Editors Please Note

• The Philadelphia Museum of Art will be the only venue in the world for Cézanne and Beyond (February 26 – May 17, 2009). Through work by Cézanne and 18 artists of later generations, it surveys the impact and influence of the French painter whom Picasso described as “The father of us all.”

• The Museum is also organizing the exhibition that will represent the United States at the 53rd Venice Biennale (June 7-November 22, 2009). Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens will be one of the most ambitious presentations of his work to date and will explore a wide range of themes that reappear in the practice of this highly innovative artist.

• The entire Museum will be open on holiday Mondays, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 19), Presidents Day (February 16), Memorial Day (May 25), Labor Day (September 7) and Columbus Day (October 12).

New and Upcoming Exhibitions

• Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian
  January 31 – April 26, 2009
  
  PRESS PREVIEW: Friday, January 30, 10 – 12 p.m.
  
  When the first printed images appeared in Europe in the 15th 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 16th 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, on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from January 31 – April 26, 2009, 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 must be 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 (150 pp., $50.00).
  Organizers: Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian has been organized by The Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, with the support of major gifts from the Marjorie and Gerald Bronfman Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and Wellesley College Friends of Art, with additional funds from the International Fine Print Dealers Association.
  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, 2008; Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 31, 2009 – April 26, 2009.

  Press Release | Press Images

• Cézanne and Beyond
  February 26 – May 17, 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 also 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 18 later artists. The works will be drawn from public and private collections around the world, and will be seen only in Philadelphia.

  The artists included, in chronological order, are Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Marsden Hartley, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Charles Demuth, Max Beckmann, Liubov Popova, Giorgio Morandi, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, Brice Marden, and Jeff Wall, Sherrie Levine, and Francis Alÿs.

  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: Cézanne and Beyond 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, the National Endowment for the Arts, and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support provided by NBC 10 WCAU; the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau; The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com; the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation; 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
  

  Press Kit | Press Images

• Daido Moriyama: Tokyo Photographs
  February 28 – June 2009
  
  Daido Moriyama (born 1938) is among the most important and exciting Japanese photographers of our time, having made prolific, often experimental pictures of modern urban life since the 1960s. This exhibition will showcase a group of approximately 45 of his photographs made in and around Tokyo in the 1980s, when he focused his mature aesthetic on the city with renewed intensity.

  Moriyama approaches the world with an equalizing eye, capturing disparate peripheral details that in themselves account for little but together add up to a powerful diagnosis of modern experience. In 1980s-Japan, such details encompassed the disorienting and sometimes brutal juxtaposition of traditional culture and modernization, most visible in the glut of consumer goods and images. But in Moriyama’s photographs these subjects appear alongside the banal elements of any streetscape: a derelict patch of pavement and wall, a car with an aggressive key scratch running its full length, even a single rose blossom.

  Moriyama’s urban imagery shares qualities with other great street photography of the 20th century, and he has cited the photographs of William Klein as a major influence. But his work involves strong responses to a wide range of modern art and literature, including photographs and graphic designs by many of his Japanese contemporaries, Andy Warhol’s silkscreens, and the novels of Jack Kerouac and James Baldwin. Moriyama’s mix of international and Japanese trends to represent modern Tokyo is one source of his photography’s power, and the exhibition will include a small number of works by other artists to demonstrate his visual sensibility, including prints and photographs by Warhol, Klein, Shomei Tomatsu, and Tadanori Yokoo.

  Curator: Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Julien Levy Gallery

  Press Images

• Shopping in Paris
  Spring 2009
  
  The glamorous and cutting-edge fashions created in Paris have always inspired American dress. This exhibition explores the American experience abroad between 1850 and World War I. Such luxurious designs as the House of Worth and the classic elegance of Lanvin will be paired with American fashions based on these Parisian prototypes. Featuring nearly 25 garments from the Museum’s permanent collections—many of which are rarely (or have never been) displayed—these outfits will be accompanied by an exciting array of accessories, lush objects and dolls. Photographs and film clips from the early 20th century will be on view, giving audiences a sense of storyline around each garment and the woman who would have worn it.

  As a complement to Shopping in Paris, the Perelman Building Library will have an accompanying exhibition featuring books on fashion and travel from 1850 – 1920. The exhibition will include fashion plates of the dresses, hats and ephemera (such as magazine articles, store souvenirs, and guide books) that women from this time period would have used during their travels to Paris.

  Sponsor: This exhibition is made possible by a generous gift from Joan and Bernard Spain.
  Curator: Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Curator of Costume and Textiles
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Joan Spain Gallery

  Press Images
  

• Stories and Images in East Asian Art
  March 10 – October 2009
  
  In Korea, by the late Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910), auspicious themes—such as wishes for longevity, wealth and fecundity—gained popularity as subjects for paintings and decorative motifs. These themes were often derived from narratives related to Chinese legends or stories. Screen paintings employing those themes became an integral part of the daily lives of Chosŏn people, from royalty to commoners, fulfilling a symbolic function as well.

  This exhibition drawn from the collection features screen paintings with auspicious Chinese narratives such as the Banquet of General Guo Ziyi (2001-40-1) and the Hundred Children (2007-43-1). They will be juxtaposed with the Chinese ceramics of the Qing dynasty (1616-1912) that are decorated with similar themes. Although they originated in China, such themes did not become subjects of mainstream Chinese paintings, instead appearing mostly in ceramic decorations. This cross-cultural display will offer visitors the opportunity to trace the transmission and modification of art themes between the two neighboring cultures.

  Curator: Hyunsoo Woo, Associate Curator of Korean Art
  Minkyung Ji, Volunteer of East Asian Art
  Location: Galleries 237 and 238

  Press Images

• Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens
  June – November 22, 2009
  
  The Philadelphia Museum of Art is organizing the exhibition that will represent the United States at the 53rd Venice Biennale. Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens will be one of the most ambitious presentations of his work to date and will explore a wide range of themes that reappear in the practice of this highly innovative artist.

  Bruce Nauman (born 1941, Fort Wayne, Indiana) has propelled the recent shift of much international contemporary art toward conceptual uses of language and the body. For the last forty years his work in film, video, photography, printmaking, neon, sculpture, and installation has focused on the use of language to the point of paradox and the use of the body to the threshold of its physical limitations.

  On January 25, 2008 the U.S. State Department announced that Bruce Nauman will represent the United States at the 53rd Venice Biennale in an exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Nauman’s selection followed an open competition and the unanimous recommendation of the State Department’s Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions. Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael Taylor, The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, were named the U.S. Commissioners.

  Major support is provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Henry Luce Foundation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

  Curator: Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art
  Michael Taylor, The Muriel and Phillip Berman Curator of Modern Art
  Location: Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale, Venice, Italy
  

  Press Release | Press Images

• Spectacle
  July – September 2009
  
  This exhibition presents the ways in which photographers actively document and interpret public spectacles. More than forty images drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, by artists such as Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, and William Klein, showcase photography’s remarkable ability to convey the excitement, tension, and immediacy experienced at events such as parades, protests, and spontaneous communal happenings.

  While photographers regularly turn their attention to the sites and events that attract widespread public curiosity, the spectators themselves often become the camera’s primary subject. Groups of individuals united in celebration, sorrow, or straightforward curiosity are photographed with remarkable frequency, highlighting the vital role that onlookers play in creating public spectacles. By calling attention to the act of observation, these photographs encourage viewers to consider their own role as spectators, both in the Museum as well as other public venues.

  Curator: Julia Dolan, Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow in Photography
  Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Julien Levy Gallery

  Press Images

• Marcel Duchamp: Étant Donnés
  August 15, 2009 – October 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 New York 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 Michael 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
  

  Press Images

• Adventures in Modern Art: The Charles K. Williams II Collection
  July – September 2009
  
  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, 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.

  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, John Ittmann, the Curator of Prints, 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 Howe Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs
  Location: Dorrance Galleries, first floor

  Press Images

• Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
  October 2009 – January 2010
  
  The first comprehensive retrospective to be devoted to Gorky in nearly three decades, this 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 exhibition will reveal the evolution of Gorky’s unique visual vocabulary and mature painting style. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and accompanied by a major publication, it will travel to the Tate Modern in London and Los Angeles’ LACMA following its debut in Philadelphia.

  Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective will be presented in a generally chronological sequence, including several thematic groupings, to demonstrate all phases of Gorky’s short, yet fascinating career, which underwent an astonishing metamorphosis as he assimilated the lessons of earlier masters and movements, and placed them into the service of his own artistic style and persona. The groupings reflect the artist’s early intense fascination with Paul Cézanne, then with Cubism, followed by his projects for the Works Progress Administration that provided steady income in the 1930s. In the 1940s, Gorky's contact with Surrealism informed his breakthrough Virginia landscapes and the visionary works made in his spacious, light-filled studio on Union Square, which he called his “Creation Chamber.” Several galleries in the exhibition will serve as “creation chambers” in their own right, highlighting the artist’s working process by presenting Gorky’s most significant paintings alongside the painstaking studies, drawings and pastels that informed their making.

  Catalogue: The exhibition will be accompanied by a 350-page catalogue, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press. The catalogue will include essays by a group of noted art historians, curators, and artists: Harry Cooper, Jody Patterson, Robert Storr, Michael Taylor, and Kim Theriault, who will present new theoretical approaches to the artist’s work. The essays will build upon new biographical details about the artist’s Armenian background that have emerged in recent years, while also exploring Gorky’s creative thinking, his unique experimentation, and his extraordinary command of materials and imaginative exploration of various themes. The essays will be followed by a lavishly illustrated plate section, as well as sections devoted to Gorky’s exhibition history, bibliography and a chronology of his life and work.
  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

• Kantha: Embroidered Quilts of Bangladesh and Eastern India from the Bonovitz and Kramrisch Collections
  December 2009 – March 2010
  
  Women in the Bengal region (which now spans Bengladesch and the eastern Indian states of West Bengal and parts of Bihar), salvaged and mended long pieces of handmade fabric from worn or torn garments such as saris. Using these scraps, the women sewed together many layers of fabric, using close running stiches and colorful embroidery, making small quilts or kanthas. This practice is considered a vibrant domestic art and has been handed down from one generation to the next. The decorative concepts, motifs and sizes of each kantha were often determined by the religious affiliations of the women themselves. The Museum’s diverse holdings date between 1850 and 1950 and the exhibition itself will boast approximately 40 kanthas of varying backgrounds, from Muslim prayer mats to a Hindi bridal trousseau (or dowry).

  The collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz includes approximately 35 pieces of superb quality. On the occasion of this exhibition, the couple will make part of their kantha collection a promised gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  Catalogue: The catalogue will include full-color illustrations of all pieces in both the Kramrisch and Bonovitz collections and will include essays by Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art and Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Curator of Costumes and Textiles. It will be the first study on kanthas to be published outside of South Asia and will be published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press.
  Curator: Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art
  Co-Curator: Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Curator of Costume and Textiles
  Location: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Joan Spain Gallery

• Renoir: The Late Work, 1892-1919 (working title)
  Summer 2010
  
  Focusing on the final three decades of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s career, the exhibition follows the renowned painter from the Impressionist period into the early twentieth century. Seeking an art that was timeless, decorative, and worthy of comparison to the Old Masters, Renoir devoted himself to joyful subjects such as bathers, domestic scenes, classical mythology, and the landscape of the Mediterranean. His fluid application of paint and masterful use of color won the admiration of members of the modernist avant-garde who considered Renoir one of the greatest living artists. Approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Renoir will be displayed alongside twenty works by younger artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso in order to explore Renoir’s legacy.

  The exhibition will present approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Renoir alongside twenty works—from Picasso’s neoclassical nudes of the 1920s to Matisse’s sensual odalisques—by artists of the modernist avant-garde in order to explore Renoir’s legacy and the ways in which younger artists engaged with him.

  Jointly organized by the Réunion des musées nationaux, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the exhibition will be shown in Paris at the Grand Palais from September 21, 2009 to January 4, 2010; at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from February 10 to May 9, 2010; and in Philadelphia from June 10 to September 5, 2010.

  Curator: Jennifer Thompson, Associate Curator, European Painting Before 1900
  Location: TBA