Editors Please Note

New and Upcoming Exhibitions

• PHILAGRAFIKA 2010: The Graphic Unconscious—Works by Óscar Muñoz and Tabaimo
  January 29 – April 11, 2010
  
  

  The printed image lies at the heart of the work of many contemporary artists, but just as printed materials have become ubiquitous in visual culture, passing nearly unnoticed, so too have print processes become an integral part of art-making without always being acknowledged. The 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. The core exhibition of the festival, The Graphic Unconscious, will be shown across five venues, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Museum will display installations by 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.

  Tabaimo (b. 1975) often portrays communal places such as public restrooms, commuter trains, and bathhouses in her video works—settings where anonymity and intimacy can collide and the orderly surface of Japanese society is disturbed. Drawing on the aesthetics of traditional Japanese woodcuts as well as the frequently violent narratives of Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime), Tabaimo’s video projections (often life-size or larger) are installed in well-defined spaces or stage-like settings in which they directly confront, envelop, or otherwise encompass the viewer. The U.S. debut of her video installation, dolefullhouse (2007), will be presented in the Museum’s Stieglitz gallery.

  Oscar Muñoz (b.1951) blurs the boundaries between photography, printmaking, drawing, installation, video and sculpture. He uses innovative processes, such as screenprinted charcoal portraits on water, to create images that address the ephemeral nature of human existence, memory, and history. Muñoz will present two projects in the Berman Gallery: screenprinted charcoal self-portraits on water, titled Narcisos en proceso (Narcissi in process), 1994-ongoing, and a set of video portraits of people who are deceased or have disappeared, Biographies, (2002).

  The institutions participating in The Graphic Unconscious are: Moore College of Art & Design, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Print Center, Temple Gallery, Temple University, and Tyler School of Art. Thirty-five artists from 18 countries will be represented. PHILAGRAFIKA 2010 is the inaugural presentation of an international festival celebrating the print in contemporary art that is based in Philadelphia with installations and exhibitions at a broad range of cultural institutions and sites in the city.

  These exhibitions, part of the multi-site exhibition PHILAGRAFIKA 2010: The Graphic Unconscious, were organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with PHILAGRAFIKA, a nonprofit arts organization in Philadelphia that provides leadership for large-scale, collaborative initiatives with broad public exposure. Program support for The Graphic Unconscious is provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support for the installations by Óscar Muñoz and Tabaimo at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was provided by the Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia and the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Colombia, the Sicardi Gallery, Houston, Texas, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and other generous individuals.

  Curator: Shelley R. Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings
  Location: Berman and Stieglitz Galleries, Ground floor: Muñoz (Berman Gallery); Tabaimo (Stieglitz Gallery)

  Press Images

• Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris
  February 24 – April 25, 2010
  
  One of the most innovative and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) was at his most inventive between 1905 and 1945. Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris surveys the artist's remarkable output, from his early experiments with abstraction to his pioneering role in the development of Cubism, as well as his dialogue with Surrealism and other important art movements. The exhibition also explores the role of Paris in the history of modern art, when artists from around the world followed Picasso’s example and moved to the French capital. It will include nearly 200 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Picasso, Braque, Léger, Chagall, Dalí, and many others, who collectively formed an avant-garde group that became known as the School of Paris. Among the major works in the exhibition are Picasso’s Three Musicians (1921), a grand summation of the artist’s decade-long exploration of Synthetic Cubism, Fernand Léger's The City (1919), and Marc Chagall's Half Past Three (The Poet) (1911).

  The exhibition presents a unique opportunity to display the Museum’s important collection of works on paper by these artists, most notably collages by Picasso and Braque, which, due to their light sensitivity, are only occasionally on view. Several paintings that have not been displayed in several decades will also be on view. The exhibition will be arranged to chronicle the dramatic evolution of Picasso’s art, from the early, iconic Self-portrait with Palette (1906), in which the young artist unabashedly proclaims his mastery and command, to Woman with Loaves (1906) in which he begins to use archaic and non-western art forms to reinvent human anatomy, to later works that are infused with surrealism and neoclassicism.

  Although Picasso and Braque pioneered Cubism, with its flattened forms and multiple perspectives, the exhibition will also include works by artists such as Juan Gris and Léger, who began to formulate their own visions in response. The exhibition further considers the role of American and Eastern European artists who joined the thriving scene in Paris, among them Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, Charles Demuth, Jacques Lipchitz, Man Ray, and Max Weber.

  Through the dizzying shifts in style and technique that marked these tumultuous years, Picasso continued to be a galvanizing force for the artists around him. The exhibition demonstrates the variety and innovation of his work during this time, and brings to life the extraordinary atmosphere of early 20th century Paris and the significant artwork that emerged there.

  Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris is made possible by GlaxoSmithKline.Additional funding is provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Promotional support provided by NBC 10 WCAU; Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PCVB) and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC); The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com; and Amtrak.
  

  Curator: Michael Taylor, The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art
  Location: Dorrance Galleries

  Press Images

• The Platinum Process: Photographs from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century
  February 27 – May 23, 2010
  
  Photographers have long been seduced by the subtle and lustrous shades of the platinum print, which range from the deepest blacks to the most delicate whites. More than 50 works from the late 19th century to the present are included in the exhibition, showcasing outstanding prints largely drawn from the Museum’s collection of photographs. Highlights include images by early masters of the process including Frederick H. Evans (1853-1943) and Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), as well as works by skilled contemporary practitioners such as Lois Conner (born 1951) and Andrea Modica (born 1960), who continue to engage in this historic and painstaking process in an era marked today by electronic imaging.

  Revered for its permanence as well as its tonal depth and beauty, platinum has been treasured by photographers and collectors since its introduction in 1873, its popularity impeded only by its high cost and its scarcity. Unlike standard silver printing, in which particles are suspended in gelatin, platinum is brushed directly onto the paper, allowing artists to create a matte image that boasts an exceptionally wide tonal range. While encompassing works spanning many dates and styles, The Platinum Process highlights one of the Museum's treasures, the 1915 masterpiece Wall Street, by Paul Strand (1890-1976), whose work was at the forefront of the modernist aesthetic developing in New York during the early 20th century. In this work, he used platinum’s subtlety to emphasize abstract patterns in the long shadows cast by figures that appear dwarfed before a succession of monumental windows.

  This exhibition is supported by the Arlin and Neysa Adams Fund.

  Curator: Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, and Julia Dolan, The Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow
  Location: The Julien Levy Gallery, the Perelman Building

  Press Images

• Arts of Bengal: Town, Temple, Mosque
  March 13 through August 2010
  
  The great cities of Bengal (modern Bangladesh and parts of eastern India) have long functioned as artistic hubs where professional painters, weavers, and sculptors catered to both local and European clientele. Under British colonial rule, artists in Calcutta (modern Kolkata), Dacca (Dhaka), Murshidabad, and Patna, produced silver vessels adorned with scenes of rural life, silk saris brocaded with images of urban pleasures, and paintings of colorful festivals. Temples and mosques, often decorated with intricately molded terracotta bricks, also fostered artistic creativity. Some even provided venues for artists to sell paintings satirizing city life. Bengal’s rich urban fabric also offered inspiration to artist-intellectuals such as Jamini Roy, Mukul Dey, and Nandalal Bose as they sought to forge a modern aesthetic in the decades leading up to and following independence. Through works drawn from the Museum’s collections, this exhibition explores the texture of life and art in Bengal’s cities from the eighteenth century to the twentieth.
  

  Curator: Yael Rice, Assistant Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, and Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: The William P. Wood Gallery 227

  Press Images
• Flora and Fauna in Korean Art
  March 13, 2010 through spring 2011
  
  Artists of East Asia have been greatly inspired by depictions of flora and fauna based on Chinese works of art as well as those indigenous to various regions. The fine arts and crafts in this exhibition of 45 works from the 5th to early 20th century feature diverse representations of animals and plants that often served as living symbols of philosophical, historical, and metaphorical associations in Korea. These works, drawn from the collection, depict images of mythical animals like the dragon and phoenix, believed to protect against evil spirits, as well as plum trees, orchids, chrysanthemum, and bamboo, considered the “four friends” of literati gentlemen. Often, the metaphor of animals and plants was based on word play, giving additional meaning to certain combinations of selected animals or plants. The Korean pronunciation of the characters for "reed" and "old man" are the same (no), as are the words for "geese" and "comfort"(ahn). Thus, traditional Korean paintings of reeds and geese represent a wish for a peaceful life in later years.

  The highlight of the paintings, ceramics and lacquer objects on view is a pair of court paintings of phoenixes and peacocks with a paulownia and peach tree. These rare and exquisite paintings of the 19th-century Chosŏn dynasty have been newly conserved and remounted in Korea, and make their debut in this exhibition. They would have functioned both as wall decoration and as an emblem of good fortune in the setting of a Chosŏn palace. Owing to the fragility of works on paper and silk, the paintings will be rotated periodically.

  Curator: Hyunsoo Woo, The Maxine and Howard Lewis Associate Curator of Korean Art
  Location: Gallery 237 and East Asian Art Gallery 238

  Press Images
  
  
• Visions of Venice: Eighteenth-Century Prints from the Collection
  April 24 – July 18, 2010
  
  Venice in the 18th century was a leading center of European culture. The arts of painting and sculpture, printmaking and drawing flourished alongside music and theater, fashion and design, attracting travelers from around the world. Prompted by this thriving tourist trade, Venetian artists created lively prints of the city and its people for aristocratic visitors to take home.

  This exhibition surveys the broad range of Venetian print production, featuring over 70 works by artists such as Canaletto, Marco Ricci, Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, and Pietro Longhi. The images on view celebrate the culture and beauty of the city with the characteristic inventiveness of the Venetian Rococo style. Vedute, topographical or imaginary views of Venice, dominated the market, recording the city’s architecture as well as major ceremonies and festivals. Capricci prints, blending fantasy and reality in spirited scenes of classical ruins, were also popular, while genre prints, or representations of everyday life among all social classes, were sought after by tourists and Venetians alike. The exhibition is further enlivened by a small selection of drawings and paintings by notable Venetian masters.

  Curators: Sarah Cantor, The Dorothy J. del Bueno Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, and John Ittmann, Curator of Prints.
  Location: Berman Gallery, ground floor
  

  
  Press Images
• Water Work
  Summer 2010
  
  This exhibition features images in which water is the principal theme, highlighted in a selection of modern and contemporary prints, drawings, and photographs from the permanent collection. Some 15 works will be on view, ranging from Ellsworth Kelly’s brush-and-ink drawing Reflections in the Seine (1950), to Untitled (after Tomb of the Diver, Paestum) (2002), a crayon-and-charcoal drawing on blue paper by Robert Moskowitz. Works by artists including Ed Ruscha, Roni Horn, Robert Moskowitz, Vija Celmins, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Georgia O’Keeffe will also be on view.

  Curator: Innis H. Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs
  Location: Stieglitz Gallery, ground floor
  

• Late Renoir
  June 17 – September 6, 2010
  
  Focusing on the final three decades of his career, this international traveling exhibition explores the innovative techniques Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French 1841-1919) adopted in response to his dissatisfaction with the limitations of the Impressionist method and subject matter that he pioneered earlier in his career.

  Devoting himself to joyful subjects such as bathers, domestic scenes, and landscapes, Renoir eventually came to use fluid brushstrokes and a remarkable palette to depict scenes influenced by classical mythology and by his recent move to the south of France. While he was troubled by arthritis and became increasingly limited in his movements, he turned for inspiration to the scenes around him, winning the admiration of the modernist avant-garde who recognized and admired in the monumentality of his figures and smooth handling of paint that Renoir had gone beyond Impressionism to create art that was both classical and modern. Renoir’s late work began to fall out of favor with critics in the mid-20th century, and the exhibition will provide an opportunity to revisit this period of Renoir’s career and to assess his substantial legacy for younger painters such as Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Approximately 80 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Renoir will be displayed alongside 20 works by artists who emerged in the next generation.

  This exhibition is organized by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This exhibition is supported in part by The Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions. Major foundation support for this exhibition is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Robert Lehman Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, generous contributors to the Renoir Salon, and other individual donors. Promotional support is provided by Amtrak.

  Itinerary: The Grand Palais, Paris (September 23, 2009-January 4, 2010); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (February 14-May 9, 2010); Philadelphia Museum of Art (June 17-September 6, 2010)
  Curator: Jennifer Thompson, The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Associate Curator, European Painting Before 1900
  Catalogue: The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
  Location: Dorrance Galleries

  Press Images
• Plain Beauty: White Porcelain of the Chŏson Dynasty (1392 – 1910) and The “Vessel” Series by Bohnchang Koo
  June 19 – September 26, 2010
  
  Simple monochrome white porcelains have been produced in Korea since the beginning in the 15th century and have often reflected the ideals and taste of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910) which promoted the virtues of a frugal and restrained lifestyle. The production of porcelain continued throughout the early 20th century, yielding vessels of diverse functions, sizes, and shapes. In China, the preference for plain white wares was long ago replaced by lavishly decorated vessels with flamboyant, multicolored patterns, and as a result monochrome wares remained a uniquely Korean phenomenon. This exhibition explores the elegant beauty of plain white Korean porcelain with objects drawn from the Museum’s collections and loans from other collections in the United States. The works range from a small water dropper to an imposing globular “moon jar.” The porcelains are complemented by an installation of large-scale photographs by Koo Bohnchang (b. 1953), which capture the subtle beauty of undecorated white porcelains. Koo visited museums within and outside Korea to develop the almost portrait-like images, which feature off-center compositions, sectional details, and subtle pink tones.

  Curator: Hyunsoo Woo, The Maxine and Howard Lewis Associate Curator of Korean Art
  Location: Levy Gallery, Perelman Building
  

• John G. Johnson and the Theatrum Pictorium of David Teniers II
  June 12 through fall 2010
  
  The John G. Johnson collection, assembled by the Philadelphia lawyer who bequeathed it to the city of Philadelphia in 1914, is considered one of the finest samples of paintings collected by an individual in the United States. In his collecting of Old Master works, Johnson was frequently unorthodox. While others sought after the barnyard scenes and village fairs by renowned Flemish master David Teniers II, Johnson assembled five of Tenier’s sketches for his 1660 Theatrum Pictorium, the world’s first fully illustrated and printed collection catalogue.

  This grand project was undertaken by Teniers to publish the Italian paintings collection of his master and patron, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. Teniers created small oil sketches of 243 of the paintings, noting the dimensions at the bottom. These sketches were then engraved by printmakers in Antwerp. The five sketches and completed catalogue on view will illustrate the nexus of art and science in the art of Teniers. He became especially influential in the art and intellectual world of the following century as a result of his precise, but lighthearted translation of Wilhelm's Theatrum Pictorium.

  Curator: Lloyd DeWitt, Associate Curator of European Painting Before 1900
  Location: Johnson Study Gallery 273
  
• Michelangelo Pistoletto: From One to Many, 1956 - '73
  Fall 2010
  
  Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italian, born 1933) is among the most influential European contemporary artists and is increasingly gaining recognition in the United States as forerunner to contemporary participatory practices. As the artist’s first focused survey in the United States in more than two decades, this exhibition places Pistoletto’s work in the context of the socio-cultural transformations of Italy, Western Europe, and North America in the post-war period, while also exploring its relationship to pop, minimalism, and conceptual art. Drawing from American and European public and private collections, the exhibition will include approximately 80-90 works, many of which have not been exhibited before in the United States.

  From One to Many will trace the progression of Pistoletto’s artistic focus from 1956 to 1974, starting with his rigorous investigation of self-representation through self-portraiture in the mid-1950s. At the time, Pistoletto sought to include the image of the spectator in his paintings by working with progressively reflective surfaces, a process that culminated in his Quadri specchianti (Mirroring Paintings) of the early 1960s. The exhibition will present a comprehensive group of these works in which the artist glued hand-painted figures onto mirroring stainless steel panels that reflect the fleeting image of the viewer. Another highlight will be a section devoted to Pistoletto’s influential Oggetti in meno from 1965-66, a group of sculptural objects that emphasize singularity and difference over the seriality and homogeneity of minimalism. In addition, the exhibition will include Pistoletto’s Plexiglas works from 1964 that prefigure conceptualism, his iconic Stracci (Rags) sculptures from the late-1960s and early-1970s that exemplify his arte povera period, and interactive documentation of the performance work that he produced with his Zoo group during the period 1968-1970.

  The Museum will also present the artist’s current project, Cittadellarte, an interdisciplinary laboratory for art and cultural production, through an exhibition and associated program of activities in the Perelman Building’s Exhibition Gallery. Michelangelo Pistoletto: Cittadellarte will highlight the intellectual, political, and social dialogues fostered by Cittadellarte, which was founded by the artist in 1998 in Biella, Italy, that intends to place “art at the center of a responsible transformation of society.” The installation will host a series of performances, lectures, and workshops bringing the innovative spirit of this artistic center to the Museum and the city of Philadelphia.

  Curator: Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art
  Location: Dorrance Galleries and Exhibition Gallery, Perelman Building
  

  Press Images
• Eakins on Paper: Drawings and Watercolors in honor of the 150th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Sketch Club
  September – December 2010
  
  In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Philadelphia Sketch Club, a selection of 10 rarely-seen drawings and watercolors will survey the early work of Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), considered as one of the great draftsmen in American art. Life-class drawings in charcoal from his student days during the 1860s at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts illustrate the central focus on figure drawing that inspired the formation of the Sketch Club that same decade. After study in Paris from 1866 to 1870, Eakins returned to Philadelphia to share his expertise with the club's members, offering critiques at their life-class sessions in the 1870s before he began to teach at the Academy. Other examples of Eakins' figure subjects in pen and ink and watercolor on view will include a rare wash drawing of Dr. Samuel Gross from 1875, based on the image in The Gross Clinic, and unusual tracings from his own photographs in the early 1880s, documenting his scientific interest in human anatomy. These drawings will be displayed alongside figure subjects and portraits in oil that demonstrate Eakins's reputation as a master of realism.

  Curators: Kathleen Foster, The Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Senior Curator of American Art
  Location: Provident National Bank Gallery 118

  Press Images
• Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection
  September – November 2010
  
  Three decades of objects collected by Xavier Guerrand-Hermès, of the renowned Paris-based fashion empire, illuminate the diversity and beauty of traditional North African jewelry design through some 80 pieces of jewelry and nearly 30 late-19th- and early-20th-century photographs by artists from Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia. Desert Jewels features ornate necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings, most of which have never been publicly displayed. Designers working with inventive combinations of silver, coral, amber, coins, and semi-precious stones highlight cultural threads shared by many North African societies, while exploring local variations in materials and motifs.

  North African jewelry came to the attention of Western collectors in the 19th century, when archaeological monuments in North Africa were being explored, visited, and in some cases, pillaged. The jewelry was also captured in photographs by artists including the Scotsman George Washington Wilson, the Neurdine brothers from France, and the Turkish photographer Pascal Sabah, who visited the region and photographed landscapes, architecture, markets, and people adorned in their jewels. Some of these images were used for postcards, while other remained hidden in little-known collections. This exhibition is organized by the Museum for African Art in New York.

  Curator: Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles
  Location: Spain Gallery, Perelman Building Hyunsoo Woo, The Maxine and Howard
  

  Press Images

Ongoing Exhibitions

• Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s
  Through January 31, 2010
  
  The 1960s were a critical period for the art of photography in Philadelphia, as artists including Emmet Gowin, Will Larson, and Ray K. Metzker—among the first to be trained in university art departments—came to Philadelphia to teach in the city’s renowned art schools, bringing with them experimental approaches to the medium.

  Common Ground examines work by these internationally acclaimed artists along with superb work by lesser-known figures, including some of their students, who pushed photographic experimentation to explore both the medium and the social and sexual politics of the era. In addition to highlighting eight strong bodies of work, the exhibition demonstrates the rich exchange of ideas possible within a city's artistic community.

  Metzker’s Composites: Philadelphia (1964), catalogs time and motion through a sequence of images, presenting an elegant meditation on photography's unique qualities among the visual arts. At the same time, it is a penetrating vision of urban life during the 1960s. The exhibition will include work by Will Brown, Emmet Gowin, Catherine Jansen, Will Larson, David Lebe, Sol Mednick, Ray Metzker, and Carol Taback.

  Curator: Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, with Julia Dolan, The Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow
  Location: Julien Levy Gallery, Perelman Building

  Press Release | Press Images

• Wrought & Crafted: Jewelry and Metalwork 1900 to Present
  Through February 7, 2010
  
  
  Philadelphia has a rich history of metalwork, and owes much of its early development to the industrial welders who helped shape the city during its settlement. The city has continued to rely on the skills of metalsmiths, who have gradually incorporated ornate design into functional works over the centuries. Wrought & Crafted: Jewelry and Metalwork 1900 to the Present showcases more than 50 works from the Museum’s collection, ranging from Samuel Yellin’s early 20th-century “Pair of Interior Gates” (1925), to Jonathan Bonner’s modern copper sculpture “Open Ends” (1998). Crowning the jewelry division of the exhibition is a necklace by Ford/Forlano titled “Pillow Collar Necklace” (2009), an elaborate, expansive piece made of overlapping forms of polymer clay, silver and gold. Commissioned by the Museum in memory of its late director, Anne d’Harnoncourt, with funds generously provided by the Women’s Committee, the ornate “Pillow Collar Necklace” reflects the intersection between the solid lines of the more traditionally crafted sculptures, and the delicate, whimsical touches applied to the brooches and rings in the exhibition.

  Curator: Elisabeth Agro, the Nancy M. McNeil Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts
  Location: North Auditorium Gallery

  Press Release | Press Images

• A Purer Taste of Forms and Ornaments: Josiah Wedgwood and the Antique
  Through March 14, 2010
  
  In 1759, the young Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95), who was destined to become one of England’s most famous potters, established his first factory at the Ivy House Works in Burslem, England. This exhibition celebrates the 250th anniversary of the factory’s opening with some 20 pieces of Wedgwood, including a large “Krater” vase from the Museum’s collection, decorated in imitation of the red-figure painting of the ancient Greeks and Romans using a process Wedgwood patented in 1769 as “encaustic.”

  The influence on Wedgwood of a publication titled Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton is also an integral part of the exhibition. In 1769, Wedgwood was lent early proofs of the catalogue that documented the collection of Greek and Italian vases assembled by Sir William Hamilton, British envoy to the King of Two Sicilies. This catalogue—a copy of which will be included in the exhibition—would serve as a source of inspiration at the Wedgwood factory for decades. Wedgwood’s enormous success in the later part of the 18th century was achieved through a rare combination of business acumen, scientific interests, and artistic talents. The early years of the factory coincided with the emergence of the neoclassical style, following the discovery of the ancient buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, and Wedgwood was instrumental in establishing a taste for the antique that quickly found favor with an aristocratic English clientele, including King George III and Queen Charlotte.

  Curator: Donna Corbin, Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts
  Location: European Decorative Arts, Gallery 295

  Press Images

• Ragas and Rajas: Musical Imagery of Courtly India
  Through February 28, 2010
  
  Drawing together a diverse range of paintings and sculptures from across the subcontinent, this exhibition explores the confluence of sight and sound, king and god throughout a millennium of artistic vision in India.

  As the arts of India reveal in this presentation of more than 30 works, music played a central role in the lives of rajas(rulers) and their retinues. Depictions of royal assemblies invariably include musicians, as do scenes of festivals and celebrations for birth or marriage. Drums and horns rallied troops and announced the arrival of the raja’s army, as shown in paintings from across the region. Music was also (and is still today) central to the worship, identities, and stories of supreme royalty—the Hindu gods. In the idyllic “miniature” painting “The Gods Sing and Dance for Shiva and Parvati” (1780-1790), the entertainment of the divine court echoes that of the earthly. For some deities, music-making is inseparable from their identities: Krishna enchants devotees with his flute; Shiva plays his two-headed drum as he dances the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction.

  Artists also imagined the modes of classical Indian music (ragas) as vivid scenes from an idealized world inhabited by human and divine courtiers. These images were paired with poetry and organized into sets called ragamalas (garlands of ragas). Made exclusively for India’s royal patrons, ragamalas blend music, poetry, and painting in a unique synthesis of aesthetic experiences.

  Curator: Yael Rice, Assistant Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: The William P. Wood Gallery, 227

  Press Images

• The Two Qalams: Islamic Arts of Pen and Brush
  Through August 2010
  
  
  This exhibition explores the relationship between calligraphers and artists through five works of calligraphy, drawing, and painting dating from the 17th through 19th century. A highlight from this group is a never-before-exhibited Mughal tinted drawing of around 1600, which, in its subject matter and emphasis upon bold and graceful linear effects, borrows from both European prints and Islamic calligraphies.

  In Arabic, the word qalam originally meant the calligrapher’s reed pen. Calligraphers were and are esteemed in Islamic circles because their pens write the sacred words of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. The attitude toward painters, however, has not always been so positive since their brushes could depict—thus create—human and animal figures, thereby challenging the sole creative authority of God.

  Persian poets of the 16th century countered this negative perception by describing the painter’s brush as a second qalam, equivalent to that of the calligrapher’s pen. The two qalams came together in the vibrant bookmaking workshops of the Islamic courts of Persia and India, where calligraphers and painters collaborated to produce a wealth of elaborate manuscripts and albums in which the art of pen and brush merged with exquisite results.

  Curator: Yael Rice, Assistant Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: Shah Abbas Cubiculum, Gallery 228

  Press Images

Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms: Light Passage
Through March 21, 2010

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fabric Workshop and Museum present a multi-site exhibition of the work of Cai Guo-Qiang, one of the most prominent contemporary artists on the international art scene. Inspired by the memory of Anne d'Harnoncourt (1943-2008), late director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and her long friendship with the founder and artistic director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Marion Boulton Stroud, Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms addresses themes of memory, loss and renewal on a personal and public level. Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms includes four components, distributed between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fabric Workshop and Museum. In addition to the explosion event on December 11, a series of four gunpowder drawings and a sculptural installation will be on view inside the Museum in a presentation titled Light Passage. The drawings, which follow the cycle of the four seasons, were created by igniting patterns of gunpowder on paper, evoking and renewing the spirit and tradition of Chinese literati ink painting. In the same gallery will be 99 Golden Boats (2002), an installation consisting of leaf-shaped boats made of gold and suspended as if floating on an invisible river.
Press Release | Press Images
• Memling’s Tondos of the Madonna and Child
  Through March 28, 2010
  
  Two well-known tondos, or round paintings, by the great early Flemish master Hans Memling (1430 – 1494) frame this exploration of late 14th-century devotional scenes of the Virgin and Christ child in a focused exhibition. Working in Bruges, Memling followed in the footsteps of Jan van Eyck (c.1395-1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (c.1399/1400 – 1464), refining their graceful, elegant and rich style. In the two small round works on display, however, he followed models by Robert Campin (c. 1375-1444), another great master of the early Flemish school. Campin’s Christ and the Virgin (1430-35) is considered a masterful composition of microscopic realism for which early Netherlandish painting is renowned, and in which Campin’s love of Byzantine prototypes is especially evident. The nine works in the exhibition demonstrate the power of maternal love, but also the power of prototypes, as each of the artists paid homage to models and masters of great authority. The tondos on display span from 1420 – 1500, and show hieratic, non-narrative devotion scenes that were created for domestic use, most likely in private chambers or bedrooms, not unlike the round convex mirrors they resembled.

  Curator: Lloyd DeWitt, Associate Curator of European Art before 1900
  Location: European Art Gallery 218
  

  Press Images

• An Enduring Motif: The Pomegranate in Textiles
  Through spring 2010
  
  Artists have been inspired by the inner and outer beauty of the pomegranate since biblical times. An Enduring Motif: The Pomegranate in Textiles presents nine textiles from the Museum’s collection, each of which feature the richly symbolic fruit. The pomegranate tree or shrub is known for its spherical, calyx-crowned red fruit filled with hundreds of seeds. It originated in Persia (present-day Iran) several thousand years ago and is still prized for its sweet-sour flavor and medicinal properties. Historically, the pomegranate tree’s bark has been a source of tannin used in curing leather and its rind and flowers used as a textile dye. In addition to its practical uses, the pomegranate has been cross-culturally revered for centuries as a symbol of health, fertility, and resurrection.
  

  Curator: Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles
  Location: Costume and Textile Gallery 271

  Press Images

• Notations/Bruce Nauman: Days and Gioni
  Through April 4, 2010
  
  The Museum hosts the U.S. premiere of Bruce Nauman’s two new sound installations, Days and Giorni (both 2009). These groundbreaking works were exhibited as integral parts of Bruce Nauman, Topological Gardens, the U.S. representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition—La Biennale de Venezia, which in June was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for the Best National Participation. In these new works created for the Biennale, the days of the week are recited in subtly varying combinations by a range of participants and recorded as individual audio tracks. The voices differ in language—English in Days and Italian in Giorni—and also rhythm and progression. Whereas Days was recorded and edited over a long period of time, Nauman worked with the participants that gave voices to Giorni (the students and faculty of the Iuav University) during a single day in Venice. New Yorker critic Calvin Tomkins described the community of voices that emerge in the works as “discrete ribbons of sound” in which we hear the “human voice making unintentional music as it evokes the passage of time.” Mesmerizing and moving, the effect of Days and Giorni is also forceful and unrelenting. As Nauman both repeats and deftly rearranges the days of the week, he alters and undermines the sequence that normally measures the passage of time.

  Notations/Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni is made possible by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Henry Luce Foundation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, with additional funding from Agnes Gund, Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, Sperone Westwater Gallery, and many other Friends of Bruce Nauman. The related catalogue was made possible by Isabel and Agustín Coppel, and was published on the occasion of the premiere of these works in Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, the official U.S. representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition--La Biennale di Venezia, which was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The additional publication Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens/Installation Views is supported by a professional development grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.
  

  Curator: Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art and Erica F. Battle, Project Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art
  Location: The Gisela and Dennis Alter Gallery 176, and Exhibition Gallery, Perelman Building.

  Press Release | Press Images

• Jun Kaneko
  Through April 18, 2010
  
  A suite of four large glazed ceramic sculptures by Jun Kaneko, on view in the Skylit Galleria of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, was installed to coincide with the East Coast debut of the artist’s production of the opera Madama Butterfly at the Opera Company of Philadelphia October 9 – 18, 2009. The sculptures, all of them rounded and richly decorated forms, are part of a larger body of works, or dangos, from the Japanese artist’s Mission Clay Project, so named after a sewer-pipe factory where Kaneko fired his work in a beehive kiln. Altogether, 41 of the works are on view in Philadelphia, including City Hall, the Kimmel Center, and Locks Gallery. Each work, which takes about a year to complete, is hollow-cast, and painted with his signature striped and polka-dot patterns. Kaneko, born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942, began his formal studies in art in the United States at the Chouinard Art Institute and continued at Berkeley and Claremont Graduate School. He has been developing the dango sculptures since the mid 1990s, and some measure up to 13 feet tall.

  In conjunction with city-wide installations titled "On the Wings of Music: Art, Opera & You," celebrating Jun Kaneko's sets and costumes for Madama Butterfly, presented at the Academy of Music by the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

  Courtesy of Jun Kaneko and Locks Gallery.
  

  Curator: Elisabeth Agro, The Nancy M. McNeil Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts
  Location: Skylit Galleria, the Perelman Building

  Press Images

• Arts of Bengal: Wives, Mothers, Goddesses
  Through August 2010
  
  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, fish-shaped caskets and other implements created in resin-thread technique. Drawn from a common pool of motifs and ideas that reflect the unique environment of the region, these creations provide a rare view into women’s everyday lives and thoughts.

  Other arts, such as elaborate painted narrative scrolls and souvenir paintings from Kalighat near Calcutta, illustrate women’s roles, both domestic and divine. Representations of the great goddess Durga as beloved daughter, devoted wife, adoring mother, fierce warrior, and heroic victor epitomize the complex nature of female divinity—and of women themselves—in the stories and culture of Bengal.

  Created in conjunction with the exhibition Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection and the Stella Kramrisch Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on view in the Spain Gallery of the Museum’s Perelman Building (through July 25, 2010), Arts of Bengal: Wives, Mothers, Goddesses and the companion Arts of Bengal: Town, Temple, Mosque (Gallery 227, March 13 through summer 2010) showcase works from the Museum’s extensive holdings of Bengali vernacular arts.
  

  Curator: Yael Rice, Assistant Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, and Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: Himalayan Art Gallery 232, second floor

  Press Images

• Gifts of Fashion from Designers Honoring Tom Marotta
  Through summer 2010
  
  This exhibition presents a collection of runway styles donated by 17 celebrated designers in recognition of the creative legacy of the late fashion visionary and powerhouse Tom Marotta.

  The gifts, obtained through the auspices of Saks Fifth Avenue, reflect a diverse spectrum of contemporary special occasion and evening wear, from classic designs to cutting-edge styles. The gifts will become part of the Museum’s permanent collection, and are donated by designers including Badgley Mischka, Bill Blass Ltd., Burberry Prorsum, Oscar de la Renta, Nancy Gonzalez, Carolina Herrera, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Missoni, Zac Posen, Zandra Rhodes, Ralph Rucci, Peter Som, Valentino, and Diane von Furstenberg.

  Marotta, born in South Philadelphia, spent over 40 years working in fashion, including many at Philadelphia’s highly regarded Nan Duskin boutique. As vice president of couture for Saks Fifth Avenue, his fashion sense was much admired by loyal customers as well as emerging and established fashion designers. He earned the affection and esteem of fashion titans and was an early champion of a new generation of designers.

  This exhibition explores the creative influence behind each designer’s aesthetic, and will be accompanied by materials exploring the creative influences and inspiration behind the designers’ work.

  
  

  Curator: Kristina Haugland, Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles and Supervising Curator for the Study Room and Academic Relations
  Location: Costume and Textile Study Gallery, the Perelman Building

  Press Release | Press Images

• Marcel Wanders: Daydreams
  Through June 13, 2010
  
  Marcel Wanders' (b.1963) unique fusion of technology, artistry, and wit have established him as a leading figure in international design. Created specifically for the Museum, this installation will showcase the designer’s favorite projects over the last 20 years, including prototypes, personal editions, and objects never before exhibited.

  Trained in The Netherlands as an industrial designer, Wanders’ work ranges from manufactured products and design-art to architecture and interior design. Using shifting video images, light, and sound, the exhibition dramatizes the evolution of Wanders’ design process and philosophy with visual and aural storytelling. Several films will demonstrate how Wanders’ works are interrelated. A selection of what the artist considers his most essential works will be on view, among them: Knotted Chair, Bell Big Ben Bianco, Calvin, Lucky One, Extra Big Shadow Floor Lamp, Moosehead, Crochet Chair New Antiques Chair, and Blow Lamp. Throughout his career, Wanders has consistently challenged the premises of modernism through avant-garde works on view like Knotted Chair (1996), which marries handcraft and industrial technology; the chair is made from braided, epoxy-soaked aramide rope with a carbon-fiber core and hung in a frame to harden.

  This exhibition was made possible by Lisa S. Roberts and David W. Seltzer, and by Target, with additional support provided by Collab—a group that supports the Museum’s modern and contemporary design collection and programs.An in-kind contribution was provided by Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.
  

  Curator: Kathryn Hiesinger, Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700
  Location: Collab Gallery, Perelman Building

  Press Release | Press Images

• Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal from the Hill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection and the Stella Kramrisch Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Through July 25, 2010
  
  Lovingly created from the remnants of worn garments and embroidered with motifs and tales drawn from the rich visual and narrative repertoire of Bengal, kanthas were traditionally stitched by women as gifts to be used in the celebration of weddings and other family occasions. This exhibition presents 44 examples of this vibrant domestic art, created by village and urban women in the Bengal region, now comprised of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India between the mid-19th and the mid-20th century.

  The first exhibition devoted solely to this form of art ever presented outside of South Asia, Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal focuses on two premier collections. One was assembled and donated to the Museum by its former Curator of Indian Art, Dr. Stella Kramrisch (1896-1993). The other was assembled by Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, leading proponents of American self-taught art, who have offered their kantha collection as a promised gift to the Museum on the occasion of this exhibition. The quilts on view were created by women who, whether rural or urban, Hindu or Muslim, shared a common Bengali culture from which they drew inspiration. Embroidered kanthas served a great variety of ritual and household needs. Elaborately ornamented or especially beloved pieces might be carefully preserved and passed down through generations, but most kanthas become ever more stained, faded, and fragile until finally being used as a diaper or dishcloth, making the well-preserved kanthas in these collections especially rare.

  The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue were made possible by Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, with additional generous support from The Coby Foundation, Ltd., and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
  

  Curator: Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Location: Joan Spain Costume and Textile Gallery, Perelman Building

  Press Release | Press Images

• Pleasures and Pastimes in Japanese Art
  January 9, 2010, through fall 2010
  
  From representations of classical Noh theater masks and costumes to depictions of poetry competitions and of the joys of fishing, Pleasures and Pastimes in Japanese Art examines the myriad ways in which leisure time was interpreted across all social classes in Japanese art. The 70 or so objects on view, spanning the period from the 16th to the 20th century, encompass activities ranging from libretti and musical instruments of the theater, attended by Japanese nobility, to scroll painting and ceramics depicting fishing trips. The importance of gourmet food and drink to Japanese culture is also reflected in ceramic vessels intended for sake and by food containers on view. Other pleasures and pastimes represented include intricately designed incense burners, painted versions of ikebana—or flower arrangements—and a set of playing cards, based on 100 classical poems, still used during New Year’s celebrations in Japan today.

  Curator: Felice Fischer, The Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese Art and Curator of East Asian Art
  Location: East Asian Art Galleries 241, 242, 243

  Press Images