Christie’s (November 26, 2023) – Rembrandt House Museum Specialist Tim Schmelcher and Head of Collections, Epco Runia, discover more about Rembrandt’s life in Amsterdam, in particular his printmaking.
Then a more detailed look at the Sam Josefowitz Collection of Rembrandt prints – the most comprehensive and impressive in private hands – as we examine some of the highlights of these graphic masterpieces.
On 7 December 2023, Christie’s will be offering a selection of these prints across two sales in London: Old Masters Part I and The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn.
Christie’s (November 23, 2023) – Immerse yourself in a dreamlike vision of Canaletto’s Venice where the floating city of the 1700s appears strikingly unchanged centuries later. Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto (1697-1768), was born and died in Venice.
Did Canaletto paint these paired views of Venice for the Countess of Essex?
Home for most of his life, the city was also the artistic subject that dominated his career. Canaletto helped establish the veduta — or topographical view — as one of the chief genres of Venetian painting in the 18th century, as well as a prime export. A pair of vedute by Canaletto, unknown to scholars until now, will lead the Old Masters Part I sale at Christie’s in London on 7 December 2023, as part of Classic Week.
Coming from a private collection, these masterpieces were painted around 1734, when Canaletto was at the peak of his powers, almost certainly for an English patron.
ERIC MINH SWENSON ART FILM (September 3, 2023) – Jodi Bonassi is a Los Angeles native and a professional artist who for over 3 decades has explored nature and the environment. The works often include animals so the transition to the bird series was a smooth one.
The Museum of Modern Art and HIstory in the MOAH Cedar Annex gave her a solo exhibit “Bird By Bird” in February 2022. The birds have led to many other exhibition opportunities.
“I think of myself as a drawing informed painter. This means that I mainly draw my images beforehand and during the painting process. My desire to contribute to society on a deeper level drives me in the nature series to create narrative stories around my birds. I wish to connect humans to nature and to each other. Even in nature I desire to record history and people and how we all connect to nature. It is important to preserve our wildlife and question the environment that humans create.”
The Huntington Library (August 9, 2023) – A David Hockney in The Huntington’s venerable European art gallery? Yes, visitors can view the large and striking Tree on Woldgate, 6 March (2006), which depicts the serene Yorkshire countryside where the renowned artist grew up.
You can see fields in the distance and, in the center, a leafless tree with branches that twist and turn in an almost snakelike manner. The painting comes from a period in Hockney’s career when he created a series of plein air landscapes around his hometown.
David Hockney, Self-Portrait with Red Braces, 2003
The painting hangs in conversation with John Constable’s monumental View on the Stour Near Dedham(1822). While the two works were created more than 180 years apart, their inspiration comes from the same source—childhood surroundings—and they both convey a sense of place and nostalgia.
One of the most famous British artists of the 20th century, Hockney emerged as a major contributor to the 1960s pop art movement and has had a multifaced career as a painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. He is perhaps best known for his acrylic paintings of bright swimming pools, split-level homes, and suburban California landscapes.
In 2022, The Huntington acquired its first Hockney works: 17 works on paper that include an artist book, drawings, prints, photocollages, and watercolors. These works display an intimate side of Hockney—like the self-portrait of the artist in red suspenders, bent over a table and peering over his wire-rimmed glasses, paintbrush in hand. His blue eyes, gazing straight at the viewer, create an immediate intimacy.
Christie’s (July 10, 2023) – Iconic British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, in his legendary chock-full studio, talks about bringing out “Picasso’s playful side” in a stylish new exhibition at the Musée National Picasso-Paris: Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light.
Sir Paul Smith, guest artistic director at the Musée National Picasso-Paris.
It is fifty years since Pablo Picasso died, on 8 April 1973 at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, his home in Mougins. The body of work that he left behind had a profound impact on the entire 20th century.
For this anniversary year, the Musée National Picasso-Paris has invited the British designer Sir Paul Smith, known for his work with colour, tailoring and unexpected details, to lead the artistic direction of an exceptional exhibition showcasing the museum’s collection.
Christie’s (May 11, 2023) – From Zhang Daqian’s atmospheric masterpiece ‘Ancient Temple in Misty Mountain’ to Qiu Ying’s ‘Celestial Mountains and Pavilions’, a rare and exquisite painting that belonged to the personal collection of Zhang Daqian, enter the beautiful world of Zhang Daqian as an artist and a collector.
Works by Zhang Daqian at Sotheby’s
Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter.
Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic (March 20, 2023) – From post-war Paris and New York, through swinging London, to the free spirits of Tehran and Beijing. Kunsthalle Praha explores the idea of bohemia.
David Kordansky Gallery (March 18, 2023) is pleased to present Paths Crossed, an exhibition of new paintings by Hilary Pecis, on view in Los Angeles at 5130 W. Edgewood Pl. from March 18 through April 22, 2023.
Hilary Pecis Frog Town Pear Blossoms, 2023
Pecis creates drawings and paintings inspired by the interior, exterior, and inter-spaces that surround her daily life. For her first exhibition with David Kordansky Gallery, the artist presents a selection of lush, saturated landscapes reflecting the mountainous, desert, and urban landscapes commonly associated with Southern California.
National Gallery of Art – Joan Miró finished “The Farm,” his first masterpiece, 100 years ago. To celebrate, curator Harry Cooper and Joan Punyet Miró, Miró’s grandson, get together to tell the tale of this seminal painting from their perches at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and Miró’s farm in Mont-roig del Camp, Spain. From Pablo Picasso in Paris to Earnest Hemingway in Cuba, you won’t want to miss the epic journey of Miró and his beloved “The Farm.”
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, was established in his adoptive city of Palma in 1981.
England, under the volatile Tudor dynasty, was a thriving home for the arts. An international community of artists and merchants, many of them religious refugees, navigated the high-stakes demands of royal patrons, including England’s first two reigning queens. Against the backdrop of shifting political relationships with mainland Europe, Tudor artistic patronage legitimized, promoted, and stabilized a series of tumultuous reigns, from Henry VII’s seizure of the throne in 1485 to the death of his granddaughter Elizabeth I in 1603.
The Tudor courts were truly cosmopolitan, boasting the work of Florentine sculptors, German painters, Flemish weavers, and Europe’s best armorers, goldsmiths, and printers, while also contributing to the emergence of a distinctly English style. Join Elizabeth Cleland, Curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and Adam Eaker, Associate Curator in the Department of European Paintings, to explore The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England, which traces the transformation of the arts in Tudor England through more than 100 objects—including iconic portraits, spectacular tapestries, manuscripts, sculpture, and armor—from both The Met collection and international lenders.