Art Blog

Václav Machač - Figurative Glass

Czech Museum of Fine Arts: 12. 4. 2006 - 4. 6. 2006

Václav Macháč (1945), a graduate of the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (studio of Prof. S. Libenský, 1965-1971), has been a leading representative of Czech and international glass art since the 1970s. His starting point is in classical sculptural modelling and he uses the technique of glass blown into a mould that is then polychromed. With this approach he achieves outstanding results in an expressive form of realism. His dramatic drawings, both as studies and finished works, are equally outstanding. Machač chooses characteristic themes in which he emphasises his interest in manifesting the strength, resistance and determination of both humans and animals. These themes are primarily portraits of sportsmen, cyclists and skiers. Here we can find, for example, a portrait sculpture of the Ukrainian boxer Vitaly Klichko. Machač's horse heads and dog portraits are also exceptional. ...

http://www.cmvu.cz

Cy Twombly | Sculptures

Alte Pinakothek: until 30.07.2006

The Alte Pinakothek exhibition of new sculptures by the American artist Cy Twombly is a minor sensation: the forty or so works have never been presented in Europe before. Indeed, the most recent sculptures have not even been shown at the Twombly Museum of the Menil Collection in their entirety. The works now to be exhibited were selected jointly with the artist himself at his studio in Lexington/Virginia, USA. ...

http://www.pinakothek.de

CONCRETE KINGDOM: SCULPTURES BY NEK CHAND

American Folk Art Museum: April 4–September 24, 2006

“Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand” showcases the work of this visionary self-taught artist from India, whose thousands of cement animal and human sculptures occupy a 25-acre site-specific art installation, the Rock Garden, in Chandigarh, India. The American Folk Art Museum recently acquired 29 works from a miniature garden Nek Chand built for the National Children's Museum, in Washington, D.C. (currently relocating). These sculptures, along with 5 already in the museum’s collection, will be featured in groupings on tiered pedestals, echoing the design of the original Rock Garden. Large-scale photographic images will demonstrate the grand scale of the world's largest and most significant folk art environment. ...

http://www.folkartmuseum.org

DAVID SMITH: A Centennial

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: February 3-May 14, 2006

David Smith with Australia, Bolton Landing, New York, ca. 1951. Photo by David Smith, ©2006 The Estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York.

If you ask why I make sculpture, I must answer that it is my way of life, my balance, and my justification for being. —David Smith

Widely considered the greatest sculptor of his generation, David Smith (1906–1965) created some of the most iconic works of the 20th century. Marked by the use of industrial materials, especially welded metals, and the integration of open space, Smith’s three-dimensional version of Abstract Expressionism revolutionized the art of sculpture in the U.S. and around the world. Organized on the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, David Smith: A Centennial presents over 120 of his greatest sculptures, as well as a selection of his drawings and sketchbooks, from his entire 33-year career as a sculptor. Considering his art as a totality, the exhibition provides audiences with a singular opportunity to understand the complexity of Smith’s aesthetic concerns as well as his impact on the course of modern and contemporary sculpture.In addition to bringing together the masterpieces of Smith’s mature period in the 1950s and 60s, the exhibition gives special emphasis to his connection with his European forebears. ...

http://www.guggenheim.org

Richard Tuttle: It’s a Room for 3 People

Aspen Art Museum: December 9, 2005 - February 5, 2006

Since the mid-1960s, Richard Tuttle has been creating lyrical, purposeful, and inspiring work that is radical in its insistence on defying convention and resisting categorization. Creating sculpture and drawing with diverse and unexpected materials, Tuttle’s pieces combine both traditional drawing media with more humble elements like plywood, string, cardboard, cloth, sawdust, glitter, and Styrofoam. ...

http://www.aspenartmuseum.org

N.C. Museum Of Art To House Major Rodin Collection

The North Carolina Museum of Art received a new gift Wednesday. Judging by past experience, it's a gift that is bound to draw crowds.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina Museum of Art received 23 works of art by Auguste Rodin from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation on Wednesday. "We are fortunate that North Carolina has now joined the prestigious group of museums to house some of Rodin's finest work," said Gov. Mike Easley. "Iris Cantor's generous gift will open a new world of opportunities and experiences for museum visitors and students alike." ...

http://www.wral.com

ArchiSculpture

Guggenheim BILBAO: 28 October, 2005 - 26 February, 2006

 

The relationship between architecture and sculpture is one of the most exciting artistic phenomena in the 20th century. Since its birth in the late 19th century, modern sculpture has absorbed key influences from architecture, while contemporary architecture has developed in such sculptural terms that some of the trends look like built versions of modern sculpture. ArchiSculpture examines many aspects of the close, reciprocal relationship between architecture and sculpture. The exhibition is based on a selection of some 180 works of art, models and photographs by the most influential artists and architects contributing to this dialogue between two disciplines. ...

http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

Throat: Installation by Jim Zlokovich and Joe Zuccarini

nevada museum of art: May 22, 2005 - August 14, 2005

Jim Zlokovich and Joe Zuccarini, Throat, 2004.

Cloudscapes in various stages of light and movement cover the walls from floor to ceiling and surround a sculptural installation in the NMA media gallery. The theatrical experience references mythology and religion to create a contemplative and evocative space. Both artists reside in Reno, Nevada.

http://www.nevadaart.org

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi Dies at 81

Scottish sculptor Sir Eduardo Paolozzi stands next to his sculpture of Isaac Newton outside the British Library in London in this Sept. 10, 1997 file photo. Paolozzi, a pioneer of Pop Art in Britain, has died aged 81 at a hospital in London, his family said Friday April 22, 2005. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, PA)

http://story.news.yahoo.com

An Ancient Masterpiece or a Master's Forgery?

The sculpture "Laocoön," at the Vatican Museums, was unearthed in 1506, but a new theory says it is a forgery by Michelangelo. (Photo: Lynn Catterson)

By KATHRYN SHATTUCK

A scholar has suggested that "Laocoön," a fabled sculpture whose unearthing in 1506 has deeply influenced thinking about the ancient Greeks and the nature of the visual arts, may well be a Renaissance forgery - possibly by Michelangelo himself. Her contention has stirred some excitement and considerable exasperation among art historians in the Classical and Renaissance fields. Many other challenges to accepted attributions have faded quickly into oblivion. The scholar advancing the theory, Lynn Catterson, a summer lecturer in art history at Columbia University, presented her argument in a talk at the university's Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America on April 6. Maneuvering through a wealth of material - including Michelangelo's drawings, records of his banking activity and his acknowledged reputation as an avid seeker of renown and wealth - she said, "He had the motives and the means." ...

http://www.nytimes.com

Alexander Archipenko Exhibition to Inaugurate New Ukrainian Museum Building

T h e U k r a i n i a n M u s e u m: April 3 through September 4, 2005

Alexander Archipenko Cleopatra 1957, wood, bakelite and found objects 38 in. x 84 in. (96.5 x 213.3 cm) On loan from Frances Archipenko Gray

New York City — The new facility of The Ukrainian Museum in New York City will open on April 3, 2005, with the inaugural exhibition Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity, consisting of some 65 sculptures and sculpto-paintings of one of the 20th century's most innovative and influential artists. The majority of the works are from the collection of Frances Archipenko Gray, the artist's widow. Other works come from a number of private collections and museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery. ...

http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org

Surrealism USA

National Academy: February 17 - May 8, 2005

Charles Rain The Magic Hand, 1949 Oil on masonite, 16 x 13 ¾ in. Henry W. Grady

Surrealism USA is comprised of approximately 120 paintings, sculptures and works on paper and examines the history of Surrealism in the United States between 1930 and 1950. Included are key figures of the European movement such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, and Yves Tanguy, who are represented in the exhibition with works they made while in exile in the United States. Also included are their stateside counterparts David Smith, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell and others. This is the first exhibition since 1977 specifically devoted to Surrealism in America. ...

http://www.nationalacademy.org

A Cruel Race to Loot the Splendor That Was Angkor

By JANE PERLEZ

Monks at Angkor Wat, one of the temples where antiquities of the 9th to 15th centuries have been looted.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia - Hidden among stands of bamboo far from the throngs of tourists who clamber over the grand temples of Angkor, a series of bas-reliefs in rose and gray sandstone stand in solitary splendor. The gods and demons and half-human, half-animal figures revered by the Angkor civilization were carved at Mount Kulen by anonymous artists and, like countless other artworks, disappeared into nature when the empire collapsed 500 years ago. Advertisement Now, like much else at Angkor, the carvings are symbols not only of the mystique of the past but also of the greed of the present. In the past six months, a head of one of the figures was gouged from the rock, said Sin Sokhorn, a Cambodian guide who often comes to the site by motorcycle. A scar in the rock marked the place where looters had hacked at the statue, leaving a crumpled, headless torso. The head was probably on display in an antiquities shop in Bangkok or in a European city with a handsome price tag, he mused. Or, he suggested, it could be in a private collection of Angkor art, secure from prying eyes. "We need protection from the looters, but where are we to get it?" asked Mr. Sin Sokhorn as he showed the bas-reliefs. ...

http://www.nytimes.com

'absurd, silly and undignified'

 

A piece of modern art commissioned to honour wartime leader Winston Churchill has been lambasted by his grandson as 'absurd, silly and undignified'. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

The Aztec Empire

Guggenheim Bilbao: The Aztec Empire - 19 March - 18 September, 2005

The Renaissance, an intellectual movement in the sciences and the arts of 15th-century Europe, had its counterpart in ancient Mexico, where two powerful indigenous states flourished: the Aztec empire and its neighbor and traditional enemy, the Tarascan empire. In Aztec territory, the Aztecs interpreted their presence in the universe by means of an extraordinary anthropomorphic sculptural iconography; this occurred simultaneously with the expansion of a pan-Mesoamerican artistic style that led to understanding between the peoples that shared a common visual language. Re-creating this period, The Aztec Empire features the largest number of art objects in an international exhibition made by the peoples coexisting in the final stage of Mesoamerican development, in what archaeologists call the Late Postclassic, lasting from the 13th to the 16th centuries of our era. ...

Visit: http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

Romanesque France at the time of the First Capetians (987-1152)

LOUVRE: 10 March 2005 - 6 June 2005

Bourgogne 12th-century Saint Michael striking down the dragon RF 1427 Paris, musée du Louvre © RMN/ C. Jean

This exhibition, bringing together three hundred works, is the first major comprehensive treatment of Romanesque art in France. An exceptional grouping of reliquary statues, illuminated manuscripts executed at the most celebrated scriptoria, precious objects and ivories from treasure vaults, capitals, and reliefs attests to the extraordinary diversity of artistic manifestations in France from the mid-10th to the mid-12th centuries. Exhibition from the Objets d'Art Department, Louvre Museum. Curator : Danielle Gaborit-Chopin.

http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm