Historical importance of paintings by Frank Stella Examined in exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery

NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Kasmin Gallery presents “Geometric Variations,” the first New York gallery exhibition to explore the historical importance of Frank Stella’s iconic square paintings from the 1960’s and 1970’s. The exhibition includes large single and double canvasses from Stella’s Concentric Square and Mitered Mazes series, as well as the seminal “New Madrid” painting from his Benjamin Moore series. Stella began covering square canvases in alkyd house paint in 1961. Like his earlier Black, Aluminum and Copper paintings, these new square [...]

Exhibition of Bob Dylan’s drawings and paintings on view at Gagosian Gallery in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- Gagosian Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings by Bob Dylan. Dylan’s drawings and paintings are marked by the same constant drive for renewal that characterizes his legendary music. He often draws and paints while on tour, and his motifs bear corresponding impressions of the many different environments and people that he encounters. A keen observer, Dylan works from real life to depict everyday phenomena in such a way that they appear fresh, new, and mysterious. Bob Dylan in his [...]

“MemyselfandI: Photo portraits of Picasso” opens at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne

COLOGNE.- Pablo Picasso was not only a great artist but also a master of self-dramatization. His face is at least as well known as his outstanding oeuvre. All of the leading 20th-century portraitists photographed Picasso – and some of these portraits went on to become icons. In the exhibition “MemyselfandI. Photo Portraits of Picasso” Museum Ludwig is showing some 250 photographs by such artists as Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller and Man Ray. This is the first time [...]

Banksy’s iconic Monkey Detonator sells for £97,250 at Bonhams Urban Art sale

LONDON.- Several works by the renowned graffiti artist Banksy were sold yesterday evening (21 September 2011) in a packed saleroom at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as part of its Urban Art sale. Leading the way was a work featuring one of Banksy’s most iconic images, the monkey, entitled Monkey Detonator, which had attracted a pre-sale estimate of £70,000 – 90,000, and was sold for £97,250. Executed in 2000, this canvas displays the typically dark sense of humour which has endeared Banksy to [...]

Boldini and Dore highlight Christie’s 19th Century European art sale in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- On October 12, Christie’s New York will offer an extraordinary selection of 19th Century European Art Including Orientalist, Sporting and Maritime Paintings. The sale will present exquisite examples of the classic tradition of Europe as well as the exotic allure of the Orient, and will feature some of the most sought-after artists of the 19th Century including Giovanni Boldini, José Benlliure y Gil, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, William Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Frederick Lord Leighton and Montague Dawson. [...]

Exhibition of photographs in the spirit of alchemy at Galerie Guido W. Baudach

BERLIN.- Galerie Guido W. Baudach presents its sixth solo exhibition by Erwin Kneihsl. Kneihsl practices photography in spirit of alchemy. His focus of attention is not directed towards materials and their external forms, but the ‘transmutation’ of the subject of the photograph into an image in the mind’s eye. This corresponds to both the motifs and the methods of Kneihsl’s photography: the decision to exclusively use mechanical cameras, the classical black and white film, and the insistence on personally producing his gelatine [...]

South African artist William Kentridge exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest

BUDAPEST.- The exhibition that opened at the Museum of Fine Arts on 20th September includes a portrait film about Kentridge as well as one of his most recent projects titled “I am not me, the horse is not mine”. Occasioned by the discussion at the museum on 4th October, a significant body of the artist’s film projects will be screened in the form of a special, one-off installation, among them his Soho and Felix series about post-apartheid South Africa, as well as two [...]

Sotheby’s to sell the BAT Artventure Collection formerly known as the Peter Stuyvesant Collection Part III

AMSTERDAM.- Sotheby’s Amsterdam will offer for sale on Tuesday 4 October 2011 the third and final selection of works from the former Peter Stuyvesant Collection, property of British American Tobacco Netherlands (BAT). The thread of the sale: Pop art, Op art, Photography, Conceptual Art, Zero and 20th Century British Art by a varied group of international contemporary artists such as Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Patrick Caulfield, Tony Cragg, Bruce Nauman, Jim Dine, Jean Dewasne, Victor Vasarely, Julio Le Parc, Joël [...]

Exhibition of artwork by Brigitte Kowanz, Shirley Shor, and Ingo Günther at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery

NEW YORK, NY.- Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery presents Live Theory, an exhibition of artwork by Brigitte Kowanz, Shirley Shor, and Ingo Günther. Through a variety of media technologies, both new and old, each of these artists describe and interpret our rapidly changing social, political, and economic landscapes. This group of internationally diverse artists are in the midst of reshaping our understanding of how to create and disseminate information. The modes developed for mapping information, the roles of language across media networks, and the [...]

Chiara Parisi appointed new Director of the cultural programs at the Monnaie de Paris

PARIS.- After seven years directing the Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière, Chiara Parisi will resign her commission. During those years, Chiara Parisi worked on the development and commitment of this exceptional location: a free and eclectic tool for creation in the heart of France, on the Millevaches plateau. For seven years, from 2004 to 2011, 69 artists came on the island of Vassivière at her invitation to conceive and produce 22 exhibitions, mainly monographic, inside Aldo [...]

Major collection of antique telephones will keep collectors “engaged” at Morphy Auctions

DENVER, PA.- A large percentage of the world’s population has never even seen a dial-face telephone, but that certainly wasn’t the case with the late Bill Daniels. The massive collection of antique and vintage phones that filled his home comprised a chronological archive of Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 invention and contained models ranging from primitive turn of the 20th century curiosities to ultra-cool mid-century designs. A premier assemblage, the Daniels collection has been consigned to Morphy Auctions, where it will be apportioned [...]

Marlborough Gallery presents an exhibition by Red Grooms on the theme of New York

NEW YORK, NY.- Marlborough Gallery presents an exhibition by Red Grooms on the theme of New York. The exhibition comprises sculptures, installation pieces, and paintings spanning the years 1976 to 2011. The show opened September 21 and will continue through October 22, 2011. Since his first exhibition at Marlborough in 1976, titled Ruckus Manhattan, Grooms has staked his claim as one of America’s most original, inventive, and popular artists. New York is Grooms’ home base and this exhibition will include several key [...]

Russian art gets younger, less politicized as fourth Moscow Biennale opens

MOSCOW (REUTERS).- Up-and-coming artists competing for Russia’s top contemporary art prize kicked off a marathon of exhibits in the Russian capital, which hosts the fourth Moscow Biennale. A studio strewn with musty books, pages rustling in an artificial breeze; a multicolored play-dough cube squeezed into a cage; and a sphere made out of hundreds of plastic bags were among the 40 art works contesting the prestigious Kadinsky prize. Named after abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1904), the award hands out cash-prizes of [...]

The Rijksmuseum presents Johan Maurits & Frans Post: Two Dutchmen in Brazil

AMSTERDAM.- Johan Maurits, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, also known as ‘The Brazilian’, served as governor of the Dutch possessions in Brazil from 1637 to 1644. He founded the town of Mauritsstad, commissioned the construction of a splendid palace and led the colony as an enlightened official. Artist Frans Post travelled along with the governor’s entourage, documenting not only military conquests, but also the exotic flora and fauna. His drawings served as the basis for the scientific book by Casper Barlaeus, commissioned by [...]

Tate Britain unveils John Martin’s lost masterpiece for the first time in almost a century

LONDON.- A vast painting of volcanic catastrophe by the British artist John Martin (1789–1854) is exhibited for the first time in almost a century. When the Thames flooded in 1928, The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum 1821 was widely considered to have been destroyed. After a painstaking restoration, it was unveiled to the public on 21 September 2011 as part of Tate Britain’s major exhibition, John Martin: Apocalypse. John Martin (1789–1854) was a key figure in the nineteenth-century art world, renowned for [...]