November 2005

Against the grain the woodcuts of Helen Frankenthaler

National Gallery of Australia: 26 November 2005 – 5 February 2006

Freefall 1993 relief, stencil

Helen Frankenthaler was a key figure in the New York art scene during the 1950s. She was one of only a handful of women artists who successfully contributed to an artistic territory dominated by such giants as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. ...

http://www.nga.gov.au

Speaking with Hands. Photographs from The Buhl Collection

Guggenheim-Bilbao: 25 November, 2005 - March, 2006

On view at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao from 25 November, Speaking with Hands. Photographs from The Buhl Collection is an exhibition of nearly 170 photographs devoted to the subject of hands. The Buhl Collection demonstrates the prevalence of the hand as a photographic theme, a result, in part, of photography's easy ability to capture fragments and detail, as well as ephemeral movements. The works are drawn from the extensive collection of well-known philanthropist Henry M. Buhl, who, after 30 years as an investment broker, gave up his job and set up in New York's SoHo to concentrate on photography. An active participant in many art institutions, Henry M. Buhl is also a Member of the Photography Committee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and his own Foundation awards a two-year grant for excellence in photography. Henry Buhl has also received the highest public recognition for his social commitment as founder and leader of the Partnership organization, which works to return dropouts and the underprivileged to mainstream society through a highly successful vocational training program. ...

http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

From Darkroom to Digital: Photographic Variations

The Art Institute of Chicago: November 19, 2005–February 26, 2006

Although photographs are inherently reproducible, photographers have long maintained that the final print is unique. Ansel Adams likened the negative to a musical score, and the print to its orchestrated performance. Pictorialist photographers at the turn of the century labored over their hand-crafted images, making each resulting object as unrepeatable as a painting. Selections of cropping, enlargement and scale, and different photographic processes also contribute to different effects, even from the very same negative. Now, with improvements in digital technology, artists have the opportunity to revisit older images and transform them into something entirely new. ...

http://www.artic.edu

French Impressionism and Boston: Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts

NORTON Museum of Art: November 19, 2005 - March 5, 2006

Edmund Charles Tarbell (American, 1862–1938) Mother and Child in a Boat, 1892. Oil on canvas 30 1/8 by 35 inches Bequest of David P. Kimball in memory of his wife Clara Bertram Kimball 23.532

After opening in Nagoya, Japan, in April 2004, the exhibition will move to the Royal Academy this summer before making its American debut at the Norton Museum of Art on November 19, 2005. Eloquently surveying the development of Impressionism in both France and America, French Impressionism and Boston will tell the fascinating story of how the latest and most advanced examples of French art came to be collected by eager Bostonians during the second half of the nineteenth century. Boston was home to some of the best-informed and most progressive collectors of modern painting in the United States. ...

http://www.norton.org

Gaetano Pesce: Pushing the Limits

Philadelphia Museum of Art: November 18, 2005 - April 9, 2006

Known for his innovative designs incorporating nonstandard production processes and the latest materials developed through new technology, Gaetano Pesce (b. 1939) will collaborate with the Philadelphia Museum of Art this fall in creating his first museum exhibition in the United States in nearly a decade. Pesce’s multidisciplinary work in design, visual art, architecture, and planning can be unpredictable--like his resin furniture "customized" in form and color according to the choices of the artisan and the chance flow of pigmented materials within the molds. Italian writer Gillo Dorfles has said that Pesce has "made the world a less conformist place" with his objects that pit the conflicting values and means of handicraft against those of industry. ...

http://www.philamuseum.org

FBI names top 10 world art crimes

By Vincent Dowd

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified what it has called the top 10 art crimes worldwide.

The FBI's list of stolen artworks includes paintings by Edvard Munch and Benevenuto Cellini, as well as thousands of items missing in Iraq. The decision to set up an FBI Art Crimes Team in November 2004 was in part an acknowledgement of the obvious - that art crime is now big business. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Legends and Legacy Award: Elizabeth Catlett

The Art Institute of Chicago: November 13, 2005-February 5, 2006

Elizabeth Catlett (b. 1915) is a printmaker, sculptor, and artist who has had an undeniable influence in the art world through her dedication to social justice, women's rights, and advocacy for literacy. Influenced by the principal participants of the Harlem Renaissance as well as artists of the Mexican muralist tradition, she ascribed to the ideal that art could and should play a role in the transformation of society. This exhibition focuses on five new acquisitions from Catlett's early career, including three works from her celebrated porfolio "I Am the Black Woman" (1946-47). ...

http://www.artic.edu

Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris

Philadelphia Museum of Art: November 13, 2005 - January 29, 2006

Jazz Quartet 1946 Beauford Delaney (American, 1901-1979) Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches Private collection Photograph courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York

During a career of more than fifty years, Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) created works of astonishing variety and originality. His dynamic depictions of the streets, parks, and jazz clubs of Harlem and Greenwich Village, dating from 1929 to 1953, convey the energy of the city, while his layered, captivating abstract compositions from his Paris years (1953-1979) demonstrate his sustained exploration of color. Throughout his career, Delaney painted perceptive portraits of celebrated writers, musicians, and actors, many of whom were his close friends, most notably James Baldwin, Henry Miller, and Marian Anderson. ...

http://www.philamuseum.org

Nicholas Nixon: The Brown Sisters

National Gallery of Art: November 13, 2005 - February 20, 2006

Each year since 1975, Boston-based photographer Nicholas Nixon (b. 1947) has made one black-and-white photograph of his wife, Beverly (Bebe) Brown, and her three sisters. Using a large eight-by-ten-inch view camera positioned at eye level, he always photographs the women in the same order from left to right: Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie. Although he makes multiple exposures, Nixon selects only one photograph to represent the women each year. ...

http://www.nga.gov

Black Rock

Nevada Museum of Art: November 12, 2005 - February 12, 2006

Peter Goin, Intersecting automobile tracks, 1998.

Black Rock is an exhibition of photographs and maps by Peter Goin, Professor of Art and Paul F. Starrs, Professor of Geography, both from the University of Nevada, Reno. The works featured in this exhibit are from the book Black Rock, published by the University of Nevada Press and co-authored by Goin and Starrs. Goin’s photographs boldly detail the subtle atmosphere of the region and are complemented by Starrs numerous original and historical maps and text. Goin and Starrs present a Black Rock that goes beyond the desert and the annual Burning Man event. ...

http://www.nevadaart.org

Reunions: Bringing Early Italian Paintings Back Together

The National Gallery: 12 November 2005 - 29 January 2006

Bernardo Daddi, 'The Coronation of the Virgin', about 1340. © The National Gallery, London.

In recent years the National Gallery has considerably enriched its collection of early Italian painting through a series of extraordinary acquisitions of 13th and 14th-century panels. These include the Umbrian Diptych of 'The Virgin and Child' with 'The Man of Sorrows', Cimabue's 'Virgin and Child with Angels', and the newly-acquired 'Coronation of the Virgin' by Bernardo Daddi, all of which have made the National Gallery one of the most comprehensive collections of early Italian painting in the United Kingdom.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

On the Scene: Jessica Rowe, Jason Salavon, Brian Ulrich

The Art Institute of Chicago: November 12, 2005-January 28, 2006

Jason Salavon. The Top Grossing Film of All Time 1 x 1, 2000. David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation Purchase Fund Jason Salavon, courtesy Peter Miller Gallery.

Drawing on the dynamic photography scene in Chicago, this exhibition focuses on work by three younger talents: Jessica Rowe, Jason Salavon, and Brian Ulrich. Jessica Rowe photographs spaces in our homes where we display the objects, photos, and memorabilia that we want others to see: old portraits atop a dresser, statues on a mantel, or cherished book collections. Over the past year, in a series called Remnant, she has turned this attention to even more intimate objects—clothing. Her poignant still lifes of clothing once worn by women she has known who are now deceased invite us to conjure the missing figures, even the personalities, of the wearers. ...

http://www.artic.edu

Transformations : The language of craft

National Gallery of Australia: 11 November 2005 – 29 January 2006

 

The development of the National Gallery of Australia’s decorative arts and design collection took place during the burgeoning craft revival that occurred in Australia from the mid 1960s, and in its scope and depth reflects the diversity of practice that has since flourished. A significant proportion of the works included in Transformations have been recently acquired by the National Gallery of Australia and are a tangible expression of the Gallery’s continuing commitment to the acquisition and exhibition of contemporary craft, not only within the broad historical framework of Australian and international decorative arts and design, but also within the whole spectrum of art practice. ...

http://www.nga.gov.au

N.C. Museum Of Art To House Major Rodin Collection

The North Carolina Museum of Art received a new gift Wednesday. Judging by past experience, it's a gift that is bound to draw crowds.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina Museum of Art received 23 works of art by Auguste Rodin from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation on Wednesday. "We are fortunate that North Carolina has now joined the prestigious group of museums to house some of Rodin's finest work," said Gov. Mike Easley. "Iris Cantor's generous gift will open a new world of opportunities and experiences for museum visitors and students alike." ...

http://www.wral.com

Marina Abramović: Seven Easy Pieces,

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: November 9-15

 

From November 9 through November 15, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents Marina Abramović: Seven Easy Pieces, seven consecutive nights of performances in the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda from 5 PM to 12 AM. Since the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered the use of performance as a visual art form. The body has always served as her subject and medium, and the parameters of her early works were determined by her endurance. Exploring the physical and mental limits of her being, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in the quest for transformation. With Seven Easy Pieces Abramović reenacts seminal performance works by her peers dating from the 1960s and ’70s. The project is premised on the fact that little documentation exists for most performances from this critical early period; one often has to rely upon testimonies from witnesses or photographs that show only portions of any given piece. Seven Easy Pieces examines the possibility of redoing and preserving an art form that is, by nature, ephemeral. ...

http://www.guggenheim.org

Clouet to Seurat: French Drawings from The British Museum

MET: November 8, 2005–January 29, 2006

 

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) Dancers at the Barre, ca. 1873 Oil thinned with turpentine on prepared green paper; 472 x 625 mm

Four centuries of French draftsmanship will be on view in "Clouet to Seurat: French Drawings from The British Museum," opening November 8, 2005, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition features nearly one hundred masterpieces, ranging from rare Renaissance portraits by Jean and François Clouet to selections from The British Museum's incomparable holdings of Claude Lorrain and Antoine Watteau through stellar works of the nineteenth century, from Ingres and Delacroix to Degas, Cézanne, and Seurat. A majority of these works have never before been exhibited in the United States. "Clouet to Seurat" will remain on view at the Metropolitan through January 29, 2006. ...

Case in Italy suggests MFA received stolen art

From left, a two-handled jar depicting the murder of Atreus, a portrait statue of Sabina, and a vase for bath water. Photographs of these were seized in raids. (Museum of Fine Arts)

By Geoff Edgers and Sofia Celeste

Italian prosecutors preparing for this month's high-profile antiquities smuggling trial in Rome have seized photographs of three ancient objects -- a vase, a jar, and a statue -- that could make the strongest case yet that Boston's Museum of Fine Arts acquired stolen art in the last 25 years.

The evidence, which has surfaced in connection with Italy's decades-long attempt to force American museums to return looted art, has led the investigators to compile an additional list of 29 objects in the MFA's collection that they suspect were taken from ancient sites largely throughout Italy. ...

http://www.boston.com

The "Pictures and Scents of Caravaggio" Project

HERMITAGE: 3 November 2005 - 20 November 2005

Circa 1595, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

From 3 to 20 November an exhibition and aromatic installation devoted to Caravaggio in the Hermitage is open in the Italian Cabinets. One of the world's largest museums, this absolute masterpiece in the fine art world combines with the nine olfactory gradations, which are like a scale of notes, in an unbreakable alliance. ...

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org

Henri Rousseau - Jungles in Paris

TATE MODERN: 3 November 2005 - 5 February 2006

  Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) 1891, The National Gallery, London

Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) created some of the most popular and memorable paintings of the modern era. This is the first exhibition of his work to be held in the UK for 80 years.

Rousseau is celebrated for his visionary jungle paintings which captivate the viewer with the lushness of their plant and animal life painted with incredible detail and precision. Extraordinarily the artist never saw the tropical scenes he brought so much to life, as he never left France. His exotic jungle paintings are the fantasies of a city dweller, constructed from visits to the zoo and botanical gardens, from postcards, books and from Rousseau’s vivid imagination. These jungles have intrigued people for decades, offering a dream of escape from humdrum reality to a savage and yet enchanting realm.

http://www.tate.org.uk

West African Gold: Akan Regalia from the Glassell Collection

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON: November 2, 2005 - March 26, 2006

The Akan peoples, one of the largest ethnic groups in Ghana and Ivory Coast, are culturally similar and speak closely related languages. They have always associated gold with wealth, power, and prestige. Rich local mines continue to provide this precious metal in an area of West Africa with a long history of gold production and known to to Europeans as the "Gold Coast." The Akan formed many states and their kings and elite literally envelop themselves in gold from crowns to jewelry to dress—gold is also the predominant color of large, locally woven kente cloths, reserved for leaders. The most famous Akan state is the ancient Asante kingdom, which flourishes to this day under the leadership of the current Asantehene, His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. ...

http://www.mfa.org