Author: Darko Topalski

CINCINNATI, OH.- Shepard Fairey: Supply and
Demand, the first solo show of renowned street artist and political provocateur
Shepard Fairey, opens February 20th at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in the
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art. An extensive
exploration of the artist’s 20-year career, the exhibition is mounted in two
parts: the works displayed inside the CAC and external projects. The CAC’s
galleries will house approximately 250 pieces ranging from his early Andre the
Giant work to the iconic Obama HOPE image to new mixed-media works and a
large-format mural in the lobby.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The
J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of
L’Entrée au Jardin Turc (The Entrance to the Turkish Garden) by Louis
Léopold Boilly, one of the few important paintings by the artist still in
private hands. Crisply
painted in glowing colors and teeming with anecdotal detail, Boilly’s
picture transports viewers to the heart of Napoleonic Paris, outside the
entrance to the city’s most celebrated café, the Jardin Turc.
Located in the Marais at 28, boulevard du Temple, the establishment
offered its middle-class clientele pleasures once reserved for the
aristocracy. Founded in 1780, the Jardin Turc comprised an elegant garden,
restaurant, and café housed in a series of tented pavilions whose crescent
finials and oriental decor reflected an eighteenth-century taste for
turquerie. 

MALAGA.- CAC Málaga – the city of Malaga’s Centre
for Contemporary Art – is presenting the first ever solo exhibition in a Spanish
museum by Eric Fischl who, along with Alex Katz, is one of the most eminent
American figurative painters of the second half of the 20th century. On
show there will be large-format paintings and watercolours forming part of this
New York artist’s first art of bullfighting, created after he attended Ronda’s
Goyesque bullfight in 2007. Corrida in Ronda, the title of the exhibition
curated by Fernando Francés, summarises the rich language of the artist’s
painting. There are two things about his works that are particularly outstanding
and unique in contemporary painting: the use of backlighting to depict the
toreadors’ passes and the way he imbues them with an emotive charge. On
view through 4 April, 2010.

NEW YORK,
NY (REUTERS).-A
portrait once believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci sold for
more than $1.5 million in New York last Thursday, around triple the
top price estimated ahead of the auction.Auction house Sotheby’s said another version of the
portrait, “La Belle Ferronniere,” is in the Louvre in Paris and it is that
painting that is now generally agreed to have been by da Vinci himself or
one of his pupils, while the painting sold in New York was a later
copy.

LONDON – This autumn, the Institute of Contemporary Arts is staging the first major public exhibition by artist Enrico David. David will present work from the last five years, including paintings, works on paper, sculptures and vitrines as well as two large-scale installations – one of which is specially conceived for this show at the ICA. Over the last decade, Enrico David, Italian by birth but based in London, has quietly established a reputation as one of Britain’s most original artists. This is the first exhibition that demonstrates ongoing strands within his work, which often features stylised figures staged within erotic or tragic-comic scenarios.

LONDON.- In October 2008, the Saatchi Gallery
re-opened in the 70,000 sq. ft Duke of York’s HQ building on King’s Road in the
heart of London. With free admission to all shows, the Saatchi Gallery
aims to bring contemporary art to the widest audience possible. Its first three
shows, “The Revolution Continues: New Art from China”, “Unveiled: New Art from
the Middle East” and “Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture”, have
attracted over one million visitors to date. The Empire Strikes Back:
Indian Art Today on view through 7 May, 2010.