Art of Steel: Jeff Koons to Create BMW Art Car

The concept of the BMW Art Car was introduced by Hervé Poulain, an auctioneer and ardent racing driver from France who was searching for a link between art and cars; he asked his friend renowned artist Alexander Calder to paint the first example in 1975.

VIDEO: Learn about the history of the BMW Art Car and watch as Pop artist Andy Warhol paints his 1979 model.

NEW YORK — Jeff Koons, the American artist known for his balloon sculptures of steel, has been chosen to create the 17th version of the BMW Art Car in the 35th anniversary year of the program. The announcement was made at the artist's New York City studio on Tuesday.

"I look forward to participate in a tradition set forth by such great artists as Calder, Lichtenstein, Stella, and Warhol," said Koons, whose design will be revealed later this year. The most recent Art Car was done by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007.

BMW board member, Frank-Peter Arndt said, "Our company and Jeff Koons are drawn to permanent innovation and cutting-edge technology. Since 1975, artists from throughout the world have turned BMW automobiles into art signifying a particular period through the Art Car program."

Jim O'Donnell, President of BMW North America added, "The entire BMW Group is looking forward to this celebration of contemporary art by Jeff Koons, one of the greatest artists of our time."

Many of the BMW Art Cars have been exhibited in renowned museums throughout the world including the Louvre, the Guggenheim and the Shanghai Art Museum. 

[Source: PR Newswire]

______

Art of Steel: Jeff Koons to Create BMW Art Car

Add Style to Your Snail Mail in 2010

The USPS unveiled its 2010 Stamp Program, which includes images honoring 10 abstract expressionist artists.

WASHINGTON — For those who still find the time to hand-write letters, greeting cards and postcards, and send them via old-fashioned snail mail, the United States Postal Service's new stamp designs will add a touch of style to the outside of any envelope. The 2010 stamp program unveiled Thursday by the USPS pays homage to a diverse range of people, places and events. Featured subjects include Nobel Peace Prize honoree Mother Teresa, legendary actress Katharine Hepburn, the Cowboys of the Silver Screen, American painter Winslow Homer, the Mackinac Bridge, the Sunday Funnies and the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

One stamp pane in particular depicts the artistic innovations and achievements of ten abstract expressionists - Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock. This group of artists revolutionized art during the 1940s and 1950s and moved the U.S. to the forefront of the international art scene for the first time.

According to the USPS release:

"Abstract expressionism refers to a large body of work that comprised radically different styles, from still, luminescent fields of color to vigorous, almost violent, slashes of paint. In celebration of the abstract expressionist artists of the 20th century, art director Ethel Kessler and noted art historian Jonathan Fineberg (Gutgsell Professor of Art History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) selected ten paintings to feature on this colorful pane of self-adhesive stamps. Kessler used elements from Barnett Newman’s Achilles (1952)to frame the stamps. The arrangement of the stamps suggests paintings hanging on a gallery wall."

The abstract expressionist stamps will go on sale March 11, 2010.
__________________________________________________________

Add Style to Your Snail Mail in 2010

A D.C. Museum's Inflatable Baby-Blue Bubble

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The newly appointed director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Richard Koshalek, has announced his plans to erect an innovative seasonal structure over the museum's courtyard. The 145-foot-tall baby-blue balloon-like expansion would be inflated twice a year, in May and October. The new addition will house arts performances, film screenings, and conferences. Since the Hirshhorn building is situated on the National Mall, midway between the White House and the Capitol, the big whimsical bubble would temporarily change the current landscape into a more contemporary one. Koshalek has enlisted the New York design firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro for the project at an estimated budget of $5-million.

___________________________________________________________________________

Read More - In Washington, a Different Kind of Bubble | The New York Times

[Image: A Plan for the new Hirshhorn seasonal inflatable structure. Courtesy: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.]

A D.C. Museum's Inflatable Baby-Blue Bubble

USPS Stamp Designs for the Winter Holidays

 

This year, the United States Postal Service is getting into the spirit of the holiday season by issuing a series of 2009 Holiday Stamps, commemorating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and Eid.

The 2009 Hanukkah stamp design features a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles; it  is the third U.S. issuance to commemorate the holiday. The menorah was designed by Lisa Regan of the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Oklahoma, and photographed by Ira Wexler of Maryland. Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins Friday evening at sundown.

Since 1978, the theme of each “traditional” Christmas stamp has been the Madonna and Child. The 2009 Christmas stamp features Madonna and Sleeping Child, a painting by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi, (1609–1685), more commonly known as Sassoferrato. The painting depicted on the stamp shows a blonde Madonna clothed in red and cradling the sleeping Christ Child in purple cloth. From each of the two top corners, the childlike face of a cherub looks down from the clouds. The painting is currently in the collection of Hearst Castle in California.

Kwanzaa, a nonreligious holiday, takes place over seven days from December 26 to January 1. Kwanzaa draws on African traditions and takes its name from the phrase for “first fruits” in Swahili, a widely spoken African language. The Kwanzaa stamp is marked by a family grouping in bright green, red, gold and black. Stamp artist Lloyd McNeill of New York created the festive, highly symbolic design to celebrate the holiday.

The Eid stamp commemorates the two most important festivals — or eids – in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and features the Arabic phrase "Eid mubarak" in gold calligraphy on a blue background. Eid mubarak translates literally as "blessed festival," and can be paraphrased "May your religious holiday be blessed." The stamp was designed by calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, working under the direction of Phil Jordan, both from Virginia.

The USPS has also released a series of secular 2009 Winter Holiday stamps, featuring a reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man and toy soldier.

========================================

[Image: 2009 Holiday Stamps released by the USPS, commemorating Hanukkah (left) and Christmas (right).]

USPS Stamp Designs for the Winter Holidays

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.

______________________

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

Museum of Modern Art | Website

======================

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

Oxford's Ashmolean Museum Reopens After 10 Months and $100 Million

OXFORD, ENGLAND — 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.

Rick Mather Architects was responsible for the redesign and realizing the museum's new display strategy called "Crossing Cultures Crossing Time"; it is based on the idea that the civilizations which shaped our modern societies developed as part of an interrelated world culture, rather than in isolation.

The Ashmolean collection includes rare Islamic, Indian, Chinese and Japanese objects, archaeological specimens and fine art. The museum has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery and English silver. Other objects of note include T.E. Lawrence's Arab dress, an entire Japanese tea house, a lantern used by Guy Fawkes and and a hawking glove used by Henry VIII.

Nicholas Barber, Chairman of the Ashmolean, commented, “Renowned for our collections, the Ashmolean has always held a strong position on the cultural map. But now, with a magnificent new building and inspiring displays, the Museum has been transformed into one of the world’s great cultural jewels.”

=================
[Photo: A newly renovated exhibit gallery inside the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology]

Oxford's Ashmolean Museum Reopens After 10 Months and $100 Million

New Olympic Medals Unveiled for 2010 Vancouver Games

VANCOUVER, BC -- In a ceremony Thursday, one of the last major announcements was made before the start of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, scheduled to begin February 12 in Vancouver. The medals to be awarded at the Winter Olympics were unveiled, which for the first time in history will each feature a unique design.

The 2010 medals will also differ from past years in their weight (they are heavy than ever), and surface design (undulating rather than flat). These non-traditional designs were created by architect and industrial designer Omer Arbel, while Corrine Hunt completed the artwork.

Hunt based her work on Canadian aboriginal imagery. The artist explained her choice to depict orcas and ravens, "I felt that the Olympics are a community and would reflect not only the strength of the athletes but the strength of the movement itself. The orca or the killer whale is really a beautiful creature that is strong, it has many wonderful physical characteristics but it also is a creature that lives within a community." Hunt continued, "The raven is a totem rising, it's a creature that is all things, and I think Paralympic athletes have that in them. They're sometimes given challenges and they rise above those challenges and the raven does the same."

How will the athletes react to these new medal designs? We'll find out soon - most likely they'll be happy just to win one. 

=================

[Read more - Each Medal at Vancouver Games to Have Unique Design | Reuters]

New Olympic Medals Unveiled for 2010 Vancouver Games