some interesting exhibitions: Gottfried Helnwein, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz, etc

The Disasters of War 10, 2007.  Oil and acrylic on canvas.

http://www.helnwein.com/news/update/artikel_3327.html

http://crockerartmuseum.org/art/current-exhibitions

Sacramento: There's a major exhibition at Crocker Art Museum of Gottfried Helnwein's works, Gottfried Helnwein: Inferno of the Innocents, January 29, 2011-April 24, 2011. 

Beautiful Victim I, 1974.  Watercolor on cardboard.

Untitled, 1996.  Oil and acrylic on canvas.

Untitled, 1998.  Oil and acrylic on canvas.

Oath, 2000.  Oil and acrylic on canvas.

http://www.helnwein.com/werke/werke/home.html

For me, I'm not sure if Helnwein's images are really all that challenging, whether they rely more on ready-made referentiality as controversially evocative legerdemain or if that's exactly the profundity itself.  In any case, his works are impressive and well-done.  Above link to more works and info at his website.

The Yawner, 1771-83.  Tin cast.

Szepmuveszeti Muzeum, Budapest
http://mini-site.louvre.fr/saison18e/index_f.php?expo=messerschmidt&langue=en#/messerschmidt/introduction

http://www.neuegalerie.org/exhibitions/messerschmidt

Paris: Neue Galerie, NYC recently had the first exhibition dedicated to Franz Xaver Messerschmidt which in collaboration travels to the Louvre, January 28, 2011-April 25, 2011.  A catalogue is also available. 

Messerschmidt would be considered a schizophrenic these days, which led him to work on his famous character heads often modeled from himself. 

http://www.limmat.ch/schmid/fxm/

Above link to helpful website on Messerschmidt.

From Travelers, 2001-2010.  C-print.
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/humin/events

http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/upcoming/index.htm

Ann Arbor: Check out the exhibition at Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan featuring some of Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz's supermundane snow globes and photography, White Nights, January 24, 2011-March 16, 2011.  Another exhibition at Bellevue Arts Museum, Travelers: Objects of Dream and Revelation, August 26, 2011-December 31, 2011.

The Orchard at Night, from Islands, 2005.  C-print.

http://www.martin-munoz.com/main.html

More images and info at their website.

http://www.aperture.org/travelers.html

A recent book, Travelers (Aperture, 2008).  It's ok, but could've been better produced imho. 

http://www.cerealart.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=37&cat=Walter+Martin+and+Paloma+Munoz

You can get your own snow globe for $750 USD, three to choose from, each with a limited edition of 250.  Some may have sold out. 

Kinder!, 2006.  C-print.

Frank Kunert
http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?style=browse&currentrecord=1&page=seealso&profile=exhibitions&searchdesc=Future%20Exhibitions&searchstring=Future/,/greater%20than/,/0/,/false/,/true&action=searchrequest&style=single&currentrecord=2

NYC: There's still some time to go, but this forthcoming exhibition at Museum of Arts and Design is going to be awesome, Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities, June 7, 2011-September 18, 2011.  C'mon, it's really cool miniature stuff!!!

Brancusi 1928, 2003.  Digital print.

 http://www.joefig.com/home.html

Bureau de Sigmund Freud, 2002.  Mixed media.

http://www.charlesmatton.com/index.htm

NON-STOP ACTION, 1990.  Mixed media.

http://www.alanwolfson.net/index.htm

Included in the exhibition are work(s) by Martin & Munoz as well as by other faves Joe Fig and the amazing Charles Matton and Alan Wolfson.

Dwellings, 1981.  Mixed media. 

Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC

http://whitney.org/Collection/CharlesSimonds

Also, it's a chance to rediscover the works of Charles Simonds, some of the greatest site-specific pieces, mindfully sequestered. 

Mahmoud Farshchian

The Hunt

http://farshchian.deviantart.com/

A detail of this painting was featured in Daily Deviations some months ago.  Until then, I hadn't encountered the wonderful works of Mahmoud Farshchian, though he's recognized as a modern master of Persian painting. 

The Guarantor of the Gazelle

The Ashura

The Distant Drummer, Rumi

The great tradition of Persian miniature painting is reinvented by Farshchian.  There's infinite effervescence as well as exquisite detail in his works that even surpass the Limbourg brothers' illuminations notably in Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, graceful with superb composition and color.  One is also reminded of Chan painting and Russian Palekh, and even Delacroix.  I particularly admire the way he depicts vapor, and the way it suggests aesthetic, affective, and existential understanding.  The visions of a mystical dreamer are also somehow our pondering deja vu.

http://www.farshchianart.com/

http://iranpoliticsclub.net/authors/mahmoud-farshchian/index.htm

More images and info at above websites. 

Mira calligraphiae monumenta

http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1756

Mira calligraphiae monumenta was produced in two periods, in Vienna: 1561-62 when Georg Bocskay made a Model Book of Calligraphy for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and 1591-96 when Joris Hoefnagel illuminated the book upon request of Emperor Rudolf II.  Bocskay's calligraphy and Hoefnagel's painted miniatures together, meticulously done, are charming for a beguiling relaxed refinement. 

It's a long and sad story, but I used to own two mint first printings of the facsimile (Getty Publications, 1992).  It's among the finest facsimiles ever printed of illuminated manuscripts, with an elegant presentation.

The facsimile preserves the ingenious trompe l'oeil of the stem piercing the other side of some pages.  Above, an example of the trompe l'oeil.

http://shop.getty.edu/shop-bin/sc/productsearch.cgi?storeid=*181b3032dc9fe83c6469b48d5064&search_field=mira+calligraphiae+monumenta

The facsimile retailed for $150 USD, but it's no longer widely available, and a mint first printing copy if you can find one may set you back over $1K.  It may be just as hard to get nowadays as something like the Codex Seraphinianus (Abbeville, 1983).  But of course, it's a must have, one of the most beautiful books you can own.  Not the same but a good thing I suppose, parts of the Mira calligraphiae monumenta are available in affordable book forms, including one of Hoefnagel's embellished alphabets.   

Man Jaguar

http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibOlmec.aspx

I didn't go to LACMA much when I lived in Los Angeles, but recently, there was an exhibition 'Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico' that I would've liked to see.

http://www.inah.gob.mx/

Of course, if ya wanna really see Olmec art and Mesoamerican art in general, ya gotta go to Mexico. 

http://www.gobiernodigital.inah.gob.mx/mener/index.php?id=33

And notably, Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. 

http://www.lacma.org/programs/1206742074125.html

But there is one piece at LACMA that I love going to see every time I'm there.  I first saw it over 20 years ago.  It's also Olmec, but we go from monument to miniature.   I used to call it Jaguar Man, but I think Man Jaguar is better.  Jaguars have an esteemed place in the Olmec belief system, especially in shamanistic transformation.  Transformation figures are sometimes portrayed in transformation pose. 

Shamans do interest me, and the idea of morphing too, and hallucinogens too I suppose, but interdimensional experience particularly appeals to me, as does liminality.  Perhaps there's a jaguar part to a person.  I want to be Man Jaguar. 

Medieval rosary bead

http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/medieval_art/rosary_bead/objectview.aspx?collID=17&OID=170004327

One of my favorite artworks, first shown to me by my friend Elliot.  Miniature of mind-boggling proportions.  They don't make 'em like they used to. 

If ya happen to be in NYC, go to The Met, and do check it out.