5th grade Thank You notes

The Thank You notes from Whit Davis Elementary 5th graders for their GMOA field trip are great again. This year, we got two drawings from memory of our Georgia O'Keeffe painting "Red Barn, Lake George, New York" as Thank You illustrations.

Backpack Tours

GMOA added free Backpack Tours for children this fall, and the initiative is starting to take off. First, the Red & Black wrote an article about it. The AP picked up the press release. Georgia Magazine featured it. And now we have kids coming to take them, as documented in the photos above. Warning: they are extremely cute.

To learn more about the backpack tours, click here.

Kress Project entries

We just hit 73 entries with the most recent, from Meredith Lachin, of Winterville, a wonderful oil portrait that responds to "Portrait of Giulio Romano." Click here to view all the Kress Project entries. If you know creative folks, please encourage them to enter. Questions? Email kressprojectgmoa at gmail.com and someone will respond to you quickly!

"Georgia Bellflowers" advances in

The video above shows us flipping through an advance copy of the book for our upcoming exhibition "Georgia Bellflowers: The Furniture of Henry Eugene Thomas." The rest of the books should be in stock in early January, in time for the exhibition, but we will be offering special pre-orders in the Museum Shop (in-person only, not online) until then. The book is only $16 and makes a great holiday gift for anyone interested in decorative arts, local history, woodworking or great stories.

Carl Mullis honored at Emory as distinguished alum

We've been a little light with the blogging lately (busy busy!), but we would be remiss not to call your attention to this small photo set on our Flickr page that documents Emory University's honoring of Carl Mullis, the chair of GMOA's Board of Advisors, as a distinguished alumnus of that institution. You can find more details here. We already know what an asset Carl is, but it was nice to see him recognized in a larger forum.

A Wonderful Gift

We keep forgetting to post something about this, but a few weeks ago, Valeria Gennaro Lerda, wife of the late artist Piero Lerda, stopped by the museum with her family, visiting from Italy, to give several works by her husband to GMOA. We documented the signing of the deed of gift, and Valeria held forth on the four works: "La creazione del mondo," "Art Blakey: On the Street Where You Live," "Personaggio--Schermo" and an untitled work. She was an engaging speaker, and it was interesting to hear her take on her husband's inspiration, which was frequently musical but also engaged with and commented on popular culture (e.g., television) and made use of collage.

Holiday Hours

If you haven't received notice of our holiday hours, please note them below. Also, the Museum Shop will be closed Black Friday but open for Small Business Saturday (Nov. 26). If you want to support small businesses and support the museum, come see what we have in the shop!

The galleries at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia will be open Nov. 23, Nov. 25, Dec. 24 and Dec. 28-31. The museum will be completely closed Nov. 24, Dec. 25-27 and Jan. 1-2. The museum’s galleries are normally closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, with its shop, lobby and café open on Tuesdays.

The museum will resume normal hours Jan. 3.

GMOA special holiday events include:

· The GMOA Book Sale: Dec. 8-9, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., retailing both GMOA and other publications. The sale is free and open to the public.

· Family Day: Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to noon. Families can make holiday cards inspired by the permanent collection and listen to a performance by Meridian Women’s Chorus. The event is free and open to the public.

· Buon Natale: Holiday Prints by Libby Bailey: The exhibition is on view through Jan. 8.

Also, beginning Nov. 19, Ike and Jane Café at GMOA will no longer be open on Saturdays. Its new hours will be Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Acquires Rare Work

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York recently acquired a two-sided panel by German Renaissance artist Hans Schäufelein, a pupil of Albrecht Dürer.

The panel has aroused some excitement due to the slim holdings of works by Dürer in the Met. Since the chances of acquiring any more substantial works by Dürer are slim, his student’s panel is of great importance.

The two-sided panel was part of a winged alterpiece dating from around 1510. One side depicts the “Dormition of the Virgin,” or death of the Virgin, a subject well rehearsed by Dürer. The opposite side is “Christ Carrying the Cross,” which art historians suspect to be jointly painted by Schäufelein and another artist known as the Engerda Master.

The panel is currently in the Met’s conservation department for cleaning and is scheduled to be on view next year.

Article here.

Goblins, Ghosts and Goya

Witches' Sabbath, 1821–1823. 140cm x 438cm, (55 x 170 inches), Museo del Prado, Madrid

Spanish artist Francisco Goya completed “Witches’ Sabbath” in 1823. The painting shows Satan in the form of a hybrid goat-human figure surrounded by witches, who quiver before him in fear.

The work is thought to be a satire mocking the superstitious nature of Spanish culture during this era and the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition. Spanish royalists and conservatives would use accusations of witchcraft as a way to demean the lower class.

The painting was one of Goya’s 14 Black Paintings, all of which were done in oil directly on the plaster walls of his house. Goya did not intend for the paintings to be exhibited. He never wrote or spoke of them, and it was not until nearly 50 years after his death in 1874 that they were removed from the house and transferred to canvas.

“Witches’ Sabbath” was damaged in its transfer and lost approximately 140 cm on the right, which explains its unusually tight cropping. Today this work and the 13 other Black Paintings are on permanent display at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

More Kress Project Entries

We're up to 58 Kress Project entries, with four coming in over the weekend. Our latest batch comes from Adel Gorgy (above), who reworks existing images with digital technology, then prints them at a large scale. Click here to see all the entries (now sorted with the most recent ones listed first).

Steiglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is now showing “Steiglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O’Keeffe,” through Jan. 2, 2012. This exhibition of Alfred Steiglitz’s collection, acquired by the Met in 1949, includes paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Georgia O’Keefe and Charles Demuth to name a few.

The exhibition features more than 200 works by American and European modern artists as well as publications by Steiglitz and several photo-secessionist photographs.

Alfred Steiglitz (1864-1946) was an advocate of modernist art and owned numerous galleries in the first half of the 20th century promoting influential artists of the time.

Steiglitz’s personal collection is the foundation of the Met’s modern American and European art holdings as well as a testament to his role in the promotion of modern art in the United States and abroad.

Jim Clark visits "All Creatures"

Our exhibition "All Creatures Great and Small" is still on view at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport through April 2012 (across from T gates 12 through 14), and if you haven't made time to go see it yet while passing through the airport, please do. Our photographs don't convey what fun it is. Jim Clark, who created the pike he's posing with above, and his wife, Jean Walbridge, recently sent us these pictures of their visit to the exhibition. She also informed us that the Folk Art Society of America is having its conference in Atlanta next year (Oct. 11-15) and is planning a trip to GMOA. We'll be excited to see the attendees! Thank you, Jim and Jean, for letting us know you enjoyed seeing the exhibition.

WUGA--The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

WUGA-TV used to be WNEG and now is affiliated with PBS and based on the University of Georgia campus. They recently approached us about partnering on creating some content, and above is our first effort. We're working on doing something longer at some point, but for the moment, we're putting together one-minute features on an exhibition each month that will run regularly on the station. This month's focuses on "American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print" and features chief preparator and in-house curator of the exhibition Todd Rivers.

Here's a list of channels, depending on your location and cable package. Unfortunately, WUGA isn't available on all satellite providers yet, but the station is working on it.

So look out for us on your TV and let us know if you see the promo.

GMOA Student Night: All Shook Up

Our quarterly student night was last night and, as ever, it was tremendous fun. Students made their own stickers with stamps (to mimic Hatch Show Print's offerings), toured exhibitions, listened to music by The Darnell Boys and Grinnin' Bear, chowed down on chicken from Zaxby's, posed with Elvis in our photo both and more. Slideshow above.

The Charleston Museum presents "Threads of War"

The Charleston Museum in Charleston, S.C. is showing “Threads of War: Clothing and Textiles of the Civil War” through Oct. 30, 2011. Men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, uniforms and other textiles are accompanied by period magazines, newspapers, daguerreotypes and diaries to describe the abrupt change in lifestyle for those on the southern frontlines of the Civil War.

Exhibition highlights are day dresses, such as a brown silk dress belonging to a member of the Jervy family and a wedding dress of Charleston native Frances Ann Harcastle. Frances and her husband, William Henley Smith, married quickly after the bombing of Fort Sumter due to the precarious war time conditions.

Among the crinoline cages and hoop skirts of antebellum fashions, another piece draws from international inspirations, a Zouave-style jacket belonging to Isabela Woodruff Holst. Zouave jackets, inspired by the military jackets that French military men wore in North Africa, became popular around this time.

Other pieces in the exhibition are a uniform worn by Captain Warren R. Marshall of Charleston made with wool, silk and locally grown Sea Island cotton.

Founded in 1773, The Charleston Museum is America’s first museum with a focus on the history and culture of Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry.

To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America

“To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America,” a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum that just opened at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., will be on view at the Georgia Museum of Art from Feb. 18 to April 16, 2012.

George Ault’s paintings exemplify personal worlds of clarity he used to offset the turbulent 1940s and a real world he felt was in crisis. Many of his works of art, which are some of the most original paintings made in America during those years, have yet to be seen. Ault and other artists, such as Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, confronted the chaos and devastating uncertainty of the war-time turmoil of those years through their paintings, revealing an aesthetic of 1940s American art that has not been previously identified.

This is the first major exhibition of Ault’s work in more than 20 years and includes 47 paintings and drawings by Ault and his contemporaries. It centers on five paintings Ault made between 1943 and 1948 depicting the crossroads of Russell’s Corners in Woodstock, N.Y.

This exhibition will also be featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Learn more about this exhibition here.

Image Caption: 

George Ault (1891–1948)

Bright Light at Russell's Corners, 1946.

Oil on canvas. 19 5/8 x 25 inches.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lawrence

Highfalutin' Hootenanny

Well, Highfalutin' Hootenanny has finally come and gone, and we had a great time this past Friday night, as you can see from the slideshow above. There aren't any pictures in it yet of people getting down on the dance floor, but some serious rugs were cut. Here are the folks who sponsored the event:

Champagne

Ms. Karen Benson & Mr. Howard Scott
Burns Studio Art/Van Burns
Mr. & Mrs. E. Davison Burch
Dr. & Mrs. James W. Cooper Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Dolson
Mr. & Mrs. Bertis E. Downs IV
Dr. & Mrs.Mark A. Ellis
Mr. Todd Emily
Fat Mosquito Press
Mr. & Mrs. Edgar J. Forio Jr.
Col. & Mrs.Thomas N.Gibson III
Mr. Richard & Dr. Anne Hathaway
Mr. & Mrs. Stan Henderson
Ms. Clementi L-B Holder & Mr. Robert Saveland
Mrs. Lidwina G. Kelly
Dr. & Mrs. D. Hamilton Magill III
Mr. & Mrs. David W. Matheny
Mr. & Mrs. Mark McConnell
John F. & Marilyn M. McMullan
Mr. & Mrs. H. Daniels Minor
Mr. C.L. Morehead Jr. & Flowers, Inc., Retail
Mr. & Mrs. Edgar B. Myrtle
Mr. & Mrs. Dennis O’Kain
Drs. Gordhan L. & Virginia B. Patel
Mr. & Mrs. Alexander W. Patterson
Dr. & Mrs. William L. Power
Karen Prasse, M.D.
Bill & Pamela Prokasy
Mrs. Doris Ramsey
Mr. & Mrs.Walter A. Sams III
Mr. D. Jack Sawyer Jr. & William E. Torres, M.D.
Mr. & Mrs. John D. Scoggins
Mr. Lewis Scruggs Jr.
Southeastern Color
Hon. & Mrs.Homer M. Stark
Mrs. Dudley R. Stevens
Mr. & Mrs. W. Rhett Tanner
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Winthrop II
Dr. & Mrs. Norman J. Wood
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Woodruff

Moonshine
Mr. John Ahee & Dr. Paige Carmichael
George Gregory Barnard
Mr. & Mrs. Randolph W. Camp
Mr. & Mrs. A. Blair Dorminey
Mr. & Mrs. C. Michael Evert Jr.
Dr. & Mrs. Henry Garrard IV
UGA Alumni Association

Beer
Mr. & Mrs.Woody Chastain
Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Coleman
Drs. Stephen & Cynthia Deas
Mr. & Mrs. Dan H. Magill
Mr. & Mrs. Gerry Whitworth
Kathy Prescott

String Theory played bluegrass and old-time music in the sculpture garden, and Good Vibrations supplied tunes inside. Harry's Pig Shop and Epting Events did the food and catering, Terrapin donated beer and Lewis Scruggs Jr. was responsible for the wine. King of Pops was on hand, too, supplying gourmet popsicles for dessert. Van Burns designed the invitations and programs. Fat Mosquito Press donated the printing of the save-the-date cards, and Southeastern Color printed the invitations.

Event chairs were Ann Scoggins and Michael Montesani. David Matheny was in charge of fundraising. And Tami Ramsay took charge of flowers, with the help of Lucy Allen, Gay Crowe, Tracey Crymes, Chad Erwin, Carolyn Garrard, Suzanne King, Amburn Power, Bev Sams, Alice Spratlin and Fran Thomas.

Thank you to everyone who donated time or funds!

"Daumier: Art for the Masses"

Jean-Honore Daumier, (French 1808-1879), Les Etrangers a Paris, n.d. Lithograph, 8 1/2 x 7 inches.

Art Daily recently featured the Birmingham Museum of Art and its exhibition "Daumier: Art for the Masses," a collection of 169 lithographs produced by artist, painter and sculptor Jean-Honore Daumier.

Daumier was one of France's most popular and influential artists. As a printmaker, he produced over 4,000 lithographs. His illustrations, most of which were published in popular daily newspapers, expressed his satirical take on French politics, society and culture.

Of the lithographs on display in the Birmingham Museum of Art's Jemison Galleries, 14 remain intact in the original newspapers they were printed, while the other prints were cut out long ago to be appreciated as stand-alone works.

"Art for the Masses" will run through Dec. 31.

Click here for more information on this exhibition.

UGA Study Abroad Costa Rica Exhibition

The UGA Study Abroad Program in Costa Rica Exhibition opens today in the third floor suite gallery in the Lamar Dodd School of Art building. The exhibition features student and faculty drawings, paintings and photography from the 2010 Maymester Art and Culture program.

Three full weeks in May and June offer students an opportunity to focus on Costa Rican art and culture through studies, observation and interaction with the natural and built Costa Rican environment and its people.

There will be a reception this evening from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and the exhibition is on view through Oct. 27, 2011.

Creative Genius

Here at the Georgia Museum of Art we are surrounded by products that stemmed from the creative thoughts and innovations of Steve Jobs and his coworkers. On Wednesday, we lost a great man and technological hero of several generations, but his insight and drive will continue to inspire us in the years to come, not only through technology, but through creative innovation in general.

The Georgia Museum of Art is filled with Macintosh products, from desktop computers and laptops to the iPads our docents now use to facilitate museum tours and the pending iPhone application that will turn our art mobile.

Steve Jobs made it well known that he appreciated the art of design and technology. His streamlined styles and view of how technology should work and be used stemmed from a belief that the art of computers was a universal one.

In a 1996 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Jobs said, “I think our major contribution [to computing] was in bringing in a liberal arts point of view to the use of computers. If you really look at the ease of use of the Macintosh, the driving motivation behind that was to bring not only ease of use to people—so that many, many more people could use computers for nontraditional things at that time—but it was to bring beautiful fonts and typography to people, it was to bring graphics to people . . . so that they could see beautiful photographs, or pictures, or artwork, et cetera . . . to help them communicate. . . . Our goal was to bring a liberal arts perspective and a liberal arts audience to what had traditionally been a very geeky technology and a very geeky audience.”

That same geeky technology is helping the museum bring art to new audiences. The museum will always be a cultural institution, a home of art and creative cultivation, but with the inspiration that Steve Jobs has given the prospects for us to expand our audiences are endless.

Thank you to Steve Jobs, a man of possibility who gave us all the tools to create our own artistic future.

Video: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005

Where in the World Is Bill Eiland? (redux)

Our director is still traveling. Above, he's posing in front of a horse sculpture by Ed Mell in Scottsdale, Ariz., and below he sent us a photo of Mary Koon, in our department of publications, eating a whoopie pie in Phoenix. Mary joined Bill there to do research on fashion at the Phoenix Art Museum.

ATHICA Mystery Selections

The Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA) is currently showcasing its “Mystery Selections” exhibition featuring the works of six local artists. The exhibition, which opened Sept. 30, will run through Nov. 6.

Selected artists include Rebecca Brantley, Will Eskridge, Missy Kulik, Darcy Reenis, Jorie Berman and Cindy Jerrell, who were chosen from 124 artists who donated 244 works anonymously for the “ATHICA Mystery Triennial” small works fundraiser.

According to the ATHICA website, the works “convey the enormous variety and quality of Athens’ artistic fecundity.”

“Mystery Selections” gives the artists’ fans a closer look at some of their individual works that were included in the ATHICA Mystery Triennial. Bodies of work include drawings, dioramas, large-scale paintings, sculptures and graphic design.

For more information on “Mystery Selections” click here.

Where in the World Is Bill Eiland?

Sometimes we think we could make our own globetrotting quiz show about the peregrinations of our director, Bill Eiland. The first photo here comes from the reopening of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota. You can browse the rest of the set here.

Then, a few minutes ago, we got the following photo from Bill's phone, featuring Pierre Daura Curator of European Art Lynn Boland. Knowing that this week he's on the West Coast, we guessed but got it wrong.

It turns out that they're at the Japanese American National Museum, browsing an exhibition of works by cartoonist Stan Sakai. Lynn and Bill are out in California working on our upcoming exhibition of large-scale resin sculptures by the artist De Wain Valentine, about whom we've posted here before.

"David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre"

The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City recently welcomed "David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre," which will be on display through Dec. 31.

The exhibition highlights a period in French history between the French Revolution in 1789 and King Louis-Philippe's reign in 1852. A turbulent time in French history, its artistic products are equally interesting.

Jacques-Louis David, Theodore Gericault, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Eugene Delacroix and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot are among the artists whose 80 drawings will visit the Morgan Library and Museum.

The Georgia Museum of Art's extensive works on paper in the Ceseri Collection also include drawings by Delacroix and Ingres. If a trip to New York for the exhibition is not in the cards this year, consider touring the Ceseri Collection, which is open to the public by appointment.

Family Day: The Art of Hatch Show Print

This Saturday (October 8), from 10 a.m. to noon, join us for Family Day: The Art of Hatch Show Print. This Family Day celebrates the exhibition "American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print," which is on view at GMOA through Nov. 6. The craft projects for Family Day are always one of the most fun things about it, and this week's involves using rubber stamps to create posters that look like the ones made by Hatch Show Print, in Nashville, Tenn.

We hope to see you at this fun event! Family Day programs are sponsored by Heyward Allen Motor Co., Inc., Heyward Allen Toyota, YellowBook USA and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.

Picasso to Warhol at the High

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)

Girl before a Mirror, 1932

Oil on canvas, 64 x 51 1/4" (162.3 x 130.2 cm)

The Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Mrs. Simon Guggenheim

© 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Later this month, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta will open Picasso to Warhol, an exhibition of more than 100 works by 14 of the most influential artists from the 20th century, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.

The exhibition will run from Oct. 15, 2011–April 29, 2012 and will be one of the largest concentrations of modern art to ever be on display in the southeastern United States.

Visitors who purchase tickets to this exhibition online by Oct. 14 will be entered into a raffle to win a Warhol Weekend Getaway to New York City, which includes round-trip airfare for two, two nights of hotel accommodations, two tickets to the Museum of Modern Art, a private Warhol walking tour of the city, and $200 for meals. A winner will be chosen Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.

For full raffle rules and more information about this exhibition, click here.

GMOA in the News

Wendell Scott, UGA student and young media entrepreneur, has his own talk show, "The Wendell Show." He recently dropped by GMOA to chat with PR coordinator Jenny Williams about the new expanded Georgia Museum of Art. To learn more about "The Wendell Show," click here.

S L O W Invitational Exhibit

Gallery 307 in Lamar Dodd School of Art is currently full of works that make up the exhibition: S L O W. On view from Sept. 23 through Oct. 17, 2011, the S L O W 2011 Invitational exhibit features Stefan Chinov (photography), Brian Dettmer (book arts/sculpture), Dawn Gavin (mixed media installation), Claire Hairstans (printmaking), Zack Mory (drawing) and Annie Strader (sculpture, video, installation).

According to the Lamar Dodd website, the six featured artists are "exploring the idea of time through various media and conceptual approaches." Each work captures the intricacies of a moment in varying mediums such as graphite drawings, pinhole photographs, prints, sculptural books, video installations and installations in other media.

The gallery is open Mon. through Fri. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is curated by assistant professor of art at Lamar Dodd Jon Swindler, Dr. Nell Andrew and Gallery Director Jeffrey Whittle.

Lewandowski at Work

We just found this great short film on YouTube that shows Edmund Lewandowski, subject of our current exhibition "Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond," at work on a mural of the S.S. President Van Buren. It's silent but in color, and titles announce the different sections: preparatory drawing, squaring, underdrawing (by far the longest section) and finally painting in of the mural. Lewandowski also holds a pipe in his teeth for much of the process.

Paul Manoguerra, in-house curator of the exhibition, which was organized by the Flint Institute of Arts, also put together this slideshow of images from its installation in our galleries.

GMOA welcomes Jim Sherraden of Hatch Show Print

Join us tomorrow from 5:30–7 in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium for a lecture with Jim Sherraden, manager, curator and chief designer of Nashville's Hatch Show Print.

In conjunction with GMOA's current exhibition, "American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print," Sherraden will speak about Hatch's new and vintage works, as well as the future of printmaking and letterpress.

Hatch has been in the poster-making business since the 1870s, and was recently admitted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Sheryl Crowe, Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks and Wynonna Judd are only a few members of Hatch's prestigious client list.

"American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print" will be on display through Nov. 6, 2011.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Thanks to R.E.M.

Every Athenian and music lover is well aware that R.E.M. has decided to call it quits after playing together for 31 years. The alternative rock band has donated endless time and nods to Athens in its long career, and we at the Georgia Museum of Art could not be more thankful.

Here at GMOA, R.E.M. has continued its support throughout the years with donations and sponsorships and by showcasing the permanent collection. In 1991, R.E.M. used three paintings from the Georgia Museum of Art’s permanent collection in its video for “Low,” including “La Confidence” by Elizabeth Jane Gardner. The paintings were intertwined with real models and editing technology to enliven the images and helped to attract a new audience to the museum.

Among numerous Elegant Salute events at the museum, the band also sponsored several exhibitions over the years: “Lord Love You: Works by R.A. Miller from the Mullis Collection” in 2009, “Weaving His Art on Golden Looms: Paintings and Drawings by Art Rosenbaum” in 2006 and “Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State” in 2003.

To Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Peter Buck, thank you for years of support and artistic interpretations of this beautiful town of Athens.

Here is a last look at the "Low" music video including images from the Georgia Museum's permanent collection.

GMOA Images on the Move

It's not just the Paolo Schiavo that's out seeing the greater world. Several other of our images are on the road. Art Rosenbaum's "McIntosh County Shouters," last seen on the GMOA billboard pictured somewhat blurrily above, is currently at the Morris Museum of Art, in Augusta, Ga. The exhibition "Down South: Paintings by Art Rosenbaum, Photographs by Margo Newmark Rosenbaum" is on display there through Nov. 6. Our Romare Bearden, usually on display in the new permanent collection galleries, is temporarily out of the building too. It's appearing in "Romare Bearden: Southern Reflections," a centennial celebration of the artist, at the Mint Museum of Art, in Charlotte, N.C.

Willem de Kooning Retrospective at MOMA

The Museum of Modern Art recently opened a retrospective exhibition that will last through Jan. 9th on the life and works of Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), an infamous modern artist who swept his frantic paint strokes across canvases throughout the 20th century.

The exhibition takes up the entire 6th floor of the Museum of Modern Art filling seven galleries with seven decades of work. “Most usefully the show lets de Kooning be complicated: it presents his art as a bifurcated yet unitary phenomenon,” wrote Holland Cotter, New York Times art critic.

More than 200 works including paintings, drawings and sculptures span de Kooning’s lengthy career. The show begins with a still-life painting that de Kooning finished at age 12 when he was still living in his hometown of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and continues well into the late 20th century.

The exhibition, among many others, includes several landmark paintings such as “Pink Angels,” “Excavation” and the “Woman” series.

More Kress Project Entries

As of this morning, we've hit 40 entries in the Kress Project. Mary Padgelek sent in a whole series of Madonna paintings (see above for one example), and we finally got our first audio entry, "Awake to the Terror," by Brian Connell. Browse through the entries so far and get inspired.

Unfortunately for our in-person visitors, our Paolo Schiavo is traveling to the Allentown Art Museum, which is about to reopen following its own major renovation and expansion. The Schiavo will be featured in an exhibition titled “Shared Treasure: The Legacy of Samuel H. Kress,” on view October 16, 2011 – January 15, 2012. Kress grew up in Cherryville, very near Allentown, and made one of his largest gifts to that museum. The exhibition will feature 40 key selections from its permanent collection as well as 30 additional works on loan from Kress Collections around the country. The Allentown Art Museum will reciprocate with a loan from its Kress Collection. If you're looking to get inspired by that painting specifically, you can still download a high-resolution image from the Kress Project site, or if you happen to be in the Allentown area, please visit it there.

Watch the "Horizons"

The weather is changing outside and grey skies spread eerie shadows over the cast-iron figures in the Georgia Museum of Art’s “Horizons” exhibition. Twelve life-size sculptures have held their gaze over the sculpture garden and around the museum since last January, but the exhibition will close this November 30th.

Fall skies provide a perfect time to catch the glow of the rusted iron and inset glass. Steinunn Thorarinsdottir is an Icelandic artist who studied sculpture in England and Italy, but now lives and works in Reykjavik, Iceland. Her stoic depictions of the human form in “Horizons” have appeared in fields, forests and gardens since 2007 before arriving at their sixth destination, the Georgia Museum of Art.

Another outdoor exhibition of Thoraarinsdottir’s recently closed in New York City’s Hammarskjold Plaza, a dynamic area of the city known for its political energy and as a rally local. Thorarinsdottir told the Wall Street Journal, “Often the figures have become silent witnesses and participants in deeply serious demonstrations as well as more light-hearted festivals.”

The Georgia Museum of Art’s sculpture garden on the other hand has afforded “Horizons” a calm place to land. However, with events coming up such as the High Falutin’ Hootenanny, a celebration with live music, barbeque and beer, these sculptures may get a little more action.

Come enjoy the cooler weather and true colors of the “Horizons” exhibition before the end of November. A list of exhibitions and events such as the High Falutin’ Hootenanny can be found on our website.

Happy Workers

How do we raise funds when we have a fundraiser? One way we do so is by recruiting staff and volunteers to assemble invitations and stuff envelopes. These happy folks helped us get the invitations for A Highfalutin' Hootenanny out the door unbelievably fast last week, and they should have arrived in your mailboxes by now.

For more information about the event, click here to read the full press release.

GMOA Employees Forklift Certified

As of Wednesday, GMOA's own Todd Rivers, Chief Preparator, and Larry Forte, Art Handler, are certified forklift drivers.

"We got certified to help provide the skills needed to load off large art shipments that arrive in crates," said Rivers.

The museum most recently received a sizable load from Nashville, TN containing the materials for "The Art of Hatch Show Print" exhibition, which runs through Nov. 6, 2011.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opens Parisian exhibition

François Boucher, (French, 1703–1770), Lady Fastening Her Garter (also known as La Toilette), 1742. Oil on canvas. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. (Via Art Daily).

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston was recently featured in Art Daily for the opening of their newest exhibition: Life and Luxury: The Art of Living in Eighteenth-Century Paris.

The exhibition allows viewers a glimpse of the day-to-day activities of elite 18^th century Parisians, including dressing, writing, collecting and evening entertaining.

Made up of nearly 160 objects, half on loan from 26 museums and private collections, the exhibition contains a wide range of paintings, sculpture, applied arts, drawings, metalwork, furniture, architectural fittings, lighting and hearth fixtures, scientific and musical instruments, clocks and watches, textiles and dress, books, and maps.

Click here to read the full article about this exhibition in Art Daily.

Evening for Educators

This Thursday, September 22, GMOA will host Evening for Educators for K-12 educators. A wine and cheese reception will be provided as well as a performance from the Monsignor Donovan High School jazz band. Exhibitions will be available for preview with curators and docents. Educators are also invited to sign up for guided tours and new teaching packets.

Lewandowski the Precisionist

Now open at the Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) is a traveling exhibition--Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond--organized by the Flint Institute of Arts. The exhibition has already been on display at Flint, at the Winthrop University Art Galleries, and the Mobile Museum of Art. For a nice, detailed definition of "Precisionism," see the Metropolitan Museum of Art's history of art timeline [here].

A few images from the exhibition at GMOA:



Of Polish ancestry, Lewandowski (1914-1998) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and remained a truly Midwestern artist throughout his career. The display features 44 works by Lewandowski ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s. Among the 44 images are two paintings from the permanent collection at the GMOA that return home to Athens after having toured with the exhibition since last summer:

Devil's Gateway, 1935-43, watercolor on paper, 15 1/2 x 21 inches
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Transferred from the University of Georgia Department of Art
GMOA 1961.184

Third Avenue N.Y.C., 1941, gouache on paper, 22 1/16 x 29 15/16 inches
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of the Friends of the Museum
GMOA 1990.1

After studying at the Layton School of Art, Lewandowski worked for the Federal Art Project and earned the notice of Edith Halpert, founder of Downtown Gallery in New York. Halpert added him to her stable of artists, which included Charles Sheeler. Lewandowski would visit Manhattan (where he painted Third Avenue N.Y.C.) to see Halpert and Downtown Gallery, but she continually insisted that he refrain from leaving the Midwest, emphasizing him as a regional and "American" painter.

His watercolor Fishermen's Village, featuring a Wisconsin town, is in this exhibition at GMOA. It was once exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1938, was seen there by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and was subsequently acquired for the Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park.

Fishermen's Village, 1937, watercolor and gouache over pencil on paper, 26 5/8 x 31 1/2 inches.
Collection of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York

Although he taught for a time at Florida State University, and spent the last years of his life living in South Carolina, Lewandowski throughout his career focused on the Great Lakes coastline, towns, farms, and industry. Ore boats re-appeared in his work from the 1940s to the 1980s. One of his most important nautical series began as a commission to paint the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1958. In 1975, the ship famously sank in Lake Superior in a horrible, sudden November storm. Lewandowski revisited the ship as subject several times after the sinking, including in this 1987 oil painting from a private collection:


The ship was memorialized in popular culture by Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."



Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond will be open at GMOA until December 3.