Anna Artaker Continues Her Work on Death Masks at the Secession

VIENNA.- Anna Artaker’s works examine visual production in the context of how history is written: she analyzes images that have been used in the construction and communication of history and have thus become part of a specific historiography. In recent years, Artaker has closely studied the death masks created by the Armenian-Soviet sculptor Sergei Merkurov (1881–1952). Merkurov was a “National Artist” of the young Soviet Union and sculpted numerous monumental statues of the country’s heroes. In addition, he took death [...]

Pictures, Objects, Concepts from the Collection of Herman and Nicole Daled at Haus der Kunst

MUNICH.- “Je déteste le décor” – this remark made by Herman Daled illustrates his refusal to hang art on the wall, thereby misusing it as decoration. In 1966, the Brussels-based Belgian doctor Herman Daled (b. 1930) and his wife at that time, Nicole Verstraeten (b. 1931; lawyer), began building their collection of conceptual art. The couple did not simply purchase artists’ works, but also allowed them to create their art beyond the conventional mechanisms of the art market. Herman and [...]

New Photography Exhibit at BYU Presents Sly Examination of Suburban Life in 1970s America

PROVO, UT.- At the end of the 20th century, more Americans resided in suburbs than in cities and rural communities combined. The vast suburban expansion following World War II provided social mobility and increased autonomy, space and comfort for families and individuals. “Bill Owens: Suburbia,” a new exhibition at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, is a sly photographic study of suburban life in the 1970s—the second generation of the post-war suburban movement. This exhibition of 65 black and [...]

Joseph Kleitsch Highlights Auction of California and Western Paintings

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Bonhams & Butterfields held its Spring auction of California and Western Paintings and Sculpture on April 20, 2010. The Los Angeles-based sale featured a wide variety of important California, Western, Society of Six, Hawaiian scenes and Plein Air works by established American artists including Joseph Kleitsch, Franz Bischoff, Edgar Payne, Granville Redmond and William Wendt as well as an early, rare to market work by Thomas Hill. Undoubtedly, the highlight of the $2.9-million sale was a selection [...]

Most Comprehensive Show of Frida Kahlo’s Work Ever Staged Opens in Berlin

BERLIN.- From 30 April to 9 August 2010 Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau will be devoting an extensive retrospective to the important Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Born in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Frida Kahlo is one of the great identification figures of Latin American art. She stands out as one of the most famous female artists of the first half of the 20th century. Injured in a traffic accident on 17 September 1925 Frida Kahlo spent the rest of her life in pain as [...]

Exhibition of Monumental Sculpture by Colombian Artist Fernando Botero at Marlborough

NEW YORK, NY.- On April 29, 2010, Marlborough Gallery will present an exhibition of monumental sculpture by the world-renowned Colombian artist, Fernando Botero. The exhibition will feature work with classical subjects such as Leda and the Swan, 2007 (67 x 127 x 55 in.), and Rape of Europa, 2007 (114 x 120 x 62 in.). Botero’s large-scale sculptures have been exhibited to critical and popular acclaim in public exhibitions around the globe, including on the Champs Elysées in Paris, Park [...]

Mamma Andersson and Jockum Nordstrom Exhibit at David Zwirner

NEW YORK, NY.- David Zwirner presents Who is sleeping on my pillow, two concurrent solo exhibitions by Swedish artists Mamma Andersson and Jockum Nordström. After spending half their lives together while maintaining separate practices, this is the first time they have exhibited together. This is Mamma Andersson’s second exhibition at the gallery (her U.S. debut was at David Zwirner in 2006), and Jockum Nordström’s fifth. Known for her complex, multilayered subjects that converge between domestic interiors and Nordic landscapes, Andersson [...]

British Artist Roger Hiorns Creates Sculpture for Art Institute

CHICAGO, IL.- British artist Roger Hiorns (b. 1975), who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2009, has been selected as the next contemporary artist to be featured on the Bluhm Family Terrace of the Art Institute of Chicago‘s Modern Wing. His Untitled (Alliance) of 2010 is a commissioned site-specific sculpture consisting of two massive Boeing airplane engines, which have been placed on the terrace in the foreground of the Chicago skyline and Millennium Park. Hiorns’s first collaboration with a [...]

Los Angeles Artist Mark Ryden Presents New Work at Paul Kasmin Gallery

NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Kasmin Gallery presents The Gay 90′s: Old Tyme Art Show, an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by the Los Angeles artist Mark Ryden. On view at 293 Tenth Avenue from April 29 to June 5, 2010, this will be Ryden’s first significant solo show in New York since 2003, as well as his first with the gallery. In his hauntingly beautiful and masterfully executed oil paintings, Ryden creates his own contemporary mythologies whose [...]

Santiago Calatrava Collaborates with the New York City Ballet

NEW YORK, NY.- To celebrate his first collaboration with the NYC Ballet (NYCB), world renowned architect, Santiago Calatrava will serve as an Honorary Chairman of the company’s Opening Gala on Thursday, April 29th, an event marking the start of the 2010 spring season. Calatrava, who is best known for his acclaimed bridges, transportation centers and educational buildings, agreed to create scenic designs for five of the company’s new productions after receiving a personal invitation from NYCB Ballet Master, Peter Martins. [...]

Iconic Portraits of Powerful and Influential Figures at Atlas Gallery

LONDON.- Atlas Gallery presents an important new exhibition of rare portraits by some of the most notable photographers of the last six decades. Curated personally by the gallery’s director Ben Burdett, the subjects have been chosen from the fields of politics, sport, the arts, entertainment and science. The selection of works on show attempts to examine the way in which the camera portrait not only provides the individual with a visual memory and reference for the subjects of the portrait [...]

Cleaners Paint Over Priceless Stencil of a Rat by Banksy

CANBERRA.- An Australian council is rueing a decision to send street cleaners into a Melbourne lane after they painted over a priceless stencil of a rat by the celebrated British graffiti artist Banksy. Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley last week sent a clean-up team into Hosier Lane, renowned internationally for its colorful street art, to clean up garbage in the graffiti-lined passage after local residents complained. But the request went awry when the cleaners painted over a Banksy stencil [...]

Ackland Art Museum Receives Extraordinary Gift of 51 Works

CHAPEL HILL, NC.- Museums rely on the generosity of donors and the Tyche Foundation gift represents one of the most significant contributions in the history of the Ackland Art Museum. This collection of fifty-one works of art will be unveiled in its entirety in the special exhibition Fortune Smiles: The Tyche Foundation Gift (May 23 – August 29, 2010). These works of art add new depth to the Ackland Collection. Accompanying the exhibition is an illustrated catalogue featuring art historical [...]

Lee Bul’s Utopian Modernity on View at Lehmann Maupin

NEW YORK, NY.- Lehmann Maupin presents an exhibition of new works by Lee Bul, on view at 201 Chrystie Street, through 19 June 2010. Lee will present an installation of sculptures, along with related drawings and marquettes that expand upon her continuing engagement with the fractured tropes and narratives of utopian modernity. By turns strikingly elegant and obsessively intricate, the sculptural works in this exhibition delve into metaphysical and poetic concepts of architectural environments, evoking invented and imaginary landscapes that [...]

National Portrait Gallery Announces BP Portrait Award 2010 Shortlist

LONDON.- After a record number of entries, three artists have been short-listed for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, one of Britain’s most prestigious international art prizes. This year the prize received 2,177 entries, an increase of over 276 on last year. For the fourth year, the competition has been open to all aged 18 or over. 58 portraits have been selected for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which runs from 24 June until 19 [...]