Art Event Continues--"Embrace Art in Chicago: Summer 2004" continues through September 30th. Included are tours, exhibitions and interactive demonstrations at museums, galleries, art fairs, cultural centers and public spaces throughout the city. Chicago's newest attraction, Millennium Park, features "Cloud Gate," an elliptical sculpture designed by British artist Anish Kapoor that is among the largest in the world; "Crown Fountain," designed by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, which features two 50-foot high glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool that are activated with changing video images and lights with water cascading from the top of each; and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a sophisticated outdoor concert venue designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. 1-877-CHICAGO or see www.877chicago.com.

Record Set at Auction--A painting recently acknowledged by scholars as a genuine Vermeer sold at Sotheby's in London for over $30 million. "Young Woman Seated at the Virginals" is one of only 36 known works by the artist and was the first appearance of a Vermeer at auction since 1921. A rare night scene by Sir Peter Paul Rubens fetched the second highest price of the evening.

Capitol Invaded--Fun and whimsy are in the air in Washington, D.C., where PandaMania has hit the streets. Local, national and international artists with diverse backgrounds and styles have created unique artwork for 150 Panda sculptures that are on display through September. The exhibition will conclude with a public "Panda Palooza Auction" this fall with proceeds used for arts grants/education programs. 202.724.5613.

Inductees Named--As the nation prepares to commemorate the 156th anniversary of the first women's rights convention, the National Women's Hall of Fame has announced its 2005 inductees. Included in the group of ten outstanding American women is renowned architect Maya Lin, creator of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL.

Stamp Reissued--The U. S Postal Service has reissued the 5-cent American Toleware postage stamp, originally issued in 2002 as the first stamp in the American Design series. It features artist Lou Nolan's painted detail of a black toleware coffeepot decorated with red flowers, purple forget-me-nots, and yellow, green and orange leaves from the Winterthur Museum in DE. Derry Noyes was the designer and art director.

Commissions Announced--The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco have commissioned works by three leading contemporary artists. Gerhard Richter will create a large-scale mural for the new de Young Museum that is created from digitally-manipulated photos; California artist James Turrell will create for the Osher Sculpture Garden a "skyspace" titled "Three Gems," a subterranean installation that will feature a view of the sky altered by L.E.D. lighting effects; and Andy Goldsworthy will create a site-specific stone "Faultline" that will bisect large rough-hewn stone boulders that will serve as seating for museum visitors.

Exhibitions

Chicago, IL -- The Art Institute of Chicago -- Seurat and the Making of "La Grande Jatte" (in the Museum's collection since 1924) features about 130 paintings and works on paper and brings together approximately 45 of the artist's paintings and drawings related to the picture, from conte crayon studies to oil sketches to nearly full-size paintings. Also featured are paintings by Monet, Renoir and Camille Pissarro, all painters whom Seurat greatly admired; and works by Signac and Lucien Pissarro, artists who shared similar interest in the pointillist technique and whose works were featured in the same exhibition that launched "La Grande Jatte" to a Parisian public. Through Sept. 19.

New York, NY -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Childe Hassam, American Impressionist celebrates Hassam's brilliant handling of color and light and examines his responses to the advent of the modern era in view of his credo that "the man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of every-day life around him." Featured are about 120 oil paintings, watercolors and pastels and some 20 prints. Through Sept. 12.

Atlanta, GA -- High Museum of Art -- Glories of Ancient Egypt features more than 200 works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston that evoke the splendor of Egyptian art and funerary practices over a period of 4,200 years. Included are statuary, relief, coffins, funerary arts and objects from Egyptian daily life that are arranged chronologically and thematically. Through Sept. 19.

New York, NY -- The Jewish Museum -- Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, the first major exhibition of the artist's work since 1951, re-examines the full range of the work of this Italian-Jewish painter and sculptor. Featured are over 100 paintings, sculptures and drawings. Travels to The Art Gallery of Ontario (Oct. 23) and The Phillips Collection (Feb. 26). Through Sept. 19.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada -- The Art Gallery of Ontario -- Turner, Whistler, Monet: Impressionist Visions brings together for the first time 100 exceptional paintings, watercolors, pastels and prints by J. M. W. Turner, James McNeill Whistler and Claude Monet, many of them rarely lent masterpieces from public and private collections in Britain, Europe and North America. Through Sept. 12.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 14 No. 10 -- August 2004