[RETROSPECTIVE] Brian Duffy

The first ever full-career retrospective of the legendary British photographer opens to the public on July 8th 2011, coinciding with the publication of Duffy – the first and only book of the photographer's work. Duffy infamously quit photography in 1979 when, at the height of his career, he took the majority of his photographic work into the back garden and set it on fire. Featuring more than 160 images painstakingly rediscovered by Duffy’s son after years of searching through archives and publications around the world, this exhibition has truly risen from the ashes. On view July 8 to August 28 at Idea Generation in London. www.gallery.ideageneration.co.uk

Falos y Vaginas

In honor of Eros, the University of Antioquia, Colombia hosts an exhibition, entitled Falos y Vaginas (Phallus and Vaginas) which explores organs of pleasure represented in painting, ceramics, sculpture and photography, in a historical review of eroticism and as well as an encounter with science.  Falos y Vaginas is on view until November Medellin's University of Antioquia Museum (MUUA) Calle 67 #53-108 TEL: (574) 263-0011

Basquiat + Le Book

Le Book, the international reference for the creative industry, announces the release of its 2011 New York edition, curated by Tamra Davis (director of the recently released film tribute to Basquiat, The Radiant Child), art direction by Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One, and dressed by one of the most recognizable artists of the twentieth century, graffiti artist and neo-expressionist painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988). www.lebook.com

Hungarian Rhapsody

Martin Munkacsi, Carole Lombard, Hollywood, 1937

Brassaï, Robert Capa, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy and Martin Munkácsi each left Hungary to make their names in Germany, France and the USA, and are now known for the profound changes they brought about in photojournalism, as well as abstract, fashion and art photography. Others, such as Károly Escher, Rudolf Balogh and Jószef Pécsi remained in Hungary producing high-quality and innovatory photography. A display of approximately two hundred photographs ranging in date from c.1914–c.1989 will explore stylistic developments in photography and chart key historical events. These striking images will reveal the achievements of Hungarian photographers who left such an enduring legacy to international photography. Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts on the occasion of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU 2011. On view from June 30 to October 2 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. www.royalacademy.org.uk

Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project

"The Tarot deck is many things: revered diviner of knowledge, feared revealer of hidden secrets, and critiqued promoter of quackish myth. Regardless of one's take on Tarot card reading, it is certain that the history and imagery of these mysterious cards is ripe territory for contemporary artists to come up with their own interpretations of the 78 personas that make up the standard Tarot deck. And that is exactly what my divine colleague Stacy Engman set about doing as she assembled a group of some of today’s most dynamic artists and asked them to submit a new work based on a tarot card personally assigned by her. The resulting images are just as whimsical as the readings that emerge from an actual reading of the cards. The amazing group of artists included in the project created cards in a range of media (photography, painting and collage) and each infused an additional sense of allure and magic into this already heavily charged lam of mystery. Not only may viewers enjoy the actual works in the exhibition of the original cards, but they may also take them home in this unique catalogue in the form of a deck of Tarot cards in and of itself!" On view at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, PA until August 7th –www.warhol.org

A Celebration of the Poet Anna Akhmatova

If you happen to be in New Delhi on Wednesday, the Russian Cultural Center of Science and Culture jointly with the Literary Club “Parichay Sahitya Parishad” is holding a literary evening dedicated to the birth anniversary of the 20th century Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.  "She wrote with apparent simplicity and naturalness and her rhyming was classical compared to such radical contemporary writers as Marina Tsvetaeva and Vladimir Mayakovsky." June 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m RCSC, 24, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi, India

Daido Moriyama: Memoirs of Light

Daido Moriyama, Hippie Crime 1970

"Photographs are the footprints of light and memory, photographs are the history of memory. The myth of the light." Daido Moriyama "Memories of Light" traces the journey of a wandering photographer who, after half a century on the road, had only guides for his memory and memories. Born in 1938 in Osaka, Daido Moriyama has experienced war, the defeat of Japan, the U.S. military occupation, the rise and decline of the "economic miracle." The Polka Gallery in Paris presents "Memory of Light" an exhibition of Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama.

Daido Moriyama, Aomori, Japon, 1971

Daido Moriyama, Tokyo, 1978

Daido Moriyama, Halo, 1976

www.polkagallerie.com

The Caillebotte Brothers' Private World

From 25 March to 11 July 2011, the Jacquemart-André Museum is presenting The Caillebotte brothers’ private world. Painter and photographer. An encounter between Impressionism and photography, this exhibition evokes the artistic and private world of the Caillebotte brothers. www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com

STEFANIE SCHNEIDER's Polaroids

STEFANIE_SCHNEIDER_2

"Stefanie Schneider's scintillating situations take place in the American West. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambience for loosely woven story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters.  Schneider works with the largely uncontrollable chemical mutations of expired polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dreamscapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction." www.instantdreams.net

WES LANG Sittin' on a Rainbow

Sittin’ on a Rainbow, is a one-evening presentation at the Chateau Marmont, of Wes Lang’s intricate drawings, each executed directly onto the Hotel’s stationery. These pieces, all produced during the artist‘s month-long “residency” in room 34 at the infamous Hollywood hotel, provide a visual journal of his experience there, and reveal the contemplative effect this sojourn had on his work. Thursday, June 23, 2011, 8 PM Chateau Marmont, 8221 Sunset Blvd.