From Le Chat Noir to the Eiffel Tower @ The Phillips Collection

I've always been meaning to check out one of these Thursday evening events at THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION near Dupont Circle in downtown DC.

This GALLERY TALK would probably be a real treat to attend on MARCH 1:

RIVIERE AND PARIS: FROM LE CHAT NOIR TO THE EIFFEL TOWER

This talk, about photographs taken by Henri Rivière depicting all aspects of the "city of light," relates to an exhibition at the museum which I've mentioned in a previous blogpost.

Didn't we all just fall in love again with Paris after Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris"?

(I was glad that he won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar on February 26 for that film!)

Steinlen's famous "Chat Noir" poster from 1896 (c) Van Gogh Museum/Wikimedia Commons

Art for Humanity @ Wooly Mammoth Theater

Usually ads on sites like washingtonpost.com are annoying, easily ignored and best clicked "away" as soon as possible to get down to the business of reading the news - or flicking through photo galleries of post-Oscar parties. (For the record: Michelle Williams and Jessica Chastain were among my favorites this year.)

But a quietly resilient ad for the following event caught my eye - perhaps not surprisingly somewhere amid the Post's arts pages - for an upcoming DC event entitled:

ART FOR HUMANITY: AUCTION AND COCKTAIL RECEPTION 2012

This event is taking place on MARCH 29 at the WOOLY MAMMOTH THEATER.

The bad news: Ticket prices are steep - ranging from $150 (individual) to $350 (VIP).

The good news: Proceeds from this event will support the valuable work of DC HABITAT.

The auction will feature artworks by more than two dozen artists.

Let there be art!!!

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama help paint along with other volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity site in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2009. (c) White House (Peter Souza) / Wikimedia Commons

Spring Arts Preview @ WPOST

The Washington Post has released its SPRING ARTS PREVIEW, including a GOING OUT GUIDE: EXHIBITS featuring a comprehensive listing of 401 upcoming museum and gallery exhibits.

Feeling spoiled for choice?

The Post has added nifty little "check marks" to signify which shows have been singled out as Editor's Picks.

Among these  Editor's Picks one of my personal favorites is No. 399:

THE PEACOCK ROOM COMES TO AMERICA

"The Freer Gallery's Peacock Room, designed by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), will get a makeover to appear as it did in 1908, when it was the dining room of museum-founder Charles Lang Freer." - WPOST

Detail of The Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art (c) TomR/Wikimedia Commons

I have taken several visitors and art lovers from out-of-town - some from as far afield as Vienna (an international jewel in the crown of top art cities if there ever was one!) - to the Freer in the past to see the Peacock Room and the Whistler paintings on display there.

All of them - including my creatively cerebral art lover friend from Vienna - were charmed by both the Peacock Room and the bemusing story behind its creation.

As the FREER points out on the joint FREER / SACKLER Web site:

PEACOCK ROOM SHUTTERS OPEN NEXT

ON THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2012, Noon - 5:30 pm 

To learn about The Peacock Room (1876-77) before you go, visit A CLOSER LOOK.

Frida Kahlo @ Arlington's Artisphere

Frida Kahlo's powerful and deeply personal paintings are rightfully recognized as 20th-century masterpieces made by a remarkable Mexican woman who channeled the agonizing pain of an early physical injury and the heartache of a tempestuous marriage that clashed with a free-wheeling romantic life into her artwork.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (1932) (c) Carl Van Vechten

Her direct, defiant gaze permeates many of her often surreal self-portraits. Salma Hayek portrayed her in the 2002 biopic "Frida." Her former home in Mexico City now serves as a museum dedicated to her life and work.

Now Arlington's ARTISPHERE is - according to its own Web site - the first and only U.S. venue to present FRIDA KAHLO: HER PHOTOS, an exhibition of the artist's personal photographs.

The show opened on February 23 and closes on MARCH 25.

As reported on February 27 by NPR: "Kahlo's life is revealed through a recently released collection of personal photographs showing for the first time in these United States. The show is complemented by a number of film screenings, concerts, and workshops."

I must confess I have yet to visit ARTISPHERE, which bills itself as "a new breed of urban arts center that features four distinct performance venues, three visual art galleries, a 4,000 square foot ballroom, and free Wi-Fi."

The "blue house" where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived is now a museum. (c) Wiki. Commons

The Washington Post's Lavanya Ramanthan, however, gave this exhibit a lukewarm reception, claiming that it "isn’t nearly as sexy as you hope it will be."

The reason?

Everything you see on the walls at Artisphere are brilliantly reproduced (thanks to new techniques) copies: "The actual photos went on display in 2007 at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico, and have remained there since."

But c'mon - this is Frida Kahlo we're talking about here.

Given that her life still looms large and continues to fascinate her legions of admirers all over the world, I for one certainly still look forward to checking out a show that sheds light on the private life of a great 20th-century artist in a 21st-century artspace.

(Diego Rivera's Murals for the Museum of Modern Art also look interesting.)

Frida Kahlo (1932) (c) Carl van Vechten/Wikimedia Commons

The Black List @ NPG

These events at the NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY - both on FEBRUARY 25 - also look interesting:

GALLERY 360: TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS

This talk relates to his photography exhibit aptly entitled THE BLACK LIST - on display at the NPG through April 22, 2012 - a provocative play on three words.

BOOK SIGNING: GOV. DEVAL PATRICK

So many great museum events in Washington, so little time!!!

The National Portrait Gallery in Washington. (c) Wikimedia Commons

Harry Callahan @ NGA

I must confess that I know far less about photographers (bar perhaps a few "biggies," such as Ansel Adams, Frank Cappa, or Robert Doisneau) than I do about painters, so this HARRY CALLAHAN AT 100 exhibit at the NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART caught my eye.

As a total Harry Callahan greenhorn (full disclosure here: I had never even heard of him before!) I am intrigued by what this show entails.

And I am alarmed that it will close soon - on MARCH 4 - so it's high time to head over to the NGA if you're also interested in finding out more about the life's work of Harry Callahan (1912-1999).

The NGA hails him as "one of the most innovative and influential photographers of the 20th century."

Photography (c) Rodrigo Senna/Brasilia/Wikimedia Commons

African Mosaic @ NMAA

This weekend, as Black History Month comes to a close, might be a good time to check out the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Dr. Johnetta B. Cole is director of this museum, part of the Smithsonian - the world's largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers and more than 140 affiliate museums around the world.

Among the exhibits and events the museum has hosted to celebrate Black History Month (or African American History Month) will be a DIASPORA IN MOTION concert at 3 p.m. on FEBRUARY 25 as part of the "Africa in Motion" series.

Tonight's AFRICA UNDERGROUND event is sold out -  a good sign I would imagine for any museum!

I would be keen to see the AFRICAN MOSAIC exhibition.

The National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC (c) Wikimedia Commons

"Calvin and Hobbes" @ Auction

Remember the charming antics of "Calvin and Hobbes"?

Bill Watterson may have retired these popular comic characters in the mid-90's, but his original artwork is still going strong.

As recently reported by Michael Cavna for The Washington Post, an original Watterson "Calvin and Hobbes" watercolor has sold at auction for $107,550.

This may not be as much as Ron Lauder paid in 2006 for Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" ($135 million - the most expensive painting ever sold at the time), but it is nothing to scoff at either.

'Calvin and Hobbes'-style snowmen. (See the strip that appeared on January 21, 1991.) (c) Photo: Vegas Bleeds Neon/Wikimedia Commons

Watterson, a reclusive cartoonist who has reportedly granted few interviews, was born in 1958 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Chagrin Falls, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

The comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" was syndicated from 1985 to 1995.

Along with other classics of the American cartoon universe, such as  "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz and "The Far Side" by Gary Larson, Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" characters can definitely be considered part of the cannon of American art.

The African-American Experience @ New Museum on National Mall

The Smithsonian's new Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will be a place for all Americans to discover history - including art - via programs and exhibitions featuring objects ranging from Michael Jackson's hat to a vintage airplane used to train the Tuskagee Airmen to the "green books" black people used to need to find places to eat and sleep when they traveled through the United States.

An exterior architectural rendering of the forthcoming Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., expected to open in 2015. (c) Image: Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup

The museum, which is due to open near the Washington Monument in 2015, was inaugurated  via a groundbreaking ceremony attended by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on February 22, 2012 in Washington.

NMAAHC Director Lonnie G. Bunch III told the PBS Newshour that, although the museum will feature many items from famous African Americans, it will primarily be made up of the treasure trove of objects still waiting to be discovered across America in family homes. Items languishing in basements and attics - the purposes of which are often no longer recognizable to younger generations - must be documented, curated, and treasured for future generations, according to Bunch.

Lonnie Bunch, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, speaks at the museum's groundbreaking ceremony on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 22, 2012, flanked by Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama. (c) Photo: John Gibbons, Smithsonian

Given that African-American history and culture are obviously inextricably interlinked with the American experience, these objects and stories are also part and parcel of American history in the broadest sense - a history that all Americans share and should be informed about.

"We will have stories that will make you smile and stories that will make you cry," Bunch told The Associated Press.

"What this museum can do is if we tell the unvarnished truth in a way that's engaging and not preachy, what I think will happen is that by illuminating all the dark corners of the American experience, we will help people find reconciliation and healing," he added.

President Barack Obama speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 22, 2012, flanked by former First Lady Laura Bush, Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, First Lady Michelle Obama and Lonnie Bunch, director of the museum. (c) Photo: John Gibbons, Smithsonian

The museum promises to be the jewel in the crown of many existing related museums - some 300 and counting located across the country - devoted to specific aspects of this African-American experience. New museums are, for instance, also planned for the southern cities of Atlanta, Charleston and Jackson.

Although curators of some of these other museums have voiced concerns that the new Smithsonian museum in Washington will detract from their efforts - siphoning off objects and/or funding they could also use - Bunch and everyone else involved with the NMAAHC have expressed confidence that they will all benefit, in the long run, from the new musuem.

The writer Isabel Wilkerson was also interviewed for the February 22 broadcast of the PBS Newshour about the new museum. Her book "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" sounds like an interesting read.

Smithsonian senior staff and members of the National Museum of African American History and Culture Council break ground for the new museum in a ceremony held Feb. 22, 2012. From left to right: Richard Parsons, co-chair, museum council; Patty Stonesifer, Smithsonian Board of Regents member and former chair; Laura Bush, former First Lady and museum council member; Wayne Clough, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution; Lonnie Bunch, director, National Museum of African American History and Culture; Richard Kurin, Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, Smithsonian; France Córdova, chair, Smithsonian Board of Regents; and Linda Johnson Rice, co-chair, museum council. (c) Photo: Michael Barnes, Smithsonian

Art of Love @ National Portrait Gallery

My best (platonic) male friend ever in this world, an Irish-born, expat resident of Washington DC since 2006, takes all of his visitors from Europe to the NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

He says it is his favorite museum in Washington, and it is not hard to see why.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, the museum staff have come up with what promises to be a fun, interactive, after-work program on February 14 for both singles and besotted lovers alike ...

PORTRAITS AFTER 5: ART OF LOVE

Candy Hearts (c) Wikimedia Commons

(I've never cared much for V-Day myself - too much pressure on bewildered guys, too much disappointment from frustrated girls. WHO thought of creating this "holiday" in the first place? Hallmark? It seemed fun though, in grade school, when we exchanged those little cards you simply signed "To" and "From" with such gleeful, giggly innocence. It was like a big 'ol Kinderlovefest - almost ANYBODY could "Be" your "Valentine" back then! It gets a little trickier, however, when we grow up.)

August Macke @ 125

"One of the greatest artists of his generation, August Macke produced paintings that enchant viewers with vibrant hues atomized into angular abstractions of pleasant scenes including lush parks, families and urban flaneurs bursting forth like love letters to life's little pleasures."

You can read the full article I recently posted on Macke during my "day job" here:

AS CLEAR AND BRIGHT AS WAS HIS ENTIRE BEING

(I realize this does not necessarily have anything to do with current art exhibits in North America, but I just wanted to share my love of Macke's art with you in this forum as well.)

If you ever find yourself in Bonn, Germany, you might want to check out the August Macke Haus.

How much more great art could Macke have produced had his life not been tragically cut short by war?

We will, alas, never know.

August Macke: Türkisches Café (II) / Turkish Cafe (II) (1914), Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany (c) The Yorck Project/Wikimedia Commons

Lauder Collection @ Neue Galerie New York

My favorite museum in Europe is the LENBACHHAUS in Munich, due to re-open after renovations in 2013.

Lenbachhaus redux

It houses a breathtaking collection of works by the early 20th-century Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) group of German and Russian Expressionist painters that included Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Gabriele Muenter, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Lyonel Feininger and August Macke.

When I first visited the Lenbachhaus at the tender age of 20 I came as close as I ever have, at least in the non-romantic sense, to pure rapture.

German and Austrian art in America

Gustav Klimt - Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer I (1907) - Wikimedia Commons

My favorite museum in America is the NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK, for both the art it displays and its mission statement - to showcase 20th-century German and Austrian art with a view to re-establishing on this side of the Atlantic the pivotal role it has played in the cannon of modern art history.

Ronald S. Lauder, a billionaire businessman, philanthropist and art collector, promised art dealer Serge Sabarsky, who died in 1996, that he would realize their mutual dream of setting up such a museum in Manhattan.

It is a fitting testimony to a true friendship and to a deep love of art.

Art transcends everything

The Neue Galerie, which means "New Gallery" in German, serves to underscore that art - like nature - transcends everything, including all human-induced horrors. Sabarsky survived the Shoah by immigrating as a young man from his native Austria to New York City, where he lived a life dedicated to art.

Now his legacy has been immortalized through the Neue Galerie by Lauder, who has also been active at international level in the restitution of art looted by Germany's Nazi regime to its rightful heirs.

(Lauder has, for instance, hailed the jewel in the Neue Galerie's crown - Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer I" - as "our Mona Lisa.")

Lauder collection now on show at the Neue Galerie

I hope to return to New York soon to see a special show at the Neue Galerie exhibiting select works from Lauder's personal collection spanning several centuries and genres.

*** FYI this exhibition ENDS on APRIL 2, 2012 ***

I was so excited about the Neue Galerie's 10th anniversary and this exhibition that I wrote something about it during my "day job" which you can read here.

Cafe Sabarsky

On a more gastronomic note, an Austrian friend who visited the Neue Galerie with me in July 2007 confirmed that everything in the museum's cafe - from the coffee and cake to the newspapers to the beer and sausage - was authentically Austrian.

I can confirm that it was all super delicious.

I can also confirm that I did not want to leave the museum's book store, ever.

Neue Galerie New York on Facebook

Stealing Klimt - A Film by Jane Chablani

"Degenerate Art": The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany (LACMA) 

Painters & Photography @ The Phillips Collection

Any ART LOVER would be well advised to visit THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION.

I have been to many exhibits there in recent years, including shows on American Impressionists, Modernism in America, Georgia O'Keefe, and Paul Klee.

Even though this is one of the few musuems in Washington that is not entirely free of charge, I will always return to the Phillips, which is located in NW DC near Dupont Circle.

One exhibit that just opened there - and which I can't wait to see - is SNAPSHOT: PAINTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHY, BONNARD TO VUILLARD (February 4 - May 6 2012).

What the Heck is ARTmeUPinAMERICA?

Franz Marc - Blue Horse I (1911) - Wikimedia Commons

Whenever I visit a new place I tend to seek out art.

As an ART LOVER, my aim here is to highlight select art exhibits and happenings in my hometown - Washington, DC - and all over North America.

By ART I am referring primarily to the fine arts, especially paintings.

I like paintings that scream "color, color, color!" (I have a real soft spot for, among others, the French Fauves and the German Expressionists.)

ARTmeUPinAMERICA aims to:

• highlight great art exhibits you might want to check out.
• seek tips from other art lovers - all comments are welcome.

All the Best to ART LOVERS everywhere!

KAREN CARSTENS

"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." - Francis Bacon