Major Survey of the Work of Charles Burchfield Opens at the Whitney

NEW YORK, NY.- This summer the Whitney Museum of American Art focuses on the work of the visionary artist Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) in an exhibition curated by acclaimed sculptor Robert Gober. Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield features more than one hundred watercolors, drawings, and paintings from private and public collections, as well as selections from Burchfield’s journals, sketches, scrapbooks, and correspondence. Organized by the Hammer Museum, in collaboration with the Burchfield Penney Art Center in [...]

Artists Inspired by Alice Neel Exhibit at Victoria Miró Gallery

LONDON.- In the Company of Alice presents portraits and figurative paintings by a diverse group of artists – some established and some emerging, some for whom portraiture is the crux of their practice and others for whom creating a portrait has been a new exercise. A number of these artists admire or have been inspired by Alice Neel, and it is for this reason they have been brought together in an expanded homage to the ongoing influence of the late [...]

Former Moderna Museet Director Lars Nittve to Head Museum Plus in Hong Kong

HONG KONG.- The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WCKDA) today announced that Mr Lars Nittve, a renowned museum director and curator with years of experience heading world-class facilities such as London’s Tate Gallery of Modern Art and Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, has been appointed Executive Director, M+ of the WCKDA. In his new capacity, Mr Nittve will be responsible for all content and exhibitions of Museum Plus (M+), a groundbreaking new museum concept planned at the future West Kowloon Cultural District [...]

A Real Van Gogh: How the Art World Struggles with Truth

AMSTERDAM.- Vincent van Gogh’s paintings and drawings are fabulously expensive. Millions of people admire his work, but are those masterpieces all genuine? To this day, the international art world struggles to separate the real Van Goghs from the fake ones, and the key question addressed in this book is what may happen to art experts when they publicly voice their opinions on a particular Van Gogh (or not). The story starts with art expert J.B. de la Faille who discovered [...]

San Francisco Art Institute Presents On Kawara: Pure Consciousness at 19 Kindergartens

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Beginning in 1998, New York City–based Japanese artist On Kawara subtly minimalized his longstanding already-minimalist Today series, the date-painting project he began in 1966. Still ritualistically maintaining the self-imposed constraints of the project (principally, that the date on which the painting was begun be its alphanumeric subject and that it be completed before the end of that day and, if not, destroyed), Kawara opted to modulate the reception of a week’s worth of these works (January 1 [...]

High Museum to Host Retrospective of Iconic 20th Century Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson

ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art will host “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century,” the first major retrospective in the U.S. in more than 30 years of one of photography’s most original and influential masters. On view from February 19 through May 29, 2011, the exhibition comprises more than 250 photographs dating from 1929 to 1989—at least one-fifth of which are previously unknown to the public—and focuses on the photographer’s most productive decades, the 1930s through the 1960s. Also included [...]

London International Art Fair Successfully Relaunches with New Exhibitors

LONDON.- “The main aisle on the opening night of LIFAF was like a conveyor of celebrities and luxury!” exclaimed veteran Olympia exhibitor Gordon Watson (London). Excitement filled the air for the re-launch of the London International Fine Art Fair (LIFAF) at Olympia. As the fair closed its eleven-day run June 13th, it had recorded 28,000 attendees – many of whom were first-time visitors – and strong sales for some exhibitors – many of which were to new clients. There was [...]

Five Contemporary Photographers Show their Work at Cynthia-Reeves

NEW YORK, NY.- Cynthia-Reeves presents Sense of Place, featuring the art of five contemporary photographers, including the major New York debut of legendary photographer and Sigmar Polke contemporary, Johannes Brus. The exhibition opens on Thursday evening, June 24th, with a reception open to the pubic, and will run through August 20th. Specific to the photographic medium are issues of presumed transparency. To counter such assumptions, SENSE OF PLACE includes works that rely upon overt manipulation to further communicate the “essence” [...]

Records Abound at New York City Polaroid Photo Auction

NEW YORK (AP).- A historic sale of works by some of the biggest names in 20th-century photography set records during a two-day auction of iconic images from the Polaroid corporate collection that concluded Tuesday. The auction of more than 1,000 photographs brought in $12.4 million, exceeding its pre-sale estimate of up to $10.7 million, Sotheby’s auction house said. Fourteen new artist records were set, including ones for a photograph by Ansel Adams, by Lucas Samaras, by Andy Warhol and by [...]

Stockholm Museum of Modern Art head to set up Hong Kong museum

Stockholm – The outgoing head of the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art is to move to Hong Kong and work with the culture and museum project M+, the Stockholm museum said Wednesday. Lars Nittve is to step down October 31, and move to Hong Kong early next year. The M+ project aims at showcasing “visual culture” from the 20th – 21st century and is a component in plans to develop a peninsula in Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour. Nittve, director of [...]

Fifty Important Works by Andy Warhol are on View at the Hay Hill Gallery

LONDON.- Fifty important works by Andy Warhol are on view at the Hay Hill Gallery this summer. The exhibition offers a rare and fascinating insight into Warhol’s creative mind and working processes, with an unprecedented number of works juxtaposed with their preparatory drawings. Highlights include a unique collection of Andy Warhol’s Indians (Native Americans) (1986), exhibited alongside the working drawings. These seventeen works of art form an important part of Warhol’s oeuvre. They provide a rounded study of Warhol’s graphic [...]

Manet Sets $33.1 Million Record, Auction Hits Target as Two-Week Marathon Begins

LONDON (REUTERS).- Sotheby’s sold an Edouard Manet self-portrait for 22.4 million pounds ($33.1 million) on Tuesday, a record for the artist but toward the lower end of pre-sale expectations of 20-30 million pounds. The painting, one of only two self-portraits by the artist and the only one in private hands, was the centerpiece of the auctioneer’s main impressionist and modern art sale in London this summer. Overall the auction fetched 112.1 million pounds, within expectations of 101-148 million pounds, although [...]

Shock and Contemplation in Images of the Crucifixion at Ben Uri Gallery

LONDON.- The cross – two perpendicular lines – is a simple geometric design yet an arrangement which for many is a symbol with enormous power. Although the moment of resurrection is more important spiritually, it is the cross as a representation of the crucifixion that has become the symbol for the Christian church. As Sister Wendy Beckett explains, “Death, even as horrible a death as crucifixion, is something we can understand, whereas resurrection is not. We know that Christ rose, [...]

Art Gallery of NSW on iTunes Connects with People All Around the World

SYDNEY.- Today the Art Gallery of New South Wales announced the provision of free access to a selection of rich educational content for life-long learners, students and people interested in knowing more about Sydney’s premier gallery. To date this ‘service’ has only been available to Australian universities and schools. The Art Gallery of NSW now joins a number of distinguished organisations over 600 universities and numerous schools that distribute their information free to the public. The Art Gallery of NSW, [...]

Julie & Edward J. Minskoff Art Collection Acquires Jonathan Prince Sculpture

NEW YORK, NY.- Jonathan Prince, a sculptor whose recent works were the subject of a solo exhibition at Cynthia-Reeves in Chelsea, has placed a key sculpture, Light Box, in the noted collection of 20th- and 21st-century art of Julie and Edward J. Minskoff. Mr. Minskoff, President of Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc., a New York-based real estate acquisition and development company, creates buildings that are widely acclaimed as art forms themselves. Mr. and Mrs. Minskoff generously display much of their [...]