Art Basel Miami Beach: Comfy Shoes Required

MIAMI BEACH — An estimated 40,000 art enthusiasts, art collectors, artists, dealers, curators and critics will attend the eighth annual Art Basel Miami Beach, America's preeminent contemporary art fair. From December 3-6, the fair, held at Miami Beach Convention Center, will offer contemporary art and rare museum-caliber artworks.

Art Basel Miami Beach is the younger sister of Art Basel Switzerland, held annually in June since 1970.

This year's Art Basel Miami Beach boasts itself as bigger and better - 20% more exhibition space, extra lounge areas, wider aisles and bigger stands - so you'll want to wear comfy shoes in order to see it all. Exclusive selections of more than 250 leading art galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa will exhibit 20th and 21st-century artworks by over 2,000 artists. Visitors will also experience an exciting program of special exhibitions, parties and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design.

In the city known for its all-night parties, Art Basel Miami Beach always attracts its share of celebrities. So far, early sightings include Lenny Kravitz, Sylvester Stallone, Calvin Klein, Naomi Campbell and John McEnroe. Stallone, who paints when he's not busy acting, unveiled a collection of his artwork at the fair. "I’m not just painting for painting’s sake. I want to be truthful," said Stallone, who reportedly already sold two paintings for $40,000 and $50,000.

Are these early sales a good sign? Tough economic times have caused most art collectors to scale back on their spending, but fair organizers remain optimistic. “What we are seeing, and what we saw at other shows in the fall, is that there is definitely a market for high quality art,” said Art Basel co-director Marc Spiegler.

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Art Basel Miami (December 3-6, 2009) | Website
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[Images: Top - Olaf Breuning, "Colors" (2009), Metro Pictures, New York. | Bottom - (Row 1, Left) Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin. (Row 1, Right) James Cohan Gallery, New York. (Row 2, Left) Niels Borch Jensen Editions & Gallery, Berlin. (Row 2, Right) Mona Hatoum, "Undercurrent (red)" (2008), Galleria Continua, San Gimignano.]

Art Basel Miami Beach: Comfy Shoes Required

Medieval Times and Renaissance at a London Museum

LONDON — A major unveiling took place in London on Wednesday as the Victoria and Albert Museum opened its doors to a new $53 million wing of remarkable treasures. Ten new galleries at the V&A feature more than 1,800 objects spanning the Middle Ages to the Renaissance eras. One of the collection highlights is five of Leonardo da Vinci's small notebooks (1487-1505) on permanent display for the first time.

The V&A museum hopes its seven-year overhaul project will change the public perception of the Medieval period, a timeframe so often associated with plague, war and turmoil. "We want our visitors to take away with them a feeling of the luxury, the color and the sophistication of this period," said the museum's director, Mark Jones. "This was not a dark period in history."

From textiles, paintings and sculpture, to glass, metalwork, prints and manuscripts, to furniture, ceramics and jewelery, the V&A's new wing houses all sorts of objects of European art and design. The ten new gallery rooms cover the years 300 to 1600 and are organized by theme as follows:

• Faiths and Empires, 300-1250: Explores how Christian art forms developed within the later Roman Empire. Early medieval rulers, such as Charlemagne, looked back to the forms and values of Roman art. It also shows how from about the year 1000, the increasingly powerful Christian church found a visual expression in the magnificent stone churches and abbeys that dominated the landscape.
• Devotion and Display, 300-1500: Looking at how religion affected Europeans' daily lives, this gallery shows religious artworks commissioned by town councils, corporations and wealthy individuals as 'good works'. The displays explore the world of public worship as well as the more private world of personal religious devotion. Onyx window screens act as filters for light and as a background on which to display the objects dramatically.
• The Rise of the Gothic, 1200-1350: The development of the Gothic style is set in a wider social and cultural context in this gallery. Although it developed in France, the Gothic style was rapidly adopted in most of Europe. The concepts of chivalry and heraldry developed during this period. Displays of stained glass, ivory and luxurious church embroideries are presented in this intimate space.
• Noble Living, 1350-1500: Devoted to luxury goods found in the households of rich nobles and wealty merchants, occasionally contrasting them with more humble goods. The gallery focuses on moments of ostentatious display, such as hunting, dining and courtship. A number of objects reflect life at the court of Burgundy, one of the most luxurious of the 15th century.
• The Renaissance City, 1350-1600: Large-scale works, once part of impressive Renaissance buildings, are displayed in the context of the cityscape. At its heart is the courtyard and the garden, with dramatic sculptures, trees and water. The church interior display, evoked by major altarpieces and stained glass, includes the Renaissance chapel from Santa Chiara, Florence. The choir screen from the Cathedral of St John at Hertogenbosch, one of the largest objects on show, dominates the gallery.
• Donatello and the Making of Art, 1400-1500: The V&A's exceptional collection of sculptures by Donatello, the most important and influential sculptor of 15th-century Italy, are presented in this gallery. It also shows works that explore the wider context of Italian artistic production.
• Renaissance Art and Ideas, 1400-1550: Renaissance ideas and beliefs, particularly the interest in antiquity and classical precedents, are explored here, together with the creative process of the artist. New technologies, notably printing, disseminated ideas and designs, and objects expressed identity and family ambition. Central to the gallery is a display evocative of a scholar's study decorated with Luca della Robbia's ceiling roundels from Piero de'Medici's study.
• A World of Goods, 1450-1600: Examines how design ideas were exchanged within and outside Europe. Objects, sometimes specifically designed for the Western market, were imported into Europe, and Islamic and Chinese techniques were imitated by European craftsmen. Exploration, conflict and diplomacy all played a part, with traditional trade relationships with the Islamic world complemented by new markets in the Far East and the New World.
• Splendour and Society, 1500-1600: The rich decoration and furnishings of the domestic interior form the setting of this gallery. Displays explore various aspects of life and social ritual. On show are luxury goods such as jewelery and furniture, armor and an impressive display on dining. Niches contain a selection of treasures and curiosities that a Renaissance collector might have assembled, and objects relating to health and beauty.
• Living with the Past: This new day-lit gallery examines the medieval and Renaissance past by bringing together large-scale objects, including the façade of Sir Paul Pindar's house from the city of London, with 19th-century plaster casts and photographs. The display highlights how fragments of the past remain in the towns, cities and rural landscapes of Europe.

Admission to the V&A Museum is free. For more information, please visit www.vam.ac.uk


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[Images: Top - Leonardo Da Vinci, "Volume II, Forster Codex" (ca. 1495) | Bottom, left to right - "The Becket Casket" (ca. 1180-1190). Donatello, "Virgin and Child" (ca. 1435-1440). "Arms of Balthasar II von Hohenlandenberg" (ca. 1500). Courtesy V&A Museum.]

Medieval Times and Renaissance at a London Museum

A Day With(out) Art | World AIDS Day 2009

NEW YORK — Tuesday, December 1 is World AIDS Day, dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. The theme for 2009 is "Universal Access and Human Rights" and people everywhere will be wearing red to show their support. Raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice, and improving education are just some of the ways to observe the day; those in the art community will honor the annual A Day With(out) Art.

A Day With(out) Art began on December 1, 1989 as the national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. To make the public aware that AIDS can touch everyone, and inspire positive action, some 800 U.S. art and AIDS groups participated in the first A Day With(out) Art, shutting down museums, sending staff to volunteer at AIDS services, or sponsoring special exhibitions of work about AIDS. Since then, A Day With(out) Art has grown into a collaborative project in which thousands of national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS Service Organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges take part.

This year, art museums including the Getty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are shrouding various works of art in their collections "to reflect our sense of loss and to increase awareness of the global devastation that continues to be wrought by the disease."

For more information, please visit www.worldAIDSday.org

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[Image: The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS.]

A Day With(out) Art | World AIDS Day 2009

Visiting the Louvre - There's an App for That!

PARIS — 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.

In addition to upscale shops and a gourmet food court - at least until the McDonald's arrives in December - the new Apple store will be competing with Microsoft's Windows 7 Cafe which opened there just two weeks ago.

Along with a horde of museum guests, dozens of employees sporting bright red shirts printed with the Apple logo did a countdown en français to the opening of the store's doors. The classy two-story Apple store will offer Macs, iPods and iPhones.

If you can't get to Paris, you can always download the newly launched Louvre App - free for iPhone and iPod touch users. The Louvre App allows virtual guests to wander the galleries of the magnificent Louvre museum and browse a selection of fine art accompanied by commentaries, close-ups, details and video. The App also provides practical information about the museum such as hours, maps and services.

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Read More - Big Macs to Join Mona Lisa at the Louvre | Reuters 
[Photos: Top - Apple store at the Louvre Museum | Right - Detail of Louvre App]

Visiting the Louvre - There's an App for That!