#RAWHIDE co-Curated by Dylan Brant & Vivian Brodie Opening At Venus Over Manhattan In New York

#RAWHIDE is an exhibition - co-Curated by Dylan Brant & Vivian Brodie - of paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs from the nineteenth century to present that together chronicle the cowboy’s rise to omnipresence in art. He has long been a vehicle through which artists are able to interpret and articulate their relationship to American identity. For that reason, the cowboy’s portrayal at any given time is both a critique and a reflection of our nation’s values and desires. This icon is a testament to the artist’s ability to recognize the universality, longevity and potential of this American symbol. #RAWHIDE will be on view until July 11, 2015 at Venus Over Manhattan, 980 Madison Ave, New York. photographs by Eric Morales 

Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits @ Gagosian New York

Opening today at Gagosian New York, Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits. Against the backdrop of America's social and political transformation, Avedon began to create four photographic murals between 1969 and 1971 which would be unprecedented in scale and pointed in subject. Between 20 to 35 feet wide and comprising up to five panels, the murals revealed a striking new format in which subjects were positioned frontally and aligned against a stark white background. This intensity of characterization and confrontational aspect typifies Avedon's portraits; his subjects exist larger than life, stripped of all artifice by an unflinching eye. His mural groupings featured emblematic figures: Andy Warhol with the players and stars of The Factory; The Chicago Seven, political radicals charged with and acquitted of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention; the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his extended family; and the Mission Council, a group of military and government officials who governed the United States' participation in the Vietnam War. Murals and Portraits will be on view from May 4 to July 6 at Gagosian, 522 West 21, New York.

Me Myself & I

“What do I see in Picasso that makes him Picasso?” wondered Edward Quinn, who took a large number of pictures of the Andalusian artist. Besides Quinn, many other photographers – some of whom were great names in the history of photography – Man Ray, Brassaï, Robert Doisneau, Dora Maar, Irving Penn, Edward Quinn, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Michel Sima, Richard Avedon and André Villers – also shot portraits of the famous artist, offering their own angle on his work and personality. The result is a profusion of portraits of Pablo Picasso that have become part of our collective imagery and which have contributed to building up a myth around the artist, his life and his work. MemyselfandI, Photographic Portraits of Picasso has been jointly organized by Museo Picasso Málaga and Museum Ludwig, Cologne and will be on view until May 10. After its run at MPM, it will travel to Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, where it will be on display from 2nd August to 28th October 2012.