Displaying items by tag: illustrated books

A rare early portrait by Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), a self-portrait by Jan Miense Molenaer (1610–1668), a groundbreaking work by Arshile Gorky (1904–1948), and a remarkable photograph of Alice and Lorina Liddell by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), better known as Lewis Carroll, are among works recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Three rare illustrated books and a portfolio, all highlighting aspects of the New World, were donated by Harry W. Havemeyer in memory of his father, Horace Havemeyer. Harry W. Havemeyer also pledged an extraordinary collection of 117 early American views and historical prints assembled by him and his father, in whose memory the pledge was made.

In 1855, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, student friends at Oxford, decided to abandon their theological studies and become artists. They turned for guidance to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a leader of the recently disbanded Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-1853), a group that galvanized British painting by rejecting academic convention and sought to emulate the vividness and sincerity of art from before the time of Raphael.

The creative dialogue between Burne-Jones, Morris, and Rossetti was remarkable for its intensity, productivity, and duration, and stimulated fresh goals and styles that defined the second wave of Pre-Raphaelite art, in the key decades from the 1860s through the 1890s.

This fall, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will present a monumental exhibition devoted to Henri Matisse’s cut-outs. Late in his career, Matisse developed his cut-out technique, which involved cutting organic shapes out of painted sheets of paper and arranging them into lively compositions on his studio’s walls. The process gave Matisse a renewed sense of freedom and he lauded the technique for its immediacy and simplicity, which he believed helped him express his artistic urgencies more completely.

“Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs” will be the largest and most extensive presentation of these unique works. The exhibition will present approximately 100 cut-outs -- borrowed from public and private collections around the world -- alongside a selection of related drawings, prints, illustrated books, stained glass, and textiles.

MoMA’s own Matisse cut-out, “The Swimming Pool,” recently underwent a multi-year conservation effort and will serve as a centerpiece of the exhibition. The cut-out, which was composed specifically for Matisse’s dining room in his apartment in France, was acquired by MoMA in 1975 and has been off view for over 20 years.

“Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs” will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art from October 25, 2014 through February 8, 2015.

Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925 opened on December 23 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and celebrates the bold art movement that swept across mediums and continents during the first half of the twentieth century. Severing ties with the realistic, practical images that dominated western art, abstraction infiltrated everything from sculpture and painting to poetry, music, and film.

Inventing Abstraction brings together over 350 works including paintings, stained glass, needlepoint, film, sculpture, and illustrated books. Organized by Leah Dickerman, a curator in MoMA’s painting and sculpture department, and Masha Chlenova, a curatorial assistant, the show includes many pieces that are on loan from outside museums.

Inventing Abstraction features works by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), and many others. While extremely comprehensive, the exhibition draws connections between artists and illustrates the development of abstraction over time.