* Art & Design: Design Observer: Superheroes: Accidental Mysteries by John Foster

Art & Design: Design Observer: Superheroes: Accidental Mysteries by John Foster: “..a weekly cabinet of visual curiosities curated by John Foster, highlights images of design, art, architecture and ephemera brought to light by the magic of the digital age. This week’s focus is Superheroes..”  Magnificent..

image + article: John Foster, Accidental Mysteries, DesignObserver

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* Museum & Gallery Shows: That’s me – That’s not me. Cindy Sherman’s Early Works

Museum & Gallery Shows: That’s me – That’s not me. Cindy Sherman’s Early Works: At the Sammlung Verbund Vertical Gallery..”..For more than 35 years, Cindy Sherman (born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey) has been visualising a multitude of role models and female identities through the use of make-up, wigs, clothing, facial expression and gestures. Even as an adolescent, the artist loved to dress up. Contrary to general opinion, it is not the famous Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) that form her early work, but rather the photography that she created in Buffalo as early as 1975 until 1977. During these years, she elevated the game of transformation into an artistic concept and the result was numerous hitherto unknown works, featuring moments of theatre as well as of film.

In close collaboration with the artist, Gabriele Schor has academically researched the conceptual and performative beginnings of Cindy Sherman’s œuvre on behalf of SAMMLUNG VERBUND and is now publishing the “catalogue raisonné” of her early works, which is appearing in January 2012 in the Hatje Cantz publishing company, in German and English editions. The book is a collaboration between Cindy Sherman, SAMMLUNG VERBUND and Metro Pictures..”  27 January 2012-16 May 2012.  Formative, excellent..

image: Cindy Sherman, “Untitled”, 1975/Art News

nothingisinvisible@live.fr

* Museum & Gallery Shows: Lucien Freud – Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery

Museum & Gallery Shows: Lucien Freud – Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery, 9 February-27 May, 2012:  From the National Portrait Gallery: “Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011) was one of the most important and influential artists of his generation. Paintings of people were central to his work and this major exhibition, spanning over seventy years, is the first to focus on his portraiture.

Produced in close collaboration with the late Lucian Freud, the exhibition concentrates on particular periods and groups of sitters which illustrate Freud’s stylistic development and technical virtuosity. Insightful paintings of the artist’s lovers, friends and family, referred to by the artist as the ‘people in my life’, will demonstrate the psychological drama and unrelenting observational intensity of his work.

Featuring 130 works from museums and private collections throughout the world, some of which have never been seen before, this is an unmissable opportunity to experience the work of one of the world’s greatest artists.”

“I’ve always wanted to create drama in my pictures, which is why I paint people. It’s people who have brought drama to pictures from the beginning. The simplest human gestures tell stories.” (Lucien Freud)

Stunning.  Marvelous.  Corporeal.

image: Reflection (Self-portrait), 1985 by Lucien Freud, Private Collection, Ireland © The Lucian Freud Archive.  Courtesy Lucian Freud Archive, npg.org.uk

nothingisinvisible@live.fr

Museum & Gallery Shows: David Hockney – A Bigger Picture

Museum & Gallery Shows: David Hockney – A Bigger Picture: “..The Royal Academy of Arts presents the first major exhibition of new landscape works by David Hockney RA. Featuring vivid paintings inspired by the East Yorkshire landscape, these large-scale works have been created especially for the galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts.  ‘David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture’ spans a 50 year period to demonstrate Hockney’s long exploration and fascination with the depiction of landscape.  The exhibition includes a display of his iPad drawings and a series of new films produced using 18 cameras, which are displayed on multiple screens and provide a spellbinding visual journey through the eyes of David Hockney.”  21 January – 9 April 2012, Royal Academy of Arts, London.  Magnificent..

image: David Hockney, Winter Timber,  (2009), 2,74 x 6,09 m . (Jonathan Wilkinson)

Pop Rides the News Cycle – Andy Warhol as Precursor to Twitter & Facebook

Holland Cotter has written a superb and insightful article entitled “Pop Rides the News Cycle” in the Art & Design section of The New York Times, looking at the work, and person, of Andy Warhol, his gimlet-eyed perceptions of the integration of news, commerce and art, and two exhibitions currently on view in the U.S. capitol, “Warhol: Headlines” at the National Gallery of Art and (through 2 January 2012) “Andy Warhol: Shadows,” (through 15 January 2012) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.  Astounding.  Sharp, concise, deep, and clear.  A must-read, whether you can get to D.C. to view the shows, or not.

Excellent, but brief, slideshow, here.

Ndlr: scopophiliac, according to Wikipedia.

top image: Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/The New York Times

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