January 16, 2019

AES+F Reimagine Giacomo Puccini’s Opera Turandot at Teatro Massimo, Palermo, January 19 – 27, 2019 and at Teatro Comunale, Bologna, May 2019

The Russian multidisciplinary artist collective AES+F, together with Italian director Fabio Cherstich, have conceptualized a bold new reimagining of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot. In Turandot , AES+F’s visual language is transposed to the vocabulary of theater, with the artists creating an innovative stage design, including large-scale video installations, and costumes. With Cherstich, AES+F have reimagined the setting of Turandot as a globalized future, refusing all stereotypical ethnic characterizations in costumes and makeup, and hinting at a hybrid and diverse future society.

This new and thoroughly revolutionary interpretation of Turandot  is set in the year 2070 in Beijing, a futuristic metropolis with biomorphic architecture within an artificial landscape. Heading a renewed, gigantic, and multiethnic Chinese empire, Princess Turandot has imposed a radical techno-matriarchy upon society. The masses are a vulnerable and confused society, trained by those in power to tolerate violence; their public displays of adoration for the princess border on idolatry and mass hallucination. In the story’s time setting, our present time is the past. Turandot’s trauma hence stems from our current time.

“I believe my task, as a director is to help the audience travel in time. In doing so I had the luck of working with AES+F, an artists’ collective whose radically contemporary, non-conformist visions helped break through some stereotypes in my understanding of what opera can be”, commented Cherstich.

Stills from HD video Turandot by AES+F.

Turandot is co-produced by the Teatro Massimo, Palermo and Lakhta Center, Saint Petersburg, with Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, and Teatro Comunale, Bologna.

Concept by Fabio Cherstich and AES+F. Conductor: Gabriele Ferro. Director: Fabio Cherstich. Set, video and costume design: AES+F.

Images courtesy AFS+F.

January 15, 2019

Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art at New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), through August 31, 2019

“The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art. Working with natural elements like earth, wind, water and fire, the artists featured in the group exhibition show how nature can spur artistic innovation and spark new thinking about human culture and community. Drawn predominantly from NOMA’s permanent collection, Ear to the Ground features works by 18 artists across vastly different media, cultures and time periods which each reference earth and element in very different ways.

Artists featured in Ear to the Ground include Dan Alley, Lynda Benglis, Diedrick Brackens, Edward Burtynsky, Chandra McCormick, Clyde Connell, Dawn DeDeaux, Courtney Egan, Olafur Eliasson, Jorge Otero Escobar, Mikhail Karikis, Ronald Lockett, Sara Madandar, Cristina Molina, Jennifer Odem, Bosco Sodi, Pat Steir, and Christopher Wilmarth. While some make materials like dirt and mud their primary medium, some turn to nature as a collaborator or conspirator in the creation of their art, casting sculptures directly upon the ground, or dying textiles with water drawn from rivers and oceans. Other featured artists reference natural processes like weathering, disintegration and sedimentation to address current social and political issues ranging from climate change to questions surrounding immigration and cultural belonging.” — NOMA

Dan Alley, Delta, 2014, Poured Aluminum, 50 x 156 inches, Collection of the Artist © Dan Alley Studio

Sara Madandar, Something Lost, 2015 Canvas and spray paint, 64 x 46 inches, Collection of the Artist © Sara Madandar

Bosco Sodi, Muro, 2017, Fired clay, 25 clay timbers, 4 z 19 ½ x 4 inches (each), New Orleans Museum of Art, Gift of the Artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery, 2017.226.1-25 © Studio Bosco Sodi, Donation courtesy the Artist and Kasmin Gallery

Ronald Lockett, Drought, 1994, Found tin, pencil and nails on wood, 48 ½ x 51 ½ inches, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum Purchase and Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017.172 ©Ronald Lockett

Jorge Otero Escobar, Stampede, 2014, Digital print, 53 ¼ x 35 ½ inches, Collection of David Borde ©Jorge Otero Escobar

Jennifer Odem, Earth Mound, 2006, Plaster, soil and brass pressure valve, 60 x 36 x 36 inches, Collection of the artist, ©Jennifer Odem

Diedrick Brackens, Study for Wading Still (Bend, Bow, Pull), 2018, Cotton dyed with Mississippi River water, Collection of the Artist ©Diedrick Brackens

Olafur Eliasson, The Hinged View, 2017, Steel, glass and paint, 59 x 106 3/8 x 29 ½ inches, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum Purchase with funds provided by Sydney and Walda Besthoff, 2017.23 ©Courtesy of the Artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Mikhail Karikis, Children of Unquiet, 2015, Single channel video with directional speakers, Collection of the Artist ©2014 Mikhail Karikis

Cristina Molina, Under Three Things, 2018-19 Performance and digital print Collection of the Artist

 “Using earth both as a material and an inspiration, the artists in this exhibition treat nature as a metaphor for the complexities of contemporary cultural life,” said Susan Taylor, NOMA’s Montine McDaniel Freeman Director. “Their art envisions new ways we might relate to the natural world, as well as to one another.” 

Installation photo by Roman Blokhin.

Images courtesy New Orleans Museum of Art.

January 14, 2019

C C Land Exhibition. Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory at Tate Modern, January 23 – May 6, 2019

“Tate Modern will stage the UK’s first major Pierre Bonnard exhibition in 20 years, showing the work of this innovative and much-loved French painter in a new light. The exhibition will bring together around 100 of his greatest works from museums and private collections around the world. It will reveal how Bonnard’s intense colours and modern compositions transformed painting in the first half of the 20th century, and will celebrate his unparalleled ability to capture fleeting moments, memories and emotions on canvas. Spanning four decades from the emergence of Bonnard’s unique style in 1912 to his death in 1947, Tate Modern’s exhibition will show how the artist constructed his vibrant landscapes and intimate domestic scenes from memory. At once sensuous and melancholy, these paintings express moments lost in time – the view from a window, a stolen look at a lover, or an empty room at the end of a meal.” — Tate Modern

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
. Window Open on the Seine (Vernon) (Fenêtre ouverte sur la Seine (Vernon)), 1911-12. Oil paint on canvas, 780 x 1055 mm. (c) Ville de Nice Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret. Photo Muriel ANSSENS

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
Dining Room in the Country, 1913. 
Oil on canvas, 
1645 x 2057 mm. 
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
Coffee (Le Café), 1915. Oil paint on canvas, 730 x 1064 mm. Tate

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
L’Ete (Summer), 1917. Oil on canvas, 2600 x 3400 mm. Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Saint-Paul- France

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
Nude Crouching in the Tub, 1918. 
Oil paint on canvas, 
830 x 730 mm. Paris, musée d’Orsay
Photo © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Patrice Schmidt

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
Nude in the Bath (Nu dans le bain), 1936-8. 
Oil paint on canvas, 
930 x 1470 mm
. Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris/ Roger-Viollet

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
Nude in an Interior, c. 1935. 
Oil paint on canvas, 
1340 x 692 mm
. National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
The Studio with Mimosas, 1939-46. 
Oil paint on canvas, 
1275 x 1275 mm. 
Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou
Photo (C) Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). 
Self Portrait, c.1938. 
Oil paint on canvas, 
560 x 685 mm. 
Private Collection

Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory is curated at Tate Modern by Matthew Gale, Head of Displays, with Helen O’Malley and Juliette Rizzi, Assistant Curators. The exhibition is organised by Tate Modern in collaboration with Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen and Kunstforum Wien.

Images courtesy Tate Modern.

January 9, 2019

Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts at The Museum of Modern Art through February 18, 2019 and at MoMA PS1 through February 25, 2019

“The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 present the first comprehensive retrospective in 25 years devoted to the work of American artist Bruce Nauman (b. 1941). Co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts  draws upon the rich holdings of both institutions and nearly 70 lenders. Encompassing Nauman’s full career and featuring a total of 165 works, the exhibition occupies the Museum’s entire sixth floor and the whole of MoMA PS1. This joint presentation provides an opportunity to experience Nauman’s command of a wide range of mediums, from drawing, printmaking, photography, and sculpture to neon, performance, film and video, and architecturally scaled environments.” — MoMA 

“Few artists are able to sustain this level of relentless invention over a 50-year career,” said lead curator Kathy Halbreich. “Nauman has spent half a century devising new forms to convey both the moral hazards and the thrill of being alive. His work has continuously explored how spatial and psychological tensions—provoked by shifting perceptions of time, sound, language, and movement—structure human experience. Nuanced ethical questions are often masked as stark dichotomies, and perceptual tricks unsettle the ways we see ourselves. At a time when the notion of truth feels increasingly under attack, Nauman compels viewers to relinquish the safety of the familiar, keeping us alert, ever vigilant, and wary of being seduced by easy answers.”

Installation views, Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (October 21, 2018–February 25, 2019, at MoMA and MoMA PS1). © 2018 Bruce Nauman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital images © 2018 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photos: Martin Seck

The exhibition is organized by Kathy Halbreich, Laurenz Foundation Curator and Advisor to the Director, The Museum of Modern Art; with Heidi Naef, Chief Curator, and Isabel Friedli, Curator, Schaulager Basel; and Magnus Schaefer, Assistant Curator, and Taylor Walsh, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art.

Images courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.

January 8, 2019

Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment at Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), February 2 – May 5, 2019

“The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) presents an exhibition of more than 100 works by American artists from the 18th-century through present day that explores evolving ideas about the environment and our place within it. Nation’s Nation: American Art and Environment features major paintings, photographs, works on paper, and sculpture drawn from museum and private collections around the country by artists such as Ansel Adams, John James Audubon, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, Dorothea Lange, Kent Monkman (Cree), Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob August Riis, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish-Kootenai), and Andrew Wyeth. This is the first exhibition to examine how American and Native American artists reflect and shape our understanding of the environment, from deeply held perspectives of interconnected ties to the universe to colonial beliefs that imagines nature as a hierarchy of species with men at the top, and also the modern emergence of ecological ethics.

The exhibition opens with a bold, contemporary work, Repellent Fence/Valla Repelente, by an Indigenous artist collective Postcommodity. In 2015, the collective installed 26 tethered balloons along a two-mile route crossing the United States-Mexico border. Each balloon, 10 feet in diameter and floating 50 feet high, looked out on the setting through its “scare eye,” a graphic intended to repel wildlife from property. From this aerial perspective, the “scare eye” is redeployed to “see” land, communities, and ecosystems connected as a unified whole, not divided by artificial, man-made borders and boundaries between cultures and land.” — Peabody Essex Museum

Albert Bierstadt, American, 1830–1902, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, ca. 1871–73. Oil on canvas. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest) and various donors, by exchange.

Valerie Hegarty, American, born 1967, Fallen Bierstadt, 2007. Foamcore, paint, paper, glue, gel medium, canvas, wire, wood. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Campari, USA 2008. © Valerie Hegarty.

Tlingit artist, Chilkat blanket, before 1832. Mountain goat wool and cedar bark. Gift of Captain Robert Bennet Forbes, 1832. © 2010 Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Walter Silver.

Robert Rauschenberg, American, 1925–2008, Earth Day, 1970. Color lithograph with collage. Gift of the Friends of the Princeton University Art Museum. © Estate of Robert Rauschenberg/licensed by VAGA, New York.

David Gilmour Blythe, American, 1815 – 1865, Prospecting/Bullcreek City, ca. 1861–63. Oil on canvas. Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Bequest of Richard M. Scaife.

Mateo Romero, Cochiti Pueblo, b.1966, In and Around These Mountains, 1999. Oil, paper, canvas. Donated by the Margie and James Krebs Fund, 1999. © Peabody Essex Museum.

Subhankar Banerjee, Indian, active in United States, born 1967, Caribou Migration I (Oil and the Caribou, Coleen River Valley), 2002. Digital chromogenic print. Collection Lannan Foundation. © Subhankar Banerjee.

Alexandre Hogue, American, 1898 – 1994, Crucified Land, 1939. Oil on canvas. Gift of Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, 1955 Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa Oklahoma. © Estate of Alexandre Hogue.

Thomas Cole, American, 1801–1848, A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (C rawford Notch), 1839. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Fund.

Robert Smithson, American, 1938–1973, Bingham Copper Mining Pit, Utah Reclamation Project, 1973. Wax pencil and tape on plastic overlay on photograph. Seibert Family Collection. Art © Holt/Smithson Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Georgia O’Keeffe, American, 1887–1986, The Lawrence Tree, 1929. Oil on canvas. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Allen Phillips/Wadsworth Atheneum.

Postcommodity, Repellent Fence/ Valla Repelente, 2015. Installation view at U.S./Mexico Border, Douglas, Arizona/Agua Pieta, Sonora, 2015. © Postcommodity. Photo by Michael Lundgren. Courtesy of Postcommodity and Bockley Gallery.

Winslow Homer, American, 1836–1910, A Huntsman and Dogs, 1891. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The William L. Elkins Collection, 1924.

Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment has been organized by the Princeton University Art Museum. The exhibition is co-curated by Karl Kusserow, John Wilmerding Curator of American Art at the Princeton University Art Museum, and Alan C. Braddock, Ralph H. Wark Associate Professor of Art History and American Studies at William & Mary.

Images courtesy Peabody Essex Museum.

January 7, 2019

Caleb Teicher & Co with Conrad Tao: More Forever at Guggenheim’s Works & Process

Works & Process at the Guggenheim presented the world premiere of Caleb Teicher & Co with Conrad Tao: More Forever. On a stage covered by a thin layer of sand, dancers explored American dance traditions such as vernacular jazz, tap, and Lindy Hop, set to Tao’s new contemporary score for piano and electronics. This is Caleb Teicher & Company and Conrad Tao’s first evening-length work.

Caleb Teicher is an acclaimed NYC based dancer and choreographer specializing in American dance traditions. He seeks to expand the capacity of America’s rich music and dance traditions through innovative choreography, performance, and contextualization. He founded Caleb Teicher & Company (CT&Co) in 2015. Lincoln Center emerging artist Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer, performing to universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

All photos: Jan. 6, 2019, New York, NY, The Guggenheim’s Works and Process. Caleb Teicher & Co. with Conrad Tao: More Forever. Photographer & Post-production: Robert Altman

Images courtesy of Robert Altman / Works & Process at the Guggenheim.

January 5, 2019

Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents Choreography of Light by Brandon Stirling Baker, January 18 and 20, 2019 at 7:30pm

“Explore the past, present, and future of lighting for ballet with visual artist and Boston Ballet lighting director Brandon Stirling Baker. A frequent collaborator with choreographer Justin Peck and a diverse group of artists including Anthony Roth Costanzo, Benjamin Millepied, Sufjan Stevens, Jamar Roberts, Michelle Dorrance, Emery LeCrone, and Shepard Fairey, Baker will present the world premiere developed through the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. Inspired by the close relationship between choreography and lighting design, this program will features an excerpt of brand-new choreography by Justin Peck for an upcoming Houston Ballet premiere performed by Chun Wei Chan, Harper Watter, and Jessica Collado; along with new music by Sufjan Stevens; and new choreography by Jamar Roberts performed by Patricia Delgado, Sarah Daley, and Taylor Stanley.” —  Guggenheim Museum

The discussion will be moderated by New York Times dance writer Marina Harss.

All images: Patricia Delgado in The Choreography of Light by Brandon Stirling Baker. Photos by Erin Baiano.

Images courtesy Guggenheim Museum.

December 28, 2018

Victory over the Sun: Russian Avant-Garde and Beyond at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, December 28, 2018 – June 10, 2019

“The first comprehensive exhibition on the subject in Israel The Russian Avant-Garde and Beyond will explore avant-garde trends in Russian art during the 20th century, focusing on the emergence of the art movements that accompanied the historical and political upheavals in the country. Beginning with Kazimir Malevich’s radical revolution in art prior to the year 1920, the exhibition will emphasize his Suprematist period and its significant influence on generations of prominent artists up to the present day. This will be followed by an exploration of Nonconformist Art that emerged after Stalin’s death, presenting artists such as Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Michail Grobman and Vitali Komar & Alexander Melamid, among others, who opposed official Socialist Realism and created art unofficially from the 1960s through the 1980s. The exhibition’s epilogue will address the legacy of each of these movements in the works of contemporary artists, such as Pavel Pepperstein and Vadim Zakharov, highlighting the continuity of the avant-garde tradition. Complementing the exhibition will be an ‘archive’ that will include major examples of the Russian avant-garde book, as well as letters, invitations, photographs, and other ephemera.” — The Israel Museum

Kazimir Malevich, Russian, 1879–1935. Funerarian, costume design for the opera Victory over the Sun by M. Matyushin and A. Kruchenykh, 1st Futurist Theater, St. Petersburg, 1913. Graphite and watercolor on paper, 27 x 21.1 cm. St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Photo © The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

Kazimir Malevich, Russian, 1879–1935. Bully, costume design for the opera Victory over the Sun by M. Matyushin and A. Kruchenykh, 1st Futurist Theater, St. Petersburg, 1913. Graphite and watercolor on paper, 26.7 x 21 cm. St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Photo © The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

Kazimir Malevich, Russian, 1879–1935. New Person, costume design for the opera Victory over the Sun by M. Matyushin and A. Kruchenykh, 1st Futurist Theater, St. Petersburg, 1913. Graphite, watercolor, and ink on paper, 27 x 21 cm. St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Photo © The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

Kazimir Malevich, Russian, 1879–1935. Many and One, costume design for the opera Victory over the Sun by M. Matyushin and A. Kruchenykh, 1st Futurist Theater, St. Petersburg, 1913. Graphite, watercolor, and india ink on paper, 27.1 x 22.1 cm St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Photo © The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

Kazimir Malevich, Russian, 1879–1935.Set design for the opera Victory over the Sun by M. Matyushin and A. Kruchenykh, 1st Futurist Theater, St. Petersburg, 1913, 1st Doing, 3rd Scene. Graphite on paper, 17.7 x 22.2 cm. St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Photo © The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

Kazimir Malevich, Russian, 1879–1935. Set design for the opera Victory over the Sun by M. Matyushin and A. Kruchenykh, 1st Futurist Theater, St. Petersburg, 1913, 2nd Doing [Act], 5th Scene. Graphite on paper, 21.5 x 27.5 cm. St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Photo © The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

Pavel Pepperstein, born USSR 1966, active USSR/Russia. El Lissitzky’s Autostrada in the Alps in 2401, 2017.  Watercolor on paper, 50 x 70 cm. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Purchase, Ruth and Joseph Bromberg Fund and Barbara and Eugene Schwartz Contemporary Art Acquisition Endowment Fund. B18.0551 © Pavel Pepperstein. Photo courtesy of Nahodka Arts, London, by Nataliya Tazbash

Pavel Pepperstein, born USSR 1966, active USSR/Russia. Communist spared station “Jupiter” in the Year 3017, 2017. Watercolor on paper, 50 x 70 cm. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Purchase, Ruth and Joseph Bromberg Fund and Barbara and Eugene Schwartz Contemporary Art Acquisition Endowment Fund. B18.0552 © Pavel Pepperstein. Photo courtesy of Nahodka Arts, London, by Nataliya Tazbash

Pavel Pepperstein, born USSR 1966, active USSR/Russia. The way of Communication in the Year 5781, 2017.  Watercolor on paper, 50 x 70 cm. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Purchase, Ruth and Joseph Bromberg Fund and Barbara and Eugene Schwartz Contemporary Art Acquisition Endowment Fund. B18.0553 © Pavel Pepperstein. Photo courtesy of Nahodka Arts, London, by Nataliya Tazbash

Zoya Cherkassky, born USSR 1976, active Israel. “This (is the bread of affliction . . .)” from Aachen Passover Haggadah, 2001–2. Fifty pages, ink, gouache, and watercolor on paper, 28 x 41 cm each. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Purchased with the support of ARTVISION Acquisitions Committee, Israel. B04.0906 © Zoya Cherkassky. Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Elie Posner

Zoya Cherkassky, born USSR 1976, active Israel. “Blood” from Aachen Passover Haggadah, 2001–2. Fifty pages, ink, gouache, and watercolor on paper, 28 x 41 cm each. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Purchased with the support of ARTVISION Acquisitions Committee, Israel. B04.0906 © Zoya Cherkassky. Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Elie Posner

El Lissitzky, born Russia, active Russia/USSR and Germany, 1890–1941. Study for “Here it ended, further” in Of Two Squares: A Suprematist Tale in Six Constructions, 1920. Gouache and graphite on paper, 22.9 x 18.4 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy of the collector

Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid Komar, born USSR 1943, Melamid born USSR 1945, active USSR and Israel, today active USA. Double Self-Portrait, from the “Sots Art” series, 1972. Oil on canvas laid on board, Diam. 92 cm.  Collection of David and Kathryn Birnbaum © Komar & Melamid. Photo by Naomi van der Lande

Erik Bulatov, born USSR 1933, active USSR and USA, today active France. Red Horizon, 1971–72. Oil on canvas, 140 x 180 cm. Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery (MAGMA) Erik Bulatov © ADAGP, Paris, 2018. Photo courtesy of Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery

Vadim Zakharov, born USSR 1959, active USSR and Germany. The History of Russian Art from the Russian Avant-Garde to the Moscow Conceptual School, 2003. Mixed media, 360 x 605 x 390 cm.  Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main © Vadim Zakharov. Photo by Axel Schneider, Frankfurt am Main

The exhibition includes works from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Center Pompidou in Paris, The Michail Grobman collection in Tel Aviv and other important collections.

The Russian Avant-Garde and Beyond is curated by Tanya Sirakovich, Michael Bromberg Head Curator, Ruth and Joseph Bromberg Department of Prints and Drawings.

Images courtesy The Israel Museum.

December 17, 2018

Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, December 15, 2018 – March 31, 2019

“Long admired for her skillfully detailed renderings of natural imagery, Vija Celmins has created paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints for more than five decades. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents the global debut of Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory, the first North American retrospective of the artist’s work in more than 25 years. 

Featuring nearly 150 works, the exhibition spans the breadth of Celmins’s career, from the 1960s to the present. Organized in loose chronological order by subject—including studio objects, disaster works, oceanscapes, lunar drawings, desert floors, night skies and spider webs—it presents a wide variety of media, including paintings, drawings in graphite and charcoal and sculptures.

Celmins began her career in Los Angeles, where she became one of the rare 1960s female artists to be recognized by her male peers and develop significant standing. In the early 1980s, she moved to New York, and is one of few figures to have been embraced by the art communities on both coasts. A singular artist, Celmins has never adhered to one particular artistic style, nor aligned herself with a movement or any particular group. The artist’s work reflects an extraordinary attention to materials and technique, and possesses a remarkable level of detail and subtlety. It is anchored in a reappraisal of images and memory.” — SFMOMA

Vija Celmins, Envelope, 1964; oil on canvas; private collection; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Heater, 1964; oil on canvas; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, purchase with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Pencil, 1968–70; wood, canvas, and acrylic paint; Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, House #2, 1965; wood, cardboard, and oil paint; private collection; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Letter, 1968; collage and graphite on acrylic ground on paper; collection of the artist; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Clouds, 1968; graphite on paper; private collection; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Untitled (Ocean), 1977; graphite on acrylic ground on paper; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, bequest of Alfred M. Esberg; © Vija Celmins; photo: Don Ross, courtesy the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Vija Celmins, To Fix the Image in Memory I–XI, 1977–82; eleven stones and eleven made objects (bronze and acrylic paint); The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift of Edward R. Broida in honor of David and Renee McKee; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Blackboard Tableau #1, 2007–10; three found tablets and seven made objects (wood, acrylic paint, alkyd oil, pastel, string, paper, and graphite); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through the bequest of Elise S. Haas; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins, Japanese Book, 2007–8; oil on canvas; private collection; © Vija Celmins; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins in her studio, 2018; photo: Eric McNatt, courtesy the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

 “For more than 50 years, Celmins has sustained an extraordinary career, pursuing a unique vision using familiar subjects as a foundation for an intensive studio practice and exquisite, intimate compositions,” said Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA and lead exhibition curator. “This exhibition is an exciting culmination of more than 10 years working closely with the artist.” 

Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory is co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is co-curated by Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA, and Ian Alteveer, Aaron I. Fleischman Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Met, with Nancy Lim, assistant curator of painting and sculpture, SFMOMA, and Meredith A. Brown, research associate, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Met.

Images courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

December 16, 2018

Kevin Beasley: A view of a landscape at Whitney Museum of American Art, December 15, 2018 – March 10, 2019

“Kevin Beasley (b. 1985, Lynchburg, VA) engages with the legacy of the American South through a new installation that centers on a cotton gin motor from Maplesville, Alabama. In operation from 1940 to 1973, the motor powered the gins that separated cotton seeds from fiber. Here, the New York-based artist uses it to generate sound as if it were a musical instrument, creating space for visual and aural contemplation. Through the use of customized microphones, soundproofing, and audio hardware, the installation divorces the physical motor from the noises it produces, enabling visitors to experience sight and sound as distinct. As an immersive experience, the work serves as a meditation on history, land, race, and labor. This is Beasley’s first solo exhibition at a New York museum, and his most ambitious work to date.” — Whitney Museum

“The cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, increased the number of slaves by over 70%, deepening the trauma for Black folks in America. As the invention evolved and emancipation was declared, Black people have been working to reconcile our relationship to class, labor, race, and human rights within the structure of laws,” said Kevin Beasley.” For me, this exhibition embodies a continued reconciliation that can extend to the broader public. Are we reflecting on this history collectively? And are we taking the necessary steps to generate a fresh approach and change to systemic issues that persist today?” 

Photographs by Corrado Serra. 

A view of a landscape. A cotton gin motor, 2012-18. Collection of the artist. Courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York

A view of a landscape. A cotton gin motor (detail)

A view of a landscape. A cotton gin motor (detail)

Left: The Reunion, 2018. Right: Campus, 2018. Collection of the artist. Courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York

Left: Campus, 2018. Right: The Acquisition, 2018. Collection of the artist. Courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York

Left: Campus, 2018. Right: The Acquisition, 2018. Collection of the artist. Courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York

The Acquisition, 2018. Collection of the artist. Courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York

The Acquisition (detail), 2018

Kevin Beasley in the Whitney Museum, 2018. The Reunion (detail) in the background

“Kevin has been dreaming about this project for over seven years,” says Christopher Y. Lew, the Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, who organized the exhibition. “It’s an honor to help realize his most ambitious work to date at the Whitney. The work is truly of epic proportions. It re-animates an object that gives voice to the deep and recent pasts as well as our contemporary moment.”

Kevin Beasley: A view of a landscape is part of the Whitney’s emerging artists program. It is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, with Ambika Trasi, curatorial assistant.

December 16, 2018

The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, December 14, 2018 – March 31, 2019

“Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum presents ‘The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility’ featuring 40 projects that explore salient topics around the future of mobility and the urban environment. The exhibition is punctuated with six provocations and a selection of design responses that reimagine livable streets and the way people, goods and services will move in a new age of connected and transformational mobility.

‘The Road Ahead’ addresses the fundamental question: how do people want to live? On view in the third floor Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery, the exhibition examines accessibility, equity, trust, safety and security, the efficient movement and delivery of freight, smart infrastructure and the use of sidewalks and curb sharing. These challenges present a critical opportunity to pursue a new user-centered vision for streets and infrastructure to create more livable, inclusive and equitable cities, with services, ride-sharing and mass-transit solutions that minimize greenhouse gases and address the users’ needs.” — Cooper Hewitt

Blueprint for Autonomous Urbanism, 2017; National Association of City Transportation Officials (US and Canada); Copyright © 2017 National Association of City Transportation Officials. Reproduced with permission.

Photorealistic rendering based off of concepts in the NACTO Blueprint for Autonomous Urbanism. Copyright © 2017 Bloomberg Philanthropies. Reproduced with permission by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

Zipline Autonomous Drone Delivery System, 2016; Zipline (Half Moon Bay, CA); Courtesy of Zipline.

CanguRo (prototype), 2018; Designed by Shunji Yamanaka; Fabricated by fuRo (Japan); Chiba Institute of Technology (fuRo). Courtesy of Chiba Institute of Technology (fuRo).

Starship Autonomous Delivery Robot, 2014; Starship Technologies (San Francisco, CA); Starship Technologies. Courtesy of Starship Technologies.

Starship Autonomous Delivery Robot, 2014; Starship Technologies (San Francisco, CA); Starship Technologies. Courtesy of Starship Technologies.

Moveo Foldable Electric Scooter, 2016; Designed by Péter Üveges; Manufactured by Moveo (Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary); Courtesy of Moveo.

Moveo Foldable Electric Scooter, 2016; Designed by Péter Üveges; Manufactured by Moveo (Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary); Courtesy of Moveo.

The Artists’ Incubator (concept), 2018; Jiahe Chen, UCLA, Miao He, UCLA, Gautham Varma, ArtCenter College of Design; Photo by Miao He and Jiahe Chen.

The Float Concept Vehicle, 2017; Designed by Yuchen Cai, University of the Arts London for Renault Car of the Future Contest (France); Courtesy of Renault.

-ROAD Electric Vehicle, 2013; Toyota Motor Corporation (Aichi Prefecture, Japan); Courtesy of Toyota.

Hyperloop One; 2014–present; Virgin Hyperloop One (Los Angeles, CA); © Hyperloop Technologies, Inc.

 “‘The Road Ahead’ points to several possible futures for our cities and asks audiences to consider how design will improve and expand options for urban transport,” said Cooper Hewitt Director Caroline Baumann. “Inviting our visitors to consider and creatively think about the possible outcomes provided by the revolutionary new technologies on the horizon—from grocery-delivering robots to autonomous shuttle services—the exhibition encourages public engagement in the civic dialogue needed to ensure that new designs for mobility are sustainable, equitable and life-improving for all.” 

“The Road Ahead” is organized by Cara McCarty, the museum’s director of curatorial; Cynthia E. Smith, curator of socially responsible design; and Julie Pastor, curatorial assistant. Exhibition is designed by Matter Architecture Practice. Exhibition graphics by Pure + Applied. 

Images courtesy Cooper Hewitt.  

December 13, 2018

1947, Simone de Beauvoir in America at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, December 13 , 2018 – February 9, 2019

“Sous Les Etoiles Gallery is pleased to present 1947, Simone de Beauvoir in America a photographic journey inspired by her diary America Day by Day published in France in 1948. This book was released in the United States in 1999 after its first translation to English in Great Britain in 1952. This exhibition curated by Corinne Tapia, director of Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, aims to illustrate the depiction of De Beauvoir’s encounter with America at the time. It is the first time that this book becomes the subject of an exhibition. 

In January of 1947, the French writer and intellectual, Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) landed in New York’s La Guardia Airport, beginning a four-month journey across America. She traveled from East to the West coast by trains, cars and even Greyhound buses. She has recounted her travels in her personal diary and recorded every experience with minute detail. She stayed 116 days, traveling through 19 states and 56 cities.” — Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

“Usually, traveling is an attempt to annex a new object to my universe; this in itself is an undertaking: but today it’s different. I feel I’m leaving my life behind. I don’t know if it will be through anger or hope, but something is going to be revealed – a world so full, so rich and so unexpected that I have the extraordinary adventure of becoming a different of me.” — Simone de Beauvoir, 1947, on her first trip to the United States, a trip that would have changed her life

Esher Bubley, Coast to Coast, SONJ, 1947, courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery/ Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

Fred Lyon, Post & Powell, Union Square, San Francisco, 1947, courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery/ Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

Wayne Miller, From ”The Way of Life of the Northern Negro,” Chicago (Afternoon Game at Table 2), 1946-1948 courtesy Stephen Daiter Gallery/ Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

Louis Faurer, New York, NY, 1947 (profile head in El window), Courtesy Deborah Bell Gallery/ Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

Ida Wyman, Looking East on 41st Street, New York , 1947, courtesy Stephen Cohen Gallery/ Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

Vassar Girl, Alumnae Pub Mural , Vassar College 1947, courtesy Archives/ Collection of Vassar College and Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

It is also most certainly a very photographic book. As you read it, you can easily imagine the footsteps of Simone de Beauvoir in places she discovers for the first time, the atmosphere of the night, of the cabarets and their music of this period, impressed by the American way of life that begins to take effect. “I wanted the viewer to be as close to her reality at that time, so most of the photographs exhibited are in the year of 1947”, said Corinne Tapia. 

Images courtesy Sous Les Etoiles Gallery.