2016-11-30

8434 - Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University to open in Feb. 2017 - Houston - U.S.A.

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North façade of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, TX. Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.
 
Alison Weaver, Executive Director of Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts, announced today that this new trans-disciplinary lab for creativity will celebrate its opening on February 24, 2017.

Designed by acclaimed Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan to bring together the Rice community and the Houston public and enable innovative artistic work to flourish, the $30 million, 50,000-square-foot Moody will serve as an experimental platform for creating and presenting works in all disciplines, a flexible teaching space to encourage new modes of making and a forum for creative partnerships with visiting national and international artists.

The Moody is proud to announce that its first artist-in-residence will be Mona Hatoum, the internationally acclaimed Beirut-born Palestinian artist whose work in sculpture, performance, video and installation is currently the subject of a major survey exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. She will take up her residency in spring 2017, shortly after the official opening of the Moody. Underscoring the Moody’s collaborative goals within Houston’s rich cultural scene, Hatoum will devote her residency in part to developing works for a major exhibition, her first in the United States in 20 years, at the Menil Collection, October 6, 2017-Feburary 25, 2018. The Menil will join with the Moody in presenting a public lecture by the artist.

Open and accessible to the public, the Moody is dedicated to trans-disciplinary collaboration in the arts, sciences and humanities, and will establish a new arts district on the campus, close by the distinguished Shepherd School of Music and the permanent James Turrell Twilight Epiphany Skyspace. The Moody will provide facilities including art gallery space, a 150-seat black box theater, a gallery for experimental performance and a café. Its defining feature is the light-flooded, interdisciplinary maker lab at its core: an atrium with immediate access to surrounding resources that include a wood shop, metal shop, paint booth, rapid prototyping areas, studio classrooms, technology lending library and audiovisual editing booths.

David Leebron, President of Rice University, said, “The Moody Center for the Arts is both a major new facility for our campus and Houston and a vital new program, which together demonstrate Rice’s commitment to the arts and to creativity as central to our university’s mission. While Rice earned early in its history a strong reputation in the sciences, engineering, and the professions, we are today equally proud of our dedication to and success in the arts and humanities, which contribute in essential ways to every education and every intellectual endeavor. The Moody Center is a stake in the ground for our continuing arts commitment, and we look forward to welcoming everyone on campus and the entire Houston community to the Moody.”

Alison Weaver said, “By establishing the Moody, Rice both reflects and supports the way students are learning and artists are working today – collaboratively and across disciplines. We’re honored to welcome Mona Hatoum as the first international artist to join our program, and we’re thrilled to be inaugurating Michael Maltzan’s extraordinary building, which perfectly embodies what we hope to achieve at the Moody.”

Michael Maltzan’s striking contemporary design, with its bold geometric shapes and inviting transparency, will make the Moody a beacon on Rice’s campus while affirming the mission to foster connections across disciplines.

Michael Maltzan, founder and principal of Michael Maltzan Architecture, said, “The interior of the Moody is designed to foster a sense of openness and possibility. The double-height makers’ space at its heart can be imagined as an interior quad, echoing the other quads found throughout the Rice campus. This interior landscape brings the most diverse programmatic functions into contact with one another, while opening views out to the campus. This emphasis on transparency extends to the building’s exterior, whose brick-clad upper story seems to float over an entry level encased in floor-to-ceiling glass. With pedestrian paths cutting across the site’s open lawn and into the building, a set of stairs on the north façade turning back to form an interior amphitheater, and the cantilevered mass of the second story creating covered walkways below, the Moody will be one of the most active social spaces on the Rice campus, and a welcoming facility for all of Houston.”

Development of the Moody is made possible by a $20 million grant from the Texas-based Moody Foundation, a charitable organization with an emphasis on education, social services, children’s needs and community development, with additional generous support from the Brown Foundation and other donors.
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-29

8433 - Taschen announces the first major publication of Sebastião Salgado's Kuwaiti oil wells series

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In January and February 1991, as the United States–led coalition drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein’s troops retaliated with an inferno. At some 700 oil wells and an unspecified number of oil-filled low-lying areas they ignited vast, raging fires, creating one of the worst environmental disasters in living memory.
As the desperate efforts to contain and extinguish the conflagration progressed, Sebastião Salgado traveled to Kuwait to witness the crisis firsthand. The conditions were excruciating. The heat was so vicious that Salgado’s smallest lens warped. A journalist and another photographer were killed when a slick ignited as they crossed it. Sticking close to the firefighters, and with characteristic sensitivity to both human and envrionmental impact, Salgado captured the terrifying scale of this “huge theater the size of the planet”: the ravaged landscape; the sweltering temperatures; the air choking on charred sand and soot; the blistered remains of camels; the sand still littered with cluster bombs; and the flames and smoke soaring to the skies, blocking out the sunlight, dwarfing the oil-coated firefighters.

Salgado’s epic pictures first appeared in the New York Times Magazine in June 1991 and were subsequently awarded the Oskar Barnack Award, recognizing outstanding images on the relationship between man and the environment. Kuwait: A Desert on Fire is the first monograph of this astonishing series. Like Genesis, Exodus, and The Children, it is as much a major document of modern history as an extraordinary body of photographic work.


 
 
 
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2016-11-28

8432 - Rijksmuseum launches own cookbook - Amsterdam

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Rijksmuseum Cookbook

The Rijksmuseum has launched a cookbook in which fifty typically Dutch ingredients, from potatoes to seaweed, form the basis of 160 dishes. There are stories and traditional recipes, and fifty top chefs and master patissiers from all over the country have been inspired to create their own dishes. Nine hundred illustrations from the Rijksmuseum’s collection provide a colourful historical culinary backdrop.
Traditional and Modern Recipes
The Rijksmuseum asked Jonah Freud, cookery journalist and owner of De Kookboekenhandel in Amsterdam, to compile the Rijksmuseum Cookbook. She collected original and modern dishes based on one or more of the fifty ingredients that define Dutch cooking. She invited fifty Dutch cooks and patissiers to create their own recipes inspired by one of the ingredients. The contributors included celebrities such as Robert Kranenborg and Jonnie Boer, as well as young, up-and-coming chefs like Jim de Jong and Benny Blisto. RIJKS® chef Joris Bijdendijk chose a fish recipe based on mullet.

Culinary History in Pictures
Irma Boom designed the cookbook. She had it printed on a type of paper that looks like baking paper which he devised herself. Objects from the Rijksmuseum’s collection that attest to the Netherlands’ rich culinary history and the prominent role of eating and drinking in art are the basis for the more than 900 illustrations. From fruit, dairy produce and fish in still lifes to cutlery, dinnerware and kitchens from the famous dolls’ houses, the history of Dutch cooking is spread out before the reader, so that people who love cooking and people who love art see dishes they have known for years in a completely new way.


 
 
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2016-11-25

8431 - The Morgan unveils refreshed website, continues major collection digitization project - New York

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View of the refreshed morgan.org on desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms. © The Morgan Library & Museum.
 
The Morgan Library & Museum today announced the launch of a refreshed website. The updated look for themorgan.org offers a sleek, contemporary design, and also introduces features that make the site more compatible across platforms: mobile, tablet, and desktop computers. The unveiling of the new design coincides with the ten-year anniversary of the Morgan’s 2006 expansion, and is the first major makeover since then.
Digital initiatives at the Morgan are part of a larger strategic undertaking to expand access to the institution’s holdings. The upgrades to the Morgan’s website represent a significant development for scholars, students, and members of the general public interested in accessing the Morgan’s vast collections. Prior to undertaking digitization initiatives, the Morgan’s collection had been available on a select basis onsite at the museum’s New York headquarters, while some of the works have been published in various museum catalogs. Digitization efforts enable access to the collection from anywhere in the world and includes a zoom feature to study individual works in detail.

In recent years, almost 700 music manuscripts from its extraordinary collection—represented by such masters as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Handel—have been digitized and made available on its website. The museum’s most ambitious undertaking—the digitization of its collection of over 14,500 drawings —began in Fall 2013, and as of today over 95% of this undertaking is complete, including a cache of over 500 Rembrandt prints and etchings. Additionally, the Morgan offers online access to illuminations from 823 Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts (including over 20,000 illuminations) and thousands of highlights from literary and historical manuscripts, rare books, and ancient near eastern seals and tablets, which can be rotated and zoomed. In the past six months, highlights that have been added include the entire collection of the Morgan’s Coptic bindings and the Lindau Gospels.

Looking ahead, the Morgan plans to continue sharing more objects from its vast collections through the website. Collections ranging from early Mesopotamian and Egyptian through Greco-Roman culture, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond, will be further represented on the website. The music manuscripts pages will also be upgraded to provide more download options and improved navigation.
 
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-24

8430 - Selldorf Architects selected to design an expansion and upgrade of the Frick Collection

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The Frick Collection announced that Selldorf Architects has been selected to design a major upgrade, enhancement, and expansion of the institution’s facilities. Originally housed primarily in the residence of Henry Clay Frick, the institution today encompasses a constellation of buildings, wings, and gardens that have been built over the course of the past century. Working in partnership with Frick leadership and staff, Selldorf Architects will develop a design plan that addresses the institution’s pressing needs to accommodate the growth of its collections and programs, upgrade its conservation and research facilities, create new galleries, and—for the first time—allow for dedicated spaces and classrooms for the Frick’s educational programs. The new and enhanced facilities will be created within the museum’s built footprint and designed to foster a more natural and seamless visitor flow throughout the Frick’s exhibition galleries, library, and public spaces.

The appointment of Selldorf Architects to work with the Frick on the development of this design plan is the culmination of a rigorous 18-month process, which considered twenty architects from around the world with expertise in restoration and expansion of both historic and contemporary buildings and cultural institutions. The New York–based firm, led by Annabelle Selldorf, distinguished itself throughout the process for its creativity, vision, and approach, which respects the institution’s core goal of amplifying opportunities for intimate engagement with great works of art while preserving the domestic scale and aesthetic of the original home and the gardens. The Frick’s Architectural and Long-Range-Planning Committee, chaired by Trustee Dr. James S. Reibel and including President Emerita Helen Clay Chace, great-granddaughter of the museum’s founder, Henry Clay Frick, was unanimous in its decision, which was ratified today by the full board. As a next step, the Frick and Selldorf Architects will develop conceptual designs for the project, with initial plans expected to be shared with the public in winter 2017–18.

“Annabelle Selldorf is a visionary who creates elegant designs that seamlessly integrate the historic with the modern,” said Ian Wardropper, Director of The Frick Collection. “The firm understands and appreciates the value of institutional mission and has clearly demonstrated in past projects—such as New York’s Neue Galerie and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown—how new designs can enrich, rather than overwhelm, already distinguished architectural spaces. Such an approach is essential to our project, which seeks to preserve the peaceful and contemplative experience that the Frick provides to its visitors. After a thorough and thoughtful selection process, we are thrilled to have found a partner so perfectly attuned to our institutional needs and who can work with us to preserve the residential scale and intimate character of the institution, which we value so deeply.”

Noted Margot Bogert, Chair of the Board of Trustees at The Frick Collection, “Throughout the selection process, Selldorf Architects demonstrated an innovative and sensitive approach to addressing the challenges inherent to this project and, more significantly, a deep respect for the characteristics and qualities that distinguish the Frick. We are looking forward to working with Selldorf Architects to create a comprehensive design plan that will enable us to better serve the public, scholars and students, as well as our staff.”

Founded in 1988, Selldorf Architects is internationally recognized for designing renovations and additions that honor a building’s original character and provide resources to better engage and serve contemporary audiences. The 65-person firm is known for creating public and private spaces that fuse contemporary sensibilities with enduring impact and for creating designs that enhance the experience of art. Past projects include the Neue Galerie in New York, which, like the Frick, was originally designed in 1914 by Carrère and Hastings; the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA; the John Hay Library at Brown University, Providence, RI; and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. Annabelle Selldorf was the recipient of the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Award in Architecture and the 2016 American Institute of Architects New York Chapter Medal of Honor.

“We are honored to play a part in this critical moment of the Frick’s continued evolution,” said Annabelle Selldorf, Principal and lead designer at Selldorf Architects. “Success for the project will be a visitor experience that feels deeply familiar, authentic, and reassuring for those who know and love the Frick, and a welcoming and enchanting atmosphere for those visiting for the first time. We’re looking forward to working with the Frick to develop a gracious design befitting a great institution.”

Designed by Carrère and Hastings and constructed in 1913–14, the original Frick house has undergone several expansions over the past century, most significantly during the 1930s when architect John Russell Pope undertook the conversion of the family home into a public museum. Pope’s expansion and additions nearly double the original size of the residence, and demolished the adjoining library building that had been added in 1924, in order to construct a larger library to accommodate its growing collections. An additional expansion and upgrade occurred in 1977, which included the creation of the 70th Street Garden. In 2011, the Portico Gallery was created by enclosing an existing loggia in the Fifth Avenue Garden.

Although its collections, attendance, and public programs have grown significantly over the past decades, the Frick’s facilities have not undergone a significant upgrade in almost 40 years. Many of the Frick’s critical functions are currently constrained—from the presentation, care, and conservation of its collections, to education programs and basic visitor services—having been retrofitted into spaces in and adjacent to the former residence.

The current project will open to the public new areas of the historic Frick residence, reorganize and upgrade existing spaces in the Frick’s buildings, and renovate underground facilities. It will create a more natural flow for visitors throughout the buildings, while enhancing and modernizing behind-the-scenes facilities to enable professional staff to work more efficiently and effectively. At the same time, the expansion will preserve the Frick’s uniquely intimate character and residential scale of the house and its gardens, both those original to the residence and replicated in more recent additions. When complete, the project will include:

• The opening to the public—for the first time—of a suite of rooms on the second floor of the historic house, for use as exhibition galleries. Originally the private living quarters of the Frick family, these rooms will retain their residential scale and are uniquely suited to the presentation of small-scale objects from the Frick’s permanent collection.

• The creation of a new gallery for the presentation of special exhibitions. This new space, contiguous to the permanent collection galleries on the main floor, will help to facilitate a dialogue between the Frick’s holdings and works in loan shows, enabling the Frick to keep more of its permanent collection on view throughout the year.

• The creation of dedicated, purpose-built spaces to accommodate the Frick’s roster of educational and public programming, scaled to the institution’s programs and mission.

• The reconfiguration of existing visitor amenities to create more streamlined circulation, offer a clearer public connection between the museum and the Frick Art Reference Library, and ensuring easy access for the Frick’s audiences, including those with physical disabilities.

• The establishment of state-of-the-art conservation spaces to ensure that the former house and the Frick’s esteemed art and research collections will continue to receive the highest caliber of professional care.


 
 
 
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2016-11-23

8429 - Archaeologists discover that Mexican pyramid built like a 'Russian nesting doll'

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A Mexican man wearing a pre-hispanic costume walk next to the Kukulkan pyramid at the Chichen Itza archaeological park, in Yucatan state, Mexico on December 20, 2012. A 10-meter (33-foot) tall pyramid was found within another 20-meter structure, which itself is enveloped by the 30-meter pyramid visible at the Mayan archeological complex known as Chichen Itza in Yucatan state. PEDRO PARDO / AFP.
 
Experts have discovered a third structure within the Kukulkan pyramid in eastern Mexico, revealing that it was built like a "Russian nesting doll," experts said Wednesday.
A 10-meter (33-foot) tall pyramid was found within another 20-meter structure, which itself is enveloped by the 30-meter pyramid visible at the Mayan archeological complex known as Chichen Itza in Yucatan state.
The smallest pyramid was built between the years 550 and 800, engineers and anthropologists said. 
The middle structure had already been discovered in the 1930s and dates back to the years 800-1,000, while the largest one was finished between 1050-1300.
The discovery suggests that the pyramid, known as "El Castillo" (The Castle), was built in three phases.
"It's like a Russian nesting doll. Under the large one we get another and another," Rene Chavez Seguro, the project's chief and a geophysics researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told a news conference.
Structures were built on top of each other for various reasons, including deterioration or the arrival of new leadership, said Denisse Argote, expert at the National Anthropology and History Institute.
The smallest pyramid was spotted using a non-invasive technique that consists in lighting the inside of the pyramid to see its interior without causing damage.
The discovery could shed light on the original Mayan culture before it was influenced by populations from central Mexico, Argote said.
Last year, archeologists discovered that the Kukulkan pyramid was built atop a cenote, or underground river, which are common in the region and are sacred to the Maya.
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2016-11-22

8428 - Portrait of Russia's last tsar found hidden under a layer of water-soluble paint

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A picture taken in Saint Petersburg on November 17, 2016 shows restorers of the Stieglitz Art and Industry Academy displaying the portrait of Tsar Nicholas II by Ilya Galkin (1896) that was discovered beneath water-soluble paint on the back of the canvas used for the full-size portrait of Vladimir Lenin by Vladislav Izmailovich (1924). A portrait of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, remained hidden for nearly a century under a portrait of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, and discovered by chance will soon be exhibited in Saint Petersburg, according to restorers. Olga MALTSEVA / AFP.
 
Russian art restorers  unveiled a recently discovered portrait of the last Tsar Nicholas II, almost a century after it was hidden behind a giant painting of his Bolshevik foe Lenin.
A team of art restorers led by Tatiana Potseluyeva painstakingly uncovered the tsar's image over the last three years.
The portrait of Nicholas -- shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918 -- was hidden under a layer of water-soluble paint, suggesting it was meant to be preserved and eventually found.
"The ceremonial portrait painted by Ilya Galkin in 1896 was hidden for almost 90 years on the back of another portrait -- depicting Lenin," Potseluyeva told AFP.
Galkin, a little-known artist who painted several portraits of tsars, died in 1915 before the October Revolution of 1917.
The portrait of Lenin wearing a peaked cap and standing in front of Saint Petersburg's Peter and Paul fortress was painted by another artist, Vladislav Izmailovich, in 1924, Potseluyeva said.
Since then, the giant portrait measuring four by three metres (13 by 10 feet) has hung in the assembly hall of a school in the historic centre of Saint Petersburg.
The painting was damaged in the 1970s but restoration experts from the city's Shtiglits Arts and Craft Academy only began restoring it in 2013, leading to the discovery of the hidden portrait.
"We were really surprised!" recalled Potseluyeva, adding that the first detail they discovered was the ornate carpet on which the tsar was standing.

Taking a risk
The Lenin portrait painter Izmailovich, who died in 1959, apparently took pains to preserve the work of his predecessor and camouflage it, working in the year when the long-ailing Bolshevik leader died and Stalin cemented his control of the regime.
"Normally you paint over the old canvas, destroying the previous image," Potseluyeva said.
"Here the painter kept it and made it disappear under a coat of water-soluble paint, before painting on the reverse" of the canvas, she said.
"It seems that he hoped that one day the portrait of Nicholas II would be discovered," she said.
Izmailovich studied in Paris, Rome and Berlin before the Revolution and became known for frescoes and portraits.
After 1917, he was one of the first to paint Lenin from life. He also painted scenes of revolutionary history and taught art.
While his motive for hiding the tsar's portrait may never be known, experts said that he ran a risk by doing so. 
"By keeping the tsar's portrait, Vladislav Izmailovich risked a lot at that time," said the acting head of the Shtiglits Academy, Vasily Kichedzhi.
The Bolsheviks pulled down statues and removed the tsars' emblem from buildings after taking power.
The double-sided canvas with both paintings will be put on show to the public at the end of the month at the Academy.
In neighbouring Ukraine, the pro-Western authorities have launched a campaign to topple all the Lenin statues, prompting fury in Moscow, where Lenin's embalmed body is still on display in the Mausoleum on Red Square.
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2016-11-21

8427 - Peabody Essex Museum announces partnership with Google Cultural Institute

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Tyeb Mehta, Untitled, 1973, acrylic on canvas. Gift of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection, 2001, E301099. Ⓒ Peabody Essex Museum.
 
The Peabody Essex Museum announced that it will join 1,000+ existing art collections online through Google Arts & Culture, a collaboration between Google and cultural partners who work to preserve and promote culture online. PEM’s first online exhibition will feature a curated selection of works from the museum’s Chester & Davida Herwitz Collection, the largest and most important assemblage of modern Indian art outside of India.
Produced by Google’s not for profit Cultural Institute, Google Arts & Culture enables cultural institutions to easily share their collections of artworks, artifacts and archives with the world, including first-person walk-through experiences, as part of its collection of museums. By making immersive views of the museum’s galleries available online, including detailed, high-resolution images of select objects, PEM aims to share its world-renowned art collection with a global audience.

“As one of the oldest and fastest growing museums in the nation, PEM enriches and transforms people’s lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes and knowledge of themselves and the wider world. Partnering with Google Arts & Culture offers an exciting opportunity to share PEM’s remarkable collection and unique curatorial perspective with creative and curious minds the world over,” said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Deputy Director.

In order to create the online collection, the Google Cultural Institute makes it possible for institutions to share high resolution images of their collections and virtually map the museum galleries. PEM’s online exhibition, Catastrophe and Creation: Modern Indian Painting after 1947, explores the traumatic and creative period following Indian Independence in 1947. When the outgoing British government partitioned Imperial India into two independent nations -- India and Pakistan -- it sparked the largest migration in modern history. Some of the region’s most celebrated artists -- including M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and Nalini Malani -- mined this pivotal event in their artwork, sparking an artistic revolution in India that continues to reverberate today. In addition to the online exhibition, 203 works from PEM’s Chester & Davida Herwitz Collection are now available online in high-resolution.

"PEM has thrilled art lovers for about as long as any currently active American cultural institution," said Liz Schwab, Public Affairs Manager for Google Cambridge. "The Google Cultural Institute exists to make sure that same awe, wonder and culture can be shared worldwide through the click of a mouse."

Visitors to the Google Arts & Culture can browse more than 200,000 high-resolution digital images of original artworks, 7 million archival artifacts, over 1,800 Street View museum captures, and more than 2,000 online exhibitions curated by experts. Works are searchable by color, art movement, time period, historic events and more. The Google Cultural Institute is dedicated to creating technology that helps the cultural community bring their art, archives, heritage sites and other material online. The aim is to increase the range and volume of material from the cultural world that is available for people to explore online.
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-18

8426 - Speed Art Museum receives major gift of contemporary art from Gordon W. Bailey - Louisville - U.S.A

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Sam Doyle, Chapel of Ease, 1982-84, house paint on metal, 28 × 48 1/2 in. (71.1 × 123.2 cm.), Gift of Gordon W. Bailey. 2016.6.31
 
The Speed Art Museum has received a major gift of 35 contemporary artworks from the Los Angeles-based scholar, advocate, and collector Gordon W. Bailey. All 21 artists, most African-American artists from the southern United States, featured in this gift are making their debuts in the Speed Art Museum’s permanent collection.

Bailey selected a collection of artworks that will enable the Speed to present a more diverse range of contemporary art and further erode the boundaries that have marginalized artists who have been labeled “naïve,” “outsider,” or “self-taught.” The artists whose artwork has been gifted to the Speed include: Leroy Almon, Eddie Arning, Willie Birch, Archie Byron, David Choe, Sam Doyle, Thornton Dial Sr., Roy Ferdinand, Lonnie Holley, Joe Light, Charlie Lucas, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murray, O. L. Samuels, Welmon Sharlhorne, Herbert Singleton, Henry Speller, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James “Son” Thomas, Willie White, and Purvis Young.

“We are deeply fortunate to have found a donor, scholar, and collaborator in Gordon W. Bailey, who is reshaping the way the Speed presents contemporary art,” said Speed Art Museum CEO Ghislain d’Humieres. “This collection will generate conversation and bring many new visitors through our doors.”

“This is a gift carefully crafted with the Speed Art Museum in mind, and reflects Mr. Bailey’s decades-long commitment to fostering these artists and ushering them into the canon of art history,” said Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed. “I am honored and grateful to be working with him in presenting this awe-inspiring work.”

Highlights of the gift include Sam Doyle, Chapel of Ease, c. 1982-84; Willie Birch, Sunday’s Child, 1991; Charlie Lucas, One-Eyed Farmer, 1990s; Lonnie Holley, I Was Raised in the Crate that Fed Me, 1980s; and three Welmon Sharlhorne drawings from the 1990s. Painted on sheet metal, Sam Doyle’s Chapel of Ease captures an eighteen-century church ruin off the coast of South Carolina on St. Helena Island. Originally built by slaves for use by plantation families, after the Civil War, the Chapel of Ease was used by Freedmen and their supporters. Around 1970, Doyle volunteered to serve as caretaker of the historic ruins, and sometimes painted at the site.

Sunday’s Child by New Orleans-based artist Willie Birch is a quintessential example of Birch’s work in papier-mâché, a medium he began employing in the mid-1980s. Birch’s sculpture of a young African-American girl includes a round, glass-covered box affixed to her chest filled with objects, a reference to the materials found in African Nkisi figures. Made from found objects, One-Eyed Farmer by Charlie Lucas captures in semi-abstract form the profile of a farmer and a rural landscape. The sheet metal, bowl, wires, and metal detritus used by Lucas imbue the imagery with dynamic three-dimensional relief. Renowned artist and musician Lonnie Holley created I Was Raised in the Crate that Fed Me, from a found wooden crate, twisted wires and a baby doll. Tangled in its wires, the doll alludes his own challenging upbringing and the universal theme of injustice. Drawn with pen and marker on manila folders, the drawings of Louisiana artist Welmon Sharlhorne bring to life vivid imaginary faces, creatures, buildings and skyscapes.

An exhibition showcasing many of the artworks “A New World in My View: Gifts from Gordon W. Bailey” will be on display in the Speed’s contemporary galleries on the second floor of the North building from Saturday, November 5, 2016 through February 5, 2017.
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-17

8425 - Museum to longtime leader Arafat opens in Ramallah

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Yasser Arafat at 'From Peacemaking to Peacebuilding' at the Annual Meeting 2001 of the World Economic Forum. © World Economic Forum. Photo: Remy Steinegger.
 
A museum dedicated to Yasser Arafat, including the room where the Palestinian leader spent much of his final years under Israeli siege, will opens on the 12th anniversary of his death.
Current Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will formally open the Yasser Arafat Museum next to the gravesite of the fighter-turned-statesman in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The museum, which cost $7 million, is the first of its kind dedicated to the longtime leader, according to the Yasser Arafat Foundation. 
The opening comes two days before Palestinians commemorate the 12th anniversary of his death in a hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004 from unknown causes.
On display over two floors are a range of Arafat's possessions, including the famous sunglasses he wore when addressing the United Nations in 1974.
The interactive museum also features videos and photographs of key moments in Palestinian history, some from Arafat's private collection.
The Nobel Peace Prize, which Arafat won in 1994 along with his Israeli negotiating partners Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for the Oslo Peace Accord of the previous year, is on display too.
The final exhibit in the museum is the room where Arafat holed up after Israeli tanks surrounded his headquarters during the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.
"People will get the chance to see Yasser Arafat's legacy and history as a person and a political leader," museum director Mohammad Halayqa told AFP, saying the project had been years in the making.
"They will also see the main events the Palestinian cause went through in the last 100 years."
Arafat rose to become the leader of the Palestinian movement after the creation of Israel in 1948, leading an armed struggle against it.
Decades later he disavowed violence and famously shook hands with Rabin on the White House lawn, though the peace the Oslo accords were supposed to bring never materialised.
More than a decade after his death, Arafat remains a towering figure in Palestinian culture, politics and society.
Palestinian politicians from across the political spectrum seek to present themselves as heirs to Arafat's legacy.
Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning Arafat, a claim the Israeli government has flatly rejected.

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2016-11-16

8424 - Fort Wayne Museum of Art announces its largest gift of art to date

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David Shapiro, Clearing 87, 2008. Acrylic on canvas.

The Fort Wayne Museum of Art announced a major gift to its permanent collection, over 200 paintings and more than 500 prints from the estate of internationally-acclaimed American artist David Shapiro. The gift, with an estimated value of $6.2 million, is the largest in scope and value in the history of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
His paintings and prints, according to the author Mason Riddle, "comprise a highly personal language of signs and symbols. Circles, spirals, dots, wave and knot patterns, stylized flames and textures resonate on richly hued, tactile surfaces of Nepalese and Japanese papers, burlap, nylon screening, and canvas evoking a subtle mood of contemplation.”

FWMoA CEO and Chief Curator Charles Shepard adds, “Before his untimely death in 2014, David Shapiro had already secured his place in the history of contemporary art by having major museums around the world add both his paintings and prints to their highly regarded collections. That said, the full impact of David’s contributions to the aesthetics of American painting and printmaking in the late 20th/early 21st centuries has yet to be recognized. Alongside artists like Steven Sorman, Kenny Noland, Bob Mangold, and Frank Stella, David Shapiro’s deep and contemplative work advanced abstraction and serious art-making in an increasingly market-driven art world that prospered, predominantly, on sensationalism. The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is especially proud of being chosen by David’s estate to establish an extensive archive of his prints and paintings.”

Shapiro's work is included in many public and private collections including The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Kunsthalle der Stadt in Nuremberg, Germany.

This gift is the fourth in a series of other major gifts made by artists to the FWMoA in the past two years, including 110 prints by Robert Kipniss, 95 prints by Katja Oxman, and 230 prints and paintings by Steven Sorman.

 
 
 
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2016-11-15

8423 - V&A celebrates 1.5 million visitors to David Bowie Is - London

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David Bowie is, installation view at the Groninger Museum. Photo Gerhard Taatgen.
 
The V&A announces that it has surpassed 1.5 million visitors to its landmark David Bowie Is exhibition, making it the most-visited show in the Museum’s 164-year history.  
The best-selling exhibition has been on a worldwide tour of ten venues since its inception at the V&A in 2013, and has already travelled to eight sites in countries including Canada, Australia and Brazil. It is currently in its final weeks at the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo) in Italy, and will open at the TERRADA G1 building in Tokyo, Japan in January 2017 followed by the Museu del Disseny, Barcelona in May.

Victoria Broackes, co-curator of David Bowie Is, said: “One stand-out visit amongst the many people who saw the show was, of course, David Bowie himself. We were very honoured that he came to visit. In the course of a couple of hours he seemed to go from showing his family the objects to becoming genuinely affected by the experience. We had heard anecdotally before the visit that Bowie had been very moved by the visitors’ response to the exhibition; that people were queuing round the block to see it, and going round the show dancing, singing or sometimes in tears. I think it’s very different to then see why for yourself. It was a great moment.”

Co-curator Geoff Marsh added: ‘We are absolutely delighted that the exhibition has been seen by so many people worldwide. It's been an amazing journey to go from our first visits to the archive to transporting the exhibition to its ninth venue in Tokyo.’

The V&A was given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of his extraordinary career. The exhibition shows how the late singer was one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times and traces his creative processes as a musical innovator and cultural icon, depicting his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades.

Around 312,000 visitors saw David Bowie Is at the V&A in London, where the Museum opened late opened late to cope with demand to view the sell-out show. The exhibition was also the subject of a feature film, David Bowie is happening now.
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-14

8422 - German concert hall ready to dazzle world after cost explosion - Hamburg

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A wooden staircase leads to the small concert hall in the just completed building of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, northern Germany on November 4, 2016. Around nine and a half years after laying the foundation stone, the new construction sitting ontop of an old warehouse building was finished and handed over to the city of Hamburg. The concert house nicknamed "Elphi" is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 11, 2017. John MACDOUGALL / AFP.
 
Years overdue and tens of millions over budget, a spectacular new concert house is poised to put Germany's venerable port city of Hamburg on the map as a global attraction.
The dazzling building will have its gala opening in January but at a recent public preview, visitors were already electrified by the grand design.
"Nothing quite like the Elbphilharmonie has ever been built," culture critic Peter von Becker said. "This old Hanseatic League city is now home to something that belongs to the culture of the world."
National daily Die Welt said the "gorgeous" new landmark had the potential to rival the iconic Sydney Opera House as a destination.
"A new epoch will begin, an age in which the old merchant city, which has called itself Germany's gateway to the world, truly becomes an international metropolis."
The imminent completion also marks a rare urban development success story in Germany, which has been plagued by planning disasters such as Berlin's international airport, now five years overdue and counting.

'Everyone was in tears'
Jutting out from the city at the end of a pier on the Elbe River, the Elbphilharmonie has a boxy brick former warehouse as its base, with a breathtaking glass structure recalling frozen waves perched on top. Sandwiched between the two levels, a public plaza protected by giant curved glass windows offers stunning views of the harbour, the spires of the charming city and Hamburg's temperamental skies.
With a final price tag for the city of 789 million euros ($872 million) -- more than 10 times the 77 million euros originally earmarked -- the Elbphilharmonie was shrouded in controversy during its nearly decade-long construction.
To claw back some of the investment, Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who also designed Beijing's "bird's nest" Olympic stadium and the Tate Modern gallery in London, added posh apartments, restaurants and a 244-room luxury hotel complete with an on-site meditation consultant.
The chief conductor of the house orchestra, Thomas Hengelbrock, said the building would be a perfect mix of form and function.
After a keenly awaited first rehearsal in the grand hall, he said: "We knew immediately from the first beat of the drum that it would be fantastic. Everyone in the room was in tears, truly everyone."

Sparkling jewel
The "Elphie", as it's been nicknamed, looms 110 metres (360 feet) in height from 1,700-plus supporting piles to the signature undulating lines of the roof.
The development is part of a bold new vision for the once scruffy port district known today as HafenCity, currently the biggest urban construction project in Europe.
It is also flanked by historic waterfront warehouse and business quarters which UNESCO awarded world heritage status last year.
Hamburg officials say the Elbphilharmonie is the kind of sparkling jewel, like Frank Gehry's Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain or San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, with the power to boost a city's international profile overnight.
"This building is going to become part of Hamburg's DNA," Herzog predicted.
Access to the building is gained via the "Tube" -- the longest escalator in western Europe -- taking visitors on a two-minute-long ride through a tunnel covered in tiny glittering mirrors.
With acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, best known for his work at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the 2,100-capacity concert hall will rank among the world's top 10, the planners say.
Using a vineyard layout recalling Berlin's groundbreaking Philharmonie and the new Philharmonie de Paris, the seats stretch up in steep terraces from a central stage.
"Even in the cheap seats, no guest will be more than 30 metres away from the conductor and the soloists," said project architect Ascan Mergenthaler. 
Hamburg, the birthplace of Brahms and Mendelssohn and the cradle of the Beatles' early stardom, is now gearing up to host concerts by the world's top orchestras.
And officials say that special events in the building's second, smaller auditorium incorporating DJs and acts such as British experimental artist Brian Eno and musicians from war-ravaged Syria will reach communities beyond the classical music set.
Mayor Olaf Scholz admitted that the entire audacious project had nearly been abandoned due to open conflict between the city government, the architects and the building company Hochtief.
"In the end, we put the rolling ship back on course," he said at a pre-opening ceremony.
Karl-Heinz Bentz, 81, said the heavy cost to taxpayers had frustrated many in the city of 1.8 million people but most were making their peace with it.
"I admired it on my walks past it every day for years and now it's finally here," the retired chocolate factory worker said as he gazed up at the building lit up at dusk like a fluorescent iceberg.
"People from all over -- America, Asia -- are going make their way to Hamburg just to see it."

© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse
 
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-11

8421 - Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens announces reinstallation of the permanent collection - Jacksoville - U.S.A

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.Edmund William Greacen (American, 1877 – 1949), Brooklyn Bridge, East River, 1916, oil on canvas, 37 x 37 ½, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. René Faure, daughter of Edmond Greacen, AG.1972.2.1.
 
The Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens invites visitors to enjoy the reinstallation of its Permanent Collection within its newly-renovated south wing. The Permanent Collection is the cornerstone of the Museum, and the reinstallation includes both recent acquisitions and hidden gems. Two new works have been acquired thanks to the generosity of Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobson: Copper Bowl, White Vase, Cloth, and Onions (c. 1890) by Soren Emil Carlson and Man and Machinery #36 (1934) by Paul Kelpe.

Carlsen (1853-1932) was born in Copenhagen and studied architecture before emigrating to the United States in 1872. He became most famous for his painted depictions fish, game, bottles, and related “kitchen” still life scenes. Carlsen’s work is known for its subdued color palette and realist manner, which lend a modernist quality to his paintings. This new acquisition provides a bridge between still life scenes in the Museum’s Permanent Collection, as well as a link to the rich tradition of European still life paintings of the Baroque and Rococo periods. Its unique composition and assortment of objects stands apart from other works in the Museum’s Collection.

Kelpe (1902-1985) was an American painter of German birth. He pioneered a cerebral approach to abstract art based on rigid geometry. His style is characterized by carefully controlled brushwork, crisp lines, and architectural forms. Man and Machinery #36 is representative of Kelpe’s work in the 1930s and, unlike paintings with similar subject matter, features a human component. This abstracted industrial scene expands the Museum’s early 20th-century American collection by providing a unique counterpoint to Edmund William Greacen’s Brooklyn Bridge, East River (1916) and Saul Berman’s Out of Work (c. 1932).

The renovated and reconfigured Galleries provide visitors with a more intimate viewing experience. The upgrades include new interpretive materials, such as wall texts, which help audiences form richer connections between objects on display. The updated Galleries and additions to the Permanent Collection continue the Museum’s mission to engage and inspire through the arts, gardens, and education.
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-10

8420 - Inside the 'new' Burrell Collection: First concept design proposals are revealed - Glasgow

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The Burrell Collection is scheduled to reopen in 2020
 
Just two days after the Burrell Collection closed its doors to the public to allow work to begin on an estimated £60-£66 million refurbishment and redisplay, the first artists’ impressions of the proposed interior of the building have been made public.

The early stage design concepts reveal ambitious plans to modernise and improve the visitor experience, while retaining the architectural intent of the Category A listed building which is home to Sir William’s great legacy. Architects, John McAslan + Partners, together with Exhibition Designers, Event Communications, and Project and Cost Manager, Gardiner & Theobald LLP are working with staff from Glasgow Life, Cordia and Glasgow City Council to create a world-class museum environment as befits the quality of the 9,000 objects amassed by Sir William.

The collection includes rare examples of medieval stained glass, tapestries and sculpture, ancient Chinese ceramics, bronzes and jades, exquisite Islamic pile carpets as well as French painting from the Realist movement to Impressionism. The riches of the medieval collection alone include vast assemblages of stained glass of outstanding quality and one of the largest and most significant holdings of tapestries anywhere in the world. These two impressive aspects of the collection place works from the Burrell alongside those found in institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The overhaul of the building’s interior will allow a greater proportion of the collection to be accessible to the public, embracing innovative solutions that open up the footprint of the museum whilst maintaining the quality and integrity of the building. As well as providing a new central vertical core and increased access to the collection, including to the lower ground floor stores, improved facilities will include a café with access from the park at ground level, enhanced retail opportunities, and landscaped terraces linking the museum to its parkland setting.

Sir Angus Grossart, Chair of Burrell Renaissance comments, “The designs will see the museum undergo the most comprehensive modernisation since opening to international acclaim in 1983. The proposals will deliver the high quality and innovative solutions for this exciting project. We expect to be able to show previously unseen works from this rich collection, and strengthen the reach of this extraordinary world-class museum.”

Councillor Archie Graham OBE, the Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow Life, says: “Sir William’s legacy has been described as the greatest gift a city has ever received and we have a moral duty to ensure it is housed in the finest of buildings. Having seen the early design concepts, I’ve no doubt we will create an outstanding museum space, which reveals the incredible beauty, quality and depth of the collection. The Burrell Collection is a masterpiece and the refurbished and redisplayed museum will be one of Scotland’s finest cultural assets.”

James Robinson, Director of Burrell Renaissance says, “The proposal is a considered response to the design brief and all that’s unique to the Burrell Collection. The teams have thoroughly understood the requirements for the refurbishment and redisplay, showing a sensitivity and awareness of the Burrell’s cultural context. The Burrell Collection will be a beacon that both celebrates Sir William’s incredible legacy, and meaningfully links the unique building with its parkland setting.”

Hannah Lawson, Director at John McAslan + Partners, adds: “The Burrell provides an inspiring setting for shipping magnate Sir William Burrell's vast collection of art and antiquities within a category A listed building of international significance. John McAslan and Partners are delighted to be leading a team dedicated to the comprehensive repair and refurbishment of this architectural masterpiece. By providing a new circulation core we can open up new parts of the gallery to visitors and greatly increase the display area for the collections. Improved accessibility for all, together with a refreshed cafe and shop, will once again allow the Burrell to shine as one of Glasgow's most distinctive and enjoyable cultural assets."

The refurbishment of the building will also be an exemplar of sustainable, low carbon design. The current building remains entirely electrically powered, with the original mechanical and electrical equipment becoming increasingly expensive to operate. Thermal energy loss is especially high, with the original glazing no longer meeting display and conservation standards required by world-class museums today. The proposed refurbishment programme will deliver sustainable solutions to help to reduce onsite energy costs, transforming the Burrell from a building with a large carbon footprint, into an energy efficient, modern museum.

The redisplay of the collection will also provide a far richer interpretation of the artefacts, greatly enhancing access to the 9,000 works within the collection.

The proposed designs are now on display at the Burrell at Kelvingrove display space, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, from 24 October 2016, giving the public an opportunity to view the designs and learn more about the museum’s plans.

The Burrell Collection is scheduled to reopen in 2020.
 
 
 
 
 
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2016-11-09

8419 - The Canadian Photography Institute inaugurates its new permanent space - Ottawa

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The National Gallery of Canada’s Director and CEO, Marc Mayer, and the Director of the Canadian Photography Institute, Luce Lebart, officially opened the Institute’s dedicated galleries today in the presence of representatives from Scotiabank – the Institute’s Founding Partner – and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation. Three unique exhibitions marked the inauguration of the Institute: The Intimate World of Josef Sudek, featuring a selection of contemplative photographs from the Czech pioneer of modernist photography, Cutline: The Photography Archives of the Globe and Mail, and PhotoLab 1, an essay exhibition on the theme of windows in photography. The public is invited to meet the curators and view the exhibitions free of charge tonight from 6 pm to 8 pm.

The Canadian Photography Institute’s new permanent galleries are located on the mezzanine level of the National Gallery of Canada. A key feature is an exhibition space dedicated to rotating informal photographic installations. Called PhotoLab, it will display exhibitions throughout the year organized by the Institute’s experts, as well as guest curators from various fields.

“We, at the National Gallery of Canada, are so proud to inaugurate the Canadian Photography Institute and provide a dedicated exhibition space for its vast and varied collections. We are deeply grateful to visionary patron and collector David Thomson; our founding partner Scotiabank, and to our strategic partner, the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, for their transformative contributions. This forward focused Institute would have been inconceivable without them. The Institute’s inaugural exhibitions – from Josef Sudek’s contemplative photographs to those in Cutline that capture the golden age of Canadian newspapers, to the experimental nature of PhotoLab – were conceived to express the great depth and diversity of the collections that comprise it. We hope that our visitors will quickly appreciate the historic significance of this new endeavor.” — Marc Mayer, Director and CEO, National Gallery of Canada

“What makes the Canadian Photography Institute unique, aside from the extraordinary donations it has received, is its collection. It is wonderfully rich and varied. Photography in all its forms is featured. Photography’s different purposes are recognized and valued; as are its producers - artist, documentarian, photojournalist, etc. –, formats - from metal to glass to paper- as well as the photographic process - from daguerreotype, to salted papers, to digital. This diversity is novel and very Canadian. It’s a Canadian collection, a Canadian perspective on the world, a photographic mosaic in a cultural mosaic landscape.” — Luce Lebart, Director, Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada

“Scotiabank is thrilled to celebrate the opening of the Canadian Photography Institute's new permanent space in the National Gallery of Canada. The arts expose us to new ideas, encourage us to pursue our passions, and are an important inspiration in particular for young people learning about themselves and the world. That's why we are so proud to be a Founding Partner of the Canadian Photography Institute, and to support its objective of making important photographic collections widely accessible across Canada and globally.” — Brian Porter, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank.

“Through the on-going philanthropic support by our Distinguished Patron, David Thomson, and through the historic contribution by Scotiabank, the National Gallery of Canada Foundation has been able to help set the wheels in motion for what promises to be a new era in Canadian photographic research and exhibition and a global centre of excellence.” — Thomas d’Aquino, Chairman, National Gallery of Canada Foundation

Three inaugural exhibitions
The Intimate World of Josef Sudek – On view from October 28, 2016 until February 26, 2017, this exhibition, organized by the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada, is the first major show to examine the work and life of Josef Sudek (1896–1976) and his intimate circle of artist friends during the decades before and after the Second World War. The exhibition, which opened in Paris last June to critical acclaim, features 163 photographs, including some of the twentieth century’s most haunting images taken through the window of Sudek’s studio, as well as of gardens, parks and streets of his beloved city, Prague.

Cutline: The Photography Archives of the Globe and Mail –On view from October 28 until February 12, 2017, Cutline features some 175 photographs from The Globe and Mail’s archives dating from 1938 to 1990, presenting themes as varied as politics, fashion, labour, sports and crime. It is organized by the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada, the Globe and Mail, and Archive of Modern Conflict.

PhotoLab 1– On view as of October 28, 2016, the exhibition is the first in a series that presents collaborative projects about photography in all its forms. The inaugural show complements the Josef Sudek exhibition by featuring 41 photographs taken through windows by photographers Eugène Atget, Phil Bergerson, Pascal Grandmaison, Clara Gutsche, and Nathan Lyons.


 


 
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2016-11-08

8418 - Portrait gallery acquires photographs saved from King's Cross warehouse demolition - London

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Damon Albarn by Douglas Brothers, 1990 © The Douglas Brothers.

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a group of portraits of leading British cultural figures photographed in the 1990s - including Daniel Day-Lewis, Damon Albarn, Alan Bennett, Tilda Swinton, Bob Geldof and Salman Rushdie.

They have been saved from destruction after being rescued from a condemned warehouse in King’s Cross. The important body of portraits from British photographic team The Douglas Brothers had sat in a disused storage unit in London for two decades.

The Douglas Brothers began working together in the 1980s, producing photographs for the magazine press and music industry. Their photographic partnership ended in 1995, with both pursuing separate careers in the United States directing movies and commercials. They are both now based in Los Angeles. The brothers stored their photographic archive in a King’s Cross lock-up that, nearly 20 years later, was earmarked to make way for redevelopment.

Andrew Douglas says: ‘The storage company took over a year to track us down. Even then it was nearly too late’.

Stuart Douglas says: ‘The building was about to be demolished. Ten years of work came very close to ending up as landfill.’

The brothers contacted London-based artist manager Tim Fennell (bonabattoir.com). ‘I received a phone call asking me to drop everything,’ says Fennell, ‘and clear a lock-up on a demolition site. I had 48 hours before the building was bulldozed. I retrieved 30 crates of negatives and prints that hadn’t seen the light of day for nearly two decades. It was a remarkable body of work, just sitting there, forgotten.’

Fourteen of their evocative and atmospheric portraits were accepted for the National Portrait Gallery’s Primary Collection. The photographs feature Bob Geldof, Shaun Ryder, Tilda Swinton, Damon Albarn, Alan Bennett, Bryan Ferry, Daniel Day-Lewis, Eric Clapton, Ian McEwan, John Le Carre, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kenneth Branagh, Peter Gabriel and Salman Rushdie.

The Douglas Brothers (thedouglasbrothers.com) spent a decade photographing leading figures from the worlds of art, literature, film, music, sport and fashion. The brothers - real life siblings Stuart and Andrew Douglas - were once described as ‘the most desirable photographers of their generation.’ They were the last people to photograph Salman Rushdie before he went into hiding following the death threats made against him in response to the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses.

Dr Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘The Douglas Brothers produced some of the most distinctive portraits of the 1990s. Although their photography has since become less well known, this is work that has stood the test of time. Making use of older, historic processes, their pictures are still as fresh and exciting as the day they were made, and make a wonderful addition to the national collection of photographic portraits.’

The Douglas Brothers’ portraits will go on display at the National Portrait Gallery in August 2017.


 
 
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2016-11-07

8417 - MoMA publishes the complete set of photocollages created by Josef Albers at the Bauhaus - New York

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Cover of One and One Is Four: The Bauhaus Photocollages of Josef Albers published by The Museum of Modern Art.
 
The Museum of Modern Art announces the release of One and One Is Four: The Bauhaus Photocollages of Josef Albers, the first publication to reproduce all 70 photocollages created by Josef Albers at the Bauhaus using photographs he made between 1928 and 1932. Hailed in his own lifetime as among the most important figures of 20th-century art, both as a practitioner and as a teacher at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale University, Albers (1888–1976) achieved widespread acclaim across a range of mediums, from glassworks and furniture design to printmaking and painting. Yet Albers’s engagement with modernist photography remained largely hidden until after his death, and it is only now that the entire series of unique photocollages the artist produced at the famed art school—before he and his wife fled Nazi Germany for the US—has been published together, many for the first time. At once expansive and restrained, this remarkable body of work anticipates concerns that Albers would pursue throughout his career: seriality, perception, and the relationship between handcraft and mechanical production.

One and One Is Four reveals an Albers at once familiar and unexpected—playful yet disciplined, personal yet enigmatic—through a body of work whose genius becomes fully apparent when considered as a whole. “Albers’s photocollages stand as remarkable contributions to the medium in their own right,” explains Sarah Hermanson Meister, Curator in the Department of Photography and the author of the book, “while they anticipate in important ways key concerns that would animate the artist’s work throughout his career, including his iconic Homages to the Square.” An essay by art historian and Bauhaus scholar Elizabeth Otto underscores the originality of Albers’s achievement through a survey of photocollages by Albers’s fellow Bauhäusler, and a contribution by MoMA conservator Lee Ann Daffner examines the artist’s materials to suggest new insights into these works, the discovery of which has been celebrated as one of the great art finds of the past century. The publication also includes a transcription of a lecture delivered by Albers at Black Mountain College in February 1943 titled “Photos as Photography and Photos as Art”—Albers’s sole public statement about the medium—and a preface by Nicholas Fox Weber, Executive Director of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

The first serious exploration of Albers’s photographic practice occurred in a modest exhibition of 38 photographs organized by John Szarkowski at MoMA in 1988, The Photographs of Josef Albers. At the time, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation donated two photocollages to the Museum. In 2015, the Museum acquired 10 additional photocollages by Albers, making its collection the most significant anywhere outside the Foundation. A new installation featuring 16 photocollages, on view from November 23, 2016, through April 2, 2017, in the Museum’s fifth-floor galleries, celebrates both the publication and this landmark acquisition. The exhibition is organized by Sarah Meister with Kristen Gaylord, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography. The exhibition is supported by the Annual Exhibition Fund.
 
 
 
 
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