A soundsuit by Nick Cave, at the Norton Museum of Art.By Gretel Sarmiento
This coming art season is to art lovers what the 24-hour gym is to procrastinators: the end of the Excuse. If you typically shy away from museums out of fear of being bored to death, don’t.
There’s plenty to choose from, which means something is bound to delight you.
Museums are keeping the promise to have the usual rotation of shows. Although having diversity in their lineups is the usual goal, this time exhibits are also reflecting more awareness of the infinite individual tastes out there. It’s a tricky mission. Individual taste is not only very personal and unique to one but also constantly changing. There is only one way to judge the outcome: be present and let the exhibits do the talking.
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach: This season, the modern and ancient world will take turns in the museum and give audiences the best they’ve got. Starting with John Storrs’ Machine-Age Modernist (Oct.2-Jan. 2), the museum will present sculptures, drawings, and paintings drawn from private lenders and various national collections, including those from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Corcoran Museum of Art. This is the first exhibition of the American modernist’s work in more than two decades.
Sculptures, too, will bring us back from the modern world, more precisely to the center of the earth. Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth (Oct. 9-Jan. 9), organized by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, will feature about 40 forty of Cave’s Soundsuits, which are multi-layered, mixed media, wearable sculptures composed of discarded objects. While African culture and Mardi Gras might come to mind, the purpose here is to give the modern visitor a chance at finding the true origin of the objects.
Conveniently scheduled around Christmas is Celebrating 70: The Qianlong Emperor and Exchanges of Buddhist Gifts (Dec. 4–March 20). The story goes that in 1777, following a gift of paintings to Emperor Qianlong from Tibetan religious leader the Panchen Lama, an exchange between the Chinese court and the lamas of Tibet began. The installation will examine how the art and traditions of Tibet influenced the creation of Buddhist art in the court of the emperor.
Photography will make a stop with works from France, Germany, Africa and the United States inviting you to look not just for 2 seconds but for a long time, really. Stare: The Pleasures of the Intensely Familiar and the Strangely Unexpected (Dec. 15-March 13) celebrates photography’s power to captivate the real observers: our minds. Around the same time, Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation will feature a more glamorous and dramatic selection of prints with those usual suspects we can’t help to admire: Greta Garbo, Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford, among others. Don’t miss the 1958 shot of Alfred Hitchcock with the MGM Lion. The show runs from Dec. 12 to March 6.
Finally, From A to Z: 26 Great Photographs from the Collection (March 19-June 19) will feature prints alphabetically arranged by the artist’s last name. It’s meant as a tribute to some of the greatest photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries as well as a reminder of the extensity of the museum’s photography collection.
If you ever wonder how fake celebrities really are, make sure you visit the museum sometime between Feb. 3 and May 1. That’s when you’ll find Fabulous Fakes: The Jewelry of Kenneth Jay Lane, featuring sparkling creations by the designer and QVC personality that once adorned Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Nancy Reagan, Diana Vreeland, among others.
Who wants to live forever? The Egyptians did. To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum (Feb. 12-May 8) will consist of more than 100 objects from the Brooklyn Museum, and will examine the ancient Egyptians’ take on death and the afterlife, the practice of mummification as well as funeral rituals and the various types of tombs. Opening March 26 is the complementary show Eternal China: Tales from the Crypt, which will also explore the tombs and mummies theme. It runs through July 17.
A colourful display of paintings and light installations will take over starting April 2 until July 17 with Altered States: Jose Alvarez, Yayoi Kusama, Fred Tomaselli and Leo Villareal. It promises to be irresistible and fun to look at while being psychologically engaging.
The Abbott (1920), by John Storrs, at the Norton Museum of Art.(Photo by Ricardo Blanc)
Fashion comes last with Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television (June 4-Sept.4), which is all about costumes and accessories: 30 to be precise. Where have you seen them before? In science fiction films and television programs such as Star Wars, Blade Runner, Terminator, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Batman.
Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach: You can judge the taste of Christians, the aristocratic and non-aristocratic types, starting Dec. 4 through Jan. 16 with Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It’s simply a display of 60 elegantly carved alabaster panels and free-standing figures that once adorned the homes, churches and chapels of Christians in the 15th and 16 centuries. To make better sense of it all, there will be a gallery talk on Jan. 8 with art historian Richard Frank.
Landscape painting will be represented 45 times in The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th- Century American Landscape Paintings From the New York Historical Society show (Jan. 29-March 20). A gallery talk will be held March 5. While American Landscape Paintings runs you can also view the show running simultaneously. A Return to Palm Beach: Jewels from the Marjorie Merriweather Post Collection commemorates the 100th birthday of the town of Palm Beach while examining the style of this legendary icon.
Still running (since December 2009) until June 2011 is Florida Wetlands: an original photographic show featuring more than 50 images depicting this unique habitat. This particular exhibit is housed in the Mary Alice Fortin Children’s Art Gallery.
Hi (2009), by Robert Cottingham, at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton: If you are into European Pop art, or better yet, if you have never heard of it, the first show at the museum should be your first stop. From Oct. 12 to Jan. 9 you’ll find Valerio Adami, a 23-paintings retrospective examining more than 40 years work of this Italian artist who went from being very expressionistic to brilliantly flat. Known for the areas of flat cartoonish color bordered by unapologetic black lines, Adami’s images are hard to take seriously, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. After all, these are works by an artist who finds the creative process a profound experience only possible through music and abandonment of ourselves.
Simultaneously running will be Robert Cottingham: Twenty Ways to See a Star. The exhibit debuts a series of 20 iconic Star silkscreens on canvas based on color variations of one of Cottingham’s most recognizable images. The Brooklyn-born artist worked on this three-year project with master printer Gary Lichtenstein and Michael McKenzie of American Image Atelier in New York, to produce this fresh series that no doubt will revive the American spirit.
The Pier With Chains (1749), by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. For those admirers of the old classics, there’s Romanticism to Modernism: Graphic Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection (Oct. 12-June 19) which will run in the Education Gallery of the museum and include masterpieces by Francisco de Goya and Pablo Picasso. The show will open with works by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the Italian precursor of the Romantic style, and follow with etchings from Goya’s The Disasters of War (1810-20); lithographs and etchings by American artist James McNeill Whistler; and a rich selection of graphic works by Picasso, including etchings from the Vollard Suite.
Latin American art is not staying behind. Twenty works by important Latin American artists (Francisco Zúñiga, Rufino Tamayo, Enrique Castro-Cid, Julio Larraz, etc.) will be on display beginning Oct. 12 through May 1. This small sampling of Latin American art from the museum’s collection will feature works that portray, in many different ways, the dance between politics, society and art.
An exciting selection of 43 costumes worn by film stars like Nicole Kidman, Johnny Depp and Heath Ledger will be featured under the name Cut! Costume and the Cinema (Jan. 19-April 17). It’s a colorful journey that will transport us to familiar films (Casanova, The Phantom of the Opera, The White Countess, The Duchess) or maybe even specific scenes, depending on how good your memory is.
Also running Jan. 19 to April 17 is California Impressionism: Paintings from The Irvine Museum. The show, consisting of more than 60 works by 44 artists, is dedicated to landscape, more specifically, California plein-air painting. The Irvine Museum is the only museum in that state devoted to the preservation and display of this painting style. Guy Rose, Dona Schuster, Granville Redmond and Alson Clark are among the artists being featured.
Flagler Museum, Palm Beach: The museum will have two exhibits that will mostly celebrate architecture. The fall exhibition, Mizner Mediterranean: The Origins of Palm Beach Style (Oct.12-Jan. 2), is dedicated to architect Addison Mizner and is being done in honor of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Palm Beach. It will feature architectural drawings, photographs, and plans, in addition to sculpture, metalwork, furniture, ceramics and decorative tiles produced or imported by Mizner’s companies. Also featured are lost masterpieces such as Playa Riente, El Mirasol, Mizner’s 1925 tiled courtyard for Whitehall, and objects from the construction and decoration of the Whitehall Hotel addition.
In conjunction with the exhibition, on Nov. 13 the museum will hold a special gallery tour for fourth- to eighth-graders. Afterwards, they will be asked to design their own Mizner-inspired artwork, involving painted tiles and mosaics.
The winter show, The Extraordinary Joseph Urban (Feb. 1-April 17), is devoted to the prolific designer, illustrator and architect behind Hungary’s Esterhazy Castle and New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre. Locally, Urban is known for Mar-a-Lago, the Bath and Tennis Club and the Paramount Theater. Gustav Klimt, Josef Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and architect Adolf Loos are said to have influenced this Vienna-born artist who later migrated to the United States in 1912 to become the art director of the Boston Opera. By the time of his death in 1933, Urban had designed over 500 stage sets for more than 168 productions.
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens: Opening Nov. 2 through Feb. 20, Modernity and Nostalgia: Woodblock Prints by Toyohara (Yōshū) Chikanobu will present us with 60 single-sheet and triptych prints from this artist on subjects ranging from customs and manners of Japanese women to the Sino-Japanese War, to nostalgic representations of the feudalistic Edo Period.
Toyohara (Yōshū) Chikanobu was a prolific artist capable of creating images inspired by the kabuki stage and beautiful women as well as murders and sensational events taking place in modern Japan in the late 19th century. The show will also include a series of prints born from his imagination, and for which he is well-known, that depict the lifestyle of the Meiji emperor and his family with amazing accuracy.
Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach: Open to all artists working in all media, New*Art is an exhibition that will be devoted to presenting international entries of cutting-edge visual art. The work to be exhibited has to have been produced after 2008.
The Armory’s director of gallery services, Ann Fay Rushforth, will curate the show (Oct. 8-Nov. 13) and select works later to be judged by Gallery Director Fredric Snitzer, who is known for representing controversial artists with international reputations and for his strong presence at Art Basel Miami. Snitzer will choose the winning selections for prizes.
Another opportunity to view plenty of art will come later in the year with the Judged Staff and Faculty Exhibition (Nov. 5-Dec. 31). It’s the second year for the annual exhibition, offering a sampling of works by more than 60 Armory adjunct instructors in all media.
The Lighthouse ArtCenter: A juried art exhibition of masks and Halloween-inspired artwork will take over the center from Sept. 30 to Nov. 2. Artists are invited to participate in the Hocus Pocus exhibit, which includes a costume party the third Thursday of October. Also during this time, the center will feature a more serene exhibit, Painters of Scenery: An Exhibition of Landscapes (Sept. 30 to Nov. 2).
A pricey fundraiser to support the ArtCenter promises to be fun for $250 a ticket. D’Art for Art Exhibition, (Nov. 6-Nov. 13) will treat guests to a cocktail hour and hors d’oeuvres while mingling around the museum to select their desired pieces of art. After the meal, groups are randomly called to dash and dart for their favorite art. A party favor is guaranteed for everyone: an original piece of art to take home and add to a personal collection.
Before the year ends there will be an exhibit and juried show, Peace on Earth (Nov. 18 to Dec. 30), sponsored by centenarian Kathryn W. Davis, which will feature an original Picasso from her private collection.
Molly, by Deb LaFogg-Docherty.Cornell Museum: If art and animals happen to be your passions and you don’t want to neglect either, don’t worry.
The Cat’s Meow exhibit, running Oct. 14 through Feb. 27, won’t ask you to choose. The show will consist of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs accompanied by funny photos and anecdotes from local cat owners. The Children’s Gallery will feature a special mural by artist Sharon Koskoff and cat portraits from area elementary school students as well as members of the Delray Art League.
Featured artists include Ron Burns (Arizona), Rosetta (Colorado), Donna Fuller (Boca Raton), Deb LaFogg-Docherty (Boynton Beach) and Camile Schneebeli (Miami), along with photographer Joann Biondi (Miami). An opening reception will take place Oct. 14; local celebrity cats are expected to attend.
Running through Dec. 6 will be the Bernet Folk Art and Quilt Collection, featuring folk life oil paintings, quilts, needlework, decoys and baskets dating from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century. A juried exhibit, The Image in Photographs and Poetry (Dec.9-Feb.27), is bound to be more poetic than competitive, since it focuses on photographs inspired by poetry. The fine art photos are provided by Old School Square photography students and the poems are provided by the master poets, who will be leading the poetry sessions and readings during the Palm Beach Poetry Festival in January.
More paintings, drawings and photographs, courtesy of adult, young students and instructors from the OSS School of Art & Photography, will be presented with the OSS School of Art & Photography Student Exhibition (March 4-April 24).
World Trade (1987), by Susan Joy Share, at FAU. Florida Atlantic University: Consisting primarily of visual books acquired more for their artistic expression than for their informational content, the Jaffe Collection show (open through Oct. 30) will present a thematic selection of about 200 works featuring the finest and most innovative works from over 6,000 artists’ books held in the university’s Wimberly Library.
The exhibition represents the three-fold growth of the collection since it was first donated to the school in 1998. Today it is one of the largest and most varied of its kind in the country. The essential focus being on artists’ books and the details they carry: letterpress printing, fine binding, hand papermaking and paper decoration.
Posters, gig fliers, album covers, T-shirts, skateboard decks, CDs and videos encompass the multimedia exhibit Raymond Petttibon: The Punk Years, 1978-1986 (Nov. 13-Jan. 2), which will feature more than 200 examples of punk-inspired designs by this contemporary artist. Among the bands that benefited from his graphic creations during the California punk rock era were Black Flag and Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, Circle Jerks and the Dead Kennedys. It gets better. A selection of punk era film and video works and punk-inspired performances will also be featured. And for book lovers, there is even a lecture and book signing by Ryan Moore, author of Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture and Social Crisis.
Works by the masters of fine art graduates will be featured from April 22 through the summer of 2011 at the Schmidt Center Gallery while the Ritter Art Gallery will house the Fall Bachelor Fine Arts Exhibition (running Dec. 3-10) and the Spring Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition (April 22-May 6). The Annual Juried Student Exhibition will also take place there from March 25 to April 9. Works by Miami printmaker Brian Reedy and Tom Virgin will be on display at the same time (Jan.7-March 11).
A thoughtful installation about body image will take over May 27-Aug.12 with Fort Lauderdale artist Adrienne Rose Gionta’s Do these make me look fat? Noah Z. Jones’s Almost Naked Animals will run at the same time.
Coming to the Schmidt Center in the fall of 2011 is Surfing Florida: A Photographic History, a traveling show that will combine digital reproductions of vintage photographs along with original photographic portfolios of the state’s best-known surf photographers and most significant historic photo collections (though it will not include surfboards and other surfing-related artifacts). Paul Aho, a lifelong Florida surfer and shaper who actively competed as a teenager, is the project’s editor and curator.
At the John D. MacArthur Campus in Jupiter, staff is still working on the Art in the Atrium schedule for this season, but so far we know Escenas de América Latina II will run there through Oct. 8. It will feature murals created for the El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center and paintings from local Hispanic/Latino artists. That will be followed by Photographs by Fine Art Photographer Barry Seidman (Jan. 5–Feb. 11). Shows will also be held in the campus library beginning with You Were Almost Extinct Too (Oct. 29-Dec. 17), consisting of Derek Weisberg’s emotionally – sometimes disturbing — clay portraits. Weisberg is a contemporary artist from Oakland, Calif. The college’s Student Drawing Show will run from Oct. 29 through Dec.17.
Art fairs: This year the Palm Beach Convention Center will house several events including Art Palm Beach, which had a very good year in 2010 and broke attendance records. This will be its 14th year celebrating contemporary art through photography, video, installation art, public sculpture and design, and an educational lecture series. (Jan. 20-24).
Right behind it is the American International Fine Art Fair (Feb.4-13), entering its 15th year. Fair organizers expect 20,000 or more visitors this year. There will be about 60 exhibitors from 16 different countries. Among the highlights is a large-scale installation by artist Albert Paley. As it does every year, the fair will feature prestigious international dealers presenting paintings, sculpture, jewelry, antiques, contemporary design and decorative arts ranging from the antique to the contemporary.
The 2010 fair will be a tough act to follow. Attendance was estimated at 24,000, including a record 5,100 for the opening vernissage, and there were more than 80 exhibitors -15 percent more than in 2009.
Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Fair: Opens Feb. 18 and features more than 200 of the world’s finest antique dealers. An exclusive preview evening will be held that Friday evening for those interested in taking a look or making a purchase before everyone else. Funds raised will benefit the educational programming of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County and the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum. The fair runs through Feb.22.
Palm Beach Fine Craft Show: The 8th annual Palm Beach Fine Craft Show will come a day earlier this year. Running from March 4-6, it brings more than 100 of the nation’s most distinguished craft artists to the heart of West Palm Beach to celebrate their works in ceramics, glass, fiber decorative and wearable art, wood-turned and carved objects, distinctive furniture, marvelous metals, exquisite jewelry and more.
Editor’s note: The posting of this article was delayed by technical difficulties.