See below for advance
exhibition schedule at Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California. To
download a full-color PDF of this schedule, visit http://bit.ly/whPMIJ
Florence and the
Baroque: Paintings from the Haukohl Family Collection
THROUGH FEBRUARY 12,
2012
In the 17th century,
Florentine artists created a newly reformed Baroque style characterized by the
portrayal of intense emotion, saturated color, and refined brushwork, which
brought drama to mythologies, biblical subjects, and devotional works. This
exhibition, drawn from the largest collection of Florentine Baroque painting in
the United States, features works by key artists such as Cesare
Dandini, Jacopo da Empoli,
and Francesco Furini. From the brooding drama of Furini’s “Poetry” to the colorful exuberance of Giovanni Domenico Ferretti’s “Harlequin
and his Lady,” this exhibition reveals the many facets of Baroque Florence.
The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia
Museum of Art
THROUGH FEBRUARY 12,
2012
“Disegno,”
or the ideal expression of form through line, was central to Italian art for
more than three centuries. In Italian art especially, drawing formed the basis
for every form of visual expression in the 16th through 18th centuries, from
printmaking to painting to sculpture. This exhibition, drawn from the
collections of the Georgia Museum of Art and Giuliano
Ceseri, explores the variety and beauty of Italian draughtsmanship through drawings and prints by artists such
as Stefano della Bella, Giambattista Piranesi, Domenico Campagnola, and Ciro Ferri.
Edgar Payne: The
Scenic Journey
FEBRUARY 11 – MAY 6,
2012
One of the most gifted
of California’s early plein-air artists, Edgar Payne
utilized the brushwork and colors of Impressionism, yet his powerful landscape
paintings departed from the genteel refinement of most Impressionist painters.
Payne’s works are imbued with an internal force and active dynamism achieved
through majestic, vital landscape subjects. This exhibition of more than 80
signature paintings and drawings, as well as additional objects from the
artist’s studio, traces Payne’s artistic development as he traveled the world
in search of magnificent settings: the Southern and Central California coast,
the Sierra, the Swiss Alps, the harbors and waterways of France and Italy, and
the desert Southwest. The Crocker’s Chief Curator and Associate Director, Scott
A. Shields, Ph.D., curated this exhibition, which was organized by the Pasadena
Museum of California Art, and is the lead author for the exhibition catalogue.
Surveying Judy
Chicago: 1970–2010
MARCH 3 – MAY 13, 2012
A seminal figure in
contemporary American art, artist and feminist Judy Chicago produces
thought-provoking, passionate, and at times controversial work. Unrestrained by
medium, her work traverses china and acrylic painting to cast glass,
printmaking, and textiles. Her most famous project, “The Dinner Party,”
1974–79, catapulted her onto the international stage. Its initial display in
San Francisco in 1979 drew enormous crowds and brought the power of women’s
voices to the forefront of contemporary art. Chicago‘s career-long focus on
making her voice and the voices of others heard continued in the “Birth Project,”
1980–85, the “Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light,” 1985–1993 and
“Resolutions: A Stitch in Time,” 1994–00. Diverse works culled from these
projects comprise this survey of Chicago’s groundbreaking career.
Fishing Lines: Etching
and Engraving from the Gary Widman Collection
MARCH 3 – MAY 13, 2012
From anglers on
Rembrandt’s riverbanks to William Wegman’s scaly
creatures, fish and fishing have inspired artists for centuries. This
exhibition of works from a private collection explores the subject in 60
etchings and engravings from the 16th century to the present. Angling lore,
scientific study, and often humor are brought together by a variety of
printmakers. Through these images, the exhibition provides a fascinating
history of etching and engraving.
Gong Yuebin: Site 2801
MARCH 10 – APRIL 29,
2012
Rife with physical
hardship and persecution, Gong Yuebin’s childhood in
rural China continues to inform his artistic vision to this day. In “Site
2801,” viewers are asked to confront an incongruous and satirical juxtaposition
of humanity’s past and present. Two hundred terracotta warriors based on models
of those commissioned by China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, are displayed
rank by rank, having been “unearthed” in a site that not only includes
historical warriors, but also modern combat troops and nuclear missiles.
Inherent in the display is the artist’s consternation about the apparent lack
of progress in thousands of years of human evolution and empire building.
Red Hot and Blown: Contemporary
Glass from the Crocker’s Collection
MARCH 17 – SEPTEMBER
23, 2012
This year more than
150 museums throughout the United States will be celebrating the 50th
anniversary of America’s studio-glass movement, which began in 1962 in Toledo,
Ohio. Since that time, glass has emerged as a rich and diverse form of creative
expression with vessels, sculptures, and everything in between being blown,
cast, assembled, and even painted. The Crocker’s exhibition includes all of
these techniques, ranging from Marvin Lipofsky’s
blown sculptures and vases from the 1960s to Dale Chihuly’s
elaborate “Macchia Seaform
Group” from the 1980s, to more recently acquired sculptural works by Therman Statom and Nancy Mee.
Mel Ramos: 50 Years of
Superheroes, Nudes, and Other Pop Delights
JUNE 2 – OCTOBER 21,
2012
A Sacramento native
and Sacramento State alumnus, internationally acclaimed Mel Ramos (born 1935)
is one of the city’s most celebrated artists. This is the first survey of his
work in his hometown and follows his recent solo exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria. This exhibition showcases
each of the artist’s creative phases, including his Abstract Expressionist
early works, his comic-book heroes from the 1960s, and the commercially
inspired nudes that made him famous. The latter, which he started painting in
the mid-1960s and continues to produce today, feature female figures wrapped
lasciviously around giant Coca-Cola bottles, popping out of candy wrappers, and
lounging on fresh fruit and a host of consumer products. The exhibition also
includes examples from the artist’s series of art-historical tributes, in which
he combines master works with sex appeal, as well as his lesser-known paintings
of the California landscape and recent figurative sculptures.
Brought to Light:
Masterworks of Photography from the Crocker Art Museum
JUNE 16 – SEPTEMBER 2,
2012
The first photography
survey of the Museum’s collection in more than a decade, the exhibition
showcases the history and artistic development of contemporary photography.
“Brought to Light” features 30 works from the 19th through the 21st century.
New acquisitions have quietly joined the core collection, illuminating historic
figures, but also pointing to the future. With images by artists ranging from
Peter Henry Emerson to Chris McCaw, the beauty of the medium and its embrace of
aesthetic, social, and conceptual concerns moves from the darkroom to the
digital in this exhibition.
A Chosen Path: The
Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes
JUNE 23 – SEPTEMBER
30, 2012
For more than 60
years, Karen Karnes has been at the forefront of the studio pottery movement.
Her artistic output is recognized for its understated, quietly poetic surfaces
and sublime biomorphic forms. From her dramatic salt-glazed pottery of the
1960s and ‘70s, to her most recent sculptural work, Karnes consistently has
challenged herself, and in doing so transformed expectations of the vessel. She
remains one of the medium’s most influential working makers and a mentor to
several generations of studio potters. “A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen
Karnes,” her first major retrospective, will highlight 69 masterworks from this
pioneering artist.
The Artist’s View:
Landscape Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum
SEPTEMBER 22, 2012 –
JANUARY 6, 2013
Featuring works by
artists as diverse as Herman van Swanevelt and
Camille Corot, this exhibition celebrates the beauty of landscape drawings from
the major European schools. Spanning four centuries, this exhibition traces the
historical context of landscapes from Dutch and Flemish works, including fine
sheets by Anthonie van Waterloo and Willem van Bemmel, through 17th-century Italian and 19th-century
German and French works. Works from 18th and 19th century Germany, which
represent the height of landscape drawing and are one of the collection’s major
strengths, will also be highlighted.
The Art of Nepal:
Shiva and Buddha
OCTOBER 20, 2012 –
JANUARY 27, 2013
The Newar people, who have inhabited Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley
for centuries, are renowned for their skill as artisans, creating both Buddhist
and Hindu sculptures, paintings, and architectural carvings. While Indian art
inspired early Newari art, these artists developed a
unique style that influenced both Tibetan and Chinese artists. This exhibition
explores Newari art through paintings, ritual
objects, and stone, wood, and bronze sculptures drawn from private California
collections and the collection of the Crocker Art Museum. These 40 diverse
works highlight the richness of Nepalese culture. A full-color catalogue
featuring an essay by Nancy Tingley, Ph.D., adjunct
curator at the Crocker Art Museum, will accompany the exhibition.
American Chronicles:
The Art of Norman Rockwell
NOVEMBER 10, 2012 –
FEBRUARY 3, 2013
This exhibition celebrates the full range of
Norman Rockwell’s artwork, including rarely circulated works from the
collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This
presentation features 50 original oil paintings of some of his most famous
illustrations, drawings, and war bond posters, and more than 300 covers that
Rockwell created for the “Saturday Evening Post” over nearly five decades. In
addition to the artworks on view, personal correspondence and archival
photographs offer insight into the life of one of the country’s most beloved
illustrators.
“American Chronicles:
The Art of Norman Rockwell” has been organized by the Norman Rockwell
Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
An Opening of the
Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, and Their Circle
MARCH 16 – JULY 17,
2013
The artist Jess
Collins, known simply as Jess, and his partner, the poet Robert Duncan, were
one of the most fascinating artistic couples of the 20th century. Soon after
they met in 1950, they merged their personal and artistic lives to explore
their interest in cultural mythologies, transformative narrative, and the
appropriation of images. This is the first exhibition to explore both the
couple’s artistic production and relationship. Through more than 100 individual
and collaborative works of art and personal letters drawn from private and
public collections, this exhibit also looks at their influence and unique
position as precursors of Postmodernism. A companion catalogue includes an
essay by William Breazeale, Ph.D., curator at the
Crocker Art Museum.
The Epic and the
Intimate: French Drawings from the John D. Reilly Collection
JUNE 22 – SEPTEMBER
29, 2013
From its founding in
1648, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was the center of artistic
activity in France. Through 60 drawings by artists such as Simon Vouet, Antoine Watteau, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and Edgar
Degas, this exhibition from the Snite Museum of Art
at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, traces the
formation, triumph, and reform of the Academy, leading to the École des Beaux-Arts as it is today. At the same time, the
exhibit showcases the artistic process as guided by the Academy's principles,
from the artist's first thoughts through compositional studies, figure
drawings, and finished compositions.
Jules Tavernier:
Artiste and Adventurer (Title Pending)
OCTOBER 19, 2013 –
JANUARY 19, 2014
This is the first
museum exhibition to survey the work of early California artist Jules Tavernier
(1844–1889). Born in Paris and trained in France, Tavernier adapted his native
country’s Barbizon aesthetic to scenes of the American West. This exhibit
surveys the artist’s entire career through 100 paintings and works on paper,
from his early transcontinental illustrations for “Harper’s Weekly”
and paintings of Native American subjects to scenes of the San Francisco Bay
Area and Monterey Peninsula, where he founded the local art colony in 1875.
Also featured are the artist’s signature paintings of erupting volcanoes, which
he painted in Hawaii before his untimely death at age 45. The exhibition is
accompanied by a full-color catalogue—the first to feature Tavernier
exclusively—and features an essay by Scott A. Shields, Ph.D., the Crocker’s
chief curator and associate director.
The Crocker
Art Museum was one of the first art museums in the U.S. and is now one of
the leading art institutions in California. Established in 1885, the Museum
features one of the country’s finest collections of Californian art,
exceptional holdings of master drawings, a comprehensive collection of
international ceramics, as well as European, Asian, African, and Oceanic art.
The Crocker is located at 216 O Street in Downtown Sacramento. Museum hours are
10 a.m.–5 p.m., Tuesday–Sunday; 10 a.m.–9 p.m., Thursdays. For more
information, call (916)
808-7000 or visit crockerartmuseum.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Kathleen Richards
Media: (916) 808-5157
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