Tondi Hasibuan Selected paintings

Rome Opening: Tuesday 2nd November at 5pm-7pm (2 – 8 November, 2021) Curator Cristina Madini Rossocinabro Via Raffaele Cadorna 28. The first solo exhibition by Indonesian artist Tondi Hasibuan at the gallery reveals the cubist side of Tondi’s artistic practice. The large ensemble of more framed pieces covers the walls of the exhibition space. The acrylic on canvases presents the viewer with an impression of Tondi’s personal relationship with his work as an artist and the avant garde movements of the XX Century art world in especially Tondi was attracted by Cubism of Picasso and by Fauvism of Matisse. Within the strong colours and the strong brush, characteristic of the Matisse’s paintings, strokes well familiar motives from Tondi’s oeuvre pop up in the monumental yet playful colours cosmos: flowers, leaves, circles, straight lines and cubes as well as abstract stripe paintings, rainbows, animals and lions. His central interest of involving the viewer in the artwork becomes apparent in the nearly life sized ‘head studies’ whose side views seem like mirror images of the classic statues. The relation and inspiration of Picasso’s paintings of the Cubist period are evident. Many of the acrylic works connect Tondi to the classicism of the Italian and Grecian sculptures. Their underlying subtle humour hints towards contemporary lifestyles and understandings of art.

Paintings: Free to imagine, free to choose

Roma, 20 settembre – 11 ottobre 2021 Rossocinabro Via Raffaele Cadorna 28 Curatori Joe Hansen and Cristina Madini. No vernissage. Opere incredibili, dipinti, foto, sculture che puoi utilizzare per qualsiasi progetto e spazio. Queste opere sono state selezionate per te e provengono da tutto il mondo. Sono tante le novità con l’inizio di una nuova stagione dell’arte a Roma. L’evento offre una ottima opportunità per investire in arte internazionale. I visitatori possono trovare una ottima selezione di dipinti, fotografie d’arte, sculture, video, in materiali e stili diversi. Opere di: Daniel Agra, Ralph Aiken, Brian Avadka Colez, Steve Bicknell, Glenys Buzza, Laura Caccavo, Yenny Carruyo, Marco Casalena, Dénes Csasznyl, Marie-Pierre de Gottrau, Onno Dröge, Tom Dugdale, Torhild Frøydis Eid, Margarita Felis, Natasscha Girelli, Elena Gonzalez Muñoyerro, Michael Jiliak, Chikara Komura, Alexandra Kordas, Lize Krüger, Cinzia Inglese, Constanza Laguna Roldán, Angelika Lialios Freitag, Linda Liao, Fiona Livingstone, Marcia Lorente Howell, Karl Weiming Lu, Lise Lykke, Judith Minks, Fanou Montel, Susan Nalaboff Brilliant, Cox Nathanael, Aude Nguyen, Ann Palmer, Alessio Pistilli, Sal Ponce Enrile, Erwin Rios, Belle Roth, Irene Strolz-Taferner, Serina Tara, Kari Veastad, Stéphane Vereecken, Victoria V, Paige Wallwork, Joanna Wojtal-Kalinowska. Visit: rossocinabro.com Rome, September 20th – October 11th Curator Joe Hansen and Cristina Madini. Amazing works, paintings, photos and sculptures that you can use for any project and space. These works were selected for you and they come from all over the world. There are a lot of news to start the new season of art in Rome.The event gives a great opportunity to invest into international art, and it is a window for the well-established artist as well as for young talent. Visitors can expect a variety of paintings, photography art, urban art, sculptures, videos in different styles and media.Artists: Daniel Agra, Ralph Aiken, Brian Avadka Colez, Steve Bicknell, Glenys Buzza, Laura Caccavo, Yenny Carruyo, Marco Casalena, Dénes Csasznyl, Marie-Pierre de Gottrau, Onno Dröge, Tom Dugdale, Torhild Frøydis Eid, Margarita Felis, Natasscha Girelli, Elena Gonzalez Muñoyerro, Michael Jiliak, Chikara Komura, Alexandra Kordas, Lize Krüger, Cinzia Inglese, Constanza Laguna Roldán, Angelika Lialios Freitag, Linda Liao, Fiona Livingstone, Marcia Lorente Howell, Karl Weiming Lu, Lise Lykke, Judith Minks, Fanou Montel, Susan Nalaboff Brilliant, Cox Nathanael, Aude Nguyen, Ann Palmer, Alessio Pistilli, Sal Ponce Enrile, Erwin Rios, Belle Roth, Irene Strolz-Taferner, Serina Tara, Kari Veastad, Stéphane Vereecken, Victoria V, Paige Wallwork, Joanna Wojtal-Kalinowska img: I miracoli della bellezza – oil on cartboard cm 100×80 by Marie-Pierre de Gottrau

Mostra Fredrik VÆRSLEV World Paintings

Milano dal 23 settembre al 30 ottobre 2020 GióMARCONI Via Tadino, 20 Orari mostra: dal martedì al sabato, dalle 11 alle 19, su appuntamento. Opening: martedì 22 settembre 2020dalle 11 alle 21 su appuntamento. Sebbene il germe dei World Paintings abbia attecchito per la prima volta nella mente di Fredrik Værslev dalla metà degli anni 2000 – l’occasione nacque allora dall’incontro fortuito con le bandiere dipinte in stile hard edge dall’artista svedese Olle Baertling che all’esterno del Moderna Museet di Stoccolma fluttuavano al vento – e sebbene Værslev abbia iniziato i suoi “flag paintings” più di due anni fa, è difficile pensare a una serie di opere in grado di cogliere, alla loro maniera semi-astratta e minimalista, le insolite scosse cosmiche di questo 2020, annus horribilis tra i peggiori, in modo più struggente e incisivo, soprattutto per l’impatto che questi radicali mutamenti hanno sortito sul business arciglobale e squisitamente cosmopolita dell’arte contemporanea.
I dodici dipinti oggetto della mostra “raffigurano” vari paesi del mondo di tutti e cinque i continenti: Bielorussia (dipinto eseguito, inutile a dirsi, molto prima che le agitazioni post-elettorali spazzassero via l’ultima dittatura pseudo-stalinista in Europa), Repubblica Turca di Cipro Nord (non un vero stato, in quanto non riconosciuto a livello internazionale), Inghilterra, Israele, Republica di Corea, Nauru, Pakistan, Panama, Seychelles, Trinidad e Tobago, e infine Uzbekistan. (Se questa selezione vi sembra casuale e spiazzante – ebbene, lo è. Se non fosse per il fatto, per nulla insignificante, che tutte queste bandiere, considerate sia da un punto di vista pittorico, sia da una prospettiva politica, contengono in sé il colore bianco: il bianco, tanto per cominciare, delle tele non trattate di Værslev.) Il significato delle opere d’arte è alquanto mutevole, naturalmente, ma val la pena riflettere sulla differenza che in appena sei mesi può esserci nella concezione, produzione e ricezione di queste stesse opere – contributo sobrio e diretto di Fredrik Værslev alla lunga storia della “flag art”, sacra e controversa al tempo stesso. Dieter Roelstraete

Seminal Paintings by Josef Albers to Highlight

Worldwide – As part of ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century on 10 July 2020, Christie’s will present two major paintings by Josef Albers in Paris and London, both of which are being offered at auction for the first time. Representing the depth of the artist’s oeuvre and his vision as a constructive colourist Homage to the Square: Between 2 Scarlets (1962, estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000) will highlight the London session while Homage to the Square: “Veiled” (1961, estimate: €800,000-1,200,000) will star in the Paris session, being seen in public for the first time since 1974.Ana Maria Celis, Head of Sale, ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century: “Christie’s is delighted to present two rare paintings by Josef Albers as part of ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century. Josef Albers’ exploration of colour and form defined him as one of the great abstract painters of the last century and his appeal is universal. It’s fitting that his work will highlight not only the Paris session of our relay-format auction, but as our audience moves with us to London we witness another exceptional work by the artist. We look forward to a global response to the works as they are offered at auction for the first time.”
Painted in 1962, the year before Josef Albers published his now-legendary treatise Interaction of Color, Homage to the Square: Between 2 Scarlets is an outstanding large-scale work rendered in one of the artist’s most important hues. Widely exhibited, it belongs to the second largest size category employed throughout the series and is one of only seven red works completed on this scale. Occupying his practice for over a quarter of a century, Albers’ ‘Homages to the Square’ stand among the twentieth century’s most important investigations into the elusive properties of colour. His red paintings represent some of the finest expressions of his theories, with examples held in institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf. The colour’s mercurial qualities held particular fascination for the artist. “If one says ‘Red’ … and there are 50 people listening,” he explained, “it can be expected that there will be 50 reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different”.
Spanning four feet in height and width, Homage to the Square: “Veiled” (1961) is a rare work created in the largest format ever used by Josef Albers, and from his iconic series of ‘Homages to the Square’ paintings. Acquired in 1974 from the Parisian gallery Denise René, an important early champion of Op Art and Kinetic Art, it has been held in the same private collection for almost half a century. This will also mark the first time it has been seen in public since its purchase. The painting consists of four nested concentric squares. They are set gently towards the canvas’ lower edge, and phase from bright viridian at its centre to a border of burnt umber. The “Veiled” subtitle highlights an effect of transparency: the umber-green square adjoining the border creates the illusion of a sheer viridian film laid over the painting. The hues’ identities are made unstable, seeming to oscillate and glow in shifting tonal, focal and perspectival relation to one another. Such attention to the subtleties of chromatic interaction is the hallmark of Albers’ work, and the raison-d’être of the ‘Homages’. A smaller 1958 Study for Homage to the Square: “Veiled” is held in the North Carolina Museum of Art, close to Black Mountain College, where Albers taught artists including Robert Rauschenberg during the late 1940s.

Science Offers New Clues About Paintings by Munch and da Vinci

Art is on the minds of some scientists this week at Europe’s largest annual geosciences meeting. For two of the world’s most famous paintings, researchers say scientific clues lurking in their portrayals of rock layers or moist air raise new questions about the inspiration for one iconic work of art and the authenticity of another.One of four versions of the 1893 painting The Scream by Edvard Munch. Credit: In the public domain in countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years or less.
A poster presentation Monday by a Norwegian meteorologist shed doubt on the current favorite theory of what inspired the striking red and orange sky over Oslo seen in the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch. Today, an Italian American scientist will present geological and botanical reasoning in a talk arguing that a painting in the National Gallery in London attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, called The Virgin of the Rocks, cannot be from the hand of that Renaissance painter. The researchers are making their cases at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna, Austria.
Regarding The Scream, it’s not dust from the 19th century eruption of Krakatoa volcano that gave the sky the appearance that awed Munch so much, said Helene Muri of the Department of Geosciences of the University of Oslo in a Monday press conference about the poster. More likely, it’s a rare breed of cloud. “This is a painting that is known worldwide, and we are just not convinced by the previous hypotheses, that it was Munch’s internal turmoil or that is was the Krakatoa eruption,” Muri said.As for the supposed Leonardo masterpiece, it’s the far superior scientific accuracy of a second version of The Virgin of the Rocks at the Louvre Museum in Paris that has convinced Ann Pizzorusso, an independent scholar who is both a geologist and an expert on the Italian Renaissance, that the London painting is by someone else. She spoke with Eos earlier this week.
Looking at the Louvre painting is like being in the field.Looking at the Louvre painting is like being in the field, Pizzorusso told Eos. “If I look to the foreground, there’s marvelous bedded sandstone. With his sfumato technique, Leonardo made visible the layers and texture,” she said, referring to the artist’s practice of shading colors gradually into one another to produce blurred, softened outlines. She also noted a sill, an intruded layer, of a different kind of rock, diabase. “And above it, you can see spheroidally weathered sandstone, which again his painting technique allows you to accurately identify.”The new Munch hypothesis that Muri unveiled at the EGU meeting came from her late colleague Jón Egill Kristjánsson. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, in what is now Indonesia, injected dust into the stratosphere, and the particles formed a thin, homogeneous layer that caused colorful sunrises and sunsets. However, they didn’t produce the wavy texture seen in Munch’s painting, Kristjánsson had contended.Another natural phenomenon, polar stratospheric clouds, also called nacreous or mother-of-pearl clouds, looks very much like the sky in Munch’s painting, Muri offered. The sky’s look so affected Munch that he wrote a poem about the spectacle before depicting it on cardboard.
Mother-of-pearl clouds arise when stormy weather drives moist air up against a mountainside into the normally parched stratosphere Muri explained. On the leeward side of the mountain, as the air cools, ice crystals form. Too thin to be visible by day, those crystals are lit from below just after sunset or before sunrise and will display the exact color and texture that Munch captured, she said. The phenomenon occurs rarely enough—about four times a year, Muri estimated—to trigger surprise and awe.
Pizzorusso has harbored doubts about the London Leonardo for about 20 years, advocating for her point of view in articles and in a popular geology book, Tweeting Da Vinci. In Vienna, she is presenting her analysis of new, high-quality photographs of the Louvre version that have become available. “On those you can see fossil imprints on the front of the sandstone and geologic features that would have been caused by sedimentation,” she told Eos.
The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci at the Louvre Museum in Paris.  Another Virgin of the Rocks painting at the National Gallery in London, attributed by the museum also to Leonardo da Vinci. Geologist and Italian Renaissance scholar Ann Pizzorusso will argue this week at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria, that the London painting is not by da Vinci. Credit: In the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less.She also noted what botanists have said about the plants in both versions. Those in the National Gallery painting do not even exist in nature, she said. “The plants are correct in the Louvre version, Iris germanicus, for example. And they are growing in the soft, sandy soil, whereas a lot of the plants in the London version are trying to grow out of hard diabase, where it’s very hard for roots to take hold.”
Pizzorusso noted that the existence of two Virgin of the Rocks paintings goes back to a dispute about payment between Leonardo and two coworkers and the religious organization that ordered the painting. It is thought that Leonardo sold the first version he made, the Louvre one, to someone else and eventually delivered the London version as fulfillment of his contract. If the London version isn’t his, it is possible that his coworker Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis made the painting after Leonardo’s example.Even with help from science, a definitive answer may prove elusive.Looking at that painting in London, however, it’s obvious to see that its creator shared none of Leonardo’s urge to draw nature as perfectly as possible, Pizzorusso told Eos. “Basically, the rocks are unidentifiable,” she said. “You cannot tell whether they are sandstone or limestone. It almost looks like a stage setting, with Styrofoam rocks.”In either of these art-sleuthing cases, even with help from science, a definitive answer may prove elusive. However, as Muri of the new proposal about The Scream contends, advancing an unprovable hypothesis is good science if it can replace another hypothesis that is less plausible. “We researchers ask questions; that is our job,” she said. “We’re not trying to sow confusion, but to clarify what the cause could be.” Bas den Hond Freelance Science Journalist Citation: den Hond, B. (2017), Science offers new clues about paintings by Munch and da Vinci, Eos, 98, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO072591. Published on 27 April 2017.

Rubens’s Masterpiece Lot and his Daughters

London – Sir Peter Paul Rubens’s masterpiece, Lot and his Daughters (circa 1613-1614) will be sold by Christie’s as the centerpiece of a curated week of sales, Classic Week*, in London this July. An outstanding example of Rubens’s early maturity and one of the most important paintings by the artist to have remained in private hands. The work has been hidden from public view for over a century and will be exhibited during Christie’s New York Classic Week (8 – 12 April 2016) and in Hong Kong (26 – 30 May 2016), before being offered in London Classic Week, leading the Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale on 7 July. Lot and his Daughters boasts a distinguished provenance, once forming part of the collections of wealthy Antwerp merchants; a Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands; Joseph I Holy Roman Emperor; and the Dukes of Marlborough. It was included in the first volume of The English Connoisseur from 1766 and has since been listed in all the major publications on Rubens’s work. The sale of this painting by the quintessential artist of the Northern Baroque presents a rare opportunity for both international collectors and institutions.“After the historic private sale of two Rembrandt Portraits* to the French and Dutch states earlier this year, Christie’s is leading the masterpiece market by offering this monumental work by the other stellar artist of the Northern School, Sir Peter Paul Rubens. The impact of this painting in the flesh is overwhelming: we look forward to seeing the reactions of those who come to view it when we exhibit it in New York, Hong Kong and London.” Paul Raison, Deputy Chairman, Old Master Pictures.

Royal Academy of ArtsBurlington House

Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD 10am – 6pm daily (last admission 5.30pm) Fridays until 10pm (last admission 9.30pm) Admission. In September 2014, the Royal Academy of Arts will present the first major retrospective of Anselm Kiefer’s work to be held in the UK. Considered to be one of the most important artists of his generation, the exhibition will span over forty years from Kiefer’s early career to the present time, bringing together artwork from international private and public collections. The exhibition will be arranged chronologically, presenting the epic scale of his artwork and the breadth of media he has used throughout his career, including painting, sculpture, photography and installation. Kiefer has also created a number of works conceived specifically for the Royal Academy’s Main Galleries, showcasing his continued interest in seeking new challenges and producing ever more ambitious artwork.Kiefer’s fascination with history itself and with the work of past masters permeates his subject matter. From mythology, to the Old and New testaments, Kabbalah, alchemy, philosophy and the poetry of Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, Kiefer’s work wrestles with the darkness of German history and considers the complex relationship between art and spirituality. His technical use of materials such as clay, ash, earth, lead, fabric and dried flowers amongst others, adds further symbolism and depth to his work.Highlights of the exhibition include photographs and paintings from the controversial Occupations and Heroic Symbols (Heroische Sinnbilder) series of the late 1960s and early 1970s. These images record Kiefer’s re-enactment of the Nazi salute in locations across Europe, made in the belief that one must confront rather than supress the experiences of history. A series of paintings from Kiefer’s Attic series will also be exhibited, including Father, Son and the Holy Ghost (Vater, Sohn, Heiliger Geist), 1973 and Notung, 1973 depicting powerful renderings of wooden interior spaces based on the studio space that Kiefer was occupying in Walldürn-Hornbach in south-west Germany, which he has referred to as “a place to teach myself history.” The exhibition will also feature his monumental architectural paintings, such as To the Unknown Painter (Dem unbekannten Maler), 1983 that reflecton the neo-classicist buildings of Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect, and the role of the artist in considering collective memory.The exhibition will consider the key themes and the diverse, personal iconography that Kiefer has created in his work over the years and will look at the influence of place on his oeuvre. As he said in a recent interview, “Art is an attempt to get to the very centre of truth. It never can, but it can get quite close.”Other paintings on display include Palette on a Rope (Palette am Seil), 1971 that uses the motif of the artist’s palette to represent Kiefer’s engagement with the facets of history, as well as a series of early watercolours including From Oscar Wilde (Von Oskar Wilde),1974 and Winter Landscape (Winterlandschaft), 1970.Anselm Kiefer will also present his celebrated lead books, including the paintings For Paul Celan, Ash Flowers (Für Paul Celan, Aschenblume), 2006 and Black Flakes (Schwarze Flocken), 2006. Kiefer’s new works for the exhibition will incorporate a number of large-scale paintings and sculptures, including a major installation for the Royal Academy’s courtyard.Image: Anselm Kiefer, The Language of the Birds, 2013

Mondo pollaio, filosofia da vedere

Milano  30 marzo 2011 ore 21.00 wednesday, 30 th march 2011 h 9.00 pm via Tarchetti, 5 mondo pollaio, filosofia da vedere the henhouse world, philosophy to be seen 2011 cm.350×280 mista su tela – mixed technique on canvas dipinti disegni video  paintings designs and video projections by behnam ali farahzad evento curato e introdotto da  organization and introduction by elisabetta saura exclusive “flash” showing.

Two exhibitions

London until 12/12/2010 Burlington House Piccadilly, Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts presents a major exhibition of works which showcases the breadth and wealth of one of the finest collections in Central Europe. The exhibition features over 200 works and includes paintings, drawings and sculpture from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century. Selected works by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Goya, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Egon Schiele, Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso are on display, many of which have not previously been shown in the UK. The exhibition comprises works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, with additional key loans from the Hungarian National Gallery and provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to view these artworks in London.
Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele includes still lifes, landscapes and portraits by some of Europe’s finest artists, including works by Royal Academicians Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Constable and Angelica Kauffmann. The exhibition concludes with a showcase of works by Impressionists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro and twentieth century artists including Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Egon Schiele alongside works by Hungarian artists such as Károly Ferenczy and József Rippl-Rónai.
Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue which provides a forum for the exploration of a number of recent discoveries about particular works in the collection. (Image: Egon Schiele, Two Women Embracing, 1915. Pencil, watercolour, gouache. 48.5 x 32.7 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)

“Jared French by Jared French”

Paris Galerie Maurizio Nobile 45 rue de Penthièvre,  Opening day: Wednesday 15 September to 27 October 2010 To celebrate his new establishment in Paris, Italian gallery owner Maurizio Nobile will present his inaugural exhibition: “Jared French by Jared French” Italian gallery owner Maurizio Nobile is taking up residence on the Parisian right bank at 45 rue de Penthièvre with an inaugural exhibition devoted to Jared French (1905-1988). Born in the United States, this artist representing the “Magic Realism” movement had adopted Rome as his city of choice. He left behind more than 600 works—paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, engravings, etc. These intimate works reveal with great delicacy the attention Jared French paid to the human being, which he made the central focus of his work. The exhibition entitled “Jared French by Jared French” chronicles his life as an artist from his early days in the 1930s to the end of the 1960s. His drawings with their precise lines are like open windows on an exacerbated sensitivity. Maurizio Nobile will also be showing black-and-white photographs, made for the most part during the period when the artist belonged to the PAJAMA trio consisting of his wife Margaret Hoening and his friend and former lover Paul Cadmus. In the 1940s, Jared French started to produce more symbolic works and learned to paint with the tempera technique, using egg or casein, which became his favorite technique. French’s works are imbued with fascinating mystery. Inspired by those close to him, the figures that inhabit his works display imperturbable serenity and appear to be passed down from ancient Greek statuary and the great masters of 15th century Italian painting, such as Piero della Francesca and Andrea Mantegna. Maurizio Nobile acquired this substantial collection from the Italian heirs of Jared French. The collection, which will be the subject of a publication with Editions Allemandi, is of indispensable value when it comes to understanding the artist’s figurative poetry. Maurizio Nobile will be unveiling a portion of it to punctuate his arrival on the Paris scene.

The Didier Aaron gallery

Paris. From 15 to 19 June 2010 The Didier Aaron gallery  located in Paris, New York and London, specializes in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century furniture, art objects, drawings and paintings. The gallery regularly organizes exhibitions juxtaposing periods, civilisations and styles. In June 2010 the Didier Aaron gallery will participate for the first time in the Basel Design Show, which requested the gallery’s presence in order to put contemporary design and its historical roots in perspective. True to its core values, the gallery will show furniture and art objects reflecting the talent of French designers and makers from the eighteenth century which still carry a strong resonance today. In a surrounding created by Jacques Grange combining purity and modernity, the Didier Aaron gallery will display eighteenth-century furniture and objects in a novel way, focusing on shapes, decoration, materials and techniques. At a time when the boundaries between art, architecture and design have become blurred, the Didier Aaron gallery, through its presence in Basel, intends to challenge traditional categorisation and show collectors how to fully incorporate the eighteenth-century into the world of contemporary art and design.

Stefanie Gutheil: Kopftheater

New York, NY until 20/2/2010 Mike Weiss Gallery 520 West 24th Street, Between 10th and 11th Avenues Mike Weiss Gallery presents Kopftheater, a new exhibition of paintings by Berlin based artist Stefanie Gutheil. This is the artist’s first exhibition in New York and at Mike Weiss Gallery. Stefanie’s bold, multi-dimensional paintings are tactile depictions of her own life. The patterns of unexpected fabrics and aluminum foil adhere to the oils, acrylics and spray paint applied to the surface and come together to form scenes from the artist’s excessive imagination, both playful and grotesque. Her paintings provide the cast and set for her own kopf theater, or theatre of the mind. Born and raised in a small conservative town in southwest Germany, Stefanie moved to Berlin ten years ago and since that time has witnessed the growth of Berlin’s contemporary art scene; an international mish-mash of artists converging on the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her monsters and creatures, both miniature and giant, are gross caricatures of the people in her daily life; artists, musicians, dancers, poets and revelers in the city of Berlin. Tucked into the center of the city’s nightlife pocket, the scene around the artist’s studio provides the visual fodder for what becomes her larger than life imagery. Influences from the chaotic and cramped compositions of Bosch and Brueghel are evident. In Berg I and Berg II, a massive heap of excrement and bodies rises up from the marred landscape of skulls and stumps; pyramid shaped in subtle homage to Brueghel’s The Tower of Babel. Mostly dirt colored in appearance; the landscapes are punctuated by flecks of silvery aluminum foil and hints of glitter and cheeky floral fabrics. In Kopftheater, for which the exhibition is titled, a Boschian landscape of monsters and gnarled animals peek and crawl out of the angular cave-like structures, one losing its eye in a cinematic projectile thrust from its socket. (Stefanie)

Two exhibitions

Groningen until 11 April 2010, the Groninger Museum will present the first large-scale solo exhibition of the work of artist Folkert de Jong (Egmond aan Zee, 1972) in the Netherlands. The exhibition displays a large selection of sculptures, drawings that have not been shown previously, and new monumental work. The exhibition, which will be held in the Ploeg Pavilion, will display 150 works, including paintings, drawings, prints and figures by the Brücke members Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt- Rottluff, Fritz Bleyl, Max Pechstein, Emil Nolde, Cuno Amiet and Otto Mueller. The basis of the collection and the foundation of the Brücke Museum was the donation of a large number of works by Karl Schmidt- Rottluff. Since then, the collection has been extended with works by the other Brücke members by means of purchases, donations and long-term loans. The artists’ group Brücke, founded in Dresden in 1905, is regarded right down to this day as one of the most important fundaments on which North European expressionism is founded.  The rapid, sketch-like forms and the expressive colours, in often-contrasting colour combinations, are typical of Brücke expressionism. Their favourite themes included townscapes, landscapes and the world of variety. In 1913 the group disbanded and the artists went their own way. In the thirties, the work of the members of De Brücke was classified by the Nation Socialist regime as being degenerate.  A catalogue with articles by Brücke experts such as Prof. Dr Magdalena Moeller and Christiane Remm, will appear to accompany the exhibition. It will be published by Hirmer Verlag, and will be Dutch-German.
Bernhard Willhelm & Jutta Kraus The Groninger Museum will present a major solo exhibition of the work of Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus (both, 1972) on the occasion of their tenth working anniversary. In the course of these ten years, Willhelm and Kraus have realized more than 30 collections. The exhibition will offer an extensive selection from these, with both men’s and women’s wear.  The exhibition has been made possible by support from the Stichting Fonds Kunst en Economie (Art and Economy Foundation), an initiative of VNO-NCW Noord. This project is partly funded by the European Union and the Samenwerkingsverband Noord- Nederland, EZ/Kompas (North-Netherlands Co-operative Enterprise) (Image: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, ‘Artistin-Marcella’, 1910, Oil on canvas)

Paulina Olowska

Munich until 14/2/2010 Barer Str. 29, Pinakothek der Moderne The Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin issued in week 46 every year always comes from the hands of an international contemporary artist. This year, -Edition 46′ is being designed by the Polish artist Paulina Olowska (*1976). The magazine is due to appear on Friday, 13 November as a supplement in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The magazine project has prompted an exhibition of the artist’s work at the Pinakothek der Moderne. Paulina Olowska’s project for the Pinakothek der Moderne is a re-orchestration of history using curatorial means. A particular focus of her work is on female role patterns and the way these are shown in paintings and graphic works, especially in those from the first half of the 20th century. Historical correlations are illustrated using a variety of different presentation techniques and new facets are brought to light.  Olowska establishes points of reference between her own works and those in the collection at the Pinakothek der Moderne by incorporating pictures from the permanent exhibition and from the depository in her installations. Unconventional combinations conjure up an atmosphere of its own not typically found in a museum. Parameters traditionally associated with exhibitions and documentation are challenged and redefined.  Paulina Olowska was born in 1976 in Gdansk, Poland, where she studied painting and graphics from 1997 to 2000. Since 2004 she has been living in Warsaw. Olowska’s art is firmly anchored in the cultural history of modern art and can best be described as an examination of utopian worlds – of utopias of the West and the East, advertising, films and the role of the sexes. From the outset, Olowska’s work has displayed her multifaceted talent: as a painter, photographer, film-maker and performance artist, frequently collaborating with other artists. (Image: Paulina Olowska)

Cerith Wyn Evans: New works

Roma until 31/10/2009 via Orti D’Alibert, 1e Galleria Lorcan O’Neill On Wednesday, 30 September 2009, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma will open the autumn season with an exhibition of new works by the British artist Cerith Wyn Evans. In the gallery’s two spaces in the center of Rome, the show will feature newly made drawings, paintings, neons, and sculptural pieces using mirror.  Born in Llanelli, Wales, in 1958, Wyn Evans grew up speaking Welsh. He graduated in film and video from the Royal College of Art in London in 1984, and soon after began working as an assistant to filmmaker Derek Jarman. He made his own short, experimental films, which were screened throughout Europe, and began to collaborate with artists and friends like the choreographer Michael Clark, the performance artist Leigh Bowery, and the musical group The Smiths. During this period, he was also a frequent sitter for the painter Lucian Freud.  His work shifted direction in the early 1990’s, when Wyn Evans began to explore the phenomenology of language, perception, and communication. He began a series of works where large hanging chandeliers -read’ texts in flashing Morse code by philosophers and poets whose ideas interested him (Guy Debord, William Blake, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, among others). He began to use neon (a famous early work is a sign that spells EXIT backwards) and fireworks to literally illuminate certain phrases or texts. He made a firework text on the site of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s murder at Ostia, near Rome, setting ablaze lines of dialogue from the filmmaker’s Oedipus Rex.  Cerith Wyn Evans has participated in solo and important group exhibitions, at institutions around the world, such as: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2004), Istanbul Biennial (2005), Bawag Foundation, Vienna (2005), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2006), Yokohama Biennale (2008), Venice Biennale (1995, 2003 and 2009), and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009). He currently lives and works in London. (cerith)

Mirror on Mirror Mirrored

Long Island City, until 19/11/2009 NY 45-43 21st Street, Dean Project Barbara Weissberger, Karlos Carcamo and Nicholas Kashian is delighted to announce, “-Mirror on Mirror Mirrored- a group exhibition featuring the work of Barbara Weissberger, Karlos Carcamo and Nicholas Kashian. This exhibition presents paintings, sculptures, collages and digital prints based on interpretation from sources of information. The themes explored by the included artists reference global media, news, mass popular culture, personal advocacy and an affiliation to underground culture. Weissberger, Kashian and Carcamo each employ appropriation and manipulation processes including collage, assemblages, copy and paste imagery, and Photoshop in the development of the works exhibited. The use of these processes, diverse mediums and individual signature of styles have resulted in a substantial and compelling group of works presenting the viewer a unique visual experience of information morph. This exhibition is also a reflection on our own experience with information sources; it questions the validity of popular culture imagery as an accurate representation of contemporary society. Furthermore the physicality of the works in this exhibition also challenges our notions of perception and the understanding of originality. Barbara Weissberger divides her time between New York and Pittsburgh and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007, receiving her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Karlos Carcamo is based in New York and received his MFA from Hunter College. Nicholas Kashian is based in Chicago and received his MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago”.

James Ensor Paintings, Drawings, and Prints

New York, until 21/9/2009 The Museum of Modern Art  11 West 53rd Street, The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery, sixth floor  The exhibition is organized by Anna Swinbourne, Assistant Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, with Susan M. Canning, Professor of Art History, College of New Rochelle, and Jane Panetta, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. It is on view in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery, sixth floor.  Ms. Swinbourne explains, -The diversity of Ensor’s work has enabled him to slip cunningly out of the grasp of anyone seeking to seize and place him, whether in an artistic movement or a historical continuum. This is part of the appeal that, then and now, has seduced viewers of his work as well as artists-who have come to revere him as an -artist’s artist,’ a title bestowed only on the most deserving.-  The first painting on view in the exhibition is The Scandalized Masks (1883), an example of the evocative paintings of masks in portraits and fictive dramas for which Ensor is best known. Ensor had a number of lifelong obsessions that were prominent subjects in his work-masks, light, himself, and death. Skulls or full-body skeletons appear in his works repeatedly and in a variety of ways. In Skeletons Trying to Warm Themselves (1889), a group of skulls draped in fabric absurdly and vainly seek heat from a dead stove. Ensor used the image of death to depict people he despised, such as the two skeleton-critics ripping apart a witty, metaphorical version of himself in Skeletons Fighting over a Pickled Herring (1891). And death was even a theme of Ensor’s self-portraits, as with My Skeletonized Portrait (1889) and The Skeleton Painter (1895 or 1896). These two works were based on photographs: he transformed his pictured naturalistic countenance into skeleton versions of himself. Ensor’s use of photography as pictorial source material and his practice of collage were consistent with his experimental nature, as they are both techniques that placed Ensor ahead of his time.  The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue edited by Anna Swinborne. The exhibition website, features approximately 120 works, which visitors may zoom in on to explore details. Audio and texts explain the significance of certain works. An expanded chronology of Ensor’s life is included, as are excerpts from the essays in the exhibition catalogue. The site was designed and developed by Shannon Darrough, Senior Media Developer, Department of Digital Media, The Museum of Modern Art. The site will launch on June 28, 2009, in conjunction with the public opening of the exhibition. (Image: James Ensor)

Anna Bjerger: Invisibles

Amsterdam until 27/6/2009 Galerie Gabriel Rolt Elandsgracht 34 Galerie Gabriel Rolt is proud to present INVISIBLES, an exhibition of recent paintings and works on paper by Swedish artist Anna Bjerger. This will be Bjerger’s first solo exhibition in The Netherlands. The paintings of Anna Bjerger capture fleeting moments. We, the viewer, are involved in the paintings as covert onlookers. A tense relationship occurs between the actions represented in the painting and our inclusion as a spectator. Bjerger works from found photographs, mostly collected from out of date reference books and travel manuals. She is utilizing the photograph’s ability to capture short-lived moments and actions. By painting these images, she salvages what would otherwise be lost moments – recreating them as painting, the most permanent of mediums. In her technique, Bjerger does not approach the photograph in a cold, distant manner – her painting is rich and loose, removing the image from its origins and injecting an emotive, atmospheric flavour into the scenes. The images Bjerger chooses often have a generic quality. The original meaning is private and unknown and can therefore be translated into paintings of people and places that hold no direct associations for the viewer. The who, when and where of these paintings always remains ambiguous, unspecified. There is an outdated, almost nostalgic quality in her choice of images – innocent childhoods, tentative romance, glorious scenery – and subsequently there is a romantic yet also sinister flavour to these too-perfect scenes. The events are often idyllic and beautiful – children playing in a field, a couple taking a walk through a forest – yet also very mundane. Bjerger involves the viewer, positioning us as an actual spectator in the scene. This is directly acknowledged in -Snap’, in which a woman focuses a camera towards the viewer. In many of the works, however, there is a feeling of intrusion, voyeurism, at bearing witness to these intimate, private moments. This role is most explicitly addressed in -Jumper’, which portrays the classic image of peeping tomism: a woman undressing. Framed by a window, she has a perfect figure, her sight temporarily obscured as she pulls her clothes over her head. It is a charged as well as ridiculous image – the ultimate adolescent fantasy – and Bjerger emphasises our exploitative, predatory gaze with her seductive handling of paint and the graceful, careful composition of the image.In her oil paintings, Bjerger works with confident, uncluttered marks. The paint is rapidly applied, her colours simple and essential.  Anna Bjerger (1973 Skallsjo, Sweden) studied at the Royal College of Art and Central St Martins College in London. Recent solo shows include David Risley Gallery (London), ALP Gallery (Stockholm) and Bucket Rider Gallery (Chicago). Bjerger’s work is included in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Glaspaleis Heerlen, Gävle Landsting, Sweden, Larsen Collection, Stockholm, Zabludowicz Collection, London, alongside many private collections. (image Anna)

Expo Francis Bacon

New York until 16/8/2009. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Special Exhibition Galleries, 2nd floor 1000 Fifth Avenue, A Centenary Retrospective curated by Gary Tinterow, Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens The first major New York exhibition in 20 years devoted to Francis Bacon (British, 1909-1992)-one of the most important painters of the 20th century-will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 20 through August 16, 2009. Marking the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective will bring together the most significant works from each period of the artist’s remarkable career. Drawn from public and private collections around the world, this landmark exhibition will consist of some 65 paintings, complemented by never-before-seen works and archival material from the Francis Bacon Estate, which will shed new light on the artist’s career and working practices. The Metropolitan Museum is the sole U.S. venue of the exhibition tour. The exhibition is made possible in part by The Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Foundation. The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Tate Britain, London, in partnership with the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.  The exhibition’s loosely chronological structure will trace critical themes in Bacon’s work and explore his philosophy about mankind and the modern condition with visually arresting examples. The earliest group of works, from the 1940s and ’50s, focuses on the animalistic qualities of man, including: paintings of heads with snarling mouths (Head I, 1947-1948, The Metropolitan Museum of Art); images of men as pathetic and alone (Study for a Portrait, 1953, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany); and the human figure portrayed as base and bestial (Figures in a Landscape, 1956, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, England). http://www.metmuseum.org. (Image: francis)

Expo Arch-State of Jonathan Meese

Remagen Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck  Hans-Arp-Allee 1 –  of Atlantisis Jonathan Meese founds a “Hall State” in Rolandseck until 30/9 In a show called “Arch-State of Atlantisis” from 1 May to 30 August 2009 at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Jonathan Meese is staging for the first time in a worldwide premiere nearly his entire sculptural oeuvre, supplemented with large-format paintings, acoustic and film installations as well as scenographic-utopian productions. In the exhibition curated by Daniel J. Schreiber, Meese’s work is brought into dialogue with works on the theme of Atlantis by Joseph Beuys and artists affiliated with the Stuttgart gallery owners Helga and Hans-Jürgen Müller.  With 53 bronze sculptures, this exhibition marks the first nearly complete retrospective of the sculptural works of Jonathan Meese ever. In addition, 14 large-format oil paintings and numerous collages have been brought together at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, all of them being works from the past seven years.  Daniel J. Schreiber compares the interplay of the pieces on display with a cinema film: “Meese is building a great landscape of backdrops in the Richard-Meier-Building, in which his sculptures move about like actors” states the exhibition curator. “His set is a nation-state shrunken to studio format. In it he has larger-than-life dignitaries strutting up and down with martial gestures, their giant penises jutting out menacingly, their chests decorated with medals. All of this is a fantasy grotesque, a gigantic prank.” The long titles of the works (“General -PONY’ [It is never too late to be an animal baby]”, “Baby Admiral Nullpe, Sea Battle No Problem [Skirmish near SALAMI and Licorice]”, and others) and the texts of his numerous manifestos presented at the exhibition attest to this assessment: The painter-sculptor and performance artist makes his figures do “baby movements”, dance “state ballets”, and even invites them to a “birthday revolution”. “The citizens of Atlantisis are complete children of play,” claims Jonathan Meese at the founding of the Arch-State Atlantisis.  The catalogue, compiled by Daniel J. Schreiber, to be published by DuMont three weeks after the exhibition opens, will contain contributions by Jonathan Meese, Bazon Brock, Klaus Gallwitz, Durs Grünbein, Doris Mampe, and Daniel J. Schreiber as well as a foreword by the Director of the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Oliver Kornhoff. In addition, it will contain a picture series of the exhibition and the works on display there as well as a DVD with the exhibition film. (Image: Jonathan Meese)