Displaying items by tag: Modern Art

Storm King Art Center, a sprawling sculpture park in New Windsor, New York, has acquired three contemporary works through major long-term loans. The sculptures include “Source” (1967) by American minimalist Tony Scott, “Royal Tide 1” (1960) by monochromatic master Louise Nevelson, and “Broken Obelisk” (1967) by Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman.

Guests who enter through the Center’s Museum Hill entrance are greeted by “Source,” Smith’s monumental black painted-steel sculpture. First exhibited at Documenta IV in Kassel, Germany, in 1968, “Source” is among Smith’s most dynamic large-scale sculptures and exemplifies the painted black outdoor works for which he is best known.

Sotheby’s London today announces that the collection of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., visionary founder of the Buffalo Bills NFL franchise, who died earlier this year, will lead Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in London on 23 June 2014. The group of four works, highlighted by two exquisite paintings by Claude Monet that represent the pinnacle of the Impressionist movement, was assembled by Mr Wilson with a remarkable vision over two decades ago. American Football as it is known today would not exist if it weren’t for Mr Ralph Wilson, but while he was best known as the longtime owner of the Buffalo Bills, privately he was a passionate collector of the highest order. Seeking out the finest examples of key artists of the Impressionist era, Wilson pursued great works of art and in the 1990s acquired these four canvases by the towering figures of the period.

Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head, Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide comments: “We have seen how much appetite there is for works of true museum quality so we anticipate that these two extremely desirable works by Monet will appeal to buyers across the world. Outstanding paintings by Monet are more desirable now than ever before and these two works, each from a pinnacle of the artist’s career in two different decades, are both wonderful examples of why Monet has such an enduring appeal.”

Ileana Sonnabend was one of the greatest and most influential discoverers of artistic talent of the late 20^th century, known and appreciated for her intuition, strength of character, ground-breaking vision and for that eclecticism of taste and thinking that enabled her to understand and promote all that was new in American and European art. Created over many years and a material reflection of her commitment to supporting young artists and the avant-garde movements of the 20^th century, her extraordinary collection now finds a “European home” in the splendid monumental rooms on the second floor of the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna at Ca’ Pesaro.

The exhibition marks the first step in a long-term collaboration with the Sonnabend Collection and Sonnabend Collection Foundation, and offers an extraordinary opportunity to enrich the city’s 20^th-century art collections and the permanent displays at Ca’ Pesaro, which thanks to the works from the Ileana Sonnabend collection, will be able to offer its visitors a more comprehensive itinerary with plenty of masterpieces from the history of art of the whole of the 20^th century. The Sonnabend Collection picks up exactly at the point in which Ca’ Pesaro ended its collecting spree and relationship with the Biennale, and will lead the visitor past a series of works of the highest artistic quality forming part of the principal experimental schools of the late 20^th century through over 70 iconic works of the period.

The Museum of Contemporary Art took the next step in rebuilding its staff and programming, appointing Helen Molesworth of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston as its new chief curator.

A scholar, art writer and curator, Molesworth has been at ICA/Boston since 2010. Before that she headed the department of modern and contemporary art at the Harvard Art Museum and served as the museum's Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art.

She will start Sept. 1.

As it approaches its 25th anniversary, the Wexner Center for the Arts is set to feature a variety of works this fall, as well as give visitors a peek into the personal gallery of Les Wexner and his wife, Abigail.

Beginning Sept. 21 and running through Dec. 31, the Wexner Center is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary with “Transfigurations: Modern Masters from the Wexner Family Collection,” displaying works from the art collection of the businessman and Ohio State alumnus.

Pieces to be on view include original masterworks of artists Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet, who are known virtuosos in their respective art movements, including cubism, expressionism, surrealism and modernism.

Bringing together a group of eight paintings and works on paper from the Saint Louis Art Museum and Switzerland's Beyeler Foundation, this exhibition showcases the entire oeuvre of Mark Rothko and celebrates the diversity of nearly 30 years of artistic output from this crucial figure in the American Abstract Expressionist movement.

The exhibition includes early Surrealist imagery by Rothko while Untitled, 1948 is emblematic of the artist's abstractions, known as "multiforms". Painted in a range of blue, yellow, orange and white shapes against a salmon-colored background, this work's importance is heightened since it is the last image that Rothko signed on the front of the canvas. The artist famously affirmed that his paintings should be "tragic and timeless"— an observation that inspired the exhibition title.

“Rockwell’s greatest sin as an artist is simple: His is an art of unending cliché.”

In that Washington Post criticism of a 2010 exhibition of Norman Rockwell paintings at the Smithsonian, Blake Gopnik joined a long line of prominent critics attacking Rockwell, the American artist and illustrator who depicted life in mid-20th-century America and died in 1978.

“Norman Rockwell was demonized by a generation of critics who not only saw him as an enemy of modern art, but of all art,” said Deborah Solomon, whose biography of Rockwell, “American Mirror,” was published last year. “He was seen as a lowly calendar artist whose work was unrelated to the lofty ambitions of art,” she said, or, as she put it in her book, “a cornball and a square.” The critical dismissal “was obviously a source of great pain throughout his life,” Ms. Solomon, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, added.

The University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has received a gift of six original never-before-exhibited Andy Warhol prints from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

All with Warhol’s recognizable style and focus, the prints represent a period of the artist’s work from the late 1970s to mid-1980s, not long before the Warhol’s death in 1987 at the age of 58. The prints depict a range of subjects, from fashionable portraits to popular culture, and include such iconic images as Warhol’s portrait of friend and fellow artist Joseph Beuys and his striking representation of Lakota chief Sitting Bull.

Art Dubai announced today that next year’s edition will take place from March 18 to 21. The fair’s dates will be particularly convenient for crowded art world calendars, as it will coincide with both the Sharjah Biennial and Design Days Dubai. The biennial in Sharjah, fifteen minutes away from Dubai by car, has become one of the foremost events at which to see art specifically from the Gulf regions.

For the ninth edition, Art Dubai’s extensive program of artists’ projects, including a live radio station and cinema, will continue. This includes the five-day Global Art Forum, which will feature 40 speakers; an exhibition of work by winners of the Abraaj Group Art Prize; and Campus Art Dubai, a year-round art school for artists and curators based in the UAE.