NEW YORK.-The Art Show, America's most prestigious art fair, has announced an outstanding list of exhibitors for 2006, comprising top art galleries from across the country. Seventy of the nation's leading art dealers will participate in The Art Show from February 23 - 27, 2006, at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City. Organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) for the 18 th year, the show will feature museum-quality works in diverse genres, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs and ceramics from the 19th century to the 21st century. The Art Show Gala Preview on February 22nd, 2006, will benefit Henry Street Settlement, one of New York City's best-known and most effective social services and arts agencies.

"For 2006, we have once again struck the right balance between established contemporary and Modern artists," noted Richard Solomon, President of both the ADAA and Pace Prints. "The 2005 Art Show was attended by a markedly younger audience, and met with an enthusiastic reception. It was considered by many to be the most diverse, and exciting Art Show in years."

"The increased participation of contemporary dealers in The Art Show 2005 drew rave reviews from the media and collectors alike. At the same time, we are highlighting the diversity of the association which is its greatest asset," said Roland Augustine, Chair of The Art Show Committee and partner in Luhring Augustine. "The range of these 70 galleries under one roof provides clear evidence of the dynamism of the Art Dealers Association of America, upon which the resounding critical success of The Art Show is founded."

Richard Solomon also noted: "Collectors consistently look forward to The Art Show as they enjoy its intimate scale, allowing them to visit booths of interest multiple times. At The Art Show, there isn't the distraction of other events like at larger fairs, so the expert dealers who exhibit really get to spend time talking with clients both seasoned and new to the market."

Solo shows have consistently been a unique and anticipated feature of The Art Show and the 2006 edition is no exception. Several solo exhibitions will be on view at The Art Show 2006: Alex Katz's recent paintings at PaceWildenstein; Gregory Crewdson's gelatin silver prints from 1996-1997 at Luhring Augustine; and, Norman Bluhm at James Graham & Sons. Two first time exhibitors at The Art Show will be featuring solo exhibitions as well: Tanya Bonakdar will be showing works by Thomas Scheibitz, while sculpture by MacArthur Fellowship winner Teresita Fernández will be at Lehmann Maupin.

In addition to Lehmann Maupin and Tanya Bonakdar, both of New York, two other exhibitors will debut at The Art Show in 2006: Mary Ryan Gallery, New York and Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis.

An archetypal drawing by Willem de Kooning of two women c. early-1960s will be on view at Linda Hyman Fine Arts. De Kooning made the drawing when he began spending a great deal of time in East Hampton, New York. While bicycling near the ocean in Montauk at the tip of Long island, he would watch clam diggers wading in shallow water and consequently created figures that seem to float as evidenced by this drawing. Closely related paintings can be found at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC.

An unusual masterpiece by Helen Frankenthaler will be exhibited by David Tunick, Inc. Gateway, 1982 - 1988, combines three mediums: painting, sculpture and printmaking. Three prints and three paintings are encapsulated in a striking large bronze screen. Only nine examples exist and two are in museums including the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

A new painting by Donald Sultan, Red and Blacks May 15 2005, made with enamel and tar on tiles will be at Ameringer Yohe Fine Art. A landscape painting, Cloud Beach, 2005, by Isca Greenfield-Sanders and one of Ed Ruscha's archetypal word paintings, Jinx, 2004 will be on view at John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco. A painting from 1967 by Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001), the founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, will be offered at Alpha Gallery, Boston.

The Year of the Portrait - A number of compelling portraits will be on view at The Art Show 2006. Friedrich Petzel Gallery is offering the work of an artist who is known for her self portraits. Maria Lassing's Der Tod und das Maedchen (Death and the Girl), 1999, shows the artist as a young woman dancing with a skeleton. The artist's ouvre has a youthful energy and is frequently mistaken for work by a much younger artist: Lassing is actually 86 years old. Another perspective on portraiture can be seen at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, St. Louis: Gerhard Richter's Portrait of Laszlo, 1966. The Photopainting slightly obscures the subject, in this case, a real person, Carl Laszlo, a Holocaust survivor and important Basel-based art dealer and collector.

Alec Soth, who gained acclaim after his photography was chosen for the 2004 Whitney Biennial, talks about his current work, "I went to a boxing tournament at the local Polish Hall in Niagara Falls, Ontario. After each bout, I would ask the battered boxer to have a picture taken with his girlfriend. The best picture I made was of Daniel, a young man who didn"t have a girlfriend." His portrait of the boxer, Daniel, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 2004, from an upcoming book to be published next March by Steidl, will be on view at Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, which is showing at The Art Show for the first time. "In a way, you can be much more intimate with people you don"t know," says Elizabeth Peyton about her portraits. A striking painting of Marie Antoinette by Peyton from 2000 will be exhibited at Barbara Mathes Gallery.

Next to his mother and sister, David Hockney's friend Celia Birtwell has been the artist's most popular female model. Hockney's Celia, Nude, 1975, will be on view at Richard Gray Gallery. The work, made with colored crayon on paper, is considered one of the most intimate of the subject who leans on a pillow that looks like angel's wings.

Picasso's Nue aux bras levees, 1955, an oil portrait of Jacqueline Roque will be a highlight at James Goodman Gallery. Picasso first met Jacqueline in 1954, when he was still with Françoise Gilot and painted the portrait the year after they met. All in all, Picasso painted Jacqueline more often than any other woman. They married in 1961. Jill Newhouse is offering Pierre Bonnard's Reclining Nude, 1927, the beginning of a series of works done in the late 20s and 30s depicting his wife Marthe in the bath. The subject matter can be seen as a response to the Marthe's continual health problems for which she sought spa treatments repeatedly and unsuccessfully.

The year before he died, Lovis Corinth (1858 -1925) painted an intimate portrait of his daughter, Wilhelmine in Green Dress, 1924. The painting was treasured by his daughter all her life. Several years ago she passed away, and it is being sold by her estate. Corinth -- a major German 19th century Salon painter and Expressionist in his later years -- is well known to the museum world but has yet to be widely discovered by American collectors. The mixed-media painting will be exhibited by Galerie St. Etienne.

Sculpture/Ceramics - A landmark bronze by Max Weber will be the highlight at Forum Gallery. Figure in Rotation, 1917, is known to art historians as the first Cubist work of figurative sculpture by an American artist. A compelling sculpture by Louise Bourgeois from 1996 made of pink marble with two sets of intertwined hands will be a highlight at Cheim & Read.

Louise Nevelson's earliest freestanding wall constructions date from 1958-1961, a critical period that coincided with the artist's growing international stature. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, will show Royal Tide III, 1961, a stunning gold painted wood sculpture. Others fro