The turn of the 19^th century introduced the masses to leisure and seaside holidays. Entire sections of society who had previously never imagined the word “vacation” were now spending summers on the coast. It wasn’t long before the art world started capturing this new facet of daily life, with the Impressionists paying special attention to the phenomenon.

The newest exhibit at Caen’s fine art museum, “Summer by the Seaside: Leisure Activities and Impressionism” seeks to illustrate the rise of leisure in society. Divided into four parts, the exhibit focuses on works centered around the sand, the sea, boats and sails, and the iconic sun bath. The exhibition in Caen features 67 art pieces, and runs until September 29^th…appropriately through the end of summer.

Works by Manet, Monet, and Degas are featured in “the sand” section of the exhibit. Once tiny fishing villages were transformed into bastions for beach going, and the impressionists often capture beach scenes in their work. “The sea” and the “boats and sails” categories depict the transformed coastlines and new perspectives provided by the sea and watercrafts. The last part of the exhibit, focused around sun bathing in the Mediterranean features the largest and most well-known pieces of the exhibit, with masterpieces by Degas, Renoir, and Cezanne.

“Rembrandt Laughing” was painted on copper in 1628. The piece surfaced at a little known auction house in England, where it was suspected then confirmed to be a certifiable Rembrandt work. Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum spoke about the appropriateness of the piece for The Getty’s collection, saying, “The Getty Museum possesses the most significant collection of early Rembrandts in the United States, and if you had asked what addition would best cap it off, the answer would have been a self-portrait.”

The piece was previously on public view for a short time at several museums, including The Toledo Museum of Art. Rembrandt’s self portrait will hang in the south pavilion of The Getty Center.

Some of Monet’s best-known works are coming to Australia for the first time, including a collection of big water lily paintings and the garden motifs that became his trademark later in life.

This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the French impressionist master’s best works in Melbourne.  See why Monet is considered to be the grand master of impressionism and why his works are among the most highly regarded and most well-loved in the art world.

The exhibit will also feature early photographs of Monet and of his garden.  Visitors will be able to get a glimpse of the man behind the artist and get to know him in his early years.

The main exhibition, which will feature around 50 paintings from the Musee Marmottan Monet, as well as Monet’s masterpieces owned by various private collections and some of the world’s top museums, will be presented in two sections.

The first part will feature the paintings that Monet created when the garden was still being constructed, including the Parliament; the Reflections on the Thames, which was done in 1900; and the Field of Yellow Irises at Giverny, done in 1887.

The next part will feature paintings from the latter part of Monet’s life up to 1926.

In short, the exhibit will not only feature Monet’s best works, but it will also allow you to get a glimpse of his garden as the artist envisioned it and how he saw it.  Visitors will also be able to see every aspect of the world-famous garden, including depictions of various flowers, of the weeping willow, and of the Japanese footbridge.

Galerie Michael artist Davyd Whaley is being featured in UCLA’s “It’s Your Show 2013” with his piece, “Heaven & Hell.” The exhibit is going on now and runs through May 30^th. Davyd’s “Heaven & Hell” was given an Award of Distinction, so don’t miss out on this chance to show Davyd your support!

Davyd Whaley is one of the few living artists featured as part of Galerie Michael’s collection. He grew up in eastern Tennessee and started a career in electrical engineering after serving in the Navy. He rose up the ranks of engineering positions around the country, before finally settling in Los Angeles. Though he enjoyed engineering, the stress and corporate rigidity of his career lead to health complications making it difficult for him to continue in the field. It was then that he turned to his life-long passion: art. He started taking art classes in New York, and he was soon painting full time.

Davyd’s works draw upon dream imagery and the subconscious. Using large unstretched canvasses and vivid imagery, Davyd pieces together his subconscious into emotional artworks that captivate the viewer. Learn more about David and his work right here at Galerie Michael!

The work of Andy Warhol has steadily been making it’s way across Asia in a 300 piece all inclusive exhibit powered by Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum. The show had already made stops in Singapore and Hong Kong and is slated to head to Beijing and Tokyo following Shanghai. The exhibit, titled “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” marks the first time a collection of this magnitude has traveled to Asia.

The exhibition is arranged by decade cataloging his work from the 1940s to the 1980s and includes iconic pieces such as “Campbell’s Soup” (1961), “Marilyn Monroe” (1963), and “Self-Portrait” (1986). In addition to his art work, the show also provides a glimpse into Warhol’s personal life with examples of some of his time capsules.

With China’s current art and museum boom, the city is on track to become a culture capital on par with the likes of Paris or New York. But critics argue that Shanghai will never become a true creative center due to government censorship. In that light, Warhol’s famous portraits of Chairman Mao which were scheduled to be part of the exhibit are not being shown in Shanghai.

Museum restorers hung Van Gogh’s “Self-portrait as a painter” as a symbol of the restoration’s completion, just moments before the museum was reopened. In addition to their own extensive collection, pieces from other collections around the world are featured in “Van Gogh at Work.” And works rarely seen next to each other are shown side by side to illustrate the relationship among Van Gogh’s paintings. Pieces from Van Gogh’s influences as well as work by artists influenced by Van Gogh will also be displayed, including work by Monet, Gauguin, and Seurat.

The show leads viewers chronologically through Van Gogh’s career, starting with his early drawings and going all the way up to his most famous works. The Van Gogh museum will be showing the exhibition through January 12.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is paying homage to Henri Matisse’s later career and his final commission in “Henri Matisse: La Gerbe.” The display centers around Matisse’s final commission, a ceramic painting entitled “La Gerbe.” The piece has been on display at LACMA since 2010, but the new exhibit provides context through other works Matisse completed around that time, and the paper cut outs featured in his book Jazz, which inspired the design for “La Gerbe.”

Matisse was originally commissioned to create “La Gerbe” in the early 1950’s by Sydney and Francis Brody, Los Angeles fine art collectors. With a home designed by A. Quincy Jones and filled with works by Picasso, Braque, and Calder, the Brody’s were looking for Matisse to create a piece that could stand at the center of their articulate collection. When the Brody’s first approached Matisse, he was finishing up his book of paper cut outs, the inspiration for “La Gerbe’s” design. In 2010, the artwork was transported (in one piece!) from the Brody residence to the walls of LACMA.

“Heri Matisse: La Gerbe” will be on display at LACMA until September 8^th.

The exhibit is centered around Manet’s formative years as a painter, with a special attention paid to the Italian Renaissance art that served as the inspiration of his early musings. Though Manet’s art would later be thought of as the pre-cursor to modern art, much of his early work was increasingly academic. Italian artists such as Titian, Tintoretto, and Lotto were the influence of much of Manet’s early career.

“Manet. Return to Venice” marks the most significant and critical Manet exhibit to take place in Italy. The exhibition will be on display in Venice through August 18^th.

Madrid’s Reina Sofia Museum opened a major retrospective exhibit dedicated to the life and works of surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. The exhibit stands at over 200 pieces strong, including works in painting, drawing, sculpture, writing, and film and television clips—all of which were chosen to show Dali’s influence on modern art in the early 20^th century. Titled, “Dali. All of the poetic suggestions and all of the plastic possibilities,” the exhibition is set to run April 27^th through September 2^nd.

The show catalogues Dali’s career from start to finish, beginning with works from his time as a student in Madrid. The exhibit follows Dali’s influential role in the formation of surrealism, his mystical and nuclear stages—where he focused on religious and scientific themes—and finally to the end of his career when he worked often in film, television, and set design. At the center of it all stands Dali’s most recognized piece, “The Persistence of Memory” featuring his iconic melting pocket watches.

Dali’s influence penetrates as deep as it does wide, with works ranging in a variety of mediums. Show curator Montse Aguer commented on Dali’s works saying, “Dali lived in an era when painting was inexorably destined to lose ground to other art forms like photography, cinema and conceptual art, and he dabbled in all of these.”

Children ages 8 to 15 are invited to the gallery on May 11 for a one-hour class with artist Alexandre Renoir. During the event, each child will have the opportunity to learn painting fundamentals, as well as some of Alexandre Renoir’s signature styling’s, including his “wet on wet” technique in which paint is applied quickly and intensely over multiple layers before drying. Classes will begin at 11am and 1pm, and all proceeds benefit The Children of War Foundation.

MasterCard Priceless Los Angeles delivers cardholders exclusive access to Priceless experiences including shopping events, culinary adventures, and more…even children’s painting lessons with a legendary artist!

Tickets are only $25 for this one-of-a-kind event, so sign up today to reserve a spot for your child. Feel free to contact Galerie Michael if you have any questions. We hope to see you soon!