International Art News

Max Ernst, The Fireside Angel (The Triumph of Surrealism), 1937, Oil on canvas, 114 × 146 cm, Private collection © 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich

From may 25 to September 8, 2013 – The Fondation Beyeler
Max Ernst (1891–1976) is one of modernism’s most versatile artists. Having started out as a Dadaist in Cologne, he soon became a pioneer of Surrealism in Paris. A tireless creator of new figures, forms and techniques, Max Ernst kept on evolving in new directions even up to his late years. His remarkable oeuvre, which defies any clear stylistic definition, was also shaped by his eventful life and the many different places in which he lived in Europe and America.

The major retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler will present an exemplary selection of over 170 paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures and books by Max Ernst that encompass all aspects of his work. For the first time in Switzerland, visitors will be able to experience the full richness of Max Ernst’s multifaceted oeuvre.

Fondation Beyeler

Zhang Ding, Buddha Jumps over the wall, 2012 – Cprint 120 X 160 Courtesy Galerie Krinzinger – Booth 1D03

From May 23 to May 26, 2013 – Asian Art Fairs Ltd. – 6/F Luk Kwok Centre
The newest Art Basel show. With half of the participating galleries coming from Asia and Asia-Pacific, Art Basel in Hong Kong assumes a significant role in the international artworld, providing a portal to the region’s artists. The new show gives galleries from around the world a platform in Asia to demonstrate the way they work with artists, and bring their highest quality work to Hong Kong.

Known as the gateway between the East and West, Hong Kong ranks among the world’s most dynamic international capitals. A 21st century metropolis, it is a port city with a vast skyline rising above its bustling Victoria Harbour. In addition to the many museums, concert halls, and performance spaces, a vibrant melting pot of cultures makes Hong Kong a place of endlesArt Basel’s Hong Kong s exploration

Art Basel

Jeff Koons – Ballerinas, work in progress – Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating – 100 x 70 x 62 inches © Jeff Koons – Hall 2.0 / B15 – Courtesy Gagosian Gallery NY

From June 13 to June 16 2013 – Halls 1 and 2 of Messe Basel at Messeplatz.
Art Basel has been described as the ‘Olympics of the Art World’. Over 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa show the work of more than 4,000 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars.

Hermann Scherer Selbstbildnis in Landschaft, 1924 – 1926 Oil on canvas 109 x 89 cm – Hall 2.0/A3 – Courtesy of Galerie Carzaniga

The show’s individual sectors represent every artistic medium: paintings, sculpture, installations, videos, multiples, prints, photography, and performance. Each day offers a full program of events, including symposiums, films, and artist talks. Further afield, exhibitions and events are offered by cultural institutions in Basel and the surrounding area, creating an exciting, region-wide art week.

Art Basel

Bogoslowsky – astrobiology # 48 – 30” X 32” – Acrylic on canvas

From June 9 to July 29, 2013 – Elena Ab Gallery  – Tribeca, Manhattan, New York
COSMIC PASSION will feature work from the Cosmology Series of Andrey Bogoslowsky.
My fascination with the beauty of our Universe began in 2005,  when I first saw photographs from the Hubble telescope.  They were taken taken at long exposure, and reaching out to the deepest corners of the space. I realized that I also can create such clouds, and give them shapes familiar to us on Earth.  Soon I learned about possible origins of organic life elsewhere and that we, humans, are the results of four billion years of earthly transformation into complexity of our existence. The Universe is full of life and I, as an artist, can elaborate on this subject.  My paintings have become cosmic living symbols of humanity.

Bogoslowsky – Origins of life #732 – 50 X 40 – Acrylic on canvas

ELEMENTS is a series of paintings by Elena Ab that explore the physical and metaphysical building blocks of our world.

Elena Ab, Marilyn Monroe, 2013 – acrylic on canvas – gold and silver – 20″ X 28 “. (Detail)

Elena Ab was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russian Federation). As a child she left Russia for Jerusalem with her family. After being discharged from the Israeli Defense Forces, as a sergeant, she attended the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. In 2001, she moved to New York, and graduated with a BFA in painting from the School of Visual Arts (on a Scholarship Award). While still in school, she started 368 Broadway Studio, in Tribeca.

NYC by Elena at Alpha – 40 inch by 120 acrylic on canvas 2011

The Elena Ab Gallery Tribeca is a new addition to downtown Manhattan, located on 185 Church Street between Reed and Duane. The Gallery is located across from a bus stop, and is a short walk from Chambers Street Station that services the J, M and Z trains. A parking lot is located around the corner. Nestled on a street between many restaurants and shops, the gallery has quickly gained popularity in the community since the opening.

Elena Ab Gallery Tribeca

Edvard Munch – Madonna

May 19, 2013–July 28, 2013 – National Gallery of Art
This 150th birthday tribute to Edvard Munch (1863–1944), Norway’s most famed painter and printmaker, includes more than 20 renowned works from the Gallery’s collection, such as Geschrei (The Scream) (1895), The Madonna (1895, printed 1912/1913), and a unique series of six variant impressions, Two Women on the Shore (1898, printed 1906–c. 1917 or later). Munch is today revered for his passionate visual expression of intense human experiences. “Art is your heart’s blood,” he said. His most famous image—a screaming figure, its eyes wide with horror—is an icon of anxiety, alienation, and anguish. Attraction, love, jealousy, and death were also recurring themes. In addition to these dramatic subjects, Munch made many telling portraits, tender visions of women, as well as sensitive studies of lovers, children, and adolescents. However, the real power of his art lies less in his biography than in his ability to extrapolate universal human experiences from his own life. In recent decades the National Gallery of Art has presented three major exhibitions of Munch’s work, the last in 2010.

National Gallery of Art

Jim Shaw, Untitled (Faces in circle), 2009, oil on canvas, 152,4 x 152,4 cm., courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery, London/Hong Kong

From 8 June until 29 September, 2013 – Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – Submarine Wharf
This summer Klaas Kloosterboer, Chris Martin and Jim Shaw will transform the Submarine Wharf into a gigantic art studio.
In the months leading up to the opening, the artists will be busy at work in the wharf, creating the exhibition on site. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen wishes to demonstrate the resilience and energy of the art of painting with a true ‘battle of the Titans’ between the three artists:

The Amsterdam-based artist Klaas Kloosterboer can be seen as an ‘inventor’. He experiments constantly, altering the form and appearance of his paintings. The exhibition will include works from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, augmented with loans and new works. Chris Martin lives and works in New York and is the ‘savage painter’: he uses his energy to make each painting an explosion of colour and power. In ‘XXXL Painting’ he will exhibit thirty existing paintings, and in the weeks leading up to the opening he will work on a new painting measuring 13 x 10 metres. Jim Shaw, the ‘storyteller’ from Los Angeles completes the trio. He paints and draws in a figurative, sometimes cartoon-like style on old film sets. In the Submarine Wharf he will present these ‘backdrop’ paintings, some measuring 4 x 15 metres.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen