Getty Acquires Bernini Sculpture

Santa Monica, CA

The Getty Museum snaps up a Bernini bust, adding heft to L.A.'s Baroque holdings http://fw.to/azVqbSI 

Velázquez at the Grand Palais in Paris from March 15 to July 13, 2015

For me, exhibitions devoted to the paintings of the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez always evoke a sense of wonder and possibility. Velázquez' paintings hold me spellbound. I will be in Verona, Italy in May and will find my way to Paris for sure. Perhaps a rendezvous with the esteemed restorer from the Van Gogh Museum - René Boitelle?

An exhibition produced jointly by the RMN-Grand Palais and the Musée du Louvre, in collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Curator : Guillaume Kientz, curator in the Department of paintings, Musée du Louvre
Exhibition design : Maciej Fiszer

Diego Velázquez
Portrait of Pope Innocent X56"x47" oil on canvas c1650
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome

25 March 2015 to 13 July 2015

Open : Sundays and Mondays from 10 am to 8 pm,

Wednesdays to Saturdays from 9 am to 10 pm

Closed on Tuesdays

Closed 1st May

Closed at 6pm on 25th and 26th March

Access : metro line 1 and 13 « Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau » or line 9 « Franklin D. Roosevelt »

Attributed to Diego Velázquez
Man With a Wine Glass
Toledo Museum of Art

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ, FROM 15 MARCH TO 13 JULY 2015 AT THE GRAND PALAIS.

The Art World's Day for Detroit

by Gregg Chadwick
Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes, along with art blogs and art sites across the globe will be concentrating today on the plight of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Tyler Green writes, "In an effort to spotlight the collections at the Detroit Institute of Arts that would be lost if the threatened sale of art in collections at the DIA are sold, all day long  Modern Art Notes and many other sites will be spotlight art at the DIA. "

Sakyamuni
 Chinese Sculptor
late 13th/early 14th Century
wood with lacquer,gilding,and traces of color
11 3/4" x 88 1/8" x 6 1/2"
Detroit Institute of Arts

I heartily agree with Tyler that the more we can put a spotlight on the Detroit Institute of Arts rich collection, the more concerned art lovers, historians, and the general public will be about the peril that the collection faces. 

Vilhelm Hammershoi
Interior With A Lady
21 5/8" x 20 7/8" oil on canvas 1901
Detroit Institute of Arts

Christopher Knight in the Los Angeles Times writes, "The premise is simple and elegant: Use the Internet to:

 a) spread the word to a diverse, international art audience about what could be lost if any sale goes forward;

 b) suggest that readers expand the process by posting their own links and images to social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram; 

and c) generate support for the Detroit Institute of Arts by asking readers to click through and buy a museum membership (an individual membership starts at $65)."

Diego Velázquez
A Man
20 1/4" x 15 3/4" oil on canvas 1623/1630
Detroit Institute of Arts

How can we help support the DIA? As Tyler Green suggests: "Share artwork on MAN and at other sites with your friends. If you live in Michigan, tell your elected officials that the future of Detroit is important to you and that you don’t support a fire sale of the city’s future."

 Best of all: Join us in becoming a member of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Detroit Institute of Arts  is a vital part of the city of Detroit and a conduit for the greater community, including the more prosperous suburbs, to interact. I love the DIA's   (@DIADetroit ) twitter profile description: 

Detroit Institute of Arts. Home to 1st VanGogh in US Museum, Rivera's Detroit Industry murals, & city's best mac-n-cheese. Let yourself go!

Remember, all day long, roughly every hour, many sites plan to post a new image from the museum's staggering art collection, which is among the half-dozen best in the United States. Please get involved - tweet, post, write and create today for Detroit.

To read more about A Day for Detroit, check out these stories in the Detroit Free Press , the Detroit News , and the Los Angeles Times. 

Here's a list of sites that have signed on to the project:

• Modern Art Notes
• MANPodcast.com
• Art F City
• Bad at Sports
• Artinfo’s In the Air
• Ed Winkleman
• Mary Louise Schumacher
• Greg Allen
• Two Coats of Paint
• The Art Blog
• Hyperallergic LABS
• Eyeteeth
• Art Practical
• Daily Serving
• Paper Monument
• Italy’s Secret Places
• ArtSmartTalk
• Chad Edward
• The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research
• WBUR’s The Artery
• Speed of Life 

On Twitter: @KnightLAT @greggchadwick @TylerGreenDC M.L. Schumacher ‏@artcity 

Hashtags: #DayDetroit #Detroit

Slow Looking With Peter Clothier

by Gregg Chadwick

Peter Clothier Leads A One Hour/ One Painting Session
photo by Joanne Warfield

Peter Clothier's important new book Slow Looking: The Art of Looking at Art guides the reader seamlessly through the history, process, and ideas behind his One Hour/One Painting sessions.  Clothier's development of One Hour/One Painting  began with the realization that along with most museum or gallery visitors, he increasingly spent more time looking at the information label on the wall than at the artwork itself. To combat this habit, Peter began to spend an hour silently and inquisitively gazing at one work of art. Much influenced in recent years by Buddhist thought and practice, Clothier combined elements of meditation and contemplation in these sessions and found more profound and rewarding experiences.  

In a One Hour/One Painting session, Peter Clothier invites small groups of participants to sit in front of a single artwork for a full hour in a gallery, museum, or studio environment.

Clothier recently hosted One Hour/ One Painting sessions during the Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series exhibit at the Orange County Museum of Art and at the LA Louver Gallery. Peter, also, held a session (see video below) in my Santa Monica Airport studio. Clothier began as he usually does with a brief introduction describing the hour to take place and then gently guided the participants by explaining the principles of closed-eye breath meditation,  how to relax and refresh the eyes, and provided encouragement to rid the mind of expectations and pre-judgments. For me and most of the participants that evening, the hour moved quickly as Peter led us through alternate closed and open-eyed moments. As Clothier explained, "this was individual work without initial discussion or interaction and allowed each participant to experience the artwork as fully as possible, without interruption." At the end of the hour, however, Peter invited responses and a rich discussion of the experience followed. 

Peter Clothier's Slow Looking: The Art of Looking at Art is written in clear, supportive language that illuminates art and meditation.  Clothier seeks to achieve a harmony of mind, heart, and body in his life and writing and Slow Looking provides rich examples for us to learn from and follow. In the book, we are encouraged to seek a pure visual experience with art through a beneficial process of contemplation, stillness, and serenity. Slow Looking also provides access to an audio and a video demonstration of a One Hour/One Painting session that invites readers to try it out for themselves.  Highly recommended!

Video Demonstration

Made along with participants at Gregg Chadwick's studio in Santa Monica, this video was filmed live by David Lowther.  It provides a full length example of Peter Clothier's One Hour/One Painting sessions and demonstrates the techniques involved in this guided meditation and contemplation.

Past venues & subjects for Peter Clothier's  One Hour/One Painting events :

1. Pasadena Museum of California Art—“The Matterhorn from Zermatt,” Edgar Payne

2. LA Louver—“ Echo Home,” Joe Goode

3. Laguna Art Museum—“Spring Day,” Clarence Hinkle

4. Lora Schlesinger Gallery—“I’ve Been Dating Recently,” Michael Beck

5. William Turner Gallery—“Sun Biscuit,” Ned Evans

6. Gregg Chadwick Studio—“ A Balance of Shadows,” Gregg Chadwick

7. LACMA—“Montauk Highway,” by DeKooning

8. MOCA—“Untitled,” Mark Rothko

9. The Getty—“Christ Entering Brussels,” James Ensor

10. OCMA—“Untitled Works,” Richard Diebenkorn

11. Hammer Museum—“Dr. Pozzi at Home,” John Singer Sargent; “Trees in the Garden,” Van Gogh

About Peter Clothier:

Peter Clothier has a long and distinguished career as an an internationally-known art writer, novelist and poet and describes himself as "an aspiring Buddhist who looks at art, books, and the vicissitudes of life." Clothier enjoys a world-wide following for his blog, The Buddha Diaries and is a contributing blogger in The Huffington Post. He lives and works in Southern California. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Artscene, ARTNews and other publications. He also hosts a monthly podcast entitled "The Art of Outrage," onArtScene Visual Radio.

Peter Clothier's latest books are Persist, Mind Work, and Slow Looking.

More:

What Can Be Seen by Deborah Barlow

Peter Clothier's "The Buddha Diaries"

Peter Clothier's Website