Grand Rapids Art Museum Presents Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland

GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- The Grand Rapids Art Museum presents the internationally-touring exhibition Dutch Utopia: American Arts in Holland, 1880 1914 from May 21 to August 15, 2010. Dutch Utopia is the first major exhibition to explore the little-known phenomenon of American artists settling or working in Holland around the turn of the twentieth century, and to consider the cultural significance of their artwork. These artists created visions of Dutch society that celebrated a pre-industrial lifestyle and, in some cases, alluded [...]

World’s Largest Exhibition of the Stellar New York Artist James Rizzi Opens in Bremen

BREMEN.- Colorful, with a zest for life, and full of humor—these qualities are typical of James Rizzi, typical of his work, typical of his world. For decades the New Yorker has been delighting numerous collectors around the world and an extensive community of fans with his refreshingly positive creations. Along the way from street painter to celebrated stellar artist, James Rizzi developed his unmistakable, cheerful style while trying out new ideas again and again. Already at the beginning of his [...]

Aspen Art Museum Invites Eights Artists for Group Exhibition

ASPEN, CO.- The Aspen Art Museum debuted a group exhibition, Restless Empathy, which will remain on view through Sunday, July 18, 2010. For Restless Empathy, the Aspen Art Museum has invited eight artists—Allora & Calzadilla, Pawel Althamer, Marc Bijl, Lara Favaretto, Geof Oppenheimer, Lars Ø. Ramberg, Frances Stark, and Mark Wallinger—to create new projects or rethink existing bodies of work throughout the museum and the town of Aspen itself. While representing a wide range of practices and frames of reference, [...]

Montreal Presents World Premiere of Runa Islam’s “Magical Consciousness”

MONTREAL.- A rising star on the contemporary art scene, British artist Runa Islam gained an international reputation with her participation in the 2005 Venice Biennale and her nomination for the 2008 Turner Prize. This new exhibition is a coproduction of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia. It comprises five film installations by the artist, including the world premiere of Magical Consciousness, 2010, a shared commission by the two museums. The Musée d’art [...]

Impressive Line-up of Contemporary Art at Villa Grisebach’s Spring Auctions in Berlin

BERLIN.- The June 4th evening sale is divided into two sections—in part because of the remarkably successful acquisition within the contemporary segment—with two corresponding catalogs: “Selected Works” and “Contemporary Art.” Works presented in the section of modern art span from important examples of German Impressionism and Expressionism to art made during the postwar era. Paula Modersohn-Becker is represented with two spectacular paintings: a rare Self-Portrait with Yellow Wreath circa 1901 (estimate of € 200,000/300,000) and an atmospheric still life entitled [...]

ICP Opens Inaugural Installment of a New Annual Series of Exhibitions

NEW YORK, NY.- The International Center of Photography presents Perspectives 2010: Carol Bove, Lena Herzog, Matthew Porter, Ed Templeton, Hong-An Truong, the inaugural installment of a new annual series focusing on significant recent works by contemporary artists, photographers, and filmmakers. The exhibition will be on view at ICP from May 21 through September 9, 2010, and is organized by Brian Wallis, ICP Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Collections & Chief Curator. The “Perspectives” series continues ICP’s ongoing exploration of the [...]

Russian Dagestan Village Defies Odds with Ancient Art

KUBACHI, RUSSIA (REUTERS).- The cacophony of hammered silver reverberates through the sole school of this tiny village nestled in the lush and craggy Caucasus mountains of Russia’s deeply turbulent Muslim region of Dagestan. Villagers in Kubachi, whose population is a mere 2,300, boast that every man, woman and child has mastered the ancient tradition of delicate silverwork, first brought to the region by Persian traders almost two millennia ago. Teacher Kultum Kutsulova, clad in a flowing white hijab decorated with [...]

Getty Museum Debuts Cutting-Edge Technology to Showcase Cabinet

LOS ANGELES, CA.- To showcase one of the most complex objects in its collection, the J. Paul Getty Museum will debut cutting-edge technology to explore a 17th-century display cabinet from Augsburg, Germany. Using Augmented Reality (AR), visitors to the Getty’s website will be able to achieve unprecedented access to this fascinating object. The Augsburg Display Cabinet (around 1630), or Kabinettschrank, is the centerpiece of one of four newly reinstalled galleries in the Museum’s North Pavilion. A piece of furniture, it [...]

Derek Eller Opens Liz Magic Laser’s First Solo Exhibition at the Gallery

NEW YORK, NY.- With chase, Liz Magic Laser reinterprets Bertolt Brecht’s 1926 play Man equals Man. The project includes a feature-length video, an installation of ephemera from the production of chase as well as a theatrical set that will serve as a backdrop for a live performance. Working in collaboration with nine actors, Laser staged Brecht’s play in the ATM vestibules of banks throughout New York City. Videotaping each actor’s performance separately, she edited the scenes, creating a complete version [...]

Hillwood Announces New Executive Director Appointment

WASHINGTON, D.C..- Ellen MacNeile Charles, president of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, announced today the appointment of Kate Markert as executive director. Hillwood’s Search Committee was assisted by Opportunity Resources Inc. of New York City in the successful completion of the search. Currently the associate director at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Markert will succeed Frederick J. Fisher, who has led Hillwood as executive director for over 20 years and has long planned to make 2010 his final year [...]

Joslyn Art Museum Outdoor Garden Galleries Showcases Three New Sculptures

OMAHA, NE.- Large-scale works by two major contemporary American sculptors and a figurative bronze by preeminent French sculptor Auguste Rodin were positioned in locations across the Joslyn Art Museum campus this month. Joslyn Art Museum’s One of the Burghers of Calais: Andrieu d’Andres, immortalized by Rodin (French, 1840–1917) and the generous gift of John and Carmen Gottschalk, G. Woodsen Howe, and Anda Howe (2002), moved from the Museum’s concert hall foyer to the southeast corner of the Peter Kiewit Foundation [...]

The Toledo Museum of Art Receives $2 Million Lead Gift to Renovate Its Former Glass Gallery

TOLEDO, OH.- The Toledo Museum of Art’s Interim Director Rod Bigelow announced that the Museum has received a $2 million lead gift to renovate its former glass gallery into a signature gallery for the Museum’s growing modern and contemporary collections. Perrysburg residents and long-time Museum supporters Frederic “Fritz” and Mary Wolfe made the gift earlier this year to jumpstart construction on the gallery. “The plan is to renovate the space into a modern and contemporary gallery that will showcase the [...]

Israeli Art Detectives Crack a Forgery Riddle

JERUSALEM (AP).- The portrait of a glum, bespectacled man was about to go on auction in Amsterdam when someone at Sotheby’s noticed a problem: Israel’s national museum owned precisely the same painting. One of them had to be a fake. For curators at the Israel Museum, cracking the riddle of the Jozef Israels self-portrait and its mysterious twin meant tracking down a tale about a forgotten Turkish pasha and an eccentric Jerusalem artist, and using infrared cameras to peer underneath [...]

Untouched Tomb to Unravel Secrets of Cyprus’s Past

NICOSIA (REUTERS).- Locals say it could be the final resting place of Ajax’s niece, contain a golden chariot and will unleash a horrible curse. But whether a tomb recently uncovered on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus contains the bones and booty of a close relative of a Trojan war hero straight from the pages of Homer or will just yield better evidence for understanding the rituals and lives of ancient Greeks is yet to be revealed. Construction workers in the [...]

Another Picasso Stolen in French Fine Art Robbery

MARSEILLE (REUTERS).- Interpol said Saturday it had alerted its 188 countries member countries about the major theft from the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris and added the works to its stolen art database. Museum officials discovered the paintings, which included works by Spanish master Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani, missing Thursday after noticing a smashed window pane. “The French authorities have made sure that police around the world now have the information they need to assist in locating [...]