Vargas, Sundblom and Elvgren Masterpieces Anchor Illustration Art Auction in Beverly Hills

DALLAS, TX.- Rare pin-up art from the greatest illustrators to ever pick up paint and brush will be the main draw whenHeritage Auctions launches its first Signature(r) Illustration Art Auction of 2011, Feb. 11-12, at its Beverly Hills offices, continuing the successful pairing of California sun and the gorgeous women of illustration that was begun last year, led by Alberto Vargas’ Gold Carnation (Legacy Nude #9), one of the most important paintings from the great artist’s peak period. “Our last [...]

An Extraordinary Display of Masterpieces Announced for This Year’s Edition of TEFAF

HELVOIRT.- An extraordinary display of masterpieces will be on show at TEFAF Maastricht when the world’s most influential art and antiques fair opens its doors at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) in Maastricht in the southern Netherlands from March 18-27, 2011. Among the highlights of the 24th edition of The European Fine Art Fair will be the imposing and important Henry Moore sculpture Mother and child block seat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s superb depiction of his son Claude, and an extremely [...]

Zaragoza Exhibits the Work of French Painter Georges Rouault for the First Time Ever

ZARAGOZA.- Rouault’s paintings are full of papers on their backs. References to all the places these paintings have traveled to, from Milan to New York without leaving out places like Tokyo or Paris (where his foundation is housed). “It is perhaps the fact that best expresses the importance of a painting,” said exhibition curator Martine Soria about the exhibition Georges Rouault 1871-1958, which opened yesterday at the Patio de la Infanta. This is the first time that the Aragonese city [...]

Fernando Marías disputes the authorship of the sculpture attributed to El Greco.

Toledo (Spain) – The professor of Art History at the Autonomous says that carving  is unconnected a the world of El Greco and the gallery stands in the lower back bears a signature little-known painter. The Spanish art historian specializing in El Greco Fernando Marías has disputed the authorship of the sculpture Ecce Homo, which has been attributed to the Spanish painter and will go on sale for 6 million euros in the next edition of the Dutch fair TEFAF. [...]

Build the Revolution. Russian art and architecture, 1915 – 1935

Barcelona – The architecture and art of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920 and 1930 in a major exhibition at Caixa Forum Barcelona. Build the Revolution. Art and architecture in Russia, 1915-1935 addresses one of the most outstanding periods in the history of architecture, ranging from the years before the October Revolution to the founding of the USSR. The artists and architects come together under the Bolshevik cause to create, through art and architecture, a new society based on socialist [...]

Heckscher Museum Presents Identity Crisis: Authenticity, Attribution and Appropriation

HUNTINGTON, NY .- The Heckscher Museum of Art presents Identity Crisis: Authenticity, Attribution and Appropriation. This exceptional exhibition which opened on January 15, 2011 and runs through March 27, 2011, explores issues relating to the artistic use of other artists’ styles and images in historical and contemporary works. Historically popular artists had followers, imitators and forgers, while more recent artists openly adopt well-known images and styles to comment on originality, authorship and culture. This exhibition presents old master and nineteenth-century [...]

Art or Propaganda? North Korea Exhibits a Major Show of Official Art in Moscow

MOSCOW (REUTERS).- Chubby-cheeked, hard-working and joyous but also ready for military action is how North Korea presents its people at a major show of official art from the secretive state in Moscow. “And Water Flows Beneath the Ice” exhibits 40 works by 39 state-commissioned artists which have never been shown abroad and span 25 years of tight North Korean rule. Hardy women in overalls with windswept ponytails wade in rubber boots beside their male comrades in Pak Tong Chol’s “Pioneers [...]

Kunsthalle Emden Offers a Comprehensive Review of Franz Radziwill’s Career as a Painter

EMDEN.- The Kunsthalle Emden’s Jubilee Year begins with a comprehensive review of Franz Radziwill (1895 – 1983). Already in 1995, the Kunsthalle held a large retrospective of the artist which brought many of his fans from North Germany to Emden. In 2010, the Kunsthalle received a bundle of more than 70 works on permanent loan. This opulent growth gave the opportunity, again, to take a look at the broad work of the painter. 111 masterpieces by the painter Franz Radziwill [...]

Andy Warhol: Behind the Camera on Display at the University of Delaware Museums

NEWARK, DE.- When Andy Warhol died in February 1987, he left behind a trove of almost 60,000 photographs, the bulk of them unknown to all but his inner circle. They consisted mostly of two kinds: 3 x 4 inch Polaroid images and 8 x 10-inch black and white prints. Ironically, for an artist whose claim to fame lay in his use of serial repetition, Warhol’s photographs were mostly unique affairs, whether the inherently singular Polaroids or the typically one-offack-and-white prints [...]

An Exhibition of Young and Emerging British and International Artists at Scream Gallery

LONDON.- Scream Gallery presents an exhibition of young and emerging British and international artists, who have a common desire to explore and create alternative realities. They transport you on a dream-like journey to another time or place, with inspiration drawn from fairy-tales, surrealism, nature, the human body and childhood. The exhibition has been co-curated by Melissa Digby-Bell and Lee Sharrock. Clare Chapman’s hyper-real oils on canvas are both disturbing and intriguing in their depiction of ambiguous forms and obscure terrain. [...]

Valencian Institute of Modern Art Shows Photographs by Bernie DeChant: Brazil and Beyond

VALENCIA.- Organized into three bodies of work, the exhibition explores deep contrasts and aesthetic similarities in architecture, abstract and human form from DeChant’s travels to Brazil, China, Morocco, Japan and the United States. He inspires us to look closer, to become connected with place, beauty and one another. Inspiration, like happiness, is contagious. These leaders knew this as they envisioned entire cities of inspiration. But the utopian dreams find rude awakenings in the reality of day-to-day existence. DeChant captures both [...]

Crocker Art Museum Announces a Series of Exhibitions for Its Summer of Impressionism

SACRAMENTO, CA.- The Crocker Art Museum will present a series of exhibitions this summer showcasing the journey of Impressionism from France to the U.S. With a strong emphasis on landscape paintings, the exhibitions collectively feature works by renowned French and American artists alongside masterpieces of California Impressionism. Claude Monet, The Islets at Port-Villez, 1897. Oil on canvas 32 x 39 5/8 in. Brooklyn Museum, gift of Grace Underwood Barton. The Crocker’s Summer of Impressionism comprises: • “Transcending Vision: American Impressionism, [...]

Bortolami Presents their Second Solo Exhibition with Michigan-Born Patrick Hill

NEW YORK, NY.- Bortolami presents their second solo exhibition with Patrick Hill. Working primarily in sculpture, Hill has implemented large wood beams as structural footing for cement, glass, metal, marble, fabric, and dye. For the first time, Hill introduces a figurative aspect into his work, with sculptures that reference fragmented bodies and detached limbs. Using white Carrera marble for the limbs with wooden support structures as skeletons, these new sculptures rouse Hill’s continuing investigation of underlying, if not foreboding, tensions [...]

Andy Warhol Portraits of Prince Charles and Princess Diana for Sale at Opera Gallery

LONDON (AP).- A London art gallery says it is putting on sale two portraits by artist Andy Warhol, created to celebrate the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The Opera Gallery in London says it acquired the original artworks from a private collection and will be selling them as a diptych for 2 million pounds ($3.15 million.) The central London gallery says Wednesday that the portraits — in silkscreen ink on canvas — were completed in 1982, shortly after [...]

Major Picasso Portrait of His Mistress and Muse to Lead Sotheby’s Sale in February

LONDON.- Sotheby’s forthcoming Evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art, to be held in London on Tuesday, 8th February 2011, will be led by a major painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter, the woman who transformed both his life and his art. Picasso’s La Lecture of 1932 (estimated at £12,000,000-18,000,000 / US$18,570,000 – $27,850,000*) relates closely to the legendary painting Le Rêve (The Dream), painted in the same year, and ranks among the stars of the big season of [...]