Displaying items by tag: permanent exhibition

"That coat has been round the world. That's when I actually started to make some money!" Pierre Cardin says, stopping in front of a flared, red design among the first exhibits at his new museum in Paris. 

One of the last survivors of the great post-war French fashion houses, Cardin, at 92, still heads a sprawling business empire.

"Back then I hadn't yet become Pierre Cardin. I hadn't found my voice," he says, in uncharacteristically reflective mood.

The avant-garde designer, known for his geometric shapes, dresses decorated with circular and rectangular motifs and  astronaut's headgear, has always tended to look forward rather than backward. But he is making an exception today.

The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Museum and Hermitage Amsterdam are teaming up to present a permanent exhibition of 30 large-scale paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. The Rijksmuseum, which houses the the most comprehensive collection of Dutch Old Masters, and the Amsterdam Museum will supply the paintings while the Hermitage will provide an expansive gallery where the works will be hung.

The show will mark the first time that these larger-than-life, 17th century paintings have been exhibited together. Since some of the canvases measure over 25 feet, transporting them will be a challenge. Officials are planning on moving them into the Hermitage through holes they will make in the roof.

The selection of paintings to be exhibited has not been finalized, but the museums have described the works as being in the same class as Rembrandt’s monumental ‘The Night Watch.’ Officials also divulged that works by Nicolaes Eliasz and Adriaen Backer will be included in the exhibition. The museums hope to have the permanent exhibition mounted by the end of November.

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, MO will reunite two portraits that have been separated for 100 year. The paintings of Lewis Allen Dickens Crenshaw and his wife, Fanny Smith Crenshaw, are by the lauded 19^th century Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham.

Bingham, a pioneer of the Luminist style, painted the portraits late in his life. Mrs. Crenshaw’s portrait has been in the museum’s collection since 1990 after being donated by the couple’s late daughter. Mr. Crenshaw’s portrait remains in the family and is on loan to the museum through Rachael Cozad Fine Art, a Kansas City-based gallery.

The Crenshaws portraits will be hung side by side as part of a permanent “exhibition” highlighting the Springfield Museum’s collection. Other featured artists include Grant Wood, Charles Sheeler and Thomas Hart Benton.

Exhibition areas in three Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. will close on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 due to substantial budget cuts known as federal sequestration. Parts of the National Museum of African Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Smithsonian Castle will be closed through September 30, 2013.

The closures are part of a sweeping $42 million budget cut that began March 1, 2013 and will last through the end of the fiscal year. The diminished security budget is the main reason officials decided to shut down certain parts of the Smithsonian. Cuts to travel and building maintenance as well as a hiring freeze were announced when the sequestration first went into effect. Smithsonian officials claim that no major exhibition areas will be affected by the closures.

The Smithsonian Castle will close the Commons, a room that features objects from around the Smithsonian; the National Museum of African Art will shutter a section of its permanent exhibition, African Mosaic; and the Hirshhorn Museum will close various sections of its third floor galleries, which house its permanent collection.