Arnold Newman: Masterclass is on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco until February 1, 2015. The retrospective exhibition includes 200 of Newman’s most famous portraits, as well as rarely and never-before exhibited still lives, architectural studies, cityscapes and early portraits. Based mostly in New York, Newman was one of the world’s best known and most […]
Cubism: The Leonard A Lauder Collection now on view at the Metropolitan Museum in New York is considered one of the most important assemblages of Cubist art in the world. The collection consists of 81 paintings, drawings, collages, works on paper and a few sculptures by Cubism’s four giants: Georges Braque (1882-1963), Juan Gris (1887-1927), Fernand Léger […]
Thomas Hart Benton’s 1930’s epic “America Today, Mural Rediscovered” is on display at the Met for the first time since acquisition in 2012. The 10-panel, wrap-around mural cycle was commissioned in 1930 for the boardroom of Manhattan’s New School for Social Research and is one of Benton’s most famous works. It depicts a panoramic sweep of rural and urban American life on the eve […]
Two stellar Picasso shows are on view in New York galleries this month. Both are museum quality and contain loans of major original paintings, drawings and sculpture that you’ve probably seen in museums or art books over the years. Picasso & the Camera at Gagosian was co-curated by the artist’s friend and biographer, John Richardson and […]
The Whitney Museum closed its Madison Avenue location yesterday (10/19/14) when its blockbuster Jeff Koons retrospective ended. More than 250,000 people saw the exhibition since it opened in June. The museum ended things with a bang, staying open 36 continuous hours during the final weekend. Whitney Director Adam Weinberg said, “This will not only give more people an opportunity to see […]
Stanford University’s newly opened Windhover Contemplative Center is a spiritual and meditative refuge intended to allow visitors to escape from the daily intensity of campus life. The Center, designed by Aidlin Darling Design, a San Francisco architectural firm, features paintings by Nathan Oliveira, an outdoor reflecting pool, a granite labyrinth and a Japanese-style garden. The entryway is intentionally drawn-out, […]
On October 2, I went to Alcatraz to see Ai Weiwei’s @Large exhibition, aptly described by Christopher Knight as “an always poignant, often powerful meditation on soul-deadening repressions of human thought and feeling.” One installation, “Trace,” features 176 portraits of people imprisoned because of their beliefs or affiliations. The sheer number of political prisoners portrayed, some familiar, most not, […]
Jules Maeght, grandson of the founders of Galerie Maeght, Paris and the Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, opens his first gallery in Hayes Valley, San Francisco on November 14, 2014. The inaugural show, “Art in Motion” (11/14/14-1/31/15), brings together works that explore kinetic art in diverse forms, including pieces by Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Marshall Elliott, Vassily Kandinsky, […]
Mildred Howard: Collective Memories opens at the Fresno Art Museum on September 26 and will be on view through January 4, 2015. Mildred Howard was awarded the Distinguished Woman Artist Award for 2014 by the Museum’s California’s Council of 100, an organization devoted to recognizing outstanding women in the arts. The artist will give a free public lecture about her work 11 […]
A Brief History Of John Baldessari is a very entertaining 2012 documentary commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a gala honoring the artist. Described by its filmmakers as “the epic life of a world-class artist, jammed into six minutes,” the video presents a fast-paced collection of off-beat facts narrated by Tom Waits, with deadpan commentary by Baldessari. Born […]
Secondhand is the current exhibition at Pier 24, up until May, 2015. It features the work of over a dozen artists whose work is based on the appropriation of pre-existing photographs. Admission is free, but you need a reservation. At 28,000 square feet, Pier 24 is the largest photography-only venue in the world. It was founded by retired […]
The eagerly anticipated Anderson Collection at Stanford University will open to the public on September 21, 2014. Admission is free but timed tickets are required for weekends. In 2011, the Andersons promised 121 works by 86 artists to Stanford, and the University constructed a permanent building designed by Ennead Architects next to the Cantor Arts Center exclusively for the gift. The […]