Arts Summary

August 23, 2017

Frank Stella: Experiment and Change at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, November 12, 2017 – July 8, 2018

“NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale presents Frank Stella: Experiment and Change, an exhibition that spans the artist’s 60-year career from the late 1950’s to the present. The exhibition, composed of approximately 300 paintings, relief sculpture and drawings will offer insight into his trajectory from minimalism (e.g. the geometry of the black paintings) to maximalism (eg. the spatially complex constructionist and large sculptures of the Moby Dick series.)

The exhibition juxtaposes works from various periods of Stella’s career, revealing his aesthetic development and focusing on his “Working Archive,” which contains material never exhibited before, such as notes, sketches and maquettes that shed light on his growth as an artist. Stella’s diverse interests include art history, architecture, new materials (fluorescent pigment, carbon fiber, titanium, et al.) and computer-aided modeling for rapid prototyping. His preparatory studies show the ideas in his work that led to a notion about the enlargement of pictorial space.

Included will be penciled color sequences for the larger concentric square paintings (1973), flat foam-core cut-outs leading to the emergence of a more generous “working space” and 3D printed models from the 1990’s through the present outlining the use of digital technology.” — NSU Art Museum

Frank Stella and Bonnie Clearwater at the New York presentation of Frank Stella: Experiment and Change. Photograph by Corrado Serra.

Frank Stella, Lettre sur les sourds et muets II, 1974. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 141 x 141 x 4 inche. Private Collection, NY. © 2017 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo Credit: Christopher Burke.

Frank Stella, Diavolozoppo (#2, 4x), 1984. MM on canvas, etched Mg, AI & fiberglass. Private Collection, NY. © 2017 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo Credit: Steven Sloman.

Exhibition is curated by Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator at NSU Art Museum.

August 22, 2017

The Duchess of Carnegie Hall: Photographs by Editta Sherman at New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, August 18 – October 15, 2017

“The New-York Historical Society celebrates the late photographer Editta Sherman (1912–2013) with a special exhibition of her celebrity portraits, to be shown in the Joyce B. Cowin Women’s History Gallery in the Museum’s new Center for Women’s History. The Duchess of Carnegie Hall: Photographs by Editta Sherman features portraits of 65 notable film stars, authors, musicians, and athletes dating from 1943 to 1965 and beyond. All works are drawn from the Editta Sherman archive, which was recently gifted to New-York Historical by Sherman’s children and grandchildren.

The subject of his Facades series and friend to legendary photographer Bill Cunningham who dubbed her the “Duchess of Carnegie Hall,” Editta Sherman was renowned in her own right as one of the rare female portraitists of her era. Practically born in the dark room as the daughter of a professional photographer, she built a thriving business over more than 60 years in a studio above Carnegie Hall, where she charmed her celebrity clients with a vivacity and warmth that are reflected in her images.” — New-York Historical Society

“Editta Sherman’s remarkable career as a photographer came at a time when the field was dominated by men,” said Marilyn Satin Kushner, curator and head of New-York Historical’s Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections. “Her experience and success exemplify that of many women in the 1940s through the 1960s, living in a man’s world while supporting herself independently.”

Installation photographs by Corrado Serra.

August 20, 2017

An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017 at Whitney Museum of American Art, from August 18, 2017

“Through the lens of the Whitney’s collection, An Incomplete History of Protest looks at how artists from the 1940s to the present have confronted the political and social issues of their day. Whether making art as a form of activism, criticism, instruction, or inspiration, the featured artists see their work as essential to challenging established thought and realizing a more equitable culture. Many have sought immediate change, such as ending the war in Vietnam or combating the AIDS crisis. Others have engaged with protest more indirectly, with the long term in mind, hoping to create new ways of imagining society and citizenship.

Since its founding in the early twentieth century, the Whitney has served as a forum for the most urgent art and ideas of the day, at times itself attracting protest. An Incomplete History of Protest, however, is by name and necessity a limited account. No exhibition can approximate the activism now happening in the streets and online, and no collection can account fully for the methodological, stylistic, and political complexity of artistic address. Instead, the exhibition offers a sequence of historical case studies focused on particular moments and concepts—from questions of representation to the fight for civil rights—that remain relevant today. At its root is the belief that artists play a profound role in transforming their time and shaping the future.” — Introductory Wall Text

Toyo Miyatake (1895–1979), Untitled (Opening Image from Valediction), 1944. Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 9 7/16 x 7 5/16 in. (24 x 18.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Photography Committee 2014.243 © Toyo Miyatake Studio

Gordon Parks (1912-2006), Bandaged Hands, Muhammad Ali, 1966. Gelatin silver print, 13 5/16 x 9 1/4 in. (33.8 x 23.5 cm). Purchase, with funds from Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo, The Dorothea L. Leonhardt Fund at The Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc., and Michèle Gerber Klein 98.59 Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation

Carol Summers (1925-2016), Kill for Peace, 1967, from ARTISTS AND WRITERS PROTEST AGAINST THE WAR IN VIET NAM, 1967. Screenprint and photo-screenprint with punctures on board, 23 3/8 x 19 1/4 in. (59.4 x 48.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Print Committee 2006.50.14 © Alexander Ethan Summers

Vietnam Referendum ’70, Let the People Vote on War!, 1970. Offset lithograph, 19 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (49.5 x 34.3 cm). Purchase, with funds from The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., Leonard A. Lauder, President 2017.10.341

May Stevens (b. 1924), Dark Flag, 1976. Acrylic on canvas, 60 1/8 x 60 1/8 in. (152.7 x 152.7 cm). Gift of the artist 2005.34 © May Stevens; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York

Guerrilla Girls (est. 1985), Guerrilla Girls Review the Whitney, 1987. Offset lithograph, 22 x 17 in. (55.9 x 43.2 cm). Purchase 2000.91 © Guerrilla Girls

Donald Moffett (b. 1955), He Kills Me, 1987. Offset lithograph, 23 1/2 x 37 1/2 in. (59.7 x 95.3 cm). Gift of David W. Kiehl in memory of artists and artworkers who died of AIDS 2012.160 © Donald Moffett

Edgar Heap of Birds (b. 1954), Relocate Destroy, In Memory of Native Americans, In Memory of Jews, 1987, from American Policy, 1987. Pastel on paper, 22 x 29 13/16 in. (55.9 x 75.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Dorothee Peiper-Riegraf and Hinrich Peiper 2007.91

Keith Haring (1958-1990), Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death, 1989. Offset lithograph, 24 1/16 x 43 1/16 in. (61.1 x 109.4 cm). Gift of David W. Kiehl in honor of Patrick Moore 2014.265 Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation

Annette Lemieux (b. 1957), Black Mass, 1991. Latex, rhoplex, gesso, and oil on canvas, 95 13/16 x 105 x 1 13/16 in. (243.4 x 266.7 x 4.6 cm). Promised gift of Emily Fischer Landau P.2010.173 © Annette Lemieux

Theaster Gates (b. 1973), Minority Majority, 2012. Decommissioned fire hoses and vinyl on plywood, 66 x 111 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (167.6 x 283.2 x 9.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Barbara and Michael Gamson 2016.262 © Theaster Gates. Photo © White Cube (Ben Westoby)

An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017 is organized by David Breslin, DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the Collection; Jennie Goldstein, assistant curator; and Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator; with David Kiehl, curator emeritus; and Margaret Kross, curatorial assistant.

Images courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art.

August 19, 2017

The First Total Solar Eclipse Ever Captured in Photographs in the United States, May 26, 1854. Gillman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“The first total eclipse of the sun that was visible in North America after the invention of photography occurred 163 years ago, on May 26, 1854. Photographers William and Frederick Langenheim, brothers from Philadelphia, made eight sequential daguerreotypes of the eclipse. Seven survive and are among the treasures in The Met collection.

The 1854 solar eclipse was visible from Astoria, Oregon, to Eastport, Maine, roughly from sunrise to sunset. It arrived in New York State at 4:15 pm and lasted for 2 hours and 22 minutes. In the northern hemisphere, the moon always shadows the sun from right to left during a solar eclipse; these images therefore seem odd because they are, like all uncorrected daguerreotypes, reversed laterally, as in a mirror.

It is noteworthy that the Langenheims’ eclipse daguerreotypes are quite small—three of them exceptionally so. In order to produce any kind of image at all, the photographers were forced to use the smallest cameras available, because there was virtually no available light when the disk of the new moon eclipsed the largest part of the sun, and smaller cameras require proportionally less light to make an image. The missing eighth image was probably made on the smaller plate size and showed nothing at all—a total eclipse.” — The Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Langenheim (American [born Germany], 1807–1874) and Frederick Langenheim (American [born Germany], 1809–1879). Eclipse of the Sun, 1854. Daguerreotypes, from 1 1/4 x 1 in. (3.2 x 2.5 cm) to 2 13/16 x 2 5/16 in. (7.2 x 5.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005

Installation photographs by Corrado Serra.

August 13, 2017

Talking Pictures: Camera-Phone Conversations Between Artists at The Met Fifth Avenue, through December 17, 2018

“Over the past decade, mobile-phone cameras have changed how photographs are made, used, and looked at. While the camera once functioned chiefly as a tool for preserving the past, today people use mobile phones to share their visual experience in real time and with unprecedented intimacy. Talking Pictures: Camera-Phone Conversations Between Artists explores what happens when artists are partnered with other artists and the pairs engage in a visual dialogue using only their phones.

The Met commissioned 12 artists to participate in the project. Each was asked to invite another artist to be his or her conversation partner for a five-month period. From November 2016 to April 2017, the participants sent still images and brief videos back and forth in a game of pictorial ping-pong. They were asked not to write messages or captions and to refrain from sharing their images on social media. Otherwise, the content and frequency of communication was determined by the artists themselves.

Each pair approached the challenge differently. Some exchanged multiple images daily, producing free-wheeling chronicles of their lives. Others conversed more methodically, following a strict pattern of call-andresponse. Most responded in some way to last year’s U.S. Presidential election and its aftermath, which coincided with the image-exchange period.” — The Met

Dialogue between Manjari Sharma and Irina Rozovsky

Manjari Sharma (Indian, born 1979). Image from dialogue with Irina Rozovsky, sent 1/25/2017. Digital photograph.

Irina Rozovsky (American, born Russia, 1981). Image from dialogue with Manjari Sharma, posted 1/25/2017. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Nina Katchadourian and Lenka Clayton

Nina Katchadourian (American, born 1968), Image from dialogue with Lenka Clayton, sent 11/10/2016. Digital photograph.

Lenka Clayton (British, born 1977), Image from dialogue with Nina Katchadourian, sent 11/11/2016. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Tony Oursler and William Wegman

Tony Oursler (American, born 1957), Image from dialogue with William Wegman, sent 11/21/2016. Digital photograph.

William Wegman (American, born 1943), Image from dialogue with Tony Oursler, sent 11/21/2016. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Rob Pruitt and Jonathan Horowitz

Rob Pruitt (American, born 1964), Image from dialogue with Jonathan Horowitz, sent 4/5/2017. Digital photograph.

Jonathan Horowitz (American, born 1966), Image from dialogue with Rob Pruitt, sent 4/5/2017. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Nicole Eisenman and A. L. Steiner

Nicole Eisenman (American, born 1965), Image from dialogue with A. L. Steiner, sent 4/1/2017. Digital photograph.

A. L. Steiner (American, 1967), Image from dialogue with Nicole Eisenman, sent 4/1/2017. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Shawn Peters and Sanford Biggers

Shawn Peters (American, born 1970), Image from dialogue with Sanford Biggers, sent 1/14/17. Digital photograph.

Sanford Biggers (American, born 1970), Image from dialogue with Shawn Peters, sent 1/15/17. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Wu Zhang and Cao Fei

Wu Zhang (Chinese, born 1977), Image from dialogue with Cao Fei, sent 11/11/2016. Digital photograph.

Cao Fei (Chinese, born 1978), Image from dialogue with Wu Zhang, sent 11/12/2106. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Nontsikelelo Mutiti

Njideka Akunyili Crosby (American, born Nigeria, 1983), Image from dialogue with Nontsikelelo Mutiti, sent 2/4/2017. Digital photograph.

Nontsikelelo Mutiti (Zimbabwean, born 1982), Image from dialogue with Njideka Akunyili Crosby, sent 2/4/2017. Digital photograph.

Dialogue between Laura Poitras and Teju Cole

Laura Poitras (American, born 1964), Image from dialogue with Teju Cole, sent 9/21/2016. Digital photograph.

Teju Cole (American, born 1975). Image from dialogue with Laura Poitras, sent 9/26/2016. Digital photograph.

Talking Pictures: Camera-Phone Conversations between Artists is organized by Mia Fineman, Associate Curator in the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Images courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

August 6, 2017

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist at Art Institute of Chicago

“Perhaps best known for his paintings of women in idyllic Tahitian settings, Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903) was an artist whose career spanned the globe and whose prolific body of work flouts categorization. An expert at self promotion, Gauguin shed the social and artistic conventions of the time to defy definition and transform the perception of what it meant to live within the realm of complete artistic freedom. Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist explores the artist’s unpredictable and, at times, fantastical forays into the applied arts while situating them within his radically experimental oeuvre as a whole. Featuring his work in ceramics, woodcarving, printmaking, and furniture decoration, and their relationship to his canvases, the exhibition acknowledges the artist as a visionary and controversial figure.

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist is the most comprehensive examination of the artist’s all-consuming interest in craft and decorative arts. Moving beyond Paul Gauguin’s renowned work as a painter, the exhibition features a diverse selection of his creative output. Featuring some 240 works, it includes the largest ever public presentation of his existing ceramics and groupings of objects reunited for the first time since leaving his studio. This unusual exhibition and installation considers Gauguin’s radically inventive art-making processes resulting from the material explorations of his many and varied residences from France to the Polynesian islands.” — Art Institute of Chicago

“It’s precisely an endless kind of art that I’m interested in, rich in all sorts of techniques, suitable for translating all the emotions of nature and humanity.” — Paul Gauguin, 1903

Paul Gauguin. Clovis Sleeping, 1884. Private collection.

Paul Gauguin. The Singer, 1880. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, MIN 3230.

Paul Gauguin. Te nave nave fenua (Delightful Land), about 1892. Musée de Grenoble, bequest of Agutte-Sembat, 1923 © Musée de Grenoble.

Paul Gauguin, with Émile Bernard. Earthly Paradise, 1888. The Art Institute of Chicago, through prior gift of Henry Morgen, Ann G. Morgen, Meyer Wasser, and Ruth G. Wasser; restricted gift of Edward M. Blair.

Paul Gauguin. Merahi metua no Tehamana (Tehamana Has Many Parents or The Ancestors of Tehamana), 1893. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Deering McCormick.

Paul Gauguin. Mahana no atua (Day of the God), 1894. The Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection.

Paul Gauguin. Manaò tupapaú (Spirit of the Dead Watching), 1892. Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; A. Conger Goodyear Collection, 1965, 1965:1. Photograph by Tom Loonan.

Paul Gauguin. Tehura, also called Head of Tahitian Woman or Teha’amana, about 1892. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, donation of Mme Huc de Monfreid, 1951.

Paul Gauguin. Self-Portrait with Hat, winter 1893–94. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, acquired with the participation of an anonymous Canadian donation, 1966.

Paul Gauguin. Soyez mystérieuses (Be Mysterious), 1890. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Paul Gauguin. Maison du jouir (House of Pleasure). Left to right: Soyez mystérieuses (Be Mysterious); Nude woman and small dog; Maison du jouir; Nude woman and tree with red fruits; Soyez amoureuses et vous serez heureuses (Be in Love and You Will Be Happy), 1901–02. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Paul Gauguin. Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ, 1890–91. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, acquired by the national museums with the participation of Philippe Meyer and a Japanese sponsorship coordinated by the newspaper Nikkei, 1994.

Paul Gauguin. Arearea (Joyousness), 1892. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, bequest of M. and Mme Lung, 1961.

Paul Gauguin. Faa iheihe (Tahitian Pastoral), 1898. Tate, presented by Lord Duveen, 1919.

Paul Gauguin. Vase in the Form of Leda and the Swan, 1887–1888. Private collection.

Paul Gauguin. Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), 1888. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.

The exhibition is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, l’Etablissement public des musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, and the Réunion des musées nationaux–Grand Palais, Paris.

Images courtesy Art Institute of Chicago

August 5, 2017

Red Spotted Purple: Roman Vishniac’s Science Work in ICP Gallery at Mana Contemporary, August 2-October 27, 2017

“Red Spotted Purple”: Roman Vishniac’s Science Work is a special exhibition organized by ICP at Mana’s first-ever Artist-in-Residence, Claudia Sohrens. As part of her Artist-in-Residence position, Sohrens was given unfettered access to the ICP Collections and invited to mine its archives. The result: Sohrens’ discovery of the images in “Red Spotted Purple”—a little-known body of work by photographer Roman Vishniac (1897–1990).

Sohrens became enchanted by Vishniac’s mounted scientific prints, which had been used as display boards by scientific societies and research institutes, and she was drawn to the wordplay and poetry of his captions. Featuring 14 rarely seen Vishniac works, this exhibition explores the physical traces of the archive as well as broader questions about originality and authorship.”—ICP

“Vishniac’s use of language and choice of words for labels and captions for some of his black-and-white images transformed a sense of aspiration toward solid or clear comprehension into poetry,” says Sohrens. “It encouraged me to look at his work and the relation between word and image in a new and different way, in which neither terms like ‘label and caption’ nor ‘collage and photomontage’ adequately describe his formal and iconographic boards. The poetic relationship between photography and language, and the binary of art and science are part of the discovery I would like to share in the exhibition to generate renewed interest in this part of his work.”

Roman Vishniac. Chaos chaos amoeba, ca. 1951. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. (Two) Nais communis aquatic earthworms, ca. 1951. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Daphnia pulex, ca. 1951. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Diatoma, treasure at the bottom of the pond, ca. 1950s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Dileptus anser and colpoda cucullus, ca. 1951. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Hydra catching a daphnia, ca. 1950s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. …Man’s leg (author’s hairy skin), ca. 1950s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Mold, ca. 1950s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Mosquito transmitting disease from rat’s tail to…, ca. 1950s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Squid catching a herring, ca. 1950s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Turbellaria, ca. 1950s Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Water tiger attacking adult beetle, ca. 1950s Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Roman Vishniac. Red spotted purple, early 1950s-late 1960s. Digital ink jet print © Mara Vishniac Kohn

Images courtesy The International Center of Photography (ICP).

August 4, 2017

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern, through October 22, 2017

“What did it mean to be a Black artist in the USA during the Civil Rights movement and at the birth of Black Power? What was art’s purpose and who was its audience? Tate Modern presents Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, a landmark exhibition exploring how these issues played out among and beyond African American artists from 1963 to 1983. At a time when race and identity became major issues in music, sport and literature, brought to public attention by iconic figures like Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali and Toni Morrison, ‘Black Art’ was being defined and debated across the country in vibrant paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures. Featuring more than 150 works by over 60 artists, many on display in the UK for the first time, Soul of a Nation is a timely opportunity to see how American cultural identity was re-shaped at a time of social unrest and political struggle.

The show begins in 1963 with the formation of the Spiral Group, a New York–based collective. They questioned how Black artists should relate to American society, with key figures like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis responding to current events in their photomontages and abstract paintings. Artists also considered the locations and audiences for their art – from local murals to nationally circulated posters and newspapers – with many turning away from seeking mainstream gallery approval to show artwork in their own communities through Black-owned galleries and artist-curated shows. The exhibition uses archive photographs and documentary material to illustrate the mural movement, including the ‘Wall of Respect’ in Chicago and the ‘Smokehouse’ wall paintings in Harlem. The way artists engaged with street activism are explored through posters and newspapers, such as the work of the Black Panther Party’s Culture Minister Emory Douglas, who declared ‘The ghetto itself is the gallery’.” — Tate Modern

Andy Warhol.  Muhammad Ali,  1978.  Synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas,  1016 x 1016 mm.  Private collection © 2017 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London

Barkley L. Hendricks.  Icon for My Man Superman (Superman Never Saved any Black People–Bobby Seale),  1969. Oil, acrylic and aluminium leaf on linen canvas, 1511 x 1219 mm. Collection of Liz and Eric Lefkofsky © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Benny Andrews (1930-2006).  Did the Bear Sit Under a Tree?,  1969.  Oil on canvas with painted fabric collage and zipper, 1270 x 1568 x 57 mm. Emanuel Collection © Estate of Benny Andrews /DACS, London /VAGA, NY 2017

Betye Saar (b.1926).  Eye,  1972 . Mixed media assemblage,  216 x 349 mm . Collection of Sheila Silber and David Limburger © Betye Saar. Courtesy of the Artist and Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, California

Betye Saar. Rainbow Mojo, 1972. Acrylic on leather. Paul-Michael diMeglio, New York © Betye Saar. Courtesy of the Artist and Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, California

Carolyn Lawrence. Black Children Keep Your Spirits Free, 1972. Acrylic paint on canvas, 1245 x 1295 x 51 mm. Courtesy of Carolyn Mims Lawrence

Elizabeth Catlett.  Black Unity,  1968. Mahogony wood.  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas  © Catlett Mora Family Trust/DACS, London / VAGA, NY 2017

Emma Amos.  Eva the Babysitter, 1973. Oil on canvas, 1270 x 863.6mm. © Emma Amos. Courtesy of the artist and Ryan Lee Gallery, New York. Licensed by VAGA, New York

Emory Douglas (b.1943).  21 August 1971, ‘We Shall Survive wihtout a doubt’,  1971.  Newspaper, 445 x 580 mm. Center for the Study of Political Graphics (Culver City, USA)  © Emory Douglas / ARS NY. Photo credit: Courtesy of Emory Douglas/Art Resource, NY

Faith Ringgold. (b.1930) . American People Series #20: Die,  1967.  Oil on canvas, 1828 x 3657 mm.  The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase; and gift of the Modern Women’s Fund  © Faith Ringgold

Frank Bowling (b.1936).  Texas Louise,  1971.  Acrylic on canvas, 2820 x 6650 mm.  Courtesy of the Rennie Collection, Vancouver © Frank Bowling

Jae Jarrell (b.1935). Revolutionary Suit,  1969, remade 2010.  Tweed, suede, wooden pins,  838 x 685 x 304 mm.  Brooklyn Museum, New York © Jae Jarrell

Lorraine O’Grady (b.1934). Art Is (Girlfriends Times Two),  1983/2009. Photograph, C-print Courtesy of the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York © Lorraine O’Grady

Romare Bearden (1911-1988).  Pittsburgh Memory,  1964. Mixed media collage of various printed papers and graphite on board, 216 x 298 mm.  Collection of Halley K Harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld © Romare Bearden Foundation/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2017

Roy DeCarava. Couple Walking, 1979. Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 356 x 279 mm. © Courtesy Sherry DeCarava and the DeCarava Archives

Sam Gilliam. Carousel Change, 1970. Acrylic paint on canvas and leather string, 3000 x 23370 mm. Tate. Promised gift of Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida (Tate Americas Foundation). Image courtesy David Kordansky Gallery

Wadsworth Jarrell (b.1929).  Revolutionary,  1972.  Screenprint on paper, 864 x 673 mm.  Courtesy Lusenhop Fine Art © Wadsworth Jarrell

William T. Williams. Trane , 1969 . Studio Museum Harlem © William T. Williams, courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York NY

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power is co-curated by Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley, with assistant curator Priyesh Mistry.

Images courtesy Tate Modern.

August 3, 2017

Where Do We Stand? Two Years of Drawing with Open Sessions at The Drawing Center, August 3 – September 17, 2017

“Where Do We Stand? Two Years of Drawing with Open Sessions is the second whole group exhibition of the Open Sessions program. The exhibition gives the museum over to an exploration of contemporary drawing that encompasses video, sculpture, photography, and installation, as well as traditional drawing forms. Where Do We Stand? places drawing at the center of conversation around temporary, jerry-rigged, and heterogeneous urban spaces from Houston to Paris to Vietnam. It looks at the potential of ruin and rebuilding in the desert, the suburbs and the city, and considers both saturation and secrecy in relation to images, language, and architecture.

Open Sessions is a hybrid exhibition/residency program created by Lisa Sigal and Nova Benway, Open Sessions Curators. It provides unique opportunities for selected artists to contextualize their work through exhibitions, public programs, workshops, and working dinners. The artists selected for Open Sessions may or may not draw as their primary means of art-making. The two-year program engages musicians, architects, dancers, poets—anyone who is interested in expanding the boundaries of drawing. Open Sessions artists work together to create a dynamic, continuous conversation, viewing drawing as an activity rather than a product.” — The Drawing Center

James Mercer, The Reservoir, 2017. Still from digital video (19 minutes). Courtesy of the artist.

jc lenochan, Melanin Chronicles: The Come Up of a Dual Intellectualism, 2016-2017. Chalk and charcoal on paper, 55 x 48 inches.

Jennifer May Reiland, Blowing Smoke (after Bolaño), 2015. Watercolor and pen on paper, 7 x 10 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Nsenga Knight, Photo Text Drawing 2, 2016. Archival pigment print, 40 x 32 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Olalaken Jeyifous, Na you dey drive, 2016. Black card-stock on watercolor paper, 30 × 22 inches.

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Hedonic Reversal No. 14, 2014. Archival pigment print, 54 x 44 inches. Courtesy the artist and Envoy Enterprises.

Images courtesy The Drawing Center.

August 2, 2017

Willa Nasatir at Whitney Museum of American Art, July 14 – October 1, 2017

“The emerging artist Willa Nasatir (b. 1990, Los Angeles, California) creates photographs routinely informed by a cinematic vocabulary, inspired by the shifting landscape and individuals who inhabit New York, where she works and lives. Nasatir’s compositions routinely function as part-still life, part-portrait (notably without bodies), evoking a surreal otherworldly environment—a realm that’s familiar yet simultaneously difficult to pin down.

Nasatir’s photographs begin as makeshift sculptures, quickly assembled in her studio from an array of unexpected, disparate objects ranging from decorative fans to a car headlight. She alters and combines these found objects, which she photographs and re-photographs, subjecting the surfaces to dramatic material and light effects. The resulting works are hand-manipulated images that become psychologically charged and difficult to discern; the viewer is left to parse out unresolved narratives that the image only implies.” — Whitney Museum

Willa Nasatir. Red #1, 2016. Chromogenic print, 27 1/4 x 21 in. (18.4 x 53.3 cm). Courtesy the artist and Chapter NY.

Willa Nasatir. Conductor, 2017. Chromogenic mounted on wood, 79 1/2 x 61 in. (201.9 x 154.9 cm). Courtesy the artist and Chapter NY.

Willa Nasatir. Red Room, 2017. Chromogenic print mounted on wood, 82 x 67 in. (208.3 x 170.2 cm). Courtesy the artist and Chapter NY.

Willa Nasatir. Butterfly, 2017. Chromogenic print mounted on wood, 73 1/2 x 60 in. (186.7 x 152.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Chapter NY.

Willa Nasatir. Bus Depot, 2017. Gelatin silver print, 21 x 17 in. (53.3 x 43.2 cm). Courtesy the artist and Chapter NY.

This exhibition is organized by Jane Panetta, Associate Curator.

Images courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art.

August 1, 2017

Richard Gerstl at Neue Galerie, through September 25, 2017

“Neue Galerie New York presents “Richard Gerstl,” the first museum retrospective in the United States devoted to the work of the Austrian Expressionist (1883-1908).

Gerstl was an extremely original artist whose psychologically intense figure paintings and landscapes constitute a radically unorthodox oeuvre that defied the reigning concepts of style and beauty during his time. The long-standing secrecy surrounding Gerstl’s dramatic and untimely suicide at the age of 25, and the scandalous love affair that preempted his death, only further magnify the legend that has flowered around this lesser known, but influential member of Vienna’s artistic avant-garde at the turn of the twentieth century.

Approximately 55 paintings and works on paper are on display, including portraits, frontal nude figures, highly gestural group portraits, landscapes, and comparative works by Gerstl’s artistic contemporaries. A special gallery is devoted to Gerstl’s relationship with the leading Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg; the artist’s friendship with Schönberg abruptly ended in 1908 upon the disclosure of the love affair between Gerstl and Schönberg’s wife Mathilde. Although Gerstl’s extant body of work comprises only approximately 90 works, his groundbreaking style is central to the development of the Expressionist movement of fin-de-siècle Vienna.” — Neue Galerie

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Semi-Nude Self-Portrait, 1902-04. Oil on canvas. Leopold Museum, Vienna

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Grinzing, spring 1906. Oil on canvas. Private Collection, Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Self-Portrait, winter 1906-07. India ink on paper. Private Collection

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Mathilde Schönberg, summer 1907. Tempera on canvas. Belvedere, Vienna

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Portrait of a Man (Green Background), summer 1908. Oil on canvas. Private Collection

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). The Schönberg Family, late July 1908. Oil on canvas. Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Gift of the Kamm Family, Zug 1969

Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Self-Portrait, Laughing, Summer-autumn 1907. Oil on canvas. Belvedere, Vienna

The exhibition is co-organized with the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. The show is organized by Expressionist scholar Jill Lloyd.

Images courtesy Neue Galerie.

July 30, 2017

Modigliani at Tate Modern, through April 2, 2018

“Tate Modern stages the most comprehensive Modigliani exhibition ever held in the UK, bringing together a dazzling range of his iconic portraits, sculptures and the largest ever group of nudes to be shown in this country. Although he died tragically young, Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) was a ground-breaking artist who pushed the boundaries of the art of his time. Including almost 100 works, the exhibition re-evaluates this familiar figure, looking afresh at the experimentation that shaped his career and made Modigliani one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.

A section devoted to Modigliani’s nudes, perhaps the best-known and most provocative of the artist’s works, will be a major highlight. In these striking canvases Modigliani invented shocking new compositions that modernised figurative painting. His explicit depictions also proved controversial and led to the police censoring his only solo lifetime exhibition, at Berthe Weill’s gallery in 1917, on the grounds of indecency. This group of 10 nudes will be the largest group ever seen in the UK, with paintings including Seated Nude 1917 (Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp) and Reclining Nude c.1919 (Museum of Modern Art, New York).” — Tate Modern

The Little Peasant,  c.1918. Oil paint on canvas, 1000 x 645 mm.  Tate, presented by Miss Jenny Blaker in memory of Hugh Blaker 1941

Jeanne Hébuterne,  1919.  Oil paint on canvas,  914 x 730 mm.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Seated Nude , 1917. Oil paint on canvas,  1140 x 740 mm . Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Lukasart in Flanders.  Photo credit: Hugo Maertens

Reclining Nude , 1919.  Oil on canvas,  724 x 1165 mm.  Museum of Modern Art, New York

Juan Gris,  1915. Oil paint on canvas, 549 x 381 mm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz,  1916.  Oil on canvas , 813 x 543 mm . The Art Institute of Chicago

Head,  c. 1911. Stone , 394 x 311 x 187 mm.  Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lois Orswell  © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Beatrice Hastings , 1915.  Oil on paper,  400 x 285 mm.  Private Collection, Switzerland

Modigliani is curated by Nancy Ireson, Curator of International Art, Tate Modern and Simonetta Fraquelli, Independent Curator, with Emma Lewis, Assistant Curator.

Images courtesy Tate Modern.

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