New exhibition at the Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures … “Beauty Surrounds Us,” September 23, 2006 – September 23, 2008 … A free event for the whole family … take the subway to Bowling Green …

The Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures, which houses objects fashioned of bone, hide, clay, reeds, seeds, wood, metal and other stuff, opens Friday at the Smithsonian’s center in Lower Manhattan.
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The new 6,000-square foot pavilion, which includes a performance area that can seat 400, occupies former storage space under the grand oval rotunda on the main floor of the center’s home, the United States Custom House on Bowling Green. The marble floor has been replaced by one of sprung maple suitable for dance performances; the walls have been covered with handsome cherry paneling, sloped gently inward; and 10 vertical exhibit cases have been placed in the window niches, covering up a bleak view of an inner courtyard. Behind the performance space is a curving wall of jade-green translucent glass. (The pavilion is named for the New York collectors Valerie and Charles M. Diker, who contributed $1 million toward its realization.)

“Finding Beauty in Usefulness,” by Grace Glueck, The New York Times, September 22, 2006
Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, Free admission, web site, 1 Bowling Green, open 10 am – 5 pm every day except December 25th, Thursdays until 8 pm, 212-514-3700

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A very good eye for Fine Art … $50 makes $284,000 …

A painting bought for less than $50 at a Manhattan flea market 23 years ago sold at auction in London this week for $284,000. The picture, an oil on canvas by the Indian artist Francis Newton Souza, is a portrait of a bald, frowning man in a black suit, his eyes obscured by wire-rimmed glasses, and is dated 1958.

“Bought for Less Than $50, Sold for $284,000,” By Ben Shapiro, Arts, Briefly, The New York Times, September 16, 2006
Also, he enjoyed the painting for those many years … It pays to stroll through the flea market and avoid the TV shows …
Francis Newton Souza
Bonhams

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boingboing has links to “Carlos Vilardebo’s 1961 documentary of mobile-maker Alexander Calder’s intricate, ingenious wire puppet circus. The flying trapeezes actually fly, the lion poops, and the belly dancer gyrates lasciviously in the mind-blowing film that shows that, had Calder not become famous as an artist, he might have been equally famous as a puppeteer. In four parts.” On YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

More

• Alexander Calder’s work

• Alexander Calder – wikipedia
• “The Engineer Behind Calder’s Art,” by Joan M. Marter, Mechanical Engineering Magazine, December 1998
• Alexander Calder at the Guggenheim
• Alexander Calder at MoMA
• Alexander Calder at the National Gallery of Art
• “Vertical Constellation with Bomb” – from the National Gallery of Art

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The National Gallery of Art in Washingtan, DC, has a not-to-be missed exhibition underway … and the Chinatown bus only runs about $35 round-trip …

Titian, Pastoral Concert (“Concert Champêtre”), c. 1510, oil on canvas

This show was 13 years in the making. Visually seductive and rich with exciting ideas, it is one that visitors will long savor.

“Show reveals relationships,” by Sheila Wickouski, The (Fredericksburg) Free-Lance Star, July 27, 2006

A major new international exhibition, Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, will present more than 50 masterpieces from the most exciting period of the Renaissance in Venice. Premiering June 18 through September 17 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the exhibition explores the relationships between these and other artists, emphasizes their innovative treatments of new pictorial themes such as the pastoral landscape, and reveals what modern conservation science has discovered about the Venetian painters’ techniques.
. . .
The time span covered by the exhibition represents, visually and intellectually, the most exciting phase of the Renaissance in Venice, when the old Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516), Giorgione (d. 1510), and the young Titian, among others, were all working side by side. The exhibition will present approximately 60 paintings that best exemplify the new ideas and ideals: music, the pastoral landscape, the female nude, and the romantic portrait. It will include Bellini and Titian’s Feast of the Gods (1514 and 1529), Giorgione’s Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1500), Laura (1506), and Three Philosophers (c. 1506).

Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, June 18 – September 17, 2006, West Building, Main Floor. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 am – 5 pm, Sundays 11 am – 6 pm.
The National Gallery of Art is located on the National Mall between Third and Seventh Streets at Constitution Avenue, NW. The West Building is at 6th Street NW at Constitution Avenue NW , Washington, DC. The nearest Metro stops are Judiciary Square on the Red Line, Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Square on the Yellow and Green Lines, and Smithsonian on the Blue and Orange Lines.
Also see

• “Venetian art,” The Economist, July 29, 2006 ($)

• “The Titian that Moved a Nation,” CultureGrrl, July 7, 2006
• “When Venice Shook the World,” by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, July 7, 2006

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Wednesday nights in the summer time are reserved for the free Jazzmobile concerts held at Grant’s Tomb … 7 pm … 122nd Street and Riverside Drive … this coming Wednesday features the Wycliffe Gordon Quintet … jazzmobile.org …
The Frick Museum is “pay-as-you-wish” on Sundays between 11 am to 1 pm. Parking is very easy so early in the morning … the Jean-Étienne Liotard exhibition runs through September 17, 2006 … 1 East 70th Street, 212-288-0700
The Jewish Museum is free on Saturdays … 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, 212-423-3200

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Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789), Liotard Laughing, c. 1770, oil on canvas, 84 x 74 (33 1/16 x 29 1/8), Musée d’art et d’histoire, Département des Beaux-Arts

Whatever Liotard was paid for these pictures [of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa's 16 children], it was too little. He poured every ounce of his talent into them. Each seamlessly blends several mediums: black and red chalk, pencil, pastel and watercolor. Details are executed with a watchmaker’s precision. To give the figures a naturalistic glow, Liotard colored the reverse side of each thin sheet of paper. Marie-Antoinette is bathed in a rosiness that you sense rather than actually see.

“Jean-Étienne Liotard, the Unrelenting Eye of the Enlightenment,” by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, June 23, 2006

To his admirers, Liotard was the “painter of truth.” The artist was unsparing in his depiction of his sitters, including himself, avoiding the flattery and embellishment that characterized the art of his colleagues. He also avoided the painterly touches and visible brushstrokes favored by his contemporaries, railing in his Treatise on the Principles and Rules of Painting, published in 1781, that since one did not see such flourishes in nature, they had no place in art. Although the artist’s scrupulous realism put him at odds with the artistic establishment and did not please all of his sitters, it was the startling veracity of his likenesses that attracted the attention of noble and non-noble elites and secured his international reputation.

“Special Exhibition: Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789): Swiss Master,” June 13 through September 17, 2006, at the Frick Collection
The Frick Museum is pay as you wish on Sundays, 11am to 1 pm. A great bargain, go early and enjoy…
The Frick Collection, web site, 1 East 70th Street, 212-288-0700

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Come visit New York City and see this wonderful exhibition of photographs by Weegee (Arthur Fellig)…

“Unknown Weegee,” June 9 – August 27, 2006, at the International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, 212-857-0000, $ admission fee
“‘Unknown Weegee,’ on Photographer Who Made the Night Noir,” by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, June 9, 2006

More

• Weegee Biography – from Profotos.com

• Weegee’s World – from the ICP
• Weegee’s Profile – from Temple University
• Wegee prints at Art.com
• Weegee – Wikipedia

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Mark your calendar for Tuesday, June 13, 2006, from 5:45 – 9:00 pm – the 28th Annual Museum Mile Festival … FREE
all the museums along Fifth Avenue will throw open their doors to the public for free, the Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic, there will be world music every few blocks, crayon drawing for children on the avenue, etc.
I will head to the Cooper-Hewitt for their show of Hudson River School paintings and the National Academy for the American Art contemporary show.

Participating Museums along Fifth Avenue

• 82nd Street: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• 83rd Street: Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center
• 86th Street: Neue Galerie New York
• 89th Street: Guggenheim Museum
• 90th Street: National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts
• 91st Street: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 92nd Street: The Jewish Museum
• 103rd Street: Museum of the City of New York
• 105th Street: El Museo del Barrio

Post by Peter
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I love the MET when they show small exhibitions amongst all the very important art works … it is like strolling into a art gallery and … wow!

Samuel Palmer (1805–1881): Vision and Landscape

Samuel Palmer (1805–1881): Vision and Landscape
A major retrospective featuring watercolors, drawings, etchings, and oils by one of the most important British landscape painters of the Romantic era.

March 7 – May 29, 2006, Galleries for Drawings, Prints, and Photographs, and The Howard Gilman Gallery, 2nd floor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue

Resources

• Samuel Palmer – The British Museum Exhibition, October 21, 2005 – January 22, 2006

• Samuel Palmer – Wikipedia
• Samuel Palmer – Handprint . . . . . . . . .

  Post by Peter
  Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, Manhattan, metropolitan museum of art
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First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum, Brasil Carnival will be lots of fun for the whole family …
Target First Saturdays – FREE

At the Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturdays, thousands of visitors enjoy free programs of art and entertainment each month from 5–11 p.m. All evening long, the Museum Café serves a wide selection of sandwiches, salads, and beverages, and a cash bar offers wine and beer. Parking is a flat rate of $4 starting at 5 p.m.

March 4, 2006
(these are just some of the events on March 4 – see web site for more)
6 p.m.–8 p.m.: World Music
Hall of the Americas, 1st Floor
Jeff Newell’s New-Trad Octet of Brooklyn plays New Orleans Mardi Gras music with a twist.
6:30 p.m.: Performance
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor
Drama of Works and 2 Punks Puppet Theatre combine overhead projection and traditional shadow puppetry to tell a Cajun fairytale in which the hero goes in search of that one special ingredient for a Mardi Gras gumbo. Free tickets available at the Visitor Center beginning at 5:30 p.m.
8 p.m.: Free Dance Lessons
Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor
Get ready to move those dancing feet to the rhythms of samba music led by Stepping Out Dance Studio instructors.
9 p.m.–11 p.m.: Dance Party
Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor
Twice voted the best Brazilian band in the U.S. by the Brazilian International Press Association, Grupo Saveiro will perform high-energy Brazilian music—just like at Carnival in Rio!
Brooklyn Museum, web site, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, 718-638-5000
previous post: “Brooklyn Museum of Art – free first Saturdays,” February 14, 2006

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