Two Comprehensive Photo Installations by Susanne Kriemann at Kunsthalle Winterthur

WINTERTHUR.- Susanne Kriemann composes her works based on historical and social research. The artist often reproduces vintage prints and combines the appropriated material with new photos taken by herself; the emerging convolution of pictures is a result of visual association and formal analogies, but at the same time it derives from topics that were linked to the original context of the pictures. At Kunsthalle Winterthur, Kriemann shows two comprehensive photo installations. The walkable panopticon of One Time One Million (2009) presents product [...]

Internationally-Renowned Sculptor Antony Gormley Showing Two New Works in Leeds

LEEDS.- Harewood is showing two new works by internationally-renowned sculptor Antony Gormley in the Terrace Gallery until the end of October. Earlier this season Harewood focused on Adam, Sir Jacob Epstein’s masterpiece, which stands in the Hall upstairs. Epstein was a key early influence on the development of Gormley’s art. Gormley says: ‘I am delighted to have the opportunity to show two works at Harewood House, which has long been associated with Adam, Epstein’s powerful evocation of masculine yearning carved from a [...]

LACMA Displays First Major Public Sculpture by Chinese Contemporary Artist Ai Weiwei

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is displaying the first major public sculpture by Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, titled Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads. The installation comprises twelve monumental bronze animal heads that are re-creations of the famous traditional zodiac sculptures that once adorned the fountain clock of Yuan Ming Yuan, the Old Summer Palace, located just outside Beijing. For LACMA’s presentation, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is on view outdoors just east of the museum’s Lynda and Stewart [...]

Rhenish Expressionists: Heinrich Campendonk, An Exhibition Series at Kunstmuseum Bonn

BONN.- With Heinrich Campendonk (1889-1957) Kunstmuseum Bonn continues its exhibition series about the Rhenish Expressionists. Following Hans Thuar and Paul Adolf Seehaus, a selection of works by Campendonk from the museum’s collection is presented on a wall in the exhibition spaces on the ground floor, accompanied by information on the artist’s life and work. At the same time the presentation of the “Noble Guests” from Kunsthalle Bremen leaves and is replaced by classical modernist works from the museum’s collection. Heinrich Campendonk was one [...]

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Installs Claes Oldenburg Sculpture in Lenfest Plaza

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts commissioned world-renowned artist Claes Oldenburg to create a new public artwork for its Lenfest Plaza. The design consists of a 51 foot high sculpture in the form of a paintbrush, raised at a 60 degree angle as if in the act of painting, with a 6-ft paint glob on the ground below. The sculpture is positioned between PAFA’s Historic Landmark Building and the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Buildings. Oldenburg titled the work Paint Torch, [...]

Frontiers of Another Nature: Contemporary Photographic Art from Iceland at Frankfurt’s Kunstverein

FRANKFURT.- “Frontiers of Another Nature” is a unique selection of Icelandic photographic and multimedia artists who address landscape and man-made environments in their work. The exhibition explores how the photographic arts are an essential means for examining the undeniably complex relationship of Icelanders to their natural environment. “Frontiers of Another Nature” introduces ambiguous environments in which the photographers investigate and build visual narratives around the expanse of land, or the loss of it. Here, the landscape often acts as metaphor for [...]

Musée du Quai Branly Announces 3rd Edition of the Photoquai Biennial Exhibition of World Images

PARIS.- Created in 2007 by the musée du quai Branly and dedicated to non-Western photography, the 3rd edition of the PHOTOQUAI biennial exhibition of world images takes place on the quays of the Seine alongside the musée du quai Branly, extending for the first time into the museum garden. Acclaimed since its first edition for its quality, originality, ambition and relevance, in 2011 PHOTOQUAI will continue to pursue its original mission: showcasing artists whose work is little known in Europe, stimulating communication and [...]

Retrospective of the Work of Emiel van Moerkerken at The Hague Museum of Photography

THE HAGUE.- The role of Emiel van Moerkerken in the history of Dutch photography is highly important but hard to sum up. In the 1960s, he made reportage-type photos for Dutch Salvation Army magazine Strijdkreet, while at the same time snapping provocative nudes for satirical magazine Gandalf. In the 1930s and ’40s, his work was mainly Surrealist in nature. He was fascinated by the relationship between perception and the subconscious, and between sexuality and imagination. He was one of the few [...]

Controversy Follows Conviction of Artist Odd Nerdrum for Alleged Tax Fraud

OSLO.- The Norwegian artist, Odd Nerdrum, was sentenced to two years in prison without bail on Wednesday August 17th, when a local court in Oslo found him guilty for tax evasion. Critics claim that Nerdrum’s sentence was surprisingly more severe than the punishment recently imposed in a similar case in China concerning the artist Ai Weiwei, who was given a fine and released on house arrest after three months of detainment. Nerdrum has plead not guilty and will file an appeal. [...]

Photographer Russell James Presents ‘Nomad Two Worlds’ Exhibition at the Alte Muenze

BERLIN.- Created by world renowned photographer Russell James, NOMAD TWO WORLDS is a collaborative art project with Indigenous artists. In the last decade it has evolved from James’ individual attempt to understand the clash of ancient and modern cultures he witnessed growing up in Australia to what it is today – a powerful expression of partnership and reconciliation in action through art, music and film that has become a global example of true collaboration across deep cultural divides. From its humble beginnings as [...]

Guggenheim Exhibition on Kandinsky Offers Insight into Artist’s Creative Process

NEW YORK, NY.- Completed nearly 100 years ago, the canvas Painting with White Border (Bild mit weissem Rand, May 1913) by Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) was inspired by a trip the artist took to Moscow in fall 1912. Upon his return to Munich, where he had been living intermittently since 1896, Kandinsky searched for a way to visually record the “extremely powerful impressions” of his native Russia that lingered in his memory. Over a period of five months, he explored various motifs [...]

Detroit Institute of Arts to Present “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” Exhibition

DETROIT, MI.- Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Nov. 20, 2011–Feb. 12, 2012, brings together for the first time many of Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn’s finest paintings, prints and drawings that portray Jesus and events described in the Bible. The exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Musée du Louvre and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition of 64 works includes approximately 52 small, intimate paintings, prints and drawings by [...]

Paris Left Bank Comes to Edinburgh at Bonhams Colourists Sale

EDINBURGH.- A major painting by the Scottish Colourist, John Duncan Fergusson, is one of the highlights of the sale of Bonhams‘ Colourists and other Scottish painters in Edinburgh on the evening of Wednesday 31 August. The work, ‘At the Milliner’s Paris’, depicts some of the dressmaking assistants Fergusson met at the louche Cafe d’Harcourt in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank in Paris where they would gather after work and mingle with students from the nearby Sorbonne University. It was a [...]

Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale at Christie’s New York on September 21

NEW YORK, N.Y.- Christie’s is pleased to announce the Fall 2011 edition of First Open, a sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, on September 21, 2011. The auction will feature an international selection of works by recognized post-war masters and today’s leading artists such as Gerhard Richter, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and George Condo, with competitive estimates. The sale will offer a total of 337 lots with a wide range of price points to all collectors of the genre. First Open is expected to [...]

Two Striking Portraits of Women Enter Australia’s Queensland Art Gallery Collection

QUEENSLAND.- The Queensland Art Gallery is celebrating the entry of two striking portraits of women into its Australian collection — Lucile 1937, by Australian artist Peter Purves Smith and Self portrait 1938 by Australian artist Nora Heysen. Arts Minister Rachel Nolan said the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation had achieved its 2011 Appeal target to acquire Purves Smith’s portrait of Lucile Stephens (1916–2003), and had received funds from Philip Bacon, AM, to acquire Nora Heysen’s Self portrait. “I’m delighted these wonderful works have been [...]