Museum preview: 2002/03 preview

Art in America, August, 2002

Summer

Anne Vallayer-Coster

This is the first museum retrospective for the artist, who was a painter to the court of Louis XVI. A highly regarded member of the French Academy, Vallayer-Coster was one of the foremost still-life painters of her time. Organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, the show comprises some 40 of her paintings supplemented by works of several 18th-century contemporaries, including Chardin. It debuts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June 30-Sept. 22, 2002, and travels to Dallas, Oct. 13, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003, and the Frick Collection, New York, Jan. 21-Mar. 23, 2003. A European tour begins in France at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, Apr. 20-July 13, 2003.

Hannelore Baron

German-born, New York-based Hannelore Baron (1926-1987) developed a personal iconography in her collages and assemblages made of found objects, cloth, torn paper and wood. This exhibition, curated by Ingrid Schaffner, consists of some 40 works from 1969 to '87. Organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, it is on view at the Canter Center for Visual Arts, Stanford, Calif., May 22-Sept. 1, 2002. Itinerary: Macalester College Art Gallery, St. Paul, Minn., Oct. 19-Dec. 15, 2002; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, N.Y., Jan. 11-Mar. 9, 2003; Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Apr. 5-June 1, 2003; Mennello Museum of American Folk Art, Orlando, July 5-Sept. 7, 2003; other venues to be determined.

Art/Women/California

"Parallels and Intersections: Art/Women/ California" examines 90 women artists who worked in the Golden State during the last half of the 20th century. Included are pieces by such diverse artists as Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Judy Chicago, Eleanor Antin, Vija Celmins, Betye Saar and Alexis Smith. Curated by Diana Fuller, the exhibition appears at the San Jose Museum of Art, June 1-Nov. 3, 2002.

Splendors of Imperial Japan

"Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji Period from the Khalili Collection" presents over 350 objects from the Meiji period (1868-1912), an era of modernization in Japan, when it opened to the West after 200 years of seclusion. Examples include works in ceramic, enamel, porcelain and metal. The show, organized by the Portland Art Museum and the Khalili Family Trust, appears at the Portland [Ore.] Art Museum, June 1-Sept. 22, 2002.

Alfred Stieglitz

One of America's modern-art pioneers, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a photographer, artist, curator and dealer whose influence is still felt today. "Alfred Stieglitz: Known and Unknown" contains more than 100 formally inventive photographs that reflect his pioneering modernist esthetic. The show is curated by Sarah Greenough and organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where it debuts June 2-Sept. 2, 2002, before traveling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Oct. 6-Jan. 5, 2003.

Bernar Venet

French conceptual artist Bernar Venet frequently creates monumental Cor-Ten steel sculptures, which he describes as "lines in space." Ten of his works, some up to 55 feet in height, are sited outdoors on the grounds of the Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi in Ghent, N.Y., through Oct. 31.

Oldenburg Drawings

The largest show of Claes Oldenburg's drawings to date includes 92 works on paper covering all periods, from proto-Pop experiments of the late 1950s, through his well-known Pop images, to more recent collaborations with Coosje van Bruggen. Curated by Janie C. Lee, the exhibition appears at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 7-Sept. 15, 2002; additional venues to be announced. On the rooftop garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the pair are showing new large-scale sculptures, through Nov. 17.

Frederick J. Brown

"Portraits in Jazz, Blues & Other Icons" draws together some 40 canvases from an ongoing series of more than 100 works by expressionistic painter Frederick J. Brown. His subjects are figures who have shaped American cultural life, from Crazy Horse to the legendary Louis Armstrong. The show is organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, where it debuts June 16-Sept. 1, 2002. Itinerary: New Orleans Museum of Art, Feb. 1-Mar. 30, 2003; Studio Museum in Harlem, Apr. 23-July 29, 2003.

Sublime America

The notion of America as a vast and fertile new world was propagated throughout the 19th century with the help of artists featured in "American Sublime: Epic Landscapes of Our Nation 1820-1880." The show, including 80 major canvases by artists such as Bierstadt, Church, Cropsey and Heade, was organized by Andrew Wilton of the Tate Britain, London, where it debuted, Feb. 21-May 19, 2002. It travels to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, June 17-Aug. 25, 2002, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Sept. 22-Nov. 17, 2002.

Gauguin

"Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic" presents over 120 paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings and prints that the artist made during his travels to Brittany, Provence, Martinique, Tahiti and the Marquesas. The exhibition is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 18-Oct. 22, 2002.