THE PHILADELPHIA JUNTO.: Museum Mile

Thursday, 14 October 2010

Museum Mile

On and Off Philly's Museum Row

By Richard Carreno

[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]

Stephen Starr --

At the Philadelphia Museum of Art
New * resto opens
The Philadelphia Museum of Art's restaurant has been rechristened Granite Hill, and is now open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant, formerly operated by the gargantuan New York-based caterer, Restaurant Associates, is now part of the local chain run by resto mogul Stephen Starr. On offer are 'modern twists on classic bistro fare.'
Pistoletto gets solo show
More than 100 paintings and sculptures by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto will be featured in the artist's first solo show in the United States in more than 20 years. The exhibition, 'From One to Man, 1956-1974,' debuts 2 November. Pistoletto was 'at the center of sweeping change in postwar Italy, and his influence persists today as one of Europe's most innovative contemporary artists.'
Thomas Eakins in LA
If you've already seen Thomas Eakins newly refurbished The Gross Clinic, and are looking for a different thematic twist from the artist, a trip to Los Angeles might be in order. Pictures by 19th century Philadelphia artist, emphasizing the Eakins' keen interest in physical sport, will be on display through 24 October at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The show is titled 'Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins.' Of course, at home, the PMA also boasts many pictures along these lines in its permanent Easkins collection, the largest anywhere.

At the Academy of Natural Sciences
Philly's Best Museum?
The Academy has been voted the Philadelphia region's 'best' museum in beauty poll run by something called the 'Philly Hot List.' A total of 93,217 votes were cast, according to Philly Hot List, with Museum Mile's Academy garnering top spot. No vote breakdown was announced. Runners-up in popularity, in slots two to five, were the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology in University City, the Mutter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in Center City, the Glencairn Museum in Huntington Valley, and, in fifth place, the Wagner Free Institute in North Philadelphia, near the Temple University campus.

At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Art-at-Lunch Lecture Series Announced

PAFA's very popular noon-time lecture series will feature almost a dozen art talks this fall through December. A talk on Andy Warhol, 'The Artist of and his Critics,' will be held next, 20 October. Talks in the series, free to the public, are held every Wednesday.

At the Tyler School of Art

Tyler sponsors performance at PMA

A performance by Russian-born artist Yevgeniy Fiks, titled a 'Communist Tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art' and which includes a tour of some of the PMA's permanent collection, will be conducted Friday, 15 October, in a program sponsored by Tyler, Temple University's art school. Those wishing to attend the performance should meet at 5:30 pm in Gallery 161 (Resnick Rotunda), at the entrance of the Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries. Fiks, who now lives in New York, will make connections with modern artists represented in the museum collections and 20th century Communism. The tour is open to the public and is free after paying the museum's admission fee. Admission is free to Tyler students with identification.

At the Institute of Contemporary Art

'Whenever Wednesday' sponsors 'travelog'

The ICA's ongoing 'Whenever Wednesday' program will kick off a 'staycation' lecture series of travelogs on art centers throughout the world. The first lecture, at 6:30 pm on 20 October, will be offered by Virginija Januskeviciute, a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. Also featured in the series will be arts venues in Singapore, Beirut, Paris, and in Santiago. Admission is free to all.

At the National Constitution Center

New Journalism Prize Sponsored

The NCC, in conjunction with the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution, will sponsor a new eponymous journalism prize that honors the late television reporter and ABC news anchor. The Jennings prize, which carries a $5,000 award, will be given to a journalist whose work 'illuminates the Constitution's centrality to American identity and life,' according to NCC spokesperson Ashley Berke. The prize will be awarded annually. The deadline for entries for the 2011 prize is 1 November. The winner will be announced in March during a Jennings project program that will conducted at the NCC.

BROADSTREETREVIEW.COM INDEX

Articles by Richard Carreño
Diego Rivera's ghost in Detroit October 15 2013 The city of Detroit may be broke, but the Detroit Institute of Arts owns $2 billion worth of art works. Its most valued pieces, by the Communist Diego Rivera, portray heroic workers triumphing over stoic managers. In the best capitalist tradition, Rivera’s frescoes are now being held hostage by a pair of union-busting Republican politicians.

Dissecting West’s ‘Death of General Wolfe’ August 06 2013 Benjamin West’s Death of General Wolfe was once a hallowed symbol of British imperialism. Now it’s been hijacked by Canadians, whose supply of national icons is otherwise limited. National Gallery of Canada. 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. www.gallery.ca/en.

Pittsburgh’s culture quest July 24 2012 The Mellons and the steel mills are gone, but Pittsburgh today boasts first-class museums, music, theaters and universities. The trouble is, they’re all in the wrong part of town.

Discovered: La Salle’s unsung art museum November 14 2011 An obscure museum in a North Philadelphia basement houses world-class treasures by masters like Tintoretto, Edouard Vuillard, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Rouault and Joseph Epstein. Most remarkable of all, admission is free. La Salle University Art Museum. Olney Hall, 1900 W. Olney Ave., lower level. (215) 951-1000 or www.lasalle.edu/museum.

Matisse and Barnes: A tale of two museums October 04 2011 Henri Matisse was one of the three great revolutionary artists (with Picaso and Duchamp) of the early 20th Century; Albert Barnes was a brilliant collector of revolutionary art. They made a great team until Barnes’s insufferable personality drove Matisse away, with consequences that still reverberate today.

‘Picasso and the Paris Avant-Garde’ at the Art Museum February 23 2010 Curator Michael Taylor has unveiled, for the first time in recent memory, the astonishing range, depth, and quality of the Art Museum’s Picasso holdings. But his show falls a few bricks short of an Anne d'Harnoncourt blockbuster. “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris.” Through May 2, 2010 at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th St. (215) 763-8100 or http://www.philamuseum.org/.

Antiquity, looters and the Penn Museum November 10 2009 Who are the best stewards of ancient artifacts— enlightened Western curators whose museums stole the loot long ago, or dictators of Third World lands where the treasures were originally found? James Cuno of the Chicago Art Institute (who believes the former) confronts the Penn Museum (which favors the latter). "Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery." Through Spring 2010 at University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 South St. (215) 898-4000 or www.penn.museum/sites/iraq.

‘American Stories' at the Met in New York October 18 2009 “American Stories,” currently at the Met in New York, reveals an indebtedness to Philadelphia's artistic patrimony. Almost the whole show could have been assembled from Philadelphia holdings or works by Philadelphia artists. So why is the Art Museum so modest about its contributions? “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915.” Through January 24, 2009 at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd St., New York. 212-535-7710 or http://www.metmuseum.org/. Art

Museum’s admission hike June 29 2009 The Art Museum recently raised its admission fees, a fund-raising model that is strictly 20th-Century. Then it hired as its new director Timothy Rub, a successful advocate of the 21st-Century model: free admission. Does the Art Museum’s left hand know what its right hand is doing?

Venice: Nice place to visit, but…. March 31 2009 There’s no place like Venice to jump-start your romantic gene. But before you move there, remember: The plumbing stinks. And try schlepping groceries, or hauling a suitcase, or finding a doctor or a decent restaurant or a neighbor who’s under 50.

Newspapers and the Internet March 03 2009 In the Internet age, what will happen to fact-based journalism as daily newspapers fold? Contrary to what you hear from print journalists, the quality of coverage could improve. Which would you prefer: The Inquirer, or a Philadelphia edition of the New York Times?

Vidocq: Philadelphia's Sherlock Holmes December 20 2008 Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Sam Spade are all legendary but fictitious private eyes. But Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo were inspired by a real Philadelphia gumshoe of literary dimensions, as I discovered behind the door of the Vidocq Society in Center City. The Black Tower. By Louis Bayard. William Morrow, 352 pages; $24.95. http://www.louisbayard.com/

Sarah Palin and the ‘C’ word September 13 2008 Thanks to Sarah Palin, the 800-pound gorilla is out of the cage. The 'C' word— class— is the one word in the American lexicon that's even better hidden in polite public discourse than race. And it has little to do with money.

Alfred J. Munnings at Brandywine Museum July 29 2008 A remarkable new show at the Brandywine River museum is a tribute to the great sporting artist Alfred J. Munnings and also to the private collectors of Chester County who’ve accumulated his works without fanfare.“Alfred J. Munnings From Regional Collections.” Through Sept. 1, 2008 at Brandywine River Museum, off U.S. 1, Chadds Ford, Pa. (610) 388-2700 or http://www.brandywinemuseum.org./

The horror of globalization February 16 2008 What is a German discount food chain doing in Philadelphia, pampering its customers and employees alike and otherwise violating cherished local customs? Don’t these foreigners know what we Americans did to the Hessians the last time we got really angry?

George Stubbs paintings at Penn April 17 2007 The English painter George Stubbs is largely forgotten outside racing stables, geezer men’s clubs and faux clubby steakhouses. But he transformed the way artists depicted horses and sporting scenes. Equus Unbound: Fairman Rogers and the Age of the Horse. Through June 15, 2007, at Kamen Gallery, U. of Pennsylvania’s Van-Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut St., first floor. Free and open to the public; photo ID required. (800) 390-1829.

Christie’s and ‘The Gross Clinic’ January 03 2007 As a leading art auction house, Christie’s well understands the role of a dummy bidder in jacking up the price of a work. In Jefferson University's recent sale of The Gross Clinic, Christie’s consultants apparently found an unwitting dummy in the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton. Has Philadelphia’s art community learned anything from this $68 million lesson?

What price admission to the Barnes? August 12 2006 Hefty admisssion increases are the new order of the day at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum. Derek Gillman, new chief of the Barnes Foundation, may be tempted to follow suit. Here's one hard-nosed reason why he shouldn't.

Celebrating ....

Thursday, 14 October 2010

Museum Mile