Tag Archive "pma"

Gorky at PMA–an artist ahead of the curve

The Gorky retrospective that opens tomorrow at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is an eye-opener–one of those exhibits that shows the artist as a thinker, working out problems and solving them. To see the drawings (and the gorgeous and bold handling of line in them)–sometimes multiple drawings–preparatory to paintings is wondrous, at once belying the idea that the paintings are casual and improvisatory abstractionist expressions and belying the idea that the paintings are static reproductions of the drawing ideas.

No, It’s Not a Real Wii™ Game, It’s John Karel Making Macaroni and Cheese

I have been a fan of John Karel’s work ever since I met him in 2007. His animations, drawings, and paintings are literally and metaphorically reflections of him, his friends, and the vloggs/vloggers (video blogs/bloggers) he finds on the internet. John infuses his artwork with horizontal-lipped humor and a fantastic sense of color and drawing. Clearly he has grown up “studying” Sunday comics. What I find most interesting is how John’s artwork pulls you aside and whispers a critical gesture at avatar culture, that exhibitionist style of interacting with the world that was solely bred of the internet. In his show ... More » »

PMA pays tribute–Thomas Chimes

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has borne a fair amount of criticism for ignoring the local in favor of, well, the non-local, thereby stepping back from any sense of mission of supporting excellence within Philadelphia. That sort of local modesty seems to be part and parcel of the culture of Philadelphia.

Look! It’s Cezanne at the PMA

In the latest edition of our video series Look! It’s Libby and Roberta, we take a look at Cezanne and Beyond at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Videographer David Kessler is the  wizard with the camera and so much more!!! Look! It’s Libby and Roberta – Cézanne and Beyond from Look! it’s Libby and Roberta on Vimeo.

Leon Kelly; New York show of a little-known Philadelphian

If Leon Kelly (1901-1982) is unknown to most museum-goers and scholars who follow American art, he has only himself to blame.  The PAFA-trained artist and Philadelphian, born and bred, spent the last forty years of his life in isolation.

Cutbacks at PMA

On a local (and more downbeat note), here’s a front pager from the Philadelphia Inquirer today about cutbacks at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

On fish and letting things go — Frank Gehry gets the Collab Design Excellence award

Photo of Frank Gehry, Sept. 2003. From architecture website Frank Gehry received the 2008 Collab Design Excellence Award at the PMA Nov. 7, the day before his exhibit in the Perelman Building, “Design Process and the Lewis House,” opened. The white-haired architect, 79, known for his billowing-shaped Titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and other experimental works (including early corrugated cardboard furniture) showed slides and spoke about his work after receiving the Collab award — a mobius-strip-shaped pink object that he held this way and that after it was given to him, puzzling out its unusual shape. (The award was shaped that ... More » »

Personal history–Frank Bramblett on Gee’s Bend

Post by Frank Bramblett [Every time we see Frank Bramblett, we feel like we have been handed a gift. This time, we bumped into him at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Tuesday. We've known Frank since he had something to say to us the first year of artblog, and then we taught a class with him at Tyler. Sure enough, seeing him Tuesday was also a gift. But here's something he mailed to us shortly afterward. It is an amazing prezzie from him to us. And we are regifting it to you. Roberta and Libby]   Earlier today, I heard ... More » »

Hello Fashion! Kansai Yamamoto at the PMA

Post by K-Fai Steele Kansai Yamamoto, Bodysuit, 1971. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Hello Fashion! Kansai Yamamoto 1971-1973 show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is hidden in the Costume and Textile Study Gallery on the 2nd floor of the Perelman building. Yamamoto, a Japanese fashion designer known for his bold, extravagant stylistics, can be described with the Japanese colloquial word hade, meaning gaudy or something that stands out. He draws inspiration from Japanese national culture and tradition, specifically Kabuki theater, kimono, art from the Azuchi-Monoyama period (1568-1603) and marries it with Western (as in Amero-European) ... More » »

Weekly Update – Outsider art at the PMA, Gees Bend quilts and James Castle

This week’s Weekly (online only) has my piece on the Gees Bend quilts and a preview of James Castle, both at the PMA (Castle opens Oct. 14. Below’s the copy with pictures. Two Gees Bend quilters sit in front of their quilts at the PMA’s press preview. Self-taught artists take over prime real estate at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this month. The Gee’s Bend quilters and the mute artist James Castle broke all kinds of art rules to make their powerful work. Amazing things happen when you don’t even know the rules exist. Sarah Benning in front of one ... More » »