator. “The posters were audacious, colorful, bawdy, and sometimes even profane. Art critics praised the artistic posters for bringing joy and color to daily life and for giving Paris a free ‘museum for the masses,’ ‘an open-air exhibition’ that changed daily as new posters were pasted up,” said Chapin. “Some critics went further, describing the posters as superior to the paintings found in exhibitions.”


Posters were the popular tools for advertising and communication at the time, similar to today’s social media. The arrival of a new poster was newsworthy and could draw a crowd. In some cases, police intervention was required. Billposting itself turned competitive and evolved into public theater, adding to the spectacle one encountered on the streets. “By the 1890s, artistic posters covered the boulevards throughout the city; they were posted on billboards, scaffolding, Morris columns, kiosks, in shop windows, and even pulled through the streets on mobile publicity carts,” said Chapin. “These posters were the object of intense fascination, and the term affichomanie (poster mania) was invented to describe the craze. Paris would not have been Paris without them.” Posters were so popular that collectors stole them from billboards almost as soon as they were pasted up. New markets emerged to meet the demand; posters were both collectors’ items and fashionable home décor. Print dealers started to sell posters and publishers offered subscriptions to portfolios with the most popular images of the day in more manageable, reduced sizes. Posters that found their way into private homes eventually entered the collections of museums all over the world. In addition to the dazzling posters, the exhibition includes rare preparatory studies and maquettes that show how artists developed their designs from the drawing board to the final lithographic poster.


The Milwaukee Art Museum's history began in 1882 when the Milwaukee Museum of Fine Arts was founded. The museum dissolved six years later. In 1888, the Milwaukee Art Association was created by a group of German panorama artists and local businessmen; its first home was the Layton Art Gallery. In 1911, the Milwaukee Art Institute, another building constructed to hold other exhibitions and collections, was completed. The institute was built right next to the Layton Art Gallery. Alfred George Pelikan, who received his Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) from Columbia University, was the Director of the Milwaukee Art Institute from 1926 to 1942. The Milwaukee Art Center (now the Milwaukee Art Museum) was formed when the Milwaukee Art Institute and Layton Art Gallery merged their collections in 1957 and moved into a three-story building underneath the Eero Saarinen-designed Milwaukee County War Memorial. The museum is home to over 25,000 works of art. Its permanent holdings contain an important collection of Old Masters and 19th-century and 20th-century artwork, as well as some of the nation's best collections of German Expressionism, folk and Haitian art, American decorative arts, and post-1960 American art. The museum holds a large number of works by Georgia O'Keeffe, as well as many works by the German Expressionist, Gabriele Munter. Other notable works in the collection includes Fauve paintings by Georges Braque and Maurice de Vlaminck, seminal Expressionist paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Vassily Kandinsky, and magnificent works by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. The MAM recently gained international recognition with the construction of the white concrete Quadracci Pavilion, designed by Santiago Calatrava (his first completed project in the United States), which opened on May 4, 2001. The pavilion was engineered by the Milwaukee-based engineering firm, Graef, while the construction manager was also Milwaukee-based, C.G. Schmidt. The structure contains a movable, wing-like brise soleil which opens up for a wingspan of 217 feet during the day, folding over the tall, arched structure at night or during inclement weather. The brise soleil has since become a symbol for the city of Milwaukee. In addition to a gallery devoted to temporary exhibits, the pavilion houses the museum's store and its restaurant, Cafe Calatrava. The pavilion received the 2004 Outstanding Structure Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. Visit the museum's website at ... http://mam.org

Kunsthal KadE to show "Who More Sci-Fi Than Us ~ Caribbean Art"

Written by Kurt Raddiger Thursday, 12 April 2012 22:52

Amersfoort, Netherlands.- Coming up at Kunsthal KadE, from May 26th through August 26th, is an exhibition entitled "Who More Sci-Fi Than Us: Contemporary Art from the Caribbean". The exhibition is guest curated by Nancy Hoffmann. "Who More Sci-Fi Than Us" features work by a representative selection of contemporary artists from all over the Caribbean, from south (Antilles and Surinam) to north (Cuba and Jamaica) and from west (Costa Rica and Panama) to east (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and every island in between. ‘Who More Sci-Fi Than Us' is a discursive account of the Caribbean that reveals a kind of common culture shared by all the islands. The exhibition also shows the complexity and diversity of the region. In fact, it may actually be quite wrong to talk about ‘the Caribbean’ at all. We don’t want to ‘frame’ the artists in a geographical context but to centre attention on the account of the region.

Read more: [[Kunsthal KadE to show "Who More Sci-Fi Than Us ~ Caribbean Art"]]

Rembrandt self-portrait from Kenwood House now on view in NYC at The MET

Written by Steven Grossman Thursday, 12 April 2012 21:56

NEW YORK, NY.- Kenwood House, the London museum that holds the art collection known as the Iveagh Bequest, is closed for renovations until fall 2013. By special arrangement, Rembrandt’s Portrait of the Artist (ca. 1665), which has never before traveled outside Europe, is on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 20, 2012. This great canvas now hangs next to the Metropolitan Museum’s own Self-Portrait by Rembrandt of 1660, providing a rare opportunity to compare the two works which, although close in date, are utterly different in scale, format, and expression. Both were painted during a period of economic difficulties for the artist. The loan is also an occasion for the Museum to bring together in one gallery the late Rembrandts from the collection, including Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653), Hendricke Stoffels (mid-1650s), The Standard Bearer (1654), and Woman with a Pink (ca. 1660-64).

Read more: [[Rembrandt self-portrait from Kenwood House now on view in NYC at The MET]]

Toy Art Gallery Shows Francesco Molfetta's Pop Fiction Sculpture

Written by Frank Waddington Wednesday, 16 May 2012 21:52

Hollywood, California.- Toy Art Gallery is proud to present “Pop Fiction” by Francesco Molfetta on view until November 4th. Francesco’s sculpture is meticulous and calculating, blending together familiar pop cultural icons and important political and historical figures to create an amalgam of childishness and controversy. Free of spite or bile and filled with appropriations of beloved things from youth, Francesco intertwines hope and happiness with critique and irony.

Read more: [[Toy Art Gallery Shows Francesco Molfetta's Pop Fiction Sculpture]]