Here’s the second installment of works by new Guggenheim Fellows in fine arts, “artists of exceptional promise.” 

 

–Paul Bloodgood is an independent
artist in Jackson Heights. Below is Dusk Opening and Closing, 2008, Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 –Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, of Chicago, is a
professor at the School of Art and Design, University of Illinois, Chicago. His website is here, and at left is Phantom Truck, 2007.  

 

 

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–Stephanie Snider,
of Brooklyn, is an assistant professor at the Rhode Island School of Design whose website is here. At right is Untitled (landscape with umlaut), 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

[Read more…] about What does it take to win a Guggenheim Fellowship, Part 2

The National Gallery of Art’s Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age is almost over — it ends May 3 — and, unfortunately, I have not been able to get down to Washington to see it. My bad, as kids say — much to the dismay of purists, including, on this particular point, me.

But a brochure that landed on my desk the other day made me wish I were a kid again. For this Saturday and Sunday, the NGA has created a Family “Weekend in the Dutch Republic” that sounds terrific. Aside from the usual family-activity booklets that help families explore the show and make-your-own Dutch cityscapes with rubber stamps, the NGA is showing a special doll house reproducing a period Dutch canal house and presenting a program of 17th century music for children with lute, violin, harpsicord dulcimer and voices of the National Gallery Chamber Players.

Museums everywhere are doing their best to attract families, but these programs sound particularly good to me. Take a look at the dollhouse here, for example — it’s interactive.  

The NGA’s “educational resource,” a 165-page book in PDF form, is great for older kids and adults. The podcasts are, too.

Imho, programs like these — actually attached to the art — are far, far better than the videos, games, sleepovers and yoga-for-children classes that other museums are now using to lure kids and their parents. For this exhibition, from afar, the NGA looks like a model worthy of imitation.   

Photo Credit: Jacob van Ruisdale’s Amsterdam, Seen from the South (c. 1680), National Gallery of Art

If you like design — or want to learn more about it — you should pack your bags and head for Indianpolis. R. Craig Miller, design curator at the Indianapolis Art Museum, has created a wide-ranging show of European design since 1985 that’s a marvel. It’s his third design survey show, and he knocks it out of the park.

That’s a different metaphor than I used when I wrote about it in an article published in today’s Wall Street Journal (where French seemed more appropriate).

The Journal, by the way, has a terrific slide show of about a dozen pieces in the show, different from those on IMA’s website.

A gorgeous Sylvain Dubuisson desk is at right.

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Indianapolis Art Museum

The economy is in shambles, but art and design dealers continue to put on a brave face. As after the ADAA Art Show in February, and the AIPAD photography show in March, the results from the just-ended International Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory seem to be just fine, thank you.

A press release from SOFA talks of “buoyant sales and steady crowds.” Total attendance was 14,500, plus 2,600 on opening night — or 17,100. Last year, the total was 16,100.

By comparison, AIPAD had 8,000, all told, and the ADAA show had 9,500, down from 10,000 in 2008.

There’s no denying that “design” has been hot in recent years, not only because contemporary-art collectors often want things that complement their collections, but also because the housing expansion (and proliferation of huge homes) created new needs for beautiful furnishings.

Yet it’s always hard to gauge the success of fairs, since no one really has to tell the truth about their business. When I visited, there were a lot of red dots on the walls — but they don’t have to mean anything, either.

Still, many dealers told the show’s organizers about specific sales and several gave prices — Joan Merviss, for example, made 29 sales and sold 16 of the 19 opalescent stoneware piece by
Miyashita Zenji. London dealer Joanna Bird sold a series of carved thrown ceramics by Pippin Drysdale (right) for $79,000. Adrian Sassoon said he sold something by every artist he brought to the show. Others offered similar, and more, information.

Among those in the crowd, SOFA says, were real estate developer Larry Silverstein, fashion designers Mary McFadden and Vera Wang, and Charles Bronfman.

SOFA, now back under the ownership of founding director Mark Lyman, plans to launch another version, SOFA WEST: Santa Fe, in June. That’s the best sign of buoyancy.  

It’s widely known that American art, pre the AbEx era, is rarely seen or appreciated overseas. But now Saudia Arabians are having a look and getting a quick education in both American art and American history.

I learned over the weekend that from Apr. 15 – 25, people in Jeddah will have an
opportunity to view reproductions of about 40 classic American art works — works like Whistler’s Harmony in Blue and Gold, Cassatt’s Boating Party (right), Stella’s Brooklyn Bridge, Homer’s Veteran in a New Field, and Eakins’s John Biglin in a Single Scull. They are all included in one of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ biggest successes of the last few years, an effort to teach American history through visual art called “Picturing America.” The “Picturing America” exhibition, according to Arab News, was organized by Jeddah’s Culture and Tourism Department and the American Consulate there.

What a splendid idea. I only wish they could see the real works.  

“Picturing America” was a signature program of Bruce Cole, who stepped down as NEH chairman earlier this year, and I wrote about it, and Cole, for the Wall Street Journal in 2007, which you can read here or here.

So far, about 80,000 schools and libraries across the U.S. have requested and received the “Picturing America” reproductions and curriculum — plus some U.S. embassies, Cole tells me. The program was inspired. It would be wonderful if it paved the way for greater integration between art and school curricula in other subjects, too.

And it would be nice if American art won a greater following around the world.  

Photo Credit: The National Gallery of Art