| | Miro's, Monets, Modiglianis from The Nahmad Collection go public at Kunsthaus Zurich
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Visitors look at works displayed in the exhibition 'Miro, Monet, Matisse - The Nahmad Collection' in the Kunsthaus Museum in Zuerich, Switzerland. Based in Monaco, the Nahmad family has been collecting great art for two generations, ranging from Impressionism to Surrealism and beyond. The collection is seen in the Kunsthaus Zuerich from 21 October 2011 to 15 January 2012. EPA/WALTER BIERI.
By: Caroline Copley
ZURICH (REUTERS).- Over the past half-century the Nahmad family's primary relationship with art was how much money they could make by dealing in the works of Picasso, Monet and Dali. Now a new exhibition, "Miro, Monet, Matisse - The Nahmad Collection" reveals for the first time the world-class works they stashed away, almost forgotten in a warehouse. Their story began in the early 1960s, when brothers Ezra and David began buying art in Paris and transporting it back to Milan to sell. On one occasion they drove through the night with a Picasso strapped to the roof of their Morris Minor car, because it wouldn't fit in the trunk, Ezra's son Helly said in an interview for the exhibition's catalog. "When they arrived in Milan, they discovered to their shock that the painting was no longer there -- it had blown off on the motorway. They drove straight back and luckily found the picture -- lying damaged in grass on the roadside," Helly said. ... More |
| Photographs of early Christian churches in the Cappadocia region on view at Penn Museum | | Groundbreaking perspective on Camille Pissarro opens at the Legion of Honor this Fall | | Timothy H. O'Sullivan's images of the American West on view at the Art Institute of Chicago | 
Ahmet Ertug, New Church of Tokali (Buckle Church), Turkey, Capadocia, Göreme, Mid-10th century CE. Photographic Print. East corridor, north pillar.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The grandeur of Byzantine Christian art —preserved through the ages in early Christian churches in the Cappadocia region of Turkey —is the focus of a large-scale photography exhibition at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. Vaults of Heaven: Visions of Byzantium, an exhibition of 13 color photographs by renowned Turkish photographer Ahmet Ertug, is on view October 15, 2011 through February 12, 2012. Ertug's photographs document the interiors of three churches— the Karankik Kilise (Dark Church), the New Church of Tokali (Buckle Church), and the Meryem Ana Kilisesi (Church of the Mother of God)—all more than 1,000 years old and all UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The photographs include close-up views of elaborate wall paintings depicting classic Christian scenes from the life of Christ and images of saints. Also included are images revealing the dramatic interior architecture of these churches ... More | | 
Camille Pissarro, Minette, ca. 1872. Oil on canvas, 18 1/16 x 14 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, the Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1958.144.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Pissarro’s People brings us face to face with one of the most complex and captivating members of the Impressionist group, a man whose life was as quietly revolutionary as his art. The exhibition, on view October 22, 2011, to January 22, 2012, offers a groundbreaking perspective on Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), the painter and printmaker best known for his large body of landscapes and urban views. This is the first exhibition to focus on Pissarro’s personal ties and social ideas through his lifelong engagement with the human figure. Based on extensive new scholarship by curator Dr. Richard R. Brettell, the exhibition brings together more than one hundred oil paintings and works on paper from public and private collections around the world. Ranging from Pissarro’s earliest years in Paris until his death in 1903, these works explore the three dimensions of his life that are ... More | | 
Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Pyramid Lake, c. 1867–69. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
CHICAGO, IL.- Geologist and mountaineer Clarence King's survey of the American West (1867-1872) covered a vast 800-mile-long swath of terrain from the border of California eastward to the edge of the Great Plains. It was the first U.S. government-organized expedition to include a full-time photographer--Timothy H. O'Sullivan (1840-1882)--who produced about 450 iconic images of what was then a little-understood territory. More than 70 of these original prints are now presented together for the first time in Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs--an exhibition organized by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and premiering at the Art Institute of Chicago. On view from October 22, 2011, through January 22, 2012, in the museum's Photography Galleries 1 and 2 , the exhibition takes an in-depth look at this one particular facet of O'Sullivan's accomplished career and promotes a larger understanding of the nature of his visio ... More |
| Romanian artist, Nicolae Grigorescu leads Bonhams European painting auction | | The Asian Art Museum presents U.S. premiere of exhibition exploring three centuries of Indian Kingship | | British Museum announces new funding to collect contemporary Middle Eastern Art | 
Nicolae Grigorescu, “The Bull Cart (detail). Estimate: $100,000-150,000. Photo: Bonhams.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- Bonhams announces its sale of European Paintings, October 26 in New York, simulcast to San Francisco. The sale will feature a wide range of paintings spanning several centuries and artistic periods. A true highlight to the sale comes from Romanian artist Nicolae Grigorescu. “The Bull Cart,” featuring day-to-day peasant life with the backdrop of a rural landscape, is only the second known painting by the artist to come to public auction in the West (est. $100,000-150,000), making it a piece of great interest among Romanian collectors. After abandoning the idea of becoming an academic painter and leaving the studio of Sebastien Cornu in Paris, Grigorescu was greatly influenced by numerous French painters in the village of Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau. It was there that he was influenced by Jean-Francois Millet’s renderings of working peasants, Corot’s trees and Troyon’s ani ... More | | 
Maharaja investigates the splendor and magnificence of India's kings from the 1700s to the mid-20th century.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- This fall, the Asian Art Museum opened its doors to the dazzling world of India's legendary maharajas (Sanskrit word for "great kings") with the U.S. premiere of Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts. The exhibition, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, presents nearly 200 important artworks pertaining to the intriguing world of India's rulers over three centuries. Maharaja is the first exhibition to comprehensively explore the world of the maharajas and their unique culture of artistic patronage. Maharaja is accompanied by an extensive schedule of public programming, including a film series featuring a guest appearance by esteemed producer James Ivory, live music and dance performances, artist demonstrations, multimedia and docent led tours, and more. The exhibition is on view from October 21, 2011 through April 8, 2012, at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco. ... More | | 
The Museum has been a pioneer in the acquisition of this material and now, in its fourth decade of collecting, houses the pre-eminent collection of art from this region in the UK.
LONDON.- The British Museum has been collecting modern and contemporary art from the Middle East since the 1980s. To date, this collection contains works by over 200 established and emerging artists from across the region, many of which featured in the influential exhibition Word into Art in 2006 (which travelled to Dubai in 2008). The Museum has been a pioneer in the acquisition of this material and now, in its fourth decade of collecting, houses the pre-eminent collection of art from this region in the UK. Modern artworks in the British Museum collection are principally works on paper, and are selected to complement the historical collections because they ‘speak of their time’. The collection of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art, therefore, represents social and historical realities of the modern Middle East. The Museum has been fortunate in its ... More |
| Museum presents Seattle of the 1930's through the eyes of the first generation of Japanese American artists | | Apostles edition of the Saint John's Bible gifted to The Morgan Library & Museum | | LACMA presents first comprehensive mid-career retrospective of Glenn Ligon | 
Kamekichi Tokita, Alley, ca. 1929. Oil on canvas, 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. Gift of the artist, Seattle Art Museum. Photo: Paul Macapia.
SEATTLE, WA.- Kamekichi Tokita and Kenjiro Nomura, first-generation Japanese Americans, were well known in 1930s Seattle for their American realist style of landscape painting. Painting Seattle: Kamekichi Tokita & Kenjiro Nomura, opening October 22, 2011, highlights the landscapes they knew well—neighborhoods in and around Japantown or Nihonmachi (today part of the International District), the working waterfront, and the farmlands cultivated by Japanese American families. Along with such artists as Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, and Ambrose and Viola Patterson, Tokita and Nomura were part of the Seattle modernist collective Group of Twelve. The intimate exhibition of approximately twenty works will feature eight paintings from SAM’s collection. Tokita and Nomura were the most prominent of a group of first-generation Japanese-American painters in the 1920s and 30s in Seattle, and their paintings ... More | | 
Wisdom Woman, Donald Jackson, 2006. © 1993, 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- Saint John’s Abbey and University announced the gift of an Apostles Edition of The Saint John’s Bible to The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. The Apostles Edition was given to the Morgan by Saint John’s University on behalf of Hella Mears Hueg and Bill Hueg, and will be formally presented in a private ceremony at the Morgan this afternoon. The Saint John’s Bible is the only handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Monastery since the advent of the printing press more than 500 years ago. The Apostles Edition is a work of art in itself, a fine art reproduction of the original manuscript with handdrawn elements throughout. Only 12 sets of the Apostles Edition were created; the first set was presented to His Holiness Pope Benedict the XVI in 2008, and now the second set is being presented to the Morgan. The Morgan ... More | | 
Mirror, 2002. Coal dust, printing ink, glue, gesso, and graphite on canvas, 82 5/8 x 55 1/8 in. Collection of Melody Hobson. Courtesy of thr artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles ©Glenn Ligon.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents the first comprehensive mid-career retrospective of Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), widely regarded as one of the most important and influential American artists to have emerged in the past two decades. Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art by curator Scott Rothkopf, in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition surveys twenty-five years of Ligon’s work, from his post-graduate days in the Whitney Independent Study Program until the present. Glenn Ligon: AMERICA premiered at the Whitney (March 10–June 5, 2011); following LACMA’s presentation, it will travel to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (February 12–June 3, 2012). LACMA’s presentation is curated by Franklin Sirmans, the Terri and Michael Smooke department head and curator of contemporary art. The exhibition ... More |
| The Mystery of the Body: Berlinde De Bruyckere in dialogue with Lucas Cranach and Pier Paolo Pasolini | | Ten women artists receive $25,000 grants from Anonymous Was A Woman Award | | Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz awarded commission for permanent piece on Governors Island | 
A visitor watches the work 'Romeu my deer' by Belgium artist Berlinde De Bruyckere at the Museum of Fine Arts Bern. EPA/PETER SCHNEIDER.
BERN.- The Kunstmuseum Bern presents the largest monographic exhibition of works by Berlinde De Bruyckere (b. 1964) hitherto shown in Europe. The Flemish artist creates deceptively real sculptures and touching drawings of human bodies suffering. The presentation brings them into a dialogue with the works of the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach and the Italian film maker Pier Paolo Pasolini. The human body is one of the most commonly portrayed subjects, and each generation of artists interprets it anew. The exhibition lucidly illustrates Berlinde De Bruyckere's in-depth examination of Lucas Cranach's and Pier Paolo Pasolini's work over the past three years. We not only find De Bruyckere’s representations of suffering human beings shocking because of their directness but likewise deeply moving. In her exis- ... More | | 
Linda Besemer Little Double Bulge, Acrylic Paint Folded over Aluminum Rod, 2008.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- Anonymous Was A Woman announced the ten artists selected to receive the Foundation’s sixteenth annual awards. The “no strings” grant of $25,000 enables women, over 45 years of age and at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work. 2011 Award Winners: • Eleanor Antin - Artist • Linda Besemer - Painter • Dara Birnbaum - Visual Artist • Andrea Bowers - Artist • Ann Hamilton - Artist / Installation • Yoko Inoue - Visual Artist • Jungjin Lee - Artist / Photographer • Mary Miss - Artist • Sheila Pepe - Artist • Judith Shea - Sculptor Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, director of the program, explained, “Anonymous Was A Woman Awards are synonymous with important recognition in artists’ personal and artistic development. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment ... More | | 
A media crew film in a room fills with sound from a 3-channel sound installation entitled 'Lowlands' by Turner Prize 2010 short listed artist, Susan Philipsz at Tate Britain art gallery in London, Monday, Oct. 4, 2010. AP Photo/Sang Tan.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- Turner Prize winning artist Susan Philipsz has been selected to create a piece of permanent public art on Governors Island, The Trust for Governors Island announced. Philipsz was chosen by The Trust through the City’s Percent for Art Program. Percent for Art is a commissioning program that integrates permanent works of art into publicly funded capital projects through an equitable artist selection process. Philipsz’s commission will be the first work in an ongoing public art program opening with the new park and public spaces in 2013. “Governors Island has become a destination for arts and culture in New York City,” said Leslie Koch, president of The Trust for Governors Island. “I am thrilled that The Trust’s first commission ... More |
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 Audrey Cottin: Charlie & Sabrina, Who Would Have Believed? at Jeu de Paume PARIS.- Audrey Cottin, a young French artist based in Brussels, enters Jeu de Paume space as a crowd. Her appearance is colorful, sculptural and spinning. She shares comfort and uneasiness of being in the company of people who don’t stop keeping this world as a continous creative experiment. Thus Audrey Cottin’s exhibition completes a set of subjectivities that were intentionally displayed throughout the series of Satelite 4. Inspired by Robert Filiou’s belief that “everybody is perfect” Audrey Cottin has been searching for a perfect collaboration with people she encounters. This search may include experts of various knowledges, skills and perspectives. The methods of collaboration are often defined by what kind of resonanse is created between those people (writers, sculptors, all kinds of impressarios, etc.) and Audrey herself. The realm of resonance is continuously explored in Audrey ... More Greek crisis: what would the ancients say? By: Christopher Torchia, Associated Press
ATHENS (AP).- More than 200 international philosophers braved strikes and protests to come to Greece this month to join a forum and debate matters of the mind. Topics on the program included "The Limits of Abstraction: Finding Space for Novel Explanation" and "Partial Realism, Anti-realism and Deflationary Realism: Can History Settle the Argument?" For the organizers, the event was a success, a sign that life goes on despite economic hardship and perceptions abroad that Greece is one step from anarchy. It was also a victory for thinking at a time when the country's debates are dominated by hoarse-voiced slogans. After all, Greece's illustrious ancient thinkers built the foundations of Western scholarship, and their philosophy stands as an unquantifiable source of national wealth even during a financial crisis. "Sometimes people think that the philosopher is up on Mount Olympus, ... More The New Orleans Photo Alliance announces PhotoNOLA 2011 NEW ORLEANS, LA.- PhotoNOLA is an annual festival of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with galleries, museums and other venues citywide. The sixth annual festival takes place in December 2011 with a broad range of photography exhibitions on display throughout the month and an exciting lineup of peak programming from December 8-11. PhotoNOLA festivities kick into full gear on Thursday, December 8, with daytime workshops including a multimedia workshop with Dave Anderson and NPR’s Claire O’Neill. The evening features several art openings in the French Quarter followed by the PhotoGALA Benefit Party & Print Auction at the Musée Conti Historical Wax Museum. Mary Virginia Swanson leads PhotoNOLA’s Education Day on Friday, December 9, featuring a morning session focused on traveling exhibitions. In an ... More The Matter Within: New contemporary art of India at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents The Matter Within: New Contemporary Art of India, an exhibition of sculpture, photography and video by artists of India, living inside the country and in the diaspora. The works in this exhibition operate at the intersection of a triad of concepts—embodiment, the politics of communicative bodies, and the imaginary. It is through embodiment of the empirical functions of our senses that we are able to understand culture. Since our bodily senses focus our perceptions, they become the basis for communicating our unique experiences, which are shaped, in part, by how political structures intersect with our lives. This in turn affects the social notion of "the imaginary," a term which relates to "the other." The imaginary is linked to desire and subjectivity, which is central to personal and collective agency as it directs us towards ... More Tristin Lowe's "Moon Lands" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Twelve-and-a-half feet in diameter, a moon-like sphere made of white wool felt formed by artist Tristin Lowe makes its Philadelphia debut this fall in the Joan Spain Gallery in the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Entitled Lunacy, this large-scale sculpture was created in 2010 and represents one of Lowe’s most ambitious works to date. The felt surface of Lowe’s moon was fashioned of 14 sections that were pieced together by hand evoking the moon’s pocked and cratered surface by what Lowe has described as “an absurd and time-consuming process involving tweezers, small brushes, sizing, and a comb-over technique.” He has said that creating the exterior of Lunacy took about three hours per square foot, with the sculpture measuring a total of 490 square feet. To keep the structure inflated, Lowe used a sealed, airtight ... More Ten-year survey of the work of Victoria Sambunaris at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery BUFFALO, N.Y.- This comprehensive, ten-year survey of the work of Victoria Sambunaris (American, born 1964) marks the artist’s first solo exhibition at a major American museum. Each year for the past twelve years, Sambunaris has crossed the United States alone with her camera to capture the vast American landscape and terrain, and its intersection with civilization. The resulting, hauntingly beautiful images reveal a sparse, seemingly limitless landscape and geology, dotted by a human imprint that is distinctly American. The exhibition, substantially drawn from the collection of the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, includes more than thirty-five images captured by the artist with her 5x7 field camera as she traveled highways and gravel roads across the United States. Climbing mountains and often enduring extreme conditions for days, Sambunaris waited for the right light and ... More Crocker Art Museum presents first major retrospective of sculptor Clayton Bailey SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The Crocker Art Museum presents the first career-spanning retrospective of the work of contemporary sculptor Clayton Bailey in the new exhibition “Clayton Bailey’s World of Wonders.” Featuring 180 works and ephemera encompassing Bailey's 50-year career, this exhibition will be on view from October 22 through January 15, 2012. A ceramist, sculptor, and self-proclaimed “mad scientist,” Bailey aims to surprise and delight with his art. This exhibition presents the full range of his inspired eccentricity in clay and metal, including his signature “exploding pots,” disarming robot sculptures, and ray guns inspired by science fiction and fashioned from discarded aluminum. Also included are the artist’s pseudo-scientific discoveries made under the name of his alter-ego Dr. George Gladstone. Visitors to the exhibition also get to experience Bailey’s full-scale ... More |
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