THE PHILADELPHIA JUNTO.: La Salle University Art Museum

Showing posts with label La Salle University Art Museum. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 January 2018

SHAME!

DEFRIENDED

Dear Friends of the La Salle University Art Museum,

Today La Salle University announced that its Board of Trustees has approved the deaccession of 46 artworks from the University’s Art Museum collection of over 5,000 pieces. Proceeds from the deaccession will help fund initiatives from the University’s five-year strategic plan—a blueprint for La Salle’s sustainable and vibrant future, and a pathway to enhanced student experience and outcomes.

The Art Museum will continue its robust pedagogical mission across a wide array of academic disciplines, as well as its service to our neighbors in the surrounding community and throughout the region.

Christie’s has been selected by La Salle to handle the sale of the artworks at auction which is tentatively scheduled to occur from March 2018 through June 2018. Information about the 46 artworks being de-accessioned is available at the Art Museum’s collections homepage: artcollection.lasalle.edu

The Art Museum will be closed Tuesday, January 2 through Friday, January 5 so our galleries may be refreshed, and will reopen Monday, January 8.

La Salle is fortunate that it can both maintain a great teaching museum on campus and invest in an ambitious strategic plan whose overarching goal is to be recognized nationally for exceptional student outcomes related to teaching and learning.

We hope you will visit us soon, and continue to support the Art Museum’s pedagogical mission for students, community neighbors and the region.

Questions and further information regarding the deaccession of artworks may be addressed to my attention at lucasj@lasalle.edu.

Sincerely,

Jaine Baxter Lucas
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
University Spokesperson
La Salle University

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Jacob Epstein Busts of Einstein and Weizmann...

...DOUBLE THE ARTIST'S
SCULPTURES IN PHILADELPHIA
By Richard Carreño
Posted 9 July 2014

[WritersClearinghouse News Service]

Despite their coevality, a cursory comparison would not suggest much commonality between Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952). Einstein, of course, went on to create the Theory of Relativity; Weizmann, in 1949, was among the founders of the new State of Israel. (He also became its first president).

Interestingly enough, Weizmann, like the physicist Einstein, was also a scientist. They were both Jewish refugees, on the run from Nazi terror. And they both wound up, at different times in 1933, in the London studio of Anglo-American sculpture Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), where, thanks to Epstein's artistic skill, nay, genius, they were immortalized in bronze busts that have become the iconic images of both men.

Einstein and Weizmann have something else in common: Epstein's sculpted tributes to them share nearby space in a little-known installation at the Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania.

For Philadelphia, the Penn-sited busts also contribute to a startling statistic; they double, yes, double, the number of Epstein sculpted works believed to be available for public viewing in the city. A large, outdoor sculpture, titled Social Consciousness, is located (and, unfortunately, largely ignored) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and a bust of Epstein's wife is part of the permanent collection at the La Salle University Museum.

Monday, 19 December 2011

Jane Irish

War Is Not What You Think
By Klare Scarborough
[Special to Writers Clearinghouse News Service]

The La Salle University Art Museum and the Connelly Library will present the work of

Philadelphia‐based artist Jane Irish this winter. Irish’s work explores the impact of the Vietnam War and its continuing relevance today. Through her paintings and ceramic vessels decorated with pastoral landscapes, people and poetry, Irish highlights the heroism of the soldiers as well as the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, both of whom fought valiantly for freedom and peace.

Irish has been drawing visual inspiration and historical research contexts from the Connelly

Library’s world‐renowned rare book and manuscript collection, Imaginative Representations of the Vietnam War, for the past ten years. This special collection contains over 20,000 creative items related to the Vietnam War, including novels, short stories, poetry, music, screenplays, graphic art, films, sound recordings, posters, prints, video and board games, as well as literary and visual pornography.

The exhibition will be held simultaneously in two locations. The La Salle University Art Museum will feature Irish’s large mural work, The Conversation, along with several related multi‐media pieces. The exhibition will also include a selection of landscape paintings and ceramic vases. The Connelly Library will feature additional ceramic vases by Irish, juxtaposed with images and texts from its special collection, Imaginative Representations of the Vietnam War.

Irish was recently awarded a prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2011. The artist is

represented by Locks Gallery in Philadelphia, http://www.locksgallery.com/. More information about her life and work may be found on the artist’s website, http://www.janeirish.com/.

On view January 17 – March 29, 2012 at the La Salle University Art Museum and the Connelly Library. Opening reception, January 18, 2012, 5‐7 p.m. at the La Salle University Art Museum.

(Klare Scarborough is the director of the LaSalle University Art Museum).

The La Salle University Art Museum is located on the lower level of Olney Hall on the campus of La Salle University at 19th Street and Olney Avenue. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Art Museum will also be open to the public from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 4, 2012. Admission is free, though donations are accepted. Please call to schedule group visits. Special tours can be arranged. For further information call 215.951.1221 or visit the website at http://www.lasalle.edu/museum/.

The Connelly Library is located at the corner of 20th street and Olney Avenue, and is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For further information call 215.951.1293 or visit the website at http://www.lasalle.edu/library/.

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

New Kid in Town

Met's Loss, PAFA's Gain
By Richard Carreño
[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]
Curators, even at the stellar Metropolitan Museum of Art, can blunder. Such was the case early last year when the Met presented at an ambitious retrospective of 19th-century American art that, not surprisingly, drew plentifully and wisely from permanent collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Of course, we encountered the usual Philadelphia 'persons' of interest: Thomas Eakins, Charles Willson Peale, Winslow Homer, and the like. But, to my mind, there was a conspicuous omission. Nowhere to be found in the 'American Stories' show was the masterful African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), a PAFA graduate and Eakins acolyte. Some one had dropped the ball.

That oversight is now about to be corrected. Thanks to PAFA. And the La Salle University Museum of Art.

The biggest nod in the new-found Tanner recognition -- call it even a revival -- goes to PAFA, which will launch a gargantuan public meditation early next year on the Tanner oeuvre. That bow to the long-neglected artist (viz the Met show) will be 'Modern Spirit,' an exhibition curated, organized, and brilliantly marketed by PAFA with accompanying publications, lectures, and even a children's book. The show will be at the academy from 28 January to 15 April, then will soldier on later in the year with the Tanner banner to the Cincinnati Art Museum and to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Friday, 7 October 2011

La Salle University Art Museum

Sarah Hunter: Collected Curiosities

On view September 22 – December 8, 2011 at the La Salle University Art Museum. Opening reception, September 22, 2011, 5-7 p.m. Artist’s talk, November 15, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

The La Salle University Art Museum is happy to present the work of emerging Philadelphia artist Sarah Hunter this fall. Hunter offers whimsical depictions of toy animals in settings defined by flat planes reminiscent of the spatial arrangement of dioramas. (Hunter has worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences and her interest in the display of scientific “curiosities” is evident in her paintings.) Mammals, birds, and dinosaurs play, fight and roam through natural and urban landscapes. Her work explores the tension between two and three dimensions. Structures, mountains, and animals are flattened and set against shadows that make the surfaces appear as flat as paper placed in a convincingly stage-like space.

This will mark the first solo art museum exhibition for Hunter who has been showing her work regionally in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey in both group and solo gallery exhibitions.

The La Salle University Art Museum is located on the lower level of Olney Hall on the campus of La Salle University at 19th St. and Olney Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and weekends by appointment. Admission is free, though donations are accepted. Please call to schedule group visits. Special tours can be arranged. For further information call 215.951.1221 or visit our website at http://www.lasalle.edu/museum/.

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 ....