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Blanton Museum of Art
February 9, 2012
Blanton curator nets top award; Cuba exhibit opens
Ursula Davila-Villa, the Blanton Museum of Art’s associate curator of Latin American art, is the recipient of the $10,000 2011 Curatorial Excellence Award from the Apple Valley Foundation, a California-based non-profit arts advocacy organization.
The award is for Davila-Villa’s work organizing the exhibit “Recovering Beauty: The 1990s in Buenos Aires,” first comprehensive show of art produced during the pivotal and transformative 1990s in Buenos Aires. “Recovering Beauty” garnered national attention.
Currently, Davila-Villa is presenting “The Marco Polo Syndrome: Contemporary Cuban Art,” an exhibit that spotlights the Blanton’s collection of Cuban art from the 1980s, a time of cultural renaissance during which artists expressed a collective desire greater creative freedom within their conservative and repressive political system.
Among other artists, the exhibit includes work by José Toirac, Abel Barroso, and Antonio Eligio Fernández.
Toirac will be in town Feb. 23 when he gives a talk at 12:30 p.m. Admission is free.
“The Marco Polo Syndrome” continues through April 15. www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: Abel Barroso. “Internet de madera [Wooden Internet],” 2000. Wood, ink, and paper. Courtesy Blanton Museum of Art.
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October 27, 2011
Dancing, through the Blanton Museum
As part of his yearlong residency at the Blanton Museum of Art, composer Steve Parker has created a mobile concert that moves through the galleries.
Each performance pairs one musician with one dancer in a different architectural setting. Ballet Austin’s Michelle Thompson choreographed solo dances to new arrangements of Bach as well as new compositions by Ethan Greene and Mike Svoboda.
“Soundspace: Music and Dance”
2 and 3 p.m. Sunday
Limited to 75 people per performance.
Tickets given on first-come basis beginning at 1 p.m.
Tickets are free with museum admission ($5-$9)
www.blantonmuseum.org
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October 19, 2011
The art of installing unusual works of art
The undulating, tapestry-like wall sculptures by African artist El Anatsui — now on view at the Blanton Museum of Art — are breathtaking with their delicacy and their monumental scale.
But installing the massive artworks has proved an art in and of itself. Perry Hurt, a conservator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, has codified a way to handle Anatsui’s delicate pieces. In a free talk at the Blanton, Hurt reveals the methods behind working with such challenging art.
Read more about Hurt and his work with Anatsui’s work in this story.
‘El Anatsui: Adventures in Installation and Conservation’
What: Art conservator Perry Hurt discusses handling the artwork of El Anatsui
When: 6 p.m. Oct. 20
Where: Blanton Museum auditorium
Cost: Free
www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: ‘Stressed World’ in the exhibit the ‘El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa’ at the Blanton Museum of Art. Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell/AMERICAN-STATESMAN.
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September 22, 2011
Teresita Fernandez -- Blanton 'Stacked Waters' creator -- named to U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
Artist Teresita Fernandez — the creator of the site-specific ‘Stacked Waters’ installation that greets visitors to the Blanton Museum of Art — has been appointed by President Barack Obama to United Commission of Fine Arts, the White House announced recently.
Fernandez will be one of seven commission members, serving a four-year term. Commission members advise by approving the site and design of national memorials and museums; advise the U.S. Mint on the design of coins and medals and administer the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs program.
A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” Fernandez was commissioned by Austin philanthropists Jeanne and Michael Klein in 2009 to create the massive piece in the Blanton’s towering two-story lobby atrium. Consisting of 3,100-square-feet of custom-cast acrylic tiles, “Stacked Waters” shifts from deep blue hues to lighter, whiter shades as the tile creeps up the atrium walls.
The title “Stacked Waters” is a nod to Donald Judd’s stack pieces and his exploration of box interiors, Fernandez said when she supervised the installation in early 2009.
“I wanted it to be like a portrait of the day and the changing light,” said Fernandez. “I want it to immerse the viewer. Instead of giving visitors an object to look at, I wanted to give them an experience.”
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August 25, 2011
Fall arts picks: 'El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa'
Ghanaian-born Nigeria-based artist El Anatsui blends global, local and personal histories in riveting multi-media work that has made him one of the most compelling artists on the international scene.
Organized by Museum for African Art to inaugurate its new building in New York, a retrospective exhibit, “When Last I Wrote to You About Africa,” comes to the Blanton Museum of Art, opening Sept. 25 and continues through Jan. 22.
At the beginning of his career, Anatsui, who was born in 1944, first worked in wood, paint and clay, even using chainsaws to carve wood.
But it’s his shimmering, undulating metal sculptures and wall hangings that captivated world art audiences more than two decade ago, catapulting Anatsui to international acclaim. With Nigerian liquor bottlecaps that have been cut, folded and bent, and then seemingly woven together with wire, Anatsui’s usually large metal works suggest luxuriantly textured tapestries or billowing masses of traditional African fabric. And yet they are loaded with references to contemporary issues such as addiction or the colonial legacy of alcohol and other European influences.
Austin collectors Jeanne and Michael Klein have given one of Anatsui’s metal wall sculptures to the Blanton as a promised gift and it has on display since 2009. Support for the traveling exhibit is provided by the Kleins.
“El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa” opens Sept. 25. See www.blantonmuseum.org for more information.
Image: “Untitled,” 2007. Copper, aluminum. 144 x 195 inches. Promised gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein. Blanton Museum of Art.
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August 17, 2011
One artists obsession with flying
Equally inspired by the windmill-chasing character of Don Quixote and the 11th-century English monk Eilmer who attempted to fly with wings attached to his hand and his feet (and lots of prayer), Los Angeles-based conceptual artist Joel Tauber is obsessed with flying.
In 2001 Tauber staged his own attempt at flying, jumping more than 150 times from a cliff and onto a mattress. Later, he devised a flying contraption of helium balloons and a bagpipe and floated over the desert for an hour. “Searching for the Impossible” is Tauber’s film documentation of his, quiet sincerely, quixotic efforts.
The film screens for free Thursday as part of the Blanton Museum of Art’s “Third Thursday” slate of free admission and evening activities.
Screening at 6 p.m. Museum is open until 9 p.m. See www.blantonmuseum.org
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August 3, 2011
Blanton Museum receives 12 new works by Texas artists
A 1987 painting by former University of Texas professor Melissa Miller and amixed-media work by Jesse Amado are among the dozen arts works of the Blanton Museum of Art has received on behalf of Dallas collectors Nona and Richard Barrett, the museum announced today.
The paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Miller, Amado, Dixie Friend Gay, Luanne Stovall, and five other celebrated Texas artists come to the Blanton through a lottery organized by the Dallas Museum of Art on behalf of the Barretts.
The lottery is the second organized to distribute works from the Barrett’s collection to museums across Texas. The Dallas Museum of Art — which over the years has received many art works from the Barrett’s sizable collection of art by Texas artists — invited the Blanton, the Old Jail Art Center, the Austin Museum of Art and several other museums to participate in a lottery to receive works of art.
The Blanton’s newly acquired Amado mixed-media piece will on view along with the artist’s 1995 installation work, “I Pray, Then I Play in the Collective Landscape,” on Aug. 19 in the museum’s Lowe Gallery.
Image: “One Rabbit Feeling the Pain of Another,” oil on linen. 1982. Melissa Miller. Courtesy the Blanton Museum of Art.
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July 15, 2011
Texas Cultural Trust awards grants
Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art is one of seven recipients of grants awarded by the Texas Women for the Arts, a fundraising circle of the Texas Cultural Trust.
The Blanton received $30,000 for its Art Central program, an education initiative for at-risk elementary students.
The Texas Cultural Trust award a total fo $140,000 to youth arts programs around the state including, among others, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, the San Antonio Symphony and the Lone Star Ballet in Amarillo.
The Trust is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1995 that raises private dollars statewide to support art education and heighten arts awareness. The Trust supports the programs of the Texas Commission on the Arts. Texas Women for the Arts was founded in 2005 and has contributed over $708,000 to 28 arts organizations throughout the state.
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April 27, 2011
Blanton director resigns
Ned Rifkin, director of the Blanton Museum of Art, announced today that he will resign from his position at the University of Texas museum effective May 31.
Director of the Blanton for just two years, Rifkin also holds a position as professor of art and art history.
Steven Leslie, UT executive vice president and provost, has appointed Simone Wicha, the Blanton Museum’s deputy director for external affairs and operations, as the new director, effective June 1. Wicha has been The Blanton’s deputy director for external affairs and operations since last year. Prior to that she was the museum’s director of development.
From the UT press release:
“I began my professional career in 1977 as an assistant professor of art at The University of Texas at Arlington,” Rifkin said. “Currently, I have been leading a junior seminar in the Plan II Program here at UT Austin and I had forgotten how much I love to work closely with students on developing their learning skills.
“Much as I will miss working with the outstanding staff at The Blanton, I believe my eagerness to teach more and my desire to pursue meaningful research on a variety of topics will better suit me. I wish every possible success to The Blanton as it continues to offer quality programs to transform lives through art.”
Prior to his role at The Blanton, Rifkin was undersecretary for art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and directed the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Menil Collection and Foundation in Houston and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
April 21, 2011
'A Voyage of Discovery' Baby Ikki pays a visit to the Blanton
Critically noted multimedia artists Mike Kelley and Michael Smith have been friends for years. But the two entered into their first-ever collaboration only in 2009, with a sprawling video-based installation at the Sculpture Center in New York. (Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art staged Smith’s extraordinary career retrospective, “Mike’s World,” in 2007. Smith is on the University of Texas faculty.)
At the center of the Kelley-Smith collaboration is the video “A Voyage of Discovery,” which follows the adventures of Smith’s performance character Baby Ikki, a pre-lingual man-child (imagine an adult dressed as a pacifer-sucking baby and you get the picture). The video follows Ikki as he wanders for days around Burning Man, the psychedelic alt-festival of radical self-expression staged every summer in the Nevada desert.
Subsumed by all the wild rave action (drum circles and hippie dancing) and faced with confusing erotic encounters, Ikki emerges after the festival to ponder his strange odyssey.
Kelley and Smith will give an introduction to their video, and the screening will be followed by a Q-and-A.
“Mike Kelley and Michael Smith: A Voyage of Discovery”
6 p.m. today
Blanton, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Congress Ave.
Freewww.blantonmuseum.org
Image: Video still, “A Voyage of Discovery”
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March 24, 2011
Last chance to look: 'Knitted Wonderland' project to unravel
It’s already gotten one stay-of-unraveling for an extra week. But on Friday, March 25, “A Knitted Wonderland” — the colorful knit-bombing project at the Blanton Museum of Art — will have to come down.
A bevy of Austin knitters answered the call from artist and knit-bomber Madga Sayeg to knit coverings for all 99 of the trees in the Blanton’s Faulkner Plaza. Knitters could do whatever they liked using four prescribed colors (including one very close to UT’s official ‘burnt orange’ color) and also keeping the pattern confined to horizontal stripes.
See a list of all the participating knitters here.
“A Knitted Wonderland” went on view March 5 in conjunctions with UT’s big open house. It’s been delighting ever since.
The installation will be taken down — unraveled? — starting around 4 p.m. on Friday.
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March 16, 2011
Leo Steinberg, art historian, collector
Imaginative, outspoken, visionary — art historian and MacArthur “genius” grant-winner Leo Steinberg died Sunday in New York. Steinberg donated his personal collection of more than 3,200 prints — one the best among those ever privately assembled — to the Blanton Museum of Art in 2002.
Over nearly half a century, Steinberg, who was born in Russia in 1920, acquired prints that matched his broad intellectual interests, from Leonardo da Vinci to Texas pop master Robert Rauschenberg.
Best known for his provocative 1983 book “The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and Modern Oblivion,” Steinberg began assembling his collection in the early 1960s, when few recognized the value of fine-art prints, purchasing for $3 a 16th-century engraving that is today worth $7,500.
Steinberg’s serendipitous connection to the Blanton’s out-going curator of European art, Jonathan Bober (Steinberg studied with Bober’s father in the 1940s), led Steinberg to donate.
Raphael Morghen, “The Last Supper, after Leonardo da Vinci,” 1800. Etching and engraving. The Leo Steinberg Collection, 2002. Image courtesy of the Blanton.
Read Steinberg’s obit in New York Times here.
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March 4, 2011
Blanton Museum set to yarn-bombed Saturday
Dozens of knitters have been busy the past several months stitching up colorful coveralls for all 99 trees in the Blanton Museum’s Faulkner Plaza.
On Saturday, “Knitted Wonderland” will be unveiled. All 99 trees in the project will be stripes in bold colors: turquoise, pink, olive and orange. here.
A collaboration led by artist Magda Sayeg, the knit installation coincides with “Explore UT,” the university’s annual open house, and will remain on view 24/7 through March 19.
Read about the community stitching that went down for “Knitted Wonderland”
Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Congress Ave.www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: Barbara Jamieson, left, and Heather Sutherland, get busy knitting for the “Knitted Wonderland” project. Photo by Deborah Cannon/American-Statesman.
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February 23, 2011
"Recovering Beauty" exhibit focuses on "arte light"
The state-sponsored violence and persecution in Argentina in the 1970s and through 1983 left the South American nation with deep scars.
After democracy was restored, the process of redefining cultural and political values began. Liberation and free expression were celebrated. And artists responded.
By the 1990s a group of artists in the Argentine capital became known as the “arte light” group for their celebration of beauty, color and personal expressions. Eschewing a more intellectual approach to art, the “arte light” group infused their work with playfulness and free-spirited fun, using humble materials as means of embracing a frolicsome sense of aesthetics whose goal was to recover a sense beauty, pleasure and even silliness.
“Recovering Beauty” is the first comprehensive exhibit in the United States that examines the artists of the “arte light” group and their singular celebration of pure joyful beauty. Curated by Ursula Davila-Villa, Blanton curator of Latin American art, the exhibit is culled from private collections in Argentina and new Blanton acquisitions.
Whether a painting of a tiger on a holographic mirror or a wedding cake-like assemblage of pink and blue stuffed toys, the work made by the “arte light” group doesn’t hold back when it comes to sheer pleasure.
‘Recovering Beauty: The 1990s in Buenos Aires’ continues through May 22 at the Blanton Museum of Art, www.blantonmuseum.org
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February 17, 2011
At the Blanton, it's "YouTube-a-theque" time
Everybody does it — shares those wacky videos that turn up on YouTube. Maybe you’ve even exhausted your Facebook friends with a few too many wacky YouTube posts. Maybe you’ve burned away the time watching too many silly cat videos.
Tonight you can share with the greater public during the Blanton Museum of Art’s “YouTube-a-theque.”
The first 20 people to line up and load up their videos onto the computer in the Blanton auditorium can show off their YouTube curatorial prowess. One video a person only. Videos must be three minutes or less. The event is moderated by artists Annie Arnold and Jason Mendiola.
“YouTube-a-theque” starts 6 p.m. today
The event is part of the Blanton’s Third Thursday with the museum open until 9 p.m. and free admission
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February 2, 2011
Blanton exhibits Robert Wilson's video portraits
A cross-genre artistic icon, internationally acclaimed Robert Wilson has explored the ethereal qualities of light and movement in myriad form: opera, theater and visual arts.
Until Feb. 16, the Blanton Museum of Art will display five portraits from Wilson’s intriguing and enigmatic video portrait series. Wilson was the honoree of the Blanton’s recent Gala Luminere fundraiser.
Shot in high definition and saturated with vivid color, the large-scale portraits of celebrities, artists, everyday people and animals show each subject in an arresting pose — until they move, that is.
Wilson’s slow-moving pictures — accompanied by subtle soundtracks — reveal each subject performing a sometimes surprising, sometimes subtle gesture.
Brad Pitt stands in pouring rain, a water pistol slyly in one hand. Princess Caroline of Monaco strikes a pose that is at once a reference to a painting by John Singer Sargent and a scene by Alfred Hitchcock.
Displayed on large-scale HD plasma flat-screen monitors, Wilson’s portraits — which will be displayed throughout the Blanton Museum’s second-floor galleries — showcase the Waco-born artist’s remarkable flair for the subtle and the sly.
A comment on our celebrity culture — and also on the very nature and history of portraits as an art form — Wilson’s teasingly coy videos playfully intrigue.
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January 28, 2011
Blanton curator heads to National Gallery of Art
Jonathan Bober, the Blanton Museum of Art’s expert curator of prints, drawings and European art, will be leaving the University of Texas museum to accept a position at the National Gallery of Art, Blanton officials announced today.
Bober, who has been with the Blanton since 1988, will become the National Gallery’s Curator and Head of the Department of Old Master Prints. He will leave the Blanton effective April 30.
During his tenure at the Blanton, Bober was responsible for the acquisition of more than 11,000 works of art including the Suida-Manning Collection of Old Master paintings, prints and drawings and the Leo Steinberg Collection of 3,200 prints assembled by the leading art critic. Bober’s in-depth scholarship of the Genoese Renaissance master, Luca Cambiaso, resulted in the first major US exhibition of the artist — Luca Cambiaso, 1527 - 1585, in partnership with Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale — and the first publication on the artist in English.
“Over his 23 years of dedicated service, Jonathan Bober has made an exceptional contribution to The Blanton. His focus on, and great passion for deepening the museum’s collection of prints and drawings and paintings from Europe, has distinguished him in numerous ways,” Blanton director Ned Rifkin said. “All of us at rhe Blanton wish him every possible success in his new position and will look for great things from him in the future.”
Bober will give one of his last gallery talks at the Blanton when lectures on the current print exhibit “Salvator Rosa: Etchings.” The talk is 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3. Museum admission is free on Thursdays. www.blantonmuseum.org
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January 10, 2011
'Turner to Monet' exhibit sets attendance record for the Blanton
The Blanton Museum of Art set a new record with “Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum,” the exhibit of 19th-century paintings which closed on Jan. 2.
Some 60,000 visitors saw the show of much-loved art by Monet, Degas, Pisarro and others, the museum reports. And more than 12,000 of those visitors came the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The only week that Blanton had more visitors was when it opened its new building in 2006 and 22,000 people came during a seven day period. By comparasion, the museum’s second most popular exhibition, 2008’s “Birth of the Cool” saw 4,870 during its closing week.
Those Monet scarves and other Impressionist-imprinted merchandise sold well too.The Blanton also reports that its shop saw a 92 percent increase in sales over the same period last year.
Image: Claude Monet, “Springtime,” ca. 1872, oil on canvas, The Walters Art Museum.
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January 3, 2011
At the Blanton Museum of Art, knitters wanted
Knitters, the Blanton Museum of Art wants you.
On March 5, the Blanton’s Faulkner Plaza will be turned into a knitted wonderland when every single one of the plaza’s 99 trees will be yarn-bombed thanks to artist Magda Sayeg.
Sayeg, the Austin-based artist whose knit graffiti has adorned public places around the world, will create knitted sleeves for the cedar elms in the Faulkner Plaza. Sayeg’s knit installation will coincide with “Explore UT,” the university’s annual open house.
Last year, as part of Art Week Austin, Sayeg covered up “Moments,” a vague public art installation on South Lamar Boulevard created by Carl Trominski in 2003.
Sayeg needs knitting assistants for her Blanton project. If you’re interested, there’s an informational meeting 1 to 2:30 p.m. Jan 8 in the Blanton’s auditorium.
For info email familyprograms@blantonmuseum.org or RSVP on the Blanton’s Facebook page.
Image: Sayeg’s knit graffiti over “Moment” on Lamar Boulevard. Photo by Jay Janner/AA-S.
November 4, 2010
Vernon Fisher @ The Blanton
During the course of his nearly 40-year career, North Texas-based artist Vernon Fisher has produced some of the art world’s most critically acclaimed mixed-media conceptual installations that combine text, photos and found objects.
In her introduction to the new monograph of Fisher’s work published by UT Press, critic Francis Colpitt writes in her introduction that from the beginning of his career Fisher “was tuned in to the breakdown of monolithic modernism.”
Says Fisher in his interview with Michael Auping, chief curator of Fort Worth’s Modern Art Museum: “I love the loopy and disconnected… for me, the disjunctive and inconclusive is what feels honest and real.”
Subject of a current career retrospective at Fort Worth’s Museum of Modern Art, Fisher drops into Austin on Sunday for a discussion of his work.
Before signing copies of the new monograph, and as part of the Blanton’s book club, Fisher will discuss the books that have had the most influence on his practice: ‘Reality Isn’t What it Used To Be’ by Walter Truett Anderson, ‘Cloud Atlas,’ by David Mitchell, ‘The Elizabethan World Picture’ by E.M.Y. Tillyard and ‘The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind’ by Julian Jaynes.
2 p.m. artist’s discussion
3 p.m. book-signing
Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Congress Ave.
Free
www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: Vernon Fisher, ‘Evidence of Houdini’s Return, Oil, blackboard slating, wood, mixed media on board (93 in. x 93 in. x 10 in.) Blanton Museum of Art. Purchase through the Michener Acquisitions Fund and with support from Linda Pace.
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October 14, 2010
At 'Turner to Monet,' crowds: 8,000 and counting
The Blanton’s exhibit ‘Turner to Monet’ is bringing in the crowds, the UT museum reports. Never mind the distractions of Longhorn football on other parts of the campus this fall! In the first two weeks of the show’s Oct. 2 opening, some 8,000 people have turned out for the gem-like exhibit and its attendant opening programs.
Not a blockbuster, thankfully, the ‘Turner to Monet’ exhibit instead offers a boutique view of 19th-century painting. Culled from the vaunted Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and beautifully installed at the Blanton, the 40 paintings offers a tight overview of the main currents of 19th-century European and American painting.
Austin arts supporters worked hard to bring the exhibit here. Longtime arts philanthropists Joe and Teresa Long gave $100,000 and issued a 1-to-2 match challenge. Not only did Austin ante up the $200,000 to meet the Long’s challenge, an additional $198,106 was raised for a total of $498,000.
Read more about the exhibit here.
Image: Delacroix, “Christ on the Sea of Galilee,” 1854. Courtesy of Walters Art Museum.
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October 2, 2010
'Turner to Monet' opens at the Blanton Museum of Art
It’s the closest thing we’ve had yet to an Impressionist blockbuster exhibit in Austin. And it opens this weekend.
However ‘Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum’ is, thankfully, more nuanced — and smaller — than the typical blockbuster exhibit. And it’s not only Impressionism that’s featured, either. The general course of European and American 19th-century painting can be charted through the exhibit.
Culled from the amazing collection at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum, the 40 masterpieces on view include works from Impressionist artists Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. But there are also British and American masters such as J.M.W. Turner, Gilbert Stuart and Asher B. Durand, among others.
Among the exhibit’s highlights are Monet’s “Springtime,” Ingres’ neoclassical “Oedipus and the Sphinx,” Delacroix’s “Christ on the Sea of Galilee” and Manet’s “Cafe-Concert,” which captures the mood and feeling of Parisian bohemian life.
American masterpieces in the exhibit include Gilbert Stuart’s iconic 1825 “Portrait of George Washington” and Durand’s luminous landscape, “The Catskills.”
Formed by railroad financier William T. Walters and his son Henry, the massive Walters collection includes a broad range of the art of Western civilization from pre-dynastic Egypt to the 20th century. Differing greatly from other wealthy American collectors of their time, the Walters acquired the work of then-contemporary European and American artists.
To complement “Turner to Monet,” the Blanton has organized a companion exhibit of its 19th-century prints and drawings, “Repartee.” More than 125 works from the Blanton noted print collection, including those by Constable, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Renoir, Whistler and others, serve to illuminate the social and theoretical frameworks for 19th-century art making.
Turner to Monet: Masterpiece from the Walters Art Museum
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, through Jan. 2
Where: Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Congress Avenue.
Cost: $5-$9 (free on Thursdays)
www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: Edouard Manet, ‘At the Cafe,’ ca. 1879. Courtesy of The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
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September 16, 2010
The "Art Doctor" comes to the Blanton Museum
Ever wonder what to do when your painting made of elephant dung begins to crumble or that shark-in-formaldehyde sculpture you have starts to rot?
You should enlist the services contemporary art conservator Christian Scheidemann.
Dubbed, “The Art Doctor” by the New Yorker magazine, the New York-based Scheidemann is considered a pioneer in the world of contemporary art conservation — one of the few who specializes in the odd and organic materials from which much contemporary art is made: fat, latex, chocolate, felt, dung and just about anything else.
Scheidemann has restored works by artists Martin Kippenburg, Takashi Murakami, Wifredo Lam, and Paul McCarthy, among others.
On Saturday, he comes to Austin to deliver a free lecture at the Blanton Museum of Art. “The Fabrication and Disintegration of Contemporary Art” begins at 2 p.m.
Scheidemann’s lecture coincides with the acquisition of several new works for the Blanton’s collections as well as a new exhibition of prints by Andy Warhol.
Image: Andy Warhol
Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), from Ads, 1985
Screenprint, printed in nine colors from nine screens
Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, 1985
Courtesy Blanton Museum of Art.
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August 26, 2010
Five Austin museums declared a "cultural campus"
Five Austin museums located at or near the University of Texas have joined forces to create single joint profile for marketing purposes.
Dubbing themselves “Austin’s Cultural Campus,” the Blanton Museum of Art, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, the Harry Ransom Center, the LBJ Library and Museum, and the Texas Memorial Museum plan to dovetail some promotional efforts such as creating a descriptive brochure and map. Additional plans call for some collaborative programming.
To recognize the group effort, Mayor Lee Leffingwell will proclaim September 2010 as “Austin Cultural Campus Month” at today’s City Council meeting
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August 19, 2010
Back to school (of a sort) at the Blanton Museum of Art
The Blanton Museum of Art is getting into the back-to-school spirit with a fun and innovative series of programs School Days, dovetailed to the installation by artist Anna Craycroft, ‘Subject of Learning/Object of Study.’ The installation features colorful sliding chalkboards, modular furniture, pedagogical computer displays, a library of educational books and other elements designed by the artist to create a classroom-like setting.
Check out Craycroft’s web site for the installation.
Happenings include a reading by the Encyclopedia Show Austin, an ambient musical performance by Nick Hennie and the Church of the Friendly Ghost, an open-mic session to share old school essays, a poetry workshop and Home Economics with the Knotty Knitters. The series concludes with a self-portrait drawing workshop hosted by Craycroft.
And every Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m., curator Risa Puleo will hold “office hours” in the gallery to chat about the exhibition. Stop by — Puleo is a savvy and fun conversationalist.
CALENDAR OF PROGRAMS:
—Office Hours with Risa Puleo, Blanton assistant curator of contemporary art, 2 to 4 p.m. Thursdays in August
— Home Ec, 6 to 7 p.m. Aug. 19
Grab your knitting needles and crochet hooks and share your love of fiber arts with Austin’s local knitting/crocheting meet-up group, The Knotty Knitters. Beginners are welcome.
—School Band, 2 p.m. Aug. 21
Acclaimed percussionist and composer Nick Hennies, in association with Church of the Friendly Ghost, will share with visitors an array of cowbells, drums, snares and triangles in a workshop that will explore instrument resonances, acoustic space, and aural immersion, culminating in a group performance on the vibraphone.
—English Lit: Poetry Workshop with S.E. Smith, 2 p.m. Sept.
Graduate of the Michener Center for Writers and widely published poet S.E. Smith takes the mystery out of contemporary poetry. Beginning with Frank O’Hara’s poem, “Why I am not a painter” SE leads a tour of the gallery to some of O’Hara’s favorite artists. The event concludes with a poetry workshop.
—Scholastic Bowl: The Encyclopedia Show Austin, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16
The cast of ‘The Encyclopedia Show’ produces creative performances centered on themes taken from actual encyclopedias. For their program at The Blanton, they will host a ‘School Days’ themed reading series with poetry, song, fiction, and perhaps a game of Heads Up 7-Up.
— School Days Open Mic: What I Knew, 2 p.m. Oct. 16
Dig up your best (or worst) essays and book reports! Local artist Katelyn Wood hosts “What I Knew,” an open mic session in which visitors can share their writings from grammar school to grad school. Bring your notebook, number two pencils, and all you thought you knew.
See blantonmuseum.org/calendar_events for more info.
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July 20, 2010
Robert Wilson to be Blanton gala guest
The Blanton Museum of Art has tapped internationally-acclaimed multi-media artist Robert Wilson to be the special guest at the museum’s 2011 gala, museum officials announced.
The biennial black-tie event will be held at the Blanton on Jan. 29. Tickets are $1,000 per person. There’s an after-party planned that will have a less expensive ticket, but details are forth-coming.
A native of Waco and a former student at the University of Texas, Wilson is a history-making boundary-pushing artist whose practice has included theater, opera, dance, painting, sculpture, furniture-making, photography and video art as well as sound, light and set designer. Arguably, he’s probably most-widely known for his collaborations with Philip Glass, particularly the epic opera ‘Einstein on the Beach.’
Wilson remarked, “I am thrilled and humbled to receive an honor such as this from the University of Texas and the Blanton, an institution so passionate about and dedicated to the visual arts. The museum continues to inspire students and the Austin community alike. This will be a very special homecoming for me.”
The 2011 Blantan Gala is co-chaired by Janet Allen, Kelli Blanton and Jeanne Klein. For more information see www.blantonmuseum.org.
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July 1, 2010
Austin collectors make Art News Top 200 list
Austin arts collectors Jeanne and Michael L. Klein have once again made the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, the annual roster of the world’s most influential, active and important art collectors.
The Kleins focus their collecting interests on international contemporary art. Eager to share what intrigues them, they’ve donated many art works to the Blanton Museum of Art. In fact, in the current exhibit “New Works from the Collection,” you can see a number of the works the Klein’s have given to UT’s art museum in the last few years among them a video by Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, “Because Washington is Hollywood for Ugly People” and “Lean-to” a stunning installation by Matthew Day Jackson.
Read a profile of the Kleins here.
In 2008, the Kleins commissioned artist Teresita Fernandez to create “Stacked Waters” an installation that lines the walls of the Blanton’s atrium with gradient-hued blue tiles.
Frances G. and James W. McGlothlin also make ARTNews’ list and the couple list Austin as one of their residences along with Bristol, VA and Naples, FL, however their record of philanthropy is not focused on Austin, rather they bequeathed their collection of 19th-century American art to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Photo of Jeanne and Michael Klein with “Stacked Water” in the Blanton by Rodolfo Gonzalez/A-AS.
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May 27, 2010
Blanton meets fundraising challenge for two exhibits
The Blanton Museum of Art has met a fundraising challenge to support the costs of two traveling exhibits.
Austin philanthropists Teresa and Joe Long pledged $100,000 in April 2009 to help bring “Matisse as Printmaker” — currently on view — and “Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum,” which opens in September.
The Longs challenged the Blanton to raise $200,000. The Blanton to date has raised $232,701 has been raised toward the goal from 246 museum members and other donors.
“The outpouring of support from the community not only shows their interest in and hunger for good art but also shows that even with a downturn in the economy the public is willing to and will support exhibitions of high quality,” Joe Long said.
Major donors to the challenge include: Mr. and Mrs. Jack S. Blanton, Sr., RBC Wealth Management, Sarah and Ernest Butler, Booth Heritage Foundation, Patricia and Dee Osborne, Carolyn and John H. Young, Mary Ann and Larry Faulkner, Leslie and Jack Blanton, Jr., R. Bruce Buckley and Mrs. Vincent Buckley, Elva J. Johnston Foundation, and Eliza and Stuart Stedman.
Look for a review of “Matisse as Printmaker” in Sunday’s paper and online at www.austin360.com/arts.
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May 21, 2010
'Matisse as Printmaker' opens this weekend at the Blanton Museum
Though he’s most typically recognized as a sculptor and painter, Henri Matisse was arguably one of the most prolific fine art printmakers of the 20th century.
Culled exclusively from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, a new traveling exhibit lands at the Blanton Museum of Art this weekend. ‘Matisse as Prinkmaker’ features more than 60 of the French modernist master’s exquisite prints that demonstrate his fluidity of line and his intense focus on his subject matter.
‘Matisse as Prinkmaker: Works from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation’
Through Aug. 22
Blanton Museum of Art,
On Saturday at 2 p.m., Jay McKean Fisher, curator of the exhibit will discuss the importance of printmaking to Matisse’s oeuvre. In the Blanton Auditorium. Free, but tickets required. Tickets may be obtained beginning at 1 p.m.
Image: Henri Matisse ‘Marie-Joe in a Yellow Dress (III),’ 1950 Color lift-ground aquatint Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Courtesy American Federation of Arts
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April 20, 2010
Last chance: On Sunday, 'Desire' ends
One the smarter thematic exhibits we’ve seen in a while, ‘Desire,’ closes this Sunday the Blanton Museum of Art.
Organized by Annette Carlozzi, deputy director of the Blanton, the exhibit takes a wide look at what desire means to an impressive array of intermational contemporary artists. Featuring work in all media, it’s a show not to missed.
Image: Marilyn Minter, ‘Crystal Swallow,’ 2006. Enamel on metal. Promised gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein, Blanton Museum of Art.
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April 14, 2010
Blanton Museum to participate in 'Slow Art Day'
Time for everyone to chill. After all, who doesn’t need an antidote to our hyper-speed lifestyle?
On Saturday, try slow art. Arts institutions in more than 45 cities around the world are participating in Slow Art Day 2010.
Here in Austin, the Blanton Museum of Art will be our host for ‘Slow Art Day’ this Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.
Like the slow food philosophy, slow art believers advocates taking time with the art-viewing experience. You’d think in the post-blockbuster exhibit era — with more people going to museums than ever before — we’d be better trained at looking at art. But no. Most people run through exhibits too fast.
On Saturday, participants will be given a list of 10 works of art — see the list below — to view for up to 10 minutes each. Then the group will meet for a discussion over lunch in the Blanton Cafe.
The cost is museum admission ($3-$9; free to those with a UT ID), plus the cost of the lunch of your choice at the Blanton Cafe. See www.blantonmusum.org.
- Eve Sussman, The Kiss, 2006 (From the Desire exhibition)
- Glenn Ligon, Lest We Forget, 1998 (From the Desire exhibition)
- Manuel Álvarez Bravo, The Crouched Ones, 1934 (From the Alvarez Bravo exhibition)
- Kerry James Marshall, Black Painting, 2003-2006
- Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Synchromy in Purple Minor, 1918
- George Sugerman, Two in One, 1966
- Vernon Fisher, Evidence of Houdini’s Return, 1994
- Sinibaldo Scorza, Orpheus Charming Beasts, c. 1615
- Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, The Storyteller, mid 1770s
- Marcantonio Raimondi, Galatea
Images: Top: Stanton Macdonald-Wright, ‘Synchromy in Purple Minor,’ 1918. Bottom: George Sugerman, ‘Two in One,’ 1966. Courtesy Blanton Museum of Art.
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April 8, 2010
Saturday at the Blanton: Talking art
The Blanton Museum of Art hosts yet another conversation with smart art world professionals when Cuauhtemoc Medina and Rubén Ortiz-Torres discuss their practices.
The free program is at 2 p.m. 2 p.m. Saturday, April 10, in the Blanton’s auditorium. See www.blantonmuseum.org
Cuauhtemoc Medina is a Mexico City-based researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas at the National University of Mexico. He wa the first associate curator of Latin American Art at London’s Tate Modern.
Ruben Ortiz-Torres, a professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego, is a Mexican-born artist who has been living and working in Los Angeles since 1990.
Image: “La Ultima Cena,” from the Mexi-Punx series. By Ruben Ortiz-Torres. From www.rubenortiztorres.org
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February 5, 2010
Arrivederci Petrobelli Altarpiece, hello 'Desire'
It took art historians 200 years — and a good measure of serendipity — to put reconstruct the Petrobelli Altarpiece after the gorgeous 16th-century massive canvas by Renaissance master artist Paolo Veronese was chopped apart in 1788 when the Northern Italian church it was created for was destroyed.
And Sunday is the last day we’ll have to see the Petrobelli Altarpiece at UT’s Blanton Museum of Art. Actually it’s the last chance we’ll ever have to see the reconstructed monumental painting.
On a visit to the Blanton in 2006, British scholar Xavier Salomon realized that a small Veronese painting of St. Michael from the Blanton’s Suida-Manning Collection was actually a missing piece of the Petrobelli Altarpiece.
Salomon’s discovery led to the unique reconstruction of the fragments of the Petrobelli Altarpiece.
And when the exhibit closes Sunday, the fragments will go back to their respective homes at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, which also hosted the exhibit, and to the National Gallery of Scotland.
So this is the last chance, ever, you’ll see the Petrobelli Altarpiece as a whole. Get to the Blanton!
And read the full art history mystery story here.
While you’re at the Blanton this weekend you can also catch the first weekend of ‘Desire’ the intriguing new exhibit featuring more than 50 works in all media from the likes of Bill Viola, Glenn Ligon, Mairly Minter, Isaac Juilien and many others. ‘Desire’ examines desire in its myriad creative manifestations.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., join Ligon and Minter in the Blanton auditorium for a talk moderated by ‘Desire’ curator, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi.
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February 1, 2010
Blanton Museum re-organizes management staff
After seven months on the job, new Blanton Museum of Art director Ned Rifkin has re-organized some of the senior staff.
Said Rifkin: “When I arrived, the Blanton had vacancies in a few important areas: museum education, Latin American art, and then, most recently, administration. My decision to create two deputy director positions to be filled by current talented and qualified staff members was an obvious move.”
Here’s a run down from a release sent over the weekend:
- Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, curator of American and contemporary art and also director of curatorial affairs, will become the Deputy Director for Art and Programs, and will oversee curatorial, education and collection management areas of the museum.
- Simone Wicha, director of development, will become Deputy Director for External Affairs and Operations, supervising fundraising, membership, communications, admissions, the cafe and museum store, as well as other financial and operational aspects of the museum.
- Jonathan Bober, who for more than 20 years served as both curator of prints and drawings and also curator of European paintings, will now focus primarily on works of European art, including works on paper. Multiple curators, according to their specific expertise and research areas, will now oversee works on paper.
- Ursula Davila-Villa, interim curator of Latin American art will be promoted to associate curator of Latin American Art.
- Sue Ellen Jeffers, registrar will become manager of collections, overseeing all art handling and preparation within the museum. Meredith Sutton, associate registrar, will become the registrar.
Carlozzi’s promotion means that the Blanton will soon be seeking a curator in the area of modern and contemporary art once they get the go-ahead from UT administration.
November 2, 2009
Kleins bring passion, curiosity to Austin arts scene
Since its unveiling in January, Teresita Fernandez’s “Stacked Waters” has become perhaps the most public mark of the Kleins’ philanthropy and art world sophistication since the couple moved to Austin from Houston four years ago.
With its 3.100-square-feet of blue tiles, the soaring two-story installation in the atrium of the Blanton Museum of Art is a bold and adventurous and has a sense of playfulness about it, much like the Kleins themselves.
Read a major profile of the Kleins here.
‘Teresita Fernandez: Blind Landscape,’ a retrospective of the artist’s work, opened Sunday at the Blanton and continues through Jan. 3. Read a review of the exhibit here.
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October 26, 2009
Blanton 'Petrobelli Altarpiece' lecture a total sell-out
Crowds turned out for Sunday’s lecture by British art historian Xavier Salomon.
Too many in fact.
All 300 seats were sold an hour before Salomon’s 2 p.m. lecture on how he discovered that a painting in the Blanton’s collection was actually a missing fragment of a famous altarpiece painting by Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese. Dozens of people were turned away.
Yes, a good art history mystery makes for a sell-out crowd.
‘Paulo Veronese: The Petrobelli Altarpiece’ continues through Feb. 7, 2010 at the Blanton Museum of Art. www.blantonmuseum.org.
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October 23, 2009
Reunification of altarpiece at Blanton solves a big art mystery
Forget ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ We have our own major art history mystery that was solved right here in Austin.
After spending time with the Blanton Museum of Art’s Suida-Manning Collection, Xavier Salomon, chief curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, realized that a small painting by Italian Renaissance master Paolo Veronese was actually the long-missing fragment of a massive altarpiece painting made for a Northern Italian church long-since destroyed.
Now, in a rare reconstruction, all four known pieces of the Petrobelli Altarpiece on view displayed together in one frame, much as if they were a whole again. “Paolo Veronese: The Petrobelli Altarpiece” makes its only stop in the United States at the Blanton.
Read more about the discovery.
And on Sunday, Salomon returns to the Blanton to relate the story of his discovery.
Xavier Salomon, chief curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, discusses the journey of the`Petrobelli Altarpiece’ through history
2 p.m. Oct. 25
Cost: Free with museum admission ($3-$7)
www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: Paolo Veronese, ‘Head of Saint Michael,’ the missing fragment of the Petrobelli Altarpiece.
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October 19, 2009
Roger Shimomura @ the Blanton
Since the 1960s, Japanese American artist Roger Shimomura has probed the socio-political issues surrounding the Asian American experience by combining images from both American and Japanese culture.
Shimomura presents a tangled aesthetic landscape that through its jumble actually reveals much about a conflicting cultural situation. Superman meets geisha and classic cartoon characters clash with traditional Japanese figures in the artist’s layered prints and paintings.
Shimomura gives a talk on his work as part of the Lectures in Art and Diaspora: Asian In America series.
5 p.m. Tuesday
Auditorium, Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Congress Ave.
Free
www.blantonmuseum.org
Image: ‘After the Movies, No. 1,’ 1993. Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 56 inches, diptych
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October 8, 2009
Can't make it the White House? Try the Blanton
Can’t snag an invite to the private areas of the White House where the Obamas have installed 45 works of art, a list of which was announced earlier this week?
Try the Blanton Museum of Art.
Though the Obamas culled their selections from national museums in Washington — including the Smithsonian, the Hirschorn and the National Gallery of Art — work by some of the same artists selected by the first family can be seen here in Austin at the Blanton Museum of Art. With a collection strong in contemporary and modern American art, the Blanton has works by Jasper Johns, Susan Rothenberg, Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn and Edward Ruscha, all of whom are represented now at the White House.
If they’re any indication of cultural taste, the art that the Obamas chose — with consultation from White House curator William Allman — suggest a fairly more broad-ranging taste for art then we’ve seen in administrations past. The Obamas certainly seem to have a penchant for abstract modern and contemporary paintings.
On view now with the Blanton’s permanent collection ‘America/Americas’ exhibit are a sculpture by Louise Nevelson, “Dawn’s Presence - Two Columns,” and an untitled 1943 painting by American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.
The Obamas also chose a painting by New York-based African American artist Glenn Ligon, whose conceptual works probe the contemporary African American experience. At the Blanton, you can take in Ligon’s “Untitled (Hands/Stranger in the Village #1),” in which silkcreened text from James Baldwin’s 1955 essay on racial discrimination, “Stranger in the Village,” is covered in coal dust, its message obscured as if to suggest that the essay’s meaning has been lost or forgotten over time.
Ligon told the Associate Press,that it was “intensely flattering” for the Obamas to want his painting to hang in their private spaces.
Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Congress Avenue. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. $3-$7, free Thursdays. www.blantonmuseum.org
Image:
Louise Nevelson
Dawn’s Presence - Two Columns, 1969-1975
Painted Wood
116 x 67 x 31 in.
Purchase as a gift in memory of Laura Lee Scurlock Blanton by her children, 2005
Blanton Museum of Art
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August 3, 2009
'Jerry Bywaters: Lone Star Printmaker'
It doesn’t get more Texas than the art of Jerry Bywaters.
The late Paris, Texas native and longtime Dallasite pioneered the style that became known as Lone Star Regionalism. His expressive images captured the landscapes, the small towns, the architecture and the ordinary people of Texas and Southwest.
‘Jerry Bywaters: Lone Star Printmaker,’ an exhibit now at the Blanton Museum of Art, gathers 39 prints the artist made from 1935 to 1948. It also features source photographs and some archival materials that illuminate the Bywaters’s printmaking process.
A member of a group of young painters known as the Dallas Nine, in the 1930s Bywaters helped define a regional artistic identity for the Lone Star State. His interpretations of landscapes, urban spaces, small towns and local characters gained widespread popularity and helped propel Texas artists — and art about Texas — into the national limelight.
Bywaters was fond of taking trips around the state, often with his fellow artists, with sole purpose of finding real life scenes to capture in his fluid, folksy style. Always respectful of his subject matter, Bywaters nevertheless highlighted the whimsy he saw in such scenes as small West Texas towns with hastily built main streets lined by falsefront buildings as an attempt to give the place an air of dignity.
It’s gentle, but there’s a slight air of irreverence to many of Bywaters’ scenes of Texas.
Bywaters also traveled to Mexico where he met famed muralist Diego Rivera. Afterwards, not only did Bywaters incorporate Mexican themes and styles into his art (several prints in the are proof), he also was the first person to author a published review Rivera’s work in the United States.
‘Lone Star Printmaker’ shows the outcome of Bywaters efforts to produce multiple copies of his work so the Texas regionalist aesthetic could spread far and wide.
‘Jerry Bywaters: Lone Star Printmaker’ continues 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 8. Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Congress Ave. $3-$7, free Thursdays. www.blantonmuseum.org.
Images:
Jerry Bywaters
Paint Colt, 1937
Color linoleum black, ed. 50
Jerry Bywaters Collection on Art of the Southwest, Hammons Library, SMU
Jerry Bywaters
Opera at Popular Prices, 1936
Transfer lithograph, edition 6/30
Jerry Bywaters Collection of Art of the Southwest, Hamon Arts Library at SMU,
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June 8, 2009
Blanton launches film series
Sweet — a great way to beat the heat this summer. Head for a film series in the cool in the Blanton’s new auditorium that feature stadium seating,
The Blanton Museum of Art is teaming up with the Austin Film Festival for the ‘New Directions Film Series.’ The series features five emerging independent filmmakers, highlighting diverse perspectives and destinations around the globe. Stories range from the drama of American youth, to the struggles of art making in North Korea, to the vivacious growth of the Nigerian film industry, and more.
All films will be screened at the Blanton’s new auditorium on select Thursdays and Sundays through July 19.
Cost: $3 for AFF members, Blanton members, UT faculty and students; $5 for general public.
www.blantonmuseum.org
Gretchen (2006) 98 min.
Dir. Steve Collins, U.S.
7 p.m. June 18 and 3 p.m. June 21
Gretchen has bigger problems than abysmal fashion sense: She’s 17, painfully awkward and stuck in the most unforgiving place on earth - high school. When her obsession with school bad boy Ricky gets out of hand, her mother sends her to an emotional treatment center to recover. She has to travel elsewhere, however, to truly begin to understand why she fixates on the wrong kind of guy. Starring Courtney Davis as the perpetually uncomfortable Gretchen, Steve Collins’ first feature is a humorously deadpan yet poignant reminder of how the smallest moments can lead to extreme adolescent drama.
Silent Light (2007) 135 min.
Dir. Carlos Reygadas, Mexico
3 p.m. June 28
Set in a Mennonite community in Mexico, ‘Silent Light’ quickly establishes the importance of nature in setting the rhythms and routines of the religious, rural lives at the film’s center. Its lauded opening shot chronicles a starry sky slowly giving way to breaking dawn as the cacophonous chatter of crickets chanting, dogs barking, and roosters crowing fills the soundtrack. From here on, birdsong is nearly constant, and images of land and sky frequently hold the camera’s attention for extended durations.
But amidst this pastoral setting, a disturbance is apparent from the outset. A cut from the heavenly curtain-raiser takes us into the home of Johan (Cornelio Wall Fehr) and Esther (Miriam Toews), where a circulating camera catches static portraits around the kitchen table and introduces us to the couple and their numerous children, the silence broken only by the unnerving tick-tock of a clock until an “Amen” frees the family to eat breakfast. In the somewhat stilted manner between husband and wife, not simply the result of the director’s characteristic use of nonprofessional actors, festering emotions are legible.
The Juche Idea (2008) 62 min.
Dir. Jim Finn, U.S.
3 p.m. July 12
Roughly translated, Juche, the official North Korean religion and political ideology, means self-reliance. But the official text on the state-sponsored philosophy, written by Kim Jong-il, leaves final authority over interpretation of Juche to the Dear Leader, himself. ‘The Juche Idea’ tells the story of a South Korean video artist (Kim Jong-il loves movies!) who takes a residency in North Korea. She becomes inspired by the Juche concept of revolutionary art, and intent to further adapt the ideology to modern cinematic practices. The film is partly told through some of the projects she makes while at the residency-The Small Little Teeth of America: The Tiny Dentures of Imperialism; Flesh Ring in the Sea of Blood; and The Winter of Abundance: Our Hope is the Juche State. As in his earlier films ‘Interkosmos’ (Opening Night, 2006) and ‘La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzal’o (NYUFF 2007), Finn’s signature tone is in full effect. ‘The Juche Idea’ is a deadpan yet poetic look at the relation of image to idea, and an investigation into the role of propaganda and politics in the creation of art.
Shotgun Stories (2007) 92 min.
Dir. Jeff Nichols, U.S.
7 p.m. July 16
‘Shotgun Stories’ tracks a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father, a man that never bothered to give his children proper names. He left the three brothers, Son, Boy and Kid, when they were young. Their last impressions were of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family. The brothers were left to be raised by their mother, a hateful woman, who to this day blames her children for the life she’s been left with and the man she could not keep.
Their father, having left the memory of his children as completely as he left their home, managed to move on and put his life back together. He sobered up, became a devout Christian, married a wonderful woman, and fathered four new sons. All of who received proper names. His life became a model that most would aspire to, a man successful in business, community and family. His only true failing being the sons he turned his back on. At the beginning of the film, we find Son, Boy and Kid as grown men. The three brothers’ lives progress and their futures play out, but their past inevitably comes to claim them. Following a dispute at their father’s funeral, a feud begins to simmer between these sons and the new young men their father has raised. It is an anger that has always rested uncomfortably in the background of their lives. However now, it is a thing that will rise up to overtake them all. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.
Welcome to Nollywood (2008) 80 min.
Dir. Jamie Meltzer, U.S.
3 p.m., July 19,
Nigeria’s Nollywood is now the world’s third largest film industry after Hollywood and Bollywood. Peace Mission is a guided tour from one of the industry’s major players: producer, filmmaker and founder of the African Movie Academy Awards, Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima. Fitting interviews in between conference calls, parties, and meetings, we get to know something about this thriving and surprising industry through the eyes of a woman determined to see the development of her continent through film.
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May 12, 2009
Last week for 'Birth of the Cool' -- special late night hours
It’s been a thrilling run, but ‘Birth of the Cool,’ the infinitely cool exhibit on midcentury California art and design, must close this Sunday.
But to give everyone a chance to see the exhibit, the Blanton is extending its hours Saturday until 8 p.m. The museum opens at 11 a.m. on Saturdays.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, Sundays noon to 5 p.m.
Also on Saturday, at 7 p.m. there’s a screening of ‘Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Schulman,’ a thoughtful documentary on the photographer who literally made modernism fashionable and popular with his stunning photographs.
Austin filmmaker Eric Bricker, director of ‘Visual Acoustics,’ will be on hand for a Q-and-A after the 7 p.m. screening. Read more about his filmmaking process.
Admission to the screening is free with museum admission ($3-$7). And Blanton officials say that guests can hang on to their receipt and come back on Sunday, May 17 if they don’t get a chance to see the exhibit on Saturday.
See www.blantonmuseum.org for more information.
Image: ‘Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960’ by Julius Shulman.
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May 7, 2009
Blanton Museum names Ned Rifkin, former Smithsonian Under Secretary of Art, as its new director
Ned Rifkin, former Under Secretary for Art at the Smithsonian Institution, has been named the new director the University of Texas’ Blanton Museum of Art, university officials announced Thursday.
Rifkin, 59, replaces Jesse Otto Hite who retired in 2008 after 30 years with the museum. With Rifkin’s appointment, the Blanton Museum will move from the College of Fine Arts and report to the UT Provost’s office.
The university’s Ransom Center, a rare book and manuscript library and museum, also reports to the provost’s office.
Rifkin will also will hold the position of full professor of art and art history and hold the position as special advisor to UT president William Powers.
At the Smithsonian, Rifkin served as the top administrator overseeing eight art museums, a position he held from 2004 to 2008. During his tenure at the Smithsonian, Rifkin oversaw the renovation of an historic building for the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. He had previously been director and chief curator at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum after serving as director of Houston’s Menil Collection from 2000 to 2002 and the High Museum in Atlanta from 1991 to 1999.
Rifkin received a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a master’s and doctoral degrees in art history form the University of Michigan.
A champion of contemporary art and public art, Rifkin organized a major exhibit of the work of minimalist painter Agnes Martin while he was director of the Menil. When he was director of the Hirshhorn, Rifkin commissioned conceptual artist Olafur Eliasson to reconceive the entrance to the historic museum building by shifting the front entrance to a different side of the building.
“I’m interested in all contemporary creativity,” Rifkin told an interviewer last year. “Art is a part of culture. Culture is what we make collectively. Artists are a kind of beacon.”
Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution.
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March 31, 2009
Bach rocks the Blanton
It was standing room only today in the atrium of the Blanton Museum of Art for Bach Cantata Project. About a couple of hundred people turned out for the monthly noontime concert series.
People stood on the stairs, leaned over from mezzanine and listened appreciatively to the 30-minute ‘Palm Sunday Cantata.’
And while I didn’t luck out and get a seat (I stood in the back, hence the long-shot picture), I did score with two of my favorite young singers — mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Petillot and bass Phillip Hill — featured as soloists. Both sang wonderfully, and the soaring Blanton atrium has a bit of a cathedral-like sound.
UT professor James Morrow started the Bach Cantata Project when the Blanton opened three years ago. About 200 of Bach’s cantatas survive today, which scholars estimate is about three-fifths of the total number the Baroque composer is thought to have composed.
Now, Morrow and a changing ensemble of singers and instrumentalists (from UT and beyond), present a different Bach cantata on the last Tuesday at the month. Since it launched, the Project has become incredibly popular, each concert drawing a healthy-sized audience.
What gives? Why is this noontime concert series so popular?
It’s glorious music for one thing, smartly performed in an historically accurate manner.
But the Bach Cantata Project also dovetails into how people want to consume culture in the 21st century.
Although it is a lunchtime series, that actually works well for many working people who have to juggle lots of evening and weekend commitments. The low ticket price (free with museum admission of $3-$7) makes it a bargain. You get a lot of bang — or Bach — for your buck: both a concert and a visit to the museum.
Finally, with just one cantata performed (and most are 25-40 minutes max), these concerts are accessible for people with over-busy schedules. Would that everyone have the two hours plus that’s required for most classical music concerts (really an entire evening is required). Bbut that’s not always the case. And there’s plenty of other culture out there — much of it more flexible in reach — to compete with those evening-long concerts.
Imagine: historically accurate Baroque Bach, re-shaped to fit into the 21t-century.
March 20, 2009
Blanton exhibit is too cool to miss
It isn’t all that often that the American-Statesman’s editorial board singles out a museum exhibit as noteworthy.
But the Blanton Museum of Art’s ‘Birth of the Cool,’ which we detailed last week, has garnered the kudos.
Read on:
‘Blanton exhibit is too cool to miss’
‘Birth of the Cool’ exhibit in Austin celebrates America’s relentless push for the new and modern in the post-World War II decades.
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February 4, 2009
Blanton gala nets $2.325 million in donations, tickets sales
Saturday night’s gala at the Blanton Museum of Art welcomed more than 450 guests who fashionably partied in honor of museum namesake and donor Jack S. Blanton.
Beyond the impressive $600,000 in ticket sales, the gala and celebration of Blanton was also cause for announcing some $1,025,000 in gifts to the museum’s $40 million endowment.
The children of Jack Blanton — Eddy and Kelli Blanton, Jack Jr. and Leslie Blanton, Elizabeth Blanton Wareing and Peter Wareing — donated $1 million in their father’s honor, with the monies going to the Blanton’s endowment campaign. The LBJ Family Foundation donated $25,000.
The Blanton also raised $275,000 in in-kind support from corporate sponsors for the event.
Making the biggest visual splash of the evening were the two arts works unveiled. Donated by contemporary collectors and Blanton supporters Jeanne and Michael Klein, a massive site-specific installation by Macarthur “genius grant” award-winner Teresita Fernandez and an untitled wall sculpture by Ghanan artist El Anatsui. The two piece together are valued at $700,000.
El Anatsui, Untitled, 2007, Copper, aluminum, 144 x 195 inches, Promised gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein.
Always visionary in their taste in art, the Kleins took the forward step of commissioning Fernandez to create something that could aesthetically defuse the Blanton’s massive white atrium. Fernandez succeeded brilliantly. “Stacked Water” makes an invigorating yet sublime statement as visitors enter the museum. It encourages thoughtful looking — exactly the mindset needed for a satisfying museum experience.
Teresita Fernandez, “Stacked Waters.” 2009. Gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein.
Teresita Fernandez, “Stacked Waters.” 2009. Gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein.
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January 20, 2009
The Blanton goes blue
The Blanton Museum of Art seems to have found a way to do something with the cavernous lobby of their Michener Gallery Building, thanks to the generosity of far-sighted patrons Jeanne and Michael Klein.
The Kleins have supported a site-specific installation by Teresita Fernandez, a 2005 winner of the MacArthur Fellows Program, a.k.a the MacArthur genius awards. Entitled ‘Stacked Waters,’ the massive piece consists of 3,100 square feet of custom-cast acrylic that covers the atrium walls in a striped blue pattern resembling water. It should be finished Jan. 23 and will be on view long-term, probably three to five years.
The title of the work, Fernandez said last week as she was installing the work, is a nod to Donald Judd’s stack pieces and his exploration of box interiors. And no, it’s not a reference to any particular body of water.
With its changing stripes of shades of blue and white, ‘Stacked Waters’ seems to undulate in the skylit atrium, reflecting the changing light. “I wanted it to be like a portrait of the day and the changing light,” said Fernandez. “I want it to immerse the viewer. Instead of giving visitors an object to look at, I wanted to give them an experience.”
Fernandez said she also wanted to break the stereotype of atrium art — you know, the expected grandiose mobile. Instead, she’s offering visitors to UT’s art museum a tantalizing, beckoning journey, especially as you ascend the 50 steps up to the second floor.
Even seen in mid-installation, “Stacked Waters” looks like a major — and sublime — improvement to the Blanton’s stark atrium — a vexing overly-large space in a building strapped by its conservative, uninspiring architecture.
Michael Klein, for one, has been seeking a way to enliven the Blanton’s architecture since the place opened in 2006. “It’s like the architect forgot the art,” said Klein when he stopped by last week to visit with Fernandez.
Artist Teresita Fernandez and Michael Klein.
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January 13, 2009
Blanton, UT Dept. of Art launch residencies for Latin American artists
The Blanton Museum of Art in collaboration with UT’s Creative Research Laboratory of the Department of Art and Art History has announced an ambitious new series of artist residencies for emerging Latin American artists.
Called “Mapping Exchange: Artists Residencies Programs,” the initiative establishes a series of three annual artists residencies that will include exhibitions, artist talks and cultural events organized with other university departments.
Spearheaded by Ursula Davila-Villa, the Blanton’s interim curator of Latin American Art, and CRL director Jade Walker — both ambitious emerging arts professionals in their own right — “Mapping Exchange” draws from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
Austin-Argentina Residency
This residency culminates with an exhibition of works by the visiting artist and selected university-affiliated artists.
Titled “A Strange Land,” this year’s exhibition will investigate citizenship, urbanization and borders and features the work of Erica Bohm, this year’s Austin-Argentinian residency artist. Her work deals with landscape and the different ways in which emotions are conveyed through the idea of landscape.
“A Strange Land” runs Jan. 24 through Feb. 7 at the Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Admission is free. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.
Mexico-Austin Artistic Exchange
A partnership with the Museo Carrillo Gill in Mexico City, the Mexico-Austin Artistic Exchange provides a one-month residency at UT for a selected emerging artist living in Mexico followed followed by a similar presentation hosted by the Museo Carrillo.
This year’s artist is Diego Perez García, who started his career as a photojournalist. In his work, García reconstructs myths and legends through a Mexican sociocultural context.
Ibere Camargo Residency
Organized in conjunction with the Ibere Camargo Foundation (Porto Alegre, Brazil), provides an opportunity for a selected emerging artist (who must be living in Brazil) to spend two months at UT and the Blanton. An international jury selects the artist
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June 18, 2007
Blanton Museum director to retire
Blanton Museum of Art director Jessie Otto Hite announced today that she will retire in March 2008. Hite, 60, has been at the University of Texas art museum for 28 years. She said she plans to take a year off before making any further career decisions.
“It just seems like a good time for me and for the museum to make the move now,” she said.
Hite’s long tenure and tenacious leadership is credited with seeing the Blanton Museum of Art through some very tumultuous times that made the new $83.5 million UT institution a reality. Opened last year, the Blanton is the largest university art museum in the country with important collections in Latin American art , American art and prints and drawings.
A native of Houston, Hite joined the museum’s staff in 1979 as a part-time curatorial assistant. She then went to become an assistant curator then to assistant director of public affairs within five years.
Hite assumed the directorship in 1993 just as UT began in earnest to build a major new art museum. A highly publicized architect search led to the Swiss firm of Herzog and de Meuron, known for their ultra-modern style. But in 1999 the UT regents rejected the forward-looking building. Supporters of the design demonstrated on campus.
Hite decided to stick it out. “I knew that if I left, the new museum project might get put on the back burner — maybe even for good,” she recalled last year when the new museum opened. “I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t just walk away.”
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