Displaying items by tag: cleveland museum of art

Not many works merit an entire gallery to themselves.

That’s an honor the Norton Museum of Art has bestowed on Vincent van Gogh’s The Poplars at Saint-Remy, the only occupant of a gallery on the third floor of the Nessel Wing.

The work, property of The Cleveland Museum of Art, is one of two major paintings on loan from other institutions in exchange for loans of important paintings from the Norton’s collection. The other is Edgar Degas’ Portrait of Mlle. Hortense Valpincon, which belongs to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Eli Wilner & Company recently completed the restoration of an important period frame for the Cleveland Museum of Art. Curator Mark Cole approached Wilner with images of the period frame on Gilbert Stuart’s Portrait of Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason, circa 1803-1805. The Wilner team identified the frame as an English or early American “Carlo Maratta” style frame, with an acanthus leaf-and-shield ornament applied in a simple cove. This frame style was popular in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was determined that the frame was both appropriate to the painting and likely to be the original, as the museum’s records indicated that the frame had been with the painting for at least a century. Having established the quality and importance of the frame, it was decided that extensive restoration would be appropriate.

A music professor has identified a new portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. The 500-year-old engraving, if verified, will be only the third known portrait of the Renaissance Master created during his lifetime.

The engraving was created by Marcantonio Raimondi in 1505, and has resided at the Cleveland Museum of Art since the 1930s, but the figure in in the 500-year-old image, which can be seen playing an instrument called the lira da braccio, was long thought to depict the Greek mythological figure of Orpheus, a prophet and musician.

The Cleveland Museum of Art announced it is returning its sculpture of a Hindu god to Cambodia.

The sculpture of Hanuman has belonged to the museum since 1982. But in 2013, museum officials learned the statue was likely part of a temple complex called Prasat Chen.

The Cleveland Museum of Art sent experts to Cambodia and recently found evidence the 10th-century sculpture was at the temple’s gate.

The Cleveland Museum of Art has boosted its smallish but choice pre-Columbian collection significantly by acquiring a dozen rare and important gold objects of a type that once lured Spanish conquistadors to the New World.

Bought in March in a private sale arranged by Sotheby's in New York for an undisclosed price, the gold pieces will go on view at the museum in a special exhibition starting Saturday May 16. The museum plans to install them in the pre-Columbian galleries by August, after making room by adjusting space in display cases.

The Morgan Library & Museum, which has been without a leader since late last summer, looked West to bring back a longtime New Yorker as its new director, choosing Colin B. Bailey, who has served since 2013 as director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco but was for many years before that the chief curator at the Frick Collection.

Mr. Bailey, a well-regarded Renoir scholar, succeeds William M. Griswold, who left last year to take over the Cleveland Museum of Art. Mr. Bailey comes to the Morgan almost a decade after an expansion, designed by Renzo Piano, enlarged not only the museum’s floor plan but also its ambitions, moving it more actively into contemporary art, collaborations with other institutions and high-end acquisitions.

A $1 million gift from the Swagelok Foundation and the Fred A. Lennon Charitable Trust has brought the Cleveland Museum of Art's $320 million capital campaign within hailing distance of $300 million.

The museum this week announced the gift from the foundation and trust established by industrialist Fred A. Lennon, founder of Solon-based Swagelok Co.

"It's wonderful," said museum director William Griswold, who noted that the gift would be counted toward the nearly than $11.8 million raised in response to a $19 million challenge gift for the capital campaign announced recently by the museum and Dealer Tire CEO Scott Mueller.

The Cleveland Museum of Art announced a $19 million campaign challenge gift from trustee and Dealer Tire CEO Scott Mueller, which nearly completes the institution's decade-long capital fundraising effort. When combined with Mueller's initial campaign commitment of $1 million, three $1 million restricted gifts, and his annual contributions, at more than $23 million, he ranks among the top donors in the museum's history.  

"Mr. Mueller's historic commitment represents the capstone of our capital campaign. We are simply in awe of his generosity and believe that these gifts further establish his standing among Cleveland's storied philanthropists," said Cleveland Museum of Art director William Griswold. "Mr. Mueller's giving has impacted so many dimensions of the museum's work and reinforces everything we're trying to accomplish."

The Cleveland Museum of Art is about to go over a minor cliff in terms of special exhibitions.

"Forbidden Games," the big fall show on Surrealist photography, comes down Jan. 11. The exhibition on the Toussaint L'Ouverture series of Jacob Lawrence ends Sunday. And the museum's exploration of Frederic Edwin Church's "Twilight in the Wilderness" and his love of Maine closes Jan. 25.

Never fear. The museum is bridging the impending gap in exhibitions with two fresh offerings in its photography and video galleries.

Recent additions of artwork representing medieval Europe, the Ancient Americas, 20th-century photography, and contemporary art further enhance the Cleveland Museum of Art’s permanent collection. World-renowned for its quality and breadth, the collection represents almost 45,000 objects and 6,000 years of achievement in the arts.

The latest acquisitions include a Virgin and Child, a rare 13th-century wooden sculpture from the Mosan region of Europe; a Standing Female Figure, a clay figure representative of the Classic Veracruz period on Mexico’s Gulf Coast; and Just the two of us, one of contemporary artist Julia Wachtel’s first paintings to employ cartoons. The museum also announced the addition of eight photographs by Ansel Adams, a gift from Frances P. Taft, a longtime museum supporter and trustee.