Using Statistical Analysis to Deconstruct Art

AUDIO: Listen as Dartmouth College Chairman Daniel Rockmore discusses his new mathematical tool for analyzing artwork, as heard on NPR's Morning Edition.

WASHINGTON — By integrating a passion for the arts with his background in mathematics, Dartmouth College department Chairman Daniel Rockmore has developed a computer program that deconstructs a work of art to determine whether a piece is consistent with a particular artist's style.

Rockmore began his research in 2001, when he met Nadine Orenstein, a curator of prints and drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was organizing an exhibition featuring Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder - including pieces both attributed to the artist and others proven not to be. Rockwell used statistical sampling to scan and analyze digital images of the Bruegel works, matching certain characteristics to the artist's technique.

The mathematical tool isn't necessarily meant to identify forgeries, says Rockwell. Rather, it offers a new scientific method of delving into how a piece was created, ultimately deepening our art viewing experience.

[Source: NPR]
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Using Statistical Analysis to Deconstruct Art

Louvre Exhibit Examines the "Infinity of Lists"

Guest curator Umberto Eco at the Louvre.   [Credit: Lea Crespi, 2009.]

PARIS — A few days into 2010 and how many of us are sticking to our list of New Year's resolutions? We all make lists, especially at this time of year - resolutions, gifts for loved ones, groceries for holiday dinners. Bloggers especially love a good list. Even artists make visual lists in their paintings.

This concept of lists, as they've evolved throughout time in art and culture, is the subject of an exhibit at the Louvre museum, Mille e tre. Guest curated by Italian author Umberto Eco, the exhibition presents not only ancient and contemporary artworks, but a program of cultural events centered around the theme described as “The Infinity of Lists".

“The subject of lists has been a theme of many writers from Homer onwards. My great challenge was to transfer it to painting and music and to see whether I could find equivalents in the Louvre, because frankly when I suggested the subject I had no idea how I would write about visual lists,” explained Eco.

Why do we seem to obsess over lists? Humans attempt to grasp the incomprehensible through lists in the form of things like catalogs, dictionaries and museum collections, says Eco.

In a recent NPR interview (click player to listen), Eco discusses his list philosophy. Marie-Laure Berndac, a curator at the Louvre, also discussed the exhibit. "There's this kind of obsession in the list, because a list is never exhaustive," she said. Berndac explained that lists have been found everywhere since man was able to write, even on hieroglyphics on ancient pieces of Egyptian art.

And when asked what book Eco would bring on a desert island? His response was the ultimate list - the phone book, of course.

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Louvre Exhibit Examines the "Infinity of Lists"

Have You Heard the New One About Van Gogh's Ear?

Vincent van Gogh's "Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear" (1889).

Detail from Vincent Van Gogh's "Still Life with a Plate of Onions" (1889) showing a letter dated December 1888, written by the artist's brother Theo; a new theory speculates it was the impetus for Vincent's self-dismemberment.

LONDON — For decades, art scholars have speculated as to why tortured genius Vincent van Gogh sliced off his own earlobe. Some experts attribute the incident to the Impressionist artist's having been poisoned by the lead in his paints, others have blamed it on a dispute with fellow artist Paul Gauguin over a prostitute, and still others believe he was just plain insane. The latest theory is that the artist's brother Theo pushed him over the edge, causing the already mentally disturbed individual to lop off his own ear.

The new explanation, proposed by author and curator Martin Bailey, was formulated after his methodical examination of Vincent van Gogh's painting Still Life with a Plate of Onions (1889). Bailey believes that a detail in the artwork, specifically a letter dated December 1888, is a clue deliberately included by the artist because of its significance in relation to the incident.

The still life painting was completed just a month after the ear injury. The letter was sent from Vincent's brother and art dealer Theo to announce his engagement to his girlfriend Johanna Bonger. Vincent depended upon Theo for emotional and financial support. The upcoming nuptials would have so disturbed the artist, says Bailey, that his brother's news could have easily led to an act of self-mutilation.

In another letter, Theo wrote to his fiancée: “When I mentioned you to [Vincent] he evidently knew who and what I meant and, when I asked whether he approved of our plans, he said marriage ought not to be regarded as the main object in life.” 

An exhibition at London's Royal Academy next month will feature the still life and center around Van Gogh's remarkable correspondence.

The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters January 23, 2010 - April 18, 2010 at the Royal Academy (London)

Have You Heard the New One About Van Gogh's Ear?

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

Whitney Museum Announces 2010 Biennial Artists

NEW YORK — Every two years, the Whitney Museum of American Art hosts an exhibition featuring artists who reflect the latest trends in contemporary American art. On Friday, the Whitney released the names of the 55 artists who will be participating in the 2010 Whitney Biennial, which will run from February 25 through May 30, 2010. The artist list has been cut from past years (81 in 2008 and 100 in 2006), with each exhibitor limited to showing one work or series.

Video: Watch as curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari announce the artist list for 2010, the Whitney Biennial. Or read the full list below:

David Adamo Richard Aldrich Michael Asher Tauba Auerbach Nina Berman Huma Bhabha Josh Brand The Bruce High Quality Foundation James Casebere Edgar Cleijne and Ellen Gallagher Dawn Clements George Condo Sarah Crowner Verne Dawson Julia Fish Roland Flexner Suzan Frecon Theaster Gates Maureen Gallace

Kate Gilmore Hannah Greely Jesse Aron Green Robert Grosvenor Sharon Hayes Thomas Houseago Alex Hubbard Jessica Jackson Hutchins Jeffrey Inaba Martin Kersels Jim Lutes Babette Mangolte Curtis Mann Ari Marcopoulos Daniel McDonald Josephine Meckseper Rashaad Newsome Kelly Nipper Lorraine O’Grady

R.H. Quaytman Charles Ray Emily Roysdon Aki Sasamoto Aurel Schmidt Scott Short Stephanie Sinclair Ania Soliman Storm Tharp Tam Tran Kerry Tribe Piotr Uklański Lesley Vance Marianne Vitale Erika Vogt Pae White Robert Williams

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Whitney Museum Announces 2010 Biennial Artists

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

Le Cirque du Pompidou Is Coming to Town

PARIS — Move over Ringling Brothers, the "Pompidou Mobile" is coming to town! But there's no need to buy tickets - this circus will be free. And instead of a ringleader, animals and clowns, there will be a curator and fine art masterpieces.

Provided it can raise the estimated $4.43 million necessary, starting in late 2010, France's Pompidou Center will hit "la rue" with 10-15 paintings from its permanent collection. Picassos, Matisses and Calders will be displayed in a 10,700-sq. foot high-tech canvas-like structure being designed by architect Patrick Bouchain. Every few months the big top will pick up, clear out and move to a different French town, concentrating on rural regions and poor, crime-ridden suburbs. "It's about bringing art to the people to awaken their desire to go toward the art," the Pompidou's president, Alain Seban, said in a statement.

Museums collections travel all over the world for special exhibitions at other museums, that's nothing new. But bringing modern art to less fortunate areas, setting up a makeshift museum in a field or parking lot, and charging no entry fee - that's a pretty great concept.

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Read More — Art Under the Big Top: The Roving Pompidou | AP
[Photo: The Stravinsky Fountain outside the Centre Pompidou]

Le Cirque du Pompidou Is Coming to Town

The Art of the Sun King Reigns in Versailles

PARIS - Objets d’art, sculptures, paintings and furniture celebrating the reign of the "Sun King," Louis XIV, are now on view at the Palace of Versailles. Louis XIV: The Man and the King is the result of over two years of curating more than 300 exceptional works that, until now, have never been exhibited together.

Louis XIV's reign lasted longer than any other European Monarch - over 72 years, from 1643 to his death in 1715. He was nicknamed the "Sun King" after the Greek god Apollo, and as the planets revolve around the sun, so did the French government revolve around King Louis. With a taste for opulence, Louis XIV was able to construct his public persona as a powerful, iconographic monarch through his patronage of the arts.

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Louis XIV: The Man and the King (Oct. 20, 2009 - Feb. 7, 2010)
Palace of Versailles | Website

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The Art of the Sun King Reigns in Versailles

Top ART News: Week in Review | Oct. 11 - 18, 2009

■ Van Gogh Letter Exhibits a Method Behind the Madness | More >

■ Editions with Additions: Working Proofs by Jasper Johns at the National Gallery of Art | More >

■ Will the Frieze Heat Up London's Art Market | More >

■ Bailout Forces Royal Bank of Scotland to Share Art Stash with Public | More >

■ 19K Portrait Is a Leonardo da Vinci Worth Millions, Fingerprints Show | More >

■ Can Hirst Paintings Intoxicate Like Formaldehyde? | More >

■ British Museum Has Two Months to Return Artifact to Iran, Or Else | More >

■ Tate Modern Replaces Indecent Brooke Shields Photo, Reopens Gallery | More >

■ The Painter of Black and Light: Soulages at the Pompidou | More >

■ The Art World's Most Influential Figures | The Power 100 List (2009) | More >

■ Human Art Experiment Ends After 100 Days | More >

■ 19K Portrait Is a Leonardo da Vinci Worth Millions, Fingerprints Show | More >

■ Art Collector Waives Insurance Policy for Stolen Andy Warhol Paintings | More >

■ Michelangelo's Travelogue Includes a Tour of Seattle | More >

■ Archaeologists Crusade for Ancient Murals in Syria | More >

■ Fairey's Lawyers Drop Case After Obama "HOPE" Poster Artist Admits Lies | More >

■ New Olympic Medals Unveiled for 2010 Olympic Games | More >

Top ART News: Week in Review | Oct. 11 - 18, 2009

Michelangelo's Travelogue Includes a Tour of Seattle

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Twelve exceptional drawings by Renaissance master Michelangelo have journeyed to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) on loan from the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, home of the largest repository of the artist's drawings in the world. The exhibit Michelangelo Public and Private focuses on the Old Master's preliminary work for the Sistine Ceiling and the Last Judgment, and features original drawings, portraits of the artist, personal documents and decorative items.

Museum visitors will gain insight into Michelangelo's working process - a notion that would not exactly thrill  the artist. It is said that Michelangelo burned most of his drawings and preparatory works, “so that no one should see the labors he endured and the ways he tested his genius, and lest he should appear less than perfect," according to Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari.       

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Michelangelo Public and Private: Drawings for the Sistine Chapel and Other Treasures from the Casa Buonarroti (October 15, 2009–January 31, 2010)
Seattle Art Museum | Website

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Companion Features to the Exhibit

Hidden around town are one dozen 18-inch-tall statues that SAM calls "Little Davids," replicas of Michelangelo's David sculpture (1504) housed in the Accademia. Those lucky enough to spot a "Little David" in his traveling crate are encouraged to take photos of themselves with the statue (ala the "Roaming Gnome") and upload them to Little David's Travelogue.

The SAM also released the following video featuring Curatorial Advisor on the exhibition and Deans Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University, Dr. Gary Radke, providing a fascinating lecture on  Michelangelo Public and Private. 

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Michelangelo's Travelogue Includes a Tour of Seattle

The Art World's Most Influential Figures | The Power 100 List (2009)

ArtReview magazine has published the eighth annual Power 100 - a comprehensive list of the most influential figures in the art world. This year's list includes artists, curators, art collectors, museum directors and critics. Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist was named the most powerful figure in the contemporary art world for 2009.

LONDON /ArtReview/ -- Coming on the heels of 12 months of extraordinary financial stress, both in the art world and the real world, the 2009 edition of the Power 100 reflects fundamental changes in influence. Previous No. 1s, both artists and collectors, have plummeted, while only the most ambitious of museums have stayed near the top; meanwhile, percolating up from the middle ranks is a new generation of highly networked, flexible, globetrotting curators – men and women at the very center of a new way of working.

1. Hans Ulrich Obrist 2. Glenn D. Lowry 3. Sir Nicholas Serota 4. Daniel Birnbaum 5. Larry Gagosian 6. François Pinault 7. Eli Broad 8. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda & Brian Kuan Wood 9. Iwona Blazwick 10. Bruce Nauman 11. Iwan Wirth 12. David Zwirner 13. Jeff Koons 14. Jay Jopling 15. Marian Goodman 16. Agnes Gund 17. Takashi Murakami 18. Alfred Pacquement 19. Peter Fischli & David Weiss 20. Mike Kelley 21. Barbara Gladstone 22. Steven A. Cohen 23. Dominique Lévy & Robert Mnuchin 24. Adam D. Weinberg 25. Marc Glimcher 26. Amy Cappellazzo & Brett Gorvy 27. Cheyenne Westphal & Tobias Meyer 28. Ann Philbin 29. Matthew Higgs 30. Matthew Marks 31. Tim Blum & Jeff Poe 32. Gavin Brown 33. Ralph Rugoff 34. Liam Gillick 35. Anne Pasternak 36. Dakis Joannou 37. John Baldessari 38. Isa Genzken 39. Paul McCarthy 40. Michael Govan 41. Eugenio López 42. Cindy Sherman 43. Ai Weiwei 44. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros 45. Annette Schönholzer & Marc Spiegler 46. Diedrich Diederichsen 47. Richard Prince 48. Damien Hirst 49. Bernard Arnault 50. Massimiliano Gioni

51. Amanda Sharp & Matthew Slotover 52. Joel Wachs 53. Victor Pinchuk 54. Udo Kittelmann 55. Marina Abramović 56. Michael Ringier 57. Gerhard Richter 58. Richard Serra 59. RoseLee Goldberg 60. Kasper König 61. Roberta Smith 62. Monika Sprüth & Philomene Magers 63. Germano Celant 64. Emmanuel Perrotin 65. Peter Schjeldahl 66. Beatrix Ruf 67. Okwui Enwezor 68. Nicolas Bourriaud 69. Karen & Christian Boros 70. Isabelle Graw 71. Maurizio Cattelan 72. Charles Saatchi 73. Jerry Saltz 74. Jasper Johns 75. Louise Bourgeois 76. Thaddaeus Ropac 77. Mera & Don Rubell 78. Thelma Golden 79. Sarah Morris 80. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev 81. Anita & Poju Zabludowicz 82. Paul Schimmel 83. Jose, Alberto & David Mugrabi 84. Sadie Coles 85. Daniel Buchholz 86. Victoria Miro 87. Maureen Paley 88. Johann König 89. Nicolai Wallner 90. Maria Lind 91. Massimo De Carlo 92. Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi & Maurizio Rigillo 93. Rirkrit Tiravanija 94. Toby Webster 95. Long March Space 96. Nicholas Logsdail 97. Harry Blain & Graham Southern 98. Claire Hsu 99. Peter Nagy 100. Glenn Beck

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The Art World's Most Influential Figures | The Power 100 List (2009)

Will the Frieze Heat Up London's Art Market?

LONDON -- This Thursday, the art world heads to London for the seventh annual Frieze Art Fair. Frieze will showcase new and established artists to an international audience of curators, artists, collectors, gallerists and critics, as well as the general public. The event will take place under a large temporary structure of approximately 21,000 square meters in beautiful Regent's Park.

Frieze is one of the only exhibits of its kind to focus solely on contemporary art and living artists. This year, 164 of the world’s most exciting contemporary art galleries, representing 30 countries, will present new work by over 1,000 of the world’s most innovative artists. 2009 will also introduce Frame, a new section within the fair dedicated to solo artist presentations.

The equivalent of Switzerland's Art Basel, Frieze is a barometer for how London's art market will fair in the coming months. Frieze welcomed 68,000 visitors in 2008. This week, all eyes will be on the UK to determine whether the numbers predict success for next year.

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Frieze Art Fair (Oct. 15-18, 2009) | Website
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Will the Frieze Heat Up London's Art Market?