JMG Artblog

Gee's Bend Quilt Exhibit: Philadelphia, PA 2008

Blocks and Strips Quilt, 2003
Ruth Kennedy, American
Corduroy
86 x 75 inches (218.4 x 190.5 cm)
Collection of the Tinwood Alliance. Photo: Steve Pitkin, Pitkin Studio
Rockford, IL

The Gee's Bend Quilt Exhibit will be at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from September 16, 2008 until December 14, 2008. Expand your artistic vision and go see this exhibit dedicated to the architecture of the quilt from the quilters of Gee's Bend.

If you don't know anything about this talented group of southern ladies listen to these interviews:
WBHM Interview
WHYY Interview
2003 NPR Article and Interview
2004 NPR Article and Interview
NPR Podcast

Purchase these DVD and Books:
Quilt Maker's of Gee's Bend DVD
Quilts of Gee's Bend DVD
Gee's Bend: Architecture of the Quilt

Advanced Exhibition Schedule through Fall 2009: Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Media Relations just sent this to me. There are some really cool exhibits coming. Check out the links below.

New and Upcoming Exhibitions

• Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882 - 1966)
  Through September 1, 2008
  
  The first traveling exhibition outside Asia to highlight the works of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) includes nearly 100 of the artist’s finest paintings in a variety of styles and media. Considered the father of modern art in India, Bose worked to regenerate and redefine India’s art during the region’s emergence from British colonial rule and its transition to an independent nation in 1947. The San Diego Museum of Art organized the exhibition in collaboration with the government of India and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. The paintings on display are selected from nearly 7,000 of the artist’s works, all of which are held by the NGMA as the result of a gift to India from the artist’s family. The exhibition marks the first time a survey of Bose’s artworks — which are considered Indian National Treasures — has traveled to the United States. Throughout his 60-year career, Bose utilized a wide range of styles and techniques. Many of his works depict devotional and literary subjects and natural, tribal and village scenes in modes that draw from indigenous Indian, Japanese and Chinese sources. The exhibition, organized by Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, the San Diego Museum of Art’s Curator of Asian Art, contains six sections that highlight the depth and variety of Bose’s work and the different formats he used, from intimate monochrome sketches on postcards or scroll-like wash paintings to brightly colored monumental murals. It also examines his relationships with key figures including Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) — the major political and spiritual leader during the independence movement — and the writer, educator and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Among the exhibition’s key works is an image of Gandhi, whose use of non-violent resistance to gain Indian independence inspired subsequent civil rights leaders around the world. The striking black-and-white linocut Dandi March (1930) depicts Gandhi on the famous 248-mile journey he and his followers took to make salt from seawater in defiance of a British colonial tax. Bose’s image is now considered one of the most iconic portrayals of the leader. Catalogue: In conjunction with the exhibition, the San Diego Museum of Art has published a 304-page catalogue with nearly 100 color plates, along with essays by a renowned and international group of art historians, historians and contemporary Indian artists. It is available for purchase in the Museum Store ($44.95 paperback, $64.95 cloth) or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at: www.philamuseum.org.
  Sponsors: In Philadelphia, the exhibition is made possible by Reed Smith LLP and BNY Mellon. Major support is provided by a grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, with additional funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Rajiv and Kamla Gupta, Dr. David R. Nalin, Sundaram Tagore, and other generous donors.
  Organizers: The exhibition is organized by the San Diego Museum of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and made possible by the generosity of Roohi and Rajiv Savara, the Savara Art Foundation, Priya and Mukesh Assomull, the Arts and Culture Fund of The San Diego Foundation, and Gayatri and C.K. Prahalad.
  Curator: Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: Dorrance Galleries
  Itinerary: Philadelphia Museum of Art: June 27, 2008 – September 1, 2008.
  San Diego Museum of Art: February 23, 2008 – May 18, 2008.
  Press Release | Press Images
• Multiple Modernities: India 1905 – 2005
  Through December 7, 2008
  
  Exhibited simultaneously with Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose, this exhibition illustrates the range of artistic traditions and experiments in visual culture that emerged as South Asia transformed from a British colony to independent nation-states to world economic power. Many of South Asia’s preeminent artists of the past century are represented, woven together by four themes. The first sections, “Home and the World” and “Tradition and Invention,” look at the first half of the 20th century. They explore South Asian artists’ challenges to British rule and their attempts to establish a national identity through the visual arts. The debate on the nature of this identity included new appreciation of India’s varied artistic traditions. Jamini Roy (1887-1972), for example, looked toward regional eastern Indian folk traditions for his simplified forms and bold, flat colors. In The Festival (c. 1930-40), Roy used rich earth tones to evoke paintings by the local Santhal tribal group.  The Festival (c. 1930 – 40), from the Museum's collection, is exhibited here for the first time, an unusual work in the artist's extensive oeuvre because of its large size and use of canvas rather than paper. One of the most significant individuals in the fight for cultural regeneration was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who collaborated with a group of artists and intellectuals to launch what has been called the “Bengal Renaissance.” A writer, educator, and Asia’s first Nobel laureate (Literature, 1913), Tagore did not focus on visual art until he was well into his 60s. The exhibition includes a rare and never-before-displayed group of seven of his imaginative and enigmatic drawings and paintings from the Museum’s collection. Some of Tagore’s works, such as Phoenix (c. 1928-30), depict bizarrely abstracted birds and animals that he described as un-liberated life forms struggling to escape the confinements of their bodies. A brooding oil painting of a woman’s head may be a portrait of Stella Kramrisch (1896-1993) — a teacher at Tagore’s experimental university in the 1920s and subsequently at the University of Calcutta and the University of Pennsylvania. Kramrisch was the Museum’s curator of Indian art from 1954 to 1993, and donated this group of Tagore’s works from her personal collection. “From Artistic Collective to Individual Expression” explores the impact and aftermath of the Progressive Artists Group in Bombay. Formed in 1948 and disbanded a few years later, the group members searched for their individual artistic voices, rather than solely a national vision. Its members and associates included some of the major artists who shaped modern India, such as F.N. Souza, M.F. Hussain, and Tyeb Mehta, all represented in this exhibition. During the 1960s and 70s, a younger generation modeled in part on the Progressives renewed their search to infuse art with powerful individuality. Their variety of voices is evident in works including Bhupen Khakhar’s Shame (after 1983) and Gieve Patel’s Dead Politician (1972). “Figuration and Abstraction” focuses on the latter half of the 20th century, and includes a recently acquired collage-lithograph by Atul Dodiya. Based on a minor episode in the great Hindu epic Ramayana, Sabari with her birds (2005) explores the power of faith through the tale of a tribal woman who spends her life alone in the forest preparing to encounter God. The work is part of a series inspired by three paintings by Indian artist Nandalal Bose (1882-1966), whose retrospective will be on display concurrently in the Museum. Organizers and Sponsors: Multiple Modernities was organized last fall by students in a Halpern-Rogath Curatorial Seminar at the University of Pennsylvania. Led by University of Pennsylvania Professors Michael W. Meister and Darielle Mason, graduate students Beth Citron, Nachiket Chanchani, Neil Ghosh, Jenna Levy, and Nyssa Liebermann selected the works for the exhibition, produced the wall and label texts, and traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to select works from the Herwitz Collection, the foremost public collection of 20th century South Asian art in the United States.
  Curator: Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: William P. Wood Gallery, 227 Press Release | Press Images
• The Fix on Colonial Philadelphia Furniture: A Secret Guide to Cabinetmakers’ Prices
  Through April 29, 2009
  
  Reach into the vest pocket of an 18th-century master furniture craftsman and pull out his secret guide to pricing furniture in colonial America’s wealthiest and most fashionable city. The exhibit showcases the only remaining copy of the world’s first published furniture price book alongside the very works of art it lists. Philadelphia’s 36-page printed price book will be on display for the first time, along with enlargements of selected pages to help visitors decode the price lists. As a price guide, the book reveals the array of furniture — ranging from tables, chairs, chests and bookshelves to picture frames, ironing boards, and even coffins — and the values craftsmen assigned to various sizes and embellishments. The exhibition spans two American art galleries and features 23 pieces of colonial furniture, including items from the Museum’s famous Cadwalader collection. Visitors to Gallery 286 will see the price book along with 12 pieces of furniture that correspond closely to forms delineated in it. On its first five pages, the price guide lists high-ticket case pieces that colonial Philadelphians used for work and storage. A Chest on chest created by the freed African-American cabinetmaker Thomas Gross of Germantown between 1805 and 1810 precisely matches an item included in the guide more than 30 years earlier — a testament to the enduring demand for its design. Made of highly figured mahogany yet void of other decoration, the chest on chest would have commanded far less money than more elaborate pieces, such as the highly ornamented eight-foot-tall mahogany Desk and bookcase (c. 1762) or a scroll-headed walnut High chest (c. 1770), both also on view. The exhibition will also showcase tables, chairs and household “basics,” such as a cradle, a writing table and a bottle case. In Gallery 287, visitors will step into the second-floor front parlor of Samuel and Elizabeth Powel’s Third Street house, which now exhibits treasures from the Powel’s friends and neighbors John and Elizabeth Lloyd Cadwalader, including their impressive portrait with their daughter, by Charles Willson Peale. The Cadwaladers commissioned the mahogany furniture now in the Powel Room in 1770 from Philadelphia cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck to harmonize with the English furniture, silver and decorative arts the couple had inherited from Elizabeth Lloyd Cadwalader’s parents. Carved by highly specialized artisans, the furniture is considered the most elaborately ornamented pieces made in the colonies. Using a copy of Affleck’s bill, more than 235 years later, nearly all the furniture in the Cadwalader room can be matched in form and price to works listed in the price book. Sponsor: The exhibition was funded by a grant from The Getty Foundation.
  Curator: Alexandra Kirtley, Associate Curator of American Art Location: American Art galleries 286 and 287 Press Release | Press Images
• Calder Jewelry
  Through November 2, 2008
  
  Beginning as a child with embellishments to the costumes of his sister’s dolls, the American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976) created more than 1,800 pieces of jewelry. Best known for his invention of the mobile, Calder also produced these precious ornaments throughout his lifetime—for his wife, family, artists, friends—and as a more intimate dimension of his monumental art. The personal nature of his jewelry, and the inspiration it drew from sources ranging from the primitive to the modern, provide insight into Calder’s life and art. The exhibition, in the Perelman Building, consists of some 100 necklaces, bracelets, pins, earrings, and tiaras. The metalwork from numerous ancient cultures significantly influenced Alexander Calder. He was attracted to the directness of ancient processes and loved the simplicity of their forms. “When a mobile by Alexander Calder is seen packed in a crate, it is a flat, lifeless object,” notes exhibition curator Mark Rosenthal in the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition. “Picked up by its highest element, all of the components take their assigned positions, and the mobile will become animated, three-dimensional, and imbued with motion. A necklace by Calder lives in the same way—inside and outside a crate. The only real difference between the two is that the structure of the mobile, with its rigid metal spokes, creates the breadth of the work of art, whereas the necklace usually depends on the body of the wearer to expand from a static state to fullness. Both works are of a piece and cut from the same cloth of activity.” “Making jewelry was very personal for him, and each piece exists as a unique work,” adds Calder Foundation Chairman and Director Alexander S. C. Rower, the artist’s grandson. “Some of his gifts for his crowd (of friends) are included here: a brass wire ring enclosing a tri-colored fragment of porcelain for Joan Miró, a gold “P” initial brooch for his wife, Pilar, and a silver brooch of her name for their daughter, Dolores; for Jeanne and Luis Bunuel, a gigantic flower brooch (with shards of colored glass and mirror for petals).” For Calder’s jewelry, the wearer becomes significant both as context and structural support, and the exhibition will be punctuated by enlarged images of people wearing the jewelry, including Calder’s wife, Louisa James. Other well-known women adorned by Calder, including Georgia O’Keeffe and Peggy Guggenheim, also suggest the jewelry’s popularity over the years. Catalogue: Calder Jewelry is accompanied by a companion book published by the Calder Foundation. Published by Yale University Press, it contains newly commissioned, full-color photographs by Maria Robledo, a frequent contributor to The New York Times and Town & Country. The book is edited by Alexander S. C. Rower and Holton Rower, with essays by Mark Rosenthal and Jane Adlin that discuss the relationship of these objects to the artist’s other endeavors and the objects’ relation to the history of jewelry. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store ($65 hardcover; $50 softcover) or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at: www.philamuseum.org.
  Organizer: This exhibition is co-organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Calder Foundation, New York. Calder Jewelry is a collaboration between Alexander S.C. Rower, Chairman and Director of the Calder Foundation, and Mark Rosenthal, Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art to the Norton Museum of Art. Curator: Elisabeth Agro, The Nancy M. McNeil Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Exhibition Gallery
  Itinerary: Norton Museum of Art: February 23, 2008 – June 18, 2008.
  Philadelphia Museum of Art: July 12, 2008 – November 2, 2008.
  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: December 8, 2008 – March 1, 2009.
  Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin: March 31, 2009 – June 22, 2009.
  Press Release | Press Images
• Philadelphia Treasures: Thomas Eakins’s “Gross Clinic” and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s “Angel of Purity”
  August 2, 2008 – February 2009
  
  In 2005, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Angel of Purity (Maria Mitchell Memorial), which had been commissioned for a church in Philadelphia where the stately marble was installed for over 100 years. A year and a half later, the Museum together with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts acquired Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece, The Gross Clinic. In each case, a major work of art that might easily have been sold outside the city was identified as an important icon to keep for Philadelphia. In a triumph for the community, institutions and dedicated individuals successfully secured both treasures. Thomas Eakins and Augustus Saint-Gaudens were close contemporaries and friends. They trained in Paris and traveled in Europe before returning to the United States around 1870 to begin distinguished careers. Sharing a belief in the expressive power of the human body as a subject for modern painting and sculpture, they developed different styles. Eakins, committed to the depiction of contemporary life, celebrated the heroes of his own day—as in The Gross Clinic—in a grand and unsparing realism evoking the Dutch and Spanish masters of the 17th century. Saint-Gaudens, trained in the same tradition of naturalism and life study, fused the real with the ideal—as in The Angel of Purity—following the poetic spirit of neoclassicism. At the peak of their accomplishment in these two works, both masters demonstrate the power of great public art to stir profound and complex emotions grounded in themes of human life and death. Installed in public spaces in Philadelphia for more than a century, these two extraordinary works of art will continue to inspire audiences here, thanks to the support of many donors rallied by the Museum’s dedicated director, Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943-2008), who worked tirelessly to secure both treasures for the city. Curator: Kathleen Foster, The Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Curator of American Art
  Location: American Art gallery 119, first floor
  Press Images
• Quilt Stories: The Ella King Torrey Collection of African American Quilts and Other Recent Quilt Acquisitions
  August 16, 2008 – February 2009
  
  While Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt can be seen this fall in the Dorrance Galleries, the Spain Gallery in the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building will feature a complementary installation of African-American quilts from the Ella King Torrey Collection. A recent gift to the Museum, this extraordinary collection includes 13 works by leading Southern quilt makers. Among its highlights are an appliquéd “word quilt” by the Mississippi artist Sarah Mary Taylor (1916-2004) and one of her “hand” quilts, a version of which was commissioned for the film The Color Purple. Two quilts are by Taylor’s mother, Pearlie Posey (1894–1984), who in 1980 followed her daughter’s lead and began creating rainbow-hued figurative appliqué quilts. A boldly-colored quilt by Arester Earl (1892–1988) of Georgia is constructed of individually padded and pieced squares sewn together, a style unique to the artist. Several are by artists from the celebrated community of quilters in Gees Bend, Alabama. A Philadelphia native, the late Ella King Torrey was a leading figure in the art world, having served as director of Pew Fellowships in the Arts and President of the Art Institute of San Francisco prior to her death in 2003. Ms. Torrey assembled her quilt collection between 1981 and 1983 while conducting fieldwork on African American quilt-making with Maud Southwell Wahlman. Several of the quilts were included in one of the first exhibitions of its kind, Ten Afro-American Quilters, held at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture in 1983. Curator: Dilys Blum, Curator of Costume and Textiles
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Joan Spain Gallery Press Images
• Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt
  September 16, 2008 – December 14, 2008
  
  An exhibition taking a fresh look at the quilting tradition in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, introduces new artists and motifs in works ranging from the early 20th century through 2005. The exhibition examines the resurgence of interest in quilting in the Gee’s Bend community, particularly since the landmark 2002 exhibition, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, that brought these artists international renown. The quilts are widely acclaimed as spectacular examples of modern, abstract art and their makers as brilliantly creative self-taught artists. Since the mid-19th century African-American women in this tiny rural community, most of whom are the descendants of slaves, have been producing these visually stunning works, transforming an essential necessity into an art form through quilts that express their stories of family, community and basic human survival. This exhibition presents newly discovered quilts from the 1930s through 2005 by established quilters and the younger generation they inspired. It documents the development of key quilt patterns— courthouse steps, flying geese, and strip quilting—through outstanding examples. Catalogue: Accompanying the exhibition is an extensive catalogue featuring 330 color illustrations. Gee´s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt includes essays by Dilys Blum and Bernard Herman, director of the Center for American Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware. Other contributors include Paul Arnett, Joanne Cubbs, Euegene W. Metcalf, Jr., Lauren Whitley, Diane Mott, and Maggie Gordon. The catalogue will be available for purchase in the Museum Store ($50, cloth) or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at: www.philamuseum.org.
    Sponsors: The exhibition is supported by a MetLife Foundation Museum and Community Connections grant, and by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and by The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Promotional Support is provided by NBC 10 WCAU.
  Organizers: This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Tinwood Alliance, Atlanta.
  Curators: Dilys Blum, Curator of Costume and Textiles and Kathleen Foster, The Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Curator of American Art
  Location: Dorrance Galleries
  Itinerary: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: June 1, 2006 – September 4, 2006.
  Indianapolis Museum of Art: October 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006.
  Orlando Museum of Art: January 28, 2007 – April 22, 2007.
  Walters Art Museum: June 17, 2007 – August 26, 2007.
  Tacoma Museum of Art: September 25, 2007 – December 9, 2007.
  Speed Art Museum: December 23, 2007 – March 16, 2008.
  Denver Museum of Art: April 13, 2008 – July 6, 2008.
  Philadelphia Museum of Art: September 16, 2008 – December 14, 2008.
  Press Images
• Linda Day Clark, The Gee’s Bend Photographs
  September 16, 2008 – December 14, 2008
  
  In conjunction with Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt, the Museum will present an installation of approximately 24 photographs by Baltimore photographer Linda Day Clark, who has traveled to Gee’s Bend annually since 2002 when she made her first visit on assignment for The New York Times. Clark’s photographs capture the richness of the rural landscape as well as the strong sense of community forged by the women who are carrying on the quilt-making tradition in Gees Bend. One image, titled The Road to Paradise shows the single, unpaved country lane that leads in and out of the town, a narrow track of red-clay earth surrounded by pine trees. Also included are powerful photographic portraits of the artists such as Mary Lee Bendolph, Creola Pettway, Arlonzia Pettway, and Annie Mae Young, whose work is featured in the Gee’s Bend exhibition.  Currently a Professor of Fine Art at Maryland's Coppin State University, Clark received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Delaware. Her work has been featured in the book Reflections in Black: A History of African American Photography 1840-1999 by Deborah Willis Kennedy, and is in collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University the Maryland Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution. Curator: Dilys Blum, Curator of Costume and Textiles
  Location: Dorrance Galleries, Corridor to the American Wing Press Images
• Photo Mandalas
  September 2008 – January 2009
  
  An aid to focus and meditation long used in Buddhist and Hindu religious practices, a mandala (literally "circle") is a schematic depiction of the divine palace or realm of a deity. More broadly, it is a visualization of the entire cosmos. While many historic mandalas are painted or drawn, a mandala can also be represented in sculpture, architecture, textile art, or even, in the case of this exhibition, as a photograph. Photo Mandalas, a visually bold exhibition of more than thirty photographs, brings together two contemporary artists whose work has been inspired by the ancient form of the mandala. These photographic mandalas, made in color by Bill Armstrong (American, b. 1952) and in black-and-white by Milan Fano Blatný (Czech, b. 1972), are not meant specifically for sacred use, but are meant to inspire contemplation. “The more you look at the image, the more you see,” Blatný writes about his dense, constructed images. “New worlds, new levels come up from the center of the picture and you can go deeper and deeper inside the image.” Armstrong, by contrast, uses rings of saturated color to interpret the form: “The mandalas are meant to be meditative pieces – glimpses into a space of pure color, beyond our focus, beyond our ken. Their essential purpose is to create a sense of transcendence, of radiance, of pure joy!” Curators: Katherine Ware, Curator of Photographs and Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Julien Levy Gallery
  Press Images
• Thomas Chambers (1808 – 1869) American Marine and Landscape Painter
  September 27, 2008 – December 28, 2008
  
  The first museum exhibition devoted to the bold and expressive vision of Thomas Chambers, the 19th-century artist who was once hailed as “America’s first modern,” includes 44 of the artist’s works. Although much of his life has been a mystery until recently, Chambers played a pioneering role in the development of popular American landscape and maritime art in the mid-19th century. His distinctive style has been widely recognized since the 1940s, when he was rediscovered as a precursor to American modern artists. Chambers’ work has been included in numerous surveys of American art, but until now his paintings have never been assembled to consider the breadth of his career. The exhibition is drawn from public and private collections and will travel to three venues following its debut in Philadelphia. Catalogue: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in association with Yale University Press, has published a 170-page catalogue with color illustrations of all works in the exhibition and many supplementary images. The texts include an introductory biographical and critical essay by organizing curator Kathleen A. Foster, the Museum’s Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Senior Curator of American Art and Director of the Center of American Art. This catalogue was supported by the Davenport Family Foundation. It will be available in the Museum Store ($50 hardcover; $39.95 softcover) or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at www.philamuseum.org.
  Organizer/Sponsors: The exhibition is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its Center for American Art, in association with the Indiana University Art Museum, with the support of Mr. and Mrs. William C. Buck. Exhibitions in the Berman and Stieglitz Galleries in 2008, including Thomas Chambers, are made possible by RBC Wealth Management.
  Curator: Kathleen A. Foster, The Robert McNeil, Jr., Curator of American Art and Director of the Center of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Location: Berman and Stieglitz galleries
  Itinerary: Philadelphia Museum of Art: September 27, 2008 – December 28, 2008.
  Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York: February 8, 2009 – April 29, 2009.
  American Folk Art Museum in New York City: September 29, 2009 – March 7, 2010.
  Indiana University Art Museum: March 26, 2010 – May 30, 2010.
  Press Images
• James Castle: A Retrospective
  October 14, 2008 – January 4, 2009
  
  This exhibition will examine the full visual and conceptual range of James Castle (1899 – 1977) one of the most enigmatic and remarkable self-taught artists to emerge in the United States during the 20th century. Bringing together almost 300 examples from 60 public and private collections, this is the first comprehensive museum exhibition devoted to Castle’s work. It will explore the variety of modes Castle employed throughout his life, from drawings and colored wash pieces to handmade books, assemblages, and text works, for all of which he used found pieces of paper or cardboard and homemade inks and colorants primarily of his own invention. That Castle left behind at his death a huge and varied body of work is exceptional, as he was born profoundly deaf and did not adopt speech, sign language, lip reading, writing, or any of the usual modes of communicating with other people. He did not marry, travel, or hold a job but lived with his family on the three small farms in Garden Valley, Star, and Boise, Idaho, that the Castle family occupied successively during his lifetime. He attended the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind in Gooding (about 100 miles southeast of Boise) for about five years (1910-15) but for unknown reasons he resisted its teaching program, instead pursuing art as his primary means of communication. Catalogue: James Castle: A Retrospective will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue, which will include a just-released DVD of a 53-minute documentary film on the life and art of James Castle (entitled James Castle: Portrait of an Artist), sponsored by the Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists in Philadelphia (www.foundationstaart.org). The film, which premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival in April, will help bring to life Castle’s family, milieu, and art for the viewer. It was created by filmmaker Jeffrey Wolf and will be shown as part of the exhibition. The 280-page catalogue, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press and containing over 350 illustrations, will consider Castle’s remarkable art from a variety of perspectives, examining his life, modes of depiction, working methods and materials, and the “visual poetry” of his text works. Edited by Ann Percy, the catalogue includes essays by Ann Percy, Castle expert Jacqueline Crist, folklorist Brendan Greaves, Philadelphia Museum of Art paper conservators Nancy Ash and Scott Homolka and conservation scientists Beth Anne Price and Kenneth Sutherland, as well as an interview with painter Terry Winters by Jeffrey Wolf. The catalogue is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications. It will be available in the Museum Store or by calling 800-329-4856 or at www.philamuseum.org.
  Sponsors: James Castle: A Retrospective is made possible by a grant from the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by The University of the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring program; the Henry Luce Foundation; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; the Ervika Foundation; Marion Stroud Swingle; and other generous individuals.
  Curator: Ann Percy, Curator of Drawings
  Location: The Berman and Stieglitz galleries, ground floor Press Images
• Frank O. Gehry: Design Process and the Lewis House
  November 8, 2008 – April 5, 2009
  
  On view in the Collab Gallery of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman building, this is a small exhibition focusing on architect Frank Gehry’s design process and the Lewis House. A residential plan created for a site owned by Peter B. Lewis in Lyndhurst, Ohio, the 10-year project (1985-1995) gave Gehry a unique opportunity to experiment, and ultimately to achieve the formal and technological breakthroughs that have made him among the most famous architects working today. In collaboration with Gehry Partners, LLP, the Museum will present some 75 architectural models, drawings and photographs, together with furniture, and decorative arts that emerged from his work on the Lewis House. While the project was not ultimately realized, the process deeply informed Gehry’s concurrent and subsequent designs, from Bilbao to the Venice Gateway, from his bent wood and cardboard furniture to a metal teakettle. Sponsor: The exhibition is supported in part by Collab.
  Curator: Kathryn Hiesinger, Curator of European Decorative Arts After 1700
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Collab Gallery
  Press Images
• The Art of Japanese Craft: 1875 to the Present
  December 6, 2008 – Spring 2009
  
  Japan is one of the few cultures that fully appreciated and fostered its craft art traditions in the 20th century: instituting a system of national competitive exhibitions, commissioning and purchasing crafts through the Imperial Household Agency, and supporting artists as “holders of important intangible cultural property.” The exhibition features work by six artists who have been awarded this designation, and are popularly referred to as “living national treasures.” Almost all of the works in the exhibition will be on public view for the first time outside of Japan. The exhibition will be divided into themed sections such as animal, floral, and geometric motifs, and spans more than 120 years. Among the many remarkable objects that will be on view are a superbly crafted lacquer box made around 1875, examples of Art Deco-influenced metalwork, and an abstract contemporary celadon vase. This comprehensive overview is among the first of its kind, and presents a group of 70 gifts and promised gifts to the Museum from a single donor, Mr. Frederick R. McBrien III – a collection that will place Philadelphia on the map as one of the premier sites for the study and enjoyment of the stunning craftsmanship of Japan’s modern and contemporary artists. The exhibition includes several less-explored areas such as metal crafts of the prewar period. Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue (60 pp. with nearly 150 color images), published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. An introductory essay by Dr. Fischer will discuss the artists and ideas that shaped and defined the aesthetic of crafts in twentieth-century Japan. Illustrated entries will explore distinctive qualities of twenty-five of the objects. A comprehensive checklist will include color illustrations of objects not reproduced elsewhere in the publication. The book also will include a section on artists’ biographies and reproductions of their marks. The book is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications and a generous individual. It will be available for purchase in the Museum Store, or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at www.philamuseum.org
  Curator: Felice Fischer, Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese Art and Curator of East Asian Art
  Location: East Asian Art Galleries: 241, 242, 243 Press Images
• Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian
  January 31, 2009 – April 26, 2009
  
  When the first printed images appeared in Europe in the fifteenth century they were limited to the small size and shape of a sheet of paper that could fit in a standard printing press. By the sixteenth century, the ambition to rival paintings and to adorn wall surfaces prompted artists and printmakers to challenge these restrictions. Printed images were expanded in various ways to accommodate new formats. Large-scale woodcuts and engravings began to be printed on several sheets of paper that could be joined together to form a single picture. Some were arranged in frieze-like sequences similar to carved wall reliefs, while others were pieced together to emulate the scale of monumental murals and tapestries. Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian traces the rich history of an under-recognized aspect of Renaissance printmaking. This major loan exhibition features a diverse group of nearly 50 rarely displayed prints dating from the late 15th to the early 17th century that are all uncommonly large in scale. They are printed from two or more woodblocks or engraving plates on multiple sheets that require being viewed together. Drawn entirely from American collections, Grand Scale is the first exhibition since the 1970s to explore this facet of printmaking with examples by some of the most important artists and printmakers of their day, including Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Titian (c.1488-1576). Six of the works on view belong to the Museum’s distinguished collection of old master prints. Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue, with essays by leading scholars in the field, accompanies the exhibition.
  Organizers: Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian was organized by the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College. It was conceived and guest-curated by Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Elizabeth Wyckoff, Assistant Director and Curator of Prints and Drawings, Davis Museum and Cultural Center.
    Curator: Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Location: Berman Stieglitz Galleries, ground floor
  Itinerary: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, March 19, 2008 - June 8, 2008.
  Yale University Art Gallery, Fall 2008.
  Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 31, 2009 – April 26, 2009. Press Images
• Cézanne and Beyond
  February 26, 2009 – May 2009
  
  In 1907, the French painter Paul Cézanne’s posthumous retrospective astonished younger artists, accelerating the experimentation of European modernism. Cézanne (1839-1906) became for Henri Matisse “a benevolent god of painting,” and for Pablo Picasso “my one and only master.” Cézanne’s inclusion in the Armory Show in New York in 1913 also offered American artists a new direction. This exhibition will examine the seismic shift provoked by this pivotal figure, examining him as form-giver, catalyst, and touchstone for artists who followed. It will survey the development of an artistic vision that anticipated Cubism and fueled a succession of artistic movements, and will juxtapose Cézanne’s achievement with works by many who were inspired directly by him, showing a fluid interchange of form and ideas. It will place his work in context with more recent artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, and Brice Marden, who in quite different ways came to terms with the master of Aix-en-Provence. This profound impact on successive generations endures to the present day. The exhibition will present about 150 works, including a large group of paintings, watercolors and drawings by Cézanne, along with those of 17 later artists. The works will be drawn from public and private collections around the world, and will be seen only in Philadelphia. Catalogue: The exhibition will be accompanied by a major scholarly publication, co-published by the Museum and Yale University Press, and generously supported by the Davenport Family Foundation and the Lenfest Foundation. It will encompass critical scholarship on Cézanne and modernism, as well as essays on individual artists’ responses to Cézanne, which will also incorporate interviews with living artists. Contributors include: Joseph Rishel (writing an introductory essay and essays on Bonnard and Hartley), Katherine Sachs (on Kelly and Marden), Michael Taylor (on Gorky), Mark Mitchell (on Demuth), Richard Shiff (with an introductory essay on Cézanne’s impact on 20th and 21st century art), Yve-Alain Bois (on Matisse), John Elderfield (on Picasso), Joop Joosten (on Mondrian), Chris Green (on Léger), John Golding (on Braque), Anabelle Kienle (on Beckmann), Albert Kostenevich (on Popova), Carolyn Lanchner (on Giacometti), Roberta Bernstein (on Johns), and Jean-François Chevrier (on Wall). Sponsors: This exhibition is made possible by ADVANTA. Additional funding was provided by The Annenberg Foundation Fund, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Promotional support provided by NBC 10 WCAU; The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com.
  Curator: Joseph J. Rishel, The Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, and Senior Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection and the Rodin Museum at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Location: Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries Press Images
• Marcel Duchamp: Étant Donnés
  July 2009 – October 2009
  
  This is the first exhibition to examine the genesis, construction, and reception of Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1° The Waterfall, 2° The Illuminating Gas), Marcel Duchamp’s enigmatic final masterwork that was secretly executed in New York during the last 20 years of his life and discovered in his studio soon after his death in October 1968. The multi-media assemblage surprised the art world and perplexed the public when, as a gift to the Museum and in accordance with the artist’s wishes, it was permanently installed in July 1969, joining the world’s largest collection of his works, including The Nude Descending the Staircase, No.2; The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), to which it closely relates, and readymades such as With Hidden Noise and Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy? Celebrating the 40th anniversary of its public debut, Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés will situate the extraordinary assemblage within the context of some 80 related works of art, including all the known studies, photographs, body casts, erotic objects, and other materials. Included also will be 25 photographs of the artist’s studio at 80 East 11th Street, taken by a friend, Denise Brown Hare, in the mid-to-late 1960s, which document the work before it was disassembled and moved to Philadelphia. The exhibition is drawn largely from the collections and archives of the Museum, and supplemented by loans from public and private collections in the United States, France, Germany, Sweden, Israel and Japan. Catalogue: A fully illustrated 200-page catalogue, written by Taylor and published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. This publication will present important new scholarship on Étant Donnés: 1. La chute d”eau; 2. Le gaz d’éclairage…, as well as a comprehensive bibliography and chronology of its construction. Marcel Duchamp: Étant Donnés will be available for purchase online at www.philamuseum.org or by calling 1-800-329-4856.
  Curator: Michael R. Taylor, the Muriel and Phillip Berman Curator of Modern Art
  Location: Galleries 181, 182, and 183 Modern and Contemporary Art, first floor Press Images
• Adventures in Modern Art: The Charles K. Williams II Collection
  July 2009 – August 2009
  
  Drawn from the collection of Charles K. Williams II, a distinguished archeologist and Director Emeritus of the Corinth Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, this exhibition includes approximately 100 paintings, sculptures, watercolors, and drawings from the early decades of the 20th century. Williams has amassed in under two decades an important and personal collection representing most of the major American artists and movements of the modern period, as well as several European masters. The collection is marked by a passion for brilliant colors, strong compositional designs, and occasionally eccentric images, with an emphasis upon several favorite artists, among them Joseph Stella, Oscar Bluemner, Charles Demuth, and Arthur Dove, each of whom is represented by several examples. Organized by Innis Howe Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, the exhibition will be on view in the Dorrance Galleries in summer 2009. Catalogue: In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum and Yale University Press will publish an illustrated catalogue by curator Innis Howe Shoemaker, with contributions by Kathleen Foster, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Curator of American Art, Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, and independent scholar Jennifer T. Criss. The catalogue will be available for purchase in the Museum Store or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at: www.philamuseum.org.
  Curator: Innis H. Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs
  Location: Dorrance Galleries, first floor Press Images
• Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
  October  2009 – December 2009
  
  The first comprehensive retrospective to be devoted to Gorky in nearly three decades, the exhibition will present around 180 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints reflecting the full scope of the artist’s prolific career. Drawn from public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, the retrospective will reveal the evolution of Gorky’s unique visual vocabulary and mature painting style. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and will be accompanied by a major publication, it will travel to London and Los Angeles following its debut in Philadelphia. Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. Essays by scholars including Harry Cooper, Robert Storr, Michael R. Taylor, and Kim Theriault will build upon new biographical details about the artist’s Armenian background and heritage that have emerged in recent years, while also exploring Gorky’s creative thinking, his unique experimentation, and his extraordinary command of themes and techniques. The publication will also contain a comprehensive chronology of the artist’s life, as well as a complete bibliography.
  Organizer: Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Curator: Michael R. Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art
  Location: Dorrance Galleries, first floor
  Itinerary: Philadelphia Museum of Art: October 2009 – December 2009.
  Tate Modern, London: Spring 2010.
  Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Summer 2010.
  Press Images

Philadelphia Museum of Art: Keep Eakins in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Musuem of Art posted the following on its website:

"Last Friday, due to an unprecedented outpouring of support from concerned citizens across the region, the Fund for Eakins’ Masterpiece was established enabling the public to make donations.  Tax-deductible contributions can be made online at www.philamuseum.org/keepeakins, or a check made payable to Fund for Eakins’ Masterpiece can be mailed to:

Fund for Eakins’ Masterpiece
c/o Philadelphia Museum of Art
P.O. Box 7646
Philadelphia, PA 19101-7646

The public can also reach the Fund for Eakins’ Masterpiece HOTLINE by phone at 215-684-7782."

More about Thomas Eakins:

Thomas Eakins

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery: Washington, DC

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. Make your own badge here.

For more information about this great art museum check out their web site by clicking here.

Carnegie Museum of Art: Fierce Friends, Artists and Animals, 1750-1900

Fierce Friends logo with detail of Paul Meyerheim's The Jealous Lioness

I received a note and press release in April from the Carnegie Museum of Art asking me (and other art bloggers) to check out the 'Fierce Friends' exhibit online. It sounds very interesting although this is one that I would rather see in person than view online. The premise of the exhibit can be understood in a short excerpt from the press release below. I plan on attending the show in mid-June and will let you know my thoughts.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania…An extensive and thought-provoking exhibition examining the complex and changing relationship between humans and animals will be on view at Carnegie Museum of Art from March 26 through August 27, 2006. Fierce Friends: Artists and Animals, 1750–1900 reveals how scientific discoveries, exploration, and new ideas during the Industrial Age affected the way artists in Europe and America thought about and depicted animals. Through paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, illustrated books, scientific specimens, and decorative arts objects, Fierce Friends explores the ways in which artists not only derived inspiration from science, natural history, and literature about animals, but also inspired and influenced these fields.

National Museum of Wildlife Art: Jackson Hole, WY

During my vacation to Jackson Hole, WY I had the chance to visit the National Museum of Wildlife Art. I am not sure  what I was expecting but it certainly wasn't what I found there.

First, the museum sits on a butte overlooking the National Elk Refuge as if it is the guardian of wildlife in a surreal setting. Secondly, the collections at the museum are fabulous. My favorites were the John Clymer Collection which includes much of his studio and the Carl Rungius Collection which includes the largest collection of his work in the USA. Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the large selection of fantastic watercolor paintings which most museums under present.

Overall, if you are in the area of the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone take a few extra minutes and visit this extraordinary museum located in Jackson Hole, WY. It will be well worth the trouble.

Philadelpia Museum of Art: New Web Site/Andrew Wyeth Exhibit

The Philadelphia Museum of Art recently updated its website design. Check out the new site and learn more about the upcoming Andrew Wyeth exhibit by clicking here.

Michener Art Museum: Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams, Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, 1927/print ca. 1960, gelatin silver print on paper, H. 28 x W. 20.7 centimeters. George Eastman House Collection Purchase. Copyright © 2003 by the Trustees of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA is hosting a special exhibit of photographs by Ansel Adam from February 18 through May 14, 2006. The exhibit is called "Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius" and includes over 150 of his works spanning his career. For more information click here.

High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA): Andrew Wyeth - Memory & Magic

Groundhog Day, 1959
Andrew Wyeth (American, born 1917)
Tempera on Masonite, 31 3/8 x 32 1/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Henry F. du Pont and Mrs. John Wintersteen, 1959
© Andrew Wyeth

I am looking forward to seeing the Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic exhibit over the Thanksgiving Holiday at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. Approximately 100 tempera paintings, watercolors and drawings will be chronologically and thematically placed so as to give the viewer insight into how the painter used certain subjects and themes throughout his career.

The November 13, 2005 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer printed a great interview with Andrew Wyeth by Edward Sozanski, Inquirer Art Critic. Wyeth states about the exhibit in the article, "I'm in a way sort of terrified to see it myself. After all, it's my whole life, and I don't know what it's going to look like." The entire article is filled with interesting observations and views by Wyeth and is definitely worth a read.

I will report back later on the show and my thoughts about seeing Mr. Wyeth's work at the High Museum of Art.

The exhibit will only be seen at the High Museum of Art (November 12, 2005 to February 26, 2006) and later at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (March 29 to July 16, 2006).

Click Here for "Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic Book" Information

Philadelphia Treasure

Which museum in Philadelphia has the following as part of its collection?

• Manuscripts for such outstanding literary works as James Joyce's Ulysses, Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers, and Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim
• Fine 18th- and 19th-century British and American furniture 
• Items associated with important authors, including Herman Melville's bookcase and Nathaniel Hawthorne's personal copy of Melville's Moby Dick
• The world's largest collection of portrait miniatures painted in oil on metal
• A selection of John Tenniel's original illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass
• The only surviving example of the first printing of Yankee Doodle
• A complete recreation—with the original contents—of poet Marianne Moore's Greenwich Village living room (designated as a national Literary Landmark by Friends of Libraries USA)
• Over 10,000 drawings and manuscripts by acclaimed children's book author/illustrator Maurice Sendak

These are but a a few of the treasures found at this museum. Did you guess The Rosenbach Museum & Library?

If you are like me I had never heard of the place before. It is fabulous.

I found out about the museum by reading a post at Roberta Fallon and Libby Rostof's artblog (one of the best art blogs around) where Libby reviewed an exhibition of Girolamo da Carpi's drawings. After reading the post I had to go see the place.   

I was not disappointed in the least. The only surprise was that the three members of my party were the only people on the tour (Tours are conducted daily at the museum. Check out the museum website or call 215-732-1600 for more details). 

Our docent made the visit even more special with his knowledge of the museum (its history and its contents). I wish I had asked his for his name (he told us he was a stockbroker) so that I could let him how much we enjoyed the time.

The Rosenbach brothers created a treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts, fine art and antiques. If you need more reasons to visit the museum here are a few other highlights:

• Maurice Sendak: some 10,000 works, including original drawings, preliminary sketches, manuscript materials, and rare editions;
  
• Cervantes: the finest known copy of the first edition of Don Quixote;
  
• Phillis Wheatley: first editions of the first book published by an African American;
  
• Thomas Jefferson: a draft of the Declaration of Independence; an inventory of his slaves;
  
• George Washington: more than one hundred personal letters;
  
• Fragonard: original drawings for Orlando Furioso;
  
• William Blake: original drawings and books;
  
• Lewis Carroll: more than 600 letters, his rarest photographs, books, and more;
  
• Charles Dickens: the largest surviving portions of the manuscripts for Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby;
  
• Bram Stoker: notes and outlines for Dracula;
  
• Joseph Conrad: manuscripts for two-thirds of his literary works, including Lord Jim, Nostromo, and The Secret Agent;
  
• Mercedes de Acosta: letters, photographs, and ephemera relating to cinema and lesbian history;
  
• Dylan Thomas: the manuscript and typescript for Under Milk Wood.

I encourage you to visit this world class museum. It is located a few blocks off of Rittenhouse Square in downtown Philadelphia on a beautiful, quiet street and is very easy to find.