Author: Darko Topalski

BROOKLYN, NY.- Kiki Smith: Sojourn, a major
site-specific installation that explores the ideas of creative inspiration and
the cycle of life in relation to women artists, will be on view February 5
through September 12, 2010, in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist
Art. The exhibition will draw from a variety of work by Kiki Smith in a
range of media including cast objects, unique sculpture, and works on paper. The
artist will also incorporate her work into two of the Brooklyn Museum’s
eighteenth-century period rooms in the nearby Decorative Arts galleries.

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. On 29 January the Saatchi
Gallery will open with The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, an exhibition
of 26 artists from the world’s largest democracy.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – The Government of Italy has
agreed to the loan of Caravaggio’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1597 from
the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art for one
fortnight. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), better known
as “Caravaggio”, is one of the greatest painters of all times, and may be termed
“the founder of Baroque” due to his innovative style, combining extreme
chiaroscuro, figures flickering in the dark, stark realism and dramatic diagonal
compositions.

PARIS (AP).- Pieces of old Paris from a lamp post to a
park bench go on the auction block next week, with the piece de resistance 40
iron steps from the Eiffel Tower, all 7.8 meters (25.6 feet) of them. Among the
301 items to be auctioned is a section of glass broken during the construction
in 1987 of the glass pyramid now standing at the entrance to the Louvre Museum.
Estimated at €500 to €1,000 ($735-$1,470), it is accompanied by a photograph
taken at the time. “Paris Mon Amour,” the title given to the auction
Monday, December 14th  at the famed French house Drouot, brings together an
eclectic batch of memories that evoke a bygone era as well as the present.

ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art will host
the fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, “Neighboring Voices:
The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins,” January 29-30, 2010, at the
University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and
Hotel. The symposium will bring together representatives from
neighboring states to discuss their own research, collections and
decorative-arts history. Topics to be discussed at the symposium include the
discovery of Georgia’s early decorative arts, the paint-decorated furniture of
Piedmont North Carolina, the influence of Georgia potters on Alabama pottery,
the profile of a southern antebellum silversmith, German toys in American
childhood, French porcelain in the antebellum South and early Georgians’
migration to Alabama. Featured speakers at this year’s symposium are Mary Audrey
Apple, Joey J. Brackner, Daniel Brooks, Charlotte Crabtree, Robert Doares,
Robert A. Leath, and June Lucas.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – An exhibition entitled Van Gogh: the
Flaming Soul showcasing more than 70 drawings and 20 paintings by Vincent van
Gogh from the Kröller-Müller Museum’s collection opened at the National Museum
of History in Taipei (Taiwan) in December. In preparation, a delegation
from the Kröller-Müller Museum travelled to Taipei at the end of October to
discuss the various aspects of an exhibition of this scale with those involved.
Topics of discussion vary from transport, security, light and climate conditions
to the design of the rooms and the content and appearance of the accompanying
catalogue. The collection will be on display until March 28, 2010.

SYDNEY, AU – The Powerhouse Museum is bringing
back the 80s with a spectacular exhibition opening on December 13 that will
reveal the good and the bad about the decade vividly remembered for its over the
top excess. The 80s are back will explore Australian life and popular
culture in the 1980s, remembering the styles, trends and subcultures, and how
they found expression in fashion, design, music, film and television.
Packed with entertaining experiences, familiar personalities, great
nostalgia, and perhaps just a few cringe-worthy moments, The 80s are back
exhibition will remind us all why the 80s was a decade not easily
forgotten.