"L'Atelier" - Lucian Freud at the Centre Pompidou

Since the last retrospective, presented by the Centre Pompidou in 1987, the works of Lucian Freud haven't been exhibited in France.
Now the Centre Pompidou pays a tribute to the artist through a remarkable overview of his masterpieces.
Consisted of nearly fifty large-sized paintings, together with a selection of graphic works and photographs of Lucian's studio in London, the exhibition is arranged upon the theme of the artist's studio, a space of the most important influence in the development of Lucian Freud's activity.
Occupying an area of nearly 900m2, "L'atelier" shows the "Large Interiors" (full-size compositions), his series of self-portraits, variations on former masters and the recent portraits of Leigh Bowery and Sue Tilley (Big Sue) who posed as a model for the famous painting "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping", which set a world record for a living artist at Christie's N.Y. for $33.6 million in 2008.
Now at the 88 years of age, Lucian Freud approaches the nude in its most straightforward expression. His works are realistic representations of people, each of them meticulously painted with a unique dedication.
The exhibition runs from March 10 through July 19, 2010, between 11h00 and 21h00 (Thursdays until 11 pm Ticket office closes at 10 pm)

Raphael's "The Woman with the Veil" at the Milwaukee Art Museum

From March 27 through June 6, 2010, the visitors to the Milwaukee Art Museum will have the rare opportunity to see one of the most celebrated paintings from the Italian Renaissance and once considered the world's most famous painting, loaned by the Pitti Palace in Florence (Italy)

Completed c. 1516 (four years before the artist's death at 37 years of age) by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael), "The Woman with the Veil" (La Donna Velata) features the portrait of young beautiful woman who's veil suggests an engagement.

Art historians have often identified this woman as a patron’s bride and as a Raphael’s mistress, for she appears as a model in many of the artist's most important works.

Made possible by the Foundation for Italian Art & Culture in New York and organized by the Portland Art Museum, this exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities and counts with the additional support from the Fine Arts Society.

This Original Oil Painting Can Be Yours

Every month this blog offers an original free painting to one of its subscribers.

After contacting the winner, who didn't answer the e-mail and the second winner who kindly turned down the prize, The Art Inquirer has decided to make it available to the general public.

The original oil panting will be sent to the reader who writes the first comment on this article, stating that wishes to receive the painting for free, with the compromise of paying $5 (five dollars) for postage expenses, via Paypal.

The value of the postage is valid worldwide.

In the event of no one claiming this painting until March 31, 2010, it will be placed for sale at regular price in the Hushcolours Etsy shop.

Artspan Welcomes Boundless Gallery Members

Artspan has announced that has reached an agreement to acquirer nearly 800 members coming from Boundless Gallery, which has discontinued its activity.
Under its terms, Artpspan, through its services, will honor the dollar value of existing BoundlessGallery.com member contracts as of February 28, 2010, the last day on which the e-commerce site and provider of artist web sites operated.
Full-featured Artspan websites will be provided at not cost, for up to a year or more in some cases.
Upon the agreement of each member, Artspan will import the images and other data from their BoundlessGallery.com websites to their new ones at Artspan.
Artspan.com was founded in 1999 by the artist and entrepreneur Eric Sparre.

"Pintar ? Porque Sim !" - Young Artists Exhibition

Following its tradition as a cultural space with the objective bringing artists and public together, the Círculo das Letras bookstore (Lisbon, Portugal), will present from March 26th (7 pm) through the 10th of April 2010, the exhibition "Pintar ? Porque Sim !"

With the collaboration of the Oficina de Cores e Pintores, the exhibition will show works from 36 young artists.

Public Sculptures in Charlottesville, Virginia Call for Artists

Visited by nearly 500,000 tourists each year, Charlottesville is going to become the stage of public sculptures, in an event organized by ArtInPlace (Charlottesville, VA), with the support of the City's Council.
Areas of high vehicular traffic have been selected and although the organizer is looking essentially for large works, established locations along Schenk's Branch Greenway, where a pedestrian path paralles McIntire Road, permit the view of smaller sculptures.
This event is open to artists working independently or in group, who should submit the requested elements, which include title, medium and dimensions, together with photos or a labeled CD of images (jpg files with 72 dpi and an overall dimension of 1920 x 1920), method of installation, a short statement about each work and of course the available contacts, including a website if applicable.
The selected artists, in a number between six and ten, are required to carry general liability insurance and eventually property insurance if found necessary.
Contracts will be executed with each artist who will receive an honorarium in the value of $1500, as well as appropriate online biography and work description, availability of other works for sale and a link to the website based upon information made available by the artist.
In addition, the sculptors will have their works published in the local media.
Each installation will be in place from October 2010 to September 2011
The deadline is July 1, 2010 and the selected artists will be notified by August 15, 2010.
After a brief phone call, The Art Inquirer is able to inform that this call is open to artists worldwide, although of course the inherent expenses may pose an obstacle to the participation.

"Os Pequenos Lugares" - A Watercolour Exhibition by Paulo J. Mendes

Paulo J. Mendes is a portuguese watercolourist living in Matosinhos.

His works convey imaginary places based upon the traditional architecture, landscape, transportation and people from Portugal, namely in the North of the country.

Through his art, the artist revives the day-by-day of people and places, either lost in time or forgoten by most,while contributing to the awareness of how important is to protect our historical patrimony and ways.

From the 3rd through the 21st of April, 2010, over twenty works, completed between last year's September and this month, will be exhibited at the Quasiloja in the city of Oporto (Portugal), the artist's birthplace.

This is the first time that these watercolours are exhibited to the public and as a reader of The Art Inquirer, you have the opportunity to see one of them first hand.

With the title "Os Pequenos Lugares" (The Little Places), this watercolour exhibition looks quite promissing due the the quality of the works that Paulo Mendes has made us used to.

In the Presence of Things. Four Centuries of European Still-Life Painting. Part One: 17th - 18th Centuries

Organized by the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the first of its kind in Portugal, the exhibition In The Presence of Things - Four Centuries of European Still-Life Painting (Part One: 17th - 18th Centuries) brings to the public 71 paintings, many of them loaned by famous museums worldwide, such as the Louvre (Paris), The Metropolitan (N.Y.), Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge, Museo del Prado (Madrid), National Gallery of Art (Washington), Mauritshuis (Hage) and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)
The depiction of the still-life theme, with its inherent differences between countries, can be appreciated through subjects such as fruit, game, cabinet of curiosities, trompe-l'oeil and vanitas.

In this first part of the exhibition, visitors will have the chance to see works by renowned names such as Antonio de Pereda, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Jean Siméon Chardin, Juan van der Hamen, Juan Zurbarán,Nicolaes Gillis, Luis de Meléndez and Rembrandt van Rjin.

The curatorship is supervised by the Prof. Peter Cherry ( Chief of the Art History and Architecture department from the Trinity College of Dublin, Irish Republic) who is a specialist in spanish and italian still-lifes and counts with the colaboration of Dr. John John Loughman for the dutch, flemish and german paintings and Dr. Lesley Stevenson for the french paintings.

Prof. Neil Cox (Essex University) will colaborate in the second part of the exhibition, selecting and composing the texts about the still-life of the 20th century.
The first part of In The Presence of Things runs through May 2, 2010 at the Temporary Exhibition Gallery of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Lisbon, Portugal).
The second part, representing the 19th and 20th centuries, will be shown to the public from October 21, 2011 through January 8, 2012.

Painting: "Smoking Kit With a Drinking Pot" by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (Musée du Louvre)

Exclusive Study Trip to Art Basel 2010 (Christie's Education, New York)

Christie's Education (N.Y.) will offer to a limited number of 15 participants an exclusive curated study trip to the 41 edition of Art Basel (Switzerland) and to the city of Zurich.
The trip, with a cost of $6,375 (excluding airfare) will take place between 12 and 17 of June, 2010, with most boutique hotel accommodations, transportation in Switzerland and most meals included (some of them in the company of art professionals)
Art Basel is a reference in the international contemporary art scene and participants will be given the chance to share opinions with gallerists, visit galleries, museums, artists' studios and private collections.
This study trip organized by Christie's Education, New York, includes in its highlights an exclusive entrance to the opening Vernissage of Art 41 Basel, an afternoon tea at the Les Trois Rois 5-star hotel and dinner at the historic Kronenhalle, a meeting point for actors, painters and writers.
Also part of the special events is a visit to the Fondation Beyeler to view works by Giacometti, Lichtenstein and Rothko.
Participants will be accompanied by a Christie's Education faculty member and frequent contributor to Art in America.

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 The Exhibition

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is showing through August 22, 2010, the selected portraits from the competition named after Virginia Outwin Boochever (1920–2005), a former Portrait Gallery volunteer whose generous gift has endowed this program.
Opened to professional artists (emerging and midcareer) with 18 years of age and over, living and working in the USA, the competition was juried online on a first stage to select the semifinalists, whose works were then selected on-site after being transported to Washington at the gallery's expense.
From more than 3,300 entries, only 49 works are included in this 2009 exhibition, representing the best in portraiture made by artists in the USA.
The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is a triennial event that accepts all visual arts media and the winner receives a cash award of $25,000 and is awarded a separate commission to portray a remarkable living American for the Portrait Gallery's collection.

Image on top: "Laura" by Dave Woody (Fort Collins, Colorado) - Grand Prize Winner

MONSTRA Lisbon Animated Film Festival - 2010

Created in the year of 2000 with the objective of showing to the public the best of animated films worlwide and promoting the interaction between artists of several areas, the MONSTRA 2010 takes place in the city of Lisbon from 11th to 21st of March 2010.
The event includes retrospectives, workshops and the Monstrinha (dedicated to children).
In parallel with the animation festival, there's a short film competition between students worldwide, while the professional one alternates every year between short and feature films.

artbygenève 2010

Organized by Palexpo SA, the 19th edition of the international art fair artbygenève will take place from Wednesday 28th April to Sunday 2nd May 2010, between 11am and 8pm (Entrance for artbygenève is free on April 28 2010) in the city of Geneva (Switzerland).

Expecting to attract at least 20,000 visitors, the fair will feature four sections dedicated to several art related areas, such as artists, galleries and museums, providing interaction between them and art collectors as well as with the public in general.

Visitors may benefit from a discount when buying a combined railway ticket to artbygenève.

Formerly named Geneva International Art Fair, artbygenève takes place every year at Palexpo together with the International Book and Press Fair.

Newsletter Subscriber Wins a Free Painting

The winner of the month has been found between the subscribers of the newsletter and will receive an original work of art for free (postage is $5).
Every month this art blog offers an original small painting to one of its readers who also subscribes the newsletter through Feedblitz.
An e-mail has been sent to the winner, who has to claim the prize until the 20th of March to be entitled to receive the painting.
If the prize is not claimed by the first winner, a substitute winner will be contacted and will have to claim it until the end of March.
The winners have the right to refuse the prize, in which case it will be carried to the next month.

Why Boundless Gallery Has Closed

One of the most well-known online galleries has ceased its activity.
Artists received a communication beforehand, stating that BoundlessGallery (Boundless Gallery LLC) and partner sites would close on the 1st of March, 2010.
According to Peter Gregory, owner and co-founder of BoundlessGallery, the gallery experienced the consequences from the global recession and during the last 18 months it had been losing money, not even getting close to a break-even level.
The business model was built in a way that artists would have to pay a fee in advance to exhibit their works, which may have caused the unsuccess to win more users and to keep the ones they had, afterall paying before making money, especially in difficult times, is something that most artists who sell online are not willing to do.
Although we have seen some records at art auctions in 2009, it seems that the art market in general is still recovering and Peter doesn't see a quick turnound that would take his former business to the heights of 3 years ago.
At this time, BoundlessGallery users can still access their accounts to fulfill outstanding orders or for any other reason.
Orders that were placed before the closing date will be either fulfilled or refunded as soon as possible.
With a BBB Rating of A on a scale from A+ to F and a BBB Accredited business since August 2005, Boundless Gallery LLC (Boundlessgallery.com LLC) was founded in May 2003 and closed its activity in March, 2010.
Use the Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive to see how BoundlessGallery.com looked in the past (downloading times and results may vary).

The Life and Art of Caravaggio (Part Six)

This is the last episode about the life and art of the Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
You can watch the previous episode or follow this serie from the start.