Displaying items by tag: Museum

49 paintings from the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, TN are now on view at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, NE. Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color focuses on Paris’ emergence as the hub of the art world during the 19^th century and its role in shaping the Impressionist movement in France.

Between 1853 and 1870, under the command of Napoleon III, Paris was transformed from a quaint city to one of grandeur. Narrow streets and crowded houses were demolished in favor of striking boulevards, lush public gardens, and modern buildings. While the population and prosperity of the city soared, artists flocked to Paris to be inspired and thrive, ultimately defining the city’s modern era. Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre Auguste Renoir (1885-1952), and Edgar Degas (1834-1917) all nurtured their artistic visions in Paris during this period. In 1874, the artists held an independent exhibition, which led to their classification by critics as Impressionists. The plein air technique and unblended painterly style of Impressionism eventually influenced future generations of avant-garde artists include Neo-Impressionists, Fauves and Cubists.

The museum’s founders, Hugo and Margaret Dixon, formed the institution’s magnificent collection of French paintings themselves. John Reward, a leading scholar of Impressionism, advised the couple. Renoir to Chagall offers the finest works from their holdings and is on view at the Joselyn Art Museum through September 1, 2013. Admission to the museum and exhibition is free.

Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History is currently on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. The exhibition presents the most comprehensive collection of Winslow Homer’s (1836-1910) works assembled by a single person since the American landscape painter’s death and one of the finest collections in any museum in the U.S. The first complete catalogue of the Clark’s Homer collection, which was authored by Marc Simpson, the show’s curator and a renowned Homer scholar, complements the exhibition.

Sterling Clark began collecting artworks by Homer in 1915 while living in Paris. He maintained a steady fascination with the artist throughout his collecting career, which eventually led to Clark’s acquisition of more than 250 works by Homer dating from 1857 to 1904. Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History will feature Clark’s entire collection including 60 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings, 120 rarely seen wood engravings, and a selection of loaned works.

Highlights from the exhibition include Undertow (1886) along with six preparatory drawings for the painting, the well-known painting Two Guides (1877), and a selection of watercolors that are rarely shown.

Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History will be on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute of Art through September 8, 2013.

A California couple has gifted the Minneapolis Institute of Arts a collection of Japanese Art worth $25 million. The gift is one of the largest in the museum’s history and includes around 1,700 objects such as paintings, sculptures, ceramics, woodblock prints, and bamboo baskets and spans more than 1,000 years. Together with a pending bequest of 500 Japanese objects from a New York-based collector, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts will become one of the most comprehensive venues for viewing Japanese Art.

The donors, Libby and Bill Clark, have been acquainted with the museum’s director, Kaywin Feldman, since the mid-1990s when she ran an art museum in Fresno, CA. The Clarks had set up a small museum and study center devoted to Japanese art at their home in central California. Bill Clark’s love of Japanese culture was sparked during tours of Japan while serving in the U.S. Navy. He began collecting seriously in the 1970s and launched the nonprofit Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in 1995. The Clarks often loaned works from their collection to art museums and helped organize traveling exhibitions. In addition to the Clarks’ gift, the MIA is purchasing other works from their collection using $5 million from a special endowment for art purchases.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has been devoted to showcasing Japanese Art since it opened in 1915. Currently, 15 galleries are devoted to its collection of 50,000 Japanese art objects. The exhibition, The Audacious Eye, will present a portion of the Clarks’ gift and will be on view from October 6, 2013 to January 12, 2014.

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) filed papers in federal court this week arguing that a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), which was found in a Virginia flea market in 2012, legally belonged to the institution. On the Shore of the Seine (1879) a small landscape painting, had been stolen while it was on view as part of an exhibit at the museum in 1951. A Virginia woman later purchased the work from the flea market for $7, allegedly unaware of the work’s distinguished provenance.

The documents filed on Tuesday, June 4, 2013 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, claim that no one except the BMA can legally own the Renoir because it belonged to the institution before it was stolen. The buyer of On the Shore of the Seine, Martha Fuqua, has filed her own court papers stating that she deserves to hold on to the painting because she was unaware that the Renoir had been stolen and was subject to FBI forfeiture when she acquired it. Suspicions have surrounded Fuqua’s claim, as her mother is a painter who specializes in reproducing artworks and three friends of Fuqua have come forward saying that they remembered seeing the painting in her home and studio.

After the museum reported On the Shore of the Seine stolen, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. paid the institution a $2,500 claim. The company has assured the BMA that it will return the painting to the museum if a judge determines that they are the rightful owners.

Officials at the Louvre in Paris unveiled a new lighting system for Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452-1519) Mona Lisa. The masterpiece, which is the most visited artwork in the museum, now boasts LED bulbs in a new system by Toshiba. The company has a multi-year agreement with the Louvre and will gradually update all of the museum’s lighting.

Mona Lisa’s new lighting system can be adjusted to highlight the painting’s natural colors. It also minimizes ultraviolet and infrared rays, which can make the work appear faded. Curators at the Louvre worked alongside Toshiba to reach the ideal lighting.

Toshiba has completed updating the lighting in the Louvre’s I.M. Pei-designed outdoor pyramid and a portion of the ceiling lighting has been redone. The company is currently working on the lighting in the museum’s Napoleon Hall.

San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) broke ground on its highly anticipated expansion on Wednesday, May 29, 2013. Around 300 supporters gathered to witness the kick-off of the construction project that will add 225,000-square-feet to the museum. The renovated space is expected to reopen in 2016.

 Snøhetta, an international architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design firm based in Oslo, Norway and New York City, designed SFMOMA’s expansion, which is expected to cost around $610 million. 89% of the capital has already been collected through fundraising. Officials upped their original estimate for construction from $555 million in May.

 SFMOMA’s expansion will more than double the existing exhibition space and provide nearly six times as much public space as their currently Mario Botta-designed building. The renovation will create a new outdoor terrace, a sculpture terrace, and state-of-the-art conservation studios. The museum will also take a more environmentally sensitive approach to day-to-day operations. SFMOMA hopes to gain LEED Gold certification by reducing their energy costs, water use, and wastewater generation.

The Whitney Museum of American Art has unveiled a new logo, which will replace its thirteen-year-old all-capital letter design. The new logo features a thinly drawn, slanted “W” known as the “responsive W” as the letter shifts in size and shape depending on where it appears and which artwork its accenting.

The revamped logo is part of the museum’s overhaul, which includes a major relocation from uptown to downtown Manhattan. The new Renzo Piano-design building is expected to open in 2015. The Whitney’s new location will include an 18,000-square-foot gallery, which will be the largest column-free exhibition space in New York City.

Experimental Jetset of Amsterdam, a small, independent, Amsterdam-based graphic design studio, designed the museum’s new logo.

The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY has revealed the final design of its North Wing expansion, which is expected to open to the public in late 2014. The addition was designed by New York-based architecture firm Thomas Phifer and Partners and will add 26,000-square-feet to the museum. The project will create a new gallery for contemporary glass art and a 500-seat glassmaking demonstration venue in Steuben Glass’ former factory ventilator building, which is next door to the museum.

The contemporary art gallery will be in the minimalist style and feature large exterior glass panels that will allow sunlight to flood into the galleries, which will include massive curvilinear concrete walls. A state-of-the art light-filtering system will be used to adjust the natural sunlight to create ideal lighting for viewing the art. The new gallery will be the largest space dedicated to the presentation of contemporary glass art in the world.    

The Corning Museum of Glass, which opened in 1951, is the world’s leading art museum dedicated to the presentation, display and interpretation of glass and glassmaking. Since its inception, the museum has made a point of incorporating glass into its architecture. Karol Wright, the executive director of the museum, said, ‘Thomas Phifer’s design for the North Wing gallery marks a dramatic new chapter in the rich history of modern and contemporary glass architecture on our campus.” The project, which will cost $64 million to bring to completion, is being full-funded by the museum’s major benefactor, Corning Incorporated.

Richard Koshalek, the director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., announced his resignation on May 23, 2013 after three years with the institution. Koshalek’s decision was prompted by the Hirshhorn’s board of trustees’ failure to reach a consensus in regards to a plan to cover the museum’s courtyard with a temporary inflatable bubble, which has been continually stalled.

Koshalek made the announcement during a board meeting, which was centered on the bubble project. During the meeting, the 15 board members were unable to agree whether or not to continue fundraising for the project. Officials said that the bubble will remain under consideration even after Koshalek’s departure.

If created, the bubble would connect the inside and outside of the Hirshhorn and create additional space for installations and performances. Designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the bubble is expected to cost over $12.5 million to create and install. Fundraising efforts have brought in about $7.8 million to date.

In a last-ditch effort to help revive Detroit’s dismal economy, emergency manager Kevyn Orr has asked for an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) collection. While nothing has been finalized, Orr is considering whether the museum’s multi-billion dollar collection could be considered an asset to Detroit that could potentially be sold to help cover the city’s $15 billion debt.

Orr’s inquiry sparked an immediate reaction and DIA has hired bankruptcy lawyer Richard Levin of Cravath, Swaine & Moore to advise it in troubling situations and to protect the collection from any possible losses. Orr’s spokesman, Bill Nowling, assured the public that the appraisal is not a sign that they will be selling off the collection, an act that would surely be controversial, complicated, and mired by opposition. DIA is a unique public museum as Detroit retains ownership of its building and collection while a separate nonprofit institution manages its day-to-day operations.

While Nowling is adamant that Orr is not considering selling DIA’s collection, he did say that he would consider the museum’s holdings as assets of the city, especially as Detroit might be filing for bankruptcy. DIA’s collection includes major works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Many of these masterpieces were donated by the city’s finest collectors, some of who have put restrictions on the works stipulating what DIA or the city can do with the works. If Orr does decide to sell works from DIA’s collection, it will undoubtedly prohibit the institution from receiving future donations and support.