Francis Bacon’s ‘The Tip of the Iceberg’ Opens in Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES.- The exhibition was organized on occasion of the 53rd Venice Biennale but it is a unique event with an extraordinary character; Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos, Aires, hosts an exhibition of drawings by Francis Bacon titled ‘The Tip of the Iceberg. Drawings by Francis Bacon’. The exhibition – curated by the famous English art critic Edward Lucie-Smith and by Alberto Agazzani – shows a ‘corpus’ of about 20 drawings on paper of various sizes, authentically signed by Francis [...]

Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection Go on View

LOS ANGELES, CA.- In 2005 the Hammer launched an initiative to build a collection of contemporary art through both purchases and gifts. Recognizing the variety of media that contemporary artists employ, this growing collection of nearly 1500 works includes drawings, photography, sculpture, painting, film and video. In an effort to reflect the museum’s history of exhibitions, many artists represented in the collection—and whose work is on view in this exhibition—have participated in our Hammer Projects series, one of our biannual [...]

Three Works by Bill Viola on Display at the Museo Picasso Málaga

MALAGA.- “The Self is an ocean without a shore. Gazing upon it has no beginning or end, in this world and the next. ”. These words by the Andalusian mystic Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) served as Bill Viola’s inspiration for his work Ocean without a Shore, which he presented at the Venice Biennale in 2007, and which was the origin for his series Transfigurations. The three works on display at the Museo Picasso Málaga are part of this series. As the [...]

Kunsthaus Zürich Shows Videos and Paintings by Albanian Artist Adrian Paci

ZURICH.- From 4 June to 22 August 2010, the Kunsthaus Zürich will host the first museum exhibition in Switzerland of the work of Albanian artist Adrian Paci. New videos and a painting inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini are at the centre of the exhibition ‘Motion Picture(s)’. The works reflect pivotal moments of humanity and condense the consequences of conflicts and societal rupture. ‘Electric Blue’ is the title of the new video work created by Adrian Paci especially for the Kunsthaus [...]

Moderna Museet Presents Paintings from the Last Five Decades by Ed Ruscha

STOCKHOLM.- Ed Ruscha, born in 1937, is an icon of modern art and exceedingly prolific to this day. His paintings are ambiguous and provocative, recycling scraps from popular culture and redefining established genres. Is he one of the first pop artists, a trail-blazer of conceptual art, a late surrealist, a pioneer of postmodernism, or a bit of everything, all rolled into one? Ed Ruscha started out in graphic design, photography and film-making; ever since he left the Midwest for California, [...]

Two Video Installations by Willie Doherty on View at Alexander and Bonin

NEW YORK, NY.- An exhibition of two video installations by Willie Doherty opened at Alexander and Bonin last week. UNFINISHED, 2010 is a two-channel video installation made specifically for this exhibition. The camera examines the interiors of two large warehouses through a sequence of slow pans and static images. This is accompanied by a recording of a harrowing account from an anonymous man of his experience of being taken hostage and held in a similar space. The narrative is fragmented [...]

Bice Curiger Appointed Director of the 54th International Art Exhibition for 2011

VENICE.- The Board of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, has appointed Bice Curiger as Director of the Visual Arts Sector, with specific responsibility for curating the 54th International Art Exhibition to be held in 2011. A graduate of the University of Zurich, Bice Curiger is an art historian, critic and curator of exhibitions at an international level. Since 1993, she has been curator at the Zurich Kunsthaus, one of the most important museums in the world for [...]

Fondation Beyeler Marks Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Fiftieth Birthday with Large Retrospective

BASEL.- Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 –1988) was one of the most fascinating and controversial personalities in the art world. After starting on the New York underground scene as a graffiti sprayer, musician and actor, he began to devote himself to painting at nineteen. His highly expressive, energetic work soon found wide admiration. Supported by Andy Warhol, he advanced to become an internationally acclaimed star. He was the youngest Documenta participant ever, and exhibited at Art Basel, the Venice Biennale, and various [...]

Internationally Renowned Artists Enrich K21 in Dusseldorf

DUSSELDORF.- With Monika Sosnowska’s project Ohne Titel, 2010 (Untitled, 2010), the imposing interior courtyard of the K21 Ständehaus is made available to an artistic intervention for the first time. At two-year intervals beginning in 2010, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen will be inviting internationally acclaimed artists to use the “airspace” above the piazza as the site of a contemporary intervention, each designed to heighten awareness of the museum as a “house of art” in the eyes of entering visitors. Chosen for the [...]

Biggest Work by Bouzanis to Appear at Auction at Bonhams Greek Sale

LONDON.- The biggest work ever to appear at auction by the major Greek expressionist painter Georgios Bouzianis entitled Frau mit Tisch und Stuhl, measuring 138 x 105 cm, is expected to sell for £200,000 – 300,000 at Bonhams 16th Greek Sale at New Bond Street on Tuesday 18th May. The biannual sale features a mixture of paintings and sculpture by some of the most famous 19th century, modern and contemporary Greek artists. 145 lots are being sold with prices ranging [...]

News from the Near Future by Fiona Tan at Museum Kunst der Westkuste

AMSTERDAM.- Amsterdam-based photographer and video artist Fiona Tan (born 1966) has been a central figure on the contemporary art scene since the 1990s. In her video News from the Near Future (2003) a collage of historic film and audio material tells of man’s ambivalent relationship with water as a force of nature. Drawing on the archives of the Amsterdam Film Museum, Tan composed a narrative crescendo starting off with idyllic impressions of the watery world and building to increasingly menacing [...]

Maria Lassnig Exhibition at Lenbechaus Presents Over Forty Paintings

MUNICH.- For more than six decades, in her paintings and drawings Maria Lassnig has explored perceptions and representations of the inner sensations of the body. Lassnig, who was born in 1919 in Carinthia, Austria, already gave her early 1940s work the programmatic title of “bodyconsciousness drawings”. Soon thereafter she visited Paris and came into contact with surrealism and art informel. Though her non-figurative geometrical work she quickly became the most important protagonist in abstract art in post-war Austria, but even [...]

Rupert Shrive Gives New Meaning to the Word ‘Portrait’ at Morton Metropolis

LONDON.- Rupert Shrive will give new meaning to the word ‘portrait’ at his show at Morton Metropolis, London’s most talked about gallery in the West End. In an insightful interview with Michael Peppiatt, biographer of Francis Bacon and author of a forthcoming book on Alberto Giacometti, the art historian describes the works as “Very tender, sensitive things, as if you’re peeling back the skin of appearance to show the strangeness of a human face and the head beneath.” But it [...]

Miami Art Museum Dedicates Largest Exhibition Space to Permanent Collection

MIAMI, FL.- In preparation for the move its new, expanded facility at Museum Park, Miami Art Museum (MAM) will present the first, long-term installation of its growing Permanent Collection in the museum’s largest exhibition space, the 9,000 square foot Upper Level Gallery. BETWEEN HERE AND THERE: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, opening Sunday, February 28, 2010, will remain in place with periodic changes until MAM moves to the new museum, scheduled for completion in 2013. The exhibition [...]

Maurizio Cattelan’s First Solo Show in the U.S. Since 2003 Opens at the Menil Collection

HOUSTON, TX.- Born in the university town of Padua in 1960, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan is known for his playful yet disconcerting use of materials, objects, and actions – and for manipulating their larger contexts and meaning. In his work the artist unleashes critiques on a range of issues, from nationalism and organized religion to art history and to the very concept of an art museum. Cattelan’s uncanny juxtapositions uproot and invert conventional understandings of the world around us. Organized [...]

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