2015-11-25

2172 - 20160207 - U.S.A. - SAN JOSE-CA - Highlights from the gift of Dixon and Barbara Farley - 03.10.2015-07.02.2016

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Jay DeFeo, Detail, Snake River Canyon, 1974. Acrylic on ragboard, 10 x 15 inches.

This fall, the San Jose Museum of Art showcases for the first time artworks from a major gift of art from the collection of Dixon and Barbara Farley. SJMA received 44 works from the Farley collection in 2015 and an earlier gift of 29 works following Mr. Farley’s death in 2011. Diebenkorn in the Bedroom, DeFeo in the Den: Generous Gifts from the Dixon and Barbara Farley Collection, on view October 3, 2015 through February 7, 2016, features highlights from this gift of modern and contemporary art, which includes works by nationally recognized artists as well as notable California artists. Among the highlights are works by Jay DeFeo, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Philip Guston, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, James Siena, David Simpson, Richard Shaw, and Peter Wegner.

“The Farleys built their collection with deep passion, independence, and a keen eye for abstraction. Their art filled their home and their life—as did their commitment to supporting the work of living artists,” said Susan Krane, Oshman Executive Director of SJMA. “The Museum is honored to exhibit this intimate collection of works by California artists and nationally recognized artists who were previously unrepresented in the collection.”

The exhibition includes works that range from Jay DeFeo’s textured renderings and abstracted drawings to de Kooning’s powerful compositions to Philip Guston’s abstract expressionist works in various media. DeFeo’s painting Detail, Snake River Canyon, (1974) is a textured rendering of the prominent form also seen in her seminal work, The Rose (Museum of Modern Art, New York). Another work by DeFeo, Untitled, from the series “Shoe Tree”(1977), is one of her abstracted depictions of objects such as camera tripods, shoetrees, and swim goggles. In Woman II (1967), Willem de Kooning demonstrates his powerful combination of figurative distortion and gestural abstraction. In the gestural painting Composer’s Landscape (1960), Philip Guston showcases the experimentation that marked his career, as well as his interest in abstract expressionism. Alex Katz depicts bright yellow flowers flattened onto the picture plane in his painting Untitled (Yellow Irises) (1968), in which his use of bold colors, monochromatic backgrounds, and simplified forms to create two dimensional space show him to be a precursor to Pop Art. Richard Serra’s Bessie Smith (1999) is a large, one-color etching that resembles the thick, circular slabs of black-painted cast iron in his metal “Splashings” from the late 1960s. Serra used deeply etched plates capable of carrying up to a pound or more of ink to create a textured surface and a physical presence akin to his massive steel sculptures.

Other highlights include works on paper by Richard Diebenkorn, Joseph Cornell, Henry Moore, and Claes Oldenberg; and ceramic works by Richard Shaw. Works by Milton Avery, Tom Bolles, James Brooks, Bruce Conner, Red Grooms, Nancy Haynes, Jack Jefferson, Patsy Krebs, Frank Lobdell, Richard Lodwig, Brice Marden, David Ortins, James Siena, and David Simpson will also be on view.

Dixon and Barbara Farley shared their Marin home with an impressive, constantly growing collection of modern and contemporary art. Dixon Farley’s dedication (in particular to the work of Bay Area artists) never faltered, and he added new works to his collection up until his death in 2011. A talented painter himself, Dixon Farley enjoyed personal relationships with the artists whose work he collected and encouraged their development over many years.




San Jose Museum of Art - Highlights from the gift of Dixon and Barbara Farley - 03.10.2015 - 07.02.2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2015-11-18

2171 - 20160110 - U.S.A. - SAN ANTONIO-TEXAS - Joan Miro - 30.09.2015-10.01.2016

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Woman, Bird and Start (Homage to Picasso), 1966/1973. Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. © Sucessio Miro / Artists Right Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 2015

The McNay Art Museum presents a rare glimpse at the later works of Spanish-born artist Joan Mirό (1893-1983), one of the greatest innovators of 20th-century art in Europe, during Miró: The Experience of Seeing. The exhibition opened September 30, 2015 and runs through Jan. 10, 2016. The McNay is the only southwest venue and final stop of the exhibition’s U.S. tour.

Featuring more than 50 remarkable paintings, drawings, and sculptures created by Joan Miró between 1963 and 1981, Miró: The Experience of Seeing is drawn entirely from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. The exhibition features bold, colorful, and often playful compositions that highlight the artist’s ingenuity and offers a fresh assessment of the late period of Miró’s work—something that audiences in the United States have not yet had the opportunity to explore in depth.

“There are always references to nature, to humans, to animals in his work, but it becomes even more playful in his late career, and many of his sculptures are like little people looking at you, “ said Dr. William Chiego, Director of the McNay Art Museum. “They have a wonderful appeal for adults and children both and it just shows a lyrical side of his personality as an artist that really projects to the end of his life.”

A contemporary of Picasso as well as a fellow Catalan, Mirό was briefly aligned with the Surrealists in the late 1920s in Paris and went on to create a phenomenal pictorial and sculptural universe throughout his six-decade career.

Showcasing works of art exclusively drawn from the last 20 years of the artist’s life, Mirό: The Experience of Seeing brings an extensive and illuminating body of Miró’s work to South Texas for the first time.

Miró: The Experience of Seeing is organized by the Seattle Art Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.



McNay Art Museum - Joan Miro - 30.09.2015 - 10.01.2016
 
 
 
 
 
 

2015-11-11

2170 - 20160124 - U.S.A. - PHILADELPHIA, PA.- We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s - 26.09.2015-24.01.2016

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Horace Pippin (American, 1888–1946), John Brown Going to His Hanging, 1942. Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 30 1/4 in. Photo: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: John Lambert Fund Photograph courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

This Fall Woodmere Art Museum presents We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s – 1970s. The exhibition features over 70 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and prints produces by black artists living and working in Philadelphia during the roughly 50 year period. We Speak examines a series of relationships in the arts, while considering how artists supported each other and mentored subsequent generations. The exhibition opened on September 26 and runs through January 24.

The exhibition was organized with direct input from artists and their family members, museum professionals, collectors, gallery owners, and scholars in the form of fourteen oral histories, which are transcribed in the exhibition's catalogue. The oral histories represent a process of discovery that shaped the checklist and thematic structure of the exhibition.

We Speak also explores how different institutions and organizations in Philadelphia either provided a platform for black artists to advance their careers, or fell short of doing so. Among the many Philadelphia institutions that are part of the history presented include: the Graphic Arts Workshop of the Works Progress Administration; the Barnes Foundation; the Pyramid Club; the Philadelphia Public Schools; the Wharton Center and other settlement houses, the Ile-Ife Black Humanitarian Center; the National Conference of Artists; the Brandywine Workshop; the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, as well as Philadelphia’s academies, museums, universities, galleries, and artist groups.

William Valerio, Director of Woodmere Art Museum, said, “Woodmere is the only museum able to bring to life an exhibition such as We Speak because our mission is to tell the stories of the art and artists of Philadelphia. By taking a closer look at our collection, we discovered some thought-provoking connections between artist's inspirations and ideas. We wanted to undertake the oral histories to learn more about the relationships and social contexts they shared. The artists included in the exhibition addressed matters of race and equality in many different ways, both implicitly and explicitly.”

The curatorial time frame of We Speak begins in the 1920s with Philadelphian Alain Locke's publication of “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” (1925) which was a seminal text in the New Negro Arts Movement, issuing a call to black artists to find inspiration in their African heritage. In the 1970s, questions of identity and culture were reframed by the social politics of the post-Civil Right era and the black power movement. The nationwide bicentennial celebration also brought to the surface questions about progress toward freedom and equality.

Rachel McCay, Assistant Curator at Woodmere, organized the exhibition jointly with Susanna Gold, Guest Curator. McCay said, “The exhibition explores the many ongoing conversations in the arts that were resonant to black artists in Philadelphia during the time period, including questions of identity and gender, academic tradition, relationships within the urban fabric, exploration of abstraction, and the influence of African culture.”

Among those featured artists are: Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-‐1948); Allen R. Freelon, Sr. (1895-‐1960); Dox Thrash (1892-‐1965); Selma Burke (1900-‐1995); Paul F. Keene, Jr. (1920-‐2009); Charles Searles (1937-‐2004); Ellen Powell Tiberino (1938-‐1992); Barbara Bullock (b. 1938); Moe Brooker (b. 1940); Donald E. Camp (b. 1940); Barkley L. Hendricks (b. 1945); Richard J. Watson (b. 1946); Allan L. Edmunds (b. 1949), and many more.




Woodmere Art Museum - We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s - 26.09.2015 - 24.01.2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2015-11-04

2169 - 20150103 - U.S.A. - WEST PALM BEACH-FLORIDA - Going Places: Transportation Designs from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection - 25.06.2015-03.01.2016

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Allan Phillips, Mercury Carnival, 1952
Designed by: A.G. Spear Jr. Airbrush, gouache on illustration board. Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection Photography

Showcasing vehicles from the extensive collection of longtime Norton supporters Jean S. (a trustee) and Frederic A. Sharf, this exhibition focuses on the art of 20th-century transportation design. Mr. Sharf, especially, has long been fascinated by the acceleration of life that occurred in the middle decades of the 20th-century. Via model planes, trains, and, most of all, automobiles, he looked to capture the excitement of getting from one place to another. Featuring more than 200 items, including design drawings, concept sketches, renderings, advertising art, and posters, as well as model trains, planes, and automobiles  from the Sharfs’ collection, this exhibition literally examines how we arrived here – and highlights the designers who created the look of the 20th-century vehicles that transported us and transformed the way we travel. Going Places is augmented with related period newsreels, TV ads, and clips from classic films and television programs.


 
Norton Museum of Art - Going Places: Transportation Designs from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection - 25.06.2015 - 03.01.2016