A George II red lacquered secretary consigned by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta sold for an astounding $207,400 at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. The secretary, decorated with a pierced carved crest and Chinoiserie figures and motifs, was donated to the High Museum in 1961. Thirteen telephone bidders vied for the lot before a British dealer bidding in the saleroom won the lot with a raise of the eyebrows. Also deaccessioned from the High Museum was an important 19th century silver and ... Read More

Whether documenting city life or responding to the awe-inspiring qualities of nature, artists constantly revisit the subject of their surroundings. Open through April 11, 2010, “Town and Country: Urban and Rural Scenes from RAM’s Collection” features selected artworks from the Racine Art Museum’s permanent collection that provide a lively sampling of different points of view expressed by nearly 100 individuals portraying the world around them. Presenting pieces created ... Read More

For the first time, works by Dubuffet, Miró and Basquiat are shown together, giving voice to the primal symbols that characterize their works in personalized types of graffiti that exist in a timeless, unidentifiable space. In the work of these artists, signs and color erupt in a free association of structure and rhythm; the mysterious act of painting is shown as wild and free, yet also very exacting. The artists do not share generation nor culture, but they do share a confrontational ... Read More

Baltimore Fair for Contemporary Prints & New Edition This spring, the Baltimore Museum of Art brings 14 galleries, dealers, and presses from around the U.S. for The Baltimore Fair for Contemporary Prints & New Editions. This biennial event held on Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28, from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. offers works by leading contemporary artists and innovators in printmaking for sale in the BMA’s special exhibition galleries. The weekend fair also features a talk ... Read More

Jim Young, chairman of Joslyn Art Museum’s board of governors, announced that Jack F. Becker, Ph.D., has accepted the position as executive director of Joslyn Art Museum. Dr. Becker, 46, comes to Joslyn from Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has served as president and chief executive officer since 2005. He joined Cheekwood in 2002 as vice president/director of its art museum. Prior to that, Dr. Becker worked as curator of the Florence ... Read More

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art holds numerous works by important Italian artists several of which are presently on show. Gino Severini is represented by one of his famous Futurist paintings from c. 1915, the portrait of Mrs. Meyer-See, a socialite and the wife of a well-known London art dealer, as well as by Dancers at Monico’s (c. 1910), reflecting the influence of Neo-Impressionism, and Still Life with Mandolin (1918), a characteristic example of his variant of Cubism. Giorgio de ... Read More

WAUSAU, WISCONSIN: Las Artes de Mexico, opening January 30 at the Woodson Art Museum, celebrates the rich and diverse artistic history of Mexico. Through more than 120 works, the exhibition traces over 3000 years of art and culture, from the ancient worlds of the Mayans and Aztecs to twentieth-century pieces by well-known modernists including Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. The exhibition remains on view through April 11. Mexican culture is a mosaic of traditions. Art of the ... Read More

Franz Ackermann was born in Neumarkt St. Veit (Bavaria) in 1963 is one of the most innovative painters of the past ten years. Since 2001 this internationally acclaimed artist has also been employed as a professor at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. Time and time again, he manages to make an impression with his room filling and extremely colourful pictures, drawings and installations which effortlessly combine elements of globalised society with apparently purely ... Read More

National Museum Wales is delighted to announce its acquisition of Crazy Gondolier (1960), a bright, jubilant painting by Scottish artist Alan Davie. The work was acquired with the generous support of the Derek Williams Trust (£30,000) and The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity (£20,000). Alan Davie – Crazy Gondolier (1960) Music is a theme which is often reflected in Davie’s work. He was a jazz musician and his spontaneous, energetic abstract paintings ... Read More

The Art Fund has helped Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology buy an important work by one of the pre-eminent artists of Papua New Guinea. Biting the Doctor’s Arm by Mathias Kauage was acquired for £25,000 with a £9,000 grant from The Art Fund. Biting the Doctor’s Arm by Mathias Kauage Mathias Kauage (c.1944 – 2003) was one of the founding figures of modern art in the Pacific, and remains to date the most internationally celebrated Papua New Guinean artist to ... Read More

Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia in partnership with the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma was recently awarded a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for the exhibition and catalogue of Art Interrupted: Advancing American Art and the Politics of Cultural Diplomacy. The Georgia Museum of Art will publish a catalogue of the exhibition featuring essays by ... Read More

Photo department announces debut exhibition and Robert Adams retrospective Exposure: Photos from the Vault opens April 30, 2010, in the newly remodeled Anthony and Delisa Mayer Photography Gallery on the 7th floor of the North Building. The renovated space will host the first exhibition of the department of photography at the Denver Art Museum (DAM), featuring a diverse selection from the 7,000-object collection including works by Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Chuck Close, Alfred Stieglitz ... Read More

WAUSAU, WISCONSIN: Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia and their caregivers can now participate in SPARK!, a new and free program at the Woodson Art Museum that uses paintings and sculptures to stimulate meaningful conversation followed by an opportunity to be creative. According to education curators Jayna Hintz and Erin Narloch, SPARK! is designed for two distinct groups: individuals with memory loss who live at home and those living in long-term care. ... Read More

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of L’Entrée au Jardin Turc (The Entrance to the Turkish Garden) by Louis-Léopold Boilly, one of the few important paintings by the artist still in private hands. Crisply painted in glowing colors and teeming with anecdotal detail, Boilly’s picture transports viewers to the heart of Napoleonic Paris, outside the entrance to the city’s most celebrated café, the Jardin Turc. Located in the Marais at 28, boulevard du Temple, the ... Read More

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced a gift of 52 photographs by acclaimed Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902–2002) from his compelling work in Mexico from the 1920s to the 1970s. The photographs are a gift from Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser of Los Angeles, who have continued their tradition of generous giving to the Getty since 2000, bolstering the Museum’s already stellar holdings of photographs by the artist to 247. Over the past ten years, the Getty ... Read More