Dr. Jens Howoldt presents the painting 'Meadows near Greifswald' by Caspar David Friedrich at Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald, Germany. The painting is on display in the exhibition 'The Birth of Romanticism'running from 28 August to 21 November 2010 that features works of Caspar David Friedrich, Philipp Otto Runge and Friedrich August von Klinkowstroem. EPA/STEFANSAUER.
GREIFSWALD.- Their fathers were said to be appalled by their sons´ decision to become artists. But the three young men, dreaming of a new way to express art, were determined to implement their plans. Ultimately their parents gave way. Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), son of a candle-maker and soap-boiler from Greifswald, Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810), born to a family of shipbuilders, and Friedrich August von Klinkowstrom (1778-1835), descendant of a Prussian officer in Ludwigsburg, would later become the most important painters of the early German Romanticism. Now the Pomeranian National Museum in Greifswald is dedicating an exhibition for the first time to these painters. For three months the museum will exhibit a compilation of 20 paintings and 80 drawings on loan from museums and private collectors from all over Europe for this unique project. The visitor is expected not only to see rarely or never exhibited works and studies, but rather to learn information about the y ... More
A member of the board of the Leopold Museum in Vienna presents Egon Schiele's painting "Portrait of Wally". AP Photo/Hans Punz.
VIENNA (AP).- A painting by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele has been rehung at a Vienna museum after a 12-year possession battle over the artwork stolen by the Nazis. The painting was returned over the weekend after the Leopold Museum agreed to pay $19 million (euro15 million) as part of the settlement. U.S. authorities had refused to return the painting after it was exhibited in New York because heirs of the owners laid a claim to it. The painting was put on display again Monday. Leopold Museum head Peter Weinhaeupl called it a "symbolic day" for the museum. On 20 July 2010, settlement was reached between the Leopold Museum Private Foundation (LMPF) and the Estate of Lea Bondi-Jaray with regard to the painting Portrait of Wally by Egon ... More
Eli Broad, Founder of the Broad Foundation. EPA/RAMIN TALAIE.
LOS ANGELES (AP).- Billionaire Eli Broad has chosen to build a museum for his contemporary art collection in downtown Los Angeles. Broad's announcement Monday came minutes after a panel of local and state officials approved a plan to lease 2.5 acres of county-owned land to Broad. Under the deal, Broad will finance construction of the $80-million to $100-million museum and contribute $200 million toward its operation. He will pay $7.7 million over the course of the 99-year-lease. Broad made his billions as co-founder of developer KB Home and through the sale of insurer SunAmerican. His 2,000-piece collection includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. He was also considering building the museum in Santa Monica. ... More
Staff members of the Mahmud Khalil Modern Art Museum look on a after a statue exhibited at the museum entrance was broken by journalists who had come to cover the theft of a Van Gogh painting. EPA/KHALED EL FIQI.
CAIRO (AP).- Egypt's state news agency reports the country's top prosecutor has ordered a four-day detention of the deputy culture minister over the theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting. Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. None of the museum's alarms and only seven of 43 surveillance cameras were working at the time of the robbery. On Monday, General Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered the four-day-detention of Deputy Culture Minister Mohsen Shalaan, along with four security guards. He accused them of neglect and professional delinquency, ... More
The Impressionist Gardens app includes video and audio specially created to enrich the exhibition experience.
EDINBURGH.-The National Galleries of Scotland launched their first ever iPhone app. Created for the major summer exhibition Impressionist Gardens, it is now free to download from the iTunes store. The Impressionist Gardens app includes video and audio specially created to enrich the exhibition experience, allowing visitors to discover more about the beautiful works on display. In addition an interactive map of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh enables visitors to explore the world of the Impressionists beyond the Gallery’s walls, highlighting six inspiring viewpoints which echo some of the works on show. Visitors are also able to see the programme of Impressionist Gardens events in the app calendar. The highlight of the 2010 summer season at the National Gallery Complex is a ground-breaking exhibition on the subject of paintings of Impressionist Gardens. This major international exhibition of around 100 works i ... More
Richard Serra, “Opéra Comique“, 1990. Lithograph on Vélin d’Arches, 192 x 133 cm. Signed, dated and numbered 12/22.
ZURICH.- On Thursday, 26 August 2010, the art galleries to the left of the river Limmat celebrate the opening of the season with big names and big works. Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie start off with the American artist Richard Serra (b. 1939 San Francisco). In the rooms of g27, six large-format prints from a rarely available edition will be presented to a Zurich audience for the first time. Though his prints are less well known than his steel sculptures, Richard Serra manages to translate the weight and monumentality of his three-dimensional work onto paper. The powerful interplay of statics and dynamics, of balance and proportion that characterises Serra's steel plate objects, determines also the artist's graphic work, albeit in a reduced and compacted form that reaches beyond the confines of the paper. Determined by their sheer size, the prints tower above the viewer. Also in two dimensions, Serra's works appear ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- As American artists rebelled against the academic art and aristocratic portraiture that predominated at the turn of the twentieth century, they began looking to modern life for their subject matter. One of central figures in this dramatic shift was Edward Hopper, whose work is exhibited in relation to his most important contemporaries in Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time, opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art on October 28, 2010. Placing Hopper beside such artists as Robert Henri, William Glackens, John Sloan, George Ault, Guy Pène du Bois, George Bellows, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Charles Demuth, Ralston Crawford, Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, Charles Burchfield, Ben Shahn, Lisette Model, Thomas Hart Benton, and Reginald ... More
DALLAS, TX.-The Dallas Museum of Art will present a significant look at African visual culture through African Masks: The Art of Disguise, a new exhibition of approximately seventy works of art exploring the highly developed and enduring art of the African mask and revealing their timeless beauty, function, and meaning. Centered on the DMA’s distinguished collection of African art, acclaimed as one of the top five of its kind in the United States and which has set precedents since its inception 40 years ago, African Masks: The Art of Disguise features several works of art from the Museum’s collection that will be displayed for the first time. Significant works from other museum and private collections are also included in the exhibition. African masks serve as supports for the spirit of deities, ancestors and culture heroes, which may be personified as human or animal, or a composite. Masked performances, he ... More
Van Gogh painting entitled 'Poppy Flowers´. EPA/MAHMUD KHALIL MUSEUM.
By: Hadeel Al-Shalchi,Associated Press Writer
CAIRO (AP).- None of the alarms and only seven out of 43 surveillance cameras were working at a Cairo museum where a Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen, Egypt's top prosecutor said Sunday. Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital. Prosecutor general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud told Egypt's state news agency Sunday that the thieves used a box cutter to remove the painting from its frame. He blamed the theft on the museum's lax security measures, calling them "for the most part feeble and superficial." He said the museum guards' daily rounds at closing time were inadequate and did not meet minimum security requirements to protect internationally renowned works of art. Mahmoud also said his office had warned Egypt's museums to implement stricter security controls ... More
Torii Kiyomine (active ca. 1810–1820), Beauty Tying a Hair Ribbon. Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15⅛ by 10⅛ in. (38.4 by 25.7 cm)
NEW YORK, NY.- A robust panorama of traditional Japanese fine arts will be on view at the galleries of six leading dealers this Fall, including rarely seen 12th century Kyozo, or mirrors bearing drawings of gods, imperial screens once part of the furnishings of Edo Castle, and strikingly modern works from the Taisho Period (1912-26). Sebastian Izzard LLC will feature a selection of paintings, woodblock prints, and illustrated books in their annual exhibition of fine ukiyo-e to be held during Asia Week in New York this September. The show will feature a range of images of beauties, actors, landscapes, and bird and flower subjects from the 18th and 19th centuries. Paintings by Edo period masters such as Kaigetsudō Dohan, Tōsendō Rifu, Hosoda Eishi, and Utagawa Toyokuni will be exhibited and will include a rare painting by an amateur artist of the late 18th century, Aoki Masatada, depicting Hanaogi IV, dating from ca. 1794. A fine example of Utamaro’s “The ... More
Yoshitomo Nara. The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand, 1991. Acrylic on cotton. H. 59 1/16 x W. 55 1/8 in. (150 x 140 cm). Courtesy Johnen Galerie. Image courtesy Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo and Johnen Galerie, Berlin.
NEW YORK, NY.-Park Avenue Armory, in collaboration with Asia Society Museum, will host an open studio with Yoshitomo Nara and his collaborative team, YNG. In the Armory’s soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, Nara and YNG will reconstruct the large-scale installation work Home, which will include a display of Nara’s drawings and other objects. Nara will also establish a temporary studio adjacent to the drill hall, to create new drawings and other works while the team works on the reconstruction. The Armory will open its doors from 4pm until 7pm on Monday, August 23 through Friday, August 27 so the general public can witness the creative process of the artist and his team. Once the open studio period has concluded, the reconstructed Home and Nara’s new works will be transported to the Armory’s Upper East Side neighbor, ... More
Visitors choose traditional Chinese character type casts at Ri Xing Type Foundry in Taipei. AP Photo/Wally Santana.
By: Diana Jou, Associated Press Writer
TAIPEI (AP).- Hunched over a metal casting machine, Chang Chieh-kuan carefully guides a tiny copper mold into a hydraulic press. Seconds later he extracts a piece of lead type with the Chinese character for "happiness." That's one down, thousands more to go in a last-ditch effort by this 58-year-old craftsman to rescue the millennium-old world of Chinese lead type from the advance of the digital age. Chang's foundry is one of the last making traditional Chinese characters the old way. It's time-consuming and labor-intensive, but Chang says it brings out the grandeur of the characters. "Lead type makes an impression on paper that digital printing cannot," he said. "It allows people to feel the weight and power of the character." In an age when Chinese can text and tweet in their native script, and at a time when China has just surpassed ... More
Paolo Veronese, Portrait of a Man, c. 1555. Oil on canvas, 120 x 102 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
LONDON.- This September the Royal Academy of Arts will present an exhibition of works which will showcase the breadth and wealth of one of the finest collections in Central Europe. The exhibition will feature over 200 works and will include paintings, drawings and sculpture from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century. Selected works by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, El Greco, Rubens, Goya, Manet, Monet, Schiele, Gauguin and Picasso will be on display, many of which have not previously been shown in the UK. The exhibition comprises works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, with additional key loans from the Hungarian National Gallery. The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest houses the state collection of international art works in Hungary and includes the Esterházy collection, acquired by the Hungarian state in 1871. The collection began in the seventeenth century but expanded during the ... More
Quote Nothing is less clear than geometry. Willem de Kooning
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Countdown to Auctions America Debut in Auburn AUBURN, IND.-Auctions America by RM officially opens its gates to the upgraded Auburn Auction Park on Wednesday, September 1st for a free public preview of the facility and the auction cars as it gears up for its inaugural ‘Auburn Fall Collector Car Auction’, scheduled for September 2-5, 2010. An incredibly rare and immensely collectible 1934 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Sedan by Rollston leads the lineup of over 800 quality motor cars already consigned. Auctions America is also pleased to be presenting select automobiles and motorcycles from the estate of Mr. John O’Quinn. Featured lots exhibiting the breadth of the cars on offer Labor Day weekend include: a 1907 Alldays and Onions Roadster; a 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Saloon by Weymann; a 1958 Dodge Coronet Super D 500 Convertible, a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS6 Convertible; a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible; and a 2002 Bentley Azure Convertible. ... More
Chinati Foundation Names Dr. Thomas Kellein as Director MARFA, TX.-The Chinati Foundation announced the appointment of Dr. Thomas Kellein as its next director. An accomplished art historian, curator, and museum director, Dr. Kellein, who will assume his duties in January 2011, succeeds Dr. Marianne Stockebrand, who earlier this year announced her retirement after serving as the museum's director since 1994. Dr. Stockebrand will assume the role of Director Emeritus. Founded by artist Donald Judd in 1986, the Chinati Foundation is located in Marfa, Texas on 340 acres of land in the high Chihuahuan desert that once comprised U. S. Army Fort D. A. Russell. The museum exhibits permanent installations of Judd's work as well as important installations by John Chamberlain, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Ilya Kabakov, John Wesley, David Rabinowitch, and Roni Horn. The selection of Dr. Kellein completes a six-month international search for the ... More
Art Fair Tokyo Announces New Organizational Structure TOKYO.- Since the appointment of Takahiro Kaneshima as Executive Director of ART FAIR TOKYO on June 1, 2010, the ART FAIR TOKYO Committee has been going through a process of restructuring with renewed focus being given to Tokyo’s role as a city within Asia. The PROJECTS Artistic Committee, which consists of four collectors and arts professionals from Japan and other countries in East Asia, was established in order to strengthen the fair’s foundation in its region. The creation of this committee represents the first attempt to make a fair in Asia that really represents Asia as a whole. We expect that it will enhance the fair’s appeal to the global market significantly. Meanwhile, at the conclusion of ART FAIR TOKYO 2010, Atsuko Koyanagi (GALLERY KOYANAGI) and Shugo Satani (ShugoArts) stepped down as members of the fair’s Art Committee, in which they had served tirelessly since the ... More
VIP Art Fair: The First Art Fair to Launch in January Exclusively Online NEW YORK, NY.- VIP Art Fair, the first art fair to mobilize the collective force of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries with the unlimited reach of the Internet, announces its inaugural fair taking place exclusively online for one week only, January 22-30, 2011, at www.vipartfair.com. An unprecedented event, VIP Art Fair gives contemporary art collectors access to artworks by critically acclaimed artists and the ability to connect one-on-one with internationally renowned dealers—from anywhere in the world and without leaving home. “For anyone passionate about art, the Fair is a transformative experience: it delivers all the excitement of world-class art fairs with the convenience and personalization of the Internet,” said James Cohan, co-founder of VIP Art Fair in collaboration with Jane Cohan, Jonas Almgren and Alessandra ... More
Anne Noble: At the End of the Earth Opens at Stills Gallery in Sydney SYDNEY.- At the End of the Earth continues Anne Noble's fascination with the continent of Antarctica. White Lanterns showed at Stills Gallery in May 2006. This work depicted the surreal way the Antarctic was portrayed in museums and research centres around the world and tapped into our fascination with this vast place. At the End of the Earth takes a similarly oblique approach in its refusal to romanticise the landscape, by focussing on manmade interventions into the pristine terrain. The work comprises three series of images made in the summer of 2008. Central to the installation are six large photographs of piss poles, taken at various US research locations. Yellow pee flags are a common sight in many remote field camps in Antarctica. They have a utilitarian function yet these images take on the appearance of abstract paintings. ... More
Resounding Success at this Year's Art Nocturne Knocke KNOKKE-HEIST.- This year’s 35th edition of the prestigious art and antiques fair Art Nocturne Knocke was a resounding success. No fewer than 11,950 art and antiques lovers flocked to the fair at the Belgian coastal resort of Knokke last week. Antiques dealers and most art galleries did good business and the public were exceedingly enthusiastic about the offered art works and their presentation. The fair included the beautiful ‘La Chaumière Sous Les Arbres’ (‘The cottage under the trees’) by Van Gogh from 1885. The painting was first exhibited by Kunsthandel Frans Jacobs of Amsterdam this spring at the influential TEFAF Maastricht art and antiques fair in the Netherlands. At Art Nocturne Knocke the same gallery sold the painting to a Belgian couple for close to the asking price of €2,750,000. With over ten thousand acquisitive art lovers over recent years, Art Nocturne Knocke has ... More
LA Unveils $578M School, Costliest in the Nation, Fine Art Murals Included LOS ANGELES (AP).- Next month's opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever. The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of "Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities. "There's no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the '70s where kids felt, 'Oh, back to jail,'" said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. "Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really ... More
Group Exhibition of 8 Korean Media Artists to Open at Gallery Hyundai SEOUL.-Gallery Hyundai presents "Powerhouse", a group exhibition of 8 Korean media artists. The show offers glimpses into the unique world of Korean contemporary artists who are representing the present status of Korean media art recognized both in and out of Korea. From the founder of video art Nam June Paik up to Park, Hyun-Ki, who combined technology and oriental ideology, to internationally known Korean media artists like Beom Kim, Joonho Jeon, Kyungwon MOON, Uram Choe, Junebum Park, Yongseok Oh, will participate in this show. Nam June Paik is with no doubt the founder of video art who invented TV and video as a new era of art. He overcame the limits of medium in art and foresaw that technology will rule the world. Park, Hyun-Ki is known as the 1st generation of Korean media artist. His works make the spectator feel the practical sense of reality without the medium's ideological interpretation. Beom Kim shows the co ... More
New Orleans to Remember Hurricane Katrina with Richard Misrach Exhibition NEW ORLEANS, LA.- In honor of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) hosts a weekend of events, all of which are free and open to the public. American photographer Richard Misrach will premiere an exhibition: UNTITLED [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005]: Photographs by Richard Misrach. The exhibition will be open to the public starting on Saturday, August 28, at 10 a.m. in NOMA's first floor Bay Gallery. Saturday evening is a members-only reception with the artist. The exhibition will be on display until October 24, 2010. Sunday, August 29, Misrach will host a public lecture on his exhibition in the Stern Auditorium at 2 p.m. After the event, he will be signing his catalogues in the Museum Shop. HBO's Grammy-nominated series Treme will screen in the Stern Auditorium on Saturday and Sunday. Misrach's 69 photographs ... More
New Installation by Trenton Doyle Hancock Takes Over the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park SEATTLE, WA.- For over a decade, Houston-based artist Trenton Doyle Hancock has developed a dramatic narrative featuring a cast of colorful – and often not so colorful – characters, who populate a wildly fantastic invented landscape. Through paintings, works on paper, sculptures and performance, Hancock’s fiction has become an epic saga chronicling the peace-loving Mounds and the often vindictive Vegans, who have lost their ability to see in color. The artist recounts tales of these figures through vivid imagery that reaches mythological proportion and shows evidence of wide-ranging artistic influences, including comics, graphic novels, cartoons and a variety of films and painting traditions. Opening August 28, 2010, Hancock’s site specific, immersive installation A Better Promise at the Olympic Sculpture Park continues his imaginative tale. The new work features a 25 foot aluminum hand sculpture suspended like a mobile from the PACCAR Pavilion’s ceili ... More
5-minute guided art meditation: Roelandt Savery's 'Orpheus'
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Flashback
On a day like today, French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson was born
September 22, 1908. Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 - August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" or "life reportage" style that has influenced generations of photographers who followed. In this image: A man looks at images at the opening of a photo exhibit Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004, at The Museum of The City of New York, which features the work of photographers from the Magnum photo agency. At right is Harlem,1947 (Easter Sunday) by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
