museum exhibit

Historic Naval Ship Faces The Scrap Heap Unless A New Owner Is Found

A venerable old naval ship is seeking a new home. Philadelphia's Independence Seaport Museum has announced that it can't afford the restoration costs to keep USS Olympia, a National Historic Landmark dating back to 1892. The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the museum is facing $10 to $20 million in restoration costs. Even the costs of stabilizing the ship would run $2 to $5 million. She currently has extensive interior and exterior corrosion of her outer hull but the interior is structurally sound and remarkably intact. The ship requires a new deck as well as repair to her entire waterline repair to an estimated 10% of her underwater hull surface.

The ship was Admiral George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay and is the sole surviving ship from the Spanish-American War. The ship's last mission was to carry the body of the Unknown Soldier from France to the United States in 1921. She's one of a kind, no sister ships were ever built and she is the world's oldest floating steel warship. The Olympia is clearly a national treasure but if she can't find a new home she could face the scrap heap.

The museum website says that the museum and its partners will convene with experts in various fields such as historic preservation, urban planning, maritime history, fundraising and economic development for a two-day summit on March 30-April 1 to find the best path for the ship.

Tags: independence seaport museum, museum exhibit, naval ship, philadelphia, philadelphia independence seaport museum, uss olympia

Porsche Celebrates 25 Years of Custom Cars

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Events

Porsche Celebrates 25 Years of Custom Cars

25 years ago Porsche became the world's first car manufacturer to create a special customization department at its factory. The program, called Porsche Exclusive, allows customers to get a car from the factory with just about any personal detail and refinement they want – provided that it's technically feasible and won't compromise the vehicle's quality. To celebrate the program's silver anniversary the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany is showcasing the Exclusive's special skills and craftsmanship with a 25 years of Porsche Exclusive show running through May 1st.

Visitors will be able to see some of company's most unique and rare special models, including the Porsche 911 Turbo S 3.6, which in 1997 was the first Porsche series production sports car to break the 186 mph (300 km/h) barrier. Also on display is one of only two Porsche 911 Speedsters in the world dating from 1995, as well as a gold-colored Porsche 959 that was extensively modified for a member of an Arab royal family and which features, among other things, gold plated tailpipes. A book is being published in conjunction with the exhibit as well.

Tags: custom cars, Germany, luxury cars, museum, museum exhibit, Porsche, Porsche 911, Porsche 959, Porsche Museum, porsche+cars, porsche+custom, porschecars, porschecustom

Most Expensive Painting Goes On Display In The UK

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust stunned the world when it sold at Christie's New York last May for $106.5 million. Now the Telegraph reports that the most expensive painting ever sold at auction is on display for the first time in the UK at the Tate Modern. The painting was done in 1932 during Picasso's very fruitful year when he did a series of paintings of his mistress and muse Marie-Therese Walter. Picasso first saw young Marie-Thérèse on the streets of Paris in 1927, when she was just seventeen years old. Because of her age and the status of his marriage to Olga Khokhlova the relationship was kept quiet for several years. This painting was part of a colorful explosion of works painted in January 1932 in anticipation of the major retrospective that he was planning. The Steve-Wynn-owned painting Le Reve is from this period as is La Lecture which sold for over $40 million earlier this year. The painting has been lent to the gallery by a private collector and will have pride of place in the new Pablo Picasso room in the Poetry and Dream wing on Level 3 of the building.

Tags: Microsoft, museum exhibit, pablo picasso, tate modern

Pompeii Lands In New York City

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Pompeii has plopped down in New York City. A new exhibit, "Pompeii The Exhibit: Life and Death in the Shadow of Vesuvius" has opened at New York's Discovery Times Square. There's something about the centuries-old story of Pompeii that never fails to captivate the general public. It ties into our end-of-days fears, that idea that at any moment, a disruption could simply wipe us all out. Life went on at Pompeii for 700 years, a rich and artistic culture before, on a fateful day in 79 A.D., Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the citizens and all their worldly goods under lava and ash.

Tags: archaeology, discovery times square, museum, museum event, museum exhibit, new york museums, pompeii, times square musuem

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Rembrandt at the Frick: A Case of "True Grit"

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Study Rembrandt's self-portrait, a monumental painting in a new show at the Frick Collection in New York City, and you see a man who looks much older than 52. Rembrandt presents himself as a bear of a man, draped in a luxurious fur cape, a golden pleated smock with a red sash wound around his waist. He holds a silver-tipped cane. He looks indomitable, strong, and resolute. The American painter Kenyon Cox's description of the painting in 1910 says it all: "It is the head of an old lion at bay, worn and melancholy, yet conscious of his strength, determined, and a little defiant." Yet in reality, in 1658, the year he painted the portrait, Rembrandt was morose and troubled. He had declared bankruptcy two years earlier. His family was hounded by debtors. He was forced to sell his many collections and even the house and studio he had occupied since 1639. His reputation suffered. Commissions lagged and his once large group of students and followers had all but abandoned him and in some cases, even his "Rembrandtesque" style.

The monumental self portrait has pride of place in the Oval Room in the Frick's new show, "Rembrandt and His School; Masterworks from the Frick and Lugt Collection." It presents work by the master, his pupils, and followers in a blockbuster celebration of Rembrandt's paintings, drawings, and etchings. Henry Clay Frick (1849--1919) and Dutch art historian and collector Frederik Johannes Lugt (1884-1970) were both great admirers of Rembrandt van Rijn. The precocious Lugt at 12 had started to catalog Dutch and Flemish drawings in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum while Frick once said that the the talents he would most like to have possessed were Rembrandt's. These two admirers were renowned collectors with the eye, the connections, and the deep wallets to buy what pleased them.

Tags: Frederick Johannes Lugt, Frick Collection, Govert Flinck, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, rembrandt, Rembrandts

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Fashion Forward Ikats

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Prepare to be dazzled. The 60 ikat robes in Washington D.C.'s The Textile Museum's show, "Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats," are a riot of sun-splashed color. The rich jewel toned robes, appealingly hung in the round so you can view them from all directions, are from the museum's Megalli Collection. Most are 19th century ceremonial robes from Samarkand, Bukhara, and the silk weaving centers in the Fergama Valley in Central Asia.

Tags: Central Asian textiles, DianeVonFurstenberg, ikat design, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, oscar de la renta, textiles, the textile museum

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Driftwood Conference Table Draws Attention To Environmental Issues

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Green

A Table from the Sea's Edge from Neon Otter on Vimeo.
A large conference table and 12 chairs isn't usually considered art but A Table from the Sea's Edge by Silas Birtwistle isn't just any table. The British furniture maker and artist Silas Birtwistle created the table from driftwood gathered from Belize, Vancouver Island, Tanzania and Borneo. The exhibit, now on display at the World Museum in Liverpool, England, is meant to promote conservation of the world's seas, oceans and forests. Birtwistle gathered his wood with help from indigenous communities and the World Wildlife Fund as well as other organizations.

Tags: biodiversity, driftwood, environment, liverpool, museum exhibit, silas birtwhistle

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Indianapolis Museum Exhibit Celebrates Centuries of Luxe Adornment

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

The glamourous gown shown above, a silk ball gown embroidered with metallic threads, pearls and sequins, by French designer Pierre Balmain from his fall/winter 1953-1954 collection, is just one of the items that will be on view at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, as part of the "Material World" exhibit starting on April 22. The Material World exhibit showcases textiles and personal adornment from cultures around the world focusing on the role of how textiles and ornamentation have been used throughout time to indicate wealth, status and power. The exhibition highlights fabrics adorned with luxurious materials including gold and metallic threads, beads, shells, mirrors, semi-precious stones, bones, fur and feathers. Items range from a Buddhist bone apron to Dior and Chanel couture pieces and span several centuries to the present day.

Tags: fashion, indianpolis museum of art, museum exhibit, musuem exhibition

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Edward Hopper and His Friends

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

Be prepared to fall in love with Edward Hopper all over again. You might even have had a poster of one of his night scenes in your college dorm room. In the new show of his work and that of some 30 other Hopper contemporaries, Hopper (1882-1967) still emerges as one of the most compelling artists of the last century. "Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time" is at the Whitney which supposedly has some 3,000 Hopper works given by his wife Jo, also an art student and the model for most of the women in his paintings.

The show covers American realism from roughly 1900-1940 and documents the way Hopper and his "friends" rebelled against the academic art that dominated Europe. No more lovely scenes of parks and posh picnics along the Seine, Hopper and his contemporaries -- William Glackens, George Bellow, Thomas Hart Benton to name just a few whose works are on view --- painted everyday scenes. They were drawn to tugboats, bridges, railroad cars, the new skyscrapers. But unlike his contemporaries, Hopper disliked regionalism which made a caricature of America. He advocated an "American art that transcended national, local, and regional traits," according to the sumptuous show catalog.

Tags: American realism, edward hopper, Everett Shinn, George Bellows, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, painting, Thomas Hart Benton, whitney museum, William Glackens

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Gemstone Carvings On Display In Orange County Museum

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Art

The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California is showcasing "Gemstone Carvings: The Masterworks of Harold Van Pelt." Harold Van Pelt has created delicate carvings out of quartz, agate and other stones, a pastime he's had for 40 years but rarely showcased. Van Pelt and his wife Erica have a long history with the museum and photographed two gem show catalogs for the museum. The exhibit is the first in the Bowers' new PIMCO Foundation Gallery.

Shown at right is a carved agate drinking vessel with a gold capped nose. The Orange County Register has a comprehensive review of the show that highlights some of the amazingly detailed pieces created by this 85-year-old artist. He has carved bowls, drinking vessels, eggs, and even an anatomically correct copy of his wife's hand out of agate. Another beautiful piece is a skeleton hand made of milky white chalcedony. Van Pelt has never sold a piece but it is likely that they could sell for $25,000 to $100,000. The display is open until May 2011 and tickets are $12 for adults. After it closes next year it will likely travel to the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.

Tags: bowers museum, gemstone carvings, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, santa ana

Mermaids Delight At Cape Cod Museum

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Cape Cod in the summertime is an artist's paradise and the Cape has a long tradition of many artists. One of the most classically Cape Cod artists is Ralph Cahoon, a native Cape Codder whose legacy lives on at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, Massachusetts. A new exhibit at the museum, "Chasing the Mermaids," is dedicated to Ralph and his wife, Martha Farham Cahoon. The museum is their former home and studio, a Colonial Georgian home that was built in 1775.

Cahoon was born in Chatham in 1910 and died in 1982. His graceful mermaids in fantastical scenes often featuring clipper ships and hot air balloons were some of his most popular and well-collected works. The exhibition which is currently on and runs until September 19 features more than 50 works across four galleries that are arranged in mostly chronological order with some paintings with similar themes gathered together. The paintings were gathered from collectors for the exhibit.

Ralph and Martha Cahoon began as furniture restorers and decorators, painting folk scenes on trunks, tables and other pieces. When an heiress asked the Cahoons to make framed pictures to sell in her gallery their art career took off. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy even bought a pair of the paintings in 1961. The Cape Cod Times reports that the highest selling price for a Cahoon painting was $179,000 in 2000.

[via ArtFix Daily]

Tags: cape cod, folk art, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, ralph cahoon

Bank Of America Showcases Western Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

Last month I wrote about an exhibit featuring Bank of America's contemporary art holdings in Charlotte. Should you be interested in seeing the works of another artist in the B of A holdings you'll need to travel to Kansas City, Missouri. That's where the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will be presenting Romancing the West: Alfred Jacob Miller in the Bank of America Collection from September 25, 2010-January 9, 2011. The exhibit showcase the work of the Baltimore portraitist who in 1837 was invited on the adventure of a lifetime, tagging along with Scottish nobleman Captain William Drummond Stewart and the American Fur Company expedition on a six-month adventure to the Rocky Mountains. They trekked along the Oregon Trail to the annual gathering of the fur trade and Miller was one of the first American artists to bring the images of the American West to vivid life.

The exhibit shows 30 works on paper not seen in the public since 1964. Miler made more than 100 field sketches during the expedition, sketches that became the inspiration for at least a thousand paintings and watercolors. The six-month journey set him up for the next three decades as he received commissions for albums of watercolors and full-sized oil paintings that he produced in his studio. The works from the Bank of America Collection represent intermediary work based on his field sketches and done in preparation for the commissioned work.

"We are thrilled to share Miller's work with the general public," said Margaret C. Conrads, Samuel Sosland Senior Curator, American Art, at the Nelson-Atkins and curator of the exhibition. "Viewers will find that fact mixes with fantasy to reflect life on the frontier both as it was and as it was imagined to be."

After debuting at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art the exhibition will head to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2011.

[via Art Fix Daily]

Tags: american west, art exhibit, Art Exhibition, art exhibits, bank of america, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, nelson-atkins museum, western art

YouTube Videos To Play At The Guggenheim

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Your YouTube video could make it into the Guggenheim Museum. The museum has announced a new exhibition, YouTube Play, which is a partnership between the video site and the museum. YouTube user submit their short creative videos at http://youtube.com/play. The top 20 videos will be chosen by a jury of professional artists and will be on view this fall at Guggenheim museums around the world. This project isn't for goofy videos of your cat, the Guggenheim is looking for high-quality artistic work. The YouTube Play site also bears advertising from HP. Submissions will close July 31. The works will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on October 21, 2010 with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. The videos will be on view to the public from October 22 through 24 in New York and on the YouTube Play channel. So far the channel has around 5,000 subscribers.

[via Washington Post]

Tags: guggenheim, Guggenheim Museum, museum, museum exhibit, museums, video arts, youtube, youtube playlists

Witty and Whimsical Posters in New Haven

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

"Art for All: British Posters for Transport," a new show at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, is a hoot. British mass transit, the railroads and Underground (subway), wanted riders to be adventurous, comfortable, and well-informed. They had a brilliant idea to make this happen ---the power of persuasive art. To encourage the doubtful to ride the rails, they hired artists to design posters that displayed a lot of whimsy and imagination.

Tags: British Mass Transit, British posters, museum exhibit, museum exhibition, trains and subways, travel posters, Yale Center for British Art

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Yves Saint Laurent's Legacy Explored In Paris

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

The legacy of Yves Saint Laurent gets a deep exploration in an exhibition currently at the Petit Palais in Paris. The show is the first in Paris since the designer's death in 2008 and explores the full measure of Saint Laurent's considerable influence on fashion. The LA Times reports that the show is nearly three times the size of the 2008 exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California. It includes 307 haute couture and ready-to-wear garments, together with photographs, drawings and films.

Tags: museum, museum exhibit, museums, Yves Saint Laurent

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