Last Days to See the Malcolmson Collection

Man Ray, Ady, c.1930, gelatin silver print

This Sunday, December 20th, is the last day of The Malcomson Collection at Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver. Harry and Ann Malcolmson, from Toronto, have amassed a large collection over the past twenty-five years, going from vintage and historic to contemporary. Several notable photographers can be found among the 110 photographs and objects. Some of the artists included in the show are Tina Modotti, Robert Frank, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, André Kertész, Edward Weston, Alfred Steiglitz, and our local Scott McFarland.

Leonardo da Vinci at Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery just announced that will show, for the first time in history the full collection of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings from the Anatomical Manuscript. Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man will be presented from February 6 to March 2, 2010 – during the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. During the 17 days of the games, the show will be free to the public.

Elizabeth Zvonar at CAG – Vancouver

Channeling, 2009

Until January 10th you still can see the works of Vancouver-based Elizabeth Zvonar at the CAG. She graduated from Emily Car Institute (now University) in 2001 and got some good venues showing her work since. This exhibition, called On Time, explores the connections between Cubism and rubber bands (!) as metaphors for time. This particular collage, Channeling, reminds me of this.

Skull Cool

A quick selection of contemporary art skulls. Starting, of course, by Damein Hirst’s For the Love of God but going all the way to a Teddy Bear skull.
Do you know of any others?

Damien Hirst

Gabriel Orozco

Jim Skull

Laurent Massaloux

Piotr Uklanski

Stephanie Metz

Christmas Wish List (of Art Books) – part 2

This one is a little bit extravagant: US$480 at Amazon. Vincent Van Gogh: The Letters is a six-volume slipcased set featuring more than 2,000 works and 4,300 illustrations with every known letter to or from Van Gogh. London’s Sunday Times rated it as being “Intense, relentless, gossipy, utterly fascinating”.

Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting weights six and a half pounds – that gives you an idea of how extensive this survey is. Legendary critic and curator Bob Nickas selected 80 artists to be included and gives each one three to four pages of color illustrations and a short essay.

The Philadelphia Museum  of Art is showing the first large retrospective of Arshile Gorky and the book that accompanies the show is a beauty. Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective is a 400-page book that covers the evolution of his style through more than 200 paintings and several essays. If you also want the gossip, try this month’s Vanity Fair for a peek on Gorky’s romantic life.

Emily Carr’s Legendary Student Art Sale

photo by blumpy via flickr

This a hot sale for Vancouver’s art lovers and a great chance to find artsy stock-stuffers. Buy directly from Emily Carr’s up-and-coming artists and designers. Over 100 artists will be showing their goodies from November 27 to 29.
More information here.

Christmas Wish List (of Art Books) – part I

I have been browsing Amazon in search of the new art books releases and thought of sharing with you my picks. I started by going to Phaidon and Taschen websites but I wonder if anybody still buys from them when you can get the same products for, some times, half the price.

Let’s start with a basic. Marcel Duchamp is so fundamental for anybody interested  in contemporary art (and for the contemporary art itself) that I can’t stay any longer without a book about his work. The first original installation of Étant Donnés is celebrating 40 years and this book was published to accompany the first major exhibition on the artwork and its studies.

This makes for a romantic gift. Georgia O’Keeffe Abstraction includes unpublished letters between the painter and Alfred Stieglitz whom she married in 1924. Starting with abstraction as early as 1915 she was one of America’s first abstractionists.

 

Still being offered only in pre-order, Anish Kapoor (hardcover) by David Anfam is the most comprehensive monograph on the artist with over 500 photographs and a chronology covering the sculptor’s life in detail. And here a link to Kapoor’s one-work-exhibition at New York’s Guggenheim.

Chiharu Shiota – Flowing Water

Chiharu Shiota, Flowing Water,  2009

Isn’t this a stunning work of art? I find it difficult to get emotion from installations, but Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota got the right mix of brains and heart. It is water falling on the beds and it has the extra effect of ambient sound of cascading water. Browse Shiota’s website for more moments of clever beauty.
Seen on designboom.

Artnet’s Faces & Figures Photographs Sale

Bert Stern – Marilyn Monroe: from The Last Sitting (“I beg of you”)

Artnet will be featuring a special sale of 375 photographs until November 19th. It may be your chance to fetch a Cecil Beaton or a Doisneau for $500. The auction includes portraits of some of the most unforgettable faces of the 20th-21st century by legendary photographers. Bert Stern figures with Marilyn Monroe luminous portraits from the “Last Sitting”.

Yousuf Karsh – Georgia O’Keefe – circa 1956

John Baldessari

Hands and/or Feet (Part One): Snake / Hanging Person, 2009

John Baldessari’s Hands and/or Feet (Part One) series can be seen until November 28th at Marian Goodman Gallery. If Paris is not on your plans for this month, Tate Channel has a great interview with the artist.

Hands and/or Feet (Part One): Piglet / Hands (One Green), 2009