A solo exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle highlights Icelandic artist Erro’s work

FRANKFURT.- On the occasion of Iceland’s presentation as a guest of honor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the Schirn Kunsthalle will dedicate a solo exhibition to this country’s artist Erró from October 6, 2011 to January 8, 2012. Erró ranks among the great solitary figures of twentieth-century art. At once pop and baroque, eye-catching and narrative, critical of society and humorous, moral and inscrutable, he has produced an opulent, unmistakable oeuvre refusing all categorization in the course of the past fifty years. [...]

Artistic Evolution: Southern California Artists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1945-1963

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County presents Artistic Evolution: Southern California Artists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1945-1963 as its contribution to the major initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945 – 1980. On view through January 15, 2012, Artistic Evolution is inspired by works that were shown at NHM when it was the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art, the first dedicated museum building in Los Angeles. The [...]

The BAT Artventure Collection Part III Realises $1,608,776

AMSTERDAM.- This evening, Sotheby’s final auction to be staged in the Netherlands, Part III of the sale of the world-renowned BAT ArtVenture Collection, formerly known as The Peter Stuyvesant Collection, realised a total of €1,214,904 / £1,040,605 / $1,608,776, a figure more than double pre-sale expectations of €500,000. Pre-sale interest had been remarkable and more than 240 clients registered to bid in tonight’s sale, which concluded to a round of applause after the auctioneer’s hammer fell on the final lot. The auction also [...]

Third Prix Pictet commission, a series of over 30 photographs by Chris Jordans, unveiled

LONDON.- The Commission, a series of over 30 photographs, documents Chris Jordan’s field trip to Northern Kenya where Pictet & Cie is contributing to the establishment of the Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy, a new community-led initiative, supported by the Tusk Trust and overseen by the Northern Rangelands Trust. Chris Jordan’s photographs draw attention to the issues that face the politically and socially marginalised communities in the region: climate change; drought; conflict caused by competition for scarce resources – livestock, pasture and water; and an increase [...]

Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery opens with inaugural exhibition featuring work by James Turrell

SANTA MONICA, CA.- Kayne Griffin Corcoran presents its inaugural exhibition of work by James Turrell. Kayne Griffin Corcoran is a new partnership between Bill Griffin, James Corcoran, and Maggie Kayne. In 1966, Turrell began experimenting with light in his Santa Monica studio, the Mendota Hotel. By covering the windows and only allowing prescribed amounts of light from the street outside to shine through the openings, Turrell created his first light projections. Shortly thereafter, he began using halogen projectors to beam light across [...]

Historic alliance opens door to Academy Museum at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have taken a step toward realizing a museum dedicated to motion pictures and the creation of a new and unique cultural center for the city of Los Angeles. On Tuesday night (10/4), the Academy’s Board of Governors joined their LACMA counterparts in agreeing to sign a memorandum of understanding to work in good faith in establishing the Academy’s movie museum in the historic [...]

An outstanding blue and white vase sets a world record for any Ming porcelain at auction

HONG KONG.- A World Auction Record was set for Ming Porcelain at Sotheby’s Hong Kong today when an Outstanding Blue and White Imperial Vase, Ming Dynasty, sold for HK$168,660,000 / US$21,623,077. The ten-minute phone bidding battle in a crowded Hong Kong saleroom was won by Nicolas Chow, Sotheby’s International Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, against a Sotheby’s Ceramics Specialist based in Beijing. Chinese buyers from around the world competed for 32 important pieces from Sotheby’s sale of Part II of [...]

The Whitney Museum of American Art presents David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy

NEW YORK, N.Y.- David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy examines the abiding importance of geometric form in the work of American sculptor David Smith (1906-1965) from his earliest small works through the monumental late masterpieces that he created in the final years of his life. Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it debuted earlier this year, the exhibition brings together approximately 60 works, including the largest grouping of Smith’s Cubis and Zigs assembled in more than two decades. [...]

The Ashmolean Museum opens Fall exhibition: Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape

OXFORD.- The Ashmolean’s major exhibition this autumn will be Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape 6 October 2011 – 8 January 2012, rediscovering the father of European landscape painting, Claude Gellée (c.1600–1682), or Claude Lorrain as he is best known. In partnership with the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, the exhibition will bring together 140 works from international collections, created at different points in the artist’s career. By uniting ‘pairs’ of Claude’s paintings and making a comprehensive survey of his work in different media, the exhibition [...]

Barbican Art Gallery transformed by a major exhibition on OMA: One of the most influential architectural practices

LONDON.- This autumn Barbican Art Gallery will be transformed by a major exhibition on OMA, one of the most influential architectural practices working today. Known for their daring ideas, extraordinary buildings and obsession with the rapid pulse of modern life, OMA play an active role in the architectural, engineering and cultural ideas that are shaping our world. Founded by polymath Rem Koolhaas in 1975, OMA currently comprises seven partners and a staff of around 280 architects, designers and researchers working in offices in [...]

Artist that influenced Tim Burton John Atkinson Grimshaw at Richard Green

LONDON.- An exhibition of paintings by the renowned 19th Century artist, Atkinson Grimshaw, celebrating the 175th anniversary of his birth, is being held at Richard Green. This event follows the first museum exhibition of Grimshaw’s work for over 30 years held at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, and coincides with that exhibition’s opening at the Guildhall Gallery in the City of London. The art and life of Atkinson Grimshaw provides a fascinating insight into the culture and history of Victorian England. When [...]

Anselm Kiefer: Selected Works from the Grothe Collection at the Museum Frieder Burda

BADEN-BADEN.- Anselm Kiefer is known to be one of the most important contemporary artists nationwide as well as worldwide. Through January 15, 2012, selected works by Kiefer from the Grothe collection can be seen at the Museum Frieder Burda. The curator Walter Smerling has selected 33 large format pictures from 30 years, focussing on the decade 2000. For the first time, the work ”Essence“ from the current series of alpine landscapes are being publicly exhibited. From the collection Frieder Burda, the work [...]

One of the most iconic post-modernist designs, Proust’s Armchair, to sell at Bonhams

LONDON.- One of the most iconic and important post-modernist designs, Proust’s Armchair, by Italian designer and architect Alessandro Mendini, is to be sold at Bonhams as part of its Contemporary Two sale on 19 October 2011. Designed in 1978, and executed in 1981, for a performance based exhibition entitled Robot Sentimentale, it has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £20,000 – 30,000. Mendini describes his design, which was privately commissioned by the present owner from him in 1981, in The Story of the Proust [...]

South Indian Jewelery and Iznik outperform estimates at Bonhams Indian and Islamic sale

LONDON.- Bonhams sale of Islamic and Indian Art on October 4th at New Bond Street attracted stiff competition for the best items, boosting prices way beyond pre-sale estimates. The cover lot, A 16th century Iznik bottle flask from a private Belgian collection, estimated to sell for £60,000 to £80,000 made £184,850. This important Iznik water bottle made in Turkey around 1575 is only the third such flask to come to the market in the last 10 years. Within the lexicon of shapes [...]

Grayson Perry: “The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman” at the British Museum

LONDON.- The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman is a memorial to makers and builders, all those countless un-named skilled individuals who have made the beautiful man-made wonders of history. They are an artist in the service of their religion, their master, their tribe, their tradition. Grayson Perry has conceived a major new exhibition for the British Museum. As the artist, curator and guide he will explore a range of themes connected with notions of craftsmanship and sacred journeys – from shamanism, magic [...]