Van Abbemuseum, Plug In #48 Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait

Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno, Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait, 2006. Palomar Pictures & Anna Lena Films.

EINDHOVEN.- Van Abbemuseum presents today Plug In #48 - Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait. The artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno highlight the popular subject of football in an entirely new way. World-famous football player Zinédine Zidane was followed by 17 synchronized cameras during a match. This video installation gives the spectator the sensation of 'moving alongside' Zidane throughout the entire game.

For the artists it was in many ways Zidane’s personality that made the portrait necessary. The elegance of his game and his charisma made the decision for the two artists slash football fans an obvious one.

The video made by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno is a unique collaboration of two artists in creating this portrait. Throughout the history of art, artist have painted portraits because it was the most direct way of depicting humanity. A portrait brings to life moments in time. Inspired by the film portraits made by Andy Warhol in the 1960’s, the artists chose film as their medium. “Photography and film correspond to the attempts in our time to depict the face of humanity on the scale of time. Our lives take place within a protocol of time. It was for this reason in particular that we chose to create a portrait using cameras instead of canvas or paper. While drawing and painting create two-dimensional works, a portrait on film inexorably becomes a multidimensional work. […] You see things in this film you never see on TV, like his hands, his gestures. That comes from painting techniques: watching out for gestures, moving fingers. These things offer us information about a person.” For Zidane, the portrait was a unique opportunity to have a game commemorated for all time. He is very satisfied with the result “I recognise myself, it’s really me, and that’s exactly what I live every Sunday. With more emotion in some parts and less in others. That’s it. All I hope now is that the film captivates the public the way it captivated me.”
The film was shot during a regular championship game between Spanish football club Real Madrid (for whom Zidane played at the time) and Villarreal F.C. in Madrid on 23 April 2005 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. The length of the soccer match, 90 minutes, equals the length of the film. The music for the film was composed by Mogwai, the international rock band from Glasgow.

http://vanabbemuseum.nl/browse-all/?tx_vabdisplay_pi1[ptype]=18&tx_vabdisplay_pi1[project]=431&cHash=507a037fd1

Plug In #48
Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait

Zhang Xiaogang Is China’s Most-Valuable Artist

Zhang Xiaogang A Big Family,1995, Oil on canvas, 179 x 229 cm

Zhang Xiaogang
(Source Saatchi Gallery) http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/zhang_xiaogang.htm
Inspired by family photos from the Cultural Revolution period, as well as the European tradition of surrealism, Zhang Xiaogang’s paintings engage with the notion of identity within the Chinese culture of collectivism. Basing his work around the concept of ‘family’ –immediate, extended, and societal – Xiaogang’s portraits depict an endless genealogy of imagined forebears and progenitors, each unnervingly similar and distinguished by minute difference.
Often painted in black and white, Xiaogang’s portraits translate the language of photography into paint. Drawing from the generic quality of formal photo studio poses and greyscale palette, Xiaogang’s figures are nameless and timeless: a series of individual histories represented within the strict confines of formula. The occasional splotches of colour which interrupt his images create aberrant demarcations, reminiscent of birth marks, aged film, social stigma, or a lingering sense of the sitter’s self assertion.

Zhang Xiaogang Is China’s Most-Valuable Artist, Hurun Says

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Zeng Fanzhi are the most-valuable living Chinese artists, based on the auction prices of their works, shows a ranking by China-based Hurun Report, which also lists the nation’s richest people.
Works by Zhang, known for his somber, gray-hued paintings of Chinese families, fetched a combined $44.1 million at art auctions last year, followed by Yue’s $30.5 million and Zeng’s $30.1 million, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun’s Shanghai- based publisher. Works by the top 50 artists on Hurun’s list sold a combined $410 million at auction last year. Artists on the list averaged 57.5 years of age.
“Chinese collectors had begun to take an interest in contemporary art, which was until then mostly of interest to foreigners,” said Hoogewerf, in an e-mail.
Chinese contemporary art is broadly defined as works produced since the 1960s, and usually feature reflections and commentaries on the decade-long Cultural Revolution that seared the psyche of a generation of mainland Chinese.
Hoogewerf said demand for Chinese contemporary art grew slightly last year. Auction prices for this category rose in the first half and languished after the latest -- and worst -- round of credit crisis broke out in September.
In May, the most-expensive Chinese contemporary painting was sold at auction for the $9.7 million paid for Zeng’s “Mask Series 1996 No. 6” at Christie’s International’s Hong Kong sale.

Exhibition in the MET Museum: The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984

Exhibition in the MET Museum: The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984
April 21–August 2, 2009

This is the first major museum exhibition to focus exclusively on "The Pictures Generation." Born into the media culture of postwar America, this tightly knit group of New York-based artists created some of the most important and influential works of the late 20th century. Their overarching subject was how pictures of all kinds not only depict but also shape reality. Highly seductive photographs by Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman reveal the ways in which images from B movies and magazine advertisements determine much of our sense of who we are. Louise Lawler and Sherrie Levine examine how the myths and legends of modern art are inextricably tied to the institutions of the museum and art history. Also included are photographs by Laurie Simmons, James Casebere, James Welling, and Allan McCollum, as well as works in other media by Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Jack Goldstein, and Dara Birnbaum, among others.

Dutch Artist and singer Edie (Edie Art)

Dutch Artist and singer Edie (Edith Pijpers)
Friday night Feb 27th 5-9pm
Jackson Hall Gallery
446 West 36th [between 9th and 10th] NYC

www.EdieArt.com
www.ediemusic.blogspot.com


February 2009
Hello dear friends,
A few exciting things this month: This month, hopefully the last month of winter!!!! [ sooo ready for spring- my favorite], is the opening of my first two [wo]man show in NYC!
If you are in the NY area, drop by on Friday night Feb 27th 5-9pm [446 West 36th]
and celebrate with us!!!
Wine, cheese, art, friends..... :)
For more info on JAVA's beautiful art visit his site HERE

Moscow Art Fair Postponed, Russia's Rich cash strapped

Moscow Art Fair Postponed as Russia’s Rich Curb Purchases

Feb. 18 (Source Bloomberg, John Varoli) -- Art Moscow, one of Russia’s biggest contemporary-art fairs, has been postponed to September to tap a crowd headed for a larger exhibition, as falling oil prices and squeezed credit quell art purchases among the nation’s rich.
The 13th Annual Art Moscow will now be timed to coincide with the state-run Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, which starts Sept. 24, said organizer Expo Park Exhibition Projects Ltd. Art Moscow was originally planned to open May 14.
“By September, everyone will have gotten used to the new reality of the crisis,” said Vasily Bychkov, Expo Park’s general director. “Foreign galleries will be more willing to come to Art Moscow when they know it coincides with the Biennale, which attracts leading international curators and collectors.”
The New York benchmark crude-oil prices have fallen more than 40 percent the past six months, causing Russia’s economic growth to hover at near zero. Stock-market declines and the credit squeeze are also ailing the nation’s richest. According to Moscow’s Finans magazine, the number of Russian billionaires declined in the past six months from 101 to 49.
Expo Park’s decision comes a month after the Geneva-based Art Culture Studio canceled the Moscow World Fine Art Fair planned for the last week of May. Last year, it brought to Moscow about 1 billion euros ($1.26 billion) of art from 70 international galleries.
At the peak of crude-oil prices last year, Russia’s rich drove contemporary-art prices to records.

National Gallery Exhibition: Picasso: Challenging the Past

National Gallery Exhibition: Picasso: Challenging the Past
25 February – 7 June 2009

(Source National Gallery website)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), arguably the most influential artist of the 20th century, pitted himself against the greatest Masters of European painting in a life-long artistic dialogue. ‘Picasso: Challenging the Past’ explores the ways he took up the artistic concerns of the painters of the past and made audacious responses of his own.
Picasso was a passionate student of the grand tradition of European painting. El Greco, Velázquez and Goya were of crucial importance to him, as were Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet and Cézanne. All of these artists are represented by major paintings at the National Gallery.
Displaying some 60 works by the artist, this exhibition invites visitors to re-explore the National Gallery’s permanent collection in light of Picasso’s fascination with the Old Masters.
The exhibition is organised thematically, showing how Picasso repeatedly returned to the great subjects of the European painting tradition, analysing them as his personal style developed in myriad directions. Sections include self portraits, the Spanish tradition of male portraiture, the female nude, still life, and the seated female figure

Who is your favourite modern artist?

Who is your favourite modern artist?
(From Times Online)
Welcome to The Times Top 200 Artists of the 20th Century to Now created in association with the Saatchi Gallery.
We asked you to nominate your favourite artists working since 1900 from a list including some of the most influential painters, sculptors, photographers, video and installation artists of the period. Nominations are now closed. Over 200 additional artists were nominated by readers of The Times and Saatchi Online visitors to add to the original shortlist of 600, and we now present the top 500 artists voted for. To cast your vote simply click on the VOTE button by each name. You may vote on as many artists as you wish, but only one vote per artist. You can find out more about each artist by clicking on each individual artist’s name. The top 500 artists are listed here in A to Z order. The top 200 artists will be announced in May 2009.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5700435.ece

"Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art" at the Mori Art Museum

"Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art"
Thru Sunday, March 15

"Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art," a popular exhibition featuring 27 artists from India is being held until March 15. This exhibition introducing Indian contemporary art, which has been the center of worldwide attention since the 90's, is the largest ever to be held in Japan. The art works reflect the changes of lifestyles, problems, and dreams coming from the rapid economic growth and globalization, and brings light to the current situations in India today.
The exhibition is a virtual tour through present India, so "Chalo! India (Let's go to India!)

The largest exhibition of Indian contemporary art ever to be held in Japan
“Chalo” is Hindi for "Let's go." With the words "Chalo! India" (Let's go! India), we invite you to discover an explosion of creativity and vitality in Indian contemporary art. "Chalo! India" will take you on a journey through more than 100 works by 27 artists and artist groups from all over India. Encompassing a broad range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and installation, this exhibition examines the latest movements in Indian contemporary art.
Details: http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/india/index.html

Record-breaking YSL art auction shrugs off crisis

Record-breaking YSL art auction shrugs off crisis

PARIS (Reuters) - The auction of Yves Saint Laurent's monumental art collection ended on Wednesday having broken a string of records, defied the Chinese government and raised more than 370 million euros ($470 million).
The late fashion designer's collection, built up over five decades with his partner Pierre Berge, had been described as one of the most important in private hands and the auction attracted interest from collectors and spectators all over the world.
The final total of 373.5 million euros broke estimates of 300 million euros but Berge, who is donating the proceeds to charity and medical research, said he was not surprised by the sale's success even in the worst global recession for decades.


YSL auction fetches record price
(01:49) Report Reuters Video

Feb 24 - An art collection by late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent defied the financial crisis, breaking world records by raising over 206 million euros, 262 million USD on its opening day.
The sale of two bronze sculptures in the YSL collection - originally looted 150 years ago by British and French troops - have been the subject of a Paris court case, after Chinese officials pleaded for them not to be auctioned by owner Pierre Berge, the former partner of late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Tentoonstelling Gemeentemuseum: Liefde! Kunst! Passie! - Kunstenaarsparen

Alexej von Jawlensky (1864 - 1941) Mädchen mit Pfingstrosen / Meisje met pioenrozen, 1909 Olieverf op karton, op multiplex 101 x 75 cm

Tentoonstelling Gemeentemuseum: Liefde! Kunst! Passie! - Kunstenaarsparen

Kunstenaarsechtparen
Liefde! Kunst! Passie! Haags Gemeentemuseum
21 februari t/m 01 juni 2009 in het Gemeentemuseum.
Liefde, kunst en passie staan centraal in deze grote tentoonstelling met 17 beroemde kunstenaarsechtparen als Frida Kahlo en Diego Rivera, Camille Claudel en Auguste Rodin, Hans Arp en Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Robert en Sonia Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky en Gabriele Münter, Natalia Gontscharowa en Michel Larionov, Lee Krasner en Jackson Pollock, Marianne von Werefkin en Alexej von Jawlensky, Niki de Saint-Phalle en Jean Tinguely. Aan de hand van kunstwerken, uit de periode vanaf eind negentiende eeuw tot midden twintigste eeuw, van over de hele wereld worden de persoonlijke en artistieke relaties van elk kunstenaarspaar zichtbaar gemaakt.
Topstukken uit hele wereld
Welke ideeën en patronen speelden een rol in de combinatie van kunst en leven voor elk paar, welke mogelijkheden dienden zich aan? Welke afhankelijkheden ontwikkelden zich tussen de partners en welke invloed heeft dit uiteindelijk gehad op hun artistieke productie? Aan de hand van museale topstukken van over de hele wereld worden de persoonlijke en artistieke relaties van elk kunstenaarspaar zichtbaar gemaakt.

De vele werken in de tentoonstelling geven tevens een kunsthistorisch tijdsbeeld van de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw. De bezoeker krijgt topstukken te zien ondermeer uit het Duitse expressionisme (Kandinsky en Münter, Von Jawlensky en Von Werefkin), Nederlands expressionisme (Else Berg en Mommie Schwarz, Karin van Leyden-Kluth en Ernst van Leyden, Armand Bouten en Hanny Korevaar), Russisch rayonisme (Gontsjarova en Larionov), orfisme (Sonia en Robert Delaunay), dadaïsme (Hans en Sophie Arp), Amerikaans abstract expressionisme (Lee Krasner en Jackson Pollock) als ook het Europese abstraction lyrique (Hans Hartung en Anna-Eva Bergman). Naast schilderijen zijn er ook meubels (van Ray en Charles Eames), installaties en sculpturen – waaronder de beroemde Kus van Auguste Rodin.

The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art!

Damien Hirst’s “Golden Calf” sold for $18.6 million last year, but the art climate has changed.

Arts / Art & Design
The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art! (New York Times Permalink)
By HOLLAND COTTER Published: February 15, 2009
Memories of recessions past suggest that a financial scouring can be good for American art.

Annie Leibovitz . A Photographer’s Life . 1990 - 2005 in C/O Berlin

Photographer Annie Leibovitz from the U.S. poses in front of her picture 'Monument Valley' at the C/O gallery in Berlin, February 20, 2009. The gallery hosts her exhibition 'A Photographer's Life 1990-2005' from February 21 until May 24 in the German capital. (Source Reuters/Tobias Schwarz)

Exhibition: C/O Berlin, Annie Leibovitz . A Photographer’s Life . 1990 - 2005
21.02. to 24.05.09

C/O Berlin presents “A Photographer’s Life” as first and only venue in Germany. The exhibition comprises a total of 200 photographs, many of them large-format works and monochrome landscapes, as well as a number of private family photos and small format black and white portraits.
A family album, a comprehensive exhibition, and a personal diary – Annie Leibovitz’s photographs from her private life and professional work merge seamlessly into a chronicle of the events, official commissions, and personal stories of the last fifteen years.
Annie Leibovitz, born in 1949 in Westport, Connecticut, USA, is one of the most important and influential portrait photographers worldwide. Covering both applied and artistic photography, the scope of her work is extremely broad. Along with her portraits, her photo documentaries and advertising campaigns for numerous American companies have achieved high acclaim. She attained international prominence in 1980, when she photographed John Lennon naked in bed with Yoko Ono – hours before his death. Leibovitz lives in the USA.

Venice creates a Renaissance garden

Venice creates a Renaissance garden
(00:38) Rough Cut Reuters Video
Feb 15 - Venice turned its centrepiece St Mark's Square into a Renaissance garden on Sunday (February 15) for this year's carnival.
The ten days of carnival will try to recreate the opulence of the 1700's, a decadent time during which Venice's elite spent fortunes on parties and gambling, allowing their military and commercial empire to decay until Napoleon conquered the city in 1797.
The festival signals the start of Venice's tourist season.

The silver dollar award of 2007, Joao Viegas, Faro, Portugal for his painting "the surfers"

The surfers, 162 x 180 cm, prijs €1.500,-

The silver dollar award of 2007, an annual token of appreciation sponsored by the wish tree foundation was given to Joao Viegas, Faro, Portugal for his painting "the surfers".

Viegas' masterpiece was also choosen by the audience as most remarkable painting of 2007.
The painting shows a deep commitment to creating art by the artist, the vulnerability of the human being confronted with nature could not be expressed in a more delicate way an assistant conservator of the Hague museum quoted. Please have a look at the painting yourself:

Joao Viegas Blog

golgata, joa viegas, 182 x 160 cm price € 2.100,-
This painting is donated to the Wish Tree Foundation

Het nieuwe Scheringa Museum voor Realisme in Opmeer

Het nieuwe Scheringa Museum zal in januari 2010 worden geopend.

In de Noord-Hollandse polder wordt het nieuwe Scheringa Museum gebouwd. Het museum, dat een verzameling realistische kunst omvat, wordt gebouwd in het Noord-Hollandse plaatsje Opmeer. Dat is enige kilometers van de plek waar het huidige museum, in een voormalige huishoudschool, staat.
Het museum is te klein geworden voor de collectie, die inmiddels ruim 1200 werken omvat. Eigenaar Dirk Scheringa vult de verzameling aan met gemiddeld twee kunstwerken per maand.
Het nieuwe museum biedt meer ruimte (ruim 10.000 m2). Uitgangspunt bij het ontwerp van Herman Zeinstra van Dok Architecten was dat in alle museumzalen het daglicht kon toetreden. Vanuit het zogeheten collectiehuis kan de bezoeker de beeldentuin in wandelen, waar werken van Fernando Botero en René Magritte te zien zijn.
Het huidige museum, dat sinds 1997 bestaat, blijft open en organiseert tijdelijke tentoonstellingen tot aan de verhuizing naar het nieuwe gebouw. Het museum trekt bijna 45.000 bezoekers per jaar. (Bron ANP, Architectenweb)

Nieuwbouw Scheringa Museum voor Realisme, Webcam - Tussen 8:00 en 16:00 uur elke 30 minuten een nieuwe foto.

3d animatie, nieuwbouw Scheringa Museum

The High - End Art Market - A Second Tulip Mania

A Second Tulip Mania

The prices of contemporary art works have risen to astonishing levels in recent years. Insiders say it’s because we have been living through a golden age of art. Nonsense, argue Ben Lewis and Jonathan Ford, it is a classic investment bubble
Ben Lewis - Jonathan Ford
(Source Forbes.com, Prospect Magazine)
The bubble in contemporary art is about to pop. It has exhibited all the classic features of the South Sea bubble of 1720 or the tulip madness of the 1630s. It has been the bubble of bubbles—balancing precariously on top of other now-burst bubbles in credit, housing and commodities—and inflating more dramatically than all of them. While British house prices took six years to double at the start of this century, contemporary art managed it in just one, 2006-07. (Over the same period, old masters went up by just 7.6 per cent and British 17th to 19th century watercolours actually lost value.) Contemporary art in the emerging economies did even better. The value of its sales in China increased by 983 per cent in one year (2005-06). In Russia they rose 2,365 per cent in five years (2000-05), while its stock market increased by "only" about 300 per cent.

Even these numbers understate the incredible tulip-like increases in the value of the hottest artists. The Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang saw his work appreciate 6,000 times, from $1,000 to $6m (1999-2008); work by the American artist Richard Prince went up 60 to 80 times (2003-2008). The German painter Anselm Reyle was unknown in 2003; you could have picked up one of his stripe paintings for €14,000. Now he has a studio with 60 assistants turning them out for about €200,000 each. Any figures for the whole contemporary art market are guesswork, though Christie's chief executive, Ed Dolman, recently estimated that it had grown in value from $4bn a year to somewhere between $20-30bn in the past eight years.

But this bubble is now deflating. Sotheby's share price has lost three quarters of its value over the past year, sinking from its peak of $57 in October 2007 to $9 in early November—close to its 1980s low of $8. The latest round of contemporary art auctions in London has gone badly. In October, the Phillips de Pury sale made only £5m—a quarter of the minimum estimate; at Christie's almost half the lots didn't sell; and an air of denial hung over the Frieze art fair like a fog. Upmarket dealers Matthew Marks and Iwan Wirth claimed to have clinched many big deals, but the reality was surely different. A leading New York gallerist was said to have sold very little and a well-known German dealer not a single work.

Some dealers have blamed the poor quality of the works in the London sales. "Just wait for New York in mid-November," one said, "and you'll see the art market is still doing well." But New York has been no better. This should have come as no real surprise. If you consider the market as a purely financial enterprise, rather than one in which aesthetic quality has any bearing, then the boom in contemporary art has the hallmarks of a classic investment bubble.

In his book, Manias, Panics, and Crashes, Charles Kindleberger observed that manias typically start with a "displacement" that excites speculative interest. It may come from a new object of investment or from the increased profitability of existing investments. It is followed by positive feedback as rising prices encourage less experienced investors to enter the market. Then, as the mania gets a grip, speculation becomes more diffuse and spreads to other types of asset. Fresh assets are created at an ever faster rate to take advantage of the euphoria and investors try to increase their gains by borrowing to buy assets or using derivatives. Credit ultimately becomes overextended, swindling and fraud proliferate, and the mania ends in panic as investors seek to liquidate their positions.

The art market has adhered spookily to Kindleberger's model. By 2004 it was clear that a boom in contemporary art was well underway ("The price of art," Ben Lewis, Prospect, October 2004.) At the Armory show, New York's trendsetting contemporary art fair, dealers sold $43m worth of art in four days, nearly twice as much as the previous year. There were huge price rises at auction, too. A 1996 sculpture of a stuffed horse hanging from a ceiling, Ballad of Trotsky, by the fashionable and witty Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, sold for $2m at auction in May 2002. It had increased in value tenfold in two years. Gerhard Richter's paintings quadrupled in value between 2000 and 2004. Even then, buyers were paying $1m to $3m for a work by Hirst, Warhol, Basquiat or Koons. Those sums now seem quaint—last year a Koons went for $23m, a Hirst for $20m and a Basquiat for $15m.

World Press Photo 2008 Anthony Suau (USA) wins premier award

World Press Photo 2008 Anthony Suau (USA) wins premier award
The international jury of the 52nd annual World Press Photo Contest have selected a black-and-white image by American photographer Anthony Suau as World Press Photo of the Year 2008.
The picture shows an armed officer of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department moving through a home in Cleveland, Ohio, following eviction as a result of mortgage foreclosure. Officers have to ensure that the house is clear of weapons, and that the residents have moved out. The winning photograph, taken in March 2008, is part of a story commissioned by Time magazine. The story as a whole won Second Prize in the Daily Life category of the contest

The winning Photo is Copyright Protected, it's on the website.

Botero mezcla el horror de Abu Ghraib con la magia del circo

Botero mezcla el horror de Abu Ghraib con la magia del circo - Jubii TV

La Casa de las Artes de Vigo acoge hasta el 1 de febrero la exposición 'Fernando Botero. Abu Ghraib-El circo'. La muestra se compone de un total de 95 obras en las que contrapone "la fiesta y el aspecto lúdico" del circo a "la pesadilla, el horror y la destrucción" de las torturas en la prisión de Abu Ghraib, en Iraq. Esta exposición consta de dos series: la del circo, integrada por 25 pinturas y 24 dibujos; y la de Abu Ghraib, formada por 24 pinturas y 22 dibujos de este artista colombiano. La muestra, que ya ha visitado países como EEUU, Grecia, Alemania o Italia, podrá contemplarse por primera vez en el norte de España, tras haber estado expuesta en el Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM). Según explicó en rueda de prensa el propio Fernando Botero, la creación de los cuadros de la serie Circus.

Upcoming Exhibitions: The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) In & Out of Amsterdam | 1960-1975

Upcoming Exhibitions: The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) In & Out of Amsterdam | 1960-1975
Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor, and The Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Gallery, second floor
July 19—October 5, 2009
Press Preview: July 14, 2009, 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m.

This exhibition examines approximately 120 works by artists of different nationalities relating to travel and the city of Amsterdam, which was the nexus of intense art activities in the 1960s and 1970s, when artists converged there from elsewhere in Europe and from the United States. Hanne Darboven, Gilbert & George, Charlotte Posenenske, Allen Ruppersberg, and Lawrence Weiner, among others, spent considerable amounts of time in Amsterdam and often produced works in direct relation to the city. Reciprocally, some of the most influential Dutch artists traveled extensively abroad before establishing themselves in Amsterdam: Jan Dibbets studied in London, while Ger van Elk trained in Los Angeles, where he paradoxically met his fellow countryman Bas Jan Ader. Finally, the Suriname-born Stanley Brouwn, arguably one of the most important figures of European conceptual art, came to Amsterdam as a young adult, where he developed work that plays with the idea of dimensions and distances and prefigures a number of conceptual-based art practices. Because cross-influences between Dutch and American art scenes were so abundant, it is impossible to understand the historical significance of these artists without acknowledging their new mobility. Because of this, prints, bulletins, posters, mail art, artists’ books, and ephemera took on an unprecedented role. The exhibition will also include drawings, installations, wall drawings, films, and video pieces. Organized by Christophe Cherix, Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea in the Brooklyn Museum,

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848–1894). Oarsman in a Top Hat, 1877–78. Oil on canvas, 35 7/16 x 46 1/16 in. (90 x 117 cm). Private collection March 27–July 5, 2009

Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea in the Brooklyn Museum,
March 27–July 5, 2009

As a participant in the landmark retrospective exhibition that introduced Gustave Caillebotte to the American public in 1976–77, the Brooklyn Museum is proud to present Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea, the first major showing of the artist’s oeuvre in New York in over thirty years. In addition to the well-known Parisian cityscapes that have traditionally marked him as the “Urban Impressionist,” Caillebotte painted scenes of outdoor life away from the city on the coast of Normandy and in the villages of Yerres and Petit Gennevilliers, where he and his family maintained estates. The approximately forty paintings included in this focused thematic exhibition reveal Caillebotte’s extraordinary passion for subjects in which water plays a central role—as an enigmatic, magical element reflecting its surroundings, as an essential atmospheric ingredient, and as a scene for sporting activities.As a passionate rower and yachtsman, Caillebotte approached his motifs with the trained eyes and hand of an accomplished engineer and sportsman. The exhibition will also include drawings as well as models and sketches for the construction of Caillebotte’s sailboats.