The collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Library and Archives have many notable associations with Arshile Gorky, ranging from books bequeathed to the Library by Alfred E. Gallatin (founder of New York University’s Gallery of Living Art, which Gorky frequently visited) to the papers of Julien Levy (Gorky’s New York art dealer). These documents, along with Library books and journals from other sources, provide a snapshot of what informed and inspired Arshile Gorky during his brief career and life.

Following the Biennale, Days and Giorni—Nauman’s new compelling sound installations recorded in two languages, English and Italian—will travel to Philadelphia, where these works will be presented in the main Museum building’s Gisela and Dennis Alter Gallery (176) and the Perelman Building’s Exhibition Gallery.

The visionary and revolutionary Dutch designer Marcel Wanders (born 1963) is creating for the Museum a dreamlike, multimedia installation of objects personally selected by the artist to represent pivotal points in his extraordinary career. Using shifting video images, lighting, and sound to illuminate the development of his boldly inventive body of work, Wanders provides the visitor with a unique visual and sensory experience dramatizing the evolution of his designs over the past twenty years.

Bengal (modern Bangladesh and eastern India) is a lush region of lotus pools, fish-filled rivers, and tiger-haunted forests punctuated by rice and banana fields, rural villages, and teeming cities. The domestic arts made by and for Bengali women during the 19th and 20th centuries include intricate embroidered quilts called kanthas, vibrant ritual paintings, and fish-shaped caskets and other implements created in resin-thread technique.

Stitching kanthas was an art practiced by women across Bengal, a region today comprising the nation of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. Lovingly created from the remnants of worn garments, kanthas are embroidered with motifs and tales drawn from a rich local repertoire and used especially in the celebration of births, weddings, and other family occasions. This exhibition presents some forty superb examples created during the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century.

From classical Noh theater to poetry competitions to the joys of fishing, the pleasures and pastimes depicted in Japanese art are many and varied. This exhibition features masks and gorgeous costumes of the Noh theater as well as libretti and musical instruments that accompany the Noh performances.

This exhibition brings together for the first time the two surviving tondos by the great Flemish master Hans Memling (c.1433 – 1494). These small round oil paintings of the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Jesus are peculiarly personal and affective devotional objects that could be held in the hand or hung on a wall.

The vital role of the printed image in contemporary art is the focus of the international festival, PHILAGRAFIKA 2010, to be held throughout the city of Philadelphia January 29 through April 11, 2010. The core exhibition of the festival, PHILAGRAFIKA 2010: The Graphic Unconscious, will be shown across five venues, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Museum will display installations by two artists, the Japanese artist Tabaimo (b. 1975) and the Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz (b. 1951), that explore the translation of printmaking into other mediums and expand the conceptual boundaries of printmaking.

An exhibition of some fifty works dating from the late nineteenth century to the present, The Platinum Process showcases a selection of outstanding platinum prints drawn from the Museum’s collection. Highlights include photographs by early masters of the platinum process including Frederick H. Evans and Paul Strand, as well as works by skilled contemporary practitioners such as Lois Conner.