Art

TORONTO.- Four leading-edge photographers,
two
Canadian and two American, will have the opportunity to win the $50,000
Grange
Prize, presented by Aeroplan and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Each year,
The
Grange Prize partners with one international art institution in an
effort to
recognize the best in Canadian and international photography — and
2010’s
partner is the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) at Columbia
College
Chicago. The Grange Prize, now in its third year, was awarded to Mexican

photographer Marco Antonio Cruz in 2009, and Winnipeg-based artist Sarah
Anne
Johnson in 2008, when the partner country was China.

BERLIN.- Jo
Baer was a key figure among the celebrated protagonists of
Minimalist
painting in New York in the 1960s and first half of the ’70s. It
was
during that period when she executed her series of different-sized
squares
as well as vertical and horizontal rectangles in the hard-edge
style,
works she later expanded into multipartite arrangements as
diptychs and
triptychs. The exhibition will be on view through June 26, 2010 at
Barbara
Thumm Gallery.

EAST

LANSING, MI.- Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University
presents the
summer exhibition EyePoppers: Big & Bold from the Kresge Art Museum
Collection, featuring 31 large scale paintings and sculpture from the
museum
collection. The exhibition is on view May 1 through July 30, 2010. The
family-friendly opening reception was on Sunday, May 2, 2010 coincided
with the
Lansing area First Sunday Gallery Walk. This exhibition celebrates art
of the
past half-century: Pure abstraction, Op and Geometric art, and Color
Field
paintings. Acquired through gifts and acquisitions over the fifty-year
history
of the Kresge Art Museum , they follow the major stylistic trends during
this
time.

PARIS (AP).- Israeli

draftsman and printmaker, went on to become one of Israel’s most
important
contemporary artists, imbuing his portraits and scenes of daily life — a
red
umbrella against a wall, an overflowing bookshelf, a jumble of bottles
in a
cabinet — with enigmatic, disconcerting beauty. The artist, who

abandoned abstract art for figurative work in the 1960s, was well-known
for
portraits of subjects including Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother,
actress
Catherine Deneuve and his close friend, writer Samuel Beckett. He also
produced
many probing portraits of himself and his wife, poet Anne Atik.

HONG KONG.- Christie’s announces its Spring sale of
Southeast Asian
Modern and Contemporary Art will take place on 30 May at the Hong Kong
Convention & Exhibition Centre. Featuring over 130 quality works
spanning
the history and geography in the Southeast Asian region, the sale brings

together modern masterpieces of undisputed provenance and some of the
most
sought-after contemporary artworks. The category’s modern masters and
contemporary stars continue to be represented by works of the highest
quality in
the sale which is valued in excess of HK$22 million (US$2.8 million).

MODENA,

ITALY -SPEED_M is a series of
exhibitions dedicated to Italian photographers, following one another in
rapid
succession within the spaces of METRONOM. In solo
shows Bruno
Cattani, Michele Buda and Enrico Moretti will be presenting a thematic
selection
of works. The exhibitions aim to be contemporary proposals for looking
at
photography through themes, techniques and subjectivity.The
first show, Eros, features Bruno
Cattani with a series of photographic works from a research project,
which he
has been pursuing for several years, dealing with exhibition places and
the
circus.

LONDON.- Fascinating photographs of London
Women’s
Pub Outings in Battersea and Clapham taken by Scottish photographer
Grace
Robertson in the 1950s are being sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as
part of
its sale of Photographs on 20 May 2010. The four images follow a group
of women
on a series of pub outings laughing, dancing, forming a conga line and
going on
a theme park ride. Robertson commented on the experience of
photographing these women: “I can’t recall ever having been present at a
more
high-spirited gathering of like-minded people who, for a few hours, gave

themselves utterly to the enjoyment of the moment.”