New and Upcoming Exhibitions

• Frank O. Gehry: Design Process and the Lewis House
  Through – April 5, 2009
  
  On view in the Collab Gallery of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman building, this is a small exhibition focusing on architect Frank Gehry’s design process and the Lewis House. A residential plan created for a site owned by Peter B. Lewis in Lyndhurst, Ohio, the 10-year project (1985-1995) gave Gehry a unique opportunity to experiment, and ultimately to achieve the formal and technological breakthroughs that have made him among the most famous architects working today. In collaboration with Gehry Partners, LLP, the Museum will present some 75 architectural models, drawings and photographs, together with furniture, and decorative arts that emerged from his work on the Lewis House. While the project was not ultimately realized, the process deeply informed Gehry’s concurrent and subsequent designs, from Bilbao to the Venice Gateway, from his bent wood and cardboard furniture to a metal teakettle.

  Sponsor: The exhibition is supported in part by Collab: The Group for Modern and Contemporary Design at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Curator: Kathryn Hiesinger, Curator of European Decorative Arts After 1700
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Collab Gallery
  

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• The Art of Japanese Craft: 1875 to the Present
  December 6, 2008 – September 2009
  
  Japan is one of the few cultures that fully appreciated and fostered its craft art traditions in the 20th century: instituting a system of national competitive exhibitions, commissioning and purchasing crafts through the Imperial Household Agency, and supporting artists as “holders of important intangible cultural property.” The exhibition features work by six artists who have been awarded this designation, and are popularly referred to as “living national treasures.”

  Almost all of the works in the exhibition will be on public view for the first time outside of Japan. The exhibition will be divided into themed sections such as animal, floral, and geometric motifs, and spans more than 120 years. Among the many remarkable objects that will be on view are a superbly crafted lacquer box made around 1875, examples of Art Deco-influenced metalwork, and an abstract contemporary celadon vase.

  This comprehensive overview is among the first of its kind, and presents a group of 70 gifts and promised gifts to the Museum from a single donor, Mr. Frederick R. McBrien III – a collection that will place Philadelphia on the map as one of the premier sites for the study and enjoyment of the stunning craftsmanship of Japan’s modern and contemporary artists. The exhibition includes several less-explored areas such as metal crafts of the prewar period.

  Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue (60 pp. with nearly 150 color images), published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. An introductory essay by Dr. Fischer will discuss the artists and ideas that shaped and defined the aesthetic of crafts in twentieth-century Japan. Illustrated entries will explore distinctive qualities of twenty-five of the objects. A comprehensive checklist will include color illustrations of objects not reproduced elsewhere in the publication. The book also will include a section on artists’ biographies and reproductions of their marks. The book is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications and a generous individual. It will be available for purchase in the Museum Store, or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at www.philamuseum.org
  Curator: Felice Fischer, Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese Art and Curator of East Asian Art
  Location: East Asian Art Galleries: 241, 242, 243

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• Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian
  January 31, 2009 – April 26, 2009
  
  When the first printed images appeared in Europe in the fifteenth century they were limited to the small size and shape of a sheet of paper that could fit in a standard printing press. By the sixteenth century, the ambition to rival paintings and to adorn wall surfaces prompted artists and printmakers to challenge these restrictions. Printed images were expanded in various ways to accommodate new formats. Large-scale woodcuts and engravings began to be printed on several sheets of paper that could be joined together to form a single picture. Some were arranged in frieze-like sequences similar to carved wall reliefs, while others were pieced together to emulate the scale of monumental murals and tapestries.

  Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian traces the rich history of an under-recognized aspect of Renaissance printmaking. This major loan exhibition features a diverse group of nearly 50 rarely displayed prints dating from the late 15th to the early 17th century that are all uncommonly large in scale. They are printed from two or more woodblocks or engraving plates on multiple sheets that require being viewed together. Drawn entirely from American collections, Grand Scale is the first exhibition since the 1970s to explore this facet of printmaking with examples by some of the most important artists and printmakers of their day, including Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Titian (c.1488-1576). Six of the works on view belong to the Museum’s distinguished collection of old master prints.

  Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue, with essays by leading scholars in the field, accompanies the exhibition.
  Organizers: Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian was organized by the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College. It was conceived and guest-curated by Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Elizabeth Wyckoff, Assistant Director and Curator of Prints and Drawings, Davis Museum and Cultural Center.
  Curator: Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Location: Berman Stieglitz Galleries, ground floor
  Itinerary: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, March 19, 2008 - June 8, 2008.
  Yale University Art Gallery, Fall 2008.
  Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 31, 2009 – April 26, 2009.

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• Cézanne and Beyond
  February 26, 2009 – May 2009
  
  In 1907, the French painter Paul Cézanne’s posthumous retrospective astonished younger artists, accelerating the experimentation of European modernism. Cézanne (1839-1906) became for Henri Matisse “a benevolent god of painting,” and for Pablo Picasso “my one and only master.” Cézanne’s inclusion in the Armory Show in New York in 1913 also offered American artists a new direction. This exhibition will examine the seismic shift provoked by this pivotal figure, examining him as form-giver, catalyst, and touchstone for artists who followed. It will survey the development of an artistic vision that anticipated Cubism and fueled a succession of artistic movements, and will juxtapose Cézanne’s achievement with works by many who were inspired directly by him, showing a fluid interchange of form and ideas.

  It will place his work in context with more recent artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, and Brice Marden, who in quite different ways came to terms with the master of Aix-en-Provence. This profound impact on successive generations endures to the present day. The exhibition will present about 150 works, including a large group of paintings, watercolors and drawings by Cézanne, along with those of 17 later artists. The works will be drawn from public and private collections around the world, and will be seen only in Philadelphia.

  Catalogue: The exhibition will be accompanied by a major scholarly publication, co-published by the Museum and Yale University Press, and generously supported by the Davenport Family Foundation and the Lenfest Foundation. It will encompass critical scholarship on Cézanne and modernism, as well as essays on individual artists’ responses to Cézanne, which will also incorporate interviews with living artists. Contributors include: Joseph Rishel (writing an introductory essay and essays on Bonnard and Hartley), Katherine Sachs (on Kelly and Marden), Michael Taylor (on Gorky), Mark Mitchell (on Demuth), Richard Shiff (with an introductory essay on Cézanne’s impact on 20th and 21st century art), Yve-Alain Bois (on Matisse), John Elderfield (on Picasso), Joop Joosten (on Mondrian), Chris Green (on Léger), John Golding (on Braque), Anabelle Kienle (on Beckmann), Albert Kostenevich (on Popova), Carolyn Lanchner (on Giacometti), Roberta Bernstein (on Johns), and Jean-François Chevrier (on Wall). Sponsors: The exhibition is made possible by ADVANTA.

  Additional funding is provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Annenberg Foundation Fund for Exhibitions, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Promotional support provided by NBC 10 WCAU; the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau; The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com; and Amtrak.

  
  Curator: Joseph J. Rishel, The Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, and Senior Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection and the Rodin Museum at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Location: Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries

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• Marcel Duchamp: Étant Donnés
  July 7, 2009 – November 1, 2009
  
  This is the first exhibition to examine the genesis, construction, and reception of Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1° The Waterfall, 2° The Illuminating Gas), Marcel Duchamp’s enigmatic final masterwork that was secretly executed in New York during the last 20 years of his life and discovered in his studio soon after his death in October 1968.

  The multi-media assemblage surprised the art world and perplexed the public when, as a gift to the Museum and in accordance with the artist’s wishes, it was permanently installed in July 1969, joining the world’s largest collection of his works, including The Nude Descending the Staircase, No.2; The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), to which it closely relates, and readymades such as With Hidden Noise and Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy?

  Celebrating the 40th anniversary of its public debut, Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés will situate the extraordinary assemblage within the context of some 80 related works of art, including all the known studies, photographs, body casts, erotic objects, and other materials. Included also will be 25 photographs of the artist’s studio at 80 East 11th Street, taken by a friend, Denise Brown Hare, in the mid-to-late 1960s, which document the work before it was disassembled and moved to Philadelphia. The exhibition is drawn largely from the collections and archives of the Museum, and supplemented by loans from public and private collections in the United States, France, Germany, Sweden, Israel and Japan.

  Catalogue: A fully illustrated 200-page catalogue, written by Taylor and published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. This publication will present important new scholarship on Étant Donnés: 1. La chute d”eau; 2. Le gaz d’éclairage…, as well as a comprehensive bibliography and chronology of its construction. Marcel Duchamp: Étant Donnés will be available for purchase online at www.philamuseum.org or by calling 1-800-329-4856.
  Curator: Michael R. Taylor, the Muriel and Phillip Berman Curator of Modern Art
  Location: Galleries 181, 182, and 183 Modern and Contemporary Art, first floor

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• Adventures in Modern Art: The Charles K. Williams II Collection
  July 2009 – September 2009
  
  Drawn from the collection of Charles K. Williams II, a distinguished archeologist and Director Emeritus of the Corinth Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, this exhibition includes approximately 100 paintings, sculptures, watercolors, and drawings from the early decades of the 20th century. Williams has amassed in under two decades an important and personal collection representing most of the major American artists and movements of the modern period, as well as several European masters.

  The collection is marked by a passion for brilliant colors, strong compositional designs, and occasionally eccentric images, with an emphasis upon several favorite artists, among them Joseph Stella, Oscar Bluemner, Charles Demuth, and Arthur Dove, each of whom is represented by several examples. Organized by Innis Howe Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, the exhibition will be on view in the Dorrance Galleries in summer 2009.

  Catalogue: In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum and Yale University Press will publish an illustrated catalogue by curator Innis Howe Shoemaker, with contributions by Kathleen Foster, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Curator of American Art, Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, and independent scholar Jennifer T. Criss. The catalogue will be available for purchase in the Museum Store or by calling 800-329-4856 or online at: www.philamuseum.org.
  Curator: Innis H. Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs
  Location: Dorrance Galleries, first floor

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• Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
  October 2009 – December 2009
  
  The first comprehensive retrospective to be devoted to Gorky in nearly three decades, the exhibition will present around 180 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints reflecting the full scope of the artist’s prolific career. Drawn from public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, the retrospective will reveal the evolution of Gorky’s unique visual vocabulary and mature painting style. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and will be accompanied by a major publication, it will travel to London and Los Angeles following its debut in Philadelphia.

  Catalogue: A fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition. Essays by scholars including Harry Cooper, Robert Storr, Michael R. Taylor, and Kim Theriault will build upon new biographical details about the artist’s Armenian background and heritage that have emerged in recent years, while also exploring Gorky’s creative thinking, his unique experimentation, and his extraordinary command of themes and techniques. The publication will also contain a comprehensive chronology of the artist’s life, as well as a complete bibliography.
  Organizer: Philadelphia Museum of Art
  Curator: Michael R. Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art
  Location: Dorrance Galleries, first floor
  Itinerary: Philadelphia Museum of Art: October 2009 – December 2009.
  Tate Modern, London: Spring 2010.
  Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Summer 2010.
  

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