David Zimmermann’s new paintings on paper, at the Roger Ramsay Gallery, 325 W. Huron St., are all moderately sized still lifes that give immense satisfaction through their composition, color and handling.
Some are of arrangements of apples; others, children’s toys. But the artist occasionally pushes such works into a more allusive realm by distorting his forms and appending titles that invoke other, more lofty subjects.
I suspect, however, that Zimmermann uses his objects to echo merely the compositions of famous Biblical or mythological paintings, for as his now are, viewers cannot possibly read, say, Judas or the Apocalypse into them.
In the end, however, the “meaning” of the works does not matter because of the purely visual pleasure the artist provides. This is painting about painting, recalling the entire history of the still life genre, with a special loving emphasis on such intimists as Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard.
The pieces are at once rich, intelligent and beautiful. (Through Feb. 12.)
– The Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, one of the world’s most creative organizations supporting the visual arts, has moved its headquarters from the French town of Jouy-en-Josas to a new building designed by architect Jean Nouvel in Paris. Inauguration of the new quarters, at 261 Boulevard Raspail in the historic Montparnasse district, will take place in May.
– The Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired the artists’ book collection and related archives of the alternative performance and exhibition space Franklin Furnace, founded in Manhattan in 1976. The collection, one of the most comprehensive ever assembled, includes more than 13,500 books, magazines and videotapes created by more than 5,000 artists.
– The structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that became New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has been named the Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Building in recognition of a $10 million gift by the couple. The designation will appear in bronze lettering modeled after Wright’s design on the outside of the museum, near the main entrance.
– David A. Jaffe, formerly curator of European Art at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, has become curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif. Jaffe, 40, succeeds George R. Goldner, who left the Getty in October for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
– “Art 1995 Chicago,” the international art exposition planned by Thomas Blackman Associates, Inc., will be held in the new Festival Hall at Navy Pier for five days in May, inaugurating a sequence of Blackman shows scheduled to continue at the pier each spring through 1999. “Art 1994 Chicago,” which recently received support from the Chicago Art Dealers Association, will again be in a temporary structure at Cityfront Center.
– Art historian Reinhold Heller will give a free lecture, “Art, as if the future of the world depended on it,” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Louis Theatre/Theatre and Interpretation Center of Northwestern University, 1967 S. Campus Drive, Evanston. The event is in conjunction with a preview and opening reception of the exhibition “Stark Impressions: Graphic Production in Germany, 1918-1933” through March 20 at NU’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery.
– Dr. James Gabarino, president of the Erikson Institute, will analyze drawings in the exhibition “On the Front Line: Israeli and Kuwaiti Children’s Art from the Gulf War” at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Spertus Museum, 618 S. Michigan Ave. A reception at 5:30 p.m. opens the exhibition, which continues through April at the museum.
– Lecturer Alexi V. Postnikov, from the department of history of geology and geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences, will present a free slide talk on “The History of Russian Cartography” at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St.
– A gallery game that invites children and their parents to explore the Butterfly Mask made by the Bwa people of Burkino Faso, Africa, will help celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday in the Kraft General Foods Education Center at the Art Institute.
