LONDON.- Sotheby’s London sale of 19th Century European Paintings on Wednesday, 2 June, 2010, is to include an important work by Norwegian artist Christian Krohg (1852-1925) of Leif Eriksson discovering America. Estimated at £150,000-250,000, the painting will spearhead the Norwegian component of the Scandinavian section of the sale. Leif Eriksson was a Norse explorer (c.970 – c.1020) regarded as the first European to land in North America, nearly five hundred years before Christopher Columbus. In November 1891 newspapers in Kristiania (now Oslo) announced that The Leif Eriksson Memorial Association was to stage a competition for Norwegian artists to execute a large painting of Eriksson for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, to coincide with a journey taken by the ‘Viking’ ship, a replica of the ‘Gokstad’ (excavated in 1880 after a ship burial centuries earlier), from Norway to the fair. The fair ce
Abstract Expressionist Joan Mitchell Subject of Three-Part Exhibition
NEW ORLEANS, LA.- The Newcomb Art Gallery at Tulane University presents Joan Mitchell in New Orleans, on view March 31 – June 30, 2010. Organized in collaboration with the Joan Mitchell Foundation and Cheim & Read Gallery, New York, the three-part exhibition brings together the major bodies of the artist’s work: works on paper at the Newcomb Art Gallery, paintings at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and prints at the Contemporary Arts Center. The Newcomb Art Gallery show is a comprehensive survey of Joan Mitchell’s works on paper created over a 30-year period and focuses on the artist’s bold work in pastel. The show also includes examples of other media, such as watercolor and oil paint, and offers a rare chance to view the artist’s archival sketchbooks
First Solo Exhibition in a UK Public Gallery for Angela de la Cruz Opens at Camden Arts Centre
LONDON.- London-based artist Angela de la Cruz presents new and existing work in her first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery. Situated in-between painting and sculpture, de la Cruz’s works hide in corners, bully each other and fall from the wall as they fight against the physical constraints of gallery spaces. Angela de la Cruz’s practice stems from a feeling of exhaustion with painting as a medium and from a desire to escape the illusion of the picture-plane. “My starting point was deconstructing painting. One day I took the cross bar out and the painting bent. From that moment on, I looked at the painting as an object.” De la Cruz questions the status of painting, its solemnity and its authority, by employing and subverting the language of Modernism. Monochromes and Minimalist abstract works are disrupted physically; torn, broken, folded and taken from their stretchers. Given anthropomorphic titles such as “Homeless”, “Ashamed” or “Deflated”, the
Crystal Bridges Announces Works by Female Artists
BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Works by female artists – a mid-19th century portrait by Susan Catherine Moore Waters (1823 – 1900) and a life-size recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” in 20,763 spools of thread by contemporary artist Devorah Sperber – are the latest works of art announced by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Though strikingly different in materials, style, subject matter and execution, both works are the product of highly creative women working in unexpected arenas or applying unusual approaches. “Museums are about discovery,” said Chris Crosman, chief curator. “The Waters portrait has real presence, and was painted at a time when it was unusual for women to be working as professional artists. On the other hand, Sperber is playing with the notion of what’s considered women’s work – and putting herself in the company of Leonardo by recreating one of art history’s most iconic masterworks at exactly the
Mike Nelson Selected to Represent Britain at the 54th Venice Biennale
LONDON.- Born in Loughborough in 1967, Nelson is internationally acclaimed for his meticulous sculptural installations. He was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award in 2001 and has twice been short-listed for the Turner Prize. One of his large-scale installations, “The Coral Reef”, 2000, acquired by Tate in 2008, will be shown in the new Collection Displays at Tate Britain from 17 May 2010. His most recent work, “Quiver of Arrows”, 2010, can currently be seen in a solo exhibition at 303 Gallery, New York until 10 April. Nelson’s work has been presented in major group and solo exhibitions throughout the world. These include: the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2001); 49th Venice Biennale (2001); 13th Sydney Biennale (2002); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2002); 8th International Istanbul Biennial (2003); Modern Art Oxford (2004); 26th São Paulo Bienal (2004); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (2008); Creative Time, New York (2008); Tat
Idea Generation Gallery Presents One of the Greatest Album Artists
LONDON.- Idea Generation Gallery presents a unique exhibition uncovering some of the events, exstallations, sculptures, images, drawings, and ideas behind Storm Thorgerson’s 40 year career as one of the pioneers of original commercial design. The retrospective is not only an exhibition of his most celebrated covers but also offers a unique insight into the otherworldly and incongruous work Storm is carrying out today. Storm’s distinctive imagery is among the most recognisable in the modern world. Creating visually arresting and thought provoking visuals, Storm’s work establishes him as one of the most important creative minds of recent times. Responsible for what has been dubbed as one the greatest album covers of all time, – Pink Floyd’s 1973 “The Dark Side of the Moon” – Storm’s other collaborations with 10CC, Catherine Wheel, The Cranberries, Muse, Genesis, Led Zeppelin and Peter
Dolby Chadwick Gallery Presents New Paintings by John DiPaolo
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Dolby Chadwick Gallery presents “New Paintings” by John DiPaolo, on view from April 1 through May 29, 2010. Non-representational in style, the surfaces of DiPaolo’s canvases articulate a dramatic and varied physical topography. Areas of richly colored, densely applied paints are expertly counterbalanced by the enveloping strokes of blended, more muted hues; the relationships between the resultant forms produce an animated buoyancy that presages the stirring of something new. The arresting addition of silver enamel serves to further anchor and enhance DiPaolo’s compositional structures. The visceral experiences elicited by these dynamic yet meditative compositions will undoubtedly remain with viewers long after they stop looking. Originally a realist, DiPaolo abandoned representational painting early on to embrace abstraction and the multivalent, expressive power of paint. In order
Leading Modern Artists to be Shown at Irish Museum of Modern Art
DUBLIN.- An exhibition featuring works by many of America’s and Europe’s most celebrated 20th-century artists opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 31 March 2010. “Vertical Thoughts: Morton Feldman and the Visual Arts” focuses on the work of the influential American composer Morton Feldman and the many leading visual artists with whom he was closely associated, including Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. The exhibition, the first of its kind in Europe, marks a decisive period in the coming together of two apparently distinct art forms, reflecting IMMA’s own multi-disciplinary approach to its programme. Writing in the exhibition catalogue, South African composer Kevin Volans describes Morton Feldman as having “only one subject of conversation: music/art”, and Feldman himself stated
Rare Work by Javanese Artist Raden Saleh to be Offered at Christie’s
HONG KONG.- An extremely rare work by the celebrated 19th century Javanese artist Raden Sarief Bustaman Saleh will lead the sale of Christie’s Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art in Hong Kong on 30 May. Titled “Javanese Landscape, with Tigers Listening to the Sound of a Travelling Group” (estimate: HK$10,000,000 – 14,000,000 /US$1,282,000 – 1,795,000), this extraordinary work has an impeccable provenance dating back to 1849, when the artist gave this painting to his patron His Highness Ernest II, Duke and ruler of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and brother to Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Over the next 156 years, the work was with the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family and in a private European collection until 2005. In 2005 the painting was offered at auction but was withdrawn due to its similarities to
Book Asks Who’s Greater, Michelangelo or Leonardo?
LONDON (REUTERS).- A new book focuses on a 16th century competition that set out to discover who was the better artist — Michelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci, and says the outcome profoundly influenced the Renaissance titans’ legacies. Jonathan Jones, a British art critic who has been a Turner Prize judge, said the contest was familiar to art historians but to his knowledge had not been treated as the subject for a book. “The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Artistic Duel that Defined the Renaissance,” published by Simon & Schuster,” hits stores on Thursday and describes a dramatic and defining moment in art history. The decision by Florence officials that Michelangelo was the victor helped launch the younger artist’s career and set him on a path to glory with key commissions in Rome. Leonardo, meanwhile, was sidelined despite having a more established reputation, and ended up in the French court, which would have been looked down upon by Italy’s art patrons. “You are