Arts Summary

September 21, 2018

The Black Image Corporation, Project by Theaster Gates at Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, September 20, 2018 – January 14, 2019

“The project explores the fundamental legacy of Johnson Publishing Company archives, which feature more than 4 million images and have contributed to shape the aesthetic and cultural languages of the contemporary African American identity. Founded by John H. Johnson in 1942, his eponymous publishing company created two landmark publications for black American audiences: the monthly magazine Ebony and its weekly sister outlet Jet , whose publication was respectively initiated in 1945 and in 1951. Ebony and Jet were committed to both celebrating positive everyday events and depicting the complex realities black Americans faced in postwar USA. The magazines quickly became two of the major platforms for the representation and discussion of black culture, covering a broad range of events and personalities from historic milestones such as the March on Washington in 1963 and the first African-American astronaut to sports icons and show business celebrities. Their visual language reflected a mid-century modern aesthetic filtered through the lens of black life. This wide collection of images helps to illuminate the richness of African American professional codes, modes of dress, social structures, domestic lives and forms of beauty and glamour.

For Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Theaster Gates has conceived a coral and participatory exhibition focused on the works of two photographers: Moneta Sleet Jr. and Isaac Sutton. As stated by Gates, “for this show, I hope to tease out the creation of female iconic moments by Sleet and Sutton and also offer small forays into the lives of everyday people through never-before-seen images from the Johnson Collection. The archives speak about beauty and black female power. Today it seems to me a good time to dig into the visual lexicon of the American book and show images that are rarely seen outside of my community. I wanted to celebrate women of all kinds and especially black women”. — Fondazione Prada

All photos are from the exhibition “The Black Image Corporation” curated by Theaster Gates at Fondazione Prada Osservatorio in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan.

Theaster Gates. Photo by Ugo Dalla Porta.

Images courtesy Fondazione Prada.

September 20, 2018

Osvaldo Licini: Let Sheer Folly Sweep Me Away at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, September 22, 2018 – January 14, 2019

“The exhibition will commemorate the 60th anniversary of Osvaldo Licini’s death (1894–1958). In 1958 Licini exhibited 53 works, dating from 1925 to 1958, at the 29th Venice Biennale, in a gallery designed by Carlo Scarpa. Supported by Peggy Guggenheim’s friend and art critic, Giuseppe Marchiori, he was awarded the Grand Prix for Painting. Licini was a major figure in the development of Italian art in the first half of the 20th century. Following his early figurative works, Licini rejected realism and painted fully abstract works. The exhibition will comprise around 80 paintings that will exemplify Licini’s art, made of colors and signs that he viewed as expressions of energy, willpower, ideas, and magic.” — Peggy Guggenheim Collection

“He who seeks certainty rarely finds it.” — Osvaldo Licini

Osvaldo Licini. Amalassunta su fondo verde, 1949. Olio su tela, 79,5 × 99 cm. Collezione Gori-Fattoria di Celle, Pistoia. Photo Carlo Chiavacci, Pistoia © Osvaldo Licini, by SIAE 2018

Osvaldo Licini. L’uomo di neve, 1952. Olio su tela, 25.5 x 32.5 cm. Con cornice 47 x 55 x 7,5 cm. Collezione privata © Osvaldo Licini, by SIAE 2018

Osvaldo Licini: Let Sheer Folly Sweep Me Away is curated by Luca Massimo Barbero.

Images courtesy Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

September 19, 2018

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Brooklyn Museum, September 14, 2018 – February 3, 2019

“The Brooklyn Museum presents the critically acclaimed exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, an unprecedented look at a broad spectrum of work by African American artists from 1963 to 1983, one of the most politically, socially, and aesthetically revolutionary periods in American history. Soul of a Nation considers the varied ways that Black artists responded to the demands of an urgent moment and brings together for the first time the disparate and innovative practices of more than sixty artists from across the country, offering an unparalleled opportunity to see their significant works side by side. The Brooklyn Museum is the only East Coast venue for this exhibition, which was organized by Tate Modern in London and traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, in early 2018.

Soul of a Nation features more than 150 works of art in a sweeping aesthetic range, from figurative and abstract painting to assemblage, sculpture, photography, and performance. Among the influential artists of the time highlighted in the exhibition are Emma Amos, Frank Bowling, Sam Gilliam, Barkley Hendricks, Betye Saar, Alma Thomas, Jack Whitten, and William T. Williams. The Brooklyn presentation will also include several works by artist and scholar David Driskell, Suzanne Jackson’s Triplical Communications (1969), and a large-scale draped painting by Sam Gilliam titled Carousel Merge (1971). In addition, a monochromatic work by Emma Amos will be on view, as well as two large-scale paintings by British Guyana–born artist Frank Bowling and an abstract push-broom painting by Ed Clark from the late 1970s, which recently joined the Museum’s permanent collection.” — Brooklyn Museum

Photographs by Corrado Serra.

Installation view of section “New York: Revolutionary Images and Art World Activism”

Installation view of section “New York: Revolutionary Images and Art World Activism”

Installation view of section “New York: Revolutionary Images and Art World Activism”

Installation view of section “Los Angeles: Assemblage and Other Sculpture”

Installation view of section “Chicago: OBAC and AfriCOBRA”

Installation view of section “Chicago: OBAC and AfriCOBRA”

William T. Williams. Trane, 1969. The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Gift of Charles Cowles, New York

Installation view of section “Painting Abstraction and Figuration”

Installation view of section “Painting Abstraction and Figuration”

Installation view of section “Painting Abstraction and Figuration”

Center: Sam Gilliam. Carousel Change, 1970. The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection

Jack Whitten. Homage to Malcolm, 1970. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Installation view of section “Rethinking the Surface”

Installation view of section “Rethinking the Surface”

Installation view of section “Foregrounding Movement and Action”

Installation view of section “Making Space for Experimental Black Art: Just Above Midtown”

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power is organized by Tate Modern in collaboration with Brooklyn Museum and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, and curated by Mark Godfrey, Senior Curator, International Art, and Zoe Whitley, Curator, International Art, Tate Modern. The Brooklyn Museum presentation is curated by Ashley James, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum.

September 18, 2018

Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922 at Jewish Museum, September 14, 2018 – January 6, 2019

“I found myself in Vitebsk when the great celebrations of the October Revolution were over, but the city was still resplendent with Malevich’s designs—circles, squares, dots, and lines of different colors—and with Chagall’s flying people. I had the impression of being in an enchanted city, but in those days everything was wonderful, and everything was possible, and at that moment the people of Vitebsk had become Suprematists.” — Sofia Dymshits-Tolstaia, 1921

“This is the first major exhibition to explore a little-known chapter in the history of the Russian avant-garde: Marc Chagall’s encounter with the leading figures of abstraction, El (Lazar) Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich, at the time of the Russian Revolution. In 1917 Communist forces overthrew the autocratic Tzarist regime that had ruled Russia for more than four hundred years; a civil war followed, culminating in the establishment of the Soviet Union. This radical change in government kindled a passionate idealism among artists, who saw themselves as agents in the remaking of Russian society and culture.

In 1918 Chagall (1887–1985) conceived the People’s Art School in his native city of Vitebsk (today in Belarus). He was soon joined by Lissitzky (1890–1941) and Malevich (1879–1935), along with other teachers and students, many of them Jewish, including Lazar Khidekel and David Yakerson.

The three major figures sought, each in his distinctive fashion, to develop a leftist art in tune with the new revolutionary emphasis on collectivism, education, and innovation. Chagall remained mostly faithful to a figurative and allegorical style, in contrast to Malevich, whose recent invention, Suprematism, offered a radical form of geometric abstraction. Lissitzky, a trained architect, applied the concepts of Suprematism to his innovative Prouns—geometric compositions that he called ‘a transfer station on the way from painting to architecture.’

In this period of intense artistic and political ferment, history was made through art. Visionary creativity was nurtured in a city far from the cultural centers of Moscow and Petrograd. The five years following the 1917 Revolution transformed Vitebsk into the laboratory of a new world.” — Introductory Wall Text

El Lissitzky, Had Gadya Suite: Cover, 1919, lithograph on paper. The Jewish Museum, Gift of Leonard E. and Phyllis S. Greenberg, 1986-121a

El Lissitzky, Had Gadya Suite: The Fire Came and Burnt the Stick, 1919, lithograph on paper. The Jewish Museum, Gift of Leonard E. and Phyllis S. Greenberg, 1986-121g

Marc Chagall, Double Portrait with Wine Glass, 1917–18, oil on canvas. Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, gift of the artist, 1949. Artwork © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; image provided by CNAC/MNAM/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, New York

David Yakerson, Sketch for the Composition “Panel with the Figure of a Worker,” 1918, watercolor and ink on paper. Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local History. Photograph by Vorontsov

Marc Chagall, Onward, Onward, 1918, study for the first anniversary of the October Revolution, graphite and gouache on grid-lined paper. Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, donation in lieu of inheritance tax, 1988. Artwork © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; image provided by CNAC/MNAM/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, New York

Marc Chagall, Anywhere out of the World, 1915–19, oil on cardboard mounted on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan, extended Loan from the Bureau of Public Utilities, Gunma Prefectural Government. Artwork © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Marc Chagall, Self-Portrait with Easel, 1919, gouache on paper. Private Collection. Artwork © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Yuri (Yehuda) Pen, Portrait of Marc Chagall, 1914, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus. National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk

Marc Chagall, Cubist Landscape, 1919, oil, tempera, graphite, and plaster on canvas. Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, donation of Ida Chagall, 1984. Artwork © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; image provided by CNAC/MNAM/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, New York

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919–20/1965–80, offset print. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Image provided by the Library of Congress

El Lissitzky, Proun 6, 1919-20, oil on canvas. Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle (Saale), Germany. Photograph by Punctum/Bertram Kober

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism of the Spirit, 1919, oil on panel. Stedelijk Museum Collection, Amsterdam, on loan from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and Stichting Khardzhiev

Kazimir Malevich, Mystic Suprematism (Red Cross on Black Circle), 1920-22, oil on canvas. Stedelijk Museum Collection, Amsterdam. Ownership recognized by agreement with the estate of Kazimir Malevich, 2008

Vera Ermolaeva, design for the opera Victory Over the Sun, 1920, woodcut with watercolor additions. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Larry Aldrich Fund, 1977. Image provided by The Museum of Modern Art / licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, New York

Lazar Khidekel, Suprematist Composition with Blue Square, 1921, ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper. Lazar Khidekel Family Archives and Art Collection.

Ilya Chashnik, Suprematist Composition: Design for a Pictorial Relief, c. 1921, pen and ink, graphite, and watercolor on paper. Vladimir Tsarenkov Collection, London

Members of the Creative Committee of the People’s Art School, Vitebsk, winter 1919. Seated: Yuri (Yehuda) Pen (third from left), Marc Chagall (center), Vera Ermolaeva (second from right), Kazimir Malevich (right). Gelatin silver print. Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris

El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich, summer 1920. Private collection

UNOVIS Creative Committee, September 1921 Standing in back, left to right: Ilya Chashnik, Lazar Khidekel, and Kazimir Malevich Seated at the table, left to right: Lev Yudin, Vera Ermolaeva, Nikolai Suetin with the UNOVIS emblem on his cuff, and Nina Kogan Seated on the floor, left to right: N. Efros and Mikhail Veksler At right: Efim Royak doubled over and Ivan Chervinka by the easel Photo courtesy Lazar Khidekel Family Archives and Art Collection

Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922 is organized by the exhibition curator, Angela Lampe, Curator of Modern Art, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with Claudia J. Nahson, Morris & Eva Feld Curator, The Jewish Museum, for the New York presentation. The exhibition is designed by Leslie Gill Architect. The exhibition graphics are designed by Topos Graphics.

Images courtesy Jewish Museum.

September 17, 2018

The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art for a New India at Asia Society Museum, September 14, 2018 – January 20, 2019

“Your revolutionary spirit will bring you many troubles. But go on fighting. The future is always with those who struggle for self-expression and ideals.” — Dr. Herman Goetz of Baroda Museum to F.N. Souza, 1045

“Just over seven decades after the declaration of India’s independence in 1947 and the emergence of a modern art movement in India, Asia Society presents a landmark exhibition of more than 80 works by members of the Progressive Artists’ Group, which formed in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, in the aftermath of independence. The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art for a New India examines the founding ideology of the Progressives and explores the ways in which artists from different social, cultural, and religious backgrounds found common cause at a time of massive political and social upheaval.

Though the group disbanded in 1956, the ideas and discussions of its members continued to animate and give visual expression to India’s modern identity, with many of the Group’s artists creating their most iconic works after this period. Works in the exhibition—primarily oil paintings from the 1940s to 1990s—underscore how these artists gave visual form to the idea of India as secular, diverse, international, and united. Like their counterparts in the West, India’s modern masters mined multiple sources of inspiration including the subcontinent and Asia, as well as the wider world. They forged their own distinctive styles that were international in outlook while resonating with Indian sensibilities.” — Asia Society Museum

M.F. Husain. Untitled, 1940s. Oil on canvas. H. 38 xW. 34 3/4 in. (96.5 x 88.3 cm). Pundole Family Collection. Courtesy of the lender

Krishen Khanna. News of Gandhiji’s Death, 1948. Oil on canvas. H. 33 1/2 x W. 33 1/2 in. (85.1 x 85.1 cm).  Radhika Chopra and Rajan Anandan

M. F. Husain.  Yatra, 1955.  Oil on canvas.  H. 33 1/2 x W. 42 1/2 in. (85.1 x 108 cm). Collection Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

F. N. Souza. Standing Nude, 1957. Oil on board. H. 48 1/16 x W. 24 in. (121.1 x 61 cm). Private collection

F. N. Souza. Untitled, 1962. Oil on canvas. H. 63 x W. 41 in. (160 x 104.1 cm). Blanca and Sunil Hirani Asian Art Collection

S. H. Raza. Haut de Cagnes, 1951. Gouache on paper. H. 27 x W. 28 1/2 in. (68.6 x 72.4 cm). The Darashaw Collection

V.S. Gaitonde. Untitled, 1953. Oil on board. H. 7 1/2 x W. 7 3/4 in. (19.1 x 19.7 cm). Private collection. Courtesy of the lender

Krishen Khanna.  The Game 1, early 1980s. Oil pastel on paper. H. 17 x W. 24 in. (43.2 x 61 cm). Dhoomimal Gallery. Image courtesy of Grosvenor Gallery

M. F. Husain. Peasant Couple, 1950. Oil on canvas. H. 47 1/2 x W. 36 1/2 in. (120.7 x 92.7 cm). Peabody Essex Museum, Gift of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection, 2003. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. Photography by Walter Silver

S. H. Raza.  Satpura, 1984.  Acrylic on canvas. H. 47 x W. 94 in. (119.4 x 238.8 cm) . Minal and Dinesh Vazirani

Tyeb Mehta. Mahisasura, 1997. Acrylic on canvas. H. 59 x W. 48 in. (149.9 x 121.9 cm). Rajiv and Payal Chaudhri

Progressive Artists Group, 1949

“The works in this exhibition reflect the diversity of Asian modernities, which are not a mirror of the Euro-American experience,” says Boon Hui Tan. “Art was also a way for the Progressive Artists’ Group to validate and celebrate a new secular republic that emerged from a rich, multi-religious tradition in ways that remain relevant today. Asia Society is pleased to present the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of the Progressives undertaken in the United States in recent decades.”

“The Progressives’ Artist Group have come to be seen as the ‘quintessential Indian Moderns,’” notes Zehra Jumabhoy. “They came from all walks of life: rich, poor, Dalits, Muslims, Brahmins, Roman Catholics. They genuinely embodied Indian Prime Minister Nehru’s dream of unity in diversity and his version of an ‘Indian secularism’ that was multi-religious and inclusive. Given the political climate in both India and the U.S. today, I think this principle of tolerance – part and parcel of the Group’s DNA – is vital to rekindle.”

The exhibition is organized by guest curator Dr. Zehra Jumabhoy, Associate Lecturer, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London and Boon Hui Tan, Vice President for Global Arts and Cultural Programs and Director of Asia Society Museum in New York.

Images courtesy Asia Society Museum.

September 16, 2018

Ingmar Bergman: A Tribute in Film at Scandinavia House, September 26 – October 13, 2018

“On the centenary of Ingmar Bergman’s birth, Scandinavia House presents a tribute to the late artist with screenings of seven films organized by Laurence Kardish (former Senior Curator of Film, MoMA), beginning with a special event with Liv Ullmann, the celebrated actress, director, and partner of Bergman. On September 26, Ullmann joins us to introduce a screening of Bergman’s final film Saraband (2003), the sequel to the iconic Scenes From a Marriage (1974), which returns to Marianne (Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) 30 years after their divorce. After the film Ullmann will discuss the life and works of the filmmaker with Kardish. The series continues with a series of six classic Bergman titles that not only cemented his reputation in America, but contributed to the establishment of an art house cinema in the U.S.

The screenings include the erotic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night /Sommarnattens leende (September 28); art-house favorite Wild Strawberries /Smultronstället (October 3); The Magician/Ansiktet (October 5); and Academy Award-winners The Virgin Spring/Jungrukällan (October 10) and Through a Glass Darkly/Sasom I en spegel (October 12). The series will close with a screening of Persona (October 13), the first of Ullman’s many films with Bergman and one that inspired later works by Kubrick and Altman. On October 6, we will also present the new documentary Ingmar Bergman Through the Choreographer’s Eye, which presents works by four Swedish choreographers interpreting Bergman through dance, in collaboration with performers from the Royal Swedish Ballet.” — Scandinavia House

Saraband. Photo by Bengt Wanselius. Courtesy SPC

Smiles of a Summer Night. Courtesy Janus Films

Wild Strawberries. Courtesy Janus Films

The Magician. Courtesy Janus Films

The Magician. Courtesy Janus Films

The Virgin Spring. Courtesy Janus Films

Through the Glass Darkly. Courtesy Janus Films

Persona. Courtesy Janus Films

Persona. Courtesy Janus Films

Images courtesy Scandinavia House.

September 14, 2018

Delacroix at The Met Fifth Avenue, September 17, 2018 – January 6, 2019

“French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was one of the greatest creative figures of the 19th century. Through his choice of daring subjects and compositions, a vibrant palette, and bold brushwork, he set into motion a cascade of innovations that changed the course of art. As Van Gogh wrote in 1885: ‘What I find so fine about Delacroix is precisely that he reveals the liveliness of things, and the expression and the movement, that he is utterly beyond the paint.’ Although Delacroix is celebrated as the embodiment of the Romantic era, much remains to be understood about his life and prolific career. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Delacroix is the first comprehensive retrospective in North America devoted to the artist. Visitors will discover a protean genius who continues to set the bar for artists today.

Encompassing 12 galleries, the exhibition will provide a largely chronological overview of the three main phases of Delacroix’s four-decade career. The first phase centers on his formative years, from 1822 to 1834, dominated by a thirst for novelty, fame, and freedom. The second focuses on 1835 to 1855, marked by his exploration of historical themes informed by large mural commissions, as well as his triumph at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. The third and final phase follows Delacroix’s growing interest in nature and the creative role of memory, up until his death in 1863.” — The Met

“If by Romanticism one means the free manifestation of my personal impressions, my aversion to the models copied in the schools, and my loathing for academic formulas, I must confess that not only am I Romantic, but I was so at the age of fifteen.” — Delacroix

The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan, 1826. Oil on canvas. 23 1/2 × 28 7/8 in. (59.6 × 73.4 cm). The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Bertha Palmer Thorne, Rose Movius Palmer, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Wood, and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Palmer (1962.966). Photo credit: The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY

Combat of the Giaour and Hassan, 1835. Oil on canvas. 29 1/8 × 23 5/8 in. (74 × 60 cm). Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. © Petit Palais / Roger-Viollet

Collision of Arab Horsemen, 1833/34. Oil on canvas. 31 11/16 × 39 9/16 in. (80.5 × 100.5 cm). Private collection

Young Tiger Playing with Its Mother, 1830. Oil on canvas. 130 x 195 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux

Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, 1834. Oil on canvas. 70 7/8 × 90 3/16 in. (180 × 229 cm). Musée du Louvre, Paris © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Franck Raux

Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard, 1835. Oil on canvas. 39 × 31 11/16 in. (99 × 80.5 cm). Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Photo: Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

Self-Portrait with Green Vest, ca. 1837. Oil on canvas, 25 9/16 x 21 7/16 in. (65 x 54.5 cm). Musée du Louvre, Paris. © RMN– Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado

Medea About to Kill Her Children (Medee furieuse), 1838. Oil on canvas. 8 ft. 6 3/8 in. x 64 15/16 in. (206 x 165 cm.) Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Stéphane Maréchalle

The Shipwreck of Don Juan. 1840. Oil on canvas. 53 1/8 × 77 3/16 in. (135 × 196 cm). Photo: Gerard Blot. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Gift of Adolphe Moreau, 1883. © RMN

The Abduction of Rebecca, 1846. Oil on canvas. 39 1/2 x 32 1/4 in. (100.3 x 81.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1903 (03.30). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Juan Trujillo

Basket of Flowers, 1848–1849. Oil on canvas. 42 1/4 x 56 in. (107.3 x 142.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876– 1967), 1967 (67.187.60). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Apollo Victorious over the Serpent Python, sketch, ca. 1850. Oil on canvas. 54 1/8 × 40 3/16 in. (137.5 × 102 cm). Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels. © Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB), Brussels

The Sea at Dieppe, 1852. Oil on cardboard, laid down on wood. 13 3/4 × 20 1/16 in. (35 × 51 cm). Musée du Louvre, Paris, Bequest of Marcel Beurdeley, 1979. © Musée du Louvre, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Philippe Fuzeau / Art Resource, NY

Delacroix is organized by Asher Miller, Associate Curator in the Department of European Paintings at The Met, in collaboration with Sébastien Allard, Director of the Department of Paintings at the Musée du Louvre, and Côme Fabre, Curator in the Department of Paintings at the Musée du Louvre.

Images courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

September 13, 2018

The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, September 13, 2018 – January 20, 2019

“As the only celestial body whose surface can be seen with the naked eye from earth, the moon has fascinated artists and writers for centuries. Its round white disc has been an open projection surface for myths, imaginings and dreams. When we look out into space, we also see ourselves – and the moon, as absolute otherness, becomes a mirror of the human. Here science and folklore, fiction and technology, existential searching and the urge towards economic expansion all meet. The Moon – From Inner Worlds to Outer Space is an exhibition that mixes the images of art with material from cultural and natural history to emphasize the quest for knowledge and awareness that art shares with other cultural spheres. Through six thematic sections the exhibition shows how changes in the modern Western imagination colour our images of the moon.

At once remote and within reach, the moon is our gateway to a larger universe. It is only a few days’ journey away, so close that the patterns on its surface have preoccupied moonwatchers all over the world. But at the same time it points to the vast infinity that opens up in the darkness behind it: the cosmos, which fundamentally exceed the comprehension of humanity. Perhaps for that reason, the moon remains one of the great basic motifs of our culture. On the one hand it is a symbol of Romantic yearning; on the other it is a natural first stop for space missions. The moon is both – an important icon, where outer space and inner worlds meet.

Louisiana’s exhibition leads up to the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, Apollo 11, in 1969, and the moon landing will be one of the focuses of the exhibition, as a provisional culmination of the deeply rooted cultural conceptions that were invested in the space race. The moon landing was not only a techno-logical breakthrough; it was a spectacular and thoroughly aestheticized event that was transmitted and distributed globally in images – and was both anticipated and interpreted in the visual art and the broader visual culture of the 1960s.” — Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Carl Julius Leypold. Cemetery Entrance, 1832. Oil on canvas. Germanishes Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg. Loan by the city of Nürnberg. Photo: Fotoabteilung GNM

Scientific Moon model prepared by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt and Thomas Dickert, Germany, 1898. Photo: Field Museum Library / Getty Images

Still from/ Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune / Voyage to the Moon (movie), 1902. 14 min. ©Lobster-Fondation Groupmama Gan-Fondation Technicolor

Fritz Lang. Frau im Mond / Woman in the Moon, 1929. Photo: Horst von Harbou / Deutsche Kinemathek

Salvador Dalí. Girl with Curls, 1926. Oil on panel, 50,8 x 40 cm. Collection of The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL © Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation / VISDA 2018

Salvador Dalí. Big Thumb, Beach, Moon and Decaying Bird, 1928. Oil, sand and gravel om panel, 50,2 x 91 cm. Collection of The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL © Salvador Dali / VISDA 2018

Man Ray. Le Monde, 1931. Verden Fotogravure, 26 x 20,5 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase © MAN RAY TRUST/ADAGP, Paris, 2018/ VISDA

Joseph Cornell. Untitled (Solar Set), c. 1956-58. Collection of Robert Lehrman, Courtesy of Aimee and Robert Lehrman © The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation / VISDA 2018. Photo: Quicksilver Photographers, LLC

Max Ernst. Naissance d’une galaxie / Birth of a Galaxy, 1969. Oil on canvas, 92.0 x 73.0 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Beyeler Collection © Max Ernst / VISDA 2018. Photo : Robert Bayer

Darren Almond. Fullmoon@Yesnaby, 2007. C-print, 127,5 x 127,5 cm. Courtesy the Artist and White Cube

Katie Paterson. Light Bulb to Simulate Moonlight, 2008. 289 frosted colored halogen lightbulbs (28W, 4500K), logbook, and crate, Dims vary with installation. Installation view Matthew Bown Gallerie, Berlin, 2010. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo: Martin John Callanan

QAMAR: LUNA’S WANDERER, 2014. 3D printed on a Stratasys Objet500™ Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Production System. Materials: VeroClear, VeroYellow, Vero Magenta, 50 x 40 x 40 cm. Design by Neri Oxman in collaboration Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb and Joe Hicklin, in partnership with STRATASYS Ltd.

The exhibition was organized by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek and will be shown subsequently at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo. It was put together by curator at Louisiana, Marie Laurberg, who in recent years has engaged in in-depth research on the significance of the moon for art and culture from Romanticism to contemporary art.

Images courtesy Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

September 12, 2018

Past Present Future: Building Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), September 7, 2018 – March 17, 2019.

“The New Orleans Museum of Art announced the largest and most significant single gift of photographs in the institution’s history, a promised bequest of over 1,300 photographs from the private collection of Tina Freeman. Over the past forty years, Freeman, former curator of photographs at NOMA (1977-1982), noted photographer, and longtime supporter of the museum, has brought together a comprehensive collection of 350 photographers dating from the 1840s to today, ranging from works by photography pioneers Hill & Adamson, to vintage prints by Eugene Atget, Richard Avedon, Ilse Bing, Margaret Bourke-White, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Sally Mann, Irving Penn, Alfred Stieglitz, Doris Ullman, William Wegman, and Edward Weston. This promised gift also marks the occasion of the centennial of NOMA’s first photography exhibition and the Tricentennial of the city of New Orleans. A selection of 23 works from Freeman’s promised gift are featured in the exhibition Past Present Future: Building Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art.” — NOMA

Charles A. Zimmerman (American, 1844-1909). Minne-Ha-Ha, Winter, ca. 1867. Albumen silver print. Gift of Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Auguste Salzmann (French, 1824-1872). Jérusalem. Enceinte du Temple. Vue générale de la face Sud 2, 1856. Salted paper print. Gift of Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Charles Job (British, 1853-1930). Pier, 1912. Gum bichromate print. Gift of Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Barnard Shea. Horne Design, c. 1916. Platinum print. Museum purchase, Tina Freeman Photography Fund 2018.12

Ilse Bing (American, born Germany, 1899-1998). St. Christophe – Trees Silhouettes, 1932. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815-1879). Julia Jackson from “Mrs. Cameron’s Photographs from the Life”. Album of albumen silver prints. Gift of Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam 2017.204.8.10

Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904–1971). Chrysler Corporation, 1932. Gelatin silver print. Promised bequest of Tina Freeman

Sutezo Otono. Untitled, c. 1930. Gelatin silver print. Museum Purchase with funds provided by George and Milly Denegre 2016.52

Ralston Crawford. Nets, Black Wall, Croix-de-vie, 1957. Gelatin silver print. Gift of John Crawford 2017.257.2.2

Joel Levinson. Fractions, 1979. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Mark Levinson 2017.256.13

David Levinthal. Untitled, (from the series Space), 1988. Dye diffusion transfer color print. Gift of an Anonymous Donor 2017.231.20

“Tina Freeman began collecting in the early 1970s, at a time when many museums were not yet paying attention to photography,” said Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs at NOMA. “As a result of her prescient decision, her collection includes many priceless masterworks no longer available to museums and collectors today.”

Images courtesy New Orleans Museum of Art.

September 10, 2018

Liliana Porter: Other Situations at El Museo del Barrio, September 13, 2018 – January 27, 2019

“Liliana Porter: Other Situations is a non-linear survey of Porter’s work from 1973 to 2018, which explores the conflicting boundaries between reality and fiction, and the ways in which images are circulated and consumed. The exhibition highlights the fundamental distinction that Porter creates between the notions of ‘narrative’ and ‘situation’ in contrast to the structures implicit in most stories that suggest a relationship with time, and in which the artist is not interested. In her work, the past and future of an action becomes irrelevant in light of the urgency and absurdity of the problems faced by the figures portrayed. Sometimes paired in conversation or arranged in larger groups, Porter’s characters – a pantheon of cultural figures such as Elvis Presley, Che Guevara, Jesus, Mickey Mouse and Benito Juárez – evokes questions about representation, image dissemination and public life, and are particularly relevant in present times, when the fields of politics, spectacle and celebrity culture collide and merge. Among the significant pieces included in the exhibition are Porter’s 1970s photographs alluding to space and the body, and more recent works like the Forced Labor series, in which the artist utilizes miniature figurines to make a statement about reality, labor and self-awareness.” — El Museo del Barrio

The Square V, 1973. Courtesy of Liliana Porter

Disguise Dog Dog, 2007. Courtesy of Liliana Porter

Joan of Arc, Che, Elvis, 2011. Courtesy of Liliana Porter

Porter Memorabilia, 2016. Courtesy of Liliana Porter

To fix it three thirty, 2016. Courtesy of Liliana Porter

Lilana Porter, “Other Situations”, SCAD Museum of Art, Summer 2017. Photograph by Dylan Wilson. Courtesy of SCAD Museum of Art

Liliana Porter, SCAD Museum of Art, Summer 2017. Photograph by Dylan Wilson. Courtesy of SCAD Museum of Art

“Humans are drawn to art that tells us new and surprising stories, illuminating us and our world in ways we don’t expect, which is exactly what Liliana Porter does in Other Situations, said SCAD president and founder Paula Wallace. “As SCAD shares its Porter exhibition with the esteemed El Museo del Barrio, new audiences of all ages have the opportunity to be transported, and transformed by her work.”

Liliana Porter: Other Situations is organized by SCAD Museum of Art and curated by Humberto Moro, SCAD Curator of Exhibitions.

September 8, 2018

Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow at New-York Historical Society, September 7, 2018 – March 3, 2019

Photographs by Corrado Serra.

“The New-York Historical Society announced a new initiative to dedicate renovated, prime rotating gallery space to the topics of freedom, equality, and civil rights in America. Launching in fall 2018 with the inaugural exhibition Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow, the galleries will primarily explore the long struggle of African Americans for full rights as citizens, including the right to be accepted and to feel safe, with future exhibitions widening the lens to include other historically marginalized groups.

Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow examines the meaning of citizenship for African Americans following the abolition of slavery through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era. Opening to mark the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the exhibition is organized chronologically from the end of the Civil War to the end of World War I and highlights the central role played by African Americans in advocating for their rights. It also examines the depth and breadth of opposition to black advancement, including how Jim Crow permeated the North. Art, artifacts, photographs, and media illustrate these transformative decades in American history and their continuing relevance today.” — New-York Historical Society

“At a time of great urgency for public understanding of the nation’s founding principles of freedom and equality—and in the context of the long struggle of Americans, in particular African Americans, to ensure that these principles apply to all—the New-York Historical Society aims to educate the public about the roots of contemporary civil and equal rights movements in the Constitution and its Amendments over time,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of New-York Historical. “Establishing these dedicated spaces throughout the museum builds on our long and sustained record of exhibitions and programs around the history of America’s diversity, ranging from our acclaimed exhibition Slavery in New York (2005) to more recent shows exploring the Latino, Asian American, and Jewish American experiences. Above all, this landmark initiative responds to our deep conviction that telling the story of American history is important, but that it is inadequately known, taught, and understood today.”

Curated by Dr. Marci Reaven, New-York Historical’s vice president of history exhibitions, and Lily Wong, assistant curator, Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow is developed in collaboration with New-York Historical Trustee Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Reconstruction-era scholar Dr. Eric Foner. The exhibition benefitted from collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and includes objects from the NMAAHC collection.

September 7, 2018

Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963-2017 at The Met Breuer, September 6 – December 2, 2018

Photographs by Corrado Serra.

“Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963–2017 presents the extraordinary and previously unknown sculptures of acclaimed American artist Jack Whitten (1939–2018), who has long been celebrated for his work as an innovative abstract painter. Featuring 40 sculptures and 18 of his most notable paintings, Odyssey will be the first exhibition in New York City to span the entirety of Whitten’s career and the first time in 36 years that Whitten has enjoyed a monographic exhibition at a New York City museum. Ultimately, Odyssey will not only rewrite the history of a canonical artist whose oeuvre has yet to be fully explored; it will also showcase an exciting, alternative to mainstream modernism and expand our understanding of the aesthetic vocabularies favored by artists in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.” — The Met

Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963–2017 is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Baltimore Museum of Art. It is curated by Kelly Baum, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Curator of Contemporary Art in The Met’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Katy Siegel, Senior Programming and Research Curator at The Baltimore Museum of Art and Thaw Chair in Modern American Art at Stony Brook University. The Met’s presentation is assisted by Meredith Brown, Research Associate in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art.

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