3,500 Courtroom Sketches by Marilyn Church Heading for Library of Congress

NEW YORK (AP).- Marilyn Church didn’t even have to ask Bernard Madoff, Martha Stewart, Woody Allen and John Gotti to sit for their portraits. She simply found a good seat in court and pulled out her pad — then got paid. Soon, the New York courtroom artist’s 3,500 sketches could be heading to the Library of Congress, which said Wednesday that it planned to acquire them and is finalizing agreements with Church. “It’s a great spectrum of all the things [...]

Thomas Moran’s Early Landscape of Juniata Valley, Pa, is Acquired by National Gallery of Art

WASHINGTON, DC.- The Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, voted last week to acquire The Juniata, Evening, an exceptional painting done in 1864 by American artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926). Purchased from a private collection with funds from Max and Heidi Berry and Ann and Mark Kington/The Kington Foundation, the Pennsylvania landscape has never been exhibited publicly. It is the second painting by Moran to enter the Gallery’s collection; the first is The Much Resounding [...]

Ex-J. Paul Getty Museum Curator Marion True’s Trafficking Trial Ends in Italy

ROME (AP).- A Rome judge declared an end Wednesday to the trial of a former J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities curator accused of knowingly acquiring looted art from Italy, citing the expiration of the statute of limitations, defense lawyers said. The 6-year-old case against Marion True was followed with concern by museums worldwide and involved about 35 artifacts acquired by the Los Angeles museum between 1986 and the late 1990s — including bronze Etruscan pieces, frescoes and painted Greek vessels. [...]

“Venice: Canaletto and His 18th-Century Rivals” at the National Gallery

LONDON (REUTERS).- A major exhibition in London brings together works by Italian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, best known as Canaletto, and some of his biggest rivals who fought for artistic and commercial supremacy. Painting Venetian views was big business in the 18th century, as wealthy English aristocrats on their Grand Tour sought to take back with them a memento of the canal city. Canaletto, The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West, with Santa Maria della Salute, about 1729 © [...]

New Installations, Light Works, Sculptures and Prints by James Turrell at Gagosian

LONDON.- Gagosian Gallery presents an exhibition of new installations, light works, sculptures and prints by James Turrell. This is his first exhibition with the gallery. James Turrel, Dhatu, 2010 For more than forty-five years, Turrell has explored the myriad possibilities of using light as a medium of perception. His formally simple works draw attention to the limits of seeing while seeking to expand the wordless thought that they provoke. Throughout these permutations, the light that is normally used to illuminate [...]

Exceptional Public Exhibitions, Events and Auctions at Christie’s During Frieze Week

LONDON.- Christie’s will host an exciting series of public exhibitions, events and auctions from today until 18 October in London coinciding with the Frieze Art Fair. The leading highlights of the public exhibition are celebrated masterpieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter, none of which has been seen before in the UK. These works will be offered at the evening auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York on 10 November 2010 and have a combined value [...]

America’s Most Venerable Art Fair to Return at the Park Avenue Armory

NEW YORK, NY.- The Art Show, the country’s longest running national art fair, opens its doors in New York on March 2, 2011. Now in its 23rd year, The Art Show brings together museum quality exhibitions of art ranging from cutting-edge, 21st century works, to museum-quality pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. Organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) to benefit Henry Street Settlement, the fair’s commitment to curatorial expertise and diversity is ever-present in the show’s [...]

Ai Weiwei Presents New Commission in The Unilever Series at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall

LONDON.- Tate and Unilever today presented Chinese artist Ai Weiwei´s commission in The Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern (12 October 2010 – 25 April 2011). He is the first artist living and working in the Asia-Pacific region to be commissioned for the series. Born in Beijing in 1957, Ai Weiwei is one of the most prominent and influential figures in Chinese art today. In his many roles as conceptual artist, curator, critic, designer and architect, his [...]

Picasso to Julie Mehretu: Modern Drawings from the British Museum Collection

LONDON.- This survey of modern drawings from the British Museum’s extensive collection explores the significant interchange of ideas between artists mainly working in Europe and America during the past hundred years. It showcases some of the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, starting with Picasso’s study for his masterpiece Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon, the painting that changed the world in 1907, and concluding with Julie Mehretu, the Ethiopian-born artist and one of the stars of the contemporary international art [...]

Overview of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Creative Development at Hamburger Kunsthalle

HAMBURG.- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), founding member of the Die Brücke (The Bridge) artists group in Dresden, Germany 1905, is among the most influential artist personalities in German classical Modernism. A trailblazer for Expressionist art, he succeeded in creating some of the most innovative formal solutions of his day – particularly as a printmaker. The exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle features a representative overview of the most significant phases in Kirchner’s creative development: the early work showing studio and street [...]

Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool Acquires Albert Moore’s Study for A Summer Night

LIVERPOOL.- As the end of the British summer approaches Study for A Summer Night, an exquisite drawing by English painter Albert Moore (1841-93), goes on display for the first time at the Walker Art Gallery from 13 October to 10 December 2010. The drawing, acquired for the gallery with assistance from the Art Fund charity, is reunited with an accompanying preparatory watercolour and the final oil painting, both from the gallery’s permanent collection. Seen together for the first time all [...]

Exhibition in Hamburg Presents Numerous Paintings, Drawings and Prints by Marc Chagall

HAMBURG.- In the fall of 2010, the Bucerius Kunst Forum is showing around 150 works by Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985). Entitled Marc Chagall. Lifelines, the exhibition presents numerous paintings, drawings and prints by Chagall from the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which can be seen for the first time in Germany. The museum holds major works from the collection of Ida Chagall, the artist’s daughter, as well as many other collectors. For the exhibition at the Bucerius [...]

Rediscover Renowned Masterworks of Early Photography at the Phillips Collection

WASHINGTON, DC.- The photographs of the pictorialist movement are among the most spectacular works of art in the medium’s history. This October, The Phillips Collection brings over 120 of these celebrated images to Washington, D.C. with the exhibition TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845–1945. The exhibition, drawn from the George Eastman House Collections, chronicles pictorialism from its inception through its impact on photography today. The Phillips is the final stop on the international tour of the critically acclaimed [...]

Exhibition of Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection Opens in Spain

GIJON.- Passages. Travels in Hyperspace is an exhibition drawn from the collection of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary that is conceived as a stroll, an excursion through an interior landscape of sorts. Rather than projecting a linear course through the space, this wandering fosters a contemplative state of consciousness and enriches the experience of each work as well as of the exhibition as a whole. A journalist visits the work “Y” by Belgian artist Carsten Holler during the exhibition “Passages. Travels in [...]

15th Art Forum Berlin Opens the Autumn Season of the European Art Shows

BERLIN.- From October 6 to 10, 2010, art forum berlin is taking place for the 15th time. Like in the previous year, the International Art Show in Berlin opens the autumn season of the European art shows. Out of more than 300 applications, the international Selection Committee, consisting of Bärbel Grässlin (Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt am Main), Mehdi Chouakri (Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin), José Freire (team gallery, New York), Georg Kargl (Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna), Nicky Verber (Herald St, [...]