  |
|||||||||||
|
|
Stan Parchin's BlogPosted by Stan Parchin On December 13, 2008 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, the Brooklyn Museum will proudly host the panel discussion Fight Against Sex Trafficking, moderated by activist and writer Gloria Steinem. She'll be joined by: Taini Bien-Aime, Executive Director of Equality Now; Dorchen Leidholdt, Director of the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families; Rachel Lloyd, Executive Director of GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services); and other guests devoted to ending human trafficking, sexual exploitation and violence against women and children. Sex trafficking is the systematic and organized transport of women and children for the purpose of sex for profit, both domestically and internationally. This heinous practice subjects them to serious abuse, slavery and exploitation. Posted by Stan Parchin BBC News reported on November 27, 2008 that Catholic Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, asked London's National Gallery during a lecture for the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust to relocate its fragile painting The Baptism of Christ (1450s) by Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca (ca. 1415/20-1492) permanently to his cathedral. The cardinal said, "It is a mistake to treat it as a work of art. It is a work of faith and piety. It is an expression of the Church's life and a way into prayer. I will willingly offer Westminster Cathedral as the new home for this painting. It should be restored to a religious setting." Piero della Francesca's egg tempera on poplar panel entered the National Gallery's collection in 1861. The work was purchased from a Camaldolese abbey in Borgo Sansepulcro, Italy, the artist's birthplace. Its fragile nature requires that the painting be constantly monitored for light, temperature and humidity levels and never moved, even for special loan exhibitions. Luke Syson, the National Gallery's Curator of Italian Paintings, responded to the prelate's plea: "By seeing the picture at the National Gallery, in an especially secluded room which evokes a chapel setting, visitors can experience this masterpiece in many numbers of way, according to their beliefs or, indeed, lack of beliefs." According to the museum, visitors are welcome to pray in front of The Baptism of Christ in its Salisbury Wing. Posted by Stan Parchin The Associated Press reported that the bronze sculpture David (ca. 1440) by Italian Renaissance master Donatello (ca. 1386-1466) returned to public view at Florence's Museo Nazionale del Bargello on November 28, 2008 after an 18-month restoration that cost some $257,000. Lasers and other new techniques were used to remove a century's worth of dirt from the statue's surface. The youthful Old Testament hero David is shown stepping on the severed head of the giant Goliath while holding an oversized sword. Donatello's work, the first freestanding nude male sculpture created since ancient times, was cast for Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464), Florence's ruler. It was originally displayed in his palazzo's courtyard. Posted by Stan Parchin Peter Parshall, Curator of Old Master Prints at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., disclosed to The New York Times in October 2008 that the museum recently purchased a complete first edition set of 16 woodcuts depicting scenes from the Apocalypse, each executed by Northern Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). The NGA's acquisition is considered monumental in scholarly circles. Experts surmise that the works were obtained from Zurich, Switzerland's Laube and Company for an estimated $1.4 million. In the United States, three other versions of Dürer's graphic masterpiece are housed in Harvard University's Houghton Library, the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Posted by Stan Parchin The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California unveiled on November 17, 2008 its updated version of Gettygames, a website feature that helps children focus on art using game strategies. Gettygames offers children (of all ages) four visually rich and educational diversions:
A fifth section, Make Art at Home, provides printable instructions for the creation of a bookmark in the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts, a Mardi Gras mask and wheatstacks reminiscent of those painted repeatedly by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926). Users' suggestions incorporated into the new version of Gettygames include improved navigation, enhanced content and lively sound. Posted by Stan Parchin The Cleveland Museum of Art announced on November 19, 2008 that after 18 months of discussion, it will repatriate 13 artifacts and an early Renaissance processional cross (ca. 1350 A.D.) to Italy. The agreement was reached in a meeting in Rome between CMA director Timothy Rub and Sandro Bondi, the Italian Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities. The list of objects, each acquired by purchase or donation during the period 1975 to 1996, includes:
Regarding the arrangement, Rub said, "This transfer demonstrates our commitment to build and maintain a collection of art from around the world and across time that is acquired in good faith using the highest ethical standards and after rigorous provenance research." Italy will, in turn, loan a similar number of works of equal aesthetic quality and historical importance to the Cleveland Museum of Art for scholarly study and display. Both parties have agreed to jointly organize at least one special exhibition. The transfer of objects from Ohio to Italy will occur in three months. Posted by Stan Parchin The Harvard Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts announced on November 19, 2008 the creation of the Patricia Cornwell Conservation Scientist. The endowed position at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies was established through a $1 million commitment from suspense novelist Patricia Cornwell and matching support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Straus Center specializes in the conservation and study of paintings, sculptures, decorative objects, works on paper, antiquities and historic artifacts. The oldest facility of its kind in the United States, its staff continues to pioneer methods and techniques of conservation and its practice. The new position, once filled, will allow the center's scholars to apply principles of forensic science to artworks. Cornwell has been a longtime supporter of the museum. She recently donated 24 paintings, 22 drawings and 36 prints by English Impressionist Walter Sickert (1860-1942) to the collection. Using forensic science, Cornwell unearthed evidence strongly suggesting that Sickert was, in fact, the British murderer Jack the Ripper. The prolific author also contributed 25 prints and drawings by James McNeill Abbott Whistler (1834-1903), six works by British artist Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961) and technological equipment to the museum. Her 2005 donation of a Foster and Freeman VSC 5000 video spectral comparator allows Harvard's curators, researchers and scientists to examine paintings' underdrawings, detect forgeries and analyze changes or damages to works of art. Posted by Stan Parchin The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas revealed on November 18, 2008 its plans for a much-needed addition to its landmark 1972 building designed by Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974). Pritzer Architecture Prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano (b. 1937) is responsible for the new project, scheduled for completion in 2012. Piano, who described his effort to complement Kahn's vaulted masterpiece as "an awesome challenge," collaborated with the late architect early in his career. The structures that house the Menil Collection and Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas are examples of his designs for museums in Texas. The Kimbell's new addition, to be located west of the original museum, will mirror the Kahn building in height, scale, façade span, tripartite plan and travertine and concrete construction materials. Piano's edifice will approximately double the museum's amount of exhibition space. Public access to the original building through its main west entrance will be restored. A corridor of trees will connect both light-filled structures. Malcolm Warner, Acting Director of the Kimbell Art Museum, said, "The new building solves a persistent problem for us in that our existing building cannot accommodate a major exhibition and a full display of the permanent colleciton at the same time. It will serve as a showcase for exhibitions and the Kahn building will be home to the Kimbell's extraordinary collection." Piano's graceful pavilion will include galleries, expanded educational facilities, a library, a large auditorium and offices. Its cantilevered roof will incorporate photovoltaic solar cells for the purpose of saving energy. Posted by Stan Parchin The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec presents Tombs of Eternity: The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt from December 19, 2008 to August 16, 2009. The exhibition explains the Egyptians' concept of death not as the end of life, but as the beginning of immortality and what they did to guarantee their eternal existences. More than 200 funerary objects from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston are supplemented by artifacts from the CMC. The mummified human and animal remains, sarcophagi, amulets, clothing, jewelry, pottery, sculptures and monumental works of art on display describe the Egyptian nobility across 3000 years of pharaonic history. The installation includes a recreation of a tomb.
Posted by Stan Parchin The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston presents Secrets of the Tomb: Egypt 2000 B.C. from October 18, 2009 to January 10, 2010. The exhibition introduces the viewer to the Egyptian concept of the afterlife through the funerary equipment of Djehutynacht, a local governor, and his wife during the civilization's Middle Kingdom period (2040-1640 B.C.). Discovered by the MFA, Boston during a 1915 joint excavation with Harvard University, Djehutynacht's tomb, previously disturbed by robbers, contained the official's painted severed head, four decorated sarcaphagi, canopic jars, jewelry, walking sticks and other adornments. Some 60 different model boats were founded with two dozen wooden facsimiles of shops for bakers, brewers, brick-makers, carpenters and weavers, all representing aspects of daily life in ancient Egypt. The objects were awarded to the museum in 1921 and suffered slight water damage while aboard a transport ship that caught fire. Usually only the famous Bersha Coffin and Procession are on display in Boston. The exhibition includes the remarkable finds from Djehutynacht's tomb as well as royal and other statuary from collections of Egyptian art worldwide. Posted by Stan Parchin The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, England, a world-class repository of antiquities, Western European and Asian art, temporarily closes its doors to the public after December 23, 2008. Its final and critical phase of much-needed expansion is scheduled for completion in November 2009. The safety of the museum's collections, staff and visitors necessitates closure. The Ashmolean's extensive refurbishment, designed by Rick Mather Architects, is supported financially by the United Kingdom's Heritage Lottery Fund and the Linbury Trust. The museum's expansion began in 2006. Architectural projects coming to a close include construction of a front entrance and hallways uniting the museum's original and new structures. Mather's overall design provides for 39 new galleries, doubling the Ashmolean Museum's current exhibition space. A state-of-the-art conservation laboratory, modern education center and rooftop café are also being built. Once reinstalled chronologically on five floors, the museum's presentation of its permanent collection will clearly explain the development of Western art and civilization from antiquity through modern times. The Western Art Print Room remains open by appointment for specialists and university-level students. Posted by Stan Parchin Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence at London's Victoria & Albert Museum (April 4-July 19, 2008) explores the complexities and splendor of 17th- and 18th-century European art. The Baroque style and its influence beyond the Continent are examined through some 200 paintings, sculptures and works of decorative art. Aspects of theatre and performance are also addressed. The exhibition describes the period of early modern European history that witnessed the rise of absolute monarchies, emergence of colonial empires and endurance of Counter-Reformation Roman Catholicism. Public, religious and royal spaces, including the city square, St. Peter's Basilica and Louis XIV's palace at Versailles, are considered. Highlights include:
Posted by Stan Parchin New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on November 10, 2008 that actress Sarah Jessica Parker narrates its new recorded tour, Costume: The History of Dress, available to visitors beginning November 25. The audio guide, its contents developed by The Met's world-renowned Costume Institute, highlights fashion as seen in the museum's permanent collections, including painting and sculpture. Parker vividly describes some 20 ancient to modern works of art, emphasizing their importance in terms of social status, power, wealth, customs, taste and sex. The recorded tour includes interviews with Harold Koda, the Costume Institute's Curator in Charge, curator Andrew Bolton, conservator Chris Paulocik and scholars from other areas of the museum. An illustrated brochure at the building's entrances lists the tour's stops by gallery, each designated by the letter "C" and corresponding numbers. Recorded tours, produced by Antenna Audio and sponsored by Bloomberg, are available in the museum's Great Hall and at entrances to selected special exhibitions for a 7.00 rental fee ($6.00 for Museum Members, $5.00 for children under 15 years of age and $4.00 for groups larger than 15). Antenna Audio is a fully owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications, LLC. Posted by Stan Parchin Manhattan's UBS Art Gallery proudly presents HEYDAY: Frederick W. Glasier's American Circus, 1890 1925 from November 13, 2008 to January 23, 2009. On display are 64 photographs by Glasier (1866-1950) that poignantly document the private world of American circus performers as well as their acrobatic feats. They date from the late 19th through mid-20th Centuries. Joining the images are 13 lithographic posters, each demonstrating how the circus promoted itself at various stops in its travels. The exhibition's works are drawn entirely from Sarasota, Florida's John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, home to an interesting collection of European and American paintings as well as Asian, modern and contemporary works of art. The museum is noted for its fine holdings in Baroque art. The UBS Art Gallery is located at 1285 Avenue of the Americas (between West 51 and West 52 Streets) in New York City. Posted by Stan Parchin WNET/Channel 13 in New York announced on November 6, 2008 that Philippe de Montebello, retiring director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, begins co-hosting the television station's SundayArts program on November 9. He's joined by Paula Zahn, former CNN and CBS news anchor. Both replace Neil Shapiro, WNET's president and chief executive officer, who has introduced the show's segments on art and culture in New York City since its inception in March of this year. SundayArts airs weekly at 12:00 Noon. De Montebello is familiar to millions of museumgoers as The Met's principal voice of its ever-popular recorded tours for permanent installations and special exhibitions. In his initial outings for WNET, the newly-minted professor of New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, specializing in the history and culture of museums worldwide, will introduce each week's content of SundayArts. Eminently well-suited for his most recent appointment, Mr. de Montebello said, "I am delighted to have this new opportunity to share my perspectives on the arts and culture with New Yorkers. SundayArts is the only program of its kind and I look forward to working with Paula Zahn to open new doors for Thirteen viewers and bring the arts in all their glorious manifestations to new audiences." Posted by Stan Parchin Record prices were paid for works by Kazimir Malevich, Edgar Degas and Edvard Munch at Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and Modern art on November 3, 2008. Suprematist Composition (1916) by Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), offered by the artist's family, sold for $60,002,500, a record for the artist as well as one for any Russian work ever made available for auction. Malevich finished his masterpiece in the same year he published his Suprematist Manifesto. Included in every retrospective of the painter's oeuvre, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum restituted the well-documented geometric composition to Malevich's heirs this year after a half-century in The Netherlands. Danseuse au repos (ca. 1879) by French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834-1917) garnered $37,042,500 from a telephone bidder and set a record for any of the artist's works sold at auction. A sensitive pastel and gouache (watercolor) rendering of a seated ballerina, New York billionaire Henry Kravis purchased the Degas at a 1999 Sotheby's sale for some $28,000,000. The Wall Street financier is a major benefactor of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. His wife, Marie-Josée, currently presides over the Museum of Modern Art's board of trustees. Vampire (1894) by Norwegian Symbolist Edvard Munch (1863-1944), depicting a woman caressing the neck of her intended male victim, fetched a handsome $38,200,000 from an anonymous telephone buyer in the United States, making it the second most expensive purchase of the evening. The oil on canvas composition had previously been on display in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's second-floor galleries of 19th-century painting and sculpture and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Regretfully, a number of lots at Sotheby's went unsold despite the diligence of expert auctioneer Tobias Meyer. Works by Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Wassily Kandinsky, Amadeo Modligliani, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Vincent van Gogh were casualties of the event
Posted by Stan Parchin Italian Treasures from the Calabria Region at New York's Morgan Library & Museum (November 12-16, 2008) features 10 extraordinary works of art from southern Italy. The presentation is organized by the Italian Trade Commission and the Government of Regione Calabria, under the auspices of the Italian Ministry for Economic Development in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. The exhibition is divided into two sections: archaeological objects (ca. 550-350 B.C.) produced when Calabria was an important Greek colony and silver sacred works (ca. 1650-1700 A.D.) from when the region was part of the Kingdom of Naples. Posted by Stan Parchin New York's Center for Curatorial Leadership has selected 10 fellows for its class of 2009.
Posted by Stan Parchin Scheduled for a November 1, 2008 release by prestigious New York publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. is Walter Liedtke's Vermeer: The Complete Paintings. A world-renowned specialist in Dutch art from Holland's 17th-century Golden Age, Dr. Liedtke is a curator of European Painting at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The scholarly 208-page volume, color-illustrated, sheds refreshing light on the career and works of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). The painter of mysterious training, rescued from obscurity by later 19th-century academics, was greatly admired by astute modern collectors of Dutch Baroque works. Liedtke's current research demystfies the early history of Vermeer's career and his presumed isolated genius by placing more than 30 works, each firmly attributed to the master, squarely within the Delft school of painting. Liedtke's treatment of Vermeer's style, technique and iconography is well-balanced. The artist's supposed use of a camera obscura to produce the optical effects in his compositions is thoroughly addressed. At The Met, Walter Liedtke co-curated the highly controversial exhibition Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship (1995). He organized the critically acclaimed Vermeer and the Delft School (2001) and The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolian Museum of Art (2007-08). Source:
Posted by Stan Parchin The Kunsthal De Sint-Pietersabdij in Ghent, Belgium presents Flemish Tapestries at the Habsburg Courts of the Renaissance: From the Dukes of Burgundy to Philip II (November 21, 2008-March 29, 2009). The exhibition brings together 40 intricately woven 15th- and 16th-century textiles from the Patrimonio Nacional de Madrid, Spanish churches, European museums and private collections. Flemish weavers in Brussels, Oudenaarde, Mechelen, Bruges, Malines and Doornik produced splendid tapestries for the Burgundian, Spanish and Habsburg imperial courts. Many were designed by important painters of the Renaissance. Made of wool, silk, gold and silver thread, the sumtuous textiles decorated the walls of palaces, castles and ecclesiastical establishments. Indicative of the patron's social status, these "mobile frescoes" were historic, political, religious, mythological and allegorical in theme. Some of the works on display visual expressions of dynastic continuity, a concept important to the Habsburg rulers, among them Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556) and his son, Spain's King Philip II (r. 1556-1598). One highlight of the installation is a tapestry depicting an episode from Charles V's 1535 conquest of Tunis in North Africa, then under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Source:
Posted by Stan Parchin Switzerland's Basel Ancient Art Fair (November 7-12, 2008), the premiere event for dealers and collectors of Near Eastern, Egyptian and classical antiquities, celebrates | ||||||||||
