FEBRUARY 2-8, 2016

NEW YORK

William Hunt Diederich “Fighting Cocks Charger.” Fired clay, Diam. 16.5 inches. Courtesy D. Wigmore Fine Art.

Hunt Diederich: Making Sculpture Modern, D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York, NY
On view through February 13, 2016
D. Wigmore Fine Art is pleased to present with the family of William Hunt Diederich a selection of works that show Diederich’s mastery of many media from 1914 to 1929. The exhibition includes sculpture, metalworks, ceramics, silhouettes, and drawings. Diederich was a modernist who expanded the meaning of sculpture to keep it relevant in the 20th century. In his first major New York solo exhibition in 1920, he said, “Personally I like to work in as many different media as possible. Sculpture has too long been an affair of marble and bronze. It is too remote, too inaccessible. We must do everything possible to extend its scope and appeal, to insure for it a wider, more popular appeal.” Diederich succeeded in his goal and his fire screens, weathervanes, and lighting are coveted for their charm, elegance, and craftsmanship. Click here to continue reading.

Frank Wimberley “Leroy.” Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Gerald Peters Gallery.

 Frank Wimberley: Selected Works 1990-2010, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, NY
On view through February 26, 2016
Gerald Peters Gallery is pleased to present Frank Wimberley: Selected Works 1990-2010, curated by Gavin Spanierman. The exhibition focuses on works created during one of the most productive periods of the artist’s career and will be his second solo exhibition at Gerald Peters Gallery. Wimberley has had a prolific career. His large abstract works are characterized by their palpable texture and unexpected color. Wimberley lets his painting guide him in his creative process; without overthinking subject or technique, he paints from within. He says his motivation to paint is “hard to describe,” a sentiment familiar to anyone who has ever lost themselves in the act of creating. Click here to continue reading.

A detail from van Eyck’s “Last Judgement” panel. Image courtesy Wikipedia.

A New Look at a Van Eyck Masterpiece, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
On view through April 24, 2016
This focus exhibition presents the findings of a recent study of the Crucifixion and Last Judgment paintings by Jan van Eyck and his workshop. These paintings and their frames have undergone technical investigations in an effort to solve long-standing mysteries about them. Whether the paintings were always intended as a diptych, or whether they were originally the wings of a triptych or the doors of a tabernacle, has been in question. The answer may be found not only in a closer look at the frames, but also in the relationship of the Met's Crucifixion painting to a recently rediscovered drawing of the Crucifixion. Click here to continue reading.

FREDERICK BROSEN (1954–) Via Portico, Rome, 2015 Watercolor and graphite on paper, 9 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. Signed and dated (at lower right): Brosen '15. Courtesy Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York.

Frederick Brosen, Recent Watercolors: Rome & Florence, Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY
February 4-March 12, 2016
Having spent an entire career painting New York City, Frederick Brosen is intimately aware of a city’s romance. The drama of his hometown’s skyline and the allure of its back alleys have long been celebrated in Brosen’s masterful watercolors. In his fifth solo exhibition with Hirschl & Adler Modern, Brosen turns his attention, and his affections, to Rome and Florence. In 14 new paintings, ranging in size from 8 inches square to 30 x 50 inches, Brosen explores the harmony of color and light and the beautiful proportions of form that have captured the imagination of artists for centuries. An ardent student of the grand tradition of landscape painting, Brosen has, indeed, found that all roads lead to Rome. The artist writes: “As a landscape and architectural painter, it was not a matter of why but simply a matter of when this venerable and poetic tradition would be a logical subject to interpret personally. The great challenge of course, is that tradition itself. Click here to continue reading.

Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan, Asia Society Museum, New York, NY
February 8-May 8, 2016
The magnificent sculpture of the Kamakura period (1185–1333) has long been considered a high point in the history of Japanese art. Stylistic and technical innovations led to sculpture that displayed greater realism than ever before. Sculptors began signing their works, allowing us to trace the development of individual and workshop styles that influenced later generations for centuries. Religious developments—often combinations of traditional and new practices—brought devotees into closer proximity with the deities they worshipped. Click here to continue reading.

TEXAS

Arthur "Art" Smith, Neckpiece (Positive/Negative), 1948, wire and sheet brass, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the African American Art Advisory Association.

Statements: African American Art from the Museum’s Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
On view through April 24, 2016
Statements: African American Art from the Museum's Collection is the latest in a series of focused installations highlighting unique areas of strength in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Featuring artists who have shaped the course of American art across eight decades, Statements brings together more than 40 works in a wide range of media, from Richmond Barthé’s iconic Feral Benga of 1935 to Mark Bradford’s Circa 1992, created in 2015. The exhibition presents three interwoven themes, starting with the generation of artists who came of age between the 1930s and 1960s, including John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Melvin Edwards, and Loretta Pettway. Viewed as pioneers, these leaders and mentors are celebrated not only for their forward-looking work, but also for the recognition they received that helped break down institutional barriers. Click here to continue reading.

TENNESSEE

Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), after Titian (Tiziano Vecellio; Italian, ca. 1489–1576). Double Portrait of Charles V and Empress Isabella, ca. 1628. Oil on canvas, 44 15/16 x 65 1/2 in. Dukes of Alba Collection, Liria Palace, Madrid, inv. P.489 [Alba 119].

Treasures from the House of Alba: 500 Years of Art and Collecting, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
February 5-May 1, 2016
Drawn from one of the oldest and most significant private collections in Europe, Treasures from the House of Alba: 500 Years of Art and Collecting features works by Goya, Murillo, Rubens, Titian, and more from the splendid palaces of the Alba dynasty in Spain. Co-organized by the Meadows Museum and the Casa de Alba Foundation, the exhibition brings together more than 130 works of art dating from antiquity to the twentieth century. This is the first major exhibition outside Spain of works from the collection of the House of Alba—a prominent Spanish noble family with ties to the monarchy since the fifteenth century. Highlights include masterpieces of Dutch, Flemish, German, Italian, and Spanish painting, such as Francisco Goya’s The Duchess of Alba in White and Leonardo Bassano’s recently conserved Forge of Vulcan. Click here to continue reading.

CALIFORNIA

Pierre Bonnard, "Woman with a Cat, or The Demanding Cat," 1912. Oil on canvas. 78 x 77.5 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
February 6-May 12, 2016
Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia is the first major international presentation of Pierre Bonnard’s work to be mounted on the West Coast in half a century. The exhibition will feature more than 70 works that span the artist’s complete career, from his early Nabi masterpieces, through his experimental photography, to the late interior scenes for which he is best known. The exhibition celebrates Bonnard (French, 1867–1947) as one of the defining figures of modernism in the transitional period between Impressionism and abstraction. Several themes from Bonnard’s career will emerge, including the artist’s great decorative commissions where the natural world merges with the bright colors and light of the South of France, where windows link interior and exterior spaces, and where intimate scenes disclose unexpected phantasmagorical effects. Click here to continue reading.

BASEL

Jean Dubuffet: Metamorphoses of Landscape, Fondation Beyeler, Basel
On view through May 8, 2016
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) is one of the defining artists of the second half of the 20th century. Stimulated by the work of artists on the margins of the cultural scene, Dubuffet succeeded in liberating himself from traditions and in reinventing art. Dubuffet’s influence can still be felt today in contemporary art and street art, for example in the work of David Hockney, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. In the first large-scale Jean Dubuffet retrospective in Switzerland this century, the Fondation Beyeler presents the artist’s richly faceted and multilayered oeuvre on the basis of more than 100 works. Click here to continue reading.

LONDON

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) "Garden at Auvers," 1890. Oil on canvas; 63.9 x 80 cm. Private Collection.

Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, Royal Academy of Arts, London
On view through April 20, 2016
Trace the emergence of the modern garden in its many forms and glories as we take you through a period of great social change and innovation in the arts. Discover the paintings of some of the most important Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Avant-Garde artists of the early twentieth century as they explore this theme. Monet, arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, once said he owed his painting “to flowers.” But Monet was far from alone in his fascination with the horticultural world, which is why we will also be bringing you masterpieces by Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, Manet, Sargent, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Matisse, Klimt and Klee. Click here to continue reading.