art conservation

Ukiyo-e Print Master, Hokusai, Makes Waves at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is currently displaying 230 works from seven decades by the Japanese master print maker, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). In the custom his era and profession, he was known by many names. Most of the works in the exhibition, organized by Sarah Thompson, the museum’s assistant curator for Japanese prints, are drawn from the museum’s vast collection. The MFA is regarded as having the finest collection of Japanese art of any museum, including those in Japan.

Above: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849),Watanabe no Gengo Tsuna and Inokuma Nyûdô Raiun, from an ?untitled series of warriors in combat (c.1833–5), Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. William Sturgis Bigelow Collection. All photos © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. xxxxxxMore

At Hartford’s Atheneum: ‘Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008’

“The best show is the people themselves.” –Reginald Marsh

The lights of Coney Island glowed on the horizon like a distant inferno, visible from miles at sea. A modern marvel of the Industrial Age, thousands flocked from the metropolis of New York to this beach-side park to witness the marvel of electricity, a crush of humanity drawn to its magical power like moths to a flame. The trap was cleverly set by its designers, combining the timeless allure of the beach with a garish display of carnival rides and circus-like freak show attractions, pushing the limits of human form and abilities. Towering edifices outlined against the night sky with rows of incandescent light bulbs too numerous to count served as a lure for the curious and seasoned visitor, alike. An acres-long boardwalk traced a line between the natural beauty of the sea and manmade wonders of the park. An ‘island’ in name only, the appellation itself—Coney Island—represented more a state of mind, free from life’s cares, than the physical reality of a narrow strip of real estate tucked along the margins of a sprawling cityscape. xxxxxxMore

Domaine de Chantilly, France, with Mystery of Fra Angelico Renaissance Masterpiece

www/artesmagazine.com — Fra Angelico, ‘Saint Romuald forbidden to enter the convent of Camaldules of the Emperor Otton III, charged with adultery’ Collection, The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium

The Domaine de Chantilly in France is honoring the prized collections of the Condé Museum with a special exhibition of 14th and 15th century Italian paintings. The exhibit, Fra Angelico, Botticelli…Rediscovered Masterpieces will be on view from September 8, 2014 to January 4, 2015. One of the highlights of the exhibition is the reunion of five of the six paintings that comprise the Fra Angelico Thebaïde (‘solitary retreat’).

But, one is still missing… xxxxxxMore

Rates of Exchange: the Detroit Institute of Arts as Gift

“An urban society needs two institutions to deal with non-functional objects: the sanitation department and the museum.” ~ S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution (1964-84)

Detroit is currently renowned for its vanishing. Only its debts have any substance. And its museum.

It cannot be entirely a surprise, then, that the holdings of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) have been considered as salable assets, the returns from which could be used to pay off the billions of dollars owed by the local government to an imposing list of creditors. Since the collection belongs to the city, it is a uniquely public institution, unlike many other major museums which function as independent corporations. The irony is that public ownership makes it vulnerable as the consequence of a municipal economic disaster. xxxxxxMore

Metropolitan Museum of Art’s, The Cloisters: Radiant Light: Canterbury Cathedral Stained Glass

A rare exhibition of stained glass from England’s historic Canterbury Cathedral on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s, The Cloisters, through May 18, 2014. It features six Romanesque-period windows that have not left the cathedral precincts since their creation, over 900 years ago, in 1178–80. A special installation was constructed within the museum, elevating and backlighting the windows to approximate their usual position, above eye level. Rarely do examples of artisanship of this complexity and age move from their original location, much less travel thousands of miles, before eventually returning to be reinstalled, high above the transept floor of the cathedral.

Above: This border panel surrounded one of the Ancestors of Christ figures in a clerestory window at Canterbury Cathedral. Weathering on the reverse of the glass from exposure to the elements over the centuries, now being repaired, caused corrosion and deep pitting.artes fine arts magazineMore

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters’ Tapestry Collection Rich with Symbolism

Man’s essential need for warmth and subsequent, very basic desire to express one’s individual presence in the world through creating art, were both well-served by ancient loom weaving and tapestry production. The form evolved originally from early methods of basket weaving, using as materials, linen, flax, wool and silk thread and yarn, instead of grasses and woods. The resulting fabrics’ function as roughly-hewn clothing, portable bedding, rugs and layers for makeshift home insulation (in everything from tents to castles), was soon equaled, and then overtaken, by its role as a medium for what some cultures, in certain eras, regarded as among the highest of art forms. artes fine arts magazine

Left: Tapestry, The Unicorn in Captivity, “Against a millefleur background, the unicorn lies in an enclosure, fastened by a chain to a pomegranate tree.” (early 16th century, Mllefleur Series Two) Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters. The pomegranate is the Christian symbol of hope for eternal life, renewed by its many seeds and blood-red fruit.

arts magazine

: Winslow Homer, Weatherbeaten (1894). Portland Museum of Art. Bequest of Charles Shipman Payson.

Ubiquitous Winslow Homer images of the surf-battered, rocky Maine coastline and pastoral scenes of American life in a simpler time, are so deeply embedded in our sense of national identity that we hardly ‘see’ them any longer. Too many posters of youths in fields and boats, stalwart, wind-swept women gazing out to sea, and gallant sailors reckoning with nature’s wrath have numbed us to the applied skill and visionary genius of Homer’s oeuvre. After a multi-year conservation/renovation process, the Portland Museum of Art has recently opened Homer’s carefully-restored Prout’s Neck studio, just twelve miles from the museum, itself, in Scarborough. To commemorate this important event, a concurrent exhibit features some of his best-known works—38 major oils, watercolors and etchings created during his tenure at the studio—during the last three decades of his life (1883-1910). Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine, is on view through December 30, 2012. The Prout’s Neck Studio is a permanent part of the museums collection and is now available for tours. artes fine arts magazineMore

November 2, 2012

“Oh, what a friend chance can be when it chooses.” ~Winslow Homer (written in pencil on his studio wall, Prout’s Neck, Maine)

Above: Bodhisattva Padmapani (‘the bearer of lotus’), Artist unknown (ca. late 5th c.). Cave painting, in situ, Cave 1, at Ajanta, Maharashtra, India.

Stealing Away Our Personal History…

ARTES, a fine arts magazine, has recently been reporting on unusual finds in the world of art and architecture: From a Haitian artists’s retrospective in Nottingham, England; to a newly-identified Goya painting in Madrid; little-known, early modern architectural design in the Republic of Georgia, in eastern Europe; a 5000-year retrospective on Indian art; to stunning photography of the wide expanses of West Texas now being shown at busy, Marfa Contemporary, in a town of 2500! This is all thanks to the dedicated writers living around the world who see ARTES as a thoughtful , well-designed and carefully-edited platform for telling their story, bringing their discoveries to us so you, too, can know.

Right: Phil Bebbington: Untitled (2011) Courtesy of the artist and Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, TX. artes fine arts magazineMore

Cashing in on Culture: Betraying the Trust at the Rose Art Museum

Scholar and art critic, Francine Koslow Miller, Ph.D., has recently completed a book, Cashing in on Culture: Betraying the Trust at the Rose Art Museum (Hol Art Books, Tucson, Arizona, 2012) investigating the chain of events that led to Brandeis University’s decision to sell off significant portions of its art collection in order to raise funds for general operations at the school. This scathing and detailed investigation reveals the motives, politics and deceptions that accompanied this effort, begun several years age. National headlines, legal challenges and local uproar—by benefactors, alumni and students—were only a small part of the groundswell reaction to the university’s decision. Here, in excerpt form, is one complete chapter in the fascinating chronicle of events surrounding this unusual and audacious act to dismantle one of the most cherished and valued parts of the Waltham, Massachusetts community. artes fine arts magazineMore

Santa Barbara Museum of Art Expands Collection of Early Roman Sculpture

I love museums on the move, particularly those that take their mission to educate, seriously. Located in a beautifully-renovated former post office, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (left) boasts an international collection deserving of repeated accolades. With the earliest renovation of the original structure by architect David Adler in 1939, and with several more expansions and improvements to the space over several decades, the newly renovated Park Wing Entrance and Luria Activities Center opened in June, 2006. The institution is now celebrating its 70th anniversary year with the addition of the newly-installed Lansdowne Dionysus in its entrance courtyard. Drawn from the collection of Wright Ludington, a life-long patron of the museum, the piece serves as an elegant reminder that the museum holds the second-largest collection of Greco-Roman sculpture in California, only to be outdone by the mighty museum atop a Los Angeles hill—the Getty. artes fine arts magazineMore