The Städel Museum is showing the special exhibition “Victor Vasarely. In the Labyrinth of Modernism”. The retrospective presents the founder of the op art of the 1960s with more than one hundred works. Victor Vasarely’s (1906–1997) oeuvre, however, spans more than sixty years and makes use of the most diverse styles and influences: Key works of all phases of his production trace the development of the once-in-a century artist. Often reduced to his op art, the artist forged a bridge between the early modernism of Eastern and Central Europe and the avant-gardes of the Swinging Sixties in the West. He drew on traditional media and genres throughout his career, incorporating the multiple, mass production, and architecture into his complex work in the 1950s. The exhibition also looks back at Vasarely’s beginnings as an artist with such works as Hommage au carré (1929) or figurative paintings like Autoport

Although love is a universal emotion, the ways of loving are many and have continually evolved throughout history. From one period to the next, changes in romantic relationships have provided an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists. The exhibition at the Musée du Louvre-Lens traces the history of ways of loving, from original sin to the quest for freedom in the 20th century. It is a love story that has inspired by turns adoration, passion, gallantry, libertinage and romanticism. It reveals how, starting out from the stigmatising of the feminine, each successive period rehabilitated women, love, relations, pleasure and emotion, before eventually arriving at the invention of free love. This historical overview, illustrated by a selection of some 250 artworks of art in diverse media and from various civilizations, does not seek to be exhaustive, preferring a more selective approach. Each of the seven sections highlights

One of the greatest mysteries in art history appears to have been solved. The identity of the model who posed for the most scandalous painting of the 19th century, Gustave Courbet’s “L’Origine du monde” (The Origin of the world), has finally been revealed. Experts say they are “99 percent sure” the painting’s notoriously naked nether regions belong to the Parisian ballet dancer Constance Queniaux. The canvas has never lost its power to shock — bringing out the prude in Facebook, which censored profiles using it as late as 2011. For decades art historians have been convinced that the naked torso and genitalia it depicts belonged to Courbet’s lover, the Irish model Joanna Hiffernan. In a typically Parisian love triangle, she was also romantically linked with his friend, the American artist James Whistler. But doubts persisted — mainly because the dark pubic hair in the painting did not correspond with Hiffernan’s mane of flam

Politechnika Krakowska presents Daunting Transitions, an interdisciplinary solo show by artist Kathryn Hart, on view September 17-October 17, 2018 in ‘Kotlownia’ Exhibition Hall, Warszawa 24, 31-155 Krakow, Poland. In this solo exhibition, Hart explores the burden, responsibility and fear of choice in the face of a daunting transition. Featured are an installation, ink drawings and small sculptures related to her continued dialogue with evolving feminine identity and the hope for new starts during a period of turmoil, emotional conflict, and uncertainty. Her visual language in this show is rooted in line, space, and gesture to indicate humanoid or ‘entity’ energy and pathways. Her work also comments on the myriad of female roles as engineer, builder, janitor, sustainer, caretaker and explorer. This exhibition on display in Krakow debuted in NYC in May 2018 at the School of Visual Arts Project Spaces CE and has continued to