Here's a list of recent exhibitions, all mounted by the same museum: Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman Starburst: Color Photography In America, 1970-1980 Roaring Tigers, Leaping Carp: Decoding the Symbolic Language of Chinese Animal Painting Wedded Perfection: Two Centuries of Wedding Gowns Jeep, 1942 Heavy Metal: Arms and Armor Which would you most like to see? Which was most educational? Most uplifting? Which most fit with the institution's founding ambition to be the "Art Palace of the West," to "bring a public art institution … [Read more...]

I confess that I am not a big fan of Marc Chagall's art, and I've never quite understood his popularity. Nevertheless, I'm writing about Paris Through The Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle, which opens on Tuesday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art anyway. That's because I am interested in the cross-fertilization artists experience, particularly at artists' colonies (see an old NYTimes article of mine), and the Philadelphia show also explores La Ruche -- "the beehive" -- at left. La Ruche was the three-story cylindrical building in … [Read more...]

Bye-bye Renoir. I learned this morning that the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is selling Femme cueillant des Fleurs, c 1874. The painting will be offered at the Dickinson booth at Maastricht, Mar. 18-27, with a price tag of $15 million. I learned this from a Maastricht press release, not as I would have preferred, from the Clark itself. Proceeds, the release says, will be used to strengthen the Clark's collection (in accordance with the policy of the Association of Art Museum Directors). No violation of the … [Read more...]

Here comes the Battle of the Sexes. At least, that's how the Delaware Art Museum is billing an exhibition that opens on Mar. 5. What makes it noteworthy here is that it's another experimental attempt to get people to participate actively in the arts, as an experience, rather than passive viewing -- about which I have mixed emotions. Battle of the Sexes was organized by The Philadelphia Women's Caucus for Art, a new group for me, but which (I learned via its website) was founded in 1972 in connection with the … [Read more...]

Much has been made in the last week or so of the article published in Psychology Today arguing for the value of "supporting the arts" at a time when the Obama Administration and Congress have targeted the National Endowment for the Arts for cuts. It's a good article that makes good points about the value of participating in arts and crafts activities, particularly among youngsters, for the impact it has on creativity later on. I believe in the conclusions. But I'm not so sure I buy the connection with the budget cuts. The … [Read more...]

It's not just Egypt. Tunisia's revolution may have been more peaceful, but news coming from there now suggests that the country's antiquities have also been "looted." By the first lady, Leila Ben Ali. I suppose one shouldn't be surprised: I visited Tunisia a few years ago, and not only was President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's picture everywhere, but also his home -- easily viewed from the train to the love "blue-and-white" village of Sidi Bou Said just outside Tunis -- was gigantic. (Sidi Bou Said, btw, … [Read more...]

When I interviewed Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo about their Old Master collection in 2009, they said definitively, for the first time, that they would give it away to an institution (see here and here). Now they've gone further: On the eve of the opening of its showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, they've essentially said that it's the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's to lose. In an article published today, Eijk van Otterloo told Geoff Edgers of the Boston Globe that: ...if they were to give it away now, it would probably go to … [Read more...]

The news from Kansas City is serious fun: Today, the Nelson-Atkins Museum there announced that it's trying out two electric "Shuttlecarts" that will zoom through its galleries, ferrying visitors that need help navigating them. They will debut when Monet's Water Lillies opens on Apr. 9, and they'll use two different routes through the museum. But N-A director Julián Zugazagoitia has already taken one of the carts for a spin (presumably he won't be doing the driving on a regular basis; also, presumably, the riders won't … [Read more...]

This just in: The Friends of the Barnes Foundation have gone back to court, filing a petition today in Montgomery County Orphans' Court seeking to "re-open proceedings on the matter of the Barnes Foundation and its change in governance and the plan to transfer its art collection to Philadelphia from its historic, 12-acre arboretum setting in Lower Merion Township."  The petition was filed by Attorney Samuel C. Stretton, who appeared at the Friends' rally early this year and said he would lead them back to court.  According to the … [Read more...]