Critics Name the 13 Best Art Exhibits of 2009

Winner of the 2009 AICA award for Best Thematic Museum Show Nationally:
Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

NEW YORK — We all enjoy reflecting on the previous year, especially in list form - top 10, people of the year - so with just a couple of weeks left before we welcome in 2010, here's an art-related top 13 of the year...

The 400 active members of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) have nominated and cast their votes for the 2008-2009 art exhibitions of the year. The 26th annual awards recognize excellence in the conception and realization of exhibitions in the United States during the previous year. Honorees include artists, curators, museums and galleries. This year's award ceremony will take place at  the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on February 16. [Note: Members of the public may contact aicausaprogram@gmail.com for more information about attending the event. There are a limited number of seats available.]

The 2008/2009 AICA Award Winners:

1) BEST MONOGRAPHIC MUSEUM SHOW NATIONALLY

William Kentridge: Five Themes, organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA. Curator: Mark Rosenthal.

2) BEST THEMATIC MUSEUM SHOW NATIONALLY

Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Curators: Stephanie Barron and Dr. Eckhart Gillen.

3) BEST MONOGRAPHIC MUSEUM SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY

Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective, organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Tate London, in partnership with the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Curators: Gary Tinterow assisted by Anne L. Strauss and Ian Alteveer.

4) BEST THEMATIC MUSEUM SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Curator: Alexandra Munroe.

5) BEST SHOW IN A COMMERCIAL GALLERY IN NEW YORK CITY

Picasso: Mosqueteros, Gagosian Gallery, New York. Curator: John Richardson.

6) BEST SHOW IN A COMMERCIAL GALLERY NATIONALLY

John Altoon: Drawings 1962-1968, organized by The Box Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

7) BEST SHOW BY A NON-PROFIT GALLERY OR SPACE

Unica Zürn: Dark Spring, organized by The Drawing Center, New York. Curator: João Ribas.

8) BEST SHOW IN A UNIVERSITY GALLERY
The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles / Recent Art, organized by the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York. Curator: Lynn Gumpert.

- and -

Dirt on Delight: Impulses that Form Clay organized by the Institute for Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Curators: Ingrid Shaffner and Jenelle Porter.

9) BEST SHOW IN A PUBLIC SPACE

The High Line NYC, organized by The High Line, New York. Curator: Lauren Ross.

10) BEST ARCHITECTURE OR DESIGN SHOW

Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Curators: Thomas Krens, David van der Leer, Maria Nicanor, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Margo Stipe and Oskar Muñoz.

11) BEST HISTORICAL SHOW

James Ensor, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Curator: Anna Swinbourne.

12) BEST EXHIBITION OF DIGITAL MEDIA, VIDEO, OR FILM

Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters) organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Curator: Klaus Biesenbach.

13) BEST PERFORMANCE

Yvonne Rainer's RoS Indexical (2007) and Spiraling Down (2008) presented at REDCAT, Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater, Los Angeles, CA in cooperation with the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and the World Performance Project at Yale University. Organizers: Mark Murphy, Emily Coates and Laurel Kishi.

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Critics Name the 13 Best Art Exhibits of 2009

Top ART News: Week In Review | Nov. 15 - Nov. 22

■ A-List Goes GaGa Over 30 Years of MOCA | LOS ANGELES (11/15/09) — A-Listers from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, to Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, to Christina Ricci, Jessica Alba, Kate Beckinsale, James Franco and Pierce Brosnan, were among the 1,000 guests at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles on Saturday night. The MOCA threw a huge gala in celebration of its thirtieth anniversary and the grand opening of its new fine art exhibition MOCA's First Thirty Years. A performance starring Lady Gaga and the Bolshoi Ballet were highlights of the evening... More >

 

■ Artist's Michael Jackson Mosaic Wins World Record | TIRANA, ALBANIA (11/16/09) — He's already done it three times before, using 500,000 nails, 1 million toothpicks and 300,000 corks, respectively, but this time around record-breaking artist Saimir Strati has created the world's largest mosaic using paintbrushes. Strati, an Albanian artist, used 230,000 black and brown paintbrushes to create a gigantic portrait of the late pop icon Michael Jackson... More >

 

■ Tim Burton's Surreal Debut at the MoMA | NEW YORK, NY (11/18/09) — Beetlejuice... Beetlejuice... Beetlejuice! A major retrospective opening to the public on Sunday will give fans of blockbuster movies like Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas a unique opportunity to step into the surreal world of Tim Burton. The Museum of Modern Art has compiled over 700 examples of sketchbooks, concept art, drawings, paintings, photographs, and a selection of amateur films for a new exhibit simply entitled, Tim Burton... More >

 

■ Size DOES Matter: Shaq Scores a Job as an Art Curator | NEW YORK, NY (11/18/09) — Sometimes bigger IS better, at least according to basketball legend and current Cleveland Cavalier Shaquille O'Neal. The 320-pound, 7'1" NBA athlete is taking off his size-22 gym shoes and stepping into the world of fine art. Shaq has scored himself a new job as curator of the Size DOES Matter exhibit opening at the FLAG Art Foundation in February... More >

 

■ Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009), Artist and Wife of Christo | NEW YORK (11/19/09) — The orange-headed artist known simply as Jeanne-Claude died from complications of a brain aneurysm on Wednesday night; she was 74. As the wife and muse of well-known artist, Christo, the pair traveled the world creating large scale "wrapped" installations, the most famous of which was The Gates of Central Park (2005)... More >

■ PINTA Latin American Contemporary Art Fair Sails Into NYC | CHELSEA, NY (11/20/09) — A unique celebration of modern and contemporary art movements - abstract, concrete, neo-concrete, kinetic and conceptual art - had its official opening reception on Thursday evening. Artists, collectors and museum representatives from around the world have arrived in New York for the third annual PINTA; the only contemporary art fair in the United States featuring works exclusively by Latin American artists... More >

 

■ The Pope Receives a Creative Audience at the Sistine Chapel | VATICAN CITY (11/21/09) — The magnificent Renaissance frescoes of the great Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Botticelli provided the backdrop for a pontifical address to art world heavyweights on Saturday. Pope Benedict received roughly 250 creatives, including painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, poets and film directors, at the Sistine Chapel (not your typical conference room/banquet hall), where he spoke to the crowd about bridging the gap between the art world and religion... More >

Top ART News: Week In Review | Nov. 15 - Nov. 22

Tim Burton's Surreal Debut at the MoMA

NEW YORK, NY — Beetlejuice... Beetlejuice... Beetlejuice! A major retrospective opening to the public on Sunday will give fans of blockbuster movies like Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas a unique opportunity to step into the surreal world of Tim Burton. The Museum of Modern Art has compiled over 700 examples of sketchbooks, concept art, drawings, paintings, photographs, and a selection of amateur films for a new exhibit simply entitled, Tim Burton.

On Tuesday night, actress Helena Bonham Carter (Burton's wife), actor Johnny Depp (aka The Mad Hatter in Burton's upcoming film Alice in Wonderland), composer Danny Elfman and actor Danny DeVito were among the many stars at the MoMA for a gala-preview of the new exhibit. Guests walked through a giant monster's mouth with sharp teeth and a long red carpet tongue to enter the main galleries where the master of macabre's artwork is on display.
 

Although widely-recognized as a successful Hollywood director, many don't realize Tim Burton's talent as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. "I wasn't a very verbal teenager and I communicated a lot to other people and myself with little drawings. It was always a form of communication and exploration for me,'' Burton said about his artwork.

In the following behind-the-scenes video, montages of artwork from the exhibit are displayed as Burton discusses his artistic career:

And here is a 30-second, really cute promo released by the MoMA to promote the Tim Burton exhibit:

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Tim Burton (November 22, 2009 - April 26, 2010)

Museum of Modern Art, New York | Website
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Tim Burton's Surreal Debut at the MoMA

Top ART News: Week In Review | Nov. 8 - Nov. 15

■ Visiting the Louvre - There's an App for That! | PARIS (11/08/09) — Not only is there an App for just about everything, there's just about everything in the Louvre museum Carrousel shopping center. Thus, on Saturday, Apple opened its first retail store in France (the 277th in ten countries), underneath the Tuileries garden and great glass pyramid in the Louvre... More >

■ Oxford's Ashmolean Museum Reopens After 10 Months and $100 Million | OXFORD, ENGLAND (11/08/09) — After 10-months and an almost $100 million renovation, Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology reopened to the public on Saturday. The world's first university museum, the Ashmolean has added 39 new galleries, including four temporary exhibition galleries, a new education center and state-of-the art conservation studios... More >

■ MoMA Designs a Bauhaus Retrospective | NEW YORK, NY (11/09/09) — From architecture, industrial design, textiles and furniture, to graphics, painting and sculpture, the 20th century art movement known as the Bauhaus continues to influence our modern world (all one has to do browse the latest IKEA catalog for examples). In its first major exhibition dedicated to the Bauhaus since 1938, the Museum of Modern Art is celebrating the extraordinary artists, architects and designers of the avant-garde school... More >

■ Extreme Makeover: King Tut's Tomb Edition | CAIRO (11/10/09) — Disturbing brown spots are forming on the walls in the famous tomb of Egypt's most popular pharaoh, King Tutankhamen (better known as King Tut). The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) are embarking on a new preservation project aimed at assessing the damage. On Tuesday, the two entities announced a new 5-year partnership in which they will work together to analyze and conserve the ancient burial site... More >

■ Bidding War Over '200 One Dollar Bills' Ends at $43.76 Million | NEW YORK, NY (11/11/09) — The art market may still be suffering, but a successful contemporary art auction on Wednesday night indicates a rebound is  on the horizon. A surprise bidding war between five potential buyers broke out when Sotheby's brought Andy Warhol's 200 One Dollar Bills (1962) up to the auction block... More >

■ Ciao MAXXI! Contemporary Art Museum Opens in Italy | ROME, ITALY (11/13/09) — The vision most of us see when we think of a museum in Italy is a Renaissance or Baroque-style palace or cathedral, a Medici-commissioned structure, with classical columns, frescoes on the ceiling and gilding as far as the eye can see. The National Museum of the XXI Century Arts (or MAXXI for short) opening Saturday in Rome hopes to change that perception... More >

■ Munch Art Heist Was Well-Planned, Oslo Police Say | OSLO, NORWAY(11/13/09)  — Perhaps it's the miserable, tortuous scenes in the artwork of Edvard Munch that makes it attractive to the criminal element. The Symbolist painter's most famous agony-laden image, The Scream, was stolen on the same day as the opening ceremony of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. In 2004, another version of The Scream and the Madonna were both taken from Oslo's Munch Museum. And on Thursday, a man smashed the window of the Nyborg Kunst art gallery in Oslo and snatched Edvard Munch's Historien... More >

■ Mona Lisa's Eyebrows Were Tweezed and 24 Other Startling Revelations | MANCHESTER, ENGLAND (11/14/09) — What's behind Mona Lisa's mysterious gaze? Art historians and scholars have been trying to answer that question for centuries. No one will ever know for sure, but scientists have discovered answers to other questions about Leonardo da Vinci's famous gal. Da Vinci - The Genius, a new exhibit at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), presents a comprehensive exploration behind the genius of the Italian Renaissance master... More >

■ Manolo Blahniks Under $70? Only at the RCA Secret Sale! | LONDON (11/14/09) — Pssst... the Royal College of Art has a secret. It's selling artwork by some of the world's most renowned artists for just under $70. And if you register in time, you can get in on this exclusive sale. Now in it's 16th year, RCA Secret is an annual contemporary art exhibition and sale which offers original postcard-sized artworks, made and donated by professional artists, designers, illustrators and postgraduate art students... More >

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Top ART News: Week In Review | Nov. 8 - Nov. 15

MoMA Designs a Bauhaus Retrospective

NEW YORK, NY — From architecture, industrial design, textiles and furniture, to graphics, painting and sculpture, the 20th century art movement known as the Bauhaus continues to influence our modern world (all one has to do browse the latest IKEA catalog for examples). In its first major exhibition dedicated to the Bauhaus since 1938, the Museum of Modern Art is celebrating the extraordinary artists, architects and designers of the avant-garde school.

The Bauhaus school was founded in 1919 and existed in three German cities: Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925-1932) and Berlin (1932-1933), under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The school was closed by the Nazi regime in 1933.

The Bauhaus aesthetic declared that there should be no distinction between form and function; art should meet the needs of society. The works are characterized by sleek simplicity, often incorporating industrial materials like wood and tubular steel, shaped by clean edges and geometric lines. The design isn't comfy, cozy per se, but it can certainly add sophisticated style to a room.

On Sunday, Workshops for Modernity: Bauhaus 1919-1933 opened at the MoMA; a retrospective exhibit featuring over 400 works by famed artists including Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer and Josef Albers.

“The content of the exhibit is as much student work as masters’ work…it is a portrait of a school," said Barry Bergdoll, co-curator and The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA. "[The Bauhaus school] believed that if you combined modern design and practicality and utility, the public would be converted,” Bergdoll said.

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Workshops for Modernity: Bauhaus 1919-1933 (Nov. 8, 2009 - Jan. 5, 2010)

Museum of Modern Art | Website

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Read More - How the Bauhaus School Is Still Influencing Modern Design | New York Magazine

[Photos: Top Left - Marcel Breuer. Nesting Tables (B9), 1924-26. | Top Right - Christian Dell. Wine pitcher, 1922. | Bottom - Vasily Kandinsky. Designs for wall-paintings for the Juryfreie Kunstschau (detail), 1922.]

MoMA Designs a Bauhaus Retrospective

Top ART News: Week In Review | Oct. 25 - Nov. 1

■ Garage Sale Picasso: Is a Two Dollar Purchase Worth 2 Million? | More >

■ Andy Warhol's King of Pop Portrait Enjoys Its "15 Minutes" | More >

■ Artists Hope Ice House Makes a Chilling Statement in Detroit | More >

■ The 82-Story MoMA Monster Is Coming to New York City | More >

■ The Guggenheim Museum Celebrates 50 Years | More >

■ Met Museum Repatriates the Naos Egyptian Artifact | More > 

■ Attention Mall Shoppers: World's Largest Mona Lisa On View | More >

■ A Night at the Museum: Guggenheim's First Annual Art Awards Ceremony | More >

Top ART News: Week In Review | Oct. 25 - Nov. 1

A Night at the Museum: Guggenheim's First Annual Art Awards Ceremony

NEW YORK, NY -- There are dozens of award shows honoring actors and musicians, and now artists are finally being recognized for their creative achievements. On Thursday evening, stars including Kylie Minogue, Julianne Moore, James Franco and Mary-Kate Olsen, were at the Guggenheim Museum for a Hollywood-esque awards ceremony - The First Annual Art Awards. Conceived by artist Rob Pruitt, The First Annual Art Awards "honors select individuals, exhibitions, and projects that have made a significant impact on the field of contemporary art during the past year." And instead of the traditional metal statuette, winners took home a celebratory bucket of champagne that conveniently also serves as a fully functional lamp.

More than four hundred artists and art world professionals selected the nominees. And winners are (envelope please)...

■ Artist of the Year | Mary Heilmann

■ Curator of the Year | Connie Butler

■ Exhibition Outside the United States | Jeff Koons, Versailles, Château de Versailles, France

■ Group Show of the Year, Gallery | Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns? Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York

■ Group Show of the Year, Museum | The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

■ New Artist of the Year | Ryan Trecartin

■ The Rob Pruitt Award | Cynthia Plaster Caster

■ Solo Show of the Year, Gallery | Manzoni: A Retrospective, Gagosian Gallery, New York

■ Solo Show of the Year, Museum | Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Modern Art, New York

■ Writer of the Year | Jerry Saltz

■ Lifetime-Achievement | Joan Jonas and Kasper König

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[Read More - Winners of Art Awards Announced at Guggenheim Museum Ceremony | Guggenheim.org]

A Night at the Museum: Guggenheim's First Annual Art Awards Ceremony

The 82-Story MoMA Monster Is Coming to New York City

NEW YORK, NY -- The Museum of Modern Art's plans to alter the New York City skyline have finally been approved. Between debates over height specifications and speculations as to whether architect Jean Nouvel would quit the project altogether, it seemed the 82-story tower would never materialize. But on Wednesday, the City Council approved the construction of 1000-foot building, nicknamed the "MoMA Monster." The spire will be erected next to the museum, located in Midtown Manhattan on West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenue.

The stunning skyscraper will provide the MoMA with a significant 40,000 square feet of new art gallery space. 150 residential apartments and 100 hotel rooms will also be housed in the tower. Just imagine - one of most influential museums of modern art in the world will be called home by some lucky future residents. And the rest of us can look forward to making hotel reservations.

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[Read More - All Stories About 53rd West 53rd Street | Curbed]

The 82-Story MoMA Monster Is Coming to New York City