Helena Rubinstein show at The Jewish Museum opens Oct. 31

Even though I devote most of the blog posts to contemporary art events, I must include a note about an upcoming show, Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power, at the Jewish Museum in New York. Ms. Rubinstein collected some of the finest examples of African and Oceanic art as well as modern works, including paintings by Matisse and Picasso. The show will be a reunion of this sensational collection and an absolute must-see on the art calendar. I can't wait to view the African sculptures, especially the Senufo works, which are my favorite. The exhibition will be on view through March 22, 2015.

For more info.:
The Jewish Museum
1109 5th Ave. at 92nd St.
New York, NY 10128
info@thejm.org
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/helena-rubinstein-beauty-is-power

Pace Gallery Menlo Park & Anderson Collection

I'm excited about two openings in Northern California this week. Pace Gallery will open in Menlo Park on Thursday, September 18th, with A Brief History of Pace, which will be on view through December 13th. On Sunday, September 21st, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, which is just a couple of miles down the road from Pace, will open to the public. Timed tickets are required for the Anderson and tickets are still available online for opening day. See you there!

Pace Gallery Menlo Park
300 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
http://www.pacegallery.com/menlopark


Anderson Collection at Stanford
http://anderson.stanford.edu/visit

Alternatives to NY art fairs this weekend

Do you want to avoid or take a break from the New York art fair circus? You can see extraordinary art throughout the city this weekend without attending any of the fairs.

Here are a few of the highlights at the galleries:

1. Robert Rauschenberg at Craig Starr and Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl. Starr hits another home run with this sharp show.  

http://www.starr-art.com/

http://www.joniweyl.com/_exhibitions/2014/RR%20Hoarfrost/Rauschenberg%20Hoarfrost%20Editions%201974.html 

2. Santiago Calatrava at Marlborough, 40 W. 57th. His buildings are great art. This must-see show explores Calatrava's creative virtuosity with ceramics, sculptures and paintings. 

http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/exhibitions/santiago-calatrava

3. Pierre Soulages at Dominique Levy. Soulages is a living legend. Start on the third floor to view the historical works. 

http://www.dominique-levy.com/exhibitions/pierre-soulages

4. Ed Ruscha at Gagosian, 980 Madison Ave. 

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/ed-ruscha--may-08-2014

At the auction houses, you can view the upcoming Post-War & Contemporary sales. 

http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?intSaleID=24436

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2014/contemporary-art-evening-sale-n09141.html

http://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010314

Follow me on Twitter: @arttravelsavvy. 

Final week to view Georgia O'Keeffe show at de Young in SF

Modern Nature: Georgia O'Keeffe and Lake George will close this Sunday, May 11th. You can order timed tickets at https://tickets.famsf.org/public. 

Museum hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Exhibition info.:

http://deyoung.famsf.org/press-room/modern-nature-georgia-o-keeffe-and-lake-george

Inoue Yuichi at Erik Thomsen Gallery opens tomorrow

Calligraphy by Inoue Yuichi will open tomorrow at Erik Thomsen Gallery in NY. Don't miss it!

View the exhibition's catalogue:
http://www.erikthomsen.com/content/pdf/2014-yuichi-catalog.pdf

Erik Thomsen Gallery
23 E. 67th St.
New York, NY 10065
Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (May 10 & May 17)

Exhibition will be on view through June 13, 2014.

Pierre Soulages exhibition in New York

I have admired the work of Pierre Soulages for many years. His paintings from the 1950s and 1960s, when he was close friends with the AbEx group, are strong, raw, powerful, and elegant.
I was excited to hear about an upcoming exhibition of 14 new paintings by Soulages, who is now 94, and a group of his postwar works at Dominique Lévy in New York. The show will be a collaboration with Galerie Perrotin, which shares the same building at 909 Madison Avenue. The exhibition will open on April 24th.
Other Soulages news: the Musée Soulages will open in late May in Rodez, France, the artist's birthplace, and a new book, Soulages in America, will be distributed by D.A.P.

For more info. about the Soulages exhibition:
http://www.dominique-levy.com/exhibitions/pierre-soulages

One of my favorite paintings by Soulages, 6 Juin 1959, is in LACMA's collection:
http://collections.lacma.org/node/235111

Pace Gallery will open temporary space in Silicon Valley this week

Is Silicon Valley an emerging contemporary art market? Pace Gallery will find out when it opens a temporary space in Menlo Park, California this Wednesday, April 16th. Two shows will be on view during the pop-up's 11-week run. Alexander Calder: The Art of Invention will be on display through May 13th and followed by Tara Donovan: Untitled from May 22nd through June 30th.

http://www.pacegallery.com/menlopark/exhibitions/12664/the-art-of-invention

Free First Saturdays for Families at the New Museum

Bring your family and explore your artistic proclivities at the New Museum in New York on the first Saturday of each month! First Saturdays are free for families from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and the museum always incorporates an educational component specifically designed for families with children from three to ten years of age. Up to two adults are included in the free admission and tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. No advanced registration is required. Children under 18 are always admitted free.

This Saturday, April 5th, you will be able to add your creative touches to Pawel Althamer's enormous installation, Draftmen's Congress, on the museum's fourth floor. Your drawings and paintings will become part of the piece. In addition, educators will lead tours of the current shows from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

For more information:
http://www.newmuseum.org/calendar/view/first-saturdays-for-families-pawel-althamer-s-draftsmen-s-congress

Turrell at LACMA closes this Sunday

If you have not had an opportunity to view James Turrell: A Retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, you can still try to get a ticket before it closes this Sunday, April 6th. Reservations are no longer available, but if you join as a first-time member at the museum's ticket office, you may be able to get a ticket.
For more information:
http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/james-turrell-retrospective

Bill Viola at the Grand Palais

I was excited to hear about Bill Viola's new show at the Grand Palais in Paris featuring his work from 1977 through the present. The pioneering video artist is based in Long Beach, California and creates mesmerizing large projection installations and moving paintings. The exhibition will be on view through July 21, 2014.

I loved the Getty Museum's 2003 show of Viola's work, which included The Passions and Five Angels for the Millennium, and enjoyed seeing it multiple times with my friends. It was fascinating to observe the facial expressions of the museum visitors as they experienced his work because his pieces were so powerful in the way that they drew the audience into the slow moving and intense images.

For more information about the Paris show:
http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/bill-viola

Fujiko Nakaya at Philip Johnson's Glass House

It looks like this will be a cool show at Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, CT.
http://theglasshouse.org/visit/exhibitions/fujikonakaya/
Fujiko Nakaya: Veil will be on view May 1-November 30, 2014.
The house will open for tours this year on May 1st and you can book a tour online or by phone now. If you have not visited the house, I highly recommend that you book the extended tour.  https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/419/
Enjoy!

Burri, Marca-Relli, Twombly, Judd, Warhol at Mnuchin Gallery

How often do you read an email about the opening of an art show and immediately think about how you absolutely must view it the following day? Not very often. Well, this happened to me last evening.
In their latest exhibition, Black | White, the superlative Mnuchin Gallery has assembled a stunning lineup of paintings, sculptures, and drawings, including works by Burri, Marca-Relli, Calder, Twombly, Ryman, Judd, Stella, Guston, and Warhol. Six decades of postwar art in a beautiful space. Any show with Burri and Marca-Relli cannot be missed!
I don't know how I can squeeze a visit to the gallery into my schedule today, but I'm going to make it happen.

The Mnuchin Gallery
45 E. 78th St.
New York, NY 10075
http://www.mnuchingallery.com
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.
Black | White is on view through March 22, 2014.

Judd, Flavin, Sandback print show at David Zwirner opens today

A group show of prints by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and Fred Sandback opens at the David Zwirner Gallery today and will run through March 1, 2014. I'm excited to see this exhibition because of its investigation of the printmaking techniques of these artists, who are mostly recognized for their three dimensional pieces. Sandback is one of my favorites and Dia:Beacon has some of his best works on permanent display.

David Zwirner Gallery
534 W. 20th St.
New York, NY 10011
http://www.davidzwirner.com

Dia:Beacon
http:diabeacon.org

The Chelsea gallery scene: December, 2013

The gallery scene in Chelsea this month is utterly dismal. If you want to see truly bad art at blue-chip galleries, this is the time to go. Sonnabend is the worst. Even Lalanne's sheep at the Getty Station on 10th Avenue have moved on. The only highlights are Richard Serra at Gagosian, Hans Hofmann at Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe, and one Sean Scully painting, Landline Pink, at Cheim & Read. Skip the rest. Come back next year.

Remember Pearl Harbor

2 Extraordinary Jewelry Exhibitions: JAR in NYC & Bulgari in SF

Even though I usually write about contemporary art, I wanted to highlight two extraordinary jewelry exhibitions which are on view in the U.S. right now. In New York, Jewels by JAR just opened at the Met. In San Francisco, The Art of Bulgari: La Dolce Vita & Beyond, 1950-1990 will be on display at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park through March 9, 2014.

http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/jewels-by-jar

http://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/art-bulgari-la-dolce-vita-beyond-1950-1990

Robert Mangold at Pace Prints

The Robert Mangold show at Pace Prints is an exquisite gem of new and historical works. The prints from his new series, Framed Square with Open Center A and B, 2013, are featured along with the Attic Series.
For over two decades, I have admired Mangold for his dexterity in creating paintings and prints that are beautifully complex in their architectural virtuosity, form and color. The quietly powerful aesthetic of a master painter and printmaker is again on display in this Pace exhibition. See the show before it closes on November 30th!

Pace Prints
32 E. 57th St., 3rd Fl.
New York, NY 10022
http://www.paceprints.com/2013/robert-mangold

Who will join the Balloon Dog Club this week?

This Tuesday, November 12th, Christie's will offer Balloon Dog (Orange), which has an estimate of $35 million to $55 million. Jeff Koons created five balloon dogs in this series and the future owner will join an elite club of collectors.
Also pay close attention to the Francis Bacon triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, and Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild (809-1), which are both "estimate on request" and in the same evening sale.
If you need a break from the auction house madness, go see the Ad Reinhardt show at David Zwirner (see previous post).

Ad Reinhardt at David Zwirner

There is so much great art to view this month in NYC. However, one show is truly exceptional: Ad Reinhardt at David Zwirner. The superlative display of Reinhardt's black paintings, which have not been on view together since the '91 retro at MOMA, is sensational. Today, Robert Storr, the curator of the show, gave a tour of the exhibition, which also includes cartoons and photographic slides. Chuck Close was in attendance as well as the artist's widow and a former student. Storr, who is one of the most influential art historians and curators in the U.S., encouraged the art crowd to view the paintings more than once to truly absorb their magnificence. The show is on view through December 18, 2013. Do not miss it.

David Zwirner
537 W. 20th St.
New York, NY 10011
http://davidzwirner.com

Must-see Chelsea art shows: October, 2013

John McCracken: Works from 1963-2011
David Zwirner
537 W. 20th St.
on view through October 19, 2013
http://www.davidzwirner.com

Damián Ortega
Gladstone Gallery
530 W. 21st St.
on view through October 26, 2013
http://www.gladstonegallery.com

Robert Ryman: Recent Paintings
Irving Penn: On Assignment
Pace Gallery
508 & 510 W. 25th St.
on view through October 26, 2013
http://www.pacegallery.com

Upcoming: Richard Serra opens at Gagosian on October 26, 2013.
http://www.gagosian.com