Shadow of the Turning: The Art of Binh Pho
January 18 - April 7, 2013
Shadow of the Turning features an exciting new body of work by Binh Pho, combining woodturning, sculpture, painting and art glass. The exhibition coincides with the publication of a book, created in collaboration with Kevin Wallace, Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, that marries literature, art, craft traditions, collaboration and mixed media approaches. The exhibition will bring museum visitors into an exciting new world of art, myth and philosophy
Organized by Kevin Wallace and the Mobile Museum of Art.
Carved American Folk Canes:The The Pat Connell Gift
January 11 - April 14, 2013
This collection of 119 folk art canes, a gift to the museum from Pat Connell, celebrates an artform that has a rich history of symbolic and spiritual meaning. As a child Pat was fascinated at the ritualistic whittling by the men on his grandfather’s front porch. 50 years later, in 1988, a chance visit to an exhibition of folk-art canes in Kentucky rekindled this fascination and began his interest in collecting this traditional artform. The cane or rod is such a basic tool that it predates our ancestors even becoming recognizably human. As such they are historically rich with meaning. From Moses’ staff to the ape’s discovery of the power of a bone in 2001: A Space Odyssey - a bone that transformed into a spacecraft - the cane symbolizes the mystery of the mind finding leverage over its environment. Folk art canes are the most democratic of art forms; anyone can make a cane. They are a part of America's culture and art, speaking to our capacity for self-expression, of personal communication and group identity. They are, in the words of Pat Connell, “the male expression of self-worth, status and intellectual energy that the female album quilt accomplishes.”
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art
January 18 - April 7, 2013
The exhibition features 53 works on paper produced in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries from the collections of the Georgia Museum of Art and Giuliano Ceseri. These prints and drawings, some of the most fertile and inspired artistic creations found on paper during this period, provide rare insight into the training, working habits and creative process of Italian artists of the era.
The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art is organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens. This program is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Support is also provided by Alfred Heber Holbrook Society members George-Ann and Boone Knox, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, and Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art. The exhibition is supported locally by The C. D., Jeff and Helen Glaze Foundation.
Contemporary Masters: Works on Paper from the Art Museum of South Texas
January 11 - April 7, 2013
Complimenting our exhibition of Italian prints and drawings from the Georgia Museum, we are pleased to present these selected drawings, prints and paintings on paper by 20th Century and contemporary masters from the Art Museum of South Texas. The 60 works on paper illustrate the diversity of approach and free experimentation allowed by the medium of paper. This stellar group of American and international artists exemplifies contemporary practice in the medium; including finished works of art, studies for further development, or, in the case of prints, as a means for wider dissemination of the artist's ideas.
Organized by the Art Museum of South Texas in a program exchange with the Mobile Museum of Art.
Why We Are Here: Mobile and the Spirit of a Southern City
October 5 - January 6, 2013
Why We Are Here: Mobile and the Spirit of a Southern City presents 68 photographs and text drawn from the book of the same name by the renowned Alabama naturalist E. O. Wilson and distinguished author, photographer and teacher Alex Harris. In 1991 Harris' book River of Traps, a collaboration with writer William deBuys, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, but the prize went instead to the E. O. Wilson for his book, The Ants. Twenty years later Harris and Wilson began collaboration on Why We Are Here: Mobile and the Spirit of a Southern City, which will be published by W. W. Norton this October. A Southerner by birth, Harris has consistently explored the meaning of home throughout his photographic career. For Wilson, one of the world’s greatest scientists and synthesizers of knowledge, Mobile is home ground. Many of Wilson’s significant early memories were formed in Mobile and along the surrounding Gulf Coast. Mobile is the site of his ancestral home, a place at once deeply familiar and at the same so utterly changed since his childhood as to be full of mystery. At the age eighty Wilson returned to Mobile to reexamine the territory of his early years, to see the changes that have occurred in the physical and social landscape, and to reflect on some of the broad themes – the structures of human nature, the complexity of the natural world, the necessity of conservation - that have captivated him for a lifetime. Together, Wilson and Harris evoke a universal story of where we all come from, of why we are here.
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art in conjunction with the Centre for the Living Arts- Memory Project. Locally sponsored by The J. L. Bedsole Foundation
Beauty and the Social Beast: Jon Eric Riis, Master of Tapestry
October 12 - January 6, 2013
Jon Eric Riis’ career as a textile artist spans over 40 years; examples of his work are found in major museums and corporate collections worldwide. This exhibition will focus on the socially themed fiber creations of this Atlanta, Georgia, based artist. Riis’ astoundingly beautiful hand-woven textiles push the boundaries of tapestry, often using precious materials such as metallic and silk thread and added embellishments of freshwater pearls, crystal and coral beads. In December 2011 he was the recipient of a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship.
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
The Haverty Collection of International Studio Glass: Redux - Celebrating 50 Years of the Studio Glass Movement
October 5- January 6, 2013
In 1962, two groundbreaking workshops led by artist Harvey K. Littleton and glass scientist Dominick Labino introduced artists to the material of glass as a medium for artistic expression. Littleton and Labino presented their development of a small, portable furnace and low temperature melting-point glass, providing artists access to glass and glassblowing techniques for the first time. These workshops kick started the American Studio Glass movement, which emphasized the artist as designer and maker, with a focus on making one-of-a-kind objects. In cooperation with the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, the Mobile Museum of Art is joining over 160 other museums in hosting exhibitions in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the American Studio Glass movement with selections from the Haverty Collection of International Studio Glass, one of the most important ongoing collections of its kind in the country.
I AM YORK Tut Altman Riddick My People and Places
July 13 - September 23, 2012
Mobile’s Tut Riddick is widely known for her involvement in all aspects of Alabama’s cultural scene. She was instrumental in the founding of the Coleman Center, a mixed arts building in York, Alabama, where she spent much of her childhood. A passionate collector and advocate of the arts and writer, she brings an infectious enthusiasm to those roles as well as her own omnivorous approach to making art. This exhibition explores her career as a painter, printmaker, photographer and sculptor. Her personal style reflects her appreciation of aspects of Southern culture such as its strong folk traditions and the lasting ties of family and friends.
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art in conjunction with the Center for the Living Arts Memory Project.
Masters of Graphic Art from the Collection of Gerald Swetsky
April 13 - September 16, 2012
Many of the artists in this exhibit of 32 works from the Collection of Gerald Swetsky, such as Picasso, Chagall, Miro and Dali, are most famous for their work in painting but translated many important works into print media. Often, though, they followed the example of Francisco Goya, whose etching in the collection, The Little Prisoner was designed specifically as a print. American artists in this exhibition include Norman Rockwell, Alexander Calder and Ralph Bakshi, who is represented by a cell from his famous animated movie Heavy Traffic.
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
TODAY'S VISUAL LANGUAGE:Southern Abstraction, A Fresh Look
April 20 - September 16, 2012
"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."- Wassily Kandinsky
The genre of abstract, non-representational art is a living, vibrant form of expression for a surprisingly large number of artists in the Southeastern states, as it is worldwide. TODAY'S VISUAL LANGUAGE: Southern Abstraction, A Fresh Look is an overview of contemporary abstract art. A variety of materials including painting on canvas and paper, drawings on paper, glass, fiber/mixed media and collage materials are included, The invited 37 artists have ties to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia.
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
The Heart of Echizen: Wood-Fired Works by Contemporary Masters
April 13 - July 29, 2012
Jointly curated by Christopher Kelly and Preston Saunders, The Heart of Echizen: Wood-Fired Works by Contemporary Masters highlights work from twenty potters. Echizen Ceramics, located in the Fukui prefecture near the Sea of Japan, refers to the unbroken chain of pottery from families producing utilitarian ware over the last 800 years.
This exhibition was made possible by the Japan foundation, Echizen city, Bridgewater State University, and Piedmont College.
Boxes and Their Makers
April 6 - July 1, 2012
Boxes and Their Makers illustrates the conceptual breadth of contemporary craft with works by 32 leading wood artists. It explores the idea that contemporary craft originates through the same vital process as does all art—as a vehicle through which makers explore meaning and identity—regardless of whether it is labeled as traditional craft, conceptual craft, or sculpture. Each box will be displayed with an informal portrait taken in the maker’s studio and an artist’s statement. Curated by Dr. Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Toni Sikes, and Kevin Wallace
This exhibition originated at the Messler Gallery of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport, Maine and may be viewed at www.messlergallery.org. Sponsored in part by IRWIN Tools and Accessories
The American Society of Marine Artists 15th National Exhibition
January 20 - April 8, 2012
Organized by the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), this exhibition is one of the largest of contemporary American marine art ever mounted. This juried show represents more than 100 artists selected from over 600 throughout the U.S. working in oil, watercolor, pastel, scratch-board, pencil, sculpture, and scrimshaw. The ASMA was founded 35 years ago to advance public appreciation of marine art, both as it is practiced today and in terms of the significant role it has played in America’s heritage.
African American Artists from the Permanent Collection
January 13 - April 8, 2012
The Museum’s rapidly expanding collection of work by African American artists is highlighted in this exhibition. The works on view run the gamut from the down home paintings on found wood by Mose T. to a sophisticated video and textile / sculpture installation by Justin Randolph Thompson and an exquisite work in charcoal by Kerry James Marshall, UNTITLED (Portrait of a Black Woman). Recent gifts include those from collector Ron Drinkard, such as Betty Sue Matthews $92 MILLION DOLLAR MAN PORTRAIT and selections from a large gift of folk canes Martha Stamm Connell and Pat Connell.
Facing South: Portraits of Southern Artists by Jerry Siegel
January 13 - April 1, 2012
Siegel began his education at the University of South Alabama in Mobile and continued at The Art Institute of Atlanta where he was an honor graduate. Primarily influenced by photographers such as Diane Arbus and Cartier-Bresson, he also draws inspiration from painters as well. Facing South is a multi-year project culminated in this series of 100 photographic portraits. Siegel has sought out professional artists from across the Southeast to create portraits them which convey the creativity and character of this remarkable selection of people, and tell us something about the nature of the region itself.
Organized by the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, Auburn, Alabama
John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist
October 14, 2011 – January 8, 2012
John James Audubon (1785–1851) was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, hunter and painter whose name is synonymous with the study and preservation of American wildlife. His masterpiece, The Birds of America folio, and his lifetime of written journals stand as an unsurpassed contribution to the world of fine art, natural science and American history and literature.
This exhibition is a rare opportunity to view more than 80 original Audubon prints, including 64 of the original hand-colored Double Elephant Folio engravings from The Birds of America printed at Havells of London, which cemented his fame, as well as 10 original works in oil, watercolor and graphite. Also included are original Audubon letters, rare books, photographs and personal items, all drawn from the collection and archives of the John James Audubon Museum, in Henderson, Kentucky.
John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist is organized by Art Services 2000 Ltd., New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
Projections and Reflections: A Collaboration of Music and Visual Art
October 14 – January 8, 2012
Projections and Reflections is a multi-media installation of painting, sculpture, prints and photographs by Sally Wood Johnson with music by Dorothy Hindman—occasionally enlivened by performance by one or more people. The artists collaborated loosely to create art influenced by John Cage (1912-1992), an important avant-garde musician whose theories of aleatory music have driven the development of art, dance and drama created and perceived by chance.
The installation features photographs that capture aspects of the concrete wall outside Johnson’s Birmingham studio and an original composition for cello, French horn, timpani and guitar, each played through separate speakers in the installation. The musical parts and instrumental timbres interact stochastically to create an indeterminate flow affected by the random interaction of the arts and viewers. Johnson says, “The wall is, for me, one huge chance operation.”
Celebrating Our Maritime Heritage: A Coastal Holiday
December 9, 2011 – January 8, 2012
In anticipation of the American Society of Marine Artists’ 15th National Exhibition, opening at the Mobile Museum of Art in January 2012, and in celebration of the spirit of the holiday season, the Museum presents an all-media, marine-themed exhibition. Juried by noted artist and instructor Ben Shamback, the exhibition was selected from regional artists’ submissions of original paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and photography depicting Mobile’s historic relationship with the water. The exhibition features coastal and marine landscapes, boats and aquatic animals. Best of Show and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners also received passes for free admission to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Estuarium, courtesy of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation.
Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer
September 9 – December 4, 2011
Elvis Presley was not a familiar name to 26-year old photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer when he was hired by RCA Victor in 1956 to shoot promotional images of the recently signed 21-year-old recording artist. In this exhibition, 40 amazingly intimate large-format photographs from that assignment chronicle Elvis’s dazzling emergence in a pivotal year, 1956. When Presley walked onstage that year, he altered the beat of everyday life. The world changed. Wertheimer captured the singer’s transit to superstardom and the cultural transformation he helped launch. Elvis at 21 offers viewers an intimate look at the public and private life of one of the world’s most famous figures, and documents classic American life—from the diners to the train stops—in 1956.
Elvis at 21: Photographs by Arthur Wertheimer was developed collaboratively by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and Govinda Gallery, and is sponsored nationally by The History Channel.
Project 35
March 1 - April 31, 2011
(Disc 2)
Project 35 Project 35 is an evolving exhibition of video works selected by 35 international curators and designed in a flexible presentation format, reflecting the diversity and unique nature of the many national and international art spaces. For Project 35, each curator has been invited to select one artist’s video that they think vital for contemporary art audiences across the globe. The result heralds the new decade with an eclectic compilation of works that reveal the global reach that video has achieved as a contemporary art medium today.
In this, the second series of Project 35, eight emerging and established curators, who collectively have worked in countries as disparate as Nigeria, Switzerland, Spain, Macedonia and Malaysia have selected artists from Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, Germany, Venezuela, Portugal, Singapore, India, and the U.K.
Project 35 is produced and circulated by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. The exhibition and tour are made possible, in part, by grants from the Cowles Charitable Trust, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Foundation To-Life, Inc., the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and The Toby Fund; the ICI Board of Trustees; and ICI Benefactors Barbara and John Robinson. Project 35 also benefitted from donations made to ICI’s Access Fund, created to widen the reach of ICI programs—Burt Aaron, Bobbie Brown and Steven Plofker, Jim Cohan, Phillip Drill, Leslie Fritz, Marilyn and Stephen Greene, Agnes Gund, Ken Kuchin, Gerrit and Sydie Lansing, Jo Carole Lauder, Janelle Reiring, Patterson Sims, Bill and Ruth True, August Uribe, Frank and Margo Walter, Helene Winer, and Virginia and Bagley Wright.
Shared Expressions: The Bay Area Art Partners
July 22 – September 25, 2011
Returning by popular demand, Shared Expressions: The Bay Area Art Partners, 2011 is a cornucopia of the arts in the Mobile Bay area. A wealth of artistic expression is showcased in this overview of work by members of Mobile area societies devoted to the fine arts. In this exhibition, each organization is represented by pieces chosen by its members or a they select.
The resulting works give evidence of the wealth of talent, dedication and hard work that enrich our community, and span a wide range of media—paintings, graphics, prints, photography, ceramics and quilting, to name a few.
The Prominence of Place: Dori DeCamillis and Susan Downing White
April 22- August 28, 2011
The idea of landscape can take very different forms. Birmingham artist Dori DeCamillis takes a conceptual bent in her mixed-media paintings from her series Exhibit A: Paintings of Alabama Places. These works take a close look not just natural places but cultural and historic sites throughout Alabama, rendering them in a combination of paint on metal, wood and ceramic tiles.
Conversely, Mobile’s Susan Downing-White takes inspiration from the traditions of landscape— artists such as the 17th century Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael, and American Luminists of the 19th century. She captures the diffusion of light in the dense coastal atmosphere and the palette of colors of the Mobile River Delta with an intimacy of place that is immediate and intense.
Together, the works invite the viewer on a leisurely and scenic tour of beautiful vistas and hidden charms of the Alabama and Gulf Coast landscape.
The Prominence of Place: Dori DeCamillis and Susan Downing-White is organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush: A Life in Glass
April 22 - July 10, 2011
The intensely colored and evocative work of acclaimed husband-and-wife artists Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush is the product of a couple who have made glass the work of their lives. This exhibition is a comprehensive look at the careers of these leading glass artists.
Jolley is internationally known for his figurative sculpture, formed by his breakthrough technique of modeling hot glass. A native of Mobile, Rush met Jolley after earning her bachelor’s of fine arts degree at the University of Tennessee. She is known for vessels that emphasize sinuous plant forms and a rich palette of glowing colors.
Since 1975, Jolley has maintained a studio in West Knoxville. The couple work in what was once a set of garages with a little house attached. Jolley’s method of hot glass sculpting is heavy work that cannot be done alone; it requires a team of two or three assistants.
Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush: A Life in Glass is organized by the Mobile Museum of Art. The accompanying exhibition catalogue is supported by a grant from the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (AACG).
Art at Random: Selections from the Permanent Collection
February 25 - April 10, 2010
Art at Random: Selections from the Permanent Collection offers Museum visitors, the opportunity to explore and interact with seldom exhibited pieces from the holdings of the Museum. Conceived as an on-going yearly series, guests are invited to digitally photograph works with a smart phone or camera and to send them to the Museum's Facebook page or e-mail them to the Public Information Officer. In addition, within the exhibition four activity stations have been positioned for guest comments. The Curatorial staff will use these comments to guide them with future label writing as part of an effort to better understand what visitors would like to know about works on exhibition. The pieces in this exhibition have been randomly chosen by a computer program from the over 9,500 items in our Permanent Collection which represent 47 years of gifts and purchases to the Museum. We hope everyone will find there is a wide and stimulating variety to the collection.
To view and comment on select pieces from the exhibition, click here
Full press release here
An American Consciousness: Robin Holder's Mid-Career Retrospective
January 21- April 10, 2011
An American Consciousness: Robin Holder's Mid-Career Retrospective features 65 works from the career of this important New York based artist.
Chicago-born and New York City raised Robin Holder (b. 1952) has distinguished herself as an artist whose work carries personal subject matter into the realm of the universal. She is also recognized for helping to perpetuate the traditions of skilled printmaking that occupy a central place in the history of African American art and for her innovative contributions to this tradition.
An American Consciousness: Robin Holder's Mid-Career Retrospective is organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. The exhibition is made possible through the support of a special fund from the Office of the President, University of Maryland, and a major support from the Maryland State Arts Council.
Additional InformationRobin Holder Information Sheet
Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond
January 21- April 10, 2011
Edmund Lewandowski (1914-1998) was the foremost second-generation American Precisionist painter. This landmark exhibition is the first major retrospective of this important American artist. Organized by the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, Mich., the exhibit traces Lewandowski’s development as a painter—from his early works exploring the beautiful and dark aspects of industry to his later years, when landscapes became planes of abstract shapes vibrating with color.
Lewandowski is credited with helping to form the Precisionist movement in painting. Fascinated by the abstract forms of the industrial landscape and machinery, the Precisionists did not seek to render the reality of these scenes, but instead to refine them into crisply defined geometric shapes. During his lifetime, he received much critical acclaim for his paintings that celebrate aspects of industrialized America. Over the course of a long career, he worked in a range of styles from Precisionist to non-objective, using varied media, including oil, watercolor, gouache and painted and mosaic murals. The exhibition will include around 50 works of art, ranging from representational to non-objective interpretations of his predominant subject matter: industrial imagery.
The exhibit will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue that includes an essay by its curator, Dr. Valerie Ann Leeds, examining Lewandowski’s work, his critical reception and his relationship to other Precisionist artists.
Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond is organized by the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Mich.
Poetic Containers of Light: The Haverty Collection of International Studio Glass
October 15- February 6, 2011
Since 2001 Atlanta collectors Elice Haverty and Dr. Rhodes Haverty have enriched the Museum’s permanent collection with the gift of 202 pieces of contemporary international studio glass. This exhibition, which features the first public presentation of works by 20 artists from Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, the United States and Uruguay, is a portion of their most recent donation.
American Landscapes: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum
October 15- January 2, 2011
American Landscapes: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum features 39 19th and 20th century American paintings, drawn from the permanent collection of The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. This selection of landscape paintings, invites viewers to consider how these images of place can trigger our memory, stir our feelings and kindle a yearning for the reassuring familiarity of the past.
View work by artists of the Hudson River School, among the first to record the ‘New Eden’ that was the North American continent. By the middle of the century, the border on the wilderness had been pushed further and further west and the rise of industrialization had begun to transform the topography of the eastern United States. Artists in the post-Civil War period, many of whom traveled to Europe to study, reflected such changes in their choice of landscape subject matter and increased awareness of European painting techniques, both the naturalism of the French Barbizon painters and the optical effects of the French Impressionists. The dramatic effects and carefully composed structure of the majestic landscape gave way to meticulous naturalism; the evocation of specific place, with light and color used to astonishing success. In the twentieth century, Long Island’s East End has continued to attract artists drawn by the beauty of its land and shore.
American Landscapes: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum was organized by The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York. The exhibition is made possible locally by the generous support of the The C. D., Helen and Jeff Glaze Foundation
Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books
October 22- January 2, 2011
Fairy Tale Art features 59 original illustrations from well-loved classic fairy tales as well as modern variations on traditional tales. Traditional stories such as The Firebird, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood will be included. The exhibition will also feature modern versions such as Cinderella’s Dress, Child of the Faerie: Child of the Earth, and The Hungry Coat. The artworks in this exhibition reflect a variety of mediums such as watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, and mixed media. The magical settings for the stories are created by award winning artists: Kinuko Y. Craft, DEMI, Jane Dyer, Marilee Heyer, Trina Schart Hyman, Jim LaMarche, Barry Moser, and Susan Paradis. Fairy Tale Art offers a magic journey to a timeless, enchanted, dream-like world.
Curated by Sylvia Nissely.
Tour management by Smith Kramer Fine art Services, Kansas City, Missouri. The exhibition is made possible locally by the generous support of the The J. L. Bedsole Foundation.
Helen Keller: The Capitol Sculpture
July 27 - September 26, 2010
The Mobile Museum of Art is the fourth stop on a statewide tour of this exhibit featuring a statue portraying the dramatic moment that Helen Keller was liberated from the “double dungeon of darkness and silence.” The exhibit was designed to raise awareness of Helen Keller and the Foundations that carry on her work – the Helen Keller Birthplace Foundation and the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education.
Created by noted sculptor Edward Hlavka, the 1,000-pound bronze statue poised on a base of Sylacauga marble matches one on display in the main hall of the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C. The statue depicts the moment in 1887, when Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan spelled "W-A-T-E-R" into her hand while holding her other hand under a water pump and Keller realized meanings were hidden in the manual alphabet shapes Sullivan had taught her to make.
For the full press release, click here.
Michael Peterson: Evolution | Revolution
July 23 - October 3, 2010
Michael Peterson: Evolution | Revolution is an exhibition of more than 40 wood sculptures by the artist, spanning two decades of artistic development and a growing national reputation. Evolution / Revolution is the first comprehensive look at Peterson’s poetic and highly individual wood sculptures. This exhibition follows his unique trajectory from his early works heavily dictated by the lathe—the tool wood-turners typically use to produce symmetrically shaped objects—to his most current organic abstract forms realized through the mastery of the chainsaw.
Peterson’s work is deeply inspired by the unique environment of the Pacific Northwest, specifically Lopez Island, where he has lived with his wife, Jean, for the past 15 years. He works primarily outdoors, without even a tarp to shield him in inclement weather. He begins with wet chunks of wood, which he carves and hollows using a chainsaw. As the pieces dry, they shrink and warp in unpredictable ways, heightening the grain patterns and creating rich textures. His sculptures speak of birds, stones, wave-tossed driftwood and landscapes, and they quietly emanate a deep sense of spirituality and place.
The exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of the Windgate Charitable Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It was curated by Michael Monroe and Stefano Catalani.
Michael Peterson Evolution | Revolution was organized by Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, Washington.
For the full press release, click here.
Marian Acker Macpherson: Etcher of Old Mobile
July 23 - September 26, 2010
Born into an established Mobile family, Marian Acker Macpherson (1906-1993) lived her whole life in her native Mobile, except for the years spent attending art school. She grew up and raised her own family of four children in the old LeVert Mansion, which was torn down in 1965, though the adjacent building which housed her studio still stands on Government Street.
When Marian Acker returned to Mobile in the 1920s after three years of art school in Boston, she realized that the historic buildings of Mobile, what she called Old Mobile, were disappearing. So she undertook to record in etchings many of these structures. Subsequently she published reproductions of her etchings in two books: Prints of the Past of Old Mobile (1932) and Etchings of Old Mobile (1938).
After World War II, Marian continued her interest in Old Mobile with the publication of her guidebook Glimpses of Old Mobile (six known editions, 1946-1983), which include the main reproductions of her ink drawings. In her later years, she turned to painting, executing scores of small watercolors of Mobile and environs, as well as Mardi Gras scrolls and illustrated maps of Mobile, Mobile Bay, and Gulf Shores.
This exhibit features as many of her etchings as can be located, as well as a selection of her other works. This exhibition is organized for the Mobile Museum of Art by guest curator Stephen J. Goldfarb.
For the full press release, click here.
Related ProgramsSaturday, August 7, 9 a.m.Historic Walking Tour: Downtown Mobile ( More )Tuesday, August 10, 2 p.m.On Marian Acker Macpherson: A Poetic Record of Our City( More )
Wood Artistry from the Permanent Collection
July 23 - September 26, 2010
The Museum's collection of wood art, developed since the late 1980s, represents the creativity of American and International artists. Many works are always on view in the permanent collection galleries, but it is possible to display only a percentage of the collection at any one time. This exhibition features additional examples by familiar artists, as well as new acquisitions and artists not previously shown.
For the full press release, click here.
Shoot'n Southern: Women Photographers, Past and Present
April 30 - July 18, 2010
This exhibition will examine the prominent role of women artists in fine art photography, in particular those with a Southern heritage or Southern experiences. Women have had an important role in the development of photography, from the time photography was a pale imitation of painting to its current status as a major component of contemporary art.
The show will feature a broad range of techniques, from the pin-hole camera and multiple exposures to digitally manipulated creations, and will include equally varied artistic perspectives and sensibilities. Shooting Southern will showcase important 20th century figures such as Rollie McKenna and Eudora Welty as well as early career and well-established photographers working today.
The exhibition is organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
Funding is provided in part by the City of Mobile, Mobile County, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional Exhibit Information
Shoot'n Southern: Women Photographers, Past and Present Information Sheet
Claudia DeMonte: Mapping Beauty
April 30 - July 11, 2010
Claudia DeMonte is an accomplished and gifted artist, a dedicated teacher, a curator and a collector. The development of her art has taken her through a variety of materials: painted pulp paper sculptures, works in clay, photography installations, bronze and recently, in her Female Fetish series, pewter milagros nailed onto wooden sculptures.
Throughout her explorations of media, she has remained consistent. In each stage of her career, with each medium, she has combined sobering commentary on the status of women in the world with lighthearted humor. The exhibition of DeMonte’s work will be complemented in the Education Wing with her collection of handmade folk dolls from around the world.
Mapping Beauty will be accompanied by a new book on DeMonte’s career by Eleanor Heartney, with an introduction by Agnes Gund.
The exhibition is organized by the Mobile Museum of Art and Claudia DeMonte.
Additional Exhibit Information
Claudia DeMonte: Mapping Beauty Information Sheet
Kate Clark: Give and Take
Courtesy Claire Oliver Gallery
April 30 - August 8, 2010
Kate Clark: Give and Take will present new large scale sculptures by Brooklyn-based artist Kate Clark. Exploring the margins between reality and myth, Clark’s work is a synthesis of human and animal. These creatures are true to life in size and pose, believable, however impossible to comprehend as authentic. Their mortal faces mirror safety, gentility and cultivation, yet Clark leaves visible the seams in her sculpture, reminding the viewer that the exotic and wild has been undone to construct these striking portraits. The artist asks us to embrace contradiction and question man's uncertain relationship with an underlying violence sheathed just beneath a guise of control.
As Ian Tattersal noted in his 1998 book Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness, human features have metamorphosed into a demonstrative, smooth skinned, hairless face which has allowed for an enormous range of universally understood expressions. The ability to read outrage, fear, sympathy and even the subtlest of emotions, has helped humankind to create a civilized culture based on trust in others through these universally understood expressions. Perhaps Clark’s creatures are evidence of the human condition, striving to prove an enlightened existence, yet undoubtedly of wild origin. These sculpture’s sympathetic faces, tinged with anger, regret or seductiveness question what it is to be human.
Organized by the Claire Oliver Gallery, New York City, with the generous assistance of the artist for the Mobile Museum of Art.
Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York
February 5 - April 18, 2010
The East End of New York’s Long Island has long attracted artists, writers, musicians, actors and directors, particularly since a rail line from New York City was established in the 19th century.
Guild Hall, established in 1931 in East Hampton, has been called “the cultural center in the center of culture.” The influx of established artists has made the East End the country’s foremost art colony. Included in this exhibition, An Adventure in the Arts, are 73 works of art by more than 40 artists who lived and worked in the East Hampton area, spanning the early 20th century through present times.
Included are works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, John Chamberlain, Chuck Close, Stuart Davis, Willem de Kooning, Max Ernst, Audrey Flack, Jasper Johns, William King, Lee Krasner, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Fairfield Porter, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Donald Sultan, Andy Warhol and others.
The exhibition was organized by the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY, in association with Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles.
Run Sheep Run: The World of John Austin Sands Monks (1850-1917)
February 5 - April 18, 2010
Run Sheep Run: The World of John Austin Sands Monks (1850 - 1917) presents an exhibition of paintings and prints by American artist and life-long New Englander J. A. S. Monks. Monks’ works, gifts from the artist’s grandson, Douglas M. Wilcox, are all drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection. In Monks’ time, he was considered one of America’s foremost animal painters and enjoyed the distinction of being the only pupil of the distinguished landscapist George Inness, Sr.
Born in Cold Spring, New York, on the Hudson River, his native skill as a draughtsman won him his first job at age 18 as a wood engraver at an engraving firm in Meridan, Connecticut. It was there that he eventually established his own business. A few years later in Boston, through artist G.N. Cass, he met Inness and began a lifelong friendship until Inness’ death in 1894.
To establish his own approach, Monks began to include animals, especially sheep, in his landscape paintings. What began as enthusiasm eventually became an obsession fueled by long visits to farms where he could observe sheep first-hand. Ultimately, he created a panorama of the life cycle of the animal.
Monks’ activity as a printmaker is undoubtedly his most significant contribution to late 19th century American art. In 1884, as a result of an artists gathering of etchers at the Salmagundi Club in New York City, Monks was part of what has become known as the American “etching revival.” This revival saw the return of the etching process to the world of art from its almost exclusive use to reproduce the images of paintings.
Monks’ etchings, expectedly, are devoted to scenes involving sheep, especially the American Merino. As a contemporary C.S. Pietro observed in 1917, “He [Monks] is not only a painter of sheep but is a psychological being who brings out the intimate drama of his love for animals.”
Funding is provided in part by the City of Mobile, Mobile County, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional Exhibit Information
Run Sheep Run Information Sheet
Successions: Prints by African American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection
January 23 - April 18, 2010
Successions: Prints by African-American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection will feature 62 works of traditional and non-traditional printmaking techniques such as etching, monoprint, lithography, linocut and silkscreen, by 45 artists including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, David Driskell, Sam Gilliam, Margo Humphrey, Jacob Lawrence, Stephanie Pogue, Faith Ringgold, Lou Stovall, William T. Williams and James L. Wells. The exhibition will highlight the remarkable focus of the Jean and Robert Steele Collection. Dr. Robert Steele is a Mobile native and former associate dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and currently Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Steele and his wife, Jean, have been at the forefront of collecting works on paper by African-American artists for the last 30 years.
This exhibition is organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora and The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Judith Schaechter: A Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
November 13 - January 31, 2010
This exhibition features nine stained glass light boxes and 13 related drawings by Judith Schaechter, an artist who has achieved the highest critical acclaim for her very personal exploration of this seemingly impersonal medium.
Judith Schaechter’s stained glass narratives are a paradoxical assemblage of medieval depictions, mediated by contemporary tales of human failings. Hers is a demented carnival world, made claustrophobic by dizzying arrays of texture, obsessive detail and intense color.
Schaechter’s work is gut-wrenchingly beautiful. “Beauty,” says the artist, “is considered the most horrible crime you can commit in the modern art world. People are suspicious of anything that makes them feel as though they may lose control. Beauty forces you to confront your helplessness as well as your dark side. My work is not intended to make comfortable people unhappy, although it may make unhappy people comfortable.”
Schaechter’s meteoric professional rise could be attributed to the singularity of her work. In a field much better known for abstraction, her imagery relies on painstaking draftsmanship and the figure. Indeed, the artist has given new meaning to the stained glass genre precisely by adopting its historical function as didactic narrative. The artist balances the methods of painting on glass that date back to the Middle Ages with an unmistakably contemporary style aligned with those of underground comics and political artists.
Judith Schaechter‘s stained-glass windows are composed of flash glass: a thin veneer of brilliant color bonded to paler layers of color underneath. Most of the color is harbored within the glass itself; Schaechter reveals it by sandblasting and engraving the flash, then often layering several pieces together. She models her images in black enamel, fired on the kiln, and sometimes adds silver stain or cold paint. The windows are then assembled with the copper foil technique and installed in a light box.
This exhibition was organized by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York.
