This Week’s Major Events: Antique Fairs, Folk Art Exhibitions, Design & Museum Openings

October 6-12, 2015

NEW YORK

Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life, New York Botanical Garden, New York, NYOn view through November 1, 2015This blockbuster exhibition is the first to examine Frida Kahlo’s keen appreciation for the beauty and variety of the natural world, as evidenced by her home and garden as well as the complex use of plant imagery in her artwork. Featuring a rare display of more than a dozen original Kahlo paintings and works on paper, this limited six-month engagement also reimagines the iconic artist’s famed garden and studio at the Casa Azul, her lifelong home in Mexico City. Click here to continue reading.

Paintings by George Stubbs from the Yale Center for British Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NYOn view through November 8, 2015Eight paintings by George Stubbs (1724-1806) have been lent to the Metropolitan Museum by the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, while its Louis I. Kahn building is closed for renovation until 2016. The works are shown together with British old master paintings from the permanent collection. Stubbs’s sporting pictures form part of the most important collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. Numbering more than two thousand paintings, and many thousands of drawings, watercolors, prints, rare books, and manuscripts, the collection was formed by Paul Mellon (1907-1999) and presented by him to Yale University. Click here to continue reading.

MASSACHUSETTS

Middlesex County Modern, Concord Museum, Concord, MAOctober 9, 2015-March 20, 2016Stimulated by thinking at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, modern architecture shaped the landscape of Cambridge and Boston’s western suburbs from the 1930s to the 1960s and beyond. Architects such as Walter Gropius and Carl Koch, experimented with modern forms, new materials, and innovative technology as tools for developing high-quality homes for themselves and others. They create modern homes that appealed to members of the region’s academic and research communities who sought inexpensive homes for their young families that took advantage of scenic views in the former farmlands of Concord, Lincoln, and Lexington. Middlesex County Modern, an innovative exhibition organized by the Concord Museum, explores modern architecture in this region and its impact on design and the community. Click here to continue reading.

The ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MAOctober 10-11, 2015On Columbus Day Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, October 10 & 11, 2015, the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, in conjunction with Historic Deerfield, will bring together some of the nation’s finest dealers for their annual antiques show. The show will take place on location at Deerfield Academy, surrounded by the historic houses and village setting of Historic Deerfield, in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show has a reputation of providing its customers with an enjoyable and informative experience in antiquing. Click here to continue reading.

Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MAOctober 11, 2015-January 18, 2016Organized by the MFA, this groundbreaking exhibition proposes a new approach to understanding 17th-century Dutch painting. Through 75 carefully selected, beautifully preserved portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and seascapes borrowed from European and American public and private collections—including masterpieces never before seen in the United States—the show reflects, for the first time, the ways in which paintings represent the various socioeconomic groups of the new Dutch Republic, from the Princes of Orange to the most indigent. Class distinctions had meaning and were expressed in the type of work depicted (or the lack thereof), costumes, a figure’s comportment and behavior, and his physical environment. Click here to continue reading.

MAINE

A Magnificent Stillness: American Art from a Private Collection, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, MEOn view through November 8, 2015Private collections are often just that; in addition to reflecting the personal interests of the collectors, they are displayed in private spaces. The PMA is very fortunate to have strong friendships with several collectors who possess exceptional taste and a passion for sharing their art with the public. Our galleries are greatly enriched with their works and, this summer, the museum shines a spotlight on one of these collections in its entirety. A Magnificent Stillness: American Art from a Private Collection showcases the exquisite collection of 15 American paintings amassed by longtime museum Trustee and patron Dr. Walter Goldfarb and his late wife, Marcia. Click here to continue reading.

PENNSYLVANIA

DesignPhiladelphia, Various Locations, Philadelphia, PAOctober 9-16, 2015DesignPhiladelphia is the oldest design event of its kind in the country and the signature event of the Philadelphia Center for Architecture. Working with over 150 partners each year, we offer a wide range of public programming to demonstrate Philadelphia’s re-emergence as a 21st century city shaped by design, technology, and collaborative business practices. Over the course of nine days, universities, cultural institutions, city agencies, retailers, manufacturers and startups across the region participate in more than 130 events on topics spanning across all design disciplines. This year’s theme is SHIFT. We are inspired by the rapid changes in Philadelphia’s skyline and urban landscape; and how these changes have the power to SHIFT perceptions about our great city. Click here to continue reading.

NEW JERSEY

Princeton’s Great Persian Book of Kings, Princeton University Art Gallery, Princeton, NJOn view through January 24, 2016Composed more than 1,000 years ago by the Persian poet Firdausi, the Shahnama, or Book of Kings, narrates the story of Iran from the dawn of time to the 7th century A.D. This sweeping epic contains over 50,000 verses and countless tales of Iran’s ancient kings and heroes. Firdausi’s Shahnama has been a source of artistic inspiration in Persian culture for centuries and provides the essential basis for our understanding of the history of Persian painting as it developed from late medieval through early modern times. Click here to continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.October 10, 2015-January 10, 2016This exhibition focuses on a groundbreaking shift in the development of Swiss collections that occurred in the first decade of the 20th century, as patrons began to look beyond the contributions of regional painters and broaden their definition of modern art. The exhibition pays tribute to pioneering supporters Rudolf Staechelin (1881-1946) and Karl Im Obersteg (1883-1969), both from Basel, who enthusiastically championed the work of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and School of Paris artists. From their renowned collections, over 60 celebrated paintings created during the mid-19th and 20th centuries. Click here to continue reading.

MARYLAND

Ruth Starr Rose (1887-1965): Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MDOctober 10, 2015-April 3, 2016This first comprehensive show of artist Ruth Starr Rose (1887-1965) offers a rare glimpse into African American life at the turn of the century on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Many of the subjects are descendants of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ross Tubman. From the area’s most noted black sail maker, to professional female crab pickers, to heroic soldiers, the portraits speak of self-possessed people who were proud of their station in life. Rose’s subjects are portrayed with a dignity and compassion that is rarely seen during this period of art history. For this reason, the work also offers a historical record of daily African American life on the Eastern Shore. The exhibition includes visual depictions of military servicemen, and portraits of Native Americans and Haitians that Rose befriended on her travels. Click here to continue reading.

TEXAS

Mark Rothko: A Retrospective, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOn view through January 24, 2016Long recognized as among the foremost figures of the Abstract Expressionist vanguard, Mark Rothko embraced the possibility of beauty in pure abstraction with a painterly eloquence that gave a new voice to American art. The MFAH is the sole U.S. venue to present Mark Rothko: A Retrospective, which draws upon the unrivaled holdings of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Click here to continue reading.

Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TXOctober 10, 2015-January 3, 2016Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum explores the “self-taught” artist as an elastic and enduring phenomenon with powerful and profound implications that have changed over time. More than 100 works of art are on view in this groundbreaking exhibition that highlights the roles of folk and self-taught artists as figures who are central to the shared history of America and whose contributions to the national conversation are paramount. Self-Taught Genius features masterpieces in a variety of forms including textiles and needlework, ceramics, sculptural and carved figures, drawings, paintings, furniture, and much more, dating from the eighteenth century to the present. The exhibition considers the shifting implications of a self-taught ideology in the United States, from a widely endorsed movement of self-education to its current usage to describe artists working outside traditional frames of reference and art history. Click here to continue reading.

NEW MEXICO

From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism from the Vilcek Foundation Collection, The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NMOn view through January 10, 2016American art experienced radical change a century ago. A group of innovative, highly-individualistic artists broke with tradition to define a new art for the United States, an art expressing the energy, vitality, and singular identity of modern America. The artists who led that change are highlighted here through more than 60 masterworks from the 1910s to the 1960s by America’s first generation of abstract artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, and a dozen others. Click here to continue reading.

COLORADO

Fritz Scholder: Super Indian, Denver Art Museum, Denver, COOn view through January 17, 2016Fritz Scholder once vowed never to paint Indians. He claimed he was not an American Indian artist, but he was. He claimed his art was not political, but it polarized the art world. For every position he took, he also explored the opposite perspective. Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967-1980, is a groundbreaking exhibition of more than 40 rarely seen, monumental paintings and lithographs by the renowned twentieth-century artist. It is the first to explore how Scholder blended figurative and pop art influences to create colorful, compelling, and revolutionary images. Click here to continue reading.

WASHINGTON

Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WAOn view through January 10, 2016The Seattle Art Museum is proud to present Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art (in Washington, DC). The collection is comprised of extraordinary paintings, considered to be the jewels of one of the finest collections of French Impressionism in the world. This exhibition features 68 intimately scaled paintings by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, including Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Eugène Boudin, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh, among others. Click here to continue reading.

OREGON

Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OROctober 10, 2015-January 10, 2016The Portland Art Museum is pleased to present a major exhibition exploring the evolution of European and American landscape painting. Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection features 39 paintings from five centuries of masterpieces drawn from the collection of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. Co-organized by the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, the exhibition presents masterpieces spanning nearly four hundred years, from Jan Brueghel the Younger’s series devoted to the five senses to Canaletto’s celebrated views of Venice to landscapes by innovators ranging from Joseph Mallord William Turner, Paul Cézanne, and Gustav Klimt to David Hockney and Gerhard Richter. Click here to continue reading.

CALIFORNIA

Fall Market 2015: Global Glamour, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CAOctober 8, 2015Pacific Design Center’s Fall Market 2015 debuts October 8, 2015, examining the worldwide imprint and sway of Global Glamour on the creative disciplines with expanded keynote programs that explore how world-class cities throughout the hemispheres continue to elevate the design conversation. PDC’s all-star, transnational line-up includes Elliott Barnes, Patrick Frey, Jane Hallworth, Ashley Hicks, Martha Kirszenbaum, Nicolas Libert, Emmanuel Renoird, Hutton Wilkinson and Vicente Wolf in conversation with renowned design and lifestyle editors. Click here to continue reading.

Palm Springs Modernism Show and Sale, Palm Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs, CA

October 9-11, 2015The Second Annual Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale – Fall Edition will feature 40 premier national and international dealers offering furniture, decorative and fine arts representing all design movements of the 20th century at its New Location the Palm Springs Air Museum. An early-buying preview reception benefiting Modernism Week will held Friday evening, October 9th, 6pm to 9pm. Tickets are $75 and include a cocktail reception offering an exclusive sneak peek of the Modernism Show & Sale before it opens to the public. Click here to continue reading.