Displaying items by tag: art scene

When it comes time to reflect on the fall season of visual arts events, there are always comings and goings to note.

But this year feels different. Several old-guard art galleries are gone, fading or potentially on their way out.

There are so few galleries in Milwaukee that have had staying power of the galleries in this special class. Cissie Peltz, the grande dame of the art scene, died last year, and while her family attempted to continue her legacy for a time, the Peltz Gallery closed this summer after 25 years.

Conceived as a challenge to long-standing conventional wisdom, "Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s" (on-sale September 9th, 2014) examines the premise that the progress of art in Los Angeles ceased during the 1970s—after the decline of the Ferus Gallery, the scattering of its stable of artists (Robert Irwin, Ed Kienholz, Ed Moses, Ed Rusha and others), and the economic struggles throughout the decade—and didn’t resume until sometime around 1984 when Mark Tansey, Alison Saar, Judy Fiskin, Carrie Mae Weems, David Salle, Manuel Ocampo, among others, became stars in an exploding art market. However, this is far from the reality of the L.A. art scene in the 1970s.

The passing of those fashionable 1960s-era icons, in fact, enabled the development of a chaotic array of outlandish and independent voices, marginalized communities, and energetic, sometimes bizarre visions that thrived during the stagnant 1970s. Fallon’s narrative describes and celebrates, through twelve thematically arranged chapters, the wide range of intriguing artists and the world they created.

New York City will welcome nearly 30 of the world’s leading dealers in Master Drawings from January 24th through January 31st when the ninth edition of Master Drawings New York hosts themed exhibitions in more than two dozen Upper East Side galleries between East 63rd and 93rd Streets.

Founded in 2006 as a way to draw upon and buttress the presence of collectors and museum officials during the important January art-buying events, including the Old Master auctions and The Winter Antiques Show, Master Drawings New York has become an important part of the winter art scene in its own right, attracting the most influential dealers not only in New York but in England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Christie’s announced that it will hold its first ever sale in India during December of this year in order to tap into the country’s burgeoning art scene. The London-based auction house has had an office in Mumbai for the past 20 years.

The upcoming sale will include domestic artwork and according to Christie’s chief executive, Steven Murphy,” will reflect “the increased international appeal of Indian art and the growing participation of Indian collectors across international sale categories.” The sale will be the first of its kind by an international auction house in India.

Interest in western art has increased in India over the past decade thanks in part to the country’s substantial economic growth. The first auction of international masterpieces in India took place last year in New Delhi and included works by Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. The demand for Indian artworks outside of India continues to grow. In 2010, a painting by Indian artist Syed Haider Raza sold for nearly $3.6 billion at Christie’s London, setting the record for a modern Indian work.  

After bursting on the art scene in the late 1940s, Abstract Expressionism dominated American art, criticism, and commentary throughout the 1950s. Artists of the revolutionary Abstract Expressionist School rejected the widely accepted values that ruled post-war America and looked to emotion, rebellion, spontaneity, and movement for inspiration.

AB-EX / RE-CON: Abstract Expressionism Reconsidered, which is now on view at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, New York on Long Island, explores both the best-known and less familiar artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Organized by the museum’s director, Karl Emil Willers, AB-EX features over 80 works by 50 artists including those readily associated with Abstract Expressionism such as Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1933), Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), Franz Kline (1910-1962), Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), and Mark Rothko (1903-1970).

However, it is the inclusion of the lesser-known Abstract Expressionists that sets AB-EX apart. The exhibition features the works of Jon Schueler (1916-1992), a student of Diebenkorn who explored landscapes through the lens of abstraction; Fritz Bultman (1919-1985), who studied under Hofmann and favored bold, gestural forms; and often overlooked female Abstract Expressionists such a Grace Hartigan (1922-2008), Perle Fine (1908-1988), and Judith Godwin (b. 1930). The comprehensive exhibition illustrates the breadth and diversity of a single movement that is often reduced to a handful of artists and stylistic approaches.

AB-EX / RE-CON: Abstract Expressionism Reconsidered is on view through June 16, 2013.