Tonight! Hope to see you there.

Saul Chernick
Borrowed from the Charnel House
June 10–July 30, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 10, 6:00–8:00pm

Max Protetch Gallery is pleased to announce Borrowed From the Charnel House, an exhibition of new work by Saul Chernick. The exhibition runs from June 10 through July 30, 2010. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, June 10 from 6:00 to 8:00pm.

Saul Chernick makes highly detailed ink drawings that combine masterful control of the individual mark with an incisive grasp of the history of image-making and various visual media. The exhibition brings together works that display Chernick's penchant for borrowing from the relics of art history to transform them into the constituent elements of his own visual language.

On view are some of Chernick's largest drawings to date, including a piece in extreme horizontal format, almost thirty-five feet long and comprised of roughly thirty drawings done en plein air at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. A meditation on mortality created from a position in the living world, it also proves to be a forum in which Chernick displays his mastery of the use of line and shifts in perspective. The cemetery is seen not only as a landscape but as a museum of funerary sculpture.

In fact, the exhibition's title, Borrowed from the Charnel House, refers to the vaults where skeletons are stored, often after they have been dug up from crowded burial grounds; one of the most famous of these, and noted because it is still in use, can be found at St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, where the monks gather relics from the difficult, rocky soil for both practical and spiritual reasons.

Reflections on contemporary sexuality and technology are embedded into Chernick's intensely detailed riffs on anatomical drawings, heralds, and etchings. The most evident reference is perhaps to the prints, manuscripts, and illuminations of the Northern Renaissance. But like the monks of St. Catherine's relying upon their brothers' relics as reminders of their own mortality, Chernick tweaks specific images and compositional methods from the past to shed light upon current cultural conditions. In this sense, he works like a musician improvising on an existing theme or a writer adapting an older idea for a new context.

Another of the large-scale drawings on view, 'Ars Gratia Artis,' depicts a lion's head floating in a vast alpine landscape. Uncannily reminiscent of the roaring lion that serves as the logo for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, the piece seems to hint at both the history and future of cinema, drawing a connection to the logo's roots in centuries-old coats of arms. Almost eight feet wide, the piece seems to exist at a hybrid scale, between the intimacy of the drawing and the expansive presence of the movie screen. The emotional power of the drawing, however, lies not only in the scope of its cultural references, but in the mysterious way that the lion himself is rendered.

This sensitivity to individual moments, and the subtleties of human and animal forms, lends Chernick's work an immediacy that places it squarely in the present, and that engages the viewer outside of any specific art historical context. It is a question of both craft and poetry. On the surface it is clear that the artist's technique is indebted to the achievements of the Old Masters, but the critical and psychological revelations on view in his drawings are wholly his own, and shed light on the future of our physical condition––in the short term with respect to technology, and in the long with respect to death.

Saul Chernick was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions across the United States, and reproduced in a variety of print and online publications.

For more information, click here. Click to see larger images.

Lui Ferreyra earned his BFA at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he studied under notable artists Stan Brakhage and Chuck Forsman. Before graduating, his work was selected to be shown internationally at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, and at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile.

For the past ten years he has been exhibiting his work in some of Denver’s most prominent art spaces. During this time he has arrived at a signature style he calls ‘fragmentism’. The works of Chuck Close, Egon Schiele, Van Gogh, and Richard Diebenkorn have played a significant role in the development of his aesthetic. Digital means of imaging such as satellite photography, medical CAT scans, and vector graphics have had a pronounced impact as well. The central source of inspiration for his work, however, lies in the organic patterns of nature itself– poignantly observed in the Chinese ideogram Li as “the markings in jade, the fiber in muscle, the grain in wood…”

In recent years, Ferreyra’s work has been included in some of the region’s most prestigious invitationals and competitions such as, “Colorado Masters”, and “The Best of Colorado”. Recent commissions include a portrait for the Institute for Children’s Mental Disorders, two portraits for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and two landscapes for The Foothills Art Center. He has garnered both regional and national attention with publications such as, New American Paintings, Art Papers, The Rocky Mountain News, and The Westword.

Lui Ferreyra’s work can be seen in person at Van Straaten Gallery (formerly Sandy Carson Gallery) where he is currently represented (760 Santa Fe Dr, Denver, CO).

You can learn about Lui Ferreyra and view additional work at http://www.luiferreyra.com

Just a brief reminder that I will be waxing [sic] poetic on the wonders of medical museum this Sunday at the Coney Island Museum as part of their "Ask the Experts" series.

Full details follow; hope to see you there!

Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum
Date: THIS SUNDAY, June 13th
Time: 4:30 PM
Admission: $5
Location: Coney Island Museum (208 Surf Ave. Brooklyn)

This afternoon's highly-illustrated lecture will introduce you to the the Medical Museum and its curious denizens, from the Anatomical Venus to the Slashed Beauty, the allegorical fetal skeleton tableau to the taxidermied bearded lady, the flayed horseman of the apocalypse to the three fetuses dancing a jig. The lecture will contextualize these artifacts by situating them within their historical context via a discussion of the history of medical modeling, a survey of the great artists of the genre, and an examination of the other death-related diversions which made up the cultural landscape at the time that these objects were originally created, collected, and exhibited.

You can find out more by clicking here and can get directions by clicking here.

Image: From the Anatomical Theatre exhibition: "Museum of Anatomical Waxes “Luigi Cattezneo” (Museo Delle Cere Anatomiche “Luigi Cattaneo”): Bologna, Italy "Iniope–conjoined twins" Wax anatomical model; Cesare Bettini, Early 19th Century

Morbid Anatomy is very pleased to present an electricity-and-the-body-on-display themed lecture and performance pairing by Torino:Margolis. Event number one, a lecture entitled "Electricity and the Body in Public Performance," will investigate over 250 years of electricity and the body in spectacular scientific performance via an illustrated historical lecture. Event number two will explore the same rich territory via a historically informed interactive performance. Hope you can make it to one or both of these amazing sounding events!

Electricity and the Body in Public Performance
An illustrated lecture by Torino:Margolis
Date: June 15, 2010
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Beginning with the first known public performance by Stephen Gray in 1729 and continuing through the present, scientists and artists have been exploring electricity and the human body for hundreds of years. The innate electrical potential of the human body, electricity as a medium of destruction and using outside electricity to manipulate the body have been served as conceptual fodder throughout this rich history. Although the collaboration between the arts and sciences may seem recent, due to its popularization in the media and 20th century art movements such as Bioart, the connection between these two groups have existed for centuries. Benjamin Margolis, MD and Jenny Torino, MS, RD current tinkerers in both worlds, will take you through the history of public performances in this arena and discuss how it relates to their own work using invasive electronics and the body.

________________________________________

Torino:Margolis Performance
A performative exploration of electricity, biomedicine, and spectacle
Date: June 29, 2010
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Tonight, join Observatory as it hosts Torino:Margolis in a three-part performance investigating the rich history of biomedicine, electricity, and spectacle. First, the audience will have the opportunity to control the movement of the performer using neuromuscular stimulation, which sends outside electricity into the performer’s muscle, forcing their muscle to contract and the performer to move involuntarily.

In the second part of the performance, they will use electromyography (EMG) in a sound-based performance. EMG is a way of sensing the electricity produced naturally during muscle contraction when an individual moves voluntarily. However, when the performer is physically manipulated by another person there is no action potential generated, no signal sensed by the EMG, and no change in the sound is produced. In this way you can hear someone’s free will.

In the third portion they will add a vocal component to the EMG “rig” by manipulating sound coming from the vocal cords using neuromuscular stimulation.

Torino:Margolis will then explain the workings of the biomedical tools used in the performance and the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Torino:Margolis is a performance art team that smashes through physical and psychological barriers separating one body from another using invasive electronics and biomedical tools. They explore the idea that the self is transient, elusive and modular by playing with the notion of control and free will. Their extraction of physiological processes concretizes these concepts and presents them as questions to the viewer — not to illustrate the mechanism, but to explore the experience. The team has performed nationally and internationally at New York venues such as Issue Project Room, POSTMASTERS Gallery and Exit Art, the HIVE Gallery in California, and the Bergen Kunsthall Museum in Norway. They have lectured for institutions such as SUNY Stony Brook and the School of Visual Arts. For more information please see http://www.torinomargolis.com.

You can find out more about these presentation here and here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Ron was a student whose artistic talents were immediately recognized. He has been interested in art since he was 4 years old and growing up in Columbus, Ohio. His mother pursued art as a hobby and took correspondence courses. The young Hicks would scan the critiques of his mother’s works and then trace some of the assignments himself.

As his talents became known in his neighborhood, he was called on to draw things for community events. Throughout high school Ron won several awards and contests, including Best of Show at the Ohio State Governor’s Art Show. During this period Ron was invited to attend Saturday art classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design and later received one of the highest scholarships awarded to attend the same school.

Hicks eventually moved west, where he graduated from the Colorado Institute of Art and studied with Quang Ho at the Art Students League. As a class monitor for Ho, he spent extra time talking and listening to him. Today he credits his teacher with exposing him to a new way of seeing. “A light bulb was turned on. I started seeing things in terms of shapes and edges, texture, line and color,” he says. “I no longer saw painting as a way of just transferring information; I started looking at what I wanted to say in a piece.”

After winning Best of Show at the 1994 Art Students League Exhibition, Hicks began painting full time. Since then, his career has escalated and he has become one of America’s finest emerging artists. Hicks worked for a time as a freelance illustrator. He also worked as a manager for a satellite dish company while he painted at night. “Maybe it’s three years of night painting that gave me my subtle palette,” he says half-jokingly.

Hick’s works have been characterized as a blend of representational art and impressionism. Some critics have compared them to paintings by Rembrandt and Daumier. The artist translates his own moody visions with a muted palette and rarely uses pure color. He finds tremendous variety and range in gray, which suits the atmospheric qualities of his compositions. Ron’s paintings move beyond simple documentation, capturing mood, gesture and layers of emotion.

You can learn more about Ron Hicks through the following links:

Ron Hicks official website

Ron Hicks at Arcadia Fine Arts

Ron Hicks at The Vail International Gallery

"The Gallery of Creation: A Museum of Natural History"--a creationist Natural History museum (wait! There's more than one???) in Social Circle, GA--is going out of business with a spectacular bang: their entire collection is being sold at auction!

The now-defunct museum's website describes the collection thusly: "Our displays include a vast array of God’s creations such as minerals, rocks, fossils, seashells, fish, reptiles, animals, insects, butterflies, skeletons, flowers, meteorites, birds, and much more;" Museum highlights are listed as:

~One of the largest mounted butterfly exhibits in the U.S.~
~A monstrous T-Rex skull~
~A 102 pound "touch feel" iron meteorite~
~Our robotic giant pandas, "Chang and May-lee"~

Full details follow for this truly unbelievable auction follow. This one (see above) looks almost too good to be true!

Contents of THE GALLERY OF CREATION, A Museum of Natural History INTERNET BIDDING AVAILABLE

Auction Date:
Friday and Saturday, June 25 & 26

Auction will be held on site:
The Gallery of Creation, 200 Village Circle, Suite A,
Social Circle, Georgia

Auction Schedule:
10AM, Friday, June 25
Lot #'s 5,000 - 5,402
10AM, Saturday, June 26
Lot #'s 5,403 - to end

Preview
10AM-4PM Thursday, June 24 and 1 hour before the auction

Checkout Times:
Friday, June 25 - Two hours immediately following the auction
Saturday, June 26 - Two hours immediately following the auction
Sunday, June 27 - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday, June 28 - 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

ALL ITEMS SOLD FOR IMMEDIATE REMOVAL

Property Description:

Higgenbotham Auctioneers is pleased to announce the sale of The Gallery of Creation, a museum of natural history, created by Joseph Hurt Studio, Inc.

The Gallery of Creation is designed to present examples of God's creations in such a beautiful manner as to inspire visitors with a greater appreciation for God's handiwork and a greater love for their Creator.

Joseph Hurt Studio, Inc., procured an impressive list of clientele, including: Disney World, Epcot Center, Kennedy Space Center, the Smithsonian Institution and more

Auction inventory will include the entire contents of the Gallery of Creation
Friday's Inventory will Include:

CONTENTS OF THE OLD CURATOR'S OFFICE, INCLUDING:
• gingerbread kitchen clock
• carved and decorated hippo teeth
• onyx
• sabre tooth cast replica
• framed prints
• telegraph equipment
• authentic skulls
• mahogany hand-carved Chinese display case
• MUCH MORE!

FOSSILS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING:
• authentic mammoth teeth
• leaves fossils
• 3-pc dinosaur fossil
• wooly mammoth hair
• MUCH MORE

PLUS>>>
• animated elephant display
• urns
• rodochrosite of Argentina
• display cases
• staurlite crystal stone collection
• heart shaped gems
• dinosaur replicas
• crystal quartz
• obsidian collection
• amber
• malachite collection
• mummified cat from Egypt
• variety of minerals and stones
• pyrite collection
• micah
• animated pandas and display case
• mammals and sea life display cases
• oils on canvas
MUCH MUCH MORE!

To find out more about the particulars of this auction, including full list of inventory, visit the Higgenbotham Auctionhouse website by clicking here. And yes, online bidding will be available! You can find out more about "The Gallery of Creation: A Museum of Natural History" by clicking here. To find out more about the still thriving Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky click here. All images from the museum website and the auction house website.

Looking for an excuse to get out to Coney Island this weekend? Curious about the art and history of medical museums? If you answered yes to one or both of these questions, why not come down to the Coney Island Museum this Sunday to see me pontificate on the wonders of medical museums as part of their "Ask the Experts" series?

Full details follow; hope to see you there!

Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum
Location: Coney Island Museum (208 Surf Ave. Brooklyn)
Time: 4:30 PM
Admission: $5

This afternoon's highly-illustrated lecture will introduce you to the the Medical Museum and its curious denizens, from the Anatomical Venus to the Slashed Beauty, the allegorical fetal skeleton tableau to the taxidermied bearded lady, the flayed horseman of the apocalypse to the three fetuses dancing a jig. The lecture will contextualize these artifacts by situating them within their historical context via a discussion of the history of medical modeling, a survey of the great artists of the genre, and an examination of the other death-related diversions which made up the cultural landscape at the time that these objects were originally created, collected, and exhibited.

You can find out more by clicking here and can get directions by clicking here.

Image: From the Anatomical Theatre exhibition; "'La Specola' (Museo di Storia Naturale) : Florence, Italy "Anatomical Venus" Wax wodel with human hair and pearls in rosewood and Venetian glass case; Probably modeled by Clemente Susini (around 1790)"

For more information please contact the Producer, Steven Churchill:
Email: steven@artofphotographyshow.com
Phone: 1-619-825-5575
Website: http://www.artofphotographyshow.com

Lowbrow meets highbrow on Bravo’s new reality-television series Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. The show, which premieres next Wednesday, tracks 14 contestants as they compete to win $100,000 and a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum.

“Look—we’ve done it with food and fashion and hair and interior design, I think we can do it with art,” says Bravo senior vice president Andy Cohen, when asked if developing a high-concept show about art was a programming executive’s worst nightmare.

Cohen attributes his confidence to the producers: Sarah Jessica Parker, and her production company Pretty Matches, and Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, of Magical Elves. Since Cutforth and Lipsitz banded together in 2001, the Elves have been busy shifting the focus of reality television from double-dare matchups such as Survivor, to creative competitions. Their collective hits, including Project Runway and Top Chef, have earned the duo an impressive reputation and secured Bravo a loyal, and growing, 18-to-49 demographic. Even better, the shows are cheap to make.

Nonetheless, the Elves didn’t see a television show about art as a particularly sure thing. “We definitely recognized it was a challenge,” Cutforth says. “But we were excited to embrace that. It’s hard to break open a new area of artistic expression that hasn’t already been mined. Art is one of the last frontiers because people are scared of it.”

The producers used their traditional casting formula to appeal to a broader audience. Although they said that the cast dynamics are organic, it’s difficult not to see the contestants as archetypes. In the first episode, there’s the villain (snippy Nao), the misunderstood ingenues (saccharine Jamie Lynn and sex pot Jaclyn), the misfits (veteran Judith and rookie Erik), and the likable front-runners (quirky Miles and earnest Abdi). Without much effort, one can connect the dots from these characters to their counterparts on past Bravo shows. The conventions extend to the stacked judges’ panel as well.

In a series of sculptural cocktail dresses, host China Chow does her best Heidi Klum while delivering the show’s signature, damning proclamation: “Your work of art didn’t work for us.” Phillips de Pury chairman and auctioneer Simone de Pury is the compassionate mentor who’s quick with a catchphrase. (“Be amazing!” “Wall power!”) Pulitzer Prize–nominated art critic Jerry Saltz is the tough but fair judge, and gallery owner Bill Powers is the resident cool guy. Collector Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn garnishes the mix with sophisticated criticism.

It works. If you choose to “sample the show,” (network parlance), the Magical Elves will hook you, just as they have before. Still, the notion of throwing the art world into this particular sausage factory is unsettling for some.

“There’s a lot of, ‘We’ll be watching you!’” says Powers of his contemporaries’ reaction to his judging gig. “You’re not sure if it’s a warning or an endorsement.”

Although many prominent artists (Jon Kessler, Jonathan Santlofer, Andres Serrano, David LaChapelle) agreed to appear on the show, others shied away, perhaps concerned with how it might affect their image.

Artist and guest judge Richard Phillips said the paranoia was unwarranted. “I’m certainly not fearful about what it could possibly do to my production.” he says. “When Warhol appeared on The Love Boat, he wasn’t concerned about how it was going to read on his Jackie in Mourning painting.”

Phillips also allowed his work to appear on Gossip Girl. He sees both shows as a way to engage a wider audience in contemporary art. “This form, the so-called reality show, is omnipresent. Whether we like it or not, it encapsulates a lot of entertainment production today. We need to raise the level of discussion and not run away from it,” he says. “My work is conventionally called a type of realism. For me, the opportunity to engage in what is known as a reality show is consistent with my objective. It’s a choice to be a part of the first projection of pop culture rather than merely being a passive reflection of it.”

Putting aside the impact of the show on established artists, a viewer would have to have a heart of steel not to be swayed by Work of Art’s potential impact on contestants. There’s Mark, the “fry cook by day, photographer by night,” who could leverage his Bravo celebrity to quit his day job. And there’s Ryan, who might be able to stand by his maxim, “I live to create and I create to live.” Even the contestants’ ecstatic expressions upon seeing their art supplies call to question the pragmatism of knocking an endeavor that gives struggling artists the means to create their work. (I’ll reserve judgment about what their ecstatic expressions upon seeing Sarah Jessica Parker might indicate.)

There’s the optimistic possibility, as well, that Work of Art could affect the viewers as much as the contestants. The show may encourage mainstream dialogue about art by lessening the quiet concern many feel when asked to discuss it. By validating viewers’ judgment, the judges could give the audience permission to have opinions about art while teaching them a language in which to express their ideas. How many people learned about “color blocking” on Project Runway, or “flavor profiles” on Top Chef?

“I hope that people will feel more comfortable talking about their opinions about art, or wanting to have opinions about art,” says Magical Elves’s Jane Lipsitz, “That’s our goal.”

For now, the producers can be satisfied with modest praise. “Good news,” announced the industry blog Art Fag City after the show’s first screening, “Work of Art… will not embarrass the art world.”

Work of Art premieres June 9 at 11 p.m. E.S.T.

http://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art

Original article found here

These beautiful paintings were created by artist Stephen Pan. Stephen Pan was born into a family that has been renowned in China for artistic talent. At the age of five, his grandfather, Bo Yin Pan, gave him his first lesson in drawing and painting.

Although Pan had an intimate relationship with formal Chinese art traditions, he fell in love with the Renaissance and French Impressionist paintings. Already at the age of thirteen, he had a solo art show, and had won first place at National Art Excellence awards in China for his beautiful oil paintings.

Pan began teaching in Shanghai, China at the age of 20. To continue his artist career, his uncle supported his immigration to the United States. Stephen Pan was offered a teaching position at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1997.

You can learn more about Stephen Pan and view additional work through the following links:

Stephen Pan at New Masters Gallery

Paul Gaugin was a French post impressionist painter whose lush color, flat two-dimensional forms, and subject matter helped form the basis of modern art.

Gauguin was born in Paris on June 7, 1848, into a liberal middle-class family. After an adventurous early life, including a four-year stay in Peru with his family and a stint in the French merchant marine, he became a successful Parisian stockbroker, settling into a comfortable bourgeois existence with his wife and five children.

In 1874, after meeting the artist Camille Pissarro and viewing the first impressionist exhibition, he became a collector and amateur painter. He exhibited with the impressionists in 1876, 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1886. In 1883 he gave up his secure existence to devote himself to painting; his wife and children, without adequate subsistence, were forced to return to her family. From 1886 to 1891 Gauguin lived mainly in rural Brittany (except for a trip to Panama and Martinique from 1887 to 1888), where he was the center of a small group of experimental painters known as the school of Pont-Aven. Under the influence of the painter Émile Bernard, Gauguin turned away from impressionism and adapted a less naturalistic style, which he called synthetism.

He found his inspiration in the art of indigenous peoples, in medieval stained glass, and in Japanese prints; he was introduced to Japanese prints by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh when they spent two months together in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888. Gauguin’s new style was characterized by the use of large flat areas of nonnaturalistic color, as in Yellow Christ (1889, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York).

In 1891, ruined and in debt, Gauguin sailed for the South Seas to escape European civilization and “everything that is artificial and conventional.” Except for one visit to France from 1893 to 1895, he remained in the Tropics for the rest of his life, first in Tahiti and later in the Marquesas Islands. The essential characteristics of his style changed little in the South Seas; he retained the qualities of expressive color, denial of perspective, and thick, flat forms.

Under the influence of the tropical setting and Polynesian culture, however, Gauguin’s paintings became more powerful, while the subject matter became more distinctive, the scale larger, and the compositions more simplified. His subjects ranged from scenes of ordinary life, such as Tahitian Women, or On the Beach (1891, Musée de Orsay, Paris), to brooding scenes of superstitious dread, such as Spirit of the Deadwatching (1892, Albright-Knox Art Gallery). His masterpiece was the monumental allegory Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), which he painted shortly before his failed suicide attempt. A modest stipend from a Parisian art dealer sustained him until his death at Atuana in Marquesas on May 9, 1903.

Gauguin’s bold experiments in coloring led directly to the 20th-century Fauvist style in modern art. His strong modeling influenced the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch and the later expressionist school.

You can learn more about Paul Gaugin through the following links:

Paul Gauguin at Wikipedia

Paul Gauguin at ABC Gallery

Paul Gauguin at ArtCyclopedia

Louise Bourgeois, the grande dame of contemporary artists best known for her sculpture and disquieting symbolism, died Monday of a heart attack at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 98.

Sculpture became Ms. Bourgeois’ primary medium after 1945 when the Peridot Gallery, a prestigious venue in Manhattan’s then-intimate art world, staged her first solo sculpture show. In 1982, Ms. Bourgeois became the first female artist to be honored with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Subsequent retrospectives in 1993 and 2007 that visited major institutions in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Madrid, London, Paris and St. Petersburg, Russia, consolidated her position as a world figure in art.

Her work, which is on view at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco through June 12, came to the attention to the Bay Area public in 2007 when the San Francisco Arts Commission installed her giant bronze “Crouching Spider” (2003) at Pier 14 on the Embarcadero. It stayed until early 2009. In 1996, the Berkeley Art Museum presented a career survey of Ms. Bourgeois’ drawings.

Ms. Bourgeois acknowledged that the spider imagery in her art was a Freudian symbol of female sexuality, a private symbol of her mother and a celebration of arachnids’ crucial predator role in keeping the Earth’s insect population in check.

She frequently said her work sprang from conscious and unconscious memories of her childhood, with a caring but invalid mother and an imperious, unfaithful father.

In the mid-’60s, a rising generation of feminist artists and critics rediscovered her art, and although she was never entirely comfortable with that affiliation, it accelerated a career that previously had been in low gear.

Born in Paris on Dec. 25, 1911, Ms. Bourgeois worked early on for her parents, who marketed and restored antique tapestries. Some of her art’s spider imagery also evokes her youthful part in repairing threadbare textiles.

Although Ms. Bourgeois drew frequently to assist in the family business, she studied mathematics when she entered the Sorbonne, in search, she said, of impersonal, unbreakable rules.

She soon digressed into art studies at various schools in Paris and a stint as studio assistant to Fernand Leger (1881-1955), one of France’s most esteemed painters at the time.

In 1938, Ms. Bourgeois married American art historian Robert Goldwater (1907-1973), a specialist in tribal arts who wrote extensively about their influence on European modernism.

Once settled in New York, where she continued her studies at the Art Students League, Ms. Bourgeois entered the widening circle of European artists who sought refuge there from the war, including several Surrealists, whose influence she would later deny, though critics continue to make that connection.

In 1993 Ms. Bourgeois represented the United States at the Venice Biennale and London’s Tate Modern commissioned for its 2000 opening a suite of works from her for its mammoth Turbine Hall.

Ms. Bourgeois received several honorary doctorates, and, in 1997, the National Medal of Arts. France named her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and conferred its Grand Prix National de Sculpture in 1991.

She is survived by sons Jean-Louis and Alain, both of New York City, two grandchildren and one great grandchild. A third son, Michel, died a decade ago.

Original article found here

These beautiful illustrations were created by contemporary artist and illustrator Edward Kinsella. Edward was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1983 and graduated from Ringling School of Art and Design in 2006, having also attended two summers of the Illustration Academy. He now lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

To learn more about Edward Kinsella and view additional images, please visit the following links:

http://www.edwardkinsellaillustration.com – Edward Kinsella’s official website

edwardkinsellaiii.blogspot.com – Edward Kinsella’s official blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Gallery Nucleus Presents
Enchanté
June 19, 2010- July 12, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday June 19, 2010 (7 pm – 11 pm)

Alhambra, CA – Gallery Nucleus is excited to present Enchanté, an exhibit featuring a mélange of contemporary French illustrators and fine artists.

Featured artists include those that have graced previous Nucleus exhibits: Adolie Day, Véronique Joffre, Véronique Meignaude, and Marguerite Sauvage, and artists exhibiting at the gallery for the first time: Benjamin Lacombe, Rebecca Dautremer, Gerald Guerlais, Lilidol, Emmanuelle Pioli and more. We are pleased to introduce a diverse flavor of France as told by its freshest creative voices.

Despite national roots that tie all these artists together, each has an aethetic that is uniquly their own. Exploring a range of subject matter with both personal and published pieces, their caliber of work welcomes closer inspection and appreciation. Artists like Alexandre Day who spins dramatic portraits out of ethereal and emotional lines, to the vintage styling of chaotic worlds and funky characters by McBess, the artists showing in Enchanté deliver an exhibition rich with artistry, charm, and passionate narratives.

Featured Artists:

Adolie Day
Alexandre Day
Benjamine Lacombe
Eric Gosselet
Gerald Guerlais
Lilidoll
Marguerite Sauvage
McBess
Véronique Joffre
Véronique Meignaude
Samuel Ribeyron
Sebastien Mesnard
Stephane Tartelin
Rebecca Dautremer
Simon Goinard

Contact:

Nucleus Studios, Inc
(626) 458-7477
Address: 210 East Main St Alhambra CA 91801
Store Hours: Fri-Sat (11am-10pm), Mon- Sun(12pm-8pm)
http://www.gallerynucleus.com

...Observatory celebrates the eccentric and nurtures the curious; its oddities delight the eye as well as the mind.

Thanks to Melissa Stern for loving Observatory--the arts/event space I run with 6 other people in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York--enough to write a charming piece about it for this week's Time Out New York.

The piece is entitled "I’m Officially Obsessed with Observatory;" You can read the article--from which I drew the excerpt and image above--in its entirety by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory by clicking here; you can join the Observatory mailing list by clicking here, and can join us on Facebook by clicking here.

The above image is sourced my Secret Museum exhibition, which closes with a party this Sunday, June 6. More on that soon; in the meantime, you can visit the Secret Museum website by clicking here. Image caption reads: Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy, Paris, France, Established 1793

Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers who lived in Syria during the 200s CE. Under the influence of their devout mother, they embraced the Christian religion that was still outlawed by the Roman authorities. They were both physicians and, unlike colleagues, are said to have provided free treatment. Their growing fame brought them to the attention of the Roman consul, who ordered them to make a sacrifice to the gods. When they refused, they were executed.

Over 48 miracles were credited to the twins, including, amongst others, the development of remedies against plague, scabs, scurvy, kidney stones and bed-wetting. Their most famous miracle involved the alleged replacement of a diseased leg of a white patient with the leg of a recently deceased black man. This legend became increasingly popular from 1200 onwards, and contemporaries would have been in no doubt that it was a miraculous procedure. While amputation was a known, if extreme, procedure, there is no way that a limb from a corpse could have been successfully transplanted to an ailing donor, who then went on to live.

Cosmas and Damian are regarded as saints by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Christian churches. Roman Catholics consider them the patron saints of medicine and their skulls are venerated as holy relics in a shrine at a church in Madrid. Their saints’ day is 26 September.

Via the Science Museum's unrivaled "Brought to Life" web exhibition.

Click on image to see larger version; Image caption: "A verger's dream: Saints Cosmas and Damian performing a miraculous cure by transplantation of a leg." Oil painting attributed to the Master of Los Balbases, Oil 15th/16th century. Image credit: Wellcome Library, London via Brought to Life.

Live Music
Take a break in the Art Students League garden located on the north side of the school and enjoy some music. Check out the schedule for a line-up of the performances.

Free Adult Art Classes
Free art classes for adults are located inside the Art Students League of Denver building.
Classes are limited to the first 20 attendees on a first come, first served basis.
No experience is necessary–just bring your interest in art! See the class schedule.

Free Kids Art Projects
Stop by the Kids Art Tent located in the parking lot on the south side of the school for a fun activity for your child. A list of activities can be found HERE.

Interested in taking classes at the Art Students League, but haven’t yet?
Join the Art Students League during Summer Art Market and get your FIRST CLASS FREE!
To join, visit the Art Students League booth–right in front of the school entrance–or the main office inside the building. Offer valid for new and returning members. Free class must be redeemed by December 31, 2010. Good for one day of an ongoing class or $25 toward the cost of a workshop.

We need your help. Volunteer your time to help make Summer Art Market a success.
Choose from many VOLUNTEER JOBS
at various times, from pre-event set up and traffic directors to greeters and artist “hosts.”
To volunteer, email samvolunteers@asld.org or call Joy at 303-730-6012.

This weekend, The Morbid Anatomy Library and Observatory--which are next door neighbors, by the way!--will host open hours as part of Atlantic Avenue Artwalk. So, if you're in the hood from 12-6 PM and would like to poke about the library with a glass of wine, or peek into The Secret Museum with the photographer on hand to guide you through the exhibits, then please, come on by!

Following the open studios, Observatory will be hosting a free closing party for The Secret Museum, which will run from 6 PM until the wine runs out (which we are approximating at 10:00 PM); there will also be snacks and the DJ stylings of Mister Friese Undine.

All events will take place at the old box factory at 543 Union Street, Brooklyn at Nevins; enter via Nevins Street alley and Proteus Gowanus Gallery. Click here to view map.

This promises to be good times; very much hope to see you there!

You can find out more about Atlantic Avenue Artwalk by clicking here. You can find out more about the Secret Museum Exhibition by clicking here and more about the closing party by clicking here. You can find out more about the Morbid Anatomy Library by clicking here and about Observatory by clicking here.

Image: Installation view of Observatory's Secret Museum Exhibition.

(Reuters) – Auction house Christie’s is offering a Monet water-lily painting worth an estimated 30 to 40 million pounds ($44-59 million) this month in what it expects to be the biggest sale it has ever mounted in London.

With the international art market booming again after a slump when financial markets crashed, the Christie’s sale also includes a Blue Period portrait by Pablo Picasso, offered by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation founded by the composer, and carrying a price tag about the same as the 1906 Monet.

The Monet, which is to be unveiled on Thursday, and the Picasso, plus 61 other works on offer, are expected to take the tally on June 23 to 164-231 million pounds.

This would be in excess of the London record of 147 million pounds set at rival Sotheby’s in February.

That amount was boosted by a world auction record for a work of art when an Alberto Giacometti statue went under the hammer for $104.3 million.

Three months later, Christie’s topped that high with a Picasso which fetched $106.5 million in New York.

“We are witnessing a great willingness from clients to consign works of art of the highest quality,” said Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie’s.

The top European auction total stands at 183 million pounds for the impressionist and modern art section of the private Yves Saint Laurent collection.

With records tumbling, it comes as little surprise that owners of the finest art are willing to offer it up for sale.

Ongoing uncertainty over the state of the broader global economy has failed to dampen the mood in sales rooms, with only a handful of super-wealthy individuals or museums needed to drive values higher.

A relatively short-lived slump in the art market was driven as much by sellers drying up as by buyers no longer wanting to pay out large sums for paintings and sculptures.

The company described demand for the rarest works of art as “fierce,” coming from Russia, China and the Middle East as well as the more traditional markets of Europe and North America.

“Nympheas,” the work by Monet to be offered, was shown at the famous 1909 exhibition in Paris where the artist’s studies of the effects of light in his garden in Giverny won critical acclaim.

Also to be sold at the impressionist and modern art evening sale are important works by Gustav Klimt and Vincent van Gogh.

Original article found here

Dorian Iten is an Austrian born painter and illustrator currently residing in Florence, Italy.  Dorian earned a degree from Kantonsschule Zug in 2005 and soon entered The Angel Academy of Art, in 2006.  A highly trained classical drawer Dorian has studied under Canadian Classical Realist, Micheal John Angel and Classical Painter Jered Woznicki.  He is currently looking for a professional painter, to work with as an assistant after his 2009 graduation.

You can learn more about Dorian and view additional artwork through his personal site at
http://www.dorian-iten.com