Outsider Art at Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale - posted by FFAB

When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South
August 3 – October 12, 2014

When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South considers the category of “outsider” art in relation to contemporary art and black life. Situating itself within current art historical and political debates, the exhibition features work by self-taught, spiritually inspired and incarcerated artists, alongside other projects based in performance and social-engagement, as well as painting, drawing, sculpture and assemblage, that make insistent reference to place. With the majority of work created between 1964 and 2014, the exhibition brings together a group of thirty-five intergenerational American artists who share an interest in the American South as a location both real and imagined. Moving between a graphic sensibility, an interest in creation myths and the use of found materials and detritus, the artists reference various classical tropes of blackness as sites of origin—fantastical and performed, important yet perhaps illusory.

Artists in the exhibition include: Benny Andrews, Kevin Beasley, McArthur Binion, Beverly Buchanan, Henry Ray Clark, Courtesy the Artists, Thornton Dial, Minnie Evans, Theaster Gates, Deborah Grant, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Bessie Harvey, David Hammons, Lonnie Holley, Frank Albert Jones, Lauren Kelley, Ralph Lemon, Kerry James Marshall, Rodney McMillian, Joe Minter, J.B. Murray, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, Marie “Big Mama” Roseman, Jacolby Satterwhite, Patricia Satterwhite, Rudy Shepherd, Xaviera Simmons, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, James “Son” Thomas, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Geo Wyeth.

When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South is organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. The exhibition is curated by Thomas J. Lax.

The catalogue includes entries by the exhibition's organizer, Assistant Curator Thomas J. Lax, along with leading scholars Horace Ballard, Katherine Jentleson, Scott Romine and Lowery Stokes Sims, who write on notions of spirituality, the ethics of self-taught art and the idea of the South in the American consciousness.

Exhibitions at NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale are made possible in part by a challenge grant from the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation.
Funding for this exhibition is provided in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

Museum info here

Art Around the Web - Incredible Florida Photo Library - posted by FFAB

Deaconess Bedell and a Mikasuki woman 

walking in the Everglades

Florida Memory
Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services

I found this incredible Florida Photo, Video and Audio Library.  I have only just begun to look through the photo collections but what I have found so far is amazing.  I only wish the pictures were better categorized and optimized with a intelligent search engine.  Enjoy!  GL

http://www.floridamemory.com/

Michelangelo works under protection - posted by FFAB

A new air conditioning and lighting system in the Sistine Chapel will protect the priceless Michelangelo frescoes, which receive damage from visitors
 
Michelangelo works under protection
 
A new air conditioning and lighting system in the Sistine Chapel will protect the priceless Michelangelo frescoes, which receive damage from visitors 

Dust, sweat and carbon dioxide brought into the Sistine Chapel by a swelling number of tourists risk damaging priceless Michelangelo frescoes, the Vatican said on June 11, hoping a new air conditioning and lighting system will protect them.

Some six million people a year visit the chapel, home to  Michelangelo’s famous ceiling frescoes, one of the wonders of Western civilization that are over 500 years old. The number of visitors to the chapel, where popes are elected in secret conclaves, can reach 20,000 a day in summer. Their numbers have grown by 300 percent from around 1.5 million a year in 1980, said Antonio Paolucci, the head of the Vatican museums.

“Today, the Sistine Chapel risks being a victim of its own success,” Paolucci, writing in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said. “Six million visitors is an impressive number but objectively dangerous for the proper conservation of the frescoes,” he said. “It produces a mix of dust brought in from outside, body sweat and carbon dioxide, which all end up on the surface of the frescoes and can in time harm them.”

Work began on the new air conditioning and lighting system on June 11 and should be in place by October.

Michelangelo’s frescoes, inaugurated in October 1512 by Pope Julius II, underwent a major 14-year restoration that ended in 1994. They include one of the most famous scenes in the history of art - the arm of a gentle bearded God reaching out to give life to Adam.

They also include the famous “Last Judgement” on the wall behind the altar, which the artist painted separately in 1535 and 1541.

Paolucci said the current system of air conditioning, de-humidification, dust removal, filtering and micro-climate controls was designed to handle far fewer visitors.

The Vatican did not say how much the new high-tech air conditioning system, devised by museum experts and the Carrier air conditioning company, or a new lighting system using the energy saving and heat-reducing LED (light-emitting diode) system, would cost but said they were being donated by the companies involved.  

Full article here

Nazi-Looted Painting to Remain in Florida Museum Collection - posted by FFAB

Jacques De Claeuw, Vanitas (1677).
Photo: courtesy the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida.

Nazi-Looted Painting to Remain in Florida Museum Collection

ArtNet by Sarah Cascone

There’s good news for the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, which will be able to keep an important piece of its collection, a Dutch Golden Age painting looted by Nazis, reports First Coast News.

First purchased by the Cummer from a New York gallery in 1962, Jacques De Claeuw‘s Vanitas (1677), a striking still life, has been among the collection’s highlights ever since.

“In 2011, as part of our 50th anniversary, this painting was actually voted by our visitors as one of their 50 favorite paintings in the museum, so it means a lot to this community,” chief curator Holly Keris told First Coast.

Two years ago, the painting’s illicit history came to light: before the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker fled the country. He died at sea, but left behind a detailed inventory of his art collection, 1,400 pieces of which were stolen from his gallery by Nazi leader Herman Göring.

Although Vanitas was sold at Lempertz Auktion in Cologne in 1941, it is unclear how the painting made its way to the US.

When Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law, Marei Von Saher, traced the 17th century work to the Cummer, she called on the museum to return the painting. In April, the institution’s board of trustees voted to do just that.

The two parties have since reached an agreement allowing the Cummer to purchase the painting in part thanks to a gift from the family of Goudstikker, made in his memory.

“It is heartening to see museums like the Cummer do the right thing for Holocaust victims and their heirs. I am grateful to the Cummer for returning this painting to Jacques Goudstikker’s family,” Von Saher told News 4 Jax. “We hope that the restitution of this work will lead other museums to act just as responsibly when faced with the discovery of Nazi-looted art in their collections.”

“It is with great pleasure that the Cummer announces this amicable settlement,” added director Hope McMath, also in an interview with News 4 Jax. “We are delighted that, thanks to the generosity of Goudstikker’s family, this important painting will stay at the Cummer.”

Though this particular restitution case has been settled, Jacques Goudstikker’s heirs are still working to track down the rest of his 1,400-piece collection.

This is a follow up to an article I posted a week ago.  Glad to see the story ends well and everyone is satisfied.  Hopefully other museums will follow the Cummer's example. GL

"Video of the Week" - Takashi Murakami & Jellyfish Eyes - posted by FFAB

Jellyfish Eyes | Official Trailer (English Subtitles)




Takashi Murakami Q&A | 'Jellyfish Eyes' (Full)

ArtCenter/South Florida Is Selling Its Iconic Lincoln Road Gallery Building - posted by FFAB

ArtCenter/South Florida Is Selling Its Iconic Lincoln Road Gallery Building
NewTimes  By Carlos Suarez De Jesus

It's hard to imagine a cultural organization with an historic presence on South Beach letting go of a property that draws untold thousands of local and international visitors each year.

But that's what's happening with ArtCenter/South Florida which has today listed its 800-810 Lincoln Road building for sale to provide the organization with greater resources to expand its programming and services in the coming years. 

The decision to sell the building housing the ArtCenter's iconic bubble-shaped storefront gallery was unanimously voted on by the organization and supported by the artists in residence, according to a statement released by the organization earlier today. The Miami office of Ackman-Ziff Real Estate has been selected as the exclusive broker for the sale of the property at 800-810 Lincoln Road.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for the ArtCenter to expand its influence in the growing Miami arts scene and broaden its ability to offer the best quality programs impacting an even greater and more diverse audience," Kim Kovel, chair, says.

"The timing of this could not have been any better as the organization can now expand its exhibitions and educational outreach programs and increase the resources that are provided to the current and alumnae artists enabling them to continue to thrive with ArtCenter's support," Kovel adds.

The ArtCenter's genesis sprung from the vision of Ellie Schneiderman, a Grove House ceramist, whose dream was to create an enclave for local artists. During the early 1980s she persuaded some Lincoln Road property owners to lease space to emerging and career artists at significantly reduced rates. 

Since then, ArtCenter/South Florida has provided affordable studios and workspace to more than 1,000 visual artists from its locations on Lincoln Road while presenting free exhibitions throughout the year. 

Find the whole article here

Surprising news.  The Art Center is moving off Lincoln Road as David Castillo is moving on.  Mixed messages for sure.  Lincoln road will not be the same without The Art Center.  With the rents forever increasing, only big chain stores will be able to survive.  The worry is the uniqueness that was Lincoln road is being lost and what will be left is a outdoor mall with the same shopping choices found in any Midwestern suburban strip mall.  Shame.  GL

Appleton to Showcase 8 Florida Artists in 2014 Biennial - posted by FFAB

"FL2907EL" by Michael Bauman and Kate Helms

Appleton to Showcase 8 Florida Artists in 2014 Biennial

The Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, will highlight eight of Florida’s most creative installation artists when its 2014 Biennial “Outside the Box” opens Saturday, July 19.
The Florida artists chosen to exhibit are: Michael Bauman and Kate Helms of Tampa, Zach Gilliland of Sarasota, Terri Lindbloom of Tallahassee, Patricia Schnall Guttierez of Miami, Rick Herzog of Sarasota, Judith Salmon of St. Petersburg and Mikaela Williams of Tampa.      

The seven pieces in the juried exhibition range from a vast wall of ivy constructed from vinyl, mirrors, wood and steel to a multi-media installation addressing the human experience in the digital age.  

The biennial was juried by Dr. Matthew McLendon, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, under the aegis of Florida State University. 

Awards for the biennial will be announced at the opening reception July 19, from 5-8 p.m. Museum visitors will vote for People’s Choice, which will be awarded after the exhibition closes.

This opening reception, hosted by the museum’s young members group, The Studio, is free and open to the public.

In addition to temporary exhibitions, the Appleton Museum of Art presents a permanent collection of European, American and contemporary art, plus Asian, African, Islamic and pre-Columbian artifacts and antiquities. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and closed on Monday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. 

Owned and operated by College of Central Florida, the Appleton Museum of Art is located at 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, east of downtown on SR40 (exit 352 east off I-75 or exit 268 west off I-95). Free parking is available.  For more information call the Appleton Museum of Art at 352-291-4455 or visit AppletonMuseum.org.

FL Artists Marcus Jansen among top three highest bids by living painters at AAG Auction - posted nby FFAB

 

Marcus Jansen among top three highest bids by living painters at AAG Auction, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

 

New York native artist Marcus Jansen was approached by "The Dutch Foundation for the preservation of Art & Culture" last year and asked to assist in their efforts by donating a work to benefit the Children's Art & Culture in the Netherlands.

 

Other artists in the (446 - Modern & Contemporary Art) auction included Jeff Koons (Balloon Dog (Red) (1995),  Keith Haring (Signed and dated 1989 l.m. Feltpen on paper, 28.1 x 21.8 cm) and David LaChapelle (Fish Stick: Devon Aoki in Agent Provocateur, London (1998) Edition of 50).

 

Jansen, b. 1968, New York, NY, who received a special mention with the AAG Auction house in initial press materials, was the exciting new comer in town and one of the promising American born painters at hist first International auction. In spite of Jansen having never showed in the Netherlands before, Jansen's work from 2003, titled (Maneken Pis, 48x36") work auctioned off as the third highest painting from the (226) lots of any living painter outbidding most Dutch painters as well as American artists like Jeff Koons (Dog), Keith Haring work on paper and David LaChapelle setting an impressive first auction price for an early work by Jansen from 2003.

 

The highest auctions by any living artist was Dutch born painter Henk Helmantal, b. 1945, Netherlands, (Medlars and quinces, 2012 l.r. Oil on board, 45.2 x 64.5cm), followed by (Der Baum, dated 23-1-85, 210.7 x 145.4cm), by Armando, b. 1929, Netherlands.

 

For Auction results visit: http://www.veilinghuisaag.com/catalog/online/lang/en_GB

WSJ - Time to Evict Nazi-Looted Art From Museums - posted by FFAB

Detail of "Adam and Eve," by artist, Lucas Cranach the Elder. Associated Press

Time to Evict Nazi-Looted Art From Museums
Opinion WSJ - By Ronald S. Lauder

The recently released movie "The Monuments Men" tells of Hitler's attempt to steal or destroy Europe's greatest works of art, and the men FDR sent into harm's way to stop him. Thousands of works of art and many masterpieces were recovered and returned to their rightful owners. Yet today, seven decades after the fall of the Third Reich, other stolen works of art—some from owners who perished in the Holocaust—hang in museums in Europe and in America.

In the U.S., for instance, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif., is fighting a claim by Marei von Saher, heir of Jewish Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, whose collection was forcibly sold to the Nazis in 1940. The works in question are 16th-century oil paintings by Lucas Cranach. The museum has denied Ms. von Saher's claim on grounds that the statute of limitations on looted art has run out. 

Viva Florida Marks 50 Years of Civil Rights - posted by FFAB

Activities to mark 50 years since the historic signing of the first landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 are schedule statewide as part of the Viva Florida effort to continue honoring significant anniversaries in Florida and throughout the nation.

The Civil Rights Movement fundamentally changed the culture and laws of the United States. Florida was among other southern states where the struggle for Civil Rights was fought throughout the 1960s leading up to the enactment of the legislation, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964. This legislation ended the 89-year reign of Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation of black people in public spaces, normalized racial discrimination and began a tradition of violence towards African-Americans throughout the South. Passing of this law in 1964 was the beginning step towards greater equality and representation of diverse peoples in Florida and across the nation, as occurred in further laws such as the Voting Rights Act and the Indian Civil Rights Act, both of 1968.

A List of all Statewide events with info, pics and links after the fold; 

One Collector's Plan To Save Realistic Art Was Anything But Abstract - postedby FFAB

Two pensive women share a mysterious, intense moment in Raphael Soyer's 1980 Annunciation. (Smithsonian American Art Museum)

NPR - One Collector's Plan To Save Realistic Art Was Anything But Abstract
by Susan Stamberg

Plenty of collectors want to donate artworks to museums, but the museums don't always welcome them with open arms. "We say 'no thanks' 19 times out of 20," says Betsy Broun, director at the American Art Museum. Sometimes the works aren't museum-quality, other times they don't fit with the museums' philosophy.

But in 1986, representatives from the Sara Roby Foundation called the Smithsonian with an offer it couldn't refuse: paintings by Edward Hopper, Raphael Soyer, Reginald Marsh and many more. They were all collected by Roby, who, in the early 1950s, took on a mission: to save Realistic art from the maws of Abstract Expressionism. The results of her dedication are on display at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum.

Cape Cod Morning is a classic Hopper from 1950. A woman peers out the window, bathed in sunlight, but framed in darkness. Black shutters frame the window and a black-green forest sits behind the house.

"She's hemmed in — this woman is hemmed in by these sentinel-like dark shutters. Almost as if she's a target," Broun says. There's no way out of this Hopper house. "No steps, no door. ... Hopper is famous for putting fences and barricades up in front of his homes and these are basically homes with no entrance, no exit."

Roby, an amateur painter herself, collected works of all kinds from known and unknown mid-century American painters — Ben Shahn, Saul Steinberg, Mark Tobey, Louise Nevelson.

Roby was very generous, says American Art Museum chief curator Virginia Mecklenburg. Her father made a lot of money in cement in the 1920s and '30s — when all those skyscrapers were going up in Manhattan. In the early '50s, with that money and guidance from her art teacher Reginald Marsh (an Ashcan School follower who painted seedy New York scenes in the '20s and '30s) plus other advisors, Roby created a foundation to help American art and artists of her day.

"She wanted to do something that counted," Mecklenburg says.

Marsh gave a dinner party for her in New York, and invited art scene movers and shakers — painters, dealers, museum officials. He seated Roby next to Lloyd Goodrich, then deputy director of the Whitney Museum. Roby asked his advice — how could her foundation best serve artists and the public.

Legend has it he said: "Well, hell, Sara. If you want to help artists, buy their paintings."

And so she did: almost 200 artworks, by more than 100 artists — a major collection, plus a traveling program to take contemporary American art around the country.

Article with full transcript of interview found here. 

Please follow the link to read the rest of the story.  I love to hear about Collectors/Donors and the passion they bring to collecting.  GL

The Miami Generation Revisited - Opening Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale - posted by FFAB

Happy 4th of July - Childe Hassam - The Impressionist Flags - posted by FFBA

Childe Hassam - The Impressionist Flags
by Maria Laterza

The most distinctive and famous works of American painter Childe Hassam's later life compose the set of about thirty paintings known as the "Flag series". Flag paintings by Hassam are in the collections of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society and the National Gallery of Art. Claude Monet, among other french painter, had also painted flag-themed works - The Rue Montorgueil, Paris 1878.

He began these in 1916 when he was inspired by a "Preparedness Parade", for the American involvement in World War I, which was held on Fifth Avenue in New York (renamed the "Avenue of the Allies" during the Liberty Loan Drives of 1918). Thousands participated in these parades, which often lasted for over twelve hours.

Being an avid Francophile, of English ancestry, and strongly anti-Germany, Hassam enthusiastically backed the Allied cause and the protection of French culture. The Hassams joined with other artists in the war relief effort from nearly the beginning of the conflict in 1914, when most Americans as well as President Woodrow Wilson were decidedly isolationist. Hassam even considered volunteering to record the war in Europe, but the government would not approve the trip. He was even arrested (and quickly released) for innocently sketching naval maneuvers along the city’s rivers. In addition to the time he gave to many committees, several of his flag pictures were contributed to the war relief in exchange for Liberty Bonds. Although he had great hopes that the entire series would sell as a war memorial set, the pictures were sold individually after several group exhibitions, the last at the Corcoran Gallery in 1922.

Hassam's have a distinctly american character, showing the flags displayed on New York’s most fashionable street with his own compositional style and artistic vision. In most paintings in the series, the flags dominate the foreground, while in others the flags are simply part of the festive panorama. In some, the American flags wave alone and in others, flags of the Allies flutter as well. In his most impressionistic painting in the series, The Avenue in the Rain 1917, which has been in the White House permanent collection since the Kennedy administration, the flags and their reflections are blurred so extremely as to appear to be viewed through a rain-smeared window. On entering the White House, Barack Obama chose to display it in the Oval Office. Hassam's flag paintings cover all seasons and various weather and light conditions. Hassam makes a patriotic statement without overt reference to parades, soldiers, or war, apart for one picture showing a flag exclaiming "Buy Liberty Bonds".

Philadelphia Museum of Art unveils massive Frank Gehry renovation plan - posted by FFAB

A cross-section view showing the changes to the existing interior spaces and the new underground galleries. (Rendering © Gehry Partners, LLP) 

Philadelphia Museum of Art unveils massive renovation plan in exhibition
By Kristie Rearick/South Jersey Times 

The Philadelphia Museum of Art unveiled architect Frank Gehry's plan for the renovation and expansion of its home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in an exhibition called "Making a Classic Modern: Frank Gehry's Master Plan for the Philadelphia Museum of Art" which opens July 1 at the museum.

The exhibit will offer a first look at the design. The plan reorganizes and expands the building, adding more than 169,000 square feet of space. Included in the exhibition, which will be on view in the Dorrance Galleries July 1 until Sept. 1, will be large-scale models, site plans, sections and renderings. The project will ultimately transform the interior of one of the city's most iconic buildings, giving the museum more space to display its collection.

"Making a Classic Modern" will introduce visitors to the various ways in which Gehry and his creative team have addressed the challenges and opportunities of updating this historic building. The building is in need of substantial renovation, reorganization and expansion to meet current and future needs.

The new underground galleries will be lit in part by a skylight in the East Terrace. 

(Rendering, © Gehry Partners, LLP) 

 

Although he is best known for the expressive, sculptural forms of buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Gehry has taken a unique approach to this project that is dramatically different.

Gehry's design focuses on the transformation of the interior of the art museum through the renovation of beloved spaces such as the Great Stair Hall and major improvements to how visitors will enter and move through the building. The design also calls for the creation of a significant amount of new space for expanded educational activities and the display of the museum's extensive holdings of American, Asian, and modern and contemporary art in new galleries created both within the existing building and underneath the East Terrace.

"We began by studying the character of this wonderful building — its DNA, so to speak. It is rare to have the bones of the existing building show you the way to expand it," Gehry said. "From there, we used the significant assets that the original architects gave us to create a strong entry sequence and circulation pattern that connects the new galleries to the existing building in a way that makes the new galleries seem like they have always been there. My goal is to make the building feel like one coherent design statement."

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For information, call 215-763-8100 or visit www.philamuseum.org.
 

Delaware Art Museum Moves Ahead With Homer Sale Scheme - posted by FFAB

The Delaware Museum plans to sell Winslow Homer’s Milking Time  (1875) to help pay down debts.
Photo: The Bridgeman Library via Wikipedia.

Delaware Art Museum Moves Ahead With Homer Sale Scheme  
ArtNet.com by Eileen Kinsella

The Delaware Art Museum is the latest in a string of cash-strapped institutions that is looking to its art as a way to raise much-needed funds to pay down a mountainous debt and shore up its endowment.

The problem? Selling art for any other purpose than raising acquisition funds is a violation of the code of ethics established by museum watchdogs the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), and could result in sanctions.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the museum is moving ahead with plans to sell works including Winslow Homer‘s scenic Milking Time (1875). The museum says selling as many as four works in its collection is the only way that it can pay off a $19.8 million debt and replenish its endowment. The alternative would be closing the century-old Wilmington institution and its 12,500-object collection, according to the story.

Museum officials said the decision was made with the community in mind. Trustee Paula Malone tells the Journal, “I am sad about this, but as a trustee of the museum—not any one piece of art the museum holds—I am in support of doing what is necessary to keep the museum open.”

Delaware museum CEO Michael Miller confirmed that the institution’s previously announced plan to sell Isabella and the Pot of Basil by William Holman Hunt is moving ahead. The work will be offered at Christie’s London this month, with an estimate of up to $13.4 million.

But AAM president Ford Bell counters, “It’s a tragedy when works that belong to the community get sold.”

Other institutions have faced similar challenges, as the story points out. In March the AAMD sanctioned Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and its Maier Museum of Art after the school sold George Bellows’s painting Men of the Docks to the National Gallery in London for $25.5 million.

I've posted about this sad state of affairs before and find it very short sighted to sell off important parts of a public collection to resolve temporary budgets woes.  GL

Boca Raton Museum of Art - July Exhibitions - posted by FFAB

Visit the Museum's newly reinstalled Sculpture Garden Afghan Rugs: The Contemporary Art of Central Asia Through July 27, 2014 Elaine Reichek: The Eye of the Needle Through July 27, 2014 Roberto Matta: The Freedom of Gesture Through October 25, 2014 63rd Annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition August 10 to October 18, 2014 Boca Raton Museum Artists' Guild Biennial Exhibition August 10 to October 18, 2014

New director named for Lowe Art Museum - posted by FFAB

ANNIE WATT

New director named for Lowe Art Museum

Miami Herald  By Hannah Sampson

The University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum has named a new director: Jill Deupi, director and chief curator of University Museums at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

Deupi’s professional history includes jobs in London, Chicago, Indiana and Washington, D.C., but the 44-year-old is well acquainted with Miami. Her husband is Cuban American and the two have traveled to Miami to visit his extended family for more than 25 years, Deupi said.

“That familiarity and having family down there was one of the enticements for my decision to accept the offer,” she said. 

Deupi, who will start her new job Aug. 11, said she was also motivated by the opportunity to work with an institution with an “incredible history” and a permanent collection of almost 19,000 objects. 

Leonidas Bachas, dean of UM’s College of Arts & Sciences, said in a statement that Deupi was chosen after an extensive search.

“Her distinguished museum experience and academic background in art and art history, as well as her enthusiasm to involve our students in experiential learning are a perfect combination for the Lowe to expand its reach as a didactic resource for the university and local community,” Bachas said.

Full article found here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/03/4156583/new-director-named-for-lowe-art.html#storylink=cpy

Whitney Museum Opens Massive Jeff Koons Retrospective Exhibition - posted by FFAB

Jeff Koons, Tulips, 1995–98. Oil on canvas; 111 3⁄8 × 131 in. (282.9 × 332.7cm). Private collection. © Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective
June 27–Oct 19, 2014

Whitney Opens Massive Jeff Koons Retrospective Exhibition

Jeff Koons is widely regarded as one of the most important, influential, popular, and controversial artists of the postwar era. Throughout his career, he has pioneered new approaches to the readymade, tested the boundaries between advanced art and mass culture, challenged the limits of industrial fabrication, and transformed the relationship of artists to the cult of celebrity and the global market. Yet despite these achievements, Koons has never been the subject of a retrospective surveying the full scope of his career. Comprising almost 150 objects dating from 1978 to the present, this exhibition will be the most comprehensive ever devoted to the artist’s groundbreaking oeuvre. By reconstituting all of his most iconic works and significant series in a chronological narrative, the retrospective will allow visitors to understand Koons’s remarkably diverse output as a multifaceted whole.

This exhibition will be the artist’s first major museum presentation in New York, and the first to fill nearly the entirety of the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer building with a single artist’s work. It will also be the final exhibition to take place there before the Museum opens its new building in the Meatpacking District in 2015.

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective is organized by Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Associate Director of Programs.

The exhibition travels to the Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris (November 26, 2014–April 27, 2015) and to the Guggenheim Bilbao (June 5–September 27, 2015).

Show Info here

Vandalised Rothko painting rehung in London after pioneering restoration - posted by FFAB

Tate staff pose with the restored Mark Rothko artwork ''Black on Maroon, 1958'' at the Tate Modern in London May 13, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregor

Vandalised Rothko painting rehung in London after pioneering restoration

Reuters - By Belinda Goldsmith 

A Mark Rothko painting vandalized at London's Tate Modern gallery 18 months ago went back on public view on Tuesday after the first-ever effort to strip graffiti ink off a major artwork without damaging the layers of paintwork.

Rothko's "Black on Maroon" was attacked in October 2012 by an aspiring artist who scrawled "Vladimir Umanets '12, A Potential Piece of Yellowism" in a lower corner. One of the Seagram Murals commissioned for the Four Seasons restaurant in 1958, the painting was valued at five million to nine million pounds by Sotheby's. Rothko donated it to the Tate in 1970.

A Polish national called Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets, claimed the graffiti was a creative act to promote his artistic movement, Yellowism. He ended up pleading guilty to criminal damage and was jailed for two years in December 2012.

Conservationists at the Tate Modern, one of the world's most popular galleries, said Rothko paintings were notoriously difficult to restore because of their complex paintwork, which is made up of layers of oils, pigments, resins, glues and egg.

A team of three conservationists and scientists spent nine months researching and testing about 80 solvents, six months removing the ink, and three months restoring the surface.

"No one had ever used graffiti ink that is designed to be permanent to damage a painting before and we knew how delicate the paint surface was," Patricia Smithen, head of conservation, told Reuters in front of the re-hung artwork. "We hope the work we did on this painting will contribute to the conservation world in the future."

Tate Director Nicholas Serota said the project had been far more successful than anyone dared hope at the outset, recalling the sickening feeling on being told of the attack.

The Tate Modern dedicates a room to Rothko, who is considered one of the 20th century's most important artists. His Seagram Murals were a shift from his earlier use of bright, intense colors for dark maroons, reds and black.

Serota said security was reviewed after the attack but gave no details. He also brushed aside questions about the cost of restoration or how it affected the artwork's value. At Umaniec's trial, prosecution lawyer Gregor McKinley told the court the restoration would cost about 200,000 pounds ($320,000).
"I have no idea what the value of the painting is and we are never going to sell it," Serota told a news conference.

Umaniec has apologized for his actions, saying he now realized this had not helped his movement, Yellowism, whose manifesto states it is "not art or anti-art".

"I apologize to the British people for what I did. I suppose I wanted to change the art world ... but of course I did it in a very, very wrong way," he said in a video statement that was sent to Reuters by his publicist.

"I spent almost a year and a half in prison and the British people have paid huge restoration costs, so it definitely wasn't worth doing it. Probably the only good thing is that the art world has received a very strong message that something must be fundamentally changed about its frozen situation." 

Article found here

With the easy accessibility of most great works of art I'm surprised this kind of vandalism doesn't happen more often.  Glad to see they found a way to restore the piece. GL 

First Look: Chrysler Museum of Art Renovation and Expansion - posted by FFAB

Photo © Ed Pollard

The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, reopened last week after a $24 million renovation and addition.

 

First Look: Chrysler Museum of Art Renovation and Expansion

By Josephine Minutillo

 

Situated prominently at the eastern end of The Hague—not the city in the Netherlands, but a crescent-shaped inlet that feeds into the Elizabeth River as it passes through Norfolk, Virginia—the Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly renovated and expanded Italianate pile opened to the public again last week after 17 months of construction. Local firm H&A Architects designed identical, two-story porticoed gallery wings that flank the main entrance and added 10,000 square feet of exhibition space for American and European painting and sculpture and the museum’s renowned glass collection. The addition—which brings the total programmable space to 220,000 square feet—mimics the classical style of the original 1933 structure and a 1989 building project that unified the exteriors by removing asymmetrical and Brutalist additions completed in 1965 and 1974. “We wanted to maintain the balanced, palazzo house quality of the exterior,” explains museum director Bill Hennessey.

 

Please read the whole article with a brief history of the collection here