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NEW YORK, NY.- “Explorations in Black and White: The 1930s through the 1960s” brings together paintings and constructions in the reductive palette of black and white to show the developments and connections among American abstract artists over the four decades covered in the exhibition of 34 works of art. Significant artists of the 1930s and 1940s period in the exhibition include: Burgoyne Diller (1906-1965), Balcomb Greene (1904-1990), Gertrude Greene (1904-1956), Alice Trumbull Mason (1904-1971), Irene Rice Pereira (1902-1971), Rolph Scarlett (1889-1984), and Charles Green Shaw (1892-1974). Artists

DETROIT, MI.- It’s been an unusual journey from Fourteenth Street in New York to Woodward Avenue in Detroit for a painting created by American artist John Sloan. Sloan painted Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue in 1934 for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), created to employ artists during the Great Depression. The painting, which had been officially missing since 1938, has been located and is now on long-term loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Sloan was known for capturing the energy and essence of neighborhood life in New York City. Fourteenth Street vividly depicts bustling crowds dealing with the commute to work, school and shops after a snowstorm on a busy street. It is on view outside the exhibition “Government Support for the Arts: WPA Prints from the 1930s” through March 21. “John Sloan is an important American painter,” said Kenneth Myers, DIA chief curator and curator of American art. “The

LONDON.- Tate and The British Council are to be the joint owners of Steve McQueen’s ‘Giardini’, the British showing at the 53rd Venice Biennale, widely praised in the international press for its sensitivity and beauty. The gift arose from the collaboration between The Art Fund with Outset Contemporary Art Fun to finance half the production costs of the film, under which The Art Fund jointly received an edition of the work to give to a public collection at the end of the Biennale, which closed on November 22. The arrangement means the work will be seen at home and abroad; plans are being devised by Tate to show the film in the UK, while the British Council is making arrangements for it to travel to China in Spring 2010.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- Today Celeste Adams shared with the Grand Rapids Art Museum Board of Trustees her decision to resign her position as Museum Director effective March 17, 2010, her thirteenth anniversary as Director. She stated, “I have completed my work here and the time is right for me to move on to a new challenge and for the Museum to move into a new era of life.” Ms. Adams will assist with the transition, serving as Consulting Director from March 2010 to March 2011 or until a new Director begins. Celeste Adams became Director of the Grand Rapids Art Museum in 1997. During her thirteen years as Director, she has led the Art Museum through an extraordinary era of growth and transformation and achieved major goals for the institution including landmark exhibitions, important acquisitions of art, and a successful $83 million capital campaign that produced a nationally recognized new Art Museum facility with

PARIS- Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, expressed her deep sadness at the death of Professor Ikuo Hirayama, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, on December 2, at the age of 79. “UNESCO has lost a friend,” she said. “For more than 20 years, Professor Hirayama lent his tireless support to the Organization’s projects, especially in the fields of education, emergency relief and reconstruction. He was particularly concerned with making people aware of the value of cultural heritage as a basis for mutual understanding. He will be missed and remembered fondly by all at UNESCO.” Professor Hirayama, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, became an eminent painter and public figure. Campaigning for the preservation and restoration of the world’s cultural heritage, he publicized the activities of what he called the “Red

LENS, FRANCE (AP).- It’s an abandoned coal mining site in a depressed corner of northern France that was pummeled by the two world wars. Soon, a branch of the Louvre Museum will rise up on this unlikely site. Work is to start soon on a sleek glass-and-aluminum building that will house hundreds of the Louvre’s treasures, from Egyptian artifacts to Renaissance paintings to Islamic art. Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand

CLEVELAND, OH (AP).- The year-old New York City annex to Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will shut down Jan. 3. A news release issued Thursday by S2BN Entertainment, a partner in the venture, gave no reason for the closing. Rock hall CEO Terry Stewart tells The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland the decision was made by corporate partners who had backed the $10 million annex in downtown Manhattan. Backers had hoped to attract up to a half-million visitors annually but have not said what attendance was. Messages were left Friday for both S2BN Entertainment and rock hall officials.

MOSCOW (AP).- A gigantic sculpture that is one of the most admired examples of Soviet socialist realism is back on view in Moscow after six years of restoration. The stainless-steel sculpture, called “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” was unveiled Friday in a nighttime ceremony with fireworks attended by thousands. The 24.5-meter (80-foot) sculpture depicts the two figures striding forward purposefully, their raised arms holding a hammer and sickle to replicate the Communist symbol. The worker’s sash and the woman’s skirt float behind them, as if they were moving at high speed. The 72-year-old sculpture by Vera Mukhina

EDINBURGH.- The highlight of the 2010 summer season at the National Gallery Complex will be a ground-breaking exhibition on the subject of paintings of Impressionist Gardens. This major international exhibition of around 90 works will include spectacular loans from collections around the world, and will be the first ever to be devoted to this fascinating subject. The famous names of Impressionism will be well represented, with fine examples by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Manet and Sisley. In addition, the exhibition will examine the continued significance of the Impressionist garden to the generation of artists working immediately