A man views the painting 'Place Clichy', Oil on Canvas, 1912, by French artist Pierre Bonnard at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland, 27 January 2012. The exhibition 'Pierre Bonnard' runs from 29 January to 13 May. It celebrates the great French colorist and one of the most fascinating of modern artists. More than 60 paintings from renowned museums and private collections provide insight into all phases of his career. EPA/ANDREAS FROSSARD.
RIEHEN.- With the exhibition “Pierre Bonnard”, the Fondation Beyeler celebrates one of the most fascinating of modern artists. With more than 60 paintings by the renowned French colorist on loan from international museums and private collections, the show provides a fresh review of Bonnard's oeuvre and development. It covers his entire career from his beginnings with the Nabis through Symbolism and Impressionism to his ever more colorful and abstract late works. The paintings depict familiar scenes with bathers, views of the artist's garden, everyday life, and the bustle of the Paris streets. Born in Fontenay aux Roses near Paris, Bonnard (1867–1947) worked principally in his private residences and studio apartments in Paris. The main locations were his house "Ma Roulette" in Vernnonet, Normandy (1912-39), and the villa "Le Bosquet" in Le Cannet on the Côte d'Azur (1927-47) and their respective gardens. ... More
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BILBAO.- Juan Ignacio Vidarte, general director of Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, delivers his speech during the event to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the opening of the museum, in Bilbao, northern Spain, 27 January 2012. EPA/ALFREDO ALDAI.
MARGATE.- Eighty-eight works by Britain’s best-loved painter, JMW Turner, many from Tate’s collection, will go on show in the major exhibition Turner and the Elements at Turner Contemporary in Margate from 28 January –13 May 2012. The exhibition, including a number of works featuring Margate and the north Kent coast, illustrates how his painting technique and the influence of the latest scientific and technological developments of his time, revolutionised landscape painting. JMW Turner was a frequent visitor to Margate spending time there as a child and again later in his life. He is said to have remarked to John Ruskin that “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”. In the 1820s and 1830s Turner lodged with Sophia Booth in a house that was located on the same site as Turner Contemporary. The windows from the house provided Turner with ... More
Piet Mondrian, The Composition, 1923.
NEW YORK, NY.- One of the art world’s most acquisitive and controversial collectors has been dealt a noteworthy setback this week by a New York federal judge. In a closely watched case, European art broker Anne Faggionato, former Director of Art International and current CEO of BlueLabel, won a favorable decision in a long-running dispute over the purchase and subsequent sale of “The Composition,” a 1923 painting by renowned Dutch artist Piet Mondrian that has been valued as high as $7 million. The decision comes nearly a year after a February 2011 bench trial in which New York art dealer Edelman Arts sought damages against Art International for failing to complete its purchase of the painting in 2005. Art International was principally owned at the time the litigation was filed by Ms. Faggionato; Edelman Arts is principally owned by legendary corporate buyout artist Asher Edelman. Seyfarth Shaw LLP represented Art International in the case, styled Edelman Arts, I ... More
Pablo Picasso, Pierrot and Harlequin, Juan-les-Pins, 1920. Pen and black ink with gouache on cream paper, sheet (folded in half): 27.3 x 21.3 cm (10 3/4 x 8 3/8 in.). National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman, 1981.
WASHINGTON, DC.- Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was the greatest draftsman of the 20th century, exploring every technique from a single line to explosions of color. Through some 60 works, Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition presents the dazzling development of the artist as a draftsman during the first 30 years of his career, from the precocious academic exercises of his youth to his radical innovations of cubism and collage. On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from January 29 through May 6, 2012, the exhibition includes many of Picasso's finest drawings, watercolors, and pastels, borrowed from American and European public and private collections—including the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte— ... More
Vincent Van Gogh, L'Allée aux deux promeneurs (detail). Estimate: US$ 800,000 - 1,000,000.
MUMBAI.-Saffronart, India’s leading auction house announces its entry into Western art with its Inaugural Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art. As part of its long-term commitment to provide art connoisseurs in India and across the globe with access to the finest art works, Saffronart now introduces this landmark auction of Western art, a first for India. The auction offers a unique opportunity for collectors to acquire significant works by the legends of the art world including Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, and others. With a total of 73 lots, the sale includes a wide variety of paintings, works on paper and sculptures of exceptional provenance and quality by leading Western artists. The auction will take place online at www.saffronart.com on February 15-16, 2012. A selection of lots from this auction will be previewed at Saffronart’s galleries in New Delhi and Mumbai. On the cover of ... More
ICE Director John Morton (left( and ICE Special Agent Craig Karch holding the Pissarro.
WASHINGTON, DC.- An art piece stolen from a French museum more than 30 years ago is finally on its way home to France. On Wednesday, U.S. officials repatriated "Le Marché aux Poissons" (The Fish Market), a monotype by Camille Pissarro, to French Ambassador François Delattre. Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY); and Interpol Washington, U.S. National Central Bureau; attended a ceremony on Jan. 25 at The Kreeger Museum in the District of Columbia to return the stolen art. The monotype, which is a one-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper, was stolen in 1981 by a man named Emile Guelton, who walked out of the Faure Museum in Aix-les-Bains, France, with the work under his jacket. The museum guard and another witness provided descriptions of the thief to ... More
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), Girl with a Pearl Earring, c.1665.
ATLANTA, GA.-The High Museum of Art in collaboration with the Mauritshuis, The Hague, will present a major exhibition of Dutch masterworks in 2013, including Johannes Vermeer’s iconic “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” which has not been on view in the United States for more than 15 years and has never been seen in the Southeast. Drawn from the Mauritshuis’s collection, “Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis” will highlight the artistic genius of Dutch Golden Age painters, including Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals and Jan Steen, through the presentation of more than 35 exceptional paintings. Opening in Atlanta on June 22, 2013, the exhibition will remain on view through September 29, 2013. “For a selection of works from this renowned collection to be shown in the Southeast is a rare and extraordinary opportunity,” said Michael E. Shapiro, Nancy and Holcombe T ... More
LONDON.- Renowned LA based photographer Neal Preston has chosen Snap Galleries in St James to host his first exhibition of photographs in London in January 2012. The exhibition will feature around 50 of Preston’s most important rock & roll photographs. With a career that has already spanned four decades, Preston sees no reason not to aim for a fifth. It all started in high school, as he recalls: "Some kids get behind the wheel of a car when they are 14 or 15, and they instinctively know what the clutch does, what the brakes do. When I got my first camera, I knew what to do” Preston is probably best known for his Led Zeppelin archive, and a book of his photographs of the band, Led Zeppelin: photographs by Neal Preston, was published by Omnibus in 2009 to international acclaim. Of Preston's photographs, Robert Plant said: "Whenever I see Neal shooting from the pit, I know his eye, I know he’ll be in the righ ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- Often compared to an artist’s sketchbook, a contact sheet is the photographer’s first look at what he or she has captured on film, and provides a uniquely intimate glimpse into the working process. It gives a behind-the-scenes sense of walking alongside photographers and seeing through their eyes. Through May 6, 2012, Magnum Contact Sheets are on view at the International Center of Photograpy, revealing how Magnum photographers have captured and edited their best shots from the 1930s to the present. The images featured—both celebrated, iconic photographs and lesser-known surprise—encompass more than 70 years of history: from the Normandy landings by Robert Capa, the 1968 Paris riots by Bruno Barbey, and the war in Chechnya by Thomas Dworzak, to René Burri’s filmic sequence of close-ups of Che Guevara, classic New Yorkers by Bruce Gilden ... More
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucretia. Oil on panel, 22 ½ by 18 ¼ in.; 60.3 by 48.9 cm. Est. $4/6 million. Sold for: $5,122,500. Photo: Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.-Sotheby’s annual Old Masters Week auctions in New York concluded today with a strong cumulative total of $73,052,668. Thursday’s sale of Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture brought $62,081,477, and was highlighted by five remarkable pictures that achieved prices over $4 million – led by Canaletto’s View of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo… from the Estate of Lady Forte that sold for $5,682,500 (est. $5/7 million*), and Lucas Cranach the Elder’s portrait Lucretia that brought $5,122,500 (est. $4/6 million). On Wednesday, the auction of Old Master Drawings achieved $5,640,813 – the highest result for an auction in this category at Sotheby’s New York since 1998. The sale featured an Italian Renaissance Portrait of a Young Man attributed to Piero del ... More
TAMPA, FL.-The Tampa Museum of Art announces its spring 2012 exhibition schedule that honors the work of three modern masters, Romare Bearden, Don ZanFagna and John Cage. In solo exhibitions dedicated to each of the three pioneers, the Museum takes the opportunity to understand the long shadows these artists have left. “With this suite of exhibitions,” according to Todd D. Smith, the Museum’s executive director,” the Museum continues to tell the traditional and emerging histories of the art of the modern era and provide our audiences with a broader understanding of the art of the last century. Romare Bearden played a highly important role in helping our culture understand the complexity of race and representation. Don ZanFagna was a pioneer in the 1960s and 1970s of drawing our ... More
Untitled (Monk) # 7, 2011. Bronze. 11,81 x 11,22 x 7,68 inches. Ca. 30 x 28,5 x 19,5 cm. Courtesy Galerie Jaeger Bucher, Paris, Photo Frederico NS.
PARIS.- From 28 January to 31 March, 2012, the gallery presents an exhibition of the artist Miguel Branco entitled Deserto. Born in Castelo Branco, Portugal in 1963, Miguel Branco studied at Lisbon’s Faculty of Fine Arts and has been the director since 1998 of the Painting Department of AR.CO. (Centre of Art and Visual Communication of Lisbon). His works have been shown at international institutions such as the MUDAM in Luxemburg, the CAM—Centre of Modern Art of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon—as well as at the Serralves Foundation in Porto. For the last twenty years Miguel Branco has devoted himself mainly to painting, with the exception of a series of clay and iron sculptures he made between 1987 and 1989. Several distinguishing features characterize his work, whether in painting or sculpture: first of all the notion of scale is essential to him, since the majority of his paintings and ... More
Meg Cranston, Conflicting Portrait 2011. Gouache and collage on paper. 35,5 x 27,3 cm / 14 x 10,75 in. 50 x 70 x 16 cm / 19,7 x 27,5 x 6,2 in. Courtesy Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin.
BERLIN.-Galerie Michael Janssen announces Paper does not blush, a group exhibition with artists of the gallery program. The exhibition focuses on works on paper, including prints, illustrated books, and selected drawings, that explore and manipulate the materiality of paper itself. On view are works by Yoshitaka Amano, Gianfranco Baruchello, Meg Cranston, Lili Dujourie, Monique van Genderen, Emil Holmer, Christof Mascher, Christoph Steinmeyer, Shaan Syed, Joris Van de Moortel and Mario Ybarra Jr. Yoshitaka Amano gained fame in the 1970’s creating anime, manga and video game characters. He combines traditions of Japanese painting with western influences and popular culture. The extensive and complex oeuvre of Gianfranco Baruchello goes back to the 1960’s. An important part of his artistic expression are his assemblages composed of cutouts ... More
Quote Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Kit Schulte Contemporary Art introduces young, Italian talent Matteo Bergamasco to Berlin audience BERLIN.-Kit Schulte Contemporary Art introduces the young, Italian talent Matteo Bergamasco to the Berlin audience. In the exhibition 'END' Italian artist Matteo Bergamasco presents a series of visionary drawings about the apocalypse. Bergamasco says: “For about two years I have been frequently dreaming about the end of the world. Each time it happens in a different way, for different reasons, in the most diverse settings... but always in a grandiose fashion!” Regardless of any prophetic or anecdotal reflection, the heart of this project is rather the investigation around the theme and its mystery. The World and Man, mirror-like and opposed images of one another, close as well as far apart, apparent from different scales, meet each other and collide when exceptional events overhang and transcend both. Heaven and earth disolve into the unknown, too vast for human mind to be contained or analyzed. The only possible ... More
Need for courtroom artists fade as cameras move in CHICAGO (AP).- One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom — drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes. Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades — a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own. Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them — but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the prohibitions. "When people say to me, 'Wow, you are a courtroom artist' — I always say, 'One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism ... More
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum presents the work of Brazilian artist Barrão RIDGEFIELD, CT.- Brazilian artist Barrão re-purposes popular ceramics he finds at second-hand stores, flea markets, and dumpsters by clustering them all together for the production of his large-scale, whimsical sculptures. Mashups, the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States, will open at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum on January 29, 2012. It will present three works built from fragments of preexisting objects, including an exotic five-foot-tall tree made from glued-together decorative porcelains. Instead of producing tropical fruits, the tree sprouts a diversity of creatures, including roosters, dogs, and swans. Barrão’s free-spirited juxtaposition of the remnants of functional and decorative objects establishes new sets of relationships between the parts. United in his sculptures, the disparate pieces are freed from their previous functions to form a whole new identity, one that escapes i ... More
Vancouver Art Gallery announces Desire: Art Auction 2012 taking place February 18th VANCOUVER, BC.- How do you raise nearly one million dollars in a single night to fund exhibitions and educational programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery ? Through the tremendous generosity of distinguished artists, private galleries and top collectors across Canada and the United States , who have donated more than 70 outstanding works of art to the Gallery for DESIRE: Art Auction 2012. Internationally renowned artists Roy Arden, Edward Burtynsky , Robert Davidson, Rodney Graham, Ken Lum, Landon Mackenzie, Gordon Smith, Ian Wallace and Jeff Wall are among those who have personally contributed works for this major charitable event. Art patrons and artists will converge at the Gallery on Saturday, February 18 for the gala fundraiser, beginning with an exclusive reception and live auction in the galleries at 6pm. Following the live auction, the evening will continue at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel ... More
First major UK survey of British artist Zarina Bhimji at the Whitechapel Gallery LONDON.-The Whitechapel Gallery presents the first major UK survey of British photographer, film-maker and installation artist Zarina Bhimji. The exhibition traces the development of her work over the last 25 years and premieres her new film, Yellow Patch (2011), inspired by trade and immigration routes across the Indian Ocean between India and Africa. Bhimji, who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007, creates poetic photographs and films which capture human traces in empty landscapes and buildings, often focusing on places haunted by their histories. The Whitechapel Gallery exhibition features her debut film Out of Blue (2002) alongside previously unseen photographic series and storyboards, and early installations from the 1980s. The exhibition opens with the film Yellow Patch (2011), shot on location in India. An exploration of space with a characteristically evocative use of sound, the film focuses on ... More
Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive BERKELEY, CA.- The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents Tables of Content: Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive / MATRIX 241, an exhibition exploring the seven-year exchange of correspondence between legendary artist Ray Johnson (1927–95) and collagist Robert Warner. The presentation features the contents of thirteen cardboard boxes given to Warner by Johnson in 1990. Warner, an optician working in New York City, first encountered Johnson’s work on a postcard sent by a mutual friend in 1988. Intrigued by the possibilities of corresponding with an artist, Warner initiated what evolved into an intense exchange between the two that continued until Johnson’s death of an apparent suicide in 1995. Over the course of their friendship Warner received hundreds of pieces of mail art from Johnson, ranging from collages to a piece of driftwood ... More
On a day like today, American painter Jackson Pollock,
was born
January 28, 1912.- Paul Jackson Pollock
(January 28, 1912 – August 11,1956), known as Jackson Pollock,
was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract
expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable
fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist.
He had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for
most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who
became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. In
this image: An Iranian couple looks at an unidentified artwork by
US artist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) at the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Tehran, Iran, 29 June 2010. The museum presents a collection
of contemporary Western art by artistis like Picasso, Monet and Pollock.
Some of the artworks, put together under the Iranian monarchy before
the 1979 Islamic revolution, are on display for the first time in
more than 30 years. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH.
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. This bronze statue will be auctioned at Christies Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale on 07 February 2012 and is expected to fetch between 840,000 and 1.2 million Euros. EPA/CHRISTIES.');)
 demonstration, model Sophie Barrett, stripped down to nothing but panties and paint markings that mimic a butchers diagram of animal body parts, poses for the photographers as she protests the meat industry by standing behind a poster that reads, All Animals Have the Same Parts: Abolish Meat at the Piccadilly Circus in central London, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis.');)
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 most iconic works with those that are lesser known, the sale comprises 36 photographs produced in extremely limited editions of two (2) in an oversized format (60 x 44 in.) never before utilized by the artist. In their new size, the photographs become entirely different objects than any that have ever existed on the market until this point. Photographic Masterworks by William Eggleston Sold to Benefit the Eggleston Artistic Trust is expected to realize in excess of $2.7million, with estimates that range from $40,000-350,000. Photo: Christies Images Ltd 2012.');)
