Displaying items by tag: Museums

This summer, fourteen monumental sculptures by Alexander Calder (1898-1976) are taking over the Rijksmuseum’s 'outdoor gallery' for the largest freely accessible outdoor exhibition of his work to date.

Calder (1898-1976) is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated inventors of modern sculpture. His cut-out and colorful abstract objects that move in the air or rest firmly on the ground can be found throughout the world, whether in museums or in gardens and public plazas, ranking him among the first and most prolific sculptors of large-scale outdoor works. This show of his monumental sculptures in the gardens of the Rijksmuseum creates a fascinating landscape of stately abstract forms.

Guest curator Alfred Pacquement, former director of Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou in Paris, has selected mobiles, stabiles, and standing mobiles by Calder from major museums and private collections.

This exhibition is the second in a series of annual international sculpture displays, which will be presented in the Rijksmuseum’s gardens over the next four years, made possible with funding from the BankGiro Loterij and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

In fall 2015, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts will present “Eugène Delacroix and Modernity,” the first major exhibition to explore the legacy of the celebrated French painter, an influential trailblazer and one of the first modern masters of the form. The exhibition takes Cézanne’s observation that “we all paint in Delacroix’s language” as its starting point to reveal how Delacroix revolutionized French painting for the next generation of artists, leaving an indelible mark on Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Degas, Monet, and others. The MIA is partnering with the National Gallery, London, for this unprecedented survey, featuring important works from the museums’ collections as well as rarely seen works from private collections. The exhibition opens at the MIA on October 18, 2015, and runs through January 10, 2016. It is on view at the National Gallery, London, February 10 through May 15, 2016.

By the time of his death, Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was one of the most revered artists in Paris and a hero of the avant-garde. By challenging the status quo by pushing the boundaries of the “Grand Style” of painting into the realm of modernism, he paved the way for younger artists. His large-scale paintings were the first to use the expressive, improvisational markmaking of the Impressionists, the dreamlike allusion of the Symbolists, and the bold colors of Morocco made famous 80 years later by Renoir and Matisse.

Since the discovery of a long-hidden trove of masterworks in Germany last year, advocates have sought to shine a spotlight on looted artworks hiding in plain sight.

In other words, those hanging on the walls of Europe’s great museums.

Enter France, known as the art attic of Europe before World War II and where tens of thousands of works were taken from Jewish families by the occupying Nazis. Today, more than 2,000 pieces returned to France after the war — including canvases by Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Max Ernst — remain in the custody of the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and other celebrated French institutions.

Museums throughout Illinois are expecting millions of dollars in grant money to pay for facility improvements and added exhibits.

Gov. Pat Quinn announced Saturday that 47 museums operated by local governments or cities will get $20 million in capital funds. The money comes from a five-year $31 billion capital construction program passed in 2009.

There are roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the United States, and about 14,000 McDonald's restaurants. But combined, the two chains don't come close to the number of museums in the U.S., which stands at a whopping 35,000.

So says the latest data release from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent government agency that tallies the number and type of museums in this country. By their count the 35,000 active museums represent a doubling from the number estimated in the 1990s.

‘Seurat: Master of pointillism’ opens this week at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands. We spoke to the curator, Toos van Kooten, to find out more about the exhibition and how it came about.

Can you tell us a bit about the exhibition?

Georges Seurat is known for his meticulously stippled paintings and his eerily illuminated black-and-white drawings. His oeuvre comprises some 50 paintings and about 200 drawings, which became highly sought-after following his untimely death. The Kröller-Müller Museum is the only museum in the world that has five paintings to its name, including the famous painting Le Chahut. This valuable collection, assembled by Mr and Mrs Kröller-Müller in the early 20th century, is the basis for an exhibition devoted entirely to this great painter, with the underlying question: what makes his work so special and so well loved?

The final group of paintings, drawings and sculptures bequeathed to museums by Paul Mellon before his death in 1999 have at last begun to arrive. Hidden away for decades, many are rarities that had never been seen by curators.

The group includes more than 200 works — examples by such artists as van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Monet and Seurat — that were only recently removed from the walls of the Mellons’ many homes, where they were enjoyed by his widow, Rachel Lambert Mellon, who died in March at 103.

The U.S. government is revising its count of the nation's museums, saying there is double the number of museums compared with a 1990s estimate.

The agency responsible for providing federal funding to museums issued a count Monday of 35,144 museums nationwide. That's compared to an estimate of 17,500 museums in the 1990s.

The Highland Street Foundation announced today its sixth annual “Free Fun Fridays” initiative, a summer program that opens doors at no cost to visitors to many of the most treasured cultural venues in Massachusetts. This year, 66 museums and cultural institutions will participate in the program, an increase from the 60 venues that participated in 2013. Beginning June 27^th through August 29^th, between five and seven venues will be open free-of-charge every Friday for 10 weeks this summer.

“Boston has a rich cultural and historical heritage, and programs like Highland Street Foundation’s ‘Free Fun Fridays’ provide every member of our community with access to the state’s top-tier art, history, music and culture,” said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, a strong advocate for youth summer programming. “With summer around the corner, I encourage the community to get out and experience the best our City has to offer, and ‘Free Fun Fridays’ is the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

The Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) announced today its annual Awards for Excellence in the categories of museum Catalogues, Articles/Essays, and Exhibitions. All AAMC members are eligible for nomination. The AAMC Prize Committee and member juror groups determine awards prior to the AAMC’s Annual Conference and Meeting in May. New to this year’s vetting process, the categories of Awards for Exhibitions and Catalogues were subdivided based on the operating budgets of the members’ museums.

"We were impressed by the quality and depth of the nominations,” says Judith Pineiro, Executive Director of the Association of Art Museum Curators, "It is wonderful that our new selection process allowed for celebrating the outstanding work of so many curators.”