ArtPourri

Artist Rep Announced—The U.S. Department of State has announced the results of an open competition to select the U.S. representative to the 2007 Venice Biennale.  An exhibition of the work of Cuban-born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) has been chosen; and Nancy Spector, of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, will be the U.S. Commissioner and will organize the exhibition.  This is the first time in more than 20 years that the work of a deceased artist will be presented.

Art Destinations Voted—Readers of AmericanStyle magazine have voted for the 2006 Top 25 Arts Destinations.  New York, NY, came in 1^st in the Big Cities category; Buffalo, NY, for Mid-Sized Cities; and Santa Fe, NM, for Small Cities and Towns.  See the entire readers’ poll results in the June issue and visit www.americanstyle.com.

Winner Announced—Matthew Coolidge, director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (Culver City, CA), is the sixth winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Annual Lucelia Artist Award. The award recognizes an American artist under the age of 50 who demonstrates exceptional creativity and has produced a significant body of artwork that is considered emblematic of this period in contemporary art.

Auction Results In—At Sotheby’s, Picasso’s Dora Maar au chat sold for an exceptional $95.2 million, making it the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction.  Henri Matisse’s Nu couche vu de dos set a record for the artist at auction.  Auction records were also set for Dame Barbara Hepworth and Andre Derain.  Although a record for a watercolor by the artist at auction was set, the sale of 19 watercolors by William Blake was below expectation.  At Christie’s, sales of Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art have realized a total of $438.7 million in NY for the spring season.  Van Gogh’s Portrait of Madame Ginoux sold for $40.3 million, the fourth highest price ever obtained at auction by the artist.  Warhol’s Small Torn Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot) set a new world auction record for a painting of the Campbell Soup Can series.

Exhibitions:

Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art – Gustav Klimt:  Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer features five masterpieces that epitomize the height of Viennese Jugendstil (an art style popular in German-speaking European areas in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries).  The two portraits and three landscapes have never before been shown together in the U.S.  They were recently returned by the Austrian government to the family of Maria Altmann, of L.A., following a lengthy legal dispute over the rightful ownership of these works stolen by the Nazi regime.  Through June 30.

Miami, FL – Miami Art Museum – James Rosenquist is the artist’s first U.S. museum exhibition since his 40-year retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2003.  Included are eight major paintings from 1987 to 2004 that reflect his ongoing interest in current issues and events.  Two paintings are being shown for the first time in the U.S. and are stunning examples of Rosenquist’s signature style of massive scale paintings.  Through July 2.

New York, NY – New York Public Library – French Book Art/Livres d’Artistes:  Artists and Poets in Dialogue consists of 126 books created between 1874 and 1999 as joint ventures between artists and poets.  Although better known for their works on canvas, artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Magritte collaborated with poets such as Mallarme, Apollinaire, Gide and others to pioneer the concept of the artist’s book, in which words and pictures come together in a unique fashion.  Also featured are photos and sculpture depicting many of the artists and authors represented in the exhibition.  Through August 19.

Sacramento, CA – Crocker Art Museum – M. C. Escher:  Rhythm of Illusion probes the world of this popular and intriguing 20^th century artist and examines 70 works of art through themes such as forms in space, experiments in perspective, landscape and fantasy scenes.  Opens June 10 through September 3.

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee Art Museum – Gericault to Cezanne:  Nineteenth-Century French Prints surveys a thriving period of art history, beginning with the Romantic work of Gericault and Delacroix through Barbizon artists such as Corot and Millet, to the pre-modern innovations of Degas and Cezanne.  Through Sept. 3.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 16 No. 8 -- June 2006