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The German business couple Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch have lent significant pieces of Surrealist and early-American Abstract Expressionist art from their own collection for an exhibition entitled “Picture Dreams,” at Berlin’s new National Gallery. The ‘Pietzsch Collection,’ which ranks internationally as one of the most significant assortments of Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist art, was assembled over the course of 45 years to include more than 300 paintings, sculptures, and photos.

Related Links:
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Picture Dreams.Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection. [Neue Nationalgalerie]
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Surrealism In All Its Weird Glory. [Financial Times]
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Berlin, Mon Amour [ArtNet]
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Rare Surrealist Art Collection Goes on Display in Berlin [Monsters and Critics]
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Interview with Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch. [BilderTraume]

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From “Tom Sachs: Cameras” at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.

Through September 16, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will show pieces  by Tom Sachs that focus on cameras.  Since 1972, Sachs has sporadically produced works that follow the evolution of photography as an art form. The exhibition, which is in collaboration with Sperone Westwater gallery in New York,  follows Sachs’s work in cameras, and will even include an opportunity for patrons to be photographed by the artist.

Related links:
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum: Tom Sachs: Cameras [Exhibition Page]
Tom Sachs [artist homepage]
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Offers a Snapshot of Tom Sachs’s Cameras [ArtDaily]

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Aerial view, Paul McCarthy’s “Air Pressure”, Mark Vos via Mediacontainer

A Paul McCarthy collection is currently showing at De Uithof, Utrecht.  “Air Pressure” features enormous inflatables, a medium new to McCarthy shows in the Netherlands.  Drawn from his series “Inflated Histories,” the pieces in the show are classic McCarthy, as they continue to use pop culture figures and tendencies to satirize mass media.

Paul McCarthy, Santa Butt Plug (front view), at De Uithof. Courtesy of UtrechtYourWay.

Related links:
Air Pressure [show site]
Paul McCarthy – Biography [Hauser & Wirth]

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The Siege of Constantinople (1995) by Per Kerkeby, via The Guardian

Currently on view at the Tate Modern is the first major retrospective of the work of Danish artist Per Kirkeby (b. 1938). The show presents 146 works spanning four decades and bringing together his Pop-inspired paintings from the 1960s with early paintings on canvas and masonite from the late 1970s as well as a group of blackboard works, bronze sculptures, and rarely-seen works on paper as well as a selection of the artist’s writings.

Exhibition Page
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Northern Exposure [The Guardian]
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Video: Per Kirkeby Exhibition at Tate Modern [The Telegraph]
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In Pictures: Per Kirkeby [BBC]
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First Major Survey in the UK of the Work of the Danish Artist Per Kirkeby at Tate Modern [ArtDaily]
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Hermitage Amsterdam, via HUM3.

The Hermitage Amsterdam opened its doors on June 20, the first branch of the State Museum in the West.  Housed in the Amstelhof, originally built as a charitable home in the the 1680’s, the Hermitage Amsterdam “is the culmination of nearly two decades of planning,” says Ernst W. Veen, Managing Director of Hermitage Amsterdam.  The museum itself will be supported by sponsorship and admission, functioning, continues Veen, as “a continuation of more than 300 years of close ties between Amsterdam and St Petersburg.”  Accordingly, The inaugural exhibition presents over 1,800 works drawn from the holdings of the State Hermitage Museum.  Per Hermitage Amsterdam, the show is “a scholarly researched exploration of the opulent material culture, elaborate social hierarchy and richly layered traditions of the Tsarist court at its height in the 19th century.”

Related links:
Hermitage Amsterdam
The State Hermitage Museum
Ghostly walk among the Tsars [FT]
Carousel of treasures [Economist]

Wedding of Nicholas II and Grand Princess Alexandra Fyodorovna at the Grand Church of the Winterpalace (1895, oil painting), at Hermitage Amsterdam.

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Antony Gormley’s and the Fourth Plinth via The Telegraph.

This summer sculptor Antony Gormley invites the public to celebrate a living monument by asking the British people to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London. Once a place reserved for statues of Kings and Generals, the spot will now serve as a way to represent the public and the whole of humanity.

For 24 hours per day for 100 days without a break, different people from all walks of life will inhabit the Plinth to make it their own. Those who have been selected are  able to use the Plinth as they like, to perform or even simply to reflect and meditate.  They have become participants in one of the most publicized works of public art in London in recent memory.

Antony Gormley One & Other
Antony Gormley will ask Trafalgar Square volunteers to climb plinth for art [The Times]
Antony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square [The Telegraph]
Who’s Who on the fourth plinth [The Guardian]
Man Scales Plinth Ahead of Launch [BBC]

One and Other participant Kate Forshaw dances during a rainshower on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square via The Guardian

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Robert Motherwell’s Dover Beach No. III, currently showing at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery.

Works from Robert Motherwell’s Open series are on display at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London through August 28.  Motherwell worked on the series for nearly two decades, and this exhibition presents part of that collection.  The show is timed to coincide with the release Robert Motherwell: Open, a book on the series from 21 Publishing.

Related links:
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Bernard Jacobson Gallery
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Robert Motherwell at Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London [ArtInfo]
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Jenny Saville’s Hyphen, 1999, part of Paint Made Flesh at The Phillips Collection.

“Paint Made Flesh,” a series of 43 oil paintings that focus on the human body, is showing at The Phillips Collection through September 13.  Featured artists incude Pablo Picasso, Leon Golub, Ivan Albright, Cecily Brown, David Park, Philip Guston, and more.  “At times when figure painting was considered outdated,” comments Assistant Curator Renee Maurer, these and other artists included in the show “continue to explore the expressive potential of the painted human body.”

Related links:
Current Exhibitions at the Phillips Gallery
Paint Made Flesh
“Paint Made Flesh” Survey opens at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC [Art Knowledge News]
“Paint Made Flesh” Is More Than Skin-Deep [Washington Post]
“Paint Made Flesh” : Modern Bodies, Naked Eyes [NPR]

John Currin, Hobo (1999), via NPR.

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A view of the new exhibition at i8, running concurrently with one at Sean Kelly, that features Anthony McCall and Finnbogi Pétursson.

Installation artists Anthony McCall and Finnbogi Pétursson are showing jointly at Sean Kelly Gallery, and in a concurrent exhibition at i8 Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland.   Both close on July 31, and explore space, light, and sound in included works, some of which are showing for the first time.

Related links:
Sean Kelly Gallery – Anthony McCall/Finnbogi Pétursson
i8  shows / Anthony McCall, Finnbogi Pétursson
Finnbogi Pétursson [artist homepage]
Anthony McCall [artist homepage]

Finnbogi Pétursson at Sean Kelly Gallery.

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SANAA’s Summer Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery via The Guardian

The Serpentine Gallery unveiled their 2009 Summer Pavilion yesterday. Designed by Japanese architectural duo SANAA, the pavilion is made of curving, sloping, and highly polished aluminum overhead the gallery’s outdoor café. The mirror effect blends the surrounding park into the café. Ryue Nishizawa, half of SANAA said, “When we started sketching ideas we thought of water, rainbows and leaves.” This is the ninth consecutive summer pavilion at the Serpentine, which invites architects who have not designed buildings in London before to create a temporary structure outside the gallery.  Previous architects include Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, and Frank Gehry.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009: Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA [Serpentine Gallery]
Sanaa’s summer pavilion brings sunshine to the Serpentine [Guardian]
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by SANAA, London [Times UK]
A breath of fresh air: The new Serpentine pavilion [Independent]
‘The Serpentine Pavilion is the ideal brief’ [Architects’ Journal]
Sanaa’s Serpentine pavilion shows a lightness of touch [BuildingDesign]
Serpentine Gallery ‘reflective cloud’ pavilion unveiled [Guardian]
Serpentine Gallery’s new ‘floating’ pavilion is unveiled [Telegraph]
London Serpentine Gets Mirror Cloud Pavilion by SANAA [Bloomberg]
First images: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by SANAA [Building]

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From the Marc Quinn exhibition currently hosted by the Salzburg branch of Galerie Thaddeus Ropac.

It’s the last chance to view works by Marc Quinn at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Salzburg.  “Material Dematerialize” is the artist’s first solo show at the gallery.  It is a mix of painting and sculpture which focuses on the virtual and the real: where they overlap, where the lines blur and where the material dematerializes.  All works in the show are exhibited publicly for the first time.

Related links:
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac – Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn Bio

Marc Quinn, Mirage, at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

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David Hockney, Maurice Payne, at Annely Juda.

Annely Juda Fine Art is showing 28 works by David Hockney.  “Drawing in a Printing Machine” is comprised of pieces made using Photoshop and Graphics Tablet.  The 28 pieces in the series, spread out through two floors of the gallery, betray Hockney’s meticulous attention to detail, and the artistry behind technology.  “There are advantages and disadvantages to anything new in mediums for artists,” says David Hockney, “but the speed allowed here with colour is something new.”

Related links:
Annely Juda
David Hockney Shaves, Doodles With His iPhone: Martin Gayford [Bloomberg]
iHockney: Artist David uses his Apple phone to paint mini masterpieces [TheDailyMail]
David Hockney, Annely Juda Fine Art, London [Financial Times]
David Hockney’s iPhone and Digital Art. Take Two [ArtFag City]

From “Drawing in a Printing Machine,” the new David Hockney show at Annely Juda. Via Financial Times.

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John Currin, “Thanksgiving Study” (2003) © courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.

Andrea Rosen Gallery is presenting an assortment of works on paper by John Currin, an artist whose renown is in large part due to his talent for blending kitsch and smut with masterly technique often reflective of classical or manneristic imagery.  Women are almost always at the center of Currin’s art, but the way in which he portrays them alters every few years.  The exhibit, aptly titled, “A Fifteen Year Survey of Women,” includes drawings from all of Currin’s various phases of depitions of feminity over the years, from emaciated middle-aged to isolated bare-breasted women reminiscent of Northern Renaissance Madonnas, or extremely bosomy nudes reminiscent of Playboy illustrations.

Related links:
John Currin Works on Paper – A Fifteen Year Survey of Women [Andrea Rosen exhibition page]
Drawings of a New “Old Master” [New York Observer]
Artist Page [Gagosian Gallery]
Interview with John Currin [Interview Magazine]

John Currin installation view, photo by Tyler Winston, courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery.

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Jeff Koons, “Pam” (2001) via Gagosian Gallery

An assortment of works, all centered on depictions of the human figure, is currently on display at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue gallery until July 31, 2009.  Gagosian has selected pieces from an all-male cast of seminal artists, each tackling the issue of bodily representation in a variety of media.  This relatively small exhibit constitutes an appealing means of considering how male artists have approached the portrayal of both men and women over the course of the twentieth century.

Related links:
Exhibition Page [Gagosian Gallery]
Artists’ Info [Gagosian Gallery]

Gerhard Richter, “Deck Chair II” (1965) via Gagosian Gallery

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Untitled (Grey and Brown) (1991) by Fiona Rae, via Tate Britain

Currently on display at Tate Britain “Classified” presents a collection of the Tate’s newest additions featuring the work of British artists such as Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Jeremy Deller and Tacita Dean. The exhibit will highlight new acquisitions which will be on display for the the first time such as Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Family Collection (2002) and two works from Damien Hirst’s recent gift to Tate: The Accquired Inability to Escape (1991) and Life Without You (1991).

Exhibition Page
Art at Tate Britain: it’s classified [The Guardian]
Damien Hirst v. the Chapmans at Tate Britain [The Guardian]
Culture Minute Video: Classified at Tate Britain [The Telegraph]
Classified: Contemporary Art at Tate Britain [Fadwebsite]

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Eva Rothschild at Tate Britain. Via Art Knowledge News.

The Duveen Comission series presents a hitherto relatively unknown artist, Eva Rothschild, at the Tate Britain.  The exhibition consists of just one work, which fills the 70-meter space.  Accordingly, the piece explores volume and space, as it (per Tate) “fills and disrupts the grandeur of these neoclassical galleries with a chaotic, energetic presence.”  Says the artist, “I’m hoping to create something that will agitate the architecture of the Duveens Galleries, tangling with your perception of the space.”

Related links:
Tate Britain: British Art from 1500
Tate: Tate Britian Duveens Commission 2009 Supported by Sotheby’s
Lost in triangulation [The Guardian UK]
Eva Rothschild’s Tate Britain girders get an angle on high-minded art [Times UK]
Eva Rothschild to Create Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2009 [FineArtPublicity]
Little-known artist takes over the Tate [The Independent]

Eva Rothschild at Tate Britian, via The Guardian.

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Henri Matisse, Odalisque au fauteuil turc (Odalisque with a Turkish Chair) (1928), currently showing at Museo Thyseen-Bornemisza.

A collection of works by Henri Matisse is currently showing at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.  Comprised of 74 paintings, drawings, and sculptures, the exhibition focuses on works of two subjects: odalisques and the sea, as seen through the windows of Nice.  The show runs through September 20, 2009.

Related links:
Matisse: 1917 – 1941 : Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Henri Matisse
Thyssen-Bornemisza Examines Matisse’s Work During the Central Period of His Career [ArtDaily]

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Still from Cory Arcangel’s ‘Drei Klavierstücke, op. 11’ via Team Gallery

Team Gallery’s current exhibition is a group show of three video artists from the gallery’s roster: Cory Arcangel, Guillaume Pinard, and Jon Routson. It follows a similar three-person show of abstract work by its artists in January. The exhibition includes a number of video pieces, in both large and small formats, as well as a sound piece by Routson and two prints by Arcangel in his Photoshop series – a similar print was in the New Museum’s triennial, Younger Than Jesus.

Arcangel, Pinard, Routson [Team Gallery]
Arcangel, Pinard, Routson @ Team [This Heart’s On Fire]

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John Baldessari, ‘Raised Eyebrows/Furrowed Foreheads: Airplane (Concorde),’ 2009. Via ArtNet.

Currently showing at the Greta Meert Gallery in Brussels are seven pieces from the latest series by American artist John Baldessari. The selection represents a continuation of previous series, in which Baldessari explored fragmented body parts, abstraction of facial expressions and the relationship between separate parts and the whole.   His former series, which came under the titles of ‘Noses & Ears, Etc.’, ‘Arms & Legs (Specif. Elbows & Knees)’, Etc, and ‘Prima Facie, Etc.’, in addition to his work at large, has emphasized the symbiotic relationship between painting and photography. In effect, Baldessari, who has shown in more than 200 solo and 900 group exhibitions in the United States and Europe, has been credited for having helped to establish photography as a more established artistic medium.

Related Links:
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Interview with John Baldessari. [Artnet]
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John Baldessari. [Baldessari]
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Baldessari and Ono Win Golden Lions. [LATimes]
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John Baldessari. [ArtWorks]
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Interview with John Baldessari. [Art and Culture]

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Popeye, part of the new Jeff Koons exhibition at the Serpentine by the same name.

Jeff Koons’s first major exhibition in a public gallery in England opens tomorrow.  The show at the Serpentine features works drawn from public and private holdings, and some new works on display for the first time.  The “Popeye Series” “creates a world beyond taste,” appropriation art at its finest.  The extraordinary and the mundane are put side by side: Popeye and and Olive Oyl are embedded in multi-layered paint.  Garbage cans and chairs, chains and even the occasional inflatable, are put to use in the sculptures of the “Popeye Series.”

Related links:
Jeff Koons: Serpentine Gallery
Jeff Koons Presents Works from his Popeye Series at the Serpentine Gallery in London [Artdaily]
‘Popeye’ exhibition by Jeff Koons comes to Serpentine Gallery [Times Online]
Koons, with eye for pop, brings Popeye show to UK [Reuters]
Jeff Koons Popeye Series At The Serpentine Gallery from July 2nd [FAD]
Jeff Koons is not just the king of kitsch [interview with the Guardian UK]

The Telegraph comments on the exuberance and humor in the Koons exhibition.

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A look at the Duane Hanson exhibition at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

Through July 11, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin is showing works by the late sculptor Duane Hanson.  The exhibition, titled “Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions),” is comprised of hyper-realistic depictions of lost souls, and loneliness, or taken literally, illusions of the lost.

Related links:
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
Duane Hanson Biography [Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin]
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin – Duane Hanson [ArtSlant]

From the Duane Hanson exhibition at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

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Dan Graham, Girls Make-up room, 1998-2000. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

Dan Graham’s first U.S. retrospective is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist’s work has been highly influential since the 1960’s.  He has close personal and professional ties with Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin and Mel Bochner and as of yet his work has been seldom collected or recognized in the U.S. The show features a comprehensive sampling of his body of work in media including installation, text pieces, performance and site specific sculpture. At the core of his work, Graham is investigating public and private cultural systems and the extent to which his playful, often comic, interference can alter the way individuals relate to their surroundings, themselves and others.

Dan Graham: Beyond [Whitney Museum of American Art]
Dan Graham: Be My Mirror [Art in America]
Retrospective of Pioneering Artist Dan Graham Opens at Whitney Museum [ArtDaily]
Dan Graham: Artist’s Talk 2007 [Tate Modern]
Interview with Dan Graham [Museo Magazine]
Dan Graham: A Round Peg [NY Times]
Dan Graham – Whitney Museum of American Art [ArtForum]

Dan Graham, Figurative,1965; published March 1968 in Harper’s Bazaar. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

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Gerhard Richter, Cow, part of an exhibition of the artist’s work at MKM. via the Albertina.

Until August 23, Museum Küeppersmühle is exhibiting 80 paintings by legendary German artist Gerhard Richter.  Comprised of works drawn from private collections Burda, Ströher, Böckman, and the artist’s own,  “Paintings from Private Collections” is an exploration of colors, of their uses and limitations.  Works included span much of the artist’s career, from the early 60’s to 2007.

Related links:
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter at the MKM
Gerhard Richter: Paintings from Private Collections on View at Museum Küeppersmühle [Artdaily]
Gerhard Richter ~ Paintings from Private Collections at Museum Kueppersmuehle (MKM) [Art Knowledge News]
Gerhard Richter Portraits [National Portrait Gallery]
Gordon Burn on the paintings of Gerhard Richter [The Guardian UK]

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Andy Warhol, ‘Silver Liz,’ 1963.  Employing the mass-media technique of screen-printing, Warhol created 13 portraits of Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her fame. Via Corcoran.

Currently showing at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais is a selection from the thousand or so portraits that Andy Warhol painted in 1962 and onwards.  During that time, Warhol produced commissioned portraits of film and rock stars, fashion designers, artists, politicians and more obscure personalities using his signature technique–silkscreens, reproduced serially.  A pioneer of the Pop Art movement, his use of image repetition was seen as a commentary on the nature of consumer society and mass culture, and his focus on personalities contributed to a revival of portraiture at large. As the artist prophetically put, “All my portraits have to be the same size, so they’ll all fit together and make one big painting called Portraits of Society.  That’s a good idea, isn’t it? Maybe the Metropolitan Museum would want it someday.”

Related links:
Hidden Depths: Paris Exhibition Aims to Paint Warhol as a Modern Master [GuardianUK]
Andy Warhol’s World Wide Comes to Paris [Reuters]
Saint Laurent Portraits Out of Warhol Show [NYTimes]
The Endless Fifteen Minutes [NYMag]
Christie’s Seeking Buyer for Warhol Mao in Hong Kong [ArtInfo]
Warhol Sales Make $10.5 Million as Sotheby’s Turns to Big Names [Bloomberg]

Andy Warhol ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat,’ 1982. Warhol collaborated with Basquiat, the American graffiti artist, in the 1970s and 1980s.Via Antiques.

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