Museum and Special Exhibition News
Friday January 26, 2007
Yale, Eakins, Tutankhamun and Rome
By Stan Parchin
The iconic main building of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut reopened to the public on December 10, 2006. The glass, masonry and steel structure was designed by Modernist architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) and completed in 1953. The three-year renovation to Kahn's first major public commission by New York City's Polshek Partnership Architects cost $44 million (US). Many of the building's original features have been restored. And its electrical and ventilation systems have been upgraded. New to the gallery is a first-floor media lounge where the lobby used to be.
The Gross Clinic (1875) by American Realist painter Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), rescued by a national effort from a $68 million (US) sale to Washington D.C.'s National Gallery of Art and Bentonville, Arkansas' Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art by the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, is on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from January 5 through March 4, 2007. The masterpiece is accompanied by an oil sketch for the work by the artist and a portrait of Eakins by his wife, Susan Hannah Macdowell. The monumental painting will take up residence at the nearby Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, its new co-owner with the PMA, later this Spring.
Charles E. Pierce, Jr., the fourth Director of New York's Morgan Library & Museum, announced on January 25, 2007 his intentions to retire after 20 years of service to the venerable Madison Avenue institution. While under Pierce's stewardship, the 83-year-old academic establishment witnessed a dramatic increase in both its holdings and attendance. It also underwent two structural expansions. The most recent building project and renovation by Italian architect Renzo Piano (b. 1937) cost $106 million (US). During Pierce's tenure, the Morgan hosted such diverse special exhibitions as: From Bruegel to Rubens: Netherlandish and Flemish Drawings; Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur; Jean Poyet: Artist to the Court of Renaissance France; and Pierre Matisse and His Artists. This Spring and Summer, Dr. Pierce will oversee what promises to be two marvelous shows: Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan and Federico da Montefeltro and His Library, a poignant study of Renaissance Urbino's court culture and the fifteenth-century Italian duke's phenomenal collection of rare manuscripts.
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs opens with much fanfare at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum on February 3 and runs through September 30, 2007. This ticketed traveling exhibition of 130 objects, 50 from the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun (reigned ca. 1336-1327 B.C.) and others from his Amarna Period predecessors, includes the gilded gold sarcophagus of the lady Tjuya and a miniature canopic coffin that contained the young pharaoh's liver as a result of his mummification.
Of course, anybody making the trip to Philadelphia to see Tutankhamun... should also travel to the nearby University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to view Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun, a splendid exhibition of artworks from the young ruler's childhood home and capital city of Akhenaten (reigned ca. 1353-1336 B.C.), his heretic father.
On February 1, 2007 at 6:00 PM, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Director of Excavations at the Giza Pyramids, Saqqara and Bahariya Oasis, will deliver a lecture in the museum's Harrison Auditorium. The Riddle of the Pyramids and the Magic of King Tut will address recent developments in Egyptology. Advance ticket reservations for Dr. Hawass' presentation are strongly recommended. Contact the Annenberg Center Box Office at (215) 898-3900, Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday from 12:00 Noon to 6:00 PM, for further details.
To complete your Tutankhamun experience, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has a treat in store. Images of the young pharaoh's tomb and its contents by renowned archaeological photographer Harry Burton (1879-1940) are on view in Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton from December 19, 2006 through April 29, 2007.
Imperial Rome at the Houston Museum of Natural Science runs from February 23 through July 29, 2007. This traveling ticketed show of more than 400 objects explores the art, history and culture of Roman civilization from 27 B.C. through the middle of the Third Century A.D. The items on display come from the National Archaeological Museum of Florence as well as other prominent Italian collections. Imperial Rome is divided into eight sections: Julius Caesar and the end of the Roman Republic; The Emperors; Gods, Religions and Cults; Private Lives; The Roman Household; Public Life; the Pax Romana; and an Epilogue that describes the heritage of the Roman Empire. The exhibition includes: 17 portraits of some of Rome's emperors as well as powerful women; various funerary objects, relief sculptures and statues depicting the Romans' religious beliefs and deities; replicas that illustrate the basic types of domestic architecture; and masterfully
designed buckles, horse harnesses, helmets and other accessories used by Rome's imperial military personnel.
Image credits:
Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)
The Gross Clinic, 1875
Oil on canvas
96 x 78 in.
Lent by Thomas Jefferson University in
Recognition of Jefferson Medical College and
its Alumni
© Thomas Jefferson University
Photograph provided by Philadelphia Museum of Art
Gilded Coffin of Tjuya
Egyptian, Dynasty 18, Reign of
Amenhotep III (1390-1353 B.C.)
Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb of
Yuya and Tjuya (KV 46)
Gilded wood
L. 218.5 cm, W. 67.5 cm, H. 100.8 cm
© Andreas F. Voegelin, Antikenmuseum
Basel and Sammlung Ludwig
"In the Valley of the Kings, Dr. Zahi Hawass
stands over King Tut’s mummy and tomb
while monitoring the CAT scan of
the infamous mummy."
Photograph provided by Dr. Zahi Hawass
Funeral Altar
Roman, Imperial, Reign of Augustus (27 B.C.-14 A.D.)
Marble
H. 121 cm, W. 45 cm, L. 93 cm
Photograph provided by Contemporanea Progetti, SRL,
Florence, Italy
By Stan Parchin
The iconic main building of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut reopened to the public on December 10, 2006. The glass, masonry and steel structure was designed by Modernist architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) and completed in 1953. The three-year renovation to Kahn's first major public commission by New York City's Polshek Partnership Architects cost $44 million (US). Many of the building's original features have been restored. And its electrical and ventilation systems have been upgraded. New to the gallery is a first-floor media lounge where the lobby used to be.
The Gross Clinic (1875) by American Realist painter Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), rescued by a national effort from a $68 million (US) sale to Washington D.C.'s National Gallery of Art and Bentonville, Arkansas' Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art by the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, is on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from January 5 through March 4, 2007. The masterpiece is accompanied by an oil sketch for the work by the artist and a portrait of Eakins by his wife, Susan Hannah Macdowell. The monumental painting will take up residence at the nearby Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, its new co-owner with the PMA, later this Spring.
Charles E. Pierce, Jr., the fourth Director of New York's Morgan Library & Museum, announced on January 25, 2007 his intentions to retire after 20 years of service to the venerable Madison Avenue institution. While under Pierce's stewardship, the 83-year-old academic establishment witnessed a dramatic increase in both its holdings and attendance. It also underwent two structural expansions. The most recent building project and renovation by Italian architect Renzo Piano (b. 1937) cost $106 million (US). During Pierce's tenure, the Morgan hosted such diverse special exhibitions as: From Bruegel to Rubens: Netherlandish and Flemish Drawings; Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur; Jean Poyet: Artist to the Court of Renaissance France; and Pierre Matisse and His Artists. This Spring and Summer, Dr. Pierce will oversee what promises to be two marvelous shows: Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan and Federico da Montefeltro and His Library, a poignant study of Renaissance Urbino's court culture and the fifteenth-century Italian duke's phenomenal collection of rare manuscripts.
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs opens with much fanfare at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum on February 3 and runs through September 30, 2007. This ticketed traveling exhibition of 130 objects, 50 from the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun (reigned ca. 1336-1327 B.C.) and others from his Amarna Period predecessors, includes the gilded gold sarcophagus of the lady Tjuya and a miniature canopic coffin that contained the young pharaoh's liver as a result of his mummification.
Of course, anybody making the trip to Philadelphia to see Tutankhamun... should also travel to the nearby University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to view Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun, a splendid exhibition of artworks from the young ruler's childhood home and capital city of Akhenaten (reigned ca. 1353-1336 B.C.), his heretic father.
On February 1, 2007 at 6:00 PM, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Director of Excavations at the Giza Pyramids, Saqqara and Bahariya Oasis, will deliver a lecture in the museum's Harrison Auditorium. The Riddle of the Pyramids and the Magic of King Tut will address recent developments in Egyptology. Advance ticket reservations for Dr. Hawass' presentation are strongly recommended. Contact the Annenberg Center Box Office at (215) 898-3900, Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday from 12:00 Noon to 6:00 PM, for further details.
To complete your Tutankhamun experience, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has a treat in store. Images of the young pharaoh's tomb and its contents by renowned archaeological photographer Harry Burton (1879-1940) are on view in Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton from December 19, 2006 through April 29, 2007.
Imperial Rome at the Houston Museum of Natural Science runs from February 23 through July 29, 2007. This traveling ticketed show of more than 400 objects explores the art, history and culture of Roman civilization from 27 B.C. through the middle of the Third Century A.D. The items on display come from the National Archaeological Museum of Florence as well as other prominent Italian collections. Imperial Rome is divided into eight sections: Julius Caesar and the end of the Roman Republic; The Emperors; Gods, Religions and Cults; Private Lives; The Roman Household; Public Life; the Pax Romana; and an Epilogue that describes the heritage of the Roman Empire. The exhibition includes: 17 portraits of some of Rome's emperors as well as powerful women; various funerary objects, relief sculptures and statues depicting the Romans' religious beliefs and deities; replicas that illustrate the basic types of domestic architecture; and masterfully
designed buckles, horse harnesses, helmets and other accessories used by Rome's imperial military personnel.
Image credits:
Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)
The Gross Clinic, 1875
Oil on canvas
96 x 78 in.
Lent by Thomas Jefferson University in
Recognition of Jefferson Medical College and
its Alumni
© Thomas Jefferson University
Photograph provided by Philadelphia Museum of Art
Gilded Coffin of Tjuya
Egyptian, Dynasty 18, Reign of
Amenhotep III (1390-1353 B.C.)
Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb of
Yuya and Tjuya (KV 46)
Gilded wood
L. 218.5 cm, W. 67.5 cm, H. 100.8 cm
© Andreas F. Voegelin, Antikenmuseum
Basel and Sammlung Ludwig
"In the Valley of the Kings, Dr. Zahi Hawass
stands over King Tut’s mummy and tomb
while monitoring the CAT scan of
the infamous mummy."
Photograph provided by Dr. Zahi Hawass
Funeral Altar
Roman, Imperial, Reign of Augustus (27 B.C.-14 A.D.)
Marble
H. 121 cm, W. 45 cm, L. 93 cm
Photograph provided by Contemporanea Progetti, SRL,
Florence, Italy
Comments
Thanks for Mr. Parchin’s updates on the what is new and upcoming up in the Art World. Where else can one go from New York to Philly to Houston in one stop.