| | Exhibition at Musee du Luxembourg in Paris Spotlights German Master Lucas Cranach
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The 1537 painting "Allegory of Justice", left, is displayed during the opening of "Cranach and his time" a new exhibition at Musee du Luxembourg in Paris, Monday, Feb. 7, 2011. German master Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) produced multiple paintings of the same subject, churning out strikingly similar versions of his trademark soft-edged nudes and angel-faced Madonnas. AP Photo/Francois Mori.
By: Jenny Barchfield, Associated Press
PARIS (AP).- Like an enterprising Andy Warhol of the 16th century, German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder produced multiple paintings of the same subject, churning out strikingly similar versions of his trademark soft-edged nudes and angel-faced Madonnas. This penchant for repetition did nothing for Cranach's reputation, and for centuries he was overshadowed by another giant of German art, Albrecht Durer. A new exhibition at Paris' Musee du Luxembourg aims to restore Cranach's image by highlighting his unique, velvety style and showing how the artist — the official painter for the Saxon court of Wittenberg and a friend of reformer Martin Luther — reacted to the tumult of his epoch. Opening on Wednesday, "Cranach and his Times" includes 50 paintings and engravings of his perennial subjects, Adam and curvaceous Eve at the apple tree, Madonnas with chubby Christ children and even chubbier cherubs, ... More |
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Surreal Objects: Three-Dimensional Works from Dalí to Man Ray at the Schirn Kunsthalle
A museum employee arranges the sculpture entitled 'La demi-poupee' by Hans Bellmer (1971) for the exhibition 'Surreal objects, three dimensional works from Dali to Man Ray' at Schirn Kunsthalle. EPA/FRANK RUMPENHORST.
FRANKFURT.- “Beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an autopsy table” – this famous description by the poet Comte de Lautréamont captures a central dimension of Surrealist art theory. The interplay of opposites and the shift of reality that hints at the unconscious and dreamlike particularly manifest themselves in the Surrealists’ strange and bizarre objects and sculptures. On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Schirn presents an exhibition that focuses exclusively on the Surrealists’ three-dimensional production which has never been on display in its full range before. Comprising about 180 works by 51 artists, the show with its international loans, on exhibit from February 11 until May 29, 2011, will include items by both very popular artists like Duchamp, Magritte, Dalí, Picasso, and Man Ray, and many others whose astounding and fascinating achievements ... More | | LACMA And The Getty Museum Acquire Robert Mapplethorpe Art And Archive
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1980. Gelatin silver print. Jointly acquired by LACMA and The J. Paul Getty Trust. Partial gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; partial purchase with funds from The David Geffen Foundation and The J. Paul Getty Trust. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the J. Paul Getty Trust announced their joint acquisition of art and archival materials by or associated with Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the great photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. The vast majority of the acquisition comes in the form of a generous gift from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, and the remainder from funds provided by The David Geffen Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Trust. This significant acquisition establishes Los Angeles as the center for the study of Mapplethorpe, gathering in one location the finest and most representative body of the artist’s work in conjunction with the definitive collection of related archival materials. The acquisition covers more than 2,000 works of art by the artist, including a print ... More | | Clark Art Institute to Explore Rarely Examined Side of Pissarro in Exhibition
Jeanne Holding a Fan, c.1874, by Camille Pissarro. Oil on canvas, 22 x 18 1/4 in. (56 x 46.5 cm). The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Pissarro Family Gift, 1951.
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Pissarro’s People is the first major U.S. museum exhibition of the artist’s works in 30 years. Bringing together paintings from collections around the world, the exhibition will challenge our understanding of the father of Impressionism by focusing on Camille Pissarro’s engagement with the human figure in a highly personal and poignant exploration of his humanism. Pissarro’s People will be on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from June 12 to October 2, 2011. “Pissarro’s People continues the Clark’s series of scholarly exhibitions that rely on rigorous new research to expand our current appreciation of well-known artists,” stated Michael Conforti, director of the Clark. “With this exhibition, we welcome one of the outstanding scholars of our time, Richard Brettell, who so dramatically advanced our understanding o ... More |
 | Archaeologist Zahi Hawass Says Egypt's Damaged Artifacts to Be Restored in Days
A damaged skull of the Late Period. AP Photo/Sandro Vannini, Egyptian Museum.
CAIRO (AP).- The artifacts from the Egyptian Museum damaged by looters will be restored over the next five days, the country's antiquities head said Monday. Zahi Hawass also said that steps were being taken to reopen Egypt's famed archaeological sites, which have been closed since unrest seized the country two weeks ago. During huge anti-government protests on Jan. 28, looters climbed a fire escape and broke into the museum, damaging a number of items, including two mummified skulls from the Late Period. Originally the skulls were thought to have been attached to mummies, but Hawass said they were being used to test a new CT scanner and were not from the royal mummy collection. Among the 70 objects damaged was also a statue of King Tutankhamun standing on a panther and a wooden sarcophagus from the New Kingdom period, dating back more than 3,000 years ago. The museum, which is right next to t ... More | | Important Works Made in the Last Five Years by Turner Prize Winner Simon Starling at Tate St. Ives
Simon Starling, Autoxylopyrocycloboros 2006, 38 6x7cm transparencies and slide projector. Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and The Modern Institute, Glasgow.
CORNWALL.- Tate St Ives presents the first major exhibition in the UK of the work of Simon Starling since he won the Turner Prize in 2005. The exhibition draws on important works made in the last five years; almost all previously unseen in the UK. In addition, Starling has created a major new site specific work, commissioned especially for the show. Employing video, film, slide projections, photography and sculpture, Starling’s work reveals rich, unexpected and complex histories, brought to light through his forensic - if sometimes elliptical - unravelling of an image, object or event. The exhibition’s selection of works, in the very particular context of rural Cornwall, emphasises Starling's long-running interest in the relationship and interplay between culture and nature, and his ongoing examination, excavation and transformation of the material world. A major new commission has ... More | | Illustrator and Writer Maurice Sendak's Mural Painted in 1961 has New Home in Philadelphia
A worker performs conservation treatment on Maurice Sendak's 1961 The Chertoff Mural. AP Photo/Matt Rourke.
Joann Loviglio, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA, PA (AP).- Long before award-winning illustrator and writer Maurice Sendak's world of wild things charmed millions of young readers and changed the notion of what children's literature could look like, some of his now-classic characters frolicked on a wall overlooking New York's Central Park for an audience of two. A mural Sendak painted in 1961 was removed — wall and all — after his friends, who were the apartment's longtime residents, had passed away. Now, it is being restored in a Philadelphia museum devoted to his work. "What's nice is it's like a time machine," the 82-year-old Sendak told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his Connecticut home. "It captures a part of the past for a moment, and friends who were ... More |
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Important Collection of New Works by Claude Lazar and Margot Lazar at Franklin Bowles Galleries
Lumière intérieure, oil on canvas, 51 inches x 35 inches, 2010.
NEW YORK, NY.- Franklin Bowles Galleries presents an important collection of new works by Claude Lazar and Margot Lazar. Claude Lazar chose Franklin Bowles Galleries to become the sole representative of his work in the eastern United States. Since then Lazar’s reputation has grown enormously, as has the demand for his work. As a bonus, last year Claude brought to the gallery's attention the paintings of his wife, Margot Lazar, a very different but similarly talented artist. Now the gallery is privileged to announce that Franklin Bowles Galleries will exclusively represent both artists nationwide and exhibit their work in both theirr San Francisco and New York galleries. Claude Lazar’s work depicts haunting, ambiguous images of empty apartment interiors, tattered storefronts, and vacant streets. So often it is these weathered facades and empty passageways that define our experience of urban life. N ... More | | Arp Museum Presents the Work of Gerda Steiner & Jorg Lenzlinger for the First Time in Germany
Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger, Highwater – Drink, Oh Heart, From The Overflow Of Time!, Installation at Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany 2011 © Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger 2011.
ROLANDSECK.- Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger are internationally recognized as two of the most successful representatives of the Swiss art scene. The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck is presenting them for the first time in Germany in a large solo exhibition. Characteristic of their art are the works they develop for the respective venue, which fill out the spaces with their multitudinous parts, and transport the viewer to bizarre and poetic worlds. The installation called “High Water – Drink, Oh Heart, from the Overflow of Time”, deals with the specific location of the Arp Museum on the Rhine. The theme of water and the river illuminates the aspect of the river as an “artery of life”, bearing a great wealth of life forms, and influencing the surrounding landscape, even though it may turn into a destructive ... More | | Exhibition at Museu d'Art Contemporani Illustrates The Otolith Group's Unusual Working Method
The Otolith Group, Film still from Otolith III, 2009. Courtesy of The Otolith Group and LUX, London.
BARCELONA.- Otoliths can cause dizziness and vertigo. Small calcium crystals suspended in liquid inside the inner ear, they provide the organism with the information it needs to maintain balance. A lift stopping suddenly or the violent rocking of a yacht can cause the otholiths to become abruptly displaced, placing the entire body in a state of alert. The Otolith Group, an artist-led collective founded in London in 2000 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, takes its name from these tiny crystals, whose existence the immense majority are unaware of, but which are vital for life. The group’s name was not adopted at random, and spectators are invited to discover the reasons behind this choice. Under the title The Otolith Group. Thoughtform, MACBA, the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), firstly, and MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, in Rome, subsequently, will host a large proportion of the work ... More |
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Palestinian-British Artist Mona Hatoum Announced Winner of the 2011 Joan Miró Prize
Mona Hatoum by Jim Rakete.
BARCELONA.- The jury of the 2011 Joan Miró Prize has granted the award to the Palestinian-British artist residing in London and Berlin, Mona Hatoum, for her great skill in connecting personal experience with universal values. Hatoum’s sculptures, installations, performances and videos set her among the most outstanding artists on the international art scene. The Joan Miró Prize is organised by Fundació Joan Miró of Barcelona in collaboration with Obra Social “la Caixa”, which assumes as its own the agreement existing with Fundació Caixa Girona. It is worth €70,000, awarded biennially, and is one of the highest awards among current art prizes. Previously this prize has been awarded to Olafur Eliasson (2007) and Pipilotti Rist (2009) in recognition of their work. The prize-giving ceremony will take place in the Fundació Joan Miró auditorium ... More | | First United Kingdom Showing of Robert McCabe's Work Opens at the Hellenic Centre
Robert McCabe, Mycenae 1955. The Belle Hélène Hotel. Courtesy of the artist.
LONDON.- Pioneering photographer Robert McCabe first visited Greece in 1954 and captured a way of life that that has now all but vanished. Sixty iconic images from his travels around the country will be exhibited at the Hellenic Centre starting today, under the aegis of the Centre and The Museum of Cycladic Art. After important exhibitions in the USA and Europe, this is the first UK showing of McCabe's work. Greece has changed dramatically since the artist made the pictures some fifty years ago. During what he describes as an “enchanted” time, McCabe recorded the landscape, villages and traditions of a country that was recovering from civil war, and where tourists were few and far between. The islands and villages still maintained their ancient and distinctive ... More | | Art Naples: Naples Premier Contemporary Art Fair Launches in March
Romantic Lake. Photo: Courtesy AIBO Fine Asian Art.
NAPLES, FL.- International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE) announces the first annual Art Naples International Contemporary Art Fair taking place at the newly renovated Naples International Pavilion, March 18th-21st, 2011with a Preview evening Thursday, March 17th to benefit the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art. Art Naples will present over 45 international art dealers and special exhibitions from Europe, Latin America , United States, Asia as well as leading Southwest Florida contemporary dealers representing over 1200 works of art by 300 artists spanning both 20th and 21st century. The fair will feature paintings, sculpture, photography, design, fine art glass, video and installations from a bevy of established museum collected artists as well as some of today’s most promising emerging artists. All of the ... More |
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Natural History Museum in DC Reopens After Fire
WASHINGTON (AP).- Officials say a fire broke out at a building near the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, emitting a plume of black smoke and closing area streets. Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas says a building detached from the museum that contains the facility's cooling tower caught fire early Monday. She says it appears the fire started while a contractor was working in the mechanical building. No smoke entered the main building, where millions of artifacts and specimens are housed. The museum opened to visitors Monday shortly after its regular opening of 10 a.m. D.C. Deputy Fire Chief Ken Crosswhite says the fire did not pose a risk to the museum. No injuries were reported. ... More
Acclaimed American Artist Bill Viola's The Quintet of the Unseen at BlainSouthern
LONDON.- Blain|Southern presents The Quintet of the Unseen, a large-scale video work by the acclaimed American artist Bill Viola. On view from 9 February through 12 March 2011. Imitating the composition of a Renaissance painting, five actors stand close together against a neutral background. Initially their expressions are blank, however as the cycle unfolds, the group, who do not move from their original positions or interact with each other, are gradually overcome by emotion. As this builds to a crescendo, they become overwhelmed, distressed. From such fervour they can only come down, and by the end of the cycle each of the actors is emotionally spent. As with other Viola works, the 15:19-minute film runs in ultra-slow motion. This makes visible the smallest nuances of expression, allowing viewers to discover the layered complexity of feeling unfolding before them, creating a subjective, psychological space where time ... More
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Present PUBLICSFEAR, their Frst Major Exhibition in London
LONDON.- For their first major exhibition in London, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard present PUBLICSFEAR, bringing together film, video and sound works made over the past seven years. The artists are primarily known for their ongoing interest in music and sound, but the pieces selected for their South London Gallery show also explore ideas around both being part of and/or observing an audience. The exhibition is on display until March 18, 2011. Works range from File under Sacred Music, the artists' meticulous remake in 2003 of The Cramps’ 1978 bootleg video of their live performance for a group of patients at the Napa State Mental Institute, through to the film Performer. Audience. Fuck Off, 2009, in which we witness the often hilarious, but sometimes uncomfortable impact on the audience of a stand-up comedian drawing attention to individuals within the grou ... More
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Awards 43 Fellowships to Virginia Students and Artists
RICHMOND, VA.- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts awarded 43 fellowships to Virginia art students and professional artists in 2011-12 for a total of $258,000. During the VMFA Fellowship Program’s 71 years, the museum has awarded more than $4.4 million and 1,147 awards to Virginia’s art students and professional artists. An additional eight fellowships (four student and four professional) were awarded this year in celebration of VMFA’s 75th anniversary, representing a 25 percent increase in funding. A record 642 applicants submitted works this year, which marks the highest number of applicants in the program’s history. “The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is committed to supporting the commonwealth’s artists and art students,” VMFA Director Alex Nyerges said. “We are grateful to the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg for establishing a VMFA endowment that makes this support possible, as ... More
UK's Ancient Secrets may Be Buried with Old Bones
By: Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON (REUTERS).- Top British archaeologists are urging the government to rethink a law requiring human remains be reburied, warning it risks undermining years of research into the island's ancient peoples and study of their DNA. The row stems from the reinterpretation of a law introduced in 2008 by the Ministry of Justice. The rule states human bones discovered in England and Wales since that time, regardless of their age, must be re-interred after two years. In a letter to Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, 40 academics complained experts would have too little time to study the remains and that reburial would result in the needless destruction of immensely valuable material. Important sites that will be affected include Stonehenge and a Viking mass burial pit near Weymouth on the south coast. Many archaeologists believe secrets about ancient tribes and early humans in Britain could be lost to science forever if the rule is applied. Thousands of sites could ... More
A Night at the Museum 'Dream-Over' for Adults Provides Opportunity to Have Art-Inspired Dreams in Museun Galleries
NEW YORK, NY.- The Rubin Museum’s acclaimed BRAINWAVE series has kicked off its fourth season on February 7 with a conversation between spoken-word artist Henry Rollins and neuroscientist David Eagleman. Subsequent conversations feature composer and performance artist Meredith Monk, playwright John Patrick Shanley, painter David Salle, and actress Debra Winger among other artists paired with leading scientists involved in the study of the mind. The museum's fourth annual exploration of the human mind focuses on the relationship between dreams and creativity, prophecy and consciousness. Why do we dream? What function does this ancillary brain activity serve? Do dreams anticipate the future? Can dreams inspire creativity in our waking lives? BRAINWAVE explores these questions in a variety of formats. In addition to the public dialogues, the museum hosts its first "dream-over" for adults, and a series of workshops complemen ... More
Fashion Museums from NYC to LA, Paris and More
NEW YORK (AP).- Boohoo, so you didn't get a front-row seat for New York Fashion Week! Fortunately, for fashionistas who love couture but can't afford to buy it, there are many museums in the U.S. and abroad where you can get your fashion fix without presenting credentials at the door. Fashion museums and costume institutes offer close-up looks at contemporary designers and cutting-edge trends, as well as classic styles and fashion history. These collections of clothing, accessories and textiles can be found not only in style capitals like New York, Los Angeles and Paris, but also in unexpected places like Indianapolis and Antwerp, Belgium. In Manhattan, a gem that deserves to be better known — especially among tourists with an interest in fashion — is The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, at 27th Street and Seventh Avenue in the trendy Chelsea neighborhood, http://fitnyc.edu/3662.asp. The Museum at FIT hosts special exhibits as well as a rotating themed s ... More
Pennsylvania Museum to Release 8 Items to Alaska Tribe
JUNEAU (AP).- An Alaska tribe is planning to recover eight artifacts from the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The cultural objects including masks, a drum, headdress and robe are being returned to the Hoonah T'akdeintaan clan of Hoonah. The federally recognized tribe is seeking the return of another 42 artifacts from the Pennsylvania museum. Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, says no decision has been made by the museum about returning the 42 objects. The institute is among organizations assisting in the repatriation effort. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee reviewed the requests and recommended the return of the entire collection. ... More
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