NY federal court finds for Art International in Edelman Arts’ suit over multimillion-dollar Mondrian painting

NEW YORK, NY.- One of the art world’s most acquisitive and controversial collectors has been dealt a noteworthy setback this week by a New York federal judge. In a closely watched case, European art broker Anne Faggionato, former Director of Art International and current CEO of BlueLabel, won a favorable decision in a long-running dispute over the purchase and subsequent sale of “The Composition,” a 1923 painting by renowned Dutch artist Piet Mondrian that has been valued as high as $7 [...]

Two Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian stolen from Greece’s National Gallery

ATHENS.- Thieves carried out a well-organized, pre-dawn heist at Greece’s biggest state art museum on Monday, taking two oil paintings by 20th century masters Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian, police said. A police statement said the burglars who entered through a balcony door also took a pen and ink drawing of a religious scene by Italian 16th century painter Guglielmo Caccia. It said a fourth work by Mondrian also was removed from the National Art Gallery in one of the best-guarded [...]

Loan from Centre Pompidou in Paris brings forty of the museum’s top paintings to The Hague

THE HAGUE.- The prestigious Centre Pompidou in Paris has loaned forty of its top works for a special exhibition in Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. The exhibition includes famous masterpieces by such artists as Kandinsky, Brancusi, Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Giacometti, Léger, Braque and Delaunay. Visitors to the museum this will have a unique opportunity to experience Paris as the dazzling city of modern art in The Hague. In the first half of the 20th century, Paris was an irresistible magnet which attracted up-and-coming artists [...]

Barbara Hepworth sculpture bought for Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums

MELKSHAM.- The Art Fund has helped Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums buy Meditation, a 1972 sculpture by Dame Barbara Hepworth. The sculpture originally belonged to Sir Norman Reid, an artist and former Director of the Tate, who was given the piece by Hepworth shortly before her death in 1975. One of Barbara Hepworth’s late works, Meditation shows the artist at her most abstract The piece One of Barbara Hepworth’s late works, Meditation shows the artist at her most abstract. It consists of a [...]

Most comprehensive retrospective of the work of Robert Breer at Museum Tinguely in Basel

BASEL.- The solo exhibition on the American painter, filmmaker and sculptor Robert Breer is the most comprehensive retrospective of his work to date. Organized in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition will be the first to bring Breer’s work in all media together for several decades, revealing him to be as vital today as he was in the 1950s. A full-length catalogue will be published in German and English editions to accompany the exhibition, which was mounted in cooperation with [...]

A Portrait of Holland: The Dutch Landscape in Art Since 1850 at De Hallen Haarlem

HAARLEM.- A green polder countryside with cows, ditches, farmhouses and windmills, boundless vistas, vibrant bulb fields and panoramic river and dune landscapes: every facet of the Dutch landscape can be seen this summer in the exhibition A Portrait of Holland – The Dutch Landscape in Art since 1850 in De Hallen Haarlem. More than a hundred and twenty paintings, watercolours, prints, photographs and films by Dutch artists like Anton Mauve, the Maris brothers, Piet Mondrian, Jan Toorop, Jan Sluijters, M.C. Escher, [...]

Buddhism’s Influence on Contemporary Artists Explored by the Rubin Museum of Art

NEW YORK, NY.- The Rubin Museum of Art presents works by five artists of different generations and ethnicities, working between 1960 and the present, whose oeuvres have been influenced by the tenets of Buddhism, including its central principles of emptiness and the fleeting nature of all things.  Grain of Emptiness: Buddhism-Inspired Contemporary Art assembles videos, paintings, photographs, and installations dating from 1961 to 2008 by Sanford Biggers (b. U.S., 1970); Theaster Gates (b. U.S.,1973); Atta Kim (b. Korea, 1956); Wolfgang Laib (b. [...]

American Artist Suzan Frecon Presents New Paintings at David Zwirner

NEW YORK, NY.- David Zwirner presents an exhibition of new paintings by American artist Suzan Frecon. On view at the gallery’s 525 West 19th Street space, this is the first solo exhibition by the artist since she joined the gallery in 2008. For the past four decades, Frecon has become known for abstract oil paintings and watercolors that are at once reductive and expressive. Composed with subtle, interacting arrangements of color, which the artist applies with meticulous attention to the [...]

Haus Konstruktiv Opens Exhibitions by Ryan Gander and Franz Mon

ZURICH.- About three years ago, Haus Konstruktiv, together with the insurance company Zurich Group, established the “Zurich Art Prize”. The third winner of this prize, after Carsten Nicolai and Tino Sehgal, is the internationally renowned Ryan Gander (born 1976) of Britain. With this Ryan Gander solo exhibition, Haus Konstruktiv is presenting an artistic position which constitutes a major contribution to contemporary art and also seeks a cross-generational dialogue with art history from the beginning of the 20th century onward. At [...]

Christie’s Latin American Evening Sale Offers Rare Masterworks

NEW YORK, NY.- On May 26 and 27, Christie’s Latin American sale will offer an exceptional selection of works by modern and contemporary masters hailing from Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and many other regions throughout the Americas. Rich in works from private collections, the two-day auction presents nearly 300 works by leading Latin American artists such as Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, Joaquín Torres-García, José María Velasco, Gunther Gerzso, and Rufino Tamayo, among others. Christie’s will offer Survivor, [...]

Leading Modern Artists to be Shown at Irish Museum of Modern Art

DUBLIN.- An exhibition featuring works by many of America’s and Europe’s most celebrated 20th-century artists opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 31 March 2010. “Vertical Thoughts: Morton Feldman and the Visual Arts” focuses on the work of the influential American composer Morton Feldman and the many leading visual artists with whom he was closely associated, including Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. The exhibition, the first of its kind [...]

Tate Modern Opens First Major Theo van Doesburg Exhibition in the UK

LONDON.- Tate Modern presents the first major exhibition in the UK devoted to the Dutch artist and pivotal figure of the European avant-garde, Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931). This is a unique and exciting chance for van Doesburg’s work to be seen for the first time in the UK. This follows in the footsteps of a series of exhibitions looking at different aspects of Modernism, conceived by Vicente Todolí, Director of Tate Modern. Van Doesburg, who worked in disciplines within art, [...]

American Color Field Artist, Kenneth Noland, Dies at the Age of 85

PORT CLYDE, ME.- The New York Times has reported that American color field artist Kenneth Noland has died at the age of 85. The artist’s wife, Paige Rense, told the New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Noland was born in Asheville, North Carolina. A veteran of World War II he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1942. After his discharge four years later, Noland took advantage of the G.I. Bill to study art at Black Mountain [...]