Tag Archive "pennsylvania-academy-of-fine-arts"

Henry Ossawa Tanner at PAFA: Faith in Blues

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts  (PAFA) is celebrating one of its most illustrious alumni with Henry Ossawa Tanner; Modern Spirit (through April 15, 2012) and it is greatly to be welcomed. While Tanner is well represented in PAFA’s collection and that of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA, which organized a Tanner exhibition in 1991), his work is widely dispersed in public and private collections in the U.S. and France, and the exhibition brings them together and into public view, many for the first time since they were acquired. A deep appreciation of Tanner will involve some work on ... More » »

Treats at the PMA’s Perelman Building

I stopped by the Perelmann Building at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) over the weekend thinking I’d spend an hour at the exhibition of North African Jewelry, and after three hours I left, only because the guards were trying to close the museum. An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing ‘The Gross Clinic’ Anew (through Jan. 9, 2011), which Peter Crimmins discussed here is an exemplary demonstration of how a museum can renew the public interest in an old favorite.  I suspect every visitor will learn something new about the painting, Eakins, masterpiece, and a very expensive, recent acquisition by the ... More » »

Next week on artblog radio – a discourse on public art

Episode 4 next Monday features Curators Bob Cozzolino of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Sid Sachs of Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery in a heady discussion about public art.  In the short sample below, hear Sid opine that money should not be spent just to spend money because it spawns a lot of bad art.  Hear Bob asking Sid to name some bad public art in Philadelphia…  Listen to the entire episode on Sept. 13. Curators Bob Cozzolino and Sid Sachs talk about public art — 28 second sample

PAFA’s Summer Surprises and more

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in the past two years, has acquired work by five African American artists, four of them from the international and national art strataspheres. Their work looks spectacular in the show Summer Surprises, an exhibit that includes recent acquisitions of work by 11 artists, placing the 11 in the context of some earlier acquisitions also on display! The large contingent of artists of color working within yet challenging and stretching the academy’s reality-based tradition is the big news. The five with work acquired in 2010 and 2009 are Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Mark Bradford, ... More » »

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 109th Student Exhibition

As the first art college in the United States as well as a popular art school today, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts produces artists whose work bears the mark of that duality — formal, traditional techniques blended with contemporary currents. Viewers to the 109th student exhibition (certificate students and BFA and MFA graduates) can anticipate seeing a dynamic variety of artworks.

Roxana Pérez-Méndez: Your Fantasy is My Home

The image of Latin America functioned for nineteenth-century North Americans much as that of the Middle East did for certain Europeans: as a screen on which to project their fantasies. In the case of the Western hemisphere, these were largely of a pre-lapsarian past.  Roxana Pérez-Méndez has consistently explored the place of Puerto Rico within U.S. culture, and with her project, Este Es Mi Pais (This is My Homeland) at the Morris Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA, up through Sept. 26, 2010) she employs PAFA’s collections to explore the history of interactions within the Americas.

Barkley Hendricks posterized at PAFA

In an emotional opening ceremony at his solo exhibit Birth of the Cool, artist Barkley L. Hendricks lost his cool for a moment.

Whole lotta shaking going on at PAFA

When an institution announces the receipt of a big grant for contemporary art programming we want to know more. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Curator of Contemporary Arts Julien Robson snagged a whopping $440,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation for contemporary art programing over the next three years, including support for the Philagrafika exhibit opening January 2009, five solo exhibits of young and emerging artists starting in May in the Morris Gallery, and the exhibit We’re All Still Here, scheduled to open October 2011.

Angry Populism: Peter Saul (coming to PAFA)

Peter Saul Donald Duck Crucified (1964) oil on canvas, 63 x 59 in., collection Karen E. Tappendorf When Jeff Koons’ work sells for millions and Paul McCarthy’s chocolate butt plugs do brisk business at an international art fair, it may be hard to remember that not too long ago some art had the power to offend. Peter Saul’s anger directed at American social and political mores, delivered in a style wrought from popular culture (Mad magazine to Disney) and with his finger often directed at the eye of political correctness, did offend. And the offense outlasted all of those younger ... More » »