Tamayo: The New York Years features over forty of the Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo’s (1899-1991) paintings and prints, as well as reproductions of murals by the artist and his key influences. The introductory wall text informs us that unlike some of his well known mural artist peers, Tamayo was more concerned with the creative process than with overtly politicized themes. Yet the exhibition walks us through the artist’s New York-based world in such a thorough way as to demonstrate how deeply immersed he was in his urban, artistic, and even political surroundings.
Art News
Once Upon a Time…The Western at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art is absolutely cinematic in its layout, design, and overall effect. This is appropriate for a multimedia exhibition aiming to present an entire genre of painting, photography, and film, tracing its inception in early-mid nineteenth century landscape painting all the way to its contemporary iterations in music and film, as well as even more recent responses to the genre by First Nations artists in both the United States and Canada.
Opening this month at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is Pieceable Kingdom, an exhibition of multi-media paintings by Camille Hoffman. An emerging artist based in New York, Hoffman explores the theme of Manifest Destiny in the collaged landscapes in this exhibition.
“Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry” is the first show of its kind in twenty years, and Stettheimer’s first ever retrospective in Canada. It offers unprecedented insight into the paintings, drawings, writings, and overall aesthetic of the twentieth century New York-based female artist. The exhibition makes up for lost time by comprehensively extending beyond the works on display to include poignant spatial design. In short, the exhibition is atmospheric. No sign of the era’s wartime strife or uncertainty makes its way into this space.
Ahead of a Sotheby's auction of Important Judaica on December 20, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased a rare illuminated Hebrew Bible. Sotheby's estimated the text's value between $3.5 and $5 million, but before bidders had a chance, the Met swept in, making a pre-auction private purchase for an undisclosed amount.
Opening this month at the Denver Art Museum, Linking Asia: Art, Trade & Devotion explores the breadth and depth of the museum's Asian art collection. The exhibit includes objects retrieved from three shipwrecks, on view for the first time, as well as visitor favorites such as Shiva, King of Dancers (Shiva Nataraja). Linking Asia: Art, Trade & Devotion features approximately 150 works in a variety of media, including sculptures, ceramics, textiles, and scrolls.
The National Gallery of Victoria's Triennial open in Melbourne, Australia this weekend. A "celebration of contemporary art and design practice," the Triennial brings in over 100 artists from around the world. Installed across the museum's diverse galleries, the Triennial creates a dialogue between the new visiting works and the museum's collection.
Currents 114: Matt Saunders, the latest exhibition in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s popular series showcasing current and emerging artists, opened November 17th. Saunders' mixed-media work incorporates his own imagery with those from avant-garde film and found photography. Melding painting, photography, animation, and printmaking, Saunders’ exhibit creates an interactive experience of perception and transformation. This free exhibition encourages visitors to examine the relationships not only between Saunders' works but between his show and the rest of the museum.
In the Tower: Anne Truitt
National Galley of Art, Washington, DC
Through April 1, 2018
Last week the Louvre Abu Dhabi surprised many with intriguing (and vague) tweets that they would be displaying Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi. Without offering an explanation as to when or how they would be showing the work, the circumstances surrounding its landmark museum debut remained a mystery.
