| | Thousands March in Hong Kong to Demand the Release of Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei
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A pro-democracy protester wears a mask of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei during a march in Hong Kong Saturday, April 23, 2011 as they demand release of Ai. U.S. diplomats will discuss recent disappearances and detentions of Chinese dissidents during human rights talks in Beijing next week, the U.S. State Department said. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung.
HONG KONG (REUTERS).- Over one thousand protesters in Hong Kong took to the streets to demand the release of detained Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei on Saturday, scuffling briefly with police. The rally -- the largest in a string of protests across the city in recent weeks -- has underscored Hong Kong's growing role as a hotbed of support for Ai with local pro-democracy activists and artists ratcheting up pressure on Beijing over its heavy crackdown on dissidents, human rights lawyers and protesters challenging Communist Party controls and censorship. Protesters held up banners with the words "Who's afraid of Weiwei" and banged on drums as they snaked their way through busy districts to the harbor-front Cultural Center, where they sang, performed and chanted for Ai's release. "It's had a lot of impact," said John Batten, a Hong Kong-based art critic and commentator who attended the rally. "The message is purely about freedom of expression ... it's not just Ai ... More |
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Johan Thorn Prikker: from Art Nouveau to Abstraction at Museum Kunst Palast
Johan Thorn Prikker, Orange F 25, 1931. Glasfenster Antikglas/ Blei, 57,5 x 47,5 x 23 cm © Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Foto: Stefan Johnen.
DUSSELDORF.- Working together with the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, over 130 works are presented by Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, from the multi-faceted oeuvre of Johan Thorn Prikker (The Hague 1868 to 1932 Cologne). The exhibition of this Dutch artist, who mainly became famous through his Art Nouveau works, is the first retrospective of his oeuvre in over 30 years, comprising all the genres in which this versatile artist was active: paintings, drawings, watercolours, mosaics, murals, glass windows, furniture, design objects, textile art, book covers and carpets. As well as numerous items from international collections, visitors to Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf will find that the foyer of the collection wing also has a large format window by Thorn Prikker which has been part of the building since 1925. In the same year Thorn Prikker also created two monumental mosaic walls for the corner pavilions ... More | | Diane Arbus, Irving Penn & Christer Strömholm in See the World! at Moderna Museet
Irving Penn, Frozen Foods with String Beans, New York, 1977 © Irving Penn Foundation.
STOCKHOLM.- Moderna Museet is presenting the history of photography with this year’s radical rehanging of its permanent collection. 16 April was the opening day for the second instalment of Another Story: See the World!, including works by iconic photographers such as Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Christer Strömholm. A total of 545 works are now on show from one of Europe’s finest collections of photography. See the World! is the second instalment of Another Story, Moderna Museet’s major presentation of photography from its permanent collection. See the World! features documentary photography and photo journalism, surrealistic photography and pioneers such as Diane Arbus, Irving Penn and Christer Strömholm. The period covers a world war and many events that changed our perspective on life, both externally and internally. In the seven decades from 1920 to 1980, history was rewritten several times over, and t ... More | | German Reunification Monument Designed by Milla & Partner Unites the Critics
The proposed National Monument to Freedom and Unity in Berlin, designed by the Milla & Partner. REUTERS/"Milla & Partner.
BERLIN (REUTERS).- A planned monument to German reunification lacks technical and conceptual competency which could turn the 10-million-euro ($14.33 million) tourist attraction into a security risk, a critic said. The monument, a 55-meter-long bowl that see-saws as visitors climb on it, must have tighter security, Uwe Hameyer, a director of the Berlin Architects and Engineers Association, told Reuters on Monday. "The proper engineering is apparently finished, but it'll be a tourist magnet and there must be enough security to make sure that not too many people climb on it, which could result in a panic reaction," Hameyer said. The extra security measures should include ensuring that no more than the 1,500 people the structure can technically hold stand on it at any one point. The monument's architects already plan to build a fence around its edge so that nobody falls off. The monument, "Citizens in motion," designed by the German design firm Milla & Partner and Berlin choreograph ... More |
 | "Poppy Field in Argenteuil" by Monet Named Most Popular Oil Painting for Mother's Day 2011
Le tre eta della donna (Mother and Child), Gustav Klimt.
WICHITA, KANS.- The popular online art gallery overstockArt.com, published today its official top five list of most popular oil paintings for Mother’s Day 2011. Topping the chart is Claude Monet’s maternal sensual masterpiece “Poppy Field in Argenteuil.” Other artists named on the 2011 Mother’s Day Top 5 Most Popular Oil Paintings for Mom list include Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh. The oil paintings that made the 2011 Mother’s Day Top 5 Oil Paintings for Mom list are: “Poppy Field in Argenteuil,” Claude Monet – In this colorful oil painting, originally created in 1873, Claude Monet painted his wife and son strolling together among the poppies. “Le tre eta della donna (Mother and Child),” Gustav Klimt – Mother and Child is part of Klimt’s famous oil painting Three Ages of Woman. The painting depicts an ... More | | Rodney Graham to Receive Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts
File photo of Canadian artist Rodney Graham. EPA/FABIAN BIMMER.
VANCOUVER, BC.- British Columbia’s most prestigious annual awards for the visual arts, the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts and the VIVA Awards, will be presented at the Vancouver Art Gallery on May 5, 2011 at 7pm. The 8th annual Audain Prize, awarded by the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts, will go to acclaimed artist Rodney Graham. Vancouver artists Reece Terris and Althea Thauberger are the 2011 recipients of the VIVA Award prizes granted annually by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation. Based in Vancouver , Rodney Graham has been internationally recognized as one of the most original artists of his generation. Drawing upon diverse sources that range from Lewis Carroll and Sigmund Freud to Kurt Cobain, Graham synthesizes conceptual rigour and humour to produce art ... More | | The Linda Pace Foundation Announces Acquisition of a Sound Sculpture by Susan Philipsz
Fle photo of Glasgow-born artist Susan Philipsz escorted towards her work after hearing the announcement that she had won the Turner Prize 2010. AP Photo/ Dominic Lipinski.
SAN ANTONIO, TX.- The Linda Pace Foundation announces a major acquisition and related exhibition of sound sculpture Sunset Song, 2003, by Susan Philipsz, a Turner Prize-winning artist. The work joins the more than 500 objects in the Foundation’s diverse contemporary art collection, which was begun by the late philanthropist Linda Pace. From May 8–June 26, 2011, Sunset Song will be presented daily in CHRISpark, the one-acre park built by Pace in 2005. Scottish artist Susan Philipsz created Sunset Song as part of her 2003 residency at Artpace San Antonio, which was also founded by Linda Pace. In the work, Philipsz sings both the male and female parts of the 19th-century American folk ballad ... More |
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Photographers Igor Kostin, Valery Zufarov and Volodymyr Repik Recall Chernobyl's First Days
The sarcophagus under construction over the 4th destroyed reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. AP Photo/Volodymyr Repik.
By: Anna Melnichuk, Associated Press
KIEV (AP).- Wearing a lead protective suit and placing his cameras in lead boxes, photographer Igor Kostin made a terrifying and unauthorized trip to the Chernobyl danger zone just a few days after a nuclear power plant reactor exploded in the world's worst atomic accident. He came back home with nothing to show for his determination to document the crisis — the radiation was so high that all his shots turned out black. But Kostin returned, and his work along with that of a handful of other daring photographers was critical to the world's understanding of a catastrophe that Soviet authorities were reluctant to admit. A quarter-century after the April 26, 1986, blast that spewed radioactive fallout over much of Europe, Kostin's memories are as vivid and terrifying as any photo. They carry an added chill as Japan struggles to bring its radiation-spewing ... More | | KULT Studio Merges Modern Design with Pop Culture for a New Generation of Art Collectors
Visitors to the site will find it aesthetically appealing, easy to navigate and sophisticated.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Art and design mavens Brandon Savoy and Jeff Mackey have launched KULT Studio, a new designforward approach to viewing and shopping for artwork online. Currently showcasing the art of animation, comics and other works of American pop culture, the hand-selected KULT collection is comprised of original production art and rare limited editions from an assortment of popular comics, animated movies and TV shows. Works from both established and underground artists are represented from studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., Marvel, DC Comics, 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm. Visitors to the site will find it aesthetically appealing, easy to navigate and sophisticated. As part of the “Now Generation,” Savoy and Mackey wanted to bring to KULT the same type of user experience that they themselves enjoy from different parts of the web. The highly-intuitive navigation, a unique visual art search, a framing style selector and vibrant high-resolution images are highl ... More | | New Book Surveys Work of Major Art World Architect Max Gordon in 1970s and 1980s
Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY. © Todd.
NEW YORK, NY.- A new book, Architect for Art: Max Gordon (Marquand Books, 146 pp, hardcover, $40, ISBN: 978-0-615-39579-1) presents a rare opportunity to enter the art world of the 1970s and 1980s and witness firsthand how a master of architectural simplicity set the standard for the relationship between art and architecture. Max Gordon (1931–1990) became the go-to architect for spaces for contemporary art following the opening of his first major commission in 1985 – the Saatchi Gallery at 98a Boundary Road, London. Architect for Art: Max Gordon will be published on May 1, 2011. The book is authored by Max Gordon’s brother David Gordon, the former director of the Milwaukee Art Museum and secretary (director) of the Royal Academy of Arts in London; Nicholas Serota, director of Tate; Kenneth Frampton, Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University; Jonathan Marvel, an architect and friend of Max Gordon;as well as an excerpt ... More |
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Renowned American Artist Gary Simmons Exhibits at Simon Lee Gallery in London
Gary Simmons, Big Wheel, 2011. Photo: Courtesy Simon Lee Gallery.
LONDON.- Simon Lee Gallery presents its second solo exhibition of the renowned American artist Gary Simmons. For Gary Simmons, the act of erasure has been a central theme in his work throughout his career. Referencing film, architecture, and white American popular culture, his new “erasure” drawings move away from the use of paint and canvas, and revert back to pastel and chalk on black or white paper, which is where his practice began. Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining, Simmons uses the iconic imagery of the Overlook Hotel for one of his new drawings, whose imposing architecture takes on a haunting personality of its own. The image also incorporates the structure of The Bryce Hospital in Alabama – an institution to house African Americans deemed “insane” in the early 20th Century. This alludes to the root of the inspiration of this new body of work: ... More | | Mick Jagger: Young in the 60s to Open at the National Portrait Gallery in London
Mick Jagger, 1967. Photograph by Colin Jones
LONDON.- Portraits of Mick Jagger taken in the 1960s will form a new display at the National Portrait Gallery from 3 May until 27 November 2011. Documenting the singer’s early rise to become one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the era, the display will coincide with the publication of Mick Jagger: The Photobook by Thames & Hudson. Defining images of Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones from the Gallery’s Collection, shown alongside a selection of new acquisitions, will together chart the first decade of the singer’s career. The Gallery’s holdings of portraits of the group have built up over the last forty years, starting with a gift in 1972 from Cecil Beaton of his portrait of Jagger taken in Morocco in 1967. New acquisitions in the display include portraits of the singer by Gered Mankowitz, including one with his prized Aston Martin DB6, and another from 1968 that shows the influence of pop art ... More | | San Telmo Museum Opens Its Doors with a Multi-Disciplinary View, Open to Dialogue
Visitors walk by a picture wall in one of the showrooms of the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian. EPA/JAVIER ETXEZARRETA.
SAN SEBASTIAN.- The San Telmo Museum has officially reopened in San Sebastián, after 4 years of rehabilitation work on the historical building and a brand new extension, the work of Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, in addition to the complete turnaround in its publishing strategy, now focussed firmly on society and citizenship from all possible angles: artistic, historical, disseminative, etc. The San Telmo Museum, inaugurated in 1902, is the oldest in the Basque Country and brings its rich intellectual and patrimonial legacy right into the 21st century. The extension and rehabilitation carried out between 2004 and 2011 make it possible for the museum to reopen with new objectives from a multidisciplinary view, open to contemporary dialogue and debate. San Telmo is presented as a museum and, at the same time, ... More |
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 Exhibition Photographs by Sanna Kannisto Opens at Aperture GalleryNEW YORK, NY.- Aperture Gallery Presents: Fieldwork, an exhibition, photographs by Sanna Kannisto, exploring the dialectics of nature and culture in both artistic and scientific contexts, challenging the limits of knowledge and truth. Since 1997, Finnish rising star Sanna Kannisto has spent several months per year living alongside biologists in the rainforests of Peru, Brazil, French Guyana, and Costa Rica. Adopting elements of her companions' scientific methods and concepts, she developed her own form of visual research, extending her depictions of the flora and fauna beyond the confines of the natural sciences. The core practice of the natural sciences is to collect in order to inspect more closely in the service of public knowledge. Collecting implies taming and containment, traits shared to some extent by photography. Breaking away from the conventions of scientific documentation, which typically presents specimens in iso ... More First Annual Jerusalem Season of Culture to Launch Summer 2011JERUSALEM.- This summer, Jerusalem will be home to one of the most ambitious cultural projects in the history of the Israeli arts scene. Unveiled in Jerusalem by Artistic Director Itay Mautner, the Jerusalem Season of Culture (JSOC) will produce an annual artistic summer season beginning this May in full partnership with the city's cultural institutions and in cooperation with the Jerusalem Municipality. The season, which is being sponsored by a new independent non-profit and supported by the Schusterman Foundation–Israel, the Jerusalem Foundation and a growing list of funders, aims to make cultural programming more accessible to a wide range of audiences, and to celebrate Jerusalem's arts and artists in a way that reflects the city's complexity and diversity. JSOC was formed as an initiative of the Schusterman Foundation–Israel and its founder, philanthropist Lynn Schusterman, who is closely connected to the city ... More San Francisco Arts Commission's Popular Art on Market Street Poster Series is Back SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission Luis R. Cancel announced the 2011 Art on Market Street Poster Series featuring new work by local artists Elisheva Biernoff and Ian Huebert. Biernoff will launch the series with Once Upon a Time, six original posters that present defining moments that shaped San Francisco history, from the city's beginnings as the home of the Ohlone to the political activism of the 1970s. The posters will be displayed in the bus shelters on Market Street between 8th Street and the Embarcadero from Wednesday, May 4 through Friday, July 29, 2011. "Elisheva Biernoff has distilled San Francisco's rich and complex history into six beautifully illustrated posters that offer Market Street pedestrians a look back in time at the people and events that formed this city into the incredible and beloved city it is today," said Mr. Cancel. Hand-drawn and colored using Adobe ... More Barcelona-Based Artist Theo Booth Exhibits at ginny gray galleryBUCKINGHAM.- Barcelona-based artist Theo Booth celebrates jazz age glamour, playful sensuality and the romantic and escapist possibilities of travel in his evocative and widely collected original paintings. A new exhibition of Theo's work opened at ginny gray gallery in Buckingham. Theo has an amazing natural ability as a painter coupled with a fertile imagination. His influences include Picasso, Modigliani, Tamara de Lempicka, William Roberts and Art Deco but his style is very much his own. Born in Badminton, Gloucestershire in 1947, Theo trained as an engineer and worked as a photographer and boat restorer before becoming a full-time artist in the 1990’s.
Theo paints mainly in acrylics on board or canvas. There is a delicious air of decadence in much of his oeuvre. His work features in collections in numerous countries. Mediterranean themes and preoccupations figure frequently in Theo’s pictures. He lived a ... More Large-Scale Sculptures to Be Installed in Riverside Park South in ManhattanNEW YORK, NY.- The Art Students League of New York,one of America's premier art schools, announces the Model to Monument Program (M2M), a collaboration with the New York City Department Parks & Recreation that will culminate in the installation of eight monumental sculptures in New York this coming June. "We're very proud of this program that takes League artists through the entire process of creating public art for people to contemplate and enjoy," says Ira Goldberg, Executive Director of The Art Students League of New York. "We are delighted to partner with the Parks Department, which is providing the ideal platform to show these powerful examples of public art." The sculptures are being created by an international team of seven selected League students during a nine-month program led by master sculptor Greg Wyatt. The pieces range from abstractions conjuring New York City's past and future, to a life-size bro ... MoreCambridge University Unveils Young Artist's Masterpiece on Easter SundayLONDON.- This Easter Sunday (24th April 2011) Christ's College Chapel in Cambridge University, unveiled a new altar reredos by the current Leverhulme Artist in Residence Tom de Freston. The unveiling took place during a special service of the Anglican Choral Evensong and is the fruition of an exciting collaboration. Tom de Freston, who also previously held the Levy Plumb Visual Arts Residency at Christ's College has been working on the paintings for two years and is delighted to be bringing the installation to the Chapel. He said: "The two paintings are intended to offer a binary narrative, one of rise and fall. They are made with the very particular demands of the Chapel in mind, and will hopefully provide a visual and spiritual fulcrum to the space". The Revd Christopher Woods, College Chaplain said: "In this Chapel, we have had the great Caro sculpture of 'The Deposition' in our midst for ten years. Now, in 2011 we have also have the de Freston altarpiece: new reflection fo ... More |
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