#CulturedPeachy @WhomYouKnow @Smithsonian American Art Museum Acquires Three Masterworks by Beloved American Artist Grandma Moses

Works Are Part of a Promised Gift That Will Anchor 2023 Exhibition

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced that it has acquired three masterworks by beloved American painter Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses (1860 –1961). The paintings are a gift of Jane Kallir and the Kallir family in memory of Otto Kallir, who first showed Moses’ work in his New York City Gallery, Galerie St. Etienne, in 1940, and who remained her steadfast supporter and collector. The three donations are the first of 10 major Moses paintings that the Kallir family has promised to give SAAM between now and 2026. A major traveling exhibition of Moses’ art is being planned at SAAM for the fall of 2023 and will feature all 10 works.

The three paintings, “Out for Christmas Trees” (1946), currently on view on the first floor, “Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City” (1946), on view in the Luce Center, and “Turkeys” (1958), are stellar examples of Moses’ colorful and lively style, which was inspired by her many decades as a farmwife. Capturing holidays and the spirit of the season, “Out for Christmas Trees” and “Turkeys” show rural life in full swing, while in “Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City,” the artist commemorated a significant milestone in her own life. Moses depicts herself at age 80 amidst the bustle of a working farm, about to embark on her first trip—by automobile—to New York City to see her own paintings on view at Galerie St. Etienne. 

“The Smithsonian American Art Museum is dedicated to telling the story of the American experience, and Grandma Moses is a key part of this story,” said Stephanie Stebich, the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “The Kallirs’ generous gift allows the museum to share Grandma Moses’ unique style and subjects across the arc of her career for the benefit of the public who has long been fascinated by this American original.” 

Moses, born in 1860, captured a nation transitioning from the 19th to the 20th century. In the 1940s and especially in the 1950s, her style was viewed as quintessentially American and more accessible than postwar modern art. In 1953, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine, celebrated for her youthful spirit and the “old timey” style of her paintings and subject matter. While Moses’ art has been on view at SAAM for a number of years, her work only became part of the collection in 2015 when Charles Nelson Brower donated the painting “Christmas” (1958).

“Historically, women artist have too often been overlooked, and this issue is particularly acute among self-taught artists, whose work was often lost before it was ever appreciated,” said Leslie Umberger, SAAM’s curator of folk and self-taught art. “Moses was a notable exception; her work was appreciated and cared for, and she became both an American icon and a market success during her lifetime, a rarity on several levels. Both her story and her art are truly remarkable.” 

Jane Kallir, co-director of Galerie St. Etienne and the author of four books on Grandma Moses, has long stewarded the Moses research archive that Otto Kallir began compiling in 1940; she will serve as a consultant on the exhibition. 

“I am thrilled that the Smithsonian American Art Museum has affirmed its commitment to Grandma Moses, and I hope that the museum will become a magnet for Moses scholars, as well as for the many Americans who love her work,” Kallir said.

SAAM has championed self-taught art as an embodiment of the democratic spirit since 1970, when it acquired and preserved James Hampton’s iconic “The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly.” It is one of the only major American museums to advocate for a diverse populist voice within the context of what is traditionally considered great art. The museum shows folk and self-taught art throughout the museum and has had dedicated gallery spaces for such work for more than 45 years; a new installation of these galleries, organized by Umberger, opened in 2016. “Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor” opens at SAAM Sept. 28, and runs through March 17, 2019. Other recent exhibitions featuring self-taught artists included “Untitled: The Art of James Castle” (2014), “Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget” (2014) and “Mingering Mike’s Supersonic Greatest Hits” (2015).

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than four centuries. Its National Historic Landmark building is located at Eighth and F streets N.W., above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail station. Museum hours are 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Website: AmericanArt.si.edu.

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#CulturedPeachy #WhomYouKnow @Smithsonian “Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs” Opens April 6 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Exhibition Examines a Rare Portfolio Presented

in its Entirety for the First Time

Diane Arbus (1923—1971) was one of the most original and influential artists of the 20th century. “Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs” forges new ground as the first exhibition to focus on the portfolio Arbus was working on at the end of her life. This heretofore missing piece from her biography was as important to her evolving artistic identity as it was to the broader public recognition of photography as a fine-art practice. Central to the transition Arbus was making away from magazine work at the time of her death, the portfolio bridges a lifetime of modest recognition with a posthumous career of extraordinary acclaim.

“Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs” is on view from April 6 to Jan. 21, 2019, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition is organized by John Jacob, the McEvoy Family Curator for Photography. The museum is the only venue for the exhibition.

“This exhibition sheds new light on a crucial and often overlooked stage in Arbus’ career, as well as on a transformational moment in the history of contemporary photography,” said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “The museum was an early champion of photography as an important art form reflecting the American experience. We’re proud of the role that SAAM played in bringing the work of Diane Arbus to wider recognition in the 1970s and are pleased to present A box of ten photographs in its entirety to a new generation.”

In late 1969, Arbus began to work on a portfolio. At the time of her death in 1971, she had completed the printing for eight known sets of a planned edition of 50 of A box of ten photographs, as she titled it, only four of which she sold during her lifetime. Two were purchased by photographer Richard Avedon; another by artist Jasper Johns. A fourth was purchased by Bea Feitler, art director at Harper’s Bazaar. For Feitler, Arbus added an 11th photograph, “A woman with her baby monkey N.J. 1971.” This is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on A box of ten photographs, using the set that Arbus assembled specially for Feitler. It was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1986, and it is the only one of the portfolios completed and sold by Arbus that is publicly held.

The exhibition traces the history of A box of ten photographs between 1969 and 1973. The story is a crucial one because it was the portfolio that established the foundation for Arbus’s posthumous career, ushering in photography’s acceptance into the realm of “serious” art. Philip Leider, then editor-in-chief of Artforum and a photography skeptic, admitted after an encounter with Arbus and the portfolio, “With Diane Arbus, one could find oneself interested in photography or not, but one could no longer…deny its status as art…What changed everything was the portfolio itself.” In May 1971, she was the first photographer to be featured in Artforum, which also showcased her work on its cover.

“The portfolio was central to the pioneering transition Arbus was making away from magazine photography,” Jacob said. “She took seriously her centrality to that transition within the larger field of photography, and saw the portfolio as a means of achieving a level of financial stability and of artistic identity that magazine work had never afforded her.”

In June 1972, the portfolio was sent to Venice, Italy, where, in another breakthrough, Arbus was the first photographer included in a Biennale, at that time the premiere international showcase for contemporary artists. There Hilton Kramer, writing for the New York Times, declared the portfolio a sensation. Its story coincides with that of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for it was this museum, then known as the National Collection of Fine Arts, that organized the American contribution to the Biennale.

“By including Arbus and the portfolio in the 1972 Biennale, the Smithsonian American Art Museum played an important early role in Arbus’s legacy,” Jacob said. “Much has followed in essays, books and exhibitions that interpret and expand her oeuvre, but only A box of ten photographs was completed by Arbus herself, and it alone offers an unmediated self-reflection on her work.”

In addition to the portfolio itself, the exhibition and accompanying catalog present new and compelling scholarship adding detail to the period between Arbus’ death and her 1972 posthumous retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. During this important period, Jacob establishes, it was A box of ten photographs that conveyed the essence of Diane Arbus to the world.

About the Artist

Having started her career as a studio photographer with her husband Allan Arbus, Diane Arbus quit the studio in 1956, and later studied with Lisette Model at the New School in New York City. She became a magazine photographer, working on assignment for high-profile periodicals including Esquire and Harpers Bazaar. In 1963 she was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for a project that focused on American customs. The Guggenheim was among the most prestigious of fellowships available to artists, including photographers, making it an important source of financial and artistic support for those like Arbus who sought to break free from the strictures of magazine photography. Her later work was emotionally complex and explored subject matter outside of the mainstream, such as portraits of individuals whose professional, personal or physical attributes deviated from what was considered normal or acceptable in Arbus’ time, and photographs that frankly captured sexuality or revealed underlying currents of domestic tension and dysfunction.

At the time of her death, Arbus was already a growing influence on the field of photography but not widely known to the larger public. It was her portfolio, A box of ten photographs, that initiated the transition, connecting her past as a magazine photographer with her emergence as a serious artist. The publication of six photographs from the portfolio in Artforum and the presentation of the complete portfolio at the Venice Biennale were the first steps toward the almost mythical status of Arbus today.

“American audiences had never before been presented with such a singular vision in a photographer,” Jacob said. “When they were, they embraced it eagerly if not uncritically, and the cultural landscape was transformed by their embrace.”

Book

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog co-published by the museum with the Aperture Foundation, featuring facsimile reproductions of the prints and the vellums with Arbus’ inscriptions. This document replicates the nature of Arbus’ original and now legendary portfolio. An in-depth essay by Jacob, who has unearthed a trove of new information about the portfolio while preparing the exhibition, tells the fascinating tale of its creation, production, and the continuing repercussions of this seminal work. The catalog is available for purchase in the museum store and online ($80).

Free Public Programs

The exhibition will open with a two-part program Friday, April 6, at 4 p.m., featuring “A Slideshow and Talk by Diane Arbus,” a rare showing of an illustrated audio recording from 1970 in which Arbus speaks about photography using her own work as well as other photographs, snapshots and clippings from her collection. The slide show will be followed by a panel discussion by experts on Arbus’ work and archival audio clips from several of her contemporaries. The panel will be moderated by Jacob and include Jeffrey Fraenkel, founder of the Fraenkel Gallery; photographer John Gossage; Karan Rinaldo, collections specialist at the Diane Arbus Archive, Metropolitan Museum of Art; photographer Neil Selkirk; and Jeff L. Rosenheim, curator in charge at the Department of Photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jacob will present a gallery talk Wednesday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m.

Credit

“Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs” is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, RayKo Photo, the Bernie Stadiem Endowment Fund, the Trellis Fund, and Robin Wright and Ian Reeves.

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than four centuries. Its National Historic Landmark building is located at Eighth and F streets N.W., above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail station. Museum hours are 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Website: AmericanArt.si.edu.

Image credit:

John Gossage, Diane Arbus in Central Park, 1967, gelatin silver prin, 20 x 24 in. Private Collection. Photo © John Gossage

Diane Arbus, Promotional flyer for A box of ten photographs, 1970-1971, two gelatin silver contact sheet strips affixed to paper support, with Arbus's typed offering information, unframed, 8 1/2 x 11 in. © The Estate of Diane Arbus, photographs courtesy Torin Stephens, Fraenkel Gallery 

Stephen Frank, Diane Arbus with her photograph Identical twins, Roselle, N.J. 1966, during a lecture at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970.

© Stephen A. Frank

Stephen Frank, Diane Arbus with her photograph A young Brooklyn family going for a Sunday outing, N.Y.C. 1966, during a lecture at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970. © Stephen A. Frank

Stephen Frank, Diane Arbus with her photograph A family on their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, N.Y. 1968, during a lecture at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970. © Stephen A. Frank

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#CruisingPeachy #WhomYouKnow @Audi expands Traffic Light Information to Washington, D.C. - "Time-to-Green" is Just in Time for St. Patrick's Day Says Peachy!

Audi of America announced today that more than 600 intersections in the District of Columbia support the “time-to-green” feature of Traffic Light Information.

“This initiative represents the kind of innovation that is critical for us to advance the traffic safety goals of Vision Zero,” said Mayor Bowser. “We look forward to building on this, and similar partnerships, as we continue to build a safer, stronger, and smarter D.C.”

In 2016, Traffic Light Information was launched in Las Vegas, Nevada. Audi, in collaboration with Traffic Technology Services (TTS), has brought the service to six other cities including areas of Dallas and Houston, Palo Alto and Arcadia, California, Portland, Oregon and Denver. With the addition of Washington, more than 1,600 intersections across the U.S. support Traffic Light Information.

“Audi continues to be an industry leader in connectivity and mobility solutions,” said Scott Keogh, president, Audi of America. “Not only do V2I technologies like Traffic Light Information help to reduce driver stress, they are also essential infrastructure developments as we continue toward an automated future.”

Time-to-Green

Traffic Light Information, an Audi connect PRIME feature available on select 2017 and 2018 models, enables the car to communicate with the infrastructure in certain cities and metropolitan areas across the U.S.

When one of these select Audi models approaches a connected traffic light, it receives real-time signal information from the traffic management system that monitors traffic lights via the on-board 4G LTE data connection. When the light is red, the TLI feature will display the time remaining until the signal changes to green in the instrument cluster in front of the driver or in the head-up display (if equipped). This “time-to-green” information helps reduce stress by letting the driver know approximately how much time remains before the light changes.

Future iterations of V2I technology could include integration within the vehicle’s start/stop function, Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA), optimized navigation routing and other predictive services. All of these services are designed to help reduce congestion and enhance mobility on crowded roadways.

Traffic Light Information is not a substitute for attentive driving. Always pay careful attention to the road and obey all speed and traffic laws. Requires compatible traffic infrastructure which is not available in all areas. Not available on vehicles built prior to June 1, 2016. See Owner’s Manual for further details, and important limitations.

Always pay careful attention to the road, and do not drive while distracted. Connect PRIME services are optional, may require an additional subscription with separate terms and conditions, and should be used only when it is safe and appropriate. Trial or paid subscription required. Connect PRIME services require vehicle cellular connectivity and availability of vehicle GPS signal; certain services collect location information, see Terms of Service for information about how to disable. Online services are subject to change at any time. See Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and other details at https://www.audiusa.com/privacy and https://www.audiusa.com/technology/intelligence/audi-connect/connect-terms.

ABOUT AUDI OF AMERICA

Audi of America, Inc. and its U.S. dealers offer a full line of German-engineered luxury vehicles. AUDI AG is among the most successful luxury automotive brands, delivering about 1.878 million vehicles globally in 2017. In the U.S., Audi of America sold nearly 227,000 vehicles in 2017 and broke company sales records for the eighth straight year. Visit audiusa.com

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#CulturedPeachy #WhomYouKnow "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" Opens March 30 at Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery Exhibition Brings Large-Scale Installations From Famed Desert Gathering to Washington

Cutting-edge artwork created at Burning Man, the annual desert gathering that is one of the most influential events in contemporary art and culture, will be exhibited in the nation's capital for the first time this spring. "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" will take over the entire Renwick Gallery building, exploring the maker culture, ethos, principles and creative spirit of Burning Man. Several artists will debut new works in the exhibition. In addition to the in-gallery presentation, the Renwick exhibition will expand beyond its walls for the first time through an outdoor extension titled "No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick," displaying sculptures throughout the surrounding neighborhood.

Nora Atkinson, the museum's Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, is organizing the exhibition in collaboration with the Burning Man Project, the nonprofit organization responsible for producing the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City, for facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from Burning Man into the wider world and for cultivating its principles reflecting an immediate, non-commercial and participatory culture. The outdoor extension of the exhibition is presented in partnership with Washington, D.C.'s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, a 43-square-foot neighborhood that stretches from the White House to Dupont Circle. The Burning Man community across the globe was instrumental in suggesting artworks for inclusion in the exhibition.

"No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" opens March 30, 2018. The Renwick is the sole venue for exhibition, which will close in two phases. The first floor will showcase works by Candy Chang, Marco Cochrane, Duane Flatmo, Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti, Five Ton Crane Arts Collective, Scott Froschauer, Android Jones and Richard Wilks and will close Sept. 16, 2018. The second floor, featuring works by David Best, FoldHaus Art Collective, Aaron Taylor Kuffner, HYBYCOZO (Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu), Christopher Schardt and Leo Villareal, will remain on view through Jan. 21, 2019. "No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick," will be presented in the surrounding neighborhood through December 2018.

Burning Man is both a cultural movement and a thriving temporary city of more than 75,000 people that rises out of the dust for a single week each year in late summer in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected, some of which are then ritually burned to the ground. The desert gathering is a uniquely American hotbed of artistic ingenuity, driving innovation through its philosophies of radical self-expression, community participation, rejection of commodification and reverence for the handmade.

"The scale, the communal effort and the technical challenges inherent in creating works for the desert are part of what sets Burning Man apart from other art experiences," said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "It is an amazingly creative laboratory where innovators go to play and to push the boundaries of their craft. Displaying the art of Burning Man at the Renwick is the latest example of our focus on new directions in craft and making."

Large-scale installations-the artistic hallmark of Burning Man-will form the core of the exhibition. Individual artists and collectives featured in "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" include Best, Chang, Cochrane, Five Ton Crane Arts Collective, Flatmo, FoldHaus Art Collective, Froschauer, Garlington and Bertotti, HYBYCOZO (Filipchuk and Beaulieu), Kuffner, Jones, Schardt, Villareal and Wilks. Best is creating a temple specifically commissioned for the Renwick's Grand Salon, where the museum has presented its program of large-scale, immersive installations. Multiple installation sites have been selected throughout the neighborhood surrounding the museum for "No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick." Confirmed sculptures to date include works by Jack Champion, HYBYCOZO and Kate Raudenbush.

The installations by perennial Burning Man artists Best, Garlington and Bertotti, Five Ton Crane and Jones were commissioned specifically for the Renwick's presentation and will debut in the exhibition. "No Spectators" also marks the first public display of the works chosen for the exhibition by Chang, Froschauer and Kuffner.

"These artists represent the creative spirit of the contemporary maker movement and the ongoing importance of craft in the digital age," Atkinson said. "They range from members of the art world, the tech community and beyond. Their work asks questions such as 'what does art look like when it is separated from commercial value?' and 'why do we continue to make in the 21st century?'"

"No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" also will feature costumes, jewelry, video and photography by artists and designers who participate in Burning Man, emphasizing the breadth of self-expression at the event. Archival materials and photographs from a condensed presentation of "City of Dust: The Evolution of Burning Man," organized by the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, will trace the movement's growth and bohemian roots.

"We are pleased to collaborate with the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum to bring the world a slice of the creativity that was born in Black Rock City," said Marian Goodell, CEO of Burning Man Project. "Through this ambitious exhibition, more people will have a chance to engage with Burning Man's ethos, which has given rise to a thriving year-round culture spurred by a growing global community of participants. We're looking forward to this excellent opportunity to share the elements of Burning Man that are helping change the world around us for the better."

A variety of public programs will accompany the exhibition. Information will be available in the spring on the museum's website, americanart.si.edu/nospectators. The public can follow the museum's social media accounts for exhibition updates under the hashtags #RenwickGallery and #NoSpectators.

Credit

The Renwick Gallery especially thanks colleagues from the Burning Man Project, a nonprofit public benefit corporation, for their close collaboration and assistance throughout the preparation of this exhibition. Generous financial support has been provided by Anonymous, Sarah and Richard Barton, the Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation, The Bronner Family, the Elizabeth Broun Curatorial Endowment, the James F. Dicke Family Endowment, Ed Fries, the James Renwick Alliance, Nion McEvoy, Bobby Sarnoff and Kelly Williams and Andrew Forsyth. The installation of outdoor sculptures in the neighborhood and related programming are made possible by a collaboration with the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District.

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than four centuries. The Renwick Gallery is the museum's branch for contemporary craft and decorative arts. The Renwick is located onPennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.(closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, Twitterand YouTube. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Museum information (recorded):(202) 633-7970. Website: americanart.si.edu.

Read the press release online, and visit the exhibition page for more information. 

Image credit: 

Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti, Totem of Confessions, 2015. Photo by Daniel L Hayes.

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#CulturedPeachy #TakeaTriptoWashingtonDC @Smithsonian Renwick Gallery's First-ever Outdoor Extension Brings Art of Burning Man to DC Streets in Collaboration with Golden Triangle BID

Renwick Gallery's First-ever Outdoor Extension Brings 

Art of Burning Man to DC Streets in Collaboration 

with Golden Triangle BID

Artworks from the legendary desert event known as Burning Man will activate the streets and parks of Washington, D.C.'s central business district for the first time through a collaboration between the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery and the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID). No Spectators: Beyond the Renwickpresents six public art installations by noted Burning Man artists. The unique partnership marks the first time the Renwick Gallery will expand beyond its walls into the surrounding Golden Triangle neighborhood.

The project is an outdoor extension of the Renwick Gallery's building-wide exhibition No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, which will feature large-scale, immersive artworks that are the hallmark of the annual celebration in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, an influential phenomenon in contemporary art and a cultural movement. The exhibition will be on view from March 30 through January 21, 2019, with the outdoor portion on display through December. Nora Atkinson, the museum's Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, curated the exhibition and collaborated with the Golden Triangle BID on the outdoor artwork selections. The BID worked with the artists and neighborhood stakeholders to produce the outdoor extension. The museum and the BID also collaborated with the Burning Man Project, the nonprofit organization responsible for producing the annual Burning Man event and for facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from Burning Man into the wider world. 

"We are excited to expand this exhibition beyond our walls in partnership with the Golden Triangle BID," said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "This collaboration will surprise and delight the public in the vibrant neighborhood that the Renwick Gallery calls home through unexpected encounters with the astonishing work produced at Burning Man."

"No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick will enliven key streets and parks in the Golden Triangle, the heart of D.C.'s central business district," said Leona Agouridis, Executive Director of the BID. "Public art is a dynamic component of the Golden Triangle's identity, enriching public space for nearly 90,000 daily workers, and millions of residents and visitors to our neighborhood. We're thrilled to collaborate with the Renwick on this first-ever outdoor extension and are grateful to our friends at Lyft for their generous support."

The six installations include sculptures on Pennsylvania Ave. west of the White House and major corridors such as Connecticut Ave. Jack Champion's giant bronze crows will inhabit Murrow Park at Pennsylvania Ave. and 18th St, N.W., while Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson's "Ursa Major," a 14-foot-tall bear sculpture crafted from 170,000 shining pennies, will reside at 19th and I Sts, N.W. HYBYCOZO's (Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu) perforated steel sculpture entitled "Golden Spike," will light up Connecticut Ave. at K St, N.W., and Laura Kimpton's 20-foot-long steel "XOXO" installation, made together with Jeff Schomberg, will meet daily commuters at the Farragut West Metro station entrance at 18th and I Sts., N.W. Mischell Riley's five-ton cast cement bust, "Maya's Mind," pays homage to Maya Angelou and will be installed on 17th St. between H and I Sts., N.W., and Kate Raudenbush's luminous 23-foot tall laser cut steel sculpture, "Future's Past," will captivate passersby near Monroe Park, at Pennsylvania Ave. and 21st St., N.W.

The Renwick Gallery and the Golden Triangle BID will present related programming around the neighborhood to further engage audiences with the art and spirit of Burning Man. This will include walking tours along with other participatory and community activities. Details will be available in the spring online at americanart.si.edu/nospectatorsand goldentriangledc.com/initiative/beyond-the-renwick/. A map will be provided at the Renwick and online for self-guided tours of the outdoor installations.

Credit

No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick, an installation of outdoor sculptures and related programming in the neighborhood, is made possible by a collaboration with the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District and support from Lyft.

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than four centuries.The Renwick Gallery is the museum's branch for contemporary craft and decorative arts. The Renwick is located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.(closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, Twitterand YouTube. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. americanart.si.edu.

About the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District 

The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) works to enhance Washington, DC's central business district, the 43-square-block neighborhood stretching from The White House to Dupont Circle. Home to more than 3,400 businesses, the BID's primary focus is to provide a clean, safe and vibrant environment for hundreds of thousands of area workers and residents, and millions of visitors, and to encourage economic development through capital improvement projects, and innovative public art, sustainability and events programs. Follow the BID o n Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. More information: (202) 463-3400. goldentriangledc.com.

Image credits: 

Kate Raudenbush, Future's Past (detail), 2010. Image courtesy of the artist

Hybycozo, Golden Spike. Image courtesy of the artist

Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson, Ursa Major (detail), 2016. Image courtesy of the artist

Laura Kimpton, XOXO, 2017. Image courtesy of the artist.

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"Tamayo: The New York Years" Opens Nov. 3 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Exhibition Reveals for the First Time the Influences Between This Major Mexican Modernist and the American Art World

"Tamayo: The New York Years" Opens Nov. 3

at the Smithsonian American Art Museum 

Exhibition Reveals for the First Time the Influences Between ThisMajor Mexican Modernist and the American Art World

Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991), one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, was drawn to New York City at a time when unparalleled transatlantic and hemispheric cross-cultural exchange was taking place. "Tamayo: The New York Years" is the first exhibition to explore the influences between this major Mexican modernist and the American art world. It reveals how a Mexican artist forged a new path in the modern art of the Americas and contributed to New York's dynamic cultural scene as the city was becoming a center of postwar art.

"Tamayo: The New York Years" brings together 41 of Tamayo's finest artworks, including a number of key loans from public and private collections in Mexico, that place Tamayo at the center of a major shift in the history of 20th-century art. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to trace Tamayo's artistic development-from his urban-themed paintings depicting the modern sights of the city to the dream-like canvases that show an artist eager to propel Mexican art in new directions. 

E. Carmen Ramos, the museum's deputy chief curator and curator of Latino art, organized the exhibition, which is on view at the museum's main building from Nov. 3 through March 18, 2018. "Tamayo: The New York Years" is the latest in a series of projects at the museum that situates the art of the United States in a global context.

"'Tamayo: The New York Years' offers a new understanding of American modernism," said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Carmen brilliantly traces Tamayo's myriad influences and impacts on the burgeoning New York art scene with subtlety and nuance."

Tamayo lived in New York intermittently from the late 1920s to 1949. During this period, he befriended and exhibited with Reginald Marsh, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Berenice Abbott and other New York-based artists who wanted to capture modern urban life. Tamayo, who had been interested in popular entertainment in Mexico, found in Coney Island a unique locus of modernity and the American experience. He depicted Coney Island several times, including in "Carnival" (1936), which was recently acquired by the museum.

Tamayo's exposure to international modernism in New York, coupled with his firsthand study of pre-Columbian and Mexican folk art, led him to his own synthesis of modernist styles and Mexican culture. Tamayo also crossed paths with younger American artists including Jackson Pollock and Adolph Gottlieb who, like him, would break ground with new modes of representation befitting the seismic social transformations of the midcentury period.

This exhibition considers how New York-its sights, artists, critics, collectors and art venues-nurtured Tamayo's vision of modern Mexican art. In this context, he created an art that resisted clear narratives, emphasized the creative rather than political underpinnings of art making and mined the ancient myths and forms of indigenous art to express the existential crisis of World War II. In 1939, Tamayo saw Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" (1937) at the Valentine Gallery and the influential artist's retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Inspired by Picasso's imagery and reliance on African art, Tamayo reconsidered the forms and myths of Mexico's pre-Hispanic and folk art as the basis for a series of wartime paintings featuring aggressive and deprived animals. By the 1940s, his richly colored and abstracted compositions modeled an alternative "American" modernism that challenged social realism and dovetailed with a rising generation of abstract expressionists who were also seeking a visual language that fit their uncertain times.

"Tamayo's New York story is a complex one that reveals how his immersion in the U.S. art world shaped his art and how in turn his presence had ripple effects in the broader art world," said Ramos. "The rising abstract expressionists may not have emulated Tamayo's style, but as they were beginning to assert a new direction in contemporary art, they drew resolve from his prominent example as an American artist driven by aesthetic and not overt sociopolitical concerns.Influence, in other words, comes in many forms. Tamayo, who absorbed the New York artistic scene and was transformed by it, also helped redefine notions of the national across the Americas at a crucial time in history."

Symposium

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is presenting a symposium that explores the meaningful interactions between Mexican and U.S. art and artists during the 20th century in conjunction with the opening of "Tamayo: The New York Years." "'A line that birds cannot see': Mexican/U.S. Art and Artists Crossing Borders in the 20th Century" will take place in the museum's McEvoy Auditorium Friday, Nov. 3, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Taking Tamayo's story as a point of departure, the program features new scholarship about the role of folk and indigenous art of the Americas in Pan-American modernism, sites and agents of intercultural exchange, the dynamics between Mexican and U.S. art during the Cold War and the fertile relationship between Chicano and Mexican artists. Ramos will present the opening lecture. Information about the daily schedule, participating scholars and lecture topics is available in the conference program. The program is free and open to the public, and will be webcast live. Pre-registration online is requested.

The title of the symposium is taken from Alberto Ríos's poem "The Border: A Double Sonnet" (2015) and invokes the notion that art and ideas transcend political boundaries between nations and people. The Latino Initiatives Pool of the Smithsonian Latino Center provided support for the symposium.

Free Public Programs

In addition to the symposium, the museum has organized a series of programs to complement the exhibition, including concerts and gallery talks. The museum's award-winning ensemble-in-residence, the 21st Century Consort, will present "Howling at the Moon" featuring work inspired by Tamayo's symbolic animal paintings and artworks evoking celestial themes Saturday, Nov. 4, at 4 p.m. for pre-concert discussion followed by a performance at 5 p.m. Ramos will give a gallery talk in the exhibition Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 5:30 p.m. A Tamayo Family Day will take place in the museum's Kogod Courtyard Saturday, Jan. 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Pasatono Orquesta Mexicana, dedicated to preserving and reinterpreting indigenous Oaxacan music on traditional instruments, will perform in the museum's Kogod Courtyard Sunday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. The group will present their original compositions as well as those of Mexican composer Carlos Chávez (1899-1978), Tamayo's lifelong friend who traveled to New York with the artist in 1926. Details about all the programs are available online at americanart.si.edu/tamayo.

Credit

"Tamayo: The New York Years" is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We are especially grateful to His Excellency Gerόnimo Gutiérrez-Fernández, the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, for serving as the honorary patron for the exhibition. The Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington, D.C., has provided invaluable advice and support. The Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, provided major support. Additional generous contributions have been provided by The Honorable Aida Alvarez, Mrs. J. Todd Figi, the Robert S. Firestone Foundation, the Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation, the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund, the Sara Roby Foundation, Sam Rose and Julie Walters and the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Grant Program.

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than four centuries. Its National Historic Landmark building is located at Eighth and F streets N.W., above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail station. Museum hours are 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Website: americanart.si.edu.

Image credits: 

Rufino Tamayo, The Pretty Girl [Niña bonita], 1937, oil on canvas, 48 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. Private collection. ©Tamayo Heirs/Mexico/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image courtesy Colección Hemerográfica-ArchivoTamayo, Museo Tamayo

Rufino Tamayo, Academic Painting [Pintura académica], 1935, oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 21 7/8 in. HirshhornMuseum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. ©Tamayo Heirs/Mexico/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photography by Cathy Carver

Rufino Tamayo, Total Eclipse [Eclipse total], ca. 1946, oil with sand on canvas, 39 7/8 x 29 7/8 in. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer Jr. © Tamayo Heirs/Mexico/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo: Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College

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Take a Trip to Washington DC: Cherubs Playing with a Lyre by Pierre Legros

Photography by Peachy Deegan 

All material is property of Whom You Know. Copyright 2017 Whom You Know. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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“America’s Presidents” Reopens Sept. 22 at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery New Content, Navigational Elements and Innovative Technology Will Enhance the Gallery Experience

After 18 months of planning and extensive renovations, “America’s Presidents”—the National Portrait Gallery’s “must see” exhibition—reopens to the public Sept. 22. A highlight of the Portrait Gallery since the museum’s public opening in 1968, this historic display on the museum’s second floor is the only place outside the White House where visitors can view a complete collection of presidential portraits. The new, entirely bilingual (English and Spanish) and accessible presentation includes extraordinary works of art, notably Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” portrait of President George Washington, which will be back on view after 18 months of careful conservation and analysis. The press preview will be held Sept. 21 from 10 to 11:30 am.

Having designed a fresh exhibition layout for “America’s Presidents,” the Portrait Gallery has grouped the portraits into six historical chapters. Each of the first five sections is organized around a historical era and leads off with a presidential figure: Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while a sixth section examines the more recent history of the presidency. Updated content provides visitors with improved ways to understand historical events—both national and international—that coincided with the respective President’s time in office.

“America’s Presidents” includes new interpretive exhibition graphics and didactic materials, a fresh color palette, period-style architectural window treatments and the installation of custom carpets throughout the galleries.

The transformation also incorporates new technology, such as a wireless-enabled LEDlighting system that adjusts to ambient light. This improvement not only makes it possible for the museum to be more energy-efficient but also enhances its protection of the artworks.

The debut of interactive kiosks in the galleries, each with a 34-inch touch screen, will allow visitors to explore over 800 presidential portraits in the museum’s collection alongside contextual history. Through images, text and special technology, these stations will offer content that sheds light on the nation’s Presidents, particularly with regard to their actions, challenges and legacies. Users will also learn more about the portraits as works of art and be able to look closely at objects using “rotate” and “zoom” features.

This fall, the Portrait Gallery will launch an enhanced website to accompanythe transformed installation. The website will not only bring the museum’s scholarship to a national and international viewership, but will also allow the museum to share its wealth of presidential imagery with students, teachers and the general public. Phase one will present an online exhibition that reflects the content of the gallery exhibition. Phase two will include a wide-ranging database of the museum’s 1,600 presidential portraits and the presidential assets that are found throughout the Smithsonian. 

In February 2018, to celebrate the golden anniversary of the inaugural “America’s Presidents” exhibition, the Portrait Gallery will publish, with Smithsonian Books, a new, richly illustrated volume that traces the history of the U.S. presidency from Washington’s inauguration to the present day. The publication will offer invaluable insight into the lives and legacies of each of these individuals and will illuminate the timeless intersections that exist between biography, history and art. The museum will also launch a cellphone app that will enable visitors to access bilingual biographical descriptions (English and Spanish) via text or audio, providing a new way to experience the exhibition’s narrative. These efforts will augment the National Portrait Gallery’s reputation as a preeminent resource for scholarship.

“When the National Portrait Gallery opened to the public in October 1968, under President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the country was in tumult after having witnessed the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert. F. Kennedy earlier in the year,” said Kim Sajet, the museum’s director. “And, of course, the country was still mourning the loss of President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. It was a prescient time to offer Americans an opportunity to reflect upon the office of the presidency and give them a chance to think about the qualities they wanted their leaders to have. Now, on the the occasion of our 50th anniversary—nine presidents later—the National Portrait Gallery provides visitors with a new lens to view ‘America’s Presidents,’—one that will offer fresh content and relevant historical context, giving those of us living in the 24/7 news cycle of today a better understanding of what came before.”

This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Perlin Family Foundation, Philip and Elizabeth Ryan, The William T. Kemper Foundation, Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper, Alan and Lois Fern, Mr. and Mrs. Michael H. Podell, Mallory Walker and many other supporters. Additional funding was received from the American Portrait Gala Endowment.

The “Lansdowne”: Conservation Analysis and Treatment

After an intensive period of cleaning and conservation, the “Lansdowne” portrait of Washington by Stuart will “debut” as the centerpiece of the exhibition, thanks to a gift from Bank of America. The 221-year-old painting has received critical conservation treatment since it was last on view in early 2016.

Using the Smithsonian’s state-of-the-art tools, technology and resources, conservators from the Museum Conservation Institute and the Portrait Gallery have been able to analyze and capture ultraviolet light, infrared reflectography and X-ray images of the painting. These images provided information about Stuart’s materials and working processes, which are integral to the historical knowledge and documentation of the painting. Conservation of the iconic portrait was completed by the Portrait Gallery’s Head of Conservation and entailed a measured approach in the removal of an old yellowed resinous varnish coating. The results of the cleaning have been spectacular, revealing a brilliantly executed portrait by Stuart. 

National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the multifaceted story of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists, whose lives tell the American story.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, located at Eighth and F Streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information:(202) 633-1000. Website: npg.si.edu. Connect with the museum at Facebook, Instagram, blog,Twitter and YouTube.

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New Exhibition "Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death" Opens Oct. 20 at the Renwick Gallery

"Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death" explores the surprising intersection between craft and forensic science. Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962) crafted her extraordinary "Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death"--exquisitely detailed miniature crime scenes--to train homicide investigators to "convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell." These dollhouse-sized diorama composites of true crime scenes, created in the first half of the 20th century and still used in forensic training today, helped to revolutionize the emerging field of forensic science. They also tell a story of how a woman co-opted traditionally feminine crafts to advance a male-dominated field and establish herself as one of its leading voices.

"Murder Is Her Hobby" will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery from Oct. 20 through Jan. 28, 2018. The exhibition is the first public display of the complete series of 19 studies still known to exist. For the first time since 1966, 18 pieces on loan to the museum from the Harvard Medical School, via the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, will be reunited with the "lost nutshell," on loan from the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, courtesy of the Bethlehem Heritage Society.

"These dollhouses of death are a fascinating synthesis of art and science," said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Showcasing the Nutshells at the Renwick allows us to appreciate them as artworks of superior craftsmanship and to highlight Frances Glessner Lee's genius for telling complex stories through the expressive potential of simple materials."

Lee, the first female police captain in the U.S., is considered the "godmother of forensic science." She was a talented artist as well as criminologist, and constructed the Nutshells beginning in the early 1940s to teach investigators at Harvard Medical School's Department of Legal Medicine how to properly canvass a crime scene to effectively uncover and understand evidence. The equivalent to "virtual reality" in their time, her masterfully crafted dioramas feature handmade elements to render scenes with exacting accuracy and meticulous detail, each component a potential clue designed to challenge trainees' powers of observation and deduction. Lee's commitment to realism is seen in every element of the Nutshells, from the real tobacco used in miniature hand-burnt cigarette butts and tiny stockings knit with straight pins, to the angle of miniscule bullet holes, the patterns of blood splatters and the degree of discoloration on painstakingly painted miniature corpses.

While the Nutshells draw from real cases, Lee imagined and designed each setting to resemble but not replicate the original scenes, embellishing them with elements from her imagination and the world she inhabited. In their astounding accuracy, they provide a window into the domestic history and material culture of mid-20th century America, particularly the lives of women and the working classes, whose cases Lee championed.

"Presenting the Nutshells not as forensics displays but as artworks allows us to highlight the subtly subversive quality of Frances Glessner Lee's work," Atkinson said. "She focuses on 'invisible' members of society such as impoverished and female victims, and the details she included in her dioramas challenge the association of femininity with order and domestic bliss."

As the Nutshells are still active training tools, the solutions to each remain secret. However, the crime scene "reports" given to forensic trainees will be presented alongside each diorama to encourage visitors to approach the Nutshells the way an investigator would.

Lee's hyperreal constructions inspired contemporary artist and scenic designer Rick Araluce, whose immersive, large-scale installation is presented in the adjoining gallery. "Rick Aracluce: The Final Stop" opens concurrently with "Murder Is Her Hobby"Oct. 20.

Public Programs

A series of public programs are planned in conjunction with the exhibition. William Tyre, executive director of the Glessner House Museum, will discuss Glessner Lee's life and impact on the world of forensics Saturday, Oct. 21, at 2 p.m. Atkinson will present in-gallery talks Wednesday, Oct. 25, and Wednesday, Nov. 15, at noon. Handi-hour, the museum's after-hours program featuring "crafting and craft beer," will feature exhibition-themed crafts Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 5:30 (tickets $25). The museum will host the premiere of the documentary Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story by director Susan Marks Satuday, Nov. 18, at 5:30 p.m.

The museum and Brightest Young Things DC will present an after-hours party Friday, Oct. 20 to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Tickets will go on sale Sept. 5 at americanart.si.edu/calendar.

Credit The exhibition is organized by the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Elizabeth Broun Curatorial Endowment and the James F. Dicke Family Fund. 

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than four centuries.The Renwick Gallery is SAAM's branch for contemporary craft and decorative arts. The Renwick is located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube . Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Website: americanart.si.edu.

Image credit:

Frances Glessner Lee, Parsonage Parlor (detail), about 1946-48. Collection of the Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, courtesy of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Baltimore, MD. Photograph by Corinne May Botz, Parsonage Parlor (doll) from the series The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 2004, courtesy of Benrubi Gallery and Monacelli Press

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