Exhibition at Fondation Beyeler offers a fresh review of Pierre Bonnard’s entire career

RIEHEN.- With the exhibition “Pierre Bonnard”, the Fondation Beyeler celebrates one of the most fascinating of modern artists. With more than 60 paintings by the renowned French colorist on loan from international museums and private collections, the show provides a fresh review of Bonnard’s oeuvre and development. It covers his entire career from his beginnings with the Nabis through Symbolism and Impressionism to his ever more colorful and abstract late works. The paintings depict familiar scenes with bathers, views of the artist’s garden, [...]

Former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s gifts up for sale at Artmark auction house

BUCHAREST (AP).- What did they give the dictator who had everything? An African leopardskin or a silver dove — a novel offering from the former Shah of Iran — are just two examples of gifts received by Nicolae Ceausescu that will be auctioned off Thursday, on what would have been the late Romanian leader’s 94th birthday. The auction which is billed “the Golden Age” is a reference to the final years of Ceausescu’s rule, when Communist Party officials painted a rosy [...]

J.M.W. Turner painting selld for £217,250 in Bonhams 19th century paintings sale

LONDON.- A beautiful watercolour of Kirkby Lonsdale Churchyard by Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851), that had not been seen at auction since 1884, sold yesterday (Wednesday 25th January 2012) for £217,250 as part of the 19th Century Paintings sale atBonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London. The sale total was £1,871,925. Turner painted the lyrical English landscape of the River Lune from the churchyard of St Mary’s Church in Kirkby Lonsdale, with a group of children playing in the foreground. A [...]

Frieze New York 2012: Inaugural Frieze Projects program by eight artists announced

NEW YORK, NY.- Frieze announced the artists that have been commissioned to produce unique works as part of the inaugural Frieze Projects program for Frieze New York. The fair will be located in the unique setting of Randall’s Island Park, overlooking the East River. The eight artists that will participate in Frieze Projects New York are: John Ahearn, Uri Aran, Latifa Echakhch, Joel Kyack, Rick Moody, Virginia Overton, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. and Ulla von Brandenburg. The Frieze Projects program is realized [...]

Artist John Miller transforms Metro Pictures into a bizarre yet familiar public space

NEW YORK, NY.- John Miller elaborates on many of the tropes he has masterfully cultivated throughout his thirty-plus year career in “Suburban Past Time,” his latest exhibition at Metro Pictures. Through artificial rocks and plants ranging in scale from massive to ordinary, wallpaper, store-bought and handmade decorative elements, Miller transforms the gallery into a bizarre yet familiar public space. The works included in the exhibition are a continuation of the artist’s ongoing sociological investigation into so-called middlebrow culture, which focus on artifice [...]

Financing in place for the Städel extension wing and refurbishment of the old building

FRANKFURT.- A month before the opening of the Städel extension wing for contemporary art, and after the reopening of the refurbished old building in late 2011, the financing of the entire project is now in place. The “Städelscher Museums-Verein” added the finishing touches today when it handed over a check for three million euros. One half (around 26 million euros) of the approx. 52-million euro project (34 million for the extension, 18 million for refurbishing the old building) was financed through the unprecedented [...]

Guggenheim selects new site for BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin

NEW YORK, NY.- Following careful consideration, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has selected a new site for the BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin, the combination think tank, public forum, and community center that will operate in Berlin from May 24 to July 29, 2012, as part of a nine-city, six-year tour. Berlin is the second stop for the Lab, following its successful inaugural run in New York City last fall. The new site is in Kreuzberg, a Berlin neighborhood known for its engagement with [...]

Swann Galleries in New York announces February auction of African-American fine art

NEW YORK, NY.- On Thursday, February 16, Swann Galleries will conduct their annual winter auction of African-American Fine Art, with highlights ranging from important 19th century landscape paintings to prints by celebrated contemporary artists. In all, there are more than 160 works by prominent black artists. The lot with the highest pre-sale estimate is a significant Charles White drawing—the first from the artist’s famous J’Accuse! series to come to auction—J’Accuse! No. 10 (Negro Woman), charcoal on paper, 1966. A powerful depiction of African-American [...]

Liz Taylor-owned Dutch master sells for $2M in New York City

NEW YORK (AP).- A 17th-century portrait that once hung in the living room of Elizabeth Taylor’s Bel Air home — and was only recently reattributed to the Dutch master Frans Hals — sold at auction Wednesday for $2 million. “Portrait of a Man,” painted in the early 1630s, went to a buyer bidding by phone at Christie’s sale of Old Masters. Its presale estimate had been $700,000 to $1 million. A Hals scholar, Seymour Slive, had listed the painting as a [...]

United Kingdom’s tallest building “The Shard” designed by Renzo Piano adds drama to London’s sky

LONDON (AP).- Passengers stepping out of London Bridge tube station cannot help but crane their necks to gaze at the jagged tower under construction: The Shard is the tallest building in the European Union and looks like a slice of glass balanced on the edge of the financial district. When the tower opens next year, visitors to the observation deck will see helicopters fly by at eye level and take in the metropolis all the way to the distant north Downs [...]

The Essence of Colour: The Art of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark opens at the Arken

SKOVVEJ.- On 28th January 2012 Arken opens the doors to the exhibition The Essence of Colour – The Art of Queen Margrethe II. This is the biggest exhibition hitherto of the Queen‟s art, where the public can follow her artistic development over the past 35 years. Over 130 acrylic paintings, water-colours and découpages are presented – including a series of brand new works that have never before been shown to the public. “The exhibition offers unique insight into the artist Margrethe II. We [...]

Jenness Cortez invites a visual conversation through her new American Realism

NAPLES, FL.- DeBruyne Fine Art of Naples, Florida will host an exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Jenness Cortez. On view January 26 through March 31, 2012, “Homage to the Creative Spirit 2012,” invites viewers into a visual conversation with Cortez to discuss how iconic works of art can inspire us to rediscover and revalue our own own creative potential. Robert Yassin, Executive Director of the Palos Verdes Art Center calls Jenness Cortez one of the world’s most eloquent and successful visual conversationalists. [...]

Getty Museum announces acquisition of rare early Renaissance drawing attributed to Piero del Pollaiuolo

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum today announced the acquisition at auction of Portrait of a Young Man, Head and Shoulders, Wearing a Cap, drawn about 1470, attributed to Piero del Pollaiuolo (c. 1443-1496). The drawing, from the early Florence Renaissance, is extremely rare, and is the first portrait drawing of this period to be included in the Getty’s permanent collection. Its acquisition by the Getty will allow it to be put on public display for likely the first time [...]

Early Dubai April sale highlights include works by Kayyali, Guiragossian & Afjehei

DUBAI.- Early highlights consigned for this spring’s Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art sale at Christie’s in Dubai on April 17th and 18th, 2012 will include works by Louay Kayyali, Paul Guiragossian and Nasrollah Afjehei. The sale is sponsored by Zurich, who recently signed a three-year contract to be the sole sponsor of the bi-annual Christie’s Dubai sales, and will be held at the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai with pre-sale viewing from the Sunday prior to the sale. Michael Jeha, [...]

Third Annual Collectors Evening secures three new acquisitions for the High Museum of Art

ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art hosted its third annual Collectors Evening on Friday, January 20, 2012. The participants at the event voted to secure three new acquisitions for the Museum, including the first Museum acquisition of a work by the artist KAWS, titled “DOWN TIME” (2011); Marcel Wanders’s decorative arts and design piece “Crochet Chair” (2006); and the photograph “Lightning Fields 182” by Hiroshi Sugimoto (2009). This event, established in 2010 to build and improve the Museum’s permanent collection, invites [...]