Exhibition Status: Past

Passionate Observer

passionate observer Eudora_welty

Passionate Observer: Eudora Welty among Artists of the Thirties

“Photography taught me that to be able to capture transience, by being ready to click the shutter at the crucial moment, was the greatest need I had.”

— Eudora Welty

“[A] stirring and deeply personal glimpse into the lives of everyday people struggling to maintain dignity and courage in the face of one of the greatest catastrophes to hit America.”

— AAA Southern Traveler

A compassionate observer of the world as well as a passionate image-maker, Eudora Welty was a visual artist who used the camera with the same poetic facility as she used language as a writer. While Welty felt her primary medium was language, she continued to use a camera until 1950, when she left her Rolleiflex on a bench in the Paris Metro and, out of anger at her own carelessness, did not replace it.

This provocative exhibition developed by the Mississippi Museum of Art comprises over 100 works—all by notable American artists of the 1930s—including photographs, paintings, drawings, and prints.  At the center are Eudora Welty’s dramatic Depression-era photographs of Mississippi, Louisiana, and New York. Welty’s photographs from the thirties are placed alongside works by the artists Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton; photographers Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Ben Shahn, Margaret Bourke-White, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, and Dorothea Lange; and the Southern artists Walter Anderson, William Hollingsworth, Marie Hull, and Karl Wolfe. This juxtaposition opens an eloquent dialogue between Welty’s artistic motivation and the visual interpretations of other artists from this period.

Endangered Treasures

endangered-Treasures

Endangered Treasures: Our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

“‘Endangered Treasures’ allows viewers to envision the grandeur of a land that remains one of the last areas of virgin wilderness in the United States.”

– Anna Gawel, The Washington Diplomat

“Humanity needs a sense of horizons unexplored, the mystery of pristine lands.”

– Tom Walker, Photographer

Eight internationally recognized photographers—Subhankar Banerjee, Gary Braasch, Amy Gulick, Thomas Mangelsen, Tom Walker, Kennan Ward, Ken Whitten, and Art Wolfe—trained their lenses on the exquisite beauty of the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America’s largest ecological sanctuary.

Sometimes called “America’s Serengeti,” the Refuge is home to at least 45 species of mammals, including polar bears, lynxes, caribou, foxes, wolves, porcupine, grizzly bears, and the last remaining musk oxen. Bowhead whales, seals, and other sea mammals roam the cold coastal waters, and the Refuge’s fertile coastal plain—the biological heart of this 19-million-acre expanse of rugged wilderness—is most famous for the seasonal massing of 130,000 Porcupine River caribou, who for 20,000 years have migrated from the Klondike and the Alaskan interior to this unique corner of the world to give birth in a habitat rich with nutritious plant life.

This exhibition of more than 50 photographs highlighted the landscapes, wildlife, and flora native to this remote arctic wilderness. Sponsored in part by the Sierra Club, the exhibition is a celebration of the copious natural beauty and diversity of life in this northwestern pocket of Alaska, and an important documentation of our endangered national treasure.

Color in Freedom

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Color in Freedom: Journey along the Underground Railroad

“‘Color in Freedom’ captures the majestic familiarity of Africa, the horror of enslavement, the drudgery of  slavery and the courage of escape.”

– Michelle J. Nealy, Diverse, March 23, 2009

“The pieces aren’t just visually beautiful, they tell a very important story as well.”

– Mary Hartsharn, Pensacola Museum of Art

The stories of the Underground Railroad are some of the most powerful in American history. Color in Freedom: Journey along the Underground Railroad is an exhibition of 49 paintings, etchings, and drawings by Joseph Holston that evoke the courage and tenacity of slaves determined to escape to freedom. The exhibition consists of four movements that track the flow of events in the lives of those who traveled the Underground Railroad:

  • The Unknown World
  • Living in Bondage
  • The Journey of Escape
  • Color in Freedom

Painter and printmaker Joseph Holston is best known for his use of vivid color, abstracted forms, and expressive lines. His work, which consistently garners critical praise, can be seen in numerous significant public and private collections. The exhibition Color in Freedom is organized by the Arts Program of the University of Maryland University College. An accompanying educational component consists of an integrated multi-disciplinary package, which includes a virtual exhibition tour to be used in various classroom settings, as well as integrated lesson plans for specific disciplines as they relate to the virtual exhibition, such as: artistic interpretation of a historic event; artistic technique and style, including color and form; and cultural and social significance.

A 96-page, full–color exhibition catalogue published by Pomegranate Communications, Inc., is available for purchase directly from the publisher.

The Dutch Italianates

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The Dutch Italianates: 17th Century Masterpieces from Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

“For many, this view of the Italian landscape seen through Dutch eyes will be a revelation, allowing the visitor to see some of the most beautiful paintings of the 17th century.”

– Kurt Shaw, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

“Hotly collected and widely revered, these brilliant 17th-century artists—known as the Dutch Italianates—mixed the warm light, scenery and people of the Italian countryside with a keen, definitively Northern eye for detail and the ability to manipulate paint like few others.”

– Mark St. John Erickson, Daily Press

The Dutch Italianates: Seventeenth-Century Masterpieces from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Londonthrows a spotlight on a remarkable but little-seen genre: Italian landscapes of the 17th century as seen through the eyes of some of the most accomplished Dutch artists of the Golden Age. The exhibition features a group of 40 paintings from a collection formed for a king, highlighting masterpieces by Aelbert Cuyp, Nicolaes Berchem, Karel Dujardin, Philips Wouwermans, and Adam Pynacker. These artists were at the height of their powers and reputation, and their groundbreaking work profoundly influenced the 18th century French and English aesthetic, and even carried over to 19th century America.

 

Unlike most of the foreign painters who flocked to Italy in the 17th century, the Dutch Italianates developed their own, hybrid style of picturesque landscape art. Their works, which combined Italian light, landscapes, and marble ruins with closely observed peasant life of the sort favored by artists of the Dutch Golden Age, were absolutely unique and turned out to be wildly influential. For the burgeoning middle class of 17th century Holland—which had just begun to expand its global reach—bucolic scenes of the sun-dappled Roman campagna and hills were an ideal respite from the flat, windswept, often cloudy vistas of their own country. For almost two centuries, Dutch Italianate landscapes were among the most celebrated and widely collected in the genre, both in Europe and America.

 

This exhibition offers an exceptional opportunity to view masterworks from the world-class collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, a collection formed originally for a king (Stanislaus Augustus, the last king of Poland) that has been called the best small museum in all of Europe.

Albrecht Dürer

ALBRECHT DÜRER: ART IN TRANSITION

Albrecht Dürer: Art in Transition

“Sex, violence and pageantry; tragedy, comedy and cosmic vision: Dürer made all this and more visible with a grasp of pictorial space and composition that is as powerfully muscular as it is delicately intimate.”

– Ken Johnson, The New York Times

“The retrospective exhibit, a stupendous gathering of 106 of the artist’s prints…explores only one facet of Dürer’s genius—printmaking. And it is a knockout.”

– Lance Esplund, The New York Sun

Dürer is considered the foremost German artist of the Renaissance era, and the greatest master of the printed image besides Rembrandt. His wide-ranging, surprisingly modern intellect encompassed many interests—science, philosophy, alchemy, nature study, mysticism and the visionary—all of which animated his unprecedented use of the new technologies of graphic arts. His exquisitely detailed and original works (woodcuts, engravings, etchings, and drypoint), which could be reproduced en masse and disseminated widely, sought not only to please the eye but to make the religious and philosophical debates of the time accessible to a broad public.

This magnificent exhibition offers an exclusive look at the artist’s innovative interpretations of 16th century Christianity and examines his unique position as a transitional figure between Gothic naturalism and Italian humanism. The collection is drawn from the renowned Hessisches Landesmuseum (Hessian State Museum), Darmstadt, Germany, and comprises 100 examples of Dürer’s woodcuts, etchings, and engravings. This exhibition is organized by the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Mechthild Haas, graphics curator at the Hessisches Landesmuseum.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Dance theatre of Harlem

Dance Theatre of Harlem: 40 Years of Firsts

“one of ballet’s most exciting undertakings”

– The New York Times, 1971

“As a young girl, I dreamed of being a ballet dancer, but was told I couldn’t do it because I was black. I feel very fortunate and thrilled that I can pass this art form along to the next generation of dancers.”

–  Virginia Johnson, Artistic Director, Dance Theatre of Harlem

Highlighting Dance Theatre of Harlem’s 40-plus year history, this magnificent exhibition celebrates the history and art of dance with 25 costumes and accessories, set pieces, documentary video excerpts, historical photographs and tour posters; and includes four dramatically-staged ballets that are iconic to the company: A Streetcar Named Desire, Creole Giselle, Dougla, and Firebird. Dispelling the belief that ballet could not be performed by those of African descent, Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969. It has since grown into a multi-cultural dance institution.

The exhibition comes with customized costume forms and backdrops for the four staged ballets. Banners are long and can be mounted to a wall, or will require tall ceilings to hang in open air space.

In the last 45 years, the professional touring company of Dance Theatre of Harlem has performed in 44 states, 250 cities in North America, and in 40 countries on 6 continents.

John Dreyfuss

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John Dreyfuss: Sculptor

“From images of an American pastime to offshoots of a foreign culture, sculptor John Dreyfuss strikes a timeless balance between the past and present.”

— Judith Bell, Southern Accents

“Through the sparest of means, Mr. Dreyfuss conveys something of the amplitude and grace of nature.”

— Eric Gibson, The Washington Times

Dreyfuss’s bronze figures and animals are noted for their harmonious design and exquisite finishes. His training in both architecture and sculpture found a poetic fusion in the essential duality of his work, where abstracted lines blend seamlessly with the lifelike shapes and textures intrinsic to sculptural realism. His innovative use of patina and “invisible” supports (suspension wires, or pedestals that follow the flow of a figure, as if emerging from water) contribute to the illusionistic synthesis of life and sculptural artifice, where form, surface, and evocation of the natural world engage us on many levels at once.

For five years, International Arts & Artists circulated this exhibition of 19 outdoor bronze works, all mounted on steel pedestals, to museum gardens and grounds and to city plazas in South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia. Most are extremely large—up to 22 feet in length—and include stylized figures of animals, boats, urns, and other objects, many of which inhabit a sculpturally fluid interstice between beast and object d’art. Some of his most striking creations include his bronze renderings of baseball players—a dreamlike abstraction of long-ago Senators games at his childhood hometown of Washington, DC.

Crossing Cultures

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Crossing Cultures: Belle Yang, A Story of Immigration

“As an art exhibition curator, when I opened and read Belle Yang’s books, I walked into a museum gallery each time.”

–Deborah Silguero, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the National Steinbeck Center

“I applaud you for sharing your story of immigration…and hope that it will be heard.”

– Nancy Pelosi

“Belle’s voice is so true and pure it is capable of washing away the grimy layers of cynicism.”

– Amy Tan

Belle Yang is an author, graphic novelist, and children’s book illustrator who translates her experiences as a Chinese-American immigrant into bold, powerful artworks. The exhibition features approximately 25 paintings and 8 illustrations that embrace Yang’s Asian heritage. Born in Taiwan, Yang spent part of her childhood in Japan before immigrating to the US with her family at the age of seven. In an effort to reconnect with her parents’ mainland Chinese roots, Yang studied at the Beijing Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting, where she developed an appreciation and respect for traditional ink paintings and folk art. After experiencing the horrors of the Tiananmen Massacre, Yang returned to the US determined not to waste the gift of America: freedom of expression.

Yang—whose Chinese first name, Xuan, means “Forget Sorrow”—has found her own voice, one that advocates justice for immigrants through captivating writing and compelling images. Exhibitions of her work have been presented at museums and cultural centers such as the National Steinbeck Center, Monterey Museum of Art, San Francisco Main Public Library, Pacific Asia Museum, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, and the Boston Public Library. The exhibition is accompanied by an award-winning documentary film, My Name is Belle, in which the artist narrates her life story and shares the inspiration behind significant pieces in her oeuvre.

I try to instill the thought that no one is plain old American, even if a family has been several generations in America. We are all immigrants or have immigrant roots from far ranging places. — Belle Yang

Crafting Utopia

crafting-Utopia

Crafting Utopia: The Art of Shaker Women

“These items are not only beautifully made under their deceptively simple surfaces, they are also—to put it as simply as possible—labors of love.”

– D. Eric Bookhardt, Best of New Orleans

“A palpable feeling of peace emanates from…‘Crafting Utopia: The Art of Shaker Women.’”

– Julie Jenson, The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus

Founded in the 1770s in Manchester, England, the Shakers were a progressive religious sect (a celibate offshoot of the Quakers) whose communal villages and handmade furnishings and tools exemplified their utopian ideals: purity, utility, self-sufficiency, and sexual and racial equality. Immigrating to America in the 1780s, the Shakers flourished in the vast spaces and freedoms of the new country, founding communities in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Their furniture, tools, craftworks, architecture, and other artifacts—expressions of their austere religiosity and love of simple utility—are highly regarded for their purity of line, harmony of construction, ingenious design, and sturdy workmanship.

The Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has the largest and most representative collection of Shaker artifacts available to public at an original site. This exhibition featured 115 beautifully crafted objects, including unique woodenware and household objects, costumes, textiles and furnishings. Crafting Utopia focused on the role of women in the Shaker community and their importance in the development of Shaker crafts.

China Modern

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China Modern: Designing 20th Century Popular Culture

“The takeaway for our visitors is understanding how dynamic China is and how that shift from capitalism to communism felt day to day as seen in people’s homes and through graphic designers whose goal was to sell something, either products or politics.”

– Bridget Bray, assistant curator, Pacific Asia Museum, excerpt from Los Angeles Times article

“Sometimes, a litchi box is more than a litchi box. In a designer’s hands, it can become a work of art, a cultural artifact or a piece of propaganda.”

– Karen Wada, LA Times

The dynamism of 20th century China was on full display in China Modern, which chronicled the country’s changing character through a celebration of its graphic art and material culture, illustrating how both political ideologies and cultural values are transmitted through conventional objects. The more than 180 objects—posters, calendars, litchi boxes, porcelain figures, trade cards and handbills, as well as advertisements for films, fashions, and toys—blurred the boundaries  between capitalist material culture and communist state propaganda, showing how the art of the sell evolved (or didn’t) throughout decades of social and cultural upheaval. Curator Kalim Winata believes that “these everyday materials have been the small steps by which great cultural shifts are made.”

This is the first exhibition to track graphic art and product design from the Qing Dynasty through the tumult of the 20th century, while also reflecting on the impact advertising art has had on the contemporary experience.

China Modern was organized by Pacific Asia Museum and toured by International Arts & Artists.