2016-04-27

2194 - 20160724 - U.S.A. - WASHINGTON, DC - Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art - 03.04.2016-24.07.2016

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This exhibition surveys how America and its people have been represented in prints made by American and non-American artists between 1710 and 2010. Early prints of the continent’s indigenous peoples, its landscapes, flora and fauna, its historical events, wars, and citizenry reflect the curiosity of Europeans about a world they perceived as new and strange. At the same time, American artists often turned to prints to present a vision of their youthful democracy.

Prints are well-suited for quickly conveying images of contemporary events to a wide audience, and thus have often been a forum for social commentary or criticism. The exhibition includes works from across the centuries that aim to raise awareness and inspire change. On view, for instance, is an engraving of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere as well as a broadside from more than two hundred years later by the undercover feminist collective known as the Guerrilla Girls. The exhibition also features works by artists equally drawn to the aesthetic potential of printmaking. From James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and others of the late nineteenth century to Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler in the twentieth, vanguard artists have explored printmaking’s unique artistic possibilities. In recent years, radical experiments by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra have pushed to the breaking point the very definition of the medium.

The more than 150 prints in this exhibition, mounted on the occasion of the National Gallery’s 75th anniversary, are drawn entirely from the Gallery’s collection, including promised gifts.



 
National Gallery of Art - Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art
 03.04.2016-24.07.2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2016-04-20

2193 - 20160821 - U.S.A. - Williamsburg, VA - Hiroshige’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido - 06.02.2016-21.08.2016

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Hiroshige’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido  explores the most traveled road in old Japan with fresh eyes. This exhibition presents five distinct complete sets of Hiroshige’s The 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road never before displayed together. Centering on the fifty-five woodblock prints of Hiroshige’s famed first set, the Hoeido Tokaido (1832-1833, oban), the four additional series reveal the spectrum of Hiroshige’s visual poetry: Sanoki Tokaido (late 1830s, bound, chuban); Gyosho Tokaido (c. 1841-1842, aiban); Tsutaya Tokaido (c. 1850, bound, chuban); Upright Tokaido (1855, oban).  Hiroshige’s Tokaido  immerses the viewer in a panoramic view of the Tokaido and Hiroshige’s romance with the landscape of Japan. All works in this exhibition are on loan from the Ronin Collection of the Ronin Gallery, New York.


About Hiroshige’s Tokaido
Traveled as early as the 8th century, the Tokaido traced the eastern coastline of Japan. At the beginning of the 17th century, ruling power shifted from the emperor to the shogun, inviting an unprecedented level of activity on the road. By 1689, 53 stations connected the Eastern Capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), the seat of the shogun, to Kyoto, the Imperial capital. The Tokaido was the most traveled road in Japan: a 323-mile artery providing the backbone of trade and communication until the arrival of railways during the Meiji period. While novels, guidebooks, paintings and prints extolled the adventures of life on the road long before the Hoeido Tokaido, Hiroshige’s 55-piece set of woodblock prints captured the spirit of adventure like never before. Through changing seasons and viewpoints, 53 Stations of the Tokaido guides the viewer through each station, each veritable microcosm of Edo-period culture, as they journey from Edo’s Nihonbashi to the Sanjo Bridge in Kyoto.
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About the Artist
Known as the “poet of travel,” Hiroshige was born in Edo in 1779. He grew up in a minor samurai family and his father belonged to the firefighting force assigned to Edo Castle. While he entered his apprenticeship in 1811, Hiroshige’s artistic genius went largely unnoticed until 1832 with his groundbreaking series, 53 Stations of the Tokaido. In 1858, at the age of 61, he passed away as a result of the Edo cholera epidemic. However, the legacy of Hiroshige’s work profoundly influenced the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists of Europe: Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated with Hiroshige’s daring diagonal compositions and inventive use of perspective, while van Gogh literally copied two prints from 100 Famous Views of Edo in oil paint.
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About The Ronin Collection
The Ronin Collection is the private collection of the Ronin Gallery, a leading family-owned Japanese and East Asian art gallery in New York City, and the largest private collection of 17th-21st century Japanese prints for sale in the United States. Founded in 1975 in the Explorers Club Mansion of New York City, the Ronin Gallery is now located at Madison Ave. and 49th St. For more information about the gallery and to access the gallery’s online exhibitions, visit roningallery.com. 
 
 
 
 
Muscarelle Museum of Art - Hiroshige’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido - 06.02.2016 - 21.08.2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2016-04-13

2192 - 20160807 - U.S.A. - NEW YORK - Agitprop ! - 11.12.2015-07.08.2016

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SAHMAT, meaning "in agreement" in Hindi, was formed after the deadly beating of the socialist street theater activist Safdar Hashmi by a ruling-party candidate and his followers during a performance in 1989. Responding to such sectarian violence, the organization advocates for mutual respect within diversity through creative curatorial, performance, and publishing platforms.
One of SAHMAT's earliest efforts took advantage of existing street culture to maximize visibility for their message. The group invited Delhi's taxi drivers to redecorate their rickshaws with commentary on the theme of communal harmony. The one here reads: "Call Him Ishwar, Allah, Wahe-Guru, or Shri Ram, if you will; these are but different names for the one creator." After the official competition for best design, many rickshaws kept these painted slogans in circulation for years.

At key moments in history, artists have reached beyond galleries and museums, using their work as a call to action to create political and social change. For the past hundred years, the term agitprop, a combination of agitation and propaganda, has directly reflected the intent of this work.

Agitprop! connects contemporary art devoted to social change with historic moments in creative activism, highlighting activities that seek to motivate broad and diverse publics. Exploring the complexity, range, and impact of these artistic practices—including photography, film, prints, banners, street actions, songs, digital files, and web platforms—the exhibition expands over its run within a unique and dynamic framework. It opens with works by twenty contemporary artists responding to urgent issues of the day, in dialogue with five historical case studies. In the following months, two more waves of contemporary work are being added—on February 17 and April 6, 2016—with each wave of artists choosing those in the next.

These projects highlight struggles for social justice since the turn of the twentieth century, from women’s suffrage and antilynching campaigns to contemporary demands for human rights, environmental advocacy, and protests against war, mass incarceration, and economic inequality.

The first round of invited artists includes Luis Camnitzer, Chto Delat?, Zhang Dali, Dread Scott, Dyke Action Machine!, Friends of William Blake, Coco Fusco, Futurefarmers, Ganzeer, Gran Fury, Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Yoko Ono, Otabenga Jones & Associates, Martha Rosler, Sahmat Collective, Adejoke Tugbiyele, Cecilia Vicuña and John Dugger, and, in a collaborative work, The Yes Men with Steve Lambert, CODEPINK, May First/People Link, Evil Twin, Improv Everywhere, and Not An Alternative, along with more than thirty writers, fifty advisers, and a thousand volunteer distributors.

Agitprop! is organized by the staff of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Saisha Grayson, Assistant Curator; Catherine J. Morris, Sackler Family Curator; Stephanie Weissberg, Curatorial Assistant; and Jess Wilcox, former Programs Coordinator.


 
Brooklyn Museum - Agitprop ! - 11.12.2015 - 07.08.2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2016-04-06

2191 - 20160515 - U.S.A. - West Palm Beach - Florida - O'Keeffe, Stettheimer, Torr, Zorach: Women Modernists in New York - 18.02.2016-15.05.2016

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Florine Stettheimer
American, 1871–1944
Portrait of Myself, 1923
Oil on canvas laid on board
40 3/8 x 26 3/8 in (102.7 x 67 cm)
Art Properties, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library,
Columbia University in the City of New York,
Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967, 1967.17.05
 
This exhibition will look at the art and careers of modernists Marguerite Zorach, Florine Stettheimer, Helen Torr, and Georgia O’Keeffe together for the first time. These women all sought to be recognized as artists rather than women artists, but their identity as women shaped the circumstances under which they worked, the forms their art took, and the way their pictures were interpreted. By exploring these effects, this exhibition will reveal the influence of gender on American modernism.
 
 
 
 
Norton Museum of Art - O'Keeffe, Stettheimer, Torr, Zorach: Women Modernists in New York - 18.02.2016-15.05.2016